Jack Covert and Todd Sattersten know business books. They run 800-CEO READ, a retail (and online) bookstore catering specifically to businesses. Who better, then, to compile The 100 Best Business Books of All Time: What They Say, Why They Matter, and How They Can Help You? The books are organized by category to facilitate easy reading, and also making it a handy go to guide if you’re looking for help in a specific area. What I think I enjoyed most about The 100 Best Business Books is how Jack and Todd were able to extract the key ideas and each of the books featured in a concise manner, pulling in first-hand stories of their experiences running 800-CEO-READ to add some narrative and grounding to the ideas the authors presented. We had the chance to ask Todd and Jack some questions about the book, as well as the business of books.

Chris Taggart: How can people who are not necessarily interested in business benefit from reading “business” books?

Todd Sattersten: First of all, everyone is involved in business. Buy a car. Shop at a grocery store. You are participating in commerce on a daily basis.  Having an understanding of business is personally beneficial no matter what field you are in. Business books are a great route to that better understanding.  Take a book like Oil on the Brain.  There is no better description of the oil industry.

Secondly, most “business” books have lessons that can be applied to other parts of your life.  Getting Things Done helps productivity in all parts of your life.  The Leadership Challenge applies to your work as president of the Rotary or president of the PTA.  Emotional Intelligence helps you work with colleagues or children.

Having reading so many business books, how have you personally benefited from doing so?
TS: Each book brings something different. From Getting Things Done, I now keep my email inbox empty and have a tickler file for things to remember in the future.  Those sound simple, but they add a little bit of sanity to my life by clear space in my head for other things. Now, Discover Your Strengths showed me what my strengths are and what I can do to improve them. Made To Stick showed me how to construct and package my ideas so they last longer and have greater influence. I could go on and on.

What was the 101st book that almost made the cut…but didn’t?
TS: There are 295 books that we recommend in the book beyond The 100 Best.  Any of those could have been a candidate.

Jack Covert: John at Brand Autopsy (Monday’s stop on the tour) makes a great case for The Discipline of Market Leaders and he even goes as far as producing the review how it may have appeared in the book.

TS: I could make a great case for our 2008 800-CEO-READ Business Book of The Year Tribes by Seth Godin (we include the 2007 winner Made To Stick).

JC: It is also amazing to see the power that StrengthsFinder 2.0 is finding in the marketplace.

TS: We could go on (and yes we are not going to give you a direct answer :)

Do you see a lot of customers purchasing books for corporate libraries, or are they more often given to managers or employees?

JC: I built the business on selling to corporate librarians.  They were a huge resource for managers and as time went on, they were eliminated and people were left to do their own research.  The tools that became available with the internet made that all possible.

Where we see business books most used is as change tools with managers giving them to employees. They work great for sending messages that people can later digest at their own pace and get a better understanding of.

Why do you think it is that people don’t read more business books?

TS: Time is the issue. And it is not a lack of time to read.  I think it is a lack of time to search and be certain they are going to find a book worthy of their time.  There is nothing worse that an hour lost and $25 spent on a bum book.  What we are doing with The 100 Best Business Books of All Time is giving people a pile of both they could read.  There is enough there to keep people busy for three or four years.

We noticed The Cluetrain Manifesto wasn’t included in the book… was our copy missing some pages? ;)

JC: That was the 101st book.  That was the one that almost made it. Thank you for reminding us.

Where do you see the future of business books going? Are E-books and readers like the Kindle poised to take over, or do you think we’ll still be passing around dead trees  for several years yet?

TS: We are about one year into a five year disruption of book publishing. Books read on devices other than paper is going to become dominant.  Screens beat paper for flexibility of use and immediacy of delivery. I still think paper is  a better way to read books, but we will accept a lower grade experience as we have with mp3 files and YouTube videos.  Reading a paper book will be like going to the movie.  You will do it less often but will still periodically for a superior experience. And business people are always earlier adopters so they will be among the first to make this digital move.  This is something we are watching really closely.

Thanks guys!

–

A big thanks goes out to Todd Sattersten and Jack Covert for making the time to answer our questions, and high-fives all around to Paul Williams at Idea Sandbox for including us in the first Virtual Book Tour of 2009.

Additional Resources

• 100 Best Biz – The official website of the 100 Best Business Books of All-Time
• All the books included - A complete listing of the 100 Best Business Books of All-Time
• 8CR YouTube channel – for author interviews & talks

Other Stops on the Tour

• March 2nd - John Moore at Brand Autopsy
• March 3rd - Phil Gerbyshak at Slacker Manager
• March 5th -  Eric Taylor
• March 6th - Krishna De at Biz Growth News

As a special treat to CrowdSpark readers, Jack and Todd are offering a choice of one of three books free if you buy The 100 Best Business Books of All Time from 800-CEO-READ this week using one of the following coupon codes.

Leadership Moment by Michael Useem - Code: clash
Six Thinking Hats by Edward De Bono - Code: csq9t
Growing A Business by Paul Hawken - Code: xtjpt

Just put the book in your cart and then apply the code.  A copy of The 100 Best Business Books of All Time must also be in your cart for the offer to be valid.

The offer expires March 7, 2009 at the conclusion of the tour.

You see Bad Oldeslo is home to GlaxoSmithKline Deutchland who manufactures Volmax. Volmax is one of the four ingredients that make up long-acting beta2 agonists, the most common form of Asthma treatment that most of us would call a puffer or inhaler. With the Canadian Medical Association Journal’s release that up to 30% of Canadians living with asthma have been misdiagnosed, I can’t help but visualize the German GSK acting out like a Stride Gum commercial this morning.

Report author Shawn Aaron and the crew that put this report together, have possibly uncovered one of the greatest medical oversight’s in modern medicine. In simpleton terms, this means that in a room of ten asthma sufferers, THREE OF THEM  SHOULD NOT EVEN BE IN THE ROOM. This is either, an incredible black mark on public health care that highlights what happens when you overwork an industry to a point where detail regarding the healthy lifestyles of our communities is passed over for productivity and benchmarking, or this story is the perfect plot line for the next James Bond film!

I started looking at this story through cbcnews.ca, and I think this quote got me rilled up the most.

Physicians are under a lot of pressure to manage a lot of patients quickly,” Aaron said. “For a patient who comes in complaining of shortness of breath and wheeze, it’s much more easy and it takes much less time to say, ‘I think you have asthma, take this puffer.

What’s worse is I don’t know who the fault ultimately falls on for this collective gaffe? Do we blame the overworked and underfunded health care system that needs to implement quantity over quality to meet demand? Or maybe there is some real world Ernst Stavro Blofeld character running around plotting human demise with the use of inhalers and Ritalin (don’t get me started on ADHD). Or is it possible that we ultimately need to point the finger at the concept of public health care at its root?

For any readers from Bad Oldesloe, take a deep breath I am sure you will all be fine.

I don’t know whether these radio spots were in the works prior to these recent events, but for the sake of the agency that developed them, I hope they were.  Given the concerns people are likely to have around bus safety, those spots are doing more harm than good. I don’t even recall if they mentioned safety, but I do remember my first thought in response to “Why aren’t you riding Greyhound?”, and I suspect most people’s reaction would be similar - “I don’t want to get stabbed or decapitated!”

Greyhound should be running a series of damage control ads much like Maple Leaf has been doing since the Listeriosis outbreak and reassuring people that its safe to take the bus -  not reminding people why they’re not.

The way to do this would be to use the flight as a targeted sample for snack products. By providing free snacks on an otherwise snack-less flight the snack company gets exclusive access to a specific passenger feedback either by completing cards before exiting the aircraft or by going online post-flight and completing a survey for a chance to win a prize. On an even more recent flight with Porter Airlines, Terra Chips were offered as a snack option, and I upon landing tried three different grocery stores before finally securing a bag. They were that good. What do you think? Is in-flight try-vertising a viable solution for airlines intent on cutting costs? Let me know in the comments.

As a somewhat related aside, here’s a clip from Mad TV on budget airlines…

Partner with Woodbridge Ontario’s Gantz toys, makers of Webkinz for a special edition Webkin that is given only to kids that enroll in the zoo’s summer camp program. The special edition ZooCamp Gorilla (or other endangered species) unlocks special games based around that animal’s geography, physiology, and ecology.

Summer Zoo Camp registrations fill up, and kids leave with new friends, memories, and a new appreciation for an endangered species.

One for other local zoo’s to duplicate as incentives for their own summer programs.

A few months ago, I had the opportunity to attend a CMA Ottawa presentation on The Six Sins of Greenwashing with TerraChoice’s President and CEO, Scott McDougall. Scott discussed the research his firm did behind the usage and recognition of misleading eco-marketing practices, the results of which they summarized into what they call “The Six Sins of Greenwashing“. They surveyed six category-leading big box stores and identified 1,018 consumer products bearing 1,753 environmental claims. Of those 1,018 products, all but one made claims that were demonstrably false or that risked misleading intended audiences.

Incidentally, TerraChoice also does product validation for the EcoLogo certification program, so if you’re interested in EcoLogo certification, get in touch with them. Onward.
The “Six Sins of Greenwashing” are ordered by the frequency that they were found to have appeared in the marketplace sample.

1. Sin of the Hidden Trade Off
   This “sin” was found to have been the most common, whereby the marketing would focus on only one or two environmental issues, and completely ignore.
   Bottomline: Include all of the environmental impacts of a product even if they are negative impacts. Consumers will find out if you’re trying to hide something.
2. Sin of No Proof
   Not providing evidence of the environmental claims the product makes.
   Bottomline: Backup environmental claims with proof on the packaging or on your website or with respected certifications such as EcoLogo.
3. Sin of Vagueness
   Products that make vague claims like “environmentally-friendly” - what does that even mean? That it doesn’t harm the environment….very much?
   Bottomline: Include details of all environmental impacts of the product from the sourcing of materials, to the manufacturing processes, to the use, and eventual disposal of the product.
4. Sin of Irrelevance
   Advertising environmental claims that are irrelevant. Claims like “No CFCs!” are irrelevant when CFCs were banned 30 years ago.
   Bottomline: If your product meets all environmental standards as its competitor products, emphasizing these claims only causes marketplace confusion. You don’t want to build a consumer relationship based on misleading a consumer.
5. Sin of Fibbing
   Outright false claims. Can the manufacturer back up certified organic or green claims?
   Bottomline:This one may sound obvious, but if you’re going to claim you’re certified organic or meet standards, make sure you actually are, and can backup the claim with a listing on the certification body’s website.
6. Sin of Lesser of Two Evils
   A claim that tries to make a product seem “green” that is basically “ungreen”. One example Scott mentioned was “organic tobacco” - is it really a green product?
   Bottomline: Not all products can be green. If you’re selling something that is intrinsically not green, like tobacco, you’re sending mixed messages by claiming that it’s green. “It’s 100% organic tobacco…. and its still going to give you lung cancer”.

On a somewhat related tangent, I also couldn’t agree more on Seth’s thoughts that green claims need to include numbers, even if they are imperfect numbers. I’d go further into 4 separate numbers that could be totalled to give an overall “EcoScore” for each product’s lifecycle:

1. Source Score: A number representing the materials/ingredients/harvesting methods used, e.g. sourced from sustainable bamboo forests;
2. Creation Score: A number that scores the environmental impact of the manufacturing process, e.g. impact of chemicals, energy used in production;
3. Use Score: A number that scores the impact of the regular use of the product, e.g. chemicals, or C02 released over regular use;
4. Disposal Score: A number with scores the impact of the disposal of the product - products with manufacturer-run recycling and disposal programs would score higher.

Product packag would include individual numbers for each stage of the product’s lifecycle along with a total score. I’ll touch more on this EcoScore idea in a future post. In the meantime, what are your thoughts? I think consumers are asking for this sort of information, and its high time we give it to them in an accessible form.

You can also read more on TerraChoice’s Six Sins of Greenwashing at www.terrachoice.com.

• Jim Cramer’s Stay Mad Life
• Total Money Makeover - Financial Fitness
• Many of Seth Godin’s books (Permission Marketing, Unleashing the Idea Virus, All Marketers are Liars)

Then I also came across an article in USA Today which indicated that a recent survey of CEOs found that being bald is a business advantage.

“The CEOs felt that baldness conveyed leadership presence. Steve Carley, the bald CEO of restaurant chain El Pollo Loco, told the newspaper that his baldness is “a point of pride and a personal branding advantage. … It encourages approachability.”

Apparently bald men are also a bigger slice of the general population, with The International Society of Hair Restoration Surgery estimating that 50% of Caucasian men older than 45 and 60% older than 60 have clinical balding.

Regardless of this plausible link between baldness and conveyed leadership/approachability, not to mention some very real brand benefits, I don’t think I’ll be shaving my head any time soon. For those of you who are already balding and considering ways of covering it up, just shave the rest of it off. There’s never been a better time to go bald!

Fundamentally, great marketing is about great storytelling. We’ve all had the experience of being enthralled by the power of a good storyteller, their ability to bring their subject to life and create an experience.

Conversely, we’ve all also had the unfortunate experience of having to endure some really bad storytelling. The kind that a lot of the times begins with “So have you heard the one about…..”. More often than not, we are the victims of boredom inducing, daydream inspiring stories during which we retreat to our mental play-garden.

That’s why we pay good money to hear and see good storytellers. We pay to hear them in the form of speakers and we pay to see them in the form actors. Companies pay for them in the form of good marketeers.

In a way, marketing is something that we all do because we all tell stories. So yes, in a sense everyone is a storyteller, the problem is, most people are only good at telling stories about themselves an not telling stories in general.

Not ever, not even once.

Talk around it, talk over it, talk under it but never about it.

Why not talk about your product? Simple. You’re too close to it. No one will believe you. So talk about what other people are saying, experiencing and sharing about your product instead.

I’m not talking testimonials here either, I’m talking about real stories about real people with real experiences. Stories in their own voices.

It’s what people say about a product that speaks, not the the product.

The site features logos, brands, and other elements of Canadian (often nostalgic) design and identifies the year/designer/company behind them when available. It also allows you to contribute your own commentary and help fill in the back story to each of the pieces. A great resource and a fantastic reminder of the work behind many of the signs, logos, and items that most of us Canadians probably take for granted. I highly recommend checking it out, especially if you are a fellow Canadian marketer or designer.