Business Book Summaries

We are in the midst of a worldwide economic shift. Thousands of people are losing their jobs every day. Many have experienced successful business careers, but now their employers are dumping them. Those who have lost their jobs may be shell-shocked, but many will have a relatively soft landing: a corporate buyout, an early retirement package, or a pension. Having a bundle of cash to cushion the shock is certainly better than wondering how you are going to cover next month’s mortgage payment. But, that cash can do some real damage to you depending on your state of mind.

For many, buying a franchise after a bad work experience is a little bit like a rebound romance. You’ve been unexpectedly jilted. Your confidence is shaken. To distract yourself, you start Googling and clicking, and before you know it, you’re a franchisee. You’re still hurting from what happened in your job as you embark on something that will test your limits as nothing has before. You are not running toward something as much as running away from something—the pain of losing what you had before. And, it’s just a matter of time before you can’t run fast enough or far enough to get away from yourself.

This book is for people who may be caught up in the economic turmoil of our day; for those who have reached a point in their corporate careers where they’ve achieved success, have a lot to show for it, and just want out of the rat race; and it’s for those who seek coaching through the early stages of franchised and small business so they can create the success they deserve.

Here is an excerpt from the book, "Franchise: Freedom or Fantasy? – How to Know if a Franchise is Right for You After Your Corporate Career", by Mitchell York

Networking Marketing as an Alternative to Franchising

If you conclude that starting a business is the right thing for you, but you do not want to take on the risk of starting something from scratch or buying an expensive franchise, there are other viable alternatives such as Network Marketing, also called Multi-Level Marketing (MLM).

Just as franchisors sell their products through a series of franchisees, other companies sell through independent sales representatives. These reps or distributors are unsalaried but receive commissions from the parent company based on the volume of product they sell. They also receive commissions when they sign up others to become distributors.

You have to understand what is motivating you to consider starting your own business. Nowadays, it is all too common to see people gravitate to business ownership as a default to other possibilities. Because of layoffs, downsizings, and corporate buyouts, hundreds of thousands of people are losing their appetite for the corporate world and traditional jobs. It’s natural at least to consider starting your own business as one alternative to getting back on the corporate horse.

But for some, all they really need is a vacation, a hobby, or some other mechanism to get their equilibrium back and land another job. Are you sure that’s not a possibility for you? It’s guaranteed to be easier than starting a business. If it’s no longer an option and you must start a business to have the contentment and peace of mind you’re after, then more power to you.

If you are serious about making the transition from executive to entrepreneur, you should hire a professional – a certified business coach who has walked in your shoes and who has helped other people like you.

Making this transition can be a solitary and lonely road, but it doesn’t have to be. It can also be an invigorating self-discovery journey that leads to tremendous personal empowerment and fulfillment. A coach can help you navigate your way to a positive outcome by helping you shape your dreams into goals that can be methodically achieved.

Your family can help you come to the right decision if you involve them deeply in the process.

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A black swan is a highly improbable event with three principal characteristics: It is unpredictable; it carries a massive impact; and, afterwards, we concoct an explanation that makes the event appear less random and more predictable than it was. The astonishing success of Google was a black swan and so was 9/11.

For Nassim Nicholas Taleb, black swans underlie almost everything about our world – from the rise of religions to events in our personal lives. But because humans are hardwired to learn specifics when they should be focused on generalities, we are unable to truly estimate opportunities and are not open enough to rewarding those who can imagine the “impossible.”

Elegant, startling, and universal in its applications, The Black Swan is a landmark book that will change the way you look at the world.

The revelations in this book explain everything you know about what you don’t know. It offers surprisingly simple tricks for dealing with black swans and benefiting from them.

Here is an excerpt from the book, "The Black Swan: The Impact of the Highly Improbable", by Nassim Nicholas Taleb

THE NARRATIVE FALLACY We fool ourselves with stories that cater to our Platonic thirst for distinct patterns: the narrative fallacy.

We like stories, we like to summarize, and we like to simplify, to reduce the dimension of matters. The fallacy is associated with our vulnerability to over-interpretation and our predilection for compact stories over raw truths. It severely distorts our mental representation of the world. It is particularly acute when it comes to the rare event.

The narrative fallacy addresses our limited ability to look at sequences of events without weaving an explanation into them, or, equivalently, forcing a logical link or an arrow of a relationship, upon them. Explanations bind facts together. They make them all the more easily remembered. They help them make more sense. Where this propensity can go wrong is when it increases our impression of understanding.

There is another, even deeper reason. for our inclination to narrate and it is not psychological. It has something to do with the effect of order on information storage and retrieval in any system, and it’s worth explaining here because of what is considered as the central problems of probability and information theory.

o The first problem is that information is costly to obtain.

o The second problem is that information is also costly to store – like real estate in New York. The more elderly, less random, patterned, and narrated a series of words or symbols are, the easier it is to store that series in one’s mind or jot it down in a book so your grandchildren can read it someday.

o Finally, information is costly to manipulate and retrieve.

We, members of the human variety of primates, have a hunger for rules because we need to reduce the dimension of matters so they can get into our heads. Or, rather sadly, so we can squeeze then into our heads. The more random information is, the greater the dimensionality, and thus, the more difficult it would be to summarize. The more you summarize, the more order you put in and the less randomness it becomes. Hence, the same condition that makes us simplify pushes us to think that the world is less random than it actually is.

And the Black Swan is what we leave out of simplification.

Indeed, many severe psychological disorders accompany the feeling of losing control of – being able to “make sense” of – one’s environment. Platonicity affects us here once again. The very same desire for order, interestingly applies to scientific pursuits – it is just that. Unlike art, the purpose of science is to get to the truth, and not to give you a feeling of organization, or make you feel better. We tend to use knowledge as therapy.

Technorati tags: book summaries, business books, business productivity, self improvement

When you've only got a minute for management you haven't got a minute to waste.

As a manager your main function is to get things done, and to get things done you have to get other people to do them, and to get other people to do them you have to get them to understand what needs to be done. And here is where the problem lies, getting them to understand what needs to be done and then getting them to do it.

So today we are going to talk about the art of delegation.

The first step is Be clear on what it is you want done.

There is nothing so frustrating to all involved as unclear instructions. You need to know what needs to be done. What is needed to get it done. Who will you get to do it. Who will be involved in doing it. By when it should be done. And. What it should look like if done properly. So before you delegate, ruminate, think it through. Decide on and describe the performance expectations of this task. Now that you know what you want done and the way that you want it done you can

Inform all participants

All too often we inform/instruct the person that we are delegating the task to and then expect them to notify all others involved. This is not a good strategy. Often there are "relationship" problems and/or "rank" problems that get in the way. The poor delagee (the one delegated to) then has the problem of trying to elicit the support and co-operation of others. When you delegate a job that requires the input of others make sure that you inform them and let them know what will be expected of them.

Ensure Understanding

One of the main causes of conflict in any relationship is misunderstanding. In the workplace this is all too prevalent. I can't tell you how many times we deal with complaints that the work wasn't done properly and when we ask "Did the person know what to do" the answer is "He/she should have known"

Let's understand something clearly here. As a manager it is your responsibility to make sure that they know what to do and how to do it. If the job bombs it is your career on the line. You are never going to get sympathy because the people who report to you do not perform well.

Now ensuring understanding is not getting the delagee to repeat the message/instruction. This just shows that they have a functioning short term memory, it does not show that the understood the instruction. Let the delagee explain to you what they think that they have to do. You need to know that they have the same picture that you have

Ensure Capability

Can the person actually do the job? This goes far beyond merely the skills to get the job done. You must ensure that the person has access to the resources necessary to get the job done. These resources will, depending on the nature of the task include:

Skills Equipment Authority Time Place Budget Assistance Key question: How will doing this job affect the delagee's other jobs?

Monitor Progress

How often have you experienced the situation where you either give, or were given a task, and there is no review until delivery day. (which all too often is Judgment Day). You have given the task. You have an expectation of certain results. You are the one who will benefit from a job well done. So. It is up to you to make sure that you get what you want. Leaving the task in the hands of someone else is foolish.

When you design the task identify critical progress points and make sure that you get feedback regarding progress and achievement. The more often you review the more likely you are to have a successful project and the fewer problems you will experience.

Key principle 1 – Never presume competence.

The less experience you have with ability of the person that you have delegated to the closer you must monitor the job. Once experience proves competence you can relax your management style, but that does not mean that you must not stay on top of things it just means that you do not have to always be on top of the delagee.

Key principle 2 – You can manage from a distance but. Never distance yourself from your management

You can delegate tasks and accountability but you carry ultimate responsibility

Quote for the week: The response to communication is always based on the interpretation of the recipient and not the intent of the sender.

Johan Campbell – The Corporate Healer – Life and Business Coach A professional speaker and trainer, Johan delivers exciting and empowering presentations, seminars and workshops. As a life and business coach he gives practical advice and counselling that you can immediately use to transform your life. Johan has the ability to make the most complicated subject easy to understand and the most sensitive subject easy to deal with. He is the author of: "Thoughts to live by" Vol 1 and 2 compilations of 99 specially selected inspirational and motivational messages "A Staff Management Toolbox" a complete "do it yourself" Human Resources guide. "A Practical guide to Performance Management" "Thoughts For Every Day" 365 empowering and educating passages and quotes to enrich your life "Living Your Best Life" inspiration in your InBox (A free service) You can get more information, and subscribe to "Living your Best Life" at http://www.motivate.co.za/ motivate – the site that's designed to Motivate Uplift Stimulate and Educate. Your 1 stop personal and business development shop.

Technorati tags: business management, management, business productivity, leadership

Nudge is about choices – how we make them and how we’re led to make better ones. Authors Richard H. Thaler and Cass R. Sunstein offer a new perspective on how to prevent the countless bad mistakes we make in our lives, including ill-advised personal investments, consumption of unhealthy foods, neglect of our natural resources, and other numerous bad decisions regarding health care, our families, and education.

Choice architecture and its effects cannot be avoided, and so the short answer is an obvious one, call it the golden rule of libertarian paternalism: offer nudges that are most likely to help and least likely to inflict harm. A slightly longer answer is that people will need nudges for decisions that are difficult and rare, for which they do not get prompt feedback, and when they have trouble translating aspects of the situation into terms that they can easily understand.

The key point is that for all their virtues, markets often give companies a strong incentive to cater to (and profit from) human frailties, rather than to try to eradicate them or to minimize their effects.

Citing decades of cutting-edge behavioral science research, they demonstrate that sensible “choice architecture” can successfully nudge people toward the best decision without restricting their freedom of choice.

This informative and entertaining book is a must read for anyone with an interest in individual and collective well-being.  It will change the way you think, not only about the world around you and some of its bigger problems, but also about yourself.

Here is an excerpt from the book, " Nudge: Improving Decisions About Health, Wealth, and Happiness, by Richard H. Thaler and Cass R. Sunstein

FRAUGHT CHOICES

Suppose you are told that a group of people will have to make some choice in the near future. You are the choice architect. You are trying to decide how to design the choice environment, what kinds of nudges to offer, and how subtle the nudges should be. What do you need to know to design the best possible choice environment?

Benefits Now – Costs later. It is seen that predictable problems arise when people must make decisions that test their capacity for self-control. Many choices in life, such as whether to wear a blue shirt or a white one, lack important self-control elements. Self-control issues are most likely to arise when choices and their consequences are separated in time.

Degree of Difficulty. Nearly everyone over the age of six can tie shoelaces, play a respectable game of tic-tac-toe, and spell the word cat. But only a few of us can tie a decent bow tie, play a masterly game of chess, or spell the name of the psychologist Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi. Of course, individuals learn to cope with the harder problems. They can buy a prettied bow tie, read a book about chess, and look up the spelling of Csikszentmihalyi on the Web. They use spell checkers and spreadsheets to help with harder problems. But many problems in life are quite difficult, and often there is no technology as easy as a spell checker available to help. People are likely to need more help picking the right mortgage than choosing the right loaf of bread.

Frequency. Even hard problems become easier with practice. We have managed to learn how to serve a tennis ball into the service court with reasonable regularity, but it took some time. The first time people try to execute this motion, they are lucky if the ball goes over the net, much less into the service box. Practice makes perfect (or at least better).

Feedback. Even practice does not make perfect if people lack good opportunities for learning. Learning is most likely if people get immediate, clear feedback after each try. If you take the long route home every night, you may never learn there is a shorter one. Long-term processes rarely provide good feedback. When feedback does not work, we may benefit from a nudge.

Knowing what you like. It is particularly hard for people to make good decisions when they have trouble translating the choices they face into the experiences they will have. A simple example is ordering a dish from a menu in a language you do not understand. But even when you do know the meaning of the words being used, you may not be able to translate the alternatives you are considering into terms that make the slightest sense to you.

Technorati tags: book summaries, business books, business productivity, self improvement

For more tips on how to be a successful manager and have more impact on the people you work with, claim your free copy of The Book Of 100 Management Tips by Alan Matthews. Get it now from http://www.trainofthoughtcourses.com It's packed with practical information to help you deal with all sorts of difficult people and situations.

Technorati tags: management, business books, business productivity, book excepts

“Try this career choice standard on for size.

Will this choice allow me to:

• Spend the greatest amount of time
• Absorbed in activities and relationships that fill me up
• While surrounding myself with people I cannot get enough of, and
• Earning enough to live comfortably in the world?

"Planned change takes courage and tenacity. Even organizations with a burning platform, effective leaders, and well-crafted plans can sometimes miss the mark because they fail to recognize early signals that the seeds for derailment are being sown or they fail to realize the power of the signals they are sending via decisions that are unsupportive of the culture change commitment. Derailment is much more likely during periods of organizational anxiety from economic challenge, organizational shift (like a major merger or new competitor), or a change in senior leadership. However, these high profile hazards are easier to spot and therefore simpler to combat. It is the more subtle shifts that can do the most damage before their presence is even noticed.”

“You can’t manufacture time, you can’t reproduce time, you can’t slow time down or turn it around and make it run in the other direction.

You can’t trade bad hours for good ones, either. About all the time management you can do is to cram as much productive work as possible into each day.

What you can manage, however, is your attention.

Attention is a resource we all possess. It’s a lot like time. In fact, as long as we are awake, we produce a continuous stream of it. But how effectively do we use this valuable resource? That depends on where we direct our attention and how intensely we keep it focused to produce the desired results.”

“It’s not sexy. It’s not tracking as a Twitter trend. And it’s not a YouTube sensation.

In fact, by current reputation, it’s dirty, it (sometimes) smells, it forces you to interact with people you don’t know, it’s slow, and inconvenient. But it shouldn’t be.

Or at least, it shouldn’t be positioned and marketed like it is.

Here’s the problem with 'it.' Its competitors are some of the largest, most renowned companies in the world, and despite the current 'crisis' affecting the automobile industry, it doesn’t stand a chance. 'It' is public transportation, and 'it' is hurting.

So what’s the problem? It’s simple; your butt is in the wrong seat.”

“Education shouldn’t be about adding more to our lists of HAVE’s, DO’s , and BE’s, but rather thinking outside the lines, intentionally about the BE’s, DO’s, and HAVE’s that matter most.

The 21st century world needs learners to BE critical, BE creative, and BE strategic. The 21st century world demands learners to DO their own thinking, rather than relying on someone else to think for them. The 21st century world expects learners to HAVE the endurance, fortitude, and courage to brave through each new challenge with confidence and competence.”