Business book review: Velocity

Ever since I read a book that said most people have trouble remembering more than three things from a presentation, I’ve felt a little apprehensive approaching books with subtitles like this one. Seven laws.... Most of us would have trouble remembering more than five of the Ten Commandments, and I only remember the seven deadly sins through an acronym. Authors Alz Ahmed and Stefan Olander are aiming to answer the question “How can you succeed when the only certainty is change?”, but in truth, most of us worry about the shorter version of the question – “How can you succeed?”. And for that to happen, lots would have to change. Olander is vice-president of Digital Sport at Nike, and Ahmed found of “legendary independent innovation agency AKQA” – no, I’ve not heard of it, but that’s because I’m so worried about how to succeed. The book is written as a conversation between the two, which is a strange format, since you are eavesdropping on two complete strangers. The authors say they chose this format “because a conversation is the truest way to reflect how we work, think and solve problems.” The seven laws include “A Smith & Wesson beats four aces”, Have a purpose larger than yourself”, Convenient is the Enemy of right” and “Respect human nature.” This first one is summarised as “Evolve immediately. Entitlement kills”. It’s not a new idea. Another way of saying at least part of it is “Perfect is the enemy of the good”. In other words, if you spend a lot of time trying to get something perfect, in a hyper competitive world, by the time you come to market it may be too late. Of course it depends on the market, and the product, and lots of other variables, but then, that’s the trouble with calling things “Laws” when they aren’t. They are just opinions. This first law is then summed up as:

• Be the disrupter, not the disrupted.
• It’s good to be first. It’s better to be good. It’s best to be both.
• You can’t improve what you can’t measure.
• Travel light.

The seven laws come with explanations, which are, respectively....

• Evolve immediately. Entitlement kills.
• Get going. Things get better.
• Make meaningful connections.
• Never have anything to apologise for.
• Make yourself proud by making people's lives easier, richer and more fun. Don’t just give people choice, help them choose.
• Have the balls to make the calls.
• Do the right thing: play from your heart.

In my opinion, they are either obvious, or so vague as to be of little use. The authors say the book is best dipped into and out of, and to be honest, it’s the only way of reading it. Some parts are anecdotes, and reasonably interesting, but much of it is nothing more than the authors thinking aloud about other companies and industries. There’s nothing empirical about this, no evidence is offered backing up the observations, and many of their insights could be generated simply by skipping through the Harvard Business Review and the financial pages. As for the rest, it’s interesting hearing about Nike Digital Sport because we know the brand so well, but for a book that’s so insistent on how the only certainty is change, it’s appropriate that the “Laws” are no such thing, and are written in sand anyway. Tom Otley