This month I picked a book written by our Austin neighbor: Roy Spence from the ad agency GSD&M. This agency is internationally known for helping clients like Wal-Mart, Southwest Airlines, BMW, MasterCard, and other big names. In his book It's Not What You Sell, It's What You Stand For, Spence explains what it means for a business to have a purpose and then gives many examples on how different companies found theirs.

Spence believes that great companies exist to make a difference for their employees, customers, shareholders, and communities.

Your purpose is a statement about the difference you are trying to make in the world. As he writes, "It's your reason for being that goes beyond making money—and it almost always results in making more money than you ever thought possible." A real purpose is not just words on paper or the mission statement every company has, a real purpose is something that makes your employees feel great about what they're doing, clear about their goals, and excited to come to work every morning. Think about Wal-Mart's purpose of "saving people money so they can live better"—it is a pretty bold purpose, but everyone in the world agrees that millions of people benefit from Wal-Mart's business model. Think about Southwest Airlines' purpose of "democratizing the skies"—this airline is famous for constantly pushing the limit and providing its customers with affordable flights and great customer service. Or think about BMW's purpose of "enabling people to experience the joy of driving"—if you have ever driven one of their cars, it is very hard to disagree. And last, but not least, Disney's "use our imaginations to bring happiness to millions"—it is hard to find someone who hasn't experienced that.

If you choose to read this book, you will find multiple case studies on many great companies and learn their processes for discovering their purpose.

So, how do you find your organization's purpose? Spence provides an actionable road map to follow. The good news is no matter how small or big your organization is, each business has a purpose. Spence recommends you revisit your heritage, review false starts, compare your successes and failures, and start asking as many “Whys?” as you can think of. Once you find your purpose, think big and aim high!

Pick up this book, and start exploring today: your purpose is waiting for you. Once you find it, your positioning strategy, branding, and selling will become so much easier. And the most important thing is that you will build an organization that will make a difference and will matter to people.

Reading this month's pick, The Power of Many, was very refreshing and educational. It was written by Meg Whitman, the former CEO of eBay, who grew the company from a small $4 million startup with 30 employees to an $8 billion engine of global e-commerce with over 15,000 employees. Meg not only shares her values for success but also gives great insight into how eBay got where it is now.

eBay's concept is not a new one. Auctions have always been around, but they were more local and specific. What is interesting about eBay is that it took auctions to the next level and made it possible to search for any item you want worldwide. eBay is a true global economy by itself, and it provides great opportunities to small business owners everywhere.

eBay is a perfect case study on how to localize your company and make it grow just as fast. With its global reach, eBay has had to learn many lessons as it entered each new country. In some countries, they were an instant hit, and in some they failed. Meg talks about their experience of starting eBay in the Netherlands and how this was the only European country at that time where business just did not grow. It took them a while to understand that eBay's concept was not working because this was a small country where people preferred to drive to get something and negotiate a deal. eBay also failed in China, and eBay's CEO had to move there for 3 months to figure out why: Chinese users did not feel comfortable with the Western look and read of the website. Meanwhile the Chinese competitor of eBay was getting ahead. eBay learned some localization business lessons the hard way.

Another thing that impressed me was how committed eBay's employees are to the company's values. One of their tenets is that people are basically good. When you think about how many people eBay serves on a daily basis and how many regulations everyone has to follow, and the trust that you have to have, it is hard to ignore this underlying principle. eBay has proven that their concept is the right one and that people are basically good no matter what country they are from.

This book will not only tell you about eBay's success story, but will give you plenty of examples of how traditional values will get you where you want to go.

I am always interested in learning about new economic theories and how they can affect our lives. This month’s pick is all about that. Wikinomics by Don Tapscott and Anthony Williams is filled with many examples on how mass collaboration is changing everything around us.

The book describes the strategies and business models that companies are using to compete on a new level. Every business model in Wikinomics consists of four main principles: openness, peering, sharing, and acting globally. You will learn about peer production, ideagoras, prosumer communities, the new Alexandrians, open platforms, global plant floors, and wiki workplaces. The book describes how by using each of these business models, a company of any size can harness mass collaboration for innovation and growth. Wikinomics also describes a new golden rule in the business world: Always strive to be the best at what your customers value most and partner for everything else.

The two chapters that captured my attention the most were about ideagoras and global plant floors.

When you think about ideagoras, imagine eBay for R&D departments. More and more companies understand that you can’t employ all of the world’s best talent; that’s why there are more and more websites out there where companies—“seekers”—can post their R&D problems anonymously, while “solvers” submit their solutions in bids ranging from $5,000 to $100,000.

Ideagoras work the other way too. There are websites out there where companies can post underutilized assets they are seeking to license externally. For example, P&G owns over 27,000 US patents. After its survey in the late 1990s, P&G discovered it was spending $1.5 billion on R&D, generating lots of patents, but using less than 10% of them. P&G decided to offer its patents to outsiders after a given patent had been in existence for 5 years or in use for 3 years internally. This genius idea sends additional licensing revenue back into the business. The Ideagora chapter of Wikinomics has many other interesting examples, but the main principle is that by opening up and involving the best of the world in R&D, companies become more innovative and add more profits to their bottom line.

Another chapter that gave me a different taste of outsourcing was about the global plant floor. Companies like BMW don't just outsource the manufacturing of automobiles anymore; they rely more and more on suppliers to help with car and part design by implementing the company's innovations early on. BMW doesn’t just come up with specs for suppliers; it involves them from the beginning to design the parts. Increasingly companies are using outsourcing not only as a way to save on costs, but also a means to gain speed, innovation, and knowledge.

No matter what size your company is, or what job title you have, everyone can befit from reading this book. You will walk away with new ideas on how to get your company to new level!

Success is definitely a global term. No matter where each of us is born, people are always striving to be successful. It is in our genes. Success means different things to everyone, but if you look at the generalized meaning, one would describe it as a combination of hard work and luck. Well, Outliers by Malcolm Gladwell suggests different. He suggests that things like what income level, culture, place and time of a child's birth are important contributors to success. How do culture and birth place predetermine success?

Galdwell goes into detail to demonstrate each success factor, but I was particularly interested in two chapters, where culture was a very important factor for both one's success and the success of an entire country.

Chapter 7, “The ethnic theory of plane crashes,” talks about how some of plane crashes could have been avoided if air traffic controllers and pilots were more aware of the cultural impact of power. Gladwell talks about the Power Distance Index (PDI), which involves an attitude toward hierarchy or, in other words, how much a particular culture values and respects authority. In countries with a low PDI, power holders most of the time will try to underplay their authority. In contrast, countries with a high PDI, subordinates are afraid to speak up and argue their point. The top 5 countries with a high PDI are Brazil, South Korea, Morocco, Mexico, and Philippines. The top 5 countries with a low PDI are the United States, Ireland, South Africa, Australia, and New Zealand. Gladwell explains how some plane crashes could have been avoided if air traffic controllers in countries with a low PDI could have been more alert when dealing with planes from countries with a high PDI, because pilots from the latter see the exercise of power very differently.

Another chapter that piqued my interest was about rice paddies and math tests. In this chapter, the author argues that countries like Japan, South Korea, Hong Kong, Singapore and Taiwan are succeeding due to their hardworking cultures and mathematical abilities. He argues his point from two angles. First, he talks about the historical work ethics of Asian rice farmers, detailing the rice growing process and how time consuming and precise it is. And yet, the majority of Asian farmers would fit two harvests a year. Another angle of his argument is the simplification of the Asian numeric system that allows children to learn how to count at a younger age, giving them an advantage over western children. He shows international comparison tests where students from Asian cultures score around ninety-eighth percentile while Western children are between the twenty-sixth and thirty-sixth percentile. Fascinating! If you add these two arguments together, you can see why Asian cultures are considered successful in many industries, electronics being one of them.

I highly recommend reading Outliers. It will expand your own definition of success. It deepened my understanding on what else besides hard work and luck can help you become successful. It will leave you hopeful and inspired!

During one of my trips to Borders I noticed a book with the word Free all over it. That piqued my interest and I bought it. The concept was already contradictory: the book's cover says FREE, but I had to pay for it? Well, the controversy did not end there. Inside Chris Anderson, the editor in chief of Wired magazine, explored the concept of FREE as a radical idea for the new global economy—"freeconomics." I’m sure many eyebrows are going up: give stuff away for free you say? But how will anyone make money?

Freeconomics is constantly changing to keep up with our society. We all know of the example of Gillette's razors and how they got to be so popular. Over one hundred years ago Gillette sold his razors at a very big discount to the army, and then the army started giving them away for free to their soldiers and boom! The men loved those free razors, and the rest is history. 

And what would we do without Google today? This company is a perfect freeconomics success story. I haven't paid Google directly for anything, but I take advantage of its free information and e-mail every day. When Google started, the founders had no idea how they would make money, but they wanted to improve search results and did not charge anything. The free search engine got people's attention, and once they had that, they figured out how to turn that into profit.

Something for free definitely grabs attention and brings people to your door, but then it is up to you to use your creativity to find a way to make money.

Anderson gives an example of how creative Chinese musicians became when piracy got out of control there. Musicians in China get almost nothing for their CDs since no one wants to pay full price for recorded music when you can get a pirated version so cheaply. Musicians couldn’t get any money from CD sales, so that meant that they were giving their music away for free. How could they survive? They became creative! They used their name recognition to make money on tours and through personal appearances and product endorsements. They saw the pirates as their marketers in building that name recognition since “free” CDs grow their fan base so quickly.

Freeconomics has been around since the beginning of mankind, and it is here to stay. The concept is not limited to the United States, it is global! Free sounds good in any language. How can you use something free in your business and make more money? Don't pass it by! Get creative!

P.S. to get a truly free abridged audiobook of FREE, go to hyperionbooks.com/free (and no, I don't get any commissions!).