FAs without the Qs

Back when I reviewed biz books for the Miami Herald, I'd get — as you'd imagine — numerous inquiries from publishers, authors, publicists and others who wanted me to review their books.

Some were quite professional, generally because they were from professionals, but others were a bit ham-handed and many asked my help to "promote their book in the Miami Herald"(!)

Rather than respond to each entreaty, I put together a kind of boilerplate response, which I honed and revised many times, as needed.

I've never shared this online, but was thinking about it today and thought, why not?

So, here it is.

FAQ for Publicists, Publishers and Authors

Thanks for your e-mail about your book.

Here are a few things you might find helpful.

First of all, I review business books usually intended for a general business audience. I avoid technical volumes, most business-to-business books, self-help, diets, pop psychology, inspirational, religious, spiritual, sports, celebrity bios, novels, fables, humor, parables and such. (There are exceptions, but not often!) CEO memoirs and the like are iffy, but not entirely out of the question.

I love books and language, and am endlessly interested in all forms of business, as it's a vital aspect of human culture.

That's why I review business books.

If you want your book considered for review, you need not ask me before sending a copy. It's an extra and unnecessary step.

I receive many books every day — more than I can possibly review — so if you think yours is a candidate, just send it. My address is below.

If you are not sure if the book is right, please take a moment to scan my previous reviews. The links are below. The Miami Herald site requires registration. My own (admittedly incomplete) sites, http://www.wordsonwords.com and http://www.richardpachter.com do not.

I like books offering fresh ideas that can be applied to a variety of businesses and situations.

Your book must be new, and available in bookstores and from normal online merchants (Amazon.com, BN.com etc.) and not just through your own web site or 800 number. 

I'll sometimes review a book AND the CD audio version. Feel free to send both, if you like.

I don't (can't) return phone calls. You may always follow up with me by e-mail. I try to respond promptly, but this is not my full-time gig, unfortunately, and my "real" job takes up the majority of my time and attention.

I don't review unpublished manuscripts or provide my "professional opinion" about something I'm not reviewing, and can offer no advice on agents, publishers, editors etc.

I rarely do author interviews unless there are strong local South Florida connections, and even that's no guarantee.

I don't need any canned reviews, have no say about anything else in the paper and think that poetry is a huge scam, so don't send me any poems (pretty please!)

I also review graphic novels on a monthly basis for The Herald. From time to time, I write about other stuff, but it's not worth pitching me on anything, since I have more ideas than time to execute them.

Thanks for reading. (Any implied grouchiness herein is certainly not directed at you! I promise.)


xxx
rap
Richard Pachter
----
This FAQ is covered by a Creative Commons license.

Avoid the Horrors of E-Mail Marketing

E-Mail Marketing: The Complete Guide to Creating Successful Campaigns. Herschell Gordon Lewis. AMACOM. 304 pages. $24.95.

Let's check our e-mail. Hmm. . . In addition to a few messages from clients, colleagues, managers and readers, there's a solicitation from an heir of an overthrown African politician offering a "business opportunity" (but he wants my bank account number to get started); a sale on toner cartridges from a company I've never heard of; several links to pornographic websites; an offer to purchase a condominium in Calgary; a number of cryptic messages with attached files (removed by my company's virus prevention software); poetry from a local writer; a newsletter; a few more commercial solicitations (some of which pretend to be responses to inquiries and requests I've never made), and a bunch of other things that were routed directly to the trash, since they contain certain keywords that flag them for that purpose by my e-mail program.

So what's the deal with the unsolicited commercial e-mail — fondly known as "spam"?

You and I may consider it spam, but e-mail as a marketing tool is a powerful new medium. Herschell Gordon Lewis is one of its biggest advocates, and that makes sense. Lewis, a Fort Lauderdale-based advertising veteran, has long been a creative guru in the direct marketing arena. To some, it's mere junk mail, but Lewis cast his sharp eye toward the creativity and effectiveness of the work, mostly stuff that appeared in his own mail box.

His long running column in a trade publication wittily skewered a number of ill-advised campaigns and sales pieces — and complimented a few that worked, in his opinion. In this new book, he does the same with the sales pitches and special offers sent to the in-box of his e-maile account.

If you're an average recipient of e-mail who's annoyed by the endless amount of unsolicited commercial messages, this is not the book for you. No way, because Lewis assumes that there is such a thing as good e-mail of the unsolicited commercial variety. And really, if you think of it as a digital cousin of the material that shows up in your home mailbox every day, this is not a difficult leap to make.

But if your home is assaulted with dozens of daily come-ons for hot farm girls, Viagra and other unwelcome products and services, chances are you'd have negative feelings attached to these solicitations. Lewis apparently believes that since e-mail is, after all, in its infancy, the bad things will fade away as the medium matures. And, if these offers cease being effective (the marketing, not the products!), senders will stop flooding every e-mail address with it. The problem, of course, is that conducting e-mail marketing campaigns is cheaper than any other similar effort, so the bottom-feeders will probably be around forever.

But that's not our problem, nor is it Lewis', other than factoring it in to the effectiveness of e-mail marketing as a whole. He's not an advocate of spam; he just thinks it is, for the most part, lame.

Instead, he's a proponent of sending messages to prospects who are disposed toward particular products and services, have opted to receive e-mail, or are on lists supplied by companies gathering such information to sell them to companies in the same manner as traditional (postal) mailing lists.

So Lewis devotes most of his book to discussing his general creative principles and showing how they apply to this unique medium, illustrated with plenty of real examples from the things he has received. If you are so inclined to conduct an e-mail marketing campaign, this book is invaluable. Writing may be deceptively simple, but crafting a message in a powerful and persuasive manner is extremely difficult. Herschell Gordon Lewis is a Jedi master of mail marketing -- snail or electronic -- so heeding his lessons all but guarantees success.

But please, don't give into the dark — and spammy — side of The Force.

originally published in The Miami Herald

The end of dominant U.S. influence

The End of Influence: What Happens When Other Countries Have the Money. Brad DeLong, Stephen S. Cohen. Basic Books. 176 pages.

Coauthors outline the problems the U.S. faces as we lose money and power

BY RICHARD PACHTER

I've long thought that the best advice one can give a youngster seeking success in the business world is to learn Chinese. Our pals in Beijing and Shanghai hold serious paper on us ("Us, U.S.,'' as Paul Harvey used to say) and they can wreak terminal havoc upon America, its institutions and infrastructure, if and when they chose. But it's not really in their best interests to ask us to ante up and watch us turn our pockets inside out, show our empty hands and shrug.

Why?

Cohen and DeLong invoke the quote, ``If you owe the bank $1 million, the bank has you; if you owe $1 billion, you have the bank,'' then spend much of the rest of the book explaining why and how it's true. Along the way, they discuss the failure of neoliberalism, which sought to transfer portions of the control of the economy from the public to the private sector, skewer former Fed head Alan Greenspan, and describe with palpable awe the pandemic failure to oversee credit and banking in the United States and the major role it played -- and continues to play -- in our ongoing economic meltdown. The rampant corruption of the political system is also calmly recounted as a powerful catalyst for this dissolution and dispersal of American wealth.

Though both authors are academics, they're rather decent writers; DeLong is also a blogger (http://delong.typepad.com) who struggles online daily to make sense of various economic effluvia and ephemera with a combination of alacrity, disgust and amusement. But this book is far from a knee-slapper and unlikely to be chosen by Ms. Winfrey for her book club.

They cover a fair amount of ground here and their depiction of the loss of U.S. influence is tempered by their rational, non-alarmist manner. Though resistant to speculation on things that are obviously unknown and unknowable, the pair does spell out the fading power of government and private industry to collaborate on industrial and scientific innovation. The authors leave any horrific conclusions and sensational scenarios to others.

The absence of requisite funding will hit this area quite hard, they surmise. The natural constituency for this alarm might be found in either political party, though both are focused on other things. They may eventually wake up just in time to do nothing but howl and raise impotent ire, however.

Overall, the loss of U.S. dominance due to lack of governmental largess might promote more multilateralism, as we become just another country, rather than the planet's sole superpower. It may force some of our beneficiaries to stand on their own and opponents to focus inward. It may also further the domestic growth of China as their credit ceases to subsidize and support our consumption of their consumer goods. After all, it's a very big country and is already growing faster than any economy on the planet.

Cohen and DeLong's interesting look at the real New World Order is worthy of consideration as it describes a reality that's fast approaching.

published 12/14/09 in The Miami Herald

Buy low, sell high

The Peebles Path to Real Estate Wealth: How to Make Money in Any Market. R. Donohue Peebles and J.P. Faber. Wiley. 216 pages
BY RICHARD PACHTER

Disclaimer: This is a book review, not a personal profile or a breaking news story. If you are interested in reading more about R. Donohue Peebles, use the Google! As a developer in South Florida and other communities, he's received quite a bit of coverage.

In reading this guide to making money in real estate, shards of Peebles's curriculum vitae emerge, though that's far from its focus. Still, there's a bit of a narrative thread that wends through it, though each occurrence offers a brief glimpse and no more.

Essentially most of the book is a prosaic and painstaking primer on the fundamentals of real estate selection, evaluation, negotiation and financing, then buying and selling the property.

If you weren't already aware that the idea is to buy low and sell high, you'll find Peebles's lessons quite valuable. But most sapient and sentient beings understand that, and if they've read any real estate book -- or bought or sold a home - have learned this fundamental principle.

But like the redoubtable son of Rich Dad Robert Kiyosaki, Peebles advises to pursue undervalued properties and negotiate fiercely with lenders, owners, government officials or whomever holds the keys (literally or figuratively). Of course, as real-estate prices plummet, finding these bargain properties, according to Peebles, isn't too tough. All you need is cash. Or if you don't have any cash, good credit. Or if you don't have good credit well, more about that in a bit.

DISSING TRUMP
Peebles (and his co-author, J.P. Faber) write clearly and simply, and with some humor (though no knee-slappers) and drop plenty of references to South Florida, which might aid anyone who wants to annotate this book with footnotes detailing the author's achievements. Interestingly, there's just a single unindexed reference to fellow South Florida developer and fellow author Jorge Perez -- as a subject of litigation. Though Donald Trump is mentioned, as Peebles gleefully strips the varnish off the Trump legend by pointing out how the blustery serial failure is popularly perceived as a success -- a source of wisdom, even, for erstwhile apprentices, while defaulting on debts and executing other abortive and bone-headed deals.

There's also an interesting analysis of the real-estate glut caused by bureaucratic bumbling and incompetence in the wake of the savings and loan collapse in the late '70s and early '80s. Peebles, though, was able to rise above the chaos and managed to profit by being in the right place and boldly going where others could or would not.

HOME TOURS
Throughout the text, Peebles also touches on his various personal residences, their asking prices, how he acquired them and what he paid, as a means of illustrating his instructions and illuminating his methods. It's interesting though not especially compelling.

The best part of the book, though, is tucked away in the back, as Peebles instructs prospective investors to divest themselves of most inhibitions and traditional proscriptions against amorality in dealing with private and public institutions. Though it's been widely reported that mortgage money is tight and that some institutions are now requiring as much as 40 percent down, Peebles preaches boldness. Seems to have worked for him!

published 9/8/08 in The Miami Herald

Weekly Biz Book Boogie

Do Your Best To Prepare For The Worst
Two books provide tips for protecting your job and dealing with the irregular rhythms of life.
BY RICHARD PACHTER

Repeat after me: "There is no job security.''

Even if you're the most competent person in the company — or the world — sundry circumstances affect your tenure. Dealing with these uncertainties is now part of every employee's responsibilities, though the basics of ''doing your job'' and being mindful of your actions and how you are perceived by your boss and your co-workers still apply.


Bulletproof Your Job: 4 Simple Strategies to Ride Out the Rough Times and Come Out On Top at Work. Stephen Viscusi. Collins. 192 pages.

Viscusi is a recruiter and a frequent expert-guest on TV and radio talking-heads shows. He's pretty good in this role; outspoken, direct and somewhat abrasive. But a book is a different medium, and here Viscusi comes off as a bit overbearing. His tone throughout this tome is strident, with little room for ambiguity or disagreement. Maybe some people need that, though a one-size-fits-all solution usually fits no one at all. Still, if you can get beyond the bluster, Viscusi's admonitions are mostly commonsensical, so you can apply them as you see fit even if he states his opinions as incontrovertible facts.

His four "basic principles" are pretty good: "Be visible. Be easy. Be useful. Be ready.''

That's solid advice for new employees and lifers, too, especially in the current precarious economic climate. Here are some tips from the book:

1. Set a Goggle alert with your boss' name.
2. Set a Technorati alert for your company and stay in touch with the blog chatter about your company.
3. Always have a (firm handshake) to seal a deal.
4. Company gossip is gold and can help you bulletproof your job.
5. Bosses are trained to say office politics don't exist in this organization. Only dumb employees believe that.
6. Mentees-mentors and networking: Create a sleeper cell of friends in your company and industry who will emerge in a time of crisis.
7. Career coaches are for sissies. If you need a career coach, you don't have a career!

Most of his other declarations are decent, too, but a few of the things he advocates are pure BS, like arriving at work earlier and staying later than your boss every day. That's great, but some of us have lives and routinely working late proves nothing and guarantees even less. But the thrust of Viscusi's rap is pretty solid, and you're always free to accept what you like and reject what doesn't make sense to you if you choose to read this book.


The Change Cycle: How People Can Survive and Thrive in Organizational Change. Ann Salerno and Lillie Brock. Berrett-Koehler. 199 pages.

Salerno and Brock have given the issue of change a lot of thought, especially change in an organizational setting, like layoffs or acquisitions. Similar to the stages of grief, they outline the different feelings and mental states most of us experience as the reality of these extreme circumstances sinks in.

This book might be too touchy-feely for some, and will probably not be embraced by everyone, but their approach integrates an awareness of human nature with psychological principles in a way that's fairly easy to understand. The two authors keep things fairly light, too. It would be easy to embrace the dark side of all this, but instead of being somber, they invoke humor and worldliness in an authentic and heartfelt manner.

Their systematic approach may not be for everyone, but given the chaos many of us encounter, this book could be a very useful resource for understanding and coping with the irregular rhythms of contemporary work and life.

Published 8/25/08 in The Miami Herald

Not THAT nice

I do a (roughly) monthly book club through The Miami Herald. (If you're interested, click here for info.) This was the most recent selection and here's my review of the book (oh, and I was the one who was "sitting in an empty office working on an 'important' project while everyone else is at the company's annual holiday party," mentioned below.).

Nice guys don't have to finish last
Unassertive and compliant people are usually appreciated but rarely promoted, according to this book, which attempts to remedy the situation.
By RICHARD PACHTER

Nice Guys Can Get the Corner Office: Eight Strategies for Winning in Business Without Being a JERK. Russ Edelman, Tim Hiltabiddle and Charles G. Manz. Portfolio. 288 pages.

After this book was announced as a selection for The Business Monday Book club, I received this e-mail from a reader:

Dear Mr. Pachter,

If you could be so kind as to e-mail me the name of the book you covered around two weeks ago, I would really appreciate it. It was about nice guys not having to finish last in business. I wanted to send a copy to my son who is at the University of XXX's school of business and who is one of those proverbial nice guys.

Well, I asked for her son's address and sent him a copy of the book, but I'm not sure that it will help.

There is a chance it might. No disrespect intended, but it's possible that whatever is holding him back may require something more powerful than this book to dislodge any impediments from his path to success. Nonetheless, authors Edelman, Hiltabiddle and Manz do a creditable job of laying out the problems of nice but ineffective people. They also provide numerous examples of business people who exhibit such qualities and how these traits affect both their performance and the perceptions of colleagues and supervisors.

They also submit a ''Nice Guy Bill of Rights'' that reads more like a mild-mannered manifesto:

1) Self Awareness -- Know your strengths & weaknesses.
2) Speak Up — Let your opinions be heard.
3) Set Boundaries — Set and respect them.
4) Confront — Address issues directly and without fear.
5) Choose — Make choices without guilt.
6) Expect Results — Be accountable to others and yourself.
7) Be Bold — Push the envelope.
8) Win — Finish first.

This is, to some extent, the type of tome I generally avoid, a self-help book. But in this case, its value extends beyond wimpy, wish-washy, well-meaning workers to a more general audience. Although it may be primarily aimed at people whose inability to say ''no'' proves to be an ongoing impediment to their success, other can benefit from this book, as well.

There are many people — some not so nice — who could make good use of some of the wisdom herein. For example, managing your time is important, as is directly communicating your expectations and intentions. As for staying focused and completing tasks on time, most of this advice is fairly obvious and applicable to nice people, bad people, mean people or just normal people who are nice most of the time.

But ultimately, the Nice Guy shtick wears a little thin. Reading the numerous anecdotes about milquetoast goofballs who sabotage themselves by being acquiescent and compliant rather than assertive and confident may be fine in small doses, but a whole book's worth is a bit much. However, if you're the office doormat, wind up training a new hire for a job that you're qualified for, find yourself sitting in an empty office working on an ''important'' project while everyone else is at the company's annual holiday party or are just concerned about your lack of advancement, this could be the book for you.

published 8/11/08 in The Miami Herald

Blog to book?

Dilbert's creator blogs a book
Is this collection of Scott Adams' Internet musings worth killing tees for?
By Richard Pachter

Stick to Drawing Comics, Monkey Brain!: Cartoonist Ignores Helpful Advice. Scott Adams. Portfolio. 368 pages.

Scott Adams, whose newspaper comic strip, Dilbert, is wildly successful and popular, posts his thoughts — mostly text, not graphics — on his blog.

This is a compilation of some of those postings and as a book; it works, and it doesn't. I'll explain in a moment.

Several years back, I had a boss who sent e-mails and faxes to his friends, customers and fellow industryites every Friday of his musings on life and other matters. He intended to compile his work into a book, following the lead of an ad exec who'd done just that, turning his weekly client letters (which he only faxed in those pre-Internet days) into a book that sold fairly well.

When I left the company, the weekly letters stopped shortly thereafter, and I don't think there was ever a book. Just as well, I guess, since not every collection of short life lessons, observations and admonitions is worth killing trees for.

Collecting Scott Adams' blog postings into a book was a great idea — a no-brainer. I surely would have signed off on it if I'd been the publisher. As a reader, I'd also say "Go for it.''

And I enjoyed reading it, mostly in short spurts. For instance, early one morning as I waited to see if I'd been picked for a trial, after I'd been summoned for jury duty. Or while eating lunch at my desk. Or sitting in the smallest room of my house.

Adams is a funny writer, which you would expect from reading Dilbert. And he has witty and reliably irreverent takes on many aspects of life. He recently got married, and his interactions with his wife on the planning of the wedding are quite funny. In high demand as a speaker, Adams travels frequently, which also fuels his numerous observations on humanity, commerce, animals, machines, religion, politics and most every other aspect of life.

His take on business in general is also, as you'd imagine, quite funny. But his description of how he lost his voice due to a rare illness and miraculously got it back was nearly poignant, and could well have been unforgettably poignant if Adams had chosen to stretch out a bit. But maybe blog postings are not the ideal medium for such things, and if you buy and read a book by that mad comic genius behind Dilbert, then big yucks are expected.

So, Stick to Drawing Comics is fine if you are a Dilbert fan and don't read Adams' blog, or do read it and want to have a more permanent collection of his postings. But is it a ''book''? I don't know.

published 12/07 in The Miami Herald

Book review: Play nice

Working together doesn't always work out
Teamwork is important, but two new books show how the workplace can be a dugout or a battlefield
by Richard Pachter

It’s a thin line between skepticism and cynicism. It’s also a constant challenge to remain open to all possibilities, which is why “Trust, then verify” is still the best policy for just about everything.

Sundry business books claim to have uncovered heretofore hidden secrets to success yet they usually describe idyllic companies that apparently function in alternate dimensions which seem very similar to our own, except that most inhabitants exhibit genuine passion toward their enterprises and always operate in clear, unambiguous bursts of altruistic energy.

I’m certainly willing to conditionally suspend my disbelief as I wade through these patently revelatory tomes, but it’s difficult to reconcile their science fictional scenarios with my own observations and experiences in the contemporary workplace. Yet case studies of successful business operations invariably provide inspirational glimpse of the possibilities, like a shining high-tech cinematic space opera, or rodent-infested and oversimplified parables.

Here are two new books that examine these brave new worlds of work, as well as the real world that many of us occupy most of the time.
Great Business Teams: Cracking the Code for Standout Performance. Howard M. Guttman. Wiley. 239 pages.

Teamwork is important, although it usually happens for authoritarian reasons rather than as a function of unselfishness or professionalism. Guttman, a management consultant specializing in team building, examines a number of successful and not-so-successful units and seeks to identify consistent threads and reasons for each.

His findings can generally be expressed by the Tolstoy quote, ''Happy families are all alike; every unhappy family is unhappy in its own way.'' Successful and dysfunctional work teams appear to behave in a similar fashion: The good ones empower members, share responsibilities and goals, demand accountability and perform pretty much the way you would expect, especially in high-pressure situations. The bad ones each have their own ways of screwing up just about any project, as you can imagine or, perhaps, have experienced.

Among the companies Guttman examined were several Florida-based firms, including clothing retailer Chico's and Johnson & Johnson-Vision Care. Both, fortunately, exemplified good teams, as they confronted and successfully handled several large and small crises.
Executive Warfare: Pick Your Battles and Live to Get Promoted Another Day. David F. D'Alessandro. McGraw-Hill. 265 pages.

D'Alessandro, author of Brand Warfare and Career Warfare, continues his series of combat tales with this volume of business battles. Some people can play nicely, while others will gleefully shove a shiv in your posterior just to break up a dull day or for other, even less prosaic reasons. Some executives act in ways that suggest more humane traits, or at least enlightened self-interest. D'Alessandro recounts all with gusto and humor. Greed, venality, duplicity and occasional acts of kindness and maturity during a variety of mostly typical business settings are colorfully depicted, followed by D'Alessandro's pithy observations.

Usually the best parts of books like this are the anecdotes, and Executive Warfare is thankfully unencumbered by excessive pontification and interminable reflection, making it an enjoyable and interesting repository of worldly wisdom. And worldly it is. D'Alessandro's battle tales will echo with familiarity for anyone who has functioned for more than a few days in most earthbound corporate environments.

Originally published in The Miami Herald 8/4/08

The one you never make

The Colonel: The Extraordinary Story of Colonel Tom Parker and Elvis Presley. Alanna Nash. Simon & Schuster. 416 pages.
by Richard Pachter

Several years back, I had a brainstorm; so I wrote up a proposal for a book, The Management Secrets of Brian Epstein and Colonel Tom Parker. How could I lose? After all, The Beatles and Elvis were the biggest entertainment acts in history, and I could surely glean a few relevant chestnuts from their (deceased) managers' experiences to spin into a pop biz book. Instant bestseller!

A consultation was set up with a very big agent who quickly brought me back down to earth and suggested (among many other things) that maybe these two guys' careers weren't the greatest templates for business success.

As I revised, then abandoned, the proposal, I realized that in many ways these artists probably succeeded in spite of these two supposed management masterminds! Epstein, for example, gave the Fab Four's merchandising rights away to a casual acquaintance for a pittance, costing him and his unknowing clients untold millions of dollars.

Then there's The Colonel. He was a carnival huckster, and that's not a euphemism or hyperbole, but an accurate description of what he was until his last days. But his story — and how he interacted with his client and the world of business — offers a fascinating lesson, several, in fact.

In this new book, journalist Alanna Nash tells the tale of the man the world knew as ''Col. Tom Parker,'' and that's where the lies begin: with his name. It has been an open secret for more than 20 years that ''Parker'' (not a colonel in any army in this world) was really Andreas Cornelis van Kuijk, an illegal alien from The Netherlands.

The Colonel's immigration status may have been the reason that he never allowed Elvis to tour outside of the United States. It could also explain why Parker never visited his charge during Elvis' celebrated two-year hitch in the U.S. Army. But Nash posits a bigger, darker reason for the fake Colonel's fear of transoceanic flying: He had committed murder in his native Holland and lived in mortal terror of being discovered.

He also possessed a thoroughly autocratic management style, which effectively killed Presley's chances for diverging from the former carnie's exploitative formula for success. And despite the huge sums Elvis earned, Parker demanded tribute — payment beyond even his admittedly exorbitant fees and commissions — from anyone who wanted to do business with him.

The manager also had an interesting view of his role; when a journalist asked if it were true that he took 50 percent of his client's earnings as a commission (a typical percentage is 15 percent), Parker replied, "That's not true at all. He takes fifty percent of everything I earn.''

It's all a very fascinating story, and Nash's diligent research keeps her narrative as far away as possible from supermarket-tabloid territory. For business people, she provides a vivid illustration of the notion that talent can be just as easily mismanaged as it can be handled correctly — and often more profitably, at least in the short term.

In the absence of each of their handler's flawed guidance, perhaps The Beatles might have been relegated to England's cabaret circuit, and Presley might have continued to drive a truck in Memphis, but maybe not. After all, in business, sometimes the best move of all is the one that you never make.

published 7/28/03 in The Miami Herald

Monday, Monday

Two books advocate change on Mondays
Monday may be the best time to alter your outlook and improve the way you work and live.
BY RICHARD PACHTER
originally published 1/21/08 in The Miami Herald

I dislike Sunday nights more than Mondays, but that's just me. It's probably the vestige of my youth. But for some people, Monday is the worst time of all, like it was for that murderously disturbed youth who inspired The Boomtown Rats' ode, I Don't Like Mondays. For others, it's a bittersweet, unreliable occasion, like The Mamas and Papas' Monday, Monday.

As a symbol for the beginning of the workweek or the genesis of a new endeavor, Monday will more than suffice. Two new books use the day as a starting point for ideas on effecting radical and empowering changes in one's work and life.

Monday Morning Choices: 12 Powerful Ways to Go from Everyday to Extraordinary. David Cottrell. Collins, 208 pages.
I'm always skeptical of self-help manuals and avoid them like the plague that most of them are, but I'll occasionally encounter one that rises above the genre. This is, thankfully, among those.

Cottrell takes three types of choices — ''character,'' ''action'' and ''investment'' — and divides them into 12 subcategories, using them as starting points for a discussion about conducting oneself in an ethical manner in order to be effective while also tending to material needs. There's nothing especially new or earthshaking here, but Cottrell has a wise and light touch, employs language well and keeps everything simple and meaningful without preaching or proselytizing.

He also has a good sense of history and uses events such as the fire that destroyed Thomas Edison's workshop to serve as examples of his ideas by placing them in context with his little lessons. He invokes anecdotes from the workplace to make points without being heavy-handed, and he recounts turning points in his life that reflect the types of choices he advises others to make.

Cottrell recognizes that emotion and intellect are the key elements that motivate us, and he demonstrates that we are perpetually faced with choices that test our resolve and character.
No More Mondays: Fire Yourself — and Other Revolutionary Ways to Discover Your True Calling at Work. Dan Miller. Currency/Doubleday. 272 pages.
Miller wants you to stop working at a job you hate, with people you don't like, doing things you can't stand. He believes that most of us have traded our freedom and happiness for security, but the security we think we've attained is an illusion. Anyone who has been laid off or has had his or her position ''eliminated'' knows how true that is.

His contention, then, is that each of us ought to stop working at gigs we dislike, figure out what it is that makes us happy, and then do it. The money will come, he says, and the book is packed with tales of folks who did just that. Some became millionaires — multimillionaires, even — so what are you waiting for?

Well, he's a bit more serious than that, and cites Dan Pink's great Free Agent Nation and A Whole New Mind, as well as a number of other insightful and thoughtful works. But for those who need a bit of humor, folksy wisdom and gentle encouragement, Miller has plenty of stories, tips, observations and cartoons to convey his ideas in a pleasant, unthreatening and possibly empowering manner.

Racism is stupid

This week's biz book review.

Overcome stereotypes by excelling
Pitney Bowes executive Keith R. Wyche offers advice on transcending stereotypes.

BY RICHARD PACHTER
published 7/21/08 in The Miami Herald

Good Is Not Enough: And Other Unwritten Rules for Minority Professionals. Keith R. Wyche. Portfolio. 256 pages.

Can we begin by stipulating that racism is a form of stupidity, of ignorance? Clearly, one's aptitude and behavior are unrelated to ethnicity, yet racism persists despite best intentions and efforts. It seems odd, perhaps, to write about these things when a man of color is running for president and a woman nearly succeeded in becoming her party's candidate for that high position. Yet there are plenty of companies where women and minority employees somehow are absent from the ranks of management.

The modern workplace is increasingly diverse, especially in melting-pot communities like South Florida and other urban areas, though there's still a ''glass ceiling'' for women, and what author Wyche calls a ''concrete ceiling'' for ethnic minorities that often blocks advancement to senior management positions. It also impedes advancement at subordinate levels, too.

Although Wyche, a veteran corporate executive, speaker and adviser, primarily directs his message to African Americans, his text also offers guidance to Asians, Latinos and women -- anyone other than white guys. That's perfectly all right, since nearly everything he says is of value and will benefit almost everyone seeking success in a corporate environment, regardless of the concentration of melanin in his or her skin.

He recommends having a plan, being attentive to details, striving to become a good communicator and working hard. It's not enough to be a super salesperson or highly popular with customers if you turn around and are a nuisance to the company's support staff. No, Wyche admonishes, it's equally important to do a complete and thorough job, which will create value for the company and foster respect from your co-workers. By doing that, you also build value for yourself and become a powerful asset to the company, which usually ensures commensurate compensation and promotion.

You also have to take the long view when planning a career. Your goal may be to be a unit manager, for example, but if you are offered the position and not completely prepared, your failure may delay or block future opportunities. You might also be asked to transfer to a city that seems like a step in the wrong direction, but the experience and exposure you would gain from the move could shift your career to a higher gear. How can you find out if it's well worth doing or a must to avoid? Wyche recommends developing at least one mentor, and preferably a network of people who take an interest in your career and are able to serve as a source of collective wisdom. He also suggests engaging the services of a trainer, if necessary, to objectively assess attributes and correct any shortcomings.

Throughout, he cautions, it's also important to behave and perform in an exemplary manner. If you hold yourself to a higher standard, you'll render almost anyone's prejudice and low expectations moot.

Though racism is still a sad fact of life, it's difficult to imagine anyone who takes Keith Wyche's sagacious and practical advice to heart ever becoming a failure or not being ''good enough'' at any endeavor.

Jack and Willie & Joe and Bill

As comics complete their journey from the ghetto of genre fiction to the mainstream, it's nice to see the literature of the past collected and preserved.

Jack Kirby's amazing and astounding contributions as an innovator and illustrator are unmatched. Bill Maudlin was a brilliant war correspondent and Pulitzer Prize-winning editorial cartoonist.

This is a slightly longer version of two too-brief reviews that ran in The Miami Herald yesterday; July 15, 2008.


Kirby: King of Comics. Mark Evanier. Abrams. 224 pages.

Creator or co-creator of just about every Marvel character (Spider-Man, Fantastic Four, X-Men et al), as well as a ton of heroes and villains for DC and other publishers, Jack Kirby (born Jacob Kurtzberg) is King of Comics.

Award-winning animation and comics writer Mark Evanier hosts this virtual tour of the Kirby Universe with gorgeous reproductions of the King’s art, and a loving but terrifically balanced biography serving as the narrative thread. At less than twenty-five bucks on Amazon.com, this beautiful books a bargain for fans and art lovers alike. The breadth of Kirby’s imagination still dazzles.



Willie & Joe: The WWII Years. Bill Mauldin. Fantagraphics. 650 pages.

As a kid, I used to leaf through my father’s dog-eared paperback of Mauldin’s single-panel Willie & Joe cartoons, This Damn Tree Leaks, drawn while the artist was embedded with American GIs and printed in Italy in 1945. Many of those panels, along with a text narrative, became part of a bestselling collection, Up Front, which was also adapted into a mediocre 1951 movie starring Tom Ewell and David Wayne.

Mauldin’s funny and frequently poignant single-panel black and white cartoons, faithfully reproduced here, capture the human qualities of the fighting men and the more mundane aspects of their struggle, without glamorizing the violence or minimizing the myriad sacrifices.

This week's biz book review

Jumping Before — Or After — Being Pushed
Two books provide ample justification and strategies for leaving the corporate life behind and working for yourself.

BY RICHARD PACHTER
Published 7/14/08 in The Miami Herald

To paraphrase the philosopher Keith Richards, it's better to walk before they make you run. Unfortunately for many, their jobs end before they can make a move, begin their transition to another job or establish self-employment.

It may ultimately involve creating or selling a service or a product, but there's no time like the present to begin the process. I've had my position eliminated, was downsized, laid off and dodged one cutback to find that my job had been reconfigured and I was now required to do the work of three others (no, not Moe, Larry and Curly) before succumbing to the next round.

The lesson of the recent wave of layoffs in the newspaper biz and elsewhere reinforces the notion that the days of paternalistic (or matriarchal) employers who valued and reciprocated their workers' steadfast loyalty, sacrifices and dedicated professionalism are long gone.

Employees may need to view themselves as independent operators, as outlined several years back in Daniel Pink's prescient Free Agent Nation. Sometimes, that involves working as an employee, sometimes as a freelancer and other times as the head of a small company. But in each case, one is ultimately working for oneself and one's family -- not an employer.

Two current books suggest ways to successfully achieve this transition and redefinition.

Escape from Corporate America: A Practical Guide to Creating the Career of Your Dreams. Pamela Skillings. Ballantine Books. 352 pages.

Skillings' book is a good overview of the contemporary work scene and the options one has in either participating in its corporate infrastructure as an active member or a part-time player. She also discusses a variety of other options and offers examples, anecdotes, checklists and other support material to make her case and help the reader figure out which path makes the most sense.

Her assumption throughout is that just about everyone will be happier and more fulfilled if they can somehow avoid becoming another cog in the machine. She could be correct, though I've seen plenty of folks who seem to thrive in that often treacherous environment but can't seem to get it together on their own

Still, this is an entertaining and intelligent look at the subject, and if you're thinking about jumping — or have already been pushed — this might be worth your time and money.

What's Stopping You? Shatter the 9 Most Common Myths Keeping You From Starting Your Own Business. Bruce R. Barringer and R. Duane Ireland. FT Press. 224 pages.

Barringer and Ireland take a similar tack but are a bit more serious and focused. Like the best sales people, they first establish their expertise and authority, then they come up with a variety of remedies for just about any objection one could concoct for not becoming a free agent or otherwise opting out of the corporate fun house.

They similarly invoke examples, utilize charts and refer readers to websites for further reading, reflection and examination. Though specifically geared toward encouraging the launching of a business, they also provide plenty of reasons and justification for evacuation from the bowels of the corporation.

Like Skillings, the pair provides an entertaining reading experience, and if one requires substantiation and inspiration, either book offers an ample supply.

Wagging

I just got a copy of the paperback edition of this book and am unashamed to admit that I was happy to discover a quote from my review on the first page. (BTW, I still think this is a worthwhile book and a good theory, though others disagree.)

No hits? No problem. Just sell "everything else"
Unlimited choices for customers mean complex challenges for businesses, but a new book explains how they can profit in an increasingly diverse and fragmented marketplace.

BY RICHARD PACHTER
published in The Miami Herald 7/3/06

The Long Tail: Why the Future of Business is Selling Less of More. Chris Anderson. Hyperion. 238 pages

The other day I was checking out a music blog devoted to an obscure British band that broke up about 30 years ago. The site was in Portuguese, but it was no big deal to have Google translate it into a comical yet comprehensible form of English.

I like to think that I have rare tastes, but according to this new book by Wired magazine editor Chris Anderson, as mass culture becomes stratified and splintered, such pockets of unique and individual favorites are not only growing more common, but also represent a new economic phenomenon, which he calls "The Long Tail."

Though we continue to obsessively measure mass-market offerings with bestseller charts, opening weekend grosses and other dubious metrics, as the mainstream shatters into a billion pieces, the hits compete with an infinite number of niche products.

INDIVIDUALIZATION
This shift has been coming for years as mass media — newspapers, television and radio -- have become increasingly ineffective in reaching most of the people, most of the time. More often than not, our tastes, and therefore our choices, are determined by our age, gender, education, location, ethnicity and other more random factors. They are not, by any means, absolutes. In fact, this lack of predictability along with growing individualization are what makes The Long Tail so powerful.

While it may be true, for example, that this great newspaper is the single best medium for reaching the most people in this media market, you will still not be able to reach most of the people in this area just by advertising here or in any other single newspaper, radio station or TV channel — even one carrying American Idol! The predictability of successfully reaching the mass market is dead. Anderson says that the majority of things fall into a third category: ''everything else.'' TV shows and movies that may not have been successful upon initial release will inexplicably explode in sales as DVDs, for example. The animated Family Guy series was canceled and then renewed after so-so broadcast ratings but huge home video sales. The U.S. version of the British TV show "The Office" teetered on the brink of extinction due to mediocre ratings on NBC, but its popularity as a download on Apple's iTunes store ensured its survival.

SPARKS WILL FLY
Anderson's book is both insightful and entertaining, especially if you enjoy watching the sparks created when commerce and culture bump into each other. But it's not just high-concept meditation or bombastic bloviation; he provides plenty of left-brained data, including sales charts, graphs and more to demonstrate the phenomenon and show how astute marketers might deal with this shift in the importance of the mass market. This new hierarchy — or non-hierarchy — can and will confound and mislead plenty of executives, especially those who lack depth in their inventory or their imaginations. A business that can take advantage of this diversity, either by offering a wide array or choices — or specializing in a very specific niche — could prosper. Either way, the customer is in charge.

That's good, right?

Yesterday in The Miami Herald

Since my reviews get picked up by other papers through syndication within days of their original publication, I may start running 'em here the day after.

Here's yesterday's book, also a selection for my monthly book club. (If you want to join the club, the info is here. The club members' severely edited reviews are here.)

Feeling squeezed? Here are some reasons
Jared Bernstein explains why government policies are designed to benefit the haves over the have-nots.

By RICHARD PACHTER
published 6/30/08 in The Miami Herald

Crunch: Why Do I Feel So Squeezed? (And Other Unsolved Economic Mysteries). Jared Bernstein. Berrett-Koehler. 225 pages.

Economics may be the dismal science, but the extent of its politicization makes it even more dismal. Business is what moves the world, and the vitality of commercial enterprise ensures our well-being, but Americans like to think that we're different. We value the individual, extol hard work and believe that the middle class runs the show. But tax cuts are given to offset minimum-wage increases, and arms manufacturing programs are maintained for economic and political reasons contrary to actual defense exigencies or strategic requirements. And healthcare? Why is it the fastest growing portion of personal — and the federal government's — budgets?

Economist Jared Bernstein takes a clear-eyed look at the politics that propels the economic policies that directly affect our lives and livelihoods. If you suspected the deck was stacked against the middle class and that government policies in general seem to favor the monied few over the working masses, Bernstein reinforces this notion.

But this is not a partisan screed nor socialist manifesto. In fact, Bernstein is pretty fair-minded, and though he may be mortified by the hypocrisy and purposeful obfuscation, he keeps his outrage on a slow simmer and applies his sense of humor to most every situation and observation. But it's not a yuk-fest that Bernstein presides over; rather, he attempts to break down the ways we're all being crunched and why, but in a lighthearted and nonthreatening way.

What motivated him to publish this book? He writes: "Economics has been hijacked by the rich and powerful, and it has been forged into a tool that is being used against the rest of us. Far too often, economists justify things many of us know to be wrong while claiming the things we believe are critically important can't be done — I'm tired of being stuck in the studio engaging in rants with Darth Vaders with Ph.Ds. Wouldn't it be more useful to have an open-ended, rant-free dialogue with real, everyday people about their economic questions?"

Indeed, Bernstein manages to present both sides of each issue without contorting reality, but he's also quick to point out the silliness — or avarice — involved in the majority of policy decisions. In many ways, the present American administration makes it easy for the author, as its motivations and tactics are patently transparent. But it doesn't have an exclusive franchise on duplicity and venality, and Bernstein is quick to point out how a confluence of interests within and beyond Washington conspire to profit from the ignorance of the public and the ambiguity of our national goals.

In addition to his criticism, Bernstein provides some bright ideas for reducing the rat's nest created by special interests, ideologues and crooks. That's the best part of this book, but it's also the most challenging, as it requires education, organization and action. Though hardly as exciting as American Idol, it's probably more important and relevant to our lives and our happiness. Regardless, for a book on economics, Bernstein's tome is surprisingly un-dismal, despite the dire shape we're in.

Herald Creative, RIP

Sorry to report that the remaining members of my old shop, Herald Creative, The Miami Herald's in-house advertising and marketing department, all got their notices Monday as part of the McClatchy layoffs.

Art directors Ed Fiol, Mamie Lingo, Hugh Williams — longtime Miami Herald employees, each with over 20 years of service — will be gone at the end of the month.

I left two years ago when McClatchy took over. The previous owner, Knight Ridder, had funded several positions, including my own, so several of us were cut when McClatchy pulled the money.

It was a very cool place to work. The designers were among the best in the country and my fellow writer/producer/project managers were pretty hot, too. We did a ton of print ads, brochures, flyers, logos, presentations, radio and TV spots, videos, billboards, bus and bench ads, rate cards, direct mail — anything and everything. It was a great and talented group.

Before I get sentimental and excessively self-indulgent (it it's not too late), here's a link to photos of a Herald Creative party back in 2004, before things unraveled there. I'm not in any of the pix; I was on vacation.

One last thing: it was the coolest office job I ever had. It had to be; I commuted over 100 miles a day for seven years!

Miscellaneous?

The first biz book I reviewed for The Herald was The Cluetrain Manifesto, which I'll have to post here soon. It was a joint effort by several writers, including David Weinberger. I liked this follow-up, too.

Internet chaos brings choices, opportunities
In 'Everything is Miscellaneous,' David Weinberger shows how the old order is giving way to a new system of organizing and disseminating information.

BY RICHARD PACHTER
published in The Miami Herald on 6/4/07
Everything is Miscellaneous: The Power of the New Digital Disorder. David Weinberger. Times Books. 288 pages.

If you go to a store to shop for an item, assuming that you are doing so on purpose and not just to kill time, you have already limited your search to a specific geography and the set of things that are in that building. Once you enter the store, a variety of other factors come into play that affect your choices and decisions.

Though in some cases you can also request things that are not on hand for delivery at a later date, the same limitations apply when you visit other brick-and-mortar places full of stuff, like the library, for instance. The items are organized in a rather linear fashion, to use the space efficiently and for the sake of finding and retrieving things easily.

But author, consultant and Harvard Law School Fellow David Weinberger points out that the Internet requires a redundant type of sorting that would simply be impossible in the physical world. It not only requires it, he says, but by allowing items to be ''tagged'' with a seemingly endless variety of labels — including inexact, inaccurate or misspelled ones — a larger and wider audience can find an endless array of information. This, in turn, allows the spread of knowledge, ideas and opinions (more about that later) and enables commercial opportunities that were previously impossible.

He writes: "We have entire industries and institutions built on the fact that the paper order severely limits how things can be organized. Museums, educational curricula, newspapers, the travel industry, and television schedules are all based on the assumption that in the second-order world, we need experts to go through information, ideas and knowledge and put them neatly away.

"But now we — the customers, the employees, anyone — can route around the second order. We can confront the miscellaneous directly in all its unfulfilled glory. We can do it ourselves and, more significantly, we can do it together, figuring out the arrangements that make sense for us now and the new arrangements that make sense a minute later. Not only can we find what we need faster, but traditional authorities cannot maintain themselves by insisting that we have to go to them. The miscellaneous order is not transforming only business. It is changing how we think the world itself is organized and — perhaps more important — who we think has the authority to tell us so.''

Indeed. In addition to being able to buy almost anything from anywhere, almost anyone can express an opinion or ''report'' news, though it is worth pointing out that many of the sites and blogs that purport to present journalism are actually a collection of links to content created by print and broadcast journalists on other sites. But some critics and pundits are distressed about the democratization of their heretofore-privileged domains by fans and informally trained (if at all) bloggers. In many ways, the conflict is analogous to the battle between established retailers and online merchants — and we know how that's working out.

Weinberger also presents an interesting history of the Dewey Decimal System (really!), its relevance to contemporary culture and commerce, as well as other historical and philosophical asides in this imaginative, provocative and expansive book.

Clear Channel Review

My weekly Miami Herald business books column gets picked up by newspapers and websites all over the country — and the world. Unfortunately, I don't get a dime for this as it's part of the paper's deal with the syndicate, but I'm happy to inflict my opinion on unsuspecting readers outside of Dade and Broward counties, so no worries.

The recent review of the book about media conglomerate Clear Channel ran all over the place, but I was tickled when an old colleague e-mailed to tell me that he saw it in the Los Angeles Daily News. It wasn't online, so he forwarded a jpeg. I think the review is worth posting here, too.

Author argues Clear Channel destroyed radio.
BY RICHARD PACHTER
published 5/12/08

Right of the Dial: The Rise of Clear Channel and the Fall of Commercial Radio. Alec Foege. Faber and Faber. 320 pages.
The name ''Clear Channel'' became shorthand for everything wrong with terrestrial (nonsatellite) radio: Lack of diversity, repetitious music, boring programming, too many commercials, censorship, jingoism, ad nauseam.

In a previous life, I was very familiar with radio, first as a record promotion man and later as a marketing executive at a trade publication for radio managers. Initially, I encountered a variety of stations, mostly independently owned or part of small chains. Few companies held more than a handful of stations, due mainly to the limitations imposed by federal law. But that all changed with the Telecommunications Act of 1996, which lifted most limits for corporate acquisition of broadcast properties and allowed ownership of multiple stations in a single market. In the industry, the resulting change was called "consolidation.''

Writer Alec Foege's interest in the subject of radio in general and Clear Channel in particular was piqued when he became aware of the uniformity of radio stations' programming during a longish family car trip. He wanted to know why the music was so bland and over-familiar.

He begins with a brief history of Top 40 radio, the company that later became Clear Channel, and its founder, Texan Lowry Mays. He knew nothing about the broadcasting business, according to Foege, but was a shrewd and opportunistic businessman who viewed radio as a unique industry with unparalleled potential for growth.

As the story continues, Mays builds his business and is poised to take advantage of the sweeping pro-business trend toward deregulation. Acquiring numerous stations, he seeks efficiencies by eliminating various redundancies. Among them were physical facilities, so Foege writes about how, in markets where the company owned several stations (as in South Florida), all are based in a single building, sharing a common management team as well as administrative and engineering staff.

But the downside became apparent as the cost cutting continued. Indeed, the company's nickname of ''Cheap Channel'' was earned by their elimination of incumbent talent and the promotion of lower-paid employees. At the same time, through automation and other tools, live local announcers were replaced by pre-recorded programming or ''voice tracking,'' with the on-air content for a multitude of stations originating in a remote studio from a single announcer. The same voice and personality hosts a show in Orlando, for example, yet she's really sitting in a studio in San Antonio or Omaha.

And the local news component of most Clear Channel stations had also been reduced or eliminated, with several striking examples of the absence of reporting during local disasters cited in the book.

Foege also writes about other issues, such as the company's corporate culture, with the controversial practices and behavior of managers, including Randy Michaels, who came into the fold as a result of Clear Channel's purchase of the Jacor chain (owned by Sam Zell, who bought the Tribune Co. last year).

This book covers a lot of ground, including the company's politics, which are more expedient than ideological, according to Foege. But ultimately, media consolidation has been a disappointment, as evidenced by AOL Time Warner and other failed mega-mergers. Clear Channel is already starting to disassemble, though as a result of this exercise, the vitality of radio as a local medium will likely never return. Right of the Dial explains how this precious cultural and economic institution was exploited and destroyed.