Book Review: Built to Last

Built to Last-Successful Habits of Visionary Companies by Jim Collins and Jerry Porras delves into the success of Eighteen companies. The project was started at Stanford University Graduate School of Business and analyzed what made companies successful from the stages of start-up, midsize, and large corporations. It is about those visionary companies that have made significant impact on the lives of their workers and the environment in which they exist. These companies contained a number of criteria that includes: 

-Premier institution in the industry;

-Widely admired by knowledgeable business people;

-Made an indelible imprint on the world;

-Had multiple generations of chiefs;

-Been through multiple product cycles;

-Founded before 1950

The authors discovered some interesting findings. Great companies often start out slower than other companies but win in the longer term. Most of the companies focused on building the proper infrastructure and foundations for future development. Great companies don’t exist to only make money but instead develop out of sound objectives and visions. They have a purpose to exist beyond money. The ideologies that successful companies foster are a component of how deeply within the organization they go. The deeper the values are embedded the more likely success will be found. Even though the processes and procedures change the core values do not change leading to stability of purpose.

Such companies are not afraid to make bold moves when necessary. These are not careless moves but well thought out and planned. They often select candidates that fit within their culture and ideology to achieve those moves. Often the leaders and staff are willing to experiment and find new ways of doing routine things. Sometimes they are successful and other times they fail. They often promote their CEO’s from inside the company to develop the proper skills and culture over time. Instead of trying to beat the competition visionary companies compete against themselves.  They are willing to balance between growth and stability. They were one of the first companies to adopt vision statements. 

The chapters highlight the concepts above. There is considerable discussion on each of their chosen companies and the details of what made them successful. Likewise, managers should find some practical advice such as how to develop their vision statements. The language is written at a college level or slightly above. It is not a casual read but neither is it full of scientific jargon. It is a book that managers, directors and executives should read in order to have a better perspective of their own business. 

Collins, J. & Porras, J. (2002). Built to Last. NY: Harper Collins. ISBN 0-06-051640-2

Book Review: Theory U-Leading from the Future as it Emerges

Dr. Otto Scharmer builds off of previous research in the concept of presencing of self to further help executives and managers find a more creative and genuine place within their management style. His book Theory U Leading from the Future as it Emerges discusses understanding the blind spot, entering the U field, and presencing. Decision-makers who can enter the U field are capable of managing to a higher and more accurate degree than those who don't.

Theory U is a change management process originally developed by Dr.Friedrich  Glasl and Dirk Lemson. They sought to develop a method by which consciousness is used to handle conflict and processes manifested in relationship dynamics and conflicts. The Theory was then picked up by Dr. Otto Scharmer who included the concepts of presencing and capitalism. It is this presencing that releases creative and productive energy.

The original theory analyzed technical/instrumental subsystems, social subsystems and cultural subsystems. It is a process of transforming observations into intuition and then decisions.  In general, one would understand the facts of the workplace, forming a picture of how the organization operates, understand the implicit and overt values within the workplace, envision the future, and aligning the pieces to that future. The process is one of developing conscious awareness of the workplace and putting into action effort to achieve future goals. 

Dr. Otto Scharmer took the theory to the next level by incorporating the concepts of thinking, conversing, structuring, and global ecosystems. As people work in patterns they are often locked into ways of thinking that limit the organizations potential. By empathizing with customer’s needs and fellow employees they can create new understandings and new patterns that better strengthen the market response.  Actions become more purposeful and focused on root truths.

The concept of presencing indicates that at the bottom of the U is the current self and future self that resonate with each other bringing forward a new path to development. As each of our selves interacts with each other we begin to become more effortful in our actions, more creative in our productions, and more clear in our thinking. It is a process of understanding our true selves at a deeper level.  It is about moving beyond surface assumptions.

Most managers and employees work from a false sense of self. This self has come from societal expectations, misinterpretations, and lack of understanding. It is that same power that artists and visionaries use to develop a better impression of the world. It is that place where the best of self exerts itself on the environment. Michelangelo described it as the place where the sculptor, “releases the hand from the marble that holds it prisoner” or Picasso’s concept of where the “mind finds its way to the crystallization of its dream.” 

Scharmer, O. (2009). Theory U: Leading from the Future as it Emerges. San Francisco: Berrett-Koehler Publishers, Inc.  ISBN: 978-1-57675-763-5

Book Review: The 100 Best Business Books of All Time

The 100 Best Business Books of All Time by Jack Covert and Todd Sattersten gives an overview of books available  on the market. These are books that cover various genre such as how to improve yourself, leadership, strategy, sales and marketing, rules and scorekeeping, management, biographies, entrepreneurship, narratives, innovation and creativity and big ideas. Each book listed has approximately 1-3 pages in order to describe what a person should find if they made a purchase. 

It isn’t a necessary interesting reading but if you are a big book reader you can quickly browse through various titles available. I find this to be more of a bathroom or coffee book in the sense that the few pages needed to describe each work can be quickly read. It is also beneficial to browse around by jumping back and forth versus reading from cover to cover. Three books that I find of interest are:

1.)Flow by Mihaly Csikszenthmihalyi discussed the concept of pursuit of happiness from Aristotle to Thomas Jefferson. Flow is a concept entailing when people are totally focused and completely un-self-conscious. Research helps determine that these moments occur when a person feels they have adequate skills to cope with challenges. Such moments are goal directed, rule-bound action systems that provide adequate self-feedback. It can be defined as “a state in which people are so involved in an activity that nothing else seems to matter; the experience itself is so enjoyable that people will do it even at great cost, for the sheer sake of doing it.”

Flow (1991). The psychology of optimal experience. Harper Perennial.

2.)On Becoming a Leader by Warren Bennis discusses how through circumstance, grit, and pure willpower people can become leaders. It is through the constant search of life and its meaning that such leaders find unique prescriptions. Such leaders have the capacity to express themselves through humanistic psychology concepts like those by theorists Abraham Maslow. According to the book great leaders don’t set out to be leaders but become them based upon the full expression of themselves. 

On Becoming a Leader (2003). The Leadership Classic. Basic Books

3.)Competing for the Future by Gary Hamel and C.K. Prahalad discusses how most executives focus on the present but do not focus enough on the future. When making budget and strategic decisions they constantly seek to solve problems in the present by looking at short-term gains while damaging long-term prospects. For example, an executive may try and cut costs and raise return on investments by laying off employees but fail to find higher levels of revenue. Such managers are considered “denominator managers” because they are more reactive to their environments instead of creating environments. The authors state, “Seeing the future first may be more about having a wide-angle lens than a crystal ball.”

Hamel, G. & Prahalad, C. (1996) Competing for the Future. Harvard Business School Press.

No matter what your interest and focus you will certainly find some books to read within the pages. It is a nice guide to some of the best business books available on the market and certainly I have a plan to buy a few after I get through the one’s I am reading now. You can keep it in your library to create your wish list of market offerings. 

Covert, J. & Sattersten, T. (2009). The 100 Best Business Books of All Time. NY: Penguin Group

Pages: 339

Cost: $16

http://100bestbiz.com/

Book Review: Unconscious Branding by Douglas van Praet

Modern marketing entails the embedded secrets of unconscious branding. The book Unconscious Branding: How Neuroscience Can Empower (and inspire) Marketing by Douglas van Praet delves into the influences of the unconscious on human behavior and marketing effectiveness. The understanding of neuroscience explains how feelings lead to choices that that result in product sales.

Advertisers and product designers spend billions of dollars every year on creating the right advertising mix to lure potential buyers to their products. Hidden desires and needs seem to drive much of human behavior even though we are often unaware of why we are purchasing products or how it enhances our self-perception. Yet these unconscious forces are pulling us to fulfill these undiscovered needs from morning until evening….perhaps even beyond. 

When Freud discovered his sense of the unconscious, it had a vast effect on the climate of the times. Now we are discovering a more accurate vision of the unconscious, of who we are deep inside, and it’s going to have a wonderful and profound and humanizing effect on our culture –David Brooks

The essence of all marketing is the feeling of being appreciated. This appreciation is based in our need to be part of a biological and cultural network that is connected together to ensure mutual survival. We constantly seek to purchase items that raise our status and fulfill subconscious cravings in order to raise our biological opportunities in society. Appealing to these subconscious cravings encourages the fulfillment of deeply held needs that are not manifested fully on the conscious plane. 

The book will bring you three seven steps of designing a successful marketing campaign. They include interrupting patterns, creating comfort, leading the imagination, shifting feelings, satisfying the critical mind, changing associations and taking action. In essence, the steps are designed to draw people’s attention and then lead them from feeling to action while satisfying any logical misgivings. 

The book doesn’t appear to have a lot of research included in the pages but it does provide some thought provoking explanations on marketing. The theoretical research support is available to intelligentsia and it appears to be a sound understanding of how the subconscious creates motivations and actions. The concepts are broad so don’t expect any specific marketing success advice but it does lead you into some useful concepts that can be beneficial for rounding out marketing plans. 

Van Praet, D. (2012). Unconscious Branding. NY: Palgrave Macmillan. ISBN: 978-0-230-34179-1

Blog Ranking: 4.3/5

Price: $21

Website: http://unconsciousbranding.com/

Book Review- Essential Deming: Leadership Principles from the Father of Quality by Dr. Joyce Orsini

The book Essential Deming: Leadership Principles from the Father of Quality by Dr. Joyce Orsini provides a strong read for managers who seek to understand the nature of quality and how to improve operations.  The book covers a number of important concepts such as management problems, quality development, methodology, research studies, knowledge vs. information, and management predictions. Each of these concepts leads the reader to understand higher methodologies in running corporations.

The book contains a number of important lists for administrators to study. It indicates that there seven deadly diseases in the way managers think. It recommends that they understand these all important concepts to improve profits: 

• 1.      Lack of constancy of purpose: Having proper plans that keep the company in business.
• 2.      Emphasis on short-term profits: An excessive push for dividends and short-term profits.
• 3.      Evaluation of Performance: Rewards for people who do well with current systems but few rewards for those who want to improve the system.
• 4.      Mobility of Management: Mobility in management from company to company creates a push for short-term profits. 
• 5.    Management by use only of visible figures: Over reliance on figures may damage unmeasured successful factors that impact the business in the long-term.
• 6.      Excessive medical costs: Increases in medical costs have limited profit margins.
• 7.      Excessive costs of liability: Contingency lawyers have raised costs of business.

The book also provides some interesting discussions on what business colleges should teach and what they should avoid. It appears that Deming wanted to see transformation in American companies. To him this starts with managers having knowledge above and beyond information. Strong business colleges should help students understand theories and then how to apply them within the workplace in order to increase their knowledge. As a professor I have seen a number of colleagues become successful at this approach and it is wonderful to contribute to such future managers understanding. Of particular interest is his understanding of what the true educational process is:

“Joy of learning comes not so much from what is learned, but from learning. It’s fun to learn, if you learn knowledge. Not fun to learn information. The joy in the job comes not so much from the result, not from the product, but from contributing to optimization of the system in which everybody wins (Deming as quoted in Orsini, 2013, pp. 200) 

The book is written at a college level and provides useful information for future managers. It would be my recommendation that students who hope to move into management read this book and take its principles in consideration. It covers everything from management systems to how to understand business studies. The book is based upon a number of lectures and writings by Edwards Deming. Quality to him started in the executive room through positive thinking and innovative products. 

Orsini, J. (2013). The Essential Deming: The Leadership Principles from the Father of Quality. NY: McGraw-Hill Books.  ISBN: 0-07-179022-5

Pages: 326

Price: $23

Blog Ranking: 4.8/5

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