Management-Business – Page 14 – Scott J. Pearson’s Book Review

Artificial Intelligence for Managers

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

For decades, followers of technology have touted the value of Artificial Intelligence (AI) in computing. Some present a utopian future; others present a dystopian future. In this work, Upadhyay presents a realistic assessment of what’s inevitably coming. He overviews the essential parts of the technology – like convoluted neural networks or K-nearest-neighbor mapping – and then speculates on their business value. At 178 pages, this work does not waste unnecessary words. It instead provides a…

Start With Why: How Great Leaders Inspire Everyone to Take Action

By Scott J. Pearson | April 11, 2021September 24, 2024 by Scott J. Pearson

Most people engage the world passionately through labor of some kind, only to lose their sense of purpose with time. Work becomes repetitive, and new outlets become sparse. In this book, Sinek suggests that great leaders continually re-engage with why they are doing what they do. They articulate their vision and systematize their effects in organization. By scaling their purpose, the best leaders inspire others to amplify their purpose for positive (and measurable) outcomes. Now,…

Management-Business

The Incredible Value of Employee Power Unleashed

By Scott J. Pearson | February 14, 2021February 14, 2021 by Scott J. Pearson

The author of this book is someone who has spent most of his life in the hotel industry. He is passionate about the value of employee satisfaction and seemingly has made it to be the cornerstone of his professional philosophy. He shares that passion with readers in the context of this book. By supplying copious personal examples, he attempts to get the reader interested in his perspective on business and specifically management. However, his writing…

Management-Business

Getting Things Done: The Art of Stress-Free Productivity

By Scott J. Pearson | December 28, 2020December 28, 2020 by Scott J. Pearson

My boss is so much a fan of this book that she gave it to me free this month. She reads it every year in pursuit of further mastery of her work and life. Although the obvious application is to the realm of employment, Allen’s approach is applicable to one’s personal/private life and even to stay-at-home parents. It’s about keeping the “projects” in one’s life moving forward without causing stress. Allen’s system runs off on…

Biography-Memoir History Leadership Politics

Leadership: In Turbulent Times by Doris Kearns Goodwin

By Scott J. Pearson | December 26, 2020September 24, 2024 by Scott J. Pearson

In this work, Goodwin charts the lives of four influential US Presidents – Abraham Lincoln, Teddy Roosevelt, Franklin Delano Roosevelt, and Lyndon Johnson. Having written leading biographies previously of each of these, she combines her insights to profile the character of leadership, at least in an American form. She distills prior deep study of these presidents into an interwoven narrative that highlights how their personal narratives enabled them to meet the challenges of their times…

Management-Business Software-Technology

Guide to Software Projects for Business People

By Scott J. Pearson | November 14, 2020November 14, 2020 by Scott J. Pearson

The business of making software is fairly unique. Software does not follow a traditional assembly-line process, but still borrows from many sources of theory to guide its production. Some projects follow a “waterfall” plan, and others follow an “agile” methodology; a wide array of differently named tests populates discussions. Crosby seeks to unify disparate voices such as these in one place and so to inform us of the business-side of software development. The author is…

Management-Business Science

Diversity in the Workplace: Eye-Opening Interviews to Jumpstart Conversations about Identity, Privilege, and Bias

By Scott J. Pearson | September 30, 2020September 30, 2020 by Scott J. Pearson

Issues exposing unconscious bias have gripped my home country, the United States of America. Books like this help us address these issues in quiet pages before they escalate onto the street. Williams collects interviews from a diverse group of people in the workplace. Together, these can serve as ways for workers to understand their colleagues nearby. She groups these interviews into five parts: Race, women, LGBTQ+, age and ability, and religion and culture. The latter…

Biography-Memoir History Leadership

His Truth is Marching On: John Lewis and the Power of Hope

By Scott J. Pearson | September 6, 2020September 24, 2024 by Scott J. Pearson

The recently deceased congressman John Lewis has been a public light to the United States for over fifty years. Nicknamed “the conscience of Congress,” he courageously campaigned for civil rights since a college student in Nashville. The author Jon Meacham, surely one of America’s greatest biographers, writes this history of Lewis’ doings in the 1960s. With extreme acuity, gravity, and imagery, he captures what the civil rights movement resembled on the inside. In so doing,…

Management-Business Research-Education

Managing the Research University by Dean O. Smith

By Scott J. Pearson | July 23, 2020July 23, 2020 by Scott J. Pearson

In traditional Oxford University Press fashion, this book communicates an “all you need to know” about being a Chief Research Officer at a research university. It attempts to catalogue the disparate parts of administering research. Much of the knowledge and wisdom in this field is broken up into different segments – like legal, administrative/management, marketing, and laboratory. This book attempts to bring all of this information into one place based off of sweat-earned experience. Research…

Cybersecurity Management-Business Software-Technology

Cybersecurity: Insights You Need from Harvard Business Review

By Scott J. Pearson | July 16, 2020November 23, 2024 by Scott J. Pearson

As an IT professional, I do not reside in the intended audience of this book. It is geared towards business leaders, not software developers. It provides a high-level and non-technical overview of the field of cybersecurity. Through several authors, it makes the case that cybersecurity cannot be overlooked by all C-suite executives, even in non-technology-based companies. That case is underscored by the direct impact cybersecurity has on a business’ bottom line. Having in-depth technical experience…