"Through a rhetorical analysis of the speeches and letters of chief executive officers from Bill Gates to Jack Welch, annual reports to shareholders, press releases, and company newsletters and Websites, Joel Amernic and Russell Craig show that CEOs are elitist exclusionary propagators of an often biased stream of discourse. They examine the Internet as a powerful new platform for CEO-speak and find that the language of CEOs evokes an ideology of neo-liberalism, extreme individualism, hyper-competition, and global capitalism. Raising alarm bells regarding the ethos of corporate leadership, the authors urge the business press, academia, and the accounting and auditing community to take a more critical approach toward corporations." --Résumé de l'éditeur.

Decoding CEO-Speak monitors the written and oral language of CEOs to reveal its manipulative, enlightening, frustrating, inspiring, and disturbing characteristics.

The words of business leaders matter. They can spark action, enhance branding, share knowledge, transmit values, and influence social and cultural behavior. Decoding CEO-Speak critiques the public language of a powerful class of people – the Chief Executive Officers of major companies. Interest in the behavior and thinking of CEOs is not confined to their corporation’s direct stakeholders only: the public is increasingly interested in how CEOs stand on current issues and community debate. Through case study analysis of companies such as News Corporation, BP, Wells Fargo, Satyam, Uber, Canadian National Railway, Tesla, and Boeing, authors Russell Craig and Joel Amernic illustrate ways of mining meaning or decoding a CEO’s written words and speeches. They critically examine a variety of public media, including social media, testimony, and speeches, performed by leaders of major companies. Decoding CEO-Speak demonstrates how monitoring the language of CEOs can yield valuable insights into a company’s policy, strategy, and ethicality; and how it can point to the priorities, values, and personality of the CEO. The book will appeal to CEOs, senior managers, and public relations and media consultants, as well as business professors, students, and corporate stakeholders who want to find otherwise disguised meaning in the words of leaders.

An award-winning news anchor presents methods for better communication in any business environment During her 20 years in broadcasting, award-winning news anchor Suzanne Bates conducted more than 10,000 interviews, during which she witnessed business leaders, politicians, and celebrities at their best and worst. Now a top CEO communication coach, Bates is renowned for her uncanny ability to transform even the shyest oratorical mouse into a public-speaking lion. In Speak Like a CEO, Bates: Reveals the secrets for communicating in any situation Describes simple techniques for acing speeches, presentations, media interviews, Q&A sessions, business meetings, and more Outlines self-improvement plans that can easily be customized to your needs Shares secrets from top leaders, including Mario Cuomo's technique for overcoming stage fright and Colin Powell's secret for projecting authenticity

CEO-Speak explores the metaphors and persuasive strategies used by leaders at Enron, Microsoft, AOL-TimeWarner, General Electric, IBM, Nortel, Canadian National Railways, Andersen, Disney, and Alcan-Pechiney-Alusuisse. Amernic and Craig show that CEOs are frequently presented as heroes engaged in "the war of business" who can effect astonishing miracles of financial performance and reinvention. Contesting the notion that accounting is objective, CEO-Speak serves as an introduction to the controversies and ambiguities in corporate accountability and provides rich examples of the excesses of corporate communication.

Drawing on in-depth interviews with hundreds of the nation's top executives, D. A. Benton explains the 22 vital traits that make a CEO - the leader responsible for making decisions, guiding teams, selling ideas, managing crises, and conquering the mountains before them. You'll penetrate the mystery of why some people make it to the top and some don't, when they're all equally good at their jobs. You'll learn how to avoid getting fired and how to get promoted more quickly, how to enjoy the quality of life you want and deserve, and - if you decide you want to be the Big Boss - how to have the right character traits to get there. These are some of the traits that make a CEO. Are you ready to make them yours? You're gutsy and a little wild - yet modest and in control. You're competitive and tenacious - yet flexible and generous. You're willing to admit mistakes - yet unapologetic. You're secure in yourself - yet constantly improving. You're original and straightforward - yet think before you talk. Make your ascent not only gratifying, but also exhilarating and fun. This is how chiefs run the show - and how you can act like a chief to become a chief, even sooner than you dreamed.

You’re only a startup CEO once. Do it well with Startup CEO, a "master class in building a business." —Dick Costolo, Former CEO, Twitter Being a startup CEO is a job like no other: it’s difficult, risky, stressful, lonely, and often learned through trial and error. As a startup CEO seeing things for the first time, you’re likely to make mistakes, fail, get things wrong, and feel like you don’t have any control over outcomes. Author Matt Blumberg has been there, and in Startup CEO he shares his experience, mistakes, and lessons learned as he guided Return Path from a handful of employees and no revenues to over $100 million in revenues and 500 employees. Startup CEO is not a memoir of Return Path's 20-year journey but a thoughtful CEO-focused book that provides first-time CEOs with advice, tools, and approaches for the situations that startup CEOs will face. You'll learn: How to tell your story to new hires, investors, and customers for greater alignment How to create a values-based culture for speed and engagement How to create business and personal operating systems so that you can balance your life and grow your company at the same time How to develop, lead, and leverage your board of directors for greater impact How to ensure that your company is bought, not sold, when you exit Startup CEO is the field guide every CEO needs throughout the growth of their company.

A WALL STREET JOURNAL BESTSELLER! From Whole Foods CEO John Mackey and his coauthors, a follow-up to groundbreaking bestseller Conscious Capitalism—revealing what it takes to lead a purpose-driven, sustainable business. John Mackey started a movement when he founded Whole Foods, bringing natural, organic food to the masses and not only changing the market, but breaking the mold. Now, for the first time, Conscious Leadership closely explores the vision, virtues, and mindset that have informed Mackey’s own leadership journey, providing a roadmap for innovative, value-based leadership—in business and in society. Conscious Leadership demystifies strategies that have helped Mackey shepherd Whole Foods through four decades of incredible growth and innovation, including its recent sale to Amazon. Each chapter will challenge you to rethink conventional business wisdom through anecdotes, case studies, profiles of conscious leaders, and innovative techniques for self-development, culminating in an empowering call to action for entrepreneurs and trailblazers—to step up as leaders who see beyond the bottom line.

"Based on extensive interviews with today's . . . corporate leaders, this look at how the best CEOs do their jobs focuses on the mindsets and actions that foster an environment of excellence"--

"A must read."—Margaret Atwood A vital, necessary playbook for navigating and defending free speech today by the CEO of PEN America, Dare To Speak provides a pathway for promoting free expression while also cultivating a more inclusive public culture. Online trolls and fascist chat groups. Controversies over campus lectures. Cancel culture versus censorship. The daily hazards and debates surrounding free speech dominate headlines and fuel social media storms. In an era where one tweet can launch—or end—your career, and where free speech is often invoked as a principle but rarely understood, learning to maneuver the fast-changing, treacherous landscape of public discourse has never been more urgent. In Dare To Speak, Suzanne Nossel, a leading voice in support of free expression, delivers a vital, necessary guide to maintaining democratic debate that is open, free-wheeling but at the same time respectful of the rich diversity of backgrounds and opinions in a changing country. Centered on practical principles, Nossel’s primer equips readers with the tools needed to speak one’s mind in today’s diverse, digitized, and highly-divided society without resorting to curbs on free expression. At a time when free speech is often pitted against other progressive axioms—namely diversity and equality—Dare To Speak presents a clear-eyed argument that the drive to create a more inclusive society need not, and must not, compromise robust protections for free speech. Nossel provides concrete guidance on how to reconcile these two sets of core values within universities, on social media, and in daily life. She advises readers how to: Use language conscientiously without self-censoring ideas; Defend the right to express unpopular views; And protest without silencing speech. Nossel warns against the increasingly fashionable embrace of expanded government and corporate controls over speech, warning that such strictures can reinforce the marginalization of lesser-heard voices. She argues that creating an open market of ideas demands aggressive steps to remedy exclusion and ensure equal participation. Replete with insightful arguments, colorful examples, and salient advice, Dare To Speak brings much-needed clarity and guidance to this pressing—and often misunderstood—debate.