For decades Marks & Spencer was the most successful retailer in the world. Its clothes were a byword for affordable quality and its food halls pioneered ready-prepared meals. Then suddenly they were dowdy, the staff deserted in droves and the shares plummeted - but the annual results in April 2006 show that the company is on the mend. What went wrong and how have things improved? In new chapters covering the Philip Green bid and the Stuart Rose recovery plan, and covering the Christmas 2006 trading figures, Judi Bevan reveals all.

Succession management, often little more than an annual form-filling chore and a throwback to 'chess board' charting of 1950s multinationals, needs revitalisation to become a key driver of organisational renewal in the twenty-first century. Whilst recent corporate failings have focused attention on the difficulties of leadership succession, those organisations which have made the transition to greatness have understood the impact of strategic resourcing in renewing their leadership capability and character. The challenge for organisations is reconciling leadership demand and supply. When it may be impossible to say what your organisation will look like in three years time, or what strategy it will be pursuing, demand becomes difficult to predict. And in an era of shifting career realities, supply management needs to be more than an analysis of the age profile of the leadership population. Practical Succession Management is a response to the increasing relevance of proactive succession management but the widespread difficulty of making it happen. The author focuses on the business realities of succession management rather than provide a conceptualisation of how it might work in principle or simply headline a series of corporate 'just so' stories. In a robust evaluation of relevant research and imaginative practice, Andrew Munro maps out the battlegrounds for succession management, with tools and techniques to guide readers from start to finish. The result is a book that will stimulate and challenge your thinking in opening up new options and provide practical methodologies to advance strategic resourcing within your organisation.

In this groundbreaking book Bill Bolton and John Thompson present a completely new take on the conventional domains of entrepreneur, leader and manager. They argue that in today’s turbulent and uncertain world, businesses no longer have the time for a business cycle that begins with an entrepreneur, hands over to a manager and finally brings in a strategic leader when things are flagging. ‘The New Normal’ that now prevails requires that these things run together and calls for a new kind of all-rounder. Bolton and Thompson give us a new word to describe such a person: The ENTIREPRENEUR The entirely competent person, able to discern aright and make things happen. Drawing upon the successful person-centred approach of their books on entrepreneurs they first tell the stories of over 40 entirepreneurs, demonstrating clearly that such people do exist. After discussing the ‘New Normal’ context they present a fascinating analysis that goes below the surface to describe the key Talent, Temperament, Technique and Discernment attributes that explain the entirepreneur. Readers have the opportunity to make a self-evaluation of their own attribute strengths, concluding with a final ‘entirepreneur’ score. This fascinating and insightful look at the entirepreneur is a clear pointer to what will be demanded of those who wish to succeed amid the vicissitudes of the 'New Normal’.

The story of the shopworkers who emerged during the Victorian and Edwardian era to cater for all clientele from behind the counters of the increasing number of shops and lavish department stores.

Why do smart and experienced leaders make flawed, even catastrophic, decisions? Why do people keep believing they have made the right choice, even with the disastrous result staring them in the face? And how can you be sure you're making the right decision--without the benefit of hindsight? Sydney Finkelstein, Jo Whitehead, and Andrew Campbell show how the usually beneficial processes of the human mind can become traps when we face big decisions. The authors show how the shortcuts our brains have learned to take over millennia of evolution can derail our decision making. Think Again offers a powerful model for making better decisions, describing the key red flags to watch for and detailing the decision-making safeguards we need. Using examples from business, politics, and history, Think Again deconstructs bad decisions, as they unfolded in real time, to show how you can avoid the same fate.

Knowledge is built from personal experience and coloured by our needs and values. It follows that all knowledge is personal and incomplete. We all suffer from ‘blind spots’. But when leaders have them, it matters. To guide people on a journey of continuous learning, understanding and adapting to events as they occur, leaders must overcome their own blind spots and those of their organization. Any leader who implements the practices outlined in this book will immediately improve their ability to perform in today’s competitive global environment. Karen Blakeley provides in-depth analysis of how leaders learn on the job - and what gets in the way. Most importantly she offers a systematic approach for accelerating leaders’ learning capacity - and maximising their performance potential.