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The Rhythm of Business: The Key to Building and Running Successful Companies

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I loved this book! I've read it twice already and know I will read it again. I have made my career in helping people be successful in business, but after reading The Rhythm of Business I have completely changed the way I think about business.

This book presents a very different way of thinking about business than is usually taught. The book describes business as a process that evolves as customer needs and wants change. When my clients' businesses failed, I always believed it was because they didn't really have a marketable idea, or that they made fatal mistakes in bringing the idea to fruition. Had I understood The Rhythm of Business, I would have known we were wrong to think they could or should get it right the first time. I would have been able to better advise them in how to get it right eventually and thus succeed in business.

But don't get me wrong! This isn't an academic book. It is so readable, there were times when I thought it was singing to me. I think I've caught the rhythm. I eagerly await the next book by the authors.

Description of book

To be successful in your business you should have to have rhythm. The rhythm of business is attempting to develop a product or service that fulfills a group of customers¡¦ wants and needs, testing the product or service in the marketplace, refining the product and service to more accurately fulfill the customers¡¦ wants and needs. Successful businessmen are both born and made. But, there is a difference between two types just as there is a difference between someone we would describe as having ¡§natural, inborn¡¨ athletic and someone who practice a lot and plays hard.

Developing the rhythm of business
Six basic requirements to developing the rhythm of business:
1. You need some natural skills
2. You need to work hard and practice
3. You need a basic understanding of the mechanics of the business you are in
4. You need to gather information about your business
5. You need to constantly think about your business
6. You need to love your business with a passion

Comments for the book

New idea: The key component of the rhythm of business is failure.
When you develop a product, you should allow for ¡§failure¡¨ in your business plan. When you suffer from ¡§failure¡¨, you can find out the wrong aspect, you should have an improvement on the product and make a correct decision that continue to develop a product, bring it to market, listen to the customers¡¦ wants and needs and refine the product until it become success.

Easy to understand
The author explains the nature of rhythm and the requirement of rhythm of business by using real life examples and successful stories in the real world. For examples, the successful story of Bill Gate and the concept he applied we can find it is the same in the book: developing, testing, refining a product or service until it was right.

Practical
The theory is very useful for the entrepreneurs who want to start their business and it motivates them to start their business and try and improve. For example, you should have interest in the industry which you want to start your business, it is because if you don¡¦t have interest in that industry, you won¡¦t love it, you won¡¦t have passion to do what you are doing. You will not upset by doing business and can¡¦t invest all your time and concentration to the business, finally, the result is you will suffer from the losses including money and time from your own business.

With Rottenberg, Shuman has written a book which supports this basic assertion: that each business has a rhythm: "how all businesses develop and it is the beat to which all business flows." What does this mean? At first, I did not understand and suspected gobbledygook so I re-read the Introduction and then I got it: each business has a way of taking on a life and pace of its own, more often than not different from what its founder(s) originally had in mind. This "life" is shaped by several different influences, many of which could not have been anticipated. Changes in the competitive marketplace, for example, or new regulatory legislation or the loss of a key executive or ofa major account. As with humans, no two companies have the same "life." More to the point, children seldom develop into adolescence and then adulthood precisely the way their parents expected or at least hoped.

So, what to do? Good question. In the Introduction, Shuman provides three brief quotations of Peter Drucker, Leo Kahn, and Barry Diller. Collectively, their remarks suggest that decision-makers in any organization (regardless of nature or size) should lead and manage to the best of their ability, of course, but understrand -- and accept -- the fact that the process of business can be influenced and directed but not kept under total control. Imagine taking an 800-pound domesticated tiger out for a walk in the neighborhood. You have him on a leash. Who's taking whom for a walk? If I understand Shuman correctly, this analogy is apt.

He organizes his material within three Parts: The Rhythm of Business, Learning to Feel the Rhythm, and Let the Dance Begin. At the end of each of the ten chapters, he provides a list of Key Points. The repetition of key points throughout the book is somewhat irritating but probably achieves Shuman's objective. Those who have read the book can easily review the lists of Key Points later as well as Shuman's definition of "the rhythm of business" on page 5. With regard to what is needed, Shuman identifies these six requirements:

1. You need, at least, some natural skills.
2. You need to work hard and practice.
3. You need a basic understanding of the mechanics of the business you are in.
4. You need to gather informnation about your business.
6. You need to love your business with a passion.

Obviously, there is nothing original about these "requirements." What differentiates this book from most other books I have read on the same general subject (i.e. building an organization which sustains its success) is Shuman's concept of "rhythm." Recall the metaphor I presumed to share earlier. Like a tiger, an organization will not always "follow directions," "go where you want it to go," "submit itself totally to your will," etc. The challenge is to understand the beast, to trust its instincts, to nourish as well as manage its strength, and channel its energy while allowing it to fulfill its own destiny, whatever that proves to be. I know all this may sound corny but I really do not know how else to explain my "take" on Shuman's concept.

Shuman repeatedly stresses the importance of business being customer-driven and I agree. (I think business should also be employee- or associate-driven. If you don't take good care of your people, you will lose the best and the brightest, be left with the donkeys and hamsters, and your customers will by then have gone away.) The term "rhythm of business" should not be applied too narrowly. In fact, what Shuman is really talking about involves a multiple of entities (employees, customers, vendors, service providers, etc.) each of which has its own "rhythm." Moreover, the combination of these entities generates its own "rhythm." Imagine giving a bubble bath to ten 900-pound tigers at the same time. That is not exactly what George Gershwin had in mind when he composed "I Got Rhythm."

Also with Rottenberg's assistance, Shuman later co-authored two other books with Janice Twombley which develop this idea in much greater depth: Collaborative Communities and then more recently, Everyone Is a Customer. Those who share my high regard for this book are strongly urged to read the other two. Who could ask for anything more?

Many entrepreneur books focus on stories of companies that grew out of the need for an "unseen" market. The typical entrepreneurial story consists of individuals who recongized a need unfulfilled and started a business based on servicing that need. "The Rhythm of Business" introduces an alternative concept - that starting a business in an already pioneered market is also good thing. "The Rhythm of Business" is based on the principle that customer interaction is the most critical part of running a company.

The author uses the analogy of comparing business decisions to a dance. Most companies that startup usually have to modify their original "vision" in order to become successful. That is the rhythm of business - adjusting your business to meet the real demands of the customer. Mr. Shuman stresses that when starting up a company, before going into full scale business the entrepreneur must first do a series of "customer interaction cycles" to get a feel for what the customer really wants.

The book follows several examples of startup companies including an entrepreneur named Tim DeMello, founder of a company named Streamline. The book shows that when Tim started Streamline, a home delivery service, he conducted a series of test cycles to determine what kind of products people prefered and how they wanted the products delivered. Through observation, he determined that the best way of delivering his goods to the customer would be via a storage bin outside the customer's home that his company would automatically replenish on a certain schedule. It was convenient for the customer because there was no concern over delivery times or even a need to constantly reorder. This concept evolved through several stages of pretend situations, where Tim used himself as a customer.

In addition, this book filled many of the "gaps" of information I had about starting up a company. It provided a non-techincal, easy to understand explanation of how you would obtain capital, divide ownership, and hire for your startup company. Reading this explanation clarified for me many of the steps obscured by jargon in business law books.

This book is great for any entrepreneur or company manager. It teaches practical concepts and makes you more aware of how to satisfy your customers. I recommend this book to anyone managing or wanting to start up a company. It will save you time, money, and perhaps the success of your business.

This book is a very easy read and delivers a good message for anyone who is contemplating starting a business of their own. It stresses patience, flexibility, persistence, and the need for analysis. Most of all, it focuses on customers and the fallacy of most failed entrepreneurs: NOT GIVING UP! Although pricey for its length at $20, it is worth the buy for a newbie.

We "know" many Truths on the level of feeling,yet we can't use them until they are expressed. This book brings to expression all the important principles necessary to succeed in business,the most important of which has never been articulated before. There are great insights into the successes and failures of all the big names, but the best part of the book is the enjoyable style of the writers.

Professor Schuman was my professor in Entrepreneurship at Bentley College, and this book was a part of the course reading. Great non-technical book to help anyone get an idea for the "flow" of business.