Issue link: https://www.e-digitaleditions.com/i/54894
that have superb track records in developing talent and grooming suc- cessors, including GE, where Conaty served in HR and Charan served as a consultant; Procter & Gamble; and Agilent Technologies. One fascinating case study is Hindustan Unilever, where senior managers spend about 30 percent of their time with high-potential trainees. MBAs aren't just recruited straight out of school; a management team holds a group meet- ing with possible new hires and invites them to offer ideas on current business issues. Candidates are judged for their style, creativity, and teamwork. Those who are hired undergo a rigorous 15- to 18-month training program, where they spend significant time working with poor populations in rural India. All the effort is worth it, the authors believe, because talent "will be the big differ- entiator between companies that suc- ceed and those that don't." (Crown Publishing Group, $27.50) Freshly minted MBAs might under- stand the theoretical frameworks used in business, but that doesn't mean they can apply them in the real world. In What I Didn't Learn in Business School, Jay B. Barney and Trish Gorman Clifford spin a fictional tale of a recent grad who's joined a consulting team that's evaluating whether or not a company should commercialize a new product. To his chagrin, the hero learns that tools like net present value and five forces analysis don't always work cleanly on the job. "Actually calculating pres- ent value was the easy part, mostly just arithmetic. The hard part was creating a tight logic for generating the projected cash flows and choos- ing the appropriate range of discount rates." Barney, a professor at Ohio State, and Clifford, a consultant, say In 1977, the University of Texas at Austin launched the Innovation, Creativity and Capital Institute (IC2) to stimulate economic regional growth by connecting academia, government, and business. Twenty years later, the institute has been so success- ful at helping turn Austin into a high-tech entrepreneurial hub that it serves as a model for other universities and regions looking for their own trans- formations. The IC2's story is one of six international case studies presented in The Development of University-Based Entrepreneurship Ecosystems edited by Michael Fetters and Patricia Greene of Babson College, Mark Rice of Worcester Polytechnic Institute, and John Sibley Butler of UT Austin. The other schools profiled are Bab- son, EM Lyon, University of Southern California, Technológico de Monterrey, and National University of Singapore. The book's goal is to show the various paths universities can take to construct "ecosystems" on their own campuses and how these can nourish whole geographic areas. "Given the challenges of today, the world needs more than ever the positive change exemplified by entrepreneurial thought and action," write the authors. "University-based entrepreneurship ecosystems are uniquely capable of developing entrepreneurial talent and providing a context where it can thrive." (Edward Elgar Publishing, $99.95) they wanted to write a book that didn't focus on a single topic, but instead combined the complex components of business, from setting strategy to analyzing data to understand- ing corporate culture. Their "novel approach" definitely works. (Harvard Business Review, $25.95) Executives know they shouldn't procrastinate or yell at subordinates, but often their bad habits or bad tempers win out over their good intentions. In The Executive and the Elephant, Vanderbilt professor Rich- ard L. Daft examines the psycho- logical and neurological reasons the blundering, emotional "elephant" of the subconscious so often tramples the cool, rational "executive" of the conscious brain. More important, he offers suggestions on how to train the elephant to behave. One key exercise is visualization. When people vividly and repeatedly imag- ine themselves arriving at the office on time, speaking confidently to a group, or closing the big sale, they are far more likely to suc- ceed. A trick that calms an "anxious inner elephant" is to work with other people nearby—whether they're friends or strangers. "The comfort and emotional warmth provided by a group may seem trivial to a rational observer, but comfort is exactly what reduces your inner elephant's anxiety or fear, thereby strengthening the intention of your inner executive to do what you have been resisting," writes Daft. It's an intriguing read for leaders who want to understand—and control—what they do. (Jossey-Bass, $27.95) ■ z BizEd JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2011 67