Mandate to be Great delivers the research-based strategies required to thrive.

"Our employees are our greatest asset"-it's a cliché companies feel obliged to spout. Some may even believe it. But as with eating healthy food and getting exercise, lip-service doesn't make goals come true. In this groundbreaking book, The Talent Mandate, Andrew Benett explores how truly "talent centric" organizations thrive in today's changing economy. Based on original research and in-depth interviews with outstanding leaders of talent-driven organizations such as Zappos, DreamWorks Animation SKG, Nestle, Dow Chemical, The Motley Fool, AnswerLab, and more, Benett uncovers emerging trends and benchmarks and shows why it is so important to invest in and develop tomorrow's talent. Readers will come away with a clear lesson: Talent is no longer something to be palmed off down the chain of command. It must be the top business priority of the most senior people in the company-including the CEO.

This groundbreaking new book answers an essential question: why is it that a fund client selects, or an investment consultant recommends, one asset manager over another when the two are, on paper at least, very similar? Also, why is it that some asset managers maintain their mandates during difficult periods in the cycle and others don't, even though their performances are identical? Authors Herman Brodie and Klaus Harnack investigated the drivers of these selection decisions and uncovered that so-called 'soft' factors play the primary role - even more so for consultants than for end-clients. They also discovered that these soft factors are essentially the means clients use to judge an asset manager's benevolent intentions, one of the two dimensions of the universal human evaluation more commonly known as trust. Backed by compelling data and research from multiple disciplines, The Trust Mandate breaks open the science of trust for asset managers, revealing the systematic steps clients take in their search for evidence of good intentions - the essential, but often missing, component in business relationships. It also shows how trusted managers are able to win more clients, keep them longer, merit good recommendations, allowed to take more risks, and justify higher fees. The clients of trusted managers enjoy reduced anxiety, earn higher long-run returns, and avoid costly and pointless transitions from firm to firm. So high-trust relationships are a genuine win-win situation. Yet the task of initiating and nurturing them falls squarely on the service provider. Asset managers must learn to convey their good intentions. The Trust Mandate shows why - and how - in unprecedented detail.

After overthrowing the Mongol Yuan dynasty, Zhu Yuanzhang, the founder of the Ming dynasty (1368-1644), proclaimed that he had obtained the Mandate of Heaven (Tianming), enabling establishment of a spiritual orientation and social agenda for China. Zhu, emperor during the Ming’s Hongwu reign period, launched a series of social programs to rebuild the empire and define Chinese cultural identity. To promote its reform programs, the Ming imperial court issued a series of legal documents, culminating in The Great Ming Code (Da Ming lu), which supported China’s legal system until the Ming was overthrown and also served as the basis of the legal code of the following dynasty, the Qing (1644-1911). This companion volume to Jiang Yonglin’s translation of The Great Ming Code (2005) analyzes the thought underlying the imperial legal code. Was the concept of the Mandate of Heaven merely a tool manipulated by the ruling elite to justify state power, or was it essential to their belief system and to the intellectual foundation of legal culture? What role did law play in the imperial effort to carry out the social reform programs? Jiang addresses these questions by examining the transformative role of the Code in educating the people about the Mandate of Heaven. The Code served as a cosmic instrument and moral textbook to ensure “all under Heaven” were aligned with the cosmic order. By promoting, regulating, and prohibiting categories of ritual behavior, the intent of the Code was to provide spiritual guidance to Chinese subjects, as well as to acquire political legitimacy. The Code also obligated officials to obey the supreme authority of the emperor, to observe filial behavior toward parents, to care for the welfare of the masses, and to maintain harmonious relationships with deities. This set of regulations made officials the representatives of the Son of Heaven in mediating between the spiritual and mundane worlds and in governing the human realm. This study challenges the conventional assumption that law in premodern China was used merely as an arm of the state to maintain social control and as a secular tool to exercise naked power. Based on a holistic approach, Jiang argues that the Ming ruling elite envisioned the cosmos as an integrated unit; they saw law, religion, and political power as intertwined, remarkably different from the “modern” compartmentalized worldview. In serving as a cosmic instrument to manifest the Mandate of Heaven, The Great Ming Code represented a powerful religious effort to educate the masses and transform society.

The Lost Mandate highlights a rarely seen facet on the diamond of genuine Christianity - appealing to seekers while challenging and fulfilling believers to their core. Beware! Your spiritual metal will be severely tested, determining if you want Christianity in its raw and radical form. By embracing it you will be turning religious attitudes and weaknesses on their heads. keywords: Christianity, Religion, Disabilities, Ministry, Handicapped, Outreach, Missions, Christian, Christian Mandates, Healing.

America's foremost chronicler of contemporary China brilliantly illuminates the new power structure, economic initiatives, and cultural changes that have transformed China since the Tianamen Square massacre of 1989. "A rich portrait, capturing a fascinating and perhaps fateful moment in China's long, turbulent history".--Arnold R. Isaacs, San Francisco Chronicle.

"It is difficult to decide which is the more impressive: the authority and control with which Mr. Bendix writes of the traditions, the institutions, and the technological and social developments of cultures as diverse as the British, French, German, Russian, and Japanese, or the skill with which he weaves his separate stories into a persuasive scenario of the modern revolution. A remarkable achievement."--Gordon A. Craig, Stanford University ""Kings or People" is equal to the grandeur of its subject: the political origins of the modern world. With Barrington Moore's "Social Origins of Dictatorship and Democracy" and Immanuels Wallerstein's "The Modern World System" which it matches in boldness, while differing radically in perspective, it is one of the truly powerful ventures in comparative historical sociology to have appeared in recent years."--Clifford Geertz "A brilliant achievement that will be equally fascinating for the general reader, the student, and the specialized scholar."--Henry W. Ehrmann

A plot to kill. Dark secrets from the Deep State. Visions linking the past, present, and future. A 2500 years-old prophecy, the Cyrus Mandate, is coming to life in our present-day headlines and current events. First issued by an ancient Persian King, the Cyrus Mandate is awakened again through the Abrahamic Accord peace treaty, causing the entire world to take notice. National elections, international leaders, even Middle East negotiations appear to be following the ancient path. Everything and everyone involved becomes part of seeing how this promise will be fulfilled. As Jack and Bette Garrison are drawn into a dangerous international conspiracy while celebrating their honeymoon, they discover the Cyrus Mandate's secrets. They travel from Paris to the U.S. to Israel to help rescue a brave reporter and learn the terrifying secrets she has uncovered. Drugs, trafficking, and corruption at the highest levels revolve around a world-wide pandemic, anti-Israel propaganda, racial tensions-and ancient prophecies being fulfilled. Page-turning action, romance, history, and prophecy come to life as Ray Bentley and Bodie Thoene release the third installment of The Elijah Chronicles: The Cyrus Mandate.

In this book, Richard D. Phillips cuts through the cultural confusion, highlights Gods mandate for men, and encourages readers to join him on a journey of repentance and renewal. Phillips begins in the Garden of Eden, drawing foundational teaching for men from the earliest chapters of Gods Word. This is teaching that reaches into all of life. Christian men today need to examine their hearts and embrace their God-given mandate. Only then will they be able to recognize their high calling, and by Gods grace, serve faithfully in whatever context God has placed them.