Business Books

A Consultant’s Economic Outlook using the Art of War

Damian D. "Skipper" Pitts — Wed, 19 Aug 2009 23:46:06 -0400

Respected Colleagues, I need your help.

As a training consultancy operating within the business sphere over the last eighteen months, the economic state across the corporate sector signals a major shift in doctrinal thinking. With this in mind, a huge consensus suggests the sector is starring down the barrel of a massively destabilizing short range future outlook.

Business Book Challenge: Update

Brian Reich — Tue, 05 May 2009 13:16:18 -0400

Last week I issued a challenge. I wrote:

"I have come to the conclusion that most (maybe all) business and strategy books are useless. They over-generalize. They offer little value. I go in with such high expectations, based on reviews and descriptions, and am almost universally disappointed."

and

My Business Book Challenge

Brian Reich — Thu, 30 Apr 2009 11:10:52 -0400

I have come to the conclusion that most (maybe all) business and strategy books are useless. They over-generalize. They offer little value. I go in with such high expectations, based on reviews and descriptions, and am almost universally disappointed.

Saving the World at Work

Kermit Pattison — Mon, 25 Aug 2008 11:15:07 -0400

Working for the man is becoming obsolete. Employees and customers want to work for and support companies that share their ethical values, says Sanders. He believes we are in the midst of a "responsibility revolution" in which sustainable business practices and social responsibility will become something no company can afford to ignore. Ultimately, it's all about doing good at work -- why sustainability and corporate responsibility are becoming easier -- and necessary for survival.

What do you mean by is saving the world at work?

Summer Reading: Why More People Are Listening to Books

Kermit Pattison — Mon, 18 Aug 2008 12:15:06 -0400

So what did you read this summer? Chances are, more and more of you listened instead. According to the American Association of Publishers, audio book sales grew by 20 percent last year. The largest online seller of audiobooks is Audible, which was acquired by Amazon earlier this year for $300 million. Audible offers more than 80,000 downloadable programs from current best sellers to daily newspapers.

What is popular summer listening this year?

Library of the Living Dead

Elizabeth Spiers — Thu, 20 Mar 2008 11:25:56 -0400

Contrary to what your parents and teachers told you, reading does not necessarily make you smarter. Sometimes it doesn't even require you to think. I would send you a copy of Nicole Richie's novel, The Truth About Diamonds, as demonstrable proof, but there's a clause in my contract prohibiting cruel and unusual punishment. Instead, I'll point you to the modern era's second-worst literary promulgator of intelligence reduction: your local bookstore's business section.

Where Art Thou?

Fast Company staff — Thu, 14 Feb 2008 18:35:06 -0500

Innovators: Tokyo

A handful of locales generate most innovations. The ongoing communications and transportation revolutions let ideas circulate among these places easily and constantly.

Producers: Guadalajara

These regions use established innovations and creativity--often imported from other places--to produce goods and services. Increasingly, they are becoming innovators in their own right.

Global Slums: Bogotá

In Praise of Spikes

Richard Florida — Thu, 14 Feb 2008 18:35:05 -0500

It's a mantra of the age of globalization that place doesn't matter. Technology has leveled the global playing field--the world is flat. "When the world is flat," says New York Times columnist Thomas Friedman, "you can innovate without having to emigrate."

It's a compelling notion--but it's wrong. Today's global economy is spiky. What's more, the tallest spikes, the cities and regions that drive the world economy, are growing ever higher while the valleys, with little economic activity, recede still further.

Q&A: Mr. Fix-It

Jeff Chu — Mon, 28 Jan 2008 18:05:23 -0500

You've worked mostly at old-economy firms, yet you're on the board of the software firm Symantec. That's a different world.
Silicon Valley thinks differently--a quarter is a long time there, but in the car business, five years seems too fast. Old-economy companies need to learn that decision making is getting faster.

The 5th Annual Fast 50

Fast Company staff — Thu, 20 Dec 2007 20:34:16 -0500

The 5th Annual Fast 50

38. Book Database

Jane Friedman

HarperCollins

Previous | Next

They Sure Don't Make Comic Books Like They Used To

Saabira Chaudhuri — Wed, 19 Dec 2007 11:07:03 -0500

Animation and comics have gone truly global. Just look at Spider-Man 3's global box office sales as an example. Last month, the wall crawling superhero broke box office records in India, earning the most that any Hollywood movie has in that country to date. In South Korea and Hong Kong, the film superseded existing benchmarks for opening day revenues, while in Singapore, the Philippines, Malaysia, and Thailand, sales were the highest for any single day.

Judgment and Strength of a Leader

Ram Charan — Wed, 19 Dec 2007 11:05:50 -0500

The greatest psychological challenge in setting and acting on priorities has to do with resource allocation. Whether in a group meeting or through conventional budgeting and capital approval processes, you have to demonstrate judgment and courage in making resource allocation decisions that reflect your business priorities and in following through to ensure that the things that should be happening in fact are.

The Three Keys to Change

Alan Deutschman — Wed, 19 Dec 2007 09:25:40 -0500

Change or die.

Fast Company Library

Fast Company — Wed, 19 Dec 2007 08:41:27 -0500

Books listed by issue:

Fast Company Library

Fast Company — Wed, 19 Dec 2007 08:41:25 -0500

Books listed by issue:

Fast Company Library

Fast Company — Wed, 19 Dec 2007 08:41:18 -0500

Books listed by issue:

Fast Company Author Interviews

Fast Company — Wed, 19 Dec 2007 08:40:59 -0500

December 2001
Cleaning Up Brand Clutter
With 35 varieties of bagels, 66 subbrands of GM cars, and more than 13,000 mutual funds, American consumers are suffering a severe case of brand overload. Marketing guru Peter Sealey has a tough-love cure: "simplicity marketing." George Anders

Fast Company Book Reviews

Fast Company — Wed, 19 Dec 2007 08:39:44 -0500

August 2001
A Change Will Do You Good
The guardians of big business are defending their fortress against an army of interlopers whose needs and opinions clash with tradition. Two new books examine what this intrusion means to corporate insiders -- and outsiders. Keith H. Hammonds

Read Between the (Unemployment) Lines

Anni Layne — Wed, 19 Dec 2007 08:38:50 -0500

Search Amazon.com for "career help," and your results will include a list of 168 titles ranging from Zen and the Art of Making a Living to Bounceback Self-Marketing and much more. Help for the frustrated, frazzled, and fired has never been more readily available ... or more overwhelming.

That's why Fast Company has compiled the following "best of" index -- recommended titles from four of the nation's most highly regarded career counselors, headhunters, recruiters, and free-agent advocates.

Summertime, and the Reading Is Easy

Linda Tischler — Wed, 19 Dec 2007 08:38:43 -0500

Now that it's officially summer, certain time-honored conventions are in effect: Frappuccinos have replaced lattes as the caffeine of choice, MLB stats sub for NBA trash talk at the watercooler, and suddenly, a lot of out-of-office "client meetings" are scheduled for Friday afternoons.

One of our favorite traditions is the annual switch into summer-reading mode. For once, we put aside those analysts' reports and must-read industry tomes and head, guilt-free, for the pure-indulgence side of the bookstore.

On the Eve of Destruction?

Keith H. Hammonds — Wed, 19 Dec 2007 08:38:17 -0500

Book: Creative Destruction: Why Companies That Are Built to Last Underperform the Market -- And How to Successfully Transform Them
Authors: Richard Foster and Sarah Kaplan
Publisher: Currency
Price: $27.50

Four Power Plays

Anni Layne — Wed, 19 Dec 2007 08:34:59 -0500

The table of contents of The 48 Laws of Power (Viking Press, 1998) reads like a modern-day version of Sun Tzu's classic book, The Art of War. With chapters titled "Court Attention at All Costs" and "Do Not Commit to Anyone," Robert Greene's 452-page "handbook on the arts of indirection" appears diametrically opposed to Fast Company's principles and precepts for the new economy.

A Library of Lasting Impressions

Harriet Rubin — Wed, 19 Dec 2007 08:34:52 -0500

Jim Collins posed a vital and often-neglected question in his 1994 best-seller, Built to Last: Successful Habits of Visionary Companies. What makes exceptional companies different from other companies? The answer: Great companies are built to last, not built to change hands in a generation or to flip in a sneeze.

Ownership 101

John Hoult — Wed, 19 Dec 2007 08:34:02 -0500

It would be easy to miss Steve Mariotti. He's short, with a receding hairline and a broad, honest face. He wears your average white guy's basic navy suit, and speaks quietly, with little accent. He's got middle written all over him: middle class, middle America, middle manager.

But that unremarkable appearance hides a man with a misson and a message. He's a three-time, radical career changer, and a fighter in one of America's most enduring battles: the struggle to raise people out of poverty. His message? Building your own business will set you free.

Career Cramming

Cecilia Rothenberger — Wed, 19 Dec 2007 08:33:59 -0500

What Color is Your Parachute?

by Richard Nelson Bolles
(Ten Speed Press)

For nearly 30 years, What Color Is Your Parachute? has been a fundamental resource for those in pursuit of satisfying and fulfilling employment. This year's edition has been completely revised for the new millennium. Bolles makes finding your calling as simple as asking yourself what you want to do and where do you want to do it.