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Inside Apple. How America’s most advanced- and secretive – company really works. Adam Lashinsky. 2012. ISBN 9781455512171. (e-book).  Unlike the recent  Steve Jobs bio, this is a fact filled book on the company and the players (as well as Steve Jobs)  that should be on every Apple shareholder and traders reading list. The author is a long time Fortune reporter ( a magazine that Steve Jobs often favored with information over others). You will learn more about the inner workings, strengths and above all the culture of Apple.  As a journalist, Lashinsky writes clear concise copy making the book a good read.   He succeeds in helping pull back the veil in this company.  Highly recommended.

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The Management Mythbuster. David A.J. Axson. 2010. ISBN 9780470463628. How can such an absolutely true book be so funny? from the Introduction with such titles as Strategic Plans are of Little Use in Times of great Uncertainty and Volatility through to the end with Isolating Management Stupidity.   Those of us with a bit of grey hair have lived through many of these myths and the mistakes.  In our practise we often meet companies that are growing at what looks like very decent numbers. How ever when you compare these numbers with the superior gains competitors are able to post you realize that the company is losing ground and not is unaware of it. This delusion is way too prevalent in High tech companies.  Thus we a look at  compensation metrics which reward outperforming the competitors in all types of markets and conditions.  This is one key to helping  prevent overpaying senior executives.   The book should be on every business school reading list as well as that of  all shareholders.  Execs of all types would do well to read this book.   A great read.

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Pricing and Profitability Management. A practical guide for business leaders. Meehan, Simonetto, Montan & Goodin. 2011. ISBN 9780470825273.   I chatted to Michael Simonetto a few months back while doing pricing strategy research. He  sent along this recent Deloitte‘s publication and I am very glad he did. My research was already indicating the multi-layered needs in a company when looking at strategic pricing . This book carries that thought through into a very comprehensive analysis and several work plans.  The case studies are very appropriate and reflect what happens in the marketplace.

Among several great quotes;

• “  Pricing strategies simply cannot, and should not, be developed without obtaining direct and meaningful input from customers.”
• “Fix the process first, than add technology,”

The authors have a good emphasis on sales execution and how that one needs to very competent in this area well before making any changes to pricing.

This is not a book for the trivial reader,yet it should be read by every CEO and the leaders of Sales, Marketing, Finance and Customer Service.

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Becoming an Exceptional Executive Coach. Frisch, Lee, Metzger, Robinson & Rosemarin.  2011. ISBN 9780814416877.  A book for those concerned with leadership and management change.  This is important as the largest weakness in companies is execution. The book uses numerous examples to explain concepts, plus providing many samples and templates for the practitioner.  Having a committee write a book means it come with a lack of personality to spice up the pages. However this is a reasonable base book for the beginning coach.

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The No Asshole Rule. Building a civilized workplace and surviving one that isn’t. Robert J. Sutton. 2007. ISBN 9780759518018. This is so funny and true that it hurt to read it.  I could have used this a few times in my work life – one of the reasons I went into consulting was gaining the ability to chose who I work with – never regretted it.   Guy Kawasaki posted an online survey to self diagnose how much of an asshole you are .  This book is required reading if you work in a tech company.  Well written, clear prose that makes your day better!

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The Upside of Irrationality. The unexpected benefits of defying logic at work and at home.  Dan Ariely. 2010. ISBN 9780061995033. The sequel to Predictably Irrational by one of my favorite economists. His stuff is just so “useful”. You will learn about many interesting things like:

• The disincentive value of very high cash bonuses
• How creators place a very high value on their work
• Not invented here is a very basic flaw in our makeup
• the “identifiable victim” impact on fundraising
• the failure of online dating to solve the singles problem
• how emotional cascades impact on decisions
• the danger of theorizing without the data (trusting your gut)

Very readable, so human, the writer spins a compelling book that I could not put down.

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I am John Galt. Today’s heroic innovators building the world and the villainous parasites destroying it. Donald L. Luskin & Andrew Greta. 2011. ISBN 9781118013786.  Rise up all you Ayn Rand fans who recognize John Galt when you meet him. Tech industry titans Bill Gates ( Henry Rearden), Steve Jobs (Howard Roark), T.J. Rogers ( Francisco d’Anconia) come off really well in this “Who would be the heroes and villains in Ayn Rands world today” thesis.   If you do not know/read Ayn Rand, shame on you (Is my bias showing? )   The authors have written a compelling as well as educational book about the US villains and the heroes.   If you are a far left wing liberal , then this may be a bit strong stuff for you. If you believe in the goodness of unfettered capitalism, ‘come on down!”.  I thoroughly enjoyed it – but in some ways Attila the Hun was a bit liberal for me.  The website http://www.iamjohngalt.com/ is hilarious at times.  You might look at Obamacare in a whole new light. Maybe Steven Harper should read this?

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Building Business Value. How to command a premium price for your midsized company. Martin O”Neill.2009. ISBN 978098205056905.  As part of my ongoing pricing research I was lead to this book.  It does exactly what it says it does.  In a well thought out style the author leads you through the internal and external drivers that determine the value of your company. Very telling advice was , ” If you drive to increasing company value, you can exit at any time”.  Any business owner will benefit from going through this book and answering the questions the author asks.  We see too many companies who would be rockets if they just asked themselves a few simple questions.  Well written, good notes and through bibliography make this a long term reference book for the business owner. I especially liked his way for describing what good was , then pointing out how to measure how good your company was, the major ways that people fail and how to prevent that.

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Killing Giants. 10 strategies to topple the Goliath in your industry. Stephen Denny. 2011. ISBN 9781591843832.  The author has put down 33 first hand stories  ( Eg Vibram barefoot runners, Dunking Donuts taste test,  Jetblue) organized under ten different strategies.   This is a book that should be in hands of every small business owner or small division owner. The stories are compelling, recognizable and very well organized  (The author has a strategy for that as well)  Smaller companies should be more nimble and market responsive than the giants.   Great line that I extracted, over time incumbent companies grow to resemble their markets ( like owners look like their dogs) .  Large companies acquire habits that smaller firms can get around and find opportunities.  Good read and well put together.

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Drive. The Surprising Truth About What Motivates Us. Dan Pink. 2011. 978-1594488849.  A fitting successor to Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi`s Flow and Good Business , this is a useful book for those of us trying to optimize our efforts and productivity.   Lots of challenges to popular myths on motivation in this book.  I appreciated his differentiation between motivating for the very simple repetitive tasks and the more complex.  (I agree with him that no one can motivate anyone – people only motivate themselves.  He brings up the de-motivating effect off paying for tasks, vs separating the cash from the intrinsic performance high.  We certainly see how some people get trapped by the cash and the toys – losing sight of the satisfaction of basic achievement.  This is an easy compelling read, yet it does not treat the subject lightly.  There are some deep implications here for sales force compensation schemes.  (This is the first non fiction book I have only read on a Kindle – it takes me a whole lot longer to do and is not as pleasant an experience for me).

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