Internet and Technology

Executive Summary

The House Advantage is a book written by Jeffrey Ma, and published in July 2010.  Jeffrey Ma is a card counter made famous from the book Bringing Down the House and the movie 21.  Both stories are based on Ma’s real life experience with card counting and blackjack.

            The book is about Ma’s idea that you can play the odds to win big in business.  This is a play on the fact that he is a card counter made famous for his ability to play the odds to beat the casinos.  The idea of playing the odds is described in the book as using data to make the best possible decisions for yourself and your business.  In order to make the best decisions, you have to analyze the data and choose the option that gives you the best chance at success, or the best odds of winning.

            Ma uses his own personal experiences in the world of blackjack to relate his philosophies on business success.  He is constantly referencing his playing days in order to illustrate his points.  He also draws on a wealth of past life experience in the world of analytics and business to supplement his stories of blackjack. 

            According to the book, the key ideas for increasing your success in business are based on your decision making processes.  In order to play the right odds, you have to be making the right decisions.  Ma slowly guides the reader through his logics behind his school of thought.  He starts with some simple notions about statistics, and then he works his way through how to apply these statistics to business. 

            He talks about how the past matters.  Every good decision should be based on some past information or data.  We should always know what happened in the past and learn from our mistakes.  He also mentions the need to be like a scientist.  He describes this as the ability to approach a problem and remain objective.  Don’t search for the answer you want, but rather search for the right answer. 

            He also talks about the importance of asking questions.  Not only do we need to ask questions, but we need to ask simple questions that have a purpose.  We shouldn’t waste our time searching for answers that can’t lead to action.  We can use the data from the past to answer our questions in a quantifiable way.

            Once we’ve gotten our numbers, we need to make sure that we know what they mean.  We must use the numbers to tell a full story.  We must know what the data we have is telling us.  We can’t allow ourselves to fall prey to fake statistics and we must not allow ourselves to skew the numbers.

            He talks about the need for planning and strategy with our decisions.   If we are prepared for every scenario and we have a solid strategy, there is no need to fear.  He also defines what making the right decision means.  A decision isn’t made right or wrong by its results.  If we make the best decision we can with the data we have, we are playing the best odds we can. By playing our best odds, we are increasing our chances for success, but not guaranteeing it.  This is why we must always be prepared, even for the worst-case scenario.

            The ultimate purpose of the book is to give the reader guidelines for effective decision making.  In order to be a good decision maker, we must make data driven decisions and prepare for every outcome.  By being a good decision maker, we are effectively playing the best odds we can which will lead to a brighter future for our business and hopefully business success.

The Ten Things Managers Need to Know fromThe House Advantage

1.            Statistics can be applied to any business.  Using Statistics to make an informed decision can be applied to any situation, ranging from what route to take to work, to which multimillion dollar investment to make.

2.            “Every good decision has some data behind it as well as a thorough examination of the specific case at hand.” (Ma 209)  Every decision has some set of data that we evaluate before every decision.

3.            You must have the ability to reevaluate your strategy when things change.  The world is in constant motion, and your business environment will always be changing.   To keep up, your business must always be changing.

4.            Focus on statistic accuracy and integrity.  Don’t fall into the trap of pseudo-statistics.  Don’t let yourself “find” the numbers that confirm your decision.  Let the number “lead” you to the right course of action.  This means using the data to make a decision, not just searching for the first sign of data that confirms your preconceptions.

5.            Every organization has to have uniform goals that every employee can invest in.  Make sure that everyone is working towards the same objective, and that everyone realizes that success for the business means success for everyone,

6.            Pay attention to the past.  The past is the biggest part of making any successful decision.   Study it and learn from it in every aspect of your business.

7.            Ask the simple questions.  Don’t always look for the really complicated problems to focus your efforts on.  Sometimes the simplest questions can lead to the biggest discoveries.

8.            Don’t try too hard to be perfect.  Not every decision has a right answer or a perfect set of information to examine.  Use what you have to make the best decision at the moment, even if this isn’t a perfect decision.

9.            Planning is core to being successful in business.   Every business should have a strategy to succeed and to handle any failures.  “The importance of obsessive planning cannot be underestimated.” (Ma 136)

10.            Presentation is important.  Even the best plans, if not presented correctly, will fail to be accepted.  People are resistant to change, but if you present the change in a way that they can understand, you have a better chance of making the change.

Full Summary of The House Advantage

The Religion of Statistics

This chapter is all about the religion of statistics and gives some personal stories regarding Ma’s beliefs in statistics.  The chapter starts out with Ma telling the story of his “defining moment” regarding statistics.  He tells about how he lost $ 100,000 in a matter of minutes one night playing blackjack.  He explains how he had to deal with the numbers being wrong.  He said that the statistics behind his moves that night were correct and but there is always a chance at losing.  But he tells how he decided to continue playing and eventually won $ 70,000 net. 

      He then goes on to tell the story of Bob Stoll.  Stoll is a sport betting guru and friend to Ma.  Stoll is a statistician who uses numbers to bet on sports.  He even started a business selling his picks to his subscribers each week. 

      Ma then tells about his forays into the financial market.  He tells about how the markets worked and what his job was.  He explains why he left the industry, because unlike blackjack, there isn’t enough of a standard of analytics.  The system he worked under in blackjack was a “sure thing”, because the numbers said so.  In the financial markets, his company’s decisions were sound, and they made money, but they didn’t make statistical sense.

      Ma then offers up his first two commandments of his religion of statistics.  The first rule is to understand the importance of variance.  Variance is the natural tendency for results to vary from expected.  Just because the numbers say you have an advantage, doesn’t mean you are guaranteed a win.   Ma’s second commandment is the importance of the long term perspective.  Most analytical strategies are only going to give you a small advantage.  And due to variance, you might hit “bad streaks.”  The importance of understanding the causes of these streaks and maintaining your position will eventually lead you to your goals.  You must stand behind the data and trust in the numbers. 

      The last thought he offers up in this chapter is the idea of an ever changing strategy.  Because an analytical strategy is meant for a specific environment, as the environment changes so should your strategy.   Maintain your belief in your strategy, but be able to change it as new variables emerge.

Why the Past Matters

Ma starts this chapter with a lesson in history.  He explains the reason why his blackjack strategy works is because blackjack is affected by the past.  For instance, if all of the aces have been played, the chance for getting a blackjack is impossible.  He compares this to  roulette, where the chances of a ball landing on red is not affected by how many times in the past the ball has already landed on red.

      He tells the story of how card counting came to be and why it works from a mathematical point of view.  He explains how Edward Thorp invented card counting by noticing the trends and patterns that emerge from a sequence of blackjack hands.  The basis of it is that every card that has already been played has some kind of effect on the odds of future hands.  Card counters simply bet more when their odds are increased, and bet less when the odds are not in their favor. 

Ma goes on to give another couple examples about how past data can be used to confidently predict future patterns.  He further explains why Stoll’s methods work.  He also tells a story about how the sales in a retail store have become more accurate thanks to data mining and product mix information.  This is a great example of how statistics saved the store money and improved the business.

The main idea of this chapter is that historical data is such an important tool for crafting an effective strategy.  Ma also says that if you don’t already have data readily available to you, you need to create an infrastructure to start collecting data.    The sooner you have historical data, the sooner you can start making effective decisions.

 Think Like a Scientist

Ma starts off this chapter with a story about how he deals with the other people at the table with him.  He is telling how other people get upset when he seemingly makes “stupid” plays at the blackjack table.  He is referring to times when his card counting method goes against what most blackjack players follow, or basic strategy.  The story involves a person who is upset that Ma is joining the table at a critical point in the deck.  Then the person gets upset when Ma makes “stupid” plays and increases the chances that Ma is ruining the game for everyone and is going to cost them all their hands. 

This story is used to illustrate the point of confirmation bias.  Confirmation bias is the tendency for people to only remember information that proves that they were right.  For instance in this story, The other player at the table would not remember that at the end of the hand, he and Ma both won regardless of his “stupid” plays.  He would only remember the fact that Ma came in and took his ace and cost him a blackjack. 

Ma goes on to tell other stories demonstrating how confirmation bias can come from seemingly good information.  He explains the difference between correlated variable and casual variables.  A causal variable is when one thing causes another.  For instance smoking cigarettes causes cancer.  The two variables are causal because an increase in one will lead to an increase in the other.  Correlated variables are variables that are related but don’t necessary affect each other.  For instance, many people who drink also smoke, but just because a person has a drink doesn’t mean they will want a cigarette.

The main idea of this chapter is to “think like a scientist.”  The idea is to not assume that the data you have is enough to prove you are right.  Theories need to be tested and results questioned.  If you approach a problem like a scientist, you will not fall for confirmation bias or misinterpret a variables correlation.

The Importance of Asking Questions

Ma starts this chapter by pointing out that data is only the first step in the strategic process.   What you do with the data is what really counts.  It is the creative way that you look at numbers that will truly give you insight into what they mean.

Ma says that at the start of the decision making process there is a set of questions asked by someone.  He says that this set of questions is your “decision frame.”   He says that every good decision frame has 3 main components: purpose, scope, and perspective.  Purpose is what you hope to accomplish.  Scope is what you are including or excluding from the decision.  And, perspective is your point of view in approaching the question.

Ma tells about football legend Bill Parcells and his response when asked about his criteria for drafting quarterbacks.  Parcells list off some key attributes.  By narrowing down his candidates to people with these attributes, Parcells is creating a decision frame to make the decision on which quarterback to draft.

Ma then goes on to tell a few other stories involving people asking the important questions.  One man asked the question do polls mean anything.  This questioning led to him creating a model that has accurately predicted several elections.  Another story is about an NFL executive who asked how you measure the talent of an offensive tackle in football. From this question he arrived at several other similar but more specific questions and ultimately he arrived at a quantifiable solution to his answer.

The main idea of this chapter is to ask simple questions.  These simple questions will help focus your mathematical models and ultimately help solve your bigger business problems.  Regardless of the subject matter, by asking simple questions, you can arrive at some complex but useful answers.

 The Impractical Search for Perfection

Ma starts this chapter by discussing the idea of having a “hot hand.”  The idea is that when a player is doing well, they tend to keep doing well, or have a hot streak.  He tells of his interest in the subject and various attempts at proving or disproving this theory. 

He goes into great detail on some of the research done regarding the hot hand.  He also talks about his interactions with people who witness the hot hand in the sports they are associated with.  After much discussion he brings up the point that although this theory is interesting, it has no practical application and shouldn’t be worried about.

He then begins discussing the optimal time in basketball to take a shot at the end of a quarter.  The idea is that there is a point where you have the best possibility to score, allow you opponent to have a possession, and then score again before the end of the quarter.  He says that this is a much more practical application for statistical analysis because it has an actionable result.  You can change your game plan based on your findings.

The main idea of this chapter is to search for practical answers.  Don’t pursue theories and waste research on something that cannot be acted on.  We should also be aware that not all answers are perfect.  The imperfect answers or incomplete statistics can still be helpful in making your decisions.  Also, don’t search for the breakthrough study, but rather, focus on smaller achievable questions that will further your business or create a competitive advantage.

 Using Numbers to Tell a Story

This chapter starts with Ma referencing his card counting career again.  He is telling about how he kept the count while playing blackjack and the importance of the count.  The idea with this story is that numbers should have meaning.  In their system, every number meant something to the game.  Nothing was left to subjectivity or interpretation.

Ma then tells another story of when he worked with the NBA team the Trail Blazers.  Every year his company would rank the emerging draft picks so the team would have some quantitative way to measure their potential picks.  At one point the team was questioning why their numbers for players were different than Ma’s company’s numbers.  They wanted the numbers to match up to confirm their decisions.  Ma points out that you don’t want these numbers to be the same because the analysts are looking at it from a different point of view to offer a new perspective.  He makes the point that we need to keep in mind what numbers mean.

He then starts discussing the BCS system and how it is flawed because it does not offer a true ranking of the teams.  The BCS system offers up a pseudo-statistic because it bases two-thirds of its weight on a human ranking poll.  This flaws the true ranking that would occur by the computer. 

He also relates the television rating system to the BCS because of their use of a pseudo-statistic.  He then tells a couple other stories about how some fake statistics are being used when they really aren’t giving a true view of the story.  Statistics are only as useful as the story they are trying to tell.

The point of this chapter is that a number is only as good as what it represents.  He says that statistics should be based on some objective measure, should be easy to understand, and should not be manipulated to support lies.  The ability of numbers to tell a story is the important part of gaining a competitive advantage.

Never Fear

Ma begins this chapter with another story from his card counting days.  He recalls a close call that he and his team mates had in Shreveport regarding the casino catching them in the act of counting cards.

The importance of this story is showing how judgment and planning led to their success in Shreveport.  By making sure that they didn’t play too long or get too greedy, they were able to escape before the casino could really catch them in the act.  Planning is important too because they had planned out exactly what they were going to do if “the heat,” or casino management showed up.

Ma discusses the team dynamic in their card counting games.  He explains what each person’s role was and how it helped out the team.  Their preparation and their strategy is what led to their success. 

He then goes on to tell the story of the financial giant LTCM.  LTCM had a winning strategy that allowed them to earn tremendous profits.  One day the markets entered into turmoil and LTCM eventually lost 91% of its capital.  Because of this event they had to reveal some of their secrets in trading.  Once their secrets were revealed, their competitors would buy or sell stock before LTCM causing LTCM to lose profits.  The moral of this story is to keep your competitive advantages as close guarded of a secret as you can. 

Another lesson from this story is the lesson of planning for the worst case scenario.  You have to have a plan to deal with the worst of times if you want to be successful.  Just like in blackjack, there will be bad hands that you have to weather through in order to realize an ultimate profit.

This is the key idea in this chapter.  Obsessive planning leaves you no reason to fear.  If you can keep your advantages in your favor, and you plan for everything from the best to the worst case scenarios, then you will be successful and don’t need to fear failure.

 Making the Right Decision

Ma begins by discussing what a right decision is.  Most people believe that if the result is positive then the decision was right.  But this is false.  A good decision is right regardless of the outcome.  The decision and the outcome are separate entities.  The quality of the decision can only be judged by the logic and information you used in arriving at your decision.

Ma then goes on to tell a story about playing at the MGM grand.  He made some seemingly ridiculous decisions during his time at the table.  He ended up winning $ 28,000 on one hand, but his comments are about the decision.  When it came time for him to increase his bet at the table, he didn’t hesitate because he knew based off the number, his decision was right. 

He then goes on to analyze a decision made by New England’s head coach on a fourth and two play.  The outcome of his decision to go for it was that his team lost, but Ma analyzes if this was still the right decision.  After much analysis he deduces that even though the outcome was bad, the decision was correct.

He tells other similar stories from the business world.  He relates all of this to the need to make the right decision regardless of what people will think or what the outcome is.  This is the key concept of this chapter.  Making better business decisions is a matter of looking objectively at a problem, understanding the alternatives, and then choosing the one that gives you the best odds of success.

 When I Won, We All Won

This chapter begins with the explanation of how the blackjack team received funds and how the “investors,” or players, were paid out.  He tells a story about how they would set goals, and once they reached those goals everyone would receive their portion of the profits. 

Ma says that establishing unity was paramount to their success. They all had a unified goal, and achieving this goal was the most important thing they could do.  Ma says that the main problem in the business world is when self interest trumps this team goal. 

He relates this to coaches.  Sometimes coaches will make a decision to make sure that people think they are doing the best job.  Their ultimate goal is to win a championship, but going for it on fourth and 2 late in a game is seen as a bad decision and can hurt a coach’s personal interest. 

The main point of this chapter is to work as a team.  Make sure everyone’s goals are aligned and that everyone is working together towards those goals.  In order for a business to be successful, employees must realize that the company’s success means their success.

 Why People Hate Math and What to Do with Them

This chapter begins with Ma reminiscing about the first time he tried to talk to his dad about card counting.  His dad turned him away because his father didn’t want to believe the numbers. He couldn’t believe that casinos could be beaten.

            Ma then discusses him starting his business and trying to convince sports people to sign on with a statistical company.  He tells how he had to convince the anti-math people that this numbers business was useful and profitable. 

            The key idea of this chapter is that presentation is everything.  By presenting his proposal to them in the right way, Ma was able to convince these people that his system worked.  If he had not presented it with simplicity, humility, and with a sense of collaboration, they would not have accepted his ideas.  He says it is important to think of analytics as a new way to make decisions, not just math or numbers.

 The Brain Cells in Your Stomach

The last chapter begins with the discussion of intuition.  He says that most people don’t like numbers because they rely on their gut, or intuition.  He decides to test out what intuition really is.

He interviews several people throughout this chapter about their thoughts on intuition.  He wants to know what is the process behind these gut calls.  Because of his business of counting cards, where nothing was left to gut decisions, he cannot understand the concept of a gut driven decision.

Through the several interview with varying sports stars and statistics experts, he arrives at the conclusion that intuition is direct perception of truth independent of any documented reasoning process.  Basically he is saying that even with intuition, there is reasoning behind the decision.    Whether it is past experience or hours of film study, every decision has a reason to the decision maker.

The main idea in this chapter is that in every decision, there is data at its core.   We must base every decision we have on the data we have available, even if that data is our past experience or gut feelings.

The Video Lounge

This clip has a guy discussing good decision making.  The author spend much of the book emphasizing good decision making and the process of framing a decision, using data to make the decision, and deciding if the decision was right.  This guy talks about many of the same ideas and methods.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q3YMb4w-FvU

Personal Insights

With business conditions today, what the author wrote is true because:

The subject matter in this book is very relevant to the business world today.  His thoughts on using the past and data to make informed decisions are paramount to any business’s success.  In the age of technology that we live in, it is so important to use the data that is available.  It is easier than ever to track past performance and research relevant variables in any business.  Ma’s ideas on how to approach this process in our modern world are systematic and applicable.  His methods on controlling your emotions and using the best data you have to make decisions are so true in today’s business environment.

If I were the author of the book, I would have done these three things differently:

1.            I would have spent more time on the business ideas.  Sometimes the book appears to be more biographical than instructional.   At times, the big ideas get lost in reading about Ma’s personal stories.

2.            I would have also tried to explain the sports references a bit better.  The book is written assuming that the person reading it is familiar with baseball, football, and basketball.

3.            I would have presented the chapter ideas earlier in the chapters.  Sometime the idea of a chapter isn’t fully explained until the very end.  He builds up to the idea a bit slowly at times.

Reading this book made me think differently about the topic in these ways:

1.            Statistics can be applied much more broadly than I realized.  Data can be used to model any situation as long as you put it in the right frame of reference and gather enough information to ensure the accuracy of your mode.

2.            Statistics can lead to finding a competitive advantage you didn’t know you had.  Data and research can show you things that you wouldn’t’ normally have found in day-to-day operations.

3.            Emotions play a bigger role in the decision making process than I originally thought.  If a decision is made with too much emotion or with the wrong intentions, it can lead to bad results.

I’ll apply what I’ve learned in this book in my career by:

1.            I will definitely be more open to data and statistics when they are available. 

2.            I will try to make every decision with the ultimate goal in mind.  I can’t let the short term results tarnish the long term goals for my decision.

3.            I will try to approach every decision as rationally and scientifically as possible.  A rational and emotionless decision will often produce better results than an intuitive one.

Here is a sampling of what others have said about the book and its author:

Brad Feld praises the book in his review for the technology website Technology Review.  He says how he really liked the way Ma used his interesting background in card counting to bring up relevant points in the business world.  One quote from the review which sums up his thoughts on the book is, “As I was reading it, I kept thinking ‘every CEO I work with and every investor I’ve ever met should read this book.’  After I finished, I thought ‘every academic researcher who has ever written a paper should read this.’ None of the statistics concepts are complex, but they are regularly misused, abused, and confused.  Or ignored.”

Publishers Weekly gives Ma rave reviews for his simplified approach to business decision making.  They comment on how the stories from card counting and Ma’s past give the book a boost.

Bibliography

Feld, Brad. (2010, July 31). The House Advantage, Technology Review. Retrieved November 8, 2010 from http://www.technologyreview.com/blog/post.aspx?bid=358&bpid=25553

Ma, Jeffrey. (2010). The House Advantage: Playing the Odds to Win Big in Business. New York, New York: Palgrave Macmillan.

Publishers Weekly. (2010, August 3). Vol. 257 Issue 18, p40-40

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Contact Info: To contact the author of this “Summary and Review of The House Advantage,” please email Christopher.Raleigh@Selu.edu.

Biography

David C. Wyld (dwyld.kwu@gmail.com) is the Robert Maurin Professor of Management at Southeastern Louisiana University in Hammond, Louisiana. He is a management consultant, researcher/writer, and executive educator. His blog, Wyld About Business, can be viewed at http://wyld-business.blogspot.com/. He also serves as the Director of the Reverse Auction Research Center (http://reverseauctionresearch.blogspot.com/), a hub of research and news in the expanding world of competitive bidding. Dr. Wyld also maintains compilations of works he has helped his students to turn into editorially-reviewed publications at the following sites:

Management Concepts (http://toptenmanagement.blogspot.com/)

Book Reviews (http://wyld-about-books.blogspot.com/) and

Travel and International Foods (http://wyld-about-food.blogspot.com/).                

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Executive Summary

Viral loop companies create something that people really want, and then as a result the people spread their product. Examples of these companies are Hotmail, eBay, PayPal, MySpace, Facebook and Twitter. These companies are successful because they incorporate virality into the functionality of their product. “What’s the sense of being on Facebook if none of your friends are?” Penenberg really “hits the nail on the head” with that question and all the companies discussed in this book create that same question for their business. The great part of viral marketing is that people will make your product grow just by using it.

            The book is broken down into three parts: Viral Businesses, Viral Marketing, and Viral Network. The first big viral loop company was Tupperware. Tupperware was the first example of the FNR (friends, neighbors, and relatives) concept. It offers the product credibility, because people only tell others about something unless they think it is good.

We have become accustomed to rely on the Internet every day. Most of us do not realize that the Web hasn’t always been as great as it is today. In the early days “surfing the Web was inefficient, time consuming, and largely restricted to those fluent in arcane computer systems.” Marc Andreesen’s browser, Mosaic, became the Internet’s first smash hit, and resulted in a powerful word-of-mouth marketing campaign.

The viral coefficient which is the number of additional members each user brings in. If the coefficient is 1, the company will grow but only at a linear rate. If the coefficient is above 1, it will achieve exponential growth. The viral plain of today is the Internet. Penenberg states that “we are hard-wired to socialize.” We are “biologically driven to commingle online and off.”

            We are hooked on speed and the more we do, the less time we have to do it. Three technological innovations were spawned from our busy and speed addicted lives: screens, microprocessors, and ubiquitous connectivity.Hotmail was the first webmail service. Its creators “realized that they should create a way to meld two of the greatest uses of the Internet: email and the Web.”

Scaling is a massive challenge that all viral expansion loop companies reach at some point. Gmail is a product that beat the scaling system by controlling its rate of adoption. They accomplished this by doing an invitation based sign-up system. The Web’s growth caused there to be a void in the area of transactions. PayPal, which was originally designed for the Palm, was the first on the scene. At one point, PayPal was losing $ 10 million a month to fraud. They solved this problem by creating one of the first “captchas”, which forced registrants to enter a random series of hazy letters into a box. They were eventually able to get the fraud level below one percent.

            Not many people know that the creators of MySpace were a spammer and a hacker. Tom Anderson was given probation after hacking into a Chase Manhattan Bank data center when he was 14. Tom saw Friendster’s vulnerability and with Chris DeWolfe they built a competitor. MySpace was able to come out on top as a “wild and wholly alternative, partly by accident” because of a HTML coding glitch. YouTube was originally created as a Web version of the viral sensation of Hot or Not. There was a need for something like YouTube because “viewing video clips on the Web was often frustrating and inconvenient.”

            Social networks have become a global online phenomenon. They account for 25% of Internet traffic according to Penenberg. The three ways viral loop companies spread are organic, invitation, and viral spam. Organic and invitation are the most prevalent, with one of them being present in each of the viral loop companies. Organic just means that the company is spread with “little or no prompting” and invitation just means that friends invite others to join. Overall, Penenberg is giving businesses the information they need to create a viral loop in their product or company. Anyone in business should read this book and their business and/or products will improve.

The Ten Things Managers Need to Know fromViral Loop

1.            Eliminate all the single points of failure in your company.

2.            Be prepared for scaling, capacity, and volume increases.

3.            Always worry about “keeping the lights on.”

4.            Eliminate any bottlenecks that may arise, and know your upper limits and capacity.

5.            Be prepared to change course if your viral strategy is not panning out or if it is a false start.

6.            Try to make your product free to end users, at least initially.

7.            Keep things simple where possible.

8.            To advertise well, catch the searcher when they are actually looking for the information.

9.            Always work to improve your product’s virality and viral coefficient.

10.            Work to earn a reputation for speed and reliability.

Full Summary of Viral Loop

Introduction

Viral loop companies create something that people really want, and then as a result the people spread their product. Examples of these companies are Hotmail, eBay, PayPal, MySpace, Facebook and Twitter. These companies are successful because they incorporate virality into the functionality of their product. “What’s the sense of being on Facebook if none of your friends are?” Penenberg really “hits the nail on the head” with that question and all the companies discussed in this book create that same question for their business. The great part of viral marketing is that people will make your product grow just by using it. 

Section 1: Viral Businesses

Tupperware and Ponzi Schemes–the Original Viral Models

The first big viral loop company was Tupperware. Some people in their company found that people did not buy the products unless someone demonstrated how they worked. As a result, home parties and patio parties came about to not only help spread the product, but to virally spread the product.  A cycle was started where more parties caused more buyers which caused more sellers who caused more buyers and so on. Tupperware provides an example of the viral cycle of a company. First they reached a point of nondisplacement where not other competitor could touch them then they reached a point of saturation and began a decline. Tupperware was the first example of the FNR (friends, neighbors, and relatives) concept. It offers the product credibility, because people only tell others about something unless they think it is good. Penenberg ends the chapter by saying “the frictionless Web would prove to be a potent force for businesses that followed Tupperware’s viral-loop example.” With that statement, he sets the stage for the rest of the book.

The First Online Viral Expansion Loop

We have become accustomed to rely on the Internet every day. Most of us do not realize that the Web hasn’t always been as great as it is today. In the early days “surfing the Web was inefficient, time consuming, and largely restricted to those fluent in arcane computer systems.” A man named Marc Andreesen set out to fix this early problem. He created a browser that was reliable and easy to use. This came at a time when computers were about to get big and people would need a tool to navigate the Internet. His browser became the Internet’s first smash hit, and resulted in a powerful word-of-mouth marketing campaign. He also discovered the network effect, which means that the more people who have the product, the more value someone else with the product is to each person already with the product. Another term that was discovered is a positive-feedback loop. Simply put the more people who discovered his browser, the more who spread it. The creator of Mosaic went on to create an even better browser called Naviagator. It was considered “the spark that touched off the Internet boom.”  The reason Navigator isn’t here anymore is that it had not reached a point of nondisplacement and Bill Gates was able to find a way into the Web browser viral market. He disrupted Navigator’s virality by making Internet Explorer as the default browser on Windows and now it is the standard.

The Spreadable Product as New Business Paradigm

This chapter introduces the viral coefficient which is the number of additional members each user brings in. If the coefficient is 1, the company will grow but only at a linear rate. If the coefficient is above 1, it will achieve exponential growth. Penenberg introduces viral networks by giving a few examples: eBay, PayPal, YouTube, MySpace, and Flickr. Some of these were stacked atop each other, but that is discussed further in chapters to come. Another term brought up in this chapter is a double viral loop in which a product “spreads two ways because every network creator is a user and every user is a potential network creator.”

One of the most informative sections of the book lists the shared characteristics of viral loop companies. Since launching a viral loop company is not easy, the author shares the characteristics of successful companies with the readers. The first characteristic is that they are Web-based, meaning they are better suited to the “frictionless world of the Internet.” The next characteristic is they are free; specifically users consume the product at no charge. Organization technology is the third characteristic and it means that they don’t create content, but their users do and the company simply has to organize it. The next characteristic he listed is that the company is employing a simple concept. The product has to have built-in virality, which means the “users spread the product purely out of their own self-interest.” Another characteristic is extremely fast adoption, and he gives the example of Hotmail which gained 30 million users in 30 months. Also the company needs to have exponential growth, a virality index of one or above, and predictable growth rates. The product needs to have network effects, meaning the more that join, the more that have incentive to join. The product should also have stackability, meaning it can be laid over another viral network to foster each other’s growth. He gives a couple examples of stackability: PayPal & eBay and YouTube & MySpace. Those are discussed later in the book. Finally, there are two points that viral expansion loop businesses reach: the first is the point of nondisplacement and the second is ultimate saturation.

Penenberg introduces yet another term in the third chapter and it is the viral plain. The viral plain of today is the Internet. In this viral plain, we have three instances of our self: the public self which is who you present to the physical world, the personal self which is who you are when you are alone, and the digital self which reaches far beyond the other two onto the web. Penenberg states that “we are hard-wired to socialize.” Research even shows that “engaging with friends helps us live longer and better lives” and that we are “biologically driven to commingle online and off.”

We are hooked on speed and the more we do, the less time we have to do it. Three technological innovations were spawned from our busy and speed addicted lives: screens, microprocessors, and ubiquitous connectivity. Screens are what allow people to “interact with virality.” The cost of the parts used in making microprocessors is “one-millionth of what it was in 1968.” The ubiquitous connectivity came from our lives being so much about mobile Internet capability. All of the “interconnectedness” we have today carries risk. There are viruses, bots, hackers, and buffer overflow attacks. The advantages of the Internet far outweigh these cons.

Section 2: Viral Marketing

The Perpetual Viral Advertisement

            Beginning in Chapter 4, Penenberg begins to talk about examples of viral expansion loop companies. The first is Hotmail which of course was the first webmail service. Before webmail people were tied down to one computer because of email. Luckily a couple guys by the names of Sabeer Bhatia and Jack Smith “realized that they should create a way to meld two of the greatest uses of the Internet: email and the Web.” Hotmail spread by word of mouth and “word of mouse.” Hotmail was successful in earning a reputation for speed and reliability. Hotmail became a viral loop company that grew faster than any company in history and made each of the creators $ 75 million richer. They set the stage for other companies to follow suit.

When the Audience Decides What’s Good

            Broadband allows us to consume the Web instantly and has become the new railroad. Two things came to the Web and made quite an impact: music and pirates. These two allowed for the forming of Napster, the first peer-to-peer network, which of course spread virally. Penenberg states that “it’s hard to feel sympathy for a multibillion-dollar industry, the recording industry has trouble rallying the public around its cause.” Who can say they haven’t downloaded some music illegally at some point in their life?

            We dash through life at a frantic pace. We don’t pick up newspapers anymore, because we know everything in them is a day late. Basically the Web is killing the newspapers, because it is the new medium and it meets our demand for new information.

Viral Video as Marketing Strategy

            This chapter shows how viral a Web video can be and reap great benefits for a company. The example the author uses is the Mentos/Diet Coke fountain replica. Even Mentos said, “It reflected our personality.” This example shows that a company has to let go of their brand, meaning their product should allow for a forum of creativity. Mentos went with the video and their product was able to sell better because it got more popular. The free publicity was worth $ 10 million to the company. But the “craziness with Mentos” didn’t fit Diet Coke’s “brand personality.” Viral Web videos like this one offer the audience a “value proposition.” Penenberg states that “People want to engage in the content.”

            The worse thing a company can do when one of these Web videos comes out using one of their products is send out a cease-and-desist letter, which FedEx did. A company called Blendtec has made a series of YouTube videos called “Will it blend?” and it caused them to sell four times as many blenders. When trying to accomplish what Mentos and Blendtec did, Penenberg says that “you have to have a light touch and be careful not to act like a guy in his mid-fourties trying to be a hipster.”

Section 3: Viral Networks

eBay and the Viral Growth Conundrum

             Scaling is a massive challenge that all viral expansion loop companies reach at some point. As these companies spread, they are sometimes “forced to invent whole new technologies and practices.” Friendster is an example of a company that refused to make scaling possible. They had a growing number of members, but their main problem was the four degrees of social connections. These “connections” were increasing faster and faster and were dragging down the system and causing problems for users. Just ridding their product of those connections could have made them the Facebook of today. Gmail is a product that beat the scaling system by controlling controlling its rate of adoption. They accomplished this by doing an invitation based sign-up system.

eBay was started with all the following in mind: “complete transparency, equal access for all, [and] price would be whatever the highest bidder was willing to pay.” Those characteristics made eBay what is today and caused it to be very successful. eBay at one point hit some of the scaling problems mentioned earlier. They had multiple single points of failure in their setup and the one thing you have to do with a viral network is “keep the lights on.” eBay was able to find that to be able to beat the scaling problem, a viral loop company has to find its upper limits, capacity and any bottlenecks.

PayPal: The First Stackable Network

            The Web’s growth caused there to be a void in the area of transactions. The only way to do online business with a nonmerchant, meaning someone not accepting credit cards, was to mail a check or money order. This was against what the Internet was about: “instantaneous communication and convenience.” The mobile cash concept came in to fill that void. PayPal, which was originally designed for the Palm, was the first on the scene. Interestingly enough it took off on eBay, causing its creators to say “This isn’t designed for eBay.” It actually made perfect sense, because sellers on eBay were looking for a better way to complete transactions online. The great thing about PayPal was that it was free and it “didn’t lay the responsibility for fraud on its users.” This was the first time a viral network (PayPal) was stacked on top of another viral network (eBay).

            PayPal hit a snag and its name was fraud and it threatened to run them out of business. At one point, PayPal was losing $ 10 million a month to fraud. PayPal called upon a “Fraud Fighter” to come in and fix their huge problem. He accomplished this by creating one of the first “captchas”, which forced registrants to enter a random series of hazy letters into a box. This was able to help the system determine if a registrant was a human or a machine. The next thing the “Fraud Fighter” did was create a tool “to automatically flag suspicious activity and freeze the accounts.” With just these two fixes the fraud level dropped below one percent. PayPal now was able to achieve a point of nondisplacement once those problems were fixed.

Flickr, YouTube, MySpace

            Flickr was the first viral network to stack on top of the “expanding blogosphere.” Flickr was created as a “primitive social network with photo share capability and incorporated tagging to better organize photographs.” This was one of the first times tagging was used and finally allowed a photo to be easily found.

            Not many people know that the creators of MySpace were a spammer and a hacker. Tom Anderson was given probation after hacking into a Chase Manhattan Bank data center when he was 14. Tom saw Friendster’s vulnerability and with Chris DeWolfe they built a competitor. Friendster was struggling with scaling, server bottlenecks, and user backlash of their policing of the site. MySpace was able to come out on top as a “wild and wholly alternative, partly by accident” because of a HTML coding glitch. The profiles users created were able to be “vehicles for self-expression.” Like Friendster, MySpace had a network concept. Unlike Friendster, they realized it made it “virtually impossible to scale” and eliminated it. Interestingly he eliminated it by making himself everyone’s friend. Most users didn’t even mind not being able to “track out their degrees of separation anyway.”

            YouTube was originally created as a Web version of the viral sensation of Hot or Not. There was a need for something like YouTube because “viewing video clips on the Web was often frustrating and inconvenient.” YouTube came in as a faster and quicker video experience. Like many other viral loop companies, YouTube showed that once a viral network achieves a viral loop and a point of nondisplacement, it can’t be stopped. Their “viral loop was even more potent then MySpace’s [viral loop].”

Tweaking the Viral Coefficient

            A man by the name of Michael Birch set out to create a viral business and wanted to use Hotmail as his model. He wasn’t successful at his first few attempts, but along the way he was “learning what worked and what didn’t.” His first success was called Birthday Alarm. Birch constantly kept tweaking his site to get it right and he discovered that the “simpler he made things, the more viral the site became.” Birch wasn’t satisfied with just Birthday Alarm.

Have you heard of Bebo? Birch wanted to create a copycat of Friendster using his Birthday Alarm code. He adopted a “grow-at-all-costs network effects model.” Bebo was created in the United States, but it went in a surprising direction. Most people haven’t heard of Bebo, because it took off in the United Kingdom. Birch and his wife created a viral popular site and sold it to AOL for $ 850 million dollars (more than News Corp. paid for MySpace).

Viral Clusters

            Social networks have become a global online phenomenon. They account for 25% of Internet traffic according to Penenberg. The main example Penenberg draws from in this chapter is Facebook. In the beginning, Facebook was aimed at college campuses. Mark Zuckerberg, the creator of Facebook, said that “by offering a superior and more efficient product, you can pretty predictably displace any competitor even if they have network effects.” Zuckerberg was always trying to make Facebook better and make it keep growing. One way he did this was to add the “people you may know” feature, which bumped up its viral coefficient. Zuckerberg’s ultimate goal is to make Facebook the global standard for social networking.

            Throughout the book, Penenberg gives the readers examples of viral companies. Most of them got big and got bought and that is their usual strategy. Many “naysayers” claim that viral companies like Facebook in “social network land” will not ever be able to find a way to make money off of them. The author ends the chapter with, “if history is any they are wrong.” Just look at the social applications that have spawned off of Facebook. This leads the reader to the next chapter where advertising is explained.

The Search for the New Ad Unit

The chapter starts off with a historical perspective on conventional wisdom that was wrong. In 1876, the “president of Western Union brushed off Alexander Grand Bell’s telephone as little more than an ‘electric toy.’” An Oxford University professor predicted that the electric light would never be heard of again after the 1878 Paris Exhibition. A client was advised by a banker not to invest in Henry Ford’s company in 1903 because the “horse is here to stay, but the automobile is only a novelty.” A more recent example is given of Bill Gates who was “years behind in seeing the promise of the Internet.”

When the Web first got big, people had trouble believing that money could be made off of it. The challenge to proving them wrong was convincing people it was “safe to share their credit card information over the Web.” Penenberg then goes on to explain how Google surpassed all the competition. They prevailed because Google maintained a simple interface and focused on their underlying search technology. The competition was worried about adding more to their “menu of offerings.” Google was also at the forefront of intent based advertising, meaning the advertisements caught a “searcher at the very moment they were looking for the information.” Normally we don’t want to see advertisements, but when we are shopping we would love to see exactly what we want.           

Penenberg reminds the readers of a time when there were only three television networks and a third of the audience could be reached at one time. Now the audience is “fragmented” in the new media landscape. The question for marketers to ask is, “How can marketers cut through the clutter to get their message across to consumers who are increasingly hostile to having their time interrupted?” The answer is that the “ad has to offer a value proposition,” meaning the advertisement needs to engage the audience. 

            With all of the world’s interconnectedness, privacy has become somewhat of an issue. The typical American is caught on camera two hundred times. Penenberg gets right down to it and says that the “battle over privacy has already been lost.” He then goes on to say that the “loss of privacy could mean the opportunity to build a better society.” Penenberg makes a great point by sharing that “there is a phenomenon in peoples’ interaction.”

Epilogue

            In this section, Penenberg compares viral companies to humans and there are shocking similarities. We are viral creatures and creating viral loop businesses is just part of who we are and what we do. Then he goes on to explain how viral loop companies spread. The three ways are organic, invitation, and viral spam. Organic and invitation are the most prevalent, with one of them being present in each of the viral loop companies. Organic just means that the company is spread with “little or no prompting” and invitation just means that friends invite others to join. Overall, Penenberg is giving businesses the information they need to create a viral loop in their product or company. Anyone in business should read this book and their business and/or products will improve.

Personal Insights

Why I think:

The author is one of the most brilliant people around because:

Adam L. Penenberg is brilliant, because he was able to convey extraordinary technically challenging material to normal people in a way they can understand. He is bringing the concept of a viral expansion loop to many people who have never heard of it in just over 200 pages. I have never read a technology based book so interesting before. He gave great insight into many of the companies of Silicon Valley. The author chronologically explained the birth and maturity of viral networks, not an easy feat. He even made a website showing how what his book talked about works. He is one of the few authors I know of that can actual do what he writes about.

If I were the author of the book, I would have done these three things differently:

Gave more in-depth definitions of the underlying definitions in the book, since they are used all throughout the book.

Added a chapter on specifically how a business person can either implement a viral loop into their existing company or start a new viral loop company on a step-by-step basis.

Gave more information on how a non-profit organization can implement a viral loop.

Reading this book made me think differently about the topic in these ways:

I now realize how much it takes to make a company like Facebook or eBay to be where it is today. I never thought of just why they were able to grow so large.

Now I understand what it takes to advertise a product in today’s Web based market.

I have an understanding of how viral loop companies didn’t just pop up, they have been in the making since the 1920s.

I’ll apply what I’ve learned in this book in my career by:

I will put more effort into using the full power of the Web in my business.

Keep my product simple, because that’s the way customers like it.

I will prepare for scaling and bottlenecks and keep an eye out for bottlenecks in production or processing.

Here is a sampling of what others have said about the book and its author:

“What others (scholarly and magazine reviews – along with on-line reviews – not simply reviews off the back of the book) have said about the book and its author?”

            Overall, all the reviews I found had great things to say about Adam L. Penenberg, the author of Viral Loop. Publishers Weekly describes the book as “solidly researched and briskly-written.” They also say, he “has certainly done his homework.” Publishers Weekly says that the author “captures a great business and tech story, as well as a defining moment in out online culture.”  Ivana Taylor calls Viral Loop “not only educational, but really entertaining.” Penenberg was able to accomplish this because he is a journalism professor and writes for many well known magazines. He is an “expert in explaining highly technical information to an audience that needs to learn and understand it.” Companies should use Viral Loop as their “bible for helping small businesses build their brand and business online.” Judy Brink-Drescher of the Library Journal writes that “Penenberg provides insight into the entrepreneurial minds behind the most successful and most disastrous corporate viral attempts.” She also writes that this book will “appeal to anyone curious about the legendary rise and rebirth of Silicon Valley.” On Google’s Books site, 26 out of 29 reviewers give the book four or five stars. Penenberg seems to have really “hit the nail on the head” with his book, Viral Loop.

Bibliography

Brink-Drescher, J. (2009). Editorial review. Library Journal, 134(19), Retrieved from

http://www.libraryjournal.com/article/CA6705440.html?q=viral+loop

Taylor, Ivana. (2009, November 21). Review of viral loop. Retrieved from

http://smallbiztrends.com/2009/11/review-of-viral-loop.html

Web exclusive book reviews. (2009, October 26). Publishers Weekly, Retrieved from

http://www.publishersweekly.com/article/396596-Web_Exclusive_Book_Reviews_10_26_2009.php?q=viral+loop

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Contact Info: To contact the author of this “Summary and Review of Viral Loop,” please email shawn.parker@selu.edu or shawn@shawnjparker.com.

Biography

David C. Wyld (dwyld.kwu@gmail.com) is the Robert Maurin Professor of Management at Southeastern Louisiana University in Hammond, Louisiana. He is a management consultant, researcher/writer, and executive educator. His blog, Wyld About Business, can be viewed at http://wyld-business.blogspot.com/. He also serves as the Director of the Reverse Auction Research Center (http://reverseauctionresearch.blogspot.com/), a hub of research and news in the expanding world of competitive bidding. Dr. Wyld also maintains compilations of works he has helped his students to turn into editorially-reviewed publications at the following sites:

Management Concepts (http://toptenmanagement.blogspot.com/)

Book Reviews (http://wyld-about-books.blogspot.com/) and

Travel and International Foods (http://wyld-about-food.blogspot.com/).                

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Executive Summary

In Competing for the Future, by Gary Hamel and C.K. Prahalad, the authors focus on techniques and production of strategic planning.  The main point of the book was in order for a company to succeed into the future, they have to stop looking at the past and start focusing on future plans for the company, and stop being a follower and start being a leader.  The authors focus for a few chapters on reinvention and how the corporate need it. 

            According to the authors, through experience and discovery, many companies have fallen flat because of their lack of regeneration.  They encourage top management to hire outside the norm; this may bring a nice, fresh change to the work environment.  Every employee brings a different quality to the work environment.  In order to get to the future, a company must first define it.  In defining the future, Hamel and Prahalad suggest assembling “the best possible assumption base about the future.”  A company’s vision changes due to the information collected.

            The authors also discuss how to get to the future before your competition.  Shares how to amplify tomorrow’s corporate world.  Corporate visions “does not guarantee competitive success.”  In order for a company to be fully functional and successful, its foresight should be foreseen by continuous leverage of core competencies.  And in order for top management to create a successful vision of the future, a business needs dedicated top management that can look outside the box of what the norm is and create an idea that no one has thought of yet.  Too often competitors are observed by their resources and not enough by their resourcefulness. 

They talk about several reasons it makes sense to conceive of competition for competence as intercorporate competition.  The first reason is that core competencies are not product-specific.  They contribute to the competitiveness of a variety of products or services.  The second reason is that a core competence contributes to the competitiveness of a range of products or services.  The third reason is because the investment, risk-taking, and time frame required to achieve core competence leadership often exceeds the resources and patience of a single business unit.  And lastly, only by building and nurturing core competencies can top management ensure the continuance of the enterprise.

The book discusses the terms strategic intent, defining it as the dream that energizes a company is often something more sophisticated, and more positive, and strategic architecture, defining it as a high-level blueprint for the deployment of new functionalities, the acquisition of new competencies or the migration of existing competencies, and for the reconfiguring of the interface with customers.    “Strategic intent is strategic architecture’s capstone.  A strategic architecture may point out the way to the future, but it’s an ambitious and compelling strategic intent that provides the emotional and intellectual energy for the journey.  Strategic architecture is the brain; strategic intent is the heart.”           

The Ten Things Managers Need to Know fromCompeting for the Future

1.            Any company that succeeds at restructuring and reengineering, but fails to create the markets of the future, will find itself on a treadmill, trying to keep one step ahead of the steadily declining margins and profits of yesterday’s business.

2.            It is not enough for a company to get smaller, better, and faster, as important as these tasks may be, a company must also be capable of fundamentally forming itself, of regenerating its core strategies, and of reinventing its industry.

3.            To compete successfully for the future, senior or top managers must first understand just how competition for the future is different from competition for the present.  Competing for the future requires not only a redefinition of strategy, but also a redefinition of top management’s role in creating strategy.

4.            The deeply encoded lessons of the past that are passed from one generation of managers to another pose two dangers for any organization.  First, individuals may, over time, forget why they believe what they believe.  Second, managers may come to believe that what they don’t know isn’t worth knowing.

5.            Intellectual capital steadily depreciates.  Customer needs have changed, technological progress has been made, and competitors have advanced their plans.

6.            To create the future, a company must unlearn at least some of its past.  The more successful a company has been, the flatter it’s forgetting curve.

7.            The basic rules of corporate vitality: To be a challenger once, it is enough to challenge the orthodoxies of the incumbents; to be a challenger twice, a firm must be capable of challenging its own orthodoxies.

8.            Any vision that is simply an extension of the CEO’s ego is dangerous.  On the other hand, it is equally simplistic and dangerous to reject the very notion of foresight simply because some corporate leaders can’t distinguish between vanity and vision.

9.            To get to the future first, top management must either see opportunities not seen by other top teams or must be able to exploit opportunities, by virtue of preemptive and consistent capability-building, that other companies can’t.

10.            Foresight and strategic architecture provide the map, and stretch and leverage provide the fuel.

Full Summary of Competing for the Future

Chapter 1: Getting Off the Treadmill

There are three questions that often get asked of senior or top managers. 

What percentage of your time is spent on external, rather than internal, issues-understanding the implications of a particular new technology vs. debating corporate overhead allocations? 

Of this time spent looking outward, how much of it is spent considering how the world could be different in five or ten years, as opposed to worrying about winning the next big contract or how to respond to a competitor’s pricing move? 

Of the time devoted to looking outward and forward, how much of it is spent in consultation with colleagues, where the objective is to build a deeply shared, well tested view of the future, as opposed to a personal and idiosyncratic view?

There are two things that is occupying top management’s attention.  Restructuring and reengineering.  Neither is an alternate for imagining and creating the future.  “Any company that succeeds at restructuring and reengineering, but fails to create the markets of the future, will find itself on a treadmill, trying to keep one step ahead of the steadily declining margins and profits of yesterday’s businesses.”

Chapter 2: How Competition for the Future Is Different

“A nation that can do little more than protect the industries of the past will lose its economic standing to countries that help create the industries of the future.”

To compete successfully for the future, the first thing top or senior managers need to do is first understand just how competition for the future is different from competition for the present.

Competing for the future requires not only a redefinition of strategy, but also a redefinition of top management’s role in creating strategy.

A major question asked of every company is given our current skills, or competencies, what share of future opportunities are we likely to capture?

Maximizing market share is just as important as opportunity share.  Top management needs to be just as concerned about one as it is about the other.

Another way competing to get to the future differs from the present is the time.  “Today speed is of the essence.  Product life cycles are getting shorter, development times are getting tighter, and customers expect almost instantaneous service.  Yet the relevant timeframe for exploring and conquering a new opportunity arena may be ten years, twenty years, or even longer.”

The two most important ways that competing for the future is different from competing for the present are:

“It often takes place in unstructured arenas where the rules of the competition have yet to be written.

It is more like a triathlon than a 100-meter sprint.”

Chapter 3: Learning to Forget

The process of learning to forget is known as unlearning.

Some ways that top management try to introduce some cultural variety into the work place is to bring in new members who will mix well with the old.

The deeply encoded lessons of the past that are passed from one generation of managers to another pose two dangers for any organization.

1. Individuals may, over time, forget why they believe what they believe.

2. Managers may come to believe that what they don’t know isn’t worth knowing.

Whole industries become vulnerable to new rules when all the incumbents accept, more or less, the same industry conventions.  An industry full of clones is an opportunity for any company that isn’t locked into the dominant managerial frame.

Every manager must face a cold hard fact: Intellectual capital steadily depreciates.

As the competitive environment becomes more complex, the need for greater genetic variety grows apace.

A way to introduce more genetic variety into a population is to bring in new members who cross-breed with the old.  This means to hire managers from outside.

Example is bringing in a new CEO or raiding a competitor for a key divisional vice president.

The things a company can do to change its genetic coding.

It should be careful not to over tighten the bolts that hold the managerial frame together.

In practice, this may mean leaving a bit of play in administrative procedures.

It may mean being a bit more reluctant to use to use the lessons of the past to train employees for the future.

Chapter 4: Competing for Industry Foresight

The goal of competition for industry foresight is, at one level, simple: to build the best possible assumption base about the future and thereby develop the prescience needed to proactively shape industry evolution.

Industry foresight helps managers answer three questions.

What new types of customer benefits should we seek to provide in five, ten, or even twenty years?

What new competencies will we need to build or acquire to offer those benefits to customers?

How will we need to reconfigure the customer interface over the next several years?

To get to the future first, top or senior managers must either see opportunities not seen by other top teams or must be able to exploit opportunities.

They must also be capable of enlarging its opportunity horizon.  This requires top management to conceive of the company as a portfolio of core competencies rather than a portfolio of individual business units.

Chapter 5: Crafting Strategic Architecture

Not only must a future be imagined, it must be built.

Every company has:

Information architecture

Social architecture

Financial architecture

Strategic architecture

Strategic architecture is not a detailed plan.  It identifies the major capabilities to be built, but doesn’t specify exactly how they are to be built. 

It identifies “what we must be doing right now” to intercept the future.

Chapter 6: Strategy as Stretch

Too often competitors are judged in terms of their resources and not their resourcefulness.

Strategic intent is strategic architecture’s capstone.  A strategic architecture may point the way to the future, but it’s an ambitious and compelling strategic intent that provides the emotional and intellectual energy for the journey.  Strategic architecture is the brain and strategic intent is the heart.

Most companies are over managed and underled.  It is fair to say that in most corporate headquarters; far more effort goes into the exercise of control than into the provision of direction.

The goal to simply be the biggest or to reach a certain size is unlikely to capture the imagination of employees.

Strategic intent must be personalized for every employee.  The first task in personalizing strategic intent is to set clear corporate challenges that focus everyone’s attention on the next key advantage or capability to be built.

Chapter 7: Strategy as Leverage

Although an abundance of resources enables a firm to be strategic in an investment sense, it does nothing to enhance the wisdom of strategic decisions. 

Stretch means the fact that ambition forever outpaces resources.  Stretch fuels the engine of advance creation.

Stretch gives birth to the motive for resource leverage.  TLC and feeding is required to transform the new desire into a full-grown capability for resource leverage.

Resource leverage can be achieved in five different ways:

By more effectively concentrating resources on key strategic goals

By more efficiently accumulating resources.

By complementing resources of one type with those of another to create high-order value.

By conserving resources wherever possible.

By rapidly recovering resources by minimizing the time between expenditure and payback.

Chapter 8: Competing to Shape the Future

Getting to the future first may enable a company to be the first to establish a virtual monopoly in a particular new product category and may also enable a company to establish the rules by which other companies have to compete.

Companies that fail to get to the future first may end up as followers or dependant of the companies that got there first.

Overall, the goal is not to get there first, but to be the first with the product that finally unlocks the emerging mega-markets.

A company’s share of influence and share of future profits is determined by four factors:

Its capability to build and manage coalitions.

Its success in building core competencies central to the provision of customer value in new opportunity arenas.

Its ability to rapidly accumulate market learning.

Its global “share of mind” and distribution capacity.

Competing for the future usually takes place between coalitions as well as between individual firms.

Assembling and managing coalitions aimed at creating new markets often takes a broad range of subtle political skills.  One must develop great insight into the motives of all the involved players.

Chapter 9: Building Gateways to the Future

Core competencies are the gateways to future opportunities.  Leadership in a core competence represents a potentiality that is released when imaginative new ways of exploiting that core competence are envisioned.

A core competence is a group of skills and technologies that enables a company to provide a particular benefit to customers.

There are several reasons it makes sense to conceive a competition for competence as intercorporate competition.

Core competencies are not product-specific.  They contribute to the competitiveness of a range of products or services.

Because a core competence contributes to the competitiveness of a range of products or services, winning or losing the battle for competence leadership can have a profound impact on a company’s potential for growth and competitive differentiation.

Because the investment, risk-taking, and time frame required to achieve core competence leadership often exceeds the resources and patience of a single business unit.

Only by building and nurturing core competencies can top management ensure the continuance of the enterprise.

Chapter 10: Embedding the Core Competence Perspective

The core competence perspective is not a natural one in most companies.  Typically, the most basic sense of corporate identity is built around market-focused entities.

There are several dangers that await a company that can’t conceive of itself and its competitors in core competence terms.

The risk that opportunities for growth will be needlessly truncated.

Even if someone in the organization spots a new opportunity, if the competencies that are needed to respond to that opportunity lie in another business unit, there may be no way to redeploy the people who carry those competencies into new opportunity arenas.

As a company divisionalizes and fractures into ever-smaller business units, competencies may become fragmented and weakened.

The lack of a core competence perspective can also desensitize a company to its growing dependence on outside suppliers of core products.

A company focused only on end products may fail to invest adequately in new core competencies that can propel growth in the future.

A company that fails to understand the core competence basis for competition in its industry may be surprised by new entrants who rely on competencies developed in other end markets.

Companies insensitive to the issue of core competence may unwittingly relinquish valuable skills when they divest an underperforming business.

Chapter 11: Securing the Future

Expeditionary marketing does not imply launching products that are manifestly unready or inappropriate to the needs of potential customers.

Cost is just as crucial as speed.

If the opportunity is oversold and risks are undermanaged, failure and premature abandonment of the opportunity are almost guaranteed.

Managers have given much attention to the very important task of reducing product development cycle times. 

Speedy product development is an important component of the capacity to preempt competitors.

Chapter 12: Thinking Differently

The real competitiveness problem is not that America’s too-clever trading partners have tilted the playing field to their advantage.  The real problem is that too many large U.S. companies failed to anticipate, much less invent, the new rules of competition in their industry.

Large companies are essential to the wealth creation process for a number of reasons.

Having a capacity to match the resources and global; distribution of large competitors brings advantages.

Large companies also tend to devote a disproportionate share of their resources to training and education.

Opening the door to many of tomorrow’s mega-opportunities will require significant resources.

They are significant employers.

Personal Insights

Why I think the author is one of the most brilliant people around…or is full of $ %, because:

The authors of this book were very insightful in the area of teaching senior and top management skills and qualities that need to be possessed to be a successful company.  The questions that are asked in the book of senior management are key questions for companies that are competing for the future.  Hamel and Prahalad give excellent examples of how many companies have reached the top.

If I were the author of the book, I would have done this differently:

1.      The examples in the book were very helpful in understanding the material but there were more examples than information in some chapters. 

Reading this book made me think differently about the topic in these ways:

1.      Reading this book opened my eyes to the idea that management is not an easy task.  It encouraged me these ask questions of top management at my business.

2.      I have learned how to correctly get my company and my employees to the top with few to no problems.

3.      After finishing this book, I realized that there are so many different components in making a company or organization succeed.

I’ll apply what I’ve learned in this book in my career by:

1.      I will encourage my co-workers to be capable of dreaming of things that have not yet been thought of. 

2.      I will try to teach either my employees or co-workers that it is not cash that fuels the journey to the future, but the emotional and intellectual energy of every employee.  An employee being in a happy work environment makes for a happy and hardworking employee.

3.      A major component to a business succeeding is customer satisfaction and loyalty.

Here is a sampling of what others have said about the book and its author:

“What others have said about the book and its author?”

Winning in business today is not about being number one–it’s about who “gets to the future first,” write management consultants Gary Hamel and C.K. Prahalad. In Competing for the Future, they urge companies to create their own futures, envision new markets, and reinvent themselves. Hamel and Prahalad caution that complacent managers who get too comfortable in doing things the way they’ve always done will see their companies fall behind. For instance, the authors consider the battle between IBM and Apple in the 1970s. Entrenched as the leading mainframe-computer maker, IBM failed to see the potential market for personal computers. That left the door wide open for Apple, which envisioned a computer for every man, woman, and child. The authors write, “At worst, laggards follow the path of greatest familiarity. Challengers, on the other hand, follow the path of greatest opportunity, wherever it leads.” They argue that business leaders need to be more than “maintenance engineers,” worrying only about budget cutting, streamlining, re-engineering, and other old tactics. Definitely not for dilettantes, Competing for the Future is for managers who are serious getting their companies in front. — Dan Ring

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Contact Info: To contact the author of this “Summary and Review of Competing for the Future,” please email Meghan.hosch@selu.edu

Biography

David C. Wyld (dwyld.kwu@gmail.com) is the Robert Maurin Professor of Management at Southeastern Louisiana University in Hammond, Louisiana. He is a management consultant, researcher/writer, and executive educator. His blog, Wyld About Business, can be viewed at http://wyld-business.blogspot.com/. He also serves as the Director of the Reverse Auction Research Center (http://reverseauctionresearch.blogspot.com/), a hub of research and news in the expanding world of competitive bidding. Dr. Wyld also maintains compilations of works he has helped his students to turn into editorially-reviewed publications at the following sites:

Management Concepts (http://toptenmanagement.blogspot.com/)

Book Reviews (http://wyld-about-books.blogspot.com/) and

Travel and International Foods (http://wyld-about-food.blogspot.com/).                

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Executive Summary

            The Sassy Ladies’ Toolkit for Start-up Businesses is a very relevant, useful tool for anyone interested in being her (or his) own boss.  The book takes the idea of starting a business and breaks it down into steps.  The authors use the metaphor of a journey to aid the entrepreneur in starting down the road. 

            The book starts off having the prospective business owner visualize a variety of things.  She should visualize herself performing the job she has chosen and where that will get her in her life.  It also encourages the use of positive thinking and has her change negative thoughts to positive affirmations.  In each chapter there is encouragement, bolstered by pertinent advice.

            Throughout the book and at the end of each chapter there are exercises to maintain focus to accomplish the task at hand.  The questions posed at the end of each chapter ask not only to state what was discussed, but how the business owner will apply the ideas put forth, to her particular endeavor.  The exercises require a good amount of thought and provide a practical means to accomplishing each individual step.  Approached properly, performing these exercises would seem to make the business start-up process almost fool-proof. 

            Not only do the authors offer advice, they have quotes of other successful women in business throughout the entire book.  At many points the authors give their own personal opinions on a topic, many times differing from one another greatly.  The other women business owners reinforce the ideas the authors are conveying and expand on them to foster a deeper, more precise basis of the information offered to the reader.

            Charts are used extensively throughout the book.  They offer information in a format that is easy to read and allow for simple comparison of information given.  The charts offer information about an item, along with a basic description, resources to find out more about a given topic or item, and the pros and cons of the item.

            Appendices are used for many of the chapters.  These provide examples of the ideas put forth within the corresponding sections.  A sample email is provided in one appendix that could be used as a template for correspondence the business owner would use to contact potential business associates or clients.  In another appendix, samples of simplified financial statements along with explanations of them are useful for the new business owner to gain a better understanding of the economic position of the business.

            Resources are listed at the end of every chapter.  They provide the reader with the ability to further research things that are most relevant to her needs.  The resources include websites, movies, videos, books, magazines, articles, and products.  With each resources listed, a brief synopsis is given to clarify what that resource has to offer.  The Sassy Ladies website is a resource used in all the chapters; each web page has more in-depth information on the chapter’s subjects.  They also provide links to more worksheets and exercises that could be helpful.

            The book was well written and very well organized.  It took the reader through each step of the process, explaining in detail the actions that should be taken at the appropriate time.  There was constant encouragement along the way.  The authors have found success through trial and error, and in this book, pass along knowledge and insight gained from their own journeys.

The Ten Things Managers Need to Know from The Sassy Ladies’ Toolkit

 Managers should have a positive outlook and encourage the same in those they manage.

With regard to the above, managers should know how to make use of negativity.  A negative remark should be used as a challenge or it should be used to give the manager insight as to the potential weakness(es) of a plan.

A manager should always be aware of the competition.  Whether the manager is a top level manager at a large corporation, viewing the competitive forces within the market, or a candidate for a position within the firm, attempt to know as much as possible about the competition.

It is always in the best interest of the company to have a plan of action.  Whether it is a five year plan or a daily to-do list, planning is essential.

Contingency planning is also essential.  There are so many things that can go wrong; anticipating what can be done to counteract, circumvent, or directly address problems should be considered.

Organization is absolutely required.  All aspects of business require some degree of organization, but two key areas are workspace and time management.

All businesses have weaknesses and so do the individuals who manage them.  It is best to discover and be aware of weaknesses and compensate for them in some way.  What a manager cannot do for herself can be done by others who are more competent at performing the task.

There are many new and emerging technologies that could be put to use to the manager’s advantage.  There are, however, some drawbacks to many of them, and the manger should be aware of these also.

Networking is important.  Having a group of business acquaintances is extremely useful in the business world.

Realizing that “No” should not be considered a dead end.  It should be taken as an opportunity to be creative and discover new ideas or avenues to accomplish goals.

Full Summary of The Sassy Ladies’ Toolkit

DREAMING ABOUT YOUR BUSINESS               

Define what the dream is.

The business owner should identify some ability, product, or specialized knowledge that is marketable.

She should also identify the values that she desires in her business and her life.

 Focus on making the dream a reality.

Practice visualizing the dream.

The business owner should imagine herself in her business, performing the required tasks.

She should see the benefits that she will reap from being her own boss.

She could be in control of her time.

She could have more quality time for her family, because she has allowed herself the flexibility to do so.

Think positively about the plan

Negative self-talk should be avoided.  Change phrases from, “I can’t do this”, to, “I’ll learn and try my best”.

The business owner should surround herself with supportive people who encourage her to attain her goals.

The business owner should perform exercises that properly place her on her desired path.  She could do this by answering questions like, “What small things can I do consistently to keep me on the road I’ve chosen?”

DETERMINING THE FEASIBILITY OF YOUR BUSINESS

A customer base should be identified early on in the business planning process.

The business owner should aim at a potential target market.

Decide whether the business should sell consumers or provide its services to other commercial entities.

The business owner should research similar businesses in the market, against which she might be competing.

Determine competitors’ pricing structures.

Make note of the market’s openness to new entrants.

Note positive and negative characteristics of competitors and decide which to mimic and which to avoid.

A pricing structure needs to be established.

Identify fixed costs that the business will incur, such as rental expense and utilities

Identify variable costs per item or per unit of time.

Determine a mark-up that allows for profit.

Identify negative feedback and use it to the business’ advantage.

By receiving any negative feedback, the business owner will be able to address shortcomings that she may have overlooked.

Test the business idea by polling family, friends, and colleagues.

An “elevator pitch” should be created. 

A basic overview of the business that should take the approximate amount of time it would be spent on an elevator ride. The speech should not be too long because most listeners will lose interest quickly.  She should practice the pitch on people close to her who she trusts to be honest and offer suggestions for improvement.

PLANNING YOUR BUSINESS

An action plan should be created to establish the course taken to establish the business.

Decide what needs to be done within the coming year.

Narrow down the “year list” to decide what should be done within the month.

Take action today on an item you have planned to do within the month.

The business owner should take steps to be better informed and prepared to go into her chosen field.

 She could enroll in a course that teaches general business principles.

She should subscribe to journals and other publications that relate to her field.

She should attend networking events to gain understanding of local business conditions.

The business owner should create a viable business plan.

 She should write a mission statement defining the business’ purpose.

She should include any experience and credentials she has.

The organizational structure (i.e. sole proprietorship, LLC) should be included in the plan.

WORKING FROM YOUR HOME OFFICE

The business owner should establish a base for operations.  In the beginning, that would most likely be a home office.

 A dedicated office space should be established.  This could be a spare room, a closet, or small part of a kitchen counter.

 In order to run a business a means of communication is a necessity.  Setting up telephone service should be a priority, whether a cell phone, her home phone, or a dedicated business line.

In the wired world, internet presence it also a necessity.  If a web site is not possible at start-up, a professional-sounding email address will suffice.

Equipment needed to run the business should be purchased.

A computer and printer are a must.

Filing cabinets are very useful for organizing records and storing office supplies.

 Time management is a challenge that must be addressed early and regularly in the business process.

 A daily schedule should be established.

Down time should be included in the schedule for many reasons, such as unexpected occurrences.

Allow time in the daily schedule for both business and personal errands.  Doing this will free your time on weekends.

The business owner should use technology to her advantage.

 A Smartphone or PDA keeps information on hand, and is very portable.

A business card scanner could be a useful gadget to carry in a briefcase.  This is a simple way to manage business contacts that might otherwise be lost.

MARKETING YOUR BUSINESS

An appropriate name for the business should be chosen.

Ideally, the name should be descriptive.

If the owner chooses to use her name, without any additional descriptions, a tag line should be used.  Examples of tag lines are:  “BMW – Sheer driving pleasure”, “Pampered Chef – Discover the chef in you”.

A marketing plan can be developed by the owner, or if finances allow, a marketing firm.

 A good first step in marketing your business is to establish a brand.  This is a way to gain recognition for the business.

The marketing plan should always include “the four Ps” of marketing, and those are:  product, price, place, and promotion.

 Promotion is the single most difficult of “the four Ps” for a business owner to tackle.  Promoting a business can be accomplished by a number of different means.

 Promotion by word-of-mouth is the easiest means of promotion.  An additional benefit is that it is free.

Web marketing allows the business to be seen by anyone with access to the internet.  This type of marketing has many drawbacks, two of which are potential for a significant financial outlay and the need to tend to it often to keep information current.

Logos and graphics can aid in branding, and could incorporate the business name and/or tag line.

 Colors, shapes, graphics, and interesting fonts arranged in a unique fashion will form an image which will aid potential customers in identifying the business.

Logos can be placed in various conspicuous areas, including websites and company stationary, to keep the brand visible.

SELLING YOUR PRODUCT – AND YOURSELF

Establishing trust is essential for selling.

 Making direct eye contact shows that a person in forthright and attentive.

Attire can be important.  To establish professional presence, it is best to dress conservatively.

The business owner should be aware of exactly what she is selling.  The physical item or service is not the only thing for sale; convenience, luxury, or peace of mind is frequently a more important selling point.

The response to a sales pitch oftentimes is, “No.”  To counteract this reply, or possibly gain insight, there are some things a business owner should do.

 Take steps to understand where the product or service is failing to meet the potential customer’s need.

Determine if price is a concern.

Inquire as to whether she has shopped elsewhere, and how that product or service compares to the business’ own offerings.

NETWORKING

Research should be done to find networking groups in the near geographic area of the business.

A local Chamber of Commerce meeting might be a way for a business owner to gain understanding of the networking process.

Before attending a meeting, some preparations should be made.

Being comfortable with, and rehearsing the “elevator pitch” is a good start.

Knowledge of current events is useful; not every conversation will be about business.

View the list of attendees of events prior to going.  Make note of those attendees that are of particular interest.

Business cards should be brought and placed somewhere easily accessible.

Set guidelines for behavior.

The business owner should attend the event having the mindset that the goal is to establish mutually rewarding relationships with other members.  Consideration and helpfulness will pay off in the long run.  These events are not necessarily the place to practice aggressive selling.

The business owner should be attentive to each individual she encounters.

After each event the business owner should follow up with the people she has met.  One way would be to send an email offering to send her company’s newsletter to her new acquaintance in the future, and ask if the other will do the same.

BUSINESS STUFF

Hire the professionals that are essential to running a prosperous business.  Getting references from trusted friends and colleagues will aid in this process.  Initial consultations are normally free.

Unless the business owner is a financial whiz, hiring a competent accountant should be the top priority.

The accountant should aid in choosing the most beneficial business structure.  There may be tax advantages to doing business as a sole proprietor instead of a corporation.

Tax laws are extremely complicated.  Without a proficient accountant tax time could be disastrous.

A reliable attorney is another great business aid.

An attorney is essential to review of contracts and other legally binding documents.

She may also assist in deciding whether a patent or trademark is in order, and secure it for you.

Some form of license or permit is required to do business.  Determine what types of these are needed to operate the business. 

Insurance is also a business necessity.  General liability is a must, and depending on the circumstances other types might also be needed.

If the business has employees, workers’ compensation is required.

Health insurance should be purchased whether or not the business has employees.

Property insurance would be beneficial also.  It is helpful in cases of theft or natural disasters.

Personal Insights

With business conditions today, what the authors wrote is true.  I feel this way because, although business conditions are ever-changing, this book addresses the basics of business start-up.  The authors wrote this book as a type of road map, using metaphors like, “If your first year of business is a journey, setting up your home office is like packing for the trip.”  Each of the eight chapters uses the metaphor, breaking the trip down into steps.  Had this book been written thirty years ago, all of the steps along the way would have been the same.  Some of the means to accomplish the steps would certainly have been different, with the less advanced technologies; however, each step would still have been very relevant.  Without knowledge of years to come, I would guess that this book could be used thirty years from now, with changes only in the technologies that are used at that time.

If I were the author of this book, I would have done these three things differently:

I would not have explained or defined simple terms, like feasibility, or the example, “I need to make $ x per scarf to reach my revenue goal (x being the amount of money you’d need to make on each scarf).”

I believe in the power of positive thought and making your own destiny, but they were a little too “new agey” for me in this area.  I would have been much less “spacey” on these topics.

Most of the examples and scenarios were well written, but in reference to the first bullet point, they over-explained simple concepts, yet lacked detail necessary to convey other, more complicated ideas.  I would have attempted to give sufficient details where needed, and not explain the self-explanatory.

Reading this book made me think differently about the topic in these ways:

The Sassy Ladies made me realize that a plan is probably not complete without an exit strategy.  When starting a business, I would not think of closing it.  When an entrepreneur sees a new opportunity, or decides that it is time to retire, having an idea of the actions necessary for that eventuality decided ahead of time is very wise.  

Naming a business did not seem like a complicated issue, so I would not have thought of having a “naming party” to decide what to call my business.  This seems like a good idea – getting trusted friends together, giving them the idea and type of business, and asking what a good name would be.  Depending on the type of business, this is probably a great way to have many creative names to choose from.

The position of manager is all-encompassing.    A manager needs to have some knowledge of every aspect of the business.  Some knowledge may be very in-depth, while a basic familiarity with other areas will suffice, as long as she has people or processes to aid in areas she is lacking.

I’ll apply what I’ve learned in this book to my career by:

Using my time more efficiently.  Looking to the coming days and weeks to plan my agenda.  I will also attempt to end my work day assessing what I have done, so I can better plan the next day.

Realizing that, “No”, and other negative feedback can be useful tools.  They will challenge me to think differently about issues, and see pitfalls in my plans and remedy things I might not have otherwise realized.

Throughout the book the authors encourage the reader to seek support and assistance when needed.  I usually do things on my own, but having someone else to share the burden, or at least give me moral support, will be to my benefit.

Here is a sampling of what others have said about the book and its authors:

When you’re thinking about starting a business, you need to know what specific things you can do RIGHT NOW that are going to set you on the straight and narrow.  The Sassy Ladies’ Toolkit for Start-up Businesses is THAT book, leading you down the path of courage, change and success.  If you’re ready to take that walk, then you simply must have this book with you. Lena L. West, CEO and chief strategist at xynoMecdia Technology, and business advice expert for Entrepreneur.com.

The Sassy Ladies’ Toolkit for Start-Up Businessesis THE book that will take you step-by-step to start your business. It’s a must-read for anyone wishing to succeed in her first year and grow for years to come. This book is refreshing and informative, and it will give you the burst of confidence you need to say, ‘I CAN DO THIS!”’ –Patti Salvucci, executive director, Business Networking International (BNI) Massachusetts

Every entrepreneur at every stage of business needs The Sassy Ladies’ Toolkit. It not only provides practical business advice, but also offers inspiring stories of women who have shaped their destinies by choosing the path of entrepreneurship. –Carol Malysz, former director, Center for Women & Enterprise, Rhode Island

This book rocks! You have a business idea and need to know what s next — The Sassy Ladies have your answer. If you want to attract the wisdom of women who have been there before, The Sassy Ladies are serial entrepreneurs. What’s better than learning and laughing at the same time? Learn the secrets of success from three women with a sense of humor and a focus on business! –Jeanna Gabellini and Eva Gregory, co-authors of Life Lessons for Mastering the Law of Attraction with Jack Canfield and Mark Victor Hansen

Bibliography

Girasole, M., Hanson, W., & Perry, M. (2009).  The Sassy Ladies’ Toolkit for Start-up Businesses.  Minneapolis:  Two Harbors Press.

Salvucci, P. (2009).  [Review of the book The sassy ladies’ toolkit for start-up business].  http://www.amazon.com/Sassy-Ladies-Toolkit-Start-Up-Businesses/dp/1935097458.

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Contact Information:  To contact the author of this “Summary and Review of The Sassy Ladies’ Toolkit for Start-up Businesses” please email jude.scaglione@selu.edu.

Biography

David C. Wyld (dwyld.kwu@gmail.com) is the Robert Maurin Professor of Management at Southeastern Louisiana University in Hammond, Louisiana. He is a management consultant, researcher/writer, and executive educator. His blog, Wyld About Business, can be viewed at http://wyld-business.blogspot.com/. He also serves as the Director of the Reverse Auction Research Center (http://reverseauctionresearch.blogspot.com/), a hub of research and news in the expanding world of competitive bidding. Dr. Wyld also maintains compilations of works he has helped his students to turn into editorially-reviewed publications at the following sites:

Management Concepts (http://toptenmanagement.blogspot.com/)

Book Reviews (http://wyld-about-books.blogspot.com/) and

Travel and International Foods (http://wyld-about-food.blogspot.com/).                

Title of the book, A Companion to American Technology, explains very briefly three points which I am to explain a little more elaborately. First of all, this book is a companion book, therefore we can’t expect many details about the issue, thus this book is a compact, all-inclusive and comprehensive one.
Second, this book has a chronological view to American technology, as it is one of the books of a series which are published by Blackwell about American history such as 19 th century America and, 20th century America. Thus in order to do this important job as well as it is possible , the editor Carroll Pursell, who is chair of history department at Case Western Reserve University ,gathers a group of historians of different fields to write about history of technology in America from the eighteenth century up until the present day .
Hence as the writers are experts in different fields ,this book is the interaction spot of technology with many aspects of American society including environment, science engineering ,government, gender, labor, culture ,art and so on . Therefore articles which are gathered in 435 pages in five parts, including twenty
two chapters ,don’t explain details but they review briefly and comprehensively history of technology and its impact on society ,art ,culture and conversely,
Third and finally as the title concentrates content, this book is about technology, but what the definition of technology in this book is. According to different contributors of this book, technology has different definitions, from airplane and nuclear technology to photography and music. In each section, every contributing author highlights his or her analysis about technology with dates and examples as well as references to a range of different sources.
In particular, different contributors approach technology from a variety of perspectives and emphasize on an array of themes. They explain how necessity of society or creativity of innovator causes innovation ,consequently how technologies shape culture ,and as new technologies don’t have the same effect everywhere, how they have impact on America, what the predominant role that technology has played within the American social context is and finally and simultaneously how culture shapes events even more than technologies .
For instance ,Henry Adams, professor of American art, contributor of chapter twenty one; art and technology, explains about the role of the engineer and how society views technology through art and how technology can actually be considered an art form.
Jeffrey R.Yost who is professor of scientific computing history, explains the role of systems in anything from the development of nuclear technology to the internet; and finally, look beyond scientific discovery to explain technology’s role in creating large systems.
David E .Nye author of many books on technology and American culture explains that how new machines emerge from political and social contexts and can be used for hegemonic ends.
Rebecca Herzig who teaches courses on the history and sociology of science and technology in woman and gender studies, explains that how public toilets
represent an attempt to follow “norms of gender” ,in fact writer examine the results of the intersection of technology and gender .
Nevertheless, this book with an interdisciplinary character is a very useful tool in bringing technology into the process of understanding the history of USA and simultaneously grasp of technology itself.
In better word, Pursell manages to influence readers ‘approach about technology and understand technological progress and development with the examination of past as well as current technological practices,
Consequently ,this well-organized book help readers to realize the material in-depth and encourage them to compare sources and follow twenty two chapters in order to understand different approaches about technology as well as its history in the US.
Thus ,as this book is a professional reference and companion book , is suitable and helpful for American History American Studies and cultural studies students as well as professors in the same area of research , also it can be used as a good textbook. However as it is clearly-written one, it can be useful for others.

Flex 3 with Java is a new book from Packt that guides developers in building rich web applications using the Flex 3 framework. Written by Satish Kore, a Flex enthusiast and evangelist, this book helps readers build an end-to-end Flex e-commerce application using all major features of Flex 3.

Flex is an effective, free open source framework used to develop Rich Internet Applications for browsers, desktops, and operating systems. It provides a modern, standards-based language and a program model that supports common design patterns.

Developers will learn to build Flex applications with ActionScript 3.0, BlazeDS 3.2, and Java. This book will help readers mix ActionScript and MXML language to write Flex applications and use Flex Builder 3 and Ant Script to package them. Readers will be able to debug their applications, design CSS files, use data access methods, use RPC services and create custom components.

Flex users will learn to build a sample book explorer application with XML using the E4X approach, and use Adobe LiveCycle Data Services and BlazeDS components for accessing server-side data. Using Resource Manager class, they will localize Flex applications and with internationalization techniques they will be able to customize the application for multiple locales. They will also discover data access methods such as HTTPService, WebService, and RemoteObjects with code examples

Java developers, professionals or system analysts interested in developing Rich Internet Applications using Flex 3 will find this book useful. This book is out now and is available from Packt. For more information, please visit http://www.packtpub.com/flex-3-with-java/book