Category: books

Good to Great
by
Jim Collins

ISBN-13: 978-0066620992

I bought this one because it was too red and it was EVERYWHERE. Every single BN and bookstore had it. So I finally wanted to get it and know that I am through with it. It actually is not bad. Jim Collins did a HUGE research to try to figure out why some companies are Great and why the rest of the companies are Good. By the former definition he means the companies that had a huge success/breakthrough and kept it for at least 15 years. A few very good points I want to highlight:

• “[Executives that ignited transformation] first got the right people on the bus (and the wrong people off the bus) and then figured out where to drive it.” This is profound. We know that people are important, but this is truly taking it to the end. Not that it doesn’t matter what you do, but that if you have the right people on the bus, they will know what to do and where to drive it.
• “We found no systematic pattern linking executive compensation to the process of going from good to great.” This is related to the previous bullet, because if you have the right people, the motivation will be coming from within and you wouldn’t have to waste money and energy in motivating them. Interesting, you would think that more money means more success…
• He says something very important about the focus of the company – you need to figure out the one thing you can be best at, and drop everything else. Expanding business should be done only through expanding your core business [what you are already best at]. He calls that the hedgehog concept. True. Seth Godin says the same thing in the Dip. My review here.
• For outsiders the jump in price of stock that doubles triples or quadruples market index seems fantastic, amazing, and instantaneous, but for the company, that breakthrough is just another small step in the many years of hard work and preparation. Jim Collins gives example with an egg – for people, the breaking up of the egg seems so exciting and momentary, but from the chick’s perspective, cracking the shell is just one little thing after all the transformation than went about to convert a yoke to a chicken. That reminds me of one of Marc Cuban‘s posts in which he says that you have to work had in preparation. One day when the opportunity comes, you will be able to grab it because you prepared for so long. True, true.

Those are all very good points. Collins also gives an abundance of examples that help illustrate and prove the points.

Blog!
by David Kline & Dan Burstein

ISBN-10: 1593151411

I had already been blogging for a year, when my mentor dropped this book in my lap. I already knew how blogging affected my life since I have been both reading and writing by then. I thought I knew all I needed to know about blogs so I never even opened that book. Recently though, I set my mind on it just so that I didn’t miss anything. And boy did I miss. I actually had no clue as to what a monster the blogging phenomenon had become. The book opened my eyes and made me realize what a revolution is happening in the media world.

Blog! is divided in 3 sections: politics, business, and culture. What I liked is mostly the business part since that is what I am interested, but it is definitely worth reading the whole book.

The book is a combination of author notes, essays, and interviews so it has a pretty wide perspective encompassing many different viewpoints. After all, the book shows you “how the newest media revolution is changing politics, business, and culture” and it does so very effectively through a multitude of opinions. The authors indeed did a great research and got in touch with a lot of bright people.

A few highlights:

• The main point for business is that blogging puts a face to a company, establishes trust, communication, allows for feedback on products. This seems to be best achieved by Christian Sarkar’s double-loop marketing, in which company first builds a blog with relevant, important, and useful information for customers and only after building community, they pitch products. Very smart strategy.
• If you fudge or lie on a blog, you are biting the karmic weenie,” Hayden told Fortune Magazine. “The negative reaction will be so great that, whatever your intention was, it will be overwhelmed and crushed like a bug. You’re fighting with very powerful forces because it’s real people’s opinions.”
  -Got to take that one in consideration!
• I laughed a lot at this one:
  …how an economist opens a can of soup – i.e. “First, assume a can opener.”
• “In fact, if you look at the way people get jobs in the New York media world, you see that a lot of it seems to be about who you know and how well you schmooze at parties. Weblogs are more meritocratic, in my opinion.”
  -What a beautiful word, “SCHMOOZE”. This is from the interview with Nick Denton. Very nice observation.
• “Risk takers by definition often fail,” the workplace philosopher Scott Adams once observed. “So too morons, and in practice it is hard to tell the difference.”
• Andreas Stavropoulis makes very good points on ways to make money:
  “The first way is to give people something valuable that they’re willing to pay for.” (software, business tools, subscriptions etc) “This second form, advertising, is the oldest way of making money on the Web, of course. And then there’s the third way of making money – by facilitating transactions online and then taking a piece or a cut of those transactions.” (think Ebay). All three he says are potential models for blogs and related sites, with advertisement being the most developed.
• David Kline makes a very good point when he says that blogs are great and powerful, but will definitely not destroy the Big Media, because, “tomorrow’s possibilities are always forged upon the anvil of today’s social and economic realities.”
• This last one by Wil Wheaton:
  “Creativity is the absence of fear. When you’re not afraid, you’re really free to be creative.”

Good book! When you read it, you will understand why blogs have to become part of your life, just like Google became years ago.

Monkey Business
by John Rolfe and Peter Troob

ISBN: 0446676950

The legend it is, I had quite high expectations of this book. I hoped I will get a new perspective of the analyst/associate life. It actually is a quite humorous take on the craziness of working for an investment bank. Instead of giving me answers and making things clear, all I got from this book is a “riddle wrapped in a mystery inside an enigma”: Why do people that have experienced this job come back for it?

What this job is according to the book:
– Crazy hours of work[100/week?]. No weekends, zero social life;
– Being treated like s**t, sucking up to the same people that treat you like s**t;
– It’s a cookie cutter job in most of its parts; Not only repetitive but often meaningless and mindless;

Then there must be something of incredible magnitude that draws people in. I am probably the most anti-corporate, anti-job person that has come around and yet I felt like diving into this world too. I even went to few interviews to wet my feet. Here is my take on the answer of the riddle, but I would appreciate if anyone gives me a better point of view:
– Obviously the organic normal enjoyment of the work itself
– Good money. Sure, starting salary of $50,60,70 thousand out of college is hardly achievable by any other job.
– Promise for promotion and high class life.
– Feeling important. Feeling on top of things. Suits, shiny shoes, expensive dinners. Those are so powerful, I know I want them too.
– [waiting for more suggestions…]

I am probably missing something out, but it ought to be pointed by people that have experience in that field. Don’t be shy.

I can’t really say much more so here is the only thing I marked. It gives a pretty good overview of the tone and purpose of the book:
“When associates finally reach this realization, they no longer waste time during the pitches conjuring visions of greatness. The pitch becomes nothing more than a routine to be suffered through. Since associates have typically been working on the pitch for the entire previous night, their primary activity becomes a struggle to stay awake. Every associate has his own techniques. I used to stick my hands into my pockets and try to pull hairs out of my legs. Rolfe once considered attaching clothespins to his nuts.”

The Dip
by Seth Godin

ISBN: 1591841666

From the blogging sphere I came across one of the most popular marketing gurus – Seth Godin. I have read posts online, so when I walked in Barnes and Noble and saw a little cute blue book with his name on it, it immediately drew my attention. I read those 70 pages on the spot, and then bought the book for home. Its one of those treasure books, that if you start underlining you will have to underline half the stuff.

Every project starts with excitement, energy, and resources. However, as it get progressively difficult, long, and tiresome you experience the dip, where people naturally feel like quitting. The Book is about how you should recognize that pushing a little harder to get to the ultimate returns is what separates the superstars from the rest.

“Winners never quit and quitters never win” We have all heard that expression. Well, Seth Godin explains that there is nothing worse than this advice, because our success depends on the ability to quit the right things at the right moment, and stick to the ones that payoff.
One of my favorite examples is the weight lifting example. When you exercise, your muscle gets tired. Only the last few seconds when the muscle starts hurting is when it actually grows. The problem is that most people naturally quit when pain appears, so they do all the work but get none of the benefits.

One of the best advices that I have heard is the following quotation:
Decide before the race the conditions that will cause you to stop and drop out [of the marathon]. You don’t want to be out there saying, “Well gee, my leg hurts, I’m a little dehydrated, I’m sleepy, I’m tired, and it’s cold and windy.” And talk yourself into quitting. If you are making a decision based on how you feel at the moment, you will probably make the wrong decision.

One other thing that loved — Seth says at one point that almost everything we learn in school is wrong, but the wrongest things of all is the notion that we need to be well rounded. You can only be the best if you quit the rest of the things you are doing, simply because you don’t have enough resources to be the best in anything you do.

So many things in this book can change your life. Buy it. Link to Amazon’s The Dip.

Wikinomics: How Mass Collaboration Changes Everything
by
Don Tapscott and Anthony Williams

ISBN: 1591841380

So I promised I will write reviews. Here is a book I just finished. The very attractive name caught my eye in Barnes and Noble

The book makes very good points about how the economy is taking a different shape these days. Development of communication tools allow for much greater efficiency. How? Well instead of hiring, companies and organizations can uncover the work that needs to be done to the world and the person with most expertise and cheapest price can do the job. And no matter how many people corporations have hired, the world pool is bigger.

A good example of this transparency and opening is the mining company. Goldcorp was struggling with finding new gold resources, so it put online all the private information and told people, “We give you all our information, you tell us where to dig!” The prizes they paid to people totaled $575,000, but 80% of the suggested dig places yield substantial quantities of gold. 100 million company became a 9 billion monster that eat its biggest competitors. Another example of transparency was how IBM opened up their patents for use to public, receiving in return over 1billion in revenue yearly.

Its also worth noting that people have become what authors call ‘prosumers’. We are not only consumers, we are not satisfied anymore by slightly customized products (pink iPod or 2gb ram in the new Dell). We now like to completely build our products. We like to create video, blogs, photos, we like to make software and show it off. Its the reason why open source software will continue to grow and why collaborative sites are going to flourish. And figuring out our consumer preferences might be quite important for a business’ survival…

What else…oh yeah, I thought it was funny how Geek Squad (have you seen those black and white beetle cars zooming around the city?) communicates and exchanges most efficiently ideas at Battlefield 2. “Shoot that mother cracker, behind the tank. BTW, where do I find firmware for WRT-54GL…”

So yeah, its worth knowing those things. Limp Bizkit sang it really well, “You better stay on top or life will kick you in the ass”