Smart and Simple Financial Strategies for Busy People
Jane Quinn writes financial columns for various news organizations in addition to several books. So what does this book cover? Just about everything in personal finance? How much insurance should you carry? How to save for college for your children. What investments are good to put into your retirement savings. You can find this advice in lots of columns spread out, or read it all in one place and save yourself the time. That is why this is on the must read list.
The Wisdom of Crowds
The book title implies that crowds are really smart. Well, sometimes we are! The various chapters detail when a crowd can be smarter than the individual and how this collective intelligence functions in different situations. I found the cooperation discussion to be fascinating. Although it is common sense that cooperation is based on trust, the importance of trust to business and the history of capitalism are not obvious. The discussion is very apropos to the recent corporate scandals at Enron, etc. The writing and content are very good with one exception. Unfortunately, the concepts in this book are new. Thus, the book is mostly informative and doesn’t offer solutions to the problems.
The Goal
The Theory of Constraints is the creation of Eliyahu M. Goldratt first introduced in his book The Goal. TOC claims that within any system, there is a choke point (constraint) which determines the throughput of the system, whether that throughput is units of production, profits, etc. What sets TOC apart from other research is it provides a solution! TOC includes tools to identify constraints and manage those constraints to maximize throughput. Most of the current published works focus on production just as six-sigma, TQM, and similar methods do. The application is much broader, and newer books are expanding TOC into the other realms, like human resource management.
The Goal is actually written as a novel. Unfortunately, it doesn’t present enough of the solution.
Freakonomics (Steve Levitt)
Telling Ain’t Training
An absolute must-read for anyone that trains. I don’t put this in the overall “must read” category as not everyone wants or has a role that requires them to be a trainer. The focus of this book is the difference between how adults learn (andragogy) and how we were taught during our school years (pedagogy). The material is very pragmatic – the book practices exactly what it preaches. My first exposure to this material was an eye-opener. I immediately changed the design of my statistics class by adding as many hands on experiments as possible. The latest lesson my teaching experiences has re-enforced is the book’s recommended practice of designing training backwards. In the example of my stats class, that would be selected the homework problems first, then solve them myself, analyze the skills and techniques I just used, and make that into class material. Other interesting sections talk about training myths, e.g., technology improves training effectiveness and lowers its cost (because training is about people, and the cost reduction turns out to be a shell game).
ASTD press and Harold Stolovitch have since followed Telling Ain’t Training with two sequels: Training Ain’t Performance, and Beyond Telling Ain’t Training Fieldbook. Harold and his co-authors also have a new book out, Handbook of Human Performance Technology.
Beyond the Goal
Not as ground breaking as The Goal. Still, some interesting ideas are presented. The one I remember the best is Eliyahu’s comment on metrics – that no person is able to achieve (optimize) more than five metrics at once. In other words, any system that requires the user to do so will be a sham! Why? Because you have to lie!
The Pentagon’s New Map
This book is an expanded version of an article written by T. Barnett a few years back. His basic thesis is that all the recent trouble spots our military has been involved in share one thing in common – they are not part of the economically integrated, functioning core. Put another way, economic integration with the free trading world creates economic co-dependency and an infusion of freedom (human rights) which are at odds with inter-nation war. Starting with that principal, he dissects US military policy since the end of the cold war. It is a very interesting analysis. Some of his ideas are clearly part of current U.S. foreign policy and the real reasons we are in Iraq. The book isn’t perfect – Barnett is long winded, self aggrandizing, and idealistic (especially his predictions and solutions) – but those issues don’t outweigh the novelty of his analysis and its relevance to the future.
Confronting reality: doing what matters to get things right
I listened to the CD version – it was well narrated. It succeeds Execution and extends the discussion on knowing the reality of your business. The emphasis is on the corporate business plan, the big picture. Thus, the target audience is the high-level corporate executives whom are responsible for shaping “the plan.” What I found useful at my low level is it gave me an idea what kind of questions our business leaders should be asking, and what kind of information they should be seeking in their business analysis, and thus what you should expect to hear if they are doing their jobs. Many of the examples are intriguing, and the author’s even give a counter example or two (companies that did it “wrong” yet still succeeded).
The Measurement Nightmare: How the Theory of Constraints Can Resolve Conflicting Strategies, Policies, and Measures
A relatively complete book on the Theory of Constraints for production environments. The author is an experienced consultant with some very good stories and explanations. Her message is simple: “focus and leverage” (versus the shotgun approach of lean six-sigma).