Resort? Hotel? To attract business conferences in these tough times, some luxury resort hotels have resorted to a sort of strategy of last resort: They’re dropping the very word “resort” from their names. Nothing has changed, same level of service offering and the same products.
In 2010 businesses will return to the basics. Focusing on core products and creating real value. The lessons learned from the excesses of the last couple of years will cause corporate decision makers to rethink the approach to waste. A few hotels have placed their bets against frugal. Time will tell if they turn out to be right or bankrupt.
WSJ
27
Jan 10
What Is In A Name?
22
Jan 10
Simplicity
I enjoyed watching this video. The subject is relevant and timely. I hope you like it too.
21
Jan 10
Unlearn Your MBA
Interesting perspective from David Heineimeier Hansson, the creator of Ruby on Rails and partner at 37signals in Chicago. He says that planning is guessing, and for a start-up, the focus must be on today and not on tomorrow. He argues that constraints–fiscal, temporal, or otherwise–drive innovation and effective problem-solving. The most important thing, Hansson believes, is to make a dent in the universe with your company.
19
Jan 10
Lessons Learned
The failure movement is on the up and up. “Embrace failure”, ”You can not succeed without failing.” ” He who has not failed as not tried,” is the mantra amongst gen-Y Entrepreneurs. A fallout of the steadily falling cost to experiment with new ideas. Most new ideas are built on bytes and the cost of bytes is steadily approaching zero, the cost of experimenting is mostly the experimenters’ time. While I remain unconvinced that this approach is efficient. Personally the possibility of failure in itself is a motivational. The real threat to an entrepreneur is the fear of failure which results in inaction. Oftentimes inaction equal fail.
The Failure Movement will benefit from taking on the much more difficult task of addressing how to benefit from the lessons learned from failed ventures. The coaches need not stop the sermon at, failure is good. Failure may be okay. However, documenting and revising ones tactics after a failed venture is more beneficial. Failing repeatedly is quite a common occurrence.
In my books fail is not good, learning from failure is key.
19
Jan 10
Book 51: The Greatest Salesman In The World
Classic Og Mandino. Og goes through the age old principles of success by telling an Arabian Nights-esque story. Advising on habits, love, persistence, uniqueness, focus, work life balance, emotions, laughter, multiplication, actions and divine direction. This short story was a pleasure to read. The text is an easy read for beginners.
Recommended to those looking for snackable inspiration reading materials. The value in the text far outweighs the time expended reading it.
16
Jan 10
5 Books That Defined The Decade
Here is Mathew May’s list of the 5 Books that defined this decade;
1. The Lexus and the Olive Tree by Thomas Friedman. (2000)
2. The Tipping Point by Malcolm Gladwell. (2000)
3. Free Agent Nation by Daniel Pink. (2001)
4. The Wisdom of Crowds by James Surowiecki (2004)
5. Freakonomics by Dubner and Levitt (2003)
here is Todd Sattersten’s list of the 5 that defined the decade.
1. The Tipping Point by Malcolm Gladwell (2000)
2. Good To Great by Jim Collins (2001)
3. The World is Flat by Thomas Friedman (2005)
4. A Whole New Mind by Daniel Pink (2005)
5. Now, Discover your Inner Strengths and StrengthFinders 2.0 by Tom Rath. (2001 and 2007)
and here is mine;
1. The Tipping Point by Malcolm Gladwell. (2000)
2. The World is flat by Thomas Friedman (2005)
3. Freakonomics by Dubner and Levitt (2003)
4. Good To Great by Jim Collins (2001)
5. The Black Swan by Nassim Taleb (2007)
Freakonomics, because of the impact the book has had on what was once considered pop (not to be taken serious) economics. Black Swan because the text exposed me to a new idea that I never came across throughout my 6 years in Stat classes.
I am curious, what books made it to your top 5?
08
Jan 10
50 Books In 50 Weeks
At the beginning of 2009 I received a review copy of The 100 Best Business Books Of All Time from Todd and Jack. The text is a compendium of business books, which in their opinion were the very best ever written. Flipping through the book exposed my knowledge gap. Though I read a lot of technical books, I had read only two book on their list. I set out to fill this gap in 2009. I resolved to read 50 business books before 31st December, 2009. And I did.
My plan was to read 50 books by December writing two paragraph reviews, on this blog, about each book. I avoided discussions about content, as this was not my forte. My list is peppered with some books only tangentially related to business but the bulk are of popular business books.
2010 marks the beginning of a new reading phase for me. This year is about mastery. Re-reading some of the books, re-visiting concepts from the books and leaning heavily towards biographies and philanthropy (I now work in philanthropy). Quantity will take a back stage to Quality in 2010. However, since I work best with clear targets and deadlines, I have resolved to post at least one business book related blog entry every week in 2010.
Let’s go.
31
Dec 09
Book 50: Out Of The Comfort Zone
Good read. This small paperback was handed to me by the author, George Verwer who is also the founder of Operation Mobilization. OM is an organization with 5,400 people working in over 110 countries to bring the message of hope to the peoples of the world. Out of the Comfort Zone is a handbook for Christians missions, written by someone with many years of Christian missionary experience.
This text is recommended reading for anybody who is remotely interested in Christian missionary. George Verwer has over 1 million books in print, an accomplished author, I must add.
31
Dec 09
Book 49: God Has Eyes In The Back Of His Head
A beautifully illustrated children’s book. Simple ,easy to follow and interesting. One of my favorite of the 50 books, as I was able to share its with my daughter.
Emmett Cooper is gifted.
31
Dec 09
Book 48: What Matters Now
Short. 70+ thinkers pen a page each of what they believe matters now. Mostly inspiring pieces. I found it interesting that many authors put their unique spin on an almost uniform set of needs. What really matters now are relationships, re-examination of the fundamental drivers of our collective economic experience.
Neat effort, I do not know how Seth got these busy folks to do this. Unfortunately, this was text was published as an e-book. A coffee table print version would be awesome.
**Update: A paperback print version is available here. E-book here.
30
Dec 09
Book 47: Made To Stick
Insightful. Made to Stick is full of very insightful stories. Chip and Dan Heath wrote a classic. This is not one of the business books that set out to stretch the facts or over hype a model. The model in Made to Stick is straightforward and easy to follow. There are ways in which you can present ideas that make it easier for people to follow and remember, period. Some of the ideas in the book may be familiar yet the authors definitely put a neat framework around these ideas.
Made to Stick is a well written book that sheds light on the efficient ways to communicate ideas. The many stories in the book stuck. I recommend the text to anybody who is remotely interested in sharing ideas with others.
14
Dec 09
Book 46: Dead Aid
Impressive in a different way. Dead Aid may not be the destination for a rigorous analysis of economic development in Africa. However, Moyo brings some key issues to the fore. Her historical view of the impact of Aid in Africa was a joy to read. She simplified the boring field of African developmental economics. Yes! I said it the academic field of African development is super boring.
While Moyo will not be the first to speak about the ills and failing of aid in Africa, she remains a pioneer because she brought the topic mainstream. Freeing the debate from the holds of academia and the NGO elites. Dambisa Moyo said what many have always wanted to say, and she managed to look cool doing so. She deserves the rock star status that she has been accorded.
While some may criticize Dead Aid as not being robust enough, in covering the sunny side of aid in Africa, I enjoyed the single and direct story line. She made her point and beat it to a conclusive end.
The text is a starting point for those who are curious about Aid and its impact on the African continent.
14
Dec 09
Book 45: The Long Tail
Pop classic. Most economist turn up their noses at the onslaught
of pop-economics text and authors. I am not one. I enjoy reading pop economics as much as I enjoy reading her more rigorous mainstream kin. Chris Anderson’s text is classic. He balanced the trade off between rigorous analysis and the appeal to a broad audience. No easy feat.
The main thrust of the text is that technology is changing markets and whole new businesses are starting to emerge in markets that were formerly considered non-existent. He tags it businesses selling less of more. The long tail of niches. A rather convincing proposition.
If you are remotely interested in the interplay of technology and markets, The Long Tail is the book for you.
