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.


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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.


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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. 

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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. 

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(Anybody can read Kindle books—even without a Kindle device—with the FREE Kindle app for smartphones and tablets.)

What The Customer Wants You To Know

Author:      Ram Charan

Published: 2007

Publisher:  Penguin Group

Hardcover: 192 pages

Buy from Flipkart
This book by Ram Charan, an internationally acclaimed management consultant, is primarily targeted at Sales function in organizations.

The book highlights what is wrong with conventional approach of selling in most of the organizations. Sales force interacts mainly with customer’s purchasing department and the entire sales discussion revolves around price.

As per Ram Charan this alone will not ensure a healthy top-line growth of an organization. He proposes an approach called Value Creation Selling (VCS) . VCS requires putting more effort in learning about the customer's business and even customer's customer's business in great detail. The more a company knows about its customers, better it will be at identifying their concerns and devising products and services that will help address them.

The best approach for getting to know more about your customer's business is to put in all efforts to become his trusted partner. In fact becoming a trusted partner to the customers was the vision of the company which I once worked for and my CEO made it a point to enthusiastically talk about it in almost every communication of his (Company: Digital GlobalSoft, CEO: Som Mittal, currently the President of NASSCOM)

In this book, Ram Charan tells how to become trusted partner of your customers by understanding - their  business opportunities and their competition; how decisions are made in their organization; their company culture, its dominant psychology and values ; their goals and priorities both short-term and long-term, clearly and specifically.

Having gained the customer trust, the next step is to prepare a Value  Account Plan (VAP) and present it to customers. VAP is an indispensable document that defines the value proposition and the business benefits the customer can expect to get from it. The author provides a template for VAP and explains how to go about creating it. He also provides guidance on how to prepare and make a pitch using VAP.

The book also discusses how to create and sustain a  sales force which implements VCS . The author recommends that recruiting and training for sales should focus on people who have a fundamental grasp of business acumen and are inclined to be team players and team leaders. He also stresses the role the Top Management needs to play in sustaining the VCS process by promoting a culture where all employees proactively think in terms of meeting the customer's need and work collaboratively with the sales force. In addition to this sustaining VCS will also involve establishing  multiple functional contact points between the company and its customer, incorporating post-sale servicing in the process and maintaining confidentiality of information shared by the customer.
Ram Charan firmly believes VCS is the way an organization should adopt to get ahead of its competition for it fosters stronger customer relationships and results in long-term rewards in terms of market share and revenue.

An excellent introduction to VCS  in a concise and easy to read format! Recommended for anyone who is in the selling business. This literally means everyone in an organization as per VCS !