The world will never be slower than it is right now, says Beth Comstock, the former Vice Chair and head of marketing and innovation at GE. But confronting relentless change is hard. Companies get disrupted as challengers steal away customers; employees have to move ahead without knowing the answers. To thrive in today’s world, every one of us has to make change part of our job. In Imagine It Forward, Comstock, in a candid and deeply personal narrative, shares lessons from a thirty year career as the change-maker in chief, navigating the space between the established and the unproven. As the woman who initiated GE's digital and clean-energy transformations, and its FastWorks methodology, she challenged a global organization to not wait for perfection but to spot trends, take smart risks and test new ideas more often. She shows how each one of us can—in fact, must -- become a “change maker.” “Ideas are rarely the problem,” writes Comstock. “What holds all of us back, really—is fear. It’s the attachment to the old, to ‘What We Know.’” Change is messy and fraught with tension, uncertainty and failure. Being “change ready” calls for the courage to defy convention, the resilience to overcome doubts, and the savvy to know when to go around corporate gatekeepers to reinvent what is possible. Among the practical takeaways Comstock offers: • The power of discovery—bringing the outside into your organization. It’is about turning the world into a classroom. • Find a spark—provocateurs who challenge established ways of thinking can be a powerful catalyst for change. • Give yourself permission—every change maker must learn to give herself permission to push outside expectations and boundaries. Confronting today’s accelerating change requires an extraordinary degree of problem-solving, collaboration, and forward-thinking leadership to unlock every person’s potential. Imagine It Forward masterfully points the way.

    Yet, today’s young people have much more to offer. If half of the hipster stereotype is a consumer who tries to show off how cool he is based on his tastes, the other half of the stereotype is ‘The Maker’ -- the person out hawking homemade cheese, knitting sweaters for your beard, or repurposing steel-framed bicycles. The hipster business model is distinctive: Make a product you love so much that you’ll make it yourself. See if anyone wants it. Try again. When they want to build apparel companies, they teach themselves how to sew. When they dream of producing toys, they learn how to use 3D printing software. When they don’t know investors who will back their restaurant concepts, they open food trucks. All the while, they are guided by books, instructional videos, and intuition; only later do they move production to real factories, or hire lawyers. They frequent public parks to see if anyone will buy their custom, typewritten stories. They use crowdfunding websites to raise money from customers before their products even exist. They post their ideas to massive web forums to gauge interest, or set up online shops the second they have a product to sell. In their world, sales come first, not last. While each entrepreneur featured in this book embarked on his or her own unique quest, their stories share a common thread: like true hipsters, they were not afraid to try new things.

    The key to achieving HYPERGROWTH is being customer-driven. So if you’re ready to start putting your customers first, keep reading... What You’ll Learn: A New Approach to Product Management and Developing SaaS Products People Love Today, there’s no excuse for not communicating with customers on a daily basis. Messaging has exploded, new generations are focused on 1:1 communication by default, and artificial intelligence is finally coming so we can deliver 1:1 at scale. So why would you build a product, or a company, without leaning into the advantages of that ecosystem? In his new book, HYPERGROWTH, serial entrepreneur and Drift co-founder/CEO David Cancel shares a modern approach for building products and structuring teams that makes customer communication a central priority. The book tells the story of how Cancel’s customer-driven approach started out as a test with a product team (Performable), transformed an entire organization (HubSpot), and sparked a new movement (Drift). What’s Inside: Practical Advice and Frameworks for Becoming Customer-Driven and Growing Your Business Responsive Development (RD): a new approach to building products that adds the customer back into the equation The Burndown Framework: a framework for implementing Responsive Development that’s faster and more flexible than Agile. The Three-Person Team: the customer-driven way to structure engineering teams. Each team consists of a tech lead who manages two other engineers. Getting Rid of Roadmaps: through building a culture of transparency and accountability and working closely with internal customers, you can release product updates more rapidly and iteratively. The Spotlight Framework: a framework for helping you focus on the right parts of customer feedback so you can take the appropriate next steps. The framework breaks feedback down into three main categories: user experience issues, product marketing issues, and positioning issues. Who This Book Is For: Entrepreneurs, Startup Founders, Product Managers, Product Teams, Marketing Teams … Entire Companies! Every part of your business can benefit from being customer-driven. With the rise of SaaS and the on-demand economy, customer expectations have changed. Customers expect their voices to be heard. They find value in being part of a community, and being part of that journey of creating the product. So stop running your business like we’re still living in the 2000s. It’s time to take a customer-driven approach. Here’s what people are saying about the book: “David Cancel is one of the best when it comes to building products that customers love. And now he’s sharing his wisdom and writing the book explaining how he does it. This is a must read for any entrepreneur or business owner.” -MARK ROBERGE Senior Lecturer, Harvard Business School, Former SVP of Sale and Services at HubSpot ”When it comes to building business software, there’s no one better than David Cancel, and I saw fi

    Providing strategies and solutions for the managers of today, this book offers answers for improving employee commitment and profitability by strategically acknowledging employee effort. How is it done? The deceptively simply answer: with carrots.

    He has launched and grown his own highly successful businesses and mentored dozens of entrepreneurs, helping them build their own successful companies.Built, Not Born shows readers:How going against the grain can be a great strategy for finding business opportunities and why it pays to question conventional wisdom.Why the pregnant pause can be an effective weapon in negotiations and when interviewing potential employees.Why a prenuptial or even a postnuptial agreement is critical to any business owner.What potential buyers and funding sources look for, and the best way to present a business plan.And finally, the key growth and leadership strategies that have helped Paychex sustain its incredible level of growth and profitability.

    You cannot afford to be apolitical at work if you have any aspirations for advancement. The only way to avoid politics is to avoid people—by finding an out-of-the-way corner where you can do your job. Of course, it’s the same job you’ll likely be doing for the rest of your career.In any job, when you reach a certain level of technical competence, politics is what makes all the difference with regard to success. At that point, it is indeed all politics. Everyday brilliant people take a backseat to their politically adept colleagues by failing to win crucial support for their ideas. Sometimes politics involves going around or bending rules, but more typically it’s about positioning your ideas in a favorable light, and knowing what to say, and how and when to say it.…Keep in mind that people benefit from perpetuating the image of politics as something you either know or you don’t. Ignore them. Political acumen is largely learned from observation. And then it’s a matter of practice, practice, practice. When a journalist suggested that golfing great Gary Player was very lucky, he replied: “It’s funny, but the more I practice, the luckier I get.” The same is true of politics.An indispensable guide to mastering the ins and outs of office politics—the single most important factor in getting ahead in your careerAs management professor and consultant Kathleen Reardon explains in her new book, It's All Politics, talent and hard work alone will not get you to the top. What separates the winners from the losers in corporate life is politics.As Reardon explains, the most talented and accomplished employees often take a backseat to their politically adept coworkers, losing ground in the race to get ahead—sometimes even losing their jobs. Why? Because they’ve failed to manage the important relationships with the people who can best reward their creativity and intelligence. To determine whether you need a crash course in Office Politics 101, ask yourself the following questions:Do I get credit for my ideas?Do I know how to deal with a difficult colleague?Do I get the plum assignments?Do I have a mentor?Do I say no gracefully and pick my battles wisely?Am I in the loop?Reardon has interviewed hundreds of employees, from successful veterans to aspiring hopefuls, examining why some people who work hard and effectively at their jobs fall behind, while those who are adept at “reading the office tea leaves” forge ahead. Being politically savvy doesn’t mean being unethical or devious. At heart, it’s about listening to and relating to others, and making choices that advance everyone’s goals. Like it or not, when it comes to work, it’s all politics. And politics is all about knowing what to say, when to say it, and who to say it to.

    

    It's not a gold star given to those with fancy titles and expensive degrees. Leadership is what we all try to do every day.Based on the author's hard-won experience as a Global CEO, this smart, fun book delivers a step-by-step working manual on how to lead - for anyone. Full of simple and direct approaches, it demystifies an over-analysed subject to get to the heart of modern leadership: the life-changing, career-transforming power to get stuff done.These principles and actionable steps apply to every field, from small businesses to community initiatives, from schools to sports teams to global enterprises. No matter your goal, this book will show you how to:- make effective decisions- build a world-class team- take care of yourself and others- achieve results

    Scaling Up: How a Few Companies Make It...and Why the Rest Don't is the first major revision of this business classic. In Scaling Up, Harnish and his team share practical tools and techniques for building an industry-dominating business. These approaches have been honed from over three decades of advising tens of thousands of CEOs and executives and helping them navigate the increasing complexities (and weight) that come with scaling up a venture. This book is written so everyone -- from frontline employees to senior executives -- can get aligned in contributing to the growth of a firm. There's no reason to do it alone, yet many top leaders feel like they are the ones dragging the rest of the organization up the S-curve of growth. The goal of this book is to help you turn what feels like an anchor into wind at your back -- creating a company where the team is engaged; the customers are doing your marketing; and everyone is making money. To accomplish this, Scaling Up focuses on the four major decision areas every company must get right: People, Strategy, Execution, and Cash. The book includes a series of new one-page tools including the updated One-Page Strategic Plan and the Rockefeller Habits ChecklistTM, which more than 40,000 firms around the globe have used to scale their companies successfully -- many to $1 billion and beyond. Running a business is ultimately about freedom. Scaling Up shows business leaders how to get their organizations moving in sync to create something significant and enjoy the ride.

     Share before you’re ready. Get more agreements. Have difficult conversations. These are a few of the practical but profound ideas Lessonly CEO Max Yoder shares in Do Better Work. No matter your rank or role, if you want to see more understanding, accountability, and progress on your team, these stories and examples are for you. Praise for Do Better Work: “Devastatingly effective, and a must-read for business leaders with a soul. Do Better Work is the modern manual for how to align company success and personal growth.” Jay Baer, New York Times bestselling author of Youtility and co-author of Talk Triggers “The best books pop lightbulbs over our heads that feel so obvious we wonder why we didn't realize them all along. This book does that. An essential read for any 21st-century leader." Coco Brown, CEO and founder of The Athena Alliance “Our world needs a style of leadership that puts people at the center, and I can think of no better guide than the lessons contained in this book.” Scott Dorsey, former CEO of ExactTarget/Salesforce Marketing Cloud “Practical advice with a soul and a deep understanding of how humans connect and work together.” Nataly Kogan, founder of Happier @ Work and author of Happier Now

    It holds nothing back while detailing the highest highs and lowest lows of what it's really like to run a startup.  Cliff Lerner's online dating startup, Snap Interactive, was running out of money when he bet the company's fortunes on a then-unknown platform called Facebook. The app suddenly began to acquire 100,000 new users daily for free, and soon after the stock price skyrocketed 2,000 percent, setting off an extraordinary chain of events filled with sudden success and painful lessons.You will learn how to:    * IGNITE EXPLOSIVE GROWTH by creating a remarkable product    * Identify the ONLY 3 METRICS THAT MATTER    * Explore valuable VIRAL GROWTH strategies to grow rapidly    * Execute the GENIUS MEDIA HACKS that helped us acquire 100 million users    * Create a thriving culture of PASSIONATE EMPLOYEES and CONSTANT INNOVATIONPRAISE:"A must read for founders and CEOs who want to achieve rapid growth while also building a great product and company." -Payal Kadakia, Founder & Executive Chairman of ClassPass"Explosive Growth is without question one of the most useful and entertaining business books I have ever read. Cliff gives you a roadmap to massively grow your startup with specific tactical lessons made memorable through engaging stories. This book is a must-read." -David Perry, Digital Sales & Business Development Expert at Google, Adobe, Amazon, Startup Advisor"Want to know how to grow your startup to 100 million users? Then this is the book for you. Explosive Growth gives step-by-step instructions, case studies and proven tactics on how to explode your growth." -Entrepreneur Magazine by Syed Balkhi"Lessons for startups and CEOs on growth hacking, marketing, and innovation from one of the smartest founders I know." -Andrew Weinreich, Inventor of Social Networking

    But his team members—and Mother Nature—had other plans. An ambitious yet naïve sheepdog is called upon to lead Monarch Enterprises, a troubled organization on a beautiful isle. Confronted with broken systems and challenging personality types, Sam must learn how to marshal his team before the imminent storm washes everything away. Along the way, he gleans valuable lessons from an unlikely mentor: a wise, old puffin.This delightful, quick read will:Teach you communication techniques that enhance teamwork and productivityBring to life the principles used by hundreds of successful organizationsProvide relevant, practical insights based on real-world experiencesStimulate lively and positive interaction (discussion guide included)Based on the principles successfully used by major corporations, health organizations, over 250 colleges and universities, government agencies, churches, and non-profits

    Here are the landmark ideas that have established the Harvard Business Review as required reading for ambitious business people in organizations around the globe. From the seminal article "Leading Change" by John Kotter to Paul Strebel on why employees so often resist change, Harvard Business Review on Change is the most comprehensive resource available for embracing corporate change--and using it to your company's greatest advantage. Articles include: Leading Change: Why Transformation Efforts Fail by John P. Kotter; Building Your Company's Vision by James C. Collins and Jerry I. Porras; Managing Change: The Art of Balancing by Jeanie Daniel Duck; The Reinvention Roller Coaster: Risking the Present for a Powerful Future by Tracy Goss, Richard T. Pascale, and Anthony G. Athos; Changing the Mind of the Corporation by Roger Martin; Why Do Employees Resist Change? by Paul Strebel; Reshaping an Industry: Lockheed Martin's Survival Story by Norman R. Augustine; and Successful Change Programs Begin with Results by Robert H. Schaffer and Harvey A. Thomson.

    Louis glassblowing artist and recovering computer scientist named Jim McKelvey lost a sale because he couldn't accept American Express cards. Frustrated by the high costs and difficulty of accepting credit card payments, McKelvey joined his friend Jack Dorsey (the cofounder of Twitter) to launch Square, a startup that would enable small merchants to accept credit card payments on their mobile phones. With no expertise or experience in the world of payments, they approached the problem of credit cards with a new perspective, questioning the industry's assumptions, experimenting and innovating their way through early challenges, and achieving widespread adoption from merchants small and large.But just as Square was taking off, Amazon launched a similar product, marketed it aggressively, and undercut Square on price. For most ordinary startups, this would have spelled the end. Instead, less than a year later, Amazon was in retreat and soon discontinued its service. How did Square beat the most dangerous company on the planet? Was it just luck? These questions motivated McKelvey to study what Square had done differently from all the other companies Amazon had killed. He eventually found the key: a strategy he calls the Innovation Stack.McKelvey's fascinating and humorous stories of Square's early days are blended with historical examples of other world-changing companies built on the Innovation Stack to reveal a pattern of ground-breaking, competition-proof entrepreneurship that is rare but repeatable.The Innovation Stack is a thrilling business narrative that's much bigger than the story of Square. It is an irreverent first-person look inside the world of entrepreneurship, and a call to action for all of us to find the entrepreneur within ourselves and identify and fix unsolved problems--one crazy idea at a time.

    They have fought for competitive advantage, battled over market share, and struggled for differentiation. Yet, as this influential and immensely popular book shows, these hallmarks of competitive strategy are not the way to create profitable growth in the future.In the international bestseller Blue Ocean Strategy, W. Chan Kim and Renee Mauborgne argue that cutthroat competition results in nothing but a bloody red ocean of rivals fighting over a shrinking profit pool. Based on a study of 150 strategic moves (spanning more than 100 years across 30 industries), the authors argue that lasting success comes not from battling competitors, but from creating "blue oceans"—untapped new market spaces ripe for growth. Such strategic moves, which the authors call “value innovation,” create powerful leaps in value that often render rivals obsolete for more than a decade.Blue Ocean Strategy presents a systematic approach to making the competition irrelevant and outlines principles and tools any company can use to create and capture their own blue oceans. A landmark work that upends traditional thinking about strategy, this bestselling business book charts a bold new path to winning the future.