Ford Library

Here are our newest DVD titles:

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

Heath, Chip. Decisive : how to make better choices in life and work. Crown Business, 2013.

Chip and Dan Heath, authors of the new book, Decisive, have long been associated with Fuqua.  Dan lives in Raleigh and is currently a fellow at CASE, the Center for the Advancement of Social Entrepreneurship.  Chip was once a faculty member at Fuqua, in the management area, before he defected in 2000 to become a professor of organizational behavior at Stanford.

Chip and Dan are also the authors of two best selling books, Made to Stick (2007) –  a guide to creating ideas that thrive — and Switch (2010) – a guide to implementing transformative change.  These thought-provoking books present academic research illustrated with anecdotes from corporate and everyday life. The authors break down complicated ideas into simple parts and show how to apply them to real world situations, both at work and at home.  Sprinkled with humor throughout, these books present strategies and practical tools.  Their new book, Decisive, follows the same formula and is already on its way to becoming their third best seller.

At Fuqua, Decisive won the vote among Fuqua staff as the featured text for the Ford Library discussion group, which gathered last week to share ideas about the book.  Participants considered the decisions that they were making in real time and how they were applying the principles that they learned in Decisive, including widening their options and testing their assumptions.  Concepts considered especially valuable were “opportunity cost” and the  10/10/10 principle developed by business journalist Suzy Welch – what impact will a particular decision have 10 minutes from now, 10 months from now and 10 years from now.

Fuqua staff members who would like to be included in future emailings for the next book discussion should contact me at mtrauner@duke.edu

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

Please pardon our noise between Wednesday and Friday, January 14-16. While things aren’t as bad as in the photo, a plumbing mishap in the spaces above the Library requires the services of sheetrock work and an industrial dehumidifier.

We are also replacing some defective lighting in the main reading room ceiling that calls for the use of a large, mobile scaffold which does make noise while operating.

We sincerely apologize for these disruptions to the Library environment; and hope to welcome everyone back for the Spring Term to a dry and well-lit Ford Library.

Photo courtesy of shorpy.com.

Here the rest of our new DVD titles for the month:

Let’s Be Cops
The One I Love
Reclaim
Stretch
22 Jump Street
Tammy
What If

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

Here are the first new DVD titles for this month. Look for the others by week’s end:

And So It Goes
Automata
Dawn of the Planet of the Apes
Frontera
The Giver
Housebound
How to Train Your Dragon 2
The Hundred-foot Journey
If I Stay
Into the Storm

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

This review of two new books on China is dedicated to our DKU MMS students:

Dear DKU MMS students:  As you prepare to travel to the other side of the globe in these coming weeks, know that you go with our best wishes for continued success and much happiness in your adventure ahead.

In The Contest of the Century, Geoff Dyer, a journalist for the Financial Times, argues that China is abandoning its geopolitical strategy of self-restraint and is pursuing an ambitious new agenda to shape the world according to its own interests.  The emerging struggle for influence and power between the two dominant nations in the world, China and the United States, is based on balance of power issues, such as military dominance in Asia, as well as practical tactics that promote Chinese economic growth, such as replacing the U.S. dollar as the global currency.

Dyer explains that the U.S. followed the same steps more than a century ago at a similar stage in its economic development.  America developed naval power to strengthen its own security and to protect its overseas interests;  At the same time, the nation created the financial infrastructure needed to replace the British pound as the international currency.  But the outcome of today’s rivalry is not inevitable.  The U.S. is still strong and predictions of its demise are premature — provided the nation gets its deficits under control.

In another new and remarkable book, Can China Lead?, faculty members from Harvard (Kirby and McFarlan) and Wharton (Abrami) discuss the economic competition between the two superpowers, China and the United States.  The authors describe China as a nation whose economic miracle has been powered by state infrastructure projects, but whose private sector has been constrained by poor governance.  China is controlled by an elite group of Chinese Communist Party members who obstruct the changes necessary to transform the country into a sustainable economic powerhouse.

Challenges to transforming China from an infrastructure state to a consumer economy are significant.  The lack of transparency and accountability of the Communist Party and the absence of rule by law impedes risk taking by entrepreneurs.  Intellectual property theft limits research and development in the private sector.  While the standard of living in China has risen sharply in recent decades, the benefits have been uneven, resulting in a perilous level of income inequality.    Clean air and water are in short supply, leading to social tension.  Resolving these problems will require those in command, the Chinese Communist Party, to share power and to cede more control to market forces, something they are unlikely to do peacefully.

Both books are recommended for readers who want a deeper understanding of the world’s new dominant economy, as well as international managers developing a strategy for expanding into China.

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

Kay, Katty and Claire Shipman.  The confidence code : the science and art of self-assurance–what women should know. HarperBusiness, 2014.

Two national news journalists show that confidence is more important to success than competence.  Partly genetic, confidence is inborn and some people naturally have more of it than others.  But with effort, confidence can be learned and expanded, through habits such as doing more and thinking less. Also available as an online audiobook.

Mohr, Tara. Playing big : find your voice, your mission, your message. Gotham Books, 2014.

Leadership coach Tara Mohr offers her own leadership strategies for increasing confidence in women.  She recommends listening to one’s own inner mentor instead of her inner critic, interpreting feedback impersonally, and making experimental leaps into action. Also available as an audiobook on CD.

McGonigal, Kelly. The willpower instinct : how self-control works, why it matters, and what you can do to get more of it. Avery, 2012.

Psychologist Kelly McGonigal, teaches a ten-week course at Stanford on willpower.  Students enroll in her class to get more control over their thoughts and emotions so they can achieve their professional goals and improve their relationships.  McGonigal presents strategies and exercises for developing self-control, training the brain for willpower.

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

Be sure you have entertainment for those long car trips over the Thanksgiving weekend, and check out some of our downloadable audio books from Overdrive. You can find popular business titles like The Virgin Way by Richard Branson, Roadside MBA by Michael Mazzeo, and Predictably Irrational by Dan Ariely. There are fiction titles as well, courtesy of Perkins Library.

For those of you who would prefer a more traditional format, we also have plenty of audiobooks on CD. Some of our newer titles include Capital in the Twenty-First Century by Thomas Piketty, Creativity, Inc. by Edwin Catmull, and Haunted Empire: Apple After Steve Jobs by Yukari Iwatani Kane.

Here are the rest of our new DVDs this month:

Begin Again
The Grand Seduction
Live. Die. Repeat: Edge of Tomorrow
Maleficent
A Most Wanted Man
Planes: Fire & Rescue
Sleepy Hollow, season 1
Snowpiercer
True Detective, season 1

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

 Lusk, Jayson. The food police : a well-fed manifesto about the politics of your plate. Crown Forum, 2013.

James, Randy. Why cows need names : and more secrets of Amish farms. Kent State University Press, [2013].

Americans enjoy a food supply that is abundant and affordable, but whether our food supply is safe and nutritious is open to debate.  Also in dispute are common agricultural practices that involve animal cruelty and environmental harm.  In the U.S. food is produced by a diverse array of 2.2 million farms and ranches scattered throughout the country, including factory farms, corporate ranches, small family farms and urban lots.  Two new books by faculty members in the agriculture discipline examine our food and how it is produced.

On one side of the debate is agricultural economist Jayson Lusk, who has no patience for people whom he calls the food elite, like Michael Pollan and Alice Waters.  In The Food Police, Lusk casts a skeptical eye on the claims and distortions that influence public opinion and form the basis of government regulatory policy for food.   In Lusk’s eyes, food subsidies, taxes and mandates designed to promote local foods or to reduce obesity are threats to personal freedom.  With biting wit, Lusk presents the benefits of genetically modified foods, non-organic produce and chemical insecticides.  These benefits include higher productivity and expanded food choice.

A counterpoint in the debate is Randy James, an agronomist who spent his career as an agricultural agent in Ohio’s Amish country.  In Why Cows Need Names, James presents an alternative to large efficient agribusinesses by using the true story of a young Amish couple in northeastern Ohio who are establishing a profitable small family farm. Beginning with a basic business plan, the family focuses on living simply with a shared goal for their farm.  Animals are treated humanely as they substitute for farm equipment and provide food for the table.  This is a quiet book, gently written by someone who appreciates a simple life free of car payments and electric bills, with clean spacious homes full of home-grown food and well educated children.

Both of these books are recommended as engaging and informative works.

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