Everyone wants to be seen as innovative. Innovation has been one of the top business buzz words over the last few years. Once the preserve of multination corporations and their huge Research & Development (R&D) Labs, innovation has been transformed by technology firms and startups who are able to innovate faster, and with fewer resources. […]
Category Archives: Book reviews
September
12
What you could learn from Frugal Innovation: How to do better with less by Navi Radjou & Jaideep Prabhu (2016, 220 pages)
posted by Max
September
03
What you can learn from ‘BCG On Strategy’ by Carl Stern and Michael Deimler (2006, 403pages)
posted by Max
Strategy, like leadership, is a contested topic. The Boston Consulting Group (BCG) has a long history of innovation in strategy consulting, having been the powerhouse behind the growth share matrix, the experience curve, time-based competition and the rule of three and four. Perspectives, BCG’s publication, seeks to expose their latest thinking both within the company […]
July
29
What you can learn from ‘The Phoenix Project’ by Gene Kim,Kevin Behr & George Spafford (2014, 338 pages)
posted by Max
How do you ensure that IT supports the business? How does your business transform in the digital age? In the book ‘The Phoenix Project, the authors argue that closer integration of development, operations and risk provide a competitive advantage by enabling the other business functions to succeed. The authors argue that the ‘Three Ways’ are […]
July
23
What you can learn from ‘Agile project management for Dummies’ by Mark Layton (2012, 306 pages)
posted by Max
Being agile is now seen as a requirement for many companies. Start-ups are agile, innovators are agile, cool companies are agile. But what does agile mean? What are the benefits of agile? And, how do you ‘do’ agile? There is a lot of writing about the ‘digital’ way of working, where companies are trying to […]
July
16
What you can learn from ‘Kanban’ by David Anderson (2010, 240 pages)
posted by Max
The kanban board (above) could often be found in many start-ups and incubators. Now kanban boards are becoming more and more common in medium and large companies. Why are more and more companies adopting kanban methodologies, and is there more to Kanban than kanban boards? Dave Anderson’s book ‘Kanban’ answers all these questions and more. The main […]
July
08
What you can learn from ‘Sprint’ by Jake Knapp, John Zeratsky & Braden Kowitz (2016, 220 pages)
posted by Max
How do you deliver a product or service that customers want? How do you make progress in a short time on a critical project? Agile methodology (see the last book I reviewed here) suggests that work should be approached in short bursts of intense activity or ‘sprints’. In these sprints, you can bring the right people […]
July
01
What you can learn from ‘Scrum – The art of doing twice the work in half the time’ by Jeff Sutherland (2014, 231 pages)
posted by Max
There any many who believe that the way we work in the modern world is broken. Some people argue that modern work fails to allow workers to self-actualize (see Barry Schwartz TED talk) and others who argue that the processes we have in place are corrosive (see Huffington post article). While there have been many suggestions of how […]
June
24
What could you learn from ‘No Ordinary Disruption’ by Richard Dobbs, James Manyika & Jonathan Woetzel (2015, 207 pages)
posted by Max
The world is changing. This platitude often trotted out by politicians, media pundits and people in business, is both tautologist and useless. The world has always changed, but change creates both challenges and opportunities. By understanding and anticipating change, you can reduce the risk of disruption and position yourself to grasp opportunities. In ‘No Ordinary Disruption’ […]
June
12
What you could learn from ‘Think like a Freak’ by Stephen Dubner and Steven Levitt (2015, 211 pages)
posted by Max
Questioning perceived wisdom is a high stakes game. If you are wrong, then you can be laughed at or vilified. If you are right, then people may not listen. If you are very lucky and enough people accept that you are right, you can transform the world. Steven Levitt and Stephen Dubner now have a reputation […]
June
06
What could you learn from ‘Decisive’ by Chip and Dan Heath (2014, 252 pages)
posted by Max
You make thousands of decisions each day. Some are more important than others. Research by many academics (for example, Daniel Kahneman, Gary Klein and Amos Tversky) has shown that the way you think, and your emotional state, play an enormous role in your decision-making ability. In their latest book,’Decisive’ Chip and dan Heath argue there four reasons […]
May
29
Blue Ocean Strategy by Can Kim and Renee Mauborgne (2015, 224 pages)
posted by Max
How do you prepare for disruption? How to you continue to grow when everyone else is fighting for the same customers? Can and Renne argue that companies need to find new customers and new markets to order to avoid being caught up in ever increasing competition in existing markets. The authors present the following framework as a […]
May
23
What can you learn from ‘The 21 Irrefutable Laws of Leadership’ by John Maxwell (2007, 268 pages)
posted by Max
There has always been something alluring about a list. A quick online search reveals a huge number of leadership articles with lists. For example: 12 Things You Can Do Starting Today to Be a Better Leader 50 Simple Things You Can Do To Be A Real Leader 4 Simple Things You Can Do To Be A Better […]
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