Strategic Management

"Best practices" may be widespread, but that doesn't mean they're effective. In many instances the opposite is true: Best practices can be outdated, harmful, and a hindrance to innovation. In Breaking Bad Habits, Freek Vermeulen, a strategist with a keen eye for the absurd, offers the tools to identify these practices and rid them from your organization. And, most of all, he presents a compelling case for how eliminating popular but outworn ideas, processes, and strategies can create new opportunities for innovation and growth.

A personal brand is an association that occurs in the head of people when they mention the name of a business person. By whom do they represent him, how could they describe the strengths, weaknesses of a person, character, and everything else. A personal brand helps to stand out from competitors.

Cost reduction...productivity improvement...customer retention...these are the promises of the Six Sigma quality management system. The Six Sigma Way reveals how GE, Motorola, and numerous other companies are successfully using Six Sigma to fine-tune products and processes, improve performance, and increase profits. Now you can hear the road map for implementing Six Sigma in your manufacturing or service organization.

An insightful new work from the multimillion-copy best-selling author Sean Covey and the FranklinCovey organization, based on their work with hundreds of thousands of employees and large companies. It unveils the essential disciplines proven to help businesses and individuals realize their most important goals.

Why is the Mona Lisa the most famous painting in the world? Why did Facebook succeed when other social networking sites failed? Did the surge in Iraq really lead to less violence? How much can CEO’s impact the performance of their companies? And does higher pay incentivize people to work hard? If you think the answers to these questions are a matter of common sense, think again.

We have a choice. We can either be reactive and struggle to adjust to transformational events on the fly, or we can be proactive and control the narrative—reinventing work to align with the evolving environment. Futurist Rishad Tobaccowala has had a highly successful career because he has anticipated and capitalized on emerging trends. In Rethinking Work, Rishad outlines the reasons why being proactive in this era of unprecedented change is the only way organizations will survive and thrive.

Most people’s thinking ability is limited. But there’s a dimension of thinking called Thinking About Your Thinking where you step back and observe your own mind. It’s a subtle mental shift that creates a massive change in perception and possibilities — a shift that Dan Sullivan discovered early in life, which went on to become the basis for every concept and tool in The Strategic Coach® Program.

In Game Changer, Jean-Manuel Izaret and Arnab Sinha simplify and clarify pricing strategy by integrating its many frameworks and concepts into seven distinct pricing games, each with its own proven tools, rules, forces, and structures. To help you pick the right game and play it well, Izaret and Sinha have developed the Strategic Pricing Hexagon, a tool refined through years of testing, iteration, and adaptation. The Hexagon is your portal to a business world where stronger growth and better financial performance come from a set of strategic pricing decisions.

"The Accountability Equation" offers a revolutionary guide for mental health group practice owners facing the chaos of unmanaged systems and staff burnout. This book exposes the harsh realities of low morale and high turnover, presenting a dynamic system designed to cultivate true accountability and sustainable growth.

Bina Venkataraman sees the way forward. A journalist and former adviser in the Obama White House, she helped communities and businesses prepare for climate change, and she learned firsthand why people don’t think ahead - and what can be done to change that. In The Optimist’s Telescope, she draws from stories she has reported around the world and new research in biology, psychology, and economics to explain how we can make decisions that benefit us over time.

The Art of Opportunity offers a path toward new growth, providing the perspective and methods you need to make innovation happen. Written by a team of experts with both academic and industry experience - and a client roster composed of some of the world's leading companies - this book provides you with the necessary tools to help you capture growth instead of chasing it.

Winning Across Global Markets examines how 145-year-old Nokia grew from a paper mill in Finland to a multinational telecommunications leader. Why are Nokia's lessons critical for other companies and industries? While multinationals based in large countries benefit from inherent advantages - such as a home base that often accounts for 30 to 50 percent of their revenues - multinationals based in smaller countries such as Nokia, enjoy no such competitive edge. Nokia, in fact, generates less than 1% of its revenues in its home base.

While highly relevant to new and existing managers, the book is ideally suited for technical professionals and leaders in technical organizations looking to develop critical leadership skills distinct from technical expertise.

We are living in a strange world—Salmon calls it “the New Not Normal.” The Phoenix Economy explores the ramifications of the pandemic years, many of which are surprisingly positive. In doing so, Salmon makes sense of one of the most disorienting and devastating events of our lifetimes. He examines the critical aspects of our lives that have been transformed in three parts: Time and Space, Mind and Body, and Business and Pleasure.

The New York Times best-selling author of The Roaring 2000s guides listeners through the biggest economic crisis since the Great Depression. The first and last economic depression that you will experience in your lifetime is just ahead. The years 2009 and 2010 will be the initial end of prosperity in almost every market, ushering in a downturn like most of us have not experienced before.

Many companies fall into the trap of spending too much time and money on low performers, while high performers aren't getting the necessary resources, development opportunities, or rewards. In The Differentiated Workforce, the authors expand on their previous books, The HR Scorecard and The Workforce Scorecard, and recommend that you manage your workforce like a portfolio - with disproportionate investments in the jobs that create the most wealth.

This book aims to provide you with a step-by-step guide for personal, professional, and organizational growth. The author highlights how certain relationships enable a non-linear growth trajectory. These relationships, in addition to augmenting what we can accomplish, often shape who we become. These relationships are "curve benders," and this book will show you who and where they are, how to find and engage them, and, equally valuable, how you can become a curve bender to impact the lives and livelihoods of others profoundly.

When Elizabeth ascended the throne in 1558, England was the laughing stock of Europe. Economic, political, and religious calamities were numerous, and Elizabeth endured constant criticism. But by the end of her 45-year reign, England was one of the world's mightiest nations. Axelrod uses the legendary Queen's life as a model for modern leadership, and a powerful example of how one person can make an extraordinary difference. Elizabeth I CEO is an indispensable guide for today's business managers and leaders. It is also an inspiring listen for those taking their first steps up the corporate ladder, or those who simply love history. Nelson Runger's narration gives a renewed energy to Elizabeth's lessons, which are as relevant today as they were four centuries ago.

This slim primer distills Sharma's decades of experience into 10 rules for identifying nations that are poised to take off or crash. A wake-up call to economists who failed to foresee every recent crisis, including the cataclysm of 2008, 10 Rules is full of pioneering insights on signs of political, economic, and social change. Sharma explains, for example, why autocrats are bad for the economy; robots are a blessing, not a curse; and consumer prices don’t tell you all you need to know about inflation.

Most people are blown off-course by unexpected events. Top performers, by contrast, know how to navigate our unpredictable world. Not just that: they know how to thrive in it. You can acquire this essential skill, too. In Mastering Uncertainty, investor and serial entrepreneur Csaba Konkoly and award-winning business author Matt Watkinson reveal the shortcomings of conventional business thinking and the advantages of developing a "probabilistic" mindset that turns uncertainty from a source of fear into an incredible and exciting advantage.