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February 2024 MBR The Business Shelf
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Midwest Book Review
Feb 20, 2024, 2:04:25 PMFeb 20
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The Business Shelf
The Risk Management Handbook
David Hillson, editor
Kogan Page Inc.
www.koganpage.com
9781398610668, $201.00, HC, 416pp
https://www.amazon.com/Risk-Management-Handbook-Practical-Dimensions/dp/1398610666
Synopsis: Risk management is dynamic, with new risks continually being identified and risk techniques being adapted to new challenges. Drawing together leading voices from the major risk management application areas, such as political, supply chain, cybersecurity, ESG and climate change risk, this edited collection showcases best practice in each discipline and provides a comprehensive survey of the field as a whole.
Expertly compiled and edited by David Hillson, this newly published second edition of "The Risk Management Handbook: A Practical Guide to Managing the Multiple Dimensions of Risk) from Kogan Page has been significantly updated throughout to reflect the latest developments in the industry. It incorporates content on updated and new standards such as ISO 31000, MOR and ISO 14000. It also offers brand new chapters on ESG risk management, legal risk management, cyber risk management, climate change risk management and financial risk management.
Whether you are a risk professional wanting to stay abreast of your field, a student seeking a broad and up-to-date introduction to risk, or a business leader wanting to get to grips with the risks that face your business, "The Risk Management Handbook" will provide expert guidance.
Critique: Exceptionally well organized and presented, "The Risk Management Handbook: A Practical Guide to Managing the Multiple Dimensions of Risk" is an ideal MBA curriculum textbook that provides up-to-date information and perspectives regarding current best practice and cutting-edge insights into new developments within corporate risk management. While especially and unreservedly recommended for personal, professional, corporate, and college/university library Corporate Finance & Risk Management collections and supplemental MBA curriculum studies lists, it should be noted for the personal reading lists of students, academia, corporate executives, business managers, entrepreneurs, and non-specialist general readers with an interest in the subject that "The Risk Management Handbook: A Practical Guide to Managing the Multiple Dimensions of Risk" is also available in a paperback edition (9781398610613, $53.99).
Editorial Note: David Hillson (https://risk-doctor.com) is known globally as The Risk Doctor. Dr. Hillson is recognized as a ground-breaking thinker and expert practitioner in risk management, and he has made several innovative contributions to the discipline which have been widely adopted. He writes widely on risk, with thirteen major books, and over 100 professional papers. He has also produced the Risk Doctor Briefing series, written over a period of fifteen years, with 140 focused articles each addressing a specific aspect of the risk challenge, available in multiple languages.
Disruptive Technologies
Paul Armstrong
Kogan Page Inc.
www.koganpage.com
9781398609228, $89.00, HC, 248pp
https://www.amazon.com/Disruptive-Technologies-Practical-Understand-Disruption/dp/1398609226
Synopsis: Now available in an updated and expanded second edition, "Disruptive Technologies: A Framework to Understand, Evaluate and Respond to Digital Disruption" by Paul Armstrong offers a three-step framework that enables readers to choose how their business responds to technological upheaval rather than being led by changes forced upon them. Showing how to understand a new technology, evaluate the challenge it poses, and finally respond to it, readers will come away secure in the knowledge that they have a workable system with which they can navigate ongoing technological disruption.
This second edition features new chapters on the Metaverse and Web 3.0, as well as case studies and discussions of emerging technologies such as NFTs, artificial intelligence, virtual and augmented reality, graphene and 3D/4D printing.
If companies do not grasp how developing technologies will impact their operations, supply chains, people and products, they have little hope of weathering the ongoing storm of digital disruption. Disruptive Technologies is your essential guide to creating a stable response to constant technological upheaval.
Critique: Technological advances impact business success and profitability. Companies (and their executives) who fail to keep up with these advances are handicapping their shareholders, their employees, as well as their clients and customers. It is the justifiable contention underscored by "Disruptive Technologies: A Framework to Understand, Evaluate and Respond to Digital Disruption" that over the next twenty years we will see more and more waves of technological disruption than we have experienced in the past fifty years in the form of the internet, digital marketing, database vulnerability, etc..
Adaptability and understanding of technological changes are now mission-critical to every business whether it is local, regional, national, or international. Simply stated, "Disruptive Technologies" should be required reading for all corporate executives, business managers, entrepreneurs, governmental policy makers.
While earning the highest possible recommendation for personal, professional, community, corporate, and college/university library Strategic Business Planning collections and supplemental Automation, Robotics, Digital Systems & Planning curriculum studies lists, it should be noted for MBA students, academia, and digital professionals that "Disruptive Technologies" is also readily available in a paperback edition (9781398609204, $29.99) and in a digital book format (Kindle, $23.99).
Editorial Note: Currently running his own private emerging technology advisory, TBD Group/FORTH, Paul Armstrong is an experienced social media and technologies strategist. He started his career with Myspace, Sony and Activision in the United States before returning to the UK to join Global media agency, Mindshare, to head up their social technologies team
Open Talent
John Winsor, author
Jin H. Paik, author
Harvard Business Review Press
https://hbr.org
9781647823887, $32.00, HC, 304pp
https://www.amazon.com/Open-Talent-Leveraging-Workforce-Challenges/dp/1647823889
Synopsis: In the new world of hybrid work and AI, one thing is clear: the war for talent is over -- and talent won.
With sparsely populated offices and people working from wherever they are, and with AI emerging everywhere in business and dominating headlines, our work lives have undergone a remarkable transformation, seemingly overnight. But the reality is that for years the ever-growing digital wave has been breaking down organizational boundaries and increasing the adoption of open innovation, including the use of crowdsourcing platforms as a talent solution. Now the imperative is clear: adapt to and leverage this new, digitally enabled world of "open talent" -- or get left behind.
"Open Talent: Leveraging the Global Workforce to Solve Your Biggest Challenges" by co-authors John Winsor and Jin H. Paik is an essential guidebook. John Winsor and Jin Paik, drawing upon their work at the Laboratory for Innovation Science at Harvard, shows how the massive reset of the pandemic allowed talented workers everywhere to exit their jobs without leaving the workforce. Now many are freelancing for multiple companies or are starting small businesses, challenging hiring managers as never before amidst a transformed workforce.
What's more, talent has more power than ever using platforms such as Freelancer.com, Fiverr, and Upwork, setting their own terms for work: what, where, when, and at what price.
How can companies adapt? The key, "Open Talent" argues, is shifting to a more distributed idea and structure of collaborative work. The co-authors call this a networked organization, where talent is culled from both inside and outside the organization and viewed through a single lens -- as a global ecosystem that can be tapped as needed.
With rich stories, keen insights, and an abundance of practical advice, Winsor and Paik provide a new framework and operating model for transforming your organization into a talent-orchestrating, problem-solving machine.
Critique: Exceptionally well written, organized and presented, "Open Talent: Leveraging the Global Workforce to Solve Your Biggest Challenges" is a seminal and ground-breaking work that is an impressively timely and informative contribution to the growing emergence of AI technologies that are compelling corporate workforce adaptations. An essential addition to personal, professional, community, corporate, and college/university library Business Systems & Planning and Motivational Management & Leadership collections and supplemental MBA curriculum studies lists, it should be noted for MBA students, academia, and business/corporate managers that "Open Talent" is also available in a digital book format (Kindle, $16.99).
Editorial Note #1: John Winsor (www.johnwinsor.com) is the founder and chair of Open Assembly, the world's leading authority on the open talent economy. He is an executive in residence at the Laboratory for Innovation Science at Harvard and the author or coauthor of multiple books, including Baked In: Creating Products and Businesses That Market Themselves and Spark: Be More Innovative Through Co-Creation.
Editorial Note #2: Dr. Jin H. Paik (https://lish.harvard.edu/people/jin-h-paik) is a cofounder and managing partner at Altruistic, an AI consultancy, and a principal visiting research scientist at HBS. Previously he was the Head of Labs at the Digital, Data, and Design Institute at Harvard and the founding general manager at the Laboratory for Innovation Science at Harvard. He holds degrees from the University of Michigan, Harvard, and NYU.
HBR at 100
Michael E. Porter, et al.
Harvard Business Review Press
https://hbr.org
9781647823412, $35.00, HC, 496pp
https://www.amazon.com/HBR-100-Essential-Influential-Innovative/dp/1647823412
Synopsis: Launched in 1924, The Harvard Business Review is arguably the foremost destination for smart management thinking. Now, at its 100th anniversary, "HBR at 100: The Most Influential and Innovative Articles from Harvard Business Review's First Century" is a commemorative volume that brings together under one cover the most influential ideas since its inception.
With an informative introduction written by editor in chief Adi Ignatius, "HBR at 100" features business publishing's most influential voices on innovative topics, including:
Michael E. Porter on competitive strategy
Clayton M. Christensen on disruptive innovation
Tim Brown on design thinking
Linda A. Hill on being a first-time manager
Daniel Goleman on emotional intelligence
Erik Brynjolfsson and Andrew McAfee on artificial intelligence
Robert Livingston on racial equity at work
Amy C. Edmondson and Mark Mortensen on psychological safety
Robert B. Cialdini on the science of persuasion
W. Chan Kim and Renee Mauborgne on blue ocean strategy
Gary Hamel and C.K. Prahalad on strategic intent
Peter F. Drucker on managing yourself
Whether a longtime reader of Harvard Business Review publications, or you are picking up an HBR volume for the first time, "HBR at 100" offers all you need to understand the most critical ideas in American business management over the past century.
Critique: The most definitive management ideas of the century, all in one place, "HBR at 100: The Most Influential and Innovative Articles from Harvard Business Review's First Century" is an inherently fascinating, informative, reflective read from start to finish. A compendium of what can be called 'the best of the best' for the last one hundred years of its existence, "HBR at 100" is unreservedly recommended for personal, professional, community, corporate, and college/university library Business Management, Leadership, Motivation, Systems, and Planning collections and MBA curriculum studies lists. It should be noted that "HBR at 100" is also available in a digital book format (Kindle, $16.99).
Editorial Note: The Harvard Business Review Press is a leading global book publisher and a division of the Harvard Business Review Group. HBR Press publishes for the general, professional, and academic markets on the topics of leadership, strategy, innovation, and management. Recent bestselling titles include HBR's 10 Must Reads on Managing Yourself, Playing to Win, A Sense of Urgency, Leading the Life You Want, Conscious Capitalism, The Founder's Mentality, HBR's 10 Must Reads on Mental Toughness, and The First 90 Days.
The Blackbeard the Pirate Business Book
Carole Marsh Longmeyer
Let There Be Arrgghh Press
c/o Gallopade International
www.Gallopade.com
9780635141293, $12.99 (Paperback) $24.99 (Library Bound)
https://www.gallopade.com/The-Blackbeard-the-Pirate-Business-Book-P16223.aspx
The Blackbeard the Pirate Business Book is highly recommended reading for anyone who thought business books to be dryly predictable. From highschool students to adults, readers will find this blend of business savvy and humor blend attractive and accessible. Traditional business books abound, but the real treasure lies in finding a book such as this, which cultivates a special blend of enlightenment and fun for budding entrepreneurs that results in lessons cemented by appealing examples and pirate-centric references.
Hard-core businesspeople may not understand the need for such a mix, but for an inkling of how this combination works, consider the links Carole Marsh Longmeyer makes here between Blackbeard and employee management: "Blackbeard did not always have an easy time getting the right people in the right seat on the right bus (or, rather, ship), but to stay afloat, move on, collect prizes, and do it all again and again, he had to ensure his crew was collectively competent enough to do the job. Everyone is dispensable; that's a hard thing to learn. You may love an employee, but they may love another company and a raise you can't match. There may be things you do not like about a particular employee, but the skills they have are essential and so you keep them on. With personnel, if it's not one thing, it's another. Blackbeard found the same!"
Managing an office or business is a lot like managing a pirate ship. There are rebels, political forces, good and bad employees, and the challenges of everyday routines and unexpected events.
Young readers, especially, will find this dovetailing of pirates and business to be enlightening. Equally unexpected is the blend of business savvy and business memoir which cements practical management advice with references of how the author and her co-pirate and business partner husband managed their own ship, navigating treacherous waters and making savvy decisions along the way: "When Gallopade was just a dinghy, we had no insurance. We knew we risked financial catastrophe each day if either of us, Captain Carole or Cowboy-Pilot Bob, got hurt, much less if anyone fell on our premises. When we finally cobbled enough loot together, the first thing we did was purchase health insurance. From then on, we added logical and needed insurance. We don't like insurance either, but it's a business necessity. Find a great insurance provider and listen to them."
Seasoned business managers who want predictable straight talk may eschew the pirate references here, as well as the appealing and fun designs and illustrations by Lee Barrow that pepper the book; but it's the wannabe entrepreneurs of all ages who dream high but balk at some of the nuts and bolts of practicality who will find most appealing this unusual and appealing format. Grounded in references that seem to appeal to a younger reader, yet married to the practicality of business experiences that will educate many an adult, The Blackbeard the Pirate Business Book is recommended for classroom and group discussion for any budding entrepreneur.
The Buffalo Bill Business Book
Carole Marsh Longmeyer
Let There Be West Press
c/o Gallopade International
www.gallopade.com
9780635141125, $12.99 (Paperback); $24.99 (Library Bound)
https://www.gallopade.com/The-Buffalo-Bill-Business-Book-P16222.aspx
Like The Blackbeard the Pirate Business Book, Carole Marsh Longmeyer's The Buffalo Bill Business Book crafts a unique approach to the usually-dry topic of business savvy, winding history and thought-provoking perspectives into a mix that proves excitingly, refreshingly different.
This notion is cemented by lively language that will lead many an adult businessperson to reconsider both business and history in a new light: "It was not hard to imagine Buffalo Bill as a boy of the West, hunter and trapper, Army scout, guide and Indian fighter. It was hard for me to separate the man from the myth. And even more difficult - after learning about his life as an aggressive, astute entrepreneur, businessman, marketer, and so much more - to imagine how he pulled off his globally successful Buffalo Bill's Wild West Show. Ok, you ask - how hard could it have been? I own a business. I run a business. It is one with lots of products, personnel and details out the kazoo. Oh, you say: "I do that, too." Well, I think Bill could run rings around Amazon, Apple, AI, and almost anyone else A to Z. YOU try [in the mid-1800s!] packing up and shipping out cowboys, sharpshooters, Indians and other performers, staff, plus all the paraphernalia they need (stages, lights, cameras, action, horses, horses, horses, bison and other critters, and all the tack and food and pooper-scoopers and what not) across the sea to London and Paris, not to mention traipsing non-stop around the United States."
Her links between the Buffalo Bill museum she toured and loved and the impact on her own business's challenges (which appeared diminutive in comparison to trials of the past) are thoroughly engrossing and will give even the most staid business manager pause for thought as Longmeyer brought her history lesson home to reconsider present company challenges: "It made me look at my own 40+ year old company (that I brag about so much) a little closer. "Hey, marketing: Where are our wild and dynamic graphics and larger than life headlines?" "Sales - you say you can't get to Ohio? Well, listen to this..." "Personnel, you think you got problems? Try keeping sharpshooter Annie Oakley in check!" "Shipping...really?...wrap a few boxes, call Fed Ex. What if you had to ship live bison, horses and camels across the Atlantic?"
Readers of all ages who would start, restart, form, or reform their own entrepreneurial effort will thus find in The Buffalo Bill Business Book an appealing, uncommon read that embraces the business book, memoir, autobiography, and history production in a new, refreshing manner. The lessons Longmeyer absorbed from this history museum and Buffalo Bill's efforts and examples prove just as enlightening and necessary to today's business environment, whether the business under discussion is starting out, small, medium, or already well-established.
From good business practices in handling debt to business performers, contracts, and rules and regulations, Longmeyer handles all topics with consistent and revealing references to Buffalo Bill historical precedents, adding her own reflective lessons. This bridges the gap between yesterday's efforts and today's modern perspective, adding her own business challenges and revelations. The result is a business book much livelier than most, embedded with Wild West history and the exciting flavors of discovery, and holding a chatty, appealing tone.
The Buffalo Bill Business Book is highly recommended for not just business library acquisition, but for interactive book club and business discussion among all types of readers, from would-be entrepreneurs to young adults just beginning to consider the business world's possible attractions.
EDITOR'S NOTE:
The Midwest Book Review is an organization of volunteers committed to promoting literacy, library usage, and small press publishing. We accept no funds from authors or publishers. Full permission is given to post any of these reviews on thematically appropriate websites, newsgroups, listserves, internet discussion groups, organizational newsletters, or to interested individuals. Please give the Midwest Book Review a credit line when doing so.
The Midwest Book Review publishes the monthly book review magazines "California Bookwatch", "Internet Bookwatch", "Children's Bookwatch", "MBR Bookwatch", "Reviewer's Bookwatch", and "Small Press Bookwatch". All are available for free on the Midwest Book Review website at www (dot) midwestbookreview (dot) com
Anyone wanting to submit books for review consideration can send them to:
James A. Cox, Editor-in-Chief
Midwest Book Review
278 Orchard Drive
Oregon, WI 53575-1129
To submit reviews of any fiction or non-fiction books, email them to Frugalmuse (at) aol (dot) com (Be sure to include the book title, author, publisher, publisher address, publisher website/phone number, 13-digit ISBN number, and list price).
James A. Cox, Editor-in-Chief
Midwest Book Review
The Risk Management Handbook
David Hillson, editor
Kogan Page Inc.
www.koganpage.com
9781398610668, $201.00, HC, 416pp
https://www.amazon.com/Risk-Management-Handbook-Practical-Dimensions/dp/1398610666
Synopsis: Risk management is dynamic, with new risks continually being identified and risk techniques being adapted to new challenges. Drawing together leading voices from the major risk management application areas, such as political, supply chain, cybersecurity, ESG and climate change risk, this edited collection showcases best practice in each discipline and provides a comprehensive survey of the field as a whole.
Expertly compiled and edited by David Hillson, this newly published second edition of "The Risk Management Handbook: A Practical Guide to Managing the Multiple Dimensions of Risk) from Kogan Page has been significantly updated throughout to reflect the latest developments in the industry. It incorporates content on updated and new standards such as ISO 31000, MOR and ISO 14000. It also offers brand new chapters on ESG risk management, legal risk management, cyber risk management, climate change risk management and financial risk management.
Whether you are a risk professional wanting to stay abreast of your field, a student seeking a broad and up-to-date introduction to risk, or a business leader wanting to get to grips with the risks that face your business, "The Risk Management Handbook" will provide expert guidance.
Critique: Exceptionally well organized and presented, "The Risk Management Handbook: A Practical Guide to Managing the Multiple Dimensions of Risk" is an ideal MBA curriculum textbook that provides up-to-date information and perspectives regarding current best practice and cutting-edge insights into new developments within corporate risk management. While especially and unreservedly recommended for personal, professional, corporate, and college/university library Corporate Finance & Risk Management collections and supplemental MBA curriculum studies lists, it should be noted for the personal reading lists of students, academia, corporate executives, business managers, entrepreneurs, and non-specialist general readers with an interest in the subject that "The Risk Management Handbook: A Practical Guide to Managing the Multiple Dimensions of Risk" is also available in a paperback edition (9781398610613, $53.99).
Editorial Note: David Hillson (https://risk-doctor.com) is known globally as The Risk Doctor. Dr. Hillson is recognized as a ground-breaking thinker and expert practitioner in risk management, and he has made several innovative contributions to the discipline which have been widely adopted. He writes widely on risk, with thirteen major books, and over 100 professional papers. He has also produced the Risk Doctor Briefing series, written over a period of fifteen years, with 140 focused articles each addressing a specific aspect of the risk challenge, available in multiple languages.
Disruptive Technologies
Paul Armstrong
Kogan Page Inc.
www.koganpage.com
9781398609228, $89.00, HC, 248pp
https://www.amazon.com/Disruptive-Technologies-Practical-Understand-Disruption/dp/1398609226
Synopsis: Now available in an updated and expanded second edition, "Disruptive Technologies: A Framework to Understand, Evaluate and Respond to Digital Disruption" by Paul Armstrong offers a three-step framework that enables readers to choose how their business responds to technological upheaval rather than being led by changes forced upon them. Showing how to understand a new technology, evaluate the challenge it poses, and finally respond to it, readers will come away secure in the knowledge that they have a workable system with which they can navigate ongoing technological disruption.
This second edition features new chapters on the Metaverse and Web 3.0, as well as case studies and discussions of emerging technologies such as NFTs, artificial intelligence, virtual and augmented reality, graphene and 3D/4D printing.
If companies do not grasp how developing technologies will impact their operations, supply chains, people and products, they have little hope of weathering the ongoing storm of digital disruption. Disruptive Technologies is your essential guide to creating a stable response to constant technological upheaval.
Critique: Technological advances impact business success and profitability. Companies (and their executives) who fail to keep up with these advances are handicapping their shareholders, their employees, as well as their clients and customers. It is the justifiable contention underscored by "Disruptive Technologies: A Framework to Understand, Evaluate and Respond to Digital Disruption" that over the next twenty years we will see more and more waves of technological disruption than we have experienced in the past fifty years in the form of the internet, digital marketing, database vulnerability, etc..
Adaptability and understanding of technological changes are now mission-critical to every business whether it is local, regional, national, or international. Simply stated, "Disruptive Technologies" should be required reading for all corporate executives, business managers, entrepreneurs, governmental policy makers.
While earning the highest possible recommendation for personal, professional, community, corporate, and college/university library Strategic Business Planning collections and supplemental Automation, Robotics, Digital Systems & Planning curriculum studies lists, it should be noted for MBA students, academia, and digital professionals that "Disruptive Technologies" is also readily available in a paperback edition (9781398609204, $29.99) and in a digital book format (Kindle, $23.99).
Editorial Note: Currently running his own private emerging technology advisory, TBD Group/FORTH, Paul Armstrong is an experienced social media and technologies strategist. He started his career with Myspace, Sony and Activision in the United States before returning to the UK to join Global media agency, Mindshare, to head up their social technologies team
Open Talent
John Winsor, author
Jin H. Paik, author
Harvard Business Review Press
https://hbr.org
9781647823887, $32.00, HC, 304pp
https://www.amazon.com/Open-Talent-Leveraging-Workforce-Challenges/dp/1647823889
Synopsis: In the new world of hybrid work and AI, one thing is clear: the war for talent is over -- and talent won.
With sparsely populated offices and people working from wherever they are, and with AI emerging everywhere in business and dominating headlines, our work lives have undergone a remarkable transformation, seemingly overnight. But the reality is that for years the ever-growing digital wave has been breaking down organizational boundaries and increasing the adoption of open innovation, including the use of crowdsourcing platforms as a talent solution. Now the imperative is clear: adapt to and leverage this new, digitally enabled world of "open talent" -- or get left behind.
"Open Talent: Leveraging the Global Workforce to Solve Your Biggest Challenges" by co-authors John Winsor and Jin H. Paik is an essential guidebook. John Winsor and Jin Paik, drawing upon their work at the Laboratory for Innovation Science at Harvard, shows how the massive reset of the pandemic allowed talented workers everywhere to exit their jobs without leaving the workforce. Now many are freelancing for multiple companies or are starting small businesses, challenging hiring managers as never before amidst a transformed workforce.
What's more, talent has more power than ever using platforms such as Freelancer.com, Fiverr, and Upwork, setting their own terms for work: what, where, when, and at what price.
How can companies adapt? The key, "Open Talent" argues, is shifting to a more distributed idea and structure of collaborative work. The co-authors call this a networked organization, where talent is culled from both inside and outside the organization and viewed through a single lens -- as a global ecosystem that can be tapped as needed.
With rich stories, keen insights, and an abundance of practical advice, Winsor and Paik provide a new framework and operating model for transforming your organization into a talent-orchestrating, problem-solving machine.
Critique: Exceptionally well written, organized and presented, "Open Talent: Leveraging the Global Workforce to Solve Your Biggest Challenges" is a seminal and ground-breaking work that is an impressively timely and informative contribution to the growing emergence of AI technologies that are compelling corporate workforce adaptations. An essential addition to personal, professional, community, corporate, and college/university library Business Systems & Planning and Motivational Management & Leadership collections and supplemental MBA curriculum studies lists, it should be noted for MBA students, academia, and business/corporate managers that "Open Talent" is also available in a digital book format (Kindle, $16.99).
Editorial Note #1: John Winsor (www.johnwinsor.com) is the founder and chair of Open Assembly, the world's leading authority on the open talent economy. He is an executive in residence at the Laboratory for Innovation Science at Harvard and the author or coauthor of multiple books, including Baked In: Creating Products and Businesses That Market Themselves and Spark: Be More Innovative Through Co-Creation.
Editorial Note #2: Dr. Jin H. Paik (https://lish.harvard.edu/people/jin-h-paik) is a cofounder and managing partner at Altruistic, an AI consultancy, and a principal visiting research scientist at HBS. Previously he was the Head of Labs at the Digital, Data, and Design Institute at Harvard and the founding general manager at the Laboratory for Innovation Science at Harvard. He holds degrees from the University of Michigan, Harvard, and NYU.
HBR at 100
Michael E. Porter, et al.
Harvard Business Review Press
https://hbr.org
9781647823412, $35.00, HC, 496pp
https://www.amazon.com/HBR-100-Essential-Influential-Innovative/dp/1647823412
Synopsis: Launched in 1924, The Harvard Business Review is arguably the foremost destination for smart management thinking. Now, at its 100th anniversary, "HBR at 100: The Most Influential and Innovative Articles from Harvard Business Review's First Century" is a commemorative volume that brings together under one cover the most influential ideas since its inception.
With an informative introduction written by editor in chief Adi Ignatius, "HBR at 100" features business publishing's most influential voices on innovative topics, including:
Michael E. Porter on competitive strategy
Clayton M. Christensen on disruptive innovation
Tim Brown on design thinking
Linda A. Hill on being a first-time manager
Daniel Goleman on emotional intelligence
Erik Brynjolfsson and Andrew McAfee on artificial intelligence
Robert Livingston on racial equity at work
Amy C. Edmondson and Mark Mortensen on psychological safety
Robert B. Cialdini on the science of persuasion
W. Chan Kim and Renee Mauborgne on blue ocean strategy
Gary Hamel and C.K. Prahalad on strategic intent
Peter F. Drucker on managing yourself
Whether a longtime reader of Harvard Business Review publications, or you are picking up an HBR volume for the first time, "HBR at 100" offers all you need to understand the most critical ideas in American business management over the past century.
Critique: The most definitive management ideas of the century, all in one place, "HBR at 100: The Most Influential and Innovative Articles from Harvard Business Review's First Century" is an inherently fascinating, informative, reflective read from start to finish. A compendium of what can be called 'the best of the best' for the last one hundred years of its existence, "HBR at 100" is unreservedly recommended for personal, professional, community, corporate, and college/university library Business Management, Leadership, Motivation, Systems, and Planning collections and MBA curriculum studies lists. It should be noted that "HBR at 100" is also available in a digital book format (Kindle, $16.99).
Editorial Note: The Harvard Business Review Press is a leading global book publisher and a division of the Harvard Business Review Group. HBR Press publishes for the general, professional, and academic markets on the topics of leadership, strategy, innovation, and management. Recent bestselling titles include HBR's 10 Must Reads on Managing Yourself, Playing to Win, A Sense of Urgency, Leading the Life You Want, Conscious Capitalism, The Founder's Mentality, HBR's 10 Must Reads on Mental Toughness, and The First 90 Days.
The Blackbeard the Pirate Business Book
Carole Marsh Longmeyer
Let There Be Arrgghh Press
c/o Gallopade International
www.Gallopade.com
9780635141293, $12.99 (Paperback) $24.99 (Library Bound)
https://www.gallopade.com/The-Blackbeard-the-Pirate-Business-Book-P16223.aspx
The Blackbeard the Pirate Business Book is highly recommended reading for anyone who thought business books to be dryly predictable. From highschool students to adults, readers will find this blend of business savvy and humor blend attractive and accessible. Traditional business books abound, but the real treasure lies in finding a book such as this, which cultivates a special blend of enlightenment and fun for budding entrepreneurs that results in lessons cemented by appealing examples and pirate-centric references.
Hard-core businesspeople may not understand the need for such a mix, but for an inkling of how this combination works, consider the links Carole Marsh Longmeyer makes here between Blackbeard and employee management: "Blackbeard did not always have an easy time getting the right people in the right seat on the right bus (or, rather, ship), but to stay afloat, move on, collect prizes, and do it all again and again, he had to ensure his crew was collectively competent enough to do the job. Everyone is dispensable; that's a hard thing to learn. You may love an employee, but they may love another company and a raise you can't match. There may be things you do not like about a particular employee, but the skills they have are essential and so you keep them on. With personnel, if it's not one thing, it's another. Blackbeard found the same!"
Managing an office or business is a lot like managing a pirate ship. There are rebels, political forces, good and bad employees, and the challenges of everyday routines and unexpected events.
Young readers, especially, will find this dovetailing of pirates and business to be enlightening. Equally unexpected is the blend of business savvy and business memoir which cements practical management advice with references of how the author and her co-pirate and business partner husband managed their own ship, navigating treacherous waters and making savvy decisions along the way: "When Gallopade was just a dinghy, we had no insurance. We knew we risked financial catastrophe each day if either of us, Captain Carole or Cowboy-Pilot Bob, got hurt, much less if anyone fell on our premises. When we finally cobbled enough loot together, the first thing we did was purchase health insurance. From then on, we added logical and needed insurance. We don't like insurance either, but it's a business necessity. Find a great insurance provider and listen to them."
Seasoned business managers who want predictable straight talk may eschew the pirate references here, as well as the appealing and fun designs and illustrations by Lee Barrow that pepper the book; but it's the wannabe entrepreneurs of all ages who dream high but balk at some of the nuts and bolts of practicality who will find most appealing this unusual and appealing format. Grounded in references that seem to appeal to a younger reader, yet married to the practicality of business experiences that will educate many an adult, The Blackbeard the Pirate Business Book is recommended for classroom and group discussion for any budding entrepreneur.
The Buffalo Bill Business Book
Carole Marsh Longmeyer
Let There Be West Press
c/o Gallopade International
www.gallopade.com
9780635141125, $12.99 (Paperback); $24.99 (Library Bound)
https://www.gallopade.com/The-Buffalo-Bill-Business-Book-P16222.aspx
Like The Blackbeard the Pirate Business Book, Carole Marsh Longmeyer's The Buffalo Bill Business Book crafts a unique approach to the usually-dry topic of business savvy, winding history and thought-provoking perspectives into a mix that proves excitingly, refreshingly different.
This notion is cemented by lively language that will lead many an adult businessperson to reconsider both business and history in a new light: "It was not hard to imagine Buffalo Bill as a boy of the West, hunter and trapper, Army scout, guide and Indian fighter. It was hard for me to separate the man from the myth. And even more difficult - after learning about his life as an aggressive, astute entrepreneur, businessman, marketer, and so much more - to imagine how he pulled off his globally successful Buffalo Bill's Wild West Show. Ok, you ask - how hard could it have been? I own a business. I run a business. It is one with lots of products, personnel and details out the kazoo. Oh, you say: "I do that, too." Well, I think Bill could run rings around Amazon, Apple, AI, and almost anyone else A to Z. YOU try [in the mid-1800s!] packing up and shipping out cowboys, sharpshooters, Indians and other performers, staff, plus all the paraphernalia they need (stages, lights, cameras, action, horses, horses, horses, bison and other critters, and all the tack and food and pooper-scoopers and what not) across the sea to London and Paris, not to mention traipsing non-stop around the United States."
Her links between the Buffalo Bill museum she toured and loved and the impact on her own business's challenges (which appeared diminutive in comparison to trials of the past) are thoroughly engrossing and will give even the most staid business manager pause for thought as Longmeyer brought her history lesson home to reconsider present company challenges: "It made me look at my own 40+ year old company (that I brag about so much) a little closer. "Hey, marketing: Where are our wild and dynamic graphics and larger than life headlines?" "Sales - you say you can't get to Ohio? Well, listen to this..." "Personnel, you think you got problems? Try keeping sharpshooter Annie Oakley in check!" "Shipping...really?...wrap a few boxes, call Fed Ex. What if you had to ship live bison, horses and camels across the Atlantic?"
Readers of all ages who would start, restart, form, or reform their own entrepreneurial effort will thus find in The Buffalo Bill Business Book an appealing, uncommon read that embraces the business book, memoir, autobiography, and history production in a new, refreshing manner. The lessons Longmeyer absorbed from this history museum and Buffalo Bill's efforts and examples prove just as enlightening and necessary to today's business environment, whether the business under discussion is starting out, small, medium, or already well-established.
From good business practices in handling debt to business performers, contracts, and rules and regulations, Longmeyer handles all topics with consistent and revealing references to Buffalo Bill historical precedents, adding her own reflective lessons. This bridges the gap between yesterday's efforts and today's modern perspective, adding her own business challenges and revelations. The result is a business book much livelier than most, embedded with Wild West history and the exciting flavors of discovery, and holding a chatty, appealing tone.
The Buffalo Bill Business Book is highly recommended for not just business library acquisition, but for interactive book club and business discussion among all types of readers, from would-be entrepreneurs to young adults just beginning to consider the business world's possible attractions.
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