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The Hard Thing about Hard Things by
A lot of people talk about how great it is to start a business, but only Ben Horowitz is brutally honest about how hard it is to run one. In The Hard Thing About Hard Things, Ben Horowitz, cofounder of Andreessen Horowitz and one of Silicon Valley's most respected and experienced entrepreneurs, draws on his own story of founding, running, selling, buying, managing, and investing in technology companies to offer essential advice and practical wisdom for navigating the toughest problems business schools don't cover. His blog has garnered a devoted following of millions of readers who have come to rely on him to help them run their businesses. A lifelong rap fan, Horowitz amplifies business lessons with lyrics from his favorite songs and tells it straight about everything from firing friends to poaching competitors, from cultivating and sustaining a CEO mentality to knowing the right time to cash in. His advice is grounded in anecdotes from his own hard-earned rise—from cofounding the early cloud service provider Loudcloud to building the phenomenally successful Andreessen Horowitz venture capital firm, both with fellow tech superstar Marc Andreessen (inventor of Mosaic, the Internet's first popular Web browser). This is no polished victory lap; he analyzes issues with no easy answers through his trials, including demoting (or firing) a loyal friend; whether you should incorporate titles and promotions, and how to handle them; if it's OK to hire people from your friend's company; how to manage your own psychology, while the whole company is relying on you; what to do when smart people are bad employees; why Andreessen Horowitz prefers founder CEOs, and how to become one; whether you should sell your company, and how to do it. Filled with Horowitz's trademark humor and straight talk, and drawing from his personal and often humbling experiences, The Hard Thing About Hard Things is invaluable for veteran entrepreneurs as well as those aspiring to their own new ventures.
ISBN: 9780062273208Publication Date: 2014-03-04
The Soft Edge by
What Does it Take to Get Ahead Now?And Stay There? High performance has always required shrewd strategy and superb execution. These factors remain critical, especially given today's unprecedented business climate. But Rich Karlgaard?Forbes publisher, entrepreneur, investor, and board director'takes a surprising turn and argues that there is now a third element that's required for competitive advantage. It fosters innovation, it accelerates strategy and execution, and it cannot be copied or bought. It is found in a perhaps surprising place'your company's values. Karlgaard examined a variety of enduring companies and found that they have one thing in common; all have leveraged their deepest values alongside strategy and execution, allowing them to fuel growth as well as weather hard times. Karlgaard shares these stories and identifies the five key variables that make up every organization's ?soft edge?: Trust: Northwestern Mutual has built a $25 million dollar revenue juggernaut on trust, the foundation of lasting success. Learn how to create an environment that engenders trust and propels high performance. Smarts: In most technical fields your formal education quickly becomes out of date. How do you keep up? Learn how the Mayo Clinic, Stanford University women's basketball team, and others stay on top by relentlessly pursuing an advantage through smarts. Teamwork: Since collaboration and innovation are a must in the global economy, effective teamwork is vital. Learn how global giant FedEx stays focused and how nimble Nest Labs relies on lean teams with cognitive diversity. Taste: Clever product design and integration are proxies for intelligence because they make customers feel smart. But taste goes further into deep emotional engagement. Specialized Bicycles calls it ?the elusive spot between data truth and human truth.' How can you consistently make products or services that trigger these emotional touch points? Story: Companies that achieve lasting success have an enduring and emotionally appealing story. What's your company's story? How do you tell it your way? Gain the ability to create a powerful narrative in a world where outsiders often exercise the louder voice.
ISBN: 9781118829424Publication Date: 2014-04-07
The Practical Drucker by
Few thinkers have had a greater impact on business than Peter Drucker, the inventor of modern management, whose legacy continues to influence leaders around the globe. His keen observations about organizations took the form of deceptively simple truths and astute predictions. Concepts such as decentralization, outsourcing, the rise of the knowledge worker, the role of employees as assets, and a focus on the customer-it was Drucker who first expressed them, sometimes decades before they be came accepted wisdom. Although renowned as a thinker and idea generator, the "what" in his teachings was far more prevalent than the "how." Now, The Practical Drucker mines his vast body of work to pinpoint 40 applicable truths for solving real-world problems. Readers will find surprising insights and clear guidance on how to: - Engage employees and achieve outstanding performance - Remedy destructive office politics - Approach innovation - Ensure follow-through on good ideas by establishing controls - Handle a crisis - Become better decision makers by questioning assumptions - Determine which leadership style to use in which situation - Do more with less - Steer clear of the biggest traps that leaders fall into - Avoid the five deadly marketing sins - And much more In succinct, satisfying chapters, the book distills the practical wisdom from Drucker's myriad books, essays, articles and his decades of teaching and consulting into a set of fresh, vital lessons that will resonate today and for years to come. "
ISBN: 9780814433492Publication Date: 2013-11-12
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