Your controller just handed you their resignation letter. Your company’s website suffered a serious security breach the night before. Your banker wants to add some meat to your LOC’s bank covenants. How about a quick diversion? I have one for you.
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Let My People Go Change Their Oil
Okay, that title is really bad, isn’t it? I live in the Midwest, so I can’t relate to surfing. Changing the oil–that’s an entirely different matter. If you’re still in the dark, I’m reviewing the Patagonia founder’s book, Let My People Go Surfing.
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Good Business Books Before the 1980s
My assumption is that In Search of Excellence put the business book genre on the map, correct? If that’s true, did good business titles exist in the era of hold-a-job for life?
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My Forty Years with Ford and Leadership
When I think of Henry Ford, the first assembly line pops into my mind. Plus, I have this opinion that he was great with his hands, but not a book-smart guy. That’s mostly right, but there are some fascinating leadership lessons in one of his biographies.
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Gerber is Partly Right, Partly Wrong
If you’ve read Gerber’s The E-Myth Revisited, you are familiar with his mantra of working on the business instead of in the business. Even financial leaders should be working on their departments, not just in them. But is that the right or full message?
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Is Trust by Hernan Diaz a 3-Star Book?
As a long-time financial professional and a neverending lifelong learner, reading fiction has its place for any student of business. Most of the best novels are about anything but business. That means fiction lovers are relegated to works like The Goal, Lencioni’s fables, or The Phoenix Project. Finally, Hernan Diaz has released a novel in which a wealthy financier is a central character. But is it any good?
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The True Meaning of a Business Huddle
Most of the businesses I work with have business huddles. Some have daily stand-up huddles. Some have weekly huddles either at the beginning of the week or at the end. Some of these businesses have started conducting monthly financial huddles that I’ve taught them how to run. Perhaps you use a different term for these meetings. Personally, I prefer the terms debrief and financial impact circles. In this discussion, we’ll stick to the term business huddles.
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30 of the Best Business Books by Women
Lynette Pretorius shared a picture of the books she was reading on a LinkedIn post. She made the point that only two of ten books in her pile were by women. Then she stated, “I’m committing the reading at least three books by women every month for the rest of the year.” But she needed some recommendations. Surprise … I had a few.
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Discovery Versus Instruction
In no way do I believe reading is the best way to learn. But I love the process of discovery, especially when it happens unexpectedly, whether it’s in a book or elsewhere.
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I Still Remember Reading Just a Couple Books a Year
I read between 80 and 120 books a year. Don’t worry if you read 1-2 books a month, that’s a lot of learning in just one year.
I didn’t use to read this much. During my first year at KPMG in the late 1980’s, I probably made it through 2-3 books a year. I guarantee that one or two of those titles was by Clive Cussler.
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