Good to Great by Jim Collins – Book Review
This book took me quite awhile to read, not because it was too big or difficult, but rather it’s one of those books that you constantly set it down to reflect on the implications of what you have just read. Good to Great by Jim Collins goes on the must read list for anyone involved in running or managing a business and is the premier source of what’s required to make your good business great.
Good to Great Insights
Jim Collins has packed this book with volumes of insightful yet simple concepts about what exactly differentiates the best companies from the rest. The biggest takeaways from the book are:
- Who you bring into your business is far more important than what you do in your business. Great employees can be great at anything.
- Great companies are realists. They confront and deal with reality rather than hide in hope.
- Great companies find and focus on their core competency rather than are lured into diversification.
- Great companies don’t get caught up with being at the forefront of technology they make sure the technology compliments their business.
- Success comes through consistent direction and dedication; not one time innovations and breakthroughs. Great success is built on a daily basis.
I loved the book’s format; it is practical, filled with examples and even has great summaries at the end of each chapter. More importantly than all this is the quality of the information the book.
Overall Good to Great Review
There’s a reason why this book has sold over two million copies and has been a best seller in the business section for years – it’s a well researched, insightful, practical guide to building a great business. It should be on the shelf of anyone that owns or manages any business or aspires to. I give it 4.5/5!
Purple Cow by Seth Godin – Book Review
Let me start by saying this book is good without being great, which ironically is the premise of the book itself – don’t be good, be remarkable.
Purple Cow Insights
Whilst I wouldn’t call the book great, it is a short and fairly easy read and does have some valuable insights:
- The old method of advertising and marketing is dying. Consumer don’t engage with mass marketing mediums of TV advertising, newspaper ads, direct mail etc. More and more consumers are avoiding the noise and turning to recommendations from peers as to what products are worth investing the time and energy into.
- These days, it’s just not good enough to be good. Products need to be remarkable so that they stand out in the sea of alternative products. If they are boring they won’t get people talking.
- Marketing to the masses isn’t as effective as marketing to the innovators and early adopters who are people that pride themselves on being cutting edge. Let them evangelise your products rather than plugging the product yourself through traditional mass media.
- Continue to produce innovative and remarkable products rather than rest on the laurels of past product successes.
Despite the good insights this book is all theory back up a few old examples. It’s not a very practical book as it doesn’t offer any “how to” style steps. Though marketing has always been a bit more of an art than a science, and I can concede that the notion that there is a simple and set formula to apply to being “remarkable” would be a bit of an oxymoron.
Overall Purple Cow Review
All in all I’d give this book a 3.5/5 but it’s short enough that the couple of hours it’d take you to read it would be well spent.
The 4 Hour Work Week by Tim Ferriss – Book Review
The 4 Hour Work Week by Tim Ferriss is one of my most highly recommended “must read” business/lifestyle books. Whilst it’s extremely applicable for online entrepreneurs it holds great value for anyone who wants to streamline their life to create time for what’s really important.
The book is all about lifestyle design and focuses on how to maximise working/career/business success whilst living the life you dreamed; you know, the one you told yourself was the reason why you got up in the morning, the same one that motivates you to grind through your day at work so you can afford that holiday or early retirement.
I mentioned above, it’s particularly relevant to online entrepreneurs (given that our business can be conducted anywhere in the world) but it hugely valuable for anyone ho what’s to know what’s truly possible when it comes to coordinating an automated business. And before you say, “but I’m currently working a 9 to 5 for someone else” let me assure you this book was written with a broad audience in mind, which includes you.
Core 4HWW Concept
The core concept of his book centers on Tim’s DEAL strategy of define, eliminate, automate and liberate.
- Define – define what exactly you want.
- Eliminate – eliminate distractions, focus on being effective not efficient through the use of 80/20 principles, learn to say no, learn to operate on a low information diet.
- Automate – setup automated systems, outsource what you can’t automate and remove yourself from the production process.
- Liberate – pursue frequent mini retirements rather than end of life retirements, leverage your relative income versus your absolute income.
Tim tackles the traditional myths of how work should be conducted and has opened up the eyes of hundreds of thousands of readers to the possible of lifestyle design.
Overall 4 Hour Work Week Review
As I have already mentioned my recommendation is that this book is a “must read” for everyone and I give it 5/5.
Don’t Make Me Think by Steve Krug – Book Review
The tag line of this book “A Common Sense Approach to Web Usability” says it all. The book is all about keeping it simple, and not simple from your perspective, keeping it simple from a non tech-savvy average user perspective and designing the site for them.
I’ll start this book review by saying, if you deal with making or managing websites this book should feature on your shelf. That said, it’s a much more valuable read for if you’ve only been in the web design or internet marketing game for a year or two. Whilst I wouldn’t call it a beginners guide, a good portion of what you will read, you will have already read elsewhere.
I read the second edition (2005 version) with the original being published in 2000. I think web usability and design has come quite away since late 2005 but the concepts are virtually the same, even if the examples are now aging a little.
Though being honest, the fact that I have been involved with designing websites and conversion optimisation for a few years now, I personally found the gaps between reading new usability insights made reading tiring at times. However when I did stumble upon some nuggets of information it definitely “made me think”.
The book itself is beautifully laid out with great use of images and subtitles allowing you to to digest the main points easily and facilitates scanning.
All in all I give it four out of five and as mentioned above this should be staple reading for anyone engaged with making or managing websites.