Bookstore PAGE 22 | Business Executive | Issue 123


are and, based on the experience of history, where we are likely to go next. Today’s media is being shaped by the


interaction of politics, economics and technology. Issues of today, such as a sensationalist press, piracy and monopoly have all happened before. And there are fundamental issues of copyright, privacy and censorship. Media adapts, evolves and, in the face of technology, transforms its culture. Established media giants are struggling, new firms are thriving. Increasing amounts of media are now being generated by consumers themselves. This means that media professionals are becoming managers as much as creators of content. Media are going through huge changes. This book provides insights into what is really happening in the digital chaos of the 21st century. SC


Pushing the envelope Making sense out of business jargon HH Caroline Taggart Michael O’Mara Books Ltd., 192 pgs, £9.99, hb ISBN: 978 184317 6510


This book slices through some bizarre – sometimes impenetrable – business jargon. Pushing the Envelope looks at where each word or phrase came from, what it actually means, and why some of them should be consigned


to the dustbin. The author debunks the bunkum and


throws light on many words and phrases that we use on a daily basis. There are a vast number of words and


phrases in the world of business that have entered the language, from the worlds of sport, politics, history and more. The author explores where they came from, how they are used – and misused; there are some surprising and intriguing connections. Jargon is an insider’s language, a form of shorthand by which one member of a group communicates with another. Part of the


Reviewers SC is the Editor of Business Executive TV is a lecturer in management LC is a publicist for a major publisher


process is the way that it takes existing words and phrases and twists them for its own ends. But there is another side to it: the words and expressions that need to be coined in order to cope with new ideas and cover concepts that didn’t exist 50 years ago.


The aim of this book is to shed light on


a cross-section of these sometimes strange management expressions; to see where they came from and how they got to where they are today; and to translate the gobbledegook into plain English. It is sometimes appreciative, sometimes irritable, but it gives credit to the versatility of the English language and to the people who keep pushing its particular envelope. It is witty and informative; this book gets


to the bottom of an aspect of the language that is surprisingly far-reaching in everyday life. SC


Featured book


The Price of Fish A New Approach to Wicked Economics and Better Decisions HH


Michael Mainelli & Ian Harris Nicholas Brealey Publishing 328pgs, £20.00, hb ISBN: 978 185788 5712


More than at any other time in our history the world is faced with a series of apparently insurmountable difficulties. Among them:


unstable financial markets, rapidly


diminishing resources, and a deteriorating eco-system. In this intriguingly titled book Michael Mainelli and Ian Harris examine the world’s most alarming problems – sustainability, global warming, over-fishing, overpopulation, and the pensions crisis. All of these are peculiarly long-term problems. It is not the circumstances that are too complex, but our way of dealing with them is too simple and often wrong. The authors define four streams of


thought – choice, economics, systems and evolution. This combination of efforts, they


believe, is the key to making better decisions and, in turn, finding answers to some of the world’s most pernicious problems. Buying and selling is only a small part of the real world of commerce in the larger sense of the word. This book goes beyond economics and looks at real commerce – the ways complex interactions adapt and change over time: the price of fish, for instance, cannot be right when we have over-fishing, hunger and ruined seas. The authors are striving towards a unifying theory that makes sense of the world as it actually is. This is not a simple exercise but an approach which addresses the complex, the cyclical, the hostile and the protracted: but it can help communities make better decisions. This book is a provocative presentation to commercial enterprises and interested laymen on the complicated interactions of the real world. Unpicking something as innocent as the


price of fish reveals a highly interconnected world. Unravelling the problems will be vital to meeting the demands of a rising population, climate change and resource depletion. The Price of Fish will provoke, enrage and intrigue people. But above all it will enlighten. Finally, your mother used to tell you that fish is good for the brain. Reading this terrifying analysis will prove her right! TV


Reviews We cannot review in depth all the books that come into the office. But we receive a lot that are good reading which we want to bring to the attention of our readers. We have an in-depth review section and also a books received section, which gives thumbnail sketches of quite a lot of books. We can thus widen the selection offered. We also have a starring system, to give


readers the opportunity to prioritise their choice of possible purchase and reading. Our system: HHH Highly recommended HH Worthwhile H If you have the time. The stars will appear immediately after the book title. We hope you will find this helpful.


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