November 2024

Book Brief: Boom!

“Boom” by Byrne Hobart and Tobias Huber makes the case that, except for a few periods of irrational growth, we have been in a period of scientific, technological, cultural, and economic stagnation since about 1970. The authors posit that this has been driven by extreme risk aversion and homogeneity. The few exceptions have been periods of irrational investment, risk taking, and innovation. Even though these bubbles eventually burst, typically failing to provide an economic return to investors, the advances produced benefit all of society and become the foundation on which future innovation and viable business models are built.

The book presents this thesis with a promise. The thesis that bubbles break through our current stagnation to produce long-term value and innovation is compelling. However, in their description of the book, the authors set the expectation that “Boom ” provides a blueprint for accelerating innovation and a path to unleash a new era of global prosperity.” While their observations are interesting and the stories they tell are, at times, fascinating, they fail to deliver on the promise. At the point where readers expect to receive a plan for leveraging the value-creating power of bubbles, we instead are treated to spiritual musings and (in my opinion) bad theology. We are exhorted to lift ourselves up and transcend reality, which, in our highly rational world, isn’t likely to happen. 

If your passion is in the transcendent ability of technology and innovation to overcome the constraints of our current realities, “Boom” may be an interesting read for you. If you are a fan of the history of how innovations have impacted society, I strongly recommend reading the six chapters in Part II of “Boom” For others, the insights that can be gleaned from the book likely aren’t worth the effort required to extract them.

Read my full review here.

Book Brief: Boom! Read More »

Book Brief: Triple Fit Strategy

Triple Fit Strategy by Christoph Senn and Mehak Gandhi introduces a different way of engaging with your most strategic customers. Instead of selling product-centric solutions, suppliers work with their customers to co-create mutually-aligned growth. While “strategic selling” has been around for decades, the authors provide a framework, processes, and a collection of tools for collaboration between partners to align their strategies, execution, and resources, almost as if they were operating as one company. While the approach isn’t for every company, and certainly not every customer relationship, I strongly recommend the book for those involved in managing and growing truly strategic accounts.

The book introduces the Triple Fit framework which is made up of 9 building blocks across three levels of “fit” between supplier and customer: planning, execution, and resources. The book teaches how to use this framework to diagnose the strength of a supplier-customer relationship, address weaknesses in order to co-create growth, and build the overall strength of the vendor organization in serving business customers.

I like structure and so one of the things I particularly appreciate about Triple Fit Strategy is the collection of various lists that clarify the challenges, opportunities, and methods related to implementing the Triple Fit approach. I also enjoy learning new tools and frameworks and the book introduces (by my count) 9 new tools or frameworks.

Read my full review here.

Book Brief: Triple Fit Strategy Read More »

Smart Growth

I’ve recently finished reading Triple Fit Strategy by Christoph Senn and Mehak Gandhi. Parts of the book reminded me of the brilliance of Nextel’s SmartGrowth strategy. I thought it worth writing a quick article to generalize the overlapping principles from both models. Click the link below to read the details.

Read the full article here.

Smart Growth Read More »

Churchmanship and Your Business

One of my favorite podcasts uses the tagline “Entrepreneurship can be a lonely journey. But it doesn’t have to be.” Business owners need to nurture healthy relationships or else the burdens they bear are likely to overwhelm them. Without a support system, both your business and your health are likely to suffer.

God knows that it’s not good for us to be alone and that we are prone to being tossed to and fro by the world around us. He knits us together into a church family to give us stability in our faith, to provide us an environment where we can grow in His grace, and to provide a community that we can love and that can love and serve us. You may wonder how the student, the airline pilot, the machinist, the homemaker, the web developer, the nurse, or the retiree in the pews with you could possibly help you run your business better, but each of them has gifts and insights that are different from yours and they may very well surprise you with the wisdom they are able to speak into your business situation. If nothing else, they can take your needs to the One whose wisdom and ability are beyond measure.

Read my full article here to learn more about what it means to be a good “churchman” and why it matters.

Churchmanship and Your Business Read More »

Scroll to Top