Driving Results Through Social Networks. How Top Organizations Leverage Networks for Performance and Growth

You’ve probably heard the expression, “It’s time to cut the cord.” Well, it may be time to “cut the cables” at your office and free yourself from your desk and computer. Wireless networks are the waves of the future—literally. Wireless Networks For Dummies guides you from design through implementation to ongoing protection of your system and your information so you can: Remain connected to the office in airports and hotels Access the Internet and other network resources in the lunchroom, conference room, or anywhere there’s an access point Use your PDA or laptop to query your database from the warehouse or the boardroom Check e-mail wirelessly when you’re on the road Get rid of the cable clutter in your office Wireless Networks For Dummies was coauthored by Barry D. Lewis, CISSP, and Peter T. Davis, who also coauthored Computer Security For Dummies. Barry Lewis is president of an information security consulting firm and an internationally known leader of security seminars. Peter Davis is founder of a firm specializing in the security, audit, and control of information. Together, they cut through the cables, clutter, and confusion and help you: Get off to a quick start and get mobile with IrDA (Infrared Data Association) and Bluetooth Perform a site survey and select the right standard, mode, access point, channel and antenna Check online to verify degree of interoperability of devices from various vendors Install clients and set up roaming Combat security threats such as war driving, jamming, hijacking, and man-in-the-middle attacks Implement security and controls such as MAC (Media Access Control) and protocol filtering, WEP (Wireless Equivalent Privacy), WPA, (Wi-Fi Protected Access), EAP (Extensible Authentication Protocol), and VPN (Virtual Private Network) Set up multiple access points to form a larger wireless network Complete with suggestions of places to get connected, Web sites where you can get more information, tools you can use to monitor and improve security, and more, Wireless Networks For Dummies helps you pull the plug and go wireless!

If you’ve been charged with setting up storage area networks for your company, learning how SANs work and managing data storage problems might seem challenging. Storage Area Networks For Dummies, 2nd Edition comes to the rescue with just what you need to know. Whether you already a bit SAN savvy or you’re a complete novice, here’s the scoop on how SANs save money, how to implement new technologies like data de-duplication, iScsi, and Fibre Channel over Ethernet, how to develop SANs that will aid your company’s disaster recovery plan, and much more. For example, you can: Understand what SANs are, whether you need one, and what you need to build one Learn to use loops, switches, and fabric, and design your SAN for peak performance Create a disaster recovery plan with the appropriate guidelines, remote site, and data copy techniques Discover how to connect or extend SANs and how compression can reduce costs Compare tape and disk backups and network vs. SAN backup to choose the solution you need Find out how data de-duplication makes sense for backup, replication, and retention Follow great troubleshooting tips to help you find and fix a problem Benefit from a glossary of all those pesky acronyms From the basics for beginners to advanced features like snapshot copies, storage virtualization, and heading off problems before they happen, here’s what you need to do the job with confidence!

Could Wal-Mart offer a better solution to healthcare than Medicaid? Could GE help reduce global warming faster than the Kyoto protocol? Social Innovation, Inc. declares a new era where companies profit from social change. Leading corporations like GE, Wellpoint, Travelers and Wal-Mart are transforming social responsibility into social innovation and revolutionizing the way we think about the role of business in society. Based on four years of measuring the social strategies of America's leading corporations, Jason Saul lays out the five strategies for social innovation and offers a practical roadmap for how to get started. Explains the fundamental shift in the role of business in society, from social contract to social capital market Identifies the 5 social innovation strategies: submarket products and services, social points of entry, pipeline talent, reverse lobbying, and emotive customer bonding Offers step-by-step guidance for creating economic value through positive social change Social Innovation, Inc. is about making social change work for the business, and in turn staying relevant in the new economy.

A career guide to more significant business results in a shorter period of time Results Through Relationships shows professionals how to establish break-through relationships with new prospects and their existing networks, including colleagues, bosses, customers, clients, vendors, and others. Many people assume that only new contacts will help them achieve their goals, but in reality, many breakthroughs happen within existing networks. This handy career guide focuses on the bottom-line behaviors that expedite trust, improve workplace performance, and increase profit. Author Joe Takash presents a nine-step process that anyone can master, and his formula proves that we're all in the relationship business first.

Experience the growth multiplier effect through transforming the distribution and sales network Selling Through Someone Else tackles new opportunities to drive company growth by taking a fresh look at the customer smart distribution and sales process. The authors, from Accenture, one of the world's largest consulting companies, explain how companies can be smarter about what their customers truly want and maximize the return on investment from all available resources for growth opportunities by exploring creative distribution options, including leveraging partners, online outlets, iPads/tablets, your traditional sales force, and more. Selling Through Someone Else demonstrates that traditional approaches are no longer effective and how, by capitalizing on converging forces, companies can transform their «sales» approaches to grow revenue, and enhance customer and brand loyalty. Explores how globalization, new competitors, and low-cost threats are reshaping the way sales is happening today, and how to prepare your company to be successful in this new dynamic and iterative selling model Shows how analytics, the shift to digital selling and mobile sales tools, and new approaches to sales operations can reshape the entire sales function Demonstrates how new ecosystems of partners are created, managed, and incented to drive greater sales and profitability Accenture has helped numerous clients collaborate across IT, Sales, and Marketing to dramatically grow distribution and adapt to the different «playing field» of today. Selling through Someone Else applies the trends and lessons learned from Fortune 500 and Global 500 companies to mid-sized enterprises and small-medium businesses owners.

In Left on Red, venture capitalist and business innovator Bill Glynn reveals how visionary thinkers and risk-takers build great companies by doing the opposite of the expected. Today?s coolest and most successful businesses?including Google, Apple, and YouTube?were built by people who break the rules and bring radical ideas to life. If you?re an entrepreneur or an executive, this book gives you the inspiration and the guidance to bring your radical ideas to life?and change the world in the process.

Make diversity your competitive advantage To reap the full benefits of diversity and inclusion, today's forward thinking companies look past «diversity» training towards a more comprehensive, holistic business approach. These leaders incorporate diversity and inclusion into every aspect of business culture, employee engagement, talent management and market penetration. Trailblazers reveals the practices, metrics and research, as well as the anecdotal evidence, for building and sustaining workplace cultures that make strategic diversity and inclusion a business necessity. Focusing on concrete actions you can implement immediately, this insider guide profiles the best practices award-winning companies have used on a sustained basis to transform their organizations. Captures insights and best practices from the most effective Chief Diversity Officers, several of which are determined by the Diversity Inc Top 50 Companies for Diversity Companies profiled include IBM, Dell, Verizon, Merck and Co, Sodexo, Verizon, Andrews Kurth, The Coca-Cola Company, American Airlines, Citi, Ford, Shell and Pitney Bowes Covers everything from how to use employee resource groups to help target consumers and forge tighter client relationships; from talent optimization, leadership development and retention, to increasing middle management engagement and the skill-sets required for effective Chief Diversity Officers as true business partners and more Trailblazers gives you an in-depth view from the inside out of which practical solutions make diversity and inclusion efforts a systemic and winning way of doing business for today's top-performing companies.

What does it take to do more with less? How can you do better than before, or better than others? How do you turn losses into wins, or near-bankruptcy into strong profitability, or abject failure into stellar success? The power of uplift enables any organization to do more with less, beat the competition, and perform better than ever. Leaders who uplift their employees' passions, intellects, and commitments produce remarkable results. Based on original research from a seven-year global study, Uplifting Leadership reveals how leaders from diverse organizations inspired and uplifted their teams' performance. Distilling the six common characteristics of leaders at high-performing organizations across business, sports, and education, authors Andy Hargreaves, Alan Boyle, and Alma Harris explore the nature of uplift, its impact on performance, and the ways to achieve it within and beyond an organization's walls, revealing how leaders: Identify and articulate an inspiring dream that is coherently connected to the best of what the organization has been before Pursue that dream at a sustainable pace without squandering resources, incurring excessive debt, or burning people out Forge paths of innovation and improvement that others have overlooked or rejected Monitor progress by using metrics and indicators in a mindful and meaningful way Build teams that naturally pull people into change rather than pushing them through it Featuring case studies of organizations as diverse as Shoebuy.com, Fiat, Dogfish Head Craft Brewery, Marks & Spencer, Cricket Australia, Burnley Football Club, and the Vancouver Giants, as well as world-leading educational systems, Uplifting Leadership provides tools for leaders to incorporate these performance-driving strategies into their own. For leaders who want their people to try harder, transform what they do, reach for a higher purpose, and stay resolute and resilient when opposing forces threaten to defeat them, Uplifting Leadership provides a path to better performance across any organization.

Strategies for long-term social impact This important new book illustrates how to create the social breakthroughs needed to solve urgent global threats such as poverty, disease, and hunger. It then turns to three alternative, but complementary, paths to social breakthrough: social protecting, social exploring, and social advocacy, providing a detailed map of the journey from initial commitment to a world of justice and opportunity Examines the current condition of the social impact infrastructure Offers strategies for how to remedy the steady weakening of our social-impact infrastructure Provides tactics to build strong social organizations and networks Illustrates dynamic methods to respond to constant economic and social change Author Paul Light believes we should be less concerned about the tools of agitation (social entrepreneurship, social protecting, social exploring, and social advocacy) and more concerned about the disruption and replacement of the status quo. Timely in its urgency, this book describes the revolutionary social impact cycle, which provides a new approach for framing the debate about urgent threats.

Transform your organization into a dynamic catalyst for success Accelerating Performance is not just another “warm and fuzzy” change management book—it's a practical, comprehensive, data-driven action plan for picking up the pace and achieving more. Co-written by one of the authors of Beyond Performance, this book draws on a combination of empirical research and decades of experience advising global companies to show you how to reduce time to value by building and changing momentum more quickly than your competitors. The META framework (short for Mobilize, Execute, and Transform with Agility) offers advice for leading change at four levels: strategy, the organization, teams, and individuals. In addition to step-by-step guidance toward assessment, planning, and implementation, the book offers: A diagnostic tool for leaders, teams, and organizations to assess their starting place, and highlight the specific areas needed to improve the ability to accelerate performance. A detailed look at the factors proven to create drag—and drive—at each of the four levels: strategy, organizations, teams, and individuals. An exploration of the 39 differentiating actions that organizations can combine as dictated by their strategy and context into a winning recipe. A closer look at the practices of 23 “superaccelerators,” a global (and perhaps unexpected) mix of companies that have demonstrated a consistent ability to accelerate performance. A single taste of success is all it takes to spark change, but the hard work of following through requires constant vigilance—and a plan. Learn how to capture that drive, bottle it, and use it to sustain motivation, inspiration, and achievement. Deliver at the highest level, and then turn around and do even better next time. Accelerating Performance gives leaders a step-by-step framework for taking action and transforming their organizations, teams, and even themselves—starting today.