In 1982, a book changed the way I looked at business and my career. The book was In Search of Excellence and, while I’ve read many great business books since then, none excited me as much as that classic until I received a pre-publication copy of a book that will be released on October 2. The book is Mavericks at Work, Why the Most Original Minds in Business Win by William C. Taylor and Polly LaBarre. Bill is one of the founding editors of Fast Company magazine and Polly was one of its incredible writers.
I’ve been reading and living with the book for several weeks, waiting until the time was right to share this find with you. In that time I’ve tried to decide why this book is so energizing and it seems to boil down to two things: fresh, incredible stories and an emphasis on individuals and values. In the past several years the dozens of innovation books that poured onto our bookshelves were primarily focused on tools, techniques, processes and organizations as a whole. I’ve learned a great deal from those books but seldom felt that surge of excitement that happened with almost every page of Mavericks. The authors set the expectations on the first page of the introduction when they state: “… this is more than a how-to book. It is also a what-if book.”
The best way to give you a sense of the book is to share a snippet of one of the maverick stories … that of Arkadi Kuhlmann, founder of ING Direct USA, one of the fastest-growing retail banks in the country. To the banking industry he is a bad guy. He was the only CEO of a U.S. bank to oppose the “laughably misnamed” Bankruptcy Abuse Prevention and Consumer Protection Act of 2005, comparing it to “using a cannon to kill a mosquito.” He also created a business model around saving and thrift rather than spending and debt, the mainstay of banks and credit card companies. ING Direct charges no customer fees, requires no minimum deposits and offers a savings rate averaging four times the industry average. Kuhlmann is on a mission to “lead Americans back to savings.” “One way or another,” he states, “most financial companies are telling you to spend more. We’re showing you how to save more.”
The book is filled with mavericks who challenge the values and strategies of their industries … a process that delivers bottom line value as well as great stories. “Money celebrated its 30th aniversary by identifying the best-performing stock over the magazine’s three-decade history. The winner wasn’t General Electric, IBM, Merck, or some other revered name. It was Southwest Airlines, a maverick force in one of the least attractive industries in the world.” ($10,000 in 1972 was worth $10.2 million thirty years later.)
One of the most powerful parts of the book is the Maverick Messages that follow each section. These messages summarize the principles and ask questions that could be very powerful conversation starters for you and your associates. Questions from the first section include:
- Do you have a distinctive and disruptive sense of purpose that sets you apart from your rivals
- Are you prepared to reject opportunities that offer short-term benefits but distract your organization from its long-term mission?
- If your company went out of business tomorrow, who would really miss you and why?
You can pre-order the book at amazon.com now -- I would suggest buying enough for your associates and make it the focus of a book club. It will be the focus of the October Innovation Bookclub, starting mid-October to give people a chance to get the book and start reading it.
You can also get more information at these links:
U.S. News & World Report summary and review –http://www.usnews.com/usnews/biztech/articles/060917/25eebusmav.htm
Book website – http://www.mavericksatwork.com –Check out the “Manifesto for Mavericks” – a quick-read document that aims to get people thinking and talking about business in a new way. There’s also an audio introduction to the book.
Hi Joyce,
The Google Article in Oct 2'nds Fortune (http://money.cnn.com/magazines/fortune/fortune_archive/2006/10/02/8387489/index.htm?postversion=2006092009)
provides some insight in to how Google runs (Title says it all: "Chaos by Design". Is the coming next wave in business models and application of "innovation" going to be focused on being disruptive to the norms of specific industires? This is an execution on the assumption challenge exercises used to get people to generate new ideas! Actually, those three questions above could be used to generate ideas :)
John
Posted by: John Blue | September 25, 2006 at 06:13 AM