Weekly Bookmarks –
162nd Edition – April 4, 2024
Shallow men believe in luck.
Ralph Waldo Emerson
1. Let’s Talk Baseball
Baseball is back, so let’s start with a baseball book—one that relates to business strategy.
Earl Weaver managed in the big leagues for twenty-eight years. In twenty-one of those years, he finished the regular season in either first or second place. If you don’t follow or like the sport, that’s a person worth examining.
Well before the Moneyball era, Earl Weaver used analytics to find and develop talent and determine his best chances of winning. While Weaver on Strategy is geared for those managing a baseball team, there is plenty of crossover for those of us in the professional world in the office, on the plant floor, or winning new customers.
2. Probabilistic Thinking
In business today, managerial ranks are filled with dedicated and intelligent individuals who – despite their talents – have no real idea of the probabilities of success or failure associated with the alternative courses of action available to them. Do you agree? That’s according to Patrick Leach in his book, Why Can’t You Just Give Me a Number?
Talent, dedication, and ability are obviously important. However, you need to expend at least some energy attempting to understand the uncertainties and random processes that affect your life and livelihood (especially when you know that there are talented, dedicated competitors who are doing their best to understand their key uncertainties).
Patrick Leach draws on his extensive consulting and teaching experience to present a compelling, insightful, and understandable case for using probabilistic analysis as part of every day business decision-making.
3. Young Men and Fire
I did not know much about the Cynefin Framework until I visited with Bryce Hoffman, who discusses it in his book Red Teaming.
The Cynefin Framework is a sensemaking mental model, and one of the best ways to understand it is through stories and examples. One story told in the context of sensemaking is about thirteen firefighters who perished in a Montana blaze in 1949. However, two firefighters survived by making quick decisions that were seemingly counterintuitive at the time.
Accordingly, I just started listening to Young Men and Fire: A True Story of the Mann Gulch Fire, which won the National Book Critics Circle Award in 1992. Will this story turn me into a Cynefin Framework expert? I’ll let you know.
"Young Men and Fire is a somber and poetic retelling of a tragic event. It is the pinnacle of smokejumping literature and a classic work of 20th-century nonfiction."—John Holkeboer, The Wall Street Journal
4. Remembering WordPerfect
I never used WordPerfect, but the legal department of the organization I worked for in the 1990s did, and they used it as we became a Microsoft shop by 1993.
In 1980, six employees were helping the startup generate $20,000 monthly. About ten years later, the software vendor was genearting a half billion in revenues with 4,000 employees. In 1993, they had more than 50% of the word processing market.
What happened to the vendor? Marketshare began to slide in the mid 1990s as Microsoft started bundling its Windows products together. But was that what caused the failure? Could they have survived?
If you like business history, then you will like Almost Perfect by W.E. Pete Peterson.
In 1980 Pete Peterson was hired as the $5-an-hour part-time office manager by a fledgling software company. That company became WordPerfect Corporation, and Peterson quickly became Executive Vice President. "Almost Perfect" is Peterson's first-person account of how a group of business neophytes built a half-billion-dollar software company from the ground up.
5. The Best Rita McGrath Books
I first discovered Rita McGrath through the many HBR articles she has written. HBR does not release such data, but I’m assuming her articles on discovery-driven planning are close to classics, with high numbers of views and downloads. If discovery-driven planning is a new concept, start with this article published in 1995.
If you are interested in her books, here are my three favorite titles:
- Seeing Around Corners: How to Spot Inflection Points in Business Before They Happen
- Discovery-Driven Growth: A Breakthrough Process to Reduce Risk and Seize Opportunity
- The End of Competitive Advantage: How to Keep Your Strategy Moving as Fast as Your Business
Columbia Business School Professor and corporate consultant Rita McGrath contends that inflection points, though they may seem sudden, are not random. Seeing Around Corners is the first hands-on guide to anticipating, understanding, and capitalizing on the inflection points shaping the marketplace.
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Thank You
Thank you for reading. If you like the content above and the posts at CFO Bookshelf, may I ask a favor? Feel free to share this with other readers and comment on your favorite LinkedIn, Twitter, or Facebook.
Take care, and have a great week. Always be learning.
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