The End of Growth. But is that all bad? Jeff Rubin.2012. ISBN 9780307360892.  Rubin writes very clear, well researched, easy to read and compelling books. (This one will take you two cross country flights to finish – but you will like it.)  This is an update to his thesis  ( Why Your World Is About to Get a Whole Lot Smaller) that energy prices will continue to rise taking  the financial crisis, political stupidity, carbon offsets (likely will die), death of big Oil, big coal and European troubles into account . He holds that oil and food could be Zero sum games . If China/India increase their consumption, these is less for others and the prices will rise.  Third world countries will not have the funds to afford the oil for growth nor for the food (Not a good looking future). (The Arab Spring was founded on people going hungry).

He believes that high oil prices will continue, forcing the West to conserve and look at the economic cost of getting to the much more expensive fuels locked away – perhaps we can not afford to get them (Tar sands & big pipeline projects, watch out).  Politicians will be in for a hard ride – he seems to call for insightful leaders to guide us through this.  This may not be all bad – as human ingenuity always seems to rise to meet the challenges.  There may be a big change to China’s ability to sell to the world – if transport costs increase enough to warrant manufacturing in Canada and the US again. This could also encourage local food growers again to fill more of our needs vs trucking it in from Mexico etc.. We may adopt a less consumer lifestyle – back to smaller homes, cars and more and more transit.  Lots of great stuff here to make you think..

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Sales Growth. Five Proven Strategies From The World’s Sales Leaders
. Baumgartner, Hatami & Vander Ark.  2012. 978-1118343517.   A very good little book from McKinsey that is big on in-the-field success.   They have chapter on how winning sales organizations are planning 10 quarters ahead, while searching for the less obvious hot spots in their territories.  Very useful. This book covers sales management from soup to nuts and all sorts of situations with answers that work. .  Something every sales leader need on his desktop – much to learn and use in a clear concise writing style.

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Rebounders. How winners pivot from setback to success. Rick Newman. 2012. ISBN 9780345527837.  A delightful and inspiring book.  Based on unlikely ( yet famous) individuals who showed great resiliency, this is a collection of hard tireless workers (often going way beyond the 10000 hours of mastery practise referenced in Outliers).  The author shows how this resiliency  (and his pal persistence) can be developed at an early age which “helicopter” parents seem determined to prevent. Youngsters should be encouraged to grow through hard work and practice while fighting their own battles.  I could not agree more.  The author is a journalist with US News and Report – and I do so enjoy it when a good writer puts a book like this out.   Great for a 4 hour plane ride – you will not regret picking this book up. Suggested for parents, and leaders of all types

Customers are Ignoring You (Photo credit: ronploof)

Smart Customers (Stupid Companies). Michael Hinshaw & Bruce Kasanoff. 2012. ISBN 9780985133900. I loved this book.  It contains enough examples and arguments to indicate exactly how your company needs to meet the smart plugged in customer.  This aligns with recent machine to machine research RocketBuilders carried out. well written and beautifully argued. The authors look at four disrupters:

• Social Influence (WofM)
• Pervasive memory ( Amazon and Zappos)
• Digital Sensors (machine to machine everywhere)
• The Physical Web

I loved these quotes:

1. We are confronting a fundamental shift in the ways that companies interact with – and serve – their customers.At many firms, their “social media strategy” involves creating a Facebook page, monitoring social sites for mentions of thecompany or its products, and generally extending its existingbusiness model into the social media world.But this approach stops short of confronting the real issues.If you could physically see the thousands of social influencers

crowding the space between your sales team and your customers – if they were physically present in your store or office – you would no longer accept the misguided notion that a few extra posts online would solve your problems.The reason so many companies are vulnerable is because the state of relationships between companies and customers is so poor. Products and services tend to be impersonal. Responsiveness tends to be uneven at best, or miserable at worst.  It is reasonable to assert that frustration, annoyance, and anger have been building among customers for decades. They are tired of being treated as numbers, of being misled or even lied to, and of being considered targets instead of living, breathing human beings.

2.  CRM doesn’t actually track relationships or experiences, it tracks transactions. As a result, CRM doesn’t take into account the customers’ views of the company, and doesn’t capture how these interactions make customers feel, much less what they want or need. Yes, CRM does a great job tracking company perceptions of value, and tracking those interactions that are important to the company – sales, marketing, service, etc. – but it fundamentally misses what customers think, feel, and want as a result. It delivers an inside-out perspective that means the conclusions reached by companies about customer relationships are skewed, based on the interactions that occurred rather than the customer perceptions that resulted. While CRM can tell the company that two customers have the same set of interactions, it can’t tell which customer is delighted, and which feels trapped, upset, and may be actively bad-mouthing the company online. This is important information.

This is a must read for leaders in the tech industry ( and every industry) . What you do not know will hurt you.

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• Maximizing LinkedIn for Sales and Social Media Marketing.Neil Schaffer. (regnordman.com)

Nederlands: Linked In icon (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Maximizing LinkedIn for Sales and Social Media Marketing.Neil Schaffer.  2011. ISBN 9781463685805.  The unofficial practical guide to selling and developing B2b business on LinkedIn. This is a good book. We have been developing LinkedIn based strategies for some time now, but there is always something new to learn. Schaeffer is adept with this tool and gave me some great heads up . Eg LinkedInlabs Signal is a deep little known analytic tool we all should be using.   I learned about of the Premium professional offer that he found on the site – sweet. Lots more on getting better  searches, groups, feeds, company pages and so on. Good writer. Lots  of relevant case studies

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What the Plus!  Google + for the rest of us. Guy Kawasaki.  2012.   Guy takes you from the bare basics up to some  very valuable tips for the expert as well as extensions and software that will support you.  An unabashed G+ advocate, his easy reading style allows the arguments to take root. If you want to extend your use of G+ this s the one book to get you started , plus he provides sufficient resource links to keep your knowledge growing.   I enjoyed the book and it is a quick read.

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Common Non/Sense. Andy Rooney.2002. ISBN 1586482009. When Andy Rooney passed away the world lost a very good writer.  This “collection” is a series of loosely affiliated comments on a very wide range of topics.  It is a sheer delight of straight talking prose. (The fastest thing a computer does it become obsolete) . Do not look for political correctness ( although he does apologize after the fact) but do enjoy his endearing style and endless wit.

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I wrote last year about a great idea for a river cruise in Europe this year. http://www.regnordman.com/2011/05/20/very-good-value-for-a-fall-european-river-cruise-package-for-two-is-going-going/

Here is a comment from a friend who took this cruise

• The trip was great.
• We were impressed with the boat, the crew & staff, the tours and the tour guides.
  
• Rating  4 out of 5.

Europe is getting lots of attention  these days for travel , ( Strong loonie, Mexico uggh, growing desires for a bit more luxury in a trip – our backpacking days seem behind us) .    These trips are full usually 12 months in advance.   As  a result river cruise firms  do not often offer incentives.  One came by today to my wife (anordman@cruiseshipcenters.com) for next year  where Viking are offering some  shipboard credits  on a new boats cruise bookings to Russia, Ukraine and China Itineraries.( If you book by June 30, 2012.)

Here are the Russian itinerary:

http://www.vikingrivercruises.com/regions/russia_ukraine/index.aspx

Here are the Asian itinerary:

http://www.vikingrivercruises.com/regions/asia/index.aspx

The Russian boats sound quite intriguing

http://www.vikingrivercruises.com/russia-river-cruises/news/

The new ship for the Yangtze tour is pretty spiffy

http://www.vikingrivercruises.com/cruiseships/asia/viking-emerald/shipinfo.aspx

Enjoy!

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Cover via Amazon

Thank you for Arguing. What Aristotle, Lincoln, and Homer Simpson can teach us about the art of persuasion. Jay Heinrichs.  2007. ISBN 9780307341440. I heard about this book and Heinrich’s from a recent BusinessWeek article about his booming consulting business (March 31) . The book is a treat and a trip. through self deprecating humour and great examples he draws you into the world of rhetoric.  I like this material so much that I have become addicted to his blog http://www.figarospeech.com/.  If you are in sales and or marketing this is a foundational book. But do not stop there, we can all learn from this delightful book. Its a quick easy read that could change your life.

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Logo of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Beyond the Lean Revolution. Achieving successful and sustainable enterprise transformation.  Deborah J. Nightingale & Jayakanth Srinivasan. 2011. ISBN 9780814417096.  The third in a quartet of lean books I am reviewing.  Much  of the good stuff covered  in The Toyota Way to Lean Leadership by Levitt & Conviss is replicated here. And that makes sense. The tools and templates that these MIT folks provide would be very useful to those needing to do the base analysis of new lean initiatives and or failed ones. Like other fine Amacom books this is well researched and useful.  The writing style is a bit more challenging than others , but the content may have some impact on that.

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