| As
a freelance writer covering the beef industry, I’ve attended
numerous workshops and seminars over the years and frequently
hear speakers quote a great book that they’ve read. Often times,
the book has little to do with beef, but the principles being
taught offer some unique cross-over ideas for successful
business innovation – whether you’re a rancher, own an ag
business, or are in a leadership position within the industry.
Take for example the book Good to
Great: Why Some Companies Make the Leap…and Others Don’t by Jim
Collins. This is one that Barry Dunn, executive director of the
King Ranch Institute for Ranch Management at Texas A&M
University-Kingsville, and Colorado State University professor
Tom Field have promoted to beef audiences for several years.
The book poses the questions “Can a good company become a great
company and if so, how?” To get the answer, Collins researched
over 1,400 companies and selected 11 – including Fannie Mae,
Gillette, Walgreens, and Wells Fargo – who all made substantial
improvements in their performance over time.
Collins found that a commonality
among these companies that were “great” is that they challenged
many of the conventional notions of corporate success. In his
book, he shares dozens of examples from great and not so great
companies and offers a road map to excellence that any business
– including a ranch – would do well to consider.
Both Dunn and Field advocate that
beef producers need to start thinking more like other industries
and to do so, they should start by reading more business
publications. Dunn says it will begin to “change your mindset.”
Field agrees and has said, “If
your reading material is mostly about cattle or ranching –
you’re probably not reading broadly enough. We need to learn
from businesses outside our industry.”
To that end, I’ve amassed a list
of “recommended reads” from several of the speakers I’ve heard
over the years ranging from topics about history to leadership.
So read on to see what piques your interest, and then take the
time to sit down with one or more of these good books.
Innovation & Purpose
Two books that Field has quoted in his past presentations on the
topic of being innovative are Reinventing Technology: Policies
for Democratic Values by Michael Goldhaber and Zero Space:
Moving Beyond Organizational Limits by Frank Lekanne Deprez and
Rene Johannes Tissen.
Goldhaber’s book talks about
being different. He suggests if there is nothing special about
your work or product, no matter how hard you apply yourself you
won’t get noticed. And, this increasingly means you won’t be
adding value to sell your product. He goes on to discuss how to
attract attention from buyers and create your success in the
marketplace.
Likewise, Zero Space emphasizes that the status quo – among
business or organizations – will not create success for the
future. Instead the authors propose ideas for moving away from
traditional, often counterproductive thinking, to create an
organization that truly meets challenges. They discuss dealing
with sped-up consumer demands and business relationships as well
as forging alliances with customers, suppliers, and even
competitors.
Along with implementing innovative ideas, one must also know
their purpose. In his Seedstock Digest newsletter,
Colorado-based Troy Marshall has used the quote: “Until thought
is linked with purpose there is no intelligent accomplishment,”
from the book As A Man Thinketh by James Allen. The book
portrays the message that men and women are makers of
themselves, by virtue of the thoughts which they choose and
encourage.
To that point, Marshall suggests many people go through life
without any definitive purpose and many seedstock operations
fall into that same category. “They never stop working and are
constantly striving to improve they just don’t have a purpose
that defines their direction and so they never succeed in
relation to their potential,” he wrote in his newsletter.
Marshall also cites the book Think and Grow Rich: The Andrew
Carnegie formula for money making by Napoleon Hill, which
suggests having a purpose was so important that “people would
have a different (and better) story to tell about their lives if
only they would adopt a definite purpose and stand by that
purpose until it had time to become an all-consuming obsession.”
Of this, Marshall wrote in his
newsletter that the subject of purpose is easy to gloss over and
go about your business, but he encourages taking the time to
define it in your life. He says, “I can almost assure you that
the times that you are the most productive and the times that
you feel the happiest, when you feel really good about yourself
and the direction you are heading are those times that you are
closest to your fundamental purpose.”
Another book on the topic of purpose that has earned a lot of
attention is The Purpose Driven Life: What on Earth am I here
for? by Rick Warren. It is one that Field includes on his
recommended reading list.
All of the books mentioned are
available at
www.amazon.com.
Editor’s Note: Watch the next issue for Part 2 of Recommended
Reads for Ranchers.
Clip & Save: Recommended Reading
List
- Good to Great: Why Some
Companies Make the Leap…and Others Don’t by Jim Collins
-
Reinventing Technology: Policies for Democratic Values by
Michael Goldhaber
-
Zero
Space: Moving Beyond Organizational Limits by Frank Lekanne
Deprez and Rene Johannes Tissen
-
As A
Man Thinketh by James Allen
-
Think
and Grow Rich: The Andrew Carnegie formula for money making by
Napoleon Hill
-
The
Purpose Driven Life: What on Earth am I here for? by Rick
Warren
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