Is growth based on talent? Think again with a book that claims talent is overrated; Learn how organisations can build innovation into their DNA to avoid dying a slow death; And finally, find out how healthy, holistic living is the key to weight-loss and well-being.
The IANS Bookshelf has these growth-oriented reads for the weekend:
1. Book: Talent Is Overrated: What Really Separates World-Class Performers from Everybody Else; Author: Geoff Colvin; Publisher: Hachette India; Price: Rs 499; Pages: 248
Great performers around us may not be innately talented, but learn to do more, perceive more and remember more with a simple funda: Intensive deliberate practice. In a new book, Fortune’s senior editor Geoff Colvin argues that talent is overrated and world-class performers train their brains and bodies to achieve more.
Colvin has maintained that top-notch performers in any field – sports, music, business or any other – are not ‘superhuman’ or from another planet. They simply practice. That path, however, is long, demanding and pursued by few.
In the book, first published 10 years ago, the former Harvard University student shows us where we go wrong and what actually makes world-class performers so remarkable. It isn’t specific, innate talent, nor is it plain old hard work. It’s a very specific type of work that anyone can do – but most people don’t.
That work is well-structured extensive practice.
2. Book: Creative Construction: The DNA of Sustained Innovation; Author: Gary P. Pisano; Publisher: Hachette India; Price: Rs 599; Pages: 270
“Whereas entrepreneurship is like building a new house from the ground up (albeit on a tight budget), creative construction is akin to renovating a home while living in it. It takes real creativity to build something new out of something old. Creative construction takes leaders who constantly renew and rebuild their organisation’s innovative capabilities. They don’t see their organisations, no matter how large, as immutable blocks of stone,” author and innovation scholar Gary Pisano says in this new title.
The book claims that large companies can construct a strategy, system and culture of innovation that creates sustained growth.
Every company wants to grow, and the most proven way is through innovation. The conventional wisdom is that only disruptive startups can innovate; once a business gets bigger and more complex corporate stiffness sets in. Pisano shows how the scale of bigger companies can be leveraged for advantage in innovation.
3. Book: Think, Eat, Live Smart: Secrets to Supercharge Your Health; Author: Anjali Hooda Sangwan; Publisher: Rupa; Price: Rs 295; Pages: 215
All the world’s a shelf – and it’s full of books on weight-loss.
Determined to not add another weight loss guide, the author, with an MD from New York’s Lincoln Medical Centre. offers to help readers choose prevention as a path to healthy living.
“Think Eat Live Smart” touches upon subjects ranging from balancing nutrients in food, food myths, challenges posed by the Indian diet, behaviour modification such as stress management and portion control, to the importance of sleep, gut health, hormones and much more. It also provides various case studies to relate to readers across all age groups.
The book’s mantra? Concentrate on your overall well-being and weight loss is sure to follow
