The Management Gurus: Lessons from the Best Management Books of All Time
by Chris Lauer and the Editors at Soundview Executive Book Summaries

Let’s face it. Today we’re living in the age of information overload.

In this chaotic world of growing challenges and diminishing leisure time, it’s becoming more and more difficult to read as many books as we’d like to.

There should be a simple solution. And there is.

Soundview Executive Book Summaries provides you with an easy way to familiarize yourself with the key points of today’s top business books without investing an enormous chunk of your invaluable time.

Thirty years ago, the founders of Soundview Executive Book Summaries pioneered the concept of outlining the key points and ideas of full-length business books into quick and easy-to-read print summaries.

Throughout the years, Soundview has worked closely with the leading business book publishers of the world to offer print summaries of the 30 best business books of the year to its more than 50,000 worldwide subscribers. These summaries distill thousands of pages about leadership, strategy, crisis management, organizational behavior, and more—perfect for busy executives and students.

As time challenges increased so too did the creative options offered by this organization. Soundview went online with the summary.com web site in 1995. In 2000, Soundview began offering audio-cassette and CD versions of its summaries as well as an electronic version of its book summaries.

Following its successful first collection, The Marketing Gurus, Soundview shifted its focus to The Managing Gurus. While I thoroughly enjoyed these summaries and readily admit that each is a reputable publication, I’m not certain I can agree that these are the “best management books of all time.” I’d feel more comfortable saying they are “among the best,” but I guess that wouldn’t suffice as a subtitle that reaches off the shelf and grabs potential readers by the throat. I make this observation based on the fact that there are a good number of management gurus, old and new, who are not mentioned here (Jack Welch, Jim Collins, Peter Drucker, and Warren Buffett to name a few). However, based on the success of this book, I’m certain there will be future additions to follow.

Senior Editor Chris Lauer and his collaborators have done a fine job of creating a reader-friendly standard format that offers options based on how much information you may require or desire:

1. They begin each review with a brief introduction to the author or authors …
2. followed by a short but thorough table of contents …
3. a short “Summary in Brief” is offered which includes …
4. “What You’ll Learn in this Summary” presented in a short, bullet-point format and …
5. more in-depth information is then offered in “The Complete Summary.”

The authors have done a fine job of providing key concepts in a way that can be clearly understood and easily adopted and adapted for practical use by any reader from any business environment.

The 15 books summarized in this edition include many highly respected authors and reflect a representative range of important topics. The books included are:

• Winning with People: Discover the People Principles that Work for You Every Time by John C. Maxwell
• Topgrading: How Leading Companies Win by Hiring, Coaching, and Keeping the Best People by Bradford D. Smart, Ph.D.
• Jack Welch and the 4 E’s of Leadership: How to Put GE’s Leadership Formula to Work in Your Organization by Jeffrey A. Krames
• The Leadership Challenge: The Most Trusted Source on Becoming a Better Leader by James Kouzes and Barry Posner
• Gods of Management: Managing the Battle of Organizational Cultures by Charles Handy
• Influencer: The Power to Change Anything by Patterson, Grenny, Maxfield, McMillan and Switzler
• True North: Discover Your Authentic Leadership by Bill George and Peter E. Sims
• What Got You Here Won’t Get You There: How Successful People Become Even More Successful by Goldsmith and Reiter
• Judgment: How Winning Leaders Make Great Calls by Noel Tichy and Warren Bennis
• Small Giants: Companies That Choose to be Great Instead of Big by Bo Burlingham
• Dealing with Darwin: How Great Companies Innovate at Every Phase of their Evolution by Geoffrey A. Moore
• Wikinomics: How Mass Collaboration Changes Everything by Tapscott and Williams
• Managing Crises Before They Happen: What Every Executive Needs to Know About Crisis Management by Mitroff and Anagnos
• The Leader of the Future: New Visions, Strategies, and Practices for the Next Era by Hesselbein, Goldsmith, and Beckhard
• The Next Global Stage: Challenges and Opportunities in Our Borderless World by Kenichi Ohmae

Focused, insightful and practical, this edition deserves a spot on your “must read” list in today’s challenging, competitive and chaotic environment.

(This book review was originally published in 2009 as one of the Top 10 Books – Edition 19.)

About Harry K. Jones

Harry K. Jones is a motivational speaker and consultant for AchieveMax®, Inc., a company of professional speakers who provide custom-designed seminars, keynote presentations, and consulting services. Harry's top requested topics include change management, customer service, creativity, employee retention, goal setting, leadership, stress management, teamwork, and time management. For more information on Harry's presentations, please call 800-886-2629 or fill out our contact form.

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The SPEED of Trust: The One Thing That Changes Everything
by Stephen M. R. Covey

I want to take a moment here to attempt to clarify a few things that tweaked my curiosity right off the bat when I first discovered this book.

This author is NOT the man who authored The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People. This is his son. I must admit that my first thought dealt with Jr.’s authenticity and, to be honest, whether this new author was simply cashing in on the family name.

Well, after a little research, I discovered that Stephen M.R. Covey may not be his father but was certainly his own man and has obviously established his own list of credits. He is the former CEO of Covey Leadership Center, which, under his stewardship, became the largest leadership development company in the world. A Harvard MBA, he joined Covey Leadership Center as a client developer and later became national sales manager and then President and CEO.

In that position, he nearly doubled revenues to more than $110 million while increasing profits by 12 times. The company rapidly expanded throughout the world into more than 40 countries. The company was valued at $2.4 million when he took over the helm and, within three years, he grew shareholder value to $160 million in a merger he orchestrated with then Franklin Quest to form Franklin Covey. Stephen Jr. is indisputably his own man.

I know this is trite to most, but I was also intrigued by the fact that the author has two middle initials as I don’t think I’ve ever known anyone who could make that claim. Again I did some research but couldn’t find a single reference to his middle name. Again, trite but curious.

Now to the book. You don’t see many books on the subject of trust in today’s bookstores, and I find that quite odd when you consider the subject lies at the forefront of most every news story emerging these days. Lack of trust appears very apparent as today’s political scene is riddled with scandal on every front. Add to that list the financial industry, the auto industry, religion, energy, news, and sports … it’s almost easier to name those segments of society which haven’t been impacted by events resulting in the lack of trust. And yet, no one seems to want to discuss the topic of trust.

Trust is vitally crucial in getting anything done in today’s environment. The continuing decline is a major issue not just in business, but socially, politically and in the family. Covey declares that trust is the very basis of the new global economy, and he shows how trust is the essential ingredient for any high–performance, successful organization.

The author does a very insightful job of investigating the components of trust, and exploring and explaining the dynamics of how trust can be built and destroyed in families, in teams, and in institutions.

Covey believes that we must navigate what he calls the “5 Waves of Trust” … derived from the “ripple effect” metaphor that graphically illustrates the interdependent nature of trust and how it flows from the inside out. The “5 Waves of Trust” includes:

• The First Wave: SELF TRUST (based on the principle of credibility)
• The Second Wave: RELATIONSHIP TRUST (based on the principle of proper behavior)
• The Third Wave: ORGANIZATIONAL TRUST (based on the principle of alignment)
• The Fourth Wave: MARKET TRUST (based on the principle of reputation)
• The Fifth Wave: SOCIETAL TRUST (based on the principle of contribution)

Covey also outlines 13 behaviors of trust-inspiring leaders which work together to create balance. As he describes each behavior he notes the principles upon which each is based. He also gives the opposite and the counterfeit for each behavior. At the end of his behavior description, Covey suggests a few “Trust Tips” and a few specific suggestions for ways to apply that particular behavior. The behaviors include:

1. Talk Straight
2. Demonstrate Respect
3. Create Transparency
4. Right Wrongs
5. Show Loyalty
6. Deliver Results
7. Get Better
8. Confront Reality
9. Clarify Expectations
10. Practice Accountability
11. Listen First
12. Keep Commitments
13. Extend Trust

Most of the book is taken up with examining those five waves and their underlying principles that establish trust.

You’ll enjoy the touching foreword by the author’s father, Stephen R. Covey, as well as Covey’s down-to-earth approach and disarming personal stories which go a long way to establish rapport with his reader. However, I did feel that the content could have been successfully conveyed in far less than the 354 pages utilized by the author.

Restoring trust within an organization may seem difficult; however, the fact that high-trust organizations outperform low-trust organizations by three times provides a strong incentive to make the effort, and I think this book couldn’t have been written at a more appropriate time. Let’s just hope the right people read it and then take the necessary actions to remedy their current dire straights.

(This book review was originally published in 2009 as one of the Top 10 Books – Edition 19.)

About Harry K. Jones

Harry K. Jones is a motivational speaker and consultant for AchieveMax®, Inc., a company of professional speakers who provide custom-designed seminars, keynote presentations, and consulting services. Harry's top requested topics include change management, customer service, creativity, employee retention, goal setting, leadership, stress management, teamwork, and time management. For more information on Harry's presentations, please call 800-886-2629 or fill out our contact form.

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What Made jack welch JACK WELCH: How Ordinary People Become Extraordinary Leaders
by Steven H. Baum with Dave Conti

Don’t pass on this one because you’re not familiar with Jack Welch or have no interest in him as a leader or businessman. The author has successfully utilized one of my five keys for choosing a book (Tips for Choosing a Great Book) … a catchy title.

You see, Jack Welch isn’t the focus of this book. The author was clever in his creation of his title. Note that the first use of the name jack welch is represented in lowercase letters while the second use of the same name is shown in UPPERCASE LETTERS. Add that nuance to the subtitle, How Ordinary People Become Extraordinary Leaders, and you’ll understand what the author is trying to convey.

The author focuses on the fact that many great leaders start life as a lower case person but go on to enjoy the great success of an uppercase person. These leaders are smart and talented, but there are countless people even smarter and more talented in the marketplace. However, for one reason or another, these people stall out on their journey to the top. This book explains the inner workings of this phenomenon and how we can all benefit from it.

While the title suggests a focus on the famous General Electric CEO, the book actually draws on the experiences of many other leaders, including General Tommy Franks, as well as Jim Broadhead, the executive who turned around Florida Power & Light; David Neeleman, founder of JetBlue; New York mayor Rudy Giuliani; Shelly Lazarus and Cathleen Black and former Nebraska senator Bob Kerry.

Using an old Welch quote … apparently, it’s not rocket science. Anyone can be a leader. Really. That’s not to say the average Joe could manage billions in assets or command a workforce the size of GE or Walmart, but if you’ve got the right mixture of traits, all it takes is the experience and desire to reach that point.

Stephen Baum, a leadership coach who works behind the scenes guiding CEOs and senior management through times of challenge and change, reveals that true success is not about education, pedigree or even native smarts. Many of today’s greatest leaders are much like jack welch who started life as a lowercase guy. He was the son of a simple railroad conductor who become one of the most celebrated and successful executive leaders of our time.

Leadership boils down to some very simple ideas: character, confidence, critical thinking and the ability to engage other people, Baum said. It’s all about know-how and learning what works and what doesn’t.

Baum shares not only the business secrets of many prominent CEOs but also their inner stories as well. He reveals the real people behind the public personas we hear and read about every day. He shares many life-shaping experiences they all have in common and explains how these experiences become part of the foundation for true success in career and in life. We learn of their fears, emotions and lessons learned during moments of challenge and doubt.

The stories in this book, successes and failures, are of real people dealing with real situations. It was surprising to discover many common threads among these leaders that might never have been considered:

• They come from quite ordinary backgrounds.
• They were not necessarily the smartest kids in class.
• They weren’t necessarily destined to enter the corporate sphere.
• Few came from wealthy families.
• Few went to Ivy League schools.
• Few earned MBAs.

However, they do share a pattern of life-shaping experiences that caused them to develop exceptional personal growth which led to strong character and the confidence to seek challenges, take on risk, act when necessary, and engage and inspire others.

Baum constantly refers to the “school of experience” and how critical it is to the success of anyone who hopes to reach that level of success we all respect. Baum uses the term “shaping experiences” and offers a brief definition of each of the ten along with explanatory quotes from the leaders he interviewed for this book.

1. Swim in the water over your head.
2. Make the tough choices.
3. Solve the key puzzle.
4. Parent at work.
5. Sell something/get others to buy in.
6. Connect with others.
7. Build a team.
8. Get good on your feet.
9. Develop your crap detector.
10. Look in the mirror.

These character-building moments engender an inner core of toughness and confidence that is the real key to leadership in any business or endeavor—they are what made jack welch … JACK WELCH.

Note: Baum even brings the book to life with CEO videos and articles on his website (www.stephenhbaumleadership.com) and blog.

(This book review was originally published in 2009 as one of the Top 10 Books – Edition 19.)

About Harry K. Jones

Harry K. Jones is a motivational speaker and consultant for AchieveMax®, Inc., a company of professional speakers who provide custom-designed seminars, keynote presentations, and consulting services. Harry's top requested topics include change management, customer service, creativity, employee retention, goal setting, leadership, stress management, teamwork, and time management. For more information on Harry's presentations, please call 800-886-2629 or fill out our contact form.

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Billion-Dollar Lessons: What You Can Learn from the Most Inexcusable Business Failures of the Last 25 Years
by Paul B. Carroll and Chunka Mui

I find it rather ironic that there are so many well-written best sellers on the shelves today (Built to Last, Good to Great, etc.) that expound on examples of successful organizations and how they reached that level of achievement. This is a good thing. However, the irony emerges in the fact that there are so few books sharing the very valuable lessons to be learned from those organizations that have failed.

MBA programs and benchmarking guidelines follow suit … study the “best of the best” and sweep the worst case scenarios under the rug.

Here’s another sliver of irony for you. This book emerges in 2008 … the year the world economy commenced its greatest meltdown since the Great Depression. There will certainly have to be a follow-up book to cover the disintegration of the investment banking industry, the day-by-day soap opera within the auto industry, and the disappearance of so many of our retail establishments. Of course, the title will have to be updated to Quadrillion Dollar Lessons.

Isn’t it sad but interesting that our grandchildren will not only have to know the following words but also use them in their day-to-day vocabulary? … Billion, trillion, quadrillion and quintillion.

This book unfolds in three lessons. In Lesson One, the authors share their in-depth research revealing that between 1981 and 2006, 423 major companies with combined assets totaling 1.5 trillion filed for bankruptcy! Hundreds more took huge write-offs, discontinued major operations, or were acquired under duress. Billion Dollar Lessons reveals seven major strategies that led to many of the largest business failures documented in the book.

These strategies are defined and examined in Lesson Two:

1. Synergy
2. Financial engineering
3. Rollups
4. Staying the course
5. Adjacencies
6. Riding technology
7. Consolidation

The authors make it very clear that these seven strategies aren’t doomed to failure. Each of these strategies can succeed splendidly. They simply point out that each of these strategies are danger zones and anyone pursuing them should be extremely alert as to what can go wrong as they are flirting with potential disaster.

Lesson Three focuses on providing proven methods that managers, boards, and even investors can adopt to avoid making the same mistakes. It draws on vivid, off-the-beaten-track examples to help you thoroughly assess potential disastrous strategies before they result in catastrophe.

There is much to be learned from the many interesting case studies you’ll find in this book. The authors do a very good job in revealing the root-causes for these business failures. From their thorough database of 2,500 corporate failures over the last 25 years, they identify many organizations you’ll immediately recognize (Adelphia, Enron, Montgomery Ward), many that will surprise you (Barnes & Noble, Kroger, Avon), and even more you’ve never heard of.

The “Tough Questions” and the “Red Flags” at the end of each chapter will certainly provide fodder for reflection. Business executives would benefit greatly from these valuable tools alone.

Carroll, a former writer for the Wall Street Journal, and Mui, a fellow at Diamond Management and Technology Consultants, have provided a great service to those who require a Significant Emotional Event to learn a lesson—those who have to “SEE it to believe it.” Better to learn from someone else’s experience rather your own.

While this book is the opposite of Good to Great, it may very well keep you from going from good to gone!

(This book review was originally published in 2009 as one of the Top 10 Books – Edition 19.)

About Harry K. Jones

Harry K. Jones is a motivational speaker and consultant for AchieveMax®, Inc., a company of professional speakers who provide custom-designed seminars, keynote presentations, and consulting services. Harry's top requested topics include change management, customer service, creativity, employee retention, goal setting, leadership, stress management, teamwork, and time management. For more information on Harry's presentations, please call 800-886-2629 or fill out our contact form.

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Toy Box Leadership: Leadership Lessons from the Toys You Loved as a Child
by Ron Hunter, Jr. and Michael E. Waddell

I first came across this book several months ago during a flight delay in the Atlanta airport. I was so impressed with the content that I wrote an article for our blog. It wasn’t a book review—it was more focused on the lesson it taught me as I almost passed up this most enjoyable book by making an inaccurate assumption based on the title.

While the article was NOT a book review, it did contain a great deal of background material which I feel you’d find enlightening about both the content and the authors. Click on Toys as Mentors to view that article.

If you could revisit your childhood, you would discover that you were exposed to many leadership principles while playing with your favorite toys. You may not have realized it at the time, but the co-authors of Toy Box Leadership will assist you in recapturing those principles in ten short but delightful chapters.

Each chapter is devoted to a particular childhood toy we all loved and enjoyed as we were growing up. The subtitle of each chapter then identifies the leadership trait that is so clearly represented by each toy. For instance:

• Lego Bricks: Relationships—Building Begins with Connecting
• Slinky Dog: Vision—Pull—Then Be Patient
• Play-Doh: Mentoring—The Mold Makes the Man
• Yo-Yo: Creativity—It Only Happens When You Let Go
• Mr. Potato Head: Mentoring—The Right Face for the Right Place
• Rubik’s Cube: Ethics—Making the Right Turn
• Rocking Horse: Efficiency—All Show and No Go
• Little Green Army Men: Strategy—Success Is in the Set-Up
• Lite-Brite: Message—Illuminate to Communicate
• Weebles: Endurance—Staying Down Is Not an Option

In support of these solid principles, this book also offers some very uplifting quotes from 55 of the greatest names in history. These notables include great leaders from the world of sports, politics (including Presidents), music, entertainment, military, literature, and religion.

Between the blog article and this review, I’ve probably given away too much content. You’ll want to read every page of this book. Let me close by saying this: Toy Box Leadership can be read and discussed productively by any senior leadership team in any industry. At the same time, there is much to be learned by sharing its content with your own children or grandchildren.

Read, learn, smile, enjoy, and share.

(This book review was originally published in 2009 as one of the Top 10 Books – Edition 19.)

About Harry K. Jones

Harry K. Jones is a motivational speaker and consultant for AchieveMax®, Inc., a company of professional speakers who provide custom-designed seminars, keynote presentations, and consulting services. Harry's top requested topics include change management, customer service, creativity, employee retention, goal setting, leadership, stress management, teamwork, and time management. For more information on Harry's presentations, please call 800-886-2629 or fill out our contact form.

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The One Minute Entrepreneur: The Secret to Creating and Sustaining a Successful Business
by Ken Blanchard, Don Hutson, and Ethan Willis

We just added a new feature to our blog spotlighting distinguished authors. The first author I chose to introduce was Ken Blanchard. Before the ink was dry on that article, Blanchard placed another title on national bookstore shelves which is sure to be another best-seller.

This time he joins Don Hutson and Ethan Willis to produce another quick-read business fable mixing practicality with entertainment. If you really need three creative minds to produce such a thin book, you can’t go wrong with these three.

Blanchard is an internationally best-selling author and motivational speaker whose books have sold more than 18 million copies in 30 languages. Hutson is the CEO of U.S. Learning, a training firm, an active speaker, and was on the founding board of the National Speakers Association and served as its third president. Willis is the CEO of Prosper Learning, Inc., a winner of Ernst & Young’s Entrepreneur of the Year award and an entrepreneurial coach, with more than 150,000 students in 76 countries.

Those who have read any number of the One Minute series seem to fall into one of two distinct groups. They devour, absorb and utilize every word from cover to cover, or they feel the content is basic, obvious and redundant. Both groups will feel the same about this new addition to the series.

Here the authors share the inspiring story of one man’s challenges in creating his own business. The hero of this tale has a dream and learns early on that the best source of information about success is given to us through quality relationships, which is so true in our daily reality. Jud and his wife Terri start their dream business and feel that all their dreams have come true. Then everything begins to fall apart, and they must rely on what they hope is good advice from a number of helpful mentors. The learning, of course, lies in this on-the-mark advice and our charming couple finally achieves success beyond their wildest dreams.

You’ll appreciate the invaluable advice delivered through One Minute Insights at the end of each chapter from such proven mentors as Sheldon Bowles, Peter Drucker, Michael Gerber, and Charlie “Tremendous” Jones. One observation that stuck with me was: “You are the average of the five people you most associate with.” Look around and then pause to ponder that thought.

While the message is not a new one, it’s certainly one worth hearing again in a business-fable format that makes these winning principles come to life. Based on the fact that each year thousands of small businesses start up for the first time and most of them end in failure, I think it’s safe to assume that many didn’t listen the first time or simply were never exposed to these principles. For those, this book will be invaluable.

If you are looking for a quick and powerful set of standards for your career and your business, you’ll find it here, written in such a way that both adults and teens will benefit greatly.

(This book review was originally published in 2008 as one of the Top 10 Books – Edition 18.)

About Harry K. Jones

Harry K. Jones is a motivational speaker and consultant for AchieveMax®, Inc., a company of professional speakers who provide custom-designed seminars, keynote presentations, and consulting services. Harry's top requested topics include change management, customer service, creativity, employee retention, goal setting, leadership, stress management, teamwork, and time management. For more information on Harry's presentations, please call 800-886-2629 or fill out our contact form.

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Leadership Gold: Lessons I’ve Learned from a Lifetime of Leading
by John C. Maxwell

If you’ve been following our book reviews over the years, you probably know how I feel about this particular author. Of his 42 best sellers, this is the sixth book that I’ve reviewed here. To me, reading one of his books provides me with the content of four books by any other author. It takes me two full liquid hi-liters to finish each of his books as he packs each with great applicable material from cover to cover.

This internationally recognized leadership expert, speaker, and author has sold over 13-million books, and his organizations have trained more than two million leaders worldwide. He was named the World’s Top Leadership Guru by Leadershipgurus.net. I don’t share these facts to praise Maxwell … he doesn’t need my support. I do so in hopes you’ll realize how valuable his books can be to your leadership growth potential!

Let me explain why you may want to approach this book with an additional hi-liter:

1. As usual, you can expect to find a tremendous number of relevant quotes by some of the greatest minds in history dispersed throughout this book.
2. At the end of each of the 26 chapters, you’ll find what John calls a Mentoring Moment. Each is a short, thought-provoking gem which transforms that particular chapter into a one-on-one mentoring session with the author.
3. There’s still another bonus at the conclusion of each chapter in the form of application exercises which underscore the importance of closing the knowing-doing gap by applying what you learn rather than just reading it.
4. You’ll also discover a link that will transport you to a video clip of John teaching more of his leadership philosophy along with access to additional helpful tools and information.

This book is filled with stories of Maxwell’s leadership failures and successes and the nuggets of wisdom he gained as a result of both. The author has compiled the hardest-won leadership lessons of his life into a book that can be used to mentor future leaders … something that’s seldom done in today’s chaotic world. He’s sifted through a lot of dirt in order to deliver the gold!

More often than not, I learn more browsing the contents page of a Maxwell book than I do from reading the entire text of so many other authors. Let me show you what I mean. Consider these random chapter titles:

• The Toughest Person to Lead Is Always Yourself
• Never Work a Day in Your Life
• The Best Leaders Are Listeners
• A Leader’s First Responsibility Is to Define Reality
• To See How a Leader Is Doing, Look at the People
• Don’t Send Your Ducks to Eagle School
• Your Biggest Mistake Is Not Asking What Mistake You’re Making
• Keep Learning to Keep Leading
• People Quit People, Not Companies
• The Secret to a Good Meeting Is the Meeting before the Meeting
• The Choices You Make, Make You
• You Only Get Answers to the Questions You Ask
• People Will Summarize Your Life in One Sentence—Pick It Now

Now tell me you haven’t been enticed to learn what may lie within each of those chapters. And if you don’t think the author is on target with his content, pause a moment to visualize a CEO, president, vice president, manager, supervisor, or even a team leader you’ve worked with over the years. Don’t you agree that this person would have benefited from a little more focus in some of the above areas? So will you! Do it now and prosper. Don’t wait and wonder what might have been.

(This book review was originally published in 2008 as one of the Top 10 Books – Edition 18.)

About Harry K. Jones

Harry K. Jones is a motivational speaker and consultant for AchieveMax®, Inc., a company of professional speakers who provide custom-designed seminars, keynote presentations, and consulting services. Harry's top requested topics include change management, customer service, creativity, employee retention, goal setting, leadership, stress management, teamwork, and time management. For more information on Harry's presentations, please call 800-886-2629 or fill out our contact form.

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The Education of an Accidental CEO: Lessons Learned from the Trailer Park to the Corner Office
by David Novak and John Boswell

I’ve often mentioned that I admire any author and/or publisher who can create a cover or title that can grab a potential reader in the fraction of a second those browsing eyes scan the shelves. In this case, the cover has it all.

First of all, the title and subtitle tweaked my curiosity … “Accidental CEO?” That’s got to make you wonder. “Trailer Park to Corner Office?” Sounds like rags to riches and those stories are always inspiring. The big guy on the cover in the open-collared blue shirt grinning like he’s heading into the weekend with a blank check looks friendly enough but certainly nothing like your typical CEO. Liner notes by the richest man in the world, Warren Buffet, obviously adds credibility. The finishing touch for me came when I recognized the author’s name. David Novak is chairman and CEO of Yum! Brands, Inc., home to KFC, Pizza Hut, Taco Bell, Long John Silver’s, and A&W All American Food. This was interesting to me because YUM! Brands was the first company we chose to kick off our blog feature “Who’s Yer Daddy?” Check it out to learn more about this very unusual organization and the man behind it. True to the title, this book focuses not on the five familiar fast-food brand names we see regularly from coast to coast. It spotlights, instead, David Novak—one of the most engaging, unconventional, and successful business leaders in today’s chaotic global marketplace.

As indicated by the subtitle, Novak actually did live in 32 trailer parks in 23 states by the time he reached the seventh grade. He went on to sell encyclopedias door to door, worked as a hotel night clerk, and took a job as a $7,200-a-year advertising copywriter with the hopes of maybe one day becoming a creative director. Instead, he became head of the world’s largest restaurant company at the ripe old age of 47.

As a result of that track record, Novak truly believes that people from ordinary and modest beginnings can accomplish great success in the business world. He learned how to be successful in a fiercely competitive world through his life lessons, and in this book, he shares a great deal of the street-smart wisdom he accumulated on that journey.

Several of his personal beliefs really jumped out at me as being very unpretentious but indeed lucrative and time-tested:

• “You never know what you’re capable of.” (I’ve experienced this myself.)
• “The best leaders are the best learners.” (Study bios for this common thread.)
• “Each and every day provides the opportunity to learn and get better at what you do.” (Of course, we must seize that opportunity.)

Oddly enough, this very successful CEO never attended business school. His journey, however, brings the skill of learning to life. He takes immense pride in the fact that he gained so much wisdom from the “school of hard knocks” and feels that experience is a magnificent teacher.

He also credits some of his most impressive lessons to other very smart people:

• Laker Magic Johnson taught him the secret of teamwork.
• Warren Buffet shared what he looks for in the companies he buys.
• John Wodden shared his knowledge of ego.
• Jack Welch focused on one thing he would do over.

Not a bad teaching staff if I say so myself. However, to avoid jealously disguised as excuses, understand that you too have access to that same cadre or the equivalent. Read, ask, listen, research. It’s all available to anyone with a little initiative and discipline.

David Novak has always been a firm believer in the possibility of building an entire culture around reward and recognition—getting everyone from division presidents to dishwashers to buy into recognizing the achievements of others. His creative strategies for doing so have been studied by many other companies and discussed in this book in great detail.

Here’s a short example of what to expect within these 303 pages. Novak believes that “all the answers are in the building.” He says, “Every company is filled with experts. If you want to learn the company’s history, have a meeting with a 25-year veteran. If you want to know what customers are thinking, talk to the people who answer the 800-number calls. If you want to know why the trucks aren’t getting out on time, a route salesman who’s been at the job for a while is likely to know the answer.” Kind of an “Acres of Diamonds” concept, isn’t it? It certainly is sad that more leaders don’t capitalize on this basic concept.

Novak’s co-author, John Boswell, is a literary agent, a book packager, and the author or coauthor of 17 books, including the #1 New York Times bestseller What They Don’t Teach You at Harvard Business School. He lives in New York City. These two literary specialists join forces to share with you what David has discovered about getting ahead and getting noticed; motivating people and turning businesses around; building winning teams and running a global company of nearly one million people; and always staying true to yourself.

By the way, all of the proceeds from this book will be donated to the United Nations World Food Program in conjunction with Yum!’s global hunger relief efforts. David also serves as a director of the Friends of the World Food Program.

(This book review was originally published in 2008 as one of the Top 10 Books – Edition 18.)

About Harry K. Jones

Harry K. Jones is a motivational speaker and consultant for AchieveMax®, Inc., a company of professional speakers who provide custom-designed seminars, keynote presentations, and consulting services. Harry's top requested topics include change management, customer service, creativity, employee retention, goal setting, leadership, stress management, teamwork, and time management. For more information on Harry's presentations, please call 800-886-2629 or fill out our contact form.

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Jacked Up: The Inside Story of How Jack Welch Talked GE into Becoming the World’s Greatest Company
by Bill Lane

I must admit that I almost passed on this one. In a personal library I’m very proud of, you’ll find every book that’s ever been written by and/or about Jack Welch. My first thought upon seeing this new title was “What else is there to learn about this man and his legendary career?” My second thought led me to pick it up for a quick visual inspection, and my third thought cost me money and increased the size of my library.

I was also quite surprised at how much new information I gleaned from this unusual collection of anecdotes, conversation and explicit details of GE’s culture and the man who changed it so drastically.

I believe this book was somewhat unique in its offering since this is the first book by a GE insider. It was written by Bill Lane who was Welch’s speech-writer for 20 years. He joined GE in that position in 1980, after seven years at the Pentagon. From 1982 to 2001, he was also the Manager of Executive Communications for Welch at GE. Lane’s first-hand, fly-on-the-wall, insider tone and great style provides reader’s with a front row seat to Welch’s 20-year campaign to transform GE.

In addition to learning some interesting new tidbits about Jack Welch, probably the most renowned CEO of the 80s and 90s, and GE, one of the finest corporations in the world, I was also reminded of the many controversial concerns which have surrounded both the CEO and the corporate culture over the years.

According to the author:

• Welch demanded that GE become a “learning company” which it did very successfully.
• Welch’s legacy has been tarnished some by his severance package disclosures and a messy affair that led to divorce #2 and wife #3.
• GE quickly removes those not performing and provides tutorials on desired behaviors at corporate seminars.
• During the height of the GE years, it was a hard-working, hard-driving, hard-living, hard-drinking and hard-golfing crew. Forget about any rubbish regarding “work-life balance.” All is sacrificed to the gods of GE stock price.
• Welch developed many successful techniques for quickly changing an organization’s culture.
• There was an expectation of giving 110% (no going home regularly at 5 p.m.—sorry, soccer moms.)
• GE raised the bar substantially on business presentations at every level.
• This was not a happy place to work if you were not a white male.

The author speaks bluntly about the challenges to minorities and women in this “corporate culture” during the 80s and 90s although this was obviously politically incorrect. I must admit that I was surprised he actually documented this fact although it was evident at the time all over corporate America.

As you can plainly see, the author reveals the good, the bad, and the ugly when it comes to culture and leadership. The on-going love-hate relationship we share with General Electric and Jack Welch actually provides us with a tremendous learning opportunity. However, many people dislike this corporate giant and unique leader so much that they simply refuse to acknowledge them as a source of learning.

The book is organized into 84 short, interesting chapters which include italicized advice tips that summarize communications strategies.

I believe you’ll enjoy reading about the inner workings of G.E., and you’ll understand exactly how every leader can master the art of communication, to teach and inspire, shock and provoke, all at the same time.

You’ll witness laugh-out-loud-funny cameo appearances from boldface names like Southwest Airlines Herb Kelleher, Don Imus, Jack’s ex-wife Jane Welch, Conan O’Brian, and “Triumph, the Insult Comic Dog.”

Whether you envy or pity those at GE, agree or disagree with Welch and his iconization as The Ultimate CEO, you’ll find this book both educational and entertaining.

(This book review was originally published in 2008 as one of the Top 10 Books – Edition 18.)

About Harry K. Jones

Harry K. Jones is a motivational speaker and consultant for AchieveMax®, Inc., a company of professional speakers who provide custom-designed seminars, keynote presentations, and consulting services. Harry's top requested topics include change management, customer service, creativity, employee retention, goal setting, leadership, stress management, teamwork, and time management. For more information on Harry's presentations, please call 800-886-2629 or fill out our contact form.

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