Fuzzy Thoughts of David

Book Review – Better and Faster

My overall reaction after finishing “Better and Faster” by Jeremy Gutsche is wow. Simply wow.

While I have read business books in the past, I have not read entrepreneurial books. I don’t really have anything to compare this book with, but really, I can’t believe other books of the genre could be any better than this one.

Gutsche’s purpose was to map a “way to overcome the psychological and cultural traps that causes smart people to overlook opportunity.” He does that by providing six patterns to shortcut the way to opportunity. The results are a well written, easily read, and wonderfully structured book that informs and inspires.

Rapid change creates new problems, but it also creates new opportunities. “Better and Faster” is about finding patterns within the rapid change. Gutsche does a stellar job of illustrating six patterns of opportunities, providing evidence through accounts of entrepreneurs success. Gutsche does more as well. He also provides evidence of how companies operated in the past, how they operate now, and how they will have to operate in a culture of change.

I love the way the book was organized. Part one uses the analogy of a farmer and hunter to distinguish between ways companies address change and opportunity. Gutsche points out that the farmer methodology is it isn’t effective in a culture of rapid change. Instead, companies and entrepreneurs need to become hunters, hunting for opportunity by noticing the six patterns.

Part two outlines the six patterns of opportunity, along with their sub-patterns. Gutsche does a good job of using appropriate anecdotes to illustrate each pattern. I’ve grown accustomed to such anecdotes in business books and, from time to time, may even pass over them. Gutsche’s feel a bit different since he seemed to take time to interview the individuals to garner their insights.

Part Three give a framework for using the patterns to find opportunities. The appendix gives two case studies that further illustrate how such a framework works.

After each section Gutsche gives summaries, takeaways and takeways. the last few pages give a full summary using bullet points and diagrams virtually compressing all the key points and concepts.

Gutsce is more than qualified to writing such a book. His work with TrendHunger, I’m sure, helped him to notice these patterns. He writes that his main message is “the only real certainty in life is change.” He has given a road map on how to find opportunity as we travel the changing landscape.

I received this book free from BloggingForBooks in exchange for an honest review.

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