Month: December 2009

Visual thinking guru Dan Roam‘s The Back of the Napkin, an international bestseller, taught readers the power of brainstorming and communicating with pictures. It presented a new and exciting way to solve all kinds of problems — from the boardroom to the sales floor to the cubicle jungle — and proved that a simple drawing on a humble napkin can be more powerful than the slickest PowerPoint presentation. The new companion workbook, Unfolding the Napkin: The Hands-On Method for Solving Complex Problems with Simple Pictures, helps readers put Roam’s principles into practice with step-by-step guidelines. It’s filled with detailed case studies, guided do-it-yourself exercises, and plenty of blank space for drawing. Roam structured the book as a complete four-day visual-thinking seminar, taking readers step-by-step from “I can’t draw” to “Here is the picture I drew that I think will save the world.” (Portfolio/Penguin Group)

For the first time, a leading financial adviser has developed a remarkable set of guidelines to give individuals the same kind of objective insight into their personal finances that successful businesses have always had. Your Money Ratios: 8 Simple Tools for Financial Security, by Charles Farrell, helps readers effectively manage debt, invest prudently, and develop a realistic and effective savings plan to ensure both financial success and security. It teaches eight simple ratios to helps simplify many of the complex financial decisions you make each year. Publishers Weekly says “Farrell does a wonderful job of taking the worry and stress out of number anxiety.” (Avery/Penguin)