Alex was a pushover. Alexander pushes back. Alex was a chump. Alexander is a champ. Alex moved in the gutter. Alexander hits the fast lane. Everyone likes Alex Fairfax. He’s dependable, friendly, hardworking. He is also a sucker. A sucker who sits by while his oily coworker maliciously sabotages his advertising career, then steals Alex’s girlfriend from under his very nose. But Alex is a sucker who has finally had enough of “yes sir” and “thank you.” Enough of kowtowing to the powerful. Enough of being polite. So Alex transforms himself into Alexander —avenger of the maligned. Sure, he lost his job and has to share a crummy apartment with a bunch of twentysomething hippies, but nothing will stop Alexander from exacting sweet vengeance on the long list of those who have done him wrong. With the right clothes, the right hair, and the right attitude, Alexander plots to ascend through the ranks of the elite, tear down the company that refused to stand by him, and humiliate his snake of a colleague and disloyal ex-girlfriend. But while pulling off one stealthy stunt after another, wooing away clients and ruining a few choice careers, Alex discovers that being a shark isn’t all glitz and glamour—and that his own heart still beats to a very tender drum. . . . A sharp, edgy, witty novel of delicious revenge, Being Alexander stars the best kind of character—one readers can’t quite decide whether to loathe or to love. But in the end, the fact remains: for Alex to truly find himself, he had to become someone else. The result is an irresistibly wicked comedy of ill-manners. From the Trade Paperback edition.

Price: $9.99 USD

Thomas Mistler has always thought himself "a happy man, as the world goes." A scion of old money, he made his own fortune in advertising and is now poised to sell the company he founded for a fabulous price. But when a medical examination reveals the presence in his liver of a fatal intruder, "preposterously, unmistakably, he begins to rejoice," with a feeling of having been set free. But free from what? He will seek the answer surreptitiously, without revealing his illness to his family, during a last reprieve, a moment of grace in "the one place on earth where nothing irritates him." But amidst the surreal beauties of Venice, he finds bitterness and chaos as he allows himself to drift for the first time. His halfhearted efforts to seize the day and its present pleasures--first with a striving young photographer and later with a love of his youth who never loved him--cannot compete with his need to commune with the living and the dead that crowd his life: his father and uncle, pillars of the Establishment, sources of the "genetic puritanism" he has never tried to resist; his son, Sam, whose love he has only barely salvaged; his wife, once perfectly "beautiful and suitable," now humiliated by him and half-scorned. And the one woman who embodies everything he might have wished for, a woman he "never had and never lost." Deeply poignant yet mordantly funny, Mistler's Exit brilliantly discloses the pleasures and miseries of having it all. A masterly revelation of the complexities of the heart. From the Hardcover edition.

Price: $9.99 USD

Going Wireless delivers the unexpected by showing how wireless is transforming every type of enterprise from micro-businesses to multi-national conglomerates. Award-winning technology journalist Jaclyn Easton begins with an in-depth look at owning your customers and clients through mobile commerce—whether your company focuses on consumers or business-to-business. From there you will learn about the advantages of wirelessly fortifying your mobile workforce of itinerant executives, sales personnel, and field service technicians as well as how wireless is dramatically redefining customer service, marketing, and advertising. Going Wireless also delves deep inside the corporation. First you'll find out why most companies are "handsizing" in addition to deploying wireless technology to rejuvenate warehouses, supply chains, procurement procedures, data collection, competitive intelligence, and much more. The best part is that these scenarios are supported by over 40 brand-name success stories, including: How Sears saves millions by wirelessly enabling 100 percent of their appliance repair technicians; How the Gap proved that by sewing wireless technology in their clothing they could reduce labor distribution costs by 50 percent; How McKessanHBOC—a Fortune 40 corporation—used mobile technology to entirely eliminate all their manifest imaging costs. While most people associate wireless with cell phones and Palm handhelds, you'll also learn that wireless has been around for over 100 years and has spawned mobile options you've never heard of and is being used in ways you've never imagined. This makes Going Wireless the perfect book for executives and managers who need a comprehensive overview of the wireless options that can make their companies more competitive, more productive, and more profitable.

Price: $13.99 USD

Innovative, original ideas are a company's most powerful competitive advantage. Nathan Mhyrvold, former chief technology officer at Microsoft, has said that a great employee is worth 1,000 times more than an average one simply because of his or her ideas. In Ideaship, the sequel to his bestselling book, How to Get Ideas, Jack Foster shifts from how individuals spark their new ideas to how to unleash the creative genius of an entire organization. To create an idea-prone workforce, Foster proposes a totally new concept of leadership: "ideaship." Leaders shouldn't be spending their time obsessing over profits or sales or quality or service. Instead, they should devote most of their energies to making the office a place where creative ideas flow, where the workforce truly believes in its ability to brilliantly solve any problem put before it. Above all, where it's fun to work. With energy and humor, Foster draws on over thirty-five years as creative director of major advertising agencies-organizations whose only purpose is to constantly generate ideas-to offer dozens of fun, fast, often surprising nuggets of practical advice on how to create an environment where innovation and fresh thinking thrive. He reveals why you should only hire people you like, insist employees take vacations whether they want to or not, why efficiency is sometimes inefficient, and how sometimes you can accomplish more by playing the fool instead of the capital L "Leader." Ideaship spells out proven ways to encourage creativity, simply and clearly and cogently, without a lot of charts and graphs and formulas and acronyms and statistics and fillers. It flips traditional leadership on its head and shows how simple acts of compassion, trust, and generosity of spirit, as well as some seemingly zany actions, can unleash unexpected, vital bursts of creativity.

Price: $16.95 USD

From Enron and WorldCom to the Catholic Church and Major League Baseball, reputation crises have never been more widespread. Now Ronald J. Alsop, a veteran Wall Street Journal authority on branding and reputation management, explains the dangers -- and gives organizations the eighteen crucial laws to follow in developing and protecting their reputations. Consider this example of a simple decision made by a low-ranking employee: When rescue workers at the site of the World Trade Center disaster sought bottled water from a nearby Starbucks outlet, they complained that an employee charged them for it. In a matter of hours, the Internet had picked up the story and Starbucks' carefully cultivated worldwide reputation was quickly besmirched. This is just one instance among many of how the business world, ever more global and competitive, has become increasingly difficult to navigate. Studies have demonstrated the powerful impact of reputation on profits and stock prices, and yet less than half of all companies have a formal system for measuring reputation. Clearly, companies in every industry -- from Dow Chemical to Disney to DaimlerChrystler -- have much more to learn. It is still the rare company that realizes the full value of its reputation: how corporate reputation can enhance business in good times, become a protective halo in turbulent times, and be destroyed in an instant by people at the lowest or highest levels of the corporate ladder. Mr. Alsop provides eighteen thoroughly documented lessons based on years of experience covering every aspect of corporate reputation, with a clear distillation of the complex principles at the heart of a reputation. He explains: • How to protect your reputation when the inevitable crisis hits • How to cope with the many hazards in cyberspace • How to create a reputation for vision and industry leadership • How to establish a culture of ethical behavior • How to measure and monitor your ever-changing public image • How to make employees your reputation champions • How to decide when it's time to change your name The result is a book that is important not only for business executives, consultants, and advertising, public relations, and marketing professionals but also for anyone eager to learn more about the companies they work for, buy from, and invest in.

Price: $17.99 USD

This is the eBook version of the printed book. Technology and economics are transforming business in a completely unexpected way: suddenly, even the largest companies must compete as if they were small, local businesses. Suddenly, your customers can talk to everyone else across the nation, and people listen to them, not your carefully crafted advertising or branding. It's just like doing business in a small town, where "reputation is forever." Suddenly, communities and personal connections are critical to your success - just as they've always been in small towns. The best small-town and rural entrepreneurs have been successfully overcoming these challenges for centuries. Their lessons and techniques are suddenly intensely valuable to even the largest companies, most dominant brands, and most cosmopolitan businesses. Small Town Rules adapts these lessons and techniques for today's new "global small town": one knitted together through the Web, Facebook, and Twitter. Two pioneering entrepreneurs and social media experts show how to: * Survive seasonal cycles and year-to-year fluctuations the way rural farmers and businesses do * Use "small town entrepreneur secrets" for coping with limited access to people and capital * Reduce risk by "piecing together" multiple income sources * Start using customer-driven communication to your advantage * Interact with customers on a more human scale, no matter how big you are * Rediscover your company's local roots, and more

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The first and only guide to using MVT as a breakthrough management tool MVT(TM) (Multivariable Testing) has been heralded as a breakthrough business tool in major publications such as Forbes, the Wall Street Journal, The Economist, and Business-Week. Although MVT could become one of the most widely used management tools and has been applied by leading companies in every industry to create billions of dollars of value-no book on it has been published, until now. In Breakthrough Business Results with MVT, MVT creator and guru Charles Holland shows managers how multivariable testing-an advanced mathematical method that allows simultaneous testing of up to 40 variables-can dramatically improve efficiency and profits in any organization. MVT reveals to managers precisely which factors have a positive impact on any important business decision or process, which have a negative impact, and which have no impact at all. Very often the results are radically counterintuitive. MVT identifies quickly the best ways for a company to make major improvements, such as boosting sales, reducing waste, increasing production, enhancing advertising strategies, or optimizing service levels. Faster and cheaper than other quality improvement methodologies such as Six Sigma, MVT is a natural tool for any organization that wants to reduce the amount of guesswork and politics when making crucial business decisions. In Breakthrough Business Results with MVT, Holland reveals the dramatic benefits that have made true believers of top executives in such companies as Lowe's, Ameritech, Williams-Sonoma, DuPont, Pacific Bell, and Boise, among others. Charles Holland, PhD (Knoxville, TN), is principal and founder of QualPro, Inc., the leading MVT consultancy in the world. QualPro's work has been celebrated in most major business publications, and they have consulted to senior executives at many Fortune 500 companies. QualPro regularly conducts seminars on MVT, and their work has been widely publicized. *MVT is a trademark of QualPro, Inc.

Price: $19.99 USD

A full updated and extended second edition of an established UK bestseller Business Plans For Dummies 2 nd Edition features new and updated information on formulating a solid business plan to build a secure business – even in an economic downturn. Complete with a brand new business plan template to get you started this expert guide offers fresh advice on reading the competitive marketplace and assessing your business in the current economic climate. It walks you step-by-step through every aspect of planning achievable business goals and diversification strategies, identifying trends, exploring new technologies and advertising routes, and predicting your business’ commercial future. Whether you’re looking to start up a small business or streamline an existing one this book is all you need to boost your business know how and prepare a watertight plan.  Business Plans For Dummies 2 nd Edition contains new and updated information on: Determining Where You Want to Go Starting Your Business Plan Charting the Proper Course Setting Off in the Right Direction Sizing Up Your Marketplace Checking Out the Business Environment Taking a Closer Look at Customers Dividing Customers into Groups Scoping Out Your Competition Weighing Your Company’s Prospects Establishing Your Starting Position Focusing On What You Do Best Figuring Out Financials Forecasting and Budgeting  Looking to the Future Preparing for Change Thinking Strategically Managing More Than One Product A Planner’s Toolkit Making Your Business Plan Work Learning from Others: A Sample Business Plan The Part of Tens Ten Questions to Ask About Your Plan Top Ten Business-Planning Never-Evers Ten of the Best-Planned Organisations Around

Price: $28.50 USD

This is the eBook version of the printed book. The best business guide for design professionals just got better! This revised and expanded second edition includes everything designers need—besides talent—to turn their artistic success into business success. You’ll find information on key issues facing designers from freelancing to managing established design firms. A strong visual focus and to-the-point text take the fear factor out of learning about thorny business realities like staffing, marketing, bookkeeping, intellectual property, and more. These smart business practices are essential to success in graphic, Web, and industrial design. Here are just a few of the things you’ll learn:   • How to get on the right career path • The best way to determine pricing • How to avoid common legal pitfalls • How to manage large projects • The secrets of efficient design teams • How to forecast your workload and finances   Talent Is Not Enough provides a big-picture context for these and other challenges and shares practical, real-world advice. Since its first publication, the book has become an essential resource for both students and working professionals in these areas and more:   • Design planning and strategy • Corporate identity development • Publication and editorial design • Brand identity and packaging design • Advertising and promotion design • Marketing communications • Environmental design • Industrial design • Motion graphics • Interaction design • Information design “It is rare to find one individual with such a wide range of knowledge in the design-related fields. And, because of his experience as a designer, Shel brings a sensitivity and understanding to administrative issues while still respecting the artistic side of our industry.” Frank Maddocks, President, Maddocks & Company   “Now that design skills have become a commodity, you need business skills to focus them. Shel has written a crackerjack book that will be on the shelf of every ambitious designer.” Marty Neumeier, author of Zag and The Brand Gap  

Price: $31.99 USD

Web 2.0 has taken on buzzword status. It's now shorthand for everything that is new, cutting-edge, and gaining momentum online. Web 2.0 can describe particular Web sites; cultural trends like social networking, blogging, or podcasting; or the underlying technology that makes today's coolest Web applications possible. Many Web 2.0 innovations were pioneered by behemoths like Google, Amazon, Apple, YouTube, and MySpace. But even the smallest, leanest companies can take advantage of the new trends, new and open-source programming tools, and new networks. This book presents a wealth of ideas that will enable any business to quickly and affordably deploy Web 2.0 best practices to gain customers and maximize profits.Web 2.0 is more a series of trends than a basket of things: --More and more, power is in the hands of individual users and their networks. --Web content is distributed, sorted, combined, and displayed across the Web in formats and places not anticipated by the content creators. --New technology now makes rich online experiences and complex software applications possible, and at a low cost. --Integration is breaking down walls between PCs and mobile devices. Web 2.0 is a landscape in which users control their online experience and influence the experiences of others. Business success on the Web, therefore, now comes from harnessing the power of social networks, computing networks, media and opinion networks, and advertising networks. Web 2.0 takes advantage of higher bandwidth and lighter-weight programming tools to create rich, engaging online experiences that compete with television and other offline activities. With examples and case studies from real businesses, this book demonstrates what makes a successful Web 2.0 company, regardless of its size or resources. A non-technical guide, it is aimed squarely at the marketer or business manager who wants to understand recent developments in the online world, and to turn them into practical, competitive advantages.

Price: $49.00 USD