ClearPurpose

In Rogue Waves, Jonathan Brill uses the analogy of hundred-foot tall walls of water that pop up out of nowhere to mysteriously sink even the largest of ships to describe the current business environment. Economic, technological, social, and political undercurrents and seemingly minor turbulence combine to create what have often been called Black Swans: Covid-19, the 2008 financial crisis, massive cybersecurity breaches, etc.

After describing this new reality, Brill introduces what he calls “the ABCs of Resilient Growth”: Awareness, Behavior Change, and Culture Change. These define the three main parts of the book, with each section full of helpful stories, frameworks, and tools to understand how organizations must change to be able to survive and thrive through this chaotic future.

Rogue Waves proposes dramatic changes in how organizations operate, starting with relatively simple environment scanning processes but quickly moving to more significant changes in operations and even fundamental cultural changes. Therefore, the book is neither a source of quick, easy fixes nor a reference manual to keep on the shelf for occasional reference. Instead, the book will be most helpful for business leaders who recognize the danger and opportunity inherent in today’s dynamic environment and who have the fortitude to commit to the level of change Brill is proposing. The book is most applicable to large organizations with the depth of resources to pursue the needed changes, although smaller and younger organizations will likely benefit from understanding the underlying changes and may find them easier to implement (although likely in somewhat different forms than the author proposes).

I’ve long said that technology revolutions represent power and danger and that the winners will be those that learn how to leverage the power and manage the danger. Rogue Waves broadens the applicability of that observation beyond just the easily recognizable coming waves of technology change to also include economic, social, and political turbulence, and even more importantly, the times when those undercurrents converge in perhaps surprising ways. As the author puts it in the final paragraph of the Epilogue “Bigger waves mean bigger risk and more unexpected threats, but they also contain immense power, which presents immense opportunity.” The book does a great job of providing tools, frameworks, and approaches to both capture the power and manage the danger of these “big waves.” If you are up for the challenge of wrestling the fundamental organizational changes called for, I strongly recommend Rogue Waves, especially to leaders of large and mature corporations.

Read the full review here.

Matt Blumberg is a founder/CEO of tech startups. His first book, Startup CEO was intended to teach first-time CEO’s how to do their jobs as they built and scaled their business. Startup CXO is also primarily targeted at startup CEOs, but teaches how all the other key players in the business do their jobs, and how the CEO can best work with them.

Startup CXO is called a “field guide” meaning that it’s not intended to be read cover to cover. Rather, it is pulled off the shelf for reference at specific times in the startup’s life. The book is organized into eleven sections generally by function. Each section is broken into chapters on specific activities within those functions. I would expect Startup CXO to often be referenced as the business is establishing different functions, when they are facing challenges in specific dimensions of the business, or especially when the CEO is considering expanding a function or stepping up the leadership in that area.

I found Startup CXO to be an invaluable resource. I know there’s some hesitancy to buy a book you don’t need now and don’t ever plan on actually reading, but trust me, if you are a startup CEO, there will soon come a day when you’ll wish you had this book on your shelf ready to pull down and reference. For most entrepreneurs this book will save you a ton of time, money, and trouble.

Read the full review here.

I recently listened to an episode of the Faith Driven Entrepreneur podcast that featured a conversation with Cheryl Bachelder about her faith-driven, entrepreneurial leadership after Popeyes Louisiana Kitchen had suffered through seven years of business decline. In describing that journey, I clearly heard all five of the traits that I consistently see in successful entrepreneurs.

In this article I focus on how these five characteristics were instrumental in that turnaround:

1. God-honoring Vision
2. Compassionate Empathy
3. Complete Humility
4. Balanced Diligence
5. Loving Accountability

In the full article I look at each of these traits and provide some snippets from the podcast to show how the Popeyes turnaround involved each one. Hopefully this will pique your interest to listen to the entire episode.

I believe that Bachelder and team would’ve struggled to succeed in the turnaround if they had lacked any of these characteristics. But simply having a Godly vision, compassionate empathy, complete humility, balanced diligence, and loving accountability would not have been enough if they hadn’t also made wise decisions and been blessed by God with the right circumstances outside their control. 

These 5 traits are not a magic formula for success, but time and time again I see them present in successful entrepreneurs.

Read the full article here.

My son uses Hit Makers when he teaches marketing to university students, so I thought it must have some pretty interesting and applicable insights. Interesting, yes? Applicable, not so much. That’s not a fault of the book, but rather the nature of the problem.

In the preface, the author called me out: “In our desperate search for simplicity, people want success to work like a garage door opener, where a four-number code springs the lock. But culture is not a keypad, and people are not doors. … Designing for humans means abandoning the childish dream of a universal formula and embracing a more chaotic dance between novelty and wonder, belonging and uniqueness, familiarity and surprise.”

Derek Thompson, a writer for The Atlantic, is a master storyteller. Across 12 chapters plus 4 “interludes”, he tells stories from throughout history that help us understand why some things (songs, movies, artists, etc.) become hits. That’s not to say that the book teaches us how to generate hits. Far from it. Instead, the author gives us a glimpse through the mist to have a slightly better sense of the answer to the perennial question: “Why did that become a hit and not that?”

I found Hit Makers to be a fascinating read. The stories were compelling and the lessons learned from them made sense. While learning these lessons will help marketers make fewer mistakes and perhaps take some steps to increase the likelihood of success, there is no magic formula that will guarantee success.

Read the full review here.

There’s no magic combination of skills that will guarantee entrepreneurial success, but I do think that if we develop five traits, in the right way, our startups will be better for it.

For Christian entrepreneurs, I think considering “the right way” leads us to this list:

1. God-honoring Vision
2. Compassionate Empathy
3. Complete Humility
4. Balanced Diligence
5. Loving Accountability

Read the full article here.

This week I was asked to tell a story from the (relatively) distant past. The audience seemed to benefit from the lessons learned, so perhaps it’s worth retelling here.

In 2014, I was the vice president of corporate strategy for Sprint, the 100+ year old global telecommunications giant best known as the (then) number 3 mobile operator in the U.S. There were four multi-billionaire entrepreneurs from four different countries whose paths had all led them to the U.S. wireless industry and the future of Sprint likely depended on whether these highly successful (and highly independent) men could work together in a coordinated fashion.

Could the unicorns dance? Read the full story here and see how the story turned out.

The Strategist’s Toolkit is a helpful and handy reference for anyone involved in strategy development. It’s not a compelling read that keeps you engaged from cover to cover, but it’s a great collection of essential tools that can easily be pulled off the shelf when needed. 

Using the authors’ own “toolkit” analogy, this book is like the handy and inexpensive, all-in-one tool sets you can find at stores like WalMart. It works in a pinch when you need something quick. But if you’re starting a major project, you probably want to take the time and spend the money to get a “professional grade” version — whether that might be going to the “foundational readings” the authors reference to learn more, getting professional coaching on how to apply the tool effectively in your specific situation, or hiring a professional to facilitate the process for you.

The book serves well as a starting point. Just don’t expect it to teach you everything you need to know to successfully use the tools it introduces.

Read the full review here.

Tom Eisenmann teaches entrepreneurship at Harvard Business School (HBS), including a course on startup failure. In Why Startups Fail, he has tapped into the rich network of HBS grads who have started companies to uncover six reasons why many of those startups failed. More importantly, he has deeply explored the decisions that entrepreneurs make along the startup journey, the tradeoffs involved, and how to approach those decisions in a way that increases the likelihood of success. In short, while the six patterns that account for most startup failures provide the title for the book, the really valuable lessons taught in the book are reflected in the book’s subtitle.

Why Startups Fail has become one of my favorite books to recommend to entrepreneurs. The first third of the book covers the decisions that early stage startups face and the three patterns that lead to failure during that phase. The second third covers the decisions that scaling startups face and the associated failure patterns. The final section of the book deals with the challenges founders of failing startups face, both in the wind-down and beyond. As an entrepreneur, wherever you are in that journey, this book has valuable lessons for you.

Read the full review here.