Friday, November 30, 2012

An Engineering Management Reading List-Starter Kit

Ross Snyder, an engineering management student here at WMU, recently asked about a reading list for engineering management students. I put together this quick list and will modify over time.

Stars indicate a must-read.

*Steve Jobs by Walter Isaacson. Long, but well-written and insightful.

*Stephen Johnson--Where Good Ideas Come From. Uses Darwin and others to construct an engaging set of principles that seem to explain the source of innovative ideas and debunk popular myths (such as the Eureka! moment).

StrengthsFinder 2.0--used by Stryker and other Fortune 500 firms to measure employee engagement. Book price includes online test, so don't buy a used one.

*Outliers by Malcolm Gladwell. NYT bestselling author tackles what explain outlier behavior in business--Gates, Jobs, and hockey. This is a must-read.

*The Tipping Point by Malcolm Gladwell. His first big release. Explains how change is not linear and uses an epidemiological model to support his argument. Also a must-read.

Made to Stick by Chip and Dan Heath.

Boring Meetings Suck by Jon Petz.

*Seven Habits of Highly Effective People by Stephen Covey.

*Innovator's Dilemma by Clayton Christensen

Also, monitor the NYT Business bestseller list: http://www.nytimes.com/best-sellers-books/hardcover-business-books/list.html and catch book reviews at businessweek.com.

This should get you through the next few months.

Friday, January 27, 2012

Top 3 Ideas for Managing This Week

Here at the Management Minute, I strive to share relevant items to stimulate the use of more creative thought and practice for engineering managers and managers of other enterprises, as well. So, let's see what we have for the top ideas this week:

1. Review how Alan Mulally addressed Ford's culture in the impressive turnaround of that firm. He tells an audience of Stanford students about how a 12-second interchange moved from an historical firing of a manager to a comprehensive effort to solve the technical issue. Watch here. Watch until 33:31, but you'll be compelled to listen longer to hear his story about driving into the Ford garage on his first day of work.

2. Absorb what having nearly a hundred billion dollars of cash on hand means. Read this WSJ report on Apple's blowout quarter--the second such report since Steve Jobs' passing. Here, in a different context, a non-legendary leader takes over and produces a record-setting performance. The Apple culture is stronger than its founder.

3. Dive into the business models of the top S&P performers of the past decade. Learn that world dominance is fleeting, but there are strategies to make your business a survivor. Read at ChangeThis.