Stories of the future - science fiction, foresight and the future

For small businesses, this is a time saving book. Time saving because the wisdoms in the book’s pages could save you from stress, overwork and ultimately the failure of your business.

This book has many lessons. Here I’ve summarised a few. To cover them all would require so many pages, you may as well buy the book. And this I would certainly recommend.

The three personalities
There are three personalities involved in any small business owner, Gerber tells us. The Entrepreneur (the visionary spirit), The Manager (the one who manages workload) and The Technician (the one who does the technical work).

The problem with most small businesses, and a direct cause of their failure rate (80% fail in the first five years following start up, another 80% in the five years following), is that many small business owners are running their businesses as The Technicians. And technicians are more concerned with concentrating on specialist tasks than maintaining the overall health and development of the business’s long term prospects.

“There’s nothing wrong with technical work; it is, it can be, pure joy,” notes Gerber. “It’s only a problem when The Technician consumes all the other personalities. When the technicians fills your day with work. When The Technician avoids the challenge of learning how to grow a business.” (p39)

The key is to nurture these different personalities and leverage their strengths.

Start with the end in mind
Starting with the end in mind is essential. Gerber tells us the most successful companies – Federal Express, McDonalds, Disney – started as mature businesses. Mature in the sense their approach was well constructed. That their leaders had a clear picture of what success looked like before they started. Gerber quotes Tom Watson, founder of IBM, “I realized that for IBM to become a great company it would have to act like a great company long before it ever became one” (p69)

The Business as a system
Another lesson from the book is to work on your business, not in it. Run the business like a system, continually improving the way it works. Set all the lessons and checklists into an Operations Manual, that anyone can pick up to use to run the business, Ask yourself the questions: how can I own my business, but still be free of it; how can I spend my time doing the work I love to do not the work I have to do: how can I replicate the business 5,000 times, so the last unit runs as smoothly as the first? (p110).

The philosophy of business
Gerber is a man who is passionate about business. He approaches business like meditation, or like a martial art, as a testing ground for us to experience the truths in the world.

In business, like in life, there are few definite answers. Even the greatest business leaders have moments of not knowing. For business owners, the first revelation is realising the business helps tests ourselves.

In Gerber’s words, “life is what a business is about, and life is what this work is about. Coming to grips with oneself, in the face of an incredibly complex world that can teach us if we’re open to learn” (p130).

And later on, “the work we do is a reflection of who we are. If we’re sloppy at it, it’s because we’re sloppy inside. If we’re late at it, it’s because we’re late inside. If we’re bored by it, it’s because we’re bored inside, wit ourselves, not with the work.”(p198)

But perhaps the philosophy is best summed up in the following quote, or at least this is one which I certainly related to:

“A Business is like a martial arts practice hall, a dojo, a place you go to practice being the best you can be. But the true combat in a dojo is not between one person and another as most people believe it to be. The true combat in a martial arts practice hall is between the people within ourselves.’ (p201)

The opportunity to run a business is a process of self-discovery. So too is the risk, for what you stand to loose is not your business, it is part of yourself also.

I’d recommend this book to anyone involved in or looking to start a small business. Its insights are sound and its advice encourages us to be courageous in our work.

Why I liked this book:

Rating
5/5

Buy ‘The eMyth Revisited’ by Michael Gerber on Amazon

Chris Anderson’s book ‘The Long Tail’ is a book that reshaped my thinking on how where the opportunities are online.

So, what is the long tail? Well, according to Anderson, “the long tail is nothing more than infinite choice. Abundant, cheap distribution means abundant, cheap, and unlimited variety – and that means the audience tends to distribute as widely as the choice.”

Traditional supermarket stores can only stock so many products. They’re limited to the physical space in store, to the way customer’s eyes traverse the shelves. In this and many other industries, based on physical presence, 20% of the products accounted for 80% of the revenue. The good ‘ol Pareto rule held true.

But in the online world, shelf-space isn’t an issue. Thousands of products can be adding to online stores, and those orders ‘drop-shipped’ when they’re paid for by customers. Customers are free to browse virtual aisles and find the products that best meet their needs and tastes. Sure, many mainstream products still account for a bulk of orders, but the Pareto rule doesn’t starts to get a bit wobbly. Mainstream products account for less of total revenue, and demand spreads to the lower volume, niche products, lengthening into ‘tail end’ products of the Long Tail.

According to Andersen, the Long Tail boils down to six themes (you’ll have to buy the book for the full description – see page 53)

1. More niche goods than hits
2. Costs of reaching niches falling dramatically
3. Filters drive demand down the long tail
4. As product variety increases, demand flattens
5. Selling many, small quantity niche products can create more value than selling high volume, blockbuster products
6. The natural shape of demand is revealed

Anderson applies these rules to show many thought provoking examples, like the ways: Google spins out Ad Word campaigns, Amazon engages third parties through software to reduce its inventory, Yahoo uses internet radio to deliver personalised radio to web listeners, Netflix provides access to hundreds of thousands of video rentals to stimulate demand in back-order catalogues.

In this sea of products, recommendations engines and peer reviews provide guiding lights for our product purchases. Quoting the trend watching agency, Frog Design, Chris raises to our attention this pearl:

“We’re leaving the Information Age and entering the Recommendation Age. Today information is ridiculously easy to get; you practically trip over it on the street. Information gathering is no longer the issue – making smart decisions base don the information is now the trick…..recommendations server as shortcuts through the thicket of information, just as my wine shop owner shortcuts me to the obscure French wines to enjoy with pasta”

The long tail highlights the current sweeping through the media at the moment, washing away our faith in advertising and leaving e in its wake a new faith in individuals. We’re moving away from the high volume blockbuster products, to targeted

Chris distills the secret to creating a thriving Long Tail business to two imperatives:

1. Make everything available
2. help me find it

My recommendation:
5/5

Why I loved it:
Aside from everything above, it opened my eyes to new things.
Simple anecdotes based on real companies.