15 articles for more success

Just another book with simple advice and a lot of self-congratulation from the authors? Or perhaps real insights and recommendations on how companies can position themselves better? Corporate Power: 15 Essays for Greater Success by editor Marion Mahholder is a real recommendation. review

Corporate Power – 15 Essays for Greater Success is brand new and has been on sale since August 27, 2024. In addition to herself, editor Marion McHolder has brought together 14 other authors who share practical advice and expertise on how to make a company fit for the future.

Corporate Power: 15 Articles for Greater Success

All authors have been active in some corporate-related field for several years, sometimes decades. And I'm not just talking about advisors. For example, I'm talking about a high-performance tennis player, a criminologist, a professional painter, a physicist or an engineer – the articles in this book are written by people who have, among other things, these professional backgrounds.

This in itself makes the book interesting in my opinion. Unfortunately, these types of books, that is, collections of articles on company-related topics, are often published by speakers, trainers, or trainers primarily for self-promotion. And you should not deceive yourself: of course the authors of this book also present themselves to a wider target group. Anyone who doubts otherwise is naive or has not published much yet.

15 articles and 15 ideas

But what I like about this book is that – and of course I can only speak for myself – I was able to extract something from each article. Sometimes these are memories of topics that have been on your mind in one way or another, but then you don't find the time to deal with them.

For example, I'm talking about the article by Thomas Baer, ​​who writes about networks. Of course, you can't expect to find a communication chart in 20 pages. But I like the clarity with which the urgent need for communication is described as a critical paradigm of the current era.

I also liked the article by Corinna Endel, who writes about the further development of the VUCA era into the BANI era, which I will include in one of my lectures, and the article by Marion Machauder, who, at least for me, does not like it. It really covers the topic of the new driving guidelines, but it explains well why impaired driving is such a big risk.

But sometimes there are articles that convey a message well through a new perspective or new idea. For example, Sandra Carner describes personality types based on tennis personalities and the influence of these personalities on teams. I want to read something new like this and not the standard 15th DiSC description or the Big 5.

Wolfram Schruers' article was also interesting. It describes an interesting and practical application of ChatGPT when creating interviews with users; The article could have been organized a little better, and the brief explanation of how to write prompts is more confusing than helpful. But the idea of ​​using ChatGPT in user interviews is really useful and offers a new perspective on how to use ChatGPT.

And I can continue like this. The article about color in corporate spaces got me thinking, I couldn't stop nodding at the article about communication as a primary management tool, the article about crises was interesting and the sales tips were short and sweet and helpful.

Company Power: 15 Articles for Greater Success – The Perfect Book?

So is everything perfect? This always depends on perspective. If you look at the production, the book is of high quality. Sturdy, thick paper, ribbon bookmarks, hardcovers – these things not only look valuable, but they are. The book costs €30 and – for those who measure the value of a book by the number of pages – over 300 pages with a variety of additional sources for most of the articles does not leave much to be desired when it comes to inspiring an article to be taken up and thought further.

What personally bothers me a little – but this is not specific to this book, I have this problem with many similar books – is the somewhat exaggerated depiction of the lives of many of the authors. What experts they all are! So much excellence is collected here, why do you need such a boring book?

Of course: rattling is part of the craft and the authors of this book have something to offer. But if the written words can't speak for themselves, then you always have to tell us how these authors inspire others, how in-demand they are, or how refreshingly honest they are? I know my words here won't change much, but this had to come out.

In some articles, I wish some of the explanations were more specific and in-depth. Sometimes, I had the feeling that a topic was being touched upon, but the details would perhaps only emerge during consultation.

Company Power: 15 Articles for Greater Success – Conclusion

Alternatively, it might have been possible to choose the topic of the article more specifically and not try to provide an overview of large topics such as change, communication or networking in 20 pages, which then cannot describe every aspect in depth due to the length of the article.

In my opinion, this is a criticism of a high level. In my opinion, the book is good because each article conveys an idea that the reader can take away. If that happens five or six times in a book, and the rest aren't at least bad, I'll be happy. If every article, like this book, represents a useful insight, that's really great. And all this for 30 euros in hardcover? As the Franconian says, the highest praise: It's okay!

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