Many times the solution does not solve the problem, because the manager did not uncover the root causes of the problem. In Zap The Gaps, Bill Ambers, the Director of Customer Service in a high tech firm, encounters a business problem: his newly inherited call center is not making its numbers. With the help of a colleague, he works through the problem and discovers the GAPS approach to performance improvement:

    Across all sectors and markets, retailers are shifting their business models and customer engagement strategies to ensure they survive. The rise of online shopping, and its primary player, Amazon, is at the heart of these changes and opportunities.Amazon's relentless dissatisfaction with the status quo is what makes it such an extraordinary retailer. This book explores whether Amazon has what it takes to become a credible grocery retailer, and as it transitions to bricks and mortar retailing, investigates whether Amazon's stores can be as compelling as its online offering.Exploring the ecommerce giant's strategies, Amazon offers unique insight into how innovations such voice technology, checkout-free stores and its Prime ecosystem, will fundamentally change the way consumers shop.Written by industry leading retail analysts who have spent decades providing research-based analysis and opinion on retail strategy and enterprise technology use in retail, Amazon analyzes the impact these initiatives will have on the wider retail sector and the lessons that can be learned from its unprecedented rise to dominance - as stores of the future become less about transactions and more about experiences.

    The second wave came in 2006 when home-grown VCs raised large amounts of capital and funded products and services companies for Indian consumers.This is a gripping behind-the-scenes story of a VC's journey, right from the beginning of the second start-up revolution in India in 2006 until the end of the funding frenzy in 2016. A story about how global conditions, local consumers, founder ambition and good old greed shaped the start-up story in India.Rahul Chandra is the co-founder of Helion Ventures, and in this candid memoir he tells us about his journey building one of India's oldest VC firms. In a remarkably gripping account, he recounts his adventures in India's hyper-funded start-up ecosystem.The Moonshot Game gives readers an insight into the secret world of a VC, with unguarded stories involving large bets and big mistakes, and tales of how one juggles several investments at the same time.Rahul shows why being a VC is a constant journey of ups and downs, why building value is a long-term business, and why no amount of failure can be an excuse to lose optimism in the power of entrepreneurship.

    We have launched two successful Kickstarter projects, in turn paving the way for a new era of independent hardware manufacturing, and recently entered the software world with our first iPhone app. We have learned a lot in a short period of time, and wanted to share this information with the world. So we wrote a book. This book was written to offer guidance and inspiration for those charting a similar path, and covers topics such as running a small business, creating hardware products independently, launching a Kickstarter project, and tips for promoting your products. Everything is told through the lens of our own experience.It Will Be Exhilarating is a short read that will provide the needed kick to start making stuff. There isn't a better time than now.“There is no recipe for passion, no 5-step guide to making your idea real, but there is good, solid advice, and this book is filled with it.” – Clay Shirky, author, Here Comes Everybody“It Will Be Exhilarating is both fun and informative. I was shocked at how transparent and thorough Studio Neat are at sharing the details of their journey. Moreover, the book reads quick so you can get back to building your next great idea, but now with a bit of extra inspiration and insight.” – Shawn Blanc, shawnblanc.net"Dan and Tom had a wild ride through the early days of this alternative to make stuff by finding an interested audience that funds the costs of bringing a dream to fruition. This book tells those lessons learned from two successive and successful Kickstarter projects and the first two years of bootstrapping their company. Studio Neat has a practical roadmap for taking something you love and potentially making it your livelihood." – Glenn Fleishman, a freelance technology reporter who contributes to The Economist, Macworld, and BoingBoing“Tom and Dan have created a hitchhikers guide to the black art that is successfully funding a Kickstarter project.” – Ben Brooks, brooksreview.net

    Accelerate innovation and actively shape the future—before someone else does it for you! Digital transformation has divided us all into two camps: the disruptor and the disrupted. The Anticipatory Organization gives you the tools you need to see disruption before it happens, allowing you to turn change into advantage. In The Anticipatory Organization, Burrus shows us that the future is far more certain than we realize, and finding certainty in an uncertain world provides a big advantage for those who know how and where to look for it. Inspired by the dramatic results that organizations are experiencing from his award-winning learning system, The Anticipatory Organization offers a comprehensive way to identify game-changing opportunities. Using the principles of this proven model, you will learn how to elevate planning, accelerate innovation, and transform results by pinpointing and acting upon enormous opportunities waiting to be discovered. Readers will learn how to: • Separate the Hard Trends that will happen from the Soft Trends that might happen • Anticipate disruptions, problems, and game-changing opportunities • Identify and pre-solve predictable problems  • Accelerate innovation (both everyday innovation and exponential innovation)  • Pinpoint and act upon enormous untapped opportunities  ​• Skip problems and barriers to succeed faster

    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

    With the help of visionary businessman Steve Jobs and animating genius John Lasseter, Pixar has become the gold standard of animated filmmaking, beginning with a short special effects shot made at Lucasfilm in 1982 all the way up through the landmark films Toy Story, Finding Nemo, Wall-E, and others. David A. Price goes behind the scenes of the corporate feuds between Lasseter and his former champion, Jeffrey Katzenberg, as well as between Steve Jobs and Michael Eisner. And finally he explores Pixar's complex relationship with the Walt Disney Company as it transformed itself into the $7.4 billion jewel in the Disney crown.

    Start using it strategically. Identify specific, actionable goals. Apply business discipline and proven best practices. Stop fearing risks. Start mitigating them. Measure performance. Get results. You can. This book shows you how. Jason Falls and Erik Deckers serve up practical social media techniques and metrics for building brands, strengthening awareness, improving service, optimizing R&D, driving better leads--and closing more sales. "Conversations" and "communities" are wonderful, but they're not enough. Get this book and get what you really want from social media: profits. Think social media's a passing fad? Too risky? Just a toy? Too soft and fuzzy? Not for your business? Wake up! It's where your customers are. And it ain't going away. Does that suck? No. It doesn't. Do social media right, and all those great business buzzwords come true. Actionable. Measurable. And...wait for it...here comes the big one. Profitable. Damn profitable. Want to know how to do it right? We'll show you. And, yeah, we know how because we've done it. This is the bullshit-free, lie-free, fluff-free, blessedly non-New-Age real deal. You're going to learn how to use social media to deliver absolutely killer customer service. How to R&D stuff people actually want. Develop scads of seriously qualified leads. You'll figure out what you want. You know, the little things like profits, market share, loyalty, and brand power. You'll figure out how to measure it. And then you'll go get it. One more thing. We know what scares you about social media. Screwing up (a.k.a., your mug on the front page of The Wall Street Journal). So we'll tell you what to do so that won't happen. Ever. No B.S. in this book. Just facts. Metrics. Best practices. Stuff to warm the hearts of your CFO, CEO, all your C-whatevers. And, yeah, you. So get your head out from under the pillow. Get your butt in gear. Let's go make some money.

    In this handy guidebook, the authors contend that you manage your boss for a very good reason: to do your best on the job—and thereby benefit not only yourself but also your supervisor and your entire company. Your boss depends on you for cooperation, reliability, and honesty. And you depend on him or her for links to the rest of the organization, for setting priorities, and for obtaining critical resources. By managing your boss—clarifying your own and your supervisor's strengths, weaknesses, goals, work styles, and needs—you cultivate a relationship based on mutual respect and understanding. The result? A healthy, productive bond that enables you both to excel. Gabarro and Kotter provide valuable guidelines for building this essential relationship—including strategies for determining how your boss prefers to process information and make decisions, tips for communicating mutual expectations, and tactics for negotiating priorities. Thought provoking and practical, Managing Your Boss enables you to lay the groundwork for one of the most crucial working relationships you'll have in your career.

    As they helped grow Google from a young start-up to a global icon, they relearned everything they knew about management. How Google Works is the sum of those experiences distilled into a fun, easy-to-read primer on corporate culture, strategy, talent, decision-making, communication, innovation, and dealing with disruption.The authors explain how the confluence of three seismic changes - the internet, mobile, and cloud computing - has shifted the balance of power from companies to consumers. The companies that will thrive in this ever-changing landscape will be the ones that create superior products and attract a new breed of multifaceted employees whom the authors dub 'smart creatives'. The management maxims ('Consensus requires dissension', 'Exile knaves but fight for divas', 'Think 10X, not 10%') are illustrated with previously unreported anecdotes from Google's corporate history.'Back in 2010, Eric and I created an internal class for Google managers,' says Rosenberg. 'The class slides all read 'Google confidential' until an employee suggested we uphold the spirit of openness and share them with the world. This book codifies the recipe for our secret sauce: how Google innovates and how it empowers employees to succeed.'

    It provides concrete, practical, real-world ways that anyone can increase personal productivity, improve professional relationships, achieve goals, become a better leader, develop both personally and professionally... and become remarkable. You'll notice I didn't solicit a bunch of testimonials. Or have friends and family write reviews. What other people -- even notable people -- think about a book is interesting but ultimately irrelevant. All that matters is what you think... and I think you'll find at least five things you can start doing differently in less than fifteen minutes. The book is broken down into 10 sections: 1. Happiness 2. Goals 3. Success 4. Personal Development 5. Personal Productivity 6. Professional Relationships 7. Leadership 8. Praise 9. Entrepreneurship 10. Remarkable Want to improve your life? Want to be more successful and happier? I promise you can.

    While the ecommerce industry presents incredible opportunities, these four areas can also present major pitfalls in the quest for success. Cyndi Thomason has taken the core concepts of the Profit First methodology, created by Mike Michalowicz, and customized them to address the specific needs of the ecommerce business. Profit First for Ecommerce Sellers addresses each of the four major struggles and provides clear and actionable guidance on how to overcome them, taking the online seller from simply getting by to becoming permanently profitable. This book is for every online seller who dreams of ecommerce prosperity.

    It's just that our traditional definition of work--Monday through Friday, nine to five--doesn't make sense in the always-on global economy. So, Ressler and Thompson created the Results-Only Work Environment. In a ROWE, "you" control when, where, and how long you work. As long as you meet your objectives, the way you spend your time is entirely up to you. Suddenly, work isn't a place you "go," it's a thing you "do." In a ROWE, there are no mandatory meetings or fixed schedules. You stop doing any activity that wastes time, and no one criticizes you for "leaving early" or "coming in late." If you do your best work at midnight or on Sundays, go for it! ROWE sounds like a fantasy, but Ressler and Thompson have already made it a reality at Best Buy, a Fortune 100 company. They have proven that ROWE not only makes employees happier but also delivers "better results." And now the authors are helping companies implement ROWE nationwide. Infused with passion and common sense, "Why Work Sucks and How to Fix It" will change the way you think about your job, your company, and your quality of life. Read it and join the revolution!

    Networking.In this New York Times, Wall Street Journal, and USA TODAY bestseller, master networker Joe Sweeney shares his networking secrets from a long and successful career as a business owner, sports agent and executive and investment banking consultant. His first secret: master networkers are focused on giving, not getting.With today’s difficult economy and uncertain workplace, networking has never been more important. Sweeney’s simple but effective 5/10/15 networking plan will give you a leg up in the current job market, help you stay employed, or, if you’ve been laid off, find your next job. The cliché that who you know is more important than what you know has never been truer. Sweeney illustrates his insights with dozens of helpful examples from his own life (along with a few fascinating insider sports stories).With special sections on networking for women and minorities, insights into the usefulness (and handicaps) of social networking sites, how to get (and why you need) a wingman and profiles of other master networkers, Networking Is a Contact Sport is a practical and essential guide for anyone who wants to get ahead in today’s economy.

    Transformational new growth remains the Holy Grail for many organizations. But a deep understanding of how great business models are made can provide the key to unlocking that growth. This landmark book describes how companies can achieve transformational growth in new markets Or, simply put, how they can seize the white space. To step out into the unknown and seize the white space requires a new language - and a framework with which to understand an existing enterprise and the white space it hopes to conquer. This book - from Clay Christensen's firm Innosight - is devoted to making game-changing business model innovation a possibility. Leaving the rhetoric to others, it provides the building blocks for creating business model innovation: first, by showing executives how to discover new business models and then by showing them how to bring these innovations to market. With road-tested frameworks, analytics, and diagnostics, this book gives executives everything they need to reshape their business and achieve fantastic growth. Mark Johnson is cofounder and Chairman of Innosight, an innovation-based consulting and executive-training firm focused on helping companies and institutions innovate for new growth and transformation.