"The Big Short" tells a story of spectacular, epic folly. It has taken the world's greatest financial meltdown to bring Michael Lewis back to the subject that made him famous. His international bestseller "Liar's Poker" exposed the greed and carnage of the City and Wall Street in the 1980s; he wrote it as a cautionary tale, but people seem to have read it as a how-to guide. Now, he wants to settle accounts. In this visceral tour to the heart of the financial system, Michael Lewis takes us around the globe and back decades to trace the origins of the current crisis. He meets the people who saw it coming, the people who were asleep at the wheel and the people who were actively driving us all of cliff. How could we have all been so deluded for quite so long? Where did it all start? Was it systemic? Was it avoidable? And who the hell can we blame? Michael Lewis has the answers. No one is better qualified to get to the heart of this labyrinthine story. And no one can make it such an enjoyable ride along the way.

This book examines the major contributing factors which catapulted KFC to the top of the Chinese restaurant service industry in less than two decades. It focuses on KFC China's competitive differentiators, and how they jelled in support of a coherent business strategy, and of each other. The successful execution of KFC China's business strategy has since been rewarded with an unlikely industry leadership position in growth, profitability, market share, and brand recognition in the world's fastest growing economy.

In this bestselling classic of financial management, G. Bennett Stewart, III, raises and answers these provocative questions: Do dividends matter? Are earnings per share really accurate measures of corporate performance? What is the engine that really drives share prices? More than that, Stewart lays the foundation for EVAr, the financial management and incentive system now in place at nearly 300 companies around the world, and which is rapidly becoming the global standard for corporate governance. Managers, confused about what investors really want, often find it difficult to reach informed decisions regarding business strategy, acquisitions and divestitures, financial structure, dividend policy, and executive compensation. But now an EVAr -based revolution is providing a practical framework that managers can use to build a premium-valued company. At the forefront of this revolution is the consulting firm of Stern Stewart & Co., of which G. Bennett Stewart, III, author of

Get ahead of the competition with some expert planning. As any business manager knows, success doesn't just happen. Ittakes hard work and planning to get the desired results. Strategicplanning is the discipline that helps businesses build on theirpresent success by analyzing all the factors that can impact thefuture and take measures to anticipate them. The Complete Idiot'sGuide(r) to Strategic Planning offers clear and concretediscussions about: ? Defining business goals in mission statements ? Proven methods to gather the information necessary to formulatea strategy ? Anticipating the competition ? Executing a strategic plan

The first installment in a new series offering straightforward,practical wisdom from a top business guru John Adair's 100 Greatest Ideas for Effective Management is thefirst in a new series of titles from the noted business expert.Focused on concise, practical, and straightforward business wisdom,the series offers the kind of real-world insight that businessleaders thrive on. Short, punchy, and packed with real solutions, this bookprovides 100 proven and effective ideas for business managers,whether they manage a few people or a few hundred, and whether theywork for a small firm or a Fortune 100 giant. Proven, practical business wisdom for managers The first in a new series from renowned business authority JohnAdair Quick bites of business wisdom for everyday managementsuccess For real management wisdom from a proven expert, John Adair's100 Greatest Ideas for Effective Management offers everything youneed to be your brilliant best.

A top business consultant and speaker lights the path to a positive, productive work environment What do the best leaders do to achieve greatness in the modern workplace that is muddled by fear, pressure for productivity, overwork? Inspire! offers business leaders a clear vision of what a positive, productive, inspiring organization looks like in these challenging and chaotic times, and how to get there. The key to extraordinary long-term performance lies in a transformational commitment to inspiring people rather than motivating them. Lance Secretan's Higher Ground Leadership concepts have been widely used to increase profits and quality, slash staff turnover, and achieve record organizational and personal performance. Inspire! describes Lance's breakthrough thinking, often in the words of the pace-setting leaders who are implementing them and building legacies. Countless examples, stories, and case studies demonstrate the magic of these brilliant ideas. Six essential values form the foundation of posi

The practical guide to discovering the rules of our superconnected world through the science and sociology of networks. In Superconnect, Richard Koch and Greg Lockwood show that success is less about who you are than how you connect—a chance meeting with an old colleague leads to a swanky new job; two businessmen collaborate online and cofound a successful start-up; a friend introduces a promising entrepreneur to a millionaire looking to invest. But why do these lucky breaks always happen to other people? Personal and professional networks shape everything we do, but simply knowing that they exist won’t help you harness your connections for maximum success. With an eye toward business applications, Superconnect outlines the new rules of our densely linked society. At the core of the analysis are three simple network components—strong relationships, weak relationships, and hubs—that interact in surprising, counterintuitive ways. Understanding how these components mesh, and connecting unrelated p

In THE FINANCIALCRISIS INQUIRY REPORT，the facts about thefinancial and economic crises that engulf the world will speak forthemselves. Formed in May 2009, the Financial Crisis InquiryComission (FCIC) is a panel of ten commissioners chosen by the U.S.Congress to explain what happened , why it happened, and what couldhave been done to prevent it. On December 15th, 2010, thecommission will release their official report to the President,Congress , and the World. 金融危机调查报告将合盘托出席卷全球的金融与经济危机的来龙去脉及真相，并让事实来说话。2009年5月由十名专家组成金融危机调查委员会授命于国会，专门负责调查金融危机成因，进而总结教训、提出改进建议。他们就20多项议题展开了重点调查。2010年12月15日美国金融危机调查委员会将向美国总统，美国国会和全世界公布其终的调查结果，并授权美国小布朗出版公司授权以图书的形式向全球发行其官方调查报告。

Successful management and leadership has never been a greater challenge. Time is stretched, your people are highly motivated but can be highly demanding and business is competitive. Whether you are a first-time manager or experienced leader, straightforward, practical advice on best practice can be hard to find. John Adair's 100 Greatest Ideas for Leadership and Management will help you find the answers and inspiration you need. The book provides accessible advice from one of the world's best-known and most sought after authorities on leadership and management - advice you can put into practice immediately. 作者简介： John Adair is internationally recognized as a leadership and management guru and has twice been named as one of 40 people worldwide who have contributed most to the development of management thought and practice. He is the author of more than 30 books and numerous articles on history, leadership and management development and over two million people world-wide have participated in the

Marketing is shrouded in arcane mystery and buzzwords. Itfrightens many and bewilders others. Yet every business, from thehand-car-wash by the side of the road, to the world's most famousbrands, engage in marketing every single day. This is an essential,reliable, speedy and up to date guide to the most robust andimportant concepts in marketing. This book shows you how to understand and do marketing withouthaving to study a degree or a diploma in it. Along the way it showsyou what has been learned about marketing over the centuries, whatexperts can teach us that we can use ourselves, how marketing haschanged in our new ‘digital' world, and how to avoid classicmistakes. In short, this is all you need to know about marketing.

"In The Well-Timed Strategy, Navarro provides a useful primer on business cycle risks and opportunities. Recognizing that business success depends most of all on human capital, he makes the crucial observation that the trough of a recession is the best time to find good people and the most important time to focus on retaining them. This and other insights about investment, production, and marketing give today’s executives a useful checklist for building and maintaining competitive advantage." –Michael Milken, Chairman, The Milken Institute "Navarro’s conclusions should be an integral part of any management strategy playbook. Timing is indeed everything, and this book shows you how to master it for a successful business." –Bruce Karatz, Chairman and CEO, KB Home "The business cycle bedevils all companies, yet few take it into account when plotting strategy. Peter Navarro provides a powerful set of tools, insights, and examples that will help every executive master the all-important ar

Another extraordinary business fable from the "New York Times"bestselling author Patrick LencioniWritten in the same dynamicstyle as his previous bestsellers including "The Five Dysfunctionsof a Team," Lencioni illustrates the principles of inspiring clientloyalty through a fascinating business fable. He explains thetheory of vulnerability in depth and presents concrete steps forputting it to work in any organization. The story follows a smallconsulting firm, Lighthouse Partners, which often beats outbig-name competitors for top clients. One such competitor buys outLighthouse and learns important lessons about what it means toprovide value to its clients. Offers a key resource for gainingcompetitive advantage in tough times Shows why the quality ofvulnerability is so important in business Includes ideas forinspiring customer and client loyalty Written by the highlysuccessful consultant and business writer Patrick LencioniThis newbook in the popular Lencioni series shows what it takes to gain areal and lastin

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

The financial crisis and ensuing recession permanently changedhow business is conducted. Executives and other decision makers,pressured to accomplish higher goals with lower budgets, aredemanding greater levels of accountability from their people. Andwhen it comes to investing in business processes, they wantquantifiable proof that any new initiative will contribute tosolving problems, serving customers, and improving thebusiness. The Real Value of Training gives you the tools not only to provethat your program will deliver solutions; it goes one step further,so you can explain exactly how much it will deliver. Presented bytraining ROI expert Ron Stone, The Real Value of Training offers an11-step process for qualitatively and quantitatively measuring thevalue of training. Stone's methodology brings ROI to a new level of scrutiny andcredibility by helping you successfully: Collect critical performance data Analyze results and adjust for causal influence and sustainedimpact Assign a monetary value to busin

Bill Strickland has spend the past thirty years transformingthe lives of thousands of people through Manchester Bidwell, thejobs training center and community arts program he founded inPittsburgh. Working with corporations, community leaders, andschools, he and his staff strive to give disadvantaged kids andadults the opportunities and tools they need to envision and builda better, brighter future. In Make the Impossible Possible, Bill Strickland shows how eachof us, by adopting the attitudes and beliefs he has lived by everyday, can reach our fullest potential and achieve the impossible inour lives and careers--and perhaps change the world a little in theprocess. Through lessons from Strickland's own life experiences andthose of countless others who have overcome challengingcircumstances and turned their lives around, Make the ImpossiblePossible teaches us how to build on our passions and strengths,dream bigger and set the bar higher, achieve meaningful success,and inspire the lives of others.

In factories around the world, Toyota consistently makes the highest-quality cars with the fewest defects of any competing manufacturer, while using fewer man-hours, less on-hand inventory, and half the floor space of its competitors. The Toyota Way is the first book for a general audience that explains the management principles and business philosophy behind Toyota's worldwide reputation for quality and reliability. Complete with profiles of organizations that have successfully adopted Toyota's principles, this book shows managers in every industry how to improve business processes by: ·Eliminating wasted time and resources ·Building quality into workplace systems ·Finding low-cost but reliable alternatives to expensive new technology ·Producing in small quantities ·Turning every employee into a qualitycontrol inspector

American capitalism is in dire straits, caught in a perilouspattern of increasing volatility, decreasing investor returns, andongoing bad behavior by executives. And it's getting worse. Sincethe turn of the twenty-first century, we've seen two massivevalue-destroying market meltdowns and a string of ethics breaches,including accounting scandals, options-backdating schemes, and thesubprime mortgage debacle. Just what is going on here? Is it theinevitable decline of the American economy? Is it the new normal ina technology-enabled global marketplace? Or is it possible that thevery theories we've embraced to underpin our capital markets areactually producing these crises? In "Fixing the Game", Roger Martinreveals the culprit behind the sorry state of American capitalism:our deep and abiding commitment to the idea that the purpose of thefirm is to maximize shareholder value. This theory has led to amassive growth in stock-based compensation for executives and,through this, to a naive and wrongheaded linkin

This hands-on, concise guide gives you 24 proven techniques for communicating clearly and managing conflicts. It features guidelines for everything from sharing information and gathering input from employees to handling disagreements to conducting results-driven meetings and presentations.

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

Hard to believe anything other than luck and maybe fate, never mind a book, can make someone fall in love with you, but oddly enough, Leil Lowndes seems to offer the advice that can do just that in How to Make Anyone Fall in Love with You. The sensation of falling in love comes from a chemical secreted by the nervous system, phenylethylamine (or PEA, as Lowndes calls it, as in "Scientists tell us only PEA-brained people fall in Love"), and the trick is to trigger the manufacture of PEA in your potential love partner, giving him or her the sensation of being in love. Lowndes offers 85 techniques for "Hunters and Huntresses" to capture their "Quarry." Much of what the book offers is common sense--the power of eye contact and compliments--but it's presented in a new way and with such detail that it seems that it can't help but work. Following some of her advice will have you treading that fine line between nice and obsequious, and at times, this book may sound offensive to some, advising the reader to play w

The tools you need for successful project management Intoday's time-crunched, cost-conscious global business environment,tight project deadlines and stringent expectations are the norm.Now with 25% new and updated content, "Project Management ForDummies, 3rd Edition" introduces you to the principles ofsuccessful project management and shows you how to motivate anyteam to gain maximum productivity. You'll learn how to organize,estimate, and schedule projects efficiently and effectively. You'llalso discover how to manage deliverables, issue changes, assessrisks, maintain communications, and live up to expectations bymaking the most of the latest technology and software and byavoiding common problems that can trip up even the best projectmanagers. The latest methods to manage resources and stay on trackand within a budget New coverage of the pros and cons of virtualteams Fresh tactics for team motivation and the hottest riskmanagement strategies Explanations of concepts tested in the PMPcertification exam with

In this book you'll learn the answers to these questions and much more. American Politics in the20th Century is the perfect book for anyone interested in the political history of the United States. You'll read about the formation of the "Bull Moose" Party right through to the formation of the Reform Party. You'll also read about the struggles by women and African-Americans to gain equal voting rights, in addition to the various scandals that threatened and destroyed political careers and presidential administrations. Along the way you'll meet dozens of political bosses, politicians, lobbyists, speechwriters, spin doctors, pollsters, campaign strategists and other political movers and shakers. It's remarkable to look back over the past century and examine how politics has evolved, as well as how it has stayed the same. The struggle for control is constant, while the rules and means of gaining control have been periodically changed in response to public demands. Each book in the 20th Century Series cont

About the Book: In a recent groundbreaking study, the training firm Leadership IQfound that 46 percent of all new hires fail within their first 18months. But here’s the real shocker: 89 percent fail forattitudinal reasons—not skills. Most hiring managers are getting it wrong. Of course skills areimportant, but a particular skill set is about the easiest thing totest in an interview. Although much harder to recognize, attitudeshould be your number-one focus during the hiring process. Don’tsuffer from poor chemistry—even one employee with the wrongattitude could cause years of suffering for your other employeesand customers. Whether you’re hiring new employees, choosing existing employeesfor a new team, or upgrading your current talent pool, you needpeople with the right attitude! Attitude is what makes employees give 100 percent effort andturns customers into raving fans. Attitude sets your company apartfrom the competition. In Hiring for Attitude, top leadership

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