Mavericks (or ‘poor fits’) in firms trigger change

“Tempered Radicals”
By Debra E. Meyerson
Harvard Business School Press, 2001


We know some of them – occupying positions of responsibility among the top 1,000 corporations or wielding influence in the corridors of power. They are the “activists” in an organizational community, seeming “poor fits” that cannot somehow be assimilated in the dominant culture.

He could be an environmental activist in a power generation company. On one hand, management could not make heads or tails about him, but, on the other, management seeks his insight into the phenomenon of a protest group which has raised an issue that couldn’t seem to go away.

She could be a feminist advocate in an engineering firm whose culture is defined by “male chauvinists.” Would she be co-opted into the dominant behavior and thus give up her commitment to a larger cause, or would she be a necessary gadfly pricking the conscience and pride of self-satisfied males?

How many of these mavericks survive? And how many give up the fight and melt into the solvent of the majority, losing identity, swallowing their pride and being untrue to themselves?

This is doubtless a riveting subject. And this is the subject of “Tempered Radicals,” sub-titled “How People Use Difference to Inspire Change at Work.”

It deals with “poor fits” in the organization, whose values and interests are at odds with the dominant culture.

Are they useful at all to organizations, which must run like a well-oiled machine? Author Debra E. Meyerson, professor of organizational behavior at Stanford University’s Graduate School of Business, points out: “By asserting the non-conforming aspects of oneself, the tempered radical can pave the way for learning and change by questioning current practice and expectations and providing an alternative.”

That is because this activist person brings an entirely new perspective, asks disturbing questions – and therefore paves the way for new ideas.

Remember the child who declared the truth that the “the emperor had no clothes on”? Everyone in the kingdom knew that the ruler did not have anything on, but there was one boy who had the courage to tell the truth.

This is typical in the corporate world. Conformists would rather play safe, especially when the boss is espousing a “great” idea. It takes a non-conformist to contest such an idea. It is always a risky proposition. But, it could also be rewarding.

Based on 15 years of research and observation, the book reveals that adaptive, diverse, family-friendly, and socially responsible workplaces are built not by revolutionaries but by those the author calls “tempered radicals” – “people who successfully walk the tightrope between conformity and rebellion.”

The individuals have varying styles at introducing change within their organizations. At times, when change is difficult, if not impossible, these peope – to be “true to themselves” – take on responsibilities outside their work that give them self-fulfillment.

The book speaks about a a lawyer who volunteered his servies in a legal rights center to follow his commitment to fight injustice. The book calls this “designing behind the scenes actions” in order to make a difference.

The book’s research reveals that those who were successful in being true to their own values did not go for big wins, or earthshaking steps that would revolutionize their organizations. That could have been a surefire formula for being fired. What they did was to “leverage small wins” over time.

A chapter is devoted to how these tempered radicals organize for collective action, a process that requires the “essential skills of leadership,” the author says.

The tension remains when you are a maverick in your own organization. It is “difficult to navigate between competing pulls and sustains selves at odds with one another.” The sad thing is some peope finally give up one side of their selves or the other.

The book offers a way to “to resist lures to conform.” She advises that tempered radicals can make ongoing deliberate efforts to maintain affiliations, to make explicit the connection between their local efforts and their broader significance.

Possibly the most fundamental thing to remember about successful tempered radicals is that they know who they are and what is important to their sense of self. It’s a decision one has to make, the book says. Above all, tempered radicals reserve the choice to be an agent rather than a victim of their circumstances, and with this stance comes a tremendous sense of freedom and power.

Tempered radicals inspire change. Yet their leadership resides equally in their capacity to inspire people. They do inspire by having the courage to tell the truth even when it’s difficult to do so.

If you somehow fit into this category, or you are awed by the success or survival of tempered radicals in your firm, this book gives you a deeper insight into these mavericks who ask disturbing questions but who, in the final analysis, have tremendous value to the long-term existence of your organization.

Consulting work in bite-size options

“The Consultants Tool Kit”
Edited by Mel Silberman
McGraw-Hill, 2001


Consultants abound in the business world – and are, in the main, truly of help to organizations seeking the cutting edge in their strategy, managing change to cope with a profoundly altered environment, realizing new efficiencies in operations, making inroads into new markets – and a host of other solutions.

While most consultants, no doubt, have a place in the scheme of things in business, some are favorite targets of wit and jests – especially when they prove themselves superfluous in a world where the bottom line is non-negotiable.

A humorists, Jeanne Robertson, defines consultant as “someone who borrows your watch and charges to tell you the time” -- a definition that points to consulting work that, at best, overstates the obvious or, at worst, needlessly doubles the work.

Arnold Glasow points to consultants’ fees, saying: “A consultant is someone who saves his client almost enough to pay his fee.”

Be that as it may, consultants will be around for a long time. Their importance in the corporate mainstream is such that U.S. business spends over $3 billion annually on consultants. We don’t have the figures on consultants’ compensations in Philippine business, but the proliferation of auditing firms doubling up as consultants – aside from counselors in marketing drives, IT, change management, risk handling, corporate communications, etc. – proves that our consultants are also handsomely paid.

Which should really be the case, if you ask me, if such consultants prove to be corporate turnaround artists, marketing wizards and productive experts with positive impact on rising revenues and falling costs. The message, therefore, is for consultants to continually prove their worth – and thus continually sharpen their skills, expand their scope and deepen their knowledge of the business.

There is a book that will prove useful to consultants hereabouts – “The Consultant’s Tool Kit.” Veteran players in the game need it to assure them that not a single consultancy service is missed. New entrants in the consulting business will need it, not only to start right, but to know the full range of services they can offer.

For example, Part I alone, provides the reader 13 assessment questionnaires – from finding out if the firm’s business strategy makes sense” to establishing the “client’s leadership competencies.” Consultants are in the best position to make such assessments – first, because they have the advantage of detachment and objectivity; and second, management at times would not dare “rock the boat” themselves.

From evaluating the firm’s operations in various areas, the consultant is also treated to “hot-to-guides” for solving client’s problems. There! Consutlants are supposed to have a “bag of tricks” of a “panacea” to companies’ lingering problems.

You may not cure all, but at least your methodology creates the climate of an entire company geared for solutions. Before you know it, proving once again the theory of “self-fulfilling prophecy,” the company is well on its way to stumbling into the ultimate solution.

You have a menu of from “how to lead effective meetings” (do you think it’s ever easy?) to “how to move your client from training to performance improvement.” This proceeds from the established fact that “training alone is insufficient to bridge most performance gaps.” Editor Mel Silberman, Ph.D., points out that “trainers need to develop more comprehensive interventions that include incentive systems, communications technologies, environmental redesign,” etc.

Finally, Part III, offers 17 “intervention activities to increase your client’s effectiveness.” This is a section for facilitators for various group activities that enhance their skills and deepen their insights on quality, tem-building, organization change, dealing with resistance, etc. Who says business is not fun? These exercises lead them to solve puzzles, read people’s minds and hurdle many forms of resistance – ala- “Survivor Africa.”

This book of 354 pages is full of insights, suggestions, illustrations all the way into the 354th page. The editor, featuring 45 top professionals in their fields, wasted mo space in giving the veteran or start-up consultant needs to start with a strong beginning, sustain his consulting practice, and make him or her enjoy every engagement that follows.

Did you ever think consulting work is the refuge of the retiree, the unemployed, the “corporate isolate”? Think again. If you get hold of this tool kit, you will realize consulting work is a world of vast possibilities where you can try almost anything. But, first things first:

Make a persuasive pitch for your prospective client to try your “new idea.” And then, when you get the client’s green light, give the job you best shot, decide that you will enjoy the entire exercise, truly bring your client to a new level of success or growth. You will realize that the financial rewards are simple side benefits.

For small tasks, eat the frog; for huge work, eat the elephant (one bite at a time)

“Eat That Frog!”
By Brian Tracy
Berrett-Koehler Publishers, 2001


Everyone is shocked and dismayed at the revelation that Justice Francis Garchitorena is sitting on 341 cases, some of them pending for more than ten years. For his procrastination – by habit or by design (e.g., the cases of Imelda Marcos, et al, are in his division) – the Supreme Court relieved him of his duties as administrative head of the graft court.

Wasn’t it Nortcotte Parkinson who said that “work expands to the time alloted to it”? If you have one week to finish work, you will finish it in one week. But, if you’re given only a day to complete it, you’ll have it over and done with in one day.

Justice Garchitorena has 90 days maximum, after submission for resolution, to promulgate the decision (source: Neal Cruz, “As I See it,” PDI, November 30), and so Garchitorena does not even fall under the Parkinson principle.

The Justice’s case is simply illustrative of many cases of procrastination that are happening everyday at home, in offices, in factories and in schools. Inspite of the fact that postponing one’s task has been a lesson we learned early in life (like, “Don’t postpone for tomorrow what you can do today”), tackling the day’s business is always the most difficult thing to do.

You come to your office, and your staffers are busy with the entertainment pages of your newspaper – and the staffers justify this by saying they are “setting themselves in the mood” for work! You check your manager’s work, and he is busy answering his emails, rationalizing that he is “doing away with little tasks” before he takes on a huge task staring him in the face.

Many pieces of advice have been offered, and thousands of books on “time management” have been published. It turns out, it’s not time we should be managing – it’s ourselves. That is if you believe Brian Tracy, author of the helpful book with a shocking title (yuck!): “Eat That Frog!”

Let me issue a warning crime reporters on television and radio with which they preface their gruesome reports: “Don’t read this while taking your breakfast,” especially when you get this unforgettable (because traumatic) line from Mr. Tracy: “If you have to eat two frogs, eat the ugliest one first.” Let me quickly add: The author is talking about something else – a subject that’s more helpful than a frog. He says:
“Your ‘frog’ is your biggest, most important task, the one you are most likely to procrastinate on if you don’t do something about it now. It is also the one task that can have the greatest positive impact on your life and results at the moment.”

If there’s a book that should make it easy for you to procrastinate no longer, this book of 118 pages will do the job – with a bonus: you will be introduced to great thoughts from influential and powerful persons giving us tips on the principles of “focus,” “concentration,” “passion,” “achieving your single biggest mission.”

Subtitled “21 Great Ways to Stop Procrastinating and Get More Done in Less Time,” the book has 21 brief sections dealing with one “great way” at a time. The first section speaks about deciding what task to tackle first. A helpful blurb goes: Here’s a great rule for success: “Think on paper.”

I remember an uncle whom I visited in the U.S., a super-salesman. He gets up early in the morning, goes to a corner with his notebook, and plans his sales calls for the day. It turns out that’s the secret of his being “super.” Mr. Tracy reveals an interesting fact: “Only about 3 percent of adults have clear written goals. These people accomplish five and ten times as much as people of equal or better education and ability but who, for whatever reason, have never taken the time to write out exactly what it is they want.”

“Take action on your plan immediately,” he advises. That’s easy. So, we ask: What about tasks that take some time to complete – like maybe a huge engineering project or writing a book? Mr. Tracy has the answer too: “Resolve to do something every single day that moves you toward your major goal.”

Now, you know why some people get more things done, while others seemingly equally busy, come up with much much less.

The few times I watched former Senate President Jovito Salonga work, I discovered how he accomplishes great tasks – not only for himself, but for the country: He writes his daily tasks on a notebook, makes his own calls when he should, visits his associates to get him to support his cause -- and then, before you know it, he is launching a book with a tour-de-force dimension or he is rallying his senators abrogating the American military bases. No mean accomplishments, if we may say so. How does he do it? He begins with the ugliest frog, if we must use Tracy’s extended metaphor.

Maybe, the more appropriate metaphor is the elephant! The author writes: “You have heard the old question, ‘How do you eat an elephant?’ The answer, of course, is ‘one bite at a time!’.” A lot of friends ask me: “How can you read one book a week?” My answer: For thin books, I eat the frog; for thick complicated books, I take on the elephant in bite-size chapters!

This book is witty, warm-hearted and helpful. Procrastinate no longer. Go to the nearest bookstore. You’ll never know when you need to speed up pending work. I don’t know about you, but some have become a sorry case of “a frog on the frying pan” – blissfully enjoying the warmth of the pan until it is fried alive.

A Second Look at Social Research: Detachment or Involvement?

“Socially Shared Inquiry”
By Herminia Corazon Alfonso
Great Books, 2001


If there is any pronounced redeeming feature to capitalism, though driven by the engine of profit, it is this: It has industry players who believe in and are committed to be “responsible corporate citizens.”

Close to two decades ago, the idea that business can be a positive social force caught up with the country’s captains of industry. So, as a decisive step, these industrialists put up the Philippine Business for Social Progress (PBSP), an expression of their common desire to “return” to the community a portion of their earnings as their contribution to social development.

Corporations, big and small, also caught the vision of being “good neighbors” to the immediate communities where they operate. They have, in fact, gone even farther. They created the “community outreach department” or its equivalent to substantiate such “good-neighbor” policy.

An important part of this department’s work is to continue feeling the pulse of its “host community” – a term that describes not only the obvious fact that the company is located in its midst. It also underscores a not-so-obvious reality that such a firm is also genuinely interested in the life, culture and “soul” of such locale.

There is a book, “Socially Shared Inquiry,” subtitled “A Self-Reflexive, Emancipatory, Communication Approach to Social Research,” which should give the CEO or the community relations official – not only a closer look at social research, but an insight into the current debate among social researchers: Should the researcher be a detached agent extracting data from a community, or should he/she be one who is involved and who participates in the community’s life as well?

This is actually no different from the debate among journalists: Should the newsman be a detached observer of society, or should he be involved as a crusading agent, take an advocacy position – and thus would truly contribute to a more honest, freer and saner society?

The foreword to the book underscores the author’s stand: “Fundamental to her (Alfonso’s) work is the recognition that social research is not only inquiring into social phenomena; it is a social phenomenon in its own right, one where researchers enter the very social fabric they intend to study and partly cause what they observe.”

This contrasts sharply with the studied detachment of researchers, described by the book as “disembodied researchers” involving everyone except the “object of research” – the communities being observed, clarifies the author.

Author Alfonso developed the book entirely on this concept: “Socially Shared Inquiry is designed to be a method of investigation enacted by the members of a community who engage themselves in the process as both doers and subjects of inquiry.” The community must be involved in the research process.

The book is a take off from the dissertation of the author, so it still uses the language of the academician.

Actually, you should look beyond the debate on whether the researcher is involved or detached. The value of the book to people disinterested in academic debates is that the book has a wealth of methodologies in getting the community to discuss their goals and to empower themselves.

If you continue on, the author pictures to you the transaction going on in towns and barrios where change is happening.

Read about the author’s interesting account of Erin Brokovich (starring Julia Roberts), an involved researcher who changed the life of an entire community.

For corporate citizens, this book will make you better know the “soul” of the communities where you operate. For this alone, it is worth steering clear of the academician’s lingo.

A ‘roundtable discussion’ by CEOs on business ethics

“Paragons”
By Alfred A. Yuson
FINEX, 2001



Corporate or business ethics – like ethics, in general – is a riveting subject. You confront an act, and decide whether that act is right, wrong – or indifferent. Of course, that ushers in a lively discussion on the gray areas – from white lies to situational ethics, when the end is supposed to justify the means.

For example, regarding telling a white lie, Dietrich Bonhoeffer – in a book simply titled “Ethics” -- advanced the theory that one should defer to the “higher truth.” He cited an instance when a child asks his teacher this pained question: “Teacher, is it true that my mother is a prostitute?” The teacher’s reply: “No, my child, your mother is a loving virtuous woman.” To this Bonhoeffer commented that the teacher is upholding the “higher truth” of the child’s young mind and his future.

Close to home and to something contemporary, the book, “Paragons” -- subtitled “23 CEOs on Corporate Ethics” – confronts ethics in the workplace, in CEO suites and wood-panelled boardrooms – but the issue remains as sharply elemental as “simply a matter of right or wrong,” according to Nicasio I. Alcantara, chairman of Petron Corporation, and one of the featured CEOs in the book.

Ric Pascua, president of Fort Bonifacio Development Corporation, steers clear of corporate lingo (“corporatese,” as they say), and pictures to us a dilemma: “A gun is put on your head and you are asked either to pay up or they would blow you away. You have two choices: both of them morally acceptable. You can decide to be a martyr if you are called to be one, but if it’s acceptable to you to get out of the danger by paying the fee, that’s okay too.” How would Bonhoeffer resolve that?

The beauty of ethics is it truly gives the decision-maker the “free moral space,” according to the authors of “Ties That Bind” (Executive Read, January 7, 2001), who introduced the social contracts approach to business ethics. They, in fact, used the word “hypernorms”. These are fundamental principles (like truth telling, freedom, respect for human dignity) to which “corporate norms” (company codes of conduct) must be subsumed.

Speaking of “free moral space,” that is exactly what you feel when you listen to CEOs speak about their decision to place upon themselves rules of conduct. And such freedom is best appreciated in a climate of free enterprise – or capitalism’s “engine”: profit.
In the author’s introduction of the author, he triggers an engaging discussion on profit, “Obsession with profit is a self-defeating proposition.” Then, elsewhere in the book, Fr. Bienvenido F. Nebres, S.J., and president of Ateneo de Manila University, gives an enlightened view of the profit motive:

“It is important for a company to be profitable, because if you are not profitable, if you are losing, there is not much you can do. You cannot pay your employees well. You cannot do anything for your community. You cannot be a good citizen. You cannot put in anti-pollution measures. You’re going to cut corners because you are losing.”

Management guru Peter Drucker has volumes to agree with Father Nebres on the social value of profit.

But what is the ultimate good for business? These academics have a way of distilling otherwise murky ideas. Listen to Fr. Tamerlane R. Lana, O.P., president of the University of Santo Tomas: “The ultimate standard that determines whether a conduct or behaviour is appropriate or not is the good of the human being… and the ultimate goal of all corporate endeavors is the good of the human person.”

When one talks ethics, one invariably raises the issue of integrity. The word has been so overused that what we need now is go back to the root of such word. Thankfully, the President of De La Salle University, Brother Rolando Dizon, has a ready answer:

“Integrity has at its root the notion of wholeness of self.. Being whole means that, at the center of one’s being, you have this core which gives you an identity, a knowledge of who you are.”

The book also treats you, readers, with illuminating one-liners. Jaime Augusto Zobel de Ayala is direct to the point: “It’s one thing to espouse principles, but another thing to live up to them. That’s when integrity comes in.”

It’s a “function of complete honesty in all your dealings,” points out Crescenciano Toledo, Johnson & Johnson general manager. Joselito D. Y. Campos, United Laboratories chairman and CEO, is laconic: “You have to be consistent. Basically, you do what you say, whether it’s personal or corporate.”

Does it make good business sense to be governed by a set of corporate ethical norms? The Ayala head gives a simple answer: “Success comes by sticking to principles.”

Petron’s Nick Alcantara draws from his experience: “If you are correct in your business practices, it may be difficult at the start, but eventually you get the winning edge in the competition.”

Procter & Gamble GM, Johnip Cua, stresses the long-term impact of sticking to one’s principles: “Without ethics, there can be no sustainable success… companies that do not have the basic ingredients of honesty and integrity do not last very long.”

The book is virtually a long but engaging “roundtable discussion” among CEOs on corporate ethics. It’s enough feat to bring them together in one glossy book, and FINEX should be commended for making it available to our readers. For starters, the book gives readers a rare chance to have a window into the ethical mindsets of the country’s captains of industry.

And for this reason, the book deserves a sequel – one where the author could probably further process the valuable thoughts of these CEOs under categories or thought clusters, for example, on “integrity,” “bribery,” “integrity in information,” etc., as additional value to readers.

The publishers have thought well to call public attention to this important subject, and it would be well if the sequel of this book would also tell our readers what they think – in the mode of Randy David, in his erstwhile talk show, giving his last word about the entire discussion.

Readers would stop and listen if this happens. Meanwhile, we have a roundtable discussion with the author facilitating – and annotating -- the entire exercise.

A CEO’s view: How to fight for your brand

“Brand Warfare”
by David F. D’Alessandro
McGraw-Hill, 2001


Noontime comes, you are alone, and you decide it’s time to have a quick lunch. You mentally survey your myriad choices, then rule them out one by one – because you decide to go to your favorite restaurant across the street.

In my case, while searching for a suitable angle for this review, I thought of lunch with two divergent thoughts: one, do it quick and get it over and done with; or two, spend an hour in a familiar corner to collect my thoughts and give them sharp focus. My choice was Hunter’s Deli, a cozy restaurant with a European charm --designed to give one a touch of nature in the concrete jungle.

And since I was in the mood to get ideas on “branding,” I asked the owner-operator if the “ambience” was by design or by accident. What she revealed was a noontime lesson on branding. Hunter’s Deli was designed for the adventurous – those who want to try something new in European cuisine – with the feel of the woods to reinforce the message.

The constant inflow of expats, baby boomers and yuppies told me this is one “brand” that has succeeded in inspiring loyalty from its market segment.

That is precisely what the book, “Brand Warfare,” is saying: “The truth is that consumers need brands, both good and bad, to help them navigate a world in which their choices are almost infinite. The best thing that can happen to a brand is to become a kind of shorthand in consumers’ eyes for a host of great qualities that demand their loyalty and respect.”

The book is sub-titled “10 Rules for Building the Killer Brand,” and you would expect perhaps a ho-hum list of laws that simply summarize tried and tested strategies. This book is certainly a cut above the rest. It is written by a highly successful CEO who made an insurance firm, John Hancock, an exciting and audacious (not the cooly professional) company -- that soon led the New York Times to list is as one of the top 100 brands of the 20th century.

The book abounds with soundbites and quotable quotes – not because they bring to you the poetry and majesty of the English language – but because every statement is a wondrous vehicle for a rare insight from a successful CEO, who has made it clear that he tolerates no nonsense, but who extols superior ideas and does not withhold praises for fine business execution.

What makes listening to a CEO a rare treat is that you come face to face -- not with a marketing professional with all the predictable marketing jargon – but with a top honcho who shows the big picture. He “connects” politics with marketing. He unravels the distributors’ ploy to keep you hostage. He exposes some ad agencies’ agenda to keep you spending your advertising dollar (or peso, in our case).

“There’s a sucker born every 30 seconds,” he says of those selling sponsorhip ideas, paraphrasing American circus impresario P.T. Barnum who earlier gave the dictum: “There’s a sucker born every minute.” Don’t get him wrong. D’Alessandro has actually used sponsorships to the hilt – and with great impact on his market share.

D’Alessandro was a hotshot public relations man before he became CEO, and so he uses “brand” when he means “reputation.” In his mind, there is no distinction. A brand, he defines, is “whatever the consumer thinks of when he or she hears your company’s name.” Author Jack Trout would call this “positioning.”

The author minces no words when he declares: “The best brand equals the best product.”

He moves on to cover the ten rules. For example, the first rule, “It’s the Brand, Stupid,” is a take-off from the winning political slogan of Bill Clinton, which ran: “It’s the economy, stupid.” Later in the book, the author illustrates two important branding warfare strategies of, yes, Clinton.

He illustrates the first tactic, “It’s crucial to persuade people to think well of your company before you really need them to,” by citing the “insulated Clinton brand” that has survived the Monica Lewinsky misadventure. In other words, a company, like Clinton, should have a reservoir of goodwill from which to get support when the going gets rough.

The second advice, “Don’t allow your enemies to define you,” is a respected public relations tenet that, in the mind of D’Alessandro, has been elevated as a trusted marketing weapon. He cites the case of Michael Dukakis whose character has been defined for him by antagonist George Bush. The latter won the electoral contest.

Predictably, the author uses his experience as CEO of Hancock and how he made it such a successful brand – and we don’t begrudge him that. After all, reading him is like being with him at the board room – and seeing him tear apart mediocre ideas and hearing him bring out wisdom culled from the battlefield – with laconic lines like: “Brands cannot simply stand still” – and then enumerates for you brand names that have effectively become has-beens.

Readers, meet a consummate CEO, who has victories in the marketplace to earn for himself at least your valuable reading time.

Words capture the pulse and impulse of the times

“20th Century Words”
By John Ayto
Oxford University Press, 1999


The sub-title of this Oxford book says it all: “The story of the new words in English over the last hundred years.” And the book delivers what it promises. This is not only an enumeration of words that have risen from the horizon at the dawning and conclusion of the 20th century. It is as much an epic of the world – from the viewpoint of the English-speaking world – giving us glimpses of cataclysmic, earthshaking and trendsetting events. In this book, every word coined or that has gained popularity, has its own story to tell.

It is not only a case of lexicographers catching up with reality, the book says, but it is a case of “genuine change in public usage.” Read an interesting account on the initial revulsion over a four-letter word, its usage by famous authors – and then its increasing recognition – if not respectability (?) – proven by its inclusion in dictionaries. In the 60s, a word is called “Standard English” if it was written. Those that remained spoken – at home or in the streets – if they were touched by neither linotype nor offset, were not “standard.”

“Words are a mirror of their times,” the book declares, which adds that the editors recognize that a word exists once it gets printed or published. The proliferation of English words is a concern of 500 million people around the world – 400 million of whom are native English-speaking individuals, while 100 million use English as their second language (that includes us, Filipinos).

The book also gives the reader interesting accounts on words that were taboo or euphemisms. “Fat,” for example was no social stigma in the 19th century; it was, on the contraty, the standard for pulchritude then. Then “fat” became a “monstrous insult” at the close of the 20th century. One euphemism is suggested for “fat”: “circumferentially challenged”!

This Oxford collection, like all other Oxford books, could be the most authoritative source of new words that saw the light in the last century. What adds to its credibility is the structure where every word is shown employed by famous authors — including the day it was born.

For example, “brassiere” came into being in 1909, when it was first used by Vogue magazine. It was abbreviated into “bra” in the 1930s. Then, later in the sixties, we heard the joke that the bra was poised to sue flat-chested Twiggy for “lack of support.”

Another interesting feature in this book is the “conversion” of words – meaning, a noun being used as a verb, citing “garage a car” as an illustration. We have our own “Sinclair it” and our local “Kodak-an taka!”

In 1912, the word “yes-man,” the “man who agrees from self-interest or fear with everything put to him,” came into being. And, we may add, the yes-man has been with us since then. Elevated to virtue, saying yes by yes-men employ this excuse: “You can’t say no to the President.” Then they authorize the transfer of billions of pesos in what was clearly a case of plunder. At least, in recent history, a man surnamed Yasay said no to a former President.

Check out the 1940s, and you will read about words like “pin-up,” first used for Dorothy Lamour by Life, describing her as the “No. 1 pin-up girl of the U.S. Army.” Many more pin-ups later, there was Marilyn Monroe and, locally, there is Joyce Jimenez.

“Fibre optics” emerged into the verbal scene in 1956 (and we thought it was much later!), written up by the Times, which said: “If one beam of light can be transmitted along a glass tube, why not transmit detailed images along the same path?” Robert Kennedy was right: Ask “why not?” – not “why?” That one question has become the mother of inventions many times over.

And do you know when “Pac-Man” intruded into our consciousness? It was 1981, courtesy of a proprietary name of a computer game featuring a voracious blob-shaped character. Well, at home, media have christened one industrialist “Pac-Man” for the same reason.

Finally, in 1994, a fitting parting shot for this review, where did “mwah” come from? The Independent, in 1998 used it with effect: “He is half-Czech, half-Spanish, beautifully groomed, deliciously perfumed, around 60, and a great air-kisser, mwah, mwah!” You got it: the word is a representation of an air kiss. Close to home, a sixty-something Commissioner had no use for air between his lips and a lady commissioner – and so he was jolted by a rebuke: “Ano ba ýan, Lolo!”

Now you know why you shouldn’t miss this collection. The words capture the pulse – and impulse – of the world throughout the century that just came to pass. And, then, without warning, the words inspire you to remember local words and phrases that capture the nation’s temper and tempests. (dantemv@i-next.net)

Magsaysay legacy: A leader’s role is to keep hope alive

“My Guy, Magsaysay”
by Jess Sison
Full Circle Communications, 2001


William Shakespeare -- in “As You Like It” -- wrote: “All the world’s a stage, / And all men and women merely players: / They have made their exits and entrances.”

Leaders throughout human history are a fascinating study, especially charismatic leaders who would rise to the occasion at a defining moment in a country’s history.

In contemporary history, there is Nelson Mandela, the leader who spent almost half of his lifetime behind bars, but who emerged larger than life, united his people in South Africa, proved the truism that “one man with courage is a majority,” and ended apartheid in his country.

Lech Walesa of Poland, a charismatic labor leader, fired the imagination – not only of workers – but of the entire citizenry, thirsting for democracy and freedom. He articulated the fondest hopes of the Polish people, and the latter rewarded him with the Presidential post.

Close to home, we have, of course, former Senator Benigno “Ninoy” Aquino whose lifelong opposition to dictatorship and whose death at the airport tarmac after “a shot that was heard around the world,” inspired the EDSA revolution that ended two decades of dictatorship. But, Ninoy never became President – unlike Mandela and Walesa.

But one Filipino charismatic leader became President, in what many political observers termed a “brief shining moment in the Philippine presidency.” It was all-too-brief because, on December 30, 1953, Ramon Magsaysay became President of the Philippines. On March 17, 1957, this much-loved leader died in a plane crash in Mt. Manunggal, Cebu, abruptly ending a Presidential watch, which has now become the stuff of legends.

The life and times of the late President have been chronicled in our history books, but such accounts only succeed in a caricature of the leader, depicting him on broad strokes or placing him within the backdrop of a specific historical period.

Thankfully, Jess Sison, former press secretary during the Ramos Presidency and my senior in community journalism, dug deep into his treasure chest of stories about Magsaysay and came up with gems and nuggets of stories in his book, “My Guy, Magsaysay.” The author has told these colorful anecdotes on many occasions, but I didn’t realize the stories would cover all of 141 pages in this elegant book.

Magsaysay was a master in image building. The author’s account tells much about the late President’s style: “During the campaign for presidency in 1953, Ramon Magsaysay became famous for jumping over canals. He had pictures every now and then in the newspapers showing him jumping over this or that canal. What people did not know was that, every time he jumped over a canal and the camera did not flash, he would retrace his steps … until the camera flashed.”

Off camera, Magsaysay was his charming self. Sison narrates an account when the President abruptly stopped a five-car Presidential motorcade – and asked the woman tending the store if she had some 7-Up (his favorite drink). There was an instant meeting beside the sari-sari store among wide-eyed barrio folk, hearing the President promising them that the gates of the Presidential palace would be open for them.

Magsaysay the guy truly endeared himself as the “common man’s hero.” One time, narrates the author, the President was speaking before a crowd in Cabanatuan City, and the rain fell. Instantly, someone opened an umbrella for “The Guy,” but he threw it away. A raincoat was offered, but was similarly rejected. And Magsaysay said in Filipino: “Why will I cover myself with a raincoat when you are all soaking wet … If you will get wet, I will also get wet. If you will get sick, I will also get sick like you.” A thunderous ovation followed, the author narrates.

Who wouldn’t fall in love with a leader like that, a natural – not those more recent leaders who only succeed in strutting about as poor copycats?

An analysis from an expert on leadership, Richard Hughes, illuminates Magsaysay’s incredible appeal. He said, “Transformation leaders are charismatic in that they are able to articulate a compelling vision of the future and form strong emotional attachments with followers … they form strong emotional bonds.”

Anecdotes abound from the memory of Jess Sison who, at age 23, was already a close-in reporter of Magsaysay. That explains why the stories have a sense of immediacy. The book is a well-planned and edited piece of literature, starting off with a photo essay and ending with that poignant photo where Magsaysay was tying his shoelace. The caption says it all, gripping our heart:

“A few hours before he died in a plane crash … President Ramon Magsasay ties his shoelace.” I would have added that he was preparing for an appointment with destiny.

If you miss the kind of Presidency that has real mass appeal, not the one contrived by a former actor, this book gives you a personal account of someone who was there while such Presidency was being shaped. The pictures show the young Jess Sison as truly an eyewitness to a leadership that has become legend.

People may debate the substance and style of the Magsaysay Presidency, but no one can dispute that “in one brief shining moment,” Filipinos knew how it felt to be heard, loved and backslapped by a leader who did not only master the art but who truly had the heart for the masses, as Jess Sison puts it.

Some may believe Harry S. Truman, former American President, when he said: “The President is a glorified public relations man, who spends his time flattering, kissing and kicking people to get them to do what they are supposed to do anyway”

But those who love Magsaysay, and those who miss his leadership would embrace this statement from John W. Gardner: “A prime function of a leader is to keep hope alive.”

The Shakespearean line ends: “And one man plays his part.” Magsaysay’s part was to show how to keep the flame of hope alive. From this our present leadership must take its lessons.

Mergers and Acquisitions:Be with the winners, not losers

“Mergers and Acquisitions”
Harvard Business Review
Harvard Business School Press, 2001


Hyphenated names have been punctuating the corporate landscape -- Equitable-PCI, Bristol Myers-Squibb, PLDT-Smart, to name a few – rivalling the prominence of high-powered women executives resisting pressures to drop their maiden names in favor of the husbands’ not so famous appellations.

Reason: The marriage of two corporations – by shotgun or by consent – has not spared even our corporate world. Mergers and acquisitions (you must recognize them when they are abbreviated as “M & A” to be “in”) have actually been going on in key financial and business centers around the world.

Sometimes the two names survive in a “merger of equals.” Other times, one name survives and the other is consigned to oblivion, instantly telling us which management team members march in as conquering heroes and who settle for a “second class citizenship” in what was once their domain.

We read the outcomes of these highly dramatic mergers or acquisitions, — and about boards reorganizing to reflect the entry of the “new centurions.” In more mundane terms, we hear happy stories of friends being catapulted to CEO or COO positions, and hear sad tales of those who lose their plush offices, executive parking slots, executive elevator privileges or – worse, their shirts.

Locally, the high-profile mergers and acquisitions even had the Presidential finger dipped into them, transferring big sums of money to finance the corporate move – which is now the subject of a celebrated plunder case. You ask: Is it possible to have a merger from a purely business standpoint, bereft of politics?

That’s the problem. In the Philippine context, business and politics are hard to extricate one from the other. You, therefore, need – just this once – to detach yourself from the Philippine setting to learn the fundamentals and the finer points of this exciting game.

A book titled “Harvard Business Review on Mergers and Acquisitions” is an excellent piece of literature for you if you want to know any of the following: How to make mergers succeed, how to master the fine art of friendly acquisition, how to evaluate if you are paying too much for an acquisition, how to integrate two cultures in a merged company, how to save a merger that is about to collapse, and how to use the experts in merging, acquiring and integrating.

This is not a textbook on the M&A game, one that has acquired a mystique to business observers and spectators like many of us. This Harvard-published book has steered clear of the jargon that succeeds only in confounding, not enlightening, many of us. After all, we also have every right to know what is happening in boardrooms and golf courses.

Don’t miss the CEO roundtable discussion which features the “acquirers” and the “acquired” – particularly one whose company was acquired by Yahoo! for $3.7 billion; or an insurance firm which made two major acquisitions worth $2.2 billion; or a consulting firm which has made a $6.6 billlion takeover; and many more stories.

One chapter in the book offers some food for thought for acquirers: A “low premium purchase” does not necessarily result in a high return on investment. On the contrary, those who pay a high premium generate high returns, as shown by the book in 20 M&A deals.

Some say that the acquiring team should speak with “one voice.” Some featured CEOs and M&A experts disagree. Robert Aiello and Michael Watkins disagree: “Successful acquirers usually divide their deal team into two or three separate negotiating groups – managers, lawyers and investment bankers.”

The book has qualitative and quantitative analyses on any aspect of the M&A deal, and the you are actualy ushered into their strategic and tactical moves to the last detail. However, lest you come away wondering what the best strategy is, one chapter is wholly devoted to GE Capital. After assimilating more than 100 acquisitions for the past five years alone, GE capital has developed, in the process, a model on how to do it – and succeed.

GE Capital’s four consultants offer four valuable lessons: First, begin the integration process before the deal is signed; second, dedicate a full-time individual to manage the integration process; third, implement any necessary restructuring sooner rather than later; and fourth, integrate not only the business operations but also the corporate cultures.

This book is packed with the best strategies formulated to effect and sustain a successful acquisition. There are usually winners and losers in this game, but some smart acquirers have also achieved a “win-win” situation for the conqueror and the conquered. Whatever the case, make this subject personal: Don’t be caught in a situation where you are the loser. Begin reading this book.

Your role at the workplace is greater than your job description

“Bringing Your Soul to Work”
by Cheryl Peppers & Alan Briskin
Berrett-Koehler Publishers Inc., 2000


I have this artist friend who has a job as executive vice president of a construction-related firm. From nine a.m. to six p.m., he is the perfect engineer who wants every process executed with precision and who makes sure every work component works along a predetermined system.

After six, he rushes home (not to catch the early evening news) to lose himself in his studio. He picks up brush and palette -- and picks up, too -- one other unfinished business: an oil painting on canvas.

I asked him once how he could apply himself with such intensity at work and with equal, if not more, passion at his art studio. His answer was unexpected: “I work here,” he said, pointing to a busy mix of men and machines through his glass window, “so that I can finance my art.”

Another friend gets out of the plush offices of a computer company during lunch breaks -- camera in tow – to photograph the “remaining human elements” (his words) in the concrete jungle – a close-up of a vein-lined leaf, a long shot of a green patch in Makati, or the innocent smile of a streetkid perched on a pushcart. Why does he do it? His reply was as absolutely honest as it was mildly shocking: “By being back to what I most love to do, away from the hustle and bustle of work, I keep my sanity.”

Has the present-day workplace somehow succeeded in sundering soul from body? Has work been deprived of meaning? Has high purpose become incompatible with big business?

A book offers an answer -- and a way of “Bringing Your Soul to Work” which, incidentally, is the book’s title, authored by Cheryl Peppers and Alan Briskin. The book asks: “How do we go beyond simply balancing work and personal life to an approach to living – that has integrity and beauty?”

However, while waiting for the initiatives of corporate organizations toward this end, executives and professionals need to find ways to avoid a workaday chore that seems to tell us to bring your mind and body to work – but leave your soul behind!

The authors first discuss the “inner wilderness of the soul.” The wilderness conjures up a mix of fear and excitement – apprehension over the unknown and thrill over the adventure it offers. This is exactly what the authors want us to feel about our soul at work.

True to their calling as scholars, they make sure “soul” has been properly defined – using several points of view: Greek, Latin, Hindu, Hebrew and some indigenous traditions. The Greeks look at soul as “psyche,” the Romans as “anima,” and the Hebrews as “breath of life.” The authors add that the “Hebrew creation story implies the coming together of divinity and humanity, spirit and body.”

A Ph.D. in professional psychology, Ms. Peppers switches from theology to psychology, saying: “Each of us brings to work a multiplicity of selves.” Explaining contrasting personalities within us, particularly the good and the bad side, she suggests “managing the tension” to bring out the best out of such turbulence.

The authors advise readers to take time reading the book and going through such exercises as keeping a journal – especially as they bring the readers to journey back into their past fears, and travel on into their earnest hopes and fondest dreams for themselves. The book also abounds with stories of conflicts resolved to the fulfillment of the soul at work.

This theme keeps recurring in the book: Be true to yourself at work. Link role with soul. From being lyrical, the authors become practical: They offer six ways to deal with “what pulls us out of our role” – naming them as: criticism, fear, transitions, competing roles, fatigue and loss of purpose.

The book is a well-written piece, rich with psychological, theological and philosophical anchors. Perhaps, that’s what the authors are, in fact, saying: all these truths agree that the soul must be greater than its job description – and must, therefore, find ways to express that “greatness” at the workplace. Unfortunately, the authors say, some people are led to “rejecting a greatness for which they do not wish to be responsible.”

This book insists that you take an inward journey into yourself, and it’s hard to disagree. But, when the book ventures into relegating the battle between good and evil to simply “managing the tension” between positive and negative sides in a two-sided nature, it’s hard to agree. After all, good and evil are irreconcilable forces, and dealing with such mutually exclusive antagonist forces is much more crucial than dealing with quarrelsome sisters inside yourself.

On the whole, however, the book can be quite liberating (if only it liberates itself from subjects that are better left to theologians), especially with these stirring lines from Nelson Mandela, the legendary South African leader: “Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure.”

The soul at work is powerful beyond measure. This book at least begins the effort to tap such power and, because of that, the book is worthy of one’s precious time – when everyone else is asleep and your soul is suitably stirred.

Narrowing your choices, and making up your mind

“The Literary Book of Answers”
by Carol Bolt
Hyperion, New York, 2000


“To be or not to be?” That was Hamlet’s question, as he was caught in a dilemma, seeking an answer to an existential question: shall he choose death, or shall he face a “sea of troubles?”

Hamlet’s soliloquy has survived the test of time. Reason: We creatures and actors of the 21st century have become more and more indecisive because we are faced with a lot lot more options. Not only that. Life has become more and more complex.

Joe Griffith, a renowned public speaker in the United States said: “It’s harder to make decisions today than it ever has been. When I was a kid, there was a soda fountain in a drugstore near my house. They only three flavors – vanilla, chocolate, or strawberry. It was easy to decide. Today when I go into an ice cream store, they have ten times more choices, and I have trouble deciding.”

Here at home, in the not so distant past, we had the simple choices of coffee, tea or … me!? And then, it was a choice between instant coffee and brewed coffee. Today, Starbucks or Seattle’s Best keep you standing at the counter deciding brewed or not brewed, short or tall, flavored or not-flavored, hot or cold, caffeinated or decaffeinated, brewed decaf or instant decaf, hot or cold capuccino – and so on with infinite choices of taste and aroma.

The paradox of the times, however, is that decisions have to be made faster now than ever before. Lee Iacocca, the guy who saved Chrysler, makes clear his bias for quck decision-making by making this requirement from his management team: “The qualities than make a good manager is decisiveness.”

“Whenever I make a bum decision, I just go out and make another,” said former U.S. President Harry S. Truman. This was the same man who ordered the bombing of the cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. You cannot make a bum decision for so huge a consequence. The advice of Robert Townsend of Avis and author of “Up the Organization,” is a safer one: “Make quick decisions on small risks,” especially when you can change your mind afterwards with minimal losses.

Speaking of quick decisions on small risks, the book “The Literary Book of Answers” provides you an enjoyable exercise in decision-making. Running about 600 pages, has one-liners per page to provide you answers to your questions on keeping or losing some thing like love or any other object of desire, buying or selling a thing of value like a car or a dream house, pursuing higher education or “being just where you are.”

Authored by Carol Bolt, who introduces herself in a book as a “professional artist living in Seattle,” suggests a simple exercise to use the book and thus speed up decision-making. Step 1: Hold the closed book in your hand, on your lap, or on a table; step 2: Take 10 or 15 seconds to concentrate on your question. Questions should be phrased closed-end. E.g., “Is the job I am applying for the right one?”. Steps 3 and 4 give you two final procedures.

Executive Read tried this on friends and associates in the office and here are the results: On an executive’s question, “Shall I enroll in a Ph.D. class this semester? – the answer is this: “Is that what you want?” – which is a quote from James Baldwin, author of “Another County.” A man, hooked on toys for the big boys, asked: “Shall I buy a Pajero?” That answer came from James Fenimore Cooper, author of “The Last of Mohicans”: “What is ordered must sooner or later arrive.” (The dreamy-eyed friend just could not disagree!)

A newly-hired executive assistant in the office queried: “Will I have career growth in my new job?” The answer came from Lewis Carroll, author of “Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland”: “That depends a good deal on where you want to get to.” A senior communication associate whispered a question about an erring beloved: “Will I take him back?” The answer was a riddle from Confucius but definitely made the associate smile: “The way is to be found.”

There is a chance that you don’t want the answer. There’s a chance too when you relish an answer especially when it reinforces a fervent wish. To one nervous question, the answer was clear and unequivocal from Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, from the “Adventures of Sherlock Holmes: “Excellent, Watson, Excellent.” Now, you know that this book can be your handy ally when you are getting someone to say yes to your proposition.

Is this book useful at all? The answer to that question is a story on Sigmund Freud, the famous psychoanalyst. Freud and his niece once discussed how difficult it was for some people to make a decision. He said, “I’ll tell you what I tell them. I ask them to toss a coin.”

His niece said, “I can’t believe it. You, a man of science, guided by senseless chance!” Sigmund answered, “I did not say you should follow blindly what the coin tells you. What I want you to do is to note what the coin indicates. Then look into your own reactions. Ask yourself: Am I pleased? Am I disappointed? That will help you to recognize how you really feel about the matter, deep down inside. With that as a basis, you’ll then be ready to make up your mind and come to the right decision.”

Getting literary giants to narrow your choices and help you make up your mind must be better than tossing a coin. You bet?

Words are a potent force to inspire hope, strike terror

“The Irrepressible Churchill”
Compiled by Kay Halle
Robson Books, 2000 reprint



The tragedy that befell the American people — when two passenger planes crashed into the twin towers of the World Trade Center, when one plane hit and exploded on the Pentagon, and when one other jetliner crashed in the state Pennsylvania — assumed such a depth in human tragedy and such a scale of destruction that officials and reporters admitted that they were at a loss for words.

President George W. Bush read a hastily prepared statement that failed to communicate the severely seared American soul, especially when he called the terrorists “folks”!?. Others used superlatives like “unbelievable,” “the work of madmen,” and the ever-ready label of “terrorists.”

Words were one of the few ways to communicate the shared grief and agony of the entire humankind, the shared fierce tears and anger of the world, and the shared resolve and courage — not only to bring justice and quick retribution but also to rebuild one’s hope and faith with one another.

How we wish we had someone during these times who could rally the troops to fight a common enemy; one who, with words like “with blood, sweat and tears,” could unite an entire nation to resist the invaders; and who, when one battle was won, could draw from his magnificent arsenal of words and thus declare: “This was their finest hour.”

I am referring to the inimitable Winston Churchill, whom the book calls “The Irrepressible Churchill.” There was no television then, no CNN to capture his sound bites and his smirk. He used an old-fashioned radio technology, and — with his booming voice dominating the stutter of guns, roar of fighter planes and endless siren sound — he succeeded in steeling the resolve of nations to win a catastrophic war.

This book (bought in Bangkok a few months ago), written by journalist Kay Halle, who tracked down Churchill for 30 years, shows that Churchill already had the gift of gab and wit early in life – serving him in good stead throughout his tumultuous but no less heroic career.

Some samplers of Churchill’s admirable turn of phrase abound in this rare book (you must check Amazon.com for it, and it’s well worth the web surfing, if I may add).

The wit of Churchill was demonstrated in this famous exchange with American-born Nancy, Lady Astor, when both were weekend guests at Blenheim.
Lady Astor said: “Winston, if I were your wife I’d put poison in your coffee.” And the famous Churchillian reply was classic: “If I were your husband, Nancy, I’d take it.”

Churchill usually always had the last word in any argument. For example, when a former officer of the Admiralty, Lord Charles Beresford, criticized Churchill, he didn’t escape the wordsmith’s acid tongue: “He (Beresford) can best be described as one of those orators who, before they get up, do not know what they are going to say; when they are speaking, do not know what they are saying; and when they have sat down, do not know what they have said.”

On his war rhetoric, the book has a lot to offer the readers. This one quote should be lesson on strategy, when Churchill commented on navy estimates on both sides. He said:

“The offensive power of modern battleships is out of all proportion to their defensive power… If you want to make a true picture in your mind of a battle between great modern ironclad ships, you must not think of it as if it were two men in armour striking at each other with heavy swords. It is more like a battle between two egg-shells striking each other with hammers … The importance of hitting first, and hitting hardest and keeping on hitting … really needs no clearer proof.” (Hear ye, anti-terrorist force!)

Churchill, in fact, has something to say about the value of an aggrieved country to respond from a high moral ground and a sense of righteous indignation, if I may add:
“Moral force is, unhappily, no substitute for armed force, but it is a very great reinforcement.” In another quote, he says: “In war, you don’t have to be nice – you only have to be right.”

His advice about dealing with the Germans then could be useful to those hunting the perpetrators of the airline crashes. He is quoted thus in the book: “Those who fight the Germans fight a stubborn and resourceful foe, a foe in every way worthy of the doom prepared for him.” Substitute the names, and you’ve got a contemporary thought, especially for those driven by fanaticism. In fact, our wordsmith defines “fanatic” as “one who can’t change his mind and won’t change the subject.”

And, if America does go to war, she must be driven by another quotable quote from Churchill: “If we win, nobody will care. If we lose, there will be nobody to care.”
This is the strategic equivalent of the advice I knew since childhood which I now paraphrase: “Win and the world wins with you; lose and you lose alone.”

God bless America, everyone now says, and we join the world wholeheartedly. The words of support came even from known critics if not enemies. But allies America needs right now. And this quote is timely, when Churchill spoke about England’s ally — France:

“There is only one thing worse than fighting with allies, and that is fighting without them.”

The entire world now views the American people with a new eye. There is admiration for their selflessness, their readiness to close ranks — the calm with which they pick up the pieces and the steely resolve to hunt the terrorists. Churchill began doubting Americans, but actually gave allowance for their courage and determination. After the bombing of Pearl Harbor and the announcement that the U.S. was entering World War II, Churchill had grudging admiration for Americans after all:

“Silly people and there were many … might discount the force of the United States. Some said they were soft, others that they would never be united. They would fool around at a distance. They would never come to grips. They would never stand blood letting. They would be just a vague blurr on the horizon to friend and foe. Now we should see the weakness of this numerous but remote, wealthy, and talkative people. But I had studied the American Civil War … American blood flowed in my veins.”

This book has an abundance of quotes and background of these in the checkered life of this great man. The book, according to “The Times,” is one “to brighten the dullest moments.” Actually it is also meant to brighten one’s hope wherever it is needed.

To his dying day, Churchill was his witty self. The book says: “As he lay dying in the darkened room of a London House at 8 Hyde Park Gate, he said about life: “I am bored with it all.” He quickly added with, maybe, his last breath: “But the journey has been enjoyable and worth making — once!” If you are at a loss for words, check out Winston Churchill. He had the witty words and the eloquent phrases all his irrepressible life.

Timeless, practical principles in a dynamic workplace

“The Wisdom of Solomon at Work”
By Charles C. Manz, et al
Berrett-Koehler Publishers, 2001


One remarkable thing is happening in the workplace even in this much bandied about century characterized by speed and frenzied change: The concept of “soul” is reclaiming an area once reserved for revenue generation and profit making. Suddenly, the concrete corporate jungle is now seen as a “living” organism, having a life of its own, influencing the people in it even as the people are in turn giving it “soul.”

Another remarkable trend has been noted. Graduate management schools are churning more and more books that go back to antiquity, retrace the “ancient paths,” and cull from such a journey timeless principles that will confer meaning to an increasingly absurd existence and offer principles that truly keep your body and soul together – in a much deeper sense.

A supreme irony has been noted in this age of high-speed technology: in the midst of an explosion of information, there is very limited understanding; in an age that has put knowledge on a pedestal, there is no wisdom; in a century full of techniques, principles have become elusive.

The book “Wisdom of Solomon at Work” is a noteworthy attempt to distill life and work principles from the lives, words and insights of five known characters of the Hebrew Bible – or the Old Testament as is commonly known to us. And lest you suspect that the viewpoint caters to one form of religion, the authors are quick to add that all four of them represent a religious heritage in the Jewish, Catholic and Protestant traditions – all of which trace their roots to Hebrew.

“The Wisdom of Solomon is a holistic perspective that moves us toward a sense of personal integrity where we desire to boldly act out of a set of beliefs and values regardless of the situation in which we find ourselves,” the authors say, adding that “struggle, challenge, and change are at the core of our wisdom perspective.”

The book chose five Biblical characters with pronounced virtues; faith for Job, courage for David, compassion for Ruth, integrity and justice for Moses, and wisdom for Solomon. The authors add that the virtues are “interactive” – one virtue building on another. To summarize, they say: “Faith can establish the courage to act with compassion.”

Of course, the principles are not as neat as that – because the authors presented the five Biblical characters as “flesh-and-blood,” not convenient caricatures. In other words, they are not saints, only forgiven.

The obvious event to demonstrate David’s courage was his encounter with Goliath, but the authors have chosen to zero in on the Israelite king’s “deeper courage when he faced his own mistakes.” It was David who took a woman who was someone else’s wife, tried many cover-ups to hide his secret sin when Batsheba said “I was pregnant” – and, when everything else failed, he sent Batsheba’s real husband to the frontline and thus die in raging battle. (Our Senate committee hearings discuss cover-up attempts, hidden bank accounts, destroying the evidence and summary executions. Alas, nothing has changed!)

The book has gone even further, as it encourages top executives “to incorporate wisdom into our personal and work lives,” by going through a three-step process: recognize, reconcile and reconstruct.

It was convenient in the past to maintain a dichotomy between “business realities” and “ethics born of ancient Biblical principles.” The book wants the readers to think through the tension and, perhaps, find a common ground. The authors recommend carrying a “spiritual backpack.”

What is inside this “backpack.” It must contain, they say, a mix of stories, legends, and ethical principles from our religious/ethical heritage” that should be handy to the executive when faced with choices and decisions.

You ask: Aren’t spiritual issues passé in a secular world governed by business principles, corporate culture and the world’s best practices? The authors reply: “Spiritual issues are central to the challenges of worklife… Our vast cultural and technological change has moved us to seek sources of social stability, meaning, and purpose.”

Efficiency and productivity – the gods of commerce – could result from effective organizational structures and judicious data analysis; “but spirit and meaning,” if you believe the book, “can often spell the difference between an organization that thrives and one that merely exists.”

DZFE, the only classic station in the Philippines, has been successful because it appeals to hard-nosed businessmen by bringing to its listeners the “finer things in life” – appropriately called the “The Master’s Touch.” This book somehow falls under the category of offering you something finer and deeper – and, yes, rare.

Superstardom: a lesson on destiny, and destinations

“Secrets of Superstar Speakers”
By Lilly Walters
McGraw-Hill, 2000


What do Anita Roddick, Vince Lombardi, Jack Canfield, Les Brown, Deepak Chopra, Zig Ziglar, Norman Vincent Peale, Stephen Covey, et al, have in common?

They share the distinction of being “superstar speakers” in the United States. These are the much sought after motivational speakers, according to Lilly Walters, author of “Secrets fo Superstar Speakers” – subtitled “Wisdom from the Greatest Motivators of Our Time.”

And they are the 19 speakers from among 79 speakers chosen by 4,000 other speakers, meeting planners and press people who were asked the question who the greatest motivational speaker is.

The names of John F. Kennedy, Billy Graham, Mario Cuomo, and Ronald Reagan were also chosen – but whose lives and styles are not discussed in the book. The author, however, promised to feature more of them in a second volume. (That’s a promise, not a threat!)

The 19 featured speakers have one thing in common: They have acquired celebrity status as speakers and authors – not necessarily in that order – because they are able “to connect” with their audience or readers. Thus, their books bring more invitations for speaking engagements (where they are paid handsome fees), and such speaking tours become veritable platforms for making a sales pitch each time for their books.

Yes, as the book engagingly narrates, these celebrities have begun their speaking career rather modestly, if not inauspiciously. They had their “turning points” – which are as diverse as their humble beginnings. And from such experiences and Damascus-like encounters with compelling truths, these superstars started their steady if not phenomenal climb to superstardom.

And motivators as they are, they are generous with gems of thought – the author call them collectively as “wisdom” – which abound in the book. And these pieces do not only tell the readers how they succeeded, but also how “they stay motivated”.

Vince Lombardi, the famous coach better known for the quote, “Winning isn’t everything, it’s the only thing,” says of success: “You must pay the price to win, and you have to pay the price to get to the point where success is possible. Most important, you must pay the price to stay there.”

One more thing that characterizes these speakers, Ms. Walters says, is their humility. “True greatness lies in humility,” she points out. And she quotes Earl Nightingale, the popularizer of self-improvement audio programs, to illuminate her point: “The more I study, the more I read and the more I learn, the less certain I am of what I know. I stunned an audience once by telling them, ‘The only thing I know for certain is that I don’t know anything for certain.”

The way these speakers deal with criticisms and rejection is about the same: they don’t let negative thoughts come in the way. Mark Victor Hansen, famous co-author of “Chicken Soup for the Soul,” says: “When they say ‘no’, just say ‘next’.” Hansen advises that we must “reject the rejection.” This is believable coming from someone who had earlier received several rejection slips from 33 publishers!

As for how they succeed in their speeches, one other thing unites them with one quality: passion in their speeches. And his passion and intensity spring from how they relate to “real life” – which has the greatest appeal to listeners in a survey conducted by the author.

“Get to what you are passionate about,” Ms. Walters says. Ask “what gets your soul soaring,” she adds. And then she relates the respective passions of Anita Roddick, founder of Body Shop and famous environmentalist, and Zig Ziglar, a confessed evangelical Christian who she says violated one cardinal principle in public speaking – which is: “Do not bring your religion on the platform.”

Actually, it was not religion that catapulted Ziglar to celebrity heights; it was his sincerity, the book clarifies. “People are willing to grant you your belief if you are authentic.” You must believe in what you are speaking. “Touch your own heart first,” the author declares.

From such premise, the speaker must have a favorite theme – and thus audiences and readers can identify themes with speakers. Ms. Walters cited the famous speech of Winston Chruchill – which began: “We shall not flag or faill … We shall go on to the end .. We shall fight on the beaches … We shall fight on the landing grounds …”

Those who prepare lengthy speeches must listen to this advice from the book: “On the average, they remember 10 percent from a talk. So take control. Decide what you want them to remember. As for Churchill, his last sentence is unforgettable: “This was their finest hour.”

The book offers the reader the finest moments with these superstar speakers. More important, it challenges us to find out for ourselves what our passion is and fires our soul. This is not just a how-to book. It is one that drives you inside your soul and makes your heart miss a beat. What you find inside must so astonish you that you are close to your own “turning point.”

A speech worth delivering, is worth writing well

“The Lost Art of the Great Speech”
By Richard Dowis
AMACOM, 2000


The debate continues. Should a speech be written? Or should it be delivered extemporaneously?

I have friends and associates who work earnestly with their speechwriters for a well-crafted speech. But I also have friends who insist on “speaking from the heart” with the aid of neither cue cards nor manuscript. And both categories of friends are successful executives – because both communicate – and lead – well. So, how is the issue resolved?

I have my own thoughts, but I would rather ask Richard Dowis, president of the 2,000-member Society for the Preservation of English Language and Literature (SPELL), to settle the issue. He is also the author of “The Lost Art of the Great Speech,” sub-titled: “How to Write One. How to Deliver It.”

Dowis speaks: “A well-written speech is a disciplined speech. It doesn’t ramble. It gets to the point. It fits the allotted time. It contains no superfluous detail, but it doesn’t leave out anything important.”

And he continues to extol the process of writing: “Writing – writing anything – is just about the best discipline I know of. Simply stated, writing makes you think… Writing forces you to think in specifics. Just putting your thoughts on paper in a sort of stream of consciousness might be a useful way to get started, but it’s not writing. Writing is the application of discipline to creativity.”

This two-paragraph declaration of a speechwritier, former journalist and senior vice president of Manning Selvage & Lee Public Relations, is the best reminder to public speakers to insist on a well-written speech. After all, writing and delivering it is an art. Thus the title of the book acquires more significance.

And comparing it with another art form – filmmaking – is appropriate. Dowis points out: “Writing a speech is a lot like making a movie. Much of the footage that’s shot ends up on the cutting-room floor. The result is fast-paced, entertaining picture that holds the attention of the audience from beginning to end.”

Dowis aptly closes the debate with this line delivered with authority: “That’s what you want the speech to do.” And the author proceeds to instruct us – present and aspiring speakers as well as speechwriters – on the fundamentals, then the secrets, and the refinements of coming up with a “great speech.”

Executive Read earlier reviewed two books on public speaking – Peggy Noonan’s “Speaking Well,” and Reid Buckley’s “Strictly Speaking.” Ms. Noonan gave valuable insights as speechwriter of Ronald Reagan – but went no further to include other speakers. Mr. Buckley gave tips – some sensible, others outrageous – and most definitely as useful as a menu of choices fit for several occasions.

Dowis, revealing himself in his many anecdotes in the book as speechwriter and counselor to several CEOs, has put together a comprehensive, well-argued and richly organized bible for speechwriters (who must continually hone their rare skills, and public speakers (who must, from now on, require their wordsmiths to read – and take to heart -- Dowis’s book).

All seven chapters are a treasure trove of principles on speech writing. Somehow, you feel that you are being given an interesting and riveting refresher course on the art of writing – using a good beginning, employing figures of speech like metaphors and hyperbole, and bringing a piece to a stirring conclusion.

The difference, however, is that the author has primed us up to have a great speech in mind. And he makes sure we don’t forget that, because, aside from the main body of the book, he treats us to the world’s great speeches and boxed items called “Podium Presence” -- some timely tips to master the stage.

That makes the book a joy to read. Just when you have a surfeit of his lectures, he refreshes you with wisely chosen speeches from well-known pieces from Lincoln, Churchill and Kennedy, to less known but equally great speeches of Adlai Stevenson and Nelson Mandela.

The author also lets us into the inner chambers of speechwriters like Ted Sorensen of Kennedy, citing the productive partnership between writer and speaker.
In a chapter titled “Wisdom of the Ages,” the author reveals that the passage … “Ask not what your country can do for you. Ask what you can do for your country …” is antedated by lesser known and less eloquently expressed versions from Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes and Warren Harding.

Patrick Henry’s “Give me liberty or give me death,” a master in antithesis, is compared with Greek poet Aeschylus’s “Better to die on your feet than live on your knees.” Compare that to Apostle Paul’s declaration: “For me to live is Christ and to die is gain.” The secrets of the pros are revealed by the author in one chapter – bringing you into the workshop of the best wordsmiths -- using anaphora, analogy, surprise, etc.

This book gives us a rare encounter with the world’s great speeches and how they are crafted by the finest wordsmiths. Are great speeches a thing of the past? Katherine Hepburn once sighed upon seeing the late John Wayne, magnificent on horseback: “They ain’t made like him anymore.” Before we say of great speeches, “They ain’t made like them anymore,” learn from this book.

‘Living the brand’ is easier said than done

“Brand Manners”
By Hamish Pringle and William Gordon
John Wiley & Sons Ltd.


I checked the balance in my credit card the other day with one of the biggest banks in the world. An answering machine gave me a series of instructions: press one … press two … or wait for the operator. I sighed with the cashier who was nervously waiting for the confirmation: “Is there a way to be free from answering machines? Where have all the telephone receptionists gone?”

Previously, it was my secretary who had been making the request for updating. My first encounter with an impersonal bank was actually serendipitous: I was reading a book, which warns against creating a “corporate distance” between company and customer. And this global bank was actually being distant from one customer it once courted without even trying. The bank is not alone.

Many companies here have joined the bandwagon in installing these answering machines who have effectively alienated them from their customers. And who, may I add, have belied their pronouncements about their customer-friendliness.

The book, interestingly titled “Brand Manners,” is a wake-up call to big – and even small – companies to make sure their organizations truly live up to the promise of the brand, their ads and their public relations positioning.

Sub-titled “how to create the self-confident organization to live the brand,” the book provides valuable advice to CEOs and marketing directors who continue to face the unwanted prospect “over-promising and under-delivering,” to use a phrase that’s been going around pointing to the all-too-familiar failure to deliver on their promises.

The authors – Hamish Pringle (director of Brand Beliefs Ltd) and William Gordon (strategy partner with Accenture, formerly Andersen Consulting) – put together a wealth of concepts and “to-do” guides that will enable corporations behind the brands to make it easy on management and employees to live up to the customer expectations they themselves have created.





The usual way was to install a “command and control” strategy to make sure the entire organization is primed for being “customer-driven.” However, such a strategy, externally applied to pressed from above, depends solely on “cascading” the CEO’s commitment to the customer. And, more often than not, the enthusiasm or passion peters out through layers and layers of the organization.

“No matter how good the work behind brand positioning, marketing and communication, a reputation can be ruined by a poor interaction between a customer and a brand representative,” the authors say.

“What is needed is a self-confident organization,” the book declares, one that has in its corporate culture a desire to please the customer and exceed his/her expectations.

Terry Leahy, CEO of Tesco in the United Kingdom (whose firm is presented as a success story in the book) underscored some fundamentals that, as Robert Fulghum would say, “we learned in kindergarten”: “There can be a huge improvement in business performance by applying the incredibly simple principle that good manners – good conduct, good behaviour – motivate everyone.”

The book offers a treasure trove of tables, illustrations and cartoons that either make the principles easy to understand or make a point unforgettable. Don’t miss this cartoon, titled “Phone Therapy” that provides a reductio ad absurdum some companies’ fetish for answering machines. A distraught caller, phone handset on his left hand hears a voice from the machine which says:

“Hello … This is the Police. If you are being attacked from behind by a mad axe-murderer, press ‘One’…”

The book has promised to deliver key concepts on enabling your organization to live up to its brand promise. It has done its part providing a single-minded approach to equipping your people from to CEO to the front-line employees for such a worthy goal. Your part is to read the book, page by page, illustration by illustration.

Living the brand is easier said than done. This book shows that it can be done – and how!

Yield not your mind to ‘group think’ and be free to make rational choices

“Getting What You Want”
Robert J. Ringer
G. P. Putnam’s Sons, 2000


In the late 70s, corporation watchers and socio-political scientists were saying that a person would soon lose his individuality – because he would become an “organization man”. He would be faceless, his character subsumed under the corporate jungle, his choices limited by the goals assigned to him by the organization – and his life controlled by the “Firm” from cradle to grave.

Instead of accepting the inevitability of the individual melting into anonymity in the ocean of collective structure or corporate thought, more perceptive thinkers reasserted man’s primordial right to be distinct individually, as they cited the dangers of developing “herd mentality.”

Philosopher Eric Hoffer, in his book “True Believer,” gave a ringing rebuke to the fashion at the time to elevate to the pedestal the man who was willing to submit himself to the collective, when Marxism was fashionable and capitalism a bad word.

Another philosopher, Erich Fromm, lamented the all-too-easy abandonment of rational and individual thinking in his book, “Escape from Freedom.” He said people were willing to surrender their minds to their leaders, because “freedom carries with it the terrifying responsibility” to think for one’s self and to face the consequences of one’s own decision.

History has shown that when the majority of people allowed their rulers to direct their own destiny in mindless submission, disastrous results followed – bringing about the Holocaust of Hitler, the Monstrosity of Idi Amin, the Killing Fields of Pol Pot, to name a few.

It is really far easier to ask someone else to think for you. If something goes wrong or a business deal sours, you have someone to blame. This is exactly what “Getting What You Want” is advising against. Author Robert J. Ringer has crafted “The 7 Principles of Rational Living” for you, people, so that you would be “getting what you want in life, whether it be friendship, love, money, respect, or just about anything else that you believe will make you happy.”

Ringer -- the author of “Winning Through Intimidation” and “Looking Out for # 1” decades ago – has written what could be the lasting legacy of his well-argued points on his one formula: rational living.

Obviously acquiring a philosopher’s depth and broad-mindedness with advancing years, Ringer says that “you have a moral right to do what is in your best interest, provided you do not commit aggression against others.”

The seven principles he proposes somehow summarize everything needed for individual and community life. For example, Principle # 1 recommends: “Base your actions on truth.” Before dealing with “scientific truth” and “secular truth,” Ringer (whose religion is not revealed in the book) endears himself to “creationists” when he takes the bull by the horns and throws himself in the middle of the debate between the hotly contending theorists on “creation” versus “evolution.”

In an illuminating paragraph, he argues: “As I rhetorically asked my atheist friend, given that you are infinitely more complex than one line of a book, what are the odds that you accidentally, with all your billions of precise, specialized cells, evolved from rocks and dirt over a period of a few billion years?”

If you think that short paragraph gives you an idea about the compelling logic and lucid thinking of the author, you have just begun with the book because, as you read on, you pick up more gems of thought and well-argued points along the way. Liberating is Principle # 4: “Avoid those who drain your personal resources.” If you just cannot say no to a friend who clings to you in utter dependence for every need, this section tells you how to avoid “people taxes,” and “friends” who keep “taxing” you.

Refreshing and edifying is Principle # 3: “Make choices with civility, dignity, honesty, and humility.” Move over Confucius; ring the bell for Ringer! “Dignity is a rare commodity in our bizarre, modern-day world,” he points out. He cites the example of “talk shows that feature tragic people who emotionally and psychologically disrobe themselves in public while sharing their most intimate thoughts with millions of strangers.”

One is reminded of truly pathetic scenes on television of sex sirens making public their private desires and otherwise decent actors disclosing their all-too-intimate thoughts of loneliness and questings after pleasure following a failed marriage.

Ridding yourself of major encumbrances and acting rationally, not on impulse, are two other principles that are elaborated on by Ringer. “People feel imprisoned by many responsibilities,” the author says, who adds: “There is no such thing as a happy slave. If you’re not free to pursue your dreams and achieve your goals, you are, metaphorically speaking, a slave.” “Act now, regret later” is an advice heartily embraced by a people known for the “bahala na” attitude. The book advises otherwise with a witty blurb: “Curiosity may have killed the cat, but so did impulsive actions.”

One theme runs through the entire book: Don’t be easily swayed by what’s fashionable or socially acceptable. Check the truth that underlies it, your values about what’s good and what’s best for you. Then freely make a choice. “An unexamined life is not worth living,” a philosopher declared centuries ago.” This book gives seven principles by which you conduct such a life- or career-changing examination.

The K.I.S.S. principle wields magic on management, leadership issues

“The Power of Simplicity”
by Jack Trout with Steve Rivkin
McGraw-Hill, 1999


The K.I.S.S. Principle, as most of us probably know by know, is a curt reminder to “keep it simple, stupid.” No offense meant, but it is also a frank advice – for public speakers – to “keep it short” – the speech, that is.

“Simplicity is beauty” – as we learned in grade school – has been elevated to “simplicity is power”. To rhetoricians, there is power in the simplest words carrying distilled wisdom. To chess grandmasters, there is force in simplifying the strategy that penetrates the opponents’ ranks. To generals, there is invincibility in simply marshaled troops. To scientists like Albert Einstein, there is compelling truth in a theory reduced to a simple formula. To preachers, there is might in the simplest truths of Jesus’ parables.

And, allow us to add, to author Jack Trout and co-author Steve Rivkin, there is power in cutting through the nonsense of complexity in business – because that means doing things right. Extolling the virtues of simplicity, they practice what they preach in a simply designed book titled “The Power of Simplicity.”

Tackling 23 issues covering the basics of simplicity, management strategies, leadership principles and people matters – the book proves that it can be a tour de force, minus the forced effort of reading through a voluminous piece. Why? Because in only 191 pages, the authors lead the reader to every conceivable issue an executive must grapple with to succeed in business.

The book begins with wit and wisdom associated with “common sense” – which has become uncommon – and with “complex language.”

Taking off from Leonardo da Vinci’s views of common sense, the authors call it “supersense that rides herd over our other senses.” For example, they say, common sense dictates that Xerox should not venture into high technology businesses other than copiers – because it has made a name in the copying business. For not listening to this uncommon quality, Xerox lost a lot of time and money.

The section on language that “clouds people’s minds” is a joy to read, especially with translations of famous sayings. Consider this: “It is not efficacious to indoctrinate a superannuated canine with innovative maneuvers.” (You can’t teach an old dog new tricks.) What about this: “Visible vapors that issue from carbonaceous materials are a harbinger of imminent conflagration.” (Where there’s smoke, there’s fire.)

Touche’, Mr. Trout – you have made your point. We hate to say it, but many of our reports and memos really use such convoluted language.

The authors continue to target some business icons and dash to pieces their theories and diagrams simply because they are full of intersecting arrows, boxes and circles. They take to task Michael Porter, Harvard’s strategy guru, and his complex discussion of the five competitive forces – and offer their own recommendation couched in a single word: positioning.

They question Nike’s “Just do it” slogan, and volunteer the line “what the best athletes in the world wear.” It makes rational sense, but does it have “gut appeal”? The authors recommend: “Kill the frogs” in Budweiser’s ad; instead stress the heritage behind the Budweiser brand.

The authors tell the gurus, “Give us a break.” We reply, “O come on!” We may have a case of simplicity going too far.

But, as you move on, you will continue to agree with the authors’ insightful analysis. On companies’ customer orientation, Trout and Rivkin say that too much lip service is paid to such policies as “customer is always right” and “customer is king”.

They reveal that, in a survey by Inc. Magazine among CEOs of 500 fastest-rising companies about their concerns, the responses showed that CEOs are more concerned with competitive strategies (18%), managing people (17%), keeping up with technology (13%), managing growth (13%) and managing finances (12%). Asserting that “customers did not even make the list,” they volunteer this simple customer policy: “You should treat customers so they (1) buy more, and (2) complain less,” adding, “Make them feel smart about being your customers.”

You will find yourself agreeing with the authors on some points, and then disagreeing with them especially when they demolish the theories of your favorite management experts. To be fair, the authors reserve their highest praise for author Peter Drucker and CEOs like Jack Welch and Andy Grove. The rest are not so lucky.

Actually, simplicity makes for user-friendliness. The authors cite the success story of the Palm Pilot Organizer, which was designed for just a few simple functions, making it a companion to PCs – not a replacement. They quote 3Com’s palm division: “Our mantra is simplicity.”
Business can be complex at times, and the mantra of simplicity may not work all the time. But, there may also be times when you can’t steer clear of the maze confronting you. And you need a distilled insight with razor-sharp focus to cut through a web of options. Then you know first hand the power of K.I.S.S.