Issue link: https://www.e-digitaleditions.com/i/55680
power, vice, and trust—and how they can be embedded in a product or an advertising campaign. "Lust leads to behavior that's irrational, unreason- able, and, in many cases, flat-out absurd," she writes. "For many types of messages, that's good news. Criti- cal, actually." This isn't your typical business book; it takes irreverent and eye-opening detours through the evolutionary benefits of smiling and the psychology of sex. But it's always intriguing and it's certainly fun. (Harper Business, $26.99) In the coming decade, doing business in China will be essential for any major business, says Edward Tse, but developing The China Strategy will not be a simple or static task. "The intensity and scale of change in China means that all businesses, even those that currently are success- ful, will find themselves inadequately prepared for the tur- moil and dynamism to come," he writes. "For in the world's fastest- growing economy, the experience of the last ten years will not be the best guide to the next ten." Tse examines four key drivers that will shape China's future: a new openness to outside cultures and goods that appeal to a growing consumer class; a highly competitive market that encourages foreign investment and domestic startups but makes it hard for any firm to dominate; a constantly changing level of economic involve- ment for the ruling Communist Party; and a growing global inter- connectedness. Tse, senior partner and chairman for Greater China at Booz & Company, calls China an "irresistible marketplace," and he provides a roadmap for navigating its seductive but complicated terrain. (Basic Books, $26.95) A business book titled might at first strike sophisticated readers as a little simplistic. But Michael O'Malley's deft comparison of beehives to corporations is both charming and thought-provoking. O'Malley—an executive editor with Yale Univer- sity Press and an adjunct profes- sor at Columbia Business School— translates the com- munal, adaptive behavior patterns of bees into 25 lessons for the corporate world. Lesson one empha- sizes that bees are not short-term maximizers, so they never focus exclusively on a single source of essential supplies. They know that "someday the nectar in that location will stop flowing and they will need to be prepared to rapidly reallocate resources to other productive sites. To do so, they must already know where those sites are and have estab- lished operations, however minimal, in those locales. Said succinctly, bees avoid all-or-nothing scenarios at all costs." Other observations are equally apt in this honey of a book. (Portfolio, $21.95) Feeling panicked about the current eco- nomic situation? In The Great Reset, Richard Florida offers a thought- ful, generally hopeful assessment of where we are now, how we got here—and how we can rebuild in the future. A "reset" transforms more than economies, says Florida, part of the University of Toronto's Rotman School of Man- agement. "As it takes shape around new infra- structure and systems of transportation, it shapes the rise of new housing patterns, realign- ing where and how we live and work. Eventually it gives rise to a whole new way of life—defined by new wants and needs and massive new models of consumption." He examines the resets that occurred after the Long Depression of 1873 ("the crisis most like our own") and the Great Depression of the 1930s, determining that intense periods of inventiveness followed these desper- ate times and fueled new prosperity. He acknowledges that resets involve real pain for cities, regions, and pop- ulations. But he also believes that growth is on the horizon if nations invest in new technologies, redeploy human capital—and realize that the reset will unfold over a long period of time. (Harper, $26.99) If part of your job entails motivating teams to perform, The Daily Car- rot Principle by Adrian Gostick and Chester Elton offers useful advice. It's a day-by-day manual for rewarding employees, showing them apprecia- tion, and inspiring them to greater efforts. Many of the suggestions are simple common sense: Use vocab- ulary that is humanizing. Spend serious time on self-evaluation. Encourage humor in the office. A few are more subtle: Work to understand the dif- ferent communication styles of your employees and co-workers. The vari- ous "carrots" work together to cre- ate a more civil—and productive— workplace. (Free Press, $19.99) ■ z BizEd MAY/JUNE 2010 75 The Wisdom of Bees