Many businesses around the world are suffering a crisis, and while experts agree, the economy will indeed rebound, managers are looking for tactics and strategies to help see them through these bad times and help them build momentum and position their companies for success when the economy does turn around. Agile Business for Fragile Times was conceived to help executives manage through a downturn, and, more importantly, prepare for the rebound. The book guides readers through the key strategic, financial, and operational steps they should take to ensure stability and growth. The first section of the book covers strategies to protect performance: - prioritizing customers, projects, and employees; - digitizing for more powerful and effective links to your customers, and - optimizing business opportunities and take a reality check on their current business model. Once your strategy is in place, the rest comes down to execution. Execution is the main skill required in a recession. Execution in a boom is very difficult: skilled staffs are hard to get, but in a recession, these resources become easier to claim. Now is the time for companies to seize and deploy talent in retaining ke

Are you currently helping organisations to navigate digital transformation and disruption? Are you leading your organisation towards a digital future, in an intensely competitive, uncertain market? Strive is a book written by an experienced business psychologist with over twenty years of experience, primarily for consultants, coaches, trainers and human resource management professionals. The book will also resonate with leaders in business who appreciate rigour, academic grounding and authenticity over hype. Dr Kiran Chitta reviews much of the existing literature on organisational and leadership agility. In addition he shares a profoundly personal perspective, anchored in his life and work. His case material is reflective and authentic. It will resonate with those who are looking for inspiration, honesty and actionable principles derived from real work. The book provides a compelling and usable model for agility which is explored in depth. Covering the most recent academic literature, the book points the way to the agile future of work in a digital era.

Get ready to discover the secrets of successful leaders. In his important new book Leading People the Black Belt Way: Conquering the Five Core Problems Facing Leaders Today, author Tim Warneka combines cutting-edge research in Emotional Intelligence with principles from the revolutionary non-violent martial art of Aikido in exciting new ways. This practical guide to today's leadership technology helps aspiring leaders attain even higher levels of success in their careers and lives. With a foreword by human potential expert Wendy Palmer, Leading People the Black Belt Way is a state-of-the-art blueprint that gives today's leader the confidence and skills they need to start living the principles of successful leadership.

The airline industry is in a state of radical restructuring as its markets and key stakeholders (customers, airline labour and management groups, governments, and the financial community) adjust to the new aviation realities. Airline executives can be forgiven for being overwhelmed by technology proliferation, zestful new paradigm airlines, September 2001, business cycles, Iraq, SARS, and animal diseases. The leadership challenge for all carriers is now to select and execute appropriate business models, thinking both 'inside' and 'outside' the 'box', to turn conventional wisdom upside down to achieve dramatic increases in productivity. Some legacy carriers still need to create an effective strategy for much larger cycles that encompass major discontinuities. Burdened by past decisions, they are forced to fight with one hand tied behind their back to 'convert volume to value', to survive and prosper. Some new airlines have been at the forefront of shaping change, developing a vision of the mass-market, assessing the customer value of their core processes, and using a 'back-to-basics' business approach. Both groups should take a sideways glance at what works in other industries and implement those insights into actions. Some examples featured in this book include: ” Wal-Mart's virtually real time inventory system; ” Target's business model based around a unique customer experience; ” Dell Computers' business model based around direct sales and mass customization; ” Unilever's organizational structure around value creation and value delivery departments; ” Shell International's development of scenarios of alternate futures; ” Harrah's Entertainment's use of information technology to recognize and reward valuable customers; ” The Warehouse's communication system with its suppliers to produce efficiency at both ends for the common benefit of the customer; ” Nissan's cross-functional teams; ” DoCoMo's management of human passion in customers; ” Nike's innovation resulting in 'industry-transforming' products; ” Toyota's 'Construction of Cost Competitiveness for the 21st Century'. Written by an experienced airline business strategist and international in scope, this wide-ranging book identifies challenges and problems, presents comprehensive analyses and suggests some solutions. Key features include: ” a comparison with 14 other business sectors (unique amongst aviation books); ” examples of airlines who have changed their business models; ” a detailed study of branding, including mistakes and critical success factors; ” how to manage risk by transforming supplier relationships; ” plausible scenarios for the future to prepare for major transformation; ” the emerging role of passenger management systems to identify, serve, and retain high value passengers. The author identifies the new realities and the obstacles to change, the need to revitalize product development and renew the customer experience. He deals with public policy and the need to revise supplier relationships, especially with aircraft maintenance providers, and looks at successes and failures in other industries. This is rounded off with a clarion call to governments, labour unions, airports, manufacturers, suppliers and above all airline management, to shake off the past, and to address the challenges and opportunities. His approach is to provide impartial analysis and pragmatic insights into vital enablers of change, potential business models, execution strategy, ways to make stakeholders more influential, wisdom from other businesses, and to present scenarios to make busy executives stop and think. The readership includes the broadest cross-section of practitioners in the global airline and related industries, as well as those affected by the industry and seeking a deeper understanding of it. This includes including airlines, government civil aviation departments, the aviation divisions of the financial community (investment banks and leasing companies), aircraft manufacturers and their suppliers, airports, information technology companies, as well as customers and other stakeholders.

How can business leaders and organization development professionals enable their companies to succeed in a digital age? Use the second edition of Agile Transformation to improve business performance. Packed full of practical advice, this new edition features updates on data-driven decision-making and the importance of putting it at the centre of mindset change and transformation to empower teams to make decisions. As well as updates to case studies, there is extended material on agile structures, including team alignment, developing agile culture and leadership. Agile Transformation covers all aspects of business transformation, including why new operating models are needed, how to apply agile principles at scale, leveraging digital-native processes and why change managers need to think big but start small. It also looks at how to build and engage high-performing teams for change, how to tackle employee mindsets that can hinder agile adoption and why developing an agile business is not a reason to fail to plan. Featuring case studies from organizations including Amazon, Netflix and Vodafone, this is crucial reading for businesses wanting to effectively compete in the new world of work.