Speed Reviews Feb07 - Avidium: Inspired results

February 2007
TOUGH CHOICES
by Carly Fiorina
Business Is About People
After she appeared on the cover of Fortune magazine
as “The Most Powerful Woman in Business,” Carly
Fiorina’s mother told her, “Who knows? Maybe someday you’ll become the CEO of Hewlett-Packard.” Her
mother’s comment surprised Fiorina, considering the
mother and daughter had never spoken of the company.
Fiorina’s response was “Well that’s never going to
happen!”
Following that conversation, she received a
phone call from HP board member Jeff
Christian in February 1999; nonetheless,
Fiorina was almost certain the HP board would
not offer her the available CEO position for a
number of reasons: She had never held the position before, she did not have a background in
engineering, she wasn’t from the industry and
she was a woman. On July 19, 1999, Fiorina
was proved wrong as HP publicly announced
her succession of Lewis Platt as CEO.
Law School Dropout to CEO
After earning her B.A. in medieval history and philosophy from Stanford University, Fiorina completed a
short stint at UCLA Law School, dropping out after she
realized that law wasn’t the career for her and that she
couldn’t always please her parents with her choices.
Fiorina joined the business world, spending her first
20 years cutting her teeth and climbing the corporate
ladder at AT&T and Lucent Technologies before accepting the challenge to lead, as CEO and eventually as
chairman, the technology giant Hewlett-Packard. To
many people she had seemed an unlikely candidate, but
Fiorina managed to lead HP through a number of large
internal changes, a significant technology slump, and the
Compaq merger, which is considered one of the most
controversial mergers in the industry.
While many remember the former Hewlett-Packard
CEO as the woman who opted for 7,000 layoffs during
the 2001 business downturn, Fiorina positions herself
more sympathetically in the book, proclaiming her
belief that “in the end, business isn’t just about numbers;
it’s about people.” She was not the only one behind ter-
Review by Melissa Ward
minations at the company. She writes, “One of the great
myths of HP was that employees never lost their jobs.
The truth was Bill [Hewlett] and Dave [Packard] fired
people when they thought it was deserved.”
Leadership Has Nothing to Do
With Title
Throughout the book, Fiorina offers her business wisdom and personal advice in a palatable style. While at
AT&T, one of the women engineers in Fiorina’s
team came to her, conflicted over raising a family as well as maintaining a career. Fiorina told
her, “You cannot sell your soul. Don’t become
someone you don’t like because of the pressure.
Live your life in a way that makes you happy
and proud. If you sell your soul, no one can pay
you back.”
In reference to her time spent at Lucent and
the leadership roles she experienced, Fiorina
claimed,“I have believed all my life that leadership has nothing to do with title or position.
Leadership is about the integrity of one’s character, the caliber of one’s capabilities and the effectiveness of one’s collaboration with others. Anyone can lead
from anywhere at any time.”
On February 9, 2005, Fiorina was fired by the HP
board. She writes, “Life isn’t always fair, and I was playing in the big leagues. Yet I realized I had no regrets ... I
had made mistakes, but I had made a difference.”
Why
We
Like
This
Book
For those readers who have not followed Fiorina’s career –– most notably her
termination from HP –– Tough Choices
provides a relatable tale that anyone could
enjoy, male or female, business savvy or
not. Using her straightforward style,
Fiorina allows readers into her life, showing them her professional achievements
over the decades and drawing them into
her personal life as a daughter, wife and
stepmother.
Portfolio © 2006, 319 pages, $24.95 (ISBN 1-59184-133-X)
Buy this book for 20% to 46% off at www.summary.com/books
THE DIFFERENCE MAKER
by John C. Maxwell
Not All You’ve Heard
According to Maxwell, the first hurdle is discouragement. If not handled correctly, discouragement can make
someone give up instead of facing the situation. This
involves not becoming fixated or paralyzed, but viewing
things from different perspectives and taking the best
road possible for your personal well-being. The mix
includes introspection, having the right expectations and
making the right decisions.
The second hurdle is change, something that most
people resist. The key here, Maxwell allows, is to objectively examine why we’re opposed to the change. Once
that’s established, we need to determine how to make the
change successful and positive, keeping in mind that all
change has a price to which we must be willing
to commit.
Problems are the third obstacle. “Our perspective on problems, not the problem itself,
usually determines our success or failure,”
writes Maxwell. To this end, the difference
between problem-spotting and problem-solving
can be crucial. Tackling a problem head-on and
working out the best way of dealing with it can
often turn into an opportunity for personal or
professional advancement.
The fourth obstacle is fear. Here, Maxwell
invokes Franklin D. Roosevelt’s words, “The
only thing we have to fear is fear itself,” as far more than
rhetoric. Maxwell contends that if permitted to run rampant, fear can generate inaction, weakness and more
fear, which can be destructive. Rather than waste energy
by being afraid, we need to realize the limitations fear
places on us. It’s only by properly handling what we’re
afraid of, he says, that we can overcome fear and achieve
our full potential.
Last, Maxwell discusses failure. The premise is simple: If we fail or make a mistake, we need to learn from
it and go on. Otherwise, we run the risk of letting it
defeat us. By seeing failure as a teacher rather than a
limit, we remain capable of taking risks — something
necessary for success.
The axiom “attitude is everything” has been stated by
so many motivational speakers and writers over the
years that many of us simply accept it as fact. If so many
people believe it, it must be true, right?
Wrong, says leadership expert John Maxwell in The
Difference Maker. He maintains that while attitude is
important, there are certain things it cannot achieve. It
cannot change people into something they’re not.
Attitude cannot replace competence, experience or personal growth and it cannot change the facts. Maxwell
gives an example of two people applying for the same
job. One has skills, talent and 10 years experience, but a so-so attitude. The other has a super
attitude, but no experience. Who gets the job?
“Probably the one with the greater skills and
experience,” writes Maxwell. “Why? Because a
great attitude will not make up the gap.”
Attitude as an Asset
Despite the “cannots,” Maxwell writes, attitude is a primary component in determining our
success. While it can’t alter what exists, it can
influence our future via how we choose to deal
with things we encounter in everyday life. “The
happiest people,” he notes, “don’t necessarily
have the best of everything; they make the best of everything.” Essentially, if we expect bad things, he says, we
get them. Conversely, we often get good things by
expecting them.
By applying attitude correctly, we can make it one of
our most powerful assets. To this end, Maxwell stresses,
it’s something we control; it’s a matter of choice, not circumstances, how we deal with a particular situation. To
do so, we need to first evaluate our current attitude, create the desire to change it, then rearrange our thoughts to
do so.
This is largely done by making an effort to allow our
thinking to run in positive channels. Maxwell believes
negative thoughts lead to negative beliefs, which in turn
lead to wrong decisions and actions, creating a pattern of
bad habits. Developing the proper attitude can reverse
this vicious cycle. He also maintains that attitude adjustment isn’t a one-time event; it’s something we have to
manage daily.
Why
We
Like
This
Book
Point by Point
To change our attitude, Maxwell claims, we have to
overcome what he calls the “Big Five” major attitude
obstacles. “When you can learn to deal with them in a
positive way,” he says, “you can face anything else life
may have in store for you.”
While some might argue that what
Maxwell offers is simply common sense,
the book goes far beyond. Written in a
light, almost chatty style that uses examples, anecdotes and quotes from Abraham
Lincoln to Yogi Berra, it provides many
points of entry and shows how anyone, if
determined, can indeed make his or her
attitude make a difference.
Nelson Business © 2006, 184 pages, $17.99 (ISBN 0-7852-6098-6)
Buy this book for 20% to 46% off at www.summary.com/books
Review by Arn Berstein
2
MIND YOUR X’S AND Y’S
by Lisa Johnson
tions for the products they like. Connections equal power.
Lastly, in the new market, there’s a desire to express
oneself, to customize everything. The result can be raw or
amateurish, as long as it’s real; nonetheless, it’s all about
expressing individualism. The anything-is-possible credo
that drives people to seek their fame on reality shows and
Web sites rules.
The Power of the
Younger Generations
Not long ago, companies made and marketed products and consumers decided whether or not to buy them.
It was that simple. Then, according to Lisa Johnson,
author of Mind Your X’s and Y’s: Satisfying the 10
Cravings of a New Generation of Customers,
Generations X and Y gained market prominence. This
shift necessitated an entirely new means of connecting
with these hard-to-reach but coveted consumers. Gen
Xers (those born between 1965 and 1979) are
reaching peak buying power, and Gen Yers
(those born between 1980 and 1997) already
have more buying power than any previous generation of teens and twentysomethings.
Both groups have grown up amid rapid technological growth, which has changed the way
they think, and what and how they buy. Many
companies are too dependent on conventional
product development and marketing methodologies to understand how to reach these multitasking, constantly upgrading, “connected”
generations.
According to Johnson, these two Gen groups
— together comprised of consumers ages 9 to 41 — constitute a newfangled market with extremely diverse needs
and motivations that is changing the rules of engagement
between companies and consumers, creating what
Johnson calls the “New Market Code.”
The 10 Consumer Cravings
According to Johnson, marketers can win over Gen X
and Gen Y if they approach the following 10 consumer
cravings — and demands — of this demographic.
1. Shine the spotlight: Extreme personalization gives marketing a new face.
2. Raise my pulse: In a cubicle-focused
world, consumers need you to shake their routines and remedy their boredom.
3. Make loose connections: It’s about the new
shape of “families” and social networks. The
Internet allows people to connect due to their
interests, not their geography.
4. Give me brand candy: Customers want to
be part of the intuitive design process.
5. Sift through the clutter: Editors and filters
gain new prominence. When there’s too much
information, we need tools to discover what’s essential.
6. Keep it underground: These generations rejected
push advertising and created peer-to-peer networks.
7. Build it together: Connected citizens want to
explore their collaborative creative power and influence
change.
8. Bring it to life: Orchestrate everyday activities to
deliver a sense of theater.
9. Go inward: With these groups, spiritual hunger and
modern media find common ground.
10. Give back: Volunteerism and community contributions are redefined.
The Essentials
To kick off the book, Johnson details the five essential
criteria (experience, transparency, reinvention, connection
and expression) of the New Market Code. The first criterion is experience: Today’s consumers want to try new
activities, explore, test personal limits, feel truly alive and
shake up routines. Experience is currency; it sparks conversation and connection and helps people understand
each other.
Transparency is the second factor. The new market is
an anti-spin zone. Nothing slick, overpackaged or fake
will work. Both companies and consumers need to get
comfortable with full disclosure. Accountability is key.
Reinvention also plays a large role in the new market.
Once something new or a new way to buy it clicks, that
item or procedure will rule. The pace is lightning fast and
the old market hierarchies will crumble.
Connection is the fourth criterion. In Johnson’s new
market, people blend their talents and share information
to improve the experience for everyone. Consumers want
to interact with brands and companies and make sugges-
Johnson devotes a highly detailed chapter to each of the 10 cravings, along with
brief case studies that look at how companies have successfully responded to them.
Each chapter contains a workbook section
with questions and exercises on how to
implement ways of meeting these cravings,
an addition that facilitates both personal
study and group discussions and gives marketers the understanding and tools they need to reach
Gen X and Gen Y.
Why
We
Like
This
Book
Free Press © 2006, 288 pages, $25.00 (ISBN 0-7432-7750-3)
Buy this book for 20% to 46% off at www.summary.com/books
Review by Joy Parks
3
THE STARBUCKS EXPERIENCE
by Joseph A. Michelli, Ph.D.
Turning the Ordinary
Into Extraordinary
By virtue of their stock options, partners consider
themselves part owners of the corporation and most
try to meet the firm’s mission and priorities. In turn,
the company makes it a point to encourage, listen and
respond to partners’ suggestions and comments.
Additionally, partners are encouraged to find out customers’ needs and respond to them on as personal a
level as feasible. Partners are also urged to become
involved in their communities, another Starbucks
passion.
The second principle is “Everything Matters” —
strive for consistency in quality and environment and
pay constant attention to detail. It also means
never compromising quality, making sure
every partner in every location is knowledgeable and friendly, and ensuring that every
Starbucks location offers a welcoming
atmosphere that makes customers want to
return.
Next is “Surprise and Delight,” which
Starbucks takes to new levels. This principle
might involve something as simple as opening early for a customer waiting outside or as
involved as creating a city-wide coffee-tasting
day, where Starbucks’ partners set up tables at
train stations, offering commuters free coffee — both
examples Michelli provides.
The fourth principle, “Embrace Resistance,”
addresses how Starbucks’ partners are trained to turn
negative feedback from customers into opportunities
to improve the business and strengthen the relationship. All levels of management are asked to commit to
this. Similarly, stores are expected to always seek
options to seemingly “impossible” customer requests.
The last principle is “Leave Your Mark.” This
addresses the company’s commitment to not only
community outreach, but to environmental issues,
positive change and fiscal responsibility.
Referring to his subtitle, Michelli concludes that
any firm can become more “extraordinary” by using
these five Starbucks’ principles.
After two years of access to the inner workings of
the coffee-retailer behemoth, Joseph Michelli wrote
The Starbucks Experience in an effort to explain the
company’s runaway success. From its establishment in
Seattle in 1971 as a single-location coffee shop,
Starbucks now has more than 11,500 non-franchised
locations worldwide, annual sales of more than $600
million and has been rated as one of the best Fortune
100 companies to work for. Since 1992, its stock has
grown a staggering 5,000 percent.
How has Starbucks prospered based on the
supposedly absurd idea of a $3 cup of coffee?
By having a progressive corporate culture, says
Michelli, and passing its values to all employees — “partners” as they are known in the
company. Michelli says that by using the same
principles, almost any company can become
more successful.
Concentration on Basics
While part of Starbucks’ success is drawn
from extensions of its core coffee business —
retail sales, music, gift packs — the lion’s share comes
from its creation of experience. This is true not only for
customers but, perhaps more importantly, for
Starbucks’ partners (employees). Going beyond things
such as stock options and health insurance (provided
even for part-timers), Starbucks “consistently spends
more on training than it does on advertising,” writes
Michelli. Its program includes product information,
how to create good customer relations, the basic principles of success and employee empowerment strategies.
This philosophy has helped keep Starbucks’
employee turnover rate 120 percent below the quickservice restaurant industry average. Partners are
encouraged to have fun, get to know customers’ likes
and dislikes and treat each other with respect.
Management sticks to the same tenets. Michelli
quotes Starbucks International President Martin
Coles saying, “It’s impossible to ask our people to
behave the same way if we’re not willing to go down
that track ourselves.” Michelli says that regardless of
a company’s resources, all principals can treat
employees in a way that will inspire them to creativity and passion.
Why
We
Like
This
Book
The Big Five
Michelli breaks down the Starbucks success formula into five parts. Number one is “Make It Your Own.”
In The Starbucks Experience,
Michelli has produced something more
than the typical Fortune 500 company
profile. Through his use of personalized
stories and quotes from present and former Starbucks’ partners, he creates a
framework of the Starbucks strategy
useful enough for any business owner.
McGraw-Hill © 2006, 208 pages, $21.95 (ISBN 0-07-147784-5)
Buy this book for 20% to 46% off at www.summary.com/books
Review by Arn Berstein
4
SELL YOUR BUSINESS YOUR WAY
by Rick Rickertsen with Robert Gunther
importance of assembling a competent team to look
after the owner’s interests. This should include
accountants, lawyers, bankers, investment professionals and wealth managers, they say.
They follow this recommendation in Chapter 6,
“Valuation,” with an overview of ways to assess the
worth of a business in addition to determinations
based on cash flow. They suggest that while this is a
difficult process, it can be valuable if it addresses
industry trends, basic multiples for growth, prospects
and other potential income/cost factors.
A Guide to ‘Getting Out’
In the next few years, up to 40 percent of the CEOs
of family-owned businesses will retire. In many cases,
these entrepreneurs will part with a business built from
their own blood, sweat and sacrifice, which brings in a
host of emotional issues that can play havoc on business and financial decisions. And, unlike the huge conglomerates, small-business owners won’t be able to
rely on teams of lawyers, accountants and others to
handle the details. They not only will need to determine the most effective exit strategy, but also
to make the deal, manage the windfall and
figure out what they’re doing with the rest of
their lives.
Finding the Buyer,
Making the Deal
The book’s next two sections are devoted
to the buyer (Chapter 7, “Bring in the Right
Buyer”) and getting what you want
(Chapter 8, “Nail Down the Deal”). The
authors explain how to determine the type
of buyer who might be most appropriate:
strategic, such as a competitor or supplier,
or financial, such as a buyer looking only
for an investment. They then explain how
important it is to stand firm on expectations,
to prepare for full disclosure and to have the right
team in place, not only for initial discussions but for
what could easily become a lengthy process.
The book’s two final chapters address post-sale
issues. In Chapter 9, “Make the Most of Your Money,”
the authors offer suggestions for handling funds generated from the sale, from both investment and tax perspectives. The book’s last chapter, “And Now, for Your
Next Act …,” addresses personal actions to consider
after the close. Here, the authors recommend that readers take the time and space to “do nothing” and, when
that’s over, attempt to rediscover dreams that were put
on hold to build the business.
A Step-by-Step Strategy
In Sell Your Business Your Way: Getting
Out, Getting Rich and Getting On With Your
Life, the authors walk the reader through the
business-selling process, offering plenty of
examples and support along the way. They
also offer tips on how to accomplish this
without losing track of the day-to-day concerns of running a business.
The book devotes one chapter to each of 10 sales
stages identified by the authors. For example, in
Chapter 1, “A Moment of Truth,” they establish the
importance of having a plan for an event that they say
defines the value of the business owner’s current and
future life. And in Chapter 2, the authors review key
objectives a seller might hope to achieve with a sale.
These include a large financial payoff, the desire for
employees to be treated fairly in the sale and considerations that allow the original owner to stay involved
in the business.
The authors then suggest that before a buyer can
be found, sellers must be clear on what they’re selling. In Chapter 3, “First Get Your House in Order,”
they recommend using professional management,
tight financial statements and credible earning predictions to find the right buyer and make the right
deal. Before any deal can be made, however, the issue
of legacy must be addressed, say the authors.
In Chapter 4, “Take Care of Your Other Children,”
they note that while many small-business owners
plan to leave their businesses to their children, most
will not. Because family issues and expectations are
emotional, complicated and can even be detrimental
to the business, they say it’s important to address
them long before making a decision to sell.
In Chapter 5, “Build Your Dream Team (But
Remember, It’s Your Dream),” the authors stress the
Review by Joy Parks
Though all of this information is
available elsewhere, it’s not often found
in a single source like this. The comprehensive, step-by-step approach of the
book makes it a valuable aid to anyone
considering or involved with a business
sale. Some of the book’s most practical
aspects are its sample checklists, legal
forms and many resource pages, including lists of valuation firms, investment bankers,
buyer brokers and more.
Why
We
Like
This
Book
AMACOM ©2006, 304 pages, $27.95 (ISBN 0-8144-0896-4)
Buy this book for 20% to 46% off at www.summary.com/books
5
SHORT TAKES
Leading Innovation
Little Black Book of Connections
by Jeff DeGraff and Shawn Quinn
In Leading Innovation: How to
Jump Start Your Organization’s
Growth Engine, authors DeGraff and
Quinn provide a unique and fresh look
at creating innovation at all levels of a
company. The book gives readers a
venerable playbook of creativity techniques and tools, based on DeGraff’s
proven methods that he uses in his
innovation program at the University
of Michigan Ross School of Business. The authors also
provide insightful case studies from Coca-Cola, GE, Eaton
and many more world-class companies. McGraw-Hill, 350
pages, $39.95 (ISBN 0-07-147018-2)
by Jeffrey Gitomer
Following Gitomer’s successful
Little Red Book of Selling comes this
take on how to rise in business
through networking. His Little Black
Book of Connections: 6.5 Assets for
Networking Your Way to Rich
Relationships shows readers how to
evaluate, cultivate and profit from personal and business relationships.
Based on the premise that people want
to do business with their friends, the book includes
Gitomer’s views on network-based selling, personal
growth and other issues. Bard Press, 220 pages, $19.95
(ISBN 1-885167-66-0)
Focus Like a Laser Beam
Selling Is Everyone’s Business
by Lisa Haneberg
Focus Like a Laser Beam: 10 Ways
to Do What Matters Most is a practical
guide to help leaders, managers and
staff focus their energy. Lisa
Haneberg, management trainer and
coach, presents her information in an
appropriately organized book. Key
points are highlighted throughout, and
each chapter begins with an “in-a-nutshell” paragraph and concludes with
short case studies. Using the laser image of “direct, fast and
on track,” Haneberg challenges conventional wisdom with
recommendations to stop multitasking and completely
change the nature of staff meetings. Jossey-Bass/Wiley,
153 pages, $24.95 (ISBN 0-7879-8481-7)
by Steve Johnson
and Adam Shaivitz
Selling is more than business for
sales professionals –– it’s life or death,
write Johnson and Shaivitz in Selling
Is Everyone’s Business: What It Takes
to Create a Great Salesperson. They
contend that to maximize sales opportunities, it’s key to look beyond commissions and bonuses — tactics that
can make sales staffs work harder, but
are ultimately less effective than training. In this book, the
authors distill their years of experience into quick-read
strategies for sales leaders looking to take their teams to
the next level. Wiley, 200 pages, $24.95 (ISBN 0-47177673-4)
Our Iceberg Is Melting
The Power of Nice
by John Kotter and Holger Rathgeber
This fable of penguins facing a threat
of survival mirrors a business organization facing similar danger. The story is
complete with characters such as NoNo
and the Professor, whose equivalents
might be found in any business. Kotter,
a Harvard Business School professor,
and Rathgeber, an executive with a
medical technology company, define
the penguins’ eight steps to making a
successful organizational change. Our Iceberg Is Melting:
Changing and Succeeding Under Any Conditions can help
companies face their own icebergs. St. Martin’s Press, 147
pages, $19.95 (ISBN 0-312-36198-X)
by Linda Kaplan Thaler
and Robin Koval
From the authors who wrote Bang!,
the best-selling book on the creation of
innovative marketing strategies, comes
The Power of Nice: How to Conquer
the Business World With Kindness. By
providing examples of their own successes in the advertising industry,
Thaler and Koval prove that those who
are nice in the business world can finish
first. Don’t be misled by the book’s smiley-face cover: The
authors provide real-world advice about being genuine, lively case studies and key principles. Currency/Doubleday,
144 pages, $17.95 (ISBN 0-385-51892-7)
To subscribe: Send your name and address to the address listed below or call us at 1-800-SUMMARY (outside the United States and Canada, 610-558-9495).
Published by Soundview Executive Book Summaries (ISSN 0747-2196), P.O. Box 1053, Concordville, PA 19331 USA, a division of Concentrated Knowledge Corp.
Publisher, Rebecca S. Clement. Writer and Editor, Melissa Ward. Senior Graphic Designer, Debra DePrinzio. Published monthly. Subscriptions: $209 per year in the United States,
Canada and Mexico, $295 to all other countries. Periodicals postage paid at Concordville, Pa., and additional offices. POSTMASTER: Send address changes to Soundview, P.O. Box 1053, Concordville, PA 19331.
Copyright © 2007 by Soundview Executive Book Summaries.
6
FEBRUARY 2007
Concentrated Knowledge™
for the Busy Executive
®
www.summary.com
Exceptional Selling by Jeff
Thull. You may have the world’s
greatest solution, but if you can’t
communicate with relevancy,
develop credibility and respect,
and build clarity for your customers, your potential will be
severely constrained.
What Got You Here Won’t
Get You There by Marshall
Goldsmith with Mark Reiter.
The corporate world is full of
intelligent, skilled executives, but
only a few will ever reach the top
and, according to Goldsmith, subtle nuances make the difference.
Mastering Business
Negotiation by Roy J. Lewicki
and Alexander Hiam. This
book is a valuable resource —
grounded in solid research — for
any leader or manager who needs
practical strategies when conducting business negotiations.
Leading With Character by
John J. Sosik. Leading With
Character offers a unique collection of fascinating stories about
25 famous leaders from business,
history and pop culture such as
John F. Kennedy, Brian Wilson,
Rosa Parks, Joe Namath, Eleanor
Roosevelt and Johnny Cash, to
name a handful.
FEBRUARY SELECTIONS
PART 1
Know-How by Ram Charan
PART 2
Success Built to Last
by Jerry Porras, Stewart Emery
and Mark Thompson
FEATURED BOOK REVIEW
The Number by Lee Eisenberg
SPEED REVIEWS
▲ Tough Choices by Carly Fiorina
▲ The Difference Maker
by John C. Maxwell
▲ Mind Your X’s and Y’s by Lisa Johnson
▲ The Starbucks Experience by Joseph A. Michelli, Ph.D.
▲ Sell Your Business Your Way by Rick Rickertsen
with Robert Gunther
Wikinomics by Don Tapscott
and Anthony D. Williams.
Using the collaborative-software
“wiki” concept as their theme, the
authors address how the Internet’s
social network offers new, decentralized ways to produce content,
goods, services and profit.
Soundview Executive Book Summaries, P.O. Box 1053, Concordville, PA 19331 USA
1-800-SUMMARY (Outside the United States and Canada, 610-558-9495)
A Division of Concentrated
Knowledge Corporation
®
P.O. Box 1053 • Concordville, PA 19331 • USA
1-800-SUMMARY (Outside the United States and Canada, 610-558-9495)
SOUNDVIEW NEWS
SOUNDVIEW BRINGS YOU RETIREMENT 101
Dear Subscriber,
For many of us, January brought with it a desire to do better, taking the form of New
Year’s resolutions. But I expect that one item that wasn’t on most of our lists was planning
for retirement. For some it just seems too far off to worry about; for others there are too
many expenses right now to even consider setting money aside; and for more than those who
care to admit it, we just keep putting off the inevitable.
What may come as a surprise to many longtime Soundview subscribers, is that we have
included a Featured Book Review in this month’s issue on this often-avoided subject of
retirement. Yes, it’s not a business book as such, but when we saw this title come up for
consideration for Kiplinger’s Financial Book Summaries, we just knew that our Soundview
subscribers should hear about it as well.
The main premise of this book, The Number by Lee Eisenberg, is that we should not
just think about how much money we want to set aside for retirement, but that we really
need to decide what we want out of life. As Eisenberg states, “This book is about money, but
ultimately it’s about the life you want, the life you don’t, and the cost of each.”
We hope that you enjoy our in-depth review of this great book, and encourage you to
purchase a copy if it strikes a chord. And if you’re interested in more books on investing and
personal finance, we recommend that you check out Kiplinger’s Financial Book Summaries
at www.kipsumm.com.
Wishing you the best in 2007,
Rebecca S. Clement
Publisher