Users, not customers : who really determines the success of your business

 by Aaron Shapiro. CEO of the digital marketing agency Huge, Shapiro argues that companies need to stop focusing on scrounging for the customer dollar in favor of improving a "user experience" that will keep prospective consumers engaged. In one generation, we've seen a dramatic shift in how we buy things; we are, in short (the eponymous), users not customers. Our engagement with brands goes far beyond merely purchasing a product or service; we're more motivated by the ease and experience of our engagement with the brand, and the quality of a company's digital presence. Shapiro discusses companies that have gotten it right (Hulu, Zipcar, Groupon) and those who have failed (JetBlue, Borders), walking readers through becoming a truly user-first company: structuring the business, balancing goals with technical feasibility and consumer needs, creating social value, and attracting users by giving, not taking. Shapiro's ideas are smart and perceptive, and his approach to strategy pleasingly concrete; he urges business owners to create a digital experience that's in service of customers, not trying to trick them. A much-needed, incisive guide to creating a genuinely appealing digital presence. Publishers Weekly (Check catalog)

Start something that matters

 by Blake Mycoskie. Best known as the founder of TOMS Shoes and as a contestant on The Amazing Race, Mycoskie uses his experience with TOMS, as well as interviews with leaders of non-profits and corporations, to convey valuable lessons about entrepreneurship, transparency of leadership, and living by one's values. The brilliant, simple mission of TOMS (for every pair of shoes purchased, they will give another pair away to children in need around the world) has inadvertently turned its customers into brand ambassadors, making this for-profit company with defined charitable goals wildly successful. Mycoskie deftly balances personal tales about starting a business with generally applicable lessons. While his story sometimes becomes repetitive and he treads familiar ground with start-up tales (motivate your overworked interns by feeding them, never be afraid to get your hands dirty), he offers excellent advice about the importance of honesty and principles in business. This book will appeal to the Millennial generation, who are known for seeking socially relevant jobs, as well as older workers looking to get back in touch with their values. --Publishers Weekly. (Check Catalog)

Keynes Hayek : the clash that defined modern economics

 by Nicholas Wapshott. British journalist Wapshott likes dual biographies. But the politicians at the heart of Ronald Reagan and Margaret Thatcher: A Political Marriage (2007) were on the same side. Here, Wapshott chronicles profound disagreements between John Maynard Keynes (1883-1946), the British Bloomsbury Group veteran who urged governments to spend to bolster demand in economic downturns, and Friedrich Hayek (1899-1992), the Austrian School (and, for a time, University of Chicago) economist who came over time to view most government intervention in the market as a step toward totalitarianism. Keynes' approach macroeconomic in analysis, pragmatic and experimental in prescriptions is precisely what many Democrats (and New York Times columnist Paul Krugman) wish the U.S. was doing now to reduce unemployment. Meanwhile, Hayek's The Road to Serfdom (1944) rides high on Glenn Beck's recommended reading list, and his microeconomic, theoretically based prescriptions often match those of the Tea Party. A journalist's biography (Wapshott's first footnote concedes that his opening anecdote may never actually have happened), but perhaps more accessible than the several respected academic biographies of these two iconic twentieth-century economists. --Booklist (Check Catalog)

Quitter : closing the gap between your day job & your dream job

 by Jon Acuff. Have you ever felt caught between the tension of a day job and a dream job? That gap between what you have to do and what you'd love to do? From figuring out what your dream is to quitting in a way that exponentially increases your chance of success, Quitter is full of inspiring stories and actionable advice. This book is based on 12 years of cubicle living and my true story of cultivating a dream job that changed my life and the world in the process. --Publisher (Check Catalog)

Currency wars : the making of the next global crisis

 by James Rickards. Rickards, experienced financial adviser, investment banker, and risk manager, tells us we are in a new currency war that could destroy faith in the U.S. dollar; he examines that war through the lens of economic policy, national security, and historical precedent. As a national security issue, he tells a fascinating story of his involvement with the Pentagon and other agencies in designing and participating in a war game using currencies and capital markets, instead of ships and planes, to gain early warning of attacks on the U.S. dollar. The author concludes that mainstream economists and central bankers alike are well aware of dollar weakness and the risks to international monetary stability from the new currency wars. He sees four prospects for the dollar multiple reserve currencies, special drawing rights, gold, and chaos. Rickards' ideas are controversial and will attract support and criticism across many disciplines. Nevertheless, he presents a compelling case for his views and offers thought-provoking information for library patrons. This is a must-read book. --Booklist (Check Catalog)

Back to work : why we need smart government for a strong economy

 by Bill Clinton. America's 42nd president takes aim at GOP dogma in this feisty manifesto. Clinton's book often reads like a well-honed stump speech, with semi-pithy slogans ("put America back in the future business"), partisan one-liners (the main accomplishment of Republican administrations "was not to reduce the size of the federal government, but to stop paying for it"), and a rehash of his own administration's success in cutting deficits and spurring growth in the 1990s. But Clinton also mounts a cogent, well-informed attack on the GOP's "anti-government ideology." Deploying statistics, charts, and international comparisons, he contends that the Republican mania for cutting taxes, abolishing regulation, and hobbling the state has led to slower growth, soaring deficits, drastic inequality, and lower quality of life for Americans, and argues that raising taxes to fund investments in technology, education, health care, and infrastructure is just plain good government. His specific policy agenda is a list of small-bore initiatives of varying quality directed at everything from the mortgage crisis to Social Security reform; its centerpiece is a disappointingly brief, and at times unclear discussion on renewable energy subsidies that includes a dismissal of nuclear power. Still, hit-and-miss details aside, Clinton delivers a smart, forthright, appealingly folksy defense of activist government. --Publishers Weekly (Check catalog)

The ETF strategist : balancing risk and reward for superior returns

 by Russ Koesterich. A sophisticated guide to today’s hottest investment vehicle— exchange traded funds The ETF Strategist is aimed primarily at investment advisers and sophisticated retail investors who are interested in using exchange traded funds, or using them more effectively than they already do. Compared with mutual funds, ETFs can offer a better way to diversify risk, target specific sectors or countries, avoid style drift, and maintain a specific asset allocation that might include real estate or commodities. Previous ETF books have focused on their mechanics, regulation, and other basic information. But The ETF Strategist goes much further, showing how ETFs can improve many aspects of an overall investment strategy. It explores advanced concepts such as alphabeta separation, which basically means “don’t confuse skill with risk.” And it shows how different ETFs can be combined to find the ideal balance of risk and potential reward. --Summary (Check Catalog)

The 5 languages of appreciation in the workplace

 by Gary D. Chapman and Paul White

Chapman's bestselling The Five Love Languages meets psychologist White's work with businesses, and a new "Languages" application is born. According to the authors, the main reason for job satisfaction or dissatisfaction is "whether or not the individual feels appreciated and valued for the work they do." The book presents the five languages of appreciation-Words of Affirmation, Quality Time, Acts of Service, Tangible Gifts, Physical Touch-and how they are applied in the workplace. Chapman and White call it the "Motivating by Appreciation" model, explained in the book and offered online at appreciationatwork.com. The authors provide much useful information for owners, managers, and workers in industries ranging from nonprofits to schools, medical offices to manufacturers. They pay special attention to volunteers. This is a well-researched, useful book for business leaders that offers a much needed message that won't wear out with repetition: "If people enjoy their work and feel appreciated... they are far more likely to have organizational loyalty and work hard." The book comes from a Christian publisher, but has wide application.  --Publisher's Weekly 

The network is your customer

 by David L. Rogers. This practical handbook contains more than a hundred cases and examples of innovative approaches that businesses can use to enhance their digital customer networks. Rogers (Center on Global Brand, Columbia Univ.) clearly explains customer networks and the different levels of sophistication among them. Core customer network behaviors include the ability to connect to networks, to find valuable content in them, to match network experiences to customer needs, to communicate with others in networks, and to act together purposefully. Rogers emphasizes emerging trends: for example, future networks will make us "more human." Moving from professional experts to the collective knowledge of networks, as in the Wikipedia model (see Macrowikinomics by Dan Tapscott and Anthony Williams, CH, Jan'11, 48-2788), is another trend this reviewer found interesting to mull over. The book's core notion seems to be that organizations should become veritable Tom Sawyers, with their customer networks whitewashing their fences. Rogers provides many examples of such actively contributing networks. The "increasingly social internet" with its "reciprocal, dynamic and participatory" relationships is the basis for such customer network strategies. See related, Larry Weber's Marketing to the Social Web (CH, Nov'07, 45-1559), which has a broader sweep than customer networks. --Choice (Check Catalog)

Uncertainty : turning fear and doubt into fuel for brilliance

 by Jonathan Fields. Human beings are temperamentally, viscerally opposed to uncertainty, especially in our careers, but lawyer-turned-entrepreneur Fields works to persuade his readers that uncertainty can be freeing and energizing-and isn't just for startups-while workers of all levels can transform that space of limbo into a site for thinking creatively. He presents a practical set of tools for overcoming fear of the unknown and rituals that help "reframe uncertainty, risk, and exposure as allies for creating and innovating on a level you never thought possible." Interestingly, he finds the biggest leaps can be taken most successfully in the company of others, both by joining efforts with a hive of similar-minded people, and by inviting your colleagues and even customers into a process of co-creation. Though uncertainty is difficult, Fields encourages readers, in the words of one devotee, to "jump out of a perfectly good airplane" and take the chance that will lead to greatness. A sympathetic and practical primer on fear management and risk taking. --Publishers Weekly (Check catalog)

The AMA handbook of business documents : guidelines and sample documents that make business writing easy

 by Kevin Wilson and Jennifer Wauson. Your company "s identity, products, services, and strengths are all represented by its written communications. From business plans and sales presentations to newsletters and e-mail marketing, the way the company comes across on a page or screen can make the difference between big success and big trouble. The AMA Handbook of Business Documents takes the guesswork out of preparing firstclass written pieces of every type. Packed with dozens of sample documents and practical tips, this handy guide is everything you need to create: Proposals Memos E-mails Press releases Collection letters Speeches Technical, research and lab reports Sales letters Policies and procedures Warning letters Announcements Suited equally to executives, entrepreneurs, managers, and administrative staff anyone charged with putting a business "s intentions into words The AMA Handbook of Business Documents is a versatile, powerful, and indispensable toolbox. --Publisher (Check Catalog)

Escape velocity : free your company's future from the pull of the past

 by Geoffrey A. Moore. Moore, consultant, entrepreneur, and venture capitalist, offers advice on how a company's management should continue to maximize results from past successes while setting sights on new growth and opportunities. Globalization is the significant reality that has changed the corporate landscape for everyone. Using case studies, charts, and diagrams, the author devotes a chapter to each element of his Hierarchy of Powers, which evaluates all economic competition in relation to five types of economic power: category power (demand for a given class of products/services), company power (typically exhibited in market share), market power (reputation within a market segment and its share of that segment), offer power (demand for a given product/service vis-a-vis competitors), and execution power (ability to outperform competitors). Moore concludes, the advantage goes to whomever can call the tune first, identify the relevant changes under way, find the pivotal role to play, and communicate the vision in actionable frameworks. This is a thought-provoking book for business leaders and those seeking leadership roles. --Booklist (Check Catalog)

The big enough company : creating a business that works for you

 by Adelaide Lancaster. Lancaster and Abrams, the founders of In Good Company, a New York City community workspace for female entrepreneurs, draw on the acumen of 100 businesswomen for tips on building a strong, sustaining company tailored to your needs and capabilities. Entrepreneurs, they argue, frequently start their own businesses because they think leaving the corporate world will give them freedom and the power to be their own bosses-but as time goes by, the pressure to expand can leave them feeling that the businesses are owning them rather than the other way around. How do you sustain a company that is just big enough to deliver what you need and achieve what you want? The authors use case studies from their interviews to illustrate the need to undertake smart growth that is strategic, creative, and goal-driven, to clarify your goals and your purpose, to build and manage an effective team, and to keep focused and keep goals reasonable. Their approach is inspirational and strategic, rather than immediately actionable; it's smart, helpful reading that stops just short of providing a toolkit for putting real change into effect. --Publishers Weekly (Check Catalog)

The great crash ahead : strategies for a world turned upside down

 by Harry S. Dent. With little attempt to soften the blow, Dent (The Great Depression Ahead) and Johnson use demographics to predict that the Dow Jones Industrial Average will drop to approximately 3,000 between late 2012 and late 2014, while house prices will fall between 55% and 65% before the crisis ends. At the end of their spending lifecycle, aging Baby Boomers are avoiding conspicuous consumption and heavy credit card debt, and saving for retirement, rather than investing in college educations, or making large real estate purchases. By the time readers absorb the theory of seasons of inflation over an 80-year cycle, problems with the Fed, and unfunded liabilities in all strata of government, they may feel that the best place for their money is in a sock under the mattress. However, Dent and Johnson offer suggestions for surviving the next decade, as well as a few simple (perhaps obvious) ideas to solve national problems, including Social Security and the mortgage crisis. --Publishers Weekly (Check Catalog)

Grand pursuit : the story of economic genius

 by Sylvia Nasar. The historical transformation of economics from laissez-faire into a. instrument of master. (Nasar's phrase) thematically presides over these biographical sketches of some of those who were instrumental in the process. Showing them all wrestling in some way with the causes of poverty and prosperity, Nasar opens with Marx and his habit of supporting himself on cadged capital while he wrote Das Kapital. Indeed, the way Nasar's subjects dealt with their own funds enlivens her presentations of what they advised businesses, banks, and governments to do with theirs. In Nasar's time frame, about 1870-1960, the booms and busts her economists lived through affected their wallets as much as their theorizing. Though few of her subjects besides Marx, Keynes, and Milton Friedman will be familiar to many readers, such figures as Irving Fisher, inventor of the Rolodex, and Joan Robinson, a British economist with a colorful background, become supremely interesting in her hands. Also including sketches of socialist Beatrice Webb, conservative icon F. W. Hayek, and developmental economist Amartya Sen, Nasar creatively deploys lives-and-times to show the evolution of economics from an explanation of fate into an application of policy. . HIGH-DEMAND BACKSTORY: Sylvia Nasar's A Beautiful Mind (1998), a biography of schizophrenic mathematician-economist John Nash, was converted into an Academy Award-winning movie starring Russell Crowe, priming above-average awareness of this author and interest in her sequel about economists. --Booklist (Check Catalog)

Empowered : unleash your employees, energize your customers, transform your business

 by Josh Bernoff. Two vice presidents at Forrester Research (Bernoff is also the coauthor of Groundswell) offer a rare thing: a book about using new technologies that actually goes beyond jargon and offers practical solutions. In addition to providing examples of how today's consumers have empowered themselves through social software, the authors suggest that the best way to deal with such customers is to train and support empowered workers (or HEROes, "highly empowered and resource operatives"). The most valuable part of the book is its second half, which describes how HERO employees, management, and IT staff can and must collaborate to make the system work. The focus on the whole organization makes this a good read for employees and managers alike. --Library Journal (Check Catalog)

Groundswell : winning in a world transformed by social technologies

 by Charlene Li. Kudos to Li and Bernoff (both, Forrester Research) for this jam-packed guide to using social networking sites to market products and services and engage customers. Timely and accessible, Groundswell provides an insider's look into the Internet world of blogs, online communities, wikis, discussion groups, tweets, and more. The book is filled with stories of companies that have successfully harnessed the power of the Internet to connect with customers and build relationships. For example, Blendtec, manufacturer of a $399 blender, used the "Will it blend?" video on YouTube to show its industrial-strength blender chewing up everything from wooden two-by-twos to Apple iPhones--and increased sales by 20 percent. Accounting firm Ernst & Young built a Facebook "wall" to recruit new accounting graduates. Procter & Gamble created the Beinggirl.com community to connect with teenage girls, answering their coming-of-age questions while steering them to the company's tampon products. With its techniques, strategies, and how-to advice on tapping into the online social networking movement, Groundswell is a must for today's marketers. See related, David Meerman Scott's The New Rules of Marketing and PR: How to Use News Releases, Blogs, Podcasting, Viral Marketing and Online Media to Reach Buyers Directly (CH, Dec'07, 45-2127). Summing Up: Highly recommended. --Choice (Check catalog)

Nothing to lose, everything to gain : how I went from gang member to multimillionaire entrepreneur

 by Ryan Blair. Bad boy makes good in this energetically recounted rags-to-riches success story. Blair's placid middle-class family was abruptly disrupted when his father became hooked on drugs and abandoned the family. Blair got involved with a gang, and had multiple and violent run-ins with the law, but salvation came in the form of a successful and encouraging stepfather, who started him working and became his first real mentor. The survival instincts he earned in his scrappy adolescence became his greatest asset as he created his first company, and Blair tells the story of his rise to success in the hopes that readers might benefit from his philosophies, from the jail cell to the boardroom. His failures and successes, along with a little input from his gurus, coupled with his solid commonsense advice and entrepreneurial life lessons offer an inspiring and helpful story. Readers will find the "nothing-to-lose" mindset and his optimistic, do-anything attitude both charming and encouraging. --Publishers Weekly (Check Catalog)

The go-giver : a little story about a powerful business idea

 by Bob Burg. The powerful business idea referenced in the title is that shifting the focus from getting to giving and putting the other person first is the key to business success and personal fulfillment. The authors inform readers of the five laws of success: the law of value (your true worth is determined by how much more you give in value than you take in payment), the law of compensation (your income is determined by how many people you serve), the law of influence (your influence is determined by how abundantly you place other people's interests first), the law of authenticity (the most valuable gift you have to offer is yourself), and the law of receptivity (the key to effective giving is to stay open to receiving). Explanations of these concepts and how to employ them are clear and to the point, and as with all successfully written business books, it will provoke thought and probably action as well. --Booklist (Check Catalog)

Pinched : how the great recession has narrowed our futures and what we can do about it

 by Don Peck. The Great Recession may have receded, but its consequences will resound through our society for years to come, as shown in this fascinating exploration from Peck, managing editor of the Atlantic. Though life in major cities and affluent suburbs has returned to something like normal, jobs remain scarce and the housing market devastated. The downturn will have an irrevocable, transformative impact on American life and culture-and Peck extrapolates those consequences and possible responses by looking at comparable economic calamities of the past: the panic of the 1890s, the Great Depression, and the oil-shock recessions of the 1970s. The current recession has affected the rich and poor unevenly, and this economic rift is mirrored geographically, as some areas recuperate from the crash and some founder. On the societal end, women are fast becoming the essential breadwinners and authority figures in many working-class families-and the previously over-confident Millennial Generation is showing the career conservatism of the generations before them. In the meantime, race relations have become yet more strained and complicated, xenophobia festers, and rural conservatism grows. Peck wraps up his exegesis with a consideration on the future of politics and possible strategies for healing the aftereffects of the recession. An important, far-thinking consideration of the reverberations-social, political, psychological-of the financial crash. --Publishers Weekly (Check Catalog)

Every landlord's legal guide

 by Marcia Stewart and Ralph Warner. An all-in-one authoritative guide every landlord needs 
"Every Landlord's Legal Guide" is the most comprehensive and up-to-date legal and practical guide for residential landlords. The best, most effective way to make and save money as a landlord is to keep up with the law --and with "Every Landlord's Legal Guide, " you can do all that and more. 
From move-in to move-out, this book covers a wide range of issues, including fair housing, repairs, sublets, screening for good tenants, environmental hazards such as mold and bed bugs (yes, bed bugs). You'll find legal and practical solutions backed by many 50-state charts with specific laws for each state. This complete resource will help you avoid hassles and headaches --not to mention legal fees. (Check Catalog)

Create your own employee handbook : a legal & practical guide

 by Lisa Guerin. "Helps business owners, managers and HR professionals put employee policies in place for any size company, in any state. Sample policies are included on CD. The 5th edition covers emerging workplace issues, such as social networking and product reviews, plus changes necessitated by health care reform"--Provided by publisher. (Check Catalog)

Reckless endangerment : how outsized ambition, greed, and corruption led to economic armageddon

 by Gretchen Morgenson. Respected journalist Morgenson and financial/policy analyst Rosner set out to investigate the financial crisis of 2008: how such a thing could happen in America in the new millennium. They name those involved, how they did it, and why. We learn about self-interested and politically influential people, particularly in Washington and on Wall Street, as well as those who tried in vain to warn of the impending crisis but were squashed or ignored. Originating with the 1994 directive to expand home ownership among Americans, the authors paint a picture of unintended consequences, greed, good intentions, and corruption; they report lies (involving politicians, corporate executives, bankers, and borrowers), laxity by most regulators, and the disappointing role of credit-rating agencies. Morgenson and Rosner base this book on interviews and conversations conducted on parallel paths, beginning in the mid-1990s, and a wide range of secondary sources. This excellent, thought-provoking book is a must-read. --Booklist (Check Catalog)

Age of greed : the triumph of finance and the decline of America, 1970 to the present

 by Jeffrey G. Madrick. Madrick traces America's movement of greed from the 1970s through the succeeding two decades and its contribution to the 2008 financial crisis. We learn that this wave of greed was not caused by inevitable forces of history or natural swings in politics. This is a story of people reacting to crisis and change and the resulting economic carnage. While presidents and policymakers were players, it was mostly business pioneers who fought government regulation or, through innovation, avoided government oversight and diminished its power. Financiers led the way. Woven through their stories is the biography of a conservative thinker, born in 1933, who eventually served Ronald Reagan and whose tale of family, education and cultural influences is a prototype of the development of conservative thinking as it came to dominate the country. Madrick conclude. the financial community has to be re-mad. an enormous challenge, given the power and money at stake. An excellent,  thought-provoking book. --Booklist (Check Catalog)

Brand media strategy : integrated communications planning in the digital era

 by Anthony Young. Young splendidly portrays the enormous changes that have characterized the marketing communications industry during recent years. He presents an elaborate but realistic framework within which today's marketing and brand managers must operate to provide value and satisfaction for the markets they serve. Young specifies why marketers need to know about social media networks; no reason is more telling than the fact that social media provide an enormous data-mine in the form of a global focus group that allows marketers to target messages. Among the author's many nuggets of wisdom is his concept of "receptivity planning," or identifying the specific moments and places consumers will be most receptive to a marketer's messaging. The ability to take advantage of this "readiness" to influence consumers is a hallmark of social media. Also valuable are Young's thoughts on campaign measurement and the metrics that should be used. The book is an enlightening trip through all the important changes in the advertising and media industry, explaining how the Internet and social media have dramatically changed the way consumers make marketplace decisions and what marketers must do to successfully reach their target markets. Young's "digital manifesto" should be required reading for every media planner and marketer engaged in marketing communications. Summing Up: Highly recommended. --Choice (Check Catalog)

Ten steps ahead : what separates successful business visionaries from the rest of us

 by Erik Calonius. As the Wall Street Journal's former London correspondent, Calonius has rubbed shoulders with many of the world's biggest names in business. Given his claim that these so-called visionaries have something that sets them apart, we might ask the same question posed by the Cowardly Lion, "What have they got that I ain't got?" And the answer in both cases would be the same: courage. Well, that along with conviction, vision, intuition, a little charisma-and luck. This book combines Calonius's private encounters with entrepreneurs with the latest research in neuroscience and psychology to demonstrate just what attributes combine to make a Steve Jobs or a Richard Branson. His vignettes are drawn not just from formal interviews but from personal visits to country estates, fabled garage incubators, or wild airplane rides. The reader gets to witness these thinkers in their native habitats and see what makes them tick. VERDICT Calonius explains the neuroscience behind the visionaries' accomplishments as successfully as he tells their stories. This breezy read even offers advice to those wanting to increase their own visionary abilities. --Library Journal (Check Catalog)

Practically radical : not-so-crazy ways to transform your company, shake up your industry, and challenge yourself

 by William C. Taylor. As the business world becomes increasingly competitive, global, and adoptive of new technologies, companies worldwide are constantly searching for answers about how to best evolve to meet their customers' needs and to stay abreast of their competitors. Taylor (Mavericks at Work) asserts that change is the name of the game; he takes us on an inside look at 25 companies that have grown ever more adaptive to not merely survive but thrive in today's challenging environment. Taylor's book is intended to guide leaders in launching fresh initiatives and rethinking "the logic of leadership itself as they work to rally their colleagues around an agenda for renewal." The work achieves its promise with actionable prescriptions and meaningful examples, such as how organizations like the Girl Scouts have redefined their brand and revitalized their mission, how Zappos has reimagined retail and service, and why, like IBM, leaders must constantly challenge the status quo by examining the self-reflection and commitment to innovation. An engaging and briskly written read, this will captivate and benefit business people interested in change and innovation. --Publishers Weekly (Check Catalog)

Digital advertising

 by Andrew McStay. This book addresses advertising in the digital age and covers the subject well. In the early chapters, McStay (Univ. of the Arts, London) introduces the topic and the book's purpose and provides an overview of the history as well as the growth of digital advertising. He then examines various types of advertisements, from classified, digital video, display, and e-mail to in-game advertising, social networks, viral, virtual environments (Second Life), and mobile, among others. McStay discusses consumers who use the Internet, as well as how businesses monitor their behavior while online. He also examines consumers' perceptions and use of digital advertising, including interactive audiences and user-generated content; he addresses policy and regulation, which, he claims, has lagged behind the changes in technology, and its impact on society; and he provides a general discussion of the creative process in digital advertising. In the last chapter, McStay presents some of the ethical problems resulting from digital advertising. Given its coverage of such a timely topic, this book would be a good acquisition for academic marketing and advertising collections. --Choice (Check Catalog)

Creative strategies : idea management for marketing, advertising, media and design

 by Mario Pricken. In this thoughtful, engaging book about the creative process, Pricken (creative director and marketing consultant) presents ideas about creativity that will help advertising agency personnel improve their work, resulting in their clients' campaigns achieving greater awareness and sales. The book also will help those in marketing produce better work. It is filled with numerous four-color photographs from more than 200 campaigns. These campaigns represent various media as well as designs for product packages and firms. Pricken opens his discussion by focusing on the creative culture, claiming that creatives need to remain open to all approaches. Then he examines the creative team as well as the creative director, offering numerous ideas for creatives to consider. Next, he addresses the creative brief and follows with a thorough discussion of the creative process. Finally, Pricken examines the creative work environment, which he believes can have an impact on the creative climate. This book should be read by every person who works or aspires to work in the creative area of advertising or marketing. Summing Up; Highly recommended. Lower-division undergraduate students through faculty and practitioners. --Choice (Check Catalog)

Malled : my unintentional career in retail

  by Caitlin Kelly. Kelly's debut book reveals the thankless job of a tireless retailer in a very personal way, after becoming one of the legions of low-wage workers persuading customers to buy marked-up goods. She worked for two years and three months as a retail sales associate for North Face, an upscale outdoor wear maker, after leaving her chaotic journalist career when "unwanted drama" as a reporter at the Daily News convinced her to seek solace in a mindless retail job. At age 50 and adrift careerwise, Kelly thought the retail position would be a cinch, until it became a punishing tangle of long hours, erratic shifts, rude customers, excessive workloads, and insensitive bosses. It's a stretch when she compares the horrible plight of Chinese and Asian workers to herself and her crew; their overworked, underpaid American counterparts definitely fare better. Burned out, bored, and physically deteriorating, Kelly quit the store before she reached the boiling point. While Kelly's tone is slightly whiney, she does offer an intriguing look into the retail business. --Publishers Weekly (Check Catalog)

Knowing your value : women, money, and getting what you're worth

 by Mika Brzezinski. Brzezinski knew that her role as cohost of the MSNBC show Morning Joe was integral to the show's success, and yet she was getting paid a fraction of what her male counterparts were. The network was certainly to blame, but so, she realized, was she; this was just the last in a long run of jobs where she'd seen a salary discrepancy, worked long hours to prove herself, got angry at herself for not earning more money and respect, and stormed off and got a new job-only to repeat the pattern. Wondering if other successful women also consistently undermined and undercut themselves, she interviews power women-Obama senior adviser Valerie Jarrett, Tina Brown, Nora Ephron, Suze Orman, and Facebook CEO Sheryl Sandberg. Brzezinski illustrates how women undervalue themselves in the workplace-excessive gratitude "just to have the opportunity," not negotiating their contracts, taking on extra work for which they're not being paid, and asking for raises in ways in which they're virtually certain to be turned down. While these insights are familiar, the celebrity angle provides much-needed perspective-if even the most successful women undervalue themselves out of a desire to be liked, as Joy Behar admits, then clearly the rest of us accepting 77 cents on our male colleagues' dollar are not alone. A thoughtful look at how women can quit getting in their own way. --Library Journal (Check Catalog)

Digital advertising

 by Andrew McStay.  This book addresses advertising in the digital age and covers the subject well. In the early chapters, McStay (Univ. of the Arts, London) introduces the topic and the book's purpose and provides an overview of the history as well as the growth of digital advertising. He then examines various types of advertisements, from classified, digital video, display, and e-mail to in-game advertising, social networks, viral, virtual environments (Second Life), and mobile, among others. McStay discusses consumers who use the Internet, as well as how businesses monitor their behavior while online. He also examines consumers' perceptions and use of digital advertising, including interactive audiences and user-generated content; he addresses policy and regulation, which, he claims, has lagged behind the changes in technology, and its impact on society; and he provides a general discussion of the creative process in digital advertising. In the last chapter, McStay presents some of the ethical problems resulting from digital advertising. Given its coverage of such a timely topic, this book would be a good acquisition for academic marketing and advertising collections. --Choice (Check Catalog)

Corporate community involvement : the definitive guide to maximizing your business' societal engagement

 by Lakin and Scheubel. Lakin and Scheubel, specialists in international corporate communication and corporate community involvement programs, present a comprehensive, practical guide to developing and implementing corporate community engagement programs. For neophytes or those actively engaged in community outreach, this book is an important reference and a useful resource. Eleven well-written chapters provide a step-by-step approach, emphasizing best practices, to creating a corporate culture that embraces community engagement and effective corporate citizenry. Topics include development of the right company involvement strategy; roles in, skills needed for, and responsibilities of community involvement; costs and budgetary implications of community engagement; integration of community engagement into business and organizational cultures; effective communication of community programs; and measurement and evaluation of engagement programs. The Corporate Community Involvement Web site complements the book with chapter synopses and a Conversation section, which allows users to interact with the authors or post comments to an open forum. Excellent illustrations and a series of interviews with representatives of global companies and community involvement professionals enhance the chapters. A glossary of relevant terms and an "Organizations for Corporate Responsibility and Corporate Community Involvement" list conclude the book. --Choice (Check catalog)

The orange revolution : how one great team can transform an entire organization

 by Gostick and Elton. Why doesn't every corporate leader actively listen to employees and to veteran consultants like Gostick and Elton (authors of the Carrot Principle books)? Though the answer to that question isn't the subject of this book, adopting the how-to's for realizing dreams could indeed provide the solution to staid, stagnant, and unrewarding work in America. As with most human resources type of business books, the authors present ideas in a many-stepped process, with principles to follow, often too many to remember. Yet if readers and executives just stick to their rule of three (wow, no surprises, and cheer), the rewards of an engaged workforce will probably ensue. Examples of great teams, believe it or not, proliferate here; in addition to the well-known cultures of a Zappos, for instance, there are also stories from Medical City Dallas Hospital, Pepsi Bottling Group, the Blue Angels, and Nash Finch, all about the power of teams to transform. And lest you think that the authors simply collected anecdotes, their philosophy is based on valid and overwhelming statistics, thanks to the Best Places to Work database (350,000 employees from 28 industries): 63 percent of workers surveyed found productivity to be positively affected when coworkers are friends outside of work (to cite just one finding). Take a letter to the C-suite: it's all about work that matters. --Booklist (Check Catalog)

Naked economics : undressing the dismal science

 by Charles Wheelan. Wheelan, a magazine and radio correspondent, offers ideas about economics in plain language without equations, jargon, and diagrams. He brings us the most powerful concepts in economics while simplifying the building blocks or not using them at all. Basic principles come alive in the author's explanation of individuals acting to make themselves as well off as possible (however that is defined) and the notion that firms try to make as much money as possible by deciding what to produce, how and where to produce it, how much to produce, and at what price. In a manner that is informative and understandable, Wheelan covers such topics as the power of markets, the role of government in the economy, productivity and human capital, the Federal Reserve, and trade and globalization. This is an excellent book, which, as Wheelan posits, "is not economics for dummies; it is economics for smart people who never studied economics (or have only a vague recollection of doing so)." --Choice (Check Catalog)

Poor economics : a radical rethinking of the way to fight global poverty

 by Abhijit V. Banerjee. Highly decorated economists Banerjee and Duflo (Economics/Massachusetts Institute of Technology) relay 15 years of research into a smart, engaging investigation of global poverty—and why we're failing to eliminate it. Aiming to change the stigma that revolves around poverty, the authors explore not just how many find themselves in economic quicksand, but why. They suggest that policymakers, economists and philanthropists alike fail to understand the unique problems that lead to poverty; as such, attempts to eradicate it are often misguided. The poor need more than food, the authors write; they need programs that empower them with a real, fighting chance. Through a blend of on-the-ground observations, social experiments and psychological analysis, Banerjee and Duflo showcase an expansive understanding of poverty's traps and its potential solutions. They extol the virtues of such practices as microsaving and microfinance, which cut out debilitating interest rates and predatory moneylenders. But even these solutions aren't without their issues, including lack of trust in the lender and an unwillingness to take risk. The authors advocate for increased access to family planning, as family size is often a leading cause for why many are saddled with financial burden. They also investigate why many forego free or low-cost medical care or education. A refreshingly clear, well-structured argument against the standard approach to poverty, this book, while intended for academics and those working on the ground, should provide an essential wake-up call for any reader. --Kirkus (Check Catalog)

The India way : how India's top business leaders are revolutionizing management

 by Cappelli, Singh, Singh, and Useem. In this well-written book, Cappelli and his coauthors (all Wharton School business management professors) provide strong documentation, based on interviews with more than 100 business executives, for their claim that business management practices in India differ significantly from those in the West, especially the US. They report that Indian companies deemphasize shareholders and quarterly profits and describe and analyze special management practices of Indian businesses with respect to human resources and social responsibility. They discuss the "five pillars" that characterize Indian firms and drive competitive advantages, which focus on values and vision, resilience and adaptability, holistic engagement with employees, the creation of strong value, and the creation of culture. Three appendixes present economic growth statistics, interview and survey methods and details, and information on India's cultural roots and consequences. Given India's position as one of the fastest growing economies, this is a valuable book for business professionals interested in doing business in India and a useful resource for academics studying Indian business practices or international business more broadly. Includes chapter notes. --Choice (Check catalog)

Analysis without paralysis : 10 tools to make better strategic decisions

 by Babette E. Bensoussan and Craig S. Fleischer. Bensoussan (strategic planning/competitive intelligence professional) and Fleisher (Univ. of Windsor, UK) deliver on their promise to provide clear, realistic, and actionable guidelines for conducting strategic analysis. They present a very user-friendly introduction to strategic analysis and then describe ten of the most commonly used strategic analysis techniques (e.g., competitor analysis, scenario analysis, financial ratio and statement analysis) in clear, practical language. Step-by-step instructions make the use of each technique immediately accessible. The authors also offer a balanced evaluation of the context, strengths and weaknesses, and rationales for each of the ten tools. Importantly, they emphasize the need for using several analytical techniques to inform managerial insight with regard to strategic directions. This book provides the means to make the techniques very usable, and in so doing it should be of great value to managers across all types of industries. A chapter is devoted to each of the ten techniques, but there does not appear to be a reason for the order in which they are presented. However, each chapter stands on its own as a very useful description and explanation of a technique for the particular context and situations described. --Choice (Check Catalog)

Crisis management in a complex world

 by Dawn R. Gilpin. Gilpin (Arizona State Univ.) and Murphy (Temple Univ.) ask, "To what extent is it possible to control events and stakeholder responses to them in order to contain escalating crises or safeguard an organization's reputation?" Their book is multidisciplinary (communications, physical sciences, psychology, and business) and strongly theoretical in orientation. They employ tools of complexity theory to suggest a new approach to crisis management for complex systems. The book is divided into three parts. Part 1, "Complexity, Crisis and Control," contains a review of the history of the field of crisis communication, an overview of key principles of complexity theory, and a redefinition of the concept of predictability. Part 2, "The Complexity of Knowledge and Learning," explores and integrates important concepts such as information and assimilation, organizational learning, and sense making in decisions. The last part, "Reconfiguring the Dominant Paradigm," reframes the dominant crisis paradigm in complexity theory terms. Crisis assumptions made before, during, and after a crisis are challenged using the complexity theory lens. For example, complexity-based crisis planning may work better than traditional approaches given uncertainty, lack of control, and emotion. This well-written book is valuable for research and practice. --Choice (Check catalog)

The little book of alternative investments : reaping rewards by daring to be different

 by Benjamin Stein. "Bestselling authors Ben Stein and Phil DeMuth know that investors are bored with their typical 60/40 stock & bond portfolios and curious about whether some of the new variations going around might be right for them. At the same time, many alternative strategies are going down-market and opening to the retail investor. Stein and DeMuth recommend that investors look outside of the box to hedge funds, real estate, gold, commodities, and even art as sources of investment income. Alternative Investments are not just for the rich anymore. But which strategies make sense? Which ones add value and which ones should we take a pass on? How do we integrate them with the rest of our portfolios? How much should we use of which kind, and what kind of results can we expect when we do? Stein and DeMuth interview the leading experts in the industry, take you on a guided tour of this Ripley's museum of new and strange offerings, explain in simple language how they work (or don't work), and tell you how you can use them to manage risk and boost returns in the privacy of your own home. The authors specialize in making the technical seem simple, the esoteric, accessible, and the dry, entertaining." --Publisher (Check Catalog)

Where we worked : a celebration of America's workers and the nation they built

 by Jack Larkin.  Spanning from the 1830s to the 1930s, this presentation of the American world of work also bridges labor's transition from manual to mechanized production. Illustrating toil and toilers with hundreds of photographs, Larkin personalizes history with workers' life stories, such that the text reads in sections like Studs Terkel's oral history Working (1974). That effect arises from Larkin's quotation of testimonies taken by the New Deal's Federal Writers Project and the inclusion of the occupational histories of his streetcar motorman father, farmer grandfather, and machinist father-in-law. Their jobs fall into Larkin's overall organization of labor into agriculture, trades, mining and manufacturing, and office work. Larkin favors posed pictures of people with their implements, a sound decision for helping encapsulate the subjects' attitudes about their work. Pride animates many images, but so do wear, hazard, and tedium, especially in photographs of child workers. Touching just tangentially on economics and unions, Larkin's visually absorbing volume appeals as an individualizing expression of labor history. --Booklist (Check Catalog)

Tell to win : connect, persuade, and triumph with the hidden power of story

 by Peter Guber. True business leaders know that stories, not facts and statistics, sell an idea. Guber, chair/CEO of the Mandalay Entertainment Group, offers insight on how to craft and deliver a story that will bring an idea to life. Guber liberally draws on the wealth of stories from his years of experience as a Hollywood studio executive and includes anecdotes from former President Bill Clinton, Michael Jackson, Deepak Chopra, Alice Walker, Gene Simmons, Wolfgang Puck, and dozens of others on how they have used personal stories to motivate. While books by Stephen Denning (e.g., The Leader's Guide to Storytelling) and Annette Simmons (e.g., The Story Factor) delve into how storytelling can be used to lead organizations, Guber focuses on how it can be employed in negotiations as well. VERDICT This will appeal to the casual business reader and those interested in the entertainment industry. --Library Journal (Check catalog)

The Google way : how one company is revolutionizing management as we know it

 by Bernard Girard. Can a small start-up company sustain its entrepreneurial spirit? Google, a relatively young organization valued at $100 billion, has become so popular that its name has become a verb for searching the Internet. Girard, a French management consultant, presents interesting information about Google's unconventional employee and management practices. He describes how job applicants are rigorously tested for innovation and creativity and how Google's three leaders, Brin, Page, and Schmidt, have nurtured a working environment that takes the best from human nature and competition. Giving employees 20 percent of their time to create new products and encouraging small team collaboration have resulted in a dramatically expanded service portfolio. Applying its motto, "Don't be evil," Google has shaped its practices to encourage and recognize innovation. Girard demonstrates how similar management principles can be applied in other organizations. The author writes colloquially, frequently comparing Google's and Microsoft's practices. Chapter-by-chapter source notes. See related, Janet Lowe's Google Speaks (CH, Sep'09, 47-0371), Virginia Scott's Google (CH, Apr'09, 46-4547), and John Battelle's The Search: How Google and Its Rivals Rewrote the Rules of Business and Transformed Our Culture. --Choice (Check catalog)

The facebook era : tapping online social networks to market, sell, and innovate

 by Clara Shih. Shih (CEO, Hearsay Labs) has updated her book, which is warranted by the immense changes in the social Web since the 2009 publication of the first edition. Many of the featured platforms of the first edition, such as MySpace, are now uninteresting for business, while Twitter and LinkedIn are significantly more important. In this reviewer's opinion, a more accurate title would be "The Social Media Era." The book contains many new examples of how companies are innovatively using the social Web to better know and support customers and reach new audiences for business functions including sales, marketing, customer service, innovation, collaboration, and recruiting. Each chapter ends with an actionable to-do list including items such as "Consider building a crowdsourced ideation community to track market demand for proposed features and generate new ideas." Shih has created associated Web discussion threads for each chapter to allow readers to share experiences. The book contains case studies, some of which are locatable in the index under "case studies." Sidebars from renowned social media authorities vary from idiosyncratic anecdotes to useful recommendations. A new chapter for nonprofits, health care, education, and political organizations is very helpful. Summing Up: Highly recommended --Choice (Check catalog)

Start your own import/export business

 by Krista Turner. An innovative guide to how great nonprofits achieve extraordinary social impact. What makes great nonprofits great? Authors Crutchfield and McLeod Grant searched for the answer over several years, employing a rigorous research methodology which derived from books on for-profits like Built to Last. They studied 12 nonprofits that have achieved extraordinary levels of impact-from Habitat for Humanity to the Heritage Foundation-and distilled six counterintuitive practices that these organizations use to change the world. This book has lessons for all readers interested in creating significant social change, including nonprofit managers, donors and volunteers. Leslie R. Crutchfield (Washington, D.C.) is a managing director of Ashoka and research grantee of the Aspen Institute. Heather McLeod Grant (Palo Alto, CA) is a nonprofit consultant and advisor to Duke University's Center for the Advancement of Social Entrepreneurship and the Stanford Center for Social Innovation. Crutchfield and Grant were co-founding editors of Who Cares, a national magazine reaching 50,000 readers in circulation between 1993-2000. --Publisher (Check Catalog)

Forces for good : the six practices of high-impact nonprofits

 by Leslie R. Crutschfield and Heather Grant. Crutchfield and Grant examine the elusive topic of what makes nonprofit organizations successful, building a superb comparative research methodology and executing it admirably. By the time the reader arrives at the beginning of chapter 2 the stage is set; the depth of the analysis becomes apparent and the analytical quality obvious. A project of the Center for the Advancement of Social Entrepreneurship at Duke University, this study is based on comprehensive survey data and interviews with nonprofit leaders. Effectively integrating 12 case studies of what they regard as high-impact organizations, the authors craft their theoretical framework and manage to bring all the divergent elements into sharp focus. Their advice on managing markets, mastering adaptation, and inspiring evangelists is truly exceptional and critically important to the survival of nonprofits. Readers will finish this book with the same admiration this reviewer felt and will be left with many insightful, thought-provoking ideas about the practices that make nonprofit organizations more effective. Forces for Good is a definite read for serious students of nonprofit organizations as well as practitioners in the field. The value of the content is limitless and far-reaching. Summing Up: Essential. --Choice (Check Catalog)

Triumph of the city : how our greatest invention makes us richer, smarter, greener, healthier, and happier

 by Edward L. Gleaser. Glaeser's academic specialty, urban economics, informs his survey of how cities around the world thrive and wither. Using a range of expository forms history, biography, economic research, and personal story he defines what makes a city successful. That changes through time, and a flourishing Industrial Age model may not work in the service-age economy, as rust-belt towns like Detroit have learned. One thing constantly attracts people to one city rather than another how much housing construction is permitted. Restrictive places, such as New York City, coastal California, and Paris, have a tight housing supply with prices only the wealthy can afford. Hence, middle-class people move to the suburbs or cities like Houston. Other features of metropolises their incidences of poverty and crime, traffic congestion, quality of schools, and cultural amenities also figure in Glaeser's analysis. Whatever the city under discussion, Mumbai or Woodlands, Texas, Glaeser is discerning and independent; for example, he believes that historic preservation isn't an unalloyed good and that bigger, denser cities militate against global warming. Thought-provoking material for urban-affairs students. --Booklist (Check Catalog)

Social networking for business : choosing the right tools and resources to fit your needs

 by R awn Shah. For companies looking to increase exposure and revenues in today's online environment, leveraging social technologies is serious business. Any project or venture using social technologies requires a strategy, an oversight structure, and mechanisms to measure the outcome. Shah (social software enablement, IBM Software Group) here documents these best practices and identifies patterns and metrics as well. Do not let the slim size of this text fool you; this is quite a dense read and is extremely granular in nature. Furthermore, the book has a strong emphasis on IBM solutions, which might make it more difficult for smaller businesses to embrace the advice. VERDICT While the advice offered here on macro- and micro-level activities is technically applicable to any social project or initiative, readers may not always be able to relate to the content or the examples. In the end, this is a scholarly text appropriate for only the most serious-minded and is potentially an excellent resource for MBA programs. --Library Journal (Check Catalog)