Big Books

I'm Craig's little brother, but I was surfing Amazon and didn't even know he had a book out until I saw it here! So I ordered it.
I like to cook, but I was very intimidated by trying my famous chef brother's recipes. I have to say, the way the book is presented that making these dishes is very easy to understand, you just have to be willing to search out a few uncommon ingredients, and be willing to buy a few items for cooking that you might not have had before. But if you are passionate about food and don't mind some extra effort, it is really worth buying this book and trying these supremely delicious recipes!

You might think it's biased of me to write a good review, but seriously, one taste of Craig's creations and you'll realize that relation has nothing to do with it. ;)

Although I may be somewhat biased in my opinion (Craig is my brother), I am unbelievably impressed with Craig's culinary skills. I have personally been to Sierra Mar and tasted many of Craig's creations. My brother was somewhat skeptical of my opinions because I used to be an extremely picky eater growing up, so I hope he's been surprised by my lack of fear in trying new foods.

If you have never been to Sierra Mar and tasted the fine cuisine invented by Craig, you are truly missing out on a culinary adventure you will savor for years.

Way to go Craig!

Love,

Your Little Sister Suzanne

This cookbook is a valuable addition to the library of those who have a greater-than-average interest in the preparation of fine gourmet cuisine. The recipes are well-described and keyed to seasonal ingredients. The photographs are beautiful, and illustrate artistic presentations. The preparations are interesting, creative and delicious without going way over the top.

I would warn potential purchasers that this is not really a cookbook for the casual home cook. You should ask yourself the following questions:

Do you enjoy spending an entire day in the kitchen preparing dinner?
Does your list of kitchen equipment include a mandoline, a chinois, and a juice extractor?
Do you know where to purchase ingredients such as grade-A foie gras, diver's scallops, guinea hen, ramps, or baby chioggia beets?

If the answer to any of those questions is "no", then this book will probably spend more time on your coffee table than in your kitchen.

I think a lot of books of this sort are written by chefs who prepare their dishes in restaurants with an army of sous chefs, line cooks, dishwashers, and the necessity of feeding a crowd of customers each evening. Moving the techniques to the home setting where you are preparing dinner for your family and maybe a few guests requires a process of translation that leads to error-prone and incomplete recipes. This cookbook has been well thought out and edited, and avoids the problems that others have found with "gourmet chef" cookbooks. All recipes are calibrated to serve 6 in a format of a multi-course "tasting menu" dinner. That means the portions are each relatively small, and designed to be individually plated. Each course has well-thought-out wine recommendations for those who like to pair indiviudal courses with wines. Definitely not Tuesday night dinner.

I have looked over the recipes, and personally prepared the "Smoked Salmon-Wrapped Day Boat Scallops with Quail Egg, Fennel Emulsion, and Salmon Roe". It worked very well, with no missing ingredients, steps, or poorly-thought out proportions.

I think this book was well worth the price. As Jaques Pepin likes to say -- "Happy Cooking!"

"You can learn so much about food just by listening to people from different cultural backgrounds talk about their food memories...what you hear is about the soul of their food, not its science." ~ Chef Craig von Foester

The Sierra Mar Cookbook features recipes from the #1 Hotel Restaurant in California. The ever-changing menu features a fusion of French, Mediterranean and Asian culinary influences. The pictures alone produce a sense of awe and are beyond inspirational.

The unique style of this cookbook displays six intriguing menu options that represent six evenings at Sierra Mar:

Local Farmers Markets & Perfect Timing
Monterey Bay Salmon, Taste Memory & Total Utilization
Tomatoes, Terroir & the Artistry They Inspire
Preserves, Marmalades & Capturing Flavors that Sustain Us
Black Truffles, Shellfish & Pondering the Soul of Food
Slow Braising of Flavors & Big Sur Chanterelles, a Rustic Spirit of Taste

It seems rare for a cookbook to have the variety of stunning scenic pictures and it leaves you longing to visit this restaurant. A slopping field of flowers melts into a perfectly pink sunset in one picture and in another waves dash against the rocks.

Recipes that looked especially tempting include:

Salad of Grilled Black Mission Figs, Bitter Greens and Bleu de Haut Jura Cheese with a Port Reduction

Pancetta-Wrapped Sika Venison Loin with Pistachio Puree, Huckleberry Sauce and Pumpkin Dumplings

Butternut Squash Ravioli with Sage-Pecan Brown Butter

Composed Main Lobster Salad with Satsuma Mandarins, Hearts of Palm and Basil Oil
(the colors are gorgeous and look very tropical)

Grilled Rib-Eye Steak with Crispy Potato Cake and Oyster Mushroom Cambazola Compote

Ceylon Tea - Glazed Salmon with Hoisin-Braised Bacon and Pea Tendril Salad

Throughout the book there are step-by-step technique pictures with descriptions so you can learn how to slice potato gaufrettes. A section of "basic recipes" introduces you to Brioche, Pate Brissee, Champagne Vinaigrette, Fig Jam, Red Wine Syrup and Fines Herbes.

If you are looking to impress someone with recipes that will create an intoxicating culinary experience, I can't think of any cookbook that compares to this one! The pictures are stunning and the flavors are complex and have comforting seasonal appeal.

100 Stars!

~The Rebecca Review
Author of Seasoned with Love: A collection of
best-loved recipes inspired by over 40 cultures

Strategic and Tactical Marketing specialists alike concentrate on myriad issues affecting business success, but tend to assume facilities management is not an issue. This book clearly shows just how important the bathroom can be to the overall marketing picture. If your local retailer or restaurant neglects this simple issue, imaging how their customers might view expectations in the greater value proposition.
Skip to the Loo brings to light a serious issue that too many business owners neglect or ignore completely. This should be required reading for any small business that is looking for ways to differentiate themselves. This is an easy read, thorough, and a great resource for "how to do it right".

Linda Wright has delved into a subject that most business owners are aware of but never take the time to do something about. Bathrooms make an impression on our customers and the extra effort in providing an appealing room DOES make a difference. Linda goes the extra mile with details that make a statement for the business. Thank you for an easy approach to a great marketing tool!

I really never thought about how stores, resturants and supermarket bathrooms made me feel about their product line or business, until I read this book. Linda Wright has hit the nail on the head. If businesses want to improve customer relations they need to read this book. some small changes can make a lasting impressions on customers. I certainly seek out the places that have friendly bathrooms and do my business there, no pun intended!

Like Linda Wright, I'm a photo industry retailer. And I've always felt a little guilty when one of my customers wanted to use the bathroom. Like it wasn't exactly up to par.

Unlike me, Linda DID something about it. In "Skip to the Loo" she shows exactly why the right bathroom makeover is a much better form of marketing than many of the advertising media we keep throwing money at.

The right facilities - coupled with the right policies - may not have customers beating a path to your door. But one woman tells another, and she tells 2 others. We'd call it "viral marketing" but probably shouldn't talk about viruses and bathrooms in the same sentence...

My initial reaction was that Linda had taken a topic deserving of a paragraph and turned it into a book. Then I read the whole thing and realized it's all good.

From little things like choosing which way the TP should come off the roll (yes, there really is a correct choice) to the layout of fixtures, "Skip to the Loo" covers EVERYTHING.

Spurred on by the comments of industry pundits, I had upgraded my own store's loo several months ago. Now I'm going to go back and do the rest of the job.

"Small Business, Big Life: Five Steps To Creating A Great Life With Your Own Small Business" by financial and business expert Louis Barajas is an articulate, 'reader friendly', step-by-step, how-to manual for aspiring entrepreneurs wanting to establish a business enterprise, building a viable business, and still have a robust and satisfying personal life. The key to it all is the creation and maintenance of a proper 'mind-set' based on the four basic principles of Truth, Responsibility, Awareness, and Courage. "Small Business, Big Life" explains how to identify values and priorities and then fashion them into a kind of 'life blueprint'. Barajas reveals the components for creating a successful business include doing what you love, doing what your good at, and being profitable with what you do. The importance of systems for orderly, manageable growth are stressed, as is creating access to good attorneys, bankers, accountants, insurance agents, and vendors. If you are thinking about launching a small business, regardless of the products or services it will entail, then you need to give Louis Barajas a careful and considered reading!

After many years searching for a book that offers guidance in creating a successful business without compromising family values, I finally found it. I'm a business owner with minor children that hardly know me yet they are the most important part of my life. I have spent countless hours building my business to provide a comfortable living for them but I have failed as a father. After reading Small Business, Big Life, I realized my business was running my life instead of me running my business. I already started creating my life blueprint and the business blueprint and I have to admit that it's been a long time since I been as excited for my business as I am right now. For the first time in many years I will be taking some time off to go to my kid's basketball games. Thank you Mr. Barajas for this magical book.

Small Business, Big Life is a must read for all small business owners. Louis Barajas takes a step back and gives us practical knowledge about establishing and running a business.

The book emphazises that the purpose of a business is to give us more life, not to be consumed by it. Oftentimes, however, we neglect and forget this pressing issue until we have health, marital or emotional problems. Mr. Barajas explains, in a step-by-step process, how to avoid this inevitable pitfall.

Being that I am a business student with aspirations of establishing my own business, I wish that the curriculum would incorporate and emphazise this theory. I loved reading this book because it is inspirational, practical and helpful.

I enjoyed reading this book. It was well-written, and easy to follow. It explains that a small business does not have to be about ego and/or money. But instead a small business can be about having more control and quality of life. In a way, this book made me think of another book I am going to review tonight: How to Run a Business Like a Girl (ISBN: 1593374550). I liked that book, too.

This book is comprised of 11 chapters:

1. Why Start a Business?
2. Truth
3. Responsibility
4. Awareness
5. Courage
6. Your Life Blueprint - The purpose of your business is to give you more life.
7. Your Vision - The source of leadership.
8. Your Business Blueprint - Your business is your business, not your product or service.
9. Your Business Systems - Make it easy to build success.
10. Your Team - The bigger the dream, the better the team needed.
11. Conclusion - Living the dash

Chapters 2 to 5 the author calls the "Four Cornerstones of Personal Success." Chapters 6 to 10 are referred to as "The Five Steps to Build a Small Business, Big Life."

The book is more philosophical than it is practical. But I think any wanta-be entrepreneur should give it a read. When starting a small business a person needs to be somewhat philosophical so the practical things that need to be done and get done will in fact get done.

I would have liked the book better if chapters 2 though 5 had been left out. And I would have enjoyed seeing chapters 6 through 10 more developed. I suppose I say this because I like reading business books, and not a mixture of business and "something else."

This book comes across as a business coaching book. It is equally applicable for people starting a business as it is for people who are in need of improving their business. Much of what is included here can be found in the various titles written by Bradley Sugars. My favorite of Sugars' books is Instant Systems (ISBN: 0071466703) which covers a bunch of what is covered in chapters 6 to 10 here. 5 stars!

This book was recommended in Focus on the Family's magazine. I immediately purchased it and loved it. I took it when I served jury duty! :-)

This book is amazing. The Martins and their town and church have adopted the most needy children in Texas, and have built a beautiful community because of it. Their story is amazing, I found their website which tells more about the community. [...] I definitely recommend this book!

We'd all make fun of a place called Possum Trot and why not? What a silly name for a tiny little no-where place. But wait, this is just the type of place that Jesus shows up through people that believe Him and give their lives away in service to others.

Small Town, Big Miracle is a commendable effort to document the selfless acts of incarnational Christian living that we must all rise too. Too oft we sigh about the world's woes. "Who, oh who can come calm the storms of the lives of the broken in our midst"? Big Miracle, a Focus on the Family resource, offers the answer but I won't even make you read the entire book to find out the answer.

Its you and me and the Martin family and their loving friends and church family show us how.

Its easy to read and very encouraging. Adoptive families will see a model of stick-to-it examples in parenting tough kids. Others will see the great need of the orphans all around us and perhaps take the initiative to get involved.

In just 139 pages, the authors manage to tell a fabulous story, introduce amazing kids and big-hearted adults, and stir at least in this reader a powerful desire to help young people be more than the troublemakers or losers they're labeled as being. One pastor in a dinky town inspired the townspeople to adopt seventy-two kids who otherwise would have been written-off for life. The result was a transformation in both the kids and the adoptive parents. God's grace touched and softened even the hardest hearts. The places from which mercy and compassion welled up are surprising and inspirational. Very well written, from its folksy tour of the town of Possum Trot to the helpful tips for people considering adopting, this is a wonderful book everyone should read.

This is an wonderful book for teaching children "caring" while encouraging them to know the importance of keeping their own stories alive. Too seldom, we neglect to value children's big events and the author has done an excellent job of using a subject with which they can identify and to encourage them to keep record of those memories that are important.

My grandchildren love animals and this provides a reinforcement for keeping journals and memories.

Loved the book and the illustrations.

I HAVE A 10 MONTH OLD GRANDSON AND A 14 MONTH OLD GRANDDAUGHTER. I HAVE READ THIS FASCINATING BOOK OVER AND OVER TO THEM. THE IMPRESSIONISTIC PAINTINGS THAT MS. SLUSSER CREATED HERSELF FOR THIS BOOK AND HER PROSE ARE ESPECIALLY APPEALING TO TODDLERS AS WELL AS YOUNG CHILDREN. I LOOK FORWARD TO A SEQUEL TO "SMOKEY" AND HEARING MORE ADVENTURES ABOUT THIS SPECIAL CAT AND THE MAN AND WOMAN WHO BEFRIENDED HER.

This book is ideal for families anticipating or recently acquiring a new pet as it prompts them to consider the responsibilities.
The illustrations by the author are entertaining and their size is good for little ones. The message and surprising conclusion can be read over and over again, thereby making this book a sweet gift.

This is an awesome book for all ages. This author is as good at illustrating as she is at writing. It has the most beautiful vivid colors in the many illustrations. I have given this book to several children of different ages, and they all loved it! The book has you pulling for Smokey all the way. I especially like how Ms. Slusser encourages you to write your own story.

I've been very happy with all of the Snappy books so far. The illustrations are great and the pop-ups are done really well. It's fun to see all of the extra stuff on the page that helps reinforce the pages subject (push/pull, over/under, etc). My son is 2 and has opposites and numbers and likes them both.

My son has 3 Snappy books, and we are eager to collect more. They are bright, colorful, and adorable. They are also some of the most sturdy pop-up books I've ever seen (after teaching preschool for years I am really impressed with the durability of these books). We bought our first Snappy book for my son when he was 9 months old, to try to interest him in books. He's now 2 and we read all three of his books at least once (usually twice nap & bed time)every single day. They are fun to read, even as often as we read them. They are also very educational. We do keep these books seperate from his others, so my son doesn't ruin them, but he's allowed to look at them on his own, as they are certainly sturdy enough, he just has to ask first! They are a fantastic buy. Although they seem a bit expensive for a child's book, they are worth every penny!

My son received the Snappy Litle books when he was 18 months and loved the pop-up parts. The at 2 1/2 he could tell me the oppositea. Now at almost 4 he loves telling the story with me and pointing out the opposites on teh page besides the ones that popup. I love all the sdnappy books because it is funa dn educational. I buy them for our friends now.

As with other Snappy pop-up books, the colorful pages of "Snappy Little Opposites" attract the attention of young children. The pop-ups cleverly incorporate the actions of the opposites (animals move up and down, open and close eyes, etc.). The book is appealing to my 4 month old, my 18 month old, and cousins ranging from 2-5 yrs. As an adult, I find it fun to read with the kids because their reactions are delightful.

Service was prompt, and product arrived exactly as advertised. Wonderful seller, and will most certainly use again. Highly recommended!

Written in the style of Dr. Seuss and beautifully illustrated, this charming story is sure to be a favorite of kids and parents alike. It is the tale of a young Snoodle who, while filled with child-like entusiasm, has little skill at the things he would do. When the older Snoodles make fun of him, he loses heart and decides to leave town and live alone. But he soon meets a mysterious stranger who shows him what he is really meant to be, and the little Snoodle flies off, no longer vulnerable to the taunts of others, but once again filled with the confidence and enthusiasm he was created with.

This story is wonderful for kids facing discouragement or dealing with bullies. It shows them that their worth is not dependent on the opinion of others, but comes from somewhere else entirely. It also quietly makes them aware that they can use their own talents to do good things, or just to "make others feel badly."

We bought this book for our 2 1/2 year old daughter who loves Veggie Tales and enjoyed this story when it was on TV. It is not only a fun read for the family, it also teaches parents and children alike that God creates us, watches over us, takes away our burdens, and frees us to share the glories of his creation with our neighbors. The people at Big Idea clearly show how God's creative nature is passed along to his people through the products they create.

"A Snoodle's Tale" is an absolutely delightful story for the young reader. Although not always perfect, it has a strong-metered rhyming style that is easy to read and fall into the rhythmic beat of the story. A new Snoodle is born in Snoodleburg but he can't find his place in the world. It seems he is not particularly good at anything and everyone is making fun of him. He eventually learns the truth about life and how important he is. Where other books struggle to make a point about everyone being important and having their place in life, "A Snoodle's Tale" makes the point easily and gracefully. This is one of the best young children's books I have read in a long time.

This book is not for the beginning harmonica player, but if you can bend notes and perform octaves/tongue splits, or are able to acquire these skills, this is for you. The author plays the licks beautifully on the accompanying CD and the notation is clear. If you have some harmonica skill, you can play these licks, even though many of them sound complex and sophisticated. Tom Ball must have put in hours and hours breaking these licks down - he's done all the work - you just need to listen, follow the notation, and practice. There are some nice surprises on the CD also - the author has a great sense of humor. One of the best harmonica books I've ever seen.

First of all, this is NOT a book for total beginners. This is a book for someone who can bend the notes, but can't get much farther. This is a book of licks, as played by the truly greats. If you can play all these licks, you are ready for prime time. Then you just have to take it to the last step, which is thinking up your own licks. You will have a much better chance of reaching that point when you learn this material. Very well presented by the way.

Not only are the riffs in this work done correctly but there's a wealth of information on the blues harp and the Walters, too.
Contains a really interesting bio on Big and Little Walter including some interesting insights into their playing style and equipment.
The author is a accomplished professional WORKING harp musician and it shows.
Great for the licks and much more.
also see Little Walter's bio Blues with a Feeling: The Little Walter Story

The best way to learn any instrument is by transcribing the masters and this book makes it easy. Tom Ball has done all the leg work compiling and transcribing classic lines so you can learn them and get way better. Its also a great overview of blues history and music from a harp point of view which is great for anyone that wants a launching point for becoming hip to the blues. Also the book covers a wide range of difficulty levels so it will give newer guys a place to start but will continue to challenge people who have more experiance. Certainly the best harp book out there, and definantly worth the price.
Just so you know all the tunes on the CD are played using a Bb harp. Also the fact that Ball puts multiple licks on a track is a bit frustrating when your trying to play them over and over again to learn them, but if thats enough to deture your purchase of this treasure trove of blues harp greatness, you should probably just stop trying to playing music.
Hope thats not the case. Have fun and good luck!

Other books about professional speaking can put you to sleep with generic information that you already know. Either the author is trying to be politically correct or he or she is just trying to fill several hundred pages to justify the writing of the publication. Fred Gleeck's book is different. Just like the toughest coach you might have, Gleeck's doesn't mince words and he gets right to the point. He also realizes that he may offend some people with his comments. But don't you want a coach that won't sugarcoat anything yet instead will truly tell you like it is? In the book, Gleeck tells you exactly what to do and what not to do. Precisely where to invest your time, effort and money and where not to. I don't think there is a wasted word or a bit of fluff in any of his 239 pages. After reading the book, I immediately gave it to my wife to read to help me plan a strategy for my speaking business and ordered copies for my professional speaking friends so that they could do the same. I also thank those who had previously written comments about this book to convince me to make the investment. This information is so powerful, Gleeck could have forced you to spend $399 on a CD or DVD set, instead he made the same content available for a mere $19.95.

As a professional speaker, you have to understand how to make money. The other books I've read on this topic give you some good tips, but this is the best one I've read on how to MAKE MORE MONEY as a speaker. I highly reccomend it. I benefited a lot from Fred's extensive experience with CareerTrack and his knowledge of the public seminar business. His insights on how to develop your own products are amazing. Without reading this book I'm sure I would have been a speaker, but not a RICH speaker.

This book contains lots of practical and easy to implement advice and information on:
- getting started in your career as a speaker
- marketing a speaker's business
- the mechanics of speaking
- doing your own seminars
- creating and marketing information products, and
- other useful tips.

This book is an essential resource for professional speakers. Buy now and discover its secrets for yourself. The advice really works.

For those who also do seminars, you must also buy Marketing and Promoting Your Own Seminars by the same author.

Mr.Gleek knows his stuff. This book is broken down into bite size pieces. Open to any page and get at least one good idea. This book is also a perfect example of how to use a self-published book as a combination business card, promotional tool, and catalog. The only reason I didn't give the book a 5, is that much of the content is repeated in Mr. Gleeks other book; MARKETING & PROMOTING YOUR OWN SEMINARS AND WORKSHOPS.I don't mean the same ideas, I mean whole sections, word-for-word. If I had not bought both books, I would have been totally satisfied with this one.

Buy the book and read it. You will not be disappointed.

Most books on strategy take the same predicable process-oriented view and don't have much new to offer. This book is remarkably different. Based on hard research of the fortune 500 over the last 50 years, including interviews with management to find out what worked, what didn't, and what they should have don't differently, Stall Points offers insights and actionable recommendations for improving strategic management for mid- to large size companies. There are also many small recommendations for where to focus energy and effort to get the biggest return and the trade-offs among the most common approaches.

A must read for business leaders, MBA, and Business School teachers.

Stall Points tells us to test our strategic assumptions if we want to avoid stalling. That in itself is remarkable advice at a time when risks seem to lurk everywhere -- it's a reminder that most big problems are under our control precisely because they're strategic.

Those strategic problems might involve abandoning a core business too soon or focusing exclusively on one too long despite disruptive threats. The point is that these strategic choices about where and when to compete explain the majority of stalls -- not uncontrollable bolts from the blue. I suspect even the sub-prime mortgage crisis will eventually be added to the long column of controllable business disasters.

Even more refreshing in Matt Olson's and Derek van Bever's book are the integrity of the method, the contrarian thesis, and the sobriety of the solutions.
-- The great advantage of the method is its avoidance of survivor bias, which, as Michael Raynor points out, ignores the riskiness of highly successful gambits.
-- The thesis that strategy matters is a much-needed corrective to all the books that write dismissively about strategy as if it reduced to execution, much as if goals could somehow reduce to facts.
-- And there are no zero-sum solutions in this book, like, say, investing in what would turn out to be the same data analysis system every other reader bought.

The book deserves to be read closely. It may even deserve an after-life. After all, one of the key development questions today is why micro-enterprises stall. One hopes to see authors Olson and van Bever wearing safari hats soon in the jungles of Colombia and the steppes of Kazakhstan finding out why the micro-enterprises on which depend the welfare of so many of the world's working poor stay micro.

While there are many reasons to recommend this book, three in particular deserve mention.

First, the authors' approach to the problem of achieving sustained growth is inherently empirical and comprehensive. This differentiates their work from virtually every other tome on growth in the marketplace. Most such volumes, no matter how well written, are inherently versions of "post hoc, ergo propter hoc" analysis. Alpha Company adopted strategy X. Alpha Company succeeded. If you adopt strategy X, you will also succeed. The problem with this line of analysis is obvious to any student of Aristotelian logic, and equally obvious to anyone who has run a business. High-level strategies do not necessarily transfer from one industry, market, or corporate culture to another. Further, even sound strategies often fail because of breakdowns in execution. It's less the specific strategy that creates success than it is exceptional implementation of any strategy. (The recent work of Bossidy and Charan is very instructive in this regard.)

In stark contrast, the authors have conducted a rigorous analysis of all companies represented in the Fortune 100 over the past 50 years (and a handful of equivalent companies from outside of the US and from private equity.) The cumulative weight of the evidence commands much more authority than another well-documented case study of Dell, Merck, Johnson & Johnson, or Starbucks.

Second, the book is relentlessly prescriptive. Having identified the most common root causes leading to growth stalls, the authors provide a substantial number of specific actions, tactics, and business practices that real companies have used to overcome them. (And per my first point above, as a manager one takes much more confidence in adopting those actions because the analysis behind them is thorough and comprehensive.) Further, many of those actions are not of the nature of expensive, cumbersome new initiatives. A number of the suggested activities could be easily integrated into most organizations' current strategic planning and review processes.

Finally, the book is exceptionally well-written. This attribute is near and dear to my heart. As a voracious reader of business literature, I am frequently dismayed by the quality of the prose embodied by this particular niche of our culture. Most authors in the trade fall into one of two equally sophomoric camps. The first is characterized by the worst sort of academic rhetoric and reads about as well as your average software manual. Assuming you can stay awake long enough to finish it, one finds it a tiresome, often fruitless exercise, to extract any real learning. The other camp, which may be more annoying, is the folksy style so in vogue with ex-CEO memoirs. "We shook things up, charged forward, made up a plan as we went along, and kicked a lot of butt on the way."

Olson and Van Bever are gifted students of business, but they are equally gifted writers. Their chapters, and indeed the entire book, have a readable cadence, with appropriate amounts of wit, and they never make the audience work an iota harder than necessary to understand their point. They also understand when to stop hammering that point home. Sometimes a simple sentence is sufficient; other times several paragraphs are necessary, and the authors seem to have an intuitive feel for the difference. I challenge you to read this volume and not find yourself enjoying the process as you learn something on the journey. Very few competitive volumes pass that test.

Why and how obsolete strategic assumptions can threaten sustainable growth

In this brilliant volume, Matthew Olson and Derek van Bever assert that "the assumptions a management team holds most dearly - has known so long or so well that they are no longer debated - pose the greatest danger to growth. In other words, it is not what you know that isn't so that will stop your growth run - more likely, it's what you know that's [begin italics] no longer so [end italics]." It is worth noting that assertions such as this one are based on the rigorous and extensive research Olson and van Bever conducted over a period of several years. For example, the material in Part I (The Growth Experience of Large Firms) is based on "a comprehensive quantitative analysis of more than five hundred companies that have numbered among the Fortune 100 across the pasty fifty years.

As for Part II (The Root Causes of Growth Stalls) they complement the quantitative analysis with "detailed case analysis of a subset of the Fortune 100 to determine why growth stalls occur." Then in Part III (Avoiding or Recovering from Growth Stalls), Olson and van Bever examine the controllability of stall points previously discussed that leads them to the implications of what they learned for executives: "you must continually articulate and stress-test the assumptions underlying your strategy because it is the assumptions that you believe most deeply or that you held true for the longest time that are likely to provide your undoing. You may think you are currently doing this, but the odds are that you are not, and it is an oversight that you suffer at your peril."

Olson and van Bever note several times throughout their narrative that it is common for an organization to stall, it is hard to see a stall coming, and it is extremely difficult to recover from a stall; also, that strategic myopia can occur at the highest executive levels even in organizations that are annually ranked among the most valuable, most highly admired, most profitable, etc. For example, 3M, American Express, Apple Computer, IBM, Rubbermaid, and Xerox. Of course, the degree of severity of consequences from a stall period varies from one organization to the next, as does the length of that period.

Many of those who are thinking about reading this book may well ask, "All well and good, indeed very interesting, but how specifically can this book help me and my own organization to avoid or recover from a stall period?" Hence the importance of the last of five appendices that provides a diagnostic test for senior managers to complete. Each respondent is asked to rate each of 50 "red flag warnings of an impending doom" in terms of having No Concern, Moderate Concern, or Substantial Concern about it. In my opinion, this diagnostic test (all by itself) is worth far more than the cost of the book. Olson and van Bever also offer five foundational recommendations (in the final chapter) for executive teams that find themselves struggling to recover top-line momentum, and briefly explain the importance of each:

1. Build consensus about the sources of weakness in your core business strategy between the top management team and "skip-level" management.

2. Confront the operational and/or business model challenges in your core business that you previously have avoided.

3. For even the closest of adjacency extensions, conduct a careful "gap analysis" to identify required changes to the core business model.

4. Examine opportunity for new business models early in the new product development process.

5. Exploit "privileged insight" into customers in building new growth platforms.

I appreciate the fact that after briefly identifying or suggesting a "what" (e.g. a challenge, question, problem, peril, or opportunity), Olson and van Bever devote the bulk of their attention to explaining the "how." For example,

How to recognize the limits of prudent growth
How to recognize a stall point
How to calculate the costs of a stall period
Why companies stall and how to avoid or recover from one
How to take into full account various strategic factors (e.g. "premium position captivity")
How to take into account various organization design factors (e.g. talent bench shortfall)

I also commend them on the provision of five appendices in which they identify the companies in their sample, explain their methodology, list case study companies for stall factor taxonomy (in business markets ranging from Asset-Intensive to Tech-Intensive), provide stall factor definitions, and then conclude with the aforementioned diagnostic test in Appendix 5.

Those who share my high regard for this book are urged to check out Enterprise Architecture as Strategy: Creating a Foundation for Business Execution co-authored by Jeanne W. Ross, Peter Weill and David Robertson as well as Dean Spitzer's Transforming Performance Measurement: Rethinking the Way We Measure and Drive Organizational Success, Edward Lawler's Talent: Making People Your Competitive Advantage, Jeffrey Pfeffer's What Were They Thinking?: Unconventional Wisdom About Management, and Hard Facts, Dangerous Half-Truths And Total Nonsense: Profiting From Evidence-Based Management co-authored by Pfeffer and Robert Sutton.