FROM THE INTERNATIONALLY BESTSELLING AUTHOR OF ESSENTIALISM COMES A GUIDE TO MAKING THE MOST IMPORTANT TASKS EFFORTLESS

The intricacy of modern life has created a false dichotomy between things that are 'hard and important,' and those that are 'easy and trivial.' Everything has become so much harder than it ought to be. But, Greg McKeown, bestselling author of Essentialism, says, there is a third alternative. In Effortless, he offers practical strategies for making the most vital tasks the easiest ones. Honed over the better part of a decade, these strategies include:

• Asking 'What Step Can I Remove?' (accomplish more, in fewer steps)
• Having the Courage to Be Rubbish (prioritize progress over perfection)
• Deciding What 'Done' Looks Like (don't keep running after you pass the finish line)

High Challenge, Low Threat is Mary Myatt's smart and thoughtful exploration of all the things that wise leaders do.

Informed through thousands of conversations over a 20-year period in education, Mary shows the lessons that school management teams can learn from leaders in a wide range of other sectors and points to the conditions which these leaders create to allow colleagues to engage with difficult issues enthusiastically and wholeheartedly.

This book makes the case that any leadership role is concerned primarily with the relationships between individuals. It is the quality of these, whatever the size of the organisation, which make the difference between organisations which thrive, and those which stagnate.

This is not to argue for soft, easy and comfortable options. Instead it considers how top leaders manage to walk the line between the impossible and the possible, between the undoable and the doable, and to create conditions for productive work which transcend the difficulties which come towards us every day. Instead of dodging them, they embrace them. And by navigating high challenge, low threat, they show how others how to do the same.

Business Management: Back to Basics, aims at enabling students to learn relevant skills and competencies to become critical thinkers, problem solvers and effective and efficient business managers during prosperous and challenging times.

These competencies are achieved through students’ ability to interpret and apply the managerial tasks within the functional areas of management in an efficient and effective manner.

In this regard, practical activities based on real business scenarios facilitate students’ critical thinking and problem-solving abilities.

The fourth edition of Organization Theory & Design provides students with an understanding of the different approaches to designing and managing an organization.

Illustrated with many enlightening global examples drawn, this book combines classic ideas and contemporary theories to reflect the challenges faced by managers.

Developed for students in the UK, Europe, the Middle East and Africa, it provides an up-to-date, international perspective to Richard L. Daft's landmark text.

The value chain is a major focus in today's business world, and many companies and managers allocate considerable resources to understanding and analysing their value chain. The main reason for doing this is either to eliminate activities that do not add value, or to improve on activities that do not add sufficient value. In order to ensure optimum customer satisfaction, businesses must integrate the activities of various departments and functions. This demands a sound understanding of the chain of activities and their interrelationship with other business activities.

The authors of Business management adopt the value chain as a framework in order to help business students to visualise how the value chain works. New ground is broken in that management is not dealt with merely from a functional perspective. While the goal is to introduce undergraduate learners to the concept of the value chain, it is not, however, to offer a comprehensive directory on the related literature. The book is divided into three parts.

Part A introduces the reader to business management, the value chain, the business environment, the entrepreneurial process, and the considerations that need to be taken into account when establishing a business. Part B examines the activities of the value chain, starting with general management and leadership, followed by the primary and support activities that constitute the value chain. In Part C, contemporary management issues are reviewed, including diversity management, business ethics, globalisation, creativity and innovation, environmental issues, corporate governance and black economic empowerment.

Business management - a value chain approach covers basic points of theory, but it also has a strong practical approach, and includes self-evaluation exercises, challenging experiential exercises, information about relevant websites, interesting discussion questions and case studies, as well as useful lists of key terms.

This revised second edition has been updated in respect of new legislation such as the Companies Act, the Co-operatives Act, the Consumer Protection Act and the National Credit Act. Statistics have also been aligned with Census 2011.

Managing Business Projects: The Essentials differs from many other project management textbooks. Foremost, it is about business projects as opposed to construction or engineering projects. Although many techniques, like schedule management, apply to both, they are usually applied differently. As its title conveys, the book explains the essential techniques and perspectives needed for business projects to be successful. The focus is on small- and medium-sized projects, up to $20 million, but often below $1 million. Some literature favors large and mega-projects, but for every mega-project, there are many thousands of smaller projects that are vital to the organization and could involve considerable complexity and risk. Nevertheless, the techniques outlined here also apply to mega-projects and their many subprojects; they even apply to some aspects of construction or engineering projects.

This book does not aim to cover all project management techniques. In real life there is simply no time for sophisticated ‘should-dos.' Rather, it covers the essentials that apply to almost all business projects; these are unlikely to change in the future even as technology and methodologies advance. The driving idea, which is stated repeatedly, is to do the essentials and to do them consistently and well.

Strong emphasis is placed on things that happen before, around, and after the project itself. So, while the basic disciplines like engaging with stakeholders, managing scope, schedules, costs, risks, issues, changes, and communication, are thoroughly explained, other important aspects are covered. These include: governance of a project and of a portfolio of projects, project selection with its financial and non-financial aspects, effective use of the business case through to benefits realization, procurement, outsourcing and partnership, and also the agile mindset that is valuable beyond Agile projects.

Besides project managers and sponsors, this book is intended for people who are working in business or government, at any level, or for MBA students. It offers perspectives that enable them to learn more from their everyday experience. It is not aimed at undergraduate students, although many would benefit from the contents.

On one hand, Hunting The Dragon tells the story of the failure after failure of a brilliant but often frustrated South African entrepreneur who finally went on to hit the big time with a billion-rand company. But it is more than a memoir.

For three decades, Iain Buchan battled his competitors, his bosses, his partners and his own worst instincts as he launched one exciting but ultimately doomed business venture after another. Life was a roller coaster. The highs were addictive, the lows suicidal. With each failure, Iain’s confidence took a knock, until the doubts consumed him. Why couldn’t he crack it? Why was he constantly fighting the world? What was the fear that drove him, though never to sustainable success?

It was only after a profound personal transformation in his mid-40s that Iain could begin to work his way towards real and long-lasting success, in business and in life. Together with his three children and inspirational team, Iain has put personal growth at the front and centre of their business, The Unlimited. In doing so, they have developed a leadership system that drives one of the most successful and inspiring sales forces in the country, an empowered collection of young South Africans whose sales ability generates previously unimaginable revenues.

Hunting The Dragon isn’t just a memoir or business book. It is a truly eye-opening account of what it means to struggle and transform to achieve real success in life through leadership.

Change and the management of change have become some of the most urgently discussed topics of our time. Yet despite this, very few change management practices are premised on a thorough understanding of the change phenomenon and its costly impact.

Organisational change: theory and practice is based on the philosophy that a deeper understanding of change and its consequences is necessary to constructively manage change in organisations. The book recognises that change at the individual level is inextricable from change at the organisational level. The reader is encouraged to apply insights and principles gained from the book to both personal and work contexts.

The book has been developed around the why of change (change as a phenomenon), the what of change (a review of change paradigms; early and contemporary concepts of change; process perspectives; the experience and impact of change) and the how of change engagement and management. It sensitises the reader to the everyday implications of the multifaceted nature of change. In the final chapter, different perspectives on change and transformation are related to change levers and triggers, change management models, formulae and success factors, challenges of implementation, and guidelines for purposefully engaging with change in organisations.

Organisational change will be of great value to the advanced student, human resource practitioner, consultant or line manager who needs a deeper understanding of the change phenomenon and its impact, and to all who have to contend with significant change at work or home, or who are instrumental in bringing about change in a specific organisational or societal context.

Introduction to Business Management 11e offers an overview of business management within the South African context. The textbook is written for undergraduate students who are doing a course in introductory business management as part of their degree or diploma at a university or university of technology.

Features:

• Using features such as Small Business Perspectives, and Critical Thinking boxes, the new edition of Introduction to Business Management provides an accessible overview of business management in the South African context.
• Changes to legislation that impacts on business
• Updates on corporate social investment
• New examples and case studies that reflect changes to the business environment

With a pedigree going back over ten years, The Definitive Handbook of Business Continuity Management can rightly claim to be a classic guide to business risk management and contingency planning, with a style that makes it accessible to all business managers. Some of the original underlying principles remain the same -- but much has changed. This is reflected in this radically updated third edition, with exciting and helpful new content from new and innovative contributors and new case studies bringing the book right up to the minute. This book combines over 500 years of experience from leading Business Continuity experts of many countries. It is presented in an easy-to-follow format, explaining in detail the core BC activities incorporated in BS 25999, Business Continuity Guidelines, BS 25777 IT Disaster Recovery and other standards and in the body of knowledge common to the key business continuity institutes. Contributors from America, Asia Pacific, Europe, China, India and the Middle East provide a truly global perspective, bringing their own insights and approaches to the subject, sharing best practice from the four corners of the world. We explore and summarize the latest legislation, guidelines and standards impacting BC planning and management and explain their impact. The structured format, with many revealing case studies, examples and checklists, provides a clear roadmap, simplifying and de-mystifying business continuity processes for those new to its disciplines and providing a benchmark of current best practice for those more experienced practitioners. This book makes a massive contribution to the knowledge base of BC and risk management. It is essential reading for all business continuity, risk managers and auditors: none should be without it.

The South African Special Forces achieved exceptional results with small groups of elite soldiers instead of larger, conventional teams. The Team Secret shows that the same principle applies in the business world – a small team has a much better chance of completing projects efficiently, on budget and on time.

Teams, rather than individuals, form the DNA of many companies and they play a pivotal role in achieving strategic and financial success. Like Special Forces teams, they must function as a well- oiled machine firing on all cylinders.

Koos Stadler tells in captivating detail about a real-life Special Forces operation and the lessons learnt about team dynamics and achieving the goal. His story, combined with anecdotes from Anton Burger’s experiences as a team leader in different work environments, show the many lessons the business world can take from the Special Forces.

The book identifies the key characteristics of an effective team, how to select the right team members, how to inculcate an ethos centred around team principles and how an effective team should be led. It speaks to both team members and team leaders across all managerial levels – from a team leader in a call centre to a project manager or CEO.

In short: To fast-track your business, shape up your teams!

A clear-eyed account of learning how to lead in a chaotic world, by General Jim Mattis—the former Secretary of Defense and one of the most formidable strategic thinkers of our time—and Bing West, a former assistant secretary of defense and combat Marine.

Call Sign Chaos is the account of Jim Mattis’s storied career, from wide-ranging leadership roles in three wars to ultimately commanding a quarter of a million troops across the Middle East. Along the way, Mattis recounts his foundational experiences as a leader, extracting the lessons he has learned about the nature of warfighting and peacemaking, the importance of allies, and the strategic dilemmas—and short-sighted thinking—now facing our nation. He makes it clear why America must return to a strategic footing so as not to continue winning battles but fighting inconclusive wars.

Mattis divides his book into three parts: Direct Leadership, Executive Leadership, and Strategic Leadership. In the first part, Mattis recalls his early experiences leading Marines into battle, when he knew his troops as well as his own brothers. In the second part, he explores what it means to command thousands of troops and how to adapt your leadership style to ensure your intent is understood by your most junior troops so that they can own their mission. In the third part, Mattis describes the challenges and techniques of leadership at the strategic level, where military leaders reconcile war’s grim realities with political leaders’ human aspirations, where complexity reigns and the consequences of imprudence are severe, even catastrophic.

Call Sign Chaos is a memoir of a life of warfighting and lifelong learning, following along as Mattis rises from Marine recruit to four-star general. It is a journey about learning to lead and a story about how he, through constant study and action, developed a unique leadership philosophy, one relevant to us all.

How did John F. Kennedy put a man on the moon in just under ten years? What can chess teach us about actionable insights? And why should you shake up a business at a time of great success?

All of these questions have their answer in strategic thinking. But what is strategic thinking exactly? Are we born with it, or can we nurture it?

As a distinct and important capability in leaders, strategic thinking is a remarkably poorly defined, little understood concept, confined to management courses and board meetings. But in The Six Disciplines of Strategic Thinking, world-renowned expert Michael Watkins shows leaders how they can benefit from it, as long as they have the tools to nurture it.

Exploring the six specific mental disciplines that together constitute strategic thinking, each chapter shows how they can create value, and offers prescriptions on how to develop the strategic thinking mindset ourselves. Academically grounded but jargon-free, with real-world examples from all sectors and ages, The Six Disciplines of Strategic Thinking assesses our innate ability to think strategically, and helps us to cultivate it, leading to better decisions that get proven results.

Information and Communication Technology (ICT) is indispensable in the spheres of business, government, education and entertainment. It makes internet marketing, e-government, e-learning and online chat services possible, as well as e-commerce. Today, no business training is complete without covering at least the basics of e-commerce. But although e-commerce opens up new opportunities, it also presents threats and risks. The success of e-commerce hinges on security and trust. Every business manager should therefore have a fundamental awareness of the meaning of e-commerce and ICT security and risk management. The success of e-commerce also hinges on building relationships. Managing e-commerce in business (third edition) explores the ways in which entrepreneurs and managers can make use of e-commerce related aspects to improve their contact with their customers and enhance their business and marketing strategies.

Congratulations, you’re a manager! After you pop the champagne, accept the shiny new title, and step into this thrilling next chapter of your career, the truth descends like a fog: you don’t really know what you’re doing.

That’s exactly how Julie Zhuo felt when she became a rookie manager at the age of 25. She stared at a long list of logistics–from hiring to firing, from meeting to messaging, from planning to pitching–and faced a thousand questions and uncertainties. How was she supposed to spin teamwork into value? How could she be a good steward of her reports’ careers? What was the secret to leading with confidence in new and unexpected situations?

Now, having managed dozens of teams spanning tens to hundreds of people, Julie knows the most important lesson of all: great managers are made, not born. If you care enough to be reading this, then you care enough to be a great manager.

The Making of a Manager is a modern field guide packed everyday examples and transformative insights, including:

• How to tell a great manager from an average manager (illustrations included)
• When you should look past an awkward interview and hire someone anyway
• How to build trust with your reports through not being a boss
• Where to look when you lose faith and lack the answers

Whether you’re new to the job, a veteran leader, or looking to be promoted, this is the handbook you need to be the kind of manager you wish you had.

In 2012, Hubert Joly joined as CEO of Best Buy, a company on the brink of disruption, and led one of the most remarkable comeback stories in American business annals. While CEO he didn't seek the spotlight, but now he's ready to share the principles that helped him complete this remarkable turnaround.

Having recently stepped down as Chairman and CEO of Best Buy, Joly shares the leadership principles illustrated by multiple vivid and concrete stories that underpinned the remarkable resurgence of Best Buy and that he believes are at the heart of business: pursue a noble purpose, put people at the center, embrace all stakeholders, and treat profit as an outcome. There was a time when many would call this a soft philosophy. But times have changed. The world and business are facing unprecedented challenges. Business can be, in fact needs to be a force for good.

In 2019, Best Buy and 180 other companies signed the momentous Business Roundtable statement in support of stakeholder capitalism, highlighting that you can do well by doing good. The Covid-19 pandemic further pushed many businesses to lead from a place of purpose and with humanity.

More broadly, Joly's principles echo and reaffirm that the notion of stakeholder capitalism isn't just a nice idea, it's the winning strategy.

The business environment can change at any given time and organisations need to be ready to respond if they want to survive. Strategic management is an important and ongoing process of formulating and implementing strategies that help an organisation position itself optimally and so maintain a competitive advantage that results in profit. It creates harmony between any organisation, big or small, and its environment. The Strategic Management Process explains strategy in such a way that every reader will understand not only how vital the strategic management process is to any organisation but also exactly what it entails.

The Strategic Management Process follows an understandable and practical approach, making use of numerous figures and "strategy in action" case studies to support the theory. The textbook is aimed at students in strategic management as well as at organisations, from corporate and public companies with management training programmes to small business ventures that are trying to gain a competitive advantage in a cut-throat environment.

Kobus Lazenby was an associate professor in the Department of Business Management at the University of the Free State, specialising in strategic management and project management. He has been retired since April 2017. The other contributors lecture in strategic management at various South African universities.

These are difficult times. The Covid-19 pandemic has proved to us that we cannot rely on tomorrow to be like today; there is no such thing as ‘business as usual’. The social and economic upheaval has been devastating, and its effects long-lasting, making these times even more uncertain. The antidote to this uncertainty is clarity.

Maanda Tshifularo has had the privilege of interacting with successful innovators, culture shifters, business leaders and thought leaders, and their ‘common success denominator’ is the ability to see, say, and do things, with purposeful clarity. He has identified ‘Super Clarity’ as the differentiator that helps leaders navigate the ambiguity and half-heartedness which have become the default state in many organisations, leading to plummeting employee morale and productivity.

Not only does a super-clear leader achieve and make a meaningful contribution, but they also experience remarkable joy and personal growth in the journey.

It has never been more crucial for leaders to provide clarity and, in this book, Maanda defines and explains the importance of Super Clarity, and how to translate purpose into our day-to-day activities to unlock exceptional results, job satisfaction, team cohesion and employee engagement.

He outlines in Lead with Super Clarity the critical steps that we can take, as business leaders or in our own lives, to foster clarity – and, in so doing, create an environment characterised by purpose, insight and alignment.

Change is the distinguishing characteristic of the business environment across the world and it affects how contemporary organisations operate. While organisations need to do more with less, they also have to satisfy the needs of their customers who, with more exposure to local and global markets, have higher expectations relating to the cost, quality, speed and innovation of the services and products they purchase from these organisations. In response to the changes in their business environment, organisations are becoming flatter, networked, global, more flexible and diverse and managers have to acquire the skills to face the challenges associated with these features.

The contemporary management principles offered in this publication integrates discussions on vital managerial competencies and skills with information on traditional and essential managerial concepts that have been effective in the past and are still relevant. The first part of the book deals with the evolution of management theory, the management process, and the features of contemporary organisations.

The next six chapters deal with the internal environment of contemporary business organisations, including a discussion on the composition of the management environment; managing change, corporate culture, power, politics conflict resolution and negotiation; business ethics; CSR and corporate governance; and workforce diversity. The rest of the chapters focus on the management functions of planning, organising, leading and control. An additional chapter deals with the role of management in the implementation of project management and a second chapter provides an overview of organisational value chains and the impact of electronic media and e-business on organisational efficiency and effectiveness.

The authors of Contemporary Management Principles are experienced lecturers in the field of business management from various universities in South Africa and Africa.

Erik Kruger is a high-performance coach and founder of the Mental Performance Lab. He writes an email early each morning which he sends to many thousands of subscribers. The aim of his daily message is to inspire people, asking them to reflect and act. Packed with more than 160 thoughtful reflections on what it takes to live a life of action and not words, Acta Non Verba’s purpose is to get people moving, creating, and generating an unstoppable drive in both their business and personal journeys.

The words Acta Non Verba is the sign-off Erik uses in all his emails. This simple Latin phrase, meaning ‘Actions Not Words’, has started a movement. It’s a plea; a call to create your life instead of living it by default, a call to show your intentions instead of merely speaking about them. It’s a call to live to your fullest potential. This is not a book to read from cover to cover, in one sitting. Each day there is a new chapter waiting to be read. Put this book on your bedside table, and read a new chapter with your first cup of coffee every morning. Each message is short so you can read it quickly, in the moment, and then reflect and act on it for the entire day. It’s a book that demands action.

ACTIONS, NOT WORDS

Remember, it’s not about the words on these pages; it’s about what you do with them.

Self-mastery is the pinnacle of self-effectiveness. It is the reset button that puts you back in control of your life and helps you make healthy choices in both your personal and business life. If you’ve ever experienced anxiety, self-doubt, confusion, procrastination, helplessness, lack of self-control, impatience and a constant need for instant gratification, then Servings of Self-Mastery is for you.

With self-mastery you are able to coach yourself out of the negative mind-states that hold you back. This book will help you recognise the thoughts, feelings and beliefs that stand in your way of physical, mental, emotional and spiritual fulfilment. It will equip you with the agency to reframe these barriers into positive energy that will catalyse and catapult you into action, and this is how the best among us experience flow.

With short, easy-to-digest pep talks, you may want to read this book from cover-to-cover, or choose a specific chapter to read on those days when you need a little support and inspiration.

Alistair Mokoena’s Servings of Self-Mastery is packed with bitesized reminders of the greatness within us, together with the tools to unlock potential and abundance in all aspects of our lives. It is a book that is written with love and compassion to help you thrive.

In her latest book, five-time #1 New York Times bestselling author Dr Brene Brown, writes, "If we want to find the way back to ourselves and each other, we need language and the grounded confidence to both tell our stories, and to be stewards of the stories that we hear. This is the framework for meaningful connection."

In Atlas of the Heart, Brown takes us on a journey through 87 of the emotions and experiences that define what it means to be human. As she maps the necessary skills and lays out an actionable framework for meaningful connection, she gives us the language and tools to access a universe of new choices and second chances - a universe where we can share and steward the stories of our bravest and most heart-breaking moments with one another in a way that builds connection.

Over the past two decades, Brown's extensive research into the experiences that make us who we are has shaped the cultural conversation and helped define what it means to be courageous with our lives. Atlas of the Heart draws on this research, as well as Brown's singular skills as a researcher/storyteller, to lay out an invaluable, research-based framework that shows us that naming an experience doesn't give the experience more power, it gives us the power of understanding, meaning and choice.

Brown shares, "I want this to be an atlas for all of us, because I believe that, with an adventurous heart and the right maps, we can travel anywhere and never fear losing ourselves. Even when we have no idea where we are."

No business exists in a vacuum – it is impacted on by a constantly evolving world, which presents new challenges and opportunities every day. To cope with these, a business should be proactive and adaptive, not just at an operational level, but at a functional and strategic level as well. There are 12 chapters in Business Management: A Contemporary Approach focuses specifically on the functions of the business organisation and how to respond to changes in the micro-, and macro-environment, and in the market.

An introduction to the field of business management orients the reader, followed by general management principles applicable to any business manager. The book goes on to cover the various functions of the business organisation: financial management; credit management; information management; public relations; operations management; marketing management; human resource management; and purchasing management in supply chain management. It also covers contemporary issues like corporate citizenship and trends and changes in internationalisation.

The fourth edition of Business Management: A Contemporary Approach includes new features and updated content, such as:

• New case studies applying theory to practical situations
• Experiential exercises and multiple-choice questions
• Up-to-date theory on the functions of the business organization
• In-depth analysis of the relevant issues of corporate citizenship, globalisation and international trade

This book will equip readers with a general understanding of the divergent internal functions of the business organisation and the interrelationships between and among these functions. The readers will also be equipped with the necessary competencies (knowledge, skills and values) to perform the tasks and roles of a manager in any functional area of a business. At the end of each chapter, there are questions for self-assessment. By answering these questions, you will get an idea of whether you have mastered the chapters.

From naughty lists to sprinting swans, wandering ducks to Amarula-based incentives, The First Kudu takes you on the roller coaster ride of a start-up, and dives into real learnings along the way.

The narrative invites you to journey through the chaos with the young team and unpacks in gritty detail what goes into building a tech start-up – with stories of fun and failure honestly told in equal measure.

The First Kudu tells the story of HouseME, a rental technology company founded in South Africa that grew to 34 employees and 50 000 registered users, processing hundreds of millions of rands each year. The company won awards, raised several rounds of funding and was sought after by competitors.

It was exciting. It was excellent. And then… it was dead.

Ben Shaw (former CEO) and Lorne Hallendorff (former COO) provide a whirlwind tour of what goes into building a start-up at the southern tip of Africa and what they would do differently, were they to do it again.