More than 11,000 business books are published every year—an overwhelming choice for busy professionals. Therefore, in partnership with getAbstract, Training brings you April’s top three business books recommended to our readers.
“Why Pixar, Netflix, Airbnb, and Other Cutting-Edge Companies Succeed Where Most Fail” by Robert Bruce Shaw: Extreme Teams (AMACOM, 2017, 256 pages, ISBN: 9780814437179; $27.95)
Management consultant Robert Bruce Shaw examines successful teams at seven “cutting-edge” companies—Airbnb, Alibaba, Netflix, Patagonia, Pixar, Whole Foods and Zappos—and identifies behaviors and mindsets that set them apart. He reports that they share a mission-driven approach to their work, don’t shy from conflict when it leads to better results, and value “cultural fit” over experience. Shaw’s practical guidebook brims with useful anecdotes and insights into how the best teams function. getAbstract recommends his overview to leaders who want to drive improved business results by helping their teams improve.
Rating (out of 10): 9
Applicability: 9
Innovation: 8
Style: 9
“Big Data in Practice. How 45 Successful Companies Used Big Data Analytics to Deliver Extraordinary Results” by Bernard Marr (Wiley, 2016, 308 pages, ISBN: 9781119231387; $50)
Big data expert Bernard Marr provides a practical, valuable, and nearly hype-free reference to the current state of big data, including predictive analytics, machine learning, and artificial intelligence (AI), now in use across many industries in various ways. He offers 45 case studies from more than a dozen industries to illustrate and describe how organizations generate, collect, analyze, and act on the big data. Marr’s grammatical style and seemingly random organization of chapters take a toll, but getAbstract recommends his study of each firm’s unique practices to business leaders across all industries. Seasoned data scientists may find the material basic, but anyone else interested in this field will gain a fresh understanding.
Rating (out of 10): 7
Applicability: 7
Innovation: 7
Style: 8
“Learning for Organizational Development. How to Design, Deliver and Evaluate Effective L&D” by Eileen Arney (Kogan Page Publishers, 2017, 274 pages, ISBN: 9780749477448 ; $48)
This textbook on organizational development (OD) documents the history of learning and development (L&D). Eileen Arney—who developed the Master’s degree program in Human Resources for the UK Open University—highlights the evolution of L&D, including teaching, course design, strategy, and facilitation. She encompasses talent management, employee engagement, strategic HR, and self-directed employee learning. Her manual doesn’t seem targeted as much to experienced OD and L&D professionals or to those seeking descriptions of L&D processes and techniques. Instead, getAbstract recommends it as a solid backgrounder for HR students and early career professionals seeking a rundown on the basics of OD, L&D, and talent management theory and trends, and for practitioners who want to reflect on trends that could affect their current deployment of L&D strategies.
Rating (out of 10): 7
Applicability: 8
Innovation: 7
Style: 7
For five-page summaries of these and more than 15,000 other titles, visit http://www.getabstract.com/affiliate/trainingmagazine
