Showing results by narrator "Fleet Cooper"

It’s a common complaint among top executives: “I’m spending all my time managing trivial and tactical problems, and I don’t have time to get to the big-picture stuff.” And yet when I ask my executive clients, “If I cleared your calendar for an entire day to free you up to be ‘more strategic,’ what would you actually do?” most have no idea. I often get a shrug and a blank stare in response.

Although generational differences are often overstated in the workplace, Millennials do face a unique challenge, thanks to the reality of modern 24/7 communication: "ruthless comparison" with their peers. In a recent series of hundreds of interviews with twentysomething Millennials across the United Kingdom, I heard this over and over again.

Everyone knows confidence when they see it; but seemingly no one can actually describe what goes into it or how to get it. The Nerd's Guide to Being Confident is an unconventional way of looking at one of the most basic and obvious human traits and what one can do to gain a little more of it without feeling like a phony. Laughter included.

You’ve just landed an interview for your dream job. If you’re like most people, you’ll spend hours, perhaps days, preparing for that interview. You’ll research the company and industry, anticipate the questions you’ll be asked, and rehearse the perfect answers. You’ve probably followed all the interviewing best practices: be yourself, dress appropriately, focus on your strengths, don’t interrupt, and prepare questions in advance.

This book stitches together a complete design journey from beginning to end in a way that you've likely never seen before, guiding listeners (you) step-by-step in a practical way from the initial spark of an idea all the way to scaling it into a better business. Design a Better Business includes a comprehensive set of tools (over 20 total!) and skills that will help you harness opportunity from uncertainty by building the right team(s) and balancing your point of view against new findings from the outside world.

The Stephen King Companion is an authoritative look at horror author King's personal life and professional career, from Carrie to The Bazaar of Bad Dreams. King expert George Beahm, who has published extensively about Maine's main author, is your seasoned guide to the imaginative world of Stephen King, covering his varied and prodigious output: juvenalia, short fiction, limited edition books, best-selling novels, and film adaptations.

In an era of high-stakes innovation, there is no clearer illustration of how to develop new products the right way (and the wrong way) than a tale of two car companies. The first company is Porsche, which in the early 2000s launched the Cayenne sports utility vehicle - a vehicle very different from the high-performance sports cars for which it was famous. The second company is Fiat Chrysler, which introduced the Dodge Dart compact in 2012 with great fanfare, and even greater expectations.

“Bueller? Bueller?” If you’ve seen Ferris Bueller’s Day Off, that one line probably conjures up memories of Oh yeah, chicka chicka, Ferraris, playing hooky, and dating in high school — all of which feature heavily in the hit coming-of-age film.

Profiled on the front page of the Wall Street Journal, Iranian-born scholar Vali Nasr has become one of America's leading commentators on current events in the Middle East, admired and welcomed by both media and government for his "concise and coherent" analysis (Wall Street Journal). In this "smart, clear and timely" book (Washington Post), Nasr brilliantly dissects the political and theological antagonisms within Islam. He provides a unique and objective understanding of the 1,400-year bitter struggle between Shias and Sunnis, and sheds crucial light on its modern-day consequences—from the nuclear posturing of Iran's President Ahmadinejad to the recent U.S.-enabled shift toward Shia power in Iraq and Hezbollah's continued dominance in Lebanon.

Reading is time-consuming. I was already over-busy before I started reading several books a week. And I am a slow reader. I tried the traditional shortcuts, but none of them worked. Reading the PR materials is insufficient for understanding a book, and executive summaries are awful. I have never read an executive summary that came close to conveying what’s interesting and useful about an author’s work.

As I approach the 10-year anniversary of HubSpot, the marketing and sales software firm of which I’m CEO, I’ve been reflecting back on the decisions I’ve made - both right and wrong. There has been a fair share of both. I’ve also been considering how my decision-making process has evolved as the company moved from an early-stage startup to a growth-stage scale-up. Understanding my own evolution in decision making and the tools I use today may help spare other scale-up leaders some unwanted headaches.

"Bay Area Startups Find Low-Cost Outposts in Arizona" is from the August 22, 2016 Business section of The New York Times. It was written by Conor Dougherty and narrated by Fleet Cooper.

IDEO’s origin story sometimes sounds like a myth or a fable, but it’s actually true. David Kelley founded the company with a simple goal: to create a workplace made up of his best friends. In the beginning he did, in fact, bring in some of his closest buddies to launch the Silicon Valley firm that would become IDEO. More than 30 years later, we’re a global design company that employs more than 650 people. Obviously, we didn’t get to that size by hiring only our friends.

Often, it seems that having a narcissistic disposition — grandiose, self-promoting, larger than life — is a prerequisite for reaching the higher organizational echelons. Narcissistic people can be charismatic and manipulative, which helps them get ahead. But although their drive and ambitions can be effective in moving organizations forward, excessive narcissistic behavior can create havoc and lead to organizational breakdown. Personality traits don’t change quickly, if at all. So what can managers do?

If you’re a manager in a knowledge-driven industry, chances are you’re an expert in the area you manage. Try to imagine a leader without this expertise doing your job. You’ll probably conclude it couldn’t be done.

"Sports Gambler and Former Dean Foods Chairman Charged with Insider Trading" is from the May 19, 2016 Sports section of The New York Times. It was written by Matthew Goldstein and Ben Protess and narrated by Fleet Cooper.

A strong culture is vital for organizational success—as evidenced by the relationship between culture and leadership, employee commitment, customer satisfaction, and innovation. But “strong” doesn’t mean fixed. As the organizational goals and strategy change over time, so too should culture intentionally be changed.

"HR Can't Change Company Culture by Itself" is from hbr.com, published on November 2, 2016.

Volkswagen’s brazen and bizarre “Diesel-gate” deception beggars belief.

Being promoted to manager is a good sign you’ve been successful to date - however, the road from this point forward gets trickier to navigate.

Sure to become a favorite of readers who love Chicken Soup for its stories of overcoming life’s obstacles, challenges, heartbreaks, and pain, this book emphasizes triumph in the face of overwhelming odds. A timeless testament to the indomitable human spirit, this collection is sure to encourage, support, comfort, and, most of all, inspire all readers for years to come.