The Soul of Enterprise: Business in the Knowledge Economy

On Black Friday, the biggest Holiday shopping day of the year, Ed and I thought it would be fun to review the book, Scroogenomics: Why You Shouldn’t Buy Presents for the Holidays, by Joel Waldfogel, published in 2009. Waldfogel estimates that giving gifts nobody wants is a deadweight loss to the economy to the tune of approximately $12 Billion, mostly on credit cards. Money we don’t have to buy things people don’t want. As he writes, when you say to your mother-in-law, “A cribbage board. You shouldn’t have.” Indeed, she shouldn’t have, according to the author. As you prepare to go out and contribute to the expected $77.5B in the Holiday shopping spree, have a listen to a cautionary tale about the pitfalls of giving gifts.

Ron and Ed are delighted to welcome Steve Goreham to The Soul of Enterprise. He is the author of four books on climatism and green energy, and we will be discussing his most recent book: Green Breakdown: The Coming Renewable Energy Failure, published this year. We will dive into the physics and engineering issues involved in the transition to renewable energy, and why it won’t be as easy as a lot people claim. Join us for what will be an enlightening and informative discussion.

This week Ron and Ed will explore Goldratt's Rules of Flow by Efrat Goldratt-Ashlag, daughter of Daughter of Eliyahu M. Goldratt whose seminal work, The Goal has been read by millions. Interestingly enough, this topic was suggested by Ron who usually falls asleep when Ed gets rolling on project management topic, so you know this episode will be one to remember.

This week Ron and Ed will continue their conversation on Mark Andreessen's The Techo-Optimists Manifesto. In addition to finishing their analysis, they will talk through some responses that other have had to the document. In addition, Ron and Ed will be joined in the conversation by Greg Tirico of TSOE Bonus episode fame and knower-of-many-techno-things himself.

This week Ron and Ed travel to Miami to attend the Hector Garcia's Creative Business Models for Accountants Conference where they will share their thought about Day 1 of the conference live with the audience. Then they will take questions from the attendees in classic Ask Us Anything style.

Ed and Ron will explore Marc Andresseen's The Techno-Optimist Manifesto. It's a thought-provoking piece that we largely agree with. You can find the Manifesto at: https://a16z.com/the-techno-optimist-manifesto/

Ron and Ed welcome Hitendra Patil, President of the Global Finance and Accounting Outsourcing Services of Datamatics Business Solutions, Inc. and author of Rise of The Aiccountants: The What, Why, and How of Artificial Intelligence for Accountants. AI is way more than an amusement gimmick. At its core, AI is a powerful tool that can make accounting firm operations, analytics, decision-making, and client services more efficient, impactful, and insightful resulting in clients getting more delighted and, importantly, firm staff more productive, engaged, and happier. Unfortunately, other than starting to use publicly available AI tools, firm leaders who want to professionally leverage artificial intelligence often don’t know where to start. AI journey can feel overwhelming—as it requires firms to analyze existing processes, make new choices for software solutions, decide the priorities for applying AI automation and prepare every part of the firm for the transition.

Ron and Ed once again share entries from their One Thing journals, so this episode is a bit random, but contains nugget after nugget on curated wisdom for the reading and listening habits of the hosts. As you listen, please feel free to share your One Thing from the past day or week. Don't forget to take #asktsoe or @asktsoe.

This week Ron and Ed welcome Mathew Kerbis, aka The Subscription Attorney to talk about, you guessed it, subscription-based lawyering. His firm, Subscription Attorney LLC was founded in 2022 and is a modern law firm offering legal advice starting at $19.99/month, to help provide affordable access to legal advice for small business owners, freelancers, and everyday people. As usual the conversation with be mind-bending.

Ed and Ron can’t wait to interview Kathryn Mayer and Greg Glasgow and discuss their brand new book, Disneyland on the Mountain, released September 13, 2023. If you are a Disney fan, you won’t want to miss this episode!

This week Ron and Ed welcome William Donaldson, author of Simple_Complexity to the show. Every business leader knows a business is a system, yet very few have studied systems thinking or system dynamics. This is a critical oversight, one that Simple_Complexity remedies. Simple_Complexity reveals the fundamental system archetype at work in your enterprise and prescribes new and exciting ways to reinvigorate your management thinking.

This week, Ron and Ed welcome accounting thought leader Max Emma, CEO and Chief Bookkeeping Officer of Booxkeeping Franchise. BooXkeeping is a nationwide provider of affordable outsourced bookkeeping services to small and medium-sized businesses. We will talk to Max about his business model and why outsource bookkeeping will continue to grow. Booxkeeping Franchise is a low-cost and easy-to-operate bookkeeping business solution for aspiring entrepreneurs. As the CEO of BooXkeeping Franchise, Inc., They find potential franchisees and offer them a turn-key opportunity to join the BooXkeeping family and benefit from our innovative accounting services, proven systems, and ongoing support. Their goal is to offer franchising opportunities in all 50 states by 2025 and to bring new life to one of the world's oldest professions.

This week Ron and Ed return to the work of literature for some inspiration. They will delve into the page of the Roald Dahl short story, The Great Automatic Grammatizor and Robert R. Updegraff's Obvious Adams: The Story of a Successful Businessman. Both are available on the website that rhymes with Shamazon if you want to read them ahead of the broadcast. Send your questions and comments to asktsoe@verasage.com or tag us on X @asktsoe.

This week Ron and Ed literally explore the boundaries of AI by conducting an interview with an AI incarnation of Peter Drucker. Using ChatGPT and Speech Synthesis from ElevenLabs, Ron and Ed ask the questions and ChatGPeterD provides the answers. Topic range from knowledge workers, to annual appraisals, to AARs, to consulting in a hot tub.

Ron and Ed welcome Seth David from Nerd Enterprises, Inc to talk about his work with accounting professionals and customers. Seth's superpower is communicating complex financial concepts in easy-to-understand terms. Going beyond accounting, he delves into the intersection of business and technology, recently authoring a piece on why the internet browser experience is long overdue for an overhaul. If you have any questions that you would like us to ask Seth, please hit us up on X at @asktsoe.

Ron and Ed usually wait six months before having a previous Guest reappear on the show. This is one of the exceptions. Our conversation today focuses on a new conference that Hector and his team are developing, Business Models of the Future Knowledge Worker. Hector will share his thoughts and we will have a live brainstorming event around topic for conversation at the conference. Participate live by posting on X to @asktsoe.

In keeping with our tradition of Bric-a-brac, Grab-bag, Potpurri, and Miscellany, Ron and Ed will present their thoughts on some articles and posts on varied topics that require more than just a cursory conversation, but not quite a full episode. You can join in by submitting your latest ideas and topics by sending us an email to asktsoe@verasage.com or on X - @asktsoe.

Ron and Ed welcome Bryan Caplan, professor of economics at George Mason University. Bryan is a prolific author and speaker on wide range of economic and other fantastically nerdy topics from voting to role playing games. Bryan's substack, Bet on It, has addressed the following topic in the month of July alone: * Cars and convenience * An offer to illustrate a book of his using AI * Abusers giving vice a bad name * Non rival assets for the poor * Open borders on trial * The status of women Prepare to be impressed. If you have question or comment for Bryan, please email us at asktsoe@verasage.com or tag us on Twitter (soon to be X.com) using @asktsoe

Blair Enns is the founder of Win Without Pitching, the sales training organization for creative professionals. He is the author of two books, The Win Without Pitching Manifesto and Pricing Creativity: A Guide to Profit Beyond the Billable Hour. He is the co-host, along with David C. Baker, of the podcast 2Bobs: Conversations on the Art of Creative Entrepreneurship. Best of all, he is the guest on this week’s show with Ron and Ed. A good portion of the show will be spend talking about The Innoficiency Principle. Blair laid out the thoughts behind this principle at this link and described it quite succinctly. From Blair: “The Innoficiency Principle states that innovation and efficiency are mutually opposable goals. In any reasonably functioning organization, one cannot be increased without decreasing the other.”

Join Ed and Ron as they discuss the book William Donaldson, PhD: Simple_Complexity: A Guide to Systems Thinking. Systems are both simple and complex, which contain amazing constructs that one often must marvel. Systems also have a mind and a rhythm of their own. The parts do not exist independent of the whole, and you can't understand the parts without understanding the whole, and the whole is greater than the sum of the parts. Your organization's culture is an emergent property of your system. If you want to change the culture, you have to change the system, which is comprised of three components: Elements; Interactions; and Purpose. Hat tip to Mark Gandy at CFO Bookshelf for interviewing the author of this excellent book.