A Compendium of The Best Business Books of 2009 by David Wyld, Professor of Management, Southeastern Louisiana University

A Compendium of the Best Business Books of 2009 by David Wyld, Professor of Management, Southeastern Louisiana University

From Fast Company Magazine (http://www.fastcompany.com/pics/print/162)

The Best Business Books of 2009

By dlidsky@fastcompany.com

Created Dec 18 2009 – 4:00pm

The best books of the year have two stories to tell: How we got into this economic crisis (and how we can prevent it from happening again) and how there’s a class of companies wreaking their own brand of havoc on their industries. Both offer fascinating tales of innovation, and you’ll learn everything from the secret underpinning some of the world’s fastest-growing companies to strategies and insights for building a more sustainable society in the wake of the recession.

 

The best books of the year have two stories to tell: How we got into this economic crisis (and how we can prevent it from happening again) and how there’s a class of companies wreaking their own brand of havoc on their industries. Both offer fascinating tales of innovation, and you’ll learn everything from the secret underpinning some of the world’s fastest-growing companies to strategies and insights for building a more sustainable society in the wake of the recession.

“In Cheap We Trust” by Lauren Weber

This history of frugality in America–why it’s been stigmatized and whether there’s a sustainable alternative to a purely consumption-based economy–is consistently surprising and clever. A very worthwhile indulgence.

Essence in a quote: “The fact is, as [Ben] Franklin well knew, Americans have had a troubled, complicated relationship with frugality almost since the first boatloads of Puritans landed on these shores.”

“Viral Loop” by Adam L. Penenberg

No book better explains the rocket-ship growth of a service like Facebook or Twitter and how their rapid spread through the culture isn’t accidental but carefully baked into the product.

Essence in a quote: “The trick is they created something people really want, so much so that their customers happily spread their product for them through their own social network of friends, family, colleagues, and peers.”

“Create Your Own Economy” by Tyler Cowen

At first glance, our time communicating with friends on Facebook, Googling, organizing photos on Flickr, and other social activity seems like a waste of time. But Cowen, an economist, provocatively argues that they are all forms of economic activity and we need to account for the internal production inside our minds.

Essence in a quote: “Facebook and Twitter are fun, but they don’t generate that much in the way of traditional revenue and jobs. More and more of our economic growth is coming in such forms. This is one unnoticed side effect of our financial crisis. We’re still having a kind of economic growth, but it shows up less in the statistics. Our economy will need to make some very sudden adjustments. This will be beneficial in the long run but right now we are feeling the revenue squeeze very acutely, in part because few people expected this.”

“Bright-Sided” by Barbara Ehrenreich

The author of Nickel and Dimed gleefully pops the positive-thinking bubble that, she argues, has propped up everything from banks’ belief in complex derivatives to the pink-ribboned industry surrounding breast cancer. Amazingly, she’ll make you laugh, albeit ruefully, as she presents how society’s relentless focus on being upbeat has eroded our ability to ask–and heed–the kind of uncomfortable questions that could have fended off economic disaster.

Essence in a quote: “[Positive thinking] was also a liberating ideology for top-level executives. What was the point in agonizing over balance sheets and tedious analyses of risk–and why bother worrying about dizzying levels of debt and exposure to potential defaults–when all good things come to those who are optimistic enough to expect them?”

“Googled” by Ken Auletta

Hardly a week goes by without someone describing Google as “the most important company in the history of the world.” Veteran media reporter and New Yorker writer Ken Auletta has the inside scoop on how Google reached such heights in such short order, and he explores its relentless ambitions and the impact that insatiability has across the rest of the media landscape.

Essence in a quote: “If we solve search,” Google cofounder Larry Page told a class at Stanford in 2002, “that means you can answer any question. Which means you can do basically anything.”

“Busted” by Edmund Andrews

The “innovations” that led to the housing crisis and economic meltdown are made concrete–and all the more damning–when told through the personal story of the author, who bought too much house for all the wrong reasons and found himself on the wrong side of the American dream.

Essence in a quote: “I had succumbed to the same foolish temptations that had trapped millions of other Americans. My credit scores were shot. Bill collectors called constantly. I was flirting with foreclosure. Almost none of our friends and neighbors had any idea how close to the edge my wife Patty and I were. Like countless others trapped in the mortgage meltdown, we looked like average suburban homeowners.”

“Change by Design” by Tim Brown

The CEO of the uber design-firm Ideo takes us on a journey through the flexibility and power of design thinking that also serves as a primer on Ideo’s evolving larger ambitions. Brown convincingly depicts how design can be used to improve the every day utility of objects we might take for granted, but more important, how it can address larger societal issues such as health care, education, and economic opportunity in the developing world.

Essence in a quote: “Design thinking relies on our ability to be intuitive, to recognize patterns, to construct ideas that have emotional meaning as well as functionality, to express ourselves in media other than words or symbols. Nobody wants to run a business based on feeling, intuition, and inspiration, but an over-reliance on the rational and the analytical can be just as dangerous. The integrated approach at the core of the design process suggests a ‘third way.’”

“Adland” by James Othmer

State-of-the-industry advertising manifestos are usually written by titans of the business, not former mid-level creatives who bounced around a number of large agencies. Yet this unlikely guide is the perfect one to take us through the apocalypse current roiling “Adland.” Othmer shows us what’s wrong about the old model by telling war stories with a jaundiced eye, and he then uses that same eye to look in on the cutting-edge, next-generation “don’t call us an ad agency” creative shops defining the future.

Essence in a quote: “Instead of the traditional copywriter/art-director dynamic employed by most ad agencies, 42 Entertainment (which is also the company behind the campaign for the highly successful launch of the box-office-record-breaking Batman film The Dark Knight) typically relies on its alternate-reality-game background and involves everyone from sci-fi authors and sitcom writers to video game developers to create an experience that they say is exponentially more engaging and immersive than any traditional TV commercial.”

“In-N-Out Burger” by Stacy Perman

The West Coast burger chain with an international cult of fans is a paragon of simplicity, from its menu of burgers, fries, and shakes to how it slowly grows its business. Perman constructs the building blocks of In-N-Out’s success and presents them in stark relief to the rest of the fast-food industry, depicting how strong values-based businesses can trump their peers on their own terms. And as In-N-Out’s story also shows, abiding principles can even overcome the most lurid behind-the-scenes drama.

Essence in a quote: “‘Keep it real simple,’ [In-N-Out founder Harry Snyder] always said. ‘Do one thing and do it the best you can.’”

“Strategy for Sustainability” by Adam Werbach

The noted environmentalist lays out his green business ideas, formed by working with the likes of Sierra Club and Wal-Mart, for how corporations can be a force for good on the planet.

Essence in a quote: “I began identifying the simple rules that nature follows to survive conditions far harsher than the worst market meltdown. Working with rather than against large corporations, which are members of ecosystems in their own right, I looked for strategic and operational solutions to their sustainability problems in the longest-running and still functioning system on Earth–the planet itself.”

From Small Business Trends (http://smallbiztrends.com/2009/12/best-small-business-books-2009-awards.html/print/)

Best Small Business Books 2009 – Reader’s Choice Awards

Posted By Anita Campbell On December 8, 2009

Welcome to the 2009 Small Business Book Awards – Reader’s Choice edition.

The following books are the top 10 small business books for 2009 as voted by the readers of Small Business Trends and other entrepreneurs and small business managers.  These are from a field of 47 new books nominated initially. Write-ins were allowed.  (Note our separate Editor’s Choice Edition [1].)

This is the second year in a row for the Awards.  But this year we made them bigger and better.  First, we got more input from readers on the initial list of nominees. Second, we implemented a formal voting process for the final choices.

To be eligible, books had to appeal to small business personnel, entrepreneurs, freelancers or the self-employed. Also, books had to be newly published (or revised) during 2009 (no older books).

Nearly 4,000 votes were cast, with almost 200 write-ins. Thank you very much for helping choose!

Enough talk….  Here is the list of 2009 Best Small Business Books – Reader’s Choice Awards (in alphabetical order):

Awesomely Simple: Essential Business Strategies for Turning Ideas Into Action [2] - This book helps you cut through the clutter as a business owner. There is an endless stream of things to distract you – the trick is to identify what REALLY drives success.  Author John Spence focuses on 6 strategies: Vivid Vision, Best People, A Performance-Oriented Culture, Robust Communication, A Sense of Urgency, and Extreme Customer Focus.   Read reviews [3].

BAM: Delivering Customer Service in a Self-Service World [4] - “BAM” debunks 20 myths about customer service – from “The customer is always right” to “Companies achieve customer service by under-promising and over-delivering.”  This book by Barry Moltz and Mary Jane Grinstead features a  “customer value calculation” and a list of customer satisfaction questions, among other resources.  Read our review of BAM [5].

Career Renegade [6] - Jonathan Fields, a Wall Street attorney turned entrepreneur, offers motivational and practical advice to pursue your passions.   If you’ve ever felt drained and devalued through employment, the book helps you translate your passion into a viable, profitable business.   The personal case studies are inspiring and prove you CAN do it.  Our review:  Are You a Career Renegade? [7]

The Constant Contact Guide to Email Marketing [8] - This book by Eric Groves offers best practices for email marketing. As the title suggests, the focus is on Constant Contact, an email marketing provider for small businesses. But don’t let that fool you.  No matter which email provider you use, you’ll be able to apply practical advice.  Examples include: how to build an email list and how to create compelling content. Read reviews on Amazon [9].

Crush It!: Why NOW Is the Time to Cash In on Your Passion [10]- This book by online marketing phenomenon Gary Vaynerchuk focuses on how to build an online business and how to use social media and online marketing to grow a business.  The book draws on his own experiences expanding his family’s  liquor store using techniques such as a video blog. The author’s personality infuses this book.  Read reviews [11].

Escape from Cubicle Nation [12] - Written by Pamela Slim, this is the ultimate road map for getting yourself out of that corporate cubicle and into your own startup.  There is so much to consider when making this leap. The author provides practical advice for those dreaming of becoming CEO of their own business. In addition to the practical aspects of starting a business, it also guides you through the emotional landmines of making the leap to entrepreneurship.  Read our review [13].

Immigrant, Inc.: Why Immigrant Entrepreneurs Are Driving the New Economy [14] - This book challenges you to “think like an immigrant.”  It says that immigrants are twice as likely to launch a business. Immigrants are behind half of the high-tech startups in Silicon Valley.  One reviewer writes:  “Richard Herman and Robert Smith argue convincingly that without the fresh energy, skills and work ethic of immigrants, our ecomony would go stale.”  Read Amazon reviews [15].

The New Community Rules: Marketing on the Social Web [16] - If you read just one book this season about social media, make sure it’s Tamar Weinberg’s “The New Community Rules: Marketing on the Social Web.”  This book shows how to use social media to market your business.  Covers a large number of sites, from Twitter to lesser-known ones like Kirtsy.  Read our review of The New Community Rules [17].

The Sassy Ladies Toolkit for Startup Businesses [18] - This book is part reference guide, part  workbook, taking you step-by-step through starting your business.  It includes practical business advice for startups, with inspiring stories about women entrepreneurs, and a dash of humor so you don’t take yourself too seriously.  By 3 women entrepreneurs:  Michelle Girasole, Wendy Hanson and Miriam Perry.  Read reviews on Amazon [19].

Trust Agents: Using the Web to Build Influence, Improve Reputation, and Earn Trust [20] – Written by Chris Brogan and Julien Smith, the term “Trust Agents” refers to digitally savvy people who are adept at using the Web to humanize a business through developing relationships.   These trust agents wield great power over business reputations, the authors say.  This book shows you how to develop relationships with trust agents, and how to become one.  Read reviews here [21].

From The Financial Times (http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/ac05a258-839a-11de-a24e-00144feabdc0,dwp_uuid=931c8ef4-1acd-11de-8aa3-0000779fd2ac.html?nclick_check=1)

2009 long list

By Andrew Hill

Published: August 7 2009 23:17 | Last updated: August 7 2009 23:17

Ghosts of financial crises past, present and future haunt this year’s array of new business books. Many of the 200 or so titles submitted for the Financial Times and Goldman Sachs Business Book of the Year award this year could have been divided into three categories: how it happened; how to avoid it happening again; and how it happened before (but nobody remembered).

The cataclysms of the past two years will fuel publishers’ lists of business books well into 2010 – and we may have to wait even longer for a definitive account. But, as Lynda Gratton of London Business School – who joins the panel of judges this year – pointed out at the May launch of the prize, good timing is more important than ever this year. “If you write a book that is published right now that is optimistic, then people will say: ‘It’s far too optimistic.’ If you write something about recession that comes out even in September, people will say: ‘How goddamn boring is that?’”

The list acknowledges broader challenges that will face world business after Lehman Brothers and the rest are forgotten

Histories should avoid the pitfall of bad timing. The 15 titles on the book award’s “longlist”, disclosed for the first time this year, reflect that. Among those that take a long historical view is This Time Is Different, Carmen Reinhart and Kenneth Rogoff’s analysis of crises past.

Frank Partnoy was fortunate enough to be working on his new book – The Match King, about the rise and fall of entrepreneur-financier Ivar Kreuger in the 1930s – when a modern-day parallel came along in the form of Bernard Madoff. Like The Match King, Liaquat Ahamed’s elegant Lords of Finance is a cautionary tale – in Ahamed’s case, of how central bankers’ bad decisions caused the Great Depression.

Meanwhile, in The Myth of the Rational Market, Justin Fox documents the history of the theory of efficient markets that led many to their doom in the latest crisis. As John Authers, reviewing the book for the Financial Times, pointed out, Fox underlines that “the financiers who came to grief last year should have been fully aware that they could not rely on their own models”.

The longlist could not ignore some of the more up-to-date accounts of what we have just been through – although a number of keenly awaited titles do not appear until after the November cut-off date for eligibility for this year’s prize. But William Cohan, the 2007 winner of the prize, was quick enough off the mark with House of Cards, which documents the fall of Bear Stearns in spring 2008, while David Wessel’s In Fed We Trust , an account of how Ben Bernanke, chairman of the US Federal Reserve, tackled the crisis, brings the story right up to this summer.

A couple of books attempt to provide pointers to the future, although there were fewer submissions this year from authors seeking to predict what would happen next. In Animal Spirits, George Akerlof and Robert Shiller look at what went wrong with orthodox economics but also lay out ambitious ways human nature could be channelled to improve capitalism.

The longlist also acknowledges the broader challenges that will face world business after Lehman Brothers and the rest are forgotten. Chris Anderson’s Free is his latest attempt to explain changes the internet is wreaking on conventional business models. From outside the mainstream come Tristram Stuart’s uncompromising look at the food we unthinkingly throw away, Waste, which the FT’s Fiona Harvey called “one of the most important environmental books to come out in years”, and Jeff Rubin’s book on coping with “peak oil”, Why Your World is About to Get a Whole Lot Smaller.

The list also recognises that, through crisis, looming environmental disaster and recession, managers will still have to manage, with a trio of titles from top business gurus and academics Rosabeth Moss Kanter (Supercorp – an optimistic view of companies guided by “the social good”), Jim Collins (the topical How the Mighty Fall) and Rob Goffee and Gareth Jones (Clever), on handling the stars among your staff.

Finally, the longlist raises the possibility that one or two of the finalists the judges will select in September will speak from experience, as bosses of multinational companies. Both Nandan Nilekani, chief executive of Infosys Technologies, and Stephen Green, chairman of HSBC, have books in contention. Nilekani’s Imagining India is an account of the dynamism and dangers of his fast-growing home country, while Green offers his outline of a moral framework for globalisation and business, Good Value.

In short, the longlisted titles are many things: provocative, informative and, in line with the book award’s mission, compelling and enjoyable.

From Independent Publisher (http://www.independentpublisher.com/article.php?page=1280)

Announcing Results of the 2nd Annual Axiom Business Book Awards

“Recognizing and promoting the world’s best business titles.”

Jenkins Group Inc. is proud to announce the results of the second annual, 2009 Axiom Business Book Awards, designed to honor the year’s best business books and their authors and publishers.

The Axiom Business Book Awards are intended to bring increased recognition to exemplary business books and their creators, with the understanding that business people are an information-hungry segment of the population, eager to learn about great new books that will inspire them and help them improve their careers and businesses.

Click here for the Axiom Press page, with press release, printable results listing, link to Axiom merchandise & artwork, etc.

Axiom Award winning books are listed by their Gold, Silver or Bronze medal designations within each category.

Congratulations to all!

1. General Business/Economics

Gold: Predictably Irrational: The Hidden Forces That Shape Our Decisions, by Dan Ariely (HarperCollins Publishers)

Silver: Right Before You Write, by Jonathan O’Brien, Th.D. (Sandy Point Ink)

Bronze: Billion Dollar Lessons: What You Can Learn from the Most Inexcusable Business Failures of the Last 25 Years, by Paul B. Carroll & Chunka Mui (Portfolio/Sentinel)

2. Career (job search, career advancement)

Gold (tie): From Higher Aims to Hired Hands, by Rakesh Khurana (Princeton University Press) and How to Self-Destruct: Making the Least of What’s Left of Your Career, by Jason Seiden (Trestle Publishing)

Silver (tie): When Reality Hits: What Employers Want Recent College Graduates to Know, by Nancy Barry (Brown Books) and Seeing Yourself as Others Do, by Carol Keers and Thomas Mungavan (Significant Pursuit)

Bronze: The Busy Adult’s Guide to Making College Happen!, by Geoffrey Schmidt (Break Free Publishing)

3. Sales (sales skills, negotiating, closing)

Gold: Customer Loyalty Concepts: The First Interactive Thought Book, by Jeffrey Gitomer (Lito Press)

Silver: Maximum Horsepower: How to Strengthen Your Sales Force Quickly, by Ocean Palmer (Airplane Reader Publishing)

Bronze: Stop Selling and Do Something Valuable, by Steve Walmsley (Mastery Press)

4. Leadership

Gold: The People Pill: The Cure for Every Manager’s Number One Problem, by Ken Wright (Amanda Gore International)

Silver: Tribes: We Need You to Lead Us, by Seth Godin (Portfolio/Penguin)

Bronze: The Five Most Important Questions You Will Ever Ask About Your Organization, by Peter F. Drucker (Jossey-Bass)

5. Communication Skills/Networking

Gold: The Back of the Napkin: Solving Problems and Selling Ideas with Pictures, by Dan Roam

(Portfolio/Penguin)

Silver: Loud & Clear: 5 Steps to Say What You Mean and Get What You Want, by Karen Berg (Career Press)

Bronze (tie): Managing Thought: How Do Your Thoughts Rule Your World?, by Mary J. Lore (Ferne Press) and Battles between Somebodies and Nobodies: Combat Abuse of Rank at Work and at Home, by Julie Ann Wambach, Ph.D. (Brookside Press)

6. Business Ethics

Gold: How: Why HOW We Do Anything Means Everything…in Business (and in Life), by Dov Seidman (John Wiley & Sons)

Silver: Payback: Debt and the Shadow Side of Wealth, by Margaret Atwood (House of Anansi Press)

Bronze: Integrity in the Workplace, by Steve Marr (Business Proverbs)

7. Operations Management/Productivity/TQM

Gold: Choosing Project Success: A Guide for Building Professionals, by J.F. McCarthy (Pareto)

Silver: On Selling Management: The Path to a Better Top Line, by Spider Lockhart & Ulrich Herter (Arbor Eight)

Bronze: Physical Asset Management for the Executive, by Howard W. Penrose, PhD, CMRP (Success by Design)

8. Human Resources/Employee Training

Gold: Home Staging & Re-Design Course, by Judy Mandel & Kirsten Levinson (Haverhill Institute of Staging & Design)

Silver: No More Rotten Eggs: 13 Steps to Hiring Grade AA Talent, by Debra Thompson & Bill Greif (TG & Associates)

Bronze: 101 Movie Clips that Teach and Train, by Becky Pike Pluth, M.Ed. (Pluth & Pluth)

9. Entrepreneurship

Gold (tie): ECOpreneuring: Putting Purpose and the Planet before Profits, by John Ivanko & Lisa Kivirist (New Society Publishers) and The Knack: How Street Smart Entrepreneurs Learn to Handle Whatever Comes Up, by Norm Brodsky and Bo Burlingham (Portfolio/Penguin Group)

Silver: 1,000 Dollars & an Idea: Entrepreneur to

Billionaire, by Sam Wyly (Newmarket Press)

Bronze: Six Disciplines Execution Revolution: Solving the One Business Problem That Makes Solving All Other Problems Easier, by Gary Harpst (Six Disciplines Publishing)

10. Philanthropy/Charity/Nonprofit

Gold: Working Across Generations: Defining the Future of Nonprofit Leadership, by Frances Kunreuther, Helen Kim & Robby Rodriguez (Jossey-Bass)

Silver: Doing Good Well: What does (and does not) make sense in the nonprofit world, by Willie Cheng (Jossey-Bass)

Bronze: Field Guide to Developing, Operating and Restoring Your Nonprofit Board, by Carter McNamara, MBA, PhD (Authenticity Consulting LLC)

11. International Business/Globalization

Gold: The World is Curved: Hidden Dangers to the Global Economy, by David M. Smick (Portfolio/Penguin Group)

Silver: The Venturesome Economy: How Innovation Sustains Prosperity in a More Connected World, by Amar Bhidé (Princeton University Press)

Bronze: The Collaborator: Discover Soccer as a Metaphor for Global Business Leadership, by Winsor Jenkins (DW Publishing)

12. Personal Finance (estate planning, debt management)

Gold: Grow Your Money: 101 Easy Tips to Plan, Save, and Invest, by Jonathan D. Pond (Collins)

Silver (tie): The Frugal Millionaires: 70 millionaires anonymously share their ideas about money to help each other and you, by Jeff Lehman (Mentor Press) and The Emotion Behind Money: Building Wealth from the Inside Out, by Julie Murphy Casserly, CFP (Beyond Your Wildest Dreams, LLC)

Bronze: Debt is Slavery and 9 Other Things I Wish My Dad Had Taught Me About Money, by Michael Mihalik (October Mist Publishing)

13. Investing (stocks, bonds, hedge funds, options, futures)

Gold (tie): Fibonacci Analysis, by Constance Brown (Bloomberg Press) and Trading ETFs: Gaining an Edge with Technical Analysis, by Deron Wagner (Bloomberg Press)

Silver: DeMark Indicators, by Jason Perl (Bloomberg Press)

Bronze: That’s What It Means! A Practical Guide to Everyday Finance Terms, by Peter Woan (Practical Guide Publishing)

14. Retirement Planning

Gold: Beyond Work: How Accomplished People Retire Successfully, by Bill Roiter (J. Wiley & Sons)

Silver: You Can Do It! The Boomer’s Guide to a Great Retirement, by Jonathan D. Pond (Collins)

Bronze: The Stories: Tomorrow – Your Business Without You, by Dick Yemm, CFP (Riley’s Press)

15. Coaching/Mentoring

Gold: Loud & Clear: 5 Steps to Say What You Mean and Get What You Want, by Karen Berg (Career Press)

Silver: Coaching Salespeople into Sales Champions, by Keith Rosen (John Wiley & Sons)

Bronze: In the Spirit of Leadership: A Vision Into A Different Future, by Cheryl Esposito (Plumb Road Publishing)

16. Success/Motivation

Gold (tie): Dare to Prepare: How to Win Before You Begin!, by Ronald M. Shapiro with Gregory Jordan (Crown Business) and Ready Thinking, Primed for Change: 5 Principles for Action in Times of Uncertainty, by John Baker (Wonsockon Publishers)

Silver: Hitting Your Stride: Your Work, Your Way, by Nan S. Russell (Capitol Publishing)

Bronze: A Passion for the Edge: Living Your Dreams Now, by Tim Tyler (Edenscape Publishing)

17. Advertising/Marketing/PR/Event Planning

Gold: The Age of Engage: Reinventing Marketing for Today’s Connected, Collaborative, and Hyperinteractive Culture, by Denise Shiffman (Hunt Street)

Silver (tie): Step Into the Spotlight! A Guide to Getting Noticed, by Tsufit (Beach View Books) and Powerlines: Words That Sell Brands, Grip Fans & Sometimes Change History, by Steve Cone (Bloomberg Press)

Bronze (tie): Emotionomics: Winning Hearts and Minds, by Dan Hill (Beaver’s Pond Press) and How Come No One Knows About Us? The Ultimate Public Relations Guide, by Robert Deigh (W Business Books)

18. Corporate History/Milestone

Gold: Shine On: 100 Years of Shiner Beer, by Mike Renfro (Bright Sky Press)

Silver: Ideas + Buildings: Collective Process, by Perkins+Will (Perkins+Will)

Bronze (tie): The Policyowner’s Company: A History of Northwestern Mutual, 1857-2007, by John Gurda (Northwestern Mutual Life) and Pride in Our Past, Promise for the Future: A Monumental Story, Rosemary Riesett Limmen (Monumental Life Insurance Company)

19. Real Estate (buying, investing, management)

Gold: Confessions of a Real Estate Mini-Mogul, by James S. Pockross (Samson Publishing)

Silver: The Foreclosure Revolution: What you need to know to make a fortune in today’s challenging real estate market, by Joe Sesso (Bonacci & Sesso Publishing)

Bronze: The Nuts and Bolts of Commercial Real Estate, by Mary A. Collins (Help You Books)

20. Business Reference (legal, how-to, technology)

Gold: Handbook of Industry Profiles 2008: Analysis and Trends for 300 Industries (Hoover’s Business Press)

Silver: CARLAW F&I Legal Desk Book, by Thomas B. Hudson and the Attorneys of Hudson Cook, LLP (CounselorLibrary.com)

Bronze: Encyclopedia of Real Estate Terms: Third Edition, by Damien Abbott (Delta Alpha Publishing)

21. Memoir/Biography

Gold (tie): 1,000 Dollars & an Idea: Entrepreneur to Billionaire, by Sam Wyly (Newmarket Press) and Le Deal: How a Young American, in Business, in Love, and in Over His Head, Kick-Started a Multibillion-Dollar Industry in Europe, by J. Byrne Murphy (St. Martin’s Press)

Silver: Everything New is Free: Thoughts of a Globetrotting Hotelier, by Peter Alatsas (Asia Media)

Bronze: No More Mr. Nice Guy: The Undoing of an African American Executive Company Man, by James Alston (BookSurge)

22. Business Fable

Gold: The Go-Giver: A Little Story About a Powerful Business Idea, by Bob Burg and John David Mann (Portfolio/Penguin Group)

Silver: Awake at the Wheel: Getting Your Great Ideas Rolling (in an Uphill World), by Mitchell Lewis Ditkoff (Morgan James Publishing)

Bronze: The Dream Manager, by Matthew Kelly (Hyperion)

From Marketplace (American Public Radio) (http://marketplace.publicradio.org/display/web/2009/12/18/pm-books-interviews/#)

 

The Best Business Books of 2009 – Friday, December 18, 2009

 

Marketplace commentators name their favorite finance and business books from the past year. Plus, see Kai Ryssdal’s list of top books and his interviews with their authors.

TEXT OF STORY

KAI RYSSDAL: For whole lot of completely obvious reasons, 2009 was the year of the business book. There were guides to the financial crisis — what happened and who’s to blame. There were how-to books and some quirky titles, too. So we asked some of our regular Marketplace commentators for a copule of their favorites from this wild year of finance.

JOHN CARNEY: Hi, my name’s John Carney. I’m the editor of Clusterstock.com, and my favorite book of the financial crisis is Charlie Gasparino’s “The Sellout.” I think it’s a great, great take on exactly how these guys got addicted to risk taking and Charlie manages to thank me in the acknowledgments and lists me in the index a couple times, so I like that too.

FELIX SALMON: I’m Felix Salmon of Reuters and my book of the year — my financial book of the year — is the predictable and obvious, “Too Big to Fail” by Andrew Ross Sorkin. It’s not always the easiest or most exciting read, but it is by far the most detailed and comprehensive look at exactly what happened over the course of the worst days and weeks of the financial crisis.

Sorkin’s “Too Big to Fail” is one of economist Paul Kedrosky’s top three. Mine, too, actually. But Kedrosky’s number one slot belongs to a different economic tome.

PAUL KEDROSKY: The best book of the year is, in terms of actually saying something useful that other people weren’t saying about this strange adventure we’ve had over the last year, is Carmen Reinhart and Ken Rogoff’s book “This Time is Different” — which does a really nice job of looking at “800 years of financial folly” as they call it [sic "Eight centuries of financial folly]. It’s this kind of scorecard of madness and the things we’ve done to ourselves by blowing up our economies. It does a really, really nice job of putting it all in context and actually giving you a sense of what might come next.

Time Magazine columnist Justin Fox had his own book on financial history out this year, “The Myth of the Rational Market” it’s called. But he’d like to draw your attention to a different one.

JUSTIN FOX: “Lords of Finance” by Liaquat Ahamed. And actually I have to admit right here, I’m only on page 322 of 508. But I still think it’s the best business book I’ve read this year. I’m learning so much from it, because it’s this history of the central bankers, from the U.S., Germany, the United Kingdom and France in the 1920s and the early ’30s. And the subtitle of the book is “The Bankers Who Broke the World,” so the basic story is is that these guys at some level screwed up and launched the world into the Great Depression.

ANGELA GLOVER BLACKWELL: I’m Angela Glover Blackwell, founder and CEO of PolicyLink. My favorite book this year was “This Could Be the Start of Something Big: How Social Movements for Regional Equity Are Reshaping Metropolitan America.” Pastor’s book turns our old economy on its head. It shows that when we invest in all people in the region, the region becomes a magnet for new jobs and investments. In a year filled with pessimism and economic unease, Manuel’s book gave me hope that we can have a stronger, more equitable future.

Fortune magazine write Katie Benner also gave a shout out to Andrew Ross Sorkin’s “Too Big to Fail,” but there is a different, unlikely business book she suggests you pick up.

KATIE BENNER: There was a book that came out in the spring called “Bad Girls Go Everywhere.” It was a biography of Helen Gurley Brown by Jennifer Scanlon. People would not think of this as a business book, however, what is overlooked and what Scanlon brings out is the fact that Helen Gurley Brown was so adamant about personal finance, savings and financial independence for women. So I mean, she might be the precursor to a Carrie Bradshaw, but also, she was an early Suze Orman.

So there you go. Enough to keep your bedside table stacked for a while.

                              KAI RYSSDAL’S TOP BOOKS AND AUTHOR INTERVIEWS IN 2009:

                              ‘Too Big to Fail’ by Andrew Ross Sorkin Behind the scenes of the financial crisis.

                              ‘This Time is Different’ by Ken Rogoff Is this crisis different? Not really.

                              ‘Cheerful Money’ by Tad Friend A look beneath the WASPish veneer.

                              ‘A Recession Diary’ by Benjamin Roth Depression diary has recession lessons.

                              ‘The Financial Lives of Poets’ by Jess Walters Finding a way up when you’re down.

                              ‘Sex Trafficking’ by Siddarth Kara Laws do little to curtail sex slavery.

                              ‘Chemical Cowboys’ by Lisa Sweetingham How ecstasy empire fell from its high.

                              ‘Between the Assasinations’ by Aravind Adiga Reading ‘Between the Assassinations’.

                              ‘The Myth of the Rational Market’ by Justin Fox Exploring the rational market theory.

                              ‘Bailout Nation’ by Barry Ritholtz How U.S. became a bailout nation.

                              ‘The Life You Can Save’ by Peter Singer It’s unethical not to give in recession.

                              ‘Getting Ghost’ by Luke Bergmann Detroit’s not feeling so alone anymore.

                        ‘Our Noise: The Story of Merge Records’ by John Cook, Mac McCaughan and Laura Ballance Merging new music with good business.

From FINS (http://www.fins.com/Finance/Articles/SB126263579936415245/Six-Best-Business-Books-to-Read-for-Your-Career-in-2010?Type=0&idx=1)

Six Best Business Books to Read for Your Career in 2010 By Kyle Stock

It was a banner year for business books (unfortunately, 2009 will go down in history as a good year for little else). Still, we’re a little tired of reading about what Hank Paulson barked at Dick Fuld and when John Thain sneaked over to see Ken Lewis.

We’re excited about the past being just that, so we culled a list of onward-and-upward titles — new and about-to-be-released books that are receiving some buzz and that may help you get a jump on a new job or promotion in the next decade.

1. “Drive: The Surprising Truth About What Motivates Us,” by Daniel Pink ($26.95) — Pink makes the case that there’s much more to motivation than money — autonomy, improvement and a deeper sense of purpose push people more strongly.

Drawing on scientific research, Pink profiles companies and entrepreneurs who are taking a nontraditional approach to lighting fires under their workers.

2. “Linchpin: Are You Indispensable?,” by Seth Godin ($25.95, released January 26) — The title is pretty explanatory in the latest from Godin, a powerhouse marketer/author known for books like “Purple Cow” and “Tribes.” Godin argues that the best and most coveted employees connect coworkers, catalyze deals and see opportunities that others don’t. He also tries to lay out a roadmap for how to become such an uber-pro. If Godin’s advice for building a personal brand is as popular as his material on corporate brands and customer demographics, “Linchpin” will be well-received.

3. “Switch: How to Change Things When Change Is Hard,” by Chip Heath and Dan Heath ($26.00, released February 16) — Weaving psychology and sociology through a number of anecdotes, the Heaths show that some of the most transformative managers follow a pattern of change. They argue that the trick to making things happen quickly on a large scale is to sync emotional thinking with rationale thinking. That sounds wishy-washy, but neither of these guys are on the New-Age circuit. Chip Heath is a business professor at Stanford University and Dan is a consultant at The Aspen Institute.

4. “Louder Than Words: Take Your Career from Average to Exceptional with the Hidden Power of Nonverbal Intelligence,” by Joe Navarro ($24.99, released February 16) — In poker, reading an opponent’s gestures, or “tells,” can make all the difference. The same is true in an office, according to Navarro. He breaks down body language, bad habits and behavioral ticks as essential to understanding what is really going on in a company, a business meeting or even a phone call. Navarro also advises how to use these intangible forces to get ahead on the job.

5. “The Little Big Things: 163 Ways to Pursue EXCELLENCE,” by Thomas J. Peters ($24.99, released March 9) — Peters, most known for his 1982 “In Search of Excellence,” cranks out some more counterintuitive management advice in his latest offering — encouraging bosses to cherish “weirdness,” focus on common sense and step away from their computers. We’re wondering if writing “excellence” in capital letters is one of the 163 suggestions.

6. “Rework,” by Jason Fried and David Heinemeier Hansson ($22.00, released March 9) — Dubbed as “inspirational” and a “mini manifesto,” “Rework” comprises hundreds of simple rules for success. The little tome also plays the counterintuitive card heavily with advice ranging from “fire the workaholics” to “planning is guessing.” More detailed descriptions have been scarce, but “Rework” has career counselors gushing.

From Inc. Magazine (http://www.inc.com/print/141)

 

The Best Books for Business Owners of 2009

Gladwell, Collins, and a Book About a Dog

Another year, another blizzard of business books. Which ones should you read? To pick the best business books of the year for the entrepreneur, we turned to editor at large Leigh Buchanan, who writes Inc.’s monthly “Skimmer’s Guide” book review; editor at large Bo Burlingham, the author of Small Giants; columnist Joel Spolsky, who is CEO and cofounder of Fog Creek Software in New York City; Zappos CEO Tony Hsieh; and Jack Covert, founder of 800CEORead.com, an influential blog that tracks new releases. Here are their top choices for 2009.

Getting to Plan B by John Mullins and Randy Komisar

One of the most accessible books on strategy to come along in some time, Getting to Plan B shatters the myth that great businesses emerge from their creators’ brains full-formed and explains the sometimes messy, almost always ingenious methods by which entrepreneurs arrive at workable models. The book is full of entertaining anecdotes about company builders who made poor choices or assumptions-but then pulled off a neat save and went on to success. Plus: The authors have included a practical framework to help entrepreneurs avoid such mistakes in the first place. Recommended by Leigh Buchanan.

Trust Agents by Chris Brogan and Julien Smith

We all have heard about social media, and likely have dabbled in it ourselves. Trust Agents reveals and commends the technological importance of these tools, while also interweaving lessons about the importance of human relationships to business, and how best to build them-even when your primary means of communication runs through a computer screen. Recommended by Jack Covert.

Outliers by Malcolm Gladwell

Gladwell examines the formula for success in life and how large a role culture plays in shaping a person’s destiny, and his findings will surprise you. A highly successful person is not innately superior to others, he argues. Instead, people who rise to the top, whether in business or in hockey, benefit from a series of subtle and almost invisible advantages. Also: They practice. A lot. Recommended by Tony Hsieh.

Early Exits by Basil Peters

Written by a seasoned early-stage investor, Early Exits is a must-read for any entrepreneur who has wrestled with the dilemma of taking outside funding. Peters makes the case that marching toward an exit is a good thing, and not nearly as impossible as it may seem. A surprising number of business owners are cashing out after only two-to-five years and for between $5 million and $30 million, he asserts-making this period, for all its turbulence, a golden era for entrepreneurs. (An e-book format is available on the author’s website, BasilPeters.com.) Recommended by Bo Burlingham.

Poorly Made in China by Paul Midler

In the rush to move manufacturing to China to save costs, few U.S. companies have come to terms with just how much they are giving up in the process. Midler, who worked as a middleman between American product companies and the factories in China that produce their goods, lets us follow him as he takes various executives from the West-a soap and shampoo manufacturer, a paper recycler, and even a diamond merchant-to meet Chinese partners. The dirty little secret is not so much the way factories treat their workers, Midler argues, but rather all the subtle ways that manufacturers will cut corners, sacrificing basic expectations of quality in a bid to boost margins. Read this book and you’ll be ready to ask a lot of smart questions on your next trip to Shenzhen. Recommended by Joel Spolsky.

Exploiting Chaos by Jeremy Gutsche

Good things can happen, even in bad economies. In fact, they often do. Gutsche uses 150 case studies-presented in an appealing, magazine-like format-to demonstrate how smart entrepreneurs have figured out ways to profit from economic uncertainty. “Innovation is not about market timing,” he reminds readers. “It’s about creating something that fulfills an unmet need.” Recommended by Jack Covert.

How the Mighty Fall by Jim Collins.

Delivered with Collins’ trademark passion and clarity, How the Mighty Fall is a critical reminder to business leaders that decisions aimed at spectacular growth may sow the seeds of an organization’s destruction. The author deconstructs the overarching leadership flaws (hubris, denial of risk, etc.) that doom companies-including some lessons learned the hard way by companies he had previously exalted in Good to Great. Read this book along with last year’s excellent Billion-Dollar Lessons by Paul B. Carroll and Chunka Mui and you will be an ace at diagnosing the warning signs of corporate decline. Recommended by Leigh Buchanan, Bo Burlingham, and Tony Hsieh.

Shop Class as Soulcraft by Matthew Crawford

In an age of smartphones, apps, and ergonomic keyboards, Crawford offers this interesting commentary on work, on getting your hands dirty, and on finding fulfillment in the process. Recommended by Jack Covert.

Clever by Rob Goffee and Gareth Jones

Forget the “scientific” approaches to hiring those consultants tried to sell you on. This engaging book advocates for those unclassifiable, ingenious and creative folks whose promise may not be easily quantifiable. But clever people add the most value, and so business leaders should do what it takes to shape the culture around their needs and expectations, the authors argue persuasively. Solve the problem of attracting and managing clever people, and other challenges-productive collaboration and sustained innovation, among them-get a lot easier. Recommended by Leigh Buchanan.

Crush It! by Gary Vaynerchuk

If you’re stuck in a job that you’re not passionate about, this powerful little book will inspire you to pursue your true calling in life. Better yet, it clearly lays out the process of how you can turn your excitement about an idea or a hobby into activity that will drive it forward into a viable business. Recommended by Jack Covert and Tony Hsieh.

Change by Design by Tim Brown

Is there a company out there with better anecdotes drawn from its own operations than IDEO? (OK, possibly Disney’s Imagineers, but that’s it.) Brown, the storied design firm’s CEO, makes the case that design is about more than aesthetics: A good designer must also consider how people interact with products, with other people, and with their surroundings. That thesis leads to the coolest kinds of corporate anthropology-and much of it in services, an area that is sorely neglected by most innovation guides. Recommended by Leigh Buchanan.

Borrowing Brilliance by David Kord Murray

If you start a business, you are, on some level, a creative person. But it’s easy to fall into the trap of trying too hard to come up with a new idea. Murray, a former entrepreneur and Intuit executive, lays out some simple steps that you can take to make sure your organization is constantly on the lookout for opportunities to adapt other folks’ ideas in order to create your next breakthrough offering. Recommended by Jack Covert.

The Match King by Frank Partnoy

Add to Bernie Maddoff’s other sins the fact that he’s not that colorful. You can’t say that about Ivar Kreuger, a Swedish financier who in the early part of last century wheeled-and-dealed his way into a virtual monopoly on global match production; and from there into a financial empire that (spoiler alert!) ultimately imploded. In The Match King, author Frank Partnoy deftly untangles the machinations of Kreuger’s hugely audacious scheme while bringing to life one of business’s more provocative villains. (Among other tidbits: Kreuger kept a fake phone in his office on which he pretended to receive calls from Stalin and Mussolini to impress visitors. He also threw parties at which he hired movie actors to impersonate foreign ambassadors.) Recommended by Leigh Buchanan.

I Love You More Than My Dog by Jeanne Bliss

Don’t let the goofy title fool you. This is probably the best book on customer service to be published in a long time. And since customer service is the new marketing, I Love You More Than My Dog is an essential read for entrepreneurs-and for anyone in your company who is responsible for keeping clients satisfied. Recommended by Jack Covert and Tony Hsieh.

From USA Today (http://www.usatoday.com/money/books/2009-12-20-years-best-business-books_N.htm)

Year’s best business books to make sense of financial crisis

                             

By Gary Rawlins, USA TODAY

After the collapse of Lehman Bros. in September 2008, Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke, then-Treasury secretary Henry Paulson and then-New York Fed president Timothy Geithner stood on the brink of catastrophe. Their decision not to bail out Lehman set off a near panic among investors and lenders worldwide.

In response, the government implemented a $700 billion bailout and has since adopted a series of rescue measures that put U.S. taxpayers on the hook for a potential $14 trillion, author Barry Ritholtz says.

The panic and the U.S. reaction spawned a wave of books. Money Bookshelf editor Gary H. Rawlins picks some of the better ones. The selection includes books that point the finger at Wall Street firms and their CEOs, that blast the government for excessive bailouts, that assail the U.S. economic policy triumvirate for letting the inflation genie out of the bottle, and that explain arcane financial derivatives and how they acted as viral agents spreading the crisis to the global economy.

• Too Big to Fail: The Inside Story of How Wall Street and Washington Fought to Save the Financial System – and Themselves by Andrew Sorkin (Viking Adult, $33). Arguably the definitive history of the banking crisis, a blow-by-blow account of how decisions made on Wall Street and in Washington in the past decade led to the crash of the global financial system.
• Bailout Nation: How, Greed and Easy Money Corrupted Wall Street and Shook the World Economy by Barry Ritholtz (Wiley, $25). Explores how the U.S. evolved from a rugged independent nation to a soft Bailout Nation, where financial firms are allowed to self-regulate in good times, but are bailed out by taxpayers in bad times.

• The Sellout: How Three Decades of Wall Street Greed and Government Mismanagement Destroyed the Global Financial System by Charles Gasparino (HarperBusiness, $28). Argues that the financial collapse was just the latest in a 30-year pattern of executive excesses, unsustainable leverage, massive hidden losses and unreliable computer models. Gasparino is not optimistic that something similar won’t happen again.

•The Great Money Binge: Spending Our Way to Socialism by George Melloan (Threshold Editions, $26). Champions the cause of supply-side economics, believing President Obama’s adoption of Keynesianism ultimately will result in rising interest rates, higher taxes and disastrous inflation.

• The Myth of the Rational Market: A History of Risk, Reward, and Delusion on Wall Street by Justin Fox (HarperBusiness, $28). Attempts to explode once and for all the efficient-market hypothesis, a canon of capitalism. That’s the hypothesis that asserts that prices of traded assets reflect all available information, a tough claim to make in the aftermath of the mortgage meltdown.
• Last Man Standing: The Ascent of Jamie Dimon and JPMorgan Chase by Duff McDonald (Simon & Schuster, $28). Quilts together Dimon anecdotes from first-person sources, resulting in a business bio that’s flattering but not fawning. Reveals an able banker who burnishes the reputation of JPMorgan at a time when other Wall Street CEOs watch their companies crumble.

•Fool’s Gold: How the Bold Dream of a Small Tribe at J.P. Morgan Was Corrupted by Wall Street Greed and Unleashed a Catastrophe by Gillian Tett (Free Press, $26). Digs to the origins of the financial crisis guided by in-depth access to members of the JPMorgan team that developed collateralized debt obligations, revealing how the exotic investment product was conceived on a weekend at the luxurious Boca Raton Hotel in June 1994.

•Collateral Damaged: The Marketing of Consumer Debt to America by Charles Geisst (Bloomberg Press, $28). Traces America’s credit history and finds it riddled with sleepy regulators, congressional do-badders and slippery financial firms making euphemistic pitches to consumers to drum up business.

•How Capitalism Will Save Us: Why Free People and Free Markets Are the Best Answer in Today’s Economy by Steve Forbes and Elizabeth Ames (Crown Business, $25). A rebuttal to those writing free-market capitalism’s obituary. Explains how capitalism really works, arguing that the system is the world’s great economic success story despite the financial crisis and the worst recession in decades.

• House of Cards: A Tale of Hubris and Wretched Excess on Wall Street by William Cohan (Doubleday, $28). A minute-by-minute account of the last 10 days of Bear Stearns, the 85-year-old investment bank that caved under the weight of a huge position in mortgage-backed securities accumulated without regard to the instability of underlying subprime loans.

•This Time is Different: Eight Centuries of Financial Folly by Carmen Reinhart and Kenneth Rogoff (Princeton University Press, $35). A history of financial debacles up to the current crisis, revealing the unending cycle of boom and bust and how politicians and regulators chronically fail to divine recurring signs of bubbles.

• The Colossal Failure of Common Sense: The Inside Story of the Collapse of Lehman Brothers by Lawrence McDonald (Crown Business, $27). A Wall Street insider and former Lehman trader reflects on the collapse of the nation’s oldest investment bank, a venerable vessel run aground by executives with a reckless addiction to financial leverage and a simplistic grasp of structured finance.
• In Fed We Trust: Ben Bernanke’s War on the Great Panic by David Wessel (Crown Business, $27). Explains how Bernanke, steeped in the history of miscues by the Federal Reserve during the Great Depression, acted boldly in spearheading the biggest government intervention in more than half a century, effectively making the Fed the fourth branch of government.
• The Greatest Trade Ever: The Behind-the-Scenes Story of How John Paulson Defied Wall Street and Made Financial History by Gregory Zuckerman (Broadway Books, $26). Story of how a renegade hedge fund manager outwitted the mortgage-market cognoscenti, betting the market was headed for a major fall, a bet that earned more than $15 billion for his firm.

•Meltdown Iceland: Lessons on the World Financial Crisis from a Small Bankrupt Island by Roger Boyes (Bloomsbury USA, $25). A tale of irrational exuberance and miscalculation by perhaps no more than 30 bankers that wrecked the economy of an island nation of 300,000 people, wiping out all the wealth accumulated the previous decade.

From the McCombs School of Business at the University of Texas (http://blogs.mccombs.utexas.edu/mccombs-today/2009/12/the-best-business-books-of-2009-readers-choice/)

The Best Business Books of 2009 – Reader’s Choice

December 16th, 2009 · Just For Fun · Posted by Tracy Mueller

Still need a gift for the business aficionado in your life? Or maybe you just want to catch up on your reading over the winter holidays. Either way, we’ve got you covered.

The Best Business Books of 2009, as determined by you, the reader. We polled our fans and followers on Facebook and Twitter, and these are the titles they most enjoyed this year. Some are new books, others old favorites. Thanks to everyone who contributed to the list.

Did your favorite read of the year get forgotten? Add it to the list in the comments section, and Happy Reading!

                  “The Snowball,” by Alice Schroeder (Read our feature story on Schroeder, BBA ‘78, MBA ‘80)

                  “Liar’s Poker: Rising Through the Wreckage on Wall Street,” by Michael Lewis

                  “Crush It!: Why NOW Is the Time to Cash In on Your Passion,” by Gary Vaynerchuk

                  “The Goal: A Process of Ongoing Improvement,” by Eliyahu M. Goldratt and Jeff Cox – Reader comment: “definitely a classic and a must-read for anybody.”

                  “The Trusted Advisor,” by David H. Maister, Charles H. Green and Robert M. Galford

                  “Paranoia,” by Joseph Finder - Reader comment: “a fictional book that taught me corporate ethics better than any lecture.”

                  “The King of Madison Avenue: David Ogilvy and the Making of Modern Advertising,” by Kenneth Roman

                  “Free: The Future of a Radical Price,” by Chris Anderson

                  “The Essentials of Risk Management,” by Michel Crouhy, Dan Galai and Robert Mark

                  “The Martha Rules: 10 Essentials for Achieving Success as You Start, Grow, or Manage a Business,” by Martha Stewart

                  “The Art of the Turnaround: Creating and Maintaining Healthy Arts Organizations,” by Michael M. Kaiser

Editor’s Pick: “A Good Hard Kick in the Ass: Basic Training for Entrepreneurs,” by Rob Adams, McCombs management lecturer and director of Moot Corp

From Small Business Trends (http://smallbiztrends.com/2009/12/editors-choice-awards-2009-best-small-business-books.html)

Editor’s Choice Awards: 2009 Best Small Business Books

Announcements, Business Book Reviews

December 8, 2009

By Ivana Taylor

We are excited to announce the Editor’s Choice edition of the 2009 Small Business Book Awards.

The following books were chosen by the Editors of Small Business Trends, along with expert input from a 27-member Advisory Panel (see the Advisory Panelists listed at the end of this article).  The combined input was impassioned and invaluable, and the decisions all the more difficult due to the quality of this year’s business book releases.

Without further delay, here are the Editor’s Choice winners, listed in alphabetical order:

 

Anatomy of Buzz Revisited – Emmanuel Rosen revisits his best seller and updates how buzz works with today’s new tools. Read our review.

                  Why Read This Book: Learn what gives a story and an idea “legs” and how to actually build buzz into your marketing strategy.

                  Key Take-Away: Build a community of experts and then let them speak freely about the advantages and disadvantages of your product or service.  It builds buzz and trust.

 

Escape from Cubicle Nation – Pamela Slim writes a guide for aspiring entrepreneurs still stuck in corporate jobs or who recently left.  Read our review.

                  Why Read This Book: It’s a roadmap for getting yourself out of that corporate cubicle and into your own startup.

                  Key Take-Away: If you think that corporate life is killing you, it probably is.  Staying where you are will not make you successful – you have to make a change to be successful.

Greening Your Small Business – Learn how making your business green isn’t just trendy, but cost-effective.  Jennifer Kaplan explores how and why to weave green practices into your business.

                  Why Read This Book: Today’s consumer sees eco-friendliness and “green” as a reason to buy from you.

                  Key Take-Away: There are literally hundreds MORE green tips out there than “recycle.”  Switching to Internet apps is just one unexpected example.

 

Me 2.0 – No matter your status in the world of work – employed, unemployed, business owner, consultant or freelancer – your personal brand will determine your ultimate success. Written by Dan Schawbel, Publisher of Personal Branding Magazine. Read our review.

                  Why Read This Book: Get lots of ideas, resources and tips on how to uncover and determine your personal brand and then how to leverage that brand for new opportunities.

                  Key Take-Away: Register your name as a domain name or URL.  Choose a niche and become known as the expert in it.  Create a title for yourself that references your niche.

 

The New Community Rules – Social media users will get useful and applicable how-to tips to market their business online, including how to use various social media websites and tools.  Written by Tamar Weinberg, social media consultant.  Check out our review.

                  Why Read This Book: You’ll learn about uncommon social media sites like Diigo, Mento, Kirtsy and Tip’d.

                  Key Take-Away: Use Mahalo to do some quick market research such as setting a price for a product or service.

 

Outrageous Advertising – Direct Marketing guru Bill Glazer outlines hundreds of direct marketing and advertising campaigns that will build your customer community and grow your sales.  Our review is here.

                  Why Read This Book: This is an encyclopedia of ideas and advertising how-to’s.  If you’ve ever wanted to use direct marketing but weren’t sure how to put it together, this will tell you how.

                  Key Take-Away: Make a list of non-traditional holidays and create special offerings and programs for them.  You will stand out from the crowd and customers will remember you.

 

Talk Less, Say More – In a world of over-communication, this book will teach you to connect with your audience, get your message across and get things done. By Connie Dieken, former TV anchor and multiple Emmy winner.

                  Why Read This Book: There are tips tricks and techniques in this book that will turn you into a persuasive powerhouse.  Our book review here.

                  Key Take-Away: Talk in triplets.  To help people remember a longer list, break your information down into groups of three’s.

 

Super Freakonomics – Two curious economists (Steven D. Levitt and Stephen J. Dubner) look at reams of data and show us the world; not for how we believe it to be or how our stated values wish it were, but how it actually is based on our behaviors and choices.

                  Why Read This Book: It’s a fun and engaging read.  In a tough economy, you might as well explore how we humans think and make choices until it gets better.

                  Key Take-Away: If a solution to a problem doesn’t bite us on the nose, we think that there isn’t a solution.  Keep asking questions, look at the data that’s already there and open yourself up to unconventional insights.

 

Trust Agents- If social media is still a mystery to you, then let Chris Brogan and Julien Smith show you the ropes on how to build your brand and your profits using social media.

                  Why Read This Book: Social Media is here to stay.  This book will help you build your brand through social media and cut your learning curve. Read reviews here.

                  Key Take-Away: Building trust is key to building a loyal community

Upstarts – This book by Donna Fenn covers 150 entrepreneurs from Gen Y. Some started their businesses as teens.  Read our review of Upstarts.

                  Why Read This Book: Get inspired and energized by the vignettes that make you the fly on the wall of how Gen Y’s started businesses and overcame challenges.

                  Key Take-Away: Adapt a Gen Y solution or idea to a current challenge and see what happens.

 

Viral Loop – Adam Penenberg tells the story behind the most successful viral marketing companies and campaigns.  Then he breaks out specific strategies that you can use to grow your own business using a viral strategy. Our review here.

                  Why Read This Book: Technology and social media have made understanding viral marketing strategies a requirement.  This book has history, strategy and infrastructure all in one place.

                  Key Take-Away: Pick your favorite viral campaign and find creative ways to integrate it into your own company; use a feature in your e-mail and add an affiliate link to your signature.

 

You are What You Choose – We don’t make purchasing decisions just based on demographics, but on basic hard-wired motivators such as time, risk, altruism, getting information, meToo status and stickiness or loyalty – say authors Scott de Marchi and James T. Hamilton.  Read our review.

                  Why Read This Book: Once you understand these six motivators, you can literally craft sales and marketing messages to target these internal and emotional motivators.

                  Key Take-Away: Political values and believes have almost no impact on buyer behavior.  In fact Democrats and Republicans make almost identical purchasing decisions.

From Time Magazine (http://www.time.com/time/specials/packages/completelist/0,29569,1948499,00.html)

 

Best Business Books of 2009

Sagas of Bernie and Ayn. A theory gone wrong. How the mighty fell into Wall Street hell

Full List

MONEY, MONEY, MONEY

                  Lords of Finance: The Bankers Who Broke the World

                  Ayn Rand and the World She Made

                  Too Good to Be True: The Rise and Fall of Bernie Madoff

                  The Myth of the Rational Market

                  House of Cards: A Tale of Hubris and Wretched Excess on Wall Street

Read more: http://www.time.com/time/specials/packages/completelist/0,29569,1948499,00.html#ixzz0bl15MAIH

From FutureLab (http://www.futurelab.net/blogs/marketing-strategy-innovation/2009/12/best_business_books_2009.html)

Marketing & Strategy Innovation

The Best Business Books of 2009

by John Caddell on 13 December, 2009 – 20:58

In the wake of the worst US economic catastrophe since the Great Depression, everybody realized this: Making money is harder than we thought. So, this year, books on innovation had special resonance. Luckily, there were some great ones out there. So many, in fact, that this year’s best-of list includes two “companion volumes”-other good books from this year that cover similar material from another perspective.

These are the best books I read this year:

1. Design-Driven Innovation – Roberto Verganti. A fascinating book that looks at companies that don’t merely create new products, but develop products and services that create new meaning for customers. Is that important? Well, companies that do it well avoid commoditization and generate outsized profits for long periods of time. Think Apple.

(companion volume: The Design of Business by Roger Martin)

2. Discovery-Driven Growth – Rita Gunther McGrath and Ian MacMillan. Verganti’s book covers the more creative side of innovation, while McGrath and MacMillan discuss the process that established companies should use to improve their innovation efficiency-that is, bringing more successful products to market and spending less on the failures. The central lesson: do more work on paper, and scrupulously document & validate assumptions as you go.

(companion volume: Innovation Tournaments by Christian Terweisch and Karl Ulrich)

3. Enterprise 2.0 – Andrew McAfee. A clear description for the general business audience of how web 2.0 products, like social network software, wikis, messaging services, and the like, can be deployed to help corporations work more effectively. Excellent combination of case studies, theoretical models, and a clear-eyed assessment of the obstacles in the way of wide adoption.

4. Think Again: Why Good Leaders Make Bad Decisions and How to Keep it From Happening to You – Sydney Finkelstein, Jo Whitehead and Andrew Campbell. A timely book that shows how smart, experienced people can make terrible decisions, and what safeguards companies can use to improve their decisionmaking. Illuminates the many cognitive biases at work during the decision process, which helps the reader to understand why so many decisions that look atrocious in hindsight were considered reasonable and logical at the time.

5. Collaboration – Morten Hansen. Discusses how collaboration in business works, and when it doesn’t work, then provides a map for companies to improve their collaborative behavior – including unifying your workforce, nurturing “T-shaped” management and using networks intelligently. Key message: collaboration has a cost, and you need to make sure the payoff of collaboration outweighs it.

Original Post: http://caddellinsightgroup.com/blog2/2009/12/the-best-business-books-of-2009/

From Strategy+Business Magazine (http://www.strategy-business.com/article/09407f?pg=all)

Published: November 24, 2009

 / Winter 2009 / Issue 57

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Business Literature

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Best Business Books 2009: Marketing

Branding Goes Viral

by Catharine P. Taylor

Shel Israel
Twitterville: How Businesses Can Thrive in the New Global Neighborhoods (Portfolio, 2009)

Chris Anderson
Free: The Future of a Radical Price (Hyperion, 2009)

John Gerzema and Ed Lebar
The Brand Bubble: The Looming Crisis in Brand Value and How to Avoid It (Jossey-Bass, 2008)

Perhaps nothing this year captured the fancy of the marketing and media intelligentsia, and the interest of pop culture as a whole, more than Twitter. This micro-blogging service promised to infuse excitement into moribund customer service, revitalize marketing, reengineer the connections between celebrities and fans, and perhaps even overthrow governments, all in 140 characters or less – the maximum allowed length of a message.

It’s been true for a few years that consumers have a more commanding voice in the marketing arena; the difference now, as Twitter’s popularity reveals, is that more and more individual consumers are using their voices – what was once a trickle produced by the most tech-savvy consumers is now a rushing stream. The injection of the consumer’s voice into brand messaging may be the most explosive change for digital-age marketers, but it’s the ongoing contribution of all those voices that is actually making the impact.

Now that major marketers and individual consumers use the same tools to produce and distribute messages, it’s as though the open source movement has spread into the business of brand communications. Take Dunkin’ Donuts: It spends millions of dollars on marketing, but there are also dozens of fan-produced Dunkin’ Donuts pages on Facebook, and the vast majority of the 5,000 YouTube videos tagged “Dunkin’ Donuts” were uploaded by consumers. The cross-pollination of corporate marketing and consumer messaging has reached a point of irreversibility. The three best marketing books of the year address this reordered world of messaging and marketing.

All Aflutter about Twitter

It is virtually, pardon the pun, impossible to ignore the mental space that Twitter has taken up in the last year within the marketing and communications industries. The service is still relatively small – InformationWeek reported that Twitter attracted about 23 million hits versus Facebook’s 122 million hits in June 2009 – but its hold on the marketing imagination is profound. Twitter is word-of-mouth moving at hyper-speed. Each person (or corporation) using the free service can post text-sized messages (tweets) and “follow” the messages of other users. Users resend the most interesting of the messages to their followers, creating a constant spreading of tweets in a very public forum in real time. This makes Twitter an incredibly dynamic platform for communicating with and distributing messages to people with high levels of interest in a brand, as well as a potent platform for gathering consumer intelligence.

Not surprisingly, about two dozen books solely devoted to the two-year-old service are already for sale on Amazon. Thus, in picking books to review, the task became not whether a Twitter book should make the list, but which book to include. Some of the authors are marketing wonders, but many are charlatans who simply consider their role as Twitter pundits to be a get-rich-quick opportunity.

Shel Israel (Twitter user name: @shelisrael) doesn’t fit into that latter category. Israel is the coauthor, with tech evangelist Robert Scoble (@scobleizer), of Naked Conversations: How Blogs Are Changing the Way Businesses Talk with Consumers (Wiley, 2006), and he admits his own early skepticism about the service. In Twitterville: How Businesses Can Thrive in the New Global Neighborhoods, he writes: “When a friend talked me into trying Twitter in August 2007, I found myself reluctant…. I already had all the contacts I thought I needed and was having plenty of interaction with people through traditional and social media tools.” Israel’s experience, replete with early fits and starts, makes his insights into Twitter all the more credible, as does his research method – about three-quarters of the book comes from people who are active users. He also knows how to tell a good story, in this case of how a teenager named Jack Dorsey created an online municipal dispatch service in 2000, which provided the seed that became Twitter.

For the marketer, Twitterville really shines in its case studies, which show how the service can provide a distinct, and easily achievable, competitive advantage. One case study concerns the JetBlue Airways Corporation (@jetblue), which in 2008 discovered the service’s utility as both a mechanism to determine consumer needs and a promotional tool. When airline employees who used Twitter noticed messages complaining about the difficulty in booking flights between San Francisco and Austin, Tex., for the SXSW Interactive conference, a key gathering of technology executives, the airline quickly added flights, and then, completing the virtuous circle, posted messages on Twitter to market the added seats. Meanwhile, the other airline with many flights to Austin – American Airlines (@aairwaves) – missed the moneymaking opportunity, simply because Twitter wasn’t yet on its corporate radar.

Israel’s understanding of Twitter culture is best displayed in an anecdote about how Procter & Gamble Company, usually among the most savvy advertisers, got Twitter wrong. P&G partnered with Feeding America to sell Tide T-shirts to fight hunger, but it failed to understand how the Twitter community worked when it attempted to piggyback on the reputation of 150 of the most followed users of the service. P&G asked these influencers to send tweets to their followers, who would presumably re-tweet the message to their followers, and so on. However, the goodwill of the Twitterati didn’t extend to hawking T-shirts promoting Tide, especially since Procter & Gamble didn’t disclose how much of the purchase price was actually going toward feeding people. In the end, P&G sold only 2,000 T-shirts and the initiative was considered, by the Twitter community at least, to have bombed.

No one knows if Twitter will become a permanent fixture in the social networking scene or turn out to be a fad, but in terms of this book’s relevance, it’s a moot point. Reading Twitterville should be a priority for anyone who is serious about marketing today, because the online conversation is just beginning to evolve, and dismissing the phenomenon exemplified by Twitter would be a major mistake.

Giving the Store Away, but Making a Profit

It might be tempting to dismiss Free: The Future of a Radical Price, except that its author is Chris Anderson, editor-in-chief of Wired and author of The Long Tail: Why the Future of Business Is Selling Less of More (Hyperion, 2006), whose title became one of the big catchphrases of Web 2.0. Anderson’s controversial new theory is that sooner or later, every business will have to deal with Free (a term that he uses as a capitalized noun, somewhat preciously, throughout the book) and start giving away goods and services that in a pre-digital era would have been sold. Up to a point, anyway.

Not that “free” is easy. After quoting Sheryl Crow about how “sad” she feels that some people think music should be free, Anderson says the most heretical thing that it’s possible to say to a capitalist. “Spot the fallacy?” he asks. “It’s that the only way to measure value is with money.” Anderson argues that Crow doesn’t recognize that when her songs are stolen, she is really participating in two of the Internet’s “nonmonetary economies” – economies measured in attention and reputation, which can be used to make money. Thus, he espouses the idea that “free” is the essential first step toward revenue, particularly in digital businesses, where the marginal costs of reproducing and distributing products are essentially zero.

If that doesn’t sound heretical exactly, it does sound wrong-headed – maybe even crazy. And yet, there is no denying that “free” can work marvelously. Look at Google, which gives away e-mail, blogging software, maps, and even a software suite that rivals Microsoft Office, and thrives from this exposure. (As for Crow, Anderson points out that the exposure stemming from free music leads to revenue from merchandising, concerts, and licensing; just ask the surviving members of the Grateful Dead.)

Of course, the trouble with “free,” especially in these data-driven times, when return on investment should be an exact science, is that the profit it generates is indirect. The ties between Google’s sponsored links program and revenue could not be more direct, but how does a traditional businessperson rationalize the company’s decision to simply give away software? Anderson’s caustic answer to those still attached to 20th-century ideas of pricing: “You have to think creatively about how to convert the reputation and attention you can get from Free into cash…. This is just like everything else in life – the only mystery is why people blame Free for their own poverty of imagination and intolerance for possible failure.”

Yes, there is certainly stridency here, so much so that you have to wonder if there’s a subconscious connection between Anderson’s passion for his theory and his lifting of some of the book’s passages from Wikipedia, the free online encyclopedia; the plagiarism was uncovered by the Virginia Quarterly Review in the weeks leading up to the book’s publication. (Anderson called his lapse “sloppy” and “inexcusable.”)

For marketers, the most salient points of Free aren’t really pricing related, even if that’s what the book’s title implies. The concept of “free” is important for two reasons. First, it has already been embraced by younger demographics. We’re now dealing with an entire generation that, through file sharing, free Facebook accounts, and free Google Docs software, views “free” not just as the way things are, but as the way they should be. Given marketers’ endless pursuit of youth culture, they’d better get their arms around this. Second, although Anderson doesn’t quite come out and say it this way, “free” can be seen as the new mass media. As it becomes harder and harder to engage consumers, perhaps the easiest way to create interest is to give away a stripped-down version of a product. The trick then becomes how to get those people who upload pictures to the basic Flickr service or play a free version of an online game to buy the premium version of the same product. It’s a strategy that Anderson references throughout the book as a “freemium.”

Anderson also tracks the “free” phenomenon into the analog world, where it has existed at least as long as there have been “buy one, get one free” deals. His most detailed example is Ryanair, which sells airline tickets for unbelievably low prices (a recent visit to its website showed flights from Liverpool to Stockholm for only £4). But the Irish airline charges for nearly everything else, from flying with an infant to renting a car through its website. It is even considering charging passengers to use the restroom and pondering whether letting people gamble on board would allow it to give away tickets on some flights. One thing Anderson doesn’t point out is that “free,” like any other marketing program, can have a substantial cost in a company’s reputation with customers if it’s done poorly. In a series of interviews on the U.K.-based website BrandRepublic.com, for instance, Ryanair customers called its plan to charge for toilets “absolutely horrific.” Still, as the tens of millions of people who have flown Ryanair can attest, “free” has an obvious allure – and so does Anderson’s book.

When the Brand Bubble Pops

If this year’s best marketing book, The Brand Bubble: The Looming Crisis in Brand Value and How to Avoid It, weren’t so well-documented, it would be easy to accuse the book’s authors of trading in scary headlines – burst bubbles are all the rage these days. But John Gerzema and Ed Lebar, executives at the global ad agency Young & Rubicam, have plenty of data; they oversee the agency’s BrandAsset Valuator, an analytic database that currently encompasses 600,000 customers, 30,000 brands, 48 countries, and 240 studies.

Here’s what they found: Wall Street has been bidding up the value of brands to such an extent that “brands account for approximately 30% of the market capitalization of the S&P 500″ and “have doubled in their contribution to shareholder value over the last 30 years.” The problem, as the authors explain, is that while Wall Street has been bidding brands up, consumers have been bidding them down. The public’s faith in most brands has been eroded by decades of over-the-top ad claims and the fact that the shelves are overcrowded with undifferentiated products. Kudos to Gerzema and Lebar for also making the link between the accelerating decline in brand credibility and the mass adoption of the Internet, which, in effect, open sourced people’s ability to research brands and communicate about them.

Among the loads of evidence The Brand Bubble presents to substantiate consumers’ lack of interest is data from Forrester Research Inc. revealing that the percentage of people who say they “buy products because of their ads” fell from 29 percent to 13 percent in the four-year period between 2002 and 2006, and the percentage of those who agreed with the phrase “companies generally tell the truth in ads” declined from 13 percent to 6 percent at the same time – and those figures came after decades of slower erosion in the power of brands.

It wasn’t only the authors’ command of the facts that struck me when reading The Brand Bubble. It was a gut reaction that Gerzema and Lebar, having examined all the many facts at their disposal, have articulated something profound about the sorry state of brand equity. Decades ago, as they put it, “simple awareness was enough to create product differentiation, especially when brands were small and regional.” Now, “barring meaningful distinction, brands enter into a transactional relationship with consumers, letting price dictate the purchase decision.” As brand equity erodes, the specter of commoditization rises.

Just as insightful is their discussion of why certain brands continue to resonate with consumers. What is it about Apple, Nike, Virgin, Whole Foods, and Google? They’ve all achieved “energized differentiation,” according to the authors. These brands don’t rest on their laurels, they are continually looking forward and staying in motion:

We used to think of positioning as a hole in the ground in which to plant a brand. Water it with repetitive messages and GRPs [gross rating points] until it bears the fruit of brand equity. But the marketplace is in constant motion. Competitors, consumers and culture are constantly reordering brand meaning…. It’s no longer effective to stake a claim to a perpetual territory and defend it through repetition. Instead, the best way for a brand to own a position is to be constantly dynamic with it.

Eureka! The power of Apple’s iPod isn’t in the core invention, but in how the brand is constantly evolving. And the decades-old skin-care brand Dove is still relevant because it “elevated itself from a memorable product attribute focus (‘one-quarter cleansing cream’) to engaging in a cultural conversation with consumers (reframing social perceptions of beauty).”

Fortunately, the book spends much more time on how to capture energized differentiation – starting with an energy audit to assess a brand’s current position – than it does on explaining why the brand bubble exists in the first place. Although much of it is too detailed to describe here, the book’s advice for reenergizing moribund brands is as well reasoned as its big ideas. (Also see Gerzema and Lebar’s “The Trouble with Brands,” s+b, Summer 2009.)

Finally, in a move that Chris Anderson would applaud, the authors invite marketers to go to www.thebrandbubble.com as a starting point for conducting their own energy audits. Even though the process does require registrants to give up “basic information” to receive a password, the authors promise they won’t follow up. (But if you want to get in touch “for a personal discussion of your brand,” they won’t object.)

In some sense, what makes these the three best marketing books of the year is that they couldn’t have been written at any other time, maybe not even as recently as a year ago. The cross-pollination of brand messaging has been slowly emerging, but as it comes into full flower, the only books worth reading are those that help us come to terms with the dangers and opportunities in a completely reordered communications and competitive landscape. Many older books that once contained great marketing insights have become obsolete, because in the marketing and communications industries these days, it’s less and less true that past is prologue. 

AUTHOR PROFILE:

                        Catharine P. Taylor has covered advertising and marketing for almost 20 years, focusing on the impact of digital media since 1994 and writing for publications including Adweek, Advertising Age, and Wired. Founder of Adweek’s AdFreak blog, she currently posts about advertising at her own blog, Adverganza.com, posts daily to the BNET Media blog, and writes a weekly column, the Social Media Insider, for Mediapost. Her Twitter user name is @cpealet.

From The Miami Herald (http://www.miamiherald.com/business/story/1399600.html)

A look back at the best business books of 2009

BY RICHARD PACHTER
rap@richardpachter.com

I couldn’t read every business book published during the past year, but I was still gob-smacked by the number of books that I did read in 2009, including a few just for fun. (Imagine that!) But among those that I read and reviewed in this space, these titles represent the ones that I thought were exceptional, have lasting value and were worth my time — and yours.

A few things that may have deserved inclusion didn’t make the cut for one reason or another, and some worthy titles that came out in 2009 won’t get reviewed until January. Them’s the breaks. You may have a few choices that aren’t here either. If you’d like to share, I’m always happy to get e-mail from readers. After all, you make this all possible.

Thanks for reading!

(Books listed in chronological order by review. Date of original review follows each title. Full reviews of all books on this list are online at www.richardpachter.com)

Collapse of Distinction: Stand Out and Move Up While Your Competition Fails. Scott McKain. Thomas Nelson. 272 pages. 2/09/09

A wise plea for the strategic imperative of being different and distinctive as the best way to avoid commoditization or worse — extinction. McKain insists that it’s a competitive advantage, in fact. “Good enough” just isn’t “good enough” any more, if it ever was.

Taming The Search-And-Switch Customer: Earning Customer Loyalty in a Compulsion-to-Compare World. Jill Griffin. Jossey Bass. 288 pages. 5/11/09

Griffin suggests ways to connect with customers and prospects through the intelligent and proactive deployment of blogs, social networks and other resources that provide support and rapid responses to criticism, problems and concerns — real or imagined. Her deep understanding of this complicated subject and her intelligent and actionable assessment of the necessary strategies are impressive.

Bailout Nation: How Greed and Easy Money Corrupted Wall Street and Shook the World Economy. Barry Ritholtz. Wiley. 332 pages. 6/1/09

Economist and investment guru Barry Ritholtz’s blog, The Big Picture, is a mandatory daily stop for many. This honest, unvarnished look at the forces that screwed up the U.S. economy is a worthy candidate for a time capsule so that future financial operators can avoid the same traps that we fell into. Or at least howl when history repeats itself.

The Twitter Book. Tim O’Reilly, Sarah Milstein. O’Reilly. 240 pages. 6/6/09

Movie stars, media figures, captains of industry and book reviewers are doing it, but how can businesses discern the twits from the tweets? O’Reilly and Milstein present as lucid and intelligent an overview as you’d want or need. The format is concise but quite rich, and there’s plenty here to convince skeptics that employing Twitter as a marketing tool is a very good way to engage customers.

Life Inc.: How the World Became a Corporation and How to Take it Back. Douglas Rushkoff. Random House. 304 pages. 6/15/09

The “operating system” behind the world’s economies and monetary systems is flawed and antithetical to productivity and most other human values. Greed, avarice and (unenlightened) self-interest flourish. So do artificial scarcity, perpetual debt and empty allegiance to the slogans and logos of oppressive corporations. A less elegant and gifted writer might have produced a dour and plodding polemic against materialism and consumerist culture, but Rushkoff’s persuasive prose is a pleasure.

In Pursuit of Elegance: Why the Best Ideas Have Something Missing. Matthew E. Mays. Broadway Books. 224 pages. 7/6/09

Elegance is simplicity itself, is often self-contained, or damned near, and has nothing to do with wealth or fashion, yet it can affect both. Patterns and the need to look for them and make them work in an elegant manner are hard-wired into human DNA. Mays’ sagacious and engaging book demonstrates how successful organizations can engage elegance and benefit from the engagement engendered by uncomplicated and intuitive choices.

$20 per Gallon: How the Inevitable Rising Cost of Gas Will Change Our Lives for the Better. Christopher Steiner, Grand Central Publishing. 288 pages.

Why Your World Is About to Get a Whole Lot Smaller: Oil and the End of Globalization. Jeff Rubin. Random House. 304 pages. 7/13/09

I devoured these two fascinating books over the last Independence Day weekend, a propitious occasion to learn that one of our most cherished American freedoms may soon evaporate. Each depicts the ways our lives will change as the price of oil, gasoline and petrochemicals continues to rise, and both posit a future that resembles, in many ways, our pastoral past. Much of what these guys write reads like science fiction, though like the best SF, there are recognizably plausible elements therein to enable the suspension of disbelief.

Six Pixels of Separation: Everyone Is Connected. Connect Your Business to Everyone. Mitch Joel. Business Plus. 304 pages. 8/31/09

If you’re enticed by all you’ve heard and read about the benefits of deploying online tools like LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter, podcasts, blogs, search engines and the rest for your business or personal enterprises but were not sure what to actually do and where to begin, this terrific tome will help hook you up. Joel doesn’t just provide directions but also thoroughly explains a variety of things that may seem painfully obvious to the cognoscenti but somehow eludes others.

Walk the Walk: The #1 Rule for Real Leaders. Alan Deutschman. Portfolio. 208 Pages. 9/7/09

Alan Deutschman’s short and readable book examines a number of people and the failure and success they achieved for themselves and their organizations based on whether or not their deeds aligned with their words. He does a fine job explicating the importance of moral equanimity and the effectiveness of leaders who are consistent in their values and actions. It’s a lesson that transcends business but is especially important in it, where trust and integrity can ultimately determine failure or success.

The Chaos Scenario. Bob Garfield. Stielstra Publishing. 294 pages. 11/30/09

Advertising-supported mass media is dying, and Ad Age columnist and NPR host Garfield, though currently part of its status quo, is simultaneously gleeful and distraught, mourning the decentralization of power while grabbing a bit of his own by blogging about the death of his cable provider for lack of support, dishonesty and general idiocy. What makes his insights valuable — even essential — is Garfield himself. He’s an enormously entertaining and engaging writer, and it’s a blast to observe the machinations of his so-sane-he’s-crazy (or is it the other way around?) mind. Witty, world-weary, wildly knowledgeable and endlessly curious, Garfield is your perfect tour guide to the end of the sponsored world as we know it.

To receive business book reviews by e-mail or join the Business Monday Book Club, e-mail Richard Pachter at rap@richardpachter.com. To read more of Pachter’s musings, go to www.richardpachter.com and follow him on Twitter @rpachter.

From Amazon.com  (http://www.amazon.com/gp/feature.html?ie=UTF8&plgroup=1&docId=1000446381)

Best Books of 2009

Top 10 Books: Business & Investing

Welcome to our Best of 2009 top 10 lists for Business & Investing. We’ve put our editors’ picks and our 2009 bestsellers for each category on the same page together, so you can easily compare. Click on “Editors’ Picks” to see our editors’ list of the best business and investing books of 2009, including our top pick, Justin Fox’s provocative The Myth of the Rational Market. And click on “Customer Favorites” to find the bestselling business and investing books at Amazon.com during 2009. (Ranked according to customer orders through October. Only books published for the first time in 2009 are eligible.) See more editors’ picks and customers’ favorites in our Best of 2009 Store.

Editors’ Picks                          |                        

Customer Favorites

1.                        The Myth of the Rational Market: A History of Risk, Reward, and Delusion on Wall Street

Justin Fox            Avg. Customer Review:

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HarperBusiness

June 9, 2009

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From Publishers Weekly

Starred Review. At the core of the current financial crisis has been the widely held assumption that markets behave rationally. Fox, … Read more

2.                        Fool’s Gold: How the Bold Dream of a Small Tribe at J.P. Morgan Was Corrupted by Wall Street Greed and Unleashed a Catastrophe

Gillian Tett            Avg. Customer Review:

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Free Press

May 12, 2009

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From Publishers Weekly

Starred Review. At once a gripping narrative, an education in derivatives, and a most lucid origin-story for the current financial meltdown, it’s no surprise the author of this volume is an award-winning Financial Times journalist. Taking readers back to t… Read more

3.                        Shop Class as Soulcraft: An Inquiry Into the Value of Work

Matthew B. Crawford            Avg. Customer Review:

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Penguin Press HC, The

May 28, 2009

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From Publishers Weekly

Starred Review. Philosopher and motorcycle repair-shop owner Crawford extols the value of making and fixing things in this masterful paean to what he calls manual competence, the ability to work with one… Read more

4.                        How Did That Happen?: Holding People Accountable for Results the Positive, Principled Way

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Portfolio Hardcover

August 11, 2009

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Review

“Definitely the ‘go-to’ book for teaching organizational accountability that works- without the backlash.”… Read more

5.                        Rapt: Attention and the Focused Life

Winifred Gallagher            Avg. Customer Review:

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Penguin Press HC, The

April 16, 2009

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Amazon.com Review

Amazon Exclusive: Winifred Gallagher on Rapt A wise research psychiatrist once told me that he had identified life’s greatest problem: How to balance self and others, or your need for independence with … Read more

6.                        In Fed We Trust: Ben Bernanke’s War on the Great Panic

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Crown Business

August 4, 2009

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From The Washington Post

From The Washington Post’s Book World/washingtonpost.com David Wessel’s “In Fed We Trust” opens on Sept. 14, 2008, when Ben Bernanke, the chairman of the Federal Reserve, is badly sleep-deprived, living on trail mix and wrestling with the decision of … Read more

7.                        Trust Agents: Using the Web to Build Influence, Improve Reputation, and Earn Trust

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Wiley

August 24, 2009

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Product Description

How to tap the power of social software and networks to build your business In Trust Agents, two social media veterans show you how to tap into the power of social networks to build your brand’s influence, reputation, and, of course, profits. … Read more

8.                        Animal Spirits: How Human Psychology Drives the Economy, and Why It Matters for Global Capitalism

George A. Akerlof            Avg. Customer Review:

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Princeton University Press

February 18, 2009

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Review

Akerlof and Shiller are the first to try to rework economic theory for our times. The effort itself makes their book a milestone. . . . And their book takes their case not just to economists, but also to the general reader. It is short (176 pages of text) … Read more

9.                        SuperCorp: How Vanguard Companies Create Innovation, Profits, Growth, and Social Good

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Crown Business

August 25, 2009

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From Publishers Weekly

Harvard Business School professor Kanter (Confidence) offers cutting-edge insights on corporate competitiveness in this timely and captivating assessment of what it takes to succeed in the face of rapid technological, cultural and economic change. Asserting that globalization increases the likelihood for shorter organizational life cycles, Kanter argues that companies … Read more

10.                        Ignore Everybody: and 39 Other Keys to Creativity

Hugh MacLeod            Avg. Customer Review:

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Portfolio Hardcover

June 11, 2009

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Amazon.com Review

Book Description When Hugh MacLeod was a struggling young copywriter, living in a YMCA, he started to doodle on the backs of business cards while sitting at a bar. Those cartoons eventually led to a popular blog – gapingvoid.com – and a … Read more

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David C. Wyld (dwyld@selu.edu) is the Robert Maurin Professor of Management at Southeastern Louisiana University in Hammond, Louisiana. He is a management consultant, researcher/writer, and executive educator. His blog, Wyld About Business, can be viewed at http://wyld-business.blogspot.com/.