Archive for June, 2016

Faculty Reading Recommendations

Wednesday, June 29th, 2016

Fuqua Daytime MBA 2016 graduate, Adam Schwebach has compiled a list of recommended readings selected by Fuqua faculty. While intended for alumni who want to continue their professional development and learning beyond their time at Fuqua, the list can also benefit current Fuqua MBA and Duke students who want to dive more deeply into content recommended by our faculty. This post highlights a selection of recommended books available in Ford Library and on Amazon. But don’t miss the link to the full list that appears at the bottom of this posting.

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Shane Dikolli (Management Accounting)

dikolli-happy-money

Recommends: Happy Money: The Science of Smarter Spending by Elizabeth Dunn.
Library Catalog | Amazon

“Two professors combine their fascinating and cutting-edge research in behavioral science to explain how money can buy happiness–if you follow five core principles of smart spending.”
Summary from Library Catalog.

 

wade-benzoni-originalsKimberly Wade-Benzoni (Negotiations and Power and Politics)

Recommends: Originals: How Non-Conformists Move the World by Adam Grant.
Library Catalog | Amazon

“The New York Times bestselling author of Give and Take examines how people can champion new ideas–and how leaders can encourage originality in their organizations.” Summary from Library Catalog.

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Kevin Shang
(Core Operations Management)shang-art-war

Recommends: The Art of War by Sun Tzu.
Library Catalog | Amazon

“Written in China more than 2,000 years ago, Sun Tzu’s classic The Art of War…examin[es] not only battlefield maneuvers, but also relevant economic, political, and psychological factors.”
Summary from Library Catalog.

 

brown-get-you-thereMark Brown (Management Communications)

Recommends: What Got You Here Won’t Get You There: How Successful People Become Even More Successful by Marshall Goldsmith.
Library Catalog | Amazon

“Whether you are near the top of the ladder or still have a ways to climb, this book serves as an essential guide to help you eliminate your dysfunctions and move to where you want to go.”
Summary from Library Catalog.

 

Jim Smith (Decision Models)smith-signal-noise-

Recommends: The Signal and the Noise: Why So Many Predictions Fail–but Some Don’t by Nate Silver.
Library CatalogAmazon

“Nate Silver built an innovative system for predicting baseball performance, predicted the 2008 election within a hair’s breadth, and became a national sensation as a blogger—all by the time he was thirty. He solidified his standing as the nation’s foremost political forecaster with his near perfect prediction of the 2012 election.” Summary from Library Catalog.

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soll-decisiveJack Soll (Leadership Ethics and Organizations LEO)

Recommends: Decisive: How to Make Better Choices in Life and Work by Chip Heath and Dan Heath.
Library Catalog | Amazon

“[T]he bestselling authors of Switch and Made to Stick, tackle one of the most critical topics in our work and personal lives: how to make better decisions.” Summary from Library Catalog.

 

Download the full list of recommended readings (login required):  Fuqua Alumni | Current Duke & Fuqua Students

Yvonne Dittmar also contributed to this post.

New Movies for June

Tuesday, June 14th, 2016

Here is list of our newest summer DVDs:

The ChoiceThe Witch DVD cover
Deadpool
Gods of Egypt
Outlander, season 1
Race
Risen
Silicon Valley, seasons 1 & 2
Triple 9
The Witch : a New England Folktale
4th Man Out
East Side Sushi
The Finest Hours
How to be Single
Mustang

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

Book Review: Full Circle

Monday, June 6th, 2016

book cover image

Montella, Erin Callan. Full Circle: A memoir of leaning in too far and the journey back. Triple M Press, 2016.

Erin Callan made her career the center of her life and was named CFO of Lehman in 2007 at age 42, the highest ranking woman on Wall Street. Six months later, the market imploded and management threw Callan under the bus. Eight years later in Full Circle, Erin Callan (now) Montella tells the story of her dramatic rise and fall as a Wall Street rock star and she warns other ambitious young women not to “Lean In” too deeply.

In her self-published book, Montella writes candidly about her life and the choices she made. She graduates from Harvard and NYU Law School, begins her career as a corporate tax attorney at a large prestigious New York law firm. Five years later, attracted by the excitement on Wall Street, she moves to Lehman Brothers to work as an investment banker.

Montella explains that at Lehman she excels at working with clients and constructing profitable high profile deals, earning professional accolades. She is promoted quickly through 11 levels and eventually is tapped as CFO, where she is the first woman to be part of the Executive Committee in Lehman’s 150 year history.

But Montella also counsels that the Wall Street environment is incompatible with work-life balance. At Lehman she runs full throttle, devoted to her career, spending all her time and energy on work. She meets attractive people, but personal relationships dry up from lack of attention. She ends romantic relationships and her marriage for superficial reasons and has no personal friends. When her work life crumbles, she is devastated.

Full Circle is forthright and frankly told, but Montella fails to take personal responsibility for any part of the financial collapse. She was “swimming with the sharks” yet was one of the sharks herself. She calls herself a “rookie” after 15 years in the financial sector. Her complaints about money seem self-indulgent as she owns million dollar homes in the Hamptons, NY and on Sanibel Island, FL. Others who lost their homes in the financial crisis live in their cars. That said, Full Circle is a provocative story, recommended as an introspective memoir about life choices.

Two excellent books on the financial crisis include The Big Short by Michael Lewis and Too Big to Fail by Andrew Sorkin.

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