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The Town That Food Saved: How One Community Found Vitality in Local Food
Written by Ben Hewitt

The Great Reset: How New Ways of Living and Working Drive Post-Crash Prosperity
Written by Richard Florida

Reviewed by Marty Vanags

One of my favorite quotes comes from an old curmudgeon I once knew. I was sitting with him and an assortment of fellows at a coffee shop in a town where I once worked. We were talking about the changing landscape of the community and the world. This guy was usually very talkative, just like the other guys that were part of this coffee klatch. But, today he sat a little bit removed from the tables we had pulled together to enjoy our dirty jokes and teasing of each other. At age 40, I was by far the youngest of the group, with the oldest well into his seventies. I can’t remember his name, so let’s call him Ralph. As the the conversation went on, we started arguing about some local political activity until, finally, Ralph threw up both hands, slammed one down on the table in front of him causing a seismic stir among the coffee cups, water glasses and spoons on the table and declared in his loud sonorous voice, “I want progress, it’s change I don’t like.” Whaaaat???

Needless to say, we were taken by surprise and shocked into a very momentary silence until one of the guys broke out in big guffaws, which were quickly followed by everyone else.  While the quote is funny, ol’ Ralph was dead serious, and he had to think about it for second before he could wrestle a small smile out of the corner of his mouth and laugh at himself as well.

Ralph was experiencing the angst anyone has when they see the world as they know it change. The angst is usually precipitated by an acute change in their environment they don’t like. In the ‘60s, it was the hippies and the peace generation that caused anxiety when the world changed. In the ‘70s, it was sexual freedom and women’s rights that shook up the social order. In the ‘80s it was—well, I am not sure what it was—M.C. Hammer or Vanilla Ice? Moving through the ‘80s and ‘90s and into this decade, the world has continued to change—socially, culturally and economically. Do you want progress, but with very little change? How about “progressive change,” or “change that marches towards progress.” Ralph wasn’t talking about any of that. He was concerned that all the things he understood to be the world were changing for him, and frankly, he wasn’t open to it or prepared for it.

The recent changes in the economy have forced us to thank about change and progress. Can Ralph live his life of progress with no change? Can we have “progressive change?” Two books I have recently read talk about this. One book addresses changes to a local economy; the other, changes to our global economy. One is by an author of whom you have probably not heard; the other, by one I have reviewed here before.

In the first book, The Town That Food Saved: How One Community Found Vitality in Local Food by Ben Hewitt, we learn about Hardwick, Vermont—a small town of 3,200 people –and how the local food movement took hold in that community. The author is a local small farmer and writer who takes time to explore the people, places and nuances that make up a local economy in one small town. The town, like many others throughout the country, has had multiple economic personalities and is currently in the throes of change. Established in March 1795, the town was at one time the center of the Vermont granite industry. Today it is undergoing change and becoming, for better or worse, a town centered on the idea that people ought to buy local food from local providers.

The second book is by Richard Florida, author of The Rise of the Creative Class and Who’s Your City? and well-known among those interested in economics, urban issues and economic development. Florida presents his idea that the economy, at home and abroad, is in a period of change. The title of the book, The Great Reset, says it all. Enormous changes are occurring in our society and our world that will reshape our economy and our country as we know it. Florida, as he is so good at doing, provides plenty of empirical data to support his argument, whether one wants to agree with it or not.

Ben Hewitt started reporting on Hardwick, Vermont as a reporter for Gourmet magazine in 2008. Prior to this, a number of stories had been written in national media outlets such as the New York Times outlining the changes occurring in Hardwick. As with many stories like this, people became interested and wanted to learn more. What was occurring in this small out-of-the-way town that was so compelling? Was it a model for sustainability for other communities throughout the country who have gone through similar economic problems, perhaps here in the Midwest? Or was it a nice story about a bunch of characters who have stumbled upon a momentary idea and movement that is generating short-lived notoriety for its residents?

Hewitt does a great job developing the story which is really about a cast of characters—mainly, Tom Stearns, an “agrepreneur” (Hewitt’s word), founder of High Mowing Seed Company that has become the self-appointed spokesperson and media darling for the food movement that has developed in Hardwick. Stearns is a polarizing figure in Hardwick where half the people love him for what he has brought to the community, and the other half, who just want progress and no change, characterize him as the antithesis of that ideal. Stearns comes from an interesting background. Raised in agricultural boarding schools, he created an organic seed company that provides over 600 types of seeds people can buy and plant in their own gardens. According to Stearns, it all starts with seeds; even the cotton shirt one is wearing starts with seeds.

Other characters in this story include Steve Gorelick and Suzanna Jones, who operate a small farm on 40 acres and live off the grid. Their view on the Hardwick phenomena is less than complimentary. Hewitt describes a dinner he has with the couple whose sole purpose is to dissuade him from being taken in by the movement. Influenced by quasi-anarchical writers and thought leaders, Gorelick and Jones’ primary issue is with the fact that business people and entrepreneurs have “taken over” an already existing movement of “farmer-to-farmer” exchanges and sharing. Gorelick and Jones’ objections are less about this existing network and more about their primitive view of economics and capitalism.

In the end, Hewitt did an excellent job outlining and describing the characters that make up Hardwick. Furthermore, he clearly outlined through the descriptions of these characters the conflict and tension between those who have conducted the “back-to-basics” farming so revered by the local food movement for years and those who have purported to have discovered it and are now using it for financial gain. The descriptions of each player in the Hardwick play is vivid and provides a sense that one is really there and witnessing the conversations, the smell of the wood fires, the smell of the compost piles, the rich turned earth and the slaughter of pigs and chickens.

Hewitt’s book is a tome on the conflict that occurs when any system is upended or deconstructed. Living in the Midwest, we are so often led to believe that the fields of corn and soybeans right outside our windows are growing food, when in fact they are really producing an input for a large industrialized system of producing products that is sold as food in our local grocery stores. I have a magnet on my refrigerator that says, “Try Organic Food—Or as your grandparents called it, ‘Food.’” This is the true seed of the local food movement. Michael Pollan, author of The Omnivore’s Dilemma, says we ought to eat food our grandparents or great-grandparents would recognize, or in his words, “eat food, not so much, mostly plants”—a cure for the obesity problem in this country, maybe—but a solution to local economies on a small scale, probably. This conflict between food systems is evident, as is the conflict between those who want progress (or perhaps not) but little change.

Hewitt’s description of what is going on in Hardwick is the type of change that Richard Florida describes in his book, The Great Reset, but on a more macro level. Using history as his guide (as most social scientists are apt to do), he looks at critical times in the past 150 years—the 1870 economic meltdown and the 1930s’ Great Depression—as predictors of our current times. Reading Florida’s book on the heels of reading Hewitt’s, I was struck by the model Hardwick provided for a micro reset occurring before our very eyes.

If one is familiar with Florida’s work, one knows that his books are filled with well-researched data and analysis. This book is the first of his books that is void of tables and charts, but amply footnoted with information supporting his theories. Fans of creative class concepts have been quick to criticize Florida’s new thought pattern in this book and his previous book in abandoning the idea that cities can be revived by attracting a new creative class and building a new innovation economy. Florida doesn’t spend too much time on these topics and, instead, spends more time looking back at what has happened over the past 100 years that has brought us to the current day. He appropriately suggests that we quit pointing fingers and move forward with the huge investments and creation of social compacts that will propel us into the future.

Comparatively short for a Florida book, he delves into issues like consumerism and how there may be new pattern emerging that suggests the era of “ownership” of cars and houses may be on the wane, quite a reversal of a mere 10 years ago at the beginning of the Bush-led “ownership society.” He also describes the idea of transforming service workers into a new wave of innovators; in other words, engaging our maids, fast-food workers and others to develop new and innovative ways to provide cleaner hotel rooms and better-tasting hamburgers. Of course, no forward-thinking economist worth his salt would leave out a discussion of high-speed rail and its potential on our economy. Finally, Florida reaches back into his last book to discuss the idea of “megaregions” such as “Bos-Wash,” the megaregion that stretches from Boston to Washington D.C. and includes New York, Philadelphia, Baltimore and everything in-between. The closest megaregion to Central Illinois would be Chi-Pitts, the second largest in the country with over 100,000 square miles, 46 million people and $1.6 trillion in economic output.

Florida’s book is actually a pretty fast read. It started from an essay he had written in The Atlantic Monthly and turned into this book which, frankly, is an opinion piece on his views of all the new ideas that are currently “hot” and being talked about. This is mostly evident in the very last part of the book called “A New Way of Life,” where he discusses new migration patterns (covered in Who’s your City?), green and sustainable trends, high-speed rail, renting versus owning and new jobs.

How does Florida’s book reconcile itself with Hewitt’s story about Hardwick? Florida talks about massive changes occurring in our landscape and society. He discusses how megaregions are going to drive the growth of economies and how in the new reset, people will be drawn to these areas more and more. We will create new urban centers in suburbs which were once examples of sprawl, but now must be connected by investment in new infrastructure like high-speed rail and high-speed fiber for easy communications. Florida talks about change as does Hewitt. For those folks living off the grid in northern Vermont hoping for an anarchical revolution where we all migrate back to the rural areas, grow our own food and trade a pig’s belly for some chickens with our neighbors, I am afraid there is bad news if you read Florida’s book. However, in some strange way, the people in Hardwick are living and experiencing a local economy that can’t be found in an economist’s study. They have created their own reset, as Florida describes. On a very local level they have changed and moved their own economy forward through innovation, hard work and dedication to common age-old principles that stand the test of time. Perhaps this is a more sustainable approach to jobs and economic development.

Whether one identifies with the agrepreneurs of Hardwick or gets excited about the ability to travel on high-speed rail within the Chi-Pitts megaregion and enjoy the idea of outsourcing your business to global locations, one would have to agree that change is upon us. The economic bubbles of the past 12 years (technology and housing), globalization, energy security, terrorism and banking meltdowns have people looking at the cost of progress and the value of all their possessions. These are two excellent books that look at the macro and micro changes that are occurring and impacting this view.

Sorry, Ralph (if you still get together for coffee with the old boys)—progress will always occur, and it can’t help but result in change. You may not like it, but it’s time to adapt.

Written by Terra Brockman

Reviewed by Marty Vanags

I enjoy listening to the local director of the McLean County Museum of History talk about the local economic and business history of our area. Once, while entertaining about 35 consulates general from Chicago, our organization asked him to speak about the local economic history. It was fascinating, and in his speech as I recall, all commerce was local. At the turn of the century and before that time, many of the things we enjoyed in our community were often manufactured locally or did not come from too far away. And when a product did come from, say—New York City or beyond—it was looked upon as very special and, indeed, sometimes exotic.  The farther away it from where it came, the greater its mysticism and allure.

It is interesting to note that almost every town at one time had a manufacturer of automobiles. It was usually the entrepreneurial buggy-maker in town who simply attached an electric motor to buggies and, immediately, he was in the car manufacturing business. However, another entrepreneur with even bigger plans a couple states over soon commoditized the manufacture of vehicles, and in short order we all waited for delivery of our automobiles from Detroit, certainly a place with less allure than New York City, but far away nonetheless.

So it goes with many other things, and there are those who bemoan this fact. From labor unions to manufacturers, from the political right to the left and the common citizen, we ask ourselves “why does everything come from so far away?” China, India, Indonesia, Chile, Russia—all seem to have cornered our marketplace with their products. Why? There are a number of reasons why, but I am neither the expert nor is there enough room in this review to discuss it. But, manufactured products are not the only thing that arrives from off-shore.

So, where does our food come from?  I know some people who think their food comes from a box. And, indeed, in their case it may very well be true. The food issue is wrought with all types of political ideas, concepts of health, carbon fuel, security and, ultimately, taste. The idea of local food or regional food has become more and more popular in recent days, and it has been raising interest for some time in the United States.  According to the Wikipedia definition, local food or the local food movement is a “collaborative effort to build more locally based, self-reliant food economies – one in which sustainable food production, processing, distribution and consumption is integrated to enhance the economic, environmental and social health of a particular place.”

Recently, a group of people have shown interest in creating a local food processing center in our area. While working with them to determine the best way to apply for a grant to achieve this endeavor, I learned that one of them, Terra Brockman, was an author of a recent book, The Seasons on Henry’s Farm – A Year of Food and Life on a Sustainable Farm.  In this book, she takes a look at what life is like for a farmer who chose a different path in his life to achieve an American Dream unlike any that are often conjured in that phrase. Henry’s American Dream is one where he gets to spend time with the earth, plants, sun, wind, microbes, dogs, chickens, varmints and family. It is a life many might consider a nightmare, rather than a dream. This dream provides no time for hanging out at the pub, shopping at the mall, eating at Olive Garden or playing video games or golf. Instead, life on Henry’s Farm is a fulfilling life which seems to consume every minute of every day of the entire year with thoughts about the farm and much hard labor, according to the author who also happens to be Henry’s sister.

What is life like on Henry’s farm? Brockman divides her book into weeks, and right away we are entertained by an ample description of what it takes to plant garlic. Rather than starting in the first week of January with the descriptions of life, Brockman starts appropriately enough in the week that represents the last week of the season for the Brockman family, yet the first step towards prosperity in the next year. I thought it was a great place to start. As we amble through the weeks, we come to learn more about Henry, his family and the obvious respect that they have for the earth, the food we eat and how it gets to the table. The book is heavy on the multitude of varieties that Henry plants on his farm, and it is frustrating to think that unless you buy from Henry, you are getting short-changed at the local market. Even garlic comes in a wide variety of tastes and nuances that due to the consumption of chopped garlic in a bottle, garlic powder or spray, we have probably lost the ability to differentiate.

The Seasons on Henry’s Farm is an easy read, and the author’s descriptions of all aspects of life on the farm brings the reader to appreciate the hard work it takes to manage such a variety of activities. Many of our ancestors were farmers of the type that Henry represents: growing food for the table (their own table), and anything left over going to the neighbors or sold or traded to other folks nearby. Today, most farmers we see are growing corn and beans to be purchased by anonymous corporations and foreign governments for processing into many other substances. Henry represents the farmer we most likely read about as children: the type with chickens, dogs, sheep, a couple cows and, maybe, a horse.

The book requires us to reflect. Is Henry’s life on the farm a romantic notion that is available to a select few farmers and gives us capitalistic, carbon-consuming urbanites an opportunity to feel better by buying his product?  Is Brockman’s book painting a picture of a life that itself is unsustainable?  As one reads the author’s descriptions of everything from duck sex to the temperature and consistency of the soil and the ongoing relentless nature of the work involved to maintain a farm like this, one senses that sustainable or not—romantic or not—Henry and his family probably don’t think about it. In fact, I believe there is a sense of Zen-like “being” in Henry’s family about what they do. They feel that this is what they need to do, that it is a way for their family to be together and a way to bring about happiness, all the while respecting Earth and its resources.

Brockman’s book is a current nominee for a 2010 James Beard Foundation Award for writing. The James Beard Foundation, named for the original American “foodie” James Beard, honors everyone from writers to chefs and restaurants each year. Brockman will find out if she is the recipient of this very important award on May 2.  This is certainly a high honor and important as well. The book illustrates what a local economy looks like. It shows how economic development can occur even in the least likely places. It provides us a glimpse into another world, one where food production is done in a very earnest, honest and nurturing way. This honesty translates easily into words on a page and finds its way into your emotions, your heart and, ultimately, to your table.

If you read this book, you will appreciate life on the farm, and your thinking about how and what you consume will be challenged. Only you can decide what is important for you and your family, but be assured that people like Henry are concerned about what you consume, and it comes alive in a confident way in this book.  Consuming local food is good not only for your health, but also for the local economy. Let’s do it, so our food doesn’t go the way of the local buggy-maker.

Written by Jim Collins

Reviewed by Marty Vanags

When General Motors was on the cusp of failure late last year, it was my belief that we should go ahead and let the company fail. The risk-reward function of business, the philosophical underpinning of why people go into business, was at stake here. If we bailed out the company, we were merely rewarding the countless number of decisions that were made over the past 100 years by company executives and their union partners. The decision to price themselves out of the marketplace, the decision to continue building cars that people didn’t want or that the marketplace couldn’t support, and the inability to read the future and make adjustments were made by countless executives over the years, but with little consequences. Failure to grow and expand and make a profit one year was rewarded by outlandish executive pay and bonuses only a couple of years later when things seemed to have turned around. But, digging deeper, one may have found the five stages of failure that Jim Collins outlines in his latest book, How the Mighty Fall and Why Some Companies Never Give In (Harper Collins, 182 pages). Collins is well-known for his national bestsellers Good to Great and Built to Last and is known for backing up his books with a vast array of research and sound numbers. Collins can be found working at his management laboratory in Boulder, Colo. and holds degrees in business administration and mathematical sciences from Stanford University and honorary doctoral degrees from the University of Colorado and the Peter F. Drucker Graduate School of Management at Claremont Graduate University.

Very quickly, Collins jumps to a five-stage process of failure among the great companies and provides plenty of analysis and examples. Everyone from Motorola to Newell to Zenith is looked at, and we get a clue into why some of them failed while others succeeded, despite some pretty daunting odds.

The federal government came to the rescue of GM, along with a host of other financial institutions. We will argue for a generation of the value and worthiness of that rescue and whether it should have happened. Collins doesn’t get into the proposition of whether failure of the biggest companies is a good idea or not; he does, however, deconstruct past failures and give us the warning posts to look for.

Collins’ style is methodical and easy to read. I read this book in a weekend, and he laid it out very clearly. So, what are the five stages and what do they look like?

Stage 1: Hubris Born of Success. Great enterprises can be insulated by success. They succeed in spite of themselves, and they become arrogant with the idea that they cannot fail. Those looking at them from the outside see a company that has the “golden touch.”  Luck, chance and big gambles are part of this stage. Some companies stay with one great idea and never evolve.

They relish their Stage 1 successes and try to live off that greatness. Collins says these companies must take the company off autopilot and “exit definitively or renew obsessively, but do not ever neglect a primary flywheel.” This means you have to be careful to recognize what got you to the dance. Once on the dance floor, it is ok to try new moves, but always remember that fundamental step you learned that first day of dance class. That step, that move, was how you got on the dance floor in the first place.

Stage 2: Undisciplined Pursuit of More. Hubris from stage 1 leads right into stage 2 – undisciplined pursuit of more and more. This is the opposite of complacency. The attitude is that we can do anything, and nothing can stop us, so let’s pursue projects and ideas that we really have no business going after.

Companies can continue to grow without understanding the “why” of their growth – pursuit of more. That is the American birthright and, in fact, some would argue, institutionalized in the Constitution.  Collins argues that companies that pursue for the sake of pursuing don’t necessarily survive. It is one thing to set goals that one is going to grow and achieve, but then, that is merely activity. What is the quality of that growth, and is it sustainable? I have seen it myself working in municipalities and other organizations. Communities grow for the mere sake of growing. They continue to build without regard to whether the growth is sustainable and if the community can survive. Why? Because of the effects of Stage 1. “We are the best! No one can stop us because we are who we are.”

Pursuit of growth isn’t necessarily bad, according to Collins, but the “undisciplined” pursuit of growth can lead to major issues for longevity. Collins invokes Packard’s Law, which states, “No company can consistently grow revenues faster than its ability to get enough of the right people to implement that growth and still become a great company.” The law, named after David Packard, one of the founders of Hewlett-Packard, provides the ultimate guide in growth. Are the right people in the right seats? One person who advises me regarding our own organization asks the question this way, “Is everyone on the team an ‘A Player’?” If there are “B Players”, you need to move them up to an A. If they are a “C Player,” they need to think about leaving…and soon.

Stage 3: Denial of Risk and Peril. Although data is clear, it is explained ambiguously at best. Information is explained away as “cyclical,” “temporary” or “not that bad.” Bad news is spun to look at the positive.  It seems no one wants to be responsible anymore. Constant denial launches companies into projects and programs that steer them headlong into Stage 4.

How many financial services companies and banks fell into this trap over the past several years? Buoyed by hubris (Stage 1) and undisciplined pursuit of more (Stage 2), big companies, the ones too big to fail, repeatedly ignored the signs of impending doom and failure. We have lived this during the recession of the past year, and it has not only hurt the companies, banks and financial institutions that practiced these poor habits, they took the entire economy down with them.

Stage 4: Grasping for Salvation. All the denial that occurred in Stage 3 has now manifested itself in Stage 4 where the weaknesses and failures of the company are visible to all. “Saviors” come into play here; someone who will come in and appear to save the day with a bold new strategy, product or concept, but ultimately fails. Initial results are positive, but don’t really take.

Remember the stories about “Chainsaw Al” who was to come and save the day at Sunbeam? Well, after a few blustery years, his personality was overcome by reality. The company was doomed to fail even with the savior having just walked through the door. You see this in politics and public life, as well. It reminds me of the sheriff in Arizona who requires his inmates to wear pink jumpsuits and does all types of unconventional things in the pursuit of his job. Is it to make headlines? Or does it really mean something that will be sustainable and worthwhile in the end?  Those who will deny what is really coming through the door, are there for short-term successes and not long-term sustainability.

Stage 5: Capitulation to Irrelevance or Death. All the fancy efforts tried in previous stages, particularly Stage 4, are tried again and, after a while, people are either demoralized or the saviors of the companies sell out and head for the door. The company either becomes insignificant or dies a spectacular death publicly.

You can’t get out of Stage 5, but you can come crawling back from the depths of Stage 4. Some have done it. IBM is an example. Will car companies like GM and Chrysler do it?

I have to admit, I have never read Collins’ other books, but I am familiar with his concepts and ideas. What I do know about his work is that it is well-researched and well-documented. This book ends after 123 pages, and pages 128 through 182 are appendices and notes to the text. Over 80 pages of strong documentation and examples of research are supporting his ideas.

In the end, Collins argues that we all need setbacks, but the great companies who are not practicing or manifesting the five stages of failure can deal with these setbacks and bounce back. We all know people who have had significant setbacks and come back to be as successful as before or more successful than ever.  I’m sure many are waiting to see if Tiger Woods can become that person who came from total and colossal failure in his personal life (assuming all the tabloid articles are true), and be, once again, at the top of the golf world.

Collins himself outlines the abject failures of what most would consider one of the most successful people of the 20th century, Winston Churchill. His decisions and failures leading up to World War II were well-chronicled and he was at once vilified and disdained as one who could not lead. Yet, in the throes of crises he stood up against the Nazis and unified a country. Churchill’s core legacy was to never give in, and he never did. He never gave in; he just changed tactics. That, according to Collins, is the key to survival and success. Failure is only in the eye of the beholder.

Now, what will it take to get you into that Impala today?

Over a year ago, I started doing business book reviews for our newsletter. One of the great things about doing a book review is that it forces me to actually read something fairly consistently each month. It has been fun looking at the books in retrospect and writing something about them and what they mean personally to me. These book reviews are hardly the scathing tough-minded review one might find in The New Yorker magazine, New York Times or some other literary publication. Instead, these reviews are meant to provide life to an otherwise inanimate object. I hope I achieved that with some measure of success.  I have to admit that I didn’t do all the reviews. My thanks go out to staff member Ken Springer for reviewing Freakonomics and Harlan Geiser, board member, for reviewing The Great Game of Business.

I have many books already in mind to review next year. I am looking for books on leadership and new thoughts about business, leadership, how people use their minds, etc. You won’t see me reviewing political books or books about very divisive topics facing our world today. I have my opinions, and sometimes they are strong opinions about these topics, but having me spew those forward in the form of a book review would be unfair to the people I work with and work for. There are already many unproductive opinions about how things are or are not working, and I’m not sure I could add anything to that conversation (or shouting) as it may be.

I did want to reflect in this essay my fondness for the few books that stood out over the past year. One book I found very useful and has helped me understand a number of trends in current business is the book written by Donald Tapscott, Grown Up Digital. This book is very good at explaining the differences between generations, how they think and why they act the way they do. Donald Tapscott has been around for a while. I first saw him in 1994 at a real estate conference talking about his book, Paradigm Shift.  Yes, you can blame him for reintroducing the word “paradigm” into our lexicon. Just as fast as it came in to use, it was overused. Nevertheless, Tapscott has written a great book describing why we need to understand the youngest generation about to hit the workforce. They have much to say, they certainly work differently than other generations and they are all digital, all the time.

Another book I found useful was Groundswell:  Winning in a World Transformed by Social Technologies by Charlene Li and Josh Bernoff.  This book digs into the details of why people are using social media technologies, who is using these technologies and how they are transforming the world of communication. Both authors are researchers at Forrester Research, a media research organization, so the book comes with a lot of research and empirical evidence to back it up.

There were a couple of books I found merely interesting, not because of a business reason, but because they were just good reads. First was From the Bottom Up by Chad Pregracke with Jeff Burrow. Pregracke has created an organization that has spent the past 10 years cleaning up the Mississippi River and many of its tributaries. He started with equipment he could beg, borrow or…ok, he didn’t steal anything, but often the equipment he did get to help his cause did come as a “steal.” Pregracke is an inspiration to anyone who feels their progress in the world has been hampered by obstacles they can’t overcome. He proves you can skip the research part and merely start “doing” and ask permission later. The other book I enjoyed was The World Without Us by Alan Weisman. It is a short book about how the world would look after the human species became extinct through disease or other means.

All of the books I reviewed are worth reading. There will be more next year. Are there books you would like me to review? Or is there someone out there who would like to give reviewing a book a try? Give me a call or email me with your suggestions.

Written by Gary Vaynerchuk

Reviewed by Marty Vanags

In 1985, I took a series of wine classes at a retail wine store in the Chicago suburbs where I was living and working while attending graduate school. We started with German wines and worked our way through all the different types of wines and regions that were considered appropriate at the time (Europe and California).  The last class was the kicker – “Champagnes, Cognacs and Sherries.” I had to call a cab to get home after that class as I was unable to make it in one piece without risking my life, jail time and my new career. It was a great class, and I learned a great deal; particularly, that wine is to be enjoyed, and you can pair any wine with any meal or food as long as you like it. No wine snob can tell you what to do. We did learn, however, that certain foods taste better with certain wines, and I suppose that is the purpose of the pairing process.

So along comes the Internet and some guy from New Jersey spitting into his New York Jets bucket after each tasting on a video blog called Wine Library TV. I had never seen an episode of this wine tasting show until I became familiar with Gary Vaynerchuk, the video star, as a speaker and Internet social media maven. Now, one can see him everywhere talking about his passion for what he does – at social media events, on mainstream television talk shows and now with a new book named Why Now is the Time to Crush It! Cash In on Your Passion.

If you have been following the burgeoning growth of social media these days, you might be familiar with Gary Vaynerchuk. He is the impassioned, over-the-top, obnoxious, in-your-face, crazy man of video blogging and Wine Library TV. Gary Vaynerchuk launched his every-man wine tasting online party in 1997, long before video blogging was something that might be considered mainstream. And from there, he has risen to the top of the social media world and is considered a must-have at any blogging, Twitter or video blogging boot camp or convention. He has taken this new medium and turned his persona into part and parcel of the product he is trying to sell.

Some people would call his effort egotistical or even narcissistic, yet Vaynerchuk tends to pull it off, and if you don’t mind his rapid-fire, frank and sometimes humorous description of how wine tastes, you won’t mind Gary. In fact, you will like him. And if you need a football coach-type of pep talk about getting off your butt and doing something you want to do with your life, he’s your man.  Vaynerchuk is the darling of social media types and has turned his success of making a Jersey liquor store one of the leading seller of wines in the country from a single location into being a top purveyor of “you-can-do-anything-you-set-your-mind-to-as-long-as-you-work-hard” industry. This is nothing short of amazing.  Watching him work a video blog is like fighting a brown paper leaf bag. You can open it, but it’s never complete.

I have mixed feelings about this book. I really wanted to like it because at a base level I love people like Gary Vaynerchuk. Another example is Oprah. I don’t like to watch her show. I don’t DVR her daily broadcast. But, I like what she has done with her life. She didn’t have the easiest upbringing, yet she persevered. Today she sits upon an empire of media, only and mostly because she worked hard at it for many years. The opportunities come to her now, and she doesn’t have to work at it as hard as she used to, but no one handed her a media empire. She did it herself.

Vaynerchuk’s story is different from Oprah’s, but it’s a good one. Even though his book is fairly simple, it tells the story of a guy who came to the United States with his émigré parents and an uncertain story. I love the immigrant story, particularly the ones that include success, and Vaynerchuk has certainly parlayed his hard work into success.

The book is basically how to develop your own “personal brand.” That is the talk of social media these days, and many people are uncomfortable with it. Social media begs the user to create a persona and to build upon it. A corporate persona doesn’t work. It is not authentic. Social media requires individuals to promote themselves; if you are uncomfortable with yourself, you will be uncomfortable with social media.  Chapter titles include somewhat cliché headings like, “Passion is Everything” (Chapter1); “Keep it Real…Very Real” (Chapter 7); “Roll with It” (Chapter 12); and a conclusion titled “The Time is Now, the Message is Forever.”  These are all really nice, if not smarmy, titles to chapters from a guy who pushes authenticity.

Early in the book, Vaynerchuk says people must do what they are good at, what their passion is. Ok, I believe that, but isn’t that the message of just about any inspirational speaker or leadership writer in the past 50 years? He says he is not good at writing, but that he is good at talking and his book has been transcribed from a tape. When one reads it, that is very apparent. Kudos to Gary for recognizing it and making that disclosure, because it certainly doesn’t read like someone who has spent much time writing.

Those who are fans of Gary Vaynerchuk and his in-your-face style of communication will love this book. As I read it, I can hear his voice. Loud, fast, quick and to the point. There is advice in this book I was eager to get my hands on, for I don’t have the time to wander through his Web site and get all his tidbits of wisdom. I like books like this because they are quick and easy to read. They give easy advice to follow. If you are looking for deep wisdom and the underlying basis as to how people think about social media and the communication theories behind it, you have picked up the wrong book. If you are seeking hard information for how to do a lot of things on the social media front, you are headed in the right direction. Gary V. fans will love this book. Those who don’t know anything about Gary will find it a bit juvenile.

At the end, I found this book to be pretty much what I expected: full of “Gary-isms.” One annoying thing he does is tell us to do or try something, and then in the middle of the page he tells us to tell him about it by including his email address. Odd for the middle of text, but fully part of the way he presents himself verbally, which is to say how he transcribed it.  After all the reading I did, I felt like I watched a Wine Library TV episode. His voice kept coming through. I suppose that is what a book is supposed to do, and I still don’t know what he means by “crush-it.” I don’t think I missed the point of the book, but “crush-it,” really?

Written by Tom Rath – Buy Now From Amazon

Reviewed by Brooke Weishaupt

StrengthsFinder 2.0 is not your typical business book. It is part of a larger strengths discovery program created by Gallup, the organization famous for its research and polls. StrengthsFinder 2.0 is the updated version of Gallup’s original book, Now, Discover Your Strengths.

In the back of each book, there is a unique code that allows you to access the online test. Therefore, it is not a book you can borrow or buy used. The test takes about 20 minutes and is comprised of questions that have you choose to what degree the statement describes you. The test only allows you a few seconds per question, as the theory behind it says your first instinct is usually the correct one.

Once you are finished with the test, you are presented with your top five strengths, a description of each and a list of activities to help you take advantage of them. The book is basically all the descriptions and suggestions gathered in one spot; however, the book also includes suggestions to help you work with or understand people who have strengths other than yours.

My strengths are: Input, Intellection, Learner, Achiever and Futuristic. After reading the descriptions of each, I have to say I agree with the assessment. I enjoy not just the outcome, but the process of learning and discovering new information. I can also be quite the perfectionist and a stickler for details, which shows up in the Achiever strength. My big dreams and plans for the future are showcased in the Futuristic strength.

The premise of the book/test is that you should focus on enhancing your strengths (what comes naturally to you), rather than trying to improve your weaknesses. While this is a good idea in theory, you cannot entirely discount working on your weaknesses. For example, if one of your weaknesses is adhering to deadlines, you cannot just set it aside. There could be severe implications for this, including failing a class if you are in school or getting fired from your job if you are consistently late in completing work. To its credit, the book does suggest pairing with people with strengths other than yours, such as a person with the strength, “Focused,” if your strength is one in which you are prone to distractions. However, you cannot always count on others; sometimes that option is not available.

I would suggest a combination approach: for the major things in life (i.e. your career, your volunteer work, etc.), focus on areas in which your strengths can shine. For example, someone with the “Developer” strength would excel in a field such as coaching or teaching, where it allows them to help others reach their potential. That same person may not do such a good job or enjoy their work as much if they worked in a career where they were isolated most of the day with little interaction with others.

By incorporating your strengths into the major areas of your life, you will be a more fulfilled person. You can then work on getting past your weaknesses without having them consume your life and cause more stress.

I would encourage people to read this book and take the test. At the very least, it helps you validate who you are and what you do best. If you’re not sure what direction you should take, it can help to guide you and draw out the qualities you should invest in. For more information or to purchase the book, visit www.strengthsfinder.com.

Written by Steven Levitt and Stephen Dubner - Buy Now From Amazon

Reviewed by Ken Springer

In the best-selling work Freakonomics, Drs. Steven Levitt and Stephen Dubner have attempted to do for the field of economic analysis what Stephen Hawking successfully pulled off for physics with A Brief History of Time – taking a complex technical field and making it accessible to the lay reader.

Freakonomics has a very simple format. The author takes a socio-economic question and applies statistical analysis to attempt to answer that question. Sounds like a college term paper, right? Sort of.  Levitt and Dubner have the tendency to ask some very interesting, if not unorthodox, questions. The chapters in Freakonomics focus on subjects like the business models and economic incentives that undergird crack dealing in Chicago, the rise and fall of the Klu Klux Klan in the 1920’s and several other “edgy” topics. The authors address each of their subjects using statistical data analysis with the findings provided in casual prose instead of traditional academic-speak.

This approach comes not without certain flaws. Firstly, the lay nature of the book leads those with above-average curiosity or backgrounds in stats to desire more exposition on the types of analysis used for each hypothesis. The authors very often simply say “we analyzed the data and reached this conclusion” without going any further. Since none of the math is printed, readers are forced to accept these conclusions as factual when in reality, almost any statistic can be called into question if scrutinized hard enough. I’d be shocked if this book did not spark a feeding frenzy of junior economists with chips on shoulders, bent on discrediting Freakonomics’ conclusions. My second gripe is that the book is way too short – it can easily be read in a single afternoon. Each of the book’s chapters is very short and concerns itself with a single, isolated topic. This is probably intentional, as most of the chapters were initially published as part of Levitt’s regular column in the New York Times magazine.

I’d ask those unfamiliar with Levitt and Dubner’s work to forgive the garish title of this book – it can be supposed that a certain amount of shock treatment is required to motivate the average American to plunge into a morass of statistical analysis. This book was hyped to death on the blogosphere and in the popular press at the time of its release, sending book sales and Levitt’s speaker fees into the stratosphere. In fact, about a third of the book itself is spent notifying the reader of Levitt’s clout as a researcher and educator. At times the back-patting and academic name-dropping grow tiresome (especially in the later chapters), but a lot of these accolades are deserved by the authors. We should be praising Levitt and Dubner for their work. The authors’ crowning achievement isn’t so much in answering difficult questions, but rather taking a (traditionally) very boring academic field and making it interesting. That feat is the truly “freaky” part about Freakonomics.

Written by Richard Florida - Buy Now From Amazon

Reviewed by Marty Vanags

In the year 1492, Christopher Columbus set sail for the new world. He convinced the Queen of Portugal to finance his trip so he could discover a new passage to the riches of the Far East. As we all know now, he was way ahead of his time in many ways. Of course, we were all taught that he was “thinking out of the box” when he said that the world is round and not flat like many believed at the time. And, while he did not actually find his great passage to the east, he did prove to some degree that there was a world yet to be explored.

Fast forward about 500 years, when author Thomas Freidman reversed the idea of a round world with his book, The World is Flat. In his book, Freidman spends 608 pages describing how through technology and interconnection the world as we Americans once knew it has changed. Because much of what is being produced in the information age can be transported through communication networks that are becoming cheaper and cheaper, many parts of the world we once thought to be “underdeveloped”  are beginning to provide a cheap source of labor as economic controls and open markets become ubiquitous. Whether we celebrate this phenomena as an obvious outcome of the Cold War (open markets and economic freedom for all, even those once considered Third World), or we lament the loss of jobs here at home, Freidman tells us we need to recognize and adjust to this new world and become accustomed to the United States’ new position in a global economy.  People can live anywhere, Freidman says, and their quality of life will increase.  People can live anywhere, but will they?

Along comes Richard Florida, author of the 2002 bestseller The Rise of the Creative Class, which received The Washington Monthly’s Political Book Award for that year and was later named by Harvard Business Review as one of the top breakthrough ideas of 2004. The New York Times called it “an important book for those who feel passionately about the future of the urban center.” Cities and regions across the United States and the world have embarked on new creativity strategies based on Florida’s ideas. A subsequent book called The Flight of the Creative Class, which examines the global competition for creative talent, was published in March 2005. Florida follows these two books with one more book, titled Who’s your City? – How the Creative Economy is Making Where to Live the Most Important Decision of Your Life. In Florida’s newest book he challenges Freidman’s idea of the flat world.

 Florida’s main premise in Who’s Your City? is that the world is, in fact, “spiky,” and people make very deliberate decisions about where they live based upon a number of factors.  This spikiness is a result of some very descriptive and interesting maps creative by a co-researcher. These maps show what look like very steep rocky mountains to depict the increase of population in the largest metropolitan areas throughout the world.  In Who’s Your City?, Florida supports his creativity index first rolled out in The Rise of the Creative Class study wherein he argues the fastest-growing and most economically-stable communities are those which harbor and welcome the most creative people in our world. This “clustering force,” as he calls it, is a very strong trend creating “mega-cities.” Through this clustering, these mega-cities are the engines of economic growth. 

Florida is not some pop-demographer whose main forte is selling books; rather, Florida is the professor of business and creativity at the Rotman School of Management, University of Toronto. At Rotman, he is the academic-director of the Lloyd & Delphine Martin Prosperity Institute. He has also spent time at Carnegie Mellon University, is a visiting professor at Harvard and MIT and a visiting fellow of the Brookings Institution. Florida earned his bachelor’s degree from Rutgers College and his Ph.D. from Columbia University. Known as an economic demographer, Florida has scholastic credentials and mounds of data, which he is not shy about revealing and discussing in this particularly telling and informative book.

Economic developers love to hear what Florida has to say, but few have managed to take his ideas and principles and use them to their advantage. Florida’s current book informs us about the status of the world’s current population trends and how they ultimately impact our economic future. Can a community like Bloomington-Normal exist and, more importantly, prosper in Florida’s spiky world? Or should we give up and allow the mega-cities like Chi-Pitts, the region that stretches from Pittsburgh to Chicago to Milwaukee to Minneapolis, dominate our economy? According to Florida, we don’t have a choice.  This region, by the way, is the closest Bloomington-Normal gets to a mega-city, but apparently we don’t have enough population between here and Joliet to fill in the gap. Rest assured there must be some spin-off from the third largest mega-region, according to Florida, that pumps out $1.6 trillion in economic product. 

In 2004, Richard Karlgaard, publisher of Forbes magazine, published a book called Life 2.0: How People Across America Are Transforming Their Lives by Finding the Where of Their Happiness. He would say that Bloomington- Normal does indeed have a chance. Inherently less scientific and rigorous than Florida’s research, Karlgaard divides the United States into categories with fun and interesting names such as “Happy Hootervilles” which are towns and communities under 25,000 with reasonable house prices for white collar professionals fleeing pricey urban coasts. Places like Douglas, Georgia or East Stroudsburg, Pennsylvania fall into this category. Bloomington-Normal falls into the category of “Porch-Swing Communities,” which are described by Karlgaard as places for people seeking a “Norman Rockwell hometown feeling – vintage American suffused with parades, country fairs and summer evenings playing kick-the-can.” Karlgaard indicates, through a series of anecdotal stories from when he learned to fly a plane at age 45 and flew around the country to see how America had reacted to the promise of technology, that not everybody is fleeing to the large regions despite what Florida’s research tells us. Mixed messages, but hope for those not located in or near a mega-region.

In the final part of this book, Florida delves into “Where we Live Now” by looking at three categories: The Young and the Restless, Married with Children and When the Kids are Gone. In each category he tells of the places these age groups are living and how they select their places of residence. Most interesting is his analysis of the Young and the Restless which, as one might have guessed, are those in the age range of 18 to 30. Florida says that more than ever he and his researchers have concluded this age group has a propensity to decide where they want to live, then seek out a job once there. One of the primary decision points in this locational decision rests with the influence of friends and mating. The Young and the Restless want to go where their friends are and where they are most likely to find someone with whom to “hook up” with or even the more antiquated idea of getting married.  In a post-nuclear family world, being with friends seems to be a major decision point for young people.

Florida’s new book, once again, is filled with so much information that a once-over read is probably not enough. As an economic developer I seek his information to see how it might inform our attraction strategies and our economic development policies as a community. What are the things the Young and the Restless are seeking (other than a “mate”) that would attract them to Bloomington-Normal? What about the more creative members of our society? What do we have to offer that would attract and retain them here? Or are we a “Porch-Swing” community as proposed by Karlgaard, which relegates us to permanent kick-the-can status? I would like to think that Florida’s well-researched book informs economic development practitioners, city council members, business executives, entrepreneurs and many others who care about the future of their local community environment and can help them develop sound strategies. In grade school we were taught how Columbus discovered a new world, and we were also told if we work hard enough we could be anything we wanted to be. This still holds true for our community, as Richard Florida has shown, whether he knows it or not.

Written by Alan Weisman - Buy Now From Amazon

Reviewed by Marty Vanags

When I was ten years old, my family and I took a summer vacation trip to the Colorado Rockies. We drove all the way to Colorado, five people, in a 1966 Chevy Impala sans air conditioning across Iowa, Nebraska and up into the Continental divide. In our plush, easy-living world of today, it’s hard to imagine driving anywhere in the summer time without air conditioning, a multi-speaker sound system and global positioning map system mounted on the dashboard. The Interstate system was still relatively young then, and as we got to Colorado, we drove on local roads and mountain highways with some fear and trepidation as my father assured us, in his heavy accent, that driving in the mountains is something he experienced in the “old country,” and as the back end of the car nearly skidded off the side of a mountain, we could only pray he wasn’t kidding. Only later we found out the “old country” tallest mountain elevation was no higher than the glacial till aftermath of a bunny ski hill in southern Wisconsin.

At that time Colorado was still wild in many areas. Many parts of the state still had bad roads, and the nouveau riche had yet to discover many of the plush ski resorts and hip artist colonies. What this meant and what excited me most were the many ghost towns and abandoned mines we saw along the way. I was utterly fascinated that entire towns, or at least several buildings, that might have consisted of a small cluster of living human inhabitants would be abandoned or lost to time. These buildings were uniformly dark in color, and often times one would see a tree growing through the roof or weeds blocking the entrance to the door. I desperately wanted to stop and explore and see if we could discover old bones, artifacts or maybe encounter a ghost. My mind was full of imaginative ideas about what was located in these old ghost towns.

I’m not sure ghost towns still exist, and I’m positive these wooden structures have fallen down by now. The idea that people could or would disappear in this situation was foreign to me, and I did not give it much thought. How could people pick up and disappear? Why would they? It’s clear that many of these ghost towns existed to mine ore from the earth, perhaps gold or silver or even other less exotic minerals. Their disappearance, or at least the absence of humans, was likely “economic adjustment.” It is unlikely the federal government was there with a bailout for some of these towns back then.

This experience and listening to State Farm CEO Ed Rust talk about the absence or corruption of the Internet and its impact on the economy at Illinois State University’s Business Week keynote address made me think about the impact of our species (humans) on Earth and the reality we have created for ourselves. These lines of thought are explored quite aptly in a book titled The World Without Us by Alan Weisman.  This compelling tome describes in its many chapters what the world would look like if all of a sudden every human being managed to disappear off the face of the earth. Through famine, disease, rapture or whatever method you might imagine, the author explores what would take place on the earth should we manage to drive ourselves into extinction.  Unfortunately, he did not explore Colorado ghost towns or delve into whether computers would take over the world if we ceased to exist.

The author is not a scientist, but relies on many interviews with experts in the field and takes us on a sometimes difficult journey to imagine. To those who are staunch environmentalists, the book reads like a “see, I told you so” bible of parables and prophecies. To those who are resisting the green movement and need ammunition for the idea that the earth is flexible and resilient, you will find that as well. In either case, Weisman takes us on a trip to explore specific projects and human feats of engineering to show the precarious nature of man’s existence and the over-achieving characteristics of the natural world. If not for man’s ability to create and develop reasonable (and sometimes unreasonable) solutions to our problems and challenges of living like civil human beings, many of the areas Weisman explores couldn’t be imagined or reviewed. Nevertheless, he paints an interesting picture of what happens when nature takes over.

In an early part of the book, Chapter 2, Weisman gives us a preview of what would happen to our homes when we disappear. Just imagine the house long abandoned by your noisy and ill-regarded neighbors, the ones you keep calling the city about to have condemned and torn down. It’s easy to imagine what gravity, water and the natural forces of a Central Illinois climate might do to the organic portions of your home. Wood, drywall, wallpaper and curtains would decompose quickly, and pretty soon the only thing standing would be the toilet and just about every piece of plastic. Plastic doesn’t decompose very well, but most scientists quoted in the book indicate microbes and other little animals that decompose our organic material haven’t evolved enough to figure out how to break down plastic, but will one day…perhaps in another million years.  Chapter 9, “Polymers are Forever,” goes into detail on that subject.

The most interesting chapters have to do with our nuclear plants, our chemical manufacturing facilities and other more intense man-made behemoths. The breakdown of nuclear fuel and plants, once the equipment that must constantly be maintained is no longer in the hands of capable engineers, technicians and computers, will cause the cooling water to boil off and cause at least 441 (that is how many operating nuclear plants exist) melt-downs. And while this process won’t cause a meltdown to the core of the earth and through the other side, it will eventually spew radioactivity into the atmosphere for many, many years to come.  Weisman also tackles the Panama Canal, farming and animals.

In the end, while new species rise and fall with our absence, new types of growing green plants will take over our buildings and institutions we call home, school and work will become unrecognizable. Our man-made things quickly deteriorate when we aren’t around to maintain them. One merely has to think of the roads and other public amenities we often take for granted. However, the one trace of our existence that will always exist and can’t be taken away will be our transmissions of radio waves. From the beginning of the electronic age, our radio transmissions continue to move through the universe like light, and according to the author Lucy Ricardo, will always be with us.

This fascinating book is often slowed down by the need of the author to go backwards to see the future. Delving into the past, whether it’s the description of the evolution of homo sapiens or the breakdown of compounds into chemistry, the author takes you on a journey that is sometimes tedious or reads like your high school chemistry or physics course. In the end, if Weisman’s goal was to show us how poorly we have managed our resources and destroyed our environment through the old adage of “better living through chemistry,” he nearly completes the task, but the hope I carry from this book is the unique and creative resources the species called “human” has been able to use to harness what we thought at the time is or was important to our existence. Whether it is chemistry, polycarbons or nuclear energy, as human beings we are the only species on the earth that has the capability and the intellectual understanding to create and then solve our greatest problems. As humans we have done some incredibly stupid things to our earth and, by association, to ourselves, but in almost every case we have managed to figure out what we need to do to fix it. Sometimes the solution is not elegant, but in the end, it drives our existence. More importantly, we need to recognize our errors and have the political will and courage to fix them.

The book also makes one think of the topics and projects on the mind of almost everyone these days. Whether it is presidential political campaigns, architectural or building design standards, local building codes, worldwide energy consumption, war or the cost of gasoline at the gas pump, no one can deny that the efficient and effective use of our resources have great impact on our economy. Can our own little corner of the world impact this global issue? ISU’s alternative energy major (just introduced), ethanol production from corn and wind energy farms is recognition of this fact, and all have impact on our economy. This can also create great opportunities for jobs, new business and capital investment in our community. 

If you read The World Without Us by Alan Weisman, keep these important economic aspects in mind. Weisman brought back memories of ghost towns, history and recent history…the world without the Internet. He goes back into history, recent and prehistoric, to help us understand the future and the precariousness of our existence. However, Weisman also brings us great hope in understanding the opportunities and action we can take to secure our immediate future and the future of children and grandchildren.

Written by Daniel C. Esty and Andrew S. Winston - Buy Now From Amazon

Reviewed by Marty Vanags

Green. You see the word everywhere these days. The imagery surrounding the word is varied and sometimes evokes an emotional response that can even be polarizing. First, the debate surrounding global warming – or as it is now more widely accepted:“climate change” – took place. Many people, including parts of our own government, disputed whether any type of global climate change was or is taking place. The discussion over acceptance of the Kyoto treaty and its successors has taken place over two presidential administrations and will undoubtedly touch the administration of a third new president.

The economic development industry, or more appropriately, profession, has not ventured into the subject too deeply and, thus, has not been a leader on the framework as to how to approach the topic of what to do about the “green thing” and where all of this will lead. My search for a definition and understanding of how the greening of our globe, the debate on climate change, LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) Green Building Rating Systems, oil prices, wind power, solar power, ethanol, sustainability and bio-fuels has been difficult and is still not complete.

What is an economic development professional to make of all this, and how can we safely, effectively and thoughtfully take advantage of a change in our world that will impact jobs and capital investment? What new changes will take place in the next 10 years that will affect our driving habits and change our thought patterns regarding everything we do, everything we consume and our quality of life and place? These are big questions that will take a long time to answer and yet may never be fully embraced.

To begin my learning process, I’ve spent a considerable amount of time digesting the book co-authored by Daniel Esty and Andrew Winston called Green to Gold: How Smart Companies Use Environmental Strategy to Innovate, Create Value, and Build Competitive Advantage. Esty is the Hillhouse Professor of Environmental Law and Policy, with appointments at both the Yale Law School and the Yale School of Forestry & Environmental Studies. Winston is director of the Corporate Environmental Strategy Project at Yale’s Environment School. He has advised companies on corporate strategy while at Boston Consulting Group and has held management positions in strategy and marketing at such leading media companies as Time Warner and Viacom.

I was thrilled to have an opportunity to hear Esty speak at Illinois State University earlier this year as part of a program put on by the Illinois State University Office of Environmental Sustainability. Professor Esty has a long governmental and research background, along with experience in the private sector. Professor Esty’s research has focused on “next generation” regulation and the relationships between the environment and trade, competitiveness, governance and development. He is the author or editor of nine books and numerous articles on environmental policy issues. At the end of this article is a list of his other books.  

So how does a company go about developing a green or sustainability strategy? Certainly this is all new. No one has delved into this until very recently. Well, the truth is there are a number of companies, some with unlikely pedigrees, that have been on the forefront of sustainability and environmental awareness for some time. Growing up in the era of the crying Native American with litter at his feet in the now-famous commercial and at least one earlier energy crisis, I feel that I have grown up with environmental awareness for many years. From urging my mother to try using phosphate-free laundry detergent while in grade school to always being part of a recycling program, environmental awareness has always been with me and everyone that follows  me in age. My children (ages 16 and 20) have always known what recycling is and are now being inundated by the green and sustainability message. If they choose to work for a corporation or business, the strategies and tactics outlined in this book will likely be a ubiquitous part of business life as well.

Esty and Winston divide the book into four sections. The first section, “Preparing for a New World,” is divided into three chapters that describe the issues, opportunities, influences, markets and stakeholders in the sustainability world. These chapters are written in a very clear and workmanlike manner. In fact, the book is filled with tables, protocols, matrices and other helpful sidebars that any executive or CEO would find helpful. Much of Chapter Two describes the “natural drivers” impacting the environment. These include (in order) 1) Climate Change; 2) Energy; 3) Water; 4) Biodiversity and Land Use; 5) Chemicals, Toxics and Heavy Metals; 6) Air Pollution; 7) Waste Management; Ozone Layer Depletion; and 9) Oceans and Fisheries. Throughout the rest of the book these drivers are revisited.

In this section, the authors make it clear that there are many varied parties impacting these nine areas. The proverbial tree-huggers are not the only people impacting change at the corporate level when it comes to greening and sustainability. Non-governmental organizations (NGOs), regulators, politicians and media are not the only groups pursuing the green agenda. Industry, competitors, suppliers and business leaders with concerns for the environment and how their company is viewed are also putting pressure on the agenda and the change in the business practices in regard to sustainability. According to the authors, the push for the “Greening of America,” and the globe for that matter, is a democratic and diverse push and one that, if ignored, could mean financial failure for businesses that don’t pay attention.

The second section, “Strategies for Building Eco-Advantage,” describes the risks and rewards for companies that engage in an eco-strategy. Michael Porter, a Harvard Business School Professor and recognized by the economic development community for his work in sector analysis, is the world’s leading authority on competitive strategy and economic competitiveness. His work has greatly influenced the federal approach to economic development and has described two categories of competitive advantage for companies: lower its costs compared with the competition and differentiate its product on quality, features or service. Keeping his tenants in mind in the context of an eco-strategy, if a company can regulate and reduce its inputs, the energy consumed and time spent on regulatory requirements, the bottom line theoretically will be improved. From a revenue side, environmental stewardship requires the building of intangible relationships with customers, stockholders and other stakeholders. Managing the downside through “eco-efficiency;” eco-expense reduction; lowering costs upstream and downstream; building the upside through design, sales and marketing and intangibles are the green-to-gold plays the authors put forward in this section.

The final two sections, “What WaveRiders  Do” and “Putting It All Together,” provide the reader with examples of companies already engaged and putting it all together. The authors do an excellent job of showing examples throughout the book of eco-strategy companies that have not only implemented programs but have profited from them. The chapters explain in detail leading companies’ success in implementing profit-oriented strategies and tactics. The “Eco-Advantage Mindset” which the authors have devised is a five-rule guide for developing and driving a company’s eco-strategy. Using examples of 3M, IKEA, DuPont,  GrupoNueva, Monsanto and others, the authors clearly and specifically lay out how each of the five rules can help a company develop its strategy.

“Putting It All Together” is an apt title to the final chapter of this book. If one is looking for a definitive guidebook for understanding how some of the leading companies globally are implementing eco-green-sustainability strategies and profiting from them, not only monetarily but also from a public perception viewpoint, this is the handbook needed. This is not the “Whole Earth Catalog” or a philosophical tome on why one should buy in on the green concept. This is a book that digs right in, spends a little time on history, influencers and shapers of the eco-friendly movement and  then finally gives the reader a plethora of information, tactics, strategies, principles and concepts on how business can move through this era of change. If you think this is just a passing fad, think again. For more years than you might imagine, large companies have been incorporating eco-friendly strategies and principles for sustainability reasons, not merely for corporate sustainability, but because their employees, customers, shareholders and the countries they operate in have asked or demanded them to do so. In these companies, it is part of their risk analysis, their marketing programs and their long-term plan for shareholder and investor return. To them, this is not a fad.

If you are seeking definition and are trying to wrap your arms around this topic as I was, this book is a great primer and guidebook. There is much to read, many tables, sidebars and interesting anecdotes about companies and businesses that are leading in best practices. While it provides examples of some very large companies with great resources, my question as I read the book was can it help a small business, perhaps a business with five, 10, perhaps 100 employees? The answer is yes, but it will take more work.  The guidelines and principles in this book can help any size business; it merely takes some work to distill the vast amount of information.

Green. What does it mean? Esty and Winston have clearly shown that from businesses large and small, green can mean more than being good stewards of the environment. Green can also mean profit and return on investment. This is the incentive that many are looking for to take the green movement beyond a fad and into the real thing.

Written by Ken Dychtwald, Ph.D - Buy Now From Amazon

Reviewed by Marty Vanags

When my mother’s family came to the United States from Latvia, she and her brother, father, mother and grandmother traveled across Europe during World War II and immediately thereafter. It was an adventure that took a couple years, and it was trip that by no means was a pleasant one. My mother’s family was forced to pack up any belonging and item that was valuable to them they could carry and leave their home, never knowing when they would return, if at all. As it turns out, they did not return; instead, they came to the United States as immigrants and, eventually, naturalized citizens.

One interesting aspect of the trip that my mother often describes is her grandmother. When her grandmother left Latvia, she was in her sixties. She died in 1973 when she was 96. Here was a woman who lived a life torn by war and upheaval. Leaving her own country, actually, forced from her country, in her sixties is unimaginable to me. Who among you would be willing to do that at age 65 or any age? My mother and her brother were always making sure that their “old” grandmother was taken care of on their trip. She was always comfortable; she rode while everyone else walked when they traveled on foot. She got the best seats on the trains, all because she was “elderly” and demanded and deserved respect.

She was “elderly.” Today, 65 might not be considered elderly. We all know someone who is 65 and is vibrant, working and perhaps outpacing people half their age. How many people do we know that are still working in their seventies, even in their eighties? My mother is 78 and works out at the health club more often than I do; I am ashamed and embarrassed to admit. She takes no medication for any illness or malady. Part of this is genetic (good for me), part is her willingness over the years to commit to a healthy regime of exercise, and part is the modern age of medicine and longevity. Part of the retelling of these stories my mother has told me includes her own observation of her grandmother’s elderly status. My mother turned 65 thirteen years ago and is still going strong. A book I recently read, Age Power:  How the 21st Century will be Ruled by the New Old by Ken Dychtwald, Ph.D is all about my mother, myself and many others who will benefit from longevity that was not available to our ancestors, and, ultimately, how this longevity may become the biggest issue of our lifetime. Age Power provides an interesting view into the “era of longevity” and the issues that are inherent with it. We are in for a change, the author tells us, and the bigger question is whether as a country and society we are ready for it.

Dychtwald’s expertise comes from over 25 years as a psychologist, gerontologist and entrepreneur in the field of aging. At least, that is what his website says (www.dychtwald.com). He has written a number of books about aging, baby boomers and their role in the future. Many of the books deal with the issues that economic development specialists and communities will have to deal with in the future. What are we going to do when the baby boomers retire and the following generations – the X, Y, and Millennials – are too few in numbers to replace the boomers in the workplace? Dychtwald and his wife operate a firm called Age Wave which provides companies and government groups guidance in the development of products and services for boomers and mature adults. In fact, a local business leader gave me his book to read after they had Dr. Dychtwald appear at a corporate event to discuss these issues in his book.

Dychtwald starts his book with a quick primer on the data and statistics that he says are making America into a “gerontracacy.” What does this mean? He claims that in the not so distant future, more of us will live longer than our parents, the epicenter of political and economic power will shift from young to old, how we spend our golden years will require a change in mindset, and how we decide to behave as elders will become the most important challenge we face.  This is followed by many tables and information about how we have aged as a society and the upcoming aging of the baby boomer generation.  What is the most compelling part of this chapter is the description of the largest public interest group in the country, the American Association of Retired Persons, or what most of us generally refer to as AARP.

AARP has 32 million members, a staff of 1,700, a 32-scholar think-tank and a staff of 19 lobbyists. AARP is the second largest nonprofit organization after the Catholic Church. But, Dytchwald doesn’t have much good to say about the AARP; in fact, he points to them as a major obstacle to solving some of our most pressing issues. He claims AARP’s unreconciled dual role as a target marketer and altruistic social crusader has disturbing elements.  Even so, he uses the rise of the AARP as proof of the rising gerontracacy class in America.

So the boomers are getting old. So what? Everyone has heard of the problems with Social Security and Medicare. Many maintain that we will be unable to meet the obligation of generations behind us when it comes to Social Security and other entitlements. Why is this? Dytchwald points to five social train wrecks our aging population is headed towards if we do nothing. First is using the age 65 as the marker for old age entitlements.  It is meaningless, unfair and dangerous.  Life expectancy continues to rise while old-age entitlements don’t change. Our economy will soon be crushed by elder care demands. His solutions include unhinging old-age from the 65 marker and index entitlements to rising longevity. He also says people should be able to choose to retire when they are ready and can afford to instead of holding people to uniform standards. In addition, he suggests we should find new meaning for those who wish to continue to work in their silver years and replace the linear life paradigm with a new cyclic one. In other words, old people should and can still learn!

Another train wreck Dychtwald describes is that without a dramatic shift in healthcare skills and priorities our society will face epidemics of chronic disease. So much work has gone into solving childhood diseases that we have forgotten our elderly are living longer. Diseases that affect the elderly are increasingly debilitating as, in particular, is Alzheimer’s.  One of his solutions to this dilemma is the development of additional healthcare professionals that can specialize and deal with the diseases of the aging. Another solution offered includes economic incentives for healthy aging. This is no different than the discussion among HMOs and other health service providers to promote healthy living, even among the non-elderly-a practice many of us do not participate in.

Train Wreck #3 described as an economic sinkhole is the “care-giving crunch.” The 1980s were all about child care. Future years are going to be about elder care. Dychtwald’s solutions include financing long-term care through private insurance or reverse mortgages, establishing new eldercare-oriented employee benefits, expanding and integrating long-term care programs and services and developing health-related affirmative action programs for men.

The fourth area of vulnerability is what the author describes as the impending doom of millions of elderly who are headed towards poverty. This book was written in 1999 and, therefore, Dychtwald could probably not have predicted the current mortgage and financial crisis the United States is currently in. However, it merely magnifies the problem.  Boomers have accumulated large amounts of debt, pensions are less certain, and the U.S. savings rate is almost non-existent.  Solutions include increasing the personal savings rate, making pensions more portable and flexible to match boomers’ mobile lifestyles, affluence-test and target entitlements to match the diverse needs of tomorrow elders, and privatizing Social Security.

The final train wreck discussed in the book is the idea that we must envision a new purpose of old age or we will create an elder wasteland. As a society we have prolonged life without helping the elderly prepare themselves for what they might do with their lives. According to the book, over 40 million retirees watch over 43 hours of television a week. What will be the social contribution of the new elderly?  How can they be more productive (if they want to be), and how can we create opportunities for intergenerational learning and leadership?  Several solutions offered include national discussions on these topics and working with elder groups to define their role in this new world.

When I first started reading this book the pace of the book made it feel as though we were embarking on a fairly serious tome on public policy. And while Dychtwald does offer many public policy issues as one works their way deeper into the book, it feels more like a self-help book. Chapter summaries end up being suggestions about what individuals can do personally to deal with the issues presented rather than indicating what might be a policy solution or issues our congressional bodies might want to undertake.  The discussion regarding AARP peaked my interest but not enough was discussed regarding how to battle the two-headed monster it represents. Should we even bother? What resources do we need?

Overall, this is a good book full of very interesting ideas. The ideas and solutions offered will look very familiar to most people who follow public policy and are interested in the future of our society. Each “train wreck” as Dychtwald calls it could be a book of its own, and the solutions swing from left-leaning social like medicine programs to “ownership society” ideas like privatizing Social Security. Even though, the book provides a great starting point for a discussion on how the baby boomers will deal with all the upcoming age-related issues their generation represents.

Economic development officials and workforce development experts have been telling us that we need to be prepared to deal with the upcoming loss of workers due to the boomers retiring and leaving the workforce. There are not enough workers in the following generations to replace them, they tell us. If boomers are going to live longer, will they stay in the job marketplace longer?  Hard to say, but if my experience working with the X, Y, and Millenials have anything to do with it, we still have to reconcile different work habits, ideas about work hours and different expectations about how we live life, and frankly, why we work.  The impact on our society is great, and we have only just begun to explore these issues as a country. The discussion will be ongoing, and I am looking forward to it.

Written by David Allen - Buy Now From Amazon

Reviewed by Marty Vanags

Several months ago, after answering all my email, reading my favorite Web sites, responding to my voicemail and clearing off my desk, I sat staring at my computer screen wondering what to do next. I know I had at least a dozen projects and issues—maybe more—that needed my immediate attention, and if I peered behind me I could see several arranged file folder systems and file drawers with a plethora of information in them that would inform me of the tasks at hand. But, even with all that information, I wasn’t sure which project I should start next and which item needed my immediate attention. I’m sure there are others who share my dilemma occasionally, perhaps even daily.

I needed help, and one day not so long after my effectiveness mini-crisis, I came across an article in Business 2.0, a magazine published by the folks that bring you BusinessWeek magazine. An article about a book with a simple title by a business guru named David Allen caught my eye. Oh yes, I rode the Stephen Covey bandwagon in the early Nineties and prided myself on having read many of the business and personal productivity  tomes about peak performance, leadership, efficiency and other business topics over the years. I knew them all, but none of them really pointed to the crisis I was having that day several months ago, sitting at my desk wondering “what now?”

David Allen published a book called Getting Things Done: The Art of Stress-Free Productivity. In the article, I was intrigued by the simplicity of the book title and the fact that it took David Allen several years to come to the realization that we are all busy and we need to empty our minds of the tons of data and information that come to us on a constant basis. Allen referred to this data with a very technical term: “stuff.” Emptying our minds, Allen said, will make you more efficient, calm and productive as an employee, leader or simply as a human being.

The basic premise of the book is a mantra Allen introduces at his Roadmap Seminars he holds throughout the country. “Mind like water” is his overarching idea when it comes to being productive. Getting things done means always being prepared for whatever might come your way and having a systematic way to deal with every bit and byte of information in whatever form it comes in. Allen uses the analogy (and, in fact, his products use the logo) of a pond of water being interrupted by a leaf dropping slowly from a tree above—a quaint and serene scene if there ever was one. When this leaf hits the water, it creates a ripple of waves, albeit small waves. Take a pebble and the same ripple effect occurs, this time a bit larger. A bigger rock, again, creates a similar event, even larger. What does this say to us? Your mind, like water, must be prepared to react in the same calm way no matter what gets thrown at you—a leaf, pebble or rock. Your mind, Allen argues, can be trained to deal with all the issues of the day in a prepared state at the moment it occurs.

That all sounds like high-minded philosophy, but the truth is the book is a little more mundane than the Zen-like “mind like water” principles I’ve just described. It reads somewhat like a textbook, yet if you can get through the 267 pages (and I did over the course of a weekend) you can go back and look over the various chapters to start implementing the system. 

The premise of the system is that everything you do—every piece of paper or data that represents something you may give thought to—should be collected in one spot. This “bucket,” as Allen calls it, should be a physical location like an in-basket or a pile on the corner of your desk. This includes any thought or project you are thinking about. Place that thought on a piece of paper (I found this to be a good use of the piles of scrap paper we generate) and put it in your bucket. Going through this process can be exhausting, frustrating and time-consuming, but it is the first step in a truly liberating process. Allen promotes the use of a very low-tech idea of writing things down as they occur on a notepad you carry around.

Following the collection process, you now go through the bucket and begin taking some action. This is the critical step in Allen’s process and the hardest part of the game. This step involves a very simple question of “what is it?” Once you have determined what it is, you next ask, “is it actionable?”—In other words, does it require action? If it does require action, and if you can do it in two minutes or less, then you do it. If you can’t achieve it in less than two minutes, you either delegate the item or defer it to another day.

If it is actionable and is part of a multi-step process, then it is considered a project and goes into a project planning folder to be reviewed on a weekly basis for any action steps required. If the item is not actionable, then you eliminate it (the proverbial “round-file”), incubate it for possible future action or place it in a file for future reference.

According to David Allen, it is really that simple. The book has all types of instructions on how to implement the system, including what seems to be an antiquated idea of using a tickler filing system. When I first read this I was skeptical and scoffed at the idea. However, I am here to tell you that the tickler system has saved me many times recently when I was searching for a travel file or some other project that had been deferred. Allen also says you should have a weekly (at least) session with all your files, projects and ideas to keep yourself up to date and moving towards productivity nirvana. In my own experience I have found that the best way to use Allen’s system is to implement it fully and specifically the way he has designed it. Doing less will throw the entire process out of sync.

Getting Things Done is a book for everyone. I really wasn’t searching for this system when I came across it, but I would admit it has changed my perspective on how I operate on a daily basis. With the amount of information and the level of productivity we are expected to maintain each day, it is foolish to think that one cannot improve their abilities through the introduction of the ideas found in this book.

Allen, of course, has turned this book into an industry. There are GTD (the aficionado’s term for Getting Things Done) software programs and Web sites, and Allen has a very interesting Web site with “gear,” as he likes to call it, and the book. You can find the book anywhere, including local bookstores, for about $15, but it can also be found online for less. I have purchased copies for my entire staff and several other people, one of whom I gave a copy to after he was amazed or complimented me (I am unsure which it was) on the cleanliness of my desk.

Read David Allen’s Getting Things Done: The Art of Stress-Free Productivity and get productive, have peace of mind that you are getting all that you want to achieve completed and transform yourself into a state of “mind like water.”

More information about David Allen and his books can be found at these Web sites:

www.davidco.com

www.wired.coml

www.43folders.com

Written by Richard Karlgaard - Buy Now From Amazon

Reviewed by Marty Vanags

When I moved into my house in May, it came with a rickety old porch swing that, frankly, had seen its best days. This porch swing might be able to hold a small child, but I could not see it holding my large girth, and I couldn’t see how it would provide much relaxation for me. Note that I mention a porch swing, because the most exciting thing about this house, or at least one of the most exciting things, was this nice little porch which provided a perch from which to slowly watch the world go by on lazy summer afternoons while enjoying a cold one. Whether I was sitting in a porch swing or the wicker chair that I subsequently purchased for my porch-sitting activities, I noted that the neighborhood was filled with 1930s and 1940s-style homes; most of them with some type of porch from which to enjoy the neighborhood. Our community is filled with these porches, and even when one wanders out into the newer neighborhoods on the east side or the older ones on the west, one would always expect a porch,  a porch swing or at least someone sitting on the “stoop,” as we called it when I was a kid. We are that kind of town – a porch swing, front-stoop kind of town.

Richard Karlgaard, publisher and columnist for Forbes magazine, has either sat on a porch or understood what this community was like when he wrote Life 2.0: How People Across America are Transforming Their Lives by Finding the Where of Their Happiness – a long title for a book about how the author spent a summer flying across America as a newly-minted pilot discovering the apparently healthy economy in the “middle” part of the country, and the obviously successful businesses and companies thriving in what many people on the left and right coasts think is a barren wasteland. Karlgaard describes a “porch-swing” community as one designed for “families in search of that Norman Rockwell hometown feeling -vintage Americana suffused by parades, country fairs and summer evenings playing kick-the-can.”  I haven’t seen too many kids playing kick-the-can in my new neighborhood; in fact, most kids these days would be hard-pressed to describe the game, but nevertheless, we all know the type of place Karlgaard refers to is a community like Bloomington-Normal.

Porch-Swing Communities ranking highest on Karlgaard’s list include Ashland, Oregon; Bismarck, North Dakota; Columbia, Missouri; Des Moines, Iowa; and Punta Gorda, Florida. Bloomington-Normal makes the second tier list of other porch-swing communities to consider. Obviously, Karlgaard thinks Porch-Swing communities are great family places to live, and he defies the sociologists and urban economists by coming up with his own set of categories that he believes are descriptive of great places to live and to which people are moving to escape urban crime, traffic and stress. Other categories include Happy Hootervilles (best small towns or “pocket size” porch-swing communities); IQ Campuses (emerging centers of biotech and infotech); Steroid Cities (fast-growing, business-friendly metro areas); Bohemian Bargains (lively inner cities); and Telecommuting Heavens (where to work in your underwear).

There are people who believe the town or city they live in is the best place to live. People engaged in economic development, tourism or chamber of commerce activity not only believe this to be true, but work every day to make others believe it as well.  Others you ask may tell you that their hometown is the worst place to live, that there is nothing to do, or there are not enough recreational, cultural or social outlets and activities in which to partake. Karlgaard points out in his book that you have a choice. The book is peppered with stories of individuals that have decided to move to the place that they felt offered them the best of all worlds. The cost of living in major cities and large urban areas is high. Stress, commutes, crime, poor schools and inflated costs for everything have more and more people pointed in the direction of communities that Karlgaard has categorized in this book.  In today’s America one can move anywhere they want and enjoy the lifestyle they want in the community they want. Of course, if you have the means it is easier to do than if you are poor, and considering the author is the publisher of Forbes, I doubt he was writing this as a guidebook for the poor to pull themselves out of poverty.

The topic of Hootervilles, Porch-Swing Communities, Steroid Cities and the like come at an interesting time in our country. We are all worried about the economy, the stock market and the pending and likely severe recession and are bombarded constantly with news about all of these topics. While the experts say the stock market will rise again, our 401(k)s and IRAs will come back and don’t look at our portfolio but once a year, the news channels and media are constantly giving us the stock market readings on an hourly basis. Mixed message? Hard to comprehend, or even decide what to do. While our community will not be totally immune from the pending economic difficulties, we can rest assured that like many other communities like ours we will not suffer as badly. This is due mainly to the type of employers we have and the fact that our “bubbles,” whether in housing or other parts of the market, have not been as extreme.

Coupled with a new presidential administration which promises “change” and now news that our domestic auto industry is about to fail, can we be buoyed by the idea that somehow we are immune from all this if we just sit on our porches and watch kids play kick-the-can? Are we destined to take in an influx of west and east coast urbanite refugees? If those same Wall Street bankers and West Coast entrepreneurs in Silicon Valley get fed up with their expensive lifestyles, are we prepared to welcome them here, and will they accept the lifestyle we enjoy in the Midwest? Or, will they change us? Hopefully, a little of both would happen. Hopefully, they will have read Karlgaard’s book and will understand the opportunities that lie within communities like Bloomington-Normal.

If you are reading this from your porch swing then you are not in Bloomington-Normal, because as I am writing this I can look out the window and see that it is cold, the trees are leafless and it is a balmy 37 degrees. But if you can imagine sitting out on your porch swing a couple months ago, then you already know what Karlgaard is talking about in his book. Cities and towns like ours are in the driver’s seat during this current economic downturn. We are doing the right things in economic development and in progressively planning our community so that as the economy does improve we will be ready to grow and prosper even more. 

If you are a pilot you will enjoy Karlgaard’s descriptions of flying through thunderstorms and over mountains and rough landings and small landings. This, I believe, makes this book more interesting than others of its type. And, although it is clear that the author is working with and has vast experience in the  big-time business world, he also makes clear his affinity for the Midwest and slower paced life away from the large urban centers. Karlgaard is the first to admit that his research into the communities he has categorized is not wholly scientific; he also isn’t afraid to take a few shots (and then provide a few kudos) to popular authors such as Richard Florida and other popular urban writers and economists. This book reads well, and if you don’t already like where you live, it will be a great book to help you figure out where to relocate. If you are happy with your circumstances, you will find stories and anecdotes in this book that you will be able to identify with and confirm for yourself that you are in the right place.

(Reviewer’s note:  I first read this book after hearing Mr. Karlgaard speak at the International Economic Development Council’s annual meeting in 2005. I recently reread it for the purposes of this review and in anticipation of Mr. Karlgaard’s appearance at the 2008 EDC Annual Breakfast Meeting.)

Written by Malcolm Gladwell - Buy Now From Amazon

Reviewed by Marty Vanags

I attended a traffic school class last Saturday morning. If you don’t know what that is, you have never been stopped by the police for say, a speeding ticket, and had the opportunity to enhance your education with this fine upper level (I’d say at least a 200 level course) program taught by a gregarious lawyer. Taking the class keeps the ticket off your record, and one can save on increased insurance costs in that way.

There all types of people in the class-everyone from a middle-aged lady who ran a stop sign to a couple teenagers and one very angry man who seemed to want to kill the teacher or anyone near him, although I am quite sure that he is the cause of his own problems. I am a great observer of people, at least I think so, and although the class was interesting, the many personalities in the class interested me more. You see, no one wants to be there, and the breaking of traffic laws is a great equalizer of class, socioeconomic status, age and gender. We were all equals in this class. We all got caught, and now we were trying to keep a traffic ticket off our record by attending the class.

No one in that class was better than the other in the handling of a vehicle. In some way or another we got caught. You can’t be an expert in speeding or running red lights. You can’t be an expert at eluding the police. One would have to have a lot of practice, and even though I have been driving for over 31 years, one little mistake by Redbird Arena created a new relationship between me and Officer Krupke and inevitably furthered my education in the area of safe driving.

In one of Malcolm Gladwell’s books (the one a board member of mine borrowed and decided not to give back to me after Gladwell signed it), he talks of being stopped by police as well.  Malcolm Gladwell is a funny-looking guy.  In fact, he is funny-looking enough that he gets stopped from time to time by police because of the way he looks. Why is that?

Gladwell wrote Blink and Tipping Point, two popular books of the past several years. His books are popular because he writes about simple ideas that are borne of complexity. In Blink he writes about the moment we make a quick decision about something; in fact, he might say, a series of quick decisions about something. Barreling down College Avenue, my intuition told me that the police officer had his sights set on me and I was about to be nabbed.  I was right. Blink.

We often do this with people we meet for the first time. We usually make a quick decision about whether we are going to like someone fairly quickly. Sometimes we are right, but often we are mistaken. Some people would call this intuition, but Gladwell doesn’t like this word. He says intuition is fraught with emotion.

In Tipping Point, an “intellectual adventure story” as Gladwell describes it, he examines the world of social epidemics. How does an epidemic spread through a population? He looks at teenage smoking, and he looks at a popular children’s program that my own kids liked to watch called Blue’s Clues. My daughters were fascinated by the program. It was an odd show because the animation was flat, and the simplicity of the whole thing was tremendously tedious. However, it apparently added to the intellectual capacity of not only my children, but also hundreds of thousands of other children. Gladwell takes epidemiology and psychology and uses them to break down social epidemics, the reasons for them and why it is important to understand them.

In both of these books and his new one, Outliers, Gladwell sets out to fully understand something. His writing is one of fully comprehending the simplest of concepts and laying siege to it in his great ability to conceptualize and develop his arguments. A Gladwell book is usually not very lengthy, but deep in rich detail and full comprehension of everyday life.

A year has 8,760 hours.  That is 24 hours multiplied by 365. Describing this puts into context a chapter Gladwell calls the “10,000-Hour Rule”.  The Rule, as I will call it, is in Part One of the book titled “Opportunity.”  Gladwell spells out why some people are more successful than others, and he attributes part of the formula to the Rule. The rule says that if a person has over 10,000 hours of experience in a given task or area of learning they will become very good at it, and the opportunities for them are really endless. So think of doing the same thing for 24 hours a day for 365 days of the year nonstop, add 52 and a half more days (January 1 through February 21), and you will have reached 10,000 hours.

One prime example used by Gladwell is the Beatles who, prior to being popular in Europe and eventually in the United States, had spent over 10,000 hours pounding out their version of rock n’ roll  in strip clubs disguised as nightclubs in Hamburg, Germany. As Gladwell explains it, the Beatles traveled to Hamburg between 1960 and 1962 five times and performed over 270 times in this time period. Most Hamburg performances were between 6-8 hours long. Therefore, they had to learn not only their own songs, but many covers as well and as a result, they fine-tuned their performance. In the end they performed over 1,200 times in that brief time period, which is more than most artists might perform in a lifetime.  By the time 1964 rolled around they were a well-oiled machine and ready to impress the audience on the Ed Sullivan Show.

Gladwell use the Rule to explain the success of Bill Joy, the founder of Sun Microsystems and the prodigious genius that rewrote UNIX (the operating language for mainframe computers) and Java, which has had enormous impact on how we view the Internet. He also uses it to explain the success of Bill Gates, the founder of Microsoft; Canadian hockey players; and Mozart. They all had many opportunities in their lives that gave them the hours they needed-10,000 to be exact-to be very successful at what they do.

In part two of the book, Gladwell embarks on a “freakonomics” type of study of plane crashes. Recounting a Korean jet air crash on Guam, Gladwell looks at the cultural differences of language to explain a devastating crash in1997. He also uses Columbian airliner Avianca flight 052 in 1990 that crashed just outside Kennedy airport in New York City to describe language differences. How can language change the scope and tragedy of an airline accident? Certainly there are a whole host of other issues that cause airline crashes, but in the case of these crashes, much blame can be put on the way flight crew spoke to each other. Mitigation is the language officers are now taught, and Korea Air changed their safety record once they put aside cultural language niceties and were taught standardized procedure for challenging the captain and other communication issues in the cockpit. As a result, the safety record of airlines in recent years has improved dramatically.

Gladwell uses this chapter on language to describe how where you come from might have an impact on your success or, in the case of airline crashes, failure. Your cultural upbringing may force one to not challenge authority (“Captain, I think the plane is crashing!”), and thereby make one a statistic versus employee of the month.

Outliers is a book about understanding what makes a person successful. Certainly someone has a propensity for being talented in their specific endeavor. Whether is it music or computer programming, you must know your subject matter. However, it is a series of opportunities that are made available to individuals that can make or break their success.  Many times these opportunities are arbitrary, but often they are well thought out.

When Rich Karlgaard, publisher of Forbes, spoke at our annual meeting in December he mentioned that the 1970s, a period of economic downturn, also was an era of great creation and growth. For example, he indicated the 1970s gave us Southwest Airlines, Apple Computer and Microsoft. Each era has its opportunities, and it is up to us to capture them. Can the Bloomington-Normal area capture new opportunities in this current economic downturn? Is there a Bill Gates lurking in the halls of Illinois State University or Illinois Wesleyan University?

Outliers‘ lesson is that we can revel in the success and greatness of these individuals and the way they have changed the world, but they are only a few. The challenge is to provide opportunity, access to education, access to capital and the opportunity to grow a business or excel in an endeavor to as many people as possible. Then, instead of one Bill Gates, we can have a whole crop of them.

Let’s go back to traffic safety school. I have been driving for 31 years, and, let’s say, I averaged an hour of driving each day for those 31 years. That is not hard to comprehend. Sure, there were days where I did not drive at all, but there were other days where I drove all day. So, I am pretty sure I can vouch for an average of an hour a day. Therefore, if my calculations are right, 31 years multiplied by an hour a day would give me 11,315 hours of driving in my lifetime. Am I an Outlier as described by Gladwell? I don’t feel like an Outlier. And, it’s obvious Officer Krupke doesn’t think much of my experience either. I will search for my 10,000 hours somewhere else.

 Written by Jack Stack with Bo Burlingham - Buy Now From Amazon

Reviewed by Harlan Geiser, CEO, Integrity Technology Solutions

Over the past year, we’ve embarked on an endeavor of holding a book club with the employees of our company.  We’ve read and discussed some good books; Good to Great, Made to Stick, & Now, Discover your Strengths to name a few.  Our discussions of the books and the topics that they each addressed were always insightful, but none of them made as much of an impact as The Great Game of Business by Jack Stack with Bo Burlingham. 

The book is about Open-Book Management.  The premise is that if you arm your employees with the financial knowledge and awareness of how your business operates, your business will benefit and your employees will exceed your expectations.

To adapt the concepts of The Game into your company you must first live with integrity. Secondly, you must decide that it is okay to share financial information and numbers with your employees as a way to improve performance.  That brings you back to the first step – you must live with integrity.  Your employees need to know that you are showing them the real numbers, that there isn’t another set of books behind the scenes.  In this Open-Book Management approach, you are empowering your employees to think like an owner with every decision and action they make, and providing them with the numbers they need to make these decisions.

The Game is centered on The Critical Number for your company.  This number is an operational or financial issue that is converted into a measurable number and can be tracked throughout the game.  Where’s your greatest weakness – revenue, margin, shipments, something else?  What’s the one thing that you can improve that would drive profit to your bottom line?  That is your critical number. Your critical number may change as your business changes, and many companies reevaluate their critical number on an annual basis. To play the Game, a goal is set for improving this Critical Number and incentives are directly tied to the improvement.

The Great Game of Business works off of the philosophy that ‘when employees think, act and feel like owners, everybody wins.’ To get your employees to this point you need to:

1. Know and teach the rules (think like an owner)

2. Follow the action and keep score (act like an owner)

3. Provide a stake in the outcome (feel like an owner)

Knowing and teaching the rules is not telling your employees what your goals are, it’s teaching them how the business works, what’s critical to the success of the business and how to really understand the financials of the business. This means starting a financial literacy program to educate your employees on how profitability is driven, how their actions have an impact on the company’s success and how taking responsibility for their job can contribute to the financial success of the business and themselves.  Once they have a good understanding of the financials of the company they will be able to accurately forecast all areas of the business, right down to the office supply expenses. 

Following the action and keeping score is about keeping the numbers in front of your employees.  They need to see on a weekly basis how the business is doing and how their decisions and actions have impacted the financials.  They need to see how the delay in getting a shipment out the door has impacted the numbers for the week.  Weekly huddles take place to communicate the numbers and to update the scoreboard of The Game. These huddles provide a great opportunity to evaluate the game stats and plan the next play to positively impact the score.

Providing a stake in the outcome is providing an opportunity for your employees to benefit from the success of the company.  This is a financial stake in the outcome of The Game and through your huddles and scorecard, your employee’s will be able to see each week how their actions impact their stake in The Game.  This annual bonus is tied to the improvement of the Critical Number and throughout the year your employees will be able to work together to achieve the bonus.  In addition to the bonus, mini-games are a key element of The Game.  Mini-games are used to keep involvement high and allow your employees many opportunities to win.  Mini-games are run on a shorter time frame and focus on improving one weakness of the business, often a driver of the Critical Number. Just like the overall Game, there is a goal, a scoreboard and a reward for winning. 

The book stresses that this is not a quick fix for your business.  It is a 12 to 24 month cultural transformation that filters through the attitudes and operating style of the entire workplace. Reading this book will enable your employees to ‘connect the dots’ as you begin the process of setting up The Game at your business.  As a company, we are beginning this transformation and have found the book to be a great resource.  In addition, The Great Game Seminar in Springfield, MO is an excellent program which provides you with an awareness of The Rules of The Great Game of Business. 

“If Everybody learns, and Everybody plays, then Everybody wins!” 

Harlan Geiser is the CEO Integrity Technology Solutions, a Bloomington-based, business technology company providing customized Information Technology (IT) solutions to the business community since 1993.  Harlan is passionate about helping clients better their businesses and their bottom lines through the creative use and effective management of technology. He is a devoted community leader and currently serves as Board Chairman for the American Red Cross of the Heartland and Vice Chair for the Economic Development Council of Bloomington-Normal.  He can be reached at hgeiser@integrityts.com