New Books in Business, Management, and Marketing

In The Family Firm: A Data-Driven Guide to Better Decision Making in the Early School Years (Penguin, 2021), Brown University professor of economics and mom of two Emily Oster offers a classic business school framework for data-driven parents to think more deliberately about the key issues of the elementary years: school, health, extracurricular activities, and more. In our interview, she walks me through a “case study” exercise on the decision of whether to delay kindergarten entry, discusses what (if anything) differs between the approach in her approach and what a family therapist might recommend, and reminds us that when making family decisions, we should always be careful to ask “What are our dreams and what are our kids’ dreams?” and remember these may not be the same.Host Peter Lorentzen is an Associate Professor in the Department of Economics at the University of San Francisco. His researches governance and decision-making within the Chinese Communist Party but does not recommend that parents apply any of his research findings on censorship, purges, or riots to managing their family life. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Shirin Dehghan is a hugely successful entrepreneur, having built Arieso and sold it to JDSU. In part 2 of her podcast, we hear how she decided to take a year out before getting bored and subsequently gravitating back to the start-up ecosystem. She has made a number of angel investments, including a lesson inletting her guard down as she invested in a team she knew well. Shirin is now a senior partner at Frog Capital, where she sits on four start-up boards. A tip to entrepreneurs, “Don’t turn up to a board meeting with a laundry list of problems without thinking of possible solutions. Your board will lose faith quickly”. To read the podcast transcription please CLICK HERE - Powered by SpeechmaticsShirin founded, expanded and subsequently sold mobile communications business Arieso. A University of Southampton Engineering alumna, she has over 20 years’ experience in the software and mobile communications industry. She is a senior partner at Frog Capital where she sits on the board of Skimlinks. She is also the Non-exec Chairwoman of Opensignal, a UK based company that sets the gold standard for mobile experience globally.She is a passionate advisor and board member to companies wishing to transform their business. As CEO, Chairwoman and Investor leading start-up, medium size as well as blue chip companies to create new markets and build winning teams to bring disruptive products to the mobile industry. Taking a partnership approach with key stakeholders at board level, cultivating many close relationships to help deliver real value to customers. Shirin is the winner of numerous awards including Blackberry Woman in Technology, Best Woman in Mobile, Business Woman of the year 2013, and European Entrepreneur of the year 2013. Produced by Mark Cotton, Twitter.Podcast links:Shirin DehghanArieso - UK-based startup that makes location-aware networking software to improve mobile carriers’ network performance.OpenSignal - is the global standard for mobile experience trusted by consumers, and industry stakeholders. They offer a modern and proven way to measure mobile network performance.Frog Capital - invests in software enabled scale-up stage tech companies in Europe.SceneSkope - personalise Brand and Visitor Engagement across every digital experience. Making interactions unique and personal.Rovco - Use 3D to gain complete Ocean Insight. Our high-res MBES, 4K video and live 3D vision systems provide you with unmatched levels of measurable information, accuracy and clarity.19 SEPTEMBER 2018COMMENTAbout Peter CowleyPeter Cowley, a Cambridge university technology graduate, founded and ran over a dozen businesses in technology and property over the last 40 years. He has built up a portfolio of 75 angel investments with nine good exits (including one that is 107X his investment and returned all the cash he has invested) and thirteen failures. He is a board member of the Global Business Angel Network (GBAN), President Emeritus of the European Business Angel Network (EBAN), former chair of the Cambridge Business Angels and was UK Angel of the Year 2014. He has mentored hundreds of entrepreneurs and is on the board of nine startups.Linkedin Peter’s webpage. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

"Adulting" has now become a verb, and it scares us. Yet it is also essential if we are to live our best, most authentic lives. So how do you do it if you’ve not learned all the necessary lessons? And what defines an adult, anyway? These are the questions tackled by Julie Lythcott-Haims in her new book, Your Turn: How to Be an Adult (2021, Henry Holt & Company). In our interview, we address how the meaning of adulthood has changed from what it used to be; the necessary balance between “fending” for oneself and relying on others; and how Julie’s own life experiences shaped the development of the book and her ideas. This episode is for adults trying to improve themselves, parents trying to raise them, and those in between.Julie Lythcott-Haims is the New York Times bestselling author of the anti-helicopter parenting manifesto How to Raise an Adult which gave rise to a popular TED Talk. Her second book is the critically-acclaimed and award-winning prose poetry memoir Real American, which illustrates her experience as a Black and biracial person in white spaces. Her new book, Your Turn: How to Be an Adult, has been called a “groundbreakingly frank” guide to adulthood. Julie is a former corporate lawyer and Stanford dean, and she holds a BA from Stanford, a JD from Harvard, and an MFA in Writing from California College of the Arts. She currently serves on the boards of Common Sense Media and the Black Women’s Health Imperative, and on the advisory board of LeanIn.Org and Parents magazine. She lives in the San Francisco Bay Area with her partner of over thirty years, their itinerant young adults, and her mother.Eugenio Duarte, Ph.D. is a psychologist and psychoanalyst practicing in Miami. He treats individuals and couples, with specialties in gender and sexuality, eating and body image problems, and relationship issues. He is a graduate and faculty of William Alanson White Institute in Psychiatry, Psychoanalysis, and Psychology in New York City and former chair of their LGBTQ Study Group; and faculty at Florida Psychoanalytic Institute in Miami. He is also a contributing author to the book Introduction to Contemporary Psychoanalysis: Defining Terms and Building Bridges (2018, Routledge) and has published on issues of gender, sexuality, and sexual abuse. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Sean Creighton, the President of New American Colleges & Universities, discusses the origins and evolution of this Association that serves 24 institutions that each combine an undergraduate liberal arts core with a range of professional programs. He describes the distinctive role that NACU members play within the US higher ed system and the different services that the Association provides for its members. In Part II, Sean interviews David Finegold for the NACU podcast, discussing his recent visit to Chatham, one of the newest NACU members. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Today I talked to BJ Fogg about his new book Tiny Habits: The Small Changes That Change Everything (Mariner Books, 2020). Yo-yo diets that come and go is one thing. What BJ Fogg is after is something different and greater altogether. The key formula is B = MAP (Behavior = Motivation & Ability & Prompts). Rather than trying to force a change of behavior that’s like trying to land an alien spaceship amid the landscape of your life, why not try for something more organic? That means you need to recognize habit(s) you want to change; realize that motivation is fickle, but ability is reliable if you start small regarding a habit you want to change. As for the prompt, those are the sensory signposts that should be embedded into routines you already have. In this episode, BJ Fogg takes you through the elegantly simple system he’s devised over the past 15 years and that has helped individuals and companies alike enact behavioral changes related to habits they want to shed or adopt.BJ Fogg founded the Behavior Design Lab at Stanford University. He teaches industry innovators and created the Tiny Habits Academy to help people around the world. He lives in Northern California and Maui.Dan Hill, PhD, is the author of eight books and leads Sensory Logic, Inc. (https://www.sensorylogic.com). To check out his related “Dan Hill’s EQ Spotlight” blog, visit https://emotionswizard.com. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Is there an ideal portfolio of investment assets, one that perfectly balances risk and reward? In Pursuit of the Perfect Portfolio (Princeton UP, 2021) examines this question by profiling and interviewing ten of the most prominent figures in the finance world—Jack Bogle, Charley Ellis, Gene Fama, Marty Leibowitz, Harry Markowitz, Bob Merton, Myron Scholes, Bill Sharpe, Bob Shiller, and Jeremy Siegel. We learn about the personal and intellectual journeys of these luminaries—which include six Nobel Laureates and a trailblazer in mutual funds—and their most innovative contributions. In the process, we come to understand how the science of modern investing came to be. Each of these finance greats discusses their idea of a perfect portfolio, offering invaluable insights to today’s investors.Inspiring such monikers as the Bond Guru, Wall Street’s Wisest Man, and the Wizard of Wharton, these pioneers of investment management provide candid perspectives, both expected and surprising, on a vast array of investment topics—effective diversification, passive versus active investment, security selection and market timing, foreign versus domestic investments, derivative securities, nontraditional assets, irrational investing, and so much more. While the perfect portfolio is ultimately a moving target based on individual age and stage in life, market conditions, and short- and long-term goals, the fundamental principles for success remain constant.Aimed at novice and professional investors alike, In Pursuit of the Perfect Portfolio is a compendium of financial wisdom that no market enthusiast will want to be without.Marshall Poe is the founder and editor of the New Books Network. He can be reached at marshallpoe@newbooksnetwork.com. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Retaining Freedom After SpeechToday I talked to Jim Detert about his book Choosing Courage: The Everyday Guide to Being Brave at Work (Harvard Business Review Press, 2021)Jim Detert is the John L. Colley Professor of Business Administration at the University of Virginia’s Darden School of Business. He’s won multiple awards for his teaching and curriculum development at both UVA and Cornell University.The title of this episode comes from a quote cited in Detert’s book. A Nigerian journalist remarks that there is freedom of speech in his country. The question, however, is whether there is freedom after one makes a candid remark about the country’s leadership. Those in business can relate. The estimate is that merely 20% of people at companies feel as if they can speak honestly about the problems they encounter. Whether democracy will ever flower in the corporate ranks is doubtful. Nevertheless, Detert in this episode takes on practical solutions to better one’s odds of both offering honest, constructive feedback and surviving long enough to help make the recommended change happen. One tool is to create a Courage Ladder, identifying the successively more difficult rungs one wants to climb. Another is practicing how to employ advocacy and inquiry to reframe a current situation such that the other party will recognize why improvements are in order.Jim Detert is the John L. Colley Professor of Business Administration at the University of Virginia’s Darden School of Business. He’s won multiple awards for his teaching and curriculum development at both UVA and Cornell University.Dan Hill, PhD, is the author of eight books and leads Sensory Logic, Inc. (https://www.sensorylogic.com). To check out his related “Dan Hill’s EQ Spotlight” blog, visit https://emotionswizard.com. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Practitioners from all professional domains are increasingly confronted with incidences of systemic failure, yet poorly equipped with appropriate tools and know-how for understanding such failure, and the making of systemic improvement. In our fragile Anthropocene world where ‘systems change’ is often invoked as the rallying call for purposeful alternative action, this book provides a toolkit to help constructively make systems that can change situations for the better.Reflecting on the decade that has passed since the publication of the first edition of Systems Approaches to Making Change: A Practical Guide (Springer, 2020), Reynolds writes: “Global turbulence and conflict associated with trade wars, terrorism and destabilization have been significantly accentuated in the last 10 years… issues of sustainability are prevalent (ranging) from extensive deforestation of Amazonia… to contentious fracking for continued fossil-fuel extraction amongst more industrialised nations predominantly in the northern hemisphere”. In other words, there has been no easing up when it comes to the big messes that plague us—in fact, the need for effective techniques for making systemic change has no doubt never been greater.Viable Systems Model, Soft Systems, SODA… oh my! Where should the practitioner start? Which approach should I deploy in my work? What about using more than one model—or perhaps a combination of models? The five approaches outlined in this book offer the systems thinking practitioner a range of interchangeable tools for pro-actively making systemic improvements amidst complex situations of change and uncertainty. Systems Approaches to Change offers an excellent introduction for those seeking to understand systems thinking and to enact systems thinking in practice. The book helps practitioners from all professions to better understand inter-relationships, engage with multiple perspectives, and reflect on boundary judgements that can inhibit or enhance improved purposeful change.Kevin Lindsay is a 25+ year Silicon Valley software product strategist and marketer, and graduate student at the California Institute of Integral Studies. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

David Chard, the President of Wheelock College in Boston, MA, discusses the process of merging Wheelock successfully into Boston University to become the BU Wheelock College of Education and Human Development. His book, When Colleges Close: Leading in a Time of Crisis (Johns Hopkins University Press, 2020), written with Wheelock’s VPAA Mary Churchill, provides the most detailed guide available on each step involved in merging a struggling small college into a large university in a way that preserve and amplified its mission and impact. Chard shares what led them to write the book so soon after completing this painful process, and many additional insights about what goes into a successful merger.David Finegold is the president of Chatham University. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Following on from Andy Phillipps first podcast, we are pleased to bring you part two. In part one, Andy described how he co-founded Active Hotels, selling to Priceline and eventually helping form Booking.com. Part two follows his transition into Angel Investing. Andy's first venture into investing came with Toptable, investing not only capital but importantly for the companies success, he invested his time and expertise. Andy was chair for the company for five years, before helping them sell to OpenTable in 2010. He subsequently began as chair of Reevoo and continues to be a Non-Executive Director for Trainline. Andy has become a prominent figure in the UK, sitting on the board of the Cambridge Angels and forming Active Venture Fund. Most importantly, Andy has learnt that founders need backing, not just with finances, but with advice, mentoring and the expertise of investors. Enjoy part two!Andy Phillipps is a serial entrepreneur and an early stage investor in startups. He co-founded Active Hotels with Adrian Critchlow, which their team grew to be the largest online hotel booking company in Europe before sale to Priceline. Andy became CEO of priceline.com’s non US business where he initiated the purchase of Bookings BV and subsequent merger with Active to form Booking.com. He subsequently bought into, and was chairman of, Toptable.com.He has also co-founded Reevoo, which provides social content solutions to brands in approx 90 countries. In addition, he lectures in entrepreneurship at London Business School and INSEAD and makes seed investments in early stage tech or market place businesses. He is an Ashoka Support Network member, fellow of the Judge business school at Cambridge University, board member of Cambridge angels, proud father of three monstrous children and has a PhD from Cambridge in mixed mode interfacial fracture of biomimetic ceramic laminates. Produced by Mark Cotton, Twitter.Peter Cowley is a Cambridge university technology graduate, founded and ran over a dozen businesses in technology and property over the last 40 years. He has built up a portfolio of 75 angel investments with nine good exits (including one that is 107X his investment and returned all the cash he has invested) and thirteen failures. He is a board member of the Global Business Angel Network (GBAN), President Emeritus of the European Business Angel Network (EBAN), former chair of the Cambridge Business Angels and was UK Angel of the Year 2014. He has mentored hundreds of entrepreneurs and is on the board of nine startups.In 2011, he founded and ran Martlet: a Corporate VC, investing (currently £10M) from the balance sheet of Marshall, a £2.5bn revenue Cambridge engineering company. He is a fellow in Entrepreneurship at the Cambridge Judge Business School and is on the investment committee of the UK Angel Co-fund. He has also had 16 years’ experience as chair, treasurer and trustee of the boards of seven charities.With his son, Alan, Peter is sharing his and others’ experience and anecdotes in order to educate angels and entrepreneurs via The Invested Investor which publishes two books and 75+ podcasts. A selection of Invested Investor podcasts are republished here on the Entrepreneurship and Leadership channel on the NBN. This is one of them. Peter is a public speaker on entrepreneurship and angel investing throughout the world. Here's Peter on Linkedin.To read the podcast transcription please CLICK HERE - Powered by Speechmatics Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices