Koncocoo

Best Business Research & Development

Competing Against Luck: The Story of Innovation and Customer Choice
After years of research, Christensen and his co-authors have come to one critical conclusion: our long held maxim--that understanding the customer is the crux of innovation--is wrong. The "Jobs to Be Done" approach can be seen in some of the world's most respected companies and fast-growing startups, including Amazon, Intuit, Uber, Airbnb, and Chobani yogurt, to name just a few. Christensen, Hall, Dillon, and Duncan contend that by understanding what causes customers to "hire" a product or service, any business can improve its innovation track record, creating products that customers not only want to hire, but that they'll pay premium prices to bring into their lives. Jobs Theory has had --and will continue to have ---a profound influence on Intuit’s approach to innovation. It just might change yours, too. Clay Christensen and his co-authors have presented critical business thinkers and doers with a breakthrough theory that will change how leaders approach innovation by reverse engineering from a high value and focused customer job to be done. True to its unpretentious name, jobs theory is disarmingly simple… “What job is our customer trying to accomplish?” stands as one of those great business questions that companies deploy to stimulate creative juices at the start of meetings. The Theory of Jobs to Be Done has the essential trait of any good management theory: Once explained, it seems glaringly obvious.
Reviews
"Mr. Christensen did is usual excellent job with this book."
"Using experience gained from the numerous companies they have worked with over the years, the authors clearly show how the successful companies like Amazon, Intuit, The Mayo Clinic and others continue to stay focused on their North Star."
"Another master piece from Clayton!!"
"Great book, focuses totally on the "task" a customer is trying to resolve."
"Good idea of what job to be done."
"Christensen has been using “jobs theory” for 20 years, and I enjoyed reading his stories of how he applied it to different products like computer chips, medical clinics, colleges, and milk shakes."
"Very well framed explanation of JTB theory."
"This book and its underlying theory is professional scripture."
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Value Proposition Design: How to Create Products and Services Customers Want (Strategyzer)
Using the same stunning visual format as the authors’ global bestseller, Business Model Generation, this sequel explains how to use the “Value Proposition Canvas” to design, test, create, and manage products and services customers actually want. Value Proposition Design is an essential companion to the ”Business Model Canvas” from Business Model Generation, a tool embraced globally by startups and large corporations such as MasterCard, 3M, Coca Cola, GE, Fujitsu, LEGO, Colgate-Palmolive, and many more. The team behind “Value Proposition Design” is the same as for the global bestseller, Business Model Generation, composed of Dr. Alexander Osterwalder, Dr. Yves Pigneur, Alan Smith, and completed by Greg Bernarda,, and Trish Papadakos. Dr. Alexander Osterwalder and Alan Smith are co-founders of Strategyzer.com, a company specializing in tools to design, test, and manage strategies, business models and value propositions. Dr. Yves Pigneur is a professor of management and information systems at the University of Lausanne, Greg Bernarda is a consultant and certified Strategyzer coach specialized in strategy and innovation, Trish Papadakos is a renowned designer and photographer. Dr. Osterwalder invented the “Business Model Canvas,” the strategic management tool to design, test, build, and manage business models, which is used by companies like Coca Cola, GE, P&G, Mastercard, Ericsson, LEGO, or 3M. He helped create the Value Proposition Canvas with Alex Osterwalder and Yves Pigneur, and the breakthrough design for Business Model Generation.
Reviews
"Many people will in the future attribute success to canvas-thinking or blue ocean-thinking, which will create a hoard of followers. The book's format is encouraging a tendency to make things easy and simple. Check out The Innovator's Hypothesis: How Cheap Experiments Are Worth More than Good Ideas which is a deeper description of prototyping. The tools give a strong sense of security, when I would prefer people to be more humble and paranoid. Great idea, but we only get four pages devoted to the topic and 70% of that space is covered with very cute graphics. (I have exactly the same critique on this book 101 Design Methods: A Structured Approach for Driving Innovation in Your Organization.). A lot of start-up technology companies have prototypes that are not well matched to the customers' requirements (and that goes for big firms like 3M too). Any high level executive that falls for the cute graphics in the book should be immediately fired."
"This book can help in multiple ways such as: presenting the value of your product to your customers, creating shared understanding of your product and it features, showing the benefits and value for meeting or exceeding the customers expectations, and more."
"To me the measure of a great business book is that as you read it you feel a mounting sense of excitement about an idea you read, and how it will be immediately applicable to your situation; this book has that - a lot."
"Great book for any practitioner for working hands-on about new business ideas within current and new ventures."
"Great information in this book."
"Wonderful execution of mechanistic analysis."
"A very good book, very useful for learning and evaluate a business."
"Great book."
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The Inevitable: Understanding the 12 Technological Forces That Will Shape Our Future
“A quintessential work of technological futurism.” – James Surowiecki, strategy + business , “Best Business Books 2017 – Innovation” From one of our leading technology thinkers and writers, a guide through the twelve technological imperatives that will shape the next thirty years and transform our lives. In this book, you're swept along by his clear prose and unassailable arguments until it finally hits you: The technological, cultural, and societal changes he’s foreseeing really are inevitable. Kevin Kelly argues that the sequence of events ensuing from technical innovation has its own momentum . Whether you find this prospect wonderful or terrifying, you will want to read this extremely thought-provoking book.” — Brian Eno, musician and composer. —. Ernest Cline, author of Ready Player One "As exhilarating as the most outlandish science fiction novel, but based on very real trends. "Creating a fictional future is easy; Kevin Kelly makes a habit of doing the difficult by showing us where we're actually going.
Reviews
"I loved this book."
"Excellent treatise with some scary projections that make a real 1984 more possible."
"For example, access is becoming more important than ownership of things like music, writing and video."
"Great book with great insights."
"Fascinating, well written, big picture stuff."
"The most awesome book I have read in some time."
"Fantastic Book."
"The authors involvement in the digital revolution has uniquely prepared him to prognosticate about the directions of the future."
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Best Lean Management

The Lean Product Playbook: How to Innovate with Minimum Viable Products and Rapid Customer Feedback
The missing manual on how to apply Lean Startup to build products that customers love The Lean Product Playbook is a practical guide to building products that customers love. This book was written by entrepreneur and Lean product expert Dan Olsen whose experience spans product management, UX design, coding, analytics, and marketing across a variety of products. Entrepreneurs, executives, product managers, designers, developers, marketers, analysts and anyone who is passionate about building great products will find The Lean Product Playbook an indispensable, hands-on resource. Determine your target customers Identify underserved customer needs Create a winning product strategy Define your minimum viable product (MVP) Design your MVP prototype Test your MVP with customers Iterate rapidly to achieve product-market fit. It also describes how to build your product using Agile development and how to use analytics to optimize your product and business.
Reviews
"Dan Olsen brings a great combination of theory and practical experience to the problem of product management. He's not trying to claim credit for making up a whole new theory; he supplies plenty of concepts of his own, but he's happy to include solid methodologies from other practitioners. The book would be a useful perspective for, say, CPG product managers, but its primary focus is certainly on software."
"Dan's approach utilizes a tactical / how to / real world focus that serves as a great "starter guide" to actually executing a product idea."
"READ this book if you want to learn or increase the required knowledge, skills, and experience of a great product manager."
"Dan's experience and his simple/clear outline have created a must read approach for any high-tech industry leader who wants to understand or lead Product Management practices in their organization."
"Being a Product Manager (non-technical) in a non tech domain (Insurance), I have found the book useful in relating my experiences to a more techie space."
"This is a well-organized and insightful read about the process behind creating lean products as well as how to apply the process."
"Great read for anybody working in Product Management."
"To book brings a lot of insights and real life examples which make it a real "playbook" that you can use with your own products or projects."
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Best Business Operations Research

The Goal: A Process of Ongoing Improvement
Written in a fast-paced thriller style, The Goal, a gripping novel, is transforming management thinking throughout the world. He has ninety days to save his plant - or it will be closed by corporate HQ, with hundreds of job losses. It takes a chance meeting with a professor from student days - Jonah - to help him break out of conventional ways of thinking to see what needs to be done. It contains a serious message for all managers in industry and explains the ideas, which underline the Theory of Constraints (TOC), developed by Eli Goldratt. One of Eli Goldratt s convictions was that the goal of an individual or an organization should not be defined in absolute terms. "A survey of the reading habits of managers found that though they buy books by the likes of Tom Peters for display purposes, the one management book they have actually read from cover to cover is The Goal."
Reviews
"As many other reviewers observed, the story has literal value as a conduit for learning how to identify process problems and resolve them by illustrating successful examples of HOW to question status quo plus successful examples of HOW to implement change through creating a collaborative or collective-ownership working environment that questions status quo as a matter of course."
"If you are employed in a business area, or interested in learning more about how to streamline company processes, this book is a great read."
"I have worked in oil and gas and manufacturing as an engineer and now manager for 20 years and I am finding this book is providing me insights on problems I am facing today."
"Between the fall of 2005 and the summer of 2011, I pursued a Master of Business Administration and Master of Systems Engineering back to back while working during the day."
"Anyone who is in their own business or has a management position in any size company should read this timeless classic."
"I had a really hard time finishing 11 CDs, I can not imagine what the book is like. From there, its hard to say which Chapters are the most valuable because he (Alex) does go back and forth about "The Goal" and the story of the book."
"TOC is a very beneficial way of finding constraints in your organization and work on a path of constant improvement .After listening to the successful implementation of TOC''s implementations in verious fields like hospitals , Automobiles etc I am convinced it can be the best tool for a manager and will be happy to be a part of its implementation or be the implamenter one day."
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Best Business Facility Management

Smart Baseball: The Story Behind the Old Stats That Are Ruining the Game, the New Ones That Are Running It, and the Right Way to Think About Baseball
Predictably Irrational meets Moneyball in ESPN veteran writer and statistical analyst Keith Law’s iconoclastic look at the numbers game of baseball, proving why some of the most trusted stats are surprisingly wrong, explaining what numbers actually work, and exploring what the rise of Big Data means for the future of the sport. “Law provides necessary insight into how front offices have come to evaluate talent... Smart Baseball is an essential and accessible primer on how data and analytics shape America’s Pastime, and where it’s headed. Smart Baseball gives us a preview of the future as Keith introduces the stats that really matter in a way that all fans will enjoy.” (--Molly Knight, author of New York Times Bestseller The Best Team Money Can Buy). “There is still, probably, someone in your life who thinks that “grit,” “intensity,” and “hustle” are more important than “on-base percentage” and “WHIP.” Give that person this book, and end the argument forever.” (--Mike Schur, co-creator of Parks & Recreation, Brooklyn Nine-Nine, and The Good Place). “In mercifully plain English, Law explains how the new statistical tools can answer questions that previously baffled baseball experts.
Reviews
"Part Three taps into Mr. Law's ideas about where baseball is headed with scouting & data, with front-office insights from baseball business people."
"I'm only a casual baseball fan, but I found this book fascinating."
"It's neat to read about the machinery of the new-age of baseball."
"Whether you get this book and read it for the enjoyment of a few hours of non-traditional baseball thought, or you get this book and read it in search of the baseball Grand Unified Theory, by all means get this book and read it."
"It was my hope to have a bit more detail ... give me more examples of the most egregious uses of statistics and why certain HOF snubs should be in, etc."
"Incredibly well written and exceptional flow to the narrative makes for an easy read."
"Definitely worth reading for any real baseball fan."
"How Hall of Fame voting by sports writers have got it wrong on numerous occasions."
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Best Business Purchasing & Buying

Let's Get Real or Let's Not Play: Transforming the Buyer/Seller Relationship
Customers are afraid that they will be talked into making a mistake; salespeople dread being unable to close the deal and make their quotas. · Start new business from scratch in a way both salespeople and clients can feel good about. · Ask hard questions in a soft way. · Close the deal by opening mindsClose the deal by opening minds. Mahan is a highly sought-after speaker, author, and business consultant who has helped clients earn billions of dollars in sales. Randy Illig is a senior consultant at the FranklinCovey Sales Performance Group (SPG).
Reviews
"I wish I found this book much sooner in my career, and I've asked my entire team to read it (as the concepts are important for anyone dealing with clients)."
"This book was alright."
"My favorite sales how-to book of all time."
"Empecé la aplicación de estas técnicas y principios y resultados en las relaciones con mis clientes y las ventas mejoraron casi al instante."
"Having the right intent, a call for a higher moral and ethical framework. 2."
"Amazing book."
"This book was required reading for a 2-day training class by Franklin Covey for Sales People at my company."
"I know this is supposed to be one of the holy bibles of selling consulting, but OMG, the writing style is abysmal and a snoozer to read."
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Best Business Structural Adjustment

The Goal: A Process of Ongoing Improvement
Eliyahu M. Goldratt is an internationally recognized leader in the development of new business management concepts and systems, and acts as an educator to many of the world's corporations. The 20th anniversary edition includes a series of detailed case study interviews by David Whitford, Editor at Large, Fortune Small Business, which explore how organizations around the world have been transformed by Eli Goldratt's ideas.
Reviews
"In short, I think the novel does a fantastic job of introducing the down-sides of "Taylorist" management approaches, even in manufacturing, which is what Taylorism was developed for in the first place. You will not get that empathetic viewpoint from the nonfiction literature on the subject, so the inclusion is still a strength - it is just that the content has not aged all that well. The discussion of how traditional accounting rules and consequential financial controls can create a set of counterproductive incentives is telling, and presages by a couple of decades the work being done now in the Beyond Budgeting movement."
"If you are employed in a business area, or interested in learning more about how to streamline company processes, this book is a great read."
"I have worked in oil and gas and manufacturing as an engineer and now manager for 20 years and I am finding this book is providing me insights on problems I am facing today."
"Between the fall of 2005 and the summer of 2011, I pursued a Master of Business Administration and Master of Systems Engineering back to back while working during the day."
"Goldratt describes many different types of problems involved in a production process that can occur in a manufacturing plant such as a failure to ship the product on time or deciding the correct throughput and capacity of the plant. Throughout “The Goal”, Goldratt guided me to simulate the sequence of problems through the mind of Alex Hugo and I was able to practice identifying and solving problems along with Alex which was a valuable experience."
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Best Business Infrastructure

Louis Vuitton: The Birth of Modern Luxury Updated Edition
When Louis Vuitton: The Birth of Modern Luxury was published in 2004, the book was the first to describe the dramatic rise of the world’s finest luxury company. He is the author of Abrams’ Louis Vuitton: 100 Legendary Trunks.
Reviews
"BOUGHT FOR MY DAUGHTER AS A GIFT SHE LOVED IT AND SAID IT WAS GOOD QUALITY."
"Nice to see how a classic company evolves , and always stays current. Good reference."
"a must for every louis vuitton fan!"
"The most comprehensive Louis Vuitton compendium I have come across - fabulous beyond words!"
"Beautiful presentation and informative."
"Disappointed that the Amazon version does not include the slip case as sold with the book at Louis Vuitton."
"Love this book, amazing reading and photos- dont miss out !!"
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Best Business & Organizational Learning

Creativity, Inc.: Overcoming the Unseen Forces That Stand in the Way of True Inspiration
From one of the co-founders of Pixar Animation Studios—the Academy Award–winning studio behind Coco, Inside Out, and Toy Story —comes an incisive book about creativity in business and leadership for readers of Daniel Pink, Tom Peters, and Chip and Dan Heath. NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER | NAMED ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR BY The Huffington Post • Financial Times • Success • Inc. • Library Journal “[ Creativity, Inc. ]. just might be the most thoughtful management book ever.”— Fast Company Creativity, Inc. is a book for managers who want to lead their employees to new heights, a manual for anyone who strives for originality, and the first-ever, all-access trip into the nerve center of Pixar Animation—into the meetings, postmortems, and “Braintrust” sessions where some of the most successful films in history are made. It is, at heart, a book about how to build a creative culture—but it is also, as Pixar co-founder and president Ed Catmull writes, “an expression of the ideas that I believe make the best in us possible.”. Praise for Creativity, Inc. “Over more than thirty years, Ed Catmull has developed methods to root out and destroy the barriers to creativity, to marry creativity to the pursuit of excellence, and, most impressive, to sustain a culture of disciplined creativity during setbacks and success.” —Jim Collins, co-author of Built to Last and author of Good to Great “Too often, we seek to keep the status quo working. Any reader of Creativity, Inc., Catmull’s new book on the art of running creative companies, will have to agree. Catmull, president of both Pixar and Walt Disney Animation, has written what just might be the most thoughtful management book ever.” — Fast Company “It’s one thing to be creative; it’s entirely another—and much more rare—to build a great and creative culture. Over more than thirty years, Ed Catmull has developed methods to root out and destroy the barriers to creativity, to marry creativity to the pursuit of excellence, and, most impressive, to sustain a culture of disciplined creativity during setbacks and success. Catmull’s book is quickly becoming the latest bible for the show business crowd.” —The New York Times “The most practical and deep book ever written by a practitioner on the topic of innovation.” —Prof. [Catmull] uses Pixar’s triumphs and near-disasters to outline a system for managing people in creative businesses—one in which candid criticism is delivered sensitively, while individuality and autonomy are not strangled by a robotic corporate culture.” — Financial Times “A wonderful new book . An immensely readable and rewarding book that will challenge and inspire readers to make their workplaces hotbeds of creativity.” — Kirkus Reviews (starred review) “Punctuated with surprising tales of how the company’s films were developed and the company’s financial struggles, Catmull shares insights about harnessing talent, creating teams, protecting the creative process, candid communications, organizational structures, alignment, and the importance of storytelling. [ Creativity, Inc. ] will delight and inspire creative individuals and their managers, as well as anyone who wants to work ‘in an environment that fosters creativity and problem solving.’” — Publishers Weekly (starred review) “For anyone managing anything, and particularly those trying to manage creative teams, Catmull is like a kind, smart godfather guiding us toward managing wisely, without losing our souls, and in a way that works toward greatness. What Ed Catmull shares instead is his astute experience that creativity isn’t strictly a well of ideas, but an alchemy of people. In Creativity, Inc. Ed reveals, with commonsense specificity and honesty, examples of how not to get in your own way and how to realize a creative coalescence of art, business, and innovation.” —George Lucas “This is the best book ever written on what it takes to build a creative organization.
Reviews
"Managers, as well as anyone who wants to better understand how companies work and what elements are necessary to make and keep them successful, will appreciate Catmull’s insight on leadership, nurturing creative environment, and protecting it from invisible threats. After reading the book, I constantly find myself quoting the concepts and examples described there when talking to my husband or friends about their jobs or my own and discussing what works, what doesn’t, and why."
"Ed shared several amusing experiences creating these magnificent movies to illustrate management concepts."
"Mr. Catmull presents an impressive analysis of how corporate culture can negatively impact creativity, even when corporate leaders proclaim their support for creativity and truly believe they are doing everything they can to foster and support it."
"Whether you're just a Pixar fan, or you're looking for ways to improve your company, you can't go wrong with this book."
"It tells of how the company was formed and the various challenges and changes along the way as well as how the people in charge are constantly attempting to maintain Pixar as a separate entity from Disney after being purchased by the latter while fixing Disney's animation studios and making Disney a world class entity itself."
"The book is definitely about creativity and the creative process, but it's equally about business and management."
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Best Green Business

Cool Tools: A Catalog of Possibilities
Cool Tools is a highly curated selection of the best tools available for individuals and small groups. It's a habit he learned while editing and publishing the Whole Earth Catalog , the bible of counterculture do-it-yourselfers who wanted in 'tools and ideas for the 21st century.'". "Stewart Brand said that Cool Tools had captured the spirit of the Whole Earth Catalog but without taking on a counterculture and back-to-the-land philosophy. "Jeff Bezos is a fan of e-mail newsletters such as Cool Tools , a compendium of technology tips and product reviews written by Kevin Kelly, a co-founder of Wired ."
Reviews
"So in addition to hand jacks that can raise 7000 lbs., the Teeny Turner (a pocket sized driver), portable band saws, and laser measuring tools, you can find the best source on how to buy a car cheaply, make a low-budget movies, brew your own beer, rear an optimistic child, design a logo, win a fight, soak in feral (!). hot springs, learn to swim efficiently, prepare for a natural disaster, vagabond the world, do something dangerous (and live to tell about it), run for local office and win, go solar on your roof, or (a great boon to Boomers) remember anything."
"When I first opened the original Whole Earth Catalog, I found myself standing in a clearing, looking at the partially built geodesic dome I was going to live in the rest of my life."
"This carries me back to my childhood pouring over electronics magazines or the Aircraft Spruce and Specialty catalog imagining what I could do if I combined and use the right parts and tools."
"The categories are wide ranging, from cooking, crafts, learning, music, family, electronics and more. There's certain to be some area of immediate interest, but half the fun is the insight into the tools of the trade of some activity you may never have considered like beekeeping or world travel on a shoestring budget. (Disclosure--I received an early copy because a review I contributed years ago to the site was included in the book, but I'll be ordering more copies."
"I've learned about many 'cool tools' I've never heard about and I've bought several items based upon the recommendations in this book, " Veganomicon" "Glorious One- Pot Meals" "FitBit" and " Ultimate Fit or Fat"- and this is the part that makes this catalog so much fun to read and look at - You'll see many reviews on items you've never heard of before, such as, (for me) "Ideo Method cards" , used for brainstorming or "Making Books that Fly, Fold, Wrap, Hide, Pop up, Twist and Turn" or find reviews for an item you would like to purchase, but haven't had the time to do the research to find out which one is the best."
"I've was considering getting this book as a gift for my father as he and I both love this kind of stuff, but he's not the type of person to check out a website regularly."
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Best Strategic Business Planning

Good to Great: Why Some Companies Make the Leap and Others Don't
How can good companies, mediocre companies, even bad companies achieve enduring greatness? The Standards: Using tough benchmarks, Collins and his research team identified a set of elite companies that made the leap to great results and sustained those results for at least fifteen years. The Comparisons: The research team contrasted the good-to-great companies with a carefully selected set of comparison companies that failed to make the leap from good to great. Why did one set of companies become truly great performers while the other set remained only good? At the heart of the findings about these companies' stellar successes is what Collins calls the Hedgehog Concept, a product or service that leads a company to outshine all worldwide competitors, that drives a company's economic engine and that a company is passionate about.
Reviews
"Finally, a book from Jim Collins on Good to Great for Social Sectors which should be read by everybody working in social enterprises and organization, who are not operating as businesses and companies in their field, but who want to contribute their very best in the interest of people's rights and wellbeing around the world."
"Yet the proof is in the results that these level 5 leaders have achieved, for example Fannie Mae's CEO David Maxwell who exemplified these qualities and grew the company 3.8 times the general stock market."
"Good to Great is a marvelous description of what makes companies elevate themselves in the minds of their customers and their other constituencies."
"An interesting read, but I'm not sure his conclusions are sound--info is fairly anecdotal and correlational, not causal."
"Practical - because the Great companies' analysis indicates duplicateable concepts and steps which are universal in any field by aspiring Level 5 leaders. Encouraging - Some of the toughest decisions made by Level 5 leaders are being made by leaders aspiring to attain the Level 5 mentality."
"The book is based on a huge amount of research and has great examples to underpin their conclusions."
"If you work in government, non-profit or higher education, I recommend the companion monograph for the Social Sectors, which helps apply these business-focused concepts in a more meaningful way."
"Just a great, thorough book."
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Best Office Automation Business

Social Media: Strategies To Mastering Your Brand- Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and Snapchat (Social Media, Social Media Marketing)
You will discover everything you need to know about social media marketing This expanded 3rd edition has Outstanding New Content to make building your online presence even more powerful than before! Doubling Your Instagram Followers Understanding Facebook Ad marketing Top Strategies For Growth Monetizing Your Social Media.
Reviews
"As someone who has used social media to support multilple activities this book is just so helpful. There are so many social media formats out there now and this book helps break them down and what their application for different use would be."
"If you really are completely new to social media or struggling to keep up it’s a quick read that will tell you the strategies of each of the major social media sites and a step by step how to set up each."
"Many social media platforms are explained and each section has a few suggestions on utilizing it efficiently."
"I have a facebook page and even a website but short of paying all the time to boost my posts, I was wondering what I could do to advertise and get more people interested in my brand."
"He tells how to recognize your brand, your key audience- customers, and even points out a few social media sites I hadn't heard of before and was interested in checking out."
"Social Media: Strategies to Mastering Your Brand is a useful guide to teaching businesses how to use social media as resort for marketing their business."
"The information is fit for those who just want to understand the different social media platforms and establish a presence, as well as, those who want to invest more time, money and effort in order to maximize their results."
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Best Office Equipment & Supplies

Notary Public Journal Large Entries
#1 Best Seller, May 3, 2017. Large sized (8 X 10) and value priced! In addition to other works, Angelo Tropea is the author of "Pass the New York Notary Public Exam Second Edition" and its companion book, "Pass the New York Notary Exam Questions and Answers."
Reviews
"Great book for my job which entails me swearing in witnesses."
"Just got my Notary License and the book is greatly detailed."
"Large and with enough space to write."
"Soft back but very resourceful!"
"Perfect size and details."
"Nice large print and easy to use."
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Best Office Management

The 4-Hour Work Week: Escape the 9-5, Live Anywhere and Join the New Rich
This new updated and expanded edition includes: More than 50 practical tips and case studies from readers (including families) who have doubled their income, overcome common sticking points, and reinvented themselves using the original book as a starting point * Real-world templates you can copy for eliminating email, negotiating with bosses and clients, or getting a private chef for less than GBP5 a meal * How lifestyle design principles can be suited to unpredictable economic times * The latest tools and tricks, as well as high-tech shortcuts, for living like a diplomat or millionaire without being either. His podcast, The Tim Ferriss Show, was one of iTunes's "Best of 2015," typically among the top 30 out of more than 300,000 podcasts.
Reviews
"Don't get me wrong, Ferriss makes some excellent points and he's got some really great tips and tricks in here, I'm just not sure how universal they really are. I thought he was just talking about ways to spend less time working, but that "The 4-Hour" just sounded good (since he now has a whole line of books with titles that start that way). I never did understand the point of retirement, so Ferriss's plan sounds much more appealing to me. Granted, that would make my job a whole lot more portable, but I could never get away with only working four hours per week (at least not until after I sell that bestselling novel, which is such a realistic plan!). I, too, thought I could get another job within a few months, but that did not turn out to be the case. So, if I go spend all my money on a mini-retirement now, and then come back only to find that I can't get a job for another year, I'll be screwed. I love them, but they have enough to deal with right now, and the last thing I want to do is burden the people around me because I decided to go globe-trotting for a few months."
"I was a fan of Tim Ferris before I read this book so my opinion may be a little biased."
"Got me thinking in ways that I wasn't thinking before."
"It's opened my mind to what's possible, and has actionable items to make things happen."
"I've known about this book since its release but have delayed reading for fear of "drinking the Koolaid", falling prey to the wiles of wishful thinking, unintentionally joining a cult, etc."
"Tim ferris shares great ideas that anyone can grab ahold of."
"Seriously, he begins by admitting he first made his fortune selling (allegedly) nutritional supplements that cost almost nothing to make and weren't based on science, but were then hyped to the point the uninformed public was paying through the nose to get it. This gave him ideas on how to further hype his message to an even larger audience, without bothering to sell anything tangible. He then gives advice about "paraphrasing and combining points from several books," borrowing from the public domain, and/or compensating some other "expert." Apparently, not knowing a damn thing is a virtue he calls "Cultivating Selective Ignorance." If having an educated and well-informed populace is fundamental to having a flourishing democracy, this is how we'll end up with a plutocracy where the stupidest few prey on the desperate and stupid masses, while outsourcing all the jobs they might create. Outsource everything -- including your brain -- to a 3rd World Country: He hires virtual assistants in various 3rd World Countries, especially India, who are then given fabulous access to all of his personal information to the point they can pretend to be him and make all of his personal and business decisions. Hey, what could possibly go wrong by hiring complete strangers and giving them all information about you in order to think for you, do your work and run your errands? Just tell him you're too busy and further kill morale by then asking those other suckers - aka, co-workers - for a quick breakdown of what happened."
"Several chapters in, Ferriss recommends that you not be hesitant to walk out of a bad movie or to put down a book you are not enjoying - - so I did."
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Best Government Management

Basic Economics
In this fifth edition of Basic Economics , Thomas Sowell revises and updates his popular book on common sense economics, bringing the world into clearer focus through a basic understanding of the fundamental economic principles and how they explain our lives. Thomas Sowell is the Rose and Milton Friedman Senior Fellow at the Hoover Institution and has taught economics at Cornell, UCLA, and Amherst.
Reviews
"What sets Thomas Sowell apart from many economists and intellectuals is his ability to present complex ideas with both clarity and simplicity. As he himself once noted, "If academic writings were difficult because of the deep thoughts involved, that might be understandable, even if frustrating. Yet the book is of such breadth and depth that economist Dr. Walter Williams says "it provides an understanding of some economic phenomena that might prove elusive to a Ph.D. He also explains why, for similar reasons, rent control decreases the quality of apartment buildings, or why lowering the price of gas can cause a shortage. An insightful chapter, Sowell explains why some countries enjoy luxury while others suffer poverty, pointing to such commonly overlooked factors as geography and culture. Another addition is that this book ends with a section of questions covering important economic issues."
"I recommend this work to everyone who wishes to know the way sound economic policies should work, and how to go about making the proper changes."
"I got my bachelors degree in economics but this book is so clear I will remember the concepts presented here for much longer."
"The anecdotal teaching of economics is far and away the best for a beginner...a student or a citizen looking to become more educated in a field that is vastly misunderstood."
"Easy to read."
"This book should be mandatory reading before anyone can register to vote."
"this is a must read book."
"This book was far clearer than any economics class I had as an undergrad or in grad school."
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Best E-commerce Professional

Mastering Bitcoin: Programming the Open Blockchain
The second edition includes: A broad introduction to bitcoin--ideal for non-technical users, investors, and business executives An explanation of the technical foundations of bitcoin and cryptographic currencies for developers, engineers, and software and systems architects Details of the bitcoin decentralized network, peer-to-peer architecture, transaction lifecycle, and security principles New developments such as Segregated Witness, Payment Channels, and Lightning Network Improved explanations of keys, addresses and wallets User stories, analogies, examples, and code snippets illustrating key technical concepts. With experience ranging from hardware and electronics to high level business and financial systems technology consulting and years as CTO/CIO/CSO in many companies — he combines authority and deep knowledge with an ability to make complex subjects easy to understand. His expertise includes Bitcoin, crypto-currencies, Information Security, Cryptography, Cloud Computing, Data Centers, Linux, Open Source and robotics software development.
Reviews
"Deep complex book for programmers."
"This book really shows how a transaction works, how blockchain works, and why we need it--along with a history and and thorough introduction of bitcoin that could explain it to someone that knows nothing of distributed ledger technology."
"It explains how keys work—even down to the level of the elliptic curve math—the ins and outs of transactions, and the components of Script, Bitcoin’s language for securing unspent transaction outputs (UTXO)."
"Fantastic book if you want to learn what Bitcoin is and how it works."
"A MUST READ FOR EVERYONE AND EVERY GENERATION."
"Very completed and easy to comprehend."
"I would recommend this book to everyone, who wants to know how the bitcoin works in bit level."
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Best Organizational Change

The Goal: A Process of Ongoing Improvement
Written in a fast-paced thriller style, The Goal, a gripping novel, is transforming management thinking throughout the world. He has ninety days to save his plant - or it will be closed by corporate HQ, with hundreds of job losses. It takes a chance meeting with a professor from student days - Jonah - to help him break out of conventional ways of thinking to see what needs to be done. It contains a serious message for all managers in industry and explains the ideas, which underline the Theory of Constraints (TOC), developed by Eli Goldratt. One of Eli Goldratt s convictions was that the goal of an individual or an organization should not be defined in absolute terms. "A survey of the reading habits of managers found that though they buy books by the likes of Tom Peters for display purposes, the one management book they have actually read from cover to cover is The Goal."
Reviews
"As many other reviewers observed, the story has literal value as a conduit for learning how to identify process problems and resolve them by illustrating successful examples of HOW to question status quo plus successful examples of HOW to implement change through creating a collaborative or collective-ownership working environment that questions status quo as a matter of course."
"If you are employed in a business area, or interested in learning more about how to streamline company processes, this book is a great read."
"I have worked in oil and gas and manufacturing as an engineer and now manager for 20 years and I am finding this book is providing me insights on problems I am facing today."
"Between the fall of 2005 and the summer of 2011, I pursued a Master of Business Administration and Master of Systems Engineering back to back while working during the day."
"Anyone who is in their own business or has a management position in any size company should read this timeless classic."
"I had a really hard time finishing 11 CDs, I can not imagine what the book is like. From there, its hard to say which Chapters are the most valuable because he (Alex) does go back and forth about "The Goal" and the story of the book."
"TOC is a very beneficial way of finding constraints in your organization and work on a path of constant improvement .After listening to the successful implementation of TOC''s implementations in verious fields like hospitals , Automobiles etc I am convinced it can be the best tool for a manager and will be happy to be a part of its implementation or be the implamenter one day."
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