Showing results by narrator "Dana Hickox" in All Categories

The Devil's Financial Dictionary skewers the plutocrats and bureaucrats who gave us exploding mortgages, freakish risks, and banks too big to fail. And it distills the complexities, absurdities, and pomposities of Wall Street into plain truths and aphorisms anyone can understand. An indispensable survival guide to the hostile wilderness of today's financial markets, The Devil's Financial Dictionary delivers practical insights with a scorpion's sting.

Between 1959 and 1989, Soviet scientists and officials made numerous attempts to network their nation - to construct a nationwide computer network. None of these attempts succeeded, and the enterprise had been abandoned by the time the Soviet Union fell apart. Meanwhile, ARPANET, the American precursor to the Internet, went online in 1969. Why did the Soviet network, with top-level scientists and patriotic incentives, fail while the American network succeeded? Find out.

In Calculating the Cosmos, Ian Stewart presents an exhilarating guide to the cosmos, from our solar system to the entire universe. He describes the architecture of space and time, dark matter and dark energy, how galaxies form, why stars implode, how everything began, and how it's all going to end. He considers parallel universes, the fine-tuning of the cosmos for life, what forms extraterrestrial life might take, and the likelihood of life on Earth being snuffed out by an asteroid.

Increasingly, new employees and junior members of any profession are encouraged - sometimes stridently - to "find a mentor!" Four decades of research reveals that the effects of mentorship can be profound and enduring; strong mentoring relationships have the capacity to transform individuals and entire organizations.

Based on the authors' extensive experience working with international board-level teams, Challenging Coaching suggests that for too long coaches have shied away from adopting a more challenging stance in their work - a stance that can provoke greater performance and unlock deeper potential in business leaders and their teams. In particular, the authors offer a new coaching approach, FACTS, to help coaches develop this challenging stance.

Grahame Wood opened the first Wawa Food Market in 1964 as an outlet for Wawa dairy products. Since then, the convenience store has grown into a well-known company that competes against the biggest industry players in the world in three areas: fuel, convenience, and food, all while maintaining their personal approach and small business mentality. Now, almost 50 years later, Wawa has opened its first store in Florida and begun to play on the national field. How did it happen?

When children are late in hitting developmental milestones, parents worry. And no delay causes more parental anxiety than late talking, which is associated in many parents' minds with such serious conditions as autism and severe intellectual disability. In fact, as children's speech expert Stephen Camarata points out in this enlightening book, children are late in beginning to talk for a wide variety of reasons.

Stealing the Corner Office is mandatory listening for smart, hardworking managers who always wonder why their seemingly incompetent superiors are so successful. It is a unique collection of controversial but highly effective tactics for middle managers and aspiring executives who want to learn the real secrets for moving up the corporate ladder. Unlike virtually all other business books, Stealing the Corner Office explores the unconventional tactics people less competent than you use to get ahead and stay ahead.

Why do as many as 75% of change initiatives fail? We live in an era where constant change is the norm rather than the exception. Given globalization, increased competition, and constant technological turnover, no organization can run in place: change is not optional. However, the sad fact is that the vast majority of change efforts fail. As authors Gregory P. Shea and Cassie A. Solomon argue, they do not fail for a lack of trying or leadership. Chances are you have led or been part of a failed change.

In Capital, Commonwealth Prize-winning author Rana Dasgupta examines one of the great trends of our time: The expansion of the global elite. Capital is an intimate portrait of the city of Delhi, which bears witness to the extraordinary transmogrification of India's capital. But it also offers a glimpse of what capitalism will become in the coming, post-Western world. The story of Delhi is a parable for where we are all headed.

There is no simple strategic method for dealing with the multidimensional nature of digital change. Even the sharpest leaders can become disoriented as change builds on change, leaving almost nothing certain. Yet to stand still is to fail. Enterprises and leaders must remaster themselves to succeed. Leaders must identify the key macro forces then lead their organizations at three distinct levels: industry, enterprise, and self. By doing this they can not only survive but clean up.

Birds of a feather flock together. We're all in the same boat. Great minds think alike. While just figures of speech to some, they reflect a simple truth - it's the company we keep that often determines the level of personal growth and professional success we achieve in life. Business leaders exchange information and ideas. They network to make deals and build partnerships. They work together to optimize best practices, and they reach out to leaders outside their companies to accelerate growth.

Presented by a trusted expert, Dr. Sanjiv Chopra's The Big Five includes easily digestible data and startling results from real studies conducted by reputable universities and involving thousands of subjects. Listeners of The Big Five can hear for themselves that without a doubt, these five simple actions offer many more proven benefits than the latest expensive supplements, fad diets, jazzy exercise programs, and state-of-the-art gym equipment.

They Know Everything About You is a groundbreaking exposé of how government agencies and tech corporations monitor virtually every aspect of our lives, and a fierce defense of privacy and democracy. The revelation that the government has access to a vast trove of personal online data demonstrates that we already live in a surveillance society. But the erosion of privacy rights extends far beyond big government.

Many people fear public speaking more than death. Most wish they could do it better, or at least avoid the sweating, stuttering jitters that plague them before any presentation or speech. Vikas Jhingran has been there. He was so poor at speaking in public that his supervisor wouldn't let him make presentations to clients - even when he had done all the work. Surprisingly, few professional speakers and presenters understand speeches or presentations at a fundamental level.

With Obfuscation, Finn Brunton and Helen Nissenbaum mean to start a revolution. They are calling us not to the barricades but to our computers, offering us ways to fight today's pervasive digital surveillance - the collection of our data by governments, corporations, advertisers, and hackers. To the toolkit of privacy-protecting techniques and projects, they propose adding obfuscation: the deliberate use of ambiguous, confusing, or misleading information to interfere with surveillance and data-collection projects.

No matter what the speaking challenge is, this inspirational book will help listeners perform with passion, power, and persuasion - at the top of their game. Whether chasing a job, planning a pitch, giving a speech at a wedding, or presenting to one or 1,000 people, listeners of It's Not What You Say will discover how to use the rule of three to win any audience over.

While megasellers like Grain Brain and Wheat Belly suggest that wheat may be the new asbestos, Stephen Yafa finds that it has been wrongly demonized. His revealing audiobook sets the record straight, breaking down the botany of the wheat plant we've hijacked for our own use, the science of nutrition and digestion, the effects of mass production on our health, and questions about gluten and fiber - all to point us toward a better, richer diet.

National polling indicates that for the first time in American history, people believe their children will not be as well off as they are. The primary reason for this? The lack of performance by government. The public sector receives trillions of American taxpayer dollars every year, and yet because of its seeming inability to run effectively, government is not delivering the level of service the people are paying for.

Whether you're the new kid in a cubicle, the boss in the executive suite, or self-employed, you have huge potential for greater productivity and fulfillment. Even very high performers in excellent organizations - large and small, for profit and nonprofit - report that 30 to 40 percent of their talent is untapped. Imagine what lies waiting for you.