Reading List: Low-Hanging Fruit

Authors Jeremy Eden and Terri Long, co-CEOs of advisory services firm Harvest Earnings Group Inc., serve up their best advice for identifying and fixing business-related problems by increasing employee engagement and overhauling management practices. Too often businesses don’t recognize the most obvious opportunities (hence, the titular low-hanging fruit) to improve earnings “without risk and without much effort.”

Low-Hanging Fruit’s 77 methods address all kinds of issues, including managing “executive exuberance” that leads to bad decisions, or avoiding tiring business strategies such as benchmarking. Another fruitful idea: Stop ignoring your introverts. Instead nurture them by soliciting their input privately and assigning them to lead projects suited to their skills.

While the 77 eye-openers aren’t necessarily new, Eden and Long wisely present both the problems and solutions concisely and cleverly. Their eye-openers are definitely worth a second look—and they’ll help you find and harvest that low-hanging fruit to increase your company’s productivity and profits.

by Jeremy Eden and Terri Long

March
Wiley; $22