The Art of Pricing: How to Find the Hidden Profits to Grow Your Business
Rafi Mohammed - 2005
The result is that businesses of all sizes, from start-ups to the Fortune 100, leave money on the table. In The Art of Pricing, Rafi Mohammed, one of the world’s leading experts on pricing strategy, shows:• The astonishing impact that small changes to a pricing strategy can have on the bottom line• How the right pricing strategy can boost profits and grow your customer base • Why the right way to think about pricing is as a series of easy-to-implement strategies that allow companies to serve and profit from the largest possible customer base• Why the art of pricing involves understanding and capitalizing on the fact that different customer segments are willing to pay different prices for the same product • Why an effective pricing strategy is not about price gouging but one that incorporates fairness into every important pricing decisionThe Art of Pricing will be the invaluable missing link for people running companies, departments, divisions, and product lines, as well as for those in sales and marketing. Dr. Mohammed shows that an effective pricing strategy helps complete the circle by reaping the rewards due for the enormous effort, creativity, and investment made in developing and marketing products and services. Using a range of examples, from neighborhood restaurants to huge companies like Ford, he shows the importance of not falling short—and shortchanging yourself—when it comes to the heretofore little understood art of pricing. Also available as an eBook
Bedtime Stories for Managers: Farewell, Lofty Leadership . . . Welcome, Engaging Management
Henry Mintzberg - 2019
(There is a cow, but it doesn't jump.) Henry Mintzberg has culled forty-two of the best posts from his widely read blog and turned them into a deceptively light, sneakily serious compendium of sometimes heretical reflections on management.The moral here is this: managers need to leave their castles and find out what's actually going on in their kingdoms. And like real bedtime stories, these essays have metaphors galore. So prepare to grow strategies like weeds and organize like a cow. Discover the maestro myth of managing, find the soft underbelly of hard data, and learn why downsizing is bloodletting and your board should be a bee. Mintzberg writes, Just try not to be outraged by anything you read, because some of my most outrageous ideas turn out to be my best. They just take a while to become obvious.
Beyond Blame: Learning From Failure and Success
Dave Zwieback - 2015
Our increasingly complex world demands that we continuously learn from failures (and successes) in order to survive and thrive. And yet, our learning is too often undermined. We construct biased but comfortable stories, which often feature a simple, single "root cause"--a villain, someone to take the blame. Having done that, we short-circuit the possibility of developing any deeper understanding of the complex systems we work with. With this common approach, our systems will become more fragile and drift into failure. In this concise and entertaining book, I.T. veteran Dave Zwieback describes an incident that threatens the very existence of a large financial institution, and the counterintuitive steps its leadership took to stop the downward spiral. Their novel approach is grounded in proven concepts from complexity science, resilience engineering, human factors, cognitive science, and organizational psychology. It allows us to identify the underlying conditions for failure, and make our systems (and organizations) safer and more resilient.- Get a clear understanding of the downside of blame- Learn how to identify (and counteract) cognitive biases in groups- See how organizations can determine the real root cause of problems- Establish real accountability with your organization- Use the Learning Review Framework to fully learn from failures of complex systems- Find practical insights and tips for moving beyond blame in your own organization
Your World-Class Assistant: Hiring, Training, and Leveraging an Executive Assistant
Michael Hyatt - 2019
Get Rid of the Performance Review!: How Companies Can Stop Intimidating, Start Managing--and Focus on What Really Matters
Samuel A. Culbert - 2010
It is one of the most insidious, most damaging, and yet most ubiquitous of corporate activities. We all hate it. And yet nobody does anything about it. Until now... Straight-talking Sam Culbert, management guru and UCLA professor, minces no words as he puts managers on notice that -- with the performance review as their weapon of choice -- they have built a corporate culture based on intimidation and fear. Teaming up with Wall Street Journal Senior Editor Lawrence Rout, he shows us why performance reviews are bogus and how they undermine both creativity and productivity. And he puts a good deal of the blame squarely on human resources professionals, who perpetuate the very practice that they should be trying to eliminate. But Culbert does more than merely tear down. He also offers a substitute -- the performance preview -- that will actually accomplish the tasks that performance reviews were supposed to, but never will: holding people accountable for their actions and their results, and giving managers and their employees the kind of feedback they need for improving their skills and to give the company more of what it needs. With passion, humor, and a rare insight into what motivates all of us to do our best, Culbert offers all of us a chance to be better managers, better employees and, indeed, better people. Culbert has long said his goal is to make the world of work fit for human consumption. "Get Rid of the Performance Review!" shows us how to do just that.
Friction: Passion Brands in the Age of Distruption
Jeff Rosenblum - 2017
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.
Corps Business: The 30 Management Principles of the U.S. Marines
David H. Freedman - 2000
The result: Though often faced with extraordinarily dynamic and complex challenges, the Marines get the job done every time.Their secret? Don't think boot camp. Instead, the Marines have refined a wide-ranging system of management practices that have undergone continuous evolution under the most demanding conditions conceivable. Armed with these straightforward principles, any organization can achieve the high-impact responsiveness demanded by today's ultra-competitive, fast-changing business environments.In Corps Business, author David H. Freedman brings these principles--and their application to the business world--to light in clear, fascinating form. Freedman brings you along to observe, firsthand the high-speed Marine environment, where you'll take part in urban combat practice maneuvers, sit in on mission planning sessions, spend time on a "floating invasion party," and participate in a live-fire combat exercise. Along the way, you'll tap the wisdom of scores of Marines from three-star generals to grunts. Here are some examples:Managing by end-state--Tell people what needs to be accomplished and why, and leave the details to them.The 70-percent solution--It's better to decide quickly on an imperfect plan than to spend time considering every angle and roll out a perfect plan when it's too late.Authority on demand--While retaining a strong management pyramid, encourage people even at the lowest levels to make any and all decisions necessary to accomplish the mission when management guidance isn't at hand.Anyone facing entrenched or predatory competitors, short time frames, chaotic markets, and obstacles in every direction, has a simple choice: Learn to move fast, change on the fly, and inspire employees--or die. The Marines are here to help.With a foreword by Gen. Charles C. Krulak, Thirty-first Commandant of the United States Marine Corps.
Operation Lighthouse: Reflections on our Family's Devastating Story of Coercive Control and Domestic Homicide
Luke Hart - 2018
He then committed suicide. Luke and Ryan Hart, the two surviving sons, open up about their experiences growing up and the circumstances surrounding the murders. They hope to highlight the patterns of behaviour in coercive control and its deadly consequences, improving public awareness and leading to informed discussion on domestic abuse.
Welcome to Management: How to Grow from Top Performer to Excellent Leader
Ryan Hawk - 2020
In Welcome to Management, Ryan Hawk provides practical, actionable advice and tools designed to ensure that transition is a successful one.He presents a new actionable three-part framework distilled from best practices drawn from in-depth interviews with over 300 of the most forward-thinking leaders around the world, as well as his own professional experience going from exceptional individual producer to new leader. Learn how to:- lead yourself build skills and earn credibility. Compliance can be commanded, but commitment cannot. People reserve their full capacity for emotional commitment for leaders they find credible, and credibility must be earned.- build your team develop a healthy and sustainable culture of mutual trust and respect that creates cohesion. This includes effective hiring and firing practices.- lead your team: set a clear strategy and vision for your team, communicate effectively, and ultimately drive the results the organization is counting on your team to deliver.Through case studies, hundreds of interviews, and personal stories, the book will help high performers make the leap from individual contributor to manager with greater ease, grace, courage, and effectiveness. Welcome to management!
Trying Hard Is Not Good Enough
Mark Friedman - 2005
It has been used in over 40 states and seven countries outside the U.S. He provides practical methods for taking action together that are simple and common sense, that use plain language, produce minimum paper and are actually useful to managers, community members and decision-makers. The book's Results Accountability framework can be used to improve the quality of life in communities, cities, counties, states and nations, including everything from the well-being of children to the creation of a sustainable environment. It can help government and private sector agencies improve the performance of their programs and make them more customer-friendly and effective. Results Accountability is a common sense approach that replaces all the complicated jargon-laden methods foisted on us in the past. The methods can be learned and applied quickly, and all the materials are free for use by government and non-profit organizations and for-profit organizations of five persons or less. In addition to presenting practical methods, this book is also makes a contribution to social theory. The book makes a clear distinction between population and performance accountability. While public and private organizations bear responsibility for their own performance, no organization can claim ownership of the well-being of a whole population. Population accountability is not an extension of performance accountability but a separate, and perpetually unfinished, collective enterprise. The book clearly and completely explains the differences and connections betweenthese two forms of accountability. The Results Accountability progression of thought from results to experience, measures, baselines, story, partners, what works and action can be applied to any population challenge from the highest level consideration of world peace to the economic prosperity of nations and states to the safety of children in a particular community. The same thought progression can be applied to any performance accountability challenge from the management of whole governments to large public and private sector agencies to the smallest program and finally to our personal lives. Results accountability may be the only planning framework of this scope.
Creating Public Value: Strategic Management in Government
Mark H. Moore - 1995
Useful for both practicing public executives and those who teach them, this book explicates some of the richest of several hundred cases used at Harvard's Kennedy School of Government and illuminates their broader lessons for government managers. Moore addresses four questions that have long bedeviled public administration: What should citizens and their representatives expect and demand from public executives? What sources can public managers consult to learn what is valuable for them to produce? How should public managers cope with inconsistent and fickle political mandates? How can public managers find room to innovate?Moore's answers respond to the well-understood difficulties of managing public enterprises in modern society by recommending specific, concrete changes in the practices of individual public managers: how they envision what is valuable to produce, how they engage their political overseers, and how they deliver services and fulfill obligations to clients. Following Moore's cases, we witness dilemmas faced by a cross section of public managers--William Ruckelshaus and the Environmental Protection Agency, Jerome Miller and the Department of Youth Services, Miles Mahoney and the Park Plaza Redevelopment Project, David Sencer and the swine flu scare, Lee Brown and the Houston Police Department, Harry Spence and the Boston Housing Authority. Their work, together with Moore's analysis, reveals how public managers can achieve their true goal of producing public value.
Business Research Methods [with Qualtrics Card]
William G. Zikmund - 1984
Its student-friendly design contains numerous examples illustrating real-world research in management, marketing, finance, accounting, and other business areas. BUSINESS RESEARCH METHODS, 8E, is the ideal text for undergraduate and first year MBA courses in marketing, management, or quantitative studies.
Changing How the World Does Business: Fedex's Incredible Journey to Success - The Inside Story
Roger Frock - 2006
The company's early years were an unending series of legal, financial, and operational crises that continually threatened its ability to stay in business. Yet FedEx's leaders and employees were incredibly resourceful and resilient. Pilots used personal credit cards to gas up planes, paychecks weren't cashed, and in one of the most famous episodes, founder Fred Smith literally gambled the company's last remaining funds to keep the planes flying. Becuase Roger Frock was with the companies from the start, he is able to chronicle these real-life hardships and hard-fought triumphs as only an insider can. With humor and insight, he describes how FedEx overcame impossible odds to become one of the world's greatest success stories, a revolutionary company that truly changed the way the world does business.
The Day After Tomorrow: How to Survive in Times of Radical Innovation
Peter Hinssen - 2017
This is a great read about the future of business, aimed at those who want to witness the potential of this age of disruption. Adam Pisoni, CEO at Abl Schools, Co-founder of Responsive.org and Co-founder of Yammer. "Peter Hinssen has done it again! The Day After Tomorrow is a provocative and inspiring book that will challenge you, educate you and open your eyes to possibilities that you never thought existed. A must-read for any organization that wants to prepare for disruptive changes." Costas Markides, Professor of Strategy and Entrepreneurship at London Business School. "Many futurists entice us with fanciful notions. Peter Hinssen, however, manages the impossible, combining a stunning clear vision of the future with a compelling but concrete framework to act on now." Eddie Obeng, Professor at Pentacle The Virtual Business School For today s organizations, our exponentially changing world has come with great consequences. In this book, Peter Hinssen tells the story of the pioneers who managed to adapt to those changes and who moved beyond today and even tomorrow in their approach to innovation. In doing so, they were able to change the course of entire industries. Peter's book focuses on the business models of these pioneers, on the organizational culture, the talent, the mindset and the technology we should tap into in order to maximize our chances for survival in the 'Day After Tomorrow'. It will shift your perspective on your future, on the future or your company and even that of your grandchildren.
Managing Projects Large and Small: The Fundamental Skills for Delivering on Budget and on Time
Richard A. Luecke - 2004
This book walks managers through every step of project oversight from start to finish. Thanks to the book's comprehensive information on everything from planning and budgeting to team building and after-project reviews, managers will master the discipline and skills they need to achieve stellar results without wasting time and money.
