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From NetSpeed Leader Volume 14, December 2003
This is Sidney Harman's first book, written in his mid-80s, and it is lovely—clean, crisp, generous, and strong. It is indeed the book of a lifetime, the lifetime of a man who entered the audio business in the 1940s, built and sold several successful businesses, taught in the Prince Edward County Free School Association (when the county closed the schools rather than integrate them), served as U.S. Deputy Secretary of Commerce, founded the Kennedy School Program on Technology, Public Policy, and Human Development, and is currently the executive chairman of Harman International Industries.
It is also the life of someone who knows jazz musicians personally and who likens his executive team to a jazz quartet. Chuck Mangione and Wynton Marsalis are featured on the company website as part of Harman company’s "master class in listening." Today the company’s motto is "Innovation, Resonance, Excellence." Based on this book, it may well also be Sidney Harman's life motto.
Mind Your Own Business focuses on Harman's life in business, along with his beliefs and lessons learned. These are Harman's own words on some of his themes:
Recklessness versus daring. Recklessness is acting without consideration of the consequences. Daring, on the other hand, is the conscious decision to go forward after careful consideration of the risks, consequences, and potential rewards. A daring action may or may not work, but it is worth the try.
Nimbleness. I define nimbleness as the willingness to challenge orthodoxy, to question dogma, reject the counsel that "this is the way we've always done it," and to move quickly to implement a new vision.
Paying attention to the customer. I can say that no valuable, enduring product ever arose from contemplation in my office—or in the engineering department. . . . I know of no substitute for the firing line, for listening to the customer, for identifying and responding to real need.
Tolerating incompetence. I have sometimes been assured that "the fellow isn't ideal, but he is what we have, and that is better than nothing." I don't buy that view. It entrenches incompetence and deceives the manager into thinking that . . . however less than ideal, the job is getting done. I believe that in such cases "no one is better than someone." Removing that incompetent person concentrates the attention and makes vivid the need.
Leader as evangelist. Believing in the mission, committing to honorable, ethical conduct, and wishing for creative products in marketing are not enough. The leader must sell those views restlessly and relentlessly.
Leaders and closure. Many otherwise skilled executives have difficulty making a decision, closing the deal, wrapping the matter up, and moving on. Business leadership includes the ability to recognize that the moment is right, the time has come. If the moment is right, get it done. Finish the job. Wrap it up.
The meaning of two minutes. I use that as a metaphor. . . . respecting the time of associates is important. I have been turned off time and again when someone who has been asked to speak briefly goes on endlessly, indifferent to the fact that there are other speakers or that the audience has its own time limitations.
Why people are at their best when they have been let go. People frequently do badly because they hate the work or are overwhelmed by the responsibility, or because they are terrified because they do not understand how the whole thing works. They are released from that dreadful struggle at the moment of dismissal, and with that are free to perform at their very best. It took more than one experience for me to realize that it should not seduce me into changing my mind.
Mind Your Own Business is filled with quiet, dignified gems in chapters such as "Leading from the Heart" and "The Buzzer Works for Me." In the latter chapter, Harman tells what he learned from an old assembly worker who showed him the subtle difference between a buzzer that works for employees, indicating their break time, and employees who are expected to work for the buzzer, that is, to be controlled by it. That interaction made all the difference to Harman, solidifying his views about the basic humanity of workers and the inefficiency and deep costs of downsizing.
Sidney Harman indicates that he wrote his own book, unlike other executives who may pay a ghostwriter handsomely. One reason is that Harman values writing as a tool through which we learn. He writes, "The person who invests in writing, who exercises the discipline to do it well, and who uses it frequently, will possess a matchless instrument for discovery, clarity, and persuasion."
It seems a very lucky thing that Mr. Harmon wrote his own book, thereby discovering and sharing his life with readers. It was worth writing and worth reading. Published in November, the book is available from Doubleday/Currency for about $25.
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