As David A. Nadler and Michael L. Tushman show, the last remaining source of truly sustainable competitive advantage lies in "organizational capabilities": the unique ways each organization structures its work, builds its cultures, and motivates its people to achieve clearly articulated aspirations and strategic objectives.
With the demands of technology, transparency, and constant connectedness, and calls for higher performance, leaders from the front line to the C-suite face complex dilemmas that cannot be easily denied or postponed. These perplexing, recurring issues are familiar to anyone in a leadership role today, including: How do I balance my functional or business unit goals with the needs of my peers and the whole company? How do I support and promote others while still advancing my own career? How do I emphasize teamwork and still reward the “stars”? Can I really devote enough time and energy to both family and work? These are not “problems” but paradoxes—situations in which there will never be a single correct solution—and while they make many leaders feel overwhelmed and challenged, this remarkable book provides help. The Unfinished Leader is a modern handbook for recognizing, facing, and inspiring others to expose the real issues that underlie paradoxes in modern organizations. Leaders must first recognize situations they will never be able to “solve” and understand how to confront the barriers—in their own heads and their organizations—that push them towards seeking ultimate solutions that don’t exist. Leading through complexity requires giving up the illusion of control, consistency, and closure, while embracing the reality of being permanently “unfinished.” Drawing from interviews with 100 CEOs and top leaders from a wide range of companies—such as Avon, Nike, Colgate, DeutschePost DHL, Johnson & Johnson, PepsiCo, and many more— The Unfinished Leader provides the mindsets and tools to recognize contradictory requirements, understand competing demands, and still be able to take action. No one can find or even should look for perfect solutions to impossible situations. The Unfinished Leader will help leaders at all levels understand and excel at their true task: guiding themselves and their teams through ongoing paradoxes, reconciling competing outcomes, continually changing and adapting, and thereby building lasting success.
As David A. Nadler and Michael L. Tushman show, the last remaining source of truly sustainable competitive advantage lies in "organizational capabilities": the unique ways each organization structures its work, builds its cultures, and motivates its people to achieve clearly articulated aspirations and strategic objectives.
If you want to read about...fascinating can-do business builders by two razor-sharp doers themselves, this is the book. If you want to disprove the ugly myth that 'Canada' and 'entrepreneurial' do not compute in a single sentence, this is also the book. Open it up and get acquainted with a bevy of compelling characters who reveal how they've don it and get their tips on how you can do it, too." —Edward Greenspon, Editor-in-Chief, The Globe and Mail "I am neither a businessman an entrepreneur, but this book gave me practical ideas on how to better cope in an industry that, like so many others, is changing at the speed of light. Brody and Raffa chronicle some amazing and inspirational Canadian success stories and in doing so offer valuable lessons on how to harness teamwork, creativity and - above all - passion into any workplace." —Scott White, Editor-in-Chief, The Canadian Press LEARN THE FINE ART OF MANAGEMENT FROM LEADERS ADN ENTREPRENEURS AROUND THE WORLD... ...ALL OF WHOM HAPPEN TO BE CANADIAN. Lessons on teamwork from Homer Simpson? World-renowned architect, Moshe Safdie, on organizational design? Joe Boxer, guerilla marketer? How can vision turn a single Toronto motel into the global luxury Four Seasons chain? Isadore Sharp shares his insights. How can anybody sell a multimillion-dollar pharmaceutical company in just one week? Leslie Dan Tells you how he did it. Everything I Needed to Know About Business...I Learned From a Canadian offers first-hand insights, experience, and best practices from twenty-four business and culture leaders, all of whom have achieved excellence in a particular area of business,at home and on the world stage. Some are household names, others are barely known outside their own industry, but they all share the secrets of their amazing success. New to this Second Edition are four brand new chapters on luminaries such as Stewart Butterfield, the mind behind Flickr; and Graydon Carter, Editor-in-Chief of Vanity Fair. With additional mini-profiles of four entrepreneurial up-and comers, this new edition offers more advice and inspiration than ever. Each chapter features "5 Things You Need to Know" - the essential lessons from the leaders and entrepreneurs who have been there and done it all. You'll learn the best of business wisdom, get practical advice on company building, and discover how to prosper in one of the most challenging market environments in history. This book offers management lessons that are as entertaining as they are instructive, all built around the deep thoughts and insights of leaders who are the best in business. The authors are graciously donating all of their profits from the sale of this book in Canada to young Canadian entrepreneurs who are trying to make our world a better place.
Most managers today understand the value of building a learning organization. Their goal is to leverage knowledge and make it a key corporate asset, yet they remain uncertain about how best to get started. What they lack are guidelines and tools that transform abstract theory—the learning organization as an ideal—into hands-on implementation. For the first time in Learning in Action, David Garvin helps managers make the leap from theory to proven practice. Garvin argues that at the heart of organizational learning lies a set of processes that can be designed, deployed, and led. He starts by describing the basic steps in every learning process—acquiring, interpreting, and applying knowledge—then examines the critical challenges facing managers at each of these stages and the various ways the challenges can be met. Drawing on decades of scholarship and a wealth of examples from a wide range of fields, Garvin next introduces three modes of learning—intelligence gathering, experience, and experimentation—and shows how each mode is most effectively deployed. These approaches are brought to life in complete, richly detailed case studies of learning in action at organizations such as Xerox, L. L. Bean, the U. S. Army, and GE. The book concludes with a discussion of the leadership role that senior executives must play to make learning a day-to-day reality in their organizations.
Leaving on Top: Graceful Exits for Leaders explores what it means to move on from a career with a class and a view for what?s next. While most graceful exiters pursue a variety of interests throughout their professional lifetime, others are content to reach the top and then cling to it. Through this research, David Heenan has found that most leaders can be categorized into four exiting types: Timeless wonders: With their skills very much intact, these white-haired prodigies have no need to call it quits. Aging Despots: Reluctant to leave the spotlight, they are past their prime and should turn the reigns over to a new generation. Comeback Kids: Whether to return their enterprises to their former glory, or simply save themselves from boredom, these once-departed leaders have returned with a vengeance. Graceful Exiters: Quitting while ahead, they leave a sterling reputation as they move on. Heenan understands how to exit gracefully from his profession?he?s done it several times. In Leaving On Top, he pairs wisdom derived from his experience with dozens of high-profile exits, both graceful and untimely. Heenan?s examination includes ten exiting lessons from leaders of industry, such as: Know Thy Situation: Situations change, and the intuitive know when a great career has fizzled. Take Risks: Accept change as a natural part of your transition, push your comfort zone to confront new challenges. Keep Good Company: Build alliances to help plan your exit strategy, then stay connected. Keep Learning: Graceful exiters remain curious. They are intellectually interested, alert, and adaptable. Know When to Walk Away: Blind determination often backfires. Don?t let professional success cloud your personal life.
Communication in Everyday Life: A Survey of Communication offers an engaging introduction to communication based on the belief that communication and relationships are always interconnected. Best-selling authors Steve Duck and David T. McMahan incorporate this theme of a relational perspective and a focus on everyday communication to show the connections between concepts and how they can be understood through a shared perspective. Students will learn how topics in communication come together as part of a greater whole, as well as gain practical communication skills, from listening to critical thinking and using technology to communicate.
Can an understanding of communication concepts improve relationships with others? Conversely, how do our connections with others influence how converse with them? Written in a warm and lively style and packed with teaching tools, The Basics of Communication: A Relational Perspective offers a unique look at the inseparable connection between relationships and communication and highlights the roles that those interpersonal connections play in public speaking as well as in casual discussions. This groundbreaking text offers a hybrid approach of theory and application by introducing students to fundamental communication concepts and providing practical instruction on making effective formal presentations. The authors encourage students to employ critical thinking on key topics, to link communication theory to their own experiences, and to improve their communication skills in the process. Key Featuresáá Stresses the vital intersection of communication and relational contexts and how they interact and influence one another Offers a refreshing and original approach that engages students with lively, topical examples to challenge them and to enliven classroom discussion Provides up-to-date communication topics in a way that easily fits within a traditional course outline Integrates effective pedagogical tools throughout, addressing ethics, media links, and questions for students to discuss with friends, among others Devotes two chapters to the use of media and relational technology such as cell phones, iPods, Blackberries, MySpace, and Facebook in daily communicationsááAncillariesáá Includes an InstructorÆs Resource on CD-ROM that features PowerPoint slides, a test bank, suggestions for course projects and activities, Internet resources, and more. (Contact Customer Care at 1-800-818-7243 to request a copy.) The robust online Student Study Site (www.sagepub.com/bocstudy) includes e-flashcards, video and audio clips, SAGE journal articles, links to a Facebook page for the text, and other interactive resources. Intended Audienceáá Designed as a core textbook for undergraduate students of communication studies, this book is also an excellent resource for business studentsùor others who are interested in learning more about the pervasive role of communication concepts in everyday life.
Over the past couple of decades, management styles have evolved from strategic planning to total quality management to reengineering. Now in the newest and most cost effective trend to hit the boardrooms, there is a concentrated effort to view employment not as a perishible resource to be consumed but as a valuable commodity to be developed. While research shows that investments in capital result in higher returns to shareholders, the question is how should these investments be made, and how can returns on these investments be measured? DELIVERING ON THE PROMISE reveals Arthur Andersen's proprietry, technically based methodology - called The Five Square Approach - that will enable any manager to measure, manage and leverage human capital. Drawing on case-studies and research, this book is for any business manager who wants to evaluate and improve the current worth of their company's human resources.
This powerful study of the threats to business survival draws compelling parallels between the Titanic and family firms, serving to motivate family business stakeholders into corrective action before it's too late. Family-owned businesses are the backbone of the U.S. economy, responsible for 65 percent of wages paid, adding 78 percent of all new jobs, and contributing over half of the nation's GDP. Unfortunately, less than one-third survive the transition from first to second generation of family ownership. Now more than ever, many family businesses are in danger of going under as rising health care costs, lack of access to capital, and increasing costs of doing business shrink profit margins. Sink or Swim: How Lessons from the Titanic Can Save Your Family Business provides critical strategies for identifying and managing risks—obvious and hidden—that threaten family business survival. In part 1 of the book, the authors relate the design, construction, and operation of the ill-fated Titanic to the challenges facing family-owned businesses today. Part 2 examines the five fatal flaws that contributed to Titanic's sinking and reveals how family firms can have the same vulnerabilities. The final section supplies guidance that will help family-run businesses avoid unanticipated tragedy.
In business, as in other aspects of life, we learn and grow from the examples set by others. Imitation can lead to innovation. But in order to grow innovatively, how do businesses decide what firms to imitate? And how do they choose what practices to follow? Learning by Example takes an unprecedented look at the benchmarking initiative of a major financial institution. David Strang closely follows twenty-one teams of managers sent out to observe the practices of other companies in order to develop recommendations for change in their own organization. Through extensive interviews, surveys, and archival materials, Strang reveals that benchmarking promotes a distinctive managerial regime with potential benefits and pitfalls. He explores the organizations treated as models of best practice, the networks that surround a bank and form its reference group, the ways managers craft calls for change, and the programs implemented in the wake of vicarious learning. Strang finds that imitation does not occur through mindless conformity. Instead, managers act creatively, combining what they see in external site visits with their bank's strategic objectives, interpreted in light of their understanding of rational and progressive management. Learning by Example opens the black box of interorganizational diffusion to show how managers interpret, advocate, and implement innovations.
Many Americans are enjoying the fruits of prosperity. Unemployment and inflation are low and it seems that everyone is driving a sport utility vehicle. But is this a prosperity that's reserved for the upper middle class, the folks driving the Jeep Cherokees? Or is something more fundamental happening? The answers are crucial for anyone interested in how America is changing--from corporate executives to policy makers to the average person keeping up with current issues. Bob Davis and David Wessel have spent thousands of hours in living rooms and workplaces around the country, and they show conclusively that the recent good economic news not only is here to stay but is the start of twenty years of broad-based prosperity. Prosperity tells stories about how the lives of the middle class are changing for the better. These are the people who are still being wrongly consigned b y prophets of doom and gloom to the sidelines of the new high-tech economy. People like: Randy Kohrs, whose training in respiratory therapy at a local community college has lifted him from dead-end, minimum-wage jobs into the ranks of the middle class Teresa Wooten, a former worker in a low-wage South Carolina clothing factory, who is now a supervisor in a German-owned factory The workers at the Allen-Bradley plant in Milwaukee, who are benefiting in wages and transferable job skills form the company's recent computer automation These and many other remarkable stories bring together the three trends that will be the basis for a new, middle-class prosperity: Our $2 trillion investment in computer and communications technology will finally pay off in faster productivity growth, a morerapidly growing economy, and rising living standards. Community colleges are helping millions of Americans move from $7-an-hour jobs. This unheralded change in U.S. education will help reverse the forces that have widened the chasm between more-educated and less-educated workers. Globalization--much maligned by pundits on the left and the right--will create new and better jobs by U.S. companies that export to developing countries and by foreign companies that build plants and offices in the United States. Davis and Wessel's front-line account, combined with persuasive evidence of the tangible benefits reaching the middle class, proves that the American dream is not only alive and well, but will reach more people than ever before.
Nuclear medicine is the bridge between a particular clinical problern and a relevant test using radionuclides. It began as a minor technical tool used in a few branches of medicine, notably endocrinology and nephrology. However, throughout the world it has now become established as a clinical discipline in its own right, with specific training programmes, special skills and a particular approach to patient management. Although the practising nuclear medicine physician must necessarily learn a great deal of basic science and technology, a sound medical training and a clinical approach to the subject remains of fundamental importance. It is for this reason that we have attempted in this book to approach the subject from a clinical standpoint, including where necessary relevant physiological material. There exist many excellent texts which cover the basic science and technology of nuclear medicine. We have, therefore, severely limited our coverage of these aspects of the subject to matters which we felt tobe essential, particularly those which have been less well covered in other texts- for example, the contents of Chapter 20 on Measurement by Royal and McNeill. Similarly, we have limited details of methodology to skeletal summaries of protocol (Appendix 1) and have included at the end of some chapters descriptions of particular techniques where we and the authors felt that it would be helpful.
Exploring Cross-Cultural Psychology: Exercises for Instructors and Students is an accessible text that provides material for generating interactive discussion of a broad sampling of topics in cross-cultural psychology. This new edition (previously Interactive Exercises for Cross-Cultural Psychology) expands the range of topics of cultural interest to psychology and connects cultural study to health, forensic, organizational, and other applied psychology fields. Each chapter offers suggestions for exposition, simulation, and confrontation of current cultural issues while allowing for creativity in instructional design. Topics covered include regional and Indigenous psychology; expression and play; language; identity; social perception and cognition; interpersonal interaction; emotion, motivation, and health; development and family; government and law; economics and work; environmental psychology; and animals and other species. This revised edition includes new coverage of WEIRD psychology, vaccination, well-being, tight vs. loose cultures, and home and homelessness. Thoroughly and currently referenced, with connections to a wide range of accessible web-based and open-source materials, this user-friendly text is ideal for students and instructors of cross-cultural psychology across the spectrum of classroom and workshop applications.
This outstanding work reveals how boards governing 21st-century organizations can change their practices and align their principles to successfully govern the organization of the new economy. The authors propose that judging a board's effectiveness should be done not in a "shareholder" context but in a "stakeholder" context instead. They couch their reforms in a framework that focuses on what determines effective governance behavior: information, knowledge, power, and rewards.They argue it is behavior, not practices that count, and look at boards from a group and an organizational perspective.
WITH MORE THAN 100 BLACK-AND-WHITE ILLUSTRATIONS THROUGHOUT Who are “the Jews”? Scattered over much of the world throughout most of their three-thousand-year-old history, are they one people or many? How do they resemble and how do they differ from Jews in other places and times? What have their relationships been to the cultures of their neighbors? To address these and similar questions, twenty-three of the finest scholars of our day—archaeologists, cultural historians, literary critics, art historians , folklorists, and historians of relation, all affiliated with major academic institutions in the United States, Israel, and France—have contributed their insight to Cultures of the Jews. The premise of their endeavor is that although Jews have always had their own autonomous traditions, Jewish identity cannot be considered immutable, the fixed product of either ancient ethnic or religious origins. Rather, it has shifted and assumed new forms in response to the cultural environment in which the Jews have lived. Building their essays on specific cultural artifacts—a poem, a letter, a traveler’s account, a physical object of everyday or ritual use—that were made in the period and locale they study, the contributors describe the cultural interactions among different Jews—from rabbis and scholars to non-elite groups, including women—as well as between Jews and the surrounding non-Jewish world. Part One, “Mediterranean Origins,” describes the concept of the “People” or “Nation” of Israel that emerges in the Hebrew Bible and the culture of the Israelites in relation to that of the Canaanite groups. It goes on to discuss Jewish cultures in the Greco-Roman world, Palestine during the Byzantine period, Babylonia, and Arabia during the formative years of Islam. Part Two, “Diversities of Diaspora,” illuminates Judeo-Arabic culture in the Golden Age of Islam, Sephardic culture as it bloomed first if the Iberian Peninsula and later in Amsterdam, the Jewish-Christian symbiosis in Ashkenazic Europe and in the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, the culture of the Italian Jews of the Renaissance period, and the many strands of folklore, magic, and material culture that run through diaspora Jewish history. Part Three, “Modern Encounters,” examines communities, ways of life, and both high and fold culture in Western, Central, and Eastern Europe, the Ladino Diaspora, North Africa and the Middle East, Ethiopia, Zionist Palestine and the State of Israel, and, finally, the United States. Cultures of the Jews is a landmark, representing the fruits of the present generation of scholars in Jewish studies and offering a new foundation upon which all future research into Jewish history will be based. Its unprecedented interdisciplinary approach will resonate widely among general readers and the scholarly community, both Jewish and non-Jewish, and it will change the terms of the never-ending debate over what constitutes Jewish identity.
Within the public sector, strategies are not designed to influence markets, but instead to guide operations within a complex environment of multilateral power, influence, bargaining, and voting. In this book, authors David McNabb and Chung-Shingh Lee examine five frameworks public sector organization managers have followed when designing public sector strategies. Its purpose is to serve as a guide for managers and administrators of large and small public organizations and agencies. This book is the product of a combined more than sixty years of researching, teaching and leading organizational seminars on the theory and practice of management applications in industrial, commercial, nonprofit and public sector organizations. The book consists of four parts: Strategic Management and Strategy Fundamentals; Frameworks for Designing Strategies; Examples of Public Sector Strategies; and Implementing Strategic Management. Throughout, the focus is on the widespread value of strategic management and adopting the strategy appropriate for the organization. Including chapters on game theory, competitive forces, resources-based view, dynamic capabilities, and network governance, the authors demonstrate ways that real managers of public sector and civil society organizations have put strategic management to work in their organizations. This book will be of interest to both practicing and aspiring public servants.
The first section of the book contains an overview of the charitable sector in Canada, a sociological review of altruism in different societies, a discussion of altruism in various philosophical and religious traditions, an economic analysis of "rational voluntarism," and an assessment of the relationship between the charitable sector and the welfare state. The second section contains five papers on the legal definition of charity, both general (the jurisprudence of the Federal Court of Appeal and a proposal for rethinking the concept of "public benefit"), and particular (the political purposes doctrine, religion as charity, and a commentary on the recent major Supreme Court decision on the meaning of charity). The third section deals with the tax status of charities: two papers evaluate the current tax credit system and one deals with the administration of charities by the Canada Customs and Revenue Agency. The final section contains essays on charities and commercial enterprise, on the regulation of fund-raising, and on needed reforms in non-profit corporation law. At a time when the federal government is about to embark on a wide range of policy initiatives to assist and regulate the non-profit sector, these essays are necessary reading for anyone concerned with the future of the charitable sector in Canada. Contributors include Neil Brooks (Osgoode Hall Law School), Cara Cameron (McGill), Bruce Chapman, Kevin Davis (Toronto), Abraham Drassinower (Toronto), David Duff (Toronto), Richard Janda (McGill), Will Kymlicka (Queen's), Andrée Lajoie (Montreal), Mayo Moran (Toronto), Charles-Maxime Panaccio (office of Mr Justice Charles Gonthier), Jim Phillips, Jane Allyn Piliavin (Wisconsin-Madison), David Sharpe (Attorney-General's Office, New York State), Lorne Sossin (Osgoode Hall Law School), David Stevens, and Jen-Chieh Ting (Academia Sinica).
In Four Practical Revolutions in Management: Systems for Creating Unique Organizational Capability, authors Shoji Shiba and David Walden significantly revise their classic text on leading management systems -- A New American TQM. This book is a comprehensive approach to business management that goes beyond business operations improvement. The authors demonstrate a program for establishing a sophisticated, state-of-the-art management system that creates unique organizational capabilities. Containing new methodologies and case studies, the book is one of the most extensive in the management field and provides a step-by-step program for implementing leading management techniques. To create a successful management system, the authors argue that companies must be organized around four major areas of practice called the "four revolutions." They are customer focus, continuous improvement, total participation, and societal networking. For each of the areas, the book presents proven methods that enable dynamic implementation strategies. Customer Focus Any effective management system begins with the customer. Companies must learn to integrate a customer's concerns into their own. The book presents how to embrace the "market-in" concept and integrate the other skills in the book into a management strategy that focuses on the customer. Continuous Improvement For a company to be successful in the 21st century, it must continually improve its processes to meet the ever-changing needs of the customer. This book introduces important tools for process discovery, management, and improvement. In the process, it moves beyond "reactive improvement" methods to "proactive improvement" efforts. Total Participation The key to creating a dynamic management system is employee participation. Employees are the ones who work on the issues of quality and customer satisfaction on a daily basis. This book presents skills such as hoshin management, team-building, creating structures for mobilization, and leading change and breakthrough. Societal Networking Besides a company's internal audience, another source of business improvement ideas is societal networking. This is the set of companies, customers, and suppliers associated with any organization, that can learn from the experiences of these groups. To develop these valuable resources into a comprehensive management strategy, the book covers "mutual learning" methods, as well as keys for integrating various management methodologies. This book includes: Hoshin management PDCA (plan, do, check, act) cycle 7-step method of reactive improvement Proactive improvement to develop new products Engaging people in a changing environment Focused strategies for phase-in Leading process improvement The practice of breakthrough Over thirty thorough case studies
A brand new collection of state-of-the-art guides to business innovation and transformation 4 authoritative books help you infuse innovation throughout everything your business does: not just once, but constantly! This extraordinary collection shows how to make breakthrough, high-profit innovation happen – again and again. Start with the recently updated edition of Making Innovation Work: a formal innovation process proven to help ordinary managers drive top and bottom line growth from innovation. This guidebook draws on unsurpassed innovation consulting experience, and the most thorough review of innovation research ever performed. It shows what works, what doesn’t, and how to use management tools and metrics to dramatically increase the payoff of innovation investments. You’ll learn to define the right strategy for effective innovation; structure organizations, management systems, and incentives for innovation, and much more. Next, Innovation: Fast Track to Success helps you get six key things right about innovation: planning, pipeline, process, platform, people, and performance. You’ll learn how to deeply integrate innovation throughout team structure, so you can move from buzzwords to achievement. Then, in Disrupt: Think the Unthinkable to Spark Transformation in Your Business, frog design’s Luke Williams shows how to start generating (and executing on) a steady stream of disruptive strategies and unexpected solutions. Williams combines the fluid creativity of “disruptive thinking” with the analytical rigor that’s indispensable to business success. The result: a simple yet complete five-stage process for imagining a powerful market disruption, and transforming it into reality that can catch an entire industry by surprise. Finally, in the highly-anticipated Second Edition of Creating Breakthrough Products: Revealing the Secrets that Drive Global Innovation, Jonathan Cagan and Craig Vogel offer an indispensable roadmap for uncovering new opportunities, identifying what customers really value today, and building products and services that redefine (or create entirely new) markets. This edition contains brand-new chapters on service design and global innovation, new insights and best practices, and new case studies ranging from Navistar’s latest long-haul truck to P&G’s reinvention of Herbal Essence. With even more visual maps and illustrations, it’s even more intuitive, accessible, and valuable! From world-renowned business innovation and transformation experts Tony Davila, Marc Epstein, Robert Shelton, Andy Bruce, David Birchall, Luke Williams, Jonathan Cagan, and Craig Vogel
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