Profile Books strana 7 z 27

The most important part of a leader's job is to set in motion the actions today that will build a better future tomorrow - in other words, strategy. But how do leaders become strategists? In this ground-breaking book, Richard Rumelt, the world's leading authority on strategy, shows how finding the crux of a challenge is the essence of the strategist's skill. The crux is the key issue where action will best pay off, and Rumelt reveals how to pinpoint it so you can focus energy on what really matters. Drawing on decades of professional and academic experience, and through vivid storytelling of some of the most important business decisions of recent times, Rumelt illuminates how leaders can overcome obstacles, navigate uncertainty and determine the best path forward. Strategy is not about setting financial targets, statements of desired outcomes, or performance goals, it is about finding the crux and taking decisive, coherent action.

LEARN THE TECHNIQUES YOU NEED TO STOP PROCRASTINATING AND START GETTING THINGS DONE Every day we begin new projects, or try to find pleasure in the ones we're working on - and above all, we hope one day we'll finish them! But in a disjointed, distracting world it's often hard to find the motivation and focus necessary. This compact book brings together 41 of the best productivity models. From world-famous techniques to the best-kept secrets of the professionals, this book is full of big ideas that actually work - distilled to their essence.You'll find out how to achieve deep work, compartmentalise tasks and identify your priorities - as well as how to build confidence, find your circle of competence and even learn to work with difficult people. Stylish and compact, this little book is a powerful asset. Whether you need to pull off a new project, assess what you've achieved so far, or even just understand your own working habits, this unique book has all the tools you need.

Most of us face the same questions every day: What do I want? How can I get it? How can I live more happily and work more efficiently? This updated edition of the international bestseller distils into a single volume the fifty best decision-making models used on MBA courses, and elsewhere, that will help you tackle these important questions - from the well known (the Eisenhower matrix for time management) to the less familiar but equally useful (the Swiss Cheese model). It will even show you how to remember everything you'll have learned by the end of it. Stylish and compact, this little book is a powerful asset. Whether you need to plot a presentation, assess someone's business idea or get to know yourself better, this unique guide will help you simplify any problem and take steps towards the right decision.

How do you make your way in a fast-changing world? Why do we have less and less time? Why are some people unfaithful? Who governs the world? 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. Because if we want to make change happen ourselves, we have to understand it first. Distilling expert wisdom and complex theories, the authors of the bestselling The Decision Book present fifty simple and effective models to help us make sense of our changing world. Everything is in a constant state of change, from the personal and political to economics and the environment. Whether you're buying a new car, deciding who to vote for, or making an investment, this little book offers surprisingly simple explanations of the biggest theories of transformation that will help you see the world anew - and radically challenge some of your preconceived ideas.

This is a history of the ways in which foreign and prehistoric peoples were represented in museums of anthropology, with their displays of arts and artifacts, their dioramas, their special exhibitions, and their arrays of skulls and skeletons. Originally created as colonial enterprises, what is the purpose of these places today? What should they do with the items in their custodianship? And how can they help us to understand and appreciate other cultures? Informed by a lifetime of research and scholarship, this subtle and original work tackles painful questions about race, colonialism, difference, and cultural appropriation. The result is a must-read for anyone concerned with the coexistence of different modes of life.

In Jerusalem, what you see and what is true are two different things. Maps divide the walled Old City into four quarters, yet that division doesn't reflect the reality of mixed and diverse neighbourhoods. Beyond the crush and frenzy of its major religious sites, much of the Old City remains little known to visitors, its people overlooked and their stories untold. Nine Quarters of Jerusalem lets the communities of the Old City speak for themselves. Ranging through ancient past and political present, it evokes the city's depth and cultural diversity. Matthew Teller's highly original 'biography' features the Old City's Palestinian and Jewish communities, but also spotlights its Indian and African populations, its Greek and Armenian and Syriac cultures, its downtrodden Dom Gypsy families and its Sufi mystics. It discusses the sources of Jerusalem's holiness and the ideas - often startlingly secular - that have shaped lives within its walls. Nine Quarters of Jerusalem is an evocation of place through story, led by the voices of Jerusalemites.

With a new introduction on the Ukraine crisis How did Britain become the servant of the world's most powerful and corrupt men? From accepting multi-million pound tips from Russian oligarchs, to the offshore tax havens, meet Butler Britain... In his Sunday Times-bestselling expose, Oliver Bullough reveals how the UK took up its position at the elbow of the worst people on Earth: the oligarchs, kleptocrats and gangsters. Though the UK prides itself on values of fair play and the rule of law, few countries do more to frustrate global anti-corruption efforts. From the murky origins of tax havens and gambling centres in the British Virgin Islands and Gibraltar to the influence of oligarchs in the British establishment, Butler to the World is the story of how we became a nation of Jeeveses - and how it doesn't have to be this way.

René Magritte's surreal sensibility, deadpan melodrama, and fine-tuned outrageousness have all become inescapably part of our times. But these groundbreaking subversions all came from a middle-class Belgian gent, who kept a modest house in a Brussels suburb and whose first one-man show sold absolutely nothing. Through a deep examination of Magritte's friendships and his artistic development, Alex Danchev explores the path of an highly unconventional artist who posed profound questions about the relationship between image and reality, challenged the very nature of authenticity and whose influence can be seen in the work of everyone from Jasper Johns to Beyoncé.

Idiocy is all around us, whether it's the uncle spouting conspiracy theories, the colleagues who repeat your point but louder, or the commuters who still don't know how to use an escalator. But what is the answer to this perpetual scourge?Here, philosopher Maxime Rovere turns his attention to the murkiest of intellectual corners. With warmth, wit and wisdom, he illuminates a new understanding of idiots, one which examines our relations to others and our own ego, offers tools and strategies to dismantle the most desperate of idiotic situations, and even reveals how to stop being the idiots ourselves (because we're always someone else's idiot).Expertly translated by David Bellos, this is an erudite, enjoyable and much-needed solution to a most familiar vexation.

Everything you ever wanted to know about how animals live together, and what that means for us Some animal societies hold a mirror up to the human world: elephants hold funerals for departed family members. Pinyon jays run collective creches. Rats will go out of their way to help a cold, wet stranger. Other lifestyles can seem intensely alien. Take locusts, surging over the land in their millions, unable to slow down for a moment because the hungry ranks behind will literally bite their legs off if they don't stay one step ahead (actually, you might know a few people like that). But no matter how offputting an animal might be, behavioural scientist Ashley Ward can usually find something worth celebrating. Travelling the world from the Serengeti to the frozen Antarctic ocean, with stops in the muddy fields and streams of his native northern Yorkshire, he brings his curious eye and infectious humour right down to their level. The result is a world-expanding, myth-busting tour of some of nature's greatest marvels, in delightfully broad-minded company.

Why do women have a better sense of smell than men? Has the iPhone changed how we touch? Does the Danube really look blue when you're in love? Our senses are at the heart of how we navigate the world. They help us recognise the expressions on a loved one's face, know whether fruit is ripe by its smell, or even sense a storm approaching through a sudden drop in air pressure. It's now believed that we may have as many as fifty-three senses - and we're just beginning to expand our knowledge of this incredibly extensive palette. In Sensational, Ashley Ward embarks on an expedition through the ways we experience the world, marshalling the latest advancements in science to explore the dazzling eyesight of the mantis shrimp, the rich inner lives of krill and the baffling link between canine bowel movements and geomagnetic fields. Unlocking the incredible power of our senses may hold the key to mysteries like why we kiss, how our brain dictates our taste in music and how a dairy-rich diet strained Euro-Japanese relations. Blending biology and cutting-edge neuroscience, Sensational is a mind-bending look at how our brains shape the way we interpret the world.

Anat Levit never considered herself a cat lover, but when her life was thrown into upheaval, she found herself adopting one cat at the suggestion of her daughters, and then six more in quick succession. She recounts how each cat came into her life, their distinct demeanours and curiosities and their ability to live fully in each moment. Anat falls in love with the furry creatures, whose escapades and tribulations lead her into deep friendships, difficult decisions, and unexpected insight into her relationships. The cats love her in the way she wishes she could love others: intensely yet independently, without renouncing their unique personalities. By caring for these cats, Anat comes to a deeper understanding of her connections with former lovers, her daughters and her own body. In Seven Cats I Have Loved, she delves into the feline mind with sensitivity, gentleness, and compassion, while also revealing a moving human story.

Born to Run's Chris McDougall and long-time running coach Eric Orton show us how to join the global barefoot running movement and explore the world on our own two feet. Born to Run 2: The Ultimate Training Guide teaches every runner, new or experienced, how to master humankind's first true superpower and tap into hidden reserves of strength and stamina. With chapters dedicated to the Free Seven - Food, Fitness, Form, Focus, Footwear, Fun and Family - we learn exactly how to change our biomechanics, clean up our diets, heal our injuries, adapt to healthier footwear, and prepare for our dream challenge. Packed with advice and inspiring stories from runners who have made the transition, it includes: - A rock-solid food primer on optimum diet and power-packed On the Run recipes - Techniques for running with dogs and baby buggies to help you run with the whole family - 'Perfect Form' exercises that will overhaul your stride in less than ten minutes - A 90-Day Run Free Programme, designed to give everything you need to run faster and farther, forever.

Bestselling author Victoria Finlay spins us round the globe in a vibrant exploration of cloth through the ages. She beats the inner bark of trees into cloth in Papua New Guinea, fails to handspin cotton in Guatemala, visits tweed weavers at their homes in Harris, and has lessons in patchwork-making in Gee's Bend, Alabama. And through it all she uncovers the hidden histories of fabric: how and why people have made it, worn it, invented it and made symbols of it Interlaced with Victoria's own story of grief and recovery, Fabric is a lush patchwork of travel, history, memoir and culture - an unforgettable look into how we have made fabric, and how it has made us.

More than any other conflict, the Cold War was fought on the battlefield of the human mind. And, nearly thirty years since the collapse of the Soviet Union, its legacy still endures - not only in our politics, but in our own thoughts, and fears. Drawing on a vast array of untapped archives and unseen sources, Martin Sixsmith vividly recreates the tensions and paranoia of the Cold War, framing it for the first time from a psychological perspective. Revisiting towering personalities like Khrushchev, Kennedy and Nixon, as well as the lives of the unknown millions who were caught up in the conflict, this is a gripping account of fear itself - and in today's uncertain times, it is more resonant than ever.

The world today rests on increasingly unstable fault lines. From the conflict in Ukraine or fresh upheavals in the Middle East to the threats posed to humanity by a global pandemic, climate change and natural disasters, the world's danger zones once again draw their battle lines across our hyperconnected, yet fragmented, globe. Join veteran Economist journalist John Andrews as he analyses the old enmities and looming collisions that underlie conflict in the twenty-first century. Region by region, discover the causes, contexts, participants and likely outcomes of every globally significant struggle now underway. From drug cartels to cyber war, this is the indispensable guide for anyone who wants to understand our perilous world.