Small Business Management

Companies everywhere face two major challenges today: getting noticed and getting paid. To confront these obstacles, Bharat Anand examines a range of businesses around the world, from The New York Times to The Economist, from Chinese Internet giant Tencent to Scandinavian digital trailblazer Schibsted, and from talent management to the future of education.

Every business leader and entrepreneur should strive for success as well as deep fulfillment and happiness. Few, however, if they are being honest, actually achieve their goals. This causes great disappointment and disillusionment. Many decide they must make a choice between these seemingly opposing states. Is it even possible to be spiritual, incredibly happy and fulfilled and wealthy - all at the same time?

You’d think that was self-evident, but usually, companies are unintentionally giving it away. If you’re like most of our clients, you’ve got enough worries on your plate when it comes to making sure everything in the business is running smoothly. You don’t have the bandwidth to take on another project, especially one this large—that has the probability of costing the company thousands of dollars in repairs, overages, gas...the list goes on.

An organization's future success depends on their decision makers' ability to anticipate changes and disruptions in the marketplace. This book provides the information you need to anticipate the future, understand tomorrow's market dynamics, and make the necessary decisions to meet the future on your terms. Small Data, Big Disruptions lets you exploit the period between the moment you could know about emerging disruptions and the moment most everybody will know about it. It's the difference between being ahead of the curve and struggling to catch up.

In today's generation, businesses are increasing in number, and competition is inevitable. There is no doubt that because of the demands of the people in this society, businesses are increasing in importance. Because of that fact, there are a number of aspiring entrepreneurs in the process of considering the idea of starting a business. Their businesses could be of great help not just to them but also to society. Still, it might not be that easy to build a business thanks to the fact that competition is always on the rise.

With over $500 million a year in sales, the Bassett Furniture Company was once the world's biggest wood furniture manufacturer. But beginning in the 1980s, the Bassett company suffered from an influx of cheap Chinese furniture as the first waves of Asian competition hit, and ultimately was forced to send its production offshore to Asia. Only one man fought back. That man is John Bassett III, a descendant of the Bassetts who is now chairman of Vaughan-Bassett Furniture Co, which employs more than 700 Virginians and has sales of over $90 million.

This timeless text is required listening for any business person or athlete interested in strategy. It includes a soundtrack entitled "The Mysterious Sound of Wind In the Bamboo", a 43-minute collection of Zen-inspired Japanese music by the Matsu Take Ensemble.

Few business topics have aroused more skepticism in recent years than the notion of corporate purpose, and for good reason. Too many companies deploy purpose, or a reason for being, as a promotional vehicle to make themselves feel virtuous and to look good to the outside world. Some have only foggy ideas about what purpose is and conflate it with strategy and other concepts like “mission,” “vision,” and “values.” Even well-intentioned leaders don’t understand purpose’s full potential and engage half-heartedly and superficially with it....

Every leader is empowered to set their metric beat to make sure the company is doing everything it needs to do to grow their profit. This audiobook draws on the wisdom of some of the best business minds of our time, as well as the author's own experiences as a serial entrepreneur, to create a methodology that shows you a practical step-by-step process; how to rhythmically integrate all the crucial parts of your business.

Family business enterprises, found in virtually every country, are the backbone of most economies. However, the leadership challenges they present are complex and unique. Most executives and family members in these firms eventually discover that their education and years of hard work have not prepared them to address many of the interpersonal demands that come with the territory. After years of study and reflection, David Bentall came to realize how ill equipped he had been to be a part of the solution for his own family business.

Project Management for Small Projects shows you how to tailor bureaucratic planning processes to a sleek minimum while still keeping your project running like a well-oiled machine. This third edition has been updated to align with the Project Management Institute’s Project Management Body of Knowledge (PMBOK®) and provides new tools, templates, and techniques to support the revised processes. In addition, there is new material on agile project management and on the essential leadership skills for small-project managers.

Small Church Essentials is for leaders of smaller congregations. It encourages them to steward their role well, debunking myths about small churches while offering principles for leading a dynamic, healthy small church. Based on the popular six-hour lecture that Karl Vaters delivers to church leaders across the country, Small Church Essentials will affirm small church leaders and show them how to identify what they do well and how to do it even better.

Find out how to get organized, navigate technologies like portable communication devices and e-mail, run a no-nonsense meeting, juggle all the players in the new global business environment, and carve out more time to do what you really want to do. We all struggle to balance work life and personal life; this audiobook will help you work more quickly and efficiently, freeing time for you to fulfill your other duties as a parent, a spouse, or a friend.

Best-selling author Laurie Beth Jones brings you the ultimate guide to transforming your team and sparking inspiration in your business. In Jesus, CEO, Jones compares Jesus to a CEO who turned a disorganized "staff" of 12 into a thriving, long-lasting enterprise. With the 25th anniversary edition of Jesus, CEO, Jones revises and updates her original modernized guidance, ensuring that everyone can continue to apply the ancient wisdom pulled straight from the Bible.

Following in the footsteps of her best-selling Warren Buffett Speaks - written in a conversational style that successfully captures the essence of these business leaders - Janet Lowe reveals the amazing story behind one of the most important new companies of our time by exploring the people and philosophies that have made Google a global phenomenon in less than 15 years.

Who’s going to write the next chapter in the saga of American business? Who’s going to chronicle the best way to compete, the new way to win? That’s the mission of Mavericks at Work, a book that profiles a network of rebels who are creating a new business model that makes use of fresh principles and captures what it means to be a state-of-the-art organization. Including such pioneering companies as ING Direct, Southwest Airlines, Pixar, HBO, Anthropologie, Craigslist, Netflix, and Commerce Bank, this book is nothing short of a lively new intellectual agenda for business.

What if you learned that to lead well, you’d need to live like a drug addict? During treatment for drug addiction, Michael Brody-Waite learned three principles that became the difference between life and death: Practice rigorous authenticity, surrender the outcome, and do uncomfortable work. Leaving rehab, Michael entered the workplace where he was shocked to see most business leaders doing what he had been taught would kill him. He began to see striking similarities between drug addiction and what he calls “mask addiction”.

The Business of Expertise, David’s previous book, set the stage by suggesting a narrow focus and then capitalizing on the patterns that emerge from repeated application of your expertise. This book builds on that work by suggesting how to craft a consulting practice with those insights.

Imagine what life would be like if you started every morning with small actions that created a chain reaction of positive benefits throughout your life. You eat a healthy breakfast, have a great conversation with your loved ones, and then begin your workday focusing on the important tasks. Then, throughout the day, you complete other habits that positively impact your top goals. I guarantee you'd feel more fulfilled, get more accomplished, and have a better direction for your career.

Far from a dry listen, The Lean Law Firm is the first book published by the ABA to employ the novel to teach business lessons. Follow the engaging story of lawyer Carson Wright, who suddenly finds himself responsible for saving a small law firm, as his mentor Guy Chapman imparts the lean techniques that transformed his factory from the brink of bankruptcy to new heights of profitability. As you hear the The Lean Law Firm story unfold, you’ll see how your own firm is really just a system.