Profile Books strana 27 z 28

How is it that the most carefully-laid business strategies can go horribly wrong when put into practice? Robert Rowland Smith's answer, based on years of experience in high-level consultancy, is that 'reality eats strategy for breakfast': strategy, based on projections and assuming business is a rational pursuit, can't deal with the messy reality of life. More helpful are these practical questions that can help you plan what to do when your business comes into contact with reality. From learning the lessons of the past (rather than fixating on the future) to finding out what your business is really about, he explains the real-life factors that lead to success or failure. Including many new examples from the front line, from all around the world, The Reality Test will help you establish yourself as more effective and distinctive than your competitors, who follow the same rigid theoretical avenues. Whether you ask 'Are you making enough of your weaknesses?' or 'Are you 100% productive 100% of the time?', it's time to stop living in strategy La-La Land and face reality.

In The Sleeping Army, Freya went to Hel and back. She fought dragons, fled fire and outwitted giants - all to restore eternal youth to the Norse Gods. But now they're back, does anyone care? Up in Asgard, it doesn't really feel like it. The Gods' popularity on earth is waning, and without regular worship, their powers are fading fast. Meanwhile, their ancient enemies, the Frost Giants, are stirring. So the Gods hatch a plan - they'll come back down to earth, and they'll pursue a very different kind of popularity. They're going to become celebrities. A rollicking, thrilling and hilarious ride, The Lost Gods takes up where the Sleeping Army left off and takes us back to Simon's brilliantly-imagined modern Norse England.

Ask around in business circles, and you'll get a thousand different answers. But now, internationally-renowned leadership expert Dr Peter Fuda has created a single, coherent roadmap for greatness: after more than a decade's research and practice, Fuda shares the seven common threads that have enabled hundreds of CEOs across the world to transform themselves into effective, inspiring leaders. Leadership Transformed uses seven easy-to-remember metaphors to distil Fuda's research into a pathway for real, lasting change. The Fire metaphor, for example, will help you shift from burning platforms (fear-driven leadership) to burning ambition (purpose-driven leadership), while the Snowball metaphor will teach you how to foster mutual accountability and create unstoppable momentum. Fuda has helped leaders on four continents achieve greatness. Previously available only to the select clients of his industry-leading consultancy, now Fuda's expert knowledge can help kick-start your own leadership transformation.

The experts' guide to how to manage the most important person you are responsible for: yourself. Here are the checklists compiled by the CMI's experts on the aspects that are most crucial to your personal performance as a manager, on such topics as Starting a new job, Fitting in and getting on, Handling workplace relationships, Developing your network, Making an impact, Succeeding as a new manager, Handling the politics, Testing for personal effectiveness, Personal development planning, Working out a career plan, Writing your CV, Managing your time effectively, Handling information - avoiding overload, Solving problems, Stress management: self first, Emotional intelligence, Marketing yourself, Managing (your relationship with) your boss, and Networking. It is all here, from the basics to the more nuanced and difficult to get right, and included among the essential checklists are profiles of leading management thinkers on key topics.

The experts' guide to how to the organisational aspects of managing the people you are responsible for. Here are the checklists compiled by the CMI's experts on the aspects that are most crucial to the processes behind how you get the most from those you have to manage and work with, and how you deal with them when things go wrong. The checklists include: Planning the recruitment process, Managing staff turnover and retention, Managing part-time employees, Performance management, Using 360 degree feedback, Evaluating training and learning, Talent management, Training needs analysis, Succession planning, Devising a coaching programme, Understanding organisational culture, Employee engagement, Managing creativity, Implementing flexible working hours, Implementing a diversity management programme, Redundancy: managing the survivors, Enabling work-life balance It is all here, from the basics to the more nuanced and difficult to get right, and included among the essential checklists are profiles of leading management thinkers on key topics.

The experts' guide to how to manage and work with the people and teams you are responsible for. Here are the checklists compiled by the CMI's experts on the aspects that are most crucial to getting the most from those you have to manage and work with, on such topics as: Get the right people and get the people right, Team briefing, Effective verbal communication with groups, Facilitating, Developing trust, Empowerment, Successful delegation, Setting SMART objective, Motivating the demotivated, Managing the plateaued performer, Motivating staff in a time of change, Coaching for improved performance, Managing conflict, Managing the bully. It is all here, from the basics to the more nuanced and difficult to get right, and included among the essential checklists are profiles of leading management thinkers on key topics.

The world of Mood Indigo is a stained-glass cartoon kind of a place, where the piano dispenses cocktails, the kitchen mice dance to the sound of sunbeams, and the air is three parts jazz. Colin is a wealthy young aristocrat, a slim, innocent creature who loves easily. The instant he sees Chloe, bass drums thump inside his shirt, and soon the two are married. Typically generous, Colin gives a quarter of his fortune to his best friend Chick so he can marry Chloe's friend Alyssum. But a lily grows in Chloe's lung, and Colin must spend his remaining fortune on the only available treatment: surrounding her daily with fresh flowers. Chick squanders his share of Colin's money on rare editions of Jean Pulse Heartre, and Alyssum decides her only recourse is to murder the philosopher whose books are ruining her husband. Chick and Colin's money woes force them to sacrifice their carefree lives to soul-crushing work, and even the suicidal mice wear themselves out trying to restore the lustre to the kitchen tiles.

Even though everyone is talking about it, there is no concept in business today more muddled than 'strategy'. Richard Rumelt, described by McKinsey Quarterly as 'a giant in the field of strategy' and 'strategy's strategist', tackles this problem head-on in a jargon-free explanation of how to develop and take action on strategy, in business, politics and beyond. Rumelt dispels popular misconceptions about strategy - such as confusing it with ambitions, visions or financial goals - by very practically showing that a good strategy focuses on the challenges a business faces, and providing an insightful new approach for overcoming them. His sharp analysis and his brilliant, bold style make his book stand out from its competitors (something that Rumelt himself says is crucial). Rumelt has always challenged dominant thinking, ever since, in 1972, he was the first person to uncover a statistical link between corporate strategy and profitability - and this is his long-awaited tour de force.

How do you make your way in a world that is changing at an unprecedented rate? Why do we have less and less time? Why are some people unfaithful? How can our government act against threats before they happen? This book is about change - from the small and seemingly insignificant transitions in our day-to-day lives, to the big and almost incomprehensible shifts in human history. Drawing on expert advice and often complex theories, the authors of the bestselling The Decision Book present fifty simple and effective models to help us make sense of change in our world. Change is happening all around us, in every sphere from the personal and political to economics and the environment. In The Change Book you'll find models explaining the financial crisis, why biotechnology is the industry of the future and why cities are the new nations. Whether you're buying a new car, deciding who to vote for, or making an investment, this little black book will offer surprisingly simple explanations of our complicated world - and radically challenge some of your preconceived ideas.

What would be your ideal job if you didn't have to worry about money? Would you like to have more responsibility or less? How far would you go for a promotion? When did you last stand up for what you believe in? What are you afraid of? In this unique handbook to your own life and work, there are no right or wrong answers: only honest ones. Featuring sections on subjects everyone can relate to, from the professional (work and finance), to the personal (sex and relationships), The Question Book can be used alone, like a journal; or with a colleague, partner or friend. It will probe and enlighten on everything, including what your boss really thinks about you, whether you are in the right job, and what motivates you to get out of bed every morning. These wide-ranging questions - which provoke short 'yes or no's as well as open-ended responses that dig deeper - are pertinent, direct, and compulsively fun to answer. In The Question Book, you are under the spotlight. And only you have the answer.

Freya is an ordinary girl living in modern Britain, but with a twist: people still worship the Viking gods. One evening, stuck with her dad on his night shift at the British Museum, she is drawn to the Lewis Chessmen and Heimdall's Horn. Unable to resist, she blows the horn, waking three chess pieces from their enchantment; the slaves Roskva and Alfi, and Snot the Berserk. They are all summoned to Asgard, land of the Viking gods, and told they must go on a perilous journey to restore the gods to youth. If Freya refuses she will be turned into an ivory chess piece but, if she accepts her destiny and fails, the same terrible fate awaits her.

This title features unexpected tales from the master of short fiction. "The Shielding of Mrs Forbes". Graham Forbes is a disappointment to his mother, who thinks that if he must have a wife, he should have done better. Though her own husband isn't all that satisfactory either. Still, this is Alan Bennett, so what is happening in the bedroom (and in lots of other places too) is altogether more startling, perhaps shocking, and ultimately more true to people's predilections. "The Greening of Mrs Donaldson". Mrs. Donaldson is a conventional middle-class woman beached on the shores of widowhood after a marriage that had been much like many others: happy to begin with, then satisfactory and finally dull. But when she decides to take in two lodgers, her mundane life becomes much more stimulating...

The uncommon reader is none other that HM The Queen who drifts accidentally into reading when her corgis stray into a mobile library parked at Buckingham Palace.

A brilliant guide to fostering creativity and business innovation, The Ten Faces of Innovation shows how any individual can become an experienced architect, storyteller, caregiver or cross-pollinator...just four of the ten characters that can be adopted in different situations to create a broader range of solutions to business problems. At the start of the creative process you might be the 'anthropologist', going into the field to see how customers use and respond to products; later you might be the 'hurdler', who overcomes obstacles on the way to the finished product. The book explains with examples from business how adopting these characters can beat nay-sayers who stifle innovation.

Which sort of seducer could you be: Siren? Rake? Cold Coquette? Star? Comedian? Charismatic? or Saint? This book will show you which. Charm, persuasion, the ability to create illusions: these are some of the many dazzling gifts of the Seducer, the compelling figure who is able to manipulate, mislead and give pleasure all at once. When raised to the level of art, seduction, and indirect and subtle form of power, has toppled empires, won elections and enslaved great minds. In this beautiful, sensually designed book, Greene unearths the two sides of seduction: the characters and the process. Discover who you, or your pursuer, most resembles. Learn, too, the pitfalls of the anti-Seducer. In part II, immerse yourself in the twenty four manoeuvres and strategies of the seductive process, the ritual by which a seducer gains mastery over their target. Understand how to 'Choose the Right Victim', 'Appear to Be an Object of Desire' and 'Confuse Desire and Reality'. In addition, Greene provides instruction on how to identify victims by type. Each fascinating character and each cunning tactic demonstrates a fundamental truth about who we are, and the targets we've become - or hope to win over. "The Art of Seduction" is an indispensable primer on the essence of one of history's greatest weapons and the ultimate power trip.

Which sort of seducer could you be: Siren? Rake? Cold Coquette? Star? Comedian? Charismatic? or Saint? This book will show you which. Charm, persuasion, the ability to create illusions: these are some of the many dazzling gifts of the Seducer, the compelling figure who is able to manipulate, mislead and give pleasure all at once. When raised to the level of art, seduction, and indirect and subtle form of power, has toppled empires, won elections and enslaved great minds. In this beautiful, sensually designed book, Greene unearths the two sides of seduction: the characters and the process. Discover who you, or your pursuer, most resembles. Learn, too, the pitfalls of the anti-Seducer. In part II, immerse yourself in the twenty four manoeuvres and strategies of the seductive process, the ritual by which a seducer gains mastery over their target. Understand how to 'Choose the Right Victim', 'Appear to Be an Object of Desire' and 'Confuse Desire and Reality'. In addition, Greene provides instruction on how to identify victims by type. Each fascinating character and each cunning tactic demonstrates a fundamental truth about who we are, and the targets we've become - or hope to win over. "The Art of Seduction" is an indispensable primer on the essence of one of history's greatest weapons and the ultimate power trip.