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Named one of 100 Leadership & Success Books to Read in a Lifetime by Amazon Editors The world's most trusted guide for leaders in transition Transitions are a critical time for leaders. In fact, most agree that moving into a new role is the biggest challenge a manager will face. While transitions offer a chance to start fresh and make needed changes in an organization, they also place leaders in a position of acute vulnerability. Missteps made during the crucial first three months in a new role can jeopardize or even derail your success. In this updated and expanded version of the international bestseller The First 90 Days, Michael D. Watkins offers proven strategies for conquering the challenges of transitions--no matter where you are in your career. Watkins, a noted expert on leadership transitions and adviser to senior leaders in all types of organizations, also addresses today's increasingly demanding professional landscape, where managers face not only more frequent transitions but also steeper expectations once they step into their new jobs.By walking you through every aspect of the transition scenario, Watkins identifies the most common pitfalls new leaders encounter and provides the tools and strategies you need to avoid them. You'll learn how to secure critical early wins, an important first step in establishing yourself in your new role. Each chapter also includes checklists, practical tools, and self-assessments to help you assimilate key lessons and apply them to your own situation. Whether you're starting a new job, being promoted from within, embarking on an overseas assignment, or being tapped as CEO, how you manage your transition will determine whether you succeed or fail. Use this book as your trusted guide.

"An outstanding book about CEOs who excelled at capital allocation." -- Warren Buffett #1 on Warren Buffett's Recommended Reading List, Berkshire Hathaway Annual Shareholder Letter, 2012 Named one of "19 Books Billionaire Charlie Munger Thinks You Should Read" in Business Insider. "A book that details the extraordinary success of CEOs who took a radically different approach to corporate management." -- Charlie Munger, Vice-Chairman of Berkshire Hathaway Corporation "Thorndike explores the importance of thoughtful capital allocation through the stories of eight successful CEOs. A good read for any business leader but especially those willing to chart their own course." -- Michael Dell, chairman of the board of directors and chief executive officer of Dell What makes a successful CEO? Most people call to mind a familiar definition: "a seasoned manager with deep industry expertise." Others might point to the qualities of today's so-called celebrity CEOs--charisma, virtuoso communication skills, and a confident management style. But what really matters when you run an organization? What is the hallmark of exceptional CEO performance?Quite simply, it is the returns for the shareholders of that company over the long term. In this refreshing, counterintuitive book, author Will Thorndike brings to bear the analytical wisdom of a successful career in investing, closely evaluating the performance of companies and their leaders. You will meet eight individualistic CEOs whose firms' average returns outperformed the S&P 500 by a factor of twenty--in other words, an investment of $10,000 with each of these CEOs, on average, would have been worth over $1.5 million twenty-five years later. You may not know all their names, but you will recognize their companies: General Cinema, Ralston Purina, The Washington Post Company, Berkshire Hathaway, General Dynamics, Capital Cities Broadcasting, TCI, and Teledyne. In The Outsiders, you'll learn the traits and methods--striking for their consistency and relentless rationality--that helped these unique leaders achieve such exceptional performance. Humble, unassuming, and often frugal, these "outsiders" shunned Wall Street and the press, and shied away from the hottest new management trends.Instead, they shared specific traits that put them and the companies they led on winning trajectories: a laser-sharp focus on per share value as opposed to earnings or sales growth; an exceptional talent for allocating capital and human resources; and the belief that cash flow, not reported earnings, determines a company's long-term value. Drawing on years of research and experience, Thorndike tells eye-opening stories, extracting lessons and revealing a compelling alternative model for anyone interested in leading a company or investing in one--and reaping extraordinary returns.

The proven playbook for winning—now updated with a new foreword and two bonus HBR articles.Strategy is not complex. But it is hard. It's hard because it forces people and organizations to make specific choices about their future—something few companies do well.In this contemporary business classic, now with a foreword by former Harvard Business Review editor in chief Adi Ignatius and insightful articles from HBR, two of today's most respected business thinkers explain what strategy is for, how to think about it, and how to get it done. And they use one of the most successful corporate turnarounds of the past century, which they achieved together, to prove their point.A.G. Lafley, former CEO of Procter & Gamble, in close partnership with strategic adviser Roger Martin, doubled P&G's sales, quadrupled its profits, and increased its market value by more than $100 billion in just ten years. Drawing from their experiences, they explain how leaders in any organization can guide everyday actions with strategic goals built around the essential elements that determine business success—where to play and how to win.The result is a playbook for winning. At its core is a set of five integrated and essential strategic choices:What is our winning aspiration?Where will we play?How will we win?What capabilities must we have in place to win?What management systems are required to support our choices?The authors tell rich stories of iconic P&G brands, such as Olay, Bounty, Gillette, and more, to clearly illustrate how deciding on a strategic approach—and then making the right choices to support it—can make the difference between just playing the game and actually winning.

"Inc." magazine calls it one of "the best, clearest guides to the numbers" on the market. Readers agree, saying it's exactly "what i need to know" and calling it a "must-read" for decision makers without expertise in finance. Since its release in 2006, "Financial Intelligence" has become a favorite among managers who need a guided tour through the numbers - helping them to understand not only what the numbers really mean, but also why they matter. This new, completely updated edition brings the numbers up to date and continues to teach the basics of finance to managers who need to use financial data to drive their business. It also addresses issues that have become even more important in recent years - including questions around the financial crisis and those around broader financial and accounting literacy. Accessible, jargon-free, and filled with entertaining stories of real companies, "Financial Intelligence" gives non-financial managers the confidence to understand the nuance beyond the numbers - to help bring everyday work to a new level.

A recent study showed that when doctors tell heart patients they will die if they don't change their habits, only one in seven will be able to follow through successfully. Desire and motivation aren't enough: even when it's literally a matter of life or death, the ability to change remains maddeningly elusive. Given that the status quo is so potent, how can we change ourselves and our organizations? In Immunity to Change, authors Robert Kegan and Lisa Lahey show how our individual beliefs--along with the collective mind-sets in our organizations--combine to create a natural but powerful immunity to change. By revealing how this mechanism holds us back, Kegan and Lahey give us the keys to unlock our potential and finally move forward. And by pinpointing and uprooting our own immunities to change, we can bring our organizations forward with us. This persuasive and practical book, filled with hands-on diagnostics and compelling case studies, delivers the tools you need to overcome the forces of inertia and transform your life and your work.

Companies have never invested more in transformation—or wasted more on failed attempts. Finally, a science-based, practical guide to making change stick.Market volatility. AI. Regulatory uncertainty. Geopolitical risk. Leaders know they must adapt faster than ever—yet most transformation programs still fail to deliver their expected outcomes, with enormous costs to companies, shareholders, and the broader economy.But some companies do succeed. In How Change Really Works, Boston Consulting Group experts Julia Dhar, Kristy R. Ellmer, and Philip Jameson show that these successes aren't random—they're connected by a common set of principles and practices. Interweaving rich examples, decades of research in behavioral science, interviews with executives and employees, and their own experience leading change, Dhar, Ellmer, and Jameson offer seven principles that form the core of a truly human-centered approach to successful organizational change. Admonitions such as "Get true agreement, not false alignment"; "Give people agency, not just involvement"; and "Expect take up to be earned, not automatic" are some of the principles that offer a fresh look at what it takes to really change an organization.The second part of the book moves into execution mode, providing a five-phase guide—informed by science and packed with tips, checklists, and hacks—that will help your transformation beat the odds and succeed.Change doesn't fail because people resist; it fails because leaders misunderstand how people really change. Whether you're launching a new change program or stuck in a stalled one, How Change Really Works is your essential guide.

Where should I live? Is it time to get a new job? Which job candidate should I hire? What business strategy should I pursue? We spend the majority of our lives making decisions, both big and small. Yet, even though our success is largely determined by the choices that we make, very few of us are equipped with useful decision-making skills. Because of this, we often approach our choices tentatively, or even fearfully, and avoid giving them the time and thought required to put our best foot forward. In Smart Choices, John Hammond, Ralph Keeney, and Howard Raiffa--experts with over 100 years of experience resolving complex decision problems--offer a proven, straightforward, and flexible roadmap for making better and more impactful decisions, and offer the tools to achieve your goals in every aspect of your life. Their step-by-step, divide-and conquer approach will teach you how to: * Evaluate your plans * Break your potential decision into its key elements * Identify the key drivers that are most relevant to your goals * Apply systematic thinking * Use the right information to make the smartest choice Smart Choices doesn't tell you what to decide; it tells you how.As you routinely use the process, you'll become more confident in your ability to make decisions at work and at home. And, more importantly, by applying its time-tested methods, you'll make better decisions going forward. Be proactive. Don't wait until a decision is forced on you--or made for you. Seek out decisions that advance your long-term goals, values, and beliefs. Take charge of your life by making Smart Choices a lifetime habit.

The bestselling classic on disruptive innovation by renowned author Clayton M. Christensen.A Wall Street Journal and Businessweek Bestseller.Named by the Economist as one of the six most important books about business ever written.Named by Fast Company as one of the most influential leadership books in its Leadership Hall of Fame.His work is cited by the world's best-known thought leaders, from Steve Jobs to Malcolm Gladwell. In this classic bestseller—one of the most influential business books of all time—innovation expert Clayton Christensen shows how even the most outstanding companies can do everything right yet still lose market leadership.Now with a foreword by Marc Benioff, the cofounder and CEO of Salesforce, Christensen explains why most companies miss out on new waves of innovation. No matter the industry, he says, a successful company with established products will get pushed aside unless managers know how and when to abandon traditional business practices.Offering both successes and failures from leading companies as a guide, The Innovator’s Dilemma gives you a set of rules for capitalizing on the phenomenon of disruptive innovation.Sharp, cogent, and provocative—and consistently noted as one of the most valuable business ideas of all time—The Innovator’s Dilemma is the book no manager, leader, or entrepreneur should be without.

A proven approach used by today's best professional service partners to win, retain, and grow client relationships.There is a growing problem in the professional services industry that is often acknowledged but rarely discussed: clients—even long-standing ones for whom firms have consistently delivered unquestioned value—are much less loyal to those firms and partners than they once were. This dramatic shift in client behavior has rendered traditional approaches to business development not only ineffective but counterproductive.But top performers have figured out a radical new approach that is redefining what it means to be a rainmaker in today's professional services market.Drawing on a comprehensive, quantitative study of nearly three thousand partners—spanning law, accounting, consulting, investment banking, executive search, and public relations—The Activator Advantage identifies five types of partners found across the professional services landscape and shows how only one of them—the Activator—drives consistent growth.Activators deeply embed business development habits into their daily workflow, aggressively leverage their internal and external networks, and proactively deliver both business and personal value to clients—all of which not only helps shield them from the vagaries of modern client buying behavior but also lays the groundwork for more loyal, longer-lasting relationships.Packed with eye-opening data, counterintuitive insights, and robust case examples, The Activator Advantage provides the road map for any professional services partner or firm leader looking to chart a path to greater client engagement, internal collaboration, and firm profitability in the new era of fading client loyalty.

Innovation doesn't just happen. You need to lead it. Discover the three critical roles leaders must play in driving—and scaling—innovation.Constant tech disruption. Unrelenting economic volatility. Radically shifting demographics and work norms. More than ever, we need to innovate amid these daunting global challenges. But do we have the leadership it takes to make this innovation happen successfully?As preeminent leadership scholar Linda Hill, Harvard researcher Emily Tedards, and former Microsoft innovation executive Jason Wild show in this powerful book, there are indeed exemplary leaders to learn from—and the authors present their stories in fascinating detail, not only igniting your imagination but providing instructive and inspiring models to follow. Hill's award-winning book Collective Genius began the crucial task of showing that successful innovation doesn't just happen—it needs to be led. Genius at Scale breaks new ground, showing how moving from generating new ideas to actually scaling them involves cocreation—collaborating, experimenting, and learning with others both inside and beyond the boundaries of the organization. This requires three distinct types of leadership:Leader as Architect: shaping culture and capabilities for cocreationLeader as Bridger: building partnerships across teams and organizationsLeader as Catalyst: activating and cultivating movements across ecosystemsThe authors vividly profile these three types of leaders with individuals from all kinds of companies—from Mastercard, Pfizer, and Procter & Gamble to Cleveland Clinic Abu Dhabi, Sampark Foundation, and ANA spinoff avatarin—who illustrate the mindset, skills, and digital savvy needed for leading in a world more uncertain and challenging than ever before.Genius at Scale provides an essential guide to mastering the art and practice of innovation for any current or aspiring leader.

An insightful and inspiring book on using "both/and" thinking to make more creative, flexible, and impactful decisions in a world of competing demands.Life is full of paradoxes. How can we each express our individuality while also being a team player? How do we balance work and life? How can we improve diversity while promoting opportunities for all? How can we manage the core business while innovating for the future?For many of us, these competing and interwoven demands are a source of conflict. Since our brains love to make either-or choices, we choose one option over the other. We deal with the uncertainty by asserting certainty.There's a better way.In Both/And Thinking, Wendy Smith and Marianne Lewis help readers cope with multiple, knotted tensions at the same time. Drawing from more than twenty years of pioneering research, they provide tools and lessons for transforming these tensions into opportunities for innovation and personal growth.Filled with practical advice and fascinating stories—including firsthand tales from IBM, LEGO, and Unilever, as well as from startups, nonprofits, and even an inn at one of the four corners of the world—Both/And Thinking will change the way you approach your most vexing problems.

Competitive advantage. The value chain. Five forces. Industry structure. Differentiation. Relative cost. If you want to understand how companies achieve and sustain competitive success, Michael Porter's frameworks are the foundation. But while everyone in business may know Porter's name, many managers misunderstand and misuse his concepts. Understanding Michael Porter sets the record straight, providing the first concise, accessible summary of Porter's revolutionary thinking. Written with Porter's full cooperation by Joan Magretta, his former editor at Harvard Business Review, this new book delivers fresh, clear examples to illustrate and update Porter's ideas. Magretta uses her wide business experience to translate Porter's powerful insights into practice and to correct the most common misconceptions about them--for instance, that competition is about being unique, not being the best; that it is a contest over profits, not a battle between rivals; that strategy is about choosing to make some customers unhappy, not being all things to all customers. An added feature is an original Q&A with Porter himself, which includes answers to managers' FAQs.Eminently readable, this book will enable every manager in your organization to grasp Porter's ideas--and swiftly deploy them to drive your company's success.

A NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLERHarvard professor and bestselling author Arthur C. Brooks offers science-based insights on work and life in this curated collection from his "How to Build a Life" column in The Atlantic.Imagine if your life were a startup. How would you lead it and shape it to be most successful?That's the question behind The Happiness Files, a rich selection of enlightening and instructive essays by Arthur C. Brooks, known worldwide for his inspiring yet practical wisdom and advice in his weekly column for The Atlantic and in his bestselling books, From Strength to Strength and Build the Life You Want (coauthored with Oprah Winfrey).The simple answer, as Brooks wisely explains, is to manage your life in a way that leads to truly valuable rewards: love, enjoyment, satisfaction, and meaning—in other words, happiness.Building on his popular Harvard Business School course "Leadership and Happiness," Brooks begins each essay with sharp observations and behavioral science research that shed light on how happiness really works, then offers experiential wisdom and practical advice. Beautifully written, the essays range from ancient philosophy to literature, pop culture, and the contemporary world of work. They explore topics and challenges such as "Procrastinate This, Not That," "Why Success Can Feel So Bitter," and "Five Pillars of a Good Life." Readers will find the chapters helpfully grouped by theme: "On Managing Yourself," "On Jobs, Money, and Building Your Career," "On Balancing Work, Life, and Relationships," and more.We all need more happiness in our work and in our lives. In The Happiness Files you'll find enlightenment, inspiration, and useful guidance for leading a happier, more successful, and more fulfilling life and career.

In Jeff Bezos's own words, the core principles and philosophy that have guided him in creating, building, and leading Amazon and Blue Origin.In this collection of Jeff Bezos's writings—his unique and strikingly original annual shareholder letters, plus numerous speeches and interviews that provide insight into his background, his work, and the evolution of his ideas—you'll gain an insider's view of the why and how of his success. Spanning a range of topics across business and public policy, from innovation and customer obsession to climate change and outer space, this book provides a rare glimpse into how Bezos thinks about the world and where the future might take us.Written in a direct, down-to-earth style, Invent and Wander offers readers a master class in business values, strategy, and execution:The importance of a Day 1 mindsetWhy "it's all about the long term"What it really means to be customer obsessedHow to start new businesses and create significant organic growth in an already successful companyWhy culture is an imperativeHow a willingness to fail is closely connected to innovationWhat the Covid-19 pandemic has taught usEach insight offers new ways of thinking through today's challenges—and more importantly, tomorrow's—and the never-ending urgency of striving ahead, never resting on one's laurels. Everyone from CEOs of the Fortune 100 to entrepreneurs just setting up shop to the millions who use Amazon's products and services in their homes or businesses will come to understand the principles that have driven the success of one of the most important innovators of our time.Invent and Wander: The Collected Writings of Jeff Bezos is co-published by PublicAffairs, an imprint of Perseus Books, and Harvard Business Review Press.

We live in an age of unprecedented opportunity: with ambition, drive, and talent, you can rise to the top of your chosen profession regardless of where you started out. But with opportunity comes responsibility. Companies today aren't managing their knowledge workers careers. Instead, you must be your own chief executive officer. That means it's up to you to carve out your place in the world and know when to change course. And it's up to you to keep yourself engaged and productive during a career that may span some 50 years. In Managing Oneself, Peter Drucker explains how to do it. The keys: Cultivate a deep understanding of yourself by identifying your most valuable strengths and most dangerous weaknesses; Articulate how you learn and work with others and what your most deeply held values are; and Describe the type of work environment where you can make the greatest contribution. Only when you operate with a combination of your strengths and self-knowledge can you achieve true and lasting excellence. Managing Oneself identifies the probing questions you need to ask to gain the insights essential for taking charge of your career. Peter Drucker was a writer, teacher, and consultant.His 34 books have been published in more than 70 languages. He founded the Peter F. Drucker Foundation for Nonprofit Management, and counseled 13 governments, public services institutions, and major corporations.

Develop the most important skill for leadership success.If you read nothing else on emotional intelligence, read this book. We've chosen a new selection of current and classic Harvard Business Review articles that will help you build the people skills you need to thrive, strengthen your resilience and self-awareness, and adapt your leadership style for any situation.This book will inspire you to:Discover your authentic sense of selfBecome more mindful and present at workHelp your team become more emotionally intelligentBuild optimism and openness to changeLearn from tough criticismFoster a culture of empathy and belongingThis collection of articles includes "What Makes a Leader?," by Daniel Goleman; "The Leadership Odyssey," by Herminia Ibarra, Claudius A. Hildebrand, and Sabine Vinck; "The New Rules of Executive Presence," by Sylvia Ann Hewlett; "The C-Suite Skills That Matter Most," by Raffaella Sadun, Joseph B. Fuller, Stephen Hansen, and PJ Neal; "Mindfulness for People Who Are Too Busy to Meditate," by Maria Gonzalez; "Emotional Agility," by Susan David and Christina Congleton; "What Self-Awareness Really Is (and How to Cultivate It)," by Tasha Eurich; "What Makes an 'Authentic' Leader?," an interview with Herminia Ibarra by Sarah Green Carmichael; "Building the Emotional Intelligence of Groups," by Vanessa Urch Druskat and Steven B. Wolff; "Fostering a Culture of Belonging in the Hybrid Workplace," by Tomas Chamorro-Premuzic and Katarina Berg; "Find the Coaching in Criticism," by Sheila Heen and Douglas Stone; "To Build Your Resilience, Ask Yourself Two Simple Questions," by Srikumar Rao; "How to Sustain Your Empathy in Difficult Times," by Jamil Zaki; and "Don't Let Power Corrupt You," by Dacher Keltner.HBR's 10 Must Reads are definitive collections of classic ideas, practical advice, and essential thinking from the pages of Harvard Business Review. Exploring topics like disruptive innovation, emotional intelligence, and new technology in our ever-evolving world, these books empower any leader to make bold decisions and inspire others.This Updated and Expanded edition features new, breakthrough articles, additional short-form pieces, and a detailed discussion guide to give you and your team the tools you need for sustained success.

A practical, research-based guide to maximizing the most overlooked driver of lasting success and fulfillment—your values.What if one simple shift could make you feel as satisfied as getting an $84,000 raise? Research shows that really understanding your core values—and living by them—can deliver just that. Yet most of us struggle with this. We go about our work and our lives with only a vague sense of the values that underpin everything we do.In What Do You Really Stand For? Columbia Business School professor Paul Ingram reveals that values are far more than a moral compass—they're a source of advantage that can boost your performance, your leadership effectiveness, and your well-being.Drawing on decades of research and the frameworks he's used with students and executives, Ingram presents a set of exercises and tools to help you articulate your values, integrate them into your work and life, build stronger relationships, and achieve better outcomes in all that you do.Whether you're navigating a career decision or managing conflict, leading a team or an entire organization, or simply trying to live with greater purpose, What Do You Really Stand For? offers a powerful guide to taking more intentional control of your life and career—and leading yourself and others with more clarity, confidence, and purpose.

Named one of "10 Must-Read Career and Leadership Books For 2022" by ForbesThe ultimate guide to the essentials of strategy and management, from one of the world's top business thinkers.Over a stellar career, Roger Martin has advised the CEOs of some of the world's most successful companies. From the beginning, he noted that almost every executive he talked to had a "model"—a framework or way of thinking that guided their strategy and activities. But these models tended to become automatic, so much so that when one didn't work, the typical response was just to apply it again—with greater enthusiasm.Martin took a fresh, critical approach to helping. When company leaders came to him with fundamental questions—How do you decide where to play and how to win? What is the key to shaping and changing corporate culture? How can you design a successful, sustainable innovation process?—his first response was to break the spell of the current model with a memo articulating a new way to think about the problem at hand and a more powerful and effective way to successfully overcome it.Over time, these ideas worked their way into Martin's many Harvard Business Review articles. Now, for the first time, they appear together in A New Way to Think. With his trademark incisive intellect and clarity, Martin covers the entire breadth of the management landscape—illuminating the true nature of competition, explaining how company success revolves around customers, revealing how strategy and execution are really the same thing, and much more.Reading like a series of one-on-one sessions with one of the world's leading business thinkers, A New Way to Think is an essential guide for any current or aspiring business leader.

Does it seem you've formulated a rock-solid strategy, yet your firm still can't get ahead? If so, construct a solid foundation for business execution--an IT infrastructure and digitized business processes to automate your company's core capabilities. In Enterprise Architecture as Strategy: Creating a Foundation for Business Execution, authors Jeanne W. Ross, Peter Weill, and David C. Robertson show you how. The key? Make tough decisions about which processes you must execute well, then implement the IT systems needed to digitize those processes. Citing numerous companies worldwide, the authors show how constructing the right enterprise architecture enhances profitability and time to market, improves strategy execution, and even lowers IT costs. Though clear, engaging explanation, they demonstrate how to define your operating model--your vision of how your firm will survive and grow--and implement it through your enterprise architecture. Their counterintuitive but vital message: when it comes to executing your strategy, your enterprise architecture may matter far more than your strategy itself.

Named one of "The five best books to understand AI" by The EconomistThe impact AI will have is profound, but the economic framework for understanding it is surprisingly simple.Artificial intelligence seems to do the impossible, magically bringing machines to life—driving cars, trading stocks, and teaching children. But facing the sea change that AI brings can be paralyzing. How should companies set strategies, governments design policies, and people plan their lives for a world so different from what we know? In the face of such uncertainty, many either cower in fear or predict an impossibly sunny future.But in Prediction Machines, three eminent economists recast the rise of AI as a drop in the cost of prediction. With this masterful stroke, they lift the curtain on the AI-is-magic hype and provide economic clarity about the AI revolution as well as a basis for action by executives, policy makers, investors, and entrepreneurs.In this new, updated edition, the authors illustrate how, when AI is framed as cheap prediction, its extraordinary potential becomes clear:Prediction is at the heart of making decisions amid uncertainty. Our businesses and personal lives are riddled with such decisions.Prediction tools increase productivity—operating machines, handling documents, communicating with customers.Uncertainty constrains strategy. Better prediction creates opportunities for new business strategies to compete.The authors reset the context, describing the striking impact the book has had and how its argument and its implications are playing out in the real world. And in new material, they explain how prediction fits into decision-making processes and how foundational technologies such as quantum computing will impact business choices.Penetrating, insightful, and practical, Prediction Machines will help you navigate the changes on the horizon.

Drive lasting change with a new, nimbler organization focused on continuous change.Our organizations are stuck. We talk about agility but find ourselves bogged down in bureaucracy. We aspire to innovate but run into systems built to prevent mistakes, not spark breakthroughs. We need to learn and adapt, but we're operating with an outdated playbook built for efficiency and control. And our attempts to fix all this—by pouring trillions into huge, top-down transformations—make the problems worse.But there is a better way: Building an Octopus Organization.One of nature's most intelligent and curious creatures, the octopus is everything your organization needs to be: smart, endlessly adaptable, and highly resilient. Its eight tentacles work in concert, but each can also think for itself. This book shows how to achieve the same balance of cohesion and autonomy and to guide your organization toward a living, breathing system—one that learns, adapts, and thrives by tapping into the distributed intelligence of its people.Drawing on their experience at companies such as Amazon and McDonald's and work with hundreds of global companies, AWS executives Phil Le-Brun and Jana Werner show you how to break away from the broken model of transformation and embrace continuous change. They share thirty-six "antipatterns"—conditioned habits—that keep us stuck and, in their place, provide "levers" that create meaningful improvement in months, not years.The Octopus Organization is your guide to moving beyond rigid structures and nurturing the living, adaptable organization you aspire to create, and be a part of.

Disruption resulting from the proliferation of AI is coming. The authors of the bestselling Prediction Machines can help you prepare.Artificial intelligence (AI) has impacted many industries around the world—banking and finance, pharmaceuticals, automotive, medical technology, manufacturing, and retail. But it has only just begun its odyssey toward cheaper, better, and faster predictions that drive strategic business decisions. When prediction is taken to the max, industries transform, and with such transformation comes disruption.What is at the root of this? In their bestselling first book, Prediction Machines, eminent economists Ajay Agrawal, Joshua Gans, and Avi Goldfarb explained the simple yet game-changing economics of AI. Now, in Power and Prediction, they go deeper, examining the most basic unit of analysis: the decision. The authors explain that the two key decision-making ingredients are prediction and judgment, and we perform both together in our minds, often without realizing it. The rise of AI is shifting prediction from humans to machines, relieving people from this cognitive load while increasing the speed and accuracy of decisions.This sets the stage for a flourishing of new decisions and has profound implications for system-level innovation. Redesigning systems of interdependent decisions takes time—many industries are in the quiet before the storm—but when these new systems emerge, they can be disruptive on a global scale. Decision-making confers power. In industry, power confers profits; in society, power confers control. This process will have winners and losers, and the authors show how businesses can leverage opportunities, as well as protect their positions.Filled with illuminating insights, rich examples, and practical advice, Power and Prediction is the must-read guide for any business leader or policymaker on how to make the coming AI disruptions work for you rather than against you.

A Washington Post Bestseller Three Principles for Managing--and Avoiding--the Problems of Growth Why is profitable growth so hard to achieve and sustain? Most executives manage their companies as if the solution to that problem lies in the external environment: find an attractive market, formulate the right strategy, win new customers. But when Bain & Company's Chris Zook and James Allen, authors of the bestselling Profit from the Core, researched this question, they found that when companies fail to achieve their growth targets, 90 percent of the time the root causes are internal, not external--increasing distance from the front lines, loss of accountability, proliferating processes and bureaucracy, to name only a few. What's more, companies experience a set of predictable internal crises, at predictable stages, as they grow. Even for healthy companies, these crises, if not managed properly, stifle the ability to grow further--and can actively lead to decline.The key insight from Zook and Allen's research is that managing these choke points requires a "founder's mentality"--behaviors typically embodied by a bold, ambitious founder--to restore speed, focus, and connection to customers: * An insurgent's clear mission and purpose * An unambiguous owner mindset * A relentless obsession with the front line Based on the authors' decade-long study of companies in more than forty countries, The Founder's Mentality demonstrates the strong relationship between these three traits in companies of all kinds--not just start-ups--and their ability to sustain performance. Through rich analysis and inspiring examples, this book shows how any leader--not only a founder--can instill and leverage a founder's mentality throughout their organization and find lasting, profitable growth.

A Wall Street Journal BestsellerYour personal goals need a long-term strategy.It's no secret that we're pushed to the limit. Today's professionals feel rushed, overwhelmed, and perennially behind. So we keep our heads down, focused on the next thing, and the next, without a moment to breathe.How can we break out of this endless cycle and create the kind of interesting, meaningful lives we all seek?Just as CEOs who optimize for quarterly profits often fail to make the strategic investments necessary for long-term growth, the same is true in our own personal and professional lives. We need to reorient ourselves to see the big picture so we can tap into the power of small changes that, made today, will have an enormous and disproportionate impact on our future success. We need to start playing The Long Game.As top business thinker and Duke University professor Dorie Clark explains, we all know intellectually that lasting success takes persistence and effort. And yet so much of the relentless pressure in our culture pushes us toward doing what's easy, what's guaranteed, or what looks glamorous in the moment. In The Long Game, she argues for a different path. It's about doing small things over time to achieve our goals—and being willing to keep at them, even when they seem pointless, boring, or hard.In The Long Game, Clark shares unique principles and frameworks you can apply to your specific situation, as well as vivid stories from her own career and other professionals' experiences. Everyone is allotted the same twenty-four hours—but with the right strategies, you can leverage those hours in more efficient and powerful ways than you ever imagined. It's never an overnight process, but the long-term payoff is immense: to finally break out of the frenetic day-to-day routine and transform your life and your career.

The dangerous work of leading change--somebody has to do it. Will you put yourself on the line?To lead is to live dangerously. It's romantic and exciting to think of leadership as all inspiration, decisive action, and rich rewards, but leading requires taking risks that can jeopardize your career and your personal life. It requires putting yourself on the line, disrupting the status quo, and surfacing hidden conflict. And when people resist and push back, there's a strong temptation to play it safe. Those who choose to lead plunge in, take the risks, and sometimes get burned. But it doesn't have to be that way say renowned leadership experts Ronald Heifetz and Marty Linsky. In Leadership on the Line, they show how it's possible to make a difference without getting "taken out" or pushed aside. They present everyday tools that give equal weight to the dangerous work of leading change and the critical importance of personal survival. Through vivid stories from all walks of life, the authors present straightforward strategies for navigating the perilous straits of leadership. Whether you're a parent or a politician, a CEO or a community activist, this practical book shows how you can exercise leadership and survive and thrive to enjoy the fruits of your labor.

Set a bold vision for your company—and achieve it.If you read nothing else on strategy, read this book. We've chosen a new selection of current and classic Harvard Business Review articles that will help you understand the dynamics of competition, find new sources of advantage, and create and capture lasting value.This book will inspire you to:Align your strategic thinking with your evolving industrySpot and mitigate bias in your decision-makingPut purpose at the core of your strategyDiscover new opportunities in the age of AICreate blue oceans that render the competition irrelevantClose the strategy-to-execution gapThis collection of articles includes "The Five Competitive Forces That Shape Strategy," by Michael E. Porter; "Blue Ocean Strategy," by W. Chan Kim and Renee Mauborgne; "Make Strategic Choices Simultaneously, Not Separately," by Roger L. Martin; "Put Purpose at the Core of Your Strategy," by Thomas W. Malnight, Ivy Buche, and Charles Dhanaraj; "Take the Bias Out of Big Decisions," by Freek Vermeulen; "Transient Advantage," by Rita McGrath; "Competing in the Age of AI," by Marco Iansiti and Karim R. Lakhani; "In the Ecosystem Economy, What's Your Strategy?," by Michael G. Jacobides; "Why Isn't Your Strategy Sticking?," by Andrea Belk Olson; "How to Avoid the Agility Trap," by Jianwen Liao and Feng Zhu; "Strategy in a Hyperpolitical World," by Roger L. Martin and Martin Reeves; "What You Lose with Your New Priorities," by Natalia Weisz and Roberto Vassolo; "Turning Great Strategy into Great Performance," by Michael Mankins and Richard Steele; and "Bringing True Strategic Foresight Back to Business," by Amy Webb.HBR's 10 Must Reads are definitive collections of classic ideas, practical advice, and essential thinking from the pages of Harvard Business Review. Exploring topics like disruptive innovation, emotional intelligence, and new technology in our ever-evolving world, these books empower any leader to make bold decisions and inspire others.This Updated and Expanded edition features new, breakthrough articles, additional short-form pieces, and a detailed discussion guide to give you and your team the tools you need for sustained success.

"Much of what we experience in life results from a combination of skill and luck." -- From the Introduction The trick, of course, is figuring out just how many of our successes (and failures) can be attributed to each--and how we can learn to tell the difference ahead of time. In most domains of life, skill and luck seem hopelessly entangled. Different levels of skill and varying degrees of good and bad luck are the realities that shape our lives--yet few of us are adept at accurately distinguishing between the two. Imagine what we could accomplish if we were able to tease out these two threads, examine them, and use the resulting knowledge to make better decisions. In this provocative book, Michael Mauboussin helps to untangle these intricate strands to offer the structure needed to analyze the relative importance of skill and luck. He offers concrete suggestions for making these insights work to your advantage. Once we understand the extent to which skill and luck contribute to our achievements, we can learn to deal with them in making decisions.The Success Equation helps us move toward this goal by: * Establishing a foundation so we better understand skill and luck, and can pinpoint where each is most relevant * Helping us develop the analytical tools necessary to understand skill and luck * Offering concrete suggestions about how to take these findings and put them to work Showcasing Mauboussin's trademark wit, insight, and analytical genius, The Success Equation is a must-read for anyone seeking to make better decisions--in business and in life.

Create a space where everyone can contribute and shine.Psychological safety is a shared belief within a team that it's OK to speak up, ask questions, take risks, and make mistakes without fear of repercussions. And it's a leader's job to create it.This book offers a rich understanding of this concept—and the trust and humility that must come with it. You'll learn how to build a psychologically safe environment, acknowledge difficult topics and emotions, and ensure that everyone feels comfortable in fully engaging with those around them.This volume includes the work of:Amy C. EdmondsonDaisy Auger-DominguezErica KeswinRon CarucciHow to be human at work. The HBR Emotional Intelligence Series features smart, essential reading on the human side of professional life from the pages of Harvard Business Review. Each book in the series offers proven research showing how our emotions impact our work lives, practical advice for managing difficult people and situations, and inspiring essays on what it means to tend to our emotional well-being at work. Uplifting and practical, these books describe the social skills that are critical for ambitious professionals to master.

Poll after poll has confirmed that an astonishing number of workers are disengaged from their work. Why is this happening? And how can we fix the problem?In this bold, enlightening book, social psychologist and professor Daniel M. Cable takes leaders into the minds of workers and reveals the surprising secret to restoring their zest for work.Disengagement isn't a motivational problem, it's a biological one. Humans aren't built for routine and repetition. We're designed to crave exploration, experimentation, and learning--in fact, there's a part of our brains, which scientists have coined "the seeking system," that rewards us for taking part in these activities. But the way organizations are run prevents many of us from following our innate impulses. As a result, we shut down.Things need to change. More than ever before, employee creativity and engagement are needed to win. Fortunately, it won't take an extensive overhaul of your organizational culture to get started. With small nudges, you can personally help people reach their fullest potential.Alive at Work reveals:How to encourage people to bring their best selves to work and use their greatest strengths to help your organization flourishHow to build creative environments that motivate people to share ideas, work smarter, and embrace changeHow to enhance people's connection to their work and your customersHow to create personalized experiences that help people feel a deeper sense of purposeFilled with fascinating stories from the author's extensive research, Alive at Work is the inspirational guide that you need to tap into the passion, creativity, and purpose fizzing beneath the surface of every person who falls under your leadership.