There is an overwhelming prevalence of mediocrity in business today. That makes it all the more easier for your business to stand out from the rest of your competition. William Taylor and Polly LaBarre’s book, Mavericks at Work takes us deep into the world of businesses that refuse to accept mediocrity. We learn this by meeting such companies as ING Direct, Commerce Bank, Pixar, Cirque de Soleil, Anthropologie, Southwest Airlines, Jones Soda, and Craigslist.



There is a tendency to be skeptical of business books that focus on defining the characteristics of successful companies and then trying to fit that model to all businesses. I believe this happens due to two biases. First, there is the confirmation bias – creating your theory and then highlighting companies that fit your theory, and second, the survivorship bias – the tendency to ignore all the companies that fit the same criteria but weren’t successful.

That’s not the case with Mavericks at Work. The author’s declare in the opening paragraph:

“We will consider Mavericks at Work a success if it opens your eyes, engages your imagination, and encourages you to think bigger and aim higher.”

I can only speak for myself that they accomplished this. Not once did I find myself doubting any of the material put before me. They aren’t preaching pie in the sky theories. Maverick at Work zeros in on four areas: Competition, Innovation, Customers, and the Workplace. Each area is packed with vivid examples of the ‘maverick’ values in work.

There is no shortage of inspirational passages. I found myself marking the pages up left and right. Exceptional quotes and passages are the norm in Mavericks at Work. After finishing the book and thumbing through, the pages of the book looked like a battle field where red, blue, and black pens had fought for command. Below you can find a word document with all the remarkable quotes from Mavericks at Work. Download it, print it out, use it for inspiration!

Mavericks at Work Quotes

Final Word: Inspirational read on fresh ideas from companies that aren’t taking the ‘normal path’ in business. Small business owners could gain the advantage from this book as it would be easier to adopt these values from an implementation standpoint.

Some more Goodies:

• Mavericks at Work blog
• Guy Kawasaki’s 10 Questions with co-author Patty LaBarre
• Bob Sutton’s (Stanford biz school & design school Professor and author of Hard Facts & The No Asshole Rule) Favorite Maverick blog post

I was wrong with my earlier prediction of The Long Tail wining the Financial Times and Goldman Sachs Business Book of the Year award. I thought Chris Anderson’s highly praised book The Long Tail was a lock for the award. I was wrong. This year’s winner was China Shakes the World by James Kynge. James Kynge (who lives in China) previously worked as the Beijing bureau chief for the Financial Times. China Shakes the World has been applauded for revealing the “complexity and scale” of what is happening in China. If you follow the business books industry you’ll notice the increasing frequency of releases on the subject of China’s (and India’s) rise. Add this one to the top of your list.

Some interesting links regarding the book:

• “Six Great Questions” - Financial Time’s review of the book
• “How can the US, Europe and indeed the rest of the world respond to the emerging giant?” - Q&A with author James Kynge
• “However it is the conclusions of this book that make it worth the reading time. They ought to shock young westerners, whose working lives will be dominated by China, out of their complacency.” - Times Online review of the book

The basic premise of tax deferred retirement accounts such as traditional IRAs or 401Ks is that you are only required to pay taxes after you withdraw funds (typically at retirement). The longer you wait to start drawing on your retirement funds, the longer your money can grow due to the power of compounding.

In Retire Secure! the author outlines several strategies for deferring taxes on retirement accounts for as long as possible so that the retirement funds can grow tax deferred for as long as possible before being taxed by Uncle Sam – significantly reducing your tax bill.



Retire Secure! provides a wide range of details that will help you create an optimal retirement planning strategy. Topics covered include:

• New tax changes for 2006
• An overview of the major retirement account choices – 401Ks, IRAs, etc. as well as trade-off options such as Traditional IRAs vs. Roth IRAs
• Which retirement assets to spend first for maximum tax savings
• Relevant distribution rules and distribution options
• Estate Planning, including tips for stretching your IRA distributions across multiple generations in order to maximize tax savings
• Strategies for maximizing charitable donations

Pros:

• Provides a valuable source of tax saving strategies
• Provides good overview of retirement account options and trade-offs
• Mini case studies in each chapter provide excellent real-life examples

Cons: Relatively brief treatment of how to accumulate retirement savings. This book is intended for audiences that are close to retirement and can benefit from effective tax planning when starting to take retirement distributions.

Recommendation: A must-read for maximizing your retirement nest egg. Provides a valuable source of information for those nearing retirement age to effectively defer taxes on their retirement savings for as long as possible and benefit from significant tax savings.

Check out the Retire Secure! website for more information on the book.

Whenever anything reaches it’s final stage it typically involves a period of reflection. When projects end you’ll look back at the positives and negatives - looking for areas of improvements. Each year around December, companies hold annual meetings with employees to give results of the various goals that were set. Managers meet with employees to go over yearly performance goals. You might even find yourself reflecting on personal goals you set for yourself. The examples are endless.

The same will be done some day when your career is reaching its final leg. You will reflect back and think about the effect you had on the various companies you worked for. The question that should resonate with you is:

What type of impact did you have on your company?

It’s safe to say that most of us want to leave a lasting, positive impression on those you work with and the companies that employ you. No one wants to be a forgettable name or face whose only contribution to work was taking home a paycheck. The goal should be to attain a legacy.



In “Your Leadership Legacy”, Robert Galford and Regina Maruca have designed a comprehensive plan for working on your legacy; they open the book with the following:

“Is it ever too early to think about the kind of long-term impact you’ll have on your organization? Is it ever too early to think about what people will think, say, or do, after your tenure was as a leader has ended, as a result of having worked for you?” - Your Leadership Legacy

The obvious answer (and the whole premise of why the book was written) is a resounding “NO”. They want you to think about your legacy. Does it exist? What would people say about it? How will you achieve it? First things first, you won’t achieve a legacy without first establishing what it will be. What do you want your legacy to be? A key portion of the book is creating your legacy statement. Your legacy statement will embody your behaviors, values, and approaches to leading and managing. “Your Leadership Legacy” shows you how to craft it.

“A leadership legacy is the impact you have (that is, the scope and scale of your influence on others) over the duration of your time in a given position or at a given company, all colored by the judgment, or guiding principles, that you apply most consistenly to your decisions.” - Robert M. Galford and Regina Fazio Maruca

When reading over the legacy statement section, I was reminded of Steven Covey’s process of building a personal ‘mission statement’. One of Covey’s primary practices is imagining your eulogy and what you would like to be said about yourself. While not as morbid as Covey’s example, Galford and Murca run you through a similar exercise. The ‘future you’ looking back is a great way to know what you want your end product, or legacy, to be.

Galford and Murca’s process doesn’t stop at building the legacy statement. Once you create your statement it’s time to ‘pressure test’ it against reality. While it may sound great on paper does your desired legacy have a chance? Are you the right person for this legacy? And if so, are you in the right position to develop it? Again, soliciting feedback is crucial in this process. It will help fight against any personal bias that you hold. The last step involves reflecting on your daily actions. What strengths can you build on that will help you achieve your legacy? What actions and traits are holding you back? By using the “Stop, start, continue, do, and avoid..” process you are able to discover the answer to these questions.

The authors also convey the importance of frequently returning to your statement to verify that you are on the right path to achieve your legacy. The authors call this dynamic process the “Legacy Audit”. Again, seeking feedback must never be complete and will remain the truth serum for your legacy. As with anything important in life, you will need to work on keeping this practice going.

While this book may be far reaching for those who don’t usually enjoy high level, fuzzy views on leadership, it will be useful to anyone interested in leadership. It contains many case studies, examples of their processes in use, and useful tools to help you look forward to your leadership legacy.

Check out the Your Leadership Legacy website for more information on the authors and the book.

With 2006 coming to a close it’s time for the “Best of” business book lists to emerge from the various media outlets. Scanning the various lists confirms editors and readers alike agree that “The Long Tail” by Chris Anderson should be ranked as one of the top business books of 2006. My prediction (if it’s not obvious from the lists below) is that it will take home the Financial Times / Goldman Sachs Business Book of the Year Award. You can view the shortlist of books up for the award here. It seems like yesterday when titles such as “Freakonomics”, “Blink”, and “The World is Flat” populated these lists!

2006 Amazon.com Editors Business Book Picks

1. The Long Tail: Why the Future of Business Is Selling Less of More
2. Making Globalization Work
3. Success Built To Last
4. The Starfish and the Spider
5. Knowledge and the Wealth Of Nations: A Story of Economic Discovery
6. Origin of Wealth: Evolution, Complexity, and the Radical Remaking of Economics
7. Stumbling on Happiness
8. Mavericks at Work: Why the Most Original Minds in Business Win
9. Changing Minds: The Art And Science of Changing Our Own And Other People’s Minds (Leadership for the Common Good)
10. Setting the Table: The Transforming Power of Hospitality in Business

Top Selling Business Books in 2006 for Amazon.com

1. Rule #1: The Simple Strategy for Successful Investing in Only 15 Minutes a Week!
2. The Long Tail: Why the Future of Business Is Selling Less of More
3. Hedgehogging
4. Little Red Book of Sales Answers: 99.5 Real World Answers That Make Sense, Make Sales, and Make Money
5. Why We Want You to be Rich: Two Men - One Message*
6. The Automatic Millionaire Homeowner: A Powerful Plan to Finish Rich in Real Estate
7. The 360 Degree Leader: Developing Your Influence from Anywhere in the Organization
8. Silos, Politics and Turf Wars: A Leadership Fable About Destroying the Barriers That Turn Colleagues Into Competitors
9. The Wal-Mart Effect: How the World’s Most Powerful Company Really Works–and How It’s Transforming the American Economy
10. The Coming Economic Collapse: How You Can Thrive When Oil Costs $200 a Barrel

800CEORead’s Jack Coverts Best Business Books

• China Shakes the World by James Kynge
• The Road by Cormac McCarthy
• Chasing Daylight by Eugene O’Kelly
• The Box by Marc Levinson
• The Echoing Green: The Untold Story of Bobby Thomson, Ralph Branca and the Shot Heard Round the World by Joshua Prager
• Uncommon Carriers by John McPhee
• Stumbling on Happiness by Daniel Gilbert
• Water for Elephants by Sara Gruen
• The Wal-Mart Effect by Charles Fishman

BusinessWeek Best of 2006

• The Box: How the Shipping Container Made the World Smaller and the World Economy Bigger
• Hershey: Milton S. Hershey’s Extraordinary Life of Wealth, Empire, and Utopian Dreams
• Andrew Carnegie
• The Sack of Rome: How a Beautiful European Country with a Fabled History and a Storied Culture Was Taken Over by a Man Named Silvio Berlusconi
• Andy Grove: The Life and Times of an American
• Innovation: The Five Disciplines for Creating What Customers Want
• The Long Tail: Why the Future of Business Is Selling Less of More
• The Poker Face of Wall Street
• Why Most Things Fail: Evolution, Extinction & Economics
• More Than You Know: Finding Financial Wisdom in Unconventional Places

Have you ever attended an industry or networking event where you met lots of people, received a stack of business cards, but did not make any lasting connections? What if you had a compass for establishing rich relationships based on human nature the next time you attended such an event?



Jeffrey Gitomer’s “Little Black Book of Connections: 6.5 Assets for Networking Your Way to Rich Relationships” provides readers with a step-by-step approach for establishing rich relationships. The author offers a combination of practical advice for connecting with people and more general insight into human behavior.

According to the author, successfully establishing rich relationships involves:

• identifying who you already know
• defining your goals for connecting
• identifying people that can help you achieve these goals
• most importantly, providing value first so that people are inclined to want to connect with you

Once you have identified the people you would like to connect with, the author provides tips how to go about establishing relationships with them.

Pros: Provides a valuable step-by-step approach for establishing rich relationships based on human nature.

Cons: The chapters use a variety of text formats and font sizes, which can take time for readers to get used to.

Recommendation: A must-read for anyone interested in improving their ability to connect with others. Little Black Book of Connections is a great book describing the do’s and don’t of establishing lasting relationships.

I think the small business market gets overshadowed in the business book world. When you look at the titles that are released yearly they tend to focus either on the individual (leadership, effective communication, ect) or a broader base audience. Although they are considered great books, “Good to Great” by Jim Collins or “Freakonomics” by Steven Levitt and Stephen Dubner aren’t going to help you with your small business’s success. That’s why it was a breath of fresh air when I found “Small Business Cash Flow: Strategies for Making your Business a Financial Success” by Denise O’Berry show up in my mailbox.



In what I feel is aimed more towards the freshly minted small business, Small Business Cash Flow offers practical advice in a format which could be read in one sitting. It is vital for small businesses to understand the importance of cash flow because it is directly correlated with the probability of succeeding in your venture. There is more to the equation of succeeding in business than cash flow. This is a no brainer. But, if cash isn’t managed with a watchful eye you will find yourself in a predicament which could result in your businesses demise.

Some key points that I felt were worth mentioning;

• Denise stresses the importance of having a close relationship with an accountant, emphasizing that having the ‘right’ accountant is one of the most important pillars of your business foundation. What does ‘right’ accountant mean? It depends on the current state of your business. This is why she provides a questionnaire to bring with you when interviewing potential accountants.
• Understanding how money works in your business is another important skill to master. This may seem obvious, but for many small businesses (ma & pa shops for instance) this isn’t practiced. Leave the detailed number crunching for your accountant, but have knowledge of the various ways cash flows in and out of your business. Don’t be ignorant about your finances!
• Record keeping is your tool for future business decisions. Not keeping records of your business (budget, current cash flow, outflows, ect) is analogous to walking with your head pointed up to the sky. You don’t know where you are standing. How will you make future decisions (like taking on more business) if you don’t know the current state of your business?
• Denise also stresses the importance of marketing. Her rule of thumb is 50% of your time should be spent on marketing. Although this may not be viable for those small businesses that consist of 1 or 2 people, it’s a good figure to aim for. How else is the product or service you are selling going to be noticed by customers? One area which she doesn’t mention, which I find a weighty mistake, is not mentioning about maintaining a blog. Blogs are the best way to separate yourself from competition, keep customers informed, and help build a brand. For refrence on blogs, refer to a book we featured, “Blogging for Business” by Shel Holtz and Ted Demopoulos. It covers everything you need to know about blogs.

Overall this book is a good read for anyone interested in starting their own business. “Small Business Cash Flow” will provide them with the proper steps to take to increase their chances in succeeding.

Fortune named this book “One of the smartest books of all time..”. It also has received praise from Financial Times as previously being named one of the Best Business Books of the Year. Praise is one thing this book isn’t lacking and I don’t think any review would do this book justice. Flatly put, this book is a must read.



When you think of terms such as randomness, probability, and induction you may get shivers up your spine. Don’t worry, it’s not back pain. These shivers are caused by memories of dry, monotonous writing that usually fill the text books on these subjects. Nassim Taleb has managed to do the impossible and it’s in the form of a book called “Fooled by Randomness: The Hidden Role of Chance in Life and the Markets”. Nassim has written a thought provoking book on randomness and has accomplished this through text which reads like a novel. As he explains in the preface, his aim when writing this book was to ‘avoid discussing…anything that I have not distilled well enough to be able to write on the subject with only the slightest effort’. Nassim is a fascinating individual who has a vast amount of knowledge on the numerous subjects which intersect with randomness such as: finance (Does the successful track record of a trader or money manager predict future success?), communication theory (Noise vs. Signal - Reading the Wall Street Journal is futile), and social aspects (gambling, superstitions). Nassim is also the originator of the ‘black swan’ theory - our inability to take into account of ‘unforseeable events’. I can attest that after reading this you’ll have a different outlook on life’s outcomes.

Check out the following links for more on Nassim:

• “Blowing Up” an article by Malcolm Gladwell
• “What Do We Know - The Scandel of Prediction” (direct MP3 download link) - Podcast featuring Nassim

This past February BizBookTalk highlighted Rafi Mohammed’s book “The Art of Pricing”. In what could be considered the definitive guide on pricing, Rafi’’s book offers invaluable advice on creating the best pricing strategy for your product. The upside also being that this advice can be converted into actions on Monday morning.

In his inexhaustible effort to spread his knowledge on pricing, Rafi has created a website dedicated to his pricing strategies. He envisions this website will become the “hub of new pricing ideas” on the Internet. The site titled ‘Pricing for Profit’ offers rich content, an interactive value decoder that will help visitors find their right product price, and a blog which offers Rafi’s insights on pricing. Reads may find the most helpful section being the Pricing Q&A. This section provides answers to pricing questions which you would like Rafi’s advice on.

Check out the site at www.pricingforprofits.com