Showing results by publisher "Tantor Audio" in Small Business & Entrepreneurship

Wikipedia uses crowds to provide entries for the world's largest and free encyclopedia. Partly fueled by the value that can be created and captured through crowdsourcing, interest in researching the phenomenon has been remarkable. Despite this - or perhaps because of it - research into crowdsourcing has been conducted in different research silos, within the fields of management (from strategy to finance to operations to information systems), biology, communications, computer science, economics, and political science, among others.

The process by which nations escape poverty and achieve economic and social progress has been the subject of extensive examination for hundreds of years. The notion of development itself has evolved from an original preoccupation with incomes and economic growth to a much broader understanding of development. In this Very Short Introduction, Ian Goldin considers the contributions that education, health, gender, equity, and other dimensions of human well-being make to development.

It's become an article of faith that American entrepreneurship is in trouble. The problems are many: lack of capital, too few entrepreneurial immigrants, excessive regulation, an aging population, slowing population growth, and rising student debt. But while experts across the country debate the causes and propose solutions, Scott Shane explains that the data just do not fit. Dismantling each of the most widely accepted theories in turn, he persuasively demonstrates that - while an evolving market is changing the nature of most startups - entrepreneurship is actually alive and well.

During the next 20 years, more than $500 billion is expected to pour into the philanthropic sector. Some of it will come from retiring baby boomers, but even more will come from newly rich Silicon Valley billionaires. Since 2006, the idea of "giving while living" has grown in its appeal such that many philanthropic donors now expect not just to give money during their lifetimes, but to create organizations or ventures - some for profit, others not for profit - whose missions are expected to be completed within the lifetime of the donors.

Three award-winning advertising executives prove that in business, Sacred Cows deserve to die. Don't get us wrong. While the authors have nothing against cows in general (they love steak) they do have a problem with Sacred Cows: Blindly doing things because...well...that's the way they've always been done. Formulas may be comforting, but they rarely work in the real world.

Consumers looking to protect their financial future in today's turbulent economy will find all the right advice in Safe Money in Tough Times. Well-known for conveying sophisticated insight in simple and engaging terms, Jonathan Pond explains how readers can take control of their financial lives, overcome any money problems, and develop an all-weather portfolio to last a lifetime.

If you’re like most women, you're still climbing out of a hole created by the worst economic recession since the Great Depression. If that's not enough angst to deal with, your boss wants it yesterday, your kids want it today, and your spouse wants it tonight. We also face an onslaught of time-sucking distractions: the Internet, email following you everywhere, Facebook, Twitter, texting, and virtual relationships - all competing with our ability to accomplish Big Things in our lives.

For decades, technology encouraged people to squander their time and intellect as passive consumers. Today, technology has finally caught up with human potential. In Cognitive Surplus, Internet guru Clay Shirky forecasts the thrilling changes we will all enjoy as new digital technology puts our untapped resources of talent and goodwill to use at last.

Steven Johnson, an acknowledged best-selling leader on the subject of innovation, gathers essays, interviews, and cutting-edge insights from exciting field leaders. Johnson also provides new material from Marisa Mayer of Google, Twitter's Biz Stone and Jack Dorsey, and Ray Ozzie, Microsoft's former chief software architect. With additional commentary by Johnson himself, this book reveals the innovation found in a wide range of fields, including science, technology, energy, transportation, education, art, and sociology, making it vital, fresh, and fascinating reading for our time, and for the future.

It's an event so popular, it's sold out up to a year in advance. It's an experience so powerful, participants willingly pay the $30,000 ticket price and return again and again. It's a place where dreams are made, expectations are exceeded, and multimillionaires are born. It's the Maui Mastermind, the most exclusive wealth retreat in the world, and its secrets have been kept behind closed doors. Until now.

With in-depth research, interviews, and provocative analysis, Mira Kamdar offers a penetrating view of India and its cultural and economic impact on the United States and the world. From Bollywood to the Indian diaspora to India's effect on global politics, she reports on the people, companies, and places shaping the new India. Kamdar examines the challenges India faces while celebrating India's tremendous vitality and the opportunities this Asian democracy has to shape its own and all of our destinies.

Success is built on connections we make with people and ideas. Whether it's connecting with customers to improve their service experience, or connecting with the strategic business plan and objectives for the coming year, the foundation for success starts with connection. In Connect, Keith Harrell and Hattie Hill reveal the seven core competencies needed to connect individuals and organizations in order to heighten productivity and to maximize personal and professional success.

Everyone manages someone or something: your own life and career, an administrative assistant, hundreds or thousands of people. How well or poorly you manage has a profound impact on your personal success. Mark Stevens makes the compelling point that, at any given time, everyone's management sucks. It can, however, be improved and rethought so you can move away from patterns and habits that you can easily fall victim to.

What do Disney, Bollywood, and "the Batkid" teach us about how to create celebrity experiences for our audiences? How can a vending machine inspire world peace? Can being "imperfect" make your business more marketable? Can a selfie improve one's confidence? When can addiction be a good thing?

Many people suffer from Nice Guy Syndrome - they're held back from higher levels of success by being too selfless at work. It's a tricky problem, because if you start to think that being nice is bad, it's easy to overcompensate with selfishness, intimidation, and intense aggression. The founders of Nice Guy Strategies teach that nice is not about being weak or soft - that you can hang on to your morals, compassion, and sincerity and still get ahead.

Eric Haseltine has applied discoveries about the human brain to his work in fields as diverse as aerospace, entertainment, and national defense. And all too often he has come up against short-term thinking that focuses on putting out fires instead of long-term thinking that can create explosive opportunities and open up new markets.

How bad will the current economy get? According to Eric Janszen, we could be facing an unemployment rate of over 10 percent; half of all retail stores boarded up; skeletons of unfinished buildings in our cities; and tax revenues down by 30 percent, leading to big cuts in government services. Sounds grim, but the good news is that this crisis will open the door to a saner economic future if we recognize the opportunity to correct decades of bad policy.

In their effort to build the world's first and largest commercial green rooftop farm, the founders of Brooklyn Grange learned a lot about building and sustaining a business while never losing sight of their mission: to serve their community by providing delicious organic food and changing the way people think about what they eat. But their story is about more than just farming. It serves as an inspirational and instructional guide for anyone looking to start a business that is successful while making a positive impact.

We live in a new world where work and life are blended as opposed to balanced, and feelings of financial security and entitlement are a thing of the past. Job satisfaction is at a record low, a crisis with far-reaching impact. For businesses, a disengaged workforce means lower levels of productivity and service, and ultimately lower growth and profits. For individuals, our emotions at work spill over to the other areas of our lives and take a toll on our health and relationships.

Following the enormous popularity of their bestselling The Carrot Principle, Adrian Gostick and Chester Elton return with a groundbreaking guide to building high-performance teams. The powerful research reported in The Orange Revolution reveals that the true driver of exceptional success for great companies is not a genius CEO....