dispatches from the new world of work

Very Short and Very Sweet

It's only 140 undersize pages long. And it only takes an hour or so to read cover-to-cover. But the point is actually in the re-reading, as I see it. Maybe once a month? At least!

The slim volume, Corporate Canaries,* claims, perhaps correctly, to be alone as a biz book about ... defense. The author's overarching point: "The Big Lesson: Defense Matters." (*Why "canaries"? Recall that canaries were placed in mines to be the harbingers of escaping poison gas—the end to the canary's song would alert miners to problems of the worst sort.)

Turnaround exec (and what a record!) Gary Sutton laments the fact that almost every management book is about offense—e.g., searching for excellence (no, he didn't mention my book—but he well might have). Nothing wrong with offense or excellence, per Sutton, but bad things do happen to good people all the damn time. And you've got to do the right thing when the yoghurt hits the fan or threatens to hit the fan—and indeed you must expect said yoghurt to occasionally or more than occasionally to hit the fan. Message: On guard!

There are parables and such, but the bedrock notions are simple, profound, frequently ignored—and use-able starting today. There are just 5 key ideas. The first, "You can't outgrow losses." E.g.: "New business is a great thing, an important thing, and critical for success. But trying to sell your way out of profit problems only magnifies the trouble. Fix profits first. Then add business." Margin (profit) problems won't be solved by selling more low-margin, no-margin stuff. The malaise, "trying to sell your way out of losses," Sutton claims, "is the most common cause of business failure." (Yikes, does that strike—again and again—close to home.)

Another of the Big 5 is, "Any decision beats no decision." Sutton offers this example: "When Microsoft decided online computing was real, Bill Gates refused to talk with employees for three months unless they prefaced the conversation, about anything, by explaining how it related to the Internet. That's focus. No waffling. And the company immediately shifted direction." I.e., if you've got a problem or incipient problem, don't screw around and around doing analysis aimed at producing the "perfect answer"—just get the hell on with something, anything directly & unmistakably related to the issue at hand.

The last Big Point is: "Markets grow and markets die." I.e., eventually ... shit happens. Don't imagine you can avoid it.

Longtime Editor of the Wall Street Journal, Bob Bartley, blurbed the book this way: "If managers could read only one book, this would be it." Frankly, I'm not sure that's hype. Neither is this: Run, don't walk, to Amazon or wherever to get this book. Then keep it at hand. Close at hand.

(Canaries applies to GM ... and a new one-person business ... equally.)

Tom Peters posted this on 02/03/06.

Comments

On the way to the bookstore now!

In a different industry now but spent 15 years in the airlines from the beginning of deregulation to the "beginning of the end" of the industry as we always knew it (the big three AA, DL and UA on their knees). The lessons--the parallels--are so apparent. Can't make money? Lower your fares. Sell more money losing tickets. Planes now full but still losing money? Keep doing what you're doing and hope something (read somebody else) will change and save you.

The market place will ultimately change. How long before you decide to change with it? Why not be ahead of it and lead the change? Invent something someone didn't know they wanted or didn't believe anyone cared to provide (a Jet Blue with price, service and frequency).

The five key ideas/caveats apply to everyone's business. Again, the ideas so obvious, so simple, they seem to be continually overlooked.

Posted by Ed Di Gangi at February 3, 2006 10:17 AM

I'm getting Canaries--I've been one.

Tom, you have said many times that a company supports the overachievers or the underachievers . . . that sentence has served me in so many ways. Thank you for that. I'd like to add:

A company either manages to cause growth or to continue the decline.

It's amazing how many do the latter. "Let's cut the marketing budget and sales force . . . to save money . . . " "Who cares about that waterfall, let's find out who dropped the paddle?" Guess they're the ones who are supporting those underachievers.

There are only two things a company needs to do to grow. Make more things that customers want to buy, and make more opportunities for customers to buy them. Who dropped the paddle is all but irrelevant.

I like reading books by people who understand that.

Posted by Liz Strauss at February 3, 2006 11:18 AM

I like the sound of this short book

Simple/pragmatic/common sense/anecdote - right up my street! I will order it

Five is a number I have used in the last year as we have developed a model of change in healthcare (Tom sorry - for healthcare read 'health')

The model is called 'Five Steps to Engagement' and it is designed for health organisations that are keen to involve and hear more from their customers (i.e. patients and their care givers) about the health services provided.

Maybe five is the new magic number! Anyway â€¦. Here is the model

Five Steps to Patient Engagement

1 Go to where patients are â€“ donâ€™t expect them to come to you

2 Talk with patients and their carers

3 Listen to what they have to say

4 Act on what they say

5 Report back to them on what you have done

The theory is if you do those things as a health organisation then you have achieved a state called patient engagement

Once more simplicity underpins the theory!

Posted by Trevor Gay at February 3, 2006 11:23 AM

I just ordered the book. I would like to present it to my President. We have been doing the same wrong things mentioned by you at our company.

Posted by Raghu at February 3, 2006 11:41 AM

Good luck Raghu. You will either be hailed or railed--but you bring up a great point. Does anyone have any practical advice on getting through to the big cheese that they may be the next case study for what not to do?

Posted by Mark L at February 3, 2006 3:01 PM

We almost always learn more from our failures than we do from our success and it is refreshing that someone wrote a business book about what to do with things are not going right. Frankly, things are not going right more often than not, but Americans are obsessed with winners and we often treat failing (at anything) as some sort of disease.

Posted by Carlos Leyva at February 3, 2006 8:29 PM

I must say the blog is very well explained. I'm looking forward to order one book soon.

Posted by john at February 4, 2006 2:26 AM

I think you're right Carlos. We bask in our wins and if we're smart we learn fast from our failures.

Posted by Liz Strauss at February 4, 2006 10:31 AM

Message for Mark L...

If you want to meet the top guy, and you work in his company, try and make an appointment. If you cannot make an appointment, find out which day he's in the office, just go to his office, tell the secretary that you'll wait.

You'll definitely get 5 minutes of his time...

Caveat: you should be able to explain yourself in 5 minutes.. so tune up that elevator speech!

Warm regards,
Arun

Posted by Arun Sadhashivan at February 6, 2006 5:59 AM