Tedded - Business Book Review

“Q: How many bosses does it take to screw in a lightbulb?

A: One. He holds up the lightbulb and expects the universe to revolve around him.”

Reality Check: The Irreverent Guide to Outsmarting, Outmanaging, and Outmarketing Your Competition by Guy Kawasaki is arguably one of the most humourous business books around. Despite the fact that most contents in the book are from his blog, How To Change The World, “Reality Check” is full of great business “checklists” (hence, Reality Check). And those checklists cover lots of aspect in business (be warned, this book is huge, 461 pages before an index).

Contents:

- The Reality of Starting

Guy starts with the checklist you need in starting a business or intrapreneurship (entrepreneurship inside a company) and how to construct a mantra (forget three paragraphs mission statement)

- The Reality of Raising Money

As a venture capitalist, Guy Kawasaki wrote on how to raise fund from annoying and moody venture capitalists.

- The Reality of Planning and Executing

Business plans, financial projections, etc; you’ve been there and done that but Guy told you how to hit a homerun from them.

- The Reality of Innovating

Before jumping into innovating-everything bandwagon, this chapter tells you the myths, sins, and art of innovation.

- The Reality of Marketing

A brief revision of branding and identity.

- The Reality of Selling and Evangelizing

From the world’s top evangelist, he wrote about the art of selling, distribution, evangelism and PR.

- The Reality of Communicating

This main chapter covers lots of ground from e-mailing, presentation, demo, blogging, and moderating a panel.

- The Reality of Beguiling

There are lots of art (checklists and steps) of customer service, schmoozing, sucking up, sucking down (?!), and partnering.

- The Reality of Competing

A short chapter saying about your company’s defensibility and patents.

- The Reality of Hiring and Firing

Guy wrote about Silicon Valley hiring, how to hire, how to fire, craiglist, and linkedin, among other things.

- The Reality of Working

How to prevent Bozo explosion? What are mavericks in the workplace? What’s your EQ (Entrepreneurial Quotient)? This main chapter portrays the reality you face at work.

- The Reality of Doing Good

It is nice to end the book with philanthropy and how nonprofit organisations are changing the world

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I’ll humbly compare “Reality Check” to my ideal business book; the book that is “easy to understand, distinct, practical, reliable, insightful, and provides great reading experience.”

Ease of Understanding: 9/10: The book is simple, straightforward, jargon-free, and very informal (even slightly rude sometimes). Forget theories and models, you will only find simple checklists, steps, and occasional interviews which are put in the main chapters (The Reality of…). One point taken because they are blog-like which make stringing nearly impossible. Guy must have tried very hard to group them together but it is not perfect.

Distinct: 6/10: From the contents, you will find nothing particularly new and we have seen and read all of them already. However, the distinct and unique characteristic of the book is its informality and straight-forwardness. It’s honest and it’s amusing. You won’t find many authors who could make fun of those business ideas naturally like Guy.

Practicality: 7/10: Despite the short chapters (96 chapters including intro and conclusion, 3-5 pages each), they are not just a bunch of pointless blog posts. The conclusion and call to action are in each chapter. There are three key themes within the book, 1) positive chapters (chapters starting with “The Art of..”, and “How To”; there are 51 of them), 2) negative chapters (”Lies of”, and chapters on a-holes; there are 14 of them), 3) interview chapters (with interesting authors like Chip and Dan Heath of “Made to Stick” or Garr Reynold of “The Presentation Zen”; there are 18 of them), and there are other 13 miscellaneous chapters.

Reliability: 5/10: There is very little (if at all) supporting data. The book is from Guy’s experience and rule of thumb. Complex statistics and formula might help but they will ruin the book. It is a worthy trade-off.

Insight: 6/10: The chapters are extremely short but they are compensated simply by having lots of them which are directed to the similar key points of the book. The credit is also to the interview (Q&A) chapters that Guy interviewed other authors for the different aspects of the stories.

Reading Experience: 10/10: This is, by far, the funniest (yet meaningful) business book I’ve read. The book make you feel like listening to Guy’s rant on the business as usual. You won’t get bored. Extra credit to the outrageous use of vocabularies; “bozosity”, “bull shiitake” (shiitake is a japanese mushroom), “assholedom”, “mediocracy” (mediocre + bureaucracy), and things like “karmic scoreboard”.

Overall: 7.2/10: Those who want to read something that “sounds” serious might not like the book. But beyond the casual and informal nature of Guy’s writing, what we’ve learnt from the book is valuable. I highly recommend the book if you want to be “clueful” (as opposed to clueless) in business. And you will have fun reading it and also a good laugh; you can’t say that to most business books.

I looked at many succesful CEOs in the business world. There is a shared characteristic that they all possess, communication.

“A key, perhaps, to leadership … is the effective communication of a story.” - Howard Gardner

How do we master an ability to communicate?

Firstly, I’ll look at those who are “the masters” of communiation.

And I will look at how they did it.

…

I thought of many great and successful businessmen who are great communicators. However, there is a person that stands out. He is ahead of others in terms of communication especially public communication.

Steve Jobs

It is not necessary to write too much on what a great communicator he is. I browsed through many sites in search of the ingredients or the elements of his communication power.

I read:

1. An article by Carmine Gallo in BusinessWeek (here). The author wrote that Steve Jobs 1) Sell the benefits 2) Practice 3) Keep it Visual 4) Exude Passion, Energy, and Enthusiasm 5) “And one more thing” (how he adds the drama in the ending)

2. An article by the same Carmine Gallo in BusinessWeek one year later (here). Gallo added that Steve Jobs 1) Build Tension 2) Stick to One Theme Per Slide 3) Add Pizzaz to Your Delivery 4) Practice 5) Be Honest and Show Enthusiasm. They are basically similar to the previous article.

3. An article in a blog called “Communication Nation” by Dave Gray (here). He stated that Steve Jobs 1) Prepare carefully 2) Create Drama 3) Use Pictures 4) Make It Personal 5) Have Fun

4. An article by Guy Kawasaki in his blog (here). He summarised into 10 points mainly about Minimalism, Visual, Guests, “But wait, there’s more” Moment, Human Touch, etc.

…

It is easy to detect the pattern from everyone’s view that he’s enthusiastic, energetic, passionate, dramatic, and make it visual. He connects. He understands the audiences. He knows how to make them (us) feel excited. He puts massive energy into the room.

So, what should we do? Should we be more enthusiastic in everything we speak out? Should we use more pictures in our presentation?

The answer is yes; we should do what Steve Jobs does in order to communicate to other people better. However, we might not have the opportunity of Steve Jobs everyday. I’ll tell you a simple (very simple) concept from a book and I’ll connect Steve Jobs to the concept. The book is Made To Stick by Chip and Dan Heath.

I have my book review method based on the idea of this book and I will show how an ability to communicate of Steve Jobs is made to stick. The book outlines the characteristics that make ideas sticky which are SUCCES (Simple, Unexpected, Concrete, Credible, Emotion, and Stories)

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Simple

Presentations of Steve Jobs are always simple. He always started with a “theme” of the presentation. The 2008 Macworld is themed “There’s something in the air.” and that simple concept is linked with the product he presented.

This video from youtube.com is the first introduction of iMac in 1998. He clearly spoke out that iMac is for the number one use that customers were telling them what they want the computer for. Which is to “get on the Internet, simply and fast.” And that’s what “i” stood for, Internet. He later listed out other advantages of iMac but the core is simple, the computer that connects, simply and fast. Keep everything minimum.

Unexpected

The famous “one more thing” Steve Jobs love to say is one of the tools he used to drive the “unexpectedness”. Actually, it is not hundred per cent “unexpected”. It is rather that people “expect” to see the “unexpected”. The “unexpectedness” is created through long hours of practice and practice and practice.

This video is the first introduction of iPhone in 2007. Steve Jobs knew that most customers knew what was coming. However, he built tension. he made twists. He diverted customers psychologically. From the video, he tricked audiences that he was going to introduce three products, and iPod, a phone, an an internet communication device. He then built up the atmosphere of the place and hinted until the audience found out (mostly unexpectedly) and he said “Are you getting it? These are not three separated devices, this is one device. And we are calling it, iPhone”. Twist the plot.

Concrete

We all know that Steve Jobs’ presentations are highly visual. You can always see it. He showed you how to use the product. He maximised the image and visual of his products. All of us do not have that priviledge. However, from a different aspect, he can communicate in a wonderfully concrete way like the video below.

The first iPod introduction in 2001, Steve Jobs started a music industry revolution with

“1,000 songs in your pocket”

The phrase “1,000 songs in your pocket” is not only simple, but also highly concrete. People understand it right away. People know what they will get. People know what he is talking about. Make audiences understand.

Credible

Matter of fact, when Steve Jobs says anything, you should better believe that he is telling the truth. Credibility is earned by trust. Credibility is also gathered by references but Steve Jobs could not just say “Bill Gates told me that…”.

This is the video of the first iPod nano in 2005. He showed audiences that previously the original iPod and iPod mini could be in your pocket. He then pointed to the little pocket on the sides of your jeans and said that he did not know what it is for. He then cheekily said “Well, now we know, because this…” and he picked iPod nano out of that little pocket. “Is the new iPod… nano”. He demonstrated that this thing is really thin. Don’t just say it, show it.

Emotion

Steve Jobs always presented with enthusiasm and energy. The reason is that he “understands” people. He knows the audience. He exactly knows what the audience “want”. He speaks to the heart of people. He tells them what they want to hear. He connects. However, from the video below. I want to show the opposite.

The introduction of Macintosh in 1984! He did not speak much. He let Macintosh communicate! Only a man who was a genius in communication could make a computer communicate for him, well, 24 years ago. And look at the standing ovation at the end of the video. Tell me that those people were not emotional! Understand your audience.

Stories

“It is now 1984. It appears IBM… wants it ALL. Apple is perceived to be the only hope to offer IBM a run for its money. Dealers initially welcoming IBM with open arms, now fear an IBM dominated and control future. They increasingly and desperately turning back to Apple as the only force that can ensure their future freedom.”

“IBM wants it all and it is aiming its gun on its last obstacles to industry control, Apple.”

This video is more like a war cry than a corporate keynote speech. He used this speech, this story, to lay out the theme “1984″ the year he launched Macintosh. He used this story to create the sense of ownership and freedom of customers. He made customer feel that the product was not just a personal computer. It was a revolution and a symbol of freedom. Don’t talk facts, tell stories.

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Although I picked each video for each element, each video has ALL the elements. His presentation or public communication is always simple, unexpected, concrete, credible, and with emotion and stories.