Craig Hickman – författare

This work on business strategy centres around the task given to the reader to revitalize MedTech, a troubled $150 million company, within five years. The reader is challenged, chapter by chapter, to hammer out the tough sequence of choices that a chief executive must make. The fictional result is the life or death of MedTech; the real-world result is an interactive business adventure that turns managers and employees at all levels into better strategists and decision-makers. The fun of the game lies in its "what if" approach, with each option branching into a myriad of instructive paths. For example, at the end of Chapter One, readers must make their first critical decision: should MedTech focus on developing new products or should it spend more to market and sell existing products? The company's key managers are bitterly divided in their opinions, but like real CEOs, the reader must decide - and face new consequences that demand further analysis and action. In the end, there are 33 different endings ranging from triumph to disaster. Readers can "play" the book again and again to explore the outcomes of different strategic choices.On one level, "The Strategy Game" is a suspenseful thriller with the reader as the main character. On another level, it teaches fundamental and sophisticated truths about business - from competitors' moves and industry changes to leading-edge practices and management styles, to customer demands and product breakthroughs.

The Fourth Dimension The Next Level of Personal and Organizational Achievement As the latest wave of corporate downsizing, streamlining, and reengineering initiatives continues to mount in intensity, the traditional employer-employee relationship is experiencing a massive shakeup, and a new work paradigm is struggling to be born. At the same time that employers are finding that they can no longer offer the traditional carrots of job security and lavish compensation packages, they are coming to recognize the need to forge closer partnerships with their employees-partnerships defined by shared risks, responsibilities, and rewards. But a paradigm shift of this magnitude cannot occur without considerable effort on the parts of both employers and employees. Such a successful fusion of personal and organizational visions requires a radical change in attitudes, expectations, and work patterns, and those who are quickest to make those changes are sure to be the big winners in the years ahead. The Fourth Dimension provides a comprehensive program for managers challenged to do more with less and individuals seeking to improve the quality of their worklives. It offers proven techniques to help you excel in the three primary work dimensions outlined in the authors' acclaimed MetaWork System(TM):* PowerWork(TM): efficiency, effectiveness, and the achievement of the right results* NetWork(TM): sharing competence and knowledge with others and developing more dynamic working relationships* ValueWork(TM): achieving more frequent breakthroughs in performance and value added based on individual and group ideas You'll learn how to integrate these three primary dimensions into an incredibly potent Fourth Dimension, a newly defined workspace within which individuals, teams, and entire companies continually exceed their best hopes and expectations. Throughout The Fourth Dimension, the authors provide vivid real-life illustrations of the astonishing results that have been achieved with the techniques they describe. Personal profiles of leaders such as Rebecca Matthias of Mothers Work and Steve Wiggins of Oxford Health Plans, as well as case studies of top companies, including Hewlett-Packard, Compaq, and Microsoft, lead you to a fuller understanding of the revolutionary changes now reshaping the work world and how many of today's business leaders have learned to use fourth dimensional thinking to gain the competitive edge. Offering a complete program for achieving higher levels of performance by combining personal and organizational vision, The Fourth Dimension is must reading for executives, managers, team leaders, entrepreneurs, and virtually anyone interested in achieving a more fulfilling and meaningful destiny in the postindustrial work world.

A compelling novel of business intrigue, suspense, and transformation from a critically acclaimed authorIn an exciting departure from his writing on leadership, corporate culture, and strategic change, Craig Hickman, the author of such titles as Creating Excellence and Mind of a Manager, Soul of a Leader, gives us a compelling tale of corporate intrigue and innovation. A suspenseful business novel that engages the reader on every dramatic level while teaching important lessons on how to be a more effective innovator and creative problem-solver, An Innovator's Tale focuses on the trials and tribulations of a newly promoted vice president who has been thrust into a world of corporate turnaround, duplicity, and espionage. Readers learn by her example as she discovers and applies four different levels and five critical stages of innovation, while struggling to contain containing the damage done by stolen business secrets, computer hacking, and high-level company officers who are not quite what they seem to be.

The best business managers and leaders often have an adversarial relationship with each other, yet they have one thing in common: the search for that elusive advantage that will propel them and their organizations to greater success. It explores the practical aspects of the schism between managers and leaders, suggesting ways to exploit this natural tension to gain positive results. Offering a wealth of insights drawn from over 15 years as a top management consultant, Craig Hickman shows the ways in which the strengths of these two distinct personality types complement each other. From the strategic analyzer and the strategy planner to the concrete thinker and the visionary to the nit-picker and the risk-taker--he shows how each individual perspective contributes to overall success. While specific chapters are grouped around five major organizational success factors, it is designed for rapid, random access depending on the reader's interests.