Jack Covert Selects
Jack Covert is the founder and former president of 800-CEO-READ. His Jack Covert Selects column grew out of a “new releases” column he ran in the local paper’s business pages, and blossomed into a monthly review series that ran in business journals and newspapers across the country. As the company grew, other members of the management and marketing team began writing reviews for the series, but Jack continued to contribute his own voice until his retirement in 2014. We kept the series—now weekly—alive under his name for another year, and transformed it into our current Editor’s Choice series at the beginning of 2016.
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Blog / Jack Covert Selects
Jack Covert Selects - Chaos Imperative
By Porchlight
The Chaos Imperative: How Chance and Disruption Increase Innovation, Effectiveness, and Success by Ori Brafman, Crown Business, 230 pages, $24. 00, Hardcover, August 2013, ISBN 9780307886675 An important piece of Ori Brafman’s new book is its starting point. While announcing the purchase of Gillette in 2005, Proctor & Gamble’s A.
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Blog / Jack Covert Selects
Jack Covert Selects - Compelling People
By Porchlight
Compelling People: The Hidden Qualities That Make Us Influential by John Neffinger & Matthew Kohut, Hudson Street Press, 304 pages, $25. 95, Hardcover, August 2013, ISBN 9781594631016 This book is required reading at Harvard Business School, and for good reason—it helps their students become more successful, and it can do the same for all of us. There is no denying that how the world sees us can make all the difference in how successful we are, and that is exactly what Compelling People addresses.
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Blog / Jack Covert Selects
Jack Covert Selects - The In-Between
By Porchlight
The In-Between: Embracing the Tension Between Now and the Next Big Thing by Jeff Goins, Moody Publishers, 176 pages, $13. 99, July 2013, ISBN 9780802407245 We believe in the power of business books to help managers solve a particular business quandary, inspire an individual to take greater control over their professional lives, to work smarter, be more creative, start something new, or improve an already existing organization. That said, business books are not a panacea, and one can overdose on their advice to live larger, strike out on our own, to change the world.
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Blog / Jack Covert Selects
Jack Covert Selects - Business Secrets of the Trappist Monks
By Porchlight
Business Secrets of the Trappist Monks: One CEO’s Quest for Meaning and Authenticity by August Turak, Columbia University Press, 200 pages, $29. 95, Hardcover, July 2013, ISBN 9780231160629 At first glance, Business Secrets of the Trappist Monks might seem antithetical. In fact, consider this from the book’s first chapter, “The Economic Miracle of Mepkin Abbey:” The reason for Mepkin’s success is that the monks are not actually in business at all.
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Blog / Jack Covert Selects
Jack Covert Selects - Worthless, Impossible, and Stupid
By Porchlight
Worthless, Impossible, and Stupid: How Contrarian Entrepreneurs Create and Capture Extraordinary Value by Daniel Isenberg, Harvard Business Review Press, 304 pages, $27. 00, Hardcover, July 2013, ISBN 9781422186985 It is always refreshing to be told that the things you are feeling are the very right things you should be feeling. And that's the underlying value of the message that author Daniel Isenberg shares in Worthless, Impossible, and Stupid.
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Blog / Jack Covert Selects
Jack Covert Selects - The Ethical Economy
By Porchlight
The Ethical Economy: Rebuilding Value After the Crisis by Adam Arvidsson & Nicolai Peitersen, Columbia University Press, 208 pages, $32. 50, Hardcover, July 2013, ISBN 9780231152648 We chose Robert Schiller’s Finance and the Good Society as the best Finance & Economics book in 2012. That book explained the role of individuals within finance, the role of finance within society, and how we can democratize financial capitalism to create and best serve a “good society.
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Blog / Jack Covert Selects
Jack Covert Selects - Unthink
By Porchlight
Unthink: Rediscover Your Creative Genius by Erik Wahl, Crown Business, 256 pages, $23. 00, Hardcover, June 2013, ISBN 9780770434007 Remember when you were a child, and could spend each day creating a whole new adventure for you and your friends? There were no boundaries to the stories you could dream up.
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Jack Covert Selects - Inside the Box
By Porchlight
Inside the Box: A Proven System of Creativity for Breakthrough Results by Drew Boyd and Jacob Goldenberg; Simon and Schuster, 257 pages, $28. 50, Hardcover, June 2013, ISBN 9781451659252 Inside the Box is counter-directive to the many business books published every year that strive to illuminate and teach creative thinking. Because there is a constant demand for new ideas in our fast-moving business climate, most books tend toward systematizing creativity in order to insure continued innovation within organizations.
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Blog / Jack Covert Selects
Jack Covert Selects - The End of Competitive Advantage
By Porchlight
The End of Competitive Advantage: How to Keep Your Strategy Moving as Fast As Your Business, Harvard Business Review Press, 204 pages, $30. 00, Hardcover, June 2013, ISBN 9781422172810 Many books hail the end of major institutions or mainstream conventions. Rita Gunther McGrath’s The End of Competitive Advantage is one of these books, but it is unique among its peers.
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Blog / Jack Covert Selects
Jack Covert Selects - The Art of Thinking Clearly
By Porchlight
The Art of Thinking Clearly by Rolf Dobelli, Harper, 384 pages, $25. 99, Hardcover, May 2013, ISBN 9780062219688 Have you ever toiled over a project so much that even when it showed no signs of succeeding, you couldn’t let go? If so, you were a victim of effort justification.
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