HOME      SUBSCRIBE      TESTIMONIALS     FAQs     LOG-IN    CONTACT US
SEARCH
 
   

FREE ONE MONTH TRIAL
Subscribe to our free trial and receive business book summaries for a month. Sign-up now and get all the key information you need to keep up with the latest business trends.
No obligations whatsoever.
Absolutely FREE.

Name:
Email:
 


SUBSCRIBE NOW

Summaries of business bestsellers for one year in pdf, Powerpoint, PDA, audio and print formats made available electronically or by mail.
Sign-up for multiple subscription and enjoy discounts on our book summaries.
Give book summaries as gifts to your friends or family. Surely a great pick for all occasions.
Keep your key people updated with the latest business trends by giving them access to our book summaries
The Organized Executive promotion for December
     
 BOOK CATEGORY : Management
Co-opetition
1. A revolutionary mindset that combines competition and cooperation
2. The Game Theory Strategy that’s changing the game of business

By Adam Brandenburger and Barry Nalebuff
Doubleday, 1997
ISBN 0385479506

Co-opetition combines the advantages of both competition and cooperation into a new and dynamic framework to generate more profit and turn things in your favor by changing the business environment that directly affects your company.
 
Effective Networking for Professional Success
"How to Make the Most of Your Personal Contacts"
By Rupert Hart
Stirling Books, 1997
ISBN 0 949 142 09 3
125 pages


In an uncertain world where we are all effectively self-employed, networking skills make all the difference for freelancers, job changers, and career climbers. Increase your chances of landing that all-important job or business contract.
 
First Things First
“To Live, to Love, to Learn, to Leave a Legacy”
By Stephen R. Covey, A. Roger Merrill, Rebecca R. Merrill
Simon & Schuster, First Fireside Edition 1995
ISBN 0-671-86441-6 Paperback ISBN 0-684-80203-1
373 pages


The best-selling author of “The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People” sheds light on the perennial problem of personal time management, and achieving the balance between nurturing rich relationships while maintaining a career. Changing our paradigms from "getting the urgent things done" as the First Things in our lives, Covey enlightens us on how we can see where True North is on our life compass. It isn't about how fast you're going; it's where you're headed that matters. Understand these lessons and organize your priorities so you spend more time on the real First Things in life.
 
Identity Is Destiny
Leadership and the Roots of Value Creation

By Laurence D. Ackerman
Berrett-Koehler Publishers Inc. 2000
ISBN 1-57675-068-X
220 pages


Is your company suffering from an identity crisis?

Corporate identity goes deeper than simply having a logo design updated, or hiring an agency to create a snappy tagline and ad campaign. Organizations can achieve their full potential by living according to their true identity. The core values create a corporate identity that every individual in the organization should believe in and stand up for. A logo design may be updated with every passing trend, but core values and practices are timeless and transcend the organization.

 
Inside Outsourcing
The insider’s guide to managing strategic sourcing

By Charles L. Gay and James Essinger
Nicholas Brealey Publishing 2000
ISBN 1-85788-204-0
245 pages


How can organizations use outsourcing to its full potential, as a strategic business tool?

Maximize your company’s efficiency, profitability, and cost-effective operations while allowing flexibility and building a greater customer franchise. From decision-making to implementation – to identifying what a company does more creatively than its competition- the big idea becomes clear not only through theory but in this book’s practical and detailed examination of strategic outsourcing processes. Backed up by case studies on Rolls Royce, Bethlehem Steel, Pharmacia Upjohn, Gillette, and DuPont, Inside Outsourcing offers points to help streamline your operations and maximize service quality.

 
Profit Building
Cutting costs without cutting people
By Perry J. Ludy
Berrett-Koehler Publications Inc 2000
ISBN 1-57675-108-2
162 pages


Ludy’s five-step process shows how to organize teams with the specific purpose of improving profit. When employees are involved in the cost reduction strategy and are actively seeking creative ways to cut costs and keep their jobs, the result is a win-win situation all around.

Written for managers, supervisors, senior executives, consultants, small business owners, and accountants, this valuable resource addresses the real bottom line –everyone builds profit.

We should focus on profit the same way we focus on marketing, human resources, and operations. It is after all, the reason we stay in business.

 
Secrets Of Successful Speakers
How You Can Motivate, Captivate & Persuade
By Lilly Walters
McGraw-Hill, Inc., 1993
ISBN 0070680345
216 Pages


This book is an excellent resource for anyone who needs to learn effective techniques for public speaking. Walters has compiled quotes and advice from dozens of well-known speakers such as Steve Allen, Ken Blanchard, Tony Robbins and others. These ideas are interwoven around Walters’ categories for preparing for a speech, overcoming stage fright, motivating an audience, etc. Some of the advice below is written first-person as given from the expert ("I cure stage fright by - ").

 
100 Absolutely Unbreakable Laws of Business Success, The
By Brian Tracy
Berrett-Koehler Publishing, June 2000
ISBN 1576751074
300 Pages


Human potential expert Brian Tracy has applied many laws of effective self development to the field of business and created a fascinating and easily understandable guide that can enhance both your personal and professional life. He explains each of the 100 laws in theoretical detail and then applies them to various aspects of business, career enhancement, creativity and financial reward. These laws are from Tracy's speaking and consulting experience throughout the world.
 
Neglected Firm, The
Every manager must manage two firms: the present one and the future one
By Jorge A. Vasconcellos e Sa
Palgrave Publishers Ltd, 2002
ISBN 0-333-98712-8
140 pages


“When you don’t know where you want to go, the wind always blows from the wrong direction.”

Every manager must manage two companies simultaneously: the present firm and the future firm. Neglecting the future firm will cause the organization to become obsolete given the change of the business environment from day to day. Managing only the future firm and neglecting the present day-to-day business will never get the company to its future goals.

The art of balancing the management of the urgent (today) with the important (future) is presented in this book through two detailed case studies of the Swedish car manufacturer Saab and the Spanish financial institution, Caja de Madrid.

Click here to view the book summary >>

 
Rebel Rules, The
Daring To Be Yourself In Business
By Chip Conley
A Fireside Book, Simon & Schuster New York 2001
ISBN 0-684-86516-5
287 pages


The boy wonder of the American travel and hospitality business shares the secrets of his success. The characteristic traits of a rebel – passion, vision, instinct and agility- as illustrated by Virgin’s Richard Branson, The Body Shop’s Anita Roddick, and the author himself, are described here in a guidebook for today’s daring new entrepreneurs.

The principles in this book apply universally to anyone who wants to create a humane and empowered workplace, whether you are from a nonprofit organization, in the government or a private business. A new kind of fast company leader is rising to power in the business world. Rebel leaders are rewriting the rules

 
Seven Spiritual Laws Of Success, The
A Practical Guide To The Fulfillment of Your Dreams
By Deepak Chopra. M.D.
Amber-Allen Pub 1995
ISBN: 1878424114
115 pages


Dr. Deepak Chopra is a well-known author of more than 25 books. He is one of the leading spokespersons for a growing movement of physicians who are combining modern Western medicine with ancient Eastern healing methods. Chopra was formerly the Chief of Staff at Boston Regional Medical Center, and he has taught at Tufts University and Boston University Schools of Medicine. The Seven Spiritual Laws of Success is a short but insightful book that explains how simple actions can make a big difference. Some parts of it may appear abstract to those who have not experienced Eastern philosophy.
 
Creativity In Business
Based On The Famed Stanford University Course That Revolutionized The Art Of Success
By Michael Ray and Rochelle Myers
Doubleday New York, 1989
ISBN 0-385-24851-2


“Live your life like a work of art”.

Business is actually a very creative form of art. It integrates creativity and imagination (business plans and ideas) people skills, organizational skills, and requires a focus and drive that many artists possess. This book guides you to reach down to your core Essence - your inner creative resource that can fuel your personal and professional life.

 
Managing At The Speed Of Change
How Resilient Managers Succeed And Prosper Where Others Fail

By Daryl R. Conner
Villard books/Random House 1992
ISBN 0-679-40684-0
282 pages


Written a decade ago but still very useful for today’s world, this book will help you if you need to know:

Why do some people absorb change quicker and adapt faster than others?
Why do some companies flourish during turbulent times while others flounder?
Why software systems changes may cause less havoc than moving the paper clips and envelopes to the other room?

With key insights into the fear of change many of us encounter, and many important lessons to understanding how humans, the most controlling type of species on the planet, can better work with change when it happens.

 
Dr. Peeling’s Principles of Management
Practical Advice for the Front-Line Manager
By Nic Peeling
Dorset House Publishing, New York 2003
ISBN 0-932633-54-4
257 pages

Most management books on store shelves today tell chief executives how to manage people from the top, with little references available for the front line managers. This book is written for those new managers responsible for directing the bulk of the work at the bottom, where real value for the company is created everyday. Maybe you are managing a team for the first time, and you don’t know exactly how to deal with people. This book offers useful guidelines on handling thorny issues, from sexual harassment and misbehavior, to office sex, and termination. Perhaps people problems are not your area of expertise? This is the book that Dr. Peeling wishes had been around when he was a new manager who needed advice. Share it with your colleagues and train for great leadership today!
 
Leading On The Edge of Chaos
The 10 Critical Elements For Success In Volatile Times
By Emmett C. Murphy and Mark A. Murphy
Prentice Hall 2002
ISBN 0 7352 0312 1
226 pages


A timely book for today’s chaotic economy, the Murphy’s suggest 10 key strategies for business leaders. If you fail to deliver, a volatile market can be terribly unforgiving. How you handle uncertainty will determine your company’s success.
 
Survival Is Not Enough
Zooming, Evolution, and the Future of Your Company
By Seth Godin
Simon & Schuster, Inc. 2002
ISBN 0 7432 2571 6
265 pages

  • Change is the new normal.
  • Charles Darwin's Theory of Evolution can be applied as a metaphor for businesses.
  • Only companies that zoom, or learn to adapt and evolve constantly will survive.
  • Companies that don't evolve and make change a normal thing are signing up for their own extinction.
  • Genes take longer to change over time. Memes, or new ideas, spread at a much faster rate than genes.
  • Zooming is about constant change, for no particular reason, and with no particular goal.
  • Zooming is less painful. You gradually breed a new kind of species, instead of forcing one to make a big traumatic change.
  • Zooming is about stretching your limits by adapting to new ideas, opportunities, and challenges without triggering our inherent human change-avoidance reflex.
  • Zooming is about adapting small changes over time.
  • You can practice zooming in everyday life: change your office layout, eat in a different restaurant every weekend, listening to a new CD everyday, read a magazine you've never read before, or just do something for the first time, as often as possible.
  • Normal can be an environment where new memes appear on a regular basis.
  • Companies that zoom do the same thing but try something just a little bit differently each time.
 
Management of The Absurd
Paradoxes in Leadership
By Richard Farson
Simon & Schuster 1997
ISBN 0 684 80080 2
172 pages


To understand basic human behavior and relations, we must first recognize that most often it is irrational, and we cannot simply answer leadership problems with trendy, simplistic formulas. This artfully written and unique book is fresh in its perspective, offering an out-of-the-box approach and exploring a new way of looking at things.

 
Power Plays
Shakespeare’s Lessons in Leadership and Management
By John O. Whitney and Tina Packer
Simon and Schuster, June 2000
ISBN 0-684-86887-3
315 pages


Having written one hundred fifty-four sonnets, several long poems and thirty-nine plays (all still read, performed and studied today) it can perhaps be said that no other writer in the history of literature has shown much knowledge about the nature of people and the human condition than Shakespeare. This book shows that wherever we are in our career or private life, Shakespeare has been there already, and he has much to teach us. Shakespeare can be especially helpful to modern business leaders at every level of the business game. Throughout the book, John Whitney and Tina Packer gives us vignettes on Shakespeare’s plays and their insights on business leadership, showing us various lessons on managing ourselves and the people in our companies.
 
 Power Of Six Sigma, The
Influence with honor
By Stephen R. Covey and Blaine Lee
A Fireside book by Simon & Schuster 1998
ISBN 0-684-81058-1
Pbk 0-684-84616-0
363 pages


Dr. Blaine Lee outlines useful methods to overcome powerlessness, emphasizing that in our business or personal lives, we are always faced with a Choice. This is a book for people who need to understand the greatest power is that which comes through integrity, how principle-centered power, or the way you live your life, is the way to getting the kind of power, respect, and honor that outlasts a lifetime.

 
 Follow This Path
How the World's Greatest Organizations Drive Growth by Unleashing Human Potential
By Curt Coffman, Gabriel Gonzalez-Molina, Ph.D.
and Ashok Gopal


This book shows that the ultimate solution to reversing the current leadership trends of margin slashing, accounting trickery, and shareholder hoodwinking is to run an organization that can maintain and expand its customer base without slashing prices and without reducing its fiscal integrity. In the end, the success of your organization does not depend on your understanding of economics, or organizational development, or marketing. It depends on your understanding of psychology: how each individual employee and client connects with your company.
 
How To Sell And Manage In Tough Times and Tough Markets
You can thrive, not just survive, in tough times!
By Tom Reilly
Motivation Press, August 2001
ISBN 0-944448-22-4
135 pages


This book offers practical tips and advice on how salespeople and managers can effectively steer their way through times

Tough times happen when you have an extended period of declining economic activity. In business terms, tough times happen when supply is greater than demand, creating the proverbial buyer’s market. It’s a different kind of tough times when demand is greater than supply. It then becomes a “seller’s market.” Though sounding great, it brings with it another set of problems for sales people. It’s tough times when you must work harder, finding it difficult to get ahead. It doesn’t necessarily have to be a full-blown recession: if your company can’t ship products for whatever reason, the times may be rough.

 
What Clients Love
A Field Guide to Growing Your Business
By Harry Beckwith
Warner Books 2003
ISBN 0 446 52755 6
282 pages


From making a pitch to building a brand, designing a logo to closing the sale, this is a field guide to take with you to the front lines of today's “business battles.”

From the best-selling author of the classic "Selling the Invisible" comes another book filled with lessons learned from real-life stories in the current business environment. Designed for the busy executive (and made to fit nicely in your air travel carry-on) this book explores how the little details really matter in the art of keeping a fruitful and long-term relationship with clients.

 
Profit From Experience
Practical, Proven Skills for Transforming Your Organization
By Gil Amelio and William L. Simon
A Touchstone Book Published by Simon and Schuster 1997
ISBN 0 684 83702 1
309 pages


"Few organizations are so weak they can't be saved, few are so healthy they can't be improved."

-Gil Amelio

An inspiring and true story of National Semiconductor’s Transformation Management process, as told by the former Chairman and CEO of Apple Computer.

This remarkable firsthand story of corporate transformation from a key change agent shows how to engineer a turnaround, bring health to any company, and enjoy greater long-term profits.

Outlining key issues, strategies, and guidelines Gil introduced at National Semiconductor, this captain tells the story of how he steered his ship from the brink of bankruptcy to its highest earnings in just three years.

 
Accountability
By Rob Lebow and Randy Spitzer
Berret-Koehler Publishers, Inc. September 2002
ISBN 1-57675-183-X
258 pages


Accountability is one of the best written management books that advocate freedom and responsibility without control in managing business organizations that achieves sustainable results in sales growth and overall bottom line performance for many industries.

This advocacy professes the belief in granting individuals in a business organization the right and the freedom to make choices that allows people to be personally responsible in their jobs when they are allowed to design and own their jobs, and to create their systems. And for leaders to have faith in their people by believing that everyone wants to be great and that they be trusted to do great things.

 
Preventing Strategic Gridlock
Leading Over, Under & Around Organizational Jams to Achieve High Performance Results
By Pamela S. Harper
Cameo Publications 2003
ISBN 0 9715739 4 8
229 pages


Understand how a leader’s mistaken assumptions can create gridlock and organizational jams. This must-read for business managers provides real-life stories on companies from Mattel to Procter & Gamble, Daimler-Chrysler, to Coca-Cola. Pam Harper proposes six guidelines of organizational reality to UNLOCK your company from Strategic Gridlock, so you can drive it down the road to high-performance.

Whether your company is in e-commerce, going public/private, going through a merger/acquisition, entering a new market, reorganizing, outsourcing, or introducing new technology, all these situations can bring about strategic gridlock

 
Taming Technology
You Can Control the Beast
By Brian J. Nichelsen, Ph.D.
Cameo Publications, LLC May 2003
ISBN 0-9715739-6-4
125 pages


Taming Technology is one of the brilliantly written books by Brian J. Nichelsen, Ph. D. that enable us to deal and cope with technology 24/7 each day of the year.

This book gives us an in-depth understanding that technology need not be feared but with common sense savvy should enable us to harness its potentials to make us more productive and efficient.

Click here to view the book summary >>

 
Seven Deadly Skills of Communicating, The
By Ros Jay
International Thomson Business Press 1999
ISBN 981 4040 44 4
159 pages


Communication as always, is one of the most important tool to make an organization productive and successful. Communicating with your co-employees, staff and superiors can’t be avoided. Though indirectly relayed, your actions give out unconscious messages. If you keep some information to yourself, lack of trust could be the meaning of this action. And this action is just one of the causes of a poor communication. Having Poor Communication in an organization develops low morale and negative attitudes among the people in it. In this case, productivity is affected. Communication is very important, becomes it becomes an essential tool to convince management to provide what the organization needs, that will lead to a successful and motivated people. Having the right communication and ways of doing it, will nurture happy employees that would lead to a productive and motivated environment. And this will give the manager an easier and rewarding job that would reflect his management skills.

 
Zap the Gaps
Target Higher Performance and Achieve It!
By Ken Blanchard, Dana Robinson, and Jim Robinson
HarperCollins Publishers Inc.,2002
ISBN 0 06 050300 9
126 pages


A fictitious character by the name of Bill Ambers is this book's protagonist. Bill is the classic director of customer service in a call center. He faces the challenge set by his new boss, Angela Krafft, the archetype of the results-oriented boss. Angie simply wants him to "turnaround the numbers" and improve the call center's customer service, without the support of a big budget. Together with his HR counterpart Sarah, and with the help of a mentor, Landscaper Michael St. Vincent, Bill learns to systematically dig to the root of the problem, discovering how to Zap The Gaps in his department's performance.

 
Double-Digit Growth
“How Great Companies Achieve It– No Matter What”
Michael Treacy
Portfolio August 21, 2003
240 pages


The author's research shows that steady double-digit growth is possible. Businesses which have been able to achieve this have done so by relying on a combination of growth initiatives.
 
Practice What You Preach
What Managers Must Do to Create a High-Achievement Culture
David Maister
Simon & Schuster UK Ltd, London 2001
267 pages


A study conducted by the author shows that the most financially successful operations have common characteristics. The relationship between these characteristics and financial success is not trivial.

 
 Enterprise Marketing Management
By Dave Sutton and Tom Klein
John Wiley & Sons, Inc.
ISBN 0-471-26772-4
224 pages

This book on enterprise marketing management allows business leaders to begin transforming their marketing function to realize business results by applying principles in a systematic and logical way. It goes on to answer difficult questions associated with implementing these principles and scientific practices within a business. It speaks to a key issue of marketing relevancy and provides some new thinking on how to integrate marketing in an organization.
 
Biggest Game of All, The
The Inside Strategies, Tactics and Temperaments That Make Great Dealmakers Great
By Leo Hindery, Jr. with Leslie Cauley
The Free Press, 2003
ISBN 0743229002
272 pages


The aim of this book is to help readers understand and appreciate the larger impact of some of the most significant business deals of the past decade, particularly those made in the US media industry. It offers a valuable assortment of “deal-making” stories personally encountered by Leo Hindery, Jr., offering lessons that may be gleaned from his behind-the-scenes accounts of the risky but exciting world of deals and dealmakers.
 
What is the Emperor Wearing?
Truth-Telling in Business Relationships
By Laurie Weiss
Butterworth-Heinneman
ISBN 0-7506-9872-1
217 pages

Once upon a time, an emperor who loved clothes was approached by two con men who made him an offer he couldn’t refuse. They promised to weave him a special cloth that would be invisible to anyone that is stupid or unworthy of their position. As the work proceeded, the emperor sent high-ranking officials to inspect the cloth. While these officials saw only air where the cloth was supposedly being made, they reported that the work was proceeding well for fear of being considered stupid or unworthy of their rank. Finally the emperor and his entourage came to inspect the cloth. None could see it, but all, also fearing to be known as stupid, proclaimed its magnificence. The con men pretended to cut and sew while everyone supported the deception. When the emperor wore clothes made from the “fabric,” the crowd likewise pretended to see clothes. A small child, viewing the naked emperor, announced to all that could hear: “the emperor has no clothes!”

This book provides valuable stories similar to the one told above. These are stories of ordinary individuals in the workplace who are striving to steer a course between deception and damaging confrontation by developing truth-telling skills.
 
Purple Cow
Transform Your Business by Being Remarkable
By Seth Godin
Portfolio, May 2003
ISBN 159184021X
160 pages

How do ideas spread? Why do some charities, movies, architects, politicians, potato chips and cars succeed, while others (just as good apparently) fade away?

Purple Cow is a book about how challenging it is to get your ideas to spread-and how you can do it successfully.

This article is an idea that I hope will spread. After you read it (if you like it!) go ahead and forward it to anyone you think might benefit from the lessons here. It's small enough to just email it to someone. Or post it, print it… I don't care, so long as it spreads!

 
 Your Inner Edge
Business Success and Inner Development through High Performance Training, Self-motivation & Warrior Spirit!
By Charles Lambert, Ed.D.
Trafford Publishing, Trafford Holdings Ltd. Canada 2003
ISBN 1-55395-483-1
242 pages


The author contends that personal training and coaching can help individuals to gain the "edge" required for them to excel. As other success-minded professionals avail of the services of personal trainers and coaches to gain such an edge, readers can have as personal a training through the author's book. The book can be used both as a stand-alone training manual and as part of a learning system known as the Internal Technology (IT) Training Program. The book is a collection of techniques and principles from various disciplines with accompanying experiential exercises to facilitate understanding and application.

 
Mind Your Own Business
A Maverick's Guide to Business, Leadership and Life
By Sidney Harman
Doubleday & Company, Inc., 2003
ISBN 0-385-50959-6
208 pages


A maverick is an independent person who will not go along with the other members of a group (Oxford ESL Dictionary). This book provides priceless stories and insights from a maverick of the business world; an exemplary business leader who prefers not to follow orthodox beliefs in business, nor be eaten by the hyped up ideas of the present. Instead, he chooses the course of action that is appropriate for the changing times.

 
Topgrading
How Leading Companies Win by Hiring, Coaching, and Keeping the Best People
By Bradford D. Smart, Ph.D
Prentice Hall Press, New York, New York 1999
ISBN 0-7352-0049-1
288 pages

Companies that mis-hire its most important resource – the people – can result in financial drain and inefficiency. Topgrading enable companies to recruit, hire and keep the best people for the right job to get excellent results. The book, being a must read for human resource managers who rely on people to get things done, illustrates companies and even individuals aspiring to be an “A” player and how to become one. Combined with coaching on the job, people can be topgraded if external recruitment is not an option. Topgrading offers insights on motivating people using its 4,000 in-depth interviews. Companies that want positive results and stay competitive in the future must invest in the right talent.
 
What Management Is
How It Works and Why It’s Everyone’s Business
By Joan Magretta
Free Press 1st Edition (May 13, 2002)
ISBN 0743203186
256 pages


Management affects everyone because it is present in every aspect of the world. It applies to managing oneself — focusing our abilities towards our goals. It applies to our working relationships with others because it affects our choices about them. Management is about putting together organizations that work to accomplish a mission.

The basic tasks of the manager are to plan and to execute. The manager assesses the organization’s goals and resources. He defines these clearly for others. The manager formulates a plan of action or a kind of road map. Having the plan, the manager then proceeds to implement it. The manager must constantly keep careful track of where the organization is (Are we heading towards our goal?) and how the organization is performing (Are we utilizing best value from our resources?).

 
Many Miles To Go
A Modern Parable For Business Success
By Brian Tracy
McGraw-Hill/Business & Investing Distributed Product, 2003
ISBN 1891984993
288 pages


At the age of 20, Brian Tracey along with childhood friends, Bob and Geoff began their first life journey traveling 17,000 miles from Vancouver, through the Sahara Crossing to South Africa. Tracey’s travelogue has many twists and turns that show how the weak willed can be broken, a tale that is parallel to many a successful man’s life story.

Why are some people more successful than others? Tracey shares life secrets in this enthralling journey that ends at the border of Sahara Crossing.

 
Turbo Strategy
21 Powerful Ways to Transform YourBusiness and Boost Your Profits Quickly
By Brian Tracy
AMACOM, 2003
ISBN 0-8144-7193-5
160 pages


Businesses are run mostly on auto-pilot and any problem areas are only dealt with when they are already critical, but by then it may already be too late. Most business managers are too busy with the day-to-day work to sit back and look at the business critically in terms of its context and the direction it is going. Brian Tracey's Turbo Strategy provides a checklist of areas that should be regularly examined by all businesses to ensure that it remains on the right path towards success and profitability.

 
Execution
“The Discipline of Getting Things Done”
By Larry Bossidy & Ram Charan
Crown Publishing Group, 2002
ISBN 0609610570
278 pages


You've got the bright ideas and the smart people, and the market is just ready for you. But why hasn't your business taken off as you predicted? Maybe the problem is in your . What does it really take to get a business going? You need the right people combined with realistic strategies to create effective operating procedures. Let Larry Bossidy andRamCharan tell you how. Abusiness leader's most important job is the execution of plans, the “detail work,” making sure that the staff is getting results. This is the sort of responsibility that cannot be delegated. It is the leader's primary duty to see that every member of the team is carrying out his part of the big plan to ensure the whole company's success. There are no excuses for failure: the market will be tough. What spells the difference between successes and failures is the ability to execute plans.

Too often, too much intellectualizing and philosophy occurs at the planning level. The leaders are busy with their dreams and plans for success but there is little focus on implementation, thus the promised result is not delivered. The emphasis on execution as an integral part of the business process has not received enough attention in terms of accumulated knowledge and literature.

 
Guts!
Companies that Blow the Doors off Business as Usual
By Kevin and Jackie Freiberg
Doubleday & Company, Inc.2003
ISBN: 0385509618
278 pages

Truly enlightening is the discovery that while these companies belong to diverse industries, their brand of gutsy leadership, culture and philosophy share a common thread and are the very reasons for their remarkable success despite a very challenging business environment. The Freibergs unravel seven gutsy secrets that is nothing too complex that cannot be replicated by other companies. Nevertheless these qualities require lots of guts to copy and hence, can only be role-modeled by truly gutsy organizations.
 
18 Immutable Laws Of Corporate Reputation, The
Creating, Protecting, and Repairing Your Most Valuable Asset
By Ronald J. Alsop
Wall Street Journal Books, 2004
ISBN 074323670X
320 pages


Everything an individual or company does or produces contributes to its reputation. Reputation is an intangible asset, but a very important one. In some ways it is even better than having money in the bank, but not as easily quantified.

A good reputation is its own advertising and quality seal. It can engender loyalty in customers that can cross several generations and time zones. A good reputation can bring in more customers in the good times, and be a protective buffer in the bad times.

The author has delineated what he calls the, “18 Immutable Laws of Corporate Reputation.” This book holistically deals with the topic of reputation management in three parts: establishing a good reputation, keeping that good reputation and repairing a damaged reputation.

 
Building The Bridge As You Walk On It
A Guide for Leading Change
By Robert E. Quinn
Jossey-Bass Inc., 2004
ISBN 078797112X
256 pages


Robert E. Quinn's first book, Deep Change: Discovering the Leader Within, expounded on the idea that changes in leadership styles and effectiveness required changes first and foremost within the leader's self. In the years that followed, reader feedback provided Quinn with a new model of leadership, one that reflected leadership as a state of being rather than just a pattern of behavioral modifications.

Thus emerged Building the Bridge as You Walk on It: A Guide for Leading Change. Ensconced in these pages of literature are valuable insights that detail the fundamental state of leadership, how you can achieve it and how to lead others towards it. Enriched with anecdotes from personal experiences of people who have experienced deep change, this book illustrates how deep change and entering the fundamental state of leadership improves relationships not only at the workplace but also at home and with one's self.

 
Surfing the Edge of Chaos
The Laws of Nature and the New Laws of Business
By Richard T. Pascale, Mark Millemann, Linda Gioja
Random House Inc., 2000
ISBN 0812933168
320 pages


The science investigating Complex Adaptive Systems is a broad based inquiry into the common properties of all living things - beehives and bond traders, ant colonies and enterprises, ecologies and economies. Over many millions of years, nature has evolved strategies for coping both with prolonged periods of gradual change and occasional cataclysms in which only the most adaptive survive. The latter condition is familiar to many in organizations today. This book distills four bedrock principles from the living sciences and demonstrates their managerial relevance in a time of disruptive change.
 
Savvy Consumer, The
How to Avoid Scams and Rip-Offs That Cost You Time and Money
By Elizabeth Leamy
Capital Book, Inc., 2004
ISBN 1-931868-57-3
320 pages


You're considering shelling out a large amount of cash. New appliance? New insurance policy? Maybe a cruise to the Bahamas? You want to be sure you're getting your money's worth. So many business books talk about making money, but how many deal with the other side of the coin, money? Finally, here is a guide to help you with as wide a variety of purchases as you could possibly make in your lifetime. From cars to building renovations, education and insurance, The Savvy Consumer teaches you to watch out for traps, to filter sales talk, and so much more.

 
Built To Last
Successful Habits of Visionary Companies
By Jim Collins, Jerry I. Porras
Harper Collins Publications, 2002
ISBN 0060516402
332 pages

Built to Last is about enduringly, great organizations known as visionary companies that have prospered over long periods of time through multiple product life cycles and several generations of leadership. The authors present the results of six years of intensive, qualitative research on what makes winning companies exceptional and different including their practices and habits. The seven timeless principles of visionary companies include: Be clock-builders, not time-tellers; embrace the “and”, reject the “or”; more than profits; walk the talk; preserve the core ideology while stimulating progress; never-ending process; and build the vision.
 
First Among Equals
“How to Manage a Group of Professionals”
By Patrick J. McKenna, David H. Meister
Harper Simon & Schuster, 2002
ISBN 0-7432-2551-1
320 pages


Congratulations!! You have been promoted to Group Leader!! Now what? Patrick J. McKenna and David H. Maister take you on a step-by-step instructional narrative on how to effectively manage a group of professionals. Not only will this book benefit the “newbies” who may flounder in the wake of crises and primadonnas, but it will also work for the veterans who may pick up a lesson or two fro