Lots of continued coverage and hit from the Globe article incluing being picked up in lapresseaffaires.com which seemed to generate lots of hits.

YPO meeting tonight. These would likely be my closest friends. We face similar challenges. We do not compete and we support each other.

One of the books that I read on the weekend was, “Getting results - Five Absolutes for High Performance” by Clinton Longenecker and Jack Simonetti. This was a quick and fast read. Much of it was a lesson in the obvious (but that can be very good and positively reinforcing. The theme of the book is that there are five absolutes that need to be done to get results.

These five absolutes are:

1. Get everyone on the same page: Focus on the purpose of your organization. As a leader, I spend a lot of time trying to figure out what our purpose is and I have always found when the purpose is strong that we get results. I am a big advocate of this point.

2. Prepare for battle: Equip your operation with tools, talent, and technology. I spend a lot of time preparing (sometimes I think I spend too much). I think that is what all of the reading, self-development, studying, etc., is about. It is all about preparation for me so this is one that I really believe in. Perhaps I should spend more time combining it on the focus in number 1, so that I am preparing for the right battle.

3. Stoke the fire of performance: Create a climate of full results. This section of the book was primarily about communications and tracking of results. One thing that SYNNEX is excellent at is tracking numbers and since coming to SYNNEX, I have seen a lot of value in some of this detail tracking.

4. Build Bridges on the road to results: Nurture relationsnips with people. This one appears obvious to me. It seems that the most important aspect in any business are the people and the relationships. One of my limits always seems to be time to nurture these relationships.

5. Keep the piano in tune: Practice continuous renewal. This to me means be prepared for change, something that I talk about a lot and something that I prepare for a lot.

The book had eight common planning mistakes to avoid and I thought I would list them verbatim:

1. Being too busy or too undisciplined to plan.
2. Doing the wrong kinds of planning for your level in the organization.
3. Planning with inadequate information and input from your boss.
4. Planning in a vacuum without input from those who have to implement the plan.
5. Developing plans that are unrealistic or too sophisticated to get off the ground.
6. Failing to implement plans
7. Planning without accurate data.
8. Planning without a clear direction or real purpose.

I was also heartened to see what a big focus the book put on training. This has been one of my priorities for years and is one of our current priorities of our organization.

One of the funnier parts of the book was in the Afterword that spoke of a study done by Dun & Bradstreet that concluded that “Ninety percent of failures are the results of bad management.” Duh. You think so?