Mavericks at Work

Mavericks at Work by William C. Taylor & Polly LaBarre

Mavericks at Work, to use Bill and Polly's own terminology, is not a book of best practices, it is a book of next practices.  It is a book about what the companies of tomorrow are doing today.  Tom Peters says that he didn't just read this book, he devoured it.  Nuff said.  Just get it.

I Smoked-n-Signed Mavericks at Work.  I did so because it resonates most strongly with what I yearn for in business and the companies that I associate with.

I am going to tweak this review ever so slightly, changing course from the status-quo tell-you-what-the-book-is-about.  First, I am going to list words that I wrote in the book's margins which captured my attention and then I am going to list the folks that Bill & Polly write about, their position and their company.  I got the inclination to do this from Gary Hamel writing about Enron in his book Leading the Revolution.  When Gary wrote the book there was nothing to lead most of us to believe Enron was on a crash course to oblivion.  For my own message in a bottle purposes, my kids can look back at Rothacker Reviews here (or where ever we can store it) and capture both people and company names at a snapshot...hopefully most folks will have moved in the direction of progress.

Inspired Thought

• Language creates the edge
• Hire from another industry
• Recreating an industry - it's about story
• Human voice - Internet - Craig's List
• Fortune - big business voice
• No focus on brand demonstrates how little control a company has over its brand
• Power of language within companies
• Language, culture, sense of shared values
• Why does your company exist?
• Be who you are, don't go mushy
• Freedom to express
• The Linux Story
• Collective intelligence of the network
• Collaborate with smart people outside of your organization
• Define a problem crisply
• Purple cow
• Get the most out of ordinary folks
• Do you have a warrior spirit?
• Vibrant company defined
• Company design - how the company sees the world
• Understand the people, understand the company

These were just a few notes that I made after reading once through the book.  My second pass through a book, or the reason that I pass through a book more than once, is determined by how much I highlight the book.  In this case, a lot.  The second pass usually inspires more writing in the margins.

People - Positions - Companies

Chapter I - Not Just a Company, a Cause: Strategy as Advocacy

• Arkadi Kuhlmann, cofounder, ING Direct USA
• Roy Spence, cofounder, GSD&M
• Southwest Airlines
• Chris Albrecht, CEO, HBO

Chapter II - Competition and Its Consequences: Disruptors, Diplomats, and a New Way to Talk about Business

• Marc Andreesson, founder, Netscape, presently Opsware
• Mike McCue, founder, TellMe Networks
• Jim Buckmaster, CEO, Craigslist
• Craig Newmark, founder, Craigslist
• Richard Tait, cofounder, Cranium
• Doug Woods, cofounder, DPR Construction

Chapter III - Maverick Messages: Sizing Up Your Strategy

• John Mackey, Chairman, Whole Foods

Chapter IV - Ideas Unlimited: Why Nobody is as Smart as Everybody

• Rob McEwen, CEO, Goldcorp Inc., presently CEO, US Gold
• Tom Brown, Owner, Second Curve Capitol
• Linus Torvalds, Founder, Linux
• Charles Leadbeater & Paul Miller, Pro Am Revolution
• J.C. Herz, writer, white paper on Harnessing the Hive
• Tim O'Reilly, Founder, O'Reilly Media
• Jack Hughes, Founder, TopCoder
• Paul Gudgin, Artistic Director, Edinburgh Fringe Festival

Chapter V - Innovation, Inc: Open Source Gets Down to Business

• Eric Raymond, writer, The Cathedral & The Bazaar
• Larry Huston, VP-Innovation, Procter & Gamble
• Paul Stiros, CEO, NineSigma
• Alph Bingham & Darren Carroll, Cofounders, Innocentive
• Dan Wieden, Cofounder, Wieden+Kennedy

Chapter VI - Maverick Messages: Open-Minding Your Business

• Tom Kelley, GM, Ideo
• Open Source Initiative, World Banks Development Marketplace

Chapter VII - From Selling Value to Sharing Values: Overcoming the Age of Overload

• Vernon W. Hill II, founder, Commerce Bank
• Dennis DiFlorio, President of Retail Banking, Commerce Bank
• Claes Fornell, Creator, American Customer Satisfaction Index (ACSI)
• Howard Schultz & Dan Levitan, Founding partners, Maveron, (Starbucks dude)
• Bryant Keil, CEO, Potbelly Sandwhich Works
• Glen Senk, President, Anthropologie
• Richard Hayne, CEO, Urban Outfitters

Chapter VIII - Small Gestures, Big Signals: Outstanding Strategies to Stand Out from the Crowd

• Elisabeth Robert, CEO, Vermont Teddy Bear
• David Rockwell, Owner, Rockwell Group
• Peter van Stolk, CEO, Jones Soda
• Reed Hastings, CEO, Netflix

Chapter X - The Company You Keep: Business as if People Mattered

• Jane Harper, Creator, IBM's Extreme Blue Program
• John Sullivan, Director of HR Management Program, San Francisco State University
• Sherry Phelps, Executive in People Department, Southwest Airlines
• Libby Sartain, Chief People Officer, Yahoo (formerly of Southwest)
• Guy Laliberte, Founder, Cirque du Soleil
• Friends of Google, Google
• Jason Warner, Director of Recruiting, Starbucks

Chapter XI - People and Performance: Stars, Systems, and Workplaces that Work

• Randy Nelson, Dean of Pixar University, Pixar Animation Studio
• Ed Catmull, Founder, Pixar Animation Studio
• Al West, Founder, SEI Investments
• Dick Resch, CEO, KI

 

Comments

[United Steelworkers]

"Chapter I - Not Just a Company, a Cause: Strategy as Advocacy

* Arkadi Kuhlmann, cofounder, ING Direct USA
* Roy Spence, cofounder, GSD&M
* Southwest Airlines
* Chris Albrecht, CEO, HBO"

Check out the real facts on Arkadi Kuhlmann's company, ING Groupe, at www.can-you-trust-ing.com

Strategy as Advocacy? Yeah right. The only cause ING is concerned about is profit.

[dave]

This comment presents a different view of ING. Although I've personally had horrific non-management experiences with unions, I think I'll leave it.

[ermhfzq regkxwcz]

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