The average business in the U.S. has a life expectancy lower than people living in poverty in sub-Saharan Africa. The tragedy is that the suffering and premature death from the silent killers of businesses is preventable with the right diagnostics and strategies.

The tools included in this book help managers know when to stay the strategic course and when and how to change direction. The closest thing to a crystal ball in business will be yours from the:

self-assessments

knowledge of lifecycle analysis and

strategies tailored to transition and succeed in each lifecycle stage.

You'll anticipate changes in markets and competitive behaviors and know what actions should and shouldn't be taken. Whether for your business, investment portfolio or career, after reading this book, you'll find more valuable insights and opportunities in each day's news.

To make lifecycle analysis even more powerful, we've included a simple copyrighted seven step validation method. Case studies based on extensive research on scores of firms drawn from dozens of industries provide real world examples with loads of graphs and tables using actual data.

Imagine when you put lifecycle analysis to work for you:

Joining the organization where your career can soar;

Building a team of top performers;

Choosing the right business partners;

Recognizing if a competitor poses a serious threat;

Knowing when to buy and when to sell; and

Hitting your financial targets consistently;

Start leading your business and career to a long and prosperous life.

"No book in shorter space, with fewer words, will help any writer more than this persistent little volume." - The Boston Globe You know the author's name. You recognize the title. The advice of Strunk is as valuable today as when it was first offered. This book has conveyed the principles of English style to millions of readers. Use "the little book" to make a big impact with writing.

Now in its 10th edition, English Skills with Readings emphasizes personalized learning to address student deficits in grammar and mechanics. Throughout the book, students are exposed to examples of writing that reflect the three key realms of their lives - personal, academic, and workplace. Seeing these different types of writing helps students understand the critical way in which writing will have an impact on the many facets of their lives. English Skills with Readings continues to encourage new writers to see writing as a skill that can be learned and a process that must be explored. The four skills, or bases, for effective writing are as follows: * Unity: Discover a clearly stated point, or topic sentence, and make sure that all other information in the paragraph or essay supports that point. * Support: Support the points with specific evidence, and plenty of it. * Coherence: Organize and connect supporting evidence so that paragraphs and essays transition smoothly from one bit of supporting information to the next. *Sentence skills: Revise and edit so that sentences are error-free for clearer and more effective communication. The four bases are essential to effective writing, whether it be a narrative paragraph, a cover letter for a job application, or an essay assignment. The new edition also includes a new and updated focus on information literacy, working with sources and writing research papers, making this a powerful and flexible text for students and instructors alike.

For years, clients and students of Jo Ann Romero have urged her to publish her proven methods and hard-earned lessons for making collaboration really work. "The Art of Collaboration" is the result of Romero's fifteen years of experience designing and facilitating workshops on collaborative efforts for businesses and individuals throughout the United States. Until now, little has been written on the most important business activity of all-working together. Romero has created a definitive guide to developing reciprocal, harmonious partnerships, no matter how ambiguous or political your environment.

In "The Art of Collaboration," you will learn how to quickly establish rapport and gain trust by finding common ground with others. Romero describes in detail how to "listen to discover others," and provides a practical list of do's and don'ts for building mutually beneficial partnerships. Also included is a complete set of methods for organizing and implementing collaborative efforts of any kind, as well as a set of checklists and diagnostic tools for anticipating, assessing, and resolving conflicts and issues.

If you're ready to achieve positive action and lasting synergy when working with others, "The Art of Collaboration" provides all the practical tips, lessons, and models you'll need to initiate, develop, and sustain the key alliances critical to your professional and personal success.

This study is based on the authors' fieldwork inside Cultural Enterprise Office, a small Scottish agency that supports creative businesses. It discusses UK policy on the creative economy, the rise of intermediaries between policy-making and the marketplace, and the playing out in the delivery of business advice services to creative microbusinesses.

Staff forums are a fantastic way to give your people a dynamic voice in your organisation. Run by staff for staff, they are an opportunity to discuss matters that affect the workplace as well as being a positive space to have informal conversations that might not be possible or practical in everyday meetings. If you have ever considered setting up a staff forum or are curious about the concept, this guide shows you how it works. It considers the benefits of staff forums, practicalities of setting up and running meetings, how to feedback to a senior leader and how to ensure continuity of the forum. What does it cover? * Why have a staff forum * Constituting the forum * Before the meeting * On the day * After the meeting * Troubleshooting Who should buy this book? Senior management who wish to encourage a forum in their organisation or any staff members who feel a forum will benefit their workplace.

Negotiations inprofessional or privatelife often take an unsatisfactory course due tostress, confrontation withaggressive or unfair behavior, or becauseof overwhelming situations.
Negotiations generally require a thorough preparation, strategy and a sophisticated tactic to make us feel safe in the presentation of our goals and arrive at a mutually satisfactory outcome. Conventional books about negotiations are usually limited to strategies and techniques, but leave out elements of psychological communication and emotional intelligence, which include non-verbal communication and empathy, which in turn are essential for successful negotiation. Therefore, this book on the one hand constitutes the essential techniques and strategies in the context of negotiation, but alsoconsiders"soft skills" without which negotiations cannot be successful.
This bookpresents practical examples indealing withsituations such as salary, contract and sales negotiations. In particular on context and time appropriate negotiation techniques; analyzingnegotiation partners and their motives; interpret group processes, and how to successfully implement negotiation psychology."

What's stopping you networking? You know you need to do it and, like most people, you probably hate it. Business Networking - The Survival Guide helps you overcome all your fears and concerns. Start navigating the networking jungle like an expert as you build your confidence, raise your profile, create new connections, strengthen your support network and open up exciting new opportunities. Effective networking - both in person and online - has never been more vital. This indispensable, friendly guide will take you step by step through the whole process so you can quickly master: Invitations - plan, prepare and make the best of LinkedIn Meeting people - work the room, feel comfortable and start conversations Spotting needs - work out what people want, ask the right questions and establish credibility Reconnecting - follow up, keep in touch and win that pitch Networking may be necessary, but it doesn't have to be stressful.

Since the height of the privatization debate in the 1990s, changes in government policy have resulted in significant transformation in the public sector. Some organizations have made the transition from government bureaucracy to business venture successfully; others have struggled to relinquish their traditional bureaucratic culture. In this book, Pillay and Bilney explore the cultural changes occurring within the public sector and the effects that government mandated change initiatives have actually had. The culmination of this book was due to the subject expertise and guidance of Professor Robert Jones at Swinburne University of Technology, Melbourne, Australia. It provides perspectives on the efficacy of cultural change in the Australian public sector, and explores the practical implications for society and government as it seeks to entrench the culture of the citizen as customer. It is particularly useful for researchers and organizations searching for ways to improve service delivery within the confines of particular market positions.

We live in world increasingly shaped by risk, a fact underscored by recent events in the financial markets, science and technology, environmental policy and biosecurity, law enforcement and criminal justice. Risk assessment has become a central concern of governments, organisations and the professions, and the communication of risk is a crucial part of professional work. Exploring how risk is discursively constructed across these domains is therefore central to our understanding of how professional practice affects people's lives. Communicating Risk takes up this challenge, with contributions from leading researchers and practitioners that examine key issues of risk communication across diverse professional domains.

No one will ever be able to identify and manage all of his or her organization's risks. Although you can't predict every disaster, you can ask the right questions and put strategies in place to ensure the survival of your business. "It is becoming increasingly evident that the knowledge of disaster recovery efforts must be accessible to far more than the (IT) experts Achieving success can only be found through the collective effort of a united public, its leaders and organizations." - Barack Obama, United States Senator "Progressive organizations with sound leadership now include business continuity and enterprise risk management as key parts of meeting stakeholder expectations and achieving organizational strategic objectives." - Michael G. Oxley, Vice Chairman, NASDAQ Michael Croy, an expert in risk assessment and disaster recovery, helps leaders understand what is needed to sustain business today. Through real-life examples, you'll understand what could affect your company-lost data, pandemics, terror threats-and by implementing plans for when something does happen, you're doing everything possible to ensure that employees still have jobs, customers are served, and stakeholders continue to support the company. Take the first step in proactively managing your company in good times and bad and ask yourself, Are We Willing to Take That Risk?

Recent advances in Web 2.0 technology enable new leadership processes and guidelines that can create great value for organizations. In this important new book - the first title in the new Brookings series on Innovations in Leadership - management expert Jackson Nickerson proposes a combination of processes and guidelines utilizing Web 2.0 technology, which he refers to as Web 2.1, that will not only lead and direct change in an organization but actually accelerate it. He calls this set of processes and guidelines "ChangeCasting," and it should be an important part of any organization's leadership toolkit. Leading Change in a Web 2.1 World provides fresh insights into why people and organizations are so difficult to engage in change. It explains how web-based video communications, when used in accordance with ChangeCasting principles, can be a keyway to building trust and creating understanding in an organization, thereby unlocking and accelerating organizational change. Nickerson introduces us to two Fortune 1000 firms facing dire economic and competitive circumstances. Both CEOs attempted extensive organizational change using web-based video communications, but one used ChangeCasting while the other did not - Nickerson details how ChangeCasting produced positive financial results for the former. He also discusses how ChangeCasting principles were used so successfully by the Barack Obama presidential campaign in 2008. The insights presented here will be invaluable to business executives, public officials, students of management and organizations, and anyone who needs to take organizational change from the drawing board to successful implementation and replication.

This book features not only the latest trends but also academic and industry practitioner stakeholders' perspectives on language and functional role issues facing the rapidly developing corporate communication (CC) profession in the Greater China region. The book also explores the implications for Western societies that cross-culturally engage with Chinese partners in CC practices. The book's chapters are oriented on five main themes, namely: Development of the CC Profession, Bilingual Practices in Corporate Communication, Corporate Social Responsibility, Employee Communications, and Media Discourse & Persuasive Communication. The first two cluster themes feature a review of the PR/CC profession's evolutionary path to its current status as a more distinct and diversified CC profession emphasizing the role of language and particularly the bilingualism phenomenon, whereas the other cluster themes, which adopt the perspectives of academics and those of CC practitioners, span from cross-cultural, profession-wide and bilingual communication issues to applications of heuristic knowledge within industry-specific workplace contexts.

Recipient of the 1988 Outstanding Research Publication Award from the Organizational Communication Division of the Speech Communication Association Organizations cannot function without one vital component--communication. With the rapid expansion of corporations and technology, the quickly evolving field of organizational communication has undergone enormous, unprecedented growth . . . and change. Handbook of Organizational Communication is the first volume to pull together many loose threads in various strands of thinking and research about organizational communication. Its renowned contributors are leading scholarly pioneers in the field--drawn equally from organizational behavior and management studies and from communication. From this multidisciplinary perspective, they analyze research, theory, and applications--considering wherever possible communication phenomena at the appropriate multiple levels of analysis (dyadic, group, organizational, and extra-organizational). Authors also provide valuable, original insights into directions for future research and theory in their respective areas. Handbook of Organizational Communication is a milestone in the creation and shaping of this new area of academic scholarship with practical applications. It will both establish and point the way toward new theories and empirical work that will advance a young and exciting field. This volume will be an essential tool for all professionals and students in organizational communication, management, organizational behavior, and organization studies. "The editors have done a superb job of conceptualizing the work. In addition, their section previews are quite extensive and serve to integrate beautifully the material that follows. This book may well become a classic graduate text much in the genre of the Redding and Sanborn book of twenty-five years ago. It is comprehensive, well organized, well researched, and quite well written. The authors and editors are to be congratulated on their fine product." --Administrative Science Quarterly "An invaluable resource. . . . Authors do a fine job of surveying even the most recent research in their areas; some offer exciting suggestions for further research." --Quarterly Journal of Speech "Finally, someone has pulled together the fragmented pieces of organizational communication research. This book integrates and synthesizes these sundry organizational communication perspectives. Without a doubt, the Handbook is the preeminent reference book for organizational communication. "Unquestionably, this book should be on the shelf of everyone interested in organizational communication. Whether one is just beginning the study of organizational communication or one is an established scholar, The Handbook of Organizational Communication is a necessary resource." --Management Communication Quarterly "An extremely thorough, carefully selected set of papers which as a whole form a first-rate indication of the state of the art. I would recommend this book to anyone who is seriously interested in organizational communication, be they a social scientist, a practicing manager, an information manager, or just an interested member of an organization. It is a unique and outstanding work and should have a place on the bookshelves of many offices in a wide array of different organizations. Researchers in the area will find this work extremely pertinent to their activities." --Journal of Applied Systems Analysis

"Susan Crossman has created one of the most comprehensive books on writing ever written. Whether you're writing a business report, an essay or a full-length novel, Crossman offers invaluable advice on making the process move more smoothly and efficiently. She also provides insightful tips on avoiding writer's block. If you want to be a truly effective and successful writer, this is the book you need."
- Michael B. Davie, author "Winning Ways "
Solid, expert advice from a professional writer and author of several critically acclaimed books. From tips on overcoming writer's block and engaging your audience to focusing on specific markets, Susan Crossman, also author of " Shades of Teale " and "Passages to Epiphany," delivers insightful commentary that will help anyone become a more efficient, effective and successful writer. Of tremendous benefit to business writers - and to anyone crafting works of fiction and non-fiction - a must-read
- Manor House Publishing Inc.
Susan Crossman on "The Write Way": "We all recognize that writing is a creative process but we also tend to think of the physical process of writing as a mechanical skill that takes good grammar and a decent vocabulary and somehow blends them all together to create clear communication. That's not a bad start but decades of experience have taught me that writing with impact is much more complex. This book provides tips on: - How to structure your written work - How to write with style and - How to engage an audience - Avoiding and overcoming writer's block - Writing for key markets and marketing your writing in a highly effective manner I hope The Write Way will help you write with more clarity and conviction and I also hope that it will make the task of writing that much more enjoyable."

An organization's brand is its most distinctive feature - it is a mechanism for coordinating resources around its vision or mission. Organizations in the Face of Crisis offers a new and unique approach to the treatment of threats to an organization and its brand. In this volume, key concepts associated with crisis events are presented and analysed. Examination of ' brand trauma, ' the potentially debilitating effects of a crisis on an organization, reveals the pervasive nature of a crisis' effects and offers why these effects can haunt a brand and its stakeholders long after the crisis has passed. Tafoya also illustrates ways an organization's core network can be shaken by the emergence of a new network brought on by a crisis. This network, a 'stakeholder swarm', functions to meet its own needs often by challenging the make-up, control and flow of information, and even threatening the effected organization's very existence. Case studies and diagnostic tools are used to demonstrate the effects of a crisis on an organization and its brand, and to provide insight and strategies on managing the crisis at hand as well as the long-term effects that may be linked to the crisis and its occurrence. This volume will appeal to stakeholders on all sides of a crisis: from an organization's managers, employees, customers or clients and to diverse fields of study including law, medicine, religion, military, law enforcement and regulation.

Being able to connect deeply with other people will help you succeed and flourish at work and enhance your career or business development. And more than this, meaningful connection with other people is what gives most of us true joy and a sense of purpose in our personal lives. But connecting and communicating isn't always easy. Perhaps we're fearful of being judged or rejected, or we lack the confidence to speak out in a group, or to approach what we believe will be a difficult conversation. In this thought-provoking and practical book, you'll discover how connecting with yourself gives you a foundation for better relationships with others. You'll find ideas that you can apply to one-to-one conversations, to group interactions such as networking meetings, teamworking and leadership, and in family and social settings. As you progress through three dimensions of connection, you'll build skills and confidence in relating to yourself and others. 'Crafting Connection is a must-read guide to communication and building better relationships.' Jess Annison, OBE. Jess Annison Coaching '... an elegant, accessible, and practical guide to creating a more meaningful, authentic life by deepening the connection you have with yourself and with others.' Sarah Grant. Nutritional therapist, Gut Reaction Felicity Dwyer is a facilitator, trainer, coach and speaker. She helps individuals, leaders and teams to connect and communicate, so that people feel heard and understood.

This book will enable students, researchers and practitioners with some background in applied linguistics and/or (business) communication to engage with most of the issues raised by the multidisciplinary field of business discourse. To applied linguists new to business communication, and to researchers with a business background and with an interest in language and communication, this book offers accessible, varied and well-documented material inspired by practice-shaping research in business contexts. The latest developments in research methodology are discussed through problem-solving case-studies; issues emerging from the field such as the role of new technology and of globalisation, are showcased to stimulate research projects that reflect the multicultural and multimedial reality of the corporate world. Readers are encouraged to adopt a reflexive, and where possible, multi-disciplinary and collaborative mode of action that is one of the strengths of business discourse research in practice. The book also illustrates the benefits of sustained dialogue and field-led applications across allied disciplines.

Use your interpersonal and communication skills as a financial professional to work successfully with clients Embark on a journey to further develop your career when you read People-Centric Skills Interpersonal and Communication Skills for Financial Professionals, 2nd Edition. Business leaders consider employee communication skills and critical thinking abilities as essential elements for success. In their work, all professionals must communicate clearly and rely on their interpersonal skills to be successful. This second edition of People-Centric Skills shares the fictional story of Dalton Zimmer, executive coach and public speaker. Dalton, all the while juggling his business, kids and social life, provides coaching and communication strategies for handling challenging situations faced by his clients. This insightful narrative will help you expand communication and soft skills as a CPA, auditor, financial planner or other financial professional. As Generation Z is entering the work force, the communication gap between Z and Boomers or Generation X is widening significantly. New to the second edition, you'll find a discussion of communication between generations and how to bridge them as a financial professional. You can be a more people-centric leader as you engage with a wide range of clients and associates. This book can be a first step to improving interpersonal and communication skills as you continue to develop in your career.