Quick Read

Intellectual Property: The Tough New Realities That Could Make or Break Your Business
By Paul Goldstein

As economic power has shifted from those who make things to those who make ideas, the ability of a person or company to own and control ideas can mean the difference between fortune and failure. But unlike other forms of property such as real estate, where most legal principles are long settled, the law of ideas, trademarks and copyright is prone to abrupt shifts in judicial opinions and statutes. Stanford law professor Goldstein warns that managing intellectual property is like "drawing lines in water," but he also relies on 40 years of academic and professional experience to show nonlawyers how to protect themselves, their ideas and their companies.

King of the Club: Richard Grasso and the Survival of the New York Stock Exchange
By Charles Gasparino

Rags-to-riches stories may provide inspiring myths about the possibilities of making it to the top in New York, but this tale of one man's path from rags to riches to ridicule is more compelling for being true. CNBC correspondent Gasparino's rigorously reported tome tells the story of a man whose decidedly modest ambitions to become a police officer were thwarted, only to be replaced by a relentless drive that took him to the top of the world's pre-eminent stock exchange. Once there, he led boldly after the 9/11 attacks and amid rising competition from other exchanges, only to be driven out by outrage when details of his $140 million pay package became public.

Judgment: How Winning Leaders Make Great Calls
By Noel M. Tichy and Warren G. Bennis

Tichy, a professor at the University of Michigan, and Bennis, of the University of Southern California's Leadership Institute, have each penned best sellers and consulted with numerous Fortune 500 companies and world leaders. With this book, they join forces to form a management-guru dream team. They show how good judgment makes a difference in managing people, setting strategy and handling crises, and they convincingly argue that far from being an inborn trait, judgment is really a set of skills that can be nurtured and taught throughout an organization.

© 2007