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booktalkwithkarla's review
3.25
Traction, Get a Grip on Your Business was recommended in the Strategy Hour podcast. I picked it up to get a grip on some business ventures I have started. Much of it was a review of concepts I used in 20+ years in corporate jobs. It was helpful to see those principles and systems in context of operating a small business.
Gino Wickman organizes the book well. Wickman describes each of his six key components that make up The Entrepreneurial Operating System in a linear way to help with understanding. Then he gives a chapter for implementation order. So read the book through and then use the getting started chapter to implement, referring back to the concept chapters as needed. It is a solid system.
The examples show the results from companies that have implemented the principles and practical applications in this book to get improved results. From my own business experience I believe this system can help business owners and leaders to get traction. Read and apply this if you own or lead in a small business.
booksofhollie's review
4.0
I really enjoyed the practical nature of this book and the way that it walks you through real life steps to get a grip on your business. As a very small, new business of one, I did find it quite difficult to relate to much of the talk around million and billion dollar businesses, as well as running a team, but it is relatively easy to translate each step to my current situation and save some things for the future. Looking forward to implementing a lot of EOS!
etothem's review
3.0
I like the ideas behind Traction and that there is so much accountability built into the process. This book, however, could have delivered the same information in a third of the pages.
angelakay's review
4.0
This book is basically a "how-to" to get the most out of your organization. I don't know if mine will be adopting every strategy in it, but I found it very useful in thinking through how my organization functions (or doesn't) and how groups can get everyone rowing in the same direction as efficiently as possible.
brady2387's review
5.0
Really good book, and glad I spent the time. I work with an EOS coach, so much of it was a repeat or deeper dive into the concepts of what I do on our monthly meetings.
The book is organized very well, and walks you through change for your company. Even though I’m a sole proprietor, the concepts of 90, annual, 3-year, and 10-years goals was very relevant.
The book is organized very well, and walks you through change for your company. Even though I’m a sole proprietor, the concepts of 90, annual, 3-year, and 10-years goals was very relevant.
tmntfan's review
3.0
Read concurrently with the Phoenix Project and this is a good overview although not a great read. goes on and on about how his clients have had success doing this over 20 years. Cool story bro, I already bough the book and think it si a good idea, you don't need to sell it anymore. Further reading or bibliography would also have been nice as he quotes lots of other books that expand on the theme of the chapter. so because it is so brief on the whole system it felt pretty good because it is a complete system. but each chapter could probably be its own book. (and there are books that explain each chapter) goal setting, getting a system in place to meet those goals, Vision setting, meetings, Continous improvement. I jumped right into the DevOps handbook so it is hard to rate this because it has such meager offerings.
brianswanick's review
2.0
These books are hard to review, since I think they would impact the right person at the right time. I'm going to get all business-book-snob-elitist and say...it wasn't great. The problems I found are common in business books.
#1 the incessant "when our/my clients did...they grew 40% YoY" I don't think the numbers were outrageous and I give the authors credit because they did downplay their impact at the right times. But it secured its place more like a business memoir than actionable and useful.
#2 is the terminology and inside baseball. I get it. I'm a marketer too. I say things that are slightly different than other people when I promote myself and I also see the value in repackaging old things as unique to you. But there are so many things that already have names that it's so strange to me to be reading through code words for things that already have names. It was very distracting.
#3 is the repetition. I like that books force us to spend hours considering new ideas and that the authors even promote the idea that we need to hear something 7 times before it sinks in. But this should have been shorter.
Who this is for: If you aren't familiar with operations and processes AT ALL, could be a very easy, enlightening read. The visionaries that he describes can find value because it will help them rein in their vision enough to get organized enough to execute it. If you have read some books or have experience in operations already, skip this one.
I highly recommend other books like High Output Management for process and Elements of Scrum for organization of teams and priorities (even if you don't use scrum).
#1 the incessant "when our/my clients did...they grew 40% YoY" I don't think the numbers were outrageous and I give the authors credit because they did downplay their impact at the right times. But it secured its place more like a business memoir than actionable and useful.
#2 is the terminology and inside baseball. I get it. I'm a marketer too. I say things that are slightly different than other people when I promote myself and I also see the value in repackaging old things as unique to you. But there are so many things that already have names that it's so strange to me to be reading through code words for things that already have names. It was very distracting.
#3 is the repetition. I like that books force us to spend hours considering new ideas and that the authors even promote the idea that we need to hear something 7 times before it sinks in. But this should have been shorter.
Who this is for: If you aren't familiar with operations and processes AT ALL, could be a very easy, enlightening read. The visionaries that he describes can find value because it will help them rein in their vision enough to get organized enough to execute it. If you have read some books or have experience in operations already, skip this one.
I highly recommend other books like High Output Management for process and Elements of Scrum for organization of teams and priorities (even if you don't use scrum).