TMI US: Owl Book Review Grove

OWL BOOK REVIEW AVIARY

Levine, Rick, Christopher Locke, Doc Searls and David Weinberger.
The Cluetrain Manifesto, The End of Business as Usual.
Cambridge, Mass: Perseus Books, 2000.
ISBN: 0-7382-0244-4

This book began as a web site, first opened in 1999. A series of ideas were explored, and the authors' 95 theses eventually became the book, The Cluetrain Manifesto.

The focus of the book is the nature of on-line business. With thousands of people discussing provocative ideas, many in the know began to avidly visit the web site, lest they miss out on a stimulating idea.

And stimulating the ideas are. The 95 theses are mostly customer oriented. No. 20, for example, reads: Companies need to realize their markets are often laughing. At them.

Basically, the authors contend that the market place is talking about everything that is going on in a human voice. You can pay attention or you can ignore the conversation.

Employees are talking to themselves through their intranets. They are also telling the truth about what is happening inside their corporations. And it's all in a human voice. Once again, you can pay attention or you can ignore the conversation.

Because of this the hierarchical command and control model of the pre-Internet marketing is largely irrelevant. It's the voices, the conversations, occurring in chat rooms and e-mail and web pages that are taking charge. "Markets are conversations," contend the authors, and you can listen or not.

This book is definitely worth reading! And read with an open mind.

Janelle Barlow, Ph.D., President
TMI US

Previous "Owl Book Review Grove" pages:

    #1 Reichheld, The Loyalty Effect

    #2 Bennis, An Invented Life

    #3 Morrison, The Second Curve

    #4 Foster, How to Get Ideas

    #5 Bear, Send This Jerk the Bedbug Letter

    #6 Hemphill, Taming the Paper Tiger

    #7 Rifkin, Time Wars

   #8 Pearce, Leading Out Loud

    #9 Kao, Jamming

#10 Tannen, The Argument Culture

#11 Nancy, More Letters From a Nut

#12 Anders, Health Against Wealth

#13 Yates, The Critical Path

#14 Langdon, The New Language of Work

#15 Needleman, Time and the Soul

#16 Goleman, Working with Emotional Intelligence

#17 Conger, Winning 'Em Over

#18 Shapiro & Jankowski, The Power of Nice

#19 Fradette & Michaud, The Power of Corporate Kinetics

#20 Upshaw, Building Brand Identity

#21 Reis and Trout, Positioning

#22 Spencer, Winning Through Participation

#23 Underhill, Why We Buy

#24 Pine & Gilmore, The Experience Economy

#25 Christensen, The Innovator's Dilemma

#26 Hirschfeld, Business Dad

#27 Harkins, Powerful Conversations

#28 Seybold, Customers.Com

#29 Ackerman, Identity is Destiny

#30 Childre & Cryer, From Chaos to Coherence

#31 Ryback, Putting Emotional Intelligence to Work

#32 Gladwell, The Tipping Point

#33 Schrage, Serious Play

#34 Prochaska, Changing for Good

#35 Axelrod, Terms of Engagement

#36 Arbinger Institute, Leadership and Self-Deception

#37 Thomas, Intrinsic Motivation at Work

#38 Buckingham & Coffman, First, Break All the Rules

#39 Silverman, People Smart

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