The Challenge Built to Last, the defining management study of the nineties, showed how great companies triumph over time and how long-term sustained performance can be engineered into the DNA of an enterprise from the very beginning. But what about the company that is not born with great DNA? How can good companies, mediocre companies, even bad companies achieve enduring greatness? The Study For years, this question preyed on the mind of Jim Collins....

Jason Barron spent 516 hours in class, completed mountains of homework and shelled out tens of thousands of dollars to complete his MBA at the BYU Marriott School of Business. Along the way, rather than taking boring notes that he would never read (nor use) again, Jason created sketch notes for each class-visually capturing the essential points of his education-and providing an engaging and invaluable resource. Once finished with his MBA, Jason launched...

Anyone who opts for self-employment quickly learns that succeeding as your own boss is no walk in the park. While professional freedom has many, many joys, it also involves significant risks. If you're considering self-employment, or you're already self-employed, The Self-Employment Survival Guide: Proven Strategies to Succeed as Your Own Boss alerts you to the challenges involved and provides proven strategies for surmounting these obstacles and...

The founders of a respected Silicon Valley advisory firm study legendary category-creating companies and reveal a groundbreaking discipline called category design. Winning today isn't about beating the competition at the old game. It's about inventing a whole new game-defining a new market category, developing it, and dominating it over time. You can't build a legendary company without building a legendary category. If you think that having the best...

Argues that a manager's central responsibility is to create and implement strategies, challenges popular motivational practices, and shares anecdotes discussing how to enable action-oriented plans for real-world results.

Along with Sun Tzu's The Art of War, The Book of Five Rings is considered to be one of the most insightful texts on the subtle arts of confrontation and victory to emerge from Asia. It analyzes the process of struggle and mastery over conflict that underlies every level of human interaction. For Musashi, the way of the martial arts was a mastery of the mind rather than simply technical prowess-and it is this path to mastery that is the core teaching...

Examines nine years of research on successful businesses to help determine why some companies thrive in uncertainty while others do not, and highlights such qualities as discipline, creativity, and constancy.

How to Get Others to Support Your Vision If you have a dream that needs backing, be it an art project, an invention, or even a business, this is the book for you. Brainard Carey offers advice with solid examples of how building relationships with sponsors, investors, grant-makers, and patrons is something every creative person can pursue. Carey draws from his extensive experience and interviews with others to show artists and creative people how...

Often downplayed in the excitement of starting up a new business venture is one of the most important decisions entrepreneurs will face: should they go it alone, or bring in cofounders, hires, and investors to help build the business? More than just financial rewards are at stake. Friendships and relationships can suffer. Bad decisions at the inception of a promising venture lay the foundations for its eventual ruin. The Founder's Dilemmas is the...