Cracks are becoming visible in American work habits. Whole subpopulations now have weak attachments to self-supporting labor. This worsens poverty and economic mobility. It also damages well-being in subtler ways—because work plays a vital role in building social connections, and boosting self-respect and happiness. Any sensible effort to improve American prosperity today must begin by bolstering work. Alas, government agencies have a very checkered history when it comes to helping those who have struggled in the workforce develop the capacities to do better in the future. Statistically, most government job-training programs are quite unimpressive. There are, however, many charitable programs that have demonstrated real success at leading unskilled persons, single mothers, inexperienced minorities, released prisoners, former addicts, and other at-risk populations into lasting, transformative employment. This book was written to help donors find those successful models and strategies. Because when it comes to curing deprivation, softening inequality, improving life satisfaction, and strengthening society, work works.

The unsatisfactory performance of the United States economy during the 1970s generated considerable debate over potential new directions for economic policy. This volume, the result of the second Wharton/Reliance Symposium held in May 1983, presents and analyzes a range of economic policy options. The focus of the volume is on potential policy remedies for the economic problems of slow real output and productivity growth. Given the range of issues covered and the alternative viewpoints presented, this collection does not search for an overall policy consensus. To focus on consensus would have required narrowing both the subject matter and the distinctive viewpoints that are presented here. The result is an open discussion of a set of existing and innovative policy options. Contributors include Henry A. Kissinger, former Secretary of State; Nobel Laureate Lawrence R. Klein, Lester C. Thurow, Professor of Economics and Management at Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Senator Alan Cranson; Alfred E. Kahn, Chairman of the Council on Wage and Price Stability under President Carter; William W. Winpisinger, International President of the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers; and Justine Farr Rodriguez, Senior Economist with the U.S. Office of Management and Budget, among many others.

The business titans and #1 New York Times and Wall Street Journal bestselling authors of Winning return with a modern, essential guide for everyone in business today—and tomorrow—that explores the most pressing challenges related to creating winning strategies, leading and managing others, and building a thriving career. In the decade since their blockbuster international bestseller Winning was published, Jack and Suzy Welch have dug deeper into business, traveling the world consulting to organizations of every size and in every industry, speaking before hundreds of audiences, working closely with entrepreneurs from Mumbai to Silicon Valley, and, in 2010, starting their own fully accredited online MBA program, which now has approximately 1,000 students enrolled. Over the same time frame, Jack has advised more than seventy-five companies through private equity, and dozens more in a senior advisory role at IAC. Now, Jack and Suzy Welch draw on their experiences to address the biggest problems facing modern management—and offer pragmatic solutions to overcome them. Going beyond theories, concepts, and ideologies, they tackle the real stuff of work today. When you get down to it, they argue, winning in business is all about mastering the gritty, inescapable, make-or-break, real-life dilemmas that define the new economy, the old economy, and everything in between. Work is a grind. We just got whacked. My boss is driving me nuts. I’m stuck in career purgatory. My team has lost its mojo. IT is holding us hostage. Our strategy is outdated the day we launch it. We don’t know what our Chinese partners are talking about. We’re just not growing. These are some of the day-to-day issues the Welches take on. Coupled with Jack’s years of iconic leadership and Suzy’s insights as former editor of the Harvard Business Review, their new database of knowledge infuses The Real Life MBA with fresh, relevant stories and equally powerful solutions that every manager at any level can use right now.