From The Rules of Business Rule #1 The first rule of business is the same as the first rule of life: Adapt or die. “What gets measured, gets done.” —Peter Drucker Rule #8 Nothing is more overrated than a new idea. Ideas by themselves are worthless. It’s what you do with them that matters. “Bet on the jockey, not on the horse.” —Malcolm Forbes “Best practices usually aren’t.” —Christopher Locke, co-author, The Cluetrain Manifesto Rule #49 If it is not right, don’t do it; if it is not true, don’t say it. “If you think you’re too small to have an impact, try going to bed with a mosquito in the room.” —Dame Anita Roddick, founder, The Body Shop In THE RULES OF BUSINESS, Fast Company’s renowned editor in chief, John Byrne and the writers and editors of Fast Company, distill the major ideas and principles of the world of business into fifty-five essential rules. These rules are elaborated on and enhanced by quotes and insights from over 200 business leaders, practitioners, and thinkers into what is sure to be an essential desk reference for managers, professionals, and executives-to-be. Published on the tenth anniversary of the magazine, FAST COMPANY’S THE RULES OF BUSINESS features the essential principles behind today’s most important business topics, from customer service to innovation, from strategic thinking to leadership and management. The book introduces each category with a two-page commentary, and weaves two to four essential rules throughout every chapter. At the end of each chapter a boxed, bulleted “Fast Take” section gives readers specific takeaways they can use in their day-to-day work. The heart of each chapter, however, is the quotes and insights on the subject culled from the great minds in business, both living and historical—leaders and thinkers such as Machiavelli and Jack Welch, Adam Smith and his invisible hand and Tom Peters on marketing Me, Inc., Michael Porter on (what else?) strategy and A.G. Lafley, Jeff Bezos on the perils of hiring the wrong person and Bill Gates on the value of information technology, Anne Mulcahy and Warren Buffett, and many more. FAST COMPANY’S THE RULES OF BUSINESS is the ultimate desk reference.

“Deepak Chopra lights the way to twenty-first century leadership, where consciousness, love, and compassion redefine the locus of power in relationships and organizations.”—John Mackey, co-CEO Whole Foods Market Bestselling author and spiritual guide Deepak Chopra invites you to become the kind of leader most needed today: a leader with vision who can make that vision real. Chopra has been teaching leadership to CEOs and other top executives for eight years, and the path outlined in The Soul of Leadership applies to any business, but the same principles are relevant in every community and area of life, from family and home to school, place of worship, and neighborhood. “At the deepest level,” Chopra writes, “a leader is the symbolic soul of a group.” With clear, practical steps, you are led through the crucial skills outlined in the acronym L-E-A-D-E-R-S: L = Look and Listen E = Emotional Bonding A = Awareness D = Doing E = Empowerment R = Responsibility S = Synchronicity After identifying your own soul profile and the core values you want to develop, you can use these seven skills to allow your potential for greatness to emerge. Only from the level of the soul, Chopra contends, are great leaders created. Once that connection is made, you have unlimited access to the most vital qualities a leader can possess: creativity, intelligence, organizing power, and love. The Soul of Leadership aims to fill the most critical void in contemporary life, the void of enlightened leaders. “You can be such a leader,” Chopra promises. “The path is open to you. The only requirement is that you learn to listen to your inner guide.” In this unique handbook you are shown how to do just that, in words as practical as they are uplifting. The future is unfolding at this very minute, and the choice to lead it lies with each of us, here and now.

InThe Rules of Business, the writers and editors of Fast Company distill the major ideas and principles of the world of business into fifty-five essential rules. These rules are elaborated on and enhanced by quotes and insights from over 200 business leaders, practitioners, and thinkers into what is sure to be an essential desk reference for managers, professionals, and executives-to-be. Published on the tenth anniversary of the magazine,Fast Company's The Rules of Businessfeatures the essential principles behind today’s most important business topics, from customer service to innovation, from strategic thinking to leadership and management. The book introduces each category with a two-page commentary, and weaves two to four essential rules throughout every chapter. At the end of each chapter a boxed, bulleted “Fast Take” section gives readers specific takeaways they can use in their day-to-day work. The heart of each chapter, however, is the quotes and insights on the subject culled from the great minds in business, both living and historical—leaders and thinkers such as Machiavelli and Jack Welch, Adam Smith and his invisible hand and Tom Peters on marketing Me, Inc., Michael Porter on (what else?) strategy and A.G. Lafley, Jeff Bezos on the perils of hiring the wrong person and Bill Gates on the value of information technology, Anne Mulcahy and Warren Buffett, and many more.Fast Company's The Rules of Businessis the ultimate desk reference. FromThe Rules of Business Rule #1 The first rule of business is the same as the first rule of life: Adapt or die. “What gets measured, gets done.” —Peter Drucker Rule #8 Nothing is more overrated than a new idea. Ideas by themselves are worthless. It’s what you do with them that matters. “Bet on the jockey, not on the horse.” —Malcolm Forbes “Best practices usually aren’t.” —Christopher Locke, co-author,The Cluetrain Manifesto Rule #49 If it is not right, don’t do it; if it is not true, don’t say it. “If you think you’re too small to have an impact, try going to bed with a mosquito in the room.” —Dame Anita Roddick, founder, The Body Shop

Fast Company, the world’s leading business media brand, offers a comprehensive and vibrant look at the way design has permeated all areas of life and work Design has become a critical part of doing business in today’s economy. Some of the most innovative companies in tech—Apple, Airbnb, Google, Tesla, and many more—have made human-centered design a hallmark of their brands. From fashion to architecture to office plans, and from digital processes to artisanal craftsmanship, design is having a moment in business. Or maybe business is finally having its design moment. Fast Company Innovation by Design highlights the people, companies, and trends that have steadily advanced design to the forefront of the business conversation. Drawing from Fast Company’s vast library of stories that chronicle innovation in technology, leadership, world-changing ideas, and creativity, this lively book is urgent reading for any anyone seeking to understand the ways that design is fundamentally changing and enhancing business and daily life. A focus on “green” and socially conscious design draws attention to creative solutions to the most pressing concerns we face today.

Every few years a book changes the way people think about a field. In psychology there is Daniel Goleman's Emotional Intelligence. In science, James Gleick's Chaos. In economics and finance, Burton Malkiel's A Random Walk Down Wall Street. And in business there is now Surfing the Edge of Chaos by Richard T. Pascale, Mark Millemann, and Linda Gioja. Surfing the Edge of Chaos is a brilliant, powerful, and practical book about the parallels between business and nature -- two fields that feature nonstop battles between the forces of tradition and the forces of transformation. It offers a bold new way of thinking about and responding to the personal and strategic challenges everyone in business faces these days. Pascale, Millemann, and Gioja argue that because every business is a living system (not just as metaphor but in reality), the four cornerstone principles of the life sciences are just as true for organizations as they are for species. These principles are: Equilibrium is death. Innovation usually takes place on the edge of chaos. Self-organization and emergence occur naturally. Organizations can only be disturbed, not directed. Using intriguing, in-depth case studies (Sears Roebuck, Monsanto, Royal Dutch Shell, the U.S. Army, British Petroleum, Hewlett Packard, Sun Microsystems), Surfing the Edge of Chaos shows that in business, as in nature, there are no permanent winners. There are just companies and species that either react to change and evolve, or get left behind and become extinct. Some examples: Parallels between Yellowstone National Park and Sears show why equilibrium is a dangerous place in both nature and business. How Monsanto used a "strange attractor" to move to the edge of chaos to alter its identity and transform its culture. The unlikely story of how the U.S. Army embraced the ideas of self-organization and emergence. Why the misapplication of linear logic (reengineering a business or attempting to eradicate predators in nature) will inevitably fail. The stories in Surfing the Edge of Chaos are of pioneering efforts that show how the principles of living systems produce bottom-line impact and profound transformational change. What's really striking about them, though, is their reality. They are about success and failure, breakthroughs and dead-ends. In short, they are like the business you are in and the challenges you face.