Mark McDonald

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Entries Tagged as 'Book Review'

Design thinking makes innovation accessible and applicable: Book Review

October 16th, 2009 · No Comments

When you think of a book about design, you tend to think that it is more about art and form rather than function and process.  This book presents a new way of management thinking and problem solving centered on human interaction, innovation, information and insight.  Change by Design by Tim Brown the CEO of IDEO [...]

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Tags: Book Review · CIO · Innovation · Leadership · Strategy

The Upside of Turbulence by Donald Sull. Recommended management reading placing new ideas and old ones in an actionable framework. A book review.

October 6th, 2009 · 1 Comment

The Upside of Turbulence by Donald Sullseeks to shake up manager and the way they are thinking about leading in turbulent times.  It achieves this goal and gives managers new ideas and tools to jolt them out of micromanaging the bottom line.  Some of the ideas in the book are not new, however Sull’s treatment [...]

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Tags: Book Review · Leadership · Strategy

The Real Business of IT: a real value to IT executives book review

September 30th, 2009 · 2 Comments

What is the business value of IT is a perennial question that dominates executive discussions.  Many have sought to answer this question with fancy algorithms, consulting practices, benchmark data and other tools.  However, the question is basic to IT so it should have a basic answer – right?  Absolutely and fortunately Hunter and Westerman provide [...]

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Tags: Book Review · CIO · Strategy · Tools

Collaboration by Morton Hansen Book Review — Recommended

September 23rd, 2009 · 2 Comments

Review Headline: Excellent book on executive collaboration, falls a little short in other areas.
Every company wants collaboration, but few know how to go about it.
Collaboration by Morten Hansen is highly recommended reading for those who want to create collaboration rather than just read about it.  Collaboration is often held up as a universal virtue – [...]

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Tags: Book Review · Economy · Innovation · Leadership

Business Network Transformation Book Review

August 27th, 2009 · 1 Comment

Business Network Transformation, edited by Jeffrey Word, is a compendium of articles on the ideas of business networks, sponsored by SAP.  Make no mistakes this book is market-iterature – a cross between marketing and book publishing, but once you know that there are some interesting ideas here.  Just know what you are reading and take [...]

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Tags: Book Review · Leadership

Predictably Irrational Book review – irrationally good, which one could have predicted

August 24th, 2009 · No Comments

Predictable Irrational is the primary source book for a range of business books on behavioral economics now flooding bookstores.  Dan Ariely’s readily accessible, insightful and interesting book is the grandfather of popular behavioral economics and highly recommended.
The issue of economic behavior becomes critical given the emergence of new social technologies and customer driven processes making [...]

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Tags: Book Review · Economy

“Free” is worth the expense, a book review

July 26th, 2009 · 2 Comments

Free: the future of a radical price  (Free) is a book by Chris Andersen, the editor of Wired and author of the book, The Long Tail: Why the Future of Business is Selling Less of More.  
Free and profit form an apparent contradiction that is reshaping industries and who we think of commerce.  Chris Andersen [...]

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Tags: Book Review · Strategy · web 2.0

IT Savvy a business book about IT that executives should read

June 11th, 2009 · 6 Comments

Based on its title IT Savvy, executives may look past this book as another IT advocacy book.  You know the kind that says technology will fix everything.  Don’t make that mistake. 
IT Savvy, what top executives must know to go from pain to gain. HBSP 2009 by Weill and Ross is a business book about IT [...]

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Tags: Book Review · CIO · Leadership · Strategy · Tools

Adventures of an IT Leader – book review

June 10th, 2009 · No Comments

Two Stars – A laudable goal, but its execution sends the wrong message to business professionals
It is hard to criticize a book dedicated to looking at the challenges facing IT leaders on a personal and professional level. The goal of Adventures of an IT Leader are admirable, present IT in a human light using a combination [...]

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Tags: 12 things business should know about IT · Book Review · Leadership · Personal Observation

How the Mighty Fall – a review of the new book by Jim Collins

May 28th, 2009 · No Comments

Jim Collins has already written some of the seminal works on business strategy and management with Built to Last and Good to Great.  While those books are great, How the Might Fall a short eclipses them in my opinion. 
Given the Global Financial/Economic Crisis its easy to see this book as coming at an opportune time [...]

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Tags: Book Review · Economy · Leadership