The New Technology Elite. How Great Companies Optimize Both Technology Consumption and Production

"Making Six Sigma Last is the most practical and helpful resource that I have seen on this subject. George's charisma and charm spill over into this interesting and entertaining book. Using one of George's many analogies, 'this is an upper-deck shot,' and combined with his first book should become the benchmark for Six Sigma learning."-Dan Porter, Chairman and CEO, Wells Fargo Financial «An energetic, step-by-step exploration filled with interesting and entertaining examples of real-world business experiences. Making Six Sigma Last is a powerful action plan for managers!»-Guenter Bulk, Managing Director, GE Capital IT Solutions

One of the world's most sought-after sales training and consulting experts reveals the strategies smart companies use to sell anything to anyone This book takes a new and relevant approach to sales from the perspective of both organizational and individual performance. Based on the author's broad-based personal experience working with over 2,000 sales organizations, it combines organizational guidelines, sales management strategies, how-to sales tips, and career guidance for sales executives, sales managers, and salespeople alike. Incorporating proprietary research, case studies, real-world examples, and practical information, this book will revolutionize the very way sales organizations sell. William (Bill) Brooks (Greensboro, NC) is the founder and CEO of The Brooks Group, an internationally recognized consulting firm whose clients have included General Motors, Chase Manhattan, Sara Lee, and Microsoft among thousands of others. He delivers more than 150 keynote speeches annually to sales organizations.

Praise for Closing the Execution Gap «I got half way through the introduction and was hooked. The book's premise—strategic thinking used to be a leader's main focus but surprisingly that's not enough—gave me confidence that my efforts to drive execution are not in vain. Many of the challenges that Lepsinger describes are exactly what we are experiencing and Closing the Execution Gap gave me a way to organize my thinking into actions I will take at my company. I plan to buy copies for my entire team.» Mark Miller President and CEO, New Horizons Worldwide «Closing the Execution Gap is quick hitting and current. Lepsinger's 'how to' style is easy to read and apply. The examples jumped out and kept me interested and I got value out of every chapter. Companies that are interested in developing managers will use this book the way I intend to use it—as a practical guide to effective execution.» Bernard Flynn President and CEO, NJM Insurance Group «As compared to many leadership books, I found Closing the Execution Gap to be refreshingly practical. I advise the reader to have their yellow highlighter at the ready. I especially liked the forthright analysis and recommendations that came with the author's look at the critical area of accountability.» Harold Scharlatt Design and Delivery Manager, Center for Creative Leadership «Closing the Execution Gap has excellent information and insights that are well connected to meaningful bodies of research. Lepsinger hones in on tangible, real-world problems that many leaders will recognize and then offers practical solutions.?Line managers and Learning and Development professionals will find this book of interest because it captures the critical concepts that make an organization and its people successful.» Craig DinsellEVP and Head of Human Resources, Oppenheimer Funds, Inc.

Breakthrough will help executives lead their teams to peerless, unsurpassed performance by helping them define a grand goal and engage the organization to pursue and achieve that goal, no matter how difficult the challenge seems. Based on a ten-year landmark study of more than seventy bold, breakthrough companies such as IBM, Dayton-Hudson, Progressive Insurance, EMC, American Standard, Charles Schwab, and Dell Computer, the book shows how these remarkable companies adopted outrageous objectives and then did what it takes to achieve remarkable results.

This book discusses how computers are shaping contemporary society, with a tight focus on the role of corporations and governments. It is aimed at government policymakers interested in economic development and at private-sector managers who routinely make decisions to acquire and use information technology, now a worldwide expenditure of over $2 trillion annually. The book will also interest a wide range of academics concerned with the sociology, history, economics, and the effects of IT on contemporary society, ands to the general trade market.

Tired of new software that doesn’t seem to work in the field? Ready to get your teams up to speed and productive with the latest tools?  The Construction Technology Handbook  takes a ground up, no jargon look at technology in the construction industry. From clear, quickly grasped explanations of how popular software actually works to how companies both large and small can efficiently try out and onboard new tools, this book unlocks new ways for construction field teams, firm owners, managers, leaders, and employees to do business.  You’ll learn about:  Simple frameworks for making sense of all the new options cropping up How software and data work and how they work together to make your job easier and safer What artificial intelligence really is and how it can help real companies today Tools that are just over the horizon that will, one day, make your job just a little bit easier New and practical resources to help you incorporate an attitude of innovation and technology adoption into your workplace Perfect for general contractors and subcontractors,  The Construction Technology Handbook  also belongs on the bookshelves of construction technology vendors and construction workers who want to better understand the needs of the construction industry and the inner workings of construction technology, respectively.

How to get past the most common myths about creativity to design truly innovative strategies We tend to think of creativity in terms reminiscent of the ancient muses: divinely-inspired, unpredictable, and bestowed upon a lucky few. But when our jobs challenge us to be creative on demand, we must develop novel, useful ideas that will keep our organizations competitive. The Myths of Creativity demystifies the processes that drive innovation. Based on the latest research into how creative individuals and firms succeed, David Burkus highlights the mistaken ideas that hold us back and shows us how anyone can embrace a practical approach, grounded in reality, to finding the best new ideas, projects, processes, and programs. Answers questions such as: What causes us to be creative in one moment and void in the next? What makes someone more or less creative than his or her peers? Where do our flashes of creative insight come from, and how can we generate more of them? Debunks 10 common myths, including: the Eureka Myth; the Lone Creator Myth; the Incentive Myth; and The Brainstorming Myth Written by David Burkus, founder of popular leadership blog LDRLB For anyone who struggles with creativity, or who makes excuses for delaying the work of innovation, The Myths of Creativity will help you overcome your obstacles to finding new ideas.

The modern retail system has worked to dazzling effect. From the 19th century, store owners emerged from small beginnings to set in train an industry that has seen some operators become nationally, even globally, dominant. Along the way, they turned retailing into an art, and then a science. Now retailers in emerging markets appear to be repeating the story all over again, except on a scale and at a speed beyond anything we have seen before. Given all of this, it can be hard for those who work in retailing to accept that the industry as we know it is living on borrowed time, on the brink of transformation. There is now an urgency with which conventional store-based retailers must now act and the extent of the challenges this change represents in strategic, organizational, and above all, technological terms. Reshaping Retail sets out the driving causes, current trends and consequences of a transformation in retail triggered by technology. The changes go far beyond making items available for sale on the internet. Starting by briefly setting the historical and business system contexts for retail and describe the role that technology has played in the creation of modern retail it then explains the underlying technological drivers behind the current revolution – radical changes in the capacity of both hardware and software, mobile telecommunications changes and the advances of the Internet. Ultimately, success will hinge on more than competence; it will come down to a way of thinking. Customer-centricity will need to be valued not just by the store owner, as in the past, but also by all employees in the organization. It will need to become embedded in their daily tasks. The same applies to technology, which must be at the center of the organization and recognized as such by everyone. With a combination of extensive desk and field research, interviews with leading retailers and technologists, together with the real world experience of practitioners in this area, Reshaping Retail will inspire and help store retailers to make the necessary transformation now to win in the new consumer driven world.

The book contains a practical approach and real actions that can transform the credibility and alignment of IT to the business. –Myron Hrycyk, CIO, NYK Logistics UK & Eire «A significant addition to the Enterprise Architect's bookshelf.» –Rupert Brown, Principal Architect, Merrill Lynch Global Business Technology EMEA Many IT deployments fall short of delivering value to the businesses that pay for them. On top of this, the combined forces of rapid business change and technology innovation frequently outpace the ability of IT organisations to make sense of their implications. With business activity and IT now so intimately intertwined, organizations urgently need a framework which allows them to align IT capabilities with business strategies and priorities in a way that is sustainable. A team of IT-expert authors with more than 80 years' combined experience have interviewed dozens of CIOs, IT directors and other senior technical and business decision makes to find out what works and what doesn't. The result is a handbook for organizations of all sizes that want to improve the value of their IT investments, thus enabling their IT capabilities to play a more pivotal business role. Written in plain English that does not descend into technical detail, The Technology Garden provides practical advice for organizations looking to achieve sustainable IT-business alignment. To do so, it defines: * Six key principles – a distillation of best practice that readers can apply directly to the domain of IT-business alignment * A framework for their application – a pragmatic roadmap for the application of the principles * Adoption guidelines – a set of self-assessment checklists that readers can use to understand where they are on the IT-business alignment roadmap and how to progress. With groundbreaking research and proven approaches, this blueprint enables readers to understand what is at the heart of IT-business alignment. Combining IT research, analysis and real-world insight, The Technology Garden is the ultimate no-nonsense guide.

Winner of the 2003 Financial Times Germany/getAbstract Business & Finance Book Award Leading Geeks challenges the conventional wisdom that leadership methods are universal and gives executives and managers the understanding they need to manage and lead the technologists on whom they have become so dependent. This much-needed book? written in nontechnical language by Paul Glen, a highly acclaimed management consultant? gives clear directions on how to effectively lead these brilliant yet notoriously resistant-to-being-managed knowledge workers. Glen not only provides proven management strategies but also background on why traditional approaches often don't work with geeks. Leading Geeks describes the beliefs and behavior of geeks, their group dynamics, and the unique nature of technical work. It also offers a unique twelve-part model that explains how knowledge workers deliver value to an organization.