Summer reading for business students

June 15, 1:12 PMLA Grad School ExaminerJanelle Jalbert

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(AP Photo/Mark Lennihan, file)

Looking for some summer reading in the areas of the financial meltdown, decision-making, change management, or beginning your career? Here is a list of books on these topics of interest to MBA students, entrepreneurs, and general businessmen and businesswomen.

Current financial situation:

The Two Trillion Dollar Meltdown: Easy Money, High Rollers, and the Great Credit Crash (Charles R. Morris)

Morris, a lawyer and former banker, has written a quick read on the factors behind the giant credit bubble responsible for the current financial situation. Morris discusses the forces behind the creation of and popping of the bubble, the decline in the value of the dollar, and the emergence of sovereign wealth.

Bad Money: Reckless Finance, Failed Politics, and the Global Crisis of American Capitalism (Kevin Phillips)

This former Nixon campaign aide and critic of capitalism links the current "global crisis of American capitalism" to the politics of peak oil, the rise of financial mercantilism, the triumph of market fundamentalism, and so forth. Philips' argument is that this financial disaster signals the moment when the U.S. empire begins to follow Rome and Britain into decline.

Decision-making:

Predictably Irrational: The Hidden Forces That Shape Our Decisions (Dan Ariely)

According to Ariely, "We are pawns in a game whose forces we largely fail to comprehend." Ariely then demonstrates his points by describing a series of his economics experiments, including ones that illustrate how a penny can change purchasing decisions.

The Black Swan: The Impact of the Highly Improbable (Nassim Nicholas Taleb)

Revisiting Fooled by Randomness, Taleb argues that most do not understand that life is a series of highly improbable yet earthshaking events. Fundamentally, The Black Swan argues that economists, journalists, and corporate planners behave as if they're living in predictable "Mediocristan" when they're really in "Extremistan."

Made to Stick: Why Some Ideas Survive and Others Die (Chip Heath and Dan Heath)

This piece is a “complement to The Tipping Point” by Gladwell and explores what it takes to make an idea stick in the mind, while others melt away. Ultimately, 6 principles are discussed that are essential to getting people to pay attention to, believe, and care about an idea. Plenty of stories and entertainment for a light summer reading are included with a defensible underlying message to merit professional development categorization.

Change management:

Our Iceberg Is Melting: Changing and Succeeding Under Any Conditions (John Kotter, Holger Rathgeber, Peter Mueller, and Spenser Johnson)

The latest in the line of business fables centers on animals who face devastating change and can't bear to deal with it. Harkening to Who Moved My Cheese?, the authors take the second part of the book to describe the 8 step process of “successful change."

What Got You Here Won't Get You There: How Successful People Become Even More Successful (Marshall Goldsmith and Mark Reiter)

Executive coach Goldsmith identifies 20 such ways of behaving, from an obsessive need to show how smart you are to a habit of withholding information. Many of the suggestions mirror the changes in marketing in the age of social media.

New hires/recent college grads:

Sink Or Swim!: New Job. New Boss. 12 Weeks to Get It Right. (Milo Sindell and Thuy Sindell)

Building on a great deal of business research that has been done about personal networks, the Sindells suggest that an employee consciously build his or her own network within the company. Schedule lunches; go out of your way to meet people. The more people you know, the more information you will have access to. This is just one aspect of the practical suggestions the authors discuss to assist those who may find themselves hired and put into a position with little or no orientation but need to shine during a probationary period.

Go Put Your Strengths to Work: 6 Powerful Steps to Achieve Outstanding Performance (Marcus Buckingham)

Buckingham is one of the founders of the “strengths movement." Like StrengthsFinder 2.0, (Rath), this book sends you to the Web for initial instruction. Then there are drills and inspirational passages, including lessons on how to create a strong team.

Happy reading whether you are killing time during a business trip or enjoying the sun and waves on vacation.

For more information about topics of interest to grad students, check out:

Student loan forgiveness programs to consider

Financial help and loan forgiveness for Stanford Business School students

Janelle Jalbert is the founder of Edusistance and the creator of the Race to College Success program. She has been an educator and advisor for more than a decade. You can reach Janelle, who welcomes suggestions for topics of interest for future articles, via email.