MooersBOOKSHELF

About MooersBOOKSHELF

Most executives say the same thing: “The only time I have to read is when I'm sitting on a plane”. And, while it’s true that we’re all busier than ever, there are some books that we know we shouldn’t miss. The only question is: “which ones?” At Mooers Strategy Group, our consultants read a lot. They have to, if they are to keep up with the latest thinking in their given areas of expertise. Their standards, as you might imagine, are quite high.

MooersBOOKSHELF is the place where you can find out what we think is worth reading. So, the next time you’re scheduled to fly out in the morning, check out our BOOKSHELF to see what made the list. That way you won’t have to risk finding out that the book you brought along left you flat half way through the flight.

Selections for the Fourth Quarter, 2005

COAST-TO-COAST FLIGHTS:

The Ten Faces of Innovation IDEO’s Strategies for Beating the Devil’s Advocate & Driving Creativity Throughout Your Organization
By Tom Kelley with Jonathan Littman; Currency/Doubleday; 276 pages; $29.95

If we had a nickel for every book on the subject of “innovation,” well, let’s just say we’d have a giant jar of nickels. Today, with companies like Apple® and Google® breaking all records for making headlines and profits, the topic of innovation as a driver for corporate growth is almost a hot as the new iPod.

Some… ok, many of the books on creating an environment that fosters and prizes innovation, have been a bit “out there”. This one, however, will actually give you something that you can put to work as soon as your flight lands.

This book’s author, Tom Kelley, doesn’t believe that innovation is produced by individual geniuses or that it’s mysterious in any way. He explains that innovation is very much a team sport, and then describes the types of people crucial to the success of such teams, like the Anthropologist, the Experimenter, the Collaborator, and the Experience Architect. Kelley tells us that, while each role is important to innovation, it’s the cumulative impact of the team that will produce the greatest result.

Kelley also has little respect for most brainstorming meetings. For the most part, he sees them as being too long, too big, and too often soured by the ever-present devil’s advocate. Some of his best advice is found in his discussion about how to counter the negativity that can kill an innovative idea before it has a chance to develop.

Ten Faces, like most business books, is packed with stories illustrative of innovation’s history and some are truly outstanding. Our favorite relates to the dangers found in listening too closely to customers. Kelley quotes Henry Ford who said: “If I had asked my customers what they wanted, they would have said a faster horse.”

If we had to offer one criticism it would have to be that many of Kelley’s examples come from IDEO where he works as a general manager. IDEO is one of the world’s leading innovation and design consultants, so using their clients as case studies isn’t really a problem, but there are certainly a bevy of other great examples that would come from looking at others in the field.

Regardless, Ten Faces is a truly worthwhile read. It puts innovation in perspective and makes an indisputable case for its importance and value. It offers senior executives tangible methods for creating and promoting an idea-generating culture. And that’s something that no company today can afford to ignore.


Deals From Hell: M&A Lessons That Rise Above the Ashes
By Robert F. Bruner, 405 pages, John Wiley & Sons, Inc. $29.95

We hate to admit it, but we love reading the stories of big failures – call it morbid curiosity, or even gloating, if you’d like, but we prefer to think of it as learning from the mistakes of others. And when it comes to business failures, there’s nothing like a good merger or acquisition mess to keep us turning the pages.

In Deals From Hell, Robert Bruner focuses on ten mergers widely known as fairly spectacular failures, from Penn Central in 1968, to Tyco in 2002. The book is divided into three parts: The Foundations of M&A Failure, Case Studies of M&A Failures, and Avoiding the Deal From Hell.

Bruner’s last book, Applied Mergers & Acquisitions, was a 1000+ page tome that, although quite informative, quite frankly made us a little sleepy. It required an in-depth knowledge of the technical aspects of finance that few of us have on hand, and was a bit too theoretical for our tastes. In Deals From Hell, however, Bruner fixes those problems by creating a book that will appeal to both professional and general audiences alike.

The ten case studies presented in the book are nothing short of great reading. Even those readers with no particular interest in management and leadership will find the history more than a little interesting. Failed deals like the acquisition of Columbia Pictures by Sony, and the now infamous merger of AOL with Time Warner, are examples of M&A nightmares that virtually anyone of legal age can relate to and be entertained by.

Bruner explains that successful M&A is part art and part science, and he recognizes that the dynamics change from deal to deal. And, the book does make a legitimate attempt to find a formula for success. We’d be less than honest if we didn’t admit that the book, at 405 pages, is still on the long side in our opinion, but all in all it’s still a must read for any executive in business today.


MID-RANGE FLIGHTS

Freakonomics A Rogue Economist Explores the Hidden Side of Everything
By Steven D. Levitt and Stephen J. Dubner; Harper Collins; 207 pages; $25.95

Freakonomics is a book that seeks to answer questions that we would never even have thought to ask, and in doing so, teaches us a few things and gives us a lifetime of things to ponder. In Chapter Two, for example, we discover what school teachers and sumo wrestlers have in common, as we look into the issues of incentives and cheating. Chapter Three examines the Ku Klux Klan’s similarity to real estate agents, and Chapter Four explains why drug dealers still live with their Moms.

It may sound a little nuts, but as the Malcolm Gladwell (The Tipping Point, Blink!) quote says on the book’s cover, you should “Prepare to be Dazzeled”. The book’s most influential author is Steven Levitt, a Harvard grad with a Ph. D. from MIT, who teaches economics at the University of Chicago, and is considered by many to be one of the foremost economists in the world. Twice he has been the recipient of the John Bates Clark Medal, which is awarded every two years to the best American Economist under forty. His co-author, Stephen Dubner, writes for the New York Times and The New Yorker, and has a couple of best sellers to his name.

The two came together during the summer of 2003, when The New York Times Magazine sent Dubner to write a profile of Levitt. Dubner, who expected to be interviewing a human slide rule, was shocked to hear Levitt explain that he didn’t know much about economics, was terrible at math, and couldn’t tell anyone anything about economic growth, deflation, or taxes. The two liked each other and decided to team up to write a book.

What interests Levitt is… well, everything about how everyday life works and why. Some of what he presents is admittedly freaky, on the surface at least. But as you read further into each chapter, you begin to get a glimpse into the mind of a genius and are exposed to some unconventional wisdom you are likely never to have considered before.

Freakonomics will cause many readers to redefine how they view the world. It’s as entertaining as it is provocative. And if you’re looking for something that will make you more than a little interesting at cocktail parties, this is the book for you.


Think Big Act Small: How America’s Best Performing Companies Keep the Start-up Spirit Alive
By Jason Jennings, 220 pages, Portfolio, $24.95

First of all, yes this is yet another book attempting to teach us about what makes certain companies long-term high performers. What Jennings and his research staff have done is to examine 100,000 US companies to find only nine that have increased revenues and profits by ten percent or more for ten consecutive years. The list includes Petco, Cabela’s, Medline Industries, SAS, Sonic Drive-in, Koch Industries, Strayer, Oreilly Automotive, and DOT Foods.

According to Jennings, the common thread running through all of these exceptional performers is that they, as the title suggests, think big and act small. Each chapter of the book is devoted to one company and how that company uses one of the following ten Building Blocks:
1. Down to Earth
2. Keep Your Hands Dirty
3. Make Short-Term Goals and Long-Term Horizons
4. Let Go
5. Have Everyone Think and Act Like an Owner
6. Invent New Businesses
7. Create Win-Win Solutions
8. Choose Your Competition
9. Build Communities
10. Grow Future Leaders

We’ve read so many books about what makes great companies that we can’t even begin to remember them all, but we liked this book because it does offer insight and ideas that any business leader can put to work immediately. And it accomplishes its objective without the use of jargon, technical language, academic theory, or condescending tones. When you’ve finished the book’s last page, you’ll feel empowered. If these companies can do it, why can’t we do it, too?

Think Big Act Small is packed with common sense and actionable information. It’s the kind off book you might want to read twice, the second time with a highlighter in hand.


SHORT HOPS

200% of Nothing An Eye-Opening Tour Through the Twists and Turns of Math Abuse and Innumeracy
By A.K. Dewdney; John Wiley & Sons; 173 pages; $19.95

We’re all familiar with illiteracy. This, however, is a book about innumeracy–the much more widespread inability to understand the rules of percentages, ratios, statistics, and basic math logic. This is a book that exposes the tricks and subtle schemes used by advertisers, politicians, stockbrokers, car dealers, and anybody else who tries to impress us by using numbers, charts and graphs. And while personally, we may not be plagued by illiteracy in our day to day lives, the vast majority of us do suffer from some degree of innumeracy.

First published back in 1993, 200% of Nothing is not a new book. But nothing about this book could ever be out of date, so it’s as if it was published yesterday. In fact, its messages are perhaps even more relevant today than they were more than a decade ago.

To begin with, as a writer, Dewdney falls somewhere between highly amusing and hilarious. His wit and wisdom made his column in Scientific American a favorite for nearly a decade. Don’t worry though… you don’t have to be any kind of math wiz to understand and enjoy this book.

200% of Nothing takes on the nation’s math abusers. After reading it, you’ll never look at a Power Point slide the same way again. You’ll discover why it’s true that you have the same chances of winning the lottery whether you buy a ticket or not. You’ll find out what’s behind the statistics we’re asked to accept every single day. You’ll gain insight into the bull behind the bull market. You’ll laugh at the thought of five dentists being surveyed, and you’ll find out how many light bulbs it takes to change an electric bill.

Without question, after reading 200% of Nothing, you’ll be shocked at how rampant math abuse and innumeracy really is. But more importantly, you’ll be amazed at how rapidly you have learned the simple tricks and basic logic you need to defend yourself against it.


TECHNOLOGY FOR EXECUTIVES

Publishing a Blog with Blogger
By Elizabeth Castro; Peachpit Press; 122 pages; $12.99

It’s become virtually impossible to open a business magazine today and not see something about “blogging”. Blog is the shortened term for Web log, a technological development that came on the scene just a few years ago as a way for people to keep online diaries. Today, blogs are hot items for both good and bad reasons.

According to Forbes Magazine, 50 million Internet users visited a blog in the first quarter of 2005, and there are 100,000 new blogs being created every day. The CEO of General Motors has his own blog, and so does the ten-year old daughter of one of the consultants at Mooers Strategy Group.

Some blogs have caused great harm to companies by publishing things that were untrue, while some have led to positive change. And at least one blog, MySpace.com, recently was sold to Rupert Murdoch for upwards of half a billion dollars. If you’re company isn’t at least thinking about blogging today, it will be soon, no question about it.

On the surface at least, blogs can look a lot like Websites. They each have an online address (you can find ours at www.msg.blogspot.com) and you view them on your computer’s screen. What’s different about a blog is that, for one thing, anyone can create and publish a blog in something like five minutes, without any technical training or experience whatsoever. Yes, that means you too. And for another, blogs can all link together are there is something like ten million of them that make up today’s “blogosphere”. Clearly, this is not a subject that leadership executives and senior managers can in any way ignore as another techie fad. The President of the United States is paying attention to blogs and so must you.

If you’re taking a short flight and want to gain a basic, yet thorough understanding of blogs and blogging, without have to wade through technical drivel, this 122-page book is the perfect answer. It’s one of those “Quick Start Visual Guides” books that’s designed with big type and bright colors. You’ll find it on a rack with a bunch of other titles that explain technologies in simple terms.

You may or may not rush home to publish your own blog, but you’ll definitely be able to if you want to. More importantly, however, you’ll have a gained the fundamental understanding that you’ll need to harness the power of this recently emerged technology at work and throughout your life. Not bad when you consider that you can read the whole book on the one-hour flight from L.A. to San Francisco.


FABULOUS FICTION

The Kite Runner
By Khaled Hosseini; Berkeley/Penguin; 371 pages; $14.00

When we think of cities like Kabul and Kandahar, the last thing that comes to mind is flying a kite. Unless, we suppose, the kite in question was carrying an explosive device that was being flown into a U.S. military convoy. For as long as we can remember, the images of Afghanistan have shown us something close to hell on earth.

Yet here is a book about a boy, his wealthy father, and his servant friend, growing up in Afghanistan before, during and after the Soviet Army, the mujahadeen, the Taliban, and now the U.S. military turned the country into mayhem and rubble. If there’s one thing we can be sure of it’s that you won’t be able to say you’ve read something just like it before.

The Kite Runner, although technically fiction, was written by Khaled Hosseini and is at least somewhat based his actual life and experiences. It’s so well written that while reading the book, we had to remind ourselves several times that it was fiction. It’s Hosseini’s first novel, and has become both a NY Times Bestseller and a San Francisco Chronicle Best Book of the Year.

This is a book that will grab you and refuse to let go. The images it evokes are nothing short of unforgettable. The main character is Amir, a young boy with a wealthy father who after his wife’s death begins raising him in the Afghanistan that existed before revolution and Soviet invasion. The book paints a haunting picture of a culturally rich and vibrant country, a proud people, and the troubles inherent to a racist, class-driven society. It is both tragic and hopeful and the kind of book that you’ll wish wasn’t over when you finish its last page.

As a new writer, Hosseini is more than refreshing. His style is so simple and direct as to be elegant. And the world to which he opens our eyes is one we haven’t been shown before in print or on the big screen. If you’re looking for an escape that will stop you from checking your watch to see how much longer the flight is, put The Kite Runner in your carry on and you’ll be landing before you want to.


The Devil in White City: Murder, Magic, and Madness at the Fair That Changed America
By Erik Larson, 464 pages, Vintage Press, $14.95

We loved Erik Larson’s last book, Isaac’s Storm, which vividly recreated the devastating hurricane that hit Galveston, Texas back in 1900. So, we were excited to come across Larson’s The Devil in White City, especially when we saw it appear as a paperback for the eminently reasonable sum of $14.95.

To be entirely candid, when we first saw the book’s title, we had no idea what it was talking about. Perhaps we should be academically ashamed, but we didn’t know anything about “White City,” much less any sort of “devil” that was apparently involved. We didn’t even know there was a World’s Columbian Exposition held in Chicago back in 1893, although the book describes it as being “legendary,” and we’ve spent quite a lot of time visiting The Windy City.

We know now, of course, and we’re glad for the knowledge gained. Larson takes us back to the America of 1890, when our country was still trying to establish itself among the world’s great nations. He takes us to a place and time when Americans were still trying to decide whether they needed to memorize the Pledge of Allegiance, and many had still never actually seen an electric light.

Devil in White City, although certainly non-fiction, reads like a novel. It is the story of the World’s Fair commemorating the arrival of Christopher Columbus four hundred years earlier. It is the story of America trying to do something on such a grand scale that the entire world would sit up and take notice. It is also the story of a serial killer that, posing as a physician, pharmacist, and real estate developer, managed to murder at least a couple of dozen people, mostly women.

The serial killer part of the story is woven into the story of the fair, and frankly at times, we wondered why. The two tales, in reality, have nothing to do with one another, but for whatever reason, the whole thing seems to work as a package.

Most of all, we liked the history of the fair itself, which Larson does a masterful job of describing in great detail. It was the place where Americans were first introduced to the Ferris Wheel, an invention intended to compete with France’s Eiffel Tower, which had been constructed as a part of France’s World’s Fair held a few years before, and which no one was at all certain would actually work as designed.

Most of all, it is a story of creativity and motivation overcoming all obstacles to achieve greatness in the face of extreme adversity. If we had to write it over again, we might have left out the whole serial killer aspect, however, don’t let that keep you from what is truly a wonderful window into an extraordinary time in our country’s history.


JUST FOR FUN

The Art of the Cocktail 100 Classic Cocktail Recipes
By Phillip Collins; Chronicle Books; 116 pages; $12.95

This being the “holiday” quarter of the calendar year, many of us are likely to have, or serve a cocktail or two in the near future. Oh sure, there’s the good old, red jacketed Mr. Boston guide, which seems to provide almost as many drink recipes as would a Google® search for the term “shopping”.

The thing is, that regular old drink recipe guides, like Mr. Boston, don’t show you gorgeous and luxurious photographs of the drinks they describe, and they often make the recipes complicated and in need of obscure ingredients. (Do we have any French sour apple brandy in the house?)

This book, for its purpose, is close to perfect. First of all the photography is no less than exquisite. The drinks, one per page, are photographed in beautiful vintage crystal cocktail glasses and they look, well… like they should be savored. And the recipes are easy to read and simple to execute.

Want to know how to make a Napoleon Cocktail? Or how about a Knickerbocker Special, or a Corkscrew? From the classic Champagne Cocktail to the Moscow Mule, this book has something for everyone.

The author, by the way, lives in Los Angeles and enjoys the occasional Greyhound (1/4 vodka and 3/4 grapefruit juice). Happy Holidays… oh, and drink responsibly.


Nothing’s Sacred
By Lewis Black, 217 pages, Simon & Schuster, $22.95

Fans of The Daily Show, with Jon Stewart, all know who Lewis Black is the moment they see… or rather hear him. Stewart describes the book and Black as being “the only person he knows that can yell in print form”. Black’s HBO Comedy Special, which still airs from time to time, is certainly worth watching and we liked his book almost as much as we like seeing him perform.

As the book’s title implies, Black attacks everything and everyone in a no holds barred style that is part intellectually biting commentary, and part just plain hilarious comments. In addition, Black tells the story of his life and how he got to be the way he is, which we’re pretty sure anyone who’s seen him has wondered at least once.

If you’re looking for a good laugh, Nothing’s Sacred is both a safe bet and a quick read. Oh, and you can download his stand-up routine onto your iPod by visiting Apple’s iTunes Website (www.apple.com/itunes), but be careful… your laughter may annoy the person in the seat next to you on the plane.


NEW THINKING

RFP NATION How to Increase Your Firm’s Win Rate in Our Proposal Driven World
By Martin Andelman; The 4th Floor; 151 pages; $24.95 on Amazon.com

According to the author of this book, we are now living in RFP NATION. RFP is an acronym that stands for Request for Proposal, and if you already knew that, then you already know what this book’s about – winning more RFP driven new business competitions.

The surprising thing about this book is that, quite unexpectedly, and as one reviewer put it, “It’s Side-Splitting!”

This book, in reality, is about more than just writing proposals. It’s about shifting attitudes about risk resulting from the popped bubble, corporate scandals, and increasingly regulated business climate. According to Andelman, “the individual decision maker has gone the way of the typewriter… Still around, but rarely seen”. Today, as Andelman explains in his book, committees make decisions and increasingly they do so by reviewing written proposals submitted by competing firms. Andelman doesn’t care whether the RFP is formal, or whether someone simply says “Get me a proposal on that”. Either way it’s then up to the supplier to create a compelling written proposal that differentiates the company from its rivals.

The simple and easy to understand fact of RFP NATION is that in today’s environment few business executives want to explain that they hired a supplier simply because of a round of golf and a cocktail at The 19th Hole.

The thing is that most companies hate having to create written proposals and they do a pretty bad job of it, as a result. In RFP NATION you’ll find out what your organization can do to increase its sales revenue by improving its ability to sell itself in writing.

RFP NATION offers insight into what new business executives are up against today and why. But then it delivers in very actionable terms, a straightforward path to improvement that can be acted upon immediately. Andelman’s definitely got something here, and a lot of big companies think so too. He not only speaks nationally on the subject, but has clients like Merrill Lynch, Arthur J. Gallagher, JPMorgan, and dozens of others, hiring him to help them win more proposal driven new business competitions.

RFP NATION takes a relatively dry and obscure topic and makes it something that everyone involved in new business should read, and will actually enjoy reading. And, by putting in place some of what Andelman offers, you’ll likely be able to see significant results at the bottom line.