In a world of limitless media noise, how can businesses break through to customers? Context.
We are in the midst of a massive media revolution. For the first time in history, ordinary people around the world have the ability to create, distribute, and consume content instantly, from anywhere, using connected devices. The massive increase in media "noise" created by these consumers and devices creates an entirely new situation that makes conventional marketing models obsolete. And yet countless companies and marketing organizations continue to rely on traditional models, assuming that their "campaigns" will sway customers. They couldn't be more wrong.
In this provocative and practical book, Salesforce marketing maven Mathew Sweezey boldly outlines this new "infinite media" environment and poses a profound question: In a transformed world where customers shape their own experience, what is the key to breaking through and motivating them to buy? It is context--the close linkage between an individual's immediate desires and the experiences a brand creates to fulfill them. Drawing on new research and new insights into current consumer psychology, Sweezey defines the five key elements of context. Customer experiences must be:
Available: Helping people achieve the value they seek in the moment
Permissioned: Giving people what they've asked for, on their terms
Personal: Going beyond how personal it is to how personally you can deliver it
Authentic: Combining voice, empathy, and brand congruence simultaneously
Purposeful: Creating a deeper connection to the brand, beyond the product
Sweezey uses vivid examples to highlight a new marketing model used by high-performing brands big and small. The final part of the book shifts to execution, providing a new rule book for context-based marketing.
The Context Marketing Revolution will change forever how you think about the purpose and practice of marketing.
In a world of limitless media noise, how can businesses break through to customers? Context.
We are in the midst of a massive media revolution. For the first time in history,…
Are you solving the right problems? Have you or your colleagues ever worked hard on something, only to find out you were focusing on the wrong problem entirely? Most people have. In a survey, 85 percent of companies said they often struggle to solve the right problems. The consequences are severe: Leaders fight the wrong strategic battles. Teams spend their energy on low-impact work. Startups build products that nobody wants. Organizations implement "solutions" that somehow make things worse, not better. Everywhere you look, the waste is staggering. As Peter Drucker pointed out, there's nothing more dangerous than the right answer to the wrong question.
There is a way to do better.
The key is reframing, a crucial, underutilized skill that you can master with the help of this book. Using real-world stories and unforgettable examples like "the slow elevator problem," author Thomas Wedell-Wedellsborg offers a simple, three-step method - Frame, Reframe, Move Forward - that anyone can use to start solving the right problems. Reframing is not difficult to learn. It can be used on everyday challenges and on the biggest, trickiest problems you face. In this visually engaging, deeply researched book, you’ll learn from leaders at large companies, from entrepreneurs, consultants, nonprofit leaders, and many other breakthrough thinkers.
It's time for everyone to stop barking up the wrong trees. Teach yourself and your team to reframe, and growth and success will follow.
Are you solving the right problems? Have you or your colleagues ever worked hard on something, only to find out you were focusing on the wrong problem entirely? Most people have.…
If you read nothing else on how to negotiate successfully, read these 10 articles. We've combed through hundreds of Harvard Business Review articles and selected the most important ones to help you avoid common mistakes, find hidden opportunities, and win the best deals possible.
This book will inspire you to:
Control the negotiation before you enter the room
Persuade others to do what you want--for their own reasons
Manage emotions on both sides of the table
Understand the rules of negotiating across cultures
Set the stage for a healthy relationship long after the ink has dried
Identify what you can live with and when to walk away
If you read nothing else on how to negotiate successfully, read these 10 articles. We've combed through hundreds of Harvard Business Review articles and selected the most…
Forget what you know about the world of workYou crave feedback. Your organization's culture is the key to its success. Strategic planning is essential. Your competencies should be measured and your weaknesses shored up. Leadership is a thing.These may sound like basic truths of our work lives today. But actually, they're lies. As strengths guru and bestselling author Marcus Buckingham and Cisco Leadership and Team Intelligence head Ashley Goodall show in this provocative, inspiring book, there are some big lies--distortions, faulty assumptions, wrong thinking--that we encounter every time we show up for work. Nine lies, to be exact. They cause dysfunction and frustration, ultimately resulting in workplaces that are a pale shadow of what they could be.But there are those who can get past the lies and discover what's real. These freethinking leaders recognize the power and beauty of our individual uniqueness. They know that emergent patterns are more valuable than received wisdom and that evidence is more powerful than dogma.With engaging stories and incisive analysis, the authors reveal the essential truths that such freethinking leaders will recognize immediately: that it is the strength and cohesiveness of your team, not your company's culture, that matter most; that we should focus less on top-down planning and more on giving our people reliable, real-time intelligence; that rather than trying to align people's goals we should strive to align people's sense of purpose and meaning; that people don't want constant feedback, they want helpful attention.This is the real world of work, as it is and as it should be. Nine Lies About Work reveals the few core truths that will help you show just how good you are to those who truly rely on you.
Forget what you know about the world of workYou crave feedback. Your organization's culture is the key to its success. Strategic planning is essential. Your competencies should be…
Look around your office. Turn on the TV. Incompetent leadership is everywhere, and there's no denying that most of these leaders are men.
In this timely and provocative book, Tomas Chamorro-Premuzic asks two powerful questions: Why is it so easy for incompetent men to become leaders? And why is it so hard for competent people--especially competent women--to advance?
Marshaling decades of rigorous research, Chamorro-Premuzic points out that although men make up a majority of leaders, they underperform when compared with female leaders. In fact, most organizations equate leadership potential with a handful of destructive personality traits, like overconfidence and narcissism. In other words, these traits may help someone get selected for a leadership role, but they backfire once the person has the job.
When competent women--and men who don't fit the stereotype--are unfairly overlooked, we all suffer the consequences. The result is a deeply flawed system that rewards arrogance rather than humility, and loudness rather than wisdom.
There is a better way. With clarity and verve, Chamorro-Premuzic shows us what it really takes to lead and how new systems and processes can help us put the right people in charge.
Look around your office. Turn on the TV. Incompetent leadership is everywhere, and there's no denying that most of these leaders are men.
Business Models for Transforming Customer Relationships
What if there were a way to turn occasional, sporadic transactions with customers into long-term, continuous relationships--while simultaneously driving dramatic improvements in operational efficiency? What if you could break your existing trade-offs between superior customer experience and low cost?
This is the promise of a connected strategy. New forms of connectivity--involving frequent, low-friction, customized interactions--mean that companies can now anticipate customer needs as they arise, or even before. Simultaneously, enabled by these technologies, companies can create new business models that deliver more value to customers. Connected strategies are win-win: Customers get a dramatically improved experience, while companies boost operational efficiency.
In this book, strategy and operations experts Nicolaj Siggelkow and Christian Terwiesch reveal the emergence of connected strategies as a new source of competitive advantage. With in-depth examples from companies operating in industries such as healthcare, financial services, mobility, retail, entertainment, nonprofit, and education, Connected Strategy identifies the four pathways--respond-to-desire, curated offering, coach behavior, and automatic execution--for turning episodic interactions into continuous relationships. The authors show how each pathway creates a competitive advantage, then guide you through the critical decisions for creating and implementing your own connected strategies.
Whether you're trying to revitalize strategy in an established company or disrupt an industry as a startup, this book will help you:
Reshape your connections with your customers
Find new ways to connect with existing suppliers while also activating new sources of capacity
Create the right revenue model
Make the best technology choices to support your strategy
Integrating rich examples, how-to advice, and practical tools in the form of "workshop chapters" throughout, this book is the ultimate resource for creating competitive advantage through connected relationships with your customers and redefined connections in your industry.
Business Models for Transforming Customer Relationships
What if there were a way to turn occasional, sporadic transactions with customers into long-term, continuous…
Come back from every setback a stronger and better leader
If you read nothing else on mental toughness, read these ten articles by experts in the field. We've combed through hundreds of articles in the Harvard Business Review archive and selected the most important ones to help you build your emotional strength and resilience--and to achieve high performance.
This book will inspire you to:
• Thrive on pressure like an Olympic athlete
• Manage and overcome negative emotions by acknowledging them
• Plan short-term goals to achieve long-term aspirations
• Surround yourself with the people who will push you the hardest
• Use challenges to become a better leader
• Use creativity to move past trauma
• Understand the tools your mind uses to recover from setbacks.
This collection of articles includes "How the Best of the Best Get Better and Better," by Graham Jones; "Crucibles of Leadership," by Warren G. Bennis and Robert J. Thomas; "Building Resilience," by Martin E.P. Seligman; "Cognitive Fitness," by Roderick Gilkey and Clint Kilts; "The Making of a Corporate Athlete," by Jim Loehr and Tony Schwartz; "Stress Can Be a Good Thing If You Know How to Use It," by Alia Crum and Thomas Crum; "How to Bounce Back from Adversity," by Joshua D. Margolis and Paul G. Stoltz; "Rebounding from Career Setbacks," by Mitchell Lee Marks, Philip Mirvis, and Ron Ashkenas; "Realizing What You're Made Of," by Glenn E. Mangurian; "Extreme Negotiations," by Jeff Weiss, Aram Donigian, and Jonathan Hughes; and "Post-Traumatic Growth and Building Resilience," by Martin Seligman and Sarah Green Carmichael.
Come back from every setback a stronger and better leader
If you read nothing else on mental toughness, read these ten articles by experts in the field. We've combed through…
If you're enrolled in an MBA or executive education program, you've probably encountered a powerful learning tool: the business case. But if you're like many people, you may find interpreting and writing about cases mystifying and time-consuming. In The Case Study Handbook, Revised Edition, William Ellet presents a potent new approach for efficiently analyzing, discussing, and writing about cases. Early chapters show how to classify cases according to the analytical task they require (making a decision, performing an evaluation, or diagnosing a problem) and quickly establish a base of knowledge about a case. Strategies and templates, in addition to several sample Harvard Business School cases, help you apply the author's framework. Later in the book, Ellet shows how to write persuasive case-analytical essays based on the process laid out earlier. Examples of effective writing further reinforce the methods. The book also includes a chapter on how to talk about cases more effectively in class. Any current or prospective MBA or executive education student needs this guide
If you're enrolled in an MBA or executive education program, you've probably encountered a powerful learning tool: the business case. But if you're like many people, you may find…
"What does AI mean for your business? Read this book to find out." -- Hal Varian, Chief Economist, Google
Artificial intelligence does the seemingly impossible, magically bringing machines to life--driving cars, trading stocks, and teaching children. But facing the sea change that AI will bring can be paralyzing. How should companies set strategies, governments design policies, and people plan their lives for a world so different from what we know? In the face of such uncertainty, many analysts either cower in fear or predict an impossibly sunny future.
But in Prediction Machines, three eminent economists recast the rise of AI as a drop in the cost of prediction. With this single, masterful stroke, they lift the curtain on the AI-is-magic hype and show how basic tools from economics provide clarity about the AI revolution and a basis for action by CEOs, managers, policy makers, investors, and entrepreneurs.
When AI is framed as cheap prediction, its extraordinary potential becomes clear:
Prediction is at the heart of making decisions under uncertainty. Our businesses and personal lives are riddled with such decisions.
Prediction tools increase productivity--operating machines, handling documents, communicating with customers.
Uncertainty constrains strategy. Better prediction creates opportunities for new business structures and strategies to compete.
Penetrating, fun, and always insightful and practical, Prediction Machines follows its inescapable logic to explain how to navigate the changes on the horizon. The impact of AI will be profound, but the economic framework for understanding it is surprisingly simple.
"What does AI mean for your business? Read this book to find out." -- Hal Varian, Chief Economist, Google
Artificial intelligence does the seemingly impossible, magically…
When asked to define the ideal leader, many would emphasize traits such as intelligence, toughness, determination, and vision―the qualities traditionally associated with leadership. Often left off the list are softer, more personal qualities―but they are also essential. Although a certain degree of analytical and technical skill is a minimum requirement for success, studies indicate that emotional intelligence may be the key attribute that distinguishes outstanding performers from those who are merely adequate. Psychologist and author Daniel Goleman first brought the term "emotional intelligence" to a wide audience with his 1995 book of the same name, and Goleman first applied the concept to business with a 1998 classic Harvard Business Review article. In his research at nearly 200 large, global companies, Goleman found that truly effective leaders are distinguished by a high degree of emotional intelligence. Without it, a person can have first-class training, an incisive mind, and an endless supply of good ideas, but he or she still won't be a great leader. The chief components of emotional intelligence―self-awareness, self-regulation, motivation, empathy, and social skill―can sound unbusinesslike, but Goleman found direct ties between emotional intelligence and measurable business results.
When asked to define the ideal leader, many would emphasize traits such as intelligence, toughness, determination, and vision―the qualities traditionally associated with…
Develop the mindset and presence to successfully manage others for the first time. If you read nothing else on becoming a new manager, read these 10 articles. We've combed through hundreds of Harvard Business Review articles and selected the most important ones to help you transition from being an outstanding individual contributor to becoming a great manager of others. This book will inspire you to: Develop your emotional intelligence; Influence your colleagues through the science of persuasion; Assess your team and enhance its performance; Network effectively to achieve business goals and for personal advancement; Navigate relationships with employees, bosses, and peers; Get support from above; View the big picture in your decision making; Balance your team's work and personal life in a high-intensity workplace.
HBR's 10 Must Reads series is the definitive collection of ideas and best practices for aspiring and experienced leaders alike. These books offer essential reading selected from the pages of "Harvard Business Review" on topics critical to the success of every manager. Each book is packed with advice and inspiration from leading experts such as Clayton Christensen, Peter Drucker, Rosabeth Moss Kanter, John Kotter, Michael Porter, Daniel Goleman, Theodore Levitt, and Rita Gunther McGrath.
Develop the mindset and presence to successfully manage others for the first time. If you read nothing else on becoming a new manager, read these 10 articles. We've combed through…
The bestselling classic on disruptive innovation, by renowned author Clayton M. Christensen.
His work is cited by the world’s best-known thought leaders, from Steve Jobs to Malcolm Gladwell. In this classic bestseller—one of the most influential business books of all time—innovation expert Clayton Christensen shows how even the most outstanding companies can do everything right—yet still lose market leadership.
Christensen explains why most companies miss out on new waves of innovation. No matter the industry, he says, a successful company with established products will get pushed aside unless managers know how and when to abandon traditional business practices.
Offering both successes and failures from leading companies as a guide, The Innovator’s Dilemma gives you a set of rules for capitalizing on the phenomenon of disruptive innovation.
Sharp, cogent, and provocative—and consistently noted as one of the most valuable business ideas of all time—The Innovator’s Dilemma is the book no manager, leader, or entrepreneur should be without.
The bestselling classic on disruptive innovation, by renowned author Clayton M. Christensen.
His work is cited by the world’s best-known thought leaders, from Steve Jobs to…
WHAT MAKES A LEADER? CAN YOU REALLY LEARN TO LEAD?
You might believe that leaders are born, not made. Perhaps you think that you need to hold an important job to be a leader—that you need permission to lead. Leadership is one of the most important aspects of our society. Yet there is enormous disagreement and confusion about what leadership means and whether it can really be learned.
As leadership expert Robert Steven Kaplan explains in this powerful new book, leadership qualities are not something you either have or you don’t. Leadership is not a destination or a state of being. Leadership is about what you do, rather than who you are, and it starts with an ownership mind-set. For Kaplan, learning to lead involves three key elements:
Thinking like an owner
A willingness to act on your beliefs
A relentless focus on adding value to others
Kaplan compellingly argues that great organizations are built around a nucleus of people who think and act with an ownership mind-set. He believes that leadership is not a role reserved only for those blessed with the right attributes or situated in the right positions of power. Leadership is accessible to each of us—today. It requires a process of hard work, willingness to ask questions, and openness to learning.
This book aims to demystify leadership and outlines a specific regimen that will empower you to build your leadership skills. Kaplan tells real-life stories from his own experience of working with various types of leaders seeking to improve their effectiveness and make their organizations more successful. He asks probing questions, provides exercises, and suggests concrete follow-up steps that will help you develop your skills, create new habits, and move you toward reaching your unique leadership potential.
What You Really Need to Lead will help you develop your capacity to lead by unlocking your power to think and act like an owner.
WHAT MAKES A LEADER? CAN YOU REALLY LEARN TO LEAD?
You might believe that leaders are born, not made. Perhaps you think that you need to hold an important job to be a…
We are no longer an economy of products and services. The digital transformation demands that we focus our attention on experiences and outcomes. Business leaders and their organizations must shift to keeping promises-no matter how their customers interact with them.
But organizations no longer control the conversation. In this era of social and mobile technology, customers, employees, suppliers, and partners are in direct communication with one another. Those personal networks and the brands they’re passionate about influence their decision making and their spending.
The workforce has changed too. Employees expect to be able to determine when and how they will work, the technology they’ll use, and the values their company will espouse.
Organizations can take part in this conversation only if they recognize how and where it’s happening. Resisting these changes will leave executives, managers, and their companies powerless. Organizations must pivot with and ahead of these social, organizational, and technological shifts or risk being left behind.
Technology guru Ray Wang shows how organizations can surf the waves of change-how they can keep their promises. Current trends, when taken seriously, require a new way of thinking about business that includes five key areas:
Consumerization of technology and the new C-suite
Data’s influence in driving decisions
Digital marketing transformation
The future of work
Matrix commerce
Digital disruption has changed how we do our work. But by mastering these trends you’ll delight your customers with every interaction.
Surf the waves of change.
We are no longer an economy of products and services. The digital transformation demands that we focus our attention on experiences and outcomes.…
Get Backed isn’t just about startup fundraising. It’s a handbook for anyone who has an idea and needs to build relationships to get it off the ground.
Over the last 3 years, entrepreneurs Evan Loomis and Evan Baehr have raised $45 million for their own ventures, including the second largest round on the fundraising platform AngelList. In Get Backed, they show you exactly what they and dozens of others did to raise money—even the mistakes they made—while sharing the secrets of the world’s best storytellers, fundraisers, and startup accelerators. They’ll also teach you how to use “the friendship loop”, a step-by-step process that can be used to initiate and build relationships with anyone, from investors to potential cofounders. And, most of all, they’ll help you create a pitch deck, building on the real-life examples of 15 ventures that have raised over $150 million.
Get Backed isn’t just about startup fundraising. It’s a handbook for anyone who has an idea and needs to build relationships to get it off the ground.
Have you ever had the feeling that you’re just not getting through to the person you’re talking with, or coming across the way you intend to? You’re not alone. Our usual approach is to just talk louder, to try harder to get our message through. This is almost always the wrong approach.
Why? Because other people almost never see us the way we see ourselves. Fortunately, these distortions in perception are systematic, understandable, and surmountable.
Heidi Grant Halvorson, bestselling author of Nine Things Successful People Do Differently and Focus, now shows you how to communicate effectively—despite these unintentional (yet widespread) distortions of perception. By better understanding how communication and perception really work, you’ll learn to send the right signals at the right time, no matter who you’re communicating with.
Have you ever had the feeling that you’re just not getting through to the person you’re talking with, or coming across the way you intend to? You’re not alone. Our usual approach…
You aspire to lead with greater impact. The problem is you’re busy executing on today’s demands. You know you have to carve out time from your day job to build your leadership skills, but it’s easy to let immediate problems and old mind-sets get in the way. Herminia Ibarra—an expert on professional leadership and development and a renowned professor at INSEAD, a leading international business school—shows how managers and executives at all levels can step up to leadership by making small but crucial changes in their jobs, their networks, and themselves. In Act Like a Leader, Think Like a Leader, she offers advice to help you:
• Redefine your job in order to make more strategic contributions
• Diversify your network so that you connect to, and learn from, a bigger range of stakeholders
• Become more playful with your self-concept, allowing your familiar—and possibly outdated—leadership style to evolve
Ibarra turns the usual “think first and then act” philosophy on its head by arguing that doing these three things will help you learn through action and will increase what she calls your outsight—the valuable external perspective you gain from direct experiences and experimentation. As opposed to insight, outsight will then help change the way you think as a leader: about what kind of work is important; how you should invest your time; why and which relationships matter in informing and supporting your leadership; and, ultimately, who you want to become.
Packed with self-assessments and practical advice to help define your most pressing leadership challenges, this book will help you devise a plan of action to become a better leader and move your career to the next level. It’s time to learn by doing.
You aspire to lead with greater impact. The problem is you’re busy executing on today’s demands. You know you have to carve out time from your day job to build your leadership…
After more than twenty years, economist Paul Oyer found himself back on the dating scene—but what a difference a few years made. Dating was now dominated by sites like Match.com, eHarmony, and OkCupid. But Oyer had a secret weapon: economics.
It turns out that dating sites are no different than the markets Oyer had spent a lifetime studying. Monster.com, eBay, and other sites where individuals come together to find a match gave Oyer startling insight into the modern dating scene. The arcane language of economics—search, signaling, adverse selection, cheap talk, statistical discrimination, thick markets, and network externalities—provides a useful guide to finding a mate. Using the ideas that are central to how markets and economics and dating work, Oyer shows how you can apply these ideas to take advantage of the economics in everyday life, all around you, all the time.
For all online daters—and for anyone else swimming in the vast sea of the information economy—this book uses Oyer’s own experiences, and those of millions of others, to help you navigate the key economic concepts that drive the modern age.
After more than twenty years, economist Paul Oyer found himself back on the dating scene—but what a difference a few years made. Dating was now dominated by sites like Match.com,…
Intimidated by corporate finance? The numbers (and the jargon) can feel overwhelming—but you have to understand them to manage effectively. Finance Basics explains the fundamentals simply and quickly, introducing you to key terms and concepts such as:
• How to navigate financial statements
• How to weigh costs and benefits
• What’s involved in budgeting and forecasting
• How to gauge a company’s financial health
Don't have much time? Get up to speed fast on the most essential business skills with HBR's 20-Minute Manager series. Whether you need a crash course or a brief refresher, each book in the series is a concise, practical primer that will help you brush up on a key management topic. Advice you can quickly read and apply, for ambitious professionals and aspiring executives—from the most trusted source in business. Also available as an ebook.
Intimidated by corporate finance? The numbers (and the jargon) can feel overwhelming—but you have to understand them to manage effectively. Finance Basics explains the…
![R "Ray" Wang - Disrupting Digital Business](https://s1.livelib.ru/boocover/1006651009/140/6850/R_quotRayquot_Wang__Disrupting_Digital_Business.jpg "R "Ray" Wang - Disrupting Digital Business")
