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.
David Maister – The trusted advisor
Trust = (Credibility + Reliability + Intimacy) / (Self orientation)
Much needed message in this age of voxpop: you need to earn the right to share your opinion.
Mark Hatch – The maker manifesto
En contagiously enthusiastic account of all you can do with laser cutters,milling machines, 3D printers, AutoCAD software, and the like – and how cheap it is.
Martin Ford – Rise of the Robots
Interesting thought experiment by an author who underestimates human ingenuity (I sincerely hope).
Stanley McChrystal – Team of teams
Background: the US couldn’t win the war in Iraq in 2003 because the compartmentalized army organization could not react adequately to changing circumstances and an agile enemy.
Antonio Garcia Martinez – Chaos monkeys
Written with the contagious swagger of a cocky analytical thinker convinced that he is ahead of the game.