Ford Library

Gallo, Carmine. Talk like TED : the 9 public speaking secrets of the world’s top minds. St. Martin’s Press, 2014.

McGowan, Bill. Pitch perfect : how to say it right the first time, every time. Harper Business, 2014.

In July, two Ford Library staff members attended the Advanced Communications Workshop taught by Dorie Clark, Fuqua adjunct professor, former presidential campaign spokesperson and author of the book, Reinventing You, about developing a personal brand.

Prof. Clark also teaches a popular course in Fuqua’s Executive Education program, Great Leadership Requires Great Communication.  To influence, inspire and persuade others, corporate executives and government leaders need to communicate clearly and confidently with diverse constituencies both inside and outside their organizations. Two new books in the Ford Library also explain how to communicate ideas so they are heard and understood.

Talk Like TED is for speakers who want to deliver presentations with more confidence and authority.  Author Carmine Gallo analyzes more than 500 TED presentations and distills nine common elements from the most popular ones.  Like Dale Carnegie 100 years ago, Gallo recommends that speakers keep their presentations short and tell stories to connect emotionally with the listener.  But he also adds more modern techniques such as the use of humor and novelty.  He advises speakers to have passion and also to be authentic.  Gallo is also the author of the bestselling book, Presentation Secrets of Steve Jobs.

Communications coach Bill McGowan helps clients, executives and celebrities, decide what to say and how to say it.  In his new book, Pitch Perfect, he condenses what he has taught in 4000 coaching sessions into a simple set of 7 principles for handling a variety of personal and professional communication scenarios.  To get attention, McGowan recommends starting with the best material, and to hold attention, he recommends preparing a brief but rich message.  He underscores the importance of conveying certainty with words, posture, eye contact and tone of voice.  He shows how to use visual images to illustrate a story.  His principles work for media interviews, internal meetings, interviews and most other business communication situations.

Both of these books are informative and engaging, and they are recommended for professionals who communicate their ideas at work.

© Meg Trauner & Ford Library – Fuqua School of Business.
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Grosz, Stephen. The examined life : how we lose and find ourselves. W.W. Norton, 2013.

Someone commented today that the unexamined life was not worth living.  I strongly disagree as some of the happiest people I know are the least introspective.  Yet profound satisfaction and understanding of our actions and feelings comes from examining one’s life.

And so while on vacation in June, I borrowed a Ford Library Kindle and read the book, The Examined Life: How We Lose and Find Ourselves.  Written by London psychoanalyst Stephen Grosz, this remarkable book tells the stories of his patients, who come to him troubled by complex emotions or their own puzzling behavior.

As a practicing therapist, Grosz is trained in deep listening and attentiveness, and he uses conversations with his patients to reveal unconscious desires or masked anger.  He helps his patients understand themselves so they can live a happier and more fulfilled life.  As Grosz shares the stories of his patients’ lives and work, he teaches about love and loss, intimacy and separation, change and acceptance.

The Examined Life is a captivating look at the hidden feelings that drive our behavior, and is recommended to anyone wanting to deepen their own sense of self or to improve their relationships with others.  This brief book is an excellent choice for Labor Day holiday reading and is available on the Ford Library’s Best Sellers Kindles and in print in the book stacks. Also available as an online audiobook.

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

Vaynerchuk, Gary. Jab, jab, jab, right hook : how to tell your story in a noisy social world. HarperBusiness 2013.

The annoying title of this new book about social media marketing masks its excellent content. Author of other well-received books on branding on the internet, media consultant Gary Vaynerchuk offers his formula for developing social media content.

Vaynerchuk begins by explaining that creating social media campaigns is like boxing. Strategy is key. Companies patiently build authentic relationships with their customers, one jab (conversation, engagement) at a time. Eventually, it is time to deliver a bruising swing (right hook) that will knock out customer resistance, increasing sales and market share.

Beautifully illustrated, this book contains many examples from Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, Instagram and Tumblr containing successful and failed content. For each platform, Vaynerchuk shows how to produce content that is fresh and unique, followed by 10 to 30 examples of branded posts, with both poor form and perfect execution. In each case, Vaynerchuk delivers a color commentary about what makes it good or bad, criticizing aesthetics, images, links, text, tone, timing, tagging and more as he guides the reader in the art of strategic storytelling.

This engaging and informative book is recommended to those who are using new ways to communicate with customers.

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

In 2013 the New Yorker reported that “women in business were more likely than men to drop out of the workforce or have their careers interrupted a decade after earning their M.B.A.s, because of family considerations… Thirteen per cent of women weren’t working at all, compared to one per cent of men.” And among Harvard college graduates with professional degrees, women with M.B.A.s had the lowest labor force participation rates.

To have it all – to be professionally successful and to be happy with their family life – has been a dream of professional women for 50 years.  Maybe one day, women will have it all.  In the meantime, three new books in the Ford Library help women to cultivate their professional potential and to create a fulfilled life.

What Works for Women at Work by Joan C. Williams and Rachel Dempsey
Women need to be more savvy than men in office politics so they can advance their careers in the competitive workplace.  Using interviews of successful women including women of color, this book reports on workplace challenges, such as: Women must prove themselves over and over again; Women must navigate the “assertiveness” tightrope; Women are pushed aside after bearing children.  Includes strategies and practical advice. Also available as an eBook.

The Orange Line  by Jodi Ecker Detjen et al.
Author Jodi Ecker Detjen earned an MA from Duke University.  She and two co-authors were high achieving professionals who faced unexpected challenges after having children.  In their new book, they examine barriers in the workplace, and analyze the assumptions among career women that hold themselves back from realizing their potential.  They offer practical advice for creating a life that integrates work, family and the self. Also available as a Kindle eBook.

Women, Change the World by Michelle Patterson
Brief profiles of 40 high-profile women working in business, technology and NGO’s are followed by their own thoughts, challenges and triumphs, designed to inspire others to live and work with courage.

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

McArdle, Megan. The up side of down : why failing well is the key to success. Viking, 2014.

Anyone who is admitted to an elite university like Duke is successful.   Duke students graduate at the top of their high school class or undergraduate institution, and have positive experiences in their first employment opportunities.  Many Duke students have never experienced failure and would find it devastating if they did. A new book written by a Chicago MBA, a self-described spectacular failure, explains that mistakes are important learning experiences.

Business journalist Megan McArdle writes about the advantages of failure in her new book, The Up Side of Down.  She describes her failed summer internship at Merrill Lynch, and her failure to garner a permanent offer from the firm.  She accepted a position with a technology firm just before 9/11 and was laid off before her start date.  Eventually she accepted a lower-paying position as a journalist for the Economist, and grew to become an internationally known and respected business writer.

McArdle analyzes how decline happens in business, using companies like Solyndra and GM as examples.  Successful technology companies take calculated risks, using failure as a tool to grow the business.  McArdle also writes about mistakes in health care and in journalism.  Throughout the book, she explains problems with perception, such as the role of bias and loss aversion in reacting to a crisis.

Some reviewers take issue with some of the facts in McArdle’s book.  Fair enough. And in places, the material may be recycled from previous work.  But the writing is engaging and personal, interesting throughout.  Recommended.

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

Welcome to all new students who arrived at Fuqua this week to attend the Language Institute and the Summer Math Review Course.  Students bring an energy and vitality to our university and to our city.  We hope your move went smoothly and that as you explore the city and the university, you come to enjoy your new home as much as we do.

Duke Libraries are among the elite libraries of the world.  Since you have found your way to the Ford Library Blog, you must already know that the library web pages give you access to the library 24 hours every day.  You can access the online catalog for all of Duke’s libraries as well as the libraries of other research universities in the area, including UNC and NC State (noted in the catalog as TRLN Libraries).  Besides print resources, the Duke catalog give you access to the thousands of full-text journals, eBooks, and audiobooks (online or on CD) that you can download to your own devices.

I also invite you to come to our library, the most beautiful space on campus (“like reading in a forest” – an actual quote from an MBA), and a quiet place to study.  Introduce yourself to Jane Day, our fabulous director of reference services.  Or consult with any of our reference librarians in person at the reference desk, by email or by online chat.

We can help you be successful during your time here at the Fuqua School.

Meg Trauner  MLS, MBA
Ford Library Director

Now that warm weather is here at last, it is time to wish our first year MBA’s a happy summer break and to extend our congratulations to our graduating second years and all MMS students.

But before our students depart, there is just enough time to introduce a handful of books that are just for fun.

The Price of Silence by William D. Cohan. Duke alumnus (T’81) and best selling author William Cohan writes an exhaustive account (600+ pages) of the Duke Lacrosse scandal, the story that captivated both Duke and Durham for most of 2006. Every detail is presented and every conversation is recounted.  Yet the book is infinitely interesting.

Flash Boys : a Wall Street revolt by Michael Lewis.  Anyone who has read Michael Lewis’s books (including two about Wall Street, Liar’s Poker and The Big Short, as well as my personal favorite, Boomerang) knows that he is a master storyteller. His most recent work is about a small group of Wall Street men who discover that high-frequency trading shops are rigging the market and then go on to create their own more ethical exchange.

The Simpsons and Their Mathematical Secrets by Simon Singh.  Math nerds will enjoy this book about the popular TV show “The Simpsons” and its hidden jokes and gags about mathematics.  Five of the show’s writers have advanced degrees in math or physics and they pepper the program with references to the perfect science.  Book includes entertaining anecdotes and explanations of mathematical topics.

Everything I Ever needed to Know About Economics I Learned from Online Dating by Paul Oyer.  Divorced after 20 years of marriage, an Economics professor at the Stanford Graduate School of Business enters the market for life partners and discovers that the economic principles that he teaches students (utility, externalities, signaling, thin/thick markets, adverse selection) are driving the behavior of online dating participants.

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

During the course of their careers, most Fuqua students will either find employment within the fields of consulting or finance, or they will work in industries that are profoundly affected by those professions.  Two engaging new books in the Ford Library are about the leading companies in those fields, McKinsey and Goldman Sachs.

The Firm : the story of McKinsey and its secret influence on American business by Duff McDonald.  McKinsey & Co. is one of the most influential companies in the world, a firm that is woven into decision making at the highest levels in business and government.  Business journalist Duff McDonald explores the company and its history, showing how McKinsey consultants shaped the concept of American capitalism, promoted the use of scientific approaches to business management, and served as a catalyst for change.

McDonald begins his book when the company is established in 1926 and he shows how the company evolves with changes in company leadership and the shifting environment of business. McKinsey quickly achieves success at using problems in corporations as its own profit opportunity, providing advice and developing tools to solve them.  Yet McDonald is ambivalent about the benefit of its advice to corporate executives.  While he documents the sophisticated work performed by the firm, he also provides numerous examples of bad advice that resulted in spectacular failures (General Motors, Enron, Swissair). Also available as a Kindle e-book.

What Happened to Goldman Sachs? : an insider’s story of organizational drift and its unintended consequences by Steven G. Mandis.  In his memoir, Why I Left Goldman Sachs, (reviewed here) Greg Smith wrote that somewhere between 2000 and 2012, Goldman lost its way and its culture of truthfulness and collaboration changed to one of generating optimum profits for the partners.  In a new book, What Happened to Goldman Sachs, former Goldman trader Steven Mandis analyzes why Goldman’s culture drifted.

In 1979, Goldman was a privately owned firm with 1000 employees and revenues of $100 million.  Senior partner John Whitehead codified written principles, those already in use throughout the company to ensure that employees put the client first.  By 2006, Goldman was public with a goal of becoming the world’s dominant investment bank, with 25,000 employees and $10 billion in revenues. In his insightful book, Mandis evaluates the complicated reasons that Goldman drifted from its high ethical principle of service to their clients to a legal standard, an ambiguous line with the potential for conflict of interests.  He concludes that competitive pressures and pursuit of growth will foster additional drift from Goldman’s principles despite public outcry and disappointment among clients.

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

Forty years ago, a paper published by Vinton G. Cerf and Robert E. Kahn (‘A Protocol for Packet Network Interconnection‘) detailed the network communication protocols that would become TCP/IP – the packet switching technology that made the internet possible.  TCP/IP moves data from A to Z, and some call it the most significant development in internet history.  The authors, now in their 70’s, changed the world; but their names are only known to internet history geeks.  This post, detailing new books about the internet, is dedicated to them.

Without Their Permission : how the 21st century will be made, not managed by Alexis Ohanian.  Co-founder of the website Reddit.com uses his own experience as an internet entrepreneur to guide other innovators in dealing with the ups and downs of launching a new product, finding a market and dealing with venture capitalists.  He also reveals his personal story and discusses his ideas on a variety of topics, to inspire others to live up to their potential as inventors.

Smarter Than You Think : how technology is changing our minds for the better by Clive Thompson. Several books explaining the negative effect of the internet on thinking and relationships have been reviewed here, including The Shallows and Alone Together.  These books describe the adverse consequences of internet use on attention, learning and memory as well as the deteriorating ability to think deep thoughts or form deep friendships.  By contrast, Clive Thompson’s new book describes the positive effects of our digital experience.  The internet is producing a new style of human intelligence that is more global and more intuitive.  He explains how modern technology is making people better connected and more intelligent, enabling people to solve significant problems for the individual and society. Also available as an audiobook.

The End of Big : how the internet makes David the new Goliath by Nicco Mele.
The first generation of computers belonged to universities, corporations, government and the military, which controlled their use.  40 years later, the dominant communications technologies – the PC, the internet and mobile phones – place enormous political and economic power in the hands of individuals, which is disrupting traditional ways of running political campaigns, reporting the news, providing government services, managing businesses, providing entertainment and changing societies.  Media strategist Nicco Mele calls for newly powerful institutions like Facebook, Google and Twitter to play a civic role in our newly radicalized world.  Thoughtful material is presented in a choppy style perhaps more suited to a blog. Also available as an audiobook.

Return on Influence : the revolutionary power of Klout, social scoring, and influence marketing by Mark W. Schaefer.  Individuals are influenced more by the people with whom they interact than by the messages they get from mass media.  Today most consumers access social networks through broadband connections in their homes and mobile phones in their pockets, and influence is widely distributed.  Individuals have great opportunities to be influential and to be influenced.  Marketing consultant Mark Schaeffer describes the strategies that brands use to build networks, to provide compelling content, and to create advocates who will distribute the content virally.

Dot Complicated : untangling our wired lives by Randi Zuckerberg. The older sister of Mark Zuckerberg and former Director of Market Development for Facebook is now Editor-In-Chief of a digital lifestyle website, Dot Complicated.  Her new book of the same name is about how social media have made our lives more complex, and how we can balance our connected world with our real-time world of family, friends and coworkers who stand beside us every day.

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

At graduation, more than half of Fuqua students accept permanent positions in consulting or finance.  But there are a host of other industries beyond those two, and the Ford Library’s collection features books about the best of them.  Here are three new books about industries that students may not have considered.

Blockbusters : hit-making, risk-taking, and the big business of entertainment by Anita Elberse
A Harvard Business School professor describes how the entertainment industry works, presenting evidence that blockbuster strategies produce the greatest returns and explaining why these strategies are so successful.  Executives who place their bets on a handful of films, shows and concerts, invest heavily in their development, support them with promotional spending and distribute them widely, generate the most profits.  Those who follow more risk-averse strategies fall behind.  This book also analyzes the role of superstars and new digital technologies. Also available as an audiobook.

Overbooked : the exploding business of travel and tourism by Elizabeth Becker
The travel industry is one of the largest industries in the world and among the most environmentally destructive.  Yet it also plays a role in widening the appreciation of different cultures and transferring wealth from rich to poor nations. Former New York Times correspondent Elizabeth Becker uses her own experiences traveling the world to discuss the impact of tourism on local citizens, including changes in culture, destruction of religious venues, skyrocketing cost of living, unsustainable coastal development and forced relocation of local people.

Junkyard planet : travels in the billion-dollar trash trade by Adam Minter
Not likely to be an employment destination for Fuqua students, the worldwide recycling industry is interesting nonetheless.  A professional journalist presents the hidden world of the globalized trade in trash and explains how the junk that homeowners recycle in their curbside bins is collected and shipped to distant locations like India or China, where it is reprocessed into other goods and resold profitably.

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