Showing titles in Forecasting & Strategic Planning

Agile, say its enthusiasts, can transform your company, catapulting you to the head of the pack. Not so fast. In this clear-eyed and indispensable audiobook, Sarah Elk and Steve Berez provide a much-needed reality check. They dispel the myths and misconceptions that have accompanied agile's growth - the idea that it can reshape your organization all at once, for instance, or that it should be used in every function and for all types of work. 

Risky Is the New Safe is a different kind of book for a different kind of thinking - a thought-provoking manifesto for risk takers. It will challenge you to think laterally, question premises, and be a contrarian. Disruptive technology, accelerating speed of change, and economic upheaval are changing the game. The same tired, old conventional thinking won’t get you to success today. Risky Is the New Safe will change the way you look at everything!

Most established companies have deployed such digital technologies as the cloud, mobile apps, the internet of things, and artificial intelligence. But few established companies are designed for digital. This book offers an essential guide for retooling organizations for digital success. In the digital economy, rapid pace of change in technology capabilities and customer desires means that business strategy must be fluid. As a result, the authors explain, business design has become a critical management responsibility.

Imagine having more free time to spend with your friends and loved ones. Imagine having the freedom to pursue things you're passionate about, whether it's gardening, hiking, reading, or restoring a classic car. Amazon best-selling author Damon Zahariades takes you through a proven system that'll help you to master your attention, keep distractions at bay, and get more done in less time.

Have you ever come up with an idea for a new product or service, but didn't take any action because you thought it would be too risky? Or at work, have you had what you thought could be a big idea for your company - perhaps changing the way you develop or distribute a product, provide customer service, or hire and train your employees? If you have, but you haven't known how to take the next step, you need to understand what the authors call the innovator's method.

Brought to you by Penguin. Forget the old concept of the 9-5. Companies around the world are redesigning the work week to increase efficiency, health and happiness in their workers. A growing number of businesses are shortening their working week to address problems with low productivity, poor...

Amazon is the fastest company ever to reach $100 billion in sales and they didn't reach that landmark by staying in their comfort zone. Risk taking is the key that unlocked the door to growth at Amazon, but those risks were (and are) intentional, calculated and strategic. Thomas Edison believed, 'I have not failed. I've just found 10,000 ways that won't work', and Amazon's founder, Jeff Bezos, has always linked experimentation and failure with growth and success.

Brought to you by Penguin. Many companies have used purpose as a corporate buzzword to appear virtuous internally, and look good to the outside world. But a poor understanding of the importance of real purpose can have detrimental consequences for the profitability and sustainability of a...

You never dreamed being the boss would be so hard. You're caught in a web of conflicting expectations from your subordinates, from those above you, and from your peers and customers. You're not alone. As Harvard Business School's Linda Hill and manager and executive Kent Lineback reveal in Being the Boss, becoming an effective manager is a painful, difficult journey. It requires trial and error, endless effort, and slowly acquired personal insight. Many managers never complete the journey and instead just learn how to get by. At worst, they become terrible bosses.

In your career, there is one transition that stands out as the most crucial - going from individual contributor to competent manager. New managers have to learn how to lead others rather than do the work themselves, to win trust and respect, to motivate, and to strike the right balance between delegation and control. Many fail to make the transition successfully. In this timeless, indispensable book, Harvard Business School professor and leadership guru Linda Hill traces the experiences of 19 new managers over the course of their first year in the role.

AI Security is no longer theoretical. Autonomous systems are already being tested. We are no longer in the early days of experimentation. AI agents now execute thousands of autonomous decisions daily across finance, telecom, healthcare, and enterprise infrastructure. Adversaries are studying those decision pathways. They do not crash servers. They manipulate logic. They exploit reasoning.

When BIC, manufacturer of disposable ballpoint pens, wanted to grow, it looked for an idea beyond introducing new sizes and ink colors. Someone suggested lighters. LIGHTERS? With an idea that seemed crazy at first, that bright executive, instead of seeing BIC as a pen company—a business in the...

In business, and in life, everything is changing fast, apart from how we behave. Our ways of thinking and making decisions have changed little since we lived in agricultural and industrial societies, but the problems we now need to solve are entirely different. It requires a revolution in thinking and behavior to meet the challenges that now face us and to avoid disaster we need to totally rethink the model. Part business biography, part business blueprint, Total Rethink explains how this can be done.

In the entrepreneurial world, it's rarely questioned that “exiting” is the end goal of a smartly built business and a prestigious waypoint in a successful career. Since building and selling a business can take years - or even decades - you can't exactly “practice” exiting your business. The best you can do is learn from others. In 2015, Dan Andrews and Ian Schoen sold their product business, which they built over the course of seven years and which employed 15 people, for multi-seven figures. While they don't regret selling the business, there are many mistakes they made that were avoidable.

In Built to Finish, Steven Pivnik takes you on two journeys: leading his software and services company, Binary Tree, from inception to successful exit and his quest to compete in the IRONMAN® World Championship in Kona, Hawaii. Steven shares how the insights gained from his adventures in triathlon, mountaineering, and ultramarathons apply to anyone’s pursuit of long-term personal and professional success.

In the past few years, a number of well-known firms have failed; think of Blockbuster, Kodak, or RadioShack. When we hear about their demise, it often seems inevitable - a natural part of "creative destruction." But closer examination reveals a disturbing truth: Companies large and small are shuttering more quickly than ever. What does it take to buck this trend? The simple answer is: ambidexterity. Firms must remain competitive in their core markets, while also winning in new domains.

Turn your great idea into a fully funded startup with this straight-talking real-world guide Great ideas are everywhere. You've probably already had one today. But how do you turn it into a huge business? How do you make it into a killer product, develop it with an amazing team, raise cash, and...

Many of the most dynamic public companies, from Alibaba to Facebook to Visa, and the most valuable start-ups, such as Airbnb and Uber, are matchmakers that connect one group of customers with another group of customers. Economists call matchmakers multisided platforms because they provide physical or virtual platforms for multiple groups to get together. Dating sites connect people with potential matches, for example, and ride-sharing apps do the same for drivers and riders.

Digital transformation is more important than ever now that we’re in the Fourth Industrial Revolution, where the lines between the physical, digital, and biological worlds are becoming ever more blurred. But fully 70 percent of digital transformations fail. In this book, Saldanha lays out a five-stage process for moving from digitally automating processes here and there to making digital technology the very backbone of your company. For each of these five stages, Saldanha describes two associated disciplines vital to the success of that stage.

Stop Trading Your Time for Just a Paycheck —Start Building a Scalable Empire. Most plumbing business owners are masters of their craft, but they’re stuck in the "technician trap." They’re working 60-hour weeks, managing chaotic schedules, and barely seeing the profit their hard work deserves. In Million Dollar Plumbing Business, you’ll discover the proven blueprint for transforming a service route into a high-performance, seven-figure machine. This isn't just about fixing pipes; it’s about mastering the "Wet Trades" as a high-level entrepreneur.