“When you don’t know where you want to go, the wind always blows from the wrong direction.”

Every manager must manage two companies simultaneously: the present firm and the future firm. Neglecting the future firm will cause the organization to become obsolete given the change of the business environment from day to day. Managing only the future firm and neglecting the present day-to-day business will never get the company to its future goals.

The art of balancing the management of the urgent (today) with the important (future) is presented in this book through two detailed case studies of the Swedish car manufacturer Saab and the Spanish financial institution, Caja de Madrid.

Click here to view the book summary >>

Negotiating is an important skill we use everyday whether for business, political, or personal purposes. This practical guide is based on more than 20 years' experience in real life situations, as shared by one of New York's toughest union leaders.

The driving force of the Strategic Selling approach is a non-manipulative selling philosophy. The key to ensuring selling success is to manage every sales objective as a joint venture. Sales people must create a framework that fosters a win-win situation; a mutually beneficial transaction where both buyer and seller achieve gains.

The New Strategic Selling book works by helping you sort through confusing data and information associated with every Complex Sale; and to give you a reliable method for analyzing the data, for positioning yourself better with your accounts, and for closing business deals.

Quit being a girl. Unlearn the things you were taught with during early childhood about being overly nice. Being polite, soft-spoken, compliant and submissive will not get you to the corner office. Start acting like a woman and see yourself move fluidly forward in your career.

Dr. Frankel clearly identifies the common mistakes –101 in all—that women commit unconsciously to sabotage their careers. This book provides revolutionary guides to help the women of today eliminate the girl-like behaviors they became accustomed with, which hold them back professionally.

Imagine this: You receive a phone call from the estate of a long-lost relative. You have inherited a million dollars in cash! It's waiting for you in a Swiss bank but there is one catch: The key to the safety box is hidden in a silver container at the summit of Mount McKinley in Alaska. The instructions are clear: you must personally climb the mountain within 12 months. If you don't the money is lost forever. Becoming an Enlightened Millionaire may not be nearly as difficult as this task. But it is similar. Almost anyone can be a millionaire, but it takes proper preparation, right mentorship and a time-tested path to being an enlightened millionaire. Read on and find out.

Everyone wants sustained success. Unfortunately, only few are able to attain this so longed for success. This is not because of a lack of effort or lack of determination; if anything, a good number of people even expend large amounts of effort and display overwhelming determination but still don’t quite make it there. A majority of people don’t experience sustained success because they don’t know where to focus their time, energies and resources on.

These focal points are exactly what you need to know to succeed. “The One Thing You Need to Know” will let you in on the single thing you need to know and focus on as a manager, a leader, or simply, as an individual in order to reach great heights and stay there.  

Beginnings are always tough; first times, inexorably fussy. In this tremendously poignant book, Gunn and Gullickson relate the exigencies brought about by a spanking promotion at work. Both authors point to the experience of walking the high wire—venturing into the unknown without a safety net—as a seemingly disoriented stance of newly-appointed managers/leaders who confront the difficulty of transition into bigger responsibilities and who have qualms about their capabilities to pull off the new job.

Explicit and equally provocative, the book is a pragmatic guide for people who have just advanced in the corporate ladder yet find themselves stumped and stuck in an eddy of self-doubt. It spurs optimism and assurance that the unknown can be unravelled, adapted to, and overcome. It inspires a new approach to leadership that goes beyond what a leader does: it is actually about becoming one.

Liz Davenport offers an easy system to help you clean up your act. If you find yourself missing important deadlines, forgetting to return calls, and misplacing papers, then follow these six simple steps to organizational freedom.

Why get organized? The average businessperson wastes 150 hours each year just looking for stuff. If you got organized, you could accomplish more, and take longer vacations, ultimately freeing your workspace, and your mind, of unnecessary clutter.

Successful organizations are those that are capable of achieving their goals and objectives over time; not to mention being respected and admired by employees, stockholders, and the community.  Along with vision and purpose, the external environment, particularly its predictability and compatibility, also plays a crucial factor in the success of any organization.  The emerging business environment, however, has demonstrated to managers the inadequacy of traditional models, methods, and perspectives of doing business in ensuring long-term success for their organizations.  Moreover, globalization and the materialization of a “knowledge economy” make it imperative for organizations to adopt more effective models of the firm and better organizational principles and practices.

It is in this context that Organizational Survival in the New World presents the intelligent complex adaptive system (ICAS), a new systems model for the successful organization of the future.  This book offers a description of the next-generation organization designed to effectively deal with the turbulent business environment of today. It also provides a clear and comprehensive road map towards developing better organizational structures and management systems using the latest research in knowledge management and complexity theory. 

One of the factors to success is the ability to manage tasks efficiently and systematically in a similarly conducive environment. Practicing time management allows you to accomplish the more important tasks on time; and helps you achieve the goals you have set for yourself.

Organized to Be Your Best! gives simple tips on how to get started and maintain good organization practices. Being productive doesn’t have to be difficult. After all, it’s supposed to make life easier for you.

Whether it is a Lone Ranger, Paul Revere, Tiger Woods or Michael Jordan, the myth of the triumphant individual – the lone hero – is deeply ingrained in the American psyche. But in a shrinking world of technological and political complexity, cooperation and collaboration are now becoming the order of the day. Most urgent projects require the coordinated contributions of many talented people.

“Organizing Genius” by Warren Bennis and Patricia Ward Biederman presents insights on how and why a few groups rise to greatness, as a way of showing how to transform today’s workplaces into Great Groups of collaboration and productivity. It presents 7 examples of Great Groups – Walt Disney, Xerox’s Palo Alto Research Center (PARC), Apple, the 1992 Clinton campaign, Lockheed’s Skunk Works, Black Mountain College, and the Manhattan Project, which invented the atomic bomb in World War II.

In The Oz Principle, Connors, Smith, and Hickman brilliantly use the analogy of “The Wizard of Oz” to discuss a business philosophy aimed in propelling individuals and organizations to overcome unfavorable circumstances and achieve desired results. This philosophy can be encompassed in one word: ACCOUNTABILITY.

The eponymous principle builds upon the ethos of personal and organizational accountability. It explores the root cause of an organization's impediments to exceptional performance and productivity, and provides great insight on how to re-establish a business from the bottom up, emphasizing on the thin line that separates success from failure. The Above The Line, Below The Line methodology is the driving force behind the Oz Principle.

This tenth anniversary edition supplies the reader with additional and updated examples of Above the Line, Below the Line experiences of various individuals and organizations.

When used correctly, a performance review can be an effective motivational tool.  Unfortunately, a review can also cause defensive reactions and negative emotions.  As a manager, you must be able to find the right way to document employee performance in order to boost morale, increase productivity, and build strong working relationships.

Author and workplace coach Anne Bruce shares with you a step-by-step guide on creating performance reviews.  If you want to learn how to address the most difficult performance issues, this book is a must-read.

From a new breed of motivators, America’s Attitude Coach Ray Pelletier gives you a practical guide for translating your personal mission into concrete action. Make today your January 1st. Say goodbye to negative thoughts and change your life by giving yourself Permission to Win.

Whether it’s asking your boss for a raise, or dismissing an employee as painlessly as possible, this book addresses all kinds of thorny situations, how we can effectively communicate in business situations, and calmly manage potential conflict.

Starbucks Coffee is an example of turning a passion for coffee into a successful business venture. What started as small coffee shop in Seattle is now a global marketing phenomenon that covered the globe with over sixteen hundred stores and with more opening each day. The principles behind the success of Starbucks Coffee are discussed including the importance of passion for an excellent product and the need to infuse tradition and imagination as part of the business venture. Transforming coffee drinking into a whole new experience is just as important as serving it. By combining several of the principles, managers, marketers and aspiring entrepreneurs can discover why passion is just as important as capital and marketing savvy are in any business undertaking.

Dr. Blaine Lee outlines useful methods to overcome powerlessness, emphasizing that in our business or personal lives, we are always faced with a Choice. This is a book for people who need to understand the greatest power is that which comes through integrity, how principle-centered power, or the way you live your life, is the way to getting the kind of power, respect, and honor that outlasts a lifetime.

Dr. Blaine Lee outlines useful methods to overcome powerlessness, emphasizing that in our business or personal lives, we are always faced with a Choice. This is a book for people who need to understand the greatest power is that which comes through integrity, how principle-centered power, or the way you live your life, is the way to getting the kind of power, respect, and honor that outlasts a lifetime.

A study conducted by the author shows that the most financially successful operations have common characteristics. The relationship between these characteristics and financial success is not trivial.

Thousands or even millions of presentations are given by business executives and entrepreneurs to attract investors, creditors and clients. If you are one of those people who need to get their ideas across to an audience, you must remember that every presentation you make is mission-critical.

This book shows you how to turn dry presentations into fascinating narratives that will captivate your target market. Learn how to focus your presentations to what matters most to the audience. Find out how to get your message across to get that much needed reaction and investment.

Understand how a leader’s mistaken assumptions can create gridlock and organizational jams. This must-read for business managers provides real-life stories on companies from Mattel to Procter & Gamble, Daimler-Chrysler, to Coca-Cola. Pam Harper proposes six guidelines of organizational reality to UNLOCK your company from Strategic Gridlock, so you can drive it down the road to high-performance.

Whether your company is in e-commerce, going public/private, going through a merger/acquisition, entering a new market, reorganizing, outsourcing, or introducing new technology, all these situations can bring about strategic gridlock

When things go wrong — whether in your personal or professional life - chances are you resort to quick-fix plans, strategies and techniques for altering and improving your environment. Often, the problem is caused by a misalignment of your actions and decisions with the correct principles. To solve it, you need to alter not the external circumstances but your perspective.

Best-selling author Stephen M. R. Covey introduces a new management paradigm that can help you transform, not only your organization, but your personal relationships as well. He reveals how you can achieve effective personal and organizational leadership by centering your actions and decisions on a set of time-tested principles.

Ludy’s five-step process shows how to organize teams with the specific purpose of improving profit. When employees are involved in the cost reduction strategy and are actively seeking creative ways to cut costs and keep their jobs, the result is a win-win situation all around.

Written for managers, supervisors, senior executives, consultants, small business owners, and accountants, this valuable resource addresses the real bottom line –everyone builds profit.

We should focus on profit the same way we focus on marketing, human resources, and operations. It is after all, the reason we stay in business.

How do ideas spread? Why do some charities, movies, architects, politicians, potato chips and cars succeed, while others (just as good apparently) fade away?

Purple Cow is a book about how challenging it is to get your ideas to spread-and how you can do it successfully.

This article is an idea that I hope will spread. After you read it (if you like it!) go ahead and forward it to anyone you think might benefit from the lessons here. It's small enough to just email it to someone. Or post it, print it… I don't care, so long as it spreads!

In a business that has become overloaded with corporate buzzwords, Steve Farber finds that true leadership is best achieved by returning to basic principles that are often overlooked in the cutthroat world of business leadership. In this modern parable, he redefines leadership by asking the reader to see it as an extreme sport – hence the term “Radical Leap,” an interesting acronym for its elements: Love, Energy, Audacity and Proof.

Like any sport, Radical Leadership challenges one to break free from the conventional, and makes you face your own mortality and imperfections in order to turn you into a leader people will follow to hell and back.

While some skeptics may view the LEAP as too touchy-feely and sketchy in principle, it cannot be ignored that they are principles that have inspired countless of others to follow people into wars, fanned religious flames, and built the empires of visionaries who had nothing going for them except vision and the ability to infect others with the same drive.

These principles are, in essence, the fuel that drives people to change the world.

Ken Blanchard, author of The One Minute Manager and Sheldon Bowles assert that customers have long been neglected and abused by companies that they have developed very low expectations. Despite unfulfilled promises from companies, cold treatment from staff, long waits, and delayed return calls by customer service desks, customers rarely complain and keep coming back to your business, provided your competitors are not doing any better than you.

What businesses need are not “satisfied” customers who will do business with you only until a better competitor comes along. To convert satisfied customers to ”raving fans” for your business, you have to decide what you want your company to be, discover your client’s needs and deliver consistently on your promises.

The boy wonder of the American travel and hospitality business shares the secrets of his success. The characteristic traits of a rebel – passion, vision, instinct and agility- as illustrated by Virgin’s Richard Branson, The Body Shop’s Anita Roddick, and the author himself, are described here in a guidebook for today’s daring new entrepreneurs.

The principles in this book apply universally to anyone who wants to create a humane and empowered workplace, whether you are from a nonprofit organization, in the government or a private business. A new kind of fast company leader is rising to power in the business world. Rebel leaders are rewriting the rules

It is usually a common belief that having too much organization undermines the development of the corporation and individuals. This notion may be true if the organization is badly established. However, if the organization is indeed good, the effect of having an organized corporation will lead to greater opportunities and harmonious working relationships between the employees and employers. 

Requisite Organization is a theory that focuses on managerial hierarchy.  It is doing business with efficiency and competitiveness, and the release of human imagination.

The lessons provided by revolutionaries George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Benjamin Franklin, John Adams – to name a few – need not be confined to students of history. The strategies that made the Founding Fathers succeed in forging a republic can also be applied to the boardrooms of IBM, Nike, Honda, Wal-Mart and other modern corporations. The pitfalls and difficulties they encountered also give a valuable insight on how the attitude, tenacity and pragmatism of the leaders enabled them to overcome tremendous obstacles.

FINANCIAL LITERACY = FINANCIAL INDEPENDENCE
A true tale of two dads- one a highly educated professor, the other, an eighth grade dropout. Educated dad left his family with nothing, except maybe some unpaid bills. The dropout later became one of Hawaii's richest men and left his son an empire. One dad would say, "I can't afford it" while the other, asked, "How can I afford it?"

Rich dad teaches two boys priceless lessons on money, by making them learn through experience. The most important lesson of all is How to Use Your Mind and Time to create personal wealth. Free yourself from the proverbial "rat race". Learn to spot opportunities, create solutions and "mind your own business". Learn to make money work for you, and not be its slave.

E B
S I

The letters in each quadrant represent the Employee, Self-Employed, Business Owner, and Investor. Discover how to move from the left side to the B and I Quadrants, where you work less, earn more, pay less taxes and have more free time to spend with your loved ones!

This book is for parents who want to give their children valuable financial lessons which our educational system does not provide.

It may be the greatest gift of knowledge you can pass on to them, arming them with the business and money basics for a more secure future in an ever-changing economic environment.

In the new economy driven by change and spurred by opportunities coming from all directions, where competition is tough and customers are more sophisticated and demanding, it is imminent that companies and organizations take the step to remove its sacred cows. In business parlance, sacred cows refer to an outmoded belief, an assumption, practice, system or strategy that generally inhibits change and prevents responsiveness to new opportunities. Sacred cows are those who are afraid to abandon what once made them successful. Today's organizations must make room for creative ideas and new thinking in order to grow. Innovativeness is crucial.

The authors Robert Kriegel and David Brandt relate that removing sacred cows requires preparing an organization and its people for change. The change-ready process include five stages: rounding up sacred cows, developing a change-ready environment, turning resistance into readiness, motivating people to change and developing the seven personal change-ready traits

You're considering shelling out a large amount of cash. New appliance? New insurance policy? Maybe a cruise to the Bahamas? You want to be sure you're getting your money's worth. So many business books talk about making money, but how many deal with the other side of the coin, money? Finally, here is a guide to help you with as wide a variety of purchases as you could possibly make in your lifetime. From cars to building renovations, education and insurance, The Savvy Consumer teaches you to watch out for traps, to filter sales talk, and so much more.

The story of Coca-Cola is a remarkable one.  The drink, first invented in 1886 by Confederate John Pemberton and Yankee Frank Robinson, is now one of the most dominant players in the global soft-drink trade.  This was achieved after over a century of strict adherence to its trademark and so-called “secret formula” (with notable exceptions), wheeling and dealing, political maneuvers, savvy marketing efforts and under-the-table and backroom deals. 

Coca-Cola itself, as Secret Formula’s author Frederick Allen stresses, is much more than just a soft drink.  Rather, it is more than just the sum of its parts, as it has been right from the very start.  The fiction of Coke has always been greater than the fact.  This is the secret of its success.

In sales, asking the right question is just as important as knowing what to say. This is the principle behind Question Based Selling (QBS). Salespeople must know how to ask the proper questions to clients and customers in order to identify new opportunities, qualify accounts and uncover needs. In addition, asking questions also smokes out any objections that may hinder the sale which is crucial in closing a transaction.

Question Based Selling offers a unique approach by providing you a step-by-step, easy-to-follow program that will enable you to ask the right questions at the right time. Author Tom Freese takes you through the QBS methodology, showing how you can penetrate more accounts, establish greater credibility, generate more return calls, and close sales faster.

More and more women are making six figures and more. In fact, statistics show that the number of women making six figures and above are rising at a rate faster than for men.

In “Secrets of Six-Figure Women”, author and motivational speaker Barbara Stanny provides seven strategies of female high income earners. Although it is a book that was primarily made for women, even men can follow the simple strategies that can help anyone climb up the income ladder towards financial independence.

This book is an excellent resource for anyone who needs to learn effective techniques for public speaking. Walters has compiled quotes and advice from dozens of well-known speakers such as Steve Allen, Ken Blanchard, Tony Robbins and others. These ideas are interwoven around Walters’ categories for preparing for a speech, overcoming stage fright, motivating an audience, etc. Some of the advice below is written first-person as given from the expert ("I cure stage fright by - ").

Word-of-mouth marketing is the most powerful and persuasive weapon you can use, and it won’t cost you anything! Based on Silverman’s years of consulting with successful word-of-mouth campaigns of his own clients, here is one of the first resources on how to harness the power of word-of-mouth, and be heard above the media noise. Spread the word about your hot new product or company!

There is a need for organizations to become more innovative as markets become more dynamic and competitive. It is important to realize though that there is more to innovation than simply coming up with a new and unique idea.

Author Elaine Dundon explains that there are several components in fostering innovation in a corporation — Creative Thinking, Strategic Thinking, and Transformational Thinking. By planting the seeds of innovation, any organization can become an innovative organization just by using a Nine-Step Innovation Process.

Gail Lindenfield is a well-known British author who has written several self-help books. In Self Motivation, she does a good job of going over many aspects of self development and she provides solutions to a variety of everyday problems.

A classic book on marketing services, with hundreds of quick, practical, easy-to-read sections; perfect for picking up anytime throughout your day. Beckwith tells you in simple and plain language why focus groups don’t really tell you anything, what positioning really is, and outlines eighteen common planning fallacies. A basic marketing guide that refreshes the mind after reading so many gurus and faddish ideas, now here’s a book with timeless ground rules that are supported by real world stories.

Managing a company need not be complicated, and being a CEO should be conceptually simple. True, business leaders face difficult problems and challenges, but they eventually get the results they want. Complications arise when CEOs refuse or fail to focus on the source of the problem. They are distracted by side-issues and get confused because they succumb to one or more of the five temptations that face every business leader.

The author uses a fable to expose the inherent human temptations that create barriers to successful leadership. CEOs, at one time or another, fail to overcome the temptations which are deceptively simple since they are considered human nature. The book sweeps away the confusions that prevent managers from achieving their goal — guiding them away from the pitfalls of the five temptations.

Providing quality after-sales service is always important in a business; it’s what keeps your customers coming back; it’s what makes your business grow; it’s what builds your reputation and credibility. And quality service depends a lot on you as a service person, your employees, and how you manage your service.

“Simple Ways to Manage Your Service Customers” by Promod Batra and Vijay Batra provides simple service management ideas that you can implement without fuss and build an image as an organization committed to standing beside your customers all the time. Basically, it puts premium on paying attention to the small details that are often overlooked by business people, as well as training employees with the right attitudes and skills to provide the best service possible.

Thirty million Americans are involved in small businesses and entrepreneurial start-ups. Unfortunately, statistics show that more than 80% of small businesses fail within their first five years. Business owners often fall prey to greedy lawyers and accountants, cut-throat competition, and mounting debts and taxes.

As a small business owner, you need to protect yourself against creditors, crooks and competitors. Author Cliff Ennico provides you with effective and affordable strategies for conquering small business predators.

Everybody has virtually dreamt of becoming big. People have literally romanticized expanding their turfs, intensifying their aims, and ultimately multiplying their chocks of cash, thinking that they will get better when they’re “bigger.” In the realm of business, the same circumstances are witnessed. Companies (or their proprietors, for that matter) are beguiled by the purported wonders that go with their impulsive—but most of the time miscalculated—sizing up. In this light and poignant volume, Bo Burlingham demonstrates that this is not always the case: being big does not automatically entail being great.

Bo Burlingham brings to fore companies which have opted to stay relatively small yet in their modest niches staggeringly became even more lucrative and remarkable compared to others in their industry. These Small Giants, as what he dubbed them, are the author’s pragmatic way of convincing and inspiring the rather peewee firms that excellence must not be dictated merely by size. It is about touching lives and making a difference, no matter how far, no matter how small, no matter how little.

Everyone is familiar with the Starbucks story. The eponymous American coffee chain has been part of peoples’ lives for years now. Among other things, the company has been recognized as one of the world’s most admired companies by Fortune magazine. And this has been reflected in the value placed in the company by its shareholders: since 1992, its stock has risen by an astounding 5,000 percent.

The genius of the company’s success lies in its proven ability to create personalized customer experiences, secure customer loyalty, stimulate business growth, generate profits, and energize employees – all at the same time.

Do you feel like it's too late for you to get rich? Did you procrastinate, save too little and borrow too much? Don't worry. Whether you're in your thirties or even sixties, it's never too late for you. With the right plan, you can start late and still finish rich. .

David Bach, America 's leading money coach and bestselling author of The Automatic Millionaire, provides you with an inspiring and easy-to-follow plan that can help you achieve financial security at any age.

We have heard about it before - the infamous win-win situation. Negotiators are told that their most important task is to find a situation where both parties come out happy or as “winners”.

Unfortunately, this is not always the case. In this book, Jim Camp, shows you how win-win situation are just fairy tales, and how you can make all the difference in your negotiations by starting with one very important word - NO.

• Change is the new normal.
• Charles Darwin's Theory of Evolution can be applied as a metaphor for businesses.
• Only companies that zoom, or learn to adapt and evolve constantly will survive.
• Companies that don't evolve and make change a normal thing are signing up for their own extinction.
• Genes take longer to change over time. Memes, or new ideas, spread at a much faster rate than genes.
• Zooming is about constant change, for no particular reason, and with no particular goal.
• Zooming is less painful. You gradually breed a new kind of species, instead of forcing one to make a big traumatic change.
• Zooming is about stretching your limits by adapting to new ideas, opportunities, and challenges without triggering our inherent human change-avoidance reflex.
• Zooming is about adapting small changes over time.
• You can practice zooming in everyday life: change your office layout, eat in a different restaurant every weekend, listening to a new CD everyday, read a magazine you've never read before, or just do something for the first time, as often as possible.
• Normal can be an environment where new memes appear on a regular basis.
• Companies that zoom do the same thing but try something just a little bit differently each time.