Book Review: How Excellent Companies Avoid Dumb Things

How Excellent Companies Avoid Dumb Things: Breaking the 8 Hidden Barriers that Plague Even the Best Businesses by Neil Smith, 226 pages

In this book, Smith describes several problems businesses face that block good ideas from being implemented, and offers ways to break through them. The barriers range from avoiding controversy, to poor management of time, to organizational silos, and a lot of them seem pretty obvious once Smith points them out. However, he does offer some great personal anecdotes to illustrate these issues and the potential solutions to them. Toward the end of the book, Smith also offers the principles he and his company (which is a consulting firm that helps companies institute change) abide by, and he details his 100-day process for creating the plans for these changes. Again, the principles are logical and seem like common sense once you read them, but Smith's description of his process is pretty boring.

Smith did a good job holding my attention through most of the book, but once he got to that process and started throwing in acronyms left and right, he lost me. Another problem I had with this book is that it's aimed almost solely at the CEOs and other higher-ups at large companies (and by large I mean 15,000+ employees). While some of the elements may be applicable to smaller businesses or non-management employees, a lot of it won't be.

One last quibble: I don't think this book is accurately named. Yes, the title makes you giggle a bit, but there's nothing about avoiding dumb things; it's all about creating opportunities or righting dumb processes that are already there.

St. Louis is one of the 100 Resilient Cities

Pioneered by the Rockefeller Foundation.


St. Louis' induction into this program, consisting of 32 cities at the moment but will increase to 100 over time, includes the appointment of a Chief Resilience Officer and the development of an action plan to battle the city's biggest challenges. It was reported by the St. Louis Post-Dispatch in December, and just last week (1/28/15) this was noted in Sorkins Directory of Business & Government News Leads:


Publish Date:  1/28/2015
ST. LOUIS CITY OF
1200 Market Street
St. Louis, MO 63103
Phone: (314) 622-5800
Sq. Ft.: ua   Employees: ua
Website URL:  stl-mo.gov
Notes: Stl is receiving cybersecurity advice from Microsoft by providing expert advice for free. The expert advice is being funded by the Rockefeller Foundation. Stl is among 35 cities included in the second group of communities to receive this service and has been named 100 Resilient Cities by the communication giant.
President & CEO:  Bobby Sandage

Entrepreneurship and Running a Company

Entrepreneur is defined by The American Heritage Dictionary as, "a person who organizes, operates, and assumes the risk for a business venture". In the business world, as entrepreneur is a person who thinks outside the box. They have a vision that sometimes only they can see. Through much planning and networking, an idea can blossom into reality as a new business.

By herding your colleagues and friends towards your vision, a business person can have the makings of personnel they can hire to work in their new business. Mission statements and long-term strategies are an important part of starting-up a new business. Once reviewed, review it again, and again. It is necessary to know that your vision is viable economically. You need to show to your investors that you understand the costs involved into making your vision a reality.

Come to the Science / Technology Room at Central Library, located at 1301 Olive Street, Saint Louis, Missouri, 63101 and discover assistance with finding the information you need to write your business plan, to be successful in hiring the right staff, and how to motivate your staff.  Call (314) 539-0390 and set-up an appointment with the librarian to see how we can help you find information that can make your vision become a reality.

Start Something: Starting a Franchise Business

Monday, February 9 2015
Central Library Training Room
1301 Olive St.


Please join us on February 9th to learn about the process of starting a franchise and how to choose the right business for you. Presentation by Franchise Consultant Chris Coleman of FranNet. Q&A to follow the program.


Reservations recommended - please call 314-539-0327 for reservations or any questions.

Book Review: Eat People!

Eat People: And Other Unapologetic Rules for Game-Changing Entrepreneurs by Andy Kessler, 253 pages


For once, this is a business book that lives up to its title. In Eat People, Kessler leaves any notion of political correctness at the door and offers up some suggestions on how entrepreneurs can launch themselves into the stratosphere of big business, such as creating a business that cuts out people, carving out a horizontal slice of the market instead of going vertical (for example, creating a better widget that makes the big machine run more efficiently rather than just building a whole new machine), and figuring out a way to make something cost less to make more money. Along the way, he gives lots of great real-life examples, some dating back 150 years, some dating from last year.

There were a lot of things I agreed with in this book, but when I disagreed with the author, wow, I REALLY disagreed with him (he seemed to throw around stereotypes WAY too much). I appreciated Kessler's candor, snark, and laid-back writing style, though at times I wanted him to throw some research at me; too often, he would give a number (say, "eight out of ten" or something like that) and would give no indication of where he came up with it. I also didn't really like the way he kept name-dropping. Yes, every business book will have some quotes or information from moguls/superstar innovators, but Kessler made a point to refer to them as his friends. Not necessary.

I honestly don't know if I'll recommend this one to anyone, though that's as much because of the people at who it's aimed as anything else. Most of the people who come to me looking for business books are looking to start a business, not take it global, and it's the latter to whom this seemed written. This book will, however, make for a great conversation.

Pro-Bono Trademark Applications Come to Saint Louis

A recent development in Saint Louis is the Pro-Bono Trademark Application that is now available at the Saint Louis University School of Law. Professor Patrica Lee heads up this valuable program that offers SLU law students the opportunity to help clients with free trademark advice. It is a win-win situation where students gain experience with talking to the public and the public gain free advice and help with their trademark application.

If you are interested to start-up a business, but do not have the funds to complete a trademark application, you may be eligible to get a free trademark application done by SLU law students, under the guidance of  SLU Law School professors.

To reach Professor Lee, Associate Professor and Director, Legal Clinics, at the Saint Louis University School of Law, Patricia Lee, J.D. you make an appointment to visit her office at 100 N. Tucker Blvd., Suite 704, Saint Louis, MO 63101-1930. She also may be reached at her directly at her office at: (314) 977-4155, or use the general phone line at (314) 977-2778. Email is:  leeph@slu.edu. Website is:  http://law.slu.edu.

Business News Roundup

In Kansas City, Beer Paws is coming up with ways to share your beer with your favorite furry friend. (via Joplin Globe)


Surprise, surprise: here in St. Louis, the beer and pizza industries have done very well in 2014. (via St. Louis Business Journals)


Some great tips for National Write a Business Plan Month (which was in December, but holds true throughout the year. (via St. Louis American)


Check out Create Space, a new artisan display space, shop, and events space in the Loop! (via St Louis Post Dispatch)