How to Measure Anything: Finding the Value of "Intangibles" in Business


Douglas W. Hubbard - 1985
    Douglas Hubbard helps us create a path to know the answer to almost any question in business, in science, or in life . . . Hubbard helps us by showing us that when we seek metrics to solve problems, we are really trying to know something better than we know it now. How to Measure Anything provides just the tools most of us need to measure anything better, to gain that insight, to make progress, and to succeed." -Peter Tippett, PhD, M.D. Chief Technology Officer at CyberTrust and inventor of the first antivirus software "Doug Hubbard has provided an easy-to-read, demystifying explanation of how managers can inform themselves to make less risky, more profitable business decisions. We encourage our clients to try his powerful, practical techniques." -Peter Schay EVP and COO of The Advisory Council "As a reader you soon realize that actually everything can be measured while learning how to measure only what matters. This book cuts through conventional cliches and business rhetoric and offers practical steps to using measurements as a tool for better decision making. Hubbard bridges the gaps to make college statistics relevant and valuable for business decisions." -Ray Gilbert EVP Lucent "This book is remarkable in its range of measurement applications and its clarity of style. A must-read for every professional who has ever exclaimed, 'Sure, that concept is important, but can we measure it?'" -Dr. Jack Stenner Cofounder and CEO of MetraMetrics, Inc.

Trading Chaos: Maximize Profits with Proven Technical Techniques


Justine Gregory-Williams - 1995
    The Second Edition of Trading Chaos is a cutting edge book that combines trading psychology and Chaos Theory and its particular effect on the markets. By examining both of these facets in relation to the current market, readers will have the best of all possible worlds when trading. Bill Williams, PhD, CTA (Solana Beach, CA), is President of Profitunity.com, a leader in the field of education for traders and investors. Justine Gregory-Williams (Solana Beach, CA) is President of the Profitunity Trading Group and a full-time trader.

Trade and Grow Rich : Adventurous Journey to Successful trading


Indrazith Shantharaj - 2018
    For over a decade,the authors have studied the world’s successful traders. Based on their learnings, they started practicing it and are now part of the 5%. Trade and Grow Rich teaches not just concepts but also methods with the help of anecdotes. This book has to be read one chapter at a time, rather than just being a one-time read. If you want to enjoy an adventurous journey to become a successful trader, then this is the book you are looking for!

Revenue Management


Robert G. Cross - 1996
    Cross answers this question with his ground-breaking approach to revitalizing businesses: focusing on the revenue side of the ledger instead of the cost side. The antithesis of slash-and-burn methods that left companies with empty profits and dissatisfied stockholders, Revenue Management overturns conventional thinking on marketing strategies and offers the key to initiating and sustaining growth.Using case studies from a variety of industries, small businesses, and nonprofit organizations, Cross describes no-tech, low-tech, and high-tech methods that managers can use to increase revenue without increasing products or promotions; predict consumer behavior; tap into new markets; and deliver products and services to customers effectively and efficiently. His proven tactics will help any business dramatically improve its bottom line by meeting the challenge of matching supply with demand.

Alibaba's World: How a Remarkable Chinese Company is Changing the Face of Global Business


Porter Erisman - 2015
    Alibaba, now the world's largest e-commerce company, mostly escaped Western notice for over ten years, while building a customer base more than twice the size of Amazon's, and handling the bulk of e-commerce transactions in China. How did it happen? And what was it like to be along for such a revolutionary ride?In Alibaba's World, author Porter Erisman, one of Alibaba's first Western employees and its head of international marketing from 2000 to 2008, shows how Jack Ma, a Chinese schoolteacher who twice failed his college entrance exams, rose from obscurity to found Alibaba and lead it from struggling startup to the world's most dominant e-commerce player. He shares stories of weathering the dotcom crash, facing down eBay and Google, negotiating with the unpredictable Chinese government, and enduring the misguided advice of foreign experts, all to build the behemoth that's poised to sweep the ecommerce world today. And he analyzes Alibaba's role as a harbinger of the new global business landscape—with its focus on the East rather than the West, emerging markets over developed ones, and the nimble entrepreneur over the industry titan. As we face this near future, the story of Alibaba—and its inevitable descendants—is both essential and instructive.

Irrational Exuberance


Robert J. Shiller - 2000
    The original and bestselling 2000 edition of Irrational Exuberance evoked Alan Greenspan’s infamous 1996 use of that phrase to explain the alternately soaring and declining stock market. It predicted the collapse of the tech stock bubble through an analysis of the structural, cultural, and psychological factors behind levels of price growth not reflected in any other sector of the economy. In the second edition (2005), Shiller folded real estate into his analysis of market volatility, marshalling evidence that housing prices were dangerously inflated as well, a bubble that could soon burst, leading to a “string of bankruptcies” and a “worldwide recession.” That indeed came to pass, with consequences that the 2009 preface to this edition deals with. Irrational Exuberance is more than ever a cogent, chilling, and astonishingly far-seeing analytical work that no one with any money in any market anywhere can afford not to read–and heed.

Capitalism Without Capital: The Rise of the Intangible Economy


Jonathan Haskel - 2017
    For the first time, the major developed economies began to invest more in intangible assets, like design, branding, R&D, and software, than in tangible assets, like machinery, buildings, and computers. For all sorts of businesses, from tech firms and pharma companies to coffee shops and gyms, the ability to deploy assets that one can neither see nor touch is increasingly the main source of long-term success.But this is not just a familiar story of the so-called new economy. Capitalism without Capital shows that the growing importance of intangible assets has also played a role in some of the big economic changes of the last decade. The rise of intangible investment is, Jonathan Haskel and Stian Westlake argue, an underappreciated cause of phenomena from economic inequality to stagnating productivity.Haskel and Westlake bring together a decade of research on how to measure intangible investment and its impact on national accounts, showing the amount different countries invest in intangibles, how this has changed over time, and the latest thinking on how to assess this. They explore the unusual economic characteristics of intangible investment, and discuss how these features make an intangible-rich economy fundamentally different from one based on tangibles.Capitalism without Capital concludes by presenting three possible scenarios for what the future of an intangible world might be like, and by outlining how managers, investors, and policymakers can exploit the characteristics of an intangible age to grow their businesses, portfolios, and economies.

Money for the Rest of Us: 10 Questions to Master Successful Investing


J. David Stein - 2019
    You understand the basics of investing and diversifying your portfolio. Now it's time to invest like a pro for greater profits--with investment expert David Stein, host of the popular weekly podcast, "Money for the Rest of Us." He's created a unique ten-question template that makes it easy for individual investors like you to:- Invest more confidently- Feel less overwhelmed- Build a stronger portfolio- Avoid costly mistakes- Plan and save for retirementDespite what many people believe, you don't need to be an expert to be a successful investor. With Stein as your personal money mentor, you'll learn how to make smarter, more informed decisions that can help reduce your risk and increase your gains by following a few simple rules for analyzing any investment. This is how the professionals grow their wealth and how you can, too. This is Money for the Rest of Us.

Real Estate Investing in Canada: Creating Wealth with the Acre System


Don R. Campbell - 2005
    Well, here's some great news: amazing opportunities exist in the Canadian real estate market for investors who understand how big-picture economic fundamentals can be combined with sound property analysis to create exceptional wealth. Your key to success is to learn the powerful techniques that have helped thousands of others to make money and accomplish their lifestyle dreams through intelligent real estate investing.In Real Estate Investing in Canada, you'll discover the breakthrough Authentic Canadian Real Estate (ACRE) system, a step-by-step program designed to unlock the secrets behind profitable real estate investing. Developed by Canadians for Canadians, savvy investors have already used this ACRE approach to purchase nearly $1 billion in property. You can learn how the ACRE system can help you cut through real estate market hype to get honest answers about critical investment questions.In Real Estate Investing in Canada, you'll learn:how to spot a market that is over-priced or, better yet, under-priced how to know if a town will boom or bust--before it happens how to accurately analyze any property--even if you're a novice investor decide, within 30 seconds, whether a property has profit potential or not the 18 secrets to street-smart negotiations--how to use them to get the deal you want the 7 proven strategies that will get the bank to say yes to your deals how to get your offer accepted, even in a competitive market the single most important step for an overachieving real estate investor (it's not what you think!) The fundamentals of the real estate market have changed dramatically over the past few years, and investors need to know how to read the signs so they get in and--just as importantly--out of the market at the right time.So, if you're serious about informed investing, read Real Estate Investing in Canada, learn the ACRE system, and join the ranks fo Canada's top real estate investors.********************************************************Canadians are looking to real estate investing to build wealth given the unpredictable nature of the stock market. The Authentic Canadian Real Estate (ACRE) System is the first of its kind to show ordinary Canadians how to profit from investing in residential real estate. In Real Estate Investing in Canada, readers will discover how to cut through the hype and emotion of a real estate market and assess the inherent risks and rewards. Whether buying a first property or the 100th, this book gives every investor new-found tools, strategies and confidence to achieve their investment goals.What Canadian real estate investors are saying about the ACRE System and Don R. Campbell: "This is a great book. One strategy alone saved me over $28,000 in the last nine months!" -- Michael Millenaar"Full of practical Canadian content and presented in an organized and respectful system. It directly addresses how you get the money and financing you need to purchase enough real estate to achieve your goals." -- Tamara MacLaren"One of Don Campbell's great gifts is his near-genius ability to take something that appears complex and break it down into a simple step-by-step system that anyone can follow. I am convinced that everyone will thoroughly enjoy, and more important, benefit financially, by reading this book." -- Russell Westcott"The power of Real Estate Investing in Canada lies in the super simple, street-proven systems that it offers you. It makes real estate dreams possible and reachable for any Canadian. If you are serious about learning the truth, cutting through all the hype and being successful, this is your real estate bible!"-- Valden Palm, Misterrrsp.com A portion of the proceeds from this book will be donated to Habitat for Humanity Canada.Special BonusThe markets across the country are continually shifting and you must keep on top of the latest information. So, as a bonus, every registered reader of Real Estate Investing in Canada will have proprietary access to critical forms and ongoing market research at www.reincanada.com.

Ten Rules for Strategic Innovators: From Idea to Execution


Vijay Govindarajan - 2005
    That's what makes emerging high-growth industries so attractive. With no proven formula for making a profit, these industries represent huge opportunities for the companies that are fast enough and smart enough to capture them first. But building tomorrow's businesses while simultaneously sustaining excellence in today's demands a delicate balance. It is a mandatory quest, but one that is fraught with contradiction and paradox. Until now, there has been little practical guidance. Based on an in-depth, multiyear research study of innovative initiatives at ten large corporations, Vijay Govindarajan and Chris Trimble identify three central challenges: forgetting yesterday's successful processes and practices; borrowing selected resources from the core business; and learning how the new business can succeed.The authors make recommendations regarding staffing, leadership roles, reporting relationships, process design, planning, performance assessment, incentives, cultural norms, and much more. Breakthrough growth opportunities can make or break companies and careers. "Forget, Borrow, Learn" is every leader's guide to execution in unexplored territory.

The Man Behind the Wheel: How Onkar S. Kanwar Created a Global Giant


Tim Bouquet - 2017
    However, there was no factory. It was a company registered in name only. Apollo Tyres. Thanks to Onkar Singh Kanwar, Raunaq’s eldest son, Apollo is today one of India’s most successful automotive companies with a turnover in excess of $2 billion and factories across India and in Europe.This is the story, never told before, of how Onkar Singh Kanwar built Apollo from scratch and took it to the world stage. To do it, he had to combat strikes and union intimidation, the restrictions of the Licence Raj, politically motivated nationalisation, and near bankruptcy.As if that was not enough, he also had to endure and survive a traumatic falling-out with the father he so admired. Never before has Onkar Kanwar spoken so openly or movingly about the father he still reveres and his regrets that life should have been so different from what he would have liked it to be.The Man Behind the Wheel recounts these dramatic events in compelling detail as Onkar Kanwar follows his steadfast vision to build not just a company, but also an industrial institution. For the first time Onkar Kanwar’s closest friends and colleagues have spoken about the triumphs and the setbacks that have shaped both his and the company’s life and times. His wife and family share their personal insights of the man who is at the hub and heart of their world and how his values as a Sikh, father, brother and husband have moulded him as an entrepreneur.The Man Behind the Wheel is the insightful and exciting story of a highly successful company and its creator as he takes us on a journey through his early days in the US of the 1960s, importing and exporting in the pre-boom Middle East, to building factories in Vadodara and Chennai, and further expansion to the Netherlands and Hungary with stop-offs in China and a highly charged courtroom battle in the United States.But tellingly, it is also the story of fathers and sons and of family dynasties and responsibilities played out against the backdrop of India’s first seventy years since Independence.

Poor Charlie's Almanack: The Wit and Wisdom of Charles T. Munger


Charles T. Munger - 2005
    Edited by Peter D. Kaufman. Brand New.

Adventure Capitalist: The Ultimate Road Trip


Jim Rogers - 2003
    . . and grow rich!The bestselling author of Investment Biker is back from the ultimate road trip: a three-year drive around the world that would ultimately set the Guinness record for the longest continuous car journey. In Adventure Capitalist, legendary investor Jim Rogers, dubbed “the Indiana Jones of finance” by Time magazine, proves that the best way to profit from the global situation is to see the world mile by mile. “While I have never patronized a prostitute,” he writes, “I know that one can learn more about a country from speaking to the madam of a brothel or a black marketeer than from meeting a foreign minister.”Behind the wheel of a sunburst-yellow, custom-built convertible Mercedes, Rogers and his fiancée, Paige Parker, began their “Millennium Adventure” on January 1, 1999, from Iceland. They traveled through 116 countries, including many where most have rarely ventured, such as Saudi Arabia, Myanmar, Angola, Sudan, Congo, Colombia, and East Timor. They drove through war zones, deserts, jungles, epidemics, and blizzards. They had many narrow escapes.They camped with nomads and camels in the western Sahara. They ate silkworms, iguanas, snakes, termites, guinea pigs, porcupines, crocodiles, and grasshoppers.Best of all, they saw the real world from the ground up—the only vantage point from which it can be truly understood—economically, politically, and socially.Here are just a few of the author’s conclusions: • The new commodity bull market has started.• The twenty-first century will belong to China.• There is a dramatic shortage of women developing in Asia.• Pakistan is on the verge of disintegrating.• India, like many other large nations, will break into several countries.• The Euro is doomed to fail.• There are fortunes to be made in Angola.• Nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) are a scam.• Bolivia is a comer after decades of instability, thanks to gigantic amounts of natural gas.Adventure Capitalist is the most opinionated, sprawling, adventurous journey you’re likely to take within the pages of a book—the perfect read for armchair adventurers, global investors, car enthusiasts, and anyone interested in seeing the world and understanding it as it really is.

Intermarket Analysis: Profiting from Global Market Relationships


John J. Murphy - 2004
    He dissects the global relationships between equities, bonds, currencies, and commodities like no one else can, and lays out an irrefutable case for intermarket analysis in plain English. This book is a must-read for all serious traders." -Louis B. Mendelsohn, creator of VantagePoint Intermarket Analysis software "John Murphy's Intermarket Analysis should be on the desk of every trader and investor if they want to be positioned in the right markets at the right time." -Thom Hartle, President, Market Analytics, Inc. (www.thomhartle.com) "This book is full of valuable information. As a daily practitioner of intermarket analysis, I thought I knew most aspects of this invaluable subject, but this book gave me several new ideas. I thoroughly recommend it for beginners and professionals." -Martin Pring, President of Pring.com and editor of the Intermarket Review Newsletter "Mr. Murphy's Intermarket Analysis is truly the most efficient and unambiguous way to define economic and fundamental relationships as they unfold in the market. It cuts through all of the conflicting economic news/views expressed each day to provide a clear picture of the 'here and now' in the global marketplace." -Dennis Hynes, Managing Director, R. W. Pressprich "Master Murphy is back with the quintessential look at intermarket analysis. The complex relationships among financial instruments have never been more important, and this book brings it all into focus. This is an essential read for all investors." -Andrew Bekoff, Technical Strategist, VDM NYSE Specialists "John Murphy is a legend in technical analysis, and a master at explaining precisely how the major markets impact each other. This updated version provides even more lessons from the past, plus fresh insights on current market trends." -Price Headley, BigTrends.com, author of Big Trends in Trading

Anatomy of the Bear: Lessons from Wall Street's Four Great Bottoms


Russell Napier - 2007
    Financial market history is a guide to understanding the future. Looking at the four occasions when US equities were particularly cheap - 1921, 1932, 1949 and 1982 - Russell Napier sets out to answer these questions by analysing every article in the "Wall Street Journal" from either side of the market bottom. In the 70,000 articles he examines, one begins to understand the features which indicate that a great buying opportunity is emerging. By looking at how markets really did work in these bear-market bottoms, rather than theorising how they should work, Napier offers investors a financial field guide to making the best financial provisions for the future. This new edition includes a brand new preface from the author.