Business school professors share the books and articles that changed their outlook
Markus Giesler, Associate Professor of Marketing,
Schulich School of Business at York University, Toronto
For the biggest impact this year, I would choose a book by my colleague Jonah Berger, Invisible Influence, which looks at what the world of marketing is doing to affect our everyday behaviour. I like his take on how marketers shape our behaviour as consumers beyond what we are conscious of — we are all studying and thinking about this all the time, but he takes it to a new level.
Another source of transformative insights has been from my own MBA students: this is regular MBAs, not PhDs or industry experts, writing The Big Design Lab’s blog, which is mini case studies of consumer-experience design. These students, my guest contributors, are shedding some new and unorthodox light on things, and it has become a place to go for fresh insights.
My other book recommendation this year would be a classic called What’s the Matter with Kansas?, by Thomas Frank. His case study of his home state sheds light on why working-class Americans have come to vote against their best interests in buying into Republican rhetoric. A wonderful explanatory read to turn to when trying to make sense of these turbulent times of Brexit and Trump.
