What We’re Reading from the May 1 issue of CIO magazine

The Power of Many?

Values for Success in Business and in Life

By Meg Whitman with Joan O’C. Hamilton

The former president and CEO of eBay (and current candidate for governor of California) has a simple thesis: Doing what’s right and running a business well aren’t mutually exclusive. She says the online auction giant thrived on the belief that most people are basically good. The book features a plethora of anecdotes, including an inside look at what happened during the 22-hour period in June of 1999 when eBay essentially “vaporized.” Crown Publishing Group, $26.00

What I Couldn’t Say…?

By Jonathan Schwartz

Blog?Now that Sun Microsystems is just another Oracle subsidiary, its former president and CEO is promising to dish stories he never could have shared when he was leading the company. There’s only one so far, but it’s a biggie—staring down both Steve Jobs and Bill Gates over threatened intellectual property lawsuits. Schwartz pulls no punches, calling Microsoft’s licensing proposal “the digital version of a protection racket.” If you read this one and can’t wait for his next post, you can always occupy yourself with his massive archive from the years before the sale.?

Making Ideas Happen?

Overcoming the Obstacles Between Vision and Reality

By Scott Belsky

Book?“Ideas are worthless if you can’t make them happen,” declares the book’s inner flap. Belsky, founder and CEO of Behance, studied how companies from Apple to Zappos make inspiration reality. He pinpointed the biggest stumbling blocks and created a system for bypassing them. Tips big—“kill ideas liberally”—and small—“conduct standing meetings”—come with bite-sized explanations and implementation tips, making it easy

to read the book in spare moments or pick out just

the information that’s most relevant to you. 

Portfolio, $25.95

CIO Weblog?

By IT Experts 

Blog?even writers with varied IT backgrounds contribute to this frequently updated blog covering everything from why it’s critical to know where your SaaS apps are hosted to why CEOs need to take more responsibility for IT problems. Here’s a tidbit from the latter: “For most CIOs, this isn’t news; you’re the ones that have been rolling your eyes in meetings and watching the CEO take a nap as you raised issue after issue, only to find him breathing down your neck the instant something you predicted actually goes wrong.”?

The Compromise Trap ?

How to Thrive at Work Without Selling Your Soul

By Elizabeth Doty

Book?ver wonder, “How did I get talked into this?” This book’s for you. Distilling years of experience and information from more than 50 interviews, Doty breaks down how people get led into unsavory compromises. With every example of a wrong turn, she explains and reframes the problematic thinking to demonstrate why the compromise is unhealthy and help you identify similar situations when you encounter them. Then she provides concrete tips, worksheets and strategies for avoiding similar traps.  Berrett-Koehler Publishers, $17.95