Today's Hours:
Battle for the Bird by
Now known as X, Twitter's messy history--including Elon Musk's takeover in 2022, its outsized cultural impact, and its significant role in shaping how the world gets its news--is thoroughly and entertainingly revealed in this "absolute triumph of reporting and storytelling" (Ashlee Vance, New York Times bestselling author). Bloomberg journalist Kurt Wagner takes you inside Twitter's everchanging headquarters, charting its rise from flippant 140-character posts to one of the world's most consequential tech companies. From Jack Dorsey's triumphant return as CEO in 2015 to the rise and fall of @RealDonaldTrump to the contentious $44 billion sale to Elon Musk, Battle for the Bird exposes the messy reality and relentless challenges that come with building a global social network. This is the "meticulous and riveting account" (Emily Chang, host of Bloomberg's The Circuit) of the fight over the world's most influential social media platform. Now, for the first time--through deeply sourced, exclusive interviews--you will discover how the visionary promises of one iconoclast gave way to the darker, yet-to-be-defined motives of another, upending the virtual status quo and impacting the flow of news and information to the masses.
Speaking Out by
A new lens for understanding how to navigate political and social issues in business leadership communications Corporate leaders are increasingly expected to issue statements on a range of complex and controversial political and social issues as they arise. As a result, chief executives run the risk of falling into the "talking trap," and thus needing to comment on every issue du jour. However, those whose only strategy is to avoid risk by saying nothing do so at their own peril. Speaking Out offers a new framework for understanding how to manage corporate communications challenges with a shared emphasis on actions and words. Case studies of leaders who have spoken out and backed their words with action are contrasted with those of others who have had mixed records on accountability, failed to show progress in public commitments or faced consequences for taking a stance. These real-world examples demonstrate the difference between public relations efforts that can be easily dismissed as spin and authentic communication that enhances credibility and trust. Speaking Out demonstrates that managing risk today involves knowing not just when to speak and what to say but also what to do. Providing much-needed guidance, this book will be an invaluable compass for effective corporate communications for established and aspiring C-suite leaders alike. Professionals working in corporate and executive communications, marketing and branding, government relations, corporate social responsibility, and public relations will also benefit from the wisdom within Speaking Out.
Breaking the Rainbow Ceiling by
A compelling look at the challenges facing LGBTQ+ professionals as they navigate their careers - with advice from many senior figures who have smashed their own rainbow ceilings. There are currently only four LGBTQ+ CEOs across all Fortune 500 and FTSE 100 companies who are out at work, and just 0.8% of Fortune 500 board positions are filled by LGBTQ+ people. This deficit, occurring across sectors and around the world, reveals a diversity gap playing out in today's workplace: LGBTQ+ people are less likely to reach the top jobs. But what is holding LGBTQ+ people back at work - and what can be done? Breaking the Rainbow Ceiling explores the hidden differences that cause LGBTQ+ people to be underrepresented at the most senior levels of professional life. Combining data with personal insights from over 40 prominent LGBTQ+ trailblazers, from CEOs to Ambassadors, Layla McCay reveals the challenges that LGBTQ+ people commonly encounter as they find their way in work environments, and provides the practical strategies that can help empower LGBTQ+ people to reach their full professional potential. The book explores how everyone - from boards, CEOs, managers, HR professionals and colleagues, through to LGBTQ+ people navigating their own career paths - can recognize and address the barriers, achieve their career goals, and build a more inclusive workplace where everyone can thrive and succeed.
Why Are We Here? by
A deeply human exploration of how our relationship with work has evolved--and a guide for leaders who aim to make things right--from the author of The Burnout Epidemic. Work has recently undergone profound changes, not all for the better. AI's acceleration has led to worker fears and uncertainties around job security. DEI initiatives are underfunded or canceled. The debate over remote, hybrid, and in-person work is growing more heated. And study after study confirms a widespread sense of employee unhappiness in the workplace. Workers are left to reexamine their relationship with work, asking themselves, Why are we here? Workplace expert Jennifer Moss, author of The Burnout Epidemic, takes readers to the front lines of this historic shift. Through extensive interviews, she uncovers why work has changed and highlights the leaders and organizations who have managed to build cultures that everyone really wants. Packed with fresh insights, new research, and compelling stories, Why Are We Here? illuminates this turbulent time and offers inspiration and practical guidance for leaders navigating our complex, ever-changing world.
Clash by
Amazon and Walmart, with more than half a trillion in revenues annually, are the two largest companies in the world. They have not only redefined the retail industry-- Walmart in the 1980s/1990s and Amazon since 2000-- but have also been the benchmark for business best practices (e.g., the use of IT, supply chain, data analytics, customer orientation). This year, it is anticipated that Amazon will dethrone Walmart as the world' s largest company, a position that Walmart has occupied for more than two decades. By examining these two companies and their business models in depth, Professor Nirmalya Kumar elucidates on the more general phenomenon of incumbents competing with disruptors (e.g., Volkswagen vs Tesla, Marriott vs Airbnb) as well as the move to omnichannel retail where physical stores must coexist with online retailers.
The Corporation in the Twenty-First Century by
A radical reappraisal of the nature and activities of business--what it is for and how it works "A characteristically acerbic analysis of the archetypal organisational unit of capitalism."--Andrew Hill, Financial Times, "Best Books of 2024: Business" Shortlisted for the 2024 Financial Times and Schroders Business Book of the Year Award In the world of Adam Smith and Karl Marx, capitalists built and controlled mills and factories. That relationship between capital and labor continued in the automobile assembly lines and petrochemical plants of the twentieth century. But no longer: products and production have dematerialized. The goods and services provided by the leading companies of the twenty-first century appear on your screen, fit in your pocket, or occupy your head. Ownership of the means of production is a redundant concept. Workers are the means of production; increasingly, they take the plant home. Capital is a service bought from a specialist supplier with little influence over customer businesses. The professional managers who run modern corporations do not exert authority because they are wealthy; they are wealthy because they exert authority. John Kay's incisive overhaul of our ideas about business redefines our understanding of successful commercial activity and the corporation--and describes how we have come to "love the product" as we "hate the producer." This is a brilliant and original work from one of the greatest economists.
She-Wolves by
First came the secretaries from Brooklyn and Queens--the "smart cookies" who saw that making money, lots of it, might be within their grasp. Then came the first female Harvard Business School graduates, who were in for a rude awakening because an equal degree did not mean equal opportunity. But by the 1980s, as the market went into turbodrive, women were being plucked from elite campuses to feed the belly of a rapidly expanding beast, playing for high stakes in Wall Street's bad-boy culture by day and clubbing by night. In She-Wolves, award-winning historian Paulina Bren tells the story of how women infiltrated Wall Street from the swinging sixties to 9/11--starting at a time when "No Ladies" signs hung across the doors of its luncheon clubs and (more discretely) inside its brokerage houses and investment banks. If the wolves of Wall Street made a show of their ferocity, the she-wolves did so with subtlety and finesse. Research analysts signed their reports with genderless initials. Muriel "Mickie" Siebert, the first woman to buy a seat on the NYSE, threatened she'd have port-a-potties delivered if the exchange didn't finally install a ladies' room near the dining room. The infamous 1996 Boom-Boom Room class action lawsuit, filed by women at Smith Barney, pulled back the curtain on a bawdy subculture where unapologetic sexism and racism were the norm. As engaging as it is enraging, She-Wolves is an illuminating deep dive into the collision of women, finance, and New York.
The Art of Small Business Social Media by
An essential guide for small business owners that Booklist calls "appealing and supremely useful" in a starred review and Guy Kawasaki points out in the foreword, "if you're an entrepreneur or small business owner and want to master digital marketing, you need this book." In The Art of Small Business Social Media, social media expert Peg Fitzpatrick offers a comprehensive guide tailored specifically for small business owners. Recognizing that social media isn't a one-size-fits-all tool, Fitzpatrick provides a roadmap for entrepreneurs to navigate the digital landscape effectively. Drawing from her extensive experience working with brands big and small, she demystifies choosing the right platforms, crafting a robust social media plan, and engaging with communities online. Real-world examples from various industries serve as case studies, offering actionable insights that can be applied to any small business setting. Whether you're a solo entrepreneur or part of a small team, The Art of Small Business Social Media is your key to unlocking the full potential of social media marketing. It's not just about being online; it's about being online effectively. This book equips you with the skills to participate in the digital world and thrive in it, giving your business a competitive edge in today's marketplace.
Public Sector Management by
In an era marked by unprecedented challenges, from the climate crisis to the rise of populism, the ways to manage public sector organisations have dramatically changed. In the eighth edition of this bestselling textbook, Flynn and Asquer offer the definitive introduction to public administration. Now substantially revised and updated throughout, this text reflects the latest approaches, tools and techniques that help governments respond to the multifaceted problems facing societies today and pre-empt those of tomorrow. Recognising the importance of context, Public Sector Managementunderscores that one-size-fits-all management practices are inadequate. Learn how public sector management adapts to changing political climates and societal pressures and be guided through the intricacies of making evidence-based policies while acknowledging the political dynamics that shape them. Updates to the eighth edition include: · A Global Perspective: Explore variations in public sector management shaped by cultural, historical, and institutional contexts, and gain a deep understanding of how governments address challenges in unique ways. · Balancing Theory and Practice: the new edition offers amore detailed and holistic perspective on public sector management by bringing in the latest theoretical insights and real-world public sector management practices. · Adapting to Change and tacking today's issues: Confront the challenges faced in the age of technology, from artificial intelligence to Big Data; the climate crisis and clean energy transitions; and resulting from the latest geopolitical shifts including workforce migration to the erosion of trust in democracies. · A Call for Contextual Understanding: Learn how factors such as heterogeneity, population, income inequality, and technological access influence public sector management practices. Public Sector Management is essential reading for upper undergraduate and postgraduate students studying public sector management or public administration and is perfect for those studying on a Master of Public Administration programme. Norman Flynn was Director of the Centre for Financial and Management Studies, SOAS, University of London and Programme Director of the MSc in Public Policy and Management. Alberto Asquer is Head of the School of Finance and Management, Programme Director, MSc Public Policy and Management, and Senior Lecturer of Public Policy and Management at SOAS University of London
Market Studies by
Market studies is a newly emerging field dedicated to understanding the origins, core concepts, theories and methods currently being used and developed to examine markets in the making. Providing a unique overview that introduces, positions and develops this highly fertile area of research, Market Studies is the first book to consolidate its themes, tools and methods in a single, comprehensive volume. Topics covered include: market organization and design; performativity in and around markets; valuation; market places and spaces; methods that may be utilized in studying markets; the field's relation to adjacent disciplines; the future of markets. Deploying a sensitivity for the socio-material constitution of markets, the authors put market practices at the centre of inquiry and offer insights into the future and potential impact of market studies research. The contemporary, practical and interdisciplinary approach is strengthened by multiple examples of original empirical research into markets.
Is It Racist? Is It Sexist? by
How can the judgment calls we make in everyday life create or help eradicate social inequality? Is It Racist? Is It Sexist? Two questions that seem simple on their face, but which invite a host of tangled responses. In this book, Jessi Streib and Betsy Leondar-Wright offer a new way of understanding how inequalities persist by focusing on the individual judgment calls that lead us to decide what's racist, what's sexist, and what's not. Racism and sexism often seem like optical illusions--with some people sure they see them and others sure they're not there--but the lines that most consistently divide our decisions might surprise you. Indeed, white people's views of what's racist and sexist are increasingly up for grabs. As the largest racial group in the country and the group that occupies the most and the highest positions of power, what they decide is racist and sexist helps determine the contours of inequality. By asking white people--Southerners and Northerners, Republicans and Democrats, working-class and professional-middle-class, men and women--to decide whether specific interactions and institutions are racist, sexist, or not, Streib and Leondar-Wright take us on a journey through the decision-making processes of white people in America. By presenting them with a variety of scenarios, the authors are able to distinguish the responses as being characteristic of different patterns of reasoning. They produce a framework for understanding these patterns that invites us all to engage with each other in a new way, even on topics that might divide us. Is It Racist? Is It Sexist? will leave you questioning how you decide whether a joke, a hiring decision, or a policy change is or isn't racist or sexist, and will give you new tools for making more accurate and productive judgment calls.
Dollars and Dominion by
"A history of the globalization of US banking in the early twentieth century"-- Provided by publisher.
"How the creation of a new banking infrastructure in the early twentieth century established the United States as a global financial powerThe dominance of US multinational businesses today can seem at first like an inevitable byproduct of the nation's superpower status. In Dollars and Dominion, Mary Bridges tells a different origin story. She explores the ramshackle beginnings of US financial power overseas, showing that US bankers in the early twentieth century depended on the US government, European know-how, and last-minute improvisation to sustain their work abroad. Bridges focuses on an underappreciated piece of the nation's financial infrastructure-the overseas branch bank-as brick-and-mortar foundations for expanding US commercial influence.Bridges explores how bankers sorted their new communities into "us"-potential clients-and "them"-local populations, who often existed on the periphery of the banking world. She argues that US bankers mapped their new communities by creating foreign credit information-and by using a financial asset newly enabled by the Federal Reserve System, the bankers' acceptance, in the process. Doing so, they constructed a new architecture of US trade finance that relied on longstanding inequalities and hierarchies of privilege. Thus racialized, class-based, and gendered ideas became baked into the financial infrastructure.Contrary to conventional wisdom, there was nothing inevitable or natural about the rise of US finance capitalism. Bridges shows that US foreign banking was a bootstrapped project that began as a side hustle of Gilded Age tycoons that sustained itself by relying on the power of the US state, copying the example of British foreign bankers, and building alliances with local elites. In this way, US bankers constructed a flexible and durable new infrastructure to support the nation's growing global power"-- Provided by publisher.
The Age of Outrage by
A first-of-its-kind look at the outrage gripping organizations worldwide--and how leaders can respond to it. Outrage is everywhere--on the left and on the right--and many companies have found themselves in the crosshairs. GoFundMe was pressured to cut off funding to protesting truckers in Ottawa. Disney's CEO was dragged down for mishandling both sides of Florida's "Don't Say Gay" law. Facebook and other tech companies have been accused of manipulating elections in many countries and by many parties. People are angry with the world--in some cases, rightfully so--and now view companies as they do governments, as targets of their wrath and potential forces for social change. Managing outrage has moved from being an occasional leadership challenge, like handling a PR crisis, to a necessary and critical leadership capability, like strategic thinking or financial acumen. Based on his popular University of Oxford leadership course and case studies on organizations such as IKEA, Nestlé, the Vatican, and others, Karthik Ramanna offers practical steps to make sense of the outrage, work with relevant stakeholders to progress through it, and emerge stronger for it. Ramanna's pragmatic framework, developed through years of experience with organizations, helps leaders "turn down the temperature," analyze root causes, develop and implement responses that are mission-consistent, and build resilience. The Age of Outrage is an essential guide for leaders and their teams in this new era of polarization.
Pattern Breakers by
Based on extensive research and real-world examples, this book upends accepted wisdom about how to achieve success when launching a startup or creating a new product. The breakthrough concepts of Pattern Breakers come from the observations of Mike Maples Jr., a seasoned venture capitalist, who noticed something strange. Start-ups like Twitter, Twitch, and Lyft had achieved extraordinary success despite their disregard for "best practices." In contrast, other startups deemed highly promising often failed, even when they seemed to do everything right. Seeking answers, Maples and coauthor Peter Ziebelman set out to discover the hidden forces that drive extraordinary start-up success. Pattern-breaking success, they reveal, demands a different mindset and actions to harness developments others miss or that may, at first, seem crazy. Pattern Breakers is filled with firsthand storytelling about initial interactions with some of the most transformative start-ups of recent times. Maples and Ziebelman challenge us to rethink how to transcend the ordinary and achieve the extraordinary.
The Anger Rule by
In The Anger Rule, Antoine J. Banks and Ismail K. White examine how Black politicians are uniquely penalized for expressing anger, especially anger related to race. Drawing on social psychology and philosophy, Banks and White demonstrate how this anger penalty helps sustain racial inequality. They argue that anger infers power because it propels individuals to change the status quo. When Black politicians are constrained from expressing anger, it limits their ability to mobilize against wrongs and rally fellow group members; it also signals a lack of power to Black voters. This argument is assessed using a multi-method approach of national survey experiments and content analysis of United States presidential and House congressional speeches and remarks. The findings show that Black politicians and voters are aware of the anger penalty, therefore constraining their anger in political spaces to avoid backlash from those who maintain the racial status quo.
What Matters Next by
Harness emerging technologies for business success while putting the human first In What Matters Next: A Leader's Guide to Making Human-Friendly Tech Decisions in a World That's Moving Too Fast, renowned author and consultant Kate O'Neill delivers a roadmap to achieve business growth, transformation, and innovation through the use of emerging technologies--but crucially, in a human-centric manner that benefits both business and humanity. Drawing on her experience working with organizations like Google, Yale, and the United Nations, O'Neill offers a unique blend of strategic guidance, ethical considerations, and practical application to help organizations not just survive, but thrive through bold and empathetic leadership. In this book, readers will learn about: Making better strategic decisions by moving from questions, to insights, to "Bankable Foresights" Creating a model that aligns focus, purpose, values, and resources across an organization Understanding the intersection and potential harmony of human knowledge and machine intelligence Ensuring digital transformation and innovation efforts frame the future in human terms What Matters Next is an essential read for all business leaders and individuals interested in the impact of emerging technology on business and humanity and seeking to effect positive change for the benefit of all.