What if every successful start-up followed a predictable pattern, and by knowing that pattern ahead of time, you could be more successful? In The Hockey Stick Principles, business consultant Bobby Martin shares his study of more than 100 new businesses, from Lending Tree to Under Armour to iContact, to show that every one of them has had a "hockey stick" growth history, starting with a tinkering period, moving through the daunting "blade years" before finally making it to the crucial inflection point that precedes surging growth. In this simple but incredibly helpful book, Martin takes us through each of those four stages of the hockey stick pattern, giving us a road map that will help any entrepreneur navigate the inevitable ups and downs of their business's early years.

Beat the odds with a bold strategy from McKinsey & Company "Every once in a while, a genuinely fresh approach to business strategy appears" —legendary business professor Richard Rumelt, UCLA McKinsey & Company's newest, most definitive, and most irreverent book on strategy—which thousands of executives are already using—is a must-read for all C-suite executives looking to create winning corporate strategies. Strategy Beyond the Hockey Stick is spearheading an empirical revolution in the field of strategy. Based on an extensive analysis of the key factors that drove the long-term performance of thousands of global companies, the book offers a ground-breaking formula that enables you to objectively assess your strategy's real odds of future success. "This book is fundamental. The principles laid out here, with compelling data, are a great way around the social pitfalls in strategy development." —Frans Van Houten, CEO, Royal Philips N.V. The authors have discovered that over a 10-year period, just 1 in 12 companies manage to jump from the middle tier of corporate performance—where 60% of companies reside, making very little economic profit—to the top quintile where 90% of global economic profit is made. This movement does not happen by magic—it depends on your company's current position, the trends it faces, and the big moves you make to give it the strongest chance of vaulting over the competition. This is not another strategy framework. Rather, Strategy Beyond the Hockey Stick shows, through empirical analysis and the experiences of dozens of companies that have successfully made multiple big moves, that to dramatically improve performance, you have to overcome incrementalism and corporate inertia. "A different kind of book—I couldn't put it down. Inspiring new insights on the facts of what it takes to move a company's performance, combined with practical advice on how to deal with real-life dynamics in management teams." —Jane Fraser, CEO, Citigroup Latin America

This book was written for both hockey player and coach. Hockey has been a passion of mine since early childhood. I was born and raised in Canada and relocated to the United States in 1990. Hockey has been the fabric of our family tree. From youth hockey to having the opportunity to play at the minor professional level, I have enjoyed this great game and the life lessons it has instilled along the way. It was during my career in university where coaching became a passion. I loved the weight room, the preparation, and the process. It was, and still is, a place of solace for me—a classroom. My love for strength and conditioning was born in the sweaty confines of the Miami (OH) strength and conditioning facility located in Oxford, Ohio, and run by then strength and conditioning coach Dan Dalrymple. Coach D instilled pride, work ethic, and belief in his athletes. Our two-thousand-square foot weight room was a place of preparation, competition, and embodied the team-first spirit. At that instant, I knew my calling was to serve as a coach. I owe much gratitude and appreciation to Coach D. He was a mentor to me! Thanks, Coach, your imprint has left an indelible mark.

Despite enormous investments of time and money, are we making a dent on the social and environmental challenges of our time? What if we could exponentially increase our impact? Around the world, a new generation is looking beyond greater profits, for meaningful purpose. But, unlike business, few social interventions have achieved significant impact at scale. Inspired by the modern innovation practices, popularized by bestseller The Lean Startup, that have fueled technology breakthroughs touching every aspect of our lives, Lean Impact turns our attention to a new goal - radically greater social good. Social change is far more complicated than building a new app. It requires more listening, more care, and more stakeholders. To make a lasting difference, solutions must be embraced by beneficiaries, address root causes, and include an engine that can accelerate growth to reach the scale of the need. Lean Impact offers bold ideas to reach audacious goals through customer insight, rapid experimentation and iteration, and a relentless pursuit of impact. Ann Mei Chang brings a unique perspective from across sectors, from her years as a tech executive in Silicon Valley to her most recent experience as the Chief Innovation Officer at USAID. She vividly illustrates the book with real stories from interviews with over 200 organizations across the US and around the world. Whether you are a nonprofit, social enterprise, triple bottom line company, foundation, government agency, philanthropist, impact investor, or simply donate your time and money, Lean Impact is an essential guide to maximizing social impact and scale.

"This is intro to hockey, and it's time to begin!" Lucy and her family are skating on an outdoor rink when she sees a game of hockey going on. It looks like fun, but maybe too challenging. Supported by her parents, Lucy enrolls in an introductory hockey clinic, and thanks to an encouraging instructor, she and her friends learn basic hockey skills, have fun on the ice and decide to add hockey to their list of favorite sports! The Lucy Tries Sports series encourages children to get active and participate in sports and recreation.

Physicist and amateur hockey player Hache examines some of the physical principles behind the world's most popular winter team sport. Illustrations.

Hockey Plays and Strategies features a variety of plays, systems, and strategies for game play in the offensive, neutral, and defensive zones. Special situations such as the power play, penalty kill, and face-offs are also featured.

Most startups fail. But many of those failures are preventable. The Lean Startup is a new approach being adopted across the globe, changing the way companies are built and new products are launched. Eric Ries defines a startup as an organization dedicated to creating something new under conditions of extreme uncertainty. This is just as true for one person in a garage or a group of seasoned professionals in a Fortune 500 boardroom. What they have in common is a mission to penetrate that fog of uncertainty to discover a successful path to a sustainable business. The Lean Startup approach fosters companies that are both more capital efficient and that leverage human creativity more effectively. Inspired by lessons from lean manufacturing, it relies on “validated learning,” rapid scientific experimentation, as well as a number of counter-intuitive practices that shorten product development cycles, measure actual progress without resorting to vanity metrics, and learn what customers really want. It enables a company to shift directions with agility, altering plans inch by inch, minute by minute. Rather than wasting time creating elaborate business plans, The Lean Startup offers entrepreneurs—in companies of all sizes—a way to test their vision continuously, to adapt and adjust before it’s too late. Ries provides a scientific approach to creating and managing successful startups in a age when companies need to innovate more than ever.