BizBook Nuggets

Ram Charan: Converting Ideas Into Growth

I am a big fan of Ram Charan and love his writing (Execution, What the CEO Wants You to Know, Confronting Reality, The Leadership Pipeline). Now he's got a new book out, Profitable Growth is Everyone's Business: 10 Tools You Can Use Monday Morning.

Thanks to Professor Charan's book publicist, Anna Suknov, here's an article that speaks about the ideas in his newest book:

Convert Ideas into Growth 
By Ram Charan
Author of Profitable Growth
© 2004 by Ram Charan.  Profitable Growth Published by Crown Business a division of Random House,  Inc. 2006

Ideation is the flow of ideas that can be converted into growth on a consistent basis. Ideas for new products and/or services can come from two places: inside your organization or outside of it. Let's deal with the internal sources first.

I sometimes hear CEOs saying, "We don't have enough ideas inside our organization. They aren't flowing, and the ones that do surface aren't very good."
Frequently, their explanation for why that is the case is that they have hired the wrong people, or that they are just not creative enough.

That is possible, of course, but I find it is rarely the true explanation.

The reason there may not be enough ideas could be as simple as people not believing that you, the leader, are serious about wanting growth, and so they focus their attention elsewhere. If the leader just talks a good game about growth, but doesn't take action, then people see through him immediately.

Another likelihood: The ideas are there, but they are buried under layers of bureaucracy that keep them from surfacing.

The Disorganized Executive

I just finished reading CrazyBusy by Dr. Edward Hallowell, who discusses the sources of distraction and disorganization in our modern world. He's an expert in ADD (attention deficit disorder), and while he sees a huge increase in ADD complaints since the mid 90s, most people are suffering from "severe cases of modern life."

It's a good read that includes 10 priniciples for staying calm, including staying connected to what matters most to us, and finding one's "right rhythm." This is a good read for anyone living in the "fast lane," doing more, but feeling less fulfilled and more disorganized.

For more on the disorganized habits of executives, read John Agno's post on his Coaching Tips blog.

Socrates & Second Thoughts About Books

I just ran across this brilliant bit about what Socrates thought about those new-fangled things someone invented for telling stories: books. This comes from Thomas West, Thinking Like Einstein: Returning to Our Visual Roots with the Emerging Revolution in Computer Information Visualization.

Each technology has its limits. Long ago, Socrates described some second thoughts he had about the new and questionable technology called a "book." He thought it had several weaknesses. A book could not adjust what it was saying, as a living person would, to what would be appropriate for certain listeners or specific times or places.

In addition, a book could not be interactive, as in a conversation or dialogue between persons. And finally, according to Socrates, in a book the written words "seem to talk to you as if they were intelligent, but if you ask them anything about what they say, from a desire to be instructed, they go on telling you just the same thing forever."

After more than two millennia, it now seems that a new kind of technology, with interactive multimedia capabilities, may be beginning to address some of Socrates' concerns.

In all truth I have not read Socrates, nor Thomas West's brilliant book. I found this passage in another book, Crazy Busy, by Dr. Edward Hallowell. More about that book later.

Top Tips for Growing Your List from Ali Brown, the Ezine Queen

The Ezine Queen's 7-Step Plan for Building Your Ezine List
Wednesday, April 19, 2006, 8:30 p.m. ET - FREE
Guest Expert: Alexandria Brown, The Ezine Queen

Are you still struggling to grow your email list? You're not alone. It’s one of many entrepreneurs’ biggest challenges. You can have the best products or services in the world. And you can send out the best ezine or emails in the world. But if you have NO LIST, you have no one to market to and buy your stuff!

And you may know of one or two methods, but you don’t have a step-by-step PLAN. Well, Alexandria Brown, “The Ezine Queen”, has a clear and simple 7-step plan for building your list and she’ll be sharing it on this call. Don’t miss it!

Alexandria K. Brown, The E-zine Queen, is the authority in driving business via e-mail publishing. Her award-winning tutorials, teleseminars, and workshops have taught thousands of solo professionals and small biz owners how to market online inexpensively to get more clients, customers, and long term sales. She’s author of the award-winning "Boost Business With Your Own E-zine" system.

She’s consulted for prominent companies such as New York Times Digital, Adweek Magazines, Scholastic Books, and Dun & Bradstreet, but her passion lies in showing small business owners how to create consistent streams of income using the Internet.

Alexandria has been interviewed by The Wall Street Journal and sponsored by Microsoft, and has been featured in Entrepreneur Magazine and countless marketing books including Confessions of Shameless Internet Promoters by Debbie Allen. Her Web site is EzineQueen.com.

Register:  www.ConversationsWithExperts.com

If you cannot attend the live Conversation, you can pre-order the audio program for only $4.95.  After the Conversation the price will be $9.95.  Save 50% and pre-order the audio program now.

Conversations with Experts: How to Build Your Business On and Off-line
Hosted by Denise Wakeman and Patsi Krakoff.

Conversations with Experts is sponsored by Build a Better Blog System.

Chicken Soup? CPR for the Soul!

My colleague Mike Jay, a long time business coach, has been creating ebooks and audio programs for nearly 8 years, and has just completed an amazing book and series of programs called CPR For The SOUL.

If you invest in one personal growth program this year, this is it. There are many key products in CPR For the SOUL to assist you in understanding who you are at a deeper level. This contributes to building a successful business and marketing your practice, your products, and developing your ideas.

Here's how you can participate:

You can purchase Mike's new book today April 14, 2006, and pick up the free bonus package Mike has assembled to accompany the book for only 39.95, plus shipping.

Just click here for details on CPR For The SOUL.

For those of you who know the name, Mike Jay's been training business coaches and is active in the Executive Coaching Summit held every year before the International Coach Federation conference. He founded B-Coach Systems from which I graduated in 2000.

He has an amazing grasp of both business and psychological systems which he synthesizes into programs for human and business growth.

So, forget Chicken Soup! This is CPR for the Soul!

The Blog Squad iPod Give-Away Contest

The Blog Squad Announces...

          Win an iPod Contest

We’re giving away 2 iPod nanos and a sleek Razer mouse
to celebrate the first year of our "Build a Better
Blog" ebook and Conversations with Experts TeleSeries.

iPod Contest:

Here’s how you can win an iPod nano loaded with our
entire Conversations with Experts TeleSeries! To
celebrate The Blog Squad’s first anniversary, Denise
and I are giving away 2 iPod nanos, plus a sleek Razer
Copperhead mouse. There are 3 ways you can win:

1. Subscribe to our ezine, Savvy eBiz Tips. All new
   subscribers are automatically entered into a random
   drawing for 1 iPod nano, preloaded with 44+ hours of
   Conversations with Experts.  Use this link to
   subscribe and enter the contest:

http://snipurl.com/SeBT_Contest

2. Enter by contributing your answer to this question:
   "In your experience, what is the most important
    marketing skill a professional must master to be
    effective in the years to come?"

We will judge the winning answer based on relevance,
utility, creativity, and "smart and savviness."

Use this link to enter your answer:

http://snipurl.com/Question_Contest

3. If you are already a Savvy eBiz Tips subscriber,
   you can win by referring the most number of friends
   and colleagues who sign up. This prize is a sleek Razer
   Copperhead mouse, the mouse that is so fast and precise,
   you will save your wrist action.  Use this link to
   make your referrals: 

http://snipurl.com/Contest_Referral

The Blog Squad's free weekly ezine, Savvy eBiz Tips,
gives action-oriented steps for streamlining online
marketing tasks, including those for blogs,
newsletters, websites, and e-commerce systems.

We'll be drawing the iPod and Razer mouse winners
the first week of May.

Good-luck!

Denise Wakeman and Patsi Krakoff
The Blog Squad