Brands started out as communication tools to influence the image of companies or products (inside-out thinking) but have developed into channels of social forces. Powerful brands impact not just customer decisions but also markets and social institutions, such as fashion trends, city life, or even social movements. This book explores the implications of Niklas Luhmann’s theory of social systems for the theory and practice of agile brand management, in particular highlighting the central ro...

A comprehensive playbook for applied design thinking in business and management, complete with concepts and toolkitsAs many companies have lost confidence in the traditional ways of running a business, design thinking has entered the mix. Design Thinking for Strategic Innovation presents a framework for design thinking that is relevant to business management, marketing, and design strategies and also provides a toolkit to apply concepts for immediate use i...

Bridge the gap between business and design to improve the customer experienceBusinesses thrive when they can engage customers. And, while many companies understand that design is a powerful tool for engagement, they do not have the vocabulary, tools, and processes that are required to enable design to make a difference. Experience Design bridges the gap between business and design, explaining how the quality of customer experience is the key to unlocking g...

A Dynamic New Approach to Organizational ChangeDialogic Organization Development is a compelling alternative to the classical action research approach to planned change. Organizations are seen as fluid, socially constructed realities that are continuously created through conversations and images. Leaders and consultants can help foster change by encouraging disruptions to taken-for-granted ways of thinking and acting and the use of generative images to stimulate new...

CCL fellows McGuire and Rhodes replace the common and popular myth that change in organizational culture is beyond the reach of mere mortals. They offer a practical guide for achieving feasible culture transformation by helping leaders see how leading the culture and managing the operations are two sides of the same coin. The book provides guidance and resources that helps leaders decide: (1) what change is feasible; (2) how to set practical incremental targets of change and development; a...

By studying the work of hundreds of the most original and effective business minds, the authors present a common architecture that illuminates exceptional analysis and creative performance. 2 x 2 Thinking is characterized by a fundamental appreciation for the dynamic and complex nature of business. The best strategists go out of their way to tackle dilemmas rather than merely solve problems. They use opposition, creative tension, iteration and transcendence to get to the heart of issues an...

Flawed Advice and the Management Trap: How Managers Can Know When They're Getting Good Advice and When They're Not is the first book to show how and why so much of today's business advice is flawed, and how managers and executives can better evaluate advice given to their firms Practitioners and scholars agree that businesses in the coming millennium will be managed differently than firms of the 20th century. And getting there from here, according to today's best advice, will require creat...

This accessible, well-written book is a must-have for the aspiring MBA applicant. The 2nd edition of MBA Admissions Strategy is an essential guide to the four aspects of a successful, competitive business school application.

Every day human organisations fail. Building Anti-Fragile Organisations explores a powerful alternative framework for risk in the design and management of human systems. Anti-Fragility is a new way of thinking about mitigating risk that builds on earlier work on the characteristics of biological systems that, being more than just robust, actually improve their resilience through being stressed. Professor Bendell explains how applying this concept to the development and management of organi...

A practitioner-focused approach to strategy and real-world strategic thinkingThis 3rd edition has been revised and updated throughout to reflect the current thinking in strategy in view of the current economic and business climate. It questions how we are thinking differently about strategy now, in light of emerging from the global economic crisis. It includes new and updated case illustrations throughout, plus a new chapter on Strategy Execution and Performance Ap...

In the midst of the most severe recession for 80 years there is little need to argue that organizations are beset by dilemmas and paradoxes. Confidence in prevailing business models and in the underlying assumptions underpinning business decisions over many decades has now been shaken. But it is not enough to rail against arrogance and greed. Within their own (flawed) assumptions bankers and corporate leaders were acting rationally. A major reason for the failure to anticipate and warn is ...

People demand authentic participation in decisions that affect their lives. ToP methods answer that call because they reflect how humans think, growing out of reflective inquiry into what works in real life and the study of phenomenology and existentialism. This book explores the foundational understandings of this body of knowledge and its practice. Getting to the Bottom of ToP works at two levels: as a guide to processes that elicit participation to bring insights to the surface and ensu...