Showing posts with label business leadership. Show all posts
Showing posts with label business leadership. Show all posts

Something Really New: Three Simple Steps to Creating Truly Innovative Products Review

Something Really New: Three Simple Steps to Creating Truly Innovative Products
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Something Really New: Three Simple Steps to Creating Truly Innovative Products ReviewThis book goes on the shelf right by Clayton Christensen's Innovator's Dilemma, and Gary Hamel's Leading the Revolution. But of the three, Hauptly's Something Really New might be the best, and certainly will be the most useful.
Innovation books frequently are written by business school professors about their clients. This leads to books that are heavy on theory, and inadequately critical of their subjects.
Hauptly's book is like other Innovation books in that it is concise, readable, and filled with helpful illustrative examples. But the effect is entirely different when the author is an actual Innovator writing for other Innovators about how to Innovate, rather than a color commentator describing action on a distant field.
Gone from Hauptly's account are the fawning success stories. Gone are the complex theories and graphs. Gone even are the unrealistically simple formulas that turn into traps when you try to do it in the real world (think Anthony Ulwick's What Customers Want). What remains is practical advice about how to innovate and how to avoid false innovation.
Hauptly takes us into mind of the Innovator like no other book I have read (even more than Joel Barker's classic, The Business of Paradigms). Not only does Hauptly pave the road for aspiring Innovators, but perhaps more importantly he sets out all the warning signs and side-markers to help avoid common psychological traps. Hauptly takes equal care to explain what is NOT an innovation, which in the real world may be the more vexing problem.
Something Really New is actually two books in one. Although Part One will stand as a major contribution to the literature simply by offering the first true Innovator's Deskbook, I was equally impressed by Part Two, which covers the people issues, organization, and culture of innovation. Where other books dance around these sensitive political issues, Hauptly is direct and pragmatic about how and where innovation can occur, who does it, who stops it, and how.
The book's chat-over-lunch tone and brain-teaser exercises are a sleight-of-hand that will lull some readers into thinking that the book lacks depth. However, the careful eye will note where the conceptual framework shows through (page 81 cannot resist a 2x2 grid; page 107 introduces the phrase "functional contiguity," and of course the concept of net utility is actually dynamite in the presence of false innovation).
The book will be least interesting to academics seeking theoretical exposition, and least welcome by senior executives who would cheer lead for innovation without actually aligning the organization and doing the work. For them, this book offers little.
But as a no-nonsense player's guide to the game, Something Really New is in a league of its own. It will be read by aspiring and experienced product development staff in all industries. Some of the concepts Hauptly introduces, like mutations, net utility, and task linking, may enter the popular lexicon of innovation. But the book is most to likely win the hearts of product developers working in the trenches, among whom word will spread of the brightest light yet shone on a notoriously dark terrain.Something Really New: Three Simple Steps to Creating Truly Innovative Products Overview

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Power Points for Success Review

Power Points for Success
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Power Points for Success ReviewI am a varsity volleyball/ Jr. High basketball coach in a school that is serious about sports. Often my girls are taxed to the max with school, family,work, volunteering in the community, church, and most of them play two or three sports. I use Power Points for Success at the end of each practice to give a "reality check" for my girls. It is important that they learn to not only be competative, but to be balanced young women who are ready to tackle the future. This little book has given short examples that catch their attention and make them think. This is a must read and I give a copy to every player at the end of each season. Great book Bob Harrison. Ellsworth, Michigan Girls Varsity Volleyball/Jr. High Basketball thanks you!Power Points for Success Overview

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Shared Services: A Manager's Journey Review

Shared Services: A Manager's Journey
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Shared Services: A Manager's Journey ReviewExcellent concept to share with the reader the nuts and bolts of running shared services environment through an interactive story.
The points and ideas covered by this book and the Top 25 List that summarized the concepts are very insightful for any organization that is planning to start a shared services organization or benchmark or enhance their existing shared services environment. Not only does it shared these best practices and ideas with the readers in a concise and illustrative manner but also is an entertaining book with real life characters and experiences.
I enjoyed this book very much and it also made me thing of some things to improve my managerial and consultative skills.Shared Services: A Manager's Journey Overview

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The Power of LEO: The Revolutionary Process for Achieving Extraordinary Results Review

The Power of LEO: The Revolutionary Process for Achieving Extraordinary Results
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The Power of LEO: The Revolutionary Process for Achieving Extraordinary Results ReviewAs the market place continues to become more and more competitive and crowded, everyone seems to be looking for different ways to improve their product/services. There seems to be constant pressure to improve quality and at the same time cut costs. There are lots of different programs tailored to individual companies or industries, but these are generally too specific to apply across a wide range of company sizes, products and processes. LEO is a simple process which can be adapted to any size company in any industry or service.
Subir Chowdhury, the author, has written and interesting and informative introduction to LEO - the process which stands for Listen - observe and understand the what is happening currently; Enrich - explore and discover new and better solutions; and Optimize - improve and perfect.
The book is well written and easy to read. The layout, format of the book is extremely reader friendly, making it possible to read the entire book in a couple of hours.
Mr. Chowdhury shows how LEO can be used to put out fires - solve problems which are causing immediate problems, to fixing the flow - improving the process, to defining the future - creating new products. He then goes into detail using case studies to show each separate function of the LEO model. He shows how to Listen hard, how to enrich the product/process and finally how to optimize.
Finally he walks the reader through an all-out process where one company engaged in an 18 month implementation of the LEO method and gives a good overview of how the work was carried out.
As with any change process, he stresses that without buy-in and continual support from the CEO, the process will be doomed to fail. He takes great care to talk about the natural dissenters to any change process and how to effectively deal with them.
While this process will work for any business, this book is not a how-to manual. This book gives you a good understanding of the power of LEO - what it can do. You will learn some skills and techniques that make LEO work. But if you wish to implement LEO in your organization, you are going to need some outside help. There is a standard LEO program which Mr. Chowdhury's company starts with and then modifies for each specific assignment.
The final chapter of the book talks about how LEO - the quest for continual improvement can and should be adopt by individuals. "We have a choice. We can simply accept what's happening and spend our energy groaning and criticizing, or we can, as individuals, try to make a difference.
I believe we would all do a better job if we were to listen more carefully, look for better ways to do things and constantly optimize whatever we are doing in our lives - either work or personal.
The book offers lots of examples of how LEO has been applied to a very wide range of companies and problems. If your company is operating at less than peak, you certainly should consider using The Power of LEO to improve your results.


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Leadership Rules: How to Become the Leader You Want to Be Review

Leadership Rules: How to Become the Leader You Want to Be
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Leadership Rules: How to Become the Leader You Want to Be ReviewShort, concise, and powerful. Widener's use of storytelling to nail down time tested leadership concepts helps the reader remember the impact of following the rules. It's short enough to read over a few hours and worth taking the time to do it. I hadn't heard of Widener before this book. After reading this, I'm interested in taking a look at his two bestsellers.
I recommend "Leadership Rules" because the rules are simple to remember and workable. They are translatable into any field (including family). The thing that really makes this book good is that these rules can be applied instantly. As the reader begins to apply these to their life, they will be a better leader by default. I'm excited to see the impact I have on others as I begin to implement these rules into my life and organizations.
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Predictable Success: Getting Your Organization On the Growth Track--and Keeping It There Review

Predictable Success: Getting Your Organization On the Growth Track--and Keeping It There
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Predictable Success: Getting Your Organization On the Growth Track--and Keeping It There ReviewWhile it is often easy to see patterns of failure in business, it is very challenging to replicate success. That is why I was so intrigued with the methodology behind Les McKeown's new book Predictable Success. I have engaged with over a thousand entrepreneurs and businesses in my career and Les' insights on how to structure and manage an organization would provide value to every single one of them, from start-up to Fortune 500.
Les describes seven stages of the business lifecycle, with Predictable Success being at the peak.
First he describes how every business starts out in a struggle to find a sustainable and profitable market for your products/services before your capital runs out. This can take up to three-five years to master and there are pretty much two options- you succeed and move on to the next stage or if your capital runs out you fail, which happens to upwards of 85%+ of all new businesses. I know there are a lot of folks professing bootstrapping strategies, but as Les's model demonstrates, if you run out of capital before you find that sustainable, profitable market, you will end up in that majority end of the statistics. The compromise: be frugal and scrappy in your expenditures, but still have that capital available to give your business enough time to get its legs underneath it.
If you make it out of the early struggle, Les says you get to a high-growth stage called "Fun" (his highly technical term for it). The business grows rapidly, you begin to see the fruits of your labor, but as you grow, your business becomes more complex. Eventually, in your business' growth, you will get to a point where systems and processes are needed and the entrepreneur(s) can't just manage the business viscerally. This moves you from Fun to a stage called "Whitewater", which can be recognized by the fact that you start dropping the ball, so to speak, in one or more areas of your business. The bad news- it is an unavoidable part of growth. The good news- if you put the right processes and systems in place, you will make it out and put yourself into Predictable Success.
One of the biggest takeaways for entrepreneurs is that Whitewater is an unavoidable stage, but that there is a light at the end of the tunnel (or waterway, if you will).
While Les says that it is theoretically possible to stay in Predictable Success forever, just like people age, businesses can age too. And sometimes, managers go a bit berserk with the systems and processes to the point that everything has a system or process, often favoring form over function. When your business starts expending tons of energy and not moving forward (i.e. growing), then you are on the "Treadmill". This stage is critical- in Treadmill, you can fix things and infuse more entrepreneurial spirit in your organization and go back to Predictable Success. If you don't fix things in Treadmill, you head into the "Big Rut" and lose the ability to self-diagnose (and change).
There are many key insights for mature business in the book that describe what to do when the entrepreneurial spirit has been sucked out of your organization.
Regardless of the stage of your own business (and definitely if you advise other businesses) this is a very worthwhile read that will really help you hone your business structure.
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Exceptional Service, Exceptional Profit: The Secrets of Building a Five-Star Customer Service Organization Review

Exceptional Service, Exceptional Profit: The Secrets of Building a Five-Star Customer Service Organization
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Exceptional Service, Exceptional Profit: The Secrets of Building a Five-Star Customer Service Organization ReviewAuthor and customer service speaker Micah Solomon's keynote speech to the NCBS Retail Banking Conference at the Four Seasons in Las Vegas (8 minute excerpt): This Customer Service Keynote is an introduction to the principles inExceptional Service, Exceptional Profit: The Secrets of Building a Five-Star Customer Service Organization's principles. (8 minute excerpt)
This keynote speech was filmed in front of an audience of bankers at the Four Seasons in Las Vegas in June 2011.
{More live speaking excerpts and info available at customerserviceguru DOT com}
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Raving Fans: A Revolutionary Approach To Customer Service Review

Raving Fans: A Revolutionary Approach To Customer Service
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Raving Fans: A Revolutionary Approach To Customer Service ReviewI've been a struggling small business owner (some 32 to 38 employees, depending upon the season) thinking my problem was either that I was undercapitalized or that I had hired the wrong people. Raving Fans was a wake up call. The problem was I wasn't creating raving fans. I was satisfied if my customers were satisfied, but I learned in this book that service is so bad that customers expectations are low. It's easy to satisfy low expectations and it doesn't mean very much. You have to create raving fans. Customers who tell others how wonderful you are. Today everyone in my company is focused on customers. Focused on creating stories our customers can tell others. Creating those magic moments the book calls giving symbolic hugs. Best of all Raving Fans gave me the road map to do it, all wrapped up in three easy lessons. This book may be simple, but it is also profound and by far the best customer service book I've ever read, and I guess the best business book too. I'd be out of business today if I hadn't adopted the strategy of creating raving fans and then getting everyone in the company to do the same. The result is we've stopped buring our customer list every six months. We're retaining old customers, adding new ones and sales are way up. Today Raving Fans is required reading for every new hire. Thanks Amazon for this opportunity to write this review. You're the best. I'm your RAVING FAN!
Richard AndersRaving Fans: A Revolutionary Approach To Customer Service Overview

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