My favorite business book list

I am not a terrible fan for business books. But lately I am on streak. There are a number of business books I really like and I consider everyone should read.

The World is Flat, by Thomas L. Friedman
Winning, by Jack Welch
Good to Great, by Jim Collins
Rapid Development, by Steve McConnell
FutureThink, by Edie Weiner and Arnold Brown
Execution, the discipline of getting things done, by Larry Bossidy and Ram Charan
Chinese Business Etiquette, by Scott D. Seligman
Five Frogs on a Log, Mark L. Feldman and Michael F. Spratt
The Offshore Nation, by Atul Vashistha and Avinash Vashista
The Culture Code, by Clotaire Rapaille

The Long Tail

So today I ran into this clip and blog about the long tail. There is also a fairly new book out about this. This looks very interesting.

Who killed the electric car

There is an interesting documentary out at the moment, called "Who killed the electric car". So in the early 90's California had a zero emission law, which meant that car makers who sold cars in California had to also sell a certain percentage of zero emission cars by a certain date. The spured innovation and the creation of the electric car.

This movie tells the story how this was fought by the car industry, oil industry and the federal government and how these cars disappeared. One might say the story is a bit one-sided. Well, that is not really how I walked away. There are some compelling arguments this documentary makes. The hardest to swallow being how the electric car - a working solution which needed improvements - was abandoned and replaced by the hydrogen car - which is an unproven technology decades away before it will be commercially available.

Anyone who has some interest in what's happening in today's world and how sometimes the system doesn't work should go and see this documentary. Also go and see "An Inconvenient Truth" by Al Gore - see my earlier blog post. I think these are important topics and the consumer - meaning every single one of us - has a big control in this.

This also ties into some other interesting topic I recently read about - The World Is Flat. If America wants to compete with other markets and geographies and if we want to stop our environmental destruction, there is only one solution. Innovate, fast-paced innovation, which means we need to invest in infrastructure, technology, science and education. Areas we started to neglect more and more in the last couple decades. And as usual here is your YouTube clip!

Celebration of light - China

So last night it was China's turn in the Celebration of Lights fireworks. The music was more traditional Chinese (at least in my view). So overall I didn't like the music as much as Italy's and the fireworks started out a bit slow. But in the second half the fireworks were awesome too. So I did like them but Italy is my favorite right now. And, it didn't take long and the first clips are showing up on YouTube. It's like your free movie clip service, love it!

Celebration of light - Italy

So Wednesday I went and saw the Vancouver fireworks - Celebration of light. Italy kicked of this years event and they had an amazing choreography. I really liked the music and the fireworks were just awe-striking. It was estimated that about 400 thousand people saw it. The crowd was unbelievable. When you leave you see people everywhere - at least for an hour! And obviously it didn't take long till some clips showed up on YouTube!

The World Is Flat!

The world has changed while we were sleeping. The world became flat again, figuratively speaking. The book called "The World Is Flat" by Thomas L. Friedman is a must read on my list. The latest edition has been published earlier this year. It talks about a triple convergence which in 2000 flattened the world and now enables knowledge workers from every corner of the globe to participate, collaborate and compete via a single platform - the Internet. For example it enabled two young geeks to build a browser which got downloaded 10 million times within one month and eat into Microsoft's share in the browser market. Or it now enables workers in India, China and many more places to do creative work which not even ten years ago was believed it can only be done in North America or Europe.

Friedman makes a very compelling argument and it ties together many individual stories and reports we have seen in the media. Sure, I don't buy into all aspects but the bigger argument - hell, yes it makes so much sense. And it provides some context which allows me to see and understand things going on around me so much better. He also ties this into some of today's geopolitical events going on and into the obvious struggle of American-jobs-being-lost. And it makes a strong case that we need to rebuild some of our educational and science strengths - and you can insert almost any European or North American country here. The very same strength which allowed us to prosper. It also makes a strong argument that 9/11 has hidden a much more important problem from us. Immigration of talent, strengthening the educational system and positive imagination. The last five years were so much about FUD that we are now much more obsessed with fear and what can happen to us instead of concentrating on strengthening and utilizing our knowledge and imagination.

This book certainly has changed my context and outlook. And there are also many aspects which can be applied to corporations. The strongest one is to work horizontally instead of vertically. We need vertical structures for HR reasons, etc. But we need to work around projects and communities to get our day-to-day work done and add real value to your business.

I can only say one thing. Go and buy this book, read it and then think about it. This is a must read for all senior managers on my list!

Your YouTube playlist!

It's amazing how easy YouTube is to use and what an incredible user experience it provides. Below is my latest YouTube playlist. Amazing music clips you can find on YouTube for free.

Yahoo Finance - Badges

Yahoo Finance is now offering badges which you can embed into your site - http://finance.yahoo.com/badges. Just like YouTube allows you to embed movie clips into your site. And many more. Syndication of content has become a big differentiator in recent years. It allows sites like YoutTube, Yahoo, Google, etc. to embed their content to many other sites and reach a much wider audience. Check it out below

MIT Open Courseware

In 2005 MIT started "MIT Open Courseware" or also called "MIT Open University". Through this it offers many courses to the public for free, yes for free. You can find its homepage here. You find many courses on Economics, Politcal Science, Physics, etc. We are today competing world-wide in a knowledge based economy. Knowledge, skills and experience are the tools of today and tomorrow. The nation, community or society with the highest knowledge will be able to compete and succeed the most in today's world of outsourcing and offshoring. What can be more powerful then provide training and knowledge for free. And there are many more universities around the world which are participating.

The Resilient corporation

The presentation by Yossi Sheffi on the resilient corporation is quite interesting. I found it started out great with examples than it was a bit weak but finished very strongly. He makes the argument that culture and pushing the decision making and responsibility down to the lowest levels are the biggest contributors to a resilient corporation. For example a fairly freshman sailor can stop the complete operation of an air carrier when she sees a problem - that's quite a responsibility and statement of empowerment. Any assembly line worker of Toyota can stop the production line - again quite a responsibility.

Come to think of it, it does make a lot of sense. Management can not oversee everything nor make any decisions. Although management often doesn't trust employees to make the right decisions. It is the employees who are on the front-line who can identify early on quality problems, safety problems or identify that something is wrong and make the right decision to resolve it or to stop production to get someone in to solve it. Management needs to work on creating the right culture and provide leadership in case of disruptions and crisis.

You can find the presentation here. It is quite interesting and I can only recommend it!

The World Is Flat

Right now I am reading a book called "The World Is Flat" by Thomas L. Friedman. It talks how the convergence of trends, events and inventions has created a global platform for collaboration and how this new platform allows people around the world to plug in and collaborate, compete and invent. And ultimately how this platform will change everyone's lives around the globe in a rather profound way. Thomas also presented about a year ago at MIT about that same topic - The World Is Flat. It is quite fascinating to listen to it.

You can also find more about the author on his web site. His book "The World Is Flat" draws a rather compelling story, how we got here and how it will change our lives and the lives of our children. I can strongly recommend this book!

Another music clip I like

Here is another cool music clip from YouTube!

Hilarious Charlie Brown clip!

What a fantastic funny Charlie Brown clip!

Clip about the immigration debate

Sometimes you have to chill and take these things humorously!

Flickr!

I have heard about Flickr a while ago and looked at it briefly. When a couple of friends started using it and sending me links I got really interested in it. I also read once a great article about how Flickr will change Yahoo - Yahoo bought them a while ago. So today I finally signed up, uploaded a couple of pictures and connected with the two friends.

It's another fantastic example of participation. Folks from around the world are uploading pictures - thousands of them every day. And you can browse them, add them to your profile, comment on them, etc. You can also tag your own pictures and make them available to the rest of the world! What a great concept of connecting with others and sharing your experiences.

I am hooked on this. I could search and find pictures about my hometown - Telfes. Here I am on the other side of the world looking and pictures folks have uploaded about my hometown. Amazing. Go and check it out - flickr.com! Just don't search for my name - Klaus Salchner. One of my friends uploaded a - hm funny - picture about me when he and I partied in London. Just don't believe it! Visit my profile @ http://www.flickr.com/people/49312597@N00/

Alizee - a great artist

While playing around more with YouTube and Google Video I ran into a number of music clips from Alizee - http://www.alizee-fanpage.com/page.php?language=en. What a great aratist. I love her songs!

Google Video

So while I continued playing around with YouTube I also saw that Google is moving into this space too - video.google.com. It's not as sleek as YouTube but Google doesn't want to miss out on this!

YouTube! - you rule!

There is a revolution going on! We all are touched by it, we experience it but very few of us have grasped what change is happening and have a name for it. Thomas L. Friedman calls it Uploading and Tim O'Reilly calls it "architecture of participating". Other hyped terms are Web 2.0!

YouTube is a great example of this. I have heard about it a couple of months ago but never took the time to check it out. Well, today while I was creating my LavaLife profile - another story - I also started playing around on YouTube. YouTube is a site which allows everyone to upload their videos and share them with the world. You might say, why would I do this? Well, there are thousands posted. And it's another way of sharing your life and experiences with the world. Connect with the world!

It didn't take long for me to create an account, listen to some professional music clips - small groups but very professional made - and subscribe to them. Didn't take long and I posted comments and filled out my profile with all my details! It literally was drawing me into participating. This is what is happening all around - individuals participating, creating and sharing content - not just consuming it. There are millions out there who create content every hour, every day. This is going to change the media companies, how we inform ourselves, how we share our experiences. And this is just the beginning. What a overwhelming and exciting world to come!

Visit my profile @ http://www.youtube.com/profile?user=ksalchner. Go and check it out yourself. Go and sign up and if you have any video clips - upload them. The world wants to see them and know about you :). I am certain it won't take long and this will become a platform for new artists to get attention or even for the big music studios to test drive new talent they found. I can't wait for it!

This is so funny!

Winning - what a great book

So this long July 1st weekend I read the book called Winning by Jack Welch. I am a big skeptic when it comes to business books. Most of them are hard to read and when you are done with the book it is hard to count of your ten fingers what you learnt and what you can implement in your day to day work life.

Well not this one. It was an easy read and is full of ideas and processes you can implement. Some of the things talked in Winning strike you right between your eyes and you can immediately turn around and say, yes I saw that happening, yeah I am guilty of that and I wish I could undo this. None of us is perfect. We are human beings who make mistakes but we are also human beings who can strive for something better and can learn and do better.

I like the 4-E's and 1-P (Positive Energy, Energetic, Edge, Execution and Passion). Candor is a powerful statement by itself and we all crave for more of it and at the same time we are all sometimes guilty of not doing it ourselves. The 20-70-10 rule described in differentiation is not easy to implement and there are more reasons someone can list not to do it then to do it. But on closer look it does make sense.

I wish we would see more of what is described in voice and dignity. We all can tell the story where we wish we would have been given the opportunity to make our opinions heard and our believes being respected. Having a mission statement and value statement which is concise and we can believe and act upon - isn't that we all wish for? And there so much more which can be said about this book. I can only say one thing - go and buy it, go and read it and then go and implement some of it. Your boss and your employees will thank you for it!