Staff Picks
New Business Books
- Bland L.
- Thursday, July 22, 2021
Collection
As one might expect, business books examining the impact of the coronavirus pandemic on the economy are now coming out. Adam Tooze, author of the definitive account of the Great Recession’s worldwide impact (Crashed), is back with Shutdown: How Covid Shook the World’s Economy. WaPo personal finance columnist Michelle Singletary has written the timely What to Do with Your Money when Crisis Hits: A Survival Guide.
There are also two new books on e-cigarette maker Juul, the current corporate villain du jour, both well reviewed and worth a look: The Devil’s Playbook, by Lauren Etter, and Big Vape, by Jamie Ducharme.
Women Don't Ask
Negotiation and the Gender Divide
Published in 2021
"When Linda Babcock wanted to know why male graduate students were teaching their own courses while female students were always assigned as assistants, her dean said: "More men ask. The women just don't ask." Drawing on psychology, sociology, economics, and organizational behavior as well as dozens of interviews with men and women in different fields and at all stages in their careers, Women Don't Ask explores how our institutions, child-rearing practices, and implicit assumptions discourage women from asking for the opportunities and resources that they have earned and deserve--perpetuating inequalities that are fundamentally unfair and economically unsound. Women Don't Ask tells women how to ask, and why they should." -- Back cover.
Harvard Business Review Family Business Handbook
How to Build and Sustain a Successful, Enduring Enterprise
Published in 2021
"The one book you need to navigate the complex decisions and critical relationships necessary to create and sustain a healthy family business--and business family. Though "family business" may sound like it refers only to mom-and-pop shops, businesses owned by families are among the most significant and numerous in the world. But surprisingly few resources exist to help navigate the unique challenges you face when you share the executive suite, tax returns, and holidays. How do you make the right decisions, critical to the long-term survival of any business, with the added challenge of having to do so within the context of a family? This comprehensive handbook brings you sophisticated guidance and practical advice from family business experts Josh Baron and Rob Lachenauer. Based on their decades-long experience working closely with a wide range of family businesses around the world, the authors present proven methods and approaches. In the HBR Family Business Handbook you'll find: A new perspective on what makes family businesses succeed and fail A framework to help you address the myriad decisions facing your family business--including how to make good decisions together Step-by-step guidance to help you understand what type of family business you own, define success on your own terms, communicate effectively, manage conflict, prepare for changes within your business family, and transition to the next generation Key questions about wealth, unique to family businesses, that you can't afford not to ask yourself--and your family Exercises and assessments to help you determine where you are--and where you want to go Stories of real families and real companies, from Radio Flyer to Sierra Nevada Brewing Company The HBR Family Business Handbook addresses these issues and more. Keep this guide with you to help you build, grow, and sustain your family business--and your business family--for years, and generations, to come."-- Provided by publisher.
The Cult of We
WeWork, Adam Neumann, and the Great Startup Delusion
Published in 2021
"The definitive inside story of WeWork, its audacious founder, and what its epic unraveling says about a financial system drunk on the elixir of Silicon Valley innovation-from the Wall Street Journal correspondents whose scoop-filled reporting hastened the company's downfall. WeWork would be worth $10 trillion, more than any other company in the world. It wasn't just an office space provider. It was a tech company-an AI startup, even. Its WeGrow schools and WeLive residences would revolutionize educationand housing. One day, mused founder Adam Neumann, a Middle East peace accord would be signed in a WeWork. The company might help colonize Mars. And Neumann would become the world's first trillionaire. This was the vision of Neumann and his primary cheerleader, SoftBank's Masayoshi Son. In hindsight, their ambition for the company, whose primary business was subletting desks in slickly designed offices, seems like madness. Why did so many intelligent people-from venture capitalists to Wall Street elite-fall for the hype? And how did WeWork go so wrong? In little more than a decade, Neumann transformed himself from a struggling baby clothes salesman into the charismatic, hard-partying CEO of a company worth $47 billion-on paper. With his long hair and feel-good mantras, the six-foot-five Israeli transplant looked the part of a messianic truth teller. Investors swooned, and billions poured in. Neumann dined with the CEOs of JPMorgan and Goldman Sachs, entertaining a parade of power brokers desperate to get aslice of what he was selling: the country's most valuable startup, a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity and a generation-defining moment. Soon, however, WeWork was burning through cash faster than Neumann could bring it in. From his private jet, sometimes clouded with marijuana smoke, he scoured the globe for more capital. Then, as WeWork readied a Hail Mary IPO, it all fell apart. Nearly $40 billion of value vaporized in one of corporate America's most spectacular meltdowns. Peppered with eye-popping, never-before-reported details, The Cult of We is the gripping story of careless and often absurd people-and the financial system they have made"-- Provided by publisher.
Fair Pay
How to Get a Raise, Close the Wage Gap, and Build Stronger Businesses
Published in 2021
"The American worker is suffering and fewer and fewer individuals are earning a living wage. In FAIR PAY, compensation expert David Buckmaster diagnoses the problems with our current compensation model, demistifies pay practices, and gives readers practical information for negotiating their salaries"-- Provided by publisher.
The Key Man
The True Story of How the Global Elite Was Duped by a Capitalist Fairy Tale
Published in 2021
"In this compelling story of greed, theft, and the dark underbelly of globalization and impact investing, two Wall Street Journal financial reporters investigate the shocking collapse of Abraaj-the largest private-equity failure in history-and the face behind its glimmering rise and catastrophic fall"-- Provided by publisher.
Be [2.0]
Turning Your Business into an Enduring Great Company
Published in 2020
"What's the roadmap to create a company that not only survives its infancy but thrives, changing the world for decades to come? Nine years before the publication of his epochal bestseller Good to Great, Jim Collins and his mentor, Bill Lazier, answered this question in their bestselling book, Beyond Entrepreneurship. Beyond Entrepreneurship left a definitive mark on the business community, influencing the young pioneers who were, at that time, creating the technology revolution that was birthing in Silicon Valley. Decades later, successive generations of entrepreneurs still turn to the strategies outlined in Beyond Entrepreneurship to answer the most pressing business questions. BE 2.0 is a new and improved version of the book that Jim Collins and Bill Lazier wrote years ago. In BE 2.0, Jim Collins honors his mentor, Bill Lazier, who passed away in 2005, and reexamines the original text of Beyond Entrepreneurship with his 2020 perspective. The book includes the original text of Beyond Entrepreneurship, as well as four new chapters and fifteen new essays. BE 2.0 pulls together the key concepts across Collins' thirty years of research into one integrated framework called The Map. The result is a singular reading experience, which presents a unified vision of company creation that will fascinate not only Jim's millions of dedicated readers worldwide, but also introduce a new generation to his remarkable work" --Amazon.
Big Vape
The Incendiary Rise of Juul
Published in 2021
"A work of narrative nonfiction chronicling the rise of Juul, the most prominent e-cigarette company, and the birth of a new addiction"-- Provided by publisher.
Published in 2021
LinkedIn multiplies what you know by the power of who you know to deliver the number one social platform for business professionals and new job seekers. LinkedIn For Dummies shows LinkedIn newcomers the best ways to discover new opportunities, enhance their personal brand, network with other professionals, and give an exponential boost to their career. Consider this book a passport to help you connect more successfully with many of LinkedIn's 660+ million members in over 200 countries, as well as an expert guide to the platform's tools and features and the proven tactics that get you noticed. In this friendly, all-access introduction to the LinkedIn scene, entrepreneurship guru Joel Elad clues you in on the essentials. Get the latest insight on how to create an attractive profile that will make employers give you a second glance as well as techniques for making useful connections across the globe. In no time at all you'll also be right at home with the profile user interface and getting busy with adding content, searching for career opportunities, and, if you're looking to hire for your company, recruiting top candidates.
The Devil's Playbook
Big Tabacco, Juul, and the Addition of a New Generation
Published in 2021
"Big Tobacco meets Silicon Valley in this corporate exposae of what happened when two of the most notorious industries collided-and the vaping epidemic was born. Howard Willard lusted after Juul. As the CEO of tobacco giant Philip Morris's parent company,and a veteran of the industry's long fight to avoid being regulated out of existence, he grew obsessed with a prize he believed could save his company-the e-cigarette, a product with all the addictive upside of the original without the same apparent health risks and bad press. Meanwhile, in Silicon Valley, Adam Bowen and James Monsees began work on a device meant to save lives and destroy Big Tobacco, only to end up baking the industry's DNA into their invention's science and marketing. Ultimately, Juul's e-cigarette was so effective, so market-dominating, that it put the company on a collision course with Philip Morris and sparked one of the most explosive public health crises in recent memory. In a deeply reported account, award-winning journalist Lauren Etter tells a riveting story of greed and deception in one of the biggest botched deals in business history. Etter shows how Philip Morris's struggle to innovate left Willard desperate to acquire Juul, even as his own team sounded alarms about the startup's reliance on underage customers. And she shows how Juul's executives negotiated a lavish deal that let them pocket the lion's share of Philip Morris's $12.8 billion investment while government regulators and furious parents mounted a campaign to holdthe company's feet to the fire. The Devil's Playbook is the inside story of how Juul's embodiment of Silicon Valley's "move fast and break things" ethos wrought havoc on American health, and how a beleaguered tobacco company was seduced by the promise ofa new generationof addicted customers. With both companies' eyes on the financial prize, neither anticipated the sudden outbreak of vaping-linked deaths that would terrorize a nation, crater Juul's value, end Willard's career, and show the costs in humanlife of the rush to riches-while Juul's founders, investors, and employees walked away with a windfall"-- Provided by publisher.
Power Play
Tesla, Elon Musk, and the Bet of the Century
Published in 2021
"Inside the outrageous, come-from-behind story of Elon Musk and Tesla's bid to build the perfect car Elon Musk is among the most controversial titans of Silicon Valley. To some he's a genius and a visionary; to others he's a mercurial con artist. Billionsof dollars have been gained and lost on his tweets; his personal exploits are the stuff of tabloids. But for all his outrageous talk of mind-uploading and space travel, his most audacious vision is the one closest to the ground: the electric car. When Tesla was founded in the mid 2000s, electric cars were novelties, trotted out and thrown on the scrapheap by carmakers for more than a century. But where most onlookers saw only failure, a small band of Silicon Valley engineers and entrepreneurs saw potential. The gas-guzzling car was in need of disruption; the world was ready for Car 2.0. So they pitted themselves against the biggest, fiercest business rivals in the world, setting out to make a car that was faster, sexier, smoother, cleaner than the competition. But as the saying goes, to make a small fortune in cars, start with a big fortune. Tesla would undergo a truly hellish fifteen years, beset by rivals, pressured by creditors, hobbled by whistleblowers, buoyed by its loyal supporters. Musk himself would often prove Tesla's worst enemy--his antics more than once took the company he had funded largely with his own money to the brink of collapse. Was he an underdog, an antihero, a conman, or some combination of the three? Wall Street Journal tech and auto reporter Tim Higgins had a front-row seat for the drama: the pileups, wrestling for control, meltdowns, and the unlikeliest outcome of all: success. A story of power, recklessness, struggle, and triumph, Power Play is an exhilarating look at how a team of eccentrics and innovators beat the odds--and changed the future"-- Provided by publisher.
The Promise of Bitcoin
The Future of Money and How It Can Work for You
Published in 2021
"From the cofounder of the longest-running bitcoin exchange comes a compelling argument for how this digital currency will transform the global economy-and how it can work for you. Bitcoin may be the best investment opportunity of our time, yet most people have yet to understand its promise. In this book, Bobby Lee, one of the earliest, most successful pioneers in the cryptocurrency space, debunks myths and dispels fears that surround bitcoin, arguing that this rational, logical system is superior to traditional monetary systems. Lee cites signs of bitcoin's widening acceptance: a growing community of users worldwide and multiple initiatives for investing in and holding bitcoin among major financial services organizations and institutional investors who control trillions in assets. Lee offers a primer on the best strategies for purchasing and investing in this digital currency. He discusses the pros and cons, and covers the more complicated method of acquiring bitcoin, mining. He predicts developments inregulation, technology, business, and society that will lead to bitcoin's price increasing 500 percent over the next two decades. In the wake of the current economic crisis, Lee calls on consumers to embrace a technology that will not only increase theirwealth but make their lives easier"-- Provided by publisher.
Incorporate Your Business
A Step-by-Step Guide to Forming a Corporation in Any State
Published in 2021
Arriving Today
From Factory to Front Door--why Everything Has Changed About How and What We Buy
Published in 2021
"A Wall Street Journal reporter travels the globe to tell the story behind the misleadingly simple phrase online shoppers increasingly take for granted: "arriving today." From factory laborers in Vietnam to longshoremen at the port of LA to truckers crawling our interstate highways to robots lurking in Amazon's "dark warehouses," here is an eye-opening investigation of the way online commerce is reshaping the globe, rewriting the rules of business, and redefining consumer expectations"-- Provided by publisher.
How Boards Work
And How They Can Work Better in a Chaotic World
Published in 2021
"Corporate boards have never been under greater pressure. Scandals and malpractice at companies like Theranos, WeWork, Uber, and Wells Fargo have raised serious, justified questions about the quality of corporate governance among regulators, shareholders, and society at large. Activists are pressing corporations and their boards to assume new responsibilities on issues from pay equity to climate change. A global pandemic and a profound economic crisis have only accelerated a mounting backlash against globalization and capitalism itself. In How Boards Work: And How They Can Work Better in a Chaotic World, prize-winning economist and veteran corporate director Dambisa Moyo offers an insider's view of corporate boards' struggles to meet the challenges of our perilous times. Boards, she argues, must take bold steps to reform their practices and exert far stronger leadership if global corporations hope to survive the perilous years ahead. Many people--including even many shareholders and executives--understand little about what boards do, how they work, and the fiduciary responsibilities they must fulfill. Drawing on Moyo's decade of experience serving on corporate boards, How Boards Work takes readers inside corporate board rooms as boards face ever-louder demands to broaden their traditional mandate--choosing the CEO and endorsing corporate strategy--by weighing in on questions of racial and gender equity, data privacy, and other cultural and social issues. It describes how the challenges facing boards will only grow in the coming decade as globalization ebbs, short-term thinking dominates investor behavior, and competition for talent becomes more intense. Corporations must fundamentally rethink how they do business, Moyo argues, and boards must equip themselves to lead the way through a radical program of modernization. Corporations need boards that are more transparent, more knowledgeable, more diverse, and much more deeply involved in setting the strategic course of the companies they lead. The survival and success of global corporations is crucial to the global economy. How Boards Work offers a road map for how boards can steer companies through tomorrow's challenges and ensure they can thrive to the benefit not only of their employees and shareholders but also that of society at large"-- Provided by publisher.
Be Where Your Feet Are
Seven Principles to Keep You Present, Grounded, and Thriving
Published in 2021
"From Scott O'Neil, one of America's most admired sports executives, how to find regular, meaningful moments in an irregular life. When we're moving at 115 MPH, we rarely see the wall coming. But it comes for all of us. The sudden loss of a much beloved friend, the excruciatingly long departure of a parent with Alzheimer's. We grasp for lessons, for meaning, for learnings. Even when an extrovert is faced with the four walls of their own home for months upon months-they're determined to find peace and appreciation in the pause. They try to reenergize without the energy from the bright lights of the court, the hush of the ice, the roar of the crowd; the adrenaline-laced metronome of 20,000 hearts beating together. The human spirit craves connection. Authenticity. Belonging. Touch. Gratitude. Purpose. We need to make our interactions count. If we are truly present, the world shares its hardest, most beautiful lessons with us. In Be Where Your Feet Are, CEO of the Philadelphia 76ers and New Jersey Devils Scott O'Neil offers his own story of grief and healing, and shares his most valuable lessons in what keeps him grounded and able to thrive as a father, husband, coach, mentor, and leader. O'Neil also interviews some of sports and entertainment's most renownedathletes and performers and the world's most dynamic business leaders, conversations in which they reveal their most impactful moments of learning. Each story provides us with an opportunity to learn, and-if we choose-to change our lives, and the world,for the better"-- Provided by publisher.
Start Your Own Freelance Writing Business
The Complete Guide to Starting and Scaling from Scratch
Published in 2019
No One Succeeds Alone
Learn Everything You Can from Everyone You Can
Published in 2021
"The inspirational story of Compass CEO Robert Reffkin--born Black and raised Jewish--and the vital lessons he learned to help him overcome life's daunting obstacles"-- Provided by publisher.
Thanks for Waiting
The Joy (& Weirdness) of Being a Late Bloomer
Published in 2021
"An honest, witty, and insightful memoir about what happens when your coming-of-age comes later than expected, from the co-host of the hit podcast Forever35. Doree Shafrir was one of Gawker's early hires and one of the first editors at BuzzFeed; at both sites, she authored countless viral articles. Just before she turned forty, she published her first novel, and one year later, she quit her journalism career and co-launched Forever35, a wildly successful self-care podcast. Despite all of her success, Doree thinks of herself as a late bloomer, often out of sync with her various cohorts. She was the Gen Xer at the tech startup who refused to wear the unicorn onesie. She met her husband on Tinder in her late thirties, after many of her friends had already gotten married, started families, and entered couples' counseling. After a long fertility struggle, she is now a first-time mom on the other side of forty. Ditto starting her own small business. Now, in her debut memoir, Doree explores the enormous pressures we feel, especially as women, to hit certain milestones at certain times and how we can redefine what it means to be a late bloomer. She writes about everything from dating to infertility, to how friendships evolve as you get older, to why being pregnant at forty-one is unexpectedly freeing--all with the goal of appreciating the lives we've lived so far and the lives we still hope to live. Thanks for Waiting is about how achieving the milestones you thought were so important don't always happen on the timeline you imagined. In a world of 30 Under 30 lists, this book is a welcome reminder that it's okay to live life at your own speed"-- Provided by publisher.
What to Do with Your Money when Crisis Hits
A Survival Guide
Published in 2021
"A direct, incisive guide for consumers to know how to protect and handle their money in the face of a financial crisis"-- Provided by publisher.
Twice As Hard
Navigating Black Stereotypes and Creating Space for Success
Published in 2021
Examines what it means to be black in the working world, discussing obstacles that limit opportunity for Black professionals and offering practical steps to overcome prejudice to find success.
Amazon Unbound
Jeff Bezos and the Invention of a Global Empire
Published in 2021
'Amazon Unbound' is an unvarnished picture of Amazon's unprecedented growth and its billionaire founder, Jeff Bezos, revealing the most important business story of our time. From the author of 'The Everything Store'.
Shutdown
How COVID Shook the World's Economy
Published in 2021
"Deftly weaving finance, politics, business, and the global human experience into one tight narrative, a tour-de-force account of 2020, the year that changed everything--from the acclaimed author of Crashed. The shocks of 2020 have been great and small, disrupting the world economy, international relations and the daily lives of virtually everyone on the planet. Never before has the entire world economy contracted by 20 percent in a matter of weeks nor in the historic record of modern capitalism has therebeen a moment in which 95 percent of the world's economies were suffering all at the same time. Across the world hundreds of millions have lost their jobs. And over it all looms the specter of pandemic, and death. Adam Tooze, whose last book was universally lauded for guiding us coherently through the chaos of the 2008 crash, now brings his bravura analytical and narrative skills to a panoramic and synthetic overview of our current crisis. By focusing on finance and business, he sets the pandemic story in a frame that casts a sobering new light on how unprepared the world was to fight the crisis, and how deep the ruptures in our way of living and doing business are. The virus has attacked the economy with as much ferocity as it has our health, and thereis no vaccine arriving to address that. Tooze's special gift is to show how social organization, political interests, and economic policy interact with devastating human consequences, from your local hospital to the World Bank. He moves fluidly from the impact of currency fluctuations to the decimation of institutions--such as health-care systems, schools, and social services--in the name of efficiency. He starkly analyzes what happened when the pandemic collided with domestic politics (China's party conferences; the American elections), what the unintended consequences of the vaccine race might be, and the role climate change played in the pandemic. Finally, he proves how no unilateral declaration of 'independence" or isolation can extricate any modern country from the global web of travel, goods, services, and finance"-- Provided by publisher.
The Art of Being Indispensable at Work
Win Influence, Beat Overcommitment, and Get the Right Things Done
Published in 2020
"What's the secret to being indispensable--being a true go-to person--in today's workplace? With new technology, flatter organizations, far-flung virtual teams, and constant change, getting things done at work is tougher and more complex than ever. We're in the midst of a collaboration revolution--but sometimes it feels more like a meltdown. Managers and executives are trying harder than ever to keep up and stay effective, relying on cross-functional coordination, better planning and resource sharing, simplified processes, and speeded-up work. It's a herculean challenge, and people are struggling. Overcommitment grows and burnout looms. But even amid the seeming chaos of the matrix organization--where you are constantly being asked to do things by people who aren't your boss, and where you must ask things of others who don't report to you--there is always that special person who seems indispensable, who seems to thrive on complexity, and who is able to stay focused and positive and get the right things done: This is the go-to person. In this game-changing yet practical book, talent guru and bestselling author Bruce Tulgan reveals the secrets of the go-to person in our new world of work. Based on an intensive study of people at all levels, in all kinds of organizations, Tulgan shows how go-to people not only behave differently, but also think differently, basing their decisions and actions on their own personal influence rather than on any formal designation of authority. At the heart of the go-to person's unique credo are the basics of "the ask" and the response--a powerful reimagining of how to say yes and when to say no. Nearly a century ago, Dale Carnegie's classic How to Win Friends and Influence People propelled millions of readers up the ladder of success. Now, in a world of work where you truly need to interact with everybody, Tulgan provides the new must-read guidebook for achieving real influence and learning to thrive when the guardrails of traditional management are pulled away"-- Provided by publisher.
The Squiggly Career
Ditch the Ladder, Discover Opportunity, Design Your Career
Published in 2020
Want to build a meaningful career that you love? Careers are changing; they are no longer linear and there's no such thing as a 'job for life'. Squiggly careers, where people jump constantly between roles, industries and locations, are becoming the new normal. Squiggly careers are filled with opportunity and excitement, but they can also be ambiguous and overwhelming if we don't know how to make the most of them. In The Squiggly Career, personal development experts Helen Tupper and Sarah Ellis will teach you how to- Identify your Values Play to your Super Strengths Address your Confidence gremlins Design your support solar systems (Networks) Explore your Future Possibilities Packed with insights about the changing-face of work, exercises to aid your growth, and tips and inspiration from highly successful people, this book will help you be happier, and ultimately more successful in your career.
Samuelson Friedman
The Battle over the Free Market
Published in 2021
"From the author of Keynes Hayek, the next great duel in the history of economics. In 1966 two columnists joined Newsweek magazine. Their assignment: debate the world of business and economics. Paul Samuelson was a towering figure in Keynesian economics,which supported the management of the economy along lines prescribed by John Maynard Keynes's General Theory. Milton Friedman, little known at that time outside of conservative academic circles, championed "monetarism" and insisted the Federal Reserve maintain tight control over the amount of money circulating in the economy. In the nimble hands of author and journalist Nicholas Wapshott, Samuelson and Friedman's decades-long argument becomes a window through which to view one of the longest periods of economic turmoil in the United States. As the soaring economy of the 1950s gave way to decades stalked by declining prosperity and "stagflation," it was a time when the theory and practice of economics became the preoccupation of politicians and the focus of national debate. It is an argument that continues today"-- Provided by publisher.