by Mark P. McDonald | April 19, 2013 | Submit a Comment
The intentional use of older, often obsolete cultural artifacts may be regarded as anachronistic according to Wikipedia. What are you going to do with those ducks? By Seth Godin is just that. A more than three-inch thick compendium of Godin’s blog posts seems like a duck out of water in a digital world. But it [...]
Category: Book Review Personal Observation Tags: Book Review, personal musing, Personal Observation
by Mark P. McDonald | April 15, 2013 | Submit a Comment
Playing to Win is highly recommended as perhaps the first and one of the few books you should ever read about business strategy. Penned by the former CEO of P&G (AG Lafley) and the Dean of the Rothman Business School (Roger Martin) this book takes the esoteric and jargon based world of strategy and drives [...]
Category: Book Review Strategic planning Strategy Tags: Book Review, Strategy, Strategy and Planning
by Mark P. McDonald | March 27, 2013 | 1 Comment
Business books normally concentrate on clarity, being concise and providing case studies. The business novel, one that puts ideas into the context of a plot, are rare and too often devolve down into contrived situations, flat characters and preachy plots. Not this book. The best business novel around it Goldratt’s classic, the Goal. Dennis Bakke’s [...]
Category: Book Review Management Social Organization Tags: Book Review, Future of Management, management innovation
by Mark P. McDonald | February 1, 2013 | 1 Comment
The best book on customer experience, hands down, simple, powerful and provocative Who do you want your customers to become is one of those rare books that bridges the gap between current practice and future innovation. Michael Schrage has taken a provocative and penetrating look at the changing nature of customers, their experiences, technologies and [...]
Category: Book Review Customer Experience Tags: Book Review, customer experience
by Mark P. McDonald | January 9, 2013 | 2 Comments
Antifragile by Nassim Nicholas Taleb discusses important issues around resilience and how complex systems survive and thrive in a changing environment. According to the author the fact that randomness, uncertainty, and volatility damage modern systems indicates that are fundamentally fragile. Anti-fragile systems are ones that not only respond to these forces but also grow stronger through the [...]
Category: Book Review Management Technology Tags: agility, architecture, Book Review
by Mark P. McDonald | December 10, 2012 | 1 Comment
Simple – Powerful – Provocative, simply the best book on customer experience in 2012! Who do you want your customers to become? is one of those rare books that bridges the gap between current practice and future innovation. Michael Schrage has taken a provocative and penetrating look at the changing nature of customers, their experiences, [...]
Category: Book Review Customer Experience Digitalization Tags: Book Review, customer centric, customer experience
by Mark P. McDonald | November 28, 2012 | Submit a Comment
Enterprise Games picks up where Jane McGonigal’s book (Reality is Broken) left off – how gaming ideas and practices can apply to business. This book is a hidden treasure that I would not normally have picked up, but I am very very glad I did. Michael Hugos, the author is an accomplished practitioner and innovator [...]
Category: Book Review Business Process Digitalization Innovation Management Tags: Book Review, Business Management, Business Process
by Mark P. McDonald | September 24, 2012 | 1 Comment
Outside In: The Power of Putting Customers at the Center of Your Business is a solid book on the increasingly important subject of the customer experience. Harley Manning and Kerry Bodine provide a comprehensive view of all of the major aspects related to the importance, design and creation of compelling customer experiences. Overall this book advances [...]
Category: Book Review Customer Experience Tags: Book Review, customer experience
by Mark P. McDonald | August 24, 2012 | 4 Comments
The Knockoff Economy explores the validity of the belief that innovation and growth only happen when there are strong protections against copying or duplication. The authors, both lawyers, make a compelling argument that IP protections like copyright, patents, etc. do not themselves create an environment of innovation. Creating ‘monopoly’ rights is not a requirement for [...]
Category: Book Review Innovation Tags: Book Review, Innovation, Intellectual Property
by Mark P. McDonald | May 30, 2012 | 2 Comments
A thinking man’s version of Covey and Collins that is deeper and profound — not a fluff book at all!, Clayton Christensen is one of the deepest thinkers and most thoughtful people I have had the pleasure to meet or hear present. Those traits of deep integrity, thought, consideration come through in this book. However, [...]
Category: Book Review Leadership Personal Observation Tags: Book Review, Leadership, Personal Observation
