New Books in Business, Management, and Marketing

Our second episode on “The Literary Ecosystem” features scholars of contemporary literary culture Dan Sinykin and Sarah Brouillette in conversation with host Aarthi Vadde. Like the good close readers we all are, we begin by thinking about how the metaphor of the “literary ecosystem” works. Sarah values the way it brings relationships between cultural institutions to the foreground but prefers the base-superstructure model of Marxian critique. Dan, too, moves away from “naturalizing” metaphors although he sees the ecosystem’s potential for pithily naming the interplay of literary production, circulation, and reception.From here the conversation ranges widely as we consider the economic and social forces shaping contemporary literature – be they the conglomeration of publishing houses (see Dan’s Big Fiction) or the impact of platform capitalism upon authorial labor (see Sarah’s Content Machinesand Aarthi’s We the Platform).  We acknowledge the hollowing out of institutions meant to cultivate appreciation for literature and ponder the viability of platforms like Substack for reconstituting a literary sphere. Finally, what would a discussion of the literary ecosystem be without addressing the elephant in the room: AI. We bracket the author scandals to address the supporting players under threat: the translators, the audiobook narrators, the humans who bring books to readers across languages and formats. Come for the literary sociology; stay for the inside scoop on “prompting” a dark romance novel.MentionsMarx – base-superstructure modelBruno Latour – actor-network theorySophie Bishop – Influencer CreepAndrew de Waard -  Derivative MediaPierre Bourdieu – The Rules of Art Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

B. Joseph Pine II is an internationally acclaimed author, speaker, and management advisor to Fortune 500 companies and entrepreneurial startups, and cofounder of Strategic Horizons. Previous books include The Experience Economy, which is credited with introducing the concept of “experience” to the business world, Authenticity, and Mass Customization.Now, in The Transformation Economy: Guiding Customers to Achieve Their Aspirations (Harvard Business Press, 2026), Pine brings his clarifying lens to the Rosetta stone of transformation, the customer service experience. What’s the percentage of CEOs who have made a real commitment to the front-line customer service workers who so often serve as the public face of a company in call-center and other interactions? By Joe Pine’s count, odds are merely 5% is an honest answer—and a shame, for the Virtuous Circle means that happy employees mean happier customers, too, inevitably. This episode explores Pine’s vision to inspire customer service departments whose true mission isn’t just resolving complaints but instead serving as guides who help customers achieve the best version of themselves. To do so requires understanding the customer in a way a chatbot never can. To do so means ensuring that the customer service staff isn’t merely a warm body, they’re warm-hearted and given the skills to be empathetic. Want an episode that rings with conviction, this is it.Real Transformations: Business Change That Works from the Inside Out is co-hosted by Julie Anixter and Dan Hill, PhD, entrepreneurs with deep experience as corporate change agents, devoted to helping companies make continuous change work for everyone through clarity and connection. To learn about their keynote talks, workshops and labs, check out Real-Transformation.com. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

In this episode, host Richard Lucas sits down with Polish entrepreneur, author, and publisher Marcin Osman for an insightful conversation tracing his remarkable journey through entrepreneurship, publishing, and personal transformation.Marcin shares how his entrepreneurial path began two decades ago as a broke student attending Toastmasters in Kraków. Through humble curiosity, networking, and cold outreach, he built his first marketing agency—landing major clients before facing the hard lessons of business failure. Undeterred, Marcin pivoted into self-publishing, pioneering a pre-sale model that grew OSMPower into a 5M PLN/year publishing powerhouse. Over the years, OSMPower published Polish editions for global figures such as Tony Robbins, Gary Vaynerchuk, Wim Hof, and Fredrik Eklund, alongside Marcin's own bestselling books like Biznes ci ucieka (Your Business Is Getting Away) and Sprzedawaj więcej (Sell More).After building a massive digital footprint with over 1,200 videos and viral social media campaigns, Marcin recently made a bold strategic shift: archiving his entire video catalog to transition away from relentless content creation. Now based in Madeira, he discusses entering a new phase of life focused on depth over hustle, exploring new ventures, and helping others drive real conversions.Key LinksMarcin Osman Official WebsiteOSMPower Publishing Store Marcin Osman Facebook PageMarcin Osman Facebook ProfileMentioned Organizations & PublishersToastmasters InternationalOSMPower PublishingVenture Adventure  Mentioned Books (Marcin Osman & Published Works)Biznes ci ucieka (Your Business Is Getting Away) - Marcin OsmanSprzedawaj więcej (Sell More) - Marcin OsmanJak radzić sobie z porażką (nie tylko) w biznesie - Marcin OsmanPrzedsiębiorca w podróży - Marcin Osman, Dawid Dudek, Kamila KrukFilozofia lekkiego plecaka - Marcin Osman, Kamila KrukSprzedaż (The Sell) - Fredrik Eklund Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Beneath the Wage: Tips, Tasks, and Gigs in the Age of Service Work (Princeton UP, 2026) retheorizes capitalism from the perspective of the service economy, challenging conventional assumptions about how work is waged, regulated, managed, and automated Today, 80 percent of U.S. workers do service work, from delivering takeout to mopping floors to teaching. Each time we are handed a bag of groceries or a cup of coffee, call for a cab or have our homework graded, we confront both the enormity and the intimacy of the contemporary service sector. Do these jobs have anything in common? Who is doing this work? And what kind of labor politics does it generate? If service work has often been treated as a footnote to modern capitalism, Beneath the Wage reveals it as crucial to understanding how exploitation functions today. Uncovering a history that runs from eighteenth-century servants to present-day gig workers, Annie McClanahan retheorizes capitalism from the perspective of the service economy, challenging conventional assumptions about how work is waged, regulated, managed, and automated. Assembling a diverse set of sources for understanding and reimagining service work—from reality television and conceptual poetry to novels and workers’ own descriptions of what they do—McClanahan explores three paradigmatic types of contemporary service labor: superexploited tipwork, deskilled clerical microwork, and informalized gigwork. She shows how work done “beneath the wage” depends on racialized and gendered forms of economic domination, is often excluded from labor organizing and regulation, and yet has begun to generate a new politics of social reproduction and solidarity.Annie McClanahan is Associate Professor of English at UC Irvine. Her first book, Dead Pledges: Debt, Crisis, and 21st Century Culture explores how U.S. culture responded to the collapse of the financialized consumer credit economy in 2008. She has published on topics like the rise of microeconomics and methodological individualism, the cultural history of economic stagnation, so-called “neoliberalism” and the history of the university, and the politics and theory of sexwork.  Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Making Sense of China's Economy (Routledge, 2023) untangles China’s complex economic structure, evolving issues and curious contradictions, and explains some key features of this most puzzling of global economic powerhouses. This book reveals how factors such as demographics, the initial stage of development in 1978, the transition away from full state ownership and central planning, the dual urban-rural society, and a decentralised governance structure have combined to shape the economy, its development and its reforms. It shows how the pragmatic and adaptive nature of China’s policymaking upends familiar perspectives and hinders simple cross-country comparisons. The book also explores crucial topics including the property market, debt accumulation and environmental challenges. In this book, Tao Wang innovatively weaves the multiple strands of China’s economy into a holistic and organic tapestry that gives us unique insights from both a Chinese and an international perspective. This book is critical reading for business leaders, investors, policymakers, students, and anyone else hoping to understand China’s economy and its future evolution and impact, written by a specialist who has studied the country from both inside and out.Tao Wang is senior advisor at UBS Investment Bank in Hong Kong, and until recently was chief China economist at the firm.Michael Leger is Policy Fellow at the Blavatnik School of Government, Oxford.Lucas Tse is Examination Fellow at All Souls College, Oxford. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.