Ford Library

Daniel Gross, Executive Editor of strategy+business, advocates looking beyond the quick, hot media on telephones to the slow content in books. In his article “Best Business Books 2017,” he says: “We value the longest forms of content because of books’ ability to take us deep – deep inside narratives and stories, deep inside carefully constructed paradigms and schemas, deep inside brilliantly constructed arguments backed by meticulously complied evidence… We respect and value the labor of gifted writers.”

Here is what authors and thought leaders are reading now:

Business columnist at the New Yorker James Surowiecki recommends Machine, Platform, Crowd, a guidebook to the new world of innovation, “focusing concretely on how organizations can best leverage the new tools the digital age offers… not just innovations that bring new products and services to market, but also innovations in the way we make decisions and solve problems, in the way we collaborate and in the way we organize work.” Also available as an eBook on OverDrive.

Corporate strategy advisor Ken Favaro nominates If You’re in a Dogfight, Become a Cat by Leonard Sherman, who “argues that companies have to re-imagine what they are and thus what they are capable of… Instead of running faster, you break away from the pack by redefining one or more of the boundaries that historically constrained industry behaviors and by consistently renewing your product and service portfolios.” Also available as an eBook on OverDrive.

Bethany McLean, contributing editor at Vanity Fair, commends Once Upon a Time in Shaolin, “the rollicking narrative of the rap group Wu-Tang Clan’s notorious efforts to create an album that, rather than being mass marketed, would be valued like a work of art – sold to only one buyer, who would be the only one who could every play it… (because) file sharing and streaming business models have rendered it nearly impossible for most musicians to make money from their work.”
Also available as an eBook on OverDrive.

Leadership development consultant and speaker Sally Helgesen nominates The Captain Class by Sam Walker. “This wonderfully written and wildly entertaining study of the most winning sports teams in history has more to say about leadership, engagement, and the chemistry that sparks and sustains extraordinary achievement than a decade’s worth of leadership books.”
Also available as an eBook or audiobook.

At The Economist Ryan Avent calls The Great Leveler by Walter Scheidel a dark book, but the year’s best. Since the stone age, “societies that manage to create an economic surplus become economically and politically unequal… Over time, elites get better at rigging the system to divert resources toward themselves. Only catastrophe limits the march toward greater inequality – great plagues, state failure, revolution and mass-mobilization warfare.” Also available as an eBook or audiobook.

Media thought leader Catharine P. Taylor recommends Superconsumers “for its brevity, its anthropological approach and its power. The book contains compelling examples of what makes the small minority of customers who buy more of, and have a current passion for, a particular product so vital for building businesses… The key is to uncover the larger reason that superconsumers are hiring your product, and use those insights to expand your market.”

Duff McDonald, author of the HBS critique The Golden Passport chose Stealing Fire by Steven Kotler and Jamie Wheal as his 2017 WSJ best pick and he has not changed his mind. Kotler and Wheal “have gifted us with a thrilling tour through worldwide efforts to better harness flow, which is defined as an optimal state of consciousness where we feel our best and perform our best.”
Also available as an eBook or audiobook.

View more books recommended by these business writers.

As the warm days of April draw to a close, it is time to say goodbye to our graduating MMS students and 2nd year MBAs.

Congratulations on all you have achieved while at Duke. Job well done! Best wishes for continued success throughout your career and in your life.

Enjoy the latest additions to our DVD collection:

Breadwinner
Call Me by Your Name
The Disaster Artist
Father Figures
Ferdinand
I, Tonya
Insidious: the Last Key
Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle
The Last Movie Star
The Man Who Invented Christmas
Shape of Water
Star Wars: Episode VIII, The Last Jedi
Thelma
Thor: Ragnarok
Wonder Wheel

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

Walker, Sam. The captain class : the hidden force that creates the world’s greatest teams. Random House, 2017.

Mike Krzyzewski, who has won more games than any basketball coach in the history of the NCAA Division I, once wrote that while talent and coaching are essential, the secret to greatness is something else: “The single most important ingredient after you get the talent is internal leadership. It’s not the coaches as much as one single person or people on the team who set higher standards than that team would normally set for itself.”

This quote comes from the new book, The Captain Class, by sports reporter and Wall Street Journal editor, Sam Walker. In 2005, Walker began researching elite sports teams with a goal of constructing an objective formula for creating turn-around performance. After a decade of analyzing world class teams, Walker came to the same conclusion as Coach K: the most crucial ingredient in a team that achieves and sustains historic greatness is the character of the player who leads it.

Walker begins his book by explaining how he identified the world’s 16 greatest teams. Examining all 16 teams for the key to excellence, he concluded that it was not the coach, or the management, or the money or even the superstars. Each of the elite teams had one player (the captain) whose career book-ended the team’s period of excellence. The captain was the key.

The list of dominant teams and captains is international. American examples are Bill Russel of the Boston Celtics, Yogi Berra of the New York Yankees and Jack Lambert of the Pittsburgh Steelers. Walker describes seven traits of elite captains, including aggressive play, emotional control and use of non-verbal communication. Alpha captains also exhibit reckless and self-defeating behaviors, but ironically, the negatives only serve to strengthen the team.

Lively stories of players and captains, coaches and moments in sports history make up most of The Captain Class. Sports fans and business leaders are sure to enjoy this book. Non-sport fans will be surprised that they like it too. Recommended for anyone interested in leadership psychology.

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

Ford Library invites the Fuqua community to participate in the Fuqua Book Exchange from April 13th through May 15th. Donate your gently used books to other students, staff, faculty, or to the library. Give a book, take a book. All subjects are welcome. Free!

Drop off your book donations at the Ford Library circulation desk. Books for exchange are located in a “Fuqua Book Exchange” shelf at the back of the Ford Library. Just follow the arrows. We will donate any books unclaimed after the exchange to Better World Books or to Book Harvest (children’s and young adult books).

Are you graduating or just heading out soon for the summer and worried about paying library fines? Monday, April 16th through Friday, May 11th, the Ford Library will waive one overdue library fine* for each “shelfie” you post to social media with the hashtag #fordlibraryshelfie, up to five fine waives total.

It’s easy!

1. Snap a “shelfie,” a book-related photo. It could be of a favorite book or place to read, a “book face,” or a photo featuring the Ford Library and/or its collections.

2. Post the photo to your Instagram or Twitter account, or to our Facebook page, with the hashtag #fordlibraryshelfie.

3. Send us an email to let us know you have posted it.

Please note: Your social media profile must be set to public during the promotion so that we can see your photo and we have to approve posts to our Facebook page before they will appear.

Questions? Email: ford-library-circulation@fuqua.duke.edu

Rules:
1. All current Duke University students are eligible to participate.

5. *Waives will not apply to items that have not yet been returned, for fines that were incurred at other Duke University Libraries, or for recall fines (where another patron was waiting for the overdue item). This promotion is in addition to our existing one-time waive policy.

Something almost universally true: everyone wants to live a meaningful life. However, the good life does not happen by chance. Youthful decisions about how we spend our time and who we spend it with create the amount of meaning we experience in middle age. How we choose to spend our days is how we spend our lives.

Last month, The Startup posted contributor Thomas Oppong’s recommended books on how to live life meaningfully. Four of his selections were among my favorites, too. I have personally recommended these books to colleagues and reviewed them on this blog, some as long as a decade ago. No surprise: these books have become classics and remain “best sellers” in the Ford Library.

Christensen, Clayton M., et al. How will you measure your life? Harper Business, 2012.

Clayton M. Christensen, renowned professor at the Harvard Business School, is among the world’s top experts on innovation and growth. Using examples from his work with prominent global companies, he applies lessons learned to the careers and personal lives of students. He encourages students to consider the long-term results of different decisions and actions that have an impact on interpersonal relationships, personal integrity and career success. Full review.

How Will You Measure Your Life? is also available on our Business Bestseller Kindles and as an audiobook or eBook on OverDrive.

Grosz, Stephen. The examined life : how we lose and find ourselves. W.W. Norton, 2013.

In his day to day practice as a psychotherapist, Stephen Grosz helps his patients understand themselves, their masked motivations and complex feelings so they can live happier and more fulfilled lives. These touching stories from his patients teach about love and loss, intimacy and separation, change and acceptance. Full review.

The Examined Life is also available as an audiobook CD.

Brafman, Ori, et al. Sway : the irresistible pull of irrational behavior. Doubleday, 2008.

This brief and entertaining book examines the hidden influences that sometimes derails even the most principled decision-maker. Psychological concepts like loss aversion, diagnosis bias and the power of commitment are explained using vibrant examples from real life. After revealing how these hidden forces drive irrational behavior and why we are vulnerable to them, the authors provide strategies for dealing with distorted thinking. Full review.

Sway is also available as an audiobook CD.

Tavris, Carol, et al. Mistakes were made (but not by me) : why we justify foolish beliefs, bad decisions, and hurtful acts. Harcourt, 2007.

It is difficult to admit mistakes but easy to find a justification for them. This book illuminates the ways our brains resolve the stress of cognitive dissonance to preserve our feelings of self-worth. The unreliable nature of memory and effects of personal bias impair our judgment in insidious ways, which ultimately impacts personal relationships, the legal justice system and seemingly objective scientific research. Full review.

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

Blankson, Amy. The future of happiness : five modern strategies for balancing productivity and well-being in the digital era. BenBella Books, 2017.

Amy Blankson’s The Future of Happiness: 5 Modern Strategies for Balancing Productivity and Well-Being in the Digital Era presents an interesting and timely topic for readers who may wonder if there are better ways to manage their digital lives. Her author biography touts some impressive bona fides such as an Ivy League education and presidential Point of Light awards. While the topic is engaging, the book is not. Readers interested in this book may enjoy Tribe: On Homecoming and Belonging, Braving the Wilderness, or How to Be Happy at Work.

The author chose to have her brother write the foreword, and his effusive praise immediately strikes the false note of over-selling. She relies on family as support for and evidence of the validity of her claims and assertions, which threads its way throughout the book and gives it an aura of an extended marketing campaign for her consulting firm and her brother’s books.

The book is divided into two parts: The Three Burning Questions and The Five Strategies. While the questions of where we are heading and what happiness might look like they are worth exploring, the question of whether we would be better off without technology seems dated and superfluous, especially given her central thesis of using technology wisely. This is a second pattern that repeats throughout; the good ideas are overshadowed by the tired and overused.

The Five Strategies section shares these weaknesses, and adds to them with a number of misstatements of fact. For example, in the Strategy #4 section, she states that the Cold War ended in 1963, that the Kennedy years were “pre-Vietnam,” and that Jimmy Carter founded Habitat for Humanity. These errors both distract from the main theme and undercut the author’s credibility. The strategies themselves aren’t particularly modern or innovative – stay grounded, know thyself, train your brain, create a habitat for happiness, and innovate consciously. Here again there are few worthwhile solutions, but many of her suggestions read more like the inevitable New Year’s resolutions article in the January issue of any number of lifestyle magazines.

Finally, the author points out another reason not to bother. She has a penchant for recommending specific apps that she likes. She even states, “I am keenly aware that by the time it [the book] is published, it will be somewhat outdated.” Interesting topic, poor execution.

Here are the latest additions to our DVD collection. Look for The Handmaid’s Tale, season 1 later this month.

Darkest Hour
Just Getting Started
Murder on the Orient Express
Only the Brave
Roman J. Israel, Esq.
Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri
Wonder
The Ballad of Lefty Brown
Coco
The Florida Project
LBJ
Captain Underpants

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

As 2017 drew to a close, Inc.’s contributing editor Jeff Haden published his list of the best books of the year, which are designed to help readers connect with ideas and perspectives that will help them make changes in their lives. Any one of these books would be an enjoyable read over Spring Break.

One Device by Brian Merchant. The iPhone is the bestselling and most profitable product of all time, but despite Steve Jobs’ claims, the smartphone is not solely Apple’s invention. Like any breakthrough, the smartphone is a collective achievement involving technologies no one heard of and innovators no one remembers. This is the story of the device, its history and worldwide impact.
Also available as an audiobook and eBook on OverDrive.

Superconsumers by Eddie Yoon. The most knowledgeable and emotionally connected buyers comprise only 10% of all customers, yet these highly fixated superconsumers generate up to 70% of sales and profit. Numerous case studies, anecdotes and data show how these consumers can be tapped to shape strategies and products.

High Performance Habits by Brendon Burchard. Six habits practiced consistently lead to exceptional long-term results across multiple domains of life. Perhaps most salient are the first and last habits. The first is to seek clarity — know yourself and what you want. And the last is to demonstrate courage — stand up for yourself, your ideas and others.
Also available as an eBook on OverDrive and on Notable Business Books Kindles.

Principles by Ray Dalio. Reflections on life lessons learned from a long and successful career in investment management include a time-proven process for making choices and achieving goals. This book advises readers to be clear about what is wanted in life and to design a plan to attain it, and explains Dalio’s personal concepts of Radical Truth and Radical Transparency.
Also available as audiobook on OverDrive and on Notable Business Books Kindles.

Option B by Sheryl Sandberg and Adam Grant. This book on resilience combines personal experiences and academic research to show how after a devastating loss, it is possible to recover and find deeper meaning in life. Those who develop compassion for themselves and draw on their own and others’ support can persevere over hardships such as illness, natural disasters and war.
Also available as an eBook and audiobook on OverDrive and on Notable Business Books Kindles.

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