A cocktail party. A terrorist cell. Ancient bacteria. Aninternational conglomerate. All are networks, and all are a part of a surprisingscientific revolution. Albert-László Barabási, the nation'sforemost expert in the new science of networks, takes us on anintellectual adventure to prove that social networks, corporations,and living organisms are more similar than previously thought.Grasping a full understanding of network science will someday allowus to design blue-chip businesses, stop the outbreak of deadlydiseases, and influence the exchange of ideas and information. Justas James Gleick brought the discovery of chaos theory to thegeneral public, Linked tells the story of the true science of thefuture.

From experts at McKinsey Company's world-renowned growthpractice comes a highly practical, field-tested approach toinitiating and sustaining growth in companies of all sizes. .Growth unleashes benefits beyond the economic. It revitalizesorganizations and invigorates the people in them, creating energy,a sense of purpose, and the glow of being on a winning team. Likethe alchemy of old, it seeks to transform the everyday into theexalted by means that seem little short of magical. Yet growth isoften elusive, achieved at unacceptable costs, or managed in fitsand starts. Based on over three years of research and applicationat high-performing companies around the world, The Alchemy ofGrowth is a comprehensive, practical approach to initiating,achieving, and sustaining profitable growthtoday and tomorrow. Asthe book shows, the secret is to manage business opportunitiesacross three time horizons at once: extending and defending corebusinesses, building new businesses, and seeding options for thefuture. The Alchemy

Do you think it's possible to truly enjoy your job? No matterwhat it is or where you are? Timothy Gallwey does, and in thisgroundbreaking book he tells you how to overcome the innerobstacles that sabotage your efforts to be your best on thejob. Timothy Gallwey burst upon the scene twenty years ago with hisrevolutionary approach to excellence in sports. His bestsellingbooks The Inner Game of Tennis and The Inner Game ofGolf , with over one million copies in print, changed the way wethink about learning and coaching. But the Inner Game that Gallweydiscovered on the tennis court is about more than learning a betterbackhand; it is about learning how to learn, a critical skill that,in this case, separates the productive, satisfied employee from therest of the pack. For the past twenty years Gallwey has taken hisInner Game expertise to many of America's top companies, includingAT T, Coca-Cola, Apple, and IBM, to teach their managers andemployees how to gain better access to their own internalresourc

A brilliantly reported true-life thriller that goes behind thescenes of the financial crisis on Wall Street and inWashington. In one of the most gripping financial narratives in decades,Andrew Ross Sorkin-a New York Times columnist and one of thecountry's most respected financial reporters-delivers the firstdefinitive blow- by-blow account of the epochal economic crisisthat brought the world to the brink. Through unprecedented accessto the players involved, he re-creates all the drama and turmoil ofthese turbulent days, revealing never-before-disclosed details andrecounting how, motivated as often by ego and greed as by fear andself-preservation, the most powerful men and women in finance andpolitics decided the fate of the world's economy.

Customize your delivery for maximum persuasive power. If you need the best practices and ideas for communicatingeffectively--but don't have time to find them--this book is foryou. Here are 10 inspiring and useful perspectives, all in oneplace. This collection of HBR articles will help you: - Pitch your brilliant idea successfully - Connect with your audience - Establish credibility - Inspire others to realize your vision - Adapt to your listeners' decision-making styles - Frame goals around common interests - Build consensus and win concessions - Neutralize stressful conversations

Business revolves around making decisions, often riskydecisions, usually with incomplete information and too often inless time than we need. Executives at every level, in everyindustry, are confronted with information overload, less leeway formistakes, and a business environment that changes rapidly. In lightof this increased pressure and volatility, the old-fashioned waysof making decisions–depending on intuition, common sense, andspecialized expertise–are simply no longer sufficient. Distillingover thirty years of groundbreaking research, WinningDecisions , written by two seasoned business advisers and worldleaders in behavioral decision studies, is a comprehensive,one-of-a-kind guide to the proven methods of making criticalbusiness decisions confidently, quickly–and correctly. Decision-making is a business skill which managers often take forgranted in themselves and others–but it's not as easy as some mightthink. The authors, whose expertise has been sought out by over ahundred companies, includi

In this remarkable New York Times bestseller, Joel Osteenoffers unique insights and encouragement that will help readersovercome every obstacle in their lives.

"As a manager, my purpose is to serve the greater goodby bringing people and resources together to create value that nosingle individual can create alone..." So begins the MBA Oath, conceived in early 2009 byMax Anderson, Peter Escher, and a team of Harvard Business Schoolstudents. They saw that in the wake of the financial crisis, theMadoff scandal, and other headlines, MBAs were being vilified.People were angry because business leaders, many of whom were MBAs,seemed not to care about anything beyond their own privateinterests. Many began to question the worth of business schools andthe MBA degree. The oath quickly spread beyond Harvard, becoming a worldwidemovement for a new generation of leaders who care about society aswell as the bottom line. Thousands of graduating MBAs have nowpledged to conduct themselves with honesty and integrity, just asmedical students swear by the Hippocratic oath before they canpractice. This book is the manifesto for the movement. It provides not only astrong case for wh

From the man the Wall Street Journal hailed as "theguru of Revenue Management" comes revolutionary ways to recoverfrom the after effects of downsizing and refocus your business ongrowth. Whatever happened to growth? In Revenue Management, RobertG. Cross answers this question with his ground-breaking approach torevitalizing businesses: focusing on the revenue side of the ledgerinstead of the cost side. The antithesis of slash-and-burn methodsthat left companies with empty profits and dissatisfiedstockholders, Revenue Management overturns conventionalthinking on marketing strategies and offers the key to initiatingand sustaining growth. Using case studies from a variety of industries, smallbusinesses, and nonprofit organizations, Cross describes no-tech,low-tech, and high-tech methods that managers can use to increaserevenue without increasing products or promotions; predict consumerbehavior; tap into new markets; and deliver products and servicesto customers effectively and efficiently

Based on the best-seller Phonics Pathways, a complete approachto teaching phonics and early reading Dolores Hiskes has developed a wealth of helpful teachingaides based on her best-selling book Phonics Pathways. This boosterpack includes 46 double-sided flash cards that illustrate thesounds and spelling patterns of the English language; SpeakingPathways, a lively 35-minute audio CD that demonstrates the soundsof spoken English; and three fun phonics games: WordWorks, whichreviews and reinforces phonics reading skills, Blendlt, whichreinforces knowledge of beginning spelling patterns, and The TrainGame, which features individual "train car" cards that kids puttogether to make longer words. Companion CD demonstrates the sounds of spoken English Contains games that have been classroom-tested and proveneffective Offers aides that are at once challenging and a fun way to learnreading skills These powerful phonics teaching tools can be used with beginningreaders, English language learners, d

"This is not another 'how to start your own business' book,but rather one man's struggle to find meaning and fulfillment inwork, latching onto elephants when needed, but mostly flying solowithout a net." -Booklist Social philosopher and international business guru, CharlesHandy provides a firsthand account of how we got here and where weare headed. Handy takes us on his life's journey, looking back tosuch topics as his childhood and education and how they prepared(or, rather, did not prepare) him for a career in business; thechanging nature of organizational life within the context of theold economy and the new; the great variety of capitalism around theworld; and, through it all, his struggle to find meaning andfulfillment in work. This book is both a poignant personal memoirand a deep reflection on the past and future of world capitalism,with all its possibilities and pitfalls.

Since Peter Senge published his groundbreaking book The FifthDiscipline, he and his associates have frequently been asked by thebusiness community: "How do we go beyond the first steps ofcorporate change? How do we sustain momentum?" They know thatcompanies and organizations cannot thrive today without learning toadapt their attitudes and practices. But companies that establishchange initiatives discover, after initial success, that even themost promising efforts to transform or revitalizeorganizations--despite interest, resources, and compelling businessresults--can fail to sustain themselves over time. That's becauseorganizations have complex, well-developed immune systems, aimed atpreserving the status quo. Now, drawing upon new theories about leadership and the long-termsuccess of change initiatives, and based upon twenty-fiveyears of experience building learning organizations, the authors of TheFifth Discipline Fieldbook show how to accelerate success and avoidthe obstacles that can stall momentum. The

In Take on the Street , Arthur Levitt--Chairman of theSecurities and Exchange Commission for eight years under PresidentClinton--provides the best kind of insider information: the kindthat can help honest, small investors protect themselves from thedeliberately confusing ways of Wall Street. At a time when investor confidence in Wall Street and corporateAmerica is at an historic low, when many are seriously questioningwhether or not they should continue to invest, Levitt offers thebenefits of his own experience, both on Wall Street and as itschief regulator. His straight talk about the ways of stockbrokers(they are salesmen, plain and simple), corporate financialstatements (the truth is often hidden), mutual fund managers(remember who they really work for), and other aspects of thebusiness will help to arm everyone with the tools they need toprotect—and enhance—their financial future.

Tradition says there are three ways to grow a company’sprofits: Fire up the sales team with empty promises, cut costs anddownsize, or cook the books. But what if there’s a better way—a waythat nine amazingly profitable and well-run companies are alreadyembracing? Jason Jennings and his research team screened more than100,000 Amer?ican companies to find nine that rarely end up onmagazine covers, yet have increased revenues and profits by tenpercent or more for ten consecutive years. Then they interviewedthe leaders, workers, and customers of these quiet super?stars tofind the secrets of their astoundingly consistent and profitablegrowth. What they have in common is a culture—a community—based on ashockingly simple precept: Think big, but act small. It works forretailers like PETCO, Cabela’s, and O’Reilly Automotive,manufacturers like Medline Industries, service compa?nies likeSonic Drive-In, private educational companies like Strayer,industrial giants like Koch Enterprises, a

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

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

Michael Goldhaber, writing in Wired, said, "If there isnothing very special about your work, no matter how hard you applyyourself you won't get noticed and that increasingly means youwon't get paid much either. In times past you could be obscure yetsecure -- now that's much harder." Again: the white collar job as now configured is doomed. Soon.("Downsizing" in the nineties will look like small change.) Sowhat's the trick? There's only one: distinction. Or as we call it,turning yourself into a brand . . . Brand You. A brand is nothing more than a sign of distinction. Right? Nike.Starbucks. Martha Stewart. The point (again): that's not the waywe've thought about white collar workers--ourselves--over the pastcentury. The "bureaucrat" on the finance staff is de factofaceless, plugging away, passing papers. But now, in our view, she is born again, transformed frombureaucrat to the new star. She works in a professional servicefirm and works on projects that she'll be able to brag about yearsfrom now. I call

YaYa CEO Ferrazzi works with "Inc." writer Raz to explain theguiding principles he has mastered over a lifetime of reaching outto explain what it takes to build the kind of lasting, mutuallybeneficial relationships that lead to professional and personalsuccess.

A compelling vision. Bold leadership. Decisive action.Unfortunately, these prerequisites of success are almost always theingredients of failure, too. In fact, most managers seeking tomaximize their chances for glory are often unwittingly settingthemselves up for ruin. The sad truth is that most companies haveleft their futures almost entirely to chance, and don’t evenrealize it. The reason? Managers feel they must make choices withfar-reaching consequences today, but must base those choices onassumptions about a future they cannot predict. It is thiscollision between commitment and uncertainty that creates THESTRATEGY PARADOX. This paradox sets up a ubiquitous but little-understood tradeoff.Because managers feel they must base their strategies onassumptions about an unknown future, the more ambitious of themhope their guesses will be right – or that they can somehow adaptto the turbulence that will arise. In fact, only a small number oflucky daredevils prosper, while many more unfortunate, bu