A Black man arrived in California in 1841 at the helm of a ship carrying ambition and a secret. He was William Alexander Leidesdorff. Within a few years he had become an American diplomat and civic leader who helped establish San Francisco on a patch of windswept sand dunes at the world's edge. He built a fortune — among the largest in California. When he died in 1848, he left behind a fiercely contested estate. The battle to claim the man himself has been going on ever since.Born ...

Several years ago, Eric Friedman decided to donate a substantial percentage of his income to charity. As many people do when making a big decision, he researched the best path he should take to accomplish his goal. After speaking with foundations, consultants, and nonprofit staff members, he found that few could adequately respond to his basic questions: How should donors choose the causes they support? How can donors maximize the impact of their giving?In Reinventing Philanthrop...

Peter Cappelli confronts the myth of the skills gap and provides an actionable path forward to put people back to work.Even in a time of perilously high unemployment, companies contend that they cannot find the employees they need. Pointing to a skills gap, employers argue applicants are simply not qualified; schools aren't preparing students for jobs; the government isn't letting in enough high-skill immigrants; and even when the match is right, prospective employ...

BEST SELLERThis BEST SELLIING book provides a comprehensive guide to effective governance for board members and their senior executives. The author offers a new framework for understanding boards and proposes practices that boards can use to fulfill their stewardship responsibilities, strengthen board performance and improve organizational effectiveness. The book discusses the basics of governance - what it is and why it matters; essential duties and liabilities of the board and it...

The best way to select emerging markets to exploit is to evaluate their size or growth potential, right? Not according to Krishna Palepu and Tarun Khanna. In Winning in Emerging Markets, these leading scholars on the subject present a decidedly different framework for making this crucial choice.The authors argue that the primary exploitable characteristic of emerging markets is the lack of institutions (credit-card systems, intellectual-property adjudication, data research firms) t...

What does it take to lead a global business?What makes being a global business leader today such a complex task? It’s more than mastering your knowledge of various geographies and cultures, though that is essential. But to succeed, you must also master the complex mind-set and competencies needed to lead in today’s fully globalized world. Not an easy assignment.Enter Ángel Cabrera and Gregory Unruh. In Being Global, they pull from their extensive e...

You've read the classic on win-win negotiating, Getting to Yes but so have they, the folks you are now negotiating with. How can you get a leg up and win?"Win-win" negotiation is an appealing idea on an intellectual level: Find the best way to convince the other side to accept a mutually beneficial outcome, and then everyone gets their fair share. The reality, though, is that people want more than their fair share; they want to win. Tell your boss...

This new textbook introduces students to the essential concepts, theories and perspectives of Global Marketing and these are supported by real-world case studies from North America, Europe and the emerging markets of China, India and Latin America. These emerging markets are given balanced coverage alongside developed markets and the text also includes a dedicated chapter on emerging markets multinationals.Practical in its orientation, the text equips students with the tools needed...

Rosabeth Moss Kanter on the answer to the global crisis of business and American-style capitalism.Out of the ashes of conventional business models arises a set of companies using their power not only for profits and sustainable growth but also social good.If you think business corporations are doomed to be lumbering, bloated, and corrupt, think again.Based on an extraordinary three-year investigation, interviewing more than 350 key people at major companies around t...

In 2004, Carl Schramm, president of the Kauffman Foundation, the world's leading foundation for entrepreneurship, published a groundbreaking essay with a radical premise: that Americans literally have no conception of the secret that truly underlies our economic success, and that for the United States to survive and continue to lead the world's economy, it is imperative we learn to understand and employ that secret.The secret that has led the American economy to become the world's ...

Every day companies and their leaders fail to capitalize on opportunities because they misunderstand the real sources of business success.Based on his popular column in Business 2.0, Jeffrey Pfeffer delivers wise and timely business commentary that challenges conventional wisdom while providing data and insights to help companies make smarter decisions. The book contains a series of short chapters filled with examples, data, and insights that challenge questionable assumptions and ...

A decade ago, Thomas J. Tierney left Bain & Company to cofound The Bridgespan Group, a nonprofit focused on helping donors and nonprofit leaders to develop and execute strategies to accelerate social change. In Give Smart, Tierney pools his hands-on knowledge with Duke professor Joel L. Fleishman's expertise to create a much-needed primer for philanthropists and the nonprofit organizations they support. Drawing from personal experiences, research spanning twentieth- and twenty-fir...