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Great businesses naturally have many things in common: superbly designed products and services, knockout customer experiences, sustained excellence at execution, outstanding talent and teamwork, and great leadership. But there's also something else, an X factor that keeps renewing and strengthening great businesses through good times and bad. Based on almost ten years of empirical research involving 50,000 companies, Jim Stengel shows how the world's 50 best businesses - as diverse as Apple, Red Bull, Pampers and Petrobras - have a cause and effect relationship between financial performance and their ability to connect with fundamental human emotions, hopes, values and greater purposes. In this, the next big idea book, Stengel deftly blends timeless truths about human behaviour and values into an action framework, to show us how by embracing what he describes as 'brand ideals', the world's best businesses can achieve incredible growth and drastically improve their performance.

Written by the co-author of international bestseller Long Walk to Freedom, Nelson Mandela: Portrait of an Extraordinary Man presents fifteen powerful lessons on life and leadership based on the life and work of Nelson Mandela, whose fight against apartheid in South Africa has become an enduring example of resistance against injustice and oppression. A recipient of the 1993 Nobel Peace Prize, Mandela is a man who truly changed the course of world history and is arguably the most inspirational figure of the past century. Stengel spent almost three years with Mandela working on his bestselling autobiography Long Walk to Freedom, and through that process became a close friend. Written with the blessing of the Nelson Mandela Foundation, to which the author will donate a percentage of his royalties, Nelson Mandela: Portrait of an Extraordinary Man is an inspirational book of wisdom that will encourage people of all ages to look within themselves to improve their lives, to reconsider the things they take for granted, and to think about the legacy they leave behind.

Have you ever wanted to be a lumberjack? Had trouble with a dead parrot? Or gone for a silly walk? Combining outrageous humour, unbridled creativity and surreal animation, John Cleese, Michael Palin, Graham Chapman, Terry Gilliam, Terry Jones and Eric Idle entertained millions and inspired generations of future comedians. Including all Monty Python material ever produced, from the Flying Circus to the Life of Brian to Spamalot! with biographies, programme guides and a filmography, this is a must-have plethora of Pythonism and a fitting tribute to comedic pioneers.

When City Girl first stepped into the Square Mile she had no idea of the fight for survival she would face over the next five years. But despite lap dancing clubs and million dollar losses, divorce in the City and the worst recession since the 1930s, City Girl was still standing. She'd taken on the boys at their own game—and won. Fresh from writing thelondonpaper's City Girl column, Suzana S. gives us the inside track on life in the financial capital of the world. This is her story. Confessions of a City Girl tells us what really went wrong—and explains why girls are the only ones who can put it right. The trade mark "City Girl" is used under licence from NI Free Newspapers Limited.

On 26 May, 2010 Apple Inc. passed Microsoft in valuation as the world's largest technology company. Its consumer electronic products - ranging from computers to mobile phones to portable media devices, not to mention its iTunes, iBook and App Store - have influenced nearly every facet of our lives, and it shows no sign of slowing down. But how did Apple - a company set up in the back room of a house by two friends, and one that always marketed itself as the underdog - become the marketplace leader (and the world's second largest company overall), and is it a good thing to have one company hold so much power? In The Apple Revolution Luke Dormehl shares the inside story of how Apple Inc. came to be; from the formation of the company's philosophies and user-friendly ethos, to the "iPod moment" and global domination, leaving you with a deep understanding of how it was created, why it has flourished, and where it might be going next.

Looking for advice on setting up your own company, improving your career prospects, or developing your leadership skills? Why not ask Richard Branson? In Like a Virgin: Secrets They Won't Teach You in Business School, Richard distils and shares the wisdom and experience that have made him one of the world's most recognised and respected entrepreneurs. From his 'Top 5 secrets of Business Success', to hard hitting discussions about the global financial crisis, this book brings together his best advice on all things business. It's business school, the Branson way.

Bake your way through the classics from Jane Eclair to Tart of Darkness, Banana Karenina and On the Rocky Road, Flapjack and the Beanstalk, Nineteen-eighty Petit Fours and many more! The most novel way to get to grips with the classics, Scone with the Wind features 75 delicious literary inspired recipes. Arranged by genre, enjoy biscuits and cakes, puddings and pies from romance and comedy through to horror and science fiction, and discover fun, edible versions of your favourite books. It includ es witty introductions and amusing illustrations throughout, baking essentials and themed menus for book clubs, parties and afternoon teas. The ultimate treat for book (and cake) lovers! Recipes include: Breakfast at Tiffins, Whoopie Pies and Prejudice, Key Lime and Punishment, Captain Corelli's Madeleines, To Kill a Battenberg, Finnegan's Cake, Vanity Fairy Cakes, Middlemarshmallows, Eton Mess of the D'Urbervilles, Life of Pecan Pie, Alone in Berliner, Lord of the Mille-feuilles, The War of the Viennese Whirls, James and the Giant Peach Cobbler, Much Ado About Muffins, The Cherry Pie Orchard, Scone with the Wind and more!

Just a few years ago, Markus Persson was a bored IT-developer in Stockholm. In the evenings, he toiled away on a labour of love: a game with a tiny but dedicated online following. It was called Minecraft and Markus released it to the world in early 2009. The game itself looks deceptively simple. It resembles a digital version of Lego - bricks stacked on top of each other, giving players a world where they build whatever structures their mind can conjure. A breath of fresh air compared to the ind ustry giants' shooter games. In the space of a few years, Minecraft has become one of the most astonishing success stories of the internet age, attracting millions of players and proving how a single great idea can topple empires in the digital, post-industrial world. This is the story of the man behind the game. Here Markus opens up for the first time about his life. About his old Lego-filled desk at school, the first computer his father brought home one day and also about growing up in a famil y marked by drug abuse and conflict. But above all it is the story of the fine line between seeming misfit and creative madman, and the birth of a tech visionary.

South African born Elon Musk is the renowned entrepreneur and innovator behind PayPal, SpaceX, Tesla, and SolarCity. Musk wants to save our planet; he wants to send citizens into space, to form a colony on Mars; he wants to make money while doing these things; and he wants us all to know about it. He is the real-life inspiration for the Iron Man series of films starring Robert Downey Junior. The personal tale of Musk's life comes with all the trappings one associates with a great, drama-filled story. He was a freakishly bright kid who was bullied brutally at school, and abused by his father. In the midst of these rough conditions, and the violence of apartheid South Africa, Musk still thrived academically and attended the University of Pennsylvania, where he paid his own way through school by turning his house into a club and throwing massive parties. He started a pair of huge dot-com successes, including PayPal, which eBay acquired for $1.5 billion in 2002. Musk was forced out as CEO and so began his lost years in which he decided to go it alone and baffled friends by investing his fortune in rockets and electric cars. Meanwhile Musk's marriage disintegrated as his technological obsessions took over his life...Elon Musk is the Steve Jobs of the present and the future, and for the past twelve months, he has been shadowed by tech reporter, Ashlee Vance. Elon Musk: How the Billionaire CEO of Spacex and Tesla is Shaping our Future is an important, exciting and intelligent account of the real-life Iron Man.

What valuable company is nobody building? The next Bill Gates will not build an operating system. The next Larry Page or Sergey Brin won't make a search engine. If you are copying these guys, you aren't learning from them. It's easier to copy a model than to make something new: doing what we already know how to do takes the world from 1 to n, adding more of something familiar. Every new creation goes from 0 to 1. This book is about how to get there. "Peter Thiel has built multiple breakthrough companies, and Zero to One shows how". (Elon Musk, CEO of SpaceX and Tesla). "This book delivers completely new and refreshing ideas on how to create value in the world". (Mark Zuckerberg, CEO of Facebook). "When a risk taker writes a book, read it. In the case of Peter Thiel, read it twice. Or, to be safe, three times. This is a classic". (Nassim Nicholas Taleb, author of The Black Swan).

In September 2012, a Yougov poll conducted in Britain found that the person British workers would most like as their manager was Sir Richard Branson. With over 40 years in business, Richard Branson is an inspiring pioneer of humanitarian projects and an iconic business leader. In The Virgin Way: How to Listen, Learn, Laugh and Lead, Richard shares and distils his secrets of leadership and success. Featuring anecdotes from his own business dealings, as well as his observations of many others who have inspired him - from politicians, business leaders, explorers, scientists and philanthropists - Richard reflects on the qualities he feels are essential for success in today's world. This is not a conventional book on leadership. There are no rules - but rather the secrets of leadership that he has learned along the way from his days at Virgin Records, to his recent work with The Elders. Whether you're at the beginning of your career, or head of a Fortune 500 company - this is your guide to being your own CEO (Chief Enabling Officer) and becoming a true leader - not just a boss.

This is the worldwide bestselling autobiography of iconic entrepreneur Sir Richard Branson, featuring his take on his latest business ventures, personal achievements and intrepid adventures. In Losing my Virginity, you'll discover how Sir Richard is committed to building a better world through responsible, holistic business practices and ventures such as the Virgin Health Bank, which is contributing to regenerative medicine, Virgin Fuels, which has pledged GBP200 million to renewable energy projects, and his company's charitable arm, Virgin Unite. You'll also learn about how Sir Richard and his company are reaching for the stars in a new era of commercial space travel with Virgin Galactic. With insights into this very public figure's personal life as well as his business successes and the lessons he's learned along the way, this is an amazing memoir, motivational business guide and inspiring story that will capture your imagination.

'A fast-paced, highly readable history of one of the defining companies of our time. If you're interested in Snapchat, or just plain mystified by it, you must read this book' -- Brad StoneWould you turn down three billion dollars from Mark Zuckerberg?When he was just twenty-three years old, Evan Spiegel, the brash CEO of the social network Snapchat, stunned the world when he and his co-founders walked away from a three-billion-dollar offer from Facebook: how could an app teenagers use to text dirty photos dream of a higher valuation? Was this hubris, or genius?In How to Turn Down a Billion Dollars, Billy Gallagher takes us inside the rise of one of Silicon Valley's hottest start-ups. Snapchat began as a late-night dorm room revelation before Spiegel went on to make a name for himself as a visionary CEO worth billions, linked to celebrities like Taylor Swift and his fiancee, Miranda Kerr. A fellow Stanford undergrad and fraternity brother of the company's founding trio, Billy Gallagher has covered Snapchat from the start. His inside account offers an entertaining trip through the excess and drama of the hazy early days with a professional insight into the challenges Snapchat faces as it transitions from a playful app to one of the tech industry's preeminent public companies. In the tradition of great business narratives, How to Turn Down a Billion Dollars offers the definitive account of a company whose goal is no less than to remake the future of entertainment.

Forget everything you thought you knew about being your best. It's not about your own skills or talents. Instead, real success in work and life comes from your connections and relationships - the teams you build around you, the friends you make - and getting the best out of them. You hugely amplify your own potential by helping others around you to realise theirs. A TED talk star with over 16 million views, Shawn Achor is one of the world's leading experts on happiness and personal success - and author of the positive psychology classic The Happiness Advantage. Now, in this game-changing guide to greatness, he demolishes the myth of single individual achievement. With powerful stories, cutting-edge research and exclusive insights from Fortune 100 leaders, he shows how only by working with others will you ever reach your Big Potential.

From New York Times-bestselling author Nick Bilton comes a true-life thriller about the rise and fall of Ross Ulbricht, aka the Dread Pirate Roberts, the founder of the online black market Silk Road. In 2011, Ulbricht, a 26-year-old libertarian idealist and former Boy Scout, launched "a website where people could buy anything anonymously, with no trail whatsoever that could lead back to them." He called it Silk Road, opened for business on the Dark Web, and christened himself the Dread Pirate Roberts (after the Princess Bride character). The site grew at a tremendous pace, quickly becoming a $1.2 billion enterprise where you could buy or sell drugs, hacking software, forged passports, counterfeit cash, guns, grenades, and poisons. The Silk Road soon caught the attention of the Feds, who embarked on an epic two-year manhunt for the site's proprietor. Ulbricht, in the meantime, struggled to maintain control of his double life and his marketplace, which he originally started to prove that legalising drugs could make society safer. He gradually abandoned his libertarian ideals to rule Silk Road with increasingly authoritarian force. At one point, he engaged the services of hired hit men to take out employees he felt had wronged him. Soon, some of the Federal agents who were supposed to be hunting for Ulbricht were lured into the dark world and switched sides to join him. This is a true-life thriller about ambition gone awry, spurred on by the defining clash of our time: the new world of libertarian-leaning, anonymous, decentralised web advocates and the old world of government control, order, and the rule of law. Bilton's dazzling rendering and gift for narrative make for an endlessly fascinating drama.

Available in bookshops for the first time, the internationally acclaimed time management system that has been used by millions, written by Francesco Cirillo, creator of the Pomodoro Technique. We all face the same problem: we're constantly busy but we never seem to get anything done. We know we should focus on the task in hand, but it feels impossible with so many distractions and demands on our time. We all need The Pomodoro Technique. This deceptively simple tool, now being used by more than 2 million people around the world, helps us regain control and achieve our goals. It transforms both work and home life by splitting days into 25-minute `pomodoros', which focus our minds and make us far more productive. Drawing on more than two decades of refinement and thinking, this powerful little book will teach you how to . . . -Work with time-Eliminate burnout-Manage distractions-Create a better work/life balance. . . all using only a pen, some paper and a timer. Start now - and join the Pomorodo revolution. Fully updated edition with exclusive material on teamwork - to make you and your team more dynamic than ever.