New Books in Business, Management, and Marketing

Today I talked to Jon Levy about his new book You’re Invited: The Art and Science of Cultivating Influence (Harper Business, 2021).Jon Levy is a behavioral scientist who over a decade ago founded The Influencer Dinner, a secret dining experience for industry leaders. He’s the author of The 2 AM Principle: Discover the Science of Adventure and has also served as a consultant on influence, connectivity and decision making for companies looking to transform how they do business.This episode starts with discussing Jon’s idea of launching dinners where famous people would come together to cook a meal, talk, and clean up afterwards. It grew from there to covering why connectivity is so important, and what can make an event compelling: generosity, novelty, (good) curation, and the ability to create a sense of awe. Without pushing oneself, in other words, the event can’t by definition be remarkable. Another insight is what Jon calls the IKEA Effect; just as putting your own furniture together makes you commit more to it, so likewise does an event benefit by having people come together in an activity or activities where they feel engaged and hence have a greater sense of belonging.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

Today I talked to Kim Scott about her new book Just Work: Get Sh*t Done, Fast & Fair (St. Martin's Press, 2021). Kim Scott and her fellow guest on this episode, Trier Bryant, co-founded the company Just Work to help organizations and individuals create more equitable workplaces. Scott was a CEO coach at Dropbox, Qualtrics, Twitter, and other tech companies. She was a member of the faculty at Apple University and before that led various teams at Google. Bryant has been a leader at Goldman Sachs, Twitter, Astra, and proudly served in the United States Air Force as a Captain, leading engineering teams.Every situation where somebody gets harmed at work—socially, emotionally, physically—involves the person harmed, an upstander (observer), the bully, and ultimately the leader who should be nurturing a better workplace where justice presides. How to handle those situations, and the difference between bias vs. prejudice is central to this episode. Along the way, the discussion touches on having a Code of Conduct at work; whether and how HR can be helpful; and a clear gender split given the reality that 70% of office bullies are men, whereas 60% of those bullied are women.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

Today I talked to Mathew Sweezy about his new book The Context Marketing Revolution: How to Motivate Buyers in the Age of Infinite Media (Harvard Business Review Press, 2020).Mathew Sweezey is Principal of Marketing Insights for Salesforce. His work has appeared in leading publications such as AdAge, Forbes, Brand Quarterly, The Economist, and The Observer. He’s also the author of Marketing Automation for Dummies.On June 24, 2009, we entered the era when private individuals became the largest producers of media in the world, eclipsing businesses and traditional media outlets. A perfect case-in-point is Tesla, which follows a market-sell-build-market (some more) model that engages customers with a greater purpose (weaning us off fossil fuels) and invites customers to co-create the cars they want. Tesla spends about $6 on advertising per car it sells, versus the nearly $1,000 that Mercedes-Benz spends per car sold. This episode explores the Tesla example, how Gen I members want to be “influencers” as their dream job, and what it means to have conversations with consumers rather than interrupt them with ads.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

Today I talked to Adam Bryant about his new book (co-authored with Kevin Sharer), The CEO Test: Master the Challenges That Make or Break All Leaders (Harvard Business Press, 2021).Adam Bryant is managing director of Merryck & Co, a leadership development and mentoring firm. Before then, Adam was a journalist for 30 years, including at the New York Times where he authored the “Corner Office” column. He’s a speaker, teacher, and frequent contributor on CNBC.This episode is rooted in the seven parts of what a good CEO needs to master, from a simplified game plan that rank-and-file employees can follow to not trying to artificially resolve the various paradoxes intrinsic to being a leader, such as Creating Freedom and Structure and to Be Compassionate and Demanding. Along the way, the conversation delved into creating a company culture where there’s no daylight between what leaders say and do when it comes to values that define the organization. Also of note, why do so many leaders find it hard to coach the people around them to improve? And what are leaders missing that accounts for so many Mergers & Acquisitions not working out?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

Are we in the midst of a financial bubble? Do the current valuations of the electronic vehicle stocks or their SPACs make you raise an eyebrow? The trouble with bubbles is that they are hard to spot from within, and much easier to define and analyze after the fact.  In their new book, Boom and Bust: A Global History of Financial Bubbles (Cambridge University Press, 2020), William Quinn and John D. Turner analyze past instances of extreme speculation to come up with a typology of the phenomenon. Using what they call the Bubble Triangle of Marketability, Easy Money, and overt Speculation, they have created a tool for financial economists, and the rest of us, to judge what makes a bubble and what makes it pop. Given the unusual nature of the capital markets at the present time, you will want to be familiar with their analysis as you view your own investments.Daniel Peris is Senior Vice President at Federated Hermes in Pittsburgh. He can be reached at DanielxPeris@gmail.com or via Twitter @HistoryInvestor. His History and Investing blog and Keep Calm & Carry On Investing podcast are at https://strategicdividendinvestor.com Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

For over a century, creativity has unfolded as a valuable field of knowledge. Emerging from disciplines like psychology, management and education, the field of creativity is making strides in others including the arts and engineering. Research and education in this field, led by leading creativity thinkers like Barron and Montuori, have helped it establish creativity as an important discipline in its own right. However, this progress has come with a price. In a domain like management, the institutionalization of creativity in learning, research and practice has left creativity subordinated to concerns with standardization, employability and economic growth. Values like personal fulfillment, uncertainty, improvement and connectedness which could characterize systemic views on creativity need to be rescued to promote more and inclusive dialogue between creativity stakeholders.Originally from Colombia, Jóse-Rodriguo Córdoba-Pachón brings his background as a software developer, entrepreneur, academic—and father of young twins—to Managing Creativity: A Systems Thinking Journey (Routledge, 2018). He shares personal vulnerabilities and setbacks as rich context for his own systems thinking journey as a creator and invites the reader to explore deeply what creativity means for him/her/them. While Córdoba-Pachón possesses a deep understanding and appreciation for the primary creativity thinking lineages, it is ‘creativity as socio-cultural phenomenon’ that most intrigues him and influences his work (joining Montuori and others in de-bunking the ‘lone genius’ myth). He offers that there is an opportunity to apply additional systems ideas to creativity, building on those who have previously researched creativity in the systems thinking context such as psychologist Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi.Córdoba-Pachón aims to recover the importance of creativity as a systemic phenomenon and explores how applied systems thinking (AST) can further support creativity. This demonstrates how creative efforts could be directed to improve quality of life for individuals as well as their environments. Managing Creativity uses the systems idea as an ‘enquiring device’ to bring together different actors to promote reflection and action about creative possibilities. Córdoba-Pachón offers conceptualizations, applications and reflections of systems ideas to help readers make sense of the field of creativity in academia and elsewhere.Insights from Managing Creativity act as a vital toolkit for management researchers, students grappling with an uncertain future, practitioners and all creators to define and pursue creative ideas and thrive through their journeys to benefit themselves, other people and organizations. Córdoba-Pachón suggests that “promoting open (and random) as well as responsible engagement in creativity could help us shift... and engage differently and systemically with things ‘out there’— the risks and uncertainty, ‘shit’ and serendipity”. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Today I spoke with Michael Heller about the book he has just published with James Salzman. The title is Mine!: How the Hidden Rules of Ownership Control Our Lives (Doubleday, 2021)Michael Heller at Columbia University is Professor of Real Estate Law. Before joining Columbia Law in 2002, you taught at the University of Michigan, NYU, UCLA, and Yale Law Schools. Prior to entering academia, you worked at the World Bank on post-socialist legal transition and you even served as a law clerk at the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals. James Salzman is the Donald Bren Distinguished Professor of Environmental Law with joint appointments at the UCLA and UC Santa Barbara. He was formerly at Duke University. His book, Drinking Water: A History, was reviewed and praised in the New York Times and Washington Post.Ownership rules have been a key topic in economics and law since the establishment of the disciplines, with economics being much more junior than law. Recently Law and economics or economic analysis of law have become an important field.Ownership rules are a key issue for Marx, John R. Commons, Oliver E. Williamson, Henry Hanssman. The authors themselves are very erudite academics that have chosen to write a book based on their research but very accessible to everyone in the style of Freakonomics.The book is about 300 pages, 7 chapters and one epilogue. They reveal six simple stories everyone uses to claim everything. Owners choose the rule that steers us to do what they want. But we can pick a different rule. As Heller and Salzman show, ownership is always up for grabs.Ownership is not simple, natural. It is intrinsically controversial and linked to inequality. We started our conversation with children arguing for the ownership of a toy at the playground and we ended talking about the tax and ownership regime in South Dakota.“Mine” is one of the first words babies learn. By the time we grow up, the idea of ownership seems natural, whether we are buying a cup of coffee or a house. But who controls the space behind your airplane seat: you reclining or the squished laptop user behind you? Why does HBO look the other way when you illegally borrow a password to stream their shows? And after a snowstorm, why does a chair in the street hold your parking space in Chicago, but in New York you lose the space and the chair?This is a very nice book that many will enjoy reading and is advertised by a very cool website with videos that allow you to meet the authors: https://www.minethebook.com/videos/ Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Today I talked to Ming-Hui Huang about her book (coauthored with Roland T. Rust), The Feeling Economy: How Artificial Intelligence Is Creating the Era of Empathy (Palgrave MacMillan, 2021)This episode covers the movement of the economy from brawn to brains to hearts. Put another way, the focus here is on the movement from the Physical Economy (farming, factories, etc.) to the Thinking Economy to now the dawning of the Feeling Economy. In the near-term future, artificial intelligence (AI) will handle the thinking tasks and humans on the job will focus on adding value through empathy and their interpersonal skills. The episode explores everything from workers re-skilling, cross-skilling and up-skilling to handle this change, to the impact of this change to being feeling-centric on our politics, educational practices, and the expectations of consumers. Of special note is that the new economic era may privilege female “soft” skills over the “hard” skills men are known by and often more comfortable with.Ming-Hui Huang holds a number of posts. She’s a Distinguished Professor at National Taiwan University; a fellow of the European Marketing Academy (EMAC); an International Research Fellow of the Centre for Corporate Reputation, University of Oxford, UK; and a Distinguished Research Fellow of the Center for Excellence in Service, University of Maryland, USA. She is also the incoming Editor-in-Chief of the Journal of Service Research.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

It’s hard to avoid innovation these days. Nearly every product gets marketed as being disruptive, whether it’s genuinely a new invention or just a new toothbrush. But in this manifesto on the state of American work, historians of technology Lee Vinsel and Andrew L. Russell argue that our way of thinking about and pursuing innovation has made us poorer, less safe, and—ironically—less innovative.Drawing on years of original research and reporting, The Innovation Delusion: How Our Obsession with the New Has Disrupted the Work That Matters Most (Currency, 2020) shows how the ideology of change for its own sake has proved a disaster. Corporations have spent millions hiring chief innovation officers while their core businesses tank. Computer science programs have drilled their students on programming and design, even though the overwhelming majority of jobs are in IT and maintenance. In countless cities, suburban sprawl has left local governments with loads of deferred repairs that they can’t afford to fix.For anyone concerned by the crumbling state of our roads and bridges or the direction our economy is headed, The Innovation Delusion is a deeply necessary reevaluation of a trend we can still disrupt.Mathew Jordan is a university instructor, funk musician, and clear writing enthusiast. I study science and its history, in the hope that understanding the past can help us make sense of the present and build a better future. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Fifteen years ago in Stockholm, Daniel Ek and Martin Lorentzon had a big idea. The music industry was playing a desperate game of whack-a-mole with piracy via file sharing but this was proving as hopeless as the War on Drugs. Why not, they thought, use the new torrenting technologies to bring piracy in from the cold and make themselves rich in the process?In 2006, they founded Spotify with a handful of engineers, no licences and no revenue. Today, Spotify is the world's most popular audio streaming subscription service with 345 million users and a market capitalization of $60 billion.How did the shy computer nerd and hyperactive investor tame hostile music labels and withstand competition from US tech giants more than ten times their size? Still struggling to achieve sustained profitability in cut-throat market segments, will Ek’s latest foray into podcasting eventually free Spotify of its dependency on the music labels or suffer the same fate as Spotify TV?The Spotify Play: How CEO and Founder Daniel Ek Beat Apple, Google, and Amazon in the Race for Audio Dominance (Diversion Books, 2021) is the new English-language update of Spotify Untold – their 2019 Swedish business biography – Sven Carlsson and Jonas Leijonhufvud put Europe’s only tech giant under the microscope using information gleaned from interviews more than 80 sources and a mountain of public and private documents. The book has been translated into 15 languages and will soon be turned into a Netflix Originals miniseries.Sven Carlsson is a technology reporter at Swedish Radio and and Jonas Leijonhufvud a business journalist at Di Digital.*The authors own book recommendations are Super Pumped: The Battle for Uber by Mike Isaac (W. W. Norton, 2019) and Say Nothing: A True Story Of Murder and Memory In Northern Ireland by Patrick Radden Keefe (William Collins, 2018).Tim Gwynn Jones is an economic and political-risk analyst at Medley Global Advisors. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices