Lead With Respect: A Novel of Lean Practice


Michael Ballé - 2014
    Pink, author of TO SELL IS HUMAN and DRIVE "The Ballé books are a great way to get started or to speed up your pace of transformation, personal and organizational." —Jim Womack, Founder of Lean Enterprise Institute In their new business novel Lead With Respect, authors Michael and Freddy Ballé reveal the true power of lean: developing people through a rigorous application of proven tools and methods. And, in the process, creating the only sustainable source of competitive advantage—a culture of continuous improvement. In this engaging and insightful story, CEO Jane Delaney of Southcape Software discovers from her sensei Andy Ward that learning to lead with respect enables her to help people improve every day. “For us, lean is all about challenging yourself and each other to find the right problems, and working hard every day to engage people in solving them,” he says. Lead With Respect’s timely message brings a new understanding of lean. While lean has become essential for companies to compete in today’s global economy, most practitioners see it as a rigorous focus on process to produce higher quality goods and services—a limited understanding that fails to realize the true power of this approach. This new novel by the Ballés, the third in a series that includes Shingo Research Award-winners The Gold Mine and The Lean Manager, breaks new ground by sharing huge amounts of practical information on the most important yet least understood aspect of lean management: how to develop people through a rigorous application of lean tools. You’ll learn: • How to apply Lead With Respect attitudes to the lean tools you are using now so that you develop a truly sustainable lean culture. • What specific steps to follow to make lean leadership behaviors daily habits. • How to manage with respect through the emotion, conflict, tension, and self-doubt that you’ll face during a lean transformation.

The Age of Cryptocurrency: How Bitcoin and Digital Money Are Challenging the Global Economic Order


Paul Vigna - 2015
    A cyber-enigma with an enthusiastic following, it pops up in headlines and fuels endless media debate. You can apparently use it to buy anything from coffee to cars, yet few people seem to truly understand what it is. This raises the question: Why should anyone care about bitcoin?In The Age of Cryptocurrency, Wall Street journalists Paul Vigna and Michael J. Casey deliver the definitive answer to this question. Cybermoney is poised to launch a revolution, one that could reinvent traditional financial and social structures while bringing the world's billions of "unbanked" individuals into a new global economy. Cryptocurrency holds the promise of a financial system without a middleman, one owned by the people who use it and one safeguarded from the devastation of a 2008-type crash.But bitcoin, the most famous of the cybermonies, carries a reputation for instability, wild fluctuation, and illicit business; some fear it has the power to eliminate jobs and to upend the concept of a nation state. It implies, above all, monumental and wide-reaching change-for better and for worse. But it is here to stay, and you ignore it at your peril.Vigna and Casey demystify cryptocurrency-its origins, its function, and what you need to know to navigate a cyber-economy. The digital currency world will look very different from the paper currency world; The Age of Cryptocurrency will teach you how to be ready.

Scrumban: Essays on Kanban Systems for Lean Software Development


Corey Ladas - 2008
    Scrum and agile methodologies have helped software development teams organize and become more efficient. Lean methods like kanban can extend these benefits. Kanban also provides a powerful mechanism to identify process improvement opportunities. This book covers some of the metrics and day-to-day management techniques that make continuous improvement an achievable outcome in the real world. ScrumBan the book provides a series of essays that give practitioners the background needed to create more robust practices combining the best of agile and lean.

The Golden Passport: Harvard Business School, the Limits of Capitalism, and the Moral Failure of the MBA Elite


Duff McDonald - 2017
    In The Golden Passport, he reveals the inner workings of a singular nexus of power, ambition, and influence: Harvard Business School.Harvard University occupies a unique place in the public’s imagination, but HBS has arguably eclipsed its parent in terms of its influence on modern society. A Harvard degree guarantees respect. An HBS degree is, as the New York Times proclaimed in 1978, "the golden passport to life in the upper class." Those holding Harvard MBAs are near-guaranteed entrance into Western capitalism’s most powerful realm—the corner office.Most people have a vague knowledge of the power of the HBS network, but few understand the dynamics that have made HBS an indestructible and powerful force for almost a century. As McDonald explores these dynamics, he also reveals how, despite HBS’s enormous success, it has failed with respect to the stated goal of its founders: "the multiplication of men who will handle their current business problems in socially constructive ways." While HBS graduates tend to be very good at whatever they do, that is rarely the doing of good.In addition to teasing out the essence of this exclusive, if not necessarily "secret" club, McDonald explores two important questions: Has the school failed at reaching the goals it set for itself? And is HBS therefore complicit in the moral failings of Western capitalism? At a time of pronounced economic disparity and political unrest, this hard-hitting yet fair portrait offers a much-needed look at an institution that has a profound influence on the shape of our society and all our lives.

Presentation Zen Design: Simple Design Principles and Techniques to Enhance Your Presentations


Garr Reynolds - 2009
    Now, he takes us further into the design realm and shows how we can apply time-honored design principles to presentation layouts.Throughout Presentation Zen Design, Garr shares his lessons on designing effective presentations that contain text, graphs, color, images, and video. After establishing guidelines for each of the various elements, he explains how to achieve an overall harmony and balance using the tenets of Zen simplicity. Not only will you discover how to design your slides for more professional-looking presentations, you'll learn to communicate more clearly and will accomplish the goal of making a stronger, more lasting connection with your audience.

Shoe Dog: A Memoir by the Creator of Nike


Phil Knight - 2016
    Selling the shoes from the trunk of his lime green Plymouth Valiant, Knight grossed $8,000 his first year. Today, Nike’s annual sales top $30 billion. In an age of startups, Nike is the ne plus ultra of all startups, and the swoosh has become a revolutionary, globe-spanning icon, one of the most ubiquitous and recognizable symbols in the world today.But Knight, the man behind the swoosh, has always remained a mystery. Now, for the first time, in a memoir that is candid, humble, gutsy, and wry, he tells his story, beginning with his crossroads moment. At 24, after backpacking around the world, he decided to take the unconventional path, to start his own business—a business that would be dynamic, different.Knight details the many risks and daunting setbacks that stood between him and his dream—along with his early triumphs. Above all, he recalls the formative relationships with his first partners and employees, a ragtag group of misfits and seekers who became a tight-knit band of brothers. Together, harnessing the transcendent power of a shared mission, and a deep belief in the spirit of sport, they built a brand that changed everything.

Financial Peace: Restoring Financial Hope to You and Your Family


Dave Ramsey - 1997
    His practical regimen, first set forth by The Financial Peace Planner, which will be published by Penguin in January 1998. Loaded with inspirational insights that come from personal experience, this set of books is the most valuable purchase a debt-ridden reader can make.

The Turnaround Kid: What I Learned Rescuing America's Most Troubled Companies


Steve Miller - 2008
    Industry's Mr. Fix It." From his very first crisis assignment as point man for Lee Iaccoca's rescue team at Chrysler, Miller built an international reputation while fixing major problems in such varied industries as steel, construction, and health care. Most recently, as chairman and CEO of the bankrupt automotive parts manufacturer Delphi Corporation, he has confronted head-on the major issues threatening the survival of Detroit's Big Three.A battle is being fought in the heart of industrial America—or what is left of it—Miller observes. In the auto industry as well as every manufacturing corporation, management and labor are at loggerheads over wages and the skyrocketing costs of employee benefits. The way out of this battle is often painful and Miller is deeply aware of the high price individual workers and many communities have had to pay as a result.In this frank and unsparing memoir, Miller reveals a rarely seen side of American management. Miller recounts the inside story of the many turnaround jobs that have led to his renown as Mr. Fix It. But he also paints an intimate picture of his relationship with Maggie Miller, his wife of forty years, with whom Miller shares the credit for his success. Described by Miller as "my mentor and tormentor," Maggie served as his most trusted adviser and kept him focused on what truly matters until her death from brain cancer in 2006.A deeply moving personal story and timely snapshot of the state of American manufacturing and what it will take to restore it to profitability, The Turnaround Kid is Steve Miller's fascinating look at his education as an American executive.

Almost Perfect: How a Bunch of Regular Guys Built WordPerfect Corporation


W.E. Pete Peterson - 1993
    A former executive at the WordPerfect Corporation details the company's rise in the computer industry and what compelled him to leave after ten years as a driving force in the company.

The World According to Xi: Everything You Need to Know About the New China


Kerry Brown - 2018
    Its manufacturing underpins the world's economy; its military is growing at the fastest rate of any nation and its leader - Xi Jinping - is to set the pace and tone of world affairs for decades.In 2017 Xi Jinping became part of the constitution - an honour not seen since Chairman Mao. Here, China expert Kerry Brown guides us through the world according to Xi: his plans to make China the most powerful country on earth and to eradicate poverty for its citizens. In this captivating book we discover Xi's beliefs, how he thinks about communism, and how far he is willing to go to defend it.

Poorly Made in China: An Insider's Account of the Tactics Behind China's Production Game


Paul Midler - 2009
    Midler is not only a knowledgeable guide to the invisible underbelly of the global economy, he is a sympathetic and astute observer of China, its challenges, and its people. A great read." --Pietra Rivoli, author of The Travels of a T-Shirt in the Global Economy"Paul Midler takes us for a ride through the fastest-growing economy in the world, revealing what can--and sometimes does--go wrong when U.S. companies shift production to China. Working in the heart of China's export hub, in the country's southern region, he has the advantage of a front-row seat to the no-holds-barred games played between manufacturers and importers. He introduces us to a cast of real-life characters and tells his story with a mix of affection and skepticism for what is taking place in China today. Midler delivers a revealing and often funny tale of life and commerce in a country whose exports touch nearly everyone on the planet." --Sara Bongiorni, author of A Year Without 'Made in China'

The Experience Economy: Work Is Theater & Every Business a Stage


B. Joseph Pine II - 1999
    We are on the threshold, say authors Pine and Gilmore, of the Experience Economy, a new economic era in which all businesses must orchestrate memorable events for their customers. The Experience Economy offers a creative, highly original, and yet eminently practical strategy for companies to script and stage the experiences that will transform the value of what they produce. From America Online to Walt Disney, the authors draw from a rich and varied mix of examples that showcase businesses in the midst of creating personal experiences for both consumers and businesses. The authors urge managers to look beyond traditional pricing factors like time and cost, and consider charging for the value of the transformation that an experience offers. Goods and services, say Pine and Gilmore, are no longer enough. Experiences and transformations are the basis for future economic growth, and The Experience Economy is the script from which managers can begin to direct their own transformations.

Kelly: More Than My Share of It All


Clarence L. Johnson - 1985
    “Kelly” Johnson led the design of such crucial aircraft as the P-38 and Constellation, but he will be more remembered for the U-2 and SR-71 spy planes. His extraordinary leadership of the Lockheed “Skunk Works” cemented his reputation as a legendary figure in American aerospace management.

The Fifth Discipline Fieldbook: Strategies and Tools for Building a Learning Organization


Peter M. Senge - 1994
    Senge's best-selling The Fifth Discipline led Business Week to dub him the "new guru" of the corporate world; here he offers executives a step-by-step guide to building "learning organizations" of their own.

The Future of Leadership: Rise of Automation, Robotics and Artificial Intelligence


Brigette Tasha Hyacinth - 2017
    If we don't candidly answer the pertinent questions, we will only paint a false picture.We are standing at a crucial and pivotal point in history. It's time for diversity in AI. This unprecedented technology will affect society as a whole and we need individuals from diverse disciplines and backgrounds to join the discussion. The issues surrounding AI can't be left to a small group of scientists, technologists or business executives to address. Our future and our children's future are at stake.More than ever, we need leaders who will stand on integrity and who will put people first.Do you want to take a glimpse into the future of leadership? The Future of Leadership: Rise of Automation, Robotics and Artificial Intelligence offers the most comprehensive view of what is taking place in the world of AI and emerging technologies, and gives valuable insights that will allow you to successfully navigate the tsunami of technology that is coming our way.