. . whether you’re running an entire company or in your first management job.Over the past seven years, Procter & Gamble has tripled profits; significantly improved organic revenue growth, cash flow, and operating margins; and averaged earnings per share growth of 12 percent. How? A. G. Lafley and his leadership team have integrated innovation into everything P&G does and created new customers and new markets. Through eye-opening stories A. G. Lafley and Ram Charan show how P&G and companies such as Honeywell, Nokia, LEGO, GE, HP, and DuPont have become game-changers. Their inspiring lessons can help you learn how to:• Make consumers and customers the boss, not the CEO or the management team• Innovate to grow a mature business• Develop higher growth, higher margin businesses • Create new customers and new markets • Revitalize a business model• Reach outside your own business and tap into the abundant brainpower and creativity of the world • Integrate innovation into the mainstream of your managerial decision making • Manage risk• Become a leader of innovationWe live in a world of unprecedented change, increasing global competitiveness, and the very real threat of commoditization. Innovation in this world is the best way to win—arguably the only way to really win. Innovation is not a separate, discrete activity but the job of everyone in a leadership position and the integral, central driving force for any business that wants to grow organically and succeed on a sustained basis.This is a game-changing book that helps you redefine your leadership and improve your management game.

    So why do so many companies act like adrenalin junkies, chasing after new customers at the expense of creating deeper, more profitable relationships with the ones they already have? Evergreen exposes the mad pursuit for what it is: a brief spike in metrics and an ongoing revenue drain, as one-time customers fail to return. A better solution is to shift resources from attracting new customers to engaging the base--the path to stable growth, season after season. The book's entertaining stories and action steps reveal how anyone can: * Cultivate the 3Cs of evergreen companies: character, community, and content * Build loyalty programs that turn satisfied customers into enthusiastic advocates * Nurture profitable customers while pruning those who sap time and money * Inject authenticity into social media communications * Invert the expectations gap that can drive customers away From Internet startups and mom-and-pop businesses to multinational giants, strong companies are rooted in customer retention. Evergreen helps anyone merge high-tech tools with the personal touch to forge lasting bonds and steady profits.

    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.How to Win Friends and Influence People - 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.Dale 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. Excerpt:"I came home to my lonely room each night with a sick headache-a headache bred and fed by disappointment, worry, bitterness, and rebellion. I was rebelling because the dreams I had nourished back in my college days had turned into nightmares. Was this life? Was this the vital adventure to which I had looked forward so eagerly?"

    Stalwart brands are losing market share to upstarts that capture our collective consciousness. Trillions of dollars are at stake.   Brands know a new approach is needed. But most don’t realize the strategic underpinnings need to change. Great brands are no longer built through interruptive advertisements.   Friction  argues that brands don't simply need clever messages or new, shiny technologies. They need a fundamental change in strategy. Friction provides a system for embracing transparency, engaging audiences, creating evangelists, and unleashing unprecedented growth.   The authors of  Friction  have worked on some of the industry's most innovative assignments for the world’s most successful brands. This groundbreaking book reveals how corporations can divorce themselves from legacy business models to create a passion brand. A brand that breaks its addiction to traditional advertising. A brand that empowers its customers. A brand that dominates the competition.

    Under such pressure to stay alive—let alone grow—it’s easy for entrepreneurs to get caught up in a never-ending cycle of “sell it—do it, sell it—do it” that leaves them exhausted, frustrated, and unable to get ahead no matter how hard they try.This is the exact situation Mike Michalowicz found himself in when he was trying to grow his first company. Although it was making steady money, there was never very much left over and he was chasing customers left and right, putting in twenty-eight-hour days, eight days a week. The punishing grind never let up. His company was alive but stunted, and he was barely breathing. That’s when he discovered an unlikely source of inspiration—pumpkin farmers.After reading an article about a local farmer who had dedicated his life to growing giant pump­kins, Michalowicz realized the same process could apply to growing a business. He tested the Pumpkin Plan on his own company and transformed it into a remarkable, multimillion-dollar industry leader. First he did it for himself. Then for others. And now you. So what is the Pumpkin Plan?Plant the right seeds: Don’t waste time doing a bunch of different things just to please your customers. Instead, identify the thing you do better than anyone else and focus all of your attention, money, and time on figuring out how to grow your company doing it. Weed out the losers: In a pumpkin patch small, rotten pumpkins stunt the growth of the robust, healthy ones. The same is true of customers. Figure out which customers add the most value and provide the best opportunities for sustained growth. Then ditch the worst of the worst. Nurture the winners: Once you figure out who your best customers are, blow their minds with care. Discover their unfulfilled needs, innovate to make their wishes come true, and overdeliver on every single promise.Full of stories of other successful entrepreneurs, The Pumpkin Plan guides you through unconven­tional strategies to help you build a truly profitable blue-ribbon company that is the best in its field.

    Morale had deteriorated, competition was more intense, and technology was changing faster than at any time in the company's history. "I knew there was nothing to be gained from arguing over the past," Iger writes. "The only thing that mattered was the future, and I believed I had a clear idea of the direction Disney needed to go." It came down to three clear ideas: 1) Create the highest quality content Disney could produce. 2) Embrace and adopt technology instead of fighting it. And 3) Think bigger--think global--and turn Disney into a stronger brand in international markets.Twelve years later, Disney is the largest, most respected media company in the world counting Pixar, Marvel, Lucasfilm and 21st Century Fox among its properties. Its value is nearly five times what it was when Iger took over, and Iger is recognized as one of the most innovative and successful CEOs of our time.Now, he's sharing the lessons he's learned while running Disney and leading its 200,000 employees--taking big risks in the face of historic disruption; learning to inspire the people who work for you; leading with fairness and communicating principles clearly. This book is about the relentless curiosity that has driven Iger for forty-five years, since the day he started as a studio supervisor at ABC. It's also about thoughtfulness and respect, and a decency-over-dollars approach that has become the bedrock of every project and partnership Iger pursues, from a deep friendship with Steve Jobs in his final years to an abiding love of the evolving Star Wars myth."Over the past fourteen years, I think I've learned so much about what real leadership is," Iger writes. "But I couldn't have articulated all of this until I lived it. You can't fake it--and that's one of the key lessons in this book."Librarian Note: This is an Advance Reader Copy issued with ISBN 9780399592096. That ISBN has been moved to the final published copy, found here

    Four decide to jump off. How many are left? Answer: Five Why? Because there's a difference between deciding and doing. Written by Mark L. Feldman and Michael F. Spratt of PricewaterhouseCoopers, Five Frogs on a Log offers readers an entertaining and no-nonsense field guide to the mergers and acquisitions jungle, packed with insight and instruction for executing corporate change and capturing shareholder value. Whether you're buying another company or acquiring a new vision of the future, this book proffers an unconventional perspective and a practical, readily accessible set of solutions to the single greatest challenge facing today's managers: executing rapid transitions ion mergers, acquisitions and gut wrenching change.Designed for corporate managers and CEOs caught up in the whirlwind of change, every chapter provides accessible ideas and wisdom for navigating the most demanding business transitions. The authors offer a unique hands-on perspective based on their work with top Fortune 500 firms. As they state:"Increasingly, the companies that win are those that learn faster, act quicker and adapt sooner. They will compress time by making and executing early, informed decisions about economic value creation, ruthless prioritization and focused resource allocation. They will use these decisions to take early firm stands on management deployment, organization structure and culture. Their actions will increasingly be linked to long-term, sustained economic value creation." The advice and expertise offered in this book can be used to solve a range of operational problems from speeding up new product development to merging two businesses; from changing company culture to repositioning a business in a while new marketplace.Whatever the challenges and opportunities facing you, your company, your industry, Five Frogs on a Log will move you from deciding to doing.

    In March 1984, corporate raider Saul Steinberg was ready to pounce. His plan--gain control of Disney then split it apart by selling the studio and real estate to investors and keeping the theme parks.As word spread, Disney stock was traded frantically. Disney management took desperate maneuvers to beat off the attack. If Steinberg took control, the company that they believed embodied every American childhood, would disappear.

     In under 1000 words we explain the major principles of successful marketing - the absolute most important things you must understand to market your business successfully and find more customers. Each chapter is less than 70 words long. This is a book so short that everybody can make the time to read it.

    Maxwell explains how true leadership works.It is not generated by your title. In fact, being named to a position is the lowest of the five levels every effective leader achieves. To be more than a boss people are required to follow, you must master the ability to inspire and invest in people. You need to build a team that produces not only results, but also future leaders. By combining the advice contained in these pages with skill and dedication, you can reach the pinnacle of leadership-where your influence extends beyond your immediate reach for the benefit of others. Derived from material previously published in the Wall Street Journal bestseller The 5 Levels of Leadership.

    Yet although the heart of Six Sigma is statistics, most books on Six Sigma give a general overview, with little detail on actually Using the Six Sigma tools. Books that cover Six Sigma statistics typically are 500+ pages and cost near USD100. Basic Statistics for Six Sigma gives the information needed to apply the statistical tools of Six Sigma to real-world problems in a simplified, USD24.95 paperback format, for Greenbelts and Six Sigma Project Team Leaders. A typical company's Greenbelt training in Six Sigma includes 7 books, 4 software packages, and 3 weeks of class work. It is very extensive in statistics. Although this kind of course is excellent, not all companies or individuals want to commit to that level of instruction. Statistics for Six Sigma--Made Easy! describes only the tools used by most successful Six Sigma practitioners. The only software package needed is Excel, and the 14 formulas and 5 tables included in the book enable you to use all the basic Six Sigma statistical tools. Using these tools will enable a person t

    We put out fires. We deal with emergencies. We stay downstream, handling one problem after another, but we never make our way upstream to fix the systems that caused the problems ... [This book] probes the psychological forces that push us downstream--including 'problem blindness,' which can leave us oblivious to serious problems in our midst. And Heath introduces us to the thinkers who have overcome these obstacles and scored ... victories by switching to an upstream mindset.

    His informal tone, sense of humor, and real-world stories bring his business principles to life. Results That Last has a vital, optimistic quality that will keep readers re-reading long after other leadership books have been relegated to a dark corner of the shelf.--Nido Qubein, author of How to Get Anything You Want; President, High Point University; Chairman, Great Harvest Bread Company; and founder, National Speakers Association FoundationResults That Last is long overdue and fills a big gap in effective business management. There are legions of books that show us the way to achieve successful results in business, but very few that teach us how to institutionalize success. In reality, achieving success is the easy part. The real challenge is to achieve results that last. Quint Studer not only proves it is possible to hardwire a culture for lasting results, but lays out a simple, logical, and effective way to do so. Anyone who wants to make success a habit needs to read this book.--Bob MacDonald, former CEO, Allianz Life of North America and author of Beat the System: 11 Secrets to Building an Entrepreneurial Culture in a Bureaucratic WorldI have always been fascinated by how the various parts of an organization work together to achieve strategic objectives. In Results That Last, Quint Studer explores the complex subject of performance improvement in a fresh, readable, and easy-to-grasp way. By standardizing certain business practices and leader behaviors, any company in any field can create an environment that allows it to achieve and sustain long-term results.--David F. Giannetto, coauthor of The Performance Power Grid: The Proven Method to Create and Sustain Superior Organizational Performance

    Miller wound up in jail more than once, especially as a teenager. But he immersed himself in the educational opportunities, eventually took advantage of a Pennsylvania state education-release program offered to incarcerated people, and was able to graduate with honors from Temple University.When revealing his gangland past caused him to lose his first major job opportunity, Miller vowed to keep it a secret. He climbed the corporate ladder with a number of companies such as Kraft Foods, Campbell’s Soup, and Jantzen, until Nike hired him to run its domestic apparel operations. Around the time of Michael Jordan’s basketball retirement, Nike Chairman Phil Knight made Larry Miller president of the newly formed Jordan Brand. In 2007 Paul Allen convinced Miller to jump to the NBA to become president of the Portland Trailblazers, one of the first African-Americans to lead a professional sports team, before returning to Jordan Brand in 2012.All along, Miller lived two lives: the secret of his violent past haunted him, invading his days with migraines and his sleep with nightmares of getting hauled back to jail. More than a rags-to-riches story, Jump is also a passionate appeal for criminal justice reform and expanded educational opportunities for incarcerated and formerly incarcerated people across the United States. Drawing on his powerful personal story, as well as his vast and well-connected network, Miller plans to use Jump as a launching point to help expand such opportunities and to provide an aspirational journey for those who need hope.

    Sounds simple, doesn't it? But the reality can be quite different. Whether you're just starting out or simply ready to head in a new direction, you're going to need some help turning your natural skills into success-seeking missiles of radness.On hand is Gavin Strange, a creative working by night under the name of JamFactory and, by day, at Aardman Animations – the Academy Award-winning studio behind Wallace & Gromit and Shaun the Sheep.With advice, encouragement and a reminder that life's too short to not pursue your passion, whatever your age or position – from school leaver or graduate just starting out to CEO ready to head in a new direction, Do Fly will inspire you to:Change your perspective and revamp your mindsetDevelop creative side projectsStay optimistic and resilientDiscover skills and passions you never knew you had!Do Fly is your all-in-one guide, ticket and passport to a new destination. Are you ready for take off?