Category: Business
Lean Solutions by James P. Womack and Daniel T. Jones
Overview (from Amazon.com)
A massive disconnect exists between consumers and providers today. Consumers have a greater selection of higher quality goods to choose from and can obtain these items from a growing number of sources. Computers, cars, and even big-box retail sites promise to solve our every need. So why aren’t consumers any happier? Because everything surrounding the process of obtaining and using all these products causes us frustration and disappointment. Why is it that, when our computers or our cell phones fail to satisfy our needs, virtually every interaction with help lines, support centers, or any organization providing service is marked with wasted time and extra hassle? And who among us hasn’t spent countless hours in the waiting room at the doctor’s office, or driven away from the mechanic only to have the “fix engine” light go on?In their bestselling business classic Lean Thinking, James Womack and Daniel Jones introduced the world to the principles of lean production – principles for eliminating waste during production. Now, in Lean Solutions, the authors establish the groundbreaking principles of lean consumption, showing companies how to eliminate inefficiency during consumption.
The problem is neither that companies don’t care nor that the … Read the rest of this entry »
Why Work Sucks and How to Fix It by Cali Ressler and Jody Thompson
Overview (from Amazon.com)
Imagine a workplace where employees can do whatever they want whenever they want, as long as the work gets done. No more pointless meetings, racing to get in at 9:00, or begging for permission to watch your kid play soccer. You make the decisions about what you do and where you do it.It sounds like a fantasy, but Cali Ressler and Jody Thompson are leading a movement to make it a reality at companies around the country. They show how a Results-Only Work Environment not only makes employees happier, but also delivers better results.
Filled with passion and common sense, their book will change the way you think about your job, your company, and your quality of life.
Why the President Should Read This Book
Curiously, George Washington might not have had to overcome the problems this book attempts to solve. Many of the problems in the modern-day workplace are the result of the Industrial Revolution and the days when many people worked in factories, wherein if you weren’t there at your post from 8 am to 5 pm, then you weren’t working or getting anything done. Although most of us no longer work in factories, … Read the rest of this entry »12: The Elements of Great Managing by Rodd Wagner and James K. Harter
Overview (from Amazon.com)
12: The Elements of Great Managing is the long-awaited sequel to the 1999 runaway bestseller First, Break All the Rules. Grounded in Gallup’s 10 million employee and manager interviews spanning 114 countries, 12 follows great managers as they harness employee engagement to turn around a failing call center, save a struggling hotel, improve patient care in a hospital, maintain production through power outages, and successfully face a host of other challenges in settings around the world.Authors Rodd Wagner and James K. Harter weave the latest Gallup insights with recent discoveries in the fields of neuroscience, game theory, psychology, sociology, and economics. Written for managers and employees of companies large and small, 12 explains what every company needs to know about creating and sustaining employee engagement.
Why the President Should Read This Book
What helps an employee enjoy their job? Oh, we all have our speculations, but this book is based on 10 million employee and manager interviews, so it’s a bit more science-based, and while that’s not a foolproof way to answer the question, it seems pretty darn good in this case, in my opinion. We don’t often think of the President as an employer, but … Read the rest of this entry »The Google Story by David A. Vise
General Overview (from Amazon.com)
Social phenomena happen, and the historians follow. So it goes with Google, the latest star shooting through the universe of trend-setting businesses. This company has even entered our popular lexicon: as many note, “Google” has moved beyond noun to verb, becoming an action which most tech-savvy citizens at the turn of the twenty-first century recognize and in fact do, on a daily basis. It’s this wide societal impact that fascinated authors David Vise and Mark Malseed, who came to the book with well-established reputations in investigative reporting.The strength of the book comes from its command of many small details, and its focus on the human side of the Google story, as opposed to the merely academic one. Some may prefer a dryer, more analytic approach to Google’s impact on the Internet, like The Search or books that tilt more heavily towards bits and bytes on the spectrum between technology and business, like The Singularity is Near. Those wanting to understand the motivations and personal growth of founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin and CEO Eric Schmidt, however, will enjoy this book. Vise and Malseed interviewed over 150 people, including numerous Google employees, Wall Street analysts, … Read the rest of this entry »
Linchpin by Seth Godin
General Overview
“The only way to get what you’re worth is to stand out, to exert emotional labor, to be seen as indispensable, and to produce interactions that organizations and people care deeply about.” In bestsellers such as Purple Cowand Tribes, Seth Godin taught readers how to make remarkable products and spread powerful ideas. But this book is different. It’s about you – your choices, your future, and your potential to make a huge difference in whatever field you choose. There used to be two teams in every workplace: management and labor. Now there’s a third team, the linchpins. These people invent, lead (regardless of title), connect others, make things happen, and create order out of chaos. They figure out what to do when there’s no rule book. They delight and challenge their customers and peers. They love their work, pour their best selves into it, and turn each day into a kind of art. Linchpins are the essential building blocks of great organizations. Like the small piece of hardware that keeps a wheel from falling off its axle, they may not be famous but they’re indispensable. And in today’s world, they get the best jobs and the most freedom. … Read the rest of this entry »The Innovator’s Solution by Clayton M. Christensen
General Overview
Christensen (The Innovator’s Dilemma) analyzes the strategies that allow corporations to successfully grow new businesses and outpace the other players in the marketplace. Christensen’s earlier book examined how focusing on profits can destroy even well-run corporations, while this book focuses on companies expanding by being “disruptors” who are able to outpace their entrenched competition. The authors (Christensen is a professor at Harvard Business School and Raynor, a director at Deloitte Research) examine the nine business decisions integral to growth, including product development, organizational structure, financing and key customer base. They cite such companies as IBM, AT&T, Sony, Microsoft and others to illustrate their points. Generally, the writing is clear and specific. For example, in discussing whether a company has the resources necessary for growth, the authors say, “In order to be confident that managers have developed the skills required to succeed at a new assignment, one should examine the sorts of problems they have wrestled with in the past. It is not as important that managers have succeeded with the problem as it is for them to have wrestled with it and developed the skills and intuition for how to meet the challenge successfully the next time around”; … Read the rest of this entry »The Innovator’s Dilemma by Clayton M. Christensen
General Description (from Amazon.com)
What do the Honda Supercub, Intel’s 8088 processor, and hydraulic excavators have in common? They are all examples of disruptive technologies that helped to redefine the competitive landscape of their respective markets. These products did not come about as the result of successful companies carrying out sound business practices in established markets. In The Innovator’s Dilemma, author Clayton M. Christensen shows how these and other products cut into the low end of the marketplace and eventually evolved to displace high-end competitors and their reigning technologies.At the heart of The Innovator’s Dilemma is how a successful company with established products keeps from being pushed aside by newer, cheaper products that will, over time, get better and become a serious threat. Christensen writes that even the best-managed companies, in spite of their attention to customers and continual investment in new technology, are susceptible to failure no matter what the industry, be it hard drives or consumer retailing. Succinct and clearly written, The Innovator’s Dilemma is an important book that belongs on every manager’s bookshelf. Highly recommended. –Harry C. Edwards
Why the President Should Read This Book
Innovation is neither the exclusive domain of government-funded projects, nor the … Read the rest of this entry »Lean Thinking by James P. Womack and Daniel T. Jones
General Overview (from Amazon.com)
In the revised and updated edition of Lean Thinking: Banish Waste and Create Wealth in Your Corporation, authors James P. Womack and Daniel T. Jones provide a thoughtful expansion upon their value-based business system based on the Toyota model. Along the way they update their action plan in light of new research and the increasing globalization of manufacturing, and they revisit some of their key case studies (most of which still derive, however, from the automotive, aerospace, and other manufacturing industries).The core of the lean model remains the same in the new edition. All businesses must define the “value” that they produce as the product that best suits customer needs. The leaders must then identify and clarify the “value stream,” the nexus of actions to bring the product through problems solving, information management, and physical transformation tasks. Next, “lean enterprise” lines up suppliers with this value stream. “Flow” traces the product across departments. “Pull” then activates the flow as the business re-orients towards the pull of the customer’s needs. Finally, with the company reengineered towards its core value in a flow process, the business re-orients towards “perfection,” rooting out all the remaining muda (Japanese … Read the rest of this entry »
The Wal-Mart Effect by Charles Fishman
General Description (from Publisher’s Weekly)
Fishman shops at Wal-Mart and has obvious affection for its price-cutting, hard-nosed ethos. He also understands that the story of Wal-Mart is really the story of the transformation of the American economy over the past 20 years. He’s careful to present the consumer benefits of Wal-Mart’s staggering growth and to place Wal-Mart in the larger context of globalization and the rise of mega-corporations. But he also presents the case against Wal-Mart in arresting detail, and his carefully balanced approach only makes the downside of Wal-Mart’s market dominance more vivid. Through interviews with former Wal-Mart insiders and current suppliers, Fishman puts readers inside the company’s penny-pinching mindset and shows how Wal-Mart’s mania to reduce prices has driven suppliers into bankruptcy and sent factory jobs overseas. He surveys the research on Wal-Mart’s effects on local retailers, details the environmental impact of its farm-raised salmon and exposes the abuse of workers in a supplier’s Bangladesh factory. In Fishman’s view, the “Wal-Mart effect” is double-edged: consumers benefit from lower prices, even if they don’t shop at Wal-Mart, but Wal-Mart has the power of life and death over its suppliers. Wal-Mart, he suggests, is too big to be subject to … Read the rest of this entry »The 4-Hour Workweek by Timothy Ferriss
General Description (from Amazon.com)
What do you do? Tim Ferriss has trouble answering the question. Depending on when you ask this controversial Princeton University guest lecturer, he might answer:“I race motorcycles in Europe.”
“I ski in the Andes.”
“I scuba dive in Panama.”
“I dance tango in Buenos Aires.”He has spent more than five years learning the secrets of the New Rich, a fast-growing subculture who has abandoned the “deferred-life plan” and instead mastered the new currencies—time and mobility—to create luxury lifestyles in the here and now.
Whether you are an overworked employee or an entrepreneur trapped in your own business, this book is the compass for a new and revolutionary world. Join Tim Ferriss as he teaches you:
• How to outsource your life to overseas virtual assistants for $5 per hour and do whatever you want
• How blue-chip escape artists travel the world without quitting their jobs
• How to eliminate 50% of your work in 48 hours using the principles of a forgotten Italian economist
• How to trade a long-haul career for short work bursts and freuent “mini-retirements”
• What the crucial difference is between absolute and relative income
• How to train … Read the rest of this entry »Fast Food Nation by Eric Schlosser
General Description (from Amazon.com)
On any given day, one out of four Americans opts for a quick and cheap meal at a fast-food restaurant, without giving either its speed or its thriftiness a second thought. Fast food is so ubiquitous that it now seems as American, and harmless, as apple pie. But the industry’s drive for consolidation, homogenization, and speed has radically transformed America’s diet, landscape, economy, and workforce, often in insidiously destructive ways. Eric Schlosser, an award-winning journalist, opens his ambitious and ultimately devastating exposé with an introduction to the iconoclasts and high school dropouts, such as Harlan Sanders and the McDonald brothers, who first applied the principles of a factory assembly line to a commercial kitchen. Quickly, however, he moves behind the counter with the overworked and underpaid teenage workers, onto the factory farms where the potatoes and beef are grown, and into the slaughterhouses run by giant meatpacking corporations. Schlosser wants you to know why those French fries taste so good (with a visit to the world’s largest flavor company) and “what really lurks between those sesame-seed buns.” Eater beware: forget your concerns about cholesterol, there is–literally–feces in your meat. Schlosser’s investigation reaches its frightening peak in … Read the rest of this entry »Big Picture MBA by Peter Navarro
General Description (from Amazon.com)
This course is designed to give listeners an overview of the MBA degree – one of the most valuable graduate degrees available.The focus is on the major courses taught in the core curriculum at any one of the top 50 business schools in the United States.We begin with an overview of the MBA core curriculum then proceed systematically through each of the major courses taught at America’s top business schools – from accounting, finance, and marketing to economics, organizational behavior, and strategy.
The course concludes with two lectures that will help you select, apply to, and prepare for your business schools of choice. However, you don’t have to be a prospective student to benefit from this course. Any business executive wishing to further hone his or her management skills will find this course to be extremely valuable.
Why the President Should Read This Book
If you have an MBA or even some basic business experience, you would read this book and think “Yeah, I guess that’s a very high-level and summarized view of what someone who gets an MBA would learn. Not exactly enough to help you run a business, but a good overview … Read the rest of this entry »The Way to Wealth by Benjamin Franklin
General Description (from Amazon.com)
Statesman, scientist, entrepreneur, inventor . . . Benjamin Franklin is synonymous with American ingenuity and achievement. It’s no coincidence that his face is on the hundred dollar bill. In “The Way to Wealth,” Franklin reveals–through his wise and witty sayings–the fundamental principles for a prosperous life. Originally published in the 1757 Poor Richard’s Almanac, this work was America’s first financial advice book. Widely read throughout the Colonies, Franklin’s wisdom guided our nation during the Founding era–and it is just as relevant today.Why the President Should Read This Book
It was written by Benjamin Franklin, for heaven’s sake. But it also contains many gems of wisdom and insight into the ideas that led to the founding of the United States.Rework by Jason Fried and David Heinemeier Hansson
Reviews
“Jason Fried and David Hansson follow their own advice in REWORK, laying bare the surprising philosophies at the core of 37signals’ success and inspiring us to put them into practice. There’s no jargon or filler here just hundreds of brilliantly simple rules for success. Part entrepreneurial handbook for the twenty-first century, part manifesto for anyone wondering how work really works in the modern age, REWORK is required reading for anyone tired of business platitudes.”
–Chris Anderson, New York Times bestselling author of THE LONG TAIL and FREE
“House-husband, housewife, Fortune 500 CEO, cab driver, restaurateur, venture capitalist — this is ’the book for you,’ a book of true wisdom, business wisdom, life wisdom. The clarity, even genius, of this book actually brought me to near-tears on several occasions. Just bloody brilliant, that’s what!”
–Tom Peters, New York Times bestselling author of IN SEARCH OF EXCELLENCE, THRIVING ON CHAOS and LEADERSHIP
“If given a choice between investing in someone who has read REWORK or has an MBA, I’m investing in REWORK every time. This is a must read for every entrepreneur.”
–Mark Cuban, co-founder of HDNet and Broadcast.com and owner of the Dallas Mavericks
“Inspirational…REWORK is a minimalist manifesto … Read the rest of this entry »