A bunch of business book reviews: 9/13/16

Sep 13, 2016 | Reading Lists

“Leaders are readers.”

Yep, if you want to do that leading thing well, you need to read. One challenge is sorting through all the “leadership” and other business books to find good ones. This post should help. Here are some pointers to reviews of and excepts from recent leadership (in the broadest sense) books.

In this post I point you to reviews of The “Jobs to Be Done” Theory of Innovation and Deep Work: Rules For Focused Success in a Distracted World

From Theodore Kinni: The “Jobs to Be Done” Theory of Innovation

“Christensen and his coauthors think they have an explanation for this conundrum: Companies know a lot about the characteristics and attributes of their customers, but they don’t know why customers buy their products and services. In other words, companies know the correlations between types of customers and their products and services, but they don’t understand what causes customers to buy their offerings. And without grasping causation, they can’t be sure whether their R&D spending will yield a winning ticket”

Wally’s Comment: For some perspective on Jobs To Be Done, check out “What Airbnb Understands About Customers’ ‘Jobs to Be Done’”

From Kevin Eikenberry: Deep Work: Rules For Focused Success in a Distracted World

“For many years I have worked to be more focused, create more, produce more and achieve more. In many ways, that last statement describes my life for the last 30 years. And while many kind people say that I am more creative and productive than most; and I have always tried to be thankful and gracious, I’ve known there was more. So when I saw this book title, from an author I recognized, I was intrigued, and bought a copy. A few days later, I started reading it on a plane, and I had a hard time stopping.”

Click here for my review of Deep Work. 

Reading recommendations are a regular feature of this blog. Want more recommendations about what to read? Check out my Three Star Leadership blog, Michael McKinney’s LeadingBlog, and Bob Morris’ Blogging on Business.

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