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Twelve of the best business books from the last 12 months summarised for you.
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TWELVE FROM THE LAST 12
MONTHS
WHAT IS IT?
• A library of 200 books• A blog• A series of printed books• A pair of apps• One-page summaries• One-sentence summaries• Training programmes and
speeches• A fertile source of new
ideas
THE BIG THEMES
TO SELL IS HUMANDan Pink
Selling is no longer solely the domain of
salespeople, because we are all trying to move
each other in some way or another.
TO SELL IS HUMANDan Pink
We are all in sales now - trying to ‘move’ the other’s point of view
We spend 40% of our time ‘Non-sales selling’. The forces behind it are:
Entrepreneurship Elasticity (flexible skills) Ed-Med (the two fastest-growing industries)
The rules now are: Attunement: being in harmony with people Buoyancy: a resilient outlook Clarity: making sense of murky problems and
solving them
BAD PHARMABen Goldacre
Drug companies mislead doctors and harm
patients, so a complete overhaul of the industry is
needed.
BAD PHARMABen Goldacre
Informed decisions can only be made with good evidence, but trials are biased, results distorted, and data buried.
Missing data is vital because it adds to understanding, so it is a scandal that so much is withheld.
To generate a ‘positive’ result in a trial, a drug only has to be better than a worthless placebo.
Systematic reviews find every trial on a topic and score them neutrally to give a truly accurate view.
Randomised trials should be used when it is unclear which treatment is better, but they are almost never conducted.
ANTIFRAGILE Nassim Nicholas Taleb
Antifragile things get stronger when subjected
to stress and tension, whereas fragile things break and robust ones simply stay the same.
ANTIFRAGILE Nassim Nicholas Taleb
Procrustean bed: retrofitting causes Fragilistas: cause fragility by thinking they
understand Barbell strategy: safe and speculative
extremes Ludic fallacy: mistake experiments with real
world Turkeys and inverse turkeys Green lumber fallacy: unnecessary knowledge Extremistan: impact of a single observation Iatrogenics: harm done by the healer Agency problem: manager is not true owner Black swan errors: what you know now may
not be all there is
BUSINESS STRATEGY
BUSINESS IS BEAUTIFULDanet et al.
Businesses can be thoroughly distinctive and commercially successful if
they pursue principles rather than just money.
BUSINESS IS BEAUTIFULDanet et al.
Business doesn’t have to be cold and unforgiving.
Businesses are made up of people who come together to achieve more than individuals can on their own.
The five hallmarks of beautiful businesses are:
1. Integrity: a clear sense of purpose2. Curiosity: they don’t stand still3. Elegance: they are pleasurably simple4. Craft: apply consideration to every last detail5. Prosperity: all this leads to a strong sense of value creation
There are 20 sub-facets and case histories to illustrate this thesis.
TELL THE TRUTHUnerman & Salem Baskin
In an age of information overload, the most
effective way for a brand to stand out is to tell the
truth.
TELL THE TRUTH Unerman & Salem Baskin
Content: Acknowledge reality Deliver real change to services and company
structure Take consumers on the brand truth journey Enlist third-party advocates
Context: Be close Find a Truth Turning Point Use point-of-action media Leverage routine
CONSUMER BEHAVIOUR
CONTAGIOUSJonah Berger
Your product or idea is more likely to catch on if
you give it social currency, make it useful and emotional, and wrap
it in an engaging narrative.
CONTAGIOUSJonah Berger
You can increase the chances of your idea catching on by following six steps:
Social currency: we share things that make us look goodTriggers: top of mind leads to tip of tongueEmotion: when we care, we sharePublic: if it’s built to show, it’s built to growPractical value: it has to be news you can useStories: things built into narratives are more engaging
CONSUMER.OLOGYPhilip Graves
Your research findings could well be misleading
you, so it pays to examine every aspect of the
techniques used to gather it before relying on it.
CONSUMER.OLOGYPhilip Graves
Artificially deconstructing the consumer experience is misleading.
Most research questions should be avoided because they:
1. Inadvertently tell people what to think2. Change what people think3. Lead the witness4. Can accidentally sell5. Can persuade people to like something (when
they don’t really) The way to avoid this is to look at what they
actually do, not what they say they will. Failing that, they should not know the focus of
the study, and should be quizzed as close to the purchase moment as possible.
CREATIVITY
CREATIVE MISCHIEFDave Trott
If you want to be creative, you have to be curious
and contrary.
CREATIVE MISCHIEFDave Trott
Here’s the world’s simplest binary brief:
WHO should buy it? Trialists or current users? You can’t have both. If it’s current users, explain why they should buy more.
WHY should they buy it? Product or brand? Rational or emotional?
WHAT should they buy it instead of? Brand share or market growth? All product use is good if you are brand leader.
IMAGINEJonah Lehrer
Ideas come from sheer persistence, but only
when we relax, so if you work hard enough on
something, and focus on not being focused, there
will eventually be an unconcealing.
IMAGINEJonah Lehrer
Muses, higher powers and creative ‘types’ are myths
Creativity is not a ‘gift’ that only some possess – it’s a catch-all for distinct thought processes that we can all learn to use more effectively.
It’s only after we’ve stopped searching for an answer that it arrives.
Breakthroughs follow a ‘stumped phase’. Trying to force insights can often prevent them–
ideas arrive when the mind is distracted or relaxed.
Focus on not being focused. Ideas occur best in ‘third places’ – neither the
home nor the office.
INSANELY SIMPLEKen Segall
Work as hard as you can to make everything as
simple as it can possibly be.
INSANELY SIMPLEKen Segall
Think brutal Think small: small groups get more done Think minimal: just communicate one thing Think motion: momentum is crucial to projects Think iconic: essence in a conceptual image Think phrasal: use short simple words Think casual: no big company thinking and
process Think human: be true to your feelings Think sceptic: expect negative first reactions of Think war: extreme times call for extreme
measures
MOTIVATION
MASTERYRobert Greene
Everyone has the potential to master
something if they identify their true calling, serve
their apprenticeship patiently, and put in
enough effort.
MASTERYRobert Greene
Mastery of a subject or skill is achieved through three stages:
Apprenticeship: deep observation, skills acquisition, experimentation
Creative active: moving from passive to active, advancing through trial and error
Mastery, which includes a mentor dynamic with a back-and-forth exchange of ideas and experience
After 20,000 hours of practice, an instinctive ‘Fingertip Feel’ level is reached.
THE ICARUS DECEPTIONSeth Godin
It’s better to be sorry than safe, so ditch the old
rules. Move out of your comfort zone, and start
treating your work as art.
THE ICARUS DECEPTIONSeth Godin
Icarus was also told not to fly too low, and most of us aim too low in life.
The economy now rewards art over conservatism.
The assets that matter now are trust, remarkability, permission, leadership, stories that spread, and humanity.
Reverse Descartes: You are. So think. Learn something new with no apparent
benefit, then ‘ship’ it to get a reaction. Learn and carry on.
It’s better to be sorry than safe.
HOW TO USE
• Be inquisitive• Make the time• Understand the lines of
argument• Take a view• Inform your work• Enjoy the debate• Ask Kevin to speak or train
KEVIN DUNCAN
More detail at:www.greatesthitsblog.com
Ask Kevin to speak or train:07979 808770
kevinduncan@expertadvice.co.uk
Twitter: @kevinduncan
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