Schaffner Media Partners

Thousands of business books are published every year, so sometimes very good ones get overlooked. Seizing the White Space, by Mark Johnson, a management consultant, is one of those books that deserves a second look.

Published last year by Harvard Business School Press, the book offers a road map to innovation. Specifically, it is about”white space plays”–strategies to leap frog out of crowded markets into new, open spaces by radically changing your business model. Johnson, chairman of Innosight, a consulting and investing company that he co-founded with Harvard Business School professor Clayton M. Christensen, delivers a case-study rich guide that shows how changing your company’s business model can enable you to dominate new markets. CONTINUE READING…

When the Japanese earthquake, tsunami and nukes crisis hit, Nassim Taleb, author, former options trader, and Distinguished Professor of Risk Engineering at New York University, was besieged with 600 interview requests. It’s not surprising: Taleb popularized the phrase “black swan” in his 2007 best-selling book of the same name.

Taleb isn’t giving interviews ( “I think for a living & write books not interviews,” Taleb writes on his website) so I took another look at his writings and tried to glean where he might stand. First, some background: A “black swan” is a metaphor used by philosophers over the centuries to capture the surprise effects of scientifically improbable and therefore unexpected events on history, inspired by the 17th century discovery of black swans in Australia when biologists had previously declared all swans were white swans. CONTINUE READING…

As the catastrophic events in Japan continue to unfold, the question arises: how should you handle it if your company is enmeshed in a public disaster? BNET blogger Ira Kalb argues General Electric, which designed the troubled nuclear plants, should use fact procedure to restore its damaged image, while BNET blogger Kimberly Weisul explain why corporate apologies often fall short.

When it comes to crisis public relations, however, Robert Dilenschneider is a leading authority. He is the author of many books, including The AMA Handbook of Public Relations, and CEO of The Dilenschneider Group, the public relations firm. (Disclosure: I published Dilenschneider, when I was an editor at McGraw-Hill.) So I contacted to see what thoughts he might have. In an email, Dilenschneider discussed everything from what the U.S. nuclear industry should be doing (but isn’t) to how to calm a jittery public.

CONTINUE READING

You keep putting off sales calls to organize your desk or surf the Internet. Or, facing a deadline, you start writing, get nowhere and decide to take a “break.” Or, maybe you’ve completed every aspect of planning a project, except one small detail, and you keep putting it off–until it’s too late.

If any of these hypotheticals resonate, you’re not alone.

According to The Procrastination Equation: How To Stop Putting Things Off and Start Getting Things Done, a new book by Piers Steel, Ph.d., procrastination is rampant, a mixture of human nature and deadlines that create irrational delay. Winner of the Killam Emerging Research Leader award, Steel teaches human resources and organizational dynamics at the Haskayne School of Business/University of Calgary. At least 95% of us procrastinate at least occasionally, Steel writes, citing research, and “about 15-20% of us do it consistently and problematically.” Continue reading….

Tim Ferriss‘ first book, The 4-Hour Workweek, hit the bestseller lists in its first weeks of publication in 2007and has remained an influential and talked-about phenomenon ever since (as has Ferriss’ blog).   Memorably dubbed “part scientist and part adventure hunter,” Ferriss developed his manifesto for productivity and personal freedom from his early success as an entrepreneur,  angel investor, traveler and athlete.

The 4-Hour Work Week exhorts readers to tap into their passions and  establish passive income streams so they escape the 9-5 rat race and live a life full of meaning, pleasure and wealth.  He explains how to take “mini-retirements” and work remotely so you can incorporate a globe-trotting lifestyle into any job.   Continue reading…