Celebrate World Book Day with New Books by Michigan Ross Alumni
What does an MSNBC correspondent and Peabody Award winner have in common with a sports industry executive or the winner of a Mom’s Choice Award? They are all published authors and graduates of the Ross School of Business.
From the investor/attorney/adjunct professor to the marketing agency entrepreneur, each of these individuals has published a book representing their own interests and perspectives. Check out some highlights of recent publications here, and for more, see this list of books by Ross alumni from Kresge Library Services.
Mindfulness in the Lily Pads
Author: Danielle Chandler, MBA ’10
Genre/Topic: Children’s Fiction and Activity
The Mindful Adventurers book series aims to make mindfulness more approachable for kids, showing how it can be helpful in everyday situations. In this first book of the series, Francis is anxious about his first day of school and his mom teaches him how to meditate to help ease his worries. During the guided meditation, Francis encounters many new experiences and meets new friends along the way. He learns the importance of showing kindness to others and that it is OK even when things do not turn out as planned.
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The Power of Playing Offense
A Leader’s Playbook for Personal and Team Transformation
Author: Paul Epstein, MBA ’19
Genre/Topic: Leadership Training, Business Mentoring and Coaching, Sports Industry
Bestselling author Paul Epstein, founder of Purpose Labs, successfully steered business teams that executed billion-dollar NFL campaigns, broke Super Bowl revenue records, and generated league-leading sales results for cellar-dwelling NBA clubs. After experiencing his own personal and career transformation, Epstein embarked on a mission to tackle a leadership crisis: Leaders were expected to lead others before they learned to lead themselves. To bridge this gap, Epstein curated this interactive playbook, with more than 50 activities, tools, and strategies you can implement.The Power of Playing Offense invites readers to take a people-first approach that elevates purpose, performance, and impact.
How to Succeed as a Solo Consultant
Author: Stephen D. Field, MBA ’77
Genre/Topic: Entrepreneurship, Business Career Development
This book is for anyone who has gained workplace experience and is thinking about striking out on their own as a consultant or a service-based entrepreneur. Each chapter provides homework that outlines the steps the reader needs to complete in order to gain confidence that they have the tools to succeed. The book’s appendices include sample contracts and useful templates.
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Virtual Teams Across Cultures
Create Successful Teams Around the World
Author: Theresa Sigillito Hollema, BBA ’85, MBA ’96
Genre/Topic: Business Management and Leadership
This book answers the question, How do geographic distance and cultural diversity impact how people think, feel and act while working virtually? Quite a lot, actually, starting with psychological distance. Through research and stories, Theresa helps the reader understand this virtual context and skillfully shift how they engage with fundamental collaboration activities such as building trust, creating the team, using the technology, and caring from a distance. This is one of the few books that combines virtual leadership with cultural diversity – the reality of most people working internationally.
Shapeholders
Business Success in the Age of Activism
Author: Mark Kennedy, MBA ’83
Genre/Topic: Public Relations, Government Management
All it takes is one misstep to sink a company's reputation. Executives work to appease stakeholders, but they ignore “shapeholders” — regulators, the media, and activists who have no stake in a company but will work to curb what they see as bad business practices. In Shapeholders: Business Success in the Age of Activism, former congressman, Fortune 500 executive, and university president Mark Kennedy argues that shapeholders have significant power to determine a company's risks and opportunities, if not its survival. Kennedy's decision matrix helps corporations align their business practices with shapeholder interests, anticipate their demands, and assess changing moral standards so that together they can plan a profitable route forward.
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Enough About Me
The Unexpected Power of Selflessness
Author: Richard Lui, MBA ’01
Genre/Topic: Self Help, Aging Parents
MSNBC / NBC News journalist Richard Lui releases a book for May’s Asian Pacific American Heritage Month. The First Chinese American male network anchor discusses Asian racism, sharing intimate stories of how his “non-model minority” family breaks stereotypes, sharing a much-needed perspective of the quintessential challenges of growing up Asian in America. Lui explores the idea of a selfish pandemic that includes his father being pushed to the ground, George Floyd's murder, and COVID culture. It's a reflection of today's times, while offering fun, science-based practices with the approach of an "anti-self" self-help book.
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The Hunt for Unicorns
How Sovereign Funds Are Reshaping Investment in the Digital Economy
Author: Winston Ma, MBA ’03
Genre/Topic: Economics, Politics and Government
With $30 trillion in assets under management, a new group of sovereign investors — which includes some of the world's largest sovereign wealth funds, government pension funds, central bank reserve funds, and other sovereign capital-enabled entities — have become the most influential capital markets players. Yet sovereign investors remain mostly unknown, often maintaining a low profile, and widely misunderstood, seen by many as driven by political aims. The current global tensions around the AI race, tech competition, and the coronavirus pandemic have exacerbated such misperceptions, spawning controversies around sovereign investors and capital markets, governments, new technologies, cross-border investments, and related laws and regulations.
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Thriving at 50+
The 7 Principles to Reinvent and Rebrand Yourself
Author: Wendy Marx, MBA ’87
Genre/Topic: Careers, Business and Money
At age 50+, when many people confront the challenges of supporting families and saving enough for retirement, rebranding and career reinvention become more important than ever. Thriving at 50+ speaks to people age 50 and over as well as those in their 40s who are looking ahead to the next phase. It is a primer for those seeking another job or career, and a how-to for starting a business or a new way of life. It reveals how to find purpose and revitalize your career and life for your next act.
Build What Matters
Delivering Key Outcomes with Vision-Led Product Management
Author: Rajesh Nerlikar, MBA ’10
Genre/Topic: Business Research and Development, Customer Relations, Strategic Business Planning, Startups and Product Management
The authors explain how to apply their Vision-Led Product Management framework to scale a SaaS (software as a service) business by focusing on customer value creation, a mid-term customer journey vision, and a strategic plan to realize that vision.
Dream It and Do It
100 Possibilities, Stories and Real-Life Role Models
Author: Holly Sharp, MBA ‘09
Dream It and Do It includes 100 short stories about real-world role models covering 100 different career paths. This book helps parents and teachers equip their children to answer the question, “What do you want to be when you grow up?” Winner of The Mom’s Choice Award, first-place awards with Story Monster and Dragonfly Awards, and five-star reviews from Reader’s Choice and Midwest Book Review.
Fact of the Day 1
250 Facts for the Curious
Author: Danny Sheridan, BBA ’18
Genre/Topic: Workplace Culture, Leadership and Motivation
A look inside the culture of Amazon, one of the most successful companies in the world, and of its relentless, brilliant founder, Jeff Bezos. When Amazon.com launched in 1995, it was with the mission "to be Earth's most customer-centric company." Through creating and sustaining a culture of innovation, the company has proven a track record of building and scaling new businesses. The "Day 1" mentality means that even though Amazon is 26 years old, the company approaches every day like it is the first day of their new startup — to make smart, fast decisions, stay nimble, innovate, and invent, and focus on delighting customers.
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Scope Forward
The Future of Gastroenterology Is Now in Your Hands
Author: Praveen Suthrum, MBA ’04
Genre/Topic: Medical Management and Reimbursement, Colorectal Cancer
No one in the medical field is free from the impact of COVID-19, including gastroenterologists. But the pandemic has only accelerated trends that started years ago. Health systems and insurance companies have become more powerful. Private equity has fueled consolidation. Colon cancer screening options have expanded. Artificial intelligence has embedded itself into endoscopy, and patients have become demanding consumers. In this timely new book, Praveen Suthrum provides deeper insights into the structural shift underway in gastroenterology. Through expert interviews, he offers practical advice for the industry to thrive in the coming decade.
Matthew Trevor, Senior PR Specialist
mtrevor@umich.edu