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Mick Ukleja & Robert Lorber: Who Are You? What Do You Want? - Blog Business Success Radio

2009-11-19T02:22:00.002-06:00

Listen to Wayne Hurlbert on Blog Talk Radio

Executive coaches and authors of the practical and innovative book Who Are You? What Do You Want? Four Questions That Will Change Your Life, Mick Ukleja and Robert L. Lorber share a new approach to achieving goals and reaching success. Through asking a series of simple, yet provocative questions, the authors demonstrate how an understanding of one's motivations and goals can be realized. At the same time, the questions can help others refocus their goals, achieve success, and live more enriched lives. The authors move far beyond standard personality tests to help create a more purposeful and happier life.

Mick Ukleja and Robert Lorber are my internet radio show guests on Blog Business Success; hosted live on Blog Talk Radio.

The show airs live on Thursday, November 19, at 8:00 pm Eastern Time; 5:00 pm Pacific Time.

Executive coaches and authors of the practical and innovative book Who Are You? What Do You Want? Four Questions That Will Change Your Life, Mick Ukleja and Robert L. Lorber share a new approach to achieving goals and reaching success. You will learn:

* The four critical questions and how to apply them to your own life

* Why people feel trapped and stuck in their lives and careers

* How to take leadership of your own life and empower yourself

* How to use the self awareness to overcome anything that happens in life

Mick Ukleja (photo left) s the founder and president of LeadershipTraQ, a leadership-consulting firm based in California. He hosts LeadershipTraQ, an interview-format talk show in Southern California that profiles outstanding leaders. He helped found the Ukleja Center for Ethical Leadership at California State University, Long Beach, the second largest university in the state. He has worked with entrepreneurs and corporate executives of businesses and organizations ranging from Boeing to the Special Olympics.

Mick also serves as Chairman of the Board of Trustees for the Astronauts Memorial Foundation at the Kennedy Space Center, which oversees the Center for Space Education. He is a principal in Bonita Bay Group, one of the largest developers of master-planned communities in Southwest Florida. Dr. Ukleja holds a bachelor's degree in philosophy, a master's degree in Semitic languages, and a Ph.D. in theology.

Robert L. Lorber (photo left) is President of the Lorber Kamai Consulting Group formed in Orange County, California. The organization has developed and implemented productivity improvement systems for companies on five continents. Its client roster includes Kraft Foods, Teichert Inc., Occidental Petroleum, Gillette, American Express, Mattel, AlliedSignal, Raley's, VSP, Wells Fargo, Pillsbury, Pfizer, and many other medium-size and Fortune 500 companies. Robert is an internationally recognized expert and published author on executive coaching, performance management, teamwork, and strategy development.

He is the coauthor with Ken Blanchard of the New York Times and international bestseller Putting the One Minute Manager To Work. He coauthored Safety 24/7 with Gregory Anderson and Doing What Matters by Jim Kilts, former CEO of Gillette, and John Manfredi. Dr. Lorber received a master's degree in sociology and a Ph.D. in organizational psychology.

My book review of Who Are You? What Do You Want? Four Questions That Will Change Your Life by Mick Ukleja and Robert L. Lorber.

Listen live on Thursday at 8:00 pm Eastern, 5:00 pm Pacific time.

If you miss this very informative show, it will be available for free download as a podcast for iPod, iTunes, and MP3 players; or play it right on your computer. To download this, or any other of my guest interviews, go to the Blog Business Success host page and click on Archived Segments. Once there, click on the podcast icon at the end of the episode description, to download the show free of charge for your listening enjoyment. You can also subscribe to the show feed.

To call in questions for my guest, the number is: (347) 996-5832

Let's talk with executive coaches and authors of the practical and innovative book Who Are You? What Do You Want? Four Questions That Will Change Your Life, Mick Ukleja and Robert L. Lorber as they share a new approach to achieving goals and reaching success. Through asking a series of simple, yet provocative questions, the authors demonstrate how an understanding of one's motivations and goals can be realized. At the same time, the questions can help others refocus their goals, achieve success, and live more enriched lives. The authors move far beyond standard personality tests to help create a more purposeful and happier life on Blog Business Success Radio.

Tags: Who Are You? What Do You Want? Four Questions That Will Change Your Life, Mick Ukleja, Robert L. Lorber, personal empowerment, Blog Business Success, Blog Talk Radio.

Who Are You? What Do You Want? by Mick Ukleja & Robert Lorber - Book review

2009-11-18T11:06:00.005-06:00

Who Are You? What Do You Want?

Four Questions That Will Change Your Life

By: Mick Ukleja, Robert L. Lorber

Published: September 1, 2009
Format: Hardcover, 176 pages
ISBN: 9780399535437
Publisher: Penguin/Perigee

"On the journey to success and happiness in life, it's easy to become frustrated at the inevitable crossroads and detours", write best selling authors and leadership consultants Mick Ukleja and Robert L. Lorber, in their practical and innovative book Who Are You? What Do You Want? Four Questions That Will Change Your Life. The authors offer a powerful new approach to achieving goals and reaching success through asking a four simple, yet revealing questions. The questions reveal motivations, passions, values, and one's own true purpose in life.

Mick Ukleja (photo left) and Robert L. Lorber understand that people often feel trapped or stuck in an unpleasant situation in their lives or careers. The authors define this feeling as a regression of the imagination where a person loses all sense of adventure in life, and sees no way of escaping the problem. The program outlined in the book empowers a person to take back control of their lives and their personal destiny. Mick Ukleja and Robert L. Lorber share the necessary tools, so that even if something happens to a person or organization, no crisis will be wasted as an opportunity to create and implement positive change. As the authors suggest, becoming what they term as unstuck, is both freeing and liberating for any individual or company.

Robert L. Lorber (photo left) and Mick Ukleja help people become more empowered and to discover their own unique goals, passions, and motivations in life. The simple, yet very powerful and insightful questions outlined in the book, are the basis for generating a plan for personal examination and life planning.

The four questions are:

* Who are you and what do you want?
* Where are you and why are you there?
* What will you do and how will you do it?
* Who are your allies and how can they help?

The questions appear simple on the surface, but taken together they discover self awareness, understanding your current situation, creating a plan of action, and who can help in achieving that plan. That process is a very powerful one that can work for every individual and organization in self examination.

For me, the power of the book is in its empowering simplicity. Through the open and honest self examination provided by the four questions, a person can regain control over their own life and destiny. The questions help to set personal goals, that are in accordance with one's own personal desires and passions, and helps develop a plan for reaching those goals. Another strength of the book is how Robert L. Lorber and Mick Ukleja provide the questions as part of the book. The reader can utilize the self assessment format to create a personalized set of goals and a plan of action. The same system that works well for individuals can also be applied to taking an organization or business to the next level.

I highly recommend the empowering book Who Are You? What Do You Want? Four Questions That Will Change Your Life by Robert L. Lorber and Mick Ukleja, to anyone who feels stuck in their life, career, or their business. The four questions, as presented in the book, form a valuable guide to help get one's life and work back on track, while remaining the balance so crucial to life satisfaction and happiness.

Read the exciting and transformational book Who Are You? What Do You Want? Four Questions That Will Change Your Life by Mick Ukleja and Robert L. Lorber, and learn how the four critical and life changing questions can help you take back control over your own life and career. Through an open an honest self assessment, anyone utilizing this book can achieve a happier and more satisfying life.

Tags: Who Are You? What Do You Want? Four Questions That Will Change Your Life, Mick Ukleja, Robert L. Lorber, personal empowerment, business book reviews.

The Fresh Air Fund - Jenny Morgenthau - interview

2009-11-17T22:28:00.001-06:00

Jenny Morganthau, Executive Director of The Fresh Air Fund was kind enough to take the time to answer some questions about the organization, its mission, and some of its programs, She shares ideas about how people and businesses can participate in achieving the goals of this worthwhile organization.

Thanks as well to Sara Wilson of The Fresh Air Fund for arranging this wonderful interview.

What is the mission of The Fresh Air Fund?

Jenny Morgenthau: Our mission is to provide free summer experiences in the country to New York City children from disadvantaged communities. Each year, thousands of children visit volunteer host families in 13 states and Canada through the Friendly Town Program or attend one of five Fresh Air Fund camps.

Is the programs funded through donations?

Jenny Morgenthau: Yes, the success of our programs relies on the generosity of individuals and corporate sponsors. Seventy-five percent of our funding comes from individual donors, in fact. It costs The Fresh Air Fund $923.00 for a visit with a volunteer host family and $1,563.00 to send a child to Fresh Air camp.

How many children does The Fresh Air Fund help send to camp each year and how are these camps helping with the vision initiative?

Jenny Morgenthau: Three-thousand children attend our Fund camps and an additional 2,000 children participate in our off-season camping weekends. We work with OneSight, which so generously brings up its mobile “Vision Van,” to camp and screens the children for glasses. Many of the children don’t have access to free vision screenings, and if needed, free glasses.

How does The Fresh Air Vision Program and alliance with OneSight work and how many children in need receive assistance?

Jenny Morgenthau: All of the children at camp are screened. If a child needs glasses then OneSight provides them free of charge to the child.

How can individuals and families get involved in helping The Fresh Air Fund achieve its goals?

Jenny Morgenthau: Families can get involved by volunteering to host this summer, making a donation, volunteering in our New York City office, etc. Check out our Web site for more information on how to get involved.

Is there a role for the business community to play in supporting this worthwhile program?

Jenny Morgenthau: Businesses can also get involved; again the best thing to do is look at our Web site. Businesses make donations locally to support our Friendly Town hosting program, contribute to events, volunteer at events, and so on.

What is next for The Fresh Air Fund?

Jenny Morgenthau: We’re looking forward to a fun-filled summer 2010!

Tags: The Fresh Air Fund, OneSight, Jenny Morgenthau, non-profit organization interviews.

Kauffman Foundation Global Entrepreneurship Week - Jonathon Ortmans - interview

2009-11-17T17:51:00.007-06:00

Thanks to Jonathan Ortmans, head of GEW initiatives, at The Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation, and co-founder of Global Entrepreneurship Week, for taking the time to answer a few questions about this tremendous worldwide inititive in support of entrepreneurship. He shares some insights into the importance of young entrepreneurs in the global economy, some of the people and organizations who support this cause, as well as how you can get involved with Global Entrepreneurship Week activities

What is the background to the Kauffman Foundation Global Entrepreneurship Week?

Jonathan Ortmans: Global Entrepreneurship Week was co-founded in 2008 by the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation in the United States and Make Your Mark, a business-led government-backed campaign in the United Kingdom. It was designed to harness the power of entrepreneurship in young people and prepare them to be innovators and business owners while increasing their networks their through local, national and global activities and events. Students, educators, entrepreneurs, business leaders, employees, non-profit leaders, government officials and others participate in a host of activities that include virtual and face-to-face events, large-scale competitions and intimate networking gatherings.

What entrepreneurs does the Global Entrepreneurship Week honor?

Jonathan Ortmans: With the goal to inspire young people to embrace innovation, imagination and creativity, Global Entrepreneurship Week honors anyone interested in, getting started in, pursuing and/or promoting entrepreneurship. This year, Global Entrepreneurship Week will be celebrated by more than 3 million people and 8,800 organizations in 87 countries from Nov. 16-22.

In the United States alone, more than 1,000 partners – including top universities, non-profit organizations, successful entrepreneurs, government agencies and corporate sponsors – have signed up to support and initiate activities for Global Entrepreneurship Week 2009. During this week, there are an estimated 1,500 activities and events that will take place in the USA – and an estimated 25,000 across the world.

How important are young entrepreneurs to the growth of the global economy?

Jonathan Ortmans: Entrepreneurship is the key to economic recovery, and the next generation of innovators holds that key. Now more than ever, we need to unleash the creativity and ingenuity of our youth by engaging them in the vast possibilities of entrepreneurship. A number of the events throughout Global Entrepreneurship Week are dedicated solely to educating young people and helping mold their ideas and plans into successful ventures.

How does the Kauffman Foundation help young entrepreneurs succeed?

Jonathan Ortmans: The Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation works to promote the power of entrepreneurship and innovation to grow economies and improve human welfare. The Kauffman Foundation, through its own research and other initiatives, aims to open young people's eyes to the possibility of entrepreneurship, promote entrepreneurship education, raise awareness of entrepreneurship-friendly policies and find alternative pathways for the commercialization of new knowledge and technologies. The Foundation also works to prepare students to be innovators, entrepreneurs and business leaders in the 21st century economy through initiatives designed to improve learning in math, engineering, science and technology.

Are there other notable people involved with Global Entrepreneurship Week as well?

Jonathan Ortmans: There are many notable people and organizations either involved with or who have shown support for Global Entrepreneurship Week. Some of the featured speakers and mentors are Blake Mycoskie, founder of TOMS Shoes; Stephen Hanson, founder of B.R. Guest Restaurants; rap music icon Snoop Dogg; Dana White, president of Ultimate Fighting Championship; and Dr. Muhammad Yunus, winner of the 2006 Nobel Peace Prize for his efforts to jumpstart economic and social development in poor, poverty-stricken regions.

And recently, U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton issued a public statement of support for Global Entrepreneurship Week, praising its efforts to create new opportunities and businesses, encourage youth to pursue fresh ideas and improve the global economy. Secretary Clinton joins an impressive list of world leaders and successful entrepreneurs who support the Week, including: Gen. Colin L. Powell; Charles, Prince of Wales; Yukio Hatoyama, Prime Minister of Japan; Sir Richard Branson, founder of the Virgin Group; Prince Abdul Aziz bin Abdullah, Saudi Arabia; Gordon Brown, UK Prime Minister; Nicolas Sarkozy, President of France; John Atta Mills, President of Ghana; Mohammed VI, King of Morocco; and Princess Maxima, Netherlands.

Are there other organizations supporting Global Entrepreneurship Week as well?

Jonathan Ortmans: Organizations supporting Global Entrepreneurship Week include Global Sponsor NYSE Euronext; Global Partners Endeavor; Junior Achievement Worldwide (JA); Entrepreneurs’ Organization (EO); DECA; the Prince’s Youth Business International; Network for Teaching Entrepreneurship (NFTE), UK Department for Business Innovation and Skills; MIT Enterprise Forum; the European Confederation of Young Entrepreneurs; and Youth Enterprise and Sustainability.

Visit the website for more information about Global Entrepreneurship Week activities.

Tags: Global Entrepreneurship Week, Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation, Jonathan Ortmans, non-profit organization interviews.

You Are What You Choose by Scott De Marchi & James Hamilton - Book review

2009-11-16T17:35:00.001-06:00

You Are What You Choose

The Habits of Mind that Really Determine How We Make Decisions

By: Scott de Marchi, James T. Hamilton

Published: November 12, 2009
Format: Hardcover, 208pp
ISBN-13: 9781591842866
ISBN-10: 1591842867
Publisher: Penguin/Portfolio

"Choice is at the crux of all social science, and it's a complicated body of research that a large number of very bright people have worked on", write Duke University political scientists and social science researchers Scott De Marchi and James T. Hamilton, in their highly accessible and research based book You Are What You Choose: The Habits of Mind that Really Determine How We Make Decisions. The authors make a compelling case that what they term their TRAITS system, derived from their very extensive and groundbreaking research, is a powerful source methodology of why people make their many decisions.

Scott De Marchi (photo left) and James T. Hamilton conducted thousands of surveys, involving test populations covering all income levels, racial groups, and regions of the United States. The resulting findings were startling to the authors, who discovered that much of previous information on how people decide what to buy, where to live, and for whom to vote, was incorrect. Instead, the authors concluded that certain personality and character traits predispose people to make their choices, even if the person believes otherwise. The six core traits or habits of mind, developed from the research surveys were:

* Time
* Risk
* Altruism
* Information
* MeToo
* Stickiness

James T. Hamilton (photo left) and Scott De Marchi recognized that the emphasis and degree of importance an individual placed on each the six TRAITS determined how they made decisions in their lives. These habits of mind, as the authors describe them, carry over into purchasing products and services, to how a person votes or even abstains from voting, to their personal health and eating choices. James T. Hamilton and Scott De Marchi tested their theory against traditional marketing concepts and segmentation tools including gender, income level, political party affiliation, and age. In each case, the TRAITS system was able to at least duplicate or exceed the decision making forecasts made by the traditional marketing techniques. The authors make the strong research proven case that using TRAITS will yield better results for marketers than standard demographic segmentation. The authors make the convincing argument that their system is especially powerful for locating and motivating early adopters of products and services.

For me, the power of the book is how Scott De Marchi and James T. Hamilton utilize actual field research as the basis for their decision forecasting system. Unlike many books on marketing and buying behavior, the authors don't depend on theory and speculation. Instead, they not only used their survey results to formulate their TRAITS methodology, but they field tested it in the real world against standard, well established demographic marketing based concepts. The authors found that TRAITS was a powerful predictor of buying behavior, and of involvement in the political process. They distilled their research into an easy to use system that can be employed by marketers and by political parties. They even supply a handy self test that readers can take to discover their own TRAITS.

I highly recommend the very powerful book You Are What You Choose: The Habits of Mind that Really Determine How We Make Decisions by Scott De Marchi and James T. Hamilton, to any marketers or other individuals seeking to understand how people's already existing habits of mind determine their decision making process. Instead of relying on abstract ideas and unproven concepts, the authors demonstrate their TRAITS system through extensive research, conducted with thousands of test subjects.

Read the important and marketing transformational book You Are What You Choose: The Habits of Mind that Really Determine How We Make Decisions by Scott De Marchi and James T. Hamilton, and discover how to put the TRAITS system to work in your own marketing programs. Instead of guessing or being misled by demographic groupings, your marketing plan can zero in on the people who share similar traits, and provide suitable products and services to fit their needs and desires. The book will change your ideas about marketing forever.

Tags: You Are What You Choose: The Habits of Mind that Really Determine How We Make Decisions, Scott de Marchi, James T. Hamilton, business marketing methodology, business book reviews.

Ian Mitroff - Dirty Rotten Strategies - Author interview

2009-11-15T13:48:00.003-06:00

Ian Mitroff, founder of Mitroff Crisis Management, Inc., and widely regarded as the founder of the discipline of crisis management, was kind enough to take the time for sharing an interview with us.

The topic is the important and thought provoking book Dirty Rotten Strategies: How We Trick Ourselves and Others into Solving the Wrong Problems Precisely, that he co-authored with Abraham Silvers.

Thanks to Ian Mitroff for his time and for his insightful and informative answers.

What was the background to writing this book Dirty Rotten Strategies: How We Trick Ourselves and Others into Solving the Wrong Problems Precisely?

Ian Mitroff: For years, I have worked with decision-makers in all types of organizations, public and private, to help them improve on how they solve important problems and make crucial decisions. While the executives and mangers that I have worked with are intelligent, they have not been educated on how to formulate problems from multiple perspectives. As a result, more often than not they end up solving the wrong problems precisely because they pick the first formulation of a problem that they happen to chance upon. What good does it do to solve the wrong problems? Not much since it is a tremendous waste of time, energy, etc., and it often leads to a crisis, so that you are worse off than when you started. In other words, you end creating worse problems than the original ones with which you started.

You write in the book that we are often lured into solving the wrong problems with the wrong answers. What do you mean by that?

Ian Mitroff: Most of us are the prisoners of our education, profession, job position, etc. That is, our education, specialty, etc., predisposes us to see certain problems and to formulate them in terms of the preferred variables of our chosen field. Thus, engineers naturally see technical variables and focus on technical problems; economists see economic problems, etc; but in doing so, they often neglect the human variables and the broader context in which all problems are situated. As a result, they do not recognize the full dimensions of the problems we face. By solving only a part of the real problem, they thereby solve the wrong problem.

What types of errors do business people, and those in other government and non-profit organizations make?

Ian Mitroff: They don’t examine and challenge their fundamental assumptions about every aspect of their business or organization. For instance, are we pursuing the right business strategies? Are we trapped in an old, outdated mission?

In general, people bound the problems they are attempting to solve too narrowly. That is, they don’t take a big enough look at the problem. And they don’t look at multiple formulations of a problem.

Ian Mitroff (photo left)

You mention health care in the book as being a very difficult problem and that the real problem is being overlooked. What is wrong with how that issue has been addressed?

Ian Mitroff: The problem with health care is that it rests upon a number of fundamental assumptions that, while they certainly have been raised and challenged to a certain extent, need to be raised even more. For instance, it is not true that government run health programs are always less efficient and less innovative than private programs. It is also not true that the private sector is always more innovative, cost-effective, etc. So again, we really don’t challenge our fundamental assumptions systematically and systemically.

Business people encounter many crises in the course of doing business. How can business people be sure they are solving the right problem in the right way that is best for the customers and for society as a whole?

Ian Mitroff: Again, by looking at all problems from multiple perspectives. For instance, consider health care. There are obviously short-term cost considerations, but there are also long-term systemic considerations (how do we reinvent the entire health care system?). Health care is not the elimination (decrease) of disease, but it also the increase of well-being. Thus, you obviously need both, but you need to be taught to appreciate both before you can integrate them into a coherent system. The problem is that people take sides saying that one is more fundamental than the other when they are not.

How has the media contributed to the problem of asking the wrong questions that result in the wrong answers?

Ian Mitroff: By devoting enormous attention to non-events--such as the helium balloon episode--and by creating pseudo-celebrities. By using of all kinds of gimmicks such as computer-enhanced images that are “better than the ‘real thing’,” the media divert our attention from focusing on the really important problems. Because the really important problems are too scary for most of us to face, the media help us to avoid facing them by making everything into a “fun game show” or “reality TV” that sanitizes everything.

How can the education system be improved to teach students how to ask the right questions and to insist upon the right answers?

Ian Mitroff: By getting away from canned exercises at the end of textbooks and giving students real problems that they have to formulate from multiple perspectives such as “Should we stay in Iraq?”

Exercises are not problems. First of all, they are already pre-formulated for the student so that he or she doesn’t have to go through the difficult process of formulating the problem. For another, exercises have a single “solution,” which real problems never do. Thus, we have to educate students on how to formulate problems correctly, and that problem formulation comes before and is an integral part of problem solving.

How can changing the type of questions asked in our society improve the life of all citizens?

Ian Mitroff: By not wasting our energy on solving the wrong problems that only create worse ones.

What is next for Ian Mitroff?

Ian Mitroff: I want to write a book of fables to get the ideas across in an even more powerful and accessible format.

*************

My book review of Dirty Rotten Strategies: How We Trick Ourselves and Others into Solving the Wrong Problems Precisely by Ian I. Mitroff and Abraham Silvers

Ian I. Mitroff (photo left) founded Mitroff Crisis Management, Inc. in 1995. MCM draws upon a nationwide network of associates and specialists who are available for crisis management projects.

Dr. Mitroff is widely regarded as the founder of the discipline of crisis management. He specializes in crisis prevention, strategic planning, and the design of ethical work environments. Known for his thinking and writing on a wide range of business and societal issues, Dr. Mitroff has published over 350 papers and articles and 26 books, including Why Some Companies Emerge Stronger And Better From A Crisis, A Spiritual Audit of Corporate America, and Managing Crises Before They Happen.

Dr. Mitroff is a University Professor at the Marshall Goldsmith School of Management, Alliant University, San Francisco, a Visiting Professor at Institute of Business and Economic Research, Haas School of Business, University of California, Berkeley, and an Adjunct Professor of Health Policy, School of Public Health, St. Louis University, St. Louis, Missouri. He is also a Senior Investigator in the Center for Catastrophic Risk Management, University of California, Berkeley.

He is Professor Emeritus from the Annenberg School for Communication and the Marshall School of Business, University of Southern California, where he was the Harold Quinton Distinguished Professor of Business Policy and the founder and director of the USC Center for Crisis Management.

Tags: Dirty Rotten Strategies: How We Trick Ourselves and Others into Solving the Wrong Problems Precisely, Ian Mitroff, problem solving, business author interviews.

Dirty Rotten Strategies by Ian Mitroff & Abraham Silvers - Book review

2009-11-15T13:05:00.000-06:00

Dirty Rotten Strategies

How We Trick Ourselves and Others into Solving the Wrong Problems Precisely

By: Ian Mitroff, Abraham Silvers

Published: November 2009
Format: Hardcover, 192pp
ISBN-13: 9780804759960
ISBN-10: 0804759960
Publisher: Stanford University Press

"What we need are the right answers to the right problems, and not wasted effort on getting the right answers to the wrong problems", write authors Ian I. Mitroff and Abraham Silvers, in their important and thought provoking book Dirty Rotten Strategies: How We Trick Ourselves and Others into Solving the Wrong Problems Precisely. The authors demonstrate how people convince themselves that they are solving the right problem, when the opposite is true. At the same time, the book describes how various interest groups, governments, academia, the media, and corporations attempt deliberately to impose the wrong questions for solution.

Abraham Silvers and Ian Mitroff provide both the philosophical and logical background to the difficult and often messy issues of problem formulation and solution. They point out that what they call Type Three Errors and Type Four Errors are prevalent in business, government, and in society as a whole. A Type Three Error is one where the person deludes themselves that they have found the right problem, even if it's precisely the wrong one. The more serious Type Four Error is very often seen in business and government, and involves imposing the wrong problem and solution on others. The authors believe that people are susceptible to these dangerous errors through social conditioning caused in large part by the educational system, the media, and political biases. The very nature of these institutions, and how they perceive problems and solutions, leads people to solve the wrong problems very well.

Ian Mitroff (photo left) and Abraham Silvers delve into detail as to how the education system presents simple exercises as if they were real problems. The result is students leave the academia believing that complex problems have one correct and easy to discover solution. The authors consider the media to be turning reality into a version of unreality, where false problems are given neatly packaged solutions, that feed into even more lack of reality. At the same time, science and religion are misused to formulate the wrong problems and to result in the wrong solutions. The framing of problems by business leaders and politicians are also Type Four Errors, as their often incorrect assumptions about the nature of a complicated problem, into a simple yet wrong solution. The authors warn against listening to anyone who attempts to define a problem in only one way, that results in only one solution, as all real problems contain many issues and involve many people.

For me, the power of the book is how Ian Mitroff and Abraham Silvers understand the critical importance of properly defining the right problem, and provide a powerful set of criteria for doing so, in a logical and unbiased way. Solving the wrong problem well can very very often make the real and more fundamental problem even worse. The authors recognize how institutions from schools and the media, to business and government, create the social, institutional, spiritual and ethical framework of assumptions that lead to solving the wrong problems. The authors take the position that very often these framing and imposing of the wrong questions are intentional, to serve an agenda. Ian Mitroff and Abraham Silvers guide the reader through an intensive study of how these wrong questions are formulated, and how to ask the right questions to solve the right problem.

I highly recommend the insightful and well reasoned book Dirty Rotten Strategies: How We Trick Ourselves and Others into Solving the Wrong Problems Precisely by Abraham Silvers and Ian I. Mitroff, to anyone seeking a deeper understanding of how the wrong problems are given a precise solution that fails to solve the real problem. The authors describe the complexity, and interconnectedness of problems, and how people's underlying assumptions are influenced by society ranging from the education system to the churches to government and business. Through a culture of seeking unreality, people have developed biases that cause the wrong questions to be asked, resulting in the wrong problems being given precise solutions.

Read the brilliant and must read book Dirty Rotten Strategies: How We Trick Ourselves and Others into Solving the Wrong Problems Precisely by Ian I. Mitroff and Abraham Silvers, and learn how to avoid the frequent Type Three and Type Four Errors that are so much a part of business and government activity. Discover how to recognize the deliberate framing of questions to result in an a predetermined and often ideological solution. By understanding how these errors are made, you can help define the right questions, resulting in the best solution for everyone.

Tags: Dirty Rotten Strategies: How We Trick Ourselves and Others into Solving the Wrong Problems Precisely, Ian Mitroff, Abraham Silvers, problem solving, business book reviews.

Confessions of an Economic Hit Man by John Perkins - Book review

2009-11-14T20:52:00.004-06:00

Confessions of an Economic Hit Man

By: John Perkins

Published: December 27, 2005
Format: Paperback, 320 pages
ISBN 9780452287082
Publisher: Penguin/Plume

"That is what EHMs do best: we build a global empire. We are an elite group of men and women who utilize international financial organizations to foment conditions that make other nations subservient to the corporatocracy running our biggest corporations, our governments, and our banks", writes former economic hit man John Perkins in his now classic, landmark book Confessions of an Economic Hit Man. The author pulls no punches, as he describes the sordid and little known behind the scenes world of international debt, and the people who benefit from huge foreign government debts that can't be repaid. He also shares insights into how the misguided economic policies of corrupt business and government people drives the poor into even deeper despair.

John Perkins lived in a shadowy world where the major players were little known corporations, and corrupt politicians from various developing countries. His role was to induce the government of the targeted country to take out huge debt loads to finance hydroelectric projects, telecommunications systems, and energy development. The justification for loans were, according to the author, inflated and unattainable projections of economic growth attributed to the completed project. The main financial beneficiaries were a select group of international engineering and energy firms, a small group of banks, and a small collection of local elites. Any benefits or costs to the general population of the country was never a consideration. At the same time, there was what John Perkins called the larger plan. An indebted government, unable to repay their massive foreign debt, would be ripe for favors and support for any United States government global activities.

John Perkins (photo left) doesn't simply describe the cloak and dagger world in which he lived and worked during his time as an economic hit man. This is also a deeply personal book, and as the title makes clear, it is a deeply personal confession. The author admits that he was torn between doing his job well, and his conscience. He developed serious misgivings regarding the harm he was doing to the people living in the targeted countries. He confesses that he developed several rationalizations to salve his tortured conscience, but over time these artificial balms lost their effectiveness. John Perkins writes bluntly that he sold his soul for the money and other material benefits he derived from being an EHM. The book is an attempt at buying back is lost soul, finding redemption for his past, and eventually receiving absolution.

For me, the power of the book is found on several levels. John Perkins opens up the formerly hidden world of international debt and its role in creating governments subservient to the global empire. His vivid descriptions of his role in the overall plan, and his sharing of important details of his career as an EHM, are powerful and lasting. At another level, he confesses his personal battle for his conscience and his lost soul. His personal love for the people and the countries he was to bankrupt, is poignant and moving, especially given his employers' motive for sending him to those developing nations. Despite the damage done to the lives of the people, their countries and the environment, the book is one of hope. John Perkins believes strongly in the power of democracy and of people to determine their own destinies. He offers powerful advice and ideas for building a better and more ethical and just world, that works for the many, and not just the few.

I very highly recommend the powerful and seminal book Confessions of an Economic Hit Man by John Perkins, to anyone seeking a deeper understanding of the world than is depicted in the daily headlines. The author describes a dangerous world where power, money, and threats of assassination and invasion are very real. Instead of this dark and deadly globe, John Perkins proposes a world based on freedom, equality, and ethical business and government. The author makes clear that the deliberate economic problems created by the economic hit men have and will continue to return to hurt everyone. For the author, no one benefits from an unjust, unsafe and environmentally ravaged planet.

Read the absolutely must read book Confessions of an Economic Hit Man by John Perkins, and discover how the pressing issue of global debt problems and its related global poverty, were created in part through the activities of EHMs. Learn how foreign aid and international debt worked to impoverish countless developing countries, and how that debt was created intentionally to install subservient politicians. John Perkins provides a powerful and eye opening guide book for understanding how the world of international finance really works, and how to replace the system with one that is just, ethical, and beneficial to the needs and aspirations of everyone.

Tags: Confessions of an Economic Hit Man, John Perkins, international finance, corruption, business book reviews.

Breaking The Bank by Yona Zeldis McDonough - Book review

2009-11-13T18:09:00.001-06:00

Breaking The Bank

By: Yona Zeldis McDonough

Published: September 2009
Format: Trade Paperback, 368 pages
ISBN-10: 1439102538
ISBN-13: 9781439102534
Publisher: Downtown Press

Mia Saul is a single mother, living in a run down New York City apartment, and in constant need of money. Her daughter Eden keeps getting into trouble at school, and her meddling ex-husband Lloyd is always late with her child support payment. Desperate for money for food for Eden, Mia goes to her local automated teller machine, for some cash. Instead of giving her the expected withdrawal, the ATM gives her more money than she had requested. The receipt only recorded the amount of her request. This inexplicable windfall sets off a series of events that will change Mia's life forever in the magical and heartwarming novel Breaking The Bank by Yona Zeldis McDonough.

Acclaimed author Yona Zeldis McDonough weaves a charming spell in this delightful and often surprising novel, as she builds a world peopled with intriguing characters and strange happenings. Mia's life takes many a twist and turn, as she uses her good fortune to not only keep herself and her daughter Eden afloat, but to help other people in need as well. Mia is unable to explain here unexpected good fortune, but her family needs are real, and the money is essential for food and clothing. Combined with some possible romance and the strains of her other family members, Mia finds her secret ATM gifts both a blessing and a burden.

Yona Zeldis McDonough (photo left) develops strong themes of the importance of family, of not judging others based on appearance, and of the power of giving and generosity. Mia is willing to do whatever it takes to keep her daughter Eden in her care, despite her constant tests as a parent and as a person. She holds the firm conviction that as long as she and Eden stay together, that things will work out in the end. Throughout the story, people are judged on surface appearances, but Mia realizes that the spark of humanity exists in everyone, and that all people deserve a chance at life. Mia gives generously of her windfall to her friends and to complete strangers. She brightens and changes the lives of others for the better, and uses her strange gifts for helping others to be happy.

I highly recommend the fairy tale novel Breaking The Bank by Yona Zeldis McDonough, to anyone seeking a story of the power of family, sharing, and caring about others. The magic that flows to Mia, in the form of unexpected money, is also part of the inner magic of love and caring in Mia's heart. She believes strongly in family, and despite the tests of the familial bonds, she always knows that the love of family will prevail. Mia's story is one of magic, and a fairy tale of love and family. While Mia seeks her true destiny, her world and life are in disarray. Until she discovers true happiness, she must endure many hardships, on the road to destiny.

Read the enjoyable and lighthearted novel Breaking The Bank by Yona Zeldis McDonough, and discover that real magic can happen to everyday people, through the power of love, family, and caring for others. Join Mia, as she travels her emotion packed journey, on the way to her destiny.

Tags: Breaking The Bank, Yona Zeldis McDonough, New York City novels, fiction book reviews.

Sramana Mitra: Positioning - Entrepreneur Journeys - Blog Business Success Radio

2009-11-12T02:40:00.003-06:00

Listen to Wayne Hurlbert on Blog Talk Radio

Silicon Valley technology entrepreneur and strategy consultant, and author of the valuable and highly practical guide for honing an idea for market Entrepreneur Journeys Volume 3 - Positioning: How To Test, Validate, And Bring Your Idea To Market, Sramana Mitra, describes the process for sculpting your idea into a market ready strategy. She shares ideas for building clarity of vision for your idea. She describes how an idea will be grilled by venture capitalists and other investors, that will also work to hone the idea even for bootstrapping entrepreneurs. The hard questions she raises help guide the entrepreneur into a more powerful vision, greater clarity, and better positioning within the market place.

Sramana Mitra is my internet radio show guest on Blog Business Success; hosted live on Blog Talk Radio.

The show airs live on Thursday, November 12, at 8:00 pm Eastern Time; 5:00 pm Pacific Time.

Silicon Valley technology entrepreneur and strategy consultant, and author of the valuable and highly practical guide for honing an idea for market Entrepreneur Journeys Volume 3 - Positioning: How To Test, Validate, And Bring Your Idea To Market, Sramana Mitra, describes the process for sculpting your idea into a market ready strategy. She shares ideas for building clarity of vision for your idea. You will learn:

* Why it's critical to find clarity of vision for your idea

* How to market with laser accuracy in your market segment

* How to position a product correctly in the marketplace

* How to ask the tough questions to gain that vital clarity

Sramana Mitra (photo left) has been an entrepreneur and a strategy consultant in Silicon Valley since 1994. Her fields of experience span from hard core technology disciplines like semiconductors to sophisticated consumer marketing industries including fashion and education.

As an entrepreneur CEO, Sramana founded three companies: Dais (off-shore software services), Intarka (sales lead generation and qualification Software; VC: NEA) and Uuma (online personalized store for selling clothes using Expert Systems software; VC: Redwood). Two of these were acquired, while the third received an acquisition offer from Ralph Lauren which the company did not accept.

As strategy consultant, Sramana has consulted with over 80 companies, including public companies such as SAP, Cadence Design Systems, Webex, KLA-Tencor, Best Buy, MercadoLibre and Tessera among others. Her work has also included numerous startups and VCs, and she played interim VP Marketing roles for seven such ventures. Sramana has a proven track record in turnarounds, both small private companies (Example: think3, with Joe Costello) and divisions of larger companies (Example: a $100 million business unit of Cadence, with Lavi Lev). She has also created major growth strategies through new market penetration, M&A, industry roll-ups, etc.

Sramana has developed a well-regarded methodology for Positioning which she has used repeatedly in different situations and across a variety of market segments.

Sramana writes a weekly column for Forbes and is currently authoring Entrepreneur Journeys, a series of books focused on demystifying entrepreneurship. They include Entrepreneur Journeys (Volume One) and Bootstrapping, Weapon Of Mass Reconstruction (EJ Volume Two) and Entrepreneur Journeys Volume 3 - Positioning: How To Test, Validate, And Bring Your Idea To Market are now available from Amazon.com.

Sramana has a Masters degree in EECS from MIT and a Bachelors degree in Computer Science and Economics from Smith College.

My book review of Entrepreneur Journeys Volume 3 - Positioning: How To Test, Validate, And Bring Your Idea To Market by Sramana Mitra.

Listen live on Thursday at 8:00 pm Eastern, 5:00 pm Pacific time.

If you miss this very informative show, it will be available for free download as a podcast for iPod, iTunes, and MP3 players; or play it right on your computer. To download this, or any other of my guest interviews, go to the Blog Business Success host page and click on Archived Segments. Once there, click on the podcast icon at the end of the episode description, to download the show free of charge for your listening enjoyment. You can also subscribe to the show feed.

To call in questions for my guest, the number is: (347) 996-5832

Let's talk with Silicon Valley technology entrepreneur and strategy consultant, and author of the valuable and highly practical guide for honing an idea for market Entrepreneur Journeys Volume 3 - Positioning: How To Test, Validate, And Bring Your Idea To Market, Sramana Mitra, as she describes the process for sculpting your idea into a market ready strategy. She shares ideas for building clarity of vision for your idea. She describes how an idea will be grilled by venture capitalists and other investors
, that will also work to hone the idea even for bootstrapping entrepreneurs. The hard questions she raises help guide the entrepreneur into a more powerful vision, greater clarity, and better positioning within the market place on Blog Business Success Radio.

Tags: Entrepreneur Journeys Volume 3 - Positioning: How To Test, Validate, And Bring Your Idea To Marketr, Sramana Mitra, entrepreneurship, venture capitalists, Blog Business Success, Blog Talk Radio.

In Remembrance

2009-11-11T06:17:00.003-06:00

Today is Remembrance Day in Canada and the British Commonwealth and Veterans Day in the United States.

Today we take a few moments to pay tribute and give thanks to the brave men and women of the Armed Forces, past and present, who fought and continue to fight and die for our freedom.

Today is not the day for partisan discussions of politics and wars.

Today is the day for remembering those who paid, and continue to pay, the supreme sacrifice for freedom everywhere.

Today we remember them.

Every day, we should keep remembering them.

Always.

In Flanders Fields

By: Lieutenant Colonel John McCrae, MD (1872-1918)
Canadian Army

IN FLANDERS FIELDS the poppies blow
Between the crosses row on row,
That mark our place; and in the sky
The larks, still bravely singing, fly
Scarce heard amid the guns below.

We are the Dead. Short days ago
We lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow,
Loved and were loved, and now we lie
In Flanders fields.

Take up our quarrel with the foe:
To you from failing hands we throw
The torch; be yours to hold it high.
If ye break faith with us who die
We shall not sleep, though poppies grow
In Flanders fields.

Tags: Remembrance Day, Veterans Day, In Flanders Fields, John McCrae.

Postitioning: Entrepreneur Journeys Vol. 3 by Sramana Mitra - Book review

2009-11-10T13:14:00.005-06:00

Entrepreneur Journeys Volume 3

Positioning: How To Test, Validate, And Bring Your Idea To Market

By: Sramana Mitra

Published: September 6, 2009
Format: Paperback, 270 pages
ISBN-10: 1439245924
ISBN-13: 978-1439245927
Publisher: BookSurge Publishing

"The greatest tool I have found in defining a cost-efficient go-to-market (GTM) strategy is segmentation", writes Silicon Valley technology entrepreneur and strategy consultant Sramana Mitra, in her valuable and highly practical guide for honing an idea for market Entrepreneur Journeys Volume 3 - Positioning: How To Test, Validate, And Bring Your Idea To Market. In this third entry into her essential Entrepreneur Journeys series, the author describes how to fine tune an idea into ready to market form, by putting the idea to the same questions posed by high powered Silicon Valley venture capitalists.

Sramana Mitra understands venture capitalists, and she shares an insider's viewpoint when discussing the idea scrutiny assessment done by experienced investors. The author takes a holistic approach to product marketing, where she emphasizes how the idea will be positioned in the marketplace. While some venture capitalists focus on the management team, and others on the technology being considered for market, Sramana Mitra zeroes in on the potential market itself. For the author, the idea must have a potential market within a well defined market segment. Through the intensive questioning of the idea, as outlined in the book, the idea market segment, and how it's positioned within that market, can be defined with absolute clarity. For Sramana Mitra, clarity is critical in formulating a successful market strategy.

Sramana Mitra (photo left) recognized the marketing potential of the highly interactive nature of Web 3.0. The author demonstrates the power of the internet for marketing successful product and service ideas. A key component of Sramana Mitra's search for idea clarity is to assist an entrepreneur in developing a clear vision for utilizing the world wide web to its fullest potential. Through the use of several case studies and interviews with successful entrepreneurs, the author shows how to leverage the internet to its best advantage, while at the same time utilizing the same in depth questioning format employed by leading venture capitalists. Sramana Mitra reminds aspiring entrepreneurs over and over that they must ask themselves the difficult and often painful questions about their idea, and how it will be marketed both online and offline. Only through this intensive questioning, can the desired goal of perfect idea clarity be achieved.

For me, the power of the book is how Sramana Mitra combines the analytical and questioning skills of a Silicon Valley venture capitalist with cases studies of how successful entrepreneurs used that intense examination to find clarity. The author takes a holistic approach to marketing that examines the path of the product from the idea stage to its final market positioning. Sramana Mitra points out that an idea must be differentiated, and must be able to be targeted with laser accuracy at a specific market segment. Knowing the potential market prior to launch will save both time and money for an entrepreneur. Through the very intensive questioning technique, provided int he book, any idea can be given the same fundamental analysis expected by venture capitalists and other investors. The result is a clarity of vision that will lead to success.

I highly recommend the must read book Entrepreneur Journeys Volume 3 - Positioning: How To Test, Validate, And Bring Your Idea To Market by Sramana Mitra, to any would be entrepreneur who seeks to sculpt their idea into a profitable product. The emphasis in the book is on finding the ideal market segment, and positioning, through asking the often painful questions that discover the clarity of market vision.

Read the important and business idea transforming guide Entrepreneur Journeys Volume 3 - Positioning: How To Test, Validate, And Bring Your Idea To Market by Sramana Mitra, and discover the power of clarity, and of developing a vertical vision for leveraging Web 3.0 profitably. The wisdom gained from the author and the real world business people in this powerful book will guide your idea to its ultimate success.

Tags: Entrepreneur Journeys Volume 3 - Positioning: How To Test, Validate, And Bring Your Idea To Marketr, Sramana Mitra, entrepreneurship, venture capitalists, business book reviews.

Jeffrey A Krames: The Unforced Error - Blog Business Success Radio

2009-11-09T13:17:00.004-06:00

Listen to Wayne Hurlbert on Blog Talk Radio

Book editor, publisher, and best selling business book author of the original and practical book The Unforced Error: Why Some Managers Get Promoted While Others Get Eliminated, Jeffrey A. Krames, applies the secrets of successful tennis players to business management. As in tennis, the manager making the fewest unforced errors is the most successful. Instead, many managers sabotage their own careers through a failure of preparation for the unexpected. Jeffrey Krames suggesting focusing on enhancing strengths, taking responsibility, and building effective teams.

Jeffrey A. Krames is my internet radio show guest on Blog Business Success; hosted live on Blog Talk Radio.

The show airs live on Tuesday, November 10, at 8:00 pm Eastern Time; 5:00 pm Pacific Time.

Book editor, publisher, and best selling business book author of the original and practical book The Unforced Error: Why Some Managers Get Promoted While Others Get Eliminated, Jeffrey A. Krames, applies the secrets of successful tennis players to business management. You will learn:

* Why unforced errors can sabotage a promising executive career

* How preparation and observation can prevent many unforced errors

* Why it's critical to take responsibility and ownership of your errors

* How to build on your strengths for even greater business success

Jeffrey A. Krames (photo left) is "The Dean of Leadershp". He is former Vice President and Publisher of McGraw-Hill’s trade business books division, Jeffrey Krames has personally edited and published more than 300 business books, including many award-winning, best-selling titles on business luminaries that include Jack Welch, Michael Ovitz, Ross Perot, William Paley, Michael Dell, Bill Gates, Herb Kelleher and Lou Gerstner among others. Recently, Mr. Krames published seven of the top 35 best business books of the year as determined by Library Journal. In 2006, Mr. Krames become the Editorial Director of Portfolio/Penguin.

Mr. Krames has had his work published in the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, Barron’s, Financial Times, Chicago Tribune and the Los Angeles Times. Jeffrey Krames has been interviewed by national and international media such as the Fox News Channel, CNBC, MSNBC, CNN, A&E’s Biography, CSPAN, CNN Europe, CNBC Europe, the BBC, The New York Times, Newsweek, Time, Business Week, the Los Angeles Times, Chicago Tribune and Publishers Weekly.

Jeffrey Krames is also a best-selling author. His book Jack Welch and the 4E’s of Leadership was published in December 2004. His other titles include What The Best CEO’s Know, The Jack Welch Lexicon of Leadership, The Rumsfeld Way: The Leadership Wisdom of a Battle-Hardened Maverick and Inside Drucker’s Brain.

Jeffrey Krames blogs at Jeffrey Krames

My book review of The Unforced Error: Why Some Managers Get Promoted While Others Get Eliminated by Jeffrey A. Krames.

My book review of Inside Drucker's Brain by Jeffrey A. Krames.

Listen live on Tuesday at 8:00 pm Eastern, 5:00 pm Pacific time.

If you miss this very informative show, it will be available for free download as a podcast for iPod, iTunes, and MP3 players; or play it right on your computer. To download this, or any other of my guest interviews, go to the Blog Business Success host page and click on Archived Segments. Once there, click on the podcast icon at the end of the episode description, to download the show free of charge for your listening enjoyment. You can also subscribe to the show feed.

To call in questions for my guest, the number is: (347) 996-5832

Let's talk with book editor, publisher, and best selling business book author of the original and practical book The Unforced Error: Why Some Managers Get Promoted While Others Get Eliminated, Jeffrey A. Krames, as he applies the secrets of successful tennis players to business management. As in tennis, the manager making the fewest unforced errors is the most successful. Instead, many managers sabotage their own careers through a failure of preparation for the unexpected. Jeffrey Krames suggesting focusing on enhancing strengths, taking responsibility, and building effective teams. on Blog Business Success Radio.

Tags: The Unforced Error: Why Some Managers Get Promoted While Others Get Eliminated, Jeffrey A. Krames, business management, Blog Business Success, Blog Talk Radio.

The Unforced Error by Jeffrey Krames - Book review

2009-11-08T18:24:00.001-06:00

The Unforced Error

Why Some Managers Get Promoted While Others Get Eliminated

By: Jeffrey A. Krames

Published: October 15, 2009
Format: Hardcover, 192 pages
ISBN 9781591842835
Publisher: Penguin/Portfolio

"In professional tennis, the player with the fewest unforced errors usually wins. The same is true in business", writes book editor and best selling author Jeffrey Kremes, in his highly original and practical book The Unforced Error: Why Some Managers Get Promoted While Others Get Eliminated. The author combines his vast business experience, with an analogy to professional tennis, and creates a highly accessible guide book for managerial success.

Jeffrey Kremes makes a powerful case that unforced errors can destroy an executive's career within an organization. An unforced error, writes the author, can be made in two different ways. One type is an unforced operating error, made in the course of performing the duties required by the job. An unforced non-operating error is one committed through an error of personal or professional judgment that has nothing to do with the job. A non-operating unforced error is due to a lack of character, which according to Jeffrey Krames, is considered inexcusable. On the other hand, many unforced operating errors are made by every executive. The critical point is to not let the error grow to large, or be ignored through arrogance and a lack of humility. Unforced errors, made in the performance of one's duties are not fatal, if they are recognized and corrected before they cause severe organizational damage.

Jeffrey A. Krames (photo left) draws heavily on the management theory of management guru Peter Drucker, as well as legendary CEO Jack Welch. Indeed, Jeffrey Krames has interviewed both men extensively and has written best selling books about both management thinkers. That intensive knowledge of management theory and practice is demonstrated well in this fine book. At the same time, Jeffrey Krames applies his own business world experience to the book's central ideas, that avoiding unnecessary errors, through lack of diligence in identifying potential unforced errors, a failure to distinguish between large and small errors, and not building on already existing management strengths. The author is emphatic that mistakes will be made by every executive, and are critical to innovation and company growth. The key for an executive is to reduce their number through steady job performance, constant improvement, and the ability to admit and fix an error when it happens.

For me, the power of the book is how Jeffrey Krames identifies the analogy of unforced errors in tennis, with the mistakes made by every executive in the world of business. In both cases, every participant makes unforced errors, but the winner makes fewer unforced errors, and avoids them at the most critical moments. The author provides examples of many types of unforced business errors, and through the tennis comparison, demonstrates their vital importance. At the same time, the tennis metaphor provides a framework for building a strategy to recognize unforced error possibilities before they happen, and for resolving them with minimal damage should they occur. Jeffrey Krames shares large amounts of wisdom from the leading thinkers in management, and shows the reader how to apply the theory successfully to the real world of business.

I highly recognize the must read book The Unforced Error: Why Some Managers Get Promoted While Others Get Eliminated by Jeffrey A. Krames, to anyone in business who is seeking to build and enhance their career performance. The understanding shared by the author, of the prevalence and the danger of not recognizing potential unforced errors in management, equips the reader with the tools to reduce their frequency. At the same time the book provides the wisdom that errors do take place, and that all executives make unforced errors. Jeffrey Krames shows the executive how to correct those unforced errors, and lessen their damage to the organization and to the executive's career.

Read the lively and idea packed book The Unforced Error: Why Some Managers Get Promoted While Others Get Eliminated by Jeffrey A. Krames, and reduce the number of unforced errors committed in your career. As the author points out, it's not the most talented, best educated, or most skilled executive who makes the least unforced errors. Instead, strong preparation, improved observational and analytical skills, and a healthy does of humility will prevent the worst unforced errors from sabotaging your career. Read this book, and let the other executives make the unforced errors that end they career, while you get promoted in yours.

Tags: The Unforced Error: Why Some Managers Get Promoted While Others Get Eliminated, Jeffrey A. Krames, business management, business book reviews.

Robert P. Smith: Riches Among The Ruins - Author interview

2009-11-07T12:21:00.006-06:00

Robert P. Smith, Founder and Managing Director of the Boston-based Turan Corporation, was kind enough to take the time to answer some interview questions about his entertaining and insightful book Riches Among The Ruins: Adventures In The Dark Corners Of The Global Economy.

Thanks to Robert P. Smith for his time and for his intriguing answers about his adventures as global bond and debt trader in the early days of globalization. He was often been called the "Indiana Jones" of international debt trading. His exciting globe trotting life has lived up to, and even exceeded. that billing.

What was the background to writing this fascinating book Riches Among The Ruins: Adventures In The Dark Corners Of The Global Economy?

Robert P. Smith: As we grow older it’s natural to try and put our lives into some larger perspective; to make sense of the times through which we lived. In the late 1970s and 1980s when I started trading emerging market debt, I was just trying to make a living. Looking back, I see that I was surfing the early waves of globalization and, in the process, helped create what is now a $5 billion dollar a day market.

You were at the forefront of the international debt market. How did that market work when your career was at its peak?

Robert P. Smith: When I started, the trade in emerging market debt was less than $300 million per year. I was the quintessential middleman, finding buyers and sellers and making my money on the spread. It was a primitive business back then. I made cold calls, advertised in foreign newspapers that I was buying or selling certain types of bonds and physically ferried actual bonds around the globe in my suitcase. Today, of course, all this debt is traded electronically by traders sitting at desks in New York, London, or Paris. In my heyday I had to walk the streets of San Salvador, Lagos, and Guatemala City.

How does the international debt market operate now that was different from your days on the frontier?

Robert P. Smith: The advent of the digital age was transformative. I operated in markets that were completely non-transparent. No one knew, for example, what an El Salvador bond was worth. I sold it for whatever a buyer would pay. Today, anytime such a bond trades hands every trader in the world knows the price paid within seconds. I made money when the market was primitive because I often had information no one else had. Today, everyone has instant access to all the same information. That’s why the spreads in the old days could be huge. Today, they are as thin as a piece of paper.

How was your business career different from the activities of the Wall Street bond and debt traders?

Robert P. Smith: It was far more adventurous than sitting at a trading desk in New York or London. I traveled incessantly, often to countries where there was real physical danger. One morning I was thrown out of bed by a bomb blast near my hotel in San Salvador during the bloody civil war there. Lagos was a violent city where it was impossible for a white man from Brookline to blend in. You can’t get that kind of adventure on the 6:15 from Larchmont.

How important are bonds and debt to fueling the global business economy?

Robert P. Smith: Countries, like companies, need credit to function. Goodness knows the United States of America runs on debt, and at frightening levels. Countries run their armies, infrastructure and services on debt. When debt freezes – people stop lending – the economy shuts down. For emerging market countries, debt, carefully managed, can offer way to a more prosperous future.

Robert P. Smith (photo left)

Many people believe that markets behave rationally. You state in your book that markets operate on emotion. Could you please explain what that means?

Robert P. Smith: The notion of rational markets exists side-by-side with the fear and greed side of the equation. Decisions that are rational for any given individual – wanting to get money out of a bank believed to be failing, for example – can, if widespread fear sets in, lead to the very result one hopes to avoid. Just as it’s rational for any individual to want to be the first out a burning building, if everyone acts rationally, tragedy ensues. And, of course, people don’t always act rationally. I was in a swoon over Russia’s economic potential after the collapse of Communism and in my exuberance bought millions in Russian bonds that lost most of their value overnight. I held on and recovered, but I wasn’t a happy camper. Markets, in a gross sense, operate rationally even as millions of people playing in those markets make emotional decisions.

Would you say, like some other observers, that American foreign policy is now foreign economic policy?

Robert P. Smith: There’s no doubt that economic issues have gained importance in international relations as the economy becomes globalized. The enormous U.S. debt owed to China, free trade, energy supplies, even climate change – they all have profound economic implications. But many foreign policy issues are not primarily economic, such as nuclear proliferation and human rights.

Do you ever feel that your international debt business was unethical or was feeding off the misery of others, or were you helping financially strapped nations to clear their debts?

Robert P. Smith: The bonds I was buying and selling were issued by nations that needed capital to run their governments and provide services. Creating a market for these bonds made them more appealing and thus offered a way to improve the national economy. Now, not every country has a virtuous government, but I wasn’t playing games with other people’s money here – I often had my entire net worth invested in a transaction.

Were you ever at personal risk of physical injury or even death?

Robert P. Smith: I’ve already mentioned the bomb blast in San Salvador. In 2004 I went to Iraq to investigate the opportunities in Iraqi debt. We had a heavily armed security detail and wore flak jackets the entire time. To get to the Green Zone we had to drive at high speeds in armored SUVs down a road fondly nicknamed “The Highway of Death.”

Would you do it all over again, or have international bond markets changed too much for a repeat of your life's adventures today?

Robert P. Smith: I loved my work. I loved the travel, the adventure, the allure of exotic places, the sound of foreign languages. I loved the risk, physical and financial. However, but times have changed. I am a dinosaur in the industry today. You can find great adventure in the world today, but it probably wouldn’t be in trading bonds.

What is next for Robert Smith?

Robert P. Smith: My 70th birthday is around the corner. I still travel on business, most recently to Syria and Turkey. I still look for opportunities around the world, but now, I take joy in watching my grandchildren grow up and serving on the boards of various non-profits.

****************

My book review of Riches Among The Ruins: Adventures In The Dark Corners Of The Global Economy by Robert P. Smith (with Peter Zheutlin).

My Blog Business Success Radio interview with Robert P. Smith.

Robert P. Smith (photo left) is the Founder and Managing Director of the Boston-based Turan Corporation, which specializes in trading emerging market sovereign debt and evaluating creditor claims against foreign governments.

A graduate of Bowdoin College and Boston University School of Law, Robert P. Smith served as a loan officer and economic liaison for the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) in Vietnam, El Salvador, the Dominican Republic and Brazil. He later joined Deltec Bank of Sao Paulo, Brazil, before returning to the United States in the mid-1970s where he established a law practice specializing in international debt collections.

Turan Corporation was founded as Turam (“Turkish-American”) Corporation in 1978, and soon became one the largest privately held sovereign debt trading firms in the world. The company’s many achievements include purchasing $7 million of Turkish Non-Guaranteed Trade Arrears (NGTAs) in 1980, making it the first company to develop its own debt/equity investment in Turkey. The company forged similar archetype deals in places such as El Salvador, Nigeria and Guatemala.

Bob Smith is a noted authority on developing world debt and has been cited or quoted in numerous publications including the Wall Street Journal, Africa Economic Digest, The Financial Times, International Business, and various journals of Euromoney Publications of London. From 1986 to ’88 he wrote the monthly column “Blocked Currency” for Euromoney Treasury Report. Robert Smith is a sought-after speaker and has addressed numerous professional groups on matters relating to emerging markets.

Tags: Riches Among The Ruins: Adventures In The Dark Corners Of The Global Economy, Robert P. Smith, Peter Zheutlin, international finance, globalization, business author interviews.

Jennifer Kaplan: Greening Your Small Business - Author interview

2009-11-06T13:34:00.004-06:00

Jennifer Kaplan, partner in Greenhance LLC and author of the valuable and very practical book Greening Your Small Business: How to Improve Your Bottom Line, Grow Your Brand, Satisfy Your Customers - and Save the Planet, took the time to answer a few questions about her book. She also described some of the emerging trends in environmental action taking place within many small business. She shared as well, some money saving and profitable tips for starting your own company on the road to becoming a green business.

Thanks to Jennifer Kaplan for her time, and for providing these wonderful answers about how to make your small business a more green one.

What was the background to writing your book Greening Your Small Business: How to Improve Your Bottom Line, Grow Your Brand, Satisfy Your Customers - and Save the Planet?

Jennifer Kaplan: I was doing market research for a client who wanted to green her small retail store. In the process I found that there was a lot of information about going green for homeowners and a lot of information for large corporations, but very little for small businesses. There was actually a lot of information, but it was all over the place. I thought: Someone should write a book aggregating all this information. So, I set out to compile an extensive list of resources. But, I realized along the way that there is so much more to greening a small business then simply changing business practices.

For example, there’s a whole advocacy piece. The time a business invests in impacting policies and standards can be as valuable to environmental progress as installing new light bulbs. And then of course there’s the marketing piece. How effectively a small business communicates its environmental commitment, objectives, and successes to customers, employees, and other stakeholders will in large part determine how much value they get out of a green program.

What does it really mean for a business to decide to go green?

Jennifer Kaplan: When people talk about going green, they are typically talking about efforts to reduce or mitigate carbon-producing activities that cause global warming. The primary culprits are the by-products of burning fossil fuels to provide the energy we use in the course of our daily lives. Fossil fuels are used to produce electricity in our homes and businesses, to provide our travel and transportation, and to create the food, clothes, and other products we buy and consume every day. However, ask one hundred people what it means to go green and you will get one hundred different answers.

While it may be hard to pinpoint exactly what going green means, we know that going green is not just an energy issue. Going green involves adopting a set of guiding principles related to sustainability and implementing practices that support those principles throughout your business. In other words, environmental sustainability becomes the lens through which you view every business decision you make—including what you purchase, the resources you use, and the products and services you provide. At its heart, going green is about changing the way you think about the impact your business can have on the environment.

How can a small business person develop a plan to become a more green business?

Jennifer Kaplan: This is a great question because effective green programs don’t just happen. They require planning and the steps are virtually identical regardless of the ultimate scope of the program. Once you’ve set a program in motion and implemented a handful of green practices, you may find that you’re pleased with the results. Maybe after installing high efficiency light bulbs, your energy costs drop. Or your expanded commitment to recycling generates strong employee support. Or your customers respond positively to new menus printed on recycled paper. Success breeds success. Make a plan to choose five or ten more items to green next year—and the year after.

Here are some first steps for starting a small green program:

1. Create a green team.
2. Hold a launch meeting. Set next steps and give staff members specific assignments with deadlines.
3. Define your goals and objectives.
4. Set priorities and choose the green practices you want to implement internally.
5. Write a green mission statement.
6. Identify ways you can help your customers go green.
7. Communicate your plans to stakeholders via meetings, e-mails, newsletters, and/or on-site signage.

Jennifer Kaplan (photo left)

We often hear from skeptics that going green costs money. Your book points out that being environmentally friendly can boost profits. In what ways can deciding to be more green and friendly to the environment save a company money or boost profits?

Jennifer Kaplan: It is no surprise that most leading companies across a variety of industries—from Wal-Mart and Google, to BP, Dupont, and General Electric—have major green initiatives in place. What do the world’s largest corporations know? Thety know that wasted resources increase the cost of doing business. They know that by being proactive in your efforts to go green you can improve your company's financial performance by reducing waste and streamlining costs.

What different options are available to a small business when seeking to make the choice to go green?

Jennifer Kaplan: One option available to small business owners is to start small. Choose a few—let’s say ten—internal business practices to green. Small business owners need to know that no matter how insignificant their efforts may seem, the law of large numbers applies: If every small business in America switched to high efficiency light bulbs or carpooled to business meetings or turned off computers and monitors every night, the impact would be huge. So, if he chooses ten green practices to put into action, implement, and communicate, he will be doing a lot more than most of the competition. Of course, for even greater impact, choose fifteen or twenty!

Ultimately, there are a wide variety of green practices that involve varying investments of time and money. Not every conservation area will fit every budget or be relevant to every business. For example, most water conservation practices won’t be relevant to retailers. And sole practitioners don’t need to think about green human resources practices. Each business person can determine which areas of their business are likely candidates for greening. There are literally thousands of options.

Are there ways that the business staff can help with becoming more environmentally conscious?

Jennifer Kaplan: There’s a great quote in my book from Adine Mees, president and CEO of Canadian Business for Social Responsibility: “CSR minus HR equals PR; If employees are not engaged, Corporate Social Responsibility becomes an exercise in public relations.” The reality is that your employees are largely responsible for implementing your green practices and, therefore, getting employees involved is crucial to the success of many green initiatives. It can be as simple as inviting them to be on the “green team” or letting them know what’s going on. For example, one study found that when companies shared utility bills with staff, the employees began to adopt a more proactive attitude toward energy conservation.

How can marketing be designed with more environmental ideas in mind?

Jennifer Kaplan: The world of marketing involves not only advertising and public relations agencies but also advertisers, publishers, media outlets, production companies, printers, and paper companies. All players in the marketing process can become more sustainable by adopting eco-friendly practices such as using renewable or recycled materials, employing clean production technologies, eliminating waste, and building in recycling and end-of-life programs.

Most often, however, successful marketing boils down to customer acquisition. And since customer acquisition is a numbers game—only 4% of people respond to a catalog, only 3% of people respond to a direct mail piece, only 0.5% of people respond to a newspaper ad, and so forth—marketers significantly overproduce materials in order to reach the right number of consumers. That leads to unwanted messages and materials—also known as waste. So, improving response rates and utilizing digital media are key green marketing practices.

How can your book assist a small business owner in making the change to a more green business?

Jennifer Kaplan: There’s a revolution going on in the American marketplace. Businesses of all sizes are changing the way their businesses operate by incorporating green practices, products, and objectives into their business models. Greening Your Small Business is designed to guide business owners through the green planning process, and provide them with the practical information and resources needed to go green as well as offer insights from small businesses that have already begun to green their operations.

Whether a business owner wants to go green because volatile energy costs are affecting her bottom line. Or because he thinks customers want him to—or even expect him to. Maybe she wants to stay competitive or become more competitive. Or he is just committed to doing whatever he can to reduce global warming and protect the environment. Whatever the reason, like millions of small business owners across America, they’re asking themselves whether there is an economic advantage to going green. This book will help them find the answer.

What is next for Jennifer Kaplan?

Jennifer Kaplan: Hmmmm…not really sure. Stay tuned I guess.

**************

My book review of Greening Your Small Business: How to Improve Your Bottom Line, Grow Your Brand, Satisfy Your Customers - and Save the Planet by Jennifer Kaplan.

Jennifer Kaplan (photo left) is a partner in Greenhance LLC, Jennifer brings 20 years of corporate marketing experience and a firsthand knowledge of consumer research to help small business owners grow greener. Jennifer is Adjunct Faculty in Marketing at Marymount University and has worked with companies such as Discovery Channel, Lifetime Television, Conde Nast Publications and Simon & Schuster Publishing. She has an AB from Barnard College and MBA from the New York University Stern School of Business.

Tags: Greening Your Small Business: How to Improve Your Bottom Line, Grow Your Brand, Satisfy Your Customers - and Save the Planet, Jennifer Kaplan, environmentally friendly business, marketing, business author interviews.

Greening Your Small Business by Jennifer Kaplan - Book review

2009-11-06T13:25:00.001-06:00

Greening Your Small Business

How to Improve Your Bottom Line, Grow Your Brand, Satisfy Your Customers - and Save the Planet

By: Jennifer Kaplan

Published: November 3, 2009
Format: Paperback, 320 pages
ISBN 9780735204461
Publisher: Prentice Hall Press

"Like millions of small business owners across America, you're asking yourself whether there is an economic advantage to going green", writes Greenhance LLC partner and green marketing consultant Jennifer Kaplan, in her very practical and action oriented book Greening Your Small Business: How to Improve Your Bottom Line, Grow Your Brand, Satisfy Your Customers - and Save the Planet. The author makes a powerful case that that not only can a small business become more profitable through increased environmental awareness, but also become a role model for other companies and customers seeking a green alternative.

Jennifer Kaplan understands the critical necessity for small business owners to think and behave proactively about the environment. She describes how thinking green is not just some unattainable ideal, but instead is a powerful bottom line profit builder. The author dispels completely the myths that operating a small business in an environmentally friendly manner is expensive and time consuming. Instead, Jennifer Kaplan demonstrates that cost savings from environmental awareness will increase any small business's profitability. The author knows that many of today's consumers are seeking products and services that are ecologically friendly, and those customers want to buy from business owners who are committed to the environment. Going green benefits a company through lower costs, and from higher sales to green conscious consumers.

Jennifer Kaplan (photo left) recognizes that not all small business owners know where to begin a eco-conscious action program. As a result, the book contains an important section on creating a green plan suited to the needs of an individual company's needs and goals. The author provides a very easy to apply outline for creating a green strategy for reducing costs while boosting the bottom line. Through identifying the current environmental strengths and weaknesses of the company, the entrepreneur can discover easy to expand and change activities to a series of workable best practices. As the small business owner begins to think in terms of the environment, expenses like energy use, general office costs, and business travel can be reassessed objectively. At the same time, additional business opportunities for new green oriented products and services can be discovered, by gaining the commitment of the entire staff.

For me, the power of the book is how Jennifer Kaplan guides the small business owner through the entire process of developing a green strategy, and then sharing ideas to put the resulting plan into action. The author does a fine job of demonstrating that becoming a more eco-friendly company is not only the right thing to do, but is also good business. As with so many aspects of ethical business practices, an environmentally ethical business is also good for all stakeholders, including the owner, staff, suppliers, and customers. Jennifer Kaplan shows the entrepreneur how to communicate the green message through improved marketing, reduced packaging and waste, and via more intensive use of the internet. The multitude of tips provided in the book range from small changes to more extensive changes in business practices. The key is that all existing and additional best practices add up to huge savings, and become part of the regular business procedure.

I highly recommend the essential guide book Greening Your Small Business: How to Improve Your Bottom Line, Grow Your Brand, Satisfy Your Customers - and Save the Planet by Jennifer Kaplan, to any small business people seeking to learn how to green their own companies. The book will appeal to both already committed environmentalists, and to business owners seeking to reduce costs and to enhance their company appeal to eco-conscious customers.

Read the business transformational book Greening Your Small Business: How to Improve Your Bottom Line, Grow Your Brand, Satisfy Your Customers - and Save the Planet by Jennifer Kaplan, and turn your independent business into into an eco-friendly company. Not only will you help the environment, but you will reduce your business costs, while reaching more green aware customers. Green business is very good business, in so many ways.

Jeffrey M. Stibel: Wired For Thought - Blog Business Success Radio

2009-11-05T02:40:00.006-06:00

Listen to Wayne Hurlbert on Blog Talk Radio

Entrepreneur, brain scientist, and author of the Wired for Thought: How the Brain Is Shaping the Future of the Internet, Jeffrey M. Stibel demonstrates how exceptional companies are using their insights into the nature of the internet's brain-like powers to leverage their competitiveness. Through interactive websites, predictive analysis of consumer behavior, and the power of social media, these companies are creating a collective, commerce building consciousness. Learn as well how the internet will look in the future, and how to utilize these technological advances to build your company.

Jeffrey M. Stibel is my internet radio show guest on Blog Business Success; hosted live on Blog Talk Radio.

The show airs live on Thursday, November 5, at 8:00 pm Eastern Time; 5:00 pm Pacific Time.

Entrepreneur, brain scientist, and author of the Wired for Thought: How the Brain Is Shaping the Future of the Internet, Jeffrey M. Stibel demonstrates how exceptional companies are using their insights into the nature of the internet's brain-like powers to leverage their competitiveness. You will learn:

* Why the internet operates like a brain outside the body

* How the internet evolved and how that evolution is changing business

* How some companies are leveraging the power of the evolving internet

* How you can put the brain like internet to work for your business

Jeffrey M. Stibel (photo left) s a brain scientist and entrepreneur who has helped build numerous public and private companies. He is currently President of Web.com, a public company that helps entrepreneurs launch and grow their businesses on the Web. He is also Chairman of BrainGate, a brain implant company that allows people to use their thoughts to control electrical devices.

He serves on the boards of a number of private and public companies, as well as academic boards for Brown and Tufts University. Jeffrey Stibel studied for his PhD at Brown University, where he was the recipient of the Brain and Behavior Fellowship, and studied business at MIT’s Sloan School of Business.

My book review of Wired for Thought: How the Brain Is Shaping the Future of the Internet by Jeffrey M. Stibel.

Listen live on Thursday at 8:00 pm Eastern, 5:00 pm Pacific time.

If you miss this very informative show, it will be available for free download as a podcast for iPod, iTunes, and MP3 players; or play it right on your computer. To download this, or any other of my guest interviews, go to the Blog Business Success host page and click on Archived Segments. Once there, click on the podcast icon at the end of the episode description, to download the show free of charge for your listening enjoyment. You can also subscribe to the show feed.

To call in questions for my guest, the number is: (347) 996-5832

Let's talk with entrepreneur, brain scientist, and author of the Wired for Thought: How the Brain Is Shaping the Future of the Internet, Jeffrey M. Stibel, as he demonstrates how exceptional companies are using their insights into the nature of the internet's brain-like powers to leverage their competitiveness. Through interactive websites, predictive analysis of consumer behavior, and the power of social media, these companies are creating a collective, commerce building consciousness. Learn as well how the internet will look in the future, and how to utilize these technological advances to build your company on Blog Business Success Radio.

Tags: Wired for Thought: How the Brain Is Shaping the Future of the Internet, Jeffrey M. Stibel, internet business, entrepreneurship, Blog Business Success, Blog Talk Radio.

Wired For Thought by Jeffrey M. Stibel - Book review

2009-11-04T16:48:00.011-06:00

Wired for Thought

How the Brain Is Shaping the Future of the Internet

By: Jeffrey M. Stibel

Published: September 2009
Format: Hardcover, 240pp
ISBN-13: 9781422146644
ISBN: 1422146642
Publisher: Harvard Business Press

"I believe that the internet is a brain" writes entrepreneur and brain scientist Jeffrey M. Stibel in his perceptive and visionary book Wired for Thought: How the Brain Is Shaping the Future of the Internet. The author describes how the internet is much more than a collection of interconnected computers, and is instead a replication of a human brain created on a global scale.

Jeffrey Sibel recognizes that a single computer is not a brain in and of itself. instead, however, when computing technology is connected to billions of other computers through the same technology that created the telegraph, the many combined computers resemble a brain outside of a body. The author shows how the same evolution of technology that created the internet, is also evolving it into a global collective consciousness. Jeffrey Sibel points out that the evolution of technological change is also taking place in a predictable manner. As a result, the power of the brain like internet can be leveraged effectively to create a multitude of new business opportunities. Many of the most notable internet companies of today, including Google, MSN, Yahoo, and Facebook are recognizing the internet as a brain concept, and are adding brain specialists to their staff to capitalize on the power of this emerging phenomenon.

Jeffrey M. Stibel (photo left) is also an internet entrepreneur. He understands that the growth in importance of the internet will create powerful and profitable internet based companies in the present and into the future. The author describes the internet as being in constant evolution, and therefore creating unlimited new opportunities for entrepreneurs. Just as the human brain creates and destroys memories, the internet is an ongoing engine of creating and destroying businesses. That sense of creative destruction works in support of entrepreneurs who develop new concepts for harnessing the power of the brain like internet. Jeffrey Stibel shows the reader how to recognize the unique opportunities that exist today, and are still emerging as the internet evolves, that will form the basis of profitable companies.

For me, the power of the book is how Jeffrey Stibel develops the innovative concept that the internet acts like a global brain. With that brilliant insight in hand, the author is able to form a deeper understanding of how the internet came into being, how it works, and how it will develop in the future. By adding the principle of evolution to the idea, the author is able to foresee future growth, change, and even destruction of the internet as we know it today. With all of these insights in hand, Jeffrey Stibel guides the reader through the forces that give the internet the potential for global consciousness, and how to put that power to work in many diverse entrepreneurial ventures. The book is partly theoretical, but also adds the dimension of practicality for applying the theory to business start ups.

I highly recommend the fascinating and groundbreaking book Wired for Thought: How the Brain Is Shaping the Future of the Internet by Jeffrey M. Stibel, to anyone seeking to understand the profound idea that the internet works very much like a brain, and how that brain like internet evolves and changes over time. The author provides the insights necessary for understanding the inner nature of the internet, and shares the tools for finding business opportunities in the evolving world wide web.

Read the useful and enjoyable book Wired for Thought: How the Brain Is Shaping the Future of the Internet by Jeffrey M. Stibel, and learn how to put the power of the brain like internet to work for you and your company. You may even discover a crucial internet breakthrough, and create a company that becomes an industry leader.

Tags: Wired for Thought: How the Brain Is Shaping the Future of the Internet, Jeffrey M. Stibel, internet business, entrepreneurship, business book reviews.

In Cheap We Trust by Lauren Weber - Book review

2009-11-03T22:44:00.003-06:00

In Cheap We Trust

The Story of a Misunderstood American Virtue

By: Lauren Weber

Published: September 7, 2009
Format: Hardcover, 320 pages
ISBN: 9780316030281
Publisher: Little, Brown & Company

"Part of the reason I embrace the word cheap is that it embodies some of the contradictions, ambivalence, and confusion we feel about money", writes self professed cheapskate Lauren Weber in her entertaining and thought provoking book about the changing nature of thrift in America In Cheap We Trust: The Story of a Misunderstood American Virtue. The author takes the reader on a whirlwind tour of American history, exploring how different times had different social attitudes toward thrift, and dispels many of the myths surrounding how Americans thought about saving money. The author points out as well, that thrift is returning to America as a social virtue, and she sees saving becoming a social badge of honor following a period of reckless consumer spending and debt.

Lauren Weber grew up with a father who was very cheap with money for household expenses, but was very generous with charitable donations and with providing good educational opportunities for his children. His dualistic approach to spending forms an archetype of the American historical relationship toward personal spending and saving. The author points out that many people will state emphatically that Americans used to be savers in the good old days, not like the irresponsible spenders of the modern era. Lauren Weber demonstrates that thrift was not always a highly regarded American virtue. She begins her study with a description of Benjamin Franklin, often considered the epitome of thrift. While Franklin may have practiced caution with money some of the time, he was free spending the rest of the time. As America changed from the early agricultural era, where saving everything was a matter of survival, to the industrial world of consumerism, the attitude toward thrift changed many times as well.

Lauren Weber (photo left) describes how thriftiness, as a cultural and racial characteristic, became part of the shameful prejudice against Jews and Chinese immigrants. The alleged cheapness was seen by nativists as feigning poverty or for undercutting already low wage levels. During the latter 19th Century, extravagantly spending Gilded Age millionaires were the idealized role models, while savers were mistrusted as being misers and somehow dangerous. The First World War, however, brought about a fresh wave of saving as a patriotic activity. That sense of frugality, in the form of buying heavily promoted war bonds, was out of fashion once again in the free wheeling Roaring Twenties. The Great Depression, out of necessity, and the Second World War, through war bond drives, ushered in a fresh wave of saving. The post war consumer based world, awash in Keynesian economic theory of demand and spending as a basis of a strong economy, removed the any remaining social support for frugality.

For me, the power of the book is in Lauren Weber's even handed treatment of the past, present, and future of thrift in America. Not being satisfied with the mythology that saving money was always a way of life of all previous generations, the author demonstrates the constant changes in social attitudes toward frugality. On the one hand, Americans are told to save for their retirement and are warned that savings levels are dangerously low for most people. At the same time, the general public is encouraged to spend money on consumer goods to help strengthen the economy. This ambivalent, and often openly contradictory cultural view of money is indicative of American historical attitudes as a whole. For Lauren Weber, the idea that people saved money throughout history, in the good old days, is simply a myth. Her research proves that point conclusively. At the same time, she describes a new culture of frugality that is arising in reaction to the free spending, and debt ridden society of the recent past. Again, the author shows the reader that constant contradictory nature of social mood and ideas about money.

I highly recommend the very readable and highly enlightening book In Cheap We Trust: The Story of a Misunderstood American Virtue by Lauren Weber, to anyone seeking a well researched and balanced social history of thrift in America. The author presents the changing cultural views of thrift, and how even the supposed virtue of saving money, has often been used as a tool of bigots. Lauren Weber makes clear that at some moments in American history, saving money has been noble and even patriotic, while at other times, thrift has been seen as dangerous and subversive to the good of the country as a whole. The author describes how Americans have never been able to make up their collective minds about the ultimate virtue of thrift.

Read the informative and often quirky history of thrift in America In Cheap We Trust: The Story of a Misunderstood American Virtue by Lauren Weber, and enjoy the ride through this charming, and insightful history of thrift in America. Discover the joys of saving money, and learn how the concept of frugality was attached to bigoted treatment of minority groups. At the same time, discover how cheapness is once again becoming an admired cultural phenomenon, as the pendulum of history swings back in support of savers. As throughout American history, contradictory attitudes toward spending and saving money are part of the national way of life.

Tags: In Cheap We Trust: The Story of a Misunderstood American Virtue, Lauren Weber, saving money, frugality, history book reviews.

Robert P. Smith: Riches Among The Ruins - Blog Business Success Radio

2009-11-03T01:33:00.004-06:00

Listen to Wayne Hurlbert on Blog Talk Radio

Adventurer, leading authority on developing world debt, Managing Director of Turan Corporation, and author of the entertaining and insightful book Riches Among The Ruins: Adventures In The Dark Corners Of The Global Economy, Robert P. Smith, describes the rough and tumble, behind the scenes world, of the early days of modern globalization. He shares his gains and losses of huge fortunes in the war torn and crashing economies of the developing world. He also provides a sobering analysis of the current global economic conditions, and makes a forecast for the future economic problems and prospects of the United States.

Robert P. Smith is my internet radio show guest on Blog Business Success; hosted live on Blog Talk Radio.

The show airs live on Tuesday, November 3, at 8:00 pm Eastern Time; 5:00 pm Pacific Time.

Adventurer, leading authority on developing world debt, Managing Director of Turan Corporation, and author of the entertaining and insightful book Riches Among The Ruins: Adventures In The Dark Corners Of The Global Economy, Robert P. Smith, describes the rough and tumble, behind the scenes world, of the early days of modern globalization. You will learn:

* How international debt markets operated in the early globalization period

* How international global debt markets operate today

* Why understanding global debt markets is important for everyone

* How the global economy and change will affect the United States economy

Robert P. Smith (photo left) is the founder and managing director of the Boston-based Turan Corporation, which specializes in trading emerging market sovereign debt and evaluating creditor claims against foreign governments.

A graduate of Bowdoin College and Boston University School of Law, Robert P. Smith served as a loan officer and economic liaison for the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) in Vietnam, El Salvador, the Dominican Republic and Brazil. He later joined Deltec Bank of Sao Paulo, Brazil, before returning to the United States in the mid-1970s where he established a law practice specializing in international debt collections.

Turan Corporation was founded as Turam (“Turkish-American”) Corporation in 1978, and soon became one the largest privately held sovereign debt trading firms in the world. The company’s many achievements include purchasing $7 million of Turkish Non-Guaranteed Trade Arrears (NGTAs) in 1980, making it the first company to develop its own debt/equity investment in Turkey. The company forged similar archetype deals in places such as El Salvador, Nigeria and Guatemala.

Peter Marber, the author of From Third World to World Class: The Future of Emerging Markets in the Global Economy (Perseus, 1998), credits Bob Smith as one of four individuals who contributed "significantly to the birth of the debt market, and possibly even the entire emerging markets investment community, well ahead of Wall Street's more prominent houses."

Bob Smith is a noted authority on developing world debt and has been cited or quoted in numerous publications including the Wall Street Journal, Africa Economic Digest, The Financial Times, International Business, and various journals of Euromoney Publications of London. From 1986 to ’88 he wrote the monthly column “Blocked Currency” for Euromoney Treasury Report. Robert Smith is a sought-after speaker and has addressed numerous professional groups on matters relating to emerging markets.

My book review of Riches Among The Ruins: Adventures In The Dark Corners Of The Global Economy by Robert P. Smith (with Peter Zheutlin).

Listen live on Tuesday at 8:00 pm Eastern, 5:00 pm Pacific time.

If you miss this very informative show, it will be available for free download as a podcast for iPod, iTunes, and MP3 players; or play it right on your computer. To download this, or any other of my guest interviews, go to the Blog Business Success host page and click on Archived Segments. Once there, click on the podcast icon at the end of the episode description, to download the show free of charge for your listening enjoyment. You can also subscribe to the show feed.

To call in questions for my guest, the number is: (347) 996-5832

Let's talk with adventurer, leading authority on developing world debt, Managing Director of Turan Corporation, and author of the entertaining and insightful book Riches Among The Ruins: Adventures In The Dark Corners Of The Global Economy, Robert P. Smith, as he describes the rough and tumble, behind the scenes world, of the early days of modern globalization. He shares his gains and losses of huge fortunes in the war torn and crashing economies of the developing world. He also provides a sobering analysis of the current global economic conditions, and makes a forecast for the future economic problems and prospects of the United States on Blog Business Success Radio.

Tags: Riches Among The Ruins: Adventures In The Dark Corners Of The Global Economy, Robert P. Smith, Peter Zheutlin, international finance, globalization, Blog Business Success, Blog Talk Radio.

The New Rules For Mortgages by Dale Robyn Siegel - Book review

2009-11-02T01:35:00.007-06:00

The New Rules For Mortgages

By: Dale Robyn Siegel

Published: September 1, 2009
Format: Paperback, 192 pages
ISBN-10: 1592579485
ISBN-13: 978-1592579488
Publisher: Penguin/Alpha

"Since the big mortgage industry implosion, the rules have changed for so many things, from credit reports to loan amounts", writes attorney and President of Circle Mortgage Group Dale Robyn Siegel in her practical and no nonsense guide to the real facts about mortgages The New Rules For Mortgages. The author describes, in straight forward language, how mortgage rules have changed in many profound ways from the previous rules and applications of even a few short years ago.

Dale Robyn Siegel understands mortgages from the inside. As an active homeowner mortgage professional, the author recognizes that the former rules for obtaining a mortgage no longer apply in today's tighter lending climate. In recent years, for example, people with lower credit scores were able to obtain mortgages for houses with little difficulty. According to Dale Robyn Siegel, that is no longer the case. She provides the hard facts about the necessity of a high FICO credit score, and how to rebuild one damaged through bad credit. The book also guides the potential home buyer the importance of steady, secure employment or confirmed alternative income, as well as the hard numbers needed to qualify for and repay a mortgage successfully. She also includes a critical budget section to project not only principle and interest costs, but also other expenses associated with owning a home.

Dale Robyn Siegel (photo left) leaves no stones unturned in her assessment of income, and sources of down payments. The author also includes a concise discussion of how and why it's critical to examine a house thoroughly for structural problems, and for ensuring a fair and honest home value appraisal. Essential reading for any would be borrowers is found in the important sections on deciding upon the right mortgage to suit the buyer's circumstances. The close examination of different mortgage types is a crucial part of the new mortgage rules, where various exotic types of mortgage loans no longer are available. The author also shares money saving tips for knowing where to get the best possible mortgage at the best possible terms, including an understanding of the entire loan process from application to closing.

For me, the power of the book is the simple fact that the book was written by a mortgage practitioner with real world experience with today's mortgage market and rules. Instead of applying vague theories about how homeowner mortgages are structured and financed, Dale Robyn Siegel shares advice that the reader can use to save thousands of dollars in every step of the home mortgage process. From applying for the most suitable type of mortgage, to obtaining that financing from the right mortgage lender, to ensuring that all fees and closing costs are kept to a minimum, the book is a powerful money saving tool. The book is meant to be a useful tool, for saving money in the present, as well as over the life of the mortgage. The author is highly successful in achieving that critical result for the reader.

I highly recommend the essential and must read book The New Rules For Mortgages by Dale Robyn Siegel, to anyone who is in the market for a home or condominium mortgage. The book is also valuable for current mortgage holders who are looking to obtain a mortgage more suitable for their income level, income type, and overall financial goals. As an additional bonus, the author offers valuable advice for protecting the home and mortgage in the event of divorce, death, or dissolution of business partnerships.

Read the important and up to date book The New Rules For Mortgages by Dale Robyn Siegel, and learn how to obtain the right type of home mortgage, at the best possible terms for you. Put the real world experience of a mortgage professional to work for you. The money and problems you save will pay for this valuable book innumerable times over.

Tags: The New Rules For Mortgages, Dale Robyn Siegel, home mortgages, financing, business book reviews.

Riches Among The Ruins by Robert P. Smith - Book review

2009-11-01T14:53:00.006-06:00

Riches Among The Ruins

Adventures In The Dark Corners Of The Global Economy

By: Robert P. Smith, Peter Zheutlin

Published: March 2009
Format: Hardcover, 243 pages
ISBN: 9780814410608
Publisher: Amacom/American Management Association

"On a single day in 1998, I lost $15 million in the ruins of the Russian economy", writes Founder and Managing Director of Turan Corporation and emerging market debt trader Robert P. Smith, in his entertaining and insightful book Riches Among The Ruins: Adventures In The Dark Corners Of The Global Economy. The author takes the reader on a rough and tumble thrill ride as he describes his colorful, and often very dangerous debt trading ventures in some of the developing world's most dangerous locations.

Robert Smith's deeply personal story, reads like a thrilling tale of a real life Indiana Jones, as the author sought profits from trading debt and investments of often dubious value. The fascinating accounts of conducting often dangerous business transactions in the darkest corners of such countries as Iraq, El Salvador, Guatemala, and Russia, describe the early emergence of a global financial market. The unregulated, and very often barely legal business dealings of Robert P. Smith, were the crude beginnings of the modern, and highly integrated globalization that forms the basis of the world economy today. Along the way, the author provides critical, first hand insights into the behind the scenes reality of global business transactions.

Robert P. Smith (photo left) recognizes that his chasing of profits among the war torn, and collapsing economies of the Third World may be seen as unsavory by many people. To his credit, he acknowledges that interpretation of his business activities. At the same time, however, the author's debt purchases and sales of very questionable debt obligations, helped create liquidity for many cash strapped companies and governments. The lessons learned by Robert Smith, and the economic tragedies he so vividly describes, are critical for understanding changes within the economy of the United States. The author shares compelling insights into how the evolution of the American economy from manufacturing to service based, and from a creditor nation to becoming the world's largest debtor nation, portend serious economic problems in the future. In this case, the experiences of the author serve as a warning and wake up call for American businesses and politicians.

For me, the power of the book is Robert P. Smith's unflinching account of his adventures in the early days of global financial markets, and how those experiences can help to avert potential financial disaster in the current globally interdependent markets. The author understands that the world where he trekked and traded may be gone in form, but the danger of economic collapse still exists in different forms. An economic meltdown in one part of the world can trigger economic panic on the other side of the globe within minutes. Robert P. Smith recognizes that markets move on emotion and social mood, making a panic in one or many countries a very real possibility. Despite the intricate monetary systems that exist today, the markets saw a meltdown in 2008. Robert Smith's experiences with economic disaster and collapse are essential lessons for everyone in the developed world, as glimpses into a possible tragic future. The stories in this important book may help to avert that nightmare scenario.

I highly recommend the must read and eye opening book Riches Among The Ruins: Adventures In The Dark Corners Of The Global Economy by Robert P. Smith to anyone seeking a behind the headlines treatment of how the world of international business really worked and how it operates today. The author also calls attention to how economic conditions in the United States, with its exploding international debt levels and widening gap between rich and poor, could lead to economic disaster in the very near future. This warning is an important one, and comes from an author who has seen economic collapse up close and personal, and its tragic effect on real people.

Read the international economics book that reads like a page turning adventure novel Riches Among The Ruins: Adventures In The Dark Corners Of The Global Economy by Robert P. Smith, and join the author as he seeks riches in the economic chaos of post-collapse Russia, Iraq before the fall of Saddam, in the dark streets of Vietnam, and many more exotic and dangerous locales. The book is a page turner, that contains critical economic lessons, and a prophetic warning about potential future economic problems in the United States, and for the globalized economy in which we all dwell. The book is a treasure trove of stories of profit and loss and of warnings of the on the ground reality of economic crisis. Robert P. Smith's past profit seeking adventures may indeed be our possible future.

Tags: Riches Among The Ruins: Adventures In The Dark Corners Of The Global Economy, Robert P. Smith, Peter Zheutlin, international finance, globalization, business book reviews.

Defending The Enemy by Elaine Fischel - Book review

2009-10-31T22:48:00.012-05:00

Defending The Enemy

Justice For The WWII Japanese War Criminals

By: Elaine Fischel

Published: December 2009
Format: Paperback, 412 pages
ISBN: 978-1-935456-03-2
Publisher: Bascom Hill Publishing Group

"This is simply my story written with the hope it will bring more understanding of why American lawyers defended the leaders of their most recent enemy - Japan", writes former legal secretary for the defense during the International Military Tribunal for the Far East (IMTFE) Elaine Fischel, in her riveting and landmark eye witness account of the trials of alleged Japanese war criminals, Defending The Enemy: Justice For The WWII Japanese War Criminals. The author brings all of the participants to life, in a little known but important area of international law and history.

Elaine Fischel began, like many Americans upon their nation's entry into World War Two, with an intense dislike of Japan, the country's leadership, and of the Japanese people. As the war deepened, she heard of atrocities committed by the Japanese forces against Allied troops and civilians. As a result, she admits openly in the book that she set out to Japan believing the Japanese people were evil and even perhaps subhuman. Her stay in Japan, as part of the IMTFE judicial team, and her introduction to the people of Japan, changed her mind and outlook forever. As she became more intensively involved in the judicial proceedings, Elaine Fischel formed many friendships in Japan, and even with those who were charged with war crimes.

Elaine Fischel (photo left) not only formed deep and lasting friendships with the accused who she refers to as "enemy friends", but she saw many of them convicted and sentenced to death. Her accounts of her emotions during these events are powerful reminders that forgiveness is an important part of the human experience. At the same time, Elaine Fischel found herself believing ever more strongly in the values of the American legal system. The basic American legal concept that the accused is innocent until proven guilty, became part of the foundation of her lifelong belief in the American justice system. She also points out the profound idea, that the exposure of the Japanese people to the best of the American legal procedures and attorneys, helped pave the way for Japan's return to the family of nations.

For me, the power of the book is the author's first hand account of the trials, and of her growing friendships with her "enemy friends". Her understanding of the inner goodness of the Japanese leaders despite their being charged with unspeakable crimes, is a testament to the power of the human spirit. If Elaine Fischel was able to forgive the person, if not the crime, is evidence of the goodness of humanity. Instead of vengeance, the Tribunal set out to give every defendant a fair and open trial. While there were various members of the Tribunal who didn't always live up to the ideal of the legal system, Elaine Fischel describes how the system did achieve most of its goals. The author provides vivid portrayals of all of the most prominent members of the legal community, as well as personal accounts of the many defendants in the trials.

I highly recommend the powerful and must read book Defending The Enemy: Justice For The WWII Japanese War Criminals by Elaine Fischel, to anyone seeking a deeper and more personal understanding of the little known trials of Japanese war criminals following the end of the Second World War. The story told by Elaine Fischel is also one of realization that justice is important for everyone, and that all people are entitled to legal representation in court. That recognition of the power of the basic right of everyone to a fair trial, is especially critical, when the defendant faces charges of committing the most horrific of acts.

Read the crucial first hand account of history as it unfolded Defending The Enemy: Justice For The WWII Japanese War Criminals by Elaine Fischel, and discover that the spark of humanity still shines, even in those people accused of the most horrendous crimes. Share with the author the joys of friendships, and join in the sorrow of watching friends tried, often convicted, and sentenced to be hanged. This deeply moving book, and its lasting tribute to the importance of justice for all, is not to be missed.

Tags: Defending The Enemy: Justice For The WWII Japanese War Criminals, Elaine Fischel, Japanese WWII War Trials, history book reviews.

Connected by Nicholas Christakis & James Fowler - Book review

2009-10-30T08:58:00.002-05:00

Connected

The Surprising Power of Our Social Networks and How They Shape Our Lives

By: Nicholas A. Christakis MD, PhD. & James H. Fowler PhD.

Published: September 28, 2009
Format: Hardcover, 352 pages
ISBN: 9780316036146
Publisher: Little, Brown & Company

"The key to understanding people is understanding the ties between them", write authors Nicholas A. Christakis MD, PhD. and James H. Fowler PhD., in their groundbreaking book Connected: The Surprising Power of Our Social Networks and How They Shape Our Lives. The authors demonstrate that social networks have a profound effect on how people live, think, and behave. There are even discernible rules governing that behavior and the relationships between people.

Nicholas Christakis and James Fowler apply years of research into the complex social relationships between people, and how those interactions have a direct influence on how connected individuals will behave. The authors also discovered in their research that an individual can have their behavior changed even by people who that person has never met and doesn't even know personally. Friends of friends can be more influential than more closely tied people. Human society, according to Nicholas Christakis and James Fowler form networks that parallel other networks found in science, and indeed human networks can be even more complex than those found in nature or in technology. For the authors, these human connected networks can even take on an organic life of their own.

Nicholas A. Christakis and James H. Fowler (both in photo left) recognize that the understanding the importance and influence of social networks changes the perception of individual control over one's life. The authors realize that such an insight can be frightening for many people. On the other hand, they consider the powerful idea that interconnectedness is a crucial force in a person's life. That force can also be one for good, and can have benefits for all members of the interconnected networks. For Nicholas Christakis and James Fowler, knowing how people are connected is critical for understanding the human experience.

For me, the power of the book is the in depth analysis undertaken by Nicholas Christakis and James Fowler as they delve into the connections that create human networks. Because people interact with one another, and friends of friends have friends, a social network can exert considerable influence over how people within the group behave. That knowledge can be applied to fight the spread of disease, inspire more people to vote, or to help find suitable marriage partners. The authors also describe the importance of social connections in the online internet world. Their research found that networks and internet communities behave in a similar manner to connections made in the off line world. The knowledge of how connections are created, multiply, and interact can have a powerful effect on people's health, safety, and happiness.

I highly recommend the exciting and important book Connected: The Surprising Power of Our Social Networks and How They Shape Our Lives by Nicholas A. Christakis and James H. Fowler, to anyone seeking a deeper, science based study of human connectedness. The authors provide compelling evidence that social networks are a crucial part of the human experience, and how those network interactions can have profound effects on the lives of the network's membership.

Read and take time to ponder the concepts presented in the must read book Connected: The Surprising Power of Our Social Networks and How They Shape Our Lives by Nicholas A. Christakis and James H. Fowler. In an ever shrinking world, linked more closely together through the internet and globalization, a clear understanding of how connections are formed and effect their participants is vital in the global economy. At the same time, the same concepts can be applied to recognizing the influence of one's own social networks. The book is a wonderful guide to how people interact and behave, and is essential reading for everyone.

Tags: Connected: The Surprising Power of Our Social Networks and How They Shape Our Lives, Nicholas A. Christakis, James H. Fowler, human social networks, science book reviews.