Jack and Todd of 800-CEO-READ spot business trends

According to a recent Publishers Weekly, the trade magazine for the book industry, Todd Sattersten and Jack Covert of Milwuakee's 800-CEO-READ (and my former coworkers) see five important trends in Business Books.

1. Sustainability, for which they recommend Daniel Esty and Andrew Winston's Green to Gold, a book that really looks at the issue from the viewpoint of how it makes business sense.

2. Design, for which they say there is a much broader view than in the past. Their top pick is Tim Brown's Change by Design.

3. Talent, even more critical in a recession, is deceptively emphasized in Geoff Colvin's Talent is Overrated, which sold pretty well for Boswell-Schwartz-on-Downer.

4. Simplicity, called to light in last year's Breakthrough Imperative.

5. Decision Making, which by far is my favorite category. Every book Todd and Jack use as an example I've both read and enjoyed. Most of them have insights that both cover a broad range of fields and hold interest to the general inquisitive reader.

a. Predictably Irrational, by Dan Ariely
b. Nudge, by Richard Thaler and Cass Sunstein

c. Sway, by Ori and Rom Brafman

Read more here.

Todd and Jon, another 8CR-er, were recently at Boswell's, helping me brainstorm on finding events for a morning business event with a local media sponsor. They came up with a few ideas, and I'll be quite grateful if this winds up turning into something.

8CR is also returning with Pecha Kucha, the wonderful speed-slide-show talk that's held at Sugar Maple in Bay View (on Lincoln, just east of KK). The newest incarnation will be held on Tuesday, August 11th, at 8 PM.

If you haven't been paying attention, each speaker submits 20 slides and speaks on each for 20 seconds. The speaker has no control over the speed of the slides; that stops folks from too much pontificating. Originally started as the equivalent of a gallery opening or recital for the design community, it's now a recital for ideas.

I did one on dead department stores, and it was quite fun. Sign up or get more info here.