Corporate-finance

What do you know about a book's authors if they ...

• Begin by congratulating themselves for their company's success?

• Quote favorable reviews on the first page, particularly from executives whose success stories are cited in the text?

• Claim to synthesize "the leading management approaches and business strategies," and then provide virtually no footnotes (15 notes for a 222-page volume)?

Robert Blonchek and Martin O'Neill are consultants. Like many consultants not overburdened by humility, they are proud to preach their doctrine and win new converts to their views - and their services. And as experienced public speakers, Blonchek and O'Neill have accustomed themselves to condensing their notions into a few words in large type. When your creed boils down to "run your business like my business", you want to keep your language as simple and transparent as possible.

Unfortunately, in the case of Act Like an Owner, simple language has produced simple thinking. The book supports all the right things - empowerment, entrepreneurial spirit, open information, Mom and apple pie - but they don't offer any striking insights or tools to get you there. Their central (tautological) concept, that "the ownership culture is the franchise agreement" within the organization, is like a tenor singing bass: less deep than it sounds. And the book's air of breathless naivete is both endearing and baffling; readers are given standard questions to identify customer needs, for example, and then advised to match the needs to their products' benefits. Elementary, my dear Watson.

"Elementary" is in fact the key to this book. Despite its claims to be applicable to large organizations, Act Like an Owner reads like Entrepreneurship 101. It's designed to answer such questions as:

• What is an operating model?

• Why is empowerment important?

• What is a corporate culture?

• Why is communication valuable?

If you find such questions startling and galvanizing, snap up your copy now. If you answered such questions long ago, or if you find them distractingly rudimentary, move on, perhaps to a book that recognizes the value of the compound-complex sentence. There's nothing new under the sun in Act Like an Owner; whether you enjoy the book will depend on how long you've spent in the shade.

"Early on, as a company of just six people, we wrote a corporate creed that documented our principles and values-our culture. This creed simply stated that we would build a successful business by focusing on the customer, encouraging entrepreneurial spirit, empowering everyone, and sharing both success and failure. We call this culture an ownership culture. We discovered that this environment was enjoyable to work in and was a powerfull strategy...To this day, when we ask people associated with the company why it was successful, and why they were committed, the answer is always the same. It was empowerment; it was team-spirit; it was vision. It was mutual respect and trust. Most important, it was the culture...This book is a distillation of our experience in creating, nurturing, and maintaining an ownership culture...The ALO model is a synthesis and practical application of leading business concepts along with our own personal experiences...The ALO model is not academic theory, it's a roadmap for applying today's most important management practices to the real-world problem of building an information-era business...In this book, we present the internal franchise, the foundation of ALO and a framework for unlocking entrepreneurial spirit in your organization...The heart of the internal franchise is the ownership culture, a corporate culture built on the principles and values of the entrepreneur. An ownership culture compels everyone in your organization to think and act like an owner of the business" (from the Preface).

In this context, Robert Blonchek and Martin O'Neill divide their book into three parts:

I. In this part, they present the internal franchise as a framework for putting ownership culture to work as a competitive weapon. According to them an internal franchise consists of three components: an operating model, entrepreneurial employees, and an ownership culture. They argue that "An internal franchise is similar to a traditional franchise operation. In an internal franchise the company makes its operating model explicit and then 'franchises' the operating model to its employees. The employees are then coached, mentored, and trained to operate the business at the highest level of proficiency. In an internal franchise, the franchise agreement is not a legal binding contract, it is the company's culture-an ownership culture."

II. In this part, they present a formula for creating an ownership culture. They argue that an ownership culture is a corporate culture based on TRUST:

* Teach your employees your operating model.

* Reward them based on the performance of the business and their contribution to that performance.

* Unconditionally support their actions in order to develop a truly empowering environment.

* Share information so that everyone can make effective business decisions.

* Be Trustworthy by making and keeping commitments.

III. In this part, they apply an ownership culture to one of the most pressing problems facing business today: attracting and retaining skilled workers. They argue that "Without a doubt, attracting to talent is a key business challenge for most organizations. But that's only half the problem-changing employee attitudes and expectations make it difficult to hold on to talented workers as well. In fact, the loss of talented workers forces many companies to reduce their growth projections and negatively affects their ability to compete."

Finally, they write, "It's time for the grand finale in the drama of twentieth-century business. It's financial capital versus human capital, and we'll soon know who wins. But all indications are that the winning businesses in the next century will be those that understand how to mobilize human intellect and ingenuity for competitive advantage. Adopting the principle presented in Act Like an Owner is the best way to ensure that you end up on the side of the winners."

Highly recommended.

If only more companies would realize the power that lies in creating an ownership culture in their organizations! This book presents a truly common sense approach to empowering employees to think and act like owners of a company. I have never been more motivated and have never enjoyed reading a business book as much as this one! I believe this business philosophy would help make a valuable difference in every organization!

I've read this book when it was first published and know the author personally. If you are interested in the book and want contact information, just email me anytime. Thanks! I can even help Amazon.com get the book.

This text is used by many instructors to provide technical structure to their course curriculum. The topics and content are well organized and provide a solid foundation to first time topic introduction, procedures, and guidelines.