Jack Covert Selects RSS
The Power of Habit: Why We Do What We Do In Life and Business by Charles Duhigg, Random House, 400 Pages, $28. 00, Hardcover, March 2012, ISBN 9781400069286
We all have habits. Some are good, like brushing our teeth, and others are generally classified as bad, such as smoking, drinking to excess, or overeating.
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The Wide Lens: A New Strategy for Innovation by Ron Adner, Portfolio, 231 pages, $29. 95, Hardcover, March, 2012, ISBN 9781591844600
Of all that’s been written and espoused on innovation over the past several years, it seems a key consideration has often been overlooked, one that Dartmouth College professor Ron Adner has gleaned from years of studying the subject. Adner has now detailed his findings as well as his prescription for greater success at innovation in The Wide Lens, in which cites many examples of companies that failed to check the “innovation blind spot” of their innovation ecosystem and consequently failed with innovations that should have been wild successes.
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Inside Apple: How America’s Most Admired—and Secretive—Company Really Works by Adam Lashinsky, Business Plus, 223 Pages, $26. 99, Hardcover, January 2012, ISBN 9781455512157
Apple, one of the most iconic companies of this century, has created many life-changing products (products we mostly didn’t know we needed until they made them, and now can’t live without), yet we know little about the inner workings of this organization… other than what Apple wants us to know.
One thing I found particularly illuminating is Apple’s ability to say no.
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Uncommon Service: How to Win by Putting Customers at the Core of Your Business by Frances Frei & Anne Morriss, Harvard Business Review Press, 272 pages, $29. 95, Hardcover, February 2012, ISBN 9781422133316
As a service company, when we receive feedback about a negative situation, we immediately act to resolve the conflict and then try to put a process in place to avoid such a thing happening in the future. Most books on service describe ways to do this: how to react to or plan for customer service breakdowns.
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Hannibal and Me: What History’s Greatest Military Strategist Can Teach Us About Success and Failure by Andreas Kluth, Riverhead Books, 336 Pages, $26. 95, Hardcover, January 2012, ISBN 9781594488122
The key thing to know about this book is apparent in the title: Hannibal and Me (emphasis mine). Andreas Kluth, a writer for The Economist, presents the biography of the great Roman military leader, Hannibal, then weaves in a parallel line of stories about other types of heroes, artists, writers, inventors and revolutionists, all the while developing insight about human behavior.
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