How to Change the World: Social Entrepreneurs and the Power of New Ideas
I just finished reading How to Change the World: Social Entrepreneurship and the Power of New Ideas by David Bornstein, the award winning author of The Price of Dream: The Story of the Grameen Bank. I loved the ideas and the general thesis presented, but I was unimpressed with the organization of the book (haphazard) […]
Liars Poker by Michael Lewis
“Wall Street,” reads the sinister old gag, “is a street with a river at one end and a graveyard at the other.” This is striking but incomplete. It omits the kindergarden in the middle. -Frederick Schwed Jr.
Liars Poker by Michael Lewis is not only a fantastic picture of the nature of investment […]
Literature, Moral Leadership and Harvard Business School
Following up on my last post on literature, leadership and billionaires, I found a relevant interview in the latest Working Knowledge from HBS. The interview is with Sarah Jane Gilbert, a faculty member at Harvard Business School, who recently developed a new course on moral leadership. What’s so interesting about this course is that it […]
What Billionaire Business Titans are Reading and Why Poets Make Better Leaders
Page one of Today’s Wall Street Journal has a fascinating story about Phil Knight, the founder and now chairman, of Nike, Inc. And what’s so interesting about Mr. Knight has little to do with how he built the industry titan Nike, or about his time as CEO. Last spring, the billionaire businessman nonchalantly sat in […]
Deceptive Advertisments, Why Maslow Was Wrong and How to Motivate People
Typically, when a marketer appeals to a person’s self interest, the advertisements that result are deceptive and schmucky.
The ads end up promising enormous benefits for minimal costs:
“You Can Laugh at Money Worries if You Follow This Simple Plan”
“Give Me Five Days and I’ll Give You a Magnetic Personality…Let me Prove It -Free”
“The Secret of How […]
Thinking Strategically: The Competitive Edge in Business, Politics, and Everyday Life.
I just finished the book Thinking Strategically: the competitive edge in business, politics, and everyday life by Avinash K. Dixit and Barry J. Nalebuff. It is the single best narrative (non-math) introduction to game theory that I have ever read. Here is the epilogue from part I, which paints the big picture incredibly well:
“A game […]