These are the most sought-after business books of the season. According to Exclusive Books, they are the new books business folk are buying.

“And Then They Fired Me”
By Jannie Mouton

One of South Africa’s greatest success stories, Jannie Mouton built his business from scratch after getting fired at the age of 48. Straight-talking Mouton tells the inside story of how he started PSG financial services group, turning it into a triumphant success in only 15 years. Today, the companies he is involved in have a market capitalisation of R61 billion. Known in the industry for being difficult, Mouton nevertheless has a soft heart and a passion for poetry. Mouton is outspoken and not scared of controversy.

Reckless Endangerment
By Gretchen Morgenson

In this book, Gretchen Morgenson, the star business columnist of The New York Times, exposes how the watchdogs who were supposed to protect the country from financial harm were complicit in the actions that blew up the American economy. Morgenson connects the dots that led to this fiasco. To do this, she drew on previously untapped sources and built on original research from co-author Joshua Rosner. He had raised early warnings with the public and investors, and kept detailed records.

Morgenson and Rosner draw back the curtain on Fannie Mae, the mortgage-finance giant that grew, with the support of the Clinton administration, through the 1990s, becoming a major opponent of government oversight even as it was benefiting from public subsidies. They expose the role played not only by Fannie Mae executives but also by enablers at Countrywide Financial, Goldman Sachs, the Federal Reserve, HUD, Congress, the FDIC, and the biggest players on Wall Street. The read shows how greed, aggression and fear led countless officials to ignore warning signs of an imminent disaster.


Mobile MBA
By Jo Owen

This is your portable business coach, explaining MBA theory and showing you how to put it into practice, packaged with accompanying Skill-Pills, offering audiovisual training to give advice on the move. Condensing MBA management theory to provide support on 101 business topics, Mobile MBA focuses on what works in practice, giving readers everything they need to be effective in business.

Mobile MBA breaks down the key MBA ideas into bite-sized chunks and shows readers how to use them in practice. It gives readers a quick reference check of the survival skills of management. This demystifies the mysteries of the MBA and lays out the simple principles that lie behind the grand theory and the big talk.

The book is packaged with 11 Skill-Pills, one for each chapter of the book. These short audiovisual training briefings are delivered directly to mobile devices and computers, offering lessons on the move.

Super Business
By Fraser Doherty

At just 14 years old, Fraser Doherty was selling jars of homemade jam to his neighbours. A few years later, Super Jam was flying off the shelves of the world’s largest supermarket chains. Super Business tells how Doherty transformed a hobby into a much-loved brand, selling millions of jars along the way. Doherty explains how he did it from his own kitchen table, without huge investment. He explains how you too can come up with a killer idea, build a brand, make money and do good in your community. He makes one realise that those crazy business ideas really can grow into something amazing and life-changing. If this story doesn’t inspire you to start your adventure, nothing will.

Drive
By Daniel H. Pink

Forget everything you thought you knew about how to motivate people at work, at school and at home. It is wrong. As Daniel Pink explains in his paradigm-shattering book Drive, the secret to high performance and satisfaction in today’s world is the deeply human need to direct our own lives, to learn and create new things, and to do better for ourselves and the world. Along the way, he takes us to companies that are enlisting new approaches to motivation, and introduces us to the scientists and entrepreneurs who are pointing a bold way forward.


Little Bets
By Peter Sims

A little bet, if you are wondering, is a low-risk action taken to discover, develop and test an idea. For instance, Chris Rock develops new comedy routines by making little bets with small audiences, while Amazon’s CEO Jeff Bezos makes little bets to identify opportunities in new markets. Little bets are at the centre of an approach to get to the right idea described in the book, which any of us can learn without getting stymied by perfectionism, risk-aversion or excessive planning.



Getting Organized in the Google Era
By Douglas C. Merrill and James A. Martin

Organisational guru and former Google CIO Douglas Merrill, who helped spearhead Google’s effort to “organise the world’s information”, offers a wealth of tips and strategies for how to use these new tools to become more organised, efficient and successful than ever.