Episode #25 - Interview with Dr. Thomas Sowell

Ed and I were absolutely honored to interview Dr. Thomas Sowell, certainly one of the world's greatest living economists, on The Soul of Enterprise: Business in the Knowledge Economy. Dr. Sowell is currently Senior Fellow at the Hoover Institution, Stanford University. Sowell was born in North Carolina, but grew up in Harlem, New York. He dropped out of high school and served in the United States Marine Corps during the Korean War. He received a Bachelor's degree, graduating magna cum laude from Harvard University in 1958 and a Master's degree from Columbia University in 1959. In 1968, he earned his Doctorate in Economics from the University of Chicago.

Dr. Sowell has served on the faculties of several universities, including Cornell University and University of California, Los Angeles. He has also worked for think tanks such as the Urban Institute. Since 1980, he has worked at the Hoover Institution at Stanford University. He writes from a conservative and classical liberal perspective, advocating free market economics and has written more than thirty books. He is a National Humanities Medal winner.

The new edition of his international best seller on economics, Basic Economics – 5th Edition (Basic Books, December 2015), was the focal point of our discussion.

Basic Economics is the best single volume primer on economics ever written. There are no graphs or equations, and the writing is clear, uncomplicated, eye-opening, and cogent. Ron has recommended this book to hundreds of people, most have thanked him profusely.

We discussed Dr. Sowell's early years as a Marxist, his definition of an economy and economics, early baseball tryout, the notion of a "fair" price, the illogic of the "trade deficit," his views on immigration, Thomas Pikkety's book and income inequality, and why there are only "non-economic values."

We also asked Dr. Sowell during the break what he thought of President Obama's recent policy on easing restrictions on Cuba. He was adamantly against it, and hopefully he will be writing on this topic for his syndicated column.

It's difficult to suggest one of Thomas Sowell's books over another. Be sure to read Basic Economics, 5th Edition, but if you want to venture beyond that (and you will), we've listed Dr. Sowell's books below, though not all of them. He's written two on late-talking children as well, which I hear are excellent.

Ron's favorites are: Knowledge and Decisions; A Conflict of Visions; and Intellectuals and Race.

Other Resources

Dr. Sowell's Wikipedia page.

Fred Barnes interview with Dr. Sowell.

Article by Jay Nordlinger, of National Review, on Thomas Sowell.

Follow Dr. Sowell's syndicated newspaper column on Twitter @sowellcolumn

Books by Thomas Sowell (partial list)

Say’s Law: An Historical Analysis, 1972

Classical Economics Reconsidered, 1974

Knowledge and Decisions, 1980

Markets and Minorities, 1981

Ethnic America: A History, 1981

The Economics and Politics of Race, 1983

Civil Rights: Rhetoric or Reality, 1984

Marxism: Philosophy and Economics, 1985

Education: Assumptions Versus History, 1986

A Conflict of Visions: Ideological Origins of Political Struggles, 1987 

Compassion Versus Guilt and Other Essays, 1987

Preferential Policies: An International Perspective, 1990

Inside American Education: The Decline, the Deception, the Dogmas, 1993

Race and Culture: A World View (Part I of a trilogy), 1994

The Vision of the Anointed: Self-Congratulation as a Basis for Social Policy, 1995

Knowledge and Decisions, 1996 (1980 original)

Migrations and Cultures: A World View (Part II of a trilogy), 1996

Conquests and Cultures: An International History (Part III of a trilogy), 1998

The Quest for Cosmic Justice, 1999

A Personal Odyssey, 2000

Basic Economics: A Citizen’s Guide to the Economy, 2004

Applied Economics: Thinking Beyond Stage One, 2004

Black Rednecks and White Liberals, 2005

Every Wonder Why (collection of columns), 2006

A Conflict of Visions: Ideological Origins of Political Struggles, revised and expanded 2007

A Man of Letters, 2007

The Housing Boom and Bust, 2009

Intellectuals and Society, 2009

Applied Economics: Thinking Beyond Stage One, Revised and Enlarged Edition, 2009

Dismantling America (collection of columns), 2010

The Thomas Sowell Reader (collection of columns, essays, etc.), 2011

“Trickle Down” Theory and “Tax Cuts for the Rich,” (essay), 2012

Intellectuals and Race, 2013

Basic Economics: A Citizens Guide to the Economy, 5th Edition, 2015

Episode #24 - Interview with Jody Thompson, Co-Founder of CultureRx

We had the pleasure of interviewing Jody Thompson, the Co-Founder of CultureRx® and Co-Creator of the Results-Only Work Environment™ (ROWE™), along with Cali Ressler. CultureRx® is the sole global authority on ROWE™ and the sole executor of organizational and individual certification. Listen here to the interview with Jody Thompson

Thompson provides domestic and international keynote presentations on the 21st century workplace and has been featured on the covers of BusinessWeek, Workforce Management Magazine, HR Magazine, and HR Executive Magazine, as well as in the New York Times, TIME Magazine, USA Today, and on Good Morning America, CNBC, MSNBC and CNN. She has co-authored two best-sellling books on revolutionizing the workplace and the practice of management, Why Work Sucks and How to Fix It and Why Managing Sucks and How to Fix It.

Some Nuggets of Wisdom from Why Work Sucks

ROWE defined: Each person is free to do whatever they want, whenever they want, as long as the work gets done.

Sounds like college! It's Tivo @ work.

Work is something you do, not a place you go.

The solution is not flextime. Flexible schedule is an oxymoron.

Work-life balance: balance impossible under current system (employee defined, not employer defined).

Time management – like finding freedom in a prison.

ROWE as the Antidote to the Labor Theory of Value

Employees are paid for chunk of work, not chunk of time.

If I build a cot under my desk but I’m not performing, does that make me a good worker?

If an employee is not performing, more hours won’t matter.

Myth: Time + Physical presence = Results 

Strangely, we only do this at work: “Don’t look at a pile of laundry and think, I’d better make sure I’m putting enough hours into this.”

Presenteeism: Your body is in the building, but your mind is somewhere else.

Ask: “Is there anything you need?” This knocks out Presenteeism.

Sludge: Negative commentary that occurs naturally in a workplace and is based on outdated beliefs about time and work.

Common “How” questions (Appendix II: “Yeah, Buts”)

How are the results going to happen?

How do we know we’re achieving our goals?

How will we know that everyone is pulling their weight?

Answer: “How do you know now?”

True slackers don’t last in a ROWE.

Involuntary turnover (fired) goes up, voluntary turnover goes down.

Final thoughts

Ed and I believe that ROWE is the next wave for true knowledge organizations, as it is centered around results, a high level of trust, and providing autonomy to knowledge workers enabling them to thrive.

Keep up the great work Jody and Cali!

Episode #23 - Interview with Tim Williams

Ed and I were honored to be able to interview Tim Williams, Founder, Ignition Consulting Group, and VeraSage InstituteSenior Fellow. Tim is the author of two excellent books, Take a Stand for Your Brand: Building a Great Agency Brand from the Inside Out, and Positioning for Professionals: How Professional Knowledge Firms Can Differentiate Their Way to Success.

Tim was the CEO of R&R Partners, the ad agency that did the “What happens in Las Vegas stays in Las Vegas” campaign.

Tim's book1

Take a Stand for Your Brand

Agencies need to do for themselves what they do for customers: build a strong, distinctive, memorable brand.

Standing for everything is just another way of standing for nothing.

You can measure our agency by the clients we don’t have.

Specialist vs. Generalist—traditional dept stores died, Home Depot, PetsMart, etc. The goal is to exclusive, not inclusive.

The essence of positioning/strategy is tradeoffs, and being clear about what you won’t do. Steve Jobs said he was most proud of what Apple didn’t do!

Tim's book2

Positioning for Professionals: How Professional Knowledge Firms Can Differentiate Their Way to Success, 2010

In business, imitation is not the most sincere form of flattery—it’s just lazy.

Positioning is the foundation of branding because it identifies what the brand stands for.

A brand can’t stand for two things at once.

Specialist vs. Generalist (we’d all fly to the Mayo clinic for a specialist, but not generalist). Of the two, which has:

1. The greatest earning power?

2. The largest geographical market area?

3. The fewest competitors

4. The greatest degree of respect from customer?

5. The most sophisticated customers?

Instead of being afraid of focus, you should be afraid of mediocrity!

Check out the humorous our late colleague, Paul O'Byrne shot in Australia on the difference between the generalist and specialist.

Service is a commodity. Smart thinking is not.

Size is not a strategy!

Nobody buys a product or service because it can do everything, but rather because it can do something. Diversity Tax: Coke vs. Pepsi

Stop focusing on reclaiming old territory and instead discover new territory: Columbus, not Napoleon

Successful brands able to position on spectrum: Love and Hate. Either side desirable; middle is death

Tim quotes Rush Limbaugh: “Moderates by definition have no principles.” Ron adds: There’s not big in the library, Great Moderates in History.

“The aim of marketing is to make selling superfluous”—Peter Drucker.

Defining Your Brand Boundaries

Calling

Customers

Competencies

Culture—The formal and informal standards by which your firm makes decisions about serving its customers

Knowledge Workers Are Volunteers

Psychologist Howard Gardner:

If you are not prepared to resign or be fired for what you believe in, you are not a worker, let alone a professional. You are a slave.

Be sure to subscribe to Tim’s Propulsion Blog. We recommend you read as much as you can of Tim, a brilliant thinker and marketing strategist.