As I began to read this book, I was reminded of an excerpt composite that I formulated for my review of Ram Charan’s recently published book, Global Tilt: Leading Your Business Through the Great Economic Power Shift, whose title refers to the fact that "the world has tilted. Its economic center has shifted from what have traditionally been called the advanced or Western countries of the northern hemisphere to fast developing countries including China, India, Indonesia, Brazil, and others in the Middle East and even parts of Africa...Wealth is moving from North to South, and so are jobs...The South is driving change. The North is afraid of it...The world is in an inevitable transition to a more even distribution of opportunity and wealth...The global financial system, which h connects the economies of all countries every second of the day, is highly unstable...Many countries below the thirty-first parallel are creating their own rules of the road and executing their growth plans to win jobs and resources for their people...Companies are competing against countries - not just other companies. Northern companies may be building their future competition in exchange for access to markets...The tilt will seesaw along the way...Like it or not, you have no choice but to figure out how to position your business in light of the changes."

According to Andy Molinsky. he wrote this book “because I believe there is a serious gap in what has been written and communicated about cross-cultural management and what people actually struggle with on the ground.” After having read Charan’s and then Molinsky’s book, I realize that effective management requires dexterity wherever supervision of others is involved; moreover, if cross-cultural management in only one country is analogous with checkers, then cross-cultural management in several countries is analogous with chess…and if the countries are from the first, second, and third “worlds,” cross cultural management is analogous with three-dimensional chess played at lightning speed.

Credit Molinsky with especially clever use of various reader-friendly devices that include diagnostic exercises ("Your Turn") at the conclusion of Chapters 2-7 and checklists of key points and core processes as well as Figures and Tables that increase the reader's interaction with material throughout the narrative. Later, these devices will facilitate, indeed expedite frequent of material.

These are among the dozens of passages that caught my eye, also listed to suggest the scope of Molinsky's coverage.

o What You Will Learn in This Book, and, On Diagnosing the Cultural Code (Pages 13-21)
o The Authenticity Challenge: I Feel Disingenuous (24-29)
o A Six-Dimensional Approach for Diagnosing the Cultural Code (48-51)
o Linking the Two [i.e. Zone of Appropriateness and Your Personal Comfort]: The Zone of Optimal Performance (74-77)
o Making Small, but Personally Meaningful Adjustments (86-93)
o Your Personalized Cultural Portfolio of Cultural Adaptation (130-133)
o How Can We Be Forgiven for Our Cultural Mistakes? (141-151)
o Choosing a Model: The Importance of Picking the Right Person [to Be a Local Mentor] (155-157)
o Five Key Takeaways: Table C-1 (173-176)

Before concluding his brilliant analysis of what continues to be a major challenge to senior-level executives with multi-cultural responsibilities, Molinsky acknowledges, "No one said that adapting your cultural behavior is easy. However, what I hope you have learned in this book is that it is possible, and than using the tools provided here, along with tour own ingenuity, motivation, and courage, you can learn to adapt your own behavior across cultures on your terms. I hope you will take the plunge."

I realize that no brief commentary such as mine can do full justice to the material that Andy Molinsky provides in this volume but I hope that I have at least suggested why I think so highly of it. Also, I hope that those who read this commentary will be better prepared to determine whether or not they wish to read the book and, in that event, will have at least some idea of how the mastery of powerful tools will enable them to stay calm, remain confident, and be productive whenever the pressure's on.

I also highly recommend Ram Charan's aforementioned book, Global Tilt, as well as C.K. Prahalad's The Fortune at the Bottom of the Pyramid: Eradicating Poverty Through Profits (Revised and Updated 5th Anniversary Edition) and Reverse Innovation: Create Far From Home, Win Everywhere, co-authored by Vijay Govindarajan and Chris Trimble

The implications of the title of this book are much more complicated than they may at first seem. Frontliners in any organization are entrusted with some of its most important responsibilities but seldom empowered with the [begin italics] authority [end italics] to exercise judgment. Frontliners can determine the success or failure of an organization's customer relations. With rare exception, the health of those relations determines whether or not an organization will survive, much less thrive. The Ritz-Carlton Company offers a highly informative case in point: All of its more than 25,000 employees (including members of the custodial crew and serving staff as well as bellhops and valet parkers) are authorized to resolve a guest complaint or concern to a limit of $2,500 before involving a supervisor. Chris DeRose and Noel Tichy thoroughly discuss Ritz-Carlton's policies and procedures in Chapter 2 (Pages 17-42). To those in need of additional information, I highly recommend Joseph Michelli's The New Gold Standard: 5 Leadership Principles for Creating a Legendary Customer Experience Courtesy of the Ritz-Carlton Hotel Company.

Those who have read Judgment: How Winning Leaders Make Great Calls, a book Tichy co-authored with Warren Bennis, that was published by Portfolio/Penguin, already know that he has an insatiable curiosity about the relationship between great leadership and the decision-making process. Moreover, he insists that all organizations (whatever their size and nature may be) need great leadership at all levels and in all areas, and that is especially true of frontliners, those who interact directly and frequently with "the world out there," one shared with customers, of course, but also competitors, strategic allies, and others within what has now become a global chain. He and DeRose are eminently well-qualified to address the complex issues that

Early in their book, DeRose and Tichy introduce and then thoroughly explain a five-step process for building a front line-focused organization: (1) Connect the front line to the customer, (2) Teach people to think for themselves, (3) Experiment to implement, (4) Break down the hierarchy, and (5) Invest in frontline capability. As they point out, "While we depict this process in a step-by-step fashion, the building of a front line-focused organization may not occur [and probably won't occur] in such a neat, linear manner. Nevertheless, we have found that all of the elements are necessary whether building an organization from scratch or transforming a decades-old institution."

These are among the dozens of passages that caught my eye, also listed to indicate the scope of coverage in the material.

o Leadership in a Front Line Organization (Pages 19-21)
o Building a Front Line-Focused Organization (22-41)
o Making It Local (59-62)
o Judgment on the Front Line for SEALS (67-74)
o Taking the Time to Think (78-81)
o Innovation Models, A Culture of Experimentation, and Providing Structure for Innovation (89-97)
o Making Everyone a Genius at Intuit (99-106)
o The Mayo Clinic's "Plus One" Protocol (109-113)
o Making Time for the Front Line to Think (118-120)
o When Radical Change Is Needed (125-128)
o The Human Factor, and, Creating Supervisors Who Empower the Front Line (135-141)
o Bringing Customer-Centricity to Life (152-154)
o Frontline Leadership in the Social Sector (175-178

Following the tenth and concluding chapter, DeRose and Tichy provide a "Handbook for Judgment on the Front Line" (Pages 188-255) that, all by itself, is worth far more than the cost of this book. It consists of Nine Sections that contain a wealth of information, insights, and counsel that will enable companies to develop "more productively engaging frontline workers to solve customer problems, fix broken work processes, and innovate new products and services." In the chapters preceding the Handbook, Chris DeRose and Noel Tichy examine real frontliners in 20 real organization. Then, in the Handbook, they serve as their reader's tutors, focusing on how they can help build a front line-focused organization.

This is a process, not a destination, during which senior leaders must frequently find ways of listening to and learning from the front line in order to adopt to changing environments. "Frontline employees and customers can be senior leaders' source of early warnings about shifts in the market, so that they may in turn exercise their own judgment about the organization's overall strategy." I presume to add that most of the companies on the annual lists of those highly admired and the best to work for are also on the lists of those that are most profitable, have the greatest cap value, and dominate their competitive marketplace. However different these companies may be in most other ways, all are front-line focused, and, mutual respect and mutual trust define their culture.

This review is from: Can't Buy Me Like: How Authentic Customer Connections Drive Superior Results (Hardcover)
With regard to the question they pose, one that serves as the title of this review, Bob Garfield and Doug Levy explain, "In all humility, we believe we have the answer." They certainly have their answer and it is eminently worthy of consideration. (More about that later.) They assert -- and I agree -- that "the currency of Relationship Era marketing is not awareness, nor even quality. Trust. Loyalty. Pride...[Therefore] your essence is transmitted in your relations with all stakeholders: customers, employees, suppliers, shareholders, neighbors and the earth itself. In short: Across every function of an enterprise, corporations and their brands now can and must behave with their various constituencies in ways [begin italics] exactly parallel to human relationships [end italics]."

Please re-read that last sentence as an introduction to their subsequent assertion that "the most salient fact in accepting the ascendancy of the Relationship Era paradigm has not to do with its benefits so much as its inevitability. The universe has made the choice for you." They then identify and discuss four forces at work, "converging momentously to dictate [the] future." These forces are best revealed within the narrative, in context, but I am comfortable when noting that Garfield and Levy's answer to the question is in the form of a framework, driven by the four forces, one that will help companies and their leaders to achieve several separate but related strategic objectives: (1) complete a transition from the rapidly deteriorating Consumer Era of mass marketing to the rapidly emerging Relationship Era whose defining characteristics are credibility, care, and congruency; (2) change their relationships with their stakeholders "but only after first articulating for themselves exactly why they are in business in the first place"; (3) achieve and sustain profitability as a [begin italics] consequence [end italics] of that understanding; and finally, meanwhile, (4) avoid "the most common marketing malpractices emerging in the digital world."

These are among the dozens of passages that caught my eye, also listed to indicate the scope of Garfield and Levy's coverage.

o The Four Forces Converging to Dictate the Future (Pages 4-7)
o Apocalypse Now (14-17)
o There Is Trust and There Is Trust (39-42)
o The Three Cs of Trust (46-53)
o The Wrong Path (79)
o A Word on Methodology (87-89)
o The Bully Pulpit (103-105)
o Your Basic Win-Win-Win-Win (116-118)
o Introspection (126-132)
o How to Venn Friends and Influence People (132-156)
o Tilting at Epidemics (163-167)
o Now, Here Are Those Do's We Promised You (168-170)
o Paging Isaac Newton (198-201)

Before concluding their brilliant book, Garfield and Levy cite a passage from President Barak Obama's "State of the Union" address in 2012, during which he singles out Apple as emblematic of all that we as a nation should aspire to:

"You see, an economy built to last is one where we encourage the talent and ingenuity of every person in this country. That means women should earn equal pay for equal work. It means we should support every one who's willing to work, and every risk-taker and entrepreneur who aspires to become the next Steve Jobs."

It is possible but unlikely that the United States will ever fully achieve these and other admirable goals but Garfield and Levy seem to be convinced, as am I, that those who read their book will be much better prepared to help their companies make and then sustain authentic customer connections that will drive superior results.

I realize that no brief commentary such as mine can do full justice to the material that Bob Garfield and Doug Levy provide in this volume but I hope that I have at least suggested why I think so highly of it. Also, I hope that those who read this commentary will be better prepared to determine whether or not they wish to read the book and, in that event, will have at least some idea of how create contagious products, ideas, and behaviors that attract interest, initiate online connections, and generate offline discussions.

My mother's parents were indentured servants who emigrated from the same province (Värmland) in Sweden but met only after arriving to begin their employment by their sponsors in Chicago. That is my only direct link with the system that, in its current form, Jeb Bush and Clint Bolick discuss Immigration Wars. Political discussions of subjects such as immigration reform, campaign finance reform, and (ironically) global warming tend to generate more heat than light but to their credit, Bush and Bolick seem to take a non-partisan position as they try to make sense of issues such as these:

o The nature and extent of "comprehensive" immigration plans being proposed
o Whether to repair or replace the current system's infrastructure
o The nature and extent of the Dream Act's relevance to what really needs to be done
o The deficiencies of the 1965 Act and how to accommodate them
o The pros and cons of family reunification policies and procedures
o The best process by which at least some illegal immigrants can become citizens
o How to improve enforcement of laws now in place
o Which of those laws to repeal or modify
o The nature and extent of Hispanics' influence on consideration of immigration reform initiatives

My own is that those in a position to resolve these and other issues will read and then re-read this book, not because it poses all the questions and then provides answers to them; rather, because this book identifies and addresses many of the most urgent issues, and, offers reasonable (if not always practical) solutions to some of the problems they suggest.

Years ago in If It Ain't Broke...Break It!: And Other Unconventional Wisdom for a Changing Business World (1992), Robert Kriegel and Louis Patler suggest, "Sacred cows make the best burgers." That is not what Jake Breeden has in mind. As he explains, "The point of this book isn't to slaughter sacred cows. The point is to save them, and we do that by tipping them over and examining them. By understanding when and how to use our heartfelt beliefs we can avoid their nasty unintended consequences." I also wish to point out that Breeden does not discuss tipping points, an insight that Morton Grodzins (1917-1964) introduced in 1958 and Malcolm Gladwell later appropriated in his eponymous book, published in 2000. Breeden asserts, "Powerful, often invisible behavioral, social, and cultural forces can cause leaders to espouse the infallible importance of [key word] unexamined virtues in their ascent to success." I agree, adding that many (most?) of those leaders seem convinced that, to borrow from the title of one of Marshall Goldsmith's books, "what got them here will get them there." In fact, whatever got them "here" won't even enable them to remain "here," however "here" may be defined.

Some of the most valuable material in this book is provided when Breeden rigorously examines seven virtues that often become potentially lethal business paradoxes that are separate but interdependent. They involve, respectively, bland/bold balance, automatic/accountable collaboration, narcissistic/useful creativity, process/outcome excellence, outcome/process fairness, obsessive/harmonious passion, and backstage/onstage preparation. He devotes a separate chapter to each and details are best revealed within the narrative, in context. However, I am comfortable noting that problems emerge when the status quo becomes a default for many (most?) leaders, especially when answering questions and making decisions. They have fallen victim to what James O'Toole has so aptly characterizes as "the ideology of comfort and the tyranny of custom."

These are among the dozens of passages that caught my eye, also listed to indicate the scope of Berger's coverage.

o The Peril of Sacred Cows (Pages 5-9)
o Train Your Cow, Train Yourself (22-23)

Note: Breeden is a world-class pragmatist and empiricist, driven by an insatiable curiosity to understand what works, what doesn't, and why so that he can share what he has learned with as many people as possible. Cases in point, these "Seven Steps to" sections:

o Make Your Balance Bold (34-45)
o Make Your Collaboration Accountable (56-66)
o Make Your Creativity Useful (79-92)
o Make Your Excellence Meaningful (101-114)
o Train Your Brain to Focus on Process Fairness (124-137)
o Make Your Passion More harmonious (149-162)
o Seven Ideas to Take Your Preparation to Center Stage (175-184)

Other passages of special interest and value to me:

o Scratching the Itch of New (73-77)
o Inside the Secret Messiness of Excellence (96-99)
o Good Passion, Bad Passion, and, The Sustaining Strength of Harmonious Passion (143-149)
o The inertia of Preparation (168-172)
o Extinguish Your Backfires ((187-192)

Breeden makes skillful use of reader-friendly devices such as checklists of key points and sequence stages, real-world examples of sacred cows that wandered away from the pasture of relevance, and "Conclusion" as well as "Putting It into Practice" (answering two questions, "So what?" and "Now what?") sections in Chapters 2-8. Before concluding his brilliant book, he observes, "Think about your core beliefs. What's the advice you give? Your sacred cows may be hidden there, holding you back. Once you look for them, you'll start seeing them everywhere. You'll see them everywhere not because the world has changed, but because you've changed your way of perceiving the world."

As I began to re-read this book before composing this review, I was again reminded of this passage from Walt Whitman's poem, Song of Myself: "Do I contradict myself? Very well, then I contradict myself, I am large, I contain multitudes." I now think about that passage and about sacred cows every time I look in a mirror....

According to Berger, "The first issue with all the hype around social media is that people tend to ignore the importance of offline word of mouth, even though offline discussions are more prevalent, and potentially even more impactful, than online ones." I agree while presuming to suggest that many (if not most) offline discussions occur because of an initial online connection. "The second issue is that Facebook and Twitter are technologies, not strategies." I agree. However, they are immensely important enablers. "Harnessing the power of word of mouth, online or offline, requires understanding why people talk and why some things get talked about and shared more than others. The psychology of sharing. The science of social transmission." Berger has much of substantial value to say about both. What cause certain products, ideas, and behaviors to be talked about more? "That's what this book is about."

I was (and remain) especially interested in Berger's discussion of what he characterizes as six "ingredients" or principles embraced by an acronym: STEPPS. They are Social Currency (enable people to discuss with others what is most important to them); Triggers (prompt or remind people to discuss what could be of benefit to you); Emotion (reveal how much you care but the feelings [begin italics] must [end italics] be genuine, sincere, and authentic); Public (offer what is self-sufficient in terms of its appeal); Practical Value (much of its appeal is determined by its usefulness); and Stories (anchor the message in human experience with which others can identify). Berger suggests that these six as STEPPS (pun intended) during the process of crafting contagious content. "These ingredients lead ideas to get talked about and succeed...[however, they] are unlike a recipe because not all six ingredients are required to make a product or idea contagious. Sure, the more the better" but not every offering must possess all of them.

These are among the dozens of passages that caught my eye, also listed to indicate the scope of Berger's coverage.

o Social Transmission, and, Generating Word of Mouth (Pages 7-15)
o Six Principles of Contagiousness (21-24)
o Minting a New Type of Currency (33-36)
o A Brief Note on Motivation (57-59)
o What Makes for an Effective Trigger? (85-90)
o The Power of Awe (102-104)
o Focus on Feelings, and, Kindling the Fire with High-Arousal Emotions (112-118)
o The Psychology of Imitation, and, The Power of Observability (127-136)
o The Psychology of Deals (162-168)
o Stories as Vessels (181-189)
o Making Virality Possible (193-195)
o Epilogue (203-210)

Before concluding his brilliant book, Berger observes, "The best part of the STEPPS framework is that anyone can use it." He's convinced (and I agree) that almost anyone, including those whom he calls "regular people, offering regular products and ideas," can succeed with effective use of only one or two of these ingredients.

I realize that no brief commentary such as mine can do full justice to the material that Jonah Berger provides in this volume but I hope that I have at least suggested why I think so highly of it. Also, I hope that those who read this commentary will be better prepared to determine whether or not they wish to read the book and, in that event, will have at least some idea of how create contagious products, ideas, and behaviors that attract interest, initiate online connections, and generate offline discussions.

First of all, I want to commend Henry Jenkins, Sam Ford, and Joshua Green on their 46-page Introduction that, all by itself, is worth more than the cost of the book while “setting the table” for an even more substantial feast of information, insights, and counsel in the seven chapters that follow.

As they explain, their book “examines the emerging hybrid model of [content] circulation, where a mix of top-down and bottom-up forces determine how material is shared across and among cultures in far more participatory (and messier) ways…This shift from distribution to circulation signals a movement toward a more participatory model of culture, one which sees the public not as simply consumer of preconstructed messages [e.g. book reviews of this book] but as people who are shaping, sharing, reframing, and remixing media content in ways which might not have been previously imagined.”

In this context, I am reminded of Henry Chesbrough and the open business model for which he is so widely and justifiably renowned. As he explains in Open Innovation (2005), "An open business model uses this new division of innovation labor - both in the creation of value and in the capture of a portion of that value. Open models create value by leveraging many more ideas, due to their inclusion of a variety of external concepts. Open models can also enable greater value capture, by using a key asset, resource, or position not only in the company's own business model but also in other companies businesses."

In their book, Jenkins, Ford, and Green focus on the “social logics and practices that have enabled and popularized [social media’s] new platforms, logics that explain [begin italics] why [end italics] sharing has become such a common practice, not just [begin italics] how [end italics].” The terms “spread,” “spreadable,” and “spreadability” are indeed appropriate, given the almost unlimited opportunities for communication, cooperation, and collaboration that an open business model creates for social media. The potentialities – both technical and cultural -- for connection and interaction are there to be seized by those who recognize and then take full advantage the increasingly pervasive forms of media circulation.

These are among the dozens of passages that caught my eye, also listed to suggest the scope of coverage.

o What Susan Boyle Can Teach About Spreadability (Pages 9-16)
o Toward a New Moral Economy, Stolen Content or Exploited Labor, and Engaged, Not Exploited? (52-61)
o Value, Worth, and Meaning (67-72)
o Toward Transparent Marketing, and, We don't Need Influencers (75-82)
o Systems of Appraisal (87-90)
o From the Residual to the Retro, and, Residual Economics (100-106)
o Are You Engaged? and, The Challenges of Measurement (116-126)
o "The Total Engagement Experience" (137-141)
o A Brief History of Participatory Culture, and, Resistance versus Participation (159-172)
o Hearing versus Listening (175-182)
o The Problem of Unequal Participation (188-194)
o The Uncertainty Principle (196-202)
o How Long Is the Long Tail? (238-242)
o Learning from Nollywood (265-270)
o The World Is Not Flat (284-290)
o Spreadability Focal Points (295-300)

Before concluding their brilliant book, Jenkins, Ford, and Green identify a number of issues about a spreadable media environment that remain unresolved. For example, “If, for many of us, the long-term goal is to create a more democratic culture, which allows the public a greater role in decision-making at all levels, then a key requirement is going to be timely access to information and transparency in decision-making.” Governance issues, especially regulation within a global digital community, suggest major implications for both better or worse.

However, Henry Jenkins, Sam Ford, and Joshua Green observe, “For the foreseeable future, these issues will be under debate between and among all participating parties. The shape of our culture, thank goodness, is still under transition, and – as a consequence – it is still possible for us to collectively struggle to shape the terms of a spreadable media environment and to forge a media environment that is more inclusive, more dynamic, and more participatory than before.” I share that hope and am encouraged by the fact that achieving that vision would not have been possible only a few years ago.

I realize that no brief commentary such as mine can do full justice to the material that is provided in this volume but I hope that I have at least suggested why I think so highly of it. Also, I hope that those who read this commentary will be better prepared to determine whether or not they wish to read the book and, in that event, will have at least some idea of how to create value and meaning continuously at all levels and in all areas of their organization's operation.

The title of this review was excerpted from one of Daniel Goleman's most important books, Emotional Intelligence, in which he observes, "What's changing is how we are socialized in emotion, which traits are valued or devalued because cultural norms shift with historic trends. And because do experience and express emotions more freely, it makes sense that as women occupy more positions of power the expression of emotion in the workplace will become more acceptable."

What we have in Anne Kreamer's book is a rigorously rational as well as heartfelt and sensitive examination of one of the most powerful - and least understood - paradigm shifts in the U.S. workplace: As the nature and extent of women's authority in the business world increases (albeit slowly), so will the nature and extent of acceptance of authentic emotion also increase. For as long as I can remember, one of the several double-standards in the gender/blender has been that which tolerates (thereby condones) workplace certain values, attitudes, and behaviors by men but not by women. Worse yet, women who aspire to hold C-level positions have adopted many of those values, attitudes, and behaviors to achieve their career goals. Big mistake.

Early on in her book, Kreamer reminds us, "Darwin and James understood that our emotions, far from being irrational or unimportant, are universal tools that help us read cues [if we are alert] that allow us to successfully navigate our environment. They established, in other words, the oft forgotten notion that emotional fluency can mean the difference between survival and death, or success and failure, and that it therefore figures importantly in evolution."

Kreamer identifies and discusses several emotional types (Spouter, Accepter, Believer, Solver) and provides several sets if tools that can help readers manage their emotions more effectively. She also includes material about map-making for those struggling to "navigate" their emotions in the "new workplace." To paraphrase Leo Tolstoy, all workplaces and their workers are unhappy in their own way. That said, many (if not most) workplaces could - and would - be much happier if everyone involved could express honest, sincere, and authentic emotion without fear or even concern.

According to Kreamer, her book "explores these differences in our individual emotional wiring and through a deeper understanding of the six primary workplace emotional flashpoints - anger, fear, anxiety, empathy, happiness, and crying - offers a blueprint for how each of us can remain true to our individual temperament while nevertheless developing the means to be more effective within the social context of work." I agree with her that we [begin italics] can [end italics] rational about our emotions, "especially at work."

These are among the dozens of passages that caught my eye, also listed to suggest the scope of Kreamer's coverage.

o The History of Emotion, and, So What Is Emotion? (Pages 23-30)
o So What IS Anger? (51-56)
o It's Not Me, It's You (58-61)
o From Bad to Better (63-66)
o What Is Fear? (74-75)
o Real and Present Danger (80-82)
o What Is Anxiety? (95-98)
o Second-Guessing Yourself (100-104)
o The Power of Positive Thinking (106-108)
o What Is Compassion? (115-118)
o Why Being Honest About Compassion Is Good for You and for Business (126-128)
o The Four Profiles -- Which One Are You? (157-164)
o Learn to Objectify Your Emotions (173-174)
o Laugh and the World Laughs with You (191-193)
o The Next Wave (208-211)

Before concluding her brilliant book, Kreamer shares a compelling vision with a hope I share: "If we can openly acknowledge our gender-based biological and neurological differences, we can feel free to tackle whatever challenges we face at full capacity...Both genders can win by granting the other -- and, for women, fellow females -- a greater range of expressiveness on the job. And women and men can both be freed to bring their full, true selves to the game. Isn't it time for us all to get a lot more rational about emotion? The prospect of that happening makes me so happy I could cry."

I realize that no brief commentary such as mine can do full justice to the material that Kreamer provides in this volume but I hope that I have at least suggested why I think so highly of it. Also, I hope that those who read this commentary will be better prepared to determine whether or not they wish to read the book and, in that event, will have at least some idea of how to establish and then sustain a pursuit of improvement that is constant, tenacious, and collaborative, at all levels and in all areas of operation.

According to Viktor Mayer-Schönberger and Kenneth Cukier, "There is no rigorous definition of big data. Initially the idea was that the volume of information had grown so large that the quantity being examined no longer fit into the memory that computers use for processing, so engineers needed to revamp the tools they used for analyzing it all...One way to think about the issue today -- and the way we do in the book -- is this: big data refers to things one can do at a large scale that cannot be done at a smaller one, to extract new insights or create new forms of value, in ways that change markets, organizations, the relationship between citizens and governments, and more." Much more.

Mayer-Schönberger and Cukier identify and examine several "shifts" in the way information is analyzed that transform how we understand and organize society. Understanding these shifts helps us to understand the nature and extent of big data's possibilities as well as its limitations. For example, more data can be processed and evaluated. Also, Looking at vastly more data reduces our preoccupation with exactitude. Moreover, "these two shifts lead to a third change, which we explain in Chapter Four: a move away from the age-old search for causality." They devote a separate chapter to each of these shifts, then shift their and their reader's attention to a term, indeed a process that helps frame the changes: datafication, a concept they discuss in Chapter Five.

Then in Chapters Six and Seven, they explain how big data changes the nature of business, markets, and society as what they characterize as a multi-dimensional "treasure hunt" continues to extract insights from data and unleash dormant value by a shift from causation to correlation. That is to say, big data "marks an important step in humankind's quest to quantify and understand the world" in ways and to an extent once thought impossible.

These are among the dozens of passages that caught my eye, also listed to suggest the scope of Mayer-Schönberger and Cukier's coverage.

o Letting the data speak (Pages 6-12)
o More, messy, good enough (12-18)
o More trumps better (39-49)
o Illusions and illuminations (61-68)
o Quantifying the world, and, When words become data (79-86)
o The "option value" of data, and, The reuse of data (102-107)
o The value of open data (116-118)
o The big-data value chain (126-134)
o The demise of the expert (139-145)
o Paralyzing piracy (152-157)
o The dictatorship of data, and, The dark side of big data (163-170)
o Governing the data barons (182-184)
o When data speaks, and, Even bigger data (189-197)

On Page 197, Mayer-Schönberger and Cukier observe, "What we are able to collect and process will always be just a tiny fraction of the information that exists in the world. It can only be a simulacrum of reality, like the shadows on the wall of Plato's cave. Because we can never have perfect information, our predictions are inherently fallible. That doesn't mean they're wrong, only that hey are always incomplete. It doesn't negate the insights that big data offers, but it puts big data in its place -- as a tool that doesn't offer ultimate answers, just good-enough ones to help us now until better methods and hence better answers come along. It also suggests that we must use this tool with a generous degree of humility.....and humanity."

I realize that no brief commentary such as mine can do full justice to the material that Viktor Mayer-Schönberger and Kenneth Cukier provide in this volume but I hope that I have at least suggested why I think so highly of it. Also, I hope that those who read this commentary will be better prepared to determine whether or not they wish to read the book and, in that event, will have at least some idea of how to leverage Big Data applications and capabilities to transform how they live, work, and think.

I cannot recall a prior time in U.S. business history when the competition for talent was more intense than it is now and I expect it to become even more so in months and years to come. In fact, much of the competition is now global in both nature and extent. Moreover, definitions of "keeper" vary not only from one company or industry to the next but also between and among first, second, and third world countries.

According to Steve Pogorzelski and Jesse Harriott who co-authored this book with Doug Hardy, the Monster Guide will help almost any organization (whatever its size and nature, wherever its operations may be) to recruit, hire, onboard, develop, and retain those candidate(s) who are best-qualified for the given position(s). I think this is what Pogorzelski and Harriott mean when referring to "the world's best employees" in the book's subtitle.

I commend them on their skillful use of several reader-friendly devices such as "My POV" guest contributions by senior-level executives, inserted wherever relevant throughout the narrative, as well as a "Review" section at the end of all chapters and boxed (what I call) "snapshots" of core concepts and core processes. For example, in Chapter 9, Hire and Hold: Retention, Pogorzelski and Harriott provide Figure 9.1 a timeframe matrix, an "Exercise" for CFOs, a mini-commentary on "Benefits That Balance Work," another on "Seven Rules for Retention," a multi-stage program for onboarding, "MY POV" contributed by Kevin Roberts, CEO, Saatchi & Saatchi, and then a "Review" of key points made in the chapter.

These are among the dozens of passages that caught my eye, also listed to suggest the scope of Pogorzelski and Harriott's coverage.

o Three Forces Set the Stage: Demographics, Candidate Empowerment, and Increasing Relative Value of Talent (Pages 2-8)
o Poised Employees = Your Employees (15-18)
o Generational Perspectives (19-33)
o Who Is Most Valuable and, Monitor Your Recruiting Effectiveness (41-49)
o Analysis: Employer Brand Delivery (70-71
o The Candidate Experience (77-80)
o Customizing Your Message (83-94)
o Your Recruiting Web Site (96-99)
o Employee Referral Programs (111-116)
o The Funnel (127-136)
o Closing the Candidate (142-147)
o The Cost of Turnover (150-155)
o Employee Engagement (i.e. "with a strong attachment to the work itself"), Pages 157-159
o Onboarding (168-171)
o Next Practices: Transparency, Interactivity, Mobility, Diversity, and Flexibility (191-210)

Before concluding their brilliant explanation of how the Monster Guide can help almost any organization to hire and then retain who are -- for them -- "the world's best employees," Pogorzelski and Harriott observe, "It comes down to this: do you treat people as human beings or do you treat them as assets, as commodities? If you don't care about people, they'll have a hard time caring about you. But if you care about them as employees, as friends, as partners in business, and as neighbors and colleagues, they're bound to join you and stay engaged. Respect, recognition, and engagement are the essence of finding keepers."

Fred Reichheld has written books and articles about what he calls The Ultimate Question: "On a zero-to-ten scale, how likely is it that you would recommend us (or this product/service/brand) to a family member, friend or colleague?" With only a minor revision (replacing "us (or this product/service/brand) " with "working here"), the question could -- and should -- be asked of those who comprise the given workforce. Finding "keepers" is only one step in an engagement cycle. I agree with Steve Pogorzelski and Jesse Harriott: If your people are not evangelists about being employed by you, the Keepers you find soon realize that and have no interest...nor should they.

I realize that no brief commentary such as mine can do full justice to the material provided in this volume but I hope that I have indicated why I think so highly of it. Also, I hope that those who read this commentary will gain a better understanding of their organization can recruit, hire, onboard, and then retain the talent needed to achieve its strategic objectives.