About this product: If you're a general manager or CFO, do you feel you're spending too much on IT or wishing you could get better returns from your IT investments? If so, it's time to examine what's behind this IT-as-cost mind-set.
In The Real Business of IT, Richard Hunter and George Westerman reveal that the cost mind-set stems from IT leaders' inability to communicate about the business value they create-so CIOs get stuck discussing budgets rather than their contributions to the organization.
The authors explain how IT leaders can combat this mind-set by first using information technology to generate three forms of value important to leaders throughout the organization:
-Value for money when your IT department operates efficiently and effectively
-An investment in business performance evidenced when IT helps divisions, units, and departments boost profitability
-Personal value of CIOs as leaders whose contributions to their enterprise go well beyond their area of specialization
The authors show how to communicate about these forms of value with non-IT leaders-so they understand how your firm is benefiting and see IT as the strategic powerhouse it truly is.
About this product: To equip youth workers (paid and/or volunteer), Sunday school teachers, and pastors to be more effective communicators of the gospel in the context of youth ministry.
About this product: Why do some products make the leap to greatness while others do not?
Creating inspiring products begins with discovering a product that is valuable, usable, and feasible. If you can not do this, then it s not worth building anything.
- How do you decide which product opportunities to pursue?
- How do you get evidence that the product you are going to ask your engineering team to build will be successful?
- How do you identify the minimal possible product that will be successful?
- How do you manage the often conflicting demands of company execs, customers, sales, marketing, engineering, design, and more?
- How can you adapt Agile methods for commercial product environments?
Product management expert Marty Cagan answers these questions and hundreds more as he shares lessons learned, techniques, and best practices from working for and with some of the most successful companies in the high-tech industry. You will find that there s a very big difference between how the very best companies create products and all the rest.
About this product: One of the most respected behavioral economists in the world and coauthor of the "best economics blog in the universe"* offers an essential guide to success in a radically new hyper-networked age.
How will we live well in a super-networked, information-soaked, yet predictably irrational world? The only way to know is to understand how the way we think is changing.
As economist Tyler Cowen boldly shows in Create Your Own Economy, the way we think now is changing more rapidly than it has in a very long time. Not since the Industrial Revolution has a man-made creation-in this case, the World Wide Web-so greatly influenced the way our minds work and our human potential. Cowen argues brilliantly that we are breaking down cultural information into ever-smaller tidbits, ordering and reordering them in our minds (and our computers) to meet our own specific needs.
Create Your Own Economy explains why the coming world of Web 3.0 is good for us; why social networking sites such as Facebook are so necessary; what's so great about "Tweeting" and texting; how education will get better; and why politics, literature, and philosophy will become richer. This is a revolutionary guide to life in the new world.
About this product: Eric Bischoff has been called pro wrestling's most hated man. Booed, reviled, and burned in effigy, he's been struck by everything from beer bottles to fists. Though industry critics have scorned his spectacular rise and fall at World Championship Wrestling, Bischoff's influence still resonates. For years, Bischoff kept quiet while industry "pundits" distorted the truth about the infamous Monday Night Wars, basing their accounts on rumors and innuendo. Finally, Bischoff tells what really happened.
Beginning with his days as a salesman for the American Wrestling Association, Bischoff exposes the industry's inner workings, from the real numbers behind WCW's red ink to the devastating impact of the corporate mergers. Among his revelations: How WCW became a national brand and revolutionized the industry. How Hulk Hogan, Jesse Ventura, and Steve Austin shaped WCW, and how corporate politics killed it. And how he found his inner heel and learned to love being the guy everyone loves to despise.
Reflecting on his childhood, his family, and the pressures of notoriety, Bischoff tells how he found contentment after being unceremoniously "sent home." Love him or hate him, readers will never look at pro wrestling the same way again after reading Eric Bischoff's story in Controversy Creates Cash.
About this product: Master the #1 Principle for Long-Term Market Dominance! The Phoenix Principle "Create Marketplace Disruption is as thought-provoking as it is entertaining. Adam Hartung offers business managers and leaders new insights to long-term success that apply across markets and industries." --Steve Burke, President, Comcast Cable Communications, Philadelphia, PA "Talking innovation is easier than practicing innovation. Adam offers an excellent approach for corporations to identify how to innovate to gain competitive advantage. A must read." --Praveen Gupta, Editor-in-Chief,International Journal of Innovation Science and Chairman, Accelper Consulting, Schaumburg, IL Some companies can't change in response to market disruptions. Those companies die. Other companies do respond...eventually. They survive, but they see their profits squeezed, their growth flattened. Then,there are the long-term winners: companies that create their own disruptions and thrive on change. In Create Marketplace Disruption, Adam Hartung shows how to become one of those rare companies, creating lasting growth and profits.This book reveals why so many companies behave in ways that are utterly incompatible with long-term success. ..and why even "good to great" companies are struggling for air. You'll discover how to reposition your organization away from the Flats and Swamps of traditional Defend and Extend Management and back into the Rapids of accelerated growth. Hartung demonstrates how to attack competitors' Lock-ins, make their Success Formulas obsolete, and create the White Space needed to invent your own new formulas for success. Create Marketplace Disruption shows how disrupting yourself is critical to reaping the benefits of market changes, and part of a process that executives and strategists can reproduce over and over again for improved results. How we got into this mess--and how to get out of it The myth of perpetuity and the dark side of success Reinventing success: no more Defend and Extend Creating your new Success Formulas and keeping them competitively advantaged Why "thinking outside the box" doesn't work First, get outside the box. Then, think! Maintaining "The Phoenix Principle" for long-term success Practicing Disruption until it comes naturally
What do the runaway success of E.T., Oprah, and the Cabbage Patch Kids have in common? How come Scrabble was a flop when first introduced, but became an instant hit when re-introduced just three years later? According to extensive research, the secret to who gets heard, what gets our attention, and who and what has staying power lies in deeply ingrained biological and anthropological codes we all subconsciously share.
Filled with fascinating examples and explanations of the phenomena associated with "stickiness,” Instant Appeal reveals the often surprising (and proven) reasons behind why we vote for certain people, listen to the same songs over and over again, and favor one brand over another. The book illuminates the human universals that cause positive and negative chemical reactions in our brains, and shows how anyone can use them to advance their career, cause, company, or product.
About this product: The author of the successful The Pocket Stylist follows up with a book that addresses the specific fashion needs of the over-forty crowd
Even though women in their forties, fifties, sixties, and beyond have never looked better, healthier, or younger, their fashion needs have changed. Unless you have the body and lifestyle of an eighteen-year-old, shopping probably isn’t much fun anymore. The fashion industry seems to have turned its back on women who are forty and older, churning out collections that have nothing to do with careers or sophisticated living. Kendall Farr to the rescue! With Style Evolution, she shows readers how to create a hip, ageless, individual sense of personal style without feeding into the culture’s deep obsession with looking “young.”
Naming names, Farr shares the results of her extensive analysis of designers and brands—from high-end to budget-conscious—best-suited for women over forty. She also delivers ideas that suit every budget, from high-end lines to good buys. Packed with more than one hundred full-color illustrations, Style Evolution guides readers through discovering their own style profiles, with six basic shapes designed to match realistic body types. Farr also puts the spotlight on trends, illustrating the ageless approach to wearing what’s “new.” An ageless shopping checklist and thorough details on accessories (from bags to shoes to eyewear) complete the book.
With hundreds of tips that bestow grace and class, Farr leads the way for the woman who is ready for her wardrobe to catch up with the rest of her life.
About this product: Why is it that some people consistently seem to get more done than others? The answer is that they know how to set specific, achievable goals for themselves...and then follow through on them. This revised and updated edition of Goal Setting features worksheets, quizzes, and other practical tools, giving readers powerful techniques they can use to set a goal, make a plan, and acquire the resources and power necessary to achieve their objective. The book shows readers how to:
act upon their objectives in a precise, targeted way * recognize obstacles and overcome them * become more assertive * change counterproductive behavior * establish priorities * make the most of their time Achieving goals takes hard work and discipline. This expanded edition of Goal Setting gives readers the tools and techniques to accomplish anything.
About this product: In "Collaboration", author Morten Hansen takes aim at what many leaders inherently know: in today's competitive environment, companywide collaboration is an imperative for successful strategy execution, yet the sought-after synergies are rarely, if ever, realized. In fact, most cross-unit collaborative efforts end up wasting time, money, and resources. How can managers avoid the costly traps of collaboration and instead start getting the results they need? In this book, Hansen shows managers how to get collaboration right through 'disciplined collaboration'. Based on the author's long-running research, in-depth case studies, and company interviews, "Collaboration" delivers practical advice and tools to help your organization collaborate for real results.
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