The Road Less Stupid: Advice from the Chairman of the Board by Keith J. CunninghamMy rating: 4 of 5 stars
It is a book full of advice for business owners / managers. Not many stories, not many examples - just calls for action.
I found many of them useful. One of the cornerstones of the whole book is the concept of "Thinking Time": planning an interrupted time for thinking over important questions that your business is facing. A leader / manager needs to plan time for thinking - otherwise he/she will just be "doing" stuff. I liked that there was a rich menu of questions to pick from - and to ask yourself in one of those "Thinking Time" sessions.
The metaphor of multiple hats that a leader has (Artist, Operator, Owner, Board/Investor) - which he/she can pick in different situations - is also quite interesting. There are many questions in relation to these different "hats" you can ask yourself and challenge your status quo as a manager.
There are also useful tools for risk assessment, strategic options thinking as well as planning in this book. I intend to use at least some of them in practice.
The book is obsessed with focus on a customer - and that is a good thing. As an example of a question to ask yourself: "What has to happen so the customer will say ‘I’d have to be crazy to do business with someone else!’?
Another obsession of the book is on finding a focus, finding a core problem to work upon. Again - simple but invaluable advice that can best be utilised when honestly asking yourself something like "What one meaningful, specific outcome, if I achieved it, would have a significant positive impact on my business?
The book itself is no fun read. It is not difficult, but should probably be taken literally as a manual for action. The author's style is often obnoxious: "Go try yourself. You will thank me later". There were also those numerous annoying references to "bumper stickers" (high-sounding slogans) and "how not to be stupid". Overall, a lot of the theses / questions of this book are rather obvious.
Nevertheless, I am looking forward to go through many of the questions designed for the "Thinking Time" sessions and to reflect on them in relation to the business line I am running - on my own and with our leadership team.
