#1 New York Times Bestseller

The latest groundbreaking tome from Tim Ferriss, the best-selling author of The 4-Hour Workweek.

From the author: “For the last two years, I’ve interviewed nearly two hundred world-class performers for my podcast,The Tim Ferriss Show. The guests range from super celebs (Jamie Foxx, Arnold Schwarzenegger, etc.) and athletes (icons of powerlifting, gymnastics, surfing, etc.) to legendary Special Operations commanders and black-market biochemists. For most of my guests, it’s the first time they’ve agreed to a two-to-three-hour interview, and the show is on the cusp of passing 100 million downloads.

“This book contains the distilled tools, tactics, and ‘inside baseball’ you won’t find anywhere else. It also includes new tips from past guests, and life lessons from new ‘guests’ you haven’t met.

“What makes the show different is a relentless focus on actionable details. This is reflected in the questions. For example: What do these people do in the first sixty minutes of each morning? What do their workout routines look like, and why? What books have they gifted most to other people? What are the biggest wastes of time for novices in their field? What supplements do they take on a daily basis?

“I don’t view myself as an interviewer. I view myself as an experimenter. If I can’t test something and replicate results in the messy reality of everyday life, I’m not interested.

“Everything within these pages has been vetted, explored, and applied to my own life in some fashion. I’ve used dozens of the tactics and philosophies in high-stakes negotiations, high-risk environments, or large business dealings. The lessons have made me millions of dollars and saved me years of wasted effort and frustration.

“I created this book, my ultimate notebook of high-leverage tools, for myself. It’s changed my life, and I hope the same for you.”

This business book is great for leaders, middle managers and entrepreneurs interested in the following categories; STRATEGY, LEADERSHIP AND MANAGEMENT, ENTREPRENEURSHIP

Choose from the seven value plays to set the broad direction the firm should head in, and gain your competitive advantage. Each play has an associated set of capabilities which deliver customer value efficiently:

SPECIALIZATION - choose to focus on a single product or product group and compete through superior product performance.

ADAPTIVE - increase the system’s ability to respond to changing circumstances, particularly to changing customer needs.

LOW COST - Deliver equivalent product quality compared to competitors but with a continual and relentless focus on cost reduction

INNOVATION - Competing through product innovations.

EXCELLENCE - Continuous incremental improvement of product or service quality

NO-FRILLS - Serve price sensitive customers with a stripped down alternative product or service.

TARGETING - Focus on a specific market segment and serve the needs of these customers more effectively than less targeted rivals.

Built on insights from research into economics, strategy, organization theory and complexity science, you’ll discover a practical approach to creating value for your business in turbulent times, with advice on how to enable these plays with the structures, systems and culture of your business.

Under the increasing influence of globalization, integration and technological progress, modern business systems have become highly complex in terms of their organization, strategies and management. Specifics of Decision Making in Modern Business Systems: Regularities and Tendencies concentrates on how this changing context of the modern business system affects the process of decision making within organizations and corporations. With a focus on the regularities and tendencies of decision making within modern Russian business systems, the numerous contributors provide alternative and innovative ways to optimize and develop the process of decision making within businesses globally. This includes the use of forecasting within the consumer market, a consideration of public-private partnerships, and the development of a cluster platform to unify large, medium and small businesses. Specifics of Decision Making in Modern Business Systems provides a useful insight into the optimization of decision making within businesses for researchers and practitioners working within information economy creation and development and management strategy.

Get to better, more effective strategy.

In nearly every business segment and corner of the world economy, the most successful companies dramatically outperform their rivals. What is their secret? In Better, Simpler Strategy, Harvard Business School professor Felix Oberholzer-Gee shows how these companies achieve more by doing less. At a time when rapid technological change and global competition conspire to upend traditional ways of doing business, these companies pursue radically simplified strategies. At a time when many managers struggle not to drown in vast seas of projects and initiatives, these businesses follow simple rules that help them select the few ideas that truly make a difference.

Better, Simpler Strategy provides readers with a simple tool, the value stick, which every organization can use to make its strategy more effective and easier to execute. Based on proven financial mechanics, the value stick helps executives decide where to focus their attention and how to deepen the competitive advantage of their business.

How does the value stick work? It provides a way of measuring the two fundamental forces that lead to value creation and increased financial success—the customer's willingness-to-pay and the employee's willingness-to-sell their services to the business. Companies that win, Oberholzer-Gee shows, create value for customers by raising their willingness-to-pay, and they provide value for talent by lowering their willingness-to-sell. The approach, proven in practice, is entirely data driven and uniquely suited to be cascaded throughout the organization.

With many useful visuals and examples across industries and geographies, Better, Simpler Strategy explains how these two key measures enable firms to gauge and improve their strategies and operations. Based on the author's sought-after strategy course, this book is your must-have guide for making better strategic decisions.

This book has resulted from the activities of IFAC TC 5.2 "Manufacturing Modelling for Management and Control". The book offers an introduction and advanced techniques of scheduling applications to cloud manufacturing and Industry 4.0 systems for larger audience. This book uncovers fundamental principles and recent developments in the theory and application of scheduling methodology to cloud manufacturing and Industry 4.0. The purpose of this book is to present recent developments in scheduling in cloud manufacturing and Industry 4.0 and to systemize these developments in new taxonomies and methodological principles to shape this new research domain. This book addresses the needs of both researchers and practitioners to uncover the challenges and opportunities of scheduling techniques' applications to cloud manufacturing and Industry 4.0. For the first time, it comprehensively conceptualizes scheduling in cloud manufacturing and Industry 4.0 systems as a new research domain. The chapters of the book are written by the leading international experts and utilize methods of operations research, industrial engineering and computer science. Such a multi-disciplinary combination is unique and comprehensively deciphers major problem taxonomies, methodologies, and applications to scheduling in cloud manufacturing and Industry 4.0.

Managing Knowledge is an extensive and eminently readable overview of the most important ideas, tools and current applications of knowledge management. The authors rely on an innovative 'building block' approach and provide a detailed description of the most important knowledge processes in organizations.

"We are experiencing a paradigm shift from an industrial age to a service/knowledge age. We are all looking for new answers that will give meaning and purpose to our efforts, and make sense of knowledge processes. This book is an excellent tool: it is easy to read and contains practical examples which help us to deal with the issues. I enjoyed reading it." Heinz Fischer, Vice-President (Personnel), Deutsche Bank

"Knowledge of customer needs, markets, patents, products and processes is a key strategic resource in today's business world. The use of this resource, particularly in larger companies, is becoming a matter of survival in highly competitive and innovation-driven markets. The practical approach to knowledge management offered by Gilbert Probst, Steffen Raub and Kai Romhardt should prove an extremely useful tool." Heinrich v. Pierer, President and CEO, Siemens AG

"In this book Professor Pobst and his colleagues show in a great way how to systematize and work on increasing the efficiency of strategic knowledge management." Leif Edvinsson, Director, Intellectual Capital, Skandia

"Knowledge will dominate our entire 21st century social environment. Organizations will rapidly divide into those that know and those that don't. Leaders of tomorrow must make better use than they have done in the past of what knowledge their employees hold. This book will show you how." Bob Bishop, Chairman, Silicon Graphics World Trade Corporation

This book examines Foreign Direct Investment of major Korean automotive companies in Europe, with particular reference to how economic integration has affected the motivations and patterns of FDI and industrial location. The book is a valuable source of information on FDI, the automobile industry in Europe and South Korea and business decision-making process in general.

The ‘IT Productivity Paradox’ is the concept that, despite massive investment and resourcing by companies and organizations worldwide in their IT systems, there still seems to be little pay-off. Information systems can no longer be viewed as a support service for a business — information technology now has a lead role to play in the strategic planning processes of any organization. As we move further and further into a technology-based working environment, a critical question is how the value of IT can be measured and evaluated. This book brings together a group of the most eminent academic and practitioner thinkers in the area, to consolidate what we know about best IT evaluation practice in a comprehensive and integrated manner, and also provide new ways forward. The key to understanding the productivity paradox is the methods of IT measurement used. Improved measurement can not only reveal that IT has often been more productive than is believed, but can also focus in on ways in which benefits can be improved across the IT systems life-cycle. Critical areas where improved assessment is essential include development, and better risk analysis; sourcing, including IT outsourcing; and infrastructure, including transforming an organization’s IT architecture. The authors also take a look at stakeholder interests as a part of the overall evaluation process. Contributors to this volume have been selected not only for their status in the IS field generally, but also for their reputation in the IT evaluation area. As this topic gains increasing prominence as IT expenditure continues to increase, this book will be an invaluable reference for academics and practitioners alike in the areas of information systems, IT evaluation and assessment and IT management.

Inquiring Organizations: Moving from Knowledge Management to Wisdom' assembles into one volume a comprehensive collection of the key current thinking regarding the use of C. West Churchman's Design of Inquiring Systems as a basis for computer-based inquiring systems design and implementation. Inquiring systems are systems that go beyond knowledge management to actively inquire about their environment. While self-adaptive is an appropriate adjective for inquiring systems, they are critically different from self-adapting systems as they have evolved in the fields of computer science or artificial intelligence. Inquiring systems draw on epistemology to guide knowledge creation and organizational learning. As such, we can for the first time ever, begin to entertain the notion of support for wise"" decision-making. Readers of ""Inquiring Organizations: Moving from Knowledge Management to Wisdom"" will gain an appreciation for the role that epistemology can play in the design of the next generation of knowledge management systems, systems that focus on supporting wise decision-making processes.

The concept of the business model has become very popular in the strategy and innovation literature's. Recent research has acknowledged its cognitive underpinnings, its status as a mental construct, and has highlighted how managers' cognitive and social sense-making patterns influence business model design and how shared logics enable innovation. Yet, the specific cognitive underpinnings of business models, though often mentioned, are rarely explicitly studied. Business Models and Cognition addresses this gap by focusing directly on intersections between business model studies and cognitive studies. Gathering an international, multidisciplinary team of business model and cognition scholars, this book not only identifies surprising connections between these two existing literature's, but also offers new reflections on future avenues of research for both in order to explore the cognitive foundations of business modelling. For its interdisciplinary scope, scholarly rigor, and novel insights, this fourth volume of the New Horizons in Managerial and Organizational Cognition is a must-read for scholars and students of business, strategy and cognition, and it is of keen interest to executives and managers eager to reflect critically on their own understanding of the "business model" as a concept.

"The one, only, and by far the best book synthesizing psychology and investing. In addition to providing modern, scientific knowledge about psychology, this book provides a mirror into the mind and wide breadth of knowledge of one of the leading practitioners of brief and effectual cures. Will help to cure your trading and your life."
–Victor Niederhoffer, Chief Speculator, Manchester Investments
Author, The Education of a Speculator and Practical Speculation

"How refreshing! A book that rises above the old NLP model of the 80’s and provides insights on how our relationship with the market is indeed a very personal one. Not only has Steenbarger provided some fantastic tools for the trader to transform his mindset, but he has contributed unique trading ideas as well. Brilliant!"
–Linda Raschke, President, LBRGroup, Inc.

"‘Investigate, before you invest’ was for many years the slogan of the New York Stock Exchange. I always thought a better one would be, ‘Investigate YOURSELF, before you invest.’ The Psychology of Trading should help you increase your annual investment rate of return. Mandatory reading for anyone intending to earn a livelihood through trading. "
–Yale Hirsch, The Hirsch Organization Inc., Editor, The Stock Trader’s Almanac

"This highly readable, highly educational, and highly entertaining book will teach you as much about yourself as about trading. It’s Oliver Sacks meets Mr. Market–extraordinary tales of ordinary professionals and individuals with investment disorders, and how they successfully overcame them. It is a must-read both for private investors who have been shell-shocked in the bear market and want to learn how to start again, as well as for pros who seek an extra edge from extra inner knowledge. Steenbarger’s personal voyage into the mind of the market is destined to become a classic."
–Jon Markman, Managing Editor, CNBC on MSN Money
Author, Online Investing and Swing Trading

"Dr. Steenbarger’s fascinating, highly readable blend of practical insights from his dual careers as a brilliant psychologist and trader will benefit every investor; knowing oneself is as important as knowing the market."
–Laurel Kenner, CNBC.com Columnist, Author, Practical Speculation

Aiding Decisions With Multiple Criteria: Essays in Honor of Bernard Roy is organized around two broad themes: * Graph Theory with path-breaking contributions on the theory of flows in networks and project scheduling, * Multiple Criteria Decision Aiding with the invention of the family of ELECTRE methods and methodological contribution to decision-aiding which lead to the creation of Multi-Criteria Decision Analysis (MCDA). Professor Bernard Roy has had considerable influence on the development of these two broad areas. GBP/LISTGBP Part one contains papers by Jacques Lesourne, and Dominique de Werra & Pierre Hansen related to the early career of Bernard Roy when he developed many new techniques and concepts in Graph Theory in order to cope with complex real-world problems. Part two of the book is devoted to Philosophy and Epistemology of Decision-Aiding with contributions from Valerie Belton & Jacques Pictet and Jean-Luis Genard & Marc Pirlot. Part three includes contributions based on Theory and Methodology of Multi-Criteria Decision-Aiding based on a general framework for conjoint measurement that allows intrasitive preferences. Denis Bouyssou & Marc Pirlot; Alexis Tsoukias, Patrice Perny & Philippe Vincke; Luis Dias & Joao Climaco; Daniel Vanderpooten; Michael Doumpos & Constantin Zopounidis; and Marc Roubens offer a considerable range of examinations of this aspect of MCDA. Part four is devoted to Perference Modeling with contributions from Peter Fishburn; Salvatore Greco, Benedetto Matarazzo & Roman Slowinski; Salem Benferhat, Didier Dubois & Henri Prade; Oscar Franzese & Mark McCord; Bertrand Munier; and Raymond Bisdorff. Part five groups Applications of Multi-Criteria Decision-Aiding, and Carlos Henggeler Antunes, Carla Oliveira & Joao Climaco; Carlos Bana e Costa, Manuel da Costa-Lobo, Isabel Ramos & Jean-Claude Vansnick; Yannis Siskos & Evangelos Grigoroudis; Jean-Pierre Brans, Pierre Kunsch & Bertrand Mareschal offer a wide variety of application problems. Finally, Part six includes contributions on Multi-Objective Mathematical Programming from Jacques Teghem, Walter Habenicht and Pekka Korhonen.

The tapestry of human behaviour in the marketplace today is turbulent, unpredictable, and chaotic. Yet it is also so diverse, rich and global that it presents a rare ethical and moral opportunity, and challenge, to out-behave competition and create enduring value. This is corporate ethics for corporate advantage. Corporate Ethics for Turbulent Markets: The Market Context of Executive Decisions focuses on the HOW of doing business - the economic, social, ethical, moral and spiritual values we bring to our business ventures - and how thereby we impact the world. The book focuses on the LEMS (legality, ethicality, morality, and spirituality) technique that we submit as a prescriptive benchmarking tool for all corporate thinking, deliberation, explanation, evaluation, choices, strategic implementation, accountability and moral responsibility. It demonstrates that by going beyond the legal obligation (legality) to do the "right thing" (ethicality), to do the "right thing rightly" (morality), and doing the "right thing rightly and for the right intentions" (spirituality), we can create a sure strategy for good decision making and implementation that can heal the world from its current addictions to corporate fraud in all its evil forms. Envisioning a moral reawakening, this book will challenge business students and executives alike to re-evaluate the moral justification of business choices, decisions, actions and their consequences. LEMS as a four-dimensional cross-checking skill for all that we think, do, become and be takes time and patience but it can surely heal an otherwise divided and broken world.

Focusing on modern business systems from within the modern Russian context, this book examines how companies can become leading competitors globally within their industries through new decision making processes. Whilst current practices support the sustainability of a business system in terms of maintaining normal functionality and the prevention of crises, there is a need to consider the goals of leading organizations with larger business systems and greater resources. These goals can be more global in their focus and envisage the creation or strengthening of competitive advantages. Contributors of this book explore large scale industries specializing in hi-tech spheres of economy and instigate innovative activity in the face of high-levels of competition. Specific industries analyzed in this content include digital medicine, energy efficiency and car manufacturers. Using models of optimization and a range of real-world case studies, the book provides tools, technological analysis and techniques for practitioners to use within their own decision-making practices. For scholars researching business management, leadership and decision-making, this book also offers a useful insight into how optimized decision-making processes can be applied to the modern business system.

Executives in today's business environment have never been busier. Time constraints are ever present. Resources are strained. Strategic planning constantly competes with the tactical demands of running an organization. To make matters worse, most organizational leaders, when confronted with the need for strategic planning, have no idea about how to go about it. They have plenty of knowledge and information about the organization and their situation, but no effective tools to analyze their thoughts, to make decisions that will lead to effective strategies, and most importantly, to create a plan of action. In Performance Based Strategy, Steve Fairbanks and Aaron Buchko offer a practical set of simple, productive tools that will enable leaders to develop effective strategies. The book offers tools that have been tested in small, medium, and Fortune 100 companies, with for profit and not-for-profit organizations, and across a breadth of industries, such as manufacturing, health care, banking, distribution, transportation, government, and charities, among others. The authors have used these tools as insiders to turn around companies, and as outsiders in advisory and board roles. When properly applied, the strategies offered here enable leaders to see their situations and organizations in new ways. Managers will be able to present information in a way that everyone in the organization will understand. Executives can provide a sense of direction that will provide a framework for decision making that will give guidance to people. Above all, applying these tools will enable managers to improve their firm's performance.

Self-Knowledge plays an important role in making decisions and is instrumental in deciphering fact from false information: it is an inward tool, unique and changeable. Inward tools are essential in interpreting and processing information to create understanding and helping to determine illogical knowledge, whilst also fluctuating with the multifaceted and ever-changing awareness of the self that means the results of Self-Knowledge vary between individuals. Self-Knowledge and Knowledge Management Applications highlights and emphasizes the vital role of the human element in Knowledge Management, from which Self-Knowledge forms and functions. Self-Knowledge and Knowledge Management Applications covers the role and complexities of Self-Knowledge in the knowledge management process and Weed-Schertzer explains the separate and intertwined branches of Explicit Knowledge (tangible and transferrable), Tacit Knowledge (not easily transferrable) and Self-Knowledge (inward knowledge) and their applications in a business environment. Defining and explaining how Self-Knowledge enhances the application of each of these knowledge types when used both independently and collectively, Self-Knowledge and Knowledge Management Applications is essential reading for professionals and students across multiple disciplines, from business and management to strategy and technology.

That's what every business wants to be.  And that's why the U.S. Marines excel in every mission American throws at them, no matter how tough the odds.  In Corps Business, journalist David H. Freeman identifies the Marine's simple but devastatingly effective principles for managing people and resources -- and ultimately winning.  Freedman discusses such techniques as "the rule of three," "managing by end state," and the "70% solution," to show how they can be applied to business solutions.

What can managers in today's uncertain, unimaginably complex world learn from President Obama and top Chinese executives? Charles-Edouard Bouee proposes "light footprint" management - comparable to a new American military doctrine and similar to a recently emerged Chinese management style that subordinates strategy to vision and tactics. Bouee explains how conventional management methodologies, techniques and tools can be adapted to the conditions of an increasingly ambiguous and apparently unmanageable world. "Light Footprint Management" explains the dynamics of the new business environment and describes the kinds of organization most likely to succeed in it.

This book contains an Open Access chapter. Over the past two decades, the field of talent management has established itself as a key area of management practice and research. Emerging from the practitioner literature in the 1990s, the research evidence bases truly materialised in the late 2000s onwards. The launch of the EIASM Workshop on Talent Management in 2012 coincided with this surge in research interest, and we are now in a critical time in the evolution of our understanding of talent management. Talent Management: A Decade of Developments presents valuables insights into the progression in the critical understanding of talent management, building upon a decade of the EIASM Workshops. Bringing together leading voices in talent management research to reflect on recent developments and the current state of research, examining key issues such as talent philosophies, star performers, talent turnover and retention. Aimed at researchers, postgraduate students, and professionals in the field, this collection features the leading experts in their respective areas within talent management. Talent Management: A Decade of Developments charts the evolution of talent management, illustrating the progress, prospects, and challenges that have transpired over the last ten years.

This book provides comprehensive coverage of the latest research on multiple criteria research analysis (MCDA) and related areas, gathering a collection of high-quality chapters prepared by leading scholars in the field. By covering the established streams in MCDA research and simultaneously exploring new and emerging areas of application, it offers a unique reference resource for the future development of MCDA. The book approaches MCDA as one of the most active areas in operations research and management science (OR/MS). It presents not only the significant advances achieved to date, but also the new opportunities and challenges arising for both the theory and practice of MCDA. Among many others, the book addresses behavioral and conceptual aspects of decision aiding and decision making, problem structuring issues in the framework of new technological and socio-economic advances, methodological and algorithmic advances for analytical modeling and decision aiding, as well as a number of new application areas in engineering, business, and the social sciences.

YOUR COMPLETE GUIDE TO STRATEGY. PLAIN AND SIMPLE. The Financial Times Guide to Strategy is your unbeatable reference on strategy. It offers an incisive overview of both corporate level and business unit level strategy, an A to Z of the world's leading strategic thinkers and introduces the key strategic tools and techniques you need to develop your own strategy. Based on long experience and on conversations with leading strategists around the world, Richard Koch helps you discover each critical step in creating, delivering and understanding successful strategy. The fifth edition of this bestselling book is your easy-to-read, jargon-free guide to the strategic models and thinkers you really need to know about. Updated with new tools and examples, The Financial Times Guide to Strategy shows you which questions to ask, how to go about answering them, and then what action to take. This is the smartest and most readable strategy guide available anywhere.

Working through 7 practical steps, you will be able to identify and reduce your biggest risks so you can get evidence-based confidence to move forward:

• Do you have a new product or business idea but don’t know where to start?
• Do you want to know if your idea works before you’ve wasted too much time or money?
• Do you want to harness the power of lean thinking to move quicker and faster?