New Business Book Summary Available for The Elephant and the Dragon

In The Elephant and the Dragon, Robyn Meredith argues that the United States is at a critical juncture in history. India and China are rapidly transforming the world economy, and if the United States does not start changing how it approaches business and job creation, it will be left behind. To help American professionals succeed in the near future, this book contextualizes the rise of India and China and provides a clear strategy for maintaining economic competitiveness in the burgeoning geopolitical landscape.

New Business Book Summary Available for Be Bad First

The modern world is defined by constant connection, abundant choices, and rapid change. Information that once took years to travel across the globe now spreads in seconds. As society is propelled forward by new knowledge and the opportunities that knowledge brings, the key to success is the ability to learn quickly and well. In Be Bad First, leadership readiness expert Erika Andersen offers a simple model that professionals can use to develop four mental skills that are crucial to learning. This framework takes advantage of the deeply ingrained human desire for mastery and encourages adults to embrace the novice state that is a necessary part of learning.

New Business Book Summary Available for Big Bang Disruption

Disruptive innovation is not new, but it is taking on a new form. In an environment of continual disruptive technology fueled by the proliferation of the Internet, ubiquitous computing, and mobile devices, Big Bang Disruption can overtake markets and devastate competitors with lightning speed. Unlike its disruptive innovation predecessors, it attacks existing markets from all sides, leveraging inexpensive technologies and crowdsourcing abilities to rapidly bring new products and services to the market that the competition might never see coming. In Big Bang Disruption, industry analysts and researchers Larry Downes and Paul Nunes explain this phenomenon, as well as how incumbents and entrepreneurs can apply the 12 rules of Big Bang Disruption to compete in this new environment.

New Business Book Summary Available for Disruptive Marketing

In Disruptive Marketing, Geoffrey Colon claims that the world marketers face today is one where binary and linear decision making no longer works. This is because consumers now control brands, not the other way around. The new power of consumers is a byproduct of the digital revolution: Consumers have more agency thanks to the web and advances in mobile technology. To combat this, marketers must think creatively about problem solving and become disruptive instead of relying on traditional, non-human-centric methods.

New Business Book Summary Available for The Power of Peers

As Leon Shapiro and Leo Bottary explain in The Power of Peers, isolation can be detrimental to a CEO’s effectiveness in today’s fast-paced business world. The solution to CEO isolation lies in working with a group of other CEOs from diverse industries. Such groups can provide empathy for the complexities of the position and different perspectives on shared challenges and opportunities. CEOs can transform standard peer influence into a more powerful resource called peer advantage. Working together and stepping outside their own industries gives business leaders a better vantage point for achieving lofty goals.

New Business Book Summary Available for The Effective Manager

Most managers are ineffective at their jobs because they have not been trained to successfully lead their people. Based on interviews with 91,000 managers, as well as personal research and case studies, Mark Horstman and his business partner Mike Auzenne have developed a step-by-step plan to train managers in achieving their two most important responsibilities: getting the most out of their teams and retaining direct reports. They present their plan in their popular online podcast, Manager Tools. In The Effective Manager, Horstman crystallizes the lessons of this podcast into an easy-to-use reference tool that compiles the Manager Tools training system into one accessible resource.

New Business Book Summary Available for Make It New

In the early years, designers took a back seat to engineering at Silicon Valley, but as the great technology companies grew, the scope and importance of design strategy grew with it. In fact, whole new fields of design have emerged to keep pace with the growing challenges of rapidly improving technology. Make It New by Barry M. Katz presents the history of Silicon Valley with an educated eye on the interaction between engineering and design that he believes is responsible for its success. Additionally, Katz shows why design thinking will be at the forefront of future creativity as Silicon Valley strives to improve the quality of life throughout the globe.

New Business Book Summary Available for The Art of Change Leadership

The fast pace of technological and social change demands business leaders who can also be transformers. In The Art of Change Leadership, Cheryl Cran presents a road map to create change leaders. She explains how these leaders can come from any level of an organization, and presents the skills necessary to become a change leader. Cran also provides a variety of tools to help individuals discover, assess, and hone these skills and strategies.

New Business Book Summary Available for The Content Revolution

Businesses in the age of technology are free to control their own destinies. By building individual domains and targeting unique audiences, new businesses can compete on a level playing field with traditional elites. A solid brand persona is the first step toward connecting with a loyal customer base. In The Content Revolution, Mark Masters provides a step-by-step roadmap to domain building and content marketing.

New Business Book Summary Available for Concrete Economics

A nation’s economy does not become robust organically—it requires deliberate, thoughtful guidance. InHarvard Business Review Press's Concrete Economics, Stephen S. Cohen and J. Bradford DeLong argue that in order for a nation to intelligently redesign its economic future, it must first examine its past. To that end, the authors provide an in-depth history of the American economy from the Revolutionary War through the Great Recession of 2008. By examining and identifying the elements of the nation’s most successful economic systems, the authors conclude that effective economic policies are concrete and pragmatic—not ideological and abstract.

New Business Book Summary Available for Pivot Points

In Pivot Points, Julia Tang Peters explores the five pivotal decisions that nearly all professionals must make during their careers. These pivot points lead some to success and others to failure, and how people manage them will determine whether they continue to grow or stagnate. In this book, Peters examines five highly successful business leaders, analyzes their personal pivot points, and discusses the long-term effects of their decisions.

New Business Book Summary Available for Privacy on the Ground

Data breaches and debates regarding privacy, data collection, and security regularly make headlines. Even as people express concern over the government’s methods of data collection, they call on it to more forcefully regulate privacy protection and put new laws “on the books.” However, how privacy is defined and how it is protected varies greatly from country to country. In Privacy on the Ground, Kenneth A. Bamberger and Deirdre K. Mulligan examine both how privacy is legally defined on the books and to what degree it is actually protected “on the ground” in companies’ day-to-day operations. Their extensive research reveals some counterintuitive conclusions about what privacy regulation and practice should look like going forward.

New Business Book Summary Available for Serial Winner

In Serial Winner, Larry Weidel takes an in-depth look at the traits of winners, the cycle of winning, and the strategies serial winners use to succeed time after time. He presents five actions people can take to help achieve success: deciding, overdoing, adjusting, finishing, and improving. Winners who employ these strategies also dig deep to find the mental toughness they need to maintain forward progress and reach their final goals.

New Business Book Summary Available for The 10 Laws of Trust

In The 10 Laws of Trust, Joel Peterson examines the importance of trust in the corporate world and beyond. He presents 10 easily followed concepts to building, maintaining, and even repairing trust. Peterson differentiates between high- and low-trust organizations and, through case studies and examples, shows that it is the high-trust environment that is the most successful. He asserts that not only does trust work, but it makes for good business.

New Business Book Summary Available for DotCom Secrets

In today's online world, old-fashioned direct sales strategies have been modified to help people make millions of dollars online. In DotCom Secrets, Russell Brunson shows companies how to use this new media and structure their products and services in a way that will allow them to make two to three times as much money from the same traffic they are getting online now. All of the processes, funnels, and scripts that are necessary to scale companies online are included and can be used by any company.

New Business Book Summary Available for Workplace Poker

Workplace Poker by Dan Rust provides a toolkit for successfully playing the political game in the workplace. Rust demonstrates how to apply effective, proven strategies to accelerate one's career in a hypercompetitive environment. This is accomplished by acting more strategically, understanding complex human relationships and behavioral drivers, developing the skills needed for self-promotion, and accepting and learning from career mistakes.

New Business Book Summary Available for A Giant Reborn

A Giant Reborn is Belgian economist Johan Van Overtveldt's vigorous rejection that the American political and economic heyday has ended. The United States is poised to profit from the accelerated pace of change that he calls turbochange. Turbochange feeds on a combination of growth in human capital and knowledge, the entrepreneurial spirit, and globalism. Entrepreneurship and openness to change have characterized American culture since its beginning and propelled repeated comebacks from economic disaster throughout U.S. history. A strong rule of law, a widespread commitment to a free market, the cultural icon of the frontier, and openness to immigrants mark the U.S. as unique and place it as the frontrunner for dominance in the 21st century.

New Business Book Summary Available for Leaders Don’t Command

A boss is not always a leader. In fact, the term "boss" is often associated with someone who simply tells his or her employees what they have to do. A "leader," conversely, puts his or her ego aside and focuses on developing and inspiring team members to work toward a common vision. In Leaders Don't Command, Jorge Cuervo details the many characteristics that constitute a truly great leader.

New Business Book Summary Available for Madison Avenue Manslaughter

The advertising industry is often portrayed as exciting, creative, and profitable. However, factors such as the change in pay structure, rise of holding companies, profit-hungry shareholders, and increased workload resulting from the digital revolution is draining agencies' resources and squeezing their profits. Agencies seem unable or unwilling to adjust to the changing world around them. In Madison Avenue Manslaughter, Michael Farmer chronicles the rise and fall of the advertising agency, and presents some uncomfortable truths that must be faced if agencies want to stop their decline and rebuild their organizations and relationships with clients.

New Business Book Summary Available for Hear & Now

According to Chris Davidson, more than half of women in the workplace feel their voices are not truly being heard. However, in Davidson's experience, the female communication model is the more successful one to follow for effectively communicating in the workplace. In Hear & Now, Davidson offers several methods for boosting confidence when communicating in the workplace.

New Business Book Summary Available for Masters of Innovation

At the heart of every innovative company is the ability of leaders to communicate a vision, create an environment where creativity can flourish, and implement innovative processes that can be repeated again and again. In Masters of Innovation, Kai Engel, Violetka Dirlea, Stephen Dyer, and Jochen Graff provide a manual that teaches corporations how to bring innovative products and ideas to the marketplace and maximize profits.

New Business Book Summary Available for Content Inc.

Traditionally, entrepreneurs have launched products or services in order to start businesses. Today's world is different--successful businesses can be based on creating and distributing information that audiences love. In Content Inc., Joe Pulizzi presents a new business model that is focused on building loyal audiences through valuable content.

New Business Book Summary Available for Chess Not Checkers

As Mark Miller explains in Chess Not Checkers, leading a company can be like a game of checkers--highly reactionary and fast-paced. However, in today's complicated business climate, the game is changing, and leadership is now more like a game of chess. In chess, strategy and focus are vital and individual pieces can make unique contributions. Chess Not Checkers follows the fictional story of CEO Blake Brown as he begins his journey to improve the performance of his company and increase employee morale by using key moves from the world of chess.

New Business Book Summary Available for Intelligent Disobedience

Businesses, the military, schools, and other enterprises generally operate best when people follow orders. However, there are times when following an order can lead to bad consequences for the organization, its employees, and other people. In those cases, lower-ranking individuals must have the skills and ability to analyze and question orders or even disobey them. In Intelligent Disobedience, Ira Chaleff looks at the dangers posed by blind obedience and outlines why it is in the best interest of business and society to develop people who appropriately resist questionable orders.

New Business Book Summary Available for How the Stock Market Works

In How the Stock Market Works, financial journalist Michael Becket provides an informative look at the key elements of the stock market, with a focus on Great Britain. From basic definitions of stocks, bonds, derivatives, and alternative investments to advice on how to analyze financial opportunities, Becket provides the tools necessary for novice investors to enter the stock market with confidence.

New Business Book Summary Available for Darn Easy

Darn Easy instills basic principles for success with intuition and faith to create a simple yet inspiring formula for positive growth. Peggy McColl and Brian Proctor write from the perspective of successful businesspeople, providing advice and examples from their own journeys toward achieving goals. They simplify the processes of generating emotional as well as financial income, building on natural talents, enjoying work, and ultimately achieving a lifestyle of ease, so that readers can believe in their dreams and take steps to achieve them.

New Business Book Summary Available for Fail Fast or Win Big

In Fail Fast or Win Big, Bernhard Schroeder provides readers with a detailed approach for succeeding in today's changing business world. Schroeder reviews the components of traditional business plans, outlines comprehensive reasons for why they are outdated, and presents his new LeanModel Framework for failing fast and winning big.

New Business Book Summary Available for Good for You, Great for Me

Many executives do not want to just reach win-win negotiations--they want to win at win-win negotiations. In Good for You, Great for Me, Lawrence Susskind taps into his years of experience as a negotiation and mediation expert to demonstrate how negotiators can land better deals with less resistance from their negotiating counterparts. To this end, Susskind provides six negotiation principles and ancillary strategies that negotiators can implement to gain an edge in mutually advantageous negotiations.

New Business Book Summary Available for The Bubble Economy

A volatile combination of housing bubbles, subprime mortgages, bank bailouts, financial deregulations, Wall Street manipulations, and overseas debt crises crashed the global economy in 2008. Since then, slow growth and rising inequality have kept the global economy unstable. In The Bubble Economy, Robert U. Ayres connects economic instability and the economics of energy by describing the role of energy, the history of bubbles and busts, the failure of financial regulation, and the environment of climate change. Ayres also provides a plan for replacing instability with sustainability. His plan suggests that governments redirect investments toward renewable energy to trigger economic growth, reduce greenhouse gas emissions, increase employment, and improve long-term investment opportunities.

New Business Book Summary Available for The Essential Workplace Conflict Handbook

Wherever there is people, there will inevitably be conflict, because all people are different. Properly handled, conflict can spark creative solutions to problems, foster innovative thinking, and boost productivity, while mishandled conflict can lead to bullying or even violence. Managers at all levels must therefore know how to resolve conflict in the workplace. Specific skills they must acquire include the ability to ask the right questions until all the facts emerge; active listening and ease of dialogue; an awareness of differing conflict styles and how best to handle them; and when to back away from conflict, recognizing that the problem belongs to someone else. The Essential Workplace Conflict Handbook by Barbara Mitchell and Cornelia Gamlem offers managers the training and guidelines necessary for managing conflict.

New Business Book Summary Available for The Evolution of Everything

Evolution is a concept that is associated most commonly with the natural world. However, in The Evolution of Everything, Matt Ridley argues that evolution happens in every aspect of human culture. In domains as diverse as morality, technology, money, and religion, there is evidence that the world is a self-organizing, self-changing place that cannot be controlled or commanded by mankind. Ridley purports that evolution occurs not from top-down design but from bottom-up emergence.

New Business Book Summary Available for HBR Guide to Leading Teams

HBR Guide to Leading Teams by Mary Shapiro is a handbook designed to help leaders get better results from their teams. The book covers the team-building process from beginning to end, including insight on what to look for when assembling a team to how to properly wrap up a project.

New Business Book Summary Available for Presentation Advantage

Presentation Advantage by Kory Kogon, Dr. Breck England, and Julie Schmidt provides individuals with detailed, practical guidelines for creating successful presentations. Through examples, case studies, and references to Stephen R. Covey's principles, the authors describe both the philosophy and the literal tasks presenters must follow to be effective.

New Business Book Summary Available for Return on Character

In Return on Character, Fred Kiel provides evidence that the character of leaders has a direct impact on the success of their organizations. Between 2006 and 2013, Kiel oversaw a survey of over 120 CEOs and their employees and examined the affect that their behaviors had on the financial results of their organizations. The surprising finding was that the most principled CEOs, the Virtuoso CEOs, achieved almost five times the return on assets of Self-Focused CEOs, or those with the lowest character habits.

New Business Book Summary Available for The Genius of Opposites

In The Genius of Opposites, Jennifer B. Kahnweiler explores the importance of building relationships in the workplace. Using interviews from over 40 introvert/extrovert partners across varying professional fields, genders, ages, nationalities, and organizations, Kahnweiler embarks on a massive study to determine how to help introverts and extroverts acknowledge differences, embrace them, and ultimately achieve the most optimal working relationships.

New Business Book Summary Available for Return to Prosperity

Economic policy in the United States tends to be driven more by irrational fears and misconceptions than by sound economic principles. This behavior presents a considerable threat to the country's ongoing economic health. In Return to Prosperity, economics experts Arthur Laffer and Stephen Moore discuss the state of America's economy and offer their proposals for how America can again become an economic superpower.

New Business Book Summary Available for Coherence

Business leaders face incredible challenges on a daily basis, each taking its toll on their energy levels and ability to respond and react positively. In Coherence, Dr. Alan Watkins sheds light on the basic issues that can limit people's overall effectiveness in the workplace and offers solutions that address the physiological and psychological factors that play a role. Watkins shows leaders how to become younger, smarter, healthier, and happier, giving them the ability to make exceptional decisions under pressure and achieve sustainable success at every level.

New Business Book Summary Available for Project Management for the Unofficial Project Manager

Many people who spend their days coordinating and managing projects have never had formal training in project management. In Project Management for the Unofficial Project Manager, Kory Kogon, Suzette Blakemore, and James Wood offer guidance to individuals lacking formal project training who are nevertheless responsible for leading projects. Using proven methods for initiating, planning, executing, monitoring, and closing projects, unofficial project managers can find success at work and beyond.

New Business Book Summary Available for The Fate of Africa

In The Fate of Africa, historian and journalist Martin Meredith provides an in-depth examination of post-colonial Africa. Empowered by years of extensive research, Meredith breaks down the complex cultural, political, and geographic history of the continent into coherent, fascinating analyses. As a comprehensive guide to the second half of 20th-century African history, The Fate of Africa comprises in-depth accounts of the countries, events, and leaders of Africa's tumultuous journey out of colonialism and into the modern world.

New Business Book Summary Available for Leading Continuous Change

Perpetual innovation in technology and greater globalization are making the speed of change that organizations face unprecedented. Today’s leaders in business, government, and civil society cannot afford to avoid change, minimize its importance, or wish away the reality of churn in the workplace; they need a strategy to stop playing catch-up and get ahead. In Leading Continuous Change, Bill Pasmore gives leaders a four-part, nonlinear model for change management that is specifically designed for undertaking multiple change efforts simultaneously and adapting to a rush of changes as they occur. By updating their mind-sets and approaches, leaders can guide their organizations to greater agility, competitiveness, and success.

New Business Book Summary Available for The Wolf in CIO’s Clothing

As Tina Nunno explains in The Wolf in CIO’s Clothing, many CIOs turn to technology to creatively and strategically achieve a competitive advantage, and they want IT leaders who will lead aggressively to shape a new digital future. The goal of this book is to provide practical tools that allow CIOs to defend themselves, their teams, and their enterprises so they can create businesses of great value. To do so requires CIOs to be both thoughtful and scary, like wolves. By leveraging Machiavelli’s teachings, leaders’ inner wolves can be summoned to play, lead, and protect what is theirs.

New Business Book Summary Available for Future Smart

In Future Smart, author and futurist James Canton provides readers with an in-depth understanding of the technological, social, and environmental trends that are shaping the future. With knowledge of the future, Canton argues, entrepreneurs can start producing forward-thinking, actionable ideas that will ensure the success of their organizations. A guidebook to the business risks and opportunities of the future, Future Smart illustrates the importance of designing game-changing innovations, plans, and strategies today to ensure a successful tomorrow.

New Business Book Summary Available for Hello Stay Interviews, Goodbye Talent Loss

Although talent is the greatest asset of any company, most managers do not try to keep their key players from leaving until it is too late. In Hello Stay Interviews, Goodbye Talent Loss, Beverly Kaye and Sharon Jordan-Evans provide a comprehensive playbook to conducting stay interviews, a managerial tool essential to both retaining talent and building more engaged, committed teams. By using stay interviews to both inform employees that they are highly valued and to learn what it will take for them to stay with their companies, managers can retain their most talented team members for the long term.

New Business Book Summary Available for The Highly Paid Expert

In The Highly Paid Expert, Debbie Allen provides readers with the tools and knowledge to market themselves as experts in their particular fields. She emphasizes a varied self-marketing strategy that employs online aspects, social media, referrals, and grassroots promotions. Allen outlines a multifaceted plan for professionals to turn their passions into profits as expert coaches, consultants, authors, or public speakers.

New Business Book Summary Available for Breaking Through "Bitch"

In Breaking Through “Bitch,” Carol Vallone Mitchell examines why and how women must lead differently than men in today’s business climate by “feminizing” leadership competencies. She outlines a nine-part leadership competency model based on the experiences of successful female executives that aspiring women leaders can apply to their own journeys to the top.

New Business Book Summary Available for Don’t Wear Flip-Flops to Your Interview

Competition for jobs has become tougher, and people have become a lot more astute about conducting a job search, so just sending out a few résumés and waiting for a response is no longer a valid way to look for a position. Rather, assigning themselves the “job” of looking for a job is the way successful job seekers operate today. It takes the right combination of energy, commitment, and optimism, tempered with a sense of humor, to keep the doldrums away while searching for a job. In Don’t Wear Flip-Flops to Your Interview, Dr. Paul Powers shares his years of experience helping people obtain jobs they love.

New Business Book Summary Available for Screw the Valley

Screw the Valley is Timothy Sprinkle’s take on the tech startup boom in places outside of the California Bay area. He encourages entrepreneurs to look at other regions of the country when locating their businesses. Sprinkle visited seven different areas and interviewed leaders at all levels, from new entrepreneurs to seasoned tech veterans to venture capitalists. He shares his findings about each city and its appeal to tech startups and their employees.

New Business Book Summary Available for The Conscience Economy

In The Conscience Economy, strategy and innovation consultant Steven Overman describes how the desire of consumers and businesses to make a positive impact on the world is driving the global economy. Today’s new generation of technology-savvy, interconnected customers have both the vision and the power to choose what companies they buy from based on their value systems. Businesses, in turn, must understand that transparency and awareness are the keys to sustainable growth in today’s Conscience Economy.

New Business Book Summary Available for Broadcasting Happiness

A positive broadcaster is someone who focuses on the positive in order to motivate others and produce results. In Broadcasting Happiness, Michelle Gielan challenges readers to develop more positive outlooks on life. By capitalizing on positivity, positive broadcasters can change the trajectories of their families, companies, and communities. Journalists in particular should focus on the positive and practice transformative journalism by offering a more complete picture of what is happening in the world. By making the choice to see the good in life and share it, anyone can broadcast happiness.

New Business Book Summary Available for The Entrepreneur Roller Coaster

In The Entrepreneur Roller Coaster, Darren Hardy distills what he has learned from studying successful entrepreneurs. Starting a business—riding the entrepreneur roller coaster—starts out with great excitement and expectations, but eventually entrepreneurs encounter failures and setbacks. While battling uncertainty and disapproval can help them become stronger and better skilled, entrepreneurs need guidance, clarity, and support to ride out the tough times. Hardy’s goal is to help new entrepreneurs overcome their fears, gain confidence, and achieve more than they ever imagined.