Business & Economics Audiobooks

Taking People With You: The Only Way to Make Big Things Happen

"David Novak learned long ago that you can't lead a great organization of any size without getting your people aligned, enthusiastic, and focused relentlessly on the mission. But how do you do that? There are countless leadership books, but how many will actually help a Taco Bell shift manager, a Fortune 500 CEO, a new entrepreneur, or anyone in between? Over his fifteen years at Yum! Brands, Novak has developed a trademarked program he calls Taking People with You. He spends several weeks each year personally teaching it to thousands of managers around the world. He convinces them that they'll never make big things happen until they learn how to get people on their side. No skill in business is more important. And Yum!'s extraordinary success (at least 13 percent growth for each of the last nine years) proves his point. Novak knows that managers don't need leadership platitudes or business school theories. So he cuts right to the chase with a step-by- step guide to setting big goals, getting people to work together, blowing past your targets, and celebrating after you shock the skeptics. And then doing it again and again until consistent excellence becomes a core element of your culture. This audiobook has specific tools at the end of each chapter that will challenge you to reflect on how you're really doing on key aspects of leadership. And if you apply it, you'll immediately start to improve. You'll learn how to . . . • Get inside the heads of your people. You can't convince them of anything until you see the world from their perspective. • Think big. If your sales growth last year was 3.5 percent, don't aim for 4 percent this year, aim for 15 percent. Even if you fail, you'll probably do better than you would have with a smaller goal. • Practice 'extraordinary authenticity.' Show occasional vulnerability and admit when you don't have the answers. • Look for good ideas in unexpected places. Novak's team came up with Cool Ranch Doritos for Frito-Lay during a field trip to a grocery store's salad dressing aisle. • Choose a can-do mind-set. There's a huge difference between a boss who says 'We can try this' and one who says 'We can do this!' • Cheer for first downs, not just touchdowns. Publicly recognizing and rewarding small wins keeps everyone motivated for the long haul. • Get rid of cynics. In many teams one person will reject your values and spread negative energy. Moving that person out will show everyone else you're serious."

David Novak (Author), Sean Pratt (Narrator)

Audiobook

Supercharged Selling: Action Guide, The Power to Be the Best

"This comprehensive, powerful audiobook for sales managers and sales people is guaranteed to end any sales force motivation problems. Supercharged Selling is the high-octane kick you need to re-energize the pursuit of your dreams. Warren Greshes shoots straight from the lip and straight at the heart of the matter. No abstract theories here, just plain talk and career-boosting truths. Announcing a powerful new system guaranteed to end your sales motivation problems. • The Winning Attitude • Customers Vote with Their Feet • The Power of Commitment • The True Definition of Success • Do Whatever It Takes • See Yourself Successful • Make Your Goal A Reality • A Blueprint for Your Life and Career • Working your Plan • Persistence: Sustaining the Effort Achieve these Key Program Results: • Increased sales • Comprehensive and lasting motivational training • Saves sales time • Saves your time • Saves training and sales dollars • Improves retention and application of training"

Warren Greshes (Author), Warren Greshes (Narrator)

Audiobook

Get Into Bed With Google

"It's all very well having a Flash intro and lots of features and functionality that can 'wow' your audience on every single page of your website. But what if they can't find you? What if you're not visible on the main search engines, and on Google in particular? Making your site 'Google Friendly' or employing Search Engine Optimization techniques (or SEO as it's known in the trade) should be a priority - if you don't rank on those results you may as well not have a website at all - it's that serious. And yet for many it's something which is overlooked. But how do you get started so you can make the most of your online presence? Let Get into bed with Google help. Dip in and dip out, read it from start to finish - it really doesn't matter. The 52 brilliant ideas contained within are canny and quick fixes that should result in immediate benefits to your site; even implementing just a handful of ideas will improve your website rankings. Get into bed with Google will help you get your website to the top of search results pages so their customers can find them easily and quickly, which in Google terms is the gold at the end of the rainbow. Simply brilliant."

Jon Smith (Author), Jasjeet Grover (Narrator)

Audiobook

Monsoon: The Indian Ocean and the Future of American Power

"On the world maps common in America, the Western Hemisphere lies front and center, while the Indian Ocean region all but disappears. This convention reveals the geopolitical focus of the now-departed twentieth century, but in the twenty-first century that focus will fundamentally change. In this pivotal examination of the countries known as "Monsoon Asia"—which include India, Pakistan, China, Indonesia, Burma, Oman, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, and Tanzania—bestselling author Robert D. Kaplan shows how crucial this dynamic area has become to American power. It is here that the fight for democracy, energy independence, and religious freedom will be lost or won, and it is here that American foreign policy must concentrate if the United States is to remain relevant in an ever-changing world. From the Horn of Africa to the Indonesian archipelago and beyond, Kaplan exposes the effects of population growth, climate change, and extremist politics on this unstable region, demonstrating why Americans can no longer afford to ignore this important area of the world."

Robert D. Kaplan (Author), John Pruden (Narrator)

Audiobook

Think Better: An Innovator's Guide to Productive Thinking

"There are thousands of books about thinking. But there are very few books that provide clear how-to information that can actually help you think better. Think Better is about Productive Thinking-why it’s important, how it works, and how to use it at work, at home, and at play. Productive Thinking is a game changer-a practical, easy-to-learn, repeatable process that helps people understand more clearly, think more creatively, and plan more effectively. It's based on the thinking strategies that people we celebrate for their creativity have been using for centuries. Tim Hurson brings Productive Thinking out of the closet and presents it in a way that makes it easy for anyone to grasp and use-so you can think better, work better, and do better in every aspect of your life. Think Better demonstrates how you can start with an intractable technical problem, an unmet consumer need, or a gaping chasm in your business strategy and, by following a clearly defined, practical thinking process, arrive at a robust, innovative solution. Many companies use the Productive Thinking model to generate fresh solutions for tough business problems, and many individuals rely on it to solve pressing personal problems. The principles you'll find in Think Better are straight-forward: separate your thinking into creative thinking and critical thinking; stay with the question; strive for the “third third” by generating lots and lots of ideas; and look for unexpected connections. The model consists of six interlocking steps: Step 1:What's Going On? Explore and truly understand the challenge. Step 2: What's Success? Envision the ideal outcome and establish success criteria. Step 3: What's the Question? Pinpoint the real problem or opportunity. Step 4: Generate Answers List many possible solutions. Step 5: Forge the Solution Decide which solution is best. Then make it better. Step 6: Align Resources Create an action plan. Tim Hurson starts by explaining how we all build inner barriers to effective thinking. He identifies our habits of thinking that severely limit our behavior, from “monkey mind” to “gator brain.” Then he demonstrates how to overcome these barriers. More than anything, productive thinking is an attitude that will let you look at problems and convert them into opportunities. At the end of this disciplined brainstorming process, you'll have a concrete action plan, complete with timelines and deadlines. The book is filled with many of Hurson's original brainstorming tools that will empower you to generate, organize, and process ideas. For example, you can identify your best ideas using the five C's: Cull, Cluster, Combine, Clarify and Choose. And you can transform an embryonic idea into a robust solution with POWER, which stands for Positives, Objections, What else?, Enhancements and Remedies. To create the future, you first must be able to imagine it. Productive thinking is a way to help you do that."

Tim Hurson (Author), Christopher Prince (Narrator)

Audiobook

What Great Salespeople Do: The Science of Selling Through Emotional Connection and the Power of Stor

"Build better relationships and Sell More Effectively With a Powerful SALES STORY “Throughout our careers, we have been trained to ask diagnostic questions, deliver value props, and conduct ROI studies. It usually doesn’t work; best case, we can argue with the customer about numbers-purely a left brain exercise, which turns buyers off. This book explains a better way.” -John Burke, Group Vice President, Oracle Corporation “Forget music, a great story has charm to soothe the savage beast and win over the most challenging customer. And one of the best guides in crafting it, feeling it, and telling it is What Great Salespeople Do. A must-read for anyone seeking to influence another human being.” -Mark Goulston, M.D., author of the #1 international bestseller Just Listen: Discover the Secret to Getting Through to Absolutely Anyone “Good salespeople tell stories that inform prospects; great salespeople tell stories that persuade prospects. This book reveals what salespeople need to do to become persuasive story sellers.” -Gerhard Gschwandtner, publisher of Selling Power “This book breaks the paradigm. It really works miracles!” -David R. Hibbard, President, Dialexis Inc™ “What Great Salespeople Do humanizes the sales process.” -Kevin Popovic, founder, Ideahaus® “Mike and Ben have translated what therapists have known for years into a business solution-utilizing and developing one’s Emotional Intelligence to engage and lessen the defenses of others. What Great Salespeople Do is a step-by-step manual on how to use compelling storytelling to masterfully engage others and make their organizations great.” -Christine Miles, M.S., Psychological Services, Executive Coach, Miles Consulting LLC About the Book: This groundbreaking book offers extraordinary insight into the greatest mystery in sales: how the very best salespeople consistently and successfully influence change in others, inspiring their customers to say yes. Top-performing salespeople have always had a knack for forging connections and building relationships with buyers. Until now, this has been considered an innate talent. What Great Salespeople Do challenges some of the most widely accepted paradigms in selling in order to prove that influencing change in buyers is a skill that anyone can learn. The creator of Solution Selling and CustomerCentric Selling, Michael Bosworth, along with veteran sales executive Ben Zoldan, synthesize discoveries in neuroscience, psychology, sociology, anthropology, and other disciplines, combining it all into a field-tested framework-helping you break down barriers, build trust, forge meaningful relationships, and win more customers. This book teaches you how to: - Relax a buyer’s skepticism while activating the part of his or her brain where trust is formed and connections are forged - Use the power of story to influence buyers to change - Make your ideas, beliefs, and experiences “storiable” using a proven story structure - Build a personal inventory of stories to use throughout your sales cycle - Tell your stories with authenticity and real passion - Use empathic listening to get others to reveal themselves - Incorporate storytelling and empathic listening to achieve collaborative conversations with buyers Breakthroughs in neuroscience have determined that people don’t make decisions solely on the basis of logic; in fact, emotions play the dominant role in most decision-making processes. What Great Salespeople Do gives you the tools and techniques to influence change and win more sales."

Ben Zoldan, Michael T. Bosworth (Author), Ben Zoldan (Narrator)

Audiobook

Building a Magnetic Culture: How to Attract and Retain Top Talent to Create an Engaged, Productive W

"Attract top talent and energize your workforce with a MAGNETIC CULTURE “Sheridan outlines simple but powerful steps to take in creating and maintaining an organization that fosters an environment with similar attraction.” -Marshall Goldsmith, Ph.D., international bestselling author of MOJO and What Got You Here Won’t Get You There “A compelling case for and guide to the creation of a high engagement/high performance workforce.” -Douglas R. Conant, retired president and CEO, Campbell Soup Company; New York Times bestselling author of TouchPoints “It’s impossible for any company to have a monopoly on talent. But it is possible to have the best culture. Sheridan shares insights and best practices for creating an engaging culture where associates can grow and thrive.” -Frits van Paassche n, president and CEO, Starwood Hotels & Resorts Worldwide, Inc. “A long time ago I discovered that when employees are passionate about their work, customers are passionate about the company. Kevin Sheridan knows that secret too. His insights on finding the right people and getting them engaged can change your culture forever.” -Quint Studer, founder of Studer Group, 2010 Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award recipient “This book is filled with practical ideas, illuminating case stories, and fresh perspectives to stir employee engagement in any organization.” -Pamela Meyer, Ph.D., author of From Workplace to Playspace: Innovating, Learning and Changing through Dynamic Engagement About the Book: The perils of a disengaged workforce are well known-low productivity, high employee turnover, and failure to meet organization-wide goals. Less well known is what to do about it. How do you create a workforce that is always ready, able, and eager to take the organization to the next level? You have to create a MAGNETIC CULTURE. As CEO of leading employee survey and HR consulting firm HR Solutions, Inc., Kevin Sheridan knows how it’s done-and in Building a Magnetic Culture, he shares all his secrets. Building a Magnetic Culture explains what engages and motivates employees and how to create an environment in which employees can thrive. Drawing on years of research and real-world examples from his consulting experience, Sheridan gives you the strategies and tactics you need to transform your company by creating and sustaining a Magnetic Culture. Providing benchmarking and best practices, as well as interviews with executives and HR professionals at companies that boast the highest levels of employee engagement, Sheridan outlines an easy-to-follow plan that: - Attracts the most talented people-and retains them - Makes employees feel they are part of the value that their organization creates - Increases Employee Engagement and drives productivity - Boosts creativity and problem solving According to HR Solutions’ own employee survey results, actively engaged employees show four times more satisfaction in their work and are four times less likely to leave than disengaged employees are. Is there a reason not to make building a Magnetic Culture your top priority? Simply put, organizations that place a high value on actively cultivating a culture of engagement stand apart from their competition and enjoy superior business results."

Kevin Sheridan (Author), Michael Anthony (Narrator)

Audiobook

The Greater Goal: Connecting Purpose and Performance

Heather Hyde, Ken Jennings (Author), Keith Campbell (Narrator)

Audiobook

Grow: How Ideals Power Growth and Profit at the World's Greatest Companies

"Ten years of research uncover the secret source of growth and profit … Those who center their business on improving people's lives have a growth rate triple that of competitors and outperform the market by a huge margin. They dominate their categories, create new categories and maximize profit in the long term. Pulling from a unique ten year growth study involving 50,000 brands, Jim Stengel shows how the world's 50 best businesses-as diverse as Method, Red Bull, Lindt, Petrobras, Samsung, Discovery Communications, Visa, Zappos, and Innocent-have a cause and effect relationship between financial performance and their ability to connect with fundamental human emotions, hopes, values and greater purposes. In fact, over the 2000s an investment in these companies-"The Stengel 50"-would have been 400 percent more profitable than an investment in the S&P 500. Grow is based on unprecedented empirical research, inspired (when Stengel was Global Marketing Officer of Procter & Gamble) by a study of companies growing faster than P&G. After leaving P&G in 2008, Stengel designed a new study, in collaboration with global research firm Millward Brown Optimor. This study tracked the connection over a ten year period between financial performance and customer engagement, loyalty and advocacy. Then, in a further investigation of what goes on in the "black box" of the consumer's mind, Stengel and his team tapped into neuroscience research to look at customer engagement and measure subconscious attitudes to determine whether the top businesses in the Stengel Study were more associated with higher ideals than were others. Grow thus deftly blends timeless truths about human behavior and values into an action framework - how you discover, build, communicate, deliver and evaluate your ideal. Through colorful stories drawn from his fascinating personal experiences and "deep dives" that bring out the true reasons for such successes as the Pampers, HP, Discovery Channel, Jack Daniels and Zappos, Grow unlocks the code for twenty-first century business success."

Jim Stengel (Author), Marc Cashman (Narrator)

Audiobook

Three Leadership Secrets Revealed: 3-Success Methods to Motivate People to Action

"Would you like to apply the secrets that top motivational leaders, from Zig Ziglar to Tony Robbins, and from Oprah Winfrey all the way to Mother Teresa, have successfully applied in their lives? Imagine being able to motivate people regardless of age, status, personality or even skillset? Would you like to discover and implement these secrets in your life beginning today? Then this is the program for you! As you come on this journey with Dawn Jones and explore these three secrets, you will see your power, influence, and ability to motivate people to action begin to increase starting right now! Internationally acclaimed speaker and author Dawn Jones presents Three Leadership Secrets Revealed!: 3-Success Methods to Motivate People to Action 1. Learn how top leaders clearly communicate every time! 2. Discover how to motivate even the most stubborn people! 3. Obtain this secret to ensure your meaning is never misinterpreted! 4. Pinpoint how to improve your quality of life and relationships. 5. Take control of the power difficult people have in your life. 6. Acquire the skills to motivate people towards your goals. 7. Recognize how inspiring people inspire those around them. You will learn the secrets of motivating people to action. Discover how to put your personality to work for you, and one of these secrets will even show you how to eliminate one of the biggest time wasters in your life! All while helping you clearly communicate your message consistently-so that other people "get" what you're saying and move towards your goals and objectives while reaching theirs!"

Dawn Jones (Author), Dawn Jones (Narrator)

Audiobook

Do More Faster: TechStars Lessons to Accelerate Your Startup

"It is a cold, hard fact of business life that most startups fail. Even many of those entrepreneurs who ultimately succeed have stories of personal challenges, unsuccessful companies, and difficulties along the way. The founders of TechStars, a mentorship-driven startup accelerator, have worked with entrepreneurs and companies over the past twenty-five years, and have seen a number of the same issues come up again and again. In Do More Faster, the founders of TechStars identify the key issues that first-time entrepreneurs encounter, and offer proven advice from successful entrepreneurs who have worked with the TechStars program. The authors organize the most critical issues into seven themes: Idea and Vision, People, Execution, Product, Fundraising, Legal and Structure, and Work and Life Balance. Many of the examples are personal experiences from the entrepreneurs themselves, integrated into a cohesive narrative—while at the same time able to stand on their own. Throughout the book, they debunk numerous myths about startups and reveal some surprising truths. They explain, for instance, that the core of a startup is not always a world-changing and earth-shattering idea—in fact, it is often the case that successful startups started out doing something else. They also underscore the efficiency of execution: great entrepreneurs know how to synthesize data, make a decision about the path they are going down, and execute. And they offer some alternatives to traditional ways of raising money, while stressing that you shouldn't start with the assumption that you need to raise money. Mastering the seven themes may not ensure success, but understanding the issues, reading the stories, and getting advice pertaining to these issues will increase your chances dramatically. And if nothing else, you'll realize that you aren't alone in facing these challenges."

Brad Feld, David Cohen (Author), Sean Pratt (Narrator)

Audiobook

The End of Growth: Adapting to Our New Economic Reality

"Economists insist that recovery is at hand, yet unemployment remains high, real estate values continue to sink, and governments stagger under record deficits. The End of Growth proposes a startling diagnosis: humanity has reached a fundamental turning point in its economic history. The expansionary trajectory of industrial civilization is colliding with non-negotiable natural limits. Richard Heinberg's latest landmark work goes to the heart of the ongoing financial crisis, explaining how and why it occurred, and what we must do to avert the worst potential outcomes. Written in an engaging, highly readable style, it shows why growth is being blocked by three factors: - Resource depletion - Environmental impacts - Crushing levels of debt These converging limits will force us to re-evaluate cherished economic theories and to reinvent money and commerce. The End of Growth describes what policy makers, communities, and families can do to build a new economy that operates within Earth's budget of energy and resources. We can thrive during the transition if we set goals that promote human and environmental well-being, rather than continuing to pursue the now-unattainable prize of ever-expanding GDP."

Richard Heinberg (Author), Paul Boehmer (Narrator)

Audiobook