http://bookbuzz.biz Bookbuzz - Always in good company frank@bits-c.nl (Frank Osinga) http://bookbuzz.biz/news/123 http://bookbuzz.biz/news/123 Sun, 21 Feb 2010 15:13:58 +0100 frank@bits-c.nl (Frank Osinga) http://bookbuzz.biz/news/122 http://bookbuzz.biz/news/122 Sun, 21 Feb 2010 15:12:48 +0100 frank@bits-c.nl (Frank Osinga) http://bookbuzz.biz/news/121 http://bookbuzz.biz/news/121 Sun, 21 Feb 2010 15:11:21 +0100 Control yourself! 99 ways to keep your head when all about you are losing theirs (and blaming it on you). The reference, of course, is to the famous line from Rudyard Kipling’s “If.” Most of us are fundamentally good, hardworking, decent human beings who wish others well. We are eager to get on with the business of life, we wish no harm to anyone, and we don’t accept that it is necessary to tread over other people in order to develop and grow. But there is a toxic minority who are neither good nor decent. They do not wish us well. They see us as a barrier to their development. They have a vested interest in badmouthing us.]]> frank@bits-c.nl (Frank Osinga) http://bookbuzz.biz/news/120 http://bookbuzz.biz/news/120 Sun, 21 Feb 2010 15:09:46 +0100 Whoops - Why Everyone Owes Everyone and No One Can Pay, moneymen don’t understand risk either. The bankers made inaccurate calculations about the mathematics of risk. They thought they had engineered risk out of existence. That mistake destroyed banks, forced others into public ownership, put taxpayers on the hook for hundreds of billions of pounds and brought the world financial system to a juddering, panicky standstill.]]> frank@bits-c.nl (Frank Osinga) http://bookbuzz.biz/news/119 http://bookbuzz.biz/news/119 Sun, 21 Feb 2010 15:08:06 +0100 frank@bits-c.nl (Frank Osinga) http://bookbuzz.biz/news/118 http://bookbuzz.biz/news/118 Sun, 21 Feb 2010 15:07:13 +0100 Edward de Bono and Robert Heller. I am an unreconstructed de Bono fan, and in the latest issue, he writes about the need to constantly challenge complacency. Thinking about alternative approaches may actually confirm that the current approach is the best one. Concepts, factors and values that arise in the course of thinking about alternatives can be useful in future thinking about the matter. To think you know in advance that there cannot be a better way is just an extension of complacency. To try to find a better way and fail to find one emphasises the value of the current idea - until another attempt is made later. We need to challenge complacency because failure to find a better idea reinforces our belief in the current system. Complacency is only justified when we have made an effort to challenge it and have failed.]]> frank@bits-c.nl (Frank Osinga) http://bookbuzz.biz/news/117 http://bookbuzz.biz/news/117 Sun, 21 Feb 2010 15:06:03 +0100 The reason I thought of Levy’s is that I have just read Veronica Canning’s Shoeisms: Working Woman’s guide to take control and be the sassy, successful woman you know you can be. The book is obviously aimed at women, but I kept thinking: “You don’t need to be a woman to benefit from Veronica’s pearls of wisdom.” The book provides a host of hard-nosed tips for taking control of your professional life. Veronica looks fear squarely in the face and shows how to do it anyway. She suggests that we become aware of our anger triggers, that we learn to fall forward, and that we emulate tortoises rather than hares.]]> frank@bits-c.nl (Frank Osinga) http://bookbuzz.biz/news/116 http://bookbuzz.biz/news/116 Sun, 21 Feb 2010 15:04:32 +0100 Fiddler on the Roof, the long-running musical based on Tevye the Milkman and other tales by Sholem Aleichem. This story of Jews in constant danger of attack from their Russian neighbours has resonated strongly with people from many other cultures. (In Japan, audiences were quoted as saying: “I enjoyed that, but how will anyone outside Japan understand it!”) The original Broadway production opened in 1964, and for almost 10 years the show held the record for the longest-running Broadway musical. The highly acclaimed production was extraordinarily profitable. I have a friend from New York whose father was approached to invest in a new Broadway musical. When he heard that the themes included persecution, pogroms and anti-Semitism, he laughed and refused. “No one in their right mind would ever pay to go and see such a show,” he said. “It’s a guaranteed loss-maker.” The $10,000 that he was being asked to invest would have netted him millions!]]> frank@bits-c.nl (Frank Osinga) http://bookbuzz.biz/news/115 http://bookbuzz.biz/news/115 Sun, 21 Feb 2010 15:02:33 +0100 Feargal Byrne’s LOST JOB START BUSINESS website www.lostjobstartbusiness.com recently posted this warm endorsement of Yanky’s Fire in the Belly:
Becoming an entrepreneur is a difficult and in many cases turbulent event in a person’s life. It’s a like a child getting his/her first set of teeth. It can be quite painful at the start, but once the teeth emerge past the gum line the sweets and chocolates that can now be eaten more than make up for the teething pains. There is no doubt about it, entrepreneurship holds many great rewards. But diving straight into the entrepreneurial deep end, when you have come straight out of employment can be daunting at first. Thankfully, Fire in the Belly provides excellent insight combined with an enlightening big picture view of what it means to be an entrepreneur.]]> frank@bits-c.nl (Frank Osinga) http://bookbuzz.biz/news/114 http://bookbuzz.biz/news/114 Thu, 07 Jan 2010 18:18:35 +0100 Fierce Leadership: A bold alternative to the worst best practices of business today, Susan Scott systematically demolishes some commonly-held management best practices. One of them is best practice #5: From customer centricity to customer connectivity. There is a great example of this in egonomics: what makes ego our greatest asset (or most expensive liability). Co-author Steve Smith tells of the day his air conditioner broke down. A repairman spent 30 minutes routinely checking all 20 best practice diagnostic items on his clip-board, and then added more Freon to the system, even though the air conditioner was not low on Freon. He explained his actions thus: “I couldn’t find any other problems, so I figured that was probably it. If this doesn’t work you’ll probably need a new air conditioner.” The next day, the air conditioner was still not working, so Smith called the repair company again, this time insisting – against the better judgment of the company - on a different repairman.]]>