Traveling & Reading

I want to write quickly about 2 great books I just finished reading. The first is a book called Design Is How It Works: How The Smartest Companies Turn Products Into Icons. The author, Jay Greene, looks at how well known companies like Porsche, Nike, Lego, OXO, REI, and Virgin Atlantic amongst others (companies that provide both products and services) create their products, continue to innovate, and use different strategies to engage their users. Unlike most of the management books out on the market today, it doesn't just look at one person or one process, but it looks at similarities between companies that have succeeded, and at times failed, and then succeeded again and why. There is a certain part of his theory which I am thinking of expanding on and will try and present at an upcoming professional conference. We'll see if that happens.

The second book I read, and absolutely loved, is Salman Rushdie's The Moor's Last Sigh. This is the first book I've read by him, and after reading the first page 5 or 6 times, I wasn't sure I would be reading any more. But I got into it and was incredibly impressed. His ability to interweave and stretch plot lines, the depth of his references to cultures and literature across the globe, the dark humor, and the time he spends building characters only to utterly destroy the images he created chapters earlier was enthralling. My only regret is not keeping a pencil and notepad next to me to write down and look up all of the SAT words that I vaguely remember but can't define.

I've been traveling a bit for work and I have plenty of interesting stories to come about that, but no time now. So I'll just leave you with a teaser of where I've been.