July 3, 2008
Summer Reading From the Wall Street Journal
Carol Hymowitz in her In The Lead column for The Wall Street Journal recommends summer reading. Among the business titles you will find:
- John Kotter change fable Our Iceberg Is Melting (John has a new book coming in September, more on that soon).
- A.G. Lafley and Ram Charan's The Game-Changer (this was a May Jack Covert Selects)
- High Performance with High Integrity from GE's former general counsel Ben Heineman (this is from the great Memo To The CEO series which was a June Jack Covert Selects)
- Crunch: Why Do I Feel So Squeezed by Jared Bernstein (it received a starred review from Publisher's Weekly as well)
She also recommends Abraham Lincoln: His Speeches and Writings, Say You're One of Them, Unaccustomed Earth, and The Making of The President 1960.
Business Novels
In his wonderful review of Personal Days in last weeeknd's New York Times Sunday Book Review (free subscription), Mark Sarvas pondered the following:
... considering the ubiquity of the work experience in American lives, and the thousands upon thousands of novels published annually, perhaps the question shouldn't be why there are two work-related novels right now but why there aren't many more.
The other "work-related novel" he is speaking of here is Joshua Ferris's Then We Came to the End (read Dan Pink's review of that book here, or the NYT Sunday Book Review review here). I think Sarvas poses a good question. And, though it's a far cry from a real answer, there are a few other recent and successful examples I can think of.
Max Barry's Company has been well received by those who've taken notice (as were his other two books) and there are many who have. You can read the first chapter of that book here. Although it's officially a memoir, and not a novel, I really enjoyed Rock On, Dan Kennedy's February release about his time spent in the bowels of the music industry (read a review from our beloved sister company here and other reviews from the book's website here). And, finally, we have Back Bay Books' recently released Bank, David Bledin's promising debut novel about life in investment banking. For an example of his style and perspective, head on over to this rather humorous and slightly depressing Huffington Post entry.
That is by no means an overwhelming number of books considering, as Sarvas said, "the thousands upon thousands of novels published annually." There is also a similarity between all of these books--they're all satires, skewering the industries they work in and write about. Kate Jennings noticeded this trend way back in 2001 in an article about business novels for strategy+business:
...as the century progressed, the fecund field of business fiction was all but abandoned by serious novelists. In fact, the problem in the last 25 years is not one of novelistic "bad press" but hardly any press at all. To be sure, there have been a number of satires, some of them brilliant, that fall under the business-novel rubric: Martin Amis's Money: A Suicide Note (1984); Tom Wolfe's The Bonfire of the Vanities (1987) and A Man in Full (1998); David Lodge's Nice Work (1988); Bill Morris's Biography of a Buick (1992); Po Bronson's Bombardiers (1995); Douglas Coupland's Microserfs (1995); Julian Barnes's England, England (1998); and Kurt Andersen's Turn of the Century (1999). Nothing wrong with satire, but when it gets too broad, too silly, played only for yuks, it loses resonance. If we set aside these works, sober fictional treatments of business, such as Philip Roth's American Pastoral (1997) and Richard Powers's Gain (1998), are scarcer than Republicans who are proregulation.
Of course, Kate Jennings is author of her own satirical take on the business world, Moral Hazard, based on her own experience as a speechwriter on Wall Street.
If you're interested in more on business novels, you can find The American's pick of the top ten of all time here.
I was somewhat surprised while looking around for more on this subject not to see Eliyahu M. Goldratt's The Goal mentioned in any of these conversations. That is one business novel that is most definitely not satire.
** June's Top 10 International Bestsellers **
You guessed it!It's that time again to find out what everyone is reading outside of the United States! We had quite a busy month internationally, and here's just a smattering of what was popular:
Well - those are the top 10 books - Hope you all have a GREAT HOLIDAY!!
July 2, 2008
From MarketingProfs' Business-to-Business Forum
MarketingProfs recently posted two of their podcasts from their annual Business-to-Business Forum.
The first being Dan Ariely's, author of Predictably Irrational, keynote on "Unlocking Customer Behavior...How to Understand and Profit from Predictably Irrational Customers."
The second is from David Meerman Scott, author of The New Rules of Marketing and PR, who spoke about "B2B Viral Marketing: How to Trigger Word-of-Mouse that Spreads Your Ideas for Free." For more on that subject, check out David's ChangeThis manifesto.
July 1, 2008
Reduce Stress and Have more Fun at Work by Joel Zeff
Today we have a small article from Joel Zeff, author of Make the Right Choice: Creating a Positive, Innovative and Productive Work Life. A trimmer version has appeared at the Orange County Register blog, and it has been previously posted in it's entirety (as was Zeff's 11 Ideas to Enhance the Creative Process) at the photography blog Black Star Rising. Since most of our dear readers probably don't frequent the OCRegister or BSR, we thought we'd post it for you here. So, without further ado, here is:
Twelve Ideas to Reduce Stress and Have more Fun at Work
By Joel Zeff
It's hard to have fun at work during stressful times. Your stress builds after each media report about the recession. You start hearing whispers of a merger, layoff or the all encompassing "restructuring." Your manager does not listen. Your customers don't listen. The guy that sells sandwiches in the lobby does not listen. Maybe it is just easier to be cranky.
Maybe your sales numbers are down this quarter. Clients are taking longer to make decisions. You start to worry about expenses. What happens next? You walk into your next important meeting a bundle of nerves, tension and worry. Do you really think you are at your best?
It is time to stop worrying and relax. Give yourself a break. Stop letting the media feed your fears with the dreaded "r" word. Even during an "r" people work. Companies manufacture, transport, distribute, sell, market, advertise, produce, grow, research, develop, entertain, build and purchase. We have to figure out a way to do it without being cranky and stressed. Yes, we need to have more fun.
I sense that many of you have thrown this magazine down on the table, rearing back from these words with a shriek. How dare we have fun during a merger/recession/layoff/restructure/something else that takes up time before retirement? Fun is scary. Fun doesn't work. We are not fun people.
Yes, you can have fun. And in the process, reduce your stress and help create a more productive, innovative and fun work environment. First, we have to create a foundation so that fun can exist. Here are twelve simple ideas to reduce your stress at work and have more fun.
1. Be patient and positive in your tone of voice. Sounds simple, but a reassuring and patient tone in your voice will do wonders for teamwork and for helping reduce stress. You will rarely see a stressed, impatient person having fun. Watch people stand in line at the airport. The guy in the suit with three carry on bags and a phone hooked into the Matrix is not having fun. The guy in the Hawaiian shirt and hat made from palm reeds is relaxed and having fun. Same standing in line. Different attitude.
2. Take a break. Again, a simple idea but something that has very real results. Ever try and assemble something from the store? Ever get frustrated? Ever throw the directions across the room in frustration? Stop, take a break, and then reassess. Just a few moments away will give you the energy to move forward.
3. Think about what makes a great day at work. The next time you have fun at work, take a moment to reflect. Write down what happened that made the day so great. What did you do? What did you say? You now have your "great day" list. You know what you need. Work toward it. Fun is different for everyone. Remember the kid in your high school algebra class who got really excited when he solved a complex math problem? That is fun for him. For me, math is the equivalent of jury duty, going to the dentist, and cleaning the garage all in the same day.
4. Sometimes you have to ask. If something is bothering you and causing stress, then speak up and say something. Most people will just stew or whine in the break room rather than speak up. They don't want to hurt anyone's feelings. Guess what? Someone's feelings are being hurt--your feelings. If you ask nicely, most people would be happy to oblige and help. They probably don't even know their words or actions are bothering you.
5. Be in the moment with your co-workers. Working in the moment means being focused and connected. Listen to each other. Make eye contact. Engage in the communication process. Try something new: put your e-mail enabled phone down and communicate with the living, breathing person sitting in your office.
6. Tell your co-workers you appreciate them. We all want positive support at work. When we don't receive appreciation and thanks, we are not very happy. You know how you feel when someone says, "You made a difference," or "Great job," or " really appreciate your help." You get an incredible feeling right in the middle of your chest. Giving that feeling is a gift. And it doesn't take a budget, plan, or approval. It just takes a few seconds from your day.
7. Create opportunity. We all want the same things from our jobs: opportunity and positive support. We may want the opportunity to be creative; to be a leader; to help people; or to make more money. When we don't receive opportunity and positive support, we are not very happy. Figure out what kind of opportunity you want from your job. Make sure your employer understands what you need to be happy. Again, stand up and say something.
8. Be a better listener. Everyone thinks they are good listeners. In reality, we get into bad habits that prevent us from being good, active listeners. We multi-task. We wait to talk. We play solitaire on our computer during a conference call. Pay attention to your listening skills. When we listen, we are more effective as a team; we are better communicators; we are more productive; and we have more fun.
9. Be flexible to change. When change happens, ask yourself two important questions: Does this change affect my ability to be happy and successful in my job? Does this change affect the ability of those around me--my family, colleagues, clients, and vendors--to be happy and successful in their jobs? If both answers are no, then you know the change is not worth creating stress.
10. If you really want to reduce your stress, make a list of everything that caused you stress and frustration in the last week. Take a really hard look at what you wrote. You will giggle. Why? Because most of the things on that list don't matter. Sure, there are some very important items on the list. Most of the items, though, we will forget about in a short time. Why do we forget? Because they really were not that important. When you are in the middle of a stressful and frustrating situation, take a moment and ask, "Am I going to giggle about this in a week?"
11. Help your teammates (stressed or otherwise) take ownership of their happiness and passion. Too many times, employees let other people's actions or words determine their happiness. Happiness is a choice. Unfortunately, when we give control to other employees, managers, customers, partners, or vendors, we are never very happy. We have to take back that ownership. We have no control over many things at work. We always can have control of our reaction and our attitude.
12. Don't be afraid to make a mistake. During my presentations, I use improvisation as a tool to communicate my messages. The audience participants engage in the process with passion and energy. They have fun. They are relaxed. Because they are enjoying the process, they are more creative and productive. Why? They are not afraid of making a mistake. They understand they are working in a positive and supportive environment. We are all going to make mistakes. We want to minimize our mistakes and learn from them. If we take some of the pressure off, and support each other, we will figure out that we will make fewer mistakes. We will also have more fun.
I hope these twelve ideas will help you reduce your stress. Fun helps create the energy and passion that fuels our productivity, creativity and effectiveness. Without fun, we don't have any fuel. Just like everything, fun is a choice. We each have to take responsibility and ownership of our fun and our goal to reduce stress. Remember, it is always your choice.
Joel Zeff is a national workplace expert, speaker, author and humorist. He shares his experience and insight on creativity, communication, work/life balance, leadership, teamwork, passion, and fun through his speaking presentations and book, Make the Right Choice: Creating a Positive, Innovative and Productive Work Life. He has appeared on CNBC's The Big Idea with Donny Deutsch, the Fox Network's Fox and Friends Weekend and been featured in the Dallas Morning News, Houston Chronicle, The Kansas City Star, and many other media outlets. For more information on his book, please visit maketherightchoicethebook.com.
June 30, 2008
Evolutionary Economics
Found this today. A Fast Company article on evolutionary economics from Michael Shermer, author of The Mind of the Market.
If the fruit of the Economic Stimulus Act of 2008 hasn't landed in your bank account yet, it's likely just a matter of time before you're throwing $600 on the bed just to see what it feels like to roll around in that much cash. The government, of course, hopes that we won't just pay bills or sock it away in savings but that we'll circulate the money back into the marketplace and thereby jump-start our sagging economy. As I write, the government is also engaged in another kind of largesse, literally printing money and offering it to banks and government-backed mortgage players Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac to stave off the continuing ripple effects of the credit crisis. Leaving aside whether those moves will reverse the current economic slump, the question is: Why do we think they might?The answer may be found in a new science called evolutionary economics. This discipline looks at the economy as an ever-changing, complex adaptive system -- not unlike that of biological evolution. Immune systems, language, the law, and the Internet are all examples of other complex adaptive systems. They learn and grow from the bottom up. Individual elements (organisms in evolution, people in economics) interact and adapt to changing conditions. These systems are so intricate that they often look as though they've been designed from the top down. So our minds naturally infer the existence of an intelligent designer for complex life and a government designer for complex economies. This is why we instinctually look to Fed chairman Ben Bernanke, Treasury secretary Henry Paulson, or Congress and the President to fix the economy.
But there's more to it than that...
Keep reading on evolutionary economics over at Fast Company.
June 27, 2008
Consumer or Consumed? BusinessWeek reviews two books about brands
Yesterday Dylan did a nice job of summing up the latest reviews and discussions about business books in business magazines. Sometimes it's hard for us to keep up with everything, so here's one from a few weeks ago.
In the June 19 issue of BusinessWeek, writer Susan Berfield reviewed two books that "explore the question of whether brands control us, or vice versa": Buying In: The Secret Dialogue Between What We Buy and Who We Are by Rob Walker, and Obsessive Branding Disorder: The Illusion of Business and the Business of Illusion by Lucas Conley. (Image source=BusinessWeek.com)
Here's a snippet from the article:
My girl's request [for a Go-Gurt in her lunch]--fleeting, trivial, and unrepeated--nonetheless says something profound about our high-impact, omni-consuming culture. But what? Is she--are we all--just easy marks? Or is there a more complex dynamic between the marketer and the mark? Rob Walker, the author of Buying In: The Secret Dialogue Between What We Buy and Who We Are, argues for the latter view. Walker, who writes the "Consumed" column in The New York Times Magazine, offers a sophisticated and sometimes lighthearted take on how consumers interact with brands, defining and controlling them as companies struggle to keep up. By contrast, Lucas Conley, a contributing writer for Fast Company, takes a grimmer view. His book, Obsessive Branding Disorder: The Illusion of Business and The Business of Illusion, is a bleak assessment of how defenseless we are against ad creep, as he calls it.
Check out the BusinessWeek article to see which perspective Berfield tends to agree with more.
Friday Tidbits
Here's an offering of some random, yet interesting things from the Internet this week!
Book Review: The Office from Hell Cure by Jeffrey A. Landers. For everyone that works from home, here's a brighter side of the mundane atmosphere at your personal HQ. Order it here!
Here's just a little more about the book I blogged about: First Stop in the New World by David Lida. It's about Mexico and how it may be a huge player in the next century - order it HERE
I also came across an interesting book from Walter Nugent called Habits of Empire: A History of American Expansion - in it it tells how America got to be a 'great empire' by going into our different wars, treaties and negotiations with other countries. A must read for any historical enthusiast.
By the way, did you hear about Salman Rushdie getting knighted by Queen Elizabeth II ? Says Rushdie : "At this stage, you know, it's certainly not a day to talk about controversy, it's a day for myself and my family to celebrate this."
Here's an audio concerning Thomas Jefferson's Library that's finally complete. Turns out the Library of Congress has managed to get together with a bunch of rare-book dealers and get the missing library to its full glory. Check it Out HERE!
One more thing - Albert Camus book Notebooks (1951-1959) is currently available. In it, he goes into both the good (his Nobel Prize) and the bad (his depression). "The most interesting aspect of the "Notebooks" is not politics but its personal substratum." Order the book HERE
Have a terrific weekend, everyone!
June 26, 2008
Magazines Reviewing Books
There's another round of book reviews from some of the big business magazines. My personal favorite is from Business Week and Christopher Farrell. In an article entitled "The Squeeze on the American Worker," Farrell takes a look at two books with similar themes, Peter Gosselin's High Wire and Steven Greenhouse's The Big Squeeze. This paragraph sums the books' importance nicely:
Gosselin and Greenhouse are award-winning journalists with the Los Angeles Times and The New York Times, respectively. Not surprisingly, both books are well-written with clear themes and telling anecdotes. Neither book is a revelation, of course, since much has already been said in recent years about America's shredded social safety net, middle-class families' ever-more-vexing economic circumstances, and the distressing working conditions faced by low-income employees. Instead, what makes the two volumes timely and important is their powerful, authoritative evidence that a lot of people are rightly anxious about their economic prospects--worries exacerbated by an election season and ongoing economic woes.
Next, we have Roger Lowenstein's review of Steve Miller's The Turnaround Kid for Conde Naste Portfolio. Oddly enough, there's a line about the author in this review that relates to the theme of the books in Inc.:
Though a down-to-earth guy--one who never outgrew his lumberjack plaids--Miller cannot help sounding preachy when he talks about the great things he did for America by driving factory wages down near the level of those of Wal-Mart employees.
That sounds like quite a knock, but Lowenstein does go on to state that "Still, this is a highly engrossing memoir" and that "No one executive can fix all of corporate America's problems, but Miller came close." Kate wrote a post about the book upon its release. You can read that here.
The Economist has a tale of two Arvinds--Panagariya and Subramanian--and their respective books, India: The Emerging Giant and India's Turn. I don't believe India's Turn is available yet in the U.S., but according to all reviews I've read, we're not missing much (Subramanian is known to be a great thinker, but every review I've read bemoans the poor editing). India: The Emerging Giant, on the other hand, looks fascinating. From The Economist:
Mr Panagariya's book is the capstone of a career, a sustained work of scholarship. It demands a lot of its readers, and amply repays the investment. The author's father told him: "Take your time, but write a definite book on India." The son did not disappoint.
Finally, we have Inc. Magazine's skimmer's guide to the latest business books, this month featuring Tuned In by Craig Stull, Phil Myers, and David Meerman Scott.
Happy Reading!
Globality
Hopefully, some of you remember my blog listing about Payback: Reaping the Rewards of Innovation. Well, Harold L. Sirkin, along with 2 other of his colleagues from the Boston Consulting Group have put there minds together in the new book: Globality: Competing with Everyone from Everywhere for Everything. In the book, Sirkin, Bhattacharya and Hemerling talk about countries such as China, India and Brazil and how they are changing the face of business on a global scale in various ways.
Here's how the book starts:
"Globality is not a new and different term for globalization, it's the name for a new and different global reality in which we'll all be competing with everyone, from everywhere, for everything.
We three, management consultants turned authors, are partners....and have been studying the change in the global business environment - and working with companies involved in it - for more than twenty years. The extensive research that we....have conducted over the past five years set us on a path that led to this book.
When we started out in our international travels, globalization was just getting under way. It was a cavalcade that traveled from West to East - big multinational companies center in Europe, Japan and the United States marching out from their corporate fortresses to foreign lands in search of low-cost manufacturing and low-end markets."
June 25, 2008
Outsmart!
Jim Champy is coauthor of the business classic Reengineering the Corporation: A Manifesto for Business Revolution, which is, without a doubt, one of The 100 Best Business Books of All Time (we love manifestos). He also wrote the follow-ups Reengineering Management and X-Engineering the Corporation, and just released a new book, Outsmart!, in March.
Outsmart!, as Champy puts it in the introduction, is:
...The first in a planned series comprising four compact volumes on the key topics of strategy, marketing, leadership, and operations. Taken together, the books aim to deliver the most current intelligence available on how to succeed in today's brave new world of business. An ambitious project? Yes. But what I see a host of companies accomplishing today has me both excited and encouraged.
With the current state of the economy, we can all use a little more encouragement. Maybe Jim Champy can help.
You can read a review from the Boston Globe here.
You can read an interview of Mr. Champy from Management Consulting News here.
June 24, 2008
The Pixar Touch review in the New York Times Book Review
The Pixar Touch, which was a Jack Covert Selects in May, was reviewed in this past Sunday's New York Times Book Review.
Read the review here.
Seinfeld on Carlin
Jerry Seinfeld talks about George Carlin's death here.
Books Available in Spanish
Hey!! Here's a mish-mash of titles that are now currently available in Spanish! Take time this summer and try a new language out, or get them for your friends at work that are bi-lingual!
Check them out:
Esta Lleno Su Cubo? (How Full is Your Bucket) - by Donald O. Clifton and Tom Rath
La Buena Suerte (Good Luck) - by Fernando Trias de Bes and Alex Rovira
Un Naufrago En La Bolsa (Castaway in the Stock Market) - by Carlos Torres Blanquez
Organizarse Para Alcanzar El Exito (Organized for Success) - by Stephanie Wilson
Las Cinco Difunciones de un Equipo (The Five Dysfunctions of a Team) - by Patrick Lencioni
El desafio de Darwin (Dealing with Darwin) - by Geoffrey A. Moore
Conversaciones Cruciales (Crucial Conversations) - by Kerry Patterson, Joseph Grenny, Ron McMillan and Al Switzler
Retratos de Familia: Lo Que Quiso Saber Y No Se Atrevio a Preguntar Sobre la Empressa Familiar (Family Business) - by Inma Puig
Fish! - by Kenneth H. Blanchard, Mallory Kasdan and Stephen Ludin
El Poder de Fish! (Fish! Sticks) - byJohn Christensen, Harry Paul and Stephen Ludin
And....check out my posting on a new book about the future of Mexico and business HERE
June 23, 2008
Robyn Meredith on NOW... and Other Resources
In our first annual business book awards last year, the prize in the Globalization category went to Robyn Meredith's The Elephant and the Dragon: The Rise of India and China and What It Means for All of Us.
I was a big fan of the book personally, and was pleasantly surprised to see her recently on NOW, a weekly program on PBS. NOW turned to Meredith for her perspective during the episode "India Rising"--their look at the meteoric rise of India (and China) on Friday evening. Some of her thoughts:
The last time we saw such a big transformation was really when the United States itself came onto the global stage.
and
All of us are going to have to share. There's only so much on the planet... there's only so much energy. We're either going to have to pay a lot more for the privilege of using it, or we're going to have to decrease our use, or both. We're now in a competition, not just for jobs, but also for resources. We've been lucky, but the game's over.
The resources she's talking about aren't just oil and steel and concrete. Now a part of a global supply chain, food availability (and its cost) is also being increasingly affected as people in India and China can afford to eat better, creating more demand for more food--particularly more meat.
Gurchuran Das, former CEO of Proctor & Gamble India and author of India Unbound, was also interviewed for the program. (I haven't read any of his work, but after seeing how insightful and well-spoken he is on these issues, I look forward to it.) Das estimates that 50% of the Indian population will earn enough to be considered middle class by 2020. That's around 580 million people, or roughly twice the size of the entire United States. That's roughly twice the size of the entire United States driving cars, buying microwaves, heating and cooling ever bigger homes, eating better, all the while consuming the resources that those activities entail. And... that's not including China.
Click here to get the video of the program, or here to download the audio.
If you're looking for more on India, check out In Spite of the Gods: The Rise of Modern India. It was also a winner in our book awards, getting the nod in the New Perspectives category.
If you'd like another (and alarming) look at the competition for resources, look no further than Richard Behar's epic, six part article for Fast Company on China's expanding influence in Africa.
New Excerpt - from Branded Male
A new excerpt is up on the Excerpts blog. It's taken from chapter 6 of Branded Male: Marketing to Men by Mark Tungate. This section, "Attacking Mr. JetSet," examines marketing campaigns in Europe to attract business travelers to rail travel. More broadly, Branded Male is about "the evolution of the male consumer and the efforts of marketers to tap into the underdeveloped male market."
Here's a peek at the excerpt:
Nevertheless, the print advertising campaign devised by Eurostar and its agency TBWA London was a key element. It featured an obnoxious cartoon character called Mr JetSet, who retained his fixed grin and self-satisfied demeanor despite the privations of flying. His catchphrase was, 'I came by plane, you know.' Other captions included: 'With no space for his laptop, Mr JetSet can demonstrate his mental agility'; and '35 missed calls only prove to Mr JetSet how important he is.' A closed check-in gave Mr JetSet ample opportunity to bellow about how crucial it was that he made his meeting. Each of the posters asked: 'Fed up with flying? Fly Eurostar.'
Here's a direct link to the excerpt: http://800ceoread.com/excerpts/archives/008253.html
Sad Day
It was very sad for me to wake up this morning and hear the news. George Carlin is dead.
He was my generation's comedian. Before Steve Martin and after Lenny Bruce, George Carlin was there.
Another local connection was that he was busted for disorderly conduct in Milwaukee for expressing his "Seven Words" on stage and was hauled off to the poky. Not one of our city's better days.
Just check out youtube to see why he will be missed.
