Business Bestsellers
In the Carol Letheren Lounge (with the fireplace) there is a collection of special books on the wooden shelves. Interested in a picking up a book with an intriguing title that is not strictly “academic” or one that has proven to be a business bestseller for a captivating read? The Bronfman Bestsellers shelf is the place to look! These titles are specially selected as Bronfman Bestsellers. We keep the numbers few and the date current. Earlier selections (we have been doing this since 2002) end up in the regular book collection.
Below are the titles that now occupy that shelf. They offer a glimpse at individuals, companies, and theories that have been making business news. The abstracts have been adapted from the book publisher’s descriptions. The book title is linked to the York catalogue record.
We encourage you to come into the Bronfman Library and explore the Bronfman Bestsellers shelf. It is hard to keep these titles in the library!
BF 503 P475 2011
Drive: the surprising truth about what motivates us
Pink, Daniel
Drawing on four decades of scientific research on human motivation, the author exposes the mismatch between what science knows and what business does-and how that affects every aspect of life. He demonstrates that while carrots and sticks worked successfully in the twentieth century, that’s precisely the wrong way to motivate people for today’s challenges. He examines the three elements of true motivation-autonomy, mastery, and purpose-and offers techniques for putting these into action. He highlight companies that are enlisting new approaches to motivation and introduces the reader to the scientists and entrepreneurs who are pointing a bold way forward.
BF 637 C4 H43 2010
Switch: how to change things when change is hard
Heath, Chip
In a compelling, story-driven narrative, the authors bring together decades of counter-intuitive research in psychology, sociology, and other fields to shed new light on how we can effect transformative change. “Switch “shows that successful changes follow a pattern, a pattern you can use to make the changes that matter to you, whether your interest is in changing the world or changing your waistline.
BF 637 L4 D34 2010
The Executive and the Elephant: a leader’s guide for building inner excellence
Daft, Richard
Lessons for leaders on resolving the ongoing struggle between instinct and the creative mind. The author portrays this dilemma as a struggle between instinct (elephant) and intention (the executive) using the most current research on the intentional vs. the habitual mind to explain how this phenomenon occurs. Through real-life examples and recent studies in psychology, management and Eastern spirituality he provides guidance to those who struggle finding their own balance and cultivating the behavior of others.
BF 774 I54 2008
Influencer: the power to change anything
Patterson, Kerry.
This is a thought-provoking book that combines the insights of behavioral scientists and business leaders with the stories of high-powered influencers from all walks of life.The book helps the you identify a handful of high-leverage behaviors that lead to rapid and profound change, apply strategies for changing both thoughts and actions, and marshall six sources of influence to make change inevitable.
HC 79 T4 M3474 2009
Trade Off: why some things catch on and others don’t
Maney, Kevin
This book looks at a new way to understand why we buy . the author focuses on the ever-present tension between fidelity (the quality of a consumer’s experience) and convenience (the ease of getting and paying for a product). He shows how these conflicting forces determine the success, or failure, of new products and services in the marketplace. He shows that almost every decision we make as consumers involves a trade-off between fidelity and convenience-between the products we love and the products we need.
HD 30.23 S447 2010
Forbes Best Business Mistakes: how today’s top business leaders turned missteps into success
Sellers, Bob
This book reveals practical lessons from some of today’s most successful business leaders to show you how to turn a bad business situation into a success. Based on interviews with some of today’s most successful men and women, the author shares their stories to provide valuable insights and lessons that can help you can learn from their mistakes. Those profiled in Forbes Best Business Mistakes include Wall Street guru Peter Lynch, media personalities Jim Cramer and Suze Orman, CEO Jack Welch, and Jason Kilar, CEO of Hulu. Other names include PIMCO’s Bill Gross and Mohamed El-Erian and Home Depot Founder Arthur Blank.
HD 30.28 H395 2011
Harvard business review’s 10 must reads on strategy
Harvard Business Review articles on strategy. The HBR has selected the most important ones to help galvanize an organization’s strategy development and execution.
HD 31 A97 2010
Axson, David
Become a better manager by challenging the myths of commonly accepted management wisdom. A humorous review of current management practice with a very serious message, this book makes an entertaining case for questioning much of the conventional wisdom that pervades the corporate world today.Through contrarian and provocative points of view, real world examples and deep analysis, author and management the author offers over a dozen short, pithy commentaries on the important issues in management today.
HD 53 H37 2009
The HBR List: breakthrough ideas for 2009
This year’s HBR List includes ideas that the authors think are more useful than fanciful, more immediately practicable than speculative. Some of the articles comment directly on the economic crisis, but most of them address other matters that business leaders must contend with: strategic decision making, tapping new markets, finding and keeping top talent, harnessing network effects, dealing with disruptive technologies and business models.
HD 2746 H47 2010
Hess, Edward
Smart Growth: building an enduring business by managing the risks of growth
Wall Street believes that all public companies should grow smoothly and continuously, as evidenced by ever-increasing quarterly earnings, and that all companies either “grow or die.” Introducing a research-based growth model called “Smart Growth,” the author challenges this ethos, which often deters real growth and pressures businesses to create, manufacture, and purchase non-core earnings just to appease Wall Street. This book accounts for the complexity of growth from the perspective of organization, process, change, leadership, cognition, risk management, employee engagement, and human dynamics. Authentic growth is a process characterized by complex change, entrepreneurial action, experimental learning, and the management of risk. The author draws on extensive public and private company research, incorporating case studies.
HD 6955 R68 2009
Living in more than one world: how Peter Drucker’s wisdom can inspire and transform your life
Rosenstein, Bruce
The author shows how the man who transformed organizational management can transform the way you manage your personal and professional life. He helps you construct a complete life plan through exercises, questions, and illustrative anecdotes and quotes.
HD 9696.8 U64 F335 2010
The Facebook Effect: the inside story of the company that is connecting the world
Kirkpatrick, David
The author had the full cooperation of Facebook’s key executives in researching this history of the company and its impact on our lives. Kirkpatrick tells how Facebook was created, why it has flourished, and where it is going next. He chronicles its successes and missteps, and gives readers the most complete assessment anywhere of founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg, the central figure in the company’s remarkable ascent.
HF 5415 A6197 2009
Free: the future of a radical price
Anderson, Chris
The author argues that in the digital marketplace, the most effective price is no price at all. He illustrates how savvy businesses are raking it in with indirect routes from product to revenue with such models as cross-subsidies (giving away a DVR to sell cable service) and freemiums (offering Flickr for free while selling the superior FlickrPro to serious users). A generational and global shift is at play-those below 30 won’t pay for information, knowing it will be available somewhere for free, and in China, piracy accounts for about 95% of music consumption-to the delight of artists and labels, who profit off free publicity through concerts and merchandising. Anderson provides a thorough overview of the history of pricing and commerce, the mental transaction costs that differentiate zero and any other price into two entirely different markets, the psychology of digital piracy and the open-source war between Microsoft and Linux.
HF 5549.12 S88 2010
Good Boss, Bad Boss: how to be the best and learn from the worst
Sutton, Robert
Draws on real-life case studies and psychological research to explain what differentiates a good boss from a bad boss and explains what the best bosses do correctly.
HF 5549.5 R3 C827 2010
Cuthbert, Samuel
The author provides an alternative approach that’s smarter, more humane – and more profitable. The book is more than just a litany of what’s wrong with performance reviews. It is also a path to what could be, a road map to a truly progressive, enlightened approach to the relationship between bosses and subordinates. The path is what the author calls the Performance Preview – a system that promises to accomplish all the things the performance review is supposed to, but never will.
HF 5549.5 S38 H478 1020
Herrenhohl, Eric
The author shows owners, executives, and managers of small and medium-size businesses where and how to find A-player employees. It is these individuals who will help keep quality high and growth and profits strong. He explains how to use existing marketing, sales, and networking efforts to find top candidates. He provides current examples of companies that consistently hire A-players without big recruiting departments as well as step-by-step explanations for making these strategies work in your own company.
Lane, Bill
The author was Jack Welch’s speechwriter for 20 years. In the first book by a GE insider, he shows that the real secret to Welch’s immense success as a leader was Welch’s ability as a master communicator. Welch launched a communications revolution that took GE from a ponderous supertanker of a company, to what Welch called a high speed “cigarette boat” capable of radical moves and rapid learning from the best institutions in the world. The book gives a front row seat to Welch’s twenty-year campaign to transform GE.
HG 223 P67 2011
The Price of Everything: solving the mystery of why we pay what we do
Porter, Eduardo
This book starts with a simple premise: there is a price behind each choice that we make, whether we’re deciding to have a baby, drive a car, or buy a book. We often fail to appreciate just how critical prices are as motivating forces shaping our lives, but their power becomes clear when distorted prices steer our decisions the wrong way. The author takes us on a global economic adventure, from comparing the relative prices of a vote in corrupt São Tomé and in the ostensibly aboveboard United States to assessing the cost of happiness in Bhutan to deducing the dollar value we assign to human life. While exploring the story behind the price of everything from marriage and death to mattresses and horsemeat, the author draws unexpected connections that bridge a wide range of disciplines and cultures.
HG 5129 N5 W37 2010
The Devil’s Casino: friendship, betrayal, and high-stakes games played inside Lehman Brothers
Ward, Vicky
The author takes you inside Lehman’s highly charged offices where you’ll meet beloved leaders who were erased from the corporate history books, but who could have taken the firm in a very different direction had they not fallen victim to infighting and their own weaknesses.
QA 76.8 B53 M36 2010
Blackberry: the inside story of Research In Motion
McQueen, Rod
This book is a biography of not only the Blackberry’s incredible popularity, but a behind the scenes glimpse into its origins and development and the geniuses who were its inspiration.
Created by Toni Olshen. Updated April 2010.
