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

THE REMARKABLE AND INSPIRING TRUE STORY OF ONE GUY WHOTRANSFORMED HIS UNCERTAINTY ABOUT THE FUTURE INTO ACTION A year and a half after he graduated from college, Sean Aikenfound himself struggling to answer the question “What should I dowith my life?” His mother suggested teaching. His older sister toldhim to apply for an entry-level corporate position. His fathersaid, “It doesn’t matter what you do, just make sure it’s somethingyou’re passionate about.” Taking his father’s advice to heart, Seancreated the One-Week Job Project and launched himself on an epicjourney to find his passion. His goal: to work fifty-two jobs infifty-two weeks. After the launch of his website, oneweekjob.com, the offers beganpouring in. Sean’s first gig was—literally—jumping off a bridge, asa bungee operator in British Columbia. From there he traveledacross Canada and the United States, reinventing himself as afirefighter, an aquarium host, a radio DJ, a martial artsinstructor, an NHL mascot,

When a mysterious weather balloon crashes to earth in theSwiss Alps, the head of the NSA handpicks Robert Bellamy to trackdown and identify the ten known witnesses to the event. A man whoseobsession with his covert assignments has cost him the only womanhe can ever love, Bellamy now faces the impossible. But as hesearches for clues from Rome to Budapest to Texas, this missionblows up in his face -- and rips the lid off an incredibleconspiracy that stretches around the globe and even intospace... Alone and betrayed on every side, Bellamy must run for hislife -- holding an astonishing secret and the key to the planet'svery survival.

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.

"[A]...breakthrough for the genre....Peters is not onlythe father of the postmodern corporation...he may well haveproduced the first piece of postmodern management literature."--LosAngeles Times "No matter where you are in your career, this book is a mustread. The younger your thinking the more you'll get out ofit." --The Cleveland Plain Dealer "A manual for businesses that want to survive and thrive in aworld continually undergoing change." --St. PetersburgTimes "Tom Peters has done it again."--J.W. Marriot, Jr., CEO, MarriotInternational, Inc. "[Peters] yields potent insights...his keen attention to thehuman element in organizational growth and change shinesthrough...No cutting-edge manager can afford to ignoreit."--Publishers Weekly -- Review

MAKE RICK PITINO YOUR PERSONAL COACH AND ACHIEVE MORE THAN YOUEVER THOUGHT POSSIBLE. For Rick Pitino, the first coach to bring teams from threedifferent schools to the Final Four, success isn’t aboutshortcuts. Pitino’s secret–and the reason he has become botha great coach and one of the most sought-after motivationalspeakers in the nation–is his strategy of overachievement. Now, in Success Is a Choice, he takes the same proven methods thathave earned him and his teams legendary status and gives you aten-step plan of attack that will help you become a winner atanything you set your mind to:

The path to your professional success starts with a criticallook in the mirror. If you read nothing else on managing yourself, read these 10articles. We've combed through hundreds of Harvard Business Reviewarticles to select the most important ones to help you maximizeyourself. HBR's 10 Must Reads on Managing Yourself will inspire youto: - Stay engaged throughout your 50+-year work life - Tap into your deepest values - Solicit candid feedback - Replenish physical and mental energy - Balance work, home, community, and self - Spread positive energy throughout your organization - Rebound from tough times - Decrease distractibility and frenzy - Delegate and develop employees' initiative

The authors present important research showing thatcorporatist institutions generate smaller non-competitive wagedifferentials than a decentralized system. A theoreticalexplanation is developed based on the hold-up problem ininvestments, arguing that corporatist institutions solve theproblem by specifying ex ante nominal contracts that remove thenecessity of ex post bargaining over the surplus of an employmentrelationship. The authors also argue that such institutions allowsufficient flexibility to accommodate aggregate shocks, even moreso than decentralized systems. Corporatism or Competition? is thefirst book to bring together the mass of research on comparativewage differences, wage movements and employment behaviour indifferent countries with different institutional frameworks, in anorganized and coherent fashion.

The book that shows how to get the job done and deliverresults . . . whether you’re running an entire company or in yourfirst management job Larry Bossidy is one of the world’s most acclaimed CEOs, a manwith few peers who has a track record for delivering results. RamCharan is a legendary advisor to senior executives and boards ofdirectors, a man with unparalleled insight into why some companiesare successful and others are not. Together they’ve pooled theirknowledge and experience into the one book on how to close the gapbetween results promised and results delivered that people inbusiness need today. After a long, stellar career with General Electric, Larry Bossidytransformed AlliedSignal into one of the world’s most admiredcompanies and was named CEO of the year in 1998 by Chief Executivemagazine. Accomplishments such as 31 consecutive quarters ofearnings-per-share growth of 13 percent or more didn’t just happen;they resulted from the consistent practice of the discipline ofexe

Most people think success comes from good luck or enormoustalent, but many successful people achieve their accomplishments ina simpler way: through self-discipline. No Excuses! shows youhow you can achieve success in all three major areas of your life,including your personal goals, business and money goals, andoverall happiness. Each of the 21 chapters in this book shows you how to be moredisciplined in one aspect of your life, with end-of-chapterexercises to help you apply the "no excuses" approach to your ownlife. With these guidelines, you can learn how to be moresuccessful in everything you do--instead of wistfully envyingothers you think are just "luckier" than you. A littleself-discipline goes a long way…so stop making excuses and readthis book!

All around the world, The Secret is guiding millions to the life of their dreams. Now, with The Secret Daily Teachings, creator of The Secret Rhonda Byrne takes you through the next vital steps in living The Secret. With 365 brand new insights that build on The Secret's powerful truths, your knowledge of the law of attraction is about to expand far beyond what you can imagine. More joy, abundance, and blessings -- every single day of the year. For more information about The Secret, visit www.thesecret.tv.

Creative folks often know all too well that the muse doesn’talways strike when you want it to, or when the deadline for yournext brilliant project is creeping up on you like an ill-fittingturtleneck. Originality doesn’t follow a time clock, even when youhave to. While conventional time management books offer tons ofinstruction for using time wisely, they are traditionally organizedin a linear fashion, which just isn’t helpful for the right-brainmind. In Time Management for the Creative Person , creativityguru Lee Silber offers real advice for using the strengths ofartistic folks—like originality and resourcefulness—to adoptinnovative time-saving solutions, such as: * Learning to say no when your plate is just too full * How to know when a good job, not a great one, is goodenough * Making “to do” lists that include fun stuff, too—that way youwon’t feel overwhelmed by work * Time-saving techniques around the house that give you more timeto get your work done and more time to spend with your

Just as Watergate was the defining political story of its time,so Enron is the biggest business story of our time. And just as All the President’s Men was the one Watergate book that gavereaders the full story, with all the drama and nuance, TheSmartest Guys in the Room is the one book you have to read tounderstand this amazing business saga.

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

Bestselling author Harvey Mackay reveals his techniques forthe most essential tool in business--networking, the indispensableart of building contacts. Now in paperback, Dig Your Well Before You're Thirsty is HarveyMackay's last word on how to get what you want from the worldthrough networking. For everyone from the sales rep facing acareer-making deal to the entrepreneur in search of capital, DigYour Well explains how meeting these needs should be no more than afew calls away. This shrewdly practical book distills Mackay'swisdom gleaned from years of "swimming with sharks," including:

A grand and revelatory portrait of Wall Street’s most storiedinvestment bank Wall Street investment banks move trillions of dollars a year,make billions in fees, pay their executives in the tens of millionsof dollars. But even among the most powerful firms, Lazard Frères Co. stood apart. Discretion, secrecy, and subtle strategywere its weapons of choice. For more than a century, the mystiqueand reputation of the "Great Men" who worked there allowed the firmto garner unimaginable profits, social cachet, and outsizedinfluence in the halls of power. But in the mid-1980s, theirtitanic egos started getting in the way, and the Great Men ofLazard jeopardized all they had built. William D. Cohan, himself a former high-level Wall Street banker,takes the reader into the mysterious and secretive world of Lazardand presents a compelling portrait of Wall Street through thetumultuous history of this exalted and fascinating company. Cohandeconstructs the explosive feuds between Felix Rohatyn and Steve

Cooper Ramo is Managing Director and a partner atKissinger Associates, one of the world's leading strategic advisoryfirms. Prior to joining Kissinger Associates, he was AssistantManaging Editor of Time and worked in the advisory and bankingbusiness in China.

With corporate scandals dominating the headlines on aregular basis, business ethics are more important than ever. Thisamusing primer highlights everything an aspiring CEO should knowabout maintaining integrity in corporate America. You llfind: - Guidance on making fair and honest business decisions - A quiz to test your own ethics - Advice on promoting ethical behavior - Simple lessons for making your workplace a positiveenvironment - And much, much more. It's the perfect gift for office newbies, seasoned executives,and college graduates everywhere!

By the author of the modern classic The Black Swan, thiscollection of aphorisms and meditations expresses his major ideasin ways you least expect. The Bed of Procrustes takes its title from Greek mythology: thestory of a man who made his visitors fit his bed to perfection byeither stretching them or cutting their limbs. It representsTaleb’s view of modern civilization’s hubristic sideeffects—modifying humans to satisfy technology, blaming reality fornot fitting economic models, inventing diseases to sell drugs,defining intelligence as what can be tested in a classroom, andconvincing people that employment is not slavery. Playful and irreverent, these aphorisms will surprise you byexposing self-delusions you have been living with but neverrecognized. With a rare combination of pointed wit and potent wisdom, Talebplows through human illusions, contrasting the classical values ofcourage, elegance, and erudition against the modern diseases ofnerdiness, philistinism, and phoniness.

The bestselling guide to seizing opportunity in the workplace,from the woman at the pinnacle of the Hearst magazine empire Every woman dreams of having a wise, funny mentor who understandsthe challenges she faces. Now, Cathie Black—one of Forbes's "100Most Powerful Women" and Fortune's "50 Most Powerful Women inBusiness"—offers invaluable lessons that will help you land thejob, promotion, or project you're vying for. You'll find out how tohandle interviews, which rules to break, and why you should makeyour life a grudge-free zone. Filled with surprisingly candid,personal stories and advice, this is the only career guide you'llever need.

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.

那些没有找到真正财富——存在的欢乐以及与它紧密联系在一起的深深的不可动摇的宁静——的人就是故事中的那个乞丐，即便已经拥有很多财富，但他们依然在四处找寻。他们不知道，自己不仅已经拥有了所有这些，还拥有了更为珍贵的东西，那就是——当下的力量。 阅读本书的过程是一个发现之旅。在作者这位心灵导师的引导下，你会惊讶地发现，自己一直都处在大脑或思维的控制之下，生活在对时间的永恒焦虑中。我们忘不掉过去，更担心未来。但实际上，我们只能活在当下，活在此时此刻，所有的一切都是在当下发生的，而过去和未来只是一个无意义的时间概念。通过向当下的臣服，我们才能找到真正的力量，找到获得平和与宁静的入口。 这不仅仅是一本书，在这本书中还有活生生的能量，当你读这本书时你可能会感受到这种能量。它有一种惊

Managing people is fraught with challenges even if you're aseasoned manager. Here's how to handle them. If you read nothingelse on managing people, read these 10 articles. We've combedthrough hundreds of Harvard Business Review articles and selectedthe most important ones to help you maximize your employees'performance. HBR's 10 Must Reads on Managing People will inspireyou to: Tailor your management styles to fit your people Motivatewith more responsibility, not more money Support first-timemanagers Build trust by soliciting input Teach smart people how tolearn from failure Build high-performing teams Manage your boss

New rules for the new game: the ideas that every business needs to win in the customereconomy In The Agenda , Michael Hammer showscompanies how to prosper in today’s world of slow growth, fiercecompetition, and enormously powerful customers. The winners in thisextraordinarily difficult environment—companies like IBM, DukePower, Progressive Insurance, and GE—succeed through superioroperations. Their costs are lower and their quality higher thantheir competitors’; they get new products to market faster and theyprovide better customer service. How do they do it? Throughnear-fanatical attention to the basics of business, and by managingthese basics in new and creative ways. The Agenda teaches the ideas and techniques that anycompany—large or small, service ?rm or manufacturer—can use toout-execute and out-innovate its competitors. Businesses thatfollow these principles will grow by taking market share away fromthose that do not. While others decline, your company can thri