Swamy's Reviews on Management Books
Title: We're in This Boat Together
Sub-Title: Leadership Succession Between the Generations
Author: Camille F. Bishop, PhD
Publisher: Authentic Publishing
ISBN: 978-1-934068-37-3
Genre: Non-Fiction/Management/Leadership/Team Building
Presentation: Soft Cover
'We're in This Boat Together' is a 2-in-1, a business novel and a dissertation about the Leadership Succession Between Generations or the Generation Gap and its effects on leadership. The experiment with the format is laudable but the result is a little unsettling. Read on for my perspective.
When the request for review came, I asked for and got a peek into the first few pages of the book ending with the prologue. I skipped the preface etc. and read the prologue and was thrilled. Here is a book on management with a good focus on leadership transition between the generations written like a business novel and the prologue was so good in style! I accepted the review request and got the printed book.
The book is printed well, the paper quality is good, the type is clear and the readability is good. As already mentioned, the starting is good, rather racy in fact!
The book is about the team building exercise through a river rafting expedition, an exercise to which a team of four from the IT Department of a mid-size company was sent by the management. The team starts as four independent individuals wondering why they were sent for this and ending up as a well knit team at the end of the expedition, in which they were subjected to challenges that test their willingness and ability to work as a team in a crunch situation. The team finds a real life parallel in the office when leadership transition takes place. The concept is good and the parallel of the river with its rapids is highly apt to life in general and change management in particular. Thus the author is to be commended for taking up a worthwhile topic in change management. Leadership transitions are brought on by several factors and the leadership transition brought on by generation gap is an important element. There are other factors of course that affect leadership styles.
The book adopts a rather novel approach. The text keeps alternating between the smooth flow of a novel and the not-so-smooth flow of a good dissertation on the effects of generation on leadership. The smooth flow of the novel like presentation is interrupted by the highly academic dissertation on the leadership styles of the different generations. Much as the author tried to present that part in a simple and readable style, the transition is too abrupt. This continued through out the book.
Having read and enjoyed management books written in the novel format (who hasn't read The Goal?), as well as a non-fiction essay format, I found the sudden changes in the style and the pace rather unsettling. It is as if the author was affected by the river!
I hope the author will attempt a smoother transition between the two formats in a future edition. I believe that it is possible to convey all serious topics on science and management through the novel format.
Title: The Perfect Board
Author: Calvin K. Clemons
Publisher: Ovation Books
ISBN: 978-0-9790275-6-7
Genre: Non-Fiction, Business Organization
Presentation: Hard Back with Dust Jacket
Received for Review on: 24th June 2008
The Perfect Board is all about the Board of Directors of an organization, and is a comprehensive resource on how to be a good director and thus help in making the Board perfect. The author is well equipped to write the book, having served on the boards of directors as well as being an executive vice-president, executive director or director of several associations.
The book takes an interesting form. The beginning and the end are like a novel, with good narrative. The main part of the book is like a good manual, telling the reader what to do and what not to do. The author uses a well qualified and sincere lady as the main character (seeker of knowledge) and a retired, highly knowledgeable expert as the teacher.
The book is well written and well printed (easy to read and easy on the eyes). I did catch a few typos but let me assure you that they are very minor and don't affect the understanding.
If you need to understand what being a director involves, or if you were always curious to know what exactly your directors did (and more importantly are supposed to do!) or if you are a student of business organization course, this could be a good and useful read. The book takes just a couple of hours to read and is handy to carry in your bag, briefcase or coat pocket. Since the contents page covers all the important points, lack of an index is not a big handicap. The bibliography at the end provides more resources if you need.
All in all, an excellent book on the subject and highly recommended.
About the reviewer: The reviewer is a graduate physicist, metallurgist and held senior positions in a large organization till recently and more importantly served on several committees, and associations as an office bearer and is thus familiar with most of the rights and responsibilities of the Executive Committee or Board of Directors. He retired recently after more than 4 decades of service on pension and is sharing his own knowledge through lectures and articles.
Title: Building Personal Leadership – Inspirational Tools for Work & Life
Author: Joe Farcht
Publisher: Genesis Publishing, an Imprint of Morgan James Publsihing
ISBN: 9781600371653
Genre: Business / Leadership / Self-Development
Presentation: Soft Cover
No. of Pages: 356
About the Book (From the Back Cover) – “Building Personal Leadership is a book containing a treasury of tools and techniques to help the individual seeking greater success in their work and lives to realize their wants and dreams. The wisdom contained in this book will revolutionize your life if you are willing to absorb and apply its lessons. The best way to predict your future is to create it. You must take this book along on your life journey.”
If you always wanted to attend a seminar on Personality Development and Leadership etc., and could not attend the same because 1) It is too expensive and as an entrepreneur you could not afford the expense or 2) your boss did not think it worthwhile to sponsor your candidature, you can consider buying this book and spend a good weekend usefully. You will of course miss many of the other inputs of attending a live seminar (the free goodies, the food, the camaraderie, the networking etc.) but you will also spare yourself the expense, the troubles with the travel and a food which doesn’t suit you. If you buy the book at a fraction of the cost of such a seminar, you will also get many useful online bonuses, which as a reviewer, I am not going to get!
I first sampled the book at random at several places and after being satisfied with the contents and the presentation, read through the book in a linear sequence. I was of course exposed to several of the ideas and concepts presented by Joe in his book in the course of my long career (spanning over 4 decades) and my exposure to several speakers, books, Multi-media presentations etc. Thus to me, it was a good refresher course.
If you are a middle or senior level employee of medium and large organizations, you may find that you have already been exposed to several of the ideas presented in this book and thus you too may find that this book is a refresher course. It does its job refreshingly well.
If you are relatively new to life and business, you will find here at one place, almost all the information that you will need. Use the book and the online bonuses and I am sure you will be benefited.
I found the printing and editing to be of high quality. I have no hesitation in strongly recommending the book.
Title: A History of Murphy's Law
Author: Nick T.Spark
Publisher: Author
ISBN: 978-1-4116-8469-0
Genre: Non-Fiction/History/Reliability
This book is of valuable help to those who always wondered about the origin of Murphy's Law, which became quite famous along with Parkinson's Law and Peter's Principle. When I read the press note, I was really interested and when an opportunity to review the book came, I was delighted. And I can confidently write that I was not disappointed after finishing the slim tome which is quite attractively printed and has a number of photographs to put the text in the right perspective.
That Dr.Paul Stapp, arguably the man who first expressed the law in a press conference, was also involved in making car travel in USA and many parts of the world, including India, where I live, was news to me. You, the reader of this review too may similarly find something new in the book. In any case, unless you too have been a researcher like the author about the origin of Murphy's Law, you will certainly be much more informed after you finish the book, which can be read while travelling in a bus, train or while waiting for your flight at the airport.
Nick certainly writes well, in a good, readable style and he has tried to be as fair as humanly possible to present all the sides of the story. Whether he has indeed become the leading expert on Murphy's Law is for you to judge after reading the book. In any case, in Nick's own words, the book was and is intended not just to be a reflection on the origins of Murphy's Law, but on the difficulty in making an assessment of any historical event that was not documented properly. From that perspective, the book has broad appeal I think to anyone who is a student of history or science.
I certainly enjoyed reading this book and recommend it strongly to you too.
Absolute Honesty
Absolute Honesty by Larry Johnson & Bob Philips Publisher: Amacom (www.amacombooks.org) Category: Non-fiction / Business 290 pages; ISBN: 0-8144-0781-1 Absolute Honesty by Larry Johnson and Bob Phillips deals with the critical role of honesty, ethics and morals in business. In 10 Chapters and 290 pages, the authors bring out the negative consequences of dishonesty, shying away from speaking up, lack of a clear policy on ethics etc. They point out the benefits of actively following Absolute Honesty. While the book focuses on the corporate scene in USA, especially in the wake of many corporate scandals that broke out in 2002, similar situations have arisen in many other parts of the world and this book strikes a welcome chord in many a heart. The book is meant for every one but especially for leaders and managers of business organisations, big or small. Employees also benefit, since they will learn the need for courage and honesty, the need to stay away from illegal and immoral activities. So that one can not only sleep better but also look at oneself in the mirror after waking up, without guilt. The authors accomplish what they set out to do, very effectively. The book is very well produced, with the important points well structured and effectively communicated. Reading the book was like attending a seminar and listening to Larry speak. The style is lucid and friendly. Bob's rich experience as a Human Resources expert has added significant value to the book, in the form of real life examples. Information about the book is available at http://www.amanet.org/books/catalog/0814407811.htm where Chapter 2 is available as sample. Chapter 1 is a good introduction to the book and chapter 10 is a good review of the whole book. All in all, a very valuable addition to the bookshelf of every manager. The book serves the role of a good self-study guide too. Rating: Excellent I would like to share with the readers of this review, excerpts from a mail which I wrote to Larry Johnson, after reading the book. "I finished reading the book. It is excellent and I am really happy that I could read the book. The book appealed to my own strong ethical and moral streak. ..............I found the tips for differing with boss, like off-line communication very useful. I found a few places where I would have edited the matter a litle differently. But in general, the editorial standards are quite high. Would you consider bringing out the contents of this book as a Seminar on Multi-Media CD, or as a companion to the book? Thank you for this excellent book. Swamy" In another development, Larry asked me whether he can share with his readers his experience of my own honesty and integrity. I agreed.
Title: Becoming a SERVICE ICON in 90 Minutes a Month
Author: Jeff Mowatt
Publisher: JC Mowatt Seminars Inc. (www.jeffmowatt.com)
ISBN: 0-9734704-0-2
Category: Business / Management
No. of Pages: 164
"Becoming a SERVICE ICON in 90 Minutes a Month" is a well-written, highly readable book that gives a clear road map to those individuals and organisations (or rather the individuals who feel responsible for the organisation) who are interested in taking their service standards to ever increasing heights and having reached a great height, staying there. They stand out as symbols of outstanding service, or in other words, they become the SERVICE ICONs. And Jeff shows how it can be done, with as little as 90 minutes a month, which is all it takes to conduct a CAST Meeting (Customer Service Team Meeting, copyrighted). However, before the first meeting can be conducted, a lot of groundwork is needed, including employee training, conducted through his "Influence with Ease" (Trademark Registered) customer service training.
Jeff's approach is good, and is laid out in 8 chapters. Chapter 1 is rightly titled, "What's in This for you". The second chapter gives a broad outline of the CAST Meetings, followed by the next five chapters, which describe the subtle shifts needed in Customer Service Training, Service Standards, Customer Surveys, Employee Motivation and Daily Priorities. The final chapter describes the actual meeting process.
The anecdotes and the examples given by Jeff are from real life and will certainly hit home. I liked especially two examples: one about the customer feed-back survey, where a car-wash employee not only gets the real problem about the front-desk poor service from a customer (who was not going to complain but who, if possible will not come back) by asking the right question, but also succeeds in getting the customer's good-will by offering a discount, simply because the company empowered him to take on the spot decisions. The second example, which appealed to me was the way a Government employee went out of his way to give a refund cheque to a person who was in real need. That story brought tears to my eyes. If only we all could be as sensitive as that employee!
Jeff makes one important observation in his book, which I liked, the need to treat all people (employees, customers etc.) fairly, not necessarily equally. The difference is important and in many organisations, which go by the rule book, the approach becomes impersonal. Every rule has an exception and Jeff brings out clearly the need to empower employees to differentiate between these two aspects.
The cartoons used by permission from Randy Glasbergen (www.glasbergen.com) in the book add humour and reinforce the points made by Jeff. The book is well printed, and the editing is generally good, though a few slips were noticed, which however, do not distort the message.
The book is aimed at managers (that include people at many levels including supervisors, executives and top management) who are interested in making their organisation a SERVICE ICON, an example to be looked up to and emulated by one and all including the competitors. Even for those who are not in North America, the book gives enough ideas to get going. The book can be supplemented by the Multimedia kits availble from the same source.
I would have preferred to see this book in hard-cover since it makes a good addition to the shelf of many a library. The paper-back is fine for individuals.
Calm Amid Chaos
Calm Amid Chaos - An Executive Guide To Reducing Stress Through Meditation by Charles Graybar Published by Serenity Hill Press Category: Non-fiction / Self-help 170 pages; ISBN: 0-9740265-6-5 "Calm Amid Chaos - An Executive Guide To Reducing Stress Through Meditation" is a practical guide to meditation by Charles Graybar. The book is authentic in that it is written by a man who himself has been a successful business executive and who thus understands the pressures and pains of the average American Business Executive / Leader. That he failed several times to meditate and finally succeeded should give all of us who fail to meditate (including this reviewer), the perseverence to persist and succeed. Most of the meditation practices described by Charles Graybar (Chuck to his friends) are based on eastern approaches. But they don't demand any change in the religious beliefs of the meditators and thus the book should be acceptable to people of all faiths. The book's editing left a lot to be desired. Fortunately, the author's message comes through with little distortion. If you have been looking for a simple, practical guide to help you learn meditation, this is for you.
Title: Lean Strategies for Product Development
Sub-Title: Achieving Breakthrough Performance in Bringing Products to Market
Author: Clifford Fiore
Publisher: ASQ Quality Press (www.asq.org and http://qualitypress.asq.org)
Publisher's Catalog No: H1205
ISBN: 0-87389-604-1
No. of Pages: 96
Genre: Non-Fiction/Management/Industrial Efficiency/Product Development
"Lean Strategies for Product Development" is a small, beautifully printed soft-cover paperback that you could pick up and read while waiting for your flight in the airport and may be finish by the time you reach your destination after about an hour. However, you may need to reread it a couple of times to really appreciate and fully absorb the important concepts presented therein. In 11 chapters spread over just 62 pages, Cliff succeeds in presenting lucidly some very important concepts and methodologies for faster and better product development. These are aptly called Lean Strategies since they tend to make the organization lean by reducing flab and wastage of resources. An analogy that comes to mind is how a small torpedo boat is much more nimble when compared to a bulky aircraft carrier, or how a lean and fit man can outrun and outmanouver a flabby, overweight opponent in boxing. The need for faster, leaner product development teams that can come up with smart and cost-effective designs to withstand intense competition is very well brought out.
The book resembles the well-known business novel "The Goal" in style, though the story line is not as strong as that book. The tone is quite conversational and most of the time, the text is easy to follow. The examples are quite meaningful and with only a little rereading, it is possible for the strategy to be understood. The contents and a sample chapter of the book can be accessed by clicking on the following link:
http://qualitypress.asq.org/perl/catalog.cgi?item=H1205
In addition to the 11 chapters, the book has appendices including a Glossary, Product Development Approach Summary, Examples of Waste, Value Stream Map Examples, Common Product Development Problems, Product Development Maturity Path, References and at the very end, a very useful index.
I especially liked the chapters on Modular design, Platform Design and The Lean and Six Sigma Connection. I also liked Cliff's emphasis on the imperative need to capture knowledge (Knowledge Management if you prefer). I feel many of the existing organizations, even large ones, neglect
this area. As Ken Hawkins, the Project Engineer of Donetics in the book rightly remarks, knowledge goes into a black-hole, never to come out again!
As an editor, I found a few places where I felt that the text could have been edited better. But in general, there is no difficulty in understanding the message.
All in all, I have no hesitation in recommending this book to individuals, organizations and libraries.
S.V.Swamy
About the reviewer: Swamy is a Physicist and a metallurgist by education and has spent almost all of 37 years in Quality Control, Quality Assurance with special emphasis on various aspects of material testing. His other interests include training and general management. Presently he is actively involved in Human Resource Development and Corporate Communications in a large organization in India. The above views are his own and do not in any way reflect the views of his organization.
Title: Putting It On Paper - The Ground Rules for Creating Promotional Pieces that Sell Books Author: Dawn Josephson Publisher: Ground Rules Press A Subsidiary of Cameo Publications LLC Category: Non-fiction / Self-help ISBN: 0-9744966-1-8 PUTTING IT ON PAPER - THE GROUND RULES FOR CREATING PROMOTIONAL PIECES THAT SELL BOOKS by DAWN JOSEPHSON is clear in its target group - authors who need to promote their books and who lack the resources to engage capable people like Dawn to do the job. The need to promote the book is of course very well known and accepted. Once the need is accepted, the choices are clear: either engage a competent Author Services Outfit or do it yourself. When the author tries to do it, he/she soon finds that writing the book was far easier than writing suitable promotional literature about the book. Dawn does an excellent job of explaining the various promotional tools, starting from the cover letter to the press/media kit to bookmarks, postcards etc. Her style is easy and interesting. She gives good examples of each tool. I was especially interested to learn that the author has to prepare a ready-to-use review too, to help out the harried editor of the publication where the review is expected to be published. As an independent reviewer, I always read the book before trying to write a review. So this was a new angle indeed. It may be an acceptable practice in some cases, but I personally feel that an independent reviewer is to be preferred. And there are many nowadays willing to review books of upcoming authors too, like myself! The author may consider bringing out a companion workbook with more examples of actual real life promotional tools and especially the transformation of each from a 'Not OK' to an ‘OK’ state. With a few exceptions, all the examples given in the book are finished pieces. The present book will certainly help new authors and even experienced authors refine their approach to creating powerful promotional materials. Compared to the amount of information given, the price appears to be quite reasonable. A good buy.
The Complete Guide to a Creative Retirement
Title: The Complete Guide to a Creative Retirement Author: Rob Kelley Publisher: Turnkey Press Category: Non-fiction / Self-help 316 pages; ISBN: 0-9740030-9-3 The complete guide to a CREATIVE RETIREMENT by Rob Kelley is obviously meant for those who have been retired and are wondering what to do with their new found free time. What is not so obvious is that it is a good buy for every one else too. You could read it and help your spouse, your mom and dad, uncle or just your retired friend or neighbour, or gift the book to the person. In the space of a little more than 300 pages, Kelley gives a retired person, several options and strategies to keep the body and mind fit, healthy and happy. Five alternative life styles, twelve easy-to-follow retirement strategies and eighty exciting and worthwhile projects. Yes, that in a nutshell is the scope of the book. A feature which appealed to me is the slightly off-white non-glossy paper and the large type face, which is so easy on the eyes. At 55, and with a few more years to go for retirement, I certainly enjoyed the several choices which Rob has spread out before a prospective retiree. No doubt some of the choices are specially useful for retirees in USA and Canada, but generally the book is useful to any retiree anywhere in the world. At the end of every section, useful resources in the form of books, websites etc. are given, which is another useful feature. The index is not really necessary in this type of book, but is given to help you quickly locate a specific topic later. Now to the not so positive aspects of the book. The book is rather poorly edited and there are quite a few slips. Not to the point of distorting the meaning, but slightly distracting. And a few typographic mistakes too. Some of the projects could have been grouped differently and some repetition at the conceptual level could have been avoided. A companion CD or a website with a check list and a program to come up with the suitable choices based on the answers to the questionnaire would have been a good feature, which it is hoped the author will incorporate in future. Considering all the aspects, I would still recommend the book as a very good buy if you are looking for a comprehensive guide to creative retirement.
The Treasure Hunt... A Complete Guide to Interviewing
Title: The Treasure Hunt...A Complete Guide to Interviewing
Author: Brian P. Carey
Publisher: Trafford
Category: Non-fiction / Self-help
73 pages; ISBN: 1-55395-793-8
"The Treasure Hunt...A complete Guide to Interviewing" by Brain P.Carey is actually a self-help 'workbook' and is arguably, "The only way to find your dream job." It may or may not be the only way but is certainly a good way to land one's dream job. In the short space of about 70+ pages, Carey does a good job of charting a course for you to follow to reach your goal of happiness through a good career, not just a good job.
In true work-book style, the author gives detailed instructions and a clear roadmap for a prospective candidate to land a job of one's choice. It is also an activity book, a fun book.
Each Chapter is a Clue, there are eight in all. It starts logically with discovering oneself through goals and ends again logically with a conclusion that the whole process is a self- discovery. In between, Strength & Weakness analysis, Industry Research, Selection of a Company, The Right Career, Getting the Interview and General Interviews/Q&A Theory are the ingredients.
All in all, it is a good book. It would have been a much better book if real life examples, actual transcripts were given.
The book deserves better editing than what it received. Poorly costructed sentences and actual typos are noticed, which it is hoped will be corrected especially since the book is published using Trafford's POD technology and thus lends itself to editing.
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