Showing results by publisher "Blackstone Audio, Inc." in Management & Leadership

With a deep understanding of both strategy and human nature, this military treatise illustrates the fine craft of knowing one’s enemy and oneself. From military officers to CEOs to those simply looking to be more powerful in their own life, The Art of War has become required reading for anyone seeking a path of success through the modern world.

Does the mere thought of selling cause you to break out in a cold sweat? Is a great salesperson something you desperately want to become, but struggle with overcoming fear, being pushy, or being seen as "that guy/girl" who people avoid like the plague? If this sounds like you, breathe easy, you aren't alone. Hope is here! Selling is littered with many potential land mines; however, you can learn the exact sales skills needed to build greater levels of sales confidence and sell like a pro. Building sales confidence involves being real with yourself and having a proven road map.

Did Wall Street cause the mess we are in? Should Washington place stronger regulations on the financial industry? Can we lower unemployment rates by controlling the free market? Answer: no. Not only is free-market capitalism good for the economy, it is our only hope for recovery. As the nation’s longest-serving CEO of one of the top 25 financial institutions, John Allison has had a unique inside view of the events leading up to the financial crisis.

It can be messy and overwhelming to figure out how to solve thorny problems. Where do you start? How do you know where to look for information and evaluate its quality and bias? How can you feel confident that you are making a careful and thoroughly researched decision? Whether you are deciding between colleges, navigating a career decision, helping your aging parents find the right housing, or expanding your business, Problem Solved will show you how to use the AREA Method to make complex decisions.

The nearly three billion people living on two dollars a day are not just the world’s greatest challenge - they represent an extraordinary market opportunity. The key is what Paul Polak and Mal Warwick call Zero-Based Design: starting from scratch to create innovative products and services tailored for the very poor, armed with a thorough understanding of what they really want and need, and driven by what Polak and Warwick call "the ruthless pursuit of affordability". Polak has been doing this work for years, and Warwick has extensive experience in both business and philanthropy.

This is a history of the transformation of Verizon and the telecommunications industry told through the eyes of founding CEO Ivan Seidenberg and his leadership team, with highlights and commentary from best-selling global leadership guru Ram Charan.

Negotiation is a skill people need to use every day. In this audio exclusive, learn the negotiation skills required to navigate difficult situations that arise in everyday life. From buying a car to purchasing a home, one needs to know how to effectively negotiate, especially when the other party is a seasoned professional. Harvard professor, Joshua N. Weiss, Ph.D., gives us to tools to negotiate when we have a major stake in the game or when we're perceived as the "weak consumer."

Popular creative coach Gail McMeekin, author of the best-selling The 12 Secrets of Highly Creative Women, offers a wealth of advice for the specific challenges creative women face today: thinking too small, underestimating the need for change, fearing the future, and lacking self-confidence. McMeekin combines interviews with some of today’s most successful women and her own proven success strategies to help readers transcend their “blocks” and achieve success.

Managers as Mentors is a rapid-fire listen and a provocative guide to helping associates grow and adapt in today’s tumultuous organizations. This new edition has been thoroughly revised and updated. As with previous editions there is a fictional case study of a mentor-protégé relationship running through the book, but this is augmented with six actual case studies of top CEOs who relate key mentoring experiences in their lives. This hands-on guide takes the mystery out of effective mentoring.

Organizations are only as productive as the interactions that take place between individuals, teams, and divisions. This audiobook is a short, engaging guide for dramatically improving the quality of these interactions. The four "keys" that Judith Katz and Frederick Miller provide offer a framework and a common language for creating an open, honest, and supportive workplace, one where people aren’t afraid to speak up and where everyone feels respected.

Kim Kristensen has been in some of the most demanding situations a leader can experience. As an officer he led soldiers into battle many times, where making decisions was literally a matter of life and death. Later he applied his experiences of leadership to the worlds of business, local government, and diplomacy as well as at the Danish royal house, where he currently serves as master of ceremonies.

Set against the colorful backdrop of the California wine industry, True to Our Roots is the story of how Paul Dolan led his California company, Fetzer Vineyards, to become a model for sustainable businesses everywhere. His respect for the environment, responsibility to his community, avoidance of chemicals, and a humanistic approach to his employees will provide inspiration and guidance for executives and managers attempting to build or sustain a modern and healthy organization, while creating value.

The Journey of Not Knowing offers a fast paced, entertaining read that gets to the heart of a critical state in today’s business climate and society overall: the constantly changing, ambiguous 21st Century with uncharted waters ahead. This book offers a new leadership approach that will inspire leaders of any size organization to view the discomfort of the new as a source of adventure rather than an obstacle to building a better future. Through the vehicle of a story about an eight-member leadership team of a fictional company, The Journey of Not Knowing follows the defended behaviors of its recognizable characters through their efforts to avoid and then solve the mystery of why a client fired them. The reward of the discovery is a critical piece of business and significant personal growth. The book opens with an experience of the author as an executive in Amazon’s early days and ends with the Journey of Not Knowing leadership model.

Thirty years ago, the best-selling "letter to the government", Work in America, was published to national acclaim, including front-page coverage in the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, and Washington Post. It sounded an alarm about worker dissatisfaction and the effects on the nation as a whole.

The benefits of the levity effect are not conjecture but are built on extensive research and case studies from some of the world's most successful organizations. New York Times best-selling authors Adrian Gostick and Scott Christopher provide powerful examples from Boeing, Nike, KPMG, Yamaha, Enterprise, Zappos, and dozens of others, showing how lightening up can drive real business results.

The high-tech industry has given rise to a pioneering group of entrepreneurs and executives that is not only behind today's most innovative technological advances but also at the forefront of a dynamic new movement in business. Now, in Silicon Gold Rush, their inspirational stories are told and their strategies for success revealed.

Today's heads of big companies are as recognizable to us as the most popular entertainers or sports stars, but the heart and soul of every organization are those leaders below the CEO. Today's celebrity CEO has become either a figurehead or an egomaniac, and often too public a personality to get the real work done. That work is done instead by teams of leaders - exceptional deputies who forge great partnerships to maximize both organizational and personal success.

As individuals, companies, and countries struggle to recover from the economic crisis, many are narrowly focused on forecasts for the next week, month, or quarter. Yet they should be asking what the global economy will look like in the years to come—where will the long-term risks and opportunities arise? These are the questions that Daniel Altman confronts in his provocative and indispensable book.

This unique book enables communicators of all kinds to think on their feet, even when taken by surprise. It is the ideal book for corporate trainers, speakers, and teachers who do not want to be caught in a pinch. Lowe provides presenters with the basic skills necessary to incorporate improvisational thinking and speaking into their own presentational style. The pathways opened by this ancient theater form can transform a presenter's most fundamental approaches to teaching, training, and communicating.

Today's business environment demands leapfroggers - those who create rapid, disruptive innovation, not small improvements. A leading innovation pioneer shows that businesses often ignore the very thing that could lead them to game-changing products - the power of surprise. How did Gatorade revitalize itself in the wake of Red Bull and Starbucks? How did Four Seasons become the world’s leading luxury hotel brand? What makes one leader or company thrive while others languish?