Business Fundamentals: Books

The global bestseller Business Model Generation introduced a unique visual way to summarize and creatively brainstorm any business or product idea on a single sheet of paper. Business Model You uses the same powerful one-page tool to teach readers how to draw "personal business models," which reveal new ways their skills can be adapted to the changing needs of the marketplace to reveal new, more satisfying, career and life possibilities. Produced by the same team that created Business Model Generation, this book is based on the Business Model Canvas methodology, which has quickly emerged as the world's leading business model description and innovation technique.

The E-Myth, or Entrepreneurial Myth, says that most new businesses are not started by entrepreneurs who set out to build a strong business but by technicians who enjoy the hands-on work themselves. Because of that natural bias, most business owners focus on working in their business when really they should be working on their business. There is, however, a simple and effective way to offset the E-Myth tendency.

Naked Economics makes up for all of those Econ 101 lectures you slept through (or avoided) in college, demystifying key concepts, laying bare the truths behind the numbers, and answering those questions you have always been too embarrassed to ask.

With the global economy recovering from a steep recession, those who fail to grasp basic economic principles such as gains from trade, the role of profit and loss, and the secondary effects of government spending, taxes, and borrowing risk falling behind in their professional careers--even their personal lives. Common Sense Economics discusses key principles and uses them to show how to make wise personal and policy choices.

Still in his early thirties, Chris is on the verge of completing a tour of every country on earth – he’s already visited more than 175 nations – and yet he’s never held a “real job” or earned a regular paycheck. Rather, he has a special genius for turning ideas into income, and he uses what he earns both to support his life of adventure and to give back. Sometimes, achieving that perfect blend of passion and income doesn’t depend on shelving what you currently do. You can start small with your venture, committing little time or money, and wait to take the real plunge when you're sure it's successful.

Here, LinkedIn cofounder and chairman Reid Hoffman and author Ben Casnocha show how to accelerate your career in today's competitive world. The key is to manage your career as if it were a start-up business: a living, breathing, growing start-up of you. Why? Start-ups - and the entrepreneurs who run them - are nimble. They invest in themselves. They build their professional networks. They take intelligent risks. They make uncertainty and volatility work to their advantage. These are the very same skills professionals need to get ahead today.

The problem for most small business owners is that they suffer from "marketing idea of the week" syndrome instead of implementing a systematic approach to the problem of small business marketing. Duct Tape Marketing shows you how to develop and execute a marketing plan that will give your business the life and longevity you knew you could it could have.

Successful marketing consultant Robert W. Bly cuts through the clutter of short-lived marketing techniques and trendy gimmicks and reveals the12 critical steps necessary to build a practical marketing plan that produces the results of an expensive consultant without the hefty costs. Entrepreneurs learn how to zero in on their marketing goals, choose the best marketing tactics, integrate timeless and up-and-coming techniques, create a success measuring system, and more.

The Open Group s long awaited guidance on Cloud is now Published! Cloud Computing is the major evolution today in computing. It describes how the internet has enabled organizations to access computing resources as a commodity and when needed in much the same way as households access household utilities. For Enterprises with complex and expensive IT systems, the idea of paying on demand for someone else to provide IT services is attractive. This authoritative guide is specifically designed for business managers to understand the benefits that can be achieved; including * Improved timeliness and agility * Resource optimization * Control and reduction of costs * More innovation * Increased security * Decreased exposure to risk * Demonstration of compliance * Improved quality of support * Improved business continuity resource The authoritative title, published by the globally respected Open Group, gives Managers reliable and independent guidance that will help to support decisions and actions in this key operational area.

The industrial-age corporation is crumbling. The new form of wealth creation is the business web,and the new basis of wealth is digital capital. Schwab, eBay, Cisco, MP3, Linux, and dozens of other companies have transformed the rules of competition in their industries, seemingly overnight. They hijacked long-entrenched industry leaders with revolutionary offerings that surprised and delighted customers. These transformers could not and did not act alone: partners enabled them to move with stealth, speed, agility, and force. Such teams of innovators pioneered the business web, or "b-web" - the new platform for competition in the twenty-first century. B-webs - partner networks of producers, service providers, suppliers, infrastructure companies, and customers linked via digital channels - are destroying the firm as we have known it and generating wealth in entirely new ways. In "Digital Capital", information-age visionaries Don Tapscott, David Ticoll, and Alex Lowy describe and explain the b-web phenomenon and the forces behind its emergence. Drawing on three years of multimillion-dollar research into hundreds of b-webs as diverse as the Microsoft alliance and the automotive industry, the authors illuminate the five distinct types of b-web now in play: Agoras, Aggregations, Value Chains, Alliances, and Distributive Networks. Punctuating their analysis with a rich set of case studies, they provide the definitive guide to business model innovation in the digital economy.

"This book should be an essential guide for managers, consultants, and business students." - "Publishers Weekly". For nearly half a century, Peter Drucker has inspired and educated managers - and influenced the nature of business - with his landmark articles in the "Harvard Business Review". Here, gathered together and framed by a thoughtful introduction from former Review editor Nan Stone, is a priceless collection of his most significant work. Infused with a perspective that holds new relevance today, these essays represent Drucker at his best: direct, wise, and challenging.

For more than twenty years, millions of managers in Fortune 500 companies and small businesses nationwide have followed The One Minute Manager's techniques, thus increasing their productivity, job satisfaction, and personal prosperity. These very real results were achieved through learning the management techniques that spell profitability for the organization and its employees.

The One Minute Manager is a concise, easily read story that reveals three very practical secrets: One Minute Goals, One Minute Praisings, and One Minute Reprimands.

In Business Stripped Bare, Sir Richard Branson shares the inside track on his life in business and reveals the incredible truth about his most risky, brilliant and audacious deals. Discover why Virgin tried to take on one of the world's biggest superbrands, how Virgin Mobile USA holds the record as the fastest company in history to generate revenues of over one billion dollars (faster than Microsoft, Google and Amazon) and how Richard is the only person in the world to have built eight billion-dollar companies from scratch in eight different sectors.

Combining invaluable advice with the remarkable and candid inside stories of Virgin's greatest achievements, as well as some of its setbacks, Business Stripped Bare is a dynamic, inspirational and truly original guide to success in business and in life. Whether you are an executive, an entrepreneur or are just starting out, Richard strips business down to show how you can succeed and make a difference.

Muhammad Yunus, the practical visionary who pioneered microcredit and, with his Grameen Bank, won the 2006 Nobel Peace Prize, has developed a visionary new dimension for capitalism which he calls “social business.” By harnessing the energy of profit-making to the objective of fulfilling human needs, social business creates self-supporting, viable commercial enterprises that generate economic growth even as they produce goods and services that make the world a better place.
In this book, Yunus shows how social business has gone from being a theory to an inspiring practice, adopted by leading corporations, entrepreneurs, and social activists across Asia, South America, Europe and the US. He demonstrates how social business transforms lives; offers practical guidance for those who want to create social businesses of their own; explains how public and corporate policies must adapt to make room for the social business model; and shows why social business holds the potential to redeem the failed promise of free-market enterprise.

In DELIVERING HAPPINESS, Zappos CEO Tony Hsieh shares the different lessons he has learned in business and life, from starting a worm farm to running a pizza business, through LinkExchange, Zappos, and more. Fast-paced and down-to-earth, DELIVERING HAPPINESS shows how a very different kind of corporate culture is a powerful model for achieving success-and how by concentrating on the happiness of those around you, you can dramatically increase your own.

Discover some of the ethical dilemmas that face people in business today and how they should respond. The authors present to students the essential concepts, ideas, and issues involved in ethics in business and emphasize the individual acting person and what it means to have character and integrity when doing business.

How to Understand Business Finance explains the concepts and translates the jargon of this often confusing subject. Using a unique business simulation it takes you through the set-up and initial trading of a company. With an extensive glossary explaining all the key terms, How to Understand Business Finance is an essential primer for non-financial managers and students everywhere.

Highlights the debates over the use of fair-value accounting and principles- versus rules-based standards
Offers a comprehensive overview of ethics in accounting, as well as an examination of and recommendations for solving the current crisis in this field
Investigates the nature and purpose of accounting
Uses concrete examples and case studies, including current situations
Examines the ethical responsibilities of individual accountants as well as accounting firms

The follow-up to the bestselling Tomorrow's HR Management (978-0-471-19714-0), this book presents an international panel of expert contributors who offer their views on the state of HR and what to expect in the future. Topics covered include HR as a decision science, understanding and managing people, creating and adapting organizational culture, the effects of globalization, collaborative ventures, and investing in the next generation. Like its bestselling predecessor before it, The Future of Human Resource Management offers the very best thinking on the future of HR from the most respected leaders in the field.

This book is about real management issues, advice and solutions. It is written in an entertaining manner yet it includes some powerful messages. Each chapter is a stand-alone tool for management development and personal improvement.

This wide-ranging, interdisciplinary book provides readers with a complete introduction to the essentials of leadership. Included here are accessible and insightful entries on what leadership is, how it is practiced and the relevant strengths and pitfalls. The book provides a one stop introductory guide to one of the most central and contested concepts in the social sciences.