Staff Picks Book Reviews
Porchlight is a company filled with voracious readers—talented, creative individuals who know books, and who excel at moving them. Whenever we can, we like to do that by telling you about the books we’re reading.
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Blog / Staff Picks
WSJ Review of The Elephant and the Dragon
Book Review by Porchlight
Here's a review from today's Wall Street Journal. The Elephant and the Dragon, by Robyn Meredith, details the rapid economic growth both China and India have experienced over the past 100 years. Meredith shows that these two emerging economic giants have important lessons the U.
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Jack Covert Selects Winning (again)
Book Review by Porchlight
"Winning" by Jack Welch with Suzy Welch, HarperBusiness, 350 Pages, $27. 95, Hardcover, April 2005, ISBN 9780060753948 Note: At the end of this 2005 review I wrote "Not only is this book relevant today, but I think it will be adding value for many years to come. " I'm no prophet, but I do know that my prediction was right.
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Jack Covert Selects Good to Great (again)
Book Review by Porchlight
"Good to Great" by Jim Collins, HarperCollins, 320 Pages, $27. 50, Hardcover, October 2001, ISBN 9780066620992 Note: This Jack Covert Selects is from October of 2001. Not only has the book Good to Great emerged as a classic and a "breakthrough," cross-genre sensation, but the phrase itself has entered business jargon.
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Chicago Sun-Times reviews "Apples are Square"
Book Review by Porchlight
Jack sent me a link to this book review published in the Chicago Sun-Times yesterday. "Polishing up on leadership qualities: Insightful read outlines values needed to succeed today" by John A. Challenger In Apples are Square: Thinking Differently about Leadership Susan and Thomas Kuczmarski contend that, aside from sincere efforts made some companies, we haven't learned our proverbial lesson after Enron.
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45 Things You Do That Drive Your Boss Crazy
Book Review by Porchlight
Recently I paged through 45 Things You Do That Drive Your Boss Crazy: And How to Avoid Them by Anita Bruzzese, author of the column "On the Job. " Most of the items in this book were common sense: Telling Dirty Jokes and Cussing on the Job; Having Poor Writing and Spelling Skills; Wearing the Wrong Thing to Work; Gossiping; Failing to Learn from Mistakes. Here are a few I wasn't expecting: 17.
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A "Weird Idea that Works"
Book Review by Porchlight
This brief excerpt reminded me quite a bit of the discussions we have here at 800-CEO-READ. (From Chapter 8 of Weird Ideas that Work by Robert I. Sutton) Find Some Happy People and Get Them to Fight (Weird Idea #5) If you want innovation, you need happy warriors, upbeat people who know the right way to fight.
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The "Dominant Selling Idea" - Why Johnny Can't Brand
Book Review by Porchlight
Last Friday we put a new excerpt up on the Excerpts Blog: the introduction to Why Johnny Can't Brand: Rediscovering the Lost Art of the Big Idea. You can read the entire introduction over there, but I wanted to share another interesting section I found while paging through the book: The Five Rules of One 1. The "One Item of 'Carry-On-'" Rule When seeking to differentiate your brand, no matter how much information you offer, when you've finished pitching: People only remember one thing.
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New Excerpt - Fired Up or Burned Out
Book Review by Porchlight
There's a new excerpt up on the Excerpts Blog. It's taken from the introduction to Fired Up or Burned Out: How to Reignite Your Team's Passion, Creativity, and Productivity by Michael Lee Stallard. The author presents three keys that can empower a leader to transform even a lethargic, disconnected organization into an impassioned, innovative, and thriving workplace.
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What are you reading?
Book Review by Porchlight
Since Kate, Todd and Jack are out of the office today, I am going to be sneaky and ask a non-business-book related question. What are you reading this summer? And what would you say when recommending it?
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Implications of the Blogosphere
Book Review by Porchlight
Dov Seidman, who we mentioned earlier in the week, was the focus of Thomas Friedman's New York Times column today. You need to subscribe to the New York Times online to view the article (a trial version is available), so those who have a subscription or want to get one can access the column here: The Whole World is Watching Here's a brief excerpt: When everyone has a blog, a MySpace page or Facebook entry, everyone is a publisher. When everyone has a cellphone with a camera in it, everyone is a paparazzo.
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