BOOK SPECIAL .....25 of the Most Inspiring Books Everyone Should Read ….20 TO 25

25 of the Most Inspiring

Books Everyone Should

Read ….20 TO 25

20. American Icon: Alan Mulally and the Fight to Save Ford Motor Company by Bryce G. Hoffman

"This book really resonated with me, because it's almost a mirror image of what we did with the Sparkling Ice brand. Hoffman dives into how Alan Mulally went into Ford and took a look at the organization as a whole. He shifted the focus to the consumer and recognized the importance of delivering quality products and services. Mulally honored the heritage of the company and used Ford's identity as a strength to reinvigorate a culture. If you need to enact change in your company without losing its values, this book will be perfect to pull inspiration and tactics from."

--Kevin Klock, president and CEO of beverage company Talking Rain

21. Double Your Profits in 6 Months or Less by Bob Fifer

"This book was the most impactful on my career. Other than a small section on technology (that I don't fully agree with), the book is a blueprint for how an effective and efficient business should be run. Fifer's teachings are ingrained in nearly all of TransPerfect's business systems, and he has personally come and participated in training conferences with our senior management team."

--Phil Shawe, co-CEO and founder of TransPerfect, a translation and content management company

22. Crossing the Chasm by Geoffrey Moore

"I read this book when it was first published and I was a first-time CEO at Cobalt Networks. The book, which focuses on how to bridge the chasms that occur in the transition from a market solely for innovators and early adopters to one that reaches a mainstream audience, proved to be my personal manual for building disruptive companies. For those in management, marketing, and sales at B2B tech companies, this book is a must-read."

--Stephen DeWitt, CEO of Work Market, a freelance management system

23. The Wu-Tang Manual by the RZA

"There are a number of core lessons I have pulled from this book over the years. First, follow your dreams--don't chase someone else's. Wu Tang could only have happened on Staten Island, just like Godzilla could only have appeared on a remote radioactive island in Japan. No distractions, no envy. Be like ODB: There's no father to his style. Second, location matters. In an era when everyone chases careers and dollars, the Wu represented Shaolin (Staten Island)--pride of place and people, and a commitment to draw from, but built on what's strategic around you. Third, build a platform of success for others as your legacy. There have always been great rap duos (EPMD, Eric B. & Rakim, Run-D.M.C., and more), but Wu Tang was the first rap dynasty. While many companies claim to be a great place to work, we want Duo to also be a great company to have worked for, and we support our colleagues in their success at and beyond our company. Fourth, a team needs shared values and cultural contribution, not cultural fit. From Kung Fu and Bushido, to Nietzsche and Lao Tzu, the Wu drank deep from the well of history to draw wisdom from both the profound and the profane."

--Dug Song, co-founder and CEO, Duo Security, a cloud-based information security provider

24. Designing for Growth: A Design Thinking Tool Kit for Managers by Jeanne Liedtka and Tim Ogilvie

"It provides a practical approach on how companies can drive innovation. This is something we're always focused on here at Wayfair, where employees are encouraged to share innovative and out-of-the-box ideas, test their theories, analyze data, and learn and iterate to find the best, most effective solutions."

--Brad Johnson, VP of Castlegate Fulfillment for the online home store Wayfair

25. Ten Types of Innovation by Brian Quinn, Helen Walters, Larry Keeley, and Ryan Pikkel

"The framework is organized into three categories: configuration, offering, and experience. The author uses a theatrical metaphor, backstage, to describe the configuration phase, its steps being more distant to the customer, such as the profit model, structure, and process. The experience phase is described as onstage and is more obvious to end users: brand, service, and customer engagement. This book has been a great reference for our team as we create our own Ten Types that we call the stages of Human-Centered Design, a creative approach to problem solving. And similar to the Ten Types, only when you include every important step in the process will you end with a truly innovative solution."

--Bob Niemiec, managing partner of Twisthink, a product innovation and business strategy consultancy

By Christina DesMarais

http://www.inc.com/christina-desmarais/25-of-the-most-inspiring-books-everyone-should-read.html?cid=nl029week07day16