Be Inspired

Purple Cow - Transform your business by being remarkable!

Seth Godin

Serial entrepreneur and author Seth Godin defines the execution of a great product as the ‘purple cow’. Yet after generating a steady revenue stream we default to ‘playing it safe’ and fail to prioritise new ideas. He showcases businesses that think in new ways by ‘going for the edges’ and how to better attract ‘sneezers’ (your early adopters). This is a great book for anyone interested in thinking practically about continuing to iterate the customer and  employee experience. 

Ctrl Alt Del 

Mitch Joel

This book encouraged me to ‘make it happen’ and took me way out of my comfort zone. You could easily assume that this book was written for a post-COVID world yet it was first published in 2013. Joel says that failing to take ownership for yourself will lead you to being unemployable within the next five years. He stresses that businesses should obsess about data and make themselves ‘one screen friendly’. A must read for anyone that seeks excitement from making their product or service offerings simplistic & irresistible.

Irresistible

Adam Alter

Why is the game ‘Candy Crush’ so addictive? Why are marathon runners so desperate to finish a marathon in less than four hours? This is a revolutionary book by Adam Alter. A Professor of Psychology and Marketing based in New York, Alter digs deep to explore and dissect just how businesses tap into our personalities in pursuit of making their product offerings so addictive to customers. The book itself is addictive and hard to put down. Alter professes that there is an ‘addict’ component in each of us, companies simply do a great job of tapping into that whilst triggering our internal happiness and craving for more along the way. He dedicates an entire chapter to our fixation with goal setting, how many of us make numerous sacrifices for the promise of long-term success only to be left disappointed post completion. He articulates a strong case that suggests that we instead reach a greater sense of accomplishment through easy to see progress. Alter provides his definition of ‘reverse engineering behavioural addiction’ and how we can leverage these products to help us communicate and set boundaries for the good of our well-being.

Rebel Ideas - The Power of Diverse Thinking 

Matthew Syed

The Sunday Times No. 1 bestseller by a superb journalist, speaker and consultant based in London. Rebel Ideas writes in a fluent non-directive style encouraging the reader to reflect on both his perspectives and studies throughout his book. He divides ‘Rebel Ideas’ in to seven chapters. Syed demonstrates superb thought leadership. There are several themes that encourage the reader to ask ourselves why we often subconsciously conform. He talks not just about the psychology of this but shares some tragic, real life consequences of doing just that. I most enjoyed his perspectives about what he defines as a group of rebels vs a group of clones, his perspectives about constructive dissent and the consequent tragedies affiliated with our ability to innovate. This is a thought provoking work of art that would serve numerous team, businesses and groups as a practical resource to continuously revisit as they seek to improve both collectively and individually.

WORK RULES!

Lasloz Bock

 “We spend more time working than doing anything else in life – it’s not right that the experience of work should be so demotivating and dehumanising”. Laszlo Bock launches both barrels in this popular book. Bock professes that Tech giant Google ask their 135,000 employees to come to work as you are and harness your full potential. He says all businesses must make their Board and Executive team accessible to all employees (I wonder how many businesses are brave enough to make that happen?) Bock believes all employees should be encouraged to think like Founders and that employees should feel empowered to help create the type of business that they want to work for. He expands on this point much further in the chapter 6, ‘Let the inmates run the asylum’. He says that the best thing about Google is that they are quite happy for every global business to copy their ideas. Put simply this book is a masterpiece, the common thread throughout being that an employee centric business isn’t hard to replicate and done successfully will reap countless opportunities that transform how we can all live and lead.