Arising from a great slumber

I created this blog and promptly forgot about it. However, it is about to arise from a great slumber. I am starting business school in late January and I will have a lot to write about then.

Up to this point in my business career, I have read a few keepers. SPIN selling was, great. Situation, Problem, Implication, Need-payoff. Great way to think basically about creating value for your customers.

The Search. Sheryl gave this book to me. It was about search, google, and the future of finding information. Hilariously, I now work for a company that makes enterprise search software. She gave this to me years ago. Interesting history of Alta Vista, Lycos, Google, and the trajectory of the technology. While Google appears to have a lock on general purpose web search, there is an emerging market for more specialized search engines. There are also methods other than keyword and page rank.

Rob Sass wants me to read Solution Selling. I bought it but never really rolled up my sleeves and read it. When I started at Autonomy, I had plenty of other things to worry about. Maybe I will come back to it one day.

I read Barbarians at the Gate. Interesting window into the world of 80's corporate america, an industry giant's emergence, and the mechanics of private equity. It is about the private equity takeover of RJR Nabisco. It is long, historical, and full of personal tales. It took a while to get momentum but once I did, I liked it a lot. It was more like watching a movie, insofar as the plot was captivating, than education (like most of the non-fiction I read).

I read Fooled by Randomness. Interesting read for the rationally minded. Definitely lends a different perspective to understand financial markets, and more broadly, how to interpret data.

I have a few on the shelf about mergers and acquisitions and selling to executives. While they would likely prove valuable, they may be overshadowed by business school. That makes me a little sad but I will live with it.

Right now I think I am going to start with classes in the corporate legal world and corporate finance and reporting. I am going to talk to read more course descriptions, which I can't seem to find, and talk to Sean before I ultimately decide.