Tedded - Business Book Review

• 24Jun

  Book Review: World Wide Rave (David Meerman Scott, 2009)

  Book Reviews 1 Comment

  “The challenge for marketers is to harness the amazing power of the World Wide Rave. The process is actually quite simple; anyone can do it, including you.”

  

  “World Wide Rave” by David Meerman Scott is a small book on the new marketing. It is a book that encourages you to go out and give it a try. The rules of marketing have changed and will never be the same by the Internet and more importantly, social media. This book talks about “how” people use the new media to spread the ideas. Spreading ideas worldwide is no more a privilege of gigantic companies but anyone can do it, including you.

  Contents

  You (and I) Are Incredibly Lucky

  This is the introduction to the World Wide Rave. David Meerman Scott started out with an intriguing story of The Wizarding World of Harry Potter on how telling a story to seven people can spread the idea to more than 350 million people worldwide, for free, of course. There are also a couple more interesting stories in this introduction.

  Nobody Cares About Your Products (Except You)

  The author explains the term, “buyer personas” and how the company (or you, or anyone) has to focus on the understanding of the market problem of your buyer personas (or target market) without obsessing with your product. Apart from many stories, the author encourages you to start writing an e-book which has replaced resume for many people (while multiplying the effect phenomenally).

  No Coercion Required

  Sometimes viral marketing is badly implemented which is just an extension of the old-world marketing. This short chapter tells you the difference between viral marketing and the World Wide Rave.

  Lose Control

  There is no such thing as a free lunch. But currently, there are millions such things as free videos, free songs, free information, free media, and so on. The author writes that trying to taking control will painfully backfire. An interesting part of this chapter tells you how to start making videos on YouTube. He also tells you how blocking social media sites, MySpace, facebook, YouTube, etc. in the workplace is a foolish way to increase productivity. Hear hear!

  Put Down Roots

  This chapter focuses on facebook, Twitter, and blogging. David Meerman Scott gives you advice on how to “put down roots” or participate in these social media websites.

  Create Triggers That Encourage People to Share

  The great site does not come with lousy contents. You need to have great contents to create the World Wide Rave and the advice for a great content is being interactive. And interaction can spread the ideas vigorously.

  Point the World to Your (Virtual) Doorstep

  Being in the first page of Google does not come from spending huge on SEO but rather from the content itself. You need a great content and you need the web site that synchronises with your customers. Instead of hiring an SEO, David Meerman Scott believes that you should hire a journalist instead.

  …

  I’ll compare this book to an ideal business book; a book that is easy to understand, distinct, practical, credible, insightful, and provides great reading experience.

  Ease of Understanding: 8/10: This book is a short book and it is plainly easy to read and understand. The two points taken are from the blog-like writing which, although easy to read and understand, can be difficult to link with one another. Moreover, you might struggle a tad if you are over 30. Nevertheless, this is a straightforward book surrounding the idea of spreading ideas.

  Distinction: 5/10: There have been countless books on the Internet and social media already. “World Wide Rave” is just one of them, albeit a good one. The great point of this book is that the author does not tell you how facebook, or Twitter, or YouTube work but he told you how real people used them and created a World Wide Rave.

  Practicality: 8/10: The author gave you very good guidelines and instructions. One of the best parts of the book is the “Advice for generating a World Wide Rave” by the actual people who made it after their stories. However, everything depends on your contents and also your luck. However, I am fairly disappointed with the part of Venture Capitalist that creating a World Wide Rave is like investing, you hit some and you miss some. Although it’s true, it’s not particularly helping.

  Credibility: 9/10: All the stories are from actual successful people including the author himself. Although David Meerman Scott did not create the World Wide Rave of more than ten millions in a week like Susan Boyle, his e-book, “The New Rule of Viral Marketing”, is an achievement. And I would like to exphasise more that “Advice for generating a World Wide Rave” is a gem.

  Insightful: 5/10: The author has done a fine job in a small book. He had lots of interviews and insight from the actual World Wide Rave creators. The size of the book is the constraint but for a small book, it is insightful in its own right.

  Reading Experience: 8/10: It is very fun and it is encouraging. It is not yet a revelation but it is eye opening. The book really encourages you to participate more in the social media.

  Overall: 7.2/10: If you are not virtually active, this book will tell you how to be active. If you are already active, this book will give you an advice to spread your idea and become a World Wide Rave. If you already created a World Wide Rave, you can still read the book and sing your own praises! It might be time for marketing students to dump their huge 400 pages marketing communication and PR textbooks and read this book instead.

  Tags: Book Review, Communication, PR

• 17Jun

  Book Review: The Element (Sir Ken Robinson, 2009)

  Book Reviews 2 Comments

  “What I hope you will find here is a new way of looking at your own potential and the potential of those around you.”

  

  “The Element: How finding your passion changes everything” by Sir Ken Robinson is a book on passion, creativity, and, most importantly, education. In this book, he tells you how different people ranging from Paul McCartney (The Beatles), Meg Ryan (the actress), Paul Samuelson (the economist), Paolo Coelho (The Alchemist.. sorry, the writer) found their passion, their Element. His contention is that intelligence is diverse, dynamic, and distinct and typical hierachical and standardised education squandered them.

  Sir Ken Robinson works in education and he caught eyes of millions in his all-time favourite talk in the TED conference in 2005. You might want to take a look at the 20 minutes talk before reading the book. I have found his talk tremendously inspirational and my review might be biased. But I would encourage you to also be biased and inspired by this intelligent and witty thinker.

  Contents

  (every chapter is filled with amazing stories of different amazing people in the world. In this briefing, I could not list all or even half of them) (I also copy (plagiarise) lots of words from the book and I hope it did not terribly violate the copyright!)

  Chapter One: The Element

  The chapter starts with Gillian Lynne and Matt Groening who were hopeless at school but ending up giving pleasure to millions around the world because they found their Element – “the place where the things you love to do and the things you are good at come together.” Sir Ken Robinson explained that the Element has two main features and two conditions aptitude (I get it), passion (I love it), attitude (I want it), opportunity (Where is it?).

  Chapter Two: Think Differently

  We take things for granted. When asked how many senses we possess; people normally answer five or six. That is taking things for granted. Psychologists and scientists assert that there are four more. Likewise, when we talk about intelligence, people often refer it to IQ. That is taking things for granted. Sir Ken Robinson tells us that three features of intelligence are that it is diverse, dynamic, and distinct. And we should rather ask “How are you intelligent?” than “How intelligent are you?”

  Chapter Three: Beyond Imagining

  This chapter starts with three myths of creativity. One myth is that only special people are creative. Another myth is that creativity is about special activities like the arts, design, or advertising. The third myth is that people are either creative or not. Sir Ken said they are all not true. He wrote how imagination is different from creativity and how we should develop both. There are also stories of George Harrison (The Beatles) and how he and Bob Dylan, Roy Orbison, Tom Petty, and Jeff Lynne created a wonderful album and how an American physicist, Richard Faynman won a Nobel Prize.

  Chapter Four: In the Zone

  “To be in the zone is to be in the deep heart of the Element.” “…it transforms our experience of the Element. We become focused and intent. We live the moment. We become lost in the experience and perform at our peak.” The Zone is the place or time where we feel the true sense of freedom and authenticity. Sir Ken Robinson wrote that we are often confined in boxes like the MBTI personality test that group people into sixteen personality types. “My guess is that sixteen personality types might be a bit of an underestimate. My personal estimate would be closer to six billion.”

  Chapter Five: Finding Your Tribe

  The chapter starts with Meg Ryan and how she met different people who gradually shape her Element. “Being a part of this tribe brings her to the Element.” People trying to find their Element need a place to discover themselves. Sir Ken talked about two distinct ideas; “domain” (the sorts of activities and disciplines people are engaged in) and “field” (the other people who are engaged in it). He also told us the difference between the tribe and the crowd.

  Chapter Six: What Will They Think?

  The three circles of constraint which are the barriers to finding the Element are personal, social, and cultural. In this chapter, he wrote about the disabled artist who would not give in to his disadvantage, the story of Paolo Coelho and his family, the Huffington Post (one of the most popular blogs) founder, and Zaha Hadid, the first woman to win the Pritzker Prize for Architecture who grew up in Iraq.

  Chapter Seven: Do You Feel Lucky?

  Attitude plays an important role in finding your Element. People who find their Element often say they are lucky despite difficulties and unfortunate circumstances. Sir Ken Robinson wrote about himself when he was very young and caught polio when he was four. He wrote about an accidentally blind John Wilson who played a crucial role in curing blindness for millions in Africa. According to the study of the psychologist Richard Wiseman, lucky people tend to maximise chance opportunities; they tend to be very effective at listening to their intuition; they tend to expect to be lucky; and they have an attitude that allows them to turn bad luck to good.

  Chapter Eight: Somebody Help Me

  Most people who found their Element often have mentors who help them. The important lesson from this chapter is that mentors have four significant roles, recognition, encouragement, facilitating, and stretching.

  Chapter Nine: Is It Too Late?

  “Lady Di could be bicycling nude down the street giving this book away, and no one would read it.” was the comment Susan Jeffers received from a publisher directing at her book “Feel the Fear and Do It Anyway” before it had been sold millions of copies. And she only started writing properly into her forties. People’s life expectancy has risen in the past century and although we cannot be a gold medalist in Olympics when we are sixty but Sir Ken Robinson wrote about lots of successful people who found their Element later in their lives. “One of the fundamental precepts of the Element is that we need to reconnect with ourselves and to see ourselves holistically.”

  Chapter Ten: For Love or Money

  Not all those who find their Element have to be professionals. Sir Ken Robinson shows us the new way of looking at amateur. The word derives from the Latin word amator, “which means lovers, devoted friend, or someone who is in avid pursuit of an objective.” In this chapter, you will find lots of people who find their Element as an amateur; they do not do it for a living, just the love of it. Sir Ken tells us the difference between leisure and recreation. While leisure offers a respite, a passive break from the challenges of the day, “recreation carries a more active tone – literally of re-creating ourselves.”

  Chapter Eleven: Making the Grade

  Sir Ken Robinson focuses on education in this chapter and the most renown example would be Sir Richard Branson, the founder of Virgin. The problem with an education system is the hirarchy of disciplines (subjects) in schools and the other is that conformity has a higher value than diversity. There are more college graduates now than ever and degrees worth less now. More people who graduate in this generation could not find job because they need higher degree, the so-called academic inflation. In this chapter, Sir Ken tells us the new, alternative education system that might turn schools into, an analogy of, high quality customised restaurant rather than a fast food chain with standardised and unimaginative products.

  …

  I’ll compare this book to an ideal business book; a book that is easy to understand, distinct, practical, credible, insightful, and provides great reading experience. Although this book is not purely business but it can be directly applied.

  Ease of Understanding: 9/10: This book is written in plain English and it is a really easy read. It is very harmonious and stories are weaved perfectly into the content of the chapters. Most stories are filled with conversations and clear points.

  Distinction: 8/10: We all know the power of passion and how it affects our lives. Apart from numerous stories from people whom Sir Ken Robinson encountered, there is a fundamental distinction in the book which is how conventional education system is hindering the creativity of children.

  Practicality: 5/10: There are two sides to view the book; one is that the author, Sir Ken Robinson, did not offer any sound and practical advice for readers to follow; the other view is that there is no specific guideline to reach your Element. He said that intelligence is diverse, dynamic, and distinct. There are numerous kind of intelligence, linguistic, musical, mathematical, spatial, kinesthetic, interpersonal, and intra-personal. Intelligence is dynamic; it does not follow a linear pattern. And it is distinctive; it is as unique as a fingerprint. Thus, it’s yours to find.

  Credibility: 9/10: All the stories in the book are real, not fictional or theoretical. All the findings are either scientific or psychological findings. There is no reason not to believe him. The one point taken is that although his advices in education are exceptionally inspiring and true, we do not know the extent of it. Nobody knows if we follow the advice especially in education, how it may play out. It might be good but not as great as Sir Ken expected or it might be even better.

  Insight: 8/10: All the stories in the book are extraordinary and the book is a great compilation of great and inspiring stories. The psychological findings are sufficient and intriguing albeit not too deep.

  Reading Experience: 10/10: This is, by far, the most inspiring book I have read. From the introduction, regarding the stories in the book, “None of them have “perfect” lives. But all of them regularly experience moments that feel like perfection. Their stories are often fascinating.” he continues “But this book isn’t really about them. It’s about you.” So, if you read the book with an open mind, you will find a way to discover your Element. The range of people in the book is astonishingly diverse and I hope that one of them will trigger your imagination to reach your Element. I cannot praise it enough.

  Overall: 8.2/10: Am I biased? Probably. I am biased because Sir Ken Robinson gave a twenty minutes talk that changed the way I look at my life. I am biased because his book gave me inspiration that I look into the future with optimism and with passion. I am because that this book make me feel that “I” can pursue my dream with my creativity and intelligence. I am biased because this book tells me that my Element is there and it is for me to find it. So yes, I am biased in my review and I deeply hope that you will be biased like me and you will live the life you love. There is no one-size-fits-all but if any of my friends and family members want me to recommend a book on my shelf, they will fortunately get the same answer, The Element.

  Tags: Book Review, Passion

• 08Jun

  Book Review: Jeff Immelt and the New GE Way (David Magee, 2009)

  Book Reviews No Comments

  “Not once, Immelt says, did he question whether he was prepared and able to lead GE.”

  

  “Jeff Immelt and the New GE Way: Innovation, Transformation, and Winning in the 21st Century” by David Magee is the latest GE book on the seven to eight years since Jeff Immelt took over from Jack Welch as the CEO of one of the most admired companies in the world. Days after he was in position, there came 9/11; and his job has never been easy from the beginning. David Magee put the life of Jeff Immelt into this book.

  Contents:

  [Contents of the book will be very brief because in the 233 pages book (excluding appendices and references); each chapter has, on average, only 14-16 pages.]

  Chapter 1: Following a Leader

  The first chapter is about Jeff Immelt’s life in college and how he began his career life at GE. David Magee also wrote on Jeff Immelt’s character since he was a child.

  Chapter 2: Confidently Seize Opportunity

  This chapter is on his career progress in GE from Plastics to Appliance onto becoming a candidate of CEO and finally took it.

  Chapter 3: Strength in Crisis

  After Jeff Immelt took the role as a CEO, 9/11 came and he faced tremendous task of leading GE through tough time. Moreover, the Enron case did not help GE in the stock market.

  Chapter 4: Appearances can be Deceiving

  This chapter focuses on how GE took over an, then, unattractive wind power business and made it thrive.

  Chapter 5: Understand Context

  GE experienced a bad times in the stock market in the early 2000s and David Magee told us how Immelt dealt with it. Immelt’s personal strategy for overcoming tough times includes:
  – Commit to learn every day
  – Work hard with passion
  – Give people a reason to trust
  – Have confidence
  – Be an optimist

  Chapter 6: Cultivate Big Ideas

  This chapter is on how Jeff Immelt focuses on innovation. Unlike his predecessor, Jack Welch, Jeff Immelt emphasises more on science and technology for the new businesses.

  Chapter 7: Invest in Innovation

  Jeff Immelt has created new tools to foster innovation in GE through enhanced laboratories, among other things.

  Chapter 8: Use Your Ecomagination

  Jeff Immelt has geared GE towards environmentally friendly businesses. Wind and solar energy are obvious examples. There are also new innovation in pipeline such as Organic LEDs and Smart Electric Grid.

  Chapter 9: Maintain Core Values

  GE’s core values have not changed; Integrity, Performance, and Change. David Magee wrote on how Jeff Immelt has zero tolerance towards integrity violation, how he and GE are still committed to performance as ever, and how change is always encouraged.

  Chapter 10: Make Growth a Process

  Like his predecessors, Jeff Immelt always focuses on growth and develops growth leaders to develop the company around six key elements; technology, commercial excellence, customer focus, globalisation, innovation, and developing growth leaders.

  Chapter 11: Create a Learning Environment

  “It’s all about learning.” The key to GE continuous progress is how leaders foster the learning environment in the organisation. The chapter shows how Jeff Immelt develops more learning sessions in GE.

  Chapter 12: Find the Future

  This chapter is about emerging markets around the world such as China, India, Russia, Brazil. GE’s three keys to effective globalisation are; 1 Use size as an advantage. 2. Create customer optimization, and 3. Leverage capabilities.

  Chapter 13: Plant Many Seeds

  GE is still expanding their businesses in various fields. Moreover, Jeff Immelt reorganised GE into four divisions; Technology Infrastructure, Energy Infrastructure, GE Capital, and NBC Universal.

  Chapter 14: Find Opportunity in Adversity

  This chapter is about the ongoing economic crisis and the stock market and how Jeff Immelt is coping with them.

  Chapter 15: Leadership for the New Century

  (This chapter is just a brief conclusion, albeit a grand name)

  …

  I’ll compare this book to an ideal business book; a book that is easy to understand, distinct, practical, credible, insightful, and provides great reading experience.

  Ease of Understanding: 7/10: This book is written in plain language. Most of the contents are from articles in the business magazines. It is an easy and fast read without deep analysis. The drawback is the flow of the book which lacks solid structure. Titles of the chapters, sometimes, are not really relevant to contents.

  Distinction: 8/10: This is the only book on Jeff Immelt available.

  Practicality: 2/10: There is no guideline on how to do anything in this book; it might be the purpose of the author. This book is a great compilation of what Jeff Immelt said. There are some lists of what GE and Jeff Immelt have done (see Chapter 5 above); and that is as far as the content goes.

  Credibility: 5/10: The credibility of the sources is excellent because they are in quotations. However, there are some interpretations and journalism by the author that make this book a bit unconvincing. Everything Jeff Immelt did seems to be the right way and is taken for granted. David Magee unavoidably compared Jeff Immelt to Jack Welch and he praised Jeff Immelt for lots of things that he did but Welch did not do such as innovation sessions. There are countless features that the two are similar and the author seems to praise Immelt because he followed it nicely. I am not in the position to judge which CEO is better but the overall tone of the book is 100% pro Jeff Immelt (in everything he did) which is over the top.

  Insightful: 3/10: Although this book has the most quotes from Jeff Immelt and other GE executives, it is extremely shallow. Analysis is non-existent in the book. Everything in this book is as deep as what Jeff Immelt and others said without any further and deep investigation. As I mentioned earlier, things, in this book, are taken for granted.

  Reading Experience: 5/10: The good point is that this is an easy read and it can be fun if you don’t think about it too much. However, the tone of the book makes everything Jeff Immelt did a stroke of genius and it even seems that David Magee was occasionally having a go at Jack Welch which is ridiculous.

  Overall: 5.0/10: The title “the New GE Way” is a massively misleading title because it is basically the same GE we have known. Under Jeff Immelt, GE has the same GE way with the new leadership, updated and refined business models, and enhanced management tools. Unlike other “GE” books (especially by Jack Welch), this book provides you with little insight and no guideline. But if you really admire GE (like me), I think that you will buy the book anyway. All in all, the book will make you know Jeff Immelt much more. Instead of “Jeff Immelt: the New GE Way”, the title should have read “Jeff Immelt: 7 years as a GE CEO mini biography” and I would have been disappointed slightly less than I am. By the way, I will be patiently waiting for a book by Jeff Immelt himself if he writes one. Skip this one if you can.

  Tags: Book Review, GE, Leadership, Management

• 03Jun

  Business Book Review Analysis (Nov08 - May09)

  Uncategorized No Comments

  It has been seven months since I started reviewing business books with my rating method. Personally, I think it’s successful not because there are numerous people reading my blog but by the impact I had on, even on a few, people. I have great and valuable comments in my blog and the helpfulness rating in Amazon.com is not bad at around 80% albeit very few people rated them.

  I will make an analysis on the 20 books I’ve reviewed so far.

  (disclaimer: this analysis is based solely on my personal reviews and it has no scientific or academic data to support it.)

  	EoU	Dist	Prac	Cred	Ins	RE
  Winning	8	7	8	10	6	9	8.0
  Business Stripped Bare	8	7	5	10	7	10	7.8
  The Future of Management	7	9	8	3	8	9	7.3
  The Ten Commandments to Business Failure	9	4	8	9	5	9	7.3
  Reality Check	9	6	7	5	6	10	7.2
  The Answer	8	7	7	5	8	8	7.2
  Tuned In	9	5	8	8	6	7	7.2
  Meatball Sundae	8	7	5	8	5	9	7.0
  Influence	8	9	7	7	9	2	7.0
  Who	8	6	9	7	5	6	6.8
  Yes!	8	8	4	6	5	9	6.7
  The Talent Code	8	7	8	3	7	6	6.5
  The Sense of Urgency	8	8	7	5	5	6	6.5
  Inside Steve’s Brain	7	5	4	6	8	6	6.0
  The Brand Bubble	5	6	4	7	9	5	6.0
  Outliers	8	9	2	2	7	8	6.0
  Talent	7	4	3	9	8	4	5.8
  Bull Moves in Bear Markets	8	6	5	3	4	5	5.2
  Tribes	7	6	1	4	4	5	4.5
  Six Disciplines Execution Revolution	7	2	4	3	5	3	4.0
  	7.75	6.4	5.7	6	6.35	6.8	6.5

  EoU - Ease of Understanding

  Dist - Distinction

  Prac - Practicality

  Cred - Credibility

  Ins - Insight

  RE - Reading Experience

  …..

  The highest rating out of 20 books is “Winning” by Jack and Suzy Welch at 8.0/10. However, I reviewed this book years after I read it and it might not be fair to other book. Thus, the runner-up is “Business Stripped Bare” by Richard Branson at 7.8/10. The lowest score is “Six Disciplines Execution Revolution” by Gary Harpst followed by “Tribes” by Seth Godin.

  On the average scores of each attribute, “Ease of Understanding” has the highest at 7.75 not that I am intelligent but because nowadays, books need to capture broader market and they need to be easy to read since readers seem to have less patience nowadays. The lowest average score is “Practicality.” I believe that authors do not want to write their books like Dummy’s guide to … but sometimes it would help the readers if the authors really do focus on what can the readers do after reading.

  There is no obvious correlation between each attribute. However, the “Read Experience” seems to be the most probable determinant of the overall book rating probably reading experience is an instillation of every dimension of the books.

  Ease of Understanding:

  Highest: “Reality Check” by Guy Kawasaki (9), “The Ten Commandments for Business Failure” by Donald Keough (9), and “Tuned In” by Craig Stull, Phil Myers, and David Meerman Scott(9)

  Lowest: “The Brand Bubble” by John Gerzema and Ed Lebar (5)

  The determinant of the Ease of Understanding comes from the structure of the book and how different parts of the book are woven together. The notable attribute of “Reality Check” is its structure and bullet points writing style. “The Ten Commandments for Business Failure” is written casually and every point is easy to grasp. “Tuned In” has the most obvious step-by-step structure with nice stories. On the other hand, “The Brand Bubble” tried to put lots of things into the mix and each point of the book is not in sync.

  Distinction:

  Highest: “Influence” by Robert Cialdini (9), “Outliers” by Malcolm Gladwell (9), and “The Future of Management” by Gary Hamel (9).

  Lowest: “Six Disciplines Execution Revolution” by Gary Harpst (2)

  Distinction comes from how the author and the book looks at something from a unique perspective. It takes a careful but courageous creativity to look at the same things differently. “Influence” looks at sales from the perspective of deep psychology with astounding findings. “Outliers” look at success in a way people rarely thought about, Opportunity and Legacy. “The Future of Management” sees management from a genuine vantage and analogy. The lowest score is “Six Disciplines Execution Revolution”; the word revolution is a deadly overstatement. It is like a university textbook, but worse.

  Practicality:

  Highest: “Who” by Geoff Smart and Randy Street (9), and “Winning” by Jack and Suzy Welch (8).

  Lowest: “Tribes” by Seth Godin (1)

  Practicality is difficult to achieve by a book but “Who” did a great job by elaborating a step by step guide on recruitment. It covers essential things and tell you exactly how to implement. “Winning” is another great example; the one you will hear Jack Welch screamed “DO THIS, DO THAT.” Most books do not focus on actions and “Tribes” is not a very good example. The book does not tell readers to do anything. It only tells you some stories and hope you find your own way, if there is any.

  Credibility:

  Highest: “Winning” by Jack and Suzy Welch (10), and “Business Stripped Bare” by Richard Branson (10)

  Lowest: “Outliers” by Malcolm Gladwell (2)

  It does help if you write something you are really good at. Jack Welch is arguably the CEO of the 20^st century and Richard Branson is one of the world’s most successful entrepreneurs. You can have high credibility with other people’s researches but the best proof is when you can do it yourself, then, you can expect others to believe you. Although “Outliers” views the world from a different angle, it fails to convince the world. There are lots of things that Malcolm Gladwell did not cover and it is hard to believe picking few examples and write rules around them.

  Insight:

  Highest: “Influence” by Robert Cialdini (9), and “The Brand Bubble” by John Gerzema (9)

  Lowest: “Tribes” by Seth Godin (4), and “The Little Book of Bull Moves in the Bear Markets” by Peter Schiff (4).

  Taking too many researches from other people might not build your credibility but they pack your book with interesting findings. “The Brand Bubble” is not the best written book but the amount of work and effort of the authors to write about lots of deep stuffs is insightful and we learn a lot from it. Likewise, “Influence” has a (very) long list of references and you can talk about the stories in the book all day. On the other hand, you should not write things based solely on your opinion. “Tribes” by Seth Godin is very shallow and “The Little Book of Bull Moves in the Bear Markets” has very little insight, just speculations.

  Reading Experience:

  Highest: “Reality Check” by Guy Kawasaki (10), and “Business Stripped Bare” by Richard Branson (10).

  Lowest: “Influence” by Robert Cialdini (2), and “Six Disciplines Execution Revolution” by Gary Harpst (3).

  “Reality Check” is very humorous and funny while “Business Stripped Bare” is exciting and adventurous. They are the books with emotions and they even entertain the readers. “Execution Revolution” by Gary Harpst did the opposite. It lacks emotion, dull, and boring. It is like a summary of a textbook. On the other hand, you should not reinforce a negative emotion from readers like “Influence.” Read my review for the details but all in all, you should not piss off the readers!

  …

  All in all, although I have no experience or knowledge to write a book, I come up with an easy guideline to write a better book from a reader’s point of view.

  DOs;

  - Write a book with a concise structure in plain language

  - Look at the subject from a different point of view

  - Tell readers what they have to do

  - Write something you are truly good at

  - Do research, and do some more

  - Put feelings and emotions into the book

  DONTs:

  - Don’t write simple stuff with a rocket-scientifically complicated theory with a mess up structure

  - Don’t try to write a textbook (there are a lot of them already)

  - Don’t write what you know just to show off; tell people what to do

  - Don’t think readers are thick; don’t think they will always believe you

  - Don’t base everything solely on your own opinion

  - Tell a story, or a journey…. Don’t just write a book

• 31May

  Book Review: The Talent Code (Daniel Coyle, 2009)

  Book Reviews No Comments

  “I’m going to practice it a zillion million times,” she said. “I’m going to play super good.”

  

  “The Talent Code” by Daniel Coyle is a book on how to grow talent. The author is against the wisdom that talent is natural. The book is around the belief that talent come from Myelin. Myelin is the “insulation that wrap these nerve fibers and increases signal strength, speed, and accuracy.” When the certain signal is sent down the nerve system, myelin wraps around the nerve fibre. The thicker the myelin, the better the signal. Thus, “skill is myelin insulation that wraps neural circuits and that grows according to certain signals.”

  The book is divided into three parts of talent growing; 1. Deep Practice 2. Ignition 3. Master Coaching

  Contents

  Part 1: Deep Practice

  Chapter 1: The Sweet Spot

  This is the first chapter to familiarise us with the deep practice. Coyle wrote about Brazilian football (soccer) and why it is the world’s talent hotbed. He had an amazing story of Edwin Link and how his unusual device transformed the training of the Air Force.

  Chapter 2: The Deep Practice Cell

  This chapter surrounds the idea of myelin and how it might be the holy grail to talent. It is very scientific. To sum it up, “deep practice x 10,000 hours = world-class skill.”

  Chapter 3: The Brontës, the Z-Boys, and the Renaissance

  The author started with the Brontë sisters from England in the 1850s who wrote fantastic children books. He also wrote about the group of skaters by the name of Z-Boys and the guilds during the renaissance and how they produced highly talented people.

  Chapter 4: The Three Rules of Deep Practice

  This chapter, Coyle gives us three rules of Deep Practicing. 1. Chunk It Up 2. Repeat It 3. Learn to Feel It

  Part 2: Ignition

  Chapter 5: Prima Cues

  It is merely things that get you interested, that excite you and bring you passion. Coyle wrote on how the success of Se Ri Pak, a Korean golfer, had an impact on the next generation of female Korean golfers and how young Russian tennis players wanted to be the new Anna. “If she can do it, why can’t I?”

  Chapter 6: The Curaçao Experiment

  The remote Caribbean island, Curaçao, did a miraculous work at producing lots of talented baseball players because the ignition sparked when an island hero, Andruw Jones, hit a home run. However, the real success of Curaçao is that it keeps motivational fire lit, Doyle tells you how they did it.

  Chapter 7: How to Ignite a Hotbed

  This chapter is about KIPP (Knowledge Is Power Program) by Mike Feinberg and Dave Levin. The story of success of KIPP is like a miracle but the core of it is to constantly ignite the students with just a word, college. No,… “COLLEGE!!”

  Part 3: Master Coaching

  Chapter 8: The Talent Whisperers

  Talent does not come alone, the talented people in their fields need a coach, a mentor, or a master. Coyle wrote about Herman Lamm, the originator and teacher of modern bank-robbing skill! He wrote about Hans Jansen, a cello teacher at Meadowmount Music School in Chicago and how he personalised his teaching method. There is also a wonderful story of John Wooden, a great basketball coach and his amazing coaching techniques.

  Chapter 9: The Teaching Blueprint

  The author elaborated the four virtues of teaching 1. The Matrix or a task-specific knowledge of the teacher (He wrote a nice story of Linda Septein who taught Jessica Simpson and Beyonce Knowles) 2. Perceptiveness - how to perceive students individually 3. The GPS Reflex - the just-in-time informative directives 4. Theatrical Honesty which is the ability to connect with students.

  Chapter 10: Tom Martinez and the $60 Million Bet

  This is a chapter about Tom Martinez, a retired junior college American football coach, and his teaching method on a promising young quarterback, JaMarcus Russell.

  …

  I would like to compare this book to an ideal book: a book that is easy to understand, distinct, practical, credible, insightful, and provides great reading experience.

  Ease of Understanding: 8/10: The book is written in simple language albeit some scientific information. The structure is very simple with the three parts, Deep Practice, Ignition, and Master Coaching. Minor drawbacks are some uses of unnecessary ambiguous words such as Matrix, Threatrical Honesty, etc. but they are minor, though.

  Distinction: 7/10: There are many books on this subject already and it reminds me of a recent book, “Outliers” by Malcolm Gladwell and the two have some similarities and some differences. However, The Talent Code is excellent at instilling the knowledge of Myelin making us view talent from a different perspective.

  Practicality: 8/10: This book is practical especially in the field on Deep Practice. Daniel Coyle explained nicely on this issue and it is not difficult to implement it to our daily life. Chunk It Up, Repeat, and Learn to Feel It are pretty much straightforward and Deep Practice is the best part of the book because the other two, Ignition and Master Coaching are more difficult to implement.

  Credibility: 3/10: Although this is a very good book, it has a major flaw. This book is like a qualitative research. It is deep in the subject and in the examples and stories in the book. However, it lacks generalisation. You might say “That’s the way it is” to a story but that might not be the way the rest are. There are some contradictions in the book as well.

  For example, in the Chapter 9, the author stated that teaching soccer is different from teaching violin. Teaching soccer must be free flowing because the soccer circuitry is “varied and fast, changing fluidly in response to each obstacle.” So, the coach rather lets the players perform. On the other hand, the violinist has to be accurate, precise, and stable. The coach, thus, has to stop and make sure that the circuitry is correct.

  The argument is convincing and sensible until we noticed the way the legendary John Wooden, a basketball coach, coached. It’s undisputed that basketball is more similar to soccer than violin that it requires fluidity in the game but Coyle wrote that John Wooden constantly issuing informative corrections of movements to players. He might not stop the game but he surely keeps correcting players, not letting them flow. Coyle wrote “[The soccer coach] occasionally smiles ot laughs or says oooooooo for a close play as a fan would. But he doesn’t coach in the regular sense of the term, which is to say he doesn’t stop the game, teach, praise, critique, or otherwise exert any control whatsoever.“

  There are some other contradictions or, at least, an overlap. In the chapter 8, Coyle wrote that some coaches coach love or make the children love what they are doing. The quote from the research of Dr. Benjamin Bloom in the chapter is “Perhaps the major quality of these teachers was that they made the initial learning very pleasant and rewarding. Much of the introduction to the field was a playful activity, and the learning at the beginning of the stage was much like a game.“

  However, in chapter 7, regarding KIPP, the process is not really similar, if not opposite. The new students will be introduced to “discipline” from the first day on everything; how to walk, how to talk, how to sit at a desk, how to look at a teacher or classmate who’s speaking, and so on. Students, on the first day, sat on the floor without a desk because “…everything here at KIPP is earned. EVERYTHING is earned. Everything is EARNED.” This is a much tougher game than the piano class in Dr. Bloom’s research. Likewise, at Spartak, the tennis hotbed in Russia, they did not “play” tennis - they preferred the verb borot’sya - “fight” or “struggle.”

  There are many minor contradictions and overlaps in this book and make it much less convincing and credible and much of them are in the parts of “Ignition” and “Master Coaching.”

  Insightful: 7/10: Daniel Coyle had done a very good work with his interviews in the so-called talent hotbeds around the world. Those examples are backed with stories from those involved. However, more researches with less depth would be great to confirm the findings of the deep and insightful ones.

  Reading Experience: 6/10: At first, this book is very promising with the first part, “Deep Practice.” It gives you intriguing knowledge and very practical methods. However, the book fades out in the later parts I discussed above. While the “Deep Practice” part is very scientific, the other parts are not as solid. The general theme of the whole book is nice but the contradictions can frustrate you.

  Overall: 6.5/10: This is a good book with a different perspective on how we look at talent. It will provide you with inspiration and sufficient guidelines to make you more talented in your fields. The Deep Practice part of the book is simply invaluable. The other two parts are not bad but some unclear messages might hold you back.

  Tags: Book Review, Talent

• 25May

  Book Review: Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion (Robert B. Cialdini, Ph.D., 2007)

  Book Reviews 1 Comment

  “Click and the appropriate tape is activated; whirr and out rolls the standard sequence of behaviors.”

  

  “Influence, The Psychology of Persuasion” by Robert Cialdini is a book about psychology and how people react to the weapons of influence. The book has been published numerous times and the first edition dated back to 1984. The good point is that, despite dramatic changes in lifestyle and technology, human psychology does not change much. We are still the social animals and the weapons of influence is as effective to us as ever, if not even more. The book is arguably one of the best selling psychology books ever (although we can classify it as a business or self-improvement book).

  Contents

  (Actually, to explore the contents, you can easily google “Influence, Cialdini” and there will be a lot to read. So, I’ll keep it very brief.)

  Intro: Weapons of Influence

  1. Reciprocation: The Old Give and Take … and Take

  The rule of reciprocation is that when you give someone something, it is almost obligatory that the person who took it has to return the favour. This rule is very effective that you feel you need to give back even though you are not satisfied with the whole situation.

  2. Commitment and Consistency: Hobgoblins of the Mind

  This is the shortcut of human beings. We tend to do what we set our mind to without thinking much. It reduces time spent but sometimes consistency without careful consideration can be disastrous.

  3. Social Proof: Truth Are Us

  When you are thinking and doing one thing, it might be true or false. When too many people are thinking and doing that thing, our human mind tend to believe that it is true just because so many people do and believe in it. It might sound insignificant and Cialdini told us stories that the rule of “Social Proof” can lead to tragic deaths.

  4. Liking: The Friendly Thief

  It is not as simple as that you will do something if you like it. The author wrote different perspectives of liking such as that salesperson often pretend to be similar to us in one way or another to trigger the sense of association and similarity that can deceive our judgment or sexy ladies in the ad can stimulate the “liking” and alters your perception towards the product.

  5. Authority: Directed Deference

  We are born to obey authority from parents, teachers, etc. When we are adult, this same trait is still with us and we tend to obey and rely on people who we believe have higher authority. Authority comes in different forms such as titles, or even clothes.

  6. Scarcity: The Rule of the Few

  People always perceive that less is more valuable. Not having something is more tolerable than losing something. We always fear losing things or desire rarer things that sometimes it clouds our judgment.

  …

  I would like to compare this book to an ideal business book; the book that is easy to understand, distinct, practical, credible, insightful, and provides great reading experience.

  Ease of Understanding: 8/10: The book is structured nicely into 6 weapons of influence and each of them are explained sufficiently with many interesting researches. Those researches are not filled with complex statistics but common senses in everyday situations like a choice of cookie, car salesperson, poster ads, etc.

  Distinction: 9/10: It is a matter of then and now. At the time the book was first published I doubt that there were many book that explored into our mind on how we make decisions. The findings are eye-opening in how they explain the reasons why we do what we do. Currently, there are many similar books on this topic but it is likely that “Influence” has influenced most, if not all, of them.

  Practicality: 7/10: This book offers solid guidelines on how these methods work and how to avoid them. However, implementation is a different story because in many situations, there will not be enough time for you to implement it perfectly unless you are a natural born influencer. Nevertheless, this book is very useful if you have time to think and make decision.

  Credibility: 7/10: Each method is supported by many researches; they are very credible. Moreover, those methods are pretty much common senses and self-explanatory but most of the time, we are not even aware of them because they are built-in our behaviours and they are often triggered subconsciously and involuntarily. The points are taken because some researches might still be just coincidence because despite having many researches, some are not deep enough.

  Insightful: 9/10: This book is a great compilation of psychological researches about persuasion. There are more than “200″ references in the bibliography section in a 280 pages book. Some of them might be shallow but that number of researches is intriguing and you will learn a lot from the book.

  Reading Experience: 2/10: I have been objective throughout my review, I need a place to be subjective and sentimental. You can ignore this completely but I do not like this book at all. Some remarks of the author has “influenced” me totally negatively. I will give you some examples.

  Regarding the mass suicide in a jungle settlement in Guyana, South America led by the Reverend Jim Jones under the name of The People’s Temple. Approximately 910 died in the incident; people took strawberry flavored poison. The author suggested that due to the rule of “Social Proof”, when people are uncertain of the situation, they follow others and all of them died in orderliness. “When viewed in this light, the terrible orderliness, the lack of panic, the sense of calm with which these people moved to the vat of poison and to their deaths, seems more comprehensible.” [emphasis mine]

  On the other hand, when the author explained people who are sport fans who refer to the team they support “we” when the team win. For example, when the Philadelphia Phillies won the World Series, 11 million people - in a city of 1.5 million - crowded the streets to shout “We’re Number 1″ as their heroes passed in a victory parade. And when the team lost, the sport fans rather refer to the team as “they”. Cialdini wrote

  “Unless I miss my guess, they are not merely great sports aficionados; they are individuals with a hidden personality flaw - a poor self-concept. Deep inside is a sense of low personal worth that directs them to seek prestige not from the generation or promotion of their own attainments, but from the generation or promotion of their associations with others of attainment.” [emphasis mine]

  It continues “No matter which form it takes, the behavior of such individuals shares similar theme - the rather tragic view of accomplishment as deriving from outside the self.” [emphasis mine]

  In the later chapter, there is an analogy of a shopper and fish; I find it very insulting to many people. It’s about shopping. He explained that commercial fishermen use loose bait to attract a large schools of certain fish. When water is full of fish snapping mouths competing for the food. Fishermen drop unbaited lines and catch fish because it crazed food and will bite at anything, including bare metal hooks. He stated that a “Bargain Sale” sign is a loose bait and you, shoppers, are craving fish.

  “If the bait, of either form, has done its job, a large and eager crowd forms to snap it up. Soon, in the rush to score, the group becomes agitated, nearly blinded, by the adversarial nature of the situation. Human and fish alike lose perspective on what they want and begin striking at whatever is contested.” [emphasis mine]

  Hence, while I felt terribly sorry for those in the mass suicide, we can imply that Cialdini sees them as psychologically normal but under a bad circumstance. While passionate sport fans (a majority of men) have poor self-concept and a rather tragic view of accomplishment. And girls fighting for clothes on sale (most female, obviously) are nearly blind food craving fish. Next time when you are going to support your sport team, take a look at a mirror and tell yourself how great you are instead. And ladies, alway buy full price.

  Overall: 7.0/10: Despite the fact that I detest some remarks and the general know-it-all egotistical attitude of the author, this is an excellent book. It will teach you how to beware of the influence from everywhere in every social setting. The six methods are very clear and the number of researches are remarkable if you decide to use them or to prevent them from influencing you. Unfortunately, the author has totally influenced my negatively but when thinking of it sensibly, I still recommend everyone to read the book.

  Tags: Book Review

• 07May

  Book Review: The Ten Commandments for Business Failure (Donald R. Keough, 2008)

  Book Reviews 3 Comments

  “While no company can ever embrace all of the world and all of mankind, Coca-Cola comes about as close as any.”

  

  “The Ten Commandment for Business Failure” by Donald R. Keough, a former president of the Coca-Cola company, is a small book that, if you follow the instructions, will guide you to be a very successful loser. If you do not want to be one, this book is a must read and take those lessons as a cautionary tale.

  Coca-Cola is one of the most recognisable brands on the planet but it was still vulnerable to failures. In this book, Keough tells you stories of Coca-Cola, among other companies, on how it became successful and how it failed at times. When you read the words “failure” and “Coca-Cola”, I bet the word “New Coke” sprang to your mind. Despite all the stories from any business book or textbook, in this book, you will have a chance to know it from the former president of Coca-Cola himself.

  Contents

  Commandment One: Quit Taking Risks

  “It’s reasonable to think that because when you achieve something, even very little, there is the great temptation to quit taking risks.” Apart from telling you the reason that quit taking risk is a sure way to failure, Keough wrote briefly about Xerox and how they quited taking risk.

  Commandment Two: Be Inflexible

  Keough started this chapter with a story of Coca-Cola bottlers in 1940s-1950s and how they almost brought the company down because of the inflexible practice. This chapter also has the examples of IBM and Ford. All in all, “when the conditions around you change, remain inflexible. Keep on keeping on. Stand firm, You will fail.’

  Commandment Three: Isolate Yourself

  This chapter targets at those who get yourself a great big office in some remote corner of the most remote executive floor and the shut the door. And also put out a sign: “Don’t make the boss mad. Bring me no bad news.”

  Commandment Four: Assume Infallibility

  “If something seems to be heading in the wrong direction, cover up, better yet, wait until you have a full-blown crisis, then blame it on some external force - or blame it on somebody else.” Keough wrote about a brief ignorance of Coca-Cola that damaged the reputation dearly in Belgium. There was also a story of Coca-Cola in Germany that Keough admitted he was wrong because he somewhat assumed infallibility.

  Commandment Five: Play the Game Close to the Foul Line

  He wrote about the problem with the Wall Street that made CFO the rock stars of business instead of being the guardians of the transparency and the fiscal integrity of the corporations. “There is no such thing as business ethics. Just ethics. It’s not separated from the rest of your life.”

  Commandment Six: Don’t Take Time to Think

  Keough wrote that we are in the generation that is obsessed with technology. People said we are in the ‘information age’ but he disputed that we are in the ‘data age’ with all the ICT (Information and Communication Technology). We need to think and Keough tells you the vice of not thinking.

  Commandement Seven: Put All Your Faith in Experts and Outside Consultants

  This chapter has the popular case study, New Coke, not on how it failed but how it was caused. There is also a nice anecdote on Coca-Cola wine business.

  Commandment Eight: Love Your Bureaucracy

  “The bureaucrats who control these (bureaucratic) rituals guard them with their lives because any change undermines their own power or authority.” He also mentioned that bureaucracy in one of the main reasons talented individuals left the company. There are some short stories of Coca-Cola, Dell, NASA, etc regarding love of bureaucracy.

  Commandment Nine: Send Mixed Message

  “It doesn’t matter what you do, you’ll be rewarded.” is an example of a mixed message that Keough wrote about. Mixed messages create confusion. He wrote about Columbia and how Coca-Cola purchasing it sent a mixed message to everyone.

  Commandment Ten: Be Afraid of the Future

  The pessimists will not push anything forward be it corporations or a society. This chapter, Keough hit on the faces of those with pessimism.

  Commandment Eleven: Lose Your Passion for Work - for Life

  This is the bonus chapter and Keough wrote on how it is the most important one.

  …

  Next, I’ll compare this book to an ideal business book or a book that is easy to understand, distinct, practical, reliable, insightful, and provides great reading experience.

  Ease of Understanding: 9/10: It is a little book written in a plain language and all the commandments were beautifully in sync. You do not have to fret with statistical data or figures, everything is easy to learn and absorb.

  Distinction: 4/10: The major difference between this book and others is that it is written by Donald Keough. All the commandments and stories in this book are not new, just from an opposite perspective.

  Practicality: 8/10: It is somewhat confusing to define ‘practicality’ of this book. Following the book will definitely lead you to failure and this book is written in a sarcastic tone. Thus, do the opposite and use the commandments in this book as a caution.

  Reliability: 9/10: It is very hard to dispute his commandments. Look at the ten (eleven) commandments and try to tell which one will not lead to business failure. I can’t, and I don’t think anybody can. Although his experience alone is great enough, Keough put together different and interesting (albeit indifferent) stories of other companies and industries.

  Insight: 5/10: This book is small and the stories are short. I wish stories, especially Coca-Cola ones, are longer with more insight and details. However, another thing I love about this book is quotations from various people. They are not numerous but I like every single one.

  Reading Experience: 9/10: You will finish the book in no time. It is a pleasure to read. The tone of the book is sarcastic, casual, and joyful. I have never and will never have a chance to talk to Donald Keough but from the experience I have from reading the book, I come to think that the foreword by Warren Buffet might be true that “Don talks such sense and offers such inspiration. Don can tell you to go to hell so wonderfully you’ll enjoy the journey.”

  Overall: 7.3/10: Get this book and you will like it. There are some flaws because it is very short but I truly believe that you can find much use of it. Hang this book it front of you office to remind you what you must not do in your business and you will shut the door to failure. By the way, I rarely pay attention to the praises and foreword but this book probably has one of the best compilations; Bill Gates, Warren Buffet, Jack Welch, and Rupert Murdoch… well… and George W. Bush!

  Tags: Book Review, Business, Coca-Cola, Management

• 04May

  Book Review: The Little Book of Bull Moves in Bear Markets (Peter D. Schiff, 2008)

  Book Reviews 3 Comments

  “The situation we are facing is of a magnitude comparable to the Great Depression of the 1930s and the next worst bear market, the stagflation period of the 1970s.”

  

  “The Little Book of Bull Moves and Bear Markets” by Peter Schiff was published in October 2008. Before releasing the book, Peter Schiff predicted the situation of the housing market in the US ‘right’. The reason that it took me more than six months to review is that a financial and invesment book’s quality will be proven over time (just like the investment per se). And for this book in particular, reading it now and reading it in October 2008 are like reading a different book.

  This book is, in a nutshell, about the cause of the current economic crisis, what will happen in the future, and how we can deal with it financially, professionally, and socially.

  Contents

  Chapter One: Let’s Do the Time Warp Again

  Peter Schiff explained, in a simple language, different periods of economic slumps and booms and the causes. The conclusion is that we are now in an inevitable recession for many years to come.

  Chapter Two: Saving Your Assets

  “Stay Out of Cash and Bonds.” In this chapter, he wrote on how the US exported inflation and it is going to backfire making US dollar worthless.

  Chapter Three: Beware of False Prophets

  He claimed that the government’s economic policy is political and measures and indicators are misleading such as GDP, inflation, unemployment, among other things. He stated that the government, Wall Street, and industry groups were having an agenda and their information is misleading.

  Chapter Four: Of Babies and Bathwater

  This chapter is about investing in the US. His parting words are to stay away from dollar. However, there are some US stocks worth holding onto.

  Chapter Five: Hot Stuff

  Commodities are hot and this chapter tells you how to hold onto them.

  Chapter Six: The Ring in the Bull’s Nose

  “Making Money with Gold and Silver”. It’s self-explanatory. And he tells you six ways to play gold and silver.

  Chapter Seven: Weathering the Storm

  He predicted that dollar will be in a free fall and we should invest in other currencies and this chapter tells you how.

  Chapter Eight: Favorite Nations

  Following the previous chapters, Peter Schiff recommends numerous nations from the North America (Canada) to Europe (Norway, Switzerland) to Asia (Singapore, Hong Kong), etc. to invest in.

  Chapter Nine: If You Want to Roll the Dice

  He briefly tells you that the emerging markets are on the way to bull markets.

  Chapter Ten: To Infinity and Beyond

  This chapter is for your ‘profession’ consideration. He portrays the profession or industry that are going down, i.e., retail, real estate, etc. and potentially profitable ones such as construction, agriculture, merchant marine, etc.

  Chapter Eleven: A Decade of Frugality

  Spend less, start saving (not in dollar), get rid of debt, stockpile goods, etc.

  Chapter Twelve: Pack Your Bags

  He advised you to emigrate to other countries. This chapters tell you brief information on immigration laws, banking environment, lifestyle, language, and how should you choose the country to live in.

  Chapter Thirteen: The Light at the End of the Tunnel

  He wrote about the (then) upcoming election that both candidates will make the country suffer more with different means. He tells you to wait until 2012, the next election, and his solution is two words: Ron Paul.

  …

  I’ll compare this book to the ideal book; a book that is easy to understand, distinct, practical, reliable, insightful, and provides great reading experience.

  Ease of Understanding: 8/10: The very first few chapters are the background and analysis of economic crisis we are in but Schiff explained it simply although there are few points that you need basic knowledge in finance or economic to comprehend. The second half of the book is very straightforward, ditch your dollar, invest elsewhere and move!

  Distinction: 6/10: The point of the book is similar to other books explaining the economic crisis and how to deal with it. All of them are different in one way or another because, in economics, there are countless ways to foresee the future but the worst case of this one is one of the worst around.

  Practicality: 5/10: Talking about investing abroad is easy, doing is much harder. Chapter five to seven offer solid but complicated (for normal people) ways to invest but you can simply go to, surprisingly, Schiff’s company, Euro Pacific Capital, and they will simplify the complicated investment! The very last chapters are also easier said than done such as emigrating to other countries and probably looking for a new job if you are in the busting industry. Moreover, if you are not an American, you will not find much use of the book.

  Reliability: 3/10: This is very controversial. More than six months on, Peter Schiff predicted a doom in housing market, an inevitable recession, and a rise (but not that high) in gold price ‘right’. As of the rest, I have to say they are wrong (or not so right yet). I do not want to jump into the debate and analysis because everyone is a genius in a hindsight but the most obvious mistake is that he ‘overestimated’ the rest of the world. BRIC (Brazil, Russia, India, and China) and the rest of Asia could not capitalise from the US downturn because US is a customer too important to the economies. Thus, dollar is still fine (at least now) meaning that most of the second half of the book is void.

  Insight: 4/10: For a start, trying to put the world in a small book is tough. And almost everything is Schiff’s opinion with very little insight from other experts.

  Reading Experience: 5/10: If you like a thriller movie where everyone dies in the end, you will probably enjoy the book. This book is equal to the movie ‘Knowing’ starring Nicolas Cage.

  Overall: 5.2/10: It is almost impossible to write a book that can predict the economy in the future right. Peter Schiff took a gamble on this book and it did not turn out well. His assumptions were rigid with no margin for error. However, it might be possible that his prediction is too early and a total collapse in the US market is yet to come. Until that time, rest this book on the shelf and when the perfect storm is actually coming, get this book and emigrate!

  Tags: Book Review, Economics, Investment

• 16Apr

  Book Review: The Brand Bubble (John Gerzema and Ed Lebar, 2008)

  Book Reviews 2 Comments

  “There’s another bubble hiding in our economy”

  

  “The Brand Bubble” by John Gerzema and Ed Lebar is to remind and warn everyone that the current economy crisis might not be the last one in present days. Brands, around the world, have been inflated perceptually and financially. With the new era of technology, customers are surrounded with blogs, news, reviews, discussions, recommendations, and they are within an arm reach; this is the so-called ConsumerLand by the authors. Big brands are not invincible anymore. Brands that survive, thrive, and flourish need “energy”. This book tells you the meaning and importance of “energy” and how can you foster it.

  Contents

  Part 1: Introduction

  Chapter 1: Tulipmania and Inflated Brands

  The first chapter tells you the current state of brands and how they were inflated mainly by the hands of Wall Street. Brands are less trusted, less liked, less salient, and more often perceived as low quality but the value of the brands, or the intangible assets of the company measured by the stock market, is still on the way up.

  Chapter 2: Can You Say “Irresistable”?

  The authors state that the new dimension that drives the brand is “energy”, and the new four pillars of brand are Energized Differentiation, Relevance, Esteem, and Knowledge. There is an interesting grid of BrandAsset Valuator© or BAV which has Y-axis as Brand Strength and X-axis as Brand Stature. You can take a look at TheBrandBubble.com.

  Chapter 3: Wall Street, Meet Main Street

  The point of the chapter is that consumers are more sophisticated and act more like investors that they seek future benefits, want to maximise returns, accumulate information and knowledge, watch for movement, and demand transparency and accountability.

  Chapter 4: The Postmodern Craving for Creativity

  Creativity is a must, full stop.

  Chapter 5: Welcome to ConsumerLand

  The Internet and more specifically social media changes the way consumers behave

  Part 2: Application

  In this part, each chapter is the stage of brand development. In each chapter, the authors will explain the contents and end the chapters with 1.) Obstacle to beat back 2.) The law of energy, 3.) The new rule of brand management and 4.) Case study. I will write brief explanations without going into too much detail.

  Chapter 6: Stage One-Exploration: Performing an Energy Audit

  The chapter starts with and anatomy of BAV and, into details, “Energized Differentiation“. The author stressed the word “Energized” by defining it as Vision, Invention, and Dynamism (VID) and how sample brands are ranked on the sprectrum.

  Chapter 7: Stage Two-Distillation: Identifying the Energy Core

  Gerzema and Lebar’s “Energy Core” is equivalent to Jim Collins’ “Core Ideology” with a slight tweak. If you have not read Jim Collins, it is the heart of an organisation, it’s how to company is, have been, and will be built.

  Chapter 8: Stage Three-Ignition: Creating an Energized Value Chain

  “In ignition, the enterprise takes the fuel from its Energy Core and uses it to drive the brand forward.” And every function can contribute to the ignition of the brand.

  Chapter 9: Stage Four-Fusion: Becoming an Energy-Driven Enterprise

  Fusion is when the new practices are becoming the culture of an organisation or “brand as culture”. The examples of Energy-driven enterprises are Google, Whole Foods, and Nordstrom.

  Chapter 10: Stage Five-Renewal: Active Listening and Constant Refreshing of Brand Meaning

  The authors tell you that brands need to evolve and keep changing over the time. “Tactics are strategy, strategy is tactics”

  …

  In the next part, I’ll compare this book to the ideal book, a book that is easy to understand, distinct, practical, credible, insightful, and provides great reading experience.

  Ease of Understanding: 5/10: This book is on an abstract subject, branding, and the authors did not make it clearer. The first part, introduction, is explained nicely; and that’s where the 5/10 are from. However, the author fails to elaborate the second part, application. The contents (of the second part) are not linked together beautifully. You might wonder why this “Obstacle to beat back”, “The law of energy”, “The new rule of management”, or case study is in this chapter. And what does it really mean? What it has to do with the chapter? Why isn’t it there, instead?

  Distinction: 6/10: Like I mentioned earlier, the first part is written with interesting data and BAV is fascinating. There are analysis, valuation, speculation and it is a blend of marketing, management, economics, finance, etc (Ed Lebar is the former professor of economics). The second part is pretty much like other mainstream business books. The essence of the Energy Core is already defined numerous times under different names by different authors. However, the case studies are not bland; Lego, Virgin, Xerox, Mumbai Tiffin Box, and Uniqlo.

  Practicality: 4/10: I had high hope in the second part, application but it did not turn out to be very practical. There is no solid step, those five stages are mere guidelines and example of successful organisations.

  I’ll give an example of Stage Three-Ignition, the authors tell us that Energy Core can be from any part of the organisation; Leadership, Finance, R&D, Business Model, Sales, Manufacturing, Operations, Distribution, IT and CRM, and HR. Each of these has different examples which is great. Now, the obstacle to beat back is “Management’s focus is primarily on today’s profitability” and the author suggested that we must look for the long-term because most of marketing (in typical companies) is just selling. Then, the chapter moves on to The Third Law of Energy: “A brand is not a place, it’s a direction”; they state that brands must be verbs and positioning can no longer be static. And the new rule of brand management is “Drive the brand back through the organization”; there came Xerox case study.

  The application is more like “that’s the way it is”.

  Credibility: 7/10: The book has lots of solid and sound examples and case studies. They look very sensible and credible. However, the only drawback is BrandAsset Valuator© (BAV) because the book relies significantly on this model. Although we know the concept and basic anatomy of BAV such as VID (Vision, Invention, and Dynamism), we do not know how they are ranked and the math behind it.

  Insight: 9/10: I will state again that the book has lots of examples, data, researches. Most issues are explained sufficiently (albiet not always clearly). And the greatest value of this book is cases, examples, and how they are analysed.

  Reading Experience: 5/10: In the very first chapters, the book looks extremely promising but the excitement fades away due to the abstractness of the latter chapters. I do not like to compare with other books but at times, you will feel that this book is much like Jim Collins’ “Good to Great” and “Built to Last”. The good point of this book is that it is newer and sounds more fun (branding vs corporate management) but the drawback is that chapters are not tied together like those two books mentioned.

  Overall: 6.0/10: I desperately want to like this book because it has what it takes to be great; great examples and case studies, very insightful researches, and interesting analysis. However, this book fails to synchronise the contents and stories. And it does not offer good-enough practical guidelines to readers. I will be looking forward to the next book by Gerzema and Lebar. I would say buy this book but do not have your expectation too high.

  Tags: Book Review, Branding, Marketing

• 09Mar

  Book Review: A Sense Of Urgency (John P. Kotter, 2008)

  Book Reviews 1 Comment

  “the number one problem they have is all about creating a sense of urgency”

  

  A Sense Of Urgency by John Kotter is, simply put, a sequel of his previous book; “Our Iceberg is Melting”. “Our Iceberg is Melting” is a fictional story of emperor penguins who fight for survival during the threat of change. The eight steps to overcome and embrace change are 1.) A sense of urgency 2.) The guiding team 3.) Visions and strategies 4.) Communication 5.) Empowerment 6.) Short-term wins 7.) Never letting up 8.) Making change stick.

  This book is focused on the first step, a sense of urgency. As Kotter wrote “Most organizations handle step 1 poorly”. Without a “true” sense of urgency, the following 7 steps to embrace change is a cumbersome task. And more importantly, because “we are moving from episodic to continuous change. With this shift, urgency will move from being an important issue every few years to being a powerful asset all the time.”

  Contents

  1. It all starts with a sense of urgency

  As I mentioned earlier that a sense of urgency is vital to a process of change. John Kotter also indicated the two most hazardous enemies, complacency and false urgency.

  2. Complacency and false urgency

  Kotter digged deep into the two enemies, complacency and false urgency. He elaborated the cause of them, how do the complacent (and people with false of urgency) think? What do they feel? How do they behave? He, later, wrote on how to find complacency and false urgency. This chapter is truly alarming and you might not like it!

  3. Increasing true urgency

  The critical point of the chapter is that true urgency aims for the “heart”. A true sense of urgency is “a set of feelings: a compulsive determination to move, and win, now“; not hundreds of PowerPoint slides with graphs, charts, and researches. He concluded the chapter with four tactics (the following four chapters).

  4. Tactic One: bring the outside in

  “Tactic One is based on the observation that organizations of any size or age tend to be too internally oriented.” He suggested us seven useful ways to “bring the outside in” to create a sense of urgency in the organization.

  5. Tactic Two: behave with urgency everyday

  To make sure any action is not just a flavour of a month, we need to behave urgently everyday. Behaving urgently does not mean panicking and Kotter tells you how. I personally like the term “urgent patience” because “behaving urgently does not mean constantly running around, screaming “Faster-faster”. Urgent patience means acting each day with a sense of urgency but having a realistic view of time.

  6. Tactic Three: find opportunity in crises

  There are two camps of people amid crisis, one always looks for crisis avoidance, crisis management, damage control, budgets, budget reviews, and financial control system. The other looks for a burning platform; they view crises as not necessary bad. With fire spreading, they move, status quo eliminated and new beginning is possible. Which one is correct? Yes, neither. Kotter wrote on the pitfalls of the two and how to balance and how to make the most out of crises.

  7. Tactic Four: deal with NoNos

  NoNo is a character in “Our Iceberg is Melting” who always say, as the name suggests, “No no”. They are resistant to change, slow down movement, and kill urgency. NoNos are not skeptics, they are worse. And Kotter wrote on how NOT to deal with them and how to deal with them effectively.

  8. Keeping urgency up

  True urgency leads to success with leads to complacency. This chapter tells you how to avoid this problem.

  9. The future: begin today

  …

  Next, I’ll try to briefly rate this book on a scale of ideal business book or a book that is “easy to understand, distinct, practical, credible, insightful, and provides great reading experience”

  Ease of Understanding: 8/10: This book is focused on a single issue which helps you understand the subject thoroughly. The drawback is that the (real or unreal) supporting stories or examples are written lightly or fiction-like with no reference or supporting data. They do not support the contents well enough.

  Distinction: 8/10: With hundreds (if not thousands) of books already on the topic of change, this small book gives you a more elaborated and detailed view on the sub-topic of change. There are also far too many titles about the rate of change in business but most of them focus on technological side of change. This is a book on a fast pace business environment with very little mention on the Internet and not a single word (I believe) on Google, My Space, Twitter, etc.

  Practicality: 7/10: Although there is no step-by-step instruction to create a true sense of urgency, the book sufficiently provides you with valuable and practical guidelines.

  Reliability: 5/10:  There are many stories supporting the subjects but they are not truly convincing. They are (I hate to say) a bit too short and too fictional with no data or reference as I mentioned. Moreover, the one strategy (aim at the heart) and four tactics are mainly from the words and experience of the author. Simple said, the only reliable factor of the book is the author himself. I wish there were more concrete facts.

  Insight: 5/10: I feel that the author wanted this book to be easy to read and easy to grasp the essence of it. Kotter believes that to create a sense of urgency in an organization, we need to communicate to the heart not to the mind with too much data and analysis (two hundred slides PowerPoint presentation, for instance). However, that is suitable for communication in the business setting with very little time to spare and to comprehend the message. Intellectual readers (not me) might expect more.

  Reading Experience: 6/10: The two most important words in the book are “urgent” and “now”. This book will put you in the state of emergency. One point of this book that made me feel uncomfortable is that it is, from my judgement, 80% pessimistic and 20% optimistic.

  Overall: 6.5/10: If you have read “Our Iceberg is Melting” and had a problem with the first step (like I did), you should definitely buy the book. If you have not but feel that your organisation is either stagnant and slow (complacent), or chaotic with no result (false urgency) and your organisation does not respond to change well enough, this book is a good start.

  Tags: Book Review, Communication

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