The Google Story

The Google StoryThe Google Story: Inside the Hottest Business, Media, and Technology Success of Our Time
by David A. Vise and Mark Malseed

I’ve written more than 120 book reviews thus far and have never suggested that any book was targeted for any particular audience. However, we all know that there’s a first time for everything, and I guess this is one of those times. There’s no doubt in my mind that this particular book will only appeal to you if you are a geek … or a business person … or an entrepreneur … or an investor … or a dreamer … or a techie … or a young person … or a proud parent … or a visionary … or a grad student … or a person who enjoys a great success story. I’ll stop there, although the list goes on and on. I’m sure you get the picture. This is a must read!

However, it might be wise to understand a little bit about the authors. David Vise is a Pulitzer Prize-winning reporter for the Washington Post and author of three books, and Mark Malseed has contributed to the Washington Post and the Boston Herald as well as doing a great deal of research on Bob Woodward’s recent books. Although both authors are reputable writers, you might get the feel that they are great fans of the founders as they tend to focus on all of the wonderful, positive aspects of Google’s rise to being the titan of search. Don’t expect a negative word about the founders or the company, which might lead some to think the book lacks objectivity. However, other authors, magazines, and books can and will provide you that viewpoint should you yearn for that side of the story. Meanwhile, sit back and relax as you read this captivating tale reminiscent of the popular tale of “Revenge of the Nerds.”

Here is the story behind one of the most remarkable Internet successes of our time. This book takes you inside the creation and growth of a company whose name is a favorite brand and a standard verb recognized around the world. Join these two very young billionaires as they travel from their first dorm office to an upgrade garage office to their futuristic campus headquarters where they continue their quest to “change the world.”

I don’t have the time or space to share what you’ll find captivating about this book, this company, nor the two young men you’ll meet within these pages. Let me, instead, share a few random facts. If you find them of interest, read the book. There’s much more where this came from. If these few facts don’t grab your interest … be very concerned.

  • Google is a play on the word googol and refers to the number represented by the numeral 1 followed by 100 zeros. Google’s use of the term reflects the company’s mission to organize the immense, seemingly infinite amount of information available on the web.
  • Co-founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin weren’t terribly fond of each other when they first met as Stanford University graduate students in computer science in 1995. Larry was a 24-year-old University of Michigan alumnus on a weekend visit; Sergey, 23, was among a group of students assigned to show him around. They argued about every topic they discussed. Three years later, Moscow-born Sergey and Midwest-born Larry dropped out of graduate school at Stanford to, in their own words, “change the world” through a search engine that would organize every bit of information on the web for free. They have accomplished that feat in more than 100 languages.
  • Its stock is worth more than General Motors’ and Ford’s combined.
  • Its staff eats for free in a dining room run by the Grateful Dead’s former chef.
  • Its employees traverse the firm’s colorful Silicon Valley campus on scooters and inline skates.
  • At more than 200 million requests a day, it is, by far, the world’s biggest search engine.
  • More than half of those requests come from outside the United States. From 6 a.m. until noon PST, peak traffic hours for Google, more than 2,000 search queries are answered a second.
  • Google’s index of web pages is the largest in the world, comprising over 3 billion web pages. If printed, this would result in a stack of paper more than 240 kilometers high. Google searches this immense collection of web pages often in less than half a second.
  • Users can restrict their searches for content in 88 non-English languages. In fact, Google is working on a Klingon interface just in case.
  • Google has a world-class staff of more than 1,000 employees known as Googlers. The company headquarters is called the Googleplex Campus located in Mountain View, California.
  • Google Groups comprises more than 800 million Usenet messages, which is the world’s largest collection of messages or the equivalent of more than a terabyte of human conversation.

(This book review was originally published in 2005 as one of the Top 10 Books – Edition 13.)

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.

The Rules of Business

The Rules of BusinessThe Rules of Business: 55 Essential Ideas to Help Smart People (and Organizations) Perform at Their Best
by FAST COMPANY’s Editors and Writers

I came across this book on a recent browsing excursion through my local bookstore. I must admit my motive evolved from my admiration and constant reference to the monthly magazine FAST COMPANY. I’ve been an avid fan of this publication for ten years now as it has provided me with a great deal of research data in my roles as a speaker and consultant. Knowing the quality of the magazine content, I was anxious to see what the book had to offer. I certainly wasn’t disappointed.

I found 22 chapters covering such essential areas as change, creativity and innovation, communication, customer service, technology, employee retention, leadership and teamwork to name just a few. Each category is introduced by a two-page commentary and weaves two to four essential rules throughout every chapter. At the end of each chapter, you’ll find a boxed, bulleted “Fast Take” section providing specific take-aways you can use in your daily routine.

The true value of each chapter, however, appears in the form of the tremendous insights, quotes, and valuable advice gathered from more than 200 of the greatest business minds in the world. Many are currently active in their specialized fields, some are currently retired, and some left us long ago although their influence will live on forever.

It’s a mere 246 pages in length, but each page is filled with a wealth of “timeless truths” from the very best minds in business. Consider just a few of the 200 business leaders, politicians, practitioners, and thinkers who have contributed to this essential desk reference: Warren Buffett, Bill Gates, Tom Peters, Jack Welch, Jeff Bezos, Zig Ziglar, Anita Roddick, Peter Drucker, Malcolm Forbes, Sam Walton, Lee Iacocca, Henry Ford, Walt Disney, Thomas Edison, Dale Carnegie, Jim Collins, Kenneth Blanchard, and Warren Bennis. The editors and writers of FAST COMPANY have done a superb job of compiling this valuable group of essential rules that will certainly be an asset to any manager, professional, or executive-to-be.

(This book review was originally published in 2005 as one of the Top 10 Books – Edition 13.)

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.

The Luck Factor

The Luck FactorThe Luck Factor: The Four Essential Principles
by Richard Wiseman

Have you ever wondered why some people seem to be lucky at every turn and others simply can’t seem to get a break? Is luck just fate, a psychic gift or a question of intelligence? Are people born lucky? Can you change your luck? And what is it that lucky people have that unlucky people lack?

Most of us have asked at least one of these questions at some point in our lives. In this book, psychologist Dr. Richard Wiseman, a British psychologist with his own research unit at the University of Hertforshire, U.K., sheds a great deal of light on this very interesting subject.

Dr. Wiseman conducted a groundbreaking new scientific eight-year study of the phenomenon of luck and the various ways we can bring good luck into our lives. He shares his findings from intensive interviews and experiments with more than 400 volunteers, his long-term study of both lucky and unlucky people as well as the work of others. He is more than likely the first to place luck under a scientific microscope, examining the different ways in which lucky and unlucky people think and behave. As a result of his intensive focus on this unique subject, Wiseman arrived at an astonishing conclusion: Luck is something that can be learned. It is available to anyone willing to pay attention to four essential principles:

  1. Creating chance opportunities
  2. Thinking lucky
  3. Feeling lucky
  4. Denying fate

Dr. Wiseman examines each of the four principles as well as 12 sub principles that promises to offer “a scientifically proven way to understand, control, and increase your luck.” This easy read is filled with real-life stories from hundreds of interviews; inspirational quotes from the likes of Benjamin Franklin and Oprah Winfrey; graphed research data and anecdotes from the lives of the famous such as Harry Truman and Warren Buffett. The Luck Factor also richly portrays the lives of ordinary people who have been extraordinarily lucky or unlucky.

Readers can determine their capacity for luck as well as learn to change their luck through helpful exercises that appear throughout the book. Finally, Dr. Wiseman gives us a look into “The Luck School” where he instructs unlucky people and also teaches lucky people how to further enhance their luck. Questionnaires and exercises offer guidance on how to acquire or enhance luckiness while keeping a “luck journal” and incorporating techniques to increase intuition, stop negative self-fulfilling prophecies and learn how to effectively network. In addition to the usual tests and exercises common to self-help books, he includes visual games to make his points.

The Luck Factor will give you revolutionary insight into the lucky mind and could, quite simply, change your life.

(This book review was originally published in 2005 as one of the Top 10 Books – Edition 13.)

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.

The 8th Habit

The 8th HabitThe 8th Habit: From Effectiveness to Greatness
by Stephen R. Covey

It was just a matter of time … If you read The Seven Habits of Highly-Effective People, as well over 15 million readers worldwide have done, you had to know that Stephen Covey would someday, inevitably, give us The 8th Habit. In fact, most of us expected it long before this.

Prior to examining his latest contribution, let’s take a look at what’s occurred since Covey introduced his original work which inspired readers worldwide.

  • The 7 Habits has sold 15 million copies and continues to sell 50,000 to 100,000 a month.
  • At 1.5 million copies, The 7 Habits is the best-selling non-fiction audio book in history!
  • The 7 Habits was published in 38 languages and 75 countries.
  • The 7 Habits ranked as a No. 1 best seller by The New York Times and Business Week.
  • It was named as one of the two most influential business books of the last century by Executive magazine.
  • A survey by Chief Executive magazine chose The 7 Habits as the most influential book of the 20th Century.
  • Time Magazine previously named Covey one of the 25 most influential Americans.
  • Following his initial success, he followed The 7 Habits with:
    • The 7 Habits of Highly Effective Families
    • Living the 7 Habits
    • The Nature of Leadership
    • First Things First
    • Principle-Centered Leadership
  • The 8th Habit is 50 pages longer than the original seven habits combined.
  • The 8th Habit hit bookstores almost 15 years to the day after the original was released.
  • Covey received the Entrepreneur of the Year’s Lifetime Achievement award.
  • Covey’s organizational legacy to the world is Covey Leadership Center—a worldwide, 700-member leadership development firm.
  • In 1997, a merger with Franklin Quest created the new Franklin Covey Company with more than 3,000 employees and $500 million in annual revenue and noted throughout the world for the Franklin Planner. Dr. Covey is currently Vice-Chairman of Franklin Covey, the world’s largest management and leadership development organization.
  • His advice has been sought by people as distinguished as the President of the United States and CEOs of major FORTUNE 500 companies.

Stephen Covey is one of the few management authorities to have stood the test of time. That fact alone makes him worth listening to, which leads us to The 8th Habit: From Effectiveness to Greatness. Covey says that the 8th habit is finding one’s “voice” … the quality that makes each person unique. He believes that possession of this quality is the road to success. Covey says that after we find our voice, we can then inspire others to find theirs. Additional support for this thinking comes from Mahatma Gandhi who said: “The difference between what we are doing and what we are capable of doing would solve most of the world’s problems.”

The world has profoundly changed since The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People was published in 1989. The challenges and complexity we face in our personal lives and relationships, in our families, in our professional lives, and in our organizations are of a different order of magnitude. In fact, many mark 1989, the year we witnessed the fall of the Berlin Wall, as the beginning of the Information Age, the birth of a new reality, truly a new era.

The majority of the book details with how, after finding your own voice, you can inspire others and create a workplace where people feel engaged. This includes establishing trust, searching for third alternatives and developing a shared vision.

When you study the lives of all great achievers, you will find a pattern. This pattern consists of four capacities: vision, discipline, passion and conscience. These capacities embody many, many other characteristics used to describe those traits we associate with people whose influence is great, whether known to many or few. Covey defines, models and shares examples of each of these timeless principles. The 8th Habit, then, is not about adding one more habit to the seven—one that somehow got forgotten. It’s about seeing and harnessing the power of a third dimension to the 7 Habits that meets the central challenges of the New Knowledge Worker Age.

This certain-to-be-classic book includes a Bonus DVD of 16 inspirational companion films—each of which will provide additional inspiration and insight for readers.

Covey’s new book will transform the way we think about ourselves and our purpose in life, about our organizations, and about humankind. Just as The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People helped us focus on effectiveness, The 8th Habit shows us the way to greatness.

(This book review was originally published in 2005 as one of the Top 10 Books – Edition 13.)

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.

What the Best CEOs Know

What the Best CEOs KnowWhat the Best CEOs Know: 7 Exceptional Leaders and Their Lessons for Transforming Any Business
by Jeffrey A. Krames

Here’s a great concept for teaching anyone—students, potential CEOs in their first year of a business track, or anyone further along in their business careers—the value of bench-marking the careers of some of this generation’s top leaders!

The author selected seven outstanding corporate leaders:

  • Sam Walton of Walmart
  • Herb Kelleher of Southwest Airlines
  • Bill Gates of Microsoft
  • Jack Welch of GE
  • Lou Gerstner of IBM
  • Michael Dell of Dell Computer
  • Andy Grove of Intel

Author Jeffrey Krames then isolates and examines the specific skills and styles that contributed to each CEOs well-documented achievements. In short, he explains what made them great. Listing the CEOs and their respective defining strategies is easy to do. He then devotes a full chapter to each CEO and offers his rigorous analysis of each leader and the defining strategy within the context of their respective organizations. This is indeed added value for the reader. The reader learns not only the WHAT but also the HOW and WHY.

In addition to interviews and his own expert analyses, the author also includes contributions from leading business theorists, including Peter Drucker and Philip Kotler, to provide different perspectives on each given business issue.

Here’s another interesting feature. Interactive case studies and exercises are added to actively engage the reader’s mind. For example, a brief scenario “puts the reader in the seat of each CEO.” A series of business situations are also offered which enable his readers “to test their business acumen against that of each of the seven subject CEOs.” Assessing Your CEO Quotient self-tests will help the reader apply these traits and strategies to his/her own career.

Here are the respective defining strategies of each CEO:

  • Michael Dell created a computer juggernaut by placing customers at the epicenter of his business model.
  • Jack Welch created an authentic learning organization aligning rewards with results to make GE an organization that harnesses the ideas and intellect of every employee.
  • Lou Gerstner taught IBM to focus on solutions by starting with a customer’s business problem, working back to the right combination of technologies and expertise.
  • Andy Grove fostered an awareness in his troops to sense threats and turn them into Intel’s competitive advantage.
  • Bill Gates trusted the instincts of his employees, successfully transforming Microsoft into a leading Web driver and innovator.
  • Herb Kelleher created an exceptional performance-driven culture which continues to grow as it maintains a small-company attitude.
  • Sam Walton continually learned from his competitors while remaining faithful to his vision.

All seven of these exceptional leaders have much in common: an evangelical leadership gene; an understanding of the critical role of culture; a passion to create next-generation products, processes, or solutions; a determination to implement the best ideas, regardless of their origin; and a commitment to increase and thereby advance the leadership body of knowledge.

This is a book you’ll definitely want to add to your corporate library.

(This book review was originally published in 2003 as one of the Top 10 Books – Edition 12.)

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.

How Would You Move Mount Fuji?

How Would You Move Mount Fuji?How Would You Move Mount Fuji?: Microsoft’s Cult of the Puzzle – How the World’s Smartest Companies Select the Most Creative Thinkers
by William Poundstone

For a number of reasons, today’s hiring managers from Wall Street to the Silicon Valley are totally restructuring their approach to interviewing job prospects. Few will admit it has anything to do with the fact that our litigious society makes it very difficult to ask almost any personal question of today’s job applicant. The majority of those interviewing today don’t even bother checking references because they know anyone they call will provide little or no information on the employee in question for fear of legal retribution. Again, few will admit these facts for obvious reasons. However, for these and other motives including a hypercompetitive global marketplace, a hot new trend in hiring is emerging. “Puzzle interviews” using tough and tricky questions to gauge job candidates’ intelligence, imagination, and problem-solving ability, are becoming the norm in many companies.

This book is a study of corporate hiring, an assessment of IQ testing’s value, a history of interviewing and a puzzle book. The author, William Poundstone, is a science writer who explains the thinking behind this kind of interviewing. In a straightforward manner, the author describes the roots of logic questions in interviews, drawing on the history of IQ testing in hiring interviews, psychological studies and interviews with Microsoft ex-interviewers and interviewees. He certainly makes a strong case for eliminating standard questions like “What are your strengths and weaknesses?” and replacing them with logic puzzles.

For years, Microsoft’s interview process has included a notoriously grueling sequence of brain-busting questions that separate the most creative thinkers from the merely brilliant. Anyone who’s interviewed for a job at Microsoft is intimately familiar with questions like the one in this book’s title (How would you move Mount Fuji?). They’ve probably also pondered such problems as:

  • Why are manhole covers round?
  • How do they make M&Ms?
  • What does all the ice in a hockey rink weigh?
  • How many piano tuners are there in the world?

Questions like these, which test problem-solving abilities, not specific competencies, are commonplace during job interviews at Microsoft and the many other firms who have adapted this unique approach.

Basically, this book is separated into two parts: The first discusses the history of puzzles and their intellectual and academic standing. This section starts off by narrating the origin of puzzle-solving as a criterion for selecting people; then, it talks about how and why many companies use them in interviews. Poundstone talks about the general approaches to solving puzzles, and then closes on a note for employers on how to design puzzles that are useful.

The second part of the book is strict puzzle solving. The book has plenty of puzzles scattered through it and two chapters devoted solely to listing puzzles. The author goes on to discuss the puzzles he has listed and suggests thought processes about how to solve them. This exposition is more interesting than it sounds. Poundstone not only explains his answers thoroughly, but also uncovers many layers of thinking that show the complexity and beauty of the art of solving puzzles.

Almost half of the book is devoted to an “answer” section, where Poundstone gives possible solutions to the brainteasers. Although it lacks a specific focus, this is a fun, revealing take on an unusual subject.

This book will give interviewers insights into what kind of questions to ask, and why. You should probably read this book if you fall into one of the categories below:

  • Prospective interviewees for High Tech, consulting or financial services companies. It won’t give you all the answers to memorize, but it will let you in on the puzzle genre and some of its “rules.”
  • Interviewers/HR – If you are looking to employ puzzle-type questions to hire creative employees, this will give you some insights into what questions to use and why. There are probably better books on the intricacies of interviewing, but this will give you the background needed to use puzzles in the interview process (if you decide that’s what you need.)
  • People interested in problem solving, puzzles and creativity. This covers a lot of ground in these areas and it gives you a few references for further reading.

(This book review was originally published in 2003 as one of the Top 10 Books – Edition 12.)

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.

Hug Your Customers

Hug Your CustomersHug Your Customers: The Proven Way to Personalize Sales and Achieve Astounding Results
by Jack Mitchell

Don’t panic. The author isn’t suggesting that you take his title literally. Hugging your customers, he says, has nothing to do with being touchy-feely around them and everything to do with offering them over-the-top service. His advice is hardly groundbreaking. For instance, what rookie employee has not heard the old adages such as “know your customer, think outside the box, have a ‘no problem’ attitude”? While we’ve all heard this obvious, age-old advice repeatedly, how many of us can honestly say we’ve seen it practiced with any level of success where we shop, eat, travel, etc.? That’s the point of this book. Everyone knows what should be done to create repeat customers … very few people do it!

Chances are pretty good that you’ve never heard of this author or his business establishment. Jack Mitchell is co-owner and CEO of Mitchells/Richards, two independent clothing stores in southern Connecticut and New York’s Westchester County (two of Manhattan’s most affluent suburbs). This upper-end clothing retailer dresses many Fortune 500 executives from Chase, GE, IBM, Merrill Lynch and Pepsi to name a few. Today, Mitchells/Richards sells $65 million in apparel annually. However, the store began as a modest family business, started by Jack’s dad in 1958. Don’t make the mistake of tuning out at this point because you don’t work in the clothing business. What Jack learned from his father decades ago can be applied to any and all customer-centric businesses that appreciate the importance of knowing that having satisfied customers no longer insures success—you must have extremely satisfied customers who want to return time and time again and encourage others to do the same!

Mitchell credits his family store’s success to making the store a home, where customers feel welcome. Mitchell says his parents: “… understood that customers wanted five things more than they wanted a great location or enormous inventory:

  • A friendly greeting
  • Personal interest
  • A business that makes them feel special
  • A ‘no problem’ attitude
  • Forward thinking”

For Mitchell, that means literally offering a customer the coat off your back, if that’s the only one left in the store in the customer’s size and preferred style and color. It means going to customers’ homes to tie their bow ties for big events. It means serving coffee and bagels in the store and giving away hot dogs in the parking lot on summer Saturdays. Some might view this as fawning, but for Mitchell, it’s the best way to keep customers coming back. You, of course, will have to determine what it takes to “HUG” a customer within your environment. This would make an excellent exercise for your staff. Once the crucial determination is crystallized, discuss expectations, training, and follow up to insure success.

Mitchell writes: “When you have strong relationships, customers will do more of their buying from you. They’ll refer other customers. They’ll communicate with you better and tell you what they like and what they don’t like, in turn making your business more efficient and effective.”

The author points out that hugging is difficult to quantify, and many companies ignore customer satisfaction and customer profiling altogether. While inventory is recorded on the balance sheet, Mitchell tells us that a company’s greatest asset—repeat customers—doesn’t appear on any financial statements.

Further, while companies invest significant amounts in computer systems, they rarely develop computer systems that support a hugging culture.

Mitchell writes: “What’s amazing is that although personal relationships are absolutely crucial to any company’s success, they are rarely tracked by any system. Hotels don’t know who likes queen-sized beds and who wants extra pillows. Airlines don’t know who prefers aisle seats and who prefers the window.” Can something similar be said about you, your business and your customers? If so, take action to correct this situation.

Mitchell is a big fan of profiling customers to provide more personal service. He likes his sales associates to know which customers like M&M’s and what nicknames they prefer.

Knowing personal information about each customer is nearly impossible without a database to support this information. However, it doesn’t stop there. I know of many companies who boast a tremendous database and yet do nothing with it. Like any other customer service strategy, knowing it is not enough. You have to use it. In today’s unbelievably competitive marketplace, there are few who “use it.” So-o-o-o-o, define your “HUG,” make it an expectation, train your staff to “HUG,” practice it, and then, most importantly, “HUG!”

(This book review was originally published in 2003 as one of the Top 10 Books – Edition 12.)

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.

What Really Works

What Really WorksWhat Really Works: The 4+2 Formula for Sustained Business Success
by William F. Joyce and Nitin Nohria

If you watch television, read the newspaper and/or magazines, frequent the Internet, or simply move in any kind of a business circle, you must have, at one time or another, pondered the following:

  • Why do some organizations consistently outperform their competitors?
  • What do managers at the best companies know—and do—to keep their organizations on top?
  • When it comes to implementing management practices that can propel a company to lasting success … WHAT REALLY WORKS?

Well, what better way to find out than a massive five-year study in which more than 50 consultants and business school professors at top universities around the country analyzed ten years of data on 160 companies and more than 200 management practices? They called it the Evergreen Project, and their goal was to correlate superior corporate performance with the companies’ adherence to 200 commonly used practices.

Companies they identify as winners consistently followed successful practices in all four of the primary areas (strategy, execution, culture and structure) and any two secondary areas (talent, leadership, innovation, and mergers and partnerships).

Primary:

  • Strategy: Devise and Maintain a Clearly Stated, Focused Strategy
  • Execution: Develop and Maintain Flawless Operational Execution
  • Culture: Develop and Maintain a Performance-Oriented Culture
  • Structure: Build and Maintain a Fast, Flexible, Flat Organization

Secondary:

  • Talent: Hold on to Talented Employees and Find More
  • Leadership: Keep Leaders and Directors Committed to the Business
  • Innovation: Make Innovations That Are Industry Transforming
  • Mergers & Partnerships: Make Growth Happen with Mergers and Partnerships

The key to long-term success, they argue, is implementing effective programs in the six areas simultaneously. After analyzing the data, William Joyce and his colleagues concluded that a company following this “4+2” formula over the ten year period had a better than 90% chance of being a winner.

Anecdotes from the successful companies will interest general business readers, but the contrast with the experience of companies that stumbled should be particularly instructive. The detailed profiles of “winner” and “loser” companies were especially interesting. Replete with incisive discussions of various companies’ approaches for each of the four primary and four secondary areas of practice, the book also offers summaries of the study results in table format. For managers who wonder how anybody can keep six areas of practice fine-tuned at the same time, the authors agree it may be a challenge but point to their wealth of success stories to show it isn’t impossible.

“It is time for the first book identifying the fundamental practices that create business success–the ones that do indeed really matter.”

(This book review was originally published in 2003 as one of the Top 10 Books – Edition 12.)

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.

The Leadership Pill

The Leadership PillThe Leadership Pill: The Missing Ingredient in Motivating People Today
by Ken Blanchard and Marc Muchnick

Here’s another volume for those of you anxious to add to your library of “mini-books.” Ken Blanchard, a veritable self-help book-writing machine, partners with co-author Marc Muchnick to create this 112-page parable that every leader will want to read and share with those he/she mentors.

Contemplate the current state of technology, research and development. Today we seem to have a pill for just about everything. Wouldn’t it be great to have a pill that could actually stimulate the natural powers of the mind and body to provide leadership? Well, that’s exactly what happens in this entertaining new book. We read about the competition between two leaders with totally different management styles—a story that reveals the ingredients of truly effective leadership.

One leader takes “the leadership pill” while the other leader chooses not to take the medication. Instead he provides the right ingredients for his team and earns their respect and trust with a blend of integrity, partnership, and affirmation. The hard-won result is a highly motivated team producing consistent top performance and genuine success. The message? Leadership takes time—it can’t be learned overnight (or ingested via pill form). Leaders must show integrity, build “a culture of partnership” and affirm their employees’ sense of self-worth by letting them know what they do is important.

How many times have we heard this message …”back to the basics,” “walk-the-talk,” “this isn’t rocket-science,” “stick to the fundamentals,” etc.? Ultimately we must recognize that “leadership for a life-time” is much easier to digest than a pill for leaders looking for a quick fix. Although essentially basic in its message, it’s quite obvious that many choose to ignore it. If in doubt, simply read the headlines of any recent newspaper or business magazine.

The Leadership Pill shows business managers at any level how to apply the right techniques for getting both results and the commitment of their people, even when the pressure to perform is high.

(This book review was originally published in 2003 as one of the Top 10 Books – Edition 12.)

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.

Kmart’s Ten Deadly Sins

Kmart's Ten Deadly SinsKmart’s Ten Deadly Sins: How Incompetence Tainted an American Icon
by Marcia Layton Turner

Here’s another book that was begging to be written. It probably would have surfaced much earlier if not for the fear of many authors that publishing too soon would result in the omission of who knows how many future bewildering tactics by the forever transforming retail giant, Kmart. Actually, contrary to my early assumption, this book is less an indictment of Kmart than it is a combination of warnings and lessons to everyone else. There are so many negative examples in the news today of how NOT to succeed in business. However, many organizations fail to acknowledge or learn from these examples.

This book was written for those of you who find yourselves wondering how a company with such bright prospects could end up filing for bankruptcy. How could a brand as widely recognized and firmly fixed in our cultural lexicon as Kmart be teetering on the brink of extinction? Depending on whom you talk to, Kmart’s fall from grace can be attributed to any number of factors. In the first in-depth examination of Kmart, author Marcia Layton Turner reveals the real reason behind Kmart’s troubles—bad management—and discusses how the large personalities and even larger dreams of Kmart’s misguided leaders played a significant role in transforming this once profitable retail titan into a bankrupt behemoth.

This is not a collection of the author’s personal opinions as to why the once mighty Kmart is now frantically treading the tumultuous retail waters. Marcia Layton Turner interviewed many financial analysts, former employees, and industry observers to get the inside scoop on what happened at Kmart. She coupled her research findings with in-depth studies of SEC filings, news reports, and background data to paint a very clear picture of exactly how Kmart management’s thinking emerged as well as what went on behind the scenes and why.

Weaving corporate history with financial analysis and expert commentary, this engaging book identifies and examines the ten management mistakes, which ultimately brought Kmart to its knees. It spins an intriguing tale of the missteps of a retail giant that once had the industry in the palm of its hand and foolishly let it all slip away. Readers will achieve a better sense of where Kmart has been and what its potential is for a turnaround. This first in-depth examination of Kmart clearly identifies and discusses the ten miscalculations Kmart’s CEOs have repeatedly made, including resisting investments in technology, brand mismanagement, and haphazard expansion, to name a few.

This book is a well-written comparative analysis of why Kmart failed and Wal-Mart continues to thrive. The management lessons found in the book can be widely applied and should be shared with and discussed among any leadership team members interested in continued growth and success.

(This book review was originally published in 2003 as one of the Top 10 Books – Edition 12.)

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.