Stanford Professor Bob Sutton has nothing but praise for the latest book by GSB Alum and UC Berkeley Professor Morten Hansen, Collaboration (readers of our blog may recall that we highlighted the book on August 7). Calling it "the best management book I've read on anything in a very long time", Sutton goes on to compare the book favorably to the Jim Collins bestseller Good to Great. Sutton argues that the book is heavily based on evidence, and contains the best chapter on hiring, breeding (and firing) people to create a collaborate workplace that he has ever read. He includes a link to a video clip of Hansen discussing the book.
   
On our New Books rack in Jackson Library we find How The Mighty Fall: And Why Some Companies Never Give In (HG3761.C65 2009) by Jim Collins (Good to Great), which argues that amidst the dismal landscape of fallen firms there are lessons to be learned on how decline can be detected and reversed. Collins defines five stages of decline, and makes a case that decline is self-inflicted and can be turned around.
He in turn offers a foreword to UC Berkeley Professor and GSB Alum Morten Hansen's book Collaboration: How Leaders Avoid The Traps, Create Unity and Reap Big Results (HD31.H317 2009). Hansen believes leaders can paradoxically sabotage themselves by promoting more collaboration in their companies, forgetting that the goal of collaboration is not collaboration itself but results. The book distills a decade of research into an approach that helps managers separate good collaboration opportunities from the bad. Writes GSB Professor Jeffrey Pfeffer (What Were They Thinking?) " ... Hansen illustrates both the pitfalls and potential of collaboration, and provides specific, actionable ideas to make effective collaboration the norm instead of the exception."
Richard A. Posner has come out with A Failure Of Capitalism: The Crisis Of '08 And The Descent Into Depression (HB3722.P67 2009), where he conducts a postmortem on the recent meltdown to identify heavy capital flows from abroad and lowering interest rates from the Fed, the deregulation of the financial sector, and the relation between executive comp, short-term profits and risky lending among the causes.
Finally, Chaotics: The Business Of Managing And Marketing In The Age Of Turbulence (HF5415.K6244 2009) warns us that turbulent times are no longer the exception but the norm. Authors Philip Kotler and John A. Caslione roll out examples of firms that are nevertheless highly resilient, and offer their 'Chaotics Management System' for minimizing vulnerability and exploiting opportunities. GSB Alum Tom Peters (In Search Of Excellence) writes "Leave it to Phil Kotler to give us lift-off power when we need it most".
Are we living in the 'entrepreneurial society'? Tom Peters on his blog cites an Economist article by Adrian Woolridge that claims our emergent world economy is becoming just that. He notes that Americans are still global leaders, but the Chinese and Indians are figuring the game out fast (Europeans and Japanese he pronounces 'hopeless'.) On the other hand, Stanford Professor Bob Sutton muses on studies about power relationships and where people sit in meetings, and notes in particular an article of 1983 that remarked on the disadvantages women had when trying to (literally) position themselves around the table. Sutton asks "Does it still hold today?" Stanford Business School instructor (and alum) Ed Batista contemplates mortality, the joys of good health, and missed martinis in Things You Learn When You're Sick. Haven't we all been there? And finally, Diego Rodriguez of Stanford's Hasso Plattner School of Design on his blog metacool correlates a daredevil manoeuver by one Travis Pastrana (watch the video) with admonitions about the future world economy. Well, I suppose insights are everywhere, if one but looks.
Two new titles Is There A Doctor In The House? and Code Red are now available in the Jackson Library "New Books" section.
 The first book written by economist Richard M. Scheffler "goes beyond the guessing game to demonstrate that today's health care system is the product of financial influences in the policy realm and in the offices of medical centers, HMOs, insurers, and physicians throughout America."
 In "Code Red" the author David Dranove, "proposes a set of feasible solutions that address access, efficiency and quality" towards improving the current U.S healthcare system.
    
No time to read what you should be reading? Feeling guilty about it? All of us seem to be commuting somewhere these days, and listening to audiobooks is a great way to spend time in the car -- without the dangerous distractions of the cell phone. Check out Jackson Library's collection.
Some notable titles:
The Return Of Depression Economics And The Crisis Of 2008 by economist Paul Krugman
War on the Middle Class: How The Government, Big Business, And Special Interest Groups Are Waging War On The American Dream And How To Fight Back by TV commentator Lou Dobbs
Ponzi's Scheme: The True Story Of A Financial Legend by Boston University Professor Mitchell Zuckoff
The Age Of Turbulence: Adventures In A New World by former Fed chairman Alan Greenspan
Black Swan: The Impact Of The Highly Improbable by Nassim Nicholas Taleb
Some are on display in Jackson Library, but to see a full list go to the Jackson Library Catalog and type 'audiobooks'.
   
Happy New Year ! Time to start off our 2009 blog with selections from our Popular Books rack that you can curl up with on a cold January evening.
Edison on Innovation: 102 Lessons in Creativity for Business and Beyond (HD53.A985 2008) by Alan Axelrod is an attempt to cut through the century-old worship of the great inventor to portray him as "an ordinary man who created extraordinary work". Axelrod suggests that Edison's life proves creativity of the highest order can be summoned up at will by any of us.
The GSB's own Professor Hayagreeva Rao has produced Market Rebels: How Activists Make or Break Radical Innovations (HM881.R36 2009). Rao argues that "market rebels", activists who defy authority and convention, rather than the traditional 'great men' of business are responsible for the success (or failure) of radical innovations. Quoth GSB Professor Robert Sutton, "Market Rebels is the best book ever written about why new ideas do or don't spread throughout the market place".
David Spendlove gives us 100 Ideas for Teaching Design and Technology (TS171.4.S66 2008), with dozens of inspirational ideas on teaching, learning and assessing design and technology.
Finally, Fareed Zakaria's The Post-American World (CB161.Z34 2008) sounds a cautionary note as the author reminds us that global power is shifting, giving rise to a new relationships between the great nations. Zakaria suggests that superpower America needs to come to terms with this picture and begin a serious transformation of its global strategy to recognize "the rise of the rest".
    
From our Popular Books rack in Jackson Library comes some more suggested holiday reading.
Stirring it Up: How to Make Money and Save the World (HF5383.H6147 2008) by Gary Hirshberg of Stonyfield Farm, describes how he built a successful $300 million-per-year business by incorporating environmental principles and practices. Hirshberg uses practical pointers and advice, as well as anecdotes from his own life, to demonstrate how companies can work to save the planet while achieving greater profits.
Donald R. Keough comes down from the mountaintop with The Ten Commandments For Business Failure, (HG3761.K46 2008), foreword by Warren Buffett. Keough, former President of Coca-Cola, offers a light-hearted cautionary guide from the perspective of his extensive management experience. "After a lifetime in business, I've never been able to develop a set of rules ... that will guarantee success in anything ... . What I can do, however, is talk about how to lose."
Clean Car Wars: How Honda and Toyota are Winning the Battle of Eco-friendly Autos (HD9710.J34 T62174513 2008) from Yozo Hasegawa brings us a very timely description of the intensifying competition over green technologies in the automotive sector, and which automakers are best positioned to survive. Hasegawa is a journalist who has met frequently with automotive leaders in America and Japan, and is now adjunct professor at Gakushuin University in Tokyo.
With Green: Your Place in the New Energy Revolution (HC110.E5 H625 2008), the title says it all. Authors Jane and Michael Hoffman flesh out the coming energy crisis, and what we all can do about it, with an extensive guide to technologies for renewable energy for both businesses and homes.
Finally, A Sense of Urgency (HD58.8.K673 2008) by change guru John P. Kotter (Leading Change) shows that what is missing in most organizations today is an attitude of urgency that leads people to grab opportunities and avoid hazards. Kotter argues that in a world of continuous change, this urgency must become a sustained core value.
   
There is always an interesting crop of fresh arrivals showing up on the Jackson New Books rack, located near the Trader's Pit.
Code Red: An Economist Explains How To Revive The Healthcare System Without Destroying It (RA395.A3 D743 2008) by David Dranove, a leading expert in healthcare economics, offers pragmatic remedies, some controversial, designed to restore the existing system to vitality. Reviewing the plight of the uninsured, he proposes a new direction for national healthcare, and explains why a century of public and private sector efforts have failed.
Face Time (E906.H54 2008) by Dan Hill analyzes the emotional dynamics at play during the recent presidential race. Using a tool called 'facial coding', Hill studies the faces of the candidates to gauge who was authentic, who was emotionally engaged, and when.
Mark Zandi, Chief Economist and Co-Founder of Moody's Economy.com, takes a panoramic view of the subprime mortgage implosion in his Financial Shock (HF2040.5 U5Z36 2009). Zandi tries to systematically address our questions about the current crisis, and offers advice for investors, policymakers and ordinary citizens.
Finally, Human Resource Transformation: Demonstrating Strategic Leadership in the Face of Future Trends (HF5549.R6358 2008) by Rothwell, Prescott and Taylor spells out what it will take to move HR from the end of the business process chain to a position as the strategic leader in aligning talent with organizational goals. With data gathered from a 20+ year longitudinal study, plus case studies, the book argues the power of human resource professionals to drive organizational change in the future.
    
Fall is falling. Rather leaf through a book than rake leaves? Time to move indoors, get comfy, and catch up with your reading. Check out the Jackson Library New Books rack (near the Trader's Pit) for some treats with no tricks. For example, Blown To Bits : Your Life, Liberty and Happiness After the Digital Explosion by Hal Abelson et al. As digital reality engulfs us all the authors ask, among other things, whether email can be truly 'confidential' anymore, whether it is a federal crime to download music, how Google and Yahoo provide the results to your searches, and whether we still have free speech in the digital world. Or Iconoclast by Gregory Berns, a neuroscientist who reveals the brain science behind truly innovative thinking, and proposes ways for you to overcome psychological barriers. Steve Berkman's The World Bank And The Gods of Lending argues that mismanagement, inefficiency and hypocrisy have plagued the World Bank for years. Berkman, with 16 years of experience at the Bank, presents evidence of decades of deception, and offers a new perspective on ways to make public organizations live up to their goals. Leading With Kindness : How Good People Consistently Get Superior Results by Baker and O'Malley defies convention and makes the case for kindness as one of the crucial attributes to some of the most successful business leaders. Based on interviews with executives from John Deere, Disney, Citibank, Smuckers and other firms, the book identifies the qualities that help the best leaders motivate employees, adapt to change and prepare future leaders. Finally, Wonder Woman : Marketing Secrets For the Trillion-Dollar Customer by Ellwood and Shekar asserts that women are the real 'boss' in households when it comes to consuming, and examines key biological and brain differences between the genders to help marketers re-tune their brand experience specifically to women. And be sure to check the upcoming JacksonLine for more book picks.
Guy Kawasaki's new book Reality Check is the object of an enthusiastic blog by GSB Professor Robert Sutton. After noting that this book serves as a good introduction to Kawasaki's distinct personality and style, Sutton remarks that he was so taken by the book that after opening it he read it cover to cover. Regarding Kawasaki as one of the best bloggers in the business space, Sutton commends his investigational style, how he asks the right questions and is able to turn a phrase, and suggests that reading the book -- mostly drawn from Kawasaki's blog -- is in itself more efficient than reading online, arguing that people read print text about 25% faster. Hmm, perhaps books aren't quite dead. We have tapped into Mr Kawasaki's blog from time to time here on the Jackson blog, and have usually found him both witty and timely, so we may be checking out his book when it is released later this month.
As the days of summer linger, you might want to catch up with some last-minute reading by the poolside this weekend. Some suggestions, from our 'Popular Books' rack : Nice Guys Can Get The Corner Office: Eight Strategies for Winning in Business Without Being a Jerk by Russ C. Edelman et al, offering encouragement and pointers to the more scrupulous who aspire to success, Crunch: Why Do I Feel So Squeezed? by Jared Bernstein, which tries to answer your common questions about practical everyday economics, The eBay Billionaires' Club by Amy Joyner, interviews of eBay merchants who sell more than $1 billion of goods each year, explaining their keys to success, and From Higher Aims to Hired Hands: The Social Transformation of American Business Schools and the Unfulfilled Promise of Management as a Profession by Harvard Professor Rakesh Khurana, who asks whether the American business school has or has not fulfilled its role in the development of a professional managerial class.
A few items gleaned from various blogs, for your viewing pleasure ... GSB Professor Hayagreeva "Huggy" Rao and Alan Webb of McKinsey did an interview of Brad Bird, Oscar-winning director of Ratatouille. Read Professor Bob Sutton's comments and link to the McKinsey site, where you can read the interview for free upon registration (it includes sound clips and pictures). Guy Kawasaki on his blog cites the clever idea of using play equipment like a see-saw to generate power; he salutes the work of innovative inventors who can use innocent childish pasttimes to power our world. Andrew Hargadon on his blog muses about the selective memory of History, particularly in regard to inventors. Commenting on a recent New York Times article, he recalls Édouard-Léon Scott de Martinville, creator of a recording technology 17 years before Thomas Edison -- and reminds us that Edison's patent for the incandescent light was turned down because it matched one filed 40 years before by a J.W. Starr. Lastly GSB alum Tom Peters ( MBA '72, PhD '77) on his blog spotlights the Chevrolet Volt, an electric plug-in hybrid introduced at the Detroit Auto Show in 2007. Peters opines this is a chance for GM to reclaim its role as an innovator, that this is a critical crossroads for the company. He offers suggestions on how GM can make this baby go -- for both the company's good and the world's.
Changethis is an online magazine GSB Professor Bob Sutton recently touted on his blog. By his reckoning it may be more fascinating reading than the Harvard Business Review -- though he is hasty to add that HBR remains at the apex of required reading for today's business literate (by way of disclaimer, Sutton admits he has published in both.) Recent highlighted titles from Changethis include 'The Freak Factor: Discovering Uniqueness by Flaunting Weakness', 'The New Rules of Viral Marketing: How Word of Mouse Spreads Your Ideas for Free', 'The New Time Management: Simply Focus on the Fundamentals, and Toss Away the Tips', and 'Trust Economies: Investigation Into the New ROI of the Web', among others. If your appetite has been whetted, read more.
We're always keeping an eye out for bold new books, so it's apropos to note GSB Professor Bob Sutton's highly favorable blog review of Dan Ariely's Predictably Irrational: Hidden Forces That Shape Our Decisions. According to Sutton, the book presents study after study that shows why we waste money and underestimate risks, and reveals how to overcome or avoid these biases, concluding "This is one of those books that is on par with the Heath Brothers' Made to Stick, Robert Cialdini's Influence, and Malcolm Gladwell's Tipping Point. If you want to learn about behavioral economics, Predictably Irrational is the best place I know to start." With all this praise, the book seems 'predictably profitable'; and indeed, it's currently high in Amazon.com sales rankings.
Fishing for reading for the holiday weekend? The Popular Books Rack in Jackson Library has some new catches. Revolt in the Boardroom: The New Rules of Power in Corporate America, a new book by Alan Murray of the Wall Street Journal, describes the recent shift of corporate power from CEOs to the boardroom. Former President Bill Clinton's Giving: How Each of Us Can Change The World reveals the innovative efforts being made by companies and organizations to solve problems are save lives, and calls upon each of us to join in, "regardless of income, available time, age, and skills." Judgment: How Winning Leaders Make Great Calls by Noel M. Tichy and Warren G. Bennis offers a framework for making tough calls when the stakes are high and the right path is far from obvious. In Opting Out: Why Women Really Quit Careers and Head Home, Pamela Stone interviews professional women who returned home after promising careers, and concludes that most of these women were not 'opting out' but were being forced out. Nobel Laureate Muhammad Yunus points us toward 'creating a world without poverty' in his book of the same name. Finally, The Perfect Scent: A Year Inside the Perfume Industry in Paris and New York by Chandler Burr of the New York Times Style Magazine, chronicles an unprecedented year spent behind the scenes of the industry, focusing on perfumer Jean-Claude Ellena and actress Sarah Jessica Parker and their independent quests to create 'the perfect scent'. All this -- and more -- on our Popular Books display.
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