Book recommendations

Truly, madly, and sometimes deeply with Philomena Cunk

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Philomena Cunk, the irreverent, confoundedly misinformed journalist on the Netflix series Cunk on Earth, tackles topics head on. Armed with notes just handed to her, insights from her friend Paul, research on YouTube, and her own life experience, the intrepid Cunk (comedian Diane Morgan) interviews distinguished experts on topics ranging from evolution and religion to history, music and the rise of technology. I’ll admit upfront: I love this kind of goofy humor, built as it is on challenging norms and asking unserious questions of very serious people. Cunk’s voiceover intros are hilarious: “Because no one had invented camouflage yet, the British troops of the time wore bright red coats and were consequently shot in the thousands, while looking amazing.”

Yet, for business decision-makers, the truths that make Cunk both funny and insightful pose very real challenges. What makes information reliable, authentic and actionable? Is that expert or my team telling me what they really think? How do I make rational decisions in an era of deep fakes, disinformation, and general distrust? Indeed, this month, the U.S. Supreme Court could address some of these very questions when it hears arguments in a landmark case involving Section 230 of the 1996 Communications Decency Act, which provides social-media companies broad liability protection for user-posted content. A decision should come in June. In the meantime, what’s a manager to do? As usual, and unlike Cunk, I’d recommend a few good books.

If news about the world and angst about the future have you unsettled, that’s “normal,” according to Rohit Bhargarva and Henry Coutinho-Mason, trend experts and authors of the engaging new book The Future Normal: How We Will Live, Work, and Thrive In The Next Decade. The key, they say, is to more deeply consider the future and plan your place in it. In 10 short, topical chapters, the authors take readers on a journey, identifying emerging trends in areas including learning, media, health, wellness, and remote work, showcasing the “instigators/”innovators responding to them, and positing how we might use innovation collectively for a better, more just and sustainable world. I was especially intrigued by the chapter on “Certified Media” and the startups addressing the proliferation of AI-generated disinformation. Can more technology restore trust in information and news? Would media outlets support a certificate or standard that authenticated all images and videos before publications? This book will leave you thinking — while Cunk ponders whether Egyptian mummies rode bikes.

Of course, for Cunk, all experts and prognosticators should be approached with skepticism. Colleagues can deceive or mislead us, especially when trying to avoid blame, an uncomfortable topic, or a project they can’t get that excited about. Mindreader: The New Science of Deciphering What People Really Think, What They Really Want, and Who They Really Are, the latest fascinating book by Dr. David Lieberman, a psychotherapist and “lie-detector” who instructs FBI and law and security agents, sorts some of this out. Lieberman unpacks how liars tell and sell stories, often long ones, embellishing responses that should be short, simple and plain. How liars tell those stories matters too — and passive voice (“Mistakes were made”) and impersonal pronouns (you and they, not me and mine) can be revealing tells. Discerning leaders will enjoy Lieberman’s practical insights. No one likes to be fooled.

In fact, that very concern might be driving decision-making and strategy at many levels these days. I really enjoyed Foolproof, the wonderful and thought-provoking new book by University of Pennsylvania Carey Law School professor Tess Wilkinson-Ryan, centered on how sugrophobia, the fear of being duped, exploited and played for a sucker, crowds and distorts business negotiations and everyday thinking.

Wilkinson-Ryan, who also holds a doctorate in psychology, teaches Contractsand she provides countless examples of how regret-aversion — not engaging because something appears too good to be true or lending aid because “someone might be a scammer” — can inhibit creativity, connection and win-win solutions. Her discussion of how some politicians and leaders weaponize the sucker narrative is a must-read for critical thinkers. Small wonder that Cunk believes we’re all deceived by the “facts” about the moon landing and even the very existence of the moon — it’s all spelled out in a Youtube video that smarter people should watch.

Where does all of this lead? Can we refocus our thinking and reclaim integrity, trust, and authenticity in a rapidly changing world? Only time will tell. After all, “thinking about thinking is the hardest sort of thinking there is,” according to Philomena Cunk.

Read in the Boston Business Journal

Authors & Innovators is an occasional column by Larry Gennari, a transactional lawyer, law professor, and chief curator of Authors & Innovators, an annual business book and ideas festival.  Gennari also teaches Project Entrepreneur, a business fundamentals bootcamp for returning citizens, at BC Law School.

Maybe We Need More “Travels with Charley”

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Thank goodness for dogs. For so many, especially during the last three tense and turbulent years, our dogs have been a source of tactile comfort and unconditional companionship. Dogs also have connected us, especially in parks and public places, allowing us to share our stories and in many ways, our shared humanity. No wonder more than 48 million households now have a dog, a number that increased by more than 11% during the pandemic.

As we begin 2023, we need our dog friends (and poop bags, for those community walks) more than ever. Rising inflation, global conflicts, and rapid technological change have most decisionmakers worried about the direction of the overall economy and their future in it. Will this be another year “gone to the dogs?”

I don’t know, but these days, I’m thinking about an earlier time, a memorable dog, and a gifted writer trying to make sense of a shifting economy, a new generation, and a changing country. In Travels With Charley, John Steinbeck chronicles a cross-country road trip with his travel companion and friend, Charley, a wise and sensitive brown poodle, who helps him connect to people and their revealing economic stories. Published in 1962, the book was among Steinbeck’s last and best, and it set the stage for many important cultural, business, and policy conversations. Could a current savvy thinker with a precocious dog retrace some of Steinbeck’s steps and restart important dialogues today? Sure, but I’d recommend that they prepare by reading a few recent and insightful books.

Maine is among the first states Steinbeck and Charley visit, and there they encounter a listless and unhappy waitress, working paycheck to paycheck in a dead-end job. Echoes of this scene are reflected in business journalist Rick Wartzman’s recent book Still Broke, an engaging must-read history of Walmart and its often-fraught relationship with its frontline store employees. As one of the nation’s largest employers, Walmart has substantial influence, and its determined efforts to improve wages, training and benefits for a more full-time workforce are impressive. Still, Wartzman argues, Walmart and other influential companies can only get us so far. Congress needs to do more — actually, a lot more — given that 80% of Americans need to earn at least $20 per hour to make a living family wage. Six decades after Steinbeck’s trek, many American families still struggle just to stay in place.

Continuing into the Midwest, Charley helps Steinbeck meet people in Ohio and Indiana for a conversation about local and national news. In contrast to New Englanders, these folks are eager and quick to engage visitors and learn more about new and different places. Turns out that stories, especially local ones well told, were a critical source of inspiration, innovation and imagination to readers and listeners across communities. That’s still true, according to Quinnipiac dean Chris Roush, author of the terrific book The Future Of Business Journalism: Why It Matters For Wall Street And Main Street. The consolidation of business media has led to nonstop national coverage of public markets and big companies, much to the detriment of local stories that matter to the entrepreneurs, business owners and policymakers trying to build and sustain their own economic communities. Roush’s clear and direct suggestions for training young business journalists and expanding local-media business models are incredibly important. Steinbeck, who also understood the connective power of shared stories, would agree wholeheartedly.

Finally, Steinbeck and Charley visit California and the West, where Steinbeck laments the steady march of technology and its uncertain impact on society. We have much the same worries today, even more so in an interdependent, interconnected world. For an update on those pressing concerns, I’d strongly recommend reading two books in tandem: Chip War: The Fight For The World’s Most Critical Technology, a detailed history of the semiconductor industry and its vital importance to national security, by Tufts professor Chris Miller, and also Danger Zone: The Coming Conflict With China, an urgent and provocative assessment of the global economy and shifting geopolitical alliances, by Tufts professor Michael Beckley and Johns Hopkins professor Hal Brands.

As Steinbeck notes toward the end, we all move on from a “permanent and changeless past.”  We need to understand, as he last did, standing among the redwoods, that the future will arrive and “we can’t go home again.” For 2023 and beyond, we all might handle that insight just a little bit better with a trusted four-legged friend at our side.

Read in the Boston Business Journal

 Authors & Innovators is an occasional column by Larry Gennari, a transactional lawyer, law professor, and chief curator of Authors & Innovators, an annual business book and ideas festival.  Gennari also teaches Project Entrepreneur, a business fundamentals bootcamp for returning citizens, at BC Law School.

Top Ten Must-Reads from 2022

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As we close out another busy and eventful year, you may be looking for that perfect gift for a colleague, friend or family member. What better gifts than new ideas and wisdom! I’ve read some great books this year, and I’m happy to recommend 10 titles that should appeal to the most entrepreneurial minds on your list.

Top 10 Books on Entrepreneurship and Business:

This Is What It Sounds Like: What The Music You Love Says About You

I loved this terrific book by neuroscientist Ogi Gas and music producer and neuroscientist Susan Rogers, who also collaborated with Prince on Purple Rain.What does music cognition have to do with business? Well, your taste in music and why you prefer jazz over reggae, or punk over classic rock, can reveal a lot about how your one and only brain works, and in turn, how your style, originality, and personality influence everything you do and the experiences you want to have — as a person, as a leader, and in the world. Want to know more about someone else? Ask about their favorite songs.

Benjamin Franklin’s Last Bet

University of Pittsburgh professor Michael Meyer lays out the fascinating story of how Franklin, on his death, gifted $2,000 pounds to each of his hometowns of Boston and Philadelphia to establish microloan funds to jumpstart the careers and businesses of coopers, blacksmiths, carpenters and others in the “leather apron” class. What happened after that is a fascinating tale of two cities.

Rebel With A Clause

Roving grammarian Ellen Jovin visited all 50 states with her folding Grammar Table and fielded questions from interested and interesting visitors. Turns out a LOT of people care about grammar and Jovin’s entertaining and engaging explanations of Oxford commas, sentence starting conjunctions, and non-referential pronouns–among many others–make for informative and fun reading. This book is for the language lover on your list … or “whomever.”

Purpose + Profit: How Business Can Lift Up The World

HBS Professor George Serafeim tells leaders that they can and should deploy their own skills and knowledge to improve the world. The purpose and focus of business is changing from a model of shareholder primacy toward a broader expectation that companies contribute to society. Serafeim provides plenty of data and lots of examples of how companies and investors can implement purpose driven initiatives.

When Women Lead

CNBC’s Julia Boorstin chronicles the challenges, qualities, and insights of more than 120 successful women leaders. The book is unique for its breadth, depth and data, and Boorstin’s storytelling of how and why inspired women tend to build strong, purpose-driven companies while establishing new patterns in male-dominated markets is sharp and insightful.

The Man Who Broke Capitalism: How Jack Welch Gutted the Heartland and Crushed the Soul of Corporate America

In this provocative, thought-provoking book, New York Times business reporter David Gelles traces Welch’s ascent at GE and his unrelenting focus on maximizing shareholder value, which meant pretty much exclusively an always-increasing stock price. Gelles envisions an emerging inclusive and mission-oriented business model for future corporate leaders.

Build For Tomorrow

Entrepreneur Magazine Editor Jason Feiffer shows and tells us how we can best adapt to continuing and sometimes uncomfortable change. The numerous stories, examples, and use cases are fun to read and Feiffer’s advice is spot on.

Golden: The Power of Silence in a World Of Noise

An incredibly absorbing and insightful new book by leadership experts Justin Zorn and Leigh Marz. Readers will value their countless examples and practical tips on recognizing opportunities for restorative silence every day, every week and all the time.

The Art of Insubordination: How To Dissent And Defy Effectively

George Mason University Professor Todd Kashdan traces the history and theory of dissent and change in a variety of contexts. This is an easy-to-read, step-by-step playbook on how to become a persuasive and patient dissenter.

Influence Is Your Superpower

Yale Professor Zoe Chance’s smart, practical book shows how to build and use your unique influence. You don’t need to be a celebrity, YouTube influencer, or celebrated expert to give actionable advice and shape behavior.

This year, whether your list includes audio or old-school book readers, give the gift of insight and innovation and support your local independent bookstore.  We’ll all be better off if you do.

Read in the Boston Business Journal

 Authors & Innovators is an occasional column by Larry Gennari, a transactional lawyer, law professor, and chief curator of Authors & Innovators, an annual business book and ideas festival.  Gennari also teaches Project Entrepreneur, a business fundamentals bootcamp for returning citizens, at BC Law School.

The Pleasing Appeal of Harry Styles

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Harry Styles, right now the most famous entertainer on the planet, rose to acclaim as a member of the boy band One Direction. His catchy, confessional lyrics, gender-neutral retro style, and upbeat, ineffable charm on stage have made him an icon. The 28-year-old singer-songwriter easily fills stadiums across the U.S. and beyond, and he soon will appear in several soon-to-be released films.

As the dad of a superfan, I’m long aware of his renown. (Harry, remember that small SUV that tailed your tour bus in the Boston area, the one blasting As It Was and Watermelon Sugar, with the girls screaming “HARRY!!!” at every stoplight?… Thanks for not pressing charges.) Styles is indeed a generational talent and with thoughtful choices, hard work, and a bit of luck, his entertainment career will continue its soaring trajectory. Yet, I’m less interested in his next album (Harry’s House is all-around solid; good luck topping that!) and more focused on his entrepreneurial work, and more specifically, his newly launched, eco-friendly, consumer goods company: Pleasing. Building a brand into a business is challenging and I hope Harry will consider a few business-oriented books alongside those new scripts he’ll be reading in the coming months.

Pleasing.com launched last year, starting with nail and skin care products made from sustainable and plant-based ingredients as well as apparel from recycled and organic fabric, some of which was modeled by Mick Fleetwood, another super-fan dad. Harry’s partner in the venture, Emma Spring, is his former assistant. Kudos to Harry for recognizing the power and potential of a woman-co-founder. He and Emma will want to read When Women Lead, the upcoming book by CNBC tech correspondent Julia Boorstin, who chronicles the challenges, qualities, and insights of more than 120 successful women leaders. The book is unique for its breadth, depth and data, and Boorstin’s storytelling of how and why inspired women tend to build strong, purpose-driven companies while establishing new patterns in male-dominated markets, is sharp and insightful. We need more books that challenge set narratives and expand the definition of effective leadership beyond men. Pleasing seems to incorporating some of Boorstin’s “Learning Lessons” already.

Of course, Boorstin and others would advise Harry and Emma not to go it alone or to rely solely on outside professionals, investment bankers, consultants and legal advisors. As Pleasing expands, they’ll need a broader leadership team and advice informed by real experience to scale.  For more on that, they should read Build Your Board, Build Your Business, by economist, investor, and entrepreneur Barbara Clarke, the new, engaging, read-in-one-sitting guide to the basics and benefits of building an effective board for first-time entrepreneurs. Of course, building a board is more than just adding inexperienced celebrities as advisors. Harry and Emma need an intentional strategy of enlisting people who can be true thought partners in their mission-driven strategy. The best board members are selfless, honest, objective, experienced, loyal, and along the way, willing to engage in healthy, necessary, and uncomfortable conversations about operations, money, and growth. For more on that, I’d recommend the new second edition of Startup Boards: A Field Guide To Building and Leading An Effective Board of Directors, by author/ venture capitalist Brad Feld and entrepreneurs Matt Blumberg and Mahendra Ramsinghani, especially the chapters on board recruiting, relationship dynamics, and critical differences between advisory boards and “real” boards of directors. Also, Harry should call Rihanna. She’s busy with her billion-dollar Fenty cosmetics line, but she certainly knows the industry and may have time to be on Pleasing’s board.

Finally, although Harry is continuing his ambitious tour through New York, Austin, Chicago and then Europe, he and Emma will need to remain in close contact about Pleasing’s operations, product development, and marketing support for aligned non-profits. Founder communication shouldn’t be delegated to third parties or left to an email or text from a private plane. Harry should read The Art of Conscious Conversation, the incisive upcoming book by communications expert and mediator Chuck Wisner, which offers practical tips on listening, reflecting, and collaborating with team members, business partners, and family. Given that Harry’s lyrics tap the emotions beneath the surface of common conversations, this book is a must-read for him. He’ll definitely need more Late Night Talking.

Pleasing seems to be off to a good start in a crowded, competitive space.  Fortunately, Harry is a daring original, willing to try new approaches that get noticed. Going forward, that’s undoubtedly what will matter the most.

Read in the Boston Business Journal

 Authors & Innovators is an occasional column by Larry Gennari, a transactional lawyer, law professor, and chief curator of Authors & Innovators, an annual business book and ideas festival.  Gennari also teaches Project Entrepreneur, a business fundamentals bootcamp for returning citizens, at BC Law School.

Is it all about the Benjamins?

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By Larry Gennari
Boston Business Journal
June 17, 2022

Graduation season is upon us and this one will be satisfying and consequential, especially for the more than 3 million U.S. high school students who navigated the perils of the pandemic for the last two years. We all have high hopes for these graduates and a stake in the future they will help build. No doubt, many commencement speakers are advising them to follow their passion, commit to hard work, and build a productive life of connection and meaning. Some grads will embark on those tasks by beginning college program while others instead will find a full-time job or join the gig economy. So what useful advice can we offer to a generation of young adults who want to make a living and also make a life?

Let’s start with a bit of entrepreneurial wisdom from 1790.

Ben Franklin, one of the nation’s founders, was a mercurial and creative polymath with boundless energy and curiosity.  During his illustrious and long life, he was a writer, inventor, scientist, diplomat, and entrepreneur, and when he died in 1790, he left a legacy that continues to influence our economy today. Franklin was a member of an elite, educated class that crafted the U.S. Constitution. Yet, even more so than his peers, he also believed that skilled workers would shape the foundation of American democracy. In the new book Benjamin Franklin’s Last Bet, University of Pittsburgh professor Michael Meyer lays out the fascinating story of how Franklin, on his death, gifted 2,000 pounds to each of his hometowns of Boston and Philadelphia to establish microloan funds to jumpstart the careers and businesses of coopers, blacksmiths, carpenters and others in the “leather apron” class. Meyer meticulously details the earliest loans, the growth of the two parallel funds through the Industrial Revolution and both world wars, and ultimately the political and legal squabbles around how each city would invest the substantial monies accrued as an intended distribution more than a hundred years later. Boston’s Benjamin Franklin Institute of Technology continues to trace its skill-training roots to his legacy today. Franklin’s advice to recent grads: A master plumber can make as much as a primary-care physician — consider the pathway of a learned trade.

Franklin knew that skilled people create businesses, support themselves, hire others and center communities. In fact, as we fast-forward to 2022, Franklin’s perspective that essential skills aren’t just those taught in elite college classrooms remains prescient. Professor Danny Warshay, founding director of Brown University’s Nelson Center for Entrepreneurship, undoubtedly agrees and in his terrific new book: See, Solve, Scale: How Anyone Can Turn An Unsolved Problem Into A Breakthrough Success, he urges us to think of entrepreneurship as a process that anyone, anywhere can learn. It starts, Warshaw argues, as an “anthropological approach” centered on three fundamental principles: seeing an unmet need, solvingthat need with a developed solution, and finally, scaling that solution to have big, long-term impact.

Warshay takes the reader step-by-step through a variety of examples in different sectors ranging from Imperfect Produce, which is solving the problem of food waste, to The Louverture Cleary School Network, which now is providing quality education to thousands of students in Haiti. Indeed, Warshay’s practical framework can help how both growth oriented and non-profit entrepreneurs — regardless of formal academic training and initial resources — take on some of the world’s biggest problems. Danny’s advice for new grads: find where your genuine joy meets a real need, then focus on sustainable change.

Of course, Franklin famously commented that our democracy will survive so long as we recognize our collective effort to keep it. He would want our new grads to connect their private ambitions to our common good. Free education, clean water, safe highway travel, and our system of justice are among the public goods that bind us together as a nation. In their important, new book The Privatization of Everything, researcher Donald Cohen and NYTimes editor Allen Mikaelian provide countless examples of how easily communities can lose when private interests take over day to day essential services. Their advice to new grads: be informed, get involved, and always read the fine print.

Franklin dispensed plenty of advice during his life: “Early to bed, early to rise makes one healthy, wealthy, and wise,” “Fish and visitors both stink after three days,” and other time-tested gems. As we celebrate the new graduates in our lives, we should all give Franklin’s life and legacy a thoughtful second look.

Read in the Boston Business Journal

 Authors & Innovators is an occasional column by Larry Gennari, a transactional lawyer, law professor, and chief curator of Authors & Innovators, an annual business book and ideas festival.  Gennari also teaches Project Entrepreneur, a business fundamentals bootcamp for returning citizens, at BC Law School.

For the Sake of Argument

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Every lawyer knows the old adage: “When the law is on your side, argue the law; when the facts  are on your side, argue the facts; when neither the law nor the facts are on your side, just argue!” 

Memorable, sardonic, and a nod to the very human condition of wanting to “win,” this tip can frame  a negotiating strategy. However, for most decision makers, arguments should yield to demonstrable  facts, mutual understanding, and logical compromise, given that winning means closing a deal.  That’s challenging when people make up their minds quickly based on what they already “know.”  So, in an age when data and information are ubiquitous, how can CEO’s advocate and win when otherwise reasonable people take hard positions and believe unreasonable things? As always, they can start with a few good  books. 

Productive negotiations start with agreement on basic facts. We take for granted that smart people on “the other side” understand  our goals, their own incentives, and the field of play for discussion. Increasingly, however, some conversations need to start at  an even more basic level: can we agree that COVID is not a hoax or even that the earth is round? (Yes, you read that right.)  Journalist Kelly Weill, author of the fascinating and unnerving new book, Off the Edge: Flat Earthers, Conspiracy Culture and Why People Will Believe Anything, a fascinating and unnerving new book, helps explain why. We humans always have sought  patterns to explain the inexplicable and Weill traces the roots of today’s conspiratorial movements back to Flat Earth theory in  the 1830’s. She does a masterful job of explaining how social media companies have learned how to combine basic human  instincts with AI driven algorithms to keep us online longer even if the deeper we go and the questionable content we encounter  leads to our own unraveling. This book is a must for tech leaders, especially anyone involved in designing ethical AI driven  customer engagement. 

Even if we can agree on basic facts, we still need to work through what they mean to both sides. That’s hard, especially now, and  according to journalist/social entrepreneur Monica Guzman, we all need a strategy for intentional listening in our business and  personal lives. In her insightful new book, I Never Thought of It That Way: How to Have Fearlessly Curious Conversations in Dangerously Divided Times, Guzman tells us how. I especially liked her “four things to try” formulation centered on: getting  hypothetical, presenting the strongest argument for the other side, acknowledging your own attachments, and assuming absolutely  nothing. As Guzman illustrates by interactions with her own strong-willed family and work colleagues, listening can be challenging, hearing even harder.  

Yet, for most business leaders, the hardest challenge of all may be re-thinking what winning actually means. For more on that,  I’d recommend the forthcoming book, Results: Getting Beyond Politics to Get Important Work Done, by Governor Charlie  Baker and his former longtime chief of staff, Steve Kadish. Unlike many books by political figures, this isn’t a tell-all, nor does  it focus on settling scores or framing a narrative for an upcoming campaign. Instead, Republican Baker and Democrat Kadish  share what they have learned over the course of their private and public lives by distilling an incisive four-step framework based  on competence, fact-based decisions, and measuring of results. 

Notably, for Baker, the former CEO of Harvard Pilgrim, leading a state involves different priorities than heading a private  company, but the challenge of finding solutions that work across conflicting, entrenched, and often distrustful constituencies is  the same for many organizations, whatever the industry. I enjoyed learning how the team tackled day-today challenges ranging  from the disfunction at the MBTA, human tragedies at the DCF, and the scramble to address the Pandemic and the rollout of the  life-saving vaccines. Their disarming candor about what worked and what didn’t and their esemplastic methodology will be  incredibly useful to any business leader. I certainly came away from the book with gratitude for a hard-working team committed  to showing how government, although imperfect and bureaucratic, can “win” by making positive change and a real difference in peoples’ lives. This is tough, important, and ongoing work.  

As for achieving goals when we seem so far apart? Maybe we need to refocus on the basics of finding common ground and  understand that the opposite of losing often is not winning, but finding. In fraught and volatile times, starting with that definition  of “success” can make all the difference in the world.

Read in the Boston Business Journal

 Authors & Innovators is an occasional column by Larry Gennari, a transactional lawyer, law professor, and chief curator of Authors & Innovators, an annual business book and ideas festival.  Gennari also teaches Project Entrepreneur, a business fundamentals bootcamp for returning citizens, at BC Law School.

Everybody Wants to Rule the World

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Back in the 1980s, the British pop group Tears for Fears produced one of the most memorable songs of the last four decades. Everybody Wants to Rule the World topped music charts back in 1985, and Rolling Stone recently ranked the song among its 500 Greatest Songs of All Time. It’s a rich, catchy song with lush guitar solos and memorable lyrics that speak to the often-unsettling human need for control, dominance and influence.

Ironically, the working title of the song in the studio was “Everybody Wants To Go To War.” I’m hearing that song a lot in my head these days, given the tragic and unnecessary war in Ukraine, and it has me thinking about bad decisions and unfortunate patterns that so many of us see in our own personal and professional lives. Every organization, public and private, large and small, could benefit from more reflection, understanding, and independent thinking, and for those CEOs, managers, and elected officials interested in better, more consensus-based decisions, I’d recommend a few new books.

How often have you heard: “It’s not personal, it’s just business” after a decision? That’s never entirely true, and in Emotional: How Feelings Shape Our Thinking, CalTech Professor Leonard Mlodinow explains that all decisions — good and especially bad — are grounded in part by our uniquely personal emotions and core body functions at the time. This is a fascinating chronicle of the evolutionary roots of the mind-body connection, where feelings come from, and how those with “emotional intelligence,” the ability to understand the feelings of others, excel in business, politics, and day-to-day interactions. Life is busy and we all must make decisions and interact with people throughout the day, even when we are angry, upset, bored, distracted or hungry.

Think this doesn’t matter? Ask anyone up for parole. Who knew that parole boards granted requests 60% more often when the hearing was the first of the day or just after a break or lunch? Mlodinow provides plenty of other interesting data on the bio-roots of motivation and determination, and he encourages all of us to assess our own emotional profile so we can understand ourselves, make better decisions, and also recognize patterns in others. Small wonder that we’re already hearing more about the role of emotion in wartime leaders’ decision making these days.

So if strategic decisions, some good, and others tragically bad, are shaped by emotion, how can we help a leader or a team avoid adverse outcomes? With your influence, according to Yale Professor Zoe Chance and her smart, funny new book, Influence Is Your Superpower. You need not be a celebrity, YouTube influencer, or celebrated expert to give actionable advice and shape behavior. Charisma, she explains, isn’t something you are — it’s what you do through word framing, body language, and by leaning in to others with deep, authentic listening and intention.

I liked her take on how individual influence can be contagious and lead to broader, collective action among people and organizations and her advice on framing negotiations around three questions: How could this be even better for me? How could this be even better for them? Who else could benefit? will be especially valuable for teams trying to find common ground in difficult situations. This thoughtful framing could work for nations in conflict too.

Of course, ineffective leadership, entrenched systems, and toxic cultures may not change overnight.  Change takes time and often requires subtle and everyday acts of disobedience. In The Art of Insubordination: How To Dissent And Defy Effectively, George Mason University Professor Todd Kashdan traces the history and theory of dissent and change in a variety of contexts. Non-conformity is hard for us humans and we take comfort from the familiarity of the collective status quo. We like to fit in; we avoid conflict. Kashdan’s easy-to-read, step-by-step playbook on how to become a persuasive and patient dissenter who finds allies and builds consensus incrementally is incredibly persuasive. So too his advice on how adding dissenters to teams — even just one — can result in broader perspectives and better decisions over time. As we are all seeing on the global stage and especially in Ukraine, rebels matter.

Four decades ago, Tears for Fears captured the tension between conflict and peace in the human condition in a song. They’ve now released a new album with songs about life, love, and fraught choices.  As we sort out how far-reaching and impactful decisions are influenced and made, seems like we still have plenty to learn.

 Authors & Innovators is an occasional column by Larry Gennari, a transactional lawyer, law professor, and chief curator of Authors & Innovators, an annual business book and ideas festival.  Gennari also teaches Project Entrepreneur, a business fundamentals bootcamp for returning citizens, at BC Law School.

Gifts for Thinkers: The top 10 business books of 2021

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By Larry Gennari
Boston Business Journal

This year has been an eventful one, and as we close it out, you may be looking for that perfect gift for a colleague, friend or family member. Now more than ever, we all can benefit by taking the time to read, learn and listen more deeply. I’ve read some great books this year, and I’m happy to recommend 10 titles that should appeal to the most entrepreneurial minds on your list. Check them out:

Machiavelli For Women: Defend Your Worth, Grow Your Ambition, and Win The Workplace – Stacey Vanek Smith’s premise is simple and true: despite decades of progress, most women are still not thriving and rising to the highest levels of power. Using an unlikely 500-year-old political manifesto as a platform, Vanek Smith advises women to observe what’s happening, assess and strategize, and know and then grow their own power.

You Have More Influence Than You Think – Cornell Professor Vanessa Bohns wants you to appreciate the significant impact we all have on others in our daily lives. I loved this book and the important learnings on the simple power of compliments, the basic human fear of rejection, and the potential we all have for making a difference when it matters.

The New Builders – Venture capitalist Seth Levine and journalist Elizabeth McBride tell the important story of how the New Builders: brown, black, older and increasingly female entrepreneurs, are remaking and redefining our communities and our economy. You’ll root for them and want to learn more about how we can reduce barriers and increase access to capital to ensure their success.

American Made: What Happens To People When Work Disappears – Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Farah Stockman chronicles the lives of three hard-working people (one of whom has a criminal record) laid off from a manufacturing plant that had anchored an Indiana town for decades. Want to understand today’s puzzling job numbers? Read this book.

The Power of Trust – Harvard Business School authors Sandra Sucher and Shalene Gupta explain how trust’s four components: competence, motives, means, and impact shape how we feel about companies, large and small, as customers, employees, suppliers and communities.

Think Again – Wharton Professor Adam Grant advises us to listen like we are wrong. Many CEOs will find his easy-to-follow tips on becoming a more “persuasive listener” incredibly valuable.

High Conflict: Why We Get Trapped and How We Get Out – Journalist Amanda Ripley’s smart and engaging book is a page turner. You will learn a LOT about how basic framing and listening can diffuse even the most fraught situations.

Better, Simpler Strategy – This is a powerful book and HBS Professor Felix Oberholzer-Gee lays out a compelling “value stick” approach for pleasing customers, retaining employees, and placing value creation at the center of your business strategies.

The Unspoken Rules: Secrets to Starting Your Career Off Right – HBS grad Gorick Ng has the book we all needed as our younger selves. Ng’s smart, practical and direct advice (“Yes, you should ask questions at every Zoom and in-person meeting.”) will have every manager — and parent — reading along and vigorously nodding up and down. This is easily the most valuable career-oriented book I’ve read in years.

Living a Life That Matters – Rabbi Harold Kushner reminds us that we should never stop asking why and how we can matter to the world. Every library has essential books that are worth returning to again and again. This short and profound book is among them in mine.

Read in the Boston Business Journal

 Authors & Innovators is an occasional column by Larry Gennari, a transactional lawyer, law professor, and chief curator of Authors & Innovators, an annual business book and ideas festival.  Gennari also teaches Project Entrepreneur, a business fundamentals bootcamp for returning citizens, at BC Law School.

 

You can’t fire me. I quit.

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By Larry Gennari
Boston Business Journal

Michael Scott from “The Office” is the world’s worst boss. In one of the sitcom’s funniest scenes, Scott is hosting a ridiculous orientation for employees from a merged Dunder Mifflin branch, when one employee tries to quit on the spot. Scott refuses to hear of the resignation and instead fires him because the company can’t have “quitters,” a decision that costs the company an unnecessary severance payout.

These days, my conversations with local CEOs have been all about quitters, or more specifically, how they can attract and retain a team in the midst of labor-market turmoil. Let’s fact facts: Something big is happening. In August, more than 4.3 million people quit their jobs and in September, another 4.4 million did the same, all as job openings remained near record levels. So what can a CEO do to navigate these challenges and develop strategies around talent, compensation, acquisitions and overall growth? Well, consider a few ideas from some insightful new books.

Look Deeper: Much of the current labor-force disruption started pre-pandemic, and now the so-called “new normal” is taking shape and changing the social contract that defines the rights of citizens, government and businesses. So argues, New York Times writer and professor Alec Ross in his provocative new book, The Raging 2020s. Ross argues that a focus on shareholder value above all else has led to monopolies, short-term thinking, international race-to-the bottom tax policy, erosion of worker rights, and a breakdown in civility and community. We now need a greater focus on stakeholder capitalism. I found much of this compelling and Ross’ data-driven observations definitely will make you think.

Look Harder: Yes, our social contract is changing, and so is the labor force. The pandemic has hastened retirements, slowed immigration, and reduced labor force participation for women especially. Many U.S. economists are predicting a long and continuing labor shortfall. Time for a second look at those who need a second chance. In Untapped Talent, investment strategist Jeffrey Korzenik makes the sensible case for hiring talented and motivated people burdened with a criminal record. All too often, returning citizens are painted with a broad brush and denied employment, housing, benefits and basic opportunities long beyond their completed sentences. Giving capable people a chance to work is part of every social contract, and after all, we are all more than the worst thing we have ever done.

Look Ahead: Going forward, global market forces and the labor supply will reflect a realignment of the how we think about work. This is the future and it is rooted in the past.  People want better pay, meaningful work-life balance, and a sense that what they do matters — to them, their co-workers, their families and their communities. In American Made: What Happens To People When Work Disappears, Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Farah Stockman chronicles the lives of three hard-working people (one of whom has a criminal record) laid off from a manufacturing plant that had anchored an Indiana town for decades. Seems to me that economic justiceand contributive value are inextricably linked and this book proves the point. You will recognize these people and their all-too-familiar stories.

In the end, we need to recognize the connectedness of work and wages to community, hope, and progress.  We need to think about possible solutions, and we should do that, as Michael Scott would say, “as ASAP as possible.”

 Authors & Innovators is an occasional column by Larry Gennari, a transactional lawyer, law professor, and chief curator of Authors & Innovators, an annual business book and ideas festival.  Gennari also teaches Project Entrepreneur, a business fundamentals bootcamp for returning citizens, at BC Law School.

 

Machiavelli, women, and the art of talking back

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By Larry Gennari
Boston Business Journal

For my daughter, a high school senior, this is the season for college tours, a return to more “normal” traditions, and a focus on planning for next year’s adventures far from home. She’s smart, irrepressible, a percipient writer, and possessed of a sharp EQ she inherited from her mother. So, as she grows into a fuller person in the broader world, I’m trying to distill and dispense as much advice as possible this year, much of it borrowed, some of it learned, all of which will be met, at least at first, with eye rolls and a polite, dismissive thanks. I know, I know… you have to pick your spots. Truer still, you have to choose great sources and examples.

The late and wonderful Mary Oliver advised: “You must not ever stop being whimsical. And you must not, ever, give anyone else the responsibility for your life.” NPR’s Stacey Vanek Smith, co-host of the podcast Planet Money and author of the disarmingly powerful new book, Machiavelli For Women: Defend Your Worth, Grow Your Ambition, and Win the Workplace, would agree wholeheartedly. Vanek Smith’s premise is simple and true: despite decades of progress, most women are still not thriving and rising to the highest levels of power and too many take daily disrespect, including “overtalk” (male lawyers interrupting even female Supreme Court Justices) and “he-peats” (her idea is not a good one until he repeats it) in stride. Small wonder 90% of CEO’s of Fortune 500 companies are men, corporate boards are more than 80% male, and women still earn only 80 cents for every dollar a man makes.

Using an unlikely 500-year-old political manifesto as a platform, Vanek Smith advises women to observe what’s happening, strategize, and know and then grow their own power. Her tips on negotiating for a raise, a new title, and basic respect in the workplace, are practical, smart, and clear-eyed. Every woman, and indeed, every businessperson who knows a woman, should read this timely book.

You’ll find examples of Vanek Smith’s advice in action in Michael Lewis’ riveting new title, The Premonition, a chronicle of the federal government’s chaotic first response to the pandemic and how brave and smart officials like Dr. Charity Dean, former assistant director of California’s Department of Public Health, unflinchingly cut through misinformation, bad science, and bureaucracy to implement health measures that saved lives. Lewis is perhaps America’s best non-fiction/business writer and his description of how women like Dean asked simple direct questions and weren’t afraid to lose their jobs to do the right thing is detailed, infuriating, and incredibly entertaining.

Not that moving past strong opinions and intransigent male decision-makers is anything new for women.  Our workplaces, legislatures, and public debates have long been fraught with partisanship, misogyny, and unremedied discrimination.  So says writer and Smithsonian Museum curator Jon Grinspan, author of the recent book, The Age of Acrimony: How Americans Fought to Fix Their Democracy 1865-1915, centered on the inspiring and intertwined lives of Congressman William “Pig Iron” Kelly and his outspoken, activist daughter Florence. Turns out that when smart women and good people step up in business and government, we can make discernible progress on poverty, pay, equal rights, and the things that truly matter. This is a history well worth reading with lessons worth relearning.

We need these new books, more examples, and advice from long ago. As Machiavelli would advise: find a way to make change happen — “leaning in” most definitely is not enough.

 Authors & Innovators is an occasional column by Larry Gennari, a transactional lawyer, law professor, and chief curator of Authors & Innovators, an annual business book and ideas festival.  Gennari also teaches Project Entrepreneur, a business fundamentals bootcamp for returning citizens, at BC Law School.

You’ve got mail…again

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By Larry Gennari
Boston Business Journal

We’re buried in email! According to recent statistics, in 2020 alone, the average person received more than 120 daily emails at the office out of more than 300 billion daily emails sent and received globally.

Sure, spam filters can help us avoid the worst. (Thank you, Mimecast, for saving me from countless killer-SEO proposals, weight-loss supplements, and a few dubious cash investments with people who otherwise seem really nice.) Still, that’s a LOT of communication and not all of it is effective, necessary, or useful. So, what’s a busy executive do to remain productive at work, at home and to be a thoughtful person in this world? Well, you might just learn and implement strategies from a few new books.

Leadership expert Erica Dhawan takes theses challenges head-on in Digital Body Language: How To Build Trust & Connection, No Matter The Distance, an insightful book that definitely will make you think twice before hitting the irksome “Reply To All” on most messages. Non-verbal communication is critical in conversations, and our posture, hand gestures and facial expressions can convey as much meaning as the words we use (trust me, I’m Italian). With email and text, all of that is lost (even with emojis), and we can spend countless hours sorting out the emotional uncertainties of short texts or delayed email responses. Dhawan’s tips on how best to convey value, trust and meaning to colleagues and friends and across generations are smart, timely and important. Indeed, writing clearly “is the new empathy,” and let’s remember that a videoconference or phone call easily outweighs the most carefully crafted email or text.

Next, although you may be the center of a business universe or transaction, you need NOT be copied on every email, every time, all the time. That’s not helpful, and it certainly isn’t collaborating.  So emphasizes Babson professor Rob Cross in his incisive new book Beyond Collaboration Overload, which includes in-depth examples, practical tools and direct coaching on new routines and digital communications for these post-pandemic times. You’ll identify with or at least know protagonist Scott, the overworked, overcommitted, and overwrought executive who is “in on” everything, but eventually must find a way out so he can drive performance and avoid professional and personal burnout. Among other things, Cross urges execs to step back from the typical technology-enabled, “always on” approach and create a “persistent dialogue on what is worth doing.”

Sound advice indeed.

For all of the emphasis on communicating effectively from our homes, desks and phones, we can’t let digital isolation displace community, purpose and things worth doing. We still need the wonder and meaning that comes from travel and in-person connections, once that feels normal and safer for all. That has me thinking about Republic of Detours, journalist Scott Borchert’s engaging new book on the Federal Writer’s Project, founded in 1935 during the New Deal to employ jobless writers as they created travel guides and stories for each state and region. Inspired by a collective love for storytelling, it was a messy, far-flung project that included future luminaries Zora Neale Hurston, Richard Wright, Studs Terkel and others in a raucous conversation about the American experiment and the crazy, diverse and thoughtful people and places in it.

Dialogue matters and by engaging each other genuinely, we advance the work of our lives and enrich our communities. We need more of this, especially now, and a lot less “Reply to All.”  [Emoji intentionally omitted.]

 Authors & Innovators is an occasional column by Larry Gennari, a transactional lawyer, law professor, and chief curator of Authors & Innovators, an annual business book and ideas festival.  Gennari also teaches Project Entrepreneur, a business fundamentals bootcamp for returning citizens, at BC Law School.

Monopoly: A new take on an old game

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By Larry Gennari
Boston Business Journal

During the throes of the pandemic, board games were a refuge, and we dusted off and played a few that miraculously survived my childhood and multiple moves, including Scrabble, Masterpiece, and of course, Monopoly. You can learn a lot about a person (and yourself) when playing Monopoly. Winners end up with hotels on Boardwalk and losers settle for the meager rents offered on Baltic Avenue and the fleeting refuge of Free Parking.

Sure, strategy plays some role (I always buy railroads), but more likely than not, the smug winner of one round can be trounced in the next based on the luck of the dice. So what insights can Monopoly offer on today’s real economy, given that creating vast and dominating wealth at the expense of others is just a game (right)? For answers, we need to consider a few books.

Interestingly, Monopoly dates back to 1904, when Elizabeth Magie first patented the “Landlord’s Game” to promote awareness of income inequality and poverty. If only she knew that the game would reach generations of Americans, among them Monopoly enthusiast and U.S. Sen. and Antitrust Subcommittee Chair Amy Klobuchar, whose new book Antitrust is a compelling tour de force on U.S. antitrust policy and on the state of the national and global economy today. Starting with American anti-monopoly impulses dating back to the Boston Tea Party and covering more than a century of antitrust action and inaction by Congress and the federal courts, Klobuchar details modern-day competitive challenges in a wide range of industries, including pharma and Big Tech. Her Top 25 list of policy fixes seem sensible, bipartisan and doable. The breadth and depth of this book is impressive, and I especially appreciated Klobuchar’s connection of “competition policy” to the critical state of entrepreneurship in the U.S.

For more on that, you need to read The New Builders, the engaging book by venture capitalist Seth Levine and journalist Elizabeth McBride, on how the next generation of Brown, Black, older, and increasingly female entrepreneurs are remaking and redefining our communities and our economy. Most media attention is on the fewer than 1% of entrepreneurs who are venture capital-backed. Levine and McBride instead introduce us to inspired and inspiring entrepreneurs who are creating “Main Street” businesses that employ fewer than 20 people and yet accounted for over 1.6 million new jobs in 2019 alone. These “new builders” are the lifeblood of the U.S. economy, and they face a host of competitive and systemic challenges. You’ll root for them and want to learn more about how we can reduce barriers and increase access to capital to ensure their success.

Indeed, our nation’s continued prosperity depends on a renewed commitment and a shared trust in a vibrant, diverse and competitive business community. All the more reason to read The Power of Trust, the important new book by Harvard Business School authors Sandra Sucher and Shalene Gupta on how trust’s four components — competence, motives, means and impact — shape how we feel about companies, large and small, as customers, employees, suppliers and communities. This is a terrific framework, and for anyone starting a business or managing strategy in an existing one, an essential read. I finished it alongside Fulfillment: Winning and Losing in One-Click America, Alec MacGillis’ superb book about Amazon’s dominance, which gave the overall theme of trust even more resonance.

We need to get this right — and you should read these books. After all, our economy, much like a great board game, works best when everyone has a chance to win.

Read in the Boston Business Journal

 Authors & Innovators is an occasional column by Larry Gennari, a transactional lawyer, law professor, and chief curator of Authors & Innovators, an annual business book and ideas festival.  Gennari also teaches Project Entrepreneur, a business fundamentals bootcamp for returning citizens, at BC Law School.

Commencement and Beyond

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By Larry Gennari
Boston Business Journal

Spring has arrived just in time, and with it, a busy calendar of graduations, celebrations and memorable commencement speeches.  You can’t help but admire the optimism, inspiration and soaring rhetoric of these addresses, even if much of this is fleeting and dissipates as the graduates return their caps and gowns. Still, with so many young people heading off to new jobs and new adventures, we all have a stake in their success. How can we ensure that the oft-spoken words of wisdom have a more lasting impression? Well, we can start with a few good books.

“Hold Fast to Your Dreams.” A laudable sentiment that often gives way to the mundane practicality of a day-to-day career, starting at the lowest rung.  I think the better take is to hold on to the willingness to imagine and dream. That task should be easier with The Imagination Machine, by Boston Consulting Group’s Martin Reeves and Jack Fuller, a new lively, well-illustrated book focused on the power of imagination and “cognitive diversity” in fostering new ideas and solutions. From product ideas (who knew that Play-doh was originally a wall-cleaning product?) to complex problems like climate change and inequality, every organization needs lifelong learners and imagineers to thrive.

“Question the Status Quo.” Ok, sure, but first investigate the “understory,” reduce side-taking, and “complicate the narrative” with active listening. So advises business journalist Amanda Ripley in her smart, engaging book High Conflict: Why We Get Trapped and How We Get Out. The chapter on how blue and red state voters hosted each other in their homes and eventually found common ground was fascinating. Of course, maybe the status quo should be blown up by asking the basic “why.” I loved Better, Simpler Strategy by Harvard Business School Professor Felix Oberholzer-Gee and the “value stick” approach of mapping the most a customer will pay to the lowest price suppliers will provide or the minimum compensation employees require. Every manager should think about product and service “complements” and every new professional should read this disarmingly powerful book.

“Don’t Follow The Rules.” Fine, but first, what are they? For that, you’ll need The Unspoken Rules: Secrets to Starting Your Career Off Right by HBS grad Gorick Ng, a career adviser focused on helping first-generation, low-income students navigate their careers. This is the book we all wanted as our younger selves. Ng’s smart, practical and direct advice (“Yes, you should ask questions at every Zoom and in-person meeting.”) will have every manager — and parent — reading along and vigorously nodding up and down. This is easily the most valuable career-oriented book I’ve read in years.

“You Will Accomplish Great Things.” Yes, but achievement is more than awards and money and making a living is different than making a life. For more on that, I recommend a classic: Rabbi Harold Kushner’s Living a Life That Matters. During the pandemic, we’ve all had time to think and reassess priorities. Kushner advises that the tension between conscience and success not only is healthy, but incredibly necessary. Never stop asking why and how you matter to the world. Every library has essential books that are worth returning to again and again. This short and profound book is among them in mine.

So what to do as follow up to an inspiring commencement speech? For those young graduates near and dear, you might just start with a book as a good and thoughtful gift.

Read in the Boston Business Journal

 Authors & Innovators is an occasional column by Larry Gennari, a transactional lawyer, law professor, and chief curator of Authors & Innovators, an annual business book and ideas festival.  Gennari also teaches Project Entrepreneur, a business fundamentals bootcamp for returning citizens, at BC Law School.

We meant social distance, not emotional distance

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By Larry Gennari
Boston Business Journal

Now that 2021 is in full swing and we can see a light at the end of the pandemic tunnel, most business leaders are assessing next steps and making plans. We all long for the comforting rhythm of the normal, but does that mean heading back to the office, navigating traffic, and downloading those since-deleted parking apps on our smartphones? As for the office, we have questions: What will it look like? Who will be there? And do we really have to stop wearing comfortable sweatpants instead of just being presentable from the waist up? Important questions all and for answers, I’m advising my CEOs to turn to a few new and compelling books.

HBS Professor Tsedal Neely’s latest book: Remote Work Revolution: Succeeding From Anywhere, offers important learnings, perspectives, and collaboration tips. Remote work is not new, of course; many domestic and global companies have had virtual work arrangements for decades, and Neely covered important ground on global teamwork in her previous thoughtful book The Language of Global Success. What’s new is the mix and assessment of the digital tools companies use and also the critical recognition that leaders must be even more intentional and develop “cognitive” and “emotional” trust when managing global teams of talented people don’t speak the same language or share the same cultural understandings and cues. Neely’s terrific and usable “action guide” offers important exercises and must-dos for managers who might be leading teams across the globe or just across two states. Sadly, you won’t be deleting Zoom from your browser favorites anytime soon, but you can use it more effectively.

In fact, technologists Matthew Mottola and Matthew Coatney argue in The Human Cloud that many teams, jobs and new businesses can and should only live online. This is a lively, fast-moving and fun book, and every chapter embraces the authors’ clarion call to forget the buzzwords “virtual economy,” and “gig economy” and embrace a simple fact: “The human cloud is just how we work in the cloud.” I enjoyed their advice and examples for both entrepreneurial freelancers (a nod to Babson alum Mottola) and also established businesses on how to reach more markets and customers online than ever before. Their book recommendations at the end of each chapter also are spot-on and I’ve added a few to my online cart already.

Finally, if we can’t find humor amidst the tumult of the last year, we truly are lost and to that end, I strongly recommend Humor, Seriously: Why Humor is A Secret Weapon In Business And In Life, the new book by Stanford Business School profs Jennifer Aaker and Naomi Bagdonas, who teach the enormously popular course there: Humor: Serious Business, which covers the behavioral theory and application of humor in relationships and business. I enjoyed this from the first page, not only for the dry wit, snark and hilarious examples of what works and what doesn’t, but also for the advice on leading with humor while creating an appropriate “Culture of Levity.” As we all begin to sort out this new business normal, Aaker and Bagdonas advise us: embrace the “Yes, and” tool from improv comedy, play along, and don’t forget to put “your funny to work.”

Read in the Boston Business Journal

 Authors & Innovators is an occasional column by Larry Gennari, a transactional lawyer, law professor, and chief curator of Authors & Innovators, an annual business book and ideas festival.  Gennari also teaches Project Entrepreneur, a business fundamentals bootcamp for returning citizens, at BC Law School.

Family Business Advice Fit for a Godfather

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By Larry Gennari
Boston Business Journal

Last December, veteran filmmaker Francis Ford Coppola released a new version of The Godfather Part III, the last chapter of the iconic crime-family movie series. Coppola is a cinematic genius and the reimagined ending allowed him to paint the characters and overall story in a new light.  He may even do it again. That has me thinking: What if, for another version, maybe for CEOs, he could incorporate helpful tips for “family” businesses, especially those wishing to succeed without guns, violence, political payoffs and equine decapitations?

Hmm…for that kind of reimaging, he would need to turn to a few good books.

Let’s start by reexamining the oft-repeated principle from Michael Corleone: “It’s not personal. It’s strictly business.” Sure, this advice might work in the short run, but over time, a ruthless priority of profits over people inevitably breaks down. Just ask management experts Josh Baron and Rob Lachenauer, authors of the new Harvard Business Review Family Business Handbook, which chronicles how families easily can derail their businesses and vice versa. With family businesses representing 5.5 million U.S. businesses and 85% of the world’s companies, the insights on decoding family dynamics, navigating tricky transitions like marriages and divorces, and managing conflicts fraught with emotion, are must-reads. As a consigliere to some family businesses, I certainly can validate the smart, practical tips and checklists, especially on separating family members when “it just doesn’t work out.” Maybe things could have ended better for Michael’s brother Freddo at the end of Godfather II?

That so many business conflicts feel personal most definitely is worth examining. We often invest way too much in defending our long-held opinions and hunches instead of embracing honest disagreement and healthy intellectual tension. So argues Adam Grant in his phenomenal new book Think Again, and he advises us to listen like we are wrong. That sounds impossible, but Grant’s examples, which include how to use “genuine” and “coaxing” questions to get Red Sox fans to rethink — and possibly like — Yankees fans, are compelling, memorable and fun. Many CEOs will find his easy-to-follow tips on becoming a more “persuasive listener” incredibly valuable. I’m actually re-reading the book for a second time now and highlighting even more turned-down pages. If Michael Corleone had read Grant’s book, maybe Sollozzo and McCluskey could have enjoyed an after-dinner drink with him instead of getting their just desserts, ruining a perfectly good white tablecloth.

Finally, I think all family business participants should read Connect: Building Exceptional Relationships With Family, Friends, and Colleagues, the new book by David Bradford and Carole Robin from Stanford Business School based on their incredibly successful long-running Interpersonal Dynamics course. Building trust and knowing when and how to bridge personal and professional topics with business colleagues is challenging, especially now, with more email and remote work. I really enjoyed the material on avoiding “pinches and crunches” in relationships and much of it felt uncomfortably familiar, which is likely the point! Stated expectations are paramount for stable relationships. One example: “Some day, and that day may never come, I will call upon you to do a service for me.”

Great movies entertain and thoughtful books inspire. If we can combine them to think about the things that matter: family, relationships, and business, well, that might just be an offer we can’t refuse.

 Authors & Innovators is an occasional column by Larry Gennari, a transactional lawyer, law professor, and chief curator of Authors & Innovators, an annual business book and ideas festival.  Gennari also teaches Project Entrepreneur, a business fundamentals bootcamp for returning citizens, at BC Law School.

Leaders Must Be Readers

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By Larry Gennari
Boston Business Journal

So far, 2021 is turning out just as we expected: A little turbulent, a lot more focused, and of course, still fraught with anxiety leavened by hope. Much of this relates to our government’s ability to manage the end of the paralyzing pandemic while also rebuilding an economy that has left far too many people scrambling. We have talented and committed people in government and we need them to be successful on our behalf. So I’m hoping that policymakers and business leaders will take the time to check out a few new good books. After all, as Harry Truman noted: “Not all readers are leaders, but all leaders are readers.”

First, let’s recognize that democracy might be imperfect, but the alternatives are worse. Just ask award-winning correspondent and China expert Kai Strittmatter and read his fascinating book: We Have Been Harmonized: Life in China’s Surveillance State, an in-depth, in country, in person account of how China’s government is using technology, especially artificial intelligence, to intercept, monitor, and track conversations, online posts, and day to day movements of its citizens, all with an eye toward enforcing a chilling, rigid ideology centered on ensuring absolute loyalty to the ruling Communist Party and its current head, Xi Jinping. Innovation and tech industry dominance now are the main policy goals in China, but the overall outlook for human rights appears pretty bleak. Any CEO doing business in China and any policymaker trying to make sense of regulation for the fast-moving field of AI should read this book.

We can and should approach policy differently here in Massachusetts and throughout the US. HBS Professor Mitchell Weiss, former staff chief for Boston Mayor Tom Menino, thinks so too and in his new engaging book We The Possibility, he suggests a positive and entrepreneurial shift to “Possibility Government” and provides plenty of tips and examples for reframing missions around problems, not resources, and watching and engaging citizens as “users,” instead of assuming next steps based on what’s worked before. Weiss’ calls to action are smart, practical and compelling and he’s correct in noting that the “idea that governments can’t pursue possibility will prove the hardest idea to displace.” Weiss also salutes economist Mariana Mazzucato, whose recent book The Entrepreneurial State, is one of my favorites, especially when she reminds us that every technology on which industry giants, Apple, Google, and Tesla and others, depend can be traced back to innovating thinking and applied research funded by “the State.” We need to recognize and celebrate leaders who think broadly and take reasonable policy risks.

An informed, patient and supportive electorate also will be necessary to move beyond the current malaise and maybe more than a few of us should share our unique and personal passions as part of rebuilding the economy and community. If that might be you, check out The Passion Economy, by Adam Davidson, host of NPR’s Planet Money podcast; it’s a fun, inspiring, must-read compilation of stories of average people doing just that!

These are challenging times and as Truman and other leaders have noted, we need to rebuild together. Whether as a policymaker, CEO, investor, entrepreneur or just as thoughtful and active citizen, now is the time for all us to play our part! Reading these terrific and insightful books is a start in that right direction.

 Authors & Innovators is an occasional column by Larry Gennari, a transactional lawyer, law professor, and chief curator of Authors & Innovators, an annual business book and ideas festival.  Gennari also teaches Project Entrepreneur, a business fundamentals bootcamp for returning citizens, at BC Law School.

Must-reads of 2020

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By Larry Gennari
Boston Business Journal

The end of any year, especially one like this, has many of us scrambling to find just the right gift for friends and family. Now more than ever, we value insight, knowledge, perspective and the chance to become our best selves, personally and professionally. I’ve read a lot of books this year, and I am happy to recommend 10 2020 titles that appeal to the thoughtful and entrepreneurial readers on your list. Check them out:

Post-Corona, by NYU business school professor Scott Galloway. As direct, audacious and thoughtful as its author, this book is a must-read for any CEO, management team or investor trying to set strategy in this soon-to-be post-pandemic economy. I loved Galloway’s spot-on take on the power and influence of the “Big Four” (Apple, Amazon, Google, Facebook), and I think that every parent of a college age student would do well to read his predictions about the coming disruption of higher ed and the future of work.

How I Built This, by NPR’s Guy Raz, the creator and host of the popular podcast of the same name. Raz is the son of entrepreneurs and a former war reporter, and he’s pulled together an important “lessons learned” volume from interviews with hundreds of successful and inspiring entrepreneurs from across a wide range of industries. Every chapter, with topics ranging from idea development and financing to executing, pivoting and creating buzz, centers on the experiences and hard-won wisdom from now-famous entrepreneurs with recognized brands and products.

The Growing Season: How I Saved an American Farm and Built a New Life, by Sarah Frey, CEO of Frey Farms. This is easily is one of the most memorable business books of the year. Frey, one of 21 children of a colorful, entrepreneurial father, grew up on a farm in southern Illinois, where she learned the agricultural business literally from the ground up. You can’t help but root for this energetic, brash young entrepreneur as she confronts sexism, inconsistent weather, crazy delivery logistics, and the mercurial buyers and supply chains at Walmart and Lowe’s, all the while building a sprawling, billion-dollar enterprise of wholesale fruits and vegetables as well as an impressive natural beverage product company.

Blindsight, The (Mostly) Hidden Ways Marketing Reshapes Our Brains, by neuroscientist Matt Johnson and consumer-marketing guru and neuromarketing expert Prince Ghuman. Our own expectations can shape the message we are hearing. I was fascinated by the countless, entertaining examples of how shapes, colors and smells can influence decisions around pricing, product development and marketing.

The Power of Bad and How to Overcome It, by New York Times Science Editor John Tierney and psychologist Roy Baumeistertackles how our built-in human bias for the negative colors first impressions, shapes how we build relationships, and ultimately, becomes a darker lens through which we view the world. Put simply, with news, projections, and our initial views of topics in general, why do we always assume the worst?  I’ll now spend even less time watching cable TV. Maybe CNN’s ratings formula really does stand for “constantly negative news”?

The Startup Playbook, by Will Herman and Raj Bhargava, now out in its latest edition, is a terrific and practical “how to” book for any aspiring entrepreneur. The chapters are logically sequenced to set out the very real challenges behind team building, product development, and financing strategy. If you know someone considering a new business beginning, this is the book for them.

First Pitch: Winning Money, Mentors, and More for Your Startup, by Debi Kleiman, director of the Blank Center for Entrepreneurship at Babson College. Centered on the engaging stories of actual entrepreneurs, the book takes the reader step-by-step through the early, daunting task of creating a compelling and impactful pitch for investors, advisors, and customers. This is a book worth adding to any business library—and for enthusiastically passing on to entrepreneurial friends.

Girl Decoded, by Rana el Kaliouby, single mom, Ph.D, Muslim woman scientist in an overwhelmingly male field — and founder of an artificial-intelligence startup spun off from the MIT Media Lab. This engaging book is part personal memoir, part clarion call for applying emotion recognition technology to virtually every field, including mental health and autism.  With AI sorting and sifting our online choices, this book reminds us that the human always must come before the artificial.

Overground Railroad: The Green Book and the Roots of Black Travel in America, by author, historian, and Harvard fellow Candacy Taylor. It’s a riveting chronicle of the Green Book, the travel guide published for black motorists from 1936-1967. Taylor takes the reader back in time to the Jim Crowyears and through the civil rights movement when a simple road trip for a black motorist was a demonstrable act of courage in many parts of the country. We know that traveling builds community. When you finish Taylor’s book, you’ll have a better understanding why it matters and the work that lies ahead—for all of us.

The Tyranny of Merit: What’s Become of the Common Good, by Harvard professor Michael Sandel, is among the most consequential books of 2020. Sandel takes on our business and media culture of crowning “winners and losers” and offers a new and compelling way of thinking about success, moving away from the all-too-familiar and often misleading “rhetoric of rising” that holds “anyone can make it if they really try,” which he argues is not only untrue for so many, but also erodes community and demoralizes millions left behind by globalization.

As this unusual year comes to a close, we all will gain from stepping back and reflecting on our personal and business lives.  These books, available from your local independent bookseller, will be a great addition to that important task.

 Authors & Innovators is an occasional column by Larry Gennari, a transactional lawyer, law professor, and chief curator of Authors & Innovators, an annual business book and ideas festival.  Gennari also teaches Project Entrepreneur, a business fundamentals bootcamp for returning citizens, at BC Law School.

 

Welcome to the Rest of 2020

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By Larry Gennari
Boston Business Journal

Unsettled. That’s the best word I have to describe the many clients and friends who have reached out over the last several weeks. This combination of business and market uncertainty, political turmoil and increasing pandemic fatigue is creating plenty of angst for CEOs, managers, entrepreneurs.

We are, most all of us, fraught with anxiety about the roiling economic, and cultural changes here at home and how we might find a steady and stable place for our businesses and ourselves within them. Yet, as you reach for another handful of Tums, a yoga mat, and a smooth jazz playlist — all of which are helpful to maintain proper balance — I would offer the following simple advice: This is part of being a person in the world, especially now, and often we find our own way forward only after taking the time for careful research and thoughtful reflection. As the late and wonderful Mary Oliver once said: “To pay attention, this is our endless and proper work.”

With that in mind, I have a few recent and significant books for you to consider. Given the recent election, Harvard professor Michael Sandel’s latest work, The Tyranny of Merit: What’s Become of the Common Good, just might be the most consequential book of 2020. Sandel takes on our business and media culture of crowning “winners and losers” and offers a new and compelling way of thinking about success, moving away from the all-too-familiar and often misleading “rhetoric of rising” that holds “anyone can make it if they really try,” which he argues is not only untrue for so many, but also erodes community and demoralizes millions left behind by globalization.

Sandel persuasively cites Martin Luther King Jr. and Pope John Paul II to say we need to connect economic policy and respect for all jobs, at every level, to the common good. With only a third of people in the U.S. (and declining) holding a college degree, this contentious debate around the future of work and the dignity and importance of alternative pathways to success is very much worth having. You should read this book and be part of the debate.

Of course, none of this is new, and Harvard historian Jill Lepore might tell you that innovation and change always give rise to collective anxiety and debate. Her latest book, If Then: How the Simulmatics Corporation Invented the Future, tells a story that could inform how we can manage that tension in our politics, at our businesses, and in our daily lives. The Simulmatics Corporation, launched in 1959 during the Cold War by a colorful and brilliant group of social scientists, pioneered the focus on using data analytics to predict and target human behavior, from the impact of political speech on voters to monitoring the “mood” of war protests. Lepore mined a trove of archived documents at MIT for the book and the tale of the company’s rapid rise and calamitous fall is an engaging and cautionary one.  I loved the background on how JFK’s campaign navigated the use of these then “cutting-edge” social-science-driven technologies knowing full well the negative and misleading press coverage around these innovations that would follow.

Technological change can be unsettling, and early media coverage around its economic and societal impact often can be shallow, sensational and off the mark, especially in hindsight. We need to dig into the issues ourselves, push past the unease, and do our best to ensure that new advancements play a positive role in our lives.

For some, including many of the potential change-makers I encounter every day in my practice, that “endless and proper work” means embracing the uncertain and taking on a new role as creator, maker, founder and entrepreneur.  I’m recommending two new books for them: first, The Entrepreneur’s Journey by entrepreneur/angel investors Hambleton Lord, Christopher Mirabile and Joseph Mandato, a terrific, straightforward and direct narrative on how to launch something new while balancing doubt, anxiety, and overall business fundamentals. And second, Good Company by Home Depot Co-founder and Atlanta Falcons owner Arthur Blank: a thoughtful and personal memoir of a life in business that is full of hard-learned wisdom and actionable advice, with an overall directive that making a living and making a life should reflect an overall value of putting other people first.

Without a doubt, these are unprecedented and unsettling times and as humans, we are used to stories that have a beginning, a middle, and an end. Let’s use this time to be reflective and intentional as we adjust to this unfolding history together. After all, life is not about always knowing, and none of us is on our own.

 Authors & Innovators is an occasional column by Larry Gennari, a transactional lawyer, law professor, and chief curator of Authors & Innovators, an annual business book and ideas festival.  Gennari also teaches Project Entrepreneur, a business fundamentals bootcamp for returning citizens, at BC Law School.

 

Rewriting Your Story

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By Larry Gennari
Boston Business Journal

“Tell me, what is it you plan to do with your one wild and precious life,” my favorite poet, the late Mary Oliver asks. As we move forward through this pandemic, this is a question I’m hearing more and more clients and friends consider out loud as they manage back-to-work schedules, school online, and day-to-day lives in an eventful year that is almost at its end.

I often find myself quoting Warren Buffet in suggesting that an entrepreneurial course might be the best one. After all, who wouldn’t want to “find the job that you would do if you didn’t need a job.” As we gear up for the Fourth Annual Authors & Innovators Business Ideas Conference, I’m also recommending a few books for those who might be open to this advice.

I’m looking forward to speaking with NPR’s Guy Raz, the creator and host of the incredibly popular podcast How I Built This, and now the author of a new book by the same name. Raz is the son of entrepreneurs and a former war reporter, and he’s pulled together an important “lessons learned” volume from interviews with hundreds of successful and inspiring entrepreneurs from across a wide range of industries. I received an advance copy of the book and finished it the same day; it’s that good. Of course, being a loyal fan of the podcast put me in the right frame of mind. Every chapter, with topics ranging from idea development and financing to executing, pivoting and creating buzz, centers on the experiences and hard-won wisdom from now-famous entrepreneurs with recognized brands and products. The stories are authentic, raw and inspiring, and Raz, as he is on his show, is an active listener and a consummate storyteller.

Sara Frey, CEO of Frey Farms, is a talented storyteller too and her new business memoir The Growing Season: How I Saved an American Farm and Built a New Life, easily is one of the most memorable business books of the year. Described by The New York Times as the “Pumpkin Queen of America,” Frey, one of 21 children of a colorful, entrepreneurial father, grew up on a farm in southern Illinois, where she learned the agricultural business literally from the ground up. You can’t help but root for this energetic, brash young entrepreneur as she confronts sexism, inconsistent weather, crazy delivery logistics, and the mercurial buyers and supply chains at Walmart and Lowe’s, all the while building a sprawling, billion-dollar enterprise of wholesale fruits and vegetables as well as an impressive natural beverage product company. Farmers, says Frey, are the ultimate optimists, and this just might be because they understand how best to plan and use the scarcest resource of all: time.

For more on that specific entrepreneurial and life challenge, you’ll need to read Time Smart: How to Reclaim Your Time & Live a Happier Life, the forthcoming book by Harvard Business School professor and organizational behavior expert Ashley Whillans, who studies how people navigate tradeoffs between time and money. This is a fascinating and incredibly thoughtful book and Whillans, a self-described “time nerd,” helps us think about and compare our own time balancing to central characters: “Taylor” who always prioritizes time more than money and “Morgan,” who values money more than time. Throughout the book, Whillans gives us specific and actionable lists, steps and exercises to become more “time affluent,” so that we begin to appreciate the cumulative effect of many small behavior changes in our lives. You can create that amazing new business and still have time to think about the purpose of your life and make a strategy for it.

These unusual and unsettling times have forced more of us to reflect and consider how we spend our time and whether we are striving to become the highest and best version of ourselves or just settling in for the week after next. You should check out these books if your plan is to be more intentional and possibly entrepreneurial when this pandemic ends. As with many things, hearing other people’s stories and comparing them to ours could be an important first step in making a pivotal change.

 Authors & Innovators is an occasional column by Larry Gennari, a transactional lawyer, law professor, and chief curator of Authors & Innovators, an annual business book and ideas festival.  Gennari also teaches Project Entrepreneur, a business fundamentals bootcamp for returning citizens, at BC Law School.