These are intelligent, well-meaning answers but they are also completely wrong. More valuable than money, human resources, and intellectual property, Passion Capital is what separates leaders from followers, and innovators from imitators. It is the foundation upon which all other forms of capital are built. Passion is an emotion, but Passion Capital is tangible. It is the energy, intensity, and sustainability leaders use to build lasting value and competitive advantage. Organizations that possess Passion Capital – Apple, Johnson & Johnson, Four Seasons Hotels, the Montreal Canadiens, among others – lead their sectors, while those that rely on established forms of capital may get stuck in neutral and fail to achieve their full potential.Passion Capital presents seven principles for growing and investing in this new asset class and includes over fifty insightful stories drawn from business, not-for-profit, the arts sector, and politics.  In this groundbreaking book, veteran business leader Paul Alofs ushers in a whole new way of thinking about the very definition of success and reveals how to acquire the world’s most valuable asset and apply it to your career, company, or cause.

    "Social Media Explained" explores the fundamental strategies and answers the biggest questions every business professional needs to answer before diving into a social media initiative! The is the must-have guide for understanding the sociological and psychological drivers that make social media marketing work.

    Meanwhile, people with important ideas--entrepreneurs, teachers, politicians, and journalists--struggle to make them "stick."In Made to Stick, Chip and Dan Heath reveal the anatomy of ideas that stick and explain ways to make ideas stickier, such as applying the human scale principle, using the Velcro Theory of Memory, and creating curiosity gaps. Along the way, we discover that sticky messages of all kinds--from the infamous "kidney theft ring" hoax to a coach's lessons on sportsmanship to a vision for a new product at Sony--draw their power from the same six traits.Made to Stick will transform the way you communicate. It's a fast-paced tour of success stories (and failures): the Nobel Prize-winning scientist who drank a glass of bacteria to prove a point about stomach ulcers; the charities who make use of the Mother Teresa Effect; the elementary-school teacher whose simulation actually prevented racial prejudice.Provocative, eye-opening, and often surprisingly funny, Made to Stick shows us the vital principles of winning ideas--and tells us how we can apply these rules to making our own messages stick.

    Blending theory with practice, this book provides applied advice.

    Indian companies took up products that came in from the West and either replicated it or re-engineered it. Indians, when they went to other countries, were part of creative teams that came up with, and implemented great ideas. But, when in their own country, Indians do not have a reputation for coming up with innovative ideas. So, what is it that stops them?The author laments this situation in his book Making Breakthrough Innovation Happen: How 11 Indians Pulled Off The Impossible. He points out that even the Indian branches of MNCs do not see their Indian operations as centers of innovations. They just work on things that have already been conceived elsewhere.In this book, Munshi tells the true stories of 11 breakthrough ideas conceived and executed by Indians. These ground-breaking examples show that if someone dares to think out-of-the box and follows their dream, then seemingly impossible things can be achieved.The examples cover a wide range of industries. from public sector to private sector, and from MNCs and huge Indian companies to startup firms. The book talks about 11 ideas that had a deep impact, and achievements that were original and influential.The examples include the creation of the slimmest water proof watches by Titan, and the business model of Cavinkare - a small company that took on giants in the field of personal care products and succeeded. It includes the story of how Aravind Eye Hospital came up with an idea - assembly line surgery - to improve the productivity of its surgeons. Today, the hospital treats 70% of its patients free of charge and yet manages to make a good profit.Then, there is the case of the Hindi daily, Dainik Bhaskar, that combined intensive in-house marketing surveys and research with innovative marketing ideas to capture a large segment of the market in each new city they entered.The book throws light on the innovative strategies of Trichy police to turn around a city that was crime prone and known for communal clashes into one of the safest in the country. He further talks about the power backup company Su-kam that succeeded by creating its own niche, and Shantha Biotech that launched a low-cost Hepatitis B vaccine.The other success stories include Surat City’s transformation after the plague outbreak into one of the cleanest cities in the country, and Chic shampoo’s innovation of introducing sachet packs, which revolutionized the retail market. Making Breakthrough Innovation Happen: How 11 Indians Pulled Off The Impossible further elaborates how Bosch India came up with a new cost-effective pump that meets the Euro standards, ITC’s e-Choupal marketing model, and Chola Vehicle Finance’s innovative business model.All these real-life examples in Making Breakthrough Innovation Happen: How 11 Indians Pulled Off The Impossible give an insight into the ability of Indians to go beyond conventions and create innovative products and strategies that could turn their respective industries on their heads.About the AuthorPorus Munshi is a psychology graduate and has a passion for helping people realize their potential. He is also a partner consultant at Erehwon Innovation Consulting.He previously contributed a column to Hindu Busnessline called Work and You. His book, Making Breakthrough Innovation Happen: How 11 Indians Pulled Off The Impossible, is already on its second reprint.Munshi works with clients and helps them release mental blocks and conventional restraints to help them achieve their goals and dreams. He helps facilitate innovative thinking and organizational transformations. Besides his passion for innovation and realizing the human potential, he has an avid interest in martial arts, from Karate to Tai Chi.

    Under such pressure to stay alive—let alone grow—it’s easy for entrepreneurs to get caught up in a never-ending cycle of “sell it—do it, sell it—do it” that leaves them exhausted, frustrated, and unable to get ahead no matter how hard they try.This is the exact situation Mike Michalowicz found himself in when he was trying to grow his first company. Although it was making steady money, there was never very much left over and he was chasing customers left and right, putting in twenty-eight-hour days, eight days a week. The punishing grind never let up. His company was alive but stunted, and he was barely breathing. That’s when he discovered an unlikely source of inspiration—pumpkin farmers.After reading an article about a local farmer who had dedicated his life to growing giant pump­kins, Michalowicz realized the same process could apply to growing a business. He tested the Pumpkin Plan on his own company and transformed it into a remarkable, multimillion-dollar industry leader. First he did it for himself. Then for others. And now you. So what is the Pumpkin Plan?Plant the right seeds: Don’t waste time doing a bunch of different things just to please your customers. Instead, identify the thing you do better than anyone else and focus all of your attention, money, and time on figuring out how to grow your company doing it. Weed out the losers: In a pumpkin patch small, rotten pumpkins stunt the growth of the robust, healthy ones. The same is true of customers. Figure out which customers add the most value and provide the best opportunities for sustained growth. Then ditch the worst of the worst. Nurture the winners: Once you figure out who your best customers are, blow their minds with care. Discover their unfulfilled needs, innovate to make their wishes come true, and overdeliver on every single promise.Full of stories of other successful entrepreneurs, The Pumpkin Plan guides you through unconven­tional strategies to help you build a truly profitable blue-ribbon company that is the best in its field.

    If you're looking for a book like that, put this one back on the shelf.Rework shows you a better, faster, easier way to succeed in business. Read it and you'll know why plans are actually harmful, why you don't need outside investors, and why you're better off ignoring the competition. The truth is, you need less than you think. You don't need to be a workaholic. You don't need to staff up. You don't need to waste time on paperwork or meetings. You don't even need an office. Those are all just excuses.  What you really need to do is stop talking and start working. This book shows you the way. You'll learn how to be more productive, how to get exposure without breaking the bank, and tons more counterintuitive ideas that will inspire and provoke you.With its straightforward language and easy-is-better approach, Rework is the perfect playbook for anyone who’s ever dreamed of doing it on their own. Hardcore entrepreneurs, small-business owners, people stuck in day jobs they hate, victims of "downsizing," and artists who don’t want to starve anymore will all find valuable guidance in these pages.

    Startup Weekend, the book, contains best practices, lessons learned, and empowering examples derived from the organization's experiences for individuals and small organizations to follow as they launch businesses. Each of the key beliefs outlined has been tested by Startup Weekend and has yielded powerful results.The principles described in each chapter will give any business idea a greater chance for success.Chapter topics include trust and empowerment, flexible organizational structures, the power of experiential education, action-based networking, and much more Describes consequences for startup development as entrepreneurs and founders begin doing much more, even faster Profiles successful Startup Weekend companies, including two powerful examples: Memolane, an application that captures a user's online life in one timeline making it easy for users to travel back in time and relive memories; and Foodspotting, a mobile and desktop app that allows users to find and share the foods they love Apply these simple actionable principles to launch your own startup revolution.

    In more than 10,000 interviews, she has witnessed business leaders stumble and crumble, and political leaders ruin their chances for election by turning to stone (or mush) in front of crowds and cameras. Now, smart business and political leaders hire her to get them in shape for potentially grueling interviews and speeches. In "Speak Like a CEO", she shares the communication success secrets she teaches in her speaking, including to her impressive client list, which includes AT&T, Harvard Business School, Boston College, Ernst & Young, Fleet Bank and the North American Management Corporation.Her user-friendly approach and tested techniques can help just about anyone - newly minted business managers, seasoned CEOs, and those on the rise in any organization - learn how to develop an authoritative voice and credible presence for any public speaking situation. Divided into three parts, "Speak Like a CEO" includes everything you need to handle any kind of public speaking event or interview. In Part 1, The Secrets, she shares what she learned from 20 years on TV and radio, and how to develop credibility and authenticity. In Part 2, The Situations, readers will find easy-to-use advice to help them succeed in speeches, presentations, media interviews, Q&A sessions, business meetings, and even business-social conversations.Part 3, The Strategies, provides self-improvement plans (to reach short-term and long-term speaking goals) that can be easily customized to anyone's needs. She describes plenty of real-world examples to illustrate her points. Readers will learn what Martha Stewart learned the hard way about the importance of communication in a time of crisis. Or what Oprah Winfrey could teach all of us about being interviewed. Or Colin Powell's secret for coming across as authentic every time he speaks. Or what Mario Cuomo does (that anyone can do) to overcome stage fright. Bates'

    What was life like in the early days of Facebook? How did the company operate when it was just a small startup? Who were this team of misfits that built one of the most powerful tech companies in the world? In How I Lost 170 Million Dollars, Noah Kagan paints a compelling picture of the ups, downs, hard work, wild partying, and fascinating characters that populated the office during his time as Facebook's 30th employee.

    But where do they come from? What kind of environment breeds them? What sparks the flash of brilliance? How do we generate the breakthrough technologies that push forward our lives, our society, our culture? Steven Johnson's answers are revelatory as he identifies the seven key patterns behind genuine innovation, and traces them across time and disciplines. From Darwin and Freud to the halls of Google and Apple, Johnson investigates the innovation hubs throughout modern time and pulls out the approaches and commonalities that seem to appear at moments of originality.

    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.

    You want to learn about the path I took that eventually led me to Zappos, and the lessons I learned along the way. You want to learn from all the mistakes we made at Zappos over the years so that your business can avoid making some of the same ones. You want to figure out the right balance of profits, passion, and purpose in business and in life. You want to build a long-term, enduring business and brand. You want to create a stronger company culture, which will make your employees and coworkers happier and create more employee engagement, leading to higher productivity. You want to deliver a better customer experience, which will make your customers happier and create more customer loyalty, leading to increased profits. You want to build something special. You want to find inspiration and happiness in work and in life. You ran out of firewood for your fireplace. This book makes an excellent fire-starter.

    Using real-world case studies - from Apple, Netflix, and Walmart to an African hand pump, a New York City park, and the B-17 bomber - the book clearly explains why including the customer is an essential ingredient of success for any team, company, or organization. Coauthors Mark Hurst and Phil Terry, pioneers in the field of customer experience, provide practical tips for a strategic, customer-inclusive approach that generates results.

    Yet, today’s young people have much more to offer. If half of the hipster stereotype is a consumer who tries to show off how cool he is based on his tastes, the other half of the stereotype is ‘The Maker’ -- the person out hawking homemade cheese, knitting sweaters for your beard, or repurposing steel-framed bicycles. The hipster business model is distinctive: Make a product you love so much that you’ll make it yourself. See if anyone wants it. Try again. When they want to build apparel companies, they teach themselves how to sew. When they dream of producing toys, they learn how to use 3D printing software. When they don’t know investors who will back their restaurant concepts, they open food trucks. All the while, they are guided by books, instructional videos, and intuition; only later do they move production to real factories, or hire lawyers. They frequent public parks to see if anyone will buy their custom, typewritten stories. They use crowdfunding websites to raise money from customers before their products even exist. They post their ideas to massive web forums to gauge interest, or set up online shops the second they have a product to sell. In their world, sales come first, not last. While each entrepreneur featured in this book embarked on his or her own unique quest, their stories share a common thread: like true hipsters, they were not afraid to try new things.