Leaders read | readers lead
The average American reads less than one book per year, whilst the average CEO of a Fortune 500 company, reads four to five books per month. It's long been known in old-wives tales and now modern statistics alike, that successful leaders are voracious readers.
Yet reading alone is not enough.
We already spend the greater part of our each day reading email, reports, business cases, online articles and social media posts, but we are doing that on our own. What if we took one of those reading opportunities to do collectively, alongside other great minds. If we think together and explore new ideas together, we arrive enriched in a third place we could not have discovered on our own.
Read to Lead is an executive leadership book club by invitation only. It is a specifically designed for executive leaders working in Denmark and Sweden who will read the same business book, then gather to discuss key insights with a practical context. Think of it like reviewing a case study at business school, only this time you are in a room with your peers and sharpest minds in Scandinavia to discuss real challenges, in real situations with real people. Where possible, we will also engage the author in a live Q&A.
Your COMMITMENT
Read to Lead kicks off in October and if you choose to join us in this leadership pursuit, you will commit to reading a current best-selling business book by the end of October so that you're prepared to attend our thought leadership discussion in the first week of November. The only cost to you is the book itself, and in addition you will also receive study notes to help you efficiently record your ideas and come prepared to participate.
October reading Available Now
Contagious, Why Things Catch On
Jonah Berger, Professor at the Wharton School
New York Times bestseller and named Best Marketing Book of 2014 by the American Marketing Association
What makes things popular? Why do people talk about certain products and ideas more than others? Why are some stories and rumors more infectious? And what makes online content go viral?
If you said advertising, think again. People don’t listen to advertisements, they listen to their peers. But why do people talk about certain products and ideas more than others? Why are some stories and rumors more infectious? And what makes online content go viral?
Wharton marketing professor Jonah Berger has spent the last decade answering these questions. He’s studied why New York Times articles make the paper’s own Most E-mailed List, why products get word of mouth, and how social influence shapes everything from the cars we buy to the clothes we wear to the names we give our children. In this book, Berger reveals the secret science behind word-of-mouth and social transmission. Discover how six basic principles drive all sorts of things to become contagious, from consumer products and policy initiatives to workplace rumors and YouTube videos.
Contagious combines groundbreaking research with powerful stories. Learn how a luxury steakhouse found popularity through the lowly cheese-steak, why anti-drug commercials might have actually increased drug use, and why more than 200 million consumers shared a video about one of the seemingly most boring products there is: a blender. If you’ve wondered why certain stories get shared, e-mails get forwarded, or videos go viral, Contagious explains why, and shows how to leverage these concepts to craft contagious content. This book provides a set of specific, actionable techniques for helping information spread—for designing messages, advertisements, and information that people will share. Whether you’re a manager at a big company, a small business owner trying to boost awareness, a politician running for office, or a health official trying to get the word out, Contagious will show you how to make your product or idea catch on.
