The closest I come to actually doing this is virtual farming virtually via MMOGs (massively multiplayer online games). Hey, you gotta start somewhere.

In a trend marketer’s view, I’m actually fantasizing about Traditionalizing (going back the tradition). Instead of acting on my fantasy, however, I am Gender Blending (playing video games, traditionally a male past time) and Coming Together (playing video games in a group).

Long before I started yearning for tradition or playing MMOGs, someone discovered that these sentiments were, in fact, widespread trends. They analyzed those trends. They helped companies build a strategy around them, so that those companies can now target people like me with relevant products. Meanwhile, the same trend marketers are busy uncovering next year’s trends.

William Higham is one such trend marketer. In The Next Big Thing: Spotting and Forecasting Consumer Trends for Profit, he has written what could be the definitive guide for companies seeking to find and exploit consumer trends.

Content

The book is divided into six very rich parts. Here’s a brief summary:

Part 1: Covers what trends are (long-term changes in consumer behavior), how they impact global commerce, and the opportunities and threats they present to a company.

Part 2: Describes what trend analysis is, why you need it, and how to formalize it into a trend marketing function.

Part 3: Details the forces that cause trends and where they happen. It educates you on the difference trends and fads.

Part 4: Teaches you how and where to identify trends.

Part 5: Tells you who creates trends, how they progress, what trends grow fastest, what influences the trajectory of a trend, and how to predict the development of a trend.

Part 6: Instructs how to integrate trends into your company strategy.

As the summary above may indicate, The Next Big Thing is a very detailed book. Yet that detail reflects depth rather than digression. Higham leaves you with a comprehensive understanding, not just an overview, of trends.

Comments

Throughout the book, Higham uses an impressive number of examples to support his points. He integrates his encyclopedic knowledge of trends and branding into a story of what trends are, how they work, and how companies can harness them. You learn about the contexts trends operate in. Instead of being a vaguely defined mystery, trends become something more predictable, more of a science.

Even the drier parts of the book–there were several–held gems. For example, there is a chapter devoted exclusively to using statistical data. That’s not very exciting, but, among other things you do learn how to recognize when marketers are manipulating data for their own advantage.

Why I recommend this book

Our world today is crowded and wired. We cycle through trends rapidly, making it hard for companies to stay informed enough to remain competitive. Even so, the study of trends is still a very new discipline, outside of fashion. This is the first book to break them down into understandable parts.

In addition, you learn to see things through a trend expert’s eyes. When I was reading the book, the knitting clubs and plate-breaking cafe I’ve come across started to make sense. They weren’t anomalies. They were signs of widespread trends. Even human history and culture starts to take on a different hue through a trend analyst’s eyes. This new perspective, along with the thoroughness of the book, made The Next Big Thing a truly valuable read.

If you need to understand and incorporate trends into your business, want to understand how trends work, or simply enjoy a well-researched book on a fascinating subject, do not miss The Big Picture.

A stranger in an airplane sparked a conversation with me the other day. Rather than the usual awkward seatmate dialogue, we ended up having a good conversation.

He told me about his time in Iraq and playing craps in Vegas. I told him about my visit to Laos, where he would be stationed next. Although our half-hour exchange may have felt like little more than a way to pass time, we were actually discovering connections, establishing common ground, and taking on roles.

I didn’t realize this until about a week later, when I read A Good Talk: The Story and Skill of Conversation, former New Yorker editor Daniel Menaker’s latest book. In his seven-chapter discourse on conversation, Menaker explains the evolution, mechanics, and benefits of human conversation. His entertaining new read offers a fresh perspective on how and why conversations play significant roles in our lives.

Inside the Book

Menaker has a tendency to elaborate and digress. He shows this habit right from the beginning, with 22 pages of opening remarks.

In his wordy, amusing style, he speculates on the origin and evolution of conversation. He makes points about the essence of conversation by referring to various social science studies. You leave those opening remarks with a clearer sense of why conversation is hard to study, what makes it unique, and where it probably came from. You also feel like Menaker has talked to you, a theme that continues throughout the book.

Next, Menaker explores the history of conversation, from Socrates to talk shows. He goes on to break down the components of a conversation, using a long transcribed conversation between himself and an acquaintance as a case study.

Through Menaker’s long, bantering example, you learn about the structure of conversation. For example, most conversations come in five parts: Survey, Discovery, Risks, Roles, and the ending of the talk. Menaker describes each. You also learn different approaches to take while engaging in one. This is one of the more instructive parts of the book, but it’s embedded in a whole bunch of, well, talk.

In the fifth chapter of the book, Menaker answers some frequently asked questions on conversation. How do address boredom? What about people who suddenly insult you? What about email manners? There are some useful tips here. Chapter 6 describes the three qualities any good conversationalists must possess: Curiosity, humor, and impudence. You learn not only what they are, but how to use them.

The final chapter of the book describes how conversation benefits people emotionally and physically (oxytocin has a role here). Menaker also reflects on conversation’s political and social roles, concluding with insights on how conversations can change our lives.

My Thoughts

Because I’m reviewing this book from a business angle, let me issue a qualifier. It’s not for everyone. As a New Yorker fan, writer, and admirer of the craft of writing, I probably land on the bull’s eye of this book’s target audience. When I read Menaker’s digressions, I was also taking note of his often boundary-pushing writing style. I enjoyed his use of big words. As for his references to New York’s literary elite, I thought: I should learn who these people are.

If I’d been looking for cut-and-dried advice on how to be good at conversation, and I didn’t happen to be a literary wonk, this book would have annoyed me. But if you can relate to me, do bring A Good Talk on your vacation or on the plane. The writing flows, engages, and inspires. It made me more interested in any conversation, and made me want to have more good ones.

In a sense, the book is written like a conversation: You have to sift through the chatter to see the glint of gems. This was especially apparent in Chapters 3 and 4, which covered a painfully long conversation as a case study. I would have preferred that Menaker chunked out the conversation into short bits, then defined his points after each excerpt.

Still, if you aren’t turned off by written rambling, Menaker does offer a truly fresh perspective on conversations. His book helped me appreciate conversations as a form, not just a necessity.

I’ll conclude by saying that if you want straightforward tips, this isn’t your tome. But if you like good writing, fresh perspectives, and the New Yorker for that matter, pick this book up.

Disclosure: We received a free copy of this book.

What does your average workday look like? If waking up and falling asleep rim a day full of commuting, working, and TV, watch out. You just might be a zombie. At least that’s what Robert Pagliarini would call you, in a most endearing and well-meaning way possible.

Pagliarini, a CFA, entrepreneur and author, wants you to stop frittering away your life on mindless tasks. He encourages you to streamline and harness those precious eight hours you have between work and sleep. Once you do, your life and financial situation will markedly improve.

In The Other 8 Hours: Maximize Your Free Time to Create New Wealth & Purpose, Pagliarini gives you detailed instructions on how to replace your zombie habits with life-affirming creative ones. His new book shows you how to chop out all the activities and people who drain you. You learn to manage and prioritize your time, so that new income streams and a newfound sense of being alive result.

Sound like a tall order? Taken in aggregate, it is. But if you bite each piece off in digestable pieces, The Other 8 Hours can give you the tips and tricks you need to turn your wasted time into something personally and financially rewarding.

Content

Pagliarini starts off The Other 8 Hours by explaining why those eight hours we’re not working or sleeping are so important. He tells you why it’s common to feel stuck in a rut, and how to “jump out of” your staid state.

Freeing up your time is part strategy, part slash-and-burn. Pagliarini’s tips range from intuitive–get rid of unnecessary commitment—to innovative, like getting yourself a “boost job” that allows you to make money while spending your time accomplishing something else (think midnight tollbooth operator writing a novel). He also lists and gives solutions for 24 common “LifeLeeches” that suck your time away.

Now that he has shown you how to stop wasting time, Pagliarini gives you buiding blocks for transcending the rat race. A thirst for more status, money, and life than the consumer treadmill offers is an implicit requirement here. Assuming you have that, Pagliarini says to spend your other eight hours creating new moneymaking channels such as a business, an invention, or a book. You become what Pagliarini, in a swoop of marketing, calls a Cre8tor.

He gives you a chapter full of tips on getting your mind, support network, and systems set up to nurture a Cre8tor lifestyle. Then he shares 8 rules Cre8tors needs to follow, like limiting risk, keeping your day job, and owning the way you make your income.

Next, he goes into the top 10 Cre8tor channels for making income. These are basically side projects that can have good monetization potential. They are: Blogging, inventing, writing a book/screenplay/music, starting a company, reselling/licensing/affiliating, taking advantage of fads, working for stock, advancing careers, freelancing, and turning hobbies into income. He breaks each down into its own detailed chapter with rules, tips, resources, and diagrams.

After reading about each channel, you enter the Get a Life section of the book. Here, you find a handful of tips for rebuilding your life. These include uncovering your passions, learning about the characteristics you need to live a more fulfilled life, building good habits, making goals, and scheduling your day to accommodate your Cre8tor commitments, and more. He concludes the book with a helpful list of resources.

Thoughts

As a CFA, entrepreneur, media personality, and author, Robert Pagliarini is quite the multitasker. The book multitasks, too. It attempts to tutor you on self-improvement, goal-setting, starting your own business or side moneymaking gig, addressing deficiencies in your life, making more money, building healthier habits and relationships, and more.

As someone who values focus and simplicity, I found the content distracting at times. It’s not an easy, step-by-step guide on improving your life. Instead, it’s a tome of scattered tips–use them as you will. The value comes from the number and diversity of tips more than the overall trajectory of the book.

I most enjoyed Part I, which described the Great American Rut and gave useful tips on making your time work for you. I was already familiar with the idea of being a Cre8tor, as well as a few of the Cre8tor channels featured in Part II. In my experience, there’s a good amount of crapshoot involved in actually monetizing your book, blog, or freelance career. Pagliarini does emphasize that success is more of a batting average than a one-hit wonder. It helps to bear that in mind while reading through descriptions of Cre8tor channels.

Part III, which tells you how to get a life, almost sounded forced to me. Sure, repeating a mantra and setting goals are good ideas, but this section was missing the depth required to truly do life-building activities justice.

In terms of writing style, The Other 8 Hours is entertaining, and funny at times. Pagliarini incorporates tips and stories from real-life Crea8tors like Seth Godin. Its action-oriented tips give you solid starting points for improving your situation. It’s a fun, easy read.

I recommend it for anyone who feels stuck, wants to be more enterprising, and/or needs a kick in the butt in general.

Disclosure: We were sent a free copy of this book.

Do you ever dream of landing a promotion? Who doesn’t? You could finally nab that corner office with a view. Your colleagues would start looking up to you as an adept leader (theoretically). Your newfound ability to buy a beach house wouldn’t hurt, either.

The reality is different. Promotions, no matter how fantastic they sound, can pose a serious challenge. Just ask leadership transition expert Michael D. Watkins. This former Harvard Business School professor, who now chairs Genesis Advisers, previously wrote the renowned transition guide The First 90 Days. In his newest book, he chronicles the obstacles that fresh-off-the-promotion leaders face.

Your Next Move: The Leader’s Guide to Successfully Navigating Major Career Transitions explores how to effectively navigate eight common types of promotions. The types of promotions in the book cover common challenges that leaders face, from leading former peers to politicking correctly in your new position.

Each chapter in this guide is dedicated to one kind of promotion. Starting with a case study of a person facing the situation in question, you learn what risks come with the promotion, why they happen, and how to navigate your new role successfully. Watkins uses academic research, diagrams, and bullet lists to help you understand his points. You’ll also learn how your company can help you with your transition in each chapter.

Content

The first chapter describes leadership challenges you might face after being promoted to a new position within your company. In the next chapter, you learn how to effectively navigate the challenges associated with leading former peers, such as asserting authority and changing your relationships.

After that, Watkins moves on the challenges that higher-level leaders face. The “corporate diplomacy challenge” tells authoritative, results-oriented managers how to successfully politick, influence, and build alliances. The “onboarding challenge” shows you how to ease into a new organization without being alienated by the existing culture.

Next comes a relatively condensed chapter on moving to a new location (this is such an involved topic that it really deserves a book of its own). After that, you learn how to navigate the turnaround of a troubled organization, and realign a complacent organization in order to prevent crises.

Your Next Move concludes with a chapter on handling a mixed scenario, or “business portfolio challenge.” Here, you figure out where to focus when different parts of your company are at different states of the STARS (start-up, turnaround, accelerated growth, realignment, sustaining success) continuum.

Comments

Your Next Move prepares you well for any number of promotions. Watkins admits in the first chapter that the book doesn’t cover every single transition challenge. But “if you can deal with these eight tough transitions, you can deal with just about anything,” he writes. What he does cover, he covers thoroughly, so you’re exposed to elements that could appear in a multitude of challenges.

As with any preparatory guide, it is best read with a level head. If you read it in advance of a promotion, as part of your general business education, you’ll learn what to expect. When you are promoted, some of the scenarios Watkins describes won’t come as a surprise. Instead of firefighting, you’ll have an idea of what questions to ask. I think this is the best way to read the book. I’m not sure how helpful it would be if you’re already in the midst of a stressful promotion–the book doesn’t address survival in depth.

The book assumes basic business knowledge; expect “businessy” language. Personally, the only jargon I found overwhelming was the author’s frequent mention of STARS. I thought that despite some technical and academic language, the book flows well.

Watkins’ intimate knowledge of transitions makes the book a valuable read. There’s no question that Watkins really knows what he’s talking about. You don’t risk getting uneducated advice in Your Next Move. Watkins integrates a lot of his own rigorous research, but puts it into language most business-minded people can understand.

Overall, I recommend it. It is valuable for anyone with a general business interest, not only those who anticipate an imminent promotion. Read it before you even expect to get promoted, so that you learn how to start off on the right foot.

Disclosure: We were sent a free copy of this book.

Seth Godin is a linchpin. He creates useful and enlightening written content. He covers business, marketing, personal growth, and career success with a single brush stroke. He’s a marketing guru, a public persona, a sage.

He also defies simple explanation.

That very characteristic–using a combination of attributes to become indispensable at what you do–is a key feature of linchpins. A linchpin is a person with a unique skill set and way of doing things. Their combination of skills, talents, and abilities, which Godin defines in his book, make them indispensable.

If a linchpin works in a company, they are the person a company can’t live without. Well-known corporate linchpins include Steve Jobs or Google’s Marissa Mayer.

Linchpins that don’t work for companies are indispensable, too. They provide something so economically valuable that they’re changing their industry. Jay Parkinson is an example. Many affect large numbers of people in a positive way. Like your favorite barista at the coffee shop–the one you look forward to seeing every time you visit. Whether corporate or not, because of their unique abilities, no linchpins want for contacts or jobs.

In his new book, Linchpin: Are You Indispensable?, Seth Godin makes the case that the world needs more linchpins. He gives you background on why linchpins are so valuable right now. He makes it clear how linchpins operate, who they are, and why you need to be one.

Companies Need Linchpins

Mediocrity, just showing up to work and doing what you’re told, used to guarantee you a paycheck. It won’t anymore, writes Godin. Today, our economy rewards the people without whom the company can’t function. You guessed it–linchpins.

Some businesses have a model of hiring “cheap drones (they) can scale, replace, and disrespect.” But that, claims Godin, won’t lead to customer loyalty or growth. It’s not a good strategy; it’s survival and maintenance. In order to flourish, a company needs linchpins. What’s good for the individual (being indispensable) is good for the company, too.

Content

In his book, Godin doesn’t tell you how to be a linchpin. Instead, he gives you an aggregate picture of who linchpins are, what they do, and why they’re so coveted.

Godin starts the book by setting the stage for today’s work world. Many previously white-collar projects can now be done for free, either by crowds or by machines. Obedience and just showing up to work are passé. Unfortunately, school and the media have indoctrinated people to be factory workers. As a result, we automatically buy into a career system constructed on fear: Obey the boss or be fired.

Godin emphasizes that we need to cast that aside. He details what you need to do in order to change your factory-worker mentality. Instead of just sitting down and blankly following orders, you have to bring your soul to work. You have to stay human and be brave. You need to create, connect, and invent in your work. And, of course, you have to work hard.

If being remarkable feels threatening, Godin explains why in following chapters. The amygdala, or lizard brain, will try to sabotage your best efforts, he says. If the lizard brain perceives something as being too risky, it tries to stop. It does this by making you hesitate, compelling you to overdo things, and undermining your confidence. After showing you how the lizard brain tries to stop you, Godin tells you how to thwart it.

Subsequent chapters define the qualities and abilities of a linchpin. Linchpins are artists, per a definition that Godin puts forth in the next chapter. They bring emotional labor to their work. They are generous, giving without expectation of reciprocity. This is an essential quality in an economy that has integrated a culture of gifts, according to the author.

Linchpins also don’t wait for instructions. They figure out how to create value, then go do it. If you want to be a linchpin, make your own map. If this scares you, make the choice to be bigger than your lizard brain.

Now you’ve decided to be a generous, self-motivated, fear-accepting artist. There’s more. In order to be a linchpin, you must be socially intelligent. You connect with other people through genuine human interactions. This connection helps make you indispensable.

The linchpin picture is almost complete. Towards the end of the book, Godin adds a few more details to round it off. Besides bringing emotional labor to work and making their own maps, linchpins interact with customers, staff, and members of their organization. They possess a unique kind of creativity and talent. They use their internal map-making skills and judgment to manage complexity. Good judgment and generosity, combined with deep knowledge of your field, is yet another ability.

He concludes the book with a qualifier. Putting your heart and soul into your art doesn’t always monetize. If this is the case, continue to be a generous artist. Learn from your previous experience. The compromise, if you can call it that, is to learn “how to love what you do to make money.”

Remarks

Linchpin read like a series of blog posts. The writing style leaves latitude for personal interpretation. Depending on your experience and situation, Linchpin’s messages will hit you on a personal level, more so than other business books. Here’s what I took away.

As an entrepreneur, I didn’t find the first six chapters groundbreaking. I already have my suspicions about the effectiveness of the factory model, schooling, and “just showing up” to work. It was pleasant to affirm my beliefs by reading what Godin had to say, but that’s all.

I loved the second half of the book, however. My favorite chapter was called “The Resistance.” It focuses on thwarting the overprotective tendencies of the amygdala, or lizard brain. The chapter explains how fear manifests and how to effectively accept it while staying in charge. Personally–and the book is personal–I found this to be the most useful chapter.

Following chapters let me piece together a picture of what a linchpin looks like. I didn’t find a roadmap on how to be one (I guess I’m supposed to make my own map), but I found enough descriptions for a clearer mental image of a linchpin.

Some je ne sais quoi in Godin’s writing also inspired me to try to be a linchpin. The mental picture of a linchpin, combined with the inspiration to try to fit that image, settled over me subtly, like a blanket. Something permeated. I do not know how it will manifest.

By the end of the book, I had absorbed the following message: Society rewards you for standing out, giving gifts, making connections, and being remarkable. I was motivated to try.

I’ll keep this book around because I want to sustain that inspiration, not just go back to old routines and let the book’s message fizzle out. Some might find this book mind-blowing—it depends on how you think and your personal situation. I recommend it for everybody. I would especially encourage you to read it if you’re in a disappointing job, discouraged about work, or feel stuck in your business or career. Linchpin has a magic about it. Don’t miss it.

Global water shortages. A cashless society. Massive national debt. Higher taxes.

The next decade doesn’t look too rosy, does it?

It also doesn’t look business-friendly—unless you know how to increase your chances of success. Your success, according to consultant and author Marc Emmer, hinges on effective strategy and execution.

In his new book, Intended Consequences: Designing the Future You Want to Create, Emmer helps you devise a strategy to bust through modern pitfalls like hypercompetition and commoditization. By creating an all-encompassing strategy and success measurement system, you can pave the way for competitive advantage over the next decade.

Emmer guides you through the steps involved in both creating a winning strategy and a unique selling proposition for your company. At the end of the book, you have an understanding of why strategy and differentiation are crucial in today’s business environment, how to create them, and how to continue to measure your success.

Content

Emmer’s first chapters, which you can breeze through, describe of the human nature and the current economy. Emmer reminds readers that humans are myopic, biased, pattern-seeking individuals—and that comes with limitations. Companies themselves are subject to collecting myopia and herding and internal focus.

To compensate for these intrinsic weaknesses, Emmer tells you how to do a scenario planning (STEEP) exercise, as well as create a Futures map. A STEEP exercise is a tool considering how social, technological, economic, ecological and political factors may affect a business in the future. A Futures map is an illustration of a scenario and is a tool for explaining the company’s vision of the future.

In following chapters, the book introduces the concept of strategic planning. It describes how a company should use it to build its indicators, goals, and manage performance. Next, the book details the three ways in which successful companies can be defined in today’s hypercompetitive business environment. Emmer shares how companies should set expectations based on those success factors.

After that, you learn how customers behave in a hypercompetitive market, and how marketers can effectively react to today’s consumers’ expectations. Emmer shares specific tips on creating points of brand differentiation. Finally, he tells you how to manage your marketing efforts, measure your product’s success, sell correctly for the environment, and organize customer information most effectively.

The next chapter details how to hold, organize, and manage a successful strategic planning meeting. It tells you how to use scorecarding to gather business intelligence and create alignment between a company’s strategy and its staff.

In the book’s final chapters, Emmer talks about being a best-in-class employer, how it works, and why you need to do it. He covers how to manage employee incentives and create successful pay-for-performance metrics. He closes with a simple business mantra: Be intentional. That is key.

Analysis

I don’t usually use “strategy” and “fun” in the same sentence, but Emmer’s book on strategy is fun to read. His initial chapters offer a refreshing take on the pitfalls of the modern era and human behavior. From Chapter 6 onward, Emmer seems to hit his literary stride. The book takes on a pleasing conversational tone, recounting Emmer’s personal experiences and making jokes and jabs about familiar companies.

Some of his tips, like only competing on cost if you have the size to do so, are basic business tenets. The author, however, does a good job of mixing these old adages with strategy-specific concepts, real-life company examples, and definitions. The net result is a pleasing and comprehensible blend of ideas.

Emmer’s clear style makes even the more complex concepts easy to follow. His confidence in his strategy and execution tools is contagious. Accept all the possibilities, know how to secure competitive advantage, and even the post-financial crisis world can be your oyster.

Overall, the book left me with an upbeat sense of control. I recommend it for anyone wanting ideas on how to build an effective business strategy in tumultuous economic conditions.

Disclosure: We were sent a free copy of this book.

We live in a free market. If a corporation wants to stay competitive, it needs to move its operations to a place where costs, taxes, and regulations are negligible. As long as consumers keep buying a company’s goods, it can operate any way it wants.

That is so 1990s.

Businesses no longer operate as islands, according to the authors of Good for Business: The Rise of the Conscious Corporation. In an Internet-savvy, skeptical, and tumultuous 21st century, societal goodwill becomes more than a luxury. It becomes a business imperative. “Those corporations (who) have taken the humanization of business into their brand DNA…will have the greatest influence with policymakers (of the future) and the best chance of engaging talent, consumers, and investors alike,” say the authors (p. 185).

Many things have changed for corporations during the past decade. Public scrutiny has become a norm, thanks to open Internet channels. To stay competitive in today’s busy, hypercompetitive markets, companies need to refine their brand images. In an age where a reputation can burn in seconds, soft assets like trust and emotional connection are more important than ever. Tomorrow’s leaders (today’s millennial generation) require a different kind of workplace than their forebears.

How do you stay successful in a changed environment?

Good for Business covers how these changes came about, what they mean, and what to do about them in a three-part book. The first part offers an overview of how the role of the corporation has changed in today’s (post-crisis, millennial) era. It illustrates how consumers have become more aware of who they’re buying from, more networked into opinion groups, and more powerful overall. It explains what that all means for corporate brands. It also introduces the four cornerstones of tomorrow’s successful, conscious corporation: A purpose beyond profit, a people-centered culture, a sustainable approach to business, and respect for consumers’ power.

The second part of the book describes why corporate brands have become so important, and how companies can empower effective brand messengers. It also covers what it means to be a leader in tomorrow’s successful corporation (Leader of Tomorrow). In addition, it explains how to create a culture that engages millennials (the Talent of Tomorrow).

The third part of the book talks about building a useful statement of direction for your conscious corporation, then embedding and sustaining it within your company. This chapter is almost like a workbook, detailing exactly what you need to do and why.

The book concludes with examples of corporations that have good consumer perception of their brand and company. The appendix offers a couple of global marketing study results on the way people consume products and perceive companies.

Examples and context strengthen the book

One of Good for Business’s biggest strengths is the way it puts the current business era into context. You close the book understanding not only that things have changed, but why they have changed. By offering easy-to-understand background information on its claims, the book facilitates a deeper understanding of today’s business conditions.

Thanks to case studies, survey and research results, and informal examples, the book also makes those business conditions feel familiar. The authors integrate such supporting material throughout the book. Examples cover medium-to-large companies, including Zappos, Whole Foods, Google, and Tesco. Some examples are rather superficial—nobody’s going beneath the surface here, especially when it comes to employee sentiment about companies—but they work within the context of the book.

Good for Business covers good topics, but its mission seems unclear

Chapter-by-chapter, Good for Business is full of useful information and tips. The authors (four of them) know what they’re talking about. They offer good examples, solid points, and a clear overview of how to get from yesterday’s corporate standard to tomorrow’s conscious corporation. But beyond that, the purpose of the book baffles me.

I finished the book feeling like I had a good general background on what it meant to run a “conscious” business, but many questions remained in my mind. Perhaps the book tackles too many potentially deep topics. For example, one chapter on millennials will hardly suffice for a company serious about managing them right. It read as though written by someone analyzing Gen-Y from the outside—hardly satisfying.

On the other hand, Part III, on building a statement of purpose, was an incredibly clear, useful how-to. You could read the chapters in that section and come out with your own strong statement of purpose. The chapters on corporate brand also facilitated a crystal-clear understanding. But other chapters don’t offer you that kind of walk-through. Instead, you get background and/or general guidelines.

Overall, the topics are good, but I can’t tell if the book is supposed to be a reference, description of what a conscious corporation is and how it works, or a how-to for building your own conscious corporation. Summations of the key points at the end of each chapter would have done a lot for this patchwork book.

Conclusion

The most memorable part of Good for Business was that it increased intimacy with what modern business conditions are, how they came about, and how they work. I wasn’t clear, however, on how to do everything I needed to do to get my company from Point A to Point B (except with regards to writing a statement of purpose). Was I supposed to know that, or was that not the book’s intention? Either way, I was left wanting more.

Overall, I do recommend this book in certain circumstances. If you want a general overview with how the business environment has changed from a brand and marketing perspective, read this book. If you are unfamiliar with why business is different today, read this book. But if you want a complete reference or a how-to, look elsewhere.

Disclosure: We received a free copy of this book.

Let’s say you and a group of friends have a killer business idea. You create a startup. After a lot of elbow grease, you scrounge up enough funds to get the startup off the ground.

Next, you aggressively market, hire, and expand enough to ensure your little company’s survival. Once you’ve gained enough traction to do that, you work like a dog to ramp up your company’s growth with new products, services, and markets.

Years later, you’re a sizable corporation. Congratulations! Just don’t grow complacent or egotistical. You’ll threaten your own survival if you do that. Your challenge now is to thrive as an institution.

Handful enough for you? It is. That’s why few companies make it from fanatical startup to established institution.*

Growing up can be complicated.

That’s also why it’s hard for your average author to effectively chronicle a company’s growth. You have to draw out lessons and patterns from decades of details. You have to put your own biases aside to tell the story as it was. At the same time, you need to make readers understand the importance of how the company handled the challenges inherent to its evolution.

It takes the right combination of mind and skills to pull this kind of thing off. And that’s exactly what authors Anthony F. Smith and Keith Hollihan manage to do in ESPN: The Company.

Good job, guys.

ESPN: The Company pulls you into life at ESPN through vivid character and company descriptions. You learn by vicariously participating.

That’s what consultant Anthony F. Smith did during his 20+-year tenure with ESPN, though he experienced the company firsthand. He joined with McKinsey just as ESPN was gaining traction as a startup. He stayed all the way through to its current incarnation as a $30 billion sports media giant.

In those years, he grew intimate with the people, culture, and strategy of ESPN. He and cowriter Keith Hollihan chronicle the highlights of those years: The prominent personalities within the company, the victories and losses, and the lessons learned.

ESPN: Corporate Success. Teacher.

Each of the book’s eight chapters covers a guiding principle to ESPN’s success. Those guiding principles helped ESPN evolve from idea to empire, but could be applied to any company wanting to stay competitive and creative while ascending competitive ladder.

Individually, each principle can be applied to any company. Taken together, though, they are the unique formula that led to ESPN’s success.

Principles include:

Turn Fanatics into Fans: Make your business all about the customer, and hire fanatics to work for you.

Expand your brand: Let your mission drive your brand, not vice-versa. Protect the brand more aggressively than you expand it.

While chronicling ESPN’s story, Smith also explains how it developed and kept its winning formula. For example, ESPN started up with a hungry, passionate, hardworking culture. Smith explains how they were able to keep it intact even after they grew large.

Smith also explains how the company created the markets it now dominates. In another, especially strong chapter, he describes how each of the company’s leaders contributed to the right growth at the right time. He also breaks down how ESPN harnessed its employees’ and fans’ passion to gain business wins.

These are lesson every business should learn.

ESPN: The Company rewards readers with company intimacy and wisdom. The authors incorporate tidbits from a variety of sources to add nuance to the story. These include quotes, anecdotes, cable TV industry history, anthropology, and organizational science.

This richness helps you feel like you’re participating in ESPN’s story. You come out of each chapter having learned through your reading experience. The authors recap lessons in a short summation at the end of each chapter. The book’s tone, while deeply respectful of ESPN, doesn’t make bones about the contentious aspects of the company’s growth.

Conclusion: The book’s a winner.

A book is a success when it makes you respect a company you formerly knew little about. It is a success when you feel like you’ve experienced, rather than read, the story within. Ditto if it makes you want to read more of the authors’ work.

ESPN: The Company did all three for me. I highly recommend it.

*These four stages are taken from the book, where they are chronicled in more detail.

Disclosure: We were sent a copy of ESPN: The Company for free.

Have you ever been in an over-complicated work situation, the kind where you’re amazed anything gets done at all? You spend hours in unproductive meetings. Communication between teams is convoluted. Decisionmakers stall until the last second. Your elaborate product line defies definition. Oh, and you receive at least five urgent, irrelevant emails a day.

Complexity like this is common, according to Ron Ashkenas, a longtime Fortune 500 consultant and international speaker. During his years of consulting, Ashkenas figured out the causes, effects, and remedies for organizational complexity. In his new book, “Simply Effective: How to Cut Through Complexity in Your Organization and Get Things Done,” Ashkenas reveals the four major causes of complexity (hint: you’re probably one of them), how they affect your company, and how to resolve them.

The book, which comes out December 8, is an engaging read with useful case studies and how-tos. While some books only provide the background on an issue, Ashkenas’ book value-adds by providing you with tools to solve the problem. Managers, C-level executives, and consultants will find this book most useful, though as a small business owner and student of business practices in general, I enjoyed it, too.

I interviewed Ashkenas to learn more about his book, the concept of simplicity, and who can benefit from reducing complexity.

BP: How do you define simplicity in an organization?

RA: It’s the ability to get things done with the least amount of wasted motion, in a way that will satisfy both your customers and the people doing the work. Workers feel like there’s a direct line of sight to what they’re contributing and to what customers are receiving. Customers have a direct line of sight to what they’re getting, and what the value is.

When you start adding all that up, it also means reducing costs, reducing inefficiency and non-value-added stuff that gets built in, and reducing lots of frustration.

BP: Why do people tend to make organizations complex?

RA: First of all, nobody wakes up in the morning and says “I’m going to try to make my organization more complex today.”

Some of it happens just by natural forces of business and competition, technology and regulation. All the environmental stuff that’s continually bombarding organizations creates a level of complexity.

My point in the book is that managers unintentionally and unconsciously contribute to and compound that complexity. Sometimes it’s in the way that they organize the organization. Sometimes it’s in the way that they manage processes or their portfolio of products. Sometimes it’s in their own managerial behaviors. I go into all those four categories in the book.

None of it is intentional or conscious. Nobody’s thinking “how can I make it really tough for people to get things done?”

BP: What are a couple of the most common sources of complexity that you have seen people create within an organization?

RA: I’ll just pick a couple. One is what I call product proliferation. We try to please our customers by continually either looking for new products, new services, new variations on the products or services, but rarely eliminate the old ones.

We don’t have sunset laws on products or services. So we’re always adding more. Every time you add a new product or service, it creates a cascade of work down through the rest of the organization.

Second, there’s the sheer weight of the portfolio of things to manage. In the book, there’s a case on Herman Miller, which was a great example.

There was a notion over the last couple of years of mass customization, that we should do everything possible to customize our products for our customers. Herman Miller was following that trend with the Aeron chair. The company created all these different customization possibilities within numerous categories that customers could select to create their own unique, perfect Aeron chair.

When the product manager went back and looked at this, she realized that there were about 140 million different customization options being offered. The enormity of being able to manage that and be geared up to produce any of those 140 million custom configurations was putting a huge amount of extra cost into the supply chain, and into the whole value chain.

In reality, customers don’t want that much choice. Out of the 140 million possibilities, only about 4,000 had ever been ordered. Of those, only hundreds were high-frequency orders. By paring that way back, it was possible to both reduce costs and please the customers.

There’s a grocery store that’s one of the most profitable, successful, and popular grocery chains in Germany (ed.: Aldi). They have a rule in their stores that they carry no more than 700 products. Instead of 20 choices of orange juice or yogurt or toilet paper, you get two. Customers flock to that store partially because they don’t want to be inundated with all those choices. It makes their lives more complex.

On a more personal level, there are lots of things that managers do in their own behaviors, unintentionally and unconsciously. It’s really useful to step back and say “am I creating complexity unintentionally?”

For example, every time you use the “reply all” button, you’re possibly sending emails to hundreds of people about things that are irrelevant to them. Or managers send various versions of documents around to people, and after a while, it’s hard to tell what’s the source document and what’s the most current document. Or presentations. I’m sure you’ve been in various meetings with PowerPoint presentations that were actually long reports made into presentations.

There are all these things that we do unintentionally that create complexity.

BP: Let’s go back in time, a couple of years before the financial crisis hit. Let’s say you have the chance to go in and simplify the financial industry. What would you have done? Do you think simplicity could have prevented this crisis from happening?

RA: The very simple answer is absolutely yes. There are at least two things that stand out.

One is product complexity. Institution after institution created products that were so complex that even Warren Buffett said that he didn’t understand them. There were CDOs-squared and CDOs-cubed, and you go on and on with these things. Companies lost the line of sight between the real asset and what the product actually meant. I think that’s one area of complexity that if we had been more attuned to the way that complexity was starting to take hold there, it would have made a difference.

The second was the regulatory structure, which is still highly fragmented and highly complex. There are different regulators for all the different parts of the financial industry. There are insurance parts, investment banking parts, it goes on and on. Then, there are parts of the industry that don’t have any regulation, like hedge funds.

All of these regulators aren’t necessarily talking to each other. We’ve got a fragmented, complex regulatory structure against a backdrop of institutions that are creating incredibly complex products. No surprise that when you put that together, it’s sort of a toxic stew of not enough and poor regulation over things that we don’t fully understand.

I’m sure there were many other causes, money and social policies and all kinds of things, greed, incentives. I could go on. But those are two of the major simplicity issues that I think could have made a major difference.

BP: Anything else you’d like to share?

RA: If you’re the CEO or the head of a large division, and you can create a simplification effort in a whole area, it really needs to be a business imperative. For example, there are lots of companies that somewhere in their mission statement or values it says simplicity. That goes back thousands of years. It has to be a business imperative that’s actually going to make a difference in your business.

On the other hand, if you’re a manager at any other level, it’s also important to think about the business imperative part of it. At the same time, think of what is it going to do to help you get you and your team’s work done more effectively. That’s the starting point.

Ron talks more about simplification and the financial industry at Harvard Business Publishing.

Full disclosure: We were sent a free copy of the book to review.

Charles Goyette has spent much of his life thinking about money. He has contemplated how it works, how governments manipulate it, and how it stores value.

Goyette, a radio show host, precious metals pro, and libertarian, shares his views on fate of the US dollar in “The Dollar Meltdown.” In his four-part book, Goyette details where the US economy and dollar are now, how we got here, what might happen next, and how to protect your money.

The topics Goyette presents are necessary reading for anyone wanting a well-rounded perspective on the current US economy. Even if you don’t agree with some of Goyette’s strong libertarian viewpoints, his colorful writing and factual anecdotes make “The Dollar Meltdown” an interesting read.

As its cover might imply, “The Dollar Meltdown” isn’t a gentle introduction to the collapse of the dollar. Libertarians and Austrian school aficionados would feel most at ease with this book. Refreshingly, the nonpartisan author implicates both Democrats and Republicans as fiscal and monetary ne’er do gooders.

Goyette says “the body economic is shuddering from the relentless compulsions of meddlers.” Thanks to government intervention in money and markets, the US faces runaway inflation. Between Sept 2008-March 2009, US monetary base grew 199%. Add the domestic dollar supply to foreign dollar reserves—up to half of US dollar reserves are in foreign hands—and you have a potential oversupply.

The country’s debt situation is making holders of dollars, both foreign and domestic, nervous about the value of their greenbacks. Goyette writes that our national debt adds up to $42,000/person for the bailout (March 2009 numbers). On top of that, China owns $767 billion in US Treasury securities. That’s the equivalent of each individual American borrowing $3,300 from people in China.

If people start dumping dollars, all that extra supply will make it back to the US. Inflation will result. Several countries are already seeking other kinds of reserves—euros and gold, for example—to replace dollars.

Why isn’t the government quaking in its boots? Because, says Goyette, it has always pursued inflation as a policy. Authorities aim for mild inflation as a manageable economic state. The government tries to alter deflationary states into inflation to gain a sense of control of the economy. “Helicopter” Ben Bernanke is doing exactly that right now. Moreover, as the country’s biggest debtor, the government benefits most from inflation. For example, at 4% inflation, a debt of $12 trillion depreciates by $480 billion/year.

Economic gyrations actually work well for politicians, because they can capitalize off the consequences of inflation. They can campaign based on economic woes. Inflation can help them get reelected. It also helps the government increase its own power. After the government produces inflation, it will initiate wage and price controls. It will use inflation as a vehicle to move towards central command (total economic control).

Goyette, a free-market proponent, says authorities can never be one step ahead of the economy. Inflationary policies aren’t good for the economy. “Saying some inflation is desirable is like saying a few termites are a good thing…,” he remarks.

To combat the wealth-destroying effects of runaway inflation, Goyette recommends you put 25% of your portfolio into gold and silver, ideally physically held. He offers expert, detailed advice on how and where to buy it. Goyette’s chapter on buying gold is one of the most cohesive and useful chapters in his book. His expertise in the field shines through.

Subsequent chapters aren’t as well-defined, but do offer detailed background information on each recommended investment. The next chapter talks about silver. Chapters on investing in oil, natural resources, commodities, bonds (using a long inverse strategy), and foreign currencies follow.

Analysis

At times, I found the book dogmatic. For example, throughout the book, Goyette mentions that America is transforming itself into a central command economy. He says command economies produce poverty. Fair enough.

But isn’t China, increasingly prosperous as it is, still a command economy? Goyette addresses this by saying that “as China freed its command economy, growth came.” Yes, but that doesn’t mean China is free from command. Nor does it mean that America won’t stop the top-down action until it becomes the USSA. This tendency to polarize marks some of his claims. What’s more, Goyette later recommends buying an ETN (exchange-traded note) issued by the (socialist) government of Sweden. We hate central command, but we support it when it’s in our own interest?

If you can get over a couple of belief-system rabbit holes, and the occasional divisive language—Ron Paul fans would claim it as fact, but if your belief system lands on the outskirts, Goyette can shock—“The Dollar Meltdown” is a worthy read. It covers a perspective you need to know about in an entertaining, interesting way.

Full disclosure: We were sent a free copy of The Dollar Meltdown.