Chief Culture Officer: How to Create a Living, Breathing Corporation
Product Type: Book
Product Price: $26.95
Manufacturer: Basic Books
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Description
Levi Strauss isn’t alone. Too many corporations outsource their understanding of culture to trend hunters, cool watchers, marketing experts, consulting firms, and, sometimes, teenage interns. The cost to Levi-Strauss was a billion dollars. The cost to the rest of corporate America is immeasurable.
The lesson? The American corporation needs a new professional. It needs a Chief Culture Officer.
Grant McCracken, an anthropologist who now trains some of the world’s biggest companies and consulting firms, argues that the CCO would keep a finger on the pulse of contemporary cultural trends—from sneakers to slow food to preppies—while developing a systematic understanding of the deep waves of culture in America and the world. The CCO’s professionalism would allow the corporation to see coming changes, even when they only exist as the weakest of signals.
Delightfully authoritative, trenchantly on point, bursting with insight and character, Chief Culture Officer is sure to expand your horizons—and your business.
Reviews
Rating: 3 / 5
Date: 2010-04-27
Summary: "A must read, but must not read all of it"
It's a great idea, with a few good examples of having an ear on culture to truly bring positive change to society and profit to corporations, and a lot of examples of corporations appropriating and exploiting culture. A lot of the examples were just successful marketing campaigns -- things like Coca-Cola and the "Coke side of Life", and Nike's "Just do it", un-inspirational marketing campaigns. Some were good, too, like Dove's campaign.
My main problem with this book is it seems to take too defensive of a stance. If you are convinced a CCO is a good idea after the first couple chapters (or before you buy the book), the rest of the book is basically filler. I would have much preferred a far shorter book with far fewer examples and more about two-way relationships between corporations/business and culture.
My message here is not "don't buy it", but that some may not need the whole book.
Rating: 5 / 5
Date: 2010-03-15
Summary: "Put me in coach"
For my whole career in publishing as a writer, editor and now editor in chief I've wondered...What the hell am I? This book answers THAT question. I'm a CCO...and proud of it, if not paid for it. The formula(s) for HUGE corporate success are all contained in these pages. Most mega-corps still fail because they essentially FAIL finding and keeping creatives of the calibre discribed and perscribed by this book. Read it and reap...or read it and weep if you DON'T follow the path and potential so well captured here.
Rating: 5 / 5
Date: 2010-02-11
Summary: "Essential Reading"
This book is long overdue. It brings culture into the forefront in creating a space for innovation. Definitely on my must read list for clients.
Rating: 5 / 5
Date: 2010-02-10
Summary: "A New Paradigm for Corporate America"
Grant McCracken has perhaps given corporate America a chance to thrive during these turbulent times; the key is to focus on what direction society is heading, and to stay one step ahead of it; a very simple strategy, but with profoundly complicated implementation.
For any organization to succeed in this day and age; where information is so vital; it must learn to understand the direction society is heading, right now. Losing focus of this can be fatal; that makes McCracken's advice critical for long-term survival. If you're a CEO of any corporation, your best bet is to grab a copy of this book, and get busy implementing the strategies.
Rating: 5 / 5
Date: 2010-01-27
Summary: "Must Read for Difference-Making Organizations"
If you're in the business of breaking free from the status quo...Chief Culture Officer: How to Create a Living, Breathing Corporation is a must read. Because we're all trying to have impact, it makes sense to invest in developing a better, more comprehensive understanding of how to read the culture and then craft offerings to meet real needs and interests.
I like McCraken's awareness that there really are two angles to mastering culture. It helps "discover advantage, opportunity and innovation while making us alert to "cataclysmic change." If I'm leading an organization committed to making a difference, I've got to develop that awareness. This is a book that will help you do both.