The Mind of the Strategist: The Art of Japanese Business


Kenichi Ohmae - 1982
    The author does not purport to be inventing strategy in this book or to be revealing the secrets of Japanese business and strategic planning. Rather, he is exploring with the reader the ways in which the strategist must think, the key principles and thought patterns that real-world strategists have used to move their companies forward in Japan and throughout the world. He explores the relationship of the Strategic Triangle formed by the company, the customer, and the competition and shows how these factors must be the basis for all strategic thinking and planning.

The Checklist Manifesto: Summary of Gawande's Instruction on How to Get Things Right


Concise Summaries - 2014
    This is not the full 200+ page book. This concise summary of Gawande’s manifesto will convey everything you need to know about how and why checklists are so effective and how to successfully compose your own checklists. These checklists will improve your level of success in any field or activity you are trying to achieve excellence in. Put yourself head and shoulders above the competition with this simple, intuitive tool. Not convinced that a checklist is sophisticated enough for your particular goal? Gawande presents case studies showing the effectiveness of the checklist in a range of complex environments from surgery to aviation, engineering to emergency response, venture capitalism to disease control. Imagine if you could substantially eradicate your own human fallibility with such a simple tool! By engaging with the simple concepts in this short guide you will be able to devise and implement the checklists that will ensure your peak performance in every area of your life.

Wiser: Getting Beyond Groupthink to Make Groups Smarter


Cass R. Sunstein - 2014
    And having more than one person to help decide is good because the group benefits from the collective knowledge of all of its members, and this results in better decisions. Right?Back to reality. We’ve all been involved in group decisions—and they’re hard. And they often turn out badly. Why? Many blame bad decisions on “groupthink” without a clear idea of what that term really means.Now, Nudge coauthor Cass Sunstein and leading decision-making scholar Reid Hastie shed light on the specifics of why and how group decisions go wrong—and offer tactics and lessons to help leaders avoid the pitfalls and reach better outcomes. In the first part of the book, they explain in clear and fascinating detail the distinct problems groups run into:• They often amplify, rather than correct, individual errors in judgment• They fall victim to cascade effects, as members follow what others say or do• They become polarized, adopting more extreme positions than the ones they began with• They emphasize what everybody knows instead of focusing on critical information that only a few people knowIn the second part of the book, the authors turn to straightforward methods and advice for making groups smarter. These approaches include silencing the leader so that the views of other group members can surface, rethinking rewards and incentives to encourage people to reveal their own knowledge, thoughtfully assigning roles that are aligned with people’s unique strengths, and more.With examples from a broad range of organizations—from Google to the CIA—and written in an engaging and witty style, Wiser will not only enlighten you; it will help your team and your organization make better decisions—decisions that lead to greater success.

The Ten-Minute Trainer: 150 Ways to Teach it Quick and Make it Stick! (Pfeiffer Essential Resources for Training and HR Professionals)


Sharon L. Bowman - 2005
    These back-pocket activities are easy, quick, topic-related, and fun, and you can draw on with a minimum of preparation. The Ten-Minute Trainer features a variety of exercises, ranging from one to ten minutes in length, and provides content-specific exercises as well as activities for transitioning between topics and gauging understanding. You'll find a useful answer section that explains the brain research behind the book and a special section on learning styles that ties in with the philosophy of learn it fast and make it last.Order your copy of this effective resource today!

Win: The Key Principles to Take Your Business from Ordinary to Extraordinary


Frank Luntz - 2011
    Frank Luntz comes an unprecedented examination of communication excellence and how top performers win in all areas of human endeavor by utilizing superb communication skills. From Mike Bloomberg and Arnold Schwarzenegger to business icons Rupert Murdoch, Steve Wynn, and Fred Smith; to the CEOs of MGM Resorts, J. Crew, and Gibson Guitar; to legendary sports superstars like Larry Bird, Jimmy Connors, and Mike Richter; to media legends Roger Ailes, Don Imus, and dozens more, Luntz tells their stories--in their own words--and demonstrates how their style of operation and communication is absolutely essential to their success. Luntz makes it clear that following the rules of effective communication is indispensable in any successful human endeavor.Dr. Luntz offers more than seventy new "words that work" for private one-on-one meetings with your boss, for public presentations to hundreds of colleagues, or for television appearances that reach millions. There are more than three dozen specific lessons and recommendations--and each one directly illustrates the nine essential action-oriented principles of winning at every level: People-Centered, Paradigm-Breaking, Prioritizing, Perfection, Partnerships, Passion, Persuasion, Persistence, and Principled Actions.Do you have what it takes Win is an unprecedented examination of the art, science, and language of winning, and a must-have for people who want to understand and emulate the winners of today. THE DEFINITION OF WINNINGThe ability to grasp the human dimension of every situationThe ability to know what questions to ask and when to ask themThe ability to see the challenge, and the solution, from every angleThe ability to communicate their vision passionately and persuasivelyThe ability to connect with others and create an enduring chemistryand 10 other universal attributes of winners.

Creating a Data-Driven Organization: Practical Advice from the Trenches


Carl Anderson - 2015
    This practical book shows you how true data-drivenness involves processes that require genuine buy-in across your company, from analysts and management to the C-Suite and the board.Through interviews and examples from data scientists and analytics leaders in a variety of industries, author Carl Anderson explains the analytics value chain you need to adopt when building predictive business models—from data collection and analysis to the insights and leadership that drive concrete actions. You’ll learn what works and what doesn’t, and why creating a data-driven culture throughout your organization is essential. Start from the bottom up: learn how to collect the right data the right way Hire analysts with the right skills, and organize them into teams Examine statistical and visualization tools, and fact-based story-telling methods Collect and analyze data while respecting privacy and ethics Understand how analysts and their managers can help spur a data-driven culture Learn the importance of data leadership and C-level positions such as chief data officer and chief analytics officer

The Orange Revolution: How One Great Team Can Transform an Entire Organization


Adrian Gostick - 1947
    Their research shows that breakthrough success is guided by a particular breed of high-performing team that generates its own momentum—an engaged group of colleagues in the trenches, working passionately together to pursue a shared vision. Their research also shows that only 20 percent of teams are working anywhere near this optimal capacity. How can your team become one of them? Based on a groundbreaking 350,000-person study by the Best Companies Group, as well as extraordinary research into exceptional teams at leading companies, including Zappos.com, Pepsi Beverages Company, and Madison Square Garden, the authors have determined a key set of characteristics displayed by members of breakthrough teams, and have identified a set of rules great teams live by, which generate a culture of positive teamwork and lead to extraordinary results. Using a wealth of specific stories from the breakthrough teams they studied, they reveal in detail how these teams operate and how managers can transform their own teams into such high performers by fostering: -Stronger clarity of goals -Greater trust among team members -More open and honest dialogue -Stronger accountability for all team members -Purpose-based recognition of team members’ contributions The remarkable stories they tell about these teams in action provide a simple and powerful step-by-step guide to taking your team to the breakthrough level, igniting the passion and vision to bring about an Orange Revolution.

The Slow Fix: Solve Problems, Work Smarter and Live Better in a World Addicted to Speed


Carl Honoré - 2013
    BP couldn't bring itself to apologize for its catastrophic oil spill until the entire Gulf Coast of the United States was bearing the brunt of its technological shortcomings. Addicted as we might be to the quick fix--pills, crash diets or just diverting attention from things about to go wrong--the quick fix never really works. Trying to solve problems in a hurry, sticking on a plaster when surgery is needed, might deliver temporary relief, but only at the price of storing up worse trouble for later. For those looking for a fix that sticks, The Slow Fix will help us produce solutions in life and work that endure.

Primer on Decision Making: How Decisions Happen


James G. March - 1994
    March draws on research from all the disciplines of social and behavioral science to show decision making in its broadest context. By emphasizing how decisions are actually made -- as opposed to how they should be made -- he enables those involved in the process to understand it both as observers and as participants.March sheds new light on the decision-making process by delineating four deep issues that persistently divide students of decision making: Are decisions based on rational choices involving preferences and expected consequences, or on rules that are appropriate to the identity of the decision maker and the situation? Is decision making a consistent, clear process or one characterized by ambiguity and inconsistency? Is decision making significant primarily for its outcomes, or for the individual and social meanings it creates and sustains? And finally, are the outcomes of decision processes attributable solely to the actions of individuals, or to the combined influence of interacting individuals, organizations, and societies? March's observations on how intelligence is -- or is not -- achieved through decision making, and possibilities for enhancing decision intelligence, are also provided.March explains key concepts of vital importance to students of decision making and decision makers, such as limited rationality, history-dependent rules, and ambiguity, and weaves these ideas into a full depiction of decision making.He includes a discussion of the modern aspects of several classic issues underlying these concepts, such as the relation between reason and ignorance, intentionality and fate, and meaning and interpretation.This valuable textbook by one of the seminal figures in the history of organizational decision making will be required reading for a new generation of scholars, managers, and other decision makers.

Pmp Exam Prep Questions, Answers, & Explanations: 1000+ Pmp Practice Questions with Detailed Solutions


Christopher Scordo - 2009
    So why aren't students laser-focused on taking practice exams before attempting the real thing? Reflects the current PMP exam format and the PMBOK(r) Guide - Fifth Edition! The practice tests in this book are designed to help students adjust to the pace, subject matter, and difficulty of the real Project Management Professional (PMP) exam. Geared towards anyone preparing for the exam, all tests include clear solutions to help you understand core concepts. If you plan on passing the PMP exam, it's time to test your knowledge. It's time for PMP Exam Prep - Questions, Answers, & Explanations. Now packed with Over 1,000 realistic PMP sample questions to help you pass the exam on your FIRST try. In this book: 1000+ detailed PMP exam practice questions including 18 condensed PMP mock exams that can be completed in one hour; 11 Targeted PMBOK Knowledge Area tests, and detailed solution sets for all PMP questions which include clear explanations and wording, PMBOK Knowledge Area and page references, and reasoning based on the PMBOK Guide - Fifth Edition. Includes FREE PMP exam formula reference sheet! ** For PMP exams AFTER March 2018 **

Critical Thinking: Tools for Taking Charge of Your Professional and Personal Life


Richard Paul - 2002
    Discover the core skills of effective thinking; then analyze your own thought processes, identify weaknesses, and overcome them. Learn how to translate more effective thinking into better decisions, less frustration, more wealth Ñ and above all, greater confidence to pursue and achieve your most important goals in life.

Who Gets What — and Why: The New Economics of Matchmaking and Market Design


Alvin E. Roth - 2014
    If you’ve ever sought a job or hired someone, applied to college or guided your child into a good kindergarten, asked someone out on a date or been asked out, you’ve participated in a kind of market. Most of the study of economics deals with commodity markets, where the price of a good connects sellers and buyers. But what about other kinds of “goods,” like a spot in the Yale freshman class or a position at Google? This is the territory of matching markets, where “sellers” and “buyers” must choose each other, and price isn’t the only factor determining who gets what.Alvin E. Roth is one of the world’s leading experts on matching markets. He has even designed several of them, including the exchange that places medical students in residencies and the system that increases the number of kidney transplants by better matching donors to patients. In Who Gets What — And Why, Roth reveals the matching markets hidden around us and shows how to recognize a good match and make smarter, more confident decisions.

Judgment in Managerial Decision Making


Max H. Bazerman - 1986
    But, with Max Bazerman's Judgment in Managerial Decision Making, Sixth Edition, you can learn how to overcome those biases to make better managerial decisions. The text examines judgment in a variety of organizational contexts, and provides practical strategies for changing your decision-making processes and improving these processes so that they become part of your permanent behavior. Throughout, you'll findnumerous hands-on decision exercises and examples from the author's extensive executive training experience that will help you enhance the quality of your managerial judgment. Past editions have been used in top universities, in business schools, and in public policy, psychology, and economics classes. In addition, the text has been widely recognized by practitioners in the world of behavioral finance. Revised with two new chapters This Sixth Edition now adds chapters on bounded ethicality (Chapter 8) and bounded awareness (Chapter 11). Both of these chapters are based on Bazerman's recent writing with Dolly Chugh and Mahzarin Banaji. Max H. Bazerman is the Jesse Isidor Straus Professor of Business Administration at the Harvard Business School. In addition, Max is also formally affiliated with the Kennedy School of Government, the Psychology Department, and the Program on Negotiation at Harvard. He is the author or co-author of over 150 research articles and chapters, and the author of numerous other books. Max was named one of the top 30 authors, speakers, and teachers of management by Executive Excellence in each of their two most recent rankings.

Fooled by Randomness: The Hidden Role of Chance in Life and in the Markets


Nassim Nicholas Taleb - 2001
    The other books in the series are The Black Swan, Antifragile,and The Bed of Procrustes.

Boyd: The Fighter Pilot Who Changed the Art of War


Robert Coram - 2002
    Some remember him as the greatest U.S. fighter pilot ever -- the man who, in simulated air-to-air combat, defeated every challenger in less than forty seconds. Some recall him as the father of our country's most legendary fighter aircraft -- the F-15 and F-16. Still others think of Boyd as the most influential military theorist since Sun Tzu. They know only half the story. Boyd, more than any other person, saved fighter aviation from the predations of the Strategic Air Command. His manual of fighter tactics changed the way every air force in the world flies and fights. He discovered a physical theory that forever altered the way fighter planes were designed. Later in life, he developed a theory of military strategy that has been adopted throughout the world and even applied to business models for maximizing efficiency. And in one of the most startling and unknown stories of modern military history, the Air Force fighter pilot taught the U.S. Marine Corps how to fight war on the ground. His ideas led to America's swift and decisive victory in the Gulf War and foretold the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001. On a personal level, Boyd rarely met a general he couldn't offend. He was loud, abrasive, and profane. A man of daring, ferocious passion and intractable stubbornness, he was that most American of heroes -- a rebel who cared not for his reputation or fortune but for his country. He was a true patriot, a man who made a career of challenging the shortsighted and self-serving Pentagon bureaucracy. America owes Boyd and his disciples -- the six men known as the "Acolytes" -- a great debt. Robert Coram finally brings to light the remarkable story of a man who polarized all who knew him, but who left a legacy that will influence the military -- and all of America -- for decades to come . . .