The Best Business Books of 2009

The Miami Herald's Business Monday books columnist offers his highly subjective list of favorites.

BY RICHARD PACHTER

I didn't — couldn't — read every business book published during the past year, but I was still gob-smacked by the number that I did read in 2009, including a few just for fun. (Imagine that!)

But among those that I read and reviewed, these titles represent the ones that I thought were exceptional, have lasting value and were worth my time — and yours.

A few things that may have deserved inclusion didn't make the cut for one reason or another, and some worthy titles that came out in 2009 won't get reviewed until January. Them's the breaks. You may have a few choices that aren't here either. If you'd like to share, I'm always happy to hear from readers. After all, you make this all possible, so please leave your comments.

Thanks for reading!

(Click on each title to read the original, full review. Date of original review follows each title. Books listed in chronological order by review.)

Collapse of Distinction: Stand Out and Move Up While Your Competition Fails. Scott McKain. Thomas Nelson. 272 pages. 2/09/09

A wise plea for the strategic imperative of being different and distinctive asthe best way to avoid commoditization or worse — extinction. McKain insists that it's a competitive advantage, in fact. "Good enough'' just isn't "good enough'' any more, if it ever was.

 

Taming The Search-And-Switch Customer: Earning Customer Loyalty in a Compulsion-to-Compare World. Jill Griffin. Jossey Bass. 288 pages. 5/11/09

Griffin suggests ways to connect with customers and prospects through the intelligent and proactive deployment of blogs, social networks and other resources that provide support and rapid responses to criticism, problems and concerns — real or imagined. Her deep understanding of thiscomplicated subject and her intelligent and actionable assessment of the necessary strategies are impressive.

Bailout Nation: How Greed and Easy Money Corrupted Wall Street and Shook the World Economy. Barry Ritholtz. Wiley. 332 pages. 6/1/09

Economist and investment guru Barry Ritholtz's blog, The Big Picture, is a mandatory daily stop for many. This honest, unvarnished look at the forces that screwed up the U.S. economy is a worthy candidate for a time capsule so that future financial operators can avoid the same traps that we fell into. Or at least howl when history repeats itself.

The Twitter Book. Tim O'Reilly, Sarah Milstein. O'Reilly. 240 pages. 6/8/09

Movie stars, media figures, captains of industry and book reviewers are doing it, but how can businesses discern the twits from the tweets? O'Reilly and Milstein present as lucid and intelligent an overview as you'd want or need. The format is concise but quite rich, and there's plenty here to convince skeptics that employing Twitter as a marketing tool is a very good way to engage customers.

Life Inc.: How the World Became a Corporation and How to Take it Back. Douglas Rushkoff. Random House. 304 pages. 6/15/09

The "operating system'' behind the world's economies and monetary systems is flawed and antithetical to productivity and most other human values. Greed, avarice and (unenlightened) self-interest flourish. So do artificial scarcity, perpetual debt and empty allegiance to the slogans and logos of oppressive corporations. A less elegant and gifted writer might have produced a dour and plodding polemic against materialism and consumerist culture, but Rushkoff's persuasive prose is a pleasure.

In Pursuit of Elegance: Why the Best Ideas Have Something Missing. Matthew E. May. Broadway Books. 224 pages. 7/6/09

Elegance is simplicity itself, is often self-contained, or damned near, and has nothing to do with wealth or fashion, yet it can affect both. Patterns and the need to look for them and make them work in an elegant manner are hard-wired into human DNA. May's sagacious and engaging book demonstrates how successful organizations can engage elegance and benefit from the engagement engendered by uncomplicated and intuitive choices.

$20 per Gallon: How the Inevitable Rising Cost of Gas Will Change Our Lives for the Better. Christopher Steiner, Grand Central Publishing. 288 pages.

Why Your World Is About to Get a Whole Lot Smaller: Oil and the End of Globalization. Jeff Rubin. Random House. 304 pages. 7/13/09

I devoured these two fascinating books over the last Independence Day weekend, a propitious occasion to learn that one of our most cherished American freedoms may soon evaporate. Each depicts the ways our lives will change as the price of oil, gasoline and petrochemicals continues to rise, and both posit a future that resembles, in many ways, our pastoral past. Much of what these guys write reads like science fiction, though like the best SF, there are recognizably plausible elements therein to enable the suspension of disbelief.

Six Pixels of Separation: Everyone Is Connected. Connect Your Business to Everyone. Mitch Joel. Business Plus. 304 pages. 8/31/09

If you're enticed by all you've heard and read about the benefits of deploying online tools like LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter, podcasts, blogs, search engines and the rest for your business or personal enterprises but were not sure what to actually do and where to begin, this terrific tome will help hook you up. Joel doesn't just provide directions but also thoroughly explains a variety of things that may seem painfully obvious to the cognoscenti but somehow eludes others.

Walk the Walk: The #1 Rule for Real Leaders. Alan Deutschman. Portfolio. 208 Pages. 9/7/09

Alan Deutschman's short and readable book examines a number of people and the failure and success they achieved for themselves and their organizations based on whether or not their deeds aligned with their words. He does a fine job explicating the importance of moral equanimity and the effectiveness of leaders who are consistent in their values and actions. It's a lesson that transcends business but is especially important in it, where trust and integrity can ultimately determine failure or success.

The Chaos Scenario. Bob Garfield. Stielstra Publishing. 294 pages. 11/30/09

Advertising-supported mass media is dying, and Ad Age columnist and NPR host Garfield, though currently part of its status quo, is simultaneously gleeful and distraught, mourning the decentralization of power while grabbing a bit of his own by blogging about the death of his cable provider for lack of support, dishonesty and general idiocy. What makes his insights valuable — even essential — is Garfield himself. He's an enormously entertaining and engaging writer, and it's a blast to observe the machinations of his so-sane-he's-crazy (or is it the other way around?) mind. Witty, world-weary, wildly knowledgeable and endlessly curious, Garfield is your perfect tour guide to the end of the sponsored world as we know it.

Media Meltdown

Uncertainty looms as the ad-supported media infrastructure continues its death spiral

BY RICHARD PACHTER

 

The Chaos Scenario. Bob Garfield. Stielstra Publishing. 294 pages.

When advertiser-supported media — print, broadcast, online, whatever — cease to exist as audiences shrink below the critical mass needed by businesses to justify placing advertising therein, it's what Advertising Age columnist and NPR host Bob Garfield calls "The Chaos Scenario.''

He began documenting this meltdown in 2005 with a column that engendered widespread industry hysterics. The book took all this time to write, he said, because the chaos was ongoing and accelerating. But he told me at the Miami Book Fair International that he was compelled to write this. Driven. This was something that needed saying.

If he'd managed to do it quickly, this book would have been even more explosive and mind-blowing, four years ago. Now, his tour of the emerging media-less landscape is slightly less shocking. Most mavens and everyone else already know what's ahead and take Facebook, Twitter, blogs, social networking, crowdsourcing and all that other Googlely stuff pretty much for granted.

But Garfield's take remains invaluable and is still quite timely, even urgent. Major components of the scenarios he describes are still unfolding. For example, Jay Leno's nightly TV chat show is a direct result of NBC's plummeting ratings and the relatively low cost of producing that show compared to (more or less) original dramatic presentations. Daily newspapers' diminishing circulation numbers have publishing execs considering patently suicidal tactics like charging for online access or withholding content from the great god, Google. (Good luck with that one, Rupert!)

What makes Garfield's insights valuable — even essential — is Garfield himself. He's an enormously entertaining and engaging writer. It's a blast to observe the machinations of his so-sane-he's-crazy (or is it the other way around?) mind. Witty, world-weary, wildly knowledgeable and endlessly curious, Garfield is your perfect guide to the end of the world.

He trudges through Lego's Danish headquarters to see how the makers of those annoying bits of shaped plastic profited from tapping into the hive-mind of its fans. He journeys to Australia, Estonia, Israel, England and through his own living room as he investigates the twilight of one media age and the genesis of the next.

To be sure, there are thousands of other books, blog posts, PowerPoint presentations, podcasts, vodcasts and speeches on the subjects Garfield covers, but he's unique and his discursive by-the-ways, rude asides and dead-on skepticism provide the ideal balance to the mash-up of endemic excitement and widespread panic pervading the affected industries and culture at large.

Mass media is dying and Garfield, though currently part of its status quo, is simultaneously gleeful and distraught, mourning the decentralization of power while grabbing a bit of his own by blogging for the death of his cable provider for lack of support, dishonesty and general idiocy.

One nit to pick: the "real" last chapter of this tome has yet to be written and will appear online, per Garfield. Whatever. But the final one herein, explaining the book's origin and publication path, ought to have appeared up front, I think. No biggie, though.

Failure, however, to see what Bob Garfield's discovered — the chaotic and uncertain world we're entering — could be a very big mistake. You've been forewarned.

Originally published in The Miami Herald

Say it, mean it and do it

Your words must match your deeds

by Richard Pachter

 

Walk the Walk: The #1 Rule for Real Leaders. Alan Deutschman. Portfolio. 208 Pages.

Each of us may be the star of our own movie, but that doesn't guarantee an intriguing plot. In a similar fashion, most war stories recounted by business leaders are dull cautionary tales rather than inspiring works offering useful examples and actionable instructions.

In many cases, the problem is that deeds fail to match words. These captains of industry may be legends in their own minds who can glibly talk the talk, but may not walk the walk. No one is perfect, of course, but most leadership failures can invariably be ascribed to the disconnect between the walk and the talk.

We see it all the time in Washington, D.C., and in our local governments. Two-faced politicians, for example, call for austerity, slash spending on important programs yet reward allies, cronies and lackeys at the expense of the public. But when other supervisors fail to follow their own rhetoric, especially in business, there's a ripple effect. ``Leaders'' are supposed to lead, and their behavior is far more revealing and meaningful than mere words.

Alan Deutschman's short and readable book looks at a number of people and the failure and success they achieved for themselves and their organizations based on whether or not their actions aligned with their words. Military leaders, coaches — even companies — that were consistent in their rhetoric and practices are profiled, as well as those who failed to live up to their own responsibilities and standards.

You may not cheer for his team, but there's no way that you can read Deutschman's observations about University of Florida football coach Urban Meyer and not admire his integrity and behavior. His actions communicate more about his values and expectations than any hackneyed half-time speech or sideline exhortation.

Historical figures including Martin Luther King Jr., Nelson Mandela and Eleanor Roosevelt are profiled along with business people such as Berkshire Hathaway's Warren Buffet, Southwest Airlines' Herb Kelleher, Amazon's Jeff Bezos, politicians Al Gore and Mike Bloomberg, and a bunch of unknown figures whose behavior demonstrated unambiguous leadership and set examples for the people they led -- or fell short.

It's an interesting and absorbing set of stories, sure, but invariably, while reading these exemplary tales, one immediately is reminded of all the moralizing political hacks who condemn the behavior of others while cheating on their wives, lying to their staffs and defrauding the public.

Also springing to mind are thoughts of the more mundane managers who demand standards they fail to achieve. It's especially telling in tough times when bosses expect employees to trim budgets, endure salary cuts and take on additional work, yet somehow those same budgets still accommodate the leaders' high salaries and perquisites.

Deutschman does a fine job demonstrating the importance of moral equanimity and the effectiveness of leaders who are consistent in their purported values and their actions.

He also does a terrific job of portraying the deleterious effects of failure with examples from General Motors' plants to failed military campaigns, plus politicians who preached what they failed to practice. It's a lesson that transcends business but is especially important in it, where trust and integrity can ultimately determine failure or success.

Originally published in The Miami Herald

Connecting through six pixels of separation

How to use online tools to expand your enterprise.

BY RICHARD PACHTER

 

Six Pixels of Separation: Everyone Is Connected. Connect Your Business to Everyone. Business Plus. 304 pages.

The very first book I reviewed in this space in 2000 explained how the Internet had transformed marketing into an ongoing conversation between and among interested parties.

Since then — nearly nine years later — I've looked at and reviewed an endless stream of books that built on the proposition set forth by the creators of The Cluetrain Manifesto (Christopher Locke, Rick Levine, Doc Searls and David Weinberger), who, along with Seth Godin (Permission Marketing) and Guy Kawasaki (Rules for Revolutionaries), helped define our brave new age of interactive affinity marketing.

Other than subsequent works by those authors and not many others (Dan Pink immediately comes to mind), few proved worthy successors. I'm not absolutely certain that Canadian marketing maven Mitch Joel will join the virtual pantheon, but his new book Six Pixels of Separation has sparked my synapses in ways that only the aforementioned visionaries had previously done.

Like them, Joel quickly brushes aside jargon, pretension and artifice. He's engaging, witty and wise, with book smarts and pop-culture savvy. He's also endlessly inquisitive and employs this peripatetic curiosity to explore the vagaries of human behavior.

Even the better books about online marketing and networking tend to give the view from 30,000 feet (or a comparable number of pixels), but Mitch Joel operates at ground level. So if you're enticed by all you've heard and read about the benefits of deploying online tools like LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter, podcasts, blogs, search engines and the rest for your business or personal enterprises but were not sure what to actually do and where to begin, this tome will help set you straight.

A couple of months ago, I read a book that purported to be a repository all known Internet and social networking resources, so I kept it on my shelf as a reference but didn't crack it more than a few times. In contrast to that work, Joel's practicable and actionable handbook might actually come in handy more than once in a while.

He doesn't just provide directions but also thoroughly explains a variety of things that may seem painfully obvious to the cognoscenti but somehow eludes others. For example, why should newspapers or other content creators continue to aggregate — and not abandon — their offerings? Duh! By archiving their content, it increases their site's value and makes it more available to search engines, thereby building traffic and revenue opportunities. Seems like a no-brainer, but have you ever tried to find an article on some newspaper sites a few weeks after original publication — or later? Oy! It has driven many writers to create their own websites as a defensive strategy to protect their own work (which is not a bad idea, regardless.)

I also liked Joel's invocation of General Eric Shinseki's prescient admonition, "If you don't like change, you're going to like irrelevance even less,'' a gentle and subtle reminder that those who fail to embrace the future will be stuck in the past.

If there's any criticism of this book, it's that Joel covers a lot of ground and might have divvied the material up among several shorter books. But I frankly like the wide approach, even if it means that he'll have to think hard about what comes next. I look forward to whatever he decides to write about if it's as well presented and provocative as this.

Originally published in The Miami Herald

Out of gas but a better future awaits

Two new books say the rising price of oil-based energy will force us to change our lives for the better.

BY RICHARD PACHTER


 

$20 per Gallon: How the Inevitable Rising Cost of Gas Will Change Our Lives for the Better. Christopher Steiner. Grand Central Publishing. 288 pages.

Why Your World Is About to Get a Whole Lot Smaller: Oil and the End of Globalization. Jeff Rubin. Random House. 304 pages.

I devoured these two fascinating books over the recent Independence Day weekend, a propitious occasion to discover that one of our most cherished American freedoms will soon disappear. Both books spell out the ways our lives will change as the price of oil, gasoline and petrochemicals continues to rise.

We may already feel that current prices at the pump are outrageous, though both authors agree that they're actually quite low — but will be rising shortly. The resultant climb will affect nearly every aspect of modern life around the globe. In the United States, more than anywhere else, where we work and live are functions of the low price of gas. When it rises to 10 or 20 bucks a gallon, we simply won't be able too afford to live far from our jobs. But that's just the beginning. Both authors ably demonstrate that our food and other real or imagined necessities depend largely upon the plentiful supply and low price of petroleum.

Authors Steiner and Rubin agree that we're burning around six gallons of gas for every one found. Most of the major oil deposits around the world have been tapped or soon will be, they say. The ''Drill baby, drill'' crowd is just blowing a bilious cloud of natural gas; there just ain't that much to be had. But the world's demand for oil hasn't gone down. It's gone up and is growing rapidly. The nascent middle classes of China and India represent millions of new drivers and a huge demand for an untold amount of fuel. The numbers they say, clearly, indicate a steep price rise; we may in fact be looking at $6 a gallon by next year.

Both writers separately posit a future that resembles the pastoral past in many ways. The suburban sprawl that has become the hallmark of contemporary America will be impossible to sustain when high gas prices eliminate the personal automobile as we know it. It will be supplanted by an infrastructure that includes mass transportation systems like rail but doesn't include very much internal combustion-powered personal vehicle traffic -- except for some small cars fueled by ammonia. Hydrogen fuel cells? Not so much. Electric cars? Maybe.

But the population will either live in small towns with local services or dense cities like New York. Agriculture will be local too, as it will become prohibitively expensive to ship over long distances. You can also forget about eating things like sushi, unless it's cut from local fish. Globalization and world trade will essentially cease.

Much of what these guys write reads like science fiction, though like the best SF, there are recognizably plausible elements therein to ease the suspension of disbelief.
As scary as they are, I enjoyed these two books and recommend them both, with Steiner's getting the slight edge for readability as his more expansive outlook is engagingly depicted — but he quotes Rubin several times, so the unanimity between the two seems strong.

Neither author, however, presents the alternative, dystopian scenario that would result if we fail to successfully adapt our lives and livelihoods to accommodate the new, nearly gas-free way of life. Perhaps the possibility is far too horrible to comprehend, or has already been ably depicted by Robert A. Heinlein, Isaac Asimov and others.

Originally published in The Miami Herald

Elegance is a matter of simplicity

Businesses can benefit by engaging customers in unintrusive ways
Matthew May shows how elegance is actually a matter of simplicity.

BY RICHARD PACHTER


In Pursuit of Elegance: Why the Best Ideas Have Something Missing. Matthew E. May. Broadway Books. 224 pages.

The term elegance is popularly misunderstood. It's not about luxury, avarice or Fred Astaire. It's simplicity itself and often self contained, or damned near, and has nothing to do with wealth or fashion, yet it can affect both.

An elegant solution, to me, is one that solves a problem in a minimal and unintrusive manner. For example, what to do with the thin sliver of soap remaining in your shower? I slap it on a fresh bar of soap, then use it. It doesn't sit at the bottom of the shower. It's also not wasted. That's an elegant — albeit mundane — solution.

My expectations of Matthew May's elegant new book were, I admit, skewed a bit by my own misconceptions. I'd expected something about design and how it confers an advantage in the manner of the iPod, which solved the MP3 listening problem and opened up a new market along the way.

May touches on design, but mostly looks at the subject in terms of problem solving, covering seemingly diverse topics, such as how monks think, why roadways without traffic rules are safer, the final scene of The Sopranos, the art of Jackson Pollock, the ''Broken Windows'' approach to crime fighting and the proliferation of fractals, a recurring theme.

More than anything else, though, he looks at elegance in terms of decision making, which is very important for business, of course, and his discourse on its key elements (seduction, subtraction, symmetry and sustainability) may very well trigger something in the reader that inspires a new way of looking at ordinary things.

May is a fine writer, though at times the reader is left wondering where the heck he's going, as though he's taking his subtitle (''Why the Best Ideas Have Something Missing'') a tad too seriously. And I'd quibble with that subtitle, in fact, as it's not strictly true, nor is it a major theme of the book.

But adding by subtracting or doing nothing, as opposed to something/anything, is demonstrated to be quite useful. May, summarizing a section on the absence of traffic lights in an area, paraphrases the designer Hans Monderman in explaining that "when you are fully involved in a process governed by very simple relationship rules, a natural inclination takes over, and a self-organized pattern emerges that is far more orderly than any legislation can produce. Under those circumstances, you're connected with what's around you. Lose that connection and a mess ensues.''

When you think about how the Web works and that the simplest sites such as Google and Amazon are among its most effective, the lessons of elegance and their applications to business are quite simple, indeed.

Patterns and the need to see them and make them work in an elegant manner are hard-wired into human DNA. May's wise and engaging book demonstrates how successful organizations can emulate the elegance and benefit from the engagement engendered by uncomplicated and intuitive choices.

Originally published in The Miami Herald

Fascism

  

Life Inc.: How the World Became a Corporation and How to Take it Back. Douglas Rushkoff. Random House. 304 pages.

BY RICHARD PACHTER

In a review of one of his earlier books a few years back, I referred to author Rushkoff as a Renaissance Man, though after reading this new one, he'd clearly be more at home in the latter part of the Middle Ages between the 11th and 13th centuries. According to him, that era was a more productive and people-friendly period, with many of the advancements attributed to the latter one actually occurring in this so-called First Renaissance.

This new one is an interesting and challenging book. Its primary theme is that corporations, which were originally devised to suppress competition and preserve the wealth and power of monarchies, have evolved to possess more rights than individuals and most governing authorities. Furthermore, the ''operating system'' behind the world's economies and monetary systems is antithetical to productivity and most other human values beside greed, avarice and (unenlightened) self-interest. Rather, says Rushkoff, through manipulation of markets, resources, production and labor, the world's ascendant corporate interests have diminished humanity. What we're largely left with is artificial scarcity, perpetual debt and an empty allegiance to the slogans and logos of the oppressors.

PARALLEL ECONOMIES

Rushkoff writes: 'There are two economies — the real economy of groceries, day care and paychecks, and the speculative economy of assets, commodities and derivatives. What forecasters refer to as `the economy' today isn't the real one; it's entirely virtual. It's a speculative marketplace that has very little to do with getting real things to the people who need them, and much more to do with providing ways for passive investors to increase their capital. This economy of markets — first created to give the rising merchant class in the late Middle Ages a way to invest their winnings — is not based on work or even the injection of capital into new enterprises. It's based instead on 'making markets' in things that are scarce — or more accurately, things that can be made scarce, like land, food, coal, oil and even money itself.''

POWERFUL WRITING
Though eschewing the tone of a manifesto or screed, the narrative is a tour de force survey of the economic history of the modern world. A less elegant and gifted writer might have produced a dour and plodding polemic against materialism and our consumerist culture, but Rushkoff's prose is a pleasure to read. He's clearly lecturing, but his seasoned teaching chops result in a painlessly enlightening and consciousness-raising experience. You may not agree with all of his conclusions, but it's a fascinating view and one that's rarely presented with such élan.

Rushkoff's not a socialist or communist, to be sure, though he's clearly opposed to corporatism, or as it's also known, ''fascism.'' He questions and exposes many of the things that are taken for granted, such as home ownership, which he exposes as a means to tie workers to their labor by giving them a tiny stake, albeit one with enormous debt attached to it. But for all his slow-boiling outrage, Rushkoff's proposed remedies are modest and local, as befitting a near-impossible endeavor dedicated to chipping away at the foundations of civilization.

Originally published in The Miami Herald

How to discern the twits from the tweets

 

The Twitter Book. Tim O'Reilly, Sarah Milstein. O'Reilly. 240 pages.

By Richard Pachter

My dear mother asked me recently if I tweet. I nearly choked on my chopped liver but regained my composure quickly enough to query, ''Do you know what that is, Mom?'' ''No,'' she replied sweetly,"`but everyone's doing it.''

Indeed, the mainstream media has been buzzing about Twitter and its 140-character messages, called ''tweets.'' Movie stars, media figures, captains of industry and others seem to be doing it, but how can businesses discern the twits from the tweets?''

O'Reilly and Milstein present as lucid and intelligent an overview as you'd want or need. Twitter is clearly not for everyone, but it's quickly becoming as important as e-mail for certain professions and this terrific primer shows why.

The format is concise but quite rich, and there's plenty here to convince you to employ Twitter as a marketing tool and a very good way to engage customers.

Originally published in The Miami Herald

Big Picture

Bailout Nation: How Greed and Easy Money Corrupted Wall Street and Shook the World Economy. Barry Ritholtz. Wiley. 332 pages.

By Richard Pachter

Over the past decade, a diverse assemblage of bloggers have established themselves as a self-appointed truth squad for the so-called ''mainstream media,'' though most of them draw from the MSM for actual reporting and content. A few, however, consistently provide some original material. Among the more worthwhile blogs is The Big Picture, a blunt but stylish one presented by economist Barry Ritholtz, whose daily analysis is a mandatory stop within the blogosphere.

His new book expands upon many of the themes he has already hit upon online, but in this package, there's more space for him stretch out and provide a more thoughtful and expansive look at our current economic and political messes.

originally published in The Miami Herald

Hunters and Gatherers

Taming The Search-And-Switch Customer: Earning Customer Loyalty in a Compulsion-to-Compare World. Jill Griffin. Jossey Bass. 288 pages.

by RICHARD PACHTER

There are hunters and there are gatherers. With the advent of online commerce, hunters are now ascendant. And why not? Thanks to Google, anyone who can key in a name, even one spelled incorrectly, can suddenly gather information about a product, service or provider in detail that would have been unthinkable just a few years earlier.

For those of us who tend to obsessively research prices and features before making a purchase, it's heaven, but the extra edge afforded by discovering testimonials (or cautions) from users is the real killer app. Some online retailers, most notably Amazon.com, recognize the value of this and encourage buyers to post reviews and ratings of products.

The same situation exists in the nonconsumer sector. In fact, the b-to-b segment is usually tougher in its ratings, since they generally employ more exacting requirements, and technical and legal standards may be involved as well.

It's great if you're a buyer, but if you're a provider, what the heck can you do to, at the very least, participate in the process? And can you control it?

Jill Griffin may not have all the answers, but I was blown away by her deep understanding of this complicated subject and her intelligent and actionable assessment of the necessary strategies. Having a firm grasp of the obvious is all too rare.

Rather than counsel obfuscation and deception, she recommends going at it full-bore. Of course, the internals have to be worked out first, though some of the tasks can be done on the fly. The first rule of promotion still applies: make sure the product (or service) is tight; if it isn't, then the criticism may be deserved. The whole point of Griffin's strategy involves doing the right thing and telling the truth. If the message emanating from you and your organization is bogus, you're sunk. If you start with honest communication and customer satisfaction as the primary goals, it's easier to formulate company policies and practices, even if they have to be made up as you go along.

Griffin suggests ways to genuinely connect with customers and prospects with an intelligent and proactive deployment of blogs, social networks and other resources to provide support and rapid responses to criticism, problems and concerns -- legitimate or otherwise. She also offers a guide -- several, actually -- to assess key aspects of the initiative. Customer loyalty is the ultimate goal, after all, and it's an ongoing process.

These elements usually require a fair degree of attention and consistency. But this type of behavior is now mandatory for businesses seeking to thrive in the context of the new reality.

Griffin covers a lot of ground in this book, but her organization of the material is excellent. It's not enough to have great ideas and to write well. If it isn't presented in an entertaining and compelling manner, making a lasting impression will be difficult. But if any business or other organization that sells or serves is serious and sincere about engaging customers, prospects and other stakeholders, they'll benefit from the principles, strategies and tactics of Jill Griffin.

published 5/11/09 in The Miami Herald

Stand out or die

Do you really want to compete only on the basis of price?

BY RICHARD PACHTER

Collapse of Distinction: Stand Out and Move Up While Your Competition Fails. Scott McKain. Thomas Nelson. 272 pages.

It's a strange time, uncertain and frightening. But it's a logical outcome for an economy fueled by funky credit, inflated real estate, cooked books, regulatory dereliction and more. Add the Internet, the commoditization of, well, nearly everything, and sundry international instabilities and you have quite a mess. We have quite a mess but life goes on and so does commerce, one of the surest expressions of human behavior.

Mindful of this context, the author of a new book implores us to discover ways to make our products and services (and the marketing thereof) more relevant and compelling by being different.

This is familiar ground. Seth Godin immediately comes to mind, with his purple cows and meatball sundaes. But Scott McKain takes a slightly different approach, starting with a trip to his hometown (in common with John Mellencamp) — Seymour, Ind. He visits some local businesses and notices the scant variation among the offerings of the various (though unvaried) chains of restaurants, insurance companies, whatever.

For some people, that's a good thing. A sales rep I knew confounded his more adventurous colleagues by insisting upon dining only at chains during their frequent road trips. One of his frustrated fellow travelers complained that they'd hit cities like Memphis and New Orleans with great local grub and this guy (senior in rank, alas) would invariably gravitate to the ubiquitous and familiar. But if you're not a chain, what can you do to survive and succeed?

Author Scott McKain writes "If you cannot find it within yourself to become emotional, committed, engaged, and yes, fervent about differentiation, then you had better be prepared to take your place among that vast throng of the mediocre who are judged by their customers solely on the basis of price. It is the singularly worst place to be in all of business. If you aren't willing to create distinction for yourself in your profession — and for your organization in the marketplace — then prepare to take your seat in the back, with the substantial swarm of the similar, where tedium reigns supreme.''

For many businesses, providing unambiguous homogeneity can a successful strategy, but McKain points out that being different is nearly always better; it's a competitive advantage, in fact, assuming that what's offered is resoundingly better and not just different. But what if you and your business are mediocre or unremarkable? You'll have to be honest and fearless. ''Good enough'' just isn't ''good enough'' any more, if it ever was.

In addition to some fairly interesting and surprising anecdotes (the author played a villain in a Werner Herzog film), he also provides a bunch of assessments to determine the most compelling — and marketable — aspects of your endeavor that will be worthy of attention and promotion.

Again, we've heard and read much of what McKain offers here, but his is a very solid presentation of a message that bears repetition. As things continue to tighten up, the path he illuminates may be the best way to survive.

published 2/09/09 in The Miami Herald