Since the publication of its first English translation in1974, The Book of Five Rings has become an underground classic inthe American business community, where it is studied as a text onJapanese management techniques. Here are timeless principles ofcraft, skill, timing, and spirit from a great samurai warrior--plusbackground on Zen, Bushido, Heiho, and Musashi's life. Twocolor.
This book challenges the way we think about both leadershipdevelopment and ourselves as leaders. Leadership developmentprograms are meant to help people become better leaders at work.But, as author Stew Friedman knows through years of working withthousands of executives, people improve their performance asleaders only when they enhance their performance in other domainsof their life at the same time. People are most successful in theirleadership roles in organisations when they are also leaders oftheir own lives; that is, when they increase their capacity toinfluence everything they care about most in life, including work,family, the broader community, and their own sense of self. This iswhat Friedman calls Total Leadership and has been teaching to MBAsand Executive Education students at Wharton and to executives inseveral companies like Ford, Booz Allen Hamilton, and LehmanBrothers for several years.
Most of us think of leaders as courageous risk takers,orchestrators of major events-in a word, heroes. Yet while suchfigures are inspiring and admirable, Harvard Business SchoolProfessor Joseph Badaracco argues that their larger-than-lifeaccomplishments are simply not what makes the world work. Whatdoes, he says, is the sum of millions of small yet consequentialdecisions that men and women working far from the limelight makeevery day: how a line worker for a pharmaceutical company respondswhen he discovers a defect in a product's safety seal; how amanager deals with a valued employee suspected of stealing; how atrader handles a transaction error that will cost a clientmoney.Badaracco calls them "quiet leaders"-people who chooseresponsible, behind-the-scenes action over public heroism toresolve tough leadership challenges. These individuals don't fitthe stereotype of the bold and gutsy leader, and they don't wantto. What they want is to do the "right thing" for theirorganizations, their coworkers, and t
This volume captures the spirit of discovery that pervades"Great Groups". It describes the free-form organization of suchteams, more interested in their mission than their hierarchy. Theauthors discuss how "Great Groups" believe both that they'reunderdogs up against a powerful foe and that they're bound tosucceed. The book also illuminates the roles of a "Great Group"leader as a gatherer of talent, a source of inspiration and abridge to the outside world. Today, organizations require creativethinking from every member, not just a few. The world's complexityand pace mean that people can no longer rely on individual leadersand "Lone Rangers" to solve problems. Rather, people must learn towork together, to identify their own missions, to form their own"Great Groups". The stories and advice from the book show readershow. Warren Bennis is the author of "On Becoming a Leader","Leaders" and "Learning to Lead".
No More Headaches, Hypertension, or Heartburn If your work involves projects, then this book is for you. It willshow every company owner and project manager--at businesses largeand small--how to run projects differently. You'll benefit ifyou've ever: - been over budget on a project - exceeded a timeline on a project - worked on a project that completely stalled as you neared thefinish line - lost money on a sure-thing project and had no idea why - noticed that scope and feature creep held you back - watched a project take three times as long as planned - felt too embarrassed to perform a review of your successes andfailures - wondered whether your project actually made any money By the time you finish the book, you'll be ready to implementProject Management for Profit in your own company--and be preparedto keep your projects on track and on budget.
Too many companies are managed not by leaders, but by mere roleplayers and faceless bureaucrats. What does it take to be a realleader—one who is confident in who they are and what they stand forand who truly inspires people to achieve extraordinaryresults? In this lively and practical book, Goffee and Jones draw fromextensive research to reveal how to hone and deploy one’s uniqueleadership assets while managing the inherent tensions at the heartof successful leadership. Why Should Anyone Be Led By You? will forever change how we view,develop and practice the art of leadership, wherever we live andwork.
From an award-winning New York Times reporter comes the full, mind-boggling story of the lies, crimes, and ineptitude behind the Enron scandal that imperiled a presidency, destroyed a marketplace, and changed Washington and Wall Street forever.
In Seduced by Success, Robert J. Herbold, the former Chief Operating Officer of Microsoft, shows you how to avoid the nine traps of success-the “legacy practices” that almost felled such giants as General Motors, Kodak and Sony. Herbold, a 26-year-veteran of Procter & Gamble who lived through each trap, gives you proven tactics for preventing arrogance, bloat, and neglect while capitalizing on your accomplishments, sustaining your momentum, and retaining your position in the marketplace. The nine traps every successful organization must avoid are Neglect: Sticking with Yesterday's Business Model Pride: Allowing Your Products to Become Outdated Boredom: Clinging to Your Once-Successful Branding Complexity: Ignoring Your Business Processes Bloat: Rationalizing Your Loss of Speed and Agility Mediocrity: Letting Your Star Employees Languish Lethargy: Getting Lulled into a Culture of Comfort Timidity: Not Confronting Turf Wars and Obstructionists
Companies have long engaged in head-to-head competition insearch of sustained, profitable growth. They have fought forcompetitive advantage, battled over market share, and struggled fordifferentiation. Yet in today’s overcrowded industries, competing head-on resultsin nothing but a bloody “red ocean” of rivals fighting over ashrinking profit pool. In a book that challenges everything youthought you knew about the requirements fro strategic success, W.Chan Kim and Renee Mauborgne contend that while most companiescompete within such red oceans, this strategy is increasinglyunlikely to create profitable growth in the future. Based on a study of 150 strategic moves spanning more then ahundred years and thirty industries, Kim and Mauborgne argue thattomorrow’s leading companies will succeed not by battlingcompetitors, but by creating “blue ocean” of uncontested marketspace ripe for growth. Such strategies moves—termed “valueinnovation”-create powerful leaps in value for both th
Both Eric Schmidt and Jonathan Rosenberg came to Google as seasoned Silicon Valley business executives, but over the course of a decade they came to see the wisdom in Coach John Wooden's observation that 'it's what you learn after you know it all that counts'. 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'