Friday, July 11, 2008

Do as You Want

"There is only one basic human right, the right to do as you damn well please. And with it comes the only basic human duty, the duty to take the consequences."

---P.J. O'Rourke

A friend worried I was not getting enough "downtime" and my schedule has been a bit agressive lately. My response was "I love what I do and only do the things I want to do". Seems to be the logical way to lead my life. This does not mean I only do the easy things. I want the consequence of success so am more than willing to do the tough things too.


And I have read way more books than I have "reported" on so:


I recently read, The Road to Organic Growth - How Great Companies Consistently Grow Marketshare From Within by Edward Hess. Companies do it by:


1. They are generally in one business - most can define their business in one sentence.

2. The companies are relentlessly focused and disciplined - they do not take their eye off the ball.

3. They drill down to the line-employee level to ensure that their people understand the business and why their job is important, why certain measurements are being made, and how employees can contribute to their own success.

4. They incrementally improve with continual top-line and bottom-line initiatives by

They involve and engage their staff:

  • The people doing the work need to understand the business and the importance of their individual jobs, as well as how their success will be measured and what is important to the success of the business.
  • Everyone has to buy into a system of accountability and a culture of constant improvement.
  • Only by giving employees "ownership" of their jobs can a company truly have a constant improvement culture that works.
  • People need constant, reliable, and objective feedback in order to learn and improve. So they have a high focus on measuring results.

It was a good book - not great but just good. I did get some ideas and it was an easy, quick read. Certainly was attracted to the title.

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