Seven books on the labor market to read this summer
Summer days and deckchairs provide fantastic opportunities to read and understand something more about the world around us. Starting from the world of work and the changes taking place in companies. So here are seven reading recommendations for the coming months:
– Digital marketing per l’e-commerce e il new retail (Digital marketing for e-commerce and new retail), Mario Bagliani, e Roberto Liscia (Hoepli). More e-commerce, more retail. As we change the way we shop, buy a phone or choose what to dine with, so are companies' communication strategies also changing, as they have to adapt to different media and devices, looking for new skills to be included in the workforce. This book contains useful information on how e-commerce is changing, but also real data on the behavior of over 50 companies in the sector.
– Contrordine compagni, Marco Bentivogli (Rizzoli). The subtitle says it all: "Handbook of resistance to technophobia for the rescue of work and Italy". Marco Bentivogli is a trade unionist, secretary of FIM CISL (which represents metalworkers) and from his role he is trying to break the prejudice against technology, which is often seen, especially in the world of which Bentivogli is a figurehead, as a potential danger for workers. Development, on the contrary, starts right here.
– Silicon Valley: Sogna, credici, realizza (Silicon Valley: Dream, believe, create), Eleonora Chioda e Tiziana Tripepi (Hoepli). Studying excellence to understand how and if the model can be replicated in Italy. This is the aim of Chioda and Tripepi’s work: the two authors talk about the incredible mental energy contained in that piece of land in the United States, with experiences and case studies. To understand that it is not only a question of money and investors, but also of "state of mind".
Interesting texts on Silicon Valley, digital marketing, welfare, corporate venture capital and videogames have hit the bookshops
– I mestieri del videogioco. Dal game designer al technical artist, le figure professional emergenti di un mercato del lavoro in espansione, (The crafts of videogames. From game designers to technical artists, the emerging professional figures of an expanding job market), by AIV (Italian Association of Video Games, Audino). Far from being just a pastime, video games are gaining a more and more central role compared to a few years ago, and in unexpected ways: from journalism to tourist guides, to tutorials. Which is why this book can be a useful starting point to learn about these new features or, perhaps, to find inspiration for a future job.
– Uomini e soldi (Men and money), Paolo Basilico (Rizzoli). Basilico, founder of the Kairos Group, retraces 35 years of career with simple and uncomplicated tones, bringing together autobiography with tips on how to interpret the world of finance and investment. With a basic message: what appears to be the emblem of automatism, cold rationality and raw numbers, light years away from ordinary people, is what actually develops by hand and through men, who are in charge of changing history every day.
– Welfare 4.0. Competere responsabilmente (Welfare 4.0 Competing responsibly), Giulia Lucchini, Giampietro Vecchiato, Stefania Fornasier e Fabio Streliotto (Franco Angeli). This book deals with two very important features for the evaluation of a company today: corporate welfare and community relations. The first concerns the ability of companies to offer welfare services to its employees, from health insurance to nursery schools. The second is the ability to create a favorable climate among all company members, harmonizing the work environment and reducing conflicts. However, to achieve these two objectives in the best way, study and competence are needed. And this book tries to explain why.
– Corporate venture capital, Andrew Romans (Guerini Next). The Corporate Venture Capital is a clearly growing phenomenon: consolidated companies, to innovate, exploit the collaboration with agile and fast innovative players; actors of the most diverse industrial sectors and of the most diverse dimensions work together to create new business opportunities, through the creation of investment funds that share the same strategies. Andrew Romans discusses some important case histories: among others Telecom Italia, Fininvest, Healthware International and Enel.