Tag: Book Reviews

Who Killed Change? – Book Review

September 13, 2012 • Book Reviews • no comments

Written by Ken Blanchard of “The One Minute Manager” fame, together with his co-authors John Britt, Pat Zigarmi and Judd Hoekstra, “Who Killed Change?” is a whodunnit with a business twist. The slim volume is easily read in one sitting and imbues one with useful pointers when implementing change management.

The plot goes like this. Somebody in the ACME organisation has killed Change. In this case, Change of course represents Change Management – a very necessary ingredient for enduring organisational effectiveness when things no longer become business as usual.

7 Evergreen Leadership Lessons From Good To Great

September 4, 2012 • Business and Management • 1 comment

Courtesy of Jim Collins

Are charismatic superstar CEOs the answer to enduring success? What about dramatic mergers and acquisitions – aren’t those the panacea to ailing companies?

What about those awe-inspiring cutting edge technologies like virtual reality, artificial intelligence and blockchain? Surely those ought to at least have an impact on greatness, right?

Warren Buffett’s Management Secrets: Review

September 2, 2012 • Book Reviews • 2 comments

Known as the “Oracle of Omaha”, Warren Buffett was once the richest man in the world. With an uncanny ability to sniff out good companies that beat the market time and again, Buffett was able to amass an amazing fortune of US$44 billion. What’s amazing is that he also intends to give most of it away to charity. Buffett’s company, the world famous Berkshire Hathaway group, own some 88 businesses and employ 233,000 workers worldwide.

What few people know is that Buffett is not just a savvy investor but a great manager and business leader. In the audio book, “Warren Buffett’s Management Secrets”, Mary Buffett (Buffett’s former daughter-in-law) and David Clark depicts some of the management philosophies behind the billionaire’s success.

Likeonomics: A Book Review

August 27, 2012 • Content Marketing • no comments

Rohit Bhargava and Likeonomics (source of image)

We are facing a crisis of believability in big businesses and brands.

Triggered by the collapse of the financial system in 2008, widespread deceit by big corporate brands and sheer volume of advertising “clutter”, consumers distrust big brands, companies and governments more than ever before.

The 4-Hour Workweek: Book Review

August 18, 2012 • Book Reviews • no comments

To many of us, Timothy Ferriss is living the dream life. Touting himself as a “serial entrepreneur” and “ultra-vagabond”, the author of the uber bestseller “The 4-Hour Workweek” works from anywhere around the world, pursuing activities as varied as skiing in the Andes, tango dancing in Buenos Aires, or racing motorcycles in Europe.

How does he do it?

Rubies in the Orchard: Book Review

July 19, 2012 • Book Reviews • no comments

Serial entrepreneur and billionaire Lynda Resnick’s book “Rubies in the Orchard” provides a fascinating glimpse into the marketing strategies behind brands like POM Wonderful, FIJI Water, Teleflora and the Franklin Mint. Part autobiography and part business book, the highly readable tome chronicled how Lynda rose from rags to riches and deployed her marketing smarts to seed and grow four highly successful businesses.

Written in a witty and conversational fashion, Rubies in the Orchard presents an in-depth glimpse into four very different industries. In the section on Teleflora, Lynda described how marketing is “all about listening. You want to be the equivalent of a good friend”. She then described how an attribute can be a Unique Selling Proposition (USP) based on the following:

Hacking Work: A Smart Solution to Stupid Processes

June 24, 2012 • Business and Management • 1 comment

Courtesy of Technotraps

Beleaguered employees can now leverage on a “cheat code” to streamline work and increase their productivity – without getting into trouble.

With the subtitle “Breaking Stupid Rules For Smart Results”, Hacking Work by Bill Jensen and Josh Klein encourages workers of all stripes to utilise “benevolent” hacking to get their jobs done more effectively and efficiently.

Predictably Irrational: A Book Review

May 29, 2012 • Book Reviews • no comments

Debunking conventional wisdom that human beings are rational and logical beings, Predictably Irrational by behavioural economist Dan Ariely provides an entertaining and enlightening read in the market-tested tradition of authors like Steven Levitt and Stephen Dubner (Freakonomics series), Malcolm Gladwell, and Ori and Ron Brafman (Sway). Using the results of empirical research conducted at MIT and other university campuses, Ariely explains why we do the things we do despite their contrary effects on our health, wealth and long-term success.

Written in a light-hearted, jargon-free prose, Predictably Irrational takes us through several themes. They include the fallacy of supply and demand (ie why pricing can be so arbitrary in certain markets), the overwhelming power of FREE, the danger of turning social norms into market norms (or why you shouldn’t pay your mother-in-law for cooking a delicious family dinner), the effects of expectations (what you visualise is what you get), and two chapters on honesty and dishonesty in humans, among others.

Extreme Focus: A Book Review

May 8, 2012 • Book Reviews • no comments

Michael Jordan: a proponent of Extreme Focus (source of image)

How does one truly achieve one’s dreams? What are the secrets behind ultra-successful folks who make a “dent in the Universe”?

The answer according to NBA Orlando Magic’s Senior Vice President Pat Williams and author Jim Denney is “Extreme Focus”.

Steve Jobs: Lessons from a Legend

May 1, 2012 • Book Reviews • 7 comments

Image from Mashable.com

Everybody knows Steve Jobs.

Icon, innovator, brilliant entrepreneur and creator of “insanely great” products, Jobs was the founder and CEO of Apple.

Creator of legendary products like the Macintosh computer, iPod, iTunes Store, iPhone and iPad, Jobs founded the Disney beating Pixar Animations (which was later sold to the behemoth), and opened the much lauded Apple Store.