Marketing never sleeps, but sometimes it goes on holiday. When it does, it takes a good book for the journey. We asked our marketing directors for their summer reading tips; here’s what they said.
Bryan Adams and Dave Hazlehurst,
‘Getting Goosebumps: a pragmatic guide to effective inbound marketing’
Chosen by Christine Moses, marketing director for the South East ‘Getting Goosebumps’ is all about stories. Specifically, it’s about the story businesses want their brand to tell, how they want to tell it, and how to make sure it keeps the customers coming back. Bryan and Dave provide a beginning-to-end process for building marketing strategies, covering business objectives, strategy, tactics and implementation, all illustrated with stories of proven success.Steve Peters, ‘The Chimp Paradox’
Chosen by Julie Brook, Regional Director for the North West In his work as a sports psychiatrist, Professor Steve Peters has made it his mission to master the human mind. ‘The Chimp Paradox’ models the processes which work together – and against each other – in our consciousness. From there, the book describes the techniques we can use to take back control of our mind from our inner chimp and biological computer. A must for those seeking greater focus in themselves and their teams.Steven Poole, ‘Rethink: The Surprising History of New Ideas’
Chosen by Alex Swann, marketing director for the Thames Valley and London Not strictly a business book but no less fascinating for it. ‘Rethink’ demonstrates the importance of looking again at old, discarded ideas using new perspectives. Steven Poole uses the example of historical ideas that were mocked or ignored for centuries, which have since stormed back to the cutting edge of research.Eric Ries, ‘The Lean Start-Up’
Chosen by Nikki Milward, The Marketing Centre regional director for the East of England ‘The Lean Start-Up’ has become a foundational work in Silicon Valley, but its relevance extends well beyond the world of tech. In it, Ries proposes a new way for product-focused businesses to work, focused on fast, scrappy iteration and learning through doing. It’s an unconventional approach that has seen success with some of the biggest names in software. Future business leaders will take Ries’ lessons as given – so it’s worth building an awareness of ‘Lean’ now.Dave Logan, John King and Halee Fischer-Wright,‘Tribal Leadership: Leveraging Natural Groups to Build a Thriving Organisation
Chosen by Trevor Salomon, marketing director for the Thames Valley A fascinating read into improving work culture, building teams and equipping organisations with the skills to tackle major challenges. Logan and co.’s big secret is that a team isn’t just made up of individuals: instead, it’s made up of tribes – social groups with their own unwritten rules and values. Successful management is about recognising and leading these tribes, and using their individual characters to build success.Matthew Syed,‘Black Box Thinking: Marginal Gains and the Secrets of High Performance’
Chosen by Nik Haidar, marketing director for London ‘Black Box Thinking’ has been used by the likes of Google, Mercedes Benz and other businesses seeking to change the way they’ve always done things. Syed argues that the key to making positive changes lies in defining success the right way and in accepting mistakes – not as disasters, but as data from which to learn. Useful for organisations struggling to find new perspectives on recurring problems.Dan Roam,‘The Back of the Napkin: Solving Problems and Selling Ideas with Pictures’
Chosen by Clare Methven, The Marketing Centre Co-founder An innovative and exciting way to present complex issues with simple diagrams and images. Society becomes faster and more visual by the day - long handouts and slow slideshows don’t cut it in the age of the eight-second attention span. Expressing ideas clearly and quickly needs to be a key skill in marketers’ toolboxes. This book offers easy, actionable techniques for getting messages across.James Kerr, ‘Legacy’
Chosen by Lucy Hogarth, The Marketing Centre Co-founder ‘Legacy’ is all about building for the future; not only achieving a goal but surviving and developing a business having done so. James Kerr breaks down the world-beating success of New Zealand’s All-Blacks into fifteen behavioral lessons for leaders who want to get to the top of their game and stay there. Better still, you don’t have to be a rugby lover to get the most from it!
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