The App Factory Playbook

Learn how to design needed apps, have them developed, and market them to the public.

The criticism of China used to be that it was good at manufacturing but not at innovating. It has now proven those critics wrong. On top of that, some of its companies have developed cutting edge management approaches. We look at what’s behind China’s digital transformation, its unique e-commerce to see what Western brands can learn from China. In this book you’ll learn: How China got to its current stage of digital transformation How Chinese brands optimize e-commerce and digital marketing What highly effective management approaches Chinese companies have used to ramp up profit and turn around failing enterprises Here's what's inside: Chapter 1 What’s Behind China’s Innovation? Chapter 2 A Closer Look at China’s Digital Development I Customer-centric Ecosystems Chapter 3 China’s Tech Giant Transformation II The Future of Retail: What DTC Brands Can Learn from China Chapter 4 Mobile First Chapter 5 The Impact of Social Commerce Chapter 6 Online Merge Offline (OMO) Chapter 7 The Human Touch: Last Mile Delivery, QR Codes and CRM III Innovative Management Models Chapter 8 Management and Leadership Models from China Chapter 9 What China Can Learn From the World Chapter 10 Learning Together "Successful Chinese startups prioritize adaptability, quick production, and deep investment in influencer marketing while overseas brands often opt for a more organic strategy, risking missed growth and copycat challenges." — Tingyi (Jenny) Chen, Co-founder of Walk the Chat “Social new retail, combining social media, e-commerce and offline retail provides seamless consumer experiences and growth opportunities for retailers. As AI progresses, it will further improve the social new retail experience in China.” — Sandrine Zerbib, Founder & Chairwoman of Full Jet & President of Baozun Brand Management

Achieve streamlined, rapid production with enterprise-level DevOps Awarded DevOps 2017 Book of the Year, The DevOps Adoption Playbook provides practical, actionable, real-world guidance on implementing DevOps at enterprise scale. Author Sanjeev Sharma heads the DevOps practice for IBM; in this book, he provides unique guidance and insight on implementing DevOps at large organizations. Most DevOps literature is aimed at startups, but enterprises have unique needs, capabilities, limitations, and challenges; "DevOps for startups" doesn't work at this scale, but the DevOps paradigm can revolutionize enterprise IT. Deliver high-value applications and systems with velocity and agility by adopting the necessary practices, automation tools, and organizational and cultural changes that lead to innovation through rapid experimentation. Speed is an advantage in the face of competition, but it must never come at the expense of quality; DevOps allows your organization to keep both by intersecting development, quality assurance, and operations. Enterprise-level DevOps comes with its own set of challenges, but this book shows you just how easily they are overcome. With a slight shift in perspective, your organization can stay ahead of the competition while keeping costs, risks, and quality under control. Grasp the full extent of the DevOps impact on IT organizations Achieve high-value innovation and optimization with low cost and risk Exceed traditional business goals with higher product release efficiency Implement DevOps in large-scale enterprise IT environments DevOps has been one of IT's hottest trends for the past decade, and plenty of success stories testify to its effectiveness in organizations of any size, industry, or level of IT maturity, all around the world. The DevOps Adoption Playbook shows you how to get your organization on board so you can slip production into the fast lane and innovate your way to the top.

Coding is cool, and these fun projects help you get started today! Building a Mobile App offers basic lessons in Android development, designed specifically for kids! Three fun projects walk you through basic coding skills using MIT's App Inventor—a free, online programming tool that uses a simple block style language that makes coding easy to learn. No long chapters to read, and no homework—just dive right in! You'll begin with a basic project that shows you how to make an app that works; next, you'll put those skills to work on a photo editing app that takes your skills to the next level. Finally, you'll level up one more time to become a Game Maker—that's right, you'll actually build a mobile game that you can send to your friends! Each project includes step-by-step directions and plenty of graphics to help you stay on track, and easy-to-read instructions help you complete each project frustration-free. App building can get pretty complicated, but it doesn't have to start out that way. Start small to pick up the basics quickly, and you'll be coding in no time! This book helps you get started quickly and easily, with a focus on fun. Build your own Android mobile apps using a free online platform! Code everything yourself, including buttons, screens, and interactions! Build an app that lets you draw on pictures you take! Create a simple, interactive game you can share with your friends! Adults all over the world turn to For Dummies books for clear instruction with a sense of humor; the Dummies Junior books bring that same "learning is fun" attitude to kids, with projects designed specifically for a kid's interests, needs, and skill level. Building a Mobile App gets kids coding quickly, with fun projects they'll be happy to show off!

NEW YORK TIMES EDITORS’ CHOICE • Big Tobacco meets Silicon Valley in this “deeply reported and illuminating” (The New York Times Book Review) corporate exposé of what happened when two of the most notorious industries collided—and the vaping epidemic was born. “The best business book I’ve read since Bad Blood.”—Jonathan Eig, New York Times bestselling author of Ali: A Life Howard Willard lusted after Juul. As the CEO of tobacco giant Philip Morris’s parent company and a veteran of the industry’s long fight to avoid being regulated out of existence, he grew obsessed with a prize he believed could save his company—the e-cigarette, a product with all the addictive upside of the original without the same apparent health risks and bad press. Meanwhile, in Silicon Valley, Adam Bowen and James Monsees began working on a device that was meant to save lives and destroy Big Tobacco, but they ended up baking the industry’s DNA into their invention’s science and marketing. Ultimately, Juul’s e-cigarette was so effective and so market-dominating that it put the company on a collision course with Philip Morris and sparked one of the most explosive public health crises in recent memory. In a deeply reported account, award-winning journalist Lauren Etter tells a riveting story of greed and deception in one of the biggest botched deals in business history. Etter shows how Philip Morris’s struggle to innovate left Willard desperate to acquire Juul, even as his own team sounded alarms about the startup’s reliance on underage customers. And she shows how Juul’s executives negotiated a lavish deal that let them pocket the lion’s share of Philip Morris’s $12.8 billion investment while government regulators and furious parents mounted a campaign to hold the company’s feet to the fire. The Devil’s Playbook is the inside story of how Juul’s embodiment of Silicon Valley’s “move fast and break things” ethos wrought havoc on American health, and how a beleaguered tobacco company was seduced by the promise of a new generation of addicted customers. With both companies’ eyes on the financial prize, neither anticipated the sudden outbreak of vaping-linked deaths that would terrorize a nation, crater Juul’s value, end Willard’s career, and show the costs in human life of the rush to riches—while Juul’s founders, board members, and employees walked away with a windfall.

Rethink your business for the digital age. Every business begun before the Internet now faces the same challenge: How to transform to compete in a digital economy? Globally recognized digital expert David L. Rogers argues that digital transformation is not about updating your technology but about upgrading your strategic thinking. Based on Rogers's decade of research and teaching at Columbia Business School, and his consulting for businesses around the world, The Digital Transformation Playbook shows how pre-digital-era companies can reinvigorate their game plans and capture the new opportunities of the digital world. Rogers shows why traditional businesses need to rethink their underlying assumptions in five domains of strategy—customers, competition, data, innovation, and value. He reveals how to harness customer networks, platforms, big data, rapid experimentation, and disruptive business models—and how to integrate these into your existing business and organization. Rogers illustrates every strategy in this playbook with real-world case studies, from Google to GE, from Airbnb to the New York Times. With practical frameworks and nine step-by-step planning tools, he distills the lessons of today's greatest digital innovators and makes them usable for businesses at any stage. Many books offer advice for digital start-ups, but The Digital Transformation Playbook is the first complete treatment of how legacy businesses can transform to thrive in the digital age. It is an indispensable guide for executives looking to take their firms to the next stage of profitable growth.

The ultimate full-color consumer guide to the fun and functional BlackBerry PlayBook BlackBerry's entry into the tablet market adds a new dimension to the image of the BlackBerry as a tool primarily for business. The PlayBook does business, but it also does fun, and this handy, full-color book covers just what you need to get up and running with your PlayBook and make the most of it. In an entertaining and to-the-point fashion, this guide shows you how to connect your PlayBook to your BlackBerry smartphone, take photos, watch videos, read e-books, connect to the Internet via WiFi, use third-party apps, video chat, and more. Helps you get set up and use your Playbook, with full-color screen shots and navigational elements that help you quickly find information Shows how to manage your e-mail by connecting to your BlackBerry smartphone and how to get online with WiFi Covers acquiring and reading e-books and periodicals, participating in social media, shooting photos and videos, and using instant messaging and video chat Explains how to download and use third-party apps on the BlackBerry platform With a hip, direct style, BlackBerry PlayBook Companion shortens the learning curve and helps you maximize what your PlayBook offers for both work and play.