Gary Shapiro – Ninja Innovation: The Ten Killer Strategies of the World's Most Successful Businesses (William Morrow)

What is it that separates those companies that constantly remain on the cutting edge and leave in their wake a trail of successful products and are dominant not only in their product categories, but become dominant companies?

The names are familiar household brands known the world over; Apple, Microsoft, Google, and Amazon among others. Gary Shapiro, who spent his career on the frontlines of innovation as the head of the Consumer Electronics Association offers up insights from that perspective in Ninja Innovation: The Ten Killer Strategies of the World's Most Successful Businesses.

There is a common thread that runs through the leaders of these companies; the late Steve Jobs, Bill Gates and Jeff Bezos’ of the world. They all bring a focused vision, the ability to adapt seemingly on the fly, a decisive, determined nature and above all the limitless desire to win.

Are they strategic? Are they well planned? Do they innovate with a purpose? The answer to all three is clearly a resounding yes! But above all there is a bias towards action! Shapiro makes the case for the almost religious fervor with which these leaders/companies conduct business. There’s nothing laid back about these full throttle folks.

20,000Days and Counting - Robert D. Smith (Thomas Nelson)

It’s fairly easy to understand that when you walk into any library or book store in world you will find shelves if not entire sections of books insipidly labeled Self Help. It’s easy to be unhappy and miserable; most people don’t need a guide book to learn how to do it. If one was truly helping themselves, then they wouldn’t need a book to guide them.

I wouldn’t necessarily label Robert Smith’s book 20,000 Days and Counting “self help”, as much as a reminder that you can choose the life you want to lead. The misconception that most people have is that life dictates how they live, rather than they themselves choosing the direction their life takes.

Groundbreaking? No not really. Smith really runs on a familiar path, in short, easy to read and grasp book. Where he is at his best is when Smith talks about living each day with “maximum intensity”. Life is full of distractions and time wasters which can drag us down, Smith really lays out a guidepost to focus with a new intensity.

 One of the down falls of most books in this genre is that they tend to drag on and lose reader focus and end up on the shelf gathering dust. Smith gives the reader prescriptive to dos that are easy to put into practice today…while the count up clock is ticking.

To Sell Is Human: The Surprising Truth About Moving Others – Daniel Pink (Riverhead)

You gotta love selling related clichés: always be closing, you’ve got to ask for the sale, and my personal favorite “coffee is for closers.”

 

My friends at Miriam Webster offer this among the multitude of definitions for the word sell; “to persuade or influence a course of action.” For me that fits the premise of best selling author/famed speaker Daniel Pink’s new book, To Sell Is Human.

 

Pink makes the case that while millions of Americans, numbering 1 in 9 work in what would be considered “traditional” sales professions and that the other 8 out of 9 are actually in sales as well, in the form of non-sales selling. Any marketer worth his salt will tell you that every member of every organization plays a role in selling your organization, your service or your product.

 

It really boils down to the power of persuasion; we spend a large portion of our work day trying to move people, ideas, concepts or processes to co-workers, bosses, peers or the public. Pink posits that while some think salespeople are grown, selling is a natural, instinctual, process; an ability we are all born with. Like ducks to water we are all born with the basics to move people.

 

Pink tackles the ABCs of selling, which used to mean the aforementioned Always Be Closing that he changes to Attunement, Buoyancy, Clarity. At close inspection, they make sense; Attunement addressing the ability to mold your actions and views to work cooperatively; Buoyancy dealing with your outlook, spirit and grittiness and Clarity your capacity to make sense to difficult situations and create a clear path to solutions.

 

Pink provides actionable steps that can be put to work today, but I don’t find this to be a groundbreaking, head slapping, “why didn’t I think of that” kind of book. The six-successors of the elevator pitch, does serve as a good reminder that story is the cornerstone of what we do.