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Archive for the ‘Book Reviews’ Category

Leadership in the Era of Economic Uncertainty

The New Rules for Getting the Right Things Done in Difficult Times

By: Ram Charan

Published: December 2008
Format: Hardcover, 160 pages
ISBN-13: 9780071626163
ISBN-10: 0071626166)
Publisher: McGraw-Hill Professional

“Management challenges don’t come any bigger than this. It’s not just your business or industry that is in a downturn; the entire global economic system has been wounded”, writes best selling author and renowned business thinker Ram Charan, in his important and action oriented management book Leadership in the Era of Economic Uncertainty: The New Rules for Getting the Right Things Done in Difficult Times. The author describes the need for taking action to strengthen a company during the current economic recession, and provides a practical and powerful prescription for taking that bold action.

Ram Charan understands the need for swift and decisive action during an economic crisis. He recommends several key areas, at all levels and departments within an organization, where action can be taken to strengthen the company. The author believes it is critical, in times of uncertainty, for a leader to take decisive action, get all members of the organization on board with the vision, and put the plan into action. For Ram Charan, not taking action and behaving as if the crisis is not going to affect the company, is a recipe for disaster. The author shares the decisive actions of several leading CEOs, who did not succumb to paralysis, fear or inaction. Their bold initiatives not only prevented disaster, but established a new vision, that will carry the company forward when the crisis era ends.

Ram Charan (photo left) focuses on all levels and departments of a company. He zeroes in on the essential need to conserve cash flow. He provides several examples of how to save cash, and to build up cash reserves, through a combination of changing market emphasis on growth to profitability and on cost saving measures that don’t affect the ability of the company to carry out its core business. The author recommends that leaders get to understand the inner workings and day to day operations of their companies, to initiate necessary change in a timely manner. Ram Charan also considers a time of uncertainty the ideal time for front line employees to pay closer attention to the needs of their customers. This deeper understanding of customers will help with better pricing policies that benefit cash flow and long term stability.

For me, the power of the book is how Ram Charan combines the reasons why strong decisive action must be taken in a crisis, with how to carry those plans out in a positive way. The author considers a time of uncertainty to be a perfect time to take bold initiatives toward reducing unnecessary costs, conserving cash, and reassessing any major spending plans. The book also provides a wake up call to company leaders in the executive suite and boardroom that there is still a need for sound business practices. Those basics include a full understanding of how the company operates, how the supply chain works, where research and development have their focus, and how sales and marketing function within the company. At the same time, Ram Charan recognizes the need for understanding the customer as vital to the company’s survival and future profitability.

I highly recommend the essential guide to managing in difficult times Leadership in the Era of Economic Uncertainty: The New Rules for Getting the Right Things Done in Difficult Times by Ram Charan, to anyone seeking a better understanding of the need for both vision and bold action in the time of crisis. The advice for not only surviving an economic downturn but thriving is both practical and easy for any leader to apply.

Read the valuable and inspirational book Leadership in the Era of Economic Uncertainty: The New Rules for Getting the Right Things Done in Difficult Times by Ram Charan, and discover not only the importance of taking bold action, but how to put a vision in place and carrying it out successfully. In today’s difficult economic environment, this book is a must read for business leaders in companies of all sizes and in every industry.

Girl on Top

Your Guide to Turning Dating Rules into Career Success

By: Nicole Williams>

Published: October 12, 2009
Format: Hardcover, 208 pages
ISBN: 9781599951928
Publisher: Center Street

“I’ve come to believe that just like in our relationships, loving your career has a lot to do with your expectations – ultimately you get the love (and the career) you think you deserve”, writes best selling author and WORKS founder Nicole Williams, in her witty and insightful book on career management
Girl on Top: Your Guide to Turning Dating Rules into Career Success. The author turns the famous dating book The Rules upside down, as she applies that famous dating advice for women, to finding and succeeding in a dream career.

Nicole Williams pulls no punches as she shares the secrets to navigating the often treacherous waters of finding the right career. Her advice for women is described in terms of dating terms. By using that clever analogy, she compares seeking the perfect career with finding the right life partner. She begins with the comparison to finding the right job with the dating scene. Her three overall steps for both romance and careers are courting, dating, and marriage. Her dating and employment parallels work well, as she expands on each stage with an even more detailed use of The Rules, in avoiding the many pitfalls that can befall the unwary woman.

Nicole Williams (photo left) provides career planning and management advice that is both timely and relevant. With wit, and her characteristic sense of flair, the author demonstrates that the same mistakes that can derail a romance or marriage, can also stop a woman’s career advancement in its tracks. Whether she writes about making sure that a woman conveys the proper image, gains respect of her peers and superiors, or gets the pay she deserves, the advice is presented with an edge that makes the concepts memorable. The romance comparison not only creates an easy to remember and understand set of rules for employment, but the author helps women step outside the rigid ideas of career management. In its place, she creates an alternative system for assessing a job, and whether its the right place for a woman to spend years of employment.

For me, the power of the book is how Nicole Williams took the well known concept of The Rules for women and romance, and turned them around to work in the world of work. The combining of the two concepts of romance and careers is a powerful one on many levels. Not only are both romance and employment about finding the right life partner, but they are also about the strength and depth of the commitment by both parties to making the arrangement work for everyone. The same mistakes that can end a romance or marriage can also destroy a career, leaving everyone devastated and often lost. Changing jobs is very often as stressful and as difficult as ending any other relationship. This book serves as a powerful guide for women to avoid mistakes and keeping their careers on course.

I highly recommend the perceptive and insightful book
Girl on Top: Your Guide to Turning Dating Rules into Career Success by Nicole Williams, to any woman seeking to discover a practical and easy to follow guide to finding and developing a successful career. Just as their are right and wrong dating partners, there are also places of employment that are not suitable to every woman.

Read the step by step guide to a successful career
Girl on Top: Your Guide to Turning Dating Rules into Career Success by Nicole Williams, and put the time proven dating advice to work in finding and building the career of your dreams. This lighthearted, but hard hitting book can turn a boring and mediocre career into am exciting and fulfilling love affair for life.

A Blue and Gray Christmas

By: Joan Medlicott

Published: November 2009
Format: Hardcover, 336 pages
ISBN-10: 1416597352
ISBN-13: 9781416597353
Publisher: Pocket Books

When the women of Covington Homestead come into possession of a recently unearthed metal box, containing a batch of letters written during the American Civil War, their enthusiasm has very wide reaching effects. The letters were composed by two gravely wounded Civil War soldiers with a fascinating and compelling story to tell. One soldier was from the Union Army, and the other fought for the Confederacy. Discovered by a lonely widow on the battlefield, where they were left for dead, the two men saw their lives change forever. Their unforgettable stories are woven into the present in the heartwarming novel A Blue and Gray Christmas by Joan Medlicott.

Joan Medlicott creates a story that transcends time, as the experiences of the Civil War soldiers is echoed in the lives of veterans of modern wars in Vietnam and Iraq. The horrors of war, and the lasting after effects of post traumatic stress syndrome, haunt veterans from every time and place. The letters as written by the two men from the nineteenth century share an immediacy that brings that long past time to life. Their search for redemption, and a chance to start a new life after the war, leads them to make the fateful decision to abandon their past lives, and become reborn as the family of the woman who saved their lives. The two men form a separate peace, and their choice would resonate well over a century later, and other lives would be changed forever.

Joan Medlicott (photo left) blends themes of redemption, forgiveness, acceptance, and the power of family and friendship into her memorable characters and events. The letters tell a fascinating story of hope and joy, and of the lingering pain and horror of war long after the guns fall silent. The author makes clear that people are much the same in every time period, and they share the same dreams, sorrow, and emotions as today. At the same time, Joan Medlicott entwines modern issues of social and political tensions with those of the past, and her characters must rise above the petty feelings that scar both our world and that of the nineteenth century letter writers.

The most engaging and lasting part of the book are the deeply touching letters written by the soldiers. The power and depth of emotion etched into those writings moves beyond time and place, and becomes part of the overall human experience. The great themes of love and war, and friendship and family, are timeless as the women of Covington, along with the other characters in the book, discover. The two friends were seeking to change their own lives, and find redemption and a rebirth as human beings with a purpose for living. Their letters would form the foundation of other friendships and life changing events beyond those of their own lives. Joan Medlicott’s novel shows how our actions in this life can have far reaching effects, both today and into the future, that we may never know or realize.

I highly recommend the page turning and touching novel A Blue and Gray Christmas by Joan Medlicott, to anyone seeking a holiday themed story filled with life affirming themes. Combining laughter and tears, the novel is both a delight and profound, and an unforgettable experience.

Read the insightful and heartfelt novel A Blue and Gray Christmas by Joan Medlicott, and discover how ordinary people can make dramatic changes in their own lives, as well as in the lives of others, even across time and space.

Just Good Business

The Strategic Guide to Aligning Corporate Responsibility and Brand

By: Kellie McElhaney

Published: November 2008
Format: Hardcover, 216pp
ISBN-13: 9781576754412
ISBN-10: 1576754413
Publisher: Berrett-Koehler Publishers

“I believe that corporate responsibility, along with being just good business, can also help to provide and repair something that’s desperately lacking in our world today: hope”, writes Faculty Director of the Center for Responsible Business at the University of California, Berkeley, Kellie McElhaney, in her highly practical and visionary book Just Good Business: The Strategic Guide to Aligning Corporate Responsibility and Brand. The author builds a powerful case for creating and implementing a corporate social responsibility (CSR) strategy, and for communicating that plan to all of the company’s stakeholders.

Kellie McElhaney recognizes that many companies are already using a CSR strategy, but at the same time they are failing to communicate that plan both within their organization to their employees, to their shareholders, vendors, and customers. The author stresses the critical importance of companies understanding the growing gap in the general public’s perception of corporate social responsibility, and the reality of increased corporate activity. The public expects companies to behave as good corporate citiens, but at the same time, has diminishing trust in corporations to act in a socially responsible manner. Many companies adopting a CSR strategy do so defensibly, out of fear of public outcry and backlash. While the author has no concerns about why a company establishes a CSR strategy, the key is to develop a plan that includes positive benefits for branding, differentiation, and for stakeholders.

Kellie McElhaney (photo left) describes a process for developing a CSR strategy that includes all stakeholders in the organization that also gets top management commitment. Once senior management makes a public declaration of support for corporate social responsibility, the strategy can be devised that accommodates the company’s core competencies and overall business goals, and aligns their CSR goals with those of their brand. A completed CSR strategy, integrated with their corporate governance, can then have performance metrics and measurements of effectiveness built into the program. A strong, well defined CSR strategy can become part of the corporate culture, and provide a benchmark for all corporate planning.

For me, the power of the book is how Kellie McElhaney combines the theoretical reasons for developing a CSR strategy, with a practical approach to creating and implementing that overall plan. The connection between the CSR strategy and the goals of brand enhancement and differentiation, have a solid bottom line value for the company. At the same time, the author’s emphasis on the importance of communicating the corporate CSR strategy to all company stakeholders, is critical to its success. The book provides an easy to follow road map to developing, implementing, and communicating a CSR strategy. The author also shares ideas for creating performance metrics and benchmarks for assessing the overall success of the CSR initiative.

I highly recommend the important and company transformational book Just Good Business: The Strategic Guide to Aligning Corporate Responsibility and Brand by Kellie McElhaney, to anyone seeking a workable approach to developing a CSR strategy that is aligned with a company’s brand and core competencies. Discover how to create a CSR plan that works for everyone both inside and outside of the company.

Read the essential guide book Just Good Business: The Strategic Guide to Aligning Corporate Responsibility and Brand by Kellie McElhaney, and develop and apply a workable CSR strategy that gains commitment from top management and all company stakeholders, that can be communicated effectively to customers and the general public. The result will be an enhanced corporate reputation and greater profitability.

Taking the Leap

Managing Your Career in Turbulent Times…and Beyond

By: Beth Banks Cohn Ph.D., Roz Usheroff

Published: October 2, 2009
Format: Paperback, 148 pages
ISBN: 1439249172
Publisher: BookSurge Publishing

“We have a generation of workers set to retire, and coming up to replace them is a new generation, raised on the horror stories of corporate life, who have decided there must be a better way”, write leadership development and executive branding experts Beth Banks Cohn and Roz Usherhoff, in their practical career strategy and leadership development book Taking the Leap: Managing Your Career in Turbulent Times…and Beyond. The authors share the critical foundation qualities of personal leadership, communication, and change management as the cornerstones of building a solid career strategy.

Beth Banks Cohn (photo left) and Roz Usheroff understand that the world of employment is changing constantly. As a result, the authors remind their readers that managing a career is critical to success. To leave their career in someone else’s hands is impossible in today’s economic and business environment. It’s up to the individual to learn and develop the essential skills for building a successful career over their working lifetime. While the strategies taught in the book may not prevent layoffs entirely, the skills of leadership, managing change, and developing strong communication skills will go far toward ensuring that career risk is lowered dramatically. While there is no secret formula that guarantees success, the authors share the most important strategies for success in any economy.

Roz Usheroff (photo left) and Beth Banks Cohn recognize the importance of developing the authentic self, based on building trust and integrity of action, communication, and character. The authors stress self confidence, being likable, and having personal courage in developing leadership skills. With these attributes in place, a person can better manage the inevitable change that will occur in the workplace, as well as in the overall economy. Whether the change takes place in the current place of employment or through job change, strong career management will serve the person well. The book also contains an important section developing strong communication skills that are direct, honest, and free of gender and cultural bias.

For me, the power of the book is how Beth Banks Cohn and Roz Usheroff present a no nonsense approach to career management. Their core concepts work well in any stage of a career and in any economy. The authors utilize a step by step technique where the critical skills build on one another in a logical sequence. At he end of each chapter is a valuable summary of the key points presented in each section. Throughout the book are a number of personal checklists and self assessment tools that help to establish the concepts in an individual format. The book is a valuable resource for people at any stage of their career. Whether the reader is a Baby Boomer nearing retirement, a Generation Xer in mid career, or a Millennial beginning the career journey, the information is applicable to every group.

I highly recommend the career transformational book Taking the Leap: Managing Your Career in Turbulent Times…and Beyond by Roz Usheroff and Beth Banks Cohen, to anyone seeking to take charge of their own career path and success. This valuable resource will equip anyone to establish a successful career, regardless of the changes taking place within a company, or the upheavals of the economy as a whole.

Read the sharply focused career building book Taking the Leap: Managing Your Career in Turbulent Times…and Beyond by Beth Banks Cohn and Roz Usheroff, and learn and enhance the most critical career building skills. This book will prepare a person of any age for any challenge that may arise in establishing a successful career in any business or profession.