Business Forecasting

Why is the Mona Lisa the most famous painting in the world? Why did Facebook succeed when other social networking sites failed? Did the surge in Iraq really lead to less violence? How much can CEO’s impact the performance of their companies? And does higher pay incentivize people to work hard? If you think the answers to these questions are a matter of common sense, think again.

In the midst of one of the most serious financial upheavals since the Great Depression, George Soros writes about the origins of the crisis and proposes a set of policies that should be adopted to confront it. Soros places the current crisis in the context of his decades of study of how individuals and institutions handle the boom and bust cycles that now dominate global economic activity.

Soros makes an invaluable contribution to our understanding of the great credit crisis and its implications for our nation and the world.

We have a choice. We can either be reactive and struggle to adjust to transformational events on the fly, or we can be proactive and control the narrative—reinventing work to align with the evolving environment. Futurist Rishad Tobaccowala has had a highly successful career because he has anticipated and capitalized on emerging trends. In Rethinking Work, Rishad outlines the reasons why being proactive in this era of unprecedented change is the only way organizations will survive and thrive.

How do you tell a real trend from the merely trendy? How, for example, will a technology—like artificial intelligence, machine learning, self-driving cars, biohacking, bots, and the Internet of Things—affect us, our businesses, and workplaces? How will it eventually change the way we live, work, play, and think—and how should we prepare for it now? In The Signals Are Talking, noted futurist Amy Webb shows us how to analyze the "true signals" and land on the right side of disruption.

In Strategic, New York Times and Wall Street Journal bestselling author Rich Horwath delivers an incisive roadmap to help leaders at all levels think, plan, and act strategically to navigate every business challenge they face. The book offers business leaders a proven framework—the Strategic Fitness System—containing dozens of tools, techniques, and checklists to confidently master every area of the business, from designing market-winning strategies to shaping the organization's culture.

The essential complement to the pathbreaking Competitive Strategy, Michael E. Porter's Competitive Advantage explores the underpinnings of competitive advantage in the individual firm. Competitive Advantage introduces a whole new way of understanding what a firm does. Porter's groundbreaking concept of the value chain disaggregates a company into activities, or the discrete functions or processes that represent the elemental building blocks of competitive advantage.

Businesses, organizations and society-at-large are all subject to unforeseeable events and incidents that often have a dramatic impact upon prosperity and profit. Due to their unpredictable nature, business leaders and executive teams are unable to prepare for these specific events. But, through innovation, strategizing and an open-minded approach, they can restructure their organization and practices in order to mitigate (or even take advantage of) the impact of such events.

In today’s fast-paced environment, the speed at which communication travels and the resounding calls for police accountability demonstrate a need for purposeful communications embedded in a strategic mindset. When done right, strategic communication can increase transparency, build trust, and encourage active community participation. Chief Cook has distilled over thirty years of experience into timely lessons filled with practical solutions you can begin implementing right away.

Start making choices now that serve your desired future. Today’s fast-paced and radically shifting business world means that many leaders, even those considered successful, are simply navigating urgent tasks with little to no strategy. In Strategy to Action, award-winning educator and coach Keita Demming of The Covenant Group presents an innovative and deceptively simple tool to help business professionals unite their short-term tactics with their long-term goals.

Great companies stumble and fall when they lose it. Highfliers crash when a competitor notices they don't have it. Start-ups shut down if they can't develop it. "It" is a strategy so powerful and an execution-driven mindset so relentless that companies use it to gain more than just competitive advantage—they achieve an industry dominance that is virtually unassailable and that competitors often try to explain away as unfair.

Even the best competitive strategies mean nothing if they can't be executed. Yet many organizations struggle when they move from defining a strategy to implementing it. Somehow, all the careful planning falls to the side, and leaders are left wondering how to pick up the pieces. The HBR Guide to Executing Your Strategy is here to help. This book offers leaders and managers tips and advice for how to take even the most detailed strategy and apply it throughout their organizations.

"The Accountability Equation" offers a revolutionary guide for mental health group practice owners facing the chaos of unmanaged systems and staff burnout. This book exposes the harsh realities of low morale and high turnover, presenting a dynamic system designed to cultivate true accountability and sustainable growth.

The seminal book Blue Ocean Strategy has sold over four million copies globally and is in print in forty-six languages. But much of W. Chan Kim and Renee Mauborgne's work on creating new market spaces was originally published in the pages of Harvard Business Review. This book brings the best of those articles together all in one place.

Drawing on a wide array of people and places, Uncharted traces long-term projects that shrewdly evolved over generations to meet the unpredictable challenges of every new age. Heffernan also looks at radical exercises and experiments that redefined standard practices by embracing different perspectives and testing fresh approaches. Preparing to confront a variable future provides the antidote to passivity and prediction.

Artificial intelligence, or AI, can recognize a pattern from any set of data it is given, which is what makes it such an extraordinarily powerful tool. But because not all patterns are authentic or reliable, AI’s pattern-finding superpower can lead to spurious patterns. Hence the conundrum at the heart of AI: its greatest strength can also be its greatest weakness. Targeting the businessperson who needs to know how to use AI profitably and responsibly, Caleb Briggs and Rex Briggs offer a foundational understanding of AI that is easy to grasp yet thorough enough to be used effectively.

A comprehensive guide to successful event management, this audiobook serves as a valuable resource for both beginners and seasoned professionals, equipping them with the tools needed to plan, execute, and evaluate memorable events. The guide takes listeners through a deep exploration of understanding their audience, conceptualizing resonant events, managing budgets, procuring vendors, effectively marketing, and embracing technology. It also emphasizes the power of networking and the importance of post-event evaluation for continuous improvement.

As the world navigates the rapid and disruptive effects of AI, climate change, and geopolitical conflicts, the world of work, too, needs to change. Jobs are giving way to skills as the currency of work to ensure a more agile, resilient, and flexible enterprise that cannot just respond but must thrive in the face of these challenges. This pivot from jobs to skills will require us to rethink everything we know about work.

Freedom By Design is the guide every service-based business owner needs but rarely finds, especially once growth starts feeling more like a grind than a reward. If your company has surpassed the $1M mark but left you with more stress, shrinking margins, and a team that leans too heavily on your shoulders, this book reveals why—and what to do about it.

As the CEO, board member, and executive of an architecture, engineering, and construction company, you are under pressure to lead your company in the age of AI disruption. Not knowing AI’s impact on your business and how you should respond is challenging.

Scale your company and prepare it for exit with the Billion Dollar Bullseye formula, inspired by Jonathan “JCron” Cronstedt's remarkable two-billion-dollar valuation journey as the president of Kajabi. As a visionary entrepreneur, JCron shares his invaluable insights and strategies for scaling businesses to unprecedented heights and how to navigate the resulting options intentionally. Whether you're a seasoned entrepreneur or an aspiring business owner dreaming of your own billion-dollar bullseye, this book provides the blueprint for achieving your goals.