Most Recent Articles
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Blog / ChangeThis
Detecting and Surviving Seven Silent Growth Killers
By Robert Sher
"Unlike dry spells in innovation, quality defects and mistakes made in entering new markets, many of the problems that midsized companies must deal with are not obvious. These problems grow out-of-sight in the dark recesses of the midsized organization, unrecognized by management in their daily routines until they emerge as full-blown crises that can threaten the present and future of the business. I refer to these special afflictions of midsized companies—seven in all—as silent growth killers. These silent growth killers sneak up on leaders at midsized companies just as high blood pressure and high cholesterol can creep up on us, often unnoticed, and later cause massive complications. Just as those medical conditions, untreated, can lead to an early demise, executives who fail to prevent or address these silent growth killers may see their businesses collapse in a dysfunctional heap."
Categories: changethis
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Blog / ChangeThis
Effective Leaders Create Discomfort
By Marcia Reynolds
"The best leaders make us feel unsure of ourselves. They help us recognize that what we think is true, is not. Their reflections make us stop and think. Then their questions break down our frames. They create these disruptions with courage, care, respect, and a firm belief in our highest potential. Although we are uncomfortable, this moment of uncertainty allows us to formulate a broader view of what we can do and who we can be. These leaders strengthen people as well as organizations."
Categories: changethis
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Blog / ChangeThis
The Growth Hacker Wake Up Call: How Growth Hacking Rewrote Marketing's Best Practices
By Ryan Holiday
"The term 'growth hacker' has many different meanings for different people, here's my definition: A growth hacker is someone who has thrown out the playbook of traditional marketing and replaced it with only what is testable, trackable, and scalable. Their tools are emails, pay-per-click ads, blogs, and platform APIs instead of commercials, publicity, and money. While their marketing brethren chase vague notions like "branding" and "mind share," growth hackers relentlessly pursue users and growth—and when they do it right, those users beget more users, who beget more users. They are the inventors, operators, and mechanics of their own self-sustaining and self-propagating growth machine that can take a startup from nothing to something."
Categories: changethis
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Blog / ChangeThis
The Entrepreneur's Journey
By Kevin Kruse
"My call to entrepreneurship happened in an unusual manner, when I was just 12 years old. A mysterious one-armed man approached me and set me off on a journey that would eventually include the launch of several companies—some successful, some not. This manifesto both celebrates and encourages entrepreneurship because we need entrepreneurs to fight the dragons that roam the globe. Yes, dragons. They sit in plain sight: civil wars, extreme poverty, disease, water scarcity, domestic violence, illiteracy, and so many others. While the work of relief agencies and social welfare groups is vital—especially in response to acute crises—for lasting change we need modern-day heroes who courageously take personal risks as they build new companies."
Categories: changethis
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Blog / ChangeThis
Driving Results Through An Organizational Constitution
By S Chris Edmonds
"Today, people spend more time at work than with their best friends or family members. When their workplace is an inspiring, respectful, creative place to be, people engage deeply, serve customers effectively, and produce quality goods and services consistently. The problem? Most leaders put greater thought into their organization's products and services than they do its culture. Yet culture drives everything that happens in an organization each day."
Categories: changethis
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Blog / New Releases
Stacking the Deck
By 800-CEO-READ
David S. Pottruck provides and "An Operator's Manual for Leading Breakthrough Change" in Stacking the Deck.
Categories: new-releases
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Blog / New Releases
Books to Watch: October 2014
By Porchlight
Fall is in full swing, and the list of excellent books is a mile high. Whether you're in need of something on big-picture strategy or personal improvement, the options are many. Here are a few that are on our radar for October.
Categories: new-releases
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Blog / Excerpts
Growth Hacker Marketing
By 800-CEO-READ
Growth hacking can be used to sniff out and unearth information as valuable as truffles. But, as Ryan Holiday tells us, it requires a new mindset.
Categories: excerpts
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Blog / News & Opinion
The FT Press/McKinsey Business Book of the Year Shortlist
By 800-CEO-READ
A shortlist for the 2014 Financial Times and McKinsey Business Book of the Year Award was announced yesterday. The books chosen focus very much on the big-picture issues of the day, "the most important trends shaping our world" as the press release puts it, so the switch from Goldman Sachs to McKinsey as a partner to FT has not reduced the scope of the books as I thought it may. (I speculated back in May when the announcement was made that McKinsey would now be backing the award that it may change focus to the more nuts-and-bolts business management issues that McKinsey ostensibly focuses on in its own work.
Categories: news-opinion, publishing-industry
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Blog / News & Opinion
ChangeThis: Issue 121
By 800-CEO-READ
Work As We Know It Is Dead by Jacob Morgan “The idea that ‘work sucks’ is engrained in almost every aspect of our professional lives. Employees aren't cogs, work should not be drudgery, and managers can no longer be slave-drivers. This isn’t a manifesto about following your passions or being happy, it’s a call to action to change and evolve our organizations to reflect the world they operate in.
Categories: news-opinion
