This text is organized into two sections. The first section, Chapters 1-7, examines the context of strategic HR and develops a framework and conceptual model for the practice of strategic HR. The second section, Chapters 8-14, examines the actual practice and implementation of strategic HR through a discussion of strategic issues that need to be addressed while developing specific programs and policies related to the traditional functional areas of HR (staffing, training, performance management, etc.). The integrative framework that requires linkage between, consistency among these functional HR activities, and the approach toward writing about these traditional functional areas from a strategic perspective distinguish the text from what is currently on the market.

    Businesses make millions of decisions every day. But once in a great while a leader makes a truly game-changing decision that shifts not only the strategy of a single company but how everyone does business. These big decisions are counterintuitive-they go against the conventional wisdom. In hindsight, taking a different direction may seem easy, but these bet-the-company moves involve drama, doubt, and high tension. What made Apple's board bring back Steve Jobs to the company? How did Johnson & Johnson decide to recall every bottle of Tylenol after a poisoning scare that involved only a small batch of the drug? What made Henry Ford decide to double the wages of his autoworkers, and how did that change the American economy for the next century? Here management consultant Verne Harnish, the CEO of Gazelles, and Fortune's editors provide the background stories behind the greatest business decisions of all time. In this fully original book, you'll get a glimpse into the thought processes leading up to these groundbreaking moments and will learn how the decisions have shaped the thinking of today's top leaders. The book also contains an insightful foreword by management guru Jim Collins, the author of Built To Last and Good To Great, which explains the importance of decision making in creating a successful company. ADVANCED PRAISE FOR FORTUNE Greatest Business Decisions"CEOs make thousands of decisions every year, but only a few of them have dramatic impact on a company's brand, performance, and culture. IBM knows something about those types of 'big bets.' This book is a concise look at some of those big decisions and the C-suite moves that separated winners from the competition." - Samuel J. Palmisano, Chairman and former CEO, IBM"A great resouce! Learning about how others make great decisions can help you make great decisions! A fascinating, practical history that can change the way that you make decisions. Required reading for decison-makers- at all levels!" -Marshall Goldsmith, named the No. 1 Leadership Thinker in the World by Thinkers50, is a consultant and author of the New York Times bestsellers MOJO and What Got You Here Won't Get You There."When you look at the best business decisions that have been made throughout the years, a clear pattern emerges: The best decisions require not only great insight, but courage and commitment as well. The greatest business leaders are the ones who focus their energy not solely on profits, but on improving people's lives. These important lessons from our past, which this book brings to light, are more relevant than ever today." -Bill Ford, Executive Chairman, Ford Motor

    It has sold 30,000 copies in each edition and will continue to reach a huge academic audience.In this renowned book, Everett M. Rogers, professor and chair of the Department of Communication & Journalism at the University of New Mexico, explains how new ideas spread via communication channels over time. Such innovations are initially perceived as uncertain and even risky. To overcome this uncertainty, most people seek out others like themselves who have already adopted the new idea. Thus the diffusion process consists of a few individuals who first adopt an innovation, then spread the word among their circle of acquaintances--a process which typically takes months or years. But there are exceptions: use of the Internet in the 1990s, for example, may have spread more rapidly than any other innovation in the history of humankind. Furthermore, the Internet is changing the very nature of diffusion by decreasing the importance of physical distance between people. The fifth edition addresses the spread of the Internet, and how it has transformed the way human beings communicate and adopt new ideas.

    A recent Wall Street Journal study revealed that the most sought-after executive skill is strategic thinking, but only three out of ten managers have this skill set. Author Rich Horwath explains the three keys to strategic thinking, breaks them down into simple, attainable skills, and gives you practical tools to apply them every day, providing managers with a clear path to mastery of the three disciplines: 1. Acumen-generate critical insights through a step-by-step evaluation of your business and its environment2. Allocation-focus your limited resources through strategic trade-offs 3. Action-implement a system to guarantee effective execution of strategy at all levels of your organization Based on new research with senior executives from 150 companies and the author's experience as a thought-leading strategist, Deep Dive is the first book to focus on the most important level of strategy-you. Armed with this knowledge and dozens of effective tools, you can become a truly strategic leader for your organization.

    Chan Kim and Renee Mauborgne. Drawing on more than a decade of new work, Kim and Mauborgne show you how to move beyond competing, inspire your people's confidence, and seize new growth, guiding you step-by-step through how to take your organization from a red ocean crowded with competition to a blue ocean of uncontested market space. By combining the insights of human psychology with practical market-creating tools and real-world guidance, Kim and Mauborgne deliver the definitive guide to shift yourself, your team, or your organization to new heights of confidence, market creation, and growth. They show why nondisruptive creation is as important as disruption in seizing new growth. Blue Ocean Shift is packed with all-new research and examples of how leaders in diverse industries and organizations made the shift and created new markets by applying the process and tools outlined in the book. Whether you are a cash-strapped startup or a large, established company, nonprofit or national government, you will learn how to move from red to blue oceans in a way that builds your people's confidence so that they own and drive the process. With battle-tested lessons learned from successes and failures in the field, Blue Ocean Shift is critical reading for leaders, managers, and entrepreneurs alike. You'll learn what works, what doesn't, and how to avoid the pitfalls along the way. This book will empower you to succeed as you embark on your own blue ocean journey. Blue Ocean Shift is indispensable for anyone committed to building a compelling future.

    Guide to Managerial Communication is a clear, concise and practical reference to effective written and oral communication in a managerial, business, government, or professional context.

    It's not a question they anticipate or care much about on opening day. But by the time the program ends, they cannot imagine leading their companies to success without being—and living the role of—a strategist.Over a series of weeks and months, Montgomery puts these accomplished executives through their paces. Using case discussions, after-hours talks, and participants' own strategy dilemmas, she illuminates what strategy is, why it's important, and what it takes to lead the effort. En route, she equips them to confront the most essential question facing every business leader: Does this company truly matter? In doing so, she shows that strategy is not just a tool for outwitting the competition; it is the most powerful means a leader has for shaping a company itself.The Strategist exposes all business leaders—whether they run a global enterprise or a small business—to the invaluable insights Montgomery shares with these privileged executives. By distilling the experiences and insights gleaned in the classroom, Montgomery helps leaders develop the skills and sensibilities they need to become strategists themselves. It is a difficult role, but little else one does as a leader is likely to matter more.

    Companies like General Electric, United Technologies, and Caterpillar were the Google and Amazon of their day, setting gold standards in innovation, growth, and profitability. Today's leaders can learn a great deal from their successes, as well as their missteps. In this essential guide, three veteran Wall Street analysts reveal timeless lessons from the titans of industry--and offer battle-tested survival tactics for an ever-changing world. You'll learn: how GE became the largest company on earth--only for a culture of arrogance to set in motion the largest collapse in historyhow Boeing reassessed risks, raised profits--and tragically lost its balancehow Danaher avoided the pitfalls of tremendous success--by continually reinventing itselfhow Honeywell experienced a near-fatal cultural breakdown--and executed a flawless turnaroundhow Caterpillar relied too much on forecasting, lost billions--and rallied by recommitting to the basicsFilled with illuminating case studies and brilliant in-depth analysis, this invaluable book provides a multitude of insights that will help you weather market upheavals, adapt to disruptions, and optimize your resources to your best advantage. You'll learn hard-won lessons in innovation, growth, resilience, and operational excellence, as well as the time-proven fundamentals of continuous improvement for lasting success. In the end, you'll have your own personal toolbox of useful takeaways from more than a century's worth of data, experience, wisdom, and can-do spirit, courtesy of some of the greatest business enterprises of all time. This is how manufacturers survived the first disruptors of technology--and how today's giants can survive and thrive during continuous cycles of disruption.

    Yet most organizations struggle in this area--not with formulating strategy but with executing it, or putting their strategy into action. Owing to execution failures, companies realize just a fraction of the financial performance promised in their strategic plans.It doesn't have to be that way, maintain Robert Kaplan and David Norton in The Execution Premium. Building on their breakthrough works on strategy-focused organizations, the authors describe a multistage system that enables you to gain measurable benefits from your carefully formulated business strategy. This book shows you how to:Develop an effective strategy--with tools such as SWOT analysis, vision formulation, and strategic change agendasPlan execution of the strategy--through portfolios of strategic initiatives linked to strategy maps and Balanced ScorecardsPut your strategy into action--by integrating operational tools such as process dashboards, rolling forecasts, and activity-based costingTest and update your strategy--using carefully designed management meetings to review operational and strategic dataDrawing on extensive research and detailed case studies from a broad array of industries, The Execution Premium presents a systematic and proven framework for achieving the financial results promised by your strategy.

    Inspired by the work of Peter Drucker and Jim Collins, Justin Menkes set out to isolate the qualities that make for the 'right' people. Drawing on his background in psychology and bolstered by interviews with accomplished CEOs, Menkes paints the portrait of the ideal executive.In a sense, Menkes's work reveals an executive IQ—the cognitive skills necessary in order to excel in senior management positions. Star leaders readily differentiate primary priorities from secondary concerns; they identify flawed assumptions; they anticipate the different needs of various stakeholders and how they might conflict with one another; and they recognise the underlying agendas of individuals in complex exchanges.Weaving together research, interviews and the results of his own proprietary testing, Menkes exposes one of the great fallacies of corporate life, that hiring and promotion are conducted on a systematic or scientific basis that allows the most accomplished to rise to their levels of optimal responsibility.Finally, Menkes is a passionate advocate for finding and employing the most talented people, especially those who may have been held back by external assumptions.

      Switch by Chip Heath and Dan Heath| Key Takeaways, Analysis & Review Switch: How to Change Things When Change is Hard (2010) is about how to bring about change in an organization. Its main focus is changing behavior by appealing to the rational and emotional sides of people’s psyches. To generate change, authors Chip and Dan Heath maintain, a leader must connect with both sides, the rational and the emotional. This is because sometimes, one side can work against the other and sabotage successful change. The rational side tends to analyze possibilities for change so much that it becomes unable to act—so change never occurs. The emotional side is ready, or even eager, to act on change, but it can act compulsively and without focus. This means that changes based solely on emotion are likely to fail. To bring about real change, a leader must stimulate the emotional side of a group’s psyche to get the process of change underway, then harness its rational side to give this change a concerted direction…  This companion to Switch includes: Overview of the book Important People Key Takeaways Analysis of Key Takeaways and much more!

    Hardly anyone has heard of it, but those who do swear by it, and they tend to be some of the world's top copywriters. For example, Gary Bencivenga, who retired in 2003 as the world's most effective and highest paid copywriter, named Obvious Adams as one of the most important copywriting and business books he's ever read. Some say that Bencivenga was given the book by David Ogilvy himself, the father of modern advertising. And some even whisper that the allegorical character of Obvious Adams is a veiled reference to Claude Hopkins, whose work is studied by serious marketers to this day. So make use of this treasure that you hold in your hands. Read it once, to enjoy the story. Then read it a second time, to appreciate the wisdom that it shares. Make notes in the margins, and carefully apply what you learn - and your future customers will thank you for having done so!

    If you meet the Hi-Po criteria, you're in high demand--and this book explains how to fast-track yourself.Criteria for Hi-Pos are changing markedly. In the past, fast-track leaders were tapped mainly because of their cognitive abilities, analytical skills, imagination, thoroughness in finding solutions and even perfectionist tendencies. In the new climate, other attributes will count more heavily: relationship skills, experience, judgment, abilities to engage, motivate, and draw out the best performance in others, strategic skills and even personal habits and behavior style. Above all, companies see Hi-Pos as people who have the capacity to grow quickly and step into new leadership roles competently. This book is a step by step guide to becoming a high potential leader.

    Whether you are a newly elected president, CEO, or executive at any level, what you do in your first 100 days will be absolutely pivotal to your success or failure. Your First 100 Days in a New Executive Job will help you to seal your leadership, build a team you can count on, and have a bottom line impact before your first few months on the job is up. It will take you through all the steps of successful executive onboarding and show you how to avoid the typical pitfalls. Hargrove emphasizes the importance of getting clear on your going-in mandate—your contract with key stake holders. He also shows you how to use your first 100 days to declare an Impossible Future that represents the difference you want to make, while delivering on your Day Job. According to Hargrove, the key idea is to go for "quick wins" that establish a virtuous circle of increasing credibility and help you to avoid a vicious circle of decreasing credibility. This book will expand your aspirations and motivations, and give you a treasure trove of practical, down-to-earth tips to immediately apply in your new leadership role. * Have a story ready day one, as key stakeholders look for signals immediately—take symbolic action within 72 hours * Develop a "teachable point of view"—This is how we intend to win in this business * Build a team of 'A' players—get the right people on the bus * Declare an Impossible Future that unites warring tribes * Jump start your vision with 30, 60, 90-day catalytic breakthrough projects * Master the political chessboard and culture—It's all politics! * Drive bottom-line results before the end of your first 100 day

    In today's environment of crisis and uncertainty, the ability to develop leaders is arguably the most pressing concern, whether the arena is business, politics, education, health care, the environment, or the arts. Integrating wisdom from the world's most insightful and accomplished leaders, self-assessments, and dozens of interactive skill-building exercises, Learning to Lead reveals the underpinnings of true leadership. It shows you how to see beyond leadership myths, translate failures into springboards for renewed creativity, and communicate your vision for yourself, your team, or your organization.This new edition has been updated throughout, including bibliography and references, and contains substantive new material that reflects the authors' ongoing research on collaborative leadership, ethics, integrity, and personal development.