BOOKS IN THE PINK
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Books in the PINK
The Breakthrough Company: How Everyday Companies Become Extraordinary Performers
Every large corporation started as a struggling business, but author Keith McFarland couldn't find a book explaining how they advanced from this early stage. So he wrote his own: The Breakthrough Company (Crown Business, January 2008). McFarland's research led him to eight principles, including "crowning the company," whereby leaders put the firm's interests above their own, and "navigating the Business Bermuda Triangle," crucial for surviving. When football legend Roger Staubach nationalized his commercial real estate business, he "crowned the company" by allowing agents to run their own offices as entrepreneurial enterprises under the Staubach name. And telecom company ADTRAN avoided the "Triangle" by encouraging customers to talk directly to its engineers rather than inserting layers of management.
Grace Kim
Flying Solo: How to Go It Alone in Business
This is the "soloists' century," according to Robert Gerrish and Sam Leader, authors of Flying Solo (Allen & Unwin, May 2006). Of all businesses today in the U.S. and U.K., two-thirds are solo ventures. Think you have what it takes to go solo? Soloists are fearless doers who love what they do, hold themselves accountable, cherish their independence, have their priorities right, are good with money, keep their cool and "can … because they think they can," the authors say. Flying Solo encourages would-be entrepreneurs to ignore "old assumptions" – small businesses fail, you must work long hours, suits are imperative,work must happen in an office, you shouldn't expect to enjoy your job – and teaches how to "adopt an attitude of success." The advice: "Develop a game plan … spread the word" and "keep on track."
Taylor Mallory
The Girl's Guide to Starting Your Own Business: Candid Advice, Frank Talk, and True Stories for the Successful Entrepreneur
The Girl's Guide to Starting Your Own Business (HarperCollins, 2004) offers a sounding board for women interested in starting a business. Don't be fooled by the cutesy title. Coauthors Caitlin Friedman and Kimberly Yorio, also co-owners of New York's YC Media, combine firsthand experience and interviews with some of the nation's best-known women business owners. This book's overriding message: Collaborate with like-minded and competent contractors and branding partners. "Aligning yourself with another small business of quality can enhance your corporate identity, build word of mouth and save on precious marketing dollars," they emphasize. Another suggestion is to find a business mentor. Don't have one yet? The website for the Women's Network For Entrepreneurial Training (sba.gov/womeninbusiness) is one resource they recommend to help women succeed.
Tiffany J. Davis
How to Run Your Business Like a Girl: Successful Strategies from Entrepreneurial Women Who Made It Happen
Does an entrepreneurial woman run her company differently from her male counterpart? In her book How to Run Your Business Like a Girl (Adams Media, 2005), Elizabeth Cogswell Baskin says women play by their own rules when starting businesses, since they do not feel the same pressure as men to run things the standard way. Drawing from her own experience and that of other successful female entrepreneurs, Baskin answers such questions as, "Can you be the boss without being a bitch?" (Yes! To avoid putting yourself in the bad cop role, gather people whose talent you respect and whom you genuinely like, she says.)
Taylor Mallory
Instinct: Tapping Your Entrepreneurial DNA to Achieve Your Business Goals
Instinct by Thomas L. Harrison (Warner Books, 2005) offers success tips that work whether you're a corporate CEO or launching a small business. Harrison, chairman and CEO of Diversified Agency Services, Omnicom Group Inc., shows you can be successful even if you "got shortchanged in the genetic lottery. But only if you know how to make up for what you may not possess." He uses case studies of entrepreneurs such as Kay Koplovitz, who founded the USA Network, becoming the first woman to head a television network. Harrison says for born entrepreneurs, "pleasure comes from winning. We get high on overcoming roadblocks." And such individuals are not afraid of risk. They have "risk blindness. Risk doesn't feel like risk; it just feels like the way the world works." He says the secret to success isn't just being smart and ambitious. For those who move from one success to another, "It's a drive to do more, to want more, to try more."
Tiffany J. Davis
Keep Them on Your Side: Leading and Managing for Momentum
In Keep Them on Your Side (Platinum Press, October 2006), Samuel B. Bacharach shows how to maintain per sonal connections to accomplish your long-term goals. He writes that leadership starts with com municating a vision and winning people over. Bacharach adds that the second part of being a good leader is sustaining the momentum need ed to turn your vision into a final product. He offers suggestions such as make sure people operate as problem-solvers rather than executers of specific tasks."
Bacharach cites Diane Keller, chief sales officer of Specialty Beverages, as a prime example of leading with momentum. Keller led her team to success when she centralized sales budgeting in her Chicago office, scripted sales scenarios, and had reps videotaped and coached.
Billie Rampley
The Kindness Revolution
"Peel back the layers of a company, and at the center is the core … the values of the company," writes Ed Horrell in The Kindness Revolution (AMACOM, August 2006). Through dialogue with employees at top-notch companies including L.L. Bean, Nordstrom and FedEx, and conversations with friends and family, Horrell comes to one important conclusion: A culture of kindness is key to building loyal customers. "Too many companies think there is a quick fix for their customer service problems, as opposed to making a long-term commitment to quality," he writes. "Dignity, respect, courtesy and kindness" are the values to be envied, and this book explains how companies can adopt them. For example, Horrell suggests surveying customers. "The best companies are not afraid to find out what their customers are thinking."
Aimee Kraus
Latino Boom! Everything You Need to Know to Grow Your Business in the U.S. Hispanic Market
America's largest minority group, Latinos, spent $686 billion in 2004 and is projected to spend $992 billion in 2009. Still, most companies fail to effectively reach these important consumers. In Latino Boom! (Ballantine Books, 2005), author Chiqui Cartagena lists 10 mistakes to avoid, including: Do not make assumptions that Latinos are poor, uneducated and unwilling to communicate in English; do not enter the Latino market without making a commitment; don't be fooled by the surname when hiring Latino experts; and don't assume you know who is a Latino celebrity. Latino Boom! advises marketers to focus on diversity. "Stop thinking about everything in terms of black and white," because "in the end, isn't green the only color that really matters in business?"
Taylor Mallory
The Power of the Purse: How Smart Businesses Are Adapting to the World's Most Important Consumers
According to Fara Warner, author of The Power of the Purse (Prentice Hall, 2005), most companies continue to market toward a stereotyped, homogenous "women's market" that no longer exists. Examining a few pioneering companies, Warner reveals what business leaders can learn. For example, Nike launched an unsuccessful campaign with female professional athletes. After failing with flowered tanks and pastel running shoes, Nike finally succeeded with its "feminine, tough and fashionable" Goddess line. Warner attributes Nike's success to "creating products from the ground up for women instead of retooling or scaling down products that were created for men."
Taylor Mallory
The She Spot: Why Women Are the Market for Changing the World—and How to Reach Them
Women are primarily the ones who keep nonprofits running, both with funding and volunteer work; yet most nonprofits don't appeal to women specifically for their support. In The She Spot (Berrett-Koehler Publishers, June 2008), authors Lisa Witter and Lisa Chen describe techniques for reversing this costly oversight. Women are not a "niche" audience, they argue, but rather are the audience, a powerhouse group that is the key ingredient for social change. To capture the female market, organizations should pay particular attention to greater transparency in their budgets, since women are more likely than men to research the trajectory of their donations. Meeting women's higher standards ultimately will have a payback across the board. When your organization exceeds women's "higher, tougher customer" threshold, "you'll sail above the men's bar as well and bring them along with you."
Elizabeth Butler
Streetwise Small Business Book of Lists
With the ambition of creating a one-stop reference for small-business owners, consultant Gene Marks and his group of experts have compiled the Streetwise Small Business Book of Lists (Adams Media, September 2006), a resource of business facts, rankings and candid advice. The lists range from the broad "Questions to Ask to Tell If You Have What It Takes to Start a Business" ("Can I generate enthusiasm about my idea from others?") to the narrow "Brilliant Deductions for the Self-Employed" (Open your business parties to the public in order to deduct the entire cost of food and liquor;write off your dry cleaning and laundry bills on a business trip). Marks ventures into consumer report territory with a section on office gadgets, plus travel tips for finding cheap airfares through Internet sites such as TripStalker and Booking Buddy.
Sarah Dowdey
Truth: The New Rules for Marketing in a Skeptical World
"In marketing, credibility is like air: You can't see it, taste it or touch it, but you'll find out very fast if you're running short," says Lynn Upshaw in Truth (AMACOM, May 2007). Upshaw demonstrates how leading firms like specialty grocer Trader Joe's use integrity to increase brand loyalty. Eighty percent of products sold at Trader Joe's are private labels, compared with 16 percent at most supermarkets. The private labels create a "label of trust" between Trader Joe's and its customers by being a tacit seal of approval. Truth also shows how major players have incorporated integrity into their companies. For instance, Gap Inc. uses a global compliance team to eliminate potential suppliers who violate labor rights.
Carol Romashko
Your Inner Entrepreneur
The National Association of Women Business Owners (NAWBO) is now publishing books. On the heels of its first, Taking an Idea to Market: How to Turn Your Vision into a Successful Business Venture, NAWBO has released two more this year. Your Inner Entrepreneur: Making the Move from Employee to Business Owner and Money Matters: Positioning Your Business for Growth. The books discuss how to begin the journey to successful business ownership. Check nawbo.org for more. No doubt such information is needed – with 424 women starting companies of their own every day, according to the National Women's Business Council.
