Made to Stick - Chip Heath & Dan Heath

Why Some Ideas Take Hold and Others Come Unstuck 
What is that makes urban myths so persistent but many everyday truths so eminently forgettable? 
How do newspapers set about ensuring that their headlines make you want to read on? 
And why do we remember complicated stories but not complicated facts?
In the course of over ten years of study, Chip and Dan Heath have established what it is that determines whether particular ideas or stories stick in our minds or not, and "Made to Stick" is the fascinating outcome of their painstaking research.
Packed full of case histories and thought-provoking anecdotes, it shows, among other things, how one Australian scientist convinced the world he'd discovered the cause of stomach ulcers by drinking a glass filled with bacteria, how a gifted sports reporter got people to watch a football match by showing them the outside of the stadium, and how high-concept pitches such as 'Jaws on a spaceship' ("Alien") and 'Die Hard on a bus' ("Speed") convince movie executives to invest vast sums of money in a project on the basis of almost no information. 
Entertaining and informative by turns, this is a fascinating and multi-faceted account of a key area of human behavior. 
At the same time, by showing how we can all use such cleverly devised strategies as the 'Velcro Theory of Memory' and 'curiosity gaps', it offers superbly practical insights, setting out principles we all can adopt to make sure that we get our ideas across effectively.

[Book Description Source: www.amazon.com ]


Ratings
Goodreads Rating - 3.97 out of 5 ( 47,747 Ratings , 1954 Reviews  - As on July 18 2017)
My Rating:   3 out of 5
My Comments:Interesting content and narrative that bring awareness regarding what to do to make our ideas and messages stick. But it  falls short of describing how to make them stick through Simple, Unexpected, Concrete, Credible, Emotional Stories. The book has more of anecdotal content than specific techniques. However it provides a fairly decent launchpad to develop sticky communications.


Buying Options 
  
Buy from Amazon.com  Buy from Amazon.in Buy the Kindle Version

The Art of Social Media - Guy Kawasaki & Peg Fitzpatrick

Power Tips for Power Users
By now it's clear that whether you're promoting a business, a product, or yourself, social media is near the top of what determines your success or failure.
And there are countless pundits, authors, and consultants eager to advise you. But there’s no one quite like Guy Kawasaki, the legendary former chief evangelist for Apple and one of the pioneers of business blogging, tweeting, Facebooking, Tumbling, and much, much more. 
Now Guy has teamed up with Peg Fitzpatrick, who he says is the best social-media person he’s ever met, to offer The Art of Social Media—the one essential guide you need to get the most bang for your time, effort, and money.

With over one hundred practical tips, tricks, and insights, Guy and Peg present a bottom-up strategy to produce a focused, thorough, and compelling presence on the most popular social-media platforms. 
They guide you through steps to build your foundation, amass your digital assets, optimize your profile, attract more followers, and effectively integrate social media and blogging.

For beginners overwhelmed by too many choices as well as seasoned professionals eager to improve their game, The Art of Social Media is full of tactics that have been proven to work in the real world. Or as Guy puts it, “great stuff, no fluff.”
 

[Book Description Source: www.amazon.com ]


Ratings
Goodreads Rating - 3.7 out of 5 ( 1,559 Ratings , 274 Reviews  - As on July 16 2017)
My Rating:   2 out of 5
My Comments:  Considering the fact that Guy Kawasaki is one of the authors, I had expected more from this book. I was rather disappointed. 
Though there are a few good tips here and there on the whole the book was just not up to the mark. 
An OK sort of book which can quickly become outdated in the fast changing social media world.


Buying Options 
  
Buy from Amazon.com  Buy from Amazon.in Buy the Kindle Version

Scaling Up - Verne Harnish and the team at Gazelles

In Scaling Up, Harnish and his team share practical tools and techniques for building an industry-dominating business.
These approaches have been honed from over three decades of advising tens of thousands of CEOs and executives and helping them navigate the increasing complexities (and weight) that come with scaling up a venture. 
This book is written so everyone -- from frontline employees to senior executives -- can get aligned in contributing to the growth of a firm. 
There's no reason to do it alone, yet many top leaders feel like they are the ones dragging the rest of the organization up the S-curve of growth. 
The goal of this book is to help you turn what feels like an anchor into wind at your back -- creating a company where the team is engaged; the customers are doing your marketing; and everyone is making money. 
To accomplish this, Scaling Up focuses on the four major decision areas every company must get right: People, Strategy, Execution, and Cash. 
The book includes a series of new one-page tools including the updated One-Page Strategic Plan and the Rockefeller Habits Checklist (TM), which more than 40,000 firms around the globe have used to scale their companies successfully -- many to $1 billion and beyond. 
Running a business is ultimately about freedom.  
Scaling Up shows business leaders how to get their organizations moving in sync to create something significant and enjoy the ride.

[Book Description Source: www.amazon.com ] 


Ratings
Goodreads Rating - 4.24 out of 5 (761 Ratings; 64 Reviews - As on November 27 2016)
My Rating:  4 out of 5
My Comments: Very practical guide to scaling up your business. Provides several useful tools and techniques.  A slightly dry read but the utility of the book more than makes it up for it.


Buying Options 
Buy from Amazon.com  Buy from Amazon.in Buy the Kindle Version

Getting to Plan B by by John W. Mullins & Randy Komisar

 Breaking Through to a Better Business Model
You have a new venture in mind. 
And you've crafted a business plan so detailed it's a work of art. 
Don't get too attached to it.
As John Mullins and Randy Komisar explain in Getting to Plan B, new businesses are fraught with uncertainty. 
To succeed, you must change the plan in real time as the inevitable challenges arise.
In fact, studies show that entrepreneurs who stick slavishly to their Plan A stand a greater chance of failing-and that many successful businesses barely resemble their founders' original idea.
The authors provide a rigorous process for stress testing your Plan A and determining how to alter it so your business makes money, solves customers' needs, and endures. 
You'll discover strategies for:
-Identifying the leap-of-faith assumptions hidden in your plan
-Testing those assumptions and unearthing why the plan might not work
-Reconfiguring the five components of your business model-revenue model, gross margin model, operating model, working capital model, and investment model-to create a sounder Plan B.
Filled with success stories and cautionary tales, this book offers real cases illustrating the authors' unique process. 
Whether your idea is for a start-up or a new business unit within your organization, Getting to Plan B contains the road map you need to reach success.

 [Book Description Source: www.amazon.com]

Goodreads Rating - 3.84 out of 5 (179 Ratings, 21 Reviews)

My Rating:  3 out of 5. 

Buying Options 
 

Buy from Amazon.com  Buy from Amazon.in
Buy the Kindle  version
(Anybody can read Kindle books—even without a Kindle device—with the FREE Kindle app for smartphones and tablets.)

Emotionomics - Dan Hill

Leveraging Emotions for Business Success

For far too long, emotions have been ignored in favor of rationality and efficiency.  

Breakthroughs in brain science have revealed that people are primarily emotional decision-makers.  

Many companies have not yet accepted that fact, ignoring emotion in favor of rationality and efficiency.  

Even fewer have acted on it.

 

Emotionomics looks at emotions in terms of business opportunities, both in the marketplace and in the workplace. 

In today's highly competitive marketplace where many products look alike, a product's emotional benefit can make the difference.  

Moreover, a company with an emotionally engaged workforce will undoubtedly achieve competitive advantage.

 

Dan Hill's book draws on insights gathered through facial coding, the single best viable means of measuring and managing the emotional response of customers and employees. 

It shows how to leverage emotions for business success in branding, product design, advertising, sales, customer satisfaction, leadership, and employee management.

 

Emotions matter, and this book will help readers not only step closer to customers and employees, but also to step ahead of competitors.

 [Book Description Source: www.amazon.com]

Table of Contents
 

Part One: Why emotions matter
The new mental model - Overview, Science: the meaning of a three-part brain,Psychology: balancing blind instinct with growth,Economics: plugging emotions into the equation  

The science of facial coding- Overview,The challenge: when words along fail us,Origins and scope: why and how facial coding works, Deliverables: facial coding in practice  

Emotions and motivations- Overview, Contextualizing emotions: how feelings fuel behaviour, Motivations: what spurs us on,The Emotionomics Matrix: introducing a strategic model  

 

Part Two: Marketplace applications Branding - Overview, Reflected beliefs: keep consumers’ values in view,Belonging: where status and security meet,Telling a story: selling familiarity and comfort, Conclusion  

Offer design, packaging and usability- Overview, Winning superiority: nurturing a ‘wow’, Sensory payoff: the way to the heart,Functional fulfilment: joy not frustration,Conclusion Advertising- Overview, Being absorbing: what stopping power entails,The invisible line: why knowing the target market matters,Reassurance: defusing skepticism,Conclusion  

Sales - Overview, Commitment: adopting a relationship model, Unity: staying in step with the prospect, Interwoven rewards: creating a ‘we’ mentality, Conclusion  

Retail and service- Overview, Respectfulness: enabling efficiency, Engagement: bringing back delight, Reassurance: proving oneself right, Conclusion  

 

Part Three: Workplace applications Leadership - Overview, The greater good: why character matters, Clear vision: forward thinking and feeling, Cohesive culture: bringing everyone along, Conclusion  

Employee management - Overview Compatibility: identifying what works Reciprocating trust: avoid disconnects Mission critical: inspiring a questing mentality Conclusion

Goodreads Rating - 3.48 out of 5 (40 Ratings, 3 Reviews)

My Rating:  3 out of 5. 

Buying Options 
 

Buy from Amazon.com  Buy from Amazon.in
Buy the Kindle  version
(Anybody can read Kindle books—even without a Kindle device—with the FREE Kindle app for smartphones and tablets.)

Inbound Marketing

Authors:     Brian Halligan, Dharmesh Shah

Published:  2010

Publisher:  John Wiley and Sons

Hardcover: 250 Pages

Buy from Flipkart

The traditional way of marketing is Outbound Marketing where the businesses bombard the prospects with promotional brochures, TV advertisements,  spam mails, telemarketing calls and so on. The authors are of the opinion that  the prospects have become smart enough to avoid such interruptions and get the information they need through online searches. In this book they propose Inbound Marketing as a solution to this problem. Inbound Marketing is all about the businesses creating an effective online presence which results in their "getting found"  by the prospects (vs searching for prospects) through online searches and social media sites like Facebook, LinkedIn etc.

The book consists of  four parts.

Part I - Inbound Marketing

This part stresses the need for matching the way one markets the product with the way the prospects learn about and shop for that product. This can be done through inbound marketing. First and foremost the website of the business must change its marketing mode from a one-way sales message to a collaborative hub for its  marketplace. 

They should  focus on creating communities outside of their web site for people to connect with them and others within the community. 

This “outside” focus will drive people back to the website of the business. 

This involves adding some collaborative tools like a blog and creating lots of compelling content (not  overt sales pitches) which people want to consume. 

This should be followed by creating a presence in  Google,industry blogs, and social media sites. 

Through internet one can  reach many more prospects and much more quickly as compared to traditional mode of communication. 

To take advantage of such a reach and speed, one should think beyond the competitors and create alternatives to conventional marketing. 

Also one should strive to offer the best product/service within the market.

Part II - Get Found by the Prospects

This part offers umpteen number of  useful ideas, tips, tools and techniques for creating a remarkable content and getting discovered in blogosphere, in Google through Search Engine Optimization (SEO) and in social media sites like Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, Digg, StumbleUpon and YouTube.

Part III - Converting Customers

Visitors drawn to the business website need to be converted into leads by encouraging them through some compelling call-to-action to further engage with the business.

Good calls-to-action  involves giving them helpful and useful information to enable them to do their job better or improve their job prospects. 

This can be asking them to register or subscribe for free Webinars, White papers or reports, short consultation sessions, demos, or trial offer etc.

This part also talks about  various ways of nurturing the leads to convert them into customers.

Part IV - Make Better Decisions

Better marketing investment decisions can be made using the Marketing Funnel technique introduced in this part  to define various levels - prospect, lead, opportunity, and customers - and measuring the conversion rates to  calculate the Return on Investment (ROI) of various marketing channels. 

This part also advises the reader on how to hire  marketing staff  and PR agencies for inbound marketing.

Tools to keep tabs on the competition are also dealt in this part.

Finally the book concludes by reinforcing that age of inbound marketing has dawned and the days of outbound marketing are over. 

However inbound marketing requires commitment, patience and continuous learning. The benefits will be slow in coming initially but the floodgates will be opened once the tipping point is reached.

The book consists of 16 short chapters written in a very simple and easy to understand language, illustrated with several real life examples. In every chapter there are recommended measurements to track the progress in inbound marketing journey.

The chapters also have short case studies in inbound marketing. 

These case studies covered  include - the presidential campaign of Barack Obama, the music group The Grateful Dead, Wikipedia, and Google.

As a bonus there is a fairly comprehensive list of 26 Inbound Marketing tips for the Startups.

Overall a very good introduction to Inbound Marketing..

Useful Links:

• Inbound Marketing - Wikipedia Entry
• Hubspot - Website of the company founded by the authors.