Wall Street Journal (WSJ) Bookshelf

Because I find so many things that are interesting I have difficulty in picking up a book and reading it from cover to cover. I easily and quickly get engrossed in a book and there lies a problem. I am surrounded by books at work and at home. One way to solve this problem is to read book reviews. You can learn a lot and get the essence of the book or the executive summary. One place that I like to read book reviews is from the Wall Street Journal. The reviews appear almost daily in the paper and the books that are featured are very interesting...usually non-fiction (my favorite). To easily see back issues of WSJ book reviews one can quickly enter the ABI/INFORM database that we subscribe to and search for "Bookshelf" in the Wall Street Journal. Here's an effective search if you want to specifically look for books with "management" in the title. Use these search terms:

Wall Street Journal = Publication Title
Bookshelf = Citation and Abstract
management = Citation and Abstract

Happy reading,
Paul

Business for the Glory of God

by Wayne Grudem

This is a great little book of less than 100 pages. It has an index and notes section and is very well written by a great scholar in the field of Bible and Theology. This book will help open your eyes of understanding to a more Biblically-sound side of capitalism and commerce and provoke your thoughts in ways you may not have considered before. Read only if you want to be challenged and have a deeper understanding of things.

See Kindle # 26 in the Bruno Business Library for this title. Be sure to check the Scout catalog for availability. Read this Amazon summary to whet your appetite.

Capitalism Saved the Miners

Here is a great story from the Wall Street Journal related to Center Rock, Inc. and other's innovation, hard work and drive for success.

Financial Intelligence

by Karen Berman and Joe Knight with John Case. Published by Harvard Business School Press.

I read the review for this in "The 100 Best Business Books of All Time" by Jack Covert and Todd Sattersten (posted in an earlier blog entry).

This easy to read book takes the fundamentals of business and conveys the concepts in simple and clear words. Explains the difference in balance sheets and income statements and much, much more. Gives practical advice on how to deal with business expenses over the long run rather than not knowing how to deal with them or improperly dealing with them in the short run. This book can be great for learning the basics of accounting and how to run a business. Lots of great advice is shared in this relatively short book.

Check here for status.

Daily Reflections for Highly Effective People:

Living The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People by Stephen R. Covey. I found this book at the Tuscaloosa Public Library bookstore where I am a frequent visitor. This handy, pocket-size book has short but very good, daily messages that can help put real life situations in a better and more inspiring perspective.

Read the Amazon reviews here.

Publish or Perish

Can the iPad topple the Kindle, and save the book business? by Ken Auletta

This interesting article from the New Yorker (April 26, 2010) provides an interesting look into the book publishing industry. Here are some snippets that I took from his insightful article:

• e-books (although increasing in popularity) account for 3-5% of the market
• "Amazon had been buying many e-books from publishers for about $13 and selling them for $9.99 to increase market share and encourage sales of the Kindle."
• Publishers didn't like the $9.99 price and was concerned about setting a price precedent in buyer's minds.
• "The decision to enter publishing was a reversal for [Steve] Jobs, who two years ago said the book publishing industry was unsalvageable."
• "Traditionally, publishers have sold books to stores, with the wholesale price for hardcovers set at fifty per cent of the cover price."
  
• "Authors are paid royalities at a rate of about fifteen per cent of the cover price."

If you're interested in reading more please see the full article here. (you must have an active myBama password and login).

Management, Plain and Simple

Check out this article from a recent Time magazine. This article provides some excellent insight into better ways to run small (and for that matter, any size) business. See the article for other references for more literature on the topic of the high success rate of Amish businesses. Maybe many small businesses can learn from their ways of doing business.

Mind vs. Money:

The War between Intellectuals and Capitalism by Alan S. Kahan.

This looks to be a great read. Kahan is an adjunct professor at the American Business School of Paris. Previously he was professor of history at Florida International University. This is a controversial book but it raises some very important and timely issues.

Please check the status in the Bruno Library.

Read more at Amazon.com and/or Google Books.

Happy April!

It's Easier to Succeed Than to Fail

by S. Truett Cathy. If you are looking for a great, short, inspirational business book then look no further. "The secret to success is no secret at all. It is very obvious, but we are too often blinded to the truth." - S. Truett Cathy, Chick-fil-A founder

From the book jacket, "Truett Cathy was not born into success or wealth. His mother ran a boarding house to help support the family. As a boy he showed no unusual talents - except in one area: a sharp business sense."

This fantastic read is filled with such wonderful sayings like:

If you plant for days- plant flowers.
If you plant for years - plant trees.
If you plant for eternity - plant ideas and ideals into the lives of others.

Read more here at Amazon.
Click here for status in Bruno Library.

The Wall Street Journal. Guide to Information Graphics

The Dos and Dont's of Presenting Data, Facts, and Figures by Dona M. Wong. This is a handy, informative book. Very concise. Great for business journalists and really anyone who wants to understand data presentation and how to convey difficult numbers in an easy to understand format.

Coming soon to Bruno Library.