Business & Economics

A top headhunter tells all in this breakout business book in the tradition of"What Color Is Your Parachute?" and "Built to Last."

Find and kill the corporate stupidity that drives customers crazy. CEO and award-winning business writer John R. Brandt offers concrete examples of how any organization--large or small, and regardless of industry--can innovate in ways that delight customers and attract top-level talent.

Nincompoopery--terrible customer service, idiotic business processes, and soul-crushing management practices--surrounds all of us. We lose time, patience, and profits as stuck-in-the-past organizations actively prevent us (and our customers) from getting the value we (and they) deserve.

Can't anybody change this? CEO and award-winning business writer John R. Brandt says we can. In Nincompoopery: Why Your Customers Hate You--And How to Fix It, he leverages research across thousands of companies to show leaders how to find and kill the corporate stupidity that drives customers crazy. More importantly, he offers concrete examples of how any organization--large or small, and regardless of industry--can innovate in ways that delight customers and attract top-level talent.

Brandt has worked with hundreds of companies to help them outwit competitors, and in the blunt (and funny) Nincompoopery, he shares his unique blueprint for success. It usually starts by asking a simple question or two, such as

Why should our customers have to rekey their data multiple times to make a single purchase?

Why are there four levels of approval just to order basic supplies?

Why can't we get qualified candidates for open positions, or provide new employees with decent training?

In short: How did we become such nincompoops? And when will we stop?

Nincompoopery offers leaders the answers they need--and the profits they crave--with a scoop of humor on the side. Enjoy!

A highly visual exploration of diagrams and data that helps you understand how "maps" are part of everyday thinking, how they tell stories, and how they can reframe your point of view, from Stanford University's world-renowned d.school.

"This book is the ultimate legend to mapping all kinds of data."--Jessica Hagy, Webby Award-winning blogger of Indexed and author of How to Be Interesting (In Ten Simple Steps)

Maps aren't just geographic, they are also infographic and include all types of frameworks and diagrams. Any figure that sorts data visually and presents it spatially is a map. Maps are ways of organizing information and figuring out what's important. Even stories can be mapped! The Secret Language of Maps provides a simple framework to deconstruct existing maps and then shows you how to create your own.

An embedded mystery story about a woman who investigates the disappearance of an old high school friend illustrates how to use different maps to make sense of all types of information. Colorful illustrations bring the story to life and demonstrate how the fictional character's collection of data, properly organized and "mapped," leads her to solve the mystery of her friend's disappearance.

You'll learn how to gather data, organize it, and present it to an audience. You'll also learn how to view the many maps that swirl around our daily lives with a critical eye, aware of the forces that are in play for every creator.

It's estimated that there are over 50 million pensioners--in the United States alone. Like the United States, the United Kingdom, Japan, Italy, Germany and many other countries around the world are all in big trouble when it comes to the solvency of their pension funds. Who Stole My Pension? was written to give them guidance, resources, and tools so they can take action... and stop the looting. We are in the early stages of the greatest retirement crisis in the history of our nation and, indeed, the entire world. According to the World Health Organization, nearly two billion people around the world are expected to be over age 60 by 2050, a figure that's more than triple what it was in 2000. For better or for worse, never before have there been more elderly people living on planet Earth. One thing is. certain: Doing nothing--sitting back, confident your pension check is "in the mail"--is not an option. That's a risk you can't afford to take. According to Edward Siedle, a former attorney with the United States Securities and Exchange Commission and America's leading expert in pension looting, "In the decades to come, we will witness hundreds of millions of elders worldwide, including America's Baby Boomers, slipping into poverty. Too frail to work, too poor to retire will become the "new normal" for many of the aged." Kiyosaki, who like Siedle saw this crisis looming years ago, complements the facts and stats Siedle puts forth with strategies on how retirees can take control--not only their pensions, but their financial futures. Kiyosaki writes about the fact that his father, a highly educated man he calls his poor dad, wasn't poor until he lost his job, his paycheck--and his pension. "His PHD couldn't save him," says Kiyosaki, who has dedicated his life to teaching and financial literacy advocacy. In Who Stole My Pension? the authors focus on the most misunderstood and ignored cause of the pension crisis: mismanagement of pensions and investments. The culprits that are looting the pensions of public school teachers, firefighters, police, as well as private sector workers, are on Wall Street. The Wall Street casinos charging high fees for gambling in risky hedge funds and other speculative investments, outrageous investment-industry conflicts of interest, and outright violations of the law. Who Stole My Pension? is an in-depth assessment of the pension crisis that the world is facing today and what millions around the world--employees who expected to have pension income at retirement--can do about it. The authors recount a history of pension failures, inexperienced boards, gambling, looting and other horror stories--with a focus on action steps workers and retirees can take to quickly determine if a pension is being mismanaged as well as the concrete steps they can take to end decades of pension mismanagement. They detail critical questions retirees can ask--and guidance regarding how to act on what they learn.