Rework

With the benevolent candor of a friend who points out that something is lodged between your two front teeth, Jason Fried and David Heinemeier Hansson tell their readers in Rework to ignore much of the conventional wisdom offered to small business owners. Their book is at once both practical and revolutionary. Even the title is a concise statement of the major premise of the book, that “it’s time to throw out the traditional notions of what it takes to run a business.”

Perhaps the greatest strength of Rework is its light-hearted, simple approach to truth. Fried and Hansson consistently convey their message with humor, logic and heart. They have arranged their book into 12 sections containing 88 pithy chapters. Nothing, from introduction to conclusion, is longer than three pages. Yet time and again readers will be tempted to share the straightforward wisdom with a friend. I know my wife tired of my continual tapping on her shoulder—and she had read the book before me!

Never does the book substitute an imaginary world concocted in Ivy League business schools for reality. The authors remain grounded in personal experience gained while operating a profitable software company through the tumultuous years from 1999 until today. They touch on issues ranging from the limited value of long-term planning to the devastating impact of corporate policies, and from the fallacy of workaholic thinking to the critical importance of trust.

One chapter admonishes readers not to worry so much about what others do. Rather than focus on copying other business models, business owners should chart their own courses, and for good reason: “The problem with this sort of copying is that it skips understanding.” Other parts of the book reflect this same advice. Business owners are better off finding their own way.

Whether you just started your company or you’ve been in business 20 years, you’ll appreciate Fried and Hansson’s down-to-earth alternative to the theoretical fluff masquerading as truth.

Rework is a Crown Business book published in 2010.

Copyright © 2011 Little Frog Publishing. All rights reserved.

Flash Foresight: How to See the Invisible and Do the Impossible

Predict the future with confidence! You can, according to Daniel Burrus, and you won’t need a crystal ball or tarot cards. With a little training, you’ll be able to identify the “hard trends” that will shape your industry. At the same time, you’ll unearth the opportunities of the future.

In Flash Foresight: How to See the Invisible and Do the Impossible, Burrus provides the reader with what he dubs as seven “radical principles” that conjure up the flash foresights of the future. He developed this list of principles, or triggers, through years of strategic consulting for Fortune 500 companies, particularly in the realm of technological innovation.

With an engaging style and an arsenal of anecdotes from his own personal experiences, Burrus guides the reader through each of these principles. A cursory look may leave the casual reader unimpressed. A more thorough and thoughtful examination won’t. Burrus repeatedly shows the all-too-human tendency to make the same mistakes in business and in life, reacting rather than preparing for the inevitable. The simplicity of his presentation is also its genius.

The single biggest drawback of this book is an occasional whiff of arrogance. Like many business writers, Burrus establishes credibility through personal stories. For the most part, these stories are an asset. Unfortunately, there are times when the anecdotes become tiresome simply because he elaborates so profusely on his knack for predicting the future.

Burrus is convincing in his argument that no one can afford to be unskilled in anticipating the trends of tomorrow. “In the past, flash foresight was useful,” he writes in his introduction. “Today, as the pace of technological change accelerates beyond the point of comprehension, it’s essential.”

Flash Foresight, written by Daniel Burrus with John David Mann, is a Harper Business book published in 2011.

Copyright © 2011 Little Frog Publishing. All rights reserved.