Motivational gold or repackaged wisdom?
Local experts, execs sound off on business books du jour
The title "The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People" attracts readers in a couple of ways.
Not only has author Stephen R. Covey figured out what things "highly effective" people do in order to become successful, he has found out that there are only seven of these things, which makes high effectiveness seem reachable even for the highly lazy.
Making it all seem so easy and accessible has helped Covey sell more than 15 million copies of the book since it was first published in 1989. Today, seminars based on the book and its sequels are commonplace for corporations and even smaller businesses.
But are motivational books aimed at businesses really helpful? Do the lessons they preach endure, or are they simply the diet fads of the business world?
Alluring titles
It's easy to see how books like these can be attractive to businesspeople trying to get ahead. Some titles to gain success over the last decade include "Getting To Yes," "Fun Is Good: How To Create Joy And Passion In Your Workplace," "How To Become A Great Boss," "100 Ways To Motivate Others," "Good To Great" and "Better Than Perfect."
Carol Harvey, a business professor at Assumption College in Worcester, has written books. She said it's the rare business book that actually offers sound advice.
"My experience with dealing with these books is that grad students in particular are enamored by these books. They're used a lot by people who are looking for easy solutions," Harvey said.
"I returned the book," Harvey said.
The problem is business advice or motivational books are "one size fits all," or representative of one person's take on business. Jack Welch's books, including "Winning," are very popular. "What works for Jack Welch," former head of General Electric, "works because he runs the place," Harvey said.
Ann Gray runs Fabrico in Oxford. She said most business advice and motivational books "are pretty ridiculous."
"Sometimes people need to be reminded of things they know," she said.
Gray said, "everybody in the company" is reading "Good to Great" by Jim Collins. But that book is more of an accounting of what a number of companies did to become successful.
Harvey said it's more useful for businesses to look at what companies have done wrong rather than try to adopt new habits, a new corporate language or a new style.
"A lot of these books lack substance," Harvey said. "Six months later, what do you remember? When you look at companies that died, I think you can learn more from them. What did they do wrong? That's what we can really learn from."
But most books "don't have the introspection, the situational management. It's beach reading," Harvey said.
Motivational speech
Bruce Mendelsohn, vice president of client services at Davis Advertising in Worcester, said, "For obvious reasons, our clients read a lot of sales motivational books."
But Mendelsohn goes old school when it comes to business advice. "I look to two books as having taught me much of what I need to know about operating successfully in the business world," Mendelsohn said. Machiavelli's "The Prince" and "The Art of War" by Sun Tzu.
"Regardless of the business atmosphere in which I have worked, I found both books contain immensely practical and timeless advice on how to deal with people, how to anticipate, and counter, your competition's moves, and how to communicate diplomatically."
"I look at the motivational business book industrial complex like I do at the diet book industrial complex," Mendelsohn said. "Always something new, better, guaranteed to work."
Harvey said it's the rare business book that employs actual research to forward its thesis. One she uses in classes is "In Search of Excellence" by Tom Peters and Robert Waterman.
"It tracks trends, looked at companies, pulled out themes, it had some research to it," Harvey said.
Others, she said, "are transitory, stylistic. They don't hold up when new technology comes in."
They're trying to be definitive where things are always changing. They're offering foolproof plans to people who are constantly in search of better ways to meet the needs of their customers, suppliers, employees and bosses, she said.
"The external environment is always changing, the books don't fit the organizational culture, so (the books) become like a myth, a fairy tale. They're probably most helpful to their authors," Harvey said. "It's like dieting. People are looking for the quick fix, like the low-carb diet, a quick fix that is very extreme."
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