Do you feel you don't have enough time to manage your people?Do you avoid interacting with some employees because you hate the dreaded confrontations that often follow?Do you have some great employees you really cannot afford to lose?Do you secretly wish you could be more in control but don't know where to start?Managing people is harder and more high-pressure today than ever before. There's no room for downtime, waste, or inefficiency. You have to do more with less. And employees have become high maintenance. Not only are they more likely to disagree openly and push back, but they also won't work hard for vague promises of long-term rewards. They look to you their immediate boss to help them get what they need and want at work. How do you tackle this huge management challengeIf you are like most managers, you take a hands-off approach. You "empower" employees by leaving them alone, unless they really need you. After all, you don't want to "micromanage" them and don't have the time to hold every employee's hand. Of course, problems always come up and often snowball into bigger problems. In fact, you probably spend too much of your time solving problems and falling behind on your work . . . which leaves even less time for managing people . . . which opens the door for even more problems!In It's Okay to Be the Boss, Bruce Tulgan puts his finger on the biggest problem in corporate America an undermanagement epidemic affecting managers at all levels of the organization and in all industries and offers another way. His clear, step-by-step guide to becoming the strong manager employees need challenges bosses everywhere to spell out expectations, tell employees exactly what to do and how to do it, monitor and measure performance constantly, and correct failure quickly and reward success even more quickly. Now that's how you set employees up for success and help them earn what they need. Tulgan opens our eyes to the undisciplined workplace that is overwhelming managers and frustrating workers and invites bosses everywhere to accept the sacred responsibility of managing people. His message: It's okay to be the boss. Be a great one!

You.That's Right. YOU.You've got a problem.You've got a product that's not first in its class.It's not even second.You've got to find a way to market that product. What Are You Going To Do?You're going to read this book, that's what.Let's face it. There comes a time in the life of every business when a product or service does not sell up to expectations.Maybe your product is outmoded. Or hasn't been positioned correctly. Or is competing in a crowded market. Whatever the reason, Ice to the Eskimos is dedicated to helping you reclaim that lost ground. It's about taking a product or service and turning it into a winner. If you've got a product that is not the best in its field, then you will love Ice to the Eskimos. Take the principles Jon Spoelstra writes about and run hard with them you'll be amazed by the results.Written by the former president of the hapless New Jersey Nets, Jon Spoelstra is the man responsible for tripling that team's lagging revenues in just three years and increasing the season-ticket holders base by 250 percent. This guy knows what he's talking about. What everyone else had seen as a lost cause, Spoelstra saw as an outstanding opportunity to reawaken a tired and beaten product to achieve unprecedented profitability.Not just for sports marketers, this lively, entertaining book successfully makes the jump from sports to whatever your product may be. The techniques Spoelstra perfected while working for teams in the NHL and NBA from innovative packaging to image overhaul apply to any product in any company. The numerous winning examples are sure to make Ice to the Eskimos a must-read for anyone with a product or service to sell.Ice to the Eskimos is sure to be an instant marketing classic. It will show millions of readers how to market their product...sometimes even after they've given up hope. By using the powerful techniques in this book, you too can learn to achieve the impossible and market ice to the Eskimos.

The Personal Finance Classic . . . that's fun to read!You Need the Truth About MoneyCompletely revised and expanded, The Truth About Money shows you everything you need to know about personal finance and explains it all in plain English. Investments, insurance, taxes, mortgages, leasing cars, getting out of debt, wealth planning for multimillion-dollar estates it's all here for you.Whether you're saving for college or retirement, buying a home or selling one, concerned about long-term care for yourself or your parents, worried about an impending job loss, or facing any financial decision, knowing what's in The Truth About Money will help you make great financial decisions.New to This EditionPlanning Your Retirement LifestyleLearn how to retire in comfort and financial security (and what to do when you get there) (pg. 485).The Best Investment ChoiceLearn how ETFs can help you create wealth while saving you big money (pg. 176).Target-Date FundsIt's what you don't know that can hurt you (pg. 269).Behavioral Finance and NeuroeconomicsLearn why you make bad financial decisions and how to break the cycle (pg. 224).Picking the Best FundsFind out the truth about Morningstar ratings (pg. 250).Are Your Parents Aging?See how best to provide help without harming yourself financially (pg. 374).The Most Important Financial Decision You'll MakeFind out how to make this decision successfully (pg. 631).Plus more than 100 Pages of New Content!

Do you exude confidence and credibilityCan you command a roomSylvia Ann Hewlett, one of the world's most influential business thinkers, cracks the code of Executive Presence (EP) for men and women intent on winning the next plum assignment and doing something extraordinary with their lives.You might have the qualifications to be considered for your dream job, but you won't get far unless you can signal that you're "leadership material" and that you "have what it takes." Professionals are judged on presence as well as on performance. Using a wealth of hard data including a new nationwide survey and dozens of focus groups Hewlett reveals EP to be a dynamic mix of three things: how you act (gravitas), how you speak (communication), and how you look (appearance). She also draws on in-depth interviews with a wide selection of admired leaders to reveal how they embody and deploy key elements of EP.This book is immensely practical. Hewlett teases out tactics that can help you raise your game and close the gap between merit and success. She offers the unvarnished advice you won't get from supportive friends and tackles head-on such touchy subjects as too-tight clothing and too-shrill voices. She shows how the standards for EP vary for men, women, multicultural, and LGBT employees, and she shares how to get meaningful feedback from politically correct bosses intent on avoiding the real issues.The good news is that EP is eminently teachable. You can learn how to "show teeth" while remaining likable, and you can teach yourself how to dress appropriately while staying true to yourself. You don't have to be born with the voice of James Earl Jones or the looks of Angelina Jolie to hurdle the EP bar. With hard facts and vivid examples, Hewlett shows you how to ace EP and fully realize your unique potential no matter who you are, no matter where you work.

For more than twenty years, Stanley Bing has peerlessly explained corporate culture and strategy with wit and insight. Now he brings us this engaging and instructive book of white-collar fables that have charmed generations of businesspeople since Greece was glorious and Rome was grand, brilliant gems of wisdom flowing from the pen of the mysterious, legendary author known throughout the ancient corporate world by a single name: Bingsop. Bingsop's Fables is animated by a cast of archetypal characters that are as iconic and representative of human nature as were the jackdaw, the dull, the snake, the hare, the lion, the horse, and all the rest of the birds and beasts that populated the stories of that other fabulist, Aesop. The Stupid Investor, the Miserable Misery Mogul, the Ill-Tempered PR Person, and the Potentially Generous CEO each struts and frets his hour upon the stage and, in the end, presents us with a moral that rings so true it would hurt if we were not also laughing. Festooned with provocative, witty illustrations by New Yorker artist Steve Brodner, this lean, muscular edition will equally be at home on the shelves of aspiring hedge fund managers hoping to kill their elders as on the credenzas of those beleaguered executives who hear the next generation coming up fast from behind. No business library should be considered complete without it.

The definitive account of Wall Street's stunning collapse From critically acclaimed investigative journalist and CNBC personality Charles Gasparino comes a sweeping examination of the most recent volatile, anxiety-ridden era in our nation's socioeconomic history. The Sellout traces the implosion of the financial services business back to its roots in the late 1970s when Wall Street embraced a new business model predicated on taking enormous risks. It shows how a backwater business involving the trading of risky bonds packed with mortgages showered countless billions in profits on the financial industry but sowed the seeds of its ultimate demise. Gasparino walks readers through Wall Street's three-decades' love affair with risk, revealing a trail of culpability from the government bureaucrats who crafted housing policies that encouraged homeownership, to the Wall Street firms that underwrote and invested in risky debt, to the mortgage sellers who handed out loans to people without the financial wherewithal to pay them back, to the homeowners who became convinced they could afford mansions on blue-collar wages. The ongoing tumult in financial markets and the global economy began when some of our most esteemed financial institutions, our government, and even average citizens abdicated their collective responsibilities, eventually selling out investors and selling off the American Dream itself. In the spirit of classics such as Barbarians at the Gate and Liar's Poker, this page-turning narrative captures how avarice, arrogance, and sheer stupidity eroded Wall Street's dominance and profoundly weakened the financial security of millions of middle-class Americans. Eye-opening and engrossing, The Sellout provides the most thorough investigation to date of this latest gilded era.

A provocative user's guide to a world where the only thing that doesn't change is change itself "Before I die," Albert Einstein once said, "I hope someone will clarify quantum physics for me. After I die, I hope God will explain turbulence to me." Einstein might have been more confused today: Turbulence, in all its manifestations, is on the rise. Financial markets gyrate. Commodity prices zig and zag. New technologies disrupt long-standing businesses and entire industries. Scientific discoveries overturn historical truisms. Dirty bombs and pension busts, natural disasters and flu pandemics, add to the tumult. We live in a world beset by turbulence.We often respond to turbulence by accelerating activities that worked in the past. We lapse into inertia when we should adapt with agility, and we cling to rigid dogmas when we should improvise. But throughout history, volatility has not only dethroned incumbent leaders, it has also created untold possibilities to create economic value. Turbulence has an upside, and companies that seize the opportunities arising out of seething markets will become tomorrow's champions. Based on more than a decade of research, The Upside of Turbulence draws lessons from companies that have consistently spotted and exploited opportunities that rivals have missed. The book explores realms ranging from improvisational comedy to the U.S. Marine Corp's combat doctrine. The result is a series of provocative insights that defy conventional wisdom. The book also introduces practical tools, which have been field-tested by executives around the world, to wrestle triumph out of turmoil.

In Boundaries for Leaders, clinical psychologist and bestselling author Dr. Henry Cloud leverages his expertise of human behavior, neuroscience, and business leadership to explain how the best leaders set boundaries within their organizations--with their teams and with themselves--to improve performance and increase employee and customer satisfaction. In a voice that is motivating and inspiring, Dr. Cloud offers practical advice on how to manage teams, coach direct reports, and instill an organization with strong values and culture. Boundaries for Leaders: Take Charge of Your Business, Your Team, and Your Life is essential reading for executives and aspiring leaders who want to create successful companies with satisfied employees and customers, while becoming more resilient leaders themselves.

A lot of people talk about how great it is to start a business, but only Ben Horowitz is brutally honest about how hard it is to run one.In The Hard Thing About Hard Things, Ben Horowitz, cofounder of Andreessen Horowitz and one of Silicon Valley's most respected and experienced entrepreneurs, draws on his own story of founding, running, selling, buying, managing, and investing in technology companies to offer essential advice and practical wisdom for navigating the toughest problems business schools don't cover. His blog has garnered a devoted following of millions of readers who have come to rely on him to help them run their businesses. A lifelong rap fan, Horowitz amplifies business lessons with lyrics from his favorite songs and tells it straight about everything from firing friends to poaching competitors, from cultivating and sustaining a CEO mentality to knowing the right time to cash in.His advice is grounded in anecdotes from his own hard-earned rise from cofounding the early cloud service provider Loudcloud to building the phenomenally successful Andreessen Horowitz venture capital firm, both with fellow tech superstar Marc Andreessen (inventor of Mosaic, the Internet's first popular Web browser). This is no polished victory lap; he analyzes issues with no easy answers through his trials, including demoting (or firing) a loyal friend; whether you should incorporate titles and promotions, and how to handle them; if it's OK to hire people from your friend's company; how to manage your own psychology, while the whole company is relying on you; what to do when smart people are bad employees; why Andreessen Horowitz prefers founder CEOs, and how to become one; whether you should sell your company, and how to do it. Filled with Horowitz's trademark humor and straight talk, and drawing from his personal and often humbling experiences, The Hard Thing About Hard Things is invaluable for veteran entrepreneurs as well as those aspiring to their own new ventures.

New Ideas from Dead CEOs uncovers the secrets of success of great CEOs by giving readers an intimate look at their professional and personal lives. Why did Ray Kroc's plan for McDonald's thrive when many burger joints failedAnd how, decades later, did Krispy Kreme fail to heed Kroc's hard-won lessonsHow did Walt Disney's most dismal day as a young cartoonist radically change his careerWhen Estée Lauder was a child in Queens, New York, the average American spent $8 a year on toiletries. Why did she spot an opportunity in selling high-priced cosmetics, and why did she pound on Saks's doorsHow did Thomas Watson Jr. decide to roll the dice and put all of IBM's chips on computing, when his father thought it could be a losing ideaWe learn about these CEOs' greatest challenges and failures, and how they successfully rode the waves of demographic and technological change.New Ideas from Dead CEOs not only gives us fascinating insights into these CEOs' lives, but also shows how we can apply their ideas to the present-day triumphs and struggles of Sony, Dell, Costco, Carnival Cruises, Time Warner, and numerous other companies trying to figure out how to stay on top or climb back up. The featured CEOs in this book were not candidates for sainthood. Many of them knew "god" only as a prefix to "dammit." But they were devoted to their businesses, not just to their egos and their personal bank accounts and yachts. Extraordinarily fresh and deeply thoughtful, Todd G. Buchholz's New Ideas from Dead CEOs is a truly enjoyable and fun yet serious and realistic look at what we still have to learn and absorb from these decomposing CEOs.

Everything you thought you knew about saving, managing risk, and securing your financial future has changed. The world is very different in the wake of the biggest financial crisis since the Great Depression. Retirement accounts have been eviscerated, risk appetites diminished, and questions raised about age-old personal finance strategies such as "buy and hold" and the efficacy of relying heavily on stock mutual funds.In The Wall Street Journal Guide to the New Rules of Personal Finance, Dave Kansas offers guidelines for understanding the new regulations for finance firms, the rising importance of international investing, and the very different environment that now exists for home buyers. With valuable chapters on debt reduction, diversification, retirement planning, real estate, commodities, and other vital topics, this essential volume is designed to help the individual determine which tenets of an investing strategy remain sound and which deserve re-examination. It is the ultimate guide to profitably investing your money in a world that has fundamentally changed.

In this penetrating work of investigative and historical journalism, Eamon Javers explores the dangerous and combustible power spies hold over international business.Today's global economy has a dark underbelly: the world of corporate espionage. Using cutting-edge technology, age-old techniques of deceit and manipulation, and sheer talent, spies act as the hidden puppeteers of globalized businesses. They control markets, determine prices, influence corporate decisions, and manage the flow of data and information of some of the world's biggest corporations. In his gripping and alarming book, Eamon Javers takes the reader inside this hidden global industry. Readers meet the spies who conduct surveillance operations, satellite analysts who peer down on corporate targets from the skies, veteran CIA officers who work for hedge funds, and even a Soviet military intelligence officer who now sells his services to American companies.This industry has tentacles in almost every industry in almost every corner of the globe. Intelligence companies and the spies they employ are setting up fake Web sites to elicit information, trailing individuals and mirroring travel itiner-aries, Dumpster-diving in household and corporate trash, using ultrasophisticated satellite surveillance to spy on facilities, acting as impostors to take jobs within companies or to gain access to corporations, concocting elaborate schemes of fraud and deceit, and hacking e-mail and secure computer networks. The work of this industry can be ingenious, but it also raises crucial moral and legal questions in a world where global conflicts are as likely to be corporation versus corporation as they are to be nation versus nation.This globalized industry is not a recent phenomenon, but rather a continuation of a fascinating history. The story begins with Allan Pinkerton, the nation's first true "private eye," and extends through the annals of a rich history that includes tycoons and playboys, presidents and FBI operatives, CEOs and accountants, Cold War veterans and military personnel. Built on exclusive reporting and unprecedented access, this book features accounts of Howard Hughes's private CIA, the extensive spying that took place in a battle between two global food companies, and interviews with some of the world's top corporate surveillance experts.

Going Wireless delivers the unexpected by showing how wireless is transforming every type of enterprise from micro-businesses to multi-national conglomerates.Award-winning technology journalist Jaclyn Easton begins with an in-depth look at owning your customers and clients through mobile commerce whether your company focuses on consumers or business-to-business.From there you will learn about the advantages of wirelessly fortifying your mobile workforce of itinerant executives, sales personnel, and field service technicians as well as how wireless is dramatically redefining customer service, marketing, and advertising.Going Wireless also delves deep inside the corporation. First you'll find out why most companies are "handsizing" in addition to deploying wireless technology to rejuvenate warehouses, supply chains, procurement procedures, data collection, competitive intelligence, and much more.The best part is that these scenarios are supported by over 40 brand-name success stories, including: How Sears saves millions by wirelessly enabling 100 percent of their appliance repair technicians; How the Gap proved that by sewing wireless technology in their clothing they could reduce labor distribution costs by 50 percent; How McKessanHBOC a Fortune 40 corporation used mobile technology to entirely eliminate all their manifest imaging costs. While most people associate wireless with cell phones and Palm handhelds, you'll also learn that wireless has been around for over 100 years and has spawned mobile options you've never heard of and is being used in ways you've never imagined.This makes Going Wireless the perfect book for executives and managers who need a comprehensive overview of the wireless options that can make their companies more competitive, more productive, and more profitable.

The Challenge Built to Last, the defining management study of the nineties, showed how great companies triumph over time and how long-term sustained performance can be engineered into the DNA of an enterprise from the verybeginning. But what about the company that is not born with great DNAHow can good companies, mediocre companies, even bad companies achieve enduring greatnessThe Study For years, this question preyed on the mind of Jim Collins. Are there companies that defy gravity and convert long-term mediocrity or worse into long-term superiorityAnd if so, what are the universal distinguishing characteristics that cause a company to go from good to greatThe Standards Using tough benchmarks, Collins and his research team identified a set of elite companies that made the leap to great results and sustained those results for at least fifteen years. How greatAfter the leap, the good-to-great companies generated cumulative stock returns that beat the general stock market by an average of seven times in fifteen years, better than twice the results delivered by a composite index of the world's greatest companies, including Coca-Cola, Intel, General Electric, and Merck.The Comparisons The research team contrasted the good-to-great companies with a carefully selected set of comparison companies that failed to make the leap from good to great. What was differentWhy did one set of companies become truly great performers while the other set remained only goodOver five years, the team analyzed the histories of all twenty-eight companies in the study. After sifting through mountains of data and thousands of pages of interviews, Collins and his crew discovered the key determinants of greatness -- why some companies make the leap and others don't. The Findings The findings of the Good to Great study will surprise many readers and shed light on virtually every area of management strategy and practice. The findings include: Level 5 Leaders: The research team was shocked to discover the type of leadership required to achieve greatness. The Hedgehog Concept (Simplicity within the Three Circles): To go from good to great requires transcending the curse of competence. A Culture of Discipline: When you combine a culture of discipline with an ethic of entrepreneurship, you get the magical alchemy of great results. Technology Accelerators: Good-to-great companies think differently about the role of technology. The Flywheel and the Doom Loop: Those who launch radical change programs and wrenching restructurings will almost certainly fail to make the leap. Some of the key concepts discerned in the study, comments Jim Collins, "fly in the face of our modern business culture and will, quite frankly, upset some people.Perhaps, but who can afford to ignore these findings?

A groundbreaking book that sheds new light on the vital importance of teams as the fundamental unit of organization and competition in the global economy. Teams—we depend on them for both our professional success and our personal happiness. But isn't it odd how little scrutiny we give themThe teams that make up our lives are created mostly by luck, happenstance, or circumstance—but rarely by design. In trivial matters—say, a bowling team, the leadership of a neighborhood group, or a holiday party committee—success by serendipity is already risky enough. But when it comes to actions by fast-moving start-ups, major corporations, nonprofit institutions, and governments, leaving things to chance can be downright dangerous. Offering vivid reports of the latest scientific research, compelling case studies, and great storytelling, Team Genius shows managers and executives that the planning, design, and management of great teams no longer have to be a black art. It explores solutions to essential questions that could spell the difference between success and obsolescence. Do you know how to reorganize your subpar teams to turn them into top performersCan you identify which of the top-performing teams in your company are reaching the end of their life spanDo you have the courage to shut them downDo you know how to create a replacement team that will be just as effective—without losing time or damaging moraleAnd, most important, are your teams the right size for the jobThroughout, Rich Karlgaard and Michael S. Malone share insights and real-life examples gleaned from their careers as journalists, analysts, investors, and globetrotting entrepreneurs, meeting successful teams and team leaders to reveal some "new truths": The right team size is usually one fewer person than what managers think they need. The greatest question facing good teams is not how to succeed, but how to die. Good "chemistry" often makes for the least effective teams. Cognitive diversity yields the highest performance gains—but only if you understand what it is. How to find the "bliss point" in team intimacy—and become three times more productive. How to identify destructive team members before they do harm. Why small teams are 40 percent more likely to create a successful breakthrough than a solo genius is. Why groups of 7 (± 2), 150, and 1,500 are magic sizes for teams. Eye-opening, grounded, and essential, Team Genius is the next big idea to revolutionize business.

Two experts who have summited the tallest mountain on each of the seven continents and scaled the highest peaks in corporate sales and business examine what it takes to achieve success.In making the grueling journey to the top of Mount Everest, Susan Ershler and John Waechter joined the elite group of climbers who had conquered the Seven Summits the tallest mountains on each of the seven continents. This same determination has made them star performers in corporate sales and established them as business leaders. And both of them cherish the deep sense of satisfaction that comes from attaining a seemingly impossible goal through focus and persistence.In this unique guide, Susan and John draw on concrete experience to inspire sales professionals as well as all team members to overcome limitations and reach new heights of success, illustrating how anyone can achieve peak performance. They will show you how to define your goals clearly, commit to a vision, "choose the right sherpa" (build the right team), "travel light" (manage time), and "measure the mountain" (track progress).Weaving together stories from harrowing climbs and lessons of indomitable perseverance with actual tested methods for high achievement in sales, business, and life, Conquering the Seven Summits of Sales proves that anyone can overcome limitations and accomplish something real and meaningful in business and in life.

This special digital edition of Rookie Smarts includes 13 videos of leadership expert Liz Wiseman outlining her ground-breaking principles and guiding viewers through exercises that bring fresh perspective, open minds to innovation, and jumpstart a spirit of naive inquiry and constant learning.Is it possible to be at your best even when you are underqualified or doing something for the first timeIs it still possible, even after decades of experience, to recapture the enthusiasm, curiosity, and fearlessness of youth to take on new challengesWith the right mindset with Rookie Smarts you can.In a rapidly changing world, experience can be a curse. Careers stall, innovation stops, and strategies grow stale. Being new, na?ve, and even clueless can be an asset. For today's knowledge workers, constant learning is more valuable than mastery.In this essential guide, leadership expert Liz Wiseman explains how to reclaim and cultivate the curious, flexible, youthful mindset called Rookie Smarts. Wiseman reveals the different modes of the rookie mindset that lead to success: Backpacker: Unencumbered, rookies are more open to new possibilities, ready to explore new terrain, and don't get stuck in yesterday's best practices. Hunter-Gatherer: Rookies seek out experts and return with ideas and resources to address the challenges they face. Firewalker: Lacking situational confidence, rookies take small, calculated steps, moving fast and seeking feedback to stay on track. Pioneer: Keeping things simple and focusing on meeting core needs, rookies improvise and work tirelessly while pushing boundaries. Rookie Smarts addresses the questions every experienced professional faces: Will my knowledge and skills become obsolete and irrelevantWill a young, inexperienced newcomer upend my company or meHow can I keep upThe answer is to stay fresh, keep learning, and know when to think like a rookie.

What happens when a renowned river guide teams up with the CEO of one of the largest and least Earth-friendly corporations in the worldWhen it's former Wal-Mart CEO H. Lee Scott and white-water expert turned sustainability consultant Jib Ellison, the result is nothing less than a green business revolution.Wal-Mart long the target of local businesses, labor advocates, and environmentalists who deplore its outsourced, big-box methods has embraced an unprecedented green makeover, which is now spreading worldwide. The retail giant that rose from Sam Walton's Ozarks dime store is leveraging the power of 200 million weekly customers to drive waste, toxics, and carbon emissions out of its stores and products. Neither an act of charity nor an empty greenwash, Wal-Mart's green move reflects its river guide's simple, compelling philosophy: that the most sustainable, clean, energy-efficient, and waste-free company will beat its competitors every time. Not just in some distant, utopian future but today. From energy conservation, recycling, and hybrid trucks to reduced packaging and partnerships with environmentalists it once met only in court, Wal-Mart has used sustainability to boost its bottom line even in a tough economy belying the age-old claim that going green kills jobs and profits. Now the global apparel business, the American dairy industry, big agriculture, and even Wall Street are following Wal-Mart's lead, along with the 100,000 manufacturers whose products must become more sustainable to remain on Wal-Mart's shelves. Here Pulitzer Prize winner and bestselling author Edward Humes charts the course of this unlikely second industrial revolution, in which corporate titans who once believed profit and planet must be at odds are learning that the best business just may be a force of nature.

Generation Ageless an authoritative and eye-opening look at the past, present, and future of Baby Boomers Think Baby Boomers are all alikeThink again. This dynamic generation is nearing the traditional age of retirement, but is in no mood to slow down. Learn how to market, sell to, do business with, or just understand this remarkable generation, from Yankelovich, Inc., the organization that knows them better than anyone else. Yankelovich actually coined the term "Baby Boomer" back in the late 1960s, when they first started collecting data on this influential generation. Now, more than thirty years later, they have the most complete information on Boomers ever assembled. And they have put it all together in this groundbreaking look at America's largest and most powerful generation. In Generation Ageless, Yankelovich president J. Walker Smith, Ph.D., and senior partner Ann Clurman, Boomers themselves, dig deep into what makes this generation tick. With fresh, original data and a wide-ranging look at everything about Boomers, they dissect Boomers into six major segments Straight Arrows, Due Diligents, Maximizers, Sideliners, Diss/Contenteds, and Re-Activists to provide new insights into the world's most talked-about generation. The results show key imperatives invaluable to anyone selling a product, service, or idea to this 78-million strong group.Boomers are the dominant generation in America. Their values and aspirations set the tone for everyone. Advances in medicine and health mean that this youth-obsessed generation is now focused on an everlasting prime of life. They are literally middle age less: holding onto their position at the top of the pyramid for as long as possible, and not fading away to their golden years. Today's fifty- and sixty-year-old Boomers are not eagerly anticipating lives of disengaged retirement. Instead, middle age less Boomers expect another twenty or thirty years of impact and influence albeit in a variety of ways reflective of a surfeit of agendas and ambitions they have yet to fulfill.

There is no doubt that we are in the middle of a transition to a knowledge-based economy. Breakthrough technologies in microelectronics, biotechnology, new materials, telecommunications, robotics, and computers are fundamentally changing the game of creating wealth. While these new industries are growing explosively, existing industries such as banking and retail are being transformed beyond recognition. As a result, a new global economy is emerging to replace existing national economies.What will it take for individuals, companies, and entire countries to succeed in the new economics of the twenty-first centuryRather than focusing on spending, Lester C. Thurow argues that we must emphasize investment in basic knowledge, education, and infrastructure. Only by committing ourselves to building communal wealth can we maximize opportunities for building personal wealth as well. Building Wealth is an indispensable guide to surviving -- and thriving -- in the economies of the twenty-first century.

The commercial and cultural explosion of the digital age may have been born in California's Silicon Valley, but it reached its high point of riotous, chaotic exuberance in New York City from 1995 to 2000 in the golden age of Silicon Alley. In that short stretch of time a generation of talented, untested twentysomethings deluged the city, launching thousands of new Internet ventures and attracting billions of dollars in investment capital. Many of these young entrepreneurs were entranced by the infinite promise of the new media; others seemed more captivated by the promise of infinite profits. The innovations they launched from online advertising to 24-hour Webcasting propelled both the Internet and the tech-stock boom of the late '90s. And in doing so they sent the city around them into a maelstrom of brainstorming, code-writing, fundraising, drugs, sex, and frenzied hype . . .until April 2000, when the NASDAQ zeppelin finally burst and fell at their feet. In the pages of Digital Hustlers, Alley insiders Casey Kait and Stephen Weiss have captured the excitement and excesses of this remarkable moment in time. Weaving together the voices of more than fifty of the industry's leading characters, this extraordinary oral history offers a ground-zero look at the birth of a new medium. Here are entrepreneurs like Kevin O'Connor of DoubleClick, Fernando Espuelas of StarMedia, and Craig Kanarick of Razorfish; commentators like Omar Wasow of MSNBC and Jason McCabe Calacanis of the Silicon Alley Reporter; and inimitable Alley characters like party diva Courtney Pulitzer and Josh Harris, the clown prince of Pseudo.com. Together they describe a world of sweatshop programmers and paper millionaires, of cocktail-napkin business plans and billion-dollar IPOs, of spectacular successes and flame-outs alike. Candid and open-eyed, bristling with energy and argument, Digital Hustlers is an unforgettable group portrait of a wildly creative culture caught in the headlights of achievement.