Stories
Stories
Alumni Books of 2016
Topics: Information-BooksNews-School NewsManagement, LeadershipGeography-GlobalBusiness Ventures-Business OrganizationThe Most Important Things I Know: 55 Handwritten Ideas from People Who Changed the World
by Lorne Adrain (MBA 1983)
Lorne Adrain
A best-of collection drawn from Adrain’s previous books, this edition contains notes from Buzz Aldrin, Nelson Mandela, the Dali Lama, and many more.
The Founder’s Mentality: How to Overcome the Predictable Crises of Growth
by James Allen (MBA 1989) and Chris Zook
(Harvard Business Review Press)
Based on their decade-long study of companies in more than 40 countries, the authors demonstrate how applying three traits of a “founder's mentality” (an insurgent's clear mission and purpose, an unambiguous owner mindset, and a relentless obsession with the front line) can resolve the predictable crises of growth.
Scalability Rules: Principles for Scaling Web Sites
by Martin L. Abbott (PMD 76, 2001) and Michael T. Fisher
(Addison-Wesley Professional)
The authors have helped scale hundreds of hypergrowth Internet sites through their consulting practice. Drawing on their experience, they present 50 clear, proven, and up-to-date scalability rules and practical guidance for applying them. Abbott and Fisher transform scalability from a “black art” to a set of realistic, technology-agnostic best practices for supporting hypergrowth in nearly any environment. In this new edition, they add many new examples, plus case studies from many exceptionally demanding sites, including Etsy, Nasdaq, Salesforce, Shutterfly, and Twitter.
Execution Excellence: Making Strategy Work Using the Balanced Scorecard
by Sanjiv Anand (AMP 163, 2002)
(Wiley)
This is a hands-on guidebook for making strategy work with effective Balanced Scorecard design, deployment, and maintenance. It outlines the ways in which firms commonly fail in implementing BSC, for example in making the process too complicated and focusing on the BSC process rather than the outcome.
Dead Eye Trilogy
by Burt Avedon (MBA 1950)
An action-adventure retelling of Avedon’s life, chronicling almost 100 years of war and dynamic social realignment. The main focus is aviation in general and the US Navy specifically.
Managing in the Gray: Five Timeless Questions for Resolving Your Toughest Problems at Work
by Joseph L. Badaracco Jr. (MBA 1978)
(Harvard Business Review Press)
Part of a manager’s job is making tough calls, and the hardest challenge can be resolving “gray area” problems, situations where analysis of the facts and data fails to provide a clear answer. Gray areas test managers’ skills and humanity. Badaracco presents a five-question framework offering a way for managers to balance their analytical work with the human side and find a way forward when analysis falls short.
Tetiaroa, French Polynesia
by Richard H. Bailey (MBA 1981)
(Tahiti Beachcomber S.A.)
Bailey, the president and CEO of Pacific Beachcomber, published this coffee-table book on the beautiful Tetiaroa atoll, a collection of 12 small islands 30 miles north of Tahiti. Once a getaway for Tahitian royalty and later an escape for actor Marlon Brando, the islands are now home to a Pacific Beachcomber resort.
Central Park Trees and Landscapes: A Guide to New York City's Masterpiece
by Edward S. Barnard (PMD 32) and Neil Calvanese
(Columbia Univ. Press)
This field guide to the trees and landscapes of Central Park has two parts. The first discusses the geological and social history of the site, focusing mainly on the park’s construction in the late 1850s and 1860s. The second part has essays on the 200-plus tree species and varieties. This is supplemented with over 900 color photographs, botanical plates, and extraordinarily detailed maps.
Leading YOU: The Power of Self-Leadership to Build your Executive Brand and Drive Career Success
by Brenda Bence (MBA 1991)
(Global Insight Communications, LLC)
The most important driver of overall success is your own self-leadership. Without it, your career may stall. Why? Because how you lead yourself directly impacts your ability to lead others, and that, in turn, can prevent you from reaching your full career potential.
Value as a Service: Embracing the Coming Disruption
by Rob Bernshteyn (MBA 2001)
(Greenleaf Book Group Press)
Many traditional-products companies are converting the delivery of their offerings to the as-a-service model. The next disruption will focus less on the delivery model and more on the value delivered. Bernshteyn’s value-as-a-service model is the simple idea that measurable value delivered for customers will be the ultimate competitive battleground.
How to Think Like an Entrepreneur
by Philip Delves Broughton (MBA 2006)
(Macmillan)
Having the drive, ambition, and inspiration to start a new business takes a particular mindset: the ability to disrupt the status quo, use design thinking to generate fresh perspectives, build resilience and leap forward from failure, and ultimately to understand the deepest human needs. The author suggests thinking like an entrepreneur as a way to improve one’s business, life, and relationships.
L’Apport Économique des Huguenots
By Meinrad Busslinger (PMD 26, 1973)
(Editions Ampelos)
The departure of more than 200,000 Huguenots at the Revocation of the Edict of Nantes was a well-documented economic disaster for the kingdom of France, but the importance of these refugees to the countries where they settled is less known. Busslinger analyzes the economic and cultural contribution of the French exiles and describes their businesses and their successes.
—Sanjiv Anand (AMP 163, 2002), Execution Excellence: Making Strategy Work Using the Balanced Scorecard
“Once you have been trained to be a management consultant, writing comes relatively easily. One gets used to thinking and putting one’s thoughts together whenever time is available, in multiple time zones, and wherever one can find a quiet spot.”
—Sanjiv Anand (AMP 163, 2002), Execution Excellence: Making Strategy Work Using the Balanced Scorecard
Black Flag Down: Counter-Extremism, Defeating Daesh, and Winning the Battle of Ideas
by Liam Byrne (MBA 2000)
(Biteback Publishing)
Nearly ten years after the “victory” in Iraq, the West faces a terror threat as ISIL, Al Qaeda, and their allies set out to build an empire of intolerance, a 21st-century theocracy with 7th-century values stretching from Portugal to Pakistan. Byrne brings together fresh, grassroots research with young British Muslims, frank interviews with intelligence and police officers, and frontline reports from across the Middle East to offer answers to one of the biggest challenges of our time.
Dragons: 10 Entrepreneurs Who Built Britain
by Liam Byrne (MBA 2000)
(Head of Zeus)
Byrne examines British business endeavors through the lives of ten titans of commerce. Beginning with the Tudor merchants who transformed England’s economy via trade with the New World, the author traces an entrepreneurial golden line through men such as Thomas Pitt, savior of the East India Company; financier Nathan Rothschild, creator of the modern bond market; and William Lever, of the employee-owned John Lewis Partnership.
Wicked Strategies: How Companies Conquer Complexity and Confound Competitors
by John C. Camillus (DBA 1972)
(Rotman-UTP Publishing)
In business, some problems are so complex, intractable, and threatening to organizations—or entire industries—that they are best described as “wicked.” Wicked Strategies offers a comprehensive framework for identifying, responding to and profiting from wicked problems.
Aston Martin DB4GT
by Richard A. “Nick” Candee (MBA 1978)
(Palawan Press)
The DB4GT is the epitome of the Aston Martin Grand Touring car. Comfortable for two, it has few frills and a high level of luxury and yet is capable of heart-stopping performance and superb handling on the racetrack. Candee examines in detail the history of every DB4GT manufactured: the cars’ design and development and the craftsmen involved in producing them.
The Accelerating World: Speed vs. Control
by Emmanuel Cassimatis (MBA 2009)
(Emmanuel Cassimatis)
Over the past five decades, several mysterious and seemingly unrelated events have taken place. Sand has become rare. Species have disappeared at unprecedented rates. Diabetes rates have boomed. Online data thefts have surged. Urbanization and waste have soared. What is happening? Is it globalization? Or is something much deeper taking place, something that the world had never experienced before—a tremendous acceleration?
Oui! La France est un Paradis pour Entrepreneurs
by Fabrice Cavarretta (MBA 1996)
Plon
Yes, France is a paradise for entrepreneurs, Cavarretta writes. The country has one of the best opportunity ecosystems in the world and the drawbacks—for instance, the cost of labor or taxes—are relatively minor compared with other locations.
Leading Strategic Change in an Era of Healthcare Transformation
edited by Jim Austin, Judith Bentkover, and Laurence Chait (MBA 1965)
(Springer)
This book focuses on how to lead transformative and strategic change in the healthcare industry in times of great uncertainty. It provides new tools, processes, examples, and case studies offering an effective framework in which to transform healthcare systems. It helps leaders answer such questions as: Why change? What to change? How to change? And when to change?
Competing Against Luck: The Story of Innovation and Customer Choice
by Clayton M. Christensen (MBA 1979, DBA 1992), Taddy Hall, Karen Dillon, and David S. Duncan
(HarperBusiness)
The long-held maxim that understanding the customer is the crux of innovation is wrong. Customers don't buy products or services; they “hire” them to do a job. By understanding what causes customers to “hire” a product or service, any business can improve its innovation track record, creating products that customers will pay premium prices to bring into their lives.
Entrepreneurs in Every Generation: How Successful Family Businesses Develop Their Next Leaders
by Allan Cohen (MBA 1961) and Pramodita Sharma
(Berrett-Koehler Publishers)
Like other companies, family-run enterprises must develop leadership and entrepreneurial skills. But they must also manage family dynamics. The authors show how enterprising families can transmit the hunger for excellence across generations. Using examples of firms that flourished and those that failed, they describe the practices that characterize entrepreneurial individuals, families, and organizations and offer pragmatic advice.
The Upside of Inequality: How Good Intentions Undermine the Middle Class
by Edward Conard (MBA 1982)
(Portfolio)
Conard challenges the arguments of economists like Paul Krugman and Joseph Stiglitz offering remedies for income inequality. Drawing on a historical study of the ebbs and flows of the US economy, he proposes ways to grow the economy faster, which will benefit everyone on the income spectrum.
God and Money: How We Discovered True Riches at Harvard Business School
by John Cortines and Gregory Baumer (both MBA 2015)
(Rose Publishing)
The authors tell a story of God’s transforming power and describe a lifestyle of giving that they call “radical generosity.” They outline the seven key principles for implementing this kind of generosity. Royalties from this book go to Christian ministries focused on spreading the Gospel and providing for those in need.
Global Risk Agility and Decision Making: Organizational Resilience in the Era of Manmade Risk
by Daniel Wagner and Dante Disparte (PLDA 6)
(Palgrave Macmillan)
The authors call for a greater sense of urgency from corporate boards, policymakers, and risk practitioners to resolve the many challenges facing today’s private and public sector organizations. They offer insights into specific risk domains that are shaping our world, including terrorism, cyber risk, climate change, and economic resource nationalism. Readers will learn how risk management is being transformed from a business prevention function to a values-based framework for thriving in increasingly perilous times.
Smarter Faster Better: The Secrets of Being Productive in Life and Business
by Charles Duhigg (MBA 2003)
(Random House)
At the core of this book are eight key productivity concepts—from motivation and goal-setting to focus and decision-making—that explain why some people and companies get so much done. Duhigg explains that the most productive people, companies, and organizations view the world, and their choices, in profoundly different ways. What do these people have in common? They know that productivity relies on making certain choices: the way we frame our daily decisions; the big ambitions we embrace and the easy goals we ignore; the cultures we establish as leaders to drive innovation; and the way we interact with data.
—Ambi Parameswaran (AMP 186, 2014), Nawabs, Nudes, Noodles: India through 50 Years of Advertising
“Taking out the 37 years that I spent thinking about brands and advertising, the book took about 25 weekends of intense writing.”
—Ambi Parameswaran (AMP 186, 2014), Nawabs, Nudes, Noodles: India through 50 Years of Advertising
Graduating from Google: Leadership Lessons
by Linda Boudiab El Awar (MBA 2007)
(CreateSpace)
Working at Google, El Awar navigated a challenging journey filled with unexpected twists, triumphs, and even heartbreak as she created her own path at one of the world’s most mysterious sales organizations. Despite her relentless dedication to Google and her determination to achieve her professional goals, she did not realize what made the company so special until after she resigned. Only then did she comprehend what being a true leader involved.
The Index Revolution: Why Investors Should Join It Now
by Charles D. Ellis (MBA 1963)
(Wiley)
Ellis argues that active investing is a loser’s game and that a passive approach is more profitable in today’s market. By adjusting your portfolio asset weights to match a performance index, you consistently earn higher rates of returns and come out on top in the long run. This book explains why and how individual investors can take advantage of indexing to make their portfolio stronger and more profitable.
The Pie Life: A Guilt-Free Recipe For Success and Satisfaction
by Samantha Ettus (MBA 2001)
(Ghost Mountain Books)
Ettus wants to change the way you think about work/life balance. The Pie Life tells the stories of women who are living a thriving personal and professional life at the same time, including TV writer and producer Shonda Rhimes, news anchor Gayle King, Wall Street maven Sallie Krawcheck, and entrepreneur Liz Lange.
Even the Odds: Sensible Risk Taking in Business, Investing, and Life
by Karen Firestone (MBA 1983)
(Bibliomotion)
Firestone has developed four core tenets of risk-taking that are applicable when anticipating, evaluating, and responding to risks in business, investing, and life. They are right-sizing; right-timing; relying on skill, knowledge, and experience; and staying skeptical about numbers, promises, and forecasts. Firestone supplements her argument with anecdotes and examples of how many prominent leaders in their fields (and Firestone herself) dealt with risk along the way.
The Inner Lives of Markets: How People Shape Them—And They Shape Us
by Ray Fisman (PhDBE 1998) and Tim Sullivan
(PublicAffairs)
Breakthrough companies like Amazon and Uber have disrupted the old ways and made the economy work better, thanks to technology. At least, that’s how the story of the modern economy is usually told. But the authors show that the revolution is bigger than technology: it is really a story about the transformation of markets. From the auction theories powering Google’s ad algorithms to the models that online retailers use to prevent internet fraud, even the most high-tech modern businesses are empowered by theory first envisioned by economists.
Healing Art: Don’t Let Anything Ruin Your Day
by Bob Flatt (MBA 1973)
(Bright Sky Press)
When Flatt was diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease, he refused to let the news alter his positive perspective. He viewed the diagnosis as an opportunity: the disease gave him the gift of time to pursue his artistic interests. Taking vivid photographs of the wonders he had previously overlooked helped him cope, and he realized the power of the beauty he observed could help others, too. Despite his physical limitations, he began traveling the world to pursue this passion that made him feel so intensely alive. This collection of intimate and grand images of the wonders that surround each of us is coupled with Flatt’s candid, empowering reflections on existence and his illness.
The CMO’s Social Media Handbook
by Peter Friedman (MBA 1983)
(LiveWorld)
Thirty years of experience informs this practical tool kit and social media-theory crash course. Its goal: to help big-brand marketing leaders with everything from dealing with vendors to establishing a social brand identity to managing crucial conversations at every level of the organization.
The New Global Marketing
by Johny K. Johansson and Michael T. Furick (MBA 1979)
(Cognella Academic Publishing)
How do marketing managers assess the potential for global expansion and help their firms capitalize on opportunities? This book explores which companies and products should expand internationally, what countries offer the best opportunities, and which marketing plan will lead each product or company to success.
Act from Choice: Simple Tools for Managing Your Habits, Your Emotions and Yourself, to Be How You Mean to Be
by Robert Goldmann (MBA 1961)
Goldmann describes what we do (the myriad habitual patterns we allow ourselves to engage in, violating our intentions and values, damaging relationships and self-esteem, and often leading to guilt, shame, and denial) and why we do it (how the subconscious triggers innocently acquired, automatic, habitual reactions and gives them the power to sweep aside our best intentions) and tells how to manage unwanted habitswithnovel, simple tools for training the subconscious to wake us up and bring us to attention when unwanted urges are just beginning to form. Illustrating the use of these tools with case histories, Goldmann shows how these tools improve emotional self-management and impulse control, can help manage emotions and behavior, and bring you closer to being how you mean to be.
The Three-Box Solution: A Strategy for Leading Innovation
by Vijay Govindarajan (MBA 1976, DBA 1978)
(Harvard Business Review Press)
Leaders understand that creating a new business and optimizing an already existing one are two fundamentally different management challenges. The real problem for them is doing both simultaneously. Govindarajan offers a simple, proven method for allocating an organization’s energy, time, and resources across “the three boxes”: the present (keep the current business going), the past (forget what made the business successful), and the future (create the new model).This framework makes leading innovation easier because it gives leaders a simple vocabulary and set of tools for managing and measuring the different sets of behaviors and activities, across all levels of the organization.
—Samantha Ettus (MBA 2001), The Pie Life: A Guilt-Free Recipe For Success and Satisfaction
“I forced myself to write every day. I spent a lot of time at the library because writing is so solitary and as an extrovert, the extended alone time was always hard for me. I prefer to be around other quietly working people than to write solo!”
—Samantha Ettus (MBA 2001), The Pie Life: A Guilt-Free Recipe For Success and Satisfaction
Veteran Hiring Leader’s Handbook
by Peter A. Gudmundsson (MBA 1990)
(BookBaby)
Employers have a chance to get veteran hiring right from the start. This manual illustrates just a few of the many reasons that military veterans make good civilian hires, and show the organizational executive the actual “how to” of assembling a veteran hiring effort that will be effective and economical.
Historic Rural Churches of Georgia
by Sonny Seals and George Hart (MBA 1970)
(University of Georgia Press)
This book presents 47 early churches from all areas of Georgia in nearly 300 color photographs of the churches and their surrounding grounds and cemeteries. Many of the structures are now in states of neglect and require restoration to ensure that they will continue to stand. The book is a project of the Historic Rural Churches of Georgia organization, whose mission is to preserve historic rural churches and document their history.
So You’re in the Family Business: A Guide to Sustainability
by Paul Karofsky (OPM 3, 1979) and David Karofsky
Advantage Media Group
Father and son authors share experiences from their own lives—and from those
of the hundreds of families they’ve helped—to address the challenges and
opportunities of working in a family enterprise.
Wineries of the Sierra Foothills: Risk-Takers & Rule-Breakers
by Barbara Keck (MBA 1976)
(Range of Light Media Group)
The Sierra foothills are the largest wine region in America, covering ten California counties that are best known for their Gold Rush history. Today there are 280 small, welcoming, family-owned wineries in the region that make great wine. This book includes a wine-touring-friendly directory to the 280 wineries and notes their flagship wines and “hidden gems.” The 21 “why they did it” winemaker stories each finish with original family recipes that pair well with their wines. More at www.WineriesOfTheSierraFoothills.com.
Capital and the Common Good: How Innovative Finance is Tackling the World’s Most Urgent Problems
by Georgia L. Keohane (MBA 2000)
(Columbia Business School Publishing)
Public and philanthropic dollars are not enough to address global issues of poverty and disease, but innovative finance can bring governmental, commercial, and philanthropic resources to bear on the common good. Keohane argues that innovative finance is as much about incentives and sound decision making as it is about money. And when it works, innovative finance gives us the tools, motivation, and security to invest in our shared future.
Off Script: An Advance Man’s Guide to White House Stagecraft, Campaign Spectacle, and Political Suicide
by Josh King (PGL 2, 1999)
(St. Martin's Press)
As a world-traveling “advance man,” an operative who orchestrates TV- and photo-ready moments involving political figures, King has worked with the reputations of officeholders, candidates, and other public figures. In this book, he discusses some of the most catastrophic examples of political theater of the last quarter century. One might think these moments were cases of bad luck, but King argues they were symptomatic of our broad appetite for public embarrassment, the media’s business imperatives in satiating that craving, and the propensity of politicians to serve it up on a platter, often by pretending to be someone they’re not.
Quench Your Own Thirst: Business Lessons Learned over a Beer or Two
by Jim Koch (JD/MBA 1978)
(Flatiron Books)
The founder of the Boston Beer Company, makers of Samuel Adams Boston Lager, offers his perspective on business, beer, and turning one’s passion into a successful company or career. Koch’s innovative business model and frank stories offer counterintuitive lessons applicable to business and to life. He has surprising advice on sales, marketing, hiring, and company culture.
That’s Not How We Do It Here!
by John Kotter (DBA 1972) and Holger Rathgeber
(Portfolio)
The authors use a parable of a stressed meerkat community in the Kalahari Desert to consider why organizations rise and fall and how they can rise again in the face of adversity.
Ashley's War: The Untold Story of a Team of Women Soldiers on the Special Ops Battlefield
by Gayle Tzemach Lemmon (MBA 2006)
(Harper)
In 2010, the Army created Cultural Support Teams, a secret pilot program to insert women alongside Special Operations soldiers raiding insurgent compounds in Afghanistan. The Army reasoned that only women could gain some measure of trust from the mothers, sisters, daughters, and wives living at the compound. The CSTs were able to search adult women for weapons and gather crucial intelligence. They could build relationships—woman to woman—in ways that male soldiers in an Islamic country never could. The author uses on-the-ground reporting and an understanding of war’s complexities to tell the story of CST-2, a unit of women handpicked from the Army to serve in this highly specialized and challenging role.
Reading Reconsidered: A Practical Guide to Rigorous Literacy Instruction 1st Edition
by Doug Lemov (MBA 2004), Colleen Driggs, and Erica Woolway
(Jossey-Bass)
When we teach students to read with precision, rigor, and insight, we are truly handing over the key to the kingdom. Reading Reconsidered provides the framework necessary for teachers to ensure that students forge futures as lifelong readers. Grounded in advice from effective classrooms nationwide, enhanced with more than 40 video clips, this book takes you into the trenches with actionable guidance from real-life educators and instructional champions.
Integral Advantage: Revisiting Emerging Markets and Societies
by Ronnie Lessem (MBA 1968)
(Routledge)
The BRIC countries are heralded for their double-digit economic growth rates, and yet, significant social and environmental fault-lines have developed in these regions. Lessem makes the case for “integral advantage,” a philosophy including nature and culture, technology and economy, all accommodated by an integral polity. Around the world, the failure of a society to develop is not due to its economic limitations in isolation but to the failure of nature and culture, technology, and economy to coevolve in unison under the rubric of an integral polity.
How to Get a Green Card
by Ilona Bray and Loida Nicolas Lewis (OPM 30, 2001)
(NOLO)
Only a few categories of people are eligible for US green cards (lawful permanent residence), and many who apply for them are denied. This book helps everyday people figure out whether they match one of the most likely green card categories, such as through family relationships, asylum, the visa lottery, and others. The book takes readers step by step through the difficult application process, with the help of handy checklists of required forms and documents, tips for avoiding mistakes and dealing with legal complications and bureaucratic holdups, and sample forms.
At Sword’s Point, Part 2: A Documentary History of the Utah War, 1858–1859
by William P. MacKinnon (MBA 1962)
(The Arthur H. Clark Company)
This is the second volume of MacKinnon’s history of the Utah War, an armed confrontation between the Mormon-controlled Utah Territory and the U.S. government, and the most extensive American military action between the U.S.-Mexican and Civil wars. Based on a half-century of research and a wealth of carefully selected new material, itpresents the history of the conflict through the voices of participants—leaders, soldiers, and civilians from both sides.
—Dante Disparte (PLDA 6, 2009), Global Risk Agility and Decision Making: Organizational Resilience in the Era of Manmade Risk
“Writing a book is not for the feint of heart, yet it is such a gratifying experience.”
—Dante Disparte (PLDA 6, 2009), Global Risk Agility and Decision Making: Organizational Resilience in the Era of Manmade Risk
Family Inc.: Using Business Principles to Maximize Your Family’s Wealth
by Douglas P. McCormick (MBA 1997)
(Wiley)
This book is a roadmap to financial security for the family CFO. It gives you a crash course in corporate finance and the tools to apply the field’s proven, time-tested principles in the context of the family’s financial situation, including the key principles of wealth creation and management and methods for making one’s intellectual and real capital work for the family.
The 10% Entrepreneur: Live Your Startup Dream Without Quitting Your Day Job
by Patrick J. McGinnis (MBA 2004)
(Portfolio)
Becoming a full-time entrepreneur can look glamorous, but the truth is that entrepreneurship is often a slog. What if there was a way to have the stability of a day job with the excitement of a startup? McGinnis shows how, by investing just 10% of your time and resources, you can become an entrepreneur without losing a steady paycheck.
Entrepreneurs in the Midst: Stories from Founders, Creators, and Builders
by Renny McPherson (MBA 2011) and Joe Flood
(Numbers & Narrative Press)
The authors discuss the surprising paths people take to entrepreneurship, as seen in this collection of 16 interviews with a mix of established young entrepreneurs (like Alexa Hirschfeld of Paperless Post and Justin McLeod of the dating app Hinge) as well as a number of others who are creating exciting companies.
Growing a Business: Strategies for Leaders & Entrepreneurs
by Rupert Merson (PMD 71, 1996)
(The Economist)
Growth is a clear goal for ambitious entrepreneurs and leaders. It’s often shorthand for business—and wider economic—success. But it’s not without pitfalls and challenges, and planning for and managing a growing business needs careful thought. Drawing on a wide range of models, research, and case studies from across the business world, Merson offers practical advice and guidance on a range of topics, including the different types and stages of growth, predicting the problems presented by growth, identifying growth triggers and barriers, and the financial and cultural implications of growth.
Powerhouse: The Untold Story of Hollywood’s Creative Artists Agency
by James Andrew Miller (MBA 1988)
(Custom House)
Miller tells the story of Creative Artists Agency, a powerful, secretive corporation founded in 1975 that revolutionized the entertainment industry and, over the next several decades, spread its influence aggressively throughout the worlds of movies, television, music, advertising, and investment banking.
From Start-Up to Global Success: The Zensar Story
by Ganesh Natarajan (AMP 169, 2005) and Prameela Kalive
(Sage Publications Pvt. Ltd.)
At a crossroads in February 2001, the shareholders of Zansar Technologies were waiting for a maiden dividend, and profit margins were sliding. A new leadership team took charge and turned Zensar around into one of the most successful Indian IT companies. The authors tell the story behind Zensar’s success, a story that has seen revenues multiply, share prices jump many times, and customer satisfaction become an industry benchmark.
Coach! The Crucial, Deceptively Simple Leadership Skill for Breakaway Performance
by Andrew Neitlich (MBA 1991)
(Atn Associated LLC)
Neitlich shows why coaching is one of the fastest-growing professions in the business world today. Leaders and managers use coaching to develop people, solve pressing challenges, and strengthen their organizations. Coaching is an efficient, high-impact process that helps people improve results and advance their careers. People who receive coaching are more loyal to their organizations, develop stronger relationships, improve teamwork, and increase productivity.
Energy Economics: Markets, History and Policy
by Roy L. Nersesian (MBA 1971)
(Routledge)
This textbook examines the key energy sources—both fossil fuels and renewables, including oil, coal, solar, and wind power—and summarizes how the current economics of energy evolved. Later chapters explore issues concerning policy, technology, and the possible future for each type of energy. Nersesian also discusses controversial topics like fracking and global warming in chapters on climate change and sustainability. An accompanying companion website contains extensive additional material on the history of the major types of fuel and other topics.
Social Innovation in Africa: A Practical Guide for Scaling Impact
by Ndidi Okonkwo Nwuneli (MBA 1999)
(Routledge)
Encouraged by the emergence and early impact of social innovators on the African continent but frustrated by the slow pace of large-scale change, Nwuneli focuses on filling the knowledge gap for those tackling Africa’s serious social problems.
TA and Wally Wander About
by John O’Donnell (MBA 1977), under the pseudonym John Charles
(Atelier VGI)
O’Donnell has photographed teddy bears on all seven continents. His latest work is collected in his new book.
—Bernardo Quinn (MBA 1998), Defying Doom: Leading Urgent Large Scale Transformations
“My biggest inspiration [for Defying Doom] came when I met my friend Nando Parrado, one of the Uruguayan rugby players who survived a plane crash in the Andes. We had a great conversation about how people react when facing challenging or difficult situations.”
—Bernardo Quinn (MBA 1998), Defying Doom: Leading Urgent Large Scale Transformations
Nawabs, Nudes, Noodles: India through 50 Years of Advertising
by Ambi Parameswaran (AMP 186, 2014)
(Pan Macmillan India)
Parameswaran examines how advertising has evolved in India in the past fifty years, reflecting its culture, politics, and economy. From sartorial taste and food habits to marriage and old age, from music and language to celebrities and censorship, he looks at over a hundred ads to study how the Indian consumer has changed over the past five decades and how advertising and society have shaped each other.
The Happiness Equation: Want Nothing + Do Anything = Have Everything
by Neil Pasricha (MBA 2007)
(G.P. Putnam Sons)
Pasricha illustrates the happiness equation with nine secrets to happiness, each of which takes a common ideal, flips it on its head, and casts it in a completely new light. He provides step-by-step guidelines for applying each secret to live a happier life today and discusses such ideas as why success doesn’t lead to happiness, why multitasking is a myth, and how eliminating options leads to more choice.
The 10 Laws of Trust: Building the Bonds That Make a Business Great
by Joel Peterson (MBA 1973)
(AMACOM)
In The 10 Laws of Trust, JetBlue chairman Peterson explores how a culture of trust gives companies an edge. Consider this: What does it feel like to work for a firm where leaders and colleagues trust one another? Freed from micromanagement and rivalry, every employee contributes his or her best. Risk taking and innovation become the norm.
Research Methodology: The Aims, Practices and Ethics of Science
by Peter Pruzan (MBA 1959)
(Springer)
This in-depth guide to effective scientific research explains at the outset what science can and can’t achieve and discusses its relationship to mathematics and laws. It explains aspects of the scientific method, including experimental design, verification, uncertainty, and statistics and also includes sections on planning research, presenting one’s findings in writing, ethics, and the responsibilities of scientists.
Defying Doom: Leading Urgent Large Scale Transformations
by Bernardo Quinn (MBA 1998)
(LID Publishing)
This book is a call to action and provides a framework for forging a clear path to transforming and revitalizing an organization. The framework is grouped around three simple steps: What's the story? Who is on board? And getting things done.
The Paradox of the American Metropolis
by Alan Rabinowitz (MBA 1950)
(CreateSpace)
This is a citizen’s guide to dealing with citywide problems: transportation, climate change, public safety, etc. The context is the worldwide increase in urban populations and the contrast between the US and foreign countries in the creation and control of local governments.
Burning Man: Art on Fire, Revised and Updated
by Jennifer Raiser (MBA 1990) and Sidney Erthal
(Race Point Publishing)
A visual history of the amazing art works created for Burning Man, a temporary city in Nevada’s Black Rock Desert where, in 2015, over 70,000 participants created and interacted with more than 200 sculptures, art, stories, and interviews with the artists.
Investment: A History
by Norton Reamer (MBA 1960) and Jesse Downing
(Columbia Business School Publishing)
This history doubles as a sophisticated account of the opportunities and challenges facing the modern investor. It follows the rise of funded retirement, the evolution of investment vehicles and techniques, investment misdeeds and regulatory reform, government economic policy, the development of investment theory, and the emergence of new investment structures. The authors map these trends and profile the battle between low-cost index and exchange-traded funds, on the one hand, and the higher-fee hedge funds and private equity, on the other.
—Edward Conard (MBA 1982), The Upside of Inequality: How Good Intentions Undermine the Middle Class
“I have no rituals for writing other than needing long periods of uninterrupted thinking to unravel complex puzzles. A surprising amount of problem solving occurs while sleeping. I wake up and take notes.”
—Edward Conard (MBA 1982), The Upside of Inequality: How Good Intentions Undermine the Middle Class
Sing to Me: My Story of Making Music, Finding Magic, and Searching for Who’s Next
by LA Reid (AMP 154, 1998)
(Harper)
In this memoir, Reid chronicles his journey from small-town R&B roots in Cincinnati, Ohio, and his work as a drummer to his fame as a Grammy Award-winning music producer and his gig as a judge on the hit reality show, The X Factor. Illustrated with over 100 photos from his personal collection, the book tells of Reid’s struggles, successes, and the celebrated artists (Toni Braxton, Kanye West, Rihanna, TLC, Outkast, Mariah Carey, Pink, Justin Bieber, and Usher) that made him a legend.
So You Want to Start a Hedge Fund: Lessons for Managers and Allocators
by Ted Seides (MBA 1999)
(Wiley)
Seides provides critical lessons and insights for those trying to decipher the industry and those seeking to invest in the next generation of high performers. He focuses on the common travails of startups and small investment firms. Their stories of success and failure include lessons on funding, team development, strategy, performance, and allocation. Some large funds do not survive their founders, and large sums are reallocated to a broader selection of managers. Seides outlines the allocation process for fledgling funds and demonstrates how allocators can avoid pitfalls in their investments. He also shows how to develop a sound strategy and raise needed money, gain a real-world perspective about how allocators think and act, structure the team and investment process for success, and recognize the patterns of successful startups.
Wealth and Families: Lessons from My Life Journey
by Howard Stevenson (MBA 1965) and Shirley Spence
(Timberline)
HBS professor emeritus Stevenson shares what he has about investing, wealth, and life. Topics include six truths gleaned from a life journey; the nature and dynamics of wealth; how to build and manage wealth; lessons learned about investing; how to get and use professional help; a rebuttal to family wealth models; a philosophy of family wealth; and challenges for wealthy parents and how to address them.
Reinvention: Accelerating Results in the Age of Disruption
by Shane Cragun and Kate Sweetman (MBA 1988)
(Greenleaf Book Group Press)
The ability to pivot quickly, profoundly, and effectively might be the most important core competency individuals and organizations must attain in order to prosper in the new economy. Reinvention proposes a simple algorithm, common principles, and set of tools that apply to both individuals and organizations facing disruptive and radical change.
Martha’s Vineyard: Race, Property and the Power of Place
by Richard L. Taylor (MBA 1976)
Richard L. Taylor
Martha's Vineyard is an exceptional community in America that has seen blacks and whites live together without the burden of structural institutional racism. This book uncovers, frames, and connects the dots of a historical narrative that defines the vision and values class on the Island as well as the Age of Brooke and the Age of Obama.
Training the Right Stuff: The Aircraft That Produced America’s Jet Pilots
by Mark A. Frankel and Tommy H. Thomason (MBA 1970)
Schiffer Military History
At the end of World War II, high-performance jets with unfamiliar operating characteristics were replacing propeller-driven airplanes. As accident rates soared, the Air Force and Navy recognized the need to develop new trainers to introduce fledgling as well as experienced pilots to jet flight. This book is a comprehensive study of the training aircraft used to transition the United States military into the jet age.
It’s All About the Idea: 52 Steps to Make You and Your Team More Creative in the Next Year
by Tom Tuke-Hastings (AMP 189)
(The British Business School)
With 52 chapters and an exercise for every week of the year, this book makes creativity attainable for everyone. With simple, easily understandable chapters backed up by downloadable work sheets, it offers advice on learning how to brainstorm, freeing inner dreams, and embracing the word No.
The Conversational Firm: Rethinking Bureaucracy in the Age of Social Media
by Catherine J. Turco (MBA 2003)
(Columbia University Press)
A fast-growing social media marketing company, TechCo encourages all of its employees to speak up. By promoting open dialogue across the corporate hierarchy, the firm has fostered an engaged workforce and a strong capacity for change. Turco was embedded within TechCo for ten months, and this book is her ethnographic analysis of what worked at the company and what didn’t.
Something More Than Money-Makers: The Harvard Business School Class of 1966
by James R. Ullyot (MBA 1966)
(CreateSpace)
A history of the Harvard Business School Class of 1966.
Leadership Wisdom: Lessons from Poetry, Prose, and Curious Verse
by Bob Vanourek (MBA 1966)
(Motivational Press Inc.)
Vanourek has selected poems, prose or speech passages, and curious verse, each example with insights into leadership. He follows these pearls with engaging commentary from his own leadership experience and closes each entry with practical applications of immediate usefulness.
The Sidewalk Gardens of New York
by Alicia Whitaker (MBA 1979)
(The Monacelli Press)
Whitaker partnered with photographer Betsy Pinover Schiff to chronicling the “greening” of New York City. Sidewalk Gardens of New York reveals the transformation of the “city of concrete and glass” into one of the most richly planted urban centers in America.
Spiritual Oars for Dark Waters
by Keith D. Wright Sr. (PMD 67, 1994)
(Xulon Press)
It sometimes seems as if Christianity is competing with corporate America in the workplace, as when the call for company loyalty conflicts with the call to be loyal to Christ. Wright prepares readers for this faith battle with advice on choosing the right company, finding work mentors, and using one’s talents and gifts in the workplace. The main goals are to develop genuine character that reflects Christ and to trust God's protection against corporate slings and arrows.
Jobs to Be Done: A Roadmap for Customer-Centered Innovation
by Stephen Wunker (MBA 1996), Jessica Wattman, and David Farber
AMACOM
In a challenging economy filled with nimble competitors, no one can afford to stagnate. Yet, innovation is notoriously difficult. So how do you pinpoint the winning ideas that customers will love? Jobs to Be Done offers an effective approach: determining the drivers of customer behavior—those functional and emotional goals that people want to achieve.
China’s Next Strategic Advantage: From Imitation to Innovation
by George Yip (MBA 1976) and Bruce McKern (DBA 1972)
(MIT Press)
China is moving from a strategy of imitation to one of innovation, and western businesses need to prepare for a tidal wave of innovation from China The authors explain this transformation and propose strategies for both Western and Chinese companies. They provide case studies of successful firms, outline ten ways in which the managerial and innovative capabilities of Chinese firms differ from those of Western firms, and describe how multinationals doing business in China can become part of the Chinese ecosystem of new knowledge and technology.
Flyfisher’s Guide to New England
by Lou Zambello (MBA 1981)
(Wilderness Adventures Press)
Based on his over 30 years of fishing in New England, Zambello provides all the information needed to find and successfully fish hundreds of waters in Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont, and Massachusetts, including full-color maps complete with GPS coordinates, access points, public land, access roads, boat ramps (including small hand launches), parking areas, named holes, pools, and more.
The Phantom Planet
by Brian Backus (MBA 1999)
(CreateSpace)
In this colorfully illustrated book for readers ages 7 to 12, the peaceful world of the Kreechurs turns upside down when a wicked tribe of aliens attacks from a nearby planet. Thumblebottom, the Kreechurs’ chatty bard, becomes an unlikely hero on a daring escape across the galaxy, but their enemies are in hot pursuit.
Slaughter House Chronicles
by Frank Biasi (PMD 41, 1981)
(F.X. Biasi Jr.)
This novel tells a story of illegal drugs, murder, and a 150-year-old rivalry between two of North Coast California’s most powerful and affluent family dynasties.
Charlie Whistler’s Omnium Gatherum: Campfire Stories and Adirondack Adventures
by Philip Delves Broughton (MBA 2006)
(Harper)
A compendium of practical knowledge, trivia, and worldly wisdom for boys of all ages, designed as an informal full-color family scrapbook treasured by generations of one fictional family at their Adirondack summer camp.
The Uneven Road: Book Two of First Light
by Linda Cardillo (MBA 1978)
(Bellastoria Press)
This novel tells the story of a perilous journey that took Josiah Monroe physically and emotionally far from the remote peninsula on Chappaquiddick Island where he grew up.
Poison Ivy: Cycle of Life and Death
by Amy Chu (MBA 1999)
(DC Comics)
In this installment of the Poison Ivy story, Dr. Pamela Isley, Poison Ivy’s real name, is now a researcher at the Gotham Botanical Gardens, studying the possibility of creating plant-human hybrids. But when her fellow scientists start turning up dead, she’s both the natural leading suspect and the only person (or plant) who can crack the case.
Esa Otra Orfandad
by Gabriela Couturier (MBA 1993)
(Ediciones Cal y Arena)
This novel is about a woman approaching 40 who has a seemingly idyllic life, professional success, and a great marriage, but who wonders what happened to the life she had promised to herself when she was young. In a world in which women are expected to be successful, beautiful, good mothers, and good spouses, she knows it will be almost impossible to reconcile her ambitions with her circumstances. But she discovers that adventure can enter her life in a manner she never imagined and lead her into an abyss of loneliness and marginalization, where one misstep could separate her from everything that matters.
Scudder’s Gorge
by Geoffrey Craig (MBA 1967)
(Pacific Press)
This novel tells the story of the residents of a small New England valley. The settlers and Native Americans trade with each other and live in peace until a love affair blossoms between a young Abenaki and the daughter of an elder settler. A crime reverberates down the generations, leading Everett Scudder and his daughter Roseanne to struggle for the dignity of all people.
Harp
by Nidhi Dalmia (OPM 22, 1995)
(CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform)
Set in the late sixties, this romantic novel is about love, longing, and coming of age. It follows the lives of three main protagonists—a young man traveling in Europe and behind the Iron Curtain, a young woman who has a calling to music, and another young woman who has loved and lost once—as they experience the cultural, sexual, and student revolutions and the music of the age.
Pakistan, India and the Bomb: Spy Versus Counterspy
by James Glenn (MBA 1965)
(CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform)
This thriller, set in 1972, involves a Pakistani professor, a CIA spy, an American businessman, and India’s secret development of an atomic bomb. Related events include the KGB’s influence on Prime Minister Indira Gandhi’s government and Pakistan’s plan to destroy India’s bomb-making facilities, which could precipitate a war between the countries.
The Ape & the Peacock
by Ralph Hancox (PMD 26)
(Fictive Press)
It’s 1957 in the fictional Canadian province of Superior. In the span of just a few days in November, the lives of several high-level government officials and a colorful cast of “destitutes” are about to change forever as wrongdoings lead to shocking consequences.
The Great War Won: A Power of Recognized Superiority
by James Emerson Loyd (MBA 1978)
(Dreadnought Press)
The final years of the First World War form the backdrop for Loyd's epic trilogy, The Great War Won. The trilogy ranges from the corridors of power in London to the front lines of the Allied forces in the field. In the final book, A Power of Recognized Superiority, the stage is set for the final showdown between America and Germany.
Bedtime Stories for Capitalists: Protection from the Wolves of Wall Street
by Sky Lucas (MBA 1983) and Jeff Hamer
(Amazon Digital Services)
The authors, two stock-market veterans, share their hard-won wisdom through entertaining and insightful tales about the cruel world of stocks, money management, and irrational investors.
The Winemakers: A Novel of Wine and Secrets
by Jan Moran (MBA 1989)
(St. Martin's Griffin)
Moran tells the story of Caterina Rosetta, heir of her family’s vineyards in California, and the complications—involving an old murder and the revelation of her and her mother’s secrets—that develop when she moves to Tuscany to take charge of a vineyard she’s inherited.
The Unelected President
by John T. Reed (MBA 1977)
(John T. Reed)
Mike Medlock, a libertarian and non-politician, accidentally becomes president of the United States while serving out a dead senator’s term. A maverick operating without Congressional approval both domestically and in foreign affairs, Medlock alternately delights and outrages people throughout the U.S. and around the world.
Tōru: Wayfarer Returns
by Stephanie Spong (MBA 1992), under the pseudonym Stephanie R. Sorensen
(Palantir Press)
Tōru: Wayfarer Returns is an alternate history of the tumultuous period from the opening of Japan in 1853 to the Meiji Restoration in 1868. The hero of this fictional account is Tōru, a shipwrecked young fisherman rescued by traders and taken to America, who is determined to save his homeland from foreign invasion.
Abigail: A Visit with Abigail Adams
by Rand W. Tuttle (MBA 1961)
(Rand Wood Tuttle)
A historical account of the life of Abigail Adams, wife of John Adams, the second US president. It is written as an autobiography in her own words, based on over 900 of her letters to her husband and other historical documents.
Voices Behind the Curtain
By Gordon R. Zuckerman (MBA 1963)
(AuthorHouse)
In the years following World War II, a secret band of American industrialists tries to manipulate Congress into inflating military spending in this work of historical fiction. The tale is the third in Zuckerman’s Sentinel trilogy.
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