My Life in Music: Volume I: A Memoir by Jack Spain: A Lifetime of Experiences and Adventures through Lyrics and Melodies was published in July 2024 and is now available on Amazon.com in Paperback format.

 

My sixth book, My Life in Music: A Lifetime of Experiences and Adventures through Lyrics and Melodies, was inspired from suggestions from my daughter, Lucy, and my brother, Richard. Lucy recommended that I consider publishing my song lyrics in the form of a book of poetry. Richard, on the other hand, started an email thread with me after I shared a couple dozen recordings of some of the earlier acoustic tunes I had written. In early 2023, I merged both of their suggestions and started writing each weekend. I also continued to write new songs during this period as well.

Early in this process I began to reminisce about my many musical influences throughout the decades. One thing led to another and before I knew it, I started to write about all things music-related from grade school up through June 2024. As with most of my projects, this became yet one more labor of love, meaning investing hundreds of hours to see it through from incorporating each of the songs I had written to live music performances in Charleston in the month of June. I even totally geeked out the past few months and incorporated my favorite artists, top Spotify tunes, and an inventory of all the instruments and gear in my music studio.

While I didn’t start out with this intention, My Life in Music is in essence an autobiography of my personal life, my like Different Tracks resulted in an autobiography of my professional career. I’m not quite sure why anyone might be interested in my story, beyond hopefully a couple family members, but I am pleased to be able to share a glimpse into my blessed life that has undoubtedly been immensely influenced by lyrics and melodies.

Jack Spain is a father of two amazing daughters, brother, nephew, uncle, veteran business leader, and aspiring musician and songwriter over the past seven decades. He previously published five business related books during the past fifteen years and has already initiated his next writing project. Spain currently resides in Charleston, South Carolina, and is looking forward to playing his favorite guitars when he finally decides to move on from full-time employment and transition into the next stage of life’s adventures.

Different Tracks: Lessons from a Diverse Career Journey was published in May 2021 and is now available on Amazon.com in Paperback, Kindle, and Hardcover format.

 

This book is a collection of stories, lessons learned, and reflections from a rather diverse professional career journey spanning five decades. Spain shares experiences, lessons, and decisions that led him to capitalize on opportunities to contribute to roles spanning a wide variety of industries, business functions, and responsibilities. The book includes a series of chapters organized in the following sections:

 

I.    Guiding Principles

II.   Leadership

III. Lessons Learned

IV.  Entrepreneurship

V.    Professional Development

 

The primary goal for writing and publishing this book was to share not only the lessons from decades of experience but what guidance for younger professionals who are facing a constantly accelerating future of work. The author shares his own personal guiding principles for how he approaches work including how to effectively lead teams and implement successful change initiatives; lessons on sales and marketing; tales from the land of entrepreneurs and recommendations for continuous professional development. Each chapter concludes with the author’s specific advice relative to each chapter topic.

 

 

The Future of Work: Trends, Opportunities, and Threats in 2020 and Beyond was published in December 2020 and is now available on Amazon.com in Paperback and Kindle format.

 

We are currently witnessing massive business and jobs displacement as we approach the next decade. The pace of change continues to accelerate exponentially, and it is becoming increasingly challenging to predict the types of career and job opportunities that will be available in the next five to ten years and the decades beyond. I have been following these trends throughout 2019:

1. Accelerated Business and Jobs Displacement
2. Demographic Shifts
3. An Always-on, Always-connected World
4. Reinvention of Higher Education
5. Generational Expectations
6. Global Economic Cycles and Trends
7. Dismantling the Corporate Ladder
8. Redefining the Concept of a Career

This book examines the impact of these seismic paradigm shifts on individuals, businesses, and staffing, recruiting, and talent acquisition professionals.

Operations Proficiency Model: A Path to Success for Educational Institutions was published in August 2013 and is now available on Amazon.com in Paperback and Kindle format.

 

The Operations Proficiency Model (OPM) is a performance measurement model specifically developed as a framework and tool to facilitate the identification of continuous improvement initiatives for leaders responsible for maintaining and operating schools and higher education institutions. This model is targeted specifically for maintenance, facilities, energy, and IT organizations that support schools and higher education institutions and was designed as a pragmatic and comprehensive model to illustrate a “Path to Success” for operations organizations.

The overarching goal of this model is to provide educational leaders with tools to effectively:

• Align institutional, departmental, and individual goals
• Communicate effectively with “objective” data and results
• Deliver visibility and transparency for organizational results
• Facilitate prioritization of resources and initiatives
• Provide a catalyst for identifying continuous improvement initiatives

This organizational process improvement Model includes five distinct [maturity] Levels indicating operational maturity, along with:

• Four [functional] Disciplines
• Five [leadership] Dimensions
• Multiple Performance Characteristics
• Multiple Key Performance Indicators [KPIs]

We also developed the OPM STAR Implementation Success Methodology as a roadmap for successfully implementing the Operations Proficiency Model (OPM) in your district or campus. The methodology incorporates an interlinking process for strategy, accountability, and execution. The book also includes guidelines for benchmarking your performance indicators and marketing the services and results that your organization delivers to your institution.
 

A Prescription for SMART Growth for Small to Mid-Size Businesses was published in January 2013 and is now available on Amazon.com.

 

There are several fundamental characteristics of businesses that have been successful in transitioning from a start-up phase into a successful mid-size business. A Prescription for SMART Growth for Small to Mid-Size Business has captured the specific actions required to efficiently and effectively scale your business. The foundation of this model is leading a business that is Strategy-based, Market-based, Alignment-based, ROI-based, and Technology-based.

This model also incorporates fifteen additional building blocks that require appropriate emphasis at the right time to grow your business successfully. There are also ten potential impediments that are illustrated that can potentially derail your growth trajectory while you are building your business. This book presents small to mid-size business leaders with hundreds of questions, reflections, and specific action items to put you firmly in control of your destiny and prepare you to pursue your dreams, however tactical or far-reaching they may be.

The IT Leadership Pyramid - Essential Leadership Imperatives for Leaders of Information Technology Organizations in the 21st Century by Jack Spain is also available for purchase at Lulu.com.

The IT Leadership Pyramid is a model to encapulate the imperatives and leadership dimensions that CIOs and Information Technology (IT) Leaders must embrace to be successful in leading their organizations in the 21st Century.

Feedback from Information Technology professionals:

The IT Leadership Pyramid frames the core functions of today’s IT organization in an innovative and compelling way. IT leaders with broad responsibilities will benefit from a framework that boils down the dimensions of leadership to ten key organizational functions. Having a firm grasp on the Leadership Pyramid will help IT leaders be more effective by leveraging an understanding of how the critical IT functions relate and build upon one another. At the pinnacle is Enterprise Leadership in which the IT leader contributes a unique and high value perspective to the business on “doing the right things” strategically. At its core, The IT Leadership Pyramid lays a foundation, asks the hard questions, and sets the challenge that IT leaders face in scaling the heights of opportunity available today for contributing to the success of their enterprise."

Merl Ferguson, Enterprise IT Architect

My article titled "Digital Media Guidelines for Tech Transfer Offices", was recently published on Fuentek's In-Depth Insights website.

I published an article, "Disciplined use of an IP management database enhances marketing efforts", in the Intellectual Property Marketing Advisor, November 2009 Issue on utilizing IP management database software for marketing Intellectual Property.