Business & Economics

A sweeping history of the legendary private investment firm Brown Brothers Harriman, exploring its central role in the story of American wealth and its rise to global power. Conspiracy theories have always swirled around Brown Brothers Harriman, and not without reason.

In Inside Money, acclaimed historian, commentator, and former financial executive Zachary Karabell offers the first full and frank look inside this institution against the backdrop of American history. Blessed with complete access to the company’s archives, as well as a thrilling understanding of the larger forces at play, Karabell has created an X-ray of American power–financial, political, cultural–as it has evolved from the early 1800s to the present. Today, unlike many of its competitors, Brown Brothers Harriman remains a private partnership and a beacon of sustainable capitalism, having forgone the heady speculative upsides of the past thirty years but also having avoided any role in the devastating downsides. The firm is no longer in the command capsule of the American economy, but, arguably, that is to its credit. If its partners cleaved to any one adage over the generations, it is that a relentless pursuit of more can destroy more than it creates.

Leading companies invest a lot of resources into competitive intelligence, so why are they still caught off guard by the actions and reactions of their competitors?

In Inside the Competitor’s Mindset, John Horn shares proven techniques to help businesses think like the competition and understand why they act the way they do. The keys to unlocking this mindset are cognitive empathy and a strategic approach to competitive insight that focuses on the “why” of a competitor’s move, and not just on “what happened.”

Inside the Competitor’s Mindset presents a systematic approach to competitive intelligence that starts with three frameworks to get inside the competitor’s mindset, predict their reactions to your moves, and assess whether the competition is getting ready for a spontaneous move of their own. Horn also demonstrates the importance of collecting forward-looking, predictive data; explains how to use war games, Black Hat exercises, mock negotiations, and premortems to build competitive insight; and makes the case for creating a dedicated competitive insight function within the organization.

When every move matters, staying a step ahead of the competition is critical. Inside the Competitor’s Mindset prepares leaders from any industry to be ready when it is time to act (and react) in the competitive market.

To be productive and optimistic about our personal and professional lives, we want to feel that we can understand and influence what is happening around us today, and that we have a reliable insight into what will happen tomorrow. We also require a rich, supportive, and secure social life. As more of us work remotely and the frequency of our in-person contact decreases, this desire for connection and trust has only become more important; the social drive is so strong that our body temperature drops when we feel excluded.

To satisfy our psychological needs in today’s professional world, we must pursue them consciously and purposefully―but unfortunately, most of us don’t know how to do so effectively. Instead, we waste our time on ineffective coping strategies that often make us feel even worse. The true solution to becoming happier, healthier, and more productive is to become intrinsically motivated: To stop wasting time on activities that don’t really contribute to our careers or our company’s success, eschew the dog-eat-dog culture of modern business, and find ways to take pleasure in what we do―and to do it well.

Intrinsic Motivation by Stefan Falk is a comprehensive guide to achieving this goal. Filled with methods and techniques he developed at McKinsey & Company and through 25 years as a senior executive and performance coach working with elite athletes, top executives, special operators in the armed forces, and leaders from all walks of life, this book will revolutionize your approach to success at work and beyond.

In today’s complex corporate world, contemporary governance calls for a varied and versatile cognitive approach to problems–demanding times require nimble minds and rounded perspectives.

The authors’ research has identified five key leadership intelligences–the 5Qs–which high-performing leaders need to simultaneously employ in order to achieve transformational change. These are:

· IQ (cognitive intelligence): a leader’s ability to acquire deductive abilities and draw together contrasting strands of information;
· EQ (emotional intelligence): a leader’s ability to understand and manage both their own emotions and those of others;
· PQ (political intelligence): a leader’s ability to navigate a way forward through diverse stakeholder agendas while ensuring continued engagement with critical players;
· RQ (resilience quotient): the capacity of a leader to emotionally sustain high performance under continued pressure and adversity; and
· MQ (moral intelligence): a leader’s ability to understand their own value system and draw on this to determine the moral boundaries of individuals, teams and the organization.

The 5Qs come together to inform every aspect of leadership, and each of them can, in different ways, be nurtured and practiced through learning and development. Andrew Kakabadse and Ali Qassim Jawad have tested the 5Qs on leaders worldwide, applying them at all levels of leadership in order to explore the combinations of intelligences needed to become a well-rounded, effective leader in any situation.

ou might imagine that an effective leader is someone who makes quick, intelligent decisions, gives inspiring speeches, and issues clear orders to their team so they can execute a plan to achieve your organization’s goals. Unfortunately, David Marquet argues, that’s an outdated model of leadership that just doesn’t work anymore.

As a leader in today’s networked, information-dense business climate, you don’t have full visibility into your organization or the ground reality of your operating environment. In order to harness the eyes, ears, and minds of your people, you need to foster a climate of collaborative experimentation that encourages people to speak up when they notice problems and work together to identify and test solutions.

Too many leaders fall in love with the sound of their own voice, and wind up dictating plans and digging in their heels when problems begin to emerge. Even when you want to be a more collaborative leader, you can undermine your own efforts by defaulting to command-and-control language we’ve inherited from the industrial era.

It’s time to ditch the industrial age playbook of leadership. In Leadership is Language, you’ll learn how choosing your words can dramatically improve decision-making and execution on your team. Marquet outlines six plays for all leaders, anchored in how you use language.