800-CEO-READ New Releases

Authenticity

by James Gilmore, B. Joseph Pine

(Harvard Business School Press, 288 Pages)

***800-CEO-READ offers substantial discounts on bulk orders. Simply call 800-236-7323 for extra savings***

Contrived. Disingenuous. Phony. Inauthentic. Do your customers use any of these words to describe what you sell or how you sell it? If so, welcome to the club. Inundated by fakes and sophisticated counterfeits, people increasingly see the world in terms of real or fake. They would rather buy something real from someone genuine, rather than something fake from some phony. When deciding to buy, consumers judge an offering's (and a company's) authenticity as much as if not more than price, quality, and availability.

In Authenticity, James H. Gilmore and B. Joseph Pine II argue that, to trounce rivals, companies must grasp, manage, and excel at rendering authenticity. Through examples from a wide array of industries as well as government, non-profit, education, and religious sectors, the authors show how to manage customers perception of authenticity by:

• Recognizing how businesses fake it
• Appealing to the five different genres of authenticity
• Charting how to be true to self and what you say you are
• Crafting and implementing business strategies for rendering authenticity

The first to explore what authenticity really means for businesses and how companies can approach it both thoughtfully and thoroughly, this book is a must-read for any organization seeking to fulfill consumers intensifying demand for the real deal.

Authenticity

by James Gilmore, B. Joseph Pine

(Harvard Business School Press, 288 Pages)

***800-CEO-READ offers substantial discounts on bulk orders. Simply call 800-236-7323 for extra savings***

Contrived. Disingenuous. Phony. Inauthentic. Do your customers use any of these words to describe what you sell or how you sell it? If so, welcome to the club. Inundated by fakes and sophisticated counterfeits, people increasingly see the world in terms of real or fake. They would rather buy something real from someone genuine, rather than something fake from some phony. When deciding to buy, consumers judge an offering's (and a company's) authenticity as much as if not more than price, quality, and availability.

In Authenticity, James H. Gilmore and B. Joseph Pine II argue that, to trounce rivals, companies must grasp, manage, and excel at rendering authenticity. Through examples from a wide array of industries as well as government, non-profit, education, and religious sectors, the authors show how to manage customers perception of authenticity by:

• Recognizing how businesses fake it
• Appealing to the five different genres of authenticity
• Charting how to be true to self and what you say you are
• Crafting and implementing business strategies for rendering authenticity

The first to explore what authenticity really means for businesses and how companies can approach it both thoughtfully and thoroughly, this book is a must-read for any organization seeking to fulfill consumers intensifying demand for the real deal.

Extraordinary Circumstances

by Cynthia Cooper

(John Wiley & Sons, 368 Pages)

Book Description

A courageous narrative of one woman's victory over corporate wrongdoing.

Written in an autobiographic style, Extraordinary Circumstances takes the reader through the journey of Cynthia Cooper–former WorldCom employee and Time magazine’s 2002 Person of the Year–and her compelling story in exposing the largest corporate fraud in history.

Following Cooper from her early upbringing in Mississippi, to her high-level position in WorldCom, to the issues of fraud that she confronted, to the fall of WorldCom, Extraordinary Circumstances is an insider’s guide to the decision-making process that led her to "blow the whistle" and the role her personal faith and ethics played during this challenging time.

Cynthia Cooper (Brandon, MS) was named one of Time magazine’s 2002 Persons of the Year, along with fellow whistleblowers Coleen Rowley and Sherron Watkins. Ms. Cooper was inducted to the 2004 AICPA Hall of Fame, and is the first woman to receive this distinction. Ms. Cooper is also the 2003 recipient of the Accounting Exemplar Award, which is awarded annually to an individual who has made notable contributions to professionalism and ethics in accounting practice or education. Ms. Cooper is the tenth recipient of the Accounting Exemplar Award and the first woman to receive the award. As the former vice president of the internal audit department at WorldCom, she is best known for her detection and reporting of the massive corporate fraud that was taking place at some of the highest levels of the company. After the collapse of WorldCom, Cooper continued to work at WorldCom (now MCI) but in 2004 she resigned her position as the Chief Audit Executive for MCI to form her own company, through which she speaks to both professionals and students across the country to share some of the lessons she has learned and to emphasize the importance of strong ethical leadership.

Something Really New

by Denis J. Hauptly

(Amacom Books, 224 Pages)

Book Description
Product innovation is the key to business growth. But many books deal with innovation from the business process view alone, or confuse innovation with creativity. Written by an innovation expert whose products generate more than one billion dollars in annual revenue, Something Really New introduces a straightforward but powerful framework for creating exciting new product and service concepts . . . simply by asking three essential questions.

About the Author
Denis J. Hauptly (Minneapolis, MN) is the Vice President, New Product Development for Westlaw, and has held product innovation positions for Westlaw or its parent company, The Thomson Corporation, for the past 12 years.

India Arriving

by Rafiq Dossani

(Amacom Books, 291 Pages)

Book Description
Once the jewel in the crown of the formidable British Empire, India has been surrounded by myth for years. After gaining independence in 1948, this often misunderstood country found itself faced with a new sense of freedom -- and along with it, enormous burdens and challenges. While exotic, mysterious, and seductive, it has also become an economic force to be reckoned with. With the fourth largest economy in the world, the largest youth population on Earth, and a thriving middle class, India is the second-most-preferred destination for foreign investment. But very few Americans truly understand what a rich and powerful country it has become � or its role as a global power, center of outsourcing, and potential partner with the United States.

From the country�s thriving film industry to its burgeoning high-tech industry as well as its attempts to stabilize its economy, India Arriving offers a fascinating glimpse into the real India, with all of its assets and all of its faults. Author Rafiq Dossani goes beneath the veil surrounding India and explores the many ways it has begun to emerge onto the world stage. He explores its birth as an independent nation and forces like political shifts, social reform, and education that have helped to shape a new India. Honest and revelatory, India Arriving provides a deeper understanding of a country that promises to be the next major player in the world economy.

About the Author
Rafiq Dossani (Santa Barbara, CA) is a senior research scholar and executive director at Stanford University�s Asian Pacific Research Center.