"Mirror, mirror on the wall….", April 4, 2007

You will probably find no head-snapping revelations in this book if you have already read Marcus Buckingham and Curt Coffman’s First, Break All the Rules and/or Buckingham and Donald O. Clifton’s Now, Discover Your Strengths (especially the latter). Nor does Tom Rath claim to offer any. Rather, this is a new and upgraded edition of the Gallup organization’s previous online test (StrengthsFinder 1.0) that enables those who take it to identify and measure their talents relative to "more than 5,000 new personalized Strengths Insights that we have discovered in recent years."

In Rath’s two previously published books, How Full Is Your Bucket? co-authored with Donald O. Clifton and Vital Friends, he shares his own reactions to an abundance of research data which reveals the importance of two separate but related forces which have profound impact on the workplace: getting strengths in alignment with work to be done and then developing them even more with strategic delegation and close supervision.

What we have in this book, Strengths Finder 2.0, is a wealth of new research material that Rath examines with exceptional precision and uncommon eloquence. I strongly encourage each reader to take full advantage of the self-diagnostic opportunities that both Rath and the Gallup organization generously offer. Of course, once various exercises are completed, a significant challenge remains: to take effective and productive action to apply what has been learned. It is helpful to be aware of what Jeffrey Pfeffer and Robert I. Sutton so aptly characterize as the "knowing-doing" and "doing-knowing" gaps. It is also helpful to recall Peter Drucker’s observation more than 40 years ago: "There is surely nothing quite so useless as doing with great efficiency what should not be done at all."

Presumably Rath agrees that, more often than not, the Yoda is right: "Do or do not. There is no try."

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Rare Pathways to Exceptionally Increased Prosperity, October 16, 2001

Jim Collins and his team have done an enormous amount of interesting work to determine whether a good company can be come a great company, and how. The answer to the former question is "yes," assuming that the 11 of 1435 Fortune 500 companies did not make it there by accident. The answer to the latter is less clear. The study group identified a number of characteristics that their 11 companies had in common, which were much less frequently present in comparison companies. However, the study inexplicably fails to look at these same characteristics to see how often they succeed in the general population of companies. If these characteristics work 100 percent of the time, you really have something. If they work 5 percent of the time, then not too much is proven.

How were the 11 study companies selected? The criteria take pages to explain in an appendix. Let me simplify by saying that their stock price growth had to be in a range from somewhat lower than to not much higher than the market averages for 15 years. Then, in the next 15 years the stocks had to soar versus the market averages and comparison companies while remaining independent. That’s hard to do. The selected companies are Abbott Laboratories, Circuit City, Fannie Mae, Gillette, Kimberly-Clark, Kroger, Nucor, Philip Morris, Pitney Bowes, Walgreen, and Wells Fargo.

As to the "how," attention was focused on what happened before and during the transition from average performance to high performance. Interviews, quantitative analyses, and business press reports were studied. Clearly, there’s a tendency to see things a little bit with 20-20 hindsight in such a situation. Since this study started in 1996, it was dealing with facts that were already quite old while they were being examined. Bias is likely.

The key conclusions as to "how" included the following:

(1) a series of CEOs (promoted from within) who combined "personal humility and professional will" focused on making a great company;

(2) an initial focus on eliminating weak people, adding top performing ones, and establishing a culture of top talent putting out extraordinary effort;

(3) then shifting attention to staring at and thinking unceasingly about the hardest facts about the company’s situation;

(4) using facts to develop a simple concept that is iteratively reconsidered to focus action on improving performance;

(5) establishing and maintaining a corporate culture of discipline built around commitments, with freedom about how to meet those promises;

(6) using technology to accelerate progress when it fits the company’s concept of what it wants to become; and

(7) the company builds momentum from consistent efforts behind its concept that are reinforced by success.

Then, a connection is made to how these 7 conditions can provide the foundation for establishing a Built to Last type of company that can outperform the competition over many decades.

One potential criticism of the study is that its conclusions could be dated. Former Stanford professor Collins argues that he has uncovered basic facts about human organizations that will be unchanging.

I compared the conclusions in this book with my own studies of top performing CEOs and companies in the 1988-2001 time period. I noticed two major differences that suggest a shift in "best practice" standards. First, those who outperform now have developed processes that create major improvements in their operating business models every 2-5 years. Second, senior management development is focused around improving a culture for defining and implementing such improvements. I suspect that item (4) above was an embryonic predecessor to these new dimensions, which occur much more frequently now than in this study.

Next, I compared the list of 7 items to what I had observed in companies. The biggest point that hit me is how few CEOs have been interested in creating long-term outperformance that lasts past their own tenure in an industry. You also have to be a CEO for a long time with that focus before you have a chance to make a lasting impact. Founders have a special advantage here. Perpetuating outperformance may help fill a psychological need for immortality that fits with founders especially well.

Finally, I thought about what I knew about the companies studied from personal contacts during the study years. My sense is that their stories are far more complex than is captured here. So, I think the data have probably been "scrunched" to fit together in some cases. In particular, I wonder whether these companies will greatly outperform in the next 15 years. In many cases, they expanded to meet an unfilled need that is now largely fulfilled. Can they develop a new concept for (4) that will carry them forward as successfully in the future? My guess is that most will not. If that turns out to be the case, we must conclude that the items on this list may be necessary . . . but may not be sufficient to go permanently from good to great. Time will tell.

Before closing, let me observe that if the research team had also looked at the rate by which their principles succeeded among companies that employed them, this would have been one of the very finest research studies on best practices that I have seen. A book like this will provoke much discussion and thought for years to come. Perhaps that information can be included in a future edition or printing. Then, we will have something magnificent to consider!

Do you want to be the best permanently? Why? Or, why not? Mr. Collins points out that it probably takes no more effort, but a lot more discipline and focus.

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Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com’s Best of 2001
Five years ago, Jim Collins asked the question, "Can a good company become a great company and if so, how?" In Good to Great Collins, the author of Built to Last, concludes that it is possible, but finds there are no silver bullets. Collins and his team of researchers began their quest by sorting through a list of 1,435 companies, looking for those that made substantial improvements in their performance over time. They finally settled on 11–including Fannie Mae, Gillette, Walgreens, and Wells Fargo–and discovered common traits that challenged many of the conventional notions of corporate success. Making the transition from good to great doesn’t require a high-profile CEO, the latest technology, innovative change management, or even a fine-tuned business strategy. At the heart of those rare and truly great companies was a corporate culture that rigorously found and promoted disciplined people to think and act in a disciplined manner. Peppered with dozens of stories and examples from the great and not so great, the book offers a well-reasoned road map to excellence that any organization would do well to consider. Like Built to Last, Good to Great is one of those books that managers and CEOs will be reading and rereading for years to come. –Harry C. Edwards

From Publishers Weekly
In what Collins terms a prequel to the bestseller Built to Last he wrote with Jerry Porras, this worthwhile effort explores the way good organizations can be turned into ones that produce great, sustained results. To find the keys to greatness, Collins’s 21-person research team (at his management research firm) read and coded 6,000 articles, generated more than 2,000 pages of interview transcripts and created 384 megabytes of computer data in a five-year project. That Collins is able to distill the findings into a cogent, well-argued and instructive guide is a testament to his writing skills. After establishing a definition of a good-to-great transition that involves a 10-year fallow period followed by 15 years of increased profits, Collins’s crew combed through every company that has made the Fortune 500 (approximately 1,400) and found 11 that met their criteria, including Walgreens, Kimberly Clark and Circuit City. At the heart of the findings about these companies’ stellar successes is what Collins calls the Hedgehog Concept, a product or service that leads a company to outshine all worldwide competitors, that drives a company’s economic engine and that a company is passionate about. While the companies that achieved greatness were all in different industries, each engaged in versions of Collins’s strategies. While some of the overall findings are counterintuitive (e.g., the most effective leaders are humble and strong-willed rather than outgoing), many of Collins’s perspectives on running a business are amazingly simple and commonsense. This is not to suggest, however, that executives at all levels wouldn’t benefit from reading this book; after all, only 11 companies managed to figure out how to change their B grade to an A on their own.

Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information, Inc.

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Highly recommended!, May 2, 2007

  I don’t often write reviews on Amazon.com but I felt compelled to write one for this book because the author has convinced me to change my assumptions about worklife and personal goals. This is an easy read. Althought I am a slooooow and easily distracted reader, I finished the book from cover-to-cover in a few sittings. I even spent some time researching the weblinks but didn’t do all the challenges because I was eager to absorb all the ideas first.

It is probably best to read the book one time through quickly to grasp his point of view (the author even gives a brief blurb on how to speed read). Then after you "get it" take some time doing the challenges if you feel so compelled.

I have already implemented one of the author’s recommendations in my daily life….check email only twice per day: right before lunch then again an hour before the end of the day. Process every email at the time you read it. Seems a simple challenge but I did suffer "withdrawal symptoms" from not constantly checking email. And you know what? Because I stayed focus on the task at hand and not constantly checking email I left work last Thursday (April 27) feeling less stressed and more accomplished. This is only a brief part of the book but to me was impactful.

Ferriss gives some great ideas about starting your own business even if you don’t have or desire an MBA (like me). He provides lists of free and paid resources to help you along the way.

There is a simple roadmap for freeing yourself from the 9-5 grind. Is it attainable? I hope so. Maybe I’m just being an optimist but yesterday I took the day off from my "cube job" and spent part of my day setting up an online business following his "case studies".

The downside is that the book is provides a cursory glance at some topics that need to be expanded. However, I think he did a good job at presenting his view of how life can be. He’s also opened himself up to "The 4 Hour Workweek 2.0" when he can go in more depth.

In all I found it an enjoyable read. I plan to follow his "roadmap" and see where it takes me. I already recommended it to two other friends.

Now, to the naysayers writing "reviews" about this book. First, Read the book. Second, write a review of the book not a review about other reviews. You are undermining your "cause" as Review Police by giving a 1-star without first reading the book and "just to balance the scales". In short you’re being hypocritical. I think if you take your own advice and read the book you will "get it". Is there marketing going on here? DUH! Of course there is marketing! Ferriss is selling a product. Simply put, he practices what he preaches!

Read the book and find out!

Come on LADIES - You can do it - and THANK YOU SUZE!!!, March 11, 2007

Suze Orman is right on track with this overdue, and badly needed book directly aimed at women who in Suze’s words are dysfunctional about MONEY. The same ladies that can earn doctorate degrees in esoteric subjects just shut their eyes when it comes to money. Although Suze takes shots at what the reasons might be behind this behavior, whether it’s upbringing, cultural, or anything else, it doesn’t really matter.

What matters to Suze is DEALING WITH THE PROBLEM, and does she deal with it. In this entertaining, easily read book, Suze will teach you to EXECUTE SOLUTIONS to your money problems. I have to tell you, after spending 35 years in the money business myself, this best-selling author is spot on accurate - it’s about EXECUTING. It’s no longer about thinking about your money issues; it’s about DOING SOMETHING ABOUT YOUR MONEY ISSUES.

The author explains precisely what it is you have to do, and she does it in a motivational way, without laying blame or shame on the reader. This is a crucial point. Women and men for that matter feel bad enough about the financial position they may have placed themselves in. It’s the old concept of should have, could have, would have coming home to haunt us. I should have done that. I could have done this. I would have done that.

Jettison the blame, and get out of that game. You need to get a grip on yourself and follow Suze’s moves. They are well thought out. Here are a few to take a look at.

1) You need an account of your own. Ladies whether you are married, divorced, single, or widowed, you need an account in your name, that you can call your very own.

2) To do this Suze has arranged with TD AMERITRADE, the online brokerage firm that if you fund an account with 12 monthly consecutive automatic electronic deposits of $50 or more, in the 13th month the brokerage firm will deposit $100 in your account as a gift, and an incentive to open the account. Although it’s not in the book, the reason why the firm would do this is because on average it cost the firm $200 in advertising to secure an account. It’s actually a good deal for them, and a better deal for you, because it will get you started. You save $600 over a year, and they add a $100. Ladies - GO FOR IT. Even if your husband is the President of the bank, get an account in your own name.

3) The heart piece of the book is a five-month plan that gets you back in control of your financial destiny. Yes, we both know the real question is what were you thinking when you allowed yourself to get out of control, but that really doesn’t matter. What matters is today FORWARD, not looking BACKWARD. In this five-month plan Suze gives you the KEY TASKS that you have to get done. It’s a number of things, and not fifty things. The key here, and it’s not quite hitting you in the face is to CLOSE ON SOMETHING. This is crucial. Don’t do eight things at once, and a little bit of each thing. You need desperately to bring things to closure. Get one thing FINISHED, COMPLETED, PUT TO BED, and then move on.

4) "Learn to say NO to people". Suze’s right on this one. You have to put YOU first. Think about it, for many of us, there are many others who are counting on us. Women especially since they are nurturing by instinct, tend to put themselves second to the people they take care of. Here’s what you have to get into your soul. Unless YOU ARE OKAY, you are not going to be here, to help everyone else be okay. Think of what they tell you to on the airplane in an emergency when the air masks drop down. You put the mask on your mouth first, and then you put a second one on the child’s mouth. You have to be okay for everyone else to be okay. It’s not selfish; it’s what you need to do.

5) Make sure you read the "You are not on sale" chapter. Many women tend to under price their services, and also allow themselves to be paid a lesser salary for equivalent work done by a male. You need to get out of this loop, and quick. Suze shows you how.

6) Suze’s advice on credit cards is completely accurate. If you are going to win in a system that is stacked against you, than you must learn the rules in order to know how to work the system. As an example once a credit card is open, never shut it down because creditors like to see long-term open lines of credit. This is the type of information, you will figure out on your own.

In conclusion, this is a FABULOUS book for you to get back on track, and in control of YOUR OWN LIFE FINANCIALLY. Women have just as much brainpower as men. It is inexcusable that many find themselves in the position they are currently in, but understandable too. After all what courses are given while growing up in managing money. They don’t give us a course in human relationships or marriage either; maybe that’s why the divorce rate is 50%. If we don’t learn what we need to learn in school or from our mentors, than we have to learn it on our own - Suze is a good place to start, and GOOD LUCK.

Richard Stoyeck

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Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com
Money maven Suze Orman’s latest book, Women & Money addresses the complicated (and often dysfunctional) relationship women have with personal finance. Orman’s direct, non-condescending style is perfect for this subject matter–she begins with the premise that "Women can invest, save, and handle debt as well and skillfully as any man" and then tackles the important question–"So why don’t they?" Designed to educate and inspire, Women & Money also offers a "Save Yourself Plan," a five-month program that "delivers genuine long-term financial security." Want to know more? Watch a video message from Suze below, and take a gander at the first chapter of Women & Money–you’ll be "controlling your destiny" in no time. –Daphne Durham

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An Exclusive Video Message from Suze Orman

Watch the video

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Read the First Chapter of Women & Money

For Women Only

I never thought I’d write a book about money just for women. I never thought it was necessary. So then why am I doing just that in my eighth book? And why now? Let me explain. All my previous books were written with the belief that gender is not a factor on any level in mastering the nuts and bolts of smart financial management. Women can invest, save, and handle debt just as well and skillfully as any man. I still believe that–why would anyone think differently? So imagine my surprise when I learned that some of the people closest to me in my life were in the dark about their own finances. Clueless. Or, in some cases, willfully resisting doing what they knew needed to be done. I’m talking about smart, competent, accomplished women who present a face to the world that is pure confidence and capability. Do you mean to tell me that I, Suze Orman, who make my living solving the financial problems of total strangers, couldn’t spot the trouble brewing so close to home? I don’t think I’m blind; I just think that these women became very, very good at hiding their troubles from me.Why not? They had years of practice hiding them from themselves.

Read more from Chapter 1…

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From Publishers Weekly
Bestselling author (2005’s The Money Book for the Young, Fabulous & Broke, etc.) and host of her own CNBC show, Orman encourages women to "give to yourself as much as you give of yourself" in her ninth financial advice book, sure to resonate with legions of readers who will appreciate her straightforward advice and supportive tone. Aiming squarely for a female audience, Orman guides readers through the very basics of finances. She explores why women have dysfunctional relationships with money and notes the ways they undervalue themselves or "treat themselves as a commodity whose price is set by others," while also sharing the story of her own evolving relationship with her finances. Though her explanation of the "8 qualities of a wealthy woman" (harmony, balance, courage, etc.) is more inspirational than practical, she also presents a concrete five-month "save yourself plan" for financial repair, starting with setting aside checking and savings accounts, fixing one’s credit rating, saving for retirement, setting up a will and purchasing home insurance. This encouraging guide will not intimidate women who are foundering financially. (Feb.)Correction: Due to the publisher’s error, we misidentified Sidney Wanzer in our review of his book, To Die Well (Reviews, Feb. 18). He the former head of the Harvard Law School Health Services.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

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Almost Did Not Buy, Reviews Too Negative–This Was Worth My Time, March 29, 2008

I almost did not buy this book as I sought to explore the new literature on behavioral and cognitive science. The negative review are too negative. You get from this book what you bring to it in open mindedness, in my opinion.

My truth-teller, off-setting the reality that this is a double-spaced book that inflates 120 pages of thought into 240 pages of easy to digest presentation, is the author’s unique provision in the end-notes of both direct references to seminal works that each chapter is based on, with additional references suggested, AND his recognition of 17 collaborators, each with a long paragraph of biographic information. This is in short a worthy work, it was worthy of my time, and I do not agree with those who are dismissive or cavalier about this book.

As with Nudge: Improving Decisions About Health, Wealth, and Happiness and other works of this ilk, they seem to be blessed with an immaculate conception that fails to recognize the work of the 1960’s and 1970’s (e.g. Herbert Simon, "satisficing," but I no longer mark this down–this is a new generation thinking new thoughts, and I have decided it is too much to expect them to go back more than 20 years.

The opening of the book is impressive. The author was burned on 70% of his body by a magnesium flare, and his probing of his own pain and how the nurse’s had settled on fast painful ripping off of the bandages (with no medication.

Key point early in the book: most people don’t know what they want until they see it in context. This is one reason I am planning an edited work in 2009 on Cultural Intelligence. As Howard Bloom teaches us in Global Brain: The Evolution of Mass Mind from the Big Bang to the 21st Century, we (and our policy makers) know nothing of "the other," and I have concluded that peace starts in kindergarten and we have to separate the Israelis and the Palestians, and literally baby sit two new generations from birth to the age of 35.

The rest of the book is easy to read, has excellent real-world examples, and each chapter generally ends with a short appendix with real results. This is not a fluff book, it is a serious book that the light reader will mistake for fluff.

+ Relatively and "bracketing" matter (sell what you want by bracketing it with a more expensive option above and a trashy cheap thing below)

+ Decoys matter (e.g. a middle option that makes the "combined option" a "no brainer")

+ Publishing salaries actually sets off ego wars at the top and churn at the bottom that leads to more turnover and more wasteful employees costs.

+ Imprinting is used by the author to explain "anchoring" (e.g. black pearls anchored in setting of most expensive diamonds, this is an example of how the SELLER is setting the price, not the buyer).

+ "Free" is never really free. It can blind rational choice and it can "cost" time, choice, and a higher value that is obscured (e.g. my cotton socks disintegrate within months, whereas the cotton socks I inherited from an earlier era are still lasting forever).

+ HOWEVER, I especially liked the way the author explored "free" as a device for policy furtherance, e.g. make vehicle registration "free" if you own a hybrid car.

+ Social versus market norms are discussed. The author does not discuss Open Money (see my comment for a link to my keytone at Gnomedex) or Yochai Benckler’s [[ASIN:0300125771 The Wealth of Networks: How Social Production Transforms Markets and Freedom].

+ I especially like the way the author discussed how the poorly-paid border patrol and coast guard employees have made their own peace with the drug dealers–they have the same understanding the CIA clandestine service has with the KGB and local counter-intelligence services: we do not kill, kidnap, or even embarrass each other, we all just present to bedoing our job and the only people fooled are Congress and the taxpayers. Similar, the drug dealers understand that if they do not shoot to kill, neither will we….

+ One chapter offers a fascinating study on the impact of sexual arousal (a marker for passion). This quote from page 97 is priceless:

"Prevention, protection, conservatism, and morality disappeared completely from the radar screen. They were simply unable to predict the degree to which passion would change them."

+ The author discusses Smart Cards and their ability to impose a restraining influence with emails, I urge one and all to dump their existing ursurous cards and turn to Interra and other similar community-based cards with high social value.

+ We over-value what we own or possess. (I would add, we also over-value credentialing and under-estimate how painfol our rote school system is, which kills creativity by the seventh grade in some of our brightest kids.)

+ Stereotypes influence behavior on both sides of the viewpoint.

+ Placebo effect is real, something the American Medical Association absolutely does not want you to know (see also Alternative Cures: The Most Effective Natural Home Remedies for 160 Health Problems among many excellent works in this area.

+ Options can confuse and divert.

+ There is a pricing effect (very high priced menu item drives folks toward the second most expensive, which they would not have chosen absent the "higher" bracket item)

+ Character costs. USA loses $525 million a year to robberies, and $600 BILLION a year to employee theft (this does not count procrastination and government issues, such as every second IRS employee a complete loser while the others do twice the work).

+ Harvard MBA students participated in a series of tests that conclusively demonstrated that people will cheat if given an opportunity to do so; they will cheat twice as much with "in kind" versus cash opportunities, but they will not cheat "wildly" even if assured of not being caught. See also The Cheating Culture: Why More Americans Are Doing Wrong to Get Ahead

+ Religion DOES have a good moral effect, as do honor codes and reminding people of the Ten Commandments from time to time. See Founding Faith: Providence, Politics, and the Birth of Religious Freedom in America for the Founding Father’s deliberate mix of securlar tolerant government with a desire for a strong religious aspect to community for precisely this reason.

I can see how some might feel this book is less than they were expecting, but I do not agree. This book may be well-marketed and not the deep social science research that some buyers might have been hoping for, but I for one find it completely satisfactory and well worth my time. The author’s crediting of 17 collaborators, and the unique goodness of the end-notes carry the day with me.

See also
The World Cafe: Shaping Our Futures Through Conversations That Matter
Society’s Breakthrough!: Releasing Essential Wisdom and Virtue in All the People
Building a Knowledge-Driven Organization
Collective Intelligence: Creating a Prosperous World at Peace

My earlier lists (the first ten or so out of 70) focus on strategy, intelligence, information, and offer many other pointers to useful books somewhat related to the larger universe of cognitive science and decision support.

Well written, great perspective, March 17, 2008

I am learning a lot reading this, even though I’ve followed the economy for years. The preface summarizes the situation and outlines the book, but is maybe slightly dense and technical for the average person.

But the first chapter is great for giving perspective on how the US economy has evolved, especially the troubles of the stagflation period and what caused that.

The book goes up to November 2007, with a clear understanding that the credit bubble was going to have to unwind, and it was either going to cost $1 trillion, or, if the government tried to paper it over, a lot more.

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