William C. Taylor

Practically Radical is a manifesto for change and a manual for making it happen—in an era when change is the name of the game. Businesspeople everywhere are engaging in a dramatic "rethink" of how they lead, work, and get results. In an age of fierce competition and stubborn recession, the status quo just doesn't cut it. But how do you break new ground when there is so much pressure to do things the same way as everyone else? Using his years of experience and thought leadership in the business world, the cofounder and founding editor of one of the world's most admired business magazines, Fast Company, offers radical ideas and practical advice to help you fix what's wrong with your organization, launch new initiatives with the best chance to succeed, and rethink the logic of leadership itself. Practically Radical goes deep inside twenty-five for-profit companies and nonprofit organizations to find out how they've made remarkable strides in tough circumstances. They include IBM, Zappos, Swatch, the Girl Scouts, Interpol, big-city hospitals, fast-growing banks, and high-flying airlines. These organizations have answered the make-or-break questions facing leaders in every field: Do you see opportunities the competition doesn't see? The most successful organizations embrace one-of-a-kind ideas in a world filled with me-too thinking. Do you have new ideas about where to look for new ideas? Practices that are routine in one field can be revolutionary when they migrate to another field. Are you the most of anything? Companies used to be comfortable in the middle of the road. Today, the middle of the road is the road to ruin. Are you getting the best contributions from the most people? It may be lonely at the top, but change is not a game best played by loners.

Not-So-Crazy Ways to Transform Your Company, Shake Up Your Industry, and Challenge Yourself

Practically Radical

Polly G. LaBarre

Meet the innovators and upstarts who are inventing the future of business. Their unconventional ideas and groundbreaking strategies can become your business plan for the twenty-first century—a better way to lead, compete, and succeed. Business as usual is a bust. In industry after indus-try, the old guard is cutting back and losing ground. Meanwhile, organizations that were once dismissed as upstarts, as wildcards—or mavericks—are making waves and growing fast. There is a reason: In an age of hypercompetition and nonstop innovation, the only way to stand out from the crowd is to stand for something truly original. That's the lesson behind the companies, executives, and entrepreneurs you'll meet in Mavericks at Work.They are winning big in business by rethinking the logic of how business gets done. They have devised exciting new answers to the timeless challenges facing organizations of every size and leaders in every field: how you make strategy, how you unleash new ideas, how you connect with customers, how your best people achieve great results. Who are these mavericks? They are break-the-mold business units inside giants such as IBM and Procter & Gamble, as well as high-profile innovators such as HBO and Pixar. They are Internet banks and gold mines, fashion retailers and advertising agencies, funky sandwich shops and hard-charging computer programmers. Together, they are creating an inspiring agenda that every business can put to work. Their success demonstrates that: Being different makes all the difference Sharing values beats selling value The company with the smartest customers wins Nobody is as smart as everybody Character counts for as much as credentials Great leaders are insatiable learners Whether you're a young professional setting out on your career, a senior executive looking to make your organization grow, or an entrepreneur building a company from scratch, Mavericks at Work will help you think bigger, aim higher, and win more decisively.

Why the Most Original Minds in Business Win

Mavericks at Work

الاستجابات العسكرية للانتفاضات العربية

'There's no such thing as an average or old-fashioned business, just average or old-fashioned ways to do business. In fact, the opportunity to reach for extraordinary may be most pronounced in settings that have been far too ordinary for far too long' Far away from Silicon Valley, in familiar, traditional, even unglamorous fields, ordinary people are unleashing extraordinary advances that amaze customers, energize employees, and create huge economic value. Their secret? They understand that inventing the future doesn't just mean designing mobile apps and developing virtual-reality headsets. In Simply Brilliant, the visionary co-founder of Fast Company William C. Taylor goes behind the scenes at some of the unsung organizations that are revolutionizing their otherwise humdrum fields. These unlikely agents of change range from a parking garage that also serves as a wedding venue, to a military insurance company that puts salespeople through simulated overseas deployment. The message is both simple and subversive: in a time of wrenching disruptions and exhilarating leaps, of unrelenting turmoil and unlimited promise, the future is open to everybody. Simply Brilliant illustrates how breakthrough creativity and breakaway performance can be summoned in all industries, if leaders dare to reimagine what's possible in their fields.

How Great Organizations Do Ordinary Things In Extraordinary Ways

Simply Brilliant

The first book to document this change, Mavericks at Work is business "edutainment" for a smart, ambitious readership, profiling some of the most exciting—and often eccentric—CEOs in the United States, while detailing their remarkable strategies for success. Who’s going to write the next chapter in the saga of American business? Who’s going to chronicle the best way to compete, the new way to win? That’s the mission of Mavericks at Work, a book that profiles a network of rebels who are creating a new business model that makes use of fresh principles and captures what it means to be a state-of-the-art organization. Including such pioneering companies as ING Direct, Southwest Airlines, Pixar, HBO, Anthropologie, Craigslist, Netflix, and Commerce Bank, this book is nothing short of a lively new intellectual agenda for business.

William C. Taylor

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