New Books in Business, Management, and Marketing

When John Sloan was growing up in a small town in rural Texas, he learned at a very early age what it takes to become a successful entrepreneur. John’s dad ran the local grocery store, and ever since he can remember, his father taught him by his own example the importance of a having a strong work ethic.

It was a lesson John has lived by ever since.

His path to becoming an entrepreneur, however, wasn’t a typical one. Very early in his career, he served as the president of The Thompson Companies, the family who founded the 7-11 chain of convenience stores. Not bad for someone still in his 30s.

Later, he left the corporate world to test his entrepreneurial skills. After a brief stint investing in IT companies during the Internet bubble, he realized Internet companies weren’t for him. As a result, he focused on companies others weren’t interested in at the time—businesses he refers to as “your average well-run firms with good management, real value, and strong growth potential.”

The decision proved to be a smart one. Today, John runs John Sloan & Co., a boutique investment firm in Dallas. He is also president of GlobalScope, a worldwide network of 55 independent firms with over 10,000 completed private company deals to date.

Don’t miss this exciting podcast. John’s story is an inspiration to anyone who wants to succeed.

About our guest:

John Sloan has worked in the financial sector for more than three decades. From the very beginning, he has been passionate about helping people succeed by finding smart financial solutions for everyone involved.

John has worked with some of the world’s largest public companies, sophisticated private equity investors, talented colleagues, and many valued relationships on both a domestic and international basis.

Today, he also serves as the President of GlobalScope, an international network of 55 independent M&A firms serving over 1000 clients in 48 countries.

About NBN:

The NBN Entrepreneurship and Leadership podcast aims to educate, inform and entertain, sharing insights based on the personal stories of carefully selected guests—all in an informal atmosphere of unscripted conversations and open, personal accounts.

Find links to past episodes here.

About our Hosts:

Kimon Fountoukidis:

Kimon is the founder of both Argos Multilingual and PMR.

He founded both companies in the mid-90s with zero capital, and both have gone on to become market leaders in their respective sectors.

Kimon was born in New York and moved to Krakow, Poland in 1993. He is passionate about sharing his success with others and working entrepreneurs of all kinds to help them achieve their goals. Listen to his story here. On Twitter. On LinkedIn.

Richard Lucas:

Richard is a business and social entrepreneur who has founded or invested in more than 30 businesses, including Argos Multilingual, PMR and, in 2020, the New Books Network.

Richard has been a TEDx event organiser for years, supports the pro-entrepreneurship ecosystem, and leads entrepreneurship workshops at all levels. He was born in Oxford and moved to Poland in 1991, where continues to invest in promising companies and helps other entrepreneurs realise their dreams.

Listen to his story in an autobiographical TEDx talk. On Twitter. On LinkedIn.

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I recently caught up with the very busy David Erlichman, co-founder and coordinator of the Converge network (www.converge.net), about his fantastic book Impact Networks: Creating Connection, Sparking Collaboration, and Catalyzing Systemic Change (Berrett-Koehler, 2021). Solving complex problems like climate change or homelessness demands intense collaboration between diverse organizations and individuals. In his book, David argues that a network approach combines the strategic rigor and agility of modern organizations with the deep connection and shared purpose of communities.

Drawing on his experience working with over fifty impact networks over the past decade, David describes how to cultivate a network mentality. He then goes deeply into the five Cs of creating impact networks: * clarify purpose and principles * convene the people * cultivate trust * coordinate actions * collaborate for systems change. Given the increasing urgency of the issues we face, impact networks have never been more essential.

What I love about this book—and what I enjoyed so much about our conversation—is the opportunity for exploring the potential of human networks (and networks of networks!) to bring about significant systemic change. On the relationship between systems and networks, David writes that "the networks that underlie systems—organizational, social, planetary—have a huge influence on how healthy and effective these systems are". I enjoyed getting to ask David about his thoughts on network leadership—and what it means for this work to be grounded in the wisdom of living systems.

Throughout this rich and highly useful book, David points to some valuable resources within the Converge Network Toolkit. I've checked them out and suggest you do too! You can find them here.

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Some people just seem to have all the luck, and Robin Bennett is one of them.

Robin is a British entrepreneur, writer, and documentary producer. He is also the founder of The Bennett Group, a consortium of companies that primarily provide professional communication products and services.

One of the companies, The Aktuel Translation Group, serves businesses that need to communicate globally; Quarto Translations specialises in translations for the publishing industry; PTI is a specialist in patent translations; and Monster Books is a publishing house that focuses on children’s books.

All of these (and more) are thriving businesses today that belie Robin’s modest beginnings. In fact, when he first got started, Robin had virtually nothing more than a beaten-up moped and a single desk to his name.

But luck had nothing to do with Robin’s successful outcomes. His story is one of how a single entrepreneur used his own determination and perseverance to launch, experiment, and build upon highly successful initiatives.

Join us for a captivating hour of candid insights into a highly determined entrepreneur’s path to success and personal fulfillment.

About our guest:

Robin Bennett is Chairman at The Aktuel Translations Group; Commercial Director at Firefly Press; and the author of several publications, from top-selling business publications to widely read children’s books.

Like his businesses, Robin’s writings span a wide range of topics—from educational books, like Start-Up Smart: How to Start and Build a Successful Business on a Budget, to popular children’s publications, like Go Be the Light!, the story of a firefly who loses his glow and does what it takes to get it back.

Visit The Bennett Group’s website to learn more about Robin’s businesses and writings, as well as his personal motto for both living and working, which is— Life’s a Banquet!

Selected Businesses:

Selected Writings:

About NBN:

The NBN Entrepreneurship and Leadership podcast aims to educate, inform and entertain, sharing insights based on the personal stories of carefully selected guests—all in an informal atmosphere of unscripted conversations and open, personal accounts.

Find links to past episodes here.

About our Hosts:

Kimon Fountoukidis:

Kimon is the founder of both Argos Multilingual and PMR.

He founded both companies in the mid-90s with zero capital, and both have gone on to become market leaders in their respective sectors.

Kimon was born in New York and moved to Krakow, Poland in 1993. He is passionate about sharing his success with others and working entrepreneurs of all kinds to help them achieve their goals. Listen to his story here. On Twitter. On LinkedIn.

Richard Lucas:

Richard is a business and social entrepreneur who has founded or invested in more than 30 businesses, including Argos Multilingual, PMR and, in 2020, the New Books Network.

Richard has been a TEDx event organiser for years, supports the pro-entrepreneurship ecosystem, and leads entrepreneurship workshops at all levels. He was born in Oxford and moved to Poland in 1991, where continues to invest in promising companies and helps other entrepreneurs realise their dreams.

Listen to his story in an autobiographical TEDx talk. On Twitter. On LinkedIn.

Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

The Effect: An Introduction to Research Design and Causality (Routledge, 2021) is about methods for using observational data to make causal inferences. It provides an extensive discussion of causality and the variety of both obvious and subtle challenges to inferring a causal relationship between the variables, using causal diagrams. It then goes through the major techniques that economists use to address these challenges, including regression, matching, simulation, fixed effects, event studies, differences-in-differences, instrumental variables, and regression discontinuity. The book is designed to be accessible to students or practitioners without the extensive math background that is taken for granted in typical econometrics textbooks. Instead, the emphasis is on the intuition behind the techniques and how to implement them with the widely-used programming languages R, Stata, and Python.

Nick C. Huntington-Klein is an Assistant Professor at Seattle University. His research focuses on econometrics and higher education. His work has been published in the Economics of Education Review, AEA Papers and Proceedings, Economic Inquiry, Empirical Economics, and the Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization. His book can be read online for free or purchased in print, and is accompanied by a wealth of teaching materials on the same website. Nick can also be found on Youtube and on Twitter.

Host Peter Lorentzen is an Associate Professor in the Department of Economics at the University of San Francisco, where he leads a new Master's program in Applied Economics focused on the digital economy. His own research focus is the political economy of governance in China.

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Today I talked to Melina Palmer about her book What Your Customer Wants and Can’t Tell You: Unlocking Consumer Decisions with the Science of Behavioral Economics (Mango, 2021)

Once you realize that the average person makes 35,000 decisions a day, it makes total sense that habits drive 95% of our behavior. Otherwise, we’d become paralyzed with analysis paralysis in trying to choose what to do next. As Melina Palmer fully recognizes, behavioral economic principles help to unlock the mystery of why people do things that seem so confounding. How could it be, for instance, that giving the gift of two mints with your check in the restaurant can lead to a 14% increase in the average tip for the waiter? Well, gratitude—the principle of reciprocity—weighs in. From the difference between satisfaction and delight to what the peak/end rule can make a small business more prosper if used well, this is both a fun and meaningful episode.

Melina Palmer is the founder and CEO of the Brainy Business and hosts the podcast by that same name. She received a Masters in behavior economics from the Chicago School of Professional Psychology, teaches at the Texas A&M Human Behavior Lab, and writes a column for Inc. magazine.

Dan Hill, PhD, is the author of ten books and leads Sensory Logic, Inc. (https://www.sensorylogic.com). His newest book is Emotionomics 2.0: The Emotional Dynamics Underlying Key Business Goals. To check out his related “Dan Hill’s EQ Spotlight” blog, visit https://emotionswizard.com.

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When Ukrainian-born Denys Zhadanov went to London to study at the age of 19, he had no idea that a year later he would be launching one of the world’s most successful developers of productivity apps for Apple devices.

Nor did he know that, working from his rented flat and with no outside funding, in a few years Forbes would recognize him as one of the top 30 under 30 business leaders in Europe.

The story of how Denys and his co-founders launched and grew Readdle into a top global player is a living example of how, in Denys’s words, “Dedication, hard work, brilliant people all around, and the insane desire to make this world a better place pays off.”

It’s also of example of how having a larger goal than making money alone adds significance and meaning to the entrepreneurial journey. And success.

www.readdle.com

www.pdfexpert.com

www.sparkmailapp.com

www.readdle.com/scannerpro

About our guest:

Denys Zhadanov is a 33-year-old Ukrainian entrepreneur and board member at Readdle. Founded in 2007, Readdle markets best-in-class apps with comprehensive UI and powerful features designed to increase productivity and shape the future of work.

A frequent speaker and advisor between Ukraine and Silicon Valley, Denys was included in the 2018 Forbes List of 30 under 30 Tech Entrepreneurs in Europe. He has also been quoted on the app economy and marketing in many of the world’s top media outlets, including the Wall Street Journal, The Verge, USA Today, TechCrunch, Bloomberg, Wired, TheNextWeb, Fast Company and Mashable.

His business success and ongoing pursuits are driven by his three most important passions: technology, entrepreneurship, and happiness.

About NBN:

The NBN Entrepreneurship and Leadership podcast aims to educate, inform and entertain, sharing insights based on the personal stories of carefully selected guests—all in an informal atmosphere of unscripted conversations and open, personal accounts.

Find links to past episodes here.

About our Hosts:

Kimon Fountoukidis:

Kimon is the founder of both Argos Multilingual and PMR.

He founded both companies in the mid-90s with zero capital, and both have gone on to become market leaders in their respective sectors.

Kimon was born in New York and moved to Krakow, Poland in 1993. He is passionate about sharing his success with others and working entrepreneurs of all kinds to help them achieve their goals. Listen to his story here. On Twitter. On LinkedIn.

Richard Lucas:

Richard is a business and social entrepreneur who has founded or invested in more than 30 businesses, including Argos Multilingual, PMR and, in 2020, the New Books Network.

Richard has been a TEDx event organiser for years, supports the pro-entrepreneurship ecosystem, and leads entrepreneurship workshops at all levels. He was born in Oxford and moved to Poland in 1991, where continues to invest in promising companies and helps other entrepreneurs realise their dreams.

Listen to his story in an autobiographical TEDx talk. On Twitter. On LinkedIn.

Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Jacqueline N. Parke's book The Podcast Handbook: Create It, Market It, Make It Great (McFarland, 2022) is a comprehensive overview of the burgeoning podcast industry. It covers the history of podcasting from its roots in radio; the variety of genres, topics and styles of today's podcasts (both individual and corporate); and the steps required to build your own podcast. The handbook covers all the elements needed to create a successful podcast including platform options, programming, advertising and sponsorships. Supplemental essays from professionals in various industries provide information and tips to enhance the podcasting experience. The structure of the book is easily adapted into lesson plans, and the exercises included for readers make it a book well suited for classes on podcasting.

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I recently got a chance to talk to Carol Sanford about her newest book Indirect Work: A Regenerative Change Theory for Businesses, Communities, Institutions and Humans. Carol Sanford is a consistently recognized disruptor and contrarian working side by side with Fortune 500 and new economy executives in designing and leading systemic business change and design.

She is a founder and designer of The Regenerative Business Development Community, as well as best-selling author of several other books including her previous work The Regenerative Life—and a personal favorite for any entrepreneur or corporate leader today, The Regenerative Business: Redesign Work, Cultivate Human Potential, Achieve Extraordinary Outcomes. Her books have won over 15 awards so far and are required reading at leading business and management schools including Harvard, Stanford, Haas Berkeley and MIT.

Frankly it wasn’t until I read this newest Carol Sanford book that it occurred to me to introduce her work to Systems and Cybernetics listeners. As should be obvious from some of my recent episodes, my current systems questions are oriented around how we can engage systemically at the human systems level—work, life, education, activism, etc. Carol knows how to bring systems thinking to life in her work. Her relationship with systems thinking goes back to her early life and is reflected in approaches to change theory and practices based on:

Providing methods to break old patterns of working that lead to degenerative outcomes, Indirect Work strongly challenges the validity of pop psychology and the damage it causes to human psyche and soul, ultimately, impacting the quality of our society. After listening to our conversation, listeners will want to take up Carol’s challenge to shift their minds to work with counterintuitive transformation consistent with how living systems work.

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80,000 Hours provides research and support to help students and graduates switch into careers that effectively tackle the world’s most pressing problems.

Benjamin Todd is the president and co-founder of 80,000 Hours. He managed the organisation while it grew from a lecture, to a student society, to the organization it is today. He also helped to get effective altruism started in Oxford in 2011.

Caleb Zakarin is the Assistant Editor of the New Books Network (Twitter: @caleb_zakarin).

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Genome sequencing is one of the most exciting scientific breakthroughs of the past thirty years. But what precisely does it involve and how is it developing?

In Genomics: How Genome Sequencing Will Change Healthcare (Random House, 2022), Rachael Pells explains the science behind genomics. She analyses its practical applications in medical diagnosis and the treatment of conditions that range from cancer to severe allergic reactions to cystic fibrosis. She considers its potential to help with advances in agriculture and environmental science. She explores the ethics of genetic modification and the dangers involved when humans 'play God'. And she addresses the fundamental question: to what extent will future advances transform human longevity and the quality of life.

Galina Limorenko is a doctoral candidate in Neuroscience with a focus on biochemistry and molecular biology of neurodegenerative diseases at EPFL in Switzerland.

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