In The 24-Hour Customer, Adrian C. Ott—the CEO and founder of a top Silicon Valley–based consulting firm—challenges businesses to re-conceive their approaches to time and technology in order to win an unprecedented share of their customers’ attention and loyalty. Filled with powerful and provocative ideas, The 24-Hour Customer is an indispensible handbook for any company competing for business in today’s around-the-clock economy.Time isn’t money. It’s more important than money—and ...

Competitive advantage. The value chain. Five forces. Industry structure. Differentiation. Relative cost. If you want to understand how companies achieve and sustain competitive success, Michael Porter’s frameworks are the foundation. But while everyone in business may know Porter’s name, many managers misunderstand and misuse his concepts.Understanding Michael Porter sets the record straight, providing the first concise, accessible summary of Porter’s revolutionar...

ARE YOUR WORKING RELATIONSHIPS WORKING AGAINST YOU?To achieve your goals and get ahead, you need to rally people behind you and your ideas. But how do you do that when you lack formal authority? Or when you have a boss who gets in your way? Or when you’re juggling others’ needs at the expense of your own?By managing up, down, and across the organization. Your success depends on it, whether you’re a young professional or an experienced leader.

The retail world is undergoing a fundamental transformation. Rapidly evolving technology, globalization, and a saturated marketplace offer consumers instant access to thousands of equally compelling products and services, creating unprecedented levels of expectation. The impact of these changes is so profound that 50 percent of today's retailers and consumer companies will not survive it. Traditional business models will become extinct, and the relationship between vendors and consumers wi...

Rethink your business for the digital age.Every business begun before the Internet now faces the same challenge: How to transform to compete in a digital economy?Globally recognized digital expert David L. Rogers argues that digital transformation is not about updating your technology but about upgrading your strategic thinking. Based on Rogers's decade of research and teaching at Columbia Business School, and his consulting for businesses around the world,...

In their first book, Ten Rules for Strategic Innovators, the authors provided a better model for executing disruptive innovation. They laid out a three-part plan for launching high-risk/high-reward innovation efforts: (1) borrow assets from the existing firms, (2) unlearn and unload certain processes and systems that do not serve the new entity, and (3) learn and build all new capabilities and skills.In their study of the Ten Rules in action, Govindarajan and Trimble observed many ...

Teambuilding is one of the fastest-growing areas on the business shelf, as companies look to increase efficiency and morale.Teambuilding That Gets Results, an easy-to-use guidebook for building effective teams, will increase the strength of any business. Harriet and Linda Diamond offer expert advice gleaned from years of consulting businesses on building strong teams. Topics include:Building strong, flexible, collaborative teamsTeam assessment...

Imagine what your life would be like if you could apply the same strategies that successful people used to get ahead.These are the folks who live in the grand houses that you see when you drive down certain streets. They drive nice cars and dine at the best restaurants. They live their lives like absolute superstars.Join business consultant John M. Hawkins, who learned long ago that the secret to success is building a strategic plan to get what you want. He provides a detai...

Harvard Business Essentials are comprehensive, solution-oriented paperbacks for business readers of all levels of experience. In today's ever-changing business environment, hiring an all-star work force and keeping it in place is a challenge for any organization. With an overview on topics such as recruiting the right people, cultivating the right culture, avoiding employee burnout, and calculating employee turnover, Hiring and Keeping the Best People offers managers a clear understanding ...

TRANSFORM YOUR TEAM IN JUST 90 DAYS!The all-purpose manual every manager should own . . .Whether you've recently been hired or promoted or just decided to try a fresh approach to managing your team, this step-by-step guide ensures you'll get the strongest performance possible out of your team--in any environment. With strategies presented in manageable daily, weekly, and quarterly timelines, the program covers the full range of workplace issues-from outdated...

Organic business growth is governed by its own natural laws—underlying truths that set the stage for growth and innovation, much in the way that Einstein's law of relativity accounts for the movement of objects in the space-time continuum. The most fundamental law is that uncertainty is the only certainty. Dominating forces are ambiguity and change; the processes at work involve exploration, invention, and experimentation. Unfortunately, these truths run counter to the principles of stabil...