I heard Matthew Michalewicz speak at a function last year.  It was a great presentation, which lead me to track down his book (Amazon).

This is one of the most genuinely useful business books I have read.  I find that often business related titles have one central idea, which the author has then stretched out to make a book.  Often, the concept could have been adequately explained in an essay, but since they don’t sell, a book was created.  For these books I typically read the first few chapters to get the concept, then skim through to the end.

Winning Credibility is not one of those books.  Whilst clearly built around the importance of credibility in building your business, each chapter has relevant content, with the sequence logical.  There is no padding in this book.  Example chapters are – Domain Knowledge, Infrastructure, Client References, and Media Coverage – real nuts and bolts stuff. 

A case study is presented at the conclusion of each chapter, which serves to make the book an enjoyable to read, and illustrates the application of the concepts.

The business experience of the author’s is software development, primarily in the US, though Matthew now lives in South Australia.  Running a financial planning business, there were chapters that weren’t relevant to me, for example, dealing with boards and directors (ie. outside investors), and Analyst coverage, however the case studies were still interesting.

I suspect Matthew’s co-author Zbigniew is from an academic background, because the book is meticulously footnoted and referenced, something I found a little distracting at times.

If you are a business owner looking to grow your business, I would highly recommend you seek this book out.

By Jamie Cheng

‘A guide to effective communication’ could be another title for Dan and Chip Heath’s book Made to Stick. It is simply brilliant at explaining the methodology behind effective communication.

One of my favourite examples in the book is a juxtaposition of two antismoking ads. An ad from the Truth campaign featured below, while the response by youth-smoking prevention was “Think. Don’t Smoke.”

‘When the survey asked kids whether they were likely to smoke a cigarette during the next year, those who were exposed to the Truth campaign were 66 percent less likely to smoke. Those who were exposed to "Think. Don’t Smoke" were 36 percent more likely to smoke! Tobacco execs must have taken the news quite hard.’

Made to Stick is more than an effective communication guide though. It is a great guide to running your business with a clear intention that prevents others from misinterpreting the direction of the business.

Employees and customers alike must be able to know what to expect from a business. The low-fare focus by Southwest Airlines is a perfect example in the book, which communicates how employees should act without constant guidance and what customers should expect.

jamie.k.cheng@gmail.com

Whether you run a business with numerous staff, are a self employed “lone wolf”, or an entrepreneur with an idea so strong it will barely let you sleep, one essential ingredient we all need is inspiration.  The business owner needs to keep his staff motivated and focused on the company’s vision, the lone wolf needs to overcome the challenge of isolation and demonstrate enthusiasm and energy to her clients and those around her, and the entrepreneur needs to be able to take failures in their stride, recalibrate, and find a new way forward.

So how do you find inspiration?  Having recently had a couple of weeks off over Christmas with the family, I have certainly returned with more energy and determination to reach our goals.  Your kids can certainly inspire you with their enjoyment of life fresh perspective on the world.

Biographies can be great.  Sir Edmund Hillary’s biography View From the Summit is one I would recommend.  Certainly a life lived to the full.  Many people tell me Richard Branson’s biography is a great read.  A great web site for business biographies is Evan Carmichael’s.  This site has an enormous catalogue of articles on successful business people (with admittedly an American bias).  A 20 minute flick through this web site is sure to get you off and running again.

A site I have recently discovered is TED – Ideas worth spreading.  This is a site of filmed speeches – from Steve Jobs of Apple, to Martin Luther King Jr.  They seem to usually run for 10 to 20 minutes, so easily something you could watch will having your lunch.  The site looks a little confusing when you first view it, but give yourself 3 minutes and you will realise how clever it is.  Pick a subject area you are interested, then how you would like the options filtered – newest, most comments, most emailed, etc.  The larger the icon of the speech, the more highly ranked it is.

I have mentioned Mixergy in a past posting.  This site has interviews with mainly IT entrepreneurs.  The interviews are typically around an hour in length, so this one requires a bit more commitment, but the interviewer is able to really dig deep and there is always some nugget of an idea that you can run with.

Other business owners are another great source of inspiration.  In my role, I speak to business owners every day of the week.  Just hearing how they picked up a new contract, had their best month ever, or won a new award, inspires me to strive that bit harder.  Similarly, I catch up for lunch with a couple of groups of business owners, one group is specifically within my industry, and the other is a group of business owners from entirely different industries (a condition for entry was that your business did not compete with any of the existing participants).  Again, hearing about other peoples successes, and the innovative techniques they’ve used to achieve those results, never fails to refill my energy reserves.

Don’t under estimate the importance of inspiration.  You need it, and to really succeed, you need to be giving it to others.

In his book The Business of Design, Roger L Martin suggests that to generate genuine innovation in your business, there is a need to adopt “Design thinking”.  He suggests we typically rely too much on analytical thinking, which merely refines current knowledge, producing small improvements to the status quo.

The attached article in Business Week promoting the book, uses the evolution of McDonald’s restaurants in it’s early days to demonstrate his theory.

We know that innovation is a great way to leap ahead of competitors, perhaps this book might help you make such a leap.

The Long Tail – How Endless Choice is Creating Unlimited Demand, by Chris Anderson.

This book was my holiday read.  Chris is (at the time of publishing anyway) the editor of Wired magazine.  This is certainly a book worth picking up.  Chris contends that there is far greater demand than many markets had previously realised.  This demand is at the niche end of the demand curve, where in the past it was difficult to service in an economically viable way.  Significantly these niche markets, in aggregate, are huge and are growing. 

Importantly he does more than simply theorise, he has the stats to back it up – Amazon, Netflix, iTunes and more are used to validate his assertions.

If you have any interest in business in the online world, this is a book worth reading.

The related blog can be found here.