Business Book Summaries

New Business Book Summary Available for The Power to Compete

2017-09-15T08:43:00.002-07:00

Japan must make bold moves to reverse its economic stagnation, economist Ryoichi Mikitani and Internet entrepreneur Hiroshi Mikitani write in The Power to Compete. They do not believe that Abenomics, the economics program led by Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, does enough to solve Japan’s problems. Instead, the nation needs to increase its competitiveness, efficiency, and innovation by lessening government regulation, eliminating layers of bureaucracy, moving away from Japan’s lifetime employment tradition, and cutting taxes and the costs of government. The authors also argue that making English the business language of Japan, liberalizing rules governing foreign workers in Japan, and allowing foreign companies to take over failing Japanese businesses would help boost the nation’s economy.

New Business Book Summary Available for Looptail

2017-09-08T07:42:00.003-07:00

In Looptail, Bruce Poon Tip tells the story of his top adventure travel agency G Adventures and how its innovative management practices and social enterprise mission have engaged employees and customers to generate incredible growth and address pressing social issues. By following what Poon Tip calls the looptail, business leaders can journey in his steps by finding their true passions and paying their success forward to transcend their industries.

New Business Book Summary Available for Accelerating Performance

2017-09-01T08:37:00.001-07:00

Markets are changing at an increasingly rapid pace. While many leaders focus on marketplace disruption, those who shift their focus toward acceleration are finding tremendous, sustainable success. In Accelerating Performance, Colin Price and Sharon Toye provide a comprehensive framework for organizational leaders who want to accelerate their performances at the strategic, organizational, team, and individual levels.

New Business Book Summary Available for HBR's 10 Must Reads On Sales

2017-08-25T06:50:00.003-07:00

The sales function is changing. Traditional process-laden sales models are becoming obsolete. Increasingly, sales professionals are required to exercise agility, flexibility, and a deeper understanding of the customer to win sales and grow their businesses. In HBR’s 10 Must Reads On Sales, some of the world’s most astute sales experts offer insights into this new sales environment and how sales professionals can adopt new behaviors and business models to succeed in today’s dynamic marketplace.

New Business Book Summary Available for You Are What You Believe

2017-08-18T07:18:00.004-07:00

Companies waste millions of dollars on behavior-based training programs that fail to deliver long-term results. Individuals embark on self-improvement initiatives, then revert to previous self-destructive patterns. Why? Because there is a missing piece in these efforts—an understanding of the relationship between needs, beliefs, behaviors, and results. In You Are What You Believe, behavioral change expert Hyrum W. Smith presents the Reality Model—a method for exploring the interaction between needs, beliefs, behaviors, and results to drive substantive, long-term, self-driven behavioral change for the better.

New Business Book Summary Available for Mobilized

2017-08-04T11:46:00.001-07:00

In Mobilized, SC Moatti outlines the path of mobile products from their inception in the early 2000s to now. Her journey to understand how companies harnessed success in the mobile age began with a desire to determine whether a business plan formula existed. When she discovered that there was no such thing, she set out to create one that would help businesses succeed in the mobile economy. The Mobile Formula applies three rules of personalization that the mobile era demands—the Body Rule, the Spirit Rule, and the Mind Rule. Gone are the days of an industry mindset where mass production and scale were dominant. To succeed on the mobile stage, companies must consider how to amplify their customers’ humanity by making a commitment to personalization. Companies that do not adopt this approach will find that access to customers and their data will become increasingly harder to harness, and they will have to rely on old methods for customer reach and development.

New Business Book Summary Available for How Performance Management Is Killing Performance–and What to Do About It

2017-07-28T10:35:00.002-07:00

Many organizations today struggle with performance management. Both employees and managers dread the routine of annual reviews. At the same time, accountability is recognized as important and necessary. In How Performance Management Is Killing Performance—and What to Do About It, M. Tamra Chandler discusses why long-used performance management systems do not work well. Based on her experience with numerous organizations, Chandler offers a comprehensive framework that organizations can use to rethink, redesign, and reboot their performance management systems. The goal is to generate better outcomes, as well as more positive experiences for employees at all levels of an organization.

New Business Book Summary Available for Misplaced Talent

2017-07-21T10:26:00.001-07:00

Science and psychology have contributed many interpretive tools that businesses can use to hire employees who will be successful. However, companies do not always understand how to tailor those tools to their businesses and job openings. In Misplaced Talent, Joe Ungemah shows hiring professionals how to assess candidates’ abilities, experience, goals, and values, as well as gauge how well they would fit into their companies’ environments, which is critical to retaining employees once they have been hired.

New Business Book Summary Available for Strategy for Be the Business

2017-07-17T07:00:00.002-07:00

In Be the Business, Martha Heller demonstrates how the steady evolution of technology has resulted in IT becoming the heart of every business. No longer existing as merely a support function, IT now drives from the backseat. As businesses adapt to this new technology model, their CIOs must transform from technologists to strategists and from account managers to financial leaders. They have no choice but to develop new competencies to successfully confront the host of new challenges stemming from the rapidly evolving and growing role of technology.

New Business Book Summary Available for Strategy for the Corporate Level

2017-06-30T08:22:00.001-07:00

All companies must answer two fundamental questions: which businesses or markets to invest in and how to manage those businesses. A corporate-level strategy informs those answers. Strategy for the Corporate Level sheds light on the strategic thinking required to effectively run complex organizations, including how to develop corporate-level strategies that add value and drive improved business performance.

New Business Book Summary Available for Agile Selling

2017-06-26T06:09:00.001-07:00

Many salespeople struggle when starting new jobs. Overwhelmed by all of the new information and skills they must master, they are often unable to deliver results. In Agile Selling, sales strategist Jill Konrath argues that by developing an agile mindset, salespeople will not only increase their learning retention but also fast track their new job proficiency. Konrath provides a guidebook for helping salespeople succeed in the shortest time possible through a collection of agility and rapid learning strategies.

New Business Book Summary Available for Springboard

2017-06-16T07:26:00.002-07:00

In Springboard, G. Richard Shell helps readers to develop a personal definition of success by considering the importance they place on happiness, family, professional status, fame, fortune, and meaningful work. After they clarify personal goals, people can follow a five-step process to achieve them by summoning their unique talents, abilities, interests, and experiences. Shell’s process calls for people to investigate their capabilities, gain self-confidence through trial and error, learn to focus on a long-term goal, find the necessary motivation to sustain their momentum, and influence others by establishing credibility and engaging with them in a genuine manner. By aligning a clear definition of success with personal strengths and abilities, people are empowered to take action toward achieving their goals and realizing great personal successes.

New Business Book Summary Available for Leave Your Mark

2017-06-09T08:53:00.001-07:00

Whether a person is entering the working world for the first time or making a dramatic career change, professional development can be both exhilarating and intimidating. In Leave Your Mark, author and fashion industry public relations executive Aliza Licht knows this well, having abandoned a potentially lucrative career in medicine in pursuit of her dream career in fashion. Licht shares her engaging and often entertaining personal story, along with an abundance of advice on how to choose, pursue, and succeed at a dream career while leveraging the power of social media to create a personal brand.

New Business Book Summary Available for Winning the Brain Game

2017-06-02T10:12:00.002-07:00

Although the human brain is capable of great things, it is also susceptible to a variety of unproductive thinking patterns. In Winning the Brain Game, Matthew E. May defines the seven fatal flaws of thinking that kill innovative ideas and prevent professionals from developing effective solutions to today’s biggest problems. Drawing on psychology and neuroscience, May explains the cause of each of these flaws as well as the techniques professionals can implement to prevent them.

New Business Book Summary Available for On Fire at Work

2017-05-26T07:15:00.000-07:00

In On Fire at Work, veteran workplace researcher Eric Chester explains why and how a company’s culture is the determining factor in attracting, developing, and retaining high-quality employees. Companies voted as “best places to work” are achieving this designation by supporting seven cultural pillars: compensation, alignment, atmosphere, growth, acknowledgment, communication, and autonomy. On Fire at Work provides a roadmap for company executives to follow in establishing a culture that not only retains great employees, but also elicits their best performances, keeping them engaged and happy at work.

New Business Book Summary Available for Pivot

2017-05-19T08:05:00.004-07:00

In Pivot, Adam Markel outlines the steps necessary for people to pivot toward new careers. By adopting the right mindsets, establishing ritualistic behaviors, and continually building momentum, individuals can begin to transition toward career reinvention. A pivot often takes the form of a career change, but it can also refer to changes in other aspects of a person’s life, including forging new relationships, rediscovering old passions, or improving work-life balance.

New Business Book Summary Available for Top Brain, Bottom Brain

2017-05-12T07:14:00.003-07:00

In Top Brain, Bottom Brain, Dr. Stephen M. Kosslyn and G. Wayne Miller offer a new, research-driven alternative to the outdated left-brain/right-brain theory of cognitive processing. The authors demonstrate that human thought patterns, personalities, and behaviors are influenced by the ways in which a person accesses the top and bottom parts of the brain. While everyone utilizes both parts of their brains, some people rely more heavily on the top part, which helps them to formulate and execute plans. Others rely more on the bottom part, which helps them to classify and interpret information. Some people use both the top and bottom parts extensively, and others do not rely heavily on either part. These four approaches represent four distinct cognitive modes of thinking that influence how people approach the world, manage difficult situations, and develop their relationships with others.

New Business Book Summary Available for Beyond Competitive Advantage

2017-05-05T07:11:00.004-07:00

Many profitable and competitive companies suffer from stagnant stock prices. In Harvard Business School Publishing’s Beyond Competitive Advantage, corporate strategy expert Todd Zenger argues that in order to keep stock prices growing, companies must continuously identify new value creation opportunities. Zenger provides leaders with a road map to developing effective corporate theories, which define how companies can identify worthwhile business opportunities and use their unique assets to create new value over time.

New Business Book Summary Available for Expect to Win

2017-04-28T07:05:00.001-07:00

Professionals in today’s fluctuating work environment must take responsibility for actively and aggressively managing their careers, but most lack the practical and strategic tools to help them reach their career goals. In Expect to Win, Carla A. Harris explains how professionals can use the lessons she has learned throughout her Wall Street career to maximize their potential and climb their corporate ladders. She presents 10 strategies professionals can employ to recognize and harness their powers to overcome career challenges, reach their goals, and drive their careers.

New Business Book Summary Available for The New Alpha

2017-04-21T07:24:00.001-07:00

In The New Alpha, Danielle Harlan makes a case for New Alpha leadership, a movement in which professionals work toward becoming the best versions of themselves in order to develop the skills to effectively lead others. Unlike traditional leaders, New Alphas aim to make a meaningful impact on the world by focusing on the three core values of personal excellence, personal leadership, and organizational leadership. A step-by-step development program, The New Alpha provides professionals with the tools and techniques to optimize their human potential while simultaneously improving their capacity to become exceptional leaders.

New Business Book Summary Available for Youtility

2017-04-14T06:24:00.000-07:00

In Youtility, Jay Baer describes today’s marketplace as a competitive and cacophonic setting where it can be difficult for marketers to generate attention for their brands. Baer posits that companies can gain attention and a larger market share in two ways: by being amazing or by being useful. Baer focuses on helping companies become useful by providing information that is wanted by their customers.

New Business Book Summary Available for An Epidemic of Empathy in Healthcare

2017-03-31T11:54:00.000-07:00

An Epidemic of Empathy in Healthcare asserts that when it comes to providing value in healthcare, nothing matters more than addressing patient suffering. Thomas H. Lee, MD believes an epidemic of empathy can be created by creating a shared, empathetic vision; creating a new language that prompts people to become more empathetic; understanding what drives suffering; and collecting data so areas of improvement are clear. Empathy is the cure for much that ails modern healthcare—and empathetic providers are also good businesspeople.

New Business Book Summary Available for HBR Guide to Making Every Meeting Matter

2017-03-24T08:01:00.001-07:00

Business meetings are a necessity, but they can be unproductive if not conducted properly. Based on the premise that thoughtful and thorough preparation is the key to successful meetings, Harvard Business School Publishing Corporation’s HBR Guide to Making Every Meeting Matter provides a wealth of practical advice and guidance to help business professionals overcome typical meeting challenges.

New Business Book Summary Available for The Multicultural Mind

2017-03-17T06:38:00.003-07:00

In today’s highly competitive and dynamic business environment, organizations need to do more than just improve—they need to innovate. In The Multicultural Mind, David C. Thomas uncovers a hidden force of innovation in organizations—multiculturals, or individuals with multiple cultural identities. By developing well-planned experiential programs, organizations can model the ways in which multicultural minds develop, foster more complex ways of thinking among their employees, and increase their chances for both innovation and success.

New Business Book Summary Available for The Ways to New

2017-03-10T06:29:00.000-08:00

In today’s complex and competitive business environment, the importance of marketing has declined. As a result, many companies are struggling to find the inspiration needed to drive growth. In The Ways to New, Jean-Marie Dru explains how marketing executives can use the three-phase Disruption methodology to close the gap between marketing and innovation. By referencing case studies from major companies around the world, he describes how marketing executives can change the way they think about their markets, customers, and companies. Dru’s advice can guide marketing executives as they overcome debilitating stagnation, generate innovative ideas, build stronger brands, and drive continuous growth at all levels of their organizations.