Eight Noteworthy Business and Management Books Of 2014
by Steve Denning,
Forbes Contributor on radical management, leadership, innovation & narrative
Over the last few years, a number of books have set out to describe the dramatically changed goals, practices and metrics of the emerging Creative Economy. Here are eight new additions to the canon that came to my attention in 2014. The books make a substantive contribution to clarifying and institutionalizing the paradigm shift from the Traditional Economy to the Creative Economy.
1. Tilt
Tilt: Shifting Your Strategy from Products to Customers bv Niraj Dawar (Harvard Business Review Press, October 2013)
2. Zero to One
Zero to One: Notes on Startups, or How to Build the Future by Peter Thiel Crown Business, September 2014)
3. How Google Works
How Google Works by Eric Schmidt and Jonathan Rosenberg (Grand Central Publishing (September 2014)
4. Doing Capitalism in the Innovation Economy
Doing Capitalism in the Innovation Economy: Markets, Speculation and the State by William H. Janeway (Cambridge University Press, September 2012)
5. The Management Shift
The Management Shift: How to Harness the Power of People and Transform Your Organization For Sustainable Success by Vlatka Hlupic (Palgrave Macmillan, November 2014)
6. Seeing What Others Don’t
Seeing What Others Don’t: The Remarkable Ways We Gain Insights by Gary Klein (PublicAffairs, June 2013)
7. Decision Making For Dummies
Decision Making For Dummies by Dawna Jones (For Dummies, September 2014
8. Leading the Life You Want
Leading the Life You Want: Skills for Integrating Work and Life by Stewart D. Friedman (Harvard Business Review Press, September 2014)
http://www.forbes.com/sites/stevedenning/2014/12/14/noteworthy-books-of-2014/
Business
Dragnet Nation: A Quest for Privacy, Security and Freedom in a World of Relentless Surveillance, by Julia Angwin, Times Books, RRP$27
Engaging story of a concerted and often difficult quest to protect her own and her family’s privacy.
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The Second Machine Age: Work, Progress, and Prosperity in a Time of Brilliant Technologies, by Erik Brynjolfsson and Andrew McAfee, WW Norton, RRP£17.99/$26.95
The book is about the impact of digital change on our future job prospects and prosperity.
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Hack Attack: How the Truth Caught Up with Rupert Murdoch, by Nick Davies, Chatto & Windus, RRP£20/ Faber, RRP$27
It was a finalist for FT/McKinsey Business Book of the Year. Revelations about the structure, motivation and governance of Rupert Murdoch’s media empire. It is a sharp guide to the causes and profound consequences of the phone hacking scandal.
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Shredded: Inside RBS, the Bank that Broke Britain, by Ian Fraser, Birlinn, RRP£25
The book is about the implosion of Royal Bank of Scotland . It brings out the author’s evident, and justified, anger at the way in which one bank brought the British financial system to the brink of catastrophe.
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The Boom: How Fracking Ignited the American Energy Revolution and Changed the World, by Russell Gold, Simon & Schuster, RRP$26
Compelling tales of communities and individuals whose lives have been transformed, for good or ill, by the latest resource boom.
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A Bigger Prize: Why Competition Isn’t Everything and How We Do Better, by Margaret Heffernan, Simon & Schuster, RRP£14.99/ PublicAffairs, RRP$27.99
Our obsession with competition is undermining the potential benefits of co-operation and collaboration is the theme of this book, The author points out in detail how competition can lead to inferior results – and genuine suffering – in business, sport, education and scientific research.
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The Innovators: How a Group of Hackers, Geniuses and Geeks Created the Digital Revolution, by Walter Isaacson, Simon & Schuster, RRP£20/$35
It is about the daring and exploits of earlier technology innovators, from Ada Lovelace to Alan Turing and how it provided a foundation for the breakthroughs of later innovators.
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Flash Boys: Cracking the Money Code, by Michael Lewis, Allen Lane, RRP£20/ WW Norton, RRP$27.95
Activities of the world of algorithmic traders.
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The Shifts and the Shocks: What We’ve Learned – and Have Still to Learn – from the Financial Crisis, by Martin Wolf, Allen Lane, RRP£25/ Penguin Press, RRP$35
Martin Wolf is The FT’s chief economics commentator. The book is on continuing economic crisis. The book makes uncomfortable reading for bankers, financiers and policy makers.
Think Like a Freak
by Steven D Levitt & Stephen J Dubner
Smartcuts: How Hackers, Innovators and Icons Accelerate Success
by Shane Snow
Zero to One: Notes on Startups, or How to Build the Future
by Peter Thiel
The Obstacles in the Way: The Timelsss Art of Turning Trials into Triumph
by Ryan Holiday
Thrive: The Third Metric to Redefining Success and Creating a Life of Well-Being, Wisdom, and Wonder
by Ariana Hffington
Theme: Apart from money and power, you need physical and mental happiness.
Best Business and Investment Books - Amazon Books Selection
http://www.amazon.com/b/ref=s9_dnav_bw_ir04_b?_encoding=UTF8&node=10207116011&pf_rd_m=ATVPDKIKX0DER&pf_rd_s=merchandised-search-5&pf_rd_r=06V4PND18T7AJ35W5EQV&pf_rd_t=101&pf_rd_p=1968818082&pf_rd_i=10207069011
Economics
Fragile by Design: The Political Origins of Banking Crises and Scarce Credit, by Charles Calomiris and Stephen Haber, Princeton, RRP£24.95/$35
The US has had 12 systemic banking crises since 1840, while Canada has had none. Is US system fragile by design?
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Microeconomics: A Very Short Introduction, by Avinash Dixit, OUP, RRP£7.99/$11.95
Dixit demonstrates in this book that economists do at least know a great deal more than nothing about microeconomics: the study of markets, both their successes and their failures.
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Political Order and Political Decay: From the Industrial Revolution to the Globalisation of Democracy, by Francis Fukuyama, Profile, RRP£25/ Farrar, Straus and Giroux, RRP$35
Fukuyama shows how the difficult balance between the state, the rule of law and democratic accountability emerged, then developed and, more recently, started to decay in the west. This is a work of political science and on political system and institutions. But the issues Fukuyama raises are of profound concern to economists, too, because economic institutions affect and are, in turn, affected by the political systems in which they operate.
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Stress Test: Reflections on Financial Crises, by Timothy Geithner, Random House Business, RRP£25/ Crown, RRP$35
Geithner was president of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York and then Treasury secretary through the worst years of the financial crisis. Geithner argues in the book that the way the US handled the crisis, particularly its use of stress tests, is a model for the future.
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How to Speak Money, by John Lanchester, Faber, RRP£17.99/ WW Norton, RRP$26.95
Lanchester, a best-selling author, came out with a personal reference book.
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Thrive: The Power of Evidence-based Psychological Therapies, by Richard Layard and David Clark, Allen Lane, RRP£20
In this important book, the authors – one an economist, the other a psychologist – demonstrate both the human and economic costs of mental illnesses. These are far and away the most destructive set of ailments to fall on the young and middle-aged.
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European Spring: Why Our Economies and Politics are in a Mess and How to Put Them Right, by Philippe Legrain, CB Books, RRP£12.99
This is a book on the European malaise. Legrain argues compellingly that policy makers’ response to that crisis was and remains a disaster. He warns that the eurozone is still far from healthy
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House of Debt: How They (and You) Caused the Great Recession, and How We Can Prevent it from Happening Again, by Atif Mian and Amir Sufi, Chicago, RRP£18/$26
Professors Mian and Sufi argue that “economic disasters are almost always preceded by a large increase in household debt”.
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War: What is it Good for? The Role of Conflict in Civilisation, from Primates to Robots, by Ian Morris, Profile, RRP£25/ Farrar, Straus and Giroux, RRP$30
Morris argues that war may bring peace, prosperity and progress. Through war, more powerful and effective states emerge and these in turn have produced the security that then allows people to become more productive. The thesis is disturbingly persuasive.
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Capital in the Twenty-First Century, by Thomas Piketty, translated by Arthur Goldhammer, Harvard, RRP£29.95/ Belknap Press, RRP$39.95
This was
the blockbuster success of 2014 and was named the Financial Times and McKinsey Business Book of the Year. The book throws much light upon one of the most important questions in economics: what determines the distribution of income and wealth. With an abundance of data and some simple and powerful theories, Piketty has made an immensely important contribution to the public debate about current economic thinking.
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The Dollar Trap: How the US Dollar Tightened its Grip on Global Finance, by Eswar Prasad, Princeton, RRP£24.95/$35
It is by now the conventional wisdom that the dollar’s primacy is coming to an end, with the Chinese renminbi the imminent successor. Prasad rejects this view. He argues that dollar’s role as a store of value has if anything been strengthened by the crisis.
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The Euro Trap: On Bursting Bubbles, Budgets and Beliefs, by Hans-Werner Sinn, OUP, RRP£25/$45
He rightly identifies the roots of the crisis in the huge divergences in competitiveness that emerged in the years leading up it. This view from Germany shows just how difficult it will be to make the eurozone work successfully, even if one disagrees with some of the conclusions.
http://www.ft.com/cms/s/2/d79f160a-76bb-11e4-8273-00144feabdc0.html
Marketing Management
"Contagious: Why Things Catch on" by Jonah Berger was named the best book of Marketing of 2014
Inc.Com List
1. The Art of Social Media
Subtitle: Power Tips for Power Users
Authors: Guy Kawasaki and Peg Fitzpatrick
2. Growth Hacker Marketing
Subtitle: A Primer on the Future of PR, Marketing, and Advertising
Author: Ryan Holiday
3. Spin Sucks
Subtitle: Communication and Reputation Management in the Digital Age
Author: Gini Dietrich
4. The Power of Visual Storytelling
Subtitle: How to Use Visuals, Videos, and Social Media to Market Your Brand
Authors: Ekaterina Walter and Jessica Gioglio
5. 5. What Great Brands Do
Subtitle: The Seven Brand-Building Principles That Separate the Best From the Rest
Author: Denise Lee Yohn
6. Decoding the New Consumer Mind
Subtitle: How and Why We Shop and Buy
Author: Kit Yarrow
7. Hello, My Name Is Awesome
Subtitle: How to Create Brand Names That Stick
Author: Alexandra Watkins
8. Global Content Marketing
Subtitle: How to Create Great Content, Reach More Customers, and Build a Worldwide Marketing Strategy That Works
Author: Pam Didner
9. Hooked
Subtitle: How to Build Habit-Forming Products
Authors: Nir Eyal
10. Unconscious Branding
Subtitle: How Neuroscience Can Empower (and Inspire) Marketing
Author: Douglas Van Praet
http://www.inc.com/geoffrey-james/top-10-marketing-books-of-2014.html
Strategic Management
J.-C. Spender
Business Strategy: Managing Uncertainty, Opportunity, and Enterprise
(Oxford University Press, 2014)
Sanjay Khosla and Mohanbir Sawhney
Fewer, Bigger, Bolder: From Mindless Expansion to Focused Growth
(Penguin Portfolio, 2014)
John P. Kotter
Accelerate: Building Strategic Agility for a Faster-Moving World
(Harvard Business Review Press, 2014)
What are your suggestions for best book in various management subjects? Write as comment.
References
http://www.ft.com/cms/s/2/d79f160a-76bb-11e4-8273-00144feabdc0.html
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