Thinker in Residence: Jay Baer on Business & Books
Sally Haldorson
June 27, 2013
For our final Thinker in Residence installment on Jay Baer, author of Youtility, we asked him to share with us the business question that most inspires him and what books have most influenced him. Read on and enjoy Baer's take on business and books.
For our final Thinker in Residence installment on Jay Baer, author of Youtility, we asked him to share with us the business question that most inspires him and what books have most influenced him. Read on and enjoy Baer's take on business and books.
What is the one unanswered question about business you are most interested in answering? In Youtility, I hope to answer the question of "how can I fundamentally change our approach to marketing so that it's something customers actually want?" Down the road, I'd like to explore the notion of individual Youtility and answer this question: "Are our employees and customers more important to the marketing success of the company than the company itself?" I think the answer is yes. I want to prove it some day (and I touch on it a bit in this book). What business book has influenced your work the most? Certainly, I'm a big fan of Content Rules by Ann Handley and CC Chapman, and Youtility takes some of their groundwork and builds a strategic scaffolding around it. I also really love Different by Youngme Moon. What is the business book you wish you had written and why? What a terrific question! I'll say, How to Make Friends and Influence People because the lessons there are just as applicable today (maybe more so), despite the myriad changes and shifts in technology and how we communicate. Quite an achievement! What business book are you reading right now? Your Network is Your Net Worth by Porter Gale, and CTRL ALT DELETE by Mitch Joel.
Revisit this introduction to Jay Baer and our take on his new book, Youtility.
