Stephen King says that if you want to be a writer, there are two things you must do: read a lot and write a lot. This is about the “read a lot” part. I include reading lists and book reviews that will help you do business more effectively and write better for business.
In this post, I point you to reviews of Next Is Now: 5 Steps for Embracing Change—Building a Business that Thrives into the Future, Leonardo da Vinci, The Age Of Surge: A Human Centered Framework for Scaling Company Wide Agility and Navigating the Tsunami of Digital, Unwound: Real-Time Reflections from a Stumbling Entrepreneur, and Bad Blood: Secrets and Lies in a Silicon Valley Startup.
From Patrick Gorman: Strativity Group CEO Lior Arussy On Why Constant Change Is The New Normal
“In his new book out today, “Next Is Now: 5 Steps for Embracing Change—Building a Business that Thrives into the Future,” Arussy shares his five-step “Future Ready Impact” program, and guides change-impacted CEOs and their employees from a victim mentality to one of participation and ownership.”
From Bill Gates: Leonardo is one of the most fascinating people ever
“Shortly after Melinda and I got married, I told her I was bidding on a notebook that could wind up costing a lot of money. ‘Don’t you already have a great portable computer?’ she asked. I explained that by ‘notebook,’ I meant the old-fashioned kind. And by ‘old-fashioned,’ I meant really old-fashioned, as in more than 500 years old. The notebook in question was one of the 32 surviving journals of Leonardo da Vinci.”
Wally’s Comment: This is one of the most delightful book reviews I’ve ever read. Only Bill Gates could have written it.
From Skip Prichard: How to Navigate the Digital Tsunami
“In THE AGE OF SURGE: A Human Centered Framework for Scaling Company Wide Agility and Navigating the Tsunami of Digital, organizational experts Brad Murphy and Carol Mase show how companies can leapfrog the competition by transforming not only how they develop products and services but also the organization itself around the digital paradigm.”
From Wharton: What an Entrepreneur Learned from Failure
“Ethan Senturia thought he had it all. He graduated with honors, landed a job at Lehman Brothers, then struck out on his own when that Wall Street powerhouse shut down during the Great Recession. But Senturia quickly learned that becoming a successful entrepreneur takes much more than a great resume. Dealstruck, the online lending platform he founded, ceased operation in 2016. That experience led Senturia to rethink his long-held ideas about success. He has shared his personal journey in a new book titled, Unwound: Real-Time Reflections from a Stumbling Entrepreneur.”
From the Economist: The rise and fall of Elizabeth Holmes, Silicon Valley’s startup queen
“‘Bad Blood’, an enjoyable book by John Carreyrou, an investigative journalist, charts Ms Holmes’s rise and dramatic fall. It was Mr Carreyrou who first raised questions about Theranos, suggesting in the Wall Street Journal in 2015 that its testing technique yielded unreliable results. Earlier this year Ms Holmes settled civil charges brought by America’s financial regulator, the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), of defrauding investors. A criminal inquiry is believed to be in train.”
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 Skip Prichard’s Leadership Insights.