Mastering the Hype Cycle


Book Description

It happens over and over again. Some innovation (a new product, a management trend) comes along that captures the public's imagination. Everybody joins the parade with great fanfare and high expectations. This "next big thing" promises to transform the companies that adopt it -- and inflict great peril on those that don't. Then, when the innovation fails to deliver as promised immediately, everyone starts bailing out. Investments are wasted; stock prices plunge; disillusionment sets in. It doesn't have to be this way. In Mastering the Hype Cycle, Jackie Fenn and Mark Raskino explain what drives this pattern and how your company can avoid its potential dangers. By understanding the hype cycle, you can ride it more skillfully -- timing your investment decisions so that the innovations you adopt stand the best chance of succeeding in the long-term. Drawing on company examples and Gartner's proven STREET (Scope, Track, Rank, Evaluate, Evangelize, Transfer) framework, the authors show how to orchestrate the key steps in the innovation-adoption process -- from choosing which innovations to take on and when in their life cycle you should adopt, to paving the way for a successful introduction. The hype cycle isn't going away. But this book arms you with the strategies you need to ride the crest of a new idea to success -- and steer clear of the trough of disillusionment.




Digital to the Core


Book Description

There is no simple strategic method for dealing with the multidimensional nature of digital change. Even the sharpest leaders can become disoriented as change builds on change, leaving almost nothing certain. Yet to stand still is to fail. Enterprises and leaders must re-master themselves to succeed. Leaders must identify the key macro forces, then lead their organizations at three distinct levels: industry, enterprise, and self. By doing this they cannot only survive but clean up. Digital to the Core makes the case that all business leaders must understand the impact the digital revolution will continue to play in their industries, companies, and leadership style and practices. Drawing on interviews with over 30 top C-level executives in some of the world's most powerful companies and government organizations, including GE, Ford, Tory Burch, Babolat, McDonalds, Publicis and UK Government Digital Service, this book delivers practical insights from those on the front lines of major digital upheaval. The authors incorporate Gartner's annual CIO and CEO global survey research and also apply the deep knowledge and qualitative insights they have acquired as practitioners, management researchers, and advisors over decades in the business. Above all else, Raskino and Waller want companies and their top leaders to understand the full impact of digital change and integrate it at the core of their businesses.




The Master Switch


Book Description

Winner of the 2011 Business Book of the Year Award The Internet Age: on the face of it, an era of unprecedented freedom in both communication and culture. Yet in the past, each major new medium, from telephone to satellite television, has crested on a wave of similar idealistic optimism, before succumbing to the inevitable undertow of industrial consolidation. Every once free and open technology has, in time, become centralized and closed; as corporate power has taken control of the 'master switch.' Today a similar struggle looms over the Internet, and as it increasingly supersedes all other media the stakes have never been higher. Part industrial exposé, part examination of freedom of expression, The Master Switch reveals a crucial drama - full of indelible characters - as it has played out over decades in the shadows of global communication.




Managing at the Speed of Change


Book Description

This classic, newly updated, is an indispensable source for anyone–from mid-level managers to CEOs–who must execute key business initiatives quickly and effectively. Once groundbreaking and now time-honored, Managing at the Speed of Change has helped countless business leaders learn how to orchestrate transitions vital to their organizations’ success. Rather than focusing on what to change, this book’s aim is far more valuable: It shows readers how to change. Daryl R. Conner, founder and chairman of the consulting firm Conner Partners, is a leading expert on change management. He has served as “change doctor” for clients that include non-profit enterprises, government agencies and administrations, and Fortune 500 companies in an array of industries such as Abbott Laboratories, PepsiCo, American Express, Catholic Healthcare West, JPMorgan Chase, and the U.S. Navy. Based on Conner’s long-term research and his decades of consulting experience, Managing at the Speed of Change uses simple, easy-to-understand language and elegant visuals to explore the dynamics of change, and in doing so, teaches readers • why major change is difficult to assimilate • what distinguishes resilient individuals from those who suffer future shock • how and why resistance forms • how people become committed to change • why organizational culture is so important to the success of change • the roles most central to change in organizational settings • why powerful teamwork is at the heart of achieving change objectives, and how to foster it In this pioneering book, updated for the twenty-first century, Conner demonstrates how both individuals and organizations can develop the capacity not only to endure change but to thrive on it.




Lord Valentine's Castle


Book Description

The Classic Bestselling Saga by Science Fiction Grand Master Robert Silverberg Lord Valentine’s Castle He is a man with no past— a wanderer without memory of his origins. He calls himself Valentine. As a member of a motley group of entertainers, he travels across the magical planet of Majipoor, always hoping he will meet someone who can give him back what he has lost. And then, he begins to dream--and to receive messages in those dreams. Messages that tell him that he is far more than a common vagabond—he is a lord, a king turned out of his castle. Now his travels have a purpose—to return to his home, discover what enemy took his memory, and claim the destiny that awaits him…




Ignore the Hype


Book Description

Secure your investment gains and supercharge your results with this down-to-earth analysis of investing fundamentals Via powerful and unique insights, Ignore the Hype: Financial Strategies Beyond the Media-Driven Mayhem teaches readers how to keep their focus squarely on time-tested strategies for meeting their financial goals without getting distracted by a constant barrage of news headlines. The book takes a common-sense approach to the financial world that’s ideally suited to the everyday investor. It covers topics including: How to avoid competing against hedge funds in a game they’ve rigged What you can do today to avoid taxes tomorrow Wall Street’s Dirty Secret: Forecasting is just guessing Why some of your investments have worse odds than a casino game How the media circus can derail your financial plans Surviving a world where financial advisors don’t have to act in your best interest Ignore the Hype emphasizes the difference between short-term trading and long-term investing, how to filter the constant onslaught of information coming your way from every angle and separate the valuable content from the noise, and how to build a foundation for investment success based on common sense and academic research.




Simply Managing


Book Description

This is a simplified, shortened, and updated version of the definitive title on management (Managing, which has sold over 70,000 copies) from management legend and best-selling author Henry Mintzberg.




Navigate the Noise


Book Description

Transform today's surplus of investment information into a high-level investment strategy In an investment climate characterized by rapidly increasing access to information, it has become a real problem to sort out the legitimate financial advice, grounded in traditional analysis, from the constant stream of useless information, or "noise." Such "noise", through technological advances such as the Internet, has become widespread. This overload of information is hurting investors, since it makes real analysis based on factual inference harder to come by. This book steers investors through the "noise" to show them where and how to find solid investment information. This step-by-step guide is based on a very popular presentation the author makes to new private clients at Merrill Lynch. Richard Bernstein (New York, NY) is First Vice President and Chief Quantitative Strategist at Merrill Lynch & Company. Prior to joining Merrill Lynch, he worked for E. F. Hutton and Tucker Anthony. He has been voted to the Institutional Investor All-America Research Team in each of the last eight years, and has appeared on Wall Street Week with Louis Rukeyser.




Does It Matter?


Book Description

Over the last decade, and even since the bursting of the technology bubble, pundits, consultants, and thought leaders have argued that information technology provides the edge necessary for business success. IT expert Nicholas G. Carr offers a radically different view in this eloquent and explosive book. As IT's power and presence have grown, he argues, its strategic relevance has actually decreased. IT has been transformed from a source of advantage into a commoditized "cost of doing business"--with huge implications for business management. Expanding on Carr's seminal Harvard Business Review article that generated a storm of controversy, Does IT Matter? provides a truly compelling--and unsettling--account of IT's changing business role and its leveling influence on competition. Through astute analysis of historical and contemporary examples, Carr shows that the evolution of IT closely parallels that of earlier technologies such as railroads and electric power. He goes on to lay out a new agenda for IT management, stressing cost control and risk management over innovation and investment. And he examines the broader implications for business strategy and organization as well as for the technology industry. A frame-changing statement on one of the most important business phenomena of our time, Does IT Matter? marks a crucial milepost in the debate about IT's future. An acclaimed business writer and thinker, Nicholas G. Carr is a former executive editor of the Harvard Business Review.




Attack of the 50 Foot Blockchain


Book Description

An experimental new Internet-based form of money is created that anyone can generate at home; people build frightening firetrap computers full of video cards, putting out so much heat that one operator is hospitalised with heatstroke and brain damage. A young physics student starts a revolutionary new marketplace immune to State coercion; he ends up ordering hits on people because they might threaten his great experiment, and is jailed for life without parole. Fully automated contractual systems are proposed to make business and the law work better; the contracts people actually write are unregulated penny stock offerings whose fine print literally states that you are buying nothing of any value. The biggest crowdfunding in history attracts $150 million on the promise that it will embody “the steadfast iron will of unstoppable code”; upon release it is immediately hacked, and $50 million is stolen. How did we get here? David Gerard covers the origins and history of Bitcoin to the present day, the other cryptocurrencies it spawned including Ethereum, the ICO craze and the 2017 crypto bubble, and the attempts to apply blockchains and smart contracts to business. Plus a case study on blockchains in the music industry. Bitcoin and blockchains are not a technology story, but a psychology story. Remember: if it sounds too good to be true, it almost certainly is. “A sober riposte to all the upbeat forecasts about cryptocurrency” — New York Review of Books “A very convincing takedown of the whole phenomenon” — BBC News