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)