As I started to read Personalized by Mark Abraham and David C. Edelman, I was excited to realize that the authors were describing, in very tangible and practical terms, specific ways that the Connected Intelligence Revolution is changing how businesses operate, industries compete, and how we as individuals interact with the world around us. In the dozen or so years that I’ve been writing and talking about this technology revolution, I’ve been able to point to specific anecdotal examples of the transformative impact of ubiquitous connectivity, comprehensive data collection, data analysis and machine learning, and natural interfaces between the computational and real worlds. But personalization, as described by the authors, is a significant and broad demonstration of this impact, similar to the ways that Smartphones (in the Mobility Revolution), the Web (in the Internet Revolution), and PCs (in the Microprocessor Revolution) fundamentally impacted all people, businesses, and industries.

The book teaches the lessons that the authors have learned from Boston Consulting Group’s engagements with large businesses across industries who are striving to leverage big data and AI to deliver a more personalized experience for their customers.

The first half of the book is largely structured around what the authors call the Five Promises of Personalization:

– Empower Me: Help customers achieve their goals.

– Know Me: Interact with customers in a way that demonstrates awareness of and sensitivity to their current situation.

– Reach Me: Reach out to the right customer in the right channel at just the right moment to deliver the right experience.

– Show Me: Provide customers with relevant content tailored to specifically meet them where they are in their journey.

– Delight Me: Over time deliver a magical experience that demonstrates that the company is paying attention and learning from every interaction in order to truly empower customers with awareness and sensitivity.

The second half of the book addresses issues companies will need to deal with that extend beyond the Five Promises with chapters on technology choices (“Building Personalization through Smart Integration”), executive sponsorship, buy-in and focus (“Expanding Roles in the C-Suite”), ensuring acceptable returns on investments (“Measuring Impact”), legal and reputational impacts (“Navigating Risk and Privacy”), competitive strategy (“Competing on Personalization”), and strategic planning (“Personalization of the Future”).

Bottom line, Personalized provides a clear picture of how the Connected Intelligence Revolution is redefining how companies across industries interact with their customers. The book explains how those companies will need to change to deliver the promises of personalization. Big companies need to understand these changes, but will likely need help from big consulting firms like BCG (the authors’ employer). Smaller companies will likely continue to deliver personalization the old fashioned way — by personally knowing their customers individually. 

I recommend that big company executives, especially those focused on marketing and the customer experience, read Personalized and consider how quickly they can or should pursue the vision.

Read my full review here.

Restoring Our Sanity Online by Mark Weinstein makes a strong case for the need to reinvent social networking and for the author’s new category concept of Restoration Networks as the solution. It is a good example of a new category point of view narrative for anyone trying to define a new product category.

Weinstein is not a disinterested outsider reporting on the challenges introduced by the social networking industry. He deeply understands the space and is passionate about the problems Big Tech has caused and the potential to fix what is broken. That passion comes through in his writing which is often fiery and pointed. Although well referenced (there are 43 pages of endnotes), this is not an academic tome, but rather a fervent manifesto challenging the status quo.

Through the first 19 chapters of the book, Weinstein introduces the need and pieces of the solution. He addresses the big problems caused by Big Tech Social Networks (privacy, anonymity, bots, trolls, hate, cyberbullying, profit-driven algorithms, targeted ads, boosted posts, divisiveness, mental health challenges, etc.) and how other proposed solutions (Web3, blockchain, decentralization, etc.) fall short of solving the problems. Along the way he introduces components of what he sees as the “real” solution.

In chapter 20 Weinstein fully defines his new category of social network in the form of “The Restoration Networking Constitution”. 

He closes the book with an optimistic assessment of what he has laid out: “Now is our time to advance humanity’s genuine connectivity. In tandem, we can bolster mental health, personal privacy, civil discourse, and democracy. Starting right now, let’s escape from the social media asylum and restore our sanity.” The (over) optimism expressed in that closing statement reflects the spirit of the entire book. Weinstein cares deeply about the problems that Big Tech have caused and he believes he has the answer. 

We can argue over whether the author’s vision is achievable, but hopefully the book will create enough awareness to get the debate started. It’s an informative book for anyone who uses social media today, and an essential book for those interested in helping fix the problems.

Read my full review here.

God is completely self-sufficient. He needs nothing from us. He isn’t checking His Facebook feed every 5 minutes hoping that we will “Like” his creation. So, why is it so important to worship Him?

God created us to worship Him. He deserves our worship. If we are His, we will be worshipping Him for all eternity. The old catechism tells us that the chief end of man is to glorify God and enjoy Him forever. Worshipping God is our highest calling. As business owners, we are tempted to claim to be too busy to worship God, which is really just one aspect of worshipping our work.

In Romans 1, Paul writes of the “wrath of God” which “is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men.” What have men done to deserve this wrath and condemnation? Paul says “although they knew God, they did not glorify Him as God, nor were thankful, but became futile in their thoughts” and “exchanged the truth of God for the lie, and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever.”

When we fail to worship God, or worse, when we worship something in place of God, we don’t do any damage to God, but we hurt ourselves. At the very least, we miss out on the joy and we pull away from the One who loves us beyond measure. Infinitely worse, we earn God’s wrath.

If our desire is to bring glory to God through our businesses, it is literally impossible without worshipping Him!

Read the full article here.

When you read your Bible and meditate on God’s Word, you hear from God. When you pray, He hears from you. Doing both brings God into your business in a way similar to how you would with a trusted human advisor.

Our prayers do not change God or His plans, but they can change us and our plans. There are four important aspects of prayer that make an impact on our work and that bring glory to God.

First, prayer acknowledges our standing before God. It is an admission of our failures and a recognition of God’s perfection. It is also an acknowledgement that everything we have is a gift from God for which we should be thankful.

Second, prayer asks God for help. It is a surrendering of our control over our life and business and putting it in God’s hands. It is turning from “trusting in our own understanding” to “trusting in the Lord.”

Third, when we rightly pray, our perspective changes. If we understand that God has saved us to serve Him, then our primary focus is to bring Him glory and we will naturally strive to align our prayers with His will. God cares about even our tiniest challenges and concerns and He delights when we bring them to Him. He wants what’s truly best for us and we honor Him when we turn to Him in trust and dependence.

Finally, God uses our prayers to shape us more and more into the image of Christ. 

Read the full article here about prayer, why it matters, and how to pray.

The Business Transition Handbook by Laurie Barkman shares lessons learned by the author in selling her own business, helping others transition theirs, and hosting many others on her podcast, Succession Stories. These lessons include identifying the most common mistakes and the best practices of business owners when seeking to exit their businesses.

The book shares many valuable insights and asks the business-owner/reader to consider many important questions. It provides helpful guidance on many topics critical to exiting your business. But in the end, the process is complex, and each company is unique, so that no book could possibly provide all the answers to perfectly guide every business owner through the exit journey. That’s why there’s a need for advisors like the author and myself. 

I do recommend the book to help business owners become aware of the questions and decisions they will face along the way, but I even more strongly recommend surrounding yourself with advisors (financial advisor, CPA, lawyer, value catalyst) who can help guide you at each turn and fork in the road.

Read the full review here.

Regularly reading your Bible is an essential discipline if you want to consistently glorify God with your business. But we are bombarded with so much information throughout the day that the nuggets of eternal truth that could have a positive impact on our lives and our work can easily get washed away and replaced in our minds with the urgent and important details of day-to-day life. This is especially true for business leaders.

Thankfully, God has given us some additional disciplines to help us implant the truths in His Word into our minds, hearts, and lives so that they can bear fruit in our walk, our work, and our businesses. In the article linked below I focus specifically on meditating on what you’ve read, scripture memorization, and applying God’s Word.

All of these disciplines are aimed at the same goal — making the scripture that we read fully available to us in our daily lives. This happens because:

– We haven’t forgotten the words and concepts

– We more deeply understand what they say and mean

– We recognize how they apply to our world today

– We signal to our brains that this is important to us

Some of this will naturally happen if we are diligent about reading the Word, and especially if we are reading thoughtfully and attentively (and not just checking “Bible reading” off our daily to-do list). But spending a few more minutes each day going deeper with these additional disciplines will multiply the impact that our daily reading can have on how we think, speak, and act.

Read the full article here to learn more about these disciplines and how to build them into your regular routine.

What does Bible reading have to do with running a business?

God is the Creator. He made man in His image, so we are also creative. God put man to work from the very beginning and gave him dominion over creation. We were designed from the beginning to create, build, and manage. Business leaders reflect this in our work creating, building, growing, and managing businesses. 

Much of the Bible is focused on helping us see how to live all aspects of our lives in a way that pleases Him and glorifies Him, including through our work. In his teaching, Jesus often used parables, telling stories of businessmen acting in ways that reflected God’s ways and glorified Him, or of other businessmen acting in ways that conflicted with God’s ways and dishonored Him. Throughout the Bible, God makes clear that the righteous (those that live according to His ways) will be blessed both in this life and in the eternal life to come.

The Bible is the only authoritative and infallible source for knowing God and what He desires from us. Anything we can learn about pleasing and glorifying God will come from the Bible, either directly or indirectly. We can learn much from listening to preachers and teachers and authors, but if we really want to know what God says, we must read the Word He has given us, the Bible.

God’s Word is also the source of all wisdom. All of it is profitable for training in righteousness that we may be equipped for every good work. Reading the Bible can give us encouragement and hope, even when going through challenges, as it reminds us of God’s great power and promises. It also reminds us of what truly matters, so that we can focus on the most important things.

Read the full article here, including some tips for how to make Bible reading a regular discipline in your life.

Dictionary.com lists three definitions for the verb “discipline”, all of which are important in growing spiritual fruit in our lives:

1. “to train by instruction and exercise; drill.”
2. “to bring to a state of order and obedience by training and control.”
3. “to punish or penalize in order to train and control; correct; chastise.”

As Christians seeking to honor God with our lives and our businesses, spiritual disciplines are activities we regularly undertake to develop spiritual knowledge, order and obedience in our lives. We should welcome correction as we seek spiritual maturity.

In his book Spiritual Disciplines for the Christian Life, Donald Whitney defines spiritual disciplines as “those practices found in Scripture that promote spiritual growth among believers in the gospel of Jesus Christ. They are the habits of devotion and experiential Christianity that have been practiced by the people of God since biblical times.”

Read the full article about spiritual disciplines and the seven specific behaviors we will be writing about in the coming weeks here.

This week I published the fifth in a long series of articles on “The A,B,C,D’s of Glorifying God with Your Business.” The first five articles have been on five attitudes (the A’s) required if you’re going to glorify God with your business. The next seven will be on behaviors (the B’s) that prepare us to consistently glorify God. After that will come nine characteristics (the C’s) and finally twelve decisions (the D’s) that tangibly bring honor and glory to God.

You might be wondering why I don’t just jump to the end. You might be thinking — just tell us what decisions we can make in our businesses that will be glorifying to God! 

Jesus often used farming analogies in His teaching. I’m going to follow His lead in explaining the A,B,C,D framework:

– The five attitudes represent a mindset that puts God and neighbor first. Think of developing these attitudes within ourselves as preparing the soil for planting. We need a mindset that is “good ground” into which God’s wisdom can take root and grow. 

– The seven behaviors are spiritual disciplines we must develop and exercise in order to work the seed of God’s Word into that good soil and nurture the growth of that Biblical wisdom in our lives.

– The nine character traits are the spiritual fruit that will spring forth in our lives as Godliness grows within us.

– The twelve types of decisions are when and how we harvest that fruit.

Any farmer will tell you that there’s no shortcut to the harvest. You must prepare the soil, work it, and patiently wait for the crop to mature before you can harvest it. So stick with me as we transition from Attitudes to Behaviors. In just a few months we should be ready to reap the harvest.

Read the full article here.

As Christians, we know that our faith is integral to who we are and gets reflected in what we think, say, and do. But the world around us is skeptical. They have seen enough hypocrisy and mediocrity from within the Christian camp to not put much trust in anything we say and to be critical of everything we do. The way we operate our businesses must be consistent with the faith we profess, including love, grace, and integrity.

After Dean Burnside bought a pest control business in Florida, he worked to instill a missions-minded culture in the business. The company’s website lists their purpose as “to represent Jesus Christ to the Gulf Coast while providing peace of mind at a fair price, protecting our environment as the leader in green pest management, and serving others with excellence in all we do.” He defined the company culture around 6 HABITS: Humility; Attitude (positive); Being diligent; Integrity; Taking care of customers, community, and each other; and Sharing the good news. In time, Dean decided to rename the company Good News Pest Solutions. He tells me that not a day goes by without someone asking one of his employees “what’s the good news?” They all carry a pamphlet that shares the good news of salvation through Jesus Christ that they can share with anyone who asks.

Read my full article on what it means to operate our businesses knowing that the world is watching here.