Squeezed Books Recent Updates

The Wisdom of Crowds

2008-07-10T15:55:45Z

Key Points

The thesis of the book, as the author states at the beginning:

under the right circumstances, groups are remarkably intelligent, and are often smarter than the smartest people in them. Groups do not need to be dominated by exceptionally intelligent people in order to be smart.

Summary

Part I

Chapter 1

The book begins with a series of examples of “crowd wisdom”, ranging from the TV show “Who Wants to be a Millionaire?” and its “ask the audience”, to the stock market indicating the company most likely to be at fault hours after the Challenger disaster. These cases all demonstrate the four conditions that comprise wise crowds - independence, diversity of opinion, decentralization, and a way to aggregate the results. Similar results are to be found in sports betting, and in Google’s results, determined by examining the number of links pointing to any given page. One way to take advantage of this wisdom of crowds is through the use of ”prediction markets”, such as the Iowa Electronic Markets, where people buy and sell probabilities as if they were stocks. In the right circumstances, prediction markets are an excellent way of turning the knowledge of many people into reasonably accurate predictions.

Chapter 2

The importance of diversity is covered in the second chapter. A crowd can’t be wise if everyone always picks the same answer as everyone else. Examples include product markets, where there is usually an initial wide range of different attempts in a new market, which is quickly winnowed down to the successful designs; and honey bees, which send out scouts in all directions, but only return to those areas where flowers have been found. Diversity is important to “wise crowds”, because it expands the range of possible solutions proposed. In large groups, diversity comes naturally, but in smaller groups, it’s necessary to support and actively encourage it, to avoid the dangers of “groupthink”. When people give in to their conformist tendencies, and are afraid to stick their necks out, the quality of decisions suffers.

Chapter 3

Independence of action and thought is important for the wisdom of crowds. If everyone thinks alike, then they’re less likely to arrive at a good answer to a given problem, because they’re less likely to fall into “groupthink”. “The more influence we exert on each other, the more likely it is that we will believe the same things and make the same mistakes”.

American Football coaching is cited an example of the “herd mentality”, based on the work of David Romer examining the “best 4th down strategy” (pdf). It turns out that statistically, most teams would be better off trying to make the touchdown or 1st down, rather than going for the field goal, in many cases. However, since the accepted wisdom is to kick, going against the grain of the relatively small pool of decision makers (professional football coaches) would not be an easy choice to make consistently, especially for the risk averse.

Herding behavior often occurs because people seek safety in numbers, but it can lead to problematic results when independence is required. “Information cascades” are what occurs when an initial decision is made by a few people, and then more or less accepted uncritically by more and more people. This isn’t necessarily a recipe for disaster, as we can’t all evaluate everything in our lives, but must trust others to come to good conclusions. However, at times, it can be disastrous when the original information and decisions were wrong, but continue to be accepted by an ever-wider circle. Luckily, for most people, the more important a decision is, the more likely they are to examine the facts themselves, rather than simply fall in line. Information cascades actually work reasonably well much of the time, but the basic problem is that they are a sequential, rather than parallel process. If you’re trying to harness the wisdom of crowds, you must attempt to have all decisions made at the same time, rather than one at a time.

Chapter 4

This chapter covers decentralization - where it works, where it doesn’t and what can go wrong. Decentralized, aggregate behavior is a key aspect of things like free market economies, flocks of birds, and is something that has been touted as a virtuous way of running a company as of late, with small, self-organizing teams. Decentralization allows people, or more generally, components of a system, to act freely and independently of one another, and still interact to produce coordinated results.

Linux is cited as an example of a decentralized system with a central aggregator - Linus Torvalds. As most people know by this point, Linux is worked on collaboratively by many programmers throughout the world, but often, different people come up with competing solutions to the same problem. This is good at finding and testing diverse approaches to see, in practice rather than in theory, which one actually works the best. Ultimately, however, the ‘best’ solutions are not selected by popular vote, but by Linus, who is responsible for taking the results of the decentralized development process, and aggregating them into something useful by selecting the ‘best’ bits and pieces.

Also discussed is the decentralization of the intelligence community, and the negatives involved in the difficulty of sharing information, cited as one factor in the failure of the intelligence community to predict and prevent the 9/11 attacks. The problem, however, was not decentralization, but decentralization with no way to aggregate the results into something useful.

One such way of aggregating information was a proposed futures market based on potential events in the Middle East, and elsewhere, which was, however, not allowed to get off the ground due to squeamishness about the idea of buying and selling bets about, say, a leader’s chance of being assassinated in any particular year. This market could have been a useful tool, perhaps not in predicting precise events, but in collecting information about the general state of things in places where information is at times difficult to gather, and unfettered freedom of expression suppressed.

Chapter 5

This chapter covers what are known as “coordination problems”, which are defined as problems that don’t necessarily have an objectively “correct” answer, but which are framed in terms of coordinating actions with everyone else’s actions. For instance, driving on a freeway requires that you coordinate your speed and actions with those of other drivers, and possibly even the time of day when you drive in order to avoid getting stuck in traffic. Groups are not guaranteed to come up with optimal solutions, but often do.

One solution to coordination problems is central planning - having one omniscient authority that makes some calculations and tells everyone how to act as a consequence. This is, however, often not possible, feasible, or desirable.

Coordination problems are often quite difficult to solve, with one example being a bar, where, if it’s more than 60% full, no one enjoys themselves, but do if it’s under that capacity. Several computer models have been built with agents that follow simple strategies and do manage to coordinate well enough to keep the bar at around 60%.

In some cases, cultural references help us solve coordination problems, both by giving us reference points (ask two people to meet at a given time without communicating the time to one another, and they’ll likely pick 12 noon), or norms, such as “drive on the right”. Conventions also lower the amount of thinking you have to do about certain situations - it’s easier just to follow the rules or guidelines rather than make a conscious decision after weighing all the possibilities. This often frees us to think about more important things.

Corporations are supposed to operate in order to maximize profits, and should be immune to things like social conventions - yet it turns out that they’re not nearly as rational as might be imagined. One example cited is movie theaters, which charge the same price for the latest hit, as for flops that are on their way out. Charge too much for hits, and you risk losing out on concessions, where movie theaters actually make a lot of their money, but by that logic, lowering the price for less popular movies would get more people into the theater.

Markets can also be effective coordination mechanisms. Experiments conducted with students, who know only the maximum price they will pay, or minimum they will sell for, show prices rapidly converging on an optimal price, even though that price is higher than buyers would like, and lower than what sellers would prefer. Real markets often lack lots of information, and indeed the students found the experiment “chaotic and confusing” - and yet, the market worked. Markets aren’t perfect, of course, but they are often the best, if not perfect, way of coordinating disparate buyers and sellers.

Chapter 6

Cooperation problems are superficially similar to coordination problems, but with a key difference: coordination problems can be solved with all players acting in their own interests, whereas cooperation problems require players to “look at the bigger picture”, as part of an organization or society.

Behavioral studies have demonstrated that people will forego a reward in a simple game in order punish someone perceived to be playing unfairly, even when doing so does not benefit them at all. In other words, people, being social animals have a sense of ‘fairness’, even if this isn’t rational in economic terms. This extends to a sense that rewards should be correlated to efforts and accomplishments, and this sense is part of the reason why large organizations can exist in the first place.

Trust is often secondary to long term relationships in terms of promoting ‘fair’ behavior: if you know you’ll see someone again and again, you’re less likely to attempt to cheat them.

Capitalism works in part because it’s possible to trust those beyond an established circle of friends and family, and only works where there are institutions that promote this trust. When you are reasonably certain that you can buy a product and that it will work as advertised, you don’t need to inspect in detail each and every thing that you purchase. This makes the flow of goods and services, and increases the general welfare of a society.

Links

The book’s web site: http://www.randomhouse.com/features/wisdomofcrowds/

Wikipedia page on the book: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Wisdom_of_Crowds

Don't Make Me Think: A Common Sense Approach to Web Usability (2nd Edition)

2008-05-30T02:43:43Z

Note: This isn’t really a business book, but it’s one of my favorites, and I think most businesses are on the web these days!

Key Points

“Don’t make me think” refers to the idea that when a web site makes you stop and think about what you’re doing, it’s making your life harder, and perhaps isn’t designed as well as it could be.

Summary

Don’t make me think.

Things that make you think add to your brain’s workload. It might not be much, but these things add up, so every bit of clarity that can be added is welcome. Nobody likes feeling like they’re not sure what to do.

Not everything can always be self-evident. If not, settle for self-explanatory.

How people use the web

Most people don’t read an entire web page, but simply scan it for the first thing that looks good, which they then proceed to click. People don’t attempt a thorough understanding of a web site, but prefer to satisfice - making do with what seems like pretty good choices.

Therefore:

Design pages for scanning, not reading

Create a clear visual hierarchy.
Nest text to show what belongs to what.
Conventions are useful. Stick to them unless you have a really good reason, because they help people to avoid thinking.
Clearly define portions of a page.
It should be very clear what is clickable.
Try and avoid “noise”.

Mindless choices are good

In the sense that people don’t mind clicking more, if they are confident that they’re clicking on the right thing, and the choice was easy.

Writing for the web

Keep it brief.

Get rid of half the words, then get rid of half of what’s left.

Instructions are often useless - it’s far, far better to make things self-evident.

Design for both browsers, who click around to find what they want, and searchers, who go immediately for the search box.

Some problems with browsing, as compared to the more ‘human’ experience of a store, are the lack of a sense of scale, no sense of direction from one place to the next, and no sense of where we are, exactly.

Navigation exists to guide us, to give us something to grasp, tell us where we are, tells us how to use the site, and if it works well, increases our confidence with the site.

“Persistant navigation” appears on every page, and usually refers to:

Site ID
Sections
Home link
Search link or box
Extra utilities

The home page, however, may be an exception to this rule, as well as pages that exist solely to provide a form to be filled out.

Sections can also be called the “primary navigation” and are links to the main sections of the site.

Utilities are useful things that should be readily available, yet are not part of the hierarchy. They shouldn’t be as prominent as the sections.

Page names

Every page should have a name, and it should be in the right place: framing the page’s content.
The name should be prominent, as well as matching what you click to get there!

Breadcrumbs are a useful technique, but shouldn’t be used in place of high quality navigation. The navigation should show at least the top two levels without having to resort to breadcrumbs.

Tabs are a great means of doing navigation because they’re very obvious, impossible to miss, and look good, to boot.

“The trunk test”: if you’ve been blindfolded and locked in a car trunk, you should be able to answer these questions about a site immediately when your blindfold is removed:

What site is it?
What page am I on?
What major sections does this site have?
Where can I go from here?
Where am I in relation to the rest of the site?
Where can I go to search?

Home page

The home page is tough, because everyone tries to pull it in a different direction. It must accomplish/contain the following:

Site identity and mission.
Hierarchy - give an idea of what the site contains.
Search box.
Teasers for content.
Current content.
Promotional offers.
Shortcuts for the most frequently viewed data.
Registration/login.

It should also show you how to get what you want from the site, tempt you with things you didn’t know you were looking for, show you how to get started, and also give a good impression.

A home page is also the place where you need to spell out the big picture. Remember not to write too much, and include these elements:

tagline - next to the site id, sums up the whole site.
welcome blurb - a terse description of the site.

Be sure to test the home page with other people who are not ‘blind’ to the site because they’ve been looking at it as much as you have.

A good tagline is clear and informative, normally between 5-10 words, and also convey what’s different about your site, rather than vague, generic text.

Web design arguments are often a waste of time

Avoid useless debate between team members. Rather than debate what “most people like”, look at what works for your site, and test it.

Simple, cheap usability testing

Testing doesn’t have to be perfect, because any testing is far better than no testing. The earlier testing occurs, the better. Testing is an ongoing process - keep doing it as your site evolves. Cheaper tests are better, because they are more likely to happen at all, and happen more often.

You only need a few people, 3 or 4.
Almost anyone will do, you don’t need to carefully select people.
You don’t need much planning to do tests - just decide what you’re going to show and do.
Costs will probably be under $400, with a small ($50-$100) stipend for your users’ time.
Debrief immediately after the test and put the knowledge gained to use.

Basic testing requires an empty room with a desk, computer, a few chairs and to show what the user is doing to others, a camcorder, long video cable and tripod. The video setup is used not to videotape the session, but simply to broadcast it into another room where interested parties (anyone who is interested - developers, designers and management are all welcome) can observe the session and discuss it freely. A more advanced setup might utilize a video recorder aimed at the user’s face in addition to one following the screen. Another possibility is a screen recording system that records exactly what’s happening on the computer’s screen.

Tests should consist of several parts:

See if they understand what the site is about, why it is valuable, how it works, and so forth.
Ask the user to perform some tasks on the site, and see how well they are able to accomplish these.

Once you’re done, review the results immediately - try and determine what the problems were, and how to go about fixing them. Ignore problems where the user had a little problem but then found the right way. Being unclear on the overall concept, not finding the works they seek, and being overwhelmed by too much information are common problems. If you fix something, make sure it doesn’t break other aspects of the site.

Usability - comment courtesy

Depending on their mood in any given moment, most people have a “reservoir of goodwill”. Each problem they encounter on a web site drains it (and when things work well, maybe it gets added to). When they hit their limit, they’re likely to leave your site unless they absolutely must use it.

“Don’ts”

Don’t hide information users want.
Don’t require the user to adhere to the site’s dictats (phone numbers should be ok with our without dashes, dots or whatever).
Don’t ask me for information you do not need.
Don’t be phony.
Don’t get in the way of using the site with fancy features.
Don’t make an amateurish looking site.

“Do’s”

Make the things people want easy to do, and obvious.
Tell people what they want to know.
Don’t make people jump through any more hoops than they absolutely must.
Put some effort into it - users will see it and appreciate it.
Know, and show, answers to common questions.
Add extra touches, like printer friendly pages.
Make it easy to back up and try again in case of user errors.
Apologize, if the site simply doesn’t do something a user wants.

Accessibility

By ”accessibility”, we mean making it so that, for example, a visually impaired person using a screen reader will be able to navigate and utilize your site. You should make your site accessible, because of “how extraordinarly better it makes some people’s lives”. One very simple test is to view the site with a greatly increased font size, and see if it still looks ok.

Getting accessibility right is difficult, but there are five things you can do immediately:

Fix the usability problems that confuse everyone.
Read this article: http://redish.net/content/papers/interactions.html
Read one of the following books:
- Building Accessible Websites by Joe Clark.
- Constructing Accessible Websites by Jim Thatcher.
- Maximum Accessibility: Making Your Web Site More Usable for Everyone by John Slatin and Sharron Rush.
Use CSS
Low hanging fruit:
- Add alt text to all images.
- Make sure forms work with screen readers.
- “Skip to Main Content” link at the beginning of each page.
- Ensure that it’s possible to navigate by keyboard alone.
- Be careful with javascript.
- Use client-side image maps.

Links

Steve Krug’s web site: http://www.sensible.com/

Recommended reading: http://sensible.com/recreading.html

How to Win Friends & Influence People

2008-05-05T11:51:02Z

Part One

Fundamental Techniques in Handling People

Don’t criticize, condemn or complain.
Give honest and sincere appreciation.
Arouse in the other person an eager want.

Part Two

Six ways to make people like you

Become genuinely interested in other people.
Smile.
Remember that a person’s name is to that person the sweetest and most important sound in any language.
Be a good listener. Encourage others to talk about themselves.
Talk in terms of the other person’s interests.
Make the other person feel important - and do it sincerely.

Part Three

Win people to your way of thinking

The only way to get the best of an argument is to avoid it.
Show respect for the other person’s opinions. Never say, “You’re wrong.”
If you are wrong, admit it quickly and emphatically.
Begin in a friendly way.
Get the other person saying “yes, yes” immediately.
Let the other person do a great deal of the talking.
Let the other person feel that the idea is his or hers.
Try honestly to see things from the other person’s point of view.
Be sympathetic with the other person’s ideas and desires.
Appeal to the nobler motives.
Dramatize your ideas.
Throw down a challenge.

Part Four

Be a Leader: How to Change People Without Giving Offense or Arousing Resentment A leader’s job often includes changing your people’s attitudes and behavior. Some suggestions to accomplish this:

Begin with praise and honest appreciation.
Call attention to people’s mistakes indirectly.
Talk about your own mistakes before criticizing the other person.
Ask questions instead of giving direct orders.
Let the other person save face.
Praise the slightest improvement and praise every improvement. Be “hearty in your approbation and lavish in your praise.”
Give the other person a fine reputation to live up to.
Use encouragement. Make the fault seem easy to correct.
Make the other person happy about doing the thing you suggest.

(From Dale Carnegie’s summary of the book.)

The Paradox of Choice: Why More Is Less

2008-03-27T09:06:52Z

Key Points

Giving people too many choices tends to lessen their satisfaction.
“Maximizers” are people who, given a choice, will exhaustively search all the options, seeking all possible information, in order to make the best possible choice. This behavior generally consumes a lot of time, and often leads to nagging doubts, perhaps where no one clear winner emerged.
“Satisficers” are those who settle for a choice that is “good enough” for them These people are generally happier with their choice, and spend less time choosing, leaving them free to enjoy other things.

Summary

Barry Schwartz aptly demonstrates that having too many things to choose from often leads to the consumer feeling bewildered when facing the choice, and less satisfied even after taking a decision. He cites studies that indicate people are less likely to buy a product when faced with too many choices.

One of the more important examples cited is that of 401k plans. The more fund choices offered by employers offering matching 401k plans, the fewer people actually selected any fund at all, even though that meant foregoing ‘free’ money.

If you know exactly what you want - you know prior to searching precisely what characteristics you want - then more choices are likely to be better, because you are more likely to find something that most closely matches what you desire. It is, however, unlikely that most people search for products that way.

Beyond choice paralysis caused by too many choices, an abundance of choice is also likely to produce worse decisions because people attempt to simplify the choice to a point where the simplification impedes their ability to make a good choice.

His conclusions are that people should aim to be satisficers, rather than maximizers, and that by having standards to live by, rather, than, say, rigidly enforced rules from some higher authority, we can eliminate some choice in our lives that isn’t really needed.

Links

Barry Schwartz

Video with Barry Schwartz giving a talk at Google: http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=6127548813950043200

PDF article covering most of the key points in The Paradox of Choice: http://www.swarthmore.edu/SocSci/bschwar1/Sci.Amer.pdf

Built to Last: Successful Habits of Visionary Companies

2008-02-27T19:57:13Z

Jerry Porras’ and Jim Collins’ Built to Last is a philosophical blueprint based on research into the development of some of the United States’ most successful corporations. Recognizing struggling competitors whose businesses disappear after a period of time, Collins and Porras focus their research towards 18 bona fide, “visionary” companies and analyze them in accordance with guidelines they’ve set on what makes a good company. Selection criteria and research between the two authors was extensive, with attention paid towards companies with average founding dates of 1897 and prior along with a surefire system evaluating companies as start-ups, midsize companies, and large companies. In the face of sociological events, Porras and Collins wanted to answer the question “what makes the truly exceptional companies different from the other companies?” with an emphasis on timeless management principles instead of trends and innovations like employee empowerment and shared values.

Porras and Collins learned that their prior beliefs were misfires. During a six year research process, they “unlearned” much of what they learned with large corporations’ successes. In place of former beliefs lays a new groundwork for what exemplifies visionary companies. Here are some of the former myths removed with their research:

A great idea is needed to start companies
Visionary organizations need charismatic leaders
Maximizing profits is the dominate goal with visionary companies
Visionary companies focus on beating competitors
Hiring outsiders as CEO’s is the best way to spark an organization

Some of the core beliefs Porras and Collins discuss in Built to Last include preserving a core ideology, the BHAG (Big Hairy Audacious Goals) concept, owning a cult-like culture, trying new things, refusing the idea of a “great idea” to start a company, and consistent innovation. Preserving a core ideology allows companies stay in tune with competition through the constant evolution of products. The BHAG (Big Hairy Audacious Goals) philosophy encourages organization leaders to conduct paradigm shifts with their products by constantly launching missions, like new products and the building of “firsts.” Both authors also dive into the “cult-like culture” mantra, where every single employee in the company must adapt to a leader’s vision and become cohesive and non-fragmented to survive. Porras and Collins provide the examples of fantastic department store sales people and companies’ devotion to technological products as milestones.

Other philosophies described in Built to Last include constant innovation, “refusing the idea of a great idea”, and embracing evolution. According to the authors, innovating allows companies to keep products and services updated to beat the competition. They use Boeing Engineering as an example of an innovative leader and rival McDonnell Douglas as a company struggling to meet industry standards. Porras and Collins denounce the “great idea” based on research that found many past founders did not start companies with established ideas (i.e. Hewlett Packard’s involvement with failed products prior to discovering electronics as a niche.)

In essence, Built to Last is an analysis of how visionary companies should operate. It revolves around value arrangement and does not specifically ask companies to fire employees, remove resources, etc. It asks for companies to assume a workmanlike culture and keep an eye out for tomorrow and the long term.

Chapter Summaries

Chapter 1 – Best of the Best

This chapter reiterates the author’s intentions of describing visionary companies, not visionary product concepts, market insights, or visions. Porras and Collins define a visionary company as a “premier institution in their industries, widely admired by their peers and having a long track record of making a significant impact on the world around them.” They define a visionary company as an organization and describe powerful individual leaders and ideas as inevitably short-lived. Both authors ask readers to compile a list of visionary companies according to reputation, contribution to society, life before 1950, and more. Porras and Collins outline their goals of selecting visionary companies and “comparison companies” that don’t quite match visionary status.

Chapter 2 – Clock Building, Not Time Telling

In this chapter, Porras and Collins liken the longevity of a company to time telling and clock building. According to the authors, time telling is “having a great idea or being a charismatic visionary leader” and clock building is “building a company that can prosper far beyond the presence of any singer leader and through multiple product life cycles.” Porras and Collins explain the importance of building an organization’s “core value system” instead of relying on great product ideas, charismatic leaders, and paying too much attention to profit. They denounce the idea of charismatic leaders and explain the “great idea” myth by pointing out Bill Hewlett and Dave Packard’s ventures into non-electronic products and Masaru Ibuka’s Sony Corporations brainstorming sessions on which products to make after starting the company.

Chapter 3- More than Profits

In this chapter, Porras and Collins talk about how important it is to recognize that core ideology alone does not make a visionary company, since everything around you is always changing. In order to meet the demands of a changing world, companies “must be prepared to change everything about itself except its basic beliefs as it moves through corporate life.” According to the authors, companies must preserve its core ideology while allowing room for the manifestations of the core ideologies to change. This means product lines, profit strategies, cultural tactics, and organization structure can change – but a core ideology should not. “Preserving the core and stimulating progress” tactics are discussed.

Interlude – No “Tyranny of the Or” (Embrace the “Genius of the And”)

In this chapter, Porras and Collins make reference to their use of the yin/yang symbol from Chinese philosophy in order to explain the visionary mentality of not “oppressing themselves to the tyranny of the OR” – which means hell for those that cannot live with two contradictory ideas at the same time. According to the authors, inferior companies hold proclamations such as – “you can invest for the future or do well in the short-term” and “you can have low cost or high quality.” This limits companies to a short-minded frame of reference where there is only one choice, but not both. The authors ask readers to embrace both extremes and to figure out a way to have both choices. Visionary companies find ways to do well in the short-term and long-term, rather than sacrifice one for the other. They don’t look for a balance – rather, acquiring both to the max. The purpose of the yin/yang symbol is to illustrate this concept.

Chapter 4 – Preserve the Core/Stimulate Progress

This chapter describes the ways companies should do business by being able to adapt and change over time in response to market conditions. Over time, competencies, strategies, and goals change but the core ideology must remain intact. One visionary company Porras and Collins use as an example of one preserving its core is Boeing and its fleet of 747 jumbo aircrafts. In the 1950s, Boeing ventured into new territory and took a gamble on building commercial airliners instead of sticking to military aircraft, which earned most of its profit. As a result, its rival Douglas Aircrafts was left in the dust.

Both authors sat that the drive for change in a visionary company is internal, where philosophy takes precedent over external forces like market conditions and profit motives to make them change. Visionary companies must have the confidence to set the “big hairy audacious goals” discussed in the next chapter. They also instill mechanisms in place to preserve the core and stimulate progress.

Chapter 5- Big Hairy Audacious Goals

Chapter 5 discusses a visionary company characteristic of taking risk and “setting super goals” as a hallmark for success. It starts off with Boeing’s pursuit of the commercial airline market in the 1950’s, which was underdeveloped and needing a major player for jet aircrafts. Unlike its rival Douglas Aircraft, who avoided entering the commercial market, Boeing took a gamble and developed a prototype for the commercial airliners used today.

This chapter introduces the “BHAG” concept as a way for companies to enhance team spirit and shooting for goals to become visionary. Porras and Collins describe BHAGs as nearly impossible, but possible with confidence and a bit of arrogance on behalf of the company. It stresses high commitment and working outside of a comfort zone. The Kennedy moon mission is also an example of a BHAG.

Chapter 6 – Cult-like Cultures

Porras and Collins discuss visionary companies as not a great place to work for everyone. All employees within a visionary company must adapt and embrace the core values assigned to them in order for the organization to make strides. According to the authors, visionary companies are demanding of its employees to seek accomplishment and to follow the core ideology. The authors outline four common characteristics of cults that apply to the visionary organizational philosophy – fervently held ideology, indoctrination, tightness of fit, and elitism.

Fervently held ideology – All employees believe strongly in the company ideology.
Indoctrination – Management is responsible for introducing and encouraging the proper work culture to employees.
Tightness of fit – Employees not believe in the same ideology should switch positions or be fired altogether.
Elitism – Recognizing the sense of responsibility that comes from being a member of a visionary company.

The beginning of Chapter 6 uses Nordstrom as an example of a visionary company where an interviewer tells an interviewee what is expected of him, in accordance with the company philosophy of excellent customer service and starting from the bottom to work your way to the top.

Chapter 7 – Try a Lot of Stuff and Keep What Works

This chapter discusses Porras’ and Collins’ visionary company research and how they’ve come to the realization experimentation, trial & error, accidents, and opportunism were ahead of detailed strategic planning. An example of Johnson & Johnson’s accidental discovery of using talc as a skin soother after customers complained of skin irritation from medicated plastics they were producing. They sold packaged “baby powder” soon after. Other example companies include SM getting into the masking tape business and Walmart introducing people greeters.

Both authors describe opportunistic experimentation through trial and error as a way to make evolutionary progress. According to Porras and Collins, five ways to make evolutionary progress includes:

Giving ideas a quick try
Accept mistakes and letting the weakest die
Taking small steps to achieve small failures in order to get ahead
Persistence
Building a “ticking clock” as described in Chapter 1 to turn the aforementioned points into a process.

Chapter 8 – Home Grown Management

Porras and Collins describe a characteristic of visionary companies as likely to hire inside employees to high positions as opposed to other organizations that “hire from the outside.” This allowed for consistent excellence in leadership from within the ranks, from employees who have adhered to the company’s core ideology. In the overall picture, this is a way for companies to preserve the core while stimulating progress – a mantra discussed in Chapter 4.

To support their claims, both authors cite comparison companies are six times more likely than visionary companies to hire their CEO from a pool of outside applications. At visionary companies, only 4% of CEOs came from the outside.

Chapter 9 – Good Enough Never Is

In this chapter, Porras and Collins ask wannabe visionary companies to ask the follow question: “how can we do better tomorrow than we did today?” instead of lesser questions posed by lesser companies like “how well are we going” and “how well do we have to perform in order to meet the competition.” They reject the idea of a “finish line” and define a visionary company as one who is never satisfied with its results. All visionary companies hold high standards and reject the practices of comparison companies that make money off successful products. Porras and Collins stress investing for the future and adapt to newer ideas and technology earlier than others. Out of 18 companies researched, 16 were found to drive themselves harder for improvement.

Chapter 10 – The End of the Beginning

In this chapter, Porras and Collins use the “end of the beginning” concept to explain how visionary companies translate their core ideologies into the every day workings of the organization. Core ideology is translated into the strategies, behaviors, business practices, and goals of the organization. Porras and Collins used Hewlett-Packard as an example of a “core ideology into practice” organization with their management methods of providing well defined objectives to employees and allowing them as much freedom as they wanted to work towards that goal with the intention of recognizing the individual’s efforts throughout the organization.

Some business practices Porras and Collins explain are paying attention to details, combining pieces to perform tasks (i.e. employee talents), asking if a practice is appropriate to a company’s ideology and goals instead of “is this practice good?” and taking care of misalignments within the organization.

Chapter 11 – Building the Vision

“Building the vision” is a rearrangement of values intended to stimulate progress. It asks potential visionary organizations to strive for self-improvement day in and day out and to invest in new technologies and new management methods to take risks instead of lying back and remaining conservative. An eye should always be kept for the long term instead of the short term, even when it is hard to do so.

Getting Things Done: The Art of Stress-Free Productivity

2007-12-31T05:11:24Z

For more than 20 years, David Allen has been a management consultant and executive coach. Allen’s first book Getting Things Done: The Art of Stress-Free Productivity, published in 2001, became a National Bestseller. Allen has been called a personal productivity guru whose work has been featured in Fast Company, Fortune, the Los Angeles Times, The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, and other publications.

Getting Things Done is divided into three parts. Part 1 provides an outline for getting control of your life through the five stages of mastering workflow: collection, processing, organizing, reviewing and doing. Part 2, which is well over half the book, repeats a lot of what is said in Part 1, but provides much more detail on the application of Allen’s methodology. Part 3 explains why Allen’s methods work and the benefits to be gained from using his approach.

The entire process, including inputs, processing/thinking, and outputs (actions and action lists), is conveniently summarized in a flowchart provided in the book. Allen’s philosophy is that to be one’s most productive self, one must be able to think clearly. In order to think clearly, one must have completely downloaded from one’s short-term memory or RAM (like computer RAM) all the “open loops” – unfulfilled commitments one has made to oneself. This frees the mind to do naturally what it does best – think about things rather than of things. Allen gives pointers for using one’s critical thinking skills, including three methods for making decisions about what actions to take, in Chapter 9.

Once one has everything off his mind and written down, in paper or electronically, one has to decide, “What’s the next action?” This is THE critical question. Once this is decided, the action must be completed or tracked in a trusted system, such as a Personal Digital Assistant or PDA.

Allen also has a two-minute rule, which states that as one goes through their in-box and determines next actions, any next action that can be completed in two minutes or less should be completed immediately. In this way, a lot of items are touched only once and are forever cleared from “psychic RAM.”

Allen outlines a process for getting RAM cleared in the first place and then for keeping it clear on a daily basis, as new things come into one’s “in” box. The “What’s the next action?” question must be asked on the front-end, when the item from the “in” box is first reviewed.

Applying Allen’s system is put forth as a way for today’s knowledge worker to have a competitive edge in the new millennium. His system is as applicable to one’s home environment and projects as it is to one’s work. He also claims it can help procrastinators.

Getting Things Done is part tools and techniques, part psychology. Allen says that mastering your time enables you to live in the present moment. This may be the true gift of this book.

Part 1 – The Art of Getting Things Done

Chapter 1 summary – A New Practice for a New Reality

With the societal shift to knowledge work, new behaviors and tools are required to successfully manage workflow. These behaviors and tools are incorporated into AllenÇs methodology, the objectives of which include: first, to capture all one needs to accomplish somewhere outside the brain and second, to discipline oneself to make decisions about these items as they are added to oneÇs workload.

Allen states that a person is the most productive when the mind is clear, free of what he calls “open loops” – the things people commit to do which remain undone and become a drag on the unconscious mind. He uses the analogy of RAM on a personal computer, with the idea that too much “stuff” stored in a personÇs short-term memory can blow a fuse. His idea is that the conscious mind is a focusing tool, not a storage place.

In addition, one must write down the outcomes they wish to achieve. Then, for every outcome, one must determine the “next physical action” required to move the situation forward. This next physical action must be organized in a system one reviews regularly. Doing these things is the equivalent of what Allen calls “horizontal” focus.

Chapter 2 summary – Getting Control of Your Life: The Five Stages of Mastering Workflow

Allen explains the five stages of mastering workflow: to collect, process, organize, review and do.

In the Collection stage, the idea is to gather all the items that remain to be completed. Collection tools include the physical in-basket, paper-based and electronic note-taking devices, voice-recording devices and email. There are three “collection success factors”: 1. Every open loop must be in your collection system and out of your head. 2. You must have as few collection buckets as you can get by with. 3. You must empty them regularly.

In the Process stage, the bucket is emptied. Allen describes this as perhaps the most critical improvement for almost all the people heÇs worked with. He outlines this process in great detail, complete with a flowchart. It asks:

What is it? Is it actionable?
If not, trash it, put it in a tickler file or put it in a reference file.
If so, whatÇs the next action? The next action is defined as the next physical, visible activity that needs to be engaged in, in order to move the current reality toward completion.
Will next action take less than 2 minutes?
If yes, do it.
If no, delegate it or defer it.
If it will take longer than 2 minutes, consider it a project (defined as requiring more than one action step) and put it in your project plans which will be reviewed for actions.

In the Organize stage, Allen describes eight categories of reminders and materials: trash, incubation tools, reference storage, list of projects, storage or files for project plans and materials, a calendar, a list of reminders of next actions, and a list of reminders of things youÇre waiting for.

Allen says a Review of all oneÇs lists, preferably weekly, is critical for success.

Chapter 3 summary – Getting Projects Creatively Under Way: The Five Phases of Project Planning

This chapter is about “vertical” focus, the thought process behind successful project planning.

Allen states that the brain goes through five steps to accomplish most any task and that this Natural Planning Model is also the most effective for project planning. These steps are:

1. Defining purpose and principles – In defining purpose, one asks “why?” Answering this question provides the following benefits: it defines success, creates decision-making criteria, aligns resources, motivates, clarifies focus and expands options. Principles create the boundaries of the plan and define the criteria for excellence of behavior. 2. Outcome visioning – A vision provides a picture of the final result. Allen discusses the Reticular Activating System within the brain and how it acts like a search engine. In defining the desired outcome, this filter in the brain brings to oneÇs attention those things that match the vision. In addition, Allen states that you wonÇt see how to do it until you see yourself doing it, and his advice is to view the project from beyond the completion date, envision “WILD SUCCESS”, and capture features, aspects, qualities you imagine in place. 3. Brainstorming – Brainstorming identifies how one gets from here to there through the generation of lots of ideas. Allen recommends writing down these ideas to help generate many new ones that might not have occurred had the brain not been emptied by writing down the original ideas. Writing ideas down also provides an anchor to keep one focused on the topic at hand. This idea of writing to spur thinking has been labeled as “distributed cognition”. Keys to effective brainstorming are: donÇt judge, challenge, evaluate, or criticize; go for quantity, not quality; and put analysis and organization in the background. 4. Organizing – Allen describes the key steps to include: identify the significant pieces; sort by components, sequences and/or priorities; and detail to the required degree. 5. Identifying next actions – Allen states that a project is sufficiently planned when every Next Action has been decided on every front that can actually be moved on without some other components having to be completed first.

Part 2 – Practicing Stress-Free Productivity

Chapter 4 summary – Getting Started: Setting Up the Time, Space and Tools

Allen recommends setting aside two whole days, back to back, to get started.

To set up a space, one needs a minimum of a writing surface and room for an in-basket. A work space is needed for work and home for everyone, including students, homemakers and retirees. DonÇt skimp on the home work space and donÇt share work space with someone else. Allen is not a proponent of the “hoteling” concept that many companies have employed in recent years.

The basic processing tools include paper-holding trays, plain paper, post-its, clips, stapler, a labeler all to oneself, letter size file folders (donÇt bother with color-coding), a calendar, wastebasket/recycling bins, and possibly an organizer to “manage your triggers externally” (such as papers, planners or a Personal Digital Assistant (PDA)).

A good general-reference filing system is key to the success of a personal management system. If it takes one more than a minute to get something out of the in-basket, decide it needs no action but should be kept for future reference, and filed, one has a significant improvement opportunity. Key filing success factors include: keep files at handÇs reach, use one A to Z alphabetical filing system, have lots of fresh folders, keep the drawers less than three-quarters full, label folders with an Auto Labeler, buy high-quality file cabinets, get rid of hanging files if you can, and purge your files at least once a year.

Chapter 5 summary – Collection: Corralling Your “Stuff”

Allen says it usually takes between one and six hours to gather everything that needs to be gathered into oneÇs “in” basket. ItÇs important to complete all the gathering before the “processing” and “organizing” begins. Although one will be tempted to start the processing while gathering, itÇs important not to do so. First, it gives one a sense of just how much stuff there is. Second, the “end of the tunnel” is identified. Third, one canÇt process as effectively with the distraction of knowing there is still more stuff to gather.

The gathering process should cover oneÇs physical space, such as desk drawers, countertops, and cabinets. It also includes a “mind sweep” to uncover anything that may be residing in oneÇs mental space, what Allen calls “psychic RAM”.

Allen warns that one may feel anxious as all this stuff is made conscious. At the same time, he recommends going for quantity. Finally, once the collection phase is complete, he urges moving on to the next step, since leaving items in the “in” box for too long will cause things to creep back into oneÇs psyche.

Chapter 6 summary – Processing: Getting “In” to Empty

Processing doesnÇt mean getting all actions completed; it means deciding what to do with each of the items in the “in” box. When this phase is complete, one will have trashed unneeded items, completed any less-than-two-minute actions, delegated, put reminders in oneÇs organizer of actions one must complete, and identified any projects.

Allen provides guidelines for effective processing. First, process the top item first. Resist the urge to pull out the most urgent, fun or interesting item first. Second, process one item at a time. This focus forces the attention and decision-making needed to get through everything. Finally, never put anything back into “in.”

As each item is reviewed, the key question is, “whatÇs the next action?” If none, the item is trashed, incubated to a “Someday/Maybe” list or “tickler” file, or put in reference material. If there is an action, make it specific. Then do it (if it takes less than two minutes), delegate it (and add it to the “Waiting For” list) or defer it.

Chapter 7 summary – Organizing: Setting Up the Right Buckets

Once processing is complete, one needs a way to organize the output. Allen gives the seven primary places to keep output and tips and tricks on making these places work. These areas include: a “Projects” list, project support material, calendared actions and information, “Next Actions” lists, a “Waiting For” list, reference material, and a “Someday/Maybe” list. These categories should be kept distinct from each other. Allen states these lists are all that one needs to stay organized and advises against trying to prioritize among these lists. Instead, setting priorities is more of an intuitive process that occurs as lists are reviewed.

Actions that should go on the calendar are ones that must be done on a specific day or time. They may also include triggers for activating projects, events one might want to participate in and decision catalysts. “Next Actions” should be organized by context, such as “Calls”, “Errands”, and “At Home.” The “Waiting For” list should be reviewed often enough to determine if one needs to take any action. Items in oneÇs “Read and Review” pile and emails that require action are reminders themselves, and Allen recommends pulling emails requiring action to a separate folder in oneÇs email system.

The “Projects” list provides a single place to review all projects for needed actions. One may subdivide projects by categories such as Personal/Professional, and one also may identify subprojects. Allen emphasizes there is no perfect way to track projects; one just needs to know what projects they have and how to find any associated reminders. Allen discusses Project Support Materials and warns against using them as a reminder. He also shares ideas for organizing ad hoc project thinking, where ideas are triggered and one needs to capture the ideas.

Allen makes the point that it is as important to organize nonactionable data – which includes reference material and “Someday/Maybes” – as it is to manage action and project reminders. Reference systems include general-reference filing, large-category filing, rolodexes and contact managers, and libraries and archives. Most people have 200 to 400 paper-based general-reference files and 30 to 100 e-mail reference folders.

For ideas that are not ready for action, one can keep them on a Someday/Maybe list, trigger them on oneÇs calendar or put them in a “tickler” system. Allen states that it is important not to call the “Hold and Review” pile oneÇs Someday/Maybe list.

Chapter 8 summary – Reviewing: Keeping Your System Functional

To keep the system working, it is key that one continues to trust the system. Trust is maintained by keeping the system up-to-date. One needs to decide what to look at and when. Allen suggests the most frequent review will probably be of oneÇs daily calendar and daily tickler folder. After these, the next actions lists should be reviewed.

The key to sustaining the system is the Weekly Review. This process includes whatever is needed to empty oneÇs head and includes going through the five phases of workflow management. Allen recommends blocking out a couple of hours early every Friday afternoon.

Chapter 9 summary – Doing: Making the Best Action Choices

Allen gives three models for deciding what to do at a point in time, beyond his simple answer to trust oneÇs intuition.

The Four-Criteria Model for Choosing Actions in the Moment uses the criteria of context, time available, energy available, and priority to make decisions.

The Threefold Model for Evaluating Daily Work presents AllenÇs idea that during a workday, one engages in one of three activities: doing predefined work, doing work as it shows up, or defining oneÇs work. Allen asserts that the sacrifice of not doing the work you have defined on your lists, because something else came up, can be tolerated only if one knows what heÇs not doing. People may blame their stress and lowered effectiveness on surprises when itÇs really their lack of defining their work. He calls oneÇs ability to deal with surprise a competitive edge.

The Six-Level Model for Reviewing Your Own Work is presented in terms of altitude:

50,000 + feet: Life
40,000 feet: Three- to five-year visions
30,000 feet: One-to two-year goals
20,000 feet: Areas of responsibility
10,000 feet: Current projects
Runway: Current actions

Each of these levels should enhance and align with the levels above it. Priorities are driven from the top. However, without a sense of control over current projects and actions, trying to manage oneself from the top down can create frustration. Allen recommends starting at the bottom level, first ensuring all action lists are complete, and then working up the model.

Chapter 10 summary – Getting Projects Under Control

Allen digs into the “vertical” project level again. He indicates that formal planning tools and techniques might be overrated and favors creative, proactive thinking. He suggests projects that may need more planning are first, those that still have oneÇs attention even after defining next actions, and second, those for which ideas just show up. The first require a revisit to the Natural Planning Model. The second require tools and structures to capture those random ideas. These may include a good writing instrument, paper, easels and whiteboards, and the computer. Allen states that the very act of writing ideas down facilitates a constructive thinking process like nothing else.

Part 3 – The Power of the Key Principles

Chapter 11 summary – The Power of the Collection Habit

In this chapter, Allen gets into the psychological aspects of his methodology, which in essence explain why his process works so well. He also discusses the benefits he has observed his clients realize over the years, including an increased level of trust with others and with oneself. He states that people feel badly about their unprocessed “in” boxes because the incomplete items in them represent broken agreements with themselves. To remedy this, he advises three choices: donÇt make the agreement, complete the agreement or renegotiate the agreement.

He states that anything held only in “psychic RAM” (not conscious) will carry equal weight and many small things will create more mental stress than they deserve. He says that one should use the mind to think about things, rather than of things. He considers his methodology real knowledge work, at a more sophisticated level.

Chapter 12 summary – The Power of the Next-Action Decision

Allen proposes that twenty minutes before the end of a meeting, one should ask, “So whatÇs the next action here?” to increase clarity. This is radical common sense, yet it is easy to avoid this more relevant level of thinking. He points out the dark side of a “collaborative culture” where people are too polite to hold others accountable, but says it is impolite to allow people to walk away from discussions unclear. Asking this question is key for knowledge workers to increase their productivity through “operational responsiveness.” Finally, this question presupposes there is the possibility of change and that one can do something to make it happen, which is empowering.

Chapter 13 summary – The Power of Outcome Focusing

Allen says even the slightest increase in the use of natural planning can bring significant improvement. He lauds the ability to envision success when how to achieve it is still unclear. Being able to generate lots of ideas, both good and bad, is a critical piece of creative intelligence. Honing and organizing ideas is a necessary mental discipline. Finally, choosing and taking next actions are the essence of productivity. Effectively applying these techniques is described as perhaps the major component of professional competence for the new millennium.

Links

Official website of David Allen and Getting Things Done

This summary was originally from here and is reproduced here under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License 1.2

Note that wikisummaries is not affiliated with Wikipedia.

Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion (Collins Business Essentials)

2007-12-23T21:15:38Z

Key Points

This is one of the best books.

Core concepts
Important take aways

Summary

Links

Links to other sites - authors, book’s web site, etc…

Good to Great: Why Some Companies Make the Leap... and Others Don't

2007-11-07T10:30:34Z

Key Points

“Level 5 Leaders” - leaders who have both “personal humility” and “professional will”. These are not rock-star leaders whose companies go into decline when they move on. They are diligent and hard working - more bite than bark. Celebrity leaders often work for a time, but appear to be damaging in the long run, because they don’t create sustained results.
Get the right people on the bus - that has to happen before the “what” decisions are taken. That can change if you have the right people, but the wrong people will certainly make the enterprise fail.
You must always be willing to “confront the brutal facts”. Don’t ignore reality in favor of what your hopes reflect it to become. Only by having accurate information can you achieve success.
The “Hedgehog concept” means having a simple, extremely clear concept of what their business is. That business is something they can
1. Make money at
2. Be passionate about, and
3. Be the best in the world at These are also known as “The Three Circles”
A culture of self-discipline is critical, because it creates an environment where people work within a defined system, and yet, because the confines of the system are known, gives them more freedom to act within that system.
Technology is an accelerator, not an agent of change. Good companies use it to execute better, but it won’t save a mediocre company.
“The Flywheel” refers to the idea of momentum - keep pushing in one direction and you’ll build up a lot of it that will help you to overcome obstacles. Momentum is built a little bit at a time - it’s not a dramatic, revolutionary change, but constant, diligent work.

Summary

The idea that sparked this book was to answer questions about how good companies might become great companies, and how they went about doing so.

Methodology

The study looks at companies from 1965 to 1995, looking for those that, for 15 years, either tracked or underperformed the stock market, followed by a transition, and subsequently returning at least 3 times the stock market for at least 15 years. The goal was to eliminate “flash in the pan” success from the results. Further filtering was performed in order to ensure that companies also outperformed their industries, so as not to include spurious results showing entire industries that grew by leaps and bounds in a given period. Eleven companies were located that matched these criteria, and were studied in depth, and compared to competitors in their fields

The companies studied were:

Level 5 Leaders

All the companies studied had what Collins describes as “Level 5 Leaders”. Despite sounding like something from a space-alien worshiping cult, what the term refers to is an individual who is very humble on a personal level, but who possesses a great deal of drive and desire to succeed, where “success” is not personal, but defined by creating something great that will outlast their time at the helm. These are people with an unwavering will and commitment to do what is necessary to drive their organization to the top. Most of the good to great executives discussed luck as an important factor in their success [and perhaps cynical readers of The Black Swan will agree with that assessment more than the factors Collins cites - davidw]. Level 5 leaders, are, in any case, the kind of people who do not point to themselves as the cause for an organization’s success. The chapter closes with a discussion of whether Level 5 Leaders are born, or made, with the conclusion that many people probably have the kernel of abilities and attitude necessary to attain that status.

First Who … Then What

During the transformation from good to great, rather than concern themselves first with the “what” - products, direction, strategy - the companies studied ensured they had the right people “on the bus” before anything else. By having a strong team, these companies avoided the pitfall of the “lone genius” CEO. For example, think what would happen to Apple’s share price were something to happen to Steve Jobs. “Great” companies are those that have a very solid foundation, and don’t depend on the brilliance of any one person.

The research indicated that compensation did not correlate at all with the “good to great” process. No particular compensation scheme appeared to be advantageous.

Also important was that, while the companies were “tough” places to work, they were because of the general high quality and hard-working mindset, not because of ruthless management. Some practical tips for how to be rigorous:

Don’t hire someone unless you’re %100 sure that they’re the right person. It’s better to wait and get someone that you know is a good fit.
Once you realize you need to fire someone, don’t put it off. Do it quickly and fairly, but do it and be done with it, rather than put it off.
Give good people good opportunities, rather than the biggest problems. Fixing problems makes you good, but taking advantage of the right opportunities can make you great.

Good to great teams were mostly composed of people who had a good sense of balance with the rest of their lives - family, church, and so on. Of course, they had a deep commitment to their companies, but not one that blinded them to the other important things in their lives.

Confront the Brutal Facts

One of the key factors in the success of the great companies was a series of good decisions. The good decisions flowed from the fact that they all made a consistent and thorough effort to confront reality, internalizing the facts relevant to their market. Having lofty goals can be good, but you can never lose sight of what the reality is on the ground, no matter how much you will it to be different.

In a large organization, where it’s impossible to personally poke your nose in all corners of the company every day, it is crucial to create a climate where honesty is valued and honored. If people aren’t telling it like it is, those at the top may not realize the truth until too late. Some tips to create this kind of climate:

It’s often better to ask questions rather than dispense “answers”.
Encourage healthy debate. It has to be real debate, not a show put on to make people feel included. It should also not just be argument for the sake of argument - reach a conclusion and move on.
When things go wrong, investigate to avoid repeating the mistake, instead of assigning blame. If people are too worried about protecting themselves, it becomes difficult to honestly analyze and learn from failures.
Create mechanisms, “red flags” that allow people to communicate problems instantly and without repercussions, and in a way that cannot be ignored.

Amidst these “brutal facts” that must be faced, you must also have faith in your final goal. By maintaining this vision, and keeping your ear to the ground, it won’t be necessary to motivate people - if you’ve got the right people, they’ll be motivated of their own accord.

The Hedgehog Concept

The “hedgehog concept” refers to a parable of a hedgehog and a fox, where the fox knows many things, but the hedgehog knows one big thing. The good to great companies were by and large built by “hedgehogs” - this doesn’t mean stupid - au contraire - it just means that they were able to focus on one big important thing that made their companies great. Sometimes it takes real genius to see through all the clutter and grab the one, simple, unique thing that gives you the advantage.

The “three circles” is an idea regarding how to find your “hedgehog concept”: think of three interlocking circles, representing 1) what you are passionate about, 2) what you can make money at, and 3) what can you be the best at. At the intersection of these three things lies the winning target. If you can bring all three things to bear, you have found a way to excel. Learn to realize, as well, what you will never be the best at - those are things you must avoid, if possible. The economics of various industries varied widely, but the good great companies were winners, even within industries that weren’t rising stars. One consistent rule of thumb is to identify a ratio, profit per X, (where X could be customer, web site user, per unit sold, per employee etc…) and focus on that. Sometimes it may not be obvious.

Passion, on the other hand, does not come from executive rah-rah sessions with employees, but by doing things that make people passionate on their own. Passion isn’t something that can be forced on people, it has to come from a mission that they truly believe in, that’s more than just a paycheck.

Another practical suggestion is to create a “Council”, of between 5 to 12 people, to discuss and gain insights into the organization. It should meet regularly, not a one-time group. Its members should bring to the table a deep understanding of some portion of the firm. They need to freedom to speak their minds, and always have the respect of the other Council members. The Council exists to help the chief executive, not reach a consensus. It is an informal group, in the sense that it is not spelled out in official documents or org charts.

Culture of Discipline

Great companies have both an entrepreneurial spirit and a sense of discipline. They are both necessary - without the drive to try new things, and some degree of independence, a company becomes a rigid, stifling hierarchy. Without some sense of discipline, things begin to break down as the company grows. The best companies have both latitude for individual action, as well as a culture of disciplined behavior. This begins, once again, with the right people. It’s useless trying to create rules to force the wrong people to behave correctly - it simply won’t work. Instead, you need to find people who have an innate sense of self-discipline that doesn’t come from above. There is a big difference between having a “tyrant” that enforces a culture of discipline by fear, and finding people who naturally adhere to a disciplined approach. The former will disintegrate when the leader moves on, the latter creates a lasting system.

One helpful approach to discipline is to have a “stop doing” list. Stop doing the things that aren’t central to your business. Stop doing the things that are just clutter, but even more importantly, stop doing even things that might be seen as important, if they are not in your “three circles”.

Technology

“Great companies adapt and endure” - technology is not a differentiator in and of itself, but rather something that enhances great companies. They use it to further increase their leverage, in a conscious, directed way, rather than rushing to embrace it for the sake of its newness. Technology won’t light a fire where there is none, but where there is already good momentum, judicious use of technology can help accelerate it. Technology is an enabler of change, not the cause of it - but the “people factors” must be in place before application of technology will do any good. Technology as a reaction - to the latest fashion, to the competition - was not what was found in great companies. These companies possess a drive all their own that pushes them to be the best in their chosen field, and picking the right technology is a natural part of that.

The “Flywheel” and “Doom Loop”

These two concepts represent positive and negative momentum. A flywheel is a heavy wheel that takes a lot of energy to set in motion - to do so usually requires constant, steady work, rather than a quick acceleration. Great companies’ transformations were like this as well. There was no magic recipe or no ‘aha’ moment when everything changed. Rather, with everything in place, lots of hard work slowly but steadily got the great companies going faster and faster, with a lot of momentum. Once it’s in motion, all that stored energy tends to keep it moving in the right direction.

Conversely, the “doom loop” is the vicious circle that unsuccessful companies fall into, rushing first in one direction, then another, in the hope of creating a sudden, sharp break with the past that will propel them to success. Some attempt to do this through acquisitions, others through bringing in a new leader who decides to change direction completely, in a direction incompatible with the company. The results are never good. The difference between the two approaches is characterized by the slow, steady, methodical preperation inherent in the flywheel, as compared to the abrupt, radical, and often revolutionary, rather than evolutionary changes within the company.

Built to Last

The results from this book were obtained without regards to Collins’ earlier work, Built to Last, but when all was said and done, Good to Great is what has to happen before a company becomes Built to Last. Much of what is present in Good to Great was present during the creation by their founders of the Built to Last firms. Companies that have endured have a raison d’être beyond simply making money - they have distinguishing and unique characteristics, goals and ways of operating that go beyond a simple desire to make money. These core values are preserved, while tactics change continuously to deal with an restless, tumultuous world that never stops.

The “Big Hairy Audacious Goal”, a concept introduced in Built to Last can be either good (as motivation, something to pursue), or bad (if it’s impossible or a bad fit). Good BHAGs are those formulated from a deep understanding, whereas bad ones come from brash recklessness without regard for the actual values and capabilities of the company.

Why greatness?

Because it’s not really that much harder to be great than good, and if you’re not motivated to greatness, perhaps you should consider doing something else where you are.

Notes

Interestingly, CEO salaries don’t seem to be a major factor in terms of their correlation with “good to great” companies.

Links

http://www.jimcollins.com/

Detailed criticism of the book: Why “Good to Great” Isn’t Very Good

The Essays of Warren Buffett : Lessons for Corporate America

2007-08-12T09:20:47Z

The essays comprising this book, selected mostly from Warren Buffett’s letters to the shareholders of Berkshire, provide a guide to fundamental business analysis and an approach to wise investing. A central point that Buffett makes is that good investors, rather than focusing on the market, should identify good businesses, attempt to buy them at good prices, and hold them for the long term. Buffett has done just this in his management of Berkshire.

Disagreeing with the dogma popular in recent decades known as modern finance theory that holds that market prices efficiently express business values, Buffett instead argues that the market sets prices in a manic-depressive manner. A good investor learns to insulate himself from market emotions and to make a distinction between market price and intrinsic value. Such an investor will not bothered by such nonsense as a high “beta”—a measure of volatility academic theorists use as a risk factor and warning—but will understand that volatility provides investment opportunities and will use market drops to make good purchases. Eventually, the market will confirm his good sense.

As the CEO of Berkshire, originally a textile company, Buffett has succeeded hugely by purchasing all of or significant portions of good businesses and then left talented managers alone to operate them. His business-centered, rather than market-oriented, approach has involved supporting the development over time of these companies. Buffett eschews the popular notion in investing of diversification, contending rather that an investor should focus on what he can understand.

Furthermore, a good investor needs to make decisions by regarding a business opportunity on its own terms and in its specific environment. These principles, he demonstrates, were unfortunately forgotten in the mania of the 1980s and 1990s during which “junk” and zero-coupon bonds became popular investment modes and stock prices got out of sync with values, bringing financial disaster for many. The merger movements of these years especially damaged shareholders in the acquiring companies because the mergers often involved undervalued stock of these companies being exchanged for overvalued stock of the acquired companies.

For Buffett, acquisitions provide an example of but one of many ways in which the actions of managements have conflicted with shareholder interests. He demonstrates in these essays that as a CEO he sees an accord between his interests and those of Berkshire shareholders. While most company heads would wish their stock to be sold at the highest possible price, Buffett wants the shares of Berkshire to maintain a close relationship with their intrinsic value; in this way shareholders should receive profits that represent company results over the period of their holdings. Furthermore, under Buffett’s leadership Berkshire avoided stock splits, which he considers mainly as marketing tools.

In the last chapters of the book, Buffett explores both the value and limitations of corporate accounting and laments how pressures to report a profit have damaged accounting integrity. The focus by companies on their stock prices—antagonistic to Buffett’s approach—has produced target prices that have encouraged accounting manipulations. The argument of many executives that stock options should not be considered a cost represents another pressure tending to corrupt honest accounting. As a way to allow a more effective evaluation of a business’s finances, Buffett offers the concept of “look-through earnings” that will credit both retained and distributed earnings. Above all, these essays provide good examples showing there is no substitute for honest, clear, and full disclosure in business.

Chapter Summaries

Introduction: by Lawrence Cunningham

Lawrence Cunningham begins by stating that Warren Buffet’s letters to the shareholders of Berkshire Hathaway Inc., which he has selected and arranged for this volume, provide in clear language an exceptional education on the basic principles of sound business practice. Their central theme is that fundamental analysis should guide business investment, a theme discussed in regard to understanding the proper roles of managers and shareholders, finance, mergers, valuation, and accounting. Cunningham points out that many of Buffet’s principles contradict the central dogmas of the past thirty years held in the major business schools, Wall Street, and corporate America.

Buffett has applied these principles as CEO since 1964 of Berkshire Hathaway, a textile business he purchased and transformed into a holding company that came to own completely or to have substantial stock holdings in a number of profitable companies. (In 1988 nearly 75% of Berkshire’s total net worth was concentrated in three companies: GEICO, The Washington Post, and Capital Cities/ABC.) Buffett’s business principles are what he calls Èowner-relatedÉ: he considers the shareholders as owners for whom he and Charlie Munger, his managing partner at Berkshire, work to serve their interests, and he gives the managers of the constituent companies held by Berkshire the kind of autonomy they would have were they the actual owners.

In this lengthy introduction, Cunningham discusses each of the major sections into which Buffett’s writing falls. Regarding ÈCorporate Governance,É having companies managed by first-rate people that Buffett admires and can trust is far more important than devising organizational hierarchies. So-called modern finance and portfolio theory, which assumes market efficiency and stresses diversification and random stock selection, is a poor approach to ÈCorporate Finance and InvestingÉ because it slights the importance of carefully learning about individual companies. Buffett’s opinions in ÈAlternatives to Common StockÉ and ÈCommon StockÉ lament that the widespread short-term, market-oriented approach favored by institutional investors has become dominant in contrast to the long-term, business-oriented approach that he practices. Providing clarity on ÈMergers and Acquisitions,É Buffett makes the point that shareholders of the acquiring companies frequently are losers when companies combine. Finally, in the last two sections, devoted to accounting matters, Buffett discusses the proper use of financial information.

I: Corporate Governance

In an extended “Owner’s Manual” provided for Berkshire shareholders—the first selection in this chapter—Buffett summarizes his basic business principles, elaborated in much greater detail throughout the book. As the chief manager of Berkshire, he stresses here his role as a partner with the shareholders and asserts that his interest is identical with theirs: the long-term progress of the companies Berkshire holds. Buffett argues for the need for full and fair reporting by management. CEOs, he says, should avoid predictions since these invariably create targets that lead to unwholesome maneuvering with regard to earnings statements.

Buffett addresses the often-difficult relationship between boards and CEOs: it is all too common for inadequate people in the latter positions to be tolerated indefinitely because performance standards for their jobs rarely exist (in contrast with that of subordinate positions) and because directors often are incapable of or unwilling to make needed changes. These sorts of problems generally are not found in the companies Buffett has assembled for Berkshire, companies led by talented managers he admires whom he wishes to leave alone to do their jobs.

Managers of most public corporations in making charitable donations, Buffett points out, never solicit the opinion of their owner-shareholders. At Berkshire, he has devised a unique model that allows shareholders to designate charitable recipients in a way that is included within the company’s tax deduction allowances. Another common problem in corporate America that Buffett has attempted to solve is how stock options benefit executives in a manner detached from their real job performance. For managers of Berkshire companies, Buffett has designed an incentive compensation system that seeks to provide rewards on the basis of results achieved rather than stock price.

II. Corporate Finance and Investing

The key to successful investing, Buffett posits, is to purchase shares in good businesses at times when market prices are at a large discount from business values. This might seem commonsense, but Buffett points out that most institutional investors in the 1970s, under the spell of business school professors who contended that markets were totally efficient in establishing stock prices, considered underlying business values to be of little importance.

Buffett uses the example of the hypothetical Mr. Market, a creation of his teacher, Ben Graham. A manic-depressive, Mr. Market spews out price quotations that reflect his severe emotional pathology. A headache for many investors, this is good news for the wise investor able to insulate himself from these contagious emotions and make investment decisions based on the real values of businesses he can understand. Following this approach, such investors will find that times of declining stock prices provide the best opportunities. Eventually, Buffett knows, the market will validate their decisions.

Investment decisions, rather than being based on opinions about short-term market prospects, instead should reflect judgments about long-term prospects of specific companies. What makes sense for a business owner is the same as what is smart for a shareholder: holding onto a piece of an outstanding business with tenacity. “According the name ‘investors’ to institutions that trade actively,” he writes, “is like calling someone who repeatedly engages in one-night stands a romantic.” While Buffett concedes that he might sometimes make slightly higher profits were he an active trader, he justifies his holding strategy in part on the value of the trusting relationships he has formed with his talented managers.

When it comes to conventional portfolio theory, Buffett disagrees with the popular notion of diversification in investing, arguing rather that investors should focus on what they understand. The overuse of ÈbetasÉ as measures of risk in stock purchasing he considers ridiculous since it is exactly the volatility of stocks that provides opportunities for investors who’ve taken the trouble to determine the intrinsic value of companies. For Buffett the idea of Èvalue investingÉ is redundant. His definition of the best businesses to own are those that over an extended period can employ large amounts of capital at very high rates of return. In acquiring such, whether they are complete companies or large share portions, he insists on the importance of a margin of safety: the price paid should not exceed value.

III. Alternatives to Common Stock

In the selections making up this chapter, Buffett applies his principles to various investment categories areas that fulfill the criteria of being both understandable and offering good deals. He stresses the need to comprehend specific business situations as opposed to following investing trends. Purchasing low-grade bonds has sometimes been a good strategy for Buffett, but when this became a widespread practice in the Èjunk bondÉ mania of the 1980s and 1990s, it produced financial disasters. Similarly, zero-coupon bonds at times made good investments, but these produced unfortunate results when issued by companies with weaker and weaker credit. Buffett here also shows the breadth of his investment wisdom in discussions about convertible preferred stocks and about experiences with oil and silver investments.

IV. Common Stock

In contrast to CEOs who wish their company’s stock to trade at the highest possible price, Buffett wants Berkshire shares to sell at close to their intrinsic value so that holders of shares for any particular period will benefit according to the company’s business results during that period. To make real this intention, he has sought to attract shareholders who have a long-term perspective rather than a short-term, market-oriented strategy.

Another area in which Berkshire has diverged from common corporate practices involves dividend policy. For each dollar retained by a corporation, Buffett believes that at least one dollar of market value should be created for the owners. Berkshire has never paid a dividend. Buffett believes that a major reason for its success has been his ability to deploy effectively the cash generated by Berkshire’s component businesses, resulting in the company’s stock prices increasing at rates well in excess of market averages. It is all too common elsewhere for corporate managers to invest in subsidiary businesses that may inflate their egos but often provide poor returns. In Buffett’s opinion, managers should put themselves in the place of shareholders with regard to payout decisions. He specifically applauds those managements which decide to purchase their own companies’ shares when available at prices less than the intrinsic value.

In keeping with the importance of maintaining a rational stock price and a business—rather than market—orientation, Berkshire has never split its stock. Finally, in 1996 Buffett did authorize the issuance of Class B shares (with 1/30 the rights of the existing shares) mainly to stop Wall St. operators who had created clones of Berkshire with investment trusts that attracted buyers who didn’t understand Berkshire’s business philosophy.

V. Mergers and Acquisitions

Buffett demonstrates that in making acquisitions companies commonly reduce the wealth of their shareholders because the exchange is an unequal one in which the acquirer gives up $2 to receive $1 in value. The often-missed irony, Buffett points out, is that were the buying company to sell its entire business, it could likely get full intrinsic value. However, in making an acquisition—which in fact involves a partial sale of itself via the issuing of shares—it can get a price no higher than what the market assigns it, which is frequently lower than intrinsic value. In regard to acquisitions (which illustrate but one way that a CEO’s goals are often at odds with the interests of shareholders), Buffett differs from the practices of most corporate heads: Berkshire strongly prefers to use cash instead of stock in buying companies.

Unusually for an acquiring company, Berkshire seeks to purchase companies from owners whom it wishes to retain as managers and who are promised autonomy to run their businesses. Buffett makes it clear that he especially prefers to buy from owners who have lovingly built businesses and will be most happy continuing to operate them, freed from having to deal with the various enticements to which generating excess cash would have subjected them.

VI. Accounting and Valuation

Buffett’s selections in this chapter show both the importance and limitations of accounting methods in understanding a business or investment. He discusses the differences between accounting earnings and economic earnings, between accounting goodwill and economic goodwill, and between book value and intrinsic value. As a set of conventions, accounting can be manipulated, demonstrated here in a satire by Ben Graham on how U.S. Steel could report greatly enhanced earnings without spending extra cash or increasing sales.

One concept Buffett offers to help evaluate a company’s finances he calls Èlook-through earnings.É Because conventional accounting calls for reporting only dividends received by an investor and ignores the undistributed earnings that are a large part of the value received for a company such as Berkshire, this concept can be a valuable tool for an investor.

VII. Accounting Policy and Tax Matters

Whatever accounting methods are chosen, Buffett states that the key challenge is to report data that helps readers answer three questions: What is a company’s real value? How able is it to meet its future obligations? How effective are its managers in running the business? With regards to a continuing accounting debate over whether mergers should be considered purchases of one company by another (favored by accounting purists) or the pooling of two companies (favored by managers), Buffett offers what he believes a realistic solution: the asset should be recorded for goodwill but should not be charged against future earnings.

Buffett addresses in this chapter pressures that tend to corrupt the independence and integrity of accounting practices. On the issue of whether stock options should be considered a business expense—a position generally contested by management—Buffett believes that the argument that they are difficult to estimate carries little water.

The common practice of handling ÈrestructuringÉ charges, which often represent costs incurred over years, by placing them in a single quarter misrepresents a company’s earnings record and is thus deceptive, even if legal. Furthermore, the general assumption by executives that their job is to maximize a company’s share price leads to unsavory accounting maneuvers.

In the final sections, Buffett addresses various tax matters. On the debate over whether changes in taxation rates are reflected in the prices paid by consumers or absorbed by corporations (as either increased or decreased earnings), Buffett explains how the answer varies according to market conditions. The federal income taxes paid by Berkshire are substantial, but Buffett points out in conclusion that his business policies—long-term investing and a strong preference for owning 100% of businesses—have provided not only business benefits but also valuable tax advantages.

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Founders at Work: Stories of Startups' Early Days

2007-08-07T07:49:06Z

This book is a collection of interviews, so it’s impossible to summarize as one might with a “big idea book”, however, we’ll try and extract some of the best insight and anecdotes here.

Nearly all the companies had a team of founders, rather than an individual.
Technical skills and backgrounds actually differ in many ways.
Some started with a very clear idea and stuck to it, but many others did not.
Persistance is important. In hindsight, if you succeed, it’s called “persistance”, but if you fail it’s “blindly following the wrong idea”.
Live cheap, and spend money like it’s your own.
Many of the interviewees mention a sense of feeling “bipolar” - you have moments when you feel like you can conquer the world, and others when you think “who am I kidding… this will never fly”.
Paul Graham - “make something people want”.
Steve Wozniak (Apple): “All the best things I did at Apple came from (a) not having money, and (b) not having done it before, ever.”

Links

http://www.foundersatwork.com/

http://www.paulgraham.com

9 lessons learned from founders at work

The Black Swan: The Impact of the Highly Improbable

2007-07-30T10:51:02Z

Key Points

Predicting the future is, in many cases, impossible.
People significantly underestimate the significance of extreme events when considering the future. “Black Swans” are these extreme events.
There is a tendency to give explanations to largely random successes or failures after the fact.

Summary

The idea of the black swan refers to the fact that, prior to the discovery of Australia, it was assumed that all swans were white, because no one (well, no European at least) had ever seen a black swan. However, they do exist.

However, in the book, a “black swan” refers to any event that is rare, has an extreme impact, and is explainable and predictable - but only in hindsight.

In this book, Nassim Nicholas Taleb argues several major points:

Rare events occur much more often than we expect. Our minds are programmed to deal with what we’ve seen before, to “expect the expected”, so to speak. However, all too often extreme events do indeed take place, and have large, and long lasting effects.
Our tendency to discard rare events happens in part because people underestimate their ignorance. There is a great deal we don’t know, but since feeling ignorant isn’t pleasant, we tend to put it out of our minds.
We tend to invent stories where there are none. In other words, after the fact, we like to invent explanations for why things happened the way they did, which is much more comforting than staring at sheer randomness.

Links

http://www.fooledbyrandomness.com/

A very long and in-depth interview with the author: http://www.econtalk.org/archives/2007/04/taleb_on_black.html

The Art of the Start: The Time-Tested, Battle-Hardened Guide for Anyone Starting Anything

2007-06-22T11:03:31Z

Summary

This book is brief and has a very low level of fluff.

The best reason to start a company (or non profit, for that matter) is to “make meaning” - making the world a better place - by doing something along these lines:
- Increase the quality of life.
- Right a wrong.
- Prevent the end of something good.
Make a mantra. Not a mission statement! A mantra is not a tag line, it’s for you and your employees, not customers. An example is Nike’s “authentic athletic performance”.
Get going! Planning isn’t bad as far as those things go, but you will be more successful if you start doing. It’s difficult to start, but get out there and start writing, developing software, or whatever it is that you want to do.
- Aim for something big - you won’t change the world by being ‘medium’.
- It takes a team to make something work - find some other people to work with.
- “Polarize people” - don’t aim for the middle of the road - create something people either love, or hate.
Define a business model. Think about how you are going to get money for doing what you do. Think in specific terms, and keep it simple (ten words or less). Consider copying someone - innovate with your product, not your business model.
MAT - Milestones, Assumptions, Tasks. All startups must face these seven milestones:
- Prove your concept
- Complete your design specifications
- Create a prototype
- Finance yourself (raising capital or some other means)
- Ship a beta
- Ship the real thing
- Break even in terms of money Write down a list of assumptions that you are making about the business, and keep track of them. See if they’re true or whether things need correcting.
Tasks are the actual things that need doing from day to day to make the milestones happen.
Niche - high and to the right.
10/20/30 rule for presentations: 10 slides, 20 minutes, 30 point font
- No matter how smart you think you are, or how good your idea, stick to the 10/20/30 guidelines
- If you think that’s not enough slides, you can prepare backup slides, but don’t go into them unless the audience specifically requests further information in a particular area
- The 30 point font rule is especially important for people who try to work around the 10-slide rule by cramming a lot of information into each slide
Hire “infected” people who love your product.
- Hire better than yourself, because if you hire people that aren’t, they will in turn hire people worse than them, and so on. This is called a “bozo explosion”
- People who are good in big organizations may not necessarily be the best for new organizations.
Lower barriers to adoption.
- Flatten the learning curve.
- Don’t ask people to do something you wouldn’t.
- Embrace your evangelists.
Seed the clouds.
- “Let a 100 flowers bloom” - if people don’t use it quite like you thought, that’s ok, go with the flow!
- Let people test drive your product.
- Find the influencers.
Don’t let the bozos grind you down.

Also, remember to play your part in society. Treat others well, and do right by them.

Links

http://www.guykawasaki.com/

Video of Guy presenting the concepts in the book: http://www.veotag.com/player/?u=fqiufigrjh

The Tipping Point: How Little Things Can Make a Big Difference

2007-06-22T07:30:48Z

Summary

A “tipping point” is the point in an epidemic (where the term comes from), or any social phenomenon that doesn’t grow linearly (most don’t). It’s the inflection point in the classic “hockey stick” graph where the thing has gathered critical mass and takes off, growing exponentially.

The types of people that produce a “tipping point”:

Connectors: people with wide social circles, especially those who move in many different groups and subcultures.
Mavens: people who are experts, or at least very knowledgeable.
Salesmen: those who are charismatic enough to influence other people. People that others “want to be like”, even if it’s not conscious.

“The Law of the Few”: the above types of individual are disproportionately more powerful in terms of social phenomenon. These exceptional people are capable of starting epidemics.
“The Power of Context”: small changes in context can make a big difference in “tipping”. An epidemic will not take hold unless the context is right.
The stickyness factor:

Mechanisms to make something sticky or memorable include reinforcement and repetition, refinement and distillation, celebrity, hooks and triggers, clarity and understandability of message, conveyance by narrative (story), suspense, and other ways of “packaging to make it irresistable”.

Tips for creating your own “epidemic”:

Focus on the group of mavens who have the ability and desire to work on the idea and the connectors and salesmen who can bring your idea to a wider community.
Test the message or idea with people to refine it and improve its packaging.
Believe in your idea and its possibilities to radically change the world. With a small push in just the right place, the world can be tipped.

Links

http://www.gladwell.com/

Squeezed Books Recent Updates

The Wisdom of Crowds

Key Points

Summary

Part I

Chapter 1

Chapter 2

Chapter 3

Chapter 4

Chapter 5

Chapter 6

Links

Don't Make Me Think: A Common Sense Approach to Web Usability (2nd Edition)

Key Points

Summary

Don’t make me think.

How people use the web

Design pages for scanning, not reading

Mindless choices are good

Writing for the web

Navigation

Page names

Home page

Web design arguments are often a waste of time

Simple, cheap usability testing

Usability - comment courtesy

Accessibility

Links

How to Win Friends & Influence People

Part One

Part Two

Part Three

Part Four

The Paradox of Choice: Why More Is Less

Key Points

Summary

Links

Built to Last: Successful Habits of Visionary Companies

Chapter Summaries

Chapter 1 – Best of the Best

Chapter 2 – Clock Building, Not Time Telling

Chapter 3- More than Profits

Interlude – No “Tyranny of the Or” (Embrace the “Genius of the And”)

Chapter 4 – Preserve the Core/Stimulate Progress

Chapter 5- Big Hairy Audacious Goals

Chapter 6 – Cult-like Cultures

Chapter 7 – Try a Lot of Stuff and Keep What Works

Chapter 8 – Home Grown Management

Chapter 9 – Good Enough Never Is

Chapter 10 – The End of the Beginning

Chapter 11 – Building the Vision

See also

Getting Things Done: The Art of Stress-Free Productivity

Part 1 – The Art of Getting Things Done

Chapter 1 summary – A New Practice for a New Reality

Chapter 2 summary – Getting Control of Your Life: The Five Stages of Mastering Workflow

Chapter 3 summary – Getting Projects Creatively Under Way: The Five Phases of Project Planning

Part 2 – Practicing Stress-Free Productivity

Chapter 4 summary – Getting Started: Setting Up the Time, Space and Tools

Chapter 5 summary – Collection: Corralling Your “Stuff”

Chapter 6 summary – Processing: Getting “In” to Empty

Chapter 7 summary – Organizing: Setting Up the Right Buckets

Chapter 8 summary – Reviewing: Keeping Your System Functional

Chapter 9 summary – Doing: Making the Best Action Choices

Chapter 10 summary – Getting Projects Under Control

Part 3 – The Power of the Key Principles

Chapter 11 summary – The Power of the Collection Habit

Chapter 12 summary – The Power of the Next-Action Decision

Chapter 13 summary – The Power of Outcome Focusing

Links

Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion (Collins Business Essentials)

Key Points

Summary

Links

Good to Great: Why Some Companies Make the Leap... and Others Don't

Key Points

Summary

Methodology

Level 5 Leaders

First Who … Then What