April 9, 2005
Thomas J. Neff
I bought two books on the first 100 days–this one and “The First 90 Days” by Michael Watkins. I found this book the most useful, and it quickly and immediately inspired me to prepare a succinct 100 day plan broken down into 10 day blocks, for a new $2 billion a year agency. Hence, I completely disagree with those that trash this book and recommend “The First 90 Days” instead of this book. I do find both books useful–read this one first, then cherry pick from Watkins.
Sure, anyone can cook a meal with the same ingredients, and sure, there are a number of books on this topic. For me, this book has exactly the right combination of white space, font size, lay-out, progressive structure, and inspiring snippets (including the all-important advocacy for having an in-house revolutionary).
I recommend this book be read in conjunction with Robert Buckman's “Creating a Knowledge-Driven Organization,” Margaret Wheatley's “Leadership and the New Science” (which Buckman told me inspired his own work), and Clayton Christensen's “The Innovator's Solution” (or you can just read my short summative reviews of those three books).
