Cactus Communications is home to many book lovers. So when we asked a few to recommend a book for World Book Day, many could not resist but throw in more than one recommendation. And we decided to include them all.
Abhishek Goel (Co-founder and CEO, Cactus Communications) picks Delivering Happiness: A Path to Profits, Passion, and Purpose by Tony Hsieh.
“This book is one that I most often recommend to people in customer-facing roles. It influenced the customer-facing philosophy I adopted and imbibed at CACTUS. It showed how customers can be made happy and how customer happiness fuels business growth. I borrowed many ideas from the book, like celebrating customer wins.”
Other recommendations by Abhishek:
- Maverick: The Success Story Behind the World’s Most Unusual Workplace by Ricardo Semler
- Creating Customer Evangelists: How Loyal Customers Become a Volunteer Salesforce by Ben McConnell and Jackie Huba
- Loonshots: How to Nurture the Crazy Ideas That Win Wars, Cure Diseases, and Transform Industries by Safi Bahcall
- The Hard Thing About Hard Things: Building a Business When There Are No Easy Answers by Ben Horowitz
- Unleashing the Ideavirus by Seth Godin
- The Invisible Touch: The Four Keys to Modern Marketing by Harry Beckwith
- The Tipping Point: How Little Things Can Make a Big Difference by Malcolm Gladwell
Vikas Narang (Chief Operating Offer and Head, Editage) picks The Art of Thinking Clearly by Rolf Dobelli.
“It will help you develop a clearer/less confused mind and with better decision making. It’s an easy read even for people who don’t like reading non-fiction, with one idea discussed every 2-3 pages.”
Other recommendations by Vikas:
- The Subtle Art of Not Giving a F*ck by Mark Manson
- Think on These Things by J. Krishnamurti
- Predictably Irrational by Dr. Dan Ariely
- The Surrender Experiment by Michael A. Singer
Harini Calamur (Head, Impact Science) recommends Something Like an Autobiography by Akiro Kurosawa.
“As a filmmaker, I was inspired by the way he describes the simplicity and elegance of filmmaking and how you need to make do with what you have.”
Other recommendations by Harini:
- The Naughtiest Girl in the School by Enid Blyton
- Dune by Frank Herbert
- The Gospel According to Jesus Christ by Jose Saramago
- In Search of Excellence: Lessons from America’s Best-Run Companies by Tom Peters and Robert H. Waterman Jr
- Pedagogy of the Oppressed by Paulo Freire
- Range: How Generalists Triumph in a Specialized World by David Epstein
- Think Again by Adam Grant
Deborah Wyatt (Vice President, Global Academic and Society Relations) picks The Yield by Tara June Winch.
“Incredibly compelling, poetic and beautiful writing on Australia’s Indigenous culture and its brutal colonial past. The ‘poppy’ character, Albert Gondiwindi, was one of the most well-written characters I’ve read in years.”
Other recommendations by Deborah
- Life: A User’s Manual by Georges Perec
- Ramona the Brave by Beverly Cleary
- The Neverending Story by Michael Ende
- Are You there God, It’s Me Margaret by Judy Blume
- When Hitler Stole Pink Rabbit by Judith Kerr
- The Book of Daniel by EL Doctorow
- To the Lighthouse by Virginia Woolf
- The Narrow Road to the Deep North by Richard Flanagan
- A Little Life by Hana Yanagihara
- 2666 by Roberto Bolaño
- Dark Emu by Bruce Pascoe
- See What You Made Me Do by Jess Hill
- The Leadership Challenge by James M. Kouzes and Barry Z. Posner
Christopher Leonard (Director, Product & Strategy) picks Getting Things Done: The Art of Stress-free Productivity by David Allen.
“The book is 20 years old now and may be dismissed in the ‘self-help/productivity’ genre, but it really frees up your mind by getting you to write things down, set reminders, and free up your mental RAM for clearer, stress-free thinking. Few books really change lives, but this one has for me.”
Other recommendation by Christopher
Christine Hu (General Manager, China) picks How to Read a Book: The Classic Guide to Intelligent Reading by Mortimer J. Adler and Charles Van Doren.
“I really benefit from this book when I read it two years ago. We all believe we know how to read a book but do we know how to read well? We need to give thought to “How We Read Matches Why We’re Reading.”
Note: Cactus Communications is not affiliated with Amazon. Links to the Amazon site have been provided for easy access.