Scaling Up Magazine Scaling Up Magazine April 2018 | Page 7

SPRING 2018 MUST-READ BOOKS: 2018 7 The Four: The Hidden DNA of Amazon, Apple, Facebook, and Google by Scott Galloway Written by iconoclastic NYU marketing professor Scott Galloway, this compelling book expands on Galloway’s famous YouTube lecture on how the “four horsemen”—Amazon, Apple, Facebook, and Google—have invaded our lives on a moment-to-moment basis. I can’t think of a company on the planet that isn’t threatened by one of these four juggernauts. Read it so you can understand their vulnerabilities and make the most of them in your growth strategy. Machine, Platform, Crowd: Harnessing Our Digital Future by Andrew McAfee and Erik Brynjolfsson Every company is a technology business today. We’ve got to rely on technology platforms to scale. This book will show you how to make the most of those that exist today as you gr ow your business. The authors bring deep expertise to the subject: McAfee is a principal research scientist at MIT and Brynjolfsson is the director of the MIT Center for Digital Business. Performance Partnerships: The Checkered Past, Changing Present & Exciting Future of Affiliate Marketing by Robert Glazer One of the best ways to build your brand is to leverage the reach of other brands and partners. This book shows you how to structure those partnerships so you only pay for results. Robert Glazer—founder and director of Acceleration Partners, an affiliate-management agency that works with giant brands such as Airbnb, Reebok, Target, Gymboree and Warby Parker—shows how midmarket companies can do what they do to generate the one thing every business needs: sales. Am I Being Too Subtle?: Straight Talk from a Business Rebel by Sam Zell Few entrepreneurs know more about bringing in cash than real estate innovator Sam Zell. This entertaining book provides hundreds of practical lessons and tips on how to make deals, generate cash and scale organizations. Zell’s strange but effective approach to the relationship building that fuels revenue makes the book worth reading. Don’t miss the section about Sam’s music boxes—a year-end gift that signaled to recipients they were in “the club.” Principles: Life and Work by Ray Dalio Ray Dalio, founder of Bridgewater Associates, the largest hedge fund in the world, can teach even the most successful entrepreneurs how to create wealth. It’s not just studying spreadsheets that has given him an edge in a brutally competitive field. One of the most important principles that drove his billions is meditating twice a day. He even pays his employees to meditate. Do try this at home. Decluttering your mind—and your team’s—will free you to make the decisions you need to unlock faster growth in 2018.