800-CEO-READ New Releases

The Hippie Guide to Climbing the Corporate Ladder & Other Mountains

by Skip Yowell

(Naked Ink, 244 Pages)

At the cusp of JanSport's 40th anniversary, The Hippie Guide to Climbing the Corporate Ladder & Other Mountains chronicles the dramatic adventures and accomplishments of the man behind one of the world's most recognized brands. From small-town Kansas boy to adventure-junkie extraordinaire, this book traces Skip Yowell's journey to the top of the outdoor industry. Full of insightful details and photos from around the world, this books offer a behind-the-scenes look at how Skip and his team built a successful company--and changed an entire industry--by breaking the rules and taking good care of their customers.

Ego Check

by Mathew Hayward

(Kaplan, 256 Pages)

No one executive is immune from that difficult-to-distinguish line that divides the self-confidence required of a successful CEO from the hubris seen at the root of so many corporate scandals today. We can count Warren Buffett, Steve Jobs, Martha Stewart, and Jack Welch among the business leaders who have been infected with hubris at various stages of their careers – and seen their lives and companies suffer as a result. Every executive is vulnerable to hubris when they become dependent on wealth, status, and other extrinsic rewards for their sense of worth; when they embark on ventures that cross beyond their capabilities; when they unduly rely on the advice and input of others to execute their vision; and when they simply assume that their plans for the future will be realized without obstacle. Understanding these four key dynamics and the mistakes made as a result of falling prey to them will pave the road for business professionals to understand how they can guard against their own hubris while still building upon their unparalleled will to reach even greater levels of success.

A Perfect Mess

by Eric Abrahamson and David Freedman

(Little, Brown, 304 Pages)

A groundbreaking book that sheds new light on ideas of order--and shows how chaos, disorder, and mess make our world a better place! Like Freakonomics, here is a book that combines counterintuitive thinking with stories from everyday life to provide a striking new view of how our world works. Ever since Einstein's study of Brownian Motion, scientists have understood that a little disorder actually makes systems more effective. But most people still shun disorder--or suffer guilt over the mess they can't avoid. No longer! With a spectacular array of anecdotes and case studies of the useful role mess can play, here is an antidote to the accepted wisdom that tight schedules, neatness, and consistency are the keys to success. Drawing on examples from business, parenting, cooking, the war on terrorism, retail, and even the meteoric career of Arnold Schwarzenegger, coauthors Abrahamson and Freedman demonstrate that moderately messy systems use resources more efficiently, yield better solutions, and are harder to break than neat ones. A PERFECT MESS will help readers assess what the right amount of disorder is for a given system, and how to apply these ideas onto a large scale--government, society-- and on a small scale--in your attic, kitchen, or office. A PERFECT MESS will forever change the way we think about those unruly heaps of paper on our desks.

Creating Customer Evangelists

by Ben McConnell, Jackie Huba

(Dearborn Trade Pub, 224 Pages)

For the first time in paperback, a revised edition of the book that launched the term "customer evangelism." Updated with new statistics and figures, this landmark book has shown countless companies how to harness the power of evangelism marketing and increase customer loyalty, sales, and profitability.

When customers are truly thrilled about their experience with a product or service, they become outspoken "evangelists" for a company. Savvy marketing professionals know that this group of satisfied believers can be leveraged as a potent marketing tool to increase their customer universe.

Authors Ben McConnell and Jackie Huba know how to take a company's best customers and turn them into influential, loyal, and enthusiastic evangelists. Creating Customer Evangelists shows how to develop evangelism marketing strategies and programs that will create communities of influencers who can expand and drive sales for a company.

By deepening customer relationships, successful companies create customer communities that generate grassroots support and value for their products and services. Creating Customer Evangelists can convert good customers into exceptional ones who willingly spread the word.

Updated material for this edition includes:

• New research about the effectiveness of word of mouth
• Updated case studies
• How blogs, podcasts and other social media affect the six tenets of evangelism
• Preface about the growth of customer evangelism, fueling a "word of mouth marketing" industry

Run With the Bulls Without Getting Trampled

by Tim Irwin

(Nelson Business, 0 Pages)

Run With the Bulls Without Getting Trampled features Tim Irwin's seven critical success factors as well as six common career derailers to avoid. With compelling real-life stories to launch each chapter, Irwin distills not only his experiences as a successful corporate psychologist but also what he has learned from others in thousands of interviews with senior executives. Inside you will also find how you can access free online self-assessment exercises and developmental resources.

Made to Stick

by Chip Heath, Dan Heath

(Random House Inc, 288 Pages)

Mark Twain once observed, "A lie can get halfway around the world before the truth can even get its boots on." His observation rings true: Urban legends, conspiracy theories, and bogus public-health scares circulate effortlessly. Meanwhile, people with important ideas–business people, teachers, politicians, journalists, and others–struggle to make their ideas "stick."

Why do some ideas thrive while others die? And how do we improve the chances of worthy ideas? In Made to Stick, accomplished educators and idea collectors Chip and Dan Heath tackle head-on these vexing questions. Inside, the brothers Heath reveal the anatomy of ideas that stick and explain ways to make ideas stickier, such as applying the “human scale principle,” using the "Velcro Theory of Memory," and creating "curiosity gaps."

In this indispensable guide, we discover that sticky messages of all kinds–from the infamous "kidney theft ring" hoax to a coach’s lessons on sportsmanship to a vision for a new product at Sony–draw their power from the same six traits.

Made to Stick is a book that will transform the way you communicate ideas. It's a fast-paced tour of success stories (and failures)–the Nobel Prize-winning scientist who drank a glass of bacteria to prove a point about stomach ulcers; the charities who make use of "the Mother Teresa Effect"; the elementary-school teacher whose simulation actually prevented racial prejudice. Provocative, eye-opening, and often surprisingly funny, Made to Stick shows us the vital principles of winning ideas–and tells us how we can apply these rules to making our own messages stick.

Words That Work

by Frank Luntz

(Hyperion Books, 0 Pages)

The nation's premier communications expert shares his wisdom on how the words we choose can change the course of business, of politics, and of life in this country

In Words That Work, Luntz offers a behind-the-scenes look at how the tactical use of words and phrases affects what we buy, who we vote for, and even what we believe in. With chapters like "The Ten Rules of Successful Communication" and "The 21 Words and Phrases for the 21st Century," he examines how choosing the right words is essential.

Nobody is in a better position to explain than Frank Luntz: He has used his knowledge of words to help more than two dozen Fortune 500 companies grow. He�ll tell us why Rupert Murdoch�s six-billion-dollar decision to buy DirectTV was smart because satellite was more cutting edge than "digital cable," and why pharmaceutical companies transitioned their message from "treatment" to "prevention" and "wellness."

If you ever wanted to learn how to talk your way out of a traffic ticket or talk your way into a raise, this book's for you.

The Mormon Way of Doing Business

by Jeff Benedict

(Warner Books Inc, 256 Pages)

The Founder of JetBlue. The CEO of Dell Computers. The CEO of Deloitte & Touche. The Dean of the Harvard Business School. They all have one thing in common. They are devout Mormons who spend their Sundays exclusively with their families, never work long hours, and always put their spouses and children first. How do they do it? Now, critically acclaimed author and investigative journalist Jeff Benedict (a Mormon himself) examines these highly successful business execs and discovers how their beliefs have influenced them, and enabled them to achieve incredible success. With original interviews and unparalleled access, Benedict shares what truly drives these individuals, and the invaluable life lessons from which anyone can benefit.

Paths to Power

by Anthony J. Mayo, Nitin Nohria, Laura G. Singleton

(Harvard Business School Press, 320 Pages)

Who made it to the top of Corporate America in the twentieth century? And what do their experiences mean for the next generation of business leaders? In Paths to Power, Anthony J. Mayo, Nitin Nohria, and Laura G. Singleton answer these questions.

The authors explore access to business leadership opportunities—showing how a small group of "insiders" possesses advantages that facilitate a smooth journey to the top while a larger group of "outsiders" faces disadvantages that make their path to leadership positions more difficult. Yet throughout the history of American business, the composition of insiders and outsiders has shifted. Examining data on leader birthplaces, religious affiliation, education, socioeconomic status, race, and gender, Paths to Power explains how the demographics of leadership have changed over the 20th century and how they’re changing now. Further, they discuss the mechanisms of advancement for insiders and outsiders, and show how these mechanisms have also evolved.

Though white men still hold most power positions in business, the authors assert that the gates of access aren’t as static as they seem.

Know-how

by Ram Charan

(Random House Inc, 288 Pages)

The new grand theory of leadership by Ram Charan . . . The breakthrough book that links know-how—the skills of people who know what they are doing— with the personal and psychological traits of the successful leader.

How often have you heard someone with a commanding presence deliver a bold vision that turned out to be nothing more than rhetoric and hot air? All too often we mistake the appearance of leadership for the real deal. Without a doubt, intelligence, vision, and the ability to communicate are important. But something big is missing: the know-how of running a business—the capacity to take it in the right direction, do the right things, make the right decisions, deliver results, and leave the people and the business better off than they were before.

For well over four decades, Ram Charan has been learning in the most visceral way the underlying reasons why leaders succeed and fail. As one of the most influential advisers to top management teams of leading companies around the world, he has had a front-row seat to observe the cause and effect of leadership practices and behaviors.

Ram Charan’s insight into the real content of leadership provides you with the eight fundamental skills needed for success in the twenty-first century:

• Positioning (and, when necessary, repositioning) your business by zeroing in on the central idea that meets customer needs and makes money
• Connecting the dots by pinpointing patterns of external change ahead of others
• Shaping the way people work together by leading the social system of your business
• Judging people by getting to the truth of a person
• Molding high-energy, high-powered, high-ego people into a working team of leaders in which they equal more than the sum of their parts
• Knowing the destination where you want to take your business by developing goals that balance what the business can become with what it can realistically achieve
• Setting laser-sharp priorities that become the road map for meeting your goals
• Dealing creatively and positively with societal pressures that go beyond the economic value creation activities of your business

Know-How is the missing link of leadership. By showing how the eight know-hows link to, interact with, and reinforce personal and psychological traits, Ram Charan provides a holistic and innovative portrait of successful leaders of the twenty-first century.

Change or Die

by Alan Deutschman

(Harpercollins, 320 Pages)

"CHANGE OR DIE. What if you were given that choice? We're talking actual life and death now. Your own life and death. What if a well-informed, trusted authority figure said you had to make difficult and enduring changes in the way you think, feel, and act? If you didn't, your time would end soon�a lot sooner than it had to. Could you change when change mattered most?"

This is the question Alan Deutschman poses in Change or Die, which began as a sensational cover story by the same title for Fast Company. Deutschman concludes that although we all have the ability to change our behavior, we rarely ever do. In fact, the odds are nine to one that, when faced with the dire need to change, we won't. From patients suffering from heart disease to repeat offenders in the criminal justice system to companies trapped in the mold of unsuccessful business practices, many of us could prevent ominous outcomes by simply changing our mindset.

A powerful book with universal appeal, Change or Die deconstructs and debunks age-old myths about change and empowers us with three critical keys�relate, repeat, and reframe�to help us make important positive changes in our lives. Explaining breakthrough research and progressive ideas from a wide selection of leaders in medicine, science, and business (including Dr. Dean Ornish, Mimi Silbert of the Delancey Street Foundation, Bill Gates, Daniel Boulud, and many others), Deutschman demonstrates how anyone can achieve lasting, revolutionary change.

Change or Die is not about merely reorganizing or restructuring priorities; it's about challenging, inspiring, and helping all of us to make the dramatic transformations necessary in any aspect of life�changes that are positive, attainable, and absolutely vital.

What Got You Here Won't Get You There

by Marshall Goldsmith, Mark Reiter

(Hyperion Books, 256 Pages)

America’s most sought-after executive coach shows how to climb the last few rungs of the ladder

The corporate world is filled with executives, men and women who have worked hard for years to reach the upper levels of management. They’re intelligent, skilled, and even charismatic. But only a handful of them will ever reach the pinnacle -- and as executive coach Marshall Goldsmith shows in this book, subtle nuances make all the difference. These are small "transactional flaws" performed by one person against another (as simple as not saying thank you enough), which lead to negative perceptions that can hold any executive back. Using Goldsmith’s straightforward, jargonfree advice, it’s amazingly easy behavior to change.

Executives who hire Goldsmith for one-on-one coaching pay $250,000 for the privilege. With this book, his help is available for 1/10,000th of the price.

The Three Tensions

by Dominic Dodd, Ken Favaro

(John Wiley & Sons Inc, 256 Pages)

Profitability or growth? Results today or tomorrow? More synergy or better stand-alone performance? Ask managers which they want and most will tell you both. But they will also tell you that more progress on one front usually comes with less progress on the other. It's like squeezing a balloon in one place only to find that it expands elsewhere.

Based on four decades of experience working with some of the world's best-known companies, Dominic Dodd and Ken Favaro explore the three tensions every company faces and how to overcome them. They draw on groundbreaking research into the 20-year performance of more than 1,000 companies and on in-depth discussions with 20 chairmen and CEOs of corporations such as Alcan, Barclays, BP, Cadbury Schweppes, Cardinal Health, Dow Jones, Gillette, Reuters, Roche, Textron, and Xerox.

The authors put forward a radical new way to assess company performance: batting average—a measure of how often competing objectives are achieved at the same time. They show how this matters more than any other single measure of operating performance. And they explain how you can raise your batting average to unlock better performance.

Managers in any type of organization, at any level, will find The Three Tensions an invaluable source of new ideas and practical advice.

Exceeding Customer Expectations

by Kirk Kazanjian

(Currency Doubleday, 224 Pages)

What’s the secret to wowing your customers while maintaining a loyal and dedicated workforce? No one knows better than Enterprise, the nationnation’s #1 car rental company, Enterprise Rent-A-Car. Drawing upon the secrets time-tested strategies that have propelledhelped Enterprise grow from a single location in St. Louis car dealership into a $9 billion global powerhouse, EXCEEDING CUSTOMER EXPECTATIONS reveals how to:

• Actively seek out unsatisfied customers and quickly turn them into loyal fans commit to improving their experience
• Hire smart people and at the bottom, and train them from the ground up
• Develop methods to reduce costs and add value for your customers in every interaction.
• Grow your business by rewarding employees with financial incentives, developing strong partnerships, and focusing on the long term; willing customer loyalty is like running a marathon, not a 100-yard dash
• Thrive during tough economic times by bringing new advantages to the market
• Cultivate a fun and friendly workplace where teamwork rules

In EXCEEDING CUSTOMER EXPECTATIONS, noted business author Kirk Kazanjian reveals how your company can consistently outperform and outsmart the competition by following a simple philosophy espoused by Enterprise founder Jack Taylor: “Take care of your customers and employees first, and the profits will follow.” Winning customer loyalty is like running a marathon—not a 100-yard dash. By mastering this principle, Enterprise has earned not only record profits, but also received numerous awards for customer service and gainedearned an enviable reputation as one of the world’s best companies to work for, won countless customer service awards, and enjoyed a nearly unbroken streak of record profits .

EXCEEDING CUSTOMER EXPECTATIONS imparts timeless lessons on satisfying both customers and employees that you can put to use right away, no matter what your business or industry.

Boeing Versus Airbus

by John Newhouse

(Random House Inc, 256 Pages)

From the author of the classic study of the aviation industry, The Sporty Game, a new book that chronicles the high-stakes rivalry between the world’s two largest aircraft manufacturers—companies that will bet the house on a single airplane.

Long one of America’s most successful and admired corporations—and its biggest exporter—Boeing struggled to maintain 50 percent of the market share for commercial aircraft after being overtaken by the European upstart Airbus in the late 1990s. But Airbus did not remain on top for long. By 2006, the company suffered from mismanagement and had adopted the kind of complacent, risk-averse culture that had once characterized its competitor.

Incorporating interviews he conducted throughout the industry—with everyone from company leaders, past and present, and Wall Street analysts to design engineers and factory workers—John Newhouse takes us inside these two firms to help us understand their struggle for supremacy in a business based as much on instinct as on economics. He examines the critical issues that Boeing has faced in recent years, including its difficult merger with McDonnell Douglas, its controversial move from Seattle to Chicago, and a series of corporate scandals that made front-page news. And he analyzes the troubles that have beset a once ascendant Airbus, notably an institutional structure aimed at satisfying the narrowly focused interests of its European stakeholders. Newhouse also explores the problems that now face Boeing and Airbus alike: potential competition from China and Japan, the challenge of serving burgeoning Asian markets, and the need to undo years of mismanagement.

Boeing Versus Airbus is a fascinating, informed, and insightful tale of success, and failure, in the turbulent, do-or-die world of the aircraft industry.

Hot Spots

by Lynda Gratton

(Pub Group West, 230 Pages)

Sometimes within an organization, condensed periods of growth and innovation occur. For a short period of time, new ideas flow freely and cooperation and success attain levels that exceed all expectations. These periods are called “hot spots.” This book takes a detailed look at how and why hot spots happen, and shows that it’s possible to create them. In order to do so, entrenched rules about command and control must be discarded, since hot spots can’t be commanded, nor can they be controlled. Instead, they are a naturally emerging phenomena. But, that doesn’t mean that organizations have to wait for them to arise. Gratton offers techniques and strategies that can create a more productive environment, one in which hot spots are anticipated, recognized, and embraced — an environment that carries the organization beyond its pre-set goals and boundaries and to new levels of growth and energy.

Payback

by James P. Andrew and Harold L. Sirkin

(Harvard Business School Press, 256 Pages)

If you're like most people, you bet your career and company on innovation--because you must. Payback: Reaping the Rewards of Innovation offers you a new way to think about and manage innovation that will dramatically improve the odds of success.

Authors James Andrew and Harold Sirkin, senior partners in The Boston Consulting Group, describe an approach to managing innovation based on the concept of a cash curve--which tracks investment against time. They ask the questions you need to ask: How much should you invest in a new product or service? How fast should you push it to market? How quickly can you get to optimal value? How much additional investment should you pour into sustaining and building the product or service?

Payback offers you practical and economically sound advice on when to pursue cash flow indirectly by first pursuing other benefits, such as brand and knowledge. It also shows you how to reshape the cash curve by using different business models--integrator, orchestrator, and licenser--each of which balances risk and reward differently.

The authors then present a short list of decisions and activities that you must make--not delegate--to achieve a high return on innovation. You won't find facile answers in Payback--but you will find valuable insights and practical guidance for mastering one of the most challenging and critical business activities: innovation

Smarts

by Chuck Martin, Richard Guare, Peg Dawson

(Amacom Books, 240 Pages)

Twelve specific and very important cognitive functions begin developing in the brain at birth. These "skills" are built in to every individual and are fully developed -- and unchangeable -- by adulthood. Everyone has these same capabilities, but to varying degrees. And it is this unique and unalterable combination of one’s strengths and weaknesses that determines success or failure in any given role.

Smarts contains the groundbreaking Executive Skills Profile: a powerful self-assessment tool that will identify, once and for all, a person’s innate strengths and weaknesses. The results offer tangible proof of why we gravitate to certain tasks and struggle with others. With this newfound clarity, readers will learn to play to their stronger skills, and avoid wasting time on lesser ones they can never improve upon. Most important, they will discover their own unique potential for excellence.

Supported by proprietary primary research and grounded in widely accepted principles of clinical and neuro-psychology, Smarts is a truly eye-opening book that will change how we think about ourselves -- and others.