Payback

reaping the rewards of innovation

Payback offers you practical and economically sound advice on when to pursue cash flow indirectly by first pursuing other benefits, such as brand and knowledge. It also shows you how to reshape the cash curve by using different business models--integrator, orchestrator, and licenser--each of which ...

Five minds for the future

We live in a time of vast changes. And those changes call for entirely new ways of learning and thinking. In Five Minds for the Future: Howard Gardner defines the cognitive abilities that will command a premium in the years ahead: -The disciplinary mind'mastery ...

Open business models

how to thrive in the new innovation landscape

In his landmark book "Open Innovation", Henry Chesbrough demonstrated that because useful knowledge is no longer concentrated in a few large organisations, business leaders must adopt a new, "open" model of innovation. Using this model, companies look outside their boundaries for ideas and intellectual property ...

Managing for the long run

lessons in competitive advantage from great family businesses

Fidelity, Hallmark, Michelin, and Wal-Mart are renowned industry powerhouses with long leadership track records. Yet, these celebrated companies are united by another factor not generally equated with competitive success: They are all family-controlled businesses. Although many view the hallmarks of family businesses--stable strategies, clan cultures ...

Many unhappy returns

one man's quest to turn arround the most unpopular organization in America

When Charles O. Rossotti became commissioner of the Internal Revenue Service in 1997, the agency had the largest customer base--and the lowest approval rating--of any institution in America. Mired in scandal, caught in a political maelstrom, and beset by profound management and technology problems, the ...

Best face forward

why companies must improve their service interfaces with costumers

Now more than ever, success is based on how well firms manage interactions with customers. Short on appropriately skilled labor and flush with new intelligent technologies, visionary managers are not just outsourcing or sending work offshore for greater efficiency; they are recruiting machines into the ...

Category killers

the retail revolution and its impact on consumer culture

Made in China

what western managers can learn from trailblazing chinese entrepreneurs

Executives worldwide have studied and emulated U.S. entrepreneurs from Bill Gates to Michael Dell. Yet, we know next to nothing about the pioneers who are reshaping the world's second largest economy: China. In the face of murky ownership structures, inconsistent access to capital ...

The only sustainable edge

why business strategy depends on productive friction and dynamic specialization

Thinking for a living

how to get better performance and results from knowledge workers

In Thinking for a Living, Thomas Davenport contends that knowledge workers are vastly different from other types of workers in their motivations, attitudes, and need for autonomy - and thus require unconventional management techniques if they are to be more productive. Based on extensive research involving ...

Ahead of the curve

a Commonsense guide to forecasting business and market cycles

Today's managers and investors are bombarded with so many conflicting economic reports and data that it seems impossible to know which way the market will turn until it's too late. Now, a thirty-five year "Wall Street" veteran enables managers and investors to stop ...

In their time

the greatest business leaders of the Twentieth Century

From little-known heroes to legends like Sam Walton and Bill Gates, this absorbing book weaves history, economics, and personality to reveal the secrets behind the success of the last century's greatest American business leaders. The authors show that a key to success was "contextual ...

Resonant leadership

renewing yourself and connecting with others through mindfulness, hope, and compassion

"Resonant Leadership" shows how leaders can recognise the cycles of stress, sacrifice, and renewal inherent in their jobs - and actively utilise the qualities of mindfulness, hope, and compassion to renew their passion and effectiveness. It is a practical follow-on to the international bestseller. It goes ...

Forced ranking

making performance management work

This is a comprehensive how-to guide to designing and implementing a fair and effective forced ranking system, including how to accurately categorise A, B and C players, and manage and reward players differently. It clears away the confusion surrounding a controversial performance management practice called ...

IT governance

how top performers manage IT decision rights for superior results

Firms with superior IT governance have more than 25% higher profits than firms with poor governance given the same strategic objectives. These top performers have custom designed IT governance for their strategies. Just as corporate governance aims to ensure quality decisions about all corporate assets ...

Career warfare

10 rules for building a successful personal brand and fighting to keep it

As the youngest-ever CEO of John Hancock Financial Services and the bestselling author of Brand Warfare, David D'Alessandro knows plenty about breaking away from the pack. "In Career Warfare", this ultimate insider tells the true story of how he learned the unwritten rules of ...

A bias for action

how effective managers harness their willpower, achieve results, and stop wasting time

In "A Bias for Action", Sumantra Ghoshal and Heike Bruch reveal that only 10 per cent of managers act purposefully to get truly important work done. "A Bias for Action" shows that great managers produce results not by motivating others, but by engaging their own ...

Hardball

are you playing to play or playing to win?

Great companies stumble and fall when they lose it. Highfliers crash when a competitor notices they don't have it. Start-ups shut down if they can't develop it. "It" is a strategy so powerful and an execution- driven mindset so relentless that companies use ...

Mass affluence

7 new rules of marketing to today's consumer

Forget mass customization and microsegmentation. Winning in today's business world requires a return to an approach abandoned by marketing experts decades ago. Mass marketing is back, say Paul Nunes and Brian Johnson--but with a new target and a fresh approach that companies ignore at ...

Coaching and mentoring

how to Develop Top Talent and achieve stronger performance

Effective managers know that timely coaching can dramatically enhance their teams' performance. Coaching and Mentoring offers managers comprehensive advice on how to help employees grow professionally and achieve their goals. This volume covers the full spectrum of effective mentoring and the nuts and bolts of ...