2017年不容錯過的10本商務類書刊
Among the best business books of 2017 are some excellent new titles by journalists; a lived-it story of sex discrimination in Silicon Valley; and a big chewy book about scaling that is mind-blowing if not necessarily practical. Many new releases--including several mentioned here--make compelling reading for non-business audiences as well. Here are our picks for 2017:
2017年最佳商務類書刊中有一些是新聞記者新鮮出爐的優質作品；有關於在硅谷活生生的性別歧視故事；還有關於企業規模的耐人尋味的大著作，如果不一定實用，也相當讓人興奮了。許多新出的書刊——包括這裏提到的幾本——也同樣能激起從事非商業領域讀者的閱讀興趣。以下是我們選取的2017年最佳的十部商務類書刊：
1.Fifty Inventions That Shaped the Modern Economy (By Tim Harford)
1.《五十個塑造現代經濟的發明》 (作者：蒂姆・哈福德)
Among the best books of 2006 was The Box: How the Shipping Container Made the World Smaller and the World Economy Bigger, an unexpectedly captivating tale about a simple idea that changed everything. That book, by Marc Levinson, was epic and full of detail. The new release from journalist Harford--reimagined from a 2016 podcast--comprises quicker hits. But for innovation aficionados, there's a satisfying accretive effect to this parade of origin stories for stuff we take for granted, ranging from management consulting (government regulation played a surprising role) to chemical fertilizer (the backstory includes the Battle of Ypres and a brilliant woman's suicide). Fifty Inventions also demonstrates that some innovations produce fateful secondary consequences: For example, the bar code tilted the playing field away from mom-and-pops and toward big boxes. While not a deep book, Fifty Inventions is a provocative one, reminding aspiring disrupters of the many, many ways to make their marks.
2006年的最佳書籍之一是《集裝箱：貨櫃是如何縮小世界距離並擴大世界經貿的》，這是一個令人意想不到且令人着迷的，關於一個簡單的想法就能改變一切的故事。這本由馬克・列文森撰寫的書是史詩般的著作，其間充滿了細節的描寫。而本書的作者哈福德是一名記者，他的新書從2016年播客中重新構思，獲得了更多的點擊率。但對於創新愛好者來說，瞭解一些我們認爲理所當然的事情的起源故事有着令人滿意的增長效應，從管理諮詢（政府監管其實扮演了令人驚訝的角色）到化學肥料（背景故事包括伊普爾之戰和一位傑出女性的自殺）。五十項發明還表明，一些創新甚至產生了可怕的次級後果：例如，條形碼從個體經營的小店轉至大賣場。這本書雖不深奧，但卻極具挑釁，提醒着那些致力於打破常規的人，世界上存在着很多種讓他們留下標記的途徑。
2.Hit Makers: The Science of Popularity in an Age of Distraction (By Derek Thompson)2.《熱點製造者：浮躁時代裏走紅的學問》 （作者：德里克・湯普森)
Two ideas underlie this entertaining look at the creation of blockbusters, by a senior editor at The Atlantic. First, people like things that are at once boldly different and comfortingly familiar. Second, the popularity of hits begins with a single source that reaches many people at once. Thompson's research-based treatise takes on many creators' and marketers' assumptions: among them that quality is sufficient (exposure matters more) and that anything actually goes viral, in the way we understand that word. And luck, he concedes, can never be discounted. "Rock Around the Clock" debuted in 1954 to relative crickets. A year later, serendipity landed the song in the movie Blackboard Jungle and theatergoers were dancing in the aisles. Hit Makers coats science in compelling story, a device so common in this genre that it is itself an example of the familiarity theory. Thompson confesses as much. And he warns: Don't put too much stock in a great yarn.
《大西洋月刊》的一名資深編輯認爲，爆紅事物的創作背後有兩個要點。首先，人們喜歡那些明顯有些不同但是又非常熟悉的事物。其次，點擊的流行始於一次就能接觸很多人的一種來源。湯普森這本基於研究的作品呈現了許多創作者和營銷者的假設：其中一個觀點是隻要質量足夠好（曝光其實更重要），這樣任何事物都會像病毒一樣傳播開來，就像我們對病毒這個詞理解的那樣。他還承認，永遠不能忽略運氣的重要性。《晝夜搖滾》這首歌在1954年首次發行，但是卻名不見經傳。一年後，這首歌碰巧被電影《黑板叢林》選爲插曲，劇迷們甚至在廊道里跳起了舞。《熱點製造者》將科學引入引人入勝的故事中，這種方式在這個流派中非常常見，而且它本身就是熟悉理論的一個例子，湯普森坦白道。不過他警告說：不要把太多的籌碼都放在一根紗線上。
3. If You're in a Dogfight, Become a Cat: Strategies for Long-Term Growth (By Leonard Sherman)3.《變成貓，讓你化犬爲夷》（作者：萊昂納德・謝爾曼）
Among the better strategy books of recent years, Dogfight, by a professor at Columbia University, argues that costly battles in mature marketplaces are not inevitable. Rather, smart companies that compete on their own terms instead of locking horns can sustain profitable growth over time. In-N-Out Burger's less-is-more approach, for example, has allowed it to sidestep McDonald's new-menu-item proficiency. Yellow Tail thrived by taking the mystique out of wine to win over those who don't drink the stuff rather than those who do. The obligatory analysis of Apple is unusually thoughtful: Sherman explains how that company might combat the law of large numbers and outgrow the market in the long term. For young entrepreneurs without MBAs, Dogfight offers a quick master class in recent business history (gurus, concepts, iconic companies) along with its high-level guidance on strategy and product.
在近年來較好的戰略書籍中，由一名哥倫比亞大學教授寫的《化犬爲夷》一書認爲在成熟市場中成本高的商戰並非不可避免。相反，聰明的公司能夠以自己的方式競爭而不是與對手糾纏爭鬥，從而能夠長期保持盈利增長。例如，“來來往往漢堡店”簡單即爲多的菜單模式，很好地迴避了麥當勞對新菜單項目的熟練度。黃尾袋鼠葡萄酒則通過揭示葡萄酒的神祕感來贏取那些不喝酒的消費者的青睞而非那些喝酒的人。對蘋果的強制性分析也十分耐人尋味：謝爾曼解釋了該公司可能會如何對抗大數法則並長期超過市場的發展。對於沒有工商管理學位的年輕企業家來說，《化犬爲夷》提供了一個速成的大師班，讓讀者瞭解近代商業史（包括專家、概念、標誌性公司）並提供了有關戰略和產品的高級指導。
4. Irresistible: The Rise of Addictive Technology and the Business of Keeping Us Hooked (By Adam Alter)4.《無法抗拒：成癮性技術的興起與綁架身心的商業》（作者：亞當·阿爾特）
This new evils-of-technology exposé is among the genre's darkest and best. Alter, a professor of marketing and psychology at New York University, introduces the idea of "behavioral addiction" to which we are even more vulnerable than substance addiction, thanks to the proliferation of digital sirens. Societal critics have long bemoaned that apps, gadgets, and social media are harmful to our relationships, health, and productivity. Alter reiterates that argument and then explains the design principles that exploit our vulnerabilities. For example, Netflix popularized the time-suck that is binge watching by automatically loading the next episode in a series, a strategy that plays to our vulnerability to cliffhangers. Video games like Tetris and Super Hexagon glue players to screens with escalating challenges and the tantalizing promise of mastery. Gamification, which encourages learning and healthy behavior, largely gets a pass.
這種新興黑科技的剖析能讓我們瞭解其最黑暗和最好的一面。紐約大學營銷和心理學教授阿爾特介紹了“行爲成癮”這一概念，由於極具誘惑性的數字產品的激增，行爲成癮的我們甚至比患有物質成癮更容易受到傷害。社會評論家長期以來一直抱怨說，應用程序，小工具以及社交媒體都不利於人們的關係、健康和效率。阿爾特重申了這一點，然後解釋了這些利用了我們弱點的設計原則。例如，Netflix通過耗時的方法讓電視劇自動加載下一集來增加觀看的時間，這種策略正是利用了我們對懸念抵抗力不足的弱點。像俄羅斯方塊和超級六角形等視頻遊戲則是通過不斷升級挑戰以及對資深玩家的誘人獎勵而讓玩家一刻不離遊戲屏幕。鼓勵學習和形成健康行爲的遊戲機制，很大程度上能夠通過。
5. Janesville: An American Story (By Amy Goldstein)5.《簡斯維爾：一個美國人的故事》（作者：艾米·戈爾茨坦）
Three years ago, the excellent book Factory Man chronicled the near decimation of a Virginia town by the collapse of the U.S. furniture industry and the heroic efforts of one multi-generation family business to put things right. In the equally fine book Janesville: An American Story, by Washington Post reporter Amy Goldstein, it is the citizens of this Wisconsin town who struggle to hold things together after the nation's oldest operating General Motors plant shut its doors in 2008. The GM workers--many of them lifers--find themselves scared and adrift, as do their families and the shop owners and service people and construction workers whom their jobs supported. Job retraining, a panacea touted by both political parties, is barely effective. By the book's epilogue, unemployment is back under 4 percent, but real wages are down and manufacturing has not returned. The town's close-knit community spirit is riven by a new "optimism gap." Job security, the majority believes, is gone for good.
三年前，優秀的《工廠男人》一書記載了弗吉尼亞州一個由於美國傢俱業崩塌而幾乎毀滅的城鎮以及一家多代家族企業讓趨勢迴歸正軌的的英勇努力。由華盛頓郵報記者艾米・戈爾斯坦寫作的同樣精美的書《簡斯維爾：一個美國人的故事》中，強調了威斯康星州的居民們在2008年國內最老的通用汽車工廠被關閉之後團結一致的重要性。通用的員工——他們中的許多人終身只從事了一種工作——發現他們害怕、茫然，而他們的家人、商店店主以及支持他們工作的服務人員和建築工人也是這樣。工作再培訓，兩個政黨都吹捧的萬靈丹，卻幾乎沒有效果。這本書的結語寫道，失業率回落到4％以下，但實際工資卻下降了，製造業也沒有迴轉。這個小鎮緊密團結的社區精神被新的“樂觀差距”所撕扯。大多數人認爲，工作保障將永遠不復存在了。
6. The Power of Moments: Why Certain Experiences Have Extraordinary Impact(By Chip and Dan Heath)6.《關鍵時刻的力量：爲什麼有些人生經歷具有非凡影響力》（作者：奇普·希思和丹·希思）
The power of story is ascendant. But stories, after all, are assembled from moments that are expanded and shaped: their implications made manifest. The latest book from the Heath brothers (Chip is a professor at Stanford; Dan at Duke) is equally valuable to managers and marketers eager to influence behavior by creating genuinely meaningful moments. The authors explain how to craft peaks--the best and most memorable parts of positive experiences--and to identify situations in their employees' or customers' lives that cry out to be recognized or commemorated. Like all the Heaths' work, Power of Moments is rich with teachable, entertaining examples: from a hotel's white-glove popsicle delivery service to John Deere's warm welcome on employees' first days. They also make the point that not all transformative moments are positive. You may want to scrub from your mind the story about open defecation in African villages.
故事的力量在增強。但是故事畢竟是在放大效果和編造的情況下收集起來的：它們的含義顯而易見。來自希思兄弟的最新書籍（奇普和丹分別是斯坦福大學和杜克大學的教授）對於渴望通過創造真正有意義的時刻來影響員工行爲的經理和營銷人員來說同樣重要。作者解釋瞭如何在員工和客戶的生活中創造高峯——積極經歷中最好的也最令人難忘的部分——以及分辨出那些迫切被識別或紀念的情況。像所有希思兄弟的作品一樣，《關鍵時刻的力量》中充滿了豐富的教學和娛樂實例：從酒店的白手套冰棒送貨服務到約翰迪爾對員工第一天的熱烈歡迎。他們還指出，並非所有轉型時刻都是積極的。你可能想從你的腦海裏消除那個關於非洲村莊開放排便的故事。
7. Reset: My Fight for Inclusion and Lasting Change (By Ellen Pao)7. 《重啓：我對包容與持久變革的抗爭》（作者：鮑康如）
The depressing saga of Ellen Pao's Kleiner Perkins sojourn and resulting gender discrimination trial should not be eclipsed by the more lurid tales spilling out of Hollywood, Congress, and the media. Pao's book came out less than three weeks before The New York Times' Harvey Weinstein exposé moved the mistreatment of women to the front burner and set it on a rolling boil. Her story places harassment in the broader context of organizational sexism: the pestle that grinds down women of promise by disrespecting, ignoring, belittling, and passing over them. Reset starts as an immigrant success story and ends on a bright note with Pao's experience setting up Project Include, a nonprofit to promote diversity in tech. But it is the long, nasty middle that will horrify, anger, and frustrate readers and--hopefully--give them courage to stand up for themselves and their colleagues.
鮑康如的克萊納帕金斯旅居經歷以及由此產生的性別歧視審判是一個令人沮喪的故事，但是也不應該被好萊塢、國會和媒體中流露出來的更加聳人聽聞的故事所淹沒。在《紐約時報》的哈維·溫斯坦優先將此事揭發之後不到三週，鮑的書就出爐了，爲其添了一把火。她的故事將騷擾置於更廣泛的組織性別歧視背景下：通過不尊重、輕視和忽略女性對她們進行打壓。《重啓》以一個移民成功的故事開始，以一個充滿希望的語調講述鮑創立Project Include（一個非營利性的機構，旨在促進科技行業的多元發展）的經驗收尾。但這是一個漫長而令人討厭的中間環節，因爲它會嚇壞、惹怒、挫敗讀者——但也可能有希望——給予她們勇氣爲自己和同事們站起來。
8. Scale: The Universal Laws of Growth, Innovation, Sustainability, and the Pace of Life in Organisms, Cities, Economies, and Companies (By Geoffrey West)8.《規模化：增長、創新和可持續的普遍規律以及有機體、城市、經濟和企業的生命節奏》（作者：傑弗裏韋斯特）
West's dazzling discourse on the dynamics and growth of biological and manmade organisms--including businesses--raises intriguing questions about how much even the savviest CEO can control his company's trajectory. Regardless of their industries, sizes, or locations, companies scale according to surprisingly similar laws: laws that also govern biological life. West, a theoretical physicist, suggests it may be possible to develop a "science of companies," to help us understand how they grow and die (and, potentially, to help us predict their approximate lifespans). Innovation helps organizations exceed natural constraints on growth by altering characteristics of their structure or composition. But innovation typically falls victim to the tyranny of economies of scale. Cities fare better, West writes. They grow. They innovate. They diversify. They don't die.
韋斯特對於生物和人造生物（包括企業）的動態和發展的令人眼花繚亂的論述引發了很多有趣的問題，即使是最精明的CEO又能控制公司的軌跡到何種程度呢。無論其行業、規模或地點如何，令人驚訝的是公司都會以類似規律進行規模調整：也是生物生命遵循的規律。韋斯特作爲一名理論物理學家，他認爲或許有可能開發一種“企業科學”來幫助我們理解它們是如何成長和消亡的（並且可能幫助我們預測其大致的生命期限）。創新通過改變其結構或組成的特徵，幫助企業超越對自然增長的限制。但創新通常成爲規模經濟統治下的犧牲品。韋斯特寫道，城市在這個過程中發展地更好，它們成長、創新、多樣化，它們不會消亡。
9. The Startup Way: How Modern Companies Use Entrepreneurial Management to Transform Culture and Drive Long-Term Growth (By Eric Ries)9.《創業方式：現代公司如何利用企業管理改變文化並推動長期增長》（作者：埃裏克・里斯）
Like former IBM CEO Louis Gerstner, the entrepreneur and author Eric Ries knows elephants can dance. The principle pachyderm Ries taught to foxtrot is General Electric, a $124 billion, 295,000-employee behemoth that sounds like the world's most unlikely candidate for the methodology popularized in Ries's The Lean Startup. In 2011, then-chairman Jeffrey Immelt, a fan of lean, invited the author to help him make GE more nimble and competitive. Through that experience and other examples, Ries demonstrates that it is possible for even venerable corporations to adopt a "startup state of mind" and enshrine innovation at scale. The lean toolset (minimum viable products, pivots, etc.) turns out to be surprisingly adaptable and transformative within large, process-dominated functions building expensive, large-scale physical products. By making Silicon Valley's favorite toolkit relevant to everyone, The Startup Way begins to answer questions about how to keep U.S. industry dynamic.
像前國際商業機器公司首席執行官路易斯·郭士納一樣，既爲一名企業家，又爲一名作家的埃裏克・里斯知道“大象也可以跳舞”。他想要傳遞的是，通用電氣公司，一個價值1240億美元，僱員人數爲29萬5千的大公司最不可能對里斯的《精益創業》中所追捧的方法感興趣，但是在2011年，時任通用電氣公司的董事長傑弗裏伊梅爾特，是《精益創業》一書的粉絲，邀請作者幫助他讓通用電氣更加靈活和具有競爭力。通過這些經驗和其他例子，里斯表明，即使是經驗老道的公司也可以採用這種“創業心態”，並在規模上實現創新。精益工具集（最小可行產品，樞軸等）在構建昂貴的大規模物理產品的大型過程主導功能中變得出人意料地具有適應性和變革性。通過使硅谷最受歡迎的工具包與所有人相關聯，《創業方式》開始能夠回答如何保持美國行業動態的問題。
10. Wild Ride: Inside Uber's Quest for World Domination（By Adam Lashinsky）10.《瘋狂之旅：優步公司謀求統治世界的幕後》（作者：亞當·拉辛斯基）
Wild Ride was released in May. The following month, Uber's CEO, Travis Kalanick, resigned under pressure, and the changes kept coming. But that doesn't leave journalist Lashinsky's book in the rearview mirror. For entrepreneurs with more modest prospects, Wild Ride recreates the feel of digging your spurs into the most hard-charging of unicorns. The book relies on insider accounts--Lashinsky interviewed Kalanick and others in the business at length--to describe in detail Uber's tribulations as it grappled with regulators, competitors, and pushback on everything from its pricing structure to its treatment of women. (It begins by recounting the company's high-profile failure in China.) Kalanick emerges as central casting's vision of the unfeeling, arrogant entrepreneur, yet his smarts and achievement are undeniable. Toward the end, Lashinsky turns his attention to the plight of drivers, briefly taking the wheel himself. Read his account and you'll never again forget to tip.
《瘋狂之旅》於5月發行。在接下來的一個月，優步的首席執行官特拉維斯·卡蘭尼克在壓力下辭職，而且變數仍不斷產生。但這並沒有讓記者拉辛斯基的書被人們拋之腦後。對於擁有較小發展前景的企業家來說，《瘋狂之旅》重現了那種尋找最強硬的獨角獸內心的刺的感覺。這本書依賴於內部人員的自述——拉辛斯基採訪了卡蘭尼克和其他人——詳細描述了優步的困境，因爲它與監管機構、競爭對手以及從定價結構到對待女性的一切事情都處於抗爭中。（它首先回顧了該公司在中國引起的高調失敗。）卡蘭尼克以一個無情的、傲慢的企業家的身份出現在“舞臺中心”，但是他的聰明才智和成就無可否認。書的結尾部分，拉辛斯基將筆鋒轉向描寫司機的困境，只是簡單地陳述了自己的看法。閱讀完他的文字，你將永遠不會忘記給司機們小費了。
（本文首發於滬江商務英語公衆號，掃碼關注，即可獲取更多商務英語資訊。轉載請“滬江商務英語”後臺聯繫！）
