Reviewed by Gisela Dixon for Readers' Favorite

The Invisible Advantage: How to Create a Culture of Innovation by Soren Kaplan is a book on business organization and management centered around creating a culture of innovation, as the title suggests. The Invisible Advantage begins with a brief introduction on the topic of what it actually means to be “innovative” and the importance of it in today’s business world, especially the technology industry. The book is then broken down into several chapters, each focusing on a certain aspect of this such as how to be a “disruptive innovator,” how to motivate people and employees, how to create a culture of free thinking, how to strategize and be effective at creating this culture, measurements and metrics, and much more. Throughout the book, Soren provides real examples of companies who have successfully created such a culture, along with a detailed explanation and background information on each.

I think innovation is necessary to thrive in the modern business world, especially in an ever-changing IT industry, where trends and advances seem to happen daily. The Invisible Advantage by Soren Kaplan provides a map on how to do so and create a culture of innovation. Soren emphasizes the importance of maintaining a competitive edge and the crucial role that innovation plays in this. I also liked how Soren has presented real, live examples of this in organizations which I found very helpful. The writing is crisp and the content is broken down into easy-to-grasp chunks. It also is clear that Soren has a lot of experience in this area and that comes across in the case analysis of some of the examples.

Reviewed by Jack Magnus for Readers' Favorite

Don't Sell Me, Tell Me is a non-fiction business/finance book written by Greg Koorhan. Koorhan is a filmmaker and the founder of a digital marketing firm that specializes in creating marketing content for entrepreneurs and businesses. With so many businesses out there competing for the same limited market, what can a company do to stand out of the crowd? Koorhan suggests storytelling, and his argument is based on mankind's centuries-old love of stories. The public is wise to even the most inspired sales pitches and spins, he argues, so why not entertain them as you build your customer base? Stories can get your customers personally involved in your story, your product and your company, and creating that story is not nearly as difficult as most believe. Koorhan discusses the benefits of creating a story, the different basic types of stories, and how to get started with your own. He explains what structure and plot are, and shares the universal plots that most stories share. Then he shows the reader how to mine his/her personal/professional life and business experiences to create a compelling story that will get customers involved. Koorhan provides a number of downloadable worksheets as well as a workbook for working on the topics and suggested assignments within the text.

Greg Koorhan's non-fiction business/finance book, Don't Sell Me, Tell Me, is proof in itself of how a well-told story can engage and excite even the most skeptical audience. Most of us, business owners and self-employed professionals alike, love stories, but actually creating one is viewed as a totally different matter. Koorhan's story shows just how easy it can be to write that story. He breaks down every step in the process and gives convincing arguments why those pesky things like structure and plot really do have to be ironed out a bit before sitting down and creating your masterpiece. This book is a must-read not only for business owners, but for anyone who's dreamed of seeing their work published or even hoped to pass that compulsory English 101 course. Best of all, Koorhan's easy teaching style and enthusiasm for his topic make the process of story-telling seem a lot less like suffering and more of a fun, creative exercise. I had a great time reading Don't Sell Me, Tell Me and working through the author's suggestions. Don't Sell Me, Tell Me is most highly recommended.

Reviewed by Mamta Madhavan for Readers' Favorite

Start-Ups are hard. The Start-Up J Curve: The Six Steps to Entrepreneurial Success by Howard Love is a comprehensive guide that speaks about a start-up’s evolution and helps readers to know what to do and what not to do, and makes the path to success efficient and smooth. The book shows the pattern in which a start-up unfolds so that entrepreneurs are aware of the pattern and their odds of success will increase. Reading this book will have a positive effect and assure you that other entrepreneurs have faced the same difficult issues. The Start-Up J Curve suggests how the value of the enterprise tends to decline over the first few phases, and the primary value creation develops during the latter stages.

The concept of The Start-Up J Curve is helpful and useful to all those who are on a start-up program and need to communicate it to a wider audience. I found the ideas and suggestions valid and valuable, and they will prepare you to meet the inevitable challenges as and when they arise. The author also speaks about the many myths that are associated with start-ups, and points out areas where the thinking patterns and beliefs need to be altered to become successful. This book will definitely help readers become familiar with the start-up path. It is a good read for all those who are planning to start up a business. The book is honest, direct, and insightful, and touches on all the topics required when it comes to start-ups.

Reviewed by Sefina Hawke for Readers' Favorite

Madison Avenue Manslaughter (An Inside View of Fee-Cutting Clients, Profit-Hungry Owners and Declining Ad Agencies) by Michael Farmer is a non-fiction book on business and finance. This is a book that would appeal most to an adult audience of those who either work in or are interested in the advertising industry. Advertising agencies are facing destruction due to increased workloads and declining fees, but there is still hope for them. Michael Farmer exposes the real problems that advertising agencies face in the modern world, and shows how to overcome these problems in order to fix the advertising industry and make it sustainable. What would happen if the advertising industry collapsed on itself with no hope of revival?

As a blogger and freelance writer, I found Madison Avenue Manslaughter by Michael Farmer to be a very interesting book. Michael Farmer clearly displays both his knowledge and expertise in writing this book in such a way that those without professional advertising or marketing experience could still understand it. Prior to reading this book, I had not considered just how close the advertising and marketing industries are to collapse. I liked the way that the author not only unveiled the problem and potential problems, but offered ways to solve the crisis in a realistic manner; his writing style made the material both easy to understand and interesting. The fact that everything was backed up with clear evidence only added more proof to the author’s ability to not only recognize the problem, but also come up with real solutions. After reading the book, the only question I was left with was: why have these solutions not already been implemented?

Reviewed by Tracy A. Fischer for Readers' Favorite

In an excellent new work by author, serial entrepreneur, recruiter and speaker Rikka Brandon, Hire Power: Everything Entrepreneurs Need To Know To Hire Awesome People is a guide that business owners will find themselves turning to time and again, as they strive to develop the teams that they want and need. This book provides an excellent set of principles for anyone in hiring, from those who are relatively inexperienced in the human resources field to seasoned professionals. The book is loaded with practical and easy to follow advice on how to attract, find, and engage the workers you need, as well as information on the very best way to conduct interviews so that you know you are getting what you truly want in a new employee.

I very much enjoyed Hire Power: Everything Entrepreneurs Need To Know To Hire Awesome People. Author Rikka Brandon has done a stellar job in imparting a wealth of information for her readers, and has certainly written a book that will be useful to anyone that takes part in the hiring process, both now and well into the future. The book is extremely well laid out and provides step by step advice in finding that perfect match for your team. Many leaders would find this book to be the exact thing they are looking for if they are struggling in any way with their hiring process. I am pleased to be able to highly recommend Hire Power: Everything Entrepreneurs Need To Know To Hire Awesome People, and will certainly be on the look out for any other helpful books written by Rikka Brandon in the future!

Reviewed by Christian Sia for Readers' Favorite

Mayur Ramgir's Evolve like a Butterfly: A Metamorphic Approach to Leadership is a groundbreaking work on leadership with powerful lessons inspired by the life cycle of a butterfly. A butterfly! The title of the book got me intrigued and I was wondering “Why a butterfly” when there are thousands of complex and beautiful creatures that can be used as an example. But, surprisingly, it turned out to be the most excellent and succinct metaphor I have encountered in works on leadership. Starting with an unusual definition of leadership, the author shows how the life of a butterfly can be the perfect example of the kind of leadership that brings lasting change, highlighting powerful elements of leadership that are visible in the growth process of this insect. This is a book that will change the way readers look at life, at leadership, and how they approach problem solving and their business.

Evolve like a Butterfly: A Metamorphic Approach to Leadership is written in a light, popular style, accessible to readers with different reading skills, filled with real life examples that make the concepts easily digestible. This book is replete with the wisdom that readers need to lead their lives and to lead others, and the author writes with confidence, which indicates his mastery of the subject. I particularly loved the Leadership Development Framework, modeled after the different stages of the evolution of the butterfly. Readers will understand the different stages in their growth toward effective leadership and find the tools that will allow them to grow in confidence, trusting in themselves, and taking control. There are wonderful thoughts that can accompany readers in this book and one of my favorites was: “Convince yourself that you can do it and the rest of the world will automatically be convinced.” Mayur Ramgir's book is a gift for leaders and everyone who wants to make an impact on the lives of others.

Reviewed by Marta Tandori for Readers' Favorite

When one hears the word “brand”, one immediately thinks of a trademark. However, in Diehl’s world, brand becomes a three-dimensional rendering that encompasses more than just the name of a business. To Diehl, a strong business identity is achieved by combining personality and values with the functionality (and flexibility) of a good product. Brand Identity Breakthrough makes some interesting observations, some quite simplistic and of common sense, yet all of them valuable. Some of these are: (i) money is just a vehicle through which people exchange happiness and that businesses provide a method for people to do this in a tailored and systematic way; (ii) while the essence of business may be the creation of specific value, a business cannot succeed on the virtue of it being a good idea alone; (iii) while the corporate world today looks for individuals possessing a specific series of qualities combined with real working experiences which conform to their work environments, the traits of a good entrepreneur require thinking outside the box – not necessarily reinventing the wheel, just tweaking it a bit and making it your own; (iv) the key to keeping a foothold in today’s marketplace is having the ability to adapt to the constant flux of its consumers' demands; and (v) while it’s always a good idea to keep sight of the big picture, breaking things down into small goals helps.

By his own admittance, the author has led an adventurous and diverse life which has eventually led him to his ultimate calling. Moving out of his parents' home, he lived in a trailer while finishing high school, before setting out to travel the world, even teaching English in China. This has given Diehl considerable insight into both humanity as a whole and how the world works. He’s chosen to forge his own path and Brand Identity Breakthrough is a culmination of not only his business acumen, but also the way he’s seen people function and how that affects the marketplace and business entrepreneurs in general. His prose is down-to-earth, conversational and immediately engaging, while the book offers guidance on identifying one’s core values and developing a unique selling proposition.

Brand Identity Breakthrough by Gregory V. Diehl offers a no-nonsense approach to business by getting down to the bare bones of the business analysis, not only looking at what makes a business tick, but also examining what drives that business and whether it will be successful. However, Brand Identity Breakthrough is no walk in the park with rose-colored spectacles firmly in place – it identifies the many pitfalls facing entrepreneurs today and then offers anecdotes where others have turned potential problems into a positive solution. Overall, a great book with sound advice that’s a must-read for all individuals about to embark on the road to entrepreneurship.

Reviewed by Lori A. Moore for Readers' Favorite

Strategy-In-Action: Marrying Planning, People and Performance by Thomas D. Zweifel and Ed Borey presents ten chapters of business advice including questioning whether strategy is dead, being the change, sustaining momentum, and measuring performance and results through a dashboard. Aimed at senior or executive-level management employees, the book’s goal is to teach the reader how to be a dynamic leader with a strategic process. The three core principles of Strategy-In-Action are (1) Strategy and execution go together; (2) Each phase of the process is equally important, and (3) The strategists in the company include the alignment of the company’s decision makers and stakeholders. A brief history of strategy starting back in the 6th century BCE is provided. Zweifel and Borey also put forth seven facts of the new landscape: speed, globalization, internet/virtual organizations, new technologies, democratization, empowerment, and complexity.

As a business professor, I am drawn to books like Strategy-In-Action: Marrying Planning, People and Performance by Thomas D. Zweifel and Ed Borey. Strategy-In-Action would make a great supplement to or even a textbook for a graduate-level business course on Strategic Management. I like the debunking of the linear fallacy where people believe that strategy can be broken down into tasks to be performed. As Zweifel and Borey make clear, it doesn’t always work that way. I appreciated the chapter on “The Art of Measurement,” What’s on the Dashboard?” and the case studies and graphics included to help grasp this complex topic. The Strategy-In-Action Worksheet at the end of the book was a nice way to sum up the process in a takeaway that readers can use.

Reviewed by Jack Magnus for Readers' Favorite

How I Sold 80,000 Books: Book Marketing for Authors (Self Publishing through Amazon and Other Retailers) is a business/finance self-help book written by Alinka Rutkowska. The author writes children's books and has been an independent publisher as well as a coach for authors seeking to do the same. She introduces her topic with a word most of the non-business savvy world cringes from: marketing. And she discusses how marketing should begin almost before an author starts writing and certainly before selecting a title. Rutkowska presents the four Ps that are the ingredients to success in marketing an indie book. They are Product, Place, Price and Promotion. She thoroughly discusses each of these aspects of marketing, and illustrates each topic with examples from her experiences and useful links. In the section on Product, Rutkowska discusses the editing process and the three types of editors needed for any text before publication. In Promotion, she discusses giveaways and other promotional tools designed to make your book sell. She also includes a list of recommended readings and a bonus section containing six interviews with established authors who discuss their marketing strategies and their paths to success.

Alinka Rutkowska's business/finance self-help book, How I Sold 80,000 Books: Book Marketing for Authors (Self Publishing through Amazon and Other Retailers) is a veritable textbook for aspiring indie authors. The material presented within is densely packed and loaded with ideas, strategies and essential tips that are neatly organized, packaged and imparted in a conversational and highly accessible manner. And that's no mean feat for a book that has so much to offer. Rutkowska suggests that readers read this book several times, especially when they're preparing a book for publication, something she herself does, and I would have to agree.

I was very impressed with Rutkowska's coverage of her topic. While I've read a number of books on independent publishing, I've not encountered as complete and user-friendly a work on the marketing aspect. I found her presentation of her subject to be enthusiastic and entertaining. Rutkowska manages to infect her readers with the joy she takes in tackling the challenges of marketing a publication and making it into a best-seller. She even simplifies the intricacies of Amazon's publishing options and discusses the pros and cons of those somewhat arcane and complicated schemes. How I Sold 80,000 Books: Book Marketing for Authors (Self Publishing through Amazon and Other Retailers) is now my go-to book on the subject and it's most highly recommended.

Reviewed by Rabia Tanveer for Readers' Favorite

Unbarred Innovation: A Pathway to Greatest Discoveries by Mayur Ramgir is a unique look at entrepreneurship and having confidence in yourself and your ideas. There is nothing that you cannot do. Many times, people are confused or lack confidence in their ideas. So they back off and return to their ordinary lives. However, if the most innovative people of our time had thought the same way, we might not have this amount of advancement in our time. What I really liked about this book is the fact that the advice given can be applied to anyone and any idea.

This advice is not restricted to one industry, so to speak. Mayur Ramgir gives sound advice on how your idea can be the next big thing too, if only you give yourself the chance to explore it. There is nothing too complicated or technical in this book that you cannot understand. You will not find anything that will confuse you. It is the best motivational book I have ever read. It has a constant uplifting theme backed by good word choice.

I feel that Mayur Ramgir did a phenomenal job by providing the general public with a confidence boost. His use of real innovators' success stories also helps to back up the whole theme of the book. I would highly recommend this book to people who are lost and need direction in their careers. This will definitely help them with very good, sound advice.