The Leader's Handbook

John P. Kotter, Kotter

Corporate Culture and Performance

Going far beyond previous empirical work, John Kotter and James Heskett provide the first comprehensive critical analysis of how the "culture" of a corporation powerfully influences its economic performance, for better or for worse. Through painstaking research at such firms as Hewlett-Packard, Xerox, ICI, Nissan, and First Chicago, as well as a quantitative study of the relationship between culture and performance in more than 200 companies, the authors describe how shared values and unwritten rules can profoundly enhance economic success or, conversely, lead to failure to adapt to changing markets and environments. With penetrating insight, Kotter and Heskett trace the roots of both healthy and unhealthy cultures, demonstrating how easily the latter emerge, especially in firms which have experienced much past success. Challenging the widely held belief that "strong" corporate cultures create excellent business performance, Kotter and Heskett show that while many shared values and institutionalized practices can promote good performances in some instances, those cultures can also be characterized by arrogance, inward focus, and bureaucracy--features that undermine an ...

Piketty, Thomas

Capital in the Twenty-First Century

The main driver of inequality--returns on capital that exceed the rate of economic growth--is again threatening to generate extreme discontent and undermine democratic values. Thomas Piketty's findings in this ambitious, original, rigorous work will transform debate and set the agenda for the next generation of thought about wealth and inequality.

Nancy Mingus

Alpha Teach Yourself Project Management in 24 Hours

A structured tutorial for learning how to organize, estimate, build and manage a complex project. -- Excellent use of the proven Teach Yourself in 24 Hours format, giving readers a one-hour lesson for each major portion of project management. -- Author is an experienced trainer and writer as well as an expert in software and other tool-based methods of project management. -- Covers the project in a chronological fashion going in-depth to each stage including the traditional and technical methods of tracking. Now you don't have to be an MBA or advanced specialist to learn the principles of project management. Alpha Teach Yourself Project Management in 24 Hours gives readers a lesson-by-lesson approach to learning the ins and outs of budgets, team-building and tracking. Recognizing that most projects are managed electronically or online today, the author also shows better and more efficient ways to track and achieve goals.