HBR Guide to Negotiating (HBR Guide Series)


Jeff Weiss - 2016
    One person makes a demand, the other concedes a point. In the end, you settle on a subpar solution in the middle—if you come to any agreement at all.But these discussions don’t need to be win-or-lose situations. Written by negotiation expert Jeff Weiss, the HBR Guide to Negotiating provides a disciplined approach to finding a solution that works for everyone involved. Using a seven-part framework, this book delivers tips and advice to move you from a game of concessions and compromises to one of collaboration and creativity, resulting in better outcomes and better working relationships. You’ll learn how to:• Prepare for your conversation• Understand everyone’s interests• Craft the right message• Work with multiple parties• Disarm aggressive negotiators• Choose the best solution

Work Like a Spy: Business Tips from a Former CIA Officer


J.C. Carleson - 2013
    J. C. Carleson’s presentation of years of spy tradecraft will make you a more effective force within your organization.”—James Childers, CEO, ASG Global, Inc.When J. C. Carleson left the corporate world to join the CIA, she expected an adventure, and she found it. Her assignments included work in Iraq as part of a weapons of mass destruction search team, travels throughout Afghanistan, and clandestine encounters with foreign agents around the globe. What she didn’t expect was that the skills she acquired from the CIA would be directly applicable to the private sector.It turns out that corporate America can learn a lot from spies—not only how to respond to crises but also how to achieve operational excellence. Carleson found that the CIA gave her an increased understanding of human nature, new techniques for eliciting informa­tion, and improved awareness of potential security problems, adding up to a powerful edge in business.Using real examples from her experiences, Carle-son explains how working like a spy can teach you the principles of:Targeting—figuring out who you need to know and how to get to them Elicitation—a subtle way to get the answers you need without even asking a question Counterintelligence—how to determine if your organization is unwittingly leaking information Screening—CIA recruiters’ methods for finding and hiring the right peopleThe methods developed by the CIA are all about getting what you want from other peo­ple. In a business context, these techniques apply to seeking a new job, a promotion, a big sale, an advantageous regulatory ruling, and countless other situations.As Carleson writes, “In a world where infor­mation has a price, it pays to be vigilant.” Her book will show you how.

Digital Bank: Strategies to launch or become a digital bank


Chris Skinner - 2013
    Digital Bank not only includes extensive guidance and background on the digital revolution in banking, but also in-depth analysis of the activities of incumbent banks such as Barclays in the UK and mBank in Poland, as well as new start-ups such as Metro Bank and disruptive new models of banking such as FIDOR Bank in Germany. Add on to these a comprehensive sprinkling of completely new models of finance, such as Zopa and Bitcoin, and you can see that this book is a must-have for anyone involved in the future of business, commerce and banking

KPI Checklists


Bernie Smith - 2013
    Over fifty checklists are included to take you through a structured KPI implementations process step by step. The book also includes download links for free instant access to all the templates used.

The New Science of Retailing: How Analytics are Transforming the Supply Chain and Improving Performance


Marshall Fisher - 2010
    But they're unsure of how to sort through it and use it to make smart decisions. The result? They're struggling with profit-sapping supply chain problems including stock-outs, overstock, and discounting.It doesn't have to be that way. In The New Science of Retailing, supply chain experts Marshall Fisher and Ananth Raman explain how to use analytics to better manage your inventory for faster turns, fewer discounted offerings, and fatter profit margins.Featuring case studies of retailing exemplars from around the world, this practical new book shows you how to:· Mine your sales data to identify "homerun" products you're missing· Reinvent your forecasting and pricing strategies· Build end-to-end agility into your supply chain· Establish incentives that align your supply chain partners behind shared objectives· Extract maximum value from technologies such as point-of-sale scanners and customer loyalty cardsHighly readable and compelling, The New Science of Retailing is your playbook for turning all that data into a wellspring for new profits and unprecedented efficiency.

Services Marketing: Integrating Customer Focus Across the Firm


Valarie A. Zeithaml - 1902
    Introduction to Services Chapter 2. Conceptual Framework for the Book: The Gaps Model of Service Quality PART TWO: FOCUS ON THE CUSTOMER Chapter 3. Consumer Behavior in Services Chapter 4. Customer Expectations in Services Chapter 5.

Design Crazy: Good Looks, Hot Tempers, and True Genius at Apple


Max Chafkin - 2013
    is one of the most successful—and influential—companies of our time, the transformational innovator that made computers not just personal but beautiful everyday objects. Technology met design, and our culture was altered forever.And yet very little is known about life inside Apple. The company is pathologically secretive—even with its own designers—about how it comes up with its groundbreaking products: iMac, iPod, iPhone, iPad, and the next “insanely great” thing on the horizon. Here, for the first time, the men and women who worked for and alongside Steve Jobs share their remarkable, nearly forty-year-old story. How Apple survived nearly catastrophic failure early on. How Jobs and his team came to understand and execute design like no one else. And how their philosophy ultimately changed the world.This Fast Company/Byliner Original is unlike any other book about Apple. Author Max Chafkin led a team of “Fast Company” reporters that spent months interviewing more than fifty former Apple execs and insiders, many of whom had never spoken publicly about their work. The result is a compelling and deeply revealing oral history of how design evolved at the most creative enterprise of our time, the company that one entrepreneur says “taught the world taste.”In these interviews, former colleagues describe Jobs at his most brilliant and bombastic—hurling unsatisfactory products across the lab and insulting employees, yet also singling out and celebrating craftsmanship and original work. Without a doubt, Jobs is the single most important figure in the company’s history. But overlooked in Apple’s carefully cultivated mythology are the other ingenious men and women who’ve left an indelible mark on Apple, some of whom think they deserve much more of the credit. At Apple, the stakes were big, and so were the egos.“Design Crazy” takes us behind the mystique and reveals Apple to be a deeply misunderstood company. And the greatest business story of the past two decades is far from over. Two years after the death of Steve Jobs, with many of his former colleagues now at startups like Tesla, Evernote, and Nest Labs, some think the end of Apple’s dominance is only a matter of time. The company has risen to the challenge before, but still the question lingers: Can Apple be Apple without Jobs?ABOUT THE AUTHORMax Chafkin is a contributing writer with “Fast Company.” His work has also been published in “Inc.”, “Vanity Fair,” “The New York Times Magazine,” and “The Best Business Writing 2012.” He lives in Brooklyn.

The Blame Game: How the Hidden Rules of Credit and Blame Determine Our Success or Failure


Ben Dattner - 2011
    In so many workplaces, people feel they’re playing a high-stakes game of “blame or be blamed,” which can be disastrous for the individuals who get caught up in it and can sink teams and afflict whole companies. Dattner presents compelling evidence that whether we fall into the trap of playing the blame game or learn to avoid the pitfalls is a major determinant of how successful we will be. The problem is that so many workplaces foster a blaming culture. Maybe you have a constantly blaming boss, or a colleague who is always taking credit for others’ work. All too often, individuals are scapegoated, teams fall apart, projects get derailed, and people become disengaged because fear and resentment have taken root. And what’s worse, the more emotionally charged a workplace is—maybe our jobs are threatened or we’re facing a particularly difficult challenge—the more emphatically people play the game, just when trust and collaboration are most needed. What can we do? We can learn to understand the hidden dynamics of human psychology that lead to this bad behavior so that we can inoculate ourselves against it and defuse the tensions in our own workplace.In lively prose that is as engaging as it is illuminating, Dattner tells a host of true stories of those he has worked with—from the woman who was so scapegoated by her colleagues that she decided to quit, to the clueless boss who was too quick to blame his staff. He shares a wealth of insight from the study of human evolution and psychology to reveal the underlying reasons why people are so prone to blaming and credit-grabbing; it’s not only human nature, it’s found throughout the animal kingdom. Even bats do it. He shows how our family experiences, gender, and culture also all shape the way we cope with credit and blame issues, and introduces eleven personality types that are especially prone to causing difficulties and illustrates how we can best cope with them. He also profiles how a number of outstanding leaders, from General Dwight Eisenhower and President Harry Truman to highly respected business figures such as former Intel CEO Andy Grove and Xerox CEO Ursula Burns, employed the power of taking blame and sharing credit to achieve great success.The only winning move in the blame game, Dattner shows, is not to play, and the insights and practical suggestions in this book will help readers, at any level of any organization and at any stage of their careers, learn to manage the crucial psychology of credit and blame for themselves and others.

Indispensable: When Leaders Really Matter


Gautam Mukunda - 2012
    Are they made by history, or do they make it?In Indispensable, Harvard Business School professor Gautam Mukunda offers an enticingly fresh look at how and when individual leaders really can make a difference. By identifying and analyzing the hidden patterns of their careers, and by exploring the systems that place these leaders in positions of power, Indispensable sheds new light on how we may be able to identify the best leaders and what lessons we can learn, from both the process and the result.Profiling a mix of historic and modern figures—from Thomas Jefferson and Abraham Lincoln to Winston Churchill and Judah Folkman—and telling the stories of how they came to power and how they made the most important decisions of their lives, Indispensable reveals how, when, and where a single individual in the right place at the right time can save or destroy the organization they lead, and even change the course of history.Indispensable will also help you understand this new model so you can use it in your own life—whether you’re a citizen casting a ballot, an executive choosing your next CEO, or a leader trying to make your mark.

Managing Business Ethics: Straight Talk about How to Do It Right


Linda K. Trevino - 1995
     Throughout, the emphasis is on common, real-life work situations, including hiring, managing, assessing performance, disciplining, firing, and providing incentives for staff, as well as producing quality products and services, and dealing effectively and fairly with customers, vendors, and other stakeholders. Highlights of the Fourth Edition * Updated information relates content to current events such as the U.S. Sentencing Guidelines for Corporations. * Describes the link between ethical culture and employee engagement. * Covers new research, including the role of emotions in ethical decision making. * Presents new profiles of organizations such as McWane, Enron, Citigroup, and Marsh & McLennan. * International references reflect the realities of the increasingly global business environment.

Letters from Leaders: Personal Advice For Tomorrow's Leaders From The World's Most Influential People


Henry O. Dormann - 2009
    Dormann—founder, chairman, and editor-in-chief of LEADERS magazine, whose circulation is limited to such leading figures. Here, he brings together the first-ever exclusive collection of wisdom and inspiration addressed to young people from the world’s most influential people—advice on leadership, goal achievement, public service, and life journeys. Letters from Leaders is a beautifully designed book comprising nearly eighty letters from those who have done so much to shape our world today—from Muhammad Ali to four U.S. Presidents, Mikhail Gorbachev, King Bhumibol Adulyadej of Thailand and King Abdullah II of Jordan, and the Dalai Lama; from Cathie Black to T. Boone Pickens, Muriel Siebert, and Donald Trump. The letters, some as facsimile reproductions of handwritten originals, are each introduced with a biographical note by Dormann. As put so aptly by Dormann in his introduction, “All kings and queens, presidents, Nobel Laureates, chairmen and chairwomen, CEOs, and world leaders have one thing in common: They want what they have achieved to be useful and to be handed over to a younger generation. . . . The leaders in these pages have ‘lived’ and now offer their experiences as a treasure to ambitious and open minds—those who want to be something in life.”

The First Mile: A Launch Manual for Getting Great Ideas into the Market


Scott D. Anthony - 2014
    In fact, less than one percent of ideas launched by big companies end up having real impact. The ideas aren’t the problem. It’s the process.The First Mile focuses on the critical moment when an innovator moves from planning to reality. It is a perilous place where hidden traps snare entrepreneurs and roadblocks slow innovators inside large companies.In this practical and enlightening manual, strategic adviser Scott Anthony equips innovators with new tools, questions, and examples to speed through this crucial early stage of innovation. You’ll learn:• How to evaluate your idea’s strengths and weaknesses using the “DEFT” process—Document, Evaluate, Focus, and Test• Fourteen recipes from an “experiment cookbook” to gain confidence in your idea or business• Why “spinouts,” “wrong turns,” and other challenges commonly trip up innovation—and the practical strategies you can use to avoid them• Why innovators need to seek chaos in an age of constant change—and other essential leadership skillsDrawing on his decade of experience as an innovation adviser and investor, Anthony describes hard-won lessons from disruptive start-ups and global giants alike. The First Mile will give you the knowledge and confidence to travel this perilous—but ultimately promising—terrain.The first mile can be a scary place, but you don’t have to traverse it alone. This book can help.

Itil for Dummies, 2011 Edition


Peter Farenden - 2012
    It breaks down the 5 stages of the service lifecycle into digestible chunks, helping you to ensure that customers receive the best possible IT experience. Whether readers need to identify their customers' needs, design and implement a new IT service, or monitor and improve an existing service, this official guide provides a support framework for IT-related activities and the interactions of IT technical personnel with business customers and users.Understanding how ITIL can help you Getting to grips with ITIL processes and the service lifecycle Implementing ITIL into your day to day work Learn key skills in planning and carrying out design and implementation projects

More Than a Pink Cadillac


Jim Underwood - 2002
    And it's not just Mary Kay's 800,000 associates worldwide who know it is an outstanding company. From the Harvard Business School to the CIA, organizations around the world are studying and attempting to emulate the incredible success of this powerful marketing machine. More than a Pink Cadillac reveals the leadership and success principles that have made the company a global successand an inspiration to women everywhere. Jim Underwood is the first outside author to have unlimited access to the company's employees and management. Featuring inspirational stories about leaders and associates at Mary Kay, More than a Pink Cadillac imparts nine keys to sustainable success that any leader or independent businessperson can use to inspire others and succeed in business.

The Essential Advantage: How to Win with a Capabilities-Driven Strategy


Paul Leinwand - 2010
    In Essential Advantage, Booz & Company's Cesare Mainardi and Paul Leinwand maintain that success in any market accrues to firms with coherence: a tight match between their strategic direction and the capabilities that make them unique.Achieving this clarity takes a sharpness of focus that only exceptional companies have mastered. This book helps you identify your firm's blend of strategic direction and distinctive capabilities that give it the "right to win" in its chosen markets. Based on extensive research and filled with company examples—including Amazon.com, Johnson & Johnson, Tata Sons, and Procter & Gamble—Essential Advantage helps you construct a coherent company in which the pieces reinforce each other instead of working at cross-purposes.The authors reveal:· Why you should focus on a system of a few aligned capabilities· How to identify the "way to play" in your market· How to design a strategy for well-modulated growth· How to align a portfolio of businesses behind your capability system· How your strategy clarifies growth, costs, and people decisionsFew companies achieve a capability-driven "right to win" in their market. This book helps you position your firm to be among them.