Stories
Stories
Alumni and Faculty Books for December 2015
Alumni Books
Think to Win: Unleashing the Power of Strategic Thinking
by Paul Butler, John F. Manfredi, and Peter Klein (MBA 1971)
(McGraw-Hill Education)
The authors provide a proven plan for making strategic thinking part of any organization’s DNA to drive sustainable growth. In today’s ultracompetitive business world, the difference between success and failure lies in the ability to get every employee to think and behave like a strategist. This book helps business leaders expand strategic thinking from the purview of “the elite few” into the whole company culture. It offers a simple, proven approach to analyzing and solving challenges and provides a common language anyone can understand.
Teams That Work: The Six Characteristics of High Performing Teams
by Cliff Chirls (MBA 1979), George Myers, and Tom Champoux
(CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform)
Stories from the Boeing Co., Loews Corp., Michigan State University, Cornell University’s Hotel School, Bank of Hawaii, HR Spinner, the NCAA, and Fiat Chrysler Automobiles illustrate how effective teams drive progress in business, associations, and education. The six key characteristics of successful teams provide the framework for a discussion of what it takes for a team to produce great results.
Unleash Your Inner Company: Use Passion and Perseverance to Build Your Ideal Business
by John Chisholm (MBA 1978)
(Greenleaf Book Group Press)
Chisholm provides an innovative, step-by-step process for anyone who aspires to start and grow their own business. The president of the worldwide MIT Alumni Association, he brings an insider’s view based on three decades of successful, serial entrepreneurship in Silicon Valley. His book combines practical principles, entertaining anecdotes, deep insights, challenging exercises, and illuminating graphics to guide readers in conceiving, designing, building, testing, and scaling up the ideal business for them.
The Career Playbook: Essential Advice for Today’s Aspiring Young Professional
by James M. Citrin (MBA 1986)
(Crown Business)
This book is based on an in-depth survey of thousands of young professionals and hundreds of interviews with the world’s top business and nonprofit leaders (among them Virgin’s Richard Branson, Facebook’s Sheryl Sandberg, Third Point Advisors’ Daniel Loeb, and US Navy SEALs’ Admiral Eric Olson) as well as Citrin’s decades of experience as a senior partner at the executive search firm Spencer Stuart. He offers advice on generating valuable introductions, nailing interviews, negotiating compensation, cultivating a mentor, and knowing when to change jobs or industries.
Sunset over Java
by Jacobus de Vries (MBA 1964)
(CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform)
An autobiographical story of a boy whose life was radically changed in the prison camps on Java during World War II. After the Japanese surrender in 1945, a violent Indonesia revolution forced the evacuation of all Dutch civilians, including de Vries’s family. His education was interrupted, and the resultant patchwork of schooling in Holland and Washington, DC, resulted in poor grades and caused him to reject all thoughts of going to college. A stint in the US Army began his personal turnaround. With the help of family and new friends, good fortune, and determination to make up for lost years, he was surprised to find himself at Harvard at age 23.
Primed to Perform: How to Build the Highest Performing Cultures through the Science of Total Motivation
by Neel Doshi and Lindsay McGregor (MBA 2013)
(HarperBusiness)
The authors explain the counterintuitive science behind great business cultures, building on over a century of academic thinking. They share a simple, highly predictive measurement tool, the Total Motivation (ToMo) Factor, which enables managers to measure the strength of their business culture and track improvements over time. They show how Total Motivation leads to higher performance in iconic companies, from Apple and Starbucks to Southwest Airlines. Most importantly, they teach how to build great cultures, using a systematic and sustainable approach.
Can These Bones Live? A Novel of the Armenian Massacres of 1915 and of ISIS Today
by Tom Frist (AMP 94, 1984)
(iUniverse)
Simple Sabotage: A Modern Field Manual for Detecting and Rooting Out Everyday Behaviors That Undermine Your Workplace
by Robert Galford (MBA 1976), Bob Frisch, and Cary Greene (MBA 1994)
(HarperOne)
Inspired by the Simple Sabotage Field Manual released by the Office of Strategic Services in 1944 to train European resistors, this is the essential handbook to help stamp out unintentional sabotage in any working group, from major corporations to volunteer PTA committees. While the manual was written decades ago, these sabotage tactics thrive undetected in organizations today: 1. Insist on doing everything through channels. 2. Make speeches. 3. Talk as frequently as possible and at great length. 4. Refer all matters to committees. 5. Bring up irrelevant issues as frequently as possible. 6. Haggle over precise wordings of communications. 7. Refer back to matters already decided upon and try to question the advisability of that decision. 8. Advocate caution and urge fellow conferees to avoid haste that might result in embarrassments or difficulties later on. 9. Be worried about the propriety of any decision. This book outlines the counter-sabotage measures to detect and reduce the impact of these classic sabotage tactics so as to improve productivity, spur creativity, and engender better collegial relationships.
Entrepreneurial Leadership: A Practical Guide to Generating New Business
by Angelo Mastrangelo (OPM 14)
(Praeger)
Combining principles of leadership and entrepreneurship, this guide covers basic concepts and pertinent issues for leaders at all levels. Two easy-to-follow models are applicable to all types of organizations. The Opportunity Model shows exactly how to identify business-generating opportunities, while the Enduring Leadership Model outlines the author’s unique leadership principles, what he calls “Personal” and “Professional” Leadership. To illustrate what works and what doesn’t, the author takes readers inside the highly volatile beverage industry and shares his greatest successes and failures running Adirondack Beverages, a company that still thrives today based on principles instilled more than 20 years ago.
Taiwan Aborigine Missionary: R. Don McCall Sr., Family Letters
compiled by Roy K. McCall (MBA 1984)
China’s Greatest Statesman: Zhou Enlai’s Revolution and the One He Left Behind in his Birthplace of Huai’an
by Roy K. McCall (MBA 1984)
(iUniverse)
Huai’an-born Zhou Enlai was contemporary China’s greatest statesman, spymaster, and negotiator. According to McCall, the People’s Republic of China would not exist today without Zhou’s skill as communicator and administrator. Yet he had one flaw, loyalty to Mao, that cost him his adopted children, his colleagues, and the career of Xi Zhongxun, father of President Xi Jinping. When Zhou left Huai’an, another group came to his birthplace to serve society through medicine, education and evangelism. China’s revolutionaries gained power, but the missionaries gained influence. Influence transcended power, and power politics contrasted with quiet service.
Canadian Women in the Sky: 100 Years of Flight
by Elizabeth Gillan Muir (HRPBA 1958)
(Dundurn Press)
This is the story of how women in Canada, from Newfoundland to British Columbia, struggled to win a place in the world of air travel, first as passengers, then as flight attendants and pilots, and, finally, as astronauts. Anecdotes trace these women’s challenges and successes, their slow march over 100 years from scandal to acceptance, whether in Second World War skies, in hostile northern bush country, or even beyond Earth’s atmosphere.
Cent’Anni: The Sinatra Legend at 100
by Richard Muti (MBA 1971)
(North Jersey Media Group)
This study of the most fascinating entertainer of the 20th century isn’t an academic tome, although it is extensively researched and footnoted. It is designed to be a highly readable page-turner, for avid Sinatraphiles as well as more casual fans of his music and films. It examines the positive and negative forces that made Sinatra, Sinatra.
Logra Tu Dream (Achieve Your Dream): How 50 Successful Latinos & Latinas Turned Their Dreams into Reality
by Arturo Nava (MBA 1999)
(Logra Tu Dream Publishing)
Achieving the American Dream has become increasingly difficult for many Latinos, despite huge opportunities, because mentorship and inspiration from Latino role models are lacking. But it doesn’t have to be this way. Nava shows how 50 of the most successful Latinos and Latinas in America turned their dreams into reality. Their stories provide insight into the mindset, actions, and habits that allowed them to overcome barriers and conquer fears, to achieve what they once thought impossible.
Women & Transition: Reinventing Work and Life
by Linda Rossetti (MBA 1991)
(Palgrave Macmillan)
Rossetti helps readers understand transition and presents a step-by-step roadmap women can use to make transition positive, optimistic, and approachable throughout their lives. Rossetti was in her mid-forties, a senior executive at a Fortune 500 company, when she realized the career path she had spent years building was no longer suitable or sustainable. Both her family and professional life began to unravel. She sought out change (a new job, less travel, more time at home) but quickly realized this was not the answer. She found the answers in the transition experiences of hundreds of women whom she interviewed over three years. This book defines transition, introduces a toolkit for transitioning, and delivers a roadmap for women from all walks of life to take the next steps on their own journey.
It’s My Pleasure: The Impact of Extraordinary Talent and a Compelling Culture
by Dee Ann Turner (AMP 176, 2009)
(Elevate)
Businesses are built by growing relationships with customers, and culture is created by the stories those relationships tell. Two of a business’s most important differentiators are its talent and culture. Talent energized by a compelling culture will drive organizational success and provide innovative growth opportunities for both the business and the individual. Based on her more than thirty years at Chick-fil-A, most of which have been spent as vice president of corporate talent, Turner shares how Chick-fil-A has built a devoted talent and fan base that spans generations. She tells powerful stories and provides practical examples on how to develop extraordinary talent able to build and stimulate a company’s culture.
Bloody Royal Prints
by Reba White Williams (MBA 1970)
(Tyrus Books)
The fourth Coleman and Dinah Greene mystery.
Kunst in Holderbank: Begegnungen mit großen Künstlern und ihren Werken. 20 Kunstausstellungen
(Art in Holderbank: Encounters with great artists and their works—20 art exhibitions)
by Derrick Widmer (AMP 71, 1975)
(Novum Pro Verlag)
Widmer relates how a Swiss cement company became a mecca for art lovers. He’d had a passion for art since his youth, and it continued during the 30-plus years he worked for Holcim, an international cement firm. He began to decorate the firm’s bare cement walls with art and held little art exhibitions at the company. The exhibitions grew larger and more numerous and eventually drew the interest of all of Switzerland and neighboring countries to Holderbank, which suddenly became famous for more than cement and concrete.
Small Victories: One Couple’s Surprising Adventures Building an Unrivaled Collection of American Prints
by Dave H. Williams (MBA 1961)
(David R. Godine)
For more than four decades, Williams and his wife formed the most comprehensive and adventurous treasury of American prints ever assembled by private collectors. Their 6,000 prints cover both familiar and totally unknown ground. What stands out about their collection is their sustained effort to break new ground, to include artists and entire schools of art that have been unknown to (or routinely ignored by) both academics and fellow collectors. Here in force are the regionalists who worked on the shores of Cape Cod and northern California, in Dallas and Charleston, SC, as well as the Ashcan School of New York and countless other small ateliers and workshops well off the beaten paths and often unknown and unseen. Here are the hundreds of WPA artists, supported by the federal government during the Great Depression, who worked in smaller cities and undocumented workshops, and here are the masterpieces of Bellows and Homer, Lewis and Sloan. Structured mainly as a memoir, the book presents the Williams collection as an adventure, a unique look into this populist corner of the duplicated image, its reflection of and impact on popular culture, and the nature of collecting in general.
The Moderate Solution: How We Can Balance the Federal Budget (And It Isn’t Even That Hard)
by David B. Wilson (MBA 1985)
(Integer Press)
Wilson offers reasoned centrist solutions for fixing the federal budget deficit. He begins by reviewing the unsustainable fiscal position of the United States government before discussing the country’s founding economic and political principles, as espoused by Adam Smith’s The Wealth of Nations and enshrined in the Declaration of Independence. He goes on to explore the basic principles of the free market system and to discuss the modern history of government finance. Wilson then addresses issues central to the present-day political discussion, such as the fairness of US tax policy, the social safety net, health care, and income inequality.
Faculty Books
Presence: Bringing Your Boldest Self to Your Biggest Challenges
by Amy Cuddy
(Little, Brown and Co.)
Associate Professor Cuddy presents a scientifically grounded way to align our speech and nonverbal behavior with our beliefs, abilities, and values to produce a synchronized inner state that resonates and connects with others. In this way, we can capture the inner strength we need to successfully navigate life’s most difficult situations. The book is filled with stories of people facing a range of challenges, from going on job interviews to asking someone out; scientific research on how our bodies change our minds; and revolutionary strategies like “power posing.”
Shadow Cold War: The Sino-Soviet Competition for the Third World
by Jeremy Friedman
(University of North Carolina Press)
The conflict between the United States and the Soviet Union during the Cold War has long been understood in a global context, but Assistant Professor Friedman’s book delves deeper into the era to examine the competition in the 1960s between the Soviet Union and the People’s Republic of China for the leadership in the Third World. When newly independent states emerged from decolonization desperately poor and politically disorganized, Moscow and Beijing focused on attracting these new entities. Based on archival research from ten countries, including new material from Russia and China, much of it no longer accessible to researchers, this book examines how China sought to mobilize Asia, Africa, and Latin America to seize the revolutionary mantle from the Soviet Union. The U.S.S.R. adapted to win it back, transforming the nature of socialist revolution in the process. This book is the first to explore the significance of this second Cold War that China and the Soviet Union fought in the shadow of the capitalist-communist clash.
How the Internet Became Commercial: Innovation, Privatization, and the Birth of a New Network
by Shane Greenstein
(Princeton University Press)
In less than a decade, the Internet went from being a series of loosely connected networks used by universities and the military to the powerful commercial engine it is today. This book describes how many of the key innovations that made this possible came from entrepreneurs and iconoclasts who were outside the mainstream—and how the commercialization of the Internet was by no means a foregone conclusion at its outset. MBA Class of 1957 Professor Greenstein traces the evolution of the Internet from government ownership to privatization to the commercial Internet we know today. This is a story of innovation from the edges. Greenstein shows how mainstream service providers, traditionally the leaders in the old-market economy, became threatened by innovations from industry outsiders who saw economic opportunities where others didn’t—and how these mainstream firms had no choice but to innovate themselves. New models were tried; some succeeded, some failed. Commercial markets turned innovations into valuable products and services as the Internet evolved in those markets. New business processes had to be created from scratch as a network originally intended for research and military defense had to deal with network interconnectivity, the needs of commercial users, and a host of challenges with implementing innovative new services.
Economic Analysis of the Digital Economy
edited by Avi Goldfarb, Shane Greenstein, and Catherine Tucker
(University of Chicago Press)
As the cost of storing, sharing, and analyzing data has decreased, economic activity has become increasingly digital. But while the effects of digital technology and improved digital communication have been explored in a variety of contexts, the impact on economic activity—from consumer and entrepreneurial behavior to the ways in which governments determine policy—is less well understood. This book explores the economic impact of digitization, with each chapter identifying a promising new area of research. The Internet is one of the key drivers of growth in digital communication, and the first set of chapters discusses basic supply-and-demand factors related to access. Later chapters discuss new opportunities and challenges created by digital technology and describe some of the most pressing policy issues. As digital technologies continue to gain in momentum and importance, it has become clear that digitization has features that do not fit well into traditional economic models. This suggests a need for a better understanding of the impact of digital technology on economic activity, and this book brings together leading scholars to explore this emerging area of research.
The Cambridge Handbook of Consumer Psychology
edited by Michael I. Norton, Derek D. Rucker, and Cait Lamberton
(Cambridge University Press)
Why do consumers make the purchases they do, and which ones make them truly happy? Why are consumers willing to spend huge sums of money to appear high in status? This handbook addresses these key questions and many more. It provides a comprehensive overview of consumer psychology, examining cutting-edge research at the individual, interpersonal, and societal levels. Leading scholars summarize past and current findings and consider future lines of inquiry to deepen our understanding of the psychology behind consumers’ decision making, their interactions with other consumers, and the effects of societal factors on consumption.