In his new biography, The King of Madison Avenue: David Ogilvy and the Making of Modern Advertising, author Ken Roman details the life and times of one of the most interesting, eccentric, and brilliant minds of the 20^th century.

Roman, a former colleague of Ogilvy’s and one-time CEO of the firm Ogilvy & Mather, gives readers an inside look at David Ogilvy, advertising genius and creator of some of the most well known advertising campaigns in history. The Rolls Royce tagline Ogilvy wrote in 1958 is still considered by many advertising experts to be the greatest tagline of all time: “At 60 miles an hour, the loudest noise comes from the electric clock.” Roman details this and many more of Ogilvy’s advertising exploits, but these stories are only a prelude to the heart of this book, which is all business.

Cleverly disguised as a riveting biography, Roman’s book is actually a tome on business management. Regardless of your interest in advertising, marketing, or public relations, this book has much to offer every business executive about management and what it takes to build a successful business.

For example, readers learn how Ogilvy was able to take a small, London-based advertising firm with virtually no U.S. clients and turn it into one of the most powerful communications companies in the world? He achieved this feat by drawing from his sundry experiences as a salesman, chef, college dropout, spy, farmer, and researcher to build a company and culture that attracted, fostered, and retained some of the best minds and best clients in the world.  One example of Ogilvy’s unique leadership and management style comes from his use of Russian Matryoshka dolls. Ogilvy would periodically send these dolls to each of his company’s directors. Inside the largest doll was a smaller doll. Inside the smaller doll was an even smaller doll, and so on. Inside the very smallest doll was a note from Ogilvy that read: “If we hire people who are smaller than we are, we will become a company of dwarfs. If we hire people who are larger than we are, we’ll become a company of giants.”

Ogilvy, in stark contrast to many modern day business executives, constantly communicated his philosophies, thoughts, concerns, successes, and ideas via notes, letters, memos, drop-in visits, books, speeches, Russian Dolls, and “Magic Lanterns” (slide and film presentations given by Ogilvy to new hires). When you went to work for Ogilvy & Mather, you weren’t just going to work for any company. You were going to work for the company with the red carpet in the hallways and the high ideals. Ogilvy used to compare his firm to a great hospital. Ogilvy said, “Great hospitals do two things: They look after patients, and they teach young doctors. Ogilvy & Mather does two things: We look after clients, and we touch young advertising people.”

At times, Roman gets mired down in tedious details about the history of advertising and those who shaped it. Those readers who have a true interest in the field of advertising will appreciate the detail, but the average reader will find himself wanting to skip ahead to the timeless business lessons. Roman, an advertising man through-and-through, can’t be faulted for his devotion to his craft.  But don’t let these sections deter you from soaking in the aspects of this book that will alter the way you run your business.

In parting, let me leave you with a few of my favorite Ogilvy management maxims:

“There is nothing so demoralizing as a boss who tolerates second-rate work.”

“If you ever find a man who is better than you are, hire him. If necessary, pay him more than you pay yourself.”

“Only first-class business and that in a first-class way.”

“First, make yourself a reputation for being a creative genius. Second, surround yourself with partners who are better than you are. Third, leave them to go get on with it.”

“The most effective leader is the one who satisfies the psychological needs of his followers.”

“When people aren’t having fun, they seldom produce good advertising. Get rid of sad dogs who spread gloom.”

- R. Stephen Prather, Guest Reviewer

In his latest book, Outliers, Malcolm Gladwell, bestselling author of The Tipping Point and Blink, shatters many popular notions about success and proves again why he is one of the most interesting, intelligent, and talented writers of our time. Gladwell’s book helps readers understand what an outlier is-a value, observation, event, etc. that is numerically distant from the rest of the data -and why outliers matter.

In Outliers we get what business books should really be like; part psychology book, part business book, part history book, part sociology book, and part anthropology book. You don’t have to worry about going cross-eyed from reading too many business buzz words or meaningless platitudes. Outliers is chock full of amazing, interesting, and educational lessons about opportunity, success, and failure.

One such lesson is the triumph of hard work over natural talent. Gladwell demonstrates that bands like the Beatles, programmers like Bill Joy, chess prodigies like Bobby Fisher, and billionaire software gurus like Bill Gates didn’t achieve success because they were talented. They achieved success because they were talented and willing to apply 10,000 hours of practice to their respective crafts and trades. “Practice isn’t the thing you do once you’re good. It’s the thing you do that makes you good.”

To illustrate the value of the 10,000-hour rule as he calls it, Gladwell introduces readers to some interesting history about the Beatles. What most people don’t know about the Beatles is that they perfected their craft playing seven days a week for eight hours at a time in front of live audiences in strip clubs in Hamburg, Germany. Over a two-year period from 1960-1962, the Beatles played 270 nights in strips clubs throughout Germany. By the time they had their first bout of “real” success in 1964, they had played 1,200 times together as a band. The Beatle’s success is more a result of their hard work than their natural talent.

But Gladwell doesn’t stop there. He challenges our notions of success in every chapter with questions like: Why are so many of Canada’s elite amateur hockey players born in January or February? Why of the seventy-five richest people in human history are fourteen Americans born within nine years of each other? Why is the smartest man in the world (at least according to his IQ) living on a horse farm in Northern Missouri writing a book on the theory of everything no one cares about? What does rice farming have to do with being great at math? Why are there so many family feuds in Kentucky? Why are so many of today’s top Wall Street law firms run by people of Jewish descent?

If you think these questions are intriguing, wait until you read the stories that accompany them.

This book will amaze you, frustrate you, inspire you, and leave you wanting more. But, most importantly, it will help you understand the roots of and pathways to success. Here’s a hint: it’s not just about natural talent. And isn’t that good news for us mere mortals?

– R. Stephen Prather, Guest Reviewer