Summer Reads While Job Hunting

The E-myth Enterprise: How to Turn a Great Idea into a Thriving Business

By Michael E. Gerber

Gerber, entrepreneur and consultant, offers his perspective on inventing an original company and becoming successful in our free-market system in an atmosphere in which most companies fail and 6 out of 10 venture-capital-funded businesses also fail. His is a book about the rare people he has met, passionate and persevering, who imagined and then created businesses unlike any they had seen. We learn that succeeding in a free market requires a company to continually beat the competition in satisfying the essential needs, expectations, and perceived preferences of four critical constituents—employees, customers, suppliers, and lenders (only serving customers is not sufficient). Collectively, these four groups determine a company’s life span. In concluding, Gerber reflects, “Great companies . . . are headed by great people who are possessed by a burning hunger to create something perfect in the world that they can’t find in themselves.” They are driven by ideas. Everyone will not agree with all of Gerber’s beliefs, but he makes a compelling case for his views. This excellent book is a must-read for current and aspiring entrepreneurs. — Mary Whaley

Also of Interest

Next Stop, Reloville: Life inside America’s New Rootless Professional Class

By Peter T. Kilborn

The term “relos” refers to mid- to upper-level professionals who are constantly on the move due to job reassignments and career moves. In certain areas of the country, subdivisions, fringe areas, and even entire towns have been set up to accommodate the particular needs of these upwardly mobile families who relocate constantly, never setting down roots in a place to call home. Kilborn profiles a number of these families who, at a moment’s notice, may have to pull up stakes from one home in Houston and move across the country to Cleveland or Atlanta, or even across the globe to Mumbai, India. Here in the States, the areas created to serve the needs of these nomadic wealthy are creating an urban sprawl of cheaply constructed McMansions, which in a few years may become like ghost towns once the relos have moved on to newer, bigger, and more-expensive homes. Kilborn seems to be saying that in the global economy, the importance of place, community, friends, and family have been eclipsed by the desire to follow the money. — David Siegfried

The Upside of the Downturn: Ten Management Strategies to Prevail in the Recession and Thrive in the Aftermath

By Geoff Colvin

Colvin passionately argues for C-suite proactivity, from managing people and resetting priorities to reengaging customer relationships and innovating solutions. Sound much like principles to be used during prosperity? Perhaps. The real difference today, insists the author, is the mandate to surge ahead, not just recover. Every one of the strategies is armed with data and real-life business paradigms: Toyota, for example, is cited as the paragon of protecting people assets, training and developing its employees even during factory slowdowns. Three questions—what is our core? How is this recession changing our customers and our behavior? and Will this recession hasten or even cause a large-scale restructuring of our industry?—form the heart of business-model transformation, a radical change that might not need to happen, per the Walmart “save more, live better” ad philosophy. No explicit how-to’s are highlighted; on the other hand, keeping company with the likes of HP, American Express, General Mills, and Amazon is a powerful proposition, and one well articulated by Colvin. — Barbara Jacobs

These reviews first appeared in Booklist. For more recommendations and reviews check out Booklist at your local library.