In Scotland, courts have three possible verdicts available to them: guilty, not guilty, or not proven. The latter two are good enough to acquit the defendant, but “not proven” is definitely not as strong as not guilty. “Not proven” is the verdict that should be rendered on so many business books written today.
In yesterday’s book review of Sales Growth, I made the comment that their research methods fell short of the gold standard for research methods, and I would like to elaborate on that comment a bit. They typical business “how-to” book follows the same underlying formula:
- We studied X number of companies and found the same common characteristics. The top companies all did _____.
- Therefore, if you do ____, you too will succeed.
- Here’s how to do it.
There are plenty of possible holes in #1: Just for starters, (more…)