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The E-Myth Revisited - Why Most Small Businesses Don't Work and What to Do About It
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by Michael E. Gerber
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ISBN: 0887307280, Paperback- $9.60 BUY
Michael Gerber's The E-Myth Revisited should be required reading for anyone thinking about starting a business or for those who have already taken that fateful step. The title refers to the author's belief that entrepreneurs--typically brimming with good but distracting ideas--make poor business people. He establishes an incredibly organized and regimented plan, so that daily details are scripted, freeing the entrepreneur's mind to build the long-term success of the business. You don't need an M.B.A. to understand or follow its directives; Gerber takes time to explain buzzwords and complex theories. Read in a clear and well-paced manner, listening to The-E Myth is like receiving advice from an old friend.
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Execution - The Discipline of Getting Things Done
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by Larry Bossidy, Ram Charan, Charles Burck (Contributor)
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ISBN: 0609610570, Hardcover- $17.33 BUY
Disciplines like strategy, leadership development, and innovation are the sexier aspects of being at the helm of a successful business; actually getting things done never seems quite as glamorous. But as Larry Bossidy and Ram Charan demonstrate in Execution, the ultimate difference between a company and its competitor is, in fact, the ability to execute.
Execution is "the missing link between aspirations and results," and as such, making it happen is the business leader's most important job.
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Good to Great - Why Some Companies Make the Leap and Others Don't
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by Jim Collins
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ISBN: 0066620996, Hardcover- $16.50 BUY
Jim Collins asked the question, "Can a good company become a great company and if so, how?" In Good to Great, Collins concludes that it is possible, but finds there are no silver bullets. Collins and his team of researchers began their quest by sorting through a list of 1,435 companies, looking for those that made substantial improvements in their performance over time. They finally settled on 11--including Fannie Mae, Gillette, Walgreens, and Wells Fargo--and discovered common traits that challenged many of the conventional notions of corporate success.
Making the transition from good to great doesn't require a high-profile CEO, the latest technology, innovative change management, or even a fine-tuned business strategy. At the heart of those rare and truly great companies was a corporate culture that rigorously found and promoted disciplined people to think and act in a disciplined manner. Good to Great is one of those books that managers and CEOs will be reading and rereading for years to come.
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McDonald's - Behind the Arches
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by John F. Love
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ISBN: 0553347594, Paperback- $11.05 BUY
McDonald's: it is the world's premier entrepreneurial success story, a company whose growth worldwide continues to be astonishing. In tough financial times, McDonald's proved that ingenuity, trial and error, and gut instinct were the keys to building a service business the entire world has come to admire. In the years since McDonald's: Behind The Arches was first published, McDonald's has been a trendsetter in advertising, focusing on different ethnic groups as well as the physically disabled.
McDonald's created McJobs, a program that employs both mentally challenged adults and senior citizens. And because its franchisees have their fingers on the pulse of the marketplace, McDonald's has evolved successfully with the health food revolution, launching dozens of new products and moving toward environmentally-safe packaging and recyclable goods. Inspiring, informative, and filled with behind the scenes stories, this remarkable saga offers an irresistible look inside a great American business success.
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Differentiate or Die - Survival in Our Era of Killer Competition
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by Jack Trout, Steve Rivkin (Contributor)
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ISBN: 0471357642, Hardcover- $17.61 BUY
There are no two ways about it with Jack Trout. Either you've got a product or service that you can say is different, or you don't have much at all. In today's global marketplace and at its lightning-fast rate of change, there's no point in inventing and presenting a product only to sit back and hope that consumers everywhere will discover its greatness. It's not simply about what you or your product can do, it's about what you do differently from everyone else. Coauthors Trout and Steve Rivkin say it all in their no-holds-barred title, Differentiate or Die.
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Competing on Value
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by Mack Hanan, Peter Karp (Contributor)
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ISBN: 0814450369, Hardcover- $17.47 BUY
Presents a new approach to selling that emphasizes not competing on the basis of the best price, but the highest value--i.e. demonstrating to current and prospective customers that using your products or services will either cut their costs or improve their revenues. This book discusses VALUE. Value is not what you put INTO your products and services, it is what the customer GETS OUT. Three qualifiers of value are how much, how soon, and how sure--these are what the customer needs to know. In summary, this is highly recommended for every company that sells products and/or services.
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Who Moved My Cheese? An Amazing Way to Deal With Change in Your Work and in Your Life
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by Spencer Johnson, Kenneth H. Blanchard
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ISBN: 0399144463, Paperback- $12.97 BUY
Change can be a blessing or a curse, depending on your perspective. The message of Who Moved My Cheese? is that all can come to see it as a blessing, if they understand the nature of cheese and the role it plays in their lives. Who Moved My Cheese? is a parable that takes place in a maze. Four beings live in that maze: Sniff and Scurry are mice--nonanalytical and nonjudgmental, they just want cheese and are willing to do whatever it takes to get it. Hem and Haw are "littlepeople," mouse-size humans who have an entirely different relationship with cheese. It's not just sustenance to them; it's their self-image.
Their lives and belief systems are built around the cheese they've found. Most of us reading the story will see the cheese as something related to our livelihoods--our jobs, our career paths, the industries we work in--although it can stand for anything, from health to relationships. The point of the story is that we have to be alert to changes in the cheese, and be prepared to go running off in search of new sources of cheese when the cheese we have runs out.
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Managing By The Numbers: A Complete Guide To Understanding And Using Your Company's Financials
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by Chuck Kremer
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ISBN: 0738202568 , Paperback- $11.99 BUY
Everyone interested in building a stronger business needs to understand and use the information captured in financial statements. In Managing by the Numbers, business education and accounting experts Chuck Kremer and Ron Rizzuto team up with open-book management authority John Case to demystify the numbers. They present a practical, common-sense approach to reading financial statements and to managing the three bottom lines of business financial performance: net profit, operating cash flow, and return on assets. The book features numerous exercises and examples (with associated templates available on the Web), a powerful new management tool known as ?The Financial Scoreboard,? and an extensive glossary. Managing by the Numbers is an essential resource for entrepreneurs, business owners, managers, and anyone eager to improve their mastery of the financial side of running a business.
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Work the System: The Simple Mechanics of Making More and Working Less THIRD EDITION
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by Sam Carpenter
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ISBN: 160832253X , Hardcover- $16.50 BUY
Publication Date, third edition: October 3, 2011
A departure from normal book distribution, and via a special arrangement with his publisher, Carpenter gives away his book in PDF and audio versions at workthesystemacademy.com. (The hard-copy, hard-cover third edition can be purchased here.) This dramatically affects Amazon, NY Times, and other book rankings, but it meets Carpenter's objective of reaching as many people as possible. See workthesystem.com/testimonials.
Work The System urges the reader to modify his or her fundamental perception of the world from one of chaotic, amorphous conglomeration, to a more accurate one of orderly individual linear systems, each of which can be improved and perfected. The reader is guided through the process of ''getting'' this new vision, and then through the specifics of applying it. The methodology is simple, believable, and mechanical; not mystical or theoretical. Carpenter developed this protocol in the business he purchased in 1984 and still owns today. He is also CEO of several other small businesses, all operated in exactly the same fashion. With a diverse background in engineering, construction, publishing, telecommunications and journalism, he calls his approach a "workingman's philosophy."
Work the System will show business leaders and professionals how to achieve a positive macro result by looking at their business and work on a micro level; by analyzing and refining each of the internal systems, the systems that, added together, comprise the whole business entity. Readers will learn how to tweak this "system of systems" in order to maximize profits, create client loyalty, and develop autonomous employees. The strategies also help individuals improve their performance and decrease the stress of being overtaxed and disorganized, ultimately resulting in a dramatically shorter work week and a substantially improved bottom line.
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Traction: Get a Grip on Your Business
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by Gino Wickman
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ISBN: 1936661837 , Paperback- $11.20 BUY
Do you have a grip on your business, or does your business have a grip on you?
All entrepreneurs and business leaders face similar frustrations?personnel conflict, profit woes, and inadequate growth. Decisions never seem to get made, or, once made, fail to be properly implemented. But there is a solution. It?s not complicated or theoretical.The Entrepreneurial Operating System® is a practical method for achieving the business success you have always envisioned. More than 2,000 companies have discovered what EOS can do.
In Traction, you?ll learn the secrets of strengthening the six key components of your business. You?ll discover simple yet powerful ways to run your company that will give you and your leadership team more focus, more growth, and more enjoyment. Successful companies are applying Traction every day to run profitable, frustration-free businesses?and you can too.
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