A Real Good Business Book

Posted by Rich Crowley in books, entrepreneurship, thinking

A few weekends back, while enjoying a beach day with family, I took along a book I had purchased a couple of months ago named “Rules of Thumb:  52 Truths for Winning at Business Without Losing Yourself”.   It’s written by Alan Webber, one of the co-founders of Fast Company magazine.  It looked like a quick read, ideal for an afternoon in the sun.

Well, it wasn’t a quick read at all.  It could have been but I enjoyed it enough that I found myself stopping fairly often to think through the lessons he was laying down.  The book’s 52 truths are not radically new or different than what you probably already know, have read or seen practiced.   However, he does a nice job of making you think which I like in a business book.

For example, one of his truths is that “speed = strategy”.  No surprise there right?  Well, what was interesting about the few pages where he outlines this truth was based on lessons he learned from John Boyd, a US military strategist.   Boyd distilled all warfare into three main types:  attrition warfare, maneuver conflict and moral conflict.  Boyd, who was a fighter pilot earned the nickname “40 second Boyd” because he could start at a disadvantage in any dogfight where he was training pilots and in 40 seconds, outmaneuver them to win the dog fight.   Winning in maneuver conflict (or any competition) involves mastering quickness in getting through what he refers to as the OODA loop.

He also has a chapter outlining how entrepreneurs choose serendipity over efficiency. This isn’t so much about entrepreneurs as it is about the dangers of business people focusing on efficiency. Being efficient is good but dangerous if it entrenches the status quo with respect to the thing being made efficient. In his words, these styles represent “a split between habit and surprise, between familiarity and discovery, between safety and risk, ultimately between efficiency and serendipity.”

One other chapter it entitled “The System is the Solution” which I found really interesting from the perspective of how it helps one build relationships and do business with commercial entities.

This isn’t a great book but it’s a good one.