Mentioned Elsewhere on The Antimarketer Blog
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The Innovator's Dilemma First of 3 books that introduced disruptive innovation concept. Ten years after first publication, most organizations still fail to recognize disruption in their industry and have no idea how to react. Even innovators who create potentially disruptive products often can't see it and fail to capitalize through poor strategy and ineffective marketing. A must read for anyone involved in innovation. This book is referenced in: What is Steve Jobs Really Up To? and Starbucks: Ripe for Disruption or Already Disrupted? |
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The Innovator's Solution Second in a series of 3 by Clayton Christensen, this book discusses how to leverage disruptive innovation for advantage. Although you will miss a big part of the analysis and understanding of the concepts, if you only have time to read one of the 3, this is the one to get. This book is referenced in: What is Steve Jobs Really Up To? and Starbucks: Ripe for Disruption or Already Disrupted? |
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Seeing What's Next Third of 3 seminal books discussing disruptive innovation, Christensen extends the analysis from recognizing and reacting to disruption (first two books) to predicting when innovation will cause disruption in an industry. This book is referenced in: What is Steve Jobs Really Up To? and Starbucks: Ripe for Disruption or Already Disrupted? |
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The Long Tail Although seemingly insignificant by comparison, niche product sales when totaled often exceed the sales of mass market 'hit' products. This book examines the role of the internet in changing the economic viability of low-selling niche products, enabling broad reach and accessibility at low cost through enabling aggregators, such as Amazon.com. This book is referenced in: The Long Marketing Tale: Part 1 |
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Positioning This book is the marketing classic which defines the concept of positioning. Perhaps even more relevant today as a brand building concept than it was when it was witten. This book is referenced in: What is Steve Jobs Really Up To? |
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Pour Your Heart Into It A biography of Howard Schultz, Chairman of Starbucks, documenting his passion for the customer experience and how he built Starbucks into the MacDonalds of coffee. This book is referenced in: Starbucks: Ripe for Disruption, or Already Disrupted? |
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Books by Category
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The Innovator's Dilemma First of 3 books that introduced disruptive innovation concept. Ten years after first publication, most organizations still fail to recognize disruption in their industry and have no idea how to react. Even innovators who create potentially disruptive products often can't see it and fail to capitalize through poor strategy and ineffective marketing. A must read for anyone involved in innovation. This book is referenced in: What is Steve Jobs Really Up To? and Starbucks: Ripe for Disruption or Already Disrupted? |
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The Innovator's Solution Second in a series of 3 by Clayton Christensen, this book discusses how to leverage disruptive innovation for advantage. Although you will miss a big part of the analysis and understanding of the concepts, if you only have time to read one of the 3, this is the one to get. This book is referenced in: What is Steve Jobs Really Up To? and Starbucks: Ripe for Disruption or Already Disrupted? |
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Seeing What's Next Third of 3 seminal books discussing disruptive innovation, Christensen extends the analysis from recognizing and reacting to disruption (first two books) to predicting when innovation will cause disruption in an industry. This book is referenced in: What is Steve Jobs Really Up To? and Starbucks: Ripe for Disruption or Already Disrupted? |
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Hidden in Plain Sight Methodology for creating innovations that drive profitable growth. Complementary to the disruptive innovation series by Christensen (see above). Practical how-to information. |
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Really Useful The origins of everyday objects which we take for granted. How the innovations, most of which were disruptive when created, came to be invented. |
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The 100 Greatest Inventions of All Time The list of the 100 greatest inventions of all time and how they rank in importance would probably vary depending on who assembled it, but who can disagree with the wheel, paper, cars, telephones, cameras or computers? Most of these inventions were transformational, and we still marvel at the genius behind them. Big disruptive stuff here. |
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Strategy
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Your Marketing Sucks Does your marketing suck? Probably, because for most companies it's true. At least half of every marketing budget is wasted on things that don't generate positive ROI and have no chance of increasing sales by greater than the marketing dollars spent. Mark is blunt, and I don't agree with everything he says, but it's a good challenge to conventional thinking that marketers should consider seriously and take proactive measures to address before their management does this thinking and analysis for them. |
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Positioning This book is the marketing classic which defines the concept of positioning. Perhaps even more relevant today as a brand building concept than it was when it was witten. This book is referenced in: What is Steve Jobs Really Up To? |
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The New Positioning This book, by Jack Trout and Steve Rivkin, but without original co-author Al Ries, updates the concept of Positioning with more relevant material and adds discussion of re-positioning. |
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The 22 Immutable Laws of Marketing No such thing as an "immutable" law, but it makes for good marketing, doesn't it? A good handbook of marketing "rules of thumb" to commit to memory and consider the ramifications of when you feel you need to "break the law". |
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Crossing the Chasm A marketing classic that describes how products stall over a chasm between the early adopter and early majority user phases in the new product adoption life cycle, and what you need to do to keep them from falling into the chasm as you cross over it. Since falling into the chasm usually means a failed product, and often means a failed company, this is a critical concept for marketers to understand. Although Moore focuses on technology, and this became "the bible" of high tech marketing in the 90s, the principles apply to any new product. |
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The Marketing Imagination The Marketing Imagination is a collection of some of Ted Levitt's best HBR papers discussing marketing strategy and marketing's role in the organization. This is part of the canon that every professional marketer should have read. |
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Relationship Marketing Not the best strategy book (repeats a lot of things that are better said elsewhere), but this book does give insights into the way Regis McKenna's mind works which as one of the top technology marketers in Silicon Valley is valuable in itself. The book feels a little dated today, but it's still worth the read. |
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Influence - The Psychology of Persuasion Not strictly speaking a strategy book, this book examines the psychological buttons we have that make us react without thinking when they get pushed. It illustrates very effectively that persuasion is rarely based on facts and data (e.g. product features), a fact that marketers forget more often than not. If your job is influencing others (whose isn't?), then you need to make this one of the first books you read, because human psychology is foundational to any marketing strategy you'll try to implement. |
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The Tipping Point This book describes the viral behavior of everything. How fads start and what makes them explode. How a video of guys dropping Mentos into Diet Coke starts as a curiousity and within days or weeks, half the world has seen it. How word of mouth spreads. Basically, this is something we've known for a long time, but didn't have a metaphor to articulate the concept. Now we have a metaphor and a model process which makes this book a must read for all marketers, and it helps explain the importance of social media. |
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Branding
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Brand Aid This is a great handbook full of practical tips for various aspects of brand management and development. It's great for doing a quick checklist review, or when you want to check a fact or make sure your process is complete. Very much a practitioners guide that you'll keep handy for occasional reference. |
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Before the Brand Not really a complete picture, but it gives a pretty good overview of the technical components that comprise your brand and defines the language and keywords that are the currency of branding. Good introduction for a new brand manager or someone who aspires to be one. |
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The 22 Immutable Laws of Branding OK, so nothing about marketing or branding is "immutable". Read my blog to see how much I hate the kind of thinking that says there are "laws" or "one right way" to do anything. However, these "laws" are more than strong guidelines, and if you stay within the lines most of the time, you'll do fine. Just remember that occasionally you should break a law to get noticed -- but you'd better have a reason why. This is a good set of rules of thumb to commit to memory. |
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The Experience Economy Beyond service, creating a memorable customer experience is the new frontier of brand competition. At least that's what the authors say. A good read with some good examples and lots of passion, but I think the really important thing here is that everything you do contributes to how a customer perceives your brand, and you should try to make the brand experience enjoyable, fun, rewarding and lots of other good things at every customer touchpoint. |
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Purple Cow Seth's treatise on differentiation and making your brand stand out from the crowd. Every modern marketer should have this one on their bookshelf. |
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Tactics + General
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The Anatomy of Buzz Good description of how word of mouth marketing works. Most startups and technology companies get this today, but all would benefit from a reminder of just how many sales are generated because someone you trust told you about a product. WOM is becoming increasingly potent, both positively and negatively as social media, especially blogging gain prominence. Relevant when written in 2000, it is critical today. |
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Being Direct Lot's of stories about successful direct mail campaigns, although this book is more biographical (Lester Wunderman, direct mail guru) than a practical guide. Includes 19 principles used by successful direct marketing, which is in the preface, but summarizes the book succinctly and makes it worthwhile. |
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Customer Satisfaction is Worthless, Customer Loyalty is Priceless How to exceed customer's expectations with service and build loyalty rather than just satisfaction. This shouldn't be brain surgery, but with the way most companies treat their customers, you'd think it was. Every manager of a Fortune 500 company should read this, because most don't get it. In fact, anyone who talks to or provides service to customers in any company should read this. |
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Enterprise One to One Everyone knows that keeping a customer costs a tiny fraction of getting a new customer. But, so many companies don't leverage what they already know about customers to personalize products and services to build lasting relationships and loyalty. One-to-one marketing is about how to treat every customer as if they were the only one, and give each a unique experience based on their specific needs and wants. Not news anymore, but still hard to do. |
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Free Prize Inside The opposite of disruptive innovation. Seth encourages product marketers to stand out by delivering small innovations "at the edges" which make the product special and stand out in the customer's mind. Like the cereal with the free prize inside (parents: how excited do kids get about that), smart marketers can get lots of bang for little bucks if they aim for delight rather than obvious utility. Seth will teach you how to do the small things that matter. |
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Permission Marketing I wish I wrote this book. The message is simple and clear. First seek permission. Then engage in conversation. And, if you are relevant I'll listen, and I might buy something. You've established trust and value, and most of all, you aren't an unwelcome pest. So stop wasting your money trying to interrupt whatever it is that I'm doing. Applicable to all forms of marketing, online marketers and purveyors of direct email promotions need to especially take note, because without my permisson, you're not only not going to sell me anything, you're pissing me off! |
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The Bluffer's Guide to Marketing I received this tiny short, sweet book as a gag gift, but you know what, it's actually useful. It's like a Cliff Notes version of everything you wanted to know about marketing, sort of. The tongue is firmly planted in cheek, but the definitions it supplies actually make some sense in a perverse way. Marketers -- you need to learn to laugh at yourselves, because trust me, everyone else is already doing it, and this little tome may teach you why. |
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The Long Tail Although seemingly insignificant by comparison, niche product sales when totaled often exceed the sales of mass market 'hit' products. This book examines the role of the internet in changing the economic viability of low-selling niche products, enabling broad reach and accessibility at low cost through enabling aggregators, such as Amazon.com. This book is referenced in: The Long Marketing Tale: Part 1 |
Selling
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Getting to VITO VITO is the Very Important Top Officer salespeople know they need to reach to make a sale. Of course, the trick is identifying who VITO is, and then having something valuable and relevant to say that you'll get his permission to sell to him. No one will follow this prescription to the letter, but if you follow these techniques, you will have VITO's respect, you'll close more deals faster and for more dollars, and you won't waste your time trying to sell to an organization that won't buy. The simple verdict: Salespeople: do this, and you'll make more money. |
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Solution Selling Always remember: you aren't selling a product or a service, because nobody wants to buy a product or service. People buy solutions to problems. So, you better learn to sell a solution, and stop trying to sell a product. Make sense? This book is part of your solution to closing more deals, setting expectations appropriately and having happier customers who'll keep coming back and who will recommend you to their friends. If you do all that, you'll be a superstar salesperson. |
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Selling the Invisible Selling intangibles is hard. You can't see, touch, feel, hear, taste or smell them. Services, experiences (like Starbucks strives to provide), and even some products such as insurance and business software lack tangible form. As our economic output increasingly moves to added value services and experiences, selling the invisible is a challenge that most salespeople will face. Highly recommended reading for both sales and marketing professionals. |
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Philosophy, Ethics and Moral Issues
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Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance When I first read this book over 30 years ago, it made no sense to me. Just a stream of consciousness and too much thinking about nothing in particular. The fact that a motorcycle ride across the country was a metaphor (or vehicle, if you prefer a pun) for self-discovery was totally lost on me. Didn't help that I had no interest in motorcycles or fixing them. Time changes things. Read this book. |
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Value Shift Milton Friedman said the sole social responsibility of business is to make a profit (within the law). Reflecting of Enron and other scandals that took such a huge toll, we must ask whether the best interest of shareholders isn't served by acting morally and accepting social responsibility. Acting immorally certainly risks loss of reputation and therefore loss of business and profits. The argument of this text is that social responsibility must merge with profitability as a core reason for the business's existence. Regardless which side you're on, you should read this book. |
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Philosophy of Science With essays from thinkers as varied as Isaac Newton, Bertrand Russell and Galileo up to modern day thought about quantum theory and general relativity, this book opens your eyes to the process of scientific discovery and how belief in a framework (valid or invalid) can affect what you are able to discover and your interpretation of science. When you realize how much of science is dependent on belief in frameworks, it's hard not to see strong parallels with religion. Hard to get through, but fascinating reading. |
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Decision Traps Do you invest as much in framing a problem properly as you do in trying to solve it? When you need to make a decision, do you fall into common traps and prejudices? Do you properly evaluate feedback or fool yourself into believing that you have, and go on making the same mistakes repeatedly? This book claims to help you make decisions better, faster and wiser, but if all it does is make you think about your decision making process and whether it could be better, you'll be way ahead. |
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How Good People Make Tough Choices Life and business are full of ethical dilemmas. This book boils all dilemmas down to four common recurring patterns -- truth vs loyalty, individual vs community, short-term vs long-term, and justice vs mercy -- and offers a framework for choosing so you can remain consistent with your value system. Examples such as the decision process that led to the meltdown at Chernobyl provide a scary reminder that seemingly innocuous, lazy, and all-too-human lapses can lead to devastating consequences. |
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The Mind's I Reflections on self-awareness, belief systems and recursion that can really mess up your brain if you think about it too much. |
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Science, Math, Economics, Technology, Other
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Elementary Concepts of Topology A small handbook of formulae and theorems of topology. For me, mathematical constructs border on philosophy, so this book has a transcendental appeal, even though I haven't had need or reason to use these formulae in many years. If you find stuff like this intrinsically interesting, then this will satisfy your needs -- it is short, not a textbook, but rigorous and intellectually satisfying nonetheless. |
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The Elements of Color The best book on color theory ever. Beautifully printed and illustrated, if you need to understand the way we perceive and decode color, you need this book. |
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Philosophy of Science With essays from thinkers as varied as Isaac Newton, Bertrand Russell and Galileo up to modern day thought about quantum theory and general relativity, this book opens your eyes to the process of scientific discovery and how belief in a framework (valid or invalid) can affect what you are able to discover and your interpretation of science. When you realize how much of science is dependent on belief in frameworks, it's hard not to see strong parallels with religion. Hard to get through, but fascinating reading. |
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The Fractal Geometry of Nature Fractal mathematics have a beautiful elegance, even if you don't look at the resulting images it can create. The imagery of fractals has almost become cliche since virtually everyone who ever wrote a computer graphics program has written one to generate fractals, but this book takes us back to the beginning, to Mandelbrot's original thinking and vision -- beautifully written, illustrated and printed. If you love fractals, you need this book. |
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Freakonomics A statistics-based econometric model for all the weird things that are otherwise impossible to explain, from falling crime rates, to why drug dealers live with their moms, to the similarities between school teachers and sumo wrestlers. Fascinating and useless information, but a must read. |
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Godel, Escher, Bach The original math, philosophy, music, art mind screw. This book interleaves and weaves a complex word fugue to illustrate similarities between music, math and art. If you are a mathie or a computer scientist and haven't read this, why not? |
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The Mind's I Reflections on self-awareness, belief systems and recursion that can really mess up your brain if you think about it too much. A follow on to Godel, Escher, Bach, The Mind's I uses some of the same themes but focuses more on philosophy and how the mind views itself. |
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Visual Thinking This book shows that the commonly held division between analytical and perceptual thinking is false -- all thought is perceptual. We use a visual understanding of the world to structure events, ideas, language and to develop scientific models. If you've ever seen someone go wild on the whiteboard, or build complex powerpoint graphs then you can relate to this, but that only scratches the surface. Although it isn't the book's purpose, it explains why pictures are so much more compelling as sales/marketing tools than words. Fascinating and original work. |
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General Business + Management Topics
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Good to Great Good to Great is a book that inspires leadership by showing that it is possible for a company that has always been just "good" to learn how to be "great" and in the process of doing so, significantly outperform their peers in the market over an extended period of time. Most companies still won't make the leap, but this book gives hope, and many more will try because of it. |
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Value Shift Milton Friedman said the sole social responsibility of business is to make a profit (within the law). Reflecting of Enron and other scandals that took such a huge toll, we must ask whether the best interest of shareholders isn't served by acting morally and accepting social responsibility. Acting immorally certainly risks loss of reputation and therefore loss of business and profits. The argument of this text is that social responsibility must merge with profitability as a core reason for the business's existence. Regardless which side you're on, you should read this book. |
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In Search of Excellence A classic business book positing that excellence in business derives from similarities in 8 common traits. The research driving that conclusion turned out to be superficial, which led to the embarrassment of several of the 'excellent' companies failing in the short term due to inability to adapt to change. Peters even admitted a few years ago that some of the data was faked. Nonetheless, the management theory and the ideas put forward in the book were ground-breaking, and are still relevantl, if only companies would apply them. A worthwhile read despite flaws. |
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Decision Traps Do you invest as much in framing a problem properly as you do in trying to solve it? When you need to make a decision, do you fall into common traps and prejudices? Do you properly evaluate feedback or fool yourself into believing that you have, and go on making the same mistakes repeatedly? This book claims to help you make decisions better, faster and wiser, but if all it does is make you think about your decision making process and whether it could be better, you'll be way ahead. |
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The Peter Principle Shocking and cynical when it was released, this book put forward the theory that people get promoted until they reach a level where they are incompetent to do the job, and then stay in that position for the rest of their career. Enduring as short hand for what was wrong with corporate America and why there were so many dead weight managers, even after years of radical downsizing and pruning, this idea is still relevant today. This was the first business book I read, and one of the most influential. |
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The Dilbert Principle A counter-point to The Peter Principle, the book's dust jacket summarizes the dark theme and philosophy best: The most ineffective workers are systematically moved to the place where they can do the least damage -- Management. |
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Alice's Adventure's in Wonderland and Through the Looking Glass Much in business is theatre of the absurd. Of all the kids books written, this is the most beautifully crafted tale of nonsense, full of mathematics and riddles, incredible illustrations (only buy an Alice book with the original John Tenniel illustrations). Logic, illogic, philosophy, innocence and transparency make this the only work of fiction that I enthusiastically recommend as a business book. |
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The Annotated Alice - The Definitive Edition To complement the original, you'll want this deconstruction which includes incredibly well-researched details about every aspect of the story, from the politics of late 19th century England, to who the characters are modelled after, to the meaning of Jabberwocky -- it's all there. It's worth taking the time to fully appreciate and understanding the intellectual depth and many overlaid meanings in these books, and you'll need this to go there. |
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Real Time This is like an updated Future Shock for business. McKenna documents the collapsing of time in business and the growing customer expectation of zero latency -- immediate gratification, instant communication, real time response to changing conditions, etc. What's particularly interesting is that although the book was meant to describe a near future, the world Regis describes is already here. |
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Leading Strategic Change: Breaking Through the Brain Barrier As we are increasingly disrupted by innovation and change, effective change management is becoming a critical skill. This book argues that you can't change the organization unless you first change the individual, and provides guidance to help individuals accept and assimilate change. The reasons for change resistance and its psychology are explored to determine clues about the process of breaking down individual brain barriers to change. |
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