Great Business

Sir Francis Bacon had a tremendous impact on science and philosophy during the scientific revolution in XVIIth-century England. He was the first to argue for a skeptical and methodical approach in science, based on careful observation of events in nature, and founded on induction. His work, firmly grounded in empiricism to prevent projection of one's preferred hypothesis, made him the father of scientific method. This was a groundbreaking turn of events at the time, and is still the basis of the scientific framework today.

Wisdom is a much-needed quality these days. We have selected for you 100 of the wisest sayings ever pronounced. They are taken from various cultural backgrounds to demonstrate that wisdom transcends frontiers. Let yourself be led with them into a journey around the world, across cultures and continents: you will find here deep quotes from the Talmud, efficient ones from Ancient Greek masters like Plato or Sophocles, poetic wise sayings by Indian sages, and numerous examples of Persian and Ancient Chinese Wisdom.

Every harried interviewer knows the result of throwing out vague questions to potential employees: Vague answers and potentially disastrous hiring decisions. Presented in a handy question-and-answer format, 96 Great Interview Questions to Ask before You Hire provides listeners with the tools they need to elicit honest and complete information from job candidates, plus helpful hints on interpreting the responses.

If you've ever yearned for your parents' approval, felt the weight of their high expectations, or experienced the burden of unspoken obligations to care for them as they age, you're not alone. Too often, we hesitate to ask our parents about their lives, held back by mistaken beliefs or past conflicts. With warmth, wit, and vulnerability Amy Yip explores the profound influence her parents had on her life and offers you a roadmap to navigate conversations with your own parents.

Our work-driven culture encourages us to take the entrepreneurial bait, but how can you know whether being an entrepreneur will end as a dream come true or a nightmare from which you cannot awake? Building on Bedrock will help answer that question. This book focuses on when you should take the leap and whether entrepreneurship is even the right thing for you. Based upon research, but told through the stories of American businessman and entrepreneur Sam Walton and others, this book discusses the who, what, when, where, how, how much, and why of successful entrepreneurs.

Business is about making money, but it's also about making decisions. There are relatively small decisions, like when to call a meeting or which emails to answer quickly. Then there are the big decisions that can make or break a business - which product to launch, whom to hire, how to spend. Hard work, analytics, past successes, intelligence, and a great business plan aren't enough anymore. Many of us are scrambling to discover the path to success but have found instead that we've lost our way.

The Darwinian struggle of business keeps getting more brutal as competitive advantage gaps get narrower and narrower. Anything you invent today will soon be copied by someone else - probably better and cheaper. Many companies thrive during the early stages of their life cycle, only to fall slack during periods of inertia and die out while others surge ahead. Geoffrey Moore shows, some notable companies have figured out how to deal with Darwin in their mature years - making changes on the fly while fending off challenges from every quarter.

When Mark Rampolla filled a notebook with potential start-up ideas, his wife asked him some tough questions. What about this idea is exciting, beyond the possibility of a profit? How will it fit into a life that makes you and your family happy? How will it change the world? Eventually Mark found his great idea: coconut water. He had seen the developing world use coconut water, but this valuable resource was being discarded in the US. While taking on the beverage industry was a big goal - high-hanging fruit - it was worth the risk.

Far away from Silicon Valley, in familiar, traditional, even unglamorous fields, ordinary people are unleashing extraordinary advances that amaze customers, energize employees, and create huge economic value. Their secret? They understand that the work of inventing the future doesn't belong just to geeks designing mobile apps and virtual-reality headsets or to social-media entrepreneurs hoping to launch the next Facebook. Some of today's most compelling organizations are doing brilliant things.

Most problems are fairly easy: they have a few likely potential root causes. The most important problems often have hundreds or thousands of potential root causes within very complex systems. Such problems are hard problems, and are highly resistant to guessing, brainstorming, or problem-solving methodologies that require conjuring a list of possible causes. Great problem-solvers are armed with a set of behaviors that allows them to avoid guessing.

In Leading Through Uncertainty, Davis shares a concise set of smart, actionable leadership practices that leaders can use to navigate their businesses and teams through difficult times. These include focusing on honesty and transparency, motivating and inspiring employees, building an outstanding corporate reputation, paying attention to details, and more.

Imagine you’ve just come back to work after a two-week vacation during which you actually relaxed, without calling in or checking e-mail. You discover that there are no pressing issues and that, on the contrary, your team scored a big new customer and fixed a nagging problem during your absence. No red flags or fires to put out. Sadly, for most leaders this scenario is only a dream. They constantly check on what’s happen­ing because they expect the worst (and usually get it).

On Purpose is a modern-day business book for those who want to steer their work - and lives - back on course. When your head and heart connect in both, our humanity becomes the hero in the story. Shed the mediocrity that comes from halfhearted decision making, and rediscover your PLOT - Purpose, Leadership, Operations, and Technology - as you learn to live and lead with purpose. This insightful guide provides a framework for reevaluating your direction, then stepping back and re-aiming the ship.

Want to be a better boss? Make the most of your talent? Great doesn’t have to be awful. Start with this guide to the innovative management style that built the Admiral Group into one of the world’s most successful and admired companies. Written by founder and former CEO Henry Engelhardt, Be a Better Boss is part memoir, part management philosophy, and part practical manual, providing valuable leadership lessons for aspiring managers and existing managers alike.

Comprehensive in its scope and depth, Entrepreneurs Who Changed History profiles leaders of industry across the world and throughout the ages - from the enterprising bankers of the medieval world and the merchants of empire, to the titans of industry and the geniuses of Silicon Valley. The towering personalities behind some of history's most recognizable brands and companies - their ruthlessness, tenacity, creativity, and sheer grit - are all brought to vivid life.

This book is for ambitious, high-achieving women leaders, entrepreneurs, aspiring entrepreneurs, and corporate leaders ready to move to the next level. It is a manifesto and call to action for women to lift themselves and each other up by refusing to accept limitations and instead embracing an ethos of possibility.

If you want to scale your business quickly and have fun doing it, don't copy the tired approaches of big companies. "Mind Your F**king Business" shows that thinking small to grow big works, and it can help you scale your company without the drama. Learn how to make the most of the resources you already have – your people – and invest your time and money where it matters.

Managing a call center presents numerous challenges for leaders, including meeting stringent KPIs, maintaining employee motivation, and handling high call volumes. Achieving performance metrics such as average handle time, first call resolution, and customer satisfaction requires meticulous planning and constant monitoring. Simultaneously, leaders must keep their teams motivated in a high-pressure environment, often characterized by repetitive tasks and demanding customers.

In their new book, Paul Leinwand and Mahadeva Matt Mani, both members of the PwC US partnership and the Strategy & Global team, help leaders navigate these profound and historical shifts and provide a road map for reshaping their companies. Building on major new body of research, along with case studies of companies on the vanguard of this major shift, the authors identify the seven imperatives that leaders must follow as the digital age continues to evolve

Often, when leaders experience trouble, they look to blame an outside source or expect a small tweak to right their ship. But many times they've actually lost their grip on the very basic foundation of leadership. The business environment may change, but no management trend can displace the core laws, proven over centuries, of excellent leadership. Unusually Excellent is an essential resource for leaders that brings these fundamentals together in a new and comprehensive way.