"...keeping
you great"
HEADLINES:
Buffett's
Mr. Fix-It
-- when Warren Buffett needs one of his companies turned around, he brings in
David Sokol. Take five minutes and read this
outstanding 2nd August Fortune
article how Sokol took NetJets from losing $711 million in 2009 to
profitable this year using six laws.
Summer of Sequels
-- below is my latest "Growth Guy" syndicated column highlighting
four business book sequels worth reading this August as you prepare to gear up
1st Sept. The four books are highlighted in subtitles, so take a few minutes to
scan the key points from each book.
Bob Bloom 2nd Sept The
Netherlands -- the strategy book highlighted below is Bob
Bloom's The New Experts.
Our Dutch partners Spark are hosting Bob for a one-day
workshop. Bob is one of the top strategy thinkers in the world, having
helped hundreds of some of the biggest brands build their strategies globally.
He's the retired CEO and Chairman of the 4th largest ad agency in the world.
We've hosted his same workshop at the last two Summits to rave reviews. For more on
Bob.
Reinventing
Yourself and Your Business
By Verne Harnish "Growth Guy"
The fourth Indiana
Jones sequel gave movie director Stephen Spielberg his best global opening
ever, raking in $311 million its first weekend. This past weekend, as I write
my latest column, Toy Story 3 proved once again the power of sequels to
dominate the box office, giving Pixar records of its own.
Four equally powerful book sequels are a must-read this summer (winter for my
friends down South). These books will help you rethink your approach toward
people, strategy, execution, and cash. Pick-up copies and out-read the
competition -- and set some of your own records.
Getting Naked (People)
Patrick Lencioni is the most prolific leadership author of our time. Best known
for his timeless fables, including Five
Dysfunctions of a Team, Death by Meeting, and The Three Signs of a Miserable Job,
he's penned his eighth classic entitled Getting
Naked. Though focused on helping professional service firms create
more customer loyalty, it's a powerful book for any leader who wants to build
trust.
In order to build trust, Lencioni borrows from his Five Dysfunctions model the
idea that leaders must be vulnerable. His latest book flushes out this idea of
vulnerability or "getting naked" as he calls it, based on a set of
rules including:
1. Tell the Kind Truth
-- deliver a difficult message but do it with dignity and humanity
2. Enter the Danger --
fearlessly deal with the issue everyone else is afraid to address
3. Celebrate Mistakes --
no one likes to look dumb, but it happens and its best to admit and move on
Lencioni has
several more rules for getting naked -- perfect for the summer heat -- and
building trust.
The New Experts
(Strategy)
As a follow-on to my favorite "how to" strategy book, The Inside Advantage, Bob
Bloom tackles the biggest challenge yet to face business -- that the customer
knows more about your products and services (and your competition) than your
own people!
In his latest book appropriately entitled The
New Experts, Bloom starts with this fact and outlines four specific
moments when companies must connect with the customer or risk losing them to
the competition. And Bloom knows what he's talking about, having directed the
launch of numerous brands that have become household names including Southwest
Airlines, Nestle' Juicy-Juice, T-Mobile US, Novartis' Theraflu and Triaminic.
The four decisive moments in the customer purchase cycle, where you create
preference for your products/services, are the:
1. Now-Or-Never Moment
where you have just seconds to capture the customer's attention
2. Make-Or-Break Moment
where you weather a lengthy transaction/decision process
3. Keep-Or-Lose Moment
where you monitor the customer's continued usage
4. Multiplier Moment
where you garner repeat, advocacy, and referral behavior
Checklist Manifesto (Execution)
The simplest of execution tools -- the checklist -- is what is needed in an exceedingly complex world. However, professionals' egos reject the need to be reminded how to "do their job" resulting in needless mistakes that can cost customers and lives.
Harvard Medical School professor and gifted writer for the New Yorker, Atul Gawande, has taken a boring subject and brought it alive in his latest bestseller The Checklist Manifesto: How to Get Things Right. This time he goes beyond the medical field and points out how ineptitude -- where we have the knowledge but fail to apply it -- is rampant throughout all organizations.
After reading the book, the first list I created was for the family. Living in Barcelona we have many opportunities to visit the beach. Yet, inevitably, we forget something -- swim goggles, keys, and even an occasional bathing suit! Contrast this with the pre-flight checklists commercial pilots use to keep us all flying safely 99.9999...% of the time -- so many 9s that those of us who fly for a living are around to tell about it.
From the moment you read Gawande's opening stories of life and death in the emergency room, you'll be hooked. Read and then make your checklists at home and the office.
The Next Hundred Million (Cash)
OK, this book recommendation is a stretch being labeled "cash." However, if Joel Kotkin's conclusions are correct, the U.S. has at least another forty great years ahead. And you'll make a lot of money following the demographic trends he details (listen up my friends in India and China).
His book entitled The Next Hundred Million: America in 2050 refers to a remarkable fact (borrowing an opening line from the book): "in stark contrast to its more rapidly aging rivals in Europe and Asia, America's population is expected to expand dramatically in the coming decades."
Demographics drive markets. And like the baby-boom provided decades of product and service direction to companies around the world; this demographic trend can't be ignored. In the book Kotkin outlines significant trends regarding housing, energy, and transportation. He even predicts a resettling of America's Heartland.
If this isn't reason enough, read Kotkin's book to counter all the doom and gloom we've been fed lately.