New books this month focus on scenario planning, decision making and the topical question of shareholder value and the broader responsibilities of business. Remember, you can suggest a book for purchase if you would like the library to stock it. Browse through the full list of new titles here.
Fusion: how integrating brand and culture powers the world's greatest companies by Denise Lee Yohn.
In Fusion, Denise Lee Yohn examines some of the world's greatest organizations and reverse-engineers their greatness - specifically how they've integrated what's on the inside (culture) with what's on the outside (brand) for remarkable results. [Publisher text]
Prosperity: Better Business Makes the Greater Good by Colin Mayer
What is business for? Day one of a business course will tell you: it is to maximise shareholder profit. This single idea pervades all our thinking and teaching about business around the world but it is fundamentally wrong, Colin Mayer argues. It has had disastrous and damaging consequences for our economies, environment, politics, and societies. In this urgent call for reform, Prosperity challenges the fundamentals of business thinking. It sets out a comprehensive new agenda for establishing the corporation as a unique and powerful force for promoting economic and social wellbeing in its fullest sense - for customers and communities, today and in the future. [Adapted from Publisher Text]
The Enlightened Capitalists: Cautionary Tales of Business Pioneers Who Tried to Do Well by Doing Good by James O'Toole.
Today’s business leaders are increasingly pressured by citizens, consumers, and government officials to address urgent social and environmental issues. Although some corporate executives remain deaf to such calls, over the last two centuries, a handful of business leaders in America and Britain have attempted to create business organizations that were both profitable and socially responsible.
As a new generation attempts to address social problems through enlightened organizational leadership, O’Toole explores a major question being posed today in Britain and America: Are virtuous corporate practices compatible with shareholder capitalism? [Adapted from Publisher Text]
Radical Candor: Be a Kick-Ass Boss Without Losing Your Humanity by Kim Scott.
Radical Candor offers a guide to those bewildered or exhausted by management, written for bosses and those who manage bosses. Drawing on years of first-hand experience, and distilled clearly to give practical advice to the reader, Radical Candor shows you how to be successful while retaining your integrity and humanity. [Publisher Text]
The Essence of Scenarios: Learning from the Shell Experience by Angela Wilkinson and Roland Kupers.
In 1965, Royal Dutch Shell started experimenting with a new approach to preparing for the future. This approach, called scenario planning, eschewed forecasting in favor of plausible alternative stories.
In the course of their research, Angela Wilkinson and Roland Kupers interviewed almost every living veteran of the Shell scenario planning operation, along with many top Shell executives from later periods. Drawing on these interviews, the authors identify several principles that characterize the Shell process and explain how it has survived and thrived for so long. [Adapted from Publisher Text]
Superforecasting: The Art and Science of Prediction by Philip E. Tetlock, Dan Gardner.
In Superforecasting, Tetlock and coauthor Dan Gardner offer a masterwork on prediction, drawing on decades of research and the results of a massive, government-funded forecasting tournament. The Good Judgment Project involves tens of thousands of ordinary people—including a Brooklyn filmmaker, a retired pipe installer, and a former ballroom dancer—who set out to forecast global events. Some of the volunteers have turned out to be astonishingly good. They’ve beaten other benchmarks, competitors, and prediction markets. They’ve even beaten the collective judgment of intelligence analysts with access to classified information. They are “superforecasters.” [Publisher Text]
Scenario Thinking: Preparing Your Organization For the Future in an Unpredictable World by George Wright and George Cairns.
Develops scenario planning methods in ways that link scenario analysis to improved decision making, engage time-poor senior decision makers, attenuate decision makers’ tendency to deflect responsibility for bleak, negative scenario outcomes, and enhance causal analysis within scenario-storyline development.
This thoroughly revised and expanded second edition introduces these new approaches in detail, with clear guidelines and examples to enable the reader to select and implement the most appropriate scenario method to suit the issue at hand – considering the timeframe for its investigation, the resources available and the outcomes expected. [Publisher text]
Photo Credit: Maddi Bazzocco on Unsplash
