Luke Hohmann’s Blog

Everyone at Enthiosys is eventually asked about our name.

“Where does the name ‘Enthiosys’ come from? What does it mean?”

We respond by telling them that the name comes from the Greek word “enthios”, which means ‘motivated by the spirit within’. Enthios is also the root for the word enthusiasm.

After reading Wooden on Leadership by John Wooden, the famous basketball coach, I’m even happier with our name. John was the winner of 10 NCAA basketball championships in 12 years with the UCLA Bruins. This is an amazing accomplishment, and many (including me) think it will never be equaled.

John is well-known for his Pyramid of Success, a leadership skills guide designed to help anyone develop character, conviction, and remarkable achievement. The cornerstones of the Pyramid are Industriousness (work hard) and Enthusism (love your work).

We can’t agree more.

One of recent business books that has gotten a lot of press is Blue Ocean Strategy by W. Chan Kim and Renee Mauborgne. The favorable press is well-deserved, and in looking over my copy of the book I see many, many dog-eared pages. I know that I’ll be referencing it quite a bit.

The most important aspect of the book is the focus on value innovation. Kim and Mauborgne recommend that to create value innovations you have to focus on the user. This phrase, or variants thereof, are all over the book. Indeed, they devote a signficant portion of Chapter 8 encouraging executives to directly interact with users.

This is a perfect opportunity for Innovation Games. Using Innovation Games, you can get close your customers, understanding their needs on their terms. This is the cornerstone of value innovation.

Today I finished reading The Qualcomm Equation by David Mock. I found it a fun, fast, and compelling book, especially because QUALCOMM is a long-time client of Enthiosys. It was especially fun to read stories of people whom I’ve met through my work at QUALCOMM .

Interesting to see a “praise page” quote on the back of the book from my old boss at Aurigin Systems, Kevin Rivette.