George Stalk, a renowned strategist and senior partner of The Boston Consulting Group, says too many leaders are suffering from information overload. “I can tell a client is in trouble when the senior executives don’t even have time to sit down and talk to me about the business,” Stalk says. “They don’t even have time to think.” Presumably, those same leaders don’t have time to read, either. That’s why Stalk set out to write a “readable strategy book.” Weighing in at a mere 116 pages, 5 Future Strategies You Need Right Now (Harvard Business Press) offers Stalk’s insights on what will be the real “game changers” in the coming years. The book, which is part of Harvard Business School’s “Memo to the CEO” series, delivers a quick read designed to help executives take a second look at their current business strategies. Stalk sat down with Joe Kornik, Consulting magazine’s editor-in-chief, to discuss the book.
Relevance Hitting Your Goals By Knowing What Matters David Apgar Jossey-Bass, $27.95, 205 pages
Where would the consulting industry be without logical solutions to problems? Thanks in part to David Apgar, the world may never know. Apgar is the managing director of the Corporate Executive Board’s finance practices. His new book, Relevance, demonstrates his proficiency in the field as it aims to help readers target which data are important. “The information revolution is drawing to a close as our expanding information resources bury decisions under ever higher piles of conflicting data,” reads Apgar’s introduction. The reason for this devolving? Relevance, he says, is being neglected. To further demonstrate his views on accelerating learning and making decisions, he offers real-world examples from business such as Toyota and Capital One. Their inclusion only serves to make the tome more, well, relevant.
About five years ago, some executives with Booz Allen Hamilton were trying to come up with an official firmwide stance on globalization. They discovered that much had been written to define globalization, but there was nothing that took the next step to ask: What now? Those discussions turned into the book Megacommunities: How Leaders of Government, Business and Non-Profits Can Tackle Today’s Global Challenges Together by Booz Allen’s Mark Gerencser, senior vice president, Fernando Napolitano, vice president and managing director, Reginald Van Lee, senior vice president and Christopher Kelly, vice president. Consulting magazine sat down with Gerencser, Napolitano and Van Lee to discuss the book.
Why Women Mean Business Understanding the Emergence of Our Next Economic Revolution Avivah Wittenberg-Cox and Alison Maitland 349 pages, $34.95, Wiley Gender’s evolving role in the business world, say Avivah Wittenberg-Cox and Alison Maitland, is a topic that needs to be addressed—but hasn’t. Wittenberg-Cox, CEO of gender consultancy 20-First, and Maitland, a journalist, did their homework on the topic: They talked to CEOs and government officials throughout the world to find out their perceptions of the effect women have on global economies. The authors say this is a crucial topic to explore as women increasingly dominate the talent pool and make the bulk of consumer purchases. To help the genders co-exist, they developed a managerial plan that incorporates the best of both genders, and, in finding gender harmony in their own tome, reached out to Michael Kimmel, professor of sociology at the State University of New York. Kimmel clearly sees the value in Wittenberg-Cox and Maitland’s book, calling women’s entry into the workforce the “single greatest transformation of the labor force in European and American history.” Apparently, women really do mean business.
The following is an excerpt from Mass Career Customization: Aligning the Workplace With Today’s Nontraditional Workforce (Harvard Business School Press) by Deloitte Consulting’s Cathleen Benko and Anne Weisberg.
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