Book Review: Love is the Killer App

Tim Sanders makes the bold suggestion that business success can best be achieved by becoming a “lovecat.” Sanders defines the love business as “the act of intelligently and sensibly sharing your intangibles with your bizpartners.” Those intangibles are our knowledge, our network, and our compassion. By knowledge he means everything you have learned and everything you continue to learn. By network he means your entire web of relationships. By compassion he means that personal quality that machines can never possess – the human ability to reach out with warmth, whether through eye contact, physical touch, or words.

I wish I had read the book back when it was first published in 2002. Because many of the lessons he learned, I learned the hard way in the past years. I can strongly endorse the practical advice he provides as much of what I have been doing for the past 12 months agrees with his advice. I would challenge each of you to seriously apply his advice of “intelligently and sensibly sharing” your knowledge, network, and compassion with your business partners. Pick up the book and learn numerous ways that he “intelligently and sensibly” shares his intangibles with his business partners.

Transformational Servant Leadership Score (0 to 5): 3

Book Review: Winners Never Cheat

“Circumstances may change but your values shouldn’t.” So begins the introduction to Huntsman’s book – “Winners Never Cheat.” Huntsman updated and re-issued this book to address the ethical lapses that he saw during the most recent economic downturn. The book makes a strident appeal for all business persons (and businesses) to maintain the highest ethical standards. He sets forth how one has learned these standards, how one knows right from wrong, how one overcomes the temptations to ignore these standards, and a variety of suggestions (surround yourself with ethical team members, operate the business as if they’re family owned, etc.) to increase the likelihood that the standards will be adhered to. Huntsman provides many real-life examples of the benefits and costs of maintaining the highest standards. The book is a very easy read and worth considering for a companion on a plane flight.

Transformational Servant Leadership Score (0 to 5): 2