Why do
entrepreneurs like Mitchell Kapor, founder of Lotus Development
Corp., abandon their creations just as they're achieving
success? They're smart, says Dr. Steven Berglas, who has spent
20 years studying the paradoxical dissatisfaction of people who
appear to be very successful, and who teaches a Psychology of the
Entrepreneurial Spirit course at the University of California, Los
Angeles.
Kapor mystified many by bailing out of Lotus when it was doing
very well and still promising even greater success. But there's
a method to Kapor's seeming madness, Berglas explains in his
latest book, Reclaiming the Fire (Random House, $25.95).
He says many entrepreneurs are stimulated by "eustress,"
a more desirable cousin of distress, which energizes people rather
than merely upsetting them. And smoothly running companies
aren't the best places to find eustress, adds Berglas, so the
solution for many entrepreneurs is starting new ventures.
Berglas' revelations about eustress are just a part of the
many fascinating insights he offers. Among other things, Berglas
presents theories for why successful businesspeople sometimes
sabotage their success with drug abuse, white-collar crime and
other destructive practices, a syndrome he calls
"entrepreneurial arson." If you're doing great but
feeling bad, he suggests doing something different enough to
interest you without destroying everything you've built.
Otherwise, you may find the fire is too hot to handle.
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One to One B2B
Doubleday/Currency, $21.95
Visionaries
Don Peppers and Martha Rogers made one-to-one relationships with
customers a foundation of modern marketing. In their book, One
to One B2B, they expand that idea to B2B marketing, taking into
account the fact that marketing to other companies has been
affected by the growing importance of Internet-based buyer
cooperatives, electronic marketplaces and other such
technologies.
In a series of profiles of B2B marketers, the authors spotlight
a range of responses to the electronic challenge and discuss how
Dell Computer Corp. segments business customers into groups
according to their value to the company (in terms of the business
they bring to it) and then crafts marketing appeals unique to each.
The authors also explain how multinational agricultural chemical
firm Novartis CP increased its share of Brazil's pesticides
market in the middle of an agricultural crash by identifying the
country's biggest farmers and cultivating relationships with
them.
One of the most broadly applicable tools Peppers and Rogers
present is the use of information technology to develop closer
relationships with B2B customers. Of course, computers and customer
relationship management software make tracking details of
individuals possible for businesses of all sizes. So the authors
recommend that, in addition to merely collecting names and
addresses, you create relationship maps for users, purchasing
agents, specification writers and others who influence purchases of
goods and services in the B2B environment. That way, you'll be
able to cost-effectively build ties to, say, that influential
department head who always demands the most recent model and
encourages others in the company to follow suit. Altogether, this
book is a worthy supplement to Peppers and Rogers' consumer
marketing manifestoes.
The Other 90%
Crown Business, $24
Leadership
consultant Robert K. Cooper says the old saw about most people
using only 10 percent of their brainpower is true-but he says you
can tap more of your potential by using what he calls his four
keystones: trust, energy, farsightedness and nerve.
You should start by learning to trust yourself as well as
others. Next, work on cultivating an energetic (but not hurried)
approach to the tasks before you. Being farsighted involves
dreaming big and then aligning your actions with your dreams, he
explains. As for nerve, that's largely a matter of constantly
challenging yourself. In addition to the sweeping scheme, Cooper
throws out occasional intriguing tidbits that can help make
everything go smoothly-like the contention that a focus on
competing, instead of excelling, wastes as much as 40 percent of
every workday.
Life Is Not Work, Work Is Not
Life
Wild Cat Canyon Press, $13.95
It's easy to
believe that theologian Robert K. Johnston and market researcher J.
Walker Smith lead balanced lives. Their brief, witty essays glow
with ways to find equilibrium between labor and leisure.
Johnston's recollection of gazing at a full moon while driving
home from the office is infused with a sense of how easy it is to
find pleasure in the moments between business appointments.
Smith's comical story of foolishly crashing his car into a
parking attendant's booth is another lesson: Take a minute to
catch your breath and keep your business in perspective. It's
wise advice.
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| WHAT ARE YOU READING? |
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| |  Laura Tidwell
CEO of Enginehouse Media
Troy, Alabama
Elizabeth I, CEO: Strategic Lessons from the Leader
Who Built an Empire by Alan Axelrod
Prentice Hall, $23 "The book portrays this queen's reign while studying
the characteristics that empowered her to [become such an effective
leader]. Equipped with strong communication skills, insight and
moral fiber, Elizabeth accepted the throne of England and prompted
one of the country's greatest periods of prosperity and
creativity. This history lesson has helped me employ some
innovative and highly beneficial communication strategies in my
business. From basic survival and sheer grit to winning and what it
means, these concepts will [strengthen] your grasp of success and
how it is achieved. Every business leader would do well to study
the strategic lessons taught by this great leader." | |
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