(Re)inventing the brand: can top brands survive the new market realities?/ Jean-noël Kapferer

Published in 2001, translated from French. Marketing students would find this book useful, particularly if they are looking for case studies of European brands. The brands mentioned are: Adidas, Ariel, Décathlon, Coca-Cola, Orangina, Vache-Qui-Rit, Danone, L'Oréal, Nestlé, Nike, Nivea, Pepsi, Perrier, Peugeot, Proctor & Gamble, Unilever, Virgin, Vivendi, Volkswagen, Yoplait.


Notes/ Excerpts from the book (in bold) - Words in [ ] parenthesis are my own::

p. 59 - Advertising costs have soared but no tangible proof of the return of investment in those sums.

p. 69 - consumers are no longer the source of innovation & motivation that they once were (christensen 1999)

p. 74-77: The "service challenge"

1. Don't waste their time
2. Everything should be easy
3. Recognise that different users have different needs
4. Direct them to information at the level & amount they need
5. The internet store is open 24 hours a day
6. Allow users to communicate w other users freely on subjects of common interest
7. 'Word of mouth' publicity
   

p. 83-84: [Talks about the "truths" of the internet economy -- I found it consistent with the " Cluetrain Manifesto".]
The internet has created a culture of partipation; direct access; fast response; truth (cracks are more likely to be made known); a "me" focus (consumers expect to be treated as individuals)

p. 97 - [I learnt that the word "portrait" comes from the french words "porter" (to carry) & "trait" (characteristics). Hence, "portrait" means "to carry certain characteristics".]

p. 123 - [Examples of how successful companies empower employees to leave their personal touch. E.g. Saturn mechanics leaving their personal notes on cars they have serviced.]

p. 135 - Studies show that "(market) penetration & loyalty are correlated" - i.e. (Advertising that involve customers either at emotive or rational level, image value syst, pdt push & in-store promotion -- all still relevant). Also, "in a world increasingly dominated by the Internet, the more virtual the goods & services on offer, the greater the need to re-emphasise tangible & sensory aspects, which are necessary catalysts for gen involvement."

p. 136 - 142: [Explains "upstream & downstream" advertising].
See p.142 for pointers for implementation:

1. Brand energy must be focused downstream at contact points w customers
2. Communities must become involved at behavioural level
3. Must create public, inter-community commitment
4. Encourage & create opportunities for 'dialogue' bet communities & marketing environments in the chain of recommendations

p. 143 - "Strategic energization matrix"

p. 149 - Examples of the "Cola Wars" - Sucidial brand strategy

p. 166 - "Marketing is an experimental discipline. It is simply not possible to know all the parameters in advance."

p. 179 - rejunivation is vital for a brand to stay competitive & "prototyping" (innovate/ new pdt) is vital to rejunivation

p. 180 - brand should make the consumer look good - not the company or brand - [Libraries ought to take note.]

p. 223 - brand is built on it's determination to promote it's distinctive values & mission

(Re)inventing the brand: can top brands survive the new market realities?/ Jean-noël Kapferer
Call No.: 658.827 KAP -[BIZ] (Business Collection)

The Power of Losing Control: Finding Strength, Meaning and Happiness in an Out-Of-Control World/ Joe Caruso

This book shifted my perspectives about "Control". It’s one of those books that I come across once in a while that makes an impact on how I work, think and live.

There's a story behind how I discovered the book: At a monthly manager's meeting, held in a library, my boss announced that I'd be taking over yet another library to manage (btw, in case you were wondering, that came with no extra pay). I was stressed me out, to say the least (not the pay but the fact that I was responsible for another branch). Then during break time, while walking back to the meeting room from the washroom, I chanced upon the book on the shelf -- the spine was facing out. I certainly was losing control, so naturally I picked it out.

The title itself was interesting – the power of losing control. Sounds oxymoronic, right? How could anyone gain power by losing control? What I understand now is that there wasn’t any power to exercise in the first place. As Caruso wrote, what we really have is an “Illusion of Control”.

Which reminds me of this song I learnt when I was about nine. I think it’s an old British marching song, which goes like this:

Pack up your troubles in your old kit bag
And smile, smile, smile
If in your world you come across a snag,
Smile boys that’s the style
What’s the use of worrying?
It never was worthwhile, so—
Pack up your troubles in your old kit bag
And smile, smile, smile

The book made a lot of sense to me. I could relate to it from my personal experiences. Also, the author should know a thing or two about what he is writing. After all, he is a cancer survivor and he has applied what he espouses. Plus the book has a label that says “As Seen on PUBLIC TELEVISION” so I knew this was something. The heck with “never judge a book by its cover”.

It's true that "The more you try to control, the less you actually do". I highly recommend this book.

Excerpts from the book (in bold) - Words in [ ] parenthesis are my own:

p. 75: The Four Rules of Engagement

1. Everyone is always right
2. Everyone’s greatest desire is to be right
3. You can’t change another person’s mind
4. You can help people shift their perspectives

[It’s very true, in my experience so far. I’ve not been a manager as long as some people have, but in whatever I’ve experienced, I know that very rarely was I able to change a person’s mind or personality. Almost impossible. I could not undo, in 2 hours or 2 months time, the opinions of that person that took perhaps 20, 30 or 40 years to form.

We prefer to stick with a circle of friends or colleagues because ultimately, they make us feel good. Not necessarily flattery of course. It could be that they validate what makes us think are important, that they share a common view – therefore validating our own perspectives and sense of self.]

p. 87: Leadership, because it is determined by those in our secondary world, is an out-of-control experience.

p. 88: “It’s not important that people like you” – “People like you because when they’re with you they like themselves better. They like you because being with you elevates their own meaning”.
[I need to think hard about this, in relation to how to promote reading and the use of libraries.]

Quote from the book:

“Until one is committed, there is hesitancy, the chance to draw back, always ineffectiveness. Concerning all acts of initiative (and creation) there is one elementary truth, the ignorance of which kills countless ideas and splendid plans: that moment one definitely commits oneself, then Providence moves too.

All sorts of things occur to help one that would never otherwise have occurred. A whole stream of events issues from the decision, raising in one’s favour all manner of unforeseen incidents and meetings and material assistance, which no man could have dreamed would have come his way.”

~ Scottish writer W.H. Murray (The Scottish Himalayan Expedition)

p. 207: “… practice being more passionate about the solution and less passionate about the problems.”

p. 214: We must be more like parachute jumpers. The moment they jump off the plane, they knew they were never “on course”. While falling, they constantly adjusted and responded to the surroundings. What they had was an objective in mind (the spot to land) that never wavered.

The Power of Losing Control: Finding Strength, Meaning and Happiness in an Out-Of-Control World/ Joe Caruso
- Call No. 158.1 CAR (Non-fiction, General section)

Prince of lost places/ Kathy Hepinstall

I read this book in Oct 04. It was one of those books where giving a summary would be giving the plot away, so I'll be deliberately vague about the story. I'll just state what would be obvious to the reader - it's about a woman who runs away from home with her son, her estranged relationship with her husband, and a detective (hired by the husband) who has a past.

You can guess more about the plot from the subject headings: (1) Mothers and sons Fiction; (2) Kidnapping, Parental Fiction'; (3) Cave dwellers Fiction; (4) Rio Grande Valley Fiction.

In its essence, I see the story as how a person's love can make one unwilling to let go -- the husband's love for his wife; the woman's love for her son. And perhaps part of the story illustrates a person's selfishness -- the main characters' willingness to go to extremes, to give up everything, just to hang on to their lost dreams.

It's a fairly short book to read. The beginning may seem a bit tedious (just a little) but it gets interesting towards the end, where everything falls into place & the reader would probably go "Ah, I see!".

The author makes it obvious that the woman has some sort of mental illness. But as the story progresses, one might start wondering if it's the husband who's ill and not the woman. The story is spiced up with the detective falling for the woman.

Page158 has a line that gives an insight of the title of the book. P165 explains the reason why she is running away.

This book is by the same author who wrote "The absence of nectar".

Where there's smoke/ Sandra Brown

Sandra brown seems to be a favourite among women readers -- that was how I remembered it when I was doing my "tour of duty" at the reference desk some years past. A few months ago, I happened to see this book on the display table and decided to read it to understand what the fuss was about.

She's not someone I'd normally read but I figured it might be an interesting experience. My female colleagues teased me about reading this. Someone told me this was "trashy stuff" (which I found out that it means it deserves a RA label of sorts -- I guess that's why it's so appealing!). Anyway, I told them that a good salesman has to know all his wares, so...

In this story, we have the following characters:

1. A beautiful, strong, determined -- but misunderstood -- heroine.
2. A suave, testosterone-charged "living-on-the-edge" macho man, whom all women seem to find irresistable. He appears to be a rascal with a devil-may-care attitude but has a heart of gold.
3. A powerful but bitter & manipulative mother
4. A rich and vindicative vamp -- beautiful but conniving and unfaithful. She has a thing for the hero but spurned by the hero.
   
5. Sub-plot: Romance between the hero's Plain-Jane "Suffer-in-silence" sister (with an inferiority complex) and a righteous and chivilarious ex-con.
   

The hero falls for the heroine, and she for him. But they have a love-hate relationship because apparently she's the married woman who seduced the hero's brother -- an up-and-coming US senator -- and subsequently ruined the brother's career.

OK, I realise this isn't much of a book review or summary, but I'm sure people read Sandra Brown not for the plots but more for the element of escapism.

It's entertaining, really.

It doesn't set out to be intellectual stuff in the first place, and like any adult Romance novel, it has its fair share of love scenes. All in clean fun, and some love scenes are quite amusing 'cos it's so cliched. A good read for those who want to just lose themselves for a few hours on the train, or before bed.

I can now understand why it's popular among women readers. Heck, men should read such books once in a while. A companion read to "Men are from Mars, Women are from Venus". If you can't get "Sex In the City", try Sandra Brown -- Woo-Hoo! Ahem...

Imagining Singapore

Edited by Ban Kah Choon, Tong Chee Kiong, and Anne Pakir. This book is a collection of essays relating to Singapore, by a group of writers from various disciplines (what's more subtle is that the collection of writers are also multi-racial, thus another relection of Singapore).

The topics range from histrography, resource and recreation planning, bilingualism and population management, religion and politics, and gender. This 2004 second edition (first edition was in 1992) features two new essays "Imagining Freedom" and "Imagining the Singapore Exonomy in the Next Lap", in addition to revisions and updates to the original essays.

Featured essays

1. Narrating Imagination - Ban Kah Choon
2. Singapore: The City-State in History - Yong Mun Cheong
3. The National past and the writing of the history of Singapore - Albert Lau
4. Singapore's quest for a National Identity: The triumphs and trials of government policies - Hussin Mutalib
5. Imagining Freedom - Simon SC Tay
6. A small state's quest for security: Operationalising deterence in Singapore's strategic thinking - Bilveer Singh
7. Mapping the concept of the Singapore leadership - Chua Fook Kee
8. Imagining the Singapore economy in the Next Lap - Linda Low
9. The ecomonics of a population policy - Lim Boon Tiong
10. Singapore's Environmental ideology - Victor R. Savage
11. Demand for recreation and leisure - Euston Quah
12. English-knowing bilingualism in Singapore - Anne Pakir
13. Towards a centre of study of world Chinese literatures - Wong Yoon Wah
14. The rationalisation of religion in Singapore - Tong Chee Kiong
15. Religious truth and the meaning of life - Chong Kim Chong
16. Women and knowledge/ power: Notes on the Singaporean Dilemma - Nirmala PuruShotam
17. Conclusion - Edwin Thumboo

Some articles can be quite academic (like the one on Singapore leaders), but on the whole I found them readable and insightful.

For instance, Singapore's policy on Bilingualism in the education policy (it's a weird but pleasant feeling reading this now, and going "So that's why I had to study those subjects in school"), the Singapore population policy, insights into the planning of recreational facilities (something I wasn't aware until I read the article), and the issue of a National Identity.

I thought it was interesting to have the article on "Religious Truth and the meaning of life" in this collection. Contrary to my expectation, it's not about politics or the workings of the government (as I thought it would, since the collection of essays are somewhat quite academic in nature). But it's really about philosophy, and increasingly as the Singapore society gets more sophisticated, more and more people would start articulating thoughts of such a nature. Now I bet our forefathers thought about the meaning of life too, but just not presented in this way.

This book would appeal to those who want a deeper insight into the workings of Singapore; what makes Singapore and Singaporeans tick.

Intimate Exchanges - Alan Ayckbourn

Thanks to my colleague, David Lie for the following contribution:
===================================================
Title - Intimate Exchanges: A Play
Author - Alan Ayckbourn
NLB Call Number - 822.914 AYC
Year of Publication - 1985

The play is in 2 volumes and are available at EPCL and NRL.

What attracted you to read this book?
The opportunity to see how the experimental French director Alain Resnais approached the source material for his 1993 twin films “Smoking/No Smoking” was simply too irresistible.

What do you like about this book/author?
The play is imaginatively conceived and boldly innovative in its attempt to reinvigorate theatrical forms or styles by pushing those boundaries within popular tastes. While the play may be characterized as a comedy that satirizes suburban middle class lifestyle, pretense and human folly, it is also a poignant, penetrating study of marital discontent and the oppression between the sexes. Written for two actors, a male and a female, the play requires the performers to play all ten different roles, a theatrical feat that few works, if any, can match.

What do you dislike about this book/author?
None.

Summary/Main Plot
“Intimate Exchanges” is actually as a series of 8 related plays. Each play follows a four-part structure and concludes with one actor making a decision—sometimes trivial (to smoke a cigarette or not), sometimes significant (to divorce a spouse or not)— and the outcome of that choice will propel the play into one direction or another. In the course of the entire work, at least a dozen “what ifs” scenarios/possibilities are explored, allowing each of the various strands to comment on one another and to expand on the play as a whole. By revisiting similar situations by way of alternatives, the play demonstrates how the smallest of decisions can sometime lead to vastly different outcomes.

Would you recommend this book to others?
Absolutely. If nothing else it can be treated as comic therapy!

David Lie - 13 Jul 04
===================================================

Muscle Media Magazine (contributed by "Rojak" Librarian)

A good friend of mine started his own blog recently. He goes by the name "Rojak" Librarian. Here's his review of Muscle Media Magazine. Hey, cool review man. I like your personal "voice".

Deepness in the Sky/ Vernor Vinge

Rarely do I find a Sci-Fi story whose central character has a Chinese/ Vietnamese-sounding name like Pham Nuwen. I’m re-reading the novel for the second time and it’s still as exciting as ever.
The Qeng Ho (sounds like the explorer-eunuch Admiral Zhenghe of 15th Century China) is a human space-faring trading culture. They clash with another space-faring human society called the “Emergents” (the baddies in this case) while trying to explore the developing alien Spider society. The Emergents pulled a fast one on the Qeng Hos, became top dog and subjugated the Qeng Hos.

The Emergents has a tyrannical ruling class that exploits its own people by turning some of them into specialised, but not mindless, network-slaves. Some of their own people and the vanquished Qeng Ho are subject to something called “Focus”. It’s like deliberating making a person compulsively-obsessed over an area of study or task (e.g. Linguistics, or Office Security). Each human becoming dedicated human computing processors. Of course the Qeng Hos kicked-ass in the end. The interesting and exciting part was how they did it.

Meanwhile, the Spider society is also engaged in a war. The Spiders are portrayed as very human in thinking and emotions. The interesting thing is that every 50 years or so, their Sun would turn cold, and all Spiders have to hibernate. They wake maybe 10 years later, develop for another 50, and then the cycle repeats itself. The Emergents basically want to dominate Spider society as well.

So there’s something happening in space, and on Spider-world. The finale draws it all together. The novel can certainly give any Hong Kong drama serial a run for the money. There is adventure, political intrigue, conspiracy, love-lost and found, the virtue of patience, the development of capitalism, victims to heroes, tyranny, triumph of good over evil, justice and retribution. It’s a feel-good story.

I found it fascinating how a technologically advanced species could manipulate the development of another alien culture. For instance, along the way, the evil Emergents sped up the development of the Spider society by setting up a software company that subsequently made itself pervasive in the Spider society’s computer networks (sounds familiar, doesn’t it? Is Bill Gates an alien?). The Emergents even started a nuclear war by making one of the Spider-nation think that the other side initiated an attack (they were fooled because their computers told them so). It was food for thought on our reliance on computers and the Internet. Information can be manipulated. Our identities are real only if there’s some record in the computer database.

That’s why I read Sci-Fi again and again. It’s not about the science. It’s about the ideas and dreams, about social interactions and change and possibilities. I often find that well written Sci-Fi stories add to my understanding of human behaviour and the development of society. Deepness in the Sky--like many good Sci-Fi stories--is fiction, but it’s not science per se. It has to tell a good story, first. The science just adds to the flavour.

A short reading list for managers: On Management, Leadership, Life and Sci-Fi(?!)

I'm attending a course on "Managing Libraries" (it’s the 2nd day of the course as I post this), organised by the National Library Board Institute. Like all courses, if I go with an open mind, I find there are always things to learn.

The course jogged my memory of useful learning points I've learnt through the last 2 years in managing two libraries (concurrently). I was able to add another 10 additional points to my list of "Things I've learnt over the years in managing and leading a team" (this is still Work-in-progress. Who knows, I might publish a book later).

Anyway, during the discussions, it occurred to me that I should share some books that I've found really useful to me. The following books (by no means exhaustive) have helped me cope with the pressures of managing a library, and working with (and for) people in general:

(In no particular order)

1. Becoming a manager: How new managers master the challenges of leadership/ Linda A. hill
2. Managing at the speed of change: How resilient managers succeed and prosper where others fail/ Daryl R. Conner
3. The age of unreason/ Charles Handy
4. Not bosses but leaders: How to lead the way to success/ John Adair
5. The power of losing control: Finding strength, meaning, & happiness in an out-of-control world/ Joe Caruso
6. Don't sweat the small stuff...: Simple ways to keep the little things from taking over your life/ Richard Carlson
7. Ten ancient scrolls of success/ Og Mandino
8. Citizen Soldiers/ Stephen E. Ambrose
9. Panzer commander: The memoirs of Colonel Hans/ Hans Von Luck
10. Deepness in the sky/ Vernor Vinge

I repeat--the list is by no means exhaustive, as I tried to keep to only 10 titles. It occurred to me that I read perhaps 3 or 4 main types of books where managing and leadership is concerned.

The first type has to do with what I call “Management & Leadership: Practice & Ideas” (items 1 to 4). Item 3 has lots of ideas on what it means to “manage” for the future (it’s written in the 80s and still as relevant as ever). I would consider item 4 a must-read for all managers.

The second type has to do with “Motivation and Inspiration” (items 5 to 7). I highly recommend item 5, because it really helped me reframe what “control” really meant. I also highly recommend item 6 & 7 because they helped me to reframe and were very inspiring. They don’t espouse loud or flashy concepts. I’ve found that they suggest simple and quiet truths about how I can live my life as a better person (before I can even consider being a better manager).

The third type (item 8 & 9) would be about “Life-and-death Do-Or-Die Leadership-Under-Fire” kind of books. Ok, lest you think I treat staff as mere soldiers to command in the Library Battlefield, I must explain that I recommend those books not for the War aspect but for the parts about Leadership, Unity and “Courage under fire”--war is where you really separate the "leaders" from the "managers". I find them relevant for another more subtle reason: the management and organisational theories that we find so familiar today have been directly or indirectly influenced by those survivors of WWII--the grunts and officers who went on to build Corporate America, Britain, Japan etc.

The last type (item 10)—ok, this would really be strange. A science fiction book considered as relevant reading? Ok, Sci-Fi may not be everyone’s cup of tea. But to me, Sci-Fi is about social change, ideas and human relationships. It just happens to be in a science setting. I get my creative juices flowing by reading Sci-Fi, plus it’s a good way to relax.

The Cluetrain manifesto: The end of business as usual

By Rick Levine, Christopher Locke, Doc Searls, & David Weinberger.

I read the 2000 edition and it's still as relevant as ever. (Thanks, Shel, for the book recommendation). This is a witty and flippant book that takes a dig at Big Business. It makes sense in many ways.

Amazon.com provides a decent review. Better yet, check out the book from your library or read the online version at http://www.cluetrain.com/

I’ve included my favourite quotes from the book in this blog (in colour & bold). The page numbers refer to the book edition that I’m holding. Hyperlinks are to the online book chapters.

There’s a new conversation between and among your market and your workers. It’s making them smarter and it’s enabling them to discover their human voices. You have two choices. You can continue to lock yourself behind facile corporate words and happytalk brochures. Or you can join the conversation. (p. ixi - Foreword)

What if the real attraction of the Internet is not its cutting-edge bells and whistles, its jazzy interface or any of the advanced technology that underlies its pipes and wires? What if the attraction is an atavistic throwback to the prehistoric human fascination with telling tales? (p. xxi – Introduction)

I buy the argument that the Internet is popular because it allows each individual (read that again – A PERSON, me, you) to have a presence. To rediscover our voice again. The authors make a convincing case (to me at least) that markets of today are all about relationship-building. Customers don’t just want buy a product. They want a voice; to be heard; especially if the product or service falls below their expectations.

Singapore’s best example of how this is happening is probably the Yahoo! Ministry of Complaints. Companies can continue to ignore the complaints (justified or otherwise) posted there at their peril. I mean, no matter how objective I am, I’d probably think that there’s some truth to the complaint about XYZ outlet (or GASP! No! The Library!)

The implication for PR and marketing communications: Join the conversations. Recent example – Microsoft's Channel 9, as I learnt from Shel’s blog The Changing Face of Microsoft. Regardless of whether we love or hate Microsoft, the point is when King Kong jumps, you’d want to see where it lands. Here's another example of how the Web (or blog) is used to engage the customer in conversations - see Robert Scoble's blog.

The concern by organisations (particularly government agencies like NLB) can be summed up by this line in Chapter 4 (p. 107) – But what about the risk? Suppose a “lowly clerk” speaks for the company in public and says something wrong? Something actionable? Something confidential, or sensitive?

The authors’ response: It’s going to happen. It’s already happening. And it’s always happened. The mail clerk describes the corporate strategy to the stranger next to him on the bus, then provide a critique.

It’s true that it's already happening. How many of us can truly say we do not say anything about our work (positive or negative) to our family or friends? And then they would talk to more people. Heaven forbid, that friend of yours could end up talking to a Singapore Cabbie, who might talk to an overseas visitor on the way to the Airport!

Let me stick to what I know more – Libraries (which isn't a lot, BTW). I'm of the view that as technology makes things a whole lot easier for the individual consumer to obtain information without the librarian as the human intermediary, it’s the human Voice (not necessarily Touch) that will make the difference between the individual choosing Borders over a trip to the public library.

See Chapter 5 (p. 123): Business is a conversation because the defining work of a business is a conversation—literally. And “knowledge workers” are simply those whose job consists of having interesting conversations.

Most librarians I know are very passionate people. We can take heart that:
To have a conversation, you have to be comfortable being human—acknowledging you don’t have all the answers, being eager to learn from someone else and to build new ideas together. (p. 123)

That sounds like what relationship-building is about. I can imagine a future where NLB's Customer Service courses for library staff would not just be limited to the finer art of face-to-face dealings with irate customers. It would also teach staff how to 'insert' themselves into a conversation, knowing how NOT TO BE AFRAID in saying that “Oops, I got that wrong but don’t worry Angry_Angel_481, I’ll quickly get back to you on that.”

The official structure becomes less relevant. The most valuable employee is the one who, in response to a question, doesn’t give a concrete answer in a booming voice but says, “You should talk to Larry… Oh, and there’s a mailing list on this topic I ran into a couple of weeks ago…” (p. 129)

The above statement could be a little hard to accept -- it seems that we're asking librarians to “dumb-down” their answers. We librarians pride ourselves in giving correct and complete answers in the shortest time possible. The above example suggests a lowering of our standards and professionalism.

But I could argue otherwise.

The world has changed. Information is even more readily available to customers than before. The “answers” that librarians pride themselves in giving are readily accessible by any child. Heck, librarians even prefer Google—I’m not saying Google is the answer to everything, but who are we kidding? Google (or it’s next reincarnation or successor) is treated as the default search engine, even for librarians for a simple fact that it works adequately. I didn’t say it’s the best, but users don’t necessarily need the BEST. They can survive with adequacy.

Basically I’m making a case that the typical information-seeker don’t think that they need Librarians anymore. And what they think, counts. But here’s what I see as a paradox — the Web enables individual consumers to be independent. However, the less reliant they are on human contact, the more they actually will crave for it.

That being said, the presence that librarians project can no longer be the “Thou knoweth more than you-eth” attitude. To connect with our average information-customer, we need to show them that we’re as human as they are; as fallible, and there’s nothing to be fear from us.

I don’t see NLB scrambling to adopt the Cluetrain Manifesto. I’m even hesitant to go all out and say all employees are now allowed to comment on the organisation’s behalf. It’s tricky. I think we have to reach a halfway point. Not all employees should go and give the "official" voice. We should instead establish an organizational culture that each employee is given enough information to be able to know what is the right thing to say (not necessarily the official line).

The urge to manage is deep in our culture. It ultimately is defeated by the fact of human fallibility (p. 152)

To paraphrase a line from p. 153: The organisation doesn’t have to be always right. It means being more human, and therefore less threatening.

Just when I’m all gushy over the book, I get a slap in the face (figuratively speaking) in Chapter 7 (p. 181): Will Cluetrain be the next big thing? Not if we can help it… Let’s not start another frickin’ club. The only decent thing to do with CLUETRAIN is to bury the sucker now while there’s still time, before it begins to smell of management philosophy.

And there we have it -- the inherent dilemma of any good idea: Once institutionalized, it tends to sink. This book provided lots of food for thought.
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(Related blog - Differentiating the Public Service Librarian - 24 Sept 04)
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