Serial entrepreneur and journalist Shane Snow delves into the reasons why some people and some organizations are able to achieve incredible things in implausibly short time frames, showing how each of us can use these "smartcuts" to rethink convention and accelerate success.Why do some companies attract millions of customers in mere months while others flopHow did Alexander the Great, YouTube phenom Michelle Phan, and Tonight Show host Jimmy Fallon dash to the top in less time than it takes most of us to get a midlevel promotionHow do high-growth businesses, world-class heart surgeons, and underdog marketers beat the norm?Like computer hackers, a handful of innovators in every era use lateral thinking to find better routes to stunning accomplishments. Throughout history, the world's biggest successes have been achieved by those who refuse to follow the expected course and buck the norm.Smartcuts is about bucking the norm. In it, Snow shatters common wisdom about success, revealing how conventions like "paying dues" prevent progress, why kids shouldn't learn multiplication tables, and how, paradoxically, it's easier to build a huge business than a small one.Smartcuts tells the stories of innovators who dared to work differently and lays out practical takeaways for the rest of us. It's about applying entrepreneurial and technological concepts to success, and how, by emulation, we too can leapfrog competitors, grow businesses, and fix society's problems faster than we think.

Haven't women gotten everything they wantEconomic powerSocial influenceBusiness cloutYes, but it turns out that these fantastic gains have come at a heavy price, as consumer goods experts Michael J. Silverstein and Kate Sayre discovered in an unprecedented study of 12,000 women in forty countries.That relentless upward climb has left women feeling stressed out, time starved, and overburdened. As a result, they look to products and services that will help them claw back time, juggle multiple roles, and capture a few moments of enjoyment.Women want more much more, in every category of goods and services. And no matter what their age or economic situation or where they live in the world, women will spend trillions of dollars over the next decade on the brands that truly deliver: Home-cleaning products that enable women to do in an hour what used to take a day Financial-services products that recognize that women control half the United States' wealth Food products that help keep the whole family happy and healthy Health care services designed for working-women's hectic schedules In the coming years, women's influence will be so enormous that it will not only help bring us out of the economic downturn but also create one of the most dramatic market opportunities of our lifetime bigger than the rise of China and India; more sustainable than any bailout package.Through quantitative data, profiles of individual women, and stories of winning companies, Women Want More provides business leaders with the understanding and practices they need to capture their share of the rising "female economy."

End Pain.Foster Personal and Professional Growth.Live Better. While endings are a natural part of business and life, we often experience them with a sense of hesitation, sadness, resignation, or regret. But consultant, psychologist, and bestselling author Dr. Henry Cloud sees endings differently. He argues that our personal and professional lives can only improve to the degree that we can see endings as a necessary and strategic step to something better. If we cannot see endings in a positive light and execute them well, he asserts, the "better" will never come either in business growth or our personal lives.In this insightful and deeply empathetic book, Dr. Cloud demonstrates that, when executed well, "necessary endings" allow us to proactively correct the bad and the broken in our lives in order to make room for the professional and personal growth we seek. However, when endings are avoided or handled poorly as is too often the case good opportunities may be lost, and misery repeated. Drawing on years of experience as an executive coach and a psychologist, Dr. Cloud offers a mixture of advice and case studies to help readers know when to have realistic hope and when to execute a necessary ending in a business, or with an individual; identify which employees, projects, activities, and relationships are worth nurturing and which are not; overcome people's resistance to change and create change that works; create urgency and an action plan for what's important; stop wasting resources needed for the things that really matter. Knowing when and how to let go when something, or someone, isn't working a personal relationship, a job, or a business venture is essential for happiness and success. Necessary Endings gives readers the tools they need to say good-bye and move on.

It's not a question. It is a philosophy to live by. It's Donny Deutsch's motto. And it is the secret possessed by every person with the right stuff the one-in-a-hundred who gets to the top of their team, their company, their business, their industry.If there is an assignment or a promotion up for grabs, a client or account looking for new answers, do you know how to go for itDonny Deutsch built a billion-dollar media business asking himself the basic question, "Why Not Me?" Once the reader asks and answers that question, a world of opportunity opens up. It is a tool to motivate people, build a business, and create a business culture.Often Wrong, Never in Doubt is an inspirational book from one of America's most colorful and exciting entrepreneurs. It's Donny's story. In a fun conversation with the reader, Donny lays out the core principles that propelled him to create tremendous wealth, build a huge and influential business, and become a national personality. Using inside stories of the media, the advertising industry, and a youth spent growing up on the streets of New York, Donny gives the commonsense bottom line that he has learned along the way, broken down into real, relevant, and inspiring lessons that will be useful to everyone from the front-line salesperson to the middle manager to the successful corporate executive. (It's also a useful guide for dating.)

All too often our best efforts to accomplish the things we want most to do our jobs well, to make meaningful contributions at home and at work, to have satisfying relationships with loved ones, friends, neighbors, and coworkers are built on bad habits that sabotage us. We feel overwhelmed by our increasingly large to-do list, so we automatically multitask to get more done and end up more stressed and more overloaded. We say something with the hopes of impressing the other person, but instead of end them then spend days trying to repair the damage. We give what we think is a pep talk to our team but they walk away demotivated.How can we be most effective and productive in a world that moves too fast and demands so much of us?In Four Seconds, Peter Bregman shows that the answer is to pause for as few as four seconds the length of a deep breath to replace bad habits and reactions with more productive behaviors. In his trademark style of blending personal anecdotes with practical advice, Bregman reveals some of our most common counter-productive tendencies and describes counter-intuitive strategies for acting more intentionally, including: Why setting goals can actually harm your performance How to use strategic disengagement to recover focus and willpower Why listening not arguing is the best strategy for changing someone's mind How taking responsibility for someone else's failure can actually help you succeed Drawn from Bregman's hugely popular Harvard Business Review blog, this engaging and wise book provides simple solutions to create the results you want without the stress.

IBM is one of the greatest sales and marketing organizations ever assembled. Established over seventy years ago, it now employs 400,000 people and generates $50 billion a year in revenue. Yet it operates more like a cottage industry than a huge multinational organization.How does IBM do itThat's what even the most successful companies want to know. Now Buck Rodgers, the man who has personified "the IBM way," describes for the first time the reasons behind its extraordinary achievements. He has not written a company history, or an expose, or a book on management theory. He has written a book about everything that makes IBM IBM, as only an insider could.

At nineteen, Michael Dell started his company as a freshman at the University of Texas with $1,000 and has since built an industry powerhouse. As Dell journeys through his childhood adventures, ups and downs, and mistakes made along the way, he reflects on invaluable lessons learned.Michael Dell's revolutionary insight has allowed him to persevere against all odds, and Direct from Dell contains valuable information for any business leader. His strategies will show you effective ways to grow your business and will help you save time on costly mistakes by following his direct model for success.

Former NBA center Adonal Foyle has seen athletes burn through millions on women, large entourages, family gifts, gambling debts even shark tanks! Such spending habits are partly responsible for 60 percent of NBA players going broke within five years of retirement and nearly 80 perfect of NFL players being strapped within two.Rich with anecdotes from a sports insider, Winning the Money Game shows you how to avoid the financial fouls of athletes. Foyle gives you the straight, offering guidance on a wide range of money matters, from taxes to alimony, from child support to medical bills, and so much more. He beaks down expenses point by point, illustrating the difference between luxury items and family needs, and lays out the essential dos and don'ts to help you spend, save, and grow your money wisely.

Americans spend more than $11 billion a year on self-help products everything from books to diet pills to career coaches to seminars. So why with all this time, money, and energy being spent are so few people living the life they really wantWhy are millions of smart, talented, motivated people still going through life with one foot on the brakeHere's the real Secret: You don't need any more how-to-succeed information to reach your full potential.The problem isn't lack of motivation or lack of information. The real problem is that most people focus on the "how-to" aspects of success taught by traditional self-help programs, without coming to terms with what productivity expert Noah St. John calls your "head trash" the subconscious, emotional roadblocks that prevent people from acting on their real hopes, dreams, and ambitions. In this groundbreaking book, based on work with thousands of clients around the world, Noah St. John has created a remarkable, step-by-step approach that helps you achieve long-term happiness, success, and wealth. In The Secret Code of Success, you will learn how to: Eliminate the causes of self-sabotage and fear of success Allow yourself to make more money Remove stress while dramatically increasing personal productivity Improve relationships with coworkers, family, and friends Experience enhanced feelings of happiness, connection, and love The Secret Code of Success shows that, when it comes to success, the conscious mind is exactly the wrong place to start. It's only when we first conquer the self-sabotage of our subconscious (which accounts for 90 percent of our behavior) that we can truly begin to enjoy a life filled with success. This insight is at the core of The Secret Code of Success and leads to Noah's revolutionary 7-step method for eliminating these psychological obstacles. True financial freedom and personal success is possible at last!The Secret Code of Success shows you how to get your foot off the brake and start living the life you deserve.

If your workplace feels like a battle zone and colleagues sometimes act like adversaries, you ore not alone. Today four generations glare at one another across the conference table, and the potential for conflict and confusion has never been greater. Traditionalist employees with their "heads down, onward and upward" attitude live out a work ethic shaped during the Great Depression. Eighty million Baby Boomers vacillate between their overwhelming need to succeed and their growing desire to slow down and enjoy life. Generation Xers try to prove themselves constantly yet dislike the image of being overly ambitious, disrespectful, and irreverent. Millennials, new to the workforce, mix savvy with social conscience and promise to further change the business landscape. This insightful book provides hands-on methods to close the generation gaps. With effective tools to recruit, retain, motivate, and manage each generation, you can now create teamwork, not war, in today's highperformance workplace . . . where at any age, productivity is what counts.

Too many leadership failures. Too many career derailments. Too many toxic workplaces filled with disengaged, distrustful employees. Jeffrey Pfeffer, a professor at the Stanford Graduate School of Business and the author of Power, offers an incisive dissection of the multibillion-dollar leadership industry and presents ways to fix its many problems.In Leadership BS, Jeffrey Pfeffer pulls back the curtain, showing how leadership really works and why so many leadership development efforts fail. In this forthright and persuasive critique, Pfeffer argues that much of the oft-repeated wisdom about leadership is based more on hope than reality, on wishes rather than data, on beliefs instead of science. In an age when transparency is considered a virtue, Pfeffer makes the case that strategic misrepresentation isn't as harmful as you think, that breached agreements are a part of business, that immodesty is frequently a path to success, and that relying on the magnanimity of your boss is a bad bet.Using research findings from social psychology, sociology, and sociobiology, and filled with practical, actionable advice, Leadership BS encourages readers to finally stop accepting sugar-laced but toxic potions as cures and to understand the realities of organizations and human behavior.To make real change, Pfeffer argues, we need to get beyond the half-truths and self-serving stories that are so prominent in the mythology of leadership. In calling BS on so much conventional wisdom, Leadership BS offers both a provocative, scientific examination of how leadership actually works and how it doesn't and a pre*ion for leaders future and present.

#131 The Case of the Two-Cent CandyYears ago, I wrote about a retail store in the Palo Alto environs a good one, which had a box of two-cent candies at the checkout. I subsequently remember that "little" parting gesture of the two-cent candy as a symbol of all that is Excellent at that store. Dozens of people who have attended seminars of mine from retailers to bankers to plumbing-supply-house owners have come up to remind me, sometimes 15 or 20 years later, of "the two-cent candy story," and to tell me how it had a sizable impact on how they did business, metaphorically and in fact.Well, the Two-Cent Candy Phenomenon has struck again with oomph and in the most unlikely of places.For years Singapore's "brand" has more or less been Southeast Asia's "place that works." Its legendary operational efficiency in all it does has attracted businesses of all sorts to set up shop there. But as "the rest" in the geographic neighborhood closed the efficiency gap, and China continued to rise-race-soar, Singapore decided a couple of years ago to "rebrand" itself as not only a place that works but also as an exciting, "with it" city. (I was a participant in an early rebranding conference that also featured the likes of the late Anita Roddick, Deepak Chopra, and Infosys founder and superman N. R. Narayana Murthy.)Singapore's fabled operating efficiency starts, as indeed it should, at ports of entry the airport being a prime example. From immigration to baggage claim to transportation downtown, the services are unmatched anywhere in the world for speed and efficiency.Saga . . . Immigration services in Thailand, three days before a trip to Singapore, were a pain. ("Memorable.") And entering Russia some months ago was hardly a walk in the park, either. To be sure, and especially after 9/11, entry to the United States has not been a process you'd mistake for arriving at Disneyland, nor marked by an attitude that shouted "Welcome, honored guest."Singapore immigration services, on the other hand:The entry form was a marvel of simplicity. The lines were short, very short, with more than adequate staffing.The process was simple and unobtrusive.And:The immigration officer could have easily gotten work at Starbucks; she was all smiles and courtesy.And:Yes!Yes!And . . . yes!There was a little candy jar at each Immigration portal!The "candy jar message" in a dozen ways:"Welcome to Singapore, Tom!! We are absolutely beside ourselves with delight that you have decided to come here!"Wow!Wow!Wow!Ask yourself . . . now:What is my (personal, department, project, restaurant, law firm) "Two-Cent Candy"?Does every part of the process of working with us/me include two-cent candies?Do we, as a group, "think two-cent candies"?Operationalizing: Make "two-centing it" part and parcel of "the way we do business around here." Don't go light on the so-called substance but do remember that . . . perception is reality . . . and perception is shaped by two-cent candies as much as by that so-called hard substance.Start: Have your staff collect "two-cent candy stories" for the next two weeks in their routine "life" transactions. Share those stories. Translate into "our world." And implement.Repeat regularly.Forever.(Recession or no recession you can afford two cents.)(In fact, it is a particularly Brilliant Idea for a recession you doubtless don't maximize Two-Cent Opportunities. And what opportunities they are.)

Bubbles from hot stocks in the 1920s to hot stocks in the 1990s are much-lamented features of contemporary economic life. Time and again, American investors, seduced by the lures of quick money, new technologies, and excessive optimism, have shown a tendency to get carried away. Time and again, they have appeared foolish when the bubble burst. The history of finance is filled with tragic tales of shattered dreams, bankruptcies, and bitter recriminations.But what if the I-told-you-so lectures about bubbles tell only half the storyWhat if bubbles accomplish something that can only be seen in retrospectWhat if the frenzy of irrational economic enthusiasm lays the groundwork for sober-minded opportunities, growth, and innovationCould it be that bubbles wind up being a competitive advantage for the bubble-prone U.S. economy?In this entertaining and fast-paced book you'll laugh as much as you cry Daniel Gross convincingly argues that every bubble has a golden lining. From the 19th-century mania for the telegraph to the current craze in alternative energy, from railroads to real estate, Gross takes us on a whirlwind tour of reckless investors and pie-in-the-sky promoters, detailing the mania they created but also the lasting good they left behind. In one of the great ironies of history, Gross shows how the bubbles once generally seen as disastrous have actually helped build the commercial infrastructures that have jump-started American growth. If there is a secret to the perennial resilience and exuberance of the American economy, Gross may just have found it in our peculiar capacity to blow financial bubbles and successfully clean up the mess.

World-renowned experts on Gender Intelligence argue that it is time to move beyond politics and fairness to build an economic business case for gender diversity in the workplace.For too long, companies have played the numbers game attempting to tackle the problem of gender imbalance through affirmative action, numeric standards, and quotas. Yet these efforts have had no measurable impact on the number of women in leadership or on a company's bottom line. Meanwhile, the dominant paradigm of traditional business remains the same.In Gender Intelligence, Barbara Annis and Keith Merron introduce a revolutionary and effective approach that is fundamentally altering the cultures of major corporations around the world. They uncover the forces that create the current condition of gender inequality and reveal, for the first time, the powerful principles that are bringing about a shift in thinking. They highlight organizations that have made the transformation from a focus on gender equity to the more powerful objective of welcoming the natural differences between men and women, which ultimately produces greater economic value. Gender Intelligence proves that the true measure of gender equality does not reside in a percentage but in the untapped power of men and women openly working and winning together.

Seeing is believing . . . The Smash Hit SuperFreakonomics is now Bigger and Better SuperFreakonomics was an instant New York Times bestseller that caused a media uproar, continuing the amazing success begun with the groundbreaking, worldwide sensation Freakonomics.With the Illustrated Edition, Steven D. Levitt and Stephen J. Dubner bring alive their smart thinking and great storytelling with an explosion of visual evidence, including: A by-the-numbers tally of a high-priced call girl's career, and a tracking sheet from an intensive survey of Chicago street prostitutes. A visual quiz that lets you pit your memory against the memory of a chess grand master. Images of the hurricane-killing machine and other geo-engineering inventions described in SuperFreakonomics. A look into whether doctors are better at saving lives in TV dramas or in real hospitals. Whether probing the intricacies of sex change oper-ations, the effectiveness of child car seats, or what really motivates people to do good, the Illustrated Edition of SuperFreakonomics employs photographs, drawings, and graphs that will lead readers to see the world in a bold, fresh way.

Transform Your Workplace!Imagine a company where people are excited about coming to work and giving their best efforts every day. In this innovative and engrossing business parable, Harry Paul and Ross Reck show managers at all levels how they can immediately and easily increase productivity by tapping into the discretionary effort of the people who work for them. Starting from the most basic aspect of business reality that people intentionally regulate the amount of effort they put into their jobs based upon how they feel they're being treated the authors point out that the most important part of the job of every manager, team leader, supervisor, and executive is to treat people in such a way that they become excited about applying all their discretionary effort toward performing their jobs.At the book's center is the story of Nancy Kim, a human resources director at a magazine that is struggling with all the problems associated with unhappy employees low productivity and morale along with high absenteeism and turnover. After she openly challenges the CEO's new management-by-the-numbers system, she's charged with turning the situation around immediately. Filled with real-world studies, Instant Turnaround! shows anyone how to turn the workplace into a destination a place where working hard feels like hardly working because it's engaging, enjoyable, and fulfilling.

Vanity Fair presents 21 true stories of the new hard times Where did all the billions goCommissioned by the editors at Vanity Fair magazine, The Great Hangover is an eye-opening collection of essays on the global economic crisis by fifteen of the most respected contemporary business writers in America, including:Bryan Burrough (Barbarians at the Gate) on the atmosphere of uncertainty and fear that preceded the demise of Bear Stearns . . . Michael Lewis (Liar's Poker) on Iceland's bizarre national implosion . . . Mark Bowden (Black Hawk Down) on the decline of The New York Times and the threat to the ailing newspaper industry . . . Mark Seal on the defining figure of the seriously tarnished New Gilded Age: the Grand Master of Greed, Bernie Madoff . . . Along with compelling and sometimes hair-raising pieces from a dozen other Vanity Fair contributors on the recent recession's myriad villains and victims and the worldwide impact of the financial downturn.

The inside story of the power struggle that rocked Wall Street's most prestigious financial institution What began with a shot over the bow ended in a shocking coup d'etat. In less than four months a group of eight retired executives orchestrated a stunning revolt within Morgan Stanley, the venerable and until recently most successful financial services firm on Wall Street. Now acclaimed journalist and historian Patricia Beard brings together the entire behind-the-scenes story in Blue Blood and Mutiny, a real-life business thriller exposing the tale that shook high finance. In March 2005 the business world woke up to an unprecedented full-page ad in the Wall Street Journal calling for the removal of Morgan Stanley's CEO. It was paid for by a cohort of eight former Morgan Stanley executives, including an ex-chairman and an ex-president, who soon would be dubbed the "Eight Grumpy Old Men." Their target was CEO Philip Purcell, a midwesterner who had come to power following Morgan Stanley's 1997 merger with Dean Witter Discover, where Purcell had been chief executive. In his eight years as CEO, Purcell had presided over a 50 percent decline in stock price since its peak in 2000 and a series of high-profile government and civil lawsuits that had tarnished the company's once-sterling reputation. Just a few months after the Journal ad, Purcell would retire under pressure, and former president John Mack, who had been pushed out by Purcell, was appointed CEO. The "Eight Grumpy Old Men" won the battle.The revolt of the Eight is about more than the stock price, or any bottom-line metrics: it signals a clash of cultures and a battle for the soul of American business. Since its founding, Morgan Stanley has been an elite enterprise guided by J. P. Morgan Jr.'s motto "A First Class Business in a First Class Way." The House of Morgan stood for something larger than success with honor; its ethos was unique some would say sacred and the eight retired executives believed this ideal had been undermined during Purcell's reign.Opening the long-closed doors of a bastion of Wall Street that has maintained the strictest privacy until now, Blue Blood and Mutiny weaves the history of Morgan Stanley with the inside story of the fight for dominance between two competing business cultures one, the collegial meritocracy handed down from the days of J. P. Morgan, and the other, a cold, contemporary corporate model. Here is the season's must-read book for anyone who wants to understand the future of American business.

There's no doubt about it, today's workplace is an uncertain and treacherous territory. Newspaper headlines are proclaiming near record-high levels of unemployment, and, in these tough times, companies are making swift judgments about human capital. The bottom line: No job is safe. But there are tried and true ways to fight off sudden unemployment successfully, and the number one weapon in your arsenal is workplace expert and television and radio personality Stephen Viscusi's career manifesto, Bulletproof Your Job. Based on four simple strategies for dodging the layoff bullet and a long list of ways to implement these strategies, Bulletproof Your Job may save you from your worst enemy at work which just so happens to be you.Quite simply, observe these imperative rules:Be visible. Be easy. Be useful. Be ready. With plenty of distinct action items, dozens of anecdotal illustrations and examples, and lists and tips for adapting bulletproof strategies to your own situation, Bulletproof Your Job will show you how to leverage the black-and-white stuff your title, salary, and tenure with the gray stuff your relationship with coworkers, visibility in the workplace, and ability to make your boss look good to ward off the pink stuff the dreaded layoff notice. While you're at it, you'll be creating a long-term strategy for job security and career advancement that ensures you'll never feel this vulnerable again.

Confidence. We want it. We need it. But it can be maddeningly enigmatic and out of reach. The authors of the New York Times bestseller Womenomics deconstruct this essential, elusive, and misunderstood quality and offer a blueprint for bringing more of it into our lives.Is confidence hardwired into the DNA of a lucky few or can anyone learn itIs it best expressed by bravado, or is there another way to show confidenceWhich is more important: confidence or competenceWhy do so many women, even the most successful, struggle with feelings of self-doubtIs there a secret to channeling our inner confidenceIn The Confidence Code, journalists Katty Kay and Claire Shipman travel to the frontiers of neuroscience on a hunt for the confidence gene and reveal surprising new research on its roots in our brains. They visit the world's leading psychologists who explain how we can all chose to become more confident simply by taking action and courting risk, and how those actions change our physical wiring. They interview women leaders from the worlds of politics, sports, the military, and the arts to learn how they have tapped into this elemental resource. They examine how a lack of confidence impacts our leadership, success, and fulfillment.Ultimately, they argue, while confidence is partly influenced by genetics, it is not a fixed psychological state. That's the good news. You won't discover it by thinking positive thoughts or by telling yourself (or your children) that you are perfect as you are. You also won't find it by simply squaring your shoulders and faking it. But it does require a choice: less people pleasing and perfectionism and more action, risk taking, and fast failure.Inspiring, insightful, and persuasive, The Confidence Code shows that by acting on our best instincts and by daring to be authentic, women can feel the transformative power of a life on confidence.

The workplace around the world is changing growing increasingly multicultural, female, and younger. Experts often tell CEOs and managers what not to do, and corporate diversity programs can often appear to be like defensive measures against lawsuits and harassment charges. While technology has connected all of us as a global workforce, it has not equipped us with the capability to interact genuinely with people. In order to be successful in this new global business environment, we need to rethink the way we lead others.Flex offers a new approach a proactive strategy for managers to understand and leverage difference effectively in this new global economy.Flex shows managers how to understand the power gap the social distance between you and those in the workplace of different cultures, ages, and gender; stretch your management style and bridge the gap with more effective communication and feedback tools; and multiply the effect by teaching these skills to others and closing the power gap with clients, customers, and partners to create innovative solutions. Creating flex in a company's management style will affect all aspects of developing existing leaders, attracting future talent, and building relationships with customers in this competitive marketplace. Flex shows you how.