Category

Book Briefs

May 24

Dare to Serve

By Book Briefs

In the fall of 2007, guest visits were declining, sales and profit trends were negative, and the stock price had dropped from $34 in 2002 to $13. The brand was stagnant, and relations between the company and its franchise owners were strained. Cheryl Bachelder was serving as a member of the board of directors for Popeyes’s food chain, when her fellow board members turned to her and said, “We need you to be our CEO.” She grabbed the reigns and went to work. Today the share price is $52, nearly 17% compounded annually over the past 9 years, and the business is…

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Oct 28

Need a Halftime Career Detox?

By Book Briefs, Personal Development

According to best-selling author Bob Buford, “halftime” is something all successful people will go through. But it’s not just a break in the action to rest and re-group for the second half of the same game. It’s more like a type of career detox, or midlife renewal for the second half. We’re not talking about a football game here. We’re talking about the game of life. Specifically, developing a new game plan for the rest of your life. In his book simply titled Halftime, Buford says, “After a successful first half, I needed a break to make some changes in how…

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Oct 13

How to Get Unstuck

By Book Briefs, Personal Development

What can you learn from a music major who’s first job out of college was that of a secretary for a retail brokerage firm in New York City; who went from there to being an investment banker, and on to become a top ranked equity analyst, to writing a children’s book, and then a blogger on work-life issues, to a hedge fund manager? You can learn how to disrupt yourself! You might say Whitney Johnson has taken an unconventional career path, or perhaps it might just be the normal path for knowledge workers in the twenty-first century. Johnson adapted the…

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Sep 23

How to Tell if You’re For Real

By Book Briefs, Organizational Development

What do Krispy Kreme Doughnuts, BMW, Zippo, Harley Davidson, and LL Bean have in common? They are all “authentic brands” says Michael Beverland, professor of marketing at the Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology in Australia, a brand marketing researcher and author of the book Building Brand Authenticity – 7 Habits of Iconic Brands.  So just what makes a brand authentic? Beverland says authenticity is synonymous with truth.  One way tell if a brand is truthful or not is to look at the marketing efforts of a company.  Traditional marketers want to control the consumer with a top down approach.  Beverland says they try to manage consumers’…

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Sep 02

Book Brief: “Zero to One”

By Book Briefs, Organizational Development

This week’s “Book Brief” of “Zero to One” highlights the unconventional thoughts of Peter Thiel, the 47 year old entrepreneur, venture capitalist and hedge fund manager.  Peter and his friends Max Levchin and Elon Musk founded PayPal, and Thiel was the first outside investor in Facebook in 2004, one of his many ventures that has helped him amass over $2 billion in net worth. Who should read this book:  Anyone starting a business or anyone who is wanting to take their business to the next level. But read the book only if you’re interested in going from “Zero to One”….

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