Rework
Jason Fried and David Heinemeier Hansson
Crown Business
It is popular to take the nontraditional approach. In fact, being
counterintuitive is almost the rule today. Fried and Hansson follow
the contrarian road in this book that is so short it almost
qualifies as a pamphlet. The reviews are gushing. Author and fellow
nontraditionalist Seth Godin writes, "This book will make you
uncomfortable. Depending on what you do all day, it might make you
extremely uncomfortable. Jason and David have broken all the rules
and won. Again and again they've demonstrated that the regular way
isn't necessarily the right way. They just don't say it, they do
it. And they do it better than just about anyone has any right to
expect." Another online review notes that "the little tome also
plays the counterintuitive card heavily with advice ranging from
'fire the workaholics' to 'planning is guessing.' (And) Rework has
career counselors gushing." As Godin adds: "Stop reading the
review. Buy the book."
The Little Big Things: 163 Ways to Pursue
Excellence
Tom Peters
Harper Studio
Keeping on the counterintuitive path, Peters reappears with a book
with lots of advice for managers and business owners. Perhaps the
most crucial lesson offered is that recession or not, you can
afford two cents. That, of course, refers to the classic Peters
tale of the store in California that offered a bowl of free candy
at the checkout. As Peters still recalls, "I subsequently remember
that 'little' parting gesture of the two-cent candy as a symbol of
all that is excellent at that store. Dozens of people who have
attended seminars of mine - from retailers to bankers to
plumbingsupply- house owners - have come up to remind me, sometimes
15 or 20 years later, of 'the two-cent candy story,' and to tell me
how it had a sizable impact on how they did business,
metaphorically and in fact." Peters urges us to consider this:
"Does every part of the process of working with us/me include
two-cent candies?"
Louder Than Words: Take Your Career from Average to
Exceptional with the Hidden Power of Nonverbal
Intelligence
Joe Navarro
Harper Business
As the person who has to occasionally evaluate the thoughts of the
talent in the pipeline, maybe you should read the kind of advice
that the talent is getting for evaluating and reading YOU! Author
Navarro writes a book designed to help people navigate their
careers and the world of business by getting a handle on what
people like you are thinking. So watch those gestures! "In a very
stimulated visual society we gravitate to symmetrical beautiful
objects or people, and that is a lesson in itself," writes an
online reviewer. "People pick up on verbal communication skills
just as much as looks, sloppy speaking, or pronunciation will also
lose a deal. Mirroring physically to gain comfort and rapport is
just as important with verbal cues as it is for your vocal tones
and words. The section on comfort versus discomfort will give you
an 'aha moment' and some powerful insight on nonverbal
communication, and is worth buying the book in itself."
Seizing the White Space: Business Model Innovation for
Growth and Renewal
Mark W. Johnson
Harvard Business Pres
When you order this book from Amazon.com on your new iPad, you may
be the ideal proof of how people have discovered the white space.
The clever business people - the most successful ones - are those
who often recognize there is something missing. This book grew out
of an article in the Harvard Business Review co-authored by Clayton
Christensen and Henning Kagermann. Johnson suggests that "the main
reason most companies fail at new business creation is that they
fear to act without an unambiguous motive to do so. Staffed with
people trained to operate within the defined norms of their company
and their industry, they shy away from moves that don't immediately
make sense within the context of their current operations." When a
company (your company?) is so busy defending its current turf, or
just barely eking out some growth by expanding its current
offerings, you leave the door open for your competitor to offer
low-end versions that just end up killing off your products.