If you frequent the business section of your local Barnes and Noble or Borders you will notice the constant flow of new titles on the shelves. Within each book you will find the authors advice backed up by case studies on successful companies or opinions from industry leaders. How do you know what to accept as useful information and what to pass off as platitudes?



This is where Jeffery Pfeffer and Robert Sutton come into play. The Stanford professors have written “Hard Facts, Dangerous Half-Truths And Total Nonsense“. Their advice: Don’t accept what you read in these books as infallible. Much of what is accepted as truths or conventional wisdom within business is wrong. The reason: You need to practice evidence based management to steer away from making this mistake. What is evidence based management?

“Evidence-based management is based on the belief that facing the hard facts about what works and what doesn’t, understanding the dangerous half-truths that constitute so much conventional wisdom about management, and rejecting the total nonsense that too often passes for sound advice will help perform better.”

In the first part of the book Pfeffer and Sutton lay out where companies fail in the decision making process. Too many companies fail to back up their decisions with facts and evidence. They are too quick to act on new ideas and theories without judging whether it will benefit their particular situation. This is where things can go wrong. Instead, by following the evidence based management technique you are less likely to fall into this trap.

The second part of the book, where the meat of the information is, picks apart 6 common half truths in detail:

• Is Work Fundamentally Different from the Rest of Life and Should it Be?
• Do the Best Organizations Have the Best People?
• Do Financial Incentives Drive Company Performance?
• Strategy is Destiny?
• Change or Die?
• Are Great Leaders in Control of Their Companies?

The authors provide examples where conventional business wisdom will help answer each question and examples where it will lead you down the wrong path.

After reading through these chapters you will begin to understand Pfeffer and Sutton’s fundamentals for using evidence based management. Not all decisions are clear cut – you will need to back your decisions up with evidence to support them.

This book is an excellent read for anyone in their career – from CEO’s to those starting off their career. Pfeffer and Sutton have written a book that is easy, interesting and insightful.

*** Check out Robert’s blog - Work Matters for daily insights, recommended books and information on his other publications. ***

Maybe your idea of management and teamwork doesn’t first conjure imagery of the Seven Dwarfs and Snow White, or maybe you think that you can’t find any deep, meaningful business commentary while walking down Main St. at the Magic Kingdom.

Think again.

Bill Capodagli and Lynn Jackson (at http://www.capojac.com) have spent nearly 30 years researching, investigating, interviewing, and summarizing their findings on the way that the Walt Disney Company was run. The Disney Way presents their findings in a succinct manner, and also highlights seven inspiring companies who are enjoying immense success while utilizing the same principals that catapulted Disney to the top.



Chief among these principles lies the mantra of Walt Disney himself: Dream, Believe, Dare, Do. Read on for more explanation…

• Dream
  Whether you’re building the next iPod or improving your department’s file-storage process, it is important to begin every project with a dream and ask, “How can I improve this for everyone?” When trying to build something new or working to fix a process, it is vital that you have the end user in mind.
• Believe
  In order to increase the success with which you achieve your dreams, it is important (obviously) that you believe in yourself. But more importantly, realize that you can’t do everything yourself. Collaborations and partnerships can push your ideas further and yield results that are beyond even your initial, wildest dreams.
• Dare
  Quite simply, if you’ve got a dream and people that you believe in, go out on a limb and try something new. According to Capodagli, this is probably the most difficult facet of the 4-step process for most companies & people to “get”. The ability to dare is truly what can separate mediocrity from greatness.
• Do
  Capodagli suggests that often, success does not come from a product or idea itself, but rather from the implementation or process behind the idea. Thus, it’s crucial that you Practice, Plan, and Pay Attention to Details. Disney made sure that every detail of every project he worked on was immaculate and in order. It was this process that led him to success; he even said at points in his career that he didn’t think he was an expert at animation, or even that great of a story-teller, but rather a master of his process. (For more explanation on how it’s not always about the “Great Idea” but the process behind it, check out this article at IWillTeachYoutobeRich)

As an extra highlight, Bill Capodagli was gracious enough to offer BizBookTalk an interview to accompany this review. The following is a summary of our discussion…

Question: Can you tell me a little bit about yourself?
Answer: Bill has been in the consulting business since the early 1970s and has helped a plethora of companies implement the Disney principles. He gives seminars all over the world on these topics and enjoys helping companies reach higher results.

Question: What was your first Disney experience?
Answer: Bill still remembers watching the “Wonderful World of Disney” as a young boy every Wednesday night. His second memory is when he took his 3-year-old son to Disneyland and just remembers how *everything* about the park pulled him into the experience. All aspects of the park, cast, and rides were built to fully immerse you in the world of Disney and imagination.

Question: How did you pick Disney as a model for your consulting company?
Answer: Early in his consulting career, Bill was working with large companies and benchmarking the “best of the best” companies; Disney consistently rose to the top of the pile. After meeting Lynn Jackson while working at a university, the two of them discussed starting their own business multiple times, but finally DAREd to do it in the mid-1980s.

Question: As a follow up, what’s the general reaction when you tell a company that you’re about to rock their business world by suggesting Disney concepts?
Answer: Usually, the first hurdle to get over is that despite its reputation as an entertainment company, Disney is also in many other businesses. They run the largest laundry facility in the United States and they’re partnered in the retail business with stores across the country among other things. Once those details start to come out, clients generally start to realize that it’s more about the process and the *way* that Disney is run, not the product it produces. The business aspect aside, Bill said that he can then usually appeal to clients’ nostalgia for Disney

Question: At BizBookTalk, we review a lot of business books — what are some of your favorites and why?
Answer: FISH! (John Christensen), because he embraces the concept of fun: work hard and play hard! Any Tom Peters book: enough said. And finally, The Disney Way Fieldbook, which has 40 exercises for anyone or any company that is trying to apply the principles from The Disney Way.

Question: Finally, how can someone who is just starting out in corporate America look to instill the Disney concepts into his corporate culture?
Answer: Bill’s foremost suggestion before anything else is to ask yourself what values you live by and what you want to do in life. Afterwards, begin living by a consistent set of morals and values and then you can think about taking them into your corporate culture. Bill pointed out a quote from Roy Disney which states it quite elegantly — “When values are clear, decisions are easy”. Very true

If you would like more information about The Disney Way, or any of the concepts presented within, you can check out the book The Disney Way or Bill and Lynn’s website. Again, many, many thanks to Bill for the privilege of interviewing him and for allowing us an advance copy of the updated book