Fad surfing in the boardroom

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Joel Saltzman

Joel Saltzman teaches readers how to create "surprising, yet inevitable" solutions, no matter the challenge or task at hand. Easily. Consistently. And economically. Shake That Brain! is a collection of creative and inspiring tips and tools for finding solutions in a variety of areas-from sales, marketing, and product creation to ethics, innovation, and the bottom line. Backed by powerful and compelling examples from a wide variety of real-life applications, Joel Saltzman delivers energy, edge-and lots of fun-as he guides readers through a series of proven formulas for creating outstanding solutions, from harnessing the power of opposite thinking to turning your worst ideas into your best ideas ever. Filled with exercises, easy-to-apply formulas, entertaining pop-quizzes, and eye-opening teaching examples from the world of business, technology, advertising, and more, here's a solution-finding guidebook that can be used for succeeding on the job or at home. Joel Saltzman is a professional speaker, consultant, and bestselling author. He has conducted Shake That Brain! programs for Grey Advertising International, Harley Davidson, the U.S. Department of the Treasury, and Warner Bros. Studios. His work has been called "witty and rewarding" by People Magazine and he's the recipient of a national Audie award for "Best Educational and Training Audio." His website is www.shakethatbrain.com

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Jack Welch with John A. Byrne

"As CEO of General Electric for the past twenty years, he has built its market cap by more than $450 billion and established himself as the most admired business leader in the world. His championing of initiatives like Six Sigma quality, globalization, and e-business have helped define the modern corporation. At the same time, he's a gutsy boss who has forged a unique philosophy and an operating system that relies on a "boundaryless" sharing of ideas, an intense focus on people, and an informal, give-and-take style that makes bureaucracy the enemy. In anecdotal detail and with self-effacing humor, Jack Welch gives us the people (most notably his Irish mother) who shaped his life and the big hits and the big misses that characterized his career."--BOOK JACKET.

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Martin Kenney, Richard Florida

"How can it be that Japanese "transplant" manufacturers are succeeding on U.S. soil, where American companies have failed? Beyond Mass Production provides the first inside look at the Japanese automobile, steel, and rubber companies that are transforming America's industrial heartland. It takes the reader inside the factories, unveiling the methods and techniques Japanese companies use to produce world-class products in America with American workers." "The key, the authors argue, lies in the whole new model of organizing work and production that first emerged in Japan and is now being transferred to the United States. This new system harnesses the intellectual capabilities of all workers, from the Research and Development laboratory to the factory floor, as a source of innovation and productivity improvement. It results in a powerful integration of intellectual and physical labor that will forever transform the way work is done." "Based upon more than five years of detailed research including field studies of dozens of factories, hundreds of personal interviews, and comprehensive surveys of industrial sectors, this book offers compelling evidence of the emergence and transfer of the new system in both the traditional and heavy industries and in the new industries of high-technology age." "Beyond Mass Production offers a powerful and realistic theory of the new face of capitalism as a synthesis of intellectual and physical labor - a melding of innovation and production. In doing so, the authors go far beyond the existing theories of "post-industrialism," "post-fordism," and "flexibility."" "With a wealth of new data, maps, and straightforward examples of the kinds of changes taking place, this book provides an important new perspective for all those interested in Japanese business, industrial competitiveness, foreign direct investment, new work practices, industrial relations, and regional change."--BOOK JACKET.

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Charles H. Fine

In Clockspeed, Charles Fine draws on a decade's worth of research at M.I.T.'s Sloan School of Management to introduce a new vocabulary for understanding the forces of competition and making strategic decisions that will determine the destiny of your company, as well as your industry. Taking inspiration from the world of biology, Fine argues that each industry has its own evolutionary life cycle (or "clockspeed"), measured by the rate at which it introduces new products, processes, and organizational structures. Just as geneticists study the fruit fly to gain insight into the evolutionary paths of all animals, managers in any industry can learn from the industrial fruit flies - such as Internet services, personal computers, and multimedia entertainment - which evolve through new generations at breakneck speed. Applying the lessons of the fruit flies to industries as diverse as bicycles, pharmaceuticals, and semiconductors, Fine illustrates how competitive advantage is lost or gained by how well a company manages a dynamic web of relationships that run throughout its chain of suppliers, distributors, and alliance partners.