BOOK REVIEW: 'WANT TO STAY AHEAD?', by Alex Ow

'Want to Stay Ahead?' is certainly a catchy title, which explains why it piques my personal attention in the first place, while browsing the book shelves leisurely at the Harris bookstore in Jurong Point.

Since I often like to support local authors, I just bought a copy for my personal library.

Surprisingly, it's a revised & updated book (first published in 2004) from the author, based in Malaysia as a creativity consultant, drawing on his experience in helping organizations implement a creative & innovative organisation.

Hence, its secondary title: 'How to Create a Creative Thinking Organisation'.

I am disappointed to say that the book reads more like a compendium of ragtag stuff from the author's master sifu, Edward de Bono.

All the fancy stuff from the master sifu like 'Lateral Thinking', 'Six Thinking Hats', 'Six Action Shoes', 'Six Value Medals' & 'Direct Attention Thinking Tools' are outlined in the book.

To my chagrin, the entire book also reads like an academic textbook because of its structured page/text layout, that goes 1.0., 1.1., 1.2., 2.0., 2.1., 2.2., 2.3., 3.0., & so on.

As I read further, I become quite "intrigued" about what the author has meant when he writes on page 11, under 2.1. 'Creative Thinking as a Breakthrough Strategy':

"... The ideas must be novel - different from what's been done before - but they can't be simply bizarre; they must be appropriate... "

My immediate response to that is "Why Not?"

Furthermore, the author unwittingly contradicts himself - being a de Bono trainer - when he writes on page 31, last paragraph, ending with:

"... When we apply this (lateral thinking) technique, we can use it in challenging what is out there or what is going on in our mind?... "

Looking back, the author is obviously not walking his talk.

Is it an inkling that the author prefers to "stay within the boundary", so to speak?

Most of the time the author is talking about how his clients are falling in love with all the de Bono's stuff after attending his training. I have no quarrel with that. What irks me most is that I don't get to read about any case studies or even anecdotes of 'aHA' moments.

To compound my displeasure, I don't get to read any of the author's own particular insights on creative thinking, other than rehashing what his master sifu has covered.

Sometimes, I just wonder why authors bother to write their books in the first place when they actually do not have any new ideas or perspectives of their own to share with the world.

Is it vanity at work? Or, is it sheer compunction just to have a book - with their name on it - to go with their professional standing as a consultant?

I don't mean to throw a cold wet blanket, but the harsh reality is that the book is really not up to my expectations of a creativity consultant. Sad to say, & with due respect to the author, there is no originality of thought, as well as no intellectual ballast at all.

The only relatively good points I can gather from the book are the few discussion questions at the end of each chapter in the book, which I reckon are quite useful for reader's reflection & introspection.

The Organisational Creativity Factors (OCF) Survey Questionnaire from the author is not too bad, in fairness to the author, although I must say it's not truly complete. I would venture to add in a sixth element, 'Opportunity Pursuit'.

This is because, in my professional opinion, without 'Opportunity Pursuit' in the final equation, so to speak, the creative thinking organisational culture, which the author has envisaged, is not sustainable.

To put it bluntly, in the long run, it is 'Opportunity Pursuit' as a deliberate systematic process that give true meaning & real value to organisational prosperity.

In the end analysis, should you get the book?

Regrettably, the answer is an affirmative NO!

However, if readers still fancy de Bono's stuff, then it is more worthwhile for readers to go directly to the source materials, rather than dabbling with rehashed second-grade materials.

BOOK REVIEW: 'THE HABITS OF S.U.C.C.E.S.S: Nurturing Intelligence in Every Aspect of Life', by Henry Toi

[The first edition of this book was initially reviewed in my 'Optimum Performance Technologies' weblog on October 10, 2008.]

My first intellectual encounter with the 'habits of minds' - or critical attributes of effective & creative thinkers & problem solvers - came about when I became a member of ASCD during the late eighties.

The membership gave me ready access to their wonderful subscription magazine, 'Educational Leadership', as well as a host of other valuable resources, including two publications, 'Developing Minds: Program for Teaching Thinking' (Book I) & 'Developing Minds: A Resource Book for Teaching Thinking' (Book II), edited by scholar-educator Dr Arthur Costa.

From my personal perspective, the two books have the best collection of "thinking stuff", with a principal focus on developing student's mastery of thinking skills.

The original 'habits of mind' - or "intelligent behaviours" as the author prefers to describe them - was featured in one of the book chapters, which was later expanded & eventually evolved into four separate publications (totalling over 500 pages), which I have also acquired & read a few years ago:

Book 1: 'Discovering & Exploring Habits of Mind';
Book 2: 'Activating & Engaging Habits of Mind';
Book 3: 'Assessing & Reporting on Habits of Mind';
Book 4: 'Integrating & Sustaining Habits of Mind';

For the benefit of readers, I like to recap the "habits of mind" (they are work in progress as more may be added, according to the author) as follows:

1) Persisting
2) Managing impulsivity
3) Listening with understanding & empathy
4) Thinking flexibly;
5) Thinking about thinking (meta-cognition);
6) Striving for accuracy;
7) Questioning & posing problems;
8) Applying past knowledge to new situations;
9) Thinking & communicating with clarity & precision;
10) Gathering data through all senses;
11) Creating, imagining, innovating;
12) Responding with wonderment & awe;
13) Taking responsible risks;
14) Finding humor;
15) Thinking interdependently;
16) Remaining open to continuous learning;

What I have in my hands right now, after perusal, is a 200-page book entitled 'The Habits of S.U.C.C.E.S.S: Nurturing Intelligent people @School @Home @Work', by a Singaporean author, Henry Toi.

In a nut shell, this locally published book is a seemingly reorganised condensation of the original 16 "habits of mind" into 7 strands forming the apt acronym, S.U.C.C.E.S.S, apparently taking a cue from psychologist George Miller's 'M-Space' variable.

The S.U.C.C.E.S.S acronym stands for:

1) Suppleness (incorporating thinking flexibly; creating, imagining & innovating; & remaining open to continuous learning);

2) Understanding (incorporating listening with understanding & empathy; responding with wonderment & awe; & gathering data through all senses);

3) Constructiveness (incorporating questioning & posing problems; applying past knowledge to new situations; & thinking interdependently);

4) Courageous Thinking (incorporating persisting; & taking responsible risks);

5) Exactness (incorporating striving for accuracy; thinking & communication with clarity & precision);

6) Self-management (incorporating thinking about thinking or meta-cognition; & managing impulsivity);

7) Silliness (incorporating finding humour);

From the intellectual standpoint, I regret to say that the author has not added any new insights to the skills repertoire as originally envisaged by Dr Arthur Costa.

What the author has done, remarkably to some extent, is the inclusion of many jokes to enliven his S.U.C.C.E.S.S model, as well as several colourful visual maps to capture key points of relevant chapters.

Additionally, the author has also introduced many interesting ideas for cultivating his S.U.C.C.E.S.S model.

My only adverse comments of the book are as follows:

- the overwhelming quantity of jokes as illustrations of essential attributes seems to be an overkill. Jokes are OK, when you share them in a classroom, as part of a fun learning ambience, but a line must be drawn when you are writing a book of this genre;

- I would have preferred real-world/real-life examples as illustrations of essential attributes instead of too many silly jokes; to be frank, the silly jokes seem to trivialise the intellectual integrity, although I can well understand the author's intent in living up to the concept of "silliness" as set forth in his S.U.C.C.E.S.S model;

- The visual maps at the end of chapters are rather rudimentary, & actually, from my point of view, they serve no useful purpose other than static captures of key points; it would have been more worthwhile, even brilliant, if only the author had used them as spring-boards to guide the reader into thinking 'what's next for me?' or 'where do I go from here?', taking a straight cue from "habit of mind" #7; in fact, Dr Arthur Costa has rightly said: "a critical attribute of intelligent behaviour is not only having information, but also knowing how to act on it!";

In fairness to the author, I want to say this: Henry Toi's book is quite fun to read, partly because of his light-hearted approach.

Naturally, his silly jokes help to enliven & probably expedite the metaphorical connections to the many points he wants to to drive home in his book.

My concluding remark is thus, if you have not read any of Dr Arthur Costa's books, particularly in connection with the "habits of mind", then this book is still reasonably good & easy to read, notwithstanding my adverse comments.

[Henry Toi is the Executive Director of the Art Costa Centre for Thinking in Singapore. Readers can visit his corporate website at http://www.artcostacentre.com/.]

BOOK REVIEW: MIND MAPS FOR BUSINESS, by Chris Griffiths & Tony Buzan

From the standpoint of reading on the lines or among the lines, this 250+ page book looks visually appealing to me, because of the many colourful mind-maps – plus myriad interesting stories - coming from a broad spectrum of businesspeople across the globe.

Of all the stories, I reckon the one from Masanori Kanda stands out.

The book is generally well-structured, & also shows many business applications of mind-mapping from several luminaries as well as numerous diehards.

In this respect, I reckon kudos should go to Chris Griffiths for his entrepreneurial spirit in soliciting & collating all the relevant stuff from across the globe into the book.

However, reading between the lines as well as reading beyond the pages, I find a number of stuff that really irks me. I would even say that there are some fundamental flaws in the book.

I will run through all the irksome stuff with readers.

In the first place, at least from my perspective, mind-mapping is essentially a mind dump, so to speak, on paper, plus some fancy nodes & branches to denote radial bursts of information. In other words, it’s a great tool for capturing & organising ideas on the fly.

The real power in mind-mapping is actually the deep questioning process, as one constantly needs to ask “where does this lead to?” or “what else is there at this point?” or “what is the implication or consequence here?” at each node & branch.

I have noted this vital aspect is only perfunctorily addressed in the book, although for a handful of applications, e.g. sales, negotiations, the authors did go at some length, but not indepth.

The book gives a lot of static captures of information on their respective nodes or branches in the illustrated mind-maps, but did not go further. In fact, some of the mind maps in the book should have been rejected outright, as one needs a magnifying glass to read them.

For example, let’s take a look at the mind-map on page 119, pertaining to ‘Mind Mapping the Buzan Asia Project'. To me, it was frivolously drawn – a 12-year old would have done better than that. It shows no traces of “strategic thinking” at all, if that was what the author had intended to demonstrate to readers.

In any strategic thinking endeavour, it is the strategic questioning process that eventually leads to the crucial solutions.

The same problem exists in the mind-map on page 232.

Worst still, & to my chagrin, the mind-map on page 140 is a real laughing stock. It purports to illustrate the “8 Secrets of Leadership” from the mind-mapping guru. The contributing author from Down Under simply couldn’t differentiate a habitual routine like “daydream” or “associate” from a true leadership trait.

I reckon the basic problem lies in the fact that the author desperately wanted to fit her shallow understanding of leadership traits into the acronym, M-I-N-D-M-A-P.

Actually, as it stands, a larger over-arching problem exists with mind-mapping, where everything is required to fit into a centralised concept. That is to say, all ideas or observed facts must start - rigidly - at the centre.

Unfortunately, it doesn’t work in the real world, business or otherwise, since everything is connected to everything else.

I have one very important point to make though, to stand as a correction to what the contributing author/consultant from Down Under had talked about “Tony Buzan’s core work on leadership”.

It is well recognised that Tony Buzan’s apparent forte lies only in mind-mapping, speed reading & memory techniques, or “mental literacy" as he likes to call them collectively.

He might have given some official speeches or group presentations – from Dubai to Australia via Hongkong - where the term “leadership” had probably appeared.

Also, his name might have been listed on book titles to enhance the saleability of the books, like “The Brainsmart Leader” & “Grass Roots Leaders”. I would not be surprised that the real contributions in terms of thinking & writing actually came from the co-authors of the two books.

With due respect, I feel that the consultant from Down Under shouldn’t have trivialised the brilliant & pioneering work of leadership experts, like Jim Kouzes, Warren Bennis, Bill George, Noel Tichy, or even John Maxwell, by ranking the mind-mapping guru spuriously in the same league.

I would strongly recommend her - for her own leadership education - to read & digest ‘Conversations on Leadership: Wisdom from Global Management Gurus’, by researcher Lan Liu of Beijing University.

Nonetheless, the authors of ‘Mind Maps for Business’ have cleverly added in various proven strategic thinking & decision making models to dovetail with mind-mapping, e.g. Scenario Planning, PEST Analysis, Porter’s Five Forces, SWOT Analysis, Balance Scorecard, BCG Matrix, Porter’s Value Chain, McKinsey 7-S Framework, The 4Ps, & Product Life Cycle.

Frankly, I feel that they didn’t do a good job, other than highlighting those processes. This segment of the book contains only the authors' suppositions, in both narrative forms & skeleton mind-maps.

More surprisingly, out of the supposedly 200+ million mind-mapping users in the world, they couldn’t bring about a single business case to illustrate each of them. That would have been great – for readers’ sake - if they had done so.

Worst still, the deep questioning process as I have emphasised earlier, was not incorporated at all.

Let me take an example from the book.

In the PEST Analysis, the authors have given readers some really good indicators of information to be gathered, but stop short of advising readers to go beyond the information gathering process. That is to say, information processing - to be more precise, insight generation - is missing. The latter step necessitates the fishing out of implications &/or consequences from each of those indicators… starting with first order… then, second order… finally, third order, if necessary.

The critical stage of insight generation, as I see it, holds the vital key to effective analysis, not just static captures of information on a node or branch.

Another example: SWOT Analysis.

It certainly looks good when you have gathered all the pertinent information on “Strengths”, “Weaknesses”, “Opportunities” & “Threats”.

The harsh reality is that the effectiveness & efficiency of SWOT Analysis lie in the next stage of intellectual work, i.e. to identify the implications &/or consequences of the gathered information, just like in the PEST Analysis I have highlighted earlier. [These are the “unintended consequences” which futurist/filmmaker/author Joel Arthur Barker talks about.]

In fact, I would encourage readers to ask pertinent & powerful questions, like “how can I amplify or build on “Strengths?”; “how can I eliminate or reduce “Weaknesses”?; “how can I maximise or leverage on “Opportunities”?; “how can I mitigate or contain “Threats?” to help generate valuable ideas.

I would even go one step further: “how can I combine “Strengths” & “Opportunities” to deal with “Threats”? &/or “How can I convert “Weaknesses” &/or “Threats” into “Opportunities”?

Like I said earlier, it is the deep questioning process that make mind-mapping powerful.

So, it seems that the authors just wanted to throw in some credibility to entice the business world by highlighting all those strategy models in their book.

I like to qualify what the authors (or the publisher?) have written on the back cover: “The Mind Map is the most effective thinking, organisational & productivity tool of our time…. [my addition] provided that the deep questioning process is put in place rigorously & vigorously.

I think it is also very bad taste on the part of the authors to belittle other visual tools, like concept mapping [on page 50].

As a matter of fact, concept mapping, which has a lot of empirical research to back it, is far more superior than mind–mapping, especially when it comes to reading & navigating through very complex texts, as in scientific subjects.

One last point: the authors keep on directing readers to their corporate website at every chapter, but I couldn’t get new information other than what’s already in the book.

Interestingly, on their corporate website, some of the user testimonials came from their collaborators as well as from their own licensed instructors - with vested interests of course. What a sham!

Judging from their corporate website, & from their constant exhortations via incessant email shots, it seems that the authors are more interested in getting readers to become their licensed instructors.

Imagine becoming a licensed instructor with only one single tool to work on. Think about it, if you have only a screwdriver in your toolbox, how does everything look to you?

Juxtaposing mind-mapping as a Swiss Army Knife is more of a misnomer. The latter is a truly multi-gadget, multi-function tool. Mind-mapping is not. Period.

So, in the end analysis, I reckon that the ‘Mind Maps for Business’ book has been written primarily as a marketing promotional tool for pushing their 'iMindMap' software to the world at large.

To be fair to the authors: if you are longing to read many interesting stories from around the globe with regard to varied mind-mapping applications, this book can readily serve as a valuable memento.

Beyond that, I don’t think readers will miss much.

BOOK REVIEW: 'SIMPLY HAPPY: THE SEARCH FOR SINGAPORE'S HAPPIEST PEOPLE', by Philip Merry

This is a special book review by Dilip Mukerjea.

The author, Philip Merry, has compiled a publication of worth and value in that it reports on an inaugural event: to spotlight Singapore’s happiest people. I salute him on his aspiration to address the topic of happiness. This is an emotion, all too elusive, in a world riven by the measureless, massive anarchy of life.

My extended interpretation of the aim of the book is to highlight an event that is meant to call attention to several urgent needs: to move ahead from ~ misery to mirth, harm to harmony, entropy to ecstasy.

The profiles of happy people featured in the book are reflective of not just their joyous dispositions, but more so, their courage in the face of grim realities. These sun-drenched souls are radiant in their approach to life. They serve as transcendent testimony to the human spirit in full bloom.

One would hope then, that we are all blessed with the incandescence of imperishable joy!

It is evident that this reportage now must be followed up with a book on the resplendent benefits of being happy. What is clear is that Philip embodies a sublime spirit in his quest for the best.

And therefore, it is my ardent hope that he gets his neurons jitterbugging towards crafting a tome that exudes pleasure, happiness, joy, and bliss. That will go a long way to him living up to his name (Merry)!

[Philip Merry is the owner & CEO of Philip Merry Consulting Group, based in Singapore. Its strategic forte is, as epitomised in its corporate tagline: "Building Partnership, Peace & Prosperity & Happiness across Cultures".

More information about the author & his consulting work can be found at his corporate website.]

LESSONS FROM JIM ROGERS, THE INDIANA JONES OF FINANCE

What follows is just my quick list of interesting takeaways from the book, 'A Gift to My Children: 'A Father’s Lessons for Life & Investing', by American investor extraordinaire Jim Rogers, now based in Singapore, who is acknowledged by Time as 'The Indiana Jones of Finance'.

Frankly, all the stuff from the book has nothing much to do with finance &/or investing.

They are essentially pearls of wisdom from his world of "hard knocks", which Jim wants to share with his two beautiful daughters, respectively nicknamed in Chinese as 'Happy' (7) & 'Babe Bee' (2).

• Swim your own races

- do not let others do your thinking for you;

- rely on your own intelligence;

- it's important to decide for yourself what's important to you and what you want before you turn to others;

- if anyone laughs at your idea, view it as a sign of potential success;

- be who you are; be original; be bold;

- above all, be ethical;

- save ~ you must avoid the trap of spending $ willy nilly simply because you can;

• Focus on what you like

- Age is irrelevant when you are passionate about a goal;

- when you find something that interests you, just do it!

- The quickest way to success is to do what you like and give your best;

- Dedicate yourself to what you feel passionate about;

- Try as many things as you can, then pursue the one about which you're passionate;

• Good habits for life

- Be a self-starter;

- Attention to details is what separates success from failure;

- However trivial it may seem, you must research and check each and ever piece of information you need to make a decision... Only through meticulous research will you obtain the knowledge necessary for success... it requires abundant work and diligence...

- There is no such thing as "enough". No finish line!

- Live your life with a dream;

- If you continue to be passionate and work hard at what you truly love to do, you eventually find that dream;

• Uncommon Sense

- Always consider alternative interpretations;

- Seek out multiple perspectives on the same story will always help you figure out the truth;

• Your education ~ Let the world be a part of your perspective PART 1

- Do not rely on books; go and see the world;

- Experience life as they do; see the world from the ground up. By observing ordinary life... you will forever be stumbling upon experiences that will raise important question in your mind ;

- Understand the significance of BRICs;

- Be open to people who are different whether at home or abroad;

- Keep an open mind and be a world citizen;

- Be eager to move if you see opportunities;

• Your education ~ Learn philosophy and learn to think PART 2

- Philosophy will teach you how to think for yourself;

- You must learn to think at a profound level if you want to understand yourself and what's important to you. You must know yourself if you want to accomplish anything in life...;

- To think outside the established framework, to examine things independently this is true philosophy...;

- Draw conclusions from your observations as well as on the basis of logic;

- As an investor, look for the bull and the bear;

• Your education ~ Learn history PART 3

- An interest in history, politics, and economics will help you see the world with clearer perspectives;

- Nothing is really new: what is happening now has happened before and will happen again;

• Your education ~ Learn languages (make sure that Mandarin is one of them) PART 4

- Mandarin will be the next global language;

- Pay attention to the major changes taking place in the world now, especially China;

• Know thyself by understanding your weaknesses and acknowledging your mistakes

- Know who you are;

- To be a successful investor you really need to understand psychology, history, and philosophy;

• Recognise change and embrace it

- Everything changes. Everything;

- Embrace the principle of supply and demand;

- Change can be a catalyst;

- Adapt or die;

• Look to the future

- Read the newspapers, but think differently;

- Pay attention to what everyone else neglects;

- If you are looking for success, be quick to start something new, something that no one else has tried;

- The more certain something is, the less likely it is to be profitable;

- Do not think in terms of what you wish (ergo, wishful thinking versus willful doing);

- Know when not to do anything;

• Lady Luck smiles on those who continue in their efforts

- Do your homework'

- If you let vanity and self-importance (ego) take over, you will lose all that you have achieved;

- Never let yourself become arrogant. Study hard. The more you learn, the more you will realise how little you know - armed with this humility, you will never lose sight of the distance between self-confidence and self-importance;

- Do not stop when you are working towards your dream;

• Epilogue

- The devil of life is always in the details;

- Anything that is a must-see, must-try, must-read, must almost certainly be avoided, especially if it is popular;

- Use good manners no matter where you are or whom you meet;

- Learn to do as much arithmetic and figures as possible in your head;

- Take care of yourself;

- Learn to stay calm;

- Once you do get to know and understand yourself, remember who you are and stay with it;

- Don’t be greedy;

A very entertaining read! Thanks, Jim, for sharing!

All Mums & Dads must read, especially the end part about BGR (Boy-Girl Relationship) & DOM (Dirty Old Man), on top of the foregoing. BGR & DOM do not fall under my purview of interest.

[More information about Jim Rogers is available at his personal website. The Chinese edition of his book is available at this link.]

UNLOCKING THE DNA OF IMAGINATION TO SEE A MYRIAD OF POSSIBILITIES

I have just finished reading an entertaining book.

It's 'Imagination First' by Eric Liu & Scott Noppe-Brandon, both ardent campaigners for arts & imagination in education.

With the book, the authors introduce a set of universal practices - 28 (and a half) to be exact - to help the reader to get unstuck, & to reframe everyday challenges.

I like the authors' principal premise:

"... The reality is that imagination comes first. It must. Until & unless we have the emotional & intellectual capacity to conceive of what does not yet exist, there is nothing toward which we are to direct our will & our resources... Routinising imagination is... the work belongs to everyone of us... We can all use imagination across every part of our lives - & we can all learn to do it better... "

It is fair to say that the authors have been influenced to some extent by Benjamin & Rosamund Zander, who wrote 'The Art of Possibility: Transforming Professional and Personal Life', which has also been quoted in the book.

The book has been written in three parts:

- the premise, as I have already captured above;

- the practices, which form sort of field manual - I must add that some of them are quite provocative & inspirational;

- the purposes, which form the thematic distillation;

According the the book, one can readily as well as easily think of & express new possibilities by practising the following playful "capacities" (the authors' term for "habits of mind"):

1) Noticing Deeply: identifying & articulating layers of detail through continuous interaction with an object of study;

2) Embodying: experiencing a work through your five senses & emotions, & physically representing that experience;

3) Questioning: asking "why?" & "what if?" throughout your explorations;

4) Identifying Patterns: finding relationships among the details you notice, & grouping them into patterns;

5) Making Connections: linking the patterns you notice to prior knowledge & experience (both your own & others);

6) Exhibiting Empathy: understanding & respecting the experiences of others;

7) Creating Meaning: creating interpretations of what you encounter, & synthesising them with the perspective of others;

8) Taking Action: acting on the synthesis through a project or an action that expresses your learning;

9) Reflecting & Assessing: looking back on your learning to identify what challenges remain & to begin learning anew;

From my personal perspective, the foregoing "habits of mind", even though they are not ground-breaking, serves as my quick takeaways, especially habit #1 & habit #9.

In the end analysis, I like to say that this is still a wonderful book about opening one's minds to a myriad of possibilities, & choreographing the possibilities to work.

For "ideas to cash" (paraphrasing my good friend, Dilip), I would recommend reading this book with 'Turn Your Imagination Into Money: Every Great Business and Innovation Can Be Attributed to One Thing - Imagination', by advertising consultant Ron Klein. In the book, the one chapter about the '22 Springboards to Imagination' alone will kick your imagination into overdrive.

If you are a strategic planner, 'Corporate Imagination Plus: Five Steps to Translating Innovative Strategies into Action', by strategy consultant Jim Bandrowski is worth pursuing.

[My personal fascination with "imagination" actually goes back to the late 70's, when I had first read Alex Osborn's 'Applied Imagination', followed by Michael LeBouef's 'Imagineering' in the early 80's.

I like to consider them real "classics" on the subject, even though both authors had a different slant from Eric Liu & Scott Noppe-Brandon.

The last book I have read not too long ago is Alexander Manu's 'The Imagination Challenge', which is somewhat scholarly, but worth pursuing too, if you have a deep interest like I do.]

THE ART & DISCIPLINE OF LIVING DANGEROUSLY

As a movie buff, reading the book, 'Riches Among the Ruins: Adventures in the Dark Corners of the Global Economy', invariably reminds me of vivid memories of three great movies during the eighties, 'The Year of Living Dangerously' (starring Mel Gibson), 'Under Fire' (starring Nick Nolte, Ed Harris & Gene Hackman) & 'Salvador' (directed by Oliver Stone; starring James Woods) in some ways.

For me, this book is basically "part-adventure, part-memoirs" of the enterprising author, Robert Smith, lawyer-debt-collector-turned economic mercenary & financial entrepreneur, who has been acknowledged as the 'Indiana Jones of International Finance', especially the more interesting & dangerous parts.

The book also traced his adventurous global exploits - stretching over three decades across five continents - in the risky world of trading in emerging & submerging markets' sovereign debt & evaluating creditor claims against foreign governments in the most remote, & sometimes hostile, areas of the world.

What had motivated him most was, like he said, "I'm restless & I love to travel... I crave adventure in exotic places... Living by my wits in an unpredictable environment is a thrill I seek over & over... I love the thrill of the deal, & I love making money!"

As a matter of fact, what had really stood out in this book, especially in terms of personal traits, were his astute power of observation, knack for improvisational creativity, & propensity for instinctive (intuitive) decision making.

For me, even though finance is not my cup of tea, this book has been quite an enjoyable read.

Luckily for me, it is not about lessons in global finance, although it does provide numerous snapshots of intriguing financial transactions that go on in the murky fringes of the global economy. To illustrate the magnitude of the wheeling & dealing: The author lost US$15 million on a single day in 1998 pertaining to the ruins of the Russian economy.

I am in fact rather keen to glean street-smart insights from a man on the spot, so to speak (cold calling was a staple of his business), in the remote frontiers of globalisation: El Salvador, jungles & streets of Vietnam, Turkey, Guatemala/Panama, Nigeria, Russia, & post-Saddam Iraq.

Sad for him, his trading days are now over. The globalisation of the market & the availability of information rapidly transmitted electronically has made the business much less lucrative than it used to be.

Nonetheless, I fully agree with him that there are valuable lessons to be learned from his book in terms of understanding human nature, & also about the complex new world in which we live.

The following are my personal takeaways from his book:

- "... sometimes, you have to fake it in order to make it.";

- "... learn to listen critically & discern whether people are telling the truth; learn to weigh people's motives & sometimes hidden agendas; learn how to be at ease & operate in unfamiliar territory; learn how not to behave in a foreign country, when you wanted to get things done.";

- "... find someone you trust who speaks the language & lives in the culture; also, while you handle the business, always find a local partner to handle the politics.";

- "The Vietnamese were, generally speaking, very patient people who listened carefully to everything you had to say, even if they had no intention of cooperating."; [This is an interesting observation.]

- "... to get things done, keep your own dignity & the dignity of others, intact; treat people well & they will follow you to the ends of the earth... ";

- "Psychology is all important if you want to make money speculating in currencies... We are creatures prone to excesses of both pessimism & optimism. We are emotional. And emotions, especially contagious emotions like excessive pessimism & excessive optimism move markets all the time...";

- "Don't get discouraged when things ain't working out. Why? Because circumstances are going to change. All you have to do is be open to new opportunity when it arrives.";

- "... always follow a lead, because you never ever know if there might be a pot of gold at the end.";

- "Timing can be everything in business & in life.";

- "... most positively brilliant ideas are born on hotel balconies in the middle of the night under the influence of alcohol."; [For me, the alcohol part is questionable; maybe I am not a drinker.]

- "... in finance, every financial problem has a solution - or, more likely, a thousand of them. Financial creativity, too, is an organic process, & if there is a way to make money at something, someone will inevitably find it.";

- "(in negotiation)... always let the other party go first... You should never be the first to state a price. By waiting the other guy out, you let him establish the floor. It may be higher than you expected it. If it's lower, you lose nothing... You learn a lot about their thinking that way without selling yourself short.";

- "Things change. There's always another train coming into the station."; [I recall maverick billionaire entrepreneur Richard Branson had also thought likewise.]

- appreciate "the extraordinary value of circumspection. Even today, when there is so much financial information readily available in real time on computer screens throughout the world, circumspection is essential in business...";

- "Play your cards close to your vest or you will lose your leverage. Always suggest your need is limited, not infinite...";

- "You can learn about a country from its airport when you first arrive; continuing in the cab while you pick the brains of the cab driver about local conditions, while scanning the view for more clues; next, from the viewpoint of your hotel window, which gives more clues about the state of the economy.";

- "Countries don't have permanent alliances, only permanent interests (attributed to George Washington). So it is in business, one doesn't necessarily have permanent enemies, either. When mutual self-interest is involved, even former enemies will bury the past to make millions of dollars in the future.";

- "... make investment decisions based on the reading of politics, not economics.";

- Pottery Barn rule: if you break it, you own it;

- "... find the right lawyer for the right job.";

- "... learn that trust should not be dispensed too easily, that you can travel a long way on a good bluff, & that business is largely about shaping perception.";

- "... people's imagination will let them believe what they want to believe.";

- "Things don't always break your way, & to thrive you have to be a survivor. You have to take your knocks & get up to fight again another day.";

- "... to be successful in the global economy you need, first & foremost, to understand people.";

- "... at the end of the day, it's about doing well & doing good, & in my view everyone who has done well has an obligation to do good." [referring to his charitable work in recent years];

In the end analysis, all I can say is that this book has been a rare treat, at least from my personal perspective: an entertaining broad-brush view of the dark corners of the global economy, & a penetrating observation of human nature under dicey circumstances.

[Disclosure: The book came from the author's publicist. Payment: FREE.]

THE ART & DISCIPLINE OF STRATEGIC SHIFTING: HOW TO SEE WHAT OTHERS MISS

Last night, I just picked out a book from my large stack of books next to my bed, prior to taking my slumber, which has been a personal habit of mine for years.

The book was 'The Advantage Makers: How Exceptional Leaders Win by Creating Opportunities Others Don't', by Steven Feinberg, a turnaround strategist who has spent more than three decades applying the study of human behaviour to performance efficacy.

The first chapter of the book, entitled 'How to Shift the Odds in Your Favour in the Best of Times and the Worst of Times', continued to grab my personal attention, especially with the following story:

"Hundreds of years ago, in medieval Austria, a small but determined army was trying desperately to hold on to its fortress against tremendous odds. For more than six months, the defenders had been surrounded by a hostile army, With no way to contact outside help to replenish their stocks, supplies had dwindled to a desperate level.

Only one cow and two bags of grain were left.

The fortress soldiers, wracked with fatigue and hunger, turned to their commander for guidance.

Expecting their leader to say the expected, "Ration the food for as long as we can hold out," they were astonished and perturbed when they received a different, radical reply.

"Kill the cow, stuff it with all the grain we have, and toss it over the walls when the next wave of attack ensues."

This seemed illogical, foolhardy, and dangerous.

During the next attack, they followed the unexpected order and heaved the grain-stuffed cow over the wall. Without a doubt, they anticipated a slow, anguish death by starvation. To this day we don't know why the soldiers complied.

But the commander had foreseen something that no one else had.

Confused by the bovine assault, several of the attackers took the cow back to their officer's tent. The attacking officer saw it for what it was - a signal of defiance from the fortress commander, as well as well as a message that his soldiers had the will to fight on. If they could afford to throw a cow stuffed with excess grain over the wall, he reasoned, they must have vast stores of supplies, enough to last the entire winter. he ordered an immediate retreat."

To paraphrase the author, this is a great example of applying the strategy of shifting focus to produce a novel solution.

The fortress commander stepped outside the logic of the battle and delivered an unexpected message.

The counter-intuitive, resoundingly clear message:

"We have plenty of supplies; prepare for a long battle."

Clearly, the competition didn't know he was up against an Advantage Maker, who was able to shift his vantage point 180 degrees to see opportunities, solutions and strategies others didn't even know existed.

Did I enjoy reading the book? Oh, Yes!

Are there any other goodies in the book? You bet!

I must say it's packed with new ideas, techniques, exercises, and checklists that will transform the way you view every business challenge... so you can find the winning solutions that are hidden in plain sight!

I often love to read - & reread for inspiration - books of such a genre. My personal library is packed with such books.

[More information about the author, his book, & his 'Advantage Maker' methodology, can be found at his corporate website.]

EXPLOITING CHAOS & SEIZING OPPORTUNITIES

The strategy of exploiting chaos in order to seize opportunities in today's crazy times is obviously the rousing battle cry of innovation expert Jeremy Gutsche's new book, 'Exploiting Chaos: 150 Ways to Spark Innovation During Times of Change'.

I have mentioned about this book briefly in an earlier post.

Backed by excellent credentials - host of TrendHunter TV, founder of TrendHunter.com, reportedlythe world's largest network of trend-spotting & cool-hunting pros, & now a widely-sought keynote speaker in North America - the author & his book are seemingly getting raving reviews.

In the first place, the book is quite unique in itself: visually engaging, with a fancy mix of large format, bold letters, coloured texts, oversized fonts, long & short sentences, wide spacing, & interspersed with wise quotes, jumpy lists & large portraits or photographs. All these features make reading a breeze!

In fact, I get the impression that the author may have been heavily influenced by the published thoughtwares of corporate skunk Tom Peters.

In reality, the author writes exactly like Tom Peters with his short, staccato bursts of energetic prescriptions, occasionally outrageous & yet written succinctly, with enchanting anecdotes & provocative examples from real-world events, in contrast to the staid academic texts of the time.

So much so that reading his book on my part reminds me of reading Tom Peters' 'Reinventing Work' series of small pocket-sized hard-backs, namely, 'The Brand You 50', 'The Project 50' & 'The Professional Service Firm 50' (combined, they also give a total of 150 ways to spark innovation, many of which are still relevant for today) during the late 90's.

I don't mean to throw a wet blanket on 'Exploiting Chaos', but it is obvious to me that the many ideas in the book are not ground-breaking or revolutionary, but the author certainly has given them a new & refreshing spin with his so-called 'Crowd Sourced Insights'.

The latter is definitely a cool innovation on the part of the author, even though, with the luxury of today's Internet & Web 2.0 technologies, he has apparently extended the content analysis intelligence methodologies of futurist John Naisbitt, whose resultant book, 'Megatrends: Ten New Directions Transforming Our Lives', rocked the world during the early 80's.

Instead of running probably a large team of media analysts to scan some 6,000 local & regional newspapers, trade journals, etc., within the United States during the 80's as in the case with John Naisbitt, TrendHunter intelligently uses a small project team of dedicated staff to sift & resift the constant flow of disparate spotted ideas (known as micro-trends) from some 28,000+ global trend hunters.

They are then posted on the TrendHunter website - just imagine they garnered 40 million page views in 2008 - & then, measured & filtered down to 360+ clusters of inspirations, which in turn are reconfigured into their popular Trend Reports, which are sought after by big boys, like The Economist & Financial Times.

In a nut shell, the book's selling point, besides promoting the company's lucrative Trend Reports, is how to ride & leverage on the current recession & emerging trends - through the adept use of some of the 150 ways offered in the book as fuel to spark innovation - to make a quantum leap.

The 'Exploiting Chaos' framework, comprising 'Culture of Revolution', 'Trend Hunting', 'Adaptive Innovation' & 'Infectious Messaging', is interesting too, but one needs to work diligently to get it to work.


The author's principal argument about the giants of business - Disney, CNN, HP, GE, Apple, Sun, to name just a few - having started & prospered during time of crises, certainly makes good reading. Encouraging, too.

There is only one point in the book that sort of annoys me: 'Culture eats Strategy for Breakfast', even though his checklist of parameters, 'Perspective', Experimental Failure', 'Customer Obsession' & 'Intentional Destruction', is reasonably valid.

I hold the view that strategy formulation or thinking strategically must always comes first & be sustained throughout, so that one can really do something about the culture.

On the whole, this book is still worth reading. To paraphrase the marketing maverick Seth Godin, "with the ideas from the book, you might catch an ideavirus!".

Nonetheless, I also like to recommend two books to go as companion reading:

Jim Carroll's 'What I Learned from Frogs in Texas: Saving Your Skin with Forward-Thinking Innovation', & 'Ready, Set, Done: How to Innovate When Faster is the New Fast', which I had already reviewed in the 'Optimum Performance Technologies' weblog.

[Readers can go to the TrendHunter website to download a 25 page preview of the book. Here's the link.

Alternatively, the Business Week online magazine has singled out 24 of the 150 ways to spark innovation in a slide presentation. Here's the link to view it.]

SELF-UNIVERSITY & PROVING YOU'RE QUALIFIED

[Extracted & adapted from the 'Optimum Performance Technologies' weblog.]

In the realm of many books covering self-directed learning, I would like to single out two books which I have read on this subject.

They are:

- 'Self University: The Price of Tuition is the Desire to Learn', by Charles Hayes;

- 'Proving You're Qualified: Strategies for Competent People without College Degrees', by Charles Hayles;

After having spent twenty-four years in the corporate world, & following almost two decades in a self-imposed, life-long journey of pursuing personal mastery, I really consider them to be the wisest & most useful books I have ever read on the subject of self-directed learning.

'Self-University' is a heart-warming book. It encourages all of us to think of education as a life-long, self-initiated venture instead of a lifeless, institutionalized affair.

Let me recap the author's catchy metaphor from this book:

"The caterpillar is condemned to crawl, but the butterfly has the potential to soar above with an all-inclusive view of the world. As humans we complete our caterpillar stage when we reach mature physical growth. If we are to soar like the butterflies, we must do so through the development of our minds."

My favourite chapters from ‘Self-University’ are:

- Chapter 3: Self-Knowledge;

- Chapter 4: The Personal Sciences;

- Chapter 5: Motivation;

- Chapter 10: Practicum;

- Chapter 11: Practicum in the Workplace;

'Proving You're Qualified' is a career book for competent people who have learned their jobs, on the job...& yet they are often passed over for promotion for lack of a degree, which has nothing, whatsoever, to do with their performance.

This book offers readers a frank discussion of educational merit and actual performance in a workplace caught in the grip of frightening change. It can help you to better understand the nature of power in hierarchies, to gain insight into methods for fighting credentialism, and to save time and money by utilizing alternate methods of adult continuing education.

My favourite chapters from 'Proving You're Qualified' are:

- Chapter 6: Leverage, Options & Choices;

- Chapter 7: Learning to Live with Change;

- Chapter 8: Me, Inc.;

These three chapters alone are worth the price of the entire book!

The above two books are very thought-provoking. Each chapter of the two books are so compelling that you may feel forced to write comments in the margins of the pages as you go along.

To sum up my book review, these two wonderful books offer an excellent approach to ensuring your career security in the 21st century.

[The author, Charles Hayes, is a lifelong learning advocate, a self-taught philosopher, & an author & publisher. At age 17, he dropped out of high school to join the U.S. Marines. After four years of duty he became a police officer in Dallas, Texas, & later he moved to Alaska, where he has worked for more than 20 years in the oil industry.

In 1987, he founded Autodidactic Press, committed to lifelong learning as the lifeblood of democracy & the key to living life to its fullest.

I reckon the two books which I have reviewed are more or less his anchor books (since they drive home his personal philosophy & fundamental premise:

1) That lifelong learning is fundamental to living a full & interesting life;

2) That the learning necessary to gain competence in a job or career is far, far more important than how or where it is acquired;)

even though he has written a few more other titles.

Readers can visit his corporate website, from which you can access more information as well as the table of contents of each book.]

HOW TO CREATE & SELECT EXCEPTIONAL OPPORTUNITIES: AN INTEGRATED VIEW

Drawing a proven application from another industry or sphere of activity, & then adapt & apply it successfully in another totally different realm, is essentially one of the hallmarks of creative brainpower.

Two professors of operations & information management (who have also developed products & launched businesses) have done just that - using the extremely popular 'American Idol' contest as a model, & transposing it into what is basically an 'idea tournament': starting with a large pool of ideas & vetting down to few specific winners.

[In fact, among many other real-world case studies, their fascinating story of 'Red Bull', which originated in rural Thailand, especially among the trucker community, & now popular among club goers & youth throughout the world, is another classic example.]

In a nut shell, the two authors now offer a systematic approach to producing & choosing high-potential innovations.

Hence, their new book, 'Innovation Tournaments: Creating & Selecting Exceptional Opportunities', which I have read only a couple of weeks ago.

The two professors are Christian Terwiesch & Karl Ulrich at the famed Wharton School, & their book captures beautifully the entire innovation process, with all the principles & tool sets.

Specifically for me, at last, I get to read - after having read so much of innovation books from the marketplace over the years - a really state-of-the-art innovation book that caters to both sides of the brain: an integrated view, combining creative inspiration & serendipitous discoveries (right-brain, random), with systematic process management approach & professional rigour (left-brain, bottom-line).

I have really enjoyed reading & digesting the book from cover to cover, which is actually broken down as follows, aka the "roadmap":

1. Tournaments 101: A Primer for Innovators (introducing the concept & identifying KPI within a tournament);

2. In-House Sources: Generating Opportunities Internally;

3. Outside Sources: Sensing Opportunities Externally;

4. Elimination Round: Screening Opportunities (discussing the first elimination round in a tournament);

5. Strategic Fit: Pulling Opportunities from Strategy (aligning your tournament with your strategy);

6. Short-Term Profitability: Analyzing Near Horizon Opportunities;

7. Interdependence: Forming Opportunity Portfolios;

8. Long-Term Profitability: Managing Far-Horizon Opportunities;

9. Structure: Shaping the Innovation Funnel;

10. Administration: Organizing and Governing Innovation (focusing on enhancing opportunity sensitivity as an organsation);

11. Tournaments 201: An Innovator's Guide to Getting Started (discussing the organisation of tournaments & suggesting different approaches);

To make reading a breeze, each chapter is suffixed with a brisk chapter summary, & what I like most are the diagnostic questions that follow the summary.

From a cumulative standpoint, I can see that the questions have been designed specifically to determine your level of innovation savvy.

To me, together with the intelligent filtering process as outlined by the two authors, they are the gems of the book, as they set the reader to think strategically while planning to use a tournament as an organisational problem solving process.

The principal premise of the authors is that the tournament approach allows for greater variability in the ideas proposed i.e. the greater the variation in quality of options, the more likely there are to be a few very good ones.

From the opportunity-sensing point of view, Chapter 2, 3 & 4 are my personal favourites, as they are the starting point - the pool, so to speak - for you to screen & act on all the ideas as a portfolio, followed by Chapter 6, 7 & 8, as they explain how to analyse, how to deal with expectations, constraints, interdependencies, as well as risk diversification, & how to cultivate & develop the riskier options (which often give rise to the most profitable opportunities), respectively.

To help in stimulating your business opportunity creation, the authors offer 14 great windows of opportunity: 8 from inhouse sources; 6 from external sources. They are elegantly illustrated in Chapter 2 & 3.

To me, they have certainly built on & given a new spin to what strategist Michel Robert & management guru Peter Drucker had come up with the ten broad windows of opportunity.

Interestingly, this wonderful book doesn't end at the last page 242. With the aid of the appendix, it leads readers to explore more tools & access more web resources e.g. Darwinator Software, to support your opportunity screening.

As a parting shot for this review:

I must add that I certainly like the authors' definition:

"We define an opportunity as the seed that might later grow into an innovation. An opportunity is an innovation in embryonic form, a newly sensed seed, a newly discovered technology, or a rough match between a need & a possible solution."

How do we as innovators spot profit-making opportunities when they're still in the embryonic stage? I am glad that the two authors have done a great job in answering the pertinent question for readers, but we still have to do all the hard work.

On the whole, it has been a engaging book to read, digest & learn.

I strongly recommend it to anyone who is looking to develop an integrated process to manage innovation.

GO AHEAD & FAIL! EMBRACE FAILURE! SEEK IT OUT! LEARN TO LOVE IT!

The foregoing exuberant exhortation in the form of my blogpost title truly reflects my personal sentiment about what this new book, entitled 'Celebrating Failure: The Power of Taking Risks, Making Mistakes & Thinking Big' by business coach Ralph Heath is all about.

Writing with warmth, sincerity & candour, the author has very skillfilly drawn from his own 31-year professional history of running Ovation Marketing, an award-winning advertising agency business, as well as "hundreds, or perhaps thousands, of personal failures to achieve outstanding or spectacular learning experiences", often interjecting pragmatic lessons from interacting with his own direct family members.

There are altogether 30 great chapters, totaling just under 200 pages, & with the 'Introduction: Failure Teaches You to Succeed', that makes 31, each artfully prefaced with a short but meaningful chapter title, e.g. #1: 'Starting Fires'; #30: 'Change is My Drug of Choice'.

What I like most about reading the book is that each chapter has an inspiring quote & a brisk preamble, which presents 'The Failure Factor', as well as a concise summary, which highlights the actionable insights from the author. Hence, reading is a breeze, & best of all, takeaways are right at your fingertips.

That's to say, in really no uncertain terms, the entire book has been thoughtfully crafted by the author, with all the cumulative chapter insights actually forming the jewels of the book.

For me, among many others, my favourite chapter is #27: 'Why Wait?'.

According to the author, the word 'Wait' is one of the ugliest words in the English Language. Surprisingly to me, he has even added that it is often used in advertising agencies as a call for inaction.

Nonetheless, the swift counterpoint from the author is "to take action, to move forward with your thoughts & ideas to accomplish something, instead of waiting for something - or nothing - to happen."

At the end of the reading endeavour, one can quickly use the book as a how-to manual on developing a culture of intelligent risk taking in any setting, organisational, professional or personal.

The author's account of failures, setbacks & triumphs is reassuring, joyful & motivating. His writing is succinct, concise & easy-going.

I highly recommend this book for any professional, especially if you are in sales & marketing.

As a matter of fact, people from every walk of life can learn something useful from Ralph Heath's 'Celebrating Failure'.

INNOVATING IN BRUTAL MARKETS & BEYOND: YOUR SURVIVAL GUIDE

Frankly, I find it refreshing & illuminating to read the new book entitled 'The Silver Lining: An Innovation Playbook for Uncertain Times' by Scott Anthony, President of the boutique innovation consultancy firm, Innosight.

He is also the lead author of 'The Innovator's Guide to Growth', which I haven't read, & co-author of 'Seeing What's Next' (with world-famous innovation guru Clayton Christensen), which I had read several years ago.

The first thing that has struck me profoundly is his smooth way of capturing the essence of today's tumultuous business environment - 'Great Disruption', as an apt analogy of the 'Great Depression' of the 1930's - where change is ripping through marketspace at unprecedented pace.

On top of that, he follows up with a brilliant analysis, infused with numerous examples (in spite of his humble qualification: "Our sample is heavily biased, but still the directional results are interesting.") of how innovation can still flourish, even in the toughest of economic times.

I like the beginning part when he talks about "Abundance is actually the root cause of many corporate struggles with innovation... On the other hand, constraints are one of the great enablers of innovation."

The observation of Jeff Bezos of Amazon fame probably sums up that sentiment best:

"If you ever find yourself in a box, the best way to get out of the box is to invent your way out of the box. Either/or thinking is very constraining. Sometimes people say it is either A or B and you instead have to invent C."

So, with the foregoing as a prologue, so to speak, I believe that the author has carefully written, with incisive anecdotes, an excellent strategy guide to help us think about how to reinvent ourselves so that we have a right to have a future.

I also love the way the author has laid out his easy-to-follow game-plan for readers, with pragmatic frameworks & useful tools to instil a disruptive innovation mindset:

- 'Chapter 1: The Great Disruption' ("... innovating in uncertain times is actually... innovating in any economic climate. Tough economic times are going to force innovators to do what they should have been doing already... The challenge is reinvention, or transformation... Perpetual transformation is the only way to thrive during the Great Disruption". Well said, Scott.);

- 'Chapter 2: Prune Prudently' (the portfolio checkup is a great tool for determining the health of one's innovation/growth portfolio), describes THINGS WE SHOULD STOP DOING;

- 'Chapter 3: Refeature to Cut Cost' (as reconstituted offerings provide better value), 'Chapter 4: Increase Innovation Productivity' (this is an excellent chapter, as it helps us to identify capabilities, constraints, weaknesses, & structures), 'Chapter 5: Master Smart Strategic Experiments' (a good perspective on technical experimentation vs strategic experimentation) & 'Chapter 6: Share the Innovation Load' ("Entrepreneurs don't take risk; they manage risks."), describe THINGS WE NEED TO DO DIFFERENTLY;

- 'Chapter 7: Learn to Love the Low End' (a great lesson on how to turn the disruptive threat into an opportunity) & 'Chapter 8: Drive Personal Reinvention' (my favourite chapter; I like the author's apt use of F Scott Fitzgerald's test of mastering seemingly paradoxical demands, & also his exhortation on associational thinking [with tendencies toward discovery skills, such as questioning, observing, exploring & networking]; & acquisition of 'schools of experience or hard knocks';), describe THINGS WE ARE NOT DOING YET, BUT NEED TO GET STARTED IMMEDIATELY;

The last chapter, 'Chapter 9: What's Next for Innovation', is a good epilogue, which highlights ten specific disruptors, with parting thoughts from the author.

Interestingly, as the author argues, instead of trying to play the innovation game better than existing competitors, the disruptor changes the game. This is the brutal reality of the 'Great Disruption'.

Undoubtedly, the author is really good, as I can sense his mastery of subject & clarity of thought, substantiated with intellectual rigour, deep academic research as well as powerful lessons from successful real-world innovators.

Clayton Christensen's credit of him as one of the world's foremost authorities on innovating for growth is a worthy testimonial.

The fact that the author had been engaged by the Singapore Government about five years ago to lead "a multi-month project to help the govenment understand how to create an environment that fosters entrepreneurialism & innovation" certainly underscored his impeccable reputation as an innovation strategist.

This is because the Singapore Government is well known internationally for always picking the best overseas brains to push strategic thrusts that involve the country's economic survival.

To conclude my review, I must say that I have truly enjoyed reading & digesting the author's playbook as he calls it.

What I also like best is that it reinforces Peter Drucker's long-held philosophy with regard to innovation as a deliberate, repeatable, & sustainable discipline.

Also, one more fascinating thought, or more precisely, a stream of connecting thoughts, from the author, reflecting his keen sense of closure, before I sign off:

At the introduction, the author writes: "(history) suggested that there were clear rays of hopes. Of course, realising that hope required thinking and acting differently... "

At the parting thoughts, the author writes: "... Hope is not lost. Opportunity remains... The choice is yours."

Hi, Scott, a marvellous piece of work, Thank You very much.

[More information about the author, his consultancy work & his book is available at this link. He also writes a weblog on innovation insights at Harvard Business.

In fact, readers can also visit this link to download many free resources inspired by 'The Silver Lining'.]

SURVIVING & THRIVING IN THE AGE OF TURBULENCE WITH CHAOTICS

I have, not too long ago, & also as part of my evolving personal collection, the following apt quote from Philip Kotler at the forefront of my daily idea scratchpad:

“To prepare for the twenty-first century, companies need to imagine alternative scenarios for the marketplace of the future, and use these scenarios to stimulate their thinking about possible contingencies and strategies. My advice, therefore, is get busy building scenarios and determining what they imply in the way of strategic planning. Do not think business as usual.”

I can't recall where I have gotten it, but I have also adopted it as one of my 'Today's VIP (Very Important Pose'), as well as considered it as one of my 'Pragmatic Insights from the Experts' in my personal weblog.

To my pleasant delight, I am glad that it helps to set a profound preamble to this book review of mine.

The lead author, now 78 or so, but surprisingly still active, is undoubtedly recognised as an internationally acclaimed marketing guru; hailed by the Management Centre Europe as "the world's foremost expert on the strategic practice of marketing."

Naturally, I have been quite excited to approach in reading his new book, 'Chaotics', but my fascination begins to fade after reading several pages at the front portion of the book. This is primarily because the author has drawn excellent material from several earlier authors - which he has humbly acknowledged at the onset & within the chapters of the book - namely:

- Clayton Christensen ('The Innovator's Dilemma' & 'The Innovator's Solution');
- Jim Collins ('Good to Great');
- Peter Drucker (The Age of Discontinuity');
- George Day & Paul Schoemaker ('Peripheral Vision');
- Richard D'Alveni ('Hypercompetition');
- Arie de Geus ('The Living Company');
- Benjamin Gilad ('Early Warning');
- Andy Grove ('Only the Paranoid Survive');
- Gary Hamel ('Leading the Revolution');
- Peter Schwartz (''Inevitable Surprises');

[The only odd one I have not read, to my chagrin, is probably Hermann Simon's 'Hidden Champions'.]

I have, in fact, over the years, read the works of these authors not only once, but many times in order to personalise their many ideas for easy application.

So, specifically for me, reading 'Chaotics' is like doing a grand refresher course.

In fact, it also reminds of me of the great works of two Scandinavian consultants Yves Doz & Mikko Kosonen (with their masterpiece: 'Fast Strategy: How Strategic Agility will help you Stay Ahead of the Game') & innovation strategist/futurist Jim Carroll (namely, 'What I Learned from Frogs in Texas: Saving Your Skin with Forward-Thinking Innovation' & 'Ready, Set, Done: How to Innovate When Faster is the New Fast').

However, in fairness to the two competent authors, this bold statement of mine is not going to diminish the value of the book.

Strictly speaking, I reckon, riding on the shoulders of giants, so to speak, is apparently a cool move on the part of the two competent authors, because they didn't have to spend time dabbling with fancy theories. All they need to do, is to give all the proven stuff a new spin, which they have done so marvellously in 'Chaotics'.

In that respect, I have found useful nuggets, in addition to the fact that the two competent authors have synthesised, within 200-odd pages, all the "borrowed brilliance" into a timely, disciplined strategy guide on building strategic robustness, market responsiveness & operational resiliency, as embodied in their 'Chaotics' Management System.

In a nut shell, I want to say that the book is all about developing organisational agility & prosperity, but first business leaders need a new view of the world, & a new framework for dealing with it.

[At this juncture, I am reminded again by this superb insight from Dudley Lynch, author of 'Strategy of the Dolphin' & 'The Mother of All Minds':

"When your mind changes its worldview, it changes the world! Not just the world-at-large outside you, but also your own interior personal world, writ large!"]

So, 'Chaotics' comes in real handy, because it provides a comprehensive roadmap to navigate the so-called interlocking fragility of turbulence, chaos, risk & uncertainty amidst globalisation & digitisation, as well as a practical operating manual for inculcating new strategic behaviours.

[Readers can also go to this publisher's link to download an overview document on 'Chaotics'.]

For me, the beautiful nuggets come in the form of abundant pertinent probing questions, which all managers of today should ask themselves, if they really want to survive & thrive in the 'Age of Turbulence', all interpersed throughout the book (& strategically segmented to suit finance, IT, manufacturing, purchasing & HR) , plus a myriad of thoughtfully-crafted checklists of recommendations & ideas to consider.

In terms of immediate takeaways or learning points, the foregoing stuff is already worth the price of the book. It's like having both competent authors at your side to guide you.

For reader's benefits, I like to fish out a handful of the worthwhile checklists:

- factors that can cause chaos;
- hypercompetition strategies for disruption;
- most common mistakes that business leaders make when turbulence hits;
- ten innovation mistakes a company can make during a turbulent economy;
- ten most common mistakes companies make relative to valued stakeholders during turbulence;
- one effective & efficient approach to scenario construction;
- ten practices to weather continually extended & heightened periods of turbulence;
- ten effective HR recommendations to help retain talent;
- four key changes in the marketspace;
- eight factors for marketers to keep in mind when embracing 'Chaotics' marketing strategies;
- three important recommendations for keeping margins above water;
- six key steps for sales executives to inspired the team;
- common characteristics of firms of endearment (endeared company);

Some of the authors' concepts like defending vulnerabilities/exploiting opportunities for sustainability, as well as dual vision/triple planning, though not entirely new, are worth reading, too.

To conclude my review, 'Chaotics' is still worth pursuing, especially if you are hard-pressed for time in seeking a lifeline while traversing uncharted waters. Best of all, to the credit of the two competent authors, their writing style is crisp, succinct & easy-to-read.