Business thinking between the covers

Charisma – the secrets of making a lasting impression

by Andrew Leigh

Pearson €14.99

Leigh believes that charisma is not simply an inherent quality you either have or don’t have but that it is something that can be developed. According to the blurb for this book, he is making a living doing just that.

Charisma, he says, can be viewed as a set of learnable behaviours, many of which are about being yourself in how people experience you. There are seven essential behaviours: fluency, confidence, presence, authenticity, courage, passion and demeanour.

We learn how Marilyn Monroe and Paul Newman both had the ability to switch their “star quality” on and off and there’s analysis of what Leigh describes as four “giants with extreme charisma” – Martin Luther King, Margaret Thatcher, Elvis Presley and Muhammad Ali.

Leigh has tips on posture, body language and eye contact and there are exercises and checklists. He examines the traits of charismatic figures from the worlds of business, politics and entertainment – a common characteristic is passion for what they do. He suggests that readers list what inspires them and for a month, they should do one thing every day that communicates their leadership passion to people, without turning it into a lecture.

Management in 10 Words

by Terry Leahy

Random House €14.99

Leahy transformed Tesco from the poor relative of British retailing into the largest supermarket chain in the UK and set it on an overseas acquisition path. It is now the third largest retailer in the world with 6,000 stores and operations in 14 countries in Europe. As chief executive for 14 years, Leahy introduced innovations including new services and retail formats and he recounts his experiences in this interesting business biography.

Refreshingly, he is also candid about the mistakes made along the way, including his first campaign as marketing director, a failed attempt to create restaurants in his stores and an unsuccessful launch in Taiwan. Business, he reflects, is about taking risks and decisions that involve no risk are not decisions that will enable your business to grow.

The 10 words in the title form chapter headings as follows: truth, loyalty, courage, values, action, balance, simple, lean, compete and trust. One of the key messages from the book is about listening to customers. Customers can be demanding but at the same time they are not unreasonable and in Leahy’s experience they have a remarkable understanding of the problems that management face.

Candid and well written, Leahy has much to impart about how to run a large business successfully.

Good strategy, bad strategy

by Richard Rumelt

Profile €14.99

Strategy is much talked about but often misunderstood argues Rumelt in this excellent treatment of the subject. It’s a mistake to assume that strategy is a big picture analysis divorced from specific action.

Unlike a standalone decision or goal, a strategy is a coherent set of analyses, concepts, policies, arguments and actions that respond to a high stakes challenge.

A good strategy has an essential logical structure that he calls a kernel. This contains three elements: a diagnosis, a guiding policy and coherent action. The guiding policy specifies the approach to dealing with the obstacles identified in the diagnosis while coherent actions are the policies, resources committed and actions to carry out the guiding policy.

A bad strategy is more than just the absence of a good one and has a life of its own. It becomes a false edifice built on mistaken foundations and often involves leaders actively avoiding analysing problems because a leader believes that negative thoughts may get in the way, the author notes.

The book plays richly on case study examples of strategy in action, ranging from Hannibal’s defeat of the Roman army 216 BC to how Disney broadened its brand.