David Kord Murray was in town yesterday for our LeaveSmarter series, sponsored by M&I Bank and Whyte Hirschboeck Dudek S.C. A clip from his talk can be seen below, where he describes the process of looking for creative solutions outside the realm of where your problem(s) exist. It’s an interesting and logical subject, and his book, Borrowing Brilliance really dives in to many scenarios where brilliance can indeed be borrowed to great effect. David’s book was is reviewed in greater detail in Jack Covert Selects.
September 30, 2009
Just Jack! at The Business Beat
Our company founder, Jack Covert, talked with Penguin’s The Business Beat about the book The Smartest Guys in the Room by Bethany McLean and Peter Elkind.
Jack had questioned whether or not to include the book in his 100 Best Business Books of All Time, co-authored with Todd Sattersten. However, after spending more time with the book, he realized how well the book was written, portraying the importance of vision and looking at the big picture. The themes in the book, though somewhat historical, are repeatable, and can be learned from again and again, especially through the narrative style of the writing. Click the Just Jack! link in the player below to listen to the conversation.
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September 28, 2009
Collaboration
A recent post by author Bob Sutton suggests that Jack and Todd may have a title to include in an updated edition of their 100 Best Book: Morten Hansen’s Collaboration.
Whether or not Jack and Todd agree, Sutton points out some great facets to the book – cost and benefits of collaboration, cultivating T-shaped management, and unifying people. Hansen’s book avoids ideology and theory and provides concrete evidence and data that support his ideas. Considering the topic of the book, it’s something everyone can benefit from, as we experience collaboration constantly in our working lives. But, to what degree do we use it to the best results? This book can change that.
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September 25, 2009
Our Blog – Accredited Online
Jack copied me on his response to a message he received recently, writing “For an email out of the blue, this is a good one.” The message came from Adrienne Carlson, who runs the Accredited Online PHD University blog. She had written Jack to let him know that she included us in her recent post, 100 Awesome Blogs for Every Kind of Book Lover.
It’s a great list, with suggestions in a wide variety of genres—from business to comic books, from sites where you can sell your books to podcasts. If you have even a fleeting interest in books, you will want to check the list to see if you’re missing anything. I know my RSS list grew after just a cursory glance, and will likely grow even more when I find the time to dig in deeper.
We’d like to thank Adrienne Carlson for including us. It’s humbling and flattering to be put in such company.
Here is the direct link to that post:
http://accreditedonlinephduniversities.com/100-awesome-blogs-for-every-kind-of-book-lover/
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September 17, 2009
The Big Brain Business Book Club
Business books are created to make us think and help us solve problems. Some books are for logical, analytical thinkers interested in leadership and books like Blue Ocean Strategy. Other books are for abstract, non-linear thinkers interested in entrepreneurship and books like Made To Stick. While different in their approach, both sides are important, which creates a dilemma — which side are you, and which type of book should you read?
800ceoread has helped address this dilemma with The Big Brain Business Book Club. Club members can choose from Left Brain books, Right Brain books, or simply get the Whole Brain. Your choice will arrive in a package quarterly on your doorstep.
Who is this club for? We think The Big Brain Business Book Club is for anyone who loves business books.
In addition to the quarterly box of intelligence, we’ll have a load of exclusive digital extras for both of the chosen books. We’ll have audio, video, excerpts, and essays available to help get a deeper understanding of the ideas.
And that’s a lot, so let’s make this even more fun. For the launch of the Club, we’re going to do a raffle with all new charter members. Coinciding with the mailing of the first edition (October 1), we’ll select one random member to receive the following items:
- Purple Cow Poster created by Hugh MacLeod, signed by both Seth and Hugh
- The original milk box edition of Purple Cow
Wow, we hope you’re as excited about this as we are. But enough talk. Head on over to The Big Brain Business Book Club. By signing up, you’ll have a chance to win the items above, and be on your way to getting some incredible forthcoming books that fit your way of thinking.
September 16, 2009
National Boss's Day: October 16
Whether you love or hate your boss, October 16 is the day you can make your relationship with them a little better. And we at 8cr think you’ll be hard pressed to find a better way to do that than to give them a copy of The 100 Best Business Books of All Time.
If things are cool between you and your boss, they’ll appreciate the knowledge you’ll share with them via the book. It’ll be a great conversation piece for the both of you, and might inspire discussions that lead you both to greater success. The flip side of the coin is that your boss will also learn a great deal of things by reading the book, which might take care of some of those things you don’t like about them. Either way, it’s a win-win scenario. Celebrate!
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September 15, 2009
Strategic Thinking Month
Headed by Josh Leibner, Gershon Mader, and Alan Weiss, authors of The Power of Strategic Commitment, September marks a time to re-evaluate strategy. In their book, the authors detail a variety of ways to align people around a mission, idea, or business.
Commitment is the reason systems like SixSigma, the HP Way, etc. have become benchmarks for corporate culture. A thorough and engaging book, focusing on fact and research over pure emotion, the book is a compelling read for managers and leadership well beyond the month of September. Here’s a great quote from the book that will give you a sense of the direction of the text:
“There is an enormous power in galvanizing people around a bold, compelling future; and that desired future state cannot be achieved by operating with yesterday’s mind-set, practices, and processes. There are two ways out of this inertia: One is an externally imposed “shock to the system,” such as a market or industry meltdown, a takeover by another organization, the loss of a major customer, or some other exogenous occurrence. The second is an internally generated desire to take the organization somewhere it has never been; a desire to build something extraordinary. The best leaders do the latter, because it is proactive and controllable, not reactive and random.”
Many people experienced the first scenario described above this year. For those of us who didn’t, these words alone provide a great reason to pick this book up and start developing an incredible organization from the inside out.
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Entrepreneurship Conference – Milwaukee
For those of you in southeastern Wisconsin, the Institute of Management Accountants is hosting a two-day conference on October 22 – 23, 2009. Covering a wide range of topics from a variety of speakers, the conference provides a great overview of important things to consider and understand when starting a business. From accounting issues, to passion vs. knowledge, to creativity, to being profitable, attendees will learn information essential to starting, maintaining, and developing their businesses.
Attendees will also receive a copy of George Cloutier’s book, Profits Aren’t Everything, They’re the Only Thing. Cloutier will also be speaking at the conference about some of the principles he outlines in his book.
More information on the conference, agenda, speakers, and registration can be found at their web site.
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Recipe For a Successful Business Book
David Galanis at the Peeble Creek Partners Blog shares the secret to creating a successful business book:
Start with multiple authors – including an academic from a prestigious business school and a seasoned business consultant plus a business journalist from a major newspaper or magazine (someone has to actually write the book).
Using free graduate student talent from the B-school, develop a database of the performance of thousands of companies over the past decade – more if you want to sound really authoritative. Be sure to select a few unique performance metrics to differentiate your results from all the other formulaic books.
Select the top performing companies and “study” them to determine why they are better than the others. Interviews and visits make things sound much more legitimate. Use “strategy”, “execution”, and “management talent” as this makes for good reading and advice. Always avoid “a great market”, “favorable economic factors”, “lousy competitors”, and “luck” to explain success.
Develop a list of between 8 and 12 characteristics (the chapters of the book) and expound on them. It always helps to close each chapter with a summary list or two so readers of your book can copy it and pass it around at management meetings to impress their peers.
Come up with a catchy title; get a few quotes for the back cover; and publish. Then go on a brief book tour to business meetings around the country; trash the prior books; and wait for the checks to roll in.
September 14, 2009
Crowdsourced Entrepreneurial Reads
A few weeks ago, Fred Wilson from avc.com kicked up interest in books that entreprenuers should read. Fred, in particular, made the point that “there is way more insight to be gained from stories than from business books.” He suggested Kavalier and Clay, Atlas Shrugged, The Prince, and anything by Shakespeare.
At the end of his post, he asked for more suggestions. The post generated 191 comments and prompted the creation of a wiki.
I pulled all the books from the wiki over into this post and linked to the books. The [FW] tag denotes that it was endorsed by Mr. Wilson himself directly or in the comments of the original post.
- Atlas Shrugged [FW]
- The Prince [FW]
- All of Shakespeare’s Histories & Tragedies [FW]
- Founders at Work
- Autobiography of Malcolm X
- Catch-22 [FW]
- The Gold Coast
- State of Fear
- Confessions of a Street Addict
- Selling the Wheel
- Plato’s Republic
- The Meditations of Marcus Aurelius
- Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus
- Moby Dick [FW]
- The Art of War [FW]
- Exodus
- Taking on the World
- A Short History of Nearly Everything
- Garp [FW]
- Jonathan Livingston Seagull [FW]
- Rossi: MotoGenius
- The Puritan Gift
- The Fountainhead [FW]
- Pillars of the Earth
- The White Tiger
- The Monk and the Riddle
- Outrageous Optimism: Wisdom for the Entrepreneurial Journey
- The E-Myth Revisited
- Setting The Table [FW]
- Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance
- Siddartha [FW]
- Confederacy of Dunces
- Dark Star Safari
- Project X – Nissin Cup Noodle
- The Red Horse
- St. Augustine’s Confessions
- Mastery
- The Four Agreements (Miguel Ruiz)
- Tao Te Ching (Lau Tzu)
- The Sharper your knife, the less you cry (Kathleen Flinn)
- What Would Google Do? (Jeff Jarvis)
- Burn Rate (Michael Wolff)
- Startup (Jerry Kaplan)
- The Hero with a Thousand Faces (Campbell)
- The Alchemist (Coelho)
- The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn (Twain)
- Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland (Carroll)
- The Wealth of Nations (Smith)
- Absalom, Absalom (Faulkner)
- The 33 Strategies of War
- The 48 Laws of Power
- Hide a dagger behind a smile
- Cold Calling For Chickens
- Disclosing New Worlds: Entrepreneurship, Democratic Action, and the Cultivation of Solidarity (Flores)
- The Art Of Profitability
- The Innovator’s Dilemma
- Crossing The Chasm
- Blue Ocean Strategy
- What I Wish I Knew When I Was 20
- The Compassionate Samurai
- The Art of Learning
- The Selfish Gene
- Capital (Karl Marx)
- Mein Kampf
- The Singularity is Near
- How to Win Friends & Influence People
- Hope is not a Strategy
- The Four steps to the Epiphany
- The Principles of Product Development Flow – Second Generation Lean Product Development
- One Hen
- Blueprint To A Billion
- Moneyball
- The Places In Between
- Mavericks at work
- Blink
- The Tipping Point
- Outliers
- Freakonomics
- Behind Closed Doors (Secrets of great management)
