Filed in Books

Each of these is a classic in its subject, and some have been in print for decades—no small achievement on business bookshelves.

Damned Lies and Statistics: Untangling Numbers from the Media, Politicians, and Activists: by Joel Best

While a fascinating read for all of us, this is most applicable if you're combining secondary research with your surveys. You'll never look at "facts" the same way again.

Amazon; COMMENTS: 0; CATEGORIES: Books | Management | Reporting; TAGS: Biased research | Market research | Public opinion polls | Secondary research | Statistics
How to Lie With Statistics: by Darrell Huff

There’s a reason this is still in print after 50 years, and that’s because we still fall for the same creative charting tricks.

Amazon; COMMENTS: 0; CATEGORIES: Books | Reporting; TAGS: Biased research | Charts | Statistics
Questions and Answers in Attitude Surveys: Experiments on Question Form, Wording, and Context: by Howard Schuman & Stanley Presser

Despite being in a quantitative industry, surveyors rarely conduct tests to measure what happens when we rearrange questions, add a neutral point in a scale, or make other adjustments. If you're ready to absorb some more advanced issues, complete with footnotes, this is a great book to pick up. Note that the 1996 copyright is simply a reprint of the 1981 text.

Amazon; COMMENTS: 0; CATEGORIES: Books | Questionnaires; TAGS: Developing surveys | Scales
Selling the Invisible: A Field Guide to Modern Marketing: by Harry Beckwith

When you want to broaden your perspective, this will help you understand how customer and employee satisfaction mixes with and reinforces other marketing efforts. While the author focuses on services, it's useful in any industry—we're all competing on intangibles these days.

Amazon; COMMENTS: 0; CATEGORIES: Books | Management; TAGS: Marketing | Service quality