How should you grow your organization? Its one of the most challenging questions an executive team faces and the wrong answer can break your firm. So where do you start? By asking the right questions, argue INSEADs Laurence Capron and coauthor Will Mitchell, of Duke Universitys Fuqua School of Business and the Rotman School of Management at the University of Toronto. Drawing on more than two decades of research and teaching, Capron and Mitchell have found that a firms aptitude for determining the best resource pathways for its growth has a defining impact on its success. Theyve come up with a helpful framework, reflecting practices of a variety of successful global organizations, to help you determine which path is best for yours.
Entrepreneurs have a problem: startups. Almost all startups either fail or never truly reach a sustainable size. Despite the popularity of entrepreneurship, we haven't engineered a better way to start...until now. What if you could skip the startup phase and generate profitable revenue on day one? In BUY THEN BUILD, acquisition entrepreneur Walker Deibel shows you how to begin with a sustainable, profitable company and grow from there. You'll learn how to: Buy an existing company rather than starting from scratch Use ownership as a path to financial independence Spend a fraction of the time raising capital Find great brokers, generate your own "deal flow," and see new listings early Uncover the best opportunities and biggest risks of any company Navigate the acquisition process Become a successful acquisition entrepreneur And more BUY THEN BUILD is your guide to outsmart the startup game, live the entrepreneurial lifestyle, and reap the financial rewards of ownership now.
**New York Times, Wall Street Journal, and USAToday Bestseller** Tony Fadell led the teams that created the iPod, iPhone and Nest Learning Thermostat and learned enough in 30+ years in Silicon Valley about leadership, design, startups, Apple, Google, decision-making, mentorship, devastating failure and unbelievable success to fill an encyclopedia. So that’s what this book is. An advice encyclopedia. A mentor in a box. Written for anyone who wants to grow at work—from young grads navigating their first jobs to CEOs deciding whether to sell their company—Build is full of personal stories, practical advice and fascinating insights into some of the most impactful products and people of the 20th century. Each quick 5-20 page entry builds on the previous one, charting Tony’s personal journey from a product designer to a leader, from a startup founder to an executive to a mentor. Tony uses examples that are instantly captivating, like the process of building the very first iPod and iPhone. Every chapter is designed to help readers with a problem they’re facing right now—how to get funding for their startup, whether to quit their job or not, or just how to deal with the jerk in the next cubicle. Tony forged his path to success alongside mentors like Steve Jobs and Bill Campbell, icons of Silicon Valley who succeeded time and time again. But Tony doesn’t follow the Silicon Valley credo that you have to reinvent everything from scratch to make something great. His advice is unorthodox because it’s old school. Because Tony’s learned that human nature doesn’t change. You don’t have to reinvent how you lead and manage—just what you make. And Tony’s ready to help everyone make things worth making.
Foreword by Warren Buffett Develop a Highly Successful Business How do you take a good company and transform it into one that even the billionaire Warren Buffett would buy? Any entrepreneur will appreciate – indeed, love! – this fascinating story sharing the life lessons that Bill Child learned as he built R. C. Willey, a highly successful furniture business eventually bought out by the legendary Warren Buffett. Lessons on leadership, frugality, honesty, integrity, innovation, and customer service will inspire and motivate readers. Bill’s philosophies speak about how: • Character and work ethic carry more weight than resumes • Change is an essential ingredient for success in the retail industry • Companies that don’t adapt don’t last • Delegation is vital to growing a small business Jeff Benedict is considered one of America’s top investigative journalists. He has published several critically acclaimed books, and his articles have been published in Sports Illustrated, the New York Times, and the Los Angeles Times. He has appeared on ESPN, NBC Nightly News, CBS’s 60 Minutes, and ABC News. Currently, Jeff teaches creative writing at Southern Virginia University. He lives in Virginia with his wife and their four children.
A landmark book, Results-Based Leadership challenges the conventional wisdom surrounding leadership. Authors Ulrich, Zenger, and Smallwood--world-renowned experts in human resources and training--argue that it is not enough to gauge leaders by personal traits such as character, style, and values. Rather, effective leaders know how to connect these leadership attributes with results. Results-Based Leadership shows executives how to deliver results in four specific areas: results for employees, for the organization, for its customers, and for its investors. The authors provide action-oriented guidelines that readers can follow to develop and hone their own results-based leadership skills. By shifting our focus to the connection between the attributes and the results of leadership, this perceptive new guide fundamentally improves our understanding of effective leadership. Results-Based Leadership brings a refreshing clarity and directness to the leadership discussion, providing a hands-on program to help executives succeed with their leadership challenges.
How do you develop products that people will actually use and buy? This practical guide shows you how to validate product and company ideas through customer development research—before you waste months and millions on a product or service that no one needs or wants. With a combination of open-ended interviewing and fast and flexible research techniques, you’ll learn how your prospective customers behave, the problems they need to solve, and what frustrates and delights them. These insights may shake your assumptions, but they’ll help you reach the "ah-ha!" moments that inspire truly great products. Validate or invalidate your hypothesis by talking to the right people Learn how to conduct successful customer interviews play-by-play Detect a customer’s behaviors, pain points, and constraints Turn interview insights into Minimum Viable Products to validate what customers will use and buy Adapt customer development strategies for large companies, conservative industries, and existing products
An all-in-one guide to helping you buy and own your own business. Are you looking for an alternative to a career path at a big firm? Does founding your own start-up seem too risky? There is a radical third path open to you: You can buy a small business and run it as CEO. Purchasing a small company offers significant financial rewards—as well as personal and professional fulfillment. Leading a firm means you can be your own boss, put your executive skills to work, fashion a company environment that meets your own needs, and profit directly from your success. But finding the right business to buy and closing the deal isn't always easy. In the HBR Guide to Buying a Small Business, Harvard Business School professors Richard Ruback and Royce Yudkoff help you: Determine if this path is right for you Raise capital for your acquisition Find and evaluate the right prospects Avoid the pitfalls that could derail your search Understand why a "dull" business might be the best investment Negotiate a potential deal with the seller Avoid deals that fall through at the last minute Arm yourself with the advice you need to succeed on the job, with the most trusted brand in business. Packed with how-to essentials from leading experts, the HBR Guides provide smart answers to your most pressing work challenges.
“Build for Tomorrow will change the way you think so you can overcome any obstacle and reach your full potential.”—Jim Kwik, New York Times bestselling author of Limitless The moments of greatest change can also be the moments of greatest opportunity. Adapt more quickly and use the power of change to your advantage with this guide from the editor in chief of Entrepreneur magazine and host of the Build for Tomorrow podcast. We experience change in four phases. The first is panic. Then we adapt. Then we find a new normal. And then, finally, we reach the phase we could not have imagined in the beginning, the moment when we realize that we wouldn’t go back. Build for Tomorrow is designed to accelerate that process—to help you lessen your panic, adapt faster, define the new normal, and thrive going forward. And it arrives as we all, in some way, have felt a shift in our lives. The pandemic forced a moment of collective change, and we are still being forced to make new plans and adjustments to our lives, families, and careers. Many of us will never go back, continuing to work from home, demanding higher wages, or starting new businesses. To help people along this journey, Entrepreneur magazine editor in chief Jason Feifer offers stories, lessons, and concrete exercises from the most potent sources of change in our world. He speaks to the world’s most successful changemakers—from global celebrities like Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson and Maria Sharapova to innovative CEOs and Main Street heroes—to learn how they decide what to protect, what to discard, and how to move forward without fear. He also draws lessons from history, looking at how massive changes across time can help us better understand the opportunities of today. For example, he finds guidance for our post-pandemic realities inside the power shifts that occurred after the Bubonic Plague, and he reveals how the history of innovations like the elevator and even the teddy bear can teach anyone to be more forward-thinking. We cannot anticipate tomorrow’s needs, but it shouldn’t take a crisis to push us forward. This book will show you how to make change on your own terms.
An instant New York Times bestseller! From Oliver Jeffers, world-renowned picture book creator and illustrator of The Crayons' Christmas, comes a gorgeously told father-daughter story and companion to the #1 New York Times bestseller Here We Are! What shall we build, you and I? Let's gather all our tools for a start. For putting together . . . and taking apart. A father and daughter set about laying the foundations for their life together. Using their own special tools, they get to work, building memories to cherish, a home to keep them safe, and love to keep them warm. A rare and enduring story about a parent's boundless love, life's endless opportunities, and all we need to build a together future. The perfect baby shower gift or gift for new parents! Praise for What We'll Build: "[Has] the offbeat, sweet style Jeffers' fans know and love." --Kirkus Reviews "An intensely personal statement of intergenerational fellowship and an obvious pick for library shelves best explored at home." --School Library Journal "Children will love his playbook for building a future of love and imagination, and they will delight in the special relationship the father and daughter share." --Booklist "Stroked in generous swaths of warm color and Jeffers's signature childlike scribbles . . . .. Jeffers's benediction portrays a parent who surrounds his child with love and steadies her as she learns how to bring her dreams to fruition." --Publishers Weekly
