Review of The Attention Economy : Understanding the New Currency of Business (Hardcover)

The war for eyeballs and attention can only grow fiercer over the next few years. In the Information Economy we all suffer from overload and the need to multitask through the day. Tom Davenport and John Beck makes the case that in the future we will need to `attention manage' as a metric. They ask whether `we are the first society with ADD' (attention deficit disorder), and they list symptoms of organizational ADD.

As mentioned in the editorial review the Attention Economy is littered with anecdotal pull-outs and "overheard" comments; as well as random factoids such as that the Sunday edition of the New York Times contains more written factual information than was available to reader in the 15th century. Though these factoids are intriguing they can be distracting as they are not always connected to the main body of material. But in some ways they exemplify the attention problem as you are often drawn to reading them.

The main body of the book is devoted to looking at tactics for companies to achieve and manage attention both on an internal basis and with their customers and partners. Softer issues such as personal time management are looked at in the context of the wider picture and have implications for both people and organizations. I found the book however to be missing a `model' or framework that companies could really use. Aside from having an in-depth awareness of the issue, I am unsure what I would do/have done differently after reading it.

The book is well written and engaging, and the authors present an excellent perspective on this most-precious resource.



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Review of The Global Financial System (Hardcover)

I read the Japanese version of this book. This is one of the best finalce books I've ever read. This book helped me to understand much better the future of financial businesses. It is especially good in explaining: whatis the rationale for financial intermediaries to exist,how capitalmarkets evolved, why corporations hedge by themselves, and how asymmetricinformation affects financial instruments.



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Review of MarketBusters: 40 Strategic Moves That Drive Exceptional Business Growth (Hardcover)

Ignore the glitzy title and concentrate on the solid material which is provided. As the subtitle of this volume correctly indicates, McGrath and MacMillan identify and then explain "40 strategic moves that drive exceptional business growth." Decision-makers in many organizations still do not understand that strategies resemble hammers in that they "drive" tactics which are comparable with nails. Of course, both strategies and tactics must be selected with meticulous care, then implemented effectively. The core of this book involves five strategies to create "marketbusters": Transform the customers' experience, transform your offerings, redefine profit drivers, exploit industry shifts, and consider entering (for you) new markets. No news there. The value of this book is derived from McGrath and MacMillan's explanations of (a) HOW to select the strategies which are most appropriate to your organization's current and imminent needs and (b) WHAT to do when coordinating those strategies with tactics (or "moves") during the implementation process.

To assist that process, they provide "Preparing Yourself: Audit Your Strategy and Clarify Your Process," a self-dianostic which poses most (if not all) of the key questions to be answered and most (if not all) of the key issues to be addressed. Of special interest to me is the provision, also, of a set of "Action Steps" at the conclusion of each chapter. With regard to the "40 Moves," they are organized as follows, accompanied by specific examples: Numbers 1-5 which involve changing the consumption chain (pages 25-39), Numbers 6-12 which various companies have used to shift the attribute maps for their offerings and create marketbusters (pages 54-76, Numbers 13-20 which suggest potential alternatives to a current unit of business (pages 92-113), Numbers 21-32 which can help to structure (or restructure) consideration of possible industrywide shifts (pages 119-148), and Numbers 33-40 which can assist the formulation of a typology of potential opportunity types and an understanding of what achieving success with each may require (pages 156-179).

McGrath and MacMillan then provide a "MarketBuster Case Study" of Royal Insurance Italy in which they demonstrate at least some of the potentialities of the cohesive and comprehensive process previously discussed, followed by an Appendix in which all 40 "Moves" are briefly but thoughtfully reiterated. I strongly recommend to those who read this book that they re-read the Appendix at least monthly so as to be prepared to recognize whichever new growth options and opportunities may emerge since first reading this book.

When concluding this brief commentary, I presume to offer a few caveats. First, beware of what Jeffrey Pfeffer and Robert I. Sutton characterize as "The Knowing-Doing Gap" in the book which bears that title. More often than not, decision-makers fail to convert knowledge into action to achieve the desired results. In this context, I am reminded of Coach Darrell Royal's assertion that "potential" means "you ain't done it yet." Also, expect to encounter substantial resistance to change initiatives. For example, what Jim O'Toole characterizes in his book, Leading Change, as"the ideology of comfort and the tyranny of custom." Moreover, once you have selected the most appropriate strategies, you must obtain buy-in and then maintain a steadfast commitment to them but be prepared to change tactics. Hence the importance of having an early-warning system as you rigorously measure organizational and individual performance. Finally,have a contingency plan in place so that you can respond immediately and effectively whenever new or revised tactics are required.



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Review of From Global to Metanational: How Companies Win in the Knowledge Economy (Hardcover)

What does a large company need to concentrate on for sustained success in a globalized world? Doz and his colleagues claim that it is to become metanational and to become good at innovating from a platform of bringing together knowledge from many different parts of the world. Metanationals differ from globalized companies in that they recognise that new ideas, products or directions may originate somewhere other than the corporate centre.

The focus of the authors is on innovation and they argue that this requires that the organization becomes good at :
* identifying where good ideas and special competencies are;
* mobilizing the often scattered capabilities and opportunities (they use the term 'becoming a magnet' for such capabilities); and
* optimising the size and configuration of operations for efficiency, flexibility and financial discipline.

This is a book that makes an important point about success in a globalized world, but presents one factor in success as if it was the whole. As with a number of books, I had an uncomfortable feeling that the content of a very good article was expanded into an only moderately good book.

The core message is important and useful. Organizations that operate on a global scale need to move beyond the extension of a unitary culture into new localities and recognise that new knowledge is found in unlikely places. They need to become excellent at recognising that knowledge, becoming an attractor for it, mobilizing it to provide a superior stream of innovations and operationalizing production, distribution and marketing into diverse markets.

The weakness is that the book is written at a fairly high conceptual level - for all the detailed example - that fails to get to grips with how to manage multiple cultures or the detail of innovation, or the issues of governance across countries. It also has surprisingly little on the major changes that are occurring in world consumer markets.

The book also falls into the 'one size fits all' trap. Issues of being effective globally are very different for a consumer fashion business, a high tech product or service industry and a major commodity business, but this is not recognised explicitly in the book.



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Review of Digital Enterprise : How to Reshape Your Business for a Connected World (A Harvard Business Review Book) (Hardcover)

This is a collection about the reshaping of the business enterprise. Whether the underlying driver of change is 'the digital revolution' or whether it is simply the emergence of new perspectives on business is probably not a profitable argument. Certainly some of the best articles in this collection have little to do with the Internet as such and a lot to do with rethinking business models.

Carr's introduction is particularly good - and is the one part of the book that subscribers to HBR will not have had the opportunity to read already.

In Part 3, there is a very engaging article by Ricardo Semler, best known for Maverick! It is essentially a description of how an entire enterprise has set itself up as a powerful forcing bed for developing and supporting every individual and group within the organization to act as entrepreneurs. By extension it is a powerful condemnation of the loss of potential creativity - and profit - in 'conventional' organizations.

Part 1 ends with a truly startling article entitled 'Transforming Life, Transforming Business: The Life-Science Revolution'. It is startling not for what it says, which is that genetic engineering in all its forms offers enormous business potential, but also carries with it great difficulties, both technically and of acceptance. The startling thing is that there is no mention - not even the whisper of a suggestion, either in the article itself or in the appended note by the Editors of Harvard Business Review - that there are ethical issues to consider and resolve. If this article reflects the thinking of those engaged in the genetic engineering industries, it is no wonder that they have a problem!



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Review of Time-Driven Activity-Based Costing: A Simpler and More Powerful Path to Higher Profits (Hardcover)

Activity-based costing can provide important insights; however, it also can be complex and difficult to implement and sustain. Time-driven activity-based costing more straightforwardly uses time as the primary metric for assessing costs, since almost all costs have a time dimension. Robert S. Kaplan and Steven R. Anderson provide a thorough, if highly technical, introduction to time-driven activity-based costing. Chapter by chapter, they show readers how to estimate process times, calculate capacity cost ratios, and plan and implement a TDABC system. Their detailed case studies illustrate the benefits of this clear, sophisticated tactic for budgeting, cost management, process improvement, benchmarking and acquisition evaluations. getAbstract thinks their book will be important to any executive, manager or academician who must understand operational costs.



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Review of How Countries Compete: Strategy, Structure, and Government in the Global Economy (Hardcover)

I expected great things from this book. After all, when your very title takes issue with Paul Krugman ("countries don't compete, firms do"), one counts on intriguing new insights. Alas, not here. It is a collection of very nice, albeit somewhat opinionated capsule economic histories in ten countries, from South Africa to the US. As you move along, you finally realize that countries are not competing with each other. They are "competing to grow," shaped by "four elements of successful economic development: (1) national strategy, (2) economic structure, (3) resource development, and (4) efficient use of resources." The compilation of interesting facts about each particular case can come in handy, but it is very difficult to see how these facts add up to lead to the ten success factors presented at the end of the book: (1) basic property rights, at best temporary fiscal deficits, higher savings and investment rates, strong central banks, sound microeconomic policies, labor market flexibility, avoiding the resource curse (for resource-rich countries), low levels of corruption, an acceptable income distribution, and adequate current balances.

Anyway, it would be a nice little book for reference, but it is marred by what appears to be a dearth of editorial talent over at the folks of Harvard Business School Press. There is Japan going down to "unconditional defeat." (p. 25) In Malaysia, the "majority (5.98 [sic] percent was Malaysian." (p. 41) In China, "the majority of the investment came from expatriot Chinese ..." (presumably still flashing their Super Bowl rings, p. 65) There is reference to a "John" Hopkins University, and the Southern African Development Community is rendered as "South African," and there are incomplete sentences("The World Bank estimated that SOE productivity was -1.2 percent annually."P. 65).

Finally, there is a certain element of what one might consider an often peculiar perspective. Putin does very well in the description of the Russian experience. Italy (and Europe in general) might as well throw in the towel, according to Vietor's views. There is an intriguing observation that "... [b]ound by their roots, most Italians are unwilling to relocate even when offered higher-paying jobs." (p. 207) That must have come as quite a surprise to the Italians who represented the first wave of Gastarbeiter in Germany in the 1950s, and their descendants. Right next to it is the gem that "[d]espite a high population density, Italy had the lowest birthrate in Europe." (also p. 207) Does that mean that countries with low population densities normally have low birthrates? And then there is President Bill Clinton "imposing a significant tax on energy (British thermal units, or BTUs, which release carbon dioxide when burned.)" Presumably American thermal units don't do that. And there is much more.

All in all, for those who expected to get a new perspective on the competitiveness debate--and I certainly agree that government actions can make, or often break, efforts by private enterprise to compete--will walk away disappointed.



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