Behind the Scenes at Global-Roam

Started reading “Who says elephants can’t dance?” this weekend [later reviewed here] – Louis Gerstner’s account of the turnaround he helped create at IBM from 1993 to 2002.

Though we’re a massively different size of business, I am intrigued by his recount of the position the company was in at the time, and the steps taken to rectify.

I’m particularly intrigued to read on, to find out more about what he did to ensure that the company focus returned to the customer – as this has been one of our central challenges in the changes we’ve been making in the past year or two.

We’ve certainly made some good progress, though I know that there is much more we can do.  The week before last was not one of our better ones – but it won’t be wasted, if we can learn from it.

Back around November 2009 read an article by Roger Martin promoting his new book, and posted about it here.

The book arrived and I read it some time ago, but some developments more recently prompted me to pick it up again.  Given the reliance our company has on product innovation, it was worth reading (even a 2nd time).

The Book	What we thought
“The Design of Business – Why Design Thinking is the Next Competitive Advantage” by Roger Martin	Not a large book, but packs a punch

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Picked this book up off the shelf this weekend and read it straight through (to the consternation of my wife – what will they write about next, she says).

The Book	What we thought
“Getting Naked – a Business Fable” by Patrick Lencioni	Easy read, and worthwhile

As the title implies, it’s written in fictional story form, about the cultural difference between a large downtown “up or out” management consulting firm and a smaller close-knit entrepreneurial one.

It was an quick and easy read – both because of the way in which it was written, and also because it parallels with some of what I’m keen on embedding deep within our own culture as part of our Core Value of Openness.

At a deeper level, my view is that it’s also predicated on a primary value of “Customers First”.

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In some ways, I believe that it is.

I’ll spoil the punch-line -  eighteen months ago I posted about how 10,000 hours of “dedicated practice” are required to reach true mastery of any discipline.

This book is one of several that take up this theme, and which were referenced in the news articles linked in the post above.  Other books include “Outliers”, plus many others we have not read.

The Book	What we thought
“Talent is Overrated” by Geoff Colvin	Well worth reading for greater depth than the articles quoted in the post above

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Had almost reached the end of this book and was thinking that (whilst it did contain some worthwhile information), it did not totally do it for me….

The Book	What we thought
“Know-How: the 8 skills that separate people who perform from those who don’t” by Ram Charan	Solid, not stellar – but the letter’s worth reading!

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…and then I reached his “Letter to a Future Leader”, included at the end of the book (p265) …

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Someone suggested I read this book a long time ago.  Apologies that I can’t remember who, or I would note your name here.

The Book	What we thought
“Chasing the Rabbit” by Steven J Spear	An detailed, challenging read, but well worthwhile

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Because of the extensive and valuable discussion provided by the author, the following teaser does not do justice to the book – you have to read it to gain a real context.

PS - I’ve been told that there’s a newer version of the book available (now titled “High Velocity Edge“) that has a new preface and epilogue to reflect on Toyota’s recent issues.

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I read this book recently, and thought it was worth commenting on, as it touched on a few aspects of my own experiences  over the past 11 years with this company, and another I had a hand in forming.

The Book	What we thought
“The Profit Principle” by Peter Fritz & Jeanne-Vida Douglas	Easy reading, and worth the effort

It’s based on the experiences of serial Australian entrepreneur (Peter Fritz) in building, since 1971, his company (or group of companies) the TCG Group.

There’s much that I agree with about what the authors say.

I also find that I don’t agree with everything at the moment – I recognise that Peter’s had 30 years more experience in business building than I, so maybe these are aspects of lessons ahead I still have to learn.

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I’ve been asked a couple of times recently.

I am keen that all of our people live a value of persistent, ongoing improvement – in order that we can ensure that we achieve our ambitious vision for the business.

I understand that each person will do this in their own style, and want to ensure we support this.

For me, I find reading and reflecting one of the ways that I can achieve this – I know that I am better than I was 11 years ago when I had a hand in starting this business, but I also know that I will need to continue improving, each step of the way in future.

Hence I try to average out at a book every week or two.

To support this we have developed a library that’s probably bigger than those that exist in an average small business – and am happy for others to add their own preferences to our Amazon shopping cart.  Reading patterns tend to follow whatever’s of most interest at the time.

Posting about the books we read is another matter, though.

We try to do this for a couple of reasons, including:

1)  We believe it helps to reinforce whatever learnings we make in reading the book in the first place.

2)  Once written, the posts serve as a ready reference for these key learnings in future (though some of these posts are made restricted, for this reason).

3)  We believe that some of our posts will be useful to readers of the blog.

Note that some of the books we read are pretty average – we only try to post about those that offer us (and hence you) something of value.

If you did happen to purchase the book from Amazon (by clicking through on one of these links), we’d earn a couple of dollars, which would help us to buy (and hence publish reviews of) even more books.

We believe you won’t mind doing us this service.

Unfortunately I certainly was.

Though I have improved, I’m certain I still have much that can still be further improved – hence in some ways I still resemble Chad more than Mike.  I now have more practical tips to help me continue improving.

Let me explain…

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For those who have been frequent readers of this blog, you will understand that I have a number books on the go at any one time.

This makes for eclectic reading, and generally slower progress than would otherwise be the case.

1)  Binary Review

… however I pretty much flew through this one, given it was aligned with our primary core value of “Customers First”, and the other ones as well.

The Book	What we thought
“I love you more than my Dog” by Jeanne Bliss	Just where we are headed

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