BOOKS
Complexity committee
How to Operate a Compensation
Committee
The Rosenberg Associates; $95
amples of how to see through the
;ood. It helps to bear in mind that
what the data tells you isn’t necessarily what you need to know.
It used to be that people were paid to work.
Now, though, they’re paid to incentivize them
to align their priorities and performance with
the strategic goals of the organization. ;at
added layer of complexity has led many ;rms
to create compensation committees to ;gure
out what to pay sta; and partners to incentivize them properly, which has led practice
management expert Marc Rosenberg to write
How to Operate a Compensation Committee.
It covers everything you need to know, from
why they’re popular to how to establish one
and what it should do, and what the characteristics of a good
system are.
nothing of making life
a little easier for you,
their accountant). Hopefully they have a sense of
humor about the whole
thing. If not, consider our
next entry.
Uniquely
unhappy
Con;ict 101: A Manager’s Guide to
Resolving Problems So Everyone Can
Get Back to Work
Amacom Books; $17.95
Tolstoy’s dictum about happy families being all alike and unhappy families all being
unhappy in their own way
is easily applied to o;ces
as well — but it misses the
main point, which is that
so many offices are unhappy. Con;ict 101 is fully
aware of the myriad ways a
workplace can be poisoned,
and details a host of tactics
for disarming that unhappiness so you can focus on the
business that is, literally, at
hand. Perhaps the most important lesson overall is that
people are always unhappy in
the o;ce in their own way and
for their own reasons — reasons
that are often bizarre, illogical
and incomprehensible, but that must be dealt
with nonetheless.
Do as
they did
Succession Transi-
tion: A Roadmap for
Seamless Transitions
in Leadership
Momentum Books;
$19.95
Plante Moran, like everyone else these days, is
thinking about succession
planning — with the major
difference that Plante Moran has
been thinking about it a lot longer than anyone else, and actually knows what it’s doing.
In fact, current managing partner Gordon
Krater and the MP he succeeded, Bill Hermann, have written Succession Transition
to describe the ;rm’s process for leadership
transitions. It’s about a lot more than just
swapping nameplates on the C-suite: The
;rm has deep systems in place for developing
and nurturing leadership at all levels, and the
book o;ers a rare glimpse into how a successful ;rm makes sure that its success can last.
Get another 100
;e New Leader’s 100-Day
Action Plan: How to Take
Charge, Build Your Team, and
Get Immediate Results
Wiley; $25.95
;e main goal of any leader’s ;rst 100 days
should be to secure themselves a second
hundred. To that end, we recommend wholesale purges and the instigation of a reign of
terror, but if your corporate policy precludes
that, you might consider the strategies on offer in ;e New Leader’s 100-Day Action Plan.
;e ;rst lesson is to read the book before your
hundred days start — successful onboard-ing begins before you walk through the door.
After that, the book’s case studies, examples,
strategies and many downloadable guides
will show you how to assess the situation
you’re now in charge of, how to build a team,
and host of other things you’ll need to know
to ensure a long reign.
No spectacles
Little Bets: How Breakthrough Ideas
Emerge from Small Discoveries
Free Press (Simon & Schuster); $25
Watching someone make a big bet is great
entertainment: You get to see triumph on a
grand scale, or a test of human character in
the face of enormous failure. We always encourage other people to make big bets — but
for ourselves, we’re sticking to the strategy in
Little Bets, which is that major breakthroughs
are the product of a series of small experiments, not a single great leap. From examples as disparate as Pixar, Hewlett-Packard,
Beethoven, the U.S. Army, and comedian
Chris Rock, the book teases
out a remarkably consistent approach to success
that includes failing fast
to learn quickly, trying
imperfect ideas, focusing on ;nding problems,
and practicing “highly
immersed” observation.
It may not create the same
kind of grand spectacles
as the “bet the company”
approach, but grand spectacles usually end badly for
everyone but the audience.
Page
ADVERTISER
INDEX
Advertiser
Accountants World ..................... 33, 35, 36
Accounting Practice Sales ..................... 33
Bloomberg BNA ..............................15, 19
CCH, a Wolters Kluwer business ......17, 40
Dillner’s Accounting Tools Inc.................37
Genovation ........................................... 34
Greatland ............................................. 12
No offense
;e Complete Idiot’s Guide to
QuickBooks 2012
Alpha; $24.95
As much as we think your small-business
clients could benefit from a copy of The
Complete Idiot’s Guide to QuickBooks 2012,
you’ll want to be careful how you present it
to them. ;e many useful tips will certainly
help them keep their books better, and get
more out of their accounting system (to say
Better ;lters
Drinking from the Fire Hose: Making
Smarter Decisions Without Drowning
in Information
Portfolio (Penguin); $26.95
Data overload is a common
complaint these days, and
as business intelligence
systems and dashboards
proliferate, it’s only going
to get worse. Since you can’t
cut yourself o;, the trick is to
arm yourself with the right
tools to ;lter the streams of
irrelevance to ;nd the pure
springs of usefulness. To help,
Drinking from the Fire Hose offers its “ 7 Fire Hose Questions”
for focusing on what matters,
as well as a ton of real-life ex-
i Twin ...................................................... 2
Mostad & Christensen Inc..................... 36
Phoenix Phive ....................................... 34
PNC Bank............................................. 21
Sage North America................................ 9
