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MarchApril2009

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retreat or to jumpstart a conversa- tion about fine-tuning the company. (Harvard Business Press, $18) Eleven faculty members from the University of Toronto's Rotman School of Management have con- tributed essays to The Finance Cri- sis and Rescue, which looks at the current economic downturn from a variety of perspectives. Strategic management professor Jim Fisher puts the blame on top- level players. Finance professor Laurence Booth examines the American banking system and its vulnerabilities, while finance profes- sor John Hull weighs in on the problems with derivatives and risk man- agement. Others take on topics such as investing, interna- tional business, and corporate gover- nance. Dean Roger Martin presents a sober foreword: "Clearly, central aspects of the finance industry are badly broken. The system must be redesigned," he writes. The book suggests a few ways to approach that redesign. (University of Toronto Press, $24.95) Bruce C. Greenwald and Judd Kahn simply aren't falling for the notion that globalization is the single greatest force shaping the world's economies today. In their book Globaliza- tion, they calmly and methodi- cally deconstruct the factors that shape trade, growth in produc- tivity, employment trends, and international finance. Their con- clusion? Local, not global, forces are the ones that really matter. "If, in the midst of globalization, some countries flourish while others flounder, the reasonable conclusion is that local features— things other than globalization—must be respon- sible for the diverse results," they write. Greenwald, a professor at the Columbia School of Business, and Kahn, COO of Hummingbird Man- agement, note that a service-based economy is particularly immune to the effects of globalization. For instance, seeing a doctor, building a house, attending a religious service, or arranging for childcare are all localized activities. At the same time, they write, it's not trade that brings prosperity to a country like India or China; rather, "greater prosper- ity leads to greater trade." The book does make the reader wonder whether the world is flat after all. (Wiley, $29.95) Dave Ulrich, Norm Smallwood, and Kate Sweetman are well aware that hun- dreds of authors have already writ- ten on the topic of leadership, and they're not planning to dispute any of those other experts. Instead, they've analyzed and boiled down decades' worth of leadership theory into The Leadership Code, which offers five basic rules synthesized from this vast pool of data. It's their belief that about 65 percent of great leadership can be traced back to this code, while the remaining percent- age is supplied by each individual's personal differentiators. "Does an effective leader at, say, Starbucks or Whole Foods in any ways resemble an effective leader at ExxonMobil?" they ask. "Does an effective leader in a bootstrapping NGO in any way resemble an effective leader in the famously bureaucratic United Nations?" Ulrich, a professor at the University of Michigan, and his co-authors present these five rules: Shape the future. Make things hap- pen. Engage today's talent. Build the next generation. Invest in yourself. The supporting chapters offer a wealth of suggestions on how to carry out these broad imperatives. It's a practi- cal book with a motiva- tional message. (Harvard Business Press, $26.95) Lynda Resnick is a born marketer whose 40 years in the business haven't jaded her in the slightest. "Ultimately, marketing is all about listening," she writes in Rubies in the Orchard, her funny, smart, and very personal account of the businesses she has run and the campaigns she has managed. "If you don't listen and don't care, you'll never be a good marketer. You want to be the equivalent of a best friend." She offers detailed looks into her experiences—some back-breaking, some heart-warming—with Teleflora, the Franklin Mint, and the Pom Wonderful brand of pomegranate juice. She scoffs at the notion that businesspeople need to think outside the box. "The answers are not outside the box—they're inside. They're inherent in whatever task you've undertaken, whatever product you want to market." Marketing pros, entrepreneurs, and other readers will find her frank insights refreshing and her hard-won lessons worth remembering. (Doubleday, $24.95) ■ z BizEd MARCH/APRIL 2009 65

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