Here are a few books we feel will help you in your business and personal life.

The E Myth Revisited by Michael Gerber
Michael Gerber's The E-Myth Revisited should be required reading for anyone thinking about starting a business and for anyone already in business.

The book explains why most small businesses don't work, the people in them do. His view is that your business is there to serve your life not the other way around.

99% of people will see themselves in the book and start to understand the importance of working ON the business not IN it.

You don't need a business degree to understand or follow its suggestions; Gerber takes time to explain buzzwords and complex theories. Written in a clear and well-paced manner. This book has the power to enhance and save your life!

Who moved my cheese? by Dr Spencer Johnson
Change can be a blessing or a curse, depending on your perspective. The message of this book is that all can come to see it as a blessing, if they understand the nature of cheese and the role it plays in their lives.

This is a short (30 minute read) story that takes place in a maze. Four beings live in that maze: Sniff and Scurry are mice, non-analytical and non-judgmental; they just want cheese and are willing to do whatever it takes to get it. Hem and Haw are "little people", mouse-size humans who have an entirely different relationship with cheese.

For Hem and Haw cheese is their self-image. Their lives and belief systems are built around the cheese they've found. Most of us reading the story will see the cheese as something related to our livelihoods--our jobs, our career paths, the industries we work in--although it can stand for anything, from health to relationships. The point of the story is that we have to be alert to changes in the cheese and be prepared to go running off in search of new sources of cheese when the cheese we have runs out.

The One-minute Manager by Kenneth Blanchard and Spencer Johnson
Starting from the assumption that people are every company's most important resource, this book sets out three simple steps to getting the best from them and making every company run more efficiently.

The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People by Stephen Covey
Stephen Covey presents a principle-centred approach for solving personal and professional problems focussing on character.

Habits 1,2 and 3 deals with self-mastery - moving you from dependence to independence. Covey refers to these habits as "private" victories.

Habits, 4,5 and 6 follow on. When you are truly independent you have the foundation for effective interdependence. You have the character base to start working on "public victories" of teamwork, cooperation and communications. Habit 7 is the habit of renewal - it circles all the other habits.

A profound read and something that doesn't promise overnight relief but a deep understanding of life and the role you play.

228 ways to drive your business forward by Steve Mills
You might be forgiven for thinking this is a very slim volume for the price. And, at just 96 pages, it certainly is slim. But with this kind of book you are paying for the content – 228 tips for improving your profitability is a lot of content.

Newbury-based author Steve Mills is a twenty-two-year veteran of the marketing game. A self-confessed seminar junkie, compulsive reader and audio-programme fan, he believes research, plus his many years helping clients, has enabled him to distil the essence of good business practice into this small book.

His recommendation is that you read with a highlighter to hand, to mark the ideas that seem currently most relevant to your needs. I feel sure this collection of old, new and wacky ideas will have something for everyone to mark.

There are some gems in the book. For example, under ‘Keep in touch with your customers' (idea 218), one suggestion is to lend them something. I can see how that would work – though maybe borrowing something might be even more effective.

Another interesting revelation comes in idea 211 – the power of words. Apparently two words were sold to a shampoo manufacturer in 1941 for £100,000. What the two words were you will have to buy the book to discover.

Review by Jim Ewan

Good to Great by Jim Collins
Anyone who has visited k&h’s offices in the last few months may have noticed a large (10’ by 4’) painting on the wall of one of our meeting rooms. The painting shows a landscape on which there is a road. The road represents a time line covering the modern era at k&h, from about 1995, and goes through to the present and onto the future. At various points on the road are different buses- each representing k&h at that particular point in time: a run down, worn out bus struggling up hill in 1995 and a super hi-tech multi-decker going into the future.   

The purpose of the mural is to provide a powerful, metaphorical focal point  for the changes that k&h has and still is going through. The future bus represents the Vision that makes the discomfort of the present worth going through. Creating and communicating a Vision for the future are essential components of any effective business strategy. 

The inspiration for the mural was partly the latest Harry Potter film (Prisoner of Azkaban) and but mainly the “First Who…. Then What” chapter of Jim Collins’ book, Good to Great.

Good to Great is the result of a 5 year research project by 21 people from about 1996 onwards which looked 1,435 companies. The objective was to find out why some of those companies when from being merely good to being great- outperforming the competition by 4 to 6 times.

Crucially however, they only looked at companies that had already been around for at least 15 years prior to making the leap, and that had sustained that greatness for at least 15 years afterwards.

The result was that only 11 companies met the criteria set. Those 11 companies showed some significant similarities in the causes of their greatness, and the book examines these detail. The characteristics that were found to be common were:

• Level 5 leadership - the people who lead the company through the transition from good to great were not the stereotypical, larger than life charismatic bosses that you might expect. Instead they were quite and humble but very determined and focused individuals
• First who …then what - Here’s where the bus come in: getting the right people “on the bus” was done before formulating the business strategy
• Confront the brutal facts (yet never lose faith )- tough decisions absolutely have to be made and acted upon. Don’t compromise
• The hedgehog concept-   focus on the one thing that you can be the best in the world at and which you are passionate about and can make you money
• Culture of discipline - If all your people are committed to your vision and consistent in their commitment, you don’t need hierarchy, bureaucracy or excessive controls
• Technology accelerators - Technology does not drive success, but the good to great company use carefully selected technologies to facilitate it
• The flywheel and the doom loop - The good to great transition does not happen over night, and no single act or event is decisive. Instead it is like trying to get a huge steel flywheel turning: it will hardly move at all to start with no matter how hard you push. But once it does start moving, it has massive momentum

Good to Great is one of the most powerful business books you will ever read. It is one of the few business books that is based on solid evidence and experience, no just ideas.

Raving fans! by Kenneth Blanchard
Raving Fans! is about the need to turn your customers into fanatics who will rave about your business. The book is written in the parable style of Ken Blanchard and follows a newly appointed manager. What the manager learns is that there are three steps to creating a “Raving Fan” culture within a business:

Step 1 - Decide what you want . You do this by creating vision of perfection centred on the customer.

Step 2 - Discover what the customer wants. It is crucial you have the flexibility to then adapt your own vision if necessary to fill the gaps and meet the needs, of the customer.Butyou also need to accept that sometimes the customer wants something you can’t give them, something that falls outside the limits of your vision. Be prepared to let them buy these things elsewhere.

Step 3 - Deliver the customer’s vision, plus one percent. There are two elements to this. First, you have to deliver, consistently, all the time. Second, you need to promise 100% but deliver 101%.

The key messages that Kirkpatrick & Hopes are using to help us are:

• Consistency really is crucial and the only way you can guarantee consistency is by having great systems. System Builder software is helping us and can help you
• Beware of how dogmatic you are in applying systems. They are guidelines, not rules. Use systems to guarantee delivering to customers the minimum standard of service consistently; use the ‘Raving Fan’ mindset in your team to deliver even more than that (the extra one percent).
• Don’t limit your ‘Raving Fan’ ambitions to customers. You should look at everyone who comes into contact with your business as a potential ‘Raving Fan’, including your own team.
• Complaints are a golden opportunity to find out what the customer wants and to create a new ‘Raving Fan’.

Raving Fans is a great book, you can read it in a couple of hours. It has many examples of how different businesses have created Raving Fans. I am sure these will inspire lots of ideas about how you can do the same in your business.