Portraits of Success: 9 Keys to Sustaining Value in Any Business

Description

James Olan Hutcheson is the grandson of Olan Mills, the famous founder of the photography company of the same name. Hutcheson has worked both for Olan Mills as well as other companies, and the present book is a sort-of "lessons learned" from what he's observed over the years. Both the pitfalls and opportunities in business are discussed in this book, as well as methods of avoiding the former and realizing the latter.

One of the best features of the book is that the author divulges real-life examples to illustrate his points. He draws from Fortune 500 companies as well as companies of modest size for both the DOs and DON'Ts of business.

An area which Hutcheson seems to overlook is a rather obvious one to me, and it is this: CEOs and executives should create a pleasant work environment of the employees of the organization. Having been a working bee all my life, I can say that this is one of the most important things a leader in the business field can do.

Paying a fair salary & offering medical and dental benefits / insurance are a fine start, but I am talking beyond just those things. When people enjoy working for a company / organization, they tend to take an ownership of the product that is produced. The more they like their work, the more pride they will take in what they do. Unfortunately, Hutcheson tends to gear all of his observations towards the executive suite and omits the mundane issues such as employee morale.

That said, it would be prudent for supervisors and business executives to read this book as it is saturated with trenchent insights. Some are fairly obvious, some not so much. Perhaps the single most salient issue that the author addresses is the imperative nature of having a true meritocracy in the business sphere. Cronyism and nepotism have ruined numerous corporations over the years.

I will lay all my cards on the table here: this book is obviously meant for an MBA type audience. Problem is, I have always been skeptical about the utility of an MBA. This skepticism has deepened the past few years with the economic meltdown; I blame the "brilliant" MBA finance types for their ignorant arrogance.

There is also the not-so-little issue of former president George W. Bush. I can still remember when he was elected in 2000: he was hailed as the "First MBA President" and all of the suits were all elated over his stepping into the Whitehouse. Dubya was supposed to bring his "organizational expertise" to the government & make the entity more efficent, more effective, blah blah blah. Well, we all know what happened next. George W. Bush did for the government what Matt Millen did for the Detroit Lions.

My point in this diversion is not to launch a tirade against people with MBAs. Rather, my point is this: if there is one thing I've learned in this crazy life, it is simply that in the business world an ounce of common sense tends to be far more valuable than an MBA out of Harvard Business School 99% of the time. Hutcheson seems to have a grasp of this fact, and it's for THAT reason that I would recommend this book to executives and entrepreneurs.