Business & Economics

If you want to be taken seriously, you hire McKinsey & Company. Founded in 1926, McKinsey can lay claim to the following partial list of accomplishments: its consultants have ushered in waves of structural, financial, and technological change to the nation’s best organizations; they remapped the power structure within the White House; they even revo­lutionized business schools. In The New York Times bestseller The Firm, star financial journalist Duff McDonald shows just how, in becoming an indispensable part of decision making at the highest levels, McKinsey has done nothing less than set the course of American capitalism.

But he also answers the question that’s on the mind of anyone who has ever heard the word McKinsey: Are they worth it? After all, just as McKinsey can be shown to have helped invent most of the tools of modern management, the company was also involved with a number of striking failures. Its consultants were on the scene when General Motors drove itself into the ground, and they were K-Mart’s advisers when the retailer tumbled into disarray. They played a critical role in building the bomb known as Enron.

McDonald is one of the few journalists to have not only parsed the record but also penetrated the culture of McKinsey itself. His access puts him in a unique position to demonstrate when it is worth hiring these gurus—and when they’re full of smoke.

Based on an in-depth analysis of over 2,600 leaders drawn from a database of more than 17,000 CEOs and C-suite executives, as well 13,000 hours of interviews, and two decades of experience advising CEOs and executive boards, Elena L. Botelho and Kim R. Powell overturn the myths about what it takes to get to the top and succeed.

Their groundbreaking research was the featured cover story in the May-June 2017 issue of Harvard Business Review. It reveals the common attributes and counterintuitive choices that set apart successful CEOs—lessons that we can apply to our own careers.

Much of what we hear about who gets to the top, and how, is wrong. Those who become chief executives set their sights on the C-suite at an early age. In fact, over 70 percent of the CEOs didn’t have designs on the corner office until later in their careers. You must graduate from an elite college. In fact, only 7 percent of CEOs in the dataset are Ivy League graduates–and 8 percent didn’t graduate from college at all. To become a CEO you need a flawless résumé. The reality: 45 percent of CEO candidates had at least one major career blowup.

What those who reach the top do share are four key behaviors that anyone can master: they are decisive; they are reliable, delivering what they promised when the promise it, without exception; they adapt boldly, and they engage with stakeholders without shying away from conflict.

Based on this breakthrough study of the most successful people in business, Botelho and Powell offer career advice for everyone who aspires to get ahead.

Career success has never happened overnight. Whether the economy is blossoming and filled with hope and potential or fragile and inducing worldwide trepidation, you can still be confident in your big-picture path to success.

Trust the trajectory that has been laid out just for you! Too often, people focus on the short term–mere survival–because they remain caught between a fear of failure and a desire for instant success, which results in their not only limiting the risks they take but also limiting their opportunities. Because as much as they want to get ahead, they simply can’t see how to get there. They don’t see how their current position is not merely a dead-end trap but actually a springboard to their next position–or even the one after that.

Business author David Van Rooy wants readers to know that the key is to have faith in your trajectory. He says that each and every person has their own career path–and this timely and refreshingly practical book presents seven strategies designed to help anyone create and manage theirs.

Readers of Trajectory will discover how to: • Make the most of feedback • Avoid stagnation and break through plateaus:
• Achieve growth through failure
• Move to the front of the pack through persistence
• Continuously develop both “soft” and “hard” professional skills
• And much more

You don’t need to start over! Just discover where you currently are on your career trajectory. From building relationships with mentors, to positioning (and repositioning) yourself for promotion, this essential guide provides the tools you need for a lifetime of advancement.

Insightful, enlightening and thought-provoking, leading Premier League lawyer Daniel Geey lifts the lid on the inner workings of modern football.

Whether it is a manager being sacked, the signing of a new star player, television rights negotiations, player misconduct or multi-million-pound club takeovers, lawyers remain at the heart of all football business dealings. Written by leading Premier League lawyer Daniel Geey, who has dealt with all these incidents first hand, this highly accessible book explores the issues–from pitch to boardroom–that shape the modern game and how these impact leagues, clubs, players, and fans.

Featuring insider anecdotes and expert contributions, Done Deal provides football fans with a fresh and authoritative perspective on all off-field football matters.