On a personal and professional level, Carnegie’s How to Win Friends and Influence People by Carnegie was transformational. Carnegie would have loved Nick Gray’s The 2-Hour Cocktail Party because it explains how, when, and where to connect with other people, which can lead to lifelong friendships. This book is relevant to any financial and business leader; Nick nails it when he says, “Networking is the key to success in every career or business.”
[Read more…] about The 2-Hour Cocktail PartyThe Rise and Fall of the Anheuser-Busch Dynasty
As a kid, I listened to hundreds of games of my favorite team, where I repeatedly heard the names Budweiser and Busch over many years. Because of the rise in popularity of TV shows like Riches, Succession, and Yellowstone, I was curious if Bill Knoedelseder’s book Bitter Brew – The Rise and Fall of Anheuser-Busch and America’s King of Beers included a similar story arc. The answer is a resounding ‘yes’ with many previously untold stories.
[Read more…] about The Rise and Fall of the Anheuser-Busch DynastyTrue Profit
Hermann Simon’s Confessions of a Pricing Man is easily the best book ever written on this topic. The author is the Chairman of the global strategy consulting firm Simon-Kucher. He’s also one of this generation’s most prolific business thinkers, whose writing parallels Peter Drucker’s. In this conversation, our topic is Hermann’s 2021 book, True Profit. Topics include profit maximization, why price increases trump volume increases or cost reductions, and profit elasticity.
[Read more…] about True ProfitThe Stories Beyond FTX and Sam Bankman-Fried
I predict that Number Go Up by Zeke Faux will be considered the most fascinating and entertaining book in narrative non-fiction for 2023. If you know little about FTX and its infamous founder, Sam Bankman-Fried, this readable account of its demise is a perfect starting point. The book’s scope extends well beyond FTX as Zeke chronicles his ventures around the globe, sharing what I call binge-worthy episodes suitable for a Netflix docuseries.
[Read more…] about The Stories Beyond FTX and Sam Bankman-FriedData Thinking for Business Leaders
Dan Murray is the Director of Strategic Innovations at Interworks and is the author of Tableau This. He recently completed a blog series entitled BI Cantos, which is about how to successfully deploy a business intelligence system, which is the topic of this conversation. We discuss the critical thinking, tools, and consultants needed before, during, and after business intelligence implementation. We also address several myths surrounding these projects.
[Read more…] about Data Thinking for Business LeadersFarming, Food, and Finances with Joel Salatin
Joel Salatin calls himself a Christian, libertarian, capitalist, and lunatic farmer. I think of him as an economist, philosopher, brilliant marketer, excellent financial analyst, gifted public speaker, a master in debate, and certainly a Thomas Jefferson farmer. During this conversation, we focus on his book, Folks, This Ain’t Normal. We address open-book farming, the mechanical food worldview, and the frustrating death tax for those inheriting farms. Joel’s satire and storytelling make this conversation go far too fast.
[Read more…] about Farming, Food, and Finances with Joel SalatinThe Halo Effect
The Halo Effect is one of the best 25 business books I’ve read, and it’s a title I read annually to keep me grounded in my thinking. In this conversation, Phil Rosenzweig explains the halo effect, along with several other delusions business leaders are bombarded with daily from the press, business authors, and consulting gurus. After this conversation, you may have different opinions about the best-selling books Good to Great and Built to Last.
[Read more…] about The Halo EffectJohn Raskob – The First CFO of the Modern Era
David Farber’s Everybody Ought to Be Rich is now one of my favorite books in the business history genre of narrative non-fiction. Who helped the DuPont family take their business public? Who introduced DuPont to Billy Durant and General Motors? Who built and found the funding for The Empire State Building? It was the $10-a-week clerk who became the first CFO of the modern business era, John Raskob.
[Read more…] about John Raskob – The First CFO of the Modern EraGood to Great Boards
I never knew there was a consulting niche for advising directors of public company boards of directors until I met Denise Kuprionis at a Strategic Coach workshop. She is the founder of The Governance Solutions Group (GSG) based in Cincinnati, where she helps boards apply effective governance practices and achieve their most pressing objectives. For private companies, Denise shares valuable nuggets for CEOs in finding and obtaining advisory board members to fill knowledge and capability gaps.
[Read more…] about Good to Great BoardsThe Accidental Business Nomad
After reading a book by a successful commercial developer who moved his family to France for two years, I wanted to learn more about setting up shop in a foreign country. That’s because the real estate developer faced obstacle after obstacle because he wasn’t used to the vast cultural divide between his home country and France. Accordingly, I hit a home run when I found the book The Accidental Business Nomad by Kyle Hegarty.
[Read more…] about The Accidental Business Nomad