In the phar­maceutical industry, it’s Merck. In discount retail, it’s Family Dollar. It used to be Wrig­ley in candy and Maytag in appliances. Other superstars have been hidden in plain sight, like Heartland Express in trucking or Linear Technology in semiconductors. How do these exceptional companies deliver superior perfor­mance over the long run despite facing the same constraints as competitors? What are they doing differently? What can we learn from them? Michael E. Raynor and Mumtaz Ahmed have analyzed data on more than 25,000 com­panies spanning forty-five years. Their five-year study began with a sophisticated statistical analysis to identify which companies have truly exceptional performance, 344 in all. In collaboration with teams of researchers, Raynor and Ahmed then put a carefully chosen representative sample of twenty-seven com­panies under the microscope to uncover what made the stand-out performers different. They found that exceptional companies, when faced with difficult decisions, follow three rules:Better before cheaper. They rarely compete on price.Revenue before cost. They drive profits through price and volume, not thrift.There are no other rules. Everything else is up for grabs, and they are willing to change anything to remain true to the first two rules. The rules provide an indispensable compass that any company can use to chart its own path to greatness. Is it better to keep price down or invest in creating value that commands a higher price? Should you focus on talent and develop­ing the abilities of your people or build processes to extend the capabilities of your organization? How about acquiring a sizable competitor to secure economies of scale—or a small start-up to gain access to new technology? According to Raynor and Ahmed, the right answers to these and just about every other question are the ones most closely aligned with the rules. The Three Rules is built on a powerful combina­tion of large-scale data analysis and in-depth case studies. Its guidance will increase the chance that your organization can become truly exceptional.

    No longer can we interrupt our customers with mediocre content and sales messages they don't care about.Epic Content Marketing takes you step-by-step through the process of developing stories that inform and entertain and compel customers to act--without actually telling them to. Epic content, distributed to the right person at the right time, is the way to truly capture the hearts and minds of customers. It's how to position your business as a trusted expert in its industry. It's what customers share and talk about.Once we hook customers with epic content, they reward us by sending our sales through the roof.Epic Content Marketing provides everything you need to:Determine what your content niche should be to attract and retain customersDiscover and develop your content marketing mission statementSet up a process for creating and curating epic contentLearn how to leverage social and e-mail channels to create--and grow--your audienceMeasure the performance of your content--and increase your content marketing budgetWith in-depth case studies of how John Deere, LEGO, Coca-Cola, and other leading corporations are using content to drive epic sales, this groundbreaking guide gives you all the tools to start creating and disseminating content that leads directly to greater profits and growth.Whether you're the CMO of a Fortune 500, a digital marketer, or an entrepreneur, Epic Content Marketing gives you the tools you need to vanquish the competition. Start your epic journey now!PRAISE FOR EPIC CONTENT MARKETINGFrom the man who invented content marketing. Listen to this guy. He really understands the new world of marketing. The concepts in Epic Content Marketing are usable all over the world--instantly usable and useful for any business. -- Don Schultz, the father of integrated marketing, Professor Emeritus at Northwestern University's Medill School of Journalism, and author of 13 booksJoe Pulizzi's ideas are so consistently . . . well, epic (!) that they really don't need any endorsement by anyone. But here's mine anyway: You don't need MORE content. You need the right kind of content, strategically applied. For those organizations struggling to create a content marketing program that drives results, Joe delivers. Again. -- Ann Handley, coauthor of Content Rules and Chief Content Officer, MarketingProfsAs Joe shows us in his wonderful Epic Content Marketing, you must unlearn interrupting people with your nonsense. Instead, publish the valuable content they want to consume and are eager to share. -- David Meerman Scott, marketing strategist and bestselling author of The New Rules of Marketing and PRThis is a brilliant canter through the rapid and ever-changing world of content marketing. Joe has managed to capture the right blend of art and science as he plots the major trends impacting all marketers right now. -- Jonathan Mildenhall, VP, Global Advertising Strategy and Creative Excellence, Coca-Cola CompanyYou could say that Joe Pulizzi wrote the book on content marketing, but now it's more than just a saying. It's what you're holding in your hands. If you truly want to be successful at content marketing, Pulizzi is one of the few who can show you the way. -- Mitch Joel, President, Twist Image, and author of Six Pixels of Separation and CTRL ALT Delete"Joe Pulizzi may know more about content marketing than any person alive. He proves it in these pages. -- Jay Baer, New York Times bestselling author of Youtility: Why Smart Marketing is About Help Not Hype"The future of successful brand building, and especially the art of solidifying the emotional connection between people and brands, will require expertise in Content Marketing. Epic Content Marketing gives all the details practitioners need without overcomplicating." -- Professor JoAnn Sciarrino, Knight Chair, Digital Advertising and Marketing, UNC Chapel Hill Joe Pulizzi is the godfather of our burgeoning profession of Content Marketing. He lays out the objectives, principles, and core strategies of our field in a way that's easy-to-understand, inspiring, and entertaining. If your company doesn't yet realize that it's a media company, with all the challenges and advantages that implies, you're missing the most powerful way to connect with your customers. -- Julie Fleischer, Director, Media & Consumer Engagement, Kraft Foods

    Marine Corps has been a paragon of world-class leadership, excelling in the areas of motivation, training, and management. Semper Fi -- which since its hardcover publication has become a best-selling, business leadership classic -- shows readers how to adapt these proven practices for their own organizations. Semper Fi goes behind the scenes to pinpoint what works for the USMC, showing readers how to create a training and management culture that brings out the best in all their employees. The book gives readers tough, practical tips for: * inspiring individual initiative * rewarding hard work * encouraging loyalty * working with limited resources * dealing with change * "leading the troops"" at every level of the organization. "This is not," according to Dan Rather, "one of those mumbo-jumbo, pseudo-philosophical books on leadership. Semper Fi is a book you will actually USE, read, and refer to again and again."

    Through the busts and booms of Silicon Valley in the early 2000s, this bold and inspiring book details the risks she took and the strategies she engaged to steer her family, her career, and her company MetricStream toward success.Through her journey, Shellye discovered that ambition alone is not enough to achieve success. Here, she shares the practical strategies, tools, and approaches readers can employ right now, including concrete steps to most effectively:Dismantle impostor syndromeCapitalize on the power of planningTake risksDeveloping financial literacyBuild your networkEstablish your reputationTake charge of your careerIntegrate work, marriage, parenthood, and self-careEach chapter lays out key takeaways and actions to increase the odds of achieving your personal and professional goals. With relatable personal stories that ground her advice in the real world and a foreword by leading venture capitalist and New York Times bestselling author Ben Horowitz, Unapologetically Ambitious invites readers to move beyond the solely supportive roles others expect them to fill, to learn how to carefully tread the thin line between assertive and aggressive, and to give themselves permission to strive for the top. Make no apologies for the height of your ambitions. Shellye Archambeau will show you how.

    It revitalizes organizations and invigorates the people in them, creating energy, a sense of purpose, and the glow of being on a winning team. Like the alchemy of old, it seeks to transform the everyday into the exalted by means that seem little short of magical. Yet growth is often elusive, achieved at unacceptable costs, or managed in fits and starts. Based on over three years of research and application at high-performing companies around the world, The Alchemy of Growth is a comprehensive, practical approach to initiating, achieving, and sustaining profitable growth -- today and tomorrow. As the book shows, the secret is to manage business opportunities across three time horizons at once: extending and defending core businesses, building new businesses, and seeding options for the future. The Alchemy of Growth offers managers at all levels the tools and concepts for investing in the right initiatives, capabilities, and talent to propel their companies into the future.

    With authors from Michael E. Porter to Katrina lake and company examples from Alibaba to 3M, this volume brings the most current and important management conversations right to your fingertips.THIS BOOK WILL INSPIRE YOU TO:1.Ask better questions to boost your learning, persuade others, and negotiate more effectively2.Create workplace conditions where gender equity can thrive3.Boost results by allowing humans and AI to enhance one another's strengths 4.Make better connections with your customers by giving them a glimpse inside your company5.Scale your agile processes from a few teams to hundreds6.Build a commitment to both economic and social values in your organization7.And prepare your company for a rapidly aging workforce and societyTHOSE CHOOSING THE AUDIBLE EDITION PLEASE TAKE NOTE:When you purchase this title, the accompanying PDF will be available in your Audible Library along with the audio.©2020 Harvard Business Publishing Corporation (P)2019 Gildan Media

    There was atime when this revered organization ranked among the lowest in the country in this area. Within ten years, however, it had climbed to among the highest and has emerged as the thought leader in the space.How did Cleveland Clinic turn itself around so effectively and so quickly?More important, how can you do the same with your organization?In gripping, visceral, on-the ground fashion, Service Fanatics reveals the strategies and tactics the Clinic applied to become one of today's leading patient-experience healthcare organizations--methods that seamlessly translate to any business seeking to improveits customer experience. This strategic guide covers:How the Clinic's leaders redefined the concept of patient experience and developed a strategy to improve itCritical lessons learned regarding organization, recruitment, training, and measuring service excellenceWays in which the Clinic aligned its entire workforce around its Patients First strategyHow leaders improved the critical element of physician communicationRather than view patients simply as sick people who need treatment, Cleveland Clinic sees them also as important stakeholders in the organization's success. Patients are customers--who desire, pay for, and deserve the best possible care and experience during what is often a challenging time in their lives.Featuring customer service case studies, as well as invaluable insight from C-level executives at top corporations in various industries, Service Fanatics provides actionable lessons for any manager and business leader beyond healthcare.Whether you run a healthcare institution, nonprofit, or for-profit business, Service Fanatics will help you create the kind of customer experience that promises to transform your organization into an industry powerhouse.

    Professionals from poets and painters to scientists and engineers have also used the techniques in this concise, powerful book to generate exciting ideas on demand, at any time, on any subject. Now let James Webb Young's unique insights help you look inside yourself to find that big, elusive idea--and once and for all lift the veil of mystery from the creative process."James Webb Young is in the tradition of some of our greatest thinkers when he describes the workings of the creative process. The results of many years in advertising have proved to him that the key element in communications success is the production of relevant and dramatic ideas. He not only makes this point vividly for us but shows us the road to that goal."--William Bernbach, Former Chairman and CEO, Doyle Dane Bernbach Inc.

    All I Need to Know About Manufacturing I Learned in Joe's Garage: World Class Manufacturing Made Simple

    Topics covered range from the difference between deductive and inductive reasoning, to a discussion of how to highlight the structure of information.

    Yet certain challenges never go away. That's what makes this book "must read." These are the 10 seminal articles by management's most influential experts, on topics of perennial concern to ambitious managers and leaders hungry for inspiration--and ready to run with big ideas to accelerate their own and their companies' success.If you read nothing else - full stop - read:Michael Porter on creating competitive advantage and distinguishing your company from rivalsJohn Kotter on leading change through eight critical stagesDaniel Goleman on using emotional intelligence to maximize performancePeter Drucker on managing your career by evaluating your own strengths and weaknessesClay Christensen on orchestrating innovation within established organizationsTom Davenport on using analytics to determine how to keep your customers loyalRobert Kaplan and David Norton on measuring your company's strategy with the Balanced ScorecardRosabeth Moss Kanter on avoiding common mistakes when pushing innovation forwardTed Levitt on understanding who your customers are and what they really wantC. K. Prahalad and Gary Hamel on identifying the unique, integrated systems that support your strategy

    A rich tapestry of anecdotes, object lessons, parodies, insights, and predictions, The Cluetrain Manifesto illustrates how the Internet has radically reframed the seemingly immutable laws of business--and what business needs to know to weather the seismic aftershocks.

    Schaefer shows you how to use the latest breakthroughs in social networking and influence marketing to achieve your goals through:In-depth explanations of the sources of online influence—and how they can work for or against youInterviews with more than 50 experts, including tech blogger Robert Scoble, Influence author Robert Cialdini, and industry thought leaders such as Mitch Joel, Jay Baer, and Christopher S. PennAn insider’s look at the controversial social scoring company Klout and its process for assigning influence numbers to everyonePractical, actionable tips to increase your own personal power and online influenceMore than a dozen original social influence marketing case studiesEven if you already use social media platforms such as Facebook, LinkedIn, YouTube, Twitter, or blogging to maintain an online presence, this eye-opening, action-ready guide shows you how to reach the “superconnectors” who ignite epidemics through word-of-mouth influence . . . and become one yourself.This is the future of marketing at your fingertips: low-cost, high-speed, influence driven, and powerful. Filled with fascinating case studies, interviews, and insider advice, this essential guide prepares you for the next wave of social networking. This is how to win friends and influence people in the digital age—with a Return on Influence.

    Crossing the Chasm has become the bible for bringing cutting-edge products to progressively larger markets. This edition provides new insights into the realities of high-tech marketing, with special emphasis on the Internet. It's essential reading for anyone with a stake in the world's most exciting marketplace.

    500 CEOs.An instant classic, this revised and updated edition of the phenomenal bestseller dispels the myths about starting your own business. Small business consultant and author Michael E. Gerber, with sharp insight gained from years of experience, points out how common assumptions, expectations, and even technical expertise can get in the way of running a successful business.Gerber walks you through the steps in the life of a business—from entrepreneurial infancy through adolescent growing pains to the mature entrepreneurial perspective: the guiding light of all businesses that succeed—and shows how to apply the lessons of franchising to any business, whether or not it is a franchise. Most importantly, Gerber draws the vital, often overlooked distinction between working on your business and working in your business.The E-Myth Revisited will help you grow your business in a productive, assured way.