The Economist Books

All organizations have a culture, whether they acknowledge it or not, and whether it's helping or hindering them. Get it right, and culture can be a positive force for good. Get it wrong, and culture can be a negative, becoming toxic and undermining performance and reputations. In short, culture matters. It can, though, be a tricky thing to understand and master. The Power of Culture tackles this head-on, exploring what culture is and why it matters; how it needs to be aligned with strategy and values, and how to understand it, change it and make it a reality. Told through real stories and examples and using the author's Intentional Culture Circle as a guide, this book helps everyone at work to be more aware of culture and how to find opportunities to make it work better.

'Outstanding...This book is superb.' Robert B Cialdini, bestselling author of Influence To be successful at work you also need to be influential at work. And to be influential requires an understanding of how the rules of influence work. Not just those mandated by logic, economics and company policy. But the unspoken rules too. The rules people rarely talk about, but that frequently have an out-sized impact on who and what gets listened to and done, and who and what gets ignored. Recognising and navigating these rules of influence is crucial to your persuasive success. Influence at Work shows you what these rules are and how to effectively deploy them to command attention; connect with others; win over the sceptics; sway the undecided and motivate people to act. The result is a new guide to an age-old subject: what influence is, why it matters, and how to use it wisely and ethically.

We are surrounded by feedback, whether we're being asked to like, rate or otherwise comment on products, services or even people. At work, the right kind of feedback delivered at the right time and in the right way can help us all to learn and improve. On the ground, though, that's easier said than done. Help is at hand. Margaret Cheng's six golden rules and Giving Good Feedback Framework offer a clear guide to what feedback is, how we can master the things that get in the way and deploy some simple techniques to make feedback a more routine - and less emotionally charged - part of our routine work communications.

Why are the best words short and old? Why are full stops a writer's best friend? How can we simplify, then exaggerate? And what exactly are dangling modifiers? We'd all like to write with style. But what does that mean, and what can we learn from The Economist, a publication well known for its clarity and flair? Welcome to Writing with Style, an elegant survey of the principles available for writing better prose. By adopting some tried and tested tools and techniques, you too can learn how to inform, persuade and entertain when you write. Whether you want to know your singulars from your subjunctives, how colons add drama or why the word "comprise" is contaminated, this is the style guide for you.

It is a myth to consider innovation the domain of the special few inspired by 'eureka!' moments that always result in brilliant new products. In reality, anyone with the right tools, traits, and methods has the potential to innovate with impact, generating profits and even changing the world. In this engaging guide, top thinkers and entrepreneurs Ted Ladd and Alessandro Lanteri show how to create innovations that deliver customer value. Their Innovation Pyramid describes a strategic process that is rooted in the right cultures and mindsets, leveraging a range of methods, techniques and themes to reach the pinnacle of maximum impact. This book is essential reading for anyone who wants to create, innovate, improve performance, and ultimately, make a difference.

The first quarter of the new century has seen developments in technology, monetary policy and the management of large companies that have transformed personal savings and investment around the world. Love it, loathe it, or just not interested in it, this innovation has changed not only the nature of money, but our understanding of what it means to invest - whether we want to safeguard our pensions, experiment with personal trading platforms or simply understand how the markets really work. How to Invest aims to help investors navigate this new world, offering a principles-based, keep-it-simple approach to help them make investment decisions and have investment conversations that will make the most of their money.

The euro was supposed to create an unbreakable bond between the nations and people of Europe. But when the debt crisis struck, the flaws of the half-built currency has brought the EU close to breaking point after decades of post-war integration. Deep fault-lines have opened up between European institutions and the nation-states, and often between the rulers and the ruled, raising profound questions about Europe's democratic deficit. Belief in European institutions and national governments alike is waning, while radicals of both the left and the right are gaining power and influence. Europe's leaders have so far proved the doomsayers wrong and prevented the currency from breaking up. "If the euro fails, Europe fails," says Angela Merkel. Yet the euro, and the European project as a whole, is far from safe. If it is to survive and thrive, leaders will finally have to confront difficult decisions. How much national sovereignty are they willing to give up to create a more lasting and credible currency? How much of the debt burden and banking risk will they share? Is Britain prepared to walk away from the EU? And will other countries follow? In their astute analysis of the crisis, the authors describe America's behind-the-scenes lobbying to salvage the euro, economists' bitter debates over austerity, the unseen manoeuvres of the European Central Bank and the tortuous negotiations over banking union. In the final chapter, they set out the stark choices confronting Europe's leaders and citizens.