A guide to more information discussed in articles appearing in the November issue of Inc. magazine.
Letters, page 15
House of Corrections
For information on the annual business-plan competition sponsored by the Entrepreneurial Management Center at San Diego State University, E-mail Marsha Gear at marsha.gear@sdsu.edu or call her at 619-594-4501.
Accounting and Financial Fundamentals for Nonfinancial Executives, by Robert Rachlin and Allen Sweeny, is available from AMACOM (800-262-9699) for $18.95.
Field Notes, pages 17 to 27
Hot Starts: Can Big Business Be Built on Breakthrough Product?
The Consumer Electronics Manufacturers Association operates the Consumer Electronics Show; call 703-907-7600 for show dates. Twice (800-662-7776) is a biweekly magazine that covers consumer electronics. Parks Associates, a Dallas market-research firm, publishes Pathfinder, a monthly guide that profiles new markets, new companies, and new products in the world of residential electronics. (An annual subscription is $395; call 800-727-5711.) Electronic House magazine (800-375-8015) is a resource guide for consumer electronics.
Fast Money: Young M.B.A. Seeks Attractive Company
The Stanford Business School case study "Kirk Riedinger and Jamie Turner," by David Dodson and search-fund advocate Irv Grousbeck, is an informative account of the experiences of the first two M.B.A.'s to raise a search fund. It's available through Harvard Business School Publishing for $5 plus shipping. Call 800-545-7685 and ask for case number SB102.
Keynotes: Forget the Organization, Says Management Guru
Transitions: Making Sense of Life's Changes, by William Bridges (Addison Wesley, 800-822-6339, 1980, $13), is one of the earliest and best books to address coping with change in the workplace, says Nancy Austin. William Bridges & Associates (415-381-9663) publishes a quarterly newsletter called Organizations in Transition, which you can subscribe to for $35 a year. The price is right, but the newsletter is thin; you're better off picking up Bridges's JobShift: How to Prosper in a Workplace Without Jobs (also from Addison Wesley, 1995, $13).
Keynotes: Take My Village...Please
Grassroots Leaders for a New Economy: How Civic Entrepreneurs Are Building Prosperous Communities, by Doug Henton, John Melville, and Kim Walesh--three key people at Collaborative Economics, a consulting firm in Palo Alto, Calif.--is due out in March 1997 at $25.95 from Jossey-Bass (800-956-7739).
Red Tape: Minimum-Wage Poster Child
The Department of Labor's Web site has a ton of information on the new minimum-wage increase, and not all of it is a political advertisement for the Clinton reelection campaign. Both employers and employees will find help there. You can even download and print out a poster outlining the requirements of the new law.
On the Road: CBS Drops Small Businesses from Letterman Lineup
Rupert Jee's Hello Deli features two celebrity sandwiches that are easily replicated at home. Try the Letterman Hoagie (turkey, ham, cheese, and sweet peppers) and the Shaffer (chicken cutlet, American cheese, and mayo on a hero).
Face to Face: Playing by the Rules, page 38
"Mrs. Fields' Secret Ingredient," (Inc., October 1987) provides a more thorough explanation and illustration of how Randy and Debbi Fields began to apply rules-based technology to the management of Mrs. Fields Cookies--and by extension, how such technology can be applied to other companies. Download the story from our archives using the keyword Mrs. Fields.
Discussing his forthcoming book, Randy Fields argues that hour-by-hour management is not just the next best thing to cloning a company's founder or chief executive. "In fact, it's better," he says, "because it goes beyond simple conformity to high-service standards, beyond mere consistency of product to high product quality. These are the basics of any serious business enterprise today and are best ensured by iterative command and control. But once ensured, the basics can and must serve as a platform for distinctively creative and individual performances. I mean, of course, the activities that people can do only with each other--selling, establishing relationships with customers, and providing moral support. In the end, hour- by-hour management is about freeing human beings to be human." The book, tentatively titled Hour-by-Hour Management and the Power of Consistency, will be published by Knowledge Exchange (310-394-5995) next fall.
Inc. Cover Story: Corporate Culture, page 42
Corporate Cultures: The Rites and Rituals of Corporate Life, by Terrence E. Deal and Allan A. Kennedy (Addison Wesley, 800-822-6339, 1982, $14), is the book that started the 1980s culture craze. The examples are dated by now, but the message--that powerful cultures really do make a huge difference to business success, even in the upper echelons of corporate America--is as timely as ever. Deal and Kennedy tease apart the elements of corporate culture and give you tools to analyze (and reshape) your own company's culture.
Creating Corporate Culture: From Discord to Harmony, by Charles Hampden-Turner (Addison Wesley, 1992), analyzes how several corporations (most, but not all, are large) transformed their cultures. The book is out of print but worth seeking out at the library.
