• good to great book, business and investing

The Challenge:
Built to Last, the defining management study of the nineties, showed how great companies triumph over time and how long-term sustained performance can be engineered into the DNA of an enterprise from the verybeginning.

But what about the company that is not born with great DNA? How can good companies, mediocre companies, even bad companies achieve enduring greatness?

The Study:
For years, this question preyed on the mind of Jim Collins. Are there companies that defy gravity and convert long-term mediocrity or worse into long-term superiority? And if so, what are the universal distinguishing characteristics that cause a company to go from good to great?

The Standards:
Using tough benchmarks, Collins and his research team identified a set of elite companies that made the leap to great results and sustained those results for at least fifteen years. How great? After the leap, the good-to-great companies generated cumulative stock returns that beat the general stock market by an average of seven times in fifteen years, better than twice the results delivered by a composite index of the world's greatest companies, including Coca-Cola, Intel, General Electric, and Merck.

The Comparisons:
The research team contrasted the good-to-great companies with a carefully selected set of comparison companies that failed to make the leap from good to great. What was different? Why did one set of companies become truly great performers while the other set remained only good?

Over five years, the team analyzed the histories of all twenty-eight companies in the study. After sifting through mountains of data and thousands of pages of interviews, Collins and his crew discovered the key determinants of greatness -- why some companies make the leap and others don't.

The Findings:
The findings of the Good to Great study will surprise many readers and shed light on virtually every area of management strategy and practice. The findings include:

• Level 5 Leaders: The research team was shocked to discover the type of leadership required to achieve greatness.
• The Hedgehog Concept: (Simplicity within the Three Circles): To go from good to great requires transcending the curse of competence.
• A Culture of Discipline: When you combine a culture of discipline with an ethic of entrepreneurship, you get the magical alchemy of great results. Technology Accelerators: Good-to-great companies think differently about the role of technology.
• The Flywheel and the Doom Loop: Those who launch radical change programs and wrenching restructurings will almost certainly fail to make the leap.

“Some of the key concepts discerned in the study,” comments Jim Collins, "fly in the face of our modern business culture and will, quite frankly, upset some people.”

Perhaps, but who can afford to ignore these findings?

Five years ago, Jim Collins asked the question, "Can a good company become a great company and if so, how?" In Good to Great Collins, the author of Built to Last, concludes that it is possible, but finds there are no silver bullets. Collins and his team of researchers began their quest by sorting through a list of 1,435 companies, looking for those that made substantial improvements in their performance over time. They finally settled on 11--including Fannie Mae, Gillette, Walgreens, and Wells Fargo--and discovered common traits that challenged many of the conventional notions of corporate success. Making the transition from good to great doesn't require a high-profile CEO, the latest technology, innovative change management, or even a fine-tuned business strategy. At the heart of those rare and truly great companies was a corporate culture that rigorously found and promoted disciplined people to think and act in a disciplined manner. Peppered with dozens of stories and examples from the great and not so great, the book offers a well-reasoned road map to excellence that any organization would do well to consider. Like Built to Last, Good to Great is one of those books that managers and CEOs will be reading and rereading for years to come. --Harry C. Edwards

• ISBN13: 9781556438127
• Condition: New
• Notes: BRAND NEW FROM PUBLISHER! 100% Satisfaction Guarantee. Tracking provided on most orders. Buy with Confidence! Millions of books sold!

Thanks to processed and fast foods, being overworked, and feeling stressed while eating on the fly, it is increasingly difficult for most of us to eat anywhere near a balanced diet. We may not be obviously sick, but may suffer from lack of focus, insomnia, sluggishness, or any host of symptoms caused by nutritional deficiency. Green Smoothie Revolution takes aim at this silent epidemic by restoring balance to our diets.
 
Combining nutrition and know-how with recipes that pack a powerhouse punch, Victoria Boutenko reintroduces long neglected fruits, vegetables, and greens in the most persuasive style for our busy lives: with fast prep and delicious results. Featuring 200 recipes, Green Smoothie Revolution offers both simplicity (4 ripe pears, 1 bunch parsley, 2 cups water; blend well) and enough variety to keep taste buds happy and nutrients coming from a wealth of options.

Readers have fallen in love with Eternity Springs, the magical town in Emily March’s beloved series where something wonderful happens to hearts in need of healing.
 
Twenty years ago the town bad boy, Cam Murphy, left Eternity Springs in handcuffs, riding in the back of a sheriff’s van . . . and breaking young Sarah Reese’s heart. The defiant teenager vowed never to return.

In Australia, Cam makes a new beginning. He builds a successful business and suffers few regrets until Sarah—and their daughter—walk into his life, and then immediately run away. Realizing it’s time to right yesterday’s wrongs, he follows Sarah home to Colorado—and turns her world upside down.

Cam wants to know his daughter. He needs to prove to Sarah, the town, and himself that he’s changed. Will the residents of Eternity Springs offer forgiveness—and will Sarah have the courage to trust this man who is asking for a second chance?

From the author: Because I wanted to keep the reader guessing until the very end, it’s hard to write a description without giving too much away.

Nathan is a traveler that never knows where his next destination will be. When he arrives, he might not ever learn where he is before he’s suddenly leaving for another destination. Ultimately, it doesn’t matter where he is, only that he has a job to do when he arrives. Sometimes that job is clear. Other times he has to figure out what it is.

As you travel with Nathan, you’ll learn that his work is not easy. You’ll wonder how he keeps from losing his sanity. Maybe you’ll ask yourself “Could I do it?” as you try to figure out who or what Nathan really is. Give him a couple hours of your time. I doubt you’ll find him boring. This novella of 19,500 words is firmly in the supernatural fiction genre, but can also be called religious fiction.

From the author: Because I wanted to keep the reader guessing until the very end, it’s hard to write a description without giving too much away.

Nathan is a traveler that never knows where his next destination will be. When he arrives, he might not ever learn where he is before he’s suddenly leaving for another destination. Ultimately, it doesn’t matter where he is, only that he has a job to do when he arrives. Sometimes that job is clear. Other times he has to figure out what it is.

As you travel with Nathan, you’ll learn that his work is not easy. You’ll wonder how he keeps from losing his sanity. Maybe you’ll ask yourself “Could I do it?” as you try to figure out who or what Nathan really is. Give him a couple hours of your time. I doubt you’ll find him boring. This novella of 19,500 words is firmly in the supernatural fiction genre, but can also be called religious fiction.

Leap of Reason is the product of decades of hard-won insights from philanthropist Mario Morino, McKinsey & Company, and top social-sector innovators. It is intended to spark the critically important conversations that every nonprofit board and leadership team should have in this new era of austerity. The authors make a convincing case that the nation's growing fiscal crisis will force all of us in the social sector to be clearer about our aspirations, more intentional in defining our approaches, more rigorous in gauging our progress, more willing to admit mistakes, more capable of quickly adapting and improving-all with an unrelenting focus on improving lives. "This monograph is a must-read for nonprofit leaders. It will help you stay singularly focused on your core mission and help you be effective at making a difference in people's lives." -Geoffrey Canada, Founder, Harlem Children's Zone

• ISBN13: 9781590308431
• Condition: New
• Notes: BRAND NEW FROM PUBLISHER! 100% Satisfaction Guarantee. Tracking provided on most orders. Buy with Confidence! Millions of books sold!

Best-seller Pema Chödrön draws on the Buddhist concept of shenpa to help us see how certain habits of mind tend to “hook” us and get us stuck in states of anger, blame, self-hatred, and addiction. The good news is that once we start to recognize these patterns, they instantly begin to lose their hold on us and we can begin to change our lives for the better.


“This path entails uncovering three basic human qualities,” explains Pema. “They are natural intelligence, natural warmth, and natural openness. Everyone, everywhere, all over the globe, has these qualities and can call on them to help themselves and others.”


This book gives us the insights and practices we can immediately put to use in our lives to awaken these essential qualities. In her friendly and encouraging style, Pema Chödrön helps us take a bold leap toward a new way of living—one that will bring about positive transformation for ourselves and for our troubled world.

After he called his mother on a cold, blustery Sunday morning, Mitch Lucas could sense something wrong. Her weak, frail voice telling him not to visit because she was sick seemed different. This quirk of fate is what made Mitch walk into his favorite coffee shop on a Sunday instead of a Saturday. There, he meets the people that influence the rest of his life. A gardener, real estate agent, an old soldier and a strange lady with a red umbrella share their unique stories with Mitch. Why? Because he listened.

Leap year at the coffee shop is about life, death and the triumphs and tragedies in between that bind us all together. On February 29th in a leap year, at his favorite coffee shop, on one fateful day, Mitch Lucas realizes his destiny. Something he had always known but never understood until the people he met became his friends, if only for one day. –The Publisher

6-36 Months; All contents work with the LittleTouch LeapPad learning system.

Interactive book & cartridge. Works on LeapPad, Quantum LeapPad, LeapPad Plus Writing & LeapPad plus Microphone. K-1st Grade.

Sometimes Josie wonders what other people are thinking, and in this uniquely constructed novel, readers "leap" into the minds and viewpoints of Josie and everyone around her as she goes through her day. Josie learns that birthday surprises, play auditions, and the all-important initiation at the lake may be the things that define her today, but what defines her tomorrow and in the days to come are the people that touch her life at every moment. This fascinating and surprising novel, now in paperback, is full of everyday imaginations and truths in the life and future of one everygirl teenager.