Becoming an effective IT manager presents a host of challenges--from anticipating emerging technology to managing relationships with vendors, employees, and other managers. A good IT manager must also be a strong business leader. This book invites you to accompany new CIO Jim Barton to better understand the role of IT in your organization. You'll see Jim struggle through a challenging first year, handling (and fumbling) situations that, although fictional, are based on true events. You can read this book from beginning to end, or treat is as a series of cases. You can also skip around to address your most pressing needs. For example, need to learn about crisis management and security? Read chapters 10-12. You can formulate your own responses to a CIO's obstacles by reading the authors' regular "Reflection" questions. You'll turn to this book many times as you face IT-related issues in your own career.

The day-to-day challenges faced by the average CIO are not usually the stuff of epic drama--except when they are. Enter our hero: Jim Barton, the new CIO of the fictional IVK Corporation. He is the creation of authors Robert Austin, Richard Nolan, and Shannon O’Donnell, and his story gives a practical yet entertaining look at the true adventures of an IT leader. Based on the authors’ years of first-hand experience with diverse companies, the story begins as the IVK Corporation struggles to recover from a period of slowing growth and falling stock prices. An aggressive new CEO handpicks Barton to be CIO--even though Barton has no background in IT. We follow Barton’s adventures as he discovers what effective IT management is all about, deals with the everyday challenges of the job, responds to major crises, and remakes the company’s technology capabilities into a vital strategic asset. Read the book from beginning to end or treat it as a series of case studies; the "ways of using this book” section explains which chapters cover which subjects, while the authors' reflection questions help you puzzle through the problems in each episode. Now fully updated and with a new preface by the authors,The Adventures of an IT Leader is an engaging way to enhance your IT leadership skills.

Today’s CEO must be a global leader who also understands that parts of the business must be managed locally. Someone who sets a strategic vision, though industry and technology disruptions will surely threaten that vision. Someone who must live in the future to go to the future, while continuously creating economic and social value. Not an easy task. Harder Than I Thought is a fictional narrative that puts this increasingly complex job in context—by enabling you to walk alongside Jim Barton, the new CEO of Santa Monica Aerospace, as he steps into the role. Barton’s story, developed in consultation with seasoned, reallife CEOs, contains crucial lessons for all leaders hoping to master the new skills required to move into the Csuite.

• The author is a distinguished member of the Explorers Club • The author is an unexpected adventurer, disarmingly positive and companionable • Lively stories of remote treks around the world Way Out There is an account of J. Robert Harris’s extraordinary exploits while backpacking in some of the world’s most tantalizing places―largely alone and unsupported. And after almost fifty years of wilderness travel, “J. R.,” as he’s known, has plenty of tales to tell! His stories are by turns funny, tragic, and uplifting, and are all told in his down‐to‐earth, friendly style. For J. R., it all began in 1966 when, as a young New Yorker, he impulsively drives his VW Beetle across the country to the very end of the northernmost road in Alaska, searching for an answer to a simple question: What is it like to be way out there? How this happened, whom he met, and what he encountered along the way became the foundation for a lifelong attraction to trekking and adventure travel. Subsequent chapters chronologically explore some of his many journeys, revealing an enduring wanderlust honed by his emerging maturity and outdoor skills. Stories of J. R.’s solo treks point to stark contrasts between his urban upbringing and his wilderness wanderings, while tales of adventure with small but diverse groups of friends are enriched by their collective experiences and varying viewpoints about exploration. Way Out There is a lively yet introspective book by a restless soul that will attract countless readers who love to travel, as well as armchair adventurers and communities looking for outdoor role models. The foreword is by the late Dr. Roscoe C. Brown, Jr., one of the famed Tuskegee Airmen fighter pilots during World War I

The best business books are brief, clear and pertinent. Monday Morning Leadership fits all of those requirements. You can read the whole book in a few minutes . . . and think about and apply what you learned for a lifetime. The format is around a man who's struggling as a manager. His operation isn't performing well. His boss isn't happy. He's not happy. He doesn't have time to be with his family or to do what he likes to do. It looks like his career has peaked . . . and his job may be in jeopardy. What to do?

Follow the adventures of Bern the Zombie, the leader of the greatest zombie army in Minecraftian history, in this humorous, illustrated chapter book diary. It has taken years of determination, but finally the Bern the Zombie has assembled the largest army of zombies that Minecraftia has ever seen. What exactly does Bern plan to do with his army? Take over the Overworld, of course! But Bern is the first to admit that most zombies aren’t terribly bright. For instance, they have trouble with basic things, like knowing their left from their right. Read every hilarious misstep of Bern’s quest in Adventures of a Zombie, an unofficial Minecraft chapter book diary with black-and-white illustrations.

What are the qualities that make a good leader? 4 Leaders examines the activities of four polar explorers: Nansen, Scott, Shackleton and Amundsen; four men who are feted as heroes of Polar exploration, and inspired a generation of explorers. In particular, we learn about the judgements made as leaders of expeditions. All four men undertook perilous adventures and were challenged by the unknown in the most hostile and lonely environments on earth. Theirs was not a world with GPS or sophisticated digital equipment. They went into the unknown with the risk that they would never be seen or heard from again. They had no lifeline with civilisation and the decisions they made resulted in life or death. True leadership demands an extraordinary ability to foresee the consequences of one's decisions and 4 Leaders examines how different people in different situations managed their role as leader. A fascinating look into the world of Polar exploration and the men who dared to venture where no one else had.