Roman's miles

Book review: Lightning in a Bottle: The Proven System to Create New Ideas and Products That Work

"The proven system to create new ideas and products that work" - is the subtitle of a book by David Minter and Michael Ried "Lighting in a bottle". I work in a new product introduction group and my duties make me automatically interested in the theme - how to generate new ideas for successful products and services. Although there are a ton of books and articles on the topic I still hope to get a seed of wisdom when take such books to read. This book is "for large organizations that must have big ideas to survive". My expectations were clear - find new ideas, patterns, and methods that can beget and  foster new ideas, especially when the authors talk about a proven system.

The book consists of about 200 pages split in 15 chapters organized in two logical parts. The first one (about 60% of the book) teaches us why the existing methods of hunting for new ideas fail. The rest explains the new proven system. The authors bring examples mostly from the entertainment industry although they claim that the system is generic and works everywhere.

The anti-pattern part of the book starts off by posing Blookbuster as a success story, describes how today in the corporate America new ideas are generated and then goes why the current methods of idea generating fail. The authors state that only 10% of new ideas survive and 90% fail and wonder why an idea generation process should be different from any other business activities:
- What if only one in ten products manufactured was good enough to sell?
- What if only one in ten people hired were good hires?
- What if only one in ten of our accounting reports was accurate?

Here was my first "how come?" question to the authors. Why do we compare an idea-generating process to anything else clearly predictable and precisely defined? Idea generation is firstly an act of creativity rather than a predefined flow of operations. Should we maybe establish the 6-sigma standards for new idea generation? And what's wrong with the 10% level of success as soon as it's real success (of course, 11% or 12% is better but 10% of real success is seriously good enough).

Then the authors bring quite vague and amorphous reasons why the new idea generation process doesn't work in the corporate America - nothing new, very obvious suggestions, and short and primitive examples.

The next chapter in the de-briefing of crashed idea generation projects lists the 10 reasons of failure:
1. Trying to sell things people don't want to buy
2. The ideas don't make financial sense
3. Giving up too soon on good ideas
4. Pushing bad ideas too long
5. No separation of good ideas from bad
6. Thinking small
7. Delegating idea development to junior people
8. No specialized talent for developing ideas
9. No process, or a poor process to develop ideas
10. No real, important difference versus competition

Each of the statements comes along with examples supposedly brought to convince the readers that the 10 reasons fully explain the challenges of the new idea generation process. Although the anti-patterns obviously can be found in every failure of a new idea generation they don't teach us anything new. Why a bad project fail? Because it was bad and one was pushing it for too long! A big waste of time and paper - the feeling I got from this chapter.

The apogee of the "worst practices" of the corporate America is the anti-thesis of market segmentation. Chapter 9 teaches that "computer-driven market segmentation is a figment of your imagination". Don't look for a sector of the market or an unused niche - go instead for all and seek for one big idea. "Most largest companies or brands do not need more ideas - they need a few ideas that really make the tires burn" - the gist of the book.

No doubt, big money comes from wide and deep markets. But isn't it a self-killing practice to start only ideas that can be proved to bring huge revenues? Instead of identifying and focusing on a market's sector tryin instead to make a product "one size fit all"? Even the examples brought to strengthen the thesis don't make it sound confident: Starbucks, Wal-Mart, Disney. These companies clearly do have their targets sector today, let alone the time when they just were starting their business.

"The way companies got big in the first place was by having one good idea that appealed to a lot of people" - continue the authors. How about Porsche or SAP? How about generating new ideas in non-existent yet markets? The ideas of disruptive innovations, expanding the core business, and crossing the chasm? How about the ideas of starting focused and small and then going to expand carefully? How about the idea of failing cheep? Much more successful examples prove the last theories are more pragmatic and fruitful than the practice of seeking one magic bullet idea.

The how-to-do-it-right part of the book has the seven steps of successful idea engineering:
1.Learn
2.Develop working theories
3.Develop ideas and concepts from the working theories
4.Conduct financial due diligence
5.Talk to consumers one at a time
6.Iterate the concepts by listening to consumers
7.Take the best concepts coming out of the interviews and monetize them.

Wow! Now if you just follow the 7 steps you'll get the next killer application! Obvious? Quite a bit. Stunningly new? Not really. Doesn't the corporate America learn or develop working theories? Anybody starts a project without projecting its financial due diligence? I probably agree with the importance of talking to the customers and doing it one at a time but am very frustrated by the 7 revolutionary steps of the idea engineering process.

In general, I'm disappointed by the book in all its aspects: structure and organization, design, examples, the manner of getting to the point, repeating and mixed ideas. It seems that the authors have a sound experience in the entertainment industry and some ideas that helped them to advise their customers. The book as it's written, though, suits for one long article (at best) or a series of few blogs.

I could have skimmed the book through but it was Lisa's request for making a review and I honestly did read every word.

If you heard the opposite about the book or want to give it a try let me know and I'll mail it to you.

Technorati tags: book, review, new+idea

How to read fast

Let me explain the title. I didn't mean how to read more words per minute that a bunch of different techniques claim to educate. My needs were how to increase the speed of comprehension of the read material, especially of business or studying books. Let's start with an extreme but clear case. Assume that we research a topic or read a book just to widen our horizon. If it's not our first book  in the realm the odds are good that we already know something about the matter; now we can either read every single word or skim through. The former is not efficient - we may read about the concepts we already know and waste our time. The latter is risky - we can miss something important and lose the book's value. Balancing two options is the kind of the fast reading I'm referring to in this blog.   

I already brought Brad's explanation on his way to read 8(!) books a week: "(a) no TV, (b) no kids, (c) four to six hours a night of reading, and (d) the willingness / ability to skim when things are dull". So the question is how to find an optimal pace for a book to trade off speed and comprehension most efficiently. I just started practicing this method and here are few my suggestions.

• Build expectations for the book. Before starting the book make it clear for yourself why you decided to read it. What is the question you're seeking answers for and why is this book indeed. Is it a particular idea, a set of examples and case-studies, or you need deep diving to the realm. Depending on the answer you may predefine what chapters to skim through. A good example of what I mean here is a pile of the books of Geoffrey Moore. Each of them is great but you don't want to read each of them from cover to cover.
• Always read the book's introductions (all of them).   In a read-every-word mode that was the only victim of my through-skimming. When I was cover-to-covering  a book I thought I didn't need to know what the book was about - I'd know it upon completion. In optimizing the pace very valuable information can be found in introductions. We need to figure out what the authors will be telling us on the next pages (or, at least, what they promise to) and adjust our expectations (see the first item). Often authors explain the book's structure that may also help us to make up our reading plan.
• Understand the book pattern. Every author is different but even every book of an author may be different. Still each book has its structure and style which even if not explained in the introduction nevertheless can be figured out after a few chapters. We need to recognize a question the author is about to answer, possible options for the answers, analysis of the dilemma if it exists, winning answers, and examples proving them. Depending on your needs you may decide what is "dull" for your particular case and accelerate reading. To make it precis the book's structure must be known.
• Take a sample and check the pace. After you answer the above questions you can start skimming. Usually, if you're aware of the problems the authors are explaining, an introductory part of a chapter can be skipped. A few paragraphs detailing importance and complexity of the situation are good candidates to save time if you know the area. Figure out where they get to the point and propose solutions to the problems. You may skip quite a few paragraphs and find that you miss the point. Don't despair. Come back but not to the very beginning. Take a half of the way and try again. After a few iterations you'll find the pace.
• A book may vary - re-adjust the pace. Rarely I find a book that keeps the same pace, style, and tone on all the way. It may happen as you go from chapter to chapter, especially when there are many authors. The pace should be adjusted and re-tested again. 

I hope you'll find the tips useful and waiting for your feedback. The final confession is I still read fiction books in a cover-to-cover mode (or just throw them away) and I'm happy when I get a business book which reading without skimming pleases me.

Update: I'm sure you'll find uesful "How to read a business book" by Slacker Manager

Technorati tags: fast reading, books, read

The best of my first 92 blogs

I'm reaching the first hundred of blogs (this one is the 93d) and I want to group and re-publish links to the ones I like most. I hope you've found them interesting too.

On entrepreneurship:

• Why to become a founder?
• Business intelligence, SOA, and your grocery shop
• Falling corporate startups
• How to make your startup a "cool to be working in" company?
• Mossad, French Legion, or Taliban - what does your company look like?

On career planning

• Three questions employee should periodically ask themselves
• Work with pros
• Your current job -"a time to kill, and a time to heal"
• Are you waiting for a week-end to end or to start?
• Evolving from a software engineer to...

On managing

• How to manage Squidward in your team?
• Who is the ideal boss?
• Whom to hire for startup?
• Getting good at giving feedback
• How many of your folks will be working for you in a year?

Random ideas

• Committed or tentative?
• IT/Business - how to talk the same language?
• Three pragmatic isolations
• Resetting the targets (05)
• Email culture

Blogging with different pace during this year and making a blog not focusing on a particular topic I've somehow got a small but firm readership and I want to thank you all for that. Hope you'll continue enjoying reading my second hundred of posts too.

Book review: "Co-opetion"

I took Co-opetition by Adam Brandenburger and Barry Nalebuff with me to a coast-to-coast flight hoping to start practicing a fast reading method. Brad explained on his blog how he succeeds to read 8(!) books a week: "(a) no TV, (b) no kids, (c) four to six hours a night of reading, and (d) the willingness / ability to skim when things are dull". So I thought to try the method with Co-opetition and to complete it on my way from Atlanta to Palo Alto. From all the requirements only the willingness/ability to skim wasn't provided upfront. After the first dozen of pages I understood that that's not a skim-through book.

Adam and Barry made a book sharing principles of strategy, tactics, and planning carrying away your attention by clear reasoning, crystal logic, plain English, and bright examples. The book can takes it place on one's shelf next to "Good to great", "Marketing warfare", and the books of Jeoffrey Moore but unlike the latter doesn't goo too far in the academic direction. Quite the contrary, it oozes real, top brand examples, spending 90% of the text describing the stories of failure and success and only 10% devoting to formulating principles and recapping the arguments.

The book consists of two parts: the game of business and the PARTS of strategy.

The first part (about 1/3 of the book) introduces the concept of the value net reminding in a certain way Porter's five forces. The authors present a square graph with the business placed in the crossing of the diagonals and  customers/suppliers and competitors/complementers taking the opposite corners of the square. The book explains the theory of balanced forces and promotes principles and approaches symmetrically applicable to the corners of the net.

The war/piece preamble breaks the concept of known in advance friends and foes. Introducing multiple perspectives the authors claim that in the modern business world everything should be view through the prism of the net and simple definitions don't work anymore.

The PARTS (Players, Added value, Rules, Tactics, and Scope) are the components describing the game and depending on particular circumstances and targets the components have to be re-evaluated and re-mapped.

After introducing the concept the authors in the rest of the book religiously describe each of the components bringing tens of examples following and breaking the principles (and leading to success or failure correspondingly. Bright and bold marketing strategies of great companies leading to win-win situations with competitors, customers, suppliers, and complementers captivate you and don't let skim over. For every case of success the book brings a counter-example of failure as well cementing the principle and equally teaching and convincing the reader.

Among many other topics particular attention is devoted to such as how to manage negotiations, how to deal with perceptions, how to plan prices and avoid wars, how to establish and change rules, which tactics to apply, and how to analyze scopes.

Many new ideas flooded by almost detective business examples preclude me from skimming a paragraph in the book. A great pace with which the book expounding the matter, vivid examples, clear language, and strong (at times shocking) ideas make this book a solid must for everybody who deals with building, positioning, and rolling out products or services. Highly recommended!

Techorati tags: business, books, marketing

Another NOBS book - a candidate for the best book of 2006

I read quite a lot (still not fast enough) and though it's only mid of June I have another candidate for the best book I've read in 2006. "Never eat alone" by Keith Ferrazzi surely will appear  in my NOBS (No BS) list.

I greedily swallowed a library's copy in a couple of days and was so excited and impressed that ordered own copy at Amazon. This book should be a table book until you practice the ideas it preaches so deep and often that they become organic part of you.

As you may see from the title the book fights isolation and loneliness during a meal. It's not a metaphor though not the gist either. The essence of the book is "your network and connections are the pledge of your success; build your network via becoming useful to people, become a hub of connections, eagerly seek opportunities to help others, and never keep score".

It may seem that the ideas are not very innovative and it's true - they're not. But Keith succeeds to deliver such a simple message to readers' brains and hearts. A mix of bright and descriptive problem explanation, concrete and pragmatic advice (the book is organized as a set of such), and real life (actually Keith's life) examples makes reading experience gripping and inspiring.

I was quite sceptic when I took this book in my library. It's definitely a challenge to teach somebody on a very basic topic such a network building and nurturing relationships. Readers may soon find the content boring, repetitive, and obvious to keep reading. The problems are known, there is a variety of networking-101 tips published in magazines and the net, and illustrative examples of how right networking changed so-and-so's life. Still Keith amazingly broke the ice of scepticism with the very first pages turning the 'another-business-book-reading' exercise into very pleasant conversation (yes, while reading the book a strong feeling of a dialog doesn't leave you).

The books makes you look at your life's values again from another point of view. I won't re-tell the book's content and ideas here but strongly encourage you to find the book and read it. I wish I found it 15 or 20 years ago but happy that even today I ran across it. I'm sure I'll meet Keith in person one day and we'll eat together:-)

Lisa Haneberg - my first author on the NOBS series

I've been dreaming about how great it would be to have the NOBS book series. NOBS stands for "No BS" and only the books where every paragraph, every sentence, and ultimately - every word - brings clear added meaning can be published there.

For some reason an opinion exists that the thicker a book the more useful (and usually more expensive) it should be. Probably it's true for certain realms (like the science or the fiction literature) but definitely it's just the opposite for books of advice. When an author aims to pass a set of practical advice the thinner his (or her) opus the better. I, as a reader, am interested in getting the message and what even more important is the message's transmitting speed. Long explanations, wordy descriptions, and light-saturated chapters merely distract me from getting the point. I wish we had an elite book series for articles and books not suffering from that flaw.

Lisa's "Interviewers’ Secrets Revealed: How to Ace Your Next Job Interview!" is a great example of this idea. The eBook is only 39 pages long but every sentence of the book adds value to the point. The introduction is clear and short. I liked the book convention of using "her" and "his" for specific roles saving the author from the need to be sex-neutral. The books then starts with the background description - how to prepare to an interview. Very practical and pragmatic advice. Bulleted exposition, almost a set of instructions. Then a chapter about building self-awareness - how to identify your strong/weak traits. The trump of the book is the chapter "what employers want to hear". Absolutely essential examples of interview questions with recommendations on possible answers for a typical interview. And at the end a set of questions you should ask and things to do after the interview.

I'd say it's the only book you should have about interview preparation. I loved it so much that I after I read it I immediately ordered another Lisa's book - H.I.M.M. This is a 240 page book so it's a bit more difficult to take the exam of the NOBS series:-) I'll update you when I finish it.