Business Evolution

If you've ever asked the questions “Can I keep up with the pace of change?” or “What is the purpose of my business?” Business Evolution is packed with powerful tools and real-life examples to help you find the answers and steer your own path.Janice B Gordon is a respected business consultant with twenty-five years of experience running and advising businesses; her particular talents are for guiding businesses through change to growth, building customer insights and relationships. Janice distils her "Essential 4 Ps" – Personality, Purpose, Pleasure and Process – which will guide you and your business to adapt and grow in the face of increasing and accelerating change.The global world has become personal. Technology allows us to connect like never before. Business Evolution looks at the way we can connect to create growth and offers mature, reassuring wisdom that will take you into the future with confidence.Whether you are ready for the next stage of growth or just starting out, Janice B Gordon's Business Evolution will give you the guidance you need. Buy it, Read it, Apply it & Evolve Your Business!www.business-evolution.bizPraise for "Business Evolution"“This book is for businesses wanting to grow their business by giving practical insights relevant in this rapidly changing global economy. It is clear Janice knows her stuff; I would highly recommend you to Buy it, Read it, Apply it & Evolve it!” Lara Morgan Entrepreneur and Investor “Wow! Business Evolution is the most enjoyable book about how to grow your business I've ever read. Through quite challenging, and always credible, exercises, Janice explains her 'Essential 4Ps', which will keep your business growing and give plenty of 'wows' to your customers. This business book is the real deal on how to grow your business. It is a five star 'wow' for me which I will return to, time after time.”Tony Robinson OBE Entrepreneur, Business Advisory Board & Enterprise Rockers

What is this mysterious activity we call entrepreneurship? Does success require special traits and skills or just luck? Can large companies follow their example? What role does venture capital play? In a field dominated by anecdote and folklore, this landmark study integrates more than ten years of intensive research and modern theories of business and economics. The result is a comprehensive framework for understanding entrepreneurship that provides new and penetrating insights. Examining hundreds of successful ventures, the author finds that the typical business has humble, improvised origins. Well-planned start-ups, backed by substantial venture capital, are exceptional. Entrepreneurs like Bill Gates and Sam Walton initially pursue small, uncertain opportunities, without much capital, market research, or breakthrough technologies. Coping with ambiguity and surprises, face-to-face selling, and making do with second-tier employees is more important than foresight, deal-making, or recruiting top-notch teams. Transforming improvised start-ups into noteworthy enterprises requires a radical shift, from "opportunistic adaptation" in niche markets to the pursuit of ambitious strategies. This requires traits such as ambition and risk-taking that are initially unimportant. Mature corporations have to pursue entrepreneurial activity in a much more disciplined way. Companies like Intel and Merck focus their resources on large-scale initiatives that scrappy entrepreneurs cannot undertake. Their success requires carefully chosen bets, meticulous planning, and the smooth coordination of many employees rather than the talents of a driven few. This clearly and concisely written book is essential for anyone who wants to start a business, for the entrepreneur or executive who wants to grow a company, and for the scholar who wants to understand this crucial economic activity.

The nine contributions in this volume attempt to demonstrate the applications of institutional theory to business history and show how the wider study of the institutional environment is inseparable from the study of business. Contributions include an evaluation of community structure and competitive advantage within the Yorkshire woolen industry; a comparative view of financial reconstruction and industrial reorganization in British and Swedish institutions during the Inter-War period; and post- war strategic capitalism in Norway. Paper edition (unseen), $19.50. Distributed by ISBS. Annotation copyrighted by Book News, Inc., Portland, OR

Project Leadership, the classic, best-selling textbook originally by Wendy Briner, Michael Geddes and Colin Hastings, anticipated so many of the changes in approaches to project management that are now regarded as mainstream - not least the focus on behaviours. The Third Edition by experts Sarah Coleman and Donnie MacNicol has been substantially rewritten, introducing new material and experience reflecting the transformation that has taken place in the world of projects and leadership. Project Leadership Third Edition looks at the nature of the leadership role in projects, why it is significant and how it impacts the processes throughout the project life-cycle from shaping and scoping, start up and delivery through to project closure. The authors put considerable emphasis on a set of core capabilities around the themes of vision and strategy, relationship building, communication and engagement. The book also focuses on building personal and organizational project leadership capability including models, tools and diagnostics drawing on experiences of working with projects and organizations from multiple sectors and across the globe. The Foreword and Endorsements have been provided by industry leaders. Sarah Coleman and Donnie MacNicol have retained and built on the wonderful range of simple, imaginative and very applicable models and perspectives developed by the previous authors. Every project leader, aspiring project leader and organization with project management communities should own and use a copy of this book.

Public policy interventions aimed at encouraging, supporting and developing small businesses are important for understanding entrepreneurship and small business management. This textbook is the first to provide teachers and students with a resource that gives an overview of how institutional and policy structures interact with small firm start-ups, continuation and succession/failures. Beginning with a brief introduction to policy processes, the text covers the main policy instruments for entrepreneurial market entry and start-up support, for on-going small business advice and financial support, and succession planning. It particularly focuses on policies that improve the Business Enabling Environment through macroeconomic policy, institutional reform, and deregulation of bureaucratic burdens. Theoretical rigour is complemented by detailed assessments of current policies around the world, including USA, advanced and emerging economies and Policy support from global institutions such as the World Bank and the ILO are included. Written by a pre-eminent scholar of public policy and entrepreneurship, this textbook provides a concise but thorough introduction to the subject for Master's students internationally. Policy recommendations in the author's conclusion also highlight the book's value to policy-makers as they adapt to the globalized, digital world.

E-business incorporates the broader picture and includes topics such as marketing online, ensuring security, payment solutions. This book offers insights into these, and other, areas, and offers the reader a description of their options.

A strategic model for identifying, evaluating, and improving information use "Fundamentally changes how you look at the role of information technology and takes it to the leadership level, which is the only way for business performance to be maximized in this global economy." --Ron Milton, Executive Vice President, Computerworld "Information Revolution is truly a must-read for those who generate, support, and make decisions for their respective organizations. By the way, that would be everybody." --Bob Schwartz, Vice President and Chief Information Officer, Panasonic Corporation of North America "As this book clearly describes, information management advances both through evolution and intelligent design. The ideas herein will help any organization avoid extinction!" --Thomas H. Davenport, President's Distinguished Professor and Director of Research, Babson College "This model captures the best practices from the early stage of Business Intelligence development through the most sophisticated environments where the value and nature of information is unquestioned. All of us should strive to reach the final level. And now we have the ultimate guide to help us get there." --Claudia Imhoff, President, Intelligent Solutions, Inc. "Managing a successful Business Intelligence effort requires a long-term view and this means leaders must have a methodology to guide them as they navigate their organization through the BI evolution. Information Revolution provides the prag-matic road map all executives can understand and follow." --Irving Tyler, Chief Information Officer, Quaker Chemical Corporation "Information Revolution is the perfect blend of 'what,' 'how,' and especially 'why.' This book is a must-read for those driven to excel in this information-based world, instead of being another 'me, too' along for the ride." --Bruce Barnes, former chief information officer, Nationwide Financial Services "Information Revolution provides a powerful framework for assessing the current state of your company's systems and its decision making capabilities. It then presents a clear process for moving your systems and your company toward an adaptive and innovative enterprise." --Michael Hugos, Chief Information Officer, Network Services Company

There is an invisible army of people deep inside the world's biggest and best-known companies, pushing for safer and more responsible practices. They are trying to prevent the next Rana Plaza factory collapse, the next Deepwater Horizon explosion, the next Foxconn labor abuses. Obviously, they don't always succeed. Christine Bader is one of those people. She worked for and loved BP and then-CEO John Browne's lofty rhetoric on climate change and human rights--until a string of fatal BP accidents, Browne's abrupt resignation under a cloud of scandal, and the start of Tony Hayward's tenure as chief executive, which would end with the Deepwater Horizon disaster. Bader's story of working deep inside the belly of the beast is unique in its details, but not in its themes: of feeling like an outsider both inside the company (accused of being a closet activist) and out (assumed to be a corporate shill); of getting mixed messages from senior management; of being frustrated with corporate life but committed to pushing for change from within. The Evolution of a Corporate Idealist: When Girl Meets Oil is based on Bader's experience with BP and then with a United Nations effort to prevent and address human rights abuses linked to business. Using her story as its skeleton, Bader weaves in the stories of other "Corporate Idealists" working inside some of the world's biggest and best-known companies.