BTBB: TIBs Tom Peter

Language: English

Title: This I believe (TIBs) by Tom Peter

Authors: Tom Peter

Pages: 60

ISBN: Not Available

Years: 2004

Nature of the books: Motivation, Self-Development, Organization

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How do I come across the book?

I am not sure but I am sure I download it from, but the file link back to this URL…

http://changethis.com/subscribe

How do I find this book?

Interesting, and practical, but not focus, it speaks of author’s thought from any aspect of his life at anytime; so when you read, you need to make sure you are align with author at that particular state of mind. There are a total of 60 thoughts shared in the book.

How has it helped me in my life, work or any others…?

So far, nothing….

BTBB: Blue Ocean Strategy: How to create uncontested market space and make the competition irrelevant

Language: English

Title: Blue Ocean Strategy: How to create uncontested market space and make the competition irrelevant

Authors: W.Chan. Kim, Renee Mauborgne

Pages: 240

ISBN: 1-59139-619-0

Years: 2005

Nature of the books: Organization, Strategy

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How do I come across the book?

I have heard people talking about Blue Ocean Strategy and I wander why; so I begin my searching online and finally found it. People have been talking about Blue Ocean Strategy lately, and was speaking of how much it helps an organization.

How do I find this book?

It tells how an organization can stand out from this competitive milieu; that’s what they called the blue ocean strategy; the traditional one is called ‘red ocean strategy’. Anyone, it gives a perspective why an organization should stand out from the competitors and how an organization can differentiate from the rest and make it difficult to imitate. Some snap views for your references…

How has it helped me in my life, work or any others…?

A great deal! It tells how to achieve differentiation, differentiation is not simply a definition by its word but it has to go a long way to achieve it…organization needs to be differentiated in order to be competitive. However, you need to bear in mind when reading this book, it is that not every organization is successful in adopting blue ocean strategy, simply, in realistic, many other factors are not controllable. They are also organization who try hard to differentiate but at the end failed so due to over spending in Research to find or fine tune innovation and creativity; and some of them, found differentiation but not relevant to the market…

BTBB: Strategy Safari:A guided tour through the wilds of strategic management

Language: English

Title: Strategy Safari: A guided tour through the wilds of strategic management

Authors: Henry Mintzberg, Bruce Ahlstrand, Joeph Lampel

Pages: 406

ISBN: 0-684-84740-4

Years: 1998

Nature of the books: Management, Organization, Strategy

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How do I come across the book?

I came across this book when I was downloading some text book for my PhD study. It came in a collection zip files; comprises of 1500 e-books. And I manage to pick up this book, probably due to the interesting name of the book, and also my involvement in strategic thinking.

How do I find this book?

This book gave a good overview of the evaluation of strategy from different school. This tells you how the different school of thought affect strategy planning, and at the end of this book you will learn what‘s the best from all school of thoughts.

How has it helped me in my life, work or any others…?

Nothing serious about, but it did allow me to have a full understanding of strategy.

BTBB: 7 Habits of Highly Effective People

Language: English

Title: The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People

Authors: Stephen R. Covey

Pages: 370

ISBN: 0-7432-6951-9

Years: 2004

Nature of the books: Motivation, Self-Development

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How do I come across the book?

Well, this is another being forced to read by my ex superior who are very theoretical based. But, I do find this book is a good book, and I am kind of like it very much because it talks about human behavior, and reading it, helps to change your mindset, and the way you think and look at thing; at the end of the days, the change of paradigm helps you to become a more effective person.

How do I find this book?

This book is good as I mention earlier; basically it split into 3 mains chapter, and relates about 7 important habits.

Chapter ONE: Private Victory (about yourself, changing the mindset!)

Habit ONE: Be Proactive

Habit TWO: Begin with the end in mind

Habit THREE: Put first things first

Chapter TWO: Public Victory (about you look at thing around you)

Habit FOUR: Think Win-Win

Habit FIVE: Seek first to understand, then to be understood

Habit SIX: Synergize

Chapter THREE: Renewal (about you influencing people to change…)

Habit SEVEN: Sharpen the saw

How has it helped me in my life, work or any others…?

It helps me to understand how thing work in company and my life; it helps me to understand people around me and knowing why they do something, or anything, and how we can seek to understand; overall, it helps me to think more positively!

BTBB: Brand Leadership

Language: English

Title: Brand Leadership

Authors: David A. Aaker & Erich Joachimsthaler

Pages: 351

ISBN: 0-7432-0767-X

Years: 2000

Nature of the books: Branding, Marketing, Brand Architecture

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How do I come across the book?

I read it when I first join FMCG industry (my ex company) as a branding executive; I was told this is a marketer’s bible. Every marketer will have to read this book as a basic requirement to enter the world of branding; and it is true. I bought it in MPH for RM89! (Pretty expensive!) Anyway, it is a good book if you wish to understand book about branding.

How do I find this book?

This is a good book for marketer. This is also a good book to read to understand more about branding. There no panacea for branding of a product because branding is an art and science combine. This book will give you many chart, process, and model for an effective branding and very helpful if you are into product branding. Some of the sharing as below…

…Brand Identity Planning Model…Too many brands drift aimlessly and appear for nothing in particular. They always seem to be shouting price, on sale, attached to some deal, or engaging in promiscuous channel expansion – symptoms of a lack of integrity. ..Page 40…

…Strategic Brand analysis always starts with 3Cs, Customer, Competitors, and Self Analysis…Page 41…

…Brand building involves multiple touch point and not only advertising…page 42…

…There are many way to handle a brand, and they are…House of Brand, Endorsed Brand, Sub brands under Master Brand, A Branded House…Page 105…

…A brand drives purchase decision and defines the use experience. A brand with a driver role will have some level of loyalty; customer would be less comfortable with the product if the brand were missing…page 143…

…Successful brand architecture makes a range of offerings clear both to the customer and to those inside the organization. Having a logical hierarchy structure among sub brands helps generate the clarity…page 146…

How has it helped me in my life, work or any others…?

It’s a wonderful ‘dictionary’ to me until now!

BTBB: Japan's Global Reach

Language: English

Title:

Japan’s Global Reach: The Influences, Strategies and Weaknesses of Japan’s Multinational Companies

Authors: Bill Emmott

Pages: 244

ISBN: 0-7126-4928-X

Years: 1992

Nature of the books: Management, Organization

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How do I come across the book?

I bought it in a 2^nd hand book store; perhaps, because during then, I work in Japanese company thus I see the need to learn and understand more about Japanese culture.

How do I find this book?

I find this book very comprehensive and explained about how Japanese company expands their business using their belief in management; however, not all their approach is effective, and favored by people. Japanese culture is very stringent and they emphasize a lot more in mindset of their employees to ensure all march towards the same direction.

Some of the statement….

…Japanese is using military approach to industry, i.e. Management by fear…page 74

I would say ‘Management by will is far better’, adopting the military approach in management do not work anymore in the 21^st century; company would become mechanical where people are treated as machine more than ‘human’.

…The differences in Japanese culture is the flexibility to move around, people are basically willing to be trained, to be move and is the best applied in Japan…page 76

…because they give equal opportunity to everyone in an organization, so when come to promotion, they have to give promotion to those longer serving in organization…page 76

This is very true because the promotion in Japanese company is relying on ‘seniority’, and promotion is based on the standard criteria tabled by the Human Resource based on the duration of the employees have served in the organization. Sometimes it appears not fair to others…

My thought is that, Japanese company is like ‘A snake is trying to eat a cow and could choke to death’; without proper planning and simply adapting the culture into another different world is not going to work sometimes, because the culture simply could conflict with local culture, and insist to proceed makes management difficult in finding the right candidate that fit the cultures or into training new people to think alike in organization. That explained why most of the Japanese company prefers to hire people who can speak their language or graduate from Japanese University, where the least they are in experience with Japanese culture. Overall, Japanese success in stupidity of people, they are an opportunity seeker but also risk avoidance...

How has it helped me in my life, work or any others…?

Understanding of how effective is Japanese management style, and the strength and weaknesses. Some of its style can really work with some adaptation to the local culture. By far, Japanese management do has its benefits, at least with their military approach, managed to ensure consistency across all subsidiaries.

BTBB: Money & You!

Language: Mandarin

Title:Money & You: I love money, but love you more!

Authors: Someone name, Dr. Lim

Total Pages: 328 (I stop at 223, and couldn’t continue anymore!)

ISBN: 957-30975-1-6

Year: 2005

Nature of the book: Motivation

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How do I come across the book?

One day, I asked my dad to courier something for me from my hometown; and he sent this book to me together in the package. Then I started reading since its from my dad; I thought it would be something interesting, who knows, it sound more like a direct marketing seminar than a motivation book! That’s why I finally decided to stop reading at page 223! Damn! Wasted my time!

How do I find this book?

Early chapter looks good; you can certainly learn some theory or philosophy from this book that can change your mindset, and eventually change your attitude. Some sharing like below, translated,

In this century, the market is no longer about ‘Big fish eats small fish’; it is about speed! Speed is the critical success factor! (Page 36)

If I play poker and get a bad card in hand, I have 2 options,; I either give up! Or I play it well in such a way that I will never regret! (Page 40)

The problem with human is that human see more thing than can remember; so mind mapping becomes important. (Page 75)

How has it helped me in my life, work or any others…?

It does help me in some way, in my thinking, and also how I see thing in my work; but not much. Every few chapters in the book, you will find some ‘participants’ sharing their experiences after attending the seminar, and it get worse until a point where it assures you it is one seminar you can not miss! That’s where it makes me feel like I am actually in a direct marketing seminar when I read the book! DAMN!

BTBB: Winning with the P&G 99

Title:

Winning with the P&G 99 – Principles and Practices of Proctor & Gamble’s Success (reprint)

Authors:

Charles L. Decker (Former P&G Brand Manager) He was promoted to Brand Manager in 3 years! But I don’t really give a damn because P&G has always promised their staff promotion in 3 years under their corporate program.

Total Pages: 236 pages

ISBN: 0-671-01740-3

Year: 1998

Nature of the book: Marketing Operation, Marketing Management, Consumers Marketing

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How do I come across these books?

My whole team was forced to read this book when I was in my previous Japanese company! My marketing manager is somehow a bookworm, and is a very theoretical person; I do not disagree with the book, but disagree with his way of imparting his experiences. We were made to share 5 pages a day, and it was made compulsory that everyone was to share their piece of thought. This is how I get to know this book!

How do I find this book?

This book is very helpful especially for those doing marketing; Proctor and Gamble have always set a good tracks record in marketing and that everyone is trying to imitate or follow. This book gives a very good insight of marketing operation, and teaches you the way to execute. It is more about marketing operation and execution and less of strategic thinking. My thought is that it is extremely helpful for marketing execution, and is worth to buy one and keep it with you; For me, I constantly look back to the book when I find myself forgetting the essence of certain areas in my marketing execution.

The book is section by ‘lesson’, and each lesson represents one principles. For example,

• Lesson ONE: Trust you consumes

The consumer is discerning and discriminating. She carefully weighs the relative merits of available products against their relative costs. The manufacturer who offers real value will be rewarded! ….

• Lesson 26: Opinion don’t count

When decisions have to be made in the absence of facts, it’s a mistake to confuse ‘gut-feel’ opinion, which is not actionable at P&G, and informed judgment….

How has it helped me in my life, work or any others…?

It helps me in my marketing execution skills, sharpening my marketing thought, and also allows me to apply the knowledge in my day to day work. However one must understand, what you read is what you need, and is what you should try to use; never ‘simply read’. This book talks a lot about marketing execution and it is most helpful when you are in the line of marketing operation in FMCG Company.