Books

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Brad Pitt as a Quantum Leader

October 4, 2011 in Books, microISV startup by kkeown | No comments

MoneyBall_p
I experienced a tidy patch of synchronicity last week.
First, I worked my way through the Crisis Management chapter in the Quantum Leadership book I’m reading.  Second, I dragged my husband to the theater to see Moneyball, the new Brad Pitt movie about Billy Beane and the Oakland A’s baseball team.  Then, in quick succession, I had the opportunity to see a preview of Windows 8 on a slate computer and  Amazon announced its new Kindle line-up, including the Fire, a heavily customized Android tablet.


Quantum’s take on crisis management is, essentially, “Get used to it.  Get better at it.  Stop thinking of it as something you only do from time to time.” Read the rest of this entry »

Healthcare, software, politics

August 30, 2011 in Books, microISV startup by ag | 1 comment

Quantum Leadership 3rd Edition

Cover of the 3rd Edition

I’ve just started to work my way through a textbook on the healthcare industry called Quantum Leadership:  A Resource for Health Care Innovation by O’Grady and Malloch.  My good friend Denise recommended it to me the other day.  She’s a masters-qualified RN and the book was a required text in a course she took a couple of years ago.

It’s a sign of how much I respect her that I would voluntarily buy and try to read a 460+ page college textbook.  (The current, 3rd, edition is 500+ but I bought a used copy of the 2nd edition so my copy would match hers.)  In our previous professional lives, Denise and I were co-founders, along with several others, of a moderately successful bootstrapped software company.  And I have learned that, when she says something is useful to know and think about, I should pay attention.

Denise is not the only person I respect who draws parallels between the healthcare and software industries and their practitioners.   Read the rest of this entry »