Book Reviews

Leadership Lessons from the Military

July 13, 2011

Previously, I posted excerpts from articles that comprise a series sponsored by Harvard Business Review. Now, all of the articles plus other material have been published both in a single volume and as a PDF. The complete collection is for…

Read More

Wired and Dangerous: A book review by Bob Morris

July 13, 2011

Wired and Dangerous: How Your Customers Have Changed and What to Do About It Chip R. Bell and John R. Patterson Berrett-Koehler Publishers (2011) A comprehensive road map for the new landscape of customer relationships After carefully identifying the “what”…

Read More

Leading Outside the Lines: A book review by Bob Morris

July 13, 2011

Leading Outside the Lines: How to Mobilize the (in)Formal Organization, Energize Your Team, and Get Better Results Jon R. Katzenbach and Zia Khan Jossey-Bass/A Wiley Imprint (2010) Animal metaphors remain popular among authors of business books. Credit Jon Katzenbach and…

Read More

The perils of bad strategy

July 12, 2011

Here is an excerpt from another outstanding article, written by Richard Rumelt and featured by The McKinsey Quarterly online. To read the complete article, please click here. *     *     * Bad strategy abounds, says UCLA management professor Richard Rumelt. Senior…

Read More

Crucial Confrontations: A book review by Bob Morris

July 12, 2011

Crucial Confrontations: Tools for Resolving Broken Promises, Violated Expectations, and Bad Behavior Kerry Patterson , Joseph Grenny , Ron McMillan, and Al Switzler McGraw-Hill (2005) Peril or Opportunity? As I read this exceptionally informative book, I was again reminded of the fact that…

Read More

Maestro: A book review by Bob Morris

July 11, 2011

Maestro: A Surprising Story About Leading by Listening Roger Nierenberg Portfolio/The Penguin Group (2009) Roger Nierenberg has written the best book on the essence of leadership that I have read in recent years. He provides the material in the form…

Read More

Beyond Budgeting: A book review by Bob Morris

July 11, 2011

Beyond Budgeting: How Managers Can Break Free from the Annual Performance Trap Jeremy Hope and Robin Fraser Harvard Business Press (2003) How to avoid or escape from “the annual performance trap” Given what Hope and Fraser perceive to be an…

Read More

Reinventing the CFO: A book review by Bob Morris

July 11, 2011

Reinventing the CFO: How Financial Managers Can Transform Their Roles and Add Greater Value Jeremy Hope Harvard Business Press (2006) Those who are — or who aspire to become — a CFO need to understand that, as Hope explains, “too…

Read More

The Courageous Follower: A Book review by Bob Morris

July 11, 2011

The Courageous Follower: Standing Up to and for Our Leaders Ira Chaleff Berrett-Koehler (2003) It is important to keep in mind that a “follower” is not necessarily someone who never leads; rather, a follower is someone who, in a non-leader…

Read More

The Prime Solution: A book review by Bob Morris

July 11, 2011

The Prime Solution: Close the Value Gap, Increase Margins, and Win the Complex Sale Jeff Thull Kaplan Publishing (2005) Many of the same core concepts in this book were previously discussed in Thull’s Mastering the Complex Sale: How to Compete…

Read More