Duck and Recover. The Embattled Business Owner's Guide to Survival and Growth

Financial statements hold the key to a company's fiscal health—so learn to read them! In order to gauge a company's health—as well as the competition's—managers must know how to properly read and understand financial statements. The Business Owner's Guide to Reading and Understanding Financial Statements will introduce managers and business owners to various types of financial statements and explain why they are important. Serving as a desktop reference, especially for managers without a strong background in finance, this book will discuss the difference between internal and external financial statements and explain how they can be used for financial decision-making in order to avoid common missteps. Whether you're planning for major capital projects or simply managing the fiscal aspects of your department, this nontechnical, results-driven guide will arm you with the fundamentals to: Understand the budget process and why it is important Manage assets and track inventory Gauge profitability Monitor success throughout the year using internal reporting Set prices and make key cost decisions Financial statements are essential to determining a company's fiscal health. Understand where your company stands so that you can make informed decisions about its future.

If you're a working woman who wants to get ahead, S.K.I.R.T.S. in the Boardroom will equip you with the strategies you need to combine confidence and compassion, style and substance, and beauty and brains for professional success. It will help you navigate the male-dominated corporate world and keep you inspired when you're unmotivated and unsatisfied with your career. A must for any woman who wants to maximize her professional potential, this book offers sensible, straightforward, and long-overdue advice.

"Roger Axtell is an internationalist Emily Post." –The New Yorker International business and leisure travel etiquette expert Roger Axtell's bestselling Do's and Taboos books have helped hundreds of thousands of business travelers and tourists avoid the missteps and misunderstandings the world traveler can encounter. In Essential Do's and Taboos, Axtell shares the wisdom he has compiled over a lifetime of international experience. Whether you need to know the best time of year to set up a business meeting in Germany or why the O.K. sign is not O.K. in Brazil, you'll find practical, fascinating, culture-savvy, up-to-date advice to help you steer clear of faux pas and face the world with confidence. Essential Do's and Taboos features: * Information on customs, protocol, etiquette, hand gestures, and body language * Fresh advice regarding Internet business and communication options * Country-specific chapters on eleven popular locations–from old favorites like England, France, Japan, and Germany to hot tourist destinations and emerging economies like India, China, Russia, and Mexico * Guidance on hosting international visitors * Important tips on using English around the world * Special do's and taboos for women traveling abroad

The business world has changed beyond all recognition in recent years. New skills, insights, tools, technologies and best practice have emerged. The Capstone Encyclopaedia of Business brings all of this progress together, distilling the facts and essential information into one single volume. It represents the most up-to-date, authoritative and accessible guide to the modern business world available, providing a gateway to the state of the art in marketing, finance, strategy, leadership, people management and beyond. The Capstone Encyclopaedia of Business is organized alphabetically into over 1,000 entries covering the whole spectrum of business and management including: * business terms – concepts – thinkers – practitioners * organizations – brands – companies. Each entry provides a sharp, incisive overview of the subject and, crucially, points to how the ideas can be put into practice. The Capstone Encyclopaedia of Business makes sense of the new world of business, embracing the best of the new and the most robust of the old. * The first one-volume, accessibly-priced reference book for business in years. * Kicks off this exciting new series and will anchor Capstone as the one stop shop for busy professionals. * Key title in large promotion including web site and extract mailings. * Internationally-recognized editorial board. * Annual updates will occur making this a classic key title to keep on the shelves.

Find out what happens when companies stop competing and start collaborating. Off-Centered Leadership considers an innovative approach to business by exploring what happens when companies stop competing and start collaborating – both externally in the marketplace and internally in building a culture of communication, trust and alignment. Brimming with lessons on entrepreneurship and culture from the founder of Dogfish Head Craft Brewery, one of the fastest growing independent brewery in the country,members of his leadership team and external mentors from the worlds of business and art, this game-changing text turns competition on its head by showcasing how competing organizations can work together—and with other local businesses—to reach a common goal. The text dives into how Dogfish Head has blazed a new trail through the development of a revolutionary business model that has called upon musicians, community organizations, and even other breweries to keep product development fresh and create engaging customer experiences. This book documents and addresses the growing pains a company experiences as it evolves from the awkward early start up years into a mid-sized sustainable company with hundreds of co-workers. Calagione is candid in sharing his personal leadership challenges and success and calls on other seasoned vets inside and outside the company who inform and influence the journey of growth and creative expression Dogfish Head is on. This book is rich with practical information entrepreneurs and business people can apply to their own professional journeys. Competition has long been the name of the game in the business world, but what if there was a different way to approach business? The collaboration over competition approach to business has been proven to foster positivity, productivity, and, ultimately, success. By partnering with your competition instead of trying to outsell them, you could actually create a memorable customer experience that will have people coming back for more! Internally as well the dogfish approach has evolved and is not traditional org chart driven top down leadership. Calagione shared the challenges of evolving from a founder-driven entrepreneurial company where he was the sole creative and strategic director into a more collaborative collective where he is now one of many creative and strategic voices in the company. Discover the methods and approaches dogfish head has used to grow a rich diverse leadership team and evolve from a company basing decisions on the gut and whims of a founder to one with a more robust wholistic strategic approach in a way that allows them to stay creative and maintain their irreverent off-centered culture. Discover how ditching your competitive nature and embracing collaboration can allow you to better serve your customers Explore innovative solutions to the challenges that today's businesses face Consider how your company can grow through the collaboration over competition business model Leverage the experiences of other companies to truly understand how collaboration can contribute to your businesss success Off-Centered Leadership is a groundbreaking book that explores the power of collaboration within the business world.

How leaders can use the right story at the right time to inspire change and action This revised and updated edition of the best-selling book A Leader's Guide to Storytelling shows how storytelling is one of the few ways to handle the most important and difficult challenges of leadership: sparking action, getting people to work together, and leading people into the future. Using myriad illustrative examples and filled with how-to techniques, this book clearly explains how you can learn to tell the right story at the right time. Stephen Denning has won awards from Financial Times, The Innovation Book Club, and 800-CEO-READ The book on leadership storytelling shows how successful leaders use stories to get their ideas across and spark enduring enthusiasm for change Stephen Denning offers a hands-on guide to unleash the power of the business narrative.

The path to business success is an open road and you'd better be ready for anything! What do businesspeople and entrepreneurs have in common with bikers? More than you'd suspect. The freedom of hitting the open road is a concrete extension of the need for freedom that encourages entrepreneurs to start businesses. The desire to succeed in business by doing it your own way is no different than the desire to hit the road and plot your own course on two wheels. The Biker's Guide to Business explores these parallels and offers hard-won business wisdom specially suited for Business Bikers who do it their way-whether out on the highways or in the corporate boardroom. Introduces DeVille's Navigation Process that helps you develop your own action plan for achieving your own unique vision of success Shows you how to tailor a road map to guide your personal journey from where you are now to where you want to be tomorrow Uses biker terminology, analogies, and parallels to communicate real business wisdom Though written to appeal to bikers, the book is a handy business guide for anyone willing to take the ride Whether or not you're a biker, the passion to ride is the same passion that pushes people to succeed professionally by taking their own path. Hop on, rev up, and succeed.

A new 25th anniversary update of the entrepreneur's bible For twenty-five years, entrepreneurs have relied on this friendly, comprehensive guide to the basics of successfully operating a small business. Now, this new Fourth Edition of How to Start, Run & Stay in Business completely updates the bestselling classic for today's entrepreneur. It features all the reliable, straightforward advice readers expect and also includes entirely new information on online business and marketing as well as new Internet resources. Material on legal and financial issues, international business, customer service, and state and federal tax regulations has been fully revised. Plus, new charts, illustrations, questionnaires, and checklists make the book more practical and useful than ever. Inside, you'll find world-class guidance on every vital aspect of small business success, including: * Preparing a business plan * Finding the right location * Deciding on an ownership structure * Record keeping and taxes * Financing and capital * Inventory and distribution * Hiring and staffing * Managing and motivating people * Marketing and promotions * Risk management * And much more In addition, a wealth of helpful resources covers all your outside needs, from attorneys and accountants to trade associations and Web site designers. Whether your business is brick-and-mortar, mom-and-pop, home-based, or online, How to Start, Run & Stay in Business, Fourth Edition provides all the information you need to make your entrepreneurial dream a reality.

In his best-selling book, Squirrel Inc., former World Bank executive and master storyteller Stephen Denning used a tale to show why storytelling is a critical skill for leaders. Now, in this hands-on guide, Denning explains how you can learn to tell the right story at the right time. Whoever you are in the organization CEO, middle management, or someone on the front lines you can lead by using stories to effect change. Filled with myriad examples, A Leader’s Guide to Storytelling shows how storytelling is one of the few available ways to handle the principal and most difficult challenges of leadership: sparking action, getting people to work together, and leading people into the future. The right kind of story at the right time, can make an organization “stunningly vulnerable” to a new idea.

Originally published in 1997, Collins Opera & Operetta is an invaluable guide to this fascinating but sometimes misunderstood art form, presenting essential information on over 180 major operas and operettas in an accessible, yet scholarly, way.The entry for each opera includes:• The composer, the librettist and the first performance• Principal characters and plot synopsis• Musical approach and highlights• Diverting background information, reviews and anecdotes featured in an entertaining Did you know? sectionThe guide also includes a potted biography and list of operatic output for each composer, plus an overview of the history and development of opera and operetta, and a glossary of musical terms.With a timescale ranging from 17th century Monteverdi to present-day Birtwistle and an alphabetical spread from Adams to Zimmermann, via Britten, Mozart, Puccini, Strauss, Sullivan, Verdi and Wagner, Collins Opera & Operetta is an indispensable reference source for opera devotees and newcomers alike.