This book describes the organizational and managerial ways in which firms can overtake and pass other firms. Ackoff stresses the concept of "quality of life" within an organization, and outlines three major ways this can be achieved.

This book aims to provide a general overview of heuristic search, to present the basic steps of the most popular heuristics, and to stress their hidden difficulties as well as their opportunities. It provides a comprehensive understanding of Heuristic search, the applications of which are now widely used in a variety of industries including engineering, finance, sport, management and medicine. It intends to aid researchers and practitioners in solving complex combinatorial and global optimisation problems, and spark interest in this exciting decision science-based subject. It will provide the reader with challenging and lively methodologies through which they will be able to design and analyse their own techniques

Information is not taken seriously. Much is said about the information age, the information economy, the information society, and particularly about information technology, but little about information itself. If these are important, then so is information. But information is not as other goods: it has some peculiar characteristics. It cannot be displayed for sale without giving it away in the process. Sold, it goes to the buyer but still remains with the seller. Buying entails expressing demand in ignorance for buyers who do not know just what it is that they do not know. Such characteristics have long been recognised by economists, but it is not generally economists who have most to say about the importance of information. This privilege is exercised by senior managers, who speak passionately about knowledge-based, learning organizations; by politicians and public servants, anxious to compensate with policy and programme for the information failure of organization and market; and by specialists in telecommunications and information technology, bent on adding value to what they treat as just a commodity. Information usually requires new information. Finding, acquiring, and mixing

Successful leaders know that leadership is less often about having all the answers--and more often about asking the right questions. The challenge lies in being able to step back, reflect, and ask the key questions that are critical to your performance and your organization's effectiveness. In What to Ask the Person in the Mirror, HBS professor and business leader Robert Kaplan presents a process for asking the big questions that will enable you to diagnose problems, change course if necessary, and advance your career. He lays out areas of inquiry, including questions such as: *Do I clearly articulate my vision and top priorities to my employees and key constituencies? *Does the way I spend my time enable me to achieve my top priorities? *Do I give subordinates timely and direct feedback they can act on? Do I actively seek feedback myself? *Have I developed a succession roadmap? *Is my organization's design aligned with the achievement of its objectives? *Is my leadership style still effective, and does it reflect who I truly am? Packed with real-life situations, this highly readable and practical guide helps you learn to ask the right questions--and work through the answers in ways that are right for you. By asking these questions, you can tackle the inevitable challenges of leadership as you craft new strategies for staying on top of your game.

Innovation is central to business success, yet no other aspect of business is as frustrating and out of control. Instead of occurring in fits and starts and strokes of genius, innovation needs to become an all-the-time event that's measurable, reliable, predictable, streamlined, and effective. Asserting that every innovation objective has a finite set of possible solutions given its unique constraints, TRIZ, the Theory of Inventive Problem Solving, is a structured system for making innovation more manageable and profitable. Divided into five parts, Insourcing Innovation: How to Achieve Competitive Excellence Using TRIZ demonstrates how the applicationof a consistent, systematic approach will render innovative problem solving a dependable reality rather than an enigmatic phenomenon. Part I provides a framework for thinking about business excellence and the case for why TRIZ is a world-class approach for achieving perpetual innovation with existing resources. Part II covers the tactical aspects of TRIZ, with a central focus on the TRIZ methodology (DMASI) and its primary constructs, techniques, and components. Part III provides implementation case examples, including an in-depth breakdown of how TRIZ was used to create a self-heating beverage container. This part also summarizes how TRIZ was applied to innovate parts of the International Space Station, the Cassini Saturn orbiter, and even hospital triage. Part IV transitions from the tactical aspects of TRIZ to its strategic aspects, which show you that no single innovation stands alone. All tap into one or more of eight evolutionary forces to become what they are. This part describes these forces with related examples. Part V discusses how structured innovation is part of the larger system of "total performance excellence." Highlighting their interdependence, it shows how key aspects of business excellence enable structured innovation, and at the same time are enabled by structured innovation.

The future of work is already here. Customers are adopting disruptive technologies faster than your company can adapt. When your customers are delighted, they can amplify your message in ways that were never before possible. But when your company's performance runs short of what you've promised, customers can seize control of your brand message, spreading their disappointment and frustration faster than you can keep up. To keep pace with today's connected customers, your company must become a connected company. That means deeply engaging with workers, partners, and customers, changing how work is done, how you measure success, and how performance is rewarded. It requires a new way of thinking about your company: less like a machine to be controlled, and more like a complex, dynamic system that can learn and adapt over time. Connected companies have the advantage, because they learn and move faster than their competitors. While others work in isolation, they link into rich networks of possibility and expand their influence. Connected companies around the world are aggressively acquiring customers and disrupting the competition. In The Connected Company, we examine what they're doing, how they're doing it, and why it works. And we show you how your company can use the same principles to adapt - and thrive - in today's ever-changing global marketplace.

Andy Garlick's book explores the role of quantitative techniques in modern risk management. Risk management has grown in importance in most organisations in the last 20 years, but in many remains simply a matter of processing lists of risks and actions. The author argues that this fails to make the most of the techniques available and that organisations can improve their risk decision making by using risk models. His book describes a broad range of modelling techniques, all illustrated by business-relevant examples. The role of the models in decision making is also discussed, with particular emphasis on what the risk premium - the price people charge for accepting risk - is and should be. In order to provide a self contained account the underpinning material from probability and decision theory is also included, so that the book will provide a handy reference guide for all practitioners. The discussion is consistently informal, and the book provides a critical view of the accepted wisdom in risk management. This book will enable managers and their specialist advisors to improve their approach to risk whilst removing the mystique.

Have you ever had a bad boss? Do you think so many bosses are bad because they're "jerks" or because they just don't know HOW to lead? Bottom line, there are some jerks out there, but Ken Pasch's research shows that most bosses are frustrated because they just don't know how to lead. That frustration leads to some very bad relationships and outcomes. On Course helps begin turn this around. Unlike so many other books that tell professionals what a good leader should be, On Course is the first step in learning how to become a good leader. The revolutionary model business professionals learn is the result of Ken's transition from being one of those bad bosses, years ago, to becoming a successful leader. Don't take Ken's word for it, listen to the testimonials from others. Then, dive into On Course to discover how you, too, can become a great leader and soar!

Crisis Leadership examines the challenges faced by leaders at each stage of the crisis 'lifecycle', and offers a unique insight into the lessons learned by people in the most challenging of situations. Anyone in a leadership position is only too aware that we live in uncertain times: disaster can strike any business, at any time, and usually without warning. Public institutions, too, face a range of threats - from global recession, resurgent terrorism and a stream of appalling natural disasters. For leaders in such organisations, these crisis situations can present both opportunities and threats. How they lead through such challenging times will propel their careers to new heights - or destroy them completely. Crisis Leadership examines the challenges faced by leaders at each stage of the crisis 'lifecycle', from the instant they learn of the crisis, through to moments of critical decision-making and the final tumultuous days. Tim Johnson offers a unique insight into the lessons learned by people in the most challenging of situations. Blended with operational guidance from the author's extensive experience in crisis management, Crisis Leadership provides an overview of the crisis 'lifecycle', to ensure that readers will come away from this book with a deeper appreciation of the critical nature of each key stage and the leadership challenges they bring - from the first signs of an emerging crisis to dealing with the long-term consequences they can create.

... an impassioned work ... - Social and Environmental Accounting Journal Vol. 26 Issue 1 || Mr Waddell synthesizes the lessons from ... examples and provides guidance on how other organizations can move away from an adverserial approach and adopt the philosophy that "we're all in it together". - The Chronicle of Philanthropy, 29 September 2005 || By taking a stakeholder engagement and issue/opportunity-centric strategy, the book aims to make it easier to solve differences. It does so by identifying sources of tension and opportunity and describes the processes of building relationships that can produce mutual rewards. - Sustainability Radar, August 2005 || SLC is a brave and timely step forward, showing us that we can create solutions through enhanced engagement and the re-framing of issues for the common good. www.publish.csiro.au/ecos. Read the full review - ECOS: Australia's magazine on Sustainability - Sophie Constance || A readable book full of valuable insights. - Long Range Planning Vol. 39 (2006)

... an impassioned work ... - Social and Environmental Accounting Journal Vol. 26 Issue 1 || Mr Waddell synthesizes the lessons from ... examples and provides guidance on how other organizations can move away from an adverserial approach and adopt the philosophy that "we're all in it together". - The Chronicle of Philanthropy, 29 September 2005 || By taking a stakeholder engagement and issue/opportunity-centric strategy, the book aims to make it easier to solve differences. It does so by identifying sources of tension and opportunity and describes the processes of building relationships that can produce mutual rewards. - Sustainability Radar, August 2005 || SLC is a brave and timely step forward, showing us that we can create solutions through enhanced engagement and the re-framing of issues for the common good. www.publish.csiro.au/ecos. Read the full review - ECOS: Australia's magazine on Sustainability - Sophie Constance || A readable book full of valuable insights. - Long Range Planning Vol. 39 (2006)

Highly Commended Award - People, Culture & Management Book at the 2022 Business Book Awards The Performance Management Playbook takes the stress out of managing people. This practical book coversthe must-have conversations from daily feedback to annual pay reviews; from dealingwith poor performance to setting challenging expectations. With 15 conversation guides to improve yourconfidence in managing performance, numerous activities to make you and yourteam less stressed, happier and more productive, as well as toolkits to helpyou improve performance now, no matter what appraisal process your organisationhas in place, this book makes it easy to dip in and develop great performanceconversations specific to the challenges you face. Learn from 25 real world examples: from global and local organisations; from 100employees to over a million; from sectors as varied as financial services,transport, technology, central and local government, TV production, mining,healthcare and construction. The Performance Management Playbook will help you move from anxiety-ridden one-off appraisals to morerewarding regular and meaningful conversations about performance.

SHORTLISTED: Business Book Awards 2022 - Leadership Find out what makes great leaders tick, learn what it takes to be credible and read about the things that they'd do differently if they had to do it all again. The Nine Types of Leader introduces some obvious and some not so obvious types of leader through stories, anecdotes and insight garnered from hundreds of encounters with world-class leaders. Featuring interviews with industry titans including Jean-Francois Decaux of JC Decaux, Michael Rapino of Live Nation, Zhang Ruimin of Haier, Gavin Patterson of Salesforce and Isabelle Kocher of Engie, it explores how the leaders of tomorrow will improve their game by borrowing from the very best of the nine types of leader that exist today. Renowned journalist, James Ashton assesses the strengths and weaknesses of each leadership type, highlighting where and when they are best deployed, whilst helping you identify who you are and how you can improve performance. As the world seeks to recover from drastic disruption and uncertainty and the most acute test of leadership in living memory, it projects how future leaders can learn from what has gone before.

The most powerful weapon in business today is the alliance between the mathematical smarts of machines and the imaginative human intellect of great leaders. Together they make the mathematical corporation, the business model of the future. We are at a once-in-a-decade breaking point similar to the quality revolution of the 1980s and the dawn of the internet age in the 1990s: leaders must transform how they run their organizations, or competitors will bring them crashing to earth--often overnight. Mathematical corporations--the organizations that will master the future--will outcompete high-flying rivals by merging the best of human ingenuity with machine intelligence. While smart machines are weapon number one for organizations, leaders are still the drivers of breakthroughs. Only they can ask crucial questions to capitalize on business opportunities newly discovered in oceans of data. This dynamic combination will make possible the fulfillment of missions that once seemed out of reach, even impossible to attain. Josh Sullivan and Angela Zutavern's extraordinary examples include the entrepreneur who upended preventive health care, the oceanographer who transformed fisheries management, and the pharmaceutical company that used algorithm-driven optimization to boost vaccine yields. Together they offer a profoundly optimistic vision for a dazzling new phase in business, and a playbook for how smart companies can manage the essential combination of human and machine.

Develop the mindset and presence to successfully manage others for the first time. If you read nothing else on becoming a new manager, read these 10 articles. We've combed through hundreds of Harvard Business Review articles and selected the most important ones to help you transition from being an outstanding individual contributor to becoming a great manager of others. This book will inspire you to: Develop your emotional intelligenceInfluence your colleagues through the science of persuasionAssess your team and enhance its performanceNetwork effectively to achieve business goals and for personal advancementNavigate relationships with employees, bosses, and peersGet support from aboveView the big picture in your decision makingBalance your team's work and personal life in a high-intensity workplace This collection of articles includes "Becoming the Boss," by Linda A. Hill; "Leading the Team You Inherit," by Michael D. Watkins; "Saving Your Rookie Managers from Themselves," by Carol A. Walker; "Managing the High-Intensity Workplace," by Erin Reid and Lakshmi Ramarajan; "Harnessing the Science of Persuasion," Robert B. Cialdini; "What Makes a Leader?" by Daniel Goleman; "The Authenticity Paradox," by Herminia Ibarra; "Managing Your Boss," by John J. Gabarro and John P. Kotter; "How Leaders Create and Use Networks," by Herminia Ibarra and Mark Lee Hunter; "Management Time: Who's Got the Monkey?" by William Oncken, Jr., and Donald L. Wass; and BONUS ARTICLE: "How Managers Become Leaders," by Michael D. Watkins.

The attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon on September 11, 2001 changed the way the world thinks about security. Everyday citizens learned how national security, international politics, and the economy are inextricably linked to business continuity and corporate security. Corporate leaders were reminded that the security of business, intellectual, and human assets has a tremendous impact on an organization's long-term viability.
In Rethinking Corporate Security, Fortune 500 consultant Dennis Dalton helps security directors, CEOs, and business managers understand the fundamental role of security in today's business environment and outlines the steps to protect against corporate loss. He draws on the insights of such leaders as Jack Welch, Bill Gates, Charles Schwab, and Tom Peters in this unique review of security's evolving role and the development of a new management paradigm.
* If you truly wish to improve your own skills, and the effectiveness of your Corporation's security focus, you need to read this book
* Presents connections of theory to real-world case examples in historical and contemporary assessment of security management principles
* Applies classic business and management strategies to the corporate security management function

Bring Elixir into your company, with real-life strategies from the people who built Elixir and use it successfully at scale. See how Ben Marx and Bleacher Report maintain one of the highest-traffic Elixir applications by selling the concept to management and delivering on that promise. Find out how Bruce Tate and icanmakeitbetter hire and train Elixir engineers, and the techniques they've employed to design and ensure code consistency since Elixir's early days. Explore customer challenges in deploying and monitoring distributed applications with Jose Valim and Plataformatec. This book has all the information you need to take your application from concept to production. Adoption is more than programming. Elixir is an exciting new language, but to successfully get your application from start to finish, you're going to need to know more than just the language. The case studies and strategies in this book will get you there. Make a business case and build a team before you finish your first prototype. Once you're in development, form strategies for organizing your code and learning the constraints of the runtime and ecosystem. Convince stakeholders, both business and technical, about the value they can expect. Prepare to make the critical early decisions that will shape your application for years to come. Finally, manage your deployment with all of the knobs and gauges that good DevOps teams demand. Decide between the many options available for deployment, and how to best prepare yourself for the challenges of running a production application. This book picks up where most Elixir books let off. It won't teach you to program Elixir, or any of its tools. Instead, it guides you through the broader landscape and shows you a holistic approach to adopting the language. What You Need: This book works with any version of Elixir.

Chip and Dan Heath, the bestselling authors of Switch and Made to Stick, tackle one of the most critical topics in our work and personal lives: how to make better decisions. Research in psychology has revealed that our decisions are disrupted by an array of biases and irrationalities: We're overconfident. We seek out information that supports us and downplay information that doesn't. We get distracted by short-term emotions. When it comes to making choices, it seems, our brains are flawed instruments. Unfortunately, merely being aware of these shortcomings doesn't fix the problem, any more than knowing that we are nearsighted helps us to see. The real question is: How can we do better? In Decisive, the Heaths, based on an exhaustive study of the decision-making literature, introduce a four-step process designed to counteract these biases. Written in an engaging and compulsively readable style, Decisive takes readers on an unforgettable journey, from a rock star's ingenious decision-making trick to a CEO's disastrous acquisition, to a single question that can often resolve thorny personal decisions. Along the way, we learn the answers to critical questions like these: How can we stop the cycle of agonizing over our decisions? How can we make group decisions without destructive politics? And how can we ensure that we don't overlook precious opportunities to change our course? Decisive is the Heath brothers' most powerful-and important-book yet, offering fresh strategies and practical tools enabling us to make better choices. Because the right decision, at the right moment, can make all the difference.

Remove built-in supply chain weak points to more effectively balance supply and demand Demand-Driven Inventory Optimization and Replenishment shows how companies can support supply chain metrics and business initiatives by removing the weak points built into their inventory systems. Beginning with a thorough examination of Just in Time, Efficient Consumer Response, and Collaborative Forecasting, Planning, and Replenishment, this book walks you through the mathematical shortcuts set up in your management system that prevent you from attaining supply chain excellence. This expanded second edition includes new coverage of inventory performance, business verticals, business initiatives, and metrics, alongside case studies that illustrate how optimized inventory and replenishment delivers results across retail, high-tech, men's clothing, and food sectors. Inventory optimization allows you to avoid out-of-stock situations without impacting the bottom line with excessive inventory maintenance. By keeping just the right amount of inventory on hand, your company is better able to meet demand without sacrificing the cost-effectiveness of other supply chain strategies. The trick, however, is determining "just the right amount" and this book provides the background and practical guidance you need to do just that. * Examine the major supply chain strategies of the last 30 years * Remove the shortcuts that prohibit supply chain excellence * Optimize your supply/demand balance in any vertical * Overcome systemic weaknesses to strengthen the bottom line Inventory optimization is benefitting companies around the world, as exemplified here by case studies involving Matas, PWT, Wistron, and Amway. When inefficiencies are built into the system, it's only smart business to identify and remove them and implement a new streamlined process that runs like a well-oiled machine. Demand-Driven Inventory Optimization and Replenishment is an essential resource for exceptional supply chain management.

The Springboard: How Storytelling Ignites Action in Knowledge-Era Organizations is the first book to teach storytelling as a powerful and formal discipline for organizational change and knowledge management. The book explains how organizations can use certain types of stories ("springboard" stories) to communicate new or envisioned strategies, structures, identities, goals, and values to employees, partners and even customers. Readers will learn techniques by which they can help their organizations become more unified, responsive, and intelligent. Storytelling is a management technique championed by gurus including Peter Senge, Tom Peters and Larry Prusak. Now Stephen Denning, an innovator in the new discipline of organizational storytelling, teaches how to use stories to address challenges fundamental to success in today's information economy.

The Knowledge Management Yearbook is the most current and comprehensive resource available for knowledge management professionals; no other source of information so thoroughly surveys the state of the knowledge management discipline and industry and how they impact businesses and other organizations. Featuring both definitive articles and cutting-edge knowledge management techniques and research contributed by authorities, The Knowledge Management Yearbook covers the nature of knowledge and its management, knowledge-based strategies, knowledge management and organizational learning, and knowledge tools, techniques, and processes. The reference section includes a set of up-to-date directories detailing on-line knowledge management resources, KM publications and organizations, and notable KM Quotes. The glossary of KM terms is increasingly perceived by the industry as a benchmark by which this evolving discipline is defined. The Knowledge Management Yearbook is an indispensable volume for any professional helping to shape his or her organization's knowledge strategy.

Eliminate sexual harassment, unconscious bias, ethical lapses and other HR nightmares! Companies spend millions on legal compliance training and initiatives to eliminate workplace drama and the resulting low morale and lawsuits, but don't always get the results they want. Most organizations understand that simply checking legal compliance boxes around sexual harassment, bias, etc. isn't enough, but are at a loss on how to implement solutions, especially in today's post-#MeToo world. Patti Perez is an attorney, HR expert, trainer, and former state regulator, who has conducted over 1,200 workplace investigations. In this unique book, she explains the secret to avoiding all forms of drama, legal exposure, and low morale: A healthy workplace culture. Patti combines the lessons learned from 25 years of professional experience with robust data from behavioral science research to debunk common myths, including the belief that a focus on legal compliance leads to a healthy workplace culture. (In fact, it increases the likelihood of getting sued). The Drama-Free Workplace includes a section with easy-to-understand causes, effects and solutions to problems related to: Sexual harassment Bias and diversity Ethics lapses The book also includes helpful information on: Becoming an organization that values and practices fearlessness, fairness and freedom Anticipating situations that give rise to drama, with detailed advice on how to prevent it from happening Using emotional intelligence to communicate more precisely and persuasively about sensitive, controversial topics in the workplace Finally, the book's DIY section guides companies on how to: draft and enforce helpful policies (that employees will actually read and *want* to follow) design and deliver powerful and effective training programs investigate and resolve claims of sexual harassment and other types of misconduct. Together, these practical tools will help all your employees feel valued and motivated, and keep drama, disengagement, and lawsuits, away.