More than 11,000 business books are published every year—an overwhelming choice for busy professionals. Therefore, in partnership with getAbstract, Training brings you January’s top three business books recommended to our readers.
“The Idea-Driven Organization. Unlocking the Power in Bottom-Up Ideas” by Alan G. Robinson and Dean M. Schroeder (Berrett-Koehler, 2014, 212 Pages, ISBN: 9781626561236; $19.05)
Most organizations fail to use their most valuable resource—the insight of their “front-line employees.” Consultants Alan G. Robinson and Dean M. Schroeder provide a managerial wake-up call in this report. They explain that most usable ideas come from front-line, customer-facing employees. To become more innovative, firms need idea-generation systems, but implementing those ideas is a challenge to entrenched corporate culture. The authors illustrate their thesis with case studies showing how organizations, most notably in “services, manufacturing, health care, and government,” benefit from establishing idea-generation systems. getAbstract recommends their advice to corporate consultants, government agency directors, entrepreneurs, and any executive who wants to build a culture of innovation.
Rating (out of 10): 8
Applicability: 9
Innovation: 7
Style: 7
“Learn or Die. Using Science to Build a Leading-Edge Learning Organization” by Edward D. Hess (Columbia UP, 2014, 280 Pages, ISBN: 9780231170246; $21.77)
In the first two-thirds of this text, professor Edward D. Hess offers a clear, methodical synthesis of current research. If you are familiar with the fields of learning and thinking, or with learning organizations, you’ll recognize much of this intelligently compiled content. However, you’ll still learn from reading Hess’ clear, methodical overview, which works as a manual for applying today’s research to yourself and your firm. While focusing on core concepts and tools, Hess also offers usefully honest accounts of his personal experiences and the transformations people go through to become better learners. His case studies are fascinating. getAbstract recommends Hess’s work to teachers, managers, innovators, and anyone interested in learning organizations.
Rating (out of 10): 8
Applicability: 9
Innovation: 7
Style: 8
“Legendary Service. The Key Is to Care” by Ken Blanchard, Kathy Cuff and Vicki Halsey (McGraw-Hill, 2014, 176 Pages, ISBN: 9780071819046; $17.37)
Most businesses assume that they deliver good customer service; they may be in for a rude awakening. Noted customer-service guru Ken Blanchard—best-selling author of “The One-Minute Manager”—and his co-authors, Kathy Cuff and Vicki Halsey, detail how customer service can be easy and inexpensive to deliver when your managers and employees understand what to do. The authors illustrate each element of their “ICARE model” with a running parable of an employee learning about great customer service. They recount incidents from their sample employee’s training and her workday in a cogent, digestible series of anecdotes illustrating the authors’ accessible advice. getAbstract recommends this direct, if basic, manual—a genuine asset for your employees and customers—to managers and staff members who want to learn about “legendary customer service,” advance their careers, and help their company prosper.
Rating (out of 10): 7
Applicability: 8
Innovation: 6
Style: 6
For five-page summaries of these and more than 10,000 other titles, visit http://www.getabstract.com/affiliate/trainingmagazine
