At under 200 pages it's quick reading too. Makes a great airplane book.

    The real transformation--and the real opportunity--is just beginning.Subscription companies are growing nine times faster than the S&P 500. Why? Because unlike product companies, subscription companies know their customers. A happy subscriber base is the ultimate economic moat. Today's consumers prefer the advantages of access over the hassles of maintenance, from transportation (Uber, Surf Air), to clothing (Stitch Fix, Eleven James), to razor blades and makeup (Dollar Shave Club, Birchbox). Companies are similarly demanding easier, long-term solutions, trading their server rooms for cloud storage solutions like Box. Simply put, the world is shifting from products to services.But how do you turn customers into subscribers? As the CEO of the world's largest subscription management platform, Tien Tzuo has helped hundreds of companies transition from relying on individual sales to building customer-centric, recurring-revenue businesses. His core message in Subscribed is simple: Ready or not, excited or terrified, you need to adapt to the Subscription Economy -- or risk being left behind.Tzuo shows how to use subscriptions to build lucrative, ongoing one-on-one relationships with your customers. This may require reinventing substantial parts of your company, from your accounting practices to your entire IT architecture, but the payoff can be enormous. Just look at the case studies:  *   Adobe transitions from selling enterprise software licenses to offering cloud-based solutions for a flat monthly fee, and quadruples its valuation.  *   Fender evolves from selling guitars one at a time to creating lifelong musicians by teaching beginners to play, and keeping them inspired for life.  *   Caterpillar uses subscriptions to help solve problems -- it's not about how many tractors you can rent, but how much dirt you need to move. In Subscribed, you'll learn how these companies made the shift, and how you can transform your own product into a valuable service with a practical, step-by-step framework. Find out how how you can prepare and prosper now, rather than trying to catch up later.

    In barely six years, a small group of young, ambitious programmers in Silicon Valley built an $11.5 billion business out of the ashes of a failed podcasting company. Today Twitter boasts more than 200 million active users and has affected business, politics, media, and other fields in innumerable ways. Now Nick Bilton of the New York Times takes readers behind the scenes with a narrative that shows what happened inside Twitter as it grew at exponential speeds. This is a tale of betrayed friendships and high-stakes power struggles as the four founders—Biz Stone, Evan Williams, Jack Dorsey, and Noah Glass—went from everyday engineers to wealthy celebrities, featured on magazine covers, Oprah, The Daily Show, and Time’s list of the world’s most influential people. Bilton’s exclusive access and exhaustive investigative reporting—drawing on hundreds of sources, documents, and internal e-mails—have enabled him to write an intimate portrait of fame, influence, and power. He also captures the zeitgeist and global influence of Twitter, which has been used to help overthrow governments in the Middle East and disrupt the very fabric of the way people communicate.

    These specialists have begun forming shops of their own - the new modern version of the agency. Increased marketing fragmentation and brand's need for specialists means that the time has never been better for a freelancers or niche service providers to build their own small firms. All they're missing is the guidance they need to find their footing.While specialist agencies and freelancers are highly skilled, most have a lot to learn about the mechanics of starting and running an agency. Many of these specialists come from a different background than those who traditionally started agencies: they come from the internet, not the ad world. In Agency, Rick Webb provides a comprehensive guidebook - giving readers the knowledge, strategies, and understanding they'll need to make the exciting transition into a modern creative services firm. Drawing from his experience running his own digital ad agency and working with countless innovative tech start-ups, Webb focuses not just on how to get started, but how to survive in a competitive marketplace. This is a hands-on master class in everything that the agency manager needs to know. From understanding small business banking, to deciding how to price a job and manage procurement, to winning new business, Agency provides everything from basic business and leadership skills to insider tips and industry information. Webb outlines the shape of the ecosystem in which new agencies will be finding their place. Packed with personal anecdotes from his time starting and running the highly successful Barbarian Group, Webb provides practical techniques for building an agile company.Modern agency upstarts need a different sort of education, and Agency provides a remarkable crash course.

    When CEOs think about the supply chain, it's usually to cut costs. But the smartest leaders see supply chain and sourcing for what they can be: hidden tools for outperforming the competition. Steve Jobs, upon returning to Apple in 1997, focused on transforming the supply chain. He hired Tim Cook-and the company sped up the development of new products, getting them into consumers' hands faster. The rest is history. Across a range of industries, once-leading companies are in trouble: Walmart, IBM, Pfizer, HP, and The Gap to name a few. But others thrive. While competitors were shutting stores, Zara's highly responsive supply chain made it the most valued company in the retail space and its founder, the richest man in Europe. The success of TJX, Amazon, Starbucks, and Airbus, is fueled by supply chain and sourcing. Showcasing real solutions, The Supply Chain Revolution will: Improve customer satisfaction and increase revenue * Make alliances more successful * Simplify and debottleneck the supply chain * Boost retail success by managing store investment * Drive excellence Technology is disrupting business models. Strategies must change. The Supply Chain Revolution flips conventional thinking and offers a powerful way for companies to compete in challenging times.

    From researching the competition to translating the vision of the CEO, to designing and implementing an integrated brand identity programme, the meticulous development process of designing a brand identity is presented through a highly visible step-by-step approach in five phases.

    But it's not easy to do. Delegating Work quickly walks you through the fundamentals of: Establishing a productive environment Assigning the right work to the right people Conducting an effective hand-off meeting Monitoring without micromanaging Don't have much time? Get up to speed fast on the most essential business skills with HBR's 20-Minute Manager series. Whether you need a crash course or a brief refresher, each book in the series is a concise, practical primer that will help you brush up on a key management topic. Advice you can quickly read and apply, for ambitious professionals and aspiring executives--from the most trusted source in business. Also available as an ebook.

    They have a loud voice, a wealth of choice and their expectations are higher than ever. This book covers ten principles you can use to make real world improvements to your customers’ experiences, whatever your business does and whoever you are. For managers, leaders and those starting a new business, the book shows that making improvements customers will appreciate doesn’t need to be complicated or cost a fortune.

    We’ve combed through hundreds of Harvard Business Review articles and selected the most important ones to help you transition from being an outstanding individual contributor to becoming a great manager of others. This book will inspire you to: Develop your emotional intelligence Influence your colleagues through the science of persuasion Assess your team and enhance its performance Network effectively to achieve business goals and for personal advancement Navigate relationships with employees, bosses, and peers Get support from above View the big picture in your decision making Balance your team’s work and personal life in a high-intensity workplace This collection of articles includes “Becoming the Boss,” by Linda A. Hill; “Leading the Team You Inherit,” by Michael D. Watkins; “Saving Your Rookie Managers from Themselves,” by Carol A. Walker; “Managing the High-Intensity Workplace,” by Erin Reid and Lakshmi Ramarajan; “Harnessing the Science of Persuasion,” Robert B. Cialdini; “What Makes a Leader?” by Daniel Goleman; “The Authenticity Paradox,” by Herminia Ibarra; “Managing Your Boss,” by John J. Gabarro and John P. Kotter; “How Leaders Create and Use Networks,” by Herminia Ibarra and Mark Lee Hunter; “Management Time: Who’s Got the Monkey?” by William Oncken, Jr., and Donald L. Wass; and BONUS ARTICLE: “How Managers Become Leaders,” by Michael D. Watkins.

    Reprint. 25,000 first printing.

    But how can you be the person who comes up with those ideas? In this revised and expanded edition of his groundbreaking Thinkertoys, creativity expert Michael Michalko reveals life-changing tools that will help you think like a genius. From the linear to the intuitive, this comprehensive handbook details ingenious creative-thinking techniques for approaching problems in unconventional ways. Through fun and thought-provoking exercises, you’ll learn how to create original ideas that will improve your personal life and your business life. Michalko’s techniques show you how to look at the same information as everyone else and see something different.  With hundreds of hints, tricks, tips, tales, and puzzles, Thinkertoys will open your mind to a world of innovative solutions to everyday and not-so-everyday problems.

    We're rebelling against technology that's too complicated, DVD players with too many menus, and software accompanied by 75-megabyte "read me" manuals. The iPod's clean gadgetry has made simplicity hip. But sometimes we find ourselves caught up in the simplicity paradox: we want something that's simple and easy to use, but also does all the complex things we might ever want it to do. In The Laws of Simplicity, John Maeda offers ten laws for balancing simplicity and complexity in business, technology, and design—guidelines for needing less and actually getting more.Maeda—a professor in MIT's Media Lab and a world-renowned graphic designer—explores the question of how we can redefine the notion of "improved" so that it doesn't always mean something more, something added on.Maeda's first law of simplicity is "Reduce." It's not necessarily beneficial to add technology features just because we can. And the features that we do have must be organized (Law 2) in a sensible hierarchy so users aren't distracted by features and functions they don't need. But simplicity is not less just for the sake of less. Skip ahead to Law 9: "Failure: Accept the fact that some things can never be made simple." Maeda's concise guide to simplicity in the digital age shows us how this idea can be a cornerstone of organizations and their products—how it can drive both business and technology. We can learn to simplify without sacrificing comfort and meaning, and we can achieve the balance described in Law 10. This law, which Maeda calls "The One," tells us: "Simplicity is about subtracting the obvious, and adding the meaningful."

    Two leaders in the requirements community have teamed up to deliver a contemporary set of practices covering the full range of requirements development and management activities on software projects. Describes practical, effective, field-tested techniques for managing the requirements engineering process from end to end. Provides examples demonstrating how requirements "good practices" can lead to fewer change requests, higher customer satisfaction, and lower development costs. Fully updated with contemporary examples and many new practices and techniques. Describes how to apply effective requirements practices to agile projects and numerous other special project situations. Targeted to business analysts, developers, project managers, and other software project stakeholders who have a general understanding of the software development process. Shares the insights gleaned from the authors' extensive experience delivering hundreds of software-requirements training courses, presentations, and webinars.New chapters are included on specifying data requirements, writing high-quality functional requirements, and requirements reuse. Considerable depth has been added on business requirements, elicitation techniques, and nonfunctional requirements. In addition, new chapters recommend effective requirements practices for various special project situations, including enhancement and replacement, packaged solutions, outsourced, business process automation, analytics and reporting, and embedded and other real-time systems projects.

    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?

    However, due to the complexities of warehouse operations they can often be one of the most costly parts of the supply chain. Their efficient management is therefore critical for minimizing cost and contributing to an effective and efficient supply chain. Warehouse Management provides a complete guide to best practice in warehouse operations. Covering everything from the latest technological advances to current environmental issues, this book provides an indispensable companion to the modern warehouse. Supported by case studies, the text considers many aspects of warehouse management, including: -cost reduction -productivity -people management -warehouse operations Backed up with numerous case studies that demonstrate how to apply new technology, minimize spending, and create efficient, stream-lined operations, this book is an invaluable resource for warehouse managers, logistics professionals, operations managers and students of logistics.