The Back of the Napkin: Solving Problems and Selling Ideas with Pictures
Author: Dan Roam
Publisher: Penguin Portfolio
Roam teaches doodling techniques to executives at companies such as Microsoft (MSFT), Google (GOOG), and Wal-Mart (WMT). He argues that drawing simple pictures and diagrams to express ideas forces executives to be clear when communicating inventive new concepts. And he presents convincing examples of powerful, hand-drawn timelines, caricatures, and pie charts.
Serial entrepreneur and former chief technology officer of Cisco Systems (CSCO), Judy Estrin expands on why the U.S. position in the world has eroded in comparison with those of such emerging powers as China and India—and what government and business can do to redress the deficit. Her core arguments are that many executives have a penchant for short-sighted investments, and that cowed corporate boards are unwilling to ask hard questions. Estrin also takes government to task for scaling back non-defense-related spending on science, causing some American innovation muscle to atrophy.
Disrupting Class: How Disruptive Innovation Will Change the Way the World Learns
Authors: Clayton Christensen, Curtis W. Johnson, Michael B. Horn
Publisher: McGraw-Hill Books
In this book, prolific author Clayton Christensen took on America's crumbling educational system, applying his theory of disruptive change to schools. With his co-authors, he proposes moving away from standardized tests and towards customized learning, student-centric classrooms, and deploying computers to every student. For Christensen, competing in global markets is preceded by competing in the global classroom.
The Endless City
Authors: Ricky Burdett and Deyan Sudjic
Publisher: Phaidon
More than half of the human race lives in cities—a figure likely to reach 75% by 2050. The Endless City, edited by Ricky Burdett of the London School of Economics and design curator Deyan Sudjic, puts urban expansion into perspective. The authors convincingly argue that the growth of cities is not just a problem for local government agents or urban planners but is inseparable from such major political and economic forces as globalization, immigration, employment, and sustainability. Many themes of this encyclopedic book, punctuated with vivid photography and illustrations, happened to closely track issues hotly debated during the U.S. Presidential election.
The Game-Changer: How You Can Drive Revenue and Profit Growth with Innovation
Authors: A.G. Lafley and Ram Charan
Publisher: Crown Business
Procter & Gamble (PG) CEO Lafley and management consultant Charan reveal how P&G and companies such as Hewlett-Packard (HPQ) and Nokia (NOK) have taken steps to create fresh products and new markets by making innovation a key corporate strategy. In addition, they look at such practical matters as how to best manage risk when pursuing goals that lack precedents inside a corporation.
Groundswell: Winning in a World Transformed by Social Technologies
Authors: Charlene Li and Josh Bernoff
Publisher: Harvard Business Press
Li and Bernoff, both analysts at Forrester Research, present a clearly written and refreshingly grown-up look at social media used by entire corporations, and not just Gen Y staff. They present real-world business narratives of how companies from Best Buy (BBY) to Ernst & Young use blogs, Wikis, and social networks to create, promote, and share new ideas, both within corporate walls and among consumers outside them.
Here Comes Everybody: The Power of Organizing Without Organizations
Author: Clay Shirky
Publisher: Penguin Press
Author and New York University faculty member Clay Shirky describes the profound impact of social-technological tools on contemporary culture—from e-mail and blogs to Twitter and wikis. Shirky's book is an example-laden history of the development—and impact—of such tools. For instance, industries such as music and media writhe in a state of turmoil, with no clear strategies to deal with the rise of mass amateurization and cheap and easy distribution. In the author's view, we're living in the middle of a revolution as momentous as that which followed the invention of the printing press. Society and industry are being radically reshaped.
e New Age of Innovation: Driving Co-Created Value Through Global Networks
Authors: C.K. Prahalad and M.S. Krishnan
Publisher: McGraw-Hill Books
University of Michigan professors C.K. Prahalad and M.S. Krishnan argue that, despite the press attention lavished on companies such as Apple (AAPL) and Google (GOOG), modern business is not all about superficial apps and cutting-edge consumer tech. Instead the authors argue that to spur growth, executives must focus on accessing a global network of resources to co-create unique experiences with customers. That means transforming companies by changing processes, technical systems, and supply chain management.
The Numerati
Author: Stephen Baker
Publisher: Houghton Mifflin
Baker, a senior writer at BusinessWeek, presents compelling examples of how data gathered from our Web activity, mobile phone calls, and credit-card swipes, are being used to develop ultra-customized products and services.
The Venturesome Economy: How Innovation Sustains Prosperity in a More Connected World
Author: Amar Bhidé
Publisher: Princeton University Press
Despite widespread corporate fears that India and China would surpass the U.S. in inventing new technologies, Bhidé, a Columbia Business School professor, provides a provocative, counterintuitive case as to why the U.S. should support the training of foreign workers and research activities by foreign companies. Why? American companies can benefit, he says—pointing out, for example, that many of the acclaimed features on the iPod were actually developed abroad.
