Book Reviews

Unleashing the Killer App: A book review by Bob Morris

July 1, 2011

Unleashing the Killer App: Digital Strategies for Market Dominance Larry Downes and Chunka Mui Harvard Business Press (1998) In this book, Downes and Mui provide a brilliant analysis of how “a new good or service that establishes an entirely new…

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The Laws of Disruption: A book review by Bob Morris

July 1, 2011

The Laws of Disruption: Harnessing the New Forces That Givern Life and Business in the Digital Age Larry Downes Basic Books (2009) In The Laws of Disruption, Downes asserts that there are three laws of digital life. Together, they comprise…

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The Power of Nice: A book review by Bob Morris

June 30, 2011

The Power of Nice: How to Conquer the Business World With Kindness Linda Kaplan Thaler and Robin Koval Crown Business (2006) How to strengthen your “niceness muscles” Frankly, I think it would be ludicrous for anyone to need to read…

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The Power of Small: A book review by Bob Morris

June 30, 2011

  The Power of Small: Why Little Things Make All the Difference Linda Kaplan Thaler and Robin Koval Broadway Business (2009) The great value of Thaler and Koval’s book is derived from their pragmatic approach to all manner of situations…

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The Knowing-Doing Gap: A book review by Bob Morris

June 29, 2011

The Knowing-Doing Gap: How Smart Companies Turn Knowledge into Action Jeffrey Pfeffer and Robert I. Sutton Harvard Business School Press (2000) How wide is yours? With few exceptions, the most valuable business books are those in which their authors share…

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Power: A book review by Bob Morris

June 29, 2011

Power: Why Some People Have It – and Others Don’t Jeffrey Pfeffer Harper Business (2010) Although Pfeffer does not invoke the core metaphor from Plato’s “Allegory of the Cave” in The Republic, I think it is especially relevant to the…

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Collaboration: A book review by Bob Morris

June 29, 2011

Collaboration: How Leaders Avoid the Traps, Create Unity, and Reap Big Results Morten T. Hansen Harvard Business School Press (2009) Hansen provides a brilliant explanation of how “disciplined collaboration” can help to enable leaders to avoid or free themselves from…

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PEAK: A book review by Bob Morris

June 28, 2011

PEAK: How Great Companies Get Their Mojo from Maslow Chip Conley Jossey-Bass (2007) Note:  Today is June 28, 2011. Chip has just announced  the debut of www.peakorganizations.com, a site featuring new programs and resources based on his book PEAK: How Great Companies…

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Design Is How It Works: A book review by Bob Morris

June 28, 2011

Design Is How It Works: How the Smartest Companies Turn Products into Icons Jay Greene Portfolio/The Penguin Group (2010) How to create experiences that consumers crave According to Jay Greene, “effective design in the twenty-first century goes well beyond creating…

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What Were They Thinking?: A book review by Bob Morris

June 28, 2011

What Were They Thinking?: Unconventional Wisdom About Management Jeffrey Pfeffer Harvard Business Press (2007) According to Jeffrey Pfeffer, there seem to be three themes that unify many of the ideas he shares in this volume: “(1) the importance of considering…

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