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Posted Jan. 6, 2006 9:35 a.m. by jack
by David R. Henderson and Charles L. Hooper, Chicago Park Press, 287 Pages, $28.50 Hardcover, November 2005, ISBN 0976854104
In November "The Wall Street Journal" gave this book a good review; I hadn't heard of the publisher and during my research I discovered why. The book is self-published. I asked for a copy and was pleasantly surprised to see a rave quote from John C. Whitney, an author I respect. After reading the book, I have to agree with the WSJ. This book is the perfect combination of academic thought and practical application. The book is loaded with entertaining and realistic examples to support the authors' points and there is a graphical element--decision trees--throughout the book.
As they state:
Our central theme is that a little clear thinking goes a long way. This book will help you make great decisions in your business and in your life. In most of the situations you'll ever face, whether in your personal or business life, if you use some basic tools to clear your head you'll do better than if you don't. This book is your toolbox.
Nice and succinct, don't you think?
I hesitate to give away the main insights of the book but think they thoroughly demonstrate just how these guys are. Here are their insights:
- Use powerful techniques to help think clearly
- Think about what is really valuable to you
- For something to change, something else must have changed. Ask what changed.
- Know what you want before you choose
- Watch out for biasesand we all have them
- Realize what's important
- Think about what is available to you, and then create better alternatives
- Consciously choose the best alternative
- Accept risk and learn to take account of it
- Exploit life's inequalities, and in doing so, learn to appreciate non-linearity, balance, and proportionality
- Get the right amount of information for any situation by first determining the value of information
- Think simple
- Discover arbitrage opportunities that help yourself and others, too
- Do the right thing
Folks, this is a book that is the best of both worlds; it's full of practical advice and it's interesting. Honestly, I carried this book around with me and read it at every spare moment.
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Posted Jan. 6, 2006 6:15 a.m. by jack
Let's start with the facts. John C. Maxwell is a book making machine. He has more than 40 books under his belt--two of which are mega hits: 1) "Developing the Leader Within You" and 2) The 21 Irrefutable Laws of Leadership. That's not all. He also travels around the world to speak and consult on leadership.
This book was written to address a question Maxwell hears all the time, "How do I apply leadership principles if I'm not the boss?"
Good question. Maxwell answers that question in this easy-to-read book. The book is loaded with lists, including: the seven myths of leading from the middle of an organization, the seven challenges a 360-degree leader faces, the nine principles 360-degree leaders practice to lead up, and the seven principles that 360-degree leaders practice to lead across. You get the idea. The chapters are easy to digest and are loaded with stories that do a great job of illustrating his points. For example, from myth #3 leading from the middle, The Influence Myth, Maxwell tells the story:
I once read that President Woodrow Wilson had a housekeeper who constantly lamented that she and her husband didn't possess a more prestigious position in life. One day the lady approached the president after she heard that the secretary of labor had resigned from the administration.'President Wilson,' she said, 'my husband is perfect for this vacant position. He is a laboring man, knows what labor is, and understands laboring people. Please consider him when you appoint the new secretary of labor.'
'I appreciate your recommendation,' answered Wilson, 'but you must remember, the secretary of labor is an important position. It requires an influential person.'
'But,' the housekeeper said, 'if you made my husband the secretary of labor, he would be an influential person.'
The chapter goes on the state, "you may be able to grant someone a position, but you cannot grant them real leadership. Influence must be earned."
This book will help you in numerous ways. It will help you become a better team player and it will help you understand that you control your world.
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Posted Jan. 6, 2006 4:00 a.m. by jack
When I first started 8cr, over twenty years ago, life was quite different. I bet you haven't heard that from an old guy before. More than a few booksellers have asked me to explain how we became successful. I always answer by saying I have no clue how to repeat what I did 20 plus years ago in today's world. The reason my steps cannot be repeated is well-documented in this book.
Back when I started, I would call a company's main phone number. A knowledgeable receptionist would answer and give me an idea of whether the company would be interested in what I had to offer--namely, books. Now, no one answers their phone, except me, and few return calls. Jill Konrath acknowledges these issues and provides great advice on how overcome these issues. She documents the advantages and disadvantages of having a few big clients. Yes, there are disadvantages.
She breaks down the process of connecting and selling to big clients into manageable chunks. For example, the book has five main parts:
- Accept the challenge
- Build the foundation
- Launch the campaign
- Break through the barriers
- Advance the sale.
Don't waste their timeDon't try to be their friend
Don't expect them to tell you about their business
Don't give them a product dump
Don't use any self-serving verbiage
Don't expect them to intuit the value of your offering
How is that for concise advice? This is some of the best advice I have heard. Beyond the explanation paragraphs found under each sub point, the book also contains a resourceful appendix. For example, there is a "voice mail script template" and "the voice mail evaluator."
If you know you are missing an opportunity with a mega business, this is the book for you.
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Posted Jan. 6, 2006 3:30 a.m. by jack
When I read a book that I plan to consider for a JCS, I mark interesting pages with Post-It notes. Doing this allows me to put the book down and easily pick up the points of the book later. This is a book that is bristling with Post-Its.
I have always been fascinated by Wal-Mart. They seem to be everywhere. I watch shows--mostly negative--on PBS about them and read business articles--mostly positive--about them. Finding a neutral source--one that doesn't have an axe to grind or a publicity spin to present--for Wal-Mart information is difficult. This book is that neutral source.
I knew Wal-Mart was big and influential; this book made me realize that they are ridiculously huge. For example, Target is their closest competitor, and Wal-Mart sells by St. Patrick's Day what Target sells in a year. As the author states, "More than half of all Americans live within five miles of a Wal-Mart store, less than a ten-minute drive away. Ninety percent of Americans live within fifteen miles of a Wal-Mart. On the nation's interstates, it is rare to go a quarter of an hour without seeing a Wal-Mart truck."
As an aside, did you know that Wal-Mart started the same year as Target and Kmart in 1962? The company is built on saving money--they'll do anything to save money. For example, in the early 1990s all deodorant came packaged in a paperboard box. Wal-Mart and other retailers decided the box was a waste. Eliminating the box saved a nickel. When you multiple that by the 200 million deodorant users, that equals a savings of $10 million.
The book talks about Sam, his philosophy and how the current management team has carried forward the idea of being the cheapest place in town. It explains employee hours. The buyers and senior executives often arrive around 6:00 a.m. and quit between 5:00 and 7:00 p.m.; all white collar employees work from 7:00 a.m. to 1:00 p.m. The employees also attend the legendary Saturday-morning meeting.
At the end of the book is a chapter called Wal-Mart and the Decent Society. In that chapter Fishman states,
So even within ourselves, we struggle unsuccessfully to answer the question we started with: Is Wal-Mart good or bad? The answer is surprising for its simplicity, its obviousness, and also its power.
Wal-Mart is something utterly new.
Wal-Mart is carefully disguised as something ordinary, familiar, and even prosaic. The business model is built on the shopping cart. But, in fact, Wal-Mart is a completely new kind of institution: modern, advanced, potent in ways we've never seen before. Yes, Wal-Mart plays by the rules, but perhaps the most important part of the Wal-Mart effect is that the rules are antiquated; they are from a different era that didn't anticipate anything like Wal-Mart.
That is the source of the company's sweeping ability to suffocate inflation across the entire U.S. economy. And it is the source of the company's ability single-handedly to drive manufacturing jobs overseas.
Wal-Mart has outgrown the rules--but no one noticed.
The book ends with the story of the demise of US manufacturing for a sprinkler company in Peoria, IL. When Wal-Mart, who had been the sprinkler company's largest customer, said that prices were too high, management laid off 400 people and sent the manufacturing offshore.
This JCS is longer than most, but it's hard to summarize such a gigantic company into a few hundred words. Plus, I wanted to emphasize how important I think this book is--a must read for anyone interested in business.
Posted Jan. 5, 2006 8:53 a.m. by jack
By Lee Eisenberg, Free Press, 288 Pages, $26.00 Hardcover, January 2006, ISBN 0743270312
In spring of 2005, I was interviewed for an article in the Financial Times. The article was about the success of Blink, Freakonomics, and The World is Flat. I spoke about how the new business book was not so much about how to run a company as it was about how to look at the world differently. This is a classic book in that genre. Another thing that sets these aforementioned books apart is the writing. The books are full of examples to which we can immediately relate and incredibly well-written.
This book is about the "Number" (in dollars) that we carry in our head; it is the amount we need to retire and live as we desire.
As the author states:
The Number is about net worth. Most people think of it that way. But the Number is also about self-worth, which is something many people don't like to admit. Because I have so little money, I'm a failure. Or, because my house is small, even if it's on the right shore of Long Island, I'm a failure.
The author talks about how we have tried to increase our "stuff" to make us feel better. "Debt Warp" is how he states it:
Debt Warp is a silent Number Killer that afflicts young and old, rich and poor. It works at the high end of the marketplace, it thrives at the low. According to the Federal Reserve studies, the richest 1% of all American's held just 6% of the nation's debt; the poorest 90% held 70%.Debt Wrap brings the illusion of equalization. It lurks beneath and has been misguidedly heralded as the 'democratization of luxury'.
What got me hooked on the book was reading the first five pages. Eisenberg is a storyteller. For example, read the way the author illustrates a letter written to a wealthy individual:
...and the letter applies to you as well as the man who is rich enough to have somebody read it to him, peeling his grapes at the same time.
The book tells really amazing stories about how Americans have been preparing poorly for retirement. Go into your local bookstore and read the first couple of pages; see if I am right.
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