Management-Business – Page 13 – Scott J. Pearson’s Book Review

No More Teams! Mastering the Dynamics of Creative Collaboration

By Scott J. Pearson | November 21, 2021November 21, 2021 by Scott J. Pearson

I wanted to read this book because I frequently saw it cited in contemporary business and management books. It talks at length about how to foster creative collaboration through the use of technology. It presaged a vision of a workplace with abundant computerized interactions. More impressively, it did so without foreseeing most of the impact of the Internet. Of course, the technologies described in this book are dated. Indeed, most of them are now in…

Management-Business Research-Education Writing-Communication

The Only Grant-Writing Book You’ll Ever Need

By Scott J. Pearson | November 13, 2021November 13, 2021 by Scott J. Pearson

Many small businesses, non-profits, individual researchers, and larger institutions depend on grants to fund their activities and livelihoods. Whether from private foundations or governmental entities, these funds are given through a competitive process. Through market forces, this process seeks to align funders’ desires with projects that achieve results. This book seeks to demystify this process and provide readers with a “leg up” to write better grant proposals. Karsh and Fox’s work is primarily geared towards…

Economics Management-Business Religion-Philosophy

The Black Swan: The Impact of the Highly Improbable

By Scott J. Pearson | October 17, 2021October 17, 2021 by Scott J. Pearson

For my job, I work in a technical field with high-level people in medical research who make important decisions that impact many. Thus, though I am not a primary decision-maker, anything I can do to better understand their mindsets and the impact of their decisions benefits my organization and my career. It is with this perspective that I approach this book. In it, Taleb uses a rare philosophical approach to business by addressing how we…

Biography-Memoir History Leadership

Lyndon Johnson and the American Dream by Doris Kearns Goodwin

By Scott J. Pearson | September 6, 2021September 24, 2024 by Scott J. Pearson

Former US President Lyndon Johnson is one of the more difficult to understand presidents. He reached the heights of politics through an assassination. He changed America permanently through the Civil Rights Acts of 1964-5. Pragmatically, he attempted to build a nation based on equal opportunity through the Great Society. He had an unparalleled genius for administrative leadership in the Senate and Oval Office. Yet he led the nation down a horrific course in Vietnam and…

Management-Business

Decision Making Essentials: You Always Wanted to Know

By Scott J. Pearson | July 13, 2021July 13, 2021 by Scott J. Pearson

The Self-Learning Management Series aims to educate those new to the responsibilities of management, likely coming from other fields. This book does a yeoman’s job at providing exposure to foundational concepts about decision making in business. It’s like a textbook, except a bit briefer and a bit more accessible (in other words, less academic). Koscinski, a professor of business, summarizes current thought about decision-making. Helpfully, Koscinski keeps current with the state of thought by mixing…

Economics Management-Business Research-Education

Monetizing Innovation

By Scott J. Pearson | June 19, 2021June 19, 2021 by Scott J. Pearson

Research and development (known colloquially as R&D) is an inevitability of capitalist markets. New innovations usually outpace yesterday’s technologies. However, many R&D products fail to transition from development to the marketplace. In this work, Ramanujam and Tacke suggest that many of the failures can be avoided by proper management of pricing prior to the start of the project. In truth, this work is an in-depth look at how to set the price of an innovation.…

Biography-Memoir History Leadership

Wilson by A. Scott Berg

By Scott J. Pearson | June 1, 2021September 24, 2024 by Scott J. Pearson

Both Woodrow Wilson and World War I are generally overlooked by American historians because FDR and World War II tends to overshadow them. However, as Berg makes clear, both set the stage for the American century by transforming an isolationist country into the dominant player on the world stage. The son of a Presbyterian minister and a university president, US President Woodrow Wilson led America into this change. Although Congress never accepted his major creation…

Leadership Psychology

The Imposter Cure

By Scott J. Pearson | June 1, 2021September 24, 2024 by Scott J. Pearson

Many people stroll through life feeling like they don’t deserve the good life that they have. They feel like an imposter and may expressly label themselves as such. When they receive compliments or praise, they reflexively deflect them by explaining that they were just lucky or that they have good helpers. Some explain that this was only due to their religion or family. Unfortunately, these statements tend to minimize one’s own appreciation of the talent…

Management-Business Software-Technology

Agile Essentials: You Always Wanted to Know

By Scott J. Pearson | May 23, 2021May 23, 2021 by Scott J. Pearson

I’ve worked as a software developer in Agile environments since around 2014 and have enjoyed the productivity and quality gains that this paradigm provides. This workplace loosely implements Agile and accomplishes amazing feats of productivity. In this book, Ashar distills Agile concepts into easy-to-read chunks that can be quickly implemented. This book empowers managers to organize their team’s work more effectively so that customers can benefit more readily. Ashar begins this guide by stating that…

Management-Business Research-Education Software-Technology

Accelerate: The Science of Lean Software and DevOps

By Scott J. Pearson | April 19, 2021April 19, 2021 by Scott J. Pearson

DevOps, roughly speaking, seeks to get IT workers to interact with each other more – particularly when they are in different functional roles. Authors Humble and Kim have led this movement and pioneered annual studies to ascertain its progress among practitioners of technology. In this book, they team together with Forsgren (a PhD who brings a rigorous knowledge of statistics and data collection to the table) to present their findings and explain their methods. IT…