News & Opinion
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Blog / News & Opinion
Amazon's Best of 2011 ... So Far
By Porchlight
Amazon's books editors have announced their "2011 Best Books of the Year So Far" list. I don't recall them putting out a mid-year list in the past, but it's a great idea and they've picked some very worthy titles. Their top ten in the Business & Investing category are: Onward: How Starbucks Fought for Its Life without Losing Its Soul by Howard Schultz, Rodale Press Enchantment: The Art of Changing Hearts, Minds, and Actions by Guy Kawasaki, Portfolio Tribal Leadership: Leveraging Natural Groups to Build a Thriving Organization by David Logan, John King & Halee Fischer-Wright, Harper Paperbacks (the paperback release of the authors' 2008 book) In The Plex: How Google Thinks, Works, and Shapes Our Lives by Steven Levy, Simon & Schuster Poke the Box by Seth Godin, The Domino Project - Powered by Amazon Disciplined Dreaming: A Proven System to Drive Breakthrough Creativity by Josh Linkner, Jossey-Bass We First: How Brands and Consumers Use Social Media to Build a Better World by Simon Mainwaring, Palgrave MacMillan The Thank You Economy by Gary Vaynerchuk, HarperBusiness Beyond Wealth: The Road Map to a Rich Life by Alexander Green, John Wiley & Sons Endgame: The End of the Debt Supercycle and How It Changes Everything by John Mauldin, John Wiley & Sons On that list, Disciplined Dreaming author Josh Linkner contributed a manifesto to the February issue of ChangeThis, and we have a manifesto from Simon Mainwaring coming on July 6.
Categories: news-opinion
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Blog / News & Opinion
Designing for Growth
By Porchlight
When we think about design, we might think about talented people making things look and work in an interesting or useful way. But how does design play into situations where our input is needed? What if we manage designers?
Categories: news-opinion
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Blog / News & Opinion
Women in Business(books)
By Sally Haldorson
As I (and many others) have noted, women business book authors make up a very small percentage of the category, and while the number is growing, often books by women are more niche-oriented or geared toward the personal, so don't get the powerful push or word-of-mouth that more general business books get. So I'd like to spend a little time talking about the books written by women that have landed on my desk recently: This spring, Anne Kreamer's book, It's Always Personal, first intrigued me--no, touched me--due to the personalized publisher copy being used to promote the book. Kreamer wrote: I was told when I started work that if I wanted to be professional, I should never let my feelings show at work--that emotion had nothing to do with success.
Categories: news-opinion
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Blog / News & Opinion
Change, whether we like it or not
By Porchlight
In 1986, a punk band out of Southern California called Uniform Choice released a record called Screaming For Change. Their lyrics dealt with making better personal decisions, treating people fairly, and creating positive social change through uniting different groups of people. The message resonated, and their popularity grew.
Categories: news-opinion
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Blog / News & Opinion
ChangeThis: Issue 83
By Porchlight
Why a Corrupted Service Covenant Has Made Customers Wired and Dangerous by Chip R. Bell & John R. Patterson “Today’s customers are already picky (all about value), fickle (reluctant to show loyalty), vocal (quick to comment on poor or indifferent service) and vain (only interested in tailor-made offerings).
Categories: news-opinion
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Blog / News & Opinion
PresentationZen
By Porchlight
Maybe you give presentations often. How effective are they? Maybe you've never given one.
Categories: news-opinion
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Blog / News & Opinion
Links for a Monday Afternoon
By Porchlight
➻ Cory Doctorow has laid out an interesting chronology of intellectual property rights since the first part of the 20th century for The Guardian's Comment Is Free interview series. Arguing that Every pirate wants to be an admiral, he tells a story that begins with sheet music composers and ends with the Internet about how elements of every innovation are seen as piracy until they become the mainstream, at which time they begin accusing the next generation of innovators of piracy. Stating at the beginning of the video that "The way to increase the health of the cultural realm is to allow more people to participate in it in more ways," he ends with anxiety that, for the first time in history, lawmakers may end up on the wrong side of the debate between the so-called "pirates" and supposed "admirals.
Categories: news-opinion
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Blog / News & Opinion
Surviving Your Serengeti
By Porchlight
Do you want to overcome a challenge? Do you have a goal to achieve? Would you like to discover your instinctive strengths?
Categories: news-opinion
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Blog / News & Opinion
Smart or Lucky?
By Porchlight
Sometimes we need a little luck, to be in the right place at the right time, to meet the right people, and to make the best choices. We also need the skills and experience to back up what we can do with that luck. It's no use having it if we can't use it.
Categories: news-opinion
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Blog / News & Opinion
Content Rules Interview with Phil Gerbyshak
By Porchlight
Earlier this year, I passed on a copy of Content Rules to friend of the company and all-around awesome fellow Phil Gerbyshak. And, being the good friend that he is—and proving that content does, in fact, rule—he returned the favor by giving us a review of the book when he was done with it. But Phil didn't stop there, he went out and got an interview with the authors and gave that to us, too.
Categories: news-opinion
