The Other Authors

Meetings & Conventions: Short Cuts September 2003
September 2003
Short Cuts:
The ‘Other’ Authors

Business writers take to the podium

They might not be household names like Stephen King or J. K. Rowling, but business authors draw their own legions of fans, namely corporate executives. “A lot of executives go out and buy their books, read them and say, ‘That’s the message I want my people to get,’” says Canada Stefl, owner and president of Corona del Mar, Calif.-based KEY Speakers (www.keyspeakers.com). Some names to consider:

Nancy K. Austin is co-author of the 1985 number-one best-seller A Passion for Excellence: The Leadership Difference. Austin speaks about competitiveness in the new economy and what makes a business stand out from the pack. For information, contact Keppler Associates Inc. (www.kepplerassociates.com).

Jason Jennings became a household name in the upper echelons of Fortune 500 companies with the 2001 publication of his book It’s Not the Big That Eat the Small It’s the Fast That Eat the Slow. Jennings, who spent 18 months globetrotting to glean firsthand research on the management philosophies of various companies, released his second book the following year, Less is More: How Great Companies Use Productivity as a Competitive Tool in Business, which reveals the secrets of the world’s most productive companies. For information, contact Nationwide Speakers Bureau Inc. (www.nationwidespeakers.com).

Tops on Stefl’s list of business-oriented bards is author Jim Collins (www.jimcollins.com), whose 1994 best-seller, Built to Last: Successful Habits of Visionary Companies, the result of five years of in-depth research, became a must-read in management courses. Collins, who runs a management research lab, took a six-year hiatus from writing, then released his second book in 2001, Good to Great: Why Some Companies Make the Leap...And Others Don’t. “Company executives read his books cover to cover,” says Stefl. “In this slow economy, when companies have money to spend on a speaker, they want something their employees can take back to work with them and really use.”

• C.A.S.