How the New Auction Culture Will Revolutionize the Way We Buy, Sell, and Get the Things We Really Want
Daniel Nissanoff (Penguin Press, 2006)
Daniel Nissanoff has seen the revolution, and it is in mint condition, still in the original box.Future Shopdescribes a world where consumers hold onto goods until the exact moment when replacing them affords more value than owning them. At that point, they turn to the secondary markets, which in Nissanoff’s
vision have become fully liquid, thanks to a massive influx of buyers, sellers, and facilitators. Having effi- ciently disposed of their unwanteds, consumers re- place those goods with better, faster, sleeker versions, thus achieving perfect bliss.
The author’s economic argument is persuasive, al- though he mines sellers’ motivations far more exten- sively than buyers’. While secondary markets (not solely, or even chiefly auctions, the title notwith- standing) should accommodate most nondisposable products, the book is heavily weighted toward luxury goods. Expensive jewelry, fashions, and cars are, of course, low-hanging fruit, since more people want them than can afford them new. The author’s company, Portero, is a marketplace for luxury items. And Nis- sanoff himself is an unashamedly material boy who lapses into long digressions on the desirability of the Bugaboo stroller and the history of the Birkin handbag.
For executives, the books really gets cranking toward the end, where Nis- sanoff lays out specifics of his shark-or-chum strategy. A predictable discussion of largely fruitless attempts to choke off secondary markets by the likes of Chanel and Mary Kay leads into some smart suggestions about how companies can exploit the new model. Those recommendations range from basic defense (use authentication services and identification technologies to prevent fakes) to ambitious offense (make secondary markets their own channel with their own channel management, much as companies did with e-commerce).
The author provides several interesting examples. Circuit City, for one, lets customers assess online how much their old electronics are worth and return them in exchange for a gift card; it then resells the used merchandise online.
Dell’s eBay shop peddles corporate computer products that have reached the end of their leases; Sears’ eBay liquidation center unloaded 40,000 items in 12 months. Details on such initiatives, however, are frustratingly scanty. The author appears to have done little research beyond reading newspaper and business magazine articles.
If Nissanoff’s vision comes to pass, one can imagine a slew of tough ques- tions. Should corporations extend their marketing outreach to down-the-line owners, and should resale value become part of that message? What happens to the notion of built-in obsolescence? Can makers of disposable items get in on the act? But those are issues for a nittier, grittier book than this affable vol- ume. When that work is written, you can buy it with the money you make sell- ing your old copy ofFuture Shop. – leigh buchanan
Silos, Politics, and Turf Wars:
A Leadership Fable About Destroying the Barriers That Turn Colleagues into Competitors
Patrick Lencioni (Jossey-Bass, 2006)
All fictional series have high and low marks, and consultant Patrick Lencioni’s pedagog- ical novellas are no exception. This latest volume, which addresses structural conflicts that prevent organizational collaboration, is less compelling than his earlier takes.
Perhaps that’s because the topic is so broad:
Lencioni shoehorns in examples of four separate organizations, to the detriment of elements like character development. And his solution – create a sense of impending crisis to focus silo-oriented employees on companywide challenges – feels pretty ge- neric. Still, the book is instructive overall.
Naked Conversations: How Blogs Are Changing the Way Businesses Talk with Customers
Robert Scoble and Shel Israel (Wiley, 2006)
Most executives don’t consider the chatty, no-holds-barred world of Web logs a natu- ral forum for expression. Get over it, say the authors. Scoble and Israel, respectively an employee of and a consultant to Microsoft, offer a spirited call for what they predict will be the new face of customer contact. Yet the authors are realistic about the difficulties companies can expect. Effective bloggers must have passion, authority, and time, and they must speak in their own voices. Out- side of tech circles, blogging seems best suited to firms with an edge, such as com- panies in crisis.
The Tycoons: How Andrew Carnegie, John D. Rockefeller, Jay Gould, and J.P. Morgan Invented the American Supereconomy
Charles R. Morris (Times Books, 2005)
In an engaging synthesis, Morris persua- sively describes Carnegie, Rockefeller, Gould, and Morgan as vital forces of cre- ative destruction who undermined the lo- calized, genteel, monopoly-ridden econ- omy of the mid-nineteenth century. The tycoons had what today’s professional man- agers often lack, says Morris: the imagina- tion and drive to overthrow conventional limitations on growth. – john t. landry
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