Every business should introduce new technologies to improve their performance? The only way to innovate is to think outside of the box? And obviously, having a Chief Strategy Officer is a guarantee of success. Really? The reality is that there are no magic recipes for success. If there were, every company would use them, and no single company would be outstanding. Business strategy is messy, requires hard graft and is difficult to get right. And yet the world of strategy is dominated by management consultants and business gurus making sweeping generalizations, oversimplifying business thinking and peddling their own unfounded ideas. But do these methods actually work? Myths of Strategy debunks thirty of these most common strategy sagas, cutting through consultant hyperbole and provide you with tried and test business ideas that will make your company more successful. About the Business Myths series... The Business Myths series tackles the falsehoods that pervade the business world. From leadership and management to social media, strategy and the workplace, these accessible books overturn out-of-date assumptions, skewer stereotypes and put oft-repeated slogans to the test. Entertaining and rigorously researched, these books will equip you with the insight and no-nonsense wisdom you need to succeed.

Learning through Disagreement begins with a request: choose to engage in dialogue rather than debate. The goal of dialogue is not to defeat an opponent but rather to better understand another's perspective, allowing for the solution of problems that may otherwise seem intractable. This workbook offers practical instruction in how to locate underlying assumptions and values so as to identify points of overlap which can serve as building blocks for agreement. It also concisely presents several key ethical theories and shows how we can critically apply those theories to disagreements in the workplace and beyond. Realistic examples of common business issues are discussed throughout and detachable worksheets for individual or group use are interspersed to encourage readers to engage directly in the process of constructive dialogue.

Feeling stuck on autopilot, or totally off course?
What if you could go back to key points in your life and ask different questions of yourself and others to change where you are today?
Speaker, author, and entrepreneur Laura Atchison had it all--a great career, a successful business, ambitious goals, and a loving family--when she realized she was off course. Instead of achieving the life she was meant to live, she had been stuck on autopilot--plodding through the life others wanted her to live. By failing to ask the right questions of herself and others, her life had taken the wrong direction. Explore Atchison's riveting and candid story to see the parallel struggles all women share--and the opportunities all women possess to learn and grow beyond their wildest dreams. Learn the right questions to ask in career, family, relationships, spiritual life, finances, and more.
Unlock the life you were meant to have.
Get back on course, and stay there.
Begin asking different questions starting today--as a Wise Woman.
If these people could have reviewed this book, this is what they might have said:
""Laura's on fire"" - Joan of Arc
""If I had Laura to guide me I might not have gotten lost"" - Amelia Earhart
""Maybe if we had asked how it could end differently than the others we would have kept our heads "" -- The Beheaded Wives of Henry VIII
""If I had read this book, I might not have dated Marc Antony"" - Cleopatra
""Laura's advice is as indispensable as a thimble"" - Betsy Ross
""Laura found the knowledge I was seeking"" - Eve

If you can slice a melon or make a right-hand turn, you can be a breakthrough innovator.
The title of this book, "Cause a Disturbance," says it all, and it most assuredly will cause a disturbance in the way you think about business: your business.
Everyone knows--and everyone talks about--how important innovation is in the competitive battle to find, delight, and keep customers, yet far too few achieve it. As Tencer and Cardoso explain, "There's a big difference between an occasional spark of innovation and an eternal flame." But the reality is different; most firms struggle to consistently innovate. All that can change. Kick-start your business with attitude. Cause a disturbance
Whether your business is in transition or simply looking for an innovative spark, give it a lift with "Cause a Disturbance." Within these pages you will learn how innovation can change your business in simple steps through The 90% Rule(R) a straightforward philosophy that drives you to constantly ask "What's the next 10%? What's the next product, service, or process improvement that will create a continuously engaged customer base and strengthen my brand?"
Cause a disturbance in the way you think about innovation as you open your mind to the possibilities--and simplicity--of being innovative every day

If you can slice a melon or make a right-hand turn, you can be a breakthrough innovator.
The title of this book, "Cause a Disturbance," says it all, and it most assuredly will cause a disturbance in the way you think about business: your business.
Everyone knows--and everyone talks about--how important innovation is in the competitive battle to find, delight, and keep customers, yet far too few achieve it. As Tencer and Cardoso explain, "There's a big difference between an occasional spark of innovation and an eternal flame." But the reality is different; most firms struggle to consistently innovate. All that can change. Kick-start your business with attitude. Cause a disturbance
Whether your business is in transition or simply looking for an innovative spark, give it a lift with "Cause a Disturbance." Within these pages you will learn how innovation can change your business in simple steps through The 90% Rule(R) a straightforward philosophy that drives you to constantly ask "What's the next 10%? What's the next product, service, or process improvement that will create a continuously engaged customer base and strengthen my brand?"
Cause a disturbance in the way you think about innovation as you open your mind to the possibilities--and simplicity--of being innovative every day

"Go Slow to Go Fast" strategy counteracts Big-bang disruptors, causing change without early warning signs that makes practitioners incredibly hard to combat. Leaders using the strategy understand that two things are sure to happen; you either disrupt or you're going to be disrupted! For this reason, "Go Slow to Go Fast" strategy offers proven and credible strategic principles to help leaders and organizations survive big bangs to become Big-bang disruptors in their own right, creating their own strategic advantage within the competitive landscape they operate. By the end of the text, readers will be better equipped to think strategically, focus sharply, move quickly (as extraordinary leaders do), and 1) create differentiated products, services and behaviors to overcome incumbent thinking. 2) Integrate new strategy perspectives to grow revenues, market share and profits using Next-Level Practice Decisions (NLPDs) that go beyond best practices to form Next-Level Practices (NLPs). 3) Disrupt incumbent markets to avoid Big-bang disruption. 4) Avoid risk, lead out from crises before they happen and go beyond incumbent thinking to achieve performance-driven execution. In the end, "Go Slow to Go Fast" strategy is the step-wise procedural approach that reviewers have called "a timely paradigm shift that creates much needed dialogue with an objective approach for thought-leadership decisions to be made" about how to challenge the norms using empirical findings that will 'work,' 'will matter' and 'will stick!'

Trust is an important factor in risk management, affecting judgements of risk and benefit, technology acceptance and other forms of cooperation. In this book the world's leading risk researchers explore all aspects of trust as it relates to risk management and communication. Drawing on a wide variety of disciplinary approaches and empirical case studies (on topics such as mobile phone technology, well-known food accidents and crises, wetland management, smallpox vaccination, cooperative risk management of US forests and the disposal of the Brent Spar oil drilling platform), this is the most thorough and up-to-date examination of trust in all its forms and complexities. The book integrates diverse research traditions and provides new insights into the phenomenon of trust. Factors that lead to the establishment and erosion of trust are identified. Insightful analyses are provided for researchers and students of environmental and social science and professionals engaged in risk management and communication in both public and private sectors. Related titles The Tolerability of Risk (2007) 978-1-84407-398-6

Today there are more technology, technologists, knowledge and experts than at any time in human history; but from a global perspective, it is difficult to argue that this accumulation of knowledge and technology has put the world in an unambiguously better position than it was in the past. Business is not getting any easier to do and major corporate collapses based on poor decisions, poor conduct, and poor judgement continue to occur. In public administration too, basic institutions and services (education, health, transport) seem to be continually undergoing "crises" of inadequate delivery and excessive pressure. Wisdom and Management in the Knowledge Economy explains why unwise managerial practice can happen in a world characterized by an excess of information and knowledge. Drawing on Aristotle's idea of practical wisdom, the book develops a theory of social practice wisdom that addresses important social psychological and sociological dynamics that underpin wise management and organizations. As well as providing a detailed theory of social practice wisdom, this book considers practical issues in organizational communication, behavior, culture, change and knowledge as well as in HRM, leadership, ethics, strategy, international business, business education, and wisdom research. By introducing the notion of social practice wisdom, aspects of social structure, organizational culture, and organizational communication needed for wisdom to flourish are for the first time rendered visible in a way that opens new possibilities for wiser management, wiser organizations, and wisdom research.

The subject of "design thinking" is the rage at business schools, throughout corporations, and increasingly in the popular press-due in large part to the work of IDEO, a leading design firm, and its celebrated CEO, Tim Brown, who uses this book to show how the techniques and strategies of design belong at every level of business. The myth of innovation is that brilliant ideas leap fully formed from the minds of geniuses. The reality is that most innovations come from a process of rigorous examination through which great ideas are identified and developed before being realized as new offerings and capabilities. Change by Design explains design thinking, the collaborative process by which the designer's sensibilities and methods are employed to match people's needs, not only with what is technically feasible, but what is viable to the bottom line. Design thinking converts need into demand. It's a human-centered approach to problem solving that helps people and organizations become more innovative and more creative. Introduced a decade ago, the concept of design thinking remains popular at business schools, throughout corporations, and increasingly in the popular press-due in large part to work of IDEO, the undisputed world leading strategy, innovation, and design firm headed by Tim Brown. As he makes clear in this visionary guide-now updated with addition material, including new case studies, and a new introduction-design thinking is not just applicable to so-called creative industries or people who work in the design field. It's a methodology that has been used by organizations such as Kaiser Permanente, to increase the quality of patient care by re-examining the ways that their nurses manage shift change, or Kraft, to rethink supply chain management. Change by Design is not a book by designers for designers; it is a book for creative leaders seeking to infuse design thinking into every level of an organization, product, or service to drive new alternatives for business and society.

It's not what we know, but how we learn. This is the key that Learning to Read the Signs uses in order to evaluate and apply ideas and facts to one's organization life. The book asks the reader to go back to and reclaim pragmatism: an activity of thought involving four parts: Investigation, Hypothesis, Action, and Testing. Pragmatism is a method of interpretation or inquiry which offers to the thoughtful business practitioner a way to better understand the reality in which we operate, to think critically and creatively, and for business people to think together to make the best use of all our perspectives and talents. Questions raised in this book include: What are the signs telling us? Where are we headed and why? Why are things going the way they are? What is our purpose?

The epistemological and methodological issues within management sciences constitute a difficult area for theoretical reflection. The main goal of this book is to deepen epistemological and methodological reflection concerned with the foundations of organization and management in order to broaden the methodological awareness of researchers from the field of management sciences. This book does not describe paradigm change; it points out possible evolutional directions for management reflection. The key matter is to convince of the uncertainty and of the contextual nature of the knowledge obtained through management.

Ernst G. Frankel This book has its origin in lecture notes developed over several years for use in a course in Systems Reliability f r engineers concerned with the design of physical systems such as civil structures, power plants, and transport systems of all types. Increasing public concern with the reliability of systems for reasons of human safety, environmental protection, and acceptable investment risk limitations has resulted in an increasing interest by engineers in the formal application of reliability theory to engineering design. At the same time there is a demand for more effective approaches to the design of procedures for the operation and use of man made systems, more meaningful assessment of the risks introduced, and use such a system poses both when operating as designed and when operating at below design performance. The purpose of the book is to provide a sound, yet practical, introduction to reliability analysis and risk assessment which can be used by professionals in engineering, planning, management, and economics to improve the design, operation, and risk assessment of systems of interest. The text should be useful for students in many disciplines and is designed for fourth-year undergraduates or first-year graduate students. I would like to acknowledge the help of many of my graduate students who contributed to the development of this book by offering comments and criticism. Similarly, I would like to thank Mrs. Sheila McNary who typed untold drafts of the manuscript, and Mr."

This book takes a fresh look at safety decision-making by documenting and examining stories told by front-line managers in three different high-hazard industries: a chemical plant, a nuclear power station and an air-navigation service provider. From Piper Alpha to Deepwater Horizon, accident analysis has stressed the importance of excellent decision-making by those in charge out in the field. Organizations rely critically on the judgement and experience of such senior operations personnel and yet these qualities are undervalued in a business environment that emphasises documentation and measurement. Whilst operational managers are guided by rules, they also draw on their own long experience and can formulate a situation-specific 'line in the sand' to apply the experience of the operating team to complex, real-world situations that rule writers may not have foreseen. This volume refocuses our attention on the people who make these important decisions and the organizational processes that support the best choices. Jan Hayes uses her multi-disciplinary experience to draw together an account of safety decision-making that is both technically robust and yet accessible to academics, practitioners and regulators alike. Readers will see that the stories retold in this book provide a way for operational managers to share their knowledge, experience and expertise - with each other and with us.

Principles of Risk-Based Decision Making provides managers with the foundation for creating a proactive organizational culture that systematically incorporates risk into key decision-making processes. Based on methodology adopted by a number of organizations including the federal government, this book examines risk-based decision making as a process for organizing information about the possibility for unwanted outcomes in a simple, practical way that helps decision makers make timely, informed management choices that minimize harmful effects on safety and health, the environment, property loss, or mission success. Citing practical examples, charts, and checklists, the authors break the risk-based decision making process into five key components: establishing the decision structure, performing the risk assessment, managing sufficient risks, monitoring effectiveness of adopted risk controls through impact assessment, and facilitating risk communication. They examine each component in detail and outline available decision analysis and risk assessment tools that aid in each of these risk-based decision making functions. This book also walks readers through eight project management steps-from scoping a risk assessment to evaluating the recommendations-the components of each, and the importance of these steps to the success of a risk assessment. Special features include a table for applying the risk-based decision-making process, a hazard identification guidesheet, an example of human error, an acronym list, and a glossary.

From medicine to education, evidence-based approaches aim to evaluate and apply scientific evidence to a problem in order to arrive at the best possible solution. Thus, using scientific knowledge to inform the judgment of managers and the process of decision-making in organizations, Evidence-based Management (EBMgt) is the science-informed practice of management.
Written by leading experts in the study and practice of EBMgt, The Oxford Handbook of Evidence-based Management provides an overview of key EBMgt ideas and puts them in context of promoting evidence-based practice. Furthermore, it addresses the roles and contributions of practitioners, educators, and scholars -- the primary constituents of EBMgt -- while providing perspectives and resources for each. Divided into three sections (research, practice, and education), this handbook examines the realities of everyday management practice and the role EBMgt can play in improving managerial decision making and employee well being and instructs educators in their roles as designers of curricula and resources.
As the first major volume to capture the spirit of this emerging movement, The Oxford Handbook of Evidence-based Management shows how practitioners can use high-quality knowledge gleaned from scientific research in order to make better use of available data and ultimately make more mindful decisions.

From the multimillion-copy bestselling author of "The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People"--hailed as the #1 Most Influential Business Book of the Twentieth Century--"The 3rd Alternative "turns Dr. Stephen R. Covey's formidable insight to a powerful new way to resolve professional and personal difficulties and create solutions to great challenges in organizations and society.
There are many methods of "conflict resolution," but most involve compromise, a low-level accommodation that stops the fight without breaking through to amazing new results. "The 3rd Alternative "introduces a breakthrough approach to conflict resolution and creative problem solving, transcending traditional solutions to conflict by forging a path toward a third option, a 3rd Alternative that moves beyond your way or my way to a higher and better way--one that allows both parties to emerge from debate or even heated conflict in a far better place than either had envisioned. With the 3rd Alternative, nobody has to give up anything, and everyone wins.

This two-volume collection of key papers by leading scholars provides a comprehensive perspective on the evaluation and performance of risk regulation policies. An analysis of the statistical life provides the basis for an examination of the risk money tradeoffs reflected in individual decisions in the labour, product and housing markets and an investigation of how these concepts can be used to evaluate government regulatory policies, including the newly developed risk-risk analysis approach. The volumes also offer an assessment of the performance of government risk regulations and a comprehensive analysis of the formation of risk beliefs and the role of hazard warnings policies in fostering improved risk decisions. The editors have written an authoritative introduction which presents a review of the selected papers and identifies interesting topics for future research.

Analytics is one of a number of terms which are used to describe a data-driven more scientific approach to management. Ability in analytics is an essential management skill: knowledge of data and analytics helps the manager to analyze decision situations, prevent problem situations from arising, identify new opportunities, and often enables many millions of dollars to be added to the bottom line for the organization. The objective of this book is to introduce analytics from the perspective of the general manager of a corporation. Rather than examine the details or attempt an encyclopaedic review of the field, this text emphasizes the strategic role that analytics is playing in globally competitive corporations today. The chapters of this book are organized in two main parts. The first part introduces a problem area and presents some basic analytical concepts that have been successfully used to address the problem area. The objective of this material is to provide the student, the manager of the future, with a general understanding of the tools and techniques used by the analyst.

Communicating Effectively: Tools for Educational Leaders, second edition, provides a unique perspective for aspiring and practicing educational leaders to expand their problem-solving and conflict-resolution strategies. Starting with an exploration of listening problems and solutions, this book evolves into an examination of how people perceive reality, what motivates them, and what happens when their needs are not met. The concepts of Process Communication, developed by clinical psychologist Taibi Kahler through his background in transactional analysis, provide the basis for the techniques from which educational leaders might choose. Communicating Effectively suggests new ways to understand the people with whom we interact, first by listening and then by understanding what our perceptions, channels, and motivation. Likewise, Michael Gilbert presents examples of problems and positive suggestions to intervene when communication is not effective.

Where chief executives and company presidents lead, thousands follow. These elites make excruciatingly difficult calls on strategies which will affect jobs, drive corporate growth and investment and deliver shareholder returns. But their impact is far greater than merely numbers on a balance sheet. Their personalities dramatically set the tone of their organization. Do these people have anything in common? Do they share any similar behaviours and philosophies? The Nine Types of Leader introduce some obvious and some not so obvious types of leader. From the alphas, the campaigners and the lovers, through to the fixers, the founders and the scions, via the sellers, the diplomats and moderns, this book introduces them 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, Ana Botin of Santander, James Daunt of Barnes & Noble and Waterstones, Dame Moya Greene of the Royal Mail 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 exists today.

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 a great manager of others. This book will inspire you to: * develop your emotional intelligence * influence your colleagues with the science of persuasion * assess your team and enhance its performance * network effectively to achieve business goals and for personal advancement * navigate relationships with employees, bosses, and peers * get support from above * view the big picture in your decision-making * balance your team's work and personal life in a high-intensity workplace

Have you ever wondered why you make bad decisions? Or why it's so hard to make a decision in the first place? Through pioneering research into behavioural science, decisions expert Dr Sheheryar Banuri has designed an entirely novel decision-making framework which can be adopted into everyday life to help us better our decision-making skills by understanding and streamlining the process. The result? Simple, effective and efficient techniques to combat indecision. The Decisive Mind will draw on examples from evolutionary psychology, examine our ability (or inability) to prioritise and highlight the scenarios that force decision-making errors, and help us understand our own minds. By unpicking a lifetime's worth of misconceptions about our own decision-making patterns and habits, this book will guide you on your first steps towards optimising your own brain space.

Problems block and slow down your progress; here's how to overcome them-simply, efficiently and effectively. This book offers straightforward, empowering science-based solutions to problems, big and small, at work or in life. It takes a never before seen approach to problem solving, powerfully combining lessons from cognitive science, established problem-solving theory and vast practical experience. It includes a radical new approach to analysing problems: The Problem Matrix. This will transform your approach to problems, challenge your thinking and help you develop new, positive, solution-focussed mindsets for the long-term.

In real-life scenarios, service management involves complex decision-making processes usually affected by random or stochastic variables. Under such uncertain conditions, the development and use of robust and flexible strategies, algorithms, and methods can provide the quantitative information necessary to make better business decisions. Decision Making in Service Industries: A Practical Approach explores the challenges that must be faced to provide intelligent strategies for efficient management and decision making that will increase your organization s competitiveness and profitability.
The book provides insight and understanding into practical and methodological issues related to decision-making processes under uncertainty in service industries. It examines current and future trends regarding how these decision-making processes can be efficiently performed for better design of service systems by using probabilistic algorithms as well as hybrid and simulation-based approaches.

Traditionally, many quantitative tools have been developed to make decisions in production companies. This book explores how to use these tools for making decisions inside service industries. Thus, the authors tackle strategic, tactical, and operational problems in service companies with the help of suitable quantitative models such as heuristic and metaheuristic algorithms, simulation, or queuing theory.

Generally speaking, decision making is a hard task in business fields. Making the issue more complex, most service companies problems are related to the uncertainty of the service demand. This book sheds light on these types of decision problems. It provides studies that demonstrate the suitability of quantitative methods to make the right decisions. Consequently, this book presents the business analytics needed to make strategic decisions in service industries.