Jack Covert Selects
Jack Covert is the founder and former president of 800-CEO-READ. His Jack Covert Selects column grew out of a “new releases” column he ran in the local paper’s business pages, and blossomed into a monthly review series that ran in business journals and newspapers across the country. As the company grew, other members of the management and marketing team began writing reviews for the series, but Jack continued to contribute his own voice until his retirement in 2014. We kept the series—now weekly—alive under his name for another year, and transformed it into our current Editor’s Choice series at the beginning of 2016.
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Blog / Jack Covert Selects
Jack Covert Selects - Too Big To Fail
By 800-CEO-READ
Too Big to Fail: The Inside Story of How Wall Street and Washington Fought to Save the Financial System—And Themselves by Andrew Ross Sorkin, Viking Books, 624 pages, $32. 95, Hardcover, October 2009, ISBN 9780670021253 Even though Too Big to Fail was written during the same year as the recent financial collapse occurred, Andrew Ross Sorkin has written what I predict will be the definitive book on the subject. It not only tells a gripping “perfect storm” story—with all the gory details as our 401k’s disappeared and our financial system became nationalized included—but the author humanizes all the players, resulting in an imminently readable, albeit lengthy, book.
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Blog / Jack Covert Selects
More Stuff For You.
By 800-CEO-READ
Earlier today, I talked with a publisher who offers free audio and ebook downloads with purchases of hardcover copies of the book. This mirrors the music industry where vinyl collectors receive free downloads with purchase of the record. Interesting move on that publisher's part.
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Blog / Jack Covert Selects
Jack Covert Selects - Superfreakonomics
By 800-CEO-READ
Superfreakonomics: Global Cooling, Patriotic Prostitutes and Why Suicide Bombers Should Buy Life Insurance by Steven D. Levitt & Stephen J. Dubner, William Morrow & Company, 288 pages, $29.
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Lee Eisenberg's Shoptimism (and 50% off of The Number)
By 800-CEO-READ
One of the books we really tried to get people to read in 2006 was Lee Eisenberg's The Number: A Completely Different Way to Think about the Rest of Your Life, published by Simon & Schuster imprint Free Press. We were huge evangelists of the book, constantly blogging and telling everyone we could about it. It was a Jack Covert Selects and Todd picked it as one of his best books of 2006.
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Jack Covert Selects - I Love You More Than My Dog
By 800-CEO-READ
I Love You More Than My Dog: Five Decisions That Drive Extreme Customer Loyalty in Good Times and Bad by Jeanne Bliss, Portfolio, 224 Pages, $22. 95, Hardcover, October 2009, ISBN 9781591842958 When Todd and I decided to write our book, I knew the title of the book would be critical. I was right, but the title I wanted for our book was totally wrong and I’m glad we didn’t use it.
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Jack Covert Selects - The Match King
By 800-CEO-READ
The Match King: Ivar Kreuger, the Financial Genius Behind a Century of Wall Street Scandals by Frank Partnoy, PublicAffairs, 272 Pages, $26. 95, Hardcover, April 2009, ISBN 9781586487430 When reading The Smartest Guys in the Room, the outstanding book by Bethany McLean that looks into the Enron debacle, you will learn about an accounting term called “mark to market. ” Not being an accountant, my simplified understanding of the concept is that when you purchase a product for $100 and you believe you can sell the product for $200 in five years, you put the sale price on your books at the expected selling price instead of the actual purchase price.
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Jack Covert Selects - Power of 2
By 800-CEO-READ
Power of 2: How to Make the Most of Your Partnerships at Work and in Life by Rodd Wagner and Gale Muller, PH. D. , Gallup Press, 204 Pages, $24.
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Show Chaos Who's Boss
By 800-CEO-READ
Last month, Jeremy Gutsche's exciting book, Exploiting Chaos launched. I had a chance to pick it up after reading the Jack Covert Selects post on it, and was pretty blown away. And today it makes a stop at our blog as it travels on the Virtual Book Tour.
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David Kord Murray: Borrowing Brilliance
By 800-CEO-READ
David Kord Murray was in town yesterday for our LeaveSmarter series, sponsored by M&I Bank and Whyte Hirschboeck Dudek S. C. A clip from his talk can be seen below, where he describes the process of looking for creative solutions outside the realm of where your problem(s) exist.
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Blog / Jack Covert Selects
Jack Covert Selects - Exploiting Chaos
By 800-CEO-READ
Exploiting Chaos: 150 Ways to Spark Innovation During Times of Change by Jeremy Gutsche, Gotham Books, 271 Pages, $20. 00, Paperback, September 2009, ISBN 9781592405077 Without a doubt, this is one of the best books on sparking ideas that I have ever read. Jeremy Gutsche has written and designed an excellent book for an uncertain time—a time when all of our instincts scream at us to retreat.
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