Blog posts are supposed to be succinct. Short and sweet. To the point. Disregarding the fact that this is intensely difficult for me (why I’d rather write books), some topics simply don’t lend themselves to a mere 600 words or less missive. This is one of them.

Self-publishing may be taking over, but let me tell you, it would do so at a much faster clip if someone would make it a lot easier to actually publish a book. Having published my book, What Not to Do in Business, the leadership and management survival guide, in every format imaginable now, I feel I can comment on this topic.

Further, sites like lulu.com need to get much better. Cryptic workflows, strange requirements, crappy help menus, “forums” with more newbies asking the same inane questions than experts providing help – all this coupled with prices that are now way too high to be able to sell a book without loosing money, put lulu.com squarely in the “dinosaur” class. They are about to become extinct if they do not improve.

It is patently ridiculous to require authors to edit XML and HTML files to publish a book. Using crappy, open-source, freeware, online or java apps is unacceptable. The process should be simple:

1. I edit my book in my favorite text editor.

2. I push the “publish” button.

There is no reason, in this day and age of “technology”, to require people who want to write books to become low-level programmers and file format editors simply because no one has taken the time to solve the handful of problems that EVERY author WILL encounter when publishing a book. No reason at all.

It is this very phenomenon, however, that allows a company like APPLE to kill entire companies and industries. Now it appears they will do it again. With the recent announcement of iBooks Author, I’m sure the problems that I encountered over the past three years will be completely eliminated. I have not tried it yet cause I don’t have OSX Lion on my iMac, but I’m sure this will be the case. Why? Because Apple wouldn’t stand for this garbage. And that is why they WIN.

My only concern with Apple is that, as they get bigger and bigger, they will be seduced by the “dark side” of success. We see signs of it now. You can only use iBooks author to publish books for the Apple iBookstore. Some of the content, according to recent press coverage, of your work is claimed by Apple as their property, not yours. This concerns me.

But as long as the rest of the world continues to make it so easy for Apple to waltz in and take over, this is the price we’ll have to pay.

It’s an Apple world. Partially because they are that good. But also, partially because the rest of us are … that bad.

Tom

I think that FINALLY does it. Available in paperback at both Amazon and lulu, ebook fomrat for PCs/Macs at Lulu, Kindle form at Amazon, iPad/iPhone format from Apple in the iBookStore, and now Nook format from Barnes and Noble, my book is finally … and completely… done!

Again, thanks to all of you who have supported me in this effort. I hope you enjoy the book!

Tom

I spent much of my professional career working at Kodak. 27 years to be exact. I learned a lot about business. In fact, much of what I write about in my book is based upon what I learned while employed at Kodak. Sadly, many of those lessons have apparently not sunk in to the remaining folks over there, and Kodak is in deep trouble. So much so that articles like this are being written as preludes to the inevitable books and … who knows… perhaps even movies.

My book is actually plugged in the article, and although I think it’s unfortunate that George Fisher is being criticized for endorsing my book, I still appreciate the press!

This is a good article, albeit extremely negative and incomplete. But I’m sure the author will continue to add information gathered by Kodak veterans like myself and hone the data until it tells an extremely interesting and revealing tale of how such a giant and mighty American corporation can succumb to the everyday weaknesses we as humans all possess. I know I want a copy!

Click here to go to the Kindle version of my book on Amazon.com.

Interestingly, the Kindle version of my book will actually be the cheapest version. It’s priced at only $7.99. I priced it slightly lower than the iPad version because I just did not think the experience of reading my book on the Kindle was as good as reading it on an iOS device. You get no benefit from my formatting efforts on the Kindle. Just plain text. You get the same info, but not the same experience. So I decided to give Kindle readers a discount.

I have to say that, even though publishing your own book on the surface seems pretty easy these days, actually getting it in the hands of the vast majority of consumers is still not the cinch that it is described to be. Multiple formats. Completely different, cryptic rules. Non-existent or buggy and unreliable tools. No human help whatsoever. These are just some of the roadblocks set in front of the budding self-publisher. And I have to admit, it’s not a lot of fun to pour your time, effort, money, and sweat into making your book’s format “just right”, only to have to trash it all when you reformat it for yet another platform. Frustrating, and more, inefficient. But them’s the rules. At least for now.

What we really need is a universal format for ebooks. Wait, we already have one! It’s called PDF. If you embed the fonts inside a PDF of your book, that is all you should need to publish your book on any platform. But that is not our reality today. Every platform has their own special requirements and wants things in their own special formats. Some platforms (Kindle) actually say they will take a PDF of your book. But what they actually do is convert your carefully-formatted PDF into the same format-stripped Kindle version as everyone else uses.

So if you want to get my book at the absolute cheapest price you can go over to the Kindle store and pick up the Kindle version of my book. Heck go ahead and download the free Kindle reader for iPad and then you can read the Kindle version on your iPad and save a couple of bucks! But in my opinion, that’s sort of like watching an episode of I Love Lucy on your 55-inch HD flatscreen. You can do it… but why would you? In any case, you’re call!

Tom

This study confirms what my own observations state in my new book, and probably what many of you have observed as well. If you want more info, check out the chapter “Believe your own PR” in my book. You can go to Amazon.com and preview it for free.

Sad. But very, very true.

And this is not all.

As I state in my book, to be truly effective leaders must encourage, invite, and reward dissent. They must seek it out and create an environment where it is not only encouraged, but rewarded.

Truly effective leaders must also not be afraid to admit their mistakes. They must be the first, not the last, to point out problems. They must acknowledge mistakes. They must admit their own part (which is usually a major one) in the problem. And, they must drive effective corrective action in resolving the problem. They must do this all sooner rather than later.

We have seen another fine example of this over the weekend, when the CEO of Netflix sent out a cryptic and complex mea culpa regarding that company’s recent rate increases. In doing so, I applaud his attempt to take responsibility, but I’m very dissappointed at both his choice of corrective action and method of communication. Spinning off the Netflix brand away from the bread-and-butter DVD rental that made the company great is a mistake in my opinion. And communicating this plan with a complex and confusing blog/email appears to be an attempt to satisfy an angry Board more than an effort to repair broken customer relations.

For more info on how to be an effective leader and avoid these common pitfalls, check out my new book, What Not to Do in Business, the leadership and management survival guide. It’s available now on Amazon, Lulu, and in the Apple iBookStore.

Today’s news is filled with articles about how the US Post Office is warning Congress that it will default if they don’t do something very soon.

There are so many things wrong with that statement I don’t know where to start.

The US Post Office is a shining example of What Not to Do. A government-run business (mistake #1) that continually applies a broken business model (mistake #2) and refuses to change the fundamental reason they are going broke (mistake #3), instead insisting that Congress (read: Mommy) repeatedly bail them out so they can continue doing things wrong (mistake #I lost count).

With apologies to the Post Master General, the reason the Post Office can’t make it financially has nothing to do with the economy. It has nothing to do with the “rapid transition to electronic communications”. It has everything, instead, to do with the Post Office making really bad financial decisions.

The main problem with the current Post Office business model is cost. The US government has for decades hired postal workers. These postal workers immediately become employees of the US government, and are thus entitled to US government pensions. As the population of postal workers has grown and matured, the financial burden of both paying current retirement and providing for future retirement payments is crippling the Post Office. Until this changes, the Post Office will continue to lose more and more money.

There are only TWO possible solutions to this mess:

1. Do nothing. Continue to raise  postal rates until it costs dollars, not cents, to mail a letter. This will have two effects:

a. It wil hasten the transition to electronic communication. Anything that can be scanned or otherwise sent via email, will be, and

b. It will make sending letters financially attractive to package delivery companies like FedEx and UPS. They will start offering “LetterBoxes” and superior delivery service to grab the lion’s share of the Post Offices’ most profitable mail transactions.

–> Both of these effects will do nothing but hasten the demise of the Mail Service. This has been the path we and our fearless political leaders have been on for several decades now. And it’s only a matter of time (I predict less than 10 years) before it all comes crashing down. I submit that, if we are going to go this route, we avoid the wait and shutdown the Postal Service now. It will save us a lot of money in the end.

2. The other possible solution is my ultimate recommendation, but since it involves one of the precious quantities so scarce in Washington, resolve to act, my guess is is wil never happn. In any event, here goes:

Solution to the US Postal Service Mess:

I. “Snap a chalk line” on retirement benefits. Anybody now due benefits will get them. We may have been stupid to promise them, but still a promise is a promise, so let’s just admit our mistakes and move on. The government should separate all benefits promised (payable now or in the future) from any current Post Office business balance sheets and guarantee their payment. Period.

Now, onto the business of delivering the mail.

II. The government should not be running businesses. Period. Unless required for existence (ie we have to) or protection (read: miltary), we should stay as far away from running businesses as we can. We must, however, find a way for the government to set and enforce operating metrics for businesses we deem critical to the harmonious operation of our society. If, after some debate, we all deem that delivering the mail is one such business, then I propose here is how we manage this process:

III. The government awards the right to take over all existing assets and duties of the US Postal Service to an outside company. This company will have to submit to serious scrutiny by both the government and whomever the government appoints to monitor them. This is the key: the government should set standards and then choose a company to execute on them. It should also choose a different company to monitor the first company. The government can and should monitor both companies.

IV. The New Post Office (NPO) gets a five-year contract. It gets a set of operating specifications (“you must deliver the mail”) and a set of quality metrics (“cust SAT must be no lower than 75%”). As long as it operates according to these specs and maintains the min cust SAT, it is guaranteed the full length of it’s contract. If it exceeds them, it may get automatically renewed. If it falls below them, the business automatically gets re-bidded and the process repeats.

Sure…there are many caveats to this proposal, but it does solve two main issues. It gets the US Government out of running a business and into what it should be doing, setting standards and being the watchdog for critical US businesses. That should be the main function of the government. It also removes the structural financial impediments to the Post Office that exist today – we simply cannot afford to continue to pay Postal Workers the same benefits as we have in the past.

This model can and should be applied to all sorts of critical businesses if debate ultimately agrees. Businesses like airlines and utilities come to mind. We don’t need government employees operating businesses; we need them watching, monitoring,and checking to see that certain critical businesses are doing the right things and if not, blowing the whistle.

Sorry for the long-winded post. But it’s labor day.

Tom

Click here to go to my new book’s entry in the Apple iBookstore.

The eBook costs a mere $9.95, and you still get the entire book minus the physical feel (sorry can’t duplicate that just yet). You get all 20 chapters, 65 thousand words, and the ability to easily take my sage words of wisdom anywhere you desire!

Bonus! If you have one of these devices, you can download a sample of the book which includes the introduction and chapter one! So you can actually see more of the book to help you decide to buy it.

Once you get the book, if you want to, I’d really, really appreciate it if you gave me a great review. Book sales are all about word of mouth and personal recommendations, and your help would be fantastic. Note that, if you want to write a review for the book in the Apple store, you’ll have to have purchased the book at the Apple store. If you want to write a review but did not purchase the book at the Apple store, you can still write a review at Amazon or Lulu.

So click the link above to check out the book, or simply open up iTunes, go to the iTunes store, and type “berarducci” in the search box. It’s as simple as that!

So now the only thing that remains is the Kindle version, which will be out soon! Stay tuned!

…and, as always. Thanks!

Tom

It took quite a lot of work, but once you figure out the ePub format it’s pretty easy. And the folks at Amazon are very helpful.

I have also signed up for Amazon’s “Author Central” sitelet which allows folks to find some more info about me and the book. It’s all available right from the book’s page. Click here to go to my author page at Amazon.com.

If you are surfing at Amazon, and want to find the book, simply type “berarducci” in the main search box. My book should be one of the first items in the results list (believe it or not, some goofy Coat of Arms book is first!).

Now that the book is listed, I’m working on enabling the “Search inside the book” feature. This requires a completely separate agreement and effort at Amazon, but I strongly believe it will be worth it. For one thing, once this feature is enabled everybody will be able to read some of the book FOR FREE directly from the book’s Amazon.com page. In addition, when you search for terms like “leadership”, “business”, “management” or other words used in the book, my book will be indexed along with all the other titles giving me a shot at showing up in the search results.

If you think this is as cool as I do, and if you want to, I’d like to ask you for a favor. Please surf over to the book’s page at Amazon and give me a glowing review! If you do that, the book may actually get read, and that’s what it’s all about. So if you can, please help! Thanks!

Click here to rate and give my book a review at Amazon.com

The “ePub” format is essentially a zip file, with the “.zip” extension renamed to “.epub”. That’s the first key piece of information you need to know. But there are a few others.

Nevertheless, after much digital wrangling, I now have a valid ePub file to work with. My first ePub edition of What Not to Do in Business is now available at Lulu.com. Click here to go to the eBook buy/download page. The eBook can be downloaded, but it is copy-protected using Adobe’s “Digital Editions” eBook reader. That means you’ll only be able to view the eBook from a computer and only computers that have been authorized as “yours”.  Yeah, I know. Kind of limiting. But this is the only way to avoid giving the entire book away for free.

Please note this version of the eBook will not play on the iPhone, iPad, or Kindle. It is playable ONLY on computers that can run the Adoble reader software. Please stay tuned for future versions of the eBook which will play on these mobile devices.

Steve Jobs has accomplished more in his life to delight consumers of digital electronics than anyone else. Given the craziness of our industry and the fickleness of our market, to string together killer products over such a long time span is indeed impressive. He is one of the greatest product guys to have ever lived. Truly gifted in this regard. In spite of his negative attributes.

In fact, I wonder if it is even possible to produce greatness in product design without being labeled a crazy, maniacal overlord. It may not be. I can’t find any counter-examples in recent history; examples of when a truly killer product was led to market by a “nice guy” (at least not on purpose). This effect may indeed be the cost of admission into the annals of history. If so, that’s a shame.

I discuss Apple and Steve Jobs in some detail in my book, What Not to Do in Businesss. Apple is used often in the book as an example of a company that creates great, killer products that delight customers, that spawns and captures markets, and that makes investors tremendously successful. Steve Jobs is cited in the book as an example of how someone can practice “What Not do Do” often, and yet still be tremendously successful. Steve has a great track record, but I don’t think anyone could ever duplicate his unique form of “success”.

Steve is a “wild point”. A truly unique example of someone who is successful despite what others say. He personifies what is great about our country and our marketplace in a way which will probably become storied and even exaggerated more and more as the years go by. But I doubt anyone will ever be able to truly emulate him.

If you want to read more about my personal take on Apple and Steve Jobs, as well as my take on product design in general, check out the chapter “Create feature-rich products that suck” in the book. I also mention Steve in the chapter entitled “Lead by having tantrums“. I think you’ll find them both very interesting!

What Not to Do in Business, the leadership and management survival guide, is now available at Lulu.com.