Blog
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Blog / Staff Picks
Creativity: The Psychology of Discovery and Invention
Book Review by Sally Haldorson
In 1990, Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi wrote one of the classic books on creativity, Flow. We opened our tallying of The 100 Best Business Books of All Time with Flow because the book is about optimal experiences, "those times when people report feelings of concentration and deep enjoyment," and many people either access that feeling or wish to access that feeling at work. In that book, Csikszentmihalyi provides his theory behind the flow state and argues that such an unconscious contentedness is not as unpreditable or fortuitous as most people think.
Categories: staff-picks
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Blog / Staff Picks
Amaze Every Customer Every Time
Book Review by Sally Haldorson
Customers don't do business with a company. They do business with the people who work for the company. Everyone seems to have a story about their favorite Ace Hardware store.
Categories: staff-picks
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Blog / News & Opinion
2013 Business Book Awards
By Porchlight
The 2013 800-CEO-READ Business Book Awards are now open for submissions. Thousands of business books are published each year, each with the potential to promote change and enlighten the way people think about business. We began recognizing these efforts in 2007 with the 800-CEO-READ Business Book Awards, highlighting the best works in a number of categories.
Categories: news-opinion
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Blog / Staff Picks
You Are Now Less Dumb
Book Review by Porchlight
I like to think. At least I like to think that I like to think. This idea I have about myself is exactly what drove me to pick up David McRaney’s new book, You Are Now Less Dumb.
Categories: staff-picks
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Blog / Staff Picks
Take a Day Off: Read a Book!
Book Review by Sally Haldorson
It is nearing the end of summer, at least in these parts, but there is still time to whittle down that long "to-read-on-vacation" list that you might have created in May, imaging long hot days laying in the sun, book in hand. If you are like me, summer is never quite the vast wasteland of time during which I can read to my heart's content that I always hope it will be. Instead, it is usually a time of rushing around the city from event to event, doing home and yard work, taking my child to a park/pool/playdate, and generally feeling like the summer is going by way too fast.
Categories: staff-picks
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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.
Categories: jack-covert-selects
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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.
Categories: jack-covert-selects
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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.
Categories: jack-covert-selects
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Blog / News & Opinion
The FT/Goldman Sachs Business Book of the Year Longlist
By Porchlight
The Financial Times & Goldman Sachs Business Book of the Year longlist has been announced. It is, as Andrew Hill of the FT writes, a reading list that mixes low deeds and high hopes (registration required). The list includes: After the Music Stopped: The Financial Crisis, the Response, and the Work Ahead by Alan Blinder, The Penguin Press The Alchemists: Three Central Bankers and a World on Fire by Neil Irwin, The Penguin Press Big Data: A Revolution That Will Transform How We Live, Work, and Think by Viktor Mayer-Schönberger & Kenneth Cukier, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt The Billionaire’s Apprentice: The Rise of The Indian-American Elite and The Fall of The Galleon Hedge Fund by Anita Raghavan, Business Plus The End of Competitive Advantage: How to Keep Your Strategy Moving as Fast as Your Business by Rita Gunther McGrath, Harvard Business Review Press The End of Power: From Boardrooms to Battlefields and Churches to States, Why Being In Charge Isn’t What It Used to Be by Moisés Naím, Basic Books The Everything Store: Jeff Bezos and the Age of Amazon by Brad Stone, Little Brown and Company Give and Take: A Revolutionary Approach to Success by Adam Grant, Viking Books The Great Escape: Health, Wealth, and the Origins of Inequality by Angus Deaton, Princeton University Press How Asia Works: Success and Failure in the World’s Most Dynamic Region by Joe Studwell, Grove Press Lean In: Women, Work, and the Will to Lead by Sheryl Sandberg, Knopf Publishing Group Making it Happen: Fred Goodwin, RBS and the Men Who Blew Up the British Economy by Iain Martin, Simon and Schuster (I don't see that this is being released in the U.
Categories: news-opinion, publishing-industry
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Blog / News & Opinion
ChangeThis: Issue 108
By Porchlight
Art Is Freedom by Erik Wahl “My name is Erik Wahl and Art has saved me from a life of slavery. I am a recovering suit and tie. I am recuperating from years as a gear in a wheel that barely touched the ground.
Categories: news-opinion
