Business & Economics

Over the course of 7 decades Ralph Nader has been Corporate America’s fiercest critic. Supreme Court Justice William Powell singled out Nader in his infamous memo as the “single most effective antagonist of American business… [the] target of his hatred… is corporate power.”

But now, in a book that will surprise both his fans and critics, Nader profiles a small group of CEOs who he believes performed extraordinarily well as business leaders and civic reformers, some well-known, some not, who should be celebrated as exceptions whose life and career should be a course of emulation and inspiration for students of business, executives and the wider citizenry.

This select group of mavericks and iconoclasts — which includes The Body Shop’s Anita Roddick, Patagonia’s Yvon Chouinard, Vanguard’s John Bogle and Busboys and Poets’ Andy Shallal —give us, Nader writes, “a sense of what might have been and what still could be if business were rigorously framed as a process that was not only about making money and selling things but improving our social and natural world.”

The Age of Prediction is about two powerful, and symbiotic, trends: the rapid development and use of artificial intelligence and big data to enhance prediction, as well as the often paradoxical effects of these better predictions on our understanding of risk and the ways we live. Beginning with dramatic advances in quantitative investing and precision medicine, this book explores how predictive technology is quietly reshaping our world in fundamental ways, from crime fighting and warfare to monitoring individual health and elections.

As prediction grows more robust, it also alters the nature of the accompanying risk, setting up unintended and unexpected consequences. The Age of Prediction details how predictive certainties can bring about complacency or even an increase in risks—genomic analysis might lead to unhealthier lifestyles or a GPS might encourage less attentive driving. With greater predictability also comes a degree of mystery, and the authors ask how narrower risks might affect markets, insurance, or risk tolerance generally. Can we ever reduce risk to zero? Should we even try? This book lays an intriguing groundwork for answering these fundamental questions and maps out the latest tools and technologies that power these projections into the future, sometimes using novel, cross-disciplinary tools to map out cancer growth, people’s medical risks, and stock dynamics.

A new way of seeing the essential systems hidden inside our walls, under our streets, and all around us

Infrastructure is a marvel, meeting our basic needs and enabling lives of astounding ease and productivity that would have been unimaginable just a century ago. It is the physical manifestation of our social contract—of our ability to work collectively for the public good—and it consists of the most complex and vast technological systems ever created by humans.

A soaring bridge is an obvious infrastructural feat, but so are the mostly hidden reservoirs, transformers, sewers, cables, and pipes that deliver water, energy, and information to wherever we need it. When these systems work well, they hide in plain sight. Engineer and materials scientist Deb Chachra takes readers on a fascinating tour of these essential utilities, revealing how they work, what it takes to keep them running, just how much we rely on them—but also whom they work well for, and who pays the costs.

Across the U.S. and elsewhere, these systems are suffering from systemic neglect and the effects of climate change, becoming unavoidably visible when they break down. Communities that are already marginalized often bear the brunt of these failures. But Chachra maps out a path for transforming and rebuilding our shared infrastructure to be not just functional but also equitable, resilient, and sustainable. The cost of not being able to rely on these systems is unthinkably high. We need to learn how to see them—and fix them, together—before it’s too late.

Don’t risk the dire consequences of your work processes becoming obsolete—discover a powerful model for constant, ongoing, enterprise-wide process evolution and optimization.

If you have a great product, but don’t have the operations in place to efficiently and effectively support it—production, manufacturing, sales, finance, human resources, etc.—you won’t succeed. Product innovation is seen as flashier and so gets far more attention, but you can create an enduring competitive advantage by revolutionizing business operations.

The problem is most attempts to improve business operations are reactive, sporadic, and siloed. Tony Saldanha and Filippo Passerini’s Dynamic Process Transformation model provides a living model for constant, ongoing process evolution and optimization.

The authors focus on maximizing three drivers of change. First, “open market rules”—each business process must be run as a separate business, instead of via monolithic mandates coming down from on high. Second, there must be “unified accountability”— outcomes must be clear and consistent across the company, instead of being siloed within departments. And third, there needs to be a “dynamic operating engine,” a methodology to convert the constantly changing business process goals into tactical day-to-day employee actions.

With numerous examples from leading companies, this book shows how to proactively keep business processes across the company from becoming obsolete and take advantage of a neglected key to success.

If you’re on the internet, you’re already global. Now, get access to an innovative data-driven model for profitably expanding the international presence you already have.

Companies looking to expand used to think about entering international markets, but today you’re global from the moment you create a website. Nataly Kelly, Chief Growth Officer at Rebrandly (a global tech company with customers in more than 100 countries) and former VP International Ops and Strategy at HubSpot, says now the goal should be market intensification—building on the presence you already have.

Kelly’s MARACA model enables companies to distill the mass amounts of data available to determine if, how, and where they should expand by looking at three key areas of measurement:
MA: market availability—the size of the market opportunity within a given country
RA: real-time analytics—data indicating how your company is currently performing in that market
CA: customer addressability—the measure of your company’s ability to address the market, no matter its size

The book is based on Kelly’s experiences with building a global business both at HubSpot and as a consultant, but also contains numerous examples from successful global companies of various sizes, such as Airbnb, Canva, Dashlane, GoStudent, Facebook, LinkedIn, Lottie Dolls, Netflix, Revolut, Teamwork, and Zoom. Including information on building a globally minded corporate culture, this is a complete strategic guide to discovering international growth opportunities.

Meaningful relationships are a must-have to sustain and further your career. A network built on reciprocity, depth, and trust isn’t merely helpful to your career growth; it is absolutely necessary. Your skills, work ethic, education, lived experience, passions—all these will only achieve their full potential when paired with meaningful relationships.

Your Invisible Network provides a practical, nuanced plan for building and sustaining a network that will supercharge your growth—from author Michael Urtuzuástegui Melcher, an internationally acclaimed executive coach and leadership expert who has partnered with professionals in nearly every field for decades. Every chapter of Your Invisible Network contains compelling true stories along with quick lessons and manageable practice exercises that even the busiest of professionals can fit into their schedules.