I love learning through stories, especially business novels which give me time to sink into someone else's world.
Here are two business novels which I've recently read and enjoyed.
- The Dream Manager by Matthew Kelly is a short business novel about a company which reduces its absenteeism hugely and increases its staff's satisfaction by helping its staff discover then achieve their dreams. Despite my "business speak" synopsis this is a moving and powerful book. I read it in just a few hours, I buy into the ideas (in fact, I try to live the ideas to a certain extent), and I love how Kelly managed to make his case both emotionally and in business terms. Very nice book. Worth every penny.
[Oh, and if you google the author and are put off by his religious writing, don't be.] - Never Mind the Sizzle...Where's the Sausage: Branding based on substance not spin by David Taylor is about a pragmatic sorta guy who cuts through all the marketing hype to rescue a sausage company and learns all about branding based on the sausage rather than the sizzle. Again, my synopsis doesn't do this book justice. I'm becoming increasingly interested in marketing (it's the one thing we software people really, really, really suck at and distrust) and this book is one of the best introductions to marketing / branding / selling I've ever read. The author shows us a pragmatic approach to marketing and wraps it up in an enjoyable story. He's written a couple of text books and I'm going to sample at least one of them shortly. And, just like The Dream Manager, it's an easy read.
[Take a look at David Taylor's weblog too: http://wheresthesausage.typepad.com/my_weblog/]
