A new business professional - the source of creativity, accountability and engagement in your organization. A fieldbook of approaches, methodologies and tools for driving change.

Every era has its merger; every era has its story. For the New Media age it was an even bigger disaster: the AOL-Time Warner deal. At the time AOL and Time Warner were considered a matchless combination of old media content and new media distribution. But very soon after the deal was announced things started to go bad—and then from bad to worse. Less than four years after the deal was announced, every significant figure in the deal -save the politically astute Richard Parsons—has left the company, along with scores of others. Nearly a $100 billion was written off and a stock that once traded at $100 now trades near $10. What happened? Where did it all go wrong? In this deeply sourced and deftly written book, Nina Munk gives us a window into the minds of two of the oddest men to ever run billion-dollar empires. Steve Case, the boy wonder who built AOL one free floppy disk at a time, was searching for a way out of the New Economy. Meanwhile Jerry Levin, who'd made his reputation as a visionary when he put HBO on satellite distribution, was searching for a monumental deal. These two men, more interested in their place in history than their personal fortunes, each thought they were out-smarting the other.

Before Micah came to St Luc's, he knew how to beg, how to steal and how to run from a beating. He didn't know how to comb his hair or wait his turn. Now he was a stranger in a strange land. If it had been me, I would have found a way to disappear inside myself until the strangeness wore off. Micah was not like me. Henri is used to the quiet routines of the abbey. He's shy and solitary, until Micah - a wild troublemaker with the voice of an angel - sweeps into his life like a fresh breeze. Micah stirs up fun and adventure at a time when Henri needs it most. For the Plague is coming. With the tail of a scorpion and breath of fire it will pass through every village and town until nothing can ever be the same. Together, Henry and Micah manage to find fun in the midst of fear. Marching about the countryside with their Company of Fools they revel in the healing power of laughter - at least for a while. In this gripping story, acclaimed author Deborah Ellis celebrates the extraordinary resilience of children, their capacity for caring, and talent for happiness, even in the darkest times.

In a study of the Enron scandal, the author goes behind the scenes to profile the players and expose business practices involved in the financial and political debacle that had a profound impact on both Washington and Wall Street.

Creativity is crucial to business success. But too often, even the most innovative organization quickly becomes a "giant hairball"--a tangled, impenetrable mass of rules, traditions, and systems, all based on what worked in the past--that exercises an inexorable pull into mediocrity. Gordon McKenzie worked at Hallmark Cards for thirty years, many of which he spent inspiring his colleagues to slip the bonds of Corporate Normalcy and rise to orbit--to a mode of dreaming, daring and doing above and beyond the rubber-stamp confines of the administrative mind-set. In his deeply funny book, exuberantly illustrated in full color, he shares the story of his own professional evolution, together with lessons on awakening and fostering creative genius. Originally self-published and already a business "cult classic", this personally empowering and entertaining look at the intersection between human creativity and the bottom line is now widely available to bookstores. It will be a must-read for any manager looking for new ways to invigorate employees, and any professional who wants to achieve his or her best, most self-expressive, most creative and fulfilling work.

Defining Hybrid Heroes: The Leadership Spectrum from Scoundrel to Saint defines the hero (and his or her journey) from a hybrid perspective, exploring the spectrum from scoundrel to saint. It utilizes a more dynamic and situational outlook, regarding heroism not only as a personal characteristic, but also as a series of heroic acts within a given situation. The book examines the hybrid hero from several distinctive points of view, e.g. through lenses dominated by fiction, business, politics and psychology, and paints a new, more complex portrait that takes full advantage of the authors’ varied backgrounds. Inge Brokerhof has an academic background in psychology and has studied the impact of narrative fiction on workplace variables, such as career identity, employability and moral leadership. Stephan Sonnenburg has studied Joseph Campbell and the impact of the hero’s journey on creativity and innovation management. Greg Stone is a communications consultant who teaches executives and professors how to explain their work in clear and compelling language.

THE NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER From the bestselling authors of The Motley Fool Investment Guide and its successful, savvy prequel, The Motley Fool's You Have More Than You Think, here's an engaging, humorous, and practical stock-picking guide, packed with Foolish insights, that caps off this invaluable personal finance trilogy from David and Tom Gardner. The Motley Fool's Rule Breakers, Rule Makers presents the sophisticated, yet easy-to-understand stock-picking methods that have kept the Motley Fool portfolio beating the Standard & Poor's averages by more than 30 percent. The key is investing in small start-up companies that have historically offered the greatest investment returns (the "rule breakers") as well as huge companies that maintain legal monopolies in their fields (the "rule makers"). The Gardner brothers explain * How to identify the best investments in today's public markets: the rule breakers and the rule makers * The definition of a "tweener" -- a maturing rule breaker -- and how to detect the Tweener Death Rattle * When to buy and when to sell, and how to manage your portfolio on a regular basis In their first two books, the Fools got you started in investing and freed you from the fees and worries that Wall Street's Wise Men have been imposing on investors for decades. Now, by sharing their methods for picking rule breakers and rule makers, they guide you through a stock market that has seen company valuations soar to unprecedented heights and that promises to continue providing roller-coaster thrills. The Motley Fools are the ultimate companions to bring along for a safe, fun, and profitable ride.

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What do Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Leonardo da Vinci, and Ray Kroc, the man who created the McDonald's franchise enterprise, have in common? They have all mastered the skills of creative genius-essential tools in today's business climate. Having researched the lives and techniques of past and present geniuses for this inspiring and provocative new handbook, Annette Moser-Wellman helps workers at all levels build and refine their working styles. These qualities of creativity-drawn from the the realms of art, science, as well as business-make up the five distinct "faces": Seer-the power to image Observer-the power to notice details Alchemist-the power to make connections Fool-the power to celebrate weakness Sage-the power to simplify Moser-Wellman shows how we can utilize these creative thinking strategies and flourish in the workplace.