The Outsiders: Eight Unconventional CEOs and Their Radically Rational Blueprint for Success by William Thorndike is the 18th book I read in the Read 30 Books in 30 Days Reading Challenge. If you’re not a joiner, buy my e-book, Read 30 Books in 30 Days Like Francis Bacon instead?
The Outsiders
Read 30 Books in 30 Days Like Francis BaconThe Ride of a Lifetime
Book Bite: Have an outsider perspective. Tune out conventional wisdom. Make company more valuable. Invest in business for long-term growth. Adapt to changing market conditions. Hire the best people and give them responsibility and authority to perform their jobs. Invest in experts.
Participating in the read 30 books in 30 day reading challenge has been an interesting experience for me. This reading challenge is about tackling your pile of to-be-read nonfiction books. I’m diversifying the types of books I’m reading while participating in this activity.
Now that I’ve completed the reading challenge, I decided to read 100 books in 100 days. I’ve never done this before. I decided today, so I have to play catch up since I’m a few days behind. That’s okay because it’s about the total number of books I read in 100 days. I don’t know how this will turn out, but it’s about stretching myself and growing.
The next few weeks is also about analyzing and synthesizing all the information from the books I read during the initial reading challenge. What will I discover? Will I get ideas to pivot the business?
What is The Outsiders: Eight Unconventional CEOs and Their Radically Rational Blueprint for Success About?
This is an excellent book and comes highly recommended. Although the Outsiders is meant for bigger organizations, there are a few lessons that a small business can use. I’m going to start my review at an odd place. There’s a quote from Warren Buffett, which says that it’s impossible to overpay an extraordinary CEO because they’re so rare. Do you agree with that statement?
“The 100 highest-paid CEOs in Canada made 227 times more than the average worker in 2018…On average, the top CEOs made Can $11.8 million ($9 million) in 2018, versus about Can $52,000 for the average Canadian.” Source: Canadian CEOs make 200 times more than average worker: study
And it’s no better in the USA.
“The average chief executive of an S&P 500 company earned 287 times more than their median employee last year, according to an analysis of the new federal data released Tuesday by the AFL-CIO labor federation. America’s CEOs earned a staggering $14.5 million in 2018, on average, compared to the average $39,888 that rank-and-file workers made. And CEOs got a $500,000 bump compared to the previous year, while the average US worker barely got more than $1,000.” Source: CEOs made 287 times more money last year than their workers did
Should we assume that the highest paid CEOs in these studies are extraordinary?
The eight CEOs covered in The Outsiders: Eight Unconventional CEOs and Their Radically Rational Blueprint are below.
- Bill Anders, General Dynamics
- Warren Buffett, Berkshire Hathaway
- Katharine Graham, The Washington Post Company
- John Malone, TCI
- Tom Murphy, Capital Cities Broadcasting
- Henry Singleton, Teledyne
- Dick Smith, General Cinema
- Bill Stiritz, Ralston Purina
Except for Katharine Graham and Warren Buffett, I never heard about the other six. And that’s one of the points in the book. The majority of them did not have prior business experience before taking the helm of the companies. The media was all over Jack Welch when he ran GE. He basked in the spotlight. But if you read the Outsiders, you’ll discover that Welch didn’t deliver the kind of results that the CEOs profiled in the book did.
For the most part, they operated under the radar. They labored behind the scenes and the companies they operated outperformed the S & P index. The eight CEOs as a whole outperformed the S&P 500 by over 20 times and their peer groups by over 7 times. I’m not going to write about each individual CEO in this summary. The book is a part of the Read 30 Books in 30 Days Reading Challenge that I hosted. I hosted the challenge as a way to give back during the world crisis.
The reading challenge was also a way for me to get a pool of ideas to pivot my business. I’m telling you this so you realize that I’m only focusing on information that might help me to pivot my small business. Keeping that thought in your mind, here are some key lessons that I extracted from the book.
Lessons from The Outsiders by William Thorndike
- Have an outsider perspective.
- Contrarian approach.
- Innovative new thinking.
- Tune out the noise of conventional wisdom.
- Look at the business with fresh eyes
- Careful deployment of firm’s resources.
- Close oversight of the business.
- Understand capital allocation.
- Improve operations.
- Control costs.
- Focus on cash flow.
- Make company more valuable.
- Invest in business for long-term growth.
- Adapt to changing market conditions.
- Operate a lean organization.
- Decentralization is a cornerstone of their strategy.
- Don’t believe in perks.
- Hire the best people and give them the responsibility and authority to perform their jobs.
- Treat employees fairly.
- Decisions made at local level.
- Succession planning.
Common Traits of the Eight CEOs Profiled
- Frugal
- Analytical
- Humble
- Avoid spotlight
- Deviants
- Happily married (except for two who had a relationship while one was married)
Final Thought: The Outsiders: Eight Unconventional CEOs and Their Radically Rational Blueprint for Success by William Thorndike
Although companies say that innovation is important to them, that’s not the case in reality. You’re expected to do what your peers do. The eight CEOs profiled in The Outsiders: Eight Unconventional CEOs and Their Radically Rational Blueprint for Success by William Thorndike went against the grain.
What are some key lessons you can learn from them? I recommend that you read this book for yourself.
Have you read?
Confident Career Woman Book 1: Read 30 Books in 30 Days Reading Challenge
Why Not You Book 2: Read 30 Books in 30 Days Reading Challenge
Own a Business? You Don’t Need Everyone, You Need 1000 True Fans
You’re Unstoppable: Learn How to Be a No-Limit Person
Start Taking Steps Now to Crush It Post Isolation
Go Suck a Lemon: How Emotionally Intelligent Are You?
Way of the Athlete: Learn the Art of Focus, Discipline and Achievement from Professional Athletes
Act Now: Do You Act Quickly on Opportunities Or Take Your Time
Is It Really a Good Time to Be a Girl, Ladies Please Chime In!
You Are a Badass by Jen Sincero Will Help You to Get Through Isolation
The Subtle Art of Not Giving a F*ck by Mark Manson, Book Review
Book Review: Content Marketing Strategies to Attract an Engaged Audience
One Million Followers: How I Built a Massive Social Following in 30 Days, Book Review
Book Review – Patterns in Nature: Why the Natural World Looks the Way It Does
Biomimicry: Innovation Inspired by Nature, Book Review
How Avil Can Help You!
I invite you to Join the Performance Accelerator Plan that walks you through the process of learning key skills and more. You’ll be reading books to build skills and develop intercultural awareness. Get more reading and learning tips here.
In December 2020, I published two books on Amazon. I would greatly appreciate your support if you bought my two short e-books Read 30 Books in 30 Days Like Francis Bacon and Performance Accelerator Plan: Guide to Learning and Mastering Key Skills for the Future.
Read 30 Books in 30 Days Like Francis Bacon is not about speed reading. It’s about approaching every book differently and reading only the sections that align with your purpose.
The Performance Accelerator Plan book is a stripped-down version of the paid reading challenge of the same name. Obviously, you won’t get all the resources that come with the program that I sell on my website. But if you are a self-directed learner, it will help you tremendously.
If someone clicks on a link and buys something from Amazon, the company will pay me a very small commission.
