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As the 20th century dawned there was a silent but fateful transformation in the purpose of the American economy. Finance stopped serving industry and twisted industry to serve its own ends. THE SPECULATION ECONOMY shows this reversal of economic priorities, and its sometimes-disastrous consequences, demonstrated most recently by Enron.
What would happen if you could achieve business success without owning any assets, but could simply enjoy the benefits of them? What if companies were able to react instantly to changing circumstances by operating in negative time? What if you didn't need management to run your business?
Zero Space defines a business model in which an organization achieves success without owning assets or needing management. In a zero space organization, knowledge is the only true currency and people are the business's assets and its investors in future success.
Through eight new organizational principles the authors illustrate how "zero-mindedness" is essential for the new economy. Just as organizations will have to exist in less tangible, less prescribed forms, so will thinking have to become less departmentalized, less closely guarded. This new open-mindedness or "zero mind-set" targets knowledge so that an organization applies it when and where it is really needed.
The authors-two top executives at one of the "big five" accounting and consulting firms-show how to create a zero-space organization: a value-adding, quick-reacting, non-centralized, non-standardized, innovation-generating workplace for dedicated talent.
Zero Space defines a business model in which an organization achieves success without owning assets or needing management. In a zero space organization, knowledge is the only true currency and people are the business's assets and its investors in future success.
Through eight new organizational principles the authors illustrate how "zero-mindedness" is essential for the new economy. Just as organizations will have to exist in less tangible, less prescribed forms, so will thinking have to become less departmentalized, less closely guarded. This new open-mindedness or "zero mind-set" targets knowledge so that an organization applies it when and where it is really needed.
The authors-two top executives at one of the "big five" accounting and consulting firms-show how to create a zero-space organization: a value-adding, quick-reacting, non-centralized, non-standardized, innovation-generating workplace for dedicated talent.
The next evolution of DEI is here. Discover how to shape a workplace that puts everyone ahead through the groundbreaking FAIR framework.
Over 80 percent of Americans agree that the goals of diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) are important in workplaces and society. Yet, research shows that a mere 20 percent feel they’ve directly benefited from workplace DEI programs. As traditional DEI efforts in the workplace face disengagement, backlash, and stagnation, it’s time to reimagine this work.
Drawing on historical case studies, deep research, and a decade of the author’s consulting experience with organizations of all sizes, this book reveals the four tenets that will shape the next evolution of workplace DEI:
The FAIR framework offers an alternative to both the performative practices of traditional DEI programs and the false promises of anti-DEI antagonists. With clarity, urgency, and no-nonsense practicality, Fixing Fairness charts a new path forward for those committed to creating better outcomes for all.
Over 80 percent of Americans agree that the goals of diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) are important in workplaces and society. Yet, research shows that a mere 20 percent feel they’ve directly benefited from workplace DEI programs. As traditional DEI efforts in the workplace face disengagement, backlash, and stagnation, it’s time to reimagine this work.
Drawing on historical case studies, deep research, and a decade of the author’s consulting experience with organizations of all sizes, this book reveals the four tenets that will shape the next evolution of workplace DEI:
- Outcomes over Intentions: Don’t chase trends. Do what it takes to measurably achieve greater fairness, access, inclusion, and representation for all.
- Systems over Self-Help: Don’t fixate on individual biases. Solve the root causes of discrimination by shaping workplace norms, culture, processes, and practices.
- Coalitions over Cliques: Don’t just preach to the choir. Build bridges and movements that engage everyone as part of the solution.
- Win-Win over Zero-Sum: Don’t give in to “us versus them.” Create and relentlessly communicate a vision for a better status quo for everyone.
The FAIR framework offers an alternative to both the performative practices of traditional DEI programs and the false promises of anti-DEI antagonists. With clarity, urgency, and no-nonsense practicality, Fixing Fairness charts a new path forward for those committed to creating better outcomes for all.
Too many organizations today play follow the leader: the commander articulates a "vision" and people uncritically go along with it. But this style of leadership is ultimately ineffective and even dangerous. It hampers people's ability to anticipate and react to changing circumstances. And if the leader's vision is flawed, the entire organization will suffer. In Real Leadership, Dean Williams argues that the true task of the leader is to get people to face the reality of any situation themselves and develop strategies to deal with problems or take advantage of opportunities. Leaders who are responsible with their power and authority don't dictate; they help people determine what shifts in their values, habits, practices and priorities will be needed to accommodate changing conditions and new demands. Williams details how to apply this new approach to six different challenges that every organization faces. Throughout, he uses examples from his own experiences--working with organizations as diverse as the government of Singapore, Aetna Life and Casualty, and the nomadic Penan tribe in Borneo--as well as historical examples and the insights gleaned from his many interviews with presidents, prime ministers, and business leaders to demonstrate the practical application of real leadership in the real world. At a time when so many "visionary" leaders have led their organizations to disaster, Real Leadership offers a needed, proven alternative.
“Fear and doubt are the two greatest enemies of high performance in the workplace. This powerful book shows you how to instill more and more courage and confidence in every person, releasing personal potential you didn't know you had available.”
-Brian Tracy, author of Eat That Frog!
The hardest part of a manager's job isn't staying organized, meeting deliverable dates, or staying on budget. It's dealing with people who are too comfortable doing things the way they've always been done and too afraid to do things differently-workers who are, as Bill Treasurer puts it, too “comfeartable.” They fail to exert themselves any more than they have to and make their businesses dangerously safe.
Treasurer, a courage-building pioneer, proposes a bold antidote: courage. He lays out a step-by-step process that treats courage as a skill that can be developed and strengthened. Treasurer differentiates what he calls the Three Buckets of Courage: TRY Courage, having the guts to take initiative; TRUST Courage, being willing to follow the lead of others; and TELL Courage, being honest and assertive with coworkers and bosses.
Aristotle said that courage is the first virtue because it makes all other virtues possible. It's as true in business as it is in life. With more courage, workers gain the confidence to take on harder projects, embrace company changes with more enthusiasm, and extend themselves in ways that will benefit their careers and their company.
-Brian Tracy, author of Eat That Frog!
The hardest part of a manager's job isn't staying organized, meeting deliverable dates, or staying on budget. It's dealing with people who are too comfortable doing things the way they've always been done and too afraid to do things differently-workers who are, as Bill Treasurer puts it, too “comfeartable.” They fail to exert themselves any more than they have to and make their businesses dangerously safe.
Treasurer, a courage-building pioneer, proposes a bold antidote: courage. He lays out a step-by-step process that treats courage as a skill that can be developed and strengthened. Treasurer differentiates what he calls the Three Buckets of Courage: TRY Courage, having the guts to take initiative; TRUST Courage, being willing to follow the lead of others; and TELL Courage, being honest and assertive with coworkers and bosses.
Aristotle said that courage is the first virtue because it makes all other virtues possible. It's as true in business as it is in life. With more courage, workers gain the confidence to take on harder projects, embrace company changes with more enthusiasm, and extend themselves in ways that will benefit their careers and their company.
Contrary to popular opinion, the American public corporation is on the decline. Leading scholar Gerald Davis explains the social and economic pressures behind the rise and fall of the American corporation, the surprising negative consequences, and what the post-corporate future may hold.
In an era of Citizens United and 8-figure paychecks for CEOs, most of us imagine that corporations have never been more powerful. Yet public corporations-companies that sell shares to the public, rather than being privately owned-are in retreat in the US, while alternative ways of organizing business, are on the rise.
To many this will sound like good news-but Gerald Davis points out that there's a considerable downside. In their heyday public corporations provided good salaries, benefits, training, lifetime employment, and retirement pensions-features that are conspicuously absent from newer models championed by companies like Uber. The consequences of corporate decline in the US are stark: greater inequality, less mobility, and a frayed social safety net.
This book explains the rise of the large American corporation, it's role in greatly expanding the middle class, and the economic pressures that are making it unsustainable. The future could see either increasing polarization, as careers turn into jobs and jobs turn into tasks, or a more democratic economy built from the grassroots. Davis explains how we got here and lays out the choices ahead of us.
In an era of Citizens United and 8-figure paychecks for CEOs, most of us imagine that corporations have never been more powerful. Yet public corporations-companies that sell shares to the public, rather than being privately owned-are in retreat in the US, while alternative ways of organizing business, are on the rise.
To many this will sound like good news-but Gerald Davis points out that there's a considerable downside. In their heyday public corporations provided good salaries, benefits, training, lifetime employment, and retirement pensions-features that are conspicuously absent from newer models championed by companies like Uber. The consequences of corporate decline in the US are stark: greater inequality, less mobility, and a frayed social safety net.
This book explains the rise of the large American corporation, it's role in greatly expanding the middle class, and the economic pressures that are making it unsustainable. The future could see either increasing polarization, as careers turn into jobs and jobs turn into tasks, or a more democratic economy built from the grassroots. Davis explains how we got here and lays out the choices ahead of us.
The service sector has grown to become 80% of the US economy, yet it's poised for a revolution in personalization, big data, and complexity. How can companies design a strategy to compete?
The service sector-any company not involved in the production of products-is now 80% of the US economy, and growing part of the world economy. Written by the three leading scholars of service sector management, this book seeks to provide a roadmap for the design and delivery of winning services for leaders and managers entrusted with the task in the years to come.
The authors review their own seminal work on service management, testing the durability of concepts they've helped develop over the past thirty years. Then they move on to look at how better results will be achieved in the future-what needs to be done to create great places to work, design efficient and enjoyable service experiences, use technology to improve service delivery, and engage and retain customers. Using examples of dozens of companies in a wide variety of industries, the authors present a narrative of remarkable successes, unnecessary failures, and future promise.
The service sector-any company not involved in the production of products-is now 80% of the US economy, and growing part of the world economy. Written by the three leading scholars of service sector management, this book seeks to provide a roadmap for the design and delivery of winning services for leaders and managers entrusted with the task in the years to come.
The authors review their own seminal work on service management, testing the durability of concepts they've helped develop over the past thirty years. Then they move on to look at how better results will be achieved in the future-what needs to be done to create great places to work, design efficient and enjoyable service experiences, use technology to improve service delivery, and engage and retain customers. Using examples of dozens of companies in a wide variety of industries, the authors present a narrative of remarkable successes, unnecessary failures, and future promise.
Well-intentioned diversity programs are failing to create true workplace equality; Martin Davidson provides a new model for the future that makes "leveraging difference" a critical business strategy, not just politically correct window dressing.
The idea for this book came to Martin Davidson during a disarmingly honest conversation with a CFO he worked with. “Look,” the executive said, clearly troubled. “I know we can get a diverse group of people around the table. But so what? What difference does it really make to getting bottom-line results?”
Answering the “so what?” led Davidson to explore the flaws in how companies typically manage diversity. They don't integrate diversity into their overall business strategy. They focus on differences that have little impact on their business. And often their diversity efforts end up hindering the professional development of the very people they were designed to help.
Davidson explains how what he calls Leveraging Difference™ turns persistent diversity problems into solutions that drive business results. Difference becomes a powerful source of sustainable competitive advantage instead of a distracting mandate handed down from HR.
To begin with, leaders must identify the differences most important to achieving organizational goals, even if the differences aren't the obvious ones. The second challenge is to help employees work together to understand the ways these differences matter to the business. Finally, leaders need to experiment with how to use these relevant differences to get things done. Davidson provides compelling examples of how organizations have tackled each of these challenges.
Ultimately this is a book about leadership. As with any other strategic imperative, leaders need to take an active role-drive rather than just delegate. Successfully leveraging difference can be what distinguishes an ordinary organization from an extraordinary one.
The idea for this book came to Martin Davidson during a disarmingly honest conversation with a CFO he worked with. “Look,” the executive said, clearly troubled. “I know we can get a diverse group of people around the table. But so what? What difference does it really make to getting bottom-line results?”
Answering the “so what?” led Davidson to explore the flaws in how companies typically manage diversity. They don't integrate diversity into their overall business strategy. They focus on differences that have little impact on their business. And often their diversity efforts end up hindering the professional development of the very people they were designed to help.
Davidson explains how what he calls Leveraging Difference™ turns persistent diversity problems into solutions that drive business results. Difference becomes a powerful source of sustainable competitive advantage instead of a distracting mandate handed down from HR.
To begin with, leaders must identify the differences most important to achieving organizational goals, even if the differences aren't the obvious ones. The second challenge is to help employees work together to understand the ways these differences matter to the business. Finally, leaders need to experiment with how to use these relevant differences to get things done. Davidson provides compelling examples of how organizations have tackled each of these challenges.
Ultimately this is a book about leadership. As with any other strategic imperative, leaders need to take an active role-drive rather than just delegate. Successfully leveraging difference can be what distinguishes an ordinary organization from an extraordinary one.
A microfinance industry insider offers a shocking account of corruption and betrayal of the poor by an industry supposedly dedicated to doing good. The author is one of the rare field workers who has seen microloans work at the ground level; he concludes that predatory lending and profit pressure are causing most of them to do far more harm than good. This is the sad tale of a good idea gone horribly bad.
An Instant New York Times Bestseller
Winner, 2025 Good Business Book Awards (Business – Management)
Finalist, 2025 IAN Book Awards (Business/Leadership/Management)
What if the most powerful growth strategy in business today isn’t AI or cost-cutting—but your people?
In an era defined by talent shortages, employee disengagement, DEI backlash, and pressure for measurable ROI, this groundbreaking leadership book delivers a bold answer: share power to unlock performance.
Based on research from more than 1,200 companies—including Walmart, Google, and JPMorgan Chase—this data-driven business book reveals how employee empowerment, inclusive leadership, and human capital strategy drive profitability, retention, and long-term growth. For the first time, the research quantifies the financial impact of investing in people.
Jackson offers 9 proven strategies:
For CEOs, CHROs, HR leaders, and managers, this practical guide shows how equity and profits rise together—proving that people-first leadership is a competitive advantage.
Winner, 2025 Good Business Book Awards (Business – Management)
Finalist, 2025 IAN Book Awards (Business/Leadership/Management)
What if the most powerful growth strategy in business today isn’t AI or cost-cutting—but your people?
In an era defined by talent shortages, employee disengagement, DEI backlash, and pressure for measurable ROI, this groundbreaking leadership book delivers a bold answer: share power to unlock performance.
Based on research from more than 1,200 companies—including Walmart, Google, and JPMorgan Chase—this data-driven business book reveals how employee empowerment, inclusive leadership, and human capital strategy drive profitability, retention, and long-term growth. For the first time, the research quantifies the financial impact of investing in people.
Jackson offers 9 proven strategies:
- Centering employee voice
- Building mutualistic, high-trust workplaces
- Advancing intersectional inclusion
- Reimagining employee benefits
- Activating frontline leaders
- Hiring STARs (Skilled Through Alternative Routes)
- Developing deep talent benches
- Using human capital reporting as competitive strategy
- Practicing distributed leadership
For CEOs, CHROs, HR leaders, and managers, this practical guide shows how equity and profits rise together—proving that people-first leadership is a competitive advantage.
Nationally syndicated radio host and bestselling author Thom Hartmann exposes the covert war conservatives, and corporations are waging against America's middle class-a war that's reducing the rest of us to a politically impotent working poor. This book asks: How did this happen? Who's benefiting? And how can we stop it?
John Perkins's sensational New York Times bestseller Confessions of an Economic Hit Man (more than 300,000 sold) revealed just the tip of the iceberg of the secret world of economic hit men and the web of global corruption. Now more economic hit men and investigators tell the whole shocking story.
Based on the work of best-selling author Parker Palmer and his Center for Courage & Renewal, this exploration of the inner life of leadership shows how to become a better leader by orienting yourself, your life, and your work toward greater courage, wholeness, and integrity.
Leadership demands courage. This book is about a way of life that names and explores this important resource and shows leaders how to access and draw upon courage in all that they do. It has its roots in the work and thought of Parker J. Palmer, who, over forty years of teaching, speaking, and writing has explored the human spirit--what he has called "the inner landscape"--and its role in life and leadership. The book offers specific practices developed by the Center for Courage & Renewal to build courage in seven key areas: the courage to become self-aware, to answer your calling, to question and be a deep listener, to see both/and and as a whole, to choose wisely, to connect and trust in each other, and to stay in the game...or leave. This book inspires leaders to reach inward to discover and trust in their true self and reach outward to bring their unique self into the world.
Leadership demands courage. This book is about a way of life that names and explores this important resource and shows leaders how to access and draw upon courage in all that they do. It has its roots in the work and thought of Parker J. Palmer, who, over forty years of teaching, speaking, and writing has explored the human spirit--what he has called "the inner landscape"--and its role in life and leadership. The book offers specific practices developed by the Center for Courage & Renewal to build courage in seven key areas: the courage to become self-aware, to answer your calling, to question and be a deep listener, to see both/and and as a whole, to choose wisely, to connect and trust in each other, and to stay in the game...or leave. This book inspires leaders to reach inward to discover and trust in their true self and reach outward to bring their unique self into the world.
THE WAYS WE GO about changing organizations usually don't work, asserts Geoff Bellman. Our underlying assumptions predetermine the results and preclude the broad success we so desperately seek. Change efforts often end up off-track because of small expectations. What is needed are grand expectations, so big that they cannot be realized in many lifetimes. It is only when people awaken to and work toward these immense purposes that they have the chance of finding fulfillment. Organizations are the perfect place to do this-these "beasts" which we create and curse, love and hate, that are so essential to our lives. In The Beauty of the Beast, Bellman shows how we can explore our huge potential and shift our daily organizational focus to one of long life and fulfillment-and in the process redesign our organizations for tomorrow.
Bellman examines why we keep creating these creatures that fall so far short of our dreams for them. He reveals how to recognize the beast in ourselves, showing how organizational control and hierarchy multiply our natural and less constructive inclinations many times over. He points out that the problem is not the existence of organizations but in the ways we imagine them.
Bellman asks us to consider what we want to pass on to future generations, helps us imagine the organizations we would be proud to create, and challenges us to take action from where we are today. He offers twenty renewal assertions to help us in redesigning organizations for tomorrow. These solid guides (with related questions for work groups) open the organization to new possibilities, helping us to embrace the organizational world as it really is while working hard to change it. In the process we will also change ourselves, as we ultimately feel less distant from-and more responsible for-creating those troubling structures we love to vent about.
The Beauty of the Beast. will help people see their daily work in a new and larger perspective. It will help them embrace the real organizational world while they work at renewing it. And it will help people to recognize the choices available to them-and to exercise those choices for positive results.
Bellman examines why we keep creating these creatures that fall so far short of our dreams for them. He reveals how to recognize the beast in ourselves, showing how organizational control and hierarchy multiply our natural and less constructive inclinations many times over. He points out that the problem is not the existence of organizations but in the ways we imagine them.
Bellman asks us to consider what we want to pass on to future generations, helps us imagine the organizations we would be proud to create, and challenges us to take action from where we are today. He offers twenty renewal assertions to help us in redesigning organizations for tomorrow. These solid guides (with related questions for work groups) open the organization to new possibilities, helping us to embrace the organizational world as it really is while working hard to change it. In the process we will also change ourselves, as we ultimately feel less distant from-and more responsible for-creating those troubling structures we love to vent about.
The Beauty of the Beast. will help people see their daily work in a new and larger perspective. It will help them embrace the real organizational world while they work at renewing it. And it will help people to recognize the choices available to them-and to exercise those choices for positive results.
Drawing on life lessons from management legend Peter Drucker, journalist and scholar Bruce Rosenstein shows knowledge workers how personal and professional diversification is the key to navigating our "flat world" of zero job security, information overload, portable skills, and 24/7 work expectations.
In this lively and irreverent tour through everyday economic mysteries, premier economist Jared Bernstein helps readers decode economic "analysis", navigate through murky ethical quandaries, and make sound economic decisions that reflect their deepest aspirations for themselves, their families, and their country.
Bestselling and world-renowned author Fritjof Capra presents the first in-depth and full description of Leonardo da Vinci's amazing scientific work and discoveries in geology, anatomy, flight, mechanics, botany, and fluid dynamics. And Capra reveals what readers can learn for their own lives and work from ten characteristics of Leonardo's genius.
This exposé of regularized falsehood reveals the unfortunate truth behind the financial advisory industry - that professional investors cannot, and never have been able to, beat market averages. Written by a well-credentialed insider, this book additionally provides detailed insights into where people should really invest their money.