I’m a big fan of reading. I tend to prefer non-fiction to fiction, but over the last few months I’ve been sprinkling in a little fiction. I’m currently working through White Noise by Don Delillo, which is a “postmodern” work about a consumerist society in 1985 struck by tragedy. Its a phenomenally written book that is both clever and thoughtful, and has the benefit of allowing the reader to wax philosophical. Post-modernism has always interested me ever since I started reading various critiques in high school and deepened when I took a class on it in college. My one problem is that for a philosophy based on lacking a “center” and predictability, postmodernism is awfully predictable.
Several weeks before that, I finished Master and Margarita which is a delightful satire on Soviet society that details a particular visit of the Devil and his retinue to Moscow and the havoc they create. I’m lucky in that I have had the pleasure of dealing with a lot of Russians in my life, and at one point in time I spoke the language (though not even close to fluently). These experiences allowed me to understand a lot of the humor which would have otherwise been lost.
Aside from my forays into fiction, I’ve stayed true to my love of non-fiction and have had the chance to read a few business books. The best thing about business books is that they are phenomenally quick reads, given the non-complex nature that most business book will provide. The two books were “Jack Welch Speaks” and “The Republic of Tea”.
Jack Welch Speaks, detailing the former CEO of GE, was a fairly interesting read but didn’t really reveal much that I didn’t already know. Though he doesn’t admit it, it becomes obvious that Jack rules by fear by demanding enormous productivity increases from his employees, and those who don’t improve get the axe. Over the course of his rule, he fired nearly half of the employees while increasing the revenues of the firm several fold. The one piece of advice that I found to be incredible is that if you can’t be number 1 or number 2 in your industry, you shouldn’t be in that industry. Overall, he was perfect for his job and was able to restructure GE in a phenomenal way…someone should really put this guy in charge of the auto industry.
The Republic of Tea (TRoT) on the other hand is a very touchy feely book detailing the marketing design that goes into building a tea business. There’s nothing really of substance that goes on, but the book is about big dreams and giving birth to those dreams. Instead of CEO’s, CMO’s and CTO’s, officers of The Republic are called “Ministers”. There are the Minister of Leaves, the Minister of Enchantment and the Minister of Progress (Mel Ziegler, Patricia Ziegler, formerly of the Banana Republic and Bill Roenzweig, respectively). Despite a crowded market, difficulty in penetrating grocery stores to win shelf space, and critics everywhere, they managed to succeed and build a successful business. There were two important lessons from this book: 1) build something unique that people can be a part of and talk about and 2) have fun with your business. Create a world that is enjoyable and a place of escape.
So moral of all stories: be unique, be the best, and have fun…and watch out for the Devil in Moscow.
