Showing results by publisher "Berrett-Koehler Publishers" in Money & Finance

A practical and irreverent guide to taking the sting out of feedback and reclaiming it as a motivating, empowering experience for everyone involved. Feedback: the mere mention of the word can make our blood pressure rise and our defenses go up. For many of us, it's a dirty word that we associate with bias, politics, resentment, and self-doubt. However, if we take a step back and think about its true intent, we realize that feedback needn't be a bad thing. After all, understanding how others experience us provides valuable opportunities to learn and grow.

It may be hard to believe in an era of Walmart, Citizens United, and the Koch brothers, but corporations are on the decline. The number of American companies listed on the stock market dropped by half between 1996 and 2012. In recent years we've seen some of the most storied corporations go bankrupt (General Motors, Chrysler, Eastman Kodak) or disappear entirely (Bethlehem Steel, Lehman Brothers, Borders).

Executives, investors, and the business press routinely chant the mantra that corporations are required to "maximize shareholder value." In this path-breaking book, renowned corporate expert Lynn Stout debunks the myth that corporate law mandates shareholder primacy. Stout shows how shareholder value thinking endangers not only investors but the rest of us as well.

For the past 50 years, the business world has been dominated by the Milton Friedman financial capitalism economic model, which preaches that it is the "sole social responsibility of business to maximize profit for distribution to shareholders". This one-dimensional focus represents a grossly incomplete view of reality - there are many other factors businesses need to pay attention to if they are to thrive and endure.

People who are trying to solve tough economic, social, or environmental problems often find themselves frustratingly stuck. They cannot solve their problems in their current context; the larger system within which they are operating is too unstable or unfair or unsustainable. They cannot transform this system on their own or by working only with their friends or colleagues; the system is too complex to be grasped or shifted by any one person or organization or sector.

As the audiences we market to become ever more digital, agile frameworks are emerging as the best and only way to manage marketing. This book is a signpost showing the way toward the agile future of marketing operations, explaining how every role, from social media intern up to chief marketing officer, can work in unison, responding to the market’s demanding challenges without losing focus on the big picture.

Simon Anholt has spent decades helping countries, from Austria to Zambia, to improve their international standing. Using colorful descriptions of his experiences - dining with Vladimir Putin at his country home, taking a group of Felipe Calderon’s advisors on their first Mexico City subway ride, touring a beautiful new government hospital in Afghanistan that nobody would use because it was in Taliban-controlled territory - he tells how he began finding answers to that question.

Two experienced and visionary authors show how institutions and individuals can go beyond conventional and sustainable investing to address complex problems such as income inequality and climate change on a deep, systemic level. It’s time for a new way to think about investing, one that can contend with the complex challenges we face in the 21st century. This audiobook is for those investors who believe in that transition. They may be institutions, large or small, concerned about the long-term stability of the environment and society.

Burke takes authors step by step through the process of identifying their unique personal brands, defining their audiences, clarifying their aspirations and goals, and setting priorities. Once that foundation is established, she walks them through the process of developing a personalized, sustainable, long-term online marketing plan. She offers advice on designing a successful website, building a mailing list of superfans, blogging, creating an engagement strategy for social media, and more.

Risk isn’t just about threat; it’s also about opportunity. You have to be ready to take advantage of the most unexpected events — good or bad — with any project you are managing. But how does this work in practice? The Active Threat and Opportunity Management (ATOM) methodology offers a simple, scalable risk process that applies to all projects in all industries and business sectors. For each process step, the authors offer practical advice, hints, and tips on how to get the most out of the risk management process.

Entrepreneurial ventures often fail in the developing world because of the lack of something taken for granted in the developed world: trust. Over centuries the developed world has built up customs and institutions like enforceable contracts. This is not the case in the developing world. Using vivid examples from Brazil, China, India, Mexico, and elsewhere, scholar and entrepreneur Tarun Khanna shows how entrepreneurs can build on existing customs and practices instead of trying to push against them.

Digital technology is wonderful, but it's making us miserable, say former tech executives Vivek Wadhwa and Alex Salkever. There's a reason Apple CEO Tim Cook told the Guardian he won't let his nephew on social networks. We've become a nation of tech addicts - although it's not entirely our fault, and it is possible to enjoy the benefits of technology while taking our happiness back from the bots. Wadhwa and Salkever describe the applied neuroscience techniques developers are using to make their products so insidiously habit-forming.

Paul Polak, whose organization International Development Enterprises (IDE) has directly helped over 17 million people get out of poverty permanently, exposes the top 3 things we are doing wrong in our efforts to end the root causes of poverty. He then, through the story of a Nepali farmer, goes on to detail solutions for what actually works when it comes to ending poverty.

Cut through the noise, and create the biggest possible audience for your work. This book offers a proven method for expanding your reach online, so you can make a meaningful difference for others. Anyone who makes the bold decision to put their ideas out into the world wants to reach as many people as possible. Unfortunately, too many think it’s a question of numbers—the more people you can get in front of, the better.

Our economy is designed by the 1 percent, for the 1 percent. This audiobook offers a compelling vision of an equitable, ecologically sustainable alternative that meets the essential needs of all people. At a time when competing political visions are at stake the world over, this audiobook urges a move beyond tinkering at the margins to address the systemic crisis of our economy.

Why are wages stagnant and wealth inequality increasing? One factor has inexplicably been left out: who owns the companies that drive the economy. Ownership gives people a claim to the fruits of free enterprise. Employee ownership gives workers—the people who have a stake in the company—a fair chance to benefit from their labors. In three simple parts, Corey Rosen and John Case create a powerful argument for why employee ownership is the answer to capitalism’s crisis and how to implement it.

In an era when people and money are flowing fast across international boundaries, physically and virtually, culture crashes have become increasingly frequent, says international business consultant Michael Landers. A culture crash is what happens when someone unwittingly offends, frustrates or mystifies a person from a different culture. This can lead to lost business, hurt feelings, damaged relationships, even international incidents.

Our current democratic capitalist system is close to imploding. This book is the first to reveal the secret financial system dominating capitalism today and shows how we can create accountability to restore our democracy.

Americans agree on very little these days, but red state conservatives and blue state progressives can agree on one critical point: Wall Street can no longer be trusted. Yet most of us continue to invest our money in the stocks and bonds of Fortune 500 companies, transferring our capital far from where we live and work. Local investing expert Michael Shuman offers another alternative.

Building a Successful Social Venture integrates leaning from the experience of hundreds of social enterprises that have participated in GSBI accelerator programs to formalize knowledge about what works. It provides rich case studies from social ventures to illustrate practice-based theories that combine the acumen of Silicon Valley executives with the intimate on-the-ground insights of social entrepreneurs working globally to eradicate poverty.