| BUSINESSWEEK ONLINE : JULY 5, 1999 ISSUE | ||||||||
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| BOOKS
The Business Week Best-Seller List A better title for Paco Underhill's insightful and amusing Why We Buy, the No. 6 hardback on this month's best-seller list, would have been Why We Don't Buy. For the book offers persuasive evidence that retailers could do much more to remove the obstacles facing otherwise eager customers. One of the many anthropologists now working in business, Underhill assigns trackers to follow or videotape shoppers and note everything they do. That has led to some interesting insights. For example, people hardly notice anything--circulars, baskets, merchandise--placed just inside a store's door. They need a ''transition zone'' that will allow them a few seconds to adjust to being inside. Women shopping with female companions will spend more time--and thus more money--than women accompanied by men, who dislike the activity and are ''likely at any moment to go off and sit in the car.'' All shoppers hate ''being brushed or touched from behind'' and will simply leave if they cannot study merchandise without getting jostled. And ''any contact initiated by a store employee increases the likelihood that a shopper will buy something.'' Is Underhill's ''science of shopping'' just another example of a privatized Big Brother watching everything we do? In a way. But whether you are a retailer or just a shopper, you'll find much to ponder in its pages. 1. THE LEXUS AND THE OLIVE TREE by Thomas L. Friedman (Farrar, Straus & Giroux $27.50) How globalization is transforming the world, by The New York Times' foreign-affairs columnist. 2. BUSINESS @ THE SPEED OF THOUGHT by Bill Gates with Collins Hemingway (Warner $30) A detailed guide to the fast-emerging E-business age. 3. FIRST, BREAK ALL THE RULES by Marcus Buckingham and Curt Coffman (Simon & Schuster $25) A Gallup investigation into managerial success. 4. THE COURAGE TO BE RICH by Suze Orman (Riverhead $24.95) The rites of passage--and their financial consequences. 5. THE 9 STEPS TO FINANCIAL FREEDOM by Suze Orman (Crown $23) Practical and ''spiritual'' steps for managing money. 6. WHY WE BUY by Paco Underhill (Simon & Schuster $25) An anthropologist offers a ''science of shopping.'' 7. THE INNOVATOR'S DILEMMA by Clayton M. Christensen (Harvard Business School $27.50) Anticipating new technologies' disruptive effects. 8. ELECTRONIC DAY TRADERS' SECRETS by Marc Friedfertig and George West with Jonathan Burton (McGraw-Hill $29.95) Interviews with those who have scored. 9. DAY TRADE ONLINE by Christopher A. Farrell (Wiley $29.95) A primer for day-trading wannabes. 10. MANAGEMENT CHALLENGES FOR THE 21ST CENTURY by Peter F. Drucker (HarperBusiness $27.50) The dean of management theorists ponders the shape of things to come. 11. THE ROARING 2000s by Harry S. Dent Jr. (Simon & Schuster $25) Why the good times won't go away. 12. WHO MOVED MY CHEESE? by Spencer Johnson, M.D. (Putnam $19.95) Learning to accept change. 13. HOW TO GET STARTED IN ELECTRONIC DAY TRADING by David S. Nassar (McGraw-Hill $24.95) Trading stocks moment by moment via PC. 14. SEUSS-ISMS FOR SUCCESS by Dr. Seuss (Random House $6.99) Oh, the places you'll go! 15. GUNG HO! by Ken Blanchard and Sheldon Bowles (Morrow $20) How Walton Works No. 2 fired up its employees. 1. THE MILLIONAIRE NEXT DOOR by Thomas J. Stanley, PhD, and William D. Danko, PhD (Pocket Books $14) The simple ways of the wealthy among us. 2. THE SEVEN HABITS OF HIGHLY EFFECTIVE PEOPLE by Stephen R. Covey (Fireside $14) Habitually popular. 3. THE MOTLEY FOOL INVESTMENT GUIDE by David and Tom Gardner (Fireside $12) The online duo puts it on paper. 4. THE 1999 WHAT COLOR IS YOUR PARACHUTE? by Richard Nelson Bolles (Ten Speed Press $16.95) The enduring job-search bible. 5. GETTING TO YES by Roger Fisher, William Ury, and Bruce Patton (Penguin $12.95) A Harvard team's step-by-step guide to conflict resolution. 6. BARRON'S DICTIONARY OF FINANCE AND INVESTMENT TERMS by John Downes and Jordan Elliot Goodman (Barron's $12.95) What is an oligopsony anyway? 7. RICH DAD, POOR DAD by Robert T. Kiyosaki with Sharon L. Lechter, C.P.A. (TechPress $15.95) Teaching your kids the rules of money that the rich play by. 8. BUILT TO LAST by James C. Collins and Jerry I. Porras (HarperBusiness $15) How 3M, Wal-Mart, Procter & Gamble, and others became standouts. 9. THE ONE MINUTE MANAGER by Kenneth Blanchard, PhD, and Spencer Johnson, M.D. (Berkley $11.95) Three management techniques, conveyed in brief story form. 10. INVESTING FOR DUMMIES by Eric Tyson, MBA (IDG Books $19.99) From stocks to small business--with cartoons, too. 11. THE WALL STREET JOURNAL GUIDE TO UNDERSTANDING MONEY AND INVESTING by Kenneth M. Morris and Alan M. Siegel (Fireside $15.95) Concise explanations enriched with graphics. 12. THE MOTLEY FOOL INVESTMENT WORKBOOK by David and Tom Gardner (Fireside $12) ''So where do I find stocks'' and other queries, asked and answered. 13. THE DANCE OF CHANGE by Peter Senge, Art Kleiner, Charlotte Roberts, Richard Ross, George Roth, and Bryan Smith (Currency $35) A workbook on ''the learning organization.'' 14. HOME BUYING FOR DUMMIES by Eric Tyson and Ray Brown (IDG Books $16.99) Getting your dream house. 15. THE MOTLEY FOOL'S YOU HAVE MORE THAN YOU THINK by David and Tom Gardner (Fireside $13) Help for the investment-challenged. BUSINESS WEEK's Best-Seller List is based on a survey of chain and independent booksellers that carry a broad selection of books on economics, management, sales and marketing, small business, investing, personal finance, and careers. Well over 1,000 retail outlets nationwide are represented. Current rankings are based on a weighted analysis of unit sales in May. BY HARDY GREEN _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ BACK TO TOP |
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