Stories
Stories
Alumni and Faculty Books for December 2017
Alumni Books
Grow Wherever You Work: Straight Talk to Help with Your Toughest Challenges
by Joanna Barsh (MBA 1981)
(McGraw-Hill Education)
To answer the question, how do real people succeed in the real world of work? Barsch presents the stories of important work challenges faced by more than 200 rising leaders in 120 companies and how they dealt with them. The challenges included handling rising pressure and recovering from mistakes; dealing with office villains; taking uncomfortable risks; and knowing when it’s time to find another position. A diverse group of immigrants, first-generation Americans, blacks, Hispanics, Asians, Ivy League alums, high-school grads, and parents offers coping strategies to help ordinary people turn challenges into extraordinary opportunities for action.
College Sports Traditions: Before, During, and After a Game
by Stan Beck (PMD 64, 1992)
(College Sports’ Traditions LLC)
In this second book of a series, Beck has compiled over 500 college sports traditions (for every collegiate sport and both genders) from over 350 schools.
No Boston Olympics: How and Why Smart Cities Are Passing on the Torch
by Chris Dempsey (MBA 2012) and Andrew Zimbalist
(ForeEdge)
The authors tell how an ad hoc, underfunded group of citizens worked together to challenge Boston boosters, the United States Olympic Committee, and the International Olympic Committee and derail Boston’s bid to host the 2024 Summer Olympics. Chris Dempsey was cochair of No Boston Olympics, the group that first voiced skepticism, demanded accountability, and catalyzed dissent. Andrew Zimbalist is the leading researcher on the hidden costs of hosting megaevents like the Olympics and the World Cup. They provide a blueprint for citizens who seek to challenge costly, wasteful, and disruptive Olympic bids in their own cities.
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)
(Clarity Publications Inc.)
With the goal of training your brain to help you manage your emotions, habits, and yourself, Goldmann presents up-to-date scientific research findings that explain why we have unwanted habits (for example, inappropriate angry outbursts, procrastination, breaking a diet, or abandoning an exercise program) and why they are so hard to manage. He then gives readers the tools needed to manage habits more effectively by teaching them to interrupt unwanted impulses and bringing them to a state of mindfulness before the impulses turn into action.
The Awkward Ozarker: A Curious Tale of Self-Reinvention in a Scantily Settled Land
by Blant Hurt (MBA 1991)
(Fairbourne Publishing)
In this memoir, Hurt, a fiftysomething flatlander with urban sensibilities, and his wife move to a ratty weekend cabin in the heart of the Ozark Mountains. It is crudely built and lacks running water and electricity. Another problem is the local land baron, who aspires to build a giant sand mine on their doorstep. Aided by a deep-souled neighbor, they slowly peel back the layers of what is basically a closed society in the wilds of Izard County, Arkansas, and come to relish their new lives in this little lost corner of the world.
Recalculating: 97+ Experts on Driving Small Business Growth
compiled by Joann Laing (MBA 1986)
(Brick Tower Press)
This book offers tested solutions to a variety of problems from a multitude of expert sources. The problems discussed are ones most frequently asked about by readers of the Small Business Digest (SBD) during the past 15-plus years. Topics range from better sales management and moving to the cloud to better financing options, benefits needs, and leadership issues. Many of the solutions have come from experts (from companies like HP, Staples, GoDaddy, and Intuit) who have appeared in SBD’s publications, who were asked to write special 1,000-word contributions for the book based on their expertise.
Les chantiers de ma vie
by Claude Lefebvre (OPM 10, 1985) with Hélène-Andrée Bizier
(Cyfbel)
An autobiography of an engineer and entrepreneur from Québec.
Design Thinking for the Greater Good: Innovation in the Social Sector
by Jeanne Liedtka (MBA 1981), Randy Salzman, and Daisy Azer
(Columbia University Press)
Through ten stories of struggles and successes in fields such as health care, education, agriculture, transportation, social services, and security, the authors show how collaborative creativity can shake up even the most entrenched bureaucracies and provide a practical roadmap for readers to implement these tools.
Made for Amazing: An Instrumental Journey of Authentic Leadership Transformation
by Mark Nation (MBA 2001)
(Greenleaf Book Group Press)
In this self-help parable, Nation tells the story of Joshua Lynk, a troubled young man with an extraordinary musical talent who neglects the deeper, spiritual part of himself in the excitement of pursuing his performance career of playing to large crowds. After a crisis of self-doubt, he returns to his grandfather's mountain cabin and transforms his life, leading him to a deeper sense of purpose, joy, and professional fulfillment. The book includes thought-provoking questions for reflection to help readers make a similar transformation.
Reset: My Fight for Inclusion and Lasting Change
by Ellen Pao (MBA 1998)
(Spiegel & Grau)
In 2015 Ellen Pao sued a powerhouse Silicon Valley venture capital firm, calling out workplace discrimination and retaliation against women and other underrepresented groups. Her suit exposed the tech world’s toxic culture and its homogeneity. Though she lost her suit, Pao revolutionized the conversation at tech offices, in the media, and around the world. This book tells her full story for the first time.
Where Past Meets Present: The Amazing People, Places & Stories of Southern Oregon
by Dennis Powers (MBA 1969)
(Hellgate Press)
Powers has collected 140 stories about southern Oregon’s people, locales, and events, from town histories from the region’s “golden” past to tales of creative geniuses, athletes, and movers and shakers.
The Sentient Enterprise: The Evolution of Business Decision Making
by Oliver Ratzesberger (AMP 192, 2017) and Mahanbir Sawhney
(Wiley)
Having had intimate glimpses into the data challenges facing large organizations and institutions, the authors note how business needs to use data and analytics to their advantage, to deal with such issues as reconciling different data sets and how to leverage economies of scale while remaining agile with data. To address the data concerns of today's enterprise, Ratzesberger and Sawhney have created a powerful framework every type of business can use to connect analytic power, business practices, and human dynamics in ways that can transform what is currently possible.
After On: A Novel of Silicon Valley
by Rob Reid (MBA 1994)
(Del Rey)
Phluttr, a diabolically addictive new social network, has ingested every fact and message ever sent to, from, and about her innumerable users. Her capabilities astound her makers, and they don’t even know the tenth of it. What is the purpose of this creation? Is it a front for something darker and more powerful than the NSA? Phluttr has it in her to become the greatest gossip, flirt, or matchmaker in history. Or she could cure cancer and then start a nuclear war. A motley band of Silicon Valley entrepreneurs, venture capitalists, and engineers might be able to influence her.
The Transformation Challenge: A New Approach to Winning in Business and Life
by Rob and Steve Shallenberger (OPM 6, 1982)
(Eagle Systems International)
After four years of intensive research into 50 different organizations, the authors found that not a single company had a common approach to navigate change or solve problems. This resulted in frustration, significant financial losses, and a large amount of wasted time for everyone involved. This book was written to help a person, family, or team transform any challenge or problem using a proprietary six-step process. It brings organizations together with a common language and process to address any issue, saving them countless hours and a significant amount of money while fostering imagination and collaboration.
Spiritual Audacity: Six Disciplines of Human Flourishing
by Jim Sherbloom (MBA 1980)
(Wise Ink Creative Publishing)
In this book, which is part memoir, part philosophical history, and part manual for living, Sherbloom discusses six spiritual principles (resilience, surrender, gratitude, generosity, mystery, and awakening) drawn from spiritual disciplines that developed about 2,600 years ago.
The Ruler’s Guide: China’s Greatest Emperor and His Timeless Secrets of Success
by Chinghua Tang (MBA 1985)
(Scribner)
In the classic tradition of Sun Tzu’s The Art of War, Tang presents for the first time in English the wisdom of Tang Taizong (598-649 AD), which is still being studied more than 1,300 years later as a guide to leading and managing. Arguably the greatest emperor in Chinese history and the founder of the Tang dynasty, Taizong’s chief accomplishments were on the battlefield. He defeated the descendants of Attila the Hun, opened up the Silk Road trading route, created a golden age of prosperity and cosmopolitan culture, presided over a society in which women enjoyed higher status, and allowed Christianity and Islam into China for the first time. Tang presents Taizong’s wisdom in conversations between him and his advisers that reveal core aspects of leadership, among them: how to assess oneself and others, how to enhance organizational effectiveness, how to compete with rivals, how to grow power and influence without losing the respect of others, how to learn from the rise and fall of predecessors, and how to craft one’s legacy.
The Rise and Demise of the Individual
by Daniel Caleb Wagnière (MBA 1963)
(Wheatmark)
Over the past 250 years, the rise of individual liberty has allowed the West’s growing prosperity, but this ideal is now being challenged by governmental bodies that were founded on this very principle. Wagnière examines the dangers that arise when governments push toward collectivism and ignore individual freedom. He presents a short account of the origins and evolution of the idea of the individual, finishing with the modern-day ideas of political theory and public policy. By identifying the key characteristics governments should either adopt or avoid to enable their citizens to flourish, Wagnière provides insight into what governments can do to prevent encroachment on their citizens’ private spheres.
Choppy Waters
by Laure Wang (MBA 1997)
(Pacific Venture Partners)
Life Lessons: Prayers from the Heart
by Laure Wang (MBA 1997)
(Pacific Venture Partners)
Rising Phoenix
by Laure Wang (MBA 1997)
(Pacific Venture Partners)
Faculty Books
Geography, Location, and Strategy. (Advances in Strategic Management, vol. 36)
edited by Juan Alcácer, Bruce Kogut, Catherine Thomas, and Bernard Yin Yeung
(Emerald Publishing Limited)
Changes in both technology and global political economy have vastly accelerated the pace of globalization in the last 40 years, eroding barriers that limited firms' geographic scope and unleashing a seemingly unlimited set of new threats, challenges, and opportunities to create value globally. This volume draws together researchers working at the forefront of this area in a variety of disciplines—economics, geography, marketing, organizational behavior, psychology, sociology, and strategy—to explore the many ways that locations matter for firms. In eleven varied papers, the authors draw on newly available data, recently developed theory, and diverse methodology to understand the relationships between firm boundaries, firm activities, and geographic borders.
Extreme Teaming: Lessons in Complex, Cross-Sector Leadership
by Amy Edmondson and Jean-François Harvey
(Emerald Group Publishing)
Today's global enterprises increasingly involve collaborative work by teams of experts operating across different professions, organizations, and industries. Extreme Teaming provides new insights into the world of complex, cross industry projects and the ways they must be managed. The authors analyze contemporary cases that expose the complex demands of cross-boundary collaboration on management. They demonstrate that the work done in the modern organization is less and less about looking inward and creating strong teams inside the company, and more about teaming across boundaries that often are in flux.
Profits and Sustainability: A History of Green Entrepreneurship
by Geoffrey Jones
(Oxford University Press)
This book explores whether profits and environmental sustainability are compatible through the lens of a global history of green entrepreneurship from the nineteenth century till today. It tells the story of the extraordinary men and women who defied convention and imagined that business could help save the planet rather than consume it. Jones explores the social and religious beliefs of these individuals, how they overcame huge obstacles to execute their strategies in industries as diverse as renewable energy, organic food, natural beauty, eco-tourism, recycling, architecture, and finance. The struggles of entrepreneurial pioneers rarely proved profitable, for they were forced to compete with conventional businesses that ignored negative environmental externalities and were often subsidized by governments in the United States and elsewhere. Yet the book shows that these entrepreneurs contributed significantly to the growth of environmental awareness among consumers, business leaders, and others. But the Earth's environmental health has continued to deteriorate. If combining profits and sustainability has proved challenging in the past, and remains so today, Jones argues that one reason was how they have both been defined.
Public Health Preparedness: Case Studies in Policy and Management
edited by Arnold M. Howitt, Herman B. Leonard, and David W. Giles
(American Public Health Assn.)
This book provides detailed accounts of a range of public health emergencies. Topics range from natural disasters and infectious diseases to pandemics and more. With chapters on Superstorm Sandy, H1N1, the Ebola virus, and bioterrorism, these cases cover major areas in public health preparedness. These case studies strongly portray the challenges that public health faces in our times.
Kissinger the Negotiator: Lessons from Dealmaking at the Highest Level
by James K. Sebenius, R. Nicholas Burns, and Robert H. Mnookin
(HarperCollins)
Kissinger’s geopolitical insights into foreign policy, statecraft, and world order have been widely discussed, yet until this book, his impressive achievements as a negotiator have escaped systematic analysis. While specific cases have been examined in depth, no serious cross-cutting study of Kissinger’s overall approach has extracted its lessons for today’s negotiators. We have extensively interviewed Henry Kissinger about his most difficult negotiations. We studied his writings and those of many others who have analyzed these episodes. This has provided this book with valuable answers to several questions: How did he do these deals? What strategies and tactics worked and what failed? Why and under what conditions? What ethical challenges does this approach present? Is there an underlying logic and method to his approach that, well beyond the diplomacy of the 1970s, offers practical guidance for meeting today’s negotiation challenges—from diplomacy to business, finance, and law? By plumbing a career of extraordinary effectiveness, we have sought to learn as much as possible, extracting useful insights into the art and science of negotiation from Kissinger’s dealmaking at the highest level.
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