12 books to read for 2012

Personal growth gurus and career coaches that we have had the privilege to talk to have all recommended that managers or leaders should read a book a week. Now, we hardly have time to read through all the sifted e-mail that my inbox software marks as “important,” “priority” or non-spam, more so 52 books a year! Come on.

OK, so maybe it is time that we take up a speed-reading course. But to be sure, and not to overwhelm, perhaps a book a month would be fair game?

In preparing our list, we scoured what is being recommended by book reviewers, marketing bloggers, and schools. We even e-mailed our marketing colleagues and asked for their reading list. After gathering the recommendations, here’s what’s on our “To Read” list this year. What’s on yours? (Disclosure: none of these books were sent to us for review by the publisher or by any bookstore.)

1. Speed Reading by Tony Buzan (BBC Publishing)

Well, why not start with this? There’s an explosion of books, blogs, articles, reports, white papers, novels to read on iPad, Kindle, etc., etc., etc. that are begging for your attention. If you haven’t taken one of those Prosec Speed Reading courses, you can opt for the strategies and tips that Mind Mapping founder (and founder of the World Memory Championships) Tony Buzan recommends. (Disclosure: the junior Rx’s company has the license to teach Tony Buzan’s Mind Mapping courses, but does not get any royalties from the sales of his books here in the Philippines.)

2. Steve Jobs by Walter Isaacson

We usually don’t join bandwagons, but there are good reasons why this book is the number one overall best-selling book of 2011 even though it was released only in October 2011. That includes Amazon, The New York Times list, and yes, National Bookstore. (The sales lady at National says, “We can’t count anymore the number of Steve Jobs books we’ve sold!”) The junior Rx got his copy as a Christmas gift from his sweet wife, Tingting, and couldn’t put it down. (Was just going to go for the shortest chapter before going to sleep at 11 p.m. and put it down at 1:30 a.m.)

Isaacson does a great job in writing the book and getting out of the way, so to speak. Jobs is a control freak but he gave enormous freedom to the author, Isaacson. The value in this book (aside from the “Insider” show type of glimpses of how Job’s was in his personal life—surprising how he and his wife were into PDA—public display of affection) as a marketer and businessman is the rich insight on how Jobs drove deals and drove himself and his teams to create great PRODUCT first.

Profit was not Jobs’ motivator. (He believed profit would follow.) He was not a believer in market research per se, but relied on his adept, almost prophetic reading of what consumers WOULD want and got a great kick out of it. The inside story of how Pixar’s first movie, Toy Story, came to be reads like a suspense novel. This chapter is worth the price of the book already. Can’t wait to read the rest of this big book.

These next two are recommended by blogger Joshua Duncan, at www.aRandomJog.com (Where Product is the New Marketing). We’ve put these on our list as well.

3. Thinking, Fast and Slow by Daniel Kahneman

It was selected as one of the best books of 2011 by Amazon.

Here’s an excerpt from the book description: “In the highly anticipated Thinking, Fast and Slow, Kahneman takes us on a groundbreaking tour of the mind and explains the two systems that drive the way we think. System 1 is fast, intuitive, and emotional; System 2 is slower, more deliberative, and more logical. Kahneman exposes the extraordinary capabilities—and also the faults and biases-of fast thinking, and reveals the pervasive influence of intuitive impressions on our thoughts and behavior.

4. Data-Driven Marketing: The 15 Metrics Everyone in Marketing Should Know by Mark Jeffery

Here’s an excerpt from the book description:

“We live in budget-cutting times, and marketing budgets are among the first to get cut. Why? When non-marketing executives take a hard look at the numbers, they often can’t see a tangible link between marketing and overall revenue. So if you’re a marketer today, you’re probably facing the need to do more with less, justify all investments, show results, and still beat the competition. The secret to this balancing act is having-and correctly using-the numbers.

Recommended books 5 to 8 were submitted to us by the young visionary and social entrepreneur Jay Jaboneta, who recently spoke at TEDxMontpellier in France about his Yellow Boat project that has helped thousands of poor students in Zamboanga get to school on yellow boats (whereas they were literally swimming to school before!) Here are his recommendations:

5. The Starfish and The Spider, The Unstoppable Power of Leaderless Organizations by Ori Brafman and Rod Beckstrom

The concept of leaderless organizations in The Starfish and The Spider will blow your mind away. Can your organization function without leaders? No? Learn it from this book.

6. Mavericks at Work (Why the Most Original Minds in Business Win) by Bill Taylor and Polly LeBarre

Again for those of you who may not be familiar, Bill Taylor is Alan M. Webber’s co-founder in Fast Company magazine. They are invariably the two most fascinating writers and authors of our age.

Though Mavericks at Work didn’t become a global phenomenon as The Tipping Point, we believe the book has clearly illustrated many of the shining examples of companies who have blazed an amazing trail in business history.

Mavericks at Work shows companies who have blazed new pathways to business success. Reinvention or, as Tom Peters would have it, re-imagination is at the core of any innovative and highly successful company.

Are you blazing new trails? Are you a maverick?

7. Reality Check: The Irreverent Guide to Outsmarting, Outmanaging, and Outmarketing Your Competition by Guy Kawasaki

This book hands down is the start-up bible. We deeply encourage every entrepreneur out there who is starting out and even those who have already started to buy the book, read it in one sitting, read it again, read it some more and then apply it. And then read it some more. It is probably better to read it together with his other amazing book The Art of the Start.

And Reality Check really offers many solutions to the challenges that every starting entrepreneur faces.

It is not only a guide-to book but also a great source of inspiration.  Guy’s blog entitled “How to Change the World” is a good addition to this book.

Are you ready to make meaning?  To change the world?

8. Rules of Thumb, 52 Truths for Winning at Business without Losing Your Self by Alan M. Webber

On top of the list is Alan M. Webber’s Rules of Thumb. It might surprise you but definitely Alan Webber has helped revolutionize both the old and new.

In the last 20 years, he has transformed the Harvard Business Review and made it shine. And after that, he co-founded with Bill Taylor the new magazine of the century, Fast Company. This is not an overstatement.

Fast Company is one of the most innovative news publishers in the world today. It has invariably become a hotbed for journalistic creativity having one of the largest contributors from the expert blogging and Internet community.

Alan Webber’s book describes not a new world order but rather a new world reality where old practices need to be redefined and re-invented creatively. Alan Webber as a global detective (as he likes to call himself) has become sort of a trendspotter who has laid for us some of the most interesting rules we will ever read about.

He talks about Teachers Are Everywhere and Good Questions Always Beat Good Answers. In fact, this is old news, but no one has laid it down perfectly as Alan Webber today.

His book is a great guide and very handy for any business or business leader as you take up the challenge of crafting a strategy that can captivate your consumers’ minds.

Are you spotting the megatrends in your industry? How about the microtrends?

We wanted to reserve the rest of the list (9 to 12) for business books written by Filipino authors. And then we realized that the pickings were quite slim. It’s still the “usual suspects” writing books. So here’s a shout out to Filipino business leaders, professors, and entrepreneurs to start becoming authors! We want to read your stories and insights. (By the way, if we may plug our Project Author 2.1 Tuesday night course designed to mentor and guide aspiring authors to write, publish and launch their books. Send an e-mail to [email protected] for inquiries.)

The next recommended title/s are from the dynamic husband and wife duo, Chiqui and Josiah Go. Yes, one of the perennial “usual suspects” who come out with new books every year. (Disclosure: Chiqui and Josiah are friends of ours but the number of books that they have sold speaks for itself.)

9.  Small Store Marketing by Chiqui Escareal-Go. This is the first-ever book in Taglish (Tagalog-English) for the small stores, popularly known as “Sari-sari” stores in the Philippines with 25,000 copies sold in 2011.

It’s been on the top five National Bookstore bestsellers list as well. In November of 2011 we featured Small Store Marketing in this column and listed down the seven principles (e.g. Grow without cannibalizing existing sales, convert from functional to emotional) that small store owners could implement to make their businesses sustainable and prosper. Though it was meant for a specific niche, the insights and principles should be relevant to all marketers. Read this together with Josiah Go and Chiqui Go’s Fundamentals of Marketing in the Philippine Setting (2/e). As always, Chiqui and Josiah make the lessons relevant by providing a treasure trove of stories and case studies of successful Philippine brands and businesses.

We are out of space, so we’ll continue next Friday. This will also give me the chance to search and review for more books written by Filipinos. Though there are only three slots left to round off the recommended dozen books for 2012, we can add a few more titles to the list especially if they come from our readers. (Who knows, after you’ve read the Speed Reading book, you can expand your list to 24 or 52!)

Send us your recommended reading list via e-mail: [email protected] or [email protected]. Happy reading and God bless!