A modern-day Detroit success story that fuels the entrepreneurial fire Irrational Persistence tells the story of Garden Fresh Gourmet, and how two entrepreneurs turned a million-dollar debt to a 100-million-dollar annual revenue. Woody Allen famously said that 80 percent of success is just showing up; but any entrepreneur can tell you that it's the other 20 percent that's key. The founders of Garden Fresh took that old saying to heart, building so many strategic advantages into their products and business that their 'sales' team didn't have to do any selling—they simply had to show up. In this book, you'll find out what kind of legwork goes into building a mega-success product, and the strategies, methods, and just plain stubbornness that helped two guys from Detroit build a market leader. Garden Fresh Gourmet is now the number-one fresh salsa in the US, shipping over a million units every week to Costco, Walmart, Whole Foods, and other national chains—and it all began with two middle-aged guys with negative funds and plenty of ideas. This book shares their journey, insight, and passion to help you build a better business and take it to the top. Learn how two entrepreneurs went from major debt to major revenue Discover the key characteristics of a product that sells itself Consider why selling out might not be the ultimate goal Track a journey of 'irrational persistence' from rags to riches Garden Fresh Gourmet is an inspiration beyond the journey—the way you run things at the top matters, too. Irrational Persistence shows you how to make the tough decisions, live with the sacrifices, and prioritize your values as you build your brand and just keep on going.

A modern-day Detroit success story that fuels the entrepreneurial fire Irrational Persistence tells the story of Garden Fresh Gourmet, and how two entrepreneurs turned a million-dollar debt to a 100-million-dollar annual revenue. Woody Allen famously said that 80 percent of success is just showing up; but any entrepreneur can tell you that it's the other 20 percent that's key. The founders of Garden Fresh took that old saying to heart, building so many strategic advantages into their products and business that their 'sales' team didn't have to do any selling—they simply had to show up. In this book, you'll find out what kind of legwork goes into building a mega-success product, and the strategies, methods, and just plain stubbornness that helped two guys from Detroit build a market leader. Garden Fresh Gourmet is now the number-one fresh salsa in the US, shipping over a million units every week to Costco, Walmart, Whole Foods, and other national chains—and it all began with two middle-aged guys with negative funds and plenty of ideas. This book shares their journey, insight, and passion to help you build a better business and take it to the top. Learn how two entrepreneurs went from major debt to major revenue Discover the key characteristics of a product that sells itself Consider why selling out might not be the ultimate goal Track a journey of 'irrational persistence' from rags to riches Garden Fresh Gourmet is an inspiration beyond the journey—the way you run things at the top matters, too. Irrational Persistence shows you how to make the tough decisions, live with the sacrifices, and prioritize your values as you build your brand and just keep on going.

This breakthrough book, based on the ideas of a forgotten genius, will help smart marketers increase their effectiveness a minimum of fivefold. It is a passionate book on the timeless, inspiring, perceptive, forceful, and sincere ideas of Bruce Barton-a man nobody really knew, a genius lost in history. Barton was the messiah of business who helped America pull out of the Great Depression. Now he can help all of us survive the current recession. The principles are sound and sensible and guaranteed to help any businessperson make more money. Since 99.9 percent of businesses don't use them, anyone putting the seven lost secrets to work will gain an unbelievable edge over the competition.

Media reform plays an increasingly important role in the struggle for social justice. As battles are fought over the future of investigative journalism, media ownership, spectrum management, speech rights, broadband access, network neutrality, the surveillance apparatus, and digital literacy, what effective strategies can be used in the pursuit of effective media reform? Prepared by thirty-three scholars and activists from more than twenty-five countries, Strategies for Media Reform focuses on theorizing media democratization and evaluating specific projects for media reform. This edited collection of articles offers readers the opportunity to reflect on the prospects for and challenges facing campaigns for media reform and gathers significant examples of theory, advocacy, and activism from multinational perspectives.

The marketer's guide to modernizing platforms and practices Marketing in the digital era is a whole new game: it's fundamentally about competing on the customer experience. Marketers must integrate a complex set of technologies to capture the customer's digital body language—and thereby deliver the right experiences, at the right times, via the right channels. This approach represents a formidable technological and practical challenge that few marketers have experience with. The methods that enable marketers to meet this challenge are emerging from an unexpected place: the world of software development. The Agile methodologies that once revolutionized software development are now revolutionizing marketing. Agile provides the foundation for alignment between the marketing and product management sides. It can unleash a whole array of new marketing opportunities for growth hacking as well as for "baking" marketing directly into your products or services. Beyond that, as a discipline it can serve as a bridge to strategic alignment, positioning the chief marketing officer alongside the chief product officer as the two primary drivers of the business. Written by a premier practitioner of modern marketing, this book will provide you with: Insights on the evolution of product development and management in the organization—and why marketing must partner with them in the new era An understanding of Agile methods and their application to marketing A plan for integrating Agile with your traditional methods Tactics to drive alignment with product management A pathway to becoming the steward of customer experience Rich with examples, case studies, illustrations, and exercises drawn from the author's wide-ranging experience (from startups to a top global technology company), The Agile Marketer will help you transform marketing in your organization, in spirit and practice—and help realize its critical roles in product management and the customer experience.

This textbook discusses the most important theories of internationalization, including Product Life-Cycle, Internalization, Location, Eclectic Paradigm, Uppsala, Network, and International New Venture concepts. These models are grounded to a considerable extent in the Transaction Cost Theory and the Resource-Based View as explained and illustrated in the book. Relevant market entry strategies, such as franchising, contract manufacturing, joint ventures, and others are explained and categorized in light of crucial determinants of international business decision making: hierarchical control of operations, the firm’s proximity to the foreign market, the investment risk, and the factor of time. What makes this textbook novel and unique? Its framework combines theories and market entry strategies: each topic is applied to authoritative, real-life business case studies. Complex issues are explained in a manner that results in understanding. Various illustrations and tables help the reader comprehend the point being discussed. The case study focus on Asian firms delivers interesting insights into modern high-technology industries and changing global business dynamics. Market Entry Strategies serves as a vital source for internationally oriented bachelor, master, and MBA programs with strategy, marketing, and management lecture modules. Consequently, this publication is highly recommended for students and scholars; but it is also useful for business practitioners seeking to gain competitive advantages in international business. About the Author Mario Glowik teaches Bachelor, MBA and Master courses in Strategic management, International management, Strategic management in China and Europe, and International and Asian business at Berlin School of Economics and Law in Berlin. Find out more about Professor Glowik and the second edition of his Textbook Market Entry Strategies on Youtube!