How innovative leaders create meaningful cultures that attract and retain top talent Building a culture of purpose is one of the greatest challenges facing modern leaders, as today's best minds are looking for meaning, not just jobs. More than any other single factor, cultures of purpose power winning organizations, attracting the smartest, most creative, most passionate talent. For leaders building cultures of purpose, the commercial pursuit of sustainability provides the most reliable blueprint. While sustainability has been commonly misconstrued as a description of a set of problems, Christoph Lueneburger shows that it is really a solution to problems, capable of inspiring people and forging cultures.Sharing his exclusive, in-depth dialogues with chief sustainability officers, CEOs, and board chairmen, Lueneburger reveals how sustainability works at places where it works best, including Chrysler, Unilever, TNT, Walmart, and Bloomberg. Featuring a clear three-phase process that helps leaders assess the talent needed to develop organizations characterized by energy, resilience, and openness, A Culture of Purpose offers leaders the right questions to ask in order to: Tap and Nurture Your Current Corporate Strengths: Learn how to recognize, cultivate, and leverage the competencies of your current talent to develop your leadership team. Hire the Right Team: Ask the right questions to identify the innate personality traits in potential new hires, regardless of level and function, to bring on board those most likely to succeed in and shape your organization. Craft Your Culture: Create an environment that unleashes these competencies and traits and pushes them to the fore. Shape how people relate to one another and collectively go for what would be out of reach to them individually. Many books have described the «what» and the «how» of sustainability, but this is the first to reveal the «who.» Lueneburger changes dated preconceptions to show that sustainability is not an ideological mindset but a cultural trait of a resilient business. For leaders ready to build and strengthen a winning business, A Culture of Purpose is an education, a revelation, and an invitation to the next generation of success.
Ditch traditional corporate branding to create a powerful, recognizable brand Brand Against the Machine offers proven and actionable steps for companies and entrepreneurs to increase their brand visibility and credibility, and to create an indispensable brand that consumers can relate to, thus becoming life-long customers. Discover the aspirational currency that makes your brand one that people want to be or want to be friends with. Learn how to be real with your audience and make strategic associations to establish credibility. Brand Against the Machine will help you stand out, get noticed, and be remembered. Brand Against the Machine is the blueprint for how to market your brand to attract better clients and stand out from the clutter that is traditional corporate branding and marketing. Instant Positioning Method: How to instantly stand out from the crowd and position yourself as a resource, not just another service provider The 20/60/20 Rule: Why it's important to take a stand and why it's okay to have haters—because it creates a stronger bond with those who love you Ditch your traditional corporate branding and marketing, and exchange it for something memorable. Your customers will thank you for it.
Gold Medal Winner, Human Resources and Employee Training, 2012 Axiom Business Book Awards Trust, Pride and Camaraderie—transform your company into a «Great Place to Work» The Great Place to Work Institute develops the annual ranking of the Fortune 100 Best Companies to Work For. In this book, the authors explore the model of a Great Place to Work For-one which fosters employee trust, pride in what they do, and enjoyment in the people they work with. They answer the fundamental question, «What is the business value of creating a great workplace?» and brings the definition of a Great Place to work alive with anecdotes, best practices, and quotes from employees working at the best workplaces in the U.S. Reveals the essential ingredients in and the trends of the best places to work Explores Great Place to Work model developed in 1984 and validated through its enduring resonance in both the United States and in over 40 countries around the world Written by Michael Burchell and Jennifer Robin two Great Place to Work Institute Insiders If you organization is struggling with the challenges of leveraging human capital, discover why some companies have what it takes to be great.
Drawing on their work on performance management within the ‘beyond budgeting’ movement over the past ten years, including many interviews and case studies, Jeremy Hope, Peter Bunce and Franz Röösli set out in this book an executive guide to building a new management model based on eight key change management issues: 1. Governance: From rules and budgets to purpose and values 2. Success: From fixed targets to relative improvement 3. Organization: From centralized functions to customer-oriented teams 4. Accountability: From narrow targets to holistic success criteria 5. Trust: From central control to local autonomy 6. Transparency: From closed information to open book management 7. Rewards: From individual incentives to team-based reward 8. Risk: From complying with rules to understanding pressure points This book is about rethinking how we manage organizations in a post-industrial, post credit crunch world where innovative management models represent the only remaining source of sustainable competitive advantage.[i] The changes suggested by the authors will enable and encourage a cultural climate change that will help organizations to attract and keep the best people as well as drive continuous innovation and growth. Above all, The CEO's Dilemma is about learning how to change business – based on best practice and innovation drawn from leaders world-wide who have built and managed successful organizations.
Financial statements hold the key to a company's fiscal health—so learn to read them! In order to gauge a company's health—as well as the competition's—managers must know how to properly read and understand financial statements. The Business Owner's Guide to Reading and Understanding Financial Statements will introduce managers and business owners to various types of financial statements and explain why they are important. Serving as a desktop reference, especially for managers without a strong background in finance, this book will discuss the difference between internal and external financial statements and explain how they can be used for financial decision-making in order to avoid common missteps. Whether you're planning for major capital projects or simply managing the fiscal aspects of your department, this nontechnical, results-driven guide will arm you with the fundamentals to: Understand the budget process and why it is important Manage assets and track inventory Gauge profitability Monitor success throughout the year using internal reporting Set prices and make key cost decisions Financial statements are essential to determining a company's fiscal health. Understand where your company stands so that you can make informed decisions about its future.
An inspiring business fable that champions leadership for the Everyman From bestselling author Chris Widener comes a compelling new story showing what you give and get when you lead. The story follows down-cast protagonist Mike Keller who, recently separated from his wife and demoted at work, must relocate to a rural factory-town in Texas. There, Mike encounters the deep-rooted traditions of Texas high school football, and in the process learns everything business school didn't teach him about leadership from the most influential man in town-the local high school football coach. Highlights the Four Rules of Leadership: You Get What You Expect, You Get What You Model, You Get What You Reward, and You Get What You Work For Advises readers, in an accessible teaching style, on how to tailor the Rules to their own circumstances Includes reflection questions as a tool to guide readers in enriching their work life, family relationships, and social interactions Leadership Rules is an engaging, refreshing tale that imparts leadership lessons easily applied to both work life and your interpersonal relationships.
The questions every investor should ask before parting with their hard-earned cash This book serves as an advocate of the consumer and brings to light what insiders know about the side of the sales pitches that consumers don't, but need to hear. Stop the Investing Rip-Off reveals the questions every investor should ask during a financial sales pitch before they pull the trigger and buy the next mutual fund, stock, advisory service, or other investment product. Based on David Loeper's nearly twenty-five years of experience of seeing the inner workings of the industry, this updated edition of his classic book offers new strategies based on the performance of the stock market over the past two years. Sheds light on the oft unseen deceit of the financial services industry An updated and revised edition of the bestselling Stop the Investing Rip-Off Written by David Loeper who is regularly quoted in Kiplinger's Money and Investment News and regularity contributes to Forbes Intelligent Investing Stop the Investing Rip-Off, Revised and Updated is filled with advice for investors who want to avoid becoming victims of smooth talking salespeople and the effective advertising and marketing campaigns designed to evade reality and prey on your emotional desires.
A comprehensive assessment system for working with underperforming students This book describes a comprehensive assessment system especially appropriate for multilingual and «differentiated» classrooms with large numbers of underperforming students. Drawing from Multiple Intelligences theory, the approach is specifically aimed at helping teachers understand how each student learns and how best to tailor instruction to serve individual students' needs. Although the program makes use of conventional standardized tests and disability screenings, it places special importance on two approaches in particular: Student Portfolio Assessments and Personalized Learning Profiles. Provides detailed guidance and practical tools (including a DVD) for implementing successful portfolio and «profile» practices in the classroom Includes real-world examples of model assessment programs from five schools Explains how to integrate assessment into the instructional process as well as how the portfolio program can be used Formal profiles provide vital information about each student's cultural background, interests, strengths, and capabilities as well as their individual learning and language needs.
Noted experts offer invaluable insights into the glamorous world of luxury retail Luxury Retail Management is your gold-plated ticket to the glamorous world of luxury retail. Defining all the tools that are necessary to manage luxury stores, from the analysis of location and design concept, to the selection, training, and motivation of the staff, the book covers everything you need to know to enter, expand, understand, and succeed in the world of luxury retail. Reaching the luxury customer is no longer the domain of the exclusive salon—the global luxury market boom and the phenomenal growth of luxury stores now views the retail sector as key to driving brand profitability. In dealing with this rapid change, luxury brands have experienced a steep learning curve and accumulated bags of retail expertise. And while some of the luxury retail rules and models in this book are exclusive to the luxury market, many have lessons for the whole retail sector. Examines the essential aspects of luxury customer relationship management, personal sales, and the customer experience Delves into the sophisticated business models that luxury brands have developed based on a mix of directly-operated-stores and wholesale Covers the management essentials—distribution, location, design, merchandising, pricing, brand promotion, and the management agenda for success Written by respected experts Michel Chevalier and Michel Gutsatz, who lend their solid academic credentials and professional expertise to the subject, Luxury Retail Management asks and answers the questions that retail professionals need to understand in order to thrive in the luxury market.
Gold Medal Winner, General Business, 2012 Axiom Business Book Awards Understanding the post-crisis consumer In Spend Shift, John Gerzema, world-renowned expert on consumer values, and Pulitzer prizewinning author Michael D'Antonio document the rise of a vibrant, values-driven post-recession economy. To tell the story of this movement, the authors travel to large cities and small towns across eight bellwether states, to examine the value shifts sweeping the nation. Through in-depth observation, proprietary data from Young & Rubicam, and interviews with experts, the authors analyze the changing consumer psyche, document the five shifting values and consumer behaviors that are remaking America and the world, and explain what it means to businesses and leaders. Explores a movement in society where the majority of American consumers are embracing both value and values Shows how post-crisis consumer expectations and behaviors will drive business decisions Draws on interviews with CEOs and entrepreneurs to reveal how companies like Ford and Etsy are reconnecting with the post-crisis consumer Compelling and insightful, Spend Shift is essential reading for anyone interested in how values are changing and how businesses can connect with consumers after the recession.