Showing results by narrator "Don Hagen" in All Categories

John Homans adopted his dog, Stella, from a shelter for all the usual reasons: fond memories of dogs from his past, a companion for his son, an excuse for long walks around the neighborhood. Soon enough, she is happily ensconced in the daily workings of his family. And not only that: Stella is treated like a family member - in ways that dogs of his youth were not. Spending humanlike sums on vet bills, questioning her diet and exercise regimens, contemplating her happiness - how had this all come to pass, when the dogs from Homans's childhood seemed quite content living mostly out in the yard?

Simply "making the numbers" is no longer enough to remain competitive. In today's high-pressure environment, organizations need to overachieve. That level of success requires a clear and objective view of the business - because even the most courageous leader can't steer a ship in the dark. Is the enterprise Agile? Resilient? Vulnerable? Or Lagging? The Scorecard Solution provides the answer. The audiobook introduces a data-centric tool - the Organizational Prowess Scorecard™.

You've heard of the burgeoning consumer markets in China and India that are driving the world economy. But do you know enough about these new consumers to convert them into customers? In The $10 Trillion Prize, bestselling author Michael J. Silverstein and The Boston Consulting Group colleagues in China and India provide the first comprehensive profile of the emerging middle class, primed to transform the global marketplace.

Chris Rodell likes to consult with a five-year-old anytime he needs a reminder as to what is important in life. In his uplifting, humorous, and spiritual guidebook Use All the Crayons, Rodell encourages others to become universally happy by becoming more colorful, interesting, and, most importantly, fun!

According to Paul Sullivan, clutch performance does not stem from an innate ability. It’s a learned skill—the art of operating in high-stress situations as if they were everyday conditions. Even some of the most experienced and talented performers lack this skill—but Sullivan shows that anyone can develop it.

Gandhi, a CEO? Absolutely—and an incomparable example for our uncertain times, when we need leaders we can trust and admire. Not only was he a moral and intensely spiritual man, but also a supremely practical manager and a powerful agent for change, able to nurture the rebirth of an entire nation. To achieve this goal, he mastered the elements of personal leadership and institutional management.

In the first half of the 21st century, giving to family and community foundations alone will be ten times in today's dollars what it was throughout the entire 20th century. Yet despite tremendous innovation in the social sector, philanthropy's natural state is under-performance. Not since Andrew Carnegie wrote The Gospel of Wealth has a book been written that provides practical guidance for donors to get the most impact from their giving.

The standard text on innovation advises would-be innovators to conduct creative brainstorming sessions and seek input from outsiders - users or communities. This kind of innovating can be effective at improving products but not at capturing bigger opportunities in the marketplace. In this book, Roberto Verganti offers a new approach - one that does not set out to solve existing problems, but to find breakthrough experiences. There is no brainstorming - which produces too many ideas, unfiltered - but a vision, subject to criticism.

The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, written by Mark Twain has been popular since it was first published in 1884. It is known for its colorful and often scathng look at the people and places along the Mississippi River at a time when racism was an entrenched attitude in Southern antebellum society. The strong point of view, masterful depiction of dialects, and confrontations of issues of prejudice and race have inspired crtics to dub it “the great American novel”.

Between iPods, music-blasting restaurants, earsplitting sports stadiums, and endless air and road traffic, the place for quiet in our lives grows smaller by the day. In Pursuit of Silence gives contextto our increasingly desperatesense that noise pollution is, in a very real way, an environmental catastrophe.

It can seem like every person, every television show, and every ad has an idea of who we are supposed to be. But who does your soul ask you to be? In Your ReDefining Moments, spiritual teacher Dennis Merritt Jones offers a road map back to your center, where you will find your Authentic Self. It is from that center, Merritt Jones shows, that you can live the life you were born for, rather than the tug-of-war so many people get caught up in, trying to be all things to all people, trying to be anyone but who they truly are.

Mindfulness isn't anything that we think; it's what we don't think. Mindfulness isn't something that other people do; it's something that we all do. Mindfulness is an ancient, life-enhancing, healing technique that can help us remember our natural state of happiness and health, even if we think we are too modern and too busy to prioritize what's really important--being fully alive and fully alive to our full life potential.

Here's something that'll stop and make you think: Did you know that your stress is really your choice? That's a liberating concept because if stress is a choice, you can choose not to have it. Our newest book by David Zerfoss will show you the way with his ten rules to simplify your life. Many of us hurry through life going from one place to the next, focused on conquering the next mountain, making the next deal, running the next errand, and believing we will never have enough time to do all the things we need to get done.

A practical, entertaining handbook for people who never expected to be bosses. Plenty of managers never asked, expected, or trained to be put in charge of other people. But when it happens, these accidental bosses often find that learning to manage is like learning to swim by being dropped into the deep end of the pool. Hank Gilman knows what that's like. As a top editor for Fortune, Newsweek, and the Boston Globe, he has helped nurture some outstanding talent.

Truth is, there’s no secret to spending and saving wisely. Rather, living a financially secure lifestyle is as simple as taking time-proven steps today to solve past credit problems, while also preparing for a financially successful future. Others have done it. Anyone can do it. So can you. You just need someone to show you how. In Credit 911, Rodney Anderson does just that.

After launching his first company while still in college, Jason Baptiste cofounded his current venture, Onswipe, in his early twenties, turning it into a multimillion-dollar company in less than a year. Now, drawing on his own experience as a bootstrapping but hungry entrepreneur, as well as on examples from today’s most famous companies, he guides would-be tech moguls through every stage of the process - from testing a concept to acquiring customers to determining the best pricing model - in a cheap, practical way.

Have you ever had an intense conversation where the questions asked led to new discoveries you could not have imagined? That is the enlightening power of Samandy. The rich and, at times, emotionally-charged conversations inside may challenge you, even irritate you; but when they reveal the powerful message that lies beneath, it will leave you wanting more. If you have ever thrown your hands up and said, "What's the point? I'll never get what I want!", felt that chasing dreams is a waste of time, or felt cheated in life, then this fable may ring true for you as well.

Great companies distinguish themselves from the competition by providing their customers with something truly special, something beyond price point that can't be duplicated: unique, outstanding customer service experiences.

At the start of the twenty-first century, we've witnessed a shift to a mass customization-driven economy, leaving behind a century focused on mass production. Customers have come to expect immediate and tailor-made responses to their needs, and the businesses that fail to deliver quickly fall behind. How fast does your business move? Are you doing business at the speed of NOW or trailing the pack at the speed of THEN?

In the age of Google, your customers are searching. Will they find you? In today’s searching world, customers turn to online search engines first. Yet many companies simply don’t realize acquiring customers from search engines should be a core business strategy. Instead, they usually focus on narrow goals, such as boosting page rankings. These oversights leave a huge channel for engaging with potential customers largely untapped.