In a constantly changing digitalised world where information is available at our finger tips, it is important to stay updated with new market trends, strategies and inspiration that will foster innovation and keep you ahead of competition. Here are four books we recommend that will inspire you to #thinkdigital:
1. Webs of Influence: The Psychology of Online Persuasion
It is safe to say that while virtual stores are on the increase, the number of physical stores is on the decline. The increase in the number of virtual stores does present a cost-benefit situation for business organization who are excited about the opportunities virtual stores presents like: a wider market outreach and cost reduction but with those advantages comes the challenges of attracting and retaining customers loyalty.
The web psychologist explained that the key to maintaining a certain level of market leadership and customer retention lies in the ability of the an organization to connect with your customers, nurture your relationships and know what makes them behave the way they do.
Nathalie Nahai used a multidisciplinary approach to explain consumer behavior. He uses psychology to explain why certain persons purchase a particular product, and he utilized the tools of behavioral economics to trace the link between market structures and consumers demand patterns and finally explored the biological inclinations of man to respond to social excitement.
Webs of Influence is a short but useful piece that could help organizations navigates the murky waters of e-commerce and online marketing.
2. Good Strategy Bad Strategy: The Difference and Why It Matters
Creating and implementing a strategy is the central focus of leadership in virtually all spheres of life. In simple terms, a CEO on Wall Street, a religious leader, even a political leader succeeds on the basis of formulating a strategy and ensuring that the strategy is at best implemented to the letter. The author draws the attention of the reader to the erroneous reference of seemingly synonyms like motivation, financial goals and dedication to having equal status and meaning with the word strategy.
A strategy that would yield the desired outcome must be specific and clear about what its seeks to achieve, a good strategy focuses on how it can harness its strength towards solving the most difficult challenges. Rumelt argued that most organizations don’t have a strategy but have visions, missions, and financial targets which he referred to as bad strategy.
The author asserts that insight is the bedrock of a good strategy at the point of formulation, insight is what separates a good strategy from a bad one because it involves been truthful about a situation and a careful exploration of choices that help in overcoming difficulties.
Good Strategy/Bad Strategy uses livid examples from the stock market, political scene, corporate world and military warfare to explain what a good entails and what it doesn’t. It will make a good read for anyone who wants to make better choices in 2017.
3. Web Analytics 2.0: The Art of Online Accountability and Science of Customer Centricity
The Knowledge of what outputs are generated by investments is becoming a major requirement for decision making in the business world not just for financial reasons but also for the simple sake of promoting efficiency for organizations who want to be on top of their game.
Considering the huge amount of funds invested in setting up websites, creating awareness through social media campaigns and knowing the effectiveness of platforms employed is quite helpful. Web Analytics 2.0 explores the process of measuring the effectiveness of social media campaigns, solving the challenges associated with data gathering on the web and offers suggestions on how organizations can effectively reach out to their customers by knowing what they want through a well-detailed consumer behavioral web analytics approach.
Avinash Kaushik’s Web Analytics 2.0 presents a new framework that could permanently change your orientation about analytics. This book will help you utilize data effectively this new year.
4. Predictably Irrational: The Hidden Forces That Shape Our Decisions
On an average we make more decisions than we can ever estimate and most of the decisions we make are not reasonable but instinctual in nature. For instance, the pictures you take, the way chose to nod your head in response to greetings and moments of emotional outburst like laughing or crying, are actions taken within seconds when compared with seemingly important issues like choosing a life partner and quitting a well paid job in Victoria island to launch a startup in Mowe.
Humans tend to hold the belief that well thought-out decisions generally turnout to be better than decisions taken from an emotional or “guts” point of view. People seemingly conduct a due diligence process on how they made their decisions and act like management consultants who consider and alienate factors in other to arrive at a decision.
In this book, Dan Ariely makes a nice attempt to demonstrate how most decisions we think are reasonable are not. The book also explores the systematic occurrence of certain behavior among humans.
At some point the author asked: Why do we splurge on a lavish meal but cut coupons to save twenty-five cents on a can of soup?
The book assents that reason itself is a product of shared emotions by members of the society and our choices show how irrational we are.
Let us know which of these amazing books you will be reading.
#ThinkDigital is an original 234Finance series that provides you with articles, resources and information to assist you in achieving better productivity whilst saving costs. Please let us know those you will be implementing and how well they have worked for you. Feel free to share using the hash tag, #234FinanceThinkDigital.
