The Value of Art
by Michael Findlay
Michael Findlay has been an art dealer since 1964. In this opinionated book he discusses the value of art in three categories: financial value, social value, and essential (or intrinsic) value.
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Priceless: The Myth of Fair Value (and How to Take Advantage of It)
by William Poundstone
Traditional economics assumes people engage in rational transactions. Not surprisingly, people make irrational decisions all the time. In Priceless, William Poundstone draws from research in psychophysics (the study of sensory perceptions) and behavioral economics to explore the subject of pricing. Concepts such as anchoring, priming, and prospect theory (adaptation, loss aversion, certainty effect) are explained.
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Quiet Influence: The Introvert’s Guide to Making a Difference
by Jennifer B. Kahnweiler
Jennifer Kahnweiler observes “that introverts can be highly effective influencers when they stop trying to act like extroverts and instead make the most of their natural, quiet strengths.” She points out some noteworthy introverted influencers, including Eleanor Roosevelt, Charles Darwin, Mahatma Gandhi, Abraham Lincoln, Rosa Parks, Warren Buffet, Condoleezza Rice, Steven Spielberg, and J.K. Rowling. “Quiet influence is not about talking a great game to win the deal. It is a less understood approach to influence and differs from more ‘out there’ talkative methods.”
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The Balance Myth: Rethinking Work-Life Success
by Teresa A. Taylor
Teresa Taylor is a former COO of a Qwest Communications. She writes about how she navigated her career while also juggling the demands of her personal life as a wife and mother of two boys. As the title implies, she found that “trying to achieve this mythical ‘balance’ simply causes us endless frustration.” She uses layers of clothing as an analogy. You can add or remove layers to adapt to changing circumstances. “Thinking in layers allows you to integrate your work and your personal time to create one life and one family.”
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Success Built to Last: Creating a Life That Matters
by Jerry Porras, Stewart Emery, Mark Thompson
This book is about common traits of what the authors call “enduringly successful people” or “builders.” The findings are the result of original research.
“The traditional definition of success was resoundingly trounced in this survey, as well as our personal interviews… Nowhere in the dictionary definition do you find any reference to finding meaning, fulfillment, happiness, and lasting relationships. No mention of feeling fully alive while engaged and connected with a calling that matters to you.”
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The Dollarization Discipline: How Smart Companies Create Customer Value… and Profit from It
by Jeffrey J. Fox and Richard C. Gregory
Dollarization “is figuring out what your offering is really worth—in dollars and cents—to your customer.” The book discusses the role of dollarization in sales, marketing, and product development.
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Everything Is Miscellaneous: The Power of the New Digital Disorder
by David Weinberger
In the past, physical limitations led to classifications systems in which everything was forced into a single category. A library patron needed to know which shelf contained a particular book, so each book was assigned a category within the Dewey Decimal system. In the digital world, it is more useful for things to have multiple classifications.
“Reality is multifaceted. There are lots of ways to slice it. How we choose to slice it up depends on why we’re slicing it up.”
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The Kindness Revolution: The Company-Wide Culture Shift that Inspires Phenomenal Customer Service
by Ed Horrell
Ed Horrell writes about poor customer service in American business. “What is really surprising, however, is the number of companies that view service as the item to cut in order to make more money. They decide to focus on getting new customers at the expense of keeping existing customers loyal… They lose sight of the fact that it usually costs around five times as much to acquire a new customer as it does to keep an existing one. ”
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The Truth about Search Engine Optimization
by Rebecca Lieb
The Truth about Search Engine Optimization explains what will improve your website’s visibility within organic search results. Just as importantly, it explains what can get your site penalized by the search engines. If you are looking for a programming manual with lots of sample code, this is the wrong book for you. Think of it as an overview of SEO for the CEO.
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The Long Tail: Why the Future of Business is Selling Less of More
by Chris Anderson
The Long Tail refers to the shape of the graph with high sales volume of a few hit products in the head, and low volume of many products in the tail. The book is about the shift from an economy of mass-market hits to an economy of niches.
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The Key Point 