The Soft Edge Where Great Companies Find Lasting Success, by Rich Karlgaard, Jossey-Bass 2014

We’ve learned and re-learned what Tom Peters called “the hard edge” stuff – systems and processes, methodologies like ERP and TPS – for so long and in so much detail that they could be printed on cereal boxes and everyone in business would recognize the recipe.  The second learned habit we’ve repeated over the decades is of course strategy, a top-down compass rolling  every corporate act, direction or campaign toward one specific goal; although I’ve noticed that putting the “s” word into a business book proposal often causes acquisitions editors’ eyeball to roll and click into the back of their heads, strategic planning is still an MBA topic.  But the third element that Rich Karlgaard includes as his killer success app is one that hasn’t been watched or described, or prescribed so frequently, and it’s not the word “culture.”  We’re talking here about the “soft edge” where human values meet business mechanics.

If we say the hard edge is a company’s perfect execution, its soft edge is harder to measure but no less noticed.  But Karlgaard shows us that the soft edge is the expression of a company’s deepest values, and he ranks them among these eight factors:

                *trust – Northwestern Mutual

                * Smarts - the Mayo Clinic, Stanford University Women’s Basketball

                *teams - FedEx and SAP

                * Taste – Steve Jobs at Apple and Specialized Bikes lead designer Robert Egger

                * story – does how you remember your story differ from what your employees or worse how your customers tell your story?  Karlgaard warns readers about the power of story and urges companies to rethink and retell a strong story, but only one that reinforces trust as it builds brand and organization loyalty. 

A fresh look at what makes some companies great for the long run, and what is missing from the also-rans, Karlgaard’s book contains sections by two business innovation heroes, Tom Peters for the Foreword and Clayton M. Christensen for the Afterword, each of which is worth the value of this book.  Add Chapter 7, “Story,” to the mix, and the book is a winner.