Book review
“The world is populated mainly by boring businesses but for creative people, that’s where the opportunities are to contribute”- Robert Stephens, Founder and Chief Inspector of The Geek Squad.
The world is full of boring business books, so it’s refreshing to find something truly readable. ‘BOLD: How to Be Brave in Business and Win’ is an inspiring collection of case studies about brands that are differentiated in their category.
Comprised of interviews with business leaders, employees and customers, each chapter offers a first-hand account of what makes these businesses tick. Commentary is kept to a minimum: sensibly Smith and Milligan let the memorable content shine rather than reducing it to bland lowest-common-denominator principles.
Indeed, trying to summarise this book probably entirely misses the point – as everyone will take something different out of it. For me, there were some truly memorable examples of great business practice:
Virgin Galactic – announcing their launch and signing up customers before they had even seen their spaceship fly (knowing that otherwise they would never get started)
The Geek Squad – building a unique culture with uniforms, internal language and job titles designed to attract the real geeks they needed to be technical support superheroes
Air Asia – one of the fastest-growing airlines, whose strategy never exceeds 3 key objectives, written where all employees can see them
Zappos – valuing brand-led recruitment so much they test the loyalty of their new employees by offering them $2,000 to walk away
This is a branding book in disguise - which illustrates why instinct is more valuable than information in decision-making, why building strong narratives can guide business strategy, how employees and customers become enthused brand advocates, when values mean walking away from opportunities and that sustainable practices can be woven through organisations with no loose threads.
If there is a weakness to this book it is possibly in the inclusion of the ubiquitous innocent smoothies– a brand story too often told elsewhere. But to balance out the cool start-ups, we learn of more traditional businesses that have always done things their own way (such as JCB) – or even harder, big corporates that have turned themselves into leaner, bolder and braver organisations (TNT and O2).
Over and over in the case studies the business leaders identify a pivotal point where they realised that they had to differentiate for their brands to succeed. As Smith and Milligan conclude: ‘in short, they are bold. Not reckless. Just bold; they stand out from others because they stand up for something.’ How many businesses can say that?
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