If a Think Tank is going to provide solutions, it has to draw on many sources of information. A Think Tank must consider all the experiences, education and observations of its members and must search the Internet, Libraries, Conventions, White Papers and read books, both recent and old. Why do you ask? Well actually it’s simple, you have to look for clues wherever you can and you have to take all those clues and cross them with other fields of study, industries or areas of thought.
Let me give you an example. Last week, the online Think Tank broke down various books on all sorts of topics and compared every chapter and piece of information in those books, most of which were ten years old or older, against the current paradigm, direction and trends. . . Interestingly, things have changed drastically in many ways, however, you will be surprised how similar things are and how often history repeats itself. Listed below are some of the books we reviewed and some thoughts on each:
A. “The Corporate Warriors – Six Classic Cases in American Business” by Douglas K. Ramsey. There were many quotes in this book and one that stood out was; “War is simple: its success lies in its achievements”, — Napoleon Bonaparte and another quote; “War is capitalism without gloves.” In the book was Ted Turner VS the networks, Pepsi VS Coca-Cola, airline deregulation, General Motors VS the Japanese in the doom years, MCI VS AT&T. However, it could have been any period of time; the book could just as easily have been about Microsoft VS Google simply by changing the names of the companies involved; it would be hard to tell the difference. Some other quotes that were cited;
“In guerrilla warfare, small units acting independently play a major role.” Mao Z-dong.
“The gorilla advances its own tactics for every move of the battle in constant surprises to its enemy.” Che Guevara
“It is essential to understand the flow of the opponent’s personality, to discover their strengths and weaknesses.” My young Miyamoto Musashi
“Offense is defense, don’t kid yourself.” from my part.
B. “His Excellency – George Washington.” By Jose Ellis. Contrary to popular belief, George Washington made a number of mistakes and was probably not the best general for the job and lost many battles and many men. Benedict Arnold went down in history as a traitor and probably would have led the Patriots to a quicker victory if he hadn’t gotten upset and switched sides. Our presidents are often misjudged by history, and it seems that the victors of battles usually write their own history. Today we see the media reshaping our history today and yet in the future. We may see today’s conflicts very differently and awarded in the history books, our current president for his great opportunity to take action in the Middle East.
C. “Vegetables and Fruit” by James Crockett, 1972. It’s amazing how much knowledge is stored in old books about how to do things. It’s surprising that no one takes this advice seriously, and yet these days everyone is talking about organic food and trying to buy it. There is a lot of talk about rooftop gardens, as if it were something new. As you read this book and the various chapters such as; Joys of Growing Your Own Garden, Planning and Planting, How to Grow Fruits, Nuts and Berries, and Practical and Nice Herbs; It seems pretty obvious that everything you need to know about eating well is probably available in a book you can buy at a yard sale or thrift store for about $0.50, so I want to ask a question. ; How can anyone say that no one can afford it or that those who are poor lack the information they need to protect their health and eat healthy?
D. “Reengineering the Corporation: A Manifesto for the Business Revolution.” By James Champy and Michael Hammer. 1993. As we watch corporations like Ford Motor Co., General Motors, and Delphi Corp. attempt to reinvent themselves, we must consider that they are doing nothing new and should have learned from past mistakes during the dooming years. What does reengineering mean? Does it mean starting over, fixing things with duct tape and tying wires, getting rid of bureaucracy and inefficiencies? Does it mean forming a steering committee to see what to do or hiring a Machiavellian dictator or the Czar of reengineering? Why does every corporation know what to do, but continually get into these problems?
E. “The Bankruptcy of 1995: America’s Next Collapse and How to Stop It.” By Harry E. Figgie Jr. and Gerald J. Swanson Ph.D. written in 1993. Apparently, the United States of America didn’t have an economic collapse in 1995 and apparently, our government woke up and stopped spending money, finally paying off debt and enjoying a surplus. There are too many pessimistic anti-capitalists predicting the fall of the United States or the collapse of our monetary system, it just isn’t. In fact, even though the stock market is resetting and housing is down quite a bit, we only have to look at the stock markets to see all the trillions of dollars waiting to be invested; in fact, in 1993. The Grace Commission, FED, OMB, and Treasury Secretary Projections were all off their projections, however, the issue was resolved.
F. “Best practices to transform your organization.” By Price Waterhouse, 1995 Exchange Integration Team It’s interesting to see stock prices fall when companies make big mistakes, and yet it’s no secret what Wall Street is after. When a mistake is made, change needs to happen and corporations need to keep up with changes in the market and the economy. Fluidity of movement is important in corporate America, just as it is on the battlefield, and those who forget these truths are doomed to repeat them.
G. “Marketing Myths That Are Killing Your Business: That Cure for Death Wish Marketing.” By Kevin J. Clancy and Robert S. Schulman, 1994. This book is about business performance, market share, partnerships, and just reading the table of contents; It’s in education. Then there is a place at the beginning to test your own marketing work IQ, you may be surprised. Why do corporations and small businesses keep making the same mistakes?
There are certain things you do in marketing and certain things you don’t and it’s amazing to see our government agencies make public relations mistakes, and some of our biggest corporations do some of the dumbest things or launch the most insidious marketing campaigns. Not that this information is a secret, it’s written in every book, and it’s quite within the reach of anyone with half a notion of surfing the Internet or buying a marketing book at a used bookstore.
H. “Master: Greenspan’s FED and the American Boom.” By Bob Woodward, this book takes us from 1972 to 2004 during Greenspan’s reign at the Federal Reserve. Alan Greenspan was successful, due in part to his philosophy and his strength of character to do what he knew was right, regardless of those who criticized and wanted things to be easy.
Today we see many complaining that Mr. Berneke needs to lower interest rates to save the stock market and that is ridiculous because the stock market has become a gambling casino and it is time for it to realign itself with the reality of our current market. It’s amazing how similar situations were handled long ago, and how they are still handled today, despite the whimpering of Wall Street. It’s not the Federal Reserve’s job to make sure everyone on Wall Street makes tons of money, nor is it in the best interest of the US economy to prop up a stock market, which needs straightening out. We live in the greatest nation ever created in human history, and we must protect our financial resources through wise decisions, not the whims of the stock market.
I. “Science on Trial — The Whistleblower, the Accused, the Noble Laureate” by Judy Sarasoni 1993. This book, written over a decade ago, shows that science and research cheating have been going on for a long time, this was a story that was the current story in the news of the problems with science and the cover-up in the discovery of cloning in North Korea. Obviously, we shouldn’t be surprised; This is nothing new
J. “Net Trends — The Saturn Cyber Trends That Will Drive Your Business, Create New Wealth, and Design Your Future” by Chuck Martin 1999, who was also the author of “The Digital Estate – Electronic El Niño” this book He talked about , brick-and-mortar stores, online brochures, the future of content, email marketing, intranet systems, enterprise software, the wired e-commerce workforce, customer data, and e-learning. He was heavily involved with intranets, which brought customers, vendors, and employees together with instant feedback. He also explained the problems we are now facing with identity data and email list sharing. Maybe we should have listened to Chuck Martin in 1999, since we are now spending millions of dollars at the Federal Trade Commission trying to figure out how to stop identity theft and now we have all kinds of rules to enforce data protection. This problem could have been fixed in the past a long time ago, too late now as we are all now desperate for a solution and it will not be convenient or cheap at this late stage.
K. “The Course of Mexican History.” By Michael C. Myers and William Sherman; Oxford press, 1987. An interesting thing about old history books is that they often present the information slightly differently, this is because every decade we change the perception of history to make everyone feel good. The tortilla wars and riots in Mexico City should not be so unexpected, nor should the riots that followed the last presidential campaign in Mexico. Likewise, we shouldn’t be too surprised to find 5 million people living in slums outside of Mexico City or officials and the Catholic Church telling people to come to the United States to work and send money. It seems that the problem of the border with Mexico and the number of illegal aliens entering the United States of America has been a problem since long before the Jordan Commission and in 1987, the problems were almost identical. Without knowing the true and correct history of Mexico, our closest neighbor to the south, it is difficult to put together a reasonable and rational plan to fulfill our mutual interests.
L. “Only the Paranoid Survive: How to Exploit the Crisis Points That Challenge All Businesses and Careers” by Andy Grove 1996. The most interesting concept in this book has to be the concept of; Strategic Inflection Points, which looks at product life cycle curves and how to get to the top and then as you go, prepare another start to continue moving up the chart without going down the other side. Why is this relevant? Well, consider the United States of America and the 200-year civilization curve. Think of how we are beginning to drown in political correctness and could end up like the Roman Empire if we continue down this stretch.