Connected: 24 Hours in the Global Economy. Daniel Altman. 2007. ISBN 978-0-374-13532-4. This is the penultimate insiders view of the world economy as Altman ( a serious business journalist with a PhD.), lets you peek inside the worlds of a dozen decision maker/influencers/ordinary people in many countries, in the same 24 hr period. Fascinating and much more insightful than The World is Flat. I can never read the world business news the same way again. It caused me to renew my online The Economist subscription. I appreciated the inside views on currency exchanges, credit and inflation. The story of Haier in China - delightful vignettes. I had forgotten how much Japan lacked competition until pointed out by Altman. The background on why the US will continue to force its dollar lower is worth the book price. The story about the plight of Chinese peasants really pulls at your gut. A must read, it is topical, thought provoking and appropriate for our market planning.

Pornified. How pornography is damaging our lives, our relationships, and our families. Pamela Paul. 2005. ISBN 0805081321. A disturbing, yet balanced book with a message that does need to get out. Well researched, annotated and presented, this book really challenged my “liberal” beliefs through just presenting the facts. Pornography is the commercialization of women, turning men into consumers and women into products to be used and discarded. The billion dollar porn industry has many similarities to the cigarette industry, so aptly portrayed in The Insider film. The boundaries of porn continue to be pushed, taboos reduced and the prevalence in society etc. increases personal and societal acceptance. The porn industry wants it that way. You read about the porn addicts, the off shore aspects, and the politics. Issues collide in this book and some sensible suggestions made on what could be done. Of course we can delete the spam etc. but why should this be tolerated so that the young, our wives and girlfriends, continue to be always brought face to face to it? Its not harmless. Remove the market, and production is decreased.

A brief respite from books to partake some vino in Kelowna. Cedar Creek Estate Winery and St Hubertus and Oak Bay Estate Wineries on Lakeshore road. Cedar Creek the location of a wedding we went to, very civilized and stunning location, with lots of wine to sample. I enjoyed their signature Ehrenfelser, a fruity white as well as the signature Merlot. But I bought the Estate Pinot Noir…the promise of some memorable meals in about 4 years. An easy stumble next door down the road was St Hubertus, home to a big big red. Oak Bay Chabourcin/Merlot, drinkable now (which we did) but a couple of bottles will be put aside for some feasts in 3 years. We chanced on the Saturday market in Kelowna, where the Peach ladies daughter did us proud - what a treat, every box comes with a story!

I hesitate to tell you about my favorite BC winery, located in Naramata, since they produce just enough wine for me and a few restaurants. Kettle Valley Wines is perched on a spit of land projecting from the bluffs looking back to Penticton. An absolutely spendid location with really really good wine. My annual order was ready so we decided to drop by. What treats too, the Malbech, Syrah and Pino Noir. Never fail to sooth and satisfy. I will await their fall release of Old Main Red…to dream. Off to lunch in Naramata- Camp Creek Station Pub never fails us , they still make everything there, fresh to order. Waiting and sipping was worth it, in still sleepy Naramata. Then why not try a few other wines wending our way on the winding Naramata road. The Red Rooster - home to the famous (naked) Baggage handler, They have been sold to Andres wines, but the upstairs art gallery is still a treat. Then Township 7 ( with a second location in Langley). The gold medal Merlot had just sold out minutes before, so we tried but did not buy the Syrah and Bordeaux Reds. Then turn our horse home to the sodden Coast, having a bit of Hope-Princeton road fun with a snappy “Vette and a classy Porche.

the dip. A little book that teaches you when to quit (and when to stick). Seth Godin. 2007. ISBN978-1-59184-166-1. This review may be almost as long as the book (80pp). A very quick read, but he has nailed the idea. It could be a paraphrase of don’t start what you can’t finish. In order to be the number one in what you do, you will need to decide what things to strategically quit. The dip is that part where whatever you are trying to achieve gets really hard - 20 mi into a marathon, the part of a start-up when everything is going wrong. midday of your first day on a snowboard The brave push through the Dip, the mature decide early on that they will not start down this particular path for various reasons, and losers quit in the middle. Enjoyable and always an easy read.

Information Trapping. Real-Time Research on the Web. Tara Calishain. 2007. ISBN 0-321-49171-8. There is something for the beginner through to the advanced researcher in this book. Some of it will get dated fairly quickly as the web evolves almost faster than a book can be written. Her syntactical search tips for all the major tools are very valuable. I had never tried the intitle:keyword syntax prior to this, nor had I used cluster search tools, very cool. Lots of tips on how and where to see who is linking to your content plus where you content may be landing (without your permission!). A good working book, if you try out 1/3 of her suggestions your web searching capabilities will grow substantially. Very helpful for market researchers. She is quite prolific in this area.

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Coolhunting. Chasing down the next big thing. Peter Gloor & Scott Cooper. 2007. ISBN 9758-0-8144-7386-3. If you are one of those people who want to discover the next thing, this is a great resource for you. If you are wanting to understand the real power of Web 2.0 technologies, especially social networking this is a great book for you. Some of their insights are straight forward, while some are counter intuitive. E.g. A company could increase its chance of surviving the dot com bubble if they actively went out and talked to their competitors quite often. Those that did not, had much higher failure rates. When in doubt follow the swarm. Bees lead! This is a slim, but thoughtful book with significant academic research (MIT Media Lab) behind it. Most definitely a book for smart folks. I still liked it.

Hidden in Plain Sight. How to find and execute your company’s next big growth strategy. Erich Joachimsthaler2007.ISBN 978-1-4221-0165-0. Sometimes an academic book really surprises you. This is one of them. The author starts right at the heart of the matter, you can never know too much about your customer. Using examples from P&G., GE, Unilever, BMW and other very large companies he draws out how the ability to observe customer behavior up close, for a significant amount of time, has allowed these giants to recapture share and reinvigorate their market They can then successfully approach the target from a demand side rather a marketing driven side. The story of Mastercards Priceless campaign is worth the price of the book . As an added bonus you get the whole evolution of the Axe fragrance growth for the target US male demographic, directly applicable to B2C marketing. You could easily mistake this as a book about brand, brand image, brand identity and brand strategy (all very different), it is that and more. It reinforces the research at Rocket Builders on the importance of knowing everything there is about the buyer’s buying process and “holding” back selling until the buyer has been nurtured to be “sales ready”. This is the core of getting the most effective selling time you can. Read this book annually, the more you learn the better it gets.

Inside Facebook. Life, Work, and Visions of Greatness. Karel M. Baloun.2006. ISBN: 0-9791421-0-5. A short (178) self published book (www.fbbook.com) that I consumed in a very short order. This is too all intents a “day in the life’ of a facebook coder book. The author was one of the first ten employees and came on board just prior to the wave on capital investment and site profitability. Very useful if you want an insight into today’s Web 2.0 start-ups. He started the same time that the You Tube founder started at Facebook. The author is kind to all the players and one suspects that there was lots more to write if one wanted to really get under the covers. Nice size, quick read and hey its only $18 via download. Not available in stores.