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)