Best of
Business

2011

The Most Important Thing: Uncommon Sense for the Thoughtful Investor


Howard Marks - 2011
    After four decades spent ascending to the top of the investment management profession, he is today sought out by the world's leading value investors, and his client memos brim with insightful commentary and a time-tested, fundamental philosophy. Now for the first time, all readers can benefit from Marks's wisdom, concentrated into a single volume that speaks to both the amateur and seasoned investor.Informed by a lifetime of experience and study, The Most Important Thing explains the keys to successful investment and the pitfalls that can destroy capital or ruin a career. Utilizing passages from his memos to illustrate his ideas, Marks teaches by example, detailing the development of an investment philosophy that fully acknowledges the complexities of investing and the perils of the financial world. Brilliantly applying insight to today's volatile markets, Marks offers a volume that is part memoir, part creed, with a number of broad takeaways.Marks expounds on such concepts as "second-level thinking," the price/value relationship, patient opportunism, and defensive investing. Frankly and honestly assessing his own decisions--and occasional missteps--he provides valuable lessons for critical thinking, risk assessment, and investment strategy. Encouraging investors to be "contrarian," Marks wisely judges market cycles and achieves returns through aggressive yet measured action. Which element is the most essential? Successful investing requires thoughtful attention to many separate aspects, and each of Marks's subjects proves to be the most important thing.

The 5 Levels of Leadership: Proven Steps to Maximize Your Potential


John C. Maxwell - 2011
    In fact, being chosen for a position is only the first of the five levels every effective leader achieves. To become more than "the boss" people follow only because they are required to, you have to master the ability to invest in people and inspire them. To grow further in your role, you must achieve results and build a team that produces. You need to help people to develop their skills to become leaders in their own right. And if you have the skill and dedication, you can reach the pinnacle of leadership—where experience will allow you to extend your influence beyond your immediate reach and time for the benefit of others.The 5 Levels of Leadership are:1. Position—People follow because they have to.2. Permission—People follow because they want to.3. Production—People follow because of what you have done for the organization.4. People Development—People follow because of what you have done for them personally.5. Pinnacle—People follow because of who you are and what you represent.Through humor, in-depth insight, and examples, internationally recognized leadership expert John C. Maxwell describes each of these stages of leadership. He shows you how to master each level and rise up to the next to become a more influential, respected, and successful leader.

Outwitting the Devil: The Secret to Freedom and Success


Napoleon Hill - 2011
    This powerful tale has never been published, considered too controversial by his family and friends.Using his legendary ability to get to the root of human potential, Napoleon Hill digs deep to identify the greatest obstacles we face in reaching personal goals: fear, procrastination, anger, and jealousy, as tools of the Devil. These hidden methods of control can lead us to ruin, and Hill reveals the seven principles of good that will allow us to triumph over them and succeed.Annotated and edited for a contemporary audience by Rich Dad, Poor Dad and Three Feet from Gold co-author Sharon Lechter, this book is profound, powerful, resonant, and rich with insight.

Necessary Endings: The Employees, Businesses, and Relationships That All of Us Have to Give Up in Order to Move Forward


Henry Cloud - 2011
    Cloud challenges readers to achieve the personal and professional growth they both desire and deserve—and gives crucial insight on how to make those tough decisions that are standing in the way of a more successful business and, ultimately, a better life.

EntreLeadership: 20 Years of Practical Business Wisdom from the Trenches


Dave Ramsey - 2011
    These are the men and women doing battle daily beneath the banner that is your brand. Are they courageous or indecisive? Are they serving a motivated team or managing employees? Are they valued? Your team will never grow beyond you, so here’s another question to consider—are you growing? Whether you’re sitting at the CEO’s desk, the middle manager’s cubicle, or a card table in your living-room-based start-up, EntreLeadership provides the practical, step-by-step guidance to grow your business where you want it to go. Dave Ramsey opens up his championship playbook for business to show you how to: -Inspire your team to take ownership and love what they do -Unify your team and get rid of all gossip -Handle money to set your business up for success -Reach every goal you set -And much, much more! EntreLeadership is a one-stop guide filled with accessible advice for businesses and leaders to ensure success even through the toughest of times.

Great Leads: The Six Easiest Ways To Start Any Sales Message


Michael Masterson - 2011
    

Steve Jobs


Walter Isaacson - 2011
    Based on more than forty interviews with Steve Jobs conducted over two years--as well as interviews with more than 100 family members, friends, adversaries, competitors, and colleagues--Walter Isaacson has written a riveting story of the roller-coaster life and searingly intense personality of a creative entrepreneur whose passion for perfection and ferocious drive revolutionized six industries: personal computers, animated movies, music, phones, tablet computing, and digital publishing. Isaacson's portrait touched millions of readers. At a time when America is seeking ways to sustain its innovative edge, Jobs stands as the ultimate icon of inventiveness and applied imagination. He knew that the best way to create value in the twenty-first century was to connect creativity with technology. He built a company where leaps of the imagination were combined with remarkable feats of engineering. Although Jobs cooperated with the author, he asked for no control over what was written. He put nothing off-limits. He encouraged the people he knew to speak honestly. He himself spoke candidly about the people he worked with and competed against. His friends, foes, and colleagues offer an unvarnished view of the passions, perfectionism, obsessions, artistry, devilry, and compulsion for control that shaped his approach to business and the innovative products that resulted. His tale is instructive and cautionary, filled with lessons about innovation, character, leadership, and values. Steve Jobs is the inspiration for the movie of the same name starring Michael Fassbender, Kate Winslet, Seth Rogen, and Jeff Daniels, directed by Danny Boyle with a screenplay by Aaron Sorkin.

Understanding Michael Porter: The Essential Guide to Competition and Strategy


Joan Magretta - 2011
    The value chain. Five forces. Industry structure. Differentiation. Relative cost. If you want to understand how companies achieve and sustain competitive success, Michael Porter’s frameworks are the foundation. But while everyone in business may know Porter’s name, many managers misunderstand and misuse his concepts.Understanding Michael Porter sets the record straight, providing the first concise, accessible summary of Porter’s revolutionary thinking. Written with Porter’s full cooperation by Joan Magretta, his former editor at Harvard Business Review, this new book delivers fresh, clear examples to illustrate and update Porter’s ideas.Magretta uses her wide business experience to translate Porter’s powerful insights into practice and to correct the most common misconceptions about them—for instance, that competition is about being unique, not being the best; that it is a contest over profits, not a battle between rivals; that strategy is about choosing to make some customers unhappy, not being all things to all customers.An added feature is an original Q&A with Porter himself, which includes answers to managers’ FAQs.Eminently readable, this book will enable every manager in your organization to grasp Porter’s ideas—and swiftly deploy them to drive your company’s success.

A Summary of How to Win Friends and Influence People


Wolley Publishing - 2011
    This is a brief summary of how to win friends and influence people

Incerto 4-Book Bundle: Antifragile, The Black Swan, Fooled by Randomness, The Bed of Procrustes


Nassim Nicholas Taleb - 2011
    All four volumes—Antifragile, The Black Swan, Fooled by Randomness, and the special expanded edition of The Bed of Procrustes, updated with more than 50 percent new material—are now together in one ebook bundle.  ANTIFRAGILE  “Startling . . . richly crammed with insights, stories, fine phrases and intriguing asides.”—The Wall Street Journal   Just as human bones get stronger when subjected to stress and tension, many things in life benefit from disorder, volatility, and turmoil. What Taleb has identified and calls “antifragile” is that category of things that not only gain from chaos but need it in order to survive and flourish. The resilient resists shocks and stays the same; the antifragile gets better and better. What is crucial is that the antifragile loves errors, as it incurs small harm and large benefits from them. Spanning politics, urban planning, war, personal finance, economic systems, and medicine in an interdisciplinary and erudite style, Antifragile is a blueprint for living in a Black Swan world.  THE BLACK SWAN “The Black Swan changed my view of how the world works.”—Daniel Kahneman, Nobel laureate   A black swan is a highly improbable event with three principal characteristics: It is unpredictable; it carries a massive impact; and, after the fact, we concoct an explanation that makes it appear less random and more predictable. The astonishing success of Google was a black swan; so was 9/11. In this groundbreaking and prophetic book, Taleb shows that black swan events underlie almost everything about our world, from the rise of religions to events in our own personal lives, and yet we—especially the experts—are blind to them.  FOOLED BY RANDOMNESS “[Fooled by Randomness] is to conventional Wall Street wisdom approximately what Martin Luther’s ninety-five theses were to the Catholic Church.”—Malcolm Gladwell, The New Yorker   Are we capable of distinguishing the fortunate charlatan from the genuine visionary? Must we always try to uncover nonexistent messages in random events? Fooled by Randomness is about luck: more precisely, about how we perceive luck in our personal and professional experiences. Set against the backdrop of the most conspicuous forum in which luck is mistaken for skill—the markets—Fooled by Randomness is an irreverent, eye-opening, and endlessly entertaining exploration of one of the least understood forces in our lives.  THE BED OF PROCRUSTES “Taleb’s crystalline nuggets of thought stand alone like esoteric poems.”—Financial Times   This collection of aphorisms and meditations expresses Taleb’s major ideas in ways you least expect. The Bed of Procrustes takes its title from Greek mythology: the story of a man who made his visitors fit his bed to perfection by either stretching them or cutting their limbs. With a rare combination of pointed wit and potent wisdom, Taleb plows through human illusions, contrasting the classical views of courage, elegance, and erudition against the modern diseases of nerdiness, philistinism, and phoniness.

The Secret to Success


Eric Thomas - 2011
    In this, his debut autobiography, Eric shares that secrets with the rest of the world. By chronicling his days sleeping in abandoned buildings in the unforgiving Detroit winters, to his rise as a successful husband, father, CEO, educator and motivational speaker, Eric inspires the masses to reach greatness.In 2009 one of Eric's entitled Secrets 2 Success surfaced on YouTube and quickly went viral reaching over 1 million views. It was the response to this video and the subsequent thousands of emails and phone calls from viewers ranging from high school teachers and students, to professional athletes and CEO's of fortune 500 companies seeking Eric's advice on how to reach their maximum potential that ultimately led to the writing of this book. In the book, Eric not only details his struggles and successes, he also provides invaluable advice on how anyone can take their life from its current state to places they never dreamed imaginable.

The Lean Startup: How Today's Entrepreneurs Use Continuous Innovation to Create Radically Successful Businesses


Eric Ries - 2011
    But many of those failures are preventable. The Lean Startup is a new approach being adopted across the globe, changing the way companies are built and new products are launched. Eric Ries defines a startup as an organization dedicated to creating something new under conditions of extreme uncertainty. This is just as true for one person in a garage or a group of seasoned professionals in a Fortune 500 boardroom. What they have in common is a mission to penetrate that fog of uncertainty to discover a successful path to a sustainable business.The Lean Startup approach fosters companies that are both more capital efficient and that leverage human creativity more effectively. Inspired by lessons from lean manufacturing, it relies on "validated learning," rapid scientific experimentation, as well as a number of counter-intuitive practices that shorten product development cycles, measure actual progress without resorting to vanity metrics, and learn what customers really want. It enables a company to shift directions with agility, altering plans inch by inch, minute by minute.Rather than wasting time creating elaborate business plans, The Lean Startup offers entrepreneurs - in companies of all sizes - a way to test their vision continuously, to adapt and adjust before it's too late. Ries provides a scientific approach to creating and managing successful startups in a age when companies need to innovate more than ever.

Principles: Life and Work


Ray Dalio - 2011
    Forty years later, Bridgewater has made more money for its clients than any other hedge fund in history and grown into the fifth most important private company in the United States, according to Fortune magazine. Dalio himself has been named to Time magazine’s list of the 100 most influential people in the world. Along the way, Dalio discovered a set of unique principles that have led to Bridgewater’s exceptionally effective culture, which he describes as “an idea meritocracy that strives to achieve meaningful work and meaningful relationships through radical transparency.” It is these principles, and not anything special about Dalio—who grew up an ordinary kid in a middle-class Long Island neighborhood—that he believes are the reason behind his success.In Principles, Dalio shares what he’s learned over the course of his remarkable career. He argues that life, management, economics, and investing can all be systemized into rules and understood like machines. The book’s hundreds of practical lessons, which are built around his cornerstones of “radical truth” and “radical transparency,” include Dalio laying out the most effective ways for individuals and organizations to make decisions, approach challenges, and build strong teams. He also describes the innovative tools the firm uses to bring an idea meritocracy to life, such as creating “baseball cards” for all employees that distill their strengths and weaknesses, and employing computerized decision-making systems to make believability-weighted decisions. While the book brims with novel ideas for organizations and institutions, Principles also offers a clear, straightforward approach to decision-making that Dalio believes anyone can apply, no matter what they’re seeking to achieve.Here is a rare opportunity to gain proven advice unlike anything you’ll find in the conventional business press.

Good Strategy Bad Strategy: The Difference and Why It Matters


Richard P. Rumelt - 2011
    Richard Rumelt shows that there has been a growing and unfortunate tendency to equate Mom-and-apple-pie values, fluffy packages of buzzwords, motivational slogans, and financial goals with “strategy.” He debunks these elements of “bad strategy” and awakens an understanding of the power of a “good strategy.” A good strategy is a specific and coherent response to—and approach for overcoming—the obstacles to progress. A good strategy works by harnessing and applying power where it will have the greatest effect in challenges as varied as putting a man on the moon, fighting a war, launching a new product, responding to changing market dynamics, starting a charter school, or setting up a government program. Rumelt’snine sources of power—ranging from using leverage to effectively focusing on growth—are eye-opening yet pragmatic tools that can be put to work on Monday morning.Surprisingly, a good strategy is often unexpected because most organizations don’t have one. Instead, they have “visions,” mistake financial goals for strategy,and pursue a “dog’s dinner” of conflicting policies and actions.Rumelt argues that the heart of a good strategy is insight—into the true nature of the situation, into the hidden power in a situation, and into an appropriate response. He shows you how insight can be cultivated with a wide variety of tools for guiding yourown thinking.Good Strategy/Bad Strategy uses fascinating examples from business, nonprofit, and military affairs to bring its original and pragmatic ideas to life. The detailed examples range from Apple to General Motors, from the two Iraq wars to Afghanistan, from a small local market to Wal-Mart, from Nvidia to Silicon Graphics, from the Getty Trust to the Los Angeles Unified School District, from Cisco Systems to Paccar, and from Global Crossing to the 2007–08 financial crisis.Reflecting an astonishing grasp and integration of economics, finance, technology, history, and the brilliance and foibles of the human character, Good Strategy/Bad Strategy stems from Rumelt’s decades of digging beyond the superficial to address hard questions with honesty and integrity.From the Hardcover edition.

Anything You Want


Derek Sivers - 2011
    In Anything You Want, Sivers details his journey and the lessons learned along the way of creating CD Baby and building a business close to his heart. “[Sivers is] one of the last music-business folk heroes,” says Esquire magazine. His less-scripted approach to business is refreshing and will educate readers to feel empowered to follow their own dreams. Aspiring entrepreneurs and others trying to make their own way will be particularly comforted by Sivers straight talk and transparency -a reminder that anything you want is within your reach. Anything You Want is also available in a 5 pack, 52 pack and very limited edition Collectible, signed by Derek.

Great by Choice: Uncertainty, Chaos, and Luck—Why Some Thrive Despite Them All


James C. Collins - 2011
    Hansen, enumerate the principles for building a truly great enterprise in unpredictable, tumultuous, and fast-moving times. The new study: "Great by Choice" distinguishes itself from Collins's prior work by its focus on the type of unstable environments faced by leaders today. The new findings: The best leaders were more disciplined, more empirical, and more paranoid. Following the belief that leading in a "fast world" always requires "fast decisions" and "fast action" is a good way to get killed. The great companies changed less in reaction to a radically changing world than the comparison companies. This book is classic Collins: contrarian, data-driven, and uplifting. He and Hansen show convincingly that, even in a chaotic and uncertain world, greatness happens by choice, not by chance.

Principles: Summary


Ray Dalio - 2011
    Part 1 is about the purpose and importance of having principles in general, having nothing to do with mine. Part 2 explains my most fundamental life principles that apply to everything I do. Part 3, explains my management principles as they are being lived out at Bridgewater. Since my management principles are simply my most fundamental life principles applied to management, reading Part 2 will help you to better understand Part 3, but it’s not required—you can go directly to Part 3 to see what my management principles are and how Bridgewater has been run. One day I’d like to write a Part 4 on my investment principles. If you are looking to get the most bang for your buck (i.e., understanding for the effort), I suggest that you read Parts 1 and 2, and the beginning of Part 3 (through the Summary and Table of Principles) which will give you nearly the whole picture. It’s only about 55 pages of a normal size book. Above all else, I want you to think for yourself—to decide 1) what you want, 2) what is true and 3) what to do about it. I want you to do that in a clear-headed thoughtful way, so that you get what you want. I wrote this book to help you do that. I am going to ask only two things of you—1) that you be open-minded and 2) that you honestly answer some questions about what you want, what is true and what you want to do about it. If you do these things, I believe that you will get a lot out of this book. If you can’t do these things, you should reflect on why that is, because you probably have discovered one of your greatest impediments to getting what you want out of life.

Venture Deals


Brad Feld - 2011
    It happens because VCs are experts in financings and most entrepreneurs are not. Brad and Jason are out to fix that problem with Venture Deals. This book is long overdue and badly needed."—Fred Wilson, Managing Partner, Union Square Ventures"Feld and Mendelson pack a graduate-level course into this energetic and accessible book.?The authors' frank style and incisive insight make this a must-read for high-growth company entrepreneurs, early-stage investors, and graduate students.?Start here if you want to understand venture capital deal structure and strategies.?I enthusiastically recommend."—Brad Bernthal, CU Boulder, Associate Clinical Professor ofLaw, Technology Policy, Entrepreneurial Law"A must-read book for entrepreneurs.?Brad and Jason demystify the overly complex world of term sheets and M&A, cutting through the legalese and focusing on what really matters.?That's a good thing not just for entrepreneurs, but also for venture capitalists, angels, and lawyers.?Having an educated entrepreneur on the other side of the table means you spend your time negotiating the important issues and ultimately get to the right deal faster."—Greg Gottesman, Managing Director, Madrona Venture Group"Venture Deals is a must-read for any entrepreneur contemplating or currently leading a venture-backed company. Brad and Jason are highly respected investors who shoot straight from the hip and tell it like it is, bringing a level of transparency to a process that is rarely well understood. It's like having a venture capitalist as a best friend who is looking out for your best interests and happy to answer all of your questions."—Emily Mendell, Vice President of Communications,National Venture Capital Association"The adventure of starting and growing a company can be exhilarating or excruciating—or both. Feld and Mendelson have done a masterful job of shedding light on what can either become one of the most helpful or dreadful experiences for entrepreneurs—accepting venture capital into their firm. This book takes the lid off the black box and helps entrepreneurs understand the economics and control provisions of working with a venture partner."—Lesa Mitchell, Vice President, Advancing Innovation, Kauffman Foundation

HBR's Must Reads Boxed Set (6 Books) (HBR's 10 Must Reads)


Harvard Business School Press - 2011
    Now you can have them--in a boxed set of HBR's Must Reads. This six-title collection includes only the most critical articles from the world's top management experts, curated from "Harvard Business Review"'s rich archives. We've done the work of selecting them so you won't have to. From leadership and strategy to managing yourself "and" others, HBR's Must Reads offer foundational articles on essential business topics to help you maximize your organization's performance and your own. The series includes: HBR's 10 Must Reads: The Essentials This book brings together the best thinking from management's most influential experts. Arm yourself with the insights of Michael Porter on competitive advantage, John Kotter on leading change, Daniel Goleman on emotional intelligence, Peter Drucker on managing your career, Clayton Christensen on disruptive innovation, Tom Davenport on analytics, Robert Kaplan and David Norton on measuring strategy with the "balanced scorecard," Rosabeth Moss Kanter on innovation, Ted Levitt on marketing, and C.K. Prahalad and Gary Hamel on core competence. Once you've read these definitive articles, you can delve into each core topic the series explores: managing yourself, managing people, leadership, strategy, and change management.HBR's 10 Must Reads on Managing Yourself The path to your professional success starts with a critical look in the mirror. Here's how to stay engaged throughout your 50-year work life, tap into your deepest values, solicit candid feedback, replenish your physical and mental energy, and rebound from tough times. This book includes the bonus article "How Will You Measure Your Life?" by Clayton M. Christensen.HBR's 10 Must Reads on Managing People Managing your employees is fraught with challenges, even if you're a seasoned pro. Boost their performance by tailoring your management styles to their temperaments, motivating with responsibility rather than money, fostering trust through solicited input, giving rookie managers the support they need, and building high-performing teams.HBR's 10 Must Reads on Leadership Are you an extraordinary leader--or just a good manager? Learn how to motivate others to excel, build your team's confidence, set direction, encourage smart risk-taking, credit others for your success, and draw strength from adversity.HBR's 10 Must Reads on Strategy Is your company spending too much time on strategy development, with too little to show for it? Discover what it takes to distinguish your company from rivals, clarify what it will (and won't) do, create blue oceans of uncontested market space, and make your priorities explicit so employees can realize your vision.HBR's 10 Must Reads on Change Management Most companies' change initiatives fail--but yours can beat the odds. Learn how to overcome addiction to the status quo, establish a sense of urgency, mobilize commitment and resources, silence naysayers, minimize the pain of change, and motivate change even when business is good.

The Millionaire Messenger: Make a Difference and a Fortune Sharing Your Advice


Brendon Burchard - 2011
    In The Millionaire Messenger, Brendon Burchard pulls back the curtains on the once-secretive "expert industry" and shows how to become an influential and highly paid advice expert through websites, books, speeches, seminars, coaching, consulting, and online programs.  Blessed to receive life’s golden ticket - a second chance - after surviving a dramatic car accident, Burchard has dedicated his life to helping others find their voice, live more fully, and follow their dreams.  By following his 10-step program, average, ordinary people can learn to package their struggles, successes, research, or life’s story into advice for others and become experts on any given topic.  In the industry of people who share their advice and knowledge with the world and get paid for it, Burchard is the “guru’s guru." If you’ve ever wondered how the gurus spread their message, serve others, and build a real business, then this is a must-read.

This Is Lean: Resolving the Efficiency Paradox


Niklas Modig - 2011
    This-is-Lean

The Business of Venture Capital: Insights from Leading Practitioners on the Art of Raising a Fund, Deal Structuring, Value Creation, and Exit Strategies


Mahendra Ramsinghani - 2011
    Author Mahendra Ramsinghani covers the distinct aspects of the venture capital fund raising and investment process with insights and perspectives from leading experts. Interviewees include Limited Partners (LPs) such as Credit Suisse, Grove Street Advisors and General Partners (GPs) from Foundry Group, Spark Capital, Benchmark Capital, Norwest Venture Partners, Shasta Ventures and Bessemer Venture Partners. If you're curious about venture capital businesses, you've found the only book that covers it all. - The first book to address the full investment cycle of the venture capital business - Demystifies the key aspects of the business - raising venture funds, fund-level due diligence and fund terms, structuring investments, value creation, and exits - Foreword by Mark Heesen, President, National Venture Capital Association - Benefit from the experiences of the best-in-class practitioners, who have made investments in leading companies like Zynga, Twitter & Foursquare - Describes how venture capital is an art as well as a science In-depth and thorough, The Business of Venture Capital is the one book that includes insights, tools and real world examples every practitioner can benefit from.

Doing The Impossible: The 25 Laws for Doing The Impossible


Patrick Bet-David - 2011
    At one point or another in this book, you will experience several different reactions - excitement, curiosity, joy, laughter, or even tears - but the ultimate goal is to encourage and challenge you to make a decision to do the impossible. That may have a totally different meaning to you than it did to Steve Jobs, Thomas Edison, or any of the other role models we will look at; but whatever Doing the Impossible means to you, the goal of this book is to help you realize that you have the capacity to do what the critics think is impossible. - Patrick Bet-David, Introduction to Doing the Impossible. Doing the Impossible is a roadmap for those who want to do something big with their lives. The book goes over 25 steps that the reader should take to re-create themselves, identify their cause, and make history. Patrick Bet-David shares his own impossible crusade and gives key principles for anyone looking to do the same.

Executive Toughness: The Mental-Training Program to Increase Your Leadership Performance


Jason Selk - 2011
    And here's the best news of all: mental toughness is something anyone can learn.Director of mental training for the St. Louis Cardinals and a top-tier executive coach, Dr. Jason Selk knows everything there is to know about developing the mental toughness required for achieving any goal you set for yourself. In fact, the techniques he outlines in this book are the same ones he used to help the Cardinals defeat the heavily favored Detroit Tigers in the 2006 World Series.Inspired on the vision of legendary basketball coach John Wooden, Selk's program is as simple as it is effective. But that doesn't mean it's easy. You have to put effort into your drive to success; it's the only way to build up your mental "muscles." Selk provides hands-on daily exercises for breaking old, self-defeating patterns of behavior and replacing them with the can-do attitude and positive behavior that would make Coach Wooden proud.Executive Toughness outlines the three fundamentals for attaining high-level success:ACCOUNTABILITY--admit to mistakes, correct them, and, most important, learn from them FOCUS--on your strengths, on winning, on reaching your goal . . . for only 100 seconds per day OPTIMISM--don't just believe you can succeed, know you can succeedExecutive Toughness takes you through the steps of making these critical behaviors part of your everyday routine. Practice your accountability, focus, and optimism, and you'll be on the path to attaining your goals; make them part of your mental "DNA," and there will be no turning back--ever.A complete regimen from a leading expert on developing the mindset for attaining goals, Executive Toughness is your workout for ultimate success in your career and in your life.

It's Not about You: A Little Story about What Matters Most in Business


Bob Burg - 2011
    We encourage you to search for THE GO-GIVER LEADER instead of the old edition.

The 4 Disciplines of Execution: Achieving Your Wildly Important Goals


Chris McChesney - 2011
    A #1 Wall Street Journal bestseller with more than 500,000 copies sold, The Four Disciplines of Execution will radically change your business.Do you remember the last major initiative you watched die in your organization? Did it go down with a loud crash? Or was it slowly and quietly suffocated by other competing priorities? By the time it finally disappeared, it’s likely no one even noticed. What happened? Often, the answer is that the “whirlwind” of urgent activity required to keep things running day-to-day devoured all the time and energy you needed to invest in executing your strategy for tomorrow. The 4 Disciplines of Execution can change that forever. The 4 Disciplines of Execution (4DX) is a simple, repeatable, and proven formula for executing your most important strategic priorities in the midst of the whirlwind. By following the 4 Disciplines—Focus on the Wildly Important; Act on Lead Measures; Keep a Compelling Scoreboard; Create a Cadence of Accountability—leaders can produce breakthrough results, even when executing the strategy requires a significant change in behavior from their teams. 4DX is not theory. It is a proven set of practices that have been tested and refined by hundreds of organizations and thousands of teams over many years. When a company or an individual adheres to these disciplines, they achieve superb results, regardless of the goal. 4DX represents a new way to think and work that is essential to thriving in today’s competitive climate. The 4 Disciplines of Execution is one book that no business leader can afford to miss.

First Steps to Wealth


Dani Johnson - 2011
    In this book by Dani Johnson, a business, personal wealth, and relationship expert, you will:- Learn step-by-step strategies to making more money in less time with less stress!- Get what it takes to stay ahead in a changing world and experience a lifetime of happiness, satisfaction and fulfillment!- Discover million dollar income growth and wealth development principles!- Hear from real people who are living their dreams- Unlock a proven debt annihilation formula that has already helped thousands of people pay off debt to the tune of millions of dollars!- Get the tools you need to become an indispensable asset in every area of your life!- Discover the Powerful Mindset of an Entrepreneur and how you can put advanced strategies to work for you.Put an end to small thinking and ACHIEVE Results!

How to Win at the Sport of Business: If I Can Do It, You Can Do It


Mark Cuban - 2011
    Using the greatest material from his popular Blog Maverick, he has collected and updated his postings on business and life to provide a catalog of insider knowledge on what it takes to become a thriving entrepreneur. Cuban tells his own rags-to-riches story of how he went from selling powdered milk and sleeping on friends' couches to owning his own company and becoming a multi-billion dollar success story. His unconventional yet highly effective ideas on how to build a successful business offer entrepreneurs at any stage of their careers a huge edge over their competitors.

Straight-Line Leadership: Tools for Living with Velocity and Power in Turbulent Times


Dusan Djukich - 2011
    Within these pages he dramatically unveils exactly what it takes to live a powerful and effective life both personally and professionally.Regardless if you are a CEO, small business owner, parent, or someone who simply wants to make a difference, you will learn to master powerful distinctions that you can apply immediately to resolve the challenges that you are presently up against. You will also become adept at assisting others in solving their most pressing problems with precision and grace.This book boldly demonstrates why Djukich is regarded as the ultimate performance catalyst to business. He simply kicks the hell out of the sacred cows that keep individuals and businesses stuck. Brandon Craig, CEO, BiltRite Corporation

Summary: The EMyth Revisited Michael E. Gerber


Must Read Summaries - 2011
    Gerber. The entrepreneurial myth is that most small businesses are started by entrepreneurs. Not so, says Michael E. Gerber, most are started by technicians who enjoy handson work and making new products. Therefore, they are too focused on issues within the business, rather than the business as a whole. Gerber proposes an ingenious solution to this problem: the owner should look upon the business as a prototype that they want to expand in the future. In this way, the company itself becomes the handson product.In The EMyth Revisited, Gerber shows how to implement this process, using examples from successful business leaders. As Thomas Watson says, "[w]e didn't do business at IBM, we built one.'' Gerber explains how to develop a franchise mentality, and how much of your resources should be spent on each sector of your business. He suggests what type of management systems should be put in place as your business grows.His argument is a simple one: in order to end as a mature company, you must also begin as one, at least in your thinking. The theories and strategies within The EMyth Revisited have been proved effective by a number of large, successful businesses.

Pitch Anything: An Innovative Method for Presenting, Persuading, and Winning the Deal


Oren Klaff - 2011
    Over the past 13 years, he has used his one-of-a- kind method to raise more than $400 million--and now, for the first time, he describes his formula to help you deliver a winning pitch in any business situation.Whether you're selling ideas to investors, pitching a client for new business, or even negotiating for a higher salary, "Pitch Anything "will transform the way you position your ideas.According to Klaff, creating and presenting a great pitch isn't an art--it's a simple science. Applying the latest findings in the field of neuroeconomics, while sharing eye-opening stories of his method in action, Klaff describes how the brain makes decisions and responds to pitches. With this information, you'll remain in complete control of every stage of the pitch process."Pitch Anything" introduces the exclusive STRONG method of pitching, which can be put to use immediately: Setting the Frame Telling the Story Revealing the Intrigue Offering the Prize Nailing the Hookpoint Getting a DecisionOne truly great pitch can improve your career, make you a lot of money--and even change your life. Success is dependent on the method you use, not how hard you try. "Better method, more money," Klaff says. "Much better method, much more money." Klaff is the best in the business because his method is much better than anyone else's. And now it's yours.Apply the tactics and strategies outlined in "Pitch Anything" to engage and persuade your audience--and you'll have more funding and support than you ever thought possible.

Essentialism: The Disciplined Pursuit of Less


Greg McKeown - 2011
    It’s about getting only the right things done.  It is not  a time management strategy, or a productivity technique. It is a systematic discipline for discerning what is absolutely essential, then eliminating everything that is not, so we can make the highest possible contribution towards the things that really matter.  By forcing us to apply a more selective criteria for what is Essential, the disciplined pursuit of less empowers us to reclaim control of our own choices about where to spend our precious time and energy – instead of giving others the implicit permission to choose for us.Essentialism is not one more thing – it’s a whole new way of doing everything. A must-read for any leader, manager, or individual who wants to learn who to do less, but better, in every area of their lives, Essentialism  is a movement whose time has come.

The 3rd Alternative: Solving Life's Most Difficult Problems


Stephen R. Covey - 2011
    There are many methods of “conflict resolution,” but most involve compromise, a low-level accommodation that stops the fight without breaking through to new and innovative results. The 3rd Alternative introduces a breakthrough approach to conflict resolution and creative problem solving, transcending traditional solutions to conflict by forging a path toward a third option. A third alternative moves beyond your way or my way to a higher and better way—one that allows both parties to emerge from debate or even heated conflict in a far better place than either had envisioned. With the third alternative, nobody has to give up anything, and everyone wins.Through key examples and stories from his work as a consultant, Covey demonstrates the power of 3rd Alternative thinking. His wide-ranging examples include a Canadian metropolitan police force that transformed a crime-plagued community; a judge who brought a quick, peaceful end to one of the biggest environmental lawsuits in American history without setting foot in a courtroom; the principal of a high school for children of migrant workers who raised their graduation rate from 30 percent to 90 percent; a handful of little-known people who are quietly finding new ways to bring peace to the Middle East; and many others. These various groups and individuals offer living examples of how to create new and better results instead of escalating conflict, as well as how to build strong relationships based on an attitude of winning together.Beyond conflict and compromise, The 3rd Alternative unveils a radical, creative new way of thinking.

Changing on the Job: Developing Leaders for a Complex World


Jennifer Garvey Berger - 2011
    But these leaders won't simply come to the fore; we have to develop them, and we must cultivate them as quickly as is humanly possible. Changing on the Job is a means to this end.As opposed to showing readers how to play the role of a leader in a "paint by numbers" fashion, Changing on the Job builds on theories of adult growth and development to help readers become more thoughtful individuals, capable of leading in any scenario. Moving from the theoretical to the practical, and employing real-world examples, author Jennifer Garvey Berger offers a set of building blocks to help cultivate an agile workforce while improving performance.Coaches, HR professionals, thoughtful leaders, and anyone who wants to flourish on the job will find this book a vital resource for developing their own capacities and those of the talent that they support.

Simple Numbers, Straight Talk, Big Profits!: 4 Keys to Unlock Your Business Potential


Greg Crabtree - 2011
    It shows the reader how to use key financial indicators as a basis for smart business decisions, with a focus on companies in the range between start-up and $5 million in revenue.

Pretotype It


Alberto Savoia - 2011
    I would love to write that book, but at this time I have no indication that such a book would be worth writing. Most books fail in the market, and most of them fail not because they are poorly written or edited, but because there aren’t enough people interested in them. They are not the right it.What you are reading now is a pretotype edition of the book. I wrote and “edited” it in days instead of months, just to test the level of interest in such a book. I had a few friends and colleagues review it, but don’t be surprised if you find typos, misspellings, bad grammar, awkward formatting and all sorts of misteaks.Releasing it in its present state is not easy for me.The toughest thing about pretotyping is not developing pretotypes, that’s the fun part. The tough part is getting over our compulsion for prema- ture perfectionism and our desire to add more features, or content, before releasing the first version. The tough part is getting our pretotypes in front of people, where they will be judged, criticized and – possibly – rejected.Reid Hoffman, founder of LinkedIn once said: “If you are not embarrassed by the first version of your product, you’ve launched too late.”I am plenty embarrassed. I must be on the right track.http://www.pretotyping.org/pretotype-...

The Accidental Creative: How to Be Brilliant at a Moment's Notice


Todd Henry - 2011
     It isn't enough to just do your job anymore. In order to thrive in today's marketplace, all of us-even the accountants-have to be ready to generate brilliant ideas on demand. Business creativity expert Todd Henry explains how to establish effective practices that unleash your creative potential. Born out of his consultancy and his popular podcast, Henry has created a practical method for discovering your personal creative rhythm. He focuses on five key elements: *Focus: Begin with your end goal in mind. *Relationships: Build stimulating relationships and ideas will follow. *Energy: Manage it as your most valuable resource. *Stimuli: Structure the right "inputs" to maximize creative output. *Hours: Focus on effectiveness, not efficiency. This is a guide for staying inspired and experiencing greater creative productivity than you ever imagined possible.

The Flip Flop CEO


Janine Finney - 2011
    By the time they are done with you, you will have a serious case of whiplash, a fresh perspective on this industry, and a brand new outlook on yourself. Do not let your ego or misconceptions get in the way of reading this book. The quality of your life depends on it.Stop. Right this instant.Stop running around like crazy, and listen up.Your life has been hijacked. It doesn't belong to youanymore. And unless you do something about it,you're not getting it back.You're handcuffed to a job. You're worth more than you're paid.Your debt is growing. Your 401(k) is not.You say you're running a business. But it's clearly running you.You miss your kids. You miss your friends.You miss your health. They miss you too.We're not here to judge. We've been right where you are.We just want you to know it doesn't have to be that way.You have a choice.The Flip Flop CEOs will take everything you've learned about the business of network marketing and flip it - right side up. By the time they're done with you, you'll have a serious case of whiplash, a fresh perspective on this industry, and a brand new outlook on...yourself. Don't let your ego or misconceptions get in the way of reading this book. The quality of your life depends on it.

Once Upon a Car: The Fall and Resurrection of America's Big Three Automakers--GM, Ford, and Chrysler


Bill Vlasic - 2011
    automakers, General Motors, Ford, and Chrysler. Written by Bill Vlasic, the Detroit bureau chief for the New York Times and acclaimed author of Taken for a Ride, this eye-opening, richly anecdotal work is more than a riveting and insightful business history. It offers a clear-eyed view of the present day automobile industry and of Detroit, the city that spawned it, going far beyond the corporate and federal maneuverings to explore the impact the car companies’ failures have had on the overall economy, and more importantly what they have done to people’s lives.  Relevant and thought-provoking, Once Upon a Car is an unforgettable journey deep inside this quintessentially American industry.

The Slight Edge Combo Pack


Jeff Olson - 2011
    It simply shows you how to create powerful results from the simple daily activities of your life, by using tools that are already within you.What do you need to make that happen? Discover that one thing that will help you achieve that goal, realize a life-long dream or propel you up the ladder to success.Once you've got it, then you will discover how your philosophy... creates your attitude... creates your actions... creates your results... creates YOUR LIFE!The Slight Edge is a way of thinking, a way of processing information that enables you to make the daily choices that will lead you to the success you desire. The Slight Edge is the key that

Pope & the CEO: John Paul II's Leadership Lessons to a Young Swiss Guard


Andreas Widmer - 2011
    He modeled for me how to pursue our God-given potential. Not coincidentally, this also makes us and those around us better employees, more capable of and more willing to work hard at building a stronger company. That s something that makes both good human sense and good business sense. - Andreas Widmer Former Swiss Guard, CEO and business leader Andreas Widmer gives a behind-the-scenes look into Pope John Paul II, the most authentically human person I ve ever met, and reveals how those memories shaped and forged his success as a corporate executive. In what papal biographer George Weigel calls a powerful example of leadership at work, Widmer recounts his personal experiences serving Blessed Pope John Paul II in the Swiss Guard, and the secrets of successful leadership that he learned at the feet of the great pope.

Start Something That Matters


Blake Mycoskie - 2011
    That’s the breakthrough message of TOMS’ One for One movement. You don’t have to be rich to give back and you don’t have to retire to spend every day doing what you love. You can find profit, passion, and meaning all at once—right now.    In Start Something That Matters, Blake Mycoskie tells the story of TOMS, one of the fastest-growing shoe companies in the world, and combines it with lessons learned from such other innovative organizations such as Method Products, charity: water, FEED Projects, and TerraCycle. Blake presents the six simple keys for creating or transforming your own life and business, from discovering your core story to being resourceful without resources; from overcoming fear and doubt to incorporating giving into every aspect of your life. No matter what kind of change you’re considering, Start Something That Matters gives you the stories, ideas, and practical tips that can help you get started.   Why this book is for you:  • You’re ready to make a difference in the world—through your own start-up business, a nonprofit organization, or a new project that you create within your current job.• You want to love your work, work for what you love, and have a positive impact on the world—all at the same time.• You’re inspired by charity: water, method, and FEED Projects and want to learn how these organizations got their start. • You’re curious about how someone who never made a pair of shoes, attended fashion school, or worked in retail created one of the fastest-growing footwear companies in the world by giving shoes away.• You’re looking for a new model of success to share with your children, students, co-workers, and members of your community. You’re ready to start something that matters.

Willful Blindness: Why We Ignore the Obvious at Our Peril


Margaret Heffernan - 2011
    A distinguished businesswoman and writer, she examines the phenomenon and traces its imprint in our private and working lives, and within governments and organizations, and asks: What makes us prefer ignorance? What are we so afraid of? Why do some people see more than others? And how can we change?We turn a blind eye in order to feel safe, to avoid conflict, to reduce anxiety, and to protect prestige. Greater understanding leads to solutions, and Heffernan shows how--by challenging our biases, encouraging debate, discouraging conformity, and not backing away from difficult or complicated problems--we can be more mindful of what's going on around us and be proactive instead of reactive.Covering everything from our choice of mates to the SEC, Bernard Madoff's investors, the embers of BP's refinery, the military in Afghanistan, and the dog-eat-dog world of subprime mortgage lenders, this provocative book demonstrates how failing to see--or admit to ourselves or our colleagues--the issues and problems in plain sight can ruin private lives and bring down corporations. Heffernan explains how willful blindness develops before exploring ways that institutions and individuals can combat it. In the tradition of Malcolm Gladwell and Nassim Nicholas Taleb, Margaret Heffernan's Willful Blindness, is a tour de force on human behavior that will open your eyes.

The Toyota Way to Lean Leadership: Achieving and Sustaining Excellence Through Leadership Development


Jeffrey K. Liker - 2011
    Not only is it a pleasure to read, but it is also deep and enlightening. This book is an absolute must-read for anyone interested in lean: it's both an eye opener and a game changer."--Michael Balle, Ph.D., coauthor of "The Gold Mine" and "The Lean Manager""This will immediately be recognized as the most important book ever published to understand and guide 'True North Lean' and the goal of perpetual business excellence."--Ross E. Robson, President and CEO, DnR Lean, LLC, and the original Director of The Shingo Prize"An excellent book that will shape leadership development for decades to come."--Karen Martin, Principal, Karen Martin & Associates, and author of "The Kaizen Event Planner"About the Book:TOYOTA. The name signifies greatness-- world-class cars and game-changing business thinking. One key to the Toyota Motor Company's unprecedented success is its famous production system and its lesser-known product development program. These strategies consider the end user at every turn and have become the model for the global lean business movement.All too often, organizations adopting lean miss the most critical ingredient--lean leadership. Toyota makes enormous investments in carefully selecting and intensively developing leaders who fit its unique philosophy and culture. Thanks to the company's lean leadership approach, explains "Toyota Way" author Jeffrey Liker and former Toyota executive Gary Convis, the celebrated carmaker has set into motion a drive for continuous improvement at all levels of its business. This has allowed for: Constant growth: Toyota increased profitability for 58 consecutive years--slowing down only in the face of 2008's worldwide financial difficulties, the recall crisis, and the worst Japanese earthquake of the century. Unstoppable inventiveness: Toyota's approach to innovative thinking and problem solving has resulted in top industry ratings and incredible customer satisfaction, while allowing the company to weather these three crises in rapid succession and to come out stronger. Strong branding and respect: Toyota's reputation was instrumental in the company's ability to withstand the recalls-driven media storm of 2010.But what looked to some to be a sinking ship is once again running under a full head of steam. Perhaps the Toyota culture had weakened, but lean leadership was the beacon that showed the way back.In fact, writes Liker, the company is "as good and perhaps a better model for lean leadership than it ever has been." of innovation and growth. Yet, "Industry Week" reports that just 2 percent of companies using lean processes can likewise claim to have had long-term success. What the other 98 percent lack is unified leadership with a common method and philosophy.If you want to get lean, you have to take it to the leadership level. "The Toyota Way to Lean Leadership" shows you how.

Presentation Secrets: Do What You Never Thought Possible with Your Presentations


Alexei Kapterev - 2011
    Building on this hit, he now brings us Presentation Secrets outlining his successful tactics for planning, producing, and presenting memorable and unique presentations. The author shares his insight, wisdom, and advice with impressive clarity and detail, covering the three main components required to a presentation: storyline design, slide design, and delivery. "Presentation Secrets" lets you get to work immediately, fully prepared, armed with confidence, and ready to inspire.Teaches everything that goes into a successful and memorable presentationHelps create a storyline, from planning the beginning, middle, and end, to establishing key points, to making a presentation scalableDiscusses how to design a slide template that meets your goals, ensure consistency, and find focal pointsDissects the delivery of a presentation, including how to create "a character," integrate mistakes, listening to yourself, talking to the audience, and avoiding monotonyIncludes non-presentation metaphor to drive home your understanding of storytelling, improvisation, and deliveryAlso featuring real-world examples of presentations from the worlds of business, science, and politics, such as Steve Jobs, Hans Rosling, and Al Gore, this unique book delivers tried and tested secrets and inside tips for making a sensational presentation!

The Ultimate Blueprint for an Insanely Successful Business


Keith J. Cunningham - 2011
    A better question would be: What did the big guys do that caused the success that allowed them to get big? The answer is not just one thing. “Business is complex and anyone who says it isn’t is trying to sell you their version of the magic pill. But there are some common denominators which drive sustainability and long term success. One of those is a willingness to think… another is an ability to measure. Sadly, most businesses are struggling financially and they will stay that way because the owner is too busy operating and not running the business end of the business. It’s not that they don’t want to…. It’s that no one ever taught them how. Here’s the problem: You can’t run the business end of your business without business skills and tools. As Warren Buffett said, “If you can’t read the scoreboard, you don’t know the score. If you don’t know the score, you can’t tell the winners from the losers.” Business success requires business skills and tools. Here it is on a bumper sticker: Great operators get tired. Great business owners get rich! This book teaches you the strategies which will give you optics and enhance your ability to see the places where you’re leaving money on the table and sabotaging your business.

Guitar Lessons: A Life's Journey Turning Passion Into Business


Bob Taylor - 2011
    From the "a-ha" moment in junior high school that inspired his very first guitar, Taylor has been living the American dream, crafting quality products with his own hands and building a successful, sustainable business. In Guitar Lessons, he shares the values that he lives by and that have provided the foundation for the company's success. Be inspired by a story of guts and gumption, an unwavering commitment to quality, and the hard lessons that made Taylor Guitars the company it is today.

The Method Method: Seven Obsessions That Helped Our Scrappy Start-up Turn an Industry Upside Down


Eric Ryan - 2011
     Founded ten years ago by childhood pals Eric Ryan and Adam Lowry, Method has been making headlines and profits with a revolutionary blend of culture and commerce, style and substance. Today, Method's ecofriendly soaps, detergents, and cleaners are ubiquitous in stores, capturing valuable shelf space long dominated by the tired old products of giants P&G and Unilever. Ryan and Lowry obsess over seven principles at the heart of Method's business philosophy, including: * Kick Ass at Fast: Use small size to your advantage; by bringing innovations to market faster, you can stay out in front of larger rivals. * Inspire Advocates: Rather than getting caught up in costly battles for market share, foster deeper relationships with fewer customers in pursuit of greater wallet share. * Win on Product Experience: Beyond satisfying your customers' rational needs, design experiences for them. The Method Method is an irreverent, candid, firsthand case study. Readers will learn how today's consumers behave, how today's companies compete, and how both groups are acting together to drive profound global change.

Today We Are Rich: Harnessing The Power Of Total Confidence


Tim Sanders - 2011
    Are you just hanging in there? Have life’s curveballs thrown you off balance? Do you feel as if your life is going sideways? Best-selling author, leadership coach, and former Yahoo! executive Tim Sanders knows how you feel. His father’s unexpected death put him in a downward spiral for fifteen years—what he calls his “sideways years.” A photo of a dusty water tower in Texas finally woke him up in 1996. That’s when he realized he needed to go home to his rock—his grandmother Billye, who had taken him in as a child to raise as her own. Rediscovering the lessons she taught him as a child turned his life around and, in less than four years, catapulted him to financial security and an officer-level role at an S&P 500 company at the center of the Internet revolution. Today, his promise to himself is, “I will never forget those lessons. The price is too high.” Join Tim as he rediscovers the classic principles of confident living that some of the most successful and joyful people you know live by:1 – Feed Your Mind Good Stuff2 – Move the Conversation Forward3 – Exercise Your Gratitude Muscle 4 – Give to Be Rich 5 – Prepare Yourself 6 – Balance Your Confidence7 – Promise Made, Promise KeptIn Today We Are Rich, Sanders updates Napoleon Hill, Dale Carnegie, and Dr. Norman Vincent Peale to tackle a new world, where social media and transparency present unique challenges to our sense of confidence, sanity, and faith.

The Radical Leap Re-Energized: Doing What You Love in the Service of People Who Love What You Do


Steve Farber - 2011
     It's a novel told in Steve Farber's humorous, poignant, and original voice that takes the reader on a deep exploration of the qualities and practices of real, or Extreme Leadership, and how to apply them in daily life. Part One, The Radical Leap, explores the leadership elements of Love, Energy, Audacity, and Proof; Part Two, The Radical Edge, takes the discussion deeper into innovation, personal clarity and guidelines for changing the world. It sets a new standard for what it means to really lead in today's business world and beyond. Rejuvenate and revitalize with Farber’s amazing The Radical Leap Re-Energized. It is timeless, universal, and extremely useful—and it will catapult you to success!” –Marshall Goldsmith – author of the New York Times bestsellers, MOJO and What Got You Here Won’t Get You ThereToday’s world demands a different leader: one who has the heart and courage to change it for the better. If you’re ready to be one of them, read this phenomenal book and succeed.” –Darren Hardy, publisher SUCCESS magazine, bestselling author The Compound Effect Steve Farber’s work is even more important and more useful today than when it first appeared on the scene.” –Tom Peters, International bestselling author of In Search of Excellence With his strikingly original voice and unparalleled storytelling ability, Steve Farber brings us The Radical Leap Re-Energized. This edgy leadership parable not only entertains and inspires, it teaches us how to become great leaders and change the world in the bargain. We wholeheartedly encourage you to take the LEAP!” –Jim Kouzes and Barry Posner, authors of the bestselling The Leadership Challenge and Credibility If you want to lead as big as you dream, Farber can take you to the extreme. This book is your path to soaring success.” –Tim Sanders, former Chief Solutions Officer at Yahoo! & author of Today We Are Rich Steve Farber’s books are as easy and enjoyable to read as they are insightful. This volume will be a great addition to any leader’s library.” –Patrick Lencioni, president, The Table Group; author, The Five Dysfunctions of a Team The Radical Leap Re-Energized is a clarion call for 21st century leaders and those who aspire to be. The LEAP will stay with me and will be required reading for leaders in my organization” –Tony Uphoff, CEO, UBM TechWeb Steve Farber has captured the heart of leadership in this wonderful book. If you’d really love to make a difference in this world, read it and apply its lessons to your life and business.” –Rita Davenport, former President, Arbonne International There are two types of well-written leadership books: GOOD ones that you read once and pass along to a few friends, or GREAT ones that you read over and over and give to as many people as you can. The Radical Leap Re-Energized is one of the GREAT ones, and it is a total game-changer.” –Tommy Spaulding, author of the New York Times bestseller, It’s Not Just Who You Know Steve Farber’s masterwork, The Radical Leap Re-Energized, is an inspired opus on what it means to be a leader of substance and significance. You’ll find yourself coming back to it again and again.” –Michael E. Ventling, Global CFO, Ernst & Young A brilliantly captivating book, vibrant and audacious, and an absolute joy to read. Every bit as engaging as Steve Farber himself.” –Sally Hogshead, speaker and author of Fascinate: Your 7 Triggers to Persuasion and Captivation Steve Farber leaps again. I was into it the first time. This time, I’m leaping with him!” –Chris Brogan, President Human Business Works I have read most leadership books in print. None have resonated more than this one. It is timeless, relevant and energizing and should be required reading for all business leaders of the 21st century.” –Pamela Slim, author, Escape from Cubicle Nation: From Corporate Prisoner to Thriving Entrepreneur I’ve read the original Radical Leap over a dozen times, and year after year, experience after experience, I have found that the concepts hold fast and true. The Radical Leap Re-Energized kick-starts and expands the experience to the next level. This really is a masterpiece.” –Burton M. Goldfield, President and CEO, TriNet

The Keys to Success


Jim Rohn - 2011
    

Hegarty on Advertising


John Hegarty - 2011
    The first part offers John Hegarty’s personal insights and advice on the advertising business: Ideas, Brands, The Agency, Briefs, Pitching, Storytelling, and Technology. In the second part, Hegarty talks about his own career and experiences, from his early days working with Charles Saatchi to the founding of Bartle Bogle Hegarty (BBH) in 1982 and its rise to global renown with offices in London, New York, Singapore, Shanghai, Mumbai, and Sao Paulo.

Hiring for Attitude: A Revolutionary Approach to Recruiting and Selecting People with Both Tremendous Skills and Superb Attitude


Mark Murphy - 2011
    Hiring for Attitude combines valuable insights with relatable examples, giving you the tools to recruit the right talent for your organization and reduce your risk of mishires."--BRENT RASMUSSEN, President of CareerBuilder North America"Caesars brings our brands to life through the attitude of our team members. In Hiring for Attitude, Mark Murphy combines the science of selecting for attitude with the wisdom of how to apply it to your business. The tools in this book are clever and unique and will immediately enhance your culture. Attitude is the new front in the war for talent, and this book positions you to win."--TERRY BYRNES, Vice President of Total Service, Caesars Entertainment"In the global high-tech world, attitude is critical. But how do you discover whether someone is both technically brilliant and a perfect fit with your culture? Moving way beyond standard hiring approaches, Hiring for Attitude has deepened our talent pool, shown us how to discover untapped talent, reduced the risk of hiring the wrong person, and cut turnover substantially."--MITCH LITTLE, Vice President of Worldwide Sales and Applications, Microchip"Who's getting hired this year? People with great attitudes who can fit a particular culture. But traditional hiring approaches don't help you discover who is (and isn't) the perfect fit. Hiring for Attitude will reveal exactly what attitudes you need to succeed. Whether you're hiring from outside, or choosing the right internal people for a new project, this book gives you unparalleled insight into people's attitudes."--SAM HOLTZMAN, President and CEO, LifeGiftAbout the Book: In a recent groundbreaking study, the training firm Leadership IQ found that 46 percent of all new hires fail within their first 18 months. But here's the real shocker: 89 percent fail for attitudinal reasons--not skills.Most hiring managers are getting it wrong. Of course skills are important, but a particular skill set is about the easiest thing to test in an interview. Although much harder to recognize, attitude should be your number-one focus during the hiring process. Don't suffer from poor chemistry--even one employee with the wrong attitude could cause years of suffering for your other employees and customers.Whether you're hiring new employees, choosing existing employees for a new team, or upgrading your current talent pool, you need people with the right attitude!Attitude is what makes employees give 100 percent effort and turns customers into raving fans. Attitude sets your company apart from the competition.In Hiring for Attitude, top leadership strategist Mark Murphy shows you:The five biggest reasons why new hires failTwo quick and easy tests to discover the attitudinal characteristics that you need for your unique cultureThe five-part interview question that gets candidates to reveal the truth about what their last boss really thinks of themWhere great companies really find their best candidatesThe six words most interviewers add to the end of behavioral interview questions that destroy their effectivenessHiring for Attitude includes case studies from Microchip, Southwest Airlines, The Ritz-Carlton, Google, and other companies that drive great results by hiring for attitude.Whether your company is small or big, highly social or hyper-competitive, fl at or hierarchical, every person on your payroll has to fit your culture. You can't afford to hire blind. You need to be Hiring for Attitude.

Cracking the Sales Management Code: The Secrets to Measuring and Managing Sales Performance


Jason Jordan - 2011
    Cracking the Sales Management Code reveals that science and gives practical steps to identify the metrics you must measure to manage toward success."--Arthur Dorfman, National Vice President, SAP"Cracking the Sales Management Code is a must-read for anyone who wants to bring his or her sales management team into the 21st century."--Mike Nathe, Senior Vice President, Essilor Laboratories of America"The authors correctly assert that the proliferation of management reporting has created a false sense of control for sales executives. Real control is derived from clear direction to the field--and this book tells how do to that in an easy-to-understand, actionable manner."--Michael R. Jenkins, Signature Client Vice President, AT&T Global Enterprise Solutions"There are things that can be managed in a sales force, and there are things that cannot. Too often sales management doesn't see the difference. This book is invaluable because it reveals the manageable activities that actually drive sales results."--John Davis, Vice President, St. Jude Medical"Cracking the Sales Management Code is one of the most important resources available on effective sales management. . . . It should be required reading for every sales leader."--Bob Kelly, Chairman, The Sales Management Association "A must-read for managers who want to have a greater impact on sales force performance."--James Lattin, Robert A. Magowan Professor of Marketing, Graduate School of Business, Stanford University"This book offers a solution to close the gap between sales processes and business results. It shows a new way to think critically about the strategies and tactics necessary to move a sales team from good to great!"--Anita Abjornson, Sales Management Effectiveness, Abbott LaboratoriesAbout the Book: There are literally thousands of books on selling, coaching, and leadership, but what about the particulars of managing a sales force? Where are the frameworks, metrics, and best practices to help you succeed?Based on extensive research into how world-class companies measure and manage their sales forces, Cracking the Sales Management Code is the first operating manual for sales management. In it you will discover:The five critical processes that drive sales performanceHow to choose the right processes for your own teamThe three levels of sales metrics you must collectWhich metrics you can "manage" and which ones you can'tHow to prioritize conflicting sales objectivesHow to align seller activities with business resultsHow to use CRM to improve the impact of coachingAs Neil Rackham writes in the foreword: "There's an acute shortage of good books on the specifics of sales management. Cracking the Sales Management Code is about the practical specifics of sales management in the new era, and it fills a void."Cracking the Sales Management Code fills that void by providing foundational knowledge about how the sales force works. It reveals the gears and levers that actually control sales results. It adds clarity to things that you intuitively know and provides insight into things that you don't. It will change the way you manage your sellers from day to day, as well as the results you get from year to year.

No B.S. Price Strategy: The Ultimate No Holds Barred Kick Butt Take No Prisoner Guide to Profits, Power, and Prosperity


Dan S. Kennedy - 2011
    Kennedy and pricing/marketing strategist Jason Marrs empower small business owners to take control of their profits by taking charge of the source: their price. Entrepreneurs are dared to re-examine their every belief about pricing and take a more creative, bold approach, using price to their extreme advantage and allowing them to be as profitable as possible. Liberating small business owners from all fear and timidity toward pricing, Kennedy and Marrs teach small business owners uncover how to avoid the 9 ultimate price and fee failures including excess concern about competitors’ lower prices, attracting customers who buy by price, and not offering premium pricing options. They also reveal how to discount without damage, the secret to price elasticity, how to break free from the price-product link, and, most importantly, how to set prices for the greatest profits. • Kennedy and Marrs disclose little-known revelations about the power of pricing including: • the 9 ultimate price and fee failures • the trick behind discounting without devaluing • the 5 price-related propositions to be concerned with • the million-dollar secret behind “FREE” • how to win price wars with competitors • Includes access to price strategy support tools at www.simplepricingsystem.com • Covers pricing strategies specific to recessions

The Shipping Man


Matthew McCleery - 2011
    In the end, he loses his hedge fund, but he gains a life - as a Shipping Man. Part fast paced financial thriller, part ship finance text book, The Shipping Man is 310 pages of required reading for anyone with an interest in capital formation for shipping.

The Retirement Miracle


Patrick Kelly - 2011
    This new edition includes all updated statistic showing how much in debt we really are and the solution to your own retirement. A must read for those who wants to salvage his/her retirement. This book will show you how to grow your money with zero market risk, access your retirement dollars tax-free and leave an income-tax free inheritance to your heirs.

Wealth Within Your Reach


Francisco Colayco - 2011
    This book awakens you to the fact that everyone can reach financial independence at any income level. It details the financial life stages which will determine where you are financially, while citing the experiences of real people for easier understanding. It also explains the obstacles and allies in your journey to financial independence and gives the Ten Commandments of building wealth together with sufficient examples and explanations. Through the discussions in this book, you will realize that there is a lot of wealth within your reach just waiting to be discovered.

Disruptive Innovation: The Christensen Collection (the Innovator's Dilemma, the Innovator's Solution, the Innovator's DNA, and Harvard Business Review Article "How Will You Measure Your Life?") (4 Items)


Clayton M. Christensen - 2011
    You'll also get his award-winning HBR article, full of inspiration for finding meaning and happiness in your life using the principles of business.The 4-volume collection includes:The Innovator's Dilemma: When New Technologies Cause Great Firms to FailIn one of the most influential business books of our time, Christensen introduced the world to the concept of disruptive innovation, showing how even the most outstanding companies can do everything right--yet still lose market leadership. Don't repeat their mistakes.The Innovator's Solution: Creating and Sustaining Successful GrowthCiting in-depth research and theories tested in hundreds of companies across many industries, Christensen and co-author Michael Raynor provide the tools organizations need to become disruptors themselves.The Innovator's DNA: Mastering the Five Skills of Disruptive InnovatorsChristensen and coauthors Jeffrey Dyer and Hal Gregersen identify behaviors of the world's best innovators--from leaders at Amazon and Apple to those at Google, Skype, and the Virgin Group--to show how you and your team can unlock the code to generating and executing more innovative ideas."How Will You Measure Your Life?" (HBR article)At Harvard Business School, Clayton Christensen teaches aspiring MBAs how to apply management and innovation theories to build stronger companies. But he also believes that these models can help people lead better lives. In this award-winning Harvard Business Review article, he explains how, exploring questions everyone needs to ask: How can I be happy in my career? How can I be sure that my relationship with my family is an enduring source of happiness? And how can I live my life with integrity?

People Follow You: The Real Secret to Inspiring Your Team to Take Action


Jeb Blount - 2011
    In "People Follow You" managers will learn five easily understood and implemented levers critical to influencing the performance of the people they lead. Ultimately, people follow people that they like, trust, and believe in. Understand how to build stronger relationships with direct and indirect reports that lead to loyalty, higher productivity, and long-term development.Relevant to middle and high level managers, "People Follow You" provides a foundation for managing people. Practical lessons help managers employ winning interpersonal skills to move others to take action.Learn how to leverage the basics of interpersonal relationships to inspire others to take actionGet a simple and actionable formula for connecting with employees and indirect reports and gaining their buy-in through the use of personal power vs. the power of authorityDiscover the fundamental on-the-job coaching skills that deliver instant performance improvementAuthor Jeb Blount is the most downloaded sales expert in iTunes history; his Sales Gravy and Sales Guy audio programs have been downloaded more than 3 million timesWhen all else is stripped away, people don't work for companies, paychecks, perks, or slogans, people work for "you." Become a manager people will follow, and lead your team to greater achievements and measurable gains.

Wink: A Modern Day Parable of Wealth Beyond Words


Roger James Hamilton - 2011
    Every day for the last 20 years the carpenter has visited the Well of Wealth and spent a dollar, believing that if he gives generously to the Well, it will give generously to him in return. On this day, the Carpenter is so unwell he is unable to visit the well, so he sends his nine year old son, Richard, in his place. Richard is entrusted with a treasured crumpled dollar, and sets off on his journey to the Well of Wealth. Following an overgrown path, Richard discovers that the Well of Wealth is not where or what he thought it was. On the journey Richard meets a host of mysterious and intriguing characters including an old woman, an Optometrist, a Plumber, a Gardener, a Fisherman, a Rower, a Musician, and an Inn Keeper. Each have built their wealth in very different ways, and yet, there is something about them that is common to them all. This fictional tale makes you think deeper as to the dynamics of wealth creation. The keys to wealth are in a story behind a story. To find the keys, you need to become better at seeing as "What you see is always what you get." Each reading will help you to discover more keys, until one by one, they will unlock the doors to your wealth. TESTIMONIALS***** Highly practical and useful, February 26, 2006Reviewer: Tim Hansen, ThailandRoger's book is a wonderful journey of this young man trying to understand what wealth is. Powerful yet simple to understand and leave you intrigued and puzzled enough to read it again and get the dog ears on it :-). ***** This book has moved me!, January 29, 2006Reviewer: M Pearse, New ZealandWINK is the only book that I have read more than twice. I have read it 5 times so far and each time it reveals to me more about myself. It has helped me think about what work I was doing and what I now will only do. To me it is about making choices in your world. Choices that we all have the ability to make though often are too scared to make. I recommend you do not lend this book to anyone, you will refer to it yourself too often!!! ***** Great guide to a better life!, January 24, 2006Reviewer: Carlos Rios, SingaporeWith the clarity and innocence of a small child, this book creates a new world of possibilities to open our eyes and move forward, dare to do something slightly different, to produce a great difference. "The world is waiting. Anticipating..." Fantastic job Roger! ***** So Good I Brought 20 copies, January 22, 2006Reviewer: ML Faid, New ZealandThis is an excellent little parable, some would call it a bath read, sit in the bath read it then ponder what you have just learnt, then read it again. I was so impressed with the book that I brought 20 copies and made them available to some of my best clients. This is a must read for anyone serious about getting wealthy. ***** Best book of 2005, January 21, 2006Reviewer: Paul DunnThis is a stunning book. It's a wonderful parable of a young man's search for wealth. And like any great parable (and this is certainly that) you go back to it time and time again. On each read there are brand new insights. This book is absolutely 'up there' with the finest 'classic' texts of all time.

Paychecks and Playchecks: Retirement Solutions For Life


Tom Hegna - 2011
    A person would spend their entire career with ONE company and then upon retirement they would receive a pension which was a guaranteed paycheck every month for the rest of their life. Most Americans have no chance at getting that deal anymore. The burdens, challenges, and risks of today's world are far greater. The stock market has seen negative returns for an entire decade. Health care costs are up but benefits are down. Life expectancy has dramatically increased but pensions are all but extinct! We are in a time when people need guaranteed income more than ever, yet fewer people have it than ever before. Paychecks and Playchecks: Retirement Solutions For Life is a guide for retirement that is BUILT for markets like these. It's a roadmap for surviving, and thriving, in difficult economic times. This book is not an Op-Ed on how "Average Joe" can invest to generate huge returns. It is a mathematical and scientifically proven guide on how to create a solid retirement with as much upside potential and downside protection as possible. Its purpose is to help you make absolutely sure that you have guaranteed lifetime income to keep you and your family protected in any market.By using simple financial products properly, having a plan for long term care, and utilizing cutting edge estate planning ideas, Paychecks and Playchecks will show you how to retire with enough guaranteed lifetime income to cover your basic expenses and optimize the rest of your portfolio to make sure you receive your "playchecks." It's not rocket science - it's financial sense. Despite what most experts say, "Happily ever after" still exists and it starts with Paychecks and Playchecks: Retirement Solutions For Life.

Unfair Advantage: The Power of Financial Education


Robert T. Kiyosaki - 2011
    Readers are advised to stop blindly accepting that they are ‘disadvantaged’ people with limited options. They are encouraged to act beyond their concept of limited options and challenge the preconception that they will struggle financially all of their lives. Robert’s fresh approach to his time-tested messages includes clear, actionable steps that any individual or family can take, starting with education. Education becomes applied knowledge, a powerful tactic with measurable results.In true Rich Dad style, readers will be challenged to understand two points of view, and experience how financial knowledge is their unfair advantage.Why do the rich get richer even in a financial crisis? In his new book, An Unfair Advantage, Robert confirms his message and challenges readers to change their context and act in a new way. Readers are advised to stop blindly accepting that they are ‘disadvantaged’ people with limited options and challenge the notion that they will struggle, financially, all their lives. What does school teach you about money? In most cases, the answer is “Not much.” If there is any financial education, the courses are taught by financial planners and bankers… the agents of Wall Street and the big banks, the very people that caused and profited from the financial crisis.This book is about real financial education. This book is about how debt and taxes make the rich richer &hellip and why debt and taxes makes the poor and middle class struggle. This book explains why the rich get richer, paying less in taxes, while the middle class shrinks &mdash with many losing jobs, homes, and retirement &mdash and paying more in taxes. This book is about the five unfair advantages a real financial education offers. The Unfair Advantage of Knowledge The Unfair Advantage of Taxes The Unfair Advantage of Debt The Unfair Advantage of Risk The Unfair Advantage of CompensationThese five unfair advantages are the outcomes of real financial education.

The Founder's Dilemmas: Anticipating and Avoiding the Pitfalls That Can Sink a Startup


Noam Wasserman - 2011
    Friendships and relationships can suffer. Bad decisions at the inception of a promising venture lay the foundations for its eventual ruin. The Founder's Dilemmas is the first book to examine the early decisions by entrepreneurs that can make or break a startup and its team.Drawing on a decade of research, Noam Wasserman reveals the common pitfalls founders face and how to avoid them. He looks at whether it is a good idea to cofound with friends or relatives, how and when to split the equity within the founding team, and how to recognize when a successful founder-CEO should exit or be fired. Wasserman explains how to anticipate, avoid, or recover from disastrous mistakes that can splinter a founding team, strip founders of control, and leave founders without a financial payoff for their hard work and innovative ideas. He highlights the need at each step to strike a careful balance between controlling the startup and attracting the best resources to grow it, and demonstrates why the easy short-term choice is often the most perilous in the long term. The Founder's Dilemmas draws on the inside stories of founders like Evan Williams of Twitter and Tim Westergren of Pandora, while mining quantitative data on almost ten thousand founders.People problems are the leading cause of failure in startups. This book offers solutions.

Rory Sutherland: The Wiki Man


Rory Sutherland - 2011
    From unlikely beginnings as a classics teacher to his current job as Vice Chairman of Ogilvy Group, Rory's rise through the ranks is as unconventional as his dress sense.One of marketing's most original thinkers and influential speakers, Rory is a leading light in the advertising industry and as outspoken as he is creative. A champion of behavioural economics and an early adopter of new technologies, his collection of his cravats is as legendary as his appetite for chicken jalfrezi.This book attempts to give an insight into Rory's unique character and personality, through a winding journey of blog posts, interviews, tweets and reference materials, to give a rich and engaging introduction to Rory's unique mind.

First, Break all the Rules, Summary


Marcus Buckingham - 2011
    This is a summary of First Break all the rulesThe complete book can be found here: First, Break All the Rules: What the World's Greatest Managers Do Differently

Independent Contractor, Sole Proprietor, and LLC Taxes Explained in 100 Pages or Less


Mike Piper - 2011
    Find all of the following, explained in plain-English with no legal jargon:Business Taxation 101: A brief primer on tax topics in general, especially as they apply to businesses.Home Office Deduction: How to ensure you qualify for it and how to calculate it.Estimated Tax payments: When and how to pay them, as well as an easy way to calculate each payment.Self-Employment Tax: What it is, why it exists, and how to calculate it.Business Retirement Plans: What the different types are, and which one is best for you.Numerous Business Deductions: Several deductions explained in detail, including how to make sure you can qualify to take them and how to maximize them.Audit Protection: Learn what records you need to keep (and how long to keep them) in order to protect yourself in case of an audit.

Takin' Care of Business: The Big Idea for Small Business


Brian Buffini - 2011
    book

TAPE SUCKS: Inside Data Domain, A Silicon Valley Growth Story


Frank Slootman - 2011
    These companies, to be sure, broke new science and engineering ground—yet their most lasting legacy may well be their pioneering approach to business itself. They blazed a path that led to Intel, Apple, Oracle, Genentech, Gilead, Sun, Adobe, Cisco, Yahoo, eBay, Google, Salesforce, Facebook, Twitter, and many, many others.What causes a fledgling company to break through and prosper? At the highest level, the blueprint is always the same: An upstart team with outsized ambition somehow possesses an uncanny ability to surpass customer expectations, upend whole industries, and topple incumbents. But how do they do it? If only we could observe the behaviors of such a company from the inside. If only we were granted a first-person perspective at a present-day Silicon Valley startup-cum-blockbuster. What might we learn? This document—the story of Data Domain’s rise from zero to one billion dollars in revenue—is your invitation to find out. For anyone curious about the process of new business formation, Tape Sucks offers a provocative, ripped-from-the-headlines case study. How does a new company bootstrap itself? What role does venture capital play? Why do customers and new recruits take a chance on a risky new player? Frank Slootman, who lived and breathed the Data Domain story for six years, offers up his clear-eyed, “first-person shooter” version of events. You’re with him on the inside as he and his team navigate the tricky waters of launching a high-technology business. You’ll feel—deep in your gut—the looming threat of outside combatants and the array of challenges that make mere survival an accomplishment. You’ll catch a glimpse of an adrenalin-fueled place where victories are visceral, communication wide open, and esprit de corps palpable. The upshot is that the principles of the early entrepreneurs of Silicon Valley are alive and well. Their straightforward ideas include employee-ownership, tolerance for failure, unfettered meritocracy, faith in the power of technology breakthroughs, a preference for handshakes and trust over contracts and lawsuits, pragmatism, egalitarianism, and a belief in the primacy of growth and reinvestment over dividends and outbound profits. Tape Sucks is an honest, informed perspective on technology wave riding. It allows you to observe a high-growth business at close range and get an unvarnished picture of how things really work.

Toyota Way to Continuous Improvement: Linking Strategy and Operational Excellence to Achieve Superior Performance


Jeffrey K. Liker - 2011
    Business punditswondered out loud if Toyota's quality levels haddecreased dramatically, while the harshest criticspredicted the end of the company as we know it.For the most part, the government's fi ndings absolvedToyota of serious defects and accidents, and Toyota recovered rapidly-but mistakes weremade, which showed that Toyota is not perfect. Infact, there is always opportunity for improvementin every process.In his bestselling business management classic "TheToyota Way," Jeffrey Liker introduced the world tothe foundational principles that have made Toyotathe envy of companies around the world. Now, in "The Toyota Way to Continuous Improvement," Liker teams up with former Toyota production engineerJames Franz to explain the underlying thinkingbehind continuous improvement and why anycompany needs a disciplined approach to processimprovement in every part of the organization.Liker and Franz outline the common mistakes inthinking that limit results, and they reveal howToyota achieves its dual objectives of improvingbusiness performance and developing its peoplethrough following Dr. W. Edwards Deming's teachingsof Plan-Do-Check-Adjust (PDCA). Throughdetailed case examples in many industries, you'lllearn how to: Determine why your processes aren't achievinganticipated resultsBuild a sustainable lean process with awell-defined purposeCreate a system that reveals problemsTeach every leader and team memberat every level the art of PDCA for processimprovementWith "The Toyota Way to Continuous Improvement," you have the foundation you need to developa vision of continuous improvement specificto your organization and plot a path to turn yourvision into a measurable reality.Praise for "The Toyota Way to Continuous Improvement""I have found inspiration and lessons in these real stories from real peoplewho try, sometimes fail, and yet find creative ways to succeed in adaptingthe principles of Deming and Toyota. Despite the diversity of applicationsrevealed here, the commonality in vision, values, and desired outcomes unifies these leaders. You won't be able to put this book down."RICHARD ZARBO, MD, DMD, Senior Vice President and Chairmanof Pathology and Laboratory Medicine, Henry Ford Health System"Lean is no longer an idea, a hypothesis, or a theory-it is a proven set ofprinciples and practices that more and more people are using to achievesubstantial, sustainable continuous improvement in a variety of enterprises.This book details the practices and case studies to help you bring Leantransformation to your enterprise!"CHARLES BAKER, former Chief Engineer andformer Vice President, Honda R&D Americas

Million Dollar Consulting Proposals: How to Write a Proposal That's Accepted Every Time


Alan Weiss - 2011
    It begins with the basics--defining these proposals and why they are necessary--and coaches you through the entire proposal process. In this book, you'll learn how to establish outcome-based business objectives and maximize your success and commensurate fees.From bestselling author Alan Weiss, Million Dollar Consulting Proposals delivers step-by-step guidance on the essential element in creating a million dollar consultancy.Outlines the nine key components to a Million Dollar Consulting proposal structure Presents a dozen Golden Rules for presenting proposals Offers online samples, forms, and templates to maximize the effectiveness of these tools The New York Post calls bestselling author Alan Weiss one of the most highly regarded independent consultants in America. Alan Weiss's expert guidance can lead your consulting business to unprecedented success, and it all starts with a million dollar proposal.

A Factory of One: Applying Lean Principles to Banish Waste and Improve Your Personal Performance


Daniel Markovitz - 2011
    Yet until now, few have recognized how relevant these powerful ideas are to individuals and their daily work. Every person at a desk, drafting table, workstation, or operating table must (like a factory) deal with the challenge of reducing the waste that creeps into their work. The same Lean principles that have improved efficiencies on the factory floor can be just as powerful--in fact, far more so--in helping individuals boost personal performance.Winner of a 2013 Shingo Research and Professional Publication Award!A Factory of One: Applying Lean Principles to Banish Waste and Improve Your Personal Performance describes how you can foster a new mindset and improve your performance by applying Lean methods to your work. It translates powerful Lean tools such as visual management, flow, pull, 5S, and kaizen to your daily work, revealing how they can help to improve efficiency, reduce waste, and link you ever more closely to customer value. This practice will help you develop better self-awareness, more disciplined problem-solving skills, and the ability to self-correct errors.This book not only provides the tools, but also teaches you how to find the root causes underlying your inefficiencies so you can eliminate them permanently. It will enable you to immediately improve personal productivity while developing the skills needed for continuous improvement. It includes real-world examples that illustrate how these principles have been successfully applied across a range of industries. Providing the perfect mix of what-to-do with why-to-do it, the text details a step-by-step approach to applying Lean principles to your work.Listen to what Daniel Markovitz has to say about his new book, A Factory of One.Part One -- Part Two View the book's website at www.afactoryofone.com.View the author's website at www.timebackmanagement.com.

The Right-Brain Business Plan: A Creative, Visual Map for Success


Jennifer Lee - 2011
    The key is using, rather than stifling, imagination and intuition. Lee's illustrated, colorful worksheets and step-by-step instructions are playful yet practical, transforming drudgery into joy. They'll enable you to define your vision and nail down plans for funding, marketing, networking, and long-term strategy.Discover how to:* Develop a financial plan with fun and flair * Select your circle of support to get the work done* Clarify your business values and goals * Paint a picture of your business landscape* Understand your competition and what makes you stand out from the crowd* Identify your perfect customers and create a marketing plan to reach them* Map out concrete action steps to bring your Right-Brain Business Plan to life

The PMI-ACP Exam: How To Pass On Your First Try, Iteration 3


Andy Crowe - 2011
    It is a single, compact reference that will help the reader prepare for and pass the certification exam. The material has been revised to be better than ever, and even those who are purely exam-focused will pick up tools, techniques, and a thorough Agile mindset that they can apply in their work. This edition is not a book on how to practice agile, although practitioners may well benefit from reading it. It is a book on how to pass the PMI-ACP exam, and those who are preparing to sit for the exam will find everything they need to know in this volume.Contents include: Understanding Agile, The PMI-ACP Exam, The Agile Manifesto, Project Justification, Teams & Team Space, Agile Planning, Working with Agile, Coaching with Agile, Agile Methodologies, How to Pass the PMI-ACP Exam, Glossary of Terms, 2 Simulated Exams with Answers.

Fixing The Money Thing


Gary Keesee - 2011
    In other words: Get ready to Fix The Money Thing! In Fixing The Money Thing, you'll discover no matter how bad your situation seems, it's fixable, the wealth secret the money changers don't want you to know, Gary's five proven Get Out Of Debt Rules, how to find the overlooked money fragments that are the key to your freedom, practical strategies for restructuring your debt, buying smarter, and finding money, and much more...

The Consulting Bible: Everything You Need to Know to Create and Expand a Seven-Figure Consulting Practice


Alan Weiss - 2011
    Expert author Alan Weiss, who coaches consultants globally and has written more books on solo consulting than anyone in history, shares his expertise comprehensively.Learn and appreciate the origins and evolution of the consulting profession Launch your practice or firm and propel it to top performance Implement your consulting strategies in public and private organizations, large or small, global or domestic Select from the widest variety of consulting methodologies Achieve lasting success in your professional career and personal goals The author is recognized as one of the most highly regarded independent consultants in America by the New York Post and a worldwide expert in executive education by Success MagazineWhether you're just starting out or looking for the latest trends in modern practice, The Consulting Bible gives you an unparalleled toolset to build a thriving consultancy.

Fables of Fortune: What Rich People Have That You Don't Want


Richard C. Watts - 2011
    . . luxury yachts circling the globe awaiting their owner’s arrival . . . fully staffed but rarely visited vacation homes throughout the world. The rich live trouble free lives of graceful ease.  Or do they?In Fables of Fortune, author Richard Watts pulls back the brocade curtain to reveal the precarious path of wanting more.  As the advisor to the super rich, Watts reflects on the reality of wealth and a difficult and heartbreaking lesson:   “The wealthiest person is not who has the most, but who needs the least.” Fables of Fortune convincingly persuades readers that wealth may be overrated.  Through vignettes based on true stories, Watts reveals the challenges the super-wealthy face, including marriages based on net worth, interfamily inheritance battles, faux friends, entitled children, alienation, and spiritual depletion.  The successes and failures of life inspire the heartbeat of passion and self-actualization. Watts will challenge readers to reconsider key life questions of personal value and discover surprising new answers. Fables of Fortune reveals an honest, comparative, eye-opening analysis for any reader who believes wealth is a rose without thorns.  Read on and gain perspective and appreciation for your own real fortune in life.

Team Code of Honor: The Secrets of Champions in Business and in Life


Blair Singer - 2011
    It is called The Code of Honor. We hear of these Codes when we think of things like The Ten Commandments, the Marine Corps or the Constitution. Yet if sales is the number one skill in business, number two has to be the ability to bring ordinary people together to build a championship team. This does not happen by chance or by the simple accumulation of talent. The Code is the core ingredient to creating winning organizations. The book is a step-by-step guide for any individual, group or company to actually create a Code of Honor specific to their team. The Rich Dad Poor Dad Advisor series was designed as a “how-to” series to empower individuals to succeed in the world of business and finance. “Team Code of Honor” is critical to this series because its processes bridge all facets of business, investment, entrepreneurship and even personal life. The book explains through graphic examples, stories and numerous case studies how a Code or set of rules is created, maintained, enforced and used for rapid and controlled growth of any entity.The book is designed as an operating manual for putting any business team together. It steps you all the way from properly choosing players, to creating the Code, to increasing performance and to winning. Each chapter gives the team specific assignments and examples so that by the time you have completed the book, your Code is in place and your team is operating at a true championship level.

Designing for Growth: A Design Thinking Tool Kit for Managers


Jeanne Liedtka - 2011
    Liedtka and Ogilvie cover the mind-set, techniques, and vocabulary of design thinking, unpack the mysterious connection between design and growth, and teach managers in a straightforward way how to exploit design's exciting potential.Exemplified by Apple and the success of its elegant products and cultivated by high-profile design firms such as IDEO, design thinking unlocks creative right-brain capabilities to solve a range of problems. This approach has become a necessary component of successful business practice, helping managers turn abstract concepts into everyday tools that grow business while minimizing risk.

Ultimate Guide to Facebook Advertising


Perry Marshall - 2011
    Advertisers are then taken further than Facebook itself, as Marshall and co-authors provide priceless audience insight, exploring what was happening before visitors click on ads and what needs to happen after--10 seconds later, 10 minutes later and in the following days, and weeks. Updates specific to this edition include: The introduction of ad space in Newsfeeds, Facebook Live, Branded Content and how to profit from it The launch of Facebook's Marketplace where businesses can sell direct to their community The integration of Instagram ads as part of the Facebook platform Tapping into Audience Network to maximize campaigns and increase conversions on all website traffic High-profile case studies from the Golden State Warriors, Jack Daniels, Rosetta Stone, and examples from President Obama's social media campaign for re-election

Summary: How to win friends and influence people Dale Carnegie


Must Read Summaries - 2011
    It should be part of every businessperson's bookshelf, but is also useful for anyone looking to improve relationships.Dale Carnegie posits that no matter your occupation, goals, ambitions of position in a company, dealing with people is your biggest challenge. If you learn how to do so effectively, though, you will reap the rewards in profitability, productivity and morale. It's much better to work together with people, rather than against them. Carnegie explains the best way to criticize people, how best to motivate them and how to become a good conversationalist. He urges the reader to be interested in other people, and strive at all times to make a good first impression. Remember people's names, he suggests, and try to avoid arguments at all costs. How to Win Friends and Influence People is based on a simple foundation: you cannot change other people, only change the way you relate to them. Dale Carnegie has laid out a watershed blueprint for how to do that.

International Baccalaureate Business And Management


Paul Hoang - 2011
    

Betterness: Economics for Humans


Umair Haque - 2011
    Umair Haque argues that just as positive psychology revolutionized our understanding of mental health by recasting the field as more than just treating mental illness, we need to rethink our economic paradigm. Why? Because business as we know it has reached a state of diminishing returns—though we work harder and harder, we never seem to get anywhere. This has led to a diminishing of the common wealth: wage stagnation, widening economic inequality, the depletion of the natural world, and more. To get out of this trap, we need to rethink the future of human exchange. In short, we need to get out of business and into betterness.HBR Singles provide brief yet potent business ideas, in digital form, for today's thinking professional.

The Freak Factor: Discovering Uniqueness by Flaunting Weakness


David J. Rendall - 2011
    The Freak Factor flips the cult of self-improvement on its head with stories of real people who have soared to success by embracing their uniqueness.- Daniel H. Pink, author of Drive and A Whole New MindDavid Rendall reclaims the term "freak" for what it is - a powerful, game-changing competitive advantage in life and business. This book will change the way you think about being different, and show you how it's the secret to turning around your career.- Pam Slim, author of Escape from Cubicle NationThe Freak Factor is an important idea, and David Rendall's is a voice to be reckoned with. We should all look to our lives to see how we can accommodate rather than eliminate the freaks!- Nick Morgan, author of Trust Me: Four Steps to Authenticity and CharismaEverything you've read about weakness is wrong.... until now. This book will help you stop trying to be well-rounded and start excelling at what you always knew you were best at. Raise your freak flag and wave it with pride!- Chris Guillebeau, author of The Art of Non-ConformityAre you a freak? Yes, you are, if you want to be extraordinary. In this provocative book, David Rendall shows why being outstanding comes from first standing out.- Sally Hogshead, author, Fascinate: Your 7 Triggers to Persuasion and CaptivationIf you are satisfied with your life and have already achieved your potential, then this book is not for you. If you are flawless, then this book won't be very helpful.But if you want more from your career, you have real weaknesses and you're looking for a fresh and unconventional approach to personal transformation, then you're in the right place.Most self-help advice focuses on finding and fixing your weaknesses. Unfortunately, that approach doesn't work. Instead, I want you to flaunt your weaknesses, exaggerate them and amplify them. Sound crazy? It is. And it works.This book will show you how to: Achieve greater fulfillment in your life and career. Maximize your authenticity and be yourself. Discover your superpowers by uncovering your weaknesses. Create work that fits your unique characteristics. Increase your self-control by improving your fuel efficiency. Cure procrastination with a secret for completing activities you dislike.

The Fourth Economy: Inventing Western Civilization


Ron Davison - 2011
    This will be as different from the information economy as that was from the industrial economy before it. Last century we popularized knowledge work, transforming from an industrial economy dependent on child labor to an information economy dependent on adult education. This century we will popularize entrepreneurship, changing what it means to be an employee. Since medieval times, the West has been defined by agricultural, industrial, and information economies. These three economies have transformed religion, politics, and finance. An emerging entrepreneurial economy promises to transform business. Perhaps the most interesting prediction is that social invention will be as common for the next generation as technological invention became in the last century. The Fourth Economy: Inventing Western Civilization is a wildly optimistic book that will change how you think about the past and your future.

All You Need to Know about the City 2011: Who Does What and Why in London's Financial Markets


Christopher Stoakes - 2011
    

DALE CARNEGIE Premium Collection: The Art of Public Speaking, How to Win Friends and Influence People, How to Stop Worrying and Start Living & Lincoln the Unknown


Dale Carnegie - 2011
    “How to Win Friends and Influence People” is one of the first best-selling self-help books ever published. It can enable you to make friends quickly and easily, help you to win people to your way of thinking, increase your influence, your prestige, your ability to get things done, as well as enable you to win new clients, new customers. “How to Stop Worrying and Start Living” - The book's goal is to lead the reader to a more enjoyable and fulfilling life, helping them to become more aware of, not only themselves, but others around them. Carnegie tries to address the everyday nuances of living, in order to get the reader to focus on the more important aspects of life. “Lincoln The Unknown” - A vivid biographical account of Abraham Lincoln’s life and the lesser known facts of American history that will make you admire him more and motivate you to overcome great challenges in your own life.“The Art of Public Speaking” - Acquiring Confidence Before An Audience & Methods in Achieving Efficiency and Speech FluencyDale Carnegie (1888-1955) was an American writer and lecturer and the developer of famous courses in self-improvement, salesmanship, corporate training, public speaking, and interpersonal skills. Born into poverty on a farm in Missouri, he was the author of How to Win Friends and Influence People (1936), a massive bestseller that remains popular today. He also wrote How to Stop Worrying and Start Living (1948), Lincoln the Unknown (1932), and several other books.

4 Steps to Funding: Avoid Rejection and Get Your Grant Funded on the Next Try With This Simple Four Step Formula


Morgan Giddings - 2011
    You may wonder...What is my reviewer really looking for? Did they reject my grant just because of politics? Why did one reviewer love my grant and another one hate it? How can I revise my grant to make it more fund-able? The answers lie within a four step process reviewers go through when they read your grant proposal - a process most reviewers aren't even aware they're doing. If you gloss over one of these steps - or worse, leave it out all together - your grant will be rejected, and you may get cryptic reviews back that don't explain why it was rejected or help you avoid another rejection.Four Steps to Funding gives you the simple process that will clarify your thinking, organize your proposal, and address reviewer objections before you submit your grant. Going far beyond the typical "word-smithing" and fill-in-the-blank examples of other grant writing books, 4 steps to funding gets into the mind of your reviewer and provides techniques for persuading him/her of the value of your work, your own credibility, and your approach. Written in an easy to read, engaging style, the concepts in this book are critical, for writing NIH or NSF grants. However, the concepts are easily applicable to Foundation, SBIR, or even business or non-profit proposals. It is your turn to crack the code, by learning the four steps that your next grant proposal must have in order to succeed. Your proposal will go beyond providing the facts and will get your reviewer excited about your work, and ready to fund it!

The Little Book of Leadership: The 12.5 Strengths of Responsible, Reliable, Remarkable Leaders That Create Results, Rewards, and Resilience


Jeffrey Gitomer - 2011
    The true measure of any leader is his or her ability to react based on past experience and gut feelings, respond in real time to current circumstances, and then to recover quickly and move on with new lessons learned. The Little Book of Leadership combines classic style with the latest innovations to challenges the reader to self-evaluate every facet of their leadership, coaching, and communication abilities in order to better formulate what actions can be taken to improve their natural skills. Ideas and answers are provided for every challenge.Chapters include information about the 12.5 leadership strengths: From insights to legacy and every element in between. Morale, Attitude, Resilience, Opportunity, Guts, Measurement, Coach, Celebration, Next-level, and Lost Secret of Leadership Foreword by Dr. Paul "Doc" Hersey, creator of Situational Leadership Other books by Gitomer: The Sales Bible: The Ultimate Sales Resource, Revised Edition, also by Wiley, The Little Red Book of Selling (Bard Press) The Little Gold Book of YES! Attitude (Pearson) Whereas other books rely on theory or philosophy, The Little Book of Leadership takes leadership into the real world of business, providing proven methods for becoming a successful leader.

The Little Book of Gold: Fundraising for Small (and Very Small) Nonprofits


Erik Hanberg - 2011
    Avoid common pitfalls and get tips on proven methods that work.This short guide helps new Executive Directors, active board chairs, and other key staff in charge of fundraising to learn the basics of professional and sustainable fundraising. Geared specifically for non-profits with small and very small budgets (a few hundred thousand dollars a year down to the smallest budgets).Revised and expanded in 2011!"It was a perfect primer for me as I prepare for a new role in my agency." -- Anne Maack, Child Start, Wichita, Kansas"A valuable contribution to our colleagues in the nonprofit world--especially those of us in smaller organizations that do not have dedicated fund development staff."-- Jose Martinez, Executive Director, Food Bank of Yolo County, Yolo County, California

Expect To Win. A Strategy for reverse Engineering Your Life


Monte Holm - 2011
    Well, listen up! Success comes as no surprise to those who succeed. These people win because they plan to succeed and prepare themselves to succeed in everything they do. Monte Holm is one of those success stories, and he shares his Strategy for Reverse Engineering Your Life to help you unlock your potential and achieve your dreams and goals. You can implement the same strategy, concepts and techniques that Monte used to transform himself from humble beginnings as a farmer's son into the global entrepreneur and multi-millionaire he is today.

Complete Guide to Designing and Printing Fabric


Laurie Wisbrun - 2011
    The book walks readers through the entire fabric design process, from finding inspiration, through step-by-step tutorials on how to design a pattern (both digitally and by hand), looking at different printing methods (such as digital printing, screenprinting, monoprinting, stamping, stencilling, resis dying, painting and inkjet printing), to establishing and developing a fabric collection, and approaching a manufacturer. The Complete Guide to Designing and Printing Fabric is full of advice from established fabric designers with clear, easy to follow step-by-step tutorials. Textile design is a competitive industry and learning how to design fabric is something that both designers and crafters with an avid interest in fabrics are keen to learn more about. Companies such as Spoon Flower (spoon.flower.com) have emerged,

Geared for Growth: 10 Principles for Reaching Your Potential


John C. Maxwell - 2011
    In their respective fields, few have equaled much less exceeded their accomplishments as leaders. But those who know them know they are thrilled to raise up leaders who both equal and exceed their accomplishments. With that value in common, John and Jim realized years ago that their relationship was about more than just a rewarding friendship. For them, being friends has also been a lifetime partnership to add value to others. And that more than any other factor is the reason behind writing, Geared for Growth: 10 Principles To Help You Reach Your Potential. With this outstanding collaboration, John Maxwell and Jim Dornan have placed the perfect tool in the hands of people who aspires to an exceptional life. Complimented by John’s world-class gift of teaching leadership and Jim’s experience as a world-wide business leader and mentor, Geared for Growth offers each reader the perfect balance between explanation and application. John’s illustration of a truth will grab you…Jim’s story of how that truth was lived out will cause you to grab the truth and apply it in your life! What a powerful combination!But, Geared for Growth is not merely an explanation of how to succeed; its an invitation to join John and Jim on the journey to success. They wrote this book because they believe in you and they believe that by applying these truths, you can succeed as they have. To all who would aspire to go to the top, to thrive and not just live, to be significant and not merely successful… John Maxwell and Jim Dornan offer you their hand and their confidence in Geared for Growth: 10 Principles To Help You Reach Your Potential.text by n21guy

Conversations That Win the Complex Sale: Using Power Messaging to Create More Opportunities, Differentiate Your Solutions, and Close More Deals: Using Power Messaging to Create More Opportunities, Differentiate Your Solutions, and Close More Deals


Erik Peterson - 2011
    We believe the concepts are core to engaging in customer conversations that are focused on their outcomes and what they want to achieve."-Karen Quintos, CMO and SVP, Dell Inc."The concepts outlined in this book are critical skills to building a world-class presales organization."-Ken Hamel, Senior Vice President, Global Solutions and Presales, SAP"Our new messaging, using the approaches presented in this book, is great and is being widely used by our sales team. We've never had a year end sales meeting with content that was met with such widespread acceptance and enthusiasm."-Jerry D. Cline, Senior Vice President, Retail Sales and Marketing, AmerisourceBergen Drug Company"The best salespeople sit across the table and make change easy for their customer by creating a succinct story and vision for what to change, how to change it, and how it will impact customer results. An enterprise focus on sales messaging, using the concepts in this book, is the hidden secret to driving incremental sales productivity and overwhelming customer success!"-Ken Powell, Vice President, Worldwide Sales Enablement, ADP"The Power Messaging techniques in this book are the foundation of how our marketing team creates our sales messages, as well as the process our field sales teams use for delivering that message in a unique and compelling way. At Kronos our results are a reflection of the power of the tool."-Aron Ain, CEO, KronosAbout the Book: In today's highly competitive world of complex sales, commoditization of your brand is one of the greatest dangers. You must differentiate yourself from the competition-or you will lose out. And the way to do that is through customer engagement. Rather than sell your own corporate story and brand message, you need to tell customers their story-the one in which they are the heroes and they achieve success.Erik Peterson and Tim Riesterer have been developing and honing their Power Messaging sales technique for more than 20 years, and now they reveal all their secrets in Conversations That Win the Complex Sale.Presenting a catalog of facts or playing 20 questions with prospective customers is the surest way to lose the sale. Peterson and Riesterer provide the tools you need to recraft your message into a compelling story that wins more deals.With Conversations That Win the Complex Sale, you'll learn how to:Differentiate yourself from the competition by finding your "Value Wedge" Avoid parity in your value propositions by creating "Power Positions" Create a message that can literally double the number of deals you close Spike customer attention and create "Wow" in your conversations Prove all your claims without resorting to lists of boring facts and statistics Your competitors are out there telling their own corporate story-a story customers don't want to hear. Now is the time to seize the moment. This book is the one and only source you need to reframe your sales story and turn the tables on the competition by fully engaging their would-be customers.Conversations That Win the Complex Sale helps you create and deliver messages that customers care about, giving your brand the clear edge in today's crowded markets.

Lead By Greatness: How Character Can Power Your Success


David Lapin - 2011
    Every company and team has its own identity--a soul waiting to be discovered and used to unlock human energy and unleash new economic value. Doing this demands a new leadership outlook.Lead By Greatness, written by leadership consultant, rabbi, and speaker, David Lapin, provides this new outlook. Lapin clearly describes the step-by-step methods with which his international clients have translated this leadership philosophy into unrivaled economic growth. Drawing both on ancient wisdom and cutting-edge strategic thinking, Lead By Greatness will help you think about opportunities in ways you never have... and your competitors never will.

Rethinking Paper & Ink: The Sustainable Publishing Revolution


Ooligan Press - 2011
    Through extensive research and experience in the industry, the authors present ideas on sustainability within the book-making process, reviewing the environmental impacts of acquisitions and editing, design and printing, marketing and distribution, and both print and digital sales. Rethinking Paper & Ink includes a detailed account of the choices Ooligan Press made to produce the book itself and features industry profiles that highlight remarkable individuals, organizations, and businesses exemplifying these standards.

How to Impact and Influence Others: 9 Keys to Successful Leadership


James Merritt - 2011
    James Merritt, senior pastor of Cross Pointe Church and host of the television program Touching Lives, unlocks nine key character qualities that, if consistently exercised and seen by others, will influence them to reach their full potential.Readers of this book will be motivated to leave a lasting impact in a number of ways, such asmaking sure someone sees, hears, or feels love from them each dayletting God's joy shine through their lifebeing kind to someone every daybeing faithful and dependabletreating others as more importantNo one can do anything about his heritage, but he can do something about his legacy. Beginning today, he can become the kind of person who makes a life-changing difference for others, perhaps even an eternal difference. How to Impact and Influence Others shows the way to a life of surpassing influence.

Backbone: History, Traditions, and Leadership Lessons of Marine Corps NCOs


Julia Dye - 2011
    The Corps is among the most lasting institutions in America, though few understand what makes it so strong and how that understanding can be applied effectively in today's world. In her first book, Julia Dye explores the cadre of non-commissioned officers that make up the Marine Corps' system of small unit leadership. To help us better understand what makes these extraordinary men and women such effective leaders, Dye examines the 14 traits embraced by every NCO. These qualities-including judgment, enthusiasm, determination, bearing, and unselfishness-are best exemplified by men like Terry Anderson, the former Marine sergeant who spent nearly seven years as a hostage in Beirut, and John Basilone, the hero of the Pacific. To assemble this extraordinary chronicle, Julia Dye interviewed Anderson and dozens of other Marines and mined the trove of historical and modern NCO heroes that comprise the Marine Corps' astonishing legacy, from its founding in 1775 to the present day.

Steve Jobs Ek Zapatlela Tantradnya (Marathi)


ATUL KAHATE ACHYUT GODBOLE - 2011
    The PCs, the i- phones, the i-pods, the tablet PCs all will be a constant reminder of the genuine and witty ways that Steve handled and fondled. He was always lost in a world of his own. He hugged the glory and the downfalls with equal aloofness. Not once were his beliefs shattered. Throughout his life, he struggled and dared to bring his dreams come true. His dreams had a silvery lining of consistency, persuasion and intention. He was unique in every way. The life threatening disease of cancer could not prevent him from working till his last breath, literally. Though stubborn and dominant by nature he stood as a magician in the field of technology. Here is a simple gesture to pay him respect and honour. A magnificent journey presented authentically.

End the Silence


Dorothy Read - 2011
    End the Silence tells the story of Ilse, an Indo-European born into an idyllic childhood in the colonial society of the Dutch East Indies. Ilse's privileged life was forever changed when the Japanese invaded her homeland during World War II. She recounts her years of internment in a Japanese concentration camp on Java. Then, at the war's end she walked out of Camp Halmaheira only to walk into the bloody Indonesian revolution where she was targeted for execution by native freedom fighters. Finally, she tells of the pain she suffered trying to cope with her memories in a family that refused to talk about it. As Ilse recalls the scenes in her remarkable journey, Dorothy Read paints them in the words of both the young Ilse who lived them and today's Ilse who reflects upon them. A finely wrought story, End the Silence gives new voice to this long-neglected piece of history. -------------- Born in the Dutch East Indies, Ilse Evelijn Veere Smit is an Indo survivor of World War II and the bloody revolution that turned her homeland into the Indonesia we know today. She and Dorothy Read met on Whidbey Island, Washington. Read, a published short fiction author and former teacher, recognized Smit's story as an eye-witness account deserving a world audience. End the Silence is the riveting result of their collaboration.