Change the Way You Lead Change: Leadership Strategies That Really Work - Book Review - Jared Cheng

Change the Way You Lead Change: Leadership Strategies That Really Work. David M. Herold and Donald B. Fedor. Stanford University Press, 2008. 176 pp. $25.00. (ISBN: 0-804-75875-1)

Leaders of change bring change using the following principles: promoting advantageous visions, offering clear communication to gain people's trust, selecting suitable individuals to empower, creating a short term win, etc. However, does following these principles lead to an automatic successful organizational change? Simply put, the answer is no. According to research and major trade publications, about 80 percent of all change initiatives end in failure. In addition to this, they state that 31 percent of CEOs removed by their boards were removed due to mismanaged change initiatives. Why is this happening? David M. Herold and Donald B. Fedor coauthored a book, "Change the way you lead change", in response to this question. This book takes readers to explore the "blind spots" that leaders of change often miss while making decisions.

Both David Herold and Donald Fedor are professors at the College of Management, Georgia Institute of Technology, and have a great amount of experience in corporate consulting. In preparation for the book, they “have examined more than 300 organizational changes and over 8,000 individuals who have lived through them” (cover), identified the key factors leading to failure by asking executives recall past change initiative failures, formulated a change model, and validated it against several real case studies. The book, presented by credible authors, is a reliable source for researchers, students, and leaders of change who would like to learn more about change management.

Herold and Fedor challenged the traditional sequence of a change project: “Perceived strategic or business imperatives”
“What do we think needs changing?” (WHAT)
“How should we proceed?” (HOW)
“Implementation” (18)
Personal interpretations, such as leaders’ personal theories, ego, personal agendas, motives, and personality, influence “perceived strategic or business imperatives” and what needs changing. Projects for change that follow this typical sequence usually fail or do not meet expectations because 1) problems are not properly addressed by the proposed change, 2) leaders are inadequate, 3) followers poorly adapt to the change, 4) internal and external events are not carefully considered, and 5) flaws exist in the implementation of the change process (18 – 19). Based on the traditional sequence, the authors add newly introduced components: “who will lead”, “who is expected to follow”, “internal context”, and “external context”. Thorough considerations of these four components determines HOW; HOW leads to three different outcomes: “implementation”, “[altering] elements of the situation” (reconsidering who is involved in a change project), or “[reconsidering] the change” (reconsidering the contexts) (20). This change framework, which takes various components into account to model the complexity of change situations, gives me a different mental image about leading organizational change. Each component of the framework is addressed in detail in the later chapters.

There is a misconception in change management that success or failure is determined by how well the organization does instead of what the organization is trying to do. It is believed by most of organizations that their solutions that address a change imperative are appropriate. However, this is not the case. Herold and Fedor believe that a treatment that addresses a change imperative is just a choice; it may not be optimal and often reflects a leader’s “ego”, “motive”, as well as “personal biases, predispositions, and even deeply rooted and sometimes unconscious processes” (32). Moreover, there’s no corresponding solution that addresses a particular change imperative; for example, restructuring is not the only solution to speed up decision making process. In order to find the best and realistic solution, leaders should take a wide assessment of the change situation and consider the meaning and impact of change to all the subunits (42).

I always thought that leaders influenced followers mainly relied on their positional power and charisma. In chapter 4, Herold and Fedor identified several “reservoirs of influence” that leaders of change can draw on: positional (compliance), relational or personal (personal credibility and change savvy), and impersonal (charisma and reputation) (49). Each of the sources of influence has advantages and disadvantages; leaders of change need to know where their influences are coming from and what situation is most appropriate for using a particular influence reservoir (68).

The authors emphasize change-savvy leadership style, which involves the following:
1. Careful entry into the new setting
2. Listening to and learning from those who have been there longer (respecting the history and culture)
3. Engaging in fact finding and joint problem solving
4. Carefully (rather than rashly) diagnosing the situation
5. Being enthusiastic, genuine, and sincere about the circumstances surrounding the change
6. Obtaining buy-in for what needs fixing
7. Developing a credible plan for making that fix (47 – 48)
Change-savvy leadership can help a leader to cultivate personal credibility and reputation (49). Moreover, “possessing strong interpersonal credibility and the display of change savvy are the most potent and enduring buckets of goodwill” (50), which is the key that “allows leaders to convince followers” (46) to support a change.

Case studies introduced in chapter 5 show some interesting patterns. Outsiders that companies bring in to lead change often encounter doubt of their abilities and resistance from the existing organizational cultures. If the leader has a reputation or the charisma, “she is likely to get a chance to prove it. If quick success follow … relationships may be established as follower begin to trust the leader … and the exercise of positional power will be accepted on the basis of improvements in people’s prospects and outcomes” (61). On the other hand,
“if a new leader lacks reputation, charisma, or both, followers expect him or her to first get the lay of the land … If this approach yields improvements in the organization’s prospects, theses leaders will quickly enjoy a filling of their ‘change savvy’ and ‘personal credibility’ reservoirs, which will make further changes much easier.”(61)
The insiders as change leaders usually possess personal credibility; however, successful change leaders “did it mostly through the display of change savvy” (64). Another implication drawn from the case studies is that change initiatives usually end up problematic if leaders solely rely on exercising positional power and fail to establish trusting relationships with followers.

Herold and Fedor also analyzed the “who” component of the framework from the followers’ perspective. The idea behind chapter 6 is about motivation. The authors believe that not all people resist change; it is how much effort that one decides to make. When people face a chance situation, they usually ask themselves: “can I do it if I try?”, “What will happen if I succeed (or fail)?”, and “How much do I value such consequences?” (73) The answers to these three questions determine the level of effort one would make on behalf of change. Factors that influence the answers to these questions are “follower characteristics, personality, beliefs”, “leader behavior and characteristics”, and “contextual influences”; while the former factor has strong influences over the first and the third questions, the latter two factors (leaders and organizations) have a strong effect on the middle components (74). About the follower characteristics, research shows that changes cause the least impact to people who are emotionally stable and conscientious, if appropriate support from leaders is given (78). Knowing how these factors interact with the components that motivate employees, leaders thus can think about what they or the organization could do to bring the best out of individuals, as well as select or train the right people that will better help them to deal with change situations (84).

People’s capacity for change can be represented by a learning curve. Various factors, such as “skills”, “the amount of time and effort (motivation) devoted to practice”, “assistance or support provided by others” (88), etc influence the slope of the learning curve. When change is introduced, the learning curve shifts downwards; the actual performance goes below the pre-change baseline. The actual performance then goes up to baseline and beyond as time proceeds.
The authors suggested ways to accelerate the performance as they stated, “excellent training and good change management practice will mitigate the depth and duration of the performance dip because they begin to address a lot of the issues we have identified. Having skilled people, or people possessing some of the personal characteristics … will speed up adaption” (90). In order to track the degree to which adaption is taking place, the authors suggested the use of metrics, so that leaders can rely on it to make a realistic projections of performance trajectory (98).

In chapter 8, the authors focus on the internal and external contexts in which the change and its participants are embedded (100). Factors existing in either internal or external environments play a role that would either enhance or detract change effort. Major factors existing in the external environment are “labor markets”, “legal and regulatory factors”, “economic factors”, “affiliated organizations”, “technology environment”, “demographics”, and “regional and national cultures” (102 – 103). Change leaders can perform an environmental scan analysis and then use the result to modify their decisions on change (104). In the internal environment, “resources” (104), organizational culture” (105), and “culture turbulence” (108) are the three major factors that shape change events. To address culture turbulence in an ever-changing organizational culture, the authors believe that change leaders should examine a portfolio of changes, so that “they can space changes better; they can rearrange their sequence; they can eliminate less essential ones; they can improve change support or leadership so that earlier changes take hold more quickly, allowing for subsequent change to be considered” (111).

In chapter 9 and 10, Herold and Fedor revisit their change framework, put the WHAT, WHOs and CONTEXTs together to derive HOW (how should we proceed?), and use real-world stories to support their idea that successful leaders have thoroughly taken all components of the framework into consideration in decision making. Each component (WHAT, WHOs, and CONTEXTs) is treated independently, allowing leaders explore unforeseen events and search for other alternatives while diagnosing a change situation to come up with a tailored solution.

I really enjoyed reading this book; it not only complements my study in change management, but also enhances my decision-making skills. Herold and Fedor introduced a change framework and thoroughly explained why most businesses initiatives failed because leaders ignored the invisible factors that could help better shape their change decisions. Another realization I made after reading the book is that being a change leader is about getting your hands dirty! A change leader really has to be out there to determine and analyze various factors to come up with a solution tailored for a specific change situation; if two companies share a similar business initiative, one’s successful change plan does not necessarily mean it will be suitable for the other with its given context and people. This change framework serves as a realistic guide that helps leaders to comprehend the full situation and make the appropriate decisions.

The Wisdom of Crowds - Book Review - Al Youngblood

The Wisdom of Crowds: Why the Many Are Smarter Than the Few and How Collective Wisdom Shapes Business, Economies, Societies and Nations. James Surowieki. New York: NY: Random House, 2005. 306 pp. $14.00. (ISBN-13: 978-0385721707)

Introduction

At the heart of this compelling book is the premise that groups of people are capable of making decisions which are superior to those made by an individual. Groups are found in many types of forms, from mobs of people baiting a woman to jump from a Seattle bridge (p.256), to crowds walking in coordination with one another in a busy atrium, to more sophisticated structures like corporations or governments. Through a variety of montages, news clippings, historical accounts, and the voices of social psychology, The Wisdom of Crowds defines the basis of what constitutes a wise crowd and how that crowd can be harnessed.

It is worth noting that The Wisdom of Crowds is not “meant as a defense of laypeople versus experts,” and instead should be seen as making the case for a diversity of opinions, both expert and lay, that together they can produce a collective solution that is remarkable (p.277).

Types of Problems Crowds Can Solve

Crowds are not boundless in their potential to solve all types of problems. Rather, crowds are more apt to capture solutions for problems where perspectives can shift readily and where there is little available information to help solve these problems.

First, cognition problems are definite in form and usually have defined solutions. In the start of the book, Surowieki describes how a group of people at a county fair were able to accurately guess the weight of an ox when their answers were averaged. For this example, the perceived weight and carcass of the ox were readily known. Markets fit well into the class of cognition. Stocks on an exchange are ideally set to the value which the market has set based upon its available knowledge. It is these agreed-upon “variables” which allow a consistent solution to the equation.

Second, coordination problems involve the position of people in relation to one another, such as in traffic flows, crowded markets, or train schedules. Key to the coordination problem is that each individual makes choices about where to go next based on information at hand. Self-autonomous decision making happens with the guidance of “landmarks” that give some instruction. Culturally, landmarks appear as conventions that no one questions, but that give information to the uninitiated. For example, sitting at a restaurant and being served might seem like an obvious action, but in reality it is a convention of social commerce.

Potentially, one could imagine a large brain that would know the position and movement of all actors and with certitude describe a different state of the system—much as would a central, planned economy. However, the cost and logistical difficulties inherent to such a system make it more of a thought experiment, rather than a viable outcome.

Third, cooperation problems involve a measure of trust in shared action and are the most difficult problems to solve. People should not trust one another, but they often do. Cooperation hinges upon the notion that people want to believe that there is a relationship between accomplishment and reward. Surowieki believes that societies can only operate if people cooperate, often with their own self-interest in mind, and make sure that the “rules of the game” (p.118) are followed. For example, in protection of the transactional system of trade, people will sometimes punish and reward behaviors that are aligned with the system, so-called “prosocial behavior.”

Capitalism is one type of transactional based system which mediates cooperation problems by playing into people’s notions of games and exchange (p.118). Capitalism is imbued with an impersonal mode of interaction, which Karl Marx termed “money nexus.” According to Surowieki, capitalism gained a sense of historicity as the sum of transactions created accumulated wealth and, in turn, a greater sense of purpose. In that regard, capitalism broke the traditional kinship relationships that hinged on lineage and common background.

Cooperation problems are solved by people performing irrational acts (behaviors that are not necessarily in their self-interest) such that in the cooperation of the actor, the structure from which arises the interaction is upheld. For example, it is in everyone’s self interest to cheat on taxes. However, year after year the federal budget still maintains a healthy stock of tax impounds.

In order to explain this behavior, Surowieki describes three cornerstone beliefs that make cooperation possible in the case of political governance. First, people have to trust that there are some good people who will cooperate. Second, they have to trust that the collective political body will perform actions that benefit everyone. Third, the political body must be able to punish those who have done wrong and protect the innocent.

Attributes of a Wise Crowd

Individuals within groups tend to fall into two camps, one that leads to imitation and another that makes decisions in a “herding” fashion (p.46). Imitation, according to Surowieki, is related to how group members view one another and is a rational response to our own cognitive limits. Pattern recognition plays a part in making sense of behavior. Sometimes, imitation can lead to others giving into a pattern and lead to “cascading” behavior (p.53), which usually occurs in minor decisions (p.63). Moreover, people tend to over-emphasize their ability to resolve easier problems than harder ones, and they tend to be overconfident. They overestimate their ability, knowledge, and decision making prowess.

More abstractly, the information cascade can be described in terms of systems dynamics, in which actors create will actions that cause signals to be given to others who have not yet made their decisions. When people follow the information leader simply because they were there first, this information becomes entrenched and “locked in” (p.56) the system. Still, “many people independently choose their action based on their own signals without observing the actions of others.” (p.55) One way to prevent information cascades is to make simultaneous decisions among several related choices.

With this in mind, Surowieki attempts to describe four main characteristics that enable individuals to make choices which are collectively empowering and intelligent.

First, diversity of information means that everyone is able to express their private information, or tacit information, that makes them unique. Diversity, according to James March, adds potential perspectives that group members could not have discovered on their own. Mixed intelligence within a group is always better than a too-intelligent group.

Second, independence of decision means that a group member is able to make their own decisions out of free will and without the interference of those around them. Within small groups, this independence is particularly difficult, given the lack of feedback from group members (p.182). Small groups, in particular, form the basis of juries, corporate boards, and cliques. Another potential problem is the tendency for the most prominent voice to shape the others and in effect cause the group to think alike. Groupthink is a very real problem that arises when there is no viable dissent or when information is not circulated throughout the group. Not surprisingly, an agenda can serve to bring together voices and guide discussions.

A round of divergent opinions in a small group can sometimes lead to a polarization of opinions. Group polarization is not well understood but is somewhat related to how people relate to one another and make comparisons. As more opinions are known, then people will form into subgroups that compete with one another. People with strong opinions are likelier to be able to express those ideas and in effect gather allies during small group proceedings. This is the way that juries reach a verdict and corporate board move about their business.

Third, decentralization within a group avoids hierarchical, well-structured arrangements, where people can use their specialization and local knowledge within decision-making. Surowieki gives the example of Jack Welch of GE who was a proponent of diverse perspectives that avoided rigid structure and embraced multidisciplinary approaches (p.211).

Corporations are emergent entities within the capitalist system that coordinate work and ease distribution of goods. They have “plans, commands, and controls … to accomplish their goals” (p.195) but due to their top-down nature, they are built to hide information (p.209). Surowieki believes that the traditional corporation constrains individual relations and information flow in order to advance the goals of the company. Neatly tucked within the folds of the boss/worker relationship is an uneasy conversation about whether or not the goals of the company are being met. This corporate structure reinforces the lack of flexibility that traditional companies often face.

The case of the forager bee and the hive are used as an example of how decentralization works. Bees forage for nectar without knowledge of where to look for food, but nevertheless, still manage to return to the hive and advertise by a “wiggle dance” (p.26) the location and abundance of food. How does the hive benefit? Simply put, by casting as wide a range of possible paths for bees to do their work. The case for decentralization rests with many bees working simultaneously in their own self-interest.

Fourth, aggregation is a mechanism through which individual decisions can be brought into a collective expression. Surowieki gives the example of decision markets where rational actors trade in the beliefs of the relative value of an item, like the Iowa Electronic Market (IEM) of presidential elections or the Hollywood Stock Exchange (HFX) for actors and movies. Surowieki believes that corporations have not yet tapped the potential of decision markets, and that strategy decisions could be made more flexible with more collective inputs, rather than the sole input of one key decision maker. Corporations, such as Eli Lilly and Hewlett Packard, use decision markets to take the pulse of a particular market segment and begin to form strategy.

Conclusion

The Wisdom of Crowds is a very detailed book which on first read might seem to be tangential. But then again, this is the nature of diffuse, divergent information. It is difficult to know what is reliable, what is important, or even what is meaningful. Therein lays the domain of collective wisdom. Because groups are merely the sum of their parts, one central lesson from The Wisdom of Crowds is that by “cast[ing] our net as widely as possible” (p.276) with a divergent set of individuals, groups can tap into the hidden wisdom of localized knowledge for the greater good. Businesses can gain tremendous insight into their markets and change themselves. Collective decision making is a direct challenge to our widely held notions of “leadership, power, and authority” (p.281), and, as such, if the corporation is to remain a viable entity in the Internet age, it must embrace some of the attributes of the “wise crowd.”

Leadership Wisdom from The Monk Who Sold His Ferrari - Book Review - Subramaniam Ramasubramanian

Leadership Wisdom from The Monk Who Sold His Ferrari. Robin Sharma. HarperCollins, 1998. 254pp. $18.00. (ISBN: 0-00-638562-1)

The meat of the book is around mastering 8 rituals that are practiced by visionary leaders. The way these rituals are presented to the audience is unique. Yes, as the book title suggests, the rituals are delivered from a Monk. The entire book is revolved around two characters – Peter and Julian, the Monk. Peter is a CEO of a software company called GlobalView and Julian is an old friend of Peter, a successful lawyer, eventually becomes a Monk. Peter’s company is in the brink of failure. The employees of GlobalView begin to agitate among one another. The interpersonal relationship between Peter and his employees also gets worse day after day. In short, GlobalView gets to collapse. At this moment, Peter’s old friend Julian comes back and teaches the 8 leadership rituals that helps Peter to gain the much needed leadership wisdom. According to Robin Sharma, the author of the book, to become a leader, it is important to lead thyself before trying to lead others. Self discipline is the quality that he was referring to. I totally agree with author views, to be a successful leader, one should be a leader of thyself. Developing one’s own character is dependent on cultivating a strict self discipline, perseverance and patience in all the tasks one performs.

In chapter 3 of the book, the author reiterates the importance of having a vision and how important it is to have a vision in one’s life. As I was reading, I was reminded by a powerful quote by Dr. A.P.J Abdul Kalam (Kalam) former President of India where he says “Thinking is progress. Non-thinking is stagnation of the individual, organisation and the country. Thinking leads to action. Knowledge without action is useless and irrelevant. Knowledge with action, converts adversity into prosperity”. I thought the author and Dr. Kalam agreed on same lines. Everybody should think, thinking coupled with knowledge and action wouldn’t be stopped by any force in the world to achieve one’s vision. Only people who have a vision, a dream to be achieved would be successful. Even author of the book agrees to the fact people who have “committed” vision would spontaneously develop actions. By committed vision the author meant to keep one’s vision as a vow. A vision that would be achieved at any cost no matter what happens. A powerful thought indeed. I feel people wouldn’t find hard to set a vow vision. Problem would also not happen for people to take actions or to acquire knowledge. The biggest challenge would arise for people to sustain the thinking capability, to continue the learning and to perform the value aided tasks on a daily basis.

In chapter 8 the monk pitches how important it is for leaders to change. The key problem that the author brings about is that people generally resist change. We the students in current change management class know the reasons for resistance. The solution that the author proposed could have easily been guessed by everyone. Yes, surrender to change is what author said. Right from start of this chapter, I questioned numerous times, why in earth people would want to surrender to change. What factors would motivate people to surrender to change? The answers to the questions were revealed as the chapter went by. As learnt from John Kotter, change management guru, the main reason for resistance to change is fear. The solution well resonated from monk’s solution as well. People are apprehensive to change. The author goes on to say knowledge is the best medicine to fear. In my life I have felt this wisdom to be true in so many occasions. I joined my previous employer as a fresher. With no prior work experience I couldn’t understand the processes that were in place. When entrusted with work, I still remember the stress, the pain that I endured during that time. Management team members probably well understood the situation in prior and to allay my fear I was given training on the processes that were in place and I started feeling comfortable from there on. The point being is simple I didn’t know it was a change management exercise at that time. The scenario just struck when the author mentions “knowledge is power”. Going forward, the author also points to the fact that mere knowledge gaining is not just enough, what weighs more is the degree to which the knowledge gets into practice.

The other most important ritual that the author brings is about personal effectiveness. The Monk when counters with a question from Peter on how to manage time, he was presumably seeking a few effective time management principles. I just got more curious on reading the solution. According to the author, solution to the problem doesn’t lie in time management but rather lies in “Time Leadership”. “Time Leadership”? Yes, as one might have judged, it is about individual’s ability to lead the time. A unique principle indeed I thought. As I was settling to dwell more about the principle, an example from Dr. Kevin Desouza, Assistant Professor, Information School, University of Washington struck. I still remember the day, it was in autumn 2007, and I was enrolled in one of his classes. One day he shared his views on time management to the entire class. According to Dr. Desouza, it’s always easy for everyone to come up with a to-do list for a particular day and achieve the items in the list one after another but the real challenge lies when one tries to create an accomplishment-do list itself and try achieving them. From my understanding, the accomplishment –do list has to do more with associating a value to every task that one intends to do. Yes, creating an accomplishment-do list is a challenge but the results of creating a one and implementing those value based tasks on a daily basis would definitely help achieve one’s vision. I was also able to correlate the above scenario to be the answer for one of the questions raised by Dr. Desouza in the present Change Management class. The discussion was around resource allocation for IT projects. The resource allocation matrix (Desouza, 2007) was at the point of discussion. As quoted by Dr.Desouza, most of the resources are devoted for day to day operations in an IT department. Little or no resources are being invested in business transformation activities. Performing those business transformation activities would bring the real business value of IT. This was the question “how to transform IT from performing doing routine operations to tasks that would have an impact in the business? “. Probably, “time leadership” and execution of an accomplishment-do list are the answers to that question, I thought.

In chapter 10, the leadership ritual that the author brings about is “self-leadership”. To be a visionary leader one has to a leader within oneself – a true adage indeed. Personally I have always tried to bench mark success for myself and tried to achieve it. On achieving success, setting the success bar tougher has always been the goal. Benchmarking success with others doesn’t hold appropriate at all times. “Success on the outside begin within” - a line that made me to retrospect deeply. From a change management perspective while Kotter’s eight-step change process truly paves the way for bringing a change (John Kotter). I believe most of the steps are directed to change others – creating urgency, empowering others rather a bringing a change within oneself. I totally agree with Robin Sharma, visionary leader need to always practice “self - leadership”, a ritual that is very much needed to bring change among others. Another key point that the author tries to bring out is that leaders seek perfection in all the tasks.

In conclusion the book “Leadership Wisdom from The Monk Who Sold His Ferrari” from Robin Sharma is a book to be read. I though agree to the fact that the author really makes readers dragged too much on certain chapters quoting excessive examples from Saint Yogi Raman. At that point I felt the book to be more philosophical and by reading a few examples in the book I almost felt that these principles might just not be suitable in today’s world. However, on the whole, it’s was an interesting book to read and to learn the basics of leadership wisdom.

References:
Desouza, K. (2007). Agile Information Systems. New Delhi: Elsevier.
John Kotter, D. C. The Heart of Change Real - Life Stories of How People Change Their Organizations. Harward Business School Press.
Kalam, A.. Retrieved from Dr. A.P.J. Abdul Kalam : http://www.abdulkalam.nic.in/

Business Process Change - Book Review - Chuan Yu

Business Process Change, Second Edition: A Guide for Business Managers and BPM and Six Sigma Professionals. Paul Harmon. San Francisco, CA: Morgan Kaufmann, 2007. 592 pp. $49.95. (ISBN-10: 0123741521, ISBN-13: 978-0123741523)

Introduction
The only constant is change. As the business world keeps changing, in order to allow senior executives to plan, monitor, and manage enterprise transformation efforts, today¡¯s leading organizations are focusing on enterprise business process architectures and on developing corporate management and measurement systems for process changes. By providing an entire range of different business process change options with a systematic approach, Business Process Change ¨C A Guide for Business Managers and BPM and Six Sigma Professionals becomes a must-read manual book for business managers who are increasingly facing the challenge of redesign, improvement, and automation of their company¡¯s business processes. The book is written by Paul Harmon, an expert and principal consultant with rich experience in business process change management. Paul helped numerous companies apply business process technologies and methodologies to solve their problems.

Reflections on Content
At the beginning of the book, Paul presented readers with the reason why introducing the business process change options by breaking them into different levels. Paul argued that instead of one common way of handling all business process problems, there were a range of different types of business process change problems, which varied by the organization¡¯s level of concern. For example: some changes are undertaken to provide executives with the tools they need to manage a process-centric organization. Other changes only require modest improvements in existing processes (pg.xxxv).

Therefore, to introduce the business process change options, Paul applied a top-down approach. The book begins with breaking the concepts and practices of business process change options into three levels: Enterprise Level, Process Level, and Implementation Level. The content is unfolded from top to bottom smoothly. Paul first introduced the enterprise-level concepts and practices that were the keys for organizations to become process¨Ccentric organizations. Then he moved down to the process level and introduced the methods for redesign, management, and improvement for process change projects. The book ends with implementation level content: Process Modeling Software, Business Process Modeling Suites, and Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) for supporting process automation efforts. I really like this structure because it helps to establish a systematic view on business process change issues.

Beyond the three-level structure, throughout my reading, I found that there were two underlining central themes: value chain and processes. The content is central around these two themes, aiming to make up value chains by integrating major processes and sub processes. As is pointed out in the part of enterprise level, making up such value chains eventually helps the organization to achieve a significant competitive advantage (pg.27). While I thought Paul should go further to explain why making up such value chains helped to achieve a competitive advantage and how the competitive advantage was reached with examples, he just stopped here and continued to introduce the methodologies. Nevertheless, with these underlining themes, the principles for content assembling for each individual part become clear:

The first part provides methodologies to define business strategy; to align corporate-wide goals to goals of specific value chains; to define business process architecture for each value chain by subdividing the specific value chain to its major processes, sub processes (divided from major processes), and ultimately activities (divided from sub processes); and to refine process governance and management. Paul demonstrated how to perform all these tasks with very concrete information and mini cases, which really helped me to understand how they are executed in a real-world practice.

Once business process architecture for a value chain is established with clearly defined processes, then any specific process change project becomes a matter of redefining on a well-defined portion of the business process architecture (pg.231). The methodologies for redefining and elaborating this specific portion, which is one single process, are provided by the second part of the book, Process Level Concerns. This part include more technical aspects, because, compared with the first part that concentrates on higher level architectures for value chains, the second part comes with subjects that inherently require a more technical approach. Subjects covered for process change projects include Process Modeling, Process Management and Measurement, and Process Improvement. Paul applied Unified Modeling Language (UML) as the technique to model processes, and the Six Sigma approach as the method to improve processes. Thanks to Paul¡¯s considerable experience in this area, all the technical tools were introduced with proper diagrams and examples that assisted me to understand how it is used in real-practice. I did like the tools he introduced, though I had known UML long before, this was the first time I saw its use in a case. After reading the UML modeling case, I fully recognized that the effectiveness of UML as a precise and unambiguous modeling language. Furthermore, I hadn¡¯t seen any tool that could be used for Process Improvement with a quantitative approach before I read the book, and I thought for Process Improvement, a quantitative method might not exist because it was a managerial issue in nature. Therefore, I was surprised by the fact that there was such a quantitative method: Six Sigma (originated as a set of statistical techniques to measure process performance). After reading the chapter of Six Sigma, I found it was a useful tool in that it made processes and activities measurable and helps trouble shooting from the outcomes.

After methodologies for redefining and managing a single process change in the value chain were introduced, Paul moved to illustrated how a variety of software can be used to implement process changes, which is the last part. This part is not so helpful in that compared with the previous two, it¡¯s just a summary of the softwares, which I am already familiar with.

Good Aspects
After I finished reading the book, I realized that the value of this book does not lie on one single innovative thought or one particular methodology to solve one particular problem. Rather than presenting a single thought and a particular methodology, Paul aimed to expose to readers a large variety of concepts and practices in building architectures, modeling processes, and implementing business process changes (almost covered every aspect in this particular area). The concepts and practices include both classical theories that are most widely used and the most recent methodologies.

One feature of the book I particularly appreciate is that it is extremely practical -the content is very comprehensive and concrete. When Paul illustrated the approaches to solve a problem, he listed all possible options. For example, when he tried to provide methods to define business strategy in the first part (enterprise level), instead of using only one tool, he utilized a suit of three tools for this purpose: Porter¡¯s Three-phase Process to define a strategy; Porter¡¯s Five-force (Industry Competitors, Buyers, Suppliers, Substitutes, and Potential Entrants) Model of Competition; and three strategies for competing: (1) cost leadership, (2) differentiation, (3) niche specification (Porter, 1980). Not only did Paul manage to achieve a broad coverage, he also went deep into topics that were of great significance. Instead of just exposing concepts, he provided very concrete details from real-world examples to support them, and some mock mini cases are also given. For example, when providing a supply chain example to explain how to build process measures for process measurement, Paul not only listed the performance attributes such as supply chain costs, but also provided more concrete metrics to measure such costs: Cost of Goods Sold, Total Supply Chain Management Costs, Value-Added Productivity, and Warranty/Returns Processing Costs. I was pleased by such detailed metrics given. In many other books, the author only goes as deep as the performance attribute level without providing more concrete information, leaving readers wondering: ¡°Hmmm, supply chain cost is a performance attribute I must think about, but what kinds of metrics to measure such an attribute in practice?¡± Another good example for this kind of concreteness was when Paul explained the method to decompose the specific value chain, in order to supplement the step by step guideline, he provided a mini case showing how a Widget Value Chain is subdivided into three major processes: (1) Design New Widgets, (2) Manufacture & Distribute Widgets, (3) Market & Sell Widgets; consequently, how the major processes are subdivided into sub processes; how the sub processes are subdivided into activities. Such a mini case really helps the reader to form a correct understanding of the method. Otherwise, without a mini case, even a step by step guideline might still mislead readers.

The organization of the book is also perfect. Instead of turning the book into a big chunk and massive chaos of countless concepts and practice guidelines like other books of such a large size would become, this book is organized very logically. The content flows smoothly from higher level to lower level, being cohesive to the underlining themes. This makes it possible for readers to form both a broad range of knowledge and a systematic view on business process change issues.

Shortcomings and Recommendations
While the book is good for its practical and well organized content, some shortcomings exist.

First, in the 11th chapter (a chapter in part 2) on managing business process for process change projects, the author appeared to be too instrumentally rational and failed to take enough human factors into account. In fact, in any change project, human factors are the key to success among the four management processes: Plan, Organize, Communicate, and Control. For a certain change initiative, if the manager of this process change project lacks the capability to communicate effectively on the goals of the change or if he fails to alleviate the stress of people who feel that they will be adversely affected by the change, such a change in this process will never happen. In essence, in any process change project management practice, just following up instrumentations step by step is not enough and human factors must be factored in. The managers must possess the capabilities to influence, persuade, and motivate others who are involved in the change. Therefore, I would suggest Paul to take human factors into consideration in the next edition.

Second, as we know, sometimes major shift happens. For example, in change management, an urgent problem caused by the external economic environment may result in an organization wide strategy change. Visions of the change will be created. But how does this kind of major transformation affect process level practice? How will the methodologies of Process Modeling, Process Management, and Measurement, and Process Improvement be adjusted in response to such a big high level change? While the book provides sufficient process level practice for the changes at process level (e.g. an Order Fulfillment Process change), it fails to answer how process level practice adjusts itself to accommodate high level changes. Therefore, I highly recommend that Paul adds content that can answer this kind of questions.

Conclusion
Paul has written a good book for managers and practitioners who are dealing with business process changes. The book is worth reading. It not only provides a powerful tool set for professionals to develop architecture for business processes and execute process change projects, but also succeeds in empowering them with a structured and systematic view of the whole area of business process change related issues. While the book already serves as a valuable resource for conducting process change projects, the effectiveness of the book could be improved further by adding concerns around human factors when it talks about managing business process. Adding content that illustrates how process level practice adjusts itself to accommodate higher level changes is also helpful to improve the overall quality of the book. If such modifications are accomplished by the third edition, the book will absolutely become an excellent guide that will help managers achieve excellence in any process change project.

References:
Michael E. Porter (1980). Competitive Strategy. New York: The Free Press.

The Six Secrets of Change: What the Best Leaders Do to Help Their Organizations Survive and Thrive - Book Review - Wei-Chih (Vicki) Chen

The Six Secrets of Change: What the Best Leaders Do to Help Their Organizations Survive and Thrive. Michael Fullan. John Wiley & Sons, 2008. 176 pp. $24.95. (ISBN: 978-0-7879-8882-1)

Facing such a complex environment, leaders in education and business have been seeking for secrets to help their organizations “survive and thrive” at change. In this book, Fullan provides six useful guidelines for leaders to follow by offering illustrative examples from a variety of businesses, organizations, and public education systems. He points out ways to take advantage of deep and enduring change to increase opportunities, and shows how risky it sometimes is to take advice from seemingly successful organizations.
The author states that the secrets are not secret in the sense that they are hidden from public view. Rather, they are secret because they’re complex, hard to grasp in their deep meaning, and challenging to act in combination (p. viii).
Before starting to talk about the secrets, Fullan spends some pages warning readers of the folly of believing in everything they read. “The world has become too complex for any theory to have certainty. There can never be a blueprint or silver bullet. Never take what you read (even the six secrets) at face value (p. 5),” he writes. Instead, readers should go deep to understand the meaning and knowledge behind his claims, and try to look for arguments and evidence behind the theory (p. 17). He also suggests that the six secrets should be used together, rather than implementing only one or two of them, to work best (p. 16). He feels that these six secrets, as a whole, can be applied to various industries or organizations, and that is exactly what he means by “travel” (p. 9).
The six secrets of change according to Michael Fullan are:
1. Love Your Employees
2. Connect Peers with Purpose
3. Capacity Building Prevails
4. Learning is Work
5. Transparency Rules
6. Systems Learn
Secret 1: Love your employees
In secret one, the author addresses the important point that leaders should love all of their stakeholders equally---employees, customers, investors or shareholders, partners, and society (p. 36). This is also a heart paradox of most of his secrets. He states that it’s critical for organizations to invest in their employees so that they can not only improve their skills, find meaning in their work, and achieve personal satisfaction, but also build connections with their organizations and co-workers.
In this chapter, Fullan also suggests that leaders can obtain a good result by integrating two contrasting theories of human motivation---Theory X and Theory Y (McGregor, 1960) --- to motivate employees (p. 32). There’s no doubt that when managers encounter situations human nature may influence their motivation. Aligning Theory X and Y could be an aid in choosing how they motivate people. However, McGregor in his book points out that a command and control management style does not work well because it relies on lower needs (e.g. needs for oxygen, food, water, and sleep, etc.) for motivation (McGregor, 1960). This makes me wonder: now in modern society where those needs are mostly satisfied, could Theory X still be applied to motivate employees?
Secret 2: Connect Peers with Purpose
Fullan points out that large-scale reform often faces a “too tight-too loose” dilemma, in situation which leaders on the top focus and tighten the requirements while people under such actions feel constrained and tend to rebel (p. 41). To solve this, he believes that leaders should foster continuous and purposeful peer interaction (p. 45). By getting people to work together toward a higher purpose and making them share information and knowledge with each other, leaders can help them pursue and continuously learn what works best. Ideally, people will identify with an entity larger than themselves, which enables large organizations to cohere (p. 49). This idea can be combined with the first secret to work better: as organizations invest in their employees, their individual and collaborative commitment to their work increases, hence the organizations become more effective (p. 50).
Secret 3: Capacity Building Prevails
"Another way to love your employees is to select them well and then invest in their continuous development (p. 57),” Fullan contends. Leaders must invest in building capacity of individuals and groups to keep their significant improvements.
To build capacity, leaders need to concern competencies, resources, and motivation. He writes, “Individuals and groups are high in capacity if they possess and continue to develop knowledge and skills, if they attract and use resources (time, ideas, expertise, money) wisely, and if they are committed to putting in the energy to get important things done collectively and continuously (ever learning) (p. 57).”
Many theories suggest the use of fear, criticism and punitive accountability. However, here the author promotes “nonjudgmentalism (p. 58),” which avoids negative judgment and tries to find a better way to instill fear. He believes that people do not function well when they fear. In addition, fear and it’s consequences directly breach secret two---connect peers with purpose --- in the way that they decrease the power and connectivity of positive peer interaction (p. 62). He suggests, leaders should hold a strong moral position and avoid self-righteousness and moral condemnation at the same time (p. 60). This idea makes me curious: if negative judgment has been proven to not work well, why are so many organizations still choosing this method when they attempt to produce positive change? Is it because the method is the path of least effort? Or is it because the idea of nonjudgmentalism is too difficult to realize?
In this chapter, the author highlights the importance of individuals and groups focusing on continuous knowledge and skills improvement to develop the ability to grow and adapt in new and complex environments, which I think is a very critical issue. However, it would be great if the author could address more thoroughly how leaders can help employees build capacity; also, how they can successfully help employees develop continuous improvement using a “nonjudgmentalism” method when implementing large-scale change.
Secret 4: Learning is Work
In this chapter, the author maintains a point that learning from outside workshops and courses can be a useful input; however, if it is not balanced with learning at work, the learning will be superficial. Toyota Motor Corporation is provided as an example to demonstrate what it takes to use the job itself as a subject of employee training (p. 78). The author, including ideas from Liker and Meyer's book Toyota Talent (2007), indicates that Toyota retains its high performance by “spending five times as much time dealing work methods and developing talent in employees as any other company (p. 79).” The company defines the best methods of practices, identifies the few key practices that are crucial to success, and takes special care that employees do those tasks well using the best methods of doing so. By adopting such approach, Toyota realizes “learning is the job.”
Secret 5: Transparency Rules
Organizations need to provide a continuously and clear display of results (this is what the author means by “transparency”), as well as what has been done to obtain those results, to maintain continuous improvement. When they keep doing this, an aura of “positive pressure” will be created---pressure that is reasonable, actionable, and inescapable. To explain why organizations must embrace the transparency rules, the author presents four reasons (p. 100). First, it is an inevitable trend that “the flat-world access to information and the appetite for transparent accountability on the part of the public and various stakeholders and shareholders simply can no longer be thwarted.” Second, it is a good thing to balance reporting data publicly and keeping information private. To achieve this balance, it’s important to identify which transparency can be used simultaneously for both improvement and accountability. There is a general belief that people will not report problems if they know they’ll be punished. Here the author suggests organizations establish cultures that it is normal for them to encounter problems and solve them. Third, transparent information is used as a tool for achieving better results in any successful change. Organizations should develop a mechanism for employees to share open data collection. Finally, organizations sustain their credibility and long-term success by “external accountability (p. 102).” There is no way that organizations can review their overtime progress in achieving important goals without clear transparency.
Secret 6: Systems Learn
In secret six, the authors states that when the first five secrets are implemented, the system (organization) can learn (p. 107). However, even in the best system, continuous learning cannot be guaranteed. He argues that organizations cannot sustain learning because they focus on individual leaders: when individual leaders come and go, organizations go through ups and downs. The author uses Toyota as an example again to stress the importance of putting faith on individuals throughout the organization and organizational systems. He presents this idea by quoting Pfeffer and Sutton’s (2006) words:
“The fact that Toyota can succeed over decades…and that the company shows no leadership effects---or changes from succession---speaks to building a robust set of interrelated management practices and philosophies that provide advantage above and beyond the ideas or inspirations of single individuals (p. 211; italics in original)”
The author also talks about humility in this secret by saying that “the world is uncertain and, no matter what you do, you cannot guarantee a successful future.” Leaders should combine humility and confidence when they explore environmental complexity (p. 115). In addition, leaders should have an “opposable mind” which allows for “integrative thinking (p. 119).” I agree with this aspect but I feel it’s hard. Before adopting these secrets, it would be a critical issue for organizations either to find leaders with such ability or develop such ability internally.
Finally, the author provides six guidelines for keeping the secrets: 1) Seize the synergy; 2) Define your own traveling theory; 3) Share a secret, keep a secret; 4) The world is the only oyster you have; 5) Stay on the far side of complexity; 6) Happiness is not what some of us think. Keeping these guidelines in mind can help different types of leaders maintain the six secrets.
In conclusion, this book provides six great secrets for leaders to help their organizations survive and thrive in today’s complex environment. It contains a lot of practical examples from different industries, organizations and educational systems for readers to understand crucial concepts. Also, the author presents his theory using an easy-writing style, which allows readers to quickly and easily get the points that he intends to present. I would recommend this book to anyone who wants to help his/her organization to grasp opportunities and succeed at change.

References
1. Liker, J., & Meyer, D. (2007). Toyota Talent: New York: McGraw-Hill.
2. McGregor, D. (1960). The Human Side of Enterprise. New York: McGraw-Hill.
3. Pfeffer, J., & Sutton, R. I. (2006). Hard facts, dangerous half-truths and total nonsense: Profiting from evidence-based management. Boston: Harvard Business School Press.

Project Management: The Managerial Process - Book Review - Winford Dixon

Project Management: The Managerial Process. Gray, C. F. & Larson, E. W. (2008). (4th ed.) McGraw-Hill Irwin, 2nd edition Pub. October 21, 2002, 589 pages, $25.00. (ISBN 0-07-249392-5)

Project management is a carefully planned and organized effort to accomplish a specific task, e.g. construction of a building or implementing a new information system. Selection and prioritization of projects should support and be aligned with the organization’s mission and strategic goals. Mission and strategic goals are explained in the following succinct manner.

“The mission gives the general purpose of the organization. Goals give global targets within the mission. Objectives give specific targets to the goals. Objectives give rise to formulation of strategies to reach objectives. Finally, strategies require action and tasks to be implemented.” (pg 25)

Management determines the strategic management of an organization by developing a strategic plan with objectives that set targets for the direction the organization should go. Strategic management allows the organization to focus on reaching the objectives of the mission and can be explained in the following statement.

“Strategic management is the process of assessing “what we are” and deciding and implementing “what we intend to be and how we are going to get there” (pg 24).

In a well developed strategic plan the organizational goals are translated into specific, concrete, measurable terms that are specific, measurable, assignable, realistic, and time related, or SMART. Projects aligned with the strategic plan of the organization are initiated when the organization perceives, reacts, and responds to changes in external and internal environments. A SWOT analysis is used to forecast fundamental industry changes that can affect the organization. A SWOT analysis assesses the strengths, weakness, opportunities, and threats of the organization and determines how it can react to market or industry changes.

The function of a project is to initiate change in the organization by allocating resources towards gaining competitive advantage. If a project is not aligned with an organization’s strategic plan then the results become “poor utilization of the organization’s resources- people, money, equipment, and core competencies” (pg 23).

A project management framework is both a technical and people orientated process used to launch and implement projects for an organization. Projects are, in most cases, unique one-time efforts with a beginning and an end. They are usually multidisciplinary in nature and require coordinated efforts from a variety of specialists. The technical side of project management consists of a life cycle which is formal, disciplined, and with logical processes. A traditional project life cycle includes the following four stages (pg 6).

1. Definition: specifications of the project are defined; project objectives are established; teams are formed; major responsibilities are assigned.
2. Planning: level of effort increases, plans are developed to determine what the project will entail, when it will be schedule, whom it will benefit, what quality level should be maintained, and what the budget will be.
3. Execution: major portion of the project work takes places- both physical and mental. The physical product is produced. Time, cost, and specification measures are used for control. Scheduling, budgeting, and specifications may be revised or changed as needed.
4. Delivery: includes delivering the project product, training and transferring documents, and redeployment of the project equipment and reassignment of the project team members.

The project scope created in the definition stage determines the end result of a project by defining specific, tangible, and measurable terms that define if the project is successful. A project scope checklist is commonly used to ensure the scope of a project is complete. An example of a generic project scope checklist includes the following (pg 101).

1. Project objectives: definite major objectives to meet your customer’s need; what, when, and how much.
2. Deliverables: the excepted outcome or outputs over the life of the project.
3. Milestones: signals a progression or that a significant event has occurred in the lifecycle of the project.
4. Technical requirements: technical requirements to ensure proper and intended performance.
5. Limits and exclusions: limits of the scope are defined so false expectations and waste of time and resources are avoided.
6. Reviews with customers: avoids claims or misunderstanding of the project scope.

The people side of the project management process involves more of a socio-cultural dimension. For example, one of the most difficult facets of project management is the selection of the right project manager and team members. Understanding the cause-effect relationship and interactions that occur during a project and the team will greatly enhance the project manager’s ability to manage the project effectively and is critical to the success of the project. Some of the responsibilities of a project manager is to facilitate meetings, track tasks versus issues, establish the primary issue related to conflicts, while empowering the team members at the same time.
Quality and success of a project is defined as meeting or exceeding expectations established in the scoping of the project. Tradeoffs between time, cost, and performance of projects are often considered by project managers to meet the project’s expectations. An example of a tradeoff is compromising the performance and scope of the project to get the project done faster and less expensive. A tool used to establish priorities of the project is a decision priority matrix. This matrix helps the project manager identify which criterion can be constrained, which should be enhanced, and which can be accepted. Priorities vary from project to project, i.e. time to market may be more important for a software company, whereas adhering to budget may be more important for a non-profit organization. Anticipating and confirming changes in priorities with the proper adjustments is an integral role the project manager plays. Priorities may shift from time to time in projects, so project managers need to be agile in their decision making to successfully complete the project’s expectations.

Once the project scope and deliverables are defined, workflow management of the project will be broken down into smaller units of work elements called work breakdown structures (WBS). Each WBS is broken down to the smallest available unit of work called a task. A task is a logical unit of work that is carried out by a resource. A resource can be a person, a machine, or groups of persons or machines that perform a specific task. Tasks can be performed in a sequenced order or by selection in a choice between two or more tasks. They can be performed in parallel to each other or one after the other, i.e. synchronization. They can be performed once or by repetition, i.e. iteration (Aalst & Hee, 2002). This hierarchical framework creates a detailed outline of the project’s deliverables by mapping out tasks that have to be completed for the successful integration of the project into the organization. WBS identifies what the task is, how long it will take to complete the task, the cost of performing the task, how much resources are needed for the task, who is responsible for the task, and how to monitor the task progress. A responsibility matrix is a tool used for the purpose of workflow management in a WBS, e.g. assigning responsibility of a task.

Each step of the project management lifecycle considers risk management to ensure the project stays on time and within budget. As examples, the project selection process, the project’s scope, and the WBS are designed to reduce the likelihood that projects will not contribute to the organization’s mission, to avoid costly misunderstanding of the project, to avoid a vital part of the project being omitted, and to avoid budget estimates that are unrealistic. Risk management is a proactive attempt to reduce the number of surprises and to have a better understanding of possible negative outcomes. Contingency plans are alternative plans that will be used if a possible risk becomes a reality. These plans are created to ensure projects can be completed on time and within budget should the risk occur. Change management is the process of coping and controlling project changes. Change review and control process involves reporting, controlling, and recording changes to the project. Changes more often than not will occur with increases in the project’s time, cost, team stress, and sequence of work. Controls include forecast of these measures and revisions or changes occurring at anytime during the project.

To sum it all up, project management involves developing a project plan, defining project goals and objectives, specifying tasks or how goals will be achieved, what resources are need, and associating budgets and timelines for completion. Application of the managerial framework and tools presented in this book are usable to successfully manage and implement change in an organization through project management.

Review of the Book

“Project Management: The Managerial Process” was the textbook assigned to the Informatics course in Project Management (INFO 481). The authors of this book are college professors in the College of Business at Oregon State University. Both authors have been actively involved as writers, consultants and leaders within the project management professional community domestically and internationally. Clifford Gary is professor emeritus of management and Erik Larson is professor and chairman of the department of management, marketing, and international business. The authors address questions and issues they have encountered while teaching and consulting on project management domestically and abroad. In addition to presenting the concepts, principals, and techniques of project management, they also include a broad range of case studies from various industries that focus on the technical and behavioral aspects of project management. The authors’ stated intention for this book is to provide a holistic view of how project management contributes to the strategic goals of an organization (pg vii).

This college level textbook can be difficult for a reader that has no prior knowledge or experience in project management. Online reviews posted on Amazon.com have stated this book makes a great source of reference for professionals working within the project management area but that nascent readers would find the book difficult to dissect without the assistance of a complementary project management course and instructor. Having been enrolled in INFO 481 while reading this book, I concur with the suggestion of a concurrent complementary project management course. Attending lectures, labs, and having the assistance of an instructor helped me navigate through the dense material and provided the additional help I needed to fully comprehend, understand, and apply the concepts, principals, and techniques the authors assert for the managerial process of project management.

WORK CITED
Gray, C. F., & Larson, E. W. (2003). Project management: The managerial process. Boston: McGraw-Hill/Irwin.

Aalst, W. v. d., & Hee, K. M. v. (2002). Workflow management: Models, methods, and systems. Cooperative information systems. Cambridge, Mass: MIT Press.

Change Cycle: How People Can Survive and Thrive in Organizational Change - Book Review - Sheng-Yi Chou

Change Cycle: How People Can Survive and Thrive in Organizational Change. Ann Salerno, and Lillie Brock. Berrett-Koehler Publishers, Inc., June 2008. 199 pp. $19.95. (ISBN-10: 1576754987) (ISBN-13: 9781576754986)

I would like to start with my book review in a different way since I like to write my review with the same style as in this book, informal, humorous, but very inspirational. The author Salerno and Brock stated six sequential steps of change cycle with wit and levity. Aside from simply giving the introduction of the book, I would like to try to apply the steps of change into practice by sharing my personal experience of dealing the coming change.

“Life was like a box of chocolates. You never know what you're going to get.”

The first thing that came to my mind is the memorable quote above from the movie “Forrest Gump” after reading the book “the change cycle”. Life is like a journey, you have your very deliberate plan and somehow there is always something coming up that needs you to change the status quo or to adjust your pace. Some changes are good, some are not very pleasant. From my perspective, some are the “active change”, which is the change you have the strong motivation to take action; some are the “passive change”, which is the change that comes to you and you are passively forced to react or to adjust your mindset and attitude to cope with. Regardless of all kinds of change, you will go through the six stages of change, step by step, phase by phase. As the author said, there is no pain-free transition. There is no shortcut to skip the process, yet there is way to fasten the process if we know how to manage the change.

The change cycle model has six sequential stages of change. There are typical feelings, thoughts, and behavior people usually have I each stage. The book articulates and explains each stage in one chapter, then in every chapter there is case study to give an example for the audience to understand the stage better. This book is used for all kinds of change, including changing job, changing organization, changing work style, and even changing relationship. It taught people how to manage all kind of changes in life. The book focuses on human perspective and provides a guideline to help people have perspective on change and its impact in every phase and help people go through the transition. The stages from one to six are: Loss, Doubt, Discomfort, Discovery, Understanding, and Integration. Aside from the stage, the author also breaks the stages into three zones: Red, Orange, and green zones. Like the traffic lights, each zone represents different mindset.

First of all, before we start articulating every stage, we need to do self-assessment from the personalities in change chart. This helps us recognize particular life style; the strengths, and the challenges, things that help us progress the change cycle. In my case, I am a “cross-trainer”, who is charming, visionary, and persuasive. My strengths are innovative and optimistic, decisive, and have positive influence on others. My challenges are too impulsive, lacks follow-through and often critical of others. It might get me through the red light section faster, which is the stage 1 “loss zone” and stage 2 “doubt zone”, but then I need to be careful with the last stage, which is integration zone. According to my personalities in the change chart, I am the kind of person who begins with a flourish but peter out towards the end. So I should pay more attention to the last stage to avoid failure of change. Now let’s take a close look at the “syndrome” of each stage and see how we can cope with it.

Before explaining and introducing the stage, I would like to give a brief introduction of my “case study.” I recently got the chance to do the exchange program in one of the top notch school in Sweden. The school is famous for its computer science classes, especially User-Interface Design, the field that interests me the most. The program starts from January to June, which would be winter and spring quarter here. After I talked to the dean, he commits to grant the elective credits I will be taking in Sweden. He even made an exception for me that I can transfer the credits of required class such as capstone project. It should a great opportunity and change. But then after I hand in my application for the program and got accepted, I started to be panic. I sat at the international student service office watching the related document, soon realized how exactly this is going to affect me. I might lose the opportunity of networking or getting job here if I leave. What’s worse, I might not even be able to get back because of my visa issue. Then I realized I am at the stage one-loss stage, knowing there is some loss coming because of the change. I sensed the fear growing inside me. And exactly as the book describes, my behavior became more or less frozen, I walked around the campus the whole afternoon, trying to figure out if I should sign the contract and pay the tuition, or just draw back the plan now. It was not a very productive day and I took the advice from this book, which is “There is really nothing to fix. You need a little time and stillness while sorting out what is happening. Be patient-with yourself and others.” Instead of signing the contract right away, I went home and gave myself half-day off.

I tried to think it through. Due to the limit of transfer credits, I need to extend my graduation. Aside from extra $7,000 tuition I have to pay for extra quarter, I might lose the opportunity of getting a job here since I will be gone for six months, the time graduate students usually search for job and set up interviews. After thinking all night after the incoming change, I realized that I might lose more than I thought—the opportunity of potential job, current apartment, tuition for the extended quarter. I started having the feeling of resentment, which is the stage two-doubt stage. Instead of being determined to go study in Sweden, I blamed and questioned myself. All the voices got loud in my head, “What the hell was I thinking? “ “What am I doing? Why am I putting myself into this situation?” “Is that really good for me?” “Is that really worth it?” In this stage, the book suggests that I ask for help, talk about the change, and collect more data. So I started collecting all the data, including quantitative and qualitative one. I started budgeting for expense of the exchange program. I sought for advice from former exchange students and professors. I calmed myself down and reasoned the resentment in a rational and logical way. And mostly I tried to do what the book suggests, “keep the batteries of your self-assessment charged.” I tried to stay positive and optimistic as much as I can.

Then soon after the analysis and suggestion, I still felt that is the change I want, I felt somewhat relieved, a little bit exhausted of making pre-change preparation. The author pointed out that is the stage three-discomfort stage. I am trying to assimilate the newness and get used to it. I started taking Swedish class and emailed the professor from the class that I would be taking to discuss about the project I might be interested in doing. But at the same time I still had school and study going on, even though I am not as anxious as I was at the beginning, I felt overwhelmed most of time. I know where the anxiety comes from: It all happened too fast and I am not ready for the change. I could not even find the time to look for the apartment or housing there, and I had difficulty of practicing this new language. I was tired from working overtime and burning myself out. I lost my pace of work, became unproductive, and easily got distracted because there is so much going on. In this stage, the suggestion is to take realism when doing the new tasks. I tried to cut some slacks and give myself some back-up plan to avoid escalating my stress. Also I prioritized every task to get my energy and focus back.

Everything cooled down and started to be on the right track, I feel that things are back to control again. I am still not sure where does the plan go. I am still hesitant about the coming change and wonder if this is the right decision I made. I feel like a lawyer who argues and debates for both sides. But aside from those emotional feelings, I believe things might actually turn out okay and it could be a great adventure. As the book describes, in this discovery stage “there are no guarantees, but you want to see what happens.” I feel excited about the unknown journey. After seeing all the disadvantages of going to Sweden, I realized there are some advantages: I will learn another language, which is the thing I always love to do. I will take the two famous User Interface design classes. I will get to experience Scandinavian culture, including social value, business culture, and so on. Different from those previous stages, the stage makes me have more objective attitude and start to see other viewpoints. High investment often follows high risk. I tell myself, this is the change that would not happen again in my student life. Be a risk taker and get ready to explore the unknown.

Like traffic light, there are red, orange, and green lights. Stage one and two are red light zone. Stage three and four are orange light zone. And now I am entering stage five and six, which are the green zone. I look at the brochure of the affiliate school, remembering why I had original attention to make the change at the first place. The picture of the future became clearer. I am comfortable with the change and have the confidence to deal with the potential challenges. The book in this chapter left the note to reader: I understand. I am ready. I am moving! The last stage is talking about the stage which states the attitude, thoughts, and behavior people normally after the change is being accomplished. I have not “been there, done that”, so I have limited of reflection of this stage. Yet I like the advice the author provided: “What does not bend will break.” You can make continuous improvement but always remember to leave room for the flexibility and mistake to prevent you from going back to the red zone. Also adjust your perspective to see things. The book mentioned that there is Chinese work for change called “Wei Ji”. Wei means crisis, and Ji means opportunity. I think it is a good say. Life is all about change. Change can be crisis or opportunity, depending on your perspective and management of the change.

Life is all about dealing with change and uncertainty. Life is all about managing plan and surprise. Life is a series of choice and decision making. The book provided excellent guidelines and points to tell people how to deal with the change in life. Change of job, family, or even relationship. I hope the audiences who read my review find this book useful and practical as I do.

Green Business Basics: 24 Lessons for Meeting the Challenges of Global Warming - Book Review - Rachel Hung

Green Business Basics: 24 Lessons for Meeting the Challenges of Global Warming. Nick Dallas. McGraw-Hill, 1st edition (August 6, 2008). 128pp. $12.95. (ISBN-10: 0071603573, ISBN-13: 978-0071603577)

It wasn't until ten years ago that most people started to care about the issue of climate change. In the past decade, we have seen the Earth's temperature rise, icebergs melt, and sea level rise. Climate change has also brought a lot of impacts in human lives and ecosystems, such as food shortages, species loss and extinction, reduced availability of fresh water, and etc. Today, we are facing not only the issue of climate change itself, but also the problem of natural resource scarcity which is caused by climate change. This book aims to give the reader a fundamental understanding of the issues and challenges of climate change by 24 short, but insightful, lessons. The reader will have a bigger picture of the whole issue after reading this book, and they can find concepts in this book including climate change, sustainability, alternative energies, green economy, risk management, and investment opportunities.

First of all, the author talks about the two terms, climate change and global warming, that are usually used interchangeably. Global warming is the major factor causing climate change, and climate change is the most important problem as a result of global warming. Therefore, when talking about the issue of climate change, we are also talking about global warming. To illustrate what global warming is, the author briefly introduces the gas composition in the Earth's atmosphere and points out that the so-called greenhouse gases play a critical role in balancing the Earth's temperature. Among the greenhouse gases, carbon dioxide and water vapor are the two most important ones that help keep the Earth warm. However, the atmospheric concentration of water vapor is not changing directly due to human activities. Therefore, scientists have put a lot of efforts focusing on the research of carbon dioxide which results from the burning of fossil fuels and deforestation, both are human activities. According to the study of past climate, it shows that the more the heat-trapping carbon dioxide exists in the atmosphere, the higher the Earth's temperature. In addition, scientists have found that the atmospheric level of carbon dioxide has increased by 30 percent since the Industrial Revolution. The increase of carbon dioxide has been attributed to lots of human-derived activities during the last few hundred years.

"The most worrying thing about climate change is that scientists cannot be sure of the exact response of the world's climate system to global warming." (p. 21) The author points out that the relationship between the atmospheric level of carbon dioxide and the Earth's temperature is still not fully understood. He suggests that with so much uncertainty, the best way for human beings to respond to the issue of climate change is to act as early as possible.

After introducing climate change and global warming, the author brings up three terms that people should know regarding the climate change issue: the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), the Kyoto Protocol and the Stern Review. First, the IPCC is an organization established by two United Nations organizations in 1988 to assess the risk of climate change caused by human activities. Second, the Kyoto Protocol is an international agreement that was adopted in 1997. The major feature of the Kyoto Protocol is having the industrialized nations commit to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 5.2 percent against 1990 levels by 2008-12. One thing worth mentioning is, although 186 countries have signed and ratified the Kyoto Protocol, the United States, as one of the world's largest polluters, has not ratify the Kyoto Protocol. Third, the Stern Review on the Economics of Climate Change was released in 2006 by Sir Nicholas Stern, the Head of the UK Government Economic Service and a former Chief Economist of the World Bank. The main conclusion of the report is that failure to actively make investment in mitigating the damage of climate change could lead to global GDP being 20 percent lower than it might be otherwise. This report demolished the argument that reducing greenhouse gas emissions would impede economic growth. Stern urges that people should act immediately; otherwise the whole human society would have to devote more forces and costs in the future.

"This is the greatest market failure the world has seen¡K.There is still time to avoid the worst impacts of climate change, if we take strong action now." - Sir Nicholas Stern (p. 39)

The author addresses that pollution represents market failure, because people will have to pay more price for unpredictable climate change if we do not restrict carbon dioxide emissions from fossil fuel use. He proposes that one way of restricting carbon dioxide emissions is to use the "cap and trade" system. This system works in the way that the government sets caps on the amount of carbon dioxide emissions. Polluting companies are assigned carbon credits, which are the permitted quantities of carbon dioxide emissions. Since companies' pollution level has been "capped", if they want to expand their productivity, they will have to either make themselves more energy efficient or buy carbon credits from other companies who pollute less. Here carbon credits become tradable at a transparent price. In order to reduce the carbon cost, polluting companies will devote themselves to developing more innovative and energy efficient technologies. In this way, they not only avoid incurring a carbon cost but also make a financial profit by selling their carbon credits in the open market.

In addition, the author mentions that developing countries are more vulnerable to the impacts of climate change because they are already in the place lacking enough resources to respond adequately to climate change. Fortunately, the Kyoto Protocol has assigned respective emission targets to countries depending on each country's degree of industrialization. It gives developing countries more space to hasten their economic development to the extent that they can well respond to climate change and people can afford basic goods and services. In the mean time, developed nations are responsible of assisting those less-developed countries by various ways such as accelerating technology transfer, financing developing projects, and etc.

"If you think mitigated climate change is expensive, try unmitigated climate change." - Dr. Richard Gammon, University of Washington (p. 51)

Although people currently have the consensus that global warming is really happening and it is caused by human activities, no one has the answer about what atmospheric levels of carbon dioxide are acceptable and manageable. However, if we do not act now, we are just exacerbating climate change. The author suggests that big reductions of carbon dioxide emissions are necessary, so we should take immediate action and stop procrastinating. He points out, "solutions to reducing atmospheric greenhouse gas levels fall into six categories: reducing consumption, modifying consumption, improving energy efficiency, optimizing the energy production mix, carbon dioxide removal/storage, and strengthening education." (p. 53)

After talking about the six categories of solutions to carbon reductions, the author discusses some issues regarding a variety of energy sources. First, he brings up the challenges of reducing transport emissions. Take hybrid vehicles for example, although they are much cleaner, not everyone can afford their high costs. As for biofuels, the biggest problem is, when more agricultural land is switched to grow biofuel stocks, it could cause food shortage and higher food prices. Second, the author talks about nuclear energy. Nuclear energy is problematic for three reasons: (1) the public is still worried about its safety issues, (2) it might enhance the development of nuclear weapons, and (3) the way of dealing with the hazardous radioactive wastes is not convincing. Therefore, nuclear energy is definitely not the right solution to climate change. Third, he discusses that coal, as one of the primary energy sources currently, must become cleaner. The idea is "turning coal into gas before using it to generate electricity, and then later on capturing and storing the carbon dioxide emissions. Gasification increases the thermal efficiency of coal, improving its energy conversion." (p. 70) However, it is obvious that storing the carbon dioxide is not the long-term solution. It is just buying us time to switch to other less carbon-emitted energies. Finally, the author mentions that the three renewable energies offering hopes to the challenges of climate change are geothermal, wind, and solar. However, there are still lots of technical problems that need to be solved, such as improving conversion efficiencies and energy storage technologies, reducing costs, and etc.

In the last few sections of this book, the author addresses that climate change in fact brings a lot of investment opportunities. Because people already have a consensus that we need to do something to alleviate climate change, market favorites start going to products and services that have improved efficiency and commit to use renewable and low-carbon energy sources. With this kind of demand, many companies must put their efforts on developing new technologies. In the meantime, the companies affected by climate change would need advices to help them manage costs and develop hedging strategies. Under this circumstance, companies who can see climate change mitigation as opportunities instead of costs will succeed. The opportunities are for those who can act now and move fast to formulate new strategies against climate change impacts. Moreover, the author talks about governments definitely have a leading role to play in dealing with climate change, such as setting up a legal framework for the carbon reduction mechanism, encouraging innovation and investment in alternative energy sources, setting new industry and building standards, and etc. Once governments lead to act and the positive effects become apparent, private funding will follow. In the end of this book, the author once again appeals that we as global citizen must stop procrastinating and act now!

"Every global citizen has a responsibility to sensitize themselves to the challenge, to monitor the debate, to remain informed, to psychologically prepare themselves for changes, and to put pressure on governments to establish a more activist agenda in addressing this planetary emergency." (p. 98)

In conclusion, this book is definitely worth reading for anyone who cares about the Earth and wants to acquire more knowledge about climate change. This is a short primer with 24 lessons that allow the readers to quickly understand the challenges of global warming. The concepts that the author addresses in this book are easy to understand and very insightful. As members of global citizen, it is our responsibility to know what we human have done that causes global warming and how we should do from now on to mitigate the climate change impacts. This book strongly motivates people to act from now! In addition, by reading this book, it is also a great chance for manufacturers, industrialists, and businesspeople to better understand how they should react to the trends of green business, what investment opportunities will be brought into their field.

The First 90 Days: Critical Success Strategies for New Leaders at All Levels - Book Review - Prajakta Kavalanekar

The First 90 Days: Critical Success Strategies for New Leaders at All Levels

Michael Watkins. Harvard Business School Press; 1 edition (2003). 208 pp. $27.95 (ISBN-10: 1591391105, ISBN-13: 978-1591391104)

The author of this book, Dr. Michael Watkins, has taught the subject of management and leadership at Harvard Business School and IMD, Switzerland. He has authored a few books on leadership and transitions. Dr. Watkins has hands on experience of working with leaders who transition into new roles, negotiate the future of their organization, and become a respected leader. We can find this experience reflected in his book “The First 90 Days: Critical Success Strategies for New Leaders at All Levels.”

As per Dr. Watkins, the target audience for this book is leaders at all levels going through a transition. I think the concepts presented in this book apply to anybody going through a transition from an old job to a new one, even if the person is not a leader. The average term of any person in a managerial position or in a leadership role is typically not more than two years. This means that managers and leaders start a new job every two years. So it is critical to think about how to make the transition quick and successful. A breakeven point occurs when an organization recoups the investments made in an individual and from that point on it expects the individual to be a positive investment for the organization. Dr. Watkins states that statistically the typical breakeven point duration for middle level managers is around six months. The sooner the person starts making a positive contribution to the organization the more successful he appears. According to Dr. Watkins three months are sufficient for a person to understand his/her role and the organization’s environment, get accustomed to it and start producing the goods.

In the preface of this book, Dr. Watkins answers the question why it is important to plan for the first 90 days of our new job. Transitions are critical since people pay more attention to the new person. Mistakes as well as accomplishments are disproportionately magnified. Small actions can have significant impact on the results. There is an old adage that the first impression is the last impression. It is very important that you perform very well in the first few days of your new job. If you succeed in your first few days, it will be appreciated more and you will be remembered for the success but if you fail to succeed, you will be impacted negatively. Initial success is the equivalent of getting a jump start and initial failure is equivalent of digging a hole. A lot of effort is necessary to get back to level ground and by that time people have already formed opinions about your capabilities. These opinions take a long time to change.

Transitions occur in a multitude of situations and across a variety of levels in the organization. Dr. Watkins acknowledges that each transition is different and has diverse challenges. However, he states that the basic aspects are similar across all transitions. Dr. Watkins has taken in to consideration the various facets of change such as organizational, cultural, personal, political etc. He gives five fundamental propositions about accelerating transition that can be applied to all transitions. These propositions state the challenges in accelerating the transition and how to meet those challenges. The five propositions are as follows:

1. ”The root causes of transition failure always lie in a pernicious interaction between the situation, with its opportunities and pitfalls, and the individual, with his or her strengths and vulnerabilities (p. 4).”
2. “There are systematic methods that leaders can employ to both lessen the likelihood of failure and reach the breakeven point faster (p. 4).”
3. “The overriding goal in a transition is to build momentum by creating virtuous cycles that build credibility and by avoiding getting caught in vicious cycles that damage credibility (p. 5).”
4. “Transitions are a crucible for leadership development and should be managed accordingly (p. 5).”
5. “Adoption of a standard framework for accelerating transitions can yield big returns for organizations (p. 6). “

Dr. Watkins goes on to motivate the need for a structured transition. I was really surprised by the fact that “Each year over half a million managers enter new positions in Fortune 500 companies alone (p. 6).” If this is the case, then I think each organization needs to think about the 5th proposition mentioned above. It is in the interest of the organization to help people accelerate their transitions.

Dr. Watkins presents 10 steps to give a road map of success in the new transition. The book contains a road map for creating a 90 day acceleration plan. Each chapter is devoted to one key challenge. These challenges are as follow:

1. Promote yourself: This means as you physically move from one job to another, make a mental note that you are really moving to the new job and you need to prepare to take responsibility of that job.
2. Accelerate your learning: You need to reach the knee of the learning curve as soon as possible when starting a new job and try to reach the breakeven point quickly.
3. Match strategy to situations: The rules for a successful transition are not set in stone. Based on the situation of your organization, you will have different challenges and opportunities. For example, the problems with the start-ups will be different than the problems with an established organization.
4. Secure early wins: In the first few days of your new job, you need to identify ways to create personal credibility, business value, and get to the breakeven point more quickly.
5. Negotiate success: You need to figure out how to build a productive relationship with your new boss and manage his/her expectations carefully. For this, you need to plan carefully for the forthcoming conversations about critical situations. Basically, you need to build consensus on your 90 day plan from your boss.
6. Achieve alignment: If you are a higher level leader in the organization, you will need to think about whether the current strategy of the organization is sound or needs modification. But you should be very careful while doing so. You will need to align everybody and bring them on the same page.
7. Build your team: If you are going to be a leader of an existing team, you need to evaluate the team members and need to restructure the team if required. These early tough decision calls are necessary for the success of your new transition.
8. Create coalitions: You should start identifying the people in the organization whose support is essential for your success and then figure out how to influence them and bring them on your side.
9. Keep your balance: While transitioning, you need to maintain your balance and preserve your ability to make correct judgment calls. To avoid making bad calls or getting isolated, you should create a support network on which you can rely on.
10. Expedite everyone: You need to help your bosses, peers, and direct reports to accelerate quickly in their new position. This will help improving your own performance and eventually the organization’s performance.

I believe that almost everyone going through a transition follow some of the points mentioned above naturally. One interesting thing that Dr. Watkins points out is that some things that have worked for a person while going through his previous transition may not be as effective for his future transitions. Understanding the situation objectively and determining a structured approach can help reduce common mistakes during transitions.

I liked the flow of the book. Dr. Watkins explained the importance of the first few days of a transition and presented statistics to show that this is a very common situation. I liked that each chapter begins with an example which relates to that particular challenge that is going to be covered in the chapter. The examples give us a better understanding of the contents in the chapter. This makes the book easier and interesting to read and understand.

From a change management perspective, the ideas that the author talks about are related to personal as well as organizational change. Some of the principles of change management in an organization also apply to managing transitions. For example, building your team is necessary in managing both types of changes. It is obvious that when a person changes his/her job, that person goes through a change management process. But if we think more closely, the family members of that person as well as the people in that person’s previous organization are also going through a change management process. They may be facing different challenges but it is really important to realize the challenges and try to overcome those challenges. Moreover, from the organization’s point of view, when a new leader joins in an organization, his subordinates and bosses are also going through the transition in a way. The scope of the impact on the organization is wider if the person is higher up in the management chain. So people should take into consideration all the above hurdles in the transitioning process and make sure to plan for success. Dr. Watkins says that it is actually an organization’s responsibility to ensure a smooth transition for its employees and leaders. Dr. Watkins gives the example of General Electric which has a structured plan in place to enable transitions for new leaders to be successful. The reasoning behind this philosophy is that if leaders are successful in their transitions only then an organization can be successful.

I feel that this book is worthwhile to be read by everyone especially for people, who are in a transition or expect to be in transition in the near future. Even though some of the steps will not make sense to everyone, they can get an overall idea about how to transition successfully from one job to other. At some point, every person is on this curve as they move from one position to other. This book will also enable people to help others who are in transition which will ultimately have a positive impact on their own careers. While reading this book, one should always remember that this book gives general guidelines to succeed in a transition. It depends on the person who is transitioning to make the most out of it by applying the appropriate guidelines to the applicable situations.

The Death of the Banker - The Decline and Fall of the Great Financial Dynasties and the Triumph of the Small Investor - Book Review - Bingyi Lin

The Death of the Banker - The Decline and Fall of the Great Financial Dynasties and the Triumph of the Small Investor. Ron Chernow. Vintage Books, First edition (1997). 130pp. $23.98. (ISBN- 0375700374 9780375700378)

Most of the time, the role of a banker is just like a fictitious person in the real world. People always cannot understand what a banker does other than the big salary and the luxury life the banker enjoys. In the beginning of twentieth century, the American financial market was controlled by families like the Morgans, Warburgs and Rothschilds. They led the economic trade and their power was even higher than the government. .However, at the end of twentieth century, the small investors crowded into the Wall Street and became the new leaders on the financial stage. In addition to documenting these historical events, in the “The death of the banker”, Ron Chernow also dedicates chapters to the rise of Morgan and Warburg families and their biographies. In this seminal book, Ron Chernow meditates upon the metamorphosis of the banker in the twentieth century. He explains the power transfer process between the traditional bank and small investors in a friendly and witty tone that helped reader understand this important history.

The author’s conclusion is to picture every financial system as represented by a graph with three bars: the capital provider, the banking intermediary and the capital consumer. The investment banks--the middleman of financial market—naturally occupies the center position between the capital provider and the capital consumer. No matter how complex a financial system is, Chernow believes that it can always be reduced to this simple model.

Take Rothschild as an example, in the 17th century, the banker’s only customers were the empires and the royal families. The situation changed with the rise of commercial actions when the businessman started to not only trade goods but lend money to other people, thus led to the natural progression from commerce to finance.
Just like the role of the Rothschild family to Wilhelm IX, there was another famous family in Germany nearly two centuries later: the Baring brother. At first, the Baring family only brokered wool in England and Germany. However, since they financed all kinds of consignments from cooper to diamonds, they had already become bankers. In the 19th century, the Baring family provided George III the fund to control the U.S. and seized the chance to explore the new market. Next, the Baring family helped the U.S. government bankroll the Louisiana Purchase from France and thereby became the trusted confidant of the U.S. This honorable position that the Baring Family occupied had continued until the end of the Civil War. After the Civil War, the power of the bankers was as important as a government. However, when the Baring brothers’ ascendancy started to fall in the U.S, railroad financing, the other new financial system, grew up. The railroad companies urged the government to borrow capital from them and give them the same money to build the railroads afterwards. But even then, the banker still managed to tucked away big blocks of stock for themselves.

In fact, finance sprung naturally from successful commerce. JP Morgan, the banker that had a background in both the U.S and England, became an important person in the railroad industry. Since JP Morgan grew up in the U.S and finished education in England, he became mouthpiece for masses of distant investors to control the American railroad companies. JP Morgan not only coordinated the rivalry between different railroad companies and made sure there was not price competition, he also received capital from Britannic investors (the capital providers) and loan it to the railroad companies (capitol consumer). As a matter of fact, he used this model again in different industries and profited tremendously from it.

Morgan’s success threatened the trust, and fostered an uneven distribution of power. In 19th century, during the time the capital market was far away from what it is today and there were only a few investors. Information was difficult to get and the bankers almost can control every industry. Even though the banker was often only a member of the board of a company, he could be tempted to encumber captive companies with too many securities and enrich themselves at their clients’ expense. Even today, the Morgan family is still powerful being the board member of U.S Steel, GM, AT&T and other companies.

Before WWII, the capital market was mostly controlled by the investment banks. Even though pension funds existed, they were small and unprofessional. There were also only a few small investors in the capital market. Despite their intermittent profits from the stocks, the total number of the small investors remained small and fluctuating. Typically, they would drift in and out of the market in the end. Generally speaking, in those days, the real power of bankers is their monopoly over information, a commodity which was even more important than capital. Until 1909, Moody’s Investors Service, a financial organization, provided its first credit ratings on railroad bonds. It was in fact the first index for public objective measures for evaluating securities.

John, D, Rockefeller is the founder of Standard Oil Company, which was the first company that successfully got rid of the traditional bank. After the Civil War, most bankers did not want to invest in risky industries such as oil. Instead, they focused on railroad and government service. That was the reason why Rockefeller freed itself from the bankers in the Wall Street. In fact, by the 1880s, Standard Oil Company was financially self-sufficient and held huge amount of cash which was even more than any bank had ever had. Standard Oil Company worked together with National City Bank (now Citigroup) and became the new power in Wall Street.

During WWI, the U.S government financed its war involvement through Liberty Bond that drove and netted millions of dollars. The success taught the American an important lesson that profiting from financial marketing is easier than before and encouraged small investors to buy a variety bonds from the capital market instead of depositing their money in the banks. However, information was still hard to get at that time and the situation allowed the bankers to make a profit from those investors. Most bankers repackaged Latin American loans from its affiliated bank as bonds and fobbed them off on small investors. This trick pushed the U.S. government to enact the Glass-Steagall Act which divided banks into commercial and investment and the Securities Act which forced companies to publish their information to the public.

During WWII, the Nazi government encouraged banks to merge so they can control them more easily. The situation happened in Japan as well. The Japanese government merged the banks and weapon manufactures together to support the war. That action brought the relationship between bankers and private companies closer than before. As the WWII ended, Germany, Japan and other countries in Europe all incurred economical depression. In order to develop their economy, German companies, like Daimler, Mercedes Benz and the United Steel Work, merged. In the process, the European bankers played a critical role, just like what the American bankers did before.

On the other hand, with the benefit from the World War and the lack of competitors, the American economy and stock market rebounded from the prolonged malaise of the 1930s. At the same time, while the traditional bankers, like JP Morgan, still employed the same methods to control the big corporations like GM, AT&T, GE, and etc, new organization, like Salomon Brother and Golden Sachs, started to supply innovative service and financial products to smaller investors. These financial organizations sold their stocks to numerous smaller investors instead of selling them to a few big corporations. IBM, the first company which left JP Morgan and co-worked with Salomon Brother, started the new trend of working with these new financial organizations and freed the financial market from the traditional bankers. Moreover, these new financial organizations also expanded their service to Europe and succeeded. Since then, the situation that corporations and bankers bound in a tacit conspiracy against the public changed. Corporations then must follow the principle which should be answerable to all shareholders and meet universal performance requirement.

The new stock-market ascendancy steered these company managers focus onto short-term result instead long-term profits. At the same time, the banks had to compete for deals on the basis of price instead of business connections or relationship, which was once the bankers’ most important weapon. The traditional banks’ role changed and the relationship with clients was eroding at the same time. Before long, they found 1) providing temporary loans to finance takeovers, 2) issuing junk bonds and 3) merge consulting service as the new revenue resource. In order to save the depression which resulted from the leaving of huge corporate customers, the bankers started the securitization business. Bankers bounded loans, no matter commercial loan or credit card receivable, into security and sold then to the public. As a matter of fact, banks today are metamorphosing into universal banks. This action speeded up the transfer of banking monopoly from the bankers to the public, who are enjoying more in-time information today to help them make the investment decision. On the other hand, the corporations possess top credit ratings which almost superior to the banks. The credit ratings and their huge capital allow the corporations to be in dialogue with investors directly without the brokerage of the bank. As a result the traditional banking intermediary role of the bank becomes unnecessary to the capital provider and capital consumer.

Today, the young generations of bankers choose “financial service” as their core business rather than the traditional loan. Among the different financial services, mutual fund is the most important one. Small investors get together via different mutual funds to enter the stock market. The middle class put their saving in the various mutual funds. Mutual funds like Fideity, Merrill Lynch, Franklin Temleton control huge capital and affect the share price of thousands corporations just like what the traditional banks did. However, the major difference from before is that the mutual funds publish their performance daily. The performance would affect every small investors transfer their money from one fund to the other one.

The mutual fund fever continued sweeping across the Wall Street. In February 1997, Morgan Stanley announced a merger with Dean Witter, a company which had been focusing on retail brokerage. The merge of the totally two different business turned a new page in the banking business that announced the coming of a new age and the end of the old Wall Street.

This book was finished 10 years ago, however, the time never decrease its value. The content proves to be timely even for the drastic economic situation that we are in today. When facing the sudden and widespread financial depression, what we need is to review the history and find out the courses. The environment is constantly changing, and we should not hold on to the old rule against the trend. Ron Chernow’s writing explains profound theories in simple language. I believe this classic book would be beneficial for the public.

It's Not About the Coffee - Book Review - Tim Moon

It's Not About the Coffee
Howard Behar and Janet Goldstein. Penguin Group, 2007. 208 pp. $15.96 (ISBN-13: 9781591841920)

“It’s Not About the Coffee” is a testament to Howard Behar’s values that have helped take Starbucks from just 28 stores to an internationally recognized cultural icon. Obviously coffee is important behind Starbucks’ success, but the title Behar chose for his introduction, “It’s About the People – All the People,” goes to show that he believes work and business is more about building relationships with others, and personal leadership becomes an overwhelming need for people to succeed. The encouraging messages that are prominent throughout the book are being true to yourself so that you can be passionate about what you do, and empowering those around you because they will surprise you in a pleasant way.

In this book, Howard Behar presents 10 leadership principles he has come to learn throughout his life which will benefit not only your career, but also your personal life. He refers to these principles as “trusted markers that can set your course in the turbulent sea of business, commerce, and life.” (pg. 5) Beyond these principles, Behar also takes a quick note of anything he hears that he believes to be words of wisdom and puts them on the wall of his office to serve as reminders. These reminders are also quoted throughout the book to help serve as reminders for us.

1. Wear One Hat
2. Do It Because It’s Right, Not Because It’s Right for Your Resume
3. The Person Who Sweeps the Floor Should Choose the Broom
4. Care, Like You Really Mean It
5. The Walls Talk
6. Only the Truth Sounds Like the Truth
7. Think Like a Person of Action, and Act Like a Person of Thought
8. We Are Human Beings First
9. The Big Noise and the Still, Small Voice
10. Say Yes, the Most Powerful Word in the World

Wear One Hat
What Behar has written to briefly describe this point is a very clear way of explaining this in a nutshell. “Our success is directly related to our clarity and honesty about who we are, who we’re not, where we want to go, and how we’re going to get there. When organizations are clear about their values, purpose, and goals, they find the energy and passion to do great things.” (pg. 5) Unfortunately, as human beings we tend to avoid being honest with ourselves and others. Hats represent the different personalities, beliefs, thoughts, or actions we use depending on the environment or situation we are in. (Edward de Bono, Six Hat Thinking) Behar emphasizes that “when you wear one hat, you prioritize who you are and refuse to be anything less. You value yourself and the work you do.” (pg. 12) But the world we know makes it difficult to really follow this. We go to college and try to find a job after graduating, but many of us worry more about job security or our salary than about what we really want to do. But trying your best to find and wear that one hat will really help you and others achieve your goals and dreams.

Do It Because It’s Right, Not Because It’s Right for Your Resume
Once you are able to know who you are, the next step is knowing why you are here. “When we know and value why we’re here, we experience success in our day-to-day roles, success in our creative ideas and results, success in handling problems, and even success in weathering those times when success seems to be out of our grasp.” (pg. 29) Behar was able to figure out who he was and why he was at Starbucks, and that helped him in helping others. The unfortunate outcome with this is you might realize that where you are is not where you want to be. But this is an outcome Behar does not frown upon and in fact believes that Starbucks is an important place that helps people realize what really matters to them professionally and personally. (pg.43) Nurturing this kind of culture is great and will help at growing amazing people within the company. Behar’s emphasis of “we” not “me” shows that this is the culture he is creating. (pg. 32) Most other companies do not nurture this culture because you are viewed more as an asset than a person, and this can result in them losing assets that could benefit their competitors.

The Person Who Sweeps the Floor Should Choose the Broom
This is something that really needs to be followed, but something we find difficulty in doing. Behar states, “Our mission is to empower each person to bring his or her unique perspective and skills to the job.” (pg. 50) The people that do the job are the people that best understand the different aspects surrounding their job. Their voices are the ones that should be taken with the utmost importance in decisions affecting that job. Unfortunately, people in the position of making decisions tend to ignore this fact. In User-Centered Design, we are constantly reminded that the designer is not like the user. We each come from different perspectives, but being in a position of power we tend to believe that we know what the user needs. What we need to do is believe that we know nothing and have the user tell us what we need to know. Behar emphasizes the same principle by saying the person who sweeps the floor should choose the broom.

Care, Like You Really Mean It
“It’s impossible to lead in business – or in life – unless you genuinely care about people. That’s what matters. Period.” (pg.65) Really showing you care is a difficult feat to accomplish especially as a leader. Being able to do this though will show that you really are a great leader that people can trust. When you are detached from everyone because of hierarchy or location, it is easy to just label people as bosses, customers, or suppliers. But by doing so, you create a barrier between you and them and make it difficult to really show that you care. When you care, you help others care and start empowering people.

The Walls Talk
Listening is by far the hardest skill to learn. REALLY listening that is. This is necessary in showing that you care because when you really care, you really listen. “Compassionate Emptiness” is a phrase Behar says took him a long time to really understand. He uses Joseph Goldstein’s, a Western Buddhist teacher, explanation, “Compassion and emptiness are not two different things. Compassion is not a stance, but is the simple responsiveness to circumstances from a place of selflessness. The emptier we are of self, the more responsive we are.” This allows us to really listen to what people have to say without getting lost in noise, or trying to devise our solution to the problem we see instead of the real problem underneath.

Only the Truth Sounds Like the Truth
Being accountable is synonymous with truth. (pg. 99) Avoiding the responsibility associated with the actions you take will only hurt the trust people have in you. Your ability as a leader is questioned and the ability to empower people is lost. Even when a huge mistake occurs, telling the truth can help fix the mistake better than avoiding it. Behar talks about a time when they had to do layoffs and a list of people to be laid off was accidentally left on the copy machine. (pg. 101) If he had ignored it and pretended it never happened, even the people not being laid off would doubt his character and everything he worked for would be met with resistance. But by being accountable and telling the truth the next morning, he was able to show that he is honest and is being accountable, thus retaining trust.

Think Like a Person of Action, and Act Like a Person of Thought
In order for something to happen, action must be taken. But jumping on the gun too early could result in failure. What Howard Shultz believes is that if you have an idea, you should pursue it until it works. (pg. 114) If your current approach does not seem to be working, then instead of giving up rethink the problem and try a different approach. Of course there are limits and understanding when to quit is important, but giving up early without fighting for your idea will not help in bringing success. The Mazagran is an example Behar talks about that led to the birth of the bottled Frappuccino. Starbucks had worked hard at a bottled beverage, the Mazagran, but it did not do well when it was released. But despite the failure, they rethought the problem and tried to a different approach which led to the successful bottled Frappuccino. (pg. 118) “If at first you don’t succeed, try, try again.” (Thomas H. Palmer)

We Are Human Beings First
As human beings we deal with challenges, crises, and catastrophes. Behar thinks of this as the human condition and labels them the three C’s. (pg. 130) Despite the stress and anxiety we feel with the three C’s, they test us, teach us, and help bring passion into our lives. (pg. 127) We are able to push beyond what we believe to be our limits, and feel a sense of accomplishment through our ability to overcome. But Behar understands a solution does not always exist. We are humans, not programs or robots. Understanding and showing we are humans will help people through the times of challenge, crisis, or catastrophe.

The Big Noise and the Still, Small Voice
“We boost our confidence by endorsing cowboy-style leadership, where we can think of as the “my way or the highway” approach to managing people and business.” (pg. 140) Behar finds fault in this belief. How can you listen or care if you only believe in your way? Instead, he follows Robert Greenleaf’s idea of the leader understanding the role of a servant. As a servant, you are always searching, listening, expecting that a better wheel for these times is in the making. (pg. 141) Through this role, you really open your heart to make sure the organization lives up to its principles and dreams, which is what Behar states is the primary role of a leader.

Say Yes, the Most Powerful Word in the World
A lot of us tend to just say no when we do not agree. Through that action, we focus more on ourselves than others. Behar believes that saying yes is a leap of faith. (pg. 159) There are obviously things we cannot say yes to like letting your kids constantly eat junk food, but finding just one reason to say yes instead of the many reasons to say no could change the world. (pg. 160) Dreaming is something we tend to stifle by telling people to focus on reality. But without dreams, the world would not be what it is today. By believing in people’s dreams and finding a reason to say yes to an idea, you empower people to follow their dreams and hopes which open doors to possibilities.

I really enjoyed this book because it shows an executive at Starbucks sharing principles that are focused on people. This book emphasizes that it is the people you need to care about because in the end it is the people that make the organization successful, not the other way around. The message of empowerment is a really strong one that I personally believe in and found it encouraging to hear it coming from an executive. This book does need to be taken with a grain of salt because these principles do not present the answer to everything, but they do act as guides at helping you find an answer. Once you find that answer, what you do is ultimately up to you.

The Big Switch: Rewiring the World from Edison to Google - Book Review - Meredith Slane

Rarely has a book about technology captured my attention like Nicholas Carr’s The Big Switch: Rewiring the World from Edison to Google. In just over 200 pages, Carr manages to provide a history of the modern world since the advent of electricity, demonstrating the economic and cultural implications brought about by that most ubiquitous of technologies. Comparing the current shift in computing, away from personal and corporate IT systems to the “cloud,” with that of the transformation from private sources of electricity to the public energy
grid, Carr conjectures about what our future may bring. At times terrifying in its bleak portrait of a seemingly inevitable machine-driven world, The Big Switch makes relocating to a Luddite community in the middle of nowhere seem all the more appealing.

Carr uses an historical perspective, attempting to understand how our world is changing by comparing what he terms the World Wide Computer to the electric utility grid. Carr (2008) writes “All historical models and analogies have their limits, of course, and information technology differs from electricity in many important ways. But beneath the technical differences, electricity and computing share deep similarities—similarities that are easy for us to overlook today”
(p. 14). This is the main thrust of his argument, one which he uses to great effect. He explains that, though electricity seems commonplace today, at its inception it was “an untamed and unpredictable force that changed everything it touched” (Carr, 2008, p. 14). Even Thomas Edison, whose harnessing of electricity may be the single most important factor in the creation of modern society, was unable see its potential for wide scale deployment as a public utility. Instead, it took Samuel Insull, Edison’s former clerk and mentee, who worked to convince
industry giants to abandon their legacy systems and plug into the grid. In much the same way, forward-thinking companies such as salesforce.com and Google are pushing corporations and PC users to embrace the World Wide Computer, dumping their current systems for thin client computing.

Though Carr believes this move toward utility computing is inevitable, he is slow to join those idealists who predict a Utopian society. He acknowledges that the Internet and computing, in general, have allowed society to change at an unparalleled rate. What remains to be seen, however, are the implications of this change. For example, Carr asserts that large scale economic shifts should be anticipated. While Carr explains that the increase in cheap electricity (brought about by the adoption of the public energy grid) helped grow the American middle class, he isn’t so sanguine about our future economies (driven by the adoption of the World Wide Computer). In his chapter entitled “From the Many to the Few,” Carr demonstrates how this change may play out in the global market. Increasingly, lean organizations are able thrive and grow without the addition/burden of a large workforce. User-generated content, like that found on Flickr, Craigslist, and YouTube, ensures that such sites are continually updated without requiring a large staff of photographers, writers, or videographers. One stunning example helps quantify this phenomenon:

Every day, people all over the world watched more than 100 million YouTube video clips and uploaded some 65,000 new videos to the site. And those numbers were growing at an exponential pace, which explained why Google was willing to spend so much to buy the young company. At the $1.65 billion sale price, each YouTube employee represented $27.5 million in market value. Compare that to a traditional, and fabulously profitable, software company like Microsoft, which has 70,000 employees, each representing $4 million in market value. Or compare it to a traditional media and entertainment company like Walt Disney, with about 133,000 employees, each representing $500,000 in value. (Carr, 2008, p. 130)

Even some services are being replaced by the World Wide Computer. Skype, which is an Internet phone company, was running with only 200 employees (at the time it was purchased by eBay), even as their customers numbered upwards of 53 million. As Carr (2008) states, “traditional firms may have no choice but to refashion their own businesses along similar lines, firing many millions of employees in the process” (p. 134).

Further reason for concern is Carr’s examination of the disappearing American middle class. Unlike electricity (which drove the need for more workers, including managers, as a result of the increasing production of consumer goods), the World Wide Computer not only allows “volunteers” to shoulder most of the work through sites which utilize user-generated content, but also adds to the disparity between the rich and the poor. Companies have been able to outsource knowledge work since the Internet makes location less of an issue. Carr writes that even jobs we wouldn’t imagine being transferred overseas, such as the reading of x-rays, are now being done by workers in other countries. For the American workforce, this has kept pay rates fairly stagnant for the past two decades as more and more companies tap into an ever expanding global market willing to work for less. At the same time, the very rich are getting richer. Since the 1980s, when computing technologies first began to heavily enter the business realm, the wealthy have increased their share of the total economy in a way that has never before been seen. Carr (2008) writes, “The share of the income held by the top 0.1 percent of American families more than tripled between 1980 and 2004, jumping from 2 percent to 7 percent” (pg. 144). Citing experts such as Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke and Columbia University economist Jagdish Bhagwati, Carr’s argument is convincing.

Also frightening is what our reliance on the World Wide Computer will do to our thought processes. Already there are signs that we favor “googling” something multiple times, rather than committing it to memory. For Google, this is good news. Sergey Brin and Larry Page,
Google’s co-founders, have consistently expressed their desire to create the first all-encompassing artificial intelligence. They envision “improving” the brain by plugging into the World Wide Computer through some type of “wireless brain appliance” (Carr, 2008, pg. 213).
Unwittingly, anyone who has ever used Google’s search engine has contributed to this effort. Carr (2008) reasons, “Every time we write a link, or even click on one, we are feeding our intelligence into Google’s system” (p. 219). Though this may seem a product of the distant future, Carr notes that it may occur much sooner than we think: researchers have predicted that we may be able to connect our brains to Google as early as 2020. Carr also describes a recently patented technology currently under development at Microsoft which aims to “turn skin into a new kind of electrical conduit […] that can be used to connect ‘a network of devices coupled to a single body’” (Carr, 2008, pg. 216). In other words, Microsoft aims to use our bodies as “data-transmission buses,” even allowing for the transfer of information through a simple handshake.

The Big Switch is an important read. Written with clarity and language even non-technophiles can understand, Carr’s book is alarming, but not alarmist. His arguments are well laid and backed by extensive research. A former executive editor of the Harvard Business Review,
Carr cites sources as disparate as a Playboy interview with the founders of Google to Patent No. 6,754,472 to a US Department of Defense report. Though his scope is sweeping, from the late 17th century into the future, from military contingency plans to attack the Internet to the search logs of a sixty-two year old widow, Carr remains focused, delivering a concise and thoughtful message: we must be weary of Utopian views of the future and ready to adapt to the ever-increasing melding of the physical world with the virtual.

Typo: The Last American Typesetter or How I Made and Lost 4 Million Dollars - Book Review - Jared Keller

Typo: The Last American Typesetter or How I Made and Lost 4 Million Dollars. David Silverman. NY: Soft Skull Press, 2007. 352 pp. $11.53 (ISBN: 978-1933368658)

Typo is a humorous, though ultimately tragic investigation of an entrepreneurs attempt at turning a small typesetting business around. With the increasing commodification of typesetting, and much of the business going overseas to India and the Philippines, David (the author) and Dan enter the business with a risky plan to take over the typesetting market in the US. From the start there are issues with gaining capital, sales, and just about every process and employee related to the newly acquired typesetting company, Clarinda. Ultimately the book defines the importance of trust and change management in the business world - with employees, colleagues, customers, and personal relations.

The story is broken into several threads - primarily David's personal and business relationships, which develop into a common theme of trust. While trust fuels the initial capital needed to buy the company - there are ultimately breakdowns in every regard. As a new owner of Clarinda, the existing employees of the company lack any trust in David, making it nearly impossible to institute the changes to the business and processes of the company needed to keep the organization afloat. Here the value of competent, trusting employees is made clear, as the recurring theme of Typo is the constant and repeated sabotage of the company by its own employees and branches. Lack of trust in management seems to be the root cause for the failure of the company to change internally - in addition to internal conflicts, fear of change, and those needing to pioneer the change failing to recognize where change is needed.

While the theme of "lack of trust" carries much of the earlier conflict - with customers and employees, it is ultimately misplaced trust than instigates eventual failure. David's business partner, Dan, acts as a mentor and maintains a good portion of the authority over employees and customers. His demeanor, attitude towards business, skills as salesman, etc. are crucial in creating the vision that the company falls in behind - improving sales by large margins for the first years. The downfall of Dan represents a unique case of trust; while he serves as David's mentor, David eventually discovers much of what he knew of his friend was false, and later on in the book finds he has been severely alcoholic. To add to to this betrayal of trust, many of the employees of Clarinda confess to David that they knew of his alcoholism well before David did, and for some reason decided not to inform him. Dan's behavior sabotages business relationships, and leaves a huge vaccuum in management, and the lack of action on the part of the employees prevents David from addressing the issue before it is too late for Dan and Clarinda.

Intimate knowledge of key people, processes and relationships is key to success in business. It seems that the critical failures Clarinda faces (aside from the industry moving overseas) is ultimately an issue of trust. The employees and customers display a lack of trust in David and in Clarinda in general, coupled with the betrayal of David's trust by Dan, as well as the betrayal of David's trust by his father, all suggests that issues of trust are the root cause of the heartache and problems in the story. That said, David is ultimately the one that lives through Clarinda, learns the most and while in massive debt, seems to come off better in the end.

Management of change is another central theme. As an entrepreneur coming into a new business, there are immediate expectations for change from everyone. Though in the case of Clarinda, everyone is expecting to see change except, unfortunately, the employees of the company. The typesetting processes of the company are terribly inefficient, and those who are veterans to the processes resist revisions to the system based on "Why break what works" attitudes towards changes introduced by David and his team. This illustrates a key point in the book as well as in the field of change management - the need to create urgency and communicate the need for change. It may have been the case that if new owners were able to have the executive committee as well as the employees understand the urgency and the need to revise the processes, they may have been met with less resistance. This point is re-enforced late in the life of the company when it is ready to tank - managers and employees realize the organization is in trouble and support the change, but by this point it was far too late for the changes to have any benefit.

The real power of Typo is the way it illustrates these themes of trust and change in a way that is easy to relate to. The opening quote relates the entire story back to the reader:

"We've all been in debt from time to time. Maybe you borrowed five dollars from a friend, or maybe you ran up something on your credit card you shouldn't have, like a bread machine. Who needs a bread machine? If Armageddon comes, you won't need a loaf of homemade rye
Or maybe you borrowed a couple million dollars to buy a typesetting company in the Midwest with your best friend and mentor and then watch it all go horribly wrong..."

Understanding and relating to the problems David experiences - the realities he faces, the lies, the successes and the failures all work together to build an experience by proxy. Reflecting on the problems he faces gives one the opportunity to think of what they might have done given the same situation, the same colleagues, etc. There are a number of hard lessons learned by David in this book, and it serves as a strong education to relate to him - and to learn of the heartache and betrayal as well.

Another strength of Typo is the level of detail- it provides a close enough look into the life of the company and its processes to give the reader an understanding of what is going on (and specifically what needs to change and why it is wrong) without being overtly technically or drawn out in any regard. At the end of each chapter there is a breakdown along with simple graphs to show the progress, regression, and eventual downfall of the detailing the company's revenue, debt, number of employees, etc. solidifying the mental model the reader has of how the company is doing, regardless of the tone of the surrounding chapters.

Where Typo falls a little short is in the conclusion. With the number of problems and strong themes of trust and business failure, the glottalization and commodification of the industry, the struggle and the catharsis, the story concludes rather briefly. It would serve as a much more interesting and educational text if the author had reviewed the events in summary; identifying the key points of success and failure, how certain things could have been avoided, and what he might have done differently given a chance to do it over again (if he would do it again at all). While it gives the reader an opportunity to reflect themselves, there are a lot of issues that are glossed over that might benefit from the authors reflection.

Ultimately, Typo serves as a great education for entrepreneurs entering into a new business venture. David Silverman's entertaining presentation of the issues faced by himself and the company create a great way to express the very real problems faced by a person entering into a business that is definitely not a blank slate, and attempting to institute significant change to turn the business around. Not only does it teach a hard lesson - but shows how elements of a business can and will go bad at every turn. Nothing happens quite as it is expected to, and often people are not entirely who they seem to be. The way the issues are presented provides a much more effective learning tool than a text book, models or theories of business change and success. Digesting these lessons as a part of a story, a real-world experience is the best way to maintain awareness of these issues and how they might arise in ones own life. I would recommend anyone going into a new business venture or starting a new business to read Typo.

Moneyball: The Art of Winning an Unfair Game - Book Review - Wendell Santos

Moneyball: The Art of Winning an Unfair Game.

Michael Lewis. New York, NY: W. W. Norton & Co, 2003. 288pp. $16.47 (ISBN: 0-393-05765-8)

Introduction

“How did one of the poorest teams in baseball, the Oakland Athletics, win so many games” (p. XI)? With that simple question Michael Lewis begins the story of Billy Beane, the Oakland Athletics’ general manger (GM), and his quest to rethink how a baseball team is put together. But Moneyball: The Art of Winning an Unfair Game also tells the story of how unconventional thinking met with resistance in major league baseball before being embraced by Beane as a way to keep his team competitive.

Before reading Moneyball, I had heard many things about how Oakland achieved success over the last few years. I wanted the complete story. The team’s methods for success had not been used in baseball and I wondered what led them to consider using these unorthodox methods. The issues of dealing with resistance to a change in philosophy, overcoming it and implementing the change are at the heart of any change management initiative. I felt that this could show change management outside of the business arena. I was also hoping to learn about how the change was received throughout the league and whether other teams would buy in to the model that the A’s were using.

Plot Synopsis – Change Ideas Presented

Moneyball uses the backdrop of the 2002 Oakland A’s season to look at how Billy Beane put together the team, the sources of the ideas he used, and the players that were living representations of his ideals even if they didn’t fully understand it. The first chapter looks at how Beane himself had once been considered an elite prospect who never turned into a big league star. He certainly had talent but many scouts made their evaluations using subjective, more traditional methods including the idea that he had “the Good Face” (p. 7) which bases future success on a player’s physical attractiveness.

Looking at this through the context of resistance to change, the first chapter serves as a nice background for chapter two where the reader is brought to the present day during a pre-draft meeting between Beane and his front office staff and scouts. This chapter is perhaps the clearest example of resistance to change in the book. Beane and his right hand man Paul DePodesta had already come to believe in a method of player evaluation where subjective analysis, while not completely removed was now heavily supplemented with statistical analysis. Time and again, Beane and DePodesta are shown bringing up players that the scouts think very little of and vice versa. Many of the scouts in the meeting had been trained in the traditional methods of scouting where things like how good a player looked in his uniform or how fast he ran were considered relevant to projecting future success. During the meeting, Lewis describes how the scouts use gut reactions and catch phrases as a way of illustrating their traditional way of thinking. The scouts are shown as unwilling or perhaps unable to change their way of thinking. This was a form of cultural resistance to the change that Beane was undertaking.

In a later chapter we are introduced to Sandy Alderson. Alderson was the GM prior to Beane and in many ways was the man who first instituted the change in the A’s organization. The question he originally asked that eventually became a way of business for Billy Beane was “what was the efficient way to spend money on baseball players” (p. 58)? Alderson knew that the team’s owners were not willing to spend a lot of money and therefore he had to be as efficient as possible with the money that he had. This in effect became the vision for the organization. After reading revolutionary research by Bill James, an amateur statistician who had published a yearly book with the results of his research, Alderson came to believe that a hitting statistic called on base percentage was the most important factor to a team’s success. With this in mind he instituted an organizational culture where a certain hitting approach was enforced at all levels of the baseball organization. The one weakness to the new way of doing business was that the big league club, the A’s were not run in the same way. The manager still controlled what the team on the field would be like and how they would play. In Alderson’s words this was like “leaving the fate of the organization to a middle manager” (p. 60). Billy Beane’s contribution to this rethinking of how the organization would be run was to hire a field manager that would be an extension of the GM. If Beane was the CEO then the manager’s job was to implement his vision in the day to day operations of the business. In this way the Oakland A’s were the first major league team to be run like a traditional business.

Another central idea was the search for statistics that accurately explain what happens on the baseball field. We are introduced to Bill James as an early pioneer behind the idea that traditional statistics were flawed. Lewis goes so far as to say that this was the reason that “nearly every big league front office preferred their own subjective opinion to …statistics” (p. 240). James turns out to be an important figure throughout the book. He never has direct influence on the Oakland organization but his revolutionary ideas on baseball statistics and research are a key idea behind the methods that Beane uses to construct the team. Lewis gives a brief history of James’ writing career describing him as a visionary writer with a small but devoted audience. James is continually frustrated by major league baseball’s indifference to his research and the reader can see that James failed to build urgency among baseball insiders. Part of this may be attributed to Kotter’s idea of the see-feel-change approach. James’ method is decidedly more like the analysis-think-change approach and it is little wonder that his ideas fall on deaf ears especially in such a tradition based business as baseball. Many years later James’ ideas make their way to Beane and he uses them to isolate those statistics that are most important to a player’s and a team’s success. The first benefit is that such statistics bring objectivity to player evaluation. The other benefit of objective statistics is that a GM can place a value on certain skills. Knowing the value of these skills allows them to see if the market is over or undervaluing them and then exploit any inefficiencies. Now this is something that all good GMs have done in one way or another for years. What ends up differentiating the A’s are their methods for spotting the market inefficiencies. An example of this is when Lewis talks about Scott Hatteberg a career journeyman prior to joining the A’s. His approach to hitting is described and we hear how his old team was “obsessed with outcomes; he with process” (p. 179). When he joins Oakland he is surprised that for the first time an organization is more interested in how he approaches an at bat instead of the actual outcome.

My Reactions

This book is not a classic example of change management as outlined by Kotter. Billy Beane didn’t exactly go about creating a sense of urgency, or a vision and he certainly didn’t communicate for buy in. In fact in chapter two, we see how he runs a meeting to prepare for the upcoming player draft and Lewis mentions that Beane and DePodesta do not tell the scouts about their ideas for evaluating players. They discuss players that the scouts hate without explaining why they are bringing them up. At the end of the year, the scouts end up leaving the team because they don’t understand what Billy Beane is getting at. Instead of achieving buy in, he lets those who don’t agree with him leave and hires people who understand his way of thinking. In this respect his management style strikes me more as “my way or the highway”.

This book becomes very interesting when you consider the context of the last six years since it was written. As the book finished, Lewis talks about how the Toronto Blue Jays and Boston Red Sox hire general managers who believe in the approach pioneered by Sandy Alderson and Billy Beane. Paul DePodesta eventually became a GM himself for the Los Angeles Dodgers. The results have been decidedly mixed. While the Red Sox have won two World Series titles in that time and Oakland A’s have made the playoffs twice; the Blue Jays and Dodgers have been mediocre. DePodesta was eventually fired from his position.

I’m left with two questions at the end of Moneyball. While Beane definitely changed the way his organization thought about baseball, I couldn’t help but wonder if he simply replaced one type of conventional wisdom with another one. Did Beane in his zeal to take subjectivity out of the process of running a team inadvertently blind himself to methods that are still valid even if they are traditional? The other question focuses on how successful this method can be in the long run. As pointed out, the results over the last several years have been decidedly mixed. Additionally, if other organizations take elements of Oakland’s thinking, will the competitive advantage the A’s enjoyed early on be somewhat neutralized?

Conclusion

I had anticipated this book exploring the change in philosophy that Beane promoted and how the change affected not only the A’s but also the thinking of other teams in baseball. This was not the case. Beane is not trying to lead the change towards a new way of thinking about baseball. In fact, he mentions a couple of times in the book something to the effect that the longer Oakland can retain this advantage the better. In the end I think this book works better as a real world example of economics more than change management. It strikes me as an extended version of one of the short studies in Levitt and Dubner’s Freakonomics. That said Moneyball is an entertaining read that shows how unconventional thinking can lead to some success.

Integrated Strategic Change: How OD Builds Competitive Advantage - Book Review - Doug Kuzenski

Integrated Strategic Change: How OD Builds Competitive Advantage. Christopher Worley, David Hitchin, and Walter Ross. Reading, MA: Addison-Wesley Pub., 1995. 158 pp. $55.40. (ISBN: 0-201-85777-4)

Intro

The most effective method of deciding an organization's strategy is not always senior management seeking out the most lucrative business opportunity. Rather, according to the book Integrated Strategic Change, it can be a structured process of both internal assessment and external evaluation. By including the members of an organization in an initial process of discovering their core capabilities and most effective resources, the principles of Organization Development (OD) are leveraged to give strategic planning needed context. Only then can realistic and achievable strategies be designed and implemented effectively, altering the organization's internal processes and structures so they are best aligned to the most appropriate business strategy.

Target Audience

Integrated Strategic Change was written with the managerial professional in mind. The content of the book assumes considerable knowledge in the reader, including OD and traditional strategic formulation methods. Also, the book assumes a fairly thorough knowledge of how most large companies are organized, including their functional divisions and power structures. Not a light-read, the authors intend this text to guide large corporations to successful major changes in the way they do business.

Background

In order to better understand why the authors felt the need to write this book for business professionals, some background information on OD and traditional strategic formulation in necessary. In the book Organization Development: A Process of Learning and Changing, W. Warner Burke introduces the fundamental principles of Organizational Development. Traditionally, it is used to increase the overall internal efficiency and effectiveness of an organization's processes. An example of an area that might be improved upon is Human Resources. A typical OD change management process involves the following steps, often referred to as action research: diagnosis, feedback, discussion, and action (pg. 8). Essentially, by engaging all members of an organization to assess the effectiveness of an organization from a whole-system perspective, OD can help a business identify problem areas. The organization then creates an intervention plan to put the process back on course.

These internal processes can be contrasted with the more external process of traditional strategy formulation. An example of a strategic planning session would be mapping out the competitive environment, assessing opportunities, and choosing the path that will give the organization the greatest financial gains by, for example, being a loss leader in an industry. This path is then made explicit by a strategic planning group, often the head managers of the organization, developing a vision statement, strategy document, and detailed plan. Only then will this plan be integrated into the processes and structures of the business, top-down, as needed to accomplish the goals laid out (Dessler & Phillips, 2008).

Summary

The primary issue the authors of Integrated Strategic Change have with traditional strategic planning is that they perceive it to give insufficient attention to the thoughts, needs, and capabilities of the organization's employees. As the authors are all professors specializing in OD, their natural conclusion is to apply the tenants of OD to strategic planning. Specifically, they make a distinction between the strategy of the company and the organization design of the company. Strategy includes the mission, objectives, intent and policies of the organization, while organization design includes the core processes, design factors, and culture of an organization (pg. 46). Together, these determine the overall strategic orientation of the company. After laying this framework, the authors dedicate the book to explaining, in depth, how the four steps of Integrated Strategic Change can bring about a successful change of an organization's strategic orientation.

In the first step, strategic analysis, the organization works to better understand their existing strategic orientation. Specifically, they try to answer the question: how effective is the current organization's performance? By thoroughly understanding both the strategic content (where the business is trying to be) and the implementation of that strategy, they are able to later determine which of these two aspects of the strategic orientation is failing, if not both (pg. 44). Also, the current "dominant competences" and "distinctive competences," or: the business' skills needed to stay in business and skills that distinguish their firm, respectively, are assessed (pg. 54). This process, to be successful, needs to include the participation of as many members of the organization as possible.

The next stage is strategy making. In this two-part process, the vision and type of change needed are clarified, and also the strategic orientation is designed. These two processes are work in tandem. The visioning and type selection is differentiated from traditional strategy formulation in that it is broader in scope, more integrative, and has a greater concern for the vision process (pg. 66). The authors explain how the organization can decide whether the prescribed change should be primarily internal process oriented (organizational design), business-alignment oriented (strategy), or both (a complete reorientation) (pg. 77). The second piece of the strategy making stage, designing the strategic orientation, is a return to a more traditional format. A small group of senior management assesses the findings from the strategic analysis and from the visioning processes. Using this information, they choose what needs to change and how. The authors propose two possible routes for deciding this. The "outside-in approach" uses all the relevant information about the culture, values and capabilities of an organization to dictate its ideal mission, goals and objectives. This is a change to what is being done, rather than how it is being done. The "inside-out approach", though, involves realigning the internal processes and capabilities towards an existing business opportunity. This is a change of how things are being done rather than what is being done. The end products of this stage are a strategy and an organization design that are aligned with the environment, the business' capabilities, and with each other (pg. 90-103).

Next, the business will need to create a Strategic Change Plan. First, by explicitly communicating the desired strategic orientation to employees, everyone working to accomplish the change plan will be able to understand the overall purpose of their actions. Essentially, the better the design of the strategic orientation from the previous step, the easier it will be to communicate it. Second, the strategic orientation is mapped to specific plans to improve the company. This is done by stating every activity needed, categorizing them, and then assigning them priorities and sequences. A traditional responsibility chart is explained in the book for how to gives roles to employees to finish the tasks. Also, the authors explain how to assess stakeholder impacts and find measurements. This section of the book is very explicit and formulaic, as the plan deals with traditional management concepts (pg. 110-122).

Finally, the Strategic Change Plan is implemented in the organization. The authors explain the various ways to increase the chance that a plan implementation will be successful. Some of these include making the vision real, providing resources and support, and controlling the process (pg. 125). This section of Integrated Strategic Change incorporates many of Organization Development's basic tenants for success. By concentrating on the internal needs of the business, and understanding the needs of the individual, the organization has a better chance to foster the core competencies of their employees. As the author's state on page 9, successful businesses must have a "good strategy implemented well."

Critique

Overall, this book did a good job conveying the authors' ideas for incorporating OD with organization strategy formulation. The discussion was much deeper than simply reciting the need to conduct an analysis of the organization's internal Strengths and Weakness and external Opportunities and Threats, also known as a SWOT analysis. Rather, they explain the process, step-by-step, for a business to gain a deeper understanding of themselves and their environment, and then integrate these findings to have a functioning strategic orientation. Also, by giving equal emphasis to redesigning the internal processes as to the redesign of the strategic alignment of an organization, the authors are advocating for a systemic change of an organization that has better odds for a successful outcome (pg. xix).

Especially interesting in Integrating Strategic Change was the consistent theme of the capabilities of an organization and its members. Understanding the capabilities of the organization to execute change is one of the four key themes of the ISC model (pg. 12). This allows the organization to have a better conception of the potential success rates of various directions for change. The authors explain that, when the reality of the organization's capabilities is assessed, better decisions can be made; this includes the amount of work required to improve capabilities to achieve a certain change. In the same way, if the assessment shows strong capabilities are being under-utilized, the authors explain how to change the strategy of the organization so that these are being leveraged.

In regards to the writing style and organization of this book, the authors clearly stated their propositions in systematic and explicit ways. There are many references to supporting literature and research, which shows that their ideas and models are informed by many other prominent management thinkers of our time. Also, drawing on their consulting and case histories, the authors clarify their points many times throughout the book with real-world case studies. These serve as a valuable tool in gaining understanding of how their ideas can be implemented in actual businesses. Overall, the book, though a difficult read, gives strong arguments and solid methodology for management professionals.

Application to Change Management

For an organization looking to improve their business using the principles of change management, this book has much to offer. The ninth and final chapter, ISC as a Competitive Advantage, explains how Integrated Strategic Change can be utilized to make an organization excel beyond its competition. While typical strategic change isn't needed every day, the skills and processes for it can lay dormant for long stretches of time between changes. The authors' focus on having a continual process in place to respond to change (pg. 12) by using the OD techniques offers an organization a unique type of agility. The authors describe Integrated Strategic Change as a valuable and differentiating skill for an organization, when it has been learned and embraced as a priority for all employees (pg. 137).

Application to Information Management

Also, there are several key points that stand out as especially useful for Information Management professionals. On page 61, the authors explain how "information and control systems" play a vital role in "integrating and rationalizing the different demands of the work environment." By utilizing information, a manager will be able to understand how work is being done. By keeping the strategic orientation of the organization in mind, the manager will then be able to understand if adjustments need to be made to align work with the strategic goals of the company. There are several criteria given for evaluating information systems, including "accuracy," the "benefits of the information given the cost of collecting and distributing it," and "the extent to which the information is aligned with critical strategic goals." These are all important for Information Management professionals to consider when they are trying to align themselves to and enable the organization's strategic orientation.

Conclusion

By combining the tenants of Organization Design with traditional strategy formulation techniques, the authors of Integrated Strategic Change advocate for a change management methodology that is a participatory, well thought out process utilizing systemic thinking. These guidelines help turn the traditionally inward-looking skills of OD outwards to the environment and strategic orientation of the company. The authors' step-by-step process can give an organization the needed edge in an ever-changing business landscape, allowing them to anticipate change and be ready to adapt for it when it arrives.

Citations:

• Burke, W. (1994). Organization Development: A Process of Learning and Changing. 2nd Edition. Reading, MA: Addison-Wesley Publishing Company.
• Dessler, G. & Phillips, J. (2008). Managing Now!. New York, NY: Houghton Mifflin Company.

The Inner Game of Work - Book Review - Jin-Hyuk Ahn

The Inner Game of Work. W. Timothy Gallwey. Random House Trade, 2001. 256 pp. $14.95 (ISBN-10: 0375758178)

Prologue
In contemporary society, the business environment continues to change at a radical rate. Under the fast changing business environment, most enterprises put endless effort into making their business process more competitive and reliable. Hence, the capacity for change management and logical thinking is a primary key for success. In the meantime, some predominant factors such as pre-existing culture, centralized business processes, hierarchic communication channels, etc., make it hard for a company to maintain its business resilience. These are general challenges that any modern company faces in its business operations.

With these challenges, many enterprises are engaged in tough competition, struggling to remain on top. Ideally, they want to gain a victory in the business competition to be the final winner. However, being a final winner in business competition is not enough to provide the fundamental reason for an enterprise’s justification for existence and purpose of work. An ideal enterprise should be the place not only to pursue financial achievement from an economic aspect, but also to offer the meaning of work to its employees from an ethical aspect. Then, the enterprise can reach the most optimal condition, making great productivity with respect for the employee’s life and dignity.
I also wondered how my own company could make our business environment productive on the basis of humanity and respect. Fortunately, I discovered that the Global Entrepreneur Conference 2008 in Seoul was offering a leadership program based on W. Timothy Gallwey’s model, and a core value of this leadership program was maximizing leadership skills for coaching staff through Gallwey’s model, ‘Inner Game.’
As I learned more about the Inner Game Model, I found that Gallwey had given tennis coaching lessons to a ski instructor. That seemed to be an unlikely situation to me:
‘How can a ski instructor who does not have any expertise in tennis coach tennis players?’
The Inner Game provides the key to solve this question. The Inner Game is based on the assumption, ‘Everyone has every single capability when they are born.’ In this sense, the coach who bases his operation on the Inner Game Model does not have to provide the technical support or teach standard know-how to the tennis players. On the other hand, the coach is a professional who can eliminate the emotional barrier of players. His function is just like a psychologist.
When I looked over Gallway’s publication history, he first put this theory into practice by teaching tennis, and then experimented with skiing, musical performance, golf etc. In this way, Gallwey has improved the Inner Game theory for thirty years. During this period of time, he produced several Inner Game series, such as ‘The Inner Game of Tennis,’ ‘Inner Skiing,’ ‘The Inner Game of Music,’ ‘The Inner Game of Golf,’ etc. His series have sold over a million copies as best selling books. Twenty one years after he wrote ‘The Inner Game of Golf,’ he published ‘The Inner Game of Work.’ In this book, he demonstrated that this theory was applicable to every field, even to the real business world.
So, I wanted to hear more opinions about the applicability of this theory from real business workers. Here are a few of their impressions of Gallwey’s latest book:
“A manager should work through careful observation without control. The purpose of work is to find pleasure by working” Sharon, Business Manager, Seattle
“This would not be suitable at the organizational level. If this could be implemented at the individual level, I bet belief and trust are significant” Tiffany, Natural Medicine Doctor, Seattle
“I do not want to do some tasks sometimes, but I have to do them because of a timeline or schedule. This makes me feel sick. So, I can say that having a pursuit of happiness through work is most important” Azad, Business Analyst, San Francisco
“It was boring to read the first chapter, but the rest was fun enough. I like the comment, ‘If you can not move forward, just do observe.’ The author pointed out the core value is observation. I think it came from the oriental way of thinking and approaching” Thomas, Service Agent, Seattle
From these impressions, it seems that this theory can be effective in the business world. From what I understand of this theory, the most significant factor in actualizing this theory is overcoming prejudice as well as internal restraint to raise the maximum potentiality of theory users.
The ‘Inner Game of Work’ is the Gallwey’s sixth book. As stated above in the quotes, everyone working in the business enterprise can get some benefit from reading this book and applying this theory in actual practice. Lower level employees can learn how to work in happiness and be crowned with great success. For managers and executives, they can learn leadership in a way of coaching, so that they help employees both to work in happiness and to resolve the problems which prevent them achieving a collaborative organizational culture.
Furthermore, those who can get full benefit from this book are not limited to the people who belong to a certain business enterprise. No matter what their specialties are (i.e. sports, acting, music, healthcare service, education, sales etc.), this theory can be the milestone to help facilitate their maximum capacity and develop the potentiality of any user.
Apparently, when Gallwey wrote this book, he already seemed to consider its pervasive effect. Unlike his last book, ‘The Inner Game of Golf’, he emphasized the know-how of Inner Game theory for the real business operation. In this way, this book is the final stage of Inner Game. Considering the fact that his age is over seventy, this might be his final work.

Summary
This book consists of five chapters as described below;
PART-1 is an introduction to the Inner Game theory. It describes ‘how Inner Game was created and adapted to the business world shifting from the sport world.’
PART-2 is explaining about the way to eliminate emotional barriers by concentrating on the core variables.
PART-3 is the main part of this book; it introduces several methods to enjoy working with an optimal result. In this case, Gallwey does not believe that work is closely related to its productivity. Instead, he defines work as a balanced- combination of three facts, ‘productivity, pleasure, and learning’, showing the actual implementation of this know-how in the business world. In addition, he adds one more concept, ‘mobility’, to the three facts for the Inner Game of Work.
PART-4 is all about tools and methods for practicing the Inner Game theory such as the STOP model and CEO seminars;
STOP Model: Step back, Think, Organize your thoughts, and then Proceed
This model is all about the thinking process. The most difficult thing in changing your thinking process is not learning new skills, but giving up pre-existing skills that you have had for a long time. Also, making your mind-set more stable with deep introspection rather than just trying to manage the level of stress.
CEO Seminars: Evaluate the most important thing the first time. Then, you can find out which is the point of weakness in yourself. If you know yourself very well, the productivity level will go much higher.
PART-5 is about the desire and aspiration to accelerate the energy to work. Gallwey’s point of view of desire is more insightful than our general perspectives. Generally people tend not to be fully honest in expressing what they want to have. So, he leads you to where the original desire comes from by the following questions;
‘Can desire be respected by a human nature?’ and ‘What is the original desire of a human being?’
In addition, the three key concepts to understanding Inner Game theory are Awareness, Trust, and Choice.
1) Awareness - Do not evaluate the fact observed, but recognize the fact itself
The initial starting point toward changing comes by observing what happens without judgment. So, more accurate observation without any judgment or prejudice can bring more opportunities to increase your potentiality with a maximum level of power because it steps over all the barriers from distraction by judgment and prejudice in your ego.
2) Trust - Do trust your real ego (Ego is Self-1 / Real ego is Self-2) [Self-1 is the teller and Self-2 is the listener from the bottom of our heart. Gallwey says Self-1 is continuously engaged in our decision-making from inside while Self-2 is representing the true nature in ourselves. These two components can work most effectively if Self-1 recognizes the goal and then makes Self-2 follow the task.]
Unexpected outcomes can be achieved by the potentiality of your real ego if you recognize as well as accept the present phenomenon naturally. So, believe that you can do anything. Both coaching staff and members should believe this without any doubt.
3) Choice - Set up your own purpose
If the members under the control of staff members want to realize that they can choose their own purpose, and feel that they can control the growth process on their own, they should be dedicated to their work. In this case, the real ego is very effective after realizing that it can control any situation.

Epilogue
There seems little doubt that the author, Gallwey, has a passion for work from the bottom of his heart. As I understood him, he wanted to make a better place via the Inner Game, so that more people can grow up as well as develop themselves. Thus, he spent most of his time researching and testing the principles of the Inner Game. His research results indicated that people could pursue free-will while working in the office, then learn and practice something they wanted at the same time. This creates the most desirable place to work that we all wish to have.
From what I understand, unconscious habit prevents us from seeing far and thinking big. If we start a journey to find our free-will, we can definitely realize the barrier inside which holds our mind-set from changing. This journey toward free-will can start by converting the original definition of ‘Work’. To better assess the definition of ‘Work’, moreover, increasing the capacity of oneself is indispensable.
The Inner Game leads us to a ‘Work free’ environment. This is not only because we can improve our capacity when working, but also because we can enjoy our life when not working. How much are you sure of being on the successful track or not? It all depends on how much you believe in yourself. We all want to be in happiness whatever we do and wherever we go. If we can not find purpose through working, we never imagine having a balanced-life.
Overall, this book is well written because it analyzed ongoing changes for the working paradigm in a detailed way; why lots of people fail to make changes and how they make better physical and emotional conditions in workplace. Gallwey contemplated a new approach for mind-change through deep understanding of the inner side of human-beings. I was impressed by reading this book because it gave me an opportunity to look back upon my when I had to work without purpose. Now, the Inner Game theory makes me understand how to work and what to work on. Otherwise, the final evaluation of this book can be different partly depending on each person’s different expectation and approach.

Change Management: The People Side of Change - Book Review - Piu Mitra

Change Management: the people side of change. Jeffrey M. Hiatt and Timothy J. Creasey. Prosci Research Pub., 2003. 148 pp. $18.95. (ISBN-10: 1930885180)

Overview

Dr. Johnson of Regis University described the book Change Management: the people side of change as “A wonderful primer for change management.” The book is co-authored by Jeffrey M. Hiatt and Timothy J. Creasey. Jeff Hiatt is the founder and lead editor of the Change Management Learning Center (CMLC). Tim Creasey is a senior editor, contributor, and lead research analyst for CMLC. I believe it is the association of the authors with a learning center that had an impact both on the tone and content of the book. They dealt with a very critical topic - people’s side of change management - in a very simple and straightforward approach. The book is easy to read and so engaging that readers who do not have any exposure to the change management field can grasp the concepts offered in the book with little or no effort. Since the book is about managing people’s reaction to change, every section has a human touch attached to it which makes the readers even more engrossed.

When an organization goes through a change process, three aspects are needed to be taken care of - people, technology and operations. One can predict the process and outcomes of change on operations and technology. But the effect of change on people is hard to assess since human performance is governed by perceptions and emotions rather than logical rules and formulae. That is why addressing the people’s side of change is the most vital challenge for any organization preparing for change. This is when the book comes in handy since it gives the foundation one needs to manage the human aspects of change and acquire the desired results.

Content

The book presents the tools for managing change at both individual and organizational levels. It also does a great job of integrating the organizational and individual elements of change management, thus ensuring the change process to be smooth and hurdle-free.

Managing Individual Change – The book defines individual change management as the process of providing employees with necessary tools and training required to manage their personal transition through change. The ADKAR model for individual change management presented in the book was developed by Prosci Research with input from more than 1,000 organizations within 59 countries. This model describes five required building blocks for change to be realized successfully on an individual level. The building blocks of ADKAR include: Awareness – of why the change is needed, Desire – to support and participate in the change, Knowledge – of how to change, Ability – to implement new skills and behaviors, and Reinforcement – to sustain the change. (Hiatt and Creasey, 2003). This model can be used both as a diagnostic tool as well as a corrective tool for managing individual change. It helps to build an effective communication framework during the change process and provides focus for conversations about change.

Managing Organizational change - Organizational change management includes processes and tools for managing change at an organizational level. These processes and tools have a well planned approach that can be used to successfully transition groups of individuals or the organization as a whole through change. When combined with the concept of individual change management, these tools provide an effective framework for managing the people side of change under the umbrella of the organization. The organizational change management process, as proposed in the book, consists of three main phases including preparing for change, managing change, and reinforcing change. Preparing for change (phase 1) includes preparing oneself and his team for managing the change and creating a high-level management strategy. Phase 2 – Managing change includes the design of the organizational change management plans and individual change management activities. This involves the planning and implementation of communication plans, coaching plans, training plans, sponsor roadmaps, and resistance management plans. In Phase 3 – Reinforcing change, one assesses the results of phase 2 and implements corrective actions. (Hiatt and Creasey, 2003). To sum up, organizational change management includes techniques for creating a strategy by assessing the need, building awareness of the need through unclogged channels of communication, and engaging senior managers as change leaders to be a part of an effective sponsorship. In addition, it develops skills and knowledge to support the transition, helps employees move through the change by providing proper guidance and training, and implementing methods to reinforce the change.

Significance

For me the most impressive thing in the book is the concept of change competency – when change becomes the custom or standard of business. “Individuals in a change-competent organization define their job in relation to change. They value the ability to change as one of their primary responsibilities. They understand that change will occur, expect it and support the change during implementation.”(Hiatt and Creasey, 2003, pg. 84). The book explains the subtle distinctions between change management and change competency, and provides evidences of a change-competent organization. Change competency involves a shift in values, cultures and operations and it is not easy to achieve but it is critical in the fast changing business environment. (Hiatt and Creasey, 2003). I feel that this concept of change competency is applicable not only to organizations, but also to individuals. Human beings are constantly going through a change process but not being ready to accept the change creates additional tension and trauma in life. By absorbing and realizing the fact that change is a part of life, will prepare us for all challenges.

Another great attribute I liked about the book is its organization. The authors state that it follows the ADKAR model of change – first creating “awareness” of the need for change management, and then invoking the “desire” to successfully implement change management techniques. Next, the book provides the “knowledge” about the guiding principles for change management. This is necessary since change management does not work with a “one-size-fits-all” approach. Based on the specific change and the particular organization that is being changed, one has to modify or tailor his approach. As a change initiator, the guiding principles of change are vital for understanding both why and how to use change management. In the later chapters, the book provides the tools and processes for managing successful changes thus increasing the “ability” of the practitioners. The authors claim that “the mis-steps and project failures uncovered in research with other companies provide “reinforcement” for managing the people side of change” (Hiatt and Creasey, 2003, pg. 93). I differ at this point with the authors and feel that the chapter on “Change competency” provides the “reinforcement” section of the AKDAR model followed in organizing the book since it discusses about sustaining the change. This organization of the content helped me to understand the ADKAR model for individual change management because I went through its various steps in the course of reading and realizing what the authors intended to say.

The book contains four appendices which I feel are a valuable resource for any change management practitioner. The first appendix - Appendix A - gives information about the resources available for change management practitioners like Change Management Best Practices Report, CD-ROM and Binder for Managers and Supervisors etc. Appendix B contains ADKAR worksheets for managing personal and business changes. These worksheets help with the processes of managing change and building change competency. Appendices C and D present the highlights of best practices and frequently asked questions, respectively, from employees, which can serve as the starting point for a change process. As a beginner in the change management field, these appendices provided me the answers in advance of the critical issues that might arise while I practice managing change myself.

Shortcomings and recommendations

I read this book in conjunction with another change management book by John P. Kotter and Dan S. Cohen – The Heart of Change: Real-life Stories of how People Change their Organizations. This made me feel the absence of real life business cases in the book in discussion. The book uses a few good stories to illustrate its concepts like “the young man watching his mother prepare a roast” (pg. 13) or “Scott’s Junkyard” (pg. 50) or “Stripes and Tar” case (pg. 6) . But the book has only five case studies and I feel it would have been good if there were more. Kotter and Cohen used more than one case study for every stage of change management they proposed and this helped me to understand and judge the point better from various perspectives.

The tools presented in the book, both for individual change management and organizational change management, are linear in nature. The authors do not offer any strategy to deal with such situations when an organization or an individual is unable to complete one step. Will the whole process fail and will one need to start afresh or is there another way around it? This is not clear from what is presented in the book. The authors briefly touch on the subject of failures in chapter two but do not provide any solutions for them.

Conclusion

Priced at $18.95 this book provides a basic framework and a solid understanding for change management; know why it is important and why one should go for it. It offers the guiding principles and necessary tools for implementing successful change management initiatives. After one finishes the book, in the words of the authors, “As a business manager, you will be more effective as a change leader and sponsor of change. Specifically, you will be able to prevent and manage resistance to change, minimize productivity loss, avoid unnecessary turnover and increase the probability that your business changes produce the desired results.” (Hiatt and Creasey, 2003, pg. 1). I highly recommend this book to beginners in the change management field. But this book is not for advanced practitioners since it does not address the critical issues that may arise in the process of change. After completing this book, one will gain knowledge about the basic principles for handling change safely and productively taking into account the emotions and perceptions of other players. Then they can read books like Leading Change or The Heart of Change: Real-life stories of how people change their organizations by John P. Kotter which deal with the critical issues of change. If one wants to know and explore in depth the issues of fast changing organizations in the dynamic business environment, I suggest them to read books by Dr. Kevin C. Desouza like Agile Information Systems: Conceptualization, Construction, and Management and Engaged Knowledge Management: Engagement with New Realities. Concluding with a personal note, I enjoyed reading the book Change Management: the people side of change and hope other novices like me will enjoy it too.

RETIREMENT, Wise and Witty Advice for Making It The Next Great Adventure - Book Review - Samantha Dichupa

RETIREMENT, Wise and Witty Advice for Making It The Next Great Adventure. Natasha Josefowitz, PhD. Blue Mountain Press, 2005. 95pp. $10.95. (ISBN 0-88396-882-7)

I chose this book because my mom is going through retirement, which is a big change in her life and I would like to understand it.

The author, Natasha Josefowitz , is a 78-year old married woman with a masters degree and a PhD. She is a professor at the School of Social Work at San Diego University, a columnist and the author of seventeen books. She is internationally known for her accomplishments on behalf of women, which earned her numerous awards.

RETIREMENT, Wise and Witty Advice for Making it The Next Great Adventure is for those who have parents that are retiring and those who are retired or about to retire. This book emphasizes that retirement is not an end, but it is a start of something new. This book serves as a guide for retirement. It teaches how to prepare for retirement and what to do after. Moreover, it inspires people to dig in deep and uncover new things they want to do. The author is highlighting the fact that retirement is taking the next step in life and reinventing oneself. In the book it says, “Reinventing could be finding new interests, exploring different parts of ourselves, or becoming more of who we already are” (Josefowitz, 2005, p.8). Due to this, retirees will not have idle time in their hands. Those retired can choose what to do and how long to do it. They have the freedom.

The content of this book is briefly outlined by the author: “This book will look at how to prepare for that next adventure – and how to live it fully, avoiding the pitfalls and celebrating the joys. It’s about embracing life before, during, and after the transition” (Josefowitz, 2005, p. 9).
I personally find this book interesting because my mom is currently going through this life-changing experience. I am not sure what happens when one undergoes retirement and this book has given me a lot of details that pertain to this. This book is inspiring and instructive. Inspiring because it motivates people to embrace retirement since it allows them to do things that they’ve always wanted to do and to explore new things that are of interest to them. Instructive because it has chapters that teach people how to manage retirement given that it is a huge change.
The second chapter reveals the importance of looking ahead . If you know that you are retiring soon, planning in advance is essential so that the change won’t come as a shock leaving you with nothing to do. The author said, “Planning ahead while still employed will ease the transition” (Josefowitz, 2005, p. 17). The author also suggests listing down the things that you have accomplished and identifying those that you had fun with. In this way, you will be provided with possible options to do after retiring. I fully agree with this chapter because retirement as it has been said again and again is a big change. Herewith, planning ahead should be encouraged in order to have something to do even when retired. This will make it easier to transition from employment to unemployment.
In the fourth chapter, the three types of retired people are explained: (1) Outer-Directed – people that make things happen, (2) Inner-Directed – people to whom things happen and (3) Undirected – people who ask “what happened?”. The outer-directed people are people who still want to work but in another field of interest. The inner-directed are those who choose not to work anymore and is looking forward to recreation and spending time with family and friends. The undirected are those that were forced to retire or just decided to retire on a whim, which means they have no plans on what to do afterwards.
I like how the author categorized people that pertain to retirement. It makes people ponder which type they are and makes them realize what they need to do. It makes them plan. I think that no matter which category you fall under, you still need to plan thoroughly. If not, you will be left idle not knowing how to manage your time, which may lead to restlessness and depression.
I especially like how the author actually gives you options on what to do after retiring. There is one chapter focused on volunteering . Everyone knows that we come to a point in our lives that we want to give back. This goes especially for those who are retired. This chapter provides people with ways to volunteer and to give back to the community. It says here that there are two ways to volunteer: “by giving money or by giving time” (Josefowitz, 2005, p. 30). So, retired people can opt to give back by giving a significant amount of money to a charity or a foundation. They can also choose to volunteer by working in a shelter, a public school, a hospital, etc. Either way it is still giving back to the community. In addition to this, the author supplies information on organizations that accepts elderly volunteers. The information given are names, websites and contact details of the organizations, which enables people to research to see which organization will suit them and contact these organizations if they are interested.
Another dilemma that elderly retired people are facing is deciding to move or not to move . Retirement will make them contemplate on whether to move to a smaller house closer to their children or to a retirement community where they can get the care that they need. This is quite difficult given that they are thinking of moving out of the house where they built their families. It is very hard to let go of all the memories that fostered in their homes.

In chapter seven, the author talks about her own experience on this. She then explains how to plan the move, either to a new house or to a retirement community. She gives a number of things to consider when moving in order to make it a successful one. Examples of these are: public transportation, climate, family, friends, etc. Another thing to consider is the necessary facilities. The author said, “Gather information about facilities in your desired location from doctors, social workers, and resources, such as Eldercare Locator or your local office on aging” (Josefowitz, 2005, p. 41). I agree with the author on encouraging people to take into account all of these when considering to move when retiring. Moving, just like retiring, is a big change. And, it is best to consider everything before doing so. Most especially since retired people will need all the help they can get as they get older. They should feel safe and comfortable in their new homes and the tips given by the author in this chapter, I believe, will undoubtedly make this happen.

Another interesting factor in this chapter is the part where emphasis is put on timing a move to a retirement community. She presented this by listing down the advantages when moving as soon as possible. I like that she did this because it positively persuades retiring people to plan ahead when moving for the reason that it will be highly beneficial for them in terms of safety and comfort. I also like that she gave information on organizations that can help people on selecting which retirement community is a best fit for them. This will give people a head-start on the plan to move.

As everyone knows, with retirement comes aging. Therefore, it is no surprise that the author tackles on this too. When aging, it is vital to take good care of your health. Chapter nine - Healthy, Wealthy, Wise grasps on this matter. The author points out the relevance of taking vitamins on a daily basis, exercising regularly, eating healthy food, putting on sunscreen and having fun. The author believes that these will make people age better and will allow people to live longer fuller lives. We all know how vitamins, exercise, healthy food and sunscreen help us live healthier lives. How does fun do it? She says here that, “Laughter acts as a stress reducer, lowers blood pressure, boosts your immune system, increases your circulation and can act as a painkiller” (Josefowitz, 2005, p. 54). Come to think of it, I noticed that retired or elderly people would invest most of their time in having fun and now I know why. It makes them feel better. It makes them look forward to another day. It brightens their lives. Out of all, I think her tip on having fun is the most essential because I believe that fun surpasses all the trials and tribulations that comes with aging. This chapter will inspire retired or retiring, and aging people to look forward on this next great adventure that they are going through or about to go through. Knowing that they have all the time in the world to have fun and just enjoy life will make them want to retire and will allow them to make the most out of their retirement.

With retirement, people are compelled to deal with important documents . It is quite challenging to have to do this but it is a reality that needs to be faced and dealt with. As I mentioned earlier, retiring means aging and aging means that disability and death may happen sooner than later. The author stated, “We will not become stronger or more able, so planning for the eventuality of disability, whether physical or mental, is equally important” (Josefowitz, 2005, p. 83).

The author uncovers the information that needs to be written down for family members and caretakers in case of emergency, like information on doctors, lawyers, etc. A list of documents, such as birth certificates, marriage certificates, insurance policies, etc., should be written down too. Additionally, there are four more needed documents. These are: (1) A living will, (2) A durable power of attorney for healthcare, (3) A durable power of attorney for financial asset management and (4) Last will and testament . Herewith, I really think it’s smart of the author to include this advice because people might not think of dealing with this as they are too caught up with other things with regard to retirement.

People may ask why this is essential when retiring. The author mentions that, “Taking care of the above will give you peace of mind. Once it’s done, you don’t have to think about it, and peace of mind is part of any retirement plan” (Josefowitz, 2005, p. 84). After reading this, it dawned in me that it is imperative to have peace of mind when retired. It makes the transition much easier because you don’t have to worry about that anymore and you can devote more time in enjoying life by exploring new interests and spending time with loved ones.

Generally speaking, I really enjoyed reading this book. I practically read it in one night as it is a real page-turner. I just found everything so interesting and the author made it so by giving very specific advices and helpful information on the various concerns on retirement. I especially like how she discloses her own retirement encounters. It makes people realize that they are not alone and that people have done it successfully. It inspires them and it eliminates the fear of retirement.

I strongly recommend this book to those already retired, about to retire and those who have loved ones going through retirement. The information in this book will make this big change absolutely easier. It will provide a smooth transition to the next great adventure - Retirement .


Reference:

Josefowitz, N. (2005). RETIREMENT, Wise and Witty Advice for Making It The Next Great Adventure. Colorado: Blue Mountain Press.

Good to Great - Book Review - Cho-I Chang

In 1994, James Collins and Jerry Porras coauthored the bestselling book “Built to Last”. The book can be proclaimed to be one of the best writings in the management field. For the book, Collins and Porras spent six years comparing 18 well-known and well-established companies with 18 counterparts in specific areas of business. Two years later, Collins formed a team with 21 researchers, including himself, and spent five years finding out the differences between good companies and great companies (P. 5). In 2001, Collins published Good to Great.

Collins and his team looked at companies from 1965 to 1995 that appeared on the Fortune 500. They systematically searched and selected 11 companies: Abbott Laboratories, Circuit City, Fannie Mae, Gillette, Kimberly-Clark, Kroger, Nucor, Philip Morris, Pitney Bowes, Walgreens, and Wells Fargo (P. 7). Collins and his team also picked two sets of comparison companies. The first group, “Direct Comparisons”, was comprised of companies that were in the same industry and with the same opportunities and similar resources as the good to great companies. The companies in the “Direct Comparisons” group, however, showed no growth. The second set, “Unsustained Comparisons”, consisted of companies that made a short-term shift from good to great but failed to sustain the change (P. 8).

The book set out to answer the question: can a good company become a great company, and how? The answer, according to Collins, is that the good to great companies are able to grasp the three discipline stages—“Disciplined People”, “Disciplined Thought”, and “Disciplined Action”—at a particular time point to enable transformation. In other words, the discipline stages push the “Flywheel” forward turn after turn from good to great to build to last.

The core chapters of the book are built around the discipline stages. Within each of the three stages, there are two key concepts. In “Disciplined People” stage, the two key concepts are “Level 5 Leadership” and “First Who…Then What”. In “Disciplined Thought” stage, the two key concepts are “Confront the Brutal Facts” and the “Hedgehog Concept”. In “Disciplined Action” stage, the two key concepts are “Culture of Discipline” and “Technology Accelerators”. The “Flywheel” is wrapped around the stages to capture the process of going from good to great (P. 12). Level 5 Leadership: The book divides leadership into five levels of hierarchy. The fifth level is the highest level in the hierarchy of executive capabilities that Collins and his team identified in the research.

· Level 5: Level 5 Executive – “Builds enduring greatness through a paradoxical blend of personal humility and professional will” (P. 20).

· Level 4: Effective Leader – “Catalyzes to commitment to and vigorous pursuit of a clear and compelling vision, stimulating higher performance standards” (P. 20).

· Level 3: Competent Manager – “Organizes people and resources toward the effective and efficient pursuit of predetermined objectives” (P. 20).

· Level 2: Contributing Team Member – “Contributes individual capabilities to the achievement of group objectives and works effectively with others in a group setting” (P. 20).

· Level 1: Highly capable individual – “Makes productive contribution through talent, knowledge, skills, and good work habits” (P. 20).

Collins and his team defined the characteristic of Level 5 leaders as “modest and willful, humble and fearless” (P. 22). Collins gave an example to help readers quickly grasp the concept of Level 5 leader-United States President Abraham Lincoln. “Abraham Lincoln never let his ego get in the way of his primary ambition for the larger cause of an enduring great nation” (P. 22). However, Level 5 leadership is not just about humility and modesty, but about unwavering resolution. Level 5 leaders will do what must be done to make the company great (P.30). Also, Level 5 leaders practice the “Window and the Mirror” attitude. Level 5 leaders would never admit to the fact that he/she is the key for the success; they attribute the success to luck or team work, while the leaders in the comparison group would do just the opposite (P.35). The book identifies the characteristics of Level 5 leaders, but it does not teach us the steps to become Level 5 leaders. Some people are born with elements to become Level 5 leaders, but I believe that we can acquire such elements through training and learning.

First Who…Then What: The executives who ignited the transformation from good to great did not come up with a strategic plan first. They first figured out who were the right people for the job. “If we get the right people on the bus, the right people in the right seat, and the wrong people off the bus, then we’ll figure out how to take it someplace great” (P.41). This indicates that people are not the most important assets of the company, but the right people are (P.51). The idea of getting the right people on the team is the key point of this chapter. Level 5 leaders answer the “who” question before the “what” decision. However, I think the idea of getting the right people on the bus and on the right seat while getting the wrong people off is a bit extreme and cruel. How could one define who’s right and who’s wrong? If a company cannot provide training or guidance to lead people to change, there is a possibility that the company may lose potential “right people”.

Confront the Brutal Facts: According to the Collins, good to great companies made more good decisions than comparison companies. “All good to great companies began the process of finding a path to greatness by confronting the brutal facts of their current reality” (P.88). Although it is a well-known fact that overlooking reality will lead companies to failure, very few companies have the courage to deal with reality. In order for companies to have the courage to deal with reality, companies need to create a climate where the truth can be heard. The book offers four basic practices to create a climate where the truth is heard.

1. “Lead with questions, not answers”: Grasp the fact that you do not yet understand and then ask the questions that will lead to the best possible insights (P. 74-75)
2. “Engage in dialogue and debate, not coercion”: Encourage a real healthy debate, and reach a conclusion and move on (P. 75-77)
3. “Conduct autopsies, without blame”: Instead of blaming others for the mistake, investigate to avoid the same mistake (P. 77-78)
4. “Build red flag mechanisms that turn information into information that cannot be ignored”: Build mechanisms to communicate and turn information into information that cannot be ignored (P. 78)

The key takeaway from this chapter is that companies must face brutal facts, and yet never lose faith in their final goal. That is the key idea that drives companies from good to great.
The Hedgehog Concept (Three Circles): The book asks a question in the beginning of the chapter: are you a hedgehog or a fox? In Isaiah Berlin’s famous essay “The Hedgehog and the Fox”, he divided the world into hedgehogs and foxes. “The fox knows many things, but the hedgehog knows one big thing” (P. 90). The fox is a sly animal that plans complex methods to attack the hedgehog. When hedgehog senses an attack, it becomes a sphere of sharp spike, pointing outward in all direction. Despite the fox’s schemes, the hedgehog always wins because it focuses only on one critical things that protects itself (P. 90-91). The key to understand the three circles of the Hedgehog Concept is to think three interlocking circles, representing

1. “What you can be the best in the world at (and equally important, what you cannot be the best in the world at)” (P. 95)
2. “What drives your economic engine” (P. 95)
3. “What you are deeply passionate about” (P.96)

The key takeaway from the chapter is that if companies can act like hedgehogs to focus on one big thing (bring all three circles together) and stick to it, they can achieve from good to great.
A Culture of Discipline: The reason why good companies fail to become great is not their lack of opportunities. Rather, it is because they have too many opportunities that they could not digest them. That is why building a discipline culture is one of the steps to build from good to great. The main point of the chapter is to “build a culture full of people who take disciplined action within the three circles, fanatically consistent with the Hedgehog Concept” (P. 123-124). The good to great companies hire self-disciplined people and provide them freedom and responsibility within a framework. The self-disciplined people (right people) will engage in disciplined thoughts (the Hedgehog Concept) and then take disciplined actions (doing things that are in the three circles) (P. 124-142). The key takeaway from the chapter is that there will be many great opportunities, but companies need to choose the opportunities that fit within the three circles.

Technology Accelerators: Good to great companies think differently about technology. “The good to great companies used technology as an accelerator of momentum, not a creator of it” (P. 152). The good to great companies didn’t begin their transformation with technology, but they all become pioneers in the application of technology once they fit the technology with their Hedgehog Concept (P. 153). In Collins’s opinion, even if you give the exact same leading edge technologies to the comparison companies for free, those companies will still fail to create the same result as the good to great companies (P. 162). Some people believe that technologies do not matter in an organization because every company has technologies. However, if a company can use technologies to help it achieve excellence, then technologies matter.

The ideas above will push the “Flywheel” forward turn after turn to achieve from good to great to build to last. The good to great companies understand a truth: “tremendous power exists in the fact of continued improvement and the delivery of results” (P.174). There is no doubt that pushing the “Flywheel” forward will take great effort. However, when you keep pushing in a consistent direction, it will move a little faster. At some point, you will reach a breakthrough, and the “Flywheel” will turn a hundred times , and then a thousand times, faster. When you reach that point, your challenge will no longer be good to great but becomes how to maintain such greatness. In conclusion, the book is great for anyone who wants to understand how to achieve greatness. The book provides great real life examples; also, Collins throws in frequently asked questions to provide answer to common questions that pop up in readers’ mind. Overall, this is a great book for any level of management because greatness does not only exist in the executive level.

Naked Conversations: How Blogs are Changing the Way Businesses Talk with Customers - Book Review - Sathappan Thiagarajan

Naked Conversations: How Blogs are Changing the Way Businesses Talk with Customers (Hardcover). Robert Scoble, Shel Israel. Wiley, January 2006, 272 pp, $16.47 (ISBN: 0-471-74719-X)

The book Naked Conversations’ fundamental premise is that direct, uncluttered conversations and communications are better for everyone, at least for most of the time. To enable this, the authors propose with facts, fun and deep insights that blogging is the answer.

The book is basically divided into three major areas. The first is termed as “What’s Happening” and focuses on the topics like blogging, business blogging, impact of blogging on businesses, impact of blogging on major corporations like Microsoft, Sun Microsystems, Google, L’Oreal, General Motors and several minor ones.

The Introduction chapter sets the tone effectively for the rest of the book. Here the book claims that everything began with conversations then broadcasting came along and now blogging is taking us back to conversations. Further the authors propose that the import of this medium lies in the fact that blogging strips all the crap from the usual forms of marketing–led communications. Authors declare that one way marketing techniques as we know them, the “We talk, you listen” are set to be doomed. While one tends to agree with most of the claims, the authors take it a step further and go overboard by claiming that in the future if companies don’t blog in the future, they would be perceived as “sleazy and hiding something”.

The following chapters in section 1, are sort of like case study examples, where the authors try to bring the good (mostly) of blogging and its impacts on businesses of various industries and sizes.

In Chapter 1 the general direction is that large corporations have been perceived as monolithic borgs without souls, while in reality are just a collection of actual human beings. Microsoft and its alleged image as the Evil Empire is taken as an example. Chapter goes on to explain how Microsoft has actively tried to soften its image through a “charm offensive”. One of the components of this charm offensive is said to be employee blogging. Despite initial resistance, fear and legal department’s worries, the book claims that the employee blogs have initiated two way conversations between employees and direct customers and has certainly helped with Microsoft’s image makeover.

While the softening of image may be true, it’s quite hard to find other positives for Microsoft. The softening phase (since about 2000) seems to coincide with some disturbing facts like, an almost static stock price, increased encroachment by rivals, far lesser clout, etc, all of which seem to point otherwise. This suggests that blogging (and other charm offensives) may have in fact affected Microsoft in a negative way.

The book in later parts takes this claim further by suggesting a turn around at Sun Microsystems (and Microsoft) and attributes it to its employee bloggers. By the way Sun Microsystems has the largest percentage of employee blogger, followed by Microsoft. Additional claims that seem indigestible are that trouble may be brewing for Google and Apple due to their closed or stodgy blogs and blogging policies.

Book claims that one way communications like direct mailing, TV ads, and phone calls belong to an annoying category of marketing and that people have become resistant to these methods. I totally agree and empathize with the authors when they suggest that people use TiVo, spam filters, go to the refrigerator or restroom, check emails or make quick phone calls and try to avoid these intrusions in every way possible. This coupled with increasing costs of TV spots and general decline in viewership could accelerate the decline of traditional approaches. Authors argue that blogs have made conversational marketing come back and declare that evangelism is one of the best forms of marketing. As examples ICQ, Skype, Firefox, etc are lauded for their inventive approaches to marketing through blogs and the web in a viral fashion.

Chapter 4 talks about blogging in large corporations, especially by executives. Here General Motor’s Vice Chairman Bob Lutz and Sun Microsystems CEO Jonathan Schwartz are shown to have effective blogs that aren’t purely marketing and one way devices, but refreshingly different and open to comments and suggestions. These are touted on the lines of best practices for blogging by corporations. Chapter also claims that out of Sun Microsystems’s 32,000 employees 1000 bloggers as of 2005.

Chapter 5 talks about blogging for smaller and diverse companies. Here the authors suggest 5 tips for bloggers:
Talk, don’t sell
Post often and be interesting
Write on issues you know and care about
Blogging saves money but costs time
You get smarter by listening to what people tell you

In today’s world of ‘Joe the Plumber’, the book goes into detailed advice for hypothetical plumbers to start their own blogs. The book goes as far as suggesting content for plumber blogs. Another example talks about Victor’s Celtic Coffee Company in Redmond’s higher search ranking than Starbucks, all because Robert Scoble blogged about it, and others linked to it. This is a true, try Googling “coffee in Redmond”

The book proposes novel ideas like, marketing as an unintended byproduct of talking, conversing and blogging; to stop looking at blogging in terms of ROI and start looking at it as altruistic. And “Altruism turns people on even more than making money ………..That makes blogging the sex god of the Information Age” - p43

All blogs mentioned in the text are referred clearly at the bottom of each page and makes it a breeze to evaluate immediately while reading.

Through chapters 1 to 7 the book talks about blogging from various perspectives as to improving conversations and hence businesses. But chapter 8 - Blogs and National Cultures, breaks this monotony with a jolt and touches important topics like cultural and national perspectives. Here the cultural effects on blogging in several countries are examined. Authors talk about pervasiveness of blogging in France (3.5 million blogs) while neighboring Germany has just 200,000 blogs. The authors with inputs from European blogging experts claim that this is due to the generally more expressiveness of the French when compared to Germans. Chapter also mentions status of blogging in China (1.23 million), Spanish (50,000) speaking countries, Ireland and England. The China discussion also touches on the impacts of government censorship. But the striking aspect is the complete lack of commentary on India given the fact that India is the largest outsourcing destination and has legions of highly educated IT centric employees, whose inputs could potentially educate clients and clear some myths.

Ch.9 (Thorns in the roses) is probably the most interesting part of the book, as it gives out some great insights and advice to bloggers. It suggests that blogs are usually accommodating for any type of company as they don’t necessarily have to be public and could be within the intranet. Some of the thorns in blogging’s path allegedly are - culture and success. While culture seems to be a no brainer, the ‘success’ aspect is intriguing. Authors suggest that the companies with closed cultures especially, those which are successful would find it hard to come up with a case for blogging. The examples stated are also very interesting – Google and Apple. It seems that with very few employees blogging, Google’s corporate blogs bland and often they interlink to other Google’s sites. While Apple is well known for its secrecy the idea of Google being secretive seemed to be outlandish, especially with Google owning popular blogging site Blogger, and Google’s separate Blog Search feature. The fact that’s even more amazing is that throughout the book, the authors bring up concepts like Google Juice, high Google rank ensuring more visitors, etc and in essence have based their argument (whole book) around being visible on Google Search. With such a critical role played by Google for blogging, it does come as a surprise when the authors bring to light Google’s secretive culture and lack of employee blogging.

Other noteworthy points in the chapter are a list of reasons not to blog given by the authors:
If you are a genuine bad guy, or part of an organization of bad guys, don’t blog.
Blogs work well for do the right thing cultures.
Mobs, con-artists, employers who mistreat employees shouldn’t blog.
People who are security operatives and people associated with security agencies, defense contractors, Homeland Security, etc.
There are several more examples for people who shouldn’t blog, please read the book to find out more.

The second section of the book “Blogging Wrong & Right” gives tons of advice and tips on how to blog in a corporate environment. Here the authors give specific rules and suggestions to be followed while business blogging, that could potentially protect the employee bloggers, companies and everyone in general from major as well as minor fiascos. While maintaining their straight forward style, the book touches some of the nuts and bolts of do’s and don’ts.

The basic principles listed are:
1. What’s in a name – selecting names for blogs.
2. Read a bunch of blogs before you start
3. Keep it simple. Keep it focused.
4. Demonstrate Passion,
5. Show your authority
6. Add comments
7. Be accessible
8. Tell a story
9. Be linky
10. Get out into the real world
11. Use your referrer log

Scobel took it a step further and came up with “The Corporate Weblog Manifesto” a 34 point advising guide, which expands on the above principles with more corporate centric advice that could potentially save a lawsuit or two and getting fired.

The last section and the shortest section of the book gives a “Big Picture” of how blogging fits into the larger scheme of internet technologies like video blogs, tagging, podcasts, RSS feeds, etc.

In writing this book on naked conversations the authors, remain faithful to their title, and present their ideas in a reasoned and straight forward manner. The general style of writing in the book is often conversational and just like reading a blog. There are several memorable quotes and punch lines, sprinkled all over the book, which are often funny, insightful, defiant, outrageous, and even unprintable. These features enhance the readability even when some of the ideas may seem hard to digest.

Ultimately the book is about business blogging - Blogging by employees and executives. Being a college student in the current internet age with access to Wi-Fi, cloud computing, and laptops, most of the ideas presented in the book seem to be dead on and at times, feels like preaching to the converted.

However while there may be tons of stuff to blog about for execs, marketers, product managers, entrepreneurs, or employees in the tech sector, the book doesn’t offer much insight about the vast majority of others – like say workers at General Motors, machinists at Boeing, several layers of staff in non-security related government departments, etc. Perhaps only time can tell how these groups evolve in blog adoption and usage.

One last central issue would be concerning vigilantism in the blogosphere. From reading the book, my understanding of the blogosphere is like comparing it to a mega sized city with practically no law enforcements other than citizen vigilantes, where anyone can say anything and anyone can listen, but if what is being said is deemed to be untrue or flimsy, the listeners descend on the speaker and lynch him (verbally), until he retracts and turns ‘good’. Check out this article in the Forbes magazine - Blogosphere to a lynch mob.

On the whole an excellent and insightful read, and I am off to start my own blog now.

Quote – “Like the gold miner who carefully plies his trade, a corporate employee can do a lot of great things with a blog – make the company more approachable, build relationships and partnerships, scale out evangelism or PR efforts, or even just arrange a dinner for fellow geeks. But if you mishandle your responsibilities, you can find yourself dooced or even worse (yes, there are worse things than getting fired – for example, sued)” – p195

Our Iceberg Is Melting: Changing and Succeeding Under Any Conditions - Book Review - Seung-yon Yu

Our Iceberg Is Melting: Changing and Succeeding Under Any Conditions. John Kotter and Holger Rathgeber. St. Martin's Press, 2006. 160pp. $19.95. (ISBN: 0-312-36198-X)

Our Iceberg Is Melting is a book about change management. The author, John Kotter is reflecting on the eight change management steps suggested in his other book “The Heart of Change” into a short fable about a penguin colony.

In the fable, there is a colony of penguins living on an iceberg. The iceberg has been the penguins’ home for a long time, so they have never thought about leaving and making any changes to their life style. However for some reason, the iceberg had started melting and has the potential risk of breaking apart. Thus, the penguin colony is forced to start thinking about changes for their survival. The change is not just an option anymore; it became a matter of ‘to be’ or ‘not to be’. The penguins organized a team to cope with the crisis and made efforts to solve the problem, and in the end they wisely overcame the crisis by establishing a new vision and changing their way of life. This is a success story of change management. Through thisimple fable, the author shows how people typically react to a crisis situation, and how they respond to and eventually control the crisis. The Author leads the readers to think about how to deal with change and how it can lead to success.

When the organization’s crisis becomes a reality to its individual members, people generally are not rational due to overwhelming fears. When a mediocre penguin Fred informed the other penguins of the crisis, many of them didn’t believe him the first time and even sneered at Fred. Similarly, people are used to the comfortable life that current convention brings. Thus, when there are any attempts of making changes which may disturb this comfort, people usually get angry and have negative feelings about the changes due to the fear of losing their stable life. As a normal reaction, they reject the changes opposing previous convention and avoid new opportunities. It is hard to break-down traditions and change people’s attitudes all at once. How can we then change the people’s attitude positively and lead to change? The answer is “change management”.

Change management is not a one-time occasion. It is a continuous process that has several steps. When the organization’s culture becomes generous about changes in the line of the process, we could say the change management actually works in the organization. The author illustrates his eight steps for change through a series of events in the penguin colony.

Create a sense of urgency
Fred, a quiet but observant penguin, detected the potential danger of their iceberg through his careful observation out of curiosity. He felt a need to inform the others, and tried to convince the key players such as Louis and Alice in the penguin colony. Thus, he demonstrated the problem of their iceberg by using a glass bottle filled with water and showed them what is happening. As a result, the penguins became aware of the urgency of the matter. It is important to increase the sense of urgency among organization members as a first step of change management.

Pull together the guiding team
The Head Penguin, Louis, created a strong guiding team to cope with crisis. Each team member has different abilities and characteristics. The difference creates variety, and the variety is the key to create a synergy effect through teamwork. Louis suggested squid hunting in a group to have the team members understand the importance of cooperation. This kind of team building activity helps to build up trust among each team member, and that trust is essential for leading the team to success.

Develop the vision and change strategy
For leading change, developing the vision and strategy is essential. It is like setting a datum point for measurement. Developing strategy is not necessarily to create something out of nothing. A strategy could be benchmarked. The penguins learned about “Nomad” from seagulls, and brought the idea to their strategy to cope with the crisis they confront. Setting the vision and strategy helps to excel to the next step of change management.

Communicate for understanding and buy-in
Based on the vision and strategy, there should be continuous communication among the members in an organization. Transparency of information helps to build a trust about the leader and the guiding team. The colony’s guiding team tried to be open about what they are doing, and they also made slogans to make the other penguins reminded of the importance of everyday changes. These efforts brought up a new innovative thinking like “We are not an iceberg” among penguins, and it broke down long-lasted stereotypes. This change of thinking is very important in terms of the organization’s change because the wall that obstructs change is not a physical one, but mostly psychological one.

Empower others to act
The guiding team devised an idea of “Hero” for the penguins who participate in scouting a new iceberg. They call them the “heroes” who will save the penguin colony. Every penguin supported them to do their job better, and honored them for their work. The scout penguins were proud of their work and became enthusiastic. This shows how empowerment is important to change. Those who are empowered will have initiative to excel and be more responsive to their job.

Produce short-term wins
It is better to set short-term goals rather than a long-term overwhelming goal. Then praise it whenever there is an accomplishment. Praise is a good thing. It positively reinforces the members’ initiative and encourages achieving the bigger goal. In the penguin colony, the “Hero” medals are given to the scout penguins. The power of this positive relationship is enormous. More and more penguins wanted to join the Scouts, and the chance to find a better iceberg increased. The accumulated short-term wins lead to the big win—a bright future of organization. The success also changes the conservative and stubborn penguin NoNo’s attitude in the end.

Don’t let up
We should not stop after just one successful attempt at change. The effort for change should be up and coming in a continuously changing environment. The penguins started their ‘Second wave’ of scouting a new iceberg, right after the penguins celebrated the comeback of the heroes. It is necessary to impose a continuous change until the ultimate goal is finally accomplished. This on-going effort even reduces the antagonistic feeling for change, and then the organization can become more agile to change.

Create a new culture
The steps mentioned previously primarily contribute to creating the organization’s new culture. In the new organizational culture, members will be more open to change and want to take an active role.

To successfully execute the above steps, the leader’s role is very important. This does not mean the leader is the only person who leads changes. Changes in an organization are hardly ever made by one person. When a leader collaborates with other members in the organization that have various strengths and abilities, it can be possible to implement a critical change. In the story, there are penguins that have different characteristics: amazingly curious, creative and level-headed Fred; practical, aggressive, and smart Alice; patient and experienced Head Penguin Louis; intelligent and very logical Professor Jordan; well trusted and friendly Buddy; little but enthusiastic Sally Ann; and Amanda who is passionate and hard working without any complaints. Of course, there is a stiff-necked and conservative bird named”NoNo”. All these characters are similar to characters that we can find in our organizations. The penguins with various characteristics and abilities help each other and ultimately contribute to the colony’s survival and prosperity by leading changes successfully. This implies that for an organization’s change to be successful, members in the organization need to be open to change and the leader needs to create synergy by combining all of the different strengths of the team.

In conclusion, in real organizations it is not easy to locate the change triggers and manage change like in the fable. Crisis situations are even more complex, and changes can be forced upon us. Yet, if the steps for change management are followed as shown through this simple fable, then it can lead to success in an organization. As the penguins thought, the Iceberg is "always there", the idea of which could be applied to a job, a family, or a loved one. For organizations, the iceberg could be the present’s sound revenues. However, crisis can come at any time, and it could be detrimental to the organization. If we sit back and don't put any effort in preparing for change, it could mean the end of the organization.

Also, we need to consider what changes are necessary in our actual organization. In a fast changing competitive environment, we cannot sit back anymore. Now is the time to look at the circumstances of our organization and confront the problems that we need to solve. A very stubborn bureaucracy and ineptitude may be blocking communication among organization members. The organization may also be too slow in recognizing the problem and fail to react against the crisis. Or, there may be too many ‘NoNo’s. Whichever the case may be, the good thing is that we also have individuals like Fred, Alice, Professor Jordan, Buddy, and a leader Louis in our organizations. Therefore, if we are alerted to a possible crisis, it is good to first build a team to deal with the changes effectively. Then, communicating the vision and strategy to all organization members, while making small wins, helps to overcome any crisis situation. The only truth about change is, “Everything changes and nothing last forever”.

The Design of Things to Come - Book Review - Arpan Sheth

The Design of Things to Come: How Ordinary People Create Extraordinary Products. Craig M. Vogel, Jonathan Cagan, Peter Boatwright. Wharton School Publishing, 2005. 237 pp. $29.99 (ISBN 0-131-86082-8)

The current market scenario portrays a very bleak picture for companies that are competing on the basis of cost. The cost of technology, a major factor that prevented small companies from investing in technology to make there products better is decreasing. In addition, with the outsourcing and availability of cheap and quality labor overseas, it has become important for organizations to change to a completely new innovation process of product development that not only provides the required functions but also adds value to consumer’s life. This book exactly answers the above problem of competitive edge and explains a process that will help organizations to shift from a cost centric to a differentiation based innovation. This book breaks down the product/service innovation method into logical parts. The book takes a user centered approach and explains the importance of product developer and product user, the key stakeholders in the product innovation process. The authors have taken this differentiation and user centered approach and coined the term “Pragmatic Innovation” which is used through out the book. They have also provided a framework for identifying future product trends that helps in recognizing the concealed product opportunities.

This book is a collaborative work of experts from Architecture (Vogal), Mechanical Engineering (Cagan) and Marketing (Boatwright) domains. The three dimensional approach has lead to the interdisciplinary product that can be used by the experienced as well as a newbie product managers. The book gives very informative examples of innovators who were responsible for successful products. Every chapter in the book starts with a scenario related to a product that has been explained further in the chapter. These scenarios though are hypothetical but are helpful in understanding the context and the lifestyle of the product consumer. Scenarios are accompanied by drawings of the products that help readers to get a foresight of what to expect from the chapter.

The book explains the common traits of “the new breed of innovators” (p.17). There are three examples of innovators who sum up there approach towards managing innovation. Fostering innovation based culture across organization, making resources available to an interdisciplinary team and deciding on the product features that are aligned with business strategy are the three common traits that has been an underlying success factor of these innovators.

The authors talk about Pragmatic Innovation through out the book. They explain that “Pragmatic innovation is a balanced approach that not only explores a range of interesting alternatives but converts that exploration into successful, profitable products. Pragmatic innovation is a process of inspired management of diverse teams working on a significant opportunity in the market.”(p. 24) The authors underline that companies should focus not only on developing products that add value to a consumer by providing the desired functionality and exceeding customer expectations, but the companies also should encourage ideas that are both “profitable and marketable” (p.24). The book on one extreme provides an example of instilling the pragmatic innovation in a 100 year old Ford company. On the other extreme, it also explains how startups like BodyMedia have used the pragmatic innovation approach to develop the SenseWear armband monitor. Both examples show how companies that took a risk to move from invention to innovation maintained their competitive leadership in otherwise, cost centric markets. They achieved this edge by analyzing the lifestyles of the customer and developing new market segments.

It is a general belief that innovation occurs accidently while people are looking for something else. The book counter attacks this belief and claims that there is a definite set of “procedure” that fosters creativity and encourages the process of innovation. Examples of the process involved in the development of Adidas 1 shoes and Mirra Chair backs these counter attacks. The book explains the concept as “satisficing” and “fuzzy front end” (p. 58). The authors explain that the chance of product success increases if organizations and individuals identify the market segment upfront. Researching on the target market provides an insight into the problems that can be answered by the product that organizations design. This bottom-up approach towards product creation is important as it helps to connect to the consumer better by identifying the gaps that if filled will add value to consumers’ daily life. A framework involving the “Social, Economic and Technological (SET)” (p. 73) is also provided, which helps organization to identify the future trends. An iPod is provided as one of the major example of a product that was developed using the SET framework. It seems that the scenario based approach that is used through out the book is a great way to capture these SET trends. This helps in identifying and understanding the real problems, converting these problems into opportunities and then realizing them.

The highlight of the book is the explanation of a novel path to product creation. The authors suggest that current product economy is different from the conventional “form and function” (p. 90) based economy where products satisfied the basic expectation of the user. But now, it has converted to and an “experience economy” (p.91) where users “buy experience”. The book suggests that the success factor of the product depends on how well it fulfills the fantasy of the consumer using form and function. An example of OXO peeler that has both the functionality and an ergonomic design providing a delightful experience for older user is given to explain this concept. One of the most interesting examples of the book is the use of J.K. Rowling’s Harry Potter series of books as an outcome of innovation based product development method. The authors have used this example to show how the Harry Potter books have connected themselves on the emotional level with the user, and how these books are providing an extraordinary experience from unless an ordinary product.

A chapter of the book is dedicated to illustrate the significance of performing Stakeholder Analysis. The authors have suggested the “Power of 10” (p.105) methodology to identify the people who can affect the success of product and who can get affected by the product. It appears to be an excellent framework to identify the both immediate and remote stakeholders. This “Power of 10” methodology suggests identifying the smallest aspect of product, then it identifies users at that level and then performs the same analysis by zooming out until the largest aspect of the product is identified. An example of Lubrizol Company’s Emulsified Heating Fuel is provided to show how the company identified the potential problems at various levels and rectified it during the initial stages of product development that lead to a massive success of the product. This portion also describes the importance of team based approach to a product. An underlying feature of the book is its emphasis on early involvement of people from different organization departments like marketing, research, advertisement and engineering. It has been suggested that this interdisciplinary brainstorming leads to recognition of the problems earlier in the innovation process.

The authors have taken a bold approach to show that the innovation based product development method used for consumer goods can be used for the industrial (B2B) products. The general consensus towards the success criteria of an industrial product is the technological superiority that it has over its competitors. But, an interesting example of a robot used to cut the sewer pipes is provided to imply that great an experience can be provided even to an expert industrial user which satisfies his/her desires and expectation.

The book also tries to encompass the business dimension of the innovation process. The authors agree that innovation process will have chaos, but they suggest looking at it positively as “chaos enables exploration and learning. The more you can learn about your market, the better the framework for your decisions.” They imply that to make a profit out of the product, it is necessary to make a conscious choice of the available options on the table. They suggest analyzing the pros and cons about subsystem performance by taking the holistic product to be developed for consideration.

A discussion on defending the product from competitors taking advantage of an organization’s technology and innovation process is also provided. Various methods like Utility Patents that “protects the innovation in functionality and manufacturing”, Design Patents, Trade Secret, Provisional Patents that gives a company to test the design for one year on a low price are discussed in brief. This chapter is an extension to the book’s focus on creating products. It strengthens are the authors’ attempt to provide a comprehensive resource on innovation.

On the similar lines of providing a comprehensive resource, a significant focus is given in helping companies to decide whether they should hire a design consulting firm or develop the product internally. The authors give a good suggestion that a company should look for a balance between the internal and external resources. It remains important even after hiring the external consulting firms to work shoulder to shoulder with them. This gives an opportunity for the company to learn to share the common vision of the product. The company should hire consultants to “balance the soft and hard qualities” (p. 214) of the company and consulting firm respectively.

In the end, the book discusses 6 factors which will shape the future of the innovation process. Various examples of “individuals, organizations, market segments, regional impact, global economy, and the new renaissance team of innovators” (p. 222) are provided that help in understanding the success factor of the pragmatic innovation.

In conclusion, the book is a great starting point for anyone who wants to understand the intricacies of user centered product development. It has some great examples in the form of scenarios of target consumers, case studies of successful products and anecdotes of great innovators. The book uses a lucid and easy writing style to make the concepts comprehensible and easy to remember. The authors have tried to provide various dimensions to pragmatic innovation, but the core of the book depends on and rightly so on the consumer goods as well as the stakeholder analysis. It develops an understanding about the process of creating great products and an insight into some of the great companies’ product development processes.