Business Problem Solving

The Financial Times Guide to Strategy is your unbeatable reference on strategy. It offers an incisive overview of both corporate level and business unit level strategy, an A to Z of the world's leading strategic thinkers, and introduces the key strategic tools and techniques you need to develop your own strategy. Based on long experience and on conversations with leading strategists around the world, Richard Koch helps you discover each critical step in creating, delivering, and understanding successful strategy.

Negotiation has always been at the heart of solving problems at work. Yet today, when people in organizations are asked to do more with less, be responsive 24/7, and manage in rapidly changing environments, negotiation is more essential than ever. What has been missed in much of the literature of the past 30 years is that negotiations in organizations always take place within a context - of organizational culture, of prior negotiations, of power relationships - that dictates which issues are negotiable and by whom.

Beyond OODA: Developing the Orientation for Deception, Conflict and Violence is Varg Freeborn's highly anticipated follow up to the extremely popular Violence of Mind. While Violence of Mind was a broad introduction to all aspects of violence preparation, Beyond OODA focuses precisely on the development of mindset, or more accurately the orientation that influences and governs our decision making, and how it is developed for both good and bad people, alike.

This book is all about the equations that make our world go round. Ten of them, in fact. They are integral to everything from investment banking to betting companies and social media giants. And they can help you to increase your chance of success, guard against financial loss, live more healthfully, and see through scaremongering. They are known by only the privileged few - until now.

Steve Jobs, Jeff Bezos, the school teacher next door who amassed a million-dollar fortune.... Did these people succeed because they were more motivated or because they were more disciplined? The answer to both questions is yes - but not in the ways you might think. Anyone can achieve extraordinary things. The secret is setting goals that test the very limits of your abilities. In Hard Goals, Mark Murphy, the acclaimed author of Hundred Percenters, explains the science behind getting from where you are to where you want to be in your career, business, and life.

Most of us grew up with the idea that there is good debt and there is bad debt. Good debts are generally considered to be debts you incur to buy things that can go up in value—like a home or college education. Bad debts are things like credit card balances, where you borrowed money to buy things that depreciate or go down in value, like most consumer goods.

Self-made millionaire Harvey Mackay knows about life at the top--and knows what it takes to stay there. Now, he tells you how to get there too, with dozens of common-sense lessons from all walks of life. Whether you're selling, managing, or punching the clock, you'll find the questions and the answers you need to questions like: Do you do what you love? (The Mackay self-inventory test will help you find out.); Do you love what you do? Do you deliver more than you promise?

Numbers make or break you. Ask any bankrupt business or successful startup and they’ll both agree, numbers don’t lie. Unfortunately, most teams focus on too many numbers or the wrong numbers or maybe no numbers at all! Author Lee Benson knows numbers. He grew his business from 3 employees to 500 with 15 consecutive years of 20 percent compounded average annual growth. Friends and families asked for his secret. He told them it came down to Your Most Important Number.

Turn to Decide and Conquer to access the decision framework David Siegel used when he took over as CEO of Meetup, the world’s leading platform for making connections and finding your community. Let David’s success during one of the most tumultuous times in his company’s history help guide you on your own path. Decide and Conquer helps all leaders navigate the big decisions that will impact their future and make their organizations a success. David outlines the 44 challenges leaders face when starting a new position.

Think differently, be more creative, and catch ideas in the air to solve problems quickly and skyrocket your productivity. People only see what is just visible. Thinking out of the box will empower you see the alternatives that others simply miss out on. Learn how to think out of the box, be known as “idea person”, and solve problems smarter, faster, and better.

The creative mode in your brain is like a butterfly. It's beautiful and erratic, hard to catch, and highly valued as a result. If you want to capture it, you need a net. Enter the executive mode, the task-oriented network in your brain that helps you tie your shoes, run a meeting, or pitch a client. To succeed, you need both modes to work together - your inner butterfly to be active and free, but your inner net to be ready to spring at the right time and create that "aha!" moment. But is there any way to trigger these insights, beyond dumb luck?

How to Survive the Recession, Handle Layoffs, Raise Emergency Cash, Thwart an Employee Coup, and Avoid Other Potential Disasters! Don't Panic. Be Prepared. Have a Plan. Layoffs. Sales slumps. Dangerously low morale. Extreme cash tightness. Reorganizations. It's a scary world out there. Times are as tough as they've been in decades.

On February 15, 2015, Kate Matrosova, an avid mountaineer, set off before sunrise for a traverse of the Northern Presidential Range in New Hampshire's White Mountains. Late the following day, rescuers carried her frozen body out of the mountains amid some of the worst weather ever recorded on these deceptively rugged slopes. At thirty-two, Matrosova was healthy and had already summited much larger mountains. What went wrong? Where You'll Find Me offers possible answers to that question.

Should one enter a market where someone is in a monopoly position? When is going to the ER a good or a bad decision? Why is it never a good idea for rebels to concede? Practice Game Theory answers all these questions. Think about and solve problems more effectively applying strategic games models to real-life challenges. Learn how top world leaders analyze and assess their next best moves.

Unlock the full potential of your mind and transform your life with Brain Hacking for Success.

Our decisions are expressions of who we are and how we move through the world. Rarely, though, do we examine our decisions or even look inward to consider the psychology of our decision-making. Instead, we often make decisions based on what we call instinct—which relies on cognitive bias, false assumptions, mis-remembering, and mental mistakes. Truthfully, we don’t see the world as it is; we see it as we are.

There are thousands of books about thinking. But there are very few books that provide clear how-to information that can actually help you think better. Think Better is about productive thinking - why it's important, how it works, and how to use it at work, at home, and at play. Productive thinking is a game changer - a practical, easy-to-learn, repeatable process that helps people understand more clearly, think more creatively, and plan more effectively.

There is an old saying about problems that you may have heard before, "There are no problems, only opportunities." To this simple-minded approach, Bill Gibson says, "Hogwash." Problems do exist. And you need to prepare for them and understand them before you can overcome them. Even the great problem solvers can't make problems go away, but they often find opportunities linked to them.

The world today is drowning in data. There is a treasure trove of valuable and underutilized insights that can be gleaned from information companies and people leave behind on the internet - our "digital breadcrumbs" - from job postings, to online news, social media, online ad spends, and more.

How to be human at work. The HBR Emotional Intelligence series features smart, essential listening 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.