Books

Brief Summary Narrative Economics: How Stories Go Viral and Drive Major Economic Events. From Nobel Prize-winning economist and New York Times bestselling author Robert Shiller, a new way to think about how popular stories help drive economic events. In a world in which internet troll farms attempt to influence foreign elections, can we afford to ignore the power of viral stories to affect economies? In this groundbreaking book, Nobel Prize-winning economist and New York Times bestselling author Robert Shiller offers a new way to think about the economy and economic change. Using a rich array of historical examples and data, Shiller argues that studying popular stories that affect individual and collective economic behavior--what he calls "narrative economics"--has the potential to vastly improve our ability to predict, prepare for, and lessen the damage of financial crises, recessions, depressions, and other major economic events. Spread through the public in the form of popular stories, ideas can go viral and move markets--whether it's the belief that tech stocks can only go up, that housing prices never fall, or that some firms are too big to fail. Whether true or false, stories like these--transmitted by word of mouth, by the news media, and increasingly by social media--drive the economy by driving our decisions about how and where to invest, how much to spend and save, and more. But despite the obvious importance of such stories, most economists have paid little attention to them. Narrative Economics sets out to change that by laying the foundation for a way of understanding how stories help propel economic events that have had led to war, mass unemployment, and increased inequality. The stories people tell--about economic confidence or panic, housing booms, the American dream, or Bitcoin--affect economic outcomes. Narrative Economics explains how we can begin to take these stories seriously. It may be Robert Shiller's most important book to date. ISBN:9780691182292 Author:Robert J Shiller

Brief Summary Hug Your Haters: How to Embrace Complaints and Keep Your Customers. Haters are not your problem. . . . Ignoring them is. Eighty percent of companies say they deliver out¬standing customer service, but only 8 percent of their customers agree. This book will help you close that gap by reconfiguring your customer service to deliver knockout experiences. The near-universal adoption of smartphones and social media has fundamentally altered the science of complaints. Critics ("haters”) can now express their displeasure faster and more pub¬licly than ever. These trends have resulted in an overall increase in complaints and a belief by many businesses that they have to "pick their spots” when choosing to answer criticisms. Bestselling author Jay Baer shows why that approach is a major mistake. Based on an exten¬sive proprietary study of how, where, and why we complain, Hug Your Haters proves that there are two types of complainers, each with very differ¬ent motivations: ·Offstage haters. These people simply want solutions to their problems. They complain via legacy channels where the likelihood of a response is highest—phone, e-mail, and com¬pany websites. Offstage haters don’t care if any¬one else finds out, as long as they get answers. ·Onstage haters. These people are often disap¬pointed by a substandard interaction via tradi¬tional channels, so they turn to indirect venues, such as social media, online review sites, and discussion boards. Onstage haters want more than solutions—they want an audience to share their righteous indignation. Hug Your Haters shows exactly how to deal with both groups, drawing on meticulously researched case studies from businesses of all types and sizes from around the world. It includes specific play-books and formulas as well as a fold-out poster of "the Hatrix,” which summarizes the best strate¬gies for different situations. The book is also filled with poignant and hilarious examples of haters gone wild, and companies gone crazy, as well as inspirational stories of companies responding with speed, compassion, and humanity. Whether you work for a mom-and-pop store or a global brand, you will have haters—and you can’t afford to ignore them. Baer’s insights and tactics will teach you how to embrace complaints, put haters to work for you, and turn bad news into good outcomes. ISBN:9781101980675 Author:Jay Baer