Book Description

"There's never been a better time to have big ideas." --from the Foreword by Nathan Myhrvold

Creating new possibilities. Finding hidden problems. Blasting through knowledge barriers. That's the job of inventors. And just as invention has fueled the progress of humankind for centuries, the same thinking patterns that produced breakthroughs from the steam engine to the gene sequencer will spawn the inventions on which we'll build our future.

But what drives invention? Where do the mental leap, the "Aha!" and the "Eureka!" come from? What makes one person, company, or country more inventive than another? What motivates someone to search for a problem, brainstorm a solution, and create that next big thing?

This groundbreaking book takes us inside the laboratories and the minds of some of today's most prolific inventors to demystify the process by which they imagine and create. Evan I. Schwartz argues that invention is less about serendipity and genius than it is about a relentless inner compulsion to question and discover. This creative energy, says Schwartz, is the fuel-the "juice"-that drives the best inventors. And this special form of creativity is latent in each of us.

Juice juxtaposes the stories of classic inventors with a new breed of innovators, such as hypersonic sound inventor Woody Norris, genomics pioneer Lee Hood, mechanical whiz Dean Kamen, business systems inventor Jay Walker, and biomimicry trailblazer James McLurkin. Schwartz reveals the brilliant strategies-such as crossing knowledge boundaries, visualizing results, applying analogies, and embracing failure-that enable inventors to transform improbable ideas into reality. We learn, for example, how a connection between slot machines and pill-bottle caps might improve the world of preventive medicine; how mud and weeds are being used to help carry a nation out of poverty; and how the development of a diagnostic nanochip could extend human lifespans.

Powerful and inspiring, Juice will convince you that anything imaginable is possible. There is so much left to be invented. Let's turn on the juice. ... Read more

Book Description

Today's young leaders grew up in the glow of television and computers; the leaders of their grandparents' generation in the shadow of the Depression and World War II. In a groundbreaking study of these two disparate groups-affectionately labeled "geeks" and "geezers"-legendary leadership expert Warren Bennis and leadership consultant Robert Thomas set out to find out how era and values shape those who lead. What they discovered was something far more profound: the powerful process through which leaders of any era emerge.

Geeks and Geezers is a book that will forever change how we view not just leadership-but the very way we learn and ultimately live our lives. It presents for the first time a compelling new model that predicts who is likely to become-and remain-a leader, and why.

At the heart of this model are what the authors call "crucibles"-utterly transforming periods of testing from which one can emerge either hopelessly broken, or powerfully emboldened to learn and to lead. Whether losing an election or burying a child, learning from a mentor or mastering a martial art, crucibles are turning points: defining events that force us to decide who we are and what we are capable of.

Through the candid and often deeply moving crucibles of pioneering journalist Mike Wallace to new economy entrepreneur Michael Klein, from New York Stock Exchange trailblazer Muriel Siebert to environmental crusader Tara Church, Geeks and Geezers illustrates the stunning metamorphoses of true leaders. It also reveals the critical traits they share, including adaptability, vision, integrity, unquenchable optimism, and "neoteny"-a youthful curiosity and zest for knowledge.

Highlighting the forces that enable any of us to learn and lead not for a time, but for a lifetime, this book is essential reading for geeks, geezers, and everyone in between.

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Reviews (9)

Disappointed
As a management and leadership literature junkie I always anticipate anything new from Dr Bennis. I have to say this one was disappointing. The generational perspective was novel but un-enlightening. And the basic leadership principles discussed was stuff hashed over any number of times in other texts and previous work by others including Dr Bennis. Admittedly I found myself skipping through pages because I couldn't take another lame example of how "insightful" these twenty-something dot commers were. Comparing their "crucible" of growing up with divorced parents and a TV babysitter with the previous generations' crucibles of watching their buddies shot on the battlefields of WWII or sitting in prison for sixteen years is in my opinion no comparison at all. I'm surprised Dr Bennis as a bronze star recipient himself would allow such an arbitrary parallel to be made. There is a respectful appeal for a return to national leadership and service in the last few pages of the book but this seems too little too late. I'll hold out for the next Bennis book to be a return to the quality I've seen in the past.

Out of the Crucible of Life comes Leadership
Geeks & Geezers by Warren G. Bennis and Robert J. Thomas is about how Era, Values, and Defining Moments Shape Leaders. And it does an excellent job of pointing out the differences between our generations. This Harvard Business School Press publication is definitely useful in understanding the way folks in my parents' generation (the Geezers) react to those in my children's generation (Geek) . Based on their definitions for Geeks and Geezers, I am in between the two, yet most of my acquaintances put me in the Geek category due to my love of and work in the world of technology.

The basic premise of this book is that all leaders must go through a "crucible" of some kind. The kind of leadership characteristics we have may be different because of our environments (Geezers defined by WWII, Parental fallibility, etc. and Geeks by abundance, opportunity, technology and globalization), but every leader is tested somehow. The different environments and experiences affects the needs, wants, character and maturation process for these people and therefore define the differences in leadership style.

After exploring historical experiences and interviewing both groups, the authors complete their leadership model with Era and Individual factors feeding into the crucible of Experiences. The crucible heats up experiences and organization of meaning that develops Leadership competencies. The crucible might be military service in the case of the Geezer of business failure in the case of the Geeks, but whatever that life changing crucible is, it is the one thing that is common to leadership. This book is worth your time and consideration if for no other reason than to understand the value of the crucible we may now be going through in our contracting economy - this so called job-loss recovery.

Okay, I dont get it, isnt this stuff just common sense???
I have just finished watching Bennis talk about his book on C-Span's book reviews and have just read the individual book reviews here--and I don't get it. Isn't this stuff just common sense? Leaders have to be resilient? Leaders have to have charisma? Leaders have to be deep and have a vision that comes from introspection? Leaders have to have a moral compass? And the one I truly don't get is why the hoopla over the "crucible". My goodness, who has gone through life without a "crucible" experience? We are all men of clay--put into the kiln of life to see what comes out--if anything is patently obvious you would think that would be. What comes out of the other end of the crucible for Bennis is the myopic focus on "leaders". So what I get out of this is that Warren Bennis is a genius in finding the center of the watermellon--an easy life in southern California writing about stuff that is just plain obvious--and getting paid wildly for it. Bennis came out of the crucible not as a leader, but as crafty. How about you?

Leadership Development Model - reflective & useful
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What I find most thought provoking is the authors' notion of the crucible (difficult event/test such as failure, imprisonment, or any personal defining moment) as an important input towards shaping the competencies of the leader as he/she extracts wisdom after having endured it.

The bulk of this book explicates the Leadership Development Model and how it applies to leaders of all ages, both geeks and geezers. In this Model, individual factors (e.g. gender, IQ, race) and the era (with a given shared history/culture/arena) determine how the leader would interpret the crucible, which in turn impacts the development of four leadership competencies:
1. adaptive capacity - hardiness & learning how to learn is key
2. engaging others by creating shared meaning
3. voice (purpose indentified after periods of self-introspection; EQ)
4. strong moral compass or integrity.

I applaud the authors for the elegance of the Model, and its usefulness in serving as a framework for self-introspection - so crucial in the development of timeless leadership.

Identifying Adaptive Capacity as a key leadership trait
This latest addition to the leadership category finally offers a useful, applicable model to those interested in developing their own leadership skills as well as those around them. I found the concept of "adaptive capacity" to be particularly helpful. In these times of economic uncertainty, change, and management failures, I now have a better sense of the leaders to seek out: those resilient individuals who adapt, thrive, and lead because of their ability to "confront unfamiliar situations with confidence and optimism". ... Read more

Book Description

Lessons from Famous "Invention Factories" Past and Present

Did you know that the incandescent lightbulb first emerged some thirty years before Thomas Edison famously "turned night into day"? Or that Henry Ford's revolutionary assembly line came from an unlikely blend of observations from Singer sewing machines, meatpacking, and Campbell's Soup?

In this fascinating study of innovation, engineer and social scientist Andrew Hargadon argues that our romantic notions about innovation as invention are actually undermining our ability to pursue breakthrough innovations.

Based on ten years of study into the origins of historic inventions and modern innovations from the lightbulb to the transistor to the Reebok Pump athletic shoe, How Breakthroughs Happen takes us beyond the simple recognition that revolutionary innovations do not result from flashes of brilliance by lone inventors or organizations. In fact, innovation is really about creatively recombining ideas, people, and objects from past technologies in ways that spark new technological revolutions.

This process of "technology brokering" is so powerful, explains Hargadon, because it exploits the networked nature-the social side-of the innovation process. Moving between historical accounts of labs and factory floors where past technological revolutions originated and field studies of similar processes in today's organizations, Hargadon shows how technology brokers create an enduring capacity for breakthrough innovations.

Technology brokers simultaneously bridge the gaps in existing networks that separate distant industries, firms, and divisions to see how established ideas can be applied in new ways and places, and build new networks to guide these creative recombinations to mass acceptance. How Breakthroughs Happen identifies three distinct strategies for technology brokering that managers can implement in their organizations.

Hargadon suggests that Edison and his counterparts were no smarter than the rest of us-they were simply better at moving through the networked world of their time. Intriguing, practical, and counterintuitive, How Breakthroughs Happen can help managers transform their own firms into modern-day invention factories.

... Read more

Reviews (10)

The Paradox of Innovation
For many who read this book, it may well be a "surprising truth" that innovation succeeds "not by breaking free from constraints of the past but instead by harnessing the past in powerful new ways." I am among those who agree with the prophet Ecclesiastes that there is nothing new under the sun; also with the Greek philosopher Heraclitus who asserted that everything changes...but nothing changes. I also agree with Hargadon's emphasis on the importance of an innovation strategy which seeks to take full advantage of what can be learned from the past inorder to create the future. His core concept is "technology brokering" which he introduces and then rigorously examines in Part I; next, in Part II, he describes the "networked perspective" of innovation, explaining how this strategy influences the innovative process within organizations, regardless of their size and nature; finally, in Part III, Hargadon provides specific and practical examples of how various organizations have designed and then implemented technology brokering strategies. Throughout the narrative, Hargadon explores in depth with rigor and eloquence his core premise: "that breakthrough innovation comes by recombining the people, ideas, and objects of past technologies."

In this context, I am reminded of what Carla O'Dell asserts in If We Only Knew What We Know when discussing what she calls "beds of knowledge" which are "hidden resources of intelligence that exist in almost every organization, relatively untapped and unmined." She suggests all manner of effective strategies to "tap into "this hidden asset, capturing it, organizing it, transferring it, and using it to create customer value, operational excellence, and product innovation -- all the while increasing profits and effectiveness." Almost all organizations claim that their "most valuable assets walk out the door at the end of each business day." That is correct. Almost all intellectual "capital" is stored between two ears and much (too much) of it is, for whatever reasons, inaccessible to others except in "small change....there is no conclusion to managing knowledge and transferring best practices. It is a race without a finishing line."

I think this is precisely what Hargadon has in mind when insisting that the future is already here, that the "raw materials for the next breakthrough technology may [also] be already here [but probably] without assembly instructions," that decision-makers must find their "discomfort zones" rather than remain hostage to what Jim O'Toole calls "the ideology of comfort and the tyranny of custom," and that they should build a "bridge" to their own strengths but also to their weaknesses because, as they perform, so will their organization. I agree with Hargadon that innovation must unfold at the ground level, "in the minds and hearts of the engineers and entrepreneurs who are doing the work." Also, that -- meanwhile -- they and their associates must be guided and informed, not only by their own organization's "beds of knowledge" but also by external sources of information concerning prior successes and failures of the innovation process elsewhere. In the final analysis, there is good news and bad news. First the bad news: "New ideas are built from the pieces of old ones, and nobody works alone." Now the good news: "New ideas are built from the pieces of old ones, and nobody works alone."

The Paradox of Innovation
For many who read this book, it may well be a "surprising truth" that innovation succeeds "not by breaking free from constraints of the past but instead by harnessing the past in powerful new ways." I am among those who agree with the prophet Ecclesiastes that there is nothing new under the sun; also with the Greek philosopher Heraclitus who asserted that everything changes...but nothing changes. I also agree with Hargadon's emphasis on the importance of an innovation strategy which seeks to take full advantage of what can be learned from the past inorder to create the future. His core concept is "technology brokering" which he introduces and then rigorously examines in Part I; next, in Part II, he describes the "networked perspective" of innovation, explaining how this strategy influences the innovative process within organizations, regardless of their size and nature; finally, in Part III, Hargadon provides specific and practical examples of how various organizations have designed and then implemented technology brokering strategies. Throughout the narrative, Hargadon explores in depth with rigor and eloquence his core premise: "that breakthrough innovation comes by recombining the people, ideas, and objects of past technologies."

In this context, I am reminded of what Carla O'Dell asserts in If We Only Knew What We Know when discussing what she calls "beds of knowledge" which are "hidden resources of intelligence that exist in almost every organization, relatively untapped and unmined." She suggests all manner of effective strategies to "tap into "this hidden asset, capturing it, organizing it, transferring it, and using it to create customer value, operational excellence, and product innovation -- all the while increasing profits and effectiveness." Almost all organizations claim that their "most valuable assets walk out the door at the end of each business day." That is correct. Almost all intellectual "capital" is stored between two ears and much (too much) of it is, for whatever reasons, inaccessible to others except in "small change....there is no conclusion to managing knowledge and transferring best practices. It is a race without a finishing line."

I think this is precisely what Hargadon has in mind when insisting that the future is already here, that the "raw materials for the next breakthrough technology may [also] be already here [but probably] without assembly instructions," that decision-makers must find their "discomfort zones" rather than remain hostage to what Jim O'Toole calls "the ideology of comfort and the tyranny of custom," and that they should build a "bridge" to their own strengths but also to their weaknesses because, as they perform, so will their organization. I agree with Hargadon that innovation must unfold at the ground level, "in the minds and hearts of the engineers and entrepreneurs who are doing the work." Also, that -- meanwhile -- they and their associates must be guided and informed, not only by their own organization's "beds of knowledge" but also by external sources of information concerning prior successes and failures of the innovation process elsewhere. In the final analysis, there is good news and bad news. First the bad news: "New ideas are built from the pieces of old ones, and nobody works alone." Now the good news: "New ideas are built from the pieces of old ones, and nobody works alone."

Concept of Innovation
I agree with other reviewers, very repetitive, especially in the beginning few chapters. Originally, I thought this book was for other researchers. But it is more for non-researchers and people who have not read much about innovation. Any researcher or anybody who has read a few books about innovation definitely knows that no new creation comes overnight, it's always a product of combining the past with the present for the future. Edison's story has always been told in the 'lone inventor' mode in elementary schools, so every person has that myth in mind. Sure this book proves otherwise. But again, others who have been involved in innovation in some form, knows that innovation is always a compounded sum. When man first used a sharp stone as a tool, it didn't happen in one second from one person, it took many minds and many hundred years. It was definitely a breakthrough back then, gazillion times bigger than the invention of computers or light bulb. [alas, no patenting or internet back then!]
I'd also argue that the same applies to death of any creation/innovation. A successful product that rules the market cannot be killed overnight. [Example: I'd argue that Dinosours did not all get wiped out in a single day due to a meteor hitting Mexico 65 millions years ago. That is the perception we get. It would have taken hundreds, if not thousands of years for that to happen, even if the trigger was the meteor crash]. This is the whole truth about creation and destruction - it is seldom an effect of just one person or one factor that happens in a stroke of luck. Well.. I purposefully made this review repetitive :-).

Don't get me wrong here...this is a decent book.

useful but boring
This is a useful book, but it is quite boring. It could have been written in half the pages. I agree with an earlier reviewer that it is wordy and repetitive. You have to be patient to find a new idea buried under a pile of superfluous and redundant paragraphs. But it is insightful nonetheless. If you work in R&D, then you must read this book to see which model is suitable for innovation.

Fresh thoughts on innovation in a story-telling bottle
Andrew Hargadon is the intriguing intersection of a mechanical engineer, an industrial psychologist and an innovation story-teller. His book "How Breakthroughs Happen" will lead you across the junk piles of the IDEO industrial design firm -- he really worked there! -- gunnery improvements in the US Navy in the early 20th Century, and the origins of cubism. As this eclectic assorment of examples accumulates, a breath-taking theory of innovation begins to emerge, which Hargadon calls Technology Brokering. By the time you reach the more personal epilogue at the end, you realize the man is right. Innovation is an eternal recombining of what already exists. He goes on to outline an eminently practical process which eclipses traditional odes to maverick invention and other empty invitations to revolution or disruption. ... Read more

Book Description

You and Your Organization Are at Risk

Were the earth-shattering events of September 11, 2001, predictable, or were they a surprise? What about the collapse of Enron in bankruptcy and scandal? Max H. Bazerman and Michael D. Watkins argue that they were actually "predictable surprises"-disastrous examples of the failure to recognize potential tragedies and actively work to prevent them. Disturbingly, this dangerous phenomenon has its roots in universal human and organizational tendencies that leave no individual or company immune.

In this riveting book, Bazerman and Watkins, leading experts in managerial decision making, show that many disasters are preceded by clear warning signals that leaders either miss-or purposely ignore. They explain the cognitive, organizational, and political biases that make predictable surprises so common in business and society, and outline six danger signals that suggest a predictable surprise may be imminent. They also provide a systematic framework that leaders can use to recognize and prioritize brewing disasters and mobilize their organizations to prevent them.

Filled with vivid accounts of predictable surprises in business and society across public and private sectors, this book highlights a phenomenon that holds grave consequences-and challenges leaders to find the courage to act before it's too late.

A Leadership for the Common Good book

Published in partnership with the Center for Public Leadership

... Read more

Book Description

How employee ownership can pay bottom-line benefits

Today, more than 25 percent of American workers own stock in their employers. You can shop at employee-owned supermarkets such as Publix, buy Gore-Tex fabric from employee-owned W.L. Gore & Associates, and sip coffee served by employee owners at Starbucks.

Now Corey Rosen, John Case, and Martin Staubus present convincing evidence that employee ownership can be much more than just a good benefit program. Done right, it can be the foundation for a new-and more effective-model of management. Drawing on first-hand studies of dozens of companies from large corporations to local retailers, the authors show that the "equity model" enables firms to grow faster and more profitably than conventionally run competitors. Vivid examples of both winning and failed attempts at employee ownership reveal the key concepts that make the model successful, and suggest how managers can adapt these strategies for use in their own companies.

This lively and practical guide delivers a sound business case for making employees true partners in a firm's success.

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Reviews (5)

Stories Make It Work
Rosen, Case and Staubus have authored one of the most readable books I have encountered on employee ownership and the difference it can make for employees and companies, irrespective of industry or geography. This book is filled with very personal stories, as well as compelling dreams that have been realized through the collaboration of owners at all levels of an organization. The authors provide rich evidence in the post-Enron era that hope is very alive for business models that invite all employees into the opportunities for success. After reading the book I had a list of several businesses I wanted to visit just to see how they've done it. Definitely an inspiring book!

Everything you want to know about employee ownership
As someone who's been active in employee ownership for over a decade, I can't think of any of book - or any other source - that does a better job of pulling together dozens of company stories, hundreds of examples, and thousands of hours of collected wisdom into a single place. This book will intrigue company leaders who want to know how to make ownership work, satisfy the prove-it-to-me crowd with up-to-date research, and even entertain the lay reader with inspiring stories and personal anecdotes. It strikes a balance between history and current events, between theory and practice, and between raw fact and the human touch. Read it to get the inside scoop on one of the most under-reported trends in the U.S. economy from three of the field's most respected thinkers.

Sid Scott, M.B.A. (Dubuque, IAUSA)
Recently, personal ownership of various kinds in our society has been emphasized. This book addresses perhaps the most important and rewarding type of ownership--employee ownership.

The book is chock full of interesting statistics and insightful research studies juxtaposed with wonderful success stories and anecdotes about how having significant and broad ownership changes (for the better)how an organization is run. Rosen, Case and Staubus bring decades of experience, observations and conclusions that will help everyone from owners looking for positive ways to perpetuate their businesses to managers wanting to improve product development, customer service, management, motivation, rewards systems and profitability to employee owners interested in learning from the experiences of folks at other organizations.This book is a must read for anyone wanting to learn the important business advantages of having people own and actively participate in making the places where they work more competitive and successful.

A Must Read for Business Owners and Management Consultants
This is a clear, concise and very readable book that makes the case for the Equity Model of ownership and management better than anything that has been written to date.After reading this book, you will readily see why all of the management theories of the past-Theory X, Theory Y, Theory Z, Management by Objectives, Management by Walking Around, Reengineering by Downsizing, the One Minute Manager, Quality Circles, etc.-have failed. Throw out all of your existing management theory books.This is the only only one that has got it right.

The Equity Model has evolved over the past 30 years and has resulted in phenomenal performance by those companies that have used it. As described by the authors, the Equity Model involves three essential components-stock ownership, an ownership culture, and employee training and involvement in the specific goals and strategies of the business in question.Unfortunately, most business owners and most ESOP consultants have overlooked the importance of the third component.Ownership by itself is not sufficient.An ownership culture by itself is not sufficient.Even combining stock ownership with an ownership culture is not sufficient. Superior results only occur if all three components are utilizied.

This book traces the origins and development of each of these three components and then illustrates through numerous case examples how these components have been successfully combined to create high performance results, even in very mundane industries.

This book also gives practical, easy-to-follow guidelines as to how these components can be combined to create the best results.In today's global competitive environment, following these guidelines may just make the difference between success and survival on the one hand or business failure on the other.

This book makes sense
Rosen, Case and Staubus have done a wonderful job of making a very basic case.Having broad employee ownership of a company makes sense.It makes sense for the employees.And it makes sense for the company.The employees benefit through receiving value beyond wages.The company is better off because the employees work smarter and work harder as owners than as hired hands.Through the case studies and the analysis the authors write what historically has not been written: a book which realistically makes the case that employee ownership helps companies become stronger and more competitive.It is also very important to note that Harvard has published this book.To date, major university presses have not emphasized employee ownership among their priorities.It is to Harvard's credit that they have found a fabulous book to publish on this topic. ... Read more

Book Description

How to Capture Today's Biggest Untapped Market

Forget mass customization and microsegmentation. Winning in today's business world requires a return to an approach abandoned by marketing experts decades ago. Mass marketing is back, say Paul Nunes and Brian Johnson-but with a new target and a fresh approach that companies ignore at their peril.

While the mass-marketing concepts of the 1950s consisted of lowest-common-denominator strategies aimed at the "middle class," Nunes and Johnson argue that the rules of mass marketing must be rewritten to appeal to today's burgeoning mass of different-and far more affluent-consumers. The "moneyed masses" have more disposable income than ever, and research shows the richest among them are not spending up to their potential-thus creating a windfall of opportunity for marketers. Based on extensive consumer research, Mass Affluence outlines seven new rules for capturing this largely ignored market, and reveals how innovative companies are already employing them to launch billion-dollar industries in categories from oral care to homebuilding to exotic automobiles.

A sea change in marketing is underway-and future growth and profitability will belong to the companies that woo and win today's affluent mass market.

... Read more

Book Description

Second Edition, Expanded to Include Fresh Insights and Practical Tools For New and Experienced Managers

No book has captured the trials and traumas of the transition from star performer to competent manager better than Linda Hill's classic Becoming a Manager. In tracing and analyzing the experiences of nineteen new managers, Hill reveals the profound complexity and difficulty of the process of developing into a manager. In their own distinct voices, these managers describe how they reframed their understanding of their roles and responsibilities and how they coped with the stresses and emotions of the transformation-in essence, how they were able to take on new identities. Now, in a substantially expanded second edition, the author offers concrete advice on the crucial issues of dealing effectively with organizational politics and developing and leading diverse teams in times of change, as well as on how managers can prepare themselves to lead over the course of their careers. In a new epilogue, she explores what organizations can do to help managers in their journey to lead and learn.

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Reviews (9)

An absolute must read!
Anyone interested in management or professional development should read this book. I can't tell you how many times I wondered why steller sales people made such terrible managers. Other valuable topics such as working with your peers, managing your Manager and Leadership are also addressed.

Even if you are already a Manager, this book is definately and eye opener.

Very helpful indeed!
It's simply a must read for anyone considering to pursue a career in management. Learn from others experience!

Please
This book is very poorly written. The author (for some reason) writes this thing like it is some great body of work in academic thought. I found this book to be exhausting, long, repetitive and very boring.

Gaps in her research include:

- Many new managers experience many aspects of management before they are actually promoted. I am surprised that the transition is such a shock to those that participated in the research.

- Her sample is too small to be representative.

- The sample space includes only sales related people. It does not include anyone in professional services. Sales personnel tend to be motivated by quotas and commissions (me, me, me). Consultants, accountants, lawyers, doctors, operations and other managers, who tend to be thought leaders, do not share many of the concerns and experiences of the "me" mentality (well, maybe some). My point being, if you are in a field other than sales, you are wasting your time with this book.

A "Cliff Notes" would be nice. One hour reviewing the highlights of this book is all anyone needs.

A necessary tool for new managers or those considering it
I highly recommend this book as one that should be kept handy for all new managers transitioning from the role of "individual producer". I also recommend it for those top performers who feel it is likely they will be "approached" about a management position and/or are wondering if management is their "cup of tea". It's also of benefit for managers OF new managers (who sometimes forget what it's like), and HR professionals responsible for designing New Manager training programs.

It's very well written, even humorous at times, and details the actual statements and insights of these new managers. What an absolutely accurate sanity check!!! These folks really let their hair down and were completely honest about their experiences.

Not only did I dog-ear and underline my book all over the place, I wouldn't hesitate to buy this book for a friend or close colleague who is considering or transitioning to management. It's like being in a roomful of other new/fairly new managers and getting honest feedback on the ups-and-downs, the highlights, and the things you would love to have known before accepting the management position!!

Linda Hill's analysis in the final chapters is the icing on the cake. Based on this study, she offers extremely valuable insights into how corporations need to support and train new managers, and suggests things that potential and new managers need to be aware of and prepare for.

Great book. Wonderful preparation for critical challenges.
This book discusses the experiences of managers at different points in their first year as new first-line managers. I read the book half way through my first year as a manager and wished that I had read it sooner. My experiences were very similar even though I am in a completely different field. This was even more usedul than a three day new managers' workshop that I took. ... Read more

Download Description

Beginning with the basics of writing a business plan, this wide-ranging resource moves on to cover sophisticated topics such as how to navigate the world of venture capital funding and strategies for turning technological innovations into successful marketplace realities. Harvard Business Review on Entrepreneurship offers valuable insights for all types of business pioneers. The Harvard Business Review Paperback Series is designed to bring today’s managers and professionals the fundamental information they need to stay competitive in a fast-moving world. Here are the landmark ideas that have established the Harvard Business Review as required reading for ambitious business people in organizations around the globe. Articles include: The Questions Every Entrepreneur Must Answer by Amar V. Bhide; How to Write a Great Business Plan by William A. Sahlman; How Entrepreneurs Craft Strategies That Work by Amar V. Bhide; How Much Money Does Your New Venture Need? by James McNeill Stancill; Milestones for Successful Venture Planning by Zenus Block and Ian C. MacMillan; Strategy vs. Tactics from a Venture Capitalist by Arthur Rock; Bootstrap Finance: The Art of Start-Ups by Amar V. Bhide; and Commercializing Technology: What the Best Companies Do by J. Michael Nevens, Gregory L. Summe, and Bro Uttal. ... Read more

Reviews (4)

Simply easy to read with many examples
If you are looking to become an entrepreneur, or if you are are one, I recommend you read this book.

The most important handbook for entrepreneurs
As an entrepreneur with varying degree of success and failure, I found this book to be the most accurate writing on the subject. If I could read this book many years ago, I would have avoided many expensive mistakes. If you are looking to become an entrepreneur, or if you are are already one, I strongly recommend you read this book--and take notes because virtually everthing in this book applies to every entrepreneur. This is a must read for every business person.

A Guide to Entrepreneurship
This book is a collection of easy to read articles by eminent faculty as well as venture capitalists teaching and supporting entrepreneurship.

These articles offer an insight into the problems faced by a start-up as well as methods to prioritize their activities. It does offer ideas to entrepreneurs to manage and grow a start-up.

Overall a good collection of articles with some very contrasting schools of thought.

Entrepreneurship
I found the articles light and easy to read, yet interesting enough to keep me up in bed. Also, very informative. Good selection of case studies on topic. As good as HBR Effective Communication ... Read more

Amazon.com

The Set-Up-to-Fail Syndrome, by Jean-Francois Manzoni and Jean-Louis Barsoux, looks into the negative dynamics that unintentionally but unequivocally define far too many relationships between bosses and the people who report to them. More importantly, it also proposes ways to attack the problem where it exists and to keep it from occurring elsewhere. Manzoni and Barsoux, researchers at INSEAD in Fontainebleau, France, first addressed the issue in a 1998 Harvard Business Review article examining how "bosses unwittingly set up some of their subordinates to fail and, more generally, mismanage many of the subordinates they regard as acceptable but lower-than-average performers." After discussing the various causes and effects of this behavior--including why responses from both sides tend to generate "an escalating spiral of malaise and underperformance"--the authors present assorted remedies (such as "the mental adjustments bosses must make before trying to interrupt" this conduct), a framework for interventions (with details, for example, on handling discussions between two parties whose rapport has deteriorated), and a litany of preventive measures (including specific suggestions for getting new relationships off to a positive start). Very well researched with solid, practical advice. --Howard Rothman ... Read more

Reviews (4)

Common Wisdom: Insidious & Pernicious
This work deftly weaves those seemingly abstract and academic studies Psychology 101 students have been reading about for 40 years into the fabric of everyday work experience. The authors are able to put the subtle pattern into high resolution, which at first appears shocking, then depressing, and finally, hopeful.

It was depressing to think that the syndrome is both insidious and pernicious because the common wisdom of most coaching models is a key driver of the syndrome. That is, when a manager notices a performance problem, the appropriate response is to give the person feedback and put them on a "short leash" so that the employee gets extra guidance. On the face, this starts a chain of events:
• Employee perceives the lack of trust, feels cramped by the limited autonomy, as well as being under appreciated.
• Employee responds by withdrawing and reducing unnecessary contact with the boss.
• The Boss takes the withdrawal as confirmation the this is indeed a weaker performer and so shortens the leash even more.
• Progressively, the employee begins to doubt her own capability and ability to contribute, and
• The ugly cycle continues in a downward spiral and the employee has been successfully set up to fail.

It was hopeful to realize that the dynamic is not really based in the coaching model at all. It is based in the very human tendency to categorize and label. It is the common wisdom that there are three kinds of employees: the Stars (or A-Players), the Worker Bees (or B-Players), and the Deadwood (or C-Players). The problem lies in the labeling and how the manager relates to the Worker Bee employee. The Stars have close partnerships with the Boss and are treated as 'trusted assistants." The Worker Bees, on the other hand, have low quality relationships with the Boss and are treated as "hired hands." This stark differentiation in the quality of relationship, based on the label is at the root of the issue. Curt Coffman of the Gallup Organization has said, "We're running as an economy at a 30% efficiency rate because so many workers are not contributing as much as they can..." because a disconnect with an immediate supervisor.

Psychologists say that "Perception is not reality." That is truth in their offices; truth in the workplace is, "Perception IS reality." Unfortunate but true. Manzoni & Barsoux do the business world a great service because they clearly and skillfully lay out how our perception creates unintended bias. This awareness is required by both the Boss and the Subordinate to be able to stop the dysfunctional "dance" that occurs when the Set-Up-To-Fail Syndrome is at work. The hope that they present is that awareness leads to re-evaluation and the reduction of bias.

This is one powerful book; buy it, read it, talk about it.

Good Analysis But Bad Prescription
Being one authored by INSEAD experts, I bought the book with high expectations, believing that FINALLY the truth can be out!!! I read the first few chapters of the book so religiously (almost treating it like my Bible), taking down key points that are so wonderfully said about the self-fulfilling prophecy that many managers have set themselves up to, i.e. to fail. What's disappointing as I come to the middle portion of the book is that authors suggestion on how managers can avoid the SUTF syndrome by taking the first step (not to mention swallowing all their ego and pride) and start initiating a de-SUTF relationship with his/her subordinate even if it means this person might eventually have a chance of not improving at all (due to job mis-fit)??? I returned the book and bought and digested "First Break All Rules" instead.

The Negative Self-Fulfilling Prophecy
This book is based on more than fifteen years of extended and combined research whose primary objective was to reveal the reasons why so many in positions of authority, especially bosses, are so ineffective when managing their subordinates, especially their perceived weaker performers. That is to say, supervisors are often unaware of the fact that they are "complicit in an employee's lack of success. How? By creating and reinforcing a dynamic that essentially sets up perceived weaker performers to fail." Hence the title of Manzoni and Barsoux's book. The authors explain the causes and effects of that "dynamic" (see "Set-Up-to-Fail Syndrome," Chapter 3) and also explain how to avoid it ("Preventing the Set-Up-to-Fail Syndrome: Lessons from the Syndrome Busters," Chapter 9). One of this book's most valuable contributions is comprised of a series of "Tables" which organize and summarize key points. For example:

Table 2-1: "How Bosses See Their Behavior toward Subordinates" which contrasts tendencies of bosses in relationships with weaker and stronger performers.

Table 5-1: "Taking Sides" which presents two views of the same supervisor's observed behavior either as a "great boss" or as an "impossible boss."

Table 7-2: "Taking Responsibility Away from an Employee" which juxtaposes a supervisor's thoughts and feelings about a subordinate with their interaction in dialogue.

Manzoni and Barsoux assert that the set-up-to-fail syndrome is "both self-fulfilling and self-reinforcing, which obscures the boss's responsibility in the process as well as some of the key psychological and social mechanisms involved." My own experience suggests an often great discrepancy exists between modes of behavior determined by conscious and unconscious mindsets. That is to say, many supervisors would vehemently deny that they are "complicit in an employee's lack of success....[by] creating and reinforcing a dynamic that essentially sets up perceived weaker performers to fail." Nonetheless they are. Were they to read this book, they would probably agree that there is such a syndrome and then lament how unfair it is to subordinates who are victimized by it.

One final point. Countless research studies of face-to-face communication have arrived at essentially the same conclusion: Body language creates 60-75% of the impact, tone of voice 15-20%, and content (i.e. what is actually said) only 10-15%. (Percentages vary among research studies but only slightly.) With the publication of this book, Manzoni and Barsoux have made a substantial contribution to our understanding of a widespread but, until now, neglected cause of human dysfunction in the workplace. Whether intentionally or not, a supervisor can sometimes create irreparable damage, especially to those who already feel insecure, by a negative and demeaning "message" which need not be expressed in words but comes through loud and clear nonetheless.

Relationship between leadership and subordinate performance
Jean-Francois Manzoni is Assistant Professor of Accounting and Control at French business school INSEAD; Jean-Louis Barsoux is a Research Fellow at INSEAD. Barsoux is also co-author of 'Managing Across Cultures' (1997). This Harvard Business Review article was published in March-April 1998.

This article is based on two studies designed to better understand the causal relationship between leadership style and subordinate performance - or in other words, how bosses and subordinates mutually influence each other's behavior. Those studies suggest that bosses - albeit accidentally and usually with the best intentions - are often complicit in an employee's lack of success. Manzoni and Barsoux use the term 'set-up-to-fail syndrome' to describe a dynamic "in which employees perceived to be mediocre or weak performers live down to the low expectations their managers have for them." The set-up-to-fail syndrome usually begins surreptitiously and underlying the syndrome are several assumptions/generalizations about weaker performers that bosses appear to accept uniformly. The authors describe these assumptions/generalizations and the impact they have on organizations and relationships. The two costs of the syndrome are the emotional cost paid by the associate and the organizational cost associated with the company's failure to get the best out of an employee. Other costs to consider, often indirect and long term, are: Sapping of the boss' emotional and physical energy, the impact on the boss' reputation, and the impact on the team (team spirit, time management, etc.). So how can we break out of this syndrome? The authors provide a five components framework for effective interventions but they warn that these interventions do not take place very often. In line with the recent emphasis on emotional intelligence, they conclude that higher emotional involvement and investment from bosses is the key to getting the subordinates to work to their full potential.

Good article into a very familiar problem, not just to organizations but also to people. The 'set-up-to-fail syndrome' is mostly based on generalizations by managers and bosses, but is difficult to reverse. The authors provide a solution which is primarily based on emotional intelligence, which is still difficult to learn. I recommend this article as an complement to Daniel Goleman's articles and books into emotional intelligent leadership and management. The authors use simple business US-English. ... Read more

Book Description

Shaping the Market Endgame-the Innovator's Playbook

Innovation's encounter with the market results in a game of both high risk and high stakes. Often its outcome defies common sense: Superior new products flop, unlikely ideas become runaway hits, and-despite rapid technological advances and intense interconnectedness-change happens at a snail's pace. What really happens during this encounter? How can you increase your own odds on this complex game board?

In The Slow Pace of Fast Change, Bhaskar Chakravorti peels back the many factors that govern an innovation's penetration into interconnected markets-and offers a game plan for successfully steering innovations from the lab to the living room. Chakravorti explains the vagaries of market adoption by highlighting a paradox in the widely celebrated concept of network effects: While everyone loves a great idea, individuals will embrace it only if they believe others will too. In markets with strong interconnections among participants, this "equilibrium" slows adoption and protects the status quo-despite the innovation's clear superiority.

To win, innovators must unravel this status quo equilibrium and replace it with one built around their own innovations. The key is to imagine a desired plausible endgame, and work backward to orchestrate the network of individual choices to create conditions that make this outcome happen.

Drawing on Chakravorti's hands-on experience with many of the best-known innovating companies and insights gleaned from his expertise in the practical applications of game theory, this playbook offers go-to-market strategies for:

Book Description

A Blueprint for Building Entrepreneurial Organizations
Nobody needs to tell you that in the new economy, managers using conventional strategies are losing out to smart, fast, entrepreneurial competitors who move on ideas others overlook and who confidently act while others dither.Are the managers of leading companies simply doomed to let this happen?Not at all, argue Rita Gunther McGrath and Ian MacMillan.The fundamental problem is that the tools, training, and conceptual frameworks that work for business-as-usual can't, and don't, work when your main challenge is to bury old business models and aggressively create completely new ones.To succeed, today's strategists need the thought process and discipline that are second nature to successful entrepreneurs. The Entrepreneurial Mindset offers a refreshingly practical blueprint for thinking and acting in environments that are fast-paced, rapidly changing, and highly uncertain. It provides both a guide to energizing the organization to find tomorrow's opportunities and a set of entrepreneurial principles you can use personally to transform the arenas in which you compete.

Using lessons drawn from leading entrepreneurs and entrepreneurial companies, The Entrepreneurial Mindset presents a set of practices for capitalizing on uncertainty and rapid change.Like McGrath and MacMillan's bestselling Harvard Business Review articles, such as "Discovery-Driven Planning," the book provides simple but powerful ways to stop acting by the old rules and start thinking with the discipline of habitual entrepreneurs.

The Entrepreneurial Mindset will show you how to:
* Eliminate paralyzing uncertainty by creating an entrepreneurial frame that shapes a shared understanding of what is to be accomplished and what would be worthwhile
* Create a richly stocked opportunity register in which you mobilize great ideas for redesigning existing products, finding new sources of differentiation, resegmenting existing markets, reconfiguring market spaces, and seizing the huge upside potential of breakthroughs
* Build a dynamic portfolio of businesses and options that continuously move your organization toward the future
* Execute dynamically your ideas so that you can move fast, with confidence and without undue risk
* Develop your own way of leading with an entrepreneurial mindset to create a vibrant entrepreneurial climate within your organization

The Entrepreneurial Mindset is about succeeding in an unpredictable world. It will help everyone from independent entrepreneurs to managers of large corporations develop insights that others overlook and act on them to build the truly entrepreneurial organizations of the future. ... Read more

Reviews (13)

Actionable advice for entrepreneurship
MacMillan and McGrath put together one of the most actionable management books I have read in years. Each chapter is replete with how-to information: frameworks, tools and methodologies to implement their strategies and build-out new ventures.

The first 7 chapters provide tools to identify and define opportunities. Chapter 2, for example, details exactly how to set up a database to capture new business opportunities, with fields that describe the product/service and forces that affect its success, such as competition and company position. Chapters 3 through 6 provide usable frameworks which will fill your database with opportunities. The frameworks cover everything from redesigning products and services and redifferentiating for customers to resegmenting and restructuring markets and creating new competencies. The rest of the book covers execution: developing and timing entry strategies, managing uncertainty through discovery driven planning, and creating an entrepreneurial culture.

As a consultant, I have been able to use many of MacMillan's and McGrath's frameworks with my clients. Specifically, chapter 8's opportunity options frameworks have been invaluable to categorize new venture opportunities for our clients in the high-tech and financial services industries, and have aided in determining "go" and "no-go" decisions for further investment. Additionally, as I am an aspiring entreprenuer, I personally use their tools for opportunity assessment to inventory and rate my own business ideas.

I highly recommend The Entrepreneurial Mindset to corporate venturers and entrepreneurs alike. While the book covers a lot of ground, it is able to do so in an easy to read fashion. The tools and frameworks throughout the book keep the reader engaged and turn the theoretical into the applicable. The Entreprenuerial Mindset is an essential desk reference for new venturing and a highly worthwhile read.

Essential Reading
Bottom line first: Buy this book. Not only can you immediately implement the tools described, but it will also serve as an excellent reference tool. It is well worth the time invested to read it. Consider it a[n]... option on your career with limitless upside.

The Entrepreneurial Mindset illustrates the process for rationally generating, choosing among, executing, and monitoring strategic opportunities in the face of uncertainty. Starting from the premise that no market is so mature that you cannot further differentiate your offerings, the authors offer action-oriented, simple tools that help to assess opportunities for launching new products and entering new markets. And those tools aren't just simple, they're also smart and unconventional, providing insight into the minds of habitual entrepreneurs who have honed their skill in creating value time and again.

McGrath and MacMillan publish the checklists, questions, quizzes, and models it took them years to develop while working with management teams in established firms to discern original responses to business challenges. You can start applying the principles and tools in each chapter immediately, getting some good quick hits even before finishing the book. For example, Chapter 11 alone contains 8 tools for developing leading indicators of the business to help tell if a project is heading in the right direction, long before the results become available. Chapter 10 is a gem too. It is based on one of Harvard Business Review's most popular articles, 'Discovery Driven Planning,' (written by the authors of this book) which was then developed into a course at Wharton's Executive Education Programs for several years.

Anyone who reads and implements the principles, strategies, and tools outlined in this book is sure create value, regardless of their corporate title, and it is a must-read for any strategy professional or executive manager. If you think your industry or business is too mature to benefit from this book, consider one of McGrath and MacMillan's many case studies that are fresh and actually worth studying: Blyth Industries boosted sales from $3 million in 1982 to nearly $500 million in 1996 by exploiting a mature industry. How mature? More than 5,000 years old: Blyth Industries sells candles.

Creating and nurturing an Entrepreneurial Mindset is a lot of fun and carries a lot of rewards, both professionally and personally. To quote the authors at the end of their first chapter: 'If nobody knows what the future will hold, your vision of how to navigate it is as good as anyone's. The future may well belong to you.'

-Sean Nevins, President of The Zermatt Group

good stuff
If you need more check out www.antiventurecapital.com for startup manual for entrepreneurs who are unable or unwilling to tap venture capital.

Best business book I have have ever read!!
If you are looking for structure in building/discovering new opportunities for a new or existing product or want to help in validating your current product offerings, this is the book for you. The insight it brings in helping you gain a better grasp of not only your products and services but also your business is invaluable. I highly recommend this book to anyone that wants to establish a well thought out strategy to ensure future success and open their eyes to new possibilites.

Out of all the business book that I have read in getting my MBA and working in the real world, this one is the best. Great Job!!

Just about any chapter demands you buy this book
This is a great book on strategy and innovation... of products, services, and your entire company.

There are many actionable checklists, as well as excellent case studies and comments. Lots of footnotes and a well-developed bibliography.

Minutes after you buy this book you could use their checklists to improve your product and service offerings.

Most highly recommended.

John Dunbar
Sugar Land, TX

PS: I bought a second copy to give away to a friend. ... Read more

Amazon.com

Chapter 1 of Information Rules begins with a description of the change brought on by technology at the close of the century--but the century described is not this one, it's the late 1800s. One hundred years ago, it was an emerging telephone and electrical network that was transforming business. Today it's the Internet. The point? While the circumstances of a particular era may be unique, the underlying principles that describe the exchange of goods in a free-market economy are the same. And the authors, Carl Shapiro and Hal Varian, should know. Shapiro is Professor of Business Strategy at the Haas School of Business at UC Berkeley and has also served as chief economist at the Antitrust Division of the Justice Department. Varian is the Dean of the School of Information Management and Systems at UC Berkeley. Together they offer a deep knowledge of how economic systems work coupled with first-hand experience of today's network economy. They write:

Sure, today's business world is different in a myriad of ways from that of a century ago. But many of today's managers are so focused on the trees of technological change that they fail to see the forest: the underlying economic forces that determine success and failure.

Reviews (62)

Monarch of the Early-21st Century
Those in need of a strategic guide to the network economy will find a wealth of valuable material in Information Rules, co-authored by Carl Shapiro and Hal R. Varian and published by Harvard Business School Press. The titles of its ten chapters suggest the nature and extent of subjects covered: The Information Economy, Pricing Information, Versioning Information, Rights Management, Recognizing Lock-In, Managing Lock-In, Networks and Positive Feedback, Cooperation and Compatibility, Waging a Standards War, and Information Policy. In effect, Information Rules combines all of the benefits of an operations manual with the counsel of two renowned experts who accompany the reader, step by step, through the manual.

According to the authors, the thesis of their book is that "durable economic principles can guide you through today's frenetic business environment. Technology changes. Economic laws do not. If you are struggling to comprehend what the Internet means for you and your business, you can learn a great deal from the advent of the telephone system a hundred years ago." That's true. The interdependence of information (software) and infrastructure (hardware) will always be important, indeed imperative. Therefore, interconnection battles are won only if, for example, local telephone companies in 1900 were interconnected with Bell to provide long-distance service and, 100 years later, browsers are interconnected with operating systems.

The authors "use the term information very broadly. Essentially, anything that can be digitized -- encoded as a stream of bits -- is information." However, Information Rules focuses on models, not trends; concepts, not vocabulary; and analysis, not analogies. Recall the previous reference to "durable economic principles." Trends come and go, as do vocabularies; therefore, today's brilliant analogies may well make no sense tomorrow, or even later today. Hence the necessity of durable principles, principles which continue to guide efforts to anticipate and then manage what Peter Drucker has called "the consequences of what has yet to occur."

The Chinese character for "crisis" has two different meanings: peril and opportunity. The title of Information Rules can also be interpreted in two different ways: rules of principle and rules of dominance. In a Darwinian sense, those who dominate the Information Age will be those who apply the right principles. What do Shapiro and Varian suggest?

With regard to the pricing of information, the subject of Chapter 2, they suggest two strategies: don't be greedy and play tough. The "lessons" to be learned are to personalize your product and personalize your service, "know thy customer", differentiate your prices when possible, and use promotions to measure demand. Indeed, at the end of each chapter, they summarize "lessons" to be learned after having suggested specific strategies to apply them. In the "Further Reading" "Bibliography" sections which conclude Information Rules, Shapiro and Varian direct the reader to various sources to which they referred previously.

Who will gain the greatest value from this book? Owners/CEOs of small-to-midsize companies which are struggling to decide what to do...and what not to do...with opportunities created by the Internet and, more specifically, the WWW. Also, senior-level executives of much larger organizations (both for-profit and not-for-profit) who must formulate long-term strategies to achieve sustainable prudent growth. For thousands of years, there has never been a shortage of available information but until the printing press, access to it was severely limited. Since then, a variety of media have broadened and deepened that access and, indeed, the volume of available information has increased exponentially.

According to Shapiro and Varian, the challenge today is not one of access; rather, the challenge is to follow certain "certain durable principles" on which effective strategies are based. No one knows precisely how and to what extent the network economy will change in years to come. Principles which endure are those which accommodate change, whenever it occurs, whatever it proves to be. Shapiro and Varian suggest what those principles should be.

Information Rules is a stunning achievement.

Prescient rules for winning in the Internet economy
Information Rules: A Strategic Guide to the Network Economy by Carl Shapiro and Hal Varian takes a look at the emerging Internet economy, and argues compellingly that traditional economics still apply in evaluating the Yahoos of our generation. In fact, history provides a pretty good guide for evaluating network-centric businesses. One only has to look at the evolution of the railroad, telephone and television networks. The book reaches some interesting conclusions, summarized here:

1.Information is costly to produce but inexpensive to reproduce (i.e., has a high fixed cost but a low marginal cost). This translates to a lot of latitude, challenges and opportunities in coming up with pricing models and corresponding versions of a product to create both the maximum revenue opportunities and establish the largest number of members of the product's network of users. Also, given the low cost of reproduction, it stands to reason that protecting intellectual property is a key determinant of information good's economic success. 2.Information is an "Experience Good," which is to say that customers must use and experience the product to put value on it. One only has to think about Netscape's initial success giving away the browser to see the value of leveraging the "experience" factor. 3.Products that can achieve "lock-in" will benefit from the "switching costs" that preclude customers from switching-over to competing (even superior) solutions. In other words, products that get a user to commit time, knowledge and/or resources to them are likely to continue to be used even in the face of superior products given the cost of switching to alternative products. An interesting point the book makes is to look at lock-in and switching costs not only in terms of your product, but yo