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January Books

I am looking forward to putting my thoughts on various books on this blog (and maybe even sparking a few comments).  In January I read five books and got part way through three others (The Winner's Curse by Richard H. Thaler, The Mind of War by Grant T. Hammond, and Blink by Malcom Gladwell).

My five for January were:

Liar's Poker by Michael Lewis
This was great vacation reading (spent two weeks in Kauai in January).  It is about Michael Lewis' direct and indirect experiences as a bond salesman at Salomon Brothers.  It is also a little bit of a prequel to one of my other favorite Wall Street books When Genius Failed by Roger Lowenstein (about Long Term Capital Management and John Meriwether - thanks to Paul Thurman for bringing this book to my attention).  I loved Moneyball (also by Michael Lewis) and I am now looking forward to reading the New New Thing (going for the M. Lewis trifecta).

The Prince by Niccolo Machiavelli (Translated by Daniel Donno)
It was great to finally sit down and read this little book cover to cover.  I also enjoyed this translation because Daniel Donno did a great job providing end notes for all the historical references made by Machiavelli.  It was interesting to learn that Machiavelli wrote this book after having been essentially banished to his farm and in an effort to win the favor of the de'Medici clan who had just reclaimed power.  As Donno says in his introduction: "Machiavelli's chief contribution to political thought lies in his freeing political action from moral considerations."  And that is why the book is so interesting, it is essentially a study of political action without really considering the moral consequences of those actions (like Chapter 18 - In What Way Princes Should Keep Their Word - wow!).

Zen Mind, Beginner's Mind by Shunryu Suzuki
This book was recommended to me by a friend as essentially the only book I needed in order to understand the practice of Zen and Zen meditation (something I am currently interested in exploring).  Shunryu Suzuki came to the US from Japan in the 1959 and is (according to the book and my friend) essentially the founder of American Zen (with institutions like the SF Zen Center tracing directly back to him).  The book was not written by him, but was instead a transcription of his talks by some of his disciples.  It is a great book and gave me a wonderful insight into the practice of Zen.  One teaching I found particularly interesting was that you don't try to clear your mind when you meditate, you simple focus on your posture and let the "waves" of thoughts come through on their own.  As it says in the book "When you are practicing zazen, do not try to stop your mind.  Let it stop by itself.  If something comes into your mind, let it come in, and let it go out.  It will not stay long.  When you try to stop your thinking, it means you are bothered by it.  Do not be bothered by anything.  It appears as if something comes from outside your mind, but actually it is only the waves of your mind, and if you are not bothered by the waves, gradually they will become calmer and calmer."  So the essence is just to be - not to try to be.

Code of the Samurai - Modern Translation of the Bushido Shoshinsu of Taira Shigesuke
(Translated by Thomas Cleary)
It was interesting to read this book in the same month as Zen Mind, Beginners Mind and The Prince because both provided an interesting context for this book.  The book is (obviously) written from an "Eastern" perspective (Eastern philosophy and history being quite new to me - but an area of interest).  There is undercurrent throughout this book of the "oneness" of all things, and a focus on being at peace with death (which is also an element of Zen Mind, Beginners Mind).  Like The Prince, Code of the Samurai is really a "how to" guide (The Prince being one for newly minted Italian princes, and this one for newly minted Samurai).  The big difference is that the Prince is about managing a society where Code of the Samurai is really about managing your own actions.  Also interesting is how both books are written from a perspective of servitude (how to be the best right hand man to your lord).

Yertle The Turtle by Dr. Seuss
This was the best kid's book of the month (books I get to read over and over and over).  We also discovered Horton Hears a Who (which would have been tops for its message about all things being important), and If I Ran the Zoo (is that book racist???).  It was The Lorax that opened my eyes to the deeper messages in Dr. Seuss' books ("I the Once-ler, felt sad as I watched them all go.  BUT...business is business! And business must grow regardless of crummies in tummies, you know.).  Yertle rules without any concern for the needs of his subjects - and even better - he claims a kingdom he has no means of controlling.  It is a great study in power and greed.

I am currently reading Blink by Malcom Gladwell...will comment on that in the next few days.

Selling Services & My 3 C's

I have "3 Cs" for selling professional services: Credibility, Capability, Cost - in that order.  These Cs originate from my belief that the acquisition of professional services is a deeply emotional purchase (and the less defined the project the more personal the decision becomes).  As such, when organizations (or said better "the people in organizations") purchase professional services the first thing they want to understand is the credibility of the service provider.  Is this firm reputable? Can I trust them? Who are the key leaders and for what do they stand?  Establishing credibility is the anchor of the entire sales process.  Particularly in competitive situations, you can quickly separate yourself from the pack by establishing your credibility (as much as possible on a personal level with the buyer).  This fact is amplified by the reality that many professional services firms have to bid on lots of jobs in order to win a few clients - so they are frequently not able to bring their best couple players into each game.  This means you can quickly distance yourself from the pack if you focus your best people on the job, and have them spend their initial energies simply establishing credibility.  I would wager that Monclare bid on many, many fewer jobs than our competitors - our philosophy was to try to win through focus not volume.

With credibility established you are in great shape, and are probably in the final few firms under consideration.  The next step is proving your capability.  Obviously this varies greatly depending on the kind of service being delivered, but in our case we tried to engage the prospect in a discussion rather than a "pitch."  It is like going to a doctor who asks lots of questions, and demonstrates her expertise in the process.  We also went to great lengths to explain why we felt certain things were important.  In one dramatic case we were competing for a large Web development job and were asked to submit sample home pages that our client would compare against those from other firms.  We gambled and only submitted one sample, but we created a bound book around this one sample that explained exactly whey we had designed such and such section, and included this and that element.  We figured they were going to have plenty of pretty pictures, but would be short on ideas.  We were right and won the job (in the top 5 largest projects the company delivered).  Establishing capability can be done in lots of ways, and should be approached in a creative way for every job.  But I would contend that no matter how it is approached, it represents the critical second step.

With credibility and capability established you are probably alone in the competition (or in the final two).  Your final task is to define the cost (and scope) of the project.  One of the things I realized after delivering more projects than I care to remember is that pricing in services is not a function of quality, it is a function of risk.  The acceptable range of service quality from pretty much any service provider is quite narrow, people expect the people working for them to do a good job.  So arguing about quality in relation to price is usually pointless (my developers are REALLY good so you should pay $200/hour not $75/hour) - don't even waste your time.  Focus on risk, and the importance of this project being delivered on time and on budget (or better).  What is the downside of the project being delayed?  What happens if it gets screwed up in some fashion?  How important is it for the consulting company to provide seasoned leadership?  This is the real value your company brings, and is what will in the end determine price.  What the saying "nobody gets fired for hiring IBM" really means is "I did everything I could to mitigate risk."

I believe the optimal (and repeatable way) to position yourself as the lowest risk solution is to have carefully established your credibility and capability - so that when the time comes to talk cost (risk) you are in a very strong position to achieve a positive outcome.