Many businesses do not have the necessary foundations in place, such as vision, goals and strategies, to succeed. Others have them, but they are loose, in the sense that they exist but only dutifully. Employees don’t know what they are saying and it is not something that is touched on more than when the work was once done.

The book is written in a pleasant way, following Rory Angus Newman as he travels by car south in California along Highway 101, while he has only a few days to figure out the future basic platform of the company where he is one of the leading figures.

It also does a good job of addressing what so many people are caught up in, the constant balancing act between work and private life.

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Everything Counts is book is an interesting 360 view of how important components tie together in success. This book helps you succeed within whatever you would like to accomplish.

When you see the different components and their importance, it gives you a humble perspective of the complexity. It also gives you a feeling of hope as you understand what you need to start focusing on in order to reach your goals.

I have studied Gary Ryan Blair’s material. I like his approach on how to set your goals and how you start working to get yourself there.

The book is easy to read and it is divided into 52 chapters for each and every one of the important components.

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Business Process Management

BPM is both a philosophy and an IT approach.

This is a book if you that want to learn about the thinking of processes in your business. And also those of you who want to understand the next generation of IT systems.

If you are working with implementing a new operational system into the business, then you should first read this book.

The power of using the next generation of IT systems in your business, will give you information about your business that you have never seen before.  There is a lot of information from the existing operational systems. However they cannot control, or show the result of, the whole process flow. That is because they usually only cover a part of the process.

The first two thirds of the book is readable to all. To anyone who have an interest in finding out more about BPM. The last third of the book is more for those of you who work with implementing your processes and need knowledge about this.

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Perhaps one of the reasons I like the book is that much of what Gary Hamel describes is so close to my own thoughts on how an organisation should be structured to provide good value to customers, while having fun at work and running a profitable business.

There are several companies that Gary Hamel presents and reviews, which has piqued my interest in reviewing them further. These include Google, Wholefoods Market and Gore, as well as a few others. Those of you who usually listen to my lectures or trainings will recognize these in my material as well.

The ideas and thoughts that these companies have are wonderfully stimulating to read about and how they really manage to be on top of their game with customers, staff and owners. The latter especially because they are always financially successful.

This book is divided into four parts.  In part one the author describes why it is important to develop leadership. The second part explores what this development looks like when applied. Part three looks at what it might look like in the future and what some companies are doing today to get there. The book concludes with part four, which explains more about how to move forward to the better organisation and leadership of the future.

I highly recommend this book. It is a must read for anyone who wants to take a look into the future of leadership.

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These thoughts make you overcome the fear of getting a “NO!” That NO can be the answer that you get from the invitation to a customer, on your suggestion to start a new project, on your suggestion to try an new idea, or a lot of other things. In your personal life it can be the NO from your spouse, from a friend, that beautiful guy or girl you want to date, and so on.

The author writes in a story mode with facts woven into the story. A format that I like. I think I am going to adapt it for some book in the future.

The content is exemplified by looking into a sales person. I think this is because that particular business is fairly easy to portray. The concept is, however, useful for any business and also in your personal life.

I myself got many interesting ideas to work on in the future. I hope that it will lead me to be able to help even more organisations and people to accomplish more, and to be happier.

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One of the most important parts of the success is the culture within the organization. The book explains the 14 management disciplines that I find very interesting. They all breath another way of thinking and therefore success.

Many organizations that work according to LEAN does not live up to the 14 management principles. They merely use LEAN as a tool in some of their business, but they do not see and/or understand the power of the philosophy. The first discipline is that you should work in a long time perspective, even if it cost you short term profit. A lot of organizations find i more important to live up to a balanced budget and/or give the stock market good news about the profit in the company.

Remember to take notes

My tips is to read the book with paper and pen at your side. Take notes of how you and your business could use the principles. To build a culture of continuous improvement does take some time and a lot of enthusiasm, discipline and long term vision.

The book is divided into three parts. First it gives a background to the success. The second part explains each and every one of the 14 disciplines. Part three focus on the work to be done in order to work according to The Toyota Way.

The book is well worth the time you spend on reading it. Good Luck!

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