Well I haven't made a worthy post the entire month of April. This is because I went on vacation the first part of April for the first time in several years, packing up the kids and departing for a week at a quiet condo by the water in North Carolina, and in doing so gave myself permission to read books simply for pleasure. This is sort of like walking into a penny candy store with a dollar to spend. (This is an experience I actually had in my lifetime, but a long, long time ago.)
So this is what I read in the month of April that has absolutely nothing to do with feeding my business acumen, but a lot to do with feeding my soul. I felt that I needed to make an accounting of myself.
The Professor and the Madman: A Tale of Murder, Insanity, and the Making of the Oxford English Dictionary by Simon Winchester. Fabulous book, I just loved it!
The River of Doubt: Theodore Roosevelt's Darkest Journey by Candice Millard. A gripping narrative, I loved it.
The Sixth Lamentation by William Brodrick. A real page turner. I read it in a single day. Great book.
The Life of Pi by Yann Martel. Fascinating book. I believed every word of it.
An Unfinished Marriage by Joan Anderson. Picked it up second hand, no explanation as to why, but I loved the book. It's a sequel to her first book entitled A Year by the Sea which I have not read. I think it's very thought provoking no matter what your marital status.
Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas by Hunter S. Thompson. You have to be in the right frame of mind for Hunter, and I was. Definitely puts life in a very different perspective.
The DaVinci Code by Dan Brown. The kids and I listened to the unabridged audio book on the way down and on the way back from NC. Very exciting plot and full of fascinating information. I can see why it was a bestseller.
The Poisonwood Bible by Barbara Kingsolver. I love this writer and have read all of her other books, but started this one years ago and put it down. The beginning is depressing, but it's worth pushing through. The story draws you in and the amount of detail about the Congo is amazing. That type of detail regarding nature is what I loved about Prodigal Summer.
Three Sisters in Black: The Bizarre Case of the Bathtub Tragedy by Norman Zierold. This book was published in 1968, the year I started first grade at Christiansburg Primary School. Part of the story takes place in Christiansburg, VA, and one of the sisters and one of their victims, a nephew, is buried there. It was an urban legend that I grew up with and I was glad to find this out of print first edition. It's just as fascinating now as I remember it being back when I read it at age 10. Truth is very much stranger than fiction and this is a great true story.
Done. I hope I have properly acquitted myself for being so lax in posting book reviews to this blog. I will buckle down now and get back to business (in a manner of speaking) by starting at the top of a tall stack of business books that have been accumulating while I ran amok literarily in the month of April. I recommit myself to the mission of the blog in earnest now . . .
Sunday, April 30, 2006
Saturday, March 18, 2006
Small Giants - Bo Burlingham
Subtitled: "Companies That Choose to Be Great Instead of Big." I loved this book. It is so passionate and it resonates so deeply to the core of what drives the successful small business. The writing is excellent, which is no surprise since Burlingham is editor-at-large for Inc. magazine and has been associated with that publication from the beginning. In fact the idea for the book came from an article he wrote for the magazine.
He profiles fourteen privately owned small businesses in a variety of industries and traces their beginnings from inception through growing pains, transitions, successions and awakenings to where they are today. Having been a part of several small companies over the last twenty-three years, this book spoke to me in a way that perhaps it wouldn't to a reader who has not had that experience. Throughout it all, Burlingham does not hide his unabashed admiration for what these small giants have accomplished. His enthusiasm and passion for his subjects is what makes the book such a joy to read.
I recently came across a quote from Albert Einstein that I thought was very interesting. He said, "The intuitive mind is a sacred gift and the rational mind is a servant. We have created a society that worships the servant and has overlooked the gift." These entrepreneurs have that intuitive gift and used it to build companies that are remarkable. It's very motivating to read a book that chooses to emphasize an aspect of business development that can't be easily pinned down with charts, graphs, tables, ratios and percentages. This is the very human aspect of what it takes to make a vision and a dream a reality - a successful one.
So I've put it on my CEO's desk with a note that I loved the book and hope he will find the time to read it. Much of what Burlingham admires about the entrepreneurs in his book, I also admire about the CEO of our company as well. It's definitely on my "Must Read" list of recommended books.
He profiles fourteen privately owned small businesses in a variety of industries and traces their beginnings from inception through growing pains, transitions, successions and awakenings to where they are today. Having been a part of several small companies over the last twenty-three years, this book spoke to me in a way that perhaps it wouldn't to a reader who has not had that experience. Throughout it all, Burlingham does not hide his unabashed admiration for what these small giants have accomplished. His enthusiasm and passion for his subjects is what makes the book such a joy to read.
I recently came across a quote from Albert Einstein that I thought was very interesting. He said, "The intuitive mind is a sacred gift and the rational mind is a servant. We have created a society that worships the servant and has overlooked the gift." These entrepreneurs have that intuitive gift and used it to build companies that are remarkable. It's very motivating to read a book that chooses to emphasize an aspect of business development that can't be easily pinned down with charts, graphs, tables, ratios and percentages. This is the very human aspect of what it takes to make a vision and a dream a reality - a successful one.
So I've put it on my CEO's desk with a note that I loved the book and hope he will find the time to read it. Much of what Burlingham admires about the entrepreneurs in his book, I also admire about the CEO of our company as well. It's definitely on my "Must Read" list of recommended books.
Sunday, February 26, 2006
The Rise of the Creative Class - Richard Florida
Subtitled ". . . and how it's transforming work, leisure, community, & everyday life." The book was published in 2002 and is probably even more relevant today than it was when it came out. The author is currently a professor at George Mason University's School of Public Policy, in addition to consulting, writing, speaking and being quoted in several recent issues of BusinessWeek on topics from planned communities to home schooling. His website is a testament to what it means to be an active member of the Creative Class that he has identified and should not be missed at creativeclass.org It's kept up-to-date with the articles he's published (including a rebuttal to Thomas Freidman's book The World is Flat in the October 2005 issue of The Atlantic Monthly) and reviews of his newest book Flight of the Creative Class.
Everyone needs to read this book. It's just that important. I could sit here and recap all the amazing things this man has to say about our past, our present and our future, but suffice it to say that every word of it makes absolute sense to me. What makes the book truly compelling is the combination of thorough research (for the number crunchers among us), an engaging writing style, and his evident passion for his subject. I ran out of post-it flags before I got to the end of the book.
I hesitate to try and encapsulate the main thesis of the book because it simply wouldn't do it justice. Florida explains how the next iteration of our economy will be based on all things related to creativity and innovation. Unlike major economic developments of the past that relied on natural resources, industrial development, transportation and manufacturing, going forward the mainstay of the American economy will be based on innovation and ideas. These things can only be produced by people - the Creative Class. Cities and regions that develop communities that attract these types of people will become the new centers of industry in this country. He persuasively shows through extensive research how the 3 T's - Technology, Talent and Tolerance - will predict which areas will become the next Silicon Valley. The Creative Class will flock to these areas and companies who need them will follow.
Florida's writing is not all tables and charts (although no one could find fault with his empirical data), some of it is based on his experience as a professor and researcher at Carnegie Mellon and his many years as a resident of Pittsburgh, a struggling post-industrial city. He has conducted many focus groups, been invited to consult with regional economic development councils all over the country, and analyzed successful communities outside our borders such as Dublin, Ireland.
The message of this book is an important one. I simply can't put in a few paragraphs how essential these concepts are to understanding what is happening now and what will be happening for the next several decades. I've already purchased Flight of the Creative Class and will be interested to see where he takes these concepts next.
Everyone needs to read this book. It's just that important. I could sit here and recap all the amazing things this man has to say about our past, our present and our future, but suffice it to say that every word of it makes absolute sense to me. What makes the book truly compelling is the combination of thorough research (for the number crunchers among us), an engaging writing style, and his evident passion for his subject. I ran out of post-it flags before I got to the end of the book.
I hesitate to try and encapsulate the main thesis of the book because it simply wouldn't do it justice. Florida explains how the next iteration of our economy will be based on all things related to creativity and innovation. Unlike major economic developments of the past that relied on natural resources, industrial development, transportation and manufacturing, going forward the mainstay of the American economy will be based on innovation and ideas. These things can only be produced by people - the Creative Class. Cities and regions that develop communities that attract these types of people will become the new centers of industry in this country. He persuasively shows through extensive research how the 3 T's - Technology, Talent and Tolerance - will predict which areas will become the next Silicon Valley. The Creative Class will flock to these areas and companies who need them will follow.
Florida's writing is not all tables and charts (although no one could find fault with his empirical data), some of it is based on his experience as a professor and researcher at Carnegie Mellon and his many years as a resident of Pittsburgh, a struggling post-industrial city. He has conducted many focus groups, been invited to consult with regional economic development councils all over the country, and analyzed successful communities outside our borders such as Dublin, Ireland.
The message of this book is an important one. I simply can't put in a few paragraphs how essential these concepts are to understanding what is happening now and what will be happening for the next several decades. I've already purchased Flight of the Creative Class and will be interested to see where he takes these concepts next.
Sunday, January 29, 2006
Every Book Its Reader - Nicholas A. Basbanes
Subtitled: The Power of the Printed Word to Stir the World, I have not actually read this book. I read a review of the book in the February issue of Smithsonian Magazine. Sometimes they tuck these little gems at the very back amid the advertising, which is where I found this one. Kathleen Burke, a senior editor at Smithsonian, reviewed the book and made it sound interesting enough that it's gone on my "Must Read" list.
Basbanes writes "Books not only define lives, civilizations, and collective identities, they also have the power to shape events and nudge the course of history, and they do it in countless ways." The review lists some of the figures whose reading the author examines, among them John Adams, Abraham Lincoln, Thomas Edison and Winston Churchill. It makes me wonder how historians of the next century will look back on the movers and shakers of this one and what influenced them. Instead of books, will it be podcasts, summits, conferences, blogs and websites that are noted for their power to influence? It's interesting to consider the importance in this day and age of books, and their impact on the development of great minds in this 21st century. I suppose it's one of those things that can only be known in hindsight.
It's actually made me feel the presence even more of David McCullough's John Adams on the shelf in my bedroom where it has collected dust for two years waiting to be read. It's in good company with many other fine books awaiting their day. Meanwhile the pile of books that promise to illuminate the future of business grows taller next to my chair in the living room, with new ones being added faster than the old ones are being read. Given that my time upon this planet is finite, I certainly hope that I've chosen well.
Basbanes writes "Books not only define lives, civilizations, and collective identities, they also have the power to shape events and nudge the course of history, and they do it in countless ways." The review lists some of the figures whose reading the author examines, among them John Adams, Abraham Lincoln, Thomas Edison and Winston Churchill. It makes me wonder how historians of the next century will look back on the movers and shakers of this one and what influenced them. Instead of books, will it be podcasts, summits, conferences, blogs and websites that are noted for their power to influence? It's interesting to consider the importance in this day and age of books, and their impact on the development of great minds in this 21st century. I suppose it's one of those things that can only be known in hindsight.
It's actually made me feel the presence even more of David McCullough's John Adams on the shelf in my bedroom where it has collected dust for two years waiting to be read. It's in good company with many other fine books awaiting their day. Meanwhile the pile of books that promise to illuminate the future of business grows taller next to my chair in the living room, with new ones being added faster than the old ones are being read. Given that my time upon this planet is finite, I certainly hope that I've chosen well.
Sunday, January 22, 2006
Tough Times for Leaders of the Pack - BusinessWeek
Under "Stock Talk" in the Up Front section of the January 30, 2006 edition of BusinessWeek , there appears an item entitled "Tough Times for Leaders of the Pack." Consultants at Marakon Associates did some research on shareholder return among market leaders and came to what is obviously a newsworthy conclusion.
"In analyzing 3,260 public companies, Marakon's Brian Burwell and Jeremy Sicklick discovered that between 1999 and 2004, the median total shareholder return was 1.8% for market leaders vs. 9.5% for non-leaders. What gives?" Here are two people who did not read Richard Miniter's book The Myth of Market Share. The conclusions they draw as reported in this small item are rather insubstanial, with the exception of pointing out that many mergers and acquisitions did not produce the gains expected over the last five years. Burwell sums it up with this observation, "Serving large numbers of customers is less of an advantage today than it was 10 years ago." A concept that might be true but is highly unlikely to be embraced by any business.
"In analyzing 3,260 public companies, Marakon's Brian Burwell and Jeremy Sicklick discovered that between 1999 and 2004, the median total shareholder return was 1.8% for market leaders vs. 9.5% for non-leaders. What gives?" Here are two people who did not read Richard Miniter's book The Myth of Market Share. The conclusions they draw as reported in this small item are rather insubstanial, with the exception of pointing out that many mergers and acquisitions did not produce the gains expected over the last five years. Burwell sums it up with this observation, "Serving large numbers of customers is less of an advantage today than it was 10 years ago." A concept that might be true but is highly unlikely to be embraced by any business.
Thursday, January 19, 2006
The Art of Friendship - Roger & Sally Horchow
This is a very enjoyable and engaging read that left me highly motivated to do a better job at being a more attentive friend. It was a Christmas gift from a friend who is also an agent with the same company that I work for. He is great about doing all of the thoughtful things that keep friendships alive, and not coincidentally, he is one of the company's top agents as well. Although this book is not about building relationships in the business sense, there's no question there is a great deal of skill overlap in how we maintain relationships in both our personal and professional lives.
Roger Horchow is the pioneering catalogue retailer from Dallas and Sally is his daughter. The forward to the book is written by Malcolm Gladwell, author of Blink and The Tipping Point. Gladwell actually profiles Roger Horchow in chapter two of the Tipping Point entitled "The Law of the Few: Connectors, Mavens and Salesmen." Some people are natural connectors and it's obvious that Roger is one of them. He genuinely enjoys people and he enjoys bringing people he knows together. I must admit I enjoy doing that also, but engage in that practice primarily in the business world.
My kids' reaction to the book when I opened it Christmas morning was very funny: "Why did he give you a book on friendship? Does he think you don't have any?" And from another one: "Why did he give you a self-help book on friendship? Does he think you're no good at it?" This is Generation Y speaking. Chip was floored at their response - but then he has no teenagers.
In the preface to the book I'm currently reading, The Rise of the Creative Class, author Richard Florida observes the following: "Our family structures are morphing. The kinds of communities we need to support us are changing, as we replace a small number of strong-tie relationships with a much greater number of weak-tie relationships." This is very true in a world where people are far more mobile than they used to be. I live three states away from my immediate family and don't see them very often. Growing up, I spent summers at my Granny's house in a small Virginia town where her home was a social center for her many friends who came by for card parties, dinner parties, barbeques or just a chat on the porch. She had known most of these people for most of her life. I have few friends that fit that description, and most people in my current world have a similar network of more transient relationships - ones dependent on where they are working, living or the activities they are engaged in at the moment.
At the end of the day, no matter how successful we are in business, if we don't make the time or acquire the skills to have a strong network of friends - where's the reward? Titles, money and acquisitions are a poor substitute for genuine and caring relationships. This book is bound to inspire anyone who reads it to make more of an effort to nurture their friendships.
** Note: Author Sally Horchow informs me that this was an exlusive first edition I received and it has sold out. The second printing will be available in October and can be pre-ordered from Amazon.com
Roger Horchow is the pioneering catalogue retailer from Dallas and Sally is his daughter. The forward to the book is written by Malcolm Gladwell, author of Blink and The Tipping Point. Gladwell actually profiles Roger Horchow in chapter two of the Tipping Point entitled "The Law of the Few: Connectors, Mavens and Salesmen." Some people are natural connectors and it's obvious that Roger is one of them. He genuinely enjoys people and he enjoys bringing people he knows together. I must admit I enjoy doing that also, but engage in that practice primarily in the business world.
My kids' reaction to the book when I opened it Christmas morning was very funny: "Why did he give you a book on friendship? Does he think you don't have any?" And from another one: "Why did he give you a self-help book on friendship? Does he think you're no good at it?" This is Generation Y speaking. Chip was floored at their response - but then he has no teenagers.
In the preface to the book I'm currently reading, The Rise of the Creative Class, author Richard Florida observes the following: "Our family structures are morphing. The kinds of communities we need to support us are changing, as we replace a small number of strong-tie relationships with a much greater number of weak-tie relationships." This is very true in a world where people are far more mobile than they used to be. I live three states away from my immediate family and don't see them very often. Growing up, I spent summers at my Granny's house in a small Virginia town where her home was a social center for her many friends who came by for card parties, dinner parties, barbeques or just a chat on the porch. She had known most of these people for most of her life. I have few friends that fit that description, and most people in my current world have a similar network of more transient relationships - ones dependent on where they are working, living or the activities they are engaged in at the moment.
At the end of the day, no matter how successful we are in business, if we don't make the time or acquire the skills to have a strong network of friends - where's the reward? Titles, money and acquisitions are a poor substitute for genuine and caring relationships. This book is bound to inspire anyone who reads it to make more of an effort to nurture their friendships.
** Note: Author Sally Horchow informs me that this was an exlusive first edition I received and it has sold out. The second printing will be available in October and can be pre-ordered from Amazon.com
Friday, January 13, 2006
The Myth of Market Share - Richard Miniter
Subtitled "Why Market Share is the Fool's Gold of Business" it is full of sound research and some interesting case studies. Published in 2002, it obviously didn't make it to any bestseller lists, but it's a very worthwhile read. At 172 pages the investment of time is worth the return.
Miniter gives some background on the genesis of the theory that market share and profit are closely tied together and how this came to be a commonly accepted fact. He makes a sound case for focusing on being a profit leader rather than a market leader and backs that up with facts, figures and examples.
My post-it flags marked some well phrased thoughts that sum up his position beautifully:
"Profit leaders think about customers, not competitors, and think about next quarter's opportunities, not justifying last quarter's market share." (Pg. 12)
"Market share is not an advantage, by itself. It is the result of a sustainable competitive advantage, not the cause." (Pg. 15)
"What the profit leader knows can be distilled into two statements: A market-share strategy leads companies to set their sites on the past, not the future; and market share is about the competition, not customers." (Pg. 159)
He does make exceptions for the importance of market share in two arenas: network markets (think fax machines, phones, email where many people have to have it in order for it to have value); and double sided markets (Visa needs both cardholders and participating merchants). But those exceptions are very narrow and specific within the context of his theories.
There is an excellent chapter on mergers that echoes a lot of what Jack Welch says about mergers & acquisitions in his new book Winning. In fact there are quotes from Welch and references to GE throughout this book. Some of the most interesting material for me was case studies of two companies I was not familiar with: F. Hoffman-LaRoche and Europe's Ryanair. (He also examines Dell's strategy, but some of that material is dated having been written over 3 years ago.) The strategy Hoffman-LaRoche used to turn around their business is very relevant to issues we are dealing with as well. They chose to focus on "customer delight" and revamped how they interacted with their client base. There is some very good information on how they raised outstanding customer satisfaction to the core of their strategy, and how they decided to handle inquiries coming into their company to acheive that.
All in all, a very good book but not likely to change the minds of those who believe market share is the goal. Miniter quotes Donald Potter of Windermere Associates on that subject twice: "It is like trying to change someone's religion."
Miniter gives some background on the genesis of the theory that market share and profit are closely tied together and how this came to be a commonly accepted fact. He makes a sound case for focusing on being a profit leader rather than a market leader and backs that up with facts, figures and examples.
My post-it flags marked some well phrased thoughts that sum up his position beautifully:
"Profit leaders think about customers, not competitors, and think about next quarter's opportunities, not justifying last quarter's market share." (Pg. 12)
"Market share is not an advantage, by itself. It is the result of a sustainable competitive advantage, not the cause." (Pg. 15)
"What the profit leader knows can be distilled into two statements: A market-share strategy leads companies to set their sites on the past, not the future; and market share is about the competition, not customers." (Pg. 159)
He does make exceptions for the importance of market share in two arenas: network markets (think fax machines, phones, email where many people have to have it in order for it to have value); and double sided markets (Visa needs both cardholders and participating merchants). But those exceptions are very narrow and specific within the context of his theories.
There is an excellent chapter on mergers that echoes a lot of what Jack Welch says about mergers & acquisitions in his new book Winning. In fact there are quotes from Welch and references to GE throughout this book. Some of the most interesting material for me was case studies of two companies I was not familiar with: F. Hoffman-LaRoche and Europe's Ryanair. (He also examines Dell's strategy, but some of that material is dated having been written over 3 years ago.) The strategy Hoffman-LaRoche used to turn around their business is very relevant to issues we are dealing with as well. They chose to focus on "customer delight" and revamped how they interacted with their client base. There is some very good information on how they raised outstanding customer satisfaction to the core of their strategy, and how they decided to handle inquiries coming into their company to acheive that.
All in all, a very good book but not likely to change the minds of those who believe market share is the goal. Miniter quotes Donald Potter of Windermere Associates on that subject twice: "It is like trying to change someone's religion."
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