Book Reviews
Hard Facts, Dangerous Half-Truths and Total Nonsense: Profiting From Evidence-Based Management Jeffrey Pfeffer and Robert I. Sutton Harvard Business Press (2006) In this book, Pfeffer and Sutton examine what they call “the doing-knowing gap”: doing without knowing, or at least…
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The Carrot Principle: How the Best Managers Use Recognition to Engage Their People, Retain Talent, and Accelerate Performance (Updated & Revised Edition) Adrian Gostick and Chester Elton Free Press (2009) Note: The review that follows is of the updated edition…
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The Orange Revolution: HowOne Great Team Can Transform an Entire Organization Adrian Gostick and Chester Elton Free Press/Simon & Schuster (2010) Those who have read any of Adrian Gostick and Chester Elton’s previous collaborations, notably Managing with Carrots: Using Recognition…
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DRiVE: The Surprising Truth About What Motivates Us Dan Pink Riverhead Press/Penguin Group (2009) Note: I recently re-read this book and admire it even more now than I did two years ago when it was published. The power of Motivation…
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Faster Cheaper Better: The 9 Levers for Transforming How Work Gets Done Michael Hammer and Lisa Hershman Crown Business (2010) How to create a more logical and more efficient network of processes for getting work done Michael Hammer’s death…
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SuperCorp: How Vanguard Companies Create Innovation, Profits, Growth, and Social Good Rosabeth Moss Kanter Crown Business (2009) A brilliant analysis of companies at the forefront of social purpose and profitable enterprise In recent years, Rosabeth Moss Kanter has written several…
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Confidence: How Winning Streaks and Losing Streaks Begin and End Rosabeth Moss Kanter Crown Business (2004) Locating the “stones” under the water This brilliant book’s subtitle is accurate but does not fully indicate the nature and extent of what Kanter…
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Buyology: Truth and Lies About Why We Buy Martin Lindstrom Crown Business (2008) Preliminary Conclusions About Neuromarketing As Martin Lindstrom explains in the Introduction, he set out to understand “what’s going on in our brains that makes us chose one…
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In Brand Sense: Sensory Secrets Behind the Stuff We Buy, Martin Lindstrom notes that “the effects of sensory branding are astounding. Yes, it’s possible to create a truly spectacular commercial or an advertising jingle you can’t get out of your…
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The Right Fight: How Great Leaders Use Healthy Conflict to Drive Performance, Innovation, and Value Saj-nicole Joni and Damon Beyer HarperBusiness (2010) As I read the Introduction to this book, I was reminded of two observations by Peter Drucker and…
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