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Named to the shortlist for the 2021 Outstanding Works of Literature (OWL) Award in the Management & Culture CategoryIn this important and timely book, workplace well-being expert Jennifer Moss helps leaders and individuals prevent burnout and create healthier, happier, and more productive workplaces.We tend to think of burnout as a problem we can solve with self-care: more yoga, better breathing techniques, and more resilience. But evidence is mounting that applying personal, Band-Aid solutions to an epic and rapidly evolving workplace phenomenon isn't enoughin fact, it's not even close. If we're going to solve this problem, organizations must take the lead in developing an antiburnout strategy that moves beyond apps, wellness programs, and perks.In this eye-opening, paradigm-shifting, and practical guide, Jennifer Moss lays bare the real causes of burnout and how organizations can stop the chronic stress cycle that an alarming number of workers suffer through. The Burnout Epidemic explains:What causes burnoutand what organizations can do to prevent itWhy traditional wellness initiatives fall shortHow companies can build an antiburnout strategy based on prevention, not perksHow leaders can measure burnout in their own organizationsWhat leaders can do to develop a healthier culture that prioritizes resilience and curiosityAs the pandemic has shown, self-care is important, but it's not a cure-all for burnout. Employers need to do more. With fascinating research, new findings from the pandemic, and interviews with business leaders around the globe, The Burnout Epidemic offers readers insightful and actionable advice that will empower them to help themselvesand their employeesfeel healthier and happier at work.

Named one of 100 Leadership & Success Books to Read in a Lifetime by Amazon EditorsThe world’s most trusted guide for leaders in transitionTransitions are a critical time for leaders. In fact, most agree that moving into a new role is the biggest challenge a manager will face. While transitions offer a chance to start fresh and make needed changes in an organization, they also place leaders in a position of acute vulnerability. Missteps made during the crucial first three months in a new role can jeopardize or even derail your success.In this updated and expanded version of the international bestseller The First 90 Days, Michael D. Watkins offers proven strategies for conquering the challenges of transitions—no matter where you are in your career. Watkins, a noted expert on leadership transitions and adviser to senior leaders in all types of organizations, also addresses today’s increasingly demanding professional landscape, where managers face not only more frequent transitions but also steeper expectations once they step into their new jobs.By walking you through every aspect of the transition scenario, Watkins identifies the most common pitfalls new leaders encounter and provides the tools and strategies you need to avoid them. You’ll learn how to secure critical early wins, an important first step in establishing yourself in your new role. Each chapter also includes checklists, practical tools, and self-assessments to help you assimilate key lessons and apply them to your own situation.Whether you’re starting a new job, being promoted from within, embarking on an overseas assignment, or being tapped as CEO, how you manage your transition will determine whether you succeed or fail. Use this book as your trusted guide.

A Washington Post BestsellerThree Principles for Managingand Avoidingthe Problems of GrowthWhy is profitable growth so hard to achieve and sustain? Most executives manage their companies as if the solution to that problem lies in the external environment: find an attractive market, formulate the right strategy, win new customers. But when Bain & Company’s Chris Zook and James Allen, authors of the bestselling Profit from the Core, researched this question, they found that when companies fail to achieve their growth targets, 90 percent of the time the root causes are internal, not externalincreasing distance from the front lines, loss of accountability, proliferating processes and bureaucracy, to name only a few. What’s more, companies experience a set of predictable internal crises, at predictable stages, as they grow. Even for healthy companies, these crises, if not managed properly, stifle the ability to grow furtherand can actively lead to decline.The key insight from Zook and Allen’s research is that managing these choke points requires a “founder’s mentality”behaviors typically embodied by a bold, ambitious founderto restore speed, focus, and connection to customers:• An insurgent’s clear mission and purpose• An unambiguous owner mindset• A relentless obsession with the front lineBased on the authors’ decade-long study of companies in more than forty countries, The Founder’s Mentality demonstrates the strong relationship between these three traits in companies of all kindsnot just start-upsand their ability to sustain performance. Through rich analysis and inspiring examples, this book shows how any leadernot only a foundercan instill and leverage a founder’s mentality throughout their organization and find lasting, profitable growth.

When Profit from the Core was published in 2001, it became an international bestseller, helping hundreds of companies find their way back to profitable growth after the bursting of the Internet bubble. The 2007 global financial meltdown reaffirmed the perils of pursuing heady growth through untested strategies, as firms in industries from finance to retailing to automobiles strayed too far from their core businesses and suffered the consequences.In this updated edition of Profit from the Core, authors Chris Zook and James Allen show that a renewed focus on the core is more critical than ever as firms seek to rebuild their competitive advantage coming out of the downturnand that a strong core will be the foundation for successful expansion as the economy recovers. Based on more than ten years of Bain & Company research and analysis and fresh examples from firms responding to the current downturn, the book outlines what today’s executives and managers need to do now to revitalize their core, identify the next wave of profitable growth, and build on it successfully.Zook and Allen explain how companies can:• Develop a strong, well-defined core and use it to establish a leadership position• Follow the golden rule of strategy: discourage competitors from investing in your core• Assess whether your core is operating at its full potential• Uncover hidden assets in your core that provide the seeds for new growth• Find a repeatable formula to apply core business strengths in adjacent marketsBuilding on powerful and proven ideas to meet today’s formidable business challenges, Profit from the Core is the back-to-basics strategy field guide no manager should be without.

A recent study showed that when doctors tell heart patients they will die if they don't change their habits, only one in seven will be able to follow through successfully. Desire and motivation aren't enough: even when it's literally a matter of life or death, the ability to change remains maddeningly elusive.Given that the status quo is so potent, how can we change ourselves and our organizations?In Immunity to Change, authors Robert Kegan and Lisa Lahey show how our individual beliefs--along with the collective mind-sets in our organizations--combine to create a natural but powerful immunity to change. By revealing how this mechanism holds us back, Kegan and Lahey give us the keys to unlock our potential and finally move forward. And by pinpointing and uprooting our own immunities to change, we can bring our organizations forward with us.This persuasive and practical book, filled with hands-on diagnostics and compelling case studies, delivers the tools you need to overcome the forces of inertia and transform your life and your work.

The book Inc. magazine calls one of "e;the best, clearest guides to the numbers"e; on the market.Inc. magazine calls it one of "e;the best, clearest guides to the numbers"e; on the market. Readers agree, saying it's exactly "e;what I need to know"e; and calling it a "e;must-read"e; for decision makers without expertise in finance.Since its release in 2006, Financial Intelligence has become a favorite among managers who need a guided tour through the numbers--helping them to understand not only what the numbers really mean, but also why they matter.This new, completely updated edition brings the numbers up to date and continues to teach the basics of finance to managers who need to use financial data to drive their business. It also addresses issues that have become even more important in recent years--including questions around the financial crisis and those around broader financial and accounting literacy.Accessible, jargon-free, and filled with entertaining stories of real companies, Financial Intelligence gives nonfinancial managers the confidence to understand the nuance beyond the numbers--to help bring everyday work to a new level.

A Financial Times Best Business Book of the YearAn advocate of sustainable capitalism explains how it's done The EconomistPolman's new book with the sustainable business expert Andrew Winstonargues that it's profitable to do business with the goal of making the world better. The New York TimesNamed as recommended reading by Fortune's CEO DailyPolman has been one of the most significant chief executives of his era and that his approach to business and its role in society has been both valuable and path-breaking. Financial TimesThe ex-Unilever CEO who increased his shareholders' returns by 300% while ensuring the company ranked #1 in the world for sustainability for eleven years running has, for the first time, revealed how to do it. Teaming up with Andrew Winston, one of the world's most authoritative voices on corporate sustainability, Paul Polman shows business leaders how to take on humanity's greatest and most urgent challengesclimate change and inequalityand build a thriving business as a result.In this candid and straight-talking handbook, Polman and Winston reveal the secrets of Unilever's success and pull back the curtain on some of the world's most powerful c-suites. Net Positive boldly argues that the companies of the future will profit by fixing the world's problems, not creating them.Together the authors explode our most prevalent corporate myths: from the idea that business' only function is to maximise profits, to the nave hope that Corporate Social Responsibility will save our species from disaster. These approaches, they argue, are destined for the graveyard. Instead, they show corporate leaders how to make their companies Net Positivethriving by giving back more to the world than they take. Net Positive companies unleash innovation, build trust, attract the best people, thrill customers, and secure lasting success, all by helping create stronger, more inclusive societies and a healthier planet. Heal the world first, they argue, and youll satisfy your investors as a result.With ambitious vision and compelling stories, Net Positive will teach you how to find the inner purpose and courage you need to embrace the only business model that will matter in the years ahead. You will learn how to lead others and unlock your company's soul, while setting and delivering big and aggressive goals, and taking responsibility for all of your company's impacts. You'll find out the secrets to partnering with others, including your competition and critics, to drive transformative change from which you will prosper. You'll build a company that serves your people, your customers, your communities, your shareholdersand your children and grandchildren will thank you for it.Is this win-win for business and humanity too good to be true? Don't believe it. The world's smartest CEOs are already taking their companies on the Net Positive journey and benefitting as a result. Will you be left behind?Join the movement at netpositive.world

"If you could imagine the ultimate guide to the essentials of strategy and management, from one of the world's top business thinkers, what would that look like? It would look like this book. Over a stellar career, Roger Martin has advised CEOs of some of the world's most successful companies. From the beginning, he noted that almost every executive he talked to had a "model"-a framework or way of thinking that guided their strategy and activities. But these models tended to become automatic, so much so that when one didn't work, the response was typically to just apply it again-with greater enthusiasm. Martin took a fresh, critical approach to helping. When company leaders came to him with fundamental questions-How do you decide where to play and how to win? What is the key to shaping and changing corporate culture? How can you design a successful, sustainable innovation process? -his first response was to break the spell of the current model with a memo articulating a new way to think about the problem at hand, and a more powerful and effective way to successfully overcome it. Over time, these ideas worked their way into Martin's many Harvard Business Review articles. Now, for the first time, they appear together in A New Way to Think. With his trademark incisive intellect and clarity, Martin covers the entire breadth of the management landscape-illuminating the true nature of competition, explaining how company success revolves around customers, revealing how strategy and execution are really the same thing, and much more. Reading like a series of one-on-one sessions with one of the world's leading business thinkers, A New Way to Think is an essential primer for any current or aspiring business leader"--

An outstanding book about CEOs who excelled at capital allocation. Warren Buffett#1 on Warren Buffetts Recommended Reading List, Berkshire Hathaway Annual Shareholder Letter, 2012Named one of 19 Books Billionaire Charlie Munger Thinks You Should Read in Business Insider.A book that details the extraordinary success of CEOs who took a radically different approach to corporate management. Charlie Munger, Vice-Chairman of Berkshire Hathaway CorporationThorndike explores the importance of thoughtful capital allocation through the stories of eight successful CEOs. A good read for any business leader but especially those willing to chart their own course. Michael Dell, chairman of the board of directors and chief executive officer of DellWhat makes a successful CEO? Most people call to mind a familiar definition: a seasoned manager with deep industry expertise. Others might point to the qualities of todays so-called celebrity CEOscharisma, virtuoso communication skills, and a confident management style. But what really matters when you run an organization? What is the hallmark of exceptional CEO performance? Quite simply, it is the returns for the shareholders of that company over the long term.In this refreshing, counterintuitive book, author Will Thorndike brings to bear the analytical wisdom of a successful career in investing, closely evaluating the performance of companies and their leaders. You will meet eight individualistic CEOs whose firms average returns outperformed the S&P 500 by a factor of twentyin other words, an investment of $10,000 with each of these CEOs, on average, would have been worth over $1.5 million twenty-five years later. You may not know all their names, but you will recognize their companies: General Cinema, Ralston Purina, The Washington Post Company, Berkshire Hathaway, General Dynamics, Capital Cities Broadcasting, TCI, and Teledyne. In The Outsiders, youll learn the traits and methodsstriking for their consistency and relentless rationalitythat helped these unique leaders achieve such exceptional performance.Humble, unassuming, and often frugal, these outsiders shunned Wall Street and the press, and shied away from the hottest new management trends. Instead, they shared specific traits that put them and the companies they led on winning trajectories: a laser-sharp focus on per share value as opposed to earnings or sales growth; an exceptional talent for allocating capital and human resources; and the belief that cash flow, not reported earnings, determines a companys long-term value.Drawing on years of research and experience, Thorndike tells eye-opening stories, extracting lessons and revealing a compelling alternative model for anyone interested in leading a company or investing in oneand reaping extraordinary returns.

Leadershipis hard. How can you balance compassion for your people with effectiveness ingetting the job done?A global pandemic, economicvolatility, natural disasters, civil and political unrest. From New York toBarcelona to Hong Kong, it can feel as if the world as we know it is comingapart. Through it all, our human spirit is being tested. Now more than ever,it's imperative for leaders to demonstrate compassion.But inhard times like these, leaders need to make hard decisionsdelivernegative feedback, make difficult choices that disappoint people, and in somecases lay people off. How do you do the hard things that come with theresponsibility of leadership while remaining a good human being and bringingout the best in others? Most people think we have to make a binary choicebetween being a good human being and being a tough, effective leader. But thisis a false dichotomy. Being human and doing what needs to be done are notmutually exclusive. In truth, doing hard things and making difficult decisionsis often the most compassionate thing to do.As founder andCEO of Potential Project, Rasmus Hougaard and his longtime coauthor, JacquelineCarter, show in this powerful, practical book, you must always balance caring foryour people with leadership wisdom and effectiveness. Using data from thousandsof leaders, employees, and companies in nearly a hundred countries, the authorsfind that when leaders bring the right balance of compassion and wisdom to thejob, they foster much higher levels of employee engagement, performance,loyalty, and well-being in their people.With rich examplesfrom Netflix, IKEA, Unilever, and many other global companies, as well aspractical tools and advice for leaders and managers at any level,Compassionate Leadership is your indispensable guide todoing the hard work of leadership in a human way.

A guide for mining the imagination to find powerful new ways to succeed.We need imagination now more than everto find new opportunities, rethink our businesses, and discover paths to growth. Yet too many companies have lost their ability to imagine. What is this mysterious capacity? How does imagination work? And how can organizations keep it alive and harness it in a systematic way?The Imagination Machine answers these questions and more. Drawing on the experience and insights of CEOs across several industries, as well as lessons from neuroscience, computer science, psychology, and philosophy, Martin Reeves of Boston Consulting Group's Henderson Institute and Jack Fuller, an expert in neuroscience, provide a fascinating look into the mechanics of imagination and lay out a process for creating ideas and bringing them to life:The Seduction: How to open yourself up to surprisesThe Idea: How to generate new ideas The Collision: How to rethink your idea based on real-world feedbackThe Epidemic: How to spread an evolving idea to othersThe New Ordinary: How to turn your novel idea into an accepted realityThe Encore: How to repeat the processagain and again.Imagination is one of the least understood but most crucial ingredients of success. It's what makes the difference between an incremental change and the kinds of pivots and paradigm shifts that are essential to transformationespecially during a crisis.The Imagination Machine is the guide you need to demystify and operationalize this powerful human capacity, to inject new life into your company, and to head into unknown territory with the right tools at your disposal.

The international bestsellernow with a new preface by author John Kotter.Millions worldwide have read and embraced John Kotters ideas on change management and leadership.From the ill-fated dot-com bubble to unprecedented M&A activity to scandal, greed, and ultimately, recessionweve learned that widespread and difficult change is no longer the exception. Its the rule. Now with a new preface, this refreshed edition of the global bestseller Leading Change is more relevant than ever.John Kotters now-legendary eight-step process for managing change with positive results has become the foundation for leaders and organizations across the globe. By outlining the process every organization must go through to achieve its goals, and by identifying where and how even top performers derail during the change process, Kotter provides a practical resource for leaders and managers charged with making change initiatives work. Leading Change is widely recognized as his seminal work and is an important precursor to his newer ideas on acceleration published in Harvard Business Review.Needed more today than at any time in the past, this bestselling business book serves as both visionary guide and practical toolkit on how to approach the difficult yet crucial work of leading change in any type of organization. Reading this highly personal book is like spending a day with the worlds foremost expert on business leadership. Youre sure to walk away inspiredand armed with the tools you need to inspire others. Published by Harvard Business Review Press.

A Wall Street Journal BestsellerNamed a Financial Times top titleHow to unleash "human magic" and achieve improbable results.Hubert Joly, former CEO of Best Buy and orchestrator of the retailer's spectacular turnaround, unveils his personal playbook for achieving extraordinary outcomes by putting people and purpose at the heart of business.Back in 2012, "Everyone thought we were going to die," says Joly. Eight years later, Best Buy was transformed as Joly and his team rebuilt the company into one of the nation's favorite employers, vastly increased customer satisfaction, and dramatically grew Best Buy's stock price. Joly and his team also succeeded in making Best Buy a leader in sustainability and innovation.In The Heart of Business, Joly shares the philosophy behind the resurgence of Best Buy: pursue a noble purpose, put people at the center of the business, create an environment where every employee can blossom, and treat profit as an outcome, not the goal.This approach is easy to understand, but putting it into practice is not so easy. It requires radically rethinking how we view work, how we define companies, how we motivate, and how we lead. In this book Joly shares memorable stories, lessons, and practical advice, all drawn from his own personal transformation from a hard-charging McKinsey consultant to a leader who believes in human magic.The Heart of Business is a timely guide for leaders ready to abandon old paradigms and lead with purpose and humanity. It shows how we can reinvent capitalism so that it contributes to a sustainable future.

Most companies today have innovation envy. They yearn to come up with a gamechanging innovation like Apple's iPod, or create an entirely new category like Facebook. Many make genuine efforts to be innovativethey spend on R&D, bring in creative designers, hire innovation consultants. But they get disappointing results.Why? In The Design of Business, Roger Martin offers a compelling and provocative answer: we rely far too exclusively on analytical thinking, which merely refines current knowledge, producing small improvements to the status quo.To innovate and win, companies need design thinking. This form of thinking is rooted in how knowledge advances from one stage to anotherfrom mystery (something we can't explain) to heuristic (a rule of thumb that guides us toward solution) to algorithm (a predictable formula for producing an answer) to code (when the formula becomes so predictable it can be fully automated). As knowledge advances across the stages, productivity grows and costs drop-creating massive value for companies.Martin shows how leading companies such as Procter & Gamble, Cirque du Soleil, RIM, and others use design thinking to push knowledge through the stages in ways that produce breakthrough innovations and competitive advantage.Filled with deep insights and fresh perspectives, The Design of Business reveals the true foundation of successful, profitable innovation.

How Successful Career Changers Turn Fantasy into RealityWhether as a daydream or a spoken desire, nearly all of us have entertained the notion of reinventing ourselves. Feeling unfulfilled, burned out, or just plain unhappy with what were doing, we long to make that leap into the unknown. But we also hold on, white-knuckled, to the years of time and effort weve invested in our current profession.In this powerful book, Herminia Ibarra presents a new model for career reinvention that flies in the face of everything weve learned from "e;career experts."e; While common wisdom holds that we must first know what we want to do before we can act, Ibarra argues that this advice is backward. Knowing, she says, is the result of doing and experimenting. Career transition is not a straight path toward some predetermined identity, but a crooked journey along which we try on a host of "e;possible selves"e; we might become.Based on her in-depth research on professionals and managers in transition, Ibarra outlines an active process of career reinvention that leverages three ways of "e;working identity"e;: experimenting with new professional activities, interacting in new networks of people, and making sense of what is happening to us in light of emerging possibilities.Through engrossing storiesfrom a literature professor turned stockbroker to an investment banker turned novelistIbarra reveals a set of guidelines that all successful reinventions share. She explores specific ways that hopeful career changers of any background can:Explore possible selvesCraft and execute "e;identity experiments"e;Create "e;small wins"e; that keep momentum goingSurvive the rocky period between career identitiesConnect with role models and mentors who can ease the transitionMake time for reflectionwithout missing out on windows of opportunityDecide when to abandon the old path in order to follow the newArrange new events into a coherent story of who we are becoming.A call to the dreamer in each of us, Working Identity explores the process for crafting a more fulfilling future. Where we end up may surprise us.

Great leaders embrace a higher purpose to win. The NetPromoter System shines as their guiding star.Fewmanagement ideas have spread so far and wide as the Net Promoter System (NPS).Since its conception almost two decades ago by customer loyalty guru FredReichheld, thousands of companies around the world have adopteditfrom industrial titans such as Mercedes-Benz and Cummins to techgiants like Apple and Amazon to digital innovators such as Warby Parker andPeloton.Now, Reichheld has raised the bar yet again. InWinning on Purpose, he demonstrates that the primary purposeof a business should be to enrich the lives of its customers. Why? Because whencustomers feel this love, they come back for more and bring their friendsgeneratinggood profits. This is NPS 3.0 and it puts a new take on the age-old GoldenRuletreat customers the way you would want a loved onetreatedat the heart of enduring business success. As the compellingexamples in this book illustrate, companies with superior NPS consistentlydeliver higher returns to shareholders across a wide array ofindustries.But winning on purpose isn't easy. Reichheld alsoexplains why many NPS practitioners achieve just a small fraction of the system'sfull potential, and he presents the newest thinking and best practices fordoing NPS right. He unveils the Earned Growth Rate (EGR): the first reliable,complementary accounting measure that can truly leverage the power ofNPS.With keen insight and moving personal stories, Reichheldadvances the thinking and practice of NPS. Winning onPurpose is your indispensable guide for inspiring customer lovewithin your own teams and using Net Promoter to achieve both personal and businesssuccess.

A cutting-edge, relentless, objective approach to inclusion.Companies spend billions of dollars annually on diversity efforts with remarkably few results. Too often diversity efforts rest on the assumption that all that's needed is an earnest conversation about "privilege." That's not enough. To truly make progress we need to stop celebrating the problem and instead take effective steps to solve it.In Bias Interrupted, Joan C. Williams shows how it's done, and, reassuringly, how easy it is to get started. One of today's preeminent voices on inclusive workplaces, Williams explains how leaders can use standard business tools—data, metrics, and persistence—to interrupt the bias that is continually transmitted through formal systems like performance appraisals, as well as the informal systems that control access to career-enhancing opportunities. The book presents fresh evidence, based on Williams's exhaustive research and work with companies, that interrupting bias helps every group—including white men.Comprehensive, though compact and straightforward, Bias Interrupted delivers real, practical value in an efficient and accessible manner to an audience that has never needed it more. It's possible to interrupt bias. Here's where you start.

Get your idea off the ground.You've got a great idea that will increase revenue or boost productivity-but how do you get the buy-in you need to make it happen? By building a business case that clearly shows your idea's value. That's not always easy: Maybe you're not sure what kind of data your stakeholders will trust. Or perhaps you're intimidated by number crunching.The HBR Guide to Building Your Business Case, written by project management expert Raymond Sheen, gives you the guidance and tools you need to make a strong case. You'll learn how to:Spell out the business need for your ideaAlign your case with strategic goalsBuild the right team to shape and test your ideaCalculate the return on investmentAnalyze risks and opportunitiesPresent your case to stakeholders

Based on the award-winning article in Harvard Business Review, from global leadership expert John Kotter.Its a familiar scene in organizations today: a new competitive threat or a big opportunity emerges. You quickly create a strategic initiative in response and appoint your best people to make change happen. And it doesbut not fast enough. Or effectively enough. Real value gets lost and, ultimately, things drift back to the default status.Why is this scenario so frequently repeated in industries and organizations across the world? In the groundbreaking new book Accelerate (XLR8), leadership and change management expert, and best-selling author, John Kotter provides a fascinating answerand a powerful new framework for competing and winning in a world of constant turbulence and disruption.Kotter explains how traditional organizational hierarchies evolved to meet the daily demands of running an enterprise. For most companies, the hierarchy is the singular operating system at the heart of the firm. But the reality is, this system simply is not built for an environment where change has become the norm. Kotter advocates a new systema second, more agile, network-like structure that operates in concert with the hierarchy to create what he calls a dual operating systemone that allows companies to capitalize on rapid-fire strategic challenges and still make their numbers.Accelerate (XLR8) vividly illustrates the five core principles underlying the new network system, the eight Accelerators that drive it, and how leaders must create urgency in others through role modeling. And perhaps most crucial, the book reveals how the best companies focus and align their peoples energy and urgency around what Kotter calls the big opportunity.If youre a pioneer, a leader who knows that bold change is necessary to survive and thrive in an ever-changing world, this book will help you accelerate into a better, more profitable future.

Get to better, more effective strategy.In nearly every business segment and corner of the world economy, the most successful companies dramatically outperform their rivals. What is their secret? In Better, Simpler Strategy, Harvard Business School professor Felix Oberholzer-Gee shows how these companies achieve more by doing less. At a time when rapid technological change and global competition conspire to upend traditional ways of doing business, these companies pursue radically simplified strategies. At a time when many managers struggle not to drown in vast seas of projects and initiatives, these businesses follow simple rules that help them select the few ideas that truly make a difference.Better, Simpler Strategy provides readers with a simple tool, the value stick, which every organization can use to make its strategy more effective and easier to execute. Based on proven financial mechanics, the value stick helps executives decide where to focus their attention and how to deepen the competitive advantage of their business.How does the value stick work? It provides a way of measuring the two fundamental forces that lead to value creation and increased financial success—the customer's willingness-to-pay and the employee's willingness-to-sell their services to the business. Companies that win, Oberholzer-Gee shows, create value for customers by raising their willingness-to-pay, and they provide value for talent by lowering their willingness-to-sell. The approach, proven in practice, is entirely data driven and uniquely suited to be cascaded throughout the organization.With many useful visuals and examples across industries and geographies, Better, Simpler Strategy explains how these two key measures enable firms to gauge and improve their strategies and operations. Based on the author's sought-after strategy course, this book is your must-have guide for making better strategic decisions.

Business Models for Transforming Customer RelationshipsWhat if there were a way to turn occasional, sporadic transactions with customers into long-term, continuous relationships--while simultaneously driving dramatic improvements in operational efficiency? What if you could break your existing trade-offs between superior customer experience and low cost?This is the promise of a connected strategy. New forms of connectivity--involving frequent, low-friction, customized interactions--mean that companies can now anticipate customer needs as they arise, or even before. Simultaneously, enabled by these technologies, companies can create new business models that deliver more value to customers. Connected strategies are win-win: Customers get a dramatically improved experience, while companies boost operational efficiency.In this book, strategy and operations experts Nicolaj Siggelkow and Christian Terwiesch reveal the emergence of connected strategies as a new source of competitive advantage. With in-depth examples from companies operating in industries such as healthcare, financial services, mobility, retail, entertainment, nonprofit, and education, Connected Strategy identifies the four pathways--respond-to-desire, curated offering, coach behavior, and automatic execution--for turning episodic interactions into continuous relationships. The authors show how each pathway creates a competitive advantage, then guide you through the critical decisions for creating and implementing your own connected strategies.Whether you're trying to revitalize strategy in an established company or disrupt an industry as a startup, this book will help you:Reshape your connections with your customersFind new ways to connect with existing suppliers while also activating new sources of capacityCreate the right revenue modelMake the best technology choices to support your strategyIntegrating rich examples, how-to advice, and practical tools in the form of "workshop chapters" throughout, this book is the ultimate resource for creating competitive advantage through connected relationships with your customers and redefined connections in your industry.