Beep! Beep! : Competing in the Age of the Road Runner

Rating:
Summary: Life Imitates art; art reflects life -- which is the moon ?
Review: A How to Business book is normally outside my lane. However, I glanced at the cover and thought this is what my husband keeps claiming is needed even for the Feds in an international economy. Plus I must admit I grew up with brilliant self-destructive Wile eating the Road Runner's dust. I decided to read this book and found it humorously entertaining with references to the Warner cartoon universe and with specific pointers on how to compete in the age of overwhelming instant information where objects communicate and not just in C language. Though quite interesting, well written, and cleverly packaged, this how to not suicide in business by really trying. It offers nothing new even with its "seven new rules of the road". Sports teams from the fifties and sixties or even the recent Yankees and Bulls understood and implemented that teamwork and learning are the keys to winning.

Harriet Klausner

Rating:
Summary: Ineresting way to get a point across
Review: A How to Business book is normally outside my lane. However, I glanced at the cover and thought this is what my husband keeps claiming is needed even for the Feds in an international economy. Plus I must admit I grew up with brilliant self-destructive Wile eating the Road Runner's dust. I decided to read this book and found it humorously entertaining with references to the Warner cartoon universe and with specific pointers on how to compete in the age of overwhelming instant information where objects communicate and not just in C language. Though quite interesting, well written, and cleverly packaged, this how to not suicide in business by really trying. It offers nothing new even with its "seven new rules of the road". Sports teams from the fifties and sixties or even the recent Yankees and Bulls understood and implemented that teamwork and learning are the keys to winning.

Harriet Klausner

Rating:
Summary: Excellent book
Review: I was unable to put the book down, read it on one plane trip. It provides fresh insights into the New Economy. One of the best business books using many management concepts in an easy to read style. Well done.

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Summary: A fast, worthwhile read --
Review: In Beep! Beep!, Bell and Harari provide the reader with an entertaining look at business practice and culture today. In highlighting the behavior and actions of Wile E. Coyote and the Road Runner, the authors provide a compare and contrast view of all facets of business and a unique perspective on how to be more competitive. The message is simple and clear, capturing the spirit of what it takes to compete in the fast-paced, global marketplace. (The book's preface is: "Road Runners don't have prefaces...they just begin!") Although the boxes which describe actual scenes from the Road Runner cartoons get a bit redundant as the book moves along, the "Birdseed" and "Tail Feathers" sections that summarize most of the chapters were appropriate and welcome. All-in-all, Beep! Beep! is a worthwhile read. It can easily be consumed in an average plane ride (as I did).

Rating:
Summary: A fast, worthwhile read --
Review: In Beep! Beep!, Bell and Harari provide the reader with an entertaining look at business practice and culture today. In highlighting the behavior and actions of Wile E. Coyote and the Road Runner, the authors provide a compare and contrast view of all facets of business and a unique perspective on how to be more competitive. The message is simple and clear, capturing the spirit of what it takes to compete in the fast-paced, global marketplace. (The book's preface is: "Road Runners don't have prefaces...they just begin!") Although the boxes which describe actual scenes from the Road Runner cartoons get a bit redundant as the book moves along, the "Birdseed" and "Tail Feathers" sections that summarize most of the chapters were appropriate and welcome. All-in-all, Beep! Beep! is a worthwhile read. It can easily be consumed in an average plane ride (as I did).

Rating:
Summary: Great book to understand the future of business
Review: The authors have done an incredible job of taking the well known Wile E. Coyote and Roadrunner cartoon and explaining the business world around these characters.

This is a must read book for anyone that wants to know how to do business in the future.

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Summary: Thought-Provoking Visit to the Funny and Familiar
Review: The Road Runner cartoons are classic. Most of us grew up laughing out loud as Wile E. Coyote encountered one challenge after another in his attempts to capture the Road Runner. The scenarios were simple. The coyote devised ways to capture lunch, never winning the competition. His tools, all products of Acme Company, backfired on him. He caused himself a great deal of difficulty, while the Road Runner went on with his life, practically oblivious to the coyote's campaign.

At the start of their book, Bell and Harari note that coyotes can run 30 miles per hour and road runners can't really fly and can only run 16 miles per hour. Wile E. Coyote has an endless arsenal of gadgets to trap the road runner, all provided by his single supplier, Acme. He's a master planner, yet continually fails . . . of his own volition. What's the problem here? Why is the Road Runner so successful? Because he's operating under different rules. The coyote may be seen as chained to conventional wisdom, doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results. A bureaucrat. The Road Runner is more like the agile entrepreneur, competing with a whole different paradigm.

The authors take this familiar cartoon and turn it into an instructive business case. Their objective is to help us become road runners among coyotes. In page after page, they pull lessons from the cartoons that we probably all missed as kids, comparing the characters and their motivations and their results. "Wile E. Coyote is preoccupied, earnest, conniving, and grim. The Road Runner is joyful, light, and free. Wile E. does nothing but go from pursuing one meal to the next, with perpetual frustration; the bird is gleefully living life to the fullest. The results are the same: Wile E. somehow manages to dig himself into the hole of failure, while the Road Runner strides on, undeterred and unaffected by life's bumps and obstacles."

Can you imagine the authors conducting their research for this book?

As we move through the book, we learn more about the comparative principles and how to succeed in the Age of the Road Runner. Familiar names populate the pages as we are provided with examples of companies and people. A "Tail Feathers" feature spotlights ordinary people doing extraordinary things-as Road Runners. The stories are inspirational, as well as educational. "Bird Seed" sections furnish the reader with solid advice that fits the concept, but it not linked to the two main characters.

Descriptive summaries of Road Runner cartoon incidents are liberally sprinkled throughout the book, keeping the reader laughing and smiling and wondering in amazement how the coyote could keep going in this futile struggle. And therein lies the tale of this book. To survive in a Road Runner Age, you cannot continue to operate like a coyote. The book is filled with current wisdom, but just as important, it's a fun book to read. People learn more when they're laughing, so expect to gain a lot from Beep! Beep!

Rating:
Summary: What a concept! - Great Read!
Review: What a great book! If you're looking for solid information on organizational renewal and vitality this is it. It's full of practical how-to information that's obviously grounded in solid research...but without the pretentious academic fluff that so many books seem to have. Add the breezy style of the Road Runner and you have a real winner. It's thought-provoking, enjoyable, easy to read, and filled with concrete ways to promote corporate agility. If you want to move you, your team, and/or your company to another whole level of performance, buy a copy today.

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Summary: If You're Tired of Eating Someone Else's Dust....
Review: When the Road Runner and Wile E. Coyote were introduced by Chuck Jones in 1949, the global marketplace was certainly quite different from what it is today. For example, the economies of countries such as Germany and Japan had only begun to recover from World War II. The U.S.S.R. was solidly intact behind what Winston Churchill described as an "Iron Curtain." About that time, Thomas Watson, Sr. insisted that the entire worldwide market for computers was (at the most) seven. (According to some accounts, the estimate was five.) More than 40 years would pass before the WWW would be established. That was then. Chip R. Bell and Oren Harari suggest that we now compete in The Age of the Road Runner. As in Jones's animated cartoons, Road Runners win and Coyotes lose. Why? That is one question which the authors answer in BEEP! BEEP! Unlike real coyotes, Wile E. Coyote's human counterparts can become a Road Runner. How? That is another question which the authors also answer. Don't be deterred by the title. (I was. I feared this was another gimmicky business book with a snappy title and anorexic content. I was wrong.) On the dust jacket, Michael Dell is quoted as saying that this book is "very powerful and entertaining." That's true. Bell and Harari juxtapose two antagonists which serve as metaphors throughout a rigorous but delightful examination of the reasons for both success and failure in the global marketplace.

The authors offer some truly valuable insights into serious matters such as leadership, "competing in the terrain of the future", collaborative "flocking" (as opposed to mindless regimentation), strategic uses of speed, flexibility and adaptability, the power of honorable cultures, the "magic" of curiosity and innovation, and the importance of joy (as opposed to pleasure). I especially appreciate the inclusion of several dozen boxed items (eg "Birdseed") which supplement (indeed nourish) the narrative.

Near the end of the book, the authors briefly discuss Alan Shafer, Group Vice President of Cincinnati-based Milacron's Industrial Products division. The subject is Shafer's business philosophy which boils down to three premises: "First, push the envelope." (Harvey Mackay would certainly agree.) "Next, share the credit....Finally, have fun doing it." We all know about fun-loving cultures such as those of Milacron and Southwest Airlines. So many other companies incorrectly assume that it is impossible for them to have such a culture. According to Shafer, "Fun is how you keep your road runners motivated....Fun is how you turn your coyotes into roadrunners." Bell and Harari provide a road map and an operations manual.

They fully understand how difficult it can be for an organization to turn its coyotes into road runners. The point is, that all organizations CAN. Here is a brief excerpt in which the authors comment on speed: "The key to the Road Runner's success is that he's more than just fast. He's unpredictable, he zigs and zags, he reacts creatively real-time. In a world where linear speed is a commodity, any organization can use technologies that compress time....The key to thriving is no longer just the ability to work fast, but what [italics] you are able to do fast."

Here's one initiative I strongly recommend: purchase a book which discusses key business issues with both wit and wisdom, then apply what you have learned. How soon should you take this initiative? Beep! Beep!

Rating:
Summary: A Good Read!
Review: Wile E. Coyote hovers in a hot air balloon over the road, waiting to drop an anvil on the unsuspecting Road Runner. Wile E. puts a grenade in the seat of a toy airplane and ... you know what happens. He becomes the victim of his own diabolical plans. The Road Runner wins every time. Chip R. Bell and Oren Harari’s book turns a cartoon classic into a wonderful metaphor for today’s fast-paced work environment. Organizations are changing their cunning competitive ways. Instead of behaving like Wile E. Coyote, they are becoming like the quick, agile, joyful Road Runner. In an amusing style, the authors illustrate their points with cartoons of the famous duo and plenty of plot scenarios and interesting tidbits of trivia. The “Birdseed” sections scatter tips to help you and your company make the transition to the wide-open desert of opportunity ahead. Those who grew up with Road Runner will relate to this book immediately. We ...recommend this book to Road Runner’s business fans or to anyone who wants to have fun while learning how to steer a company through the speedy new marketplace.