September 23, 2008
Macy’s CEO Offers Reading List
By Tom Ryan
Terry Lundgren, chief executive officer of Macy’s Inc., provided The Wall Street Journal with five books that have shaped his leadership style. While the first four were fairly well known business strategy books, the fifth, The Greatest Game Ever Played is about an underdog who prevails in the 1913 U.S. Open golf tournament.
In the first book, Good to Great by Jim Collins, Mr. Lundgren particularly related to the “culture of discipline” shared by many of the successful companies profiled in the book, a goal he has tried to foster at Macy’s. He was particularly moved by the metaphor of a stone flywheel, a device that eventually rotates on its own after being pushed by a powerful energy source. Said Mr. Lundgren, “It’s hard when you are trying to change the culture of a company, but once you get it going…it takes on positive momentum.”
The second book, High Performance with High Integrity by Ben Heineman Jr., “reinforces what is a core value to me – integrity always,” Mr. Lundgren told The Journal. The book “says you can make tough decisions, be a strong negotiator, be a strong leader and still operate at the highest level of integrity and ethical standards.”
The third, The Tipping Point by Malcolm Gladwell, helped re-affirm his conviction that creating a national department store brand would help Macy’s garner critical mass and reach consumers in new ways. Said Mr. Lundgren, “We needed something to break us out of being a set of regional department stores that we owned, which were not able to benefit from the size and scale of one brand.”
The fourth, Game Changer by A.G. Lafley and Ram Charan, is about how even large companies can create a culture of innovation to drive growth. At Macy’s, an example of such out-the-box thinking is its recent decision to partner with F.A.O. Schwarz to open boutiques in several hundred Macy’s locations. Mr. Lundgren said the book reminded him that “risk comes from standing still.”
The fifth, The Greatest Game Ever Played by Mark Frost, is a story of an American golfer Francis Ouimet who “came from nothing” to stunningly upset a dominant British golf team. The book’s “never give up” message applies to both his company and Mr. Lundren, who himself came from a humble background. Mr. Lundgren added, “Besides that I like golf.”
Discussion Question: What would make your list of leadership books that have influenced you the most? Which do you think are the best among the better-known business books? Can you come up with any that aren’t necessarily business books?
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“Good To Great” is a fantastic book and is now the blueprint my senior team and I use to guide our company strategy. The hard part is getting a handle on the “hedgehog” concept, but the process to get there, whereby you strip away the veneer of myth and assumptions and get to the truth about you and your competitors, is better than any therapy. A second favorite book of mine is “The Loyalty Effect” by Frederick Reichheld. This is timeless business philosophy with case studies around several breakout companies who enjoy sustained success as a result of operating with a bias for building loyal customer relationships.
Rarely have I ever found an actual business book that motivated me or gave me any more insight. However books on human communication have provided me with tools I use every day.
I believe “How to Win Friends and Influence People” should be required reading for the human race. Also anything by Wayne Dyer. And of course one should make the comics the first thing they read every day.
When reading this post it is interesting to note that the first book that came to mind was one that I read in High School and have not really thought about in years. “Atlas Shrugged” by Ayn Rand.
Eighty percent of everything you need to know for your business won’t come from within your business. Likewise, some of the best books to give you new insights into leadership won’t be on the “Leadership” book shelf.
The key for me right now is to understand how the universe really works. If you understand that, leadership of people within that universe is effortless. Too many leadership books are written from old ingrained Newtonian perspectives while the reality is we live in a quantum age.
Let me recommend three that will stretch your mind to such a degree you’ll never think the same way again. 1) “Finding Our Way” by Dr. Margaret Wheatley – it contains the best new definition of what it means to lead I’ve ever read. 2) “The Biology of Belief” by Dr. Bruce Lipton – a renowned cellular biologist who discovered that every cell of our body ‘thinks’. I believe how cells work together is the ultimate model for how our organizations should work. 3) “The Spontaneous Healing of Belief” by Gregg Braden – how understanding the role of ‘belief’ can dramatically expand your ability to create the circumstances of your highest dreams.
Robert Greenleaf’s servant leadership books are up near the top of my list as is Peter Block’s “Stewardship: Choosing Service Over Self Interest.” Doris Kearns Goodwin’s “Team of Rivals: The Political Genius of Abraham Lincoln” is a great book about a servant leadership in practice.
Ryan Mathews’ and Fred Crawford’s “Myth of Excellence” along with Ken Blanchard’s and Sheldon Bowles’ “Raving Fans” are also up on my list.
I would agree with John Crossman on “The Man in the Mirror” and “The Purpose Driven Life.” I would also add “The Screwtape Letters” to that list though certainly not a ‘business’ book. It is a book that helped me understand a unwavering personal conviction. Further, a very clear understanding that the harder you work, the harder forces will working against you.
Books are certainly important and I think the CEO of Macy’s choices are all great. However, being book learned alone certainly isn’t enough. It helps. It takes persistent and ongoing learning, teaching, coaching, and mentorship. When I was much younger and thought I knew it all, I was turned down for a promotion from a man whom was my mentor and friend. He explained in a not so gentle way that I didn’t know as much as I thought I did and certainly didn’t know enough about the industry. While he had turned me down for that opportunity, he didn’t give up. The very next day he dropped about a half a dozen industry magazines on my desk with sticky notes marking articles he ‘suggested’. I was to find out later that they weren’t really suggestions, but he made his point. We discussed each one over coffee and over time. I like to think that we learned together, but in reality I got the better part of the deal.
Recommending books is a great thing. However, following through is another. Through this practice, he helped me really learn and I mean really learn. He helped me consider the ideas of others and not just my own. He helped me understand the industry and trends occurring within it. The byproduct was an excitement and a passion for what we did together–serving our customers.
Recommending is great. Following through with a persistent pursuit of learning and mentoring is another. The test comes down the line, not from the book report due the next day. Nevertheless, it’s a great start and kudos to him for knowing that.
Leadership inspiration has come from many books since the Bible. And one unnamed book you can rely upon, if studied thoroughly, is the book known as ‘The Heart’. In other words, look homeward into yourself. If there is a true passion in your heart for what you choose to do, it becomes a powerful emotion and compass that shapes your vision and takes you to places you’ve never gone before.
While there are many books that have influenced me, three that I would recommend are:
“The Effective Executive” by Peter Drucker. As the title suggests, Peter Drucker lays out common traits of effective executives. A timeless classic!
“Incredibly American” by Marilyn R. Zuckerman and Lewis J. Hatla. This book explores cultural roots of understanding what people do and why and helps a great deal in increasing employee involvement in day to day company operations.
Peak Performers by Charles Garfield. In this book, the author analyses principles of peak performance. By understanding these principles, one can improve performance of not only himself/herself but that of the organization as well.
Man in the Mirror, The Purpose Driven Life, Small Giants, Good to Great, and The Five Most Important Questions.
Social Intelligence by Daniel Goldman is an outstanding book for most anyone, particularly leaders, to read. Most readers are no doubt familiar with his prior work, Emotional Intelligence, which looked at how individuals can (or can’t) understand and leverage their own emotions. Now, he looks at how every little thing we do can affect social interactions. For any leader, this is great material to absorb if you’re looking to have a greater influence on those around you.
That is easy. As I left hundreds of books behind in storage, those that I have kept close to me had the greatest affect on me.
“Good to Great”; “Setting the Table,” Danny Meyer; “Be Our Guest,” The Disney Institute; “Principle-Centered Leadership,” Covey; “The Art of Innovation,” Kelley; my new favorite, “Managing the Dragon,” Perkowski; and oh yes, the Los Angeles Yellow Pages.
One of the most profound books that has impacted my life includes the “Elements of Style” by Strunk and EB White (who also wrote Charlotte’s Web, another great book). Today, more than ever, we are what we write. How we write this, and the best way to do this reflects not only on who we are but what we strive to become. A man’s writing is a mirror into his soul is more true today than ever before!
Gary Hamel’s “The Future of Management” deserves a place on the list. The title itself is a bit humdrum, but the book is one of the more thought provoking I’ve read about how companies actually operate, and that while we’ve undergone significant innovation and change in most things, the actual way we run companies is largely the same as it was 100 years ago, and that most companies’ operating structures (org, process, technology, metrics, etc.) are not equipped to thrive in today’s environment where Innovation, Strategic Flexibility/Adaptability, and Associate Empowerment, Enthusiasm, Passion, and Teamwork are the key requirements.
I have found my most useful insight from reading biographies of great men and women. Biographies with a little bit of historical distance from their subjects. It is useful to look at how they were challenged, how they responded, how they made decisions, how often they failed before finding success or fame, how often their peers or friends or families unknowingly sabotaged them, (or conversely how an unexpected ally or mentor helped them) and finally–how outside and unforeseen sometimes chaotic events, impacted them both positively and negatively–and how mentally prepared they were for this.
Auto biographies I have found to be less useful.
What? No literature?
I beg to differ with colleagues and admired business leaders, but do we really derive meaningful insights from how-to management texts? In my experience, the core message of nearly every business book I’ve ever read may be fully absorbed before the end of the introduction. The balance of most of these texts are repetitive illustrations of the core message. From this I take away my first management lesson: When it comes to texts on leadership and management, read the book review, not the book.
That’s not to say I didn’t enjoy and gain useful insights from books like Freakonomics, The Long Tail and The Tipping Point, to name a recent few. All three of these books shared something literary about their approach, good stories, well told, that successfully illustrated their rhetorical points.
Still, over the course of my career I have derived far more useful business insight from biographies, true stories and fiction. One favorite on the non-fiction side is More Than They Bargained For by Isadore Barmash, which described the incredible birth, growth and death of the E.J. Korvette discount store chain. Alas, it’s out of print and hard to find, but it taught me more about mass retailing than anything I have read before or since. Simply brilliant.
Also on the non-fiction side, I recommend 1994’s Soap Opera: The Inside Story of Procter & Gamble by Alicia Swazy, which focuses on the Ed Artzt era at the renowned brand marketer. It’s hard-hitting and will teach most of us a great deal about the brand system of product marketing.
One of the most chilling and prescient books I have ever read, Eric Hoffer’s The True Believer (1951) delves into the nature of mass movements and the people who join them, in a series of mini-essays that cut to the point with enviable clarity and accuracy.
For a truly enlightening insight into the state of modern and future marketing and pop culture, I strongly recommend Idoru a novel by William Gibson, the writer who first coined the term “cyberspace.” The lead character is a freelance marketing agent–maybe that’s why I relate to it so much.
Finally for a fictional view of leadership, strength, Machiavellian machinations and what makes an organization great, I heartily recommend the sci-fi classic, Dune by Frank Herbert. Not the movie. Not the mini-series. Read the book (again if you read it as a kid) and (re)discover its nuanced take on the commitments to lead. And while you are gaining enlightenment, you might shiver at its prescient plot parallels to recent geopolitical conflicts.
“Skill With People,” Les Giblin. It’s a 15 minute read, and serves as a great refresher on the same principles of “How to Win Friends and Influence People.”
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“Good To Great” is a fantastic book and is now the blueprint my senior team and I use to guide our company strategy. The hard part is getting a handle on the “hedgehog” concept, but the process to get there, whereby you strip away the veneer of myth and assumptions and get to the truth about you and your competitors, is better than any therapy. A second favorite book of mine is “The Loyalty Effect” by Frederick Reichheld. This is timeless business philosophy with case studies around several breakout companies who enjoy sustained success as a result of operating with a bias for building loyal customer relationships.
Rarely have I ever found an actual business book that motivated me or gave me any more insight. However books on human communication have provided me with tools I use every day.
I believe “How to Win Friends and Influence People” should be required reading for the human race. Also anything by Wayne Dyer. And of course one should make the comics the first thing they read every day.
When reading this post it is interesting to note that the first book that came to mind was one that I read in High School and have not really thought about in years. “Atlas Shrugged” by Ayn Rand.
Eighty percent of everything you need to know for your business won’t come from within your business. Likewise, some of the best books to give you new insights into leadership won’t be on the “Leadership” book shelf.
The key for me right now is to understand how the universe really works. If you understand that, leadership of people within that universe is effortless. Too many leadership books are written from old ingrained Newtonian perspectives while the reality is we live in a quantum age.
Let me recommend three that will stretch your mind to such a degree you’ll never think the same way again. 1) “Finding Our Way” by Dr. Margaret Wheatley – it contains the best new definition of what it means to lead I’ve ever read. 2) “The Biology of Belief” by Dr. Bruce Lipton – a renowned cellular biologist who discovered that every cell of our body ‘thinks’. I believe how cells work together is the ultimate model for how our organizations should work. 3) “The Spontaneous Healing of Belief” by Gregg Braden – how understanding the role of ‘belief’ can dramatically expand your ability to create the circumstances of your highest dreams.
Robert Greenleaf’s servant leadership books are up near the top of my list as is Peter Block’s “Stewardship: Choosing Service Over Self Interest.” Doris Kearns Goodwin’s “Team of Rivals: The Political Genius of Abraham Lincoln” is a great book about a servant leadership in practice.
Ryan Mathews’ and Fred Crawford’s “Myth of Excellence” along with Ken Blanchard’s and Sheldon Bowles’ “Raving Fans” are also up on my list.
I would agree with John Crossman on “The Man in the Mirror” and “The Purpose Driven Life.” I would also add “The Screwtape Letters” to that list though certainly not a ‘business’ book. It is a book that helped me understand a unwavering personal conviction. Further, a very clear understanding that the harder you work, the harder forces will working against you.
Books are certainly important and I think the CEO of Macy’s choices are all great. However, being book learned alone certainly isn’t enough. It helps. It takes persistent and ongoing learning, teaching, coaching, and mentorship. When I was much younger and thought I knew it all, I was turned down for a promotion from a man whom was my mentor and friend. He explained in a not so gentle way that I didn’t know as much as I thought I did and certainly didn’t know enough about the industry. While he had turned me down for that opportunity, he didn’t give up. The very next day he dropped about a half a dozen industry magazines on my desk with sticky notes marking articles he ‘suggested’. I was to find out later that they weren’t really suggestions, but he made his point. We discussed each one over coffee and over time. I like to think that we learned together, but in reality I got the better part of the deal.
Recommending books is a great thing. However, following through is another. Through this practice, he helped me really learn and I mean really learn. He helped me consider the ideas of others and not just my own. He helped me understand the industry and trends occurring within it. The byproduct was an excitement and a passion for what we did together–serving our customers.
Recommending is great. Following through with a persistent pursuit of learning and mentoring is another. The test comes down the line, not from the book report due the next day. Nevertheless, it’s a great start and kudos to him for knowing that.
Leadership inspiration has come from many books since the Bible. And one unnamed book you can rely upon, if studied thoroughly, is the book known as ‘The Heart’. In other words, look homeward into yourself. If there is a true passion in your heart for what you choose to do, it becomes a powerful emotion and compass that shapes your vision and takes you to places you’ve never gone before.
While there are many books that have influenced me, three that I would recommend are:
“The Effective Executive” by Peter Drucker. As the title suggests, Peter Drucker lays out common traits of effective executives. A timeless classic!
“Incredibly American” by Marilyn R. Zuckerman and Lewis J. Hatla. This book explores cultural roots of understanding what people do and why and helps a great deal in increasing employee involvement in day to day company operations.
Peak Performers by Charles Garfield. In this book, the author analyses principles of peak performance. By understanding these principles, one can improve performance of not only himself/herself but that of the organization as well.
Man in the Mirror, The Purpose Driven Life, Small Giants, Good to Great, and The Five Most Important Questions.
Social Intelligence by Daniel Goldman is an outstanding book for most anyone, particularly leaders, to read. Most readers are no doubt familiar with his prior work, Emotional Intelligence, which looked at how individuals can (or can’t) understand and leverage their own emotions. Now, he looks at how every little thing we do can affect social interactions. For any leader, this is great material to absorb if you’re looking to have a greater influence on those around you.
That is easy. As I left hundreds of books behind in storage, those that I have kept close to me had the greatest affect on me.
“Good to Great”; “Setting the Table,” Danny Meyer; “Be Our Guest,” The Disney Institute; “Principle-Centered Leadership,” Covey; “The Art of Innovation,” Kelley; my new favorite, “Managing the Dragon,” Perkowski; and oh yes, the Los Angeles Yellow Pages.
One of the most profound books that has impacted my life includes the “Elements of Style” by Strunk and EB White (who also wrote Charlotte’s Web, another great book). Today, more than ever, we are what we write. How we write this, and the best way to do this reflects not only on who we are but what we strive to become. A man’s writing is a mirror into his soul is more true today than ever before!
Gary Hamel’s “The Future of Management” deserves a place on the list. The title itself is a bit humdrum, but the book is one of the more thought provoking I’ve read about how companies actually operate, and that while we’ve undergone significant innovation and change in most things, the actual way we run companies is largely the same as it was 100 years ago, and that most companies’ operating structures (org, process, technology, metrics, etc.) are not equipped to thrive in today’s environment where Innovation, Strategic Flexibility/Adaptability, and Associate Empowerment, Enthusiasm, Passion, and Teamwork are the key requirements.
I have found my most useful insight from reading biographies of great men and women. Biographies with a little bit of historical distance from their subjects. It is useful to look at how they were challenged, how they responded, how they made decisions, how often they failed before finding success or fame, how often their peers or friends or families unknowingly sabotaged them, (or conversely how an unexpected ally or mentor helped them) and finally–how outside and unforeseen sometimes chaotic events, impacted them both positively and negatively–and how mentally prepared they were for this.
Auto biographies I have found to be less useful.
What? No literature?
I beg to differ with colleagues and admired business leaders, but do we really derive meaningful insights from how-to management texts? In my experience, the core message of nearly every business book I’ve ever read may be fully absorbed before the end of the introduction. The balance of most of these texts are repetitive illustrations of the core message. From this I take away my first management lesson: When it comes to texts on leadership and management, read the book review, not the book.
That’s not to say I didn’t enjoy and gain useful insights from books like Freakonomics, The Long Tail and The Tipping Point, to name a recent few. All three of these books shared something literary about their approach, good stories, well told, that successfully illustrated their rhetorical points.
Still, over the course of my career I have derived far more useful business insight from biographies, true stories and fiction. One favorite on the non-fiction side is More Than They Bargained For by Isadore Barmash, which described the incredible birth, growth and death of the E.J. Korvette discount store chain. Alas, it’s out of print and hard to find, but it taught me more about mass retailing than anything I have read before or since. Simply brilliant.
Also on the non-fiction side, I recommend 1994’s Soap Opera: The Inside Story of Procter & Gamble by Alicia Swazy, which focuses on the Ed Artzt era at the renowned brand marketer. It’s hard-hitting and will teach most of us a great deal about the brand system of product marketing.
One of the most chilling and prescient books I have ever read, Eric Hoffer’s The True Believer (1951) delves into the nature of mass movements and the people who join them, in a series of mini-essays that cut to the point with enviable clarity and accuracy.
For a truly enlightening insight into the state of modern and future marketing and pop culture, I strongly recommend Idoru a novel by William Gibson, the writer who first coined the term “cyberspace.” The lead character is a freelance marketing agent–maybe that’s why I relate to it so much.
Finally for a fictional view of leadership, strength, Machiavellian machinations and what makes an organization great, I heartily recommend the sci-fi classic, Dune by Frank Herbert. Not the movie. Not the mini-series. Read the book (again if you read it as a kid) and (re)discover its nuanced take on the commitments to lead. And while you are gaining enlightenment, you might shiver at its prescient plot parallels to recent geopolitical conflicts.
“Skill With People,” Les Giblin. It’s a 15 minute read, and serves as a great refresher on the same principles of “How to Win Friends and Influence People.”