A book review of a book that is sitting on my reading list: Davenport’s “Thinking for a Living“. (Get it at Amazon.com or Kalahari.net).
I’m really excited about reading this book soon.
Continue reading ‘Thinking for a Living’
Archive for the 'Book Reviews' Category
Dan Pink, in his book, A Whole New Mind (get it at Amazon.com or Kalahari.net), captures nicely what relevance Story (which I prefer to call Narrative) has in our economy. In my own words:
The information age was all about managing facts. The connection economy (or as he calls it, the conceptual economy) will be about remembering stories.
Narrative is both high concept and high touch. It is high concept in that it stretches our minds beyond linear, binary modes of dealing with information - concepts and values come alive in the context of a Narrative. Through this process Narrative becomes high touch - there is an emotional connection with Story that transcends the connection with plain information.
In their book, “If It Ain’t Broke … Break It!” (Get it at Amazon.com or Kalahari.net), the authors, Louis Patler and Robert J. Kriegel, observed: “Not only is everything changing, but everything exists in relationship to something else that is changing.” If we don’t adjust to that, we will face extinction.
Of course, “if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it” is conventional wisdom. Yet the fact is that every organisation needs to embrace constant change, which is the basis of innovation (after all, if innovation is not change from status quo, what is it?). The successes of the past and overall health often mask the fact that some changes are long overdue.
I was recently recommended a book that sounds fantastic (its on my Christmas stocking filler list). Its “Finishing Well” by Bob Buford (Integrity Publishers, ISBN: 159145395X). (Purchase it online at Amazon.com or Kalahari.net).
It is written from a Christian perspective, but the focus on a spiritual legacy is but a small part of the overall message of the book. That message is on how to ensure that you leave a legacy as you head towards the later years of life. I believe the book includes a series of splendid interviews with well known people who are “finishing well”.
As the first of the generation of Baby Boomers born after World War II start to retire (and re-tyre) in 2006, this type of information is absolutely critical. I’m looking forward to getting the book.
Social software (see http://www.tomorrowconnecting.biz for a full introduction) is the set of technologies allowing people to collaborate online. Wikis are online tools that allow any registered users to update, add or delete content in a document. All changes are tracked, and old versions archived.
Now, Thomas Friedman, author of The World is Flat (buy online from Amazon.com or Kalahari.net), wants to put the book’s final edition online as a wiki, and allow readers to interact with the content directly, adding to his thesis about the effects of technology in leveling the global playing fields. This is a case of the medium truly being part of the message. Of course, his publishers must still approve, but it sounds like a great idea.
Read more about the story from FT, here.
Google books is doing something similar, of course, by putting as many out of copyright books online as they can. See previous post on this.
Also check out our Reading Community at TKB (TomorrowKnowledge) and read Friedman’s book with us.
I have just been playing around with Google’s online book search & it is awesome.
They have indexed the actual content of millions of pages of books. When you run a search it actually returns the book to you. You can then go to the physical page in the book where the info is and read a few pages before & a few pages after [I think it is a total of 15 pages that you are able to view per book per search]. They are basically in the process of making libraries redundant.
To get to these pages [still in development form] run a normal search in Google and scroll to the bottom of the page. Click on the link that asks if you want to run the search in Google book search.
To quote Ace Ventura….”Yummy”
Michael Goldman, Lecturer in Marketing, Innovation and Strategy with the Gordon Institute of Business Science, wrote a brief piece about C K Prahalad’s concept of reaching the world’s poor in MarketingWeb. Read it here.
The key is a radical rethink and some serious innovation, especially around the “price-performance” ratio. “This kind of innovation requires an ability to discard traditional approaches to price-performance improvements. It means a relentless focus on tailoring the specific value offering to the needs and context of this market, while rethinking the delivery of the offering to the consumer in order to provide value at a significantly reduced cost.”
Prahalad’s book, The Fortune at the Bottom of the Pyramid: Eradicating Poverty Through Profits (buy it at Amazon.com or Kalahari.net), suggests 12 innovation principles that every business should consider. See the summary below.
Continue reading ‘The Bottom Half of the Pyramid’
We’re taking a poll at our main website at the moment, on the most influential business book of our age.
You can go http://www.tomorrowtoday.biz to check it out, and add your vote. The poll is down the right hand menu of the main page.
See below for the list, and use this blog post to add your own entries if you think we missed one.
Continue reading ‘Vote for your favourite business book’
I don’t often recommend a book before reading it myself, but this book has caught my eye, and I wanted you to know about it. I have ordered a copy, and will review it in detail in a few months’ time.
It is China’s Generation Y by Michael Stanat ( (get it online at Amazon.com).
The book is unique in that it is the first book written on China’s Generation Y and one of the few well-written non-fiction books written by a teenager (the author is 17). The book is based on extensive research sponsored by SIS International Research, New York (www.sisinternational.com) and assisted by CBC Market Research, Shanghai (www.cbcnow.com). Fun, fast, and captivating, China’s Generation Y is the ultimate guide that Westerners will need to be able to work with the leaders of the future.
The Publisher says:
“Growing up during the information age, China’s Generation Y (born between 1981 and 1995) is unlike any of its predecessors, sporting branded items and increasingly sharing some of the same ideas as Western youth. This generation of teenagers in China will most likely be the political and businessleaders of the world’s next superpower by the year 2025. Based on interviews and surveys conducted in Shanghai by the author, an American teenager, China’s Generation Y provides an exciting look into the lives and minds of China’s youth, showing Western readers who they are, how they got there, and where they are headed. The book brings to life the influences on them – political, cultural, family, economic, and environmental – in such a way that it truly provides a rare glimpse into the minds of today’s youth and tomorrow’s leaders. China’s Generation Y is not only for those who seek to acquaint themselves with this crucial generation, but also for business leaders who wish to cater to the up-and-coming Chinese consumers. Informative and stimulating, this first-of-its-kind book opens up a new horizon for many in the West who will ultimately meet the need and challenge of this emerging Chinese generation.”
See also the book’s official website: http://www.chinageny.com/ - (not Firefox compatible - go to http://www.chinageny.com/html/main.html).
Continue reading ‘China’s Generation Y’
“Understanding the underlying forces that turn success into failure”
The following thoughts are extracted from Jamshid Gharajedaghi’s book, Systems Thinking: Managing Chaos & Complexity (Pub. Butterworth-Heinemann. 1999) (buy it online at Amazon.com or Kalahari.net).
When the Dow Jones Industrial Average marked it 100th anniversary in 1996, of the original companies listed only General Electric had survived to join in the celebration. Fourteen of the 47 companies exemplified in Tom Peter’s much acclaimed book of the 1980’s, In Search of Excellence, had suffered serious profit erosion within four years.
Everyone can recall cases of great powers, nations, organizations or personalities rising and falling. What then are the underlying forces that convert success to failure?
Gharajedaghi’s suggests that there are five forces that form a hierarchy with each level representing a distinct tendency, but together forming an interactive whole. At each level success plays a critical but different role.
Continue reading ‘From our archives: HERE TODAY, GONE TOMORROW’
The Baby Boomers (born post-World War II and into the 1960s) have been a demographic tidal wave in every life stage they’ve entered so far in life. And now, they’re about to start retiring (or, at worst, re-tyring) and hit old age (although they’ll never admit it). Expect a pile of books to be written about this - its a tsunami for many industries. In the USA, for example, “On 1st January 2006, the oldest ‘Baby Boomers’ around will turn 60. After that, for the next 19 years, another one will turn 60 every 7.5 seconds, causing a demographic tidal wave will affect businesses with greater impact than the aging of any previous generation”, according to generational experts Brent Green & Associates (BGA).
Marketing to Leading-Edge Baby Boomers by Brent Green (Writers Advantage, 2004) (buy it at Amazon.com or Kalahari.net). A book review was posted at TheWiseMarketer (click here to see it - free signup required - or see below).
Another resource we used extensively on this issue when writing our own generational resource two years ago (Mind the Gap, Penguin, 2004 - buy it at our online store, or Amazon.com or Kalahari.net), was Age Power: How the 21st Century Will Be Ruled by the New Old, by Ken Dychtwald (Tarcher, 2000) (buy it at Amazon.com or Kalahari.net).
Continue reading ‘The Boomer tidal wave is about to hit old age’
Anyone interested in generational theory in Australia would do well to get hold of “What Was It All For? The Reshaping of Australia” by Don Aitkin (Allen & Unwin, 2005, ISBN: 1-74114-667-4) (it isn’t available on Amazon, and I can’t find a place to purchase it online - see the publisher page here, but I picked it up at Borders while in Sydney).
Aitken is apparently a well-known Australian social scientist and commentator, especially prolific in the 1970s and 80s. The book is largely the reflections on “the class of ‘53″, his matriculation year. After reconnecting with many school friends at a reunion, he tracks the changes in the past 50 years of Australian history, weaving in social information, facts and stories of his friends. Its an easy read, with some wonderful insights into Australia’s emergence as a real world-class player in the past 50 years. (Read a summary/review onloine here).
His book provides great inputs for anyone wanting to understand the cycle of Generations in Australia, clearly showing all the common generational moments (GI, Silent, Boomers, Xers and Millennials). A great read!
When the space shuttle Challenger exploded shortly after take-off on January 28, 1986 who would have known that, out of the 4 publically listed contractors to the shuttle, the Dow Jones market singled out the party responsible prior to any investigation into the infamous O-ring that caused the explosion? This is one of the many case studies and examples that James Surowiecki lists in support of his premise in The Wisdom of Crowds (Buy it at Amazon.com or Kalahari.net):
You have often heard me rave about Seth Godin here and on the TomorrowConnecting blog. Seth is a widely admired and respected marketing guru and web commentator (I would highly recommend a visit to his blog).
Seth recently launched The Big Moo, a book that encourages companies and organisations to “stop trying to be perfect and start being remarkable”. Extremely keen to get my hands on a copy, I was stoked when I heard that the lads at Jo’blog were handing out free advance uncorrected proofs. How did they get hold of free copies, you ask? Well, the answer to that question is just one of the many reasons why this is a remarkable project:
* Before it’s official release, Seth posted this appeal, which announced the book and asked readers of his blog to spread the word that he was making 10,000 galleys (advanced copies) available in packs of 50 to ANYONE who wanted them, with the understanding that they were not for resale and ideall to be shared. Within days he had responses from all over the globe. Jo’blog was just one of them. How’s that for remarkable marketing?
* Another remarkable feature of the book is the collection of authors who contributed essays and short stories to it. 33 leading business thinkers including Tom Peters, Malcolm Gladwell, Jackie Huba and Mark Cuban (to name a few) all contributed freely of their wisdom to compile an easy-to-read selection of meaningful, relevant and inspiring stories (all great resources if you do presentations). None of the essays credit the authors, so there are no preconceived expectations. You know who contributed to the whole, but not who the individual parts belong to.
* None of these contributors charged a fee, and no-one will make a profit from the sales. All proceeds go to three preselected charities. In fact, a school in Nepal has already been built thanks to the Big Moo and it’s authors.
I’ve finished the book and thought it was great. It’s really quick and simple to read, is current and relevant and has some nice new thinking thrown into it. I would highly recommend that you buy a few for your company - they’re not pricy at all.
You can order the book here.
As I left for an overseas trip, I rummaged through my bookcase of “books to be read” and selected the clean, white cover of The Leadership Pipeline, by James Noel, Stephen Drotter and Steven Drotter (Buy it at Amazon.com or Kalahari.net). I’ve only just got into it, but I am intrigued and am already making notes.
The authors are focused on helping companies to develop their own leadership capacity from within - an essential capability given the talent wars going on in the world. Leaders leave if they are too challenged or not challenged enough. One of the problems is that companies don’t correctly identify the significant leadership “passages” that happen as leaders move from one level of responsibility to another. This book identifies 7 key stages of leadership, and therefore 6 major inflection points on the leaders journey. The seven stages are: Managing self (professional focused on output of skill), Managing others (first level supervision), Manage Managers (no more “front end” delivery required), Functional Manager (managing an entire department or business line function), Business Manager, Group Manager (a manager of multiple businesses, possibly across geographic regions), and Enterprise Manager (CEO).
This obviously applies best to a large, diversified organisation, but can be “flattened” to apply to small or medium-sized companies.
Continue reading ‘The Leadership Pipeline’
Picked this up from DK’s (his website & blog) changethis manifesto on the Youth of Today:
In their world technology is ubiquitous and not a differentiator (unless you don’t have a phone or access to a computer). However, technology is used as a tool to communicate first and entertain second. And because it is ingrained in their culture it is harder to impress young people with new gadgets or ranges.
I’m 25 (26 in a month :)) and consider myself to be relatively up-to-date with technological advancements. I love them, they keep me on my toes. But is this not perhaps an indicator of how “out of it” I am? If DK is right, new tech does not surprise our Millenials … but it differentiates us from them, and those who adapt from those that don’t!
(Yes, this is sort of about Jacques Kallis - for those who know cricket, or Jacques, see previous post on this issue).
The Dilbert Principle refers to a 1990s satirical theory stating that companies should promote their worst employees to managerial positions so as to prevent them from directly affecting the consumer’s experience. (source: wikipedia). Yes, its satire, but one of the most common mistakes that companies make is to promote a high flying talented staff member to the next level up, and not give them the training or support required to make the transition properly.
In “The Leadership Pipeline: How to Build the Leadership Powered Company“, by Ram Charan, Stephen Drotter, James Noel (Buy it at Amazon.com or Kalahari.net), they argue that one of the biggest failures in developing leaders is to not help a leader to change his/her frameworks/mindsets when they move from one level in the organisation to another. So, in a school, its common to promote a good teacher to be head of subject or head of department. In this role, they must train other teachers and have inputs at curriculum development and teaching style level. Do they get adequately equipped for this? Then, if they’re a good HOD, they get promoted to deputy head of school, where they become administrative and HR focussed. Finally, they could get to Head of School, where they may take on parent interactions, PR, media, admin and technology issues, and never teach again. Maybe we should promote our worst teachers to administrators!
Continue reading ‘Knowing what you’re good at’
After hearing my thoughts on HR in a Skype chat, a fellow ThinkSync member recommended that I get my hands on some of Semler’s work. The irony is that it has been sitting in front of me in my book case for the last 2 years - the cheesy pic of Semler crouching on a desk told me to leave it alone! So I plunged in, and with with an opening line like this, I was grabbed …
Just the other day, Clovis Bojikian, our Sultan for HR (yes, we still love to mock titles)and I sat around …
Malcolm Gladwell in 2004 put together his manifesto on The TalentMyth (get it at www.changethis.com). It is a brief write-up on the work some Mckinsey consultants put together regarding “The War for Talent� that profiled numerous Big Cheese Co’s, one of which was a company where McKinsey’s billings topped ten million dollars a year, where a McKinsey director regularly attended board meetings, and where the C.E.O. himself was a former McKinsey partner. The company, of course, was Enron.
Continue reading ‘The Talent Myth - Malcolm Gladwell’
I haven’t read this book, but the write ups look good. Its Managing Talented People, by Alan Robertson & Graham Abbey (Pearson, 2003) (Get it at Amazon.com or Kalahari.net).
Check out the great list of questions inspired by the book at: http://www.businesstitles.com/cat/management/mana0247.htm
Continue reading ‘Managing Talented People’
Every now & then a book comes out that corroborates certain facets of the TomorrowToday.biz message. Daniel H. Pink a former White House speech writer has recently released a book that he spent several years researching. The books deals with what he calls the ‘Conceptual Age’. If you read the paragraph below from the book review in The Futurist magazine you will hear echos of our message using slightly different words. These aptitudes are precisely what will bring success in the Connection Economy, and they are covered in varying degrees of detail in all of our frameworks.
This book may be one to add to your shopping list. Order it from Amazon here “A Whole New Mind”
The Futurist book review
Pink identifies six high-concept, high-touch aptitudes needed in the new era and devotes the bulk of his book to describing them and outlining specific ways for readers to develop them.
Continue reading ‘A Whole New Mind: Moving from the Information Age to the Conceptual Age’
Here is a great book review by a good friend of mine. I wonder if we shouldn’t be looking more to parenthood and children (maybe especially teens) for some lessons on how to deal with the Bright Young Things in our companies.
Raising Adults
By Jim Hancock
Summary by Mark Tittley
Buy it at Amazon.com or Kalahari.net
Jim suggests that while there are no secrets, keys or steps to effective parenting, instead we could do a lot of good in our parenting if we made a commitment to do nothing for the next 30 days - particular stop doing the following six things (and replace these activities with positive ones):
1. Hijacking -> Explore
2. Fixing -> Collaborate
3. Bossing -> Partner
4. Demanding -> Affirm
5. Shaming -> Respect
6. Taming -> Encourage
Continue reading ‘Dealing with BYTs in the office – lessons from parenthood’
I’m a Marcus Buckingham fan, but then I’m generally a fan of anyone that thinks the same stuff I do, so I am about to start giving away copies of the book to all my colleagues. This book should not be recommended reading, it should be compulsory reading for all managers and leaders.
The book (buy it online at Amazon.com and Kalahari.net) explores the difference between great leaders and managers, he believes that great managers and leaders are born and not made, although he acknowledges that they can learn some of the skills. He cautions leaders not to try and be managers if they are not interested in individuals but to focus on their strengths as leaders of many and cuts to the core of what successful managers and leaders need to know. Such as:
The 4 skills you must learn to “not fail� as a great manager
1. Select good people
2. Define clear expectations
3. Praise and recognise
4. Show care for your people
He defines managers as being people that are interested in the individuals and that they are not about transforming people but about realising the potential and strength of the individuals.
Margaret Wheatley in Leadership and the New Science (but it from Amazon.com or Kalahari.net) puts it this way…
“…in this day and age, when problems are increasingly complex, and there are simply no simple answers, and no longer is there simple cause and effect, I cannot imagine how stressful it is to be the leader and to pretend that you have the answer. A life-affirming leader is one who knows how to rely on and use the intelligence that exists everywhere in the community, the company, the school, or the organization. And so these leaders act as hosts, as stewards of other people’s creativity and other people’s intelligence. And when I say host, I mean a leader these days needs to be one who convenes people, who convenes diversity, who convenes all viewpoints in processes where our intelligence can come forth. So these kinds of leaders do not give us the answers, but they help gather us together so that together we can discover the answers.“
Tom Peters highly recommends the book, “EVEolution:The Eight Truths of Marketing to Women” by Faith Popcorn & Lys Marigold (buy it at Amazon.com or Kalahari.net).
In his generic presentation on Re-Imagine, Peters extracts some key learnings for anyone who takes women seriously as a market (and everyone should!). Each of these thoughts links marketing to women very strongly with the connection economy mantra we preach here.
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