Good thought starter and a great tool to point out failures afterwards, but usually hard to get “the job” right before launch
Kevin Ashton – How to fly a horse
Unfortunately, the book contains too many anecdotes that feature Woody Allen.
Robert Gordon – The rise and fall of American growth
OK… exponential decrease of discomfort may imply decreasing marginal gains, but that does not imply that the future will not see consumer surplus stemming from future inventions.
Elmira Bayrasli – From the other side of the world
Some well chosen case studies; but with too little explanation on ‘what’ they did and too many stories about how they did it.
Cathy O’Neil – Weapons of Math Destruction
Sound Math +Dubious Incentives = Potential Trouble
An overdose of righteous indignation makes the writing less compelling.
Leander Kahney – Jony Ive
The designer behind Steve Jobs has greatly contributed to Apple’s successful revival.
Still surprising how many Apple products were flawed (overpriced, transparent, with wheel navigation, monitorless, …)
Adam Grant – Originals
If you want to change the world, apply creative, unconventional thinking in a strategic way.
Surprisingly practical advise on how to drive change (make it safe for others, build coalitions, pick the right moment, be courageous yet receptive).
Laura Stack – Doing the right things right
The ideas of Peter Drucker (“The Effective Executive”) explained in jargon-filled platitudes.
Jill Dyche – The new IT
Align your IT department with your corporate objectives.
It seems to be impossible to write a book about IT without referring to ‘frameworks’ (= a solution a little bit more specific than a thought, but far less concrete than a plan).
Simon Sinek – Leaders eat last
Go for servant leadership: it’s in line with the chemistry of our brain.
NIcely crafted narrative around Endorphins, Dopamine, Serotonin and Oxytocin to support a well established concept.
Chris Voss – Never split the difference
Useful view on high-stakes negotiations condensed into simple rules, and larded with FBI ‘war stories’.
Simon Sinek – Start with why
Live by Covey’s 2nd habit: ‘Begin with the end in mind’
Energizing expose of a well known leadership truism.
Liz Wiseman – Multipliers
Most corporate cultures stifle learning and cross-fertilization of ideas.
Useful archetypes of desireable (‘multiplier’) and undesireable (‘diminisher’) behaviour.
Dan and Chip heath – Switch
Just remember the metaphor of the elephant, the rider, and the path.
Jared Diamond – Guns, Germs, and Steel
Remark: Fascinating narrative on how agriculture spread across the globe.
Brian Christian and Tom Griffiths – Algorithms to live by
Essential concepts from computer sciences intuitively explained for non-techies.
Oren Klaff – Pitch anything
Remark: By far the best book on Pitching that I know.
Graham Jones – Click.ology
Straight-forward sanity checks can make webshops a whole lot better.
A brave but flawed (e.g. on pricing) attempt to provide naive rules of thumb for how to influence highly context-dependent and ultra-personal customer decisions.
David Lewis – The Brainsell
More emphasis could have been put on online shopping where more direct measurement possible and implementation is easier.
Salim Ismail et. al. – Exponential organizations
Prioritize long term accelerating growth over short-term gains.
Diamandis’ Abundance concept applied to companies. The book peaks early on: the howto guide is not sufficiently specific.