Getting from College to Career

In Getting from College to Career, Lindsey Pollak provides 90 tips designed to help young people land the perfect job and become successful and happy in their careers. This is a modern take on career advice with tips on everything from what to do (and not do) on social media to how to dress for an interview. Pollack relates her own experiences and includes interviews with dozens of professionals.

What You Need to Know About Marketing

Marketing has a somewhat negative reputation in modern society—it is often thought of as an attempt to get people to buy things they neither need nor want. This, however, is based upon a misconception that marketing and sales are synonyms. Not only are the two concepts not the same thing, they are actually in many ways the opposite of one another. As Simon Middleton explains in What You Need to Know About Marketing, sales begins when a company has a product it needs to sell to a customer, while marketing begins when a company attempts to understand what the customer wants or needs to buy. It is a matter of learning what those wants and needs are and how they can best be satisfied. Therefore, the customer’s satisfaction lies at the very heart of marketing.

It's Not the Size of the Data

It’s Not the Size of the Data: It’s How You Use It combines rigorous research, numerous case studies, and step-by-step instructions on how to design and implement a marketing analytics dashboard. Koen Pauwels teaches managers to stop getting lost in data and bring clarity to every short-term and long-term marketing decision. Through the use of dashboards and analytics, businesses learn how to integrate data with marketing strategies to increase company success.

Data Crush

Advances in technology combined with the proliferation of data—the information gleaned from consumers’ movements online, through emails, over their phones, and in stores—has opened up many possibilities and opportunities for businesses and has also made running a successful business more complex. To keep up with the changing times and their competitors, companies have to keep up with the changes that have occurred, get savvy with the data they do have, and prepare for the inevitable fast-moving changes that will occur. Christopher Surdak predicts in Data Crush that by the year 2020, consumers will encounter more customized, relevant messages wherever they go, whether they are at work, on vacation, or at home. Companies that are setting themselves up now for such changes will thrive.

Step Up

It is the people who step up to exercise leadership in critical moments that ultimately achieve greater success within their organizations. However, few people are able to recognize the moments that are opportunities to exercise leadership. In Step Up, Henry Evans and Colm Foster identify six common “leadership moments” every professional should recognize along with what actions they must take when they encounter them. By demonstrating leadership in each of the six moments, leaders will be able to improve their overall performances and further their careers.

Work Smarts

If there is anyone who knows the secret ingredients to success, it is Betty Liu. As an award-winning financial journalist and Bloomberg Television anchor, she has had the opportunity to interview billionaires, CEOs, politicians, and celebrities about what it is like at the top and how to get there. In her book Work Smarts, Liu shares advice and insights gleaned from these interviews. She offers practical tips on important job skills such as networking, asking for a raise, and negotiating. Also covered are less obvious aspects of getting ahead, such as the importance of being likeable, how to think like an entrepreneur, how to bounce back from a layoff, and how to overcome fear.

HBR’s 10 Must Reads On Strategic Marketing

Thanks to changing customers and a changing business environment, marketing techniques also need to change in order to be successful. Although it is no longer at the front end of the sales funnel, marketing is increasingly becoming a strategic partner in driving improved business results. In turn, these results are becoming more and more dependent on understanding and serving customers in innovative and thoughtful ways. HBR’s 10 Must Reads On Strategic Marketing provides valuable insights into the changing landscape of the marketing function, as well as practical steps for reinventing their marketing processes to better serve customers and drive profitable growth.