Readings of late

As part of the program that I started a month or so ago, I will be reading lots of business books. I started on the first two, Built to Last and Good to Great by Jim Collins. I actually have liked them more than I thought I would. Built to last examines what makes a great company, visionary or what makes them go on and on and on. Suprisingly it is not the making money and get bigger and bigger and bigger concept. That may be an outgrowth of their core principles, but it is not THE core principle. I think THE core principle of the book for me, is that these companies had a core VALUE. Something that drove them in all aspects. And for many of the ones examined, in fact most of them, it was to do good, to make a positive contribution to society. Even Philip Morris, whose core value appears to be to promote independence and freedom of decision whatever the health consequences of that decision may be. I think Merck might have impressed me the most, or at least the way they were written up in this book, with investing in NEW, pharmecutical discoveries and products that will make a positive contribution to our society by making our health better. Not out for the big buck... although that did seem to be the consequence of most of these companies decisions but not what drove them. I am really not sure how many of the principles of this book can be applied to government unless we have more accountability and can actually trim the fat both in process and personnel more nimbly. I am not saying there are too many government workers. I would say there are too many contractors and that the govt doesn't take enough personal responsibility for the work that it does... we need the continuity. But there needs to be more effective workers. Workers that are held to a higher standard of accountability for the salary they earn - it really is a trust you know, when I think about my tax dollars paying part of my salary. It makes me more conscious of how I spend my time and efforts. And we need a process that values the workers by thinking ahead, making a plan, and a well thought out plan, so that an employees time can be spent profitably, working toward the well defined and well thought out long term and short term goal of the organization. Is that pie in the sky? Am I being too idealistic? Anyway second book I am in the process of reading is Good to Great. This study faces the more difficult challenge of taking a good or mediocre company and examining what factors turn it into a great company. Again the key appears to be clearness and focus of purpose. Focusing on what you can do BEST and not getting sidetracked by what you can be good at. I had thought at the beginning of this course that I did not want to be a manager, just a better leader in what ever projects I am able to participate in. But the real challenge is to motivate a group of people to excel in a common goal, instead of just working toward that end myself, so maybe I will start to reconsider the manager thing a little.