Hardball. Are you playing to play or playing to win? Geo. Stalk, Rob Lachenauer. 2004. ISBN 1591391679. Two senior guys from Boston Consulting Group have compiled some excellant examples and strategies for companies that want to play hardball in their industry. It includes a very good analysis of how to play the China and India cards properly. This book has good congruence with Christensen’s Seeing What’s Next and McNamee’s The New Normal. It is a keeper for those of us having a strategy library and a maturing business model. I appreciated some of the ways that a small vendor could eat someone’s lunch, playing hardball. It also gives insight into how Toyota could play GMs recent profitability issues if they wanted to hardball them. Easy to read and not too long, which seems to be a business book trend.

Start late, Finish Rich.

Start late, Finish Rich. Canadian Edition. David Bach. 2005. ISBN 0385661312. Part of a seven book FinishRich series. Written for Canadian audiences. I’ve seen these books around so much, I had to pick one up and read it. Plus I like the way the titles always ended. This one is more practical than the Rich Dad series. Easy to read, this author has never really been poor. If you have not read one of these., pick one up at the library and have a read. Its especially good to explain these things to the young folks around and those who are numerically” challenged”, he keeps things simple. The book is fun and not a waste of time. I think he would be a good speaker, it’s nothing new, Mike

Grenby preached us this stuff many years ago. Good line,you can not invest money that you have spent.

The Fall of Advertising & the Rise of PR

The Fall of Advertising & the Rise of PR. Al Ries a Laura Ries. 2002. ISBN 0060081988. Advertising is brand maintenance. PR is brand building. So when was the last time you believed an ad and looked for the hot new product? Not! If you are like me you are more susceptible to a piece of new product copy from an industry analyst , generated by good PR. Those of us in Tech have found out the value of PR a long time ago, but this short little book is an excellent lesson. Very readable and quick, the truths keep rolling off the pages, plus the examples are great! This is a keeper, with lessons we should tattoo in a highly visible place.

 

Fantastic Voyage. Live Long Enough to Live Forever. Ray Kurzweil & Terry Grossman M.D. 2004. ISBN 1579549543. So the inventor of the first OCR product (sold to Xerox) first text to speech engine (made famous by Stevie Wonder) and the holder of hundreds of patents, Ray Kurzweil (wealthy geek) woke up to “Hey I’m 57 and my Dad died at 56″. For someone not afraid to tackle any technological problem, he dug in very deeply into the science of longevity. His belief, that if we follow the findings of research today, we can extend our life sufficiently to take advantage of the major discoveries looming in Genomic and Proteomic research. These breakthroughs just might allow us (him) to extend our lives much much longer. The book is a snapshot ( in depth) of all the ways we can live a healthier life and re-create our bodies in a”younger ” state. It sounds like science fiction, but the man has been very very forward thinking for many years and rarely wrong. By following his own research findings he eliminated his type2 diabetes. Check out the website Fantastic-Voyage.net. Very enjoyable and hard to put aside, I recommend this one for a mind bending read on every page.