Best Business Crime Writing of the Year edited by James Surowiecki; Random House; 250 Pages; $12.00; Paperback; November 2002, 1400033713

The fact that this anthology exists speaks volumes about the state of our economy as well as the state of our society. How is it that there is so much corporate crime, and the reporting of, to not only warrant a Best of volume? What is terrific about this volume is that, for example, weve heard all we can take about Enron, but from the perspective of PJ ORourkes How to Stuff a Wild Enron? My favorite quote from this piece was, [W]hen someone creates a system in which you cant tell whether or not youre being fooled, youre being fooled. And ultimately it explains just what Enron did, was trying to do, and how it failed. And yet, he also looks at how the system of regulations is what enable Enron to defraud its investors. ORourke asserts that Regulation creates a moral hazard. We dont understand finance, but its regulared so were safe. In other words, regulation dulls managements own moral voice, that little angel that sits on the shoulders of management. Presumably, regulation has replaced the angel and the devil is all thats left. An interesting argument, and only one of many great pieces youll read when you buy BBCWY.

Also, these stories are still so timely; were still trying to figure out how these crimes happened, how to prevent them in the future, and how were going to dig ourselves out of the economical mess they created. Certainly there is a vast continuum regarding the intent of the CEOs, CFOs, Directors and others who ran their companies based on promises. Not all of them meant to hurt anyone (weve heard that before), but like many of us during the holidays, our eyes are bigger than our stomachs, and unlike our individual ability to leave our plates, these folks kept taking food and finding ingenious ways to hide it. Well, hidden food eventually rots and the smell gave these folks away.

Anther interesting quote comes from Peter Behr & April Witts Visionarys Dream Led to Risky Business. Weve done much to blame the head honchos for these corporate shenanigans, but what about those who went along for the ride. These authors write that these folks had chosen shame over confrontation. What a stunning way to put it.

If you want a solid understanding of the devastation American business has faced in the past year or so, this is the perfect book for you. Just the best written, most pertinent pieces of very, very important news.

Hire with Your Head: Using POWER Hiring to Build Great Companies by Lou Adler; John Wiley & Sons; Pages 334; $29.95; Hardcover; November 2002; 0471223298

If Impending Crisis helps you and your company identify how close you are to a hiring crisis and how to strategize a plan of attack, Hire with Your Head, now in a revised 2nd edition, will show you how to source, attract and select those hard-to-find best people. Adler advises us to take a systematic approach based on reason, not instinct, gut reaction, deadlines or impulsiveness (which, come on and admit, lots of companies, probably even yours, have done).

The first thing is to change your philosophy. Dont hire to fill a position; hire to bring the best person into your company. All of this starts with the correct interviewing techniques and assessment strategies. This person will not always be the candidate with the best resume. In Chapter 2, Adler tells us to look for success in a resume, not skills. Sound easy? Actually, according to Adler, it is. A good interview need only include 4 questions (4?!?). I wont spoil you by listing them here, but this entire book, in my opinion, is worth those 4 questions. And, even if you arent hiring now (but maybe you are thinking about streamlining your organization), this book can really help you determine the talent that you currently have in your organization. In other words, would you hire them each again? Very valuable stuff.

While interviewing has its own challenges, it is often assessing the candidate after her or she has left your office that is the toughest part. Adler offers ten factors that can help you process everything you heard and saw during an interview. Instead of choosing a candidate based on personality (will he or she fit into my organization) or schooling and experience, these ten factors will force you to step away from an impulsive decision, and instead, open the door to objectivity.

The terrific thing about this book is that it offers solutions to all different kinds of scenarios, including when you are hiring someone for a job that is newly created and you dont actually know what youll be requiring the person to do. Or, perhaps you need go back all the way to the beginning forget interviewing and assessing you need to figure out how to source the talent from the get-go. Adler will tell you that also. Really, there is fantastic information throughout this book, no matter which stage you are at in your search for talent. The layout is easy-to-read, concise, and can be processed in steps.

My advise (completely altruistic, of course)? Pick up a copy of Impending Crisis and Hire with your Head your companys future depends on it.

New Law of Demand and Supply: The Revolutionary New Demand Strategy for Faster Growth and Higher Profits by Rick Kash; Currency Doubleday; 256 Pages; $27.50; Hardcover; September 2002; 0385504322

The gist of this book is right there in the title. Turning the old saw, Supply and Demand on its head, Kash suggests that organizations do the inverse: first, identify demand, thencreate the supply. While this may sound like a fairly basic theory, even common sense, the implementation, Kash tells us, is the hard part kind of like relearning how to walk. What the author does for us then is teach us how to reorient ourselves, step by step. And this is a man who knows what he is talking about! CEO of The Cambridge Group, a strategy-consulting firm, Kash has worked with companies from Merrill-Lynch to Gillette.

Why is this change in strategy so important? For a host of reasonsfrom the reduced life cycles of products and services, to deregulation, to increased competition as a result of globalization, to the ability of customers to compare prices and values at a keystrokethe market, Kash argues, has fundamentally and permanently changed from one that is driven by supply to one that is driven by demand. Kash then illustrates the Demand strategy with examples of companies that have used it successfully. While most companies have learned to listen to customer needs through market research, Kash offers an extended method. In addition to customer data, the Demand strategy includes Forces and Factors which involve analyzing the causal elements that are responsible for changes in demand, such as legislative, technological, political and demographics. Sounds smart to me. This is good advice for all types of organizations, big or small, and in fact, can benefit even the small company since small businesses are really searching for that toehold or springboard.

The Demand strategy is given six phases, of which, I really enjoyed Select your most profitable demand segment which encouraged me to look at my company, divide our services up by demand, and choose one of those sections which I thought we really excelled at and whose needs have not yet been totally met. To bring out another old saw: you can please some of the people some of the time, but not all of the people all of the time. Really, it is not a matter of offering EVERY item or service you can think of to an audience of millions, instead, it is about figuring out what a specific section of that audience needs, and then tailoring our services to fit. Wow, what a relief. From that point, Kash helps us progress through the following phases to execution. And this really is the strength of the book Kashs ability to take a simple theory that may be crucial to the future financial success of your company and makes it do-able.

The last time I spoke with Jason Jennings, we talked frankly about the amount of research and time it took for him to write this book. Well, the end result is definitely worth the effort he made, as this is a beautifully documented tome. Dont let the idea of documentation discourage you from buying this book, however. Jennings fine writing has a conversational tone that demands your attention and keeps you reading. On top of that, nearly every sentence has value and is loaded with content (and while this may seem like a given, try telling that to many of the business book authors out there perhaps they need a lesson in less-is-more). Folks, trust me, this is a great book that reads as easily as some of the best fiction.

Jennings first book Its Not the Big That Eat the Small, Its the Fast That Eat the Slow, co-written with Larry Haughton, appeared in the 6th edition of Jack Covert Selects and was a huge bestseller. I described that book in my review as one of the most fun, loaded with innovative thoughts and ideas that make perfect sense. Less is More follows well within the footprints of Its Not the Big and was also as difficult to synthesize not because it is too complex a book, but because it is so good, you cant help but share what you just read with someone else.

In this new book, Jennings tackles company productivitygetting more with less. First, he and a team of researchers created a set of criteria with which to judge a productive company. As the research went forward, they adjusted the guidelines to match their preliminary findings, ending up with: Revenue per Employee; Return on Equity and Return on Assets; and Operating Income per Employee. Then, they filtered the companies that made that first cut through the questions: Is this company overexposed? e.g. Southwest Airlines, Harley, Nokia, and Might this company pull an Enron?. After the companies that passed the test were determined, the CEOs were interviewed. Those interviews are incorporated into the book and offer much insight. Ultimately, Jennings concludes that productive companies have one unifying factor:

Productive companies have a different definition of the words strategy and tactics than most people in business. That difference is the foundation that allows them to stay focused and build remarkably productive companies. They have institutionalized their strategy.

What is so refreshing is that the selected companies are not the usual cast of characters. Jennings does include IKEA and Nucor, but also tells us about a discount chain in New Zealand that puts twice as much profit per sales dollar to the bottom line as Wal-Mart and nearly doubles Wal-Marts Return on Equity.

I am not saying that this book is as groundbreaking as, say, a new Michael Porter or Peter Drucker, but I am suggesting that this book is on par with the very successful Good to Great in showing you successful organizations that have implemented and applied cutting edge concepts. Jason Jennings has really done a terrific job in giving us this opportunity to learn from those companies successes and failures.

Some of the constant readers of my monthly missive have asked why I didnt write a Jack Covert Selects on the Jack Welch book. Well, I always try to follow my mothers advice, If you cant say something nice, when choosing the books I review, soyou get the picture. In a nutshell, Mr. Welchs book was good, but it could have been much better. Despite the mostly lukewarm reviews of the Welch book, and the credibility knocks the cult of the CEO has taken this year by way of Enron, Worldcom and Adventis, two of the best books of this year come from retiring or retired CEOs. In June, Larry Bossidy, formerly of Honeywell and Allied Signal, introduced Execution (see Junes JCS reviews), a terrific book that is taking the business world by storm. And now, Lou Gerstner, the man credited with IBMs turnaround, presents his memoirs from his time at IBM. I enjoyed these two books so much that I would love to package a tour that offers tickets to see Lou Gerstner and Larry Bossidy sitting on stage and just telling war stories. Fascinating stuff.

When Who Says Elephants Cant Dance was first brought to my attention, I asked who the ghostwriter of the book was, since who that person is directly affects the quality of the book no matter how famous the subject. The answer was: no one. Needless to say, I was surprised and skeptical. Gerstner addresses this decision in his introduction, saying, I wrote this book without the aid of a co-author or a ghostwriter (which is why its a good bet this is going to be my last book; I had no idea it would be so hard to do.) I am responsible for any mistakes or confusion the reader may endure. He also admits that he never planned to write a book, nor did he ever do much business book reading of his own. So, ever the pessimist, I drew the conclusion that this was going to be an unreadable book. It is anything but! I was immediately engaged by Gerstners conversational writing style and his ability to tell a good story. Not only does he generously offer up his thoughts and lay bare his emotions during the incredible personal and professional challenge he took on, Gerstner grounds the tale solidly by sharing his meeting notes, recounting conversations verbatim, and giving clear portraits of the heavy-hitters involved in the struggle.

In addition to Gerstners writing style, the mystery inherent in the companys turn-around keeps the pages turning. Really, for Gerstner to succeed in keeping the company together when it was hemorrhaging cash was completely unexpected. Pundits, as well has most of the IBM exectutives, believed Gerstners first step as CEO would be to split up Big Blue into Baby Blues. It didnt happen and we get to witness the decision-making process and the companys subsequent salvation within these pages. Gerstner tells his story linearly, beginning with Grabbing Hold (of the reins, of the problem, of a slipping behemoth), then Strategy (the section titled Reflections on Strategy is one of the best in the book), Culture, Lessons Learned, and Observations (which concludes with a Farewell). The pages fly by and youll not only be surprised by how entertained you are, but also how much you learned -- about change, about strategy, about management, about Lou Gerstner. This book is so good that I want to offer you a money back guarantee. Buy it and if you dont find it valuable, return it and we will credit you for the book, PLUS shipping.