Books about business, society and culture can have a real influence on the planning process.
Accessing - catching what we might call the velocity of spread of - the freshest ideas from academic life, journalism and the wider consultancy community is part of the daily pursuit of competitive advantage.
But it's an intellectual jungle out there - a jungle not always full of diamonds. From all the thousands of titles on :-
- brands and branding
- consumer attitudes
- family life and demographic change
- gender
- economic theory
- managing for success
- time-use trends
- technological innovation
- futures and forecasts
- parties and politics
- popular culture
….the question for busy managers is : what and what not to read?
As part of our standing service to clients and collaborators, we offer the following :-
- Our standing, regularly updated Model Reasoning list of Recommended Titles (old books, new books - but only really good books) and
- our Review of the Month section : detailed notices of books, good or bad, which we think count for something within the battle of ideas
Our aim is to go first to those writers who, whatever their genre or background, tackle the biggest ideas of our times and to test their claims against our orthodoxy. We review the biggest and the best.
Our philosophy is that the profound, like the shallow, can be found in any discipline or style. Insight comes from multiple perspectives. It is not only formal business books that are good for business.
We welcome any invitation to review anything. Contact us at service@modelreasoning.com
Our special interest is in comparing-and-contrasting the value of ideas that are emerging from the USA, UK and Western Europe. The work of US academics on social, economic and cultural themes is specially interesting to us.
Throughout, we recognise that our readers want to get to the heart of arguments quickly. And do not want to read bad puff. So we do not idly praise anybody. Nor do we wantonly criticise. We simply highlight the best material wherever it might be found. And put some of the biggest names in the ideas business under our gaze.
Model Reasoning - Recommended Titles 2001/02
| · Citizen Brands (Michael Willmott - UK) |
| · The Clock of the Long Now (Stewart Brand - USA) |
| · Unleashing the IdeaVirus (Seth Godin - USA) |
| · Seeing is Believing (or how Hollywood taught us to stop worrying and love the 1950's) (Peter Biskind - USA) |
| · Sex and Business (Shere Hite - EU) |
| · La vie sexuelle de Catherine M. (Catherine Millet - France) |
| · The Future of Success (Robert Reich - USA) |
| · New Science (Giambattista Vico - Italy) |
| · Francoscopie 2001 : comment vivent les francais (Gerard Mermet - France) |
| · Rebel Heart : an American Rock'n'Roll Journey (Bebe Buell / Victor Bockris - USA) |
Review of the month - April 2001
|
Rebel Heart : An American Rock'n'Roll Journey. - Bebe Buell with Victor Bockris |
Review of the month - March 2001
|
The Future of Success - Robert B. Reich |
Review of the month - February 2001
|
Agequake : riding the demographic rollercoaster shaking business, finance and our world. - Paul Wallace |
Review of the month - January 2001
|
High Tech - High Touch : technology and our accelerated search for meaning. - John Naisbitt with Nana Naisbitt and Douglas Philips |
Review of the month - December 2000
|
Myth and Meaning - Claude Levi-Strauss |
Review of the month - November 2000
|
Bowling Alone - the collapse and revival of American community - Robert D. Putnam |
Review of the month - September 2000
|
The Anatomy of Buzz : how to create word-of-mouth marketing - Emanuel Rosen |
Review of the month - July 2000
|
No Logo : taking aim at the brand bullies. - Naomi Klein |
Review of the month - June 2000
|
On Men : masculinity in crisis - Anthony Clare |
Review of the month - May 2000
|
World Economic Outlook : Asset Prices and the Business Cycle - The
International Monetary Fund 2000 |
Review of the month - April 2000
|
A Future Perfect - the challenge and hidden promise of globalisation.
- John Micklethwait and Adrian Wooldridge |
Review of the month - March 2000
|
Stupeur et tremblements - Amelie Nothomb |
Review of the month - February 2000
|
Sex and Business - Shere Hite |
Review of the month - January 2000
|
The Overspent American : upscaling, downshifting and the new consumer
- Juliet B. Schor |
Review of the month - December 1999
|
Runaway world : how globalisation is reshaping our lives - Anthony
Giddens |
Review of the month - November 1999
|
Tupperware : the promise of plastic in 1950’s America - Alison
J. Clarke |
Review of the month - October 1999
|
Permission Marketing : turning strangers into friends and friends
into customers.- Seth Godin. |
Special Feature - September 1999
Review of the month - September 1999
|
New Science.- Giambattista Vico. |
Review of the month - August 1999
|
The Clock of the Long Now : time and responsibility.- Stewart Brand.
|
Review of the month - July 1999
|
The Great Disruption : human nature and the reconstitutionof the
social order.- Francis Fukuyama |
Purchases in United Kingdom / Europe. 
Purchases in United States / Elsewhere. 