SkillsFuture Month 4-Looking to Transform Your Business
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Ecommerce has revolutionised retail, and the recent pandemic has further spurred the urgency for digital transformation for many businesses. Here is a list of books, articles and videos on critical technologies and leadership competencies that we hope will provide some guidance in getting you started on your own business transformation.
eBooks
Amazon: How the World’s Most Relentless Retailer will Continue to Revolutionize Commerce
Natalie Berg and Miya Knights
eBook only. Kogan Page Limited, 2019.
Discover the secrets to Amazon’s success, and gain insights into the disruptive new strategies of one of the world’s most relentless retailers. Amazon explores how innovations like voice technology, checkout-free stores and its Prime ecosystem will fundamentally change the way consumers shop.
Borrow the eBook with the app📱 or online💻.
Get Fit for Digital Business
Rob Laurens
eBook only. Taylor and Francis, 2019.
Written with SMEs in mind, this book provides a six-step process that leaders can use to accelerate change, seize opportunities and counter threats that digital technology brings. Laurens, with two decades of business transformation experience, explains the difference between doing digital and being digital – two very different approaches to doing business digitally – while helping businesses transform at a whole-of-organisation level.
Borrow the eBook with the app 📱 or online 💻.
Starting an Online Business: All-in-One for Dummies
Shannon Belew and Joel Elad
Call Number: English 658.872 BEL –[BIZ]. John Wiley & Sons, 2020.
A comprehensive guide for beginners, this all-in-one manual provides the tools for anyone looking to start an online business. Going beyond basics, it provides guidance from finding your market niche, to creating a business plan and deciding on a revenue model; to funding, marketing, and building customer relationships.
Borrow the eBook with the app📱 or online💻, or find the book at the libraries.
Ecommerce Evolved
Tanner Larsson
Call Number: English 658.054678 LAR –[BIZ]. Build-Grow-Scale, 2016.
There is much more to ecommerce than simply building an online store, filling it with products and driving traffic. In this playbook, Larsson explains what differentiates thriving ecommerce businesses from mediocre ones, and includes a blueprint on how to evolve your brand and business.
Find the book at the libraries.
Six Billion Shoppers
Porter Erisman
Call Number: English 381.142091724 ERI –[BIZ]. St. Martin’s Press, 2017.
A practical guide on how to profit from the ecommerce boom in emerging markets, Six Billion Shoppers takes readers on a journey to the next ecommerce mega markets that are China, India, Southeast Asia and Latin America. Erisman explains how to seize opportunities created by consumers in these markets, and gives advice on riding the new business trend.
Borrow the eBook with the app📱 or online💻, or Find the book at the libraries.
Developing the Leader Within You 2.0
John C. Maxwell
Call Number: English 658.4092 MAX –[BIZ]. HarperCollins Leadership, 2018.
An update from the classic bestseller, Developing the Leader Within You 2.0 is thoroughly revised with two new chapters and fresh examples while retaining the foundational principles of the original edition. Maxwell examines the differences between leadership styles and explains how one can inspire, motivate, and influence others from any type of leadership position, be it a business executive, teacher or parent.
Borrow the eBook with the app📱 or online💻, or find the book at the libraries.
Leaders Eat Last: Why Some Teams Pull Together and Others Don’t
Simon Sinek
Call Number: English 658.4092 SIN –[BIZ]. Portfolio/Penguin, 2017.
Great leaders of many successful organisations create environments where people naturally work together to do remarkable things. In Sinek’s book, he observes a culture of deep trust and cooperation in the best workplaces, as their leaders build what he calls a “circle of safety,” that separates security inside the team from the challenges outside. He further illustrates his ideas with true stories ranging from the government to the military, to businesses.
Borrow the eBook with the app📱 or online💻, or find the book at the libraries.
Good to Great
Jim Collins
Call Number: English 658 COL –[BIZ]. HarperCollins, 2011.
What makes a company go from good to great? In this book, Collins distils the findings from his study that determines the critical factors of organisational greatness – why some companies make the leap and others do not. These shed light on almost every area of management strategy and practice, including the type of leadership required to achieve greatness, transcending the curse of competence, and combining a culture of discipline with an ethic of entrepreneurship.
Borrow the eBook with the app📱 or online💻, or find the book at the libraries.
Drive: The Surprising Truth About What Motivates Us
Daniel H. Pink
Call Number: English 153.1534 PIN. Penguin Publishing Group, 2012.
Most of us are familiar with the carrot-and-stick approach to motivation, where monetary rewards are deemed to be the best motivators. Pink, however, asserts that the secret to high performance and satisfaction is the human need to direct our own lives, and to learn and create new things. Based on scientific research on motivation, Pink examines the three elements that truly motivates – autonomy, mastery, purpose – and offers techniques to put these into action.
Borrow the eBook with the app📱 or online💻, or find the book at the libraries.
Humble Leadership
Edgar H. Schein, Peter A. Schein
eBook only. Berrett-Koehler Publishers, 2018.
Company culture expert, Edgar Schein, explores the importance of a new form of leadership in relationship building, group work, diverse workforces and work cultures that encourage psychological safety. Termed “humble leadership”, he explains how it requires a shift in focus to group dynamics and collaborations, and how this is the key to achieving creativity and adaptability that organisations need to grow.
Borrow the eBook with the app📱 or online💻.
The Content Trap
Bharat Narenda Anand
Call Number: 302.23 ANA. Random Publishing Group, 2016.
Bharat Anand, professor of Strategym in Harvard Business School, presents an incisive new approach to digital transformation that favours fostering connectivity over focusing exclusively on content.
Borrow the eBook with the app📱 or online💻, or find the book at the libraries.
The Technology Fallacy
Gerald C. Kane
Call Number: 658.05 KAN –[BIZ]. MIT Press, 2019.
This book offers managers and business leaders a guide for surviving digital disruptions - but it is not a book about technology - it is about the organisational changes required to harness the power of technology.
Borrow the eBook with the app 📱 or online 💻, or find the book at the libraries.
The Digital Transformation Playbook
David L. Rogers
Call Number: 658.4062 ROG. Columbia University Press, 2016.
The Digital Transformation Playbook shares how legacy businesses can transform, to thrive in the digital age. It is an indispensable guide for executives looking to take their firms to the next stage of profitable growth.
Borrow the eBook with the app📱 or online💻, or find the book at the libraries.
Lights Out
Ted Koppel
Call Number: 363.11 KOP. Crown, 2015.
Ted Koppel reveals that a major cyberattack on America’s power grid is not only possible; it is very likely, and the consequences will be devastating. Lights Out examines a threat unique to our time and evaluates potential ways to prepare for a catastrophe.
Borrow the eBook with the app📱 or online💻, or find the book at the libraries.
Cybersecurity Program Development for Business: The Essential Planning Guide
Christos J. P. Moschovitis
Call Number: 658.478 MOS -[BIZ]. Wiley, 2018.
This essential guide, with its many examples and case studies, breaks down every element of the development and management of a cybersecurity programme for executives.
Borrow the eBook with the app📱 or online💻, or find the book at the libraries.
The Nature of Technology: What It Is and How It Evolves
W. Brian Arthur
Call Number: English 600 ART. Penguin Books Ltd, 2009.
Leading scientific theorist W. Brian Arthur puts forth the first complete theory of the origins and evolution of technology, in a major work which argues that achievements in the invention of new technologies are comparable to what Darwin’s theory of evolution by natural selection has achieved.
Borrow the eBook with the app📱 or online💻, or find the book at the libraries.
The Future is Faster than You Think: How Converging Technologies are Transforming Business, Industries, and our Lives
Peter H. Diamonds and Steven Kotler
Call Number: English 338.064 DIA. Simon & Schuster, 2020.
In this gripping and insightful roadmap to our near future, Diamandis and Kotler investigate how wave after wave of exponentially accelerating technologies will impact both our daily lives and society as a whole.
Borrow the eBook with the app📱 or online💻, or find the book at the libraries.
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Articles
1. 6 Southeast Asia Ecommerce Trends in 2018
Singtel Business. First published on Singtel MyBusiness Blog on 10 Oct 2019.
According to a joint report by Temasek Holdings and Google, Southeast Asia’s internet economy is on a “solid trajectory to exceed $200 billion by 2025”. Fuelled by major events such as Lazada’s Online Revolution Campaign, Amazon’s entry and Alibaba’s investment into the region, SEA is experiencing an ecommerce industry boom. This article lists the six trends that shape ecommerce development in the region.
2. Why Humble Leaders Make The Best Leaders
Jeff Hyman. Published on Forbes.com on 31 Oct 2018.
Humility may not be the first trait that comes to mind when you think about great business leaders like Steve Jobs and Elon Musk; the idea of a humble, self-effacing leader often does not resonate as well. Research, however, has shown that such leaders inspire great teamwork and do a better job of focusing everyone on organisational goals. Read on to find out what specific traits these leaders embody.
3. 7 cybersecurity threats that can sneak up on you
David Nield Published on Wired, on 10 June 2020.
While it is often massive data breaches or ransomwares that capture the greatest attention in the headlines, it is also important to keep your guard up against some of the lesser-known attacks out there. These threats can still do serious damage, especially when it concerns your personal data and privacy. This article shares the kind of threats to look out for.
4. Welcome to the Digital Factory: the answer to how to scale your digital transformation
Somesh Khanna, Nadiya Konstantynova, Eric Lamarre, and Vik Sohoni. Published on Mckinsey Digital on May 14 2020.
Changing the business while running it requires taking a new approach to digital transformation. Here are five essential strategies to successfully transform your business digitally.
5. Why now is the perfect time for a digital transformation
Shane Zilinskas. Published on Forbes on July 10 2020.
Shane Zilinskas, Founder of ClearSummit, argues why the Covid-19 pandemic has created the perfect opportunity for companies to undergo a digital transformation.
Videos
1. Forget The Pecking Order At Work
Contrary to “standard” organisational cultures where value is placed on star employees who outperform others, business leader Margaret Heffernan shares that this practice is not what drives the highest-achieving teams. In her inspiring talk, Margaret explains the importance of social cohesion in successful organisations, and shares ideas on how to make this happen for your organisation.
Source: Forget the Pecking Order at Work (2015, June 16). TED.
2. Is there a limit to technological progress? by Clément Vidal
Many generations have felt they have reached the pinnacle of technological advancement. However, the technologies we take for granted today would seem like impossible magic to those who lived a 100 years back. In this video, Clément Vidal consults Kardashev’s scale to explore if there is a point where we will reach the actual limit of technological progress, and if we are near the limit at this moment in history.
Source: Is there a limit to technological progress? by Clément Vidal (2016, December 20). TED.
3. How can companies use digital initiatives to create value? by Tim Koller
As the economy continues to face uncertainty in the near future, companies must create value in any way they can. Tim Koller, lead author of VALUATION, explains four ways companies can achieve this through digital initiatives.
Source: How can companies use digital initiatives to create value? (2020, June 20). TED.
4. Cybersecurity expert answers hacking questions from Twitter by Amanda Rousseau
Facebook Offensive Security Engineer Amanda Rousseau aka “Malware Unicorn” answers questions raised by Twitter users about hacking, and advises aspirational engineers on how to start a career in cybersecurity.
Source: Cybersecurity expert answers hacking questions from Twitter by Amanda Rousseau (2019, November 19). TED.