The Power of Starting Something Stupid: How to Crush Fear, Make Dreams Happen, and Live without Regret


Richie Norton - 2012
    No more excuses. Learn how to start something stupid—the smartest thing you can do.Drawing on years of research, including hundreds of face-to-face interviews and some of the world’s greatest success stories past and present, Richie shows you how stupid is the New Smart—the common denominator for success, creativity, and innovation in business and life.

What I Wish I Knew When I Was 20


Tina Seelig - 2009
    It is scary to face a wall of choices, knowing that no one is going to tell us whether or not we are making the right decision. There is no clearly delineated path or recipe for success. Even figuring out how and where to start can be a challenge. That is, until now.As executive director of the Stanford Technology Ventures Program, Tina Seelig guides her students as they make the difficult transition from the academic environment to the professional world, providing tangible skills and insights that will last a lifetime. Seelig is an entrepreneur, neuroscientist, and popular teacher, and in What I Wish I Knew When I Was 20 she shares with us what she offers her students—provocative stories, inspiring advice, and a big dose of humility and humor.These pages are filled with fascinating examples, from the classroom to the boardroom, of individuals defying expectations, challenging assumptions, and achieving amazing success. Seelig throws out the old rules and provides a new model for reaching our highest potential. We discover how to have a healthy disregard for the impossible, how to recover from failure, and how most problems are remarkable opportunities in disguise.What I Wish I Knew When I Was 20 is a much-needed book for everyone looking to make their mark on the world.

Managers Not MBAs: A Hard Look at the Soft Practice of Managing and Management Development


Henry Mintzberg - 2004
    "Using the classroom to help develop people already practicing management is a fine idea, but pretending to create managers out of people who have never managed is a sham."Leaders cannot be created in a classroom. They arise in context. But people who already practice management can significantly improve their effectiveness given the opportunity to learn thoughtfully from their own experience. Mintzberg calls for a more engaging approach to managing and a more reflective approach to management education. He also outlines how business schools can become true schools of management.

New Sales. Simplified.: The Essential Handbook for Prospecting and New Business Development


Mike Weinberg - 2012
    Packed with tested strategies and anecdotes, New Sales. Simplified. offers a proven formula for prospecting, developing, and closing deals.With refreshing honesty and some much-needed humor, sales expert Mike Weinberg examines the critical mistakes made by most salespeople and executives, then provides tips to help you achieve the opposite results.In New Sales. Simplified., you will learn how to:Identify a strategic list of genuine prospectsDraft a compelling, customer focused “sales story”Perfect the proactive telephone call to get face to face with more prospectsUse email, voicemail, and social media to your advantagePrepare for and structure a winning sales callMake time in your calendar for business development activitiesNew Sales. Simplified. is about overcoming and even preventing buyers’ anti salesperson reflex by establishing trust. This book will help you choose the right targets and build a winning plan to pursue them.Named by Hubpot as a Top 20 Sales Book of All Time, this easy-to-follow guide will remove the mystery surrounding prospecting and have you ramping up for new business.

Secret Service: Hidden Systems That Deliver Unforgettable Customer Service


John R. DiJulius - 2002
    These organizations reap the benefits of greater customer loyalty, exponentially expanded referral networks, lower employee turnover, and stronger bottom-line results. By quantifying and examining each phase of the ""Customer Experience Cycle,"" Secret Service reveals clever, practical ideas that can be transformed into repeatable best practices in any organization and at every level. Packed with examples applicable to a wide range of industries, this book provides practical, realistic ways to: * Turn customer complaints into positive experiences * Use marketing to go deeper with existing customers * Increase customer and employee retention, and turn bland customer service into truly memorable customer experiences"

Why We Buy: The Science of Shopping


Paco Underhill - 1999
    Why We Buy is based on hard data gleaned from thousands of hours of field research–in shopping malls, department stores, and supermarkets across America. With his team of sleuths tracking our every move, Paco Underhill lays bare the struggle among merchants, marketers, and increasingly knowledgeable consumers for control.

The 80/20 Principle: The Secret to Achieving More with Less


Richard Koch - 1997
    Although the 80/20 principle has long influenced today's business world, author Richard Koch reveals how the principle works and shows how we can use it in a systematic and practical way to vastly increase our effectiveness, and improve our careers and our companies.The unspoken corollary to the 80/20 principle is that little of what we spend our time on actually counts. But by concentrating on those things that do, we can unlock the enormous potential of the magic 20 percent, and transform our effectiveness in our jobs, our careers, our businesses, and our lives.

The Dentsu Way: Secrets of Cross Switch Marketing from the World's Most Innovative Advertising Agency


Kotaro Sugiyama - 2010
    In a world saturated with marketing messages, making your offering relevant is your biggest challenge. Dentsu's Cross Switch model meets it head on.The Dentsu Way shares proven tactics for getting your message to consumers and creating scenarios to move them through calibrated Contact Points to meet whatever specific goal you set.This game-changing book:Explains Dentsu's 110-year history and unique service structure, as well as its broad range of business fieldsIntroduces ten case studies of successful campaigns, which have won international advertising awards at events such as the Cannes Lions International Advertising Festival and ADFESTProvides nine of Dentsu's newest original tools and analysis methodsGain broader, more meaningful customer involvement and penetrate more deeply than ever into your market by following the Dentsu Way.

Anything You Want


Derek Sivers - 2011
    In Anything You Want, Sivers details his journey and the lessons learned along the way of creating CD Baby and building a business close to his heart. “[Sivers is] one of the last music-business folk heroes,” says Esquire magazine. His less-scripted approach to business is refreshing and will educate readers to feel empowered to follow their own dreams. Aspiring entrepreneurs and others trying to make their own way will be particularly comforted by Sivers straight talk and transparency -a reminder that anything you want is within your reach. Anything You Want is also available in a 5 pack, 52 pack and very limited edition Collectible, signed by Derek.

Little Black Book for Stunning Success + Tools for Action Mastery


Robin S. Sharma - 2016
    Discover the mindsets of the best, install the rituals of the icons, run the habits of the heroes and massive improvements will be yours for the taking. In The Little Black Book of stunning success, Robin Sharma - one of the true masters of leadership + elite performance on the planet - shares the potent insights that have helped so many people just like you do legendary work, live remarkable lives and lift everyone around them in the process. If you're truly ready to live your dreams, this book is your fuel. Dream. Dare. Lead. Learn. Craft. Create. Produce. Perfect. Iterate. Optimize. Inspire. Impact. Win. Repeat. Push. Rest. Love. Live.

Talk Less, Say More: 3 Habits to Influence Others and Make Things Happen


Connie Dieken - 2009
    Connie's forward-thinking, actionable communication shortcuts can elevate anyone's game."—Bruce Carbonari Chairman & CEO, Fortune Brands "Connie Dieken's three-step strategy is a smart, practical guide for business leaders and others who want to create a high-performance culture. It's an important, powerful book on how to master communication in the 21st century."—Tom Swidarski President & CEO, Diebold "Thanks to Connie's communication expertise, she makes it easy for anyone to transform from a good communicator into an excellent one. Her three simple principles are based on real-world experiences and demonstrate the power of a strong communicator."—David Lingafelter President, Moen Incorporated "Connie Dieken is a true communication virtuoso and a genuine phenomenon. She is on a mission to elevate our ability to communicate. Talk Less, Say More should be required reading for all leaders and emerging leaders. It can instantly transform the way people respond to you, giving you the power to deliver brief, clear messages that influence the world."—Robert Johnson Managing Counsel, McDonald's Corporation

The Right-Brain Business Plan: A Creative, Visual Map for Success


Jennifer Lee - 2011
    The key is using, rather than stifling, imagination and intuition. Lee's illustrated, colorful worksheets and step-by-step instructions are playful yet practical, transforming drudgery into joy. They'll enable you to define your vision and nail down plans for funding, marketing, networking, and long-term strategy.Discover how to:* Develop a financial plan with fun and flair * Select your circle of support to get the work done* Clarify your business values and goals * Paint a picture of your business landscape* Understand your competition and what makes you stand out from the crowd* Identify your perfect customers and create a marketing plan to reach them* Map out concrete action steps to bring your Right-Brain Business Plan to life

Execution: The Discipline of Getting Things Done


Larry Bossidy - 2002
    This smart and pithy book focuses on a simple though vexing challenge: How can the leaders of an organization exhort their people to deliver on the most important goals?....It's rare to find a book like this that blends smart practice with intelligent articulation of how to get things done. Do yourself a favor. Buy it." --The Boston Globe"Making all of the moving parts of an organization function smoothly together is just plain hard work. By describing how he has done it, Mr. Bossidy has come up with a valuable and practical management guide that is must-reading for everyone who cares about business." --The New York Times"If you want to be a CEO--or if you are a CEO and want to keep your job--read Execution and put its principles to work." --Michael Dell, chairman and CEO, Dell Computer Corp."A how-to book for the can-do boss....If even half the corporations in America pondered their suggestions, the economy would be in much better shape. Moreover, Bossidy and Charan boast an impressive enough track record that anyone who wants to stay sharp at the helm will welcome their assistance." --BusinessWeek"Sound, practical advice on how to make things happen." --Ralph S. Larsen, chairman and CEO, Johnson & Johnson"Here's the real deal.... This is no-nonsense stuff.... The leaders who sweat the small stuff, hire the right people, make the tough decisions and stick around to see that they're carried out are the real winners.... Forget the swarmy memoirs, cheesy parables, advice for idiots, and leadership secrets of despots and barbarians. Getting it done is, according to Bossidy and Charan, the only way to grow." --The Miami Herald"Captures a lifetime of building winning formulas and puts them in a simple, practical context for executives at any level." --Ivan Seidenberg, president and CEO, Verizon

Grow: How Ideals Power Growth and Profit at the World's Greatest Companies


Jim Stengel - 2011
    They dominate their categories, create new categories and maximize profit in the long term.Pulling from a unique ten year growth study involving 50,000 brands, Jim Stengel shows how the world's 50 best businesses--as diverse as Method, Red Bull, Lindt, Petrobras, Samsung, Discovery Communications, Visa, Zappos, and Innocent--have a cause and effect relationship between financial performance and their ability to connect with fundamental human emotions, hopes, values and greater purposes. In fact, over the 2000s an investment in these companies--"The Stengel 50"--would have been 400 percent more profitable than an investment in the S&P 500.Grow is based on unprecedented empirical research, inspired (when Stengel was Global Marketing Officer of Procter & Gamble) by a study of companies growing faster than P&G. After leaving P&G in 2008, Stengel designed a new study, in collaboration with global research firm Millward Brown Optimor. This study tracked the connection over a ten year period between financial performance and customer engagement, loyalty and advocacy.Then, in a further investigation of what goes on in the "black box" of the consumer's mind, Stengel and his team tapped into neuroscience research to look at customer engagement and measure subconscious attitudes to determine whether the top businesses in the Stengel Study were more associated with higher ideals than were others.Grow thus deftly blends timeless truths about human behavior and values into an action framework - how you discover, build, communicate, deliver and evaluate your ideal. Through colorful stories drawn from his fascinating personal experiences and "deep dives" that bring out the true reasons for such successes as the Pampers, HP, Discovery Channel, Jack Daniels and Zappos, Grow unlocks the code for twenty-first century business success.

Organization Development: The Process Of Leading Organizational Change


Donald L. Anderson - 2009
    Incorporating OD ethics and values into each chapter, Donald L. Anderson provides discussion of the real-world application of these theoretical ideas. In-depth case studies that follow major content chapters allow students to immediately apply what they have learned. In today's challenging environment of increased globalization, rapidly changing technologies, economic pressures, and expectations in the contemporary workforce, this book is an essential tool.