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51-100

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Highly Recommended

SamWalton

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THE FUTURE IS HISTORY: HOW TOTALITARIANISM RECLAIMED RUSSIA

Masha Gessen

Highly Recommended

Summary

  • Chronicles the rise of Yeltsin and Putin (up to 2012). Great book if you want to understand recent history of Russia, main players and the methods Putin uses to control such a large population.

Memorable Parts 

  • "Totalitarianism establishes its own social contract, in which most people will be safe from violence most of the time, provided they stay within certain boundaries. The boundaries are ever-shifting and this requires the population to be ever-vigilant in order  to stay abreast of the shifts. This hypersensitivity to signals is essential for survival."

  • "The vehicle had headlights, which illuminated the Soviet Union´s future as a superpower. The vehicle also had rear lights, which cast a beatifying glow on the crimes of the regime that preceded the war."

  • "The new laws were the perfect tools of a crackdown: vague enough to put millions on notice, but they could be applied only selectively."

  • "A totalitarian regime demands participation (march and sing). An authoritarian regime tries to convince its subject to stay home."

  • "Putin´s inner circle consisted of men with whom he grew up in the streets and judo clubs of Leningrad, the next circle included men whom he had worked in the KGB/FSB, and the next circle was made up of men who had worked in the St. Petesburg administration with him."

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BEYOND ENTREPENEURSHIP: TURNING YOUR BUSINESS INTO AN ENDURING COMPANY

James C. Collins & William C. Lazier

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Summary

  • It is a good manual for entrepreneurs but in reality it is the starting of his great books "Built to Last" and "Good to Great." I recommend reading those instead since he delves deeper into concepts.

 Memorable Parts

  • Charisma does not equal leadership.

  • Vision:

    • Basis for extraordinary human effort​.

    • Provides context for decisions.

    • Creates cohesion and teamwork.

    • Groundwork for company to evolve.

  • Smart firms stick to doing things they can do better than other firms.

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BUILT TO LAST: SUCCESFUL HABITS OF VISIONARY COMPANIES

James C. Collins & Jerry I. Porras

Highly Recommended

Summary

  • Why is it that, under similar circumstances, some companies become truly visionary while their competitors vanish? $1 invested in 1962 in these companies would have been worth $6,456 in 1990 while comparison companies only $995

 Memorable Parts

  • Citicorp was founded the same year Napoleon marched to Moscow.

  • Visionary companies see profits as "blood" but not the purpose of business itself. They have strong core beliefs.

  • Great leaders see themselves as "clock builders" rather than "time tellers" / "the genius with 1,000 helpers."

  • Need an almost ying-yang approach of preserving your core business and stimulating progress.

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GOOD TO GREAT

James C. Collins

Highly Recommended

Summary

  • This book now tries to answer the question: How to companies make the leap from average to truly great? Uses the same methodology of making comparison between Great Companies and their immediate comparisons. 

 Memorable Parts

  • Level 5 Leadership: Blend of personal humility and professional will.

  • First Who, Then What: HR is an overlooked department!

  • Confront the Brutal Facts

  • Hedgehog Concept: What are you truly great at?

  • Culture of Discipline: A way to get rid of bureaucracy.

  • Technology Accelerators: Tech was not the catalyst for transformations but rather a support.

  • Flywheel: Think of your business strategy as a flywheel. Each step should help the other gain momentum.

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TURNING THE FLYWHEEL: A MONOGRAPH TO ACCOMPANY GOOD TO GREAT

James C. Collins

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GREAT BY CHOICE

James C. Collins & Morten T. Hansen

Recommended

HOW THE MIGHT FALL AND WHY SOME COMPANIES NEVER GIVE IN

James C. Collins

Average

ATOMIC HABITS: TINY CHANGES, REMARKABLE RESULTS

James Clear

Highly Recommended

THE ART OF ACTION: HOW LEADERS CLOSE THE GAP BETWEEN PLANS, ACTIONS AND RESULTS

Stephen Bungay

Highly Recommended

Summary

  • Same deal: look at two companies in the same industry and analyze why one failed and the other succeeded. I felt it was a bit repetitive (other books) and some of the lessons were fairly intuitive. However, I still recommend it since it has great details on how historic companies fell.

 Memorable Parts

  • Undisciplined Pursuit of More follows Hubris Born of Success.

  • Best corporate leaders remain students of their work

  • Employees should should be able to clearly say "I am the one responsible for x and y."

  • A company cannot grow faster than the capacity to correctly fill empty seats.

  • You can be profitable and bankrupt. Cash is king.

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Summary

  • I put this book in the Top 5 on productivity. I liked that it contains (i) a framework and (ii) very specific ideas on how to build / remove  habits. What I found most  powerful is the statement that our habits are a reflection of the identity we created. 

 Memorable Parts

  • "You should be more concerned with your current trajectory than with your current results. Are your habits taking your to where you want to be?"

  • "You don´t need to be aware of a cue for your habit to begin (cravings arise hormonally and chemically without you noticing)."

  • "When you take action what you really want is to feel different."

  • "Men desire novelty to such an extent that those who are doing well wish for  a change just as much as  those doing poorly."

  • "Keep your identity small [best way to avoid resisting criticism]."

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Summary

  • Jim mentioned that he wished the spoke more about the flywheel in his previous book "Good to Great." However, it was not enough to justify an entire book so he created this short 37 page monograph.

 Memorable Parts

  • "When confronting chaos, and you cannot predict what is coming, your best strategy is to have a busload of people who can adapt and perform brilliantly no matter what."

  • "True discipline requires the independence of mind to reject pressures to conform in ways incompatible with values."

  • "The nature of the flywheel - means that you simply cannot falter on any primary component and sustain momentum."

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Summary

  • I wish I had read this book prior to the coronavirus pandemic. The book deals on how successful companies manage risk, chaos and adversity. In this book those companies are called 10X

 Memorable Parts

  • Myth 1: Successful leaders are risk-seaking visionaries

  • "Creativity of Irishman and Discipline of a Prussian."

  • Most important Myth: Change outside means radical change inside

  • 10X Leaders: Level 5 Ambition, Fanatic Discipline, Productive Paranoia and Empirical Creativity.

  • SMaC practices rarely change in a company, no matter what

  • Are you Amundsen or Scott?

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Summary

  • Ex-BCG partner and military history enthusiast. The author brings German military (Moltke) strategy to business. How can leaders align the organization to reach its goals?

 Memorable Parts

  • "The intelligence of an organization is never equal to the sum of the intelligence of the people withing it."

  • Gap between plans and outcome: knowledge

  • Gap between plans and actions: alignment

  • Gap between actions and outcomes: effects

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THE POWER OF HABIT: WHY WE DO WHAT WE DO IN LIFE AND BUSINESS

Charles Duhigg

Average

Summary

  • The best part of this book is the framework (cue - routine - reward). I have used it since to identify and change my habits. I rated average because I found the last section of the book (Societies) a bit dull. 

 Memorable Parts

  • "Habits emerge because our brain is constantly looking for ways to save effort." More efficient brains are smaller. 

  • "Unless you deliberately fight a habit - unless you find new routines - the pattern will unfold automatically."

  • After we have experienced a reward, cravings can begin even as soon as you see the cue.

  • Willpower works just like a muscle and gets tired during the day.

  • Identify routine to change -> Experiment with rewards (write down 3 things immediately and set alarm for 15min) -> Isolate the cue (Location, Time, Emotional State, Other People and Immediately Preceding Action) -> Have a Plan.

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THE 5AM CLUB: OWN YOUR MORNING, ELEVATE YOUR LIFE

Robin Sharma

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Summary

  • This is a difficult 'skip' for me because I am following many guidelines and frameworks in this book but I found the narrative ridiculous. The author basically delivers solid advice with a weird story about an entrepreneur, a guru, etc. which I did not find engaging at all. 

 Memorable Parts

  • "I have had dreams and I have had nightmares, but I have conquered my nightmares because of my dreams." [Jonas Salk]

  • "Everyone thinks of changing the world but no one thinks about changing himself." [Tosltoy]

  • "All change is hard at first, messy in the middel and gorgeous at the end."

  • "....our ancient brain is its negative bias. Te keep us safe, it´s far less interested in what´s positive in our environment and more invested in letting us know what´s bad."

  • "When you´re up early and all alone, away from over stimulation and worry, your prefrontal cortex shuts off for a short moment. Brain waves actually shift from from the usual beta and alpha to theta."

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THE CHECKLIST MANIFESTO: HOW TO GET THINGS RIGHT

Atul Gawande

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Summary

  • As we acquire more and more knowledge, things become unmanageable for one person. Avoidable failures are common and persistent. 150,000 people in US die from surgery, 3x more than traffic accidents and 50% of those deaths are avoidable (i.e. infection because doctor forgot to was hands). Having a checklist like a airplane pilot has demonstrated significant reductions in errors during surgery. 

 Memorable Parts

  • "At Johns Hopkins, in more than a third of patients, doctors skipped at least one key step to avoid infections (i.e. clean patient´s skin).

  • "After applying and testing a checklist the ten-day line infection went from 11% to zero and ratio of patients not receiving appropriate care went from 70% to 4%."

  • "A checklist supplies a set of checks to ensure the stupid but critical stuff is not overlooked and supply another set of checks to ensure people talk to each other and coordinate."

  • "Van Halen´s demands for no brown M&Ms was a test to ensure that the venue applied the checklist in order to ensure everyone´s safety."

  • "Deaths in the WHO sponsored experiment in 8 hospitals resulted in deaths falling 47%."

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THE NO ASSHOLE RULE: BUILDING A CIVILIZED WORKPLACE AND SURVIVING ONE THAT ISN'T

Robert I. Sutton

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Summary

  • The title is the whole book. If you own a company, don't hire assholes. If you work with one, leave. I did not find any recommendations that were beyond common sense.I think this books rather serves the purpose of bosses looking at the title and doing some self-reflection: Am I an asshole?

 Memorable Parts

  • "Organizations that are too narrow and rigid about whom they let in the door stifle creativity (don't replace assholes with wimps and polite clones)."

  • "SuccessFactors company in California has the motto: it is okay to have one , just don't be one."

  • "Leonard DaVinci got it right. It is easier to resist at the beginning than at the end. There is such thing as asshole poisoning and it is harder to let them go if you have invested a lot of time in them."

  • "Detached concern is the best policy at work. Otherwise people will burn out (excessive concern for others) or act badly (detached indifference)."

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TRACTION: GET  A GRIP ON YOUR BUSINESS

Gino Wickman

Summary

  • Solid book if you want to get an overall business framework and perform a sort of health check on your organization. The strategic / operation plan framework is not revolutionary (you´ve probably seen it before) but the author does a great job of taking you step by step. I felt the HR part was a bit weak with most recommendations fairly common sense-based.

 Memorable Parts

  • "Keep your core values list short and don´t run off telling everyone about them. Let  them simmer for 30 days."

  • [Framework]: Vision, Data, Process, Issues, People and Traction.

  • "EVERYONE in the organization has a number (metric)."

  • [Processes to document]: HR, Marketing, Sales, Operations, Accounting and Customer-Retention.

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Recommended

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DEEP WORK: RULES FOR FOCUSED SUCCESS IN A DISTANCED WORLD

Cal Newport

Recommended

Summary

  • Deep work: Professional activities performed in a state of distraction-free concentration that push your cognitive capabilities to their limit. These efforts create new value, improve your  skill, and are hard to replicate. Shallow work: Non cognitively demanding, logistical-style tasks.

 Memorable Parts

  • "T o remain valuable in the new economy you must master the art of quickly learning complicated things. This task requires deep work. If you don´t cultivate this ability you are likely to fall behind as technology advances."

  • [Shallow work] "you´re firing too many circuits simultaneously and haphazardly to isolate the group of neurons you actually want to strengthen."

  • "Skillful management of attention is the sine qua non of the good life." - Gallagher

  • [Looping] "When faced with a hard problem, the mind, as it was evolved to do, will attempt to avoid excess expenditure of energy when possible."

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STALL POINTS: MOST  COMPANIES STOP GROWING - YOURS DOESN´T HAVE TO

Mathew Olson & Derek Van Bever

Recommended

Summary

  • HP had a 20% CAGR for nearly 40 years. A logical thing to do was to extrapolate the growth (it would be Fortune 1 by 2010). The question HP had was: "is there  a limit to growth?" This book is the result of that study: 500 companies across 50 years. 

 Memorable Parts

  • "76% of companies stall and never restart. Only 7% are able to then achieve high or moderate growth."

  • "Most organization actually accelerate into a stall. Fe in the senior team see  the stall and most corporate metrics often fail to register that trouble is on the horizon."

  • "Good news? Only 13% of stall are caused by external factors. 70% are caused by internal strategic factors (mainly abandoning the core) and 17% due to organizational ones (talent bench shortfall)."

  • "What once were assumptions to support the strategy slowly become the unspoken orthodoxy. Failing to challenge assumptions (or establishing trip wires) lead to stalls."

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THE CULTURE CODE: THE SECRETS OF HIGHLY SUCCESSFUL GROUPS

Daniel Coyle

Recommended

Summary

  • Team work is good for business. 2 people working as a team equals 3. Strong team work is something I strive to create at work and was the main reason I bought this book. I would estimate that about 50% of the stories in the book you probably heard already (but contain more detail) and the other 50% make reading the book worthwhile.

Memorable Parts 

  • "A strong culture increases net income 756 percent over eleven years, according to a Harvard study of more than 200 companies."

  • "The 3 components of strong teams: Build Safety, Share Vulnerability and Establish Purpose."

  • "Modern society is an incredibly recent phenomenon. We used signals long before we used language."

  • "Belonging cues share the following qualities: energy, individualization and they signal the relationship will continue in the future. Doing these during employee on-boarding raised retention by 250%"

  • "Google did not beat Overture because it was smarter. It won because it was safer."

  • "64% of executives predicted  that employees would be able to name the company´s top 3 priorities. The result? Only 2% did."

  • "On misconception of highly successful cultures is that they are happier and lighthearted places. In reality, they are less concerned with that and more around solving hard problems together."

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EAT THEIR LUNCH

Anthony Iannarino

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Summary

  • Don´t waste your time. You will find nothing valuable in this book, nothing you have tried before or simple common sense hasn´t told you. I didn´t find a single framework or tactic I found useful. The chapter on cadence is laughable in that it could have been a single page.

Memorable Parts 

  • "You don´t win by focusing on the competition. What makes you a dangerous competitor is how you play the game."

  • "Waiting isn´t a strategy."

  • "L1: Product, L2: Service, L3:  Results and L4: Strategic Partner."

  • "The curse of the incumbent: their client believes they´ve already seen the best they [competitor] have to offer. And they probably have."

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PROFIT FIRST

Mike Michalowicz

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Summary

  • Premise: Essentially the way an Income Statement (US GAAP) is constructed pushes us towards focusing mainly on the top line and self-justifying that expenses have to increase in order to support them. What is left out profit? The authors solution is bringing the concept of personal budgeting with envelopes to a business. Every time income from clients shows up in your account you should distribute it into: Profit, Owner´s Comp, Taxes and OpEx. This forces you to reduce expenses. 

Memorable Parts 

  • "Revenue is vanity, profit is sanity and cash is king."

  • "The average plate size in America has grown 23% between 1900 and 2012, from 9.6 inches to 11.8 inches."

  • "Salesperson: I can´t seem to break the 80% closing rate you talked about? Presenter: Eighty? You thought I said eighty percent!? I sad eighteen."

  • "The solution to debt is simple: get more  enjoyment out of saving than spending."

  • "What if we took a truck and divided it by half?"

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80/20 SALES AND MARKETING

Perry Marshall

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Summary

  • I hated this book for two reasons. (1) The authors keeps repeating the same concept (that pretty much everyone in the world knows) in a hundred different ways and (2) the author is feeding the reader the same recipe he wants us to use. I hate this recent trend of books with "if you want to learn more about this just go to my page at www....". New rule: never buy a book that on cover says things like "$75 worth of tools for free...". Nothing is free.

Memorable Parts 

  • "Half of the money I spend on advertising is wasted; the trouble is I don't know which half."

  • "Pioneers return with arrows in their backs."

  • "Can you reach your audience affordably?"

  • "Bad sign you don't have a Unique Value Proposition: you're constantly fighting downward price pressure."

  • [On guarantees] "We should your customers take a risk if you are not willing to so?"

  • "What if you could only advertise ONE keyword and ONE phrase to describe your business?"

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GETTING THINGS DONE: THE ART OF STRESS-FREE PRODUCTIVITY

David Allen

Summary

  • The book to end all productivity books. Pages and pages of practical advice and a crystal clear methodology. This book as exactly what I was looking for in terms of organizing my tasks, emails, documents, etc. Most books have 2 or 3 pieces of advice that are repeated over and over again. This book is quite the opposite and in some cases it feels there is too much advice!

Memorable Parts 

  • "In just the last half of the twentieth century, what constituted work in the industrialized world was transformed from the assembly line to knowledge work. Now, for many of us, there are no edges to most of our projects."

  • [Open loops] "If it´s on your mind, your mind isn´t clear."

  • [Projects "Any desired result that can be accomplished within a year and requires more than one step."

  • "Your mind won´t stop thinking until you have: (1) clarified what the outcome is, (2) clearly defined the next immediate action or (3) you haven´t put reminders in a trusted system."

  • "The biggest mistakes you can make are using physical items (supporting materials) are reminders and thinking that if you don´t 'look or think' about it it will go away."

  • "Pick battles big enough to matter, small enough to win."

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Highly Recommended

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THE ULTIMATE SALES MACHINE

Chet Holmes

Summary

  • Again. Again one of those books where the author is trying to promote their own website and offering "free" stuff in exchange for your email address. There were some good pointers but nothing revolutionary. The author spends more time talking about the time he worked with Charlie Munger than providing solid frameworks or actionable processes.

Memorable Parts 

  • "Only 10% of the population has what´s called a learning mind-set. These are people who seek out and enjoy learning."

  • "A great way to offer a client every service every time is to include them in their order form as check boxes."

  • "3% are buying now, 7% open to buying, 30% not thinking about buying, 30% think they are not interested and 30% are not. Your message should not focus on only 10%."

  • "Humans remember 20% of what we hear, 30% of what we see but 50% of what we see and hear."

  • Blogs like "The Five Most Dangerous Trends Facing Manufacturers."

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TRIBAL LEADERSHIP: LEVERAGING NATURAL GROUPS TO BUILD A THRIVING ORGANIZATION

Dave Logan, John King and Halee Fischer-Wright

Summary

  • One of the best books I have read about team dynamics and building winning teams. Very linear narrative on how teams progress with practical frameworks and advice in each step. Every team leader should read this book. 

Memorable Parts 

  • "Our priority is company culture, and our belief is that if we get the culture right, most of the other stuff will happen as a natural by-product." - Tony Hsieh

  • "Tribes and leaders create each other."

  • "The gulf between 'I´m great' (Stage Three) and 'We´re great' (Stage Four) is huge, Grand Canyon huge."

  • "Professionals usually cap out at Stage Three - teams with a star and a supporting cast. They tend to have an intense focus on time management since they believe that they can rely only on themselves."

  • "People in Stage Two ('My life sucks') tend to use phrases like 'I´ll try' and 'I can´t promise'."

  • "An oil change is for the group to talk through (1) what is working well (2) what is not working well and (3) what can we do to improve what is not working."

  • Tribal Strategy Components (with center of Values and Cause):

    1. What we want (outcomes)?

    2. What we have (assets)?

    3. What we will do (behaviors)?​

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Highly Recommended

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SAM WALTON: MADE IN AMERICA

Summary

  • This book is a gem for people working in retail. It has also opened my eyes to reading 80s and 90s business books that I thought, before reading this book, might be too out-of-date. Sam Walton´s strategic mind and work ethic helps the reader make sense of how Wal-Mart became this huge success story. Great read. 

Memorable Parts 

  • "Every time we save them [customers] a dollar, that puts us one more step ahead of the competition - which is where we always plan to be."

  • "Here is the simple lesson we learned: say I bought an item for $0.80. I found that by pricing it at $1.00 I could sell three times more of it that by pricing it at $1.20. I might make half the profit from each item but the overall profit was much greater."

  • "Two things distinguish Sam: He gets up everyday bound and determined to improve something. Second, he is less afraid of being wrong than anyone I´ve ever known."

  • "The ones [retailers] who are truly merchandise driven can always work on improving operations. It rarely works the other way around."

  • "Our key to success was information. How much merchandise is in the store? What is it? What is selling and what is not? What is ordered? Marked down? Replaced? Turnover?"

  • "Rule 1: COMMIT to your business. Everybody around will catch the passion from you - like a fever."

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THE EFFECTIVE EXECUTIVE

Peter F. Drucker

Summary

  • Written more than 50 years ago and still contains valuable lessons and insights on how to become an effective employee / executive. Interesting sections about how computers were going to affect work and decisions.

Memorable Parts 

  • "Brilliant men are often strikingly ineffectual; they fail to realize that the brilliant insight is not by itself achievement."

  • "A crisis that recurs a second time is a crisis that must not occur again (the annual inventory belongs here)."

  • "A well managed plant, I soon learned, is  a quiet place."

  • "President Lincoln when told that Grant was fond of the bottle said: 'If I knew his brand, I´d send a barrel or so tome some other generals'."

  • "Never ask 'How does he get along with me?' but rather 'What does he contribute?'."

  • "Precisely because they cannot move people, Japanese executives always look for the man in the group who can do the job. They always look for strength."

  • "We rightly consider keeping many balls in the air a circus stunt. Yet even the juggler does it only for ten minutes."

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Recommended

THE BEZOS LETTERS: 14 PRINCIPLES TO GROW YOUR BUSINESS LIKE AMAZON

Steve  Anderson

Summary

  • The author came up with 14 growth principles from all the Bezos´ investor letters. It is particularly interesting that many of the appeared in the very first one and Bezos himself keeps copying the first one in all his yearly letters. I didn´t find anything ground breaking in this book but overall thought it was interesting.

Memorable Parts 

  • "...we choose to prioritize growth because we believe that scale is central to achieving the potential of our business model."

  • [Customers] "And we consider them  to be loyal to us - right up until the second someone offers them a better service."

  • "Amazon will instantly trade off short-term profits for the chance to engender long-term customer loyalty."

  • "Customer Frustration-Free Packaging, the idea was for Amazon to work with product manufacturers to create special 'Amazon only' packaging."

  • [On receiving big boxes with small products] They don´t care about boxes. They care about getting the items out."

  • [On why they focus on free cash flow]"A big boxer can take a punch to head."

  • "Day 1 mentality."

  • "Friends congratulate me after quarterly-earnings announcement and I´ll say, 'Thank you, but that quarter was baked three years ago.'"

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INVENTORY ACCURACY: PEOPLE, PROCESSES & TECHNOLOGY

David J. Piasecki

Summary

  • This book is  filled with practical advice. You can apply at least 1 idea for every page in this book. I read this book in 2003 when it came out and again this year (2020). A must for anyone responsible for inventory, receiving and picking. 

Memorable Parts 

  • "When choosing between random or fixed storage, take into account that people will make adjustments. In fixed, they focus on item numbers but in random they focus on the item itself. If by chance you have two different type hammers in the same location people will grab any of them because 'what  are the odds other hammers are here?"

  • "Don´t just make inventory adjustments. Apply root cause analysis."

  • "Don´t start with the 'big stick' method by demanding that employees be 'more accurate, or else!'"

  • "Accuracy metrics are best if presented as a weighted average of others like: net dollar, absolute piece and good count/bad count." 

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Highly Recommended

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THE LEAN STARTUP

Erik Ries

Summary

  • The title could have been: "Don´t make changes in full batches. Implement small changes, measure results and repeat." Perhaps folks in the software industry might find actionable insights in this book. I probably found just 2 or 3. 

Memorable Parts 

  • "Need to understand which activities add value and which ones generate waste."

  • "The one envelope at a time approach is called the 'single-piece flow' in lean manufacturing."

  • "The speed of growth is determined by what I call the rate of compounding, which is simply the natural growth rate minus the churn rate."

  • "Ask Why? five times to uncover root issues but be careful it doesn´t turn into the Five Blames."

  • "(1) Be tolerant of all mistakes the first time. (2) Never allow the same mistake to be made twice."

  • "As Deming taught, what matters is not setting quantitative goals but fixing the method by which those goals are attained."

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UPSTREAM: THE QUEST TO SOLVE PROBLEMS BEFORE THEY HAPPEN

Dan Heath

Summary

  • The subtitle summarizes the entire book. Nice and interesting anecdotes about how people and companies solved problems but the book lacks useful frameworks or processes. In a nutshell: don´t focus on the symptoms but rather on root causes." 

Memorable Parts 

  • "58% of customers called Expedia after making a purchase. No one notices because it was no group´s job to ensure that customer´s did not need to call support."

  • "When people are juggling a lot of problems, they give up trying to solve them all. They adopt tunnel vision. There is no long term planning; no strategic prioritization."

  • "Data for the purpose of learning rather than data for the purpose of inspection. Need to balance quantity and quality metrics."

  • "The Dutch bicycle company VanMoof solved its shipping complaints buy printing images of flat-screen TVs in their shipping boxes."

  • "The population in Dehli responded by farming cobras in order to claim the bounty placed by the British authorities."

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THE RIDE OF A LIFETIME: LESSONS LEARNED FROM 15 YEARS AS CEO OF THE WALT DISNEY COMPANY

Robert Iger

Summary

  • Front row seat to Iger's 45 year career. Provides great detail into key events: replacing Eisner as CEO, buying Pixar, Marvel, Lucasfilm and 21st Century Fox. Filled with anecdotes and a section at the end with his key business insights.

Memorable Parts 

  • "I've always woken early, as far back as I can remember, and cherished those hours to myself before the rest of the world wakes up."

  • "Create and environment where people know you'll hear them out, that they'll be given second chances for honest mistakes."

  • "An executive at Disney informed me that Michael disliked being referred to as "Mike"'.

  • "Avoid getting into the business of manufacturing trombone oil. You may become the greatest in the world but, in the end, the world consumes a few quarts."

  • "No one wants to follow a pessimist."

  • "If leaders don't articulate their priorities clearly, then the people around them will suffer. Time, capital and energy will be wasted."

  • "Steer clear of anger and anxiety over things you can't control. I can't overstate how important it is to keep blows to the ego from occupying too big a place in your mind and sapping energy. It's much harder, and necessary, to be optimistic when your sense of self is being challenged."

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Recommended

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VIVIR, TRABAJAR Y CRECER EN FAMILIA: UN MODELO DE GESTIÓN E INSTITUCIONALIZACIÓN

Alfonso Urrea Martín

Resumen

  • Alfonso Urrea es el Director General de Urrea Herramientas, basada en Guadalaja. En el libro narra su historia en la compañía y la institucionalización que se ha llevado. Buen balance de historias personales, problemas que te puedes enfrentar durante el proceso  y "frameworks" para aplicar en empresas familiares. 

Partes Memorables

  • "Trata de no negociar directamente con los clientes porque cuando das una concesión, eres el mejor; pero cuando quitas, te conviertes en el peor."

  • "Las empresas tendrían que crecer al mismo ritmo o a uno mayor que las familias para mantener el mismo estilo de vida que el padre."

  • "Los hijos entre 18-24 deben de trabajar en otra empresa donde no sientan una paternidad asfixiante ni una posición de hijo del dueño."

  • "Gobierno corporativo: separación de roles, creación de los órganos de gobierno y la fijación de reglas y acuerdos."

  • "Un esquema de retribución económica para resolver las confusiones entre el trabajo y propiedad es la creación de acciones fantasmas."

  • "Las empresas hay que traerlas como a los caballos, con las riendas tensas, ni muy flojas ni muy apretadas."

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Altamente Recomendado

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REMARKABLE RETAIL: HOW TO WIN & KEEP CUSTOMERS IN THE AGE OF DIGITAL DISRUPTION

Steve Dennis

Summary

  • Nothing groundbreaking. 1/3 of the book can be summarized by saying that digital will not replace physical stores. Another 1/3 has a good framework but lacks actionability and the last 1/3 makes the book worthwhile to read. 

Memorable Parts 

  • "What is abundant is no longer special. But where strong consumer desire meets scarcity we find potential: the potential to win - and keep - customers."

  • "E-Commerce product returns are as high as 40% in apparel but usually run under 10% in in-store."

  • "The retails that are struggling are those in the middle: offering neither value (prices, extensive merchandise or assortments) nor uniqueness (products or service)."

  • "Amazon´s online sales are only 4% of total US retail."

  • "Shipping costs in Amazon trending toward 27% of sales."

  • "If you dislike change, you´re going to dislike irrelevance more."

  • "People don´t buy a quarter-inch drill because they want a drill. They buy it because they want a hole."

  • "Man cannot discover new oceans unless he has the courage to lose sight of the shore." - André Gide

  • "In retail, only the last 3 years count."

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Average

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THE TOYOTA WAY: 14 MANAGEMENT PRINCIPLES FROM THE WORLD´S GREATEST MANUFACTURER

Jeffrey K. Liker

Summary

  • Solid book that details: the history of Toyota, management principles that encompass the Toyota Way and useful examples and frameworks to apply them in your business. The author spent many years visiting plants and interviewing Toyota executives. 

Memorable Parts 

  • "Us auto makers looked at traditional accounting measures that rewarded managers who cranked out lots of parts and kept machines and workers busy. This resulted in overproduction that hides defects in parts and process issues."

  • "The problem is that big buffers (inventory between processes) lead to other suboptimal behavior, like reducing motivation to continuously improve operations."

  • "Andon is not about fancy equipment. It is about teaching employees to bring problems to the surface."

  • "People do the work, computers move the information."

  • "Deming Problem Solving: Plan, Do, Act and Check."

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Recommended

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HIGH-PROFIT PROSPECTING

Mark Hunter

Summary

  • I need to stop buying these types of sales strategy books. There might be 3-4 good tips and the rest is repetitive / common sense advice. The only good thing is that the author does not self-promote as much as author´s from other books.

Memorable Parts 

  • "...caused a shift in knowledge. When I was prospecting twenty five years ago, I had all the knowledge of the product and the customer had to call me. Now, they research online or email me."

  • "Would you buy from yourself?"

  • "What about my prospecting process is compelling to the customer?"

  • "A decline in prospecting in December will be felt both December and January."

  • "Make the call about the prospect, not about you."

  • "Do not use subject lines in emails that are about the sender."

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Skip

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Summary

  • I call these "feel good business books." The title encapsulates the entire book and it is filled with feel-good examples. I rated it average because it contains interesting soundbites to motivate my sales team. Worth the read it if you can borrow it or get it for free.

Memorable Parts 

  • "An individual´s level of aspiration represents his intended performance goal. People with higher expectations got higher settlements."

  • "Study your opponent´s agenda for what it deliberately leaves out."

  • "The value of services is greater before they are rendered than after."

  • "Beware of funny money examples." (Ex - "What´s a lousy penny if we lower the price from $0.20 to $0.19 per pound). Instead think about real money (ex -what will I give up $ if I buy 2 million pounds a year?.

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GIVE AND TAKE

Adam Grant

Average

VALUE: THE FOUR CORNERSTONES OF CORPORATE FINANCE

Tim Koller, Richard Dobbs and Bill Huyett

Summary

  • Solid book that provides 4 guiding principles for financial value creation in companies and dispels commons myths that CEOs and/or CFOs employ to artificially enhance stock price. Basic financial background needed.

Memorable Parts 

  • "We sometimes forget the basic principle that when people invest, they expect the value of their investment to increase by an amount that sufficiently compensates them for the risk they took, as well as for the time value of money."

  • "The dividing line between whether growth creates or destroys value is when the return on capital equals the cost of capital."

  • "It is better to have a competitive advantage (horse) than to have a good management team (jockey)."

  • "...we haven´t found any evidence that diversified companies actually generate smoother cash flows."

  • "Configuring the management approaches of the company to reflect this balance (near-term profits and return on capital) is the chief executive´s responsibility."

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Average

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Summary

  • I am a fan of goals for motivating my team at work and creating alignment. I rate this book as "skip" because it did a great job at explaining the mechanics of OKRs but the real-life examples are useless for implementation. Whole chapters about Bono´s ONE foundation or Zume Pizza provide little advice or ideas for the reader to implement at work or life.

Memorable Parts 

  • "Ideas are easy. Execution is everything."

  • "Objective is the What is to be achieved. The Key Results benchmark and monitor how we get to the objective."

  • "There are so many people working so hard and achieving so little." - Andy Grove

  • "It is important to pair quantity and quality assessments of key results."

  • "Continuous performance management can be done using CFR (conversations, feedback and recognition."

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MEASURE WHAT MATTERS: HOW GOOGLE, BONO, AND THE GATES FOUNDATION ROCK THE WORLD WITH OKRs

John Doerr

Skip

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BLITZCALING

Reid Hoffman

Skip

Summary

  • So far, the worse business book I have read. Author: "Entrepreneur! Don´t be afraid and let your company grow as fast as it can. he is basically assuming that entrepreneurs are putting on the breaks of their companies on purpose! I didn´t find a single good non-obvious implementable piece of advice. I have noticed a trend with these types of books, the author repeatedly mentions his other books and/or websites.

Memorable Parts 

  • "Do everything by hand until it´s too painful, then automate it."

  • "Further analysis showed that what set these users apart from less active was they followed 30 other Twitter users. Twitter was then able to encourage users to follow more accounts and within sixty days active users grew 50%."

  • "You might feel like you can´t afford to take time from your schedule to make yourself better. I was too busy chopping wood to sharpen the axe."

  • "What you say 'no' to is more important than what you say 'yes' to."

  • "Culture is a shared way of doing things."

  • "Ship of Theseus."

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THE CHALLENGER SALE: TAKING CONTROL OF THE CUSTOMER CONVERSATION

Matthew Dixon and Brent Adamson

Recommended

Summary

  • Solid sales book with great pieces of advice (and implementable ideas). "Challenger" type sales people outperform "relationship building" ones. Provides frameworks and guides for sales training, hiring, customer conversations and first line manager aptitudes.

Memorable Parts 

  • "Customization: everyone wants it; no one wants t pay for it."

  • Solution sale is part of the physics of sales: suppliers called the solutions play, and customers have made their countermove."

  • "In a transactional selling environment, the performance gap between average and star performers is 59%."

  • "The Challenger rep: always has a different view of the world, understands customer´s business and is not afraid to talk about money."

  • "Don´t make the customer works so hard to spend his money!"

  • "Pitch stories should first focus about the customer and teaching them, not about your company."

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Summary

  • Most people, including myself, have not heard of this man. This book is wildly entertaining and provides play-by-play account of Harrison´s early career and his time as CEO of 4 different railroad companies. Equally feared and respected. These books remind you what it takes for people to make $500 million in their lifetime.

Memorable Parts 

  • "Former CEO of American Airlines went back four times to cut costs. One on visit he noticed a guard dog and told the employee to get a recording of the bark."

  • "There was only on version of Hunter Harrison. He did not waste precious energy playing roles. That meant his battery pack always had a bit more juice."

  • "There´s a now famous story of him checking into a hotel with binoculars and spied on the CN yard."

  • "It´s one thing to embarrass yourself and another to embarrass your children by your actions."

  • "We are in the business of moving cars not trains. A train can be on time but not necessarily the car. He was the only one who understood what the data meant."

  • "The license plate on this corporate jet was OR59 - the thought-to-be impossible operating ratio."

  • "Sabia was a famous workaholic and kept working through agonizing back pain. He was seen by a colleague dragging himself across the floor to a fax machine."

  • "Don´t spend a dollar of capital when all it takes is to improve the process."

  • "When you measure things in minutes and not hours, things get more precise."

  • "Great teams don´t allow people who don´t want to really play to stay. We must protect the livelihood of those who do care."

  • "I´ve been serving you stake dinners for 18 years. I just haven´t bothered showing you how I slaughtered the cow."

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Highly Recommended

Howard Green

RAILROADER: THE UNFILTERED GENIUS AND CONTROVERSY OF FOUR-TIME CEO HUNTER HARRISON

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SEEING AROUND CORNERS: HOW TO SPOT INFLECTION POINTS IN BUSINESS BEFORE THEY HAPPEN

Rita McGrath

Average

Summary

  • The proverbial crystal ball we all want for our business. It is scary to think about all the great companies from the past that missed key opportunities and trends in their industry. As they say, hindsight is 20/20.

Memorable Parts 

  • "When you can see far ahead, you can adjust your trajectory with a small move of the steering wheel. But when you see only after the inflection point is upon you, it requires a big jerk of the steering wheel."

  • "In the unfair way in which life operates, the moment at which you have the richest information is often the moment at which you have the least power to change the story told by that information."

  • "It´s impossible to imagine a future where a customer wants higher prices or slower delivery. Therefore you should move towards improving those things."

  • "There is something only a CEO uniquely can do, which is set that tone, which can then capture the soul of the collective. And its culture."

  • "There are no answers in the building."

  • "Don´t mix up the destination with the vehicle you use to get there."

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THE HARD THING ABOUT HARD THINGS: BUILDING A BUSINESS WHEN THERE ARE NOT EASY ANSWERS

Ben Horowitz

Recommended

Summary

  • Contains most of the questions you have when running a business but that you won´t find in traditional (i.e. HBR) books because they might not be PC. On top of that the author provides answers! This book makes you not feel alone with the struggles and doubts that come from running a business.

Memorable Parts 

  • "The hard thing isn´t hiring great people. The hard thing is when those great people develop a sense of entitlement and start demanding unreasonable things."

  • "I always thought of myself first. When you are part of a family, that kind of thinking can get you in trouble."

  • "'What would you do if capital were free?' The thinking this question leads to can be extremely dangerous."

  • "Build a culture that rewards people for getting problems into the open."

  • "When a company starts to lose its major battles, the truth often becomes the first casualty."

  • "Being a good company doesn´t matter when things go well but it can be the difference between life and death when things go wrong."

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IT´S YOUR SHIP: MANAGEMENT TECHNIQUES FROM THE BEST DAMN SHIP IN THE NAVY

Capt. D. Michael Abrashoff

Average

Summary

  • A book about underdogs and how trusting your team makes all the difference. People can achieve and do more than you give them credit.

Memorable Parts 

  • "My organizing principle was simple: the key to being a successful skipper is to see the ship through the eyes of the crew."

  • "Real leadership must be done by example, not precept."

  • "Never forget your effect on people."

  • "It´s critical that leaders don´t shoot the messenger. A boss who does will not hear about future problems until they are out of hand."

  • "As Franklin said, 'We must indeed all hang together, or, assuredly, we shall all hang separately."

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WHAT YOU DO IS WHO YOU ARE: HOW TO CREATE YOUR BUSINESS CULTURE

Ben Horowitz

Recommended

GOOD TO GREAT TO GONE: THE 60 YEAR RISE AND FALL OF CIRCUIT CITY

Alan L. Wurtzel

Recommended

HIGH OUTPUT MANAGEMENT

Andrew S. Grove

Recommended

Summary

  • A great follow-up to his first book 'The Hard Thing about Hard Things.' non business-school type advice included in the book. As Peter Drucker said once 'Culture eats Strategy for Breakfast.'"

Memorable Parts 

  • "There is a saying in the military that if you see something below standard and do nothing, then you´ve set a new standard."

  • "The secret to finding a breakthrough idea is that you have to believe something that nobody else does."

  • "He believed that you were either selling or being sold (on why the buyer was not going to buy)."

  • "The best way to understand your culture is by seeing how new employees behave."

  • "Collaborative people know that their success is limited by uncollaborative people or low performers."

  • "The quality of your life is a function of the quality of your questions."

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Summary

  • The author is the former CEO whose father built Circuit City. A spooky tale of how the company grew (written about  admired in Jim Collin´s book Good to Great) to filing for bankruptcy and closing its doors. Relevant for all business owners, specially those in retail.

Memorable Parts 

  • "In business, the competition will bite you if you keep running; if you stand still, they will swallow you."

  • "Some employees walk around with 'their wheelbarrow turned up', ready for a task or  challenge."

  • "If you owe the bank $100 it is your problem. If you owe them $100 million, that´s the bank´s problem."

  • "The only 'silver lining' was that it is possible to learn more from adversity than from success."

  • "Never finance long-term assets with short-term borrowing - even for a few months."

  • "No customer ever goes to a store to pleasure the storekeeper."

  • "We matched online prices even if the competitor´s did not hold it in stock."

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Summary

  • The book has been on my list for some time. Several business books that I have read mention Andrew (ex-CEO and ex-President of Intel) and his famous management style. The book is a bit outdated but contains relevant tips and topics that are highly implementable at work.

Memorable Parts 

  • "The motto I am advocating is Let the chaos reign, then rein in chaos."

  • "Are you adding value or merely passing information along?"

  • "It´s not how smart you are or how well you know the business; it is about how that translates to the team´s performance and output."

  • "A common rule is to detect and fix any problem in a production process at the lowest-value stage possible."

  • "The best way to check your forecast accuracy is using Stagger Charts."

  • "Keep these in mind when creating MBOs (1) Where do I want to go? (objective) and (2) How will I pace myself to see if I am getting there (milestones and key results)?

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CRUCIAL CONVERSATIONS: TOOLS FOR TALKING WHEN THE STAKES ARE HIGH

Patterson

Average

Summary

  • Provides good frameworks for how to avoid (or reduce) getting angry or becoming silent during difficult conversations. Also provides tips for engaging others in difficult conversations. Rated it "average" because I think mostly customer-service folks will find it interesting. 

Memorable Parts 

  • "The mistake most of us make in our crucial conversation is we believe that we have to choose between telling the truth and keeping a friend (Fool´s Choice)."

  • "Lord, help me forgive those who sin differently than I."

  • "We (1) See and Hear (2) Tell a Story (3) Feel and (4) Act. Any set of facts can be used to tell an infinite number of stories."

  • "We usually don´t begin telling stories that justify our acts of omission until we have done something we feel a need to justify."

  • "When spouses stop giving each other helpful feedback, they lose out on the help of  a lifelong confidant and coach."

  • "For a repeat offense, stop talking about the offense and focus on the pattern."

  • "Make it Safe so people agree to share into the Pool."

  • "FOCUS ON WHAT YOU REALLY WANT."

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THE ALGORITHMIC LEADER: HOW TO BE SMART WHEN MACHINES ARE SMARTER THAN YOU

Mike Walsh

Skip

Summary

  • A different book than I expected. Provides a good overview of AI and where the future of technology-work is heading but pretty much zero in terms of ideas of what to do in your business.

Memorable Parts 

  • "When Caesar´s Palace declared bankruptcy they had grossly undervalued an asset: the customer data of 45 million Total Rewards members that should be worth $1 billion."

  • "One principal collapse of the British Empire was the telegram. Now the center suddenly started to micromanage."

  • "The cohesiveness of a group, or how much people talked to each other, was by far the strongest predictor of performance."

  • "If we have data, let's look at the data. If all we have are opinions, let´s just go with mine."

  • "In the future we will all work for platforms."

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THE MAKING OF A MANAGER: WHAT TO DO WHEN EVERYONE LOOKS TO YOU

Julie Zhuo

Average

Summary

  • Perfect book to read when you are 2-3 years out of college and before your first promotion.

Memorable Parts 

  • "Your feedback only counts if it makes things better."

  • "Part of the reason feedback doesn't stick is that the recipient often views the conversation as a threat, so his adrenaline kicks in. Their ability to process complex information decreases."

  • "Don't pay the double tax on your mental load. Think about public figures you admire and the times they struggled."

  • "Most people shy away from asking for help to their managers because they see them as authority figures where you can't mess things up."

  • "If I told you hiring was the only thing that mattered, would you do anything differently?"

  • "If you want to build a ship, don't drum up the men to gather wood and give orders.  Instead, teach them to yearn for the vast and endless sea."

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HOW NOT TO BE WRONG: THE POWER OF MATHEMATICAL THINKING

Jordan Ellenberg

Recommended

Summary

  • Misleading title but interesting and valuable read nonetheless. Provides a history of the evolution of mathematics. My only criticism is that it contains too many of the classic "do you prefer $100 at 50% probability or ...". Those have been exhausted for those who have read  "Thinking Fast and Slow".

Memorable Parts 

  • "The cult of genius also tens to undervalue hard work. The genus cult tells students it´s not worth doing mathematics unless you´re the absolute best. We don´t treat any other subject like that!"

  • "There is a real danger that, by strengthening our abilities to analyze some questions mathematically, we acquire a general confidence, which extends unjustifiably to those things we´re still wrong about."

  • "The late nineteenth century was the golden age of data visualization. The 1869 Charles Minard chart about Napoleon´s retreat is considered the greatest data graphic ever made."

  • "The Mars orbiter Mariner 9 uses the self -correcting Hadamard code."

  • "Conspiracy theorists always combine a T theory with U theories. Even though T the theory is never proven right, the U theories (verifiable) act as a Bayesian coating."

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PLAYING TO WIN: HOW STRATEGY REALLY WORKS

A. G. Laefly & Roger L. Marting

Skip

Summary

  • Focuses on the author's tenure as CEO of P&G, providing  a high-level overview of some of the most important brand strategy decisions. Books contains more questions than answers. Last section was relatively good as it provided a robust framework that business owners can implement. 

Memorable Parts 

  • "Attempting to be all things to all customers tends to result in underserving everyone. Even the strongest company or brand will be positioned to serve some customers better than others ."

  • "Rather than selling its bars at a lower price, Mars has chosen to buy itself the shelf space."

  • "An issue can't be resolved until it is framed as a choice. Articulating options provides a gut check. Otherwise a team will talk endlessly about declining sales but make no progress towards solving the problem."

  • "Once a choice is made you need to trace back and think 'what needs to be true?'"

  • "The Don Quixote strategy: taking the strongest competitor head-to-head."

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