The Six New Rules Of Business

The rules of business are changing dramatically. The Aspen Institute's Judy Samuelson describes the profound shifts in attitudes and mindsets that are redefining our notions of what constitutes business success. Dynamic forces are conspiring to clarify the new rules of real value creation—and to put the old rules to rest. Internet-powered transparency, more powerful worker voice, the decline in importance of capital, and the complexity of global supply chains in the face of planetary limits all define the new landscape. As executive director of the Aspen Institute Business and Society Program, Judy Samuelson has a unique vantage point from which to engage business decision makers and identify the forces that are moving the needle in both boardrooms and business classrooms. Samuelson lays out how hard-to-measure intangibles like reputation, trust, and loyalty are imposing new ways to assess risk and opportunity in investment and asset management. She argues that “maximizing shareholder value” has never been the sole objective of effective businesses while observing that shareholder theory and the practices that keep it in place continue to lose power in both business and the public square. In our globalized era, she demonstrates how expectations of corporations are set far beyond the company gates—and why employees are both the best allies of the business and the new accountability mechanism, more so than consumers or investors. Samuelson's new rules offer a powerful guide to how businesses are changing today—and what is needed to succeed in tomorrow's economic and social landscape.

New tools for managing complexity Does your organization manage complexity by making things more complicated? If so, you are not alone. According to The Boston Consulting Group’s fascinating Complexity Index, business complexity has increased sixfold during the past sixty years. And, all the while, organizational complicatedness—that is, the number of structures, processes, committees, decision-making forums, and systems—has increased by a whopping factor of thirty-five. In their attempt to respond to the increasingly complex performance requirements they face, company leaders have created an organizational labyrinth that makes it more and more difficult to improve productivity and to pursue innovation. It also disengages and demotivates the workforce. Clearly it’s time for leaders to stop trying to manage complexity with their traditional tools and instead better leverage employees' intelligence. This book shows you how and explains the implications for designing and leading organizations. The way to manage complexity, the authors argue, is neither with the hard solutions of another era nor with the soft solutions—such as team building and feel-good “people initiatives”—that often follow in their wake. Based on social sciences (notably economics, game theory, and organizational sociology) and The Boston Consulting Group’s work with more than five hundred companies in more than forty countries and in various industries, authors Yves Morieux and Peter Tollman recommend six simple rules to manage complexity without getting complicated. Showing why the rules work and how to put them into practice, Morieux and Tollman give managers a much-needed tool to reinvigorate people in the face of seemingly endless complexity. Included are detailed examples from companies that have achieved a multiplicative effect on performance by using them. It’s time to manage complexity better. Employ these six simple rules to foster autonomy and cooperation and to effectively handle business complexity. As a result, you will improve productivity, innovate more, reengage your workforce, and seize opportunities to create competitive advantage.

Treating your customers well is no longer enough. The new rule is: employees, too, have to be treated as well, if not better than the customers. Happy employees make happy customers, and happy customers tend to be loyal. Do you spend money in advertising to create awareness about your product? You don't need to do that any longer. The new rule is: invest in making your product so good that it does its own marketing. New-age companies, such as Amazon, Flipkart, Uber, Ola and Netflix, among others, are dismantling the old rules of business and installing new ones in their place. This book unfolds the mysteries of these new ways of doing business which most companies try to keep under wraps. Compellingly written with several anecdotes, this is a gripping book full of incredible insights.

Praise for Deliver the Unexpected "Richard's insights are exactly what entrepreneurs need to read to transform their business in today's new reality." Margaret Kelly, CEO of RE/MAX International "Deliver the Unexpected is an absolute must-read for any entrepreneur serious about changing the game." Robin Sharma, bestselling author of The Leader Who Had No Title and The Monk Who Sold His Ferrari "Much more than just a fascinating story and much more than just a book on success. Be ready to come away with knowledge of the principles that will help you take your career and income to a whole new level." Bob Burg, coauthor of The Go-Giver and author of Endless Referrals "Anyone can beat up on common wisdom. The trick is building something better in its place, and Robbins has done it big time. Highly recommended." Michael Port, coauthor of The Contrarian Effect: Why It Pays (BIG) to Take Typical Sales Advice and Do the Opposite "Good news: spending time with Richard Robbins's new book, Deliver the Unexpected, isn't work. This fictional parable makes ingesting a dose of well-thought-out career advice no work at all." Phil Soper, President & CEO, Brookfield Real Estate Services/Royal LePage "This is a terrific book entertaining, insightful, and fast-moving. You learn a series of proven, practical methods and techniques to help you build and run a more profitable business." Brian Tracy, Chairman & CEO, Brian Tracy International

More than two millennia ago the famous Chinese general Sun Tzu wrote the classic work on military strategy, The Art of War. Now, in a new edition of Sun Tzu and the Art of Business, Mark McNeilly shows how Sun Tzu's strategic principles can be applied to twenty-first century business. Here are two books in one: McNeilly's synthesis of Sun Tzu's ideas into six strategic principles for the business executive, plus the text of Samuel B. Griffith's popular translation of The Art of War. McNeilly explains how to gain market share without inciting competitive retaliation, how to attack competitors' weak points, and how to maximize market information for competitive advantage. He demonstrates the value of speed and preparation in throwing the competition off-balance, employing strategy to beat the competition, and the need for character in leaders. Lastly, McNeilly presents a practical method to put Sun Tzu's principles into practice. By using modern examples throughout the book from Google, Zappos, Amazon, Dyson, Aflac, Singapore Airlines, Best Buy, the NFL, Tata Motors, Starbucks, and many others, he illustrates how, by following the wisdom of history's most respected strategist, executives can avoid the pitfalls of management fads and achieve lasting competitive advantage.

Shift your business model and transform your organization in the face of disruption Business Model Shifts is co-authored by Patrick van Der Pijl, producer of the global bestseller Business Model Generation, and offers a groundbreaking look at the challenging times in which we live, and the real-world solutions needed to conquer the obstacles organizations must now face. Business Model Shifts is a visually stunning guide that examines six fundamental disruptions happening now and spotlights the opportunities that they present: The Services Shift: the move from products to services The Stakeholder Shift: the move from an exclusive shareholder orientation to creating value for all stakeholders, including employees and society The Digital Shift: the move from traditional business operations to 24/7 connection to customers and their needs The Platform Shift: the move from trying to serve everyone, to connecting people who can exchange value on a proprietary platform The Exponential Shift: the move from seeking incremental growth to an exponential mindset that seeks 10x growth The Circular Shift: the move from take-make-dispose towards restorative, regenerative, and circular value creation Filled with case studies, stories, and in-depth analysis based on the work of hundreds of the world’s largest and most intriguing organizations, Business Model Shifts details how these organizations created their own business model shifts in order to create more customer value, and ultimately, a stronger, more competitive business. Whether you’re looking for ways to redesign your business due to the latest needs of the marketplace, launching a new product or service, or simply creating more lasting value for your customers, Business Model Shifts is the essential book that will change the way you think about your business and its future.

The Great Game of Business started a business revolution by introducing the world to open-book management, a new way of running a business that created unprecedented profit and employee engagement. The revised and updated edition of The Great Game of Business lays out an entirely different way of running a company. It wasn't dreamed up in an executive think tank or an Ivy League business school or around the conference table by big-time consultants. It was forged on the factory floors of the heartland by ordinary folks hoping to figure out how to save their jobs when their parent company, International Harvester, went down the tubes. What these workers created was a revolutionary approach to management that has proven itself in every industry around the world for the past thirty years--an approach that is perhaps the last, best hope for reviving the American Dream.

6 strategic principles for reinventing your products, your services—and your company's future The digital age has completely transformed business—and marketing has not kept up. From research frameworks and traditional concept development to planning to budgeting to distribution channels and media placement, marketing has not advanced—which may be why Chief Marketing Officers often don't get a seat at the table. In order to have a future, marketing must play a direct role in driving profitable sales and increasing revenues. The Old Rules of Marketing Are Dead offers the new rules for reinventing your brand, including: Defining the product's essence Creating metrics to ensure accountability Developing a core message Disseminating the brand Marketing needs to lead, not follow. The Old Rules of Marketing are Dead shows how to reinvent marketing and position it as a strategic business partner for any organization. Table of Contents Rule 1: The Core is Everything; Rule 2: You Have Nothing Without the Foundation; Rule 3: There are Many Choices But Only One Customer; Rule 4: Do the Right Things for the Right Reasons; Rule 5: Infrastructure is More Than Just Pipes; Rule 6: Lead and Others Will Follow