Today, I was running a few minutes late on my way to work so instead of walking into one of my neighborhood’s local coffee houses, I entered the Starbucks’ drive-thru lane. And sat there. Drummed my fingers on my steering wheel. Felt tempted to tap on the horn though I would never do such a thing. Typically I’m patient with service as I’ve worked in a customer-centric business (is there really another kind?) most of my working life. But today, I was irritated and practiced cutting little remarks that I probably would never utter once I got up to the window. When I finally made it through the line, the woman handed me my coffee drink and said, “I’m giving this to you on the house because of the wait.” I thanked her, drove away, and promptly told all of my coworkers about my great customer service experience. There is nothing quite like being given what you want before you even ask for it.

This experience was considerably different from a customer service disaster I experienced a few weeks prior. I was in a heated discussion with a representative at my bank about some fees I did not think were legitimately charged to my account. Even though I felt I had a valid argument that I had been given some errant advice from a different bank representative the previous day, this man clearly did not believe me and the entire experience was like banging my head against a brick wall. Needless to say, I got off the phone feeling utterly discouraged. Did I expect my bank to completely cave to my request and give me my “coffee” free as” Jackie Ramos often did at Bank of America? Of course not.

But as this Inc. 500 video Customer Service Tips from the Inc. 5000 Conference emphasizes, it would have been a more positive experience if I had felt like that customer representative was on my side, or at least on my team. Instead of feeling recognized as a loyal customer for some 20-odd years, I felt ignored and demeaned, and I have every intention of moving my business to another bank over time. As one CEO in the video mentions, “it’s hand to hand combat” out there, and whether it is a bank (whose whole industry is operating at a ‘customer-love’ deficit right now as is), a brick-and-mortar bookseller (who is fighting for every sale that isn’t already going to Amazon or Walmart), or a monolith coffee retailer (who really didn’t need to give me my coffee free today in order to insure my repeat business), customer service is always the bottom line.

As hinted at previously, I finally caught up with Ms. Millman with some questions about her super interesting and smartly crafted book, Look Both Ways: Illustrated Essays on the Intersection of Life and Design.

It is no surprise to me that her answers are also very good. Check them out, and check out her book. It’s inspiring content in a totally interesting presentation.

What are “both ways” that the title refers to?

“The “Both Ways” refer to several things.

First, it refers to the ways in which you can experience this book–both as a literal book you can read, as well as a “picture” book you can view.

The phrase “look both ways,” comes from an essay of the book with the same title, and reads as follows:

“And it occurred to me, as I stood there, that I could simultaneously, vividly look both ways—backward and forward in time, at once. I remembered longing to know what was coming, who I would become and how. And I suddenly saw it all over again in front of me. The light was exactly the same, and as the sun fell and the summer shadows slivered against the elegant, lean, concrete towers in the distance, I recognized the smell of the warm air, the precise pink and grey of the coming dusk and the mysterious melancholy and joy of both knowing and not-knowing, and the continuity that occurs when both collide.”

In this excerpt, I describe returning to a place where I had once spent a lot of time and recall the many hours I spent in that very spot wondering where I was going to go next in my life and what my future would bring. In the moment of returning, I experienced something I had never experienced before–I remembered wondering about the future and experiencing that future as my past. It was an exquisite, bittersweet, extraordinary experience, and one that I will never forget for the rest of my life. 25 years suddenly compressed into one distinct, memorable, breathtaking moment.

How did you decide on the layout for the book? What was your intention with this style?

In many ways, Look Both Ways is the culmination of 25 years of working, and probably took its first shape when I began my radio show on design and culture, “Design Matters,” nearly five years ago. “Design Matters” first aired in February, 2005; I started it with a wish and a telephone connection to the Internet. My hope was to create a radio talk-show with brilliant designers and creative intellects from all disciplines and ask them lots of personal questions about why they do what they do and how they do it. Since then, I have conducted over 100 interview with business leaders such as Malcolm Gladwell, Seth Godin, Grant McCracken,Virginia Postrel and Jonah Lehrer; artists such Barbara Kruger and Lawrence Weiner; designers including Milton Glaser, Stefan Sagmeister and Paula Scher, and even Nobel Prize winning scientist Eric Kandel. The format for the show is pretty consistent: I start with a monologue in which I try to weave a personal anecdote that relates to the guest in some small way. I then begin the interview itself, and ask lots and lots of questions.

Since the beginning of the show, listeners have been urging me to collect the monologues and try to publish a book. But I felt that the essays were already “out there” and I wanted to do something different and unexpected. Also, my former editor-in-chief at Print Magazine, Joyce Kaye, thought it wasn’t a strong enough idea on its own. Since I am also a painter (and have been painting and drawing for nearly my whole life) I decided to connect the two disciplines and try and create one holistic, unified experience of art and language.

As I worked on the book, the words of one of my best friends played over and over in my mind. She is both an artist and an art dealer, and insisted that when creating art with words, the quality of every illustration must to be comparable to the quality of the writing, and visa versa. Neither could overwhelm or dilute the impression of the other; they needed to be fully integrated. This became my mantra throughout the entire journey of this effort as I tried to create a landscape of a life lived in and shaped by brands and design.

There is a re-occuring theme in the book with the idea of feeling inferior (clothing brands, social status, etc.), and everyone has experienced this on some level. How do you see design addressing that? How do you see people addressing that?

We are now living in sensory overload: we determine our beauty factor by comparing ourselves to airbrushed super-models and surgically enhanced celebrities, our intelligence by answering questions correctly on game shows, our sports acumen by watching and applauding steroid abusers, our bravery and leadership by war-obsessed leaders. It is a really perplexing time in our universe! This mass consumption of products and information has changed the way we relate, perceive and live. I write at length about how a polo shirt or a pair of dungarees or a hair barrette and could make me feel better about myself. But I quickly learned that the feelings were elusive. After acquiring the polo shirt and dungarees and hair barrette, I moved on to other things. Better living through consumption doesn’t stop when you’ve consumed everything you covet and still long for more. Unfortunately, these “things” are elusive and don’t keep you happy for very long. Wouldn’t it be amazing if marketers and designers could figure out how to create opportunities or methodologies or programs to allow for measurable, sustainable self-esteem that go beyond consumption?

Memory is also something you discuss a lot. How strongly do you think memories are shaped by external input vs. internal observation? What does that say about advertising, media, etc.?

I think the strongest memories are created by symbols and images, rather than words. Symbols tell a better story and solicit an audience’s internal projective imagination, and these symbols become embedded in our memories. But our memories change and are impacted by the sheer nature of remembering every time we remember something! Words suffer from misinterpretation and a literal (or illiterate) audience, though they are better at conveying a specific message, for a time. In terms of impact, the most reliable way to engage an imagination is to show rather than tell, which is why advertising doesn’t always work. The most effective messages are visceral, and touch on our most basic needs as humans: to be loved and accepted by others.

In your opinion, what is the most important consideration companies should have as the economy crawls back?

Five things:

1) Bigger is not always better.

2) Consumers are people that shop.

3) Most people want to be happy and things only help you feel happy for a little while.

4) Most people want to be safe and secure and things only help you feel safe and secure for a little while.

5) Yes, brands are “a promise of an experience.” But people also frequently use them to project an image to the world of who they hope, wish and fantasize themselves to be.

The Economist has released their Best Books List of 2009. In their Economics & Business category, they chose:

• Too Big to Fail: The Inside Story of How Wall Street and Washington Fought to Save the Financial Systems—and Themselves by Andrew Ross Sorkin, Viking
• Lords of Finance: The Bankers Who Broke the World by Liaquat Ahamed, Penguin Press
• How Markets Fail: The Logic of Economic Calamities by John Cassidy, Farrar Straus Giroux
• Poorly Made in China: An Insider’s Account of the Tactics Behind China’s Production Game by Paul Midler, John Wiley & Sons

Check out The Economist‘s Page-turners for summaries of these titles and their picks in other categories including Politics & Current Affairs, Biography & Memoirs, History, Science & Technology, Culture & Society and Fiction.

Simply Effective: How to Cut Through Complexity in Your Organization and Get Things Done, is the title of the new book by Ron Ashkenas. After reading through an advance copy, I sent Mr. Ashkenas a few questions about the process and the challenges of simplifying an organization. It’s a great read, and something anyone at any company should read to get a grasp on keeping things focused. With all the technology and competitive challenges increasing daily, this is important stuff to keep in mind, and the book advises clearly and with purpose.

Check out the brief Q&A below, and pick up copies for your team here. The more people on board, the stronger the results will be.

What is a complicated organization, and how did they get that way?

I’ve never met a manager who has intentionally tried to make his or her organization more complex. But it happens anyway. Some of it is natural and inevitable — the addition of new technology, shifting business models, changing regulations, global competition, etc. But much of the complexity in organizations is self-generated by managers through the ways that they structure the various units, construct the product portfolio, shape the operating processes, and provide day-to-day guidance and direction. The end result is an organization where it is difficult to get things done – where it takes too long and costs too much to serve customers; where employees are frustrated and overloaded; and where managers feel out of control. That’s a complicated organization.

Some readers of the book might not be in a position to simplify their entire organization. How can they make some changes without feeling defeated?

You don’t have to be the CEO to drive simplification. You can attack complexity in your own day-to-day work and with your colleagues. The starting point is to admit that you are a source of complexity, either in what you do, or by being complicit in reinforcing the complexity of others. The book provides a checklist of managerial behaviors that can potentially cause complexity — such as asking for too much information, or not being careful about email circulation, or creating presentations that don’t have a clear message. Using this checklist, you can hold a mirror up to yourself so that you can make your own improvements. Then go through the same process with a group of colleagues — either people who work for you or with you. Engage in a dialogue about complexity — and together you can begin to make a difference.

Can simplifying be perceived by higher management as non-doing? What are some key ways to work and communicate to avoid misunderstanding?

Most senior managers focus on what needs to be accomplished and not on how it actually gets done. In fact, if you can achieve results in a simpler way — which reduces cost and increases speed — then higher management will probably see this positively. But it’s important to emphasize that simplification is not about doing less work, but more about doing the right work — work that adds value, that has meaning, and that is directly connected to what your customers need. Non-doing the wrong things is probably the right thing to do!

How can companies consolidate tasks and departments without overburdening staff?

Reorganizing in a way that creates greater simplicity is not just about consolidating structures and tasks. In fact, if that’s all that happens, staff will be overburdened. So to avoid this kind of overload, companies need to start with a clear vision of what they are trying to accomplish (why consolidate? what will be different? what are the cost and service goals to be achieved?). Then they need to engage the people involved in how to make this happen — to get their views about process changes, technology support, elimination of lower-value tasks, etc. There are a number of tools, many of which are well-known, that are referenced in the book to help managers and staff to do this (such as process-mapping, Work-Out, and Lean). The key is to make simplification an ongoing imperative as the organization forms and re-forms over time.

As the economy, or simply a company’s personal growth, improves, how can a company stay focused on simplifying, and utilize it as a long term strategy?

Let’s face it, the forces of complexity are not going away as the economy improves. Nor is competition going to get any easier. Getting things done faster, with fewer steps and less cost, is always going to be a competitive advantage. At the same time, having motivated people, who feel good about what they are accomplishing, and see a direct line of sight between their efforts and the company’s success, will also be an advantage. And that’s what simplification brings — stronger results and energized people. The book provides many cases studies of companies — such as ConAgra Foods, Cisco, Vanguard, GSK, and Zurich Financial Services — that have succeeded at least in part because they made simplification not just a nice to have value, but a real business imperative. That’s the challenge for every company, no matter where they are in the business cycle — to make simplification a driver for business success.

In a new entry of the demolition and rebuilding of our office space, I give you NEW WALLS. Yep, the old ones tumbled to the ground and new ones grew up in their wake. Along with extra holes in the walls, carpet torn up and tile ordered – it’s been one busy week for the construction of the new space.

See for yourselves :

Amazon does an interesting thing every year, putting their best selling books in each genre on the same page as their editors’ pick so you can easily compare the two.

I am sure that, were I an author, I’d hope to see my name on the bestsellers list. It would mean that I had not only done well financially for the year but, more importantly, that my book had made it into the hands of more readers—my ideas into the minds of more people.

That said, as a reader I always look at the editors’ list first. I don’t know who Amazon’s editors actually are—come to think of it, the only person I know works for Amazon is Jeff Bezos—but I’m guessing that, like us, they spend their days at work poring over the many books that come across their desks, and they’ve probably become pretty damn good at picking which ones they’re going to take home and focus on. There are a lot of books every year that will never see the light of a bestsellers list—that will never catch the popular eye—that nonetheless contain provoking insights for thought leaders and have a greater long-term effect on our lives than a flash-in-the-pan bestseller.

Ideally, of course, you’d make both lists. Congratulations to Matthew B. Crawford, author of Shop Class as Soulcraft, and the authors of Animal Spirits, George A. Akerlof and Robert J. Shiller, on that feat.

Here are the complete lists in Amazon’s Business & Investing category for 2009:

The customer favorites:

1. House of Cards: A Tale of Hubris and Wretched Excess on Wall Street by William D. Cohan, Doubleday
2. The Ultimate Depression Survival Guide: Protect Your Savings, Boost Your Income, and Grow Wealthy Even in the Worst of Times by Martin D. Weiss, John Wiley & Sons
3. Meltdown: A Free-Market Look at Why the Stock Market Collapsed, the Economy Tanked, and Government Bailouts Will Make Things Worse by Thomas E. Woods, Regnery Press
4. Suze Orman’s 2009 Action Plan: Keeping Your Money Safe & Sound by Suze Orman, Spiegel & Grau
5. The Great Depression Ahead: How to Prosper in the Crash Following the Greatest Boom in History by Harry S. Dent, Free Press
6. Shop Class as Soulcraft: An Inquiry Into the Value of Work by Matthew B. Crawford, Penguin Press
7. Animal Spirits: How Human Psychology Drives the Economy, and Why It Matters for Global Capitalism by George A. Akerlof and Robert J. Shiller, Princeton University Press
8. How The Mighty Fall: And Why Some Companies Never Give In by Jim Collins, HarperCollins
9. Strengths-Based: Great Leaders, Teams, and Why People Follow Leadership by Tom Rath and Barry Conchie, Gallup Press
10. I Will Teach You To Be Rich by Ramit Sethi, Workman Publishing Company

The editors’ list:

1. The Myth of the Rational Market: A History of Risk, Reward, and Delusion on Wall Street by Justin Fox, HarperBusiness
2. Fool’s Gold: How the Bold Dream of a Small Tribe at J.P. Morgan Was Corrupted by Wall Street Greed and Unleashed a Catastrophe by Gillian Tett, Free Press
3. Shop Class as Soulcraft: An Inquiry Into the Value of Work by Matthew B. Crawford, Penguin Press
4. How Did That Happen?: Holding People Accountable for Results the Positive, Principled Way by Roger Connors & Tom Smith, Portfolio
5. Rapt: Attention and the Focused Life by Winifred Gallagher, Penguin Press
6. In Fed We Trust: Ben Bernanke’s War on the Great Panic by David Wessel, Crown Business
7. Trust Agents: Using the Web to Build Influence, Improve Reputation, and Earn Trust by Chris Brogan & Julien Smith, John Wiley & Sons
8. Animal Spirits: How Human Psychology Drives the Economy, and Why It Matters for Global Capitalism by George A. Akerlof and Robert J. Shiller, Princeton University Press
9. SuperCorp: How Vanguard Companies Create Innovation, Profits, Growth, and Social Good by Rosabeth Moss Kanter, Crown Business
10. Ignore Everybody: and 39 Other Keys to Creativity by Hugh MacLeod, Portfolio

Other notable editors’ picks are T.J. Stiles’ The First Tycoon: The Epic Life of Cornelius Vanderbilt published by Penguin Press, winner of the NBA in nonfiction and put in the Biographies & Memoirs category by Amazon’s editors, and Greg Grandin’s Fordlandia: The Rise and Fall of Henry Ford’s Forgotten Jungle City, published by Metropolitan Books, which was the number one editors’ pick in the History category.

Other customer favorites include Lords of Finance: The Bankers Who Broke the World by Liaquat Ahamed and The Big Rich: The Rise and Fall of the Greatest Texas Oil Fortunes by Bryan Burrough, both published by Penguin Press, and This Time is Different: Eight Centuries of Financial Folly by Kenneth S. Rogoff and Carmen M Reinhart and published by Princeton University Press. All of these were in the History category.

To delve into the lists more, head on over to Amazon’s Best of 2009.

I received a copy of Bas Bleu’s catalog via snailmail the other day. Bas Bleu (means “blue stocking,” the antiquated label used for an educated woman) is a specialty book and gift strictly mail-order company whose motto is: “Champion of the Odd Little Book…and your source for inspired gifts and accessories for readers.” It surprised me to get this catalog since it seems like the days of hard copy catalogs are far behind us (JCPenney’s just announced they will discontinue their Big Book). Like Bas Bleu’s name, I suppose you could say the company’s approach is a bit old-fashioned, though you can certainly shop their stock online. The physical catalog features a select number of books with personalized summaries written by staff members, as well as odds and ends that may appeal to the folks who take seriously the book.

It continually amazes and impresses me when a company can find its niche, zero in on it, and continue to prosper to whatever degree in the face of the monoliths like Amazon and Walmart. It’s the advice found in so many of the best business books. See Good to Great, anything by Seth Godin, Positioning and Repositioning, Chris Zook’s Core books.

800ceoread has done its best to do the same by concentrating on our core customers. For a number of strategic reasons, our snailmail catalog was discontinued in 2005. But just last week, while drafting a new email newsletter we may begin using at the start of the new year, I was digging through a file of our old marketing materials. This search certainly brought back some memories for me. I started working for the company in 1997, when we were Schwartz Business Books, and our catalog, then called the Gazette, was a raging success. Well, it was until I was hired. At that same time, Amazon hit the book sales industry with its full force and the Internet almost instantly made our mail order catalog response negligible. Soon my job became more about adapting our marketing to the Internet than responding to a deluge of mail orders.

But if, like me, you are feeling a bit nostalgic for the good old days of having a catalog in hand, pages between your fingers, the ability to checkmark or circle everything you want to buy, check out these scans of our past catalogs.

The Schwartz Business Books Gazette Circa 1994-95

800ceoread Gazette

800ceoread Keen Thinker

800ceoread Keen Thinker - Final Edition

Seth Godin is constantly dreaming of new possibilities to disseminate ideas and do business right. In support of his latest book, he has created a truly ingenious offer, one that helps spread his ideas while supporting a noble and worthy cause. The first 3,000 people to give a donation of $30 or more to Acumen Fund will receive a copy of his upcoming book, Linchpin: Are You Indispensable?, three weeks before it’s available in stores—at Mr. Godin’s expense. Seth explained the offer on his blog this morning:

For a select group of motivated readers, I want to send you a copy of Linchpin (at my expense) three weeks before anyone else can buy one. My US publisher is not sending free review copies to magazines (the few that are left), newspaper editors, TV shows, any of the usual media suspects. Instead, we’re allowing people like you to raise their hands and, if they like the book, asking them to tell the world about it in January.

How to choose? I can’t afford to buy a book for everyone, so I needed to come up with a filter. Here it is: The first 3,000 people who make a donation to the Acumen Fund (at least $30) get one at my expense. The money you pay goes directly to Acumen, you get the fun of making a donation and get a tax deduction before the end of the year, and I figure out which of my readers most want a copy of my book.

If you’re excited about getting a first look, I hope you’ll check out this page for all the details. And thanks for your support, every day. It means a lot to me.

Please hurry, since once they’re gone, I probably won’t be able to offer any more.

Readers outside of North America should click here please.

Head on over to Seth’s Blog for more on this unique offer.

We’re huge Bill George fans around here, and not just because his book Seven Lessons for Leaders in Crisis is (so far) our bestseller this year. We’re fans because his diagnoses for business are imbued with a higher purpose than financial profit alone—though I assure you there is plenty of that kind of profit to be had from reading his books as well. It seems to me, however, that the most important lesson he consistently reminds us of is that business has to be sustainable and profitable to the community it serves, not just the company’s bottom line. Or, as he wrote in a recent article for BusinessWeek:

Long-term leaders recognize that they cannot rely upon cost-cutting, acquisitions, and other short-term moves to create sustainable value. By focusing clearly on long-term missions, values, and strategies, they earn and keep the trust of their customers, employees, and the society they serve.

It is a message he lays out in some depth in his ChangeThis manifesto, Moving Beyond Short-termism, and that he hammers home by focusing on innovation and job creation in his recent article for The New York Times. He knows that until jobs start returning, the recession is not really over—not, at least, for the millions of families who are still struggling, wondering where their next paycheck is coming from. He puts it succinctly in the article:

President Obama’s decision to hold a summit meeting on jobs this month acknowledges the reality that people on Main Street have known all year. Jobs are not a lagging indicator as economists have told us. They are the indicator.

We are very pleased to see major media outlets give Mr. George a platform for his message, and hope that people pay attention. In the face of the multiple crises we face right now, it is an important message not only for businesses, but for society as a whole.

The direct links to the articles referenced above can be found here: BusinessWeek | New York Times

To learn more, head on over to billgeorge.org.