The Business of Being the Best


Book Description

How the very best get to—and stay at—the top From the arenas of professional sports to the boardrooms of major businesses, a thin slice of peak performers dominates every field. What is their secret to success? Few people know what drives these world-leaders like sports agent Molly Fletcher. Not only has Fletcher herself risen to the top of a tough, male-dominated field—CNN dubbed her "the female Jerry Maguire"—but she has also represented hundreds of successful athletes, coaches, and broadcasters in baseball, golf, basketball, and football. Her experience reveals exactly what it takes to play like "the best." Breaks success into accessible strategies like smart negotiation, likability, and personal brand-building Features interviews with such notables as Home Depot cofounder and Atlanta Falcons owner Arthur Blank, future Hall of Fame pitcher John Smoltz, and football legend Roger Staubach Connects high performance to values by showing how the best give back No matter what you do or what game you play, Fletcher's authoritative and inspirational look at the top 1 percent will help you win.




Who Is Michael Ovitz?


Book Description

If you're going to read one book about Hollywood, this is the one. As the co-founder of Creative Artists Agency, Michael Ovitz earned a reputation for ruthless negotiation, brilliant strategy, and fierce loyalty to his clients. He reinvented the role of the agent and helped shape the careers of hundreds of A-list entertainers, directors, and writers, including Steven Spielberg, Martin Scorsese, Meryl Streep, Sean Connery, Bill Murray, Robin Williams, and David Letterman. But this personal history is much more than a fascinating account of celebrity friendships and bare-knuckled dealmaking. It's also an underdog's story: How did a middle-class kid from Encino work his way into the William Morris mailroom, and eventually become the most powerful person in Hollywood? How did an agent (even a superagent) also become a power in producing, advertising, mergers & acquisitions, and modern art? And what were the personal consequences of all those deals? After decades of near-silence in the face of controversy, Ovitz is finally telling his whole story, with remarkable candor and insight.




Business Analysis


Book Description

The definitive guide on the roles and responsibilities of the business analyst Business Analysis offers a complete description of the process of business analysis in solving business problems. Filled with tips, tricks, techniques, and guerilla tactics to help execute the process in the face of sometimes overwhelming political or social obstacles, this guide is also filled with real world stories from the author's more than thirty years of experience working as a business analyst. Provides techniques and tips to execute the at-times tricky job of business analyst Written by an industry expert with over thirty years of experience Straightforward and insightful, Business Analysis is a valuable contribution to your ability to be successful in this role in today's business environment.




The Business of Building a Better World


Book Description

Twenty-nine leading scholars and executives provide a visionary look at the future of business, propelling past damaging industrial-age values to uncover the key ingredients of humanistic, ecologically sustainable, and intergenerational prosperity. Through the exploration of robust cases and stories packed with deep insight and vital science, this extraordinary collection explores how we can adapt our notions of value, markets, and models of cooperation and collective action to create a world where economies and businesses excel, all people thrive, and nature flourishes. In part I, “The Business of Business Is Betterment,” the contributors show how enterprises today are further developing-and even taking a quantum leap beyond-the multistakeholder logic of “shared value creation.” Part II, “Net Positive = Innovation's New Frontier,” is focused on what companies can and are doing to move away from “doing no harm” to playing an active role in solving environmental, social, and economic problems. The final section, “Ultimate Advantage: A Leadership Revolution That Is Changing Everything,” looks at new leadership paradigms-characterized by unexpected qualities like virtue, love, compassion, and connection-that are crucial to creating engaged, empowered, innovative, and out-performing enterprises. This book is designed to galvanize change and unite a global community of inquiry and action. It establishes the conceptual cornerstones for a new kind of business practice that will lead the way to an equitable, sustainable, and flourishing future.




Business Adventures


Book Description

'The best business book I've ever read.' Bill Gates, Wall Street Journal 'The Michael Lewis of his day.' New York Times What do the $350 million Ford Motor Company disaster known as the Edsel, the fast and incredible rise of Xerox, and the unbelievable scandals at General Electric and Texas Gulf Sulphur have in common? Each is an example of how an iconic company was defined by a particular moment of fame or notoriety. These notable and fascinating accounts are as relevant today to understanding the intricacies of corporate life as they were when the events happened. Stories about Wall Street are infused with drama and adventure and reveal the machinations and volatile nature of the world of finance. John Brooks's insightful reportage is so full of personality and critical detail that whether he is looking at the astounding market crash of 1962, the collapse of a well-known brokerage firm, or the bold attempt by American bankers to save the British pound, one gets the sense that history really does repeat itself. This business classic written by longtime New Yorker contributor John Brooks is an insightful and engaging look into corporate and financial life in America.




The Business of Being an Artist


Book Description

Thoroughly updated and expanded, this classic handbook teaches emerging artists all the strategies they need to know for selling artwork on their own or through dealers. The book's new sections target today's vital issues: creating a web site; obtaining copyright/trademark protection on the Internet; coping with censorship of controversial art; and dealing with the new realities of funding sources. Additional chapters tell how to find galleries, arrange exhibitions, apply for grants, land survival jobs doing custom decorative art or teaching, and other relevant topics.




The Best Business Writing 2013


Book Description

An anthology Malcolm Gladwell has called "riveting and indispensable," The Best Business Writing is a far-ranging survey of business's dynamic relationship with politics, culture, and life. This year's selections include John Markoff (New York Times) on innovations in robot technology and the decline of the factory worker; Evgeny Morozov (New Republic) on the questionable value of the popular TED conference series and the idea industry behind it; Paul Kiel (ProPublica) on the ripple effects of the ongoing foreclosure crisis; and the infamous op-ed by Greg Smith, published in the New York Times, announcing his break with Goldman Sachs over its trading practices and corrupt corporate ethos. Jessica Pressler (New York) delves into the personal and professional rivalry between Tory and Christopher Burch, former spouses now competing to dominate the fashion world. Peter Whoriskey (Washington Post) exposes the human cost of promoting pharmaceuticals off-label. Charles Duhigg and David Barboza (New York Times) investigate Apple's unethical labor practices in China. Max Abelson (Bloomberg) reports on Wall Street's amusing reaction to the diminishing annual bonus. Mina Kimes (Fortune) recounts the grisly story of a company's illegal testing—and misuse—of a medical device for profit, and Jeff Tietz (Rolling Stone) composes one of the most poignant and comprehensive portraits of the financial crisis's dissolution of the American middle class.




The Business of Excellence


Book Description

"A vivid, compelling and highly readable insight into building world-leading teams and organizations." - Dr Catherine Raines, Chief Executive, UK Trade & Investment The Business of Excellence offers a unique and compelling perspective on the drivers of excellence in teams and organizations. The author, Justin Hughes, brings an unusual mix of experience and insight, having worked as a management consultant to some of the world's most successful organizations, in addition to having served for 12 years as a military fighter pilot, where he became Executive Officer on the RAF Red Arrows. The challenges of high performance and leadership are explored in depth, and are illustrated with insights, interviews and case studies from the military, sporting and corporate worlds. The material includes a proprietary performance model that can be applied to a wide spectrum of organizations, focusing on: · People: the primacy of attitude over skills · Capability: building alignment before setting people free · Delivery: a process to close the gap between desired and actual outcomes · Learning: how to accelerate performance in real time · Leadership: exhibiting a set of behaviours such that others choose to follow · Risk: avoiding the victory of compliance over outcomes. In The Business of Excellence, Justin deconstructs the drivers of high performance with a rare clarity, insight and accessibility, to illustrate and explain tangible tools and methods, all of which can be applied by readers in their own teams and organizations.




The Business of Being a Woman


Book Description




Me, Inc. How to Master the Business of Being You


Book Description

Advance praise for Me, Inc "Ventrella takes the best practices of Fortune 500 companies and shows how you can apply them to another important venture—you! Your life deserves at least as much attention as your job does, so read this book and turn your time on Earth into a satisfying, meaningful enterprise." —Ken Blanchard, coauthor of The One Minute Manager and Leading at a Higher Level "Rarely does a book so authentically capture the essence of what a true personal brand transformation is all about. Me, Inc. provides a unique approach to discovering your personal brand and making it a reality. Through Ventrella's insights and invaluable self-discovery tools, readers quickly learn that when you build your personal brand, you build a brand of value—value that eloquently translates into success throughout every facet of your life." —Laura Tessinari, Senior Partner, Director of Training, Ogilvy & Mather "The Me, Inc. program has guided me on the path to even greater personal and professional achievement and life satisfaction than I ever thought possible." —Jack Hallahan, Vice President, Advertising and Brand Partnerships, MobiTV "In all of the thirteen years since I first heard Ventrella speak on this subject, I have consistently been impressed by the value of his approach and the responses of the hundreds of students who have benefited from his structured program. With the publication of Me, Inc., Ventrella reveals to a much larger audience the way to create successful, happy lives. His students at Fordham and executive coaching clients have been applying it with excellent results for years." —James A. F. Stoner, Professor Fordham University, Graduate School of Business Administration "Me, Inc. provides a clear road map to achieving your goals and finding greater work-life balance. Ventrella's approach offers an interesting and powerful way to assume control; by managing your life's ambitions as seriously as you might a business endeavor, you can clarify your thoughts, set priorities, and turn your dreams into reality. Ventrella is a very effective coach and, like any good boss, he doesn't let you off the hook. You want to change things? Look no further." —Teri Schindler, Media Consultant, Patrick Davis Partners