Tag Archives: ” Harvard Business Review
Book on Builder Personality Smashes into Prominence
On June 6, the newest Harvard Business Review publication hit the shelves. It is already in the top 20 in two Amazon.com sub-categories, and debuted at # 3 on the Wall Street Journal best-selling business books hardcover list today (June 17-18, p. C10).
It is: Built for Growth: How Builder 
Personality Shapes Your Business, Your Team, and Your Ability to Win.
What is a builder personality? The book covers four distinct types, all of which are characteristic of highly successful entrepreneurial personalities―the Driver, the Explorer, the Crusader, and the Captain. Each is motivated, makes decisions, manages, and leads their businesses differently. You can even take a quiz to see which type you are, by visiting their website: builtforgrowthbook.com.
From the Amazon.com description: “With assessments and tools, including a brief Builder Personality quiz and in-depth profiles of each builder type, Built for Growth is the ultimate guide for how to play to your strengths, complement and compensate for your gaps, and build a successful business―from startup to scale-up. Its vivid stories and practical advice show how you can unlock the potential of your builder personality to shape your business, your team, and your ability to win in the marketplace.”
The book is receiving strong reviews, largely based upon the strength of the two authors. Here are their biographies, from Amazon.com.
Chris Kuenne is a successful business builder, growth capital investor, and
member of Princeton University’s entrepreneurship faculty. He is the founder of Rosetta, a digital marketing firm sold in 2011 to Publicis Groupe, and the private equity firm Rosemark Capital. He is a frequent speaker to business and entrepreneurial audiences, including the Young Presidents’ Organization, CFO Roundtable, Association for Corporate Growth, and numerous venture capital and industry conferences.
John Danner is a senior fellow at the University of California Berkeley’s Institute for Business Innovation and serves on the faculty of both the Haas School of Business and Princeton University. An experienced entrepreneur and business adviser, he anchors executive leadership courses globally. He speaks widely on innovation, strategy, and entrepreneurship, keynoting corporate events and premier international conferences, and his work is frequently cited in major business media. He is the coauthor of The Other “F” Word: How Smart Leaders, Teams, and Entrepreneurs Put Failure to Work.
Please continue to monitor our blog to see if we select this book for presentation at the First Friday Book Synopsis. That decision will largely depend upon how well it continues to perform on the major best-selling business book lists. It is certainly off to a very strong start.
Do You Know Martin Lindstrom?
On Friday, August 5, I present a synopsis of the best-selling business book, Small Data: The Tiny Clues that Unocover Huge Trends” (New York: St. Martin’s Press, 2016) at the First Friday Book Synopsis in Dallas. You can register by clicking HERE.
But, you may not know much about the author, Martin Lindstrom. Here is a bio from the Washington Speakers’ 
Bureau that represents him (see citation below).
“Martin Lindstrom was named one of TIME magazine’s “World’s 100 Most Influential People” and is the author of several New York Times and Wall Street Journal best-selling books, including Buyology (Doubleday, New York, 2008), Brandwashed (Crown, New York, 2011) and Small Data (St. Martin’s Press, 2016). He is a trusted brand-and-innovation advisor to numerous Fortune 100 companies, including McDonald’s Corporation, PepsiCo, American Express, Microsoft, Nestlé, The Walt Disney Company and GlaxoSmithKline.
“Lindstrom is recognized as one of the world’s leading brand experts, having pioneered the introduction of brands on the Internet (1994), using our five senses in branding (2004), introducing neuroscience in advertising (2007) and exploring the next generation of subconscious communication (2010). He was named a top “Thinkers50 Global Management Thinker” in 2015.
“Due to his groundbreaking work, Lindstrom often features in The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, Bloomberg BusinessWeek, The Washington Post, USA Today, The Economist, Harvard Business Review, The Independent, The Guardian and Der Spiegel. He regularly appears on ABC, CNN, CBS, FOX and the BBC.
“Buyology was voted “pick of the year” by USA Today, and it appeared on ten of the Top 10 best seller lists in the U.S. and worldwide, including The New York Times and The Wall Street Journal. His book BRANDsense was acclaimed by The Wall Street Journal as “…one of the five best marketing books ever published.” His books on branding have been translated into more than 50 languages and published in more than 70 countries worldwide.
“Lindstrom is a regular contributor to Fast Company, TIME and NBC’s Today with his popular “Main Street Makeover” TV series.”
Source: https://www.washingtonspeakers.com/speakers/biography.cfm?SpeakerID=4168
CCN Revives Dual Career Couples Communication Workshop
The Harvard Business Review notes that between 1996 and 2006, the percentage of two-income married couples rose 31% in the US. Today, a whopping 47.5%, of all American married couples are classified as dual-career.
The stress of dual careers on a marriage and family is unbearable for so many. This is manifested through challenges in communication.
As a result, Creative Communication Network is reviving and revising our very first public workshop we ever facilitated, entitled “Dual Career Couples Communication Workshop.”
The format for the new program remains the same. We first taught this in 1998 to couples on a Sunday afternoon between 1:00 and 5:00 in churches and wedding chapels. The fee was only $50 per couple, including materials.
The new fee will be $75 per couple, and each program is restricted to the first twenty couples who enroll. We will still facilitate this in churches and wedding chapels on Sunday afternoons. We will also consider other venues and times as well, as the demand may dictate.
We will offer this revived program as soon as we have completely updated the content with the most current statistics and techniques. Our pledge is to bring the most relevant information and techniques to the participants in the program.
One twist is that we will have a Spanish version for Latina audiences. The facilitator is Carmen Coreas, 
an international consultant, who is bilingual, and who brings a strong spiritual influence to the program. Carmen is pictured to the right.
The agenda is as follows:
WELCOME AND BACKGROUND
IN OUR DUAL CAREER MARRIAGE, HOW CAN MY PARTNER BE A FRIEND AND NOT A STRANGER?
HOW CAN WE TALK WITH EACH OTHER ABOUT “MY DAY’ AT THE END OF THE DAY WHEN WE ARE TOGETHER?
HOW CAN WE CONFRONT EACH OTHER ABOUT IRRITATING ISSUES?
HOW CAN WE USE COMMUNICATION TO MAINTAIN SEX, COMMITMENT, AND INTIMACY IN OUR DUAL CAREER MARRIAGE?
HOW CAN WE STRENGTHEN EMPATHIC LISTENIGN SKILLS AND QUESTIONING TECHNIQUES IN COVERSATIONS WITH EACH OTHER?
We look forward to marketing and publicizing this program very soon.
Look for more information shortly!
Book Titles That Deliberately Inhibit Sales – It’s a Bad Idea!
What kind of sales strategy allows a title of a book to inhibit sales?
You may be all in favor of “telling it like it is,” but shouldn’t that be confined to the pages inside, and not on the spine?
I remember delivering a synopsis several years ago at the First Friday Book Synopsis of a book entitled The No Asshole Rule by Dr. Robert Sutton (Business Plus, 2007) . It actually came 
from an article the author wrote for the Harvard Business Review. It is the correct term. The book, and all of its advice, was clearly about one of them. I always thought the book was really good. It’s not the kind of title, however, you would carry with you during the day, or display on your shelf. You probably wouldn’t want people to know you are reading it. The Park City Club, where we hold the First Friday Book Synopsis, would not even publish the title in its advance publicity in its monthly magazine. People asked me in advance how I would handle the term. I said, I would only say, “A_H_,” and hope I would not slip up. I never did, especially at client sites, and I never have. That took concentration and focus. Why a good book would deliberately cut sales because of an unsavory title is strange to me.
So, here’s another one, released on March 3, 2015. It’s called Moody Bitches, by Dr. Judy Holland (Penguin Press). It’s all about what happens to women when they go off their medications. Do you really want to carry that book around with you?
These aren’t the only ones. I can’t possibly reproduce these titles here. We would lose our license. But, if you will click here, you will see 40 more titles and book covers that will make you wonder how the titles ever got through the planning stage by any marketing professionals. I have to admit that as I went through this site, I gasped and laughed. You will too.
But, how does this happen? Why deliberately inhibit sales by offending consumers, or making them afraid to show others they own the book?
I have to admit this is one reason to read a book on your tablet or phone. No one knows what you’re reading!
Overall, deliberately cutting sales so you can have an offending title is not too bright of an idea in my view.
Another Duo Welch Book Hits the Charts on April 15 – But Ethics?
We’re less than a month away from the release of Jack and Suzy Welch‘s newest work, The Real Life MBA: Your No-BS Guide to Winning the Game, Building a Team, and 
Growing Your Career (Harper Business, 2015). It is a certain best-seller, and pre-orders for the book are rocking the online outlets. Considering their personal backgrounds, perhaps you join me in being perplexed that even before its release, the book ranks #11 in the Amazon.com best-selling list in Business Ethics.
“Say what?” If you don’t know the story, here is a brief account. Suffice it to say that much more detail is available to you through the Internet. Jack’s second wife, Jane Beasley, found out about an affair between Suzy Wetlaufer and Welch. At the time, Suzy was editor-in-chief of the Harvard Business Review. Beasley delivered this information to the publication, and Wetlaufer was forced to resign in early 2002 after admitting to having been involved in an affair with Welch while preparing an interview with him for HBR. Personal and professional ethics? This did not turn out too badly for Beasley. While Welch had crafted a prenupital agreement, she had insisted on a ten-year time limit for its enforceability, and therefore, left the marriage with around $180 million of Welch’s money. That interview was never published. Suzy and Jack married in 2004.
This is not their first co-authored book. Randy Mayeux presented their first one, Winning (Harper Business, 2005) at the First Friday Book Synopsis. It reached # 1 on the New York Times and Wall Street Journal business best-selling lists. We did not present their next co-authored work, Winning: The Answers: Confronting 74 of the Toughest Questions in Business Today (Harper Business, 2006).
They both have another single-authored book. Randy presented a synopsis of Jack: Straight from the Gut (Business Plus, 2003). In 2010, Suzy wrote 10-10-10: A Fast and Powerful Way to Get Unstuck in Love, at Work, and with Your Family (Scribner). Randy gave that synopsis to several of our Creative Communication Network clients. I remember that audiences we delivered that synopsis to were not exactly thrilled at the quality of information transferred. In fact, at the Fort Worth Club, our event planner remarked that she wished she would have selected another book. Maybe her reputation backfired on that one. Of course, she didn’t write that one way to get unstuck is to have an affair with a famous married man. It certainly worked for her.
Note that both of these authors are very competent and successful. History will likely write Jack as the most successful CEO in American history. His style and substance led General Electric to a fast and furious climb to the top of elite and powerful businesses. All the labels, such as “Neutron Jack,” are applicable. His decisions were profound and effective. And, he believed in lifelong learning and professional development, even teaching courses on-site at the GE Learning Center. Many CEO’s don’t even know their company has a learning center, let alone take the time to go teach in it. Suzy’s role at one of the most prestigious business publications gave her strong credibility, as did her work experience at Bain.
Considering their reputation, most likely, this one will also fly to the top. It is not out of the question that you might hear a synopsis of this at our event. In fact, many of our regular attendees may push us very hard to present it. It will be exciting to see what the sub-topics will be from the Table of Contents. Only time will tell whether this one is heavier on style than substance. The title alone is appealing.
But, ethics? Is this really the best resource?
Do You Allow e-Mail to Control Your Day?
In the writing skills course that we teach at Creative Communication Network, entitled Write Your Way to Success, we discuss how to handle e-Mails.
Most of our participants claim they write e-Mails as more than 85% of the type of writing they do on the job.
Obviously, writing e-Mails is often responding to other e-Mails.
And, the question is, do you control e-Mail, or does e-Mail control you?
Do you remember the Southwest Airlines commercials a few years ago, where a woman dropped a cake because she heard a “bing” on her computer, announcing an e-Mail? Or the one where the guy jumped over a cube wall to get to his e-Mail? They were exaggerated events, but not too far from reality.
You likely remember the synopsis of the book that I presented at our First Friday Book Synopsis entitled The Tyranny of e-Mail by John Freeman (Scribner, 2009). In that book, he presented a strong set of hints for writing and reading e-Mails, including scheduling a time to read e-Mails so that you concentrate on what you read and what you write, and so that you control e-Mail, instead of it controlling you. If you missed the original presentation, you can find it on 15MinuteBusinessBooks.com.
I thought this piece published on February 21, 2012 in the Harvard Business Review blog by Amy Gallo, entitled “Stop Email Overload,” was also provacative in the same sense. Click here to read the entire article.
Think about some of these principles. How much more productive would you be if you dictated when and how you went through your e-Mail? What if you decided how e-Mail fit into your day instead of jumping to check it everytime your computer beeped to tell you something new has arrived?
Let’s talk about it really soon!
