A Fine Line: How Design Strategies Are Shaping the Future of Business by Hartmut Esslinger

German designer Hartmut Esslinger abides by a single guiding principle: ‘ form follows emotion.’ Over the past forty years, this simple maxim has guided frog design inc. through its growth from an industrial design boutique to a global innovation firm that works with the world’s leading companies, helping them create and bring to market meaningful products, services and experiences. Esslinger’s focus would go on to influence significant work for German electronics giant Wega, which led to a decades-long partnership with Sony. This collaboration generated more than one hundred products, including the mold-breaking black-box Sony Trinitron TV. It later attracted the attention of Steve Jobs, and in 1981, frog established a studio in California to help launch the Apple IIC. Awarded the title "Design of the Year" by TIME Magazine, it was inducted into the permanent collection at the Whitney Museum of Art in New York.

Since then, frog has continuously expanded beyond its industrial design roots, evolving to better address technological and cultural developments of the marketplace. Today, frog has a global presence with nine studios across the United States, Europe and Asia. The firm brings together a team of more than four hundred designers, strategists and technologists, to provide clients with meaningful solutions to face business challenges across multiple categories and industries. Esslinger reveals secrets to better business through better and more innovative design. Having spent forty years helping build the world’s most recognizable brands, he shows how business leaders and designers can join forces to build creative strategies that ensure a more profitable and sustainable future.

A Fine Line offers a step-by-step overview of the innovation process - from targeting goals to shepherding new products and services to the marketplace - in order to arrive at an authentic human design that connects strongly with consumers. With a unique perspective, rich stories and a global mindset, Esslinger explores business solutions that are environmentally sustainable and contribute to the future of an enduring global economy.

Publisher: John Wiley & Sons, Inc. Hardcover; 208 pages; ISBN: 978-0-470-45102-1

Price: S$52.38 including GST. Available at all major bookstores

Busting Loose From the Business Game: Mind-Blowing Strategies for Recreating Yourself, Your Team, Your Business, and Everything in Between by Robert Scheinfeld

Are you a business owner, manager, or employee who struggles with:

o Taxes, cash flow, sales, and profits

o Marketing and advertising effectiveness o Hiring, motivating, and managing talent

o The economy, stock market and competitors

o Bosses, boards, stockholders and partners

o Never-ending to-do lists and sacrificing your quality of life to succeed?

If you answered "yes" to any of these, you’ve been playing The Business Game and suffering the consequences. Even if you’re rolling in profits right now, there are hidden costs you’re paying to earn that money that’s always at risk. You’ve learnt ‘the rules’ and you’ve been faithful to them, thinking you can win. But you can’t really win The Business Game because it’s designed to be unwinnable - that is, as long as you play by the rules you were taught.

The only way to truly win is to bust loose from the ‘old’ game and start playing a new game with a new set of rules. This book helps you discover who you really are, what you’re really capable of, and how you can tap new sources of power, wisdom and abundance to radically transform your experience of business. When you bust loose from the old game, you’ll suddenly be playing a new game :

o For the sheer pleasure of playing, with no worries about sales, marketing, profits, cash flow, taxes, other people or personal income

o Entirely unaffected by the economy, stock market, competitors or technological innovation

o Having more fun with less effort than you’ve ever experienced

o Doing only what you love to do - all day, everyday

o Watching as amazing results come your way, without having to ‘make it happen’

 It may sound unbelievable, but it’s entirely possible. You can do it - if you open your mind and embrace the strategies in this book, leading you into a New Business Game filled with results and satisfaction beyond anything you’ve ever imagined possible. Read on…and bust loose!

Publisher: John Wiley & Sons, Inc. Hardcover; 264 pages; ISBN: 978-0-470-45308-7

Price: S$43.82 including GST Available at all major bookstores

The Rudolph Factor: Finding the Bright Lights that Drive Innovation in Your Business by Cyndi Laurin, Craig Morningstar

The Boeing Company, one of America's oldest and best aircraft manufacturers, has struggled - along with many of its competitors and suppliers - with the cyclical nature of demand for commercial aircraft. Between the difficult integration of the Rockwell and McDonnell Douglas teams into Boeing's culture, increasing competition from Airbus and heightened market pressure, the company was facing serious financial consequences . . . .until it found its bearings and managed a remarkable turnaround in record-breaking time, putting its competitors on the ropes.

The Rudolph Factor explains how Boeing did it. The company's journey back to excellence began a decade ago with the Boeing C-17 Globemaster, the U.S. Air Force's newest, most modern cargo aircraft. Hampered by a toxic culture and struggling to stay alive, Boeing C-17 management and employees partnered with the U.S. Air Force to fix the Programme. They - all 10,000 of them - instituted a new set of progressive practices from the top down and bottom up. One of their primary focuses was finding and nurturing creativity and innovative thinking among their people and teams. These new practices - including redefining leadership, developing a highly participatory team-based culture and creating a steadfast organizational constitution as well as an alternative reward structure - successfully reformed the C-17 Programme, turning near disaster into stunning success.

The Rudolph Factor uses Boeing C-17's successful transformation as a platform for teaching organizations how to elicit and benefit from the creative, revolutionary thinking of current employees. A small percentage of hyper-creative, out-of-the-box thinkers can be the catalyst for organization-wide reform - if you can recognize and nurture their special abilities. This book shows you how to find them in your organization, empower them and build a revolutionary business culture around them. If you want to get the best out of your people, turn your struggling business around, or fix failing projects, The Rudolph Factor will be your guiding light.

Publisher: John Wiley & Sons, Inc. Hardcover; 208 pages; ISBN: 978-0-470-45103-8

Price: S$38.47 including GST Available at all major bookstores

Public Relations in Asia Pacific

The global financial crisis poses many challenges for the communications industry. With Asia Pacific taking its place as a key change agent for leading the world out of recession, the role of public relations has never been more important.

Public Relations in Asia Pacific: Communicating Effectively Across Cultures is a handbook for practitioners by practitioners, authored by two of Asia’s top public relations experts, Mary Devereux and Anne Peirson-Smith, who each have over 20 years experience in the industry. The authors craft an authoritative and balanced assessment of the core practices of public relations in Asia Pacific. Each chapter is supported by case studies and examples to bring PR strategic and tactical practices into sharp focus. They have sought expert insights of experienced communication professionals working in Asia Pacific.

A must-read for professionals and corporate executives who want to understand the intricacies of navigating the cultural and geographical differences within Asia Pacific, as they seek to communicate more effectively with their multiple stakeholders.

Publisher: John Wiley & Sons (Asia) Pte Ltd

Hardcover; 256 pages; ISBN: 978-0470-82430-6

Price: S$52.38 including GST

Available at all major bookstores

Customer Genius

Peter Fisk, a leading customer and business strategist, proposes a new ‘blueprint’ for building a customer-centric business, ensuring that customer strategies drive compelling propositions and distinctive experiences, engaging ‘wonderful people’ we call customers.

Customer Genius walks you through 10 building blocks, 30 practical tools, 50 inspirational stories: From Amazon to Banyan Tree, Quintessentially to Zipcars, explores 50 of the world’s leading customer businesses ... the rise of Air Asia, and the collaboration of Boeing ... the segmented focus of Club Med, and the customer vision of Disney ... the fashion insights of H&M, and the imagination of Camper ... the innovation of Tata, and desire for the Nintendo Wii ... the realism of Dove, and personalisation of Build a Bear Workshop ... the culture of Singapore Airlines, and the tribal loyalty of Harley Davidson. The ‘genius’ of a customer-centric business is that it works from the outside in rather than inside out. It attracts, serves and retains the best customers as its route to profitability and growth. It has a compelling purpose and enduring passion to make people’s lives better. It is a phenomenal place to work and delivers exceptional results. Isn’t it about time you started doing business from the outside in?

Publisher: John Wiley & Sons Ltd

Hardcover; 406 pages; ISBN: 978-1-84112-788-0

Price: S$43.82 including GST

Available at all major bookstores