2 Must Reads for Entrepreneurs

Kevin Maney of USA Today, one of the good guys in the business press, recently asked me to participate in his online Thursday CEO Book Group. He asks participants to review one “old favorite” business book and one new book. I thought I’d repurpose my post to him below (or you can read the original post):

Old book: Built to Last by Jim Collins and Jerry Porras. This is the book that started my entrepreneurial career, so to speak. I was struggling with what I wanted to do with the small software company I had created a few years prior when I happened upon this tour de force of the business book world.

What struck me as so profound was the concept that most great companies today have been around for a very long time, and they started out as small, struggling companies like the one that I was running at the time. Did you know that Sony's first products were a rice cooker (market failure) and heating pads (market success)? Or that HP started out with auto-flush urinals (market failure), bowling foul-line indicators (market failure) and oscilloscopes (a famous market success)? So, it didn't seem such a leap to turn a barely-profitable company selling a children's programming language, and named after the German word for "potato juice," into something bigger and better, which has turned out to be Homestead.

Other juicy tidbits in this book, which I use all the time in my day-to-day management practices, include building a "cult-like culture" that creates loyal, dedicated employees; setting "big hairy audacious goals" or BHAGs that seems impossible but people somehow rally to achieve; "clock building not time telling" which roughly means that great companies create frameworks for many ideas and leaders to emerge, as opposed to being dependent on one great/lucky idea or one charismatic leader; and, finally, the "genius of the and" which means always finding a way to do both great alternatives instead of forcing people to choose. My employees hate that one.

New book: Raising the Bar by Gary Erickson, founder of Clif Bar Inc. This book was a quick and enjoyable read through the history of Clif Bar, and Gary's ultimate decision not to sell out for millions the company he had lovingly crafted, as most of his competitors ultimately did.

Having faced those types of decisions myself, it was inspiring to read about an entrepreneur who had the courage and faith to "double down" on his own talents and dreams, even after it had yielded much success and provided him with a very profitable opportunity to cash out and retire. Being a fellow cyclist, I especially enjoyed the sections about his long bike rides in Europe and the many analogies he drew between adventure sports and building a company. Clif Bar's dedication to its employees, the community, and the environment, are awesome, and I wish all companies were run in such an enlightened way.

On the down side, the book was a bit pedantic at times, and tended to take several of the metaphors a little too far. Still, on the whole, I would recommend it for anybody trying to build a company to last.