Words of WISDOM

Business books and the minds behind them

THE REVIEW

Sean Seamer, MediaCom’s regional director of interaction, whose work involves developing stronger networking links with leading markets, reviews Google Speaks by Janet Lowe This is not the most inviting book I’ve picked up recently, but to be fair, the content stands up. Lowe does a very good job of detailing the complex story of how the founders of Google arrived at where they are today.

The balance of stories and hard facts about the business and its proprietors provides an interesting insight into a corporation that is equally feared as it is loathed by many in the technology and media sectors. Lowe manages to add a personal face to planet Google and even turns Brin and Page into very likeable geeks through accounts of their personal lives and they way they work with others. This makes for an accessible story that presents enough hard business facts to underline the scale of Google’s success.

Google Speaks will be of interest to those working in venture capital or media, and for anyone working directly with Google or its subsidiaries, it’s a must read. At the very least this tale of outright success will come in handy if you’re lacking the motivation to get that document finished on the plane ride home.

THE INTERVIEW

Based in Australia, where he is The Honorable Austrian Consul for the South Australia and the Northern Territory, Dr Peter Steidl has a Renaissance man resume that marries adjunct professorships with board positions on health, education and industry committees. Last year, he joined media agency Mindshare as a partner in the business planning division. Having written on a wide range of subjects, from export market planning to globalisation, advertising and branding, CONNECT took Steidl to task on his latest work, Survive, Exploit, Disrupt: Action Guidelines for Marketing in a Recession

Why did you write this book?
Whatever keeps our most senior clients awake at night is an issue we need to have a point of view on and provide input on. When I joined Mindshare at the end of 2008, we sat down and asked what’s likely to be the most important issue affecting our clients, and the recession was the obvious one.

How quickly will the book become outdated?
When I was writing it, I felt by the middle of this year that would be it. But the recession is longer lasting, so the book will be relevant until the end of 2009. But, who knows.

Executives from which industries would benefit from this book?
The specific tools and way of thinking applies to almost any large organisation, and though most examples are taken from consumer goods industries that’s where most of our clients are the principles can be applied across the board.

Do all companies need to outsource to a media agency to keep on top of changing trends?
An agency or consulting firm of any kind will never understand a client’s business as well as the client does. The client lives it, and has a rational and intuitive understanding. At the same time, specialist agencies can add to that because they understand particular contexts.

Is Mindshare a survivor, exploiter or disrupter?
A disrupter, though admittedly the disruption started before the recession, in Q1/Q2 2008. The new model is really trying to get away from being a traditional media agency, and become a hybrid. Our core business is obviously media, but complemented with strategic advice and creative development so you get something that’s more complete and useful to the client.

Your thoughts on the management advice genre?
Books are great when you use them to explore, but books that say ‘this is the recipe’, or ’10 rules of this’ are just trash.

Your advice about coping with a recession?
One: Work on speed and flexibility so you can respond very quickly when the unpredictable happens. Two: Rely more on intuitive decision making. Analysis is good, but only when the past is a guide to the future. In a disruptive time, you really need to look for patterns and intuitively understand change.

Survive, Exploit, Disrupt is available from www.wiley.com at US$25.95

WHAT A PERFORMANCE

Peter Myers introduces two new releases that question the art of organisational performance

The Man Who Cured the Performance Review
by Graham Winter (Jossey Bass, US$19.95)

Australian psychologist Winter likes to tackle people ssues in business. Adopting a charming but unwieldy Santa Claus centric fable (business novelists love fables) to show that bureaucracy and a fear of feedback culture allow managers to hide behind ineffective performance reviews and avoid honest, speedy, simple and clear two way performance conversations that could save the business and take the dread out of this dated and laborious human resources practice.

The Three Laws of Performance
by Steve Zaffron & Dave Logan (Jossey Bass, US$27.95)

This punchy success tome probes the relationship between performance (both organisational and personal) and thought. The three laws vaunted here boil down to: performance is related to perception; perception is rooted in language; and future based language changes perception. Projects fail, we are told, when people don’t feel they have any say in their own future. Because there is no such thing as a totally common sense, leaders need to master the so called conversational environment. Whether this can be achieved by reading this book is, as ever, a moot point.