Read other articles on HighTech Women's site including:

 

ROAM - Bruno Giussani 
The author of Roam, spoke at HighTech Women's meeting on Telecoms and made a lot of sense... this book gives a history of telecoms and an inkling of what's to come. Just out as a paperback it is worth reading for anyone involved in telecoms, either directly or indirectly... 

 

New Dimensions in Investor Relations  - Bruce W. Marcus
This book is straight-forward and exceptionally clear - a must read for anyone who is involved with investor relations, from the CFO and CEO of large companies, to those seeking finance from the get-go.

Who Moved My Cheese? An Amazing Way to Deal With Change In Your Work and In Your Life - Dr. Spencer Johnson  

The best book I’ve read in terms of business lately. It made me realise how it is me (and my organisation) that needs to change in this crazy, new market environment.  It is very relevant for today if you are finding business a bit more difficult than it was 2 years ago.

Maverick!  Ricardo Semler

User-centred management -participative management. How to motivate and empower employees and still turn a profit. It really did make me think that this is a management-speak equivalent of someone trying to explain the touchy-feely intuitive creative bits about product design. Much appreciated that the book was written in a conversational tone (even excused the somewhat lax editing).

Powerful Women - Sam Parkhouse 

An easy read but very inspirational and made me aware of your organisation.

Against the Gods: The Remarkable Story of Risk  Peter L. Bernstein How the idea of risk and risk management evolved. 

Now risk in the stock market isn't an exact parallel to risk in product development but the concepts are similar. Except in the stock market they've developed all sorts of insurance and risk management options to help stave off assigning responsibility when things go wrong. One of the more cynical points underscoring the book is about the transfer of blame to another party and how deep it goes so that's it's sometimes hard to unravel where things began. The opposite of what Semler talks about (giving people responsibility).

Butterfly Economics - Paul Ormerod

Economics is chaos. Nothing is certain. Nothing certain about a long term economic prediction save that it scores not much better than a randomly generated computer prediction.

Why We Buy - Paco Underhill

Seems to be the ongoing flavour of the month in the USA. Retail Anthropology. Good fodder for explaining the difference between focus groups and user/usability testing.

I work a lot on international projects all around the world, and for me a big eye opener was book called Riding the Waves of Culture by Fons Trompenaars and Charles Hampden Turner. 
Higlights 7 aspects in which culltures differ, such as relatioships with time and authority, and rates different countries on it 

Evolutionary Leadership - Susan Anunzio

I thought Susan Anunzio's book, 'Evolutionary Leadership,' offered a real insight about how each different generation viewed the workplace and about how the way we are brought up, and the beliefs our parents instill in us, affect our attitude towards work, our colleagues and the technology we use in the workplace. I was particularly interested to learn that I was a classic Gen X multi-tasker who was managing a broad portfolio of interests! I was also interested to discover how different my attitudes to work were from my Gen Y counterparts - and the Baby Boomers. I began to understand what creates specific environments in the workplace and how they operate. It was useful to have case studies to gain an insight into how other people negotiated the workplace - and the many examples in the book tied-in to my own experiences - even though they were US examples, the basic prototypes still stood. I also thought that after a few of us read the book in the office, we were more open to things such as knowledge-sharing and it helped foster a more co-operative attitude between all of us as a team. The book left me with a sense that we are on the brink of a far-reaching revolution in terms of workplace infrastructure and the technologies we encounter - and, crucially, that we can all be an important part of it.

What Matters Most: The Power of Living Your Values - Hyrum W Smith 

The reason I found it so interesting is that the content is widely based on common sense (some real facts that are quite hard to argue with). It is aimed at those of us who appear to have achieved almost everything in life we have wished for but still lack a sense of fulfillment or inner happiness.

I personally had become disillusioned with my list of personal and business goals that are forever being brushed aside in the mayhem of daily life. Also the feeling of frustration at not having managed that work / life balance we all aspire to - all lead me to look for some much needed inspiration. I think I have found a formula & reasoning in this book that will work for me.

A great read - forces some deep soul searching, tough questioning and reassessment of your roles, goals & plans. Well worth it if you want to focus on why we are truly here and what we want to achieve / get out / put into our short time on the planet.

Why Good Girls Don't Get Ahead...but Gutsy Girls Do -  Kate White

This is my best book for motivation and getting me fired up isJust reading the headings now is reminding me what I need to do: Break the Rules, Have One Clear Goal, Do Only What's Essential, and more. 

Psyche at Work - edited by Murray Stein and John Hollwitz 

Grounded in workplace case studies by people experienced in "depth consulting".

The Political Psyche and Politics on the Couch: Citizenship and the Internal Life  - both by Andrew Samuels

Both consider leadership issues and what we expect from our leaders.

City State - Richard Roberts and David Kynaston 

A contemporary history of the City and how money triumphed.
Recent histories of the City and of money generally are relevant to the latest crop of financial scandals. 

A World Lit Only by Fire - William Manchester & Citizens - Simon Schama

There has been a resurgence of interest in periods seen as revolutionary, like our own times. For example, was the medieval period really the Dark Ages, was the Renaissance as much a break with the past as we think? How much of our current society was shaped by that critical period?

Developing Skills with People - Sheila Dainow & Caroline Bailey  

This book is intended for training in person to person client contact (counseling). However, it is so practical that I find it useful for developing micro people skills which can be used in all personal and professional relationships.

 Other book suggestions: