Book Reviews
Cary and Associates read avidly and widely. Any topic in two broad categories is likely to catch our attention: 1) the technologies related to measuring and mapping the Earth, and 2) how to run a successful business. Here you will find our thoughts about books we have read about marketing, business management, marketing communications, geographic information systems and more. The commentaries are in order by title. To access by author name, see the right-hand column.
The book titles are linked to Amazon.com so that you can safely order any books that interest you. As an Associate of Amazon.com, Cary and Associates will receive a small fee from such purchases, which helps to defray the cost of maintaining this web site; thank you for making purchases through links on this site.
Boards at Work:
How Corporate Boards Create Competitive Advantage
Ram Charan
Reviewed by Tina Cary, Principal Consultant
Is your company's Board of Directors contributing to shareholder value? Ram Charan's Boards at Work: How Corporate Boards Create Competitive Advantage provides an excellent introduction. He includes numerous anecdotes from his consulting experience, a summary of key points at the end of each chapter, and evaluation instruments for selecting board members, selecting a CEO, self-evaluating board performance, and board peer review.
The Discipline of Market Leaders:
Choose Your Customers, Narrow Your Focus, Dominate Your Market
Michael Treacy and Fred Wiersema
Reviewed by Tina Cary, Principal Consultant
In The Discipline of Market Leaders, Michael Treacy and Fred Wiersema provide advice about how to "choose your customers, narrow your focus, and dominate your market." To be successful, a company must be known for excelling at one of the three "value disciplines:" operational excellence, product leadership, or customer intimacy. For operational excellence, the company used as an example is AT&T's Universal Card; the product leader is Intel; and the example company that chose to excel at customer intimacy is Airborne Express.
It's rather fun to think about which companies in the geotechnologies are known for which customer value, or to think of a specific company and evaluate its market standing in this context. Chapters 1 through 9 define and describe market leadership. Chapter 10, "Setting Your Value Discipline Agenda," offers a "how-to" road map.
The E-Myth Revisited: 
Why Most Small Businesses Don't Work and What to Do About It
Michael Gerber
Reviewed by Tina Cary, Principal Consultant
Why Most Small Businesses Don't Work and What to Do About It is a provocative subtitle; the title is The E-Myth Revisited by Michael Gerber. His starting point is that there is a myth "that small businesses are started by entrepreneurs risking capital to make a profit." Instead, he says most businesses are started by people who are very good at technical work, when they have a momentary Entrepreneurial Seizure. That description certainly applies to some of the businesses in the geotechnology market space!
My favorite parts:
- Chapter 2, "The Entrepreneur, the Manager, and the Technician," the three personalities in every person who goes into business. Vision, pragmatism, and action, the contributions of these personalities, are all required for success.
- Chapter 9, "Working On Your Business, Not In It," describes the value of the franchise prototype even when you don't want to franchise your business. Successful businesses consistently deliver extraordinary results from ordinary people. Six rules will help you do it too.
- Part III, "Building a Small Business That Works!" includes chapters on strategy for organization, management, people, marketing, and systems.
Though pie-making may seem a bit far from your business, the principles illustrated by reference to Sarah and her company "All About Pies" apply to any business.
The Ernst & Young Business Plan Guide 
(The Ernst & Young Business Guide Series)
Eric S. Siegel, Brian R. Ford and Jay M. Bornstein
Reviewed by Tina Cary, Principal Consultant
Are you writing a business plan to guide your new business? Or looking for funds to expand your existing business? This second edition of The Ernst & Young Business Plan Guide is clearly written and includes an example, with commentary on its strengths and weaknesses. The book explains why certain information is included in a business plan, and how to make one’s case as effectively as possible... it’s the first business plan guide I’ve seen that encourages inclusion of sample products. Chapter Two, "Who Reads the Business Plan?" explains what lenders and investors look for in a business plan and how differently they weight what they find. And laced through the book are reminders that a business plan is a yardstick to help your business succeed by clarifying what must happen when.
When bankers and investors evaluate the risk and probable return associated with providing capital, the fact that your business is geotechnology-related is not nearly as important as whether your business plan provides the information they need. This book will help.
Geographic Information Systems for Transportation:
Principles and Applications (Spatial Information Systems)
Harvey J. Miller and Shih-Lung Shaw
Reviewed by Bruce Lutz, Senior Associate
In contrast to the general overview approach in Lang's Transportation GIS (also reviewed on this web site), Miller and Shaw provide a comprehensive, detailed, treatment of GIS principles as they relate to ground transportation.
An introductory chapter describes the scope of the book and includes a short but persuasive section concerning the need for intelligent use of transportation and the role that GIS can play in intelligent decision making.
Chapters 2 through 7 discuss what the authors describe as "principles" of transportation data. The first of these chapters, chapter 2, describes database design issues, including various type of data modeling, a discussion of metadata (data about data), and data warehousing for what the authors believe will be a rapid, if not exponential, increase in relevant data. Chapter 3 discusses data models that are specifically relevant to transportation GIS. These include node-arc referencing, linear referencing, and the dynamic segmentation data model.
Chapter 4 discusses data that are useful in GIS transportation issues, especially as they relate to data integration. The first part of this chapter covers basic mapping concepts such as datum, projection, coordinate systems and scale. Chapters 5 and 6 discuss algorithms relevant for analyzing transportation networks, including methods for solving network flow problems. Chapter 7 is integrative, returning to the issue of why and how GIS can be particularly useful in solving transportation problems.
Chapters 8 through 11 discuss applications of GIS in transportation. The focus here is not on specific cases, but rather on particular transportation problems such as the interrelationship of transportation of hazardous materials and the environment, or hydrologic concerns.
The reader is expected to have a basic understanding of college-level GIS and college algebra. Persons and agencies tasked with designing transportation networks will find this book a valuable reference.
The Gifted Boss:
How to Find, Create and Keep Great Employees
Dale Dauten
Reviewed by Tina Cary, Principal Consultant
The topic "How to find, create and keep great employees" is the subtitle of The Gifted Boss by Dale Dauten. The book opens with a summary table of The Six Realities of Gifted Bosses and Great Employees. The first Reality says "The ‘talent-squared’ workplace is possible because gifted bosses and great employees want the same things from a workplace:
Freedom from...
- management,
- mediocrity and
- morons.
A change.
A chance."
Who could resist an opportunity to learn how to be free from management, mediocrity and morons? Rather in the manner of a fable, the book tells a story of Dauten's journey to talk to best bosses all over the U.S. about how they find employees. The book is short, 112 pages, and very easy to read. It’s also thought-provoking.
GIS Data Sources
Drew Decker
Reviewed by Bruce Lutz, Senior Associate
The title of this book led me to expect a list of GIS data sources that are likely to be outdated as new sources become available. Instead, the majority of the book addresses concerns that are with us now and will continue to be in the future. In addition, several appendices do list government and private sources of GIS data. After an introductory chapter describing the scope of the book, Decker provides a very useful and clearly-written chapter dealing with basic and essential concepts such as scale, accuracy, and several types of raster and vector data.
The next two chapters, concerned with defining your needs and getting the most out of the data in order to meet these needs, are crucial steps that must be made in the beginning stages of any project in order to avoid waste and possible cost overruns. Chapter 5 discusses the role of the Federal Geographic Data Committee (FGDC) in coordinating base mapping and metadata for GIS use. Chapter 6 discusses how to transfer and store GIS data via electronic and/or physical means. The seventh chapter deals with collecting your own data when no appropriate data exist, and chapter 8 gives several tips to maximize your GIS data search. Chapter 9 concentrates on problems in using GIS data, e.g., the misuse of proprietary data or combining GIS data having different scales. The final chapter discusses how GIS data might be disseminated and used in the future. A glossary and several appendices listing sources of GIS data complete the book.
All-in-all GIS Data Sources is a valuable reference tool. With a quick read a person will be able to grasp the concepts presented and a closer look at the relevant chapters will provide a "sounding board" of important milestones in the development and execution of a GIS project.
Inside the Tornado:
Strategies for Developing, Leveraging, and Surviving Hypergrowth Markets (Collins Business Essentials)
Geoffrey A. Moore
Reviewed by Tina Cary, Principal Consultant
Many people marketing geotechnology have found helpful insight in Geoffrey A. Moore's Crossing the Chasm: 
An Introduction to the Theory of Spatial Object Modelling for GIS
(Research Monographs in GIS)
Martien Molenaar
Reviewed by Bruce Lutz, Senior Associate
The trend in GIS has been towards automation and the production of increasingly user-friendly programs that allow tasks to be done with less knowledge of the foundations upon which these programs rest. This book focuses precisely on one of these foundations and must be read carefully in order to appreciate the complexity of spatially relating geographic objects that change through time because of the processes that operate on them.
In the introductory chapter Molenaar provides a short epistemological (how we know what we know, and especially, how we know the limits of what we know) discussion of the nature of the problem. I found it interesting that he uses some of the same constructs that are used in cosmology - e.g., the space-time continuum - though on a vastly different scale.
In the following chapters, Molenaar discusses the geometry and spatial aspects of objects with raster and vector models (chapters 2 and 3), the mathematical formalization of the models (chapters 4 and 5), the topologic relationships between spatial objects (chapter 6), the thematic description of an object (chapter 7), and multi-scale approaches in GIS research and its relation to spatial databases (chapter 8). In the final chapter he introduces fuzzy spatial objects and thus returns to the problem of the limits of our knowledge, i.e., the recognition that real world phenomena have a level of impreciseness and therefore the discrete GIS categories that we devise are always in doubt.
Throughout the book Molenaar uses numerous examples that make his arguments easier to understand. Easier does not mean easy, however, and I therefore suspect that this book will be referred to by physical, biological, and social scientists who want to probe beneath the GIS programming level to determine what it is that is being programmed.
The Lexus and the Olive Tree: 
Understanding Globalization
Thomas L. Friedman
Reviewed by Tina Cary, Principal Consultant
Do you consider your company "just a domestic business"? Whether the answer is yes or no, Thomas L. Friedman's book The Lexus and the Olive Tree will give you food for thought. It is the most informative and readable book I've come across on the subjects of geopolitics and economics. His topic is globalization—the integration of capital, technology, and information to create a single global market oblivious of national borders.
The book's opening quote is from Douglas Hanson, CEO of Rocky Mountain Internet, Inc., who was interviewed by The Wall Street Journal after he had to postpone issuing a bond because of the 1998 market meltdown: "It's aggravating—we have nothing to do with Russia or Asia. We're just a little domestic business trying to grow, but we're being prevented because of the way those governments run their countries." If the addresses of your clients are all east of the Mississippi River, or all in some other geographic region—and likely to stay that way—this book will convey how your business is affected by actions and events far removed from your headquarters and your clients.
MapPoint 2002 for Dummies
(With CD-ROM)
B. J. Holtgrewe and Jill T. Freeze
Reviewed by Bruce Lutz, Senior Associate
The authors say that "The capability to perform sophisticated data analysis is where MapPoint really shines." I would add the word "spatial" to data analysis to distinguish this program from spreadsheet or database programs, for though it can import data from these programs its ability to translate data into useful maps is the program's major forte. Indeed, MapPoint's ability to establish hooks into a variety of other applications and tools (e.g., MicroSoft Office, Visual Basic, SQL servers, and GPS) makes it a formidable player for business-related GIS applications.
The discussion of whether or not MapPoint is a high-end GIS tool shows the program's strengths and limitations. The authors point out that MapPoint's inability to capture and manipulate spatial data is offset by the high quality maps and demographic data that are included with the program. This included material is primarily oriented towards business applications, though it might be useful for other purposes such as political campaigning. The book's examples focus upon business applications. To support efficient route planning, MapPoint contains 6.4 million miles of routable streets and roads in North America. Elevation maps and political maps are also included. If your needs fall within the purview of MapPoint, the program is cost effective since you can analyze spatial problems common to many types of business endeavors without programming knowledge. But if your needs lie elsewhere, such as spatial data relating to natural resources, the inability to import data from other sources makes the program much less useful.
MapPoint for Dummies comes with two disks containing a 60-day trial version of MapPoint and source code examples. The variety of tasks that MapPoint is capable of are clearly demonstrated throughout the book using the source code examples in a number of short, clear, tutorials. The tutorials cover relatively basic topics (measuring the distance between points) as well as more advanced topics (using code to create a route, to import data, to query closed shapes, or to embed MapPoint into an application). While the mechanics of the program are important, the authors also discuss the analysis and use of MapPoint data. These are important considerations since the ultimate purpose of the program is to help you to derive meaning from the data.
Marketing Without a Marketing Budget:
How to Find Customers Yesterday, on a Shoestring, Without Fouling Up Your Schedule Any Worse Than It Already Is
Craig S. Rice
Reviewed by Tina Cary, Principal Consultant
Are you interested in Marketing Without a Marketing Budget?
The format is question-and-answer, so it's easy to browse the table of contents for topics of interest, and each question is answered in two to four pages. The illustrations and font chosen for the book give it a very old-time look, more like 1889 rather than its 1989 publication date. As a result, discussions of desktop publishing and freeware seem incongruous. Ignore the illustrations and focus on the content. Some of the major sections:
- Lots of cheap ideas that can increase sales in a hurry
- Winning the battle before you go to war: marketing strategy and tactics for your business
- To advertise or not to advertise
- Pinching every penny: how to save money in places you never thought your business could.
Permission Marketing:
Turning Strangers Into Friends And Friends Into Customers
Seth Godin
Reviewed by Tina Cary, Principal Consultant
Marketing as we frequently think of it is Interruption Marketing. What if you could develop your marketing program based on permission? Wouldn't that be better for both you and your prospective customers? In Permission Marketing: Turning Strangers into Friends, and Friends into Customers, Seth Godin provides a view of this alternate way to go about marketing, a way that has become truly possible in this Internet Age. Though much of the book uses examples from marketing to consumers, he also addresses marketing to businesses explicitly.
The book is easy to read. Mr. Godin shares his opinions on many things, including "Why Spam Is Like Shoplifting." Chapter Ten, Case Studies, give his views on what is right and what is wrong with the way various companies go about their marketing, and he names names.
Selling the Dream:
How to Promote Your Product, Company, or Ideas — & Make a Difference — Using Everyday Evangelism
Guy Kawasaki
Reviewed by Tina Cary, Principal Consultant
Have you thought of yourself as an evangelist? Guy Kawasaki attributes his success at Apple and as an entrepreneur to "everyday evangelism"—being passionate and convincing people to believe in your product or service or idea as much as you do. While his examples do not include specific geotechnology products or services, they do cover much more than Apple computers, including not-for-profit organizations. The chapter "Recruiting and Training Evangelists" includes questions, why to ask them, and how to interpret the answers. If you are looking for someone to head up the marketing efforts in your geotechnology-based company, the ideas here could help you pick the candidate who is both the most informed and most passionate about what your company does.
One-third of Selling the Dream is a reproduction of the actual Macintosh Product Introduction Plan. This is a rare opportunity to see a plan for a successful product introduction, and it has the added value of his comments on the plan as he now sees it with the perfect vision of hindsight.
Selling the Invisible:
A Field Guide to Modern Marketing
Harry Beckwith
Reviewed by Tina Cary, Principal Consultant
Many companies in the geotechnologies sell services, which are really promises to perform. How do you persuade a prospect to purchase something they can't see or touch? Harry Beckwith, in Selling the Invisible: A Field Guide to Modern Marketing, shares the answers he has learned in a very readable format. Includes
- the Most Compelling Selling Message - "I understand what you need"
- the difference between position and positioning - position is where the market puts you, positioning is where you want to be
- why he agrees with Meryl Streep that Life Is Like High School - being likable matters, often more than technical proficiency.
Transportation GIS:
Includes 12 Case Studies
Laura Lang
Reviewed by Bruce Lutz, Senior Associate
In the book's preface Jack Dangermond, ESRI's president, articulates the need for GIS in the transportation industry, stating that building new roads for more vehicles leads to more pollution while maintaining these roads becomes increasingly costly. The solution, in which GIS has a vital role to play, is moving people and goods more efficiently than in the past.
The first chapter is an overview describing in general terms the role of GIS in transportation issues. It briefly describes what GIS is, a range of uses for which GIS has been used in the transportation industry, and includes a brief comment on the relationship between GIS and GPS (Global Positioning Systems).
Each of the next twelve chapters describes the role that GIS plays in, for example, road maintenance, mass transit systems, accident prevention, and snow removal. Existing roads can be used more effectively by reducing gridlock and adjusting traffic light timing. In addition to automotive transportation issues, Chapter 7 describes the use of GIS to improve air travel, and Chapters 8 and 9 relate to rail.
As in many of the ESRI Press books, this is not a "how-to" book, but rather a series of case studies. The reader gets a general idea of the problem and the solution, not a detailed account of how the data sets were manipulated. At the end of each chapter, there is a list of the hardware, software, and data sets that the agency used to develop solutions to the problem. This should be of help to those that have similar problems. The illustrations, as with all ESRI Press books, depict and clarify the points that is being made.
- Laura Lang has also written Managing Natural Resources with GIS 
A Whack on the Side of the Head
How You Can Be More Creative
Roger von Oech
Reviewed by Tina Cary, Principal Consultant
Are you searching for a new way to cope with some challenge facing your geotechnology business? The book, A Whack on the Side of the Head is in its third edition, a good indicator that people have found it useful. It includes exercises, illustrations, quotations, and anecdotes to give your thinking a jolt. This is useful especially if you are planning a brainstorming session to deal with some challenge, whether it be introducing a new geotechnology product or service, countering a competitor's move, dealing with a new government regulation, or ...
- Related books by Roger von Oech include A Kick in the Seat of the Pants 
Why business people speak like idiots:
A bullfighter's guide
Brian Fugere, Chelsea Hardaway and Jon Warshawsky
Reviewed by Linda Duffy, Senior Associate
"Let's fly this up the flagpole and see where the pushback is." Huh?
Quick read with lots of practical communication tips that might just save you the embarrassment of sounding like an idiot! This humorous but informative book about the use of excessive and deceptive jargon in business was written by three Deloitte Consulting employees who gained their knowledge of the problem on-the-job. Have you used the terms "paradigm shift," "leading edge," "outside the box," "results-driven," or "best of breed" recently? If so, you could benefit from reading this book. This lighthearted discussion explains why the majority of business communication has turned into a repetitive litany of evasive, self-aggrandizing terminology that really doesn't say anything, and provides suggestions for how to break the pattern and be noticed (in a positive way).
People like simple, straightforward messages; they don't like jargon, acronyms, and vagaries. Did you know that the Gettysburg Address was a mere 270 words long? Yet Abraham Lincoln got his point across effectively and memorably. This book is sprinkled with real-life examples of good—and bad—business communication, found in annual reports, fact-free updates, presentations, and e-mails. Do you want your e-mails to be read? Then make them "rare and valuable. Cut the supply, and they'll be in demand." Or consider using the telephone instead—it's become a novelty! Are your presentations boring beyond belief? Don't use a template, include unique photos, try a little humor and let your personality shine through. A starter list of "intriguing" words is included, such as naked, frenzy, flummox and annihilate!
Another important message is that most people are very good at detecting insincerity, finger-pointing, and sugar-coating by authority figures—and at the first sign of these communication "techniques" we tune out, delete, or ignore the message. The people who take responsibility for their mistakes, propose solutions to problems, and make sincere apologies are the ones that stand out in the crowd and maintain their credibility. This is a worthwhile book for business people at all levels, from the marketing person writing press releases to the CEO making earnings announcements.
