VV.AA - 20/20 : 20 Great Lists by 20 Outstanding Business Thinkers

20/20

20 greatlists
by 20
outstanding
business
thinkers

20/20

20 greatlists
by 20
outstanding
business
thinkers

preface by
Marcelino Elosua

edited by
David Woods

Published by

LID Publishing Ltd

The Loft, 19a Floral Street

Covent Garden

London WC2E 9DS

United Kingdom

www.lidpublishing.com

www.businesspublishersroundtable.com

All rights reserved. Without limiting the rights under copyright reserved, no part of this publication may be reproduced, stored or introduced into a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means (electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise) without the prior written permission of both the copyright owners and the publisher of this book.

LID Publishing Ltd, 2014

Reprinted 2014

Printed by TJ International Ltd, UK

ISBN: 978-1-907794-63-6

Cover and page design: Laura Hawkins

FROM THE FOUNDER

T he best way a publishing house can celebrate its 20th anniversary is probably to publish a book. In this book, most publishers would explain what they had achieved during that time and how they overcame the multiple challenges they faced.

But our book is different, because instead it reflects our priorities; the focus is not on us but on disseminating the best ideas from a selection of our 1,700 authors. In this way you our readers will benefit from getting the best thoughts from this group of extraordinary and talented people.

20/20 is considered to be perfect vision for jet-fighter pilots or the top grades in schools that use this system, so this to me summarizes what this book is about. The 20 most relevant ideas on the topic that each of the selected 20 authors has mastered. We chose them to showcase how diverse they are in terms of their country of origin and themes covered, so that each reader can quickly find that single thought that could change his or her life and make all of our efforts over the past 20 years mean something.

A book costs little but has a great value. We believe that a LID book should spark your imagination or make you think twice and act at once in whatever direction you decide is the best for you.

We hope to accompany you for many more years. Thank you so much for your trust and collaboration.

Marcelino Elosua,
March 2014

INTRODUCTION

P eople love lists.

Its a simple fact of human nature. We write shopping lists; we take great satisfaction out of ticking off our to-do lists; when making decisions we jot down lists of pros and cons; and when we are brainstorming in the board room, we put together lists of ideas, threats, challenges and opportunities.

We make lists every day on paper, in emails or just in our heads without even thinking about it. Lists are what help us navigate our work and our personal lives.

And people love advice. During my career as a business journalist, I have had the honour of interviewing hundreds of leaders from esteemed university professors to captains of industry; from Olympic sporting stars to politicians. I have an unshakable habit of rounding off all my interviews by asking: What is the one piece of advice you would give to fellow business people..The answers to that particular question have varied considerably and I have often wondered if you could take the advice from our worlds leading business thinkers and put them together in one place.

LID Publishing has done that through this book; 400 great pieces of knowledge, in 20 digestible lists, by 20 world-leading thinkers to celebrate the past 20 years, during which LID has made its mark on the face of business publishing. 20/20 combines our internationally shared love of lists and advice.

Its a risk for any editor to give 20 authors in five countries the freedom to write a list of the things they find most useful and, now the book has been safely published, I can say that when I was asked to take on this exciting project, I had that all-too-familiar unpleasant feeling at the back of my mind that the authors would say the same things or that I would find myself ploughing through a metaphorical field of clay. But I would like to take this opportunity to thank each and every one of our 20 thinkers for rising to the challenge of coming up with something original, thought provoking and useful with flair and panache. Its been a pleasure to get to know each of them because their passion for generating change for the better through their work and through their writing, is an inspiration.

Our lists come from experts in the field of psychology, business, marketing, human resources, organizational development, history, fashion, media and philosophy. Some of our authors chose to give some hints and tips, others opted for quotes, some shared 20 experiences that changed them as leaders and others shared their theories and research.

The topics range from exploring business themes that can be evident in war, interviews with game-changing CEOs, mantras for success, businesss rocky relationship with politics, reconsidering our thought processes, reaching for the top, thriving in a changing economic landscape and even finding useful business advice in ancient legends. Never before has such a contrasting myriad of business ideas been collected together in one place and worked so well as a collective.

So when you turn the page to begin reading, open your mind and keep it open until the last page because somewhere in this book is at least one golden nugget of information that could make a huge difference to how you live, work and even think. Having had the privilege of being one of the first to read this book, when I imagine the opportunities the ideas in this book could throw open for you, forgive the cliche, but the list is endless.

David Woods,
March 2014

ORGANIZATIONS DO NOT THINK: - but they shape how people think and act

BY DAVE ULRICH

Many decades ago, I was an aspiring attorney, anticipating law school. By happenstance, I took a course in organization behaviour (OB), a relatively unknown field at the intersection of business, psychology and sociology. The professor captured my attention and the ideas captivated my mind and heart. I became obsessed with observing, studying and improving organizations, with ever increasing understandings of capabilities, leadership, talent, culture and human resources.

In the ensuing decades, I have had a real privilege of working with brilliant colleagues whose ideas have shaped my thinking. I have also worked to integrate theory, research and practice to answer simple, but evolving questions:

* Why do organizations matter in our world today? My view is that organizations where people live and work can be a remarkable source of good for people and communities.

* What are unique ways of understanding concepts of organization, talent and leadership? My view is that organizations can be defined as capabilities like talent, leadership and culture. Line managers are the owners of organization effectiveness and HR professionals are the architects and anthropolotists. So my work to evolve the HR department, tools and professionals has helped build infrastructure for effective organizationsHow does one improve the organizations that affect them? Through application of innovative ideas, organizations may be modified and improved.