Archive for December, 2015

And the Winner Is…

Thursday, December 31st, 2015

Critics and commentators at the Economist, the Financial Times and McKinsey select the best books of the year for 2015. Not surprisingly, there is a significant overlap. Let’s take a look at what the experts are recommending now.

book award
BUSINESS

Unfinished Business: Women Men Work Family
By Anne-Marie Slaughter and Karen White.
Accomplished academic at Princeton and key foreign policymaker for the Obama Administration describes her vision for what true equality between men and women really means.

The Economist Book of the Year 2015
Financial Times Book of the Year 2015
Finalist: FT and McKinsey Book of the Year Award 2015

How Music Got Free: The End of an Industry, the Turn of the Century, and the Patient Zero of Piracy
By Stephen Witt.
The secret history of digital music piracy, from the German engineers who invented the MP3, to a N.C. CD manufacturing plant that leaked 2000 recorded albums over 10 years, and then into dark recesses of the Internet where music is available for free.

Financial Times Book of the Year 2015
Finalist: FT and McKinsey Book of the Year Award 2015

Elon Musk: Tesla, Space X, and the Quest for a Fantastic Future
By Ashlee Vance.
A portrait of daring, charismatic and confrontational innovator Elon Musk, his life and career, his successes and failures, beginning with his difficult childhood in South Africa.

FT and McKinsey Book of the Year Award 2015 nominee

Digital Gold: Bitcoin and the Inside Story of the Misfits and Millionaires Trying to Reinvent Money
By Nathaniel Popper.
N.Y. Times reporter presents the volatile evolution of an emerging payment system that facilitates innovative transactions and reduces costs to merchants while assuring privacy to users.

Financial Times Book of the Year 2015
Finalist: FT and McKinsey Book of the Year Award 2015

Leadership BS: Fixing Workplaces and Careers One Truth at a Time
By Jeffrey Pfeffer.
Stanford Business School professor uses his research to update the accepted wisdom about leadership, concluding that authenticity, honesty and humility are overrated.

FT and McKinsey Book of the Year Award 2015 nominee

Road to Character
By David Brooks.
Political writer illustrates the lives of 8 well-known people who have been down the difficult “road to character” and shows how character building works in the real world.

The Economist Book of the Year 2015

Foolproof: Why Safety Can Be Dangerous and How Danger Makes Us Safe
By Greg Ip.
Wall Street Journal commentator explains that the urge to avoid risk often leads to danger — for example, preventing small forest fires creates the opportunity for an inferno — as a lesson for banking regulators trying to prevent a financial crash.

Financial Times Book of the Year 2015

Silo Effect: The Peril of Expertise and the Promise of Breaking Down Barriers
By Gillian Tett.
Silos are ubiquitous in business, government and universities. A financial journalist explains why organizations fragment into silos and how functional departments can be better integrated to foster innovation.

Financial Times Book of the Year 2015

ECONOMICS

Misbehaving: The Making of Behavioral Economics
By Richard Thaler.
An entertaining view of how economists are deviating from the traditional standard of rationality to study real human behaviors, showing how miscalculations affect decision making and how incentives affect markets.

The Economist Book of the Year 2015
Financial Times Book of the Year 2015
Finalist: FT and McKinsey Book of the Year Award 2015

Other People’s Money: The Real Business of Finance
By John Kay.
An economist explains how the finance sector should work, managing other people’s money for the benefit of businesses and households, instead of enriching financial executives in powerful banks.

The Economist Book of the Year 2015
Financial Times Book of the Year 2015

Climate Shock: The Economic Consequences of a Hotter Planet
By Gernot Wagner and Martin Weitzman.
Two economists discuss the risks of an extreme climate event and its global repercussions, unless action is taken now, as they identify carbon pricing as the economic solution to the production of industrial pollution.

Financial Times Book of the Year 2015
FT and McKinsey Book of the Year Award 2015 nominee

Phishing for Phools: The Economics of Manipulation and Deception
By George Akerlof and Robert Shiller.
Two Nobel Prize-winning economists argue that markets are not always the benign “invisible hand,” but are rife with deception as sellers exploit buyers’ psychological weaknesses.

FT and McKinsey Book of the Year Award 2015 nominee

Circus Maximus: The Economic Gamble Behind Hosting the Olympics and the World Cup
By Andrew Zimbalist.
A sports economist explains the politics behind hosting the Olympic Games and the World Cup, arguing that the short-term and long-run economic impacts are negative for the hosting cities, where only the wealthy profit.

The Economist Book of the Year 2015

Hall of Mirrors: The Great Depression, The Great Recession, and the Uses – and Misuses – of History
By Barry Eichengreen.
An economist compares the two financial crises of the 1930’s and 2008-onward and analyzes the actions that policymakers undertook with the positive and negative results.

FT and McKinsey Book of the Year Award 2015 nominee

Inequality: What Can Be Done?
By Anthony Atkinson.
An economist proposes 15 new solutions to alleviate economic inequality, such as a minimum inheritance for all and a global tax on wealth.

The Economist Book of the Year 2015
Financial Times Book of the Year 2015

TECHNOLOGY

Superforecasting: The Art and Science of Prediction
By Philip Tetlock and Dan Gardner.
Forecasting seems like an art, but can be learned. Experts with real foresight gather evidence from a variety of sources, understand probabilities, work in teams and change course when new data emerges.

The Economist Book of the Year 2015
FT and McKinsey Business Book of the Year Award nominee

Rise of the Robots: Technology and the Threat of a Jobless Future
By Martin Ford.
A Silicon Valley entrepreneur argues that as technology continues to accelerate, machines are beginning to take care of themselves, making human jobs obsolete. Jobs are evaporating, while education and health care costs rise rapidly, leading to massive unemployment, income inequality and the implosion of the consumer economy.

Financial Times Book of the Year 2015
Winner of the FT and McKinsey Business Book of the Year Award 2015

Losing the Signal: The Untold Story Behind the Extraordinary Rise and Spectacular Fall of Blackberry
By Jacquie McNish and Sean Silcoff.
An insider’s account of BlackBerry, which in 2009 ranked as the world’s fastest growing company with half the smartphone market, but was then crippled by internal management feuds and ruthless competition from Apple and Google.

Financial Times Book of the Year 2015
Finalist: FT and McKinsey Book of the Year Award 2015

The Powerhouse: Inside the Invention of a Battery to Save the World
By Steve LeVine.
Energy journalist provides a fast-paced account of the global race to develop a lithium-ion super-battery that will transform the world’s industries, geopolitics and climate.

FT and McKinsey Business Book of the Year Award nominee

Humans Need Not Apply: A Guide to Wealth and Work in the Age of Artificial Intelligence
By Jerry Kaplan.
Computing pioneer discusses advances in machine learning, robotics and perception powering systems, creating technologies that exceed human capabilities, promising a future with escalating comfort and wealth for some, but persistent unemployment for many.

The Economist Book of the Year 2015

© Meg Trauner & Ford Library – Fuqua School of Business.
All rights reserved.

New Movies for December

Wednesday, December 16th, 2015

Here are the last new DVDs of the year:

Call the Midwife, seasons 3 and 4stanford2
Cooties
The Hobbit : the Battle of the Five Armies
Mistress America
Mr. Holmes
The Stanford Prison Experiment
Uncanny
American Ultra
Pay the Ghost
Self/less
Shaun the Sheep Movie
The Man from U.N.C.L.E
Ricki and the Flash
Trainwreck

You may browse the entire DVD collection via the library catalog.

Recommended Holiday Reading on Kindle

Thursday, December 10th, 2015

holiday imageLast week’s book recommendations were from Bryan Burrough in the weekend edition of the Wall Street Journal – What to Give (to family and friends for the holidays).  Today we post more recommendations – popular new books just loaded onto Ford Library Kindles – each book selected with Fuqua students in mind.

Students, as our (temporary) gift to you, consider taking home a Ford Library Kindle to use over the holidays – returning it in January.   Each Kindle contains a library of the most important reading for business professionals.  Choose among three book collections: Business Best Sellers, Business Classics, or Career Management books.

Here are the six additions to Ford Library Kindles:

How Music Got Free: The End of an Industry, the Turn of the Century, and the Patient Zero of Piracy by Stephen Witt. This story of genius and deceit covers the secret history of digital music piracy, from the German audio engineers who invented the mp3, to a North Carolina compact-disc manufacturing plant where factory worker Dell Glover leaked 2000 recorded albums over 10 years, and then into the darkest recesses of the Internet where music is always available for free.

Awards: Finalist for the 2015 Financial Times and McKinsey Business Book of the Year, named one of Time magazine’s Best Books of 2015 So Far, New York Times Editors’ Choice, and a Washington Post Notable Book of 2015.

Also available in the Ford Library Kindle – Business Bestseller collection, as an OverDrive audiobook, and as an OverDrive ebook.

Misbehaving: The Making of Behavioral Economics by Richard Thaler. The author of the business bestseller Nudge presents an entertaining view of how economists are deviating from the traditional standard of rationality to study real human behaviors, showing how miscalculations affect decision making and how incentives affect markets.

Finalist for the 2015 Financial Times and McKinsey Business Book of the Year Award.

Also available in the Ford Library Kindle – Business Bestseller collection and as an OverDrive ebook.

Rise of the Robots: Technology and the Threat of a Jobless Future by Martin Ford. A Silicon Valley entrepreneur argues that as technology continues to accelerate, machines are beginning to take care of themselves, making human jobs obsolete.  Both blue-collar and professional jobs are evaporating, while education and health care costs continue to rise rapidly, leading to massive unemployment, income inequality and the implosion of the consumer economy.

Winner of the 2015 Financial Times and McKinsey Business Book of the Year Award.

Also available in the Ford Library Kindle – Business Bestseller collection and as an OverDrive ebook.

Unfinished Business: Women Men Work Family by Anne-Marie Slaughter and Karen White. Author of a controversial article in The Atlantic that sparked a national debate, “Why Women Still Can’t Have It All,” Anne-Marie Slaughter describes her vision for what true equality between men and women really means and how American culture and organizations need to change to eliminate the “motherhood penalty”.

Finalist for the 2015 Financial Times and McKinsey Business Book of the Year Award.

Also available in the Ford Library Kindle – Business Bestseller collection, as an OverDrive audiobook, and as an OverDrive ebook.

Impact Investing: Transforming How We Make Money while Making a Difference by Antony Bugg-Levine and Jed Emerson. Two leaders in the emerging field of impact investing for blended value outline a set of investment strategies that generate financial return while intentionally improving social and environmental conditions, showing how for-profit investments can help address social problems.

Also available in the Ford Library Kindle – Business Classics collection and as an OverDrive ebook.

Resource Revolution: How to Capture the Biggest Business Opportunity in a Century by Stefan Heck and Matt Rogers. The rapid urbanization of a new 2.5-billion-person middle class in Asia is creating an unprecedented demand for oil, steel, land, food, water, cement, and other commodities. This book shows how innovators are turning worldwide resource crises into business opportunities using breakthrough performance in effective use of natural resources.

Also available in the Ford Library Kindle – Business Classics collection.

© Meg Trauner & Ford Library – Fuqua School of Business.
All rights reserved.

WSJ: Best Business Books 2015

Friday, December 4th, 2015

stack of booksEvery November the Wall Street Journal publishes a list of books to give to family and friends for the holidays. But in addition to their gifting potential, these books make amusing airport reading for traveling students, staff and faculty members over the holidays too.

The 2015 list is created by Bryan Burrough, author of the 2009 acclaimed best-seller Barbarians at the Gate: The Fall of RJR Nabisco and most recently Days of Rage: America’s Radical Underground, the FBI, and the Forgotten Age of Revolutionary Violence. Readers wanting to see Burrough’s complete remarks about these books can find it in the Weekend Edition, Nov. 21-22, 2015, page C10.

Alibaba’s World: How a Remarkable Company is Changing the Face of Global Business by Porter Erisman.
Alibaba is the Chinese Amazon.com and the anticipated frontrunner in global commerce. One of its first employees, Porter Erisman, tells the story of its founder, Jack Ma, and the company’s rise to power. Also available as an audiobook on OverDrive and as an eBook on OverDrive.

Elon Musk: Tesla, SpaceX, and the Quest for a Fantastic Future by Ashlee Vance.
This portrait of controversial visionary and billionaire entrepreneur Elon Musk, his life and career, his successes and failures, begins with his difficult childhood in South Africa. Read our full review here. Also available as an audiobook on OverDrive, as an eBook on OverDrive, as an audiobook on CD, and on the Business Bestsellers Kindles at the Ford Library.

The Great Beanie Baby Bubble: Mass Delusion and the Dark Side of Cute by Zac Bissonnette.
In this entertaining story and economics lesson, a toy purchased for $5 was resold for $10,000 at the height of the Beanie Baby bubble in the 1990’s, which ended swiftly with devastating consequences for some. Also available as an eBook on OverDrive and as an audiobook on OverDrive.

Losing the Signal: The Untold Story Behind the Extraordinary Rise and Spectacular Fall of BlackBerry by Jacquie McNish and Sean Silcoff.
An insider’s account of BlackBerry, which in 2009 ranked the world’s fastest growing company with half the smartphone market, but anon was crippled by internal management feuds and ruthless competition from Apple and Google. Also available as an audiobook on OverDrive and as an eBook on OverDrive.

Once Upon a Time in Russia by Ben Mezrich.
Epic drama and true story of billionaire oligarchs Boris Berezovsky and Roman Abramovich, who mined massive profits in the early days of privatization after the fall of the Soviet regime, depicting the massive wealth, corruption and power within the business elite in Russia. Also available as an audiobook on OverDrive.

The Song Machine: Inside the Hit Factory by John Seabrook.
This journey into the highly competitive music industry explains the science behind today’s highly processed pop songs that produce a “hook” every 7 seconds to appeal to the human brain’s “bliss point.”
Also available as audiobook on OverDrive and as an eBook on OverDrive.

© Meg Trauner & Ford Library – Fuqua School of Business.
All rights reserved.