Blog & Company News
Jul 8, 2013
Summer Reading to Help Grow Your Business
Summer is here in full force, so you probably have some vacation time scheduled. For those hot days by the beach, by the pool, in the club after a round of golf, or whatever your fun-time pursuits might be, here are suggestions for interesting, informative, and currently popular business books:
Lean In: Women, Will, and the Will to Lead by Sheryl Sandberg
Sheryl Sandberg, Facebook COO, is ranked on
Fortune’s list of the 50 Most Powerful Women in Business and as one of
Time’s 100 Most Influential People in the World. In
Lean In, Sandberg combines personal anecdotes, hard data, and compelling research to cut through layers of ambiguity and bias surrounding the lives and choices of working women. She provides practical advice on negotiation techniques, mentorship, and building a satisfying career, urging women to set boundaries and to abandon the myth of “having it all.”
Eleven Rings: The Soul of Success by Phil Jackson and Hugh Delehanty.
During his storied career as head coach of the Chicago Bulls and Los Angeles Lakers, Phil Jackson won more championships than any coach in the history of professional sports. Eleven times, Jackson led his teams to the ultimate goal: the NBA championship—six times with the Chicago Bulls and five times with the Los Angeles Lakers.
Eleven Rings is a book full of revelations: about fascinating personalities and their drive to win; about the wellsprings of motivation and competition at the highest levels; and about what it takes to bring out the best in ourselves and others.
The New Digital Age: Reshaping the Future of Peoples, Nations and Business by Eric Schmidt and Jared Cohen.
Eric Schmidt is one of Silicon Valley’s great leaders, having taken Google from a small startup to one of the world’s most influential companies. Jared Cohen is the director of Google Ideas and a former adviser to secretaries of state Condoleezza Rice and Hillary Clinton. In this groundbreaking book, Schmidt and Cohen combine observation and insight to outline the promise and peril awaiting mankind in the coming decades. This is a forward-thinking account of where our world is headed and what this means for people, states and businesses.
Contagious: Why Things Catch On by Jonah Berger.
If you’ve wondered why certain stories get shared, e-mails get forwarded, or videos go viral,
Contagious explains why, and shows how to leverage these concepts to craft contagious content. This book provides a set of specific, actionable techniques for helping information spread—for designing messages, advertisements, and information that people will share. Whether you’re a manager at a big company, a small business owner trying to boost awareness, a politician running for office, or a health official trying to get the word out,
Contagious will show you how to make your product or idea catch on.
Delight Your Customers: 7 Simple Ways to Raise Your Customer Service from Ordinary to Extraordinary by Steve Curtin.
In
Delight Your Customers, Steve Curtin makes a compelling case that attention needs to shift from monitoring service activities to modeling, recognizing, and reinforcing the behaviors that actually create happy customers, such as expressing genuine interest, offering sincere compliments, sharing unique knowledge, conveying authentic enthusiasm, providing pleasant surprises, and delivering service heroics when needed. Illustrated with real-world stories and examples, this refreshing guide helps readers everywhere take their customer service from ordinary to extraordinary.
Platform: Get Noticed in a Noisy World by Michael Hyatt
In this step-by-step guide, Michael Hyatt, former CEO and current Chairman of Thomas Nelson Publishers, takes readers behind the scenes, into the new world of social media success. In
Platform, Hyatt will teach readers not only how to extend their influence, but also how to monetize it and build a sustainable career. The key? By building a platform. It has never been easier, less expensive, or more possible than right now.
Brick by Brick: How LEGO Rewrote the Rules of Innovation and Conquered the Toy Industry by David Robertson and Bill Breen
Brick by Brick takes you inside the LEGO you've never seen.
By following the teams that are inventing some of the world's best-loved toys, it spotlights the company's disciplined approach to harnessing creativity and recounts one of the most remarkable business transformations in recent memory.
Brick by Brick abounds with real-world lessons for unleashing breakthrough innovation in your organization, just like LEGO. Whether you're a senior executive looking to make your company grow, an entrepreneur building a startup from scratch, or a fan who wants to instill some of that LEGO magic in your career, you'll learn how to build your own innovation advantage, brick by brick.
Summer is here in full force, so you probably have some vacation time scheduled. For those hot days by the beach, by the pool, in the club after a round of golf, or whatever your fun-time pursuits might be, here are suggestions for interesting, informative, and currently popular business books:
Lean In: Women, Will, and the Will to Lead by Sheryl Sandberg
Sheryl Sandberg, Facebook COO, is ranked on Fortune’s list of the 50 Most Powerful Women in Business and as one of Time’s 100 Most Influential People in the World. In Lean In, Sandberg combines personal anecdotes, hard data, and compelling research to cut through layers of ambiguity and bias surrounding the lives and choices of working women. She provides practical advice on negotiation techniques, mentorship, and building a satisfying career, urging women to set boundaries and to abandon the myth of “having it all.”
Eleven Rings: The Soul of Success by Phil Jackson and Hugh Delehanty.
During his storied career as head coach of the Chicago Bulls and Los Angeles Lakers, Phil Jackson won more championships than any coach in the history of professional sports. Eleven times, Jackson led his teams to the ultimate goal: the NBA championship—six times with the Chicago Bulls and five times with the Los Angeles Lakers. Eleven Rings is a book full of revelations: about fascinating personalities and their drive to win; about the wellsprings of motivation and competition at the highest levels; and about what it takes to bring out the best in ourselves and others.
The New Digital Age: Reshaping the Future of Peoples, Nations and Business by Eric Schmidt and Jared Cohen.
Eric Schmidt is one of Silicon Valley’s great leaders, having taken Google from a small startup to one of the world’s most influential companies. Jared Cohen is the director of Google Ideas and a former adviser to secretaries of state Condoleezza Rice and Hillary Clinton. In this groundbreaking book, Schmidt and Cohen combine observation and insight to outline the promise and peril awaiting mankind in the coming decades. This is a forward-thinking account of where our world is headed and what this means for people, states and businesses.
Contagious: Why Things Catch On by Jonah Berger.
If you’ve wondered why certain stories get shared, e-mails get forwarded, or videos go viral, Contagious explains why, and shows how to leverage these concepts to craft contagious content. This book provides a set of specific, actionable techniques for helping information spread—for designing messages, advertisements, and information that people will share. Whether you’re a manager at a big company, a small business owner trying to boost awareness, a politician running for office, or a health official trying to get the word out, Contagious will show you how to make your product or idea catch on.
Delight Your Customers: 7 Simple Ways to Raise Your Customer Service from Ordinary to Extraordinary by Steve Curtin.
In Delight Your Customers, Steve Curtin makes a compelling case that attention needs to shift from monitoring service activities to modeling, recognizing, and reinforcing the behaviors that actually create happy customers, such as expressing genuine interest, offering sincere compliments, sharing unique knowledge, conveying authentic enthusiasm, providing pleasant surprises, and delivering service heroics when needed. Illustrated with real-world stories and examples, this refreshing guide helps readers everywhere take their customer service from ordinary to extraordinary.
Platform: Get Noticed in a Noisy World by Michael Hyatt
In this step-by-step guide, Michael Hyatt, former CEO and current Chairman of Thomas Nelson Publishers, takes readers behind the scenes, into the new world of social media success. In Platform, Hyatt will teach readers not only how to extend their influence, but also how to monetize it and build a sustainable career. The key? By building a platform. It has never been easier, less expensive, or more possible than right now.
Brick by Brick: How LEGO Rewrote the Rules of Innovation and Conquered the Toy Industry by David Robertson and Bill Breen
Brick by Brick takes you inside the LEGO you've never seen. By following the teams that are inventing some of the world's best-loved toys, it spotlights the company's disciplined approach to harnessing creativity and recounts one of the most remarkable business transformations in recent memory. Brick by Brick abounds with real-world lessons for unleashing breakthrough innovation in your organization, just like LEGO. Whether you're a senior executive looking to make your company grow, an entrepreneur building a startup from scratch, or a fan who wants to instill some of that LEGO magic in your career, you'll learn how to build your own innovation advantage, brick by brick. 
