On Your Marks with Prof Jonathan Marks: Recent Episodes
Professor Jonathan Marks
I am a business school professor based in South Africa and working, teaching and researching in the field of high growth entrepreneurship. My current podcast season is a weekly review of non-fiction books - I have set the challenge of 52 books in 52 weeks. I share the review by way of a short podcast (approx 15 mins) and an infographic. These are free resources - just subscribe at www.jonathanmarks.co.za/books to get these sent to your email inbox each Tuesday morning.
For years, rumors of the “Marsh Girl” haunted Barkley Cove, a quiet fishing village. Kya Clark is barefoot and wild; unfit for polite society. So in late 1969, when the popular Chase Andrews is found dead, locals immediately suspect her.
But Kya is not what they say. A born naturalist with just one day of school, she takes life's lessons from the land, learning the real ways of the world from the dishonest signals of fireflies. But while she has the skills to live in solitude forever, the time comes when she yearns to be touched and loved. Drawn to two young men from town, who are each intrigued by her wild beauty, Kya opens herself to a new and startling world—until the unthinkable happens.
In Where the Crawdads Sing, Owens juxtaposes an exquisite ode to the natural world against a profound coming of age story and haunting mystery. Thought-provoking, wise, and deeply moving, Owens’s debut novel reminds us that we are forever shaped by the child within us, while also subject to the beautiful and violent secrets that nature keeps.
The story asks how isolation influences the behavior of a young woman, who like all of us, has the genetic propensity to belong to a group. The clues to the mystery are brushed into the lush habitat and natural histories of its wild creatures.
Source: www.goodreads.com
Jordan B. Peterson is a Canadian clinical psychologist, self-help writer, cultural critic and professor of psychology at the University of Toronto. His main areas of study are abnormal, social, and personality psychology, with a particular interest in the psychology of religious and ideological belief and the assessment and improvement of personality and performance.
Peterson grew up in Fairview, Alberta. He earned a B.A. in political science in 1982 and a degree in psychology in 1984, both from the University of Alberta and his PhD in clinical psychology from McGill University in 1991. He remained at McGill as a post-doctoral fellow for two years before moving to Massachusetts, where he worked as an assistant and an associate professor in the psychology department at Harvard University. In 1998, he moved to the University of Toronto as a full professor. He authored Maps of Meaning: The Architecture of Belief in 1999, a work which examined several academic fields to describe the structure of systems of beliefs and myths, their role in the regulation of emotion, creation of meaning, and motivation for genocide.
In 2016, Peterson released a series of videos on his YouTube channel criticising the Canadian government's Bill C-16. He subsequently became involved in several public debates about the bill that received significant media coverage.
12 Rules For Life
Humorous, surprising, and informative, Dr Peterson tells us why skateboarding boys and girls must be left alone, what terrible fate awaits those who criticize too quickly, and why you should always pet a cat when you meet one on the street.
What does the nervous system of the lowly lobster have to tell us about standing up straight (with our shoulders back) and about success in life? Why did ancient Egyptians worship the capacity to pay careful attention as the highest of gods? What dreadful paths do people tread when they become resentful, arrogant, and vengeful? Dr Peterson journeys broadly, discussing discipline, freedom, adventure, and responsibility, distilling the world's wisdom into 12 practical and profound rules for life. 12 Rules for Life shatters the modern commonplaces of science, faith, and human nature while transforming and ennobling the mind and spirit of its listeners.
Beyond Order
In 12 Rules for Life, clinical psychologist and celebrated professor at Harvard and the University of Toronto Dr Jordan B. Peterson helped millions of readers impose order on the chaos of their lives. Now, in this bold sequel, Peterson delivers twelve more lifesaving principles for resisting the exhausting toll our desire to order the world inevitably takes.
In a time when humans will increasingly impose themselves over every sphere of life—from our social structures to our emotional states—Peterson warns that too much security is dangerous. What’s more, he offers strategies for overcoming the cultural, scientific, and psychological forces causing us to tend toward tyranny and teaches us how to rely instead on our instinct to find meaning and purpose, even—and especially—when we find ourselves powerless.
While chaos, in excess, threatens us with instability and anxiety, unchecked order can petrify us into submission. Beyond Order provides a call to balance these two fundamental principles of reality and guides us along the straight and narrow path that divides them.
Source: www.goodreads.com
Podcast LinksLecture on 12 Rules for Life
Lecture on Beyond Order
Peterson's Website
I am 94. I've had an extraordinary life. It's only now that I appreciate how extraordinary.
As a young man, I felt I was out in the wild, experiencing the entire natural world - but it was an illusion. The tragedy of our time has been happening all around us, barely noticeable daily - the loss of our planet's wild places and its biodiversity.
I have been witness to this decline. A Life on Our Planet is my witness statement and my vision for the future. It is the story of how we made this, our most significant mistake - and how, if we act now, we can put it right.
We have one final chance to create our perfect home and restore the wonderful world we inherited.
All we need is the will to do so.
Sir David Frederick Attenborough is a naturalist and broadcaster who is most well-known for writing and presenting the nine "Life" series, produced in conjunction with BBC's Natural History Unit. The series includes Life on Earth (1979), The Living Planet (1984), The Trials of Life (1990), Life in the Freezer (about Antarctica; 1993), The Private Life of Plants (1995), The Life of Birds (1998), The Life of Mammals (2002), Life in the Undergrowth (2005) and Life in Cold Blood (2008).
He is the younger brother of director and actor Richard Attenborough.
Link to parody the Attenborough video here.
Link to COP 26 speech here.
Centuries ago, the principle of Ockham’s razor changed our world by showing simpler answers to be preferable and more often true. In Life Is Simple, scientist Johnjoe McFadden traces centuries of discoveries, taking us from a geocentric cosmos to quantum mechanics and DNA, arguing that simplicity has revealed profound answers to the greatest mysteries. This is no coincidence. From the laws that keep a ball in motion to those that govern evolution, simplicity, he claims, has shaped the universe itself. And in McFadden’s view, life could only have emerged by embracing maximal simplicity, making the fundamental law of the universe a cosmic form of natural selection that favours the survival of the simplest. Recasting the history of science and our universe’s origins, McFadden transforms our understanding of ourselves and our world.
Source: www.goodreads.com
Discover the transformative power of leisure to recapture your calm and creativity. We live in a time where busyness is often seen as a badge of honour. But are your busiest days the ones that make you feel the most accomplished? If all of your hard work isn't working, it might be time to question the assumption that "busy" = "productive." After reaching breaking points in their careers, business coach John Fitch and AI researcher Max Frenzel learned the importance of taking time off. Now, these former workaholics are here to help you revolutionize the way you get things done.
Time Off: A Practical Guide to Building Your Rest Ethic and Finding Success Without the Stress reveals how history's greatest minds, as well as some of the most successful leaders, thinkers, and creatives of today, found success by practising a more balanced approach to work and life. Embracing their insights on how constant hustle can be your worst enemy, you will realize that time off means much more than just taking a break. By learning to slow down, you will rediscover a more fulfilled and versatile version of yourself and unlock your true creative potential.
Source: www.goodreads.com
Discover the story of Ernest Shackleton's legendary Antarctic expedition through the words of the world's greatest living explorer, Sir Ranulph Fiennes - one of the only men to understand his experience first-hand . . .
To write about Hell, it helps if you have been there.
In 1915, Sir Ernest Shackleton's attempt to traverse the Antarctic was cut short when his ship, Endurance, became trapped in ice.
The disaster left Shackleton and his men alone at the frozen South Pole, fighting for their lives.
Their survival and escape is the most famous adventure in history.
Shackleton is an engaging new account of the adventurer, his life and his incredible leadership under extreme circumstances. Written by polar adventurer Sir Ranulph Fiennes who followed in Shackleton's footsteps, he brings his unique insights to bear on these infamous expeditions. Shackleton is both a re-appraisal and a valediction, separating the man from the myth he has become.
Praise for Sir Ranulph Fiennes:
'The World's Greatest Living Explorer' - Guinness Book of Records
'Full of awe-inspiring details of hardship, resolve and weather that defies belief, told by someone of unique authority. No one is more tailor-made to tell [this] story than Sir Ranulph Fiennes' - Newsday
'Fiennes' own experiences certainly allow him to write vividly and with the empathy of the hell that the men went through - *The Sunday Times
Source: www.goodreads.com*
Ten years ago, the idea of getting into a stranger’s car, or walking into a stranger’s home, would have seemed bizarre and dangerous, but today it’s as common as ordering a book online. Uber and Airbnb are household names: redefining neighbourhoods, challenging how governments regulate business and changing the way we travel.
In the spirit of iconic Silicon Valley renegades like Steve Jobs and Bill Gates, a new generation of entrepreneurs is sparking yet another cultural upheaval through technology. They are among the Upstarts, idiosyncratic founders with limitless drive and an abundance of self-confidence. Young, hungry and brilliant, they are rewriting the traditional rules of business, changing our day-to-day lives and often sidestepping serious ethical and legal obstacles.
The Upstarts is the definitive account of a dawning age of tenacity, creativity, conflict and wealth. In Brad Stone’s highly anticipated and riveting account of the most radical companies of the new Silicon Valley, we find out how it all started and how the world is wildly different than it was ten years ago.
(Source: www.goodreads.com)
What's the most effective path to success in any domain? It's not what you think.
Plenty of experts argue that anyone who wants to develop a skill, play an instrument, or lead their field should start early, focus intensely, and rack up as many hours of deliberate practice as possible. If you dabble or delay, you'll never catch up to the people who got a head start. But a closer look at research on the world's top performers, from professional athletes to Nobel laureates, shows that early specialization is the exception, not the rule.
David Epstein examined the world's most successful athletes, artists, musicians, inventors, forecasters and scientists. He discovered that in most fields--especially those that are complex and unpredictable--generalists, not specialists, are primed to excel. Generalists often find their path late, juggling many interests rather than focusing on one. They're also more creative, agile, and able to make connections their more specialized peers can't see.
Provocative, rigorous, and engrossing, Range makes a compelling case for actively cultivating inefficiency. Failing a test is the best way to learn. Frequent quitters end up with the most fulfilling careers. The most impactful inventors cross domains rather than deepening their knowledge in a single area. As experts silo themselves further while computers master more of the skills once reserved for highly focused humans, people who think broadly and embrace diverse experiences and perspectives will increasingly thrive.
(source: www.goodreads.com)
Based on the highly acclaimed NPR podcast, How I Built Thiswith Guy Raz, this book offers priceless insights and inspiration from the world’s top entrepreneurs on how to start, launch, and build a successful venture.
Great ideas often come from a simple spark: A soccer player on the New Zealand national team notices all the unused wool his country produces and figures out a way to turn them into shoes (Allbirds). A former Buddhist monk decides the best way to spread his mindfulness teachings is by launching an app (Headspace). A sandwich cart vendor finds a way to reuse leftover pita bread and turns it into a multimillion-dollar business (Stacy’s Pita Chips).
Award-winning journalist and NPR host Guy Raz has interviewed more than 200 highly successful entrepreneurs to uncover amazing true stories like these. In How I Built This, he shares tips for every entrepreneur’s journey: from the early days of formulating your idea to raising money and recruiting employees, to fending off competitors, to finally paying yourself a real salary. This is a must-read for anyone who has ever dreamed of starting their own business or wondered how trailblazing entrepreneurs made their dreams a reality.
(Source: www.goodreads.com).
The U.S. government predicts that about 60 per cent of the Earth’s surface will not have enough water soon, but most people do not know the crisis. In Let There Be Water, Seth M. Siegel eloquently and masterfully details hundreds of hours of research on this pending epidemic to reveal that the solution lies with one country – Israel. The task that Israel has accomplished is astounding, especially considering that more than half of the country is made of the desert. Israel has such a large amount of water that every day they are pumping water to nearby countries Palestine and Jordan. What’s even more profound about Israel’s reliable water system and its absorbent amount of drinking water is what it took to get there. The way Israel created such cutting-edge water technology – beyond what any other country has created – is an amazing story all in itself. This book provides insight into how a country with so many challenges facing them was able to come out on top and create a system that could save the world. Let There Be Water is not only a vital resource for those interested in political science, global science and sustainability, but it’s also an essential title for companies and other organizations. (source: www.bookpal.com)
The book captures the life and achievements of South African entrepreneur and innovator, Elon Musk, the brain behind series of successful enterprises such as PayPal, Tesla, SpaceX and Solarcity. The real-life inspiration of the Iron Man Series, Musk wants to be the saviour of the planet, send people into space and set up a colony on Mars.
Bullied in school and scolded tremendously by his father, Musk was actually a brilliant student and his life story is nothing less than a drama packed film. Ashlee Vance’s brilliant description of Musk’s character, simple language and neat choice of words indeed makes this book a great read. (Source: www.bookishelf.com)
NOTE: Apologies to my loyal listeners, my travel plans last week messed with my remote publishing abilities and this meant missing one of my weekly podcasts. I figure 1/52 is not bad - so here it is and expect a double episode soon.
'If you want to achieve more (without going nuts), read this book.' - Charles Duhigg, bestselling author of The Power of Habit and Smarter Faster Better
Most of our time is spent by default. We all wish for more hours in the day. We all struggle to make time for what matters. Help is here. Productivity experts Jake Knapp and John Zeratsky have created a four-step framework that anyone can use, packed with more than 80 tactics to help you design your day around the things that matter. Tactics such as- Choose a daily highlight, Be the boss of your phone, Stay out of social media infinity pools, Slow your inbox, Make TV a 'sometimes treat' Exercise every day (but don't be a hero), Eat without screens, Go off grid, Spend time with your tribe, Make your bedroom a bedroom. With tips and tricks to help you change your life, it's time to stop daydreaming about projects and activities that you'll get to 'someday', and start that someday today.
'Make Time is essential reading for anyone who wants to create a happier, more successful life.' - Gretchen Rubin, author of The Happiness Project
(Source: booktopia.com)
Best-selling author Simon Winchester maps the unique trajectory of the fathers of engineering. The lives of Wilkinson, Whitworth, Maudslay, Bramah, and Ramsden are interwoven with anecdotes such as the invention of the Rolls-Royce and Thomas Jefferson's innovations, offering a fascinating narrative about the men who shaped today's world. Through stories of their trials and tribulations, Exactly celebrates the memorable men who shaped today's world through their early innovations in engineering.
Simon Winchester chronicles the genesis of precision by shining a light on the quintet of pioneers who enabled us to see as far as the moon and as close as the Higgs boson through their unparalleled minutiae work. (source: booktopia.com).
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The wonderful tale of William Kamkwamba, a teenage boy living n rural Malawai and his thirst not just for water but for knowledge, purpose and identity. Suffering through incredible poverty, drought and famine, William teaches himself the basics of simple engineering and electrical science and creates form scarp a windmill to provide power to his home. The book is a compelling narrative across the span of his early years, which culminate in the successful unveiling of the windmill and then his launch onto the world stage via a TED Talk in Arusha, Tanzania.
A beautiful human story of hope, dignity and innovation!
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Billion Dollar Loser tells the story of the meteoric rise and fall of Adam Neumann, co-founder of WeWork. This fast-taking and quick-moving Israeli entrepreneur, with no education and no background in real estate, became head of a multi-billion dollar company that seemed at one stage to dominate the New York real estate market. Neumann tapped into the global demand for co-working space - making it cool and hip in a way that others just could not emulate or conceptualise while at the same time accessing reservoirs of cheap capital that was desperately seeking a high-growth home. These, combined with Neumanns charismatic brand of entrepreneurship and a scaling strategy that seemed to have no regard for resources, meant he built an empire, albeit somewhat wobbly, by the time the dust had settled and the market had given the true feelings on this over-valued business. The book is well worth a read, and this cautionary tale will be one for our time as we look back on the excesses of the early 2000s.
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The Idea FactoryL Bell Labs and the Great Age of American Innovation is a detailed, beautifully researched and masterfully written book that uncovers the origins of some of the most significant technological innovations of the last century. Bell Labs, part of AT & T (American Telephone and Telepgran Company) led the US and the world in communication technology through a purposeful design and its research, development and industrial innovation facility in New Jersey. Bell Labs birthed everything from transistors to fibre optic cabling cellular technology to HDTV, microwave, operating systems and programming languages such as UNIX and C++. The book is a detailed and in-depth treatment of the people, processes, and technology that emerged during the last century. It offers the reader a long hard gaze behind the curtain of a company that few know of but has impacted all our lives.
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This classic Stoic text from philosopher and Roman Emperor Marcus Aurelius offers insights into her code of living through 12 books. Settled around the themes of service to society, logic and reasoning and existentialism, the book offers solace for a modern life that is complicated and complex, yet in many ways so very simple to live and lead.
Each book contains simple truths and reflections, remarkably relevant today even though they were written thousands of years ago. This is a book to keep by your bedside and to read in small bits as you find yourself needing some wisdom to navigate your life.
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The founder of Starbucks, Howard Schultz, presents how he and his leadership team returned the company to greatness and profitability after a period of growth that resulted in the core values and ethos of the company fading into the background. A wonderful read - honest, real, informative, and at the same time useful for pretty much any size business in any industry.
Schulz shows how returning to the initial purpose of the business - something he articulates well in the book, gets one close to customers and purpose and, from there to build profitability. The Starbucks story of a perennial story, and Schultz - who has thousands of videos online of him peaking all over the world, is a leadership and management icon.
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Philippe Sands’ book is a triumph. He sets out to understand the origins of the terms ‘genocide’ and ‘crimes against humanity’, and in the process constructs a book of remarkable complexity and character. He connects the lives of four men – his grandfather, Hersch Lauterpacht (who formulated the term ‘crimes against humanity’), Rafael Lemkin (who formulated the term ‘genocide’) and Hans Frank, a Nazi and governor of occupied Poland. Not only are the lives of these men interconnected, but the geography connects them through the city of Lviv (not in Ukraine), that had been known as Lemberg and then Lwow. A fascinating book – as much for the historian as those interested in the law, but more importantly, for all humankind.
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A truly masterful book on entrepreneurship that is timely, expertly written and meticulously researched. Professor Tom Eisenmann is an undisputed world authority on entrepreneurship, having developed a wide range of programmes at Harvard Business School to support entrepreneurs and early stage start-up businesses. The book offer a blueprint of success but based on examples of failure; while this may seem like an oxymoron, the research Eisenmann conducted uncovers the granular issues at play in a wider range of start-up businesses that seemed promising at first attracted investment – often huge amounts of it, and yet still failed. Each book chapter details a case study of a failed business, thus providing not just a principle of failure, but a peak behind the veil of a real business. Eisenmann also offer strategies to mitigate against failure and ensure a higher likelihood of success. A compelling read and a necessary guide for every entrepreneur’s library.
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Africa’s Business revolution is a positive, practical and logical argument and guide for doing business on the African continent. The authors are steeped in African business, and draw on their work as consultants with McKinsey to showcases wonderful success stories and large scale potential. The book is not ignorant of the challenges that face so many African countries, but illustrate through the book how these can be mitigated through smart strategies and careful planning. A well written business book that should be necessary reading for anyone involved in business in Africa or those looking to harness the potential of this next growth market.
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Simon Sinek’s 5th book, based on the initial work by James Carse in 1986, lays bare the nature of finite and infinite games. Sinek argues that we are surrounded – at least in the world of business, and probably in life, with a series of infinite games, yet we play these with a finite mindset. We seek to win and beat the competition when in fact all we can do (and should do) is play in order to keep playing. In the end we all die and that is the end of the game for us, but the game continues with new players and changing rules. Sinek draws on a wide range of stories and anecdotes form technology to motor vehicle brands, military cases and big pharma. His five elements for creating an infinite mindset are easy to understand and apply, and even if they are used piecemeal, they are likely to change the way that one approaches life and business. A worthwhile and useful read.
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Rachel Carson’s book Silent Spring, while over 60 years old, is the fountainhead of the environmental movement. This brave, persistent and intelligent woman, confronted with the intellectual patriarchy and corporate hegemony of 1950’s and 1960’s America, took it upon herself to chronicle the detrimental impact that pesticides and insecticides (most particularly DDT) where having on the human, plant and animal ecosystems of the world. The book illustrates three things; the power of persistence, grit and tenacity, the importance of speaking truth to power, and the fact that despite warnings such as this book, we continue to hurtle unchecked towards a self-created environment crisis.
Listen to this podcast. Educate yourself. Take action.
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Dr James Hollis’ book, The Middle Passage is something that will call to some but not to all. A renowned Jungian psychoanalyst, Hollis’ book explores the dialectic of how our early childhood gives way to early adulthood and from there, if we are fortunate and willing to ‘do the work’, into a second adulthood. The Middle Passage, a more responsible term than ‘mid-life crisis’ is a time to confront one’s failures, disappointments and disruptions, and find true solace in becoming as close as possible to one’s true self. The book is a short treatise but something upon which those who seek understanding, personal enlightenment and self-understanding will reflect and mediate for years to come.
Note re sound recording: if you think you hear cicadas in the background (and a plane taking off) you are right! I am staying at a wonderful cottage in Corfu which is close to nature (hence the cicadas) and on the flightpath to and from the rest of Europe. Apologies for the quality but such is life on the island!
The link to the review of David Whyte’s The Heart Aroused can be found here
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A disappointing read. The book is a clustering of random stories, observations and vignettes loosely corralled together. There is no coherence to the narrative, and while some of the stories are amusing, this is at best a book to pick up now and again when you might be desperate for inspiration. The idea of developing a ‘practice’ and being a ‘professional’ rather than waiting for inspiration to bite is one I agree with – I just don’t think you need 256 pages with which to say it. I would give this book a hard pass.
Here is Lou Reed’s Walk on the Wild Side
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Jon Kabat-Zinn’s book is a foundation stone of the mindfulness movement. Mindfulness has become yet another buzz word and it’s helpful to get back to the source to better understand the origin and the practice from someone so close to the source. Being mindful is about being aware – and waking up! In this podcast I hand the mic over to the author, and after a quick introduction and review of the book (it’s great BTW) I include a 10 minute meditation from the man himself. Take a quiet moment in your day to pause and follow the breath … who knows what might happen! Enjoy this podcast which is the midpoint of my 52 Books in 52 Weeks project.
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Jenny Kleeman’s book is a roller coaster ride through the future of the very things that make us human – food, sex, birth and death. With the eye of an anthropologist, she immerses herself into an underworld of listservs, online groups, start-up entrepreneurs and fringe innovators who are way out at the cutting edge of new products, business models and social conventions. As Kleeman navigates through sex robots with AI and swappable genitalia, hundred dollar chicken nuggets grown from a single cell, finless lab grown tuna, high-end surrogate agencies, birthing bio bag and the Elon Musk of Suicide, you get a sense of the striving of people to not only make sense of our world but to imagine what it could be way into the future. Kleeman makes an excellent guide and is a quick study of the edge dark world.
These links below are some further insights into her writing and reporting:
Kleeman’s Website can be found here
Kleeman's TED Talk on Humanity can be found here
NI Science Festival talks to Kleeman here
Singularity FM chats to Kleeman about Sex Robots & Vegan Meat here
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Gabrielle Bluestone, a reporter for VICE and the executive producer of the Netflix documentary Fyre: The Greatest Party That Never Happened, presents all her research into the Fyre Fiasco in this excellent book. The book examines not just Fyre, but the ways in which scammers, grifters and con artists have inveigled their way into our lives and how technology and social media influencers aid and abet this post-truth reality. The Fyre story is compelling and is as much a cautionary tale of youthful exuberance as is WeWork and Theranos. McFarland – the Fyre Festival protagonist has in a short 30 or so years become a career criminal, and yet he continues to scam and fleece those who are impressionable and easily influenced. A compelling read!
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Chase’s book, Peers Inc, is an essential guide to those wanting to understand the sharing or collaborative economy. Chase started Zipcar, an early sharing company, that predates Uber and Airbnb, and in this book brings her considerable intellect and understanding to unpacking this collaborative economy. While not a recent book, her observations and insights are highly relevant, not just to entrepreneurs, but to those of us (like Chase) who are concerned about large-scale systemic problems and are seeking solutions that are cost-effective and able to scale. In this podcast I not only review the book, but provide the necessary ingredients (according to Chase) for how to build Peers Inc. platforms.
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Greg McKeown’s second book Effortless, promises a deeper understanding of how to 'make what matters most, easier to do'. This book follows on from Essentialism, published in 2012, that helped readers gain insights into ‘doing what is right’. Effortless lives up to its promise and offers the reader 15 strategies to help build a consistent practice that leads to an effortless state, effortless action and ultimately, effortless results. In this podcast I review the book (which is great BTW!) and offer my reflections on three strategies that really spoke to me during my reading. It was near impossible to not begin thinking about how to apply McKeown’s principles in the midst of reading the book – this is well written, accessible and rich with useful content. A must read for those who care about how they allocate their most precious resource – time.
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Susan Cain’s book Quiet is a profoundly important contribution and challenge to the age of personality that has usurped the age of character. With between a third and a half of the population being classified as introverts, it would seem a timely discussion to better understand how introverts function, contribute and can thrive in a world so obsessed with the Extrovert Ideal. Cain’s book and TED talk (31 million views) is testimony (as if we needed it) to the vast population that often does not feel heard or seen because they don’t have a loud voice. In this book, she takes the reader through the social, biological and even political history and nature of extroversion and introversion, peppering the narrative with her story (she is an introvert) and those of countless others. Given that you or someone you know or love (or both!) are probably an introvert – this book and podcast is definitely worth a read/listen.
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Michael Pollan’s book, The Omnivore’s Dilemma, must surely stand as an important treatise and examination of the food we eat and the system that delivers that food. In this podcast I review the book, highlighting the three food systems that Pollan investigates, showing us that while industrial food production has so much control, there are alternate – albeit not easy, ways to get access to healthy wholesome food. The book is steeped in research and in the lived experience of the author, and we are the better for it, having this almost as a record as to how food has been corrupted through greed, profit and misguided government policy.
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This book by Salim Ismail, Michael S. Malone and Yuri Van Geest, all of Singularity University fame, was (and still is) a bold statement of how businesses can start and scale using technology to create an exponential growth curve. Drawing on a vast number of examples – both well-known and more obscure, the team presents ten attributes – five internal and five external, to building an exponential organisation. These attributes are structured around the idea of a Massive Transformative Purpose (a Big Hairy Audacious Goal but with a ‘why’) that serves as the anchor point for all that the firm does. The book is written in an easy and engaging style and is quick to understand; this is as much a field guide as it is a philosophy and should be essential reading for those wanting to build to scale using technology as the lever.
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Maverick by Ricardo Semler was a rallying cry in the late 1980’s for a style of leadership and management that is inclusive, participatory and built on a relationship of mutual respect and trust between leaders and employees. This book (to my delight!) remains as relevant today as when it was written. Semler has gone on to become management thinker and faculty member of a number of Ivy League schools (incl. Harvard who denied him entrance to the MBA on more than one occasion). His approach – risky and experimental at the time, yielded it’s fair share of problems, but ultimately paid off and created a sought-after work environment and an emblematic example of what work could (and should) look like.
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The book Tiny Habits by BJ Fogg presents a framework for behaviour change, suggesting that rather than looking for large scale change in our lives, which is often unsustainable, we seek out tiny habits – small actions that if taken together and over time, will yield personal transformation. Through a deceptively simple formula, Fogg argues that changes in behaviour comes about through motivation, ability and prompt converging at the same instant. That’s pretty much it – the book has plenty examples and lists of small actions one can take (these are included as a link from the companion infographic). An interesting idea and certainly worth trying, but this may be a little over simplified for the complexity of human behaviour. Enjoy the podcast!
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The Art of Possibility, written by Ben and Roz Zander, is a refreshing look at leadership in the most inclusive sense of the word. The 12 practices that the Zanders offer through this book, promise to be applicable to a wide range of contexts and based on the anecdotes, first-hand accounts and stories included in the book, this would seem to be true. Ben, conductor of the Boston Philharmonic Orchestra, and Roz, a coach and family therapist, come at this topic from very different perspectives, yet manage to meld together their viewpoints and find a common space that makes sense, adds value to the reader and hope to us all. In this review I share three practices from their books and comment more broadly on the importance of living with a view toward possibility.
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The Heart Aroused: Poetry and the preservation of the soul in Corporate America is an important work that not only shows many of the fault lines in corporate life and the modern workplace, but offers a way to understand these issues and difficulties through story and poetry. Whyte expertly melds together the seemingly unrelated worlds of poetry and business, offering stories and poems to the reader to gain insight into how to navigate this essential part of our daily lives. He is himself a renowned poet and is able to offer an external view of corporate life without being judgemental or critical, instead offering empathy and understanding ... and hope.
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No Rules Rules: Netflix and the Culture of Reinvention is a detailed look into how Netflix has created a culture of Freedom & Responsibility (F & R in the Netflix lingo) in order to drive innovation and wealth creation. The book is an honest and refreshingly open treatment of the subject, told as an interplay between the two authors. Reed is co-founder and CEO of Netflix, Erin is an INSEAD professor and author of the book The Culture Map. What unfolds are the three core strategies used by the company and how a management style that is more akin to jazz than a symphony, yields incredible results.
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Enlightened Entrepreneurs: Business Ethics in Victorian Britain, explores the lives of ten men who from humble and in many cases very poor backgrounds, created thriving industrial businesses, many of which continue today. The names of Boots Pharmacy. Unilever, Cadbury, Colman Mustard and Rowntree Sweets are household names in England and around the world. The book focusses on the faith and value of these men and how this led to ethically practices and philanthropic works during and after their lives. From universities and libraries to model communities and theatres, these men took their wealth and influence seriously and applied much of it to their communities and employees.
This is an important book for our time - in a world so bereft of ethical practice, the lives of these ten men are an important lesson for us all.
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Blitzscaling: The lightning fast path to building massively valuable companies was written by Reid Hoffman, co-founder of LinkedIn and a venture capitalist with Greylock Partners. The book sets up the way to build just this - massive companies, relying on anecdotes and stories from a small set of iconic Silicon Valley companies. The book seems to be based on a class that Hoffman teaches at Stanford Business School. While interesting, the book is stacked up with (to my mind) far too many layers of rules, principles and approaches. Clearly, Hoffman knows what he is talking about but doesn't seem to have the ability to bring this across in an accessible manner. There are some useful principles all the same and I share the ten that popped out for me in this podcast.
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An authoritative book on the rationale for and mechanism to engage in the membership or subscription-based economies. With examples from a range of industry sectors and companies from startups to the 300-year Swedish tool maker Husqvarna, the book is a richly detailed treatise on this business model. Tzuo makes a strong case for subscription-based models - understandable given that his company, Zuora, is a service provider to this sector and assists thousands of companies around the world in managing billing and customer relationships. The book (see infographic) explains the Zuora PADRE model of how to develop or transition to this business model. This is an enjoyable read and good backdrop to the subscription economy.
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A timely and relevant book arguing for how important 'curation' is in our lives as we suffer under the overload of information and consumerism that compete for our attention and resource. the author argues that curation may be the ultimate creativity and that the skill of selecting and arranging help create value in our lives.
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Chouinard's book is 'three wonderful books rolled into one: a moving autobiography, the story of a unique business, and a detailed blueprint for hope; (Jared Diamond - on the book dustcover). This book does just this - Chouinard's story is fascinating and the humble roots of the Patagonia business are laid bare. He presents a set of principles for ethical business which I parse into 10 action items.
The book is written with great honesty, courage and authenticity and to my mind should be essential reading for all those who are in business or make use of OUR natural resources to achieve their aims and objectives.
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This book reviews one of the great works of our time - Frankl's moving and honest account of his time in several Nazi concentration camps, and the refinement of his approach to psychotherapy - Logotherapy. Frankl accounts in detail the 'multitude of small torments' that he and others endured. Through all this time he remains focused on his goal of not just surviving but returning to his life in Vienna - to his wife and family and his work. He realises that with meaning and purpose one can survive almost all deprivation, degradation and horror. This book, despite its subject, is hopeful and inspirational, and Frankl's life and work after his liberation from the camps is a testament to our innate ability to survive, adapt, and thrive.
In this podcast, I review the book Bad Blood: Secrets and Lies in a Silicon Valley Startup. This is the fascinating chronicle of the rise and fall of entrepreneur Elizabeth Holmes and her Medtech startup business, Theranos. Holmes' great ambition to disrupt the medical testing industry with the miniLab device, that would be capable of conducting hundreds of blood tests from a few drops of blood drawn from a finger prick, proved to be science fiction. The book details the lies, deceit and atrocious management practices that resulted in the company burning through almost $1 billion in funding, and ended with Holmes and the company COO and President Ramesh 'Sunny' Balwani, being indicted on federal fraud charges. A fascinating read and a powerful cautionary tale in this world of over-hype.
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In this podcast, I review the recent book TikTok Boom; this book examines the rise of TikTok - the short content sharing app owned by Chinese parent company ByteDance. The app has grown faster than any other social media app and has well over a billion monthly active users. Its growth and success is a result of careful design, curation and management of the ecosystem, and I detail some of this in the podcast. Concerns are still held regarding TikTok's use of and sharing of data, especially the role of the ruling Chinese Community Party. TikTok represents the first wave of Created in China tech - no doubt more is on the way.
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In this podcast, I review the book Brick by Brick: How LEGO rewrote the rules of innovation by David Robertson, co-authored with Bill Breen.
Robertson is an absolute authority on innovation and innovation management and was the former LEGO Professor of Innovation at IMD in Switzerland. He draws together a wide range of sources to paint of picture of how LEGO's innovation activity during the 1990s and 2000s led to the company facing bankruptcy, and then how a new management team applied the same principles of truths of innovation in a disciplined and structured way to return to the company to profitability and sustained growth.
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In this podcast, I review the book The New Case for Gold by James Rickards.
Rickards is a highly respected writer and commentator on geopolitics and global financial markets. In this book he dispels some of the myths of gold as an investment category, and as a basis for global financial markets. He offer four reasons why gold should be considered from an investment standpoint, and along the way provides fascinating insights into the mechanisms that drive global economics.
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In this podcast, I review the book Black Box Thinking by UK-based journalist and writer Matthew Syed.
The book examines the structure of failure and success through detailed anecdotal evidence across a wide range of different industries and sectors from Formula One to the US criminal justice system. Syed offers up some ways in which you can think about the role and culture associated with failure in your life/organisation and how this can be leveraged for greater future success and increased performance.
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This podcast reviews the recently published book Scatterling of Africa by Johnny Clegg, The book is a fascinating journey through Johnny's early years in Rhodesia (Zimbabwe), South Africa and Zambia and provides a detailed and insightful backdrop to his passionate engagement with Zulu music and culture. For those familiar with his music and that of Juluka and Savuka, the two bands he formed, the book will fill in the gaps in Johnny's well-known life story. johnny provides not only a wealth of anecdotes about his life but through that offers a lens into South African culture during the time of apartheid, and the richness, tragedy and resilience of the Zulu migrant community in Johannesburg.
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This podcast described the recent book Four Thousand Weeks; Time Management for Mortals by Oliver Burkeman, The book is a wonderful treatise on time management and productivity without it being an actual time management system. The author has us confront the idea of our finitude - the fact that we have very little time on earth (4000 weeks if you live to age 80) and suggest ways we can make that time count.
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