Business

Brief Summary This books is an eye-opening, hands-on, look at how entrepreneurs and innovative leaders come up with new ideas. Hoover offers practical how-to techniques and advice on how to focus on each step required for building a great enterprise. Starting with observing the world around us and seeing patterns where others see only fragments, Hoover shows how to weave together a passionate vision that is clear, consistent, unique, and worthwhile. ISBN:9781587990595 Author:Gary Hoover

Brief Summary In 1971, President Nixon imposed national price controls and took the United States off the gold standard, an extreme measure intended to end an ongoing currency war that had destroyed faith in the U.S. dollar. Today we are engaged in a new currency war, and this time the consequences will be far worse than those that confronted Nixon. Currency wars are one of the most destructive and feared outcomes in international economics. At best, they offer the sorry spectacle of countries' stealing growth from their trading partners. At worst, they degenerate into sequential bouts of inflation, recession, retaliation, and sometimes actual violence. Left unchecked, the next currency war could lead to a crisis worse than the panic of 2008. Currency wars have happened before-twice in the last century alone-and they always end badly. Time and again, paper currencies have collapsed, assets have been frozen, gold has been confiscated, and capital controls have been imposed. And the next crash is overdue. Recent headlines about the debasement of the dollar, bailouts in Greece and Ireland, and Chinese currency manipulation are all indicators of the growing conflict. As James Rickards argues in Currency Wars, this is more than just a concern for economists and investors. The United States is facing serious threats to its national security, from clandestine gold purchases by China to the hidden agendas of sovereign wealth funds. Greater than any single threat is the very real danger of the collapse of the dollar itself. Baffling to many observers is the rank failure of economists to foresee or prevent the economic catastrophes of recent years. Not only have their theories failed to prevent calamity, they are making the currency wars worse. The U. S. Federal Reserve has engaged in the greatest gamble in the history of finance, a sustained effort to stimulate the economy by printing money on a trillion-dollar scale. Its solutions present hidden new dangers while resolving none of the current dilemmas. While the outcome of the new currency war is not yet certain, some version of the worst-case scenario is almost inevitable if U.S. and world economic leaders fail to learn from the mistakes of their predecessors. Rickards untangles the web of failed paradigms, wishful thinking, and arrogance driving current public policy and points the way toward a more informed and effective course of action. ISBN:9781591845560 Author:James Rickards

Brief Summary How do you keep your customers coming back-and get them to bring others? If you need the best practices and ideas for making your customers loyal and profitable but don't have time to find them, his book is for you. Here are nine inspiring and useful perspectives, all in one place. This collection of HBR articles will help you: • Turn angry customers into loyal advocates • Get more people to recommend you • Boost customer satisfaction by satisfying your employees • Focus on profitable customers-whether they're loyal or not • Invest in the right CRM technology for your business • Mine customer data for more effective marketing • Increase your customers' lifetime value ISBN:9781422162521 Author:Harvard Business Review

Brief Summary Lessons from the Front Line: Market Tools and Investing Tactics from the Pros. Do you ever get the feeling that there is a world of strategic investing intelligence from which you are being excluded? Do you even wonder how much further you could go as an investor if only you were familiar with the tactics and tools used by the real front-line market strategists and the professional money managers? Well, stop wondering, because in Lessons from the Front Line a leading financial reporter reveals the secrets behind the tactics of today's most successful money managers. For over a decade, Michael Brush has been covering the markets for the New York Times, the Economist Group, and Money magazine. During that time he has interviewed many top money managers, listened to their war stories, and observed them in action. In follow-up interviews with these managers for this groundbreaking book, he develops what he's learned into 21 powerful lessons for smart individual investors, traders and day traders-lessons you won't find anywhere else. In a series of concise chapters, liberally peppered with quotes by leading money managers, analysts, and academics, Brush describes how the pros develop investor intelligence, exploit stock market patterns, make use of advanced investment tactics, and manage crises. • Read between the lines of analysts' reports • Decode conference calls between companies, money managers, and analysts • Interpret the buying and selling patterns of corporate insiders • Make the most of IPOs, biotech stocks, earnings confession season, selloffs, and rollups • Learn easy ways to spot trouble in financial statements before others do A stock-picking guide for today's new breed of savvy investor, Lessons from the Front Line arms you with the professional tools you need to dramatically increase your profit and performance. ISBN:9780471350170 Author:Michael Brush

Brief Summary Day of Empire: How Hyperpowers Rise to Global Dominance—and Why They Fall In a little over two centuries, America has grown from a regional power to a superpower, and to what is today called a hyperpower. But can America retain its position as the world’s dominant power, or has it already begun to decline? Historians have debated the rise and fall of empires for centuries. To date, however, no one has studied the far rarer phenomenon of hyperpowers—those few societies that amassed such extraordinary military and economic might that they essentially dominated the world. Now, in this sweeping history of globally dominant empires, bestselling author Amy Chua explains how hyperpowers rise and why they fall. In a series of brilliantly focused chapters, Chua examines history’s hyperpowers—Persia, Rome, Tang China, the Mongols, the Dutch, the British, and the United States—and reveals the reasons behind their success, as well as the roots of their ultimate demise. Chua’s unprecedented study reveals a fascinating historical pattern. For all their differences, she argues, every one of these world-dominant powers was, at least by the standards of its time, extraordinarily pluralistic and tolerant. Each one succeeded by harnessing the skills and energies of individuals from very different backgrounds, and by attracting and exploiting highly talented groups that were excluded in other societies. Thus Rome allowed Africans, Spaniards, and Gauls alike to rise to the highest echelons of power, while the "barbarian” Mongols conquered their vast domains only because they practiced an ethnic and religious tolerance unheard of in their time. In contrast, Nazi Germany and imperial Japan, while wielding great power, failed to attain global dominance as a direct result of their racial and religious intolerance. But Chua also uncovers a great historical irony: in virtually every instance, multicultural tolerance eventually sowed the seeds of decline, and diversity became a liability, triggering conflict, hatred, and violence. The United States is the quintessential example of a power that rose to global dominance through tolerance and diversity. The secret to America’s success has always been its unsurpassed ability to attract enterprising immigrants. Today, however, concerns about outsourcing and uncontrolled illegal immigration are producing a backlash against our tradition of cultural openness. Has America finally reached a "tipping point”? Have we gone too far in the direction of diversity and tolerance to maintain cohesion and unity? Will we be overtaken by rising powers like China, the EU or even India? Chua shows why American power may have already exceeded its limits and why it may be in our interest to retreat from our go-it-alone approach and promote a new multilateralism in both domestic and foreign affairs. ISBN:9780385512848 Author:Amy Chua

Brief Summary Becoming a Conflict Competent Leader: How You and Your Organization Can Manage Conflict Effectively The Second Edition of this classic resource on conflict resolution combines research, conceptual models, practitioner experience, and stories that highlight the core conflict competencies. The book underscores the importance for leaders to develop the critical skills they need to help them, their colleagues, and their organizations deal more effectively with conflict and move their organizations forward. This new edition expands on the conflict competence model, includes new tools and techniques, shows how to develop conflict competent teams and organizations, and offers a new online assessment. ISBN:9781118370421 Author:Craig E. Runde and Tim A. Flanagan