Promotions - Choice's Outstanding Academic Titles 2020 -

This is the best practitioner-oriented book on corporate governance this reviewer has encountered in many years. Most books on this subject focus on legal nuances, but Cole focuses on teaching top executives how to be more effective company leaders. The author discusses the evolution of corporate governance and provides how-to advice. Those involved in top management and corporate governance will find Cole's examination of shareholder activism and primacy of shareholders of great value. Among the book's unique offerings are agenda templates for a variety of meeting types. Also included are diagrams of stakeholder interest and influence, a primer of company valuation methodologies, and a dictionary of key definitions and ratios. Those seeking a crash course on corporate governance or fresh perspectives on being the CEO of the modern company will benefit from this book, which is appropriate for scholars as well as those in corporate settings. The latter group will find the book the print equivalent of having Cole as one's personal CEO mentor.Summing Up: Highly recommended. Lower-division undergraduates through faculty and professionals; general readers.

Driving Innovation from Within posits that in an environment of constant innovation and renewal--i.e., the present environment--the most innovative ideas are likely to come from the employees of the company, not the executives at the top. A book that takes this bottom-up approach to internal innovation, as distinguished from a top-down approach that expects executives to initiate such innovation, is rare indeed. Krippendorff (well known as a business strategist and professional speaker) eschews the opacity that characterizes professional discussion of innovation and instead deploys an avuncular style that engages the reader without sacrificing tightly researched sourcing of his findings and recommendations. He offers an unusual combination of scholarly insight and practical application wrapped in clear, lucid, and engaging prose that encourages thoughtful action on the part of the reader. This clarion call is all the more effective because of its finely nuanced presentation and clear action plan.Summing Up: Essential. All readers.

Power. Secrecy. Control. And, of course, profit. These words thread their way through Kochland, Leonard's brilliant history of the half-century since Charles Koch inherited leadership of Koch Industries and built it into a colossus. That Leonard (a respected business reporter) does not describe Koch as self-righteous shows his evenhandedness as he details Koch's efforts both to limit government action to the support of private property, especially that of the rich and influential, and to manage employees as if they exist only to generate profits. Koch's massive funding for think tanks, public relations, university programs, and lobbying has influenced national conversations and policies, while teams of lawyers have mitigated legal challenges resulting from environmental and safety violations. Vivid portraits of a wide array of people and their lives, both inside and outside the company, draw the reader through the high-powered, increasingly global drama that still centers on Wichita, Kansas. Leonard excels at concise, accurate contextualization that explains everything from economic and financial intricacies to combat over climate change. Exhaustive research and compelling writing combine in this page-turner, illuminating as much about the US and its recent economic and political history as about Koch Industries.Summing Up: Highly recommended. Lower-division undergraduates through faculty and professionals; general readers.

Books on Warren Buffett and his Berkshire Hathaway empire tend to focus on the ways his approaches to investing differ from others. Cunningham and Cuba, who have written extensively on Buffett, identify trust as an overlooked yet central aspect of his investment philosophy, and they argue that makes Buffett unique among investors. An acquisition may typically involve auditors, consultants, and bankers. For Buffett, it entails a discussion and a handshake. Whereas acquirers frequently replace management, Buffett puts his faith in them to run their organization. Such differences stem from Buffett's focus on trust. The role trust plays is examined across a wide range of activities: viewing shareholders as partners, a focus on only friendly acquisitions, and the management and governance of the corporation. Buffett's approach is sufficiently idiosyncratic that one simply admires it rather than trying to emulate it. Many of the anecdotes appear elsewhere, and this is a fascinating spin on how they fit together. This brief, concise, and pleasant exploration of the internal machinations of Berkshire Hathaway will interest anyone who seeks a better understanding of Buffett's Midas touch.Summing Up: Highly recommended. Upper-divsion undergraduates, graduate students, professionals, general readers.

Conn (Miami Univ.) is a respected historian, and his newest book deserves high praise. Conn brings to his assessment of the US's business schools the wit of one-time American Scholar editor Joseph Epstein, the sardonic analyses of Thorstein Veblen, and the craftsman-like work of Frederick Rudolph. In the first of the six chapters, Conn summarizes conditions before the founding of the Wharton School in 1881, a time when humane learning overshadowed practical studies. He devotes the next four chapters to the confusion over the relative roles of the practical and the humane (each of which ruled for a generation); the conflict between evolving "b-schools" and economics departments; the b-schools' refusal to admit applicants of color; and the fact that few socially useful ideas emanated from b-schools as economic conditions shifted over time. The final chapter condemns the increasingly influential new entities that claimed to teach ethics but actually emphasized how to gain wealth. The result is the current plutocracy, and the real question is whether teaching how to become rich is proper in a serious college or university. Conn's sole fault is that, like business schools, he fails to recall that Adam Smith, in founding capitalist theory, premised (morally) that a truly competitive economy would produce the greatest social good.Summing Up: Highly recommended. Upper-division undergraduates through faculty and professionals; general readers.

Powers (advertising, Temple Univ.) offers an insightful critique of the trends and forecasting industry, which determines important sociocultural changes and guides major corporations about strategies they can use to address the constantly changing needs and desires of consumers. Many of the companies Powers explores are not household names, but they play an important cultural role because they influence the future. The author divides the book into two sections. In the first she provides an overview of the history and evolution of the trend concept. She traces the origin of the study of trends from the 1930s to the present, covering the emergence of popular trends forecasters (e.g., Faith Popcorn) and techniques such as "cool hunting." In part 2, Powers critiques the forecasting industry, raising important questions about its influence on society at large. She looks at how the relationship between the trends industry and the corporations they work for reinforces the existing power structure at the expense of other viewpoints and possible futures. As part of her discussion, she explores both globalism and Afrofuturism. This an important scholarly resource for anyone interested in business.Summing Up: Highly recommended. All readers.

O'Malley (author of seven business books and managing director at the compensation consulting firm Pearl Meyer) and Baker (Center for Media, Public Policy, and Education, Fordham Univ.) have written an upbeat volume that encourages organizations to shift their focus toward making employees' lives better while still meeting economic goals. The first half of the book explores what kindness looks like in the workplace, with numerous examples from 21 exemplary organizations (e.g., Patagonia, Insomniac Games, The Motley Fool). The second half delves into six basic human needs--belonging, meaning, autonomy, self-acceptance, self-confidence, growth--and illustrates how organizations that intentionally work toward fulfilling these human needs end up with committed, highly productive workers who eagerly fulfill the organization's objectives while simultaneously enjoying life. Though each chapter is clearly organized, the writing flits from one topic and example to another, disrupting the flow of the book and making it less engaging. Nonetheless, the narrative is compelling, and the message that kindness and caring will serve organizations better in the long run than will competition and cutthroat policies is refreshing and important.Summing Up: Highly recommended. All readers.

In this timely, practical book, Lewis (organizational communication, Univ. of Texas, San Antonio) highlights the significance of and need to understand and practice listening, a vital communication skill that scholars of organizational communication have historically overlooked. Paying attention to the ways that listening both benefits and obstructs effective organizing, the author synthesizes real-life cases with theory and research to show that listening is a vital communication process necessary for individuals, groups, and organizations to thrive in modern high-tech society. Supporting her argument with vivid contemporary and past examples, Lewis presents the ramifications of failures in organizational listening, the role of technology, and the dark side of organizational listening. Of particular significance is Lewis's bold proposal that rather than emphasizing individuals' listening practice, organizations must make strategic organizational listening a constitutive feature of their processes, systems, and structures. Drawing on her extensive experience as a teacher, researcher, consultant, and organizational leader, the author provides practical instruments, for example a listening audit tool she calls APPRAISE meant to help organizational leaders interested in enhancing their ability to design and maintain strategic organizational listening processes. This is a must-read for organizational leaders, scholars, and students in organizational communication, management, public administration, and labor relations.Summing Up: Highly recommended. Upper-division undergraduates through faculty and professionals.

Philippon (Stern School of Business, NYU) begins this book with a question: why are cell phone rates in the European Union lower than rates in the US? The same question can be applied to telecommunication rates in general, including the price for accessing the internet. Data Philippon collected show that during the 1990s, this situation was very different. EU nations had 10-15 percent higher telecom rates than the US. Something changed in 2000 to make telecom prices for EU consumers fall below prices for US consumers. The correlation, Philippon found, was that EU countries exhibited a significant drop in the level of telecom industry concentration, and concentration in the US telecom sector increased. The key turning point was EU deregulation, which introduced new competition into the telecom sector, breaking the existing oligopoly and forcing a sharp reduction in telecom prices. Philippon notes a similar dynamic in other industries. Conclusion: decreased market competition leads to higher prices, more income inequality, and lost overall national income. This volume joins Jonathan Baker's The Antitrust Paradigm: Restoring a Competitive Economy (CH, Apr'20, 57-2648) in addressing these issues.Summing Up: Highly recommended. Upper-division undergraduates; graduate students; general readers.