The moment I saw the title, I had to read it. Screw Business as Usual by Sir Richard Branson sounded right up my alley. Branson is the founder and head of Virgin Group (including Virgin Atlantic Airlines, Virgin Megastores and literally hundreds of other organizations). He’s also known for his unique perspectives on business, interest in extreme hobbies and a pension for humanitarianism.

When I bought the book, I was not sure which attribute of Sir Richard to expect: all business, life-on-the-edge or philanthropist. It turned out, the book was mostly about the latter – social enterprises in the global economy.

Similar to Bill Clinton’s Giving, Branson covers dozens of positive examples to support his case. Nobody reading this book will wonder, “how can I help?” Unlike pure philanthropy-focused books though, Branson remains all business. His perspective? should recognize its role in the global community and find a way to conduct business that benefits all stakeholders. And that is where my servant leadership take comes in.

For the servant leader in business, this book offers ideas for your organization to serve the community. There are some great quotes and real-world success stories for you to reference.  The business servant leader will feel inspired and armed with examples – including quantifiable data – to influence peers and followers.

 Key Principles

• Virgin Unite: This organization is Virgin Group’s nonprofit arm. Many of the organizations in the book were identified during Branson’s interaction with them through Virgin Unite.
• Capitlasm 24902: The circumference of the earth, at the equator, is 24,902 miles. This was the origin of Branson’s term, “Capitalism 24902″ – capitalism for the earth and all our stakeholders – not just fiscal profit.
• Do good, have fun and the money will come: Sir Richard Branson explains he used to say, “Have fun and the money will come”. Now, he prefers to say “ Do good, have fun & the money will come.”
• Good business sense: Another consistent theme throughout the book is that doing good is also good for business. Most, if not every, example includes business value generated through the organization’s positive impact on other communities.
• The Elders: I was shocked (and a bit embarrassed) that I never heard of this fantastic organization. Branson frequently references The Elders – a group of distinguished peace makers working for peaceful resolution of global issues. Branson played a key role in establishing this organization in 2007. From the Elders website:

Chaired by Archbishop Desmond Tutu, The Elders is an independent group of global leaders who work together for peace and human rights. They were brought together in 2007 by Nelson Mandela…

Whether you are a social entrepreneur, philanthropist, business professional or servant leader, you need to “Screw Business as Usual” and read this book. As Branson points out, this is all but necessary today. For, I must agree, it will not be long before “Business as Usual” (solely profit-focused) will utterly fail. Here’s hoping Branson and Virgin Unite influence more businesses to embrace Capitalism 24902.

Question: Have you read “Screw Business as Usual” and what other books would you recommend for social entrepreneurs?

Charlene Li is undoubtedly one of the world’s foremost experts on social media. Li founded Altimeter Group, co-authored Groundswell and now released Open Leadership. I had high expectations for this book as I’ve often felt the opportunities for transparency and openness created by social media were necessary for modern servant leaders. While I was happy to find the book did address these matters, it took a while to get to the heart of the matter. In total, I recommend this book for anyone working in the social media sector or in leadership, just beginning their social media journey.

Leadership New to Social Media
If you’re in a leadership role or seeking to improve your ability to influence and are relatively new to social media, you will definitely want to get a copy of this book. In fact, I believe this book is best suited for these purposes and was likely Li’s intended target market. You will want to read the entire book as you will find the early chapters particularly good at introducing some of the best examples of social media implementation in today’s business. The later chapters will address applications of openness and social media solutions to your leadership and influence abilities. Throughout the book, the applications and principles suggested by Li are sound and appropriate.

Social Media Professionals
If you work in social media, eCommerce or other online channels, you’ll find most of the references and examples familiar from other references, such as Groundswell or Godin’s books. However, this text will undoubtedly be one of the most frequently referenced books in the sector, so you’ll want to be familiar with its contents. You’ll also find some new examples, like the State Bank of India and even the U.S. State Department example, which were both pleasantly new to me. That said, if you’re anxious to get to the new material, you can skip the first several chapters which are primarily targeted at the reader new to Social Media.

In summary, I definitely recommend this book. Li should be proud of her continuing thought leadership in social media. Balancing the benefits for social media professionals and leaders new to Social Media, I rate this 4 out 5.

[xrr rating=4/5]

Recently published, “Business Driven PMO Setup, Practical Insights, Techniques and Case Examples for Ensuring Success”, written by Mark Price Perry, includes a chapter on the Project Management Office (PMO) as servant leaders. As Senior Vice President of Operations at BOT International, host of The PMO Podcast and a regular contributor to Gantthead.com, Perry has a wealth of hands-on experience and a keen awareness for Project Management work “in the real world”. In addition, his servant leader values were apparent not only in the book’s content, but in his approach to it’s creation as well. With 20 contributors, Mark was certain to balance his own insights with the experience and opinions of other practitioners. In fact, I was honored to be included as a contributor to the chapter on Servant Leadership.

In the chapter entitled, “Project Management Leadership: Servant-Leader vs. Subject Matter Expert”, Perry introduces the concept of servant leadership for project managers. In addition, the author presents servant leadership for the PMO in the framework of the 10 servant leadership characteristices defined by Larry Spears (Listening, Empathy, Healing, Awareness, Persuasion, Conceptualization, Foresight, Stewardship, Commitment to the Growth of People and Building Community). In addition, contributor Jennifer Arndt, PMO Manager for the American Chemical Society, wrote about Situational Leadership for project managers while Michelle LaBrosse, Founder and CEO of Cheetah Learning, wrote about How to Get What You Want.

In my contribution, entitled, “Servant Leadership for the IT Project Manager”, I explain why the project manager is best positioned in the organization to execute and / or change leadership culture in an organization, given their multiple cross-functional touchpoints. In addition, I explained that Project Managers need to look at the Complete Return On Investment (CROI) for a project, not simply the tradditional, financial perspective. In addition to the standard financial ROI, the Complete Project ROI encompasses values such as new skills obtained by the project team, team building outcomes, education of stakeholders and enhanced morale. Finally, this contribution also addressed the concerns project managers face in the times of a crisis or turnaround and how we, as servant leaders, should respond.

Mark has done an outstanding job in creating a book every Project Manager should have on their shelf and he is receiving excellent reviews as a result. The feedback implies “Mission Accomplished” for Perry as he delivered the no-nonsense, real world actionable insights that seem lacking in today’s Project Management literature and guides. I encourage you to pick up a copy (no, I do not receive a commision).

Table of Contents:
Chapter 1: Mission, Goals and Objectives — Business Driven vs. Theory Driven
Chapter 2: Organization — Constituent Oriented vs. Inwardly Focused
Chapter 3: Managing Projects — Think Process, Not Methodology
Chapter 4: Managing the PMO — Embracing Flexibility vs. Mandating Conformance
Chapter 5: PMO Tools — Establishing a PMO Architecture vs. Implementing a Tool
Chapter 6: Executive Reporting — Keeping It Simple
Chapter 7: PMO Leadership — MBWA 2.0 vs. The Meeting Manager
Chapter 8: Project Management Leadership — Servant Leader vs. Subject Matter Expert
Chapter 9: Creating High Performance Teams
Chapter 10: Establishing a PMO — A Practical Roadmap
Chapter 11: Line of Business PMOs — The Ubiquitous Nature of Project Management
Chapter 12: Advancing Organizational Project Management — From Theory to Practice
Chapter 13: PMO Passion — Where does it come from?