Suggested Reading – Business Management Tools
These are tools related to each organization’s department which can be classified for each aspect of management – planning tools, process tools, records tools, employee related tools, decision making tools, control tools, etc. Management tools have evolved dramatically in the last decade thanks to fast technology advances, so fast that it is difficult to select the best business tools for any situation in any company.
The Strategy-Focused Organization
How Balanced Scorecard Companies Thrive in the New Business Environment by Robert S. Kaplan and David P. Norton
Drawing from over 20 case studies – including Mobil, CIGNA, and AT&T Canada – the authors illustrate how pioneering companies have created an entirely new performance management framework – one that puts strategy at the center of critical management processes and systems.
The Balanced Scorecard
Translating Strategy into Action by Robert S. Kaplan and David P. Norton
More than just a measurement system, the Balanced Scorecard is a management system that can channel the energies, abilities, and specific knowledge held by people throughout the organization toward achieving long-term strategic goals. Kaplan and Norton demonstrate how senior executives in industries such as banking, oil, insurance, and retailing are using the Balanced Scorecard both to guide current performance and to target future performance. They show how to use measures in four categories – financial performance, customer knowledge, internal business processes, and learning and growth – to align individual, organizational, and cross-departmental initiatives and to identify entirely new processes for meeting customer and shareholder objectives.
The Service Profit Chain
by James L. Heskett, W. Earl Sasser, and Leonard A. Schlesinger
In this pathbreaking book, world-renowned Harvard Business School service firm experts James L. Heskett, W. Earl Sasser, Jr. and Leonard A. Schlesinger reveal that leading companies stay on top by managing the service profit chain. Based on five years of painstaking research, the authors show how managers at American Express, Southwest Airlines, and other well-known companies employ a quantifiable set of relationships that directly links profit and growth to not only customer loyalty and satisfaction, but to employee loyalty, satisfaction, and productivity.
The Ownership Quotient
Putting the Service Profit Chain to Work for Unbeatable Competitive Advantage by James L. Heskett , W. Earl Sasser, & Joe Wheeler
Heskett, Sasser, and Wheeler extend the service-profit chain to include customer and employee “owners.” The lifetime value of a customer-owner is equivalent to that of a hundred merely typical customers. That makes the value of employees who promote customer-ownership priceless. Citing companies as diverse as Harrah’s Entertainment, ING Direct, Build-a-Bear Workshop, and Wegmans Food Markets, this book shows you how to: Identify your customer-owners; Delight them by consistently exceeding their expectations in ways they truly value; Foster an ownership culture throughout your company; Measure and grow your “ownership quotient” among customers and employees.
Balanced Scorecard Step-by-Step
Maximizing Performance and Maintaining Results by Paul R. Niven
Sharing his extensive experience in developing Balanced Scorecards for Fortune 500, public sector, and not-for-profit organizations, Paul Niven takes you through the complete Balanced Scorecard journey—from creating powerful new performance measures that drive the execution of your strategy, to the tools necessary to make the Scorecard the cornerstone of your management processes. Whether you are a CEO, CFO, CIO, a vice president, a division or department manager, or a business consultant, Balanced Scorecard Step-by-Step allows you to efficiently execute your organization’s strategy and successfully compete in today’s business environment.
Flight of the Buffalo
Soaring to Excellence, Learning to Let Employees Lead by James A. Belasco and Ralph C. Stayer
Flight of the Buffalo presents a management program that encourages employee leadership – which the authors believe today’s companies must have more of if they are to survive the coming decades.
The Ten Commandments of Success
by James A. Belasco
With new millionaires being made with amazing frequency and people from all walks of life investing in the stock market, times have never been better for business. But failures are common too, with companies collapsing at an alarming rate. In The Ten Commandments of Success, management expert James Belasco uses an inspiring rethinking of biblical decrees to help readers bring success and meaning into their lives. For those seeking success at work, at home, or in the community, this book captures the essence of enduring principles to help them achieve their goals.
The EVA Challenge
Implementing Value-Added Change in an Organization by Joel M. Stern, John S. Shiely, & Irwin Ross
This detailed “how-to” guide represents the second phase in the “EVA Revolution,” showing executives around the world how to customize and implement EVA at their companies. Here, EVA converts learn how to work some “EVA magic” through company-specific initiatives and case study examples. Coverage includes completely new materials on “real options,” leveraged stock options, and other concepts critical to corporations in both new and old economy industry sectors.
Alignment
Using the Balanced Scorecard to Create Corporate Synergies by Robert S. Kaplan and David P. Norton
Most organizations consist of multiple business and support units, each populated by highly trained, experienced executives. But often the efforts of individual units are not coordinated, resulting in conflicts, lost opportunities, and diminished performance. Robert S. Kaplan and David P. Norton argue that the responsibility for this critical alignment lies with corporate headquarters. In this book, the authors apply their revolutionary Balanced Scorecard management system to corporate-level strategy, revealing how highly successful enterprises achieve powerful synergies by explicitly defining corporate headquarters’ role in setting, coordinating, and overseeing organizational strategy.
Balanced Scorecard Diagnostics
Maintaining Maximum Performance by Paul R. Niven
Presenting the next step for balanced scorecard implementation, Balanced Scorecard Diagnostics provides a step-by-step methodology for analyzing the effectiveness of a company’s balanced scorecard and the tools to reevaluate balanced scorecard measures to drive maximum performance. CEOs, CFOs, CIOs, vice presidents, department managers, and business consultants will find all the essential tools for analyzing a balanced scorecard methodology to determine if it’s running at maximum performance and for seamlessly implementing changes into the scorecard.
EVA and Value-Based Management
A Practical Guide to Implementation by S. David Young and Stephen F. O’Byrne
Economic Value Added (EVA) and Value Based Management (VBM) are today’s hottest management buzzwords. But written information has often been biased and clouded by the authors’ hidden agendas. EVA and Value-Based Management is the first book to unflinchingly discuss the pros and cons of EVA and VBM. Covering both implementation and conceptual issues, with a strong emphasis on performance measurement, value drivers, and management compensation, it allows readers to come to their own informed conclusions.
Six Sigma
The Breakthrough Management Strategy Revolutionizing the World’s Top Corporations by Mikel Harry, PhD, and Richard Schroeder
The extraordinary breakthrough management program – heralded by GE, Motorola, and AlliedSignal – that is sweeping corporate America with its unprecedented ability to achieve superior financial results. Six Sigma is the most powerful breakthrough management tool ever devised, promising increased market share, cost reductions, and dramatic improvements in bottom-line profitability for companies of any size. The darling of Wall Street, it has become the mantra of Fortune 500 boardrooms around the world because it works.
Now, Discover Your Strengths
by Marcus Buckingham and Donald O. Clifton
Based on a Gallup study of over two million people who have excelled in their careers, “Now, Discover Your Strengths” uses a revolutionary program to help readers discover their distinct talents and strengths. The product of a 25 year, multimillion-dollar effort to identify the most prevalent human talents, the StrengthsFinder program introduces 34 talents or “themes” and reveals how they can best be translated into personal and career success.
Go Put Your Strengths to Work
6 Powerful Steps to Achieve Outstanding Performance by Marcus Buckingham
Research data show that most people do not come close to making full use of their assets at work – in fact, only 17 percent of the workforce believe they use all of their strengths on the job. Go Put Your Strengths to Work aims to change that through a six-step, six-week experience that will reveal the hidden dimensions of your strengths. Buckingham shows you how to seize control of your assets and rewrite your job description under the nose of your boss.
First, Break All the Rules: What the World’s Greatest Managers Do Differently
by Marcus Buckingham and Curt Coffman
The greatest managers in the world seem to have little in common. Yet despite their differences, great managers share one common trait: They do not hesitate to break virtually every rule held sacred by conventional wisdom. They do not believe that, with enough training, a person can achieve anything he sets his mind to. They do not try to help people overcome their weaknesses. They consistently disregard the golden rule. And, yes, they even play favorites. This amazing book explains why.
A Sense of Urgency
by John P. Kotter
In his international bestseller “Leading Change,” Kotter provided an action plan for implementing successful transformations. Now, he shines the spotlight on the crucial first step in his framework: creating a sense of urgency by getting people to actually see and feel the need for change.
Start With Why
How Great Leaders Inspire Everyone To Take Action by Simon Sinek
In 2009, Simon Sinek started a movement to help people become more inspired at work, and in turn inspire their colleagues and customers. Since then, millions have been touched by the power of his ideas, including more than 28 million who’ve watched his TED Talk based on START WITH WHY — the third most popular TED video of all time.
Sinek starts with a fundamental question: Why are some people and organizations more innovative, more influential, and more profitable than others? Why do some command greater loyalty from customers and employees alike? Even among the successful, why are so few able to repeat their success over and over?
People like Martin Luther King Jr., Steve Jobs, and the Wright Brothers had little in common, but they all started with WHY. They realized that people won’t truly buy into a product, service, movement, or idea until they understand the WHY behind it.
START WITH WHY shows that the leaders who’ve had the greatest influence in the world all think, act, and communicate the same way — and it’s the opposite of what everyone else does. Sinek calls this powerful idea The Golden Circle, and it provides a framework upon which organizations can be built, movements can be led, and people can be inspired. And it all starts with WHY.
Together is Better
A Little Book of Inspiration by Simon Sinek
Life is a series of choices. Do we go left or right? Jump forward or hold back?
Sometimes our choices work out for the better…and sometimes they don’t. But there is one choice, regardless of every other decision, that profoundly affects how we feel about our journey: Do we go alone or do we go together?
It is the courageous few who ask for help. It is the giving few willing to help others. We can all find the courage we need and know the joy of service – the minute we learn that together is better.
Filled with inspiring quotes, this richly illustrated fable tells a delightful story of three kids who go on a journey to a new playground and take a stand for what they believe. The story is a metaphor for anyone looking to make a change or wondering how to pursue their dreams. And the message is simple: relationships – real, human relationships – really, really matter. The stronger our relationships, the stronger the bonds of trust and cooperation, the more we can accomplish and the more joy and fulfillment we get from our work and personal lives.
Find Your Why
A Practical Guide for Discovering Purpose for You and Your Team by Simon Sinek
I believe fulfillment is a right and not a privilege. We are all entitled to wake up in the morning inspired to go to work, feel safe when we’re there and return home fulfilled at the end of the day. Achieving that fulfillment starts with understanding exactly WHY we do what we do.
As Start With Why has spread around the world, countless readers have asked me the same question: How can I apply Start With Why to my career, team, company or nonprofit? Along with two of my colleagues, Peter Docker and David Mead, I created this hands-on, step-by-step guide to help you find your WHY.
Leaders Eat Last
Why Some Teams Pull Together and Others Don’t by Simon Sinek
Imagine a world where almost everyone wakes up inspired to go to work, feels trusted and valued during the day, then returns home feeling fulfilled. This is not a crazy, idealized notion. Today, in many successful organizations, great leaders create environments in which people naturally work together to do remarkable things.
In his work with organizations around the world, Simon Sinek noticed that some teams trust each other so deeply that they would literally put their lives on the line for each other. Other teams, no matter what incentives are offered, are doomed to infighting, fragmentation and failure. Why?
The answer became clear during a conversation with a Marine Corps general. “Officers eat last,” he said. Sinek watched as the most junior Marines ate first while the most senior Marines took their place at the back of the line. What’s symbolic in the chow hall is deadly serious on the battlefield: Great leaders sacrifice their own comfort–even their own survival–for the good of those in their care.
Too many workplaces are driven by cynicism, paranoia, and self-interest. But the best ones foster trust and cooperation because their leaders build what Sinek calls a “Circle of Safety” that separates the security inside the team from the challenges outside.
Sinek illustrates his ideas with fascinating true stories that range from the military to big business, from government to investment banking.
The Infinite Game
by Simon Sinek
In this revelatory new book, Simon Sinek offers a framework for leading with an infinite mindset. On one hand, none of us can resist the fleeting thrills of a promotion earned or a tournament won, yet these rewards fade quickly. In pursuit of a Just Cause, we will commit to a vision of a future world so appealing that we will build it week after week, month after month, year after year. Although we do not know the exact form this world will take, working toward it gives our work and our life meaning.
Leaders who embrace an infinite mindset build stronger, more innovative, more inspiring organizations. Ultimately, they are the ones who lead us into the future.
The New Science of Radical Innovation
The Six Competencies Leaders Need to Win in a Complex World by Sunnie Giles
Dr. Sunnie Giles is a new generation expert on radical innovation who takes the mystery out of what radical innovation is and transforms organizations into ones fit to deliver radical innovation. Her in-depth research reveals that applying concepts from neuroscience, complex systems approach, and quantum mechanics can help leaders catalyze radical innovation rapidly. Giles’s breakthrough leadership development program, called Quantum Leadership, is the key to survival in the today’s VUCA market, with huge consequences for organizations’ bottom lines.
The New Science of Radical Innovation provides profound insights and actionable tools to help you accelerate the speed of execution, balance between team cohesion and self-organization, and tap into the power of collective wisdom. Inside, discover how to develop the six leadership competencies you need to catalyze radical innovation in your organization.
Tools of Titans
The Tactics, Routines, and Habits of Billionaires, Icons, and World-Class Performers by Timothy Ferriss
This book contains the distilled tools, tactics, and ‘inside baseball’ you won’t find anywhere else. It also includes new tips from past guests, and life lessons from new ‘guests’ you haven’t met.
The Brains Way of Healing
Remarkable Discoveries and Recoveries From The Frontiers of Neuroplasticity by Norman Doidge
In The Brain That Changes Itself, Norman Doidge described the most important breakthrough in our understanding of the brain in 400 years: the discovery that the brain can change its own structure and function in response to mental experience – what we call neuroplasticity.
His revolutionary new book shows, for the first time, how the amazing process of neuroplastic healing really works. It describes natural, noninvasive avenues into the brain provided by the forms of energy around us – light, sound, vibration, movement – which pass through our senses and our bodies to awaken the brain’s own healing capacities without producing unpleasant side effects. Doidge explores cases where patients alleviated years of chronic pain or recovered from debilitating strokes that had plateaued; children on the autistic spectrum or with learning disorders normalizing; symptoms of multiple sclerosis, Parkinson’s disease, and cerebral palsy radically improved; and other near-miracle recoveries. And we learn how to vastly reduce the risk of dementia with simple approaches anyone can use.