May
4
2007
The Value of a Business Book
Earlier this week I was sitting with a colleague at the Prairie Ink Cafe. We were sipping a Lindemans chardonnay and, at one point, pontificating on the subject of business books. “They need to be not significantly more than 200 pages,” I said, with a touch of cynicism. It isn’t that a lengthier treatment of a worthwhile subject will inevitably run out of steam by page 200, it’s just that it may not sell all that well if it’s much longer. People don’t want to read, and I quipped wryly that your average CEO’s attention span was no longer than that.
My friend responded with a choice quotation about “management by airport bookstore fiat,” a phrase I really do love. It catches all the cynicism necessary to reflect the habits of a CEO or unit manager who grabs a book to read on the plane, returns to the office, and tries to implement the latest, greatest fad. By 9:00AM.
Unbeknownst to me, on the same day, Seth Godin nails the same issue, suggesting that we really ought to read more.
If you went to a doctor who told you that she hadn’t read a scholarly article or taken any training since med school, would you stick around? What about a lawyer who doesn’t read law journals or a dentist who never bothered to read up on the newest case studies?
Never mind the professions. What about the machine shop down the street? Think the $18 an hour machine operator is supposed to read the manual that came with the new machine? Who cares if he doesn’t like to read?
Why does our bizarre national fear of reading have anything to do with this? We read stuff all the time (email, stop signs, the comics) but for some reason, people think it’s fine to draw the line at books. (Typical annual per capita purchase rate for hardcover books in the US: one).
He goes on to relate how one of his books at 160 pages (and that at a smaller finished size, I might add) was evidently considered to be eight times too long by one person.
Personally, I’ve got mixed feelings. Like many people, I have a lot of things competing for attention… and I’ve come to value brevity. That said, things need to be given the necessary time to state the case properly. There are a lot of well-written business books out there… it’s just the ones that are 60% fluff that bug me. You know the ones: “Nice book, would have made a great chapter.” Good writing will help turn the tide, but I wouldn’t lay more than 10 or 20 percent of the blame with the authors and publishers. It’s the market, and here Seth is spot-on in his inference. If we take ourselves seriously in whatever field we profess, we should make a point of knowing what’s being said or written in that field. Yes, it takes time… mediocrity is much easier, if that’s a choice you must make. Ultimately it’s worth the effort to fight through the fluff and get the goods. Is it short enough for an airport read? When that becomes a serious question for a business book, it says way too much about the business climate. One book per year. Sad.
When interviewing candidates for hire, I frequently used to ask what they read, online or in print. I would ask how they kept up with their profession and their industry… and I wasn’t as keen on the ones who didn’t have a good answer. Turns out that just doing what should be a minimum standard is coming to be seen as exceptional. Truly sad.
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