Must be Relevant to Make Some Money by Dr. Phil Copeland

Must be Relevant to Make Some Money by Dr. Phil Copeland (“The Other Dr. Phil,” as it says on the cover) is a comprehensive guide outlining long-term planning for businesses, focusing on such important facets as leadership, innovation, sustainability, marketing strategy, and effective engagement with consumers.

The book is exhaustive about sound business practices, yet Copeland never completely defines what “relevance” is in terms of business production, even if he begins each chapter with the same sentence: “You must be relevant to make some money.” While relevance obviously means “connected” or “pertinent,” these in themselves are vague and open-ended terms. That said, there is a lot of useful information within these pages, but that information veers off from the central thesis of its title. So business owners have a lot to glean from this book on both a micro and macro level – from how to legislate employees, to how to spot major global trends, giving businesses large and small a competitive advantage.

Especially useful is Copeland’s focus on past examples to help identify positive business practices, though Copeland could have focused more on smaller business in addition to global corporations. While some of his prognostications seem a bit rosy (“The evolution of information and communications technologies will foster the global adoption of the internet and mobile devices, which will promote a healthier behavior around the world…“), or at least up for argument, the book is so thorough and detailed in its outlook that the book overall is well-argued and persuasive.

Additionally, many, if not most, of his prognostications seem dead on, and it’s this forward-thinking focus that can help managers, COOs and CEOs navigate the increasingly-complicated future.

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