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bookcategory: Must Read

Shelly Alcorn & Willis Turner

Play predates the development of human culture and our brains are hard-wired to use play as a tool to accelerate learning, strategically explore unfamiliar environments and develop collaborative social connections. Games are human created, formalized structures and processes designed to maximize engagement and get the most out of the “play” impulse. In fact, gaming comes so naturally to us we don’t even notice it for what it is. Two examples of large scale gaming structures include our educational and political systems. Going deeper into understanding how gaming structures work, and intentionally applying those mechanics can give us an advantage when designing experiences meant to engage our members in the work of our associations.

Although games have been with us since we first learned to scratch marks on small rocks, what is new is the impact the internet and technology is having on games and players alike. What was simple activity in the past, is rapidly turning into a large scale social phenomenon. At some point the term “gamer” will lose it relevancy and we will recognize gamers for what they are – an increasingly sophisticated class of experience consumers. Games are the first mass media of the 21st century and gaming literacy is an essential skill all executives, staff and volunteers need to develop in order to attract, appeal to and invite a new generation of players to play the association game. In this book, we take a simple, practical approach to helping you and your volunteers take these ideas one step farther.

By using these 42 rules from Shelly Alcorn and Willis Turner,, you will be able to use simple gaming mechanics to increase member engagement, improve educational outcomes and build community in your industry or profession.

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Ruth Ross

Coming Alive: The Journey To Reengage Your Life And Career by Ruth Ross is the prescription for anyone who has ever personally felt the pain of knowing they weren’t fully engaged at work or at home (or both), has an important person in his or her life experiencing this or perhaps manages a team that is struggling with disengagement. If so, then this book will act as your roadmap to implement the necessary steps to walk toward something better by being thoughtful, strategic and intentional. At work or at home, disengagement is a pervasive quandary that requires a commitment to turning things around. Coming Alive will take you on a journey to understand the power of passion and commitment, pinpoint the underlying causes, recognize the symptoms and most importantly, learn an easy-to-use treatment plan for reengagement.

David Giannetto

It’s easy for today’s leaders to fall into the trap of accepting trendy big-data, social media, and mobile technology initiatives as the norm: “cool” initiatives that generate only superficial results. Seduced by their promise but concerned by their complexity, many leaders allow these initiatives to be implemented in isolation—segregated from what has traditionally driven organizational success and far removed from tangible business results.

Big Social Mobile shows how big data, social media, and mobile technology can be used differently. Integrated into each other and into the enterprise itself, these digital initiatives can deliver tangible value, drive the achievement of strategic objectives and even create competitive advantage. David Giannetto shows business, marketing, and technology leaders how to make the most of these initiatives, dispelling the common beliefs that divide traditional organizational efforts from these new digital efforts, traditional enterprise data from big data, and today’s new social consumer from enterprise functions. The result is a socially aware, information-empowered organization designed to reinforce rather than diffuse its connection to consumers, provide a consistent experience across all channels and influence consumer behavior to its best advantage. Big Social Mobile highlights the importance of defusing fragmentation and connecting what feels very new—the digital revolution and the big, social, mobile initiatives that accompany it—to a more traditional business perspective. Outlining straightforward methods that connect the digital world to the people, process, technology, and information within an organization, Giannetto uses case studies and personal experience to demonstrate how to create a Big Social Mobile enterprise that operates, communicates, and interacts seamlessly across both the physical and digital landscape today’s consumers inhabit.

Big Social Mobile is for today’s leaders interested in harnessing the combined power of big data, social media, and mobile technology within their organization to achieve significant, tangible business results. Giannetto provides eye-opening advice and direction for those who sense that a forward-thinking mindset and an integrated approach are necessary to remain competitive in the new social economy.

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Andy Paul

Salespeople today face a fast-paced and increasingly crowded marketplace where meaningful product differentiation has all but disappeared. To compete success fully, sellers must set themselves apart in the eyes of buyers. Amp Up Your Sales shows anyone how to become the trusted sales professional who consistently wins new business. Customers are overloaded with information, overwhelmed by options, and short on time – so the salesperson who is always responsive and completely focused on value, is the one who will stand out from the crowd and get the sale. Combining leading-edge research with field experience, the book shows readers how to: maximize the value of their selling; accelerate responsiveness to build trust and credibility; earn valuable selling time with customers; shape the buyer’s vision; integrate persuasive stories into their sales process; and, build lasting relationships through follow-up and customer service. Insightful and practical, the book arms salespeople with a powerful set of strategies they can use to spur buyers to say yes!

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Marcia Reynolds

Leaders, managers, and coaches are charged with getting people to stretch their limits but are often unsuccessful. Top leadership coach Marcia Reynolds says the problem is, incorrectly handled, difficult conversations create more resistance than growth. Reynolds offers a model and methods for discovering what to say so people change their own minds. As a result, leaders equip people to find their own solutions, see situations more strategically, and grow beyond their limitations.

Reynolds explains how to pick the right time and place to enter the discomfort zone and how to create a “safety bubble” so that people will trust your intentions. Then, drawing on recent discoveries in the neuroscience of learning, she helps leaders ask the kinds of questions that short-circuit the brain’s defense mechanisms and habitual thought patterns. Instead of being told, people see for themselves where they’re falling short and how they can do better, resulting in lasting changes. She includes numerous examples and case studies to see the techniques in action.

Conversations in the Discomfort Zone will never be easy. But with Reynolds’ assistance, a trip there will result in breakthrough solutions, lasting changes, and an engaged workforce.

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Michael Houlihan and Bonnie Harvey

About The Barefoot Spirit

It is hard to believe that such an iconic brand as Barefoot Wines began in a laundry room of a rented farmhouse in the Sonoma County hills. Even more surprising is that the people who started it were just an average business couple, Michael Houlihan and Bonnie Harvey, with no money and no real knowledge about the wine industry.

The part that isn’t a surprise is that, because of their lack of experience, and because the wine business is one massively complicated industry, they ran into difficulties and setbacks that regularly put the brand near death in the first two decades. What kept it going was an unshakable belief in Barefoot’s potential, Michael’s and Bonnie’s use of universal business principles, and their never-say-die outlook despite facing one seemingly insurmountable hurdle after another. Those hardships, that hustle, and their heart, are the essence of the Barefoot Spirit.

For years, Michael and Bonnie, the Barefoot Wine founders, have been asked to write a book about how this brand got started and became a best seller. “The Barefoot Spirit”, a NY Times Bestselling book, traces that history and tells the story of how an unknown novelty wine became an American icon. It chronicles the unlikely events that made it possible, and it lays out the cornerstone business and lifestyle philosophies that made it, ultimately, an enduring success.

If you like wine, the wine country, or a story about how a plucky little winery transformed an industry, if you want to know what it takes to really succeed in the face of adversity, if you want to know how to use your core beliefs to build a national brand, then “The Barefoot Spirit” is for you.

“An irreverent, eye-opening business memoir. Novice winemakers upend the industry’s pretensions while taking on the jungle of the retail beverage sector in this rollicking business saga.”

“Novice winemakers upend the industry’s pretensions while taking on the jungle of the retail beverage sector in this rollicking business saga.”

“An irreverent, eye-opening business memoir.”

-Kirkus Reviews [Read The Full Kirkus Review Here]

 

About The Entrepreneurial Culture

Does Your Company Culture Empower Your People to Think Like Owners? If any business is to thrive in the global marketplace, its employees must be engaged and empowered. In other words, they must think like owners. Problem is, few employees know how. Your job as a leader is to train them to think this way. Because entrepreneurial thinking is a natural extension of company culture, you may need to rebuild yours from the ground up.

Michael Houlihan and Bonnie Harvey—New York Times bestselling authors and founders of Barefoot, America’s #1 wine brand—know how to create the conditions that draw out and nourish people’s inner entrepreneurs. Here, they take the principles that empowered their own tribe of productive, creative and loyal employees to beat the odds and boil those principles down into quick, easy lessons you can put into practice right away. You’ll discover:

  • – How to remove roadblocks to the entrepreneurial spirit
  • – Why everyone at your company must ask questions (including you)
  • – Why your people should embrace mistakes
  • – How to find and hire people with entrepreneurial DNA
  • – How to foster innovation by getting out of your people’s way
  • – How to drive results with performance-based compensation

 

Houlihan and Harvey started the Barefoot Wine brand in their laundry room in 1986, made it a nationwide bestseller, and successfully sold the brand to E&J Gallo in 2005. Starting with virtually no money and no wine industry experience, they employed innovative ideas to overcome obstacles and create new markets. Today, they are sought-after entrepreneurial thought leaders, consultants, corporate trainers, keynote speakers, and workplace culture experts with hundreds of articles in national and professional publications.

In The Entrepreneurial Culture, 23 Ways to Engage and Empower Your People they take everything they know about the spirit of entrepreneurship and teach C-Suite leaders how to infuse it into their company cultures to engage and empower their employees. The book perfectly complements the lessons from the authors’ New York Times bestselling business book, The Barefoot Spirit: How Hardship, Hustle, and Heart Built America’s #1 Wine Brand. Together, these books will give your company the edge it needs to thrive and boost the bottom line.

Purchase your copy of The Barefoot Spirit and exclusively through this C-Suite portal, also obtain a BONUS copy of the companion book, The Entrepreneurial Culture (forward by Jeffrey Hayzlett).

 

Bizcast-for-CSBC-Website

Michael Houlihan and Bonnie Harvey, founders of Barefoot Wine and authors of the New York Times Bestseller The Barefoot Spirit, share with Bizcast host Kevin Craine the creation of the famous Barefoot Wine, establishing an entrepreneurial culture in the business, and give a sneak peak into their new book on that subject: The Entrepreneurial Culture. Michael and Bonnie answer the hard c-suite question: How do you create an entrepreneurial culture within a business and empower employees to act with an entrepreneurial spirit.

Andy Frawley

A new data-driven approach to building customer relationships that fuel sustainable business growth

Igniting Customer Connections explores how organizations of all sizes can build powerful and profitable customer relationships in a today’s increasingly complex, fast-paced, and fragmented marketplace. Written by the president of one of the world’s largest marketing firms, the book provides expert insights about connecting with customers effectively across all channels and over time. The central premise is a refreshingly different, evidence-based approach called Return On Experience and Engagement, or ROE2, which delivers a new way to inspire and measure customer connections—and improve business results.

The traditional marketing campaign—a battle for attention with a clear launch date and endpoint—no longer works. Marketing is faster and more complex than ever, and consumers now have the power to turn off the message. Igniting Customer Connections explores the benefits of a new approach that enables companies to connect with customers, rather than justtalk at them. Topics include:

  • – Why classic ROI is losing relevance as a way to measure results—and to budget marketing spend
  • – How to make powerful connections by taking full advantage of “atomic moments of truth”
  • – Amplifying the impact of customer experience and engagement
  • – Creating a continuous, measurable, repeatable process for growth

 

The key to winning customers and building long-term business is creating positive customer experiences that inspire ongoing engagement—from Facebook “likes” to purchase decisions. Based on data and stories drawn from dozens of top brands and thousands of consumers, Igniting Customer Connections helps marketers create long-term brand equity and sustainable business growth.

 

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Dirk Beveridge

We are living in disruptive times.  In fact 76% of distributors surveyed believe we are living in an environment we could call the age of disruption. Leaders throughout the industry are challenged by the constant pressures that come at them from all directions. The pressures could be competitive from the marketplace, or come as a result of new government regulations, shifting demographics, the accelerating pace of technology, and more.  Navigating these big shifts to create a sustainable and relevant business has become the new mandate for every leader and every employee in distribution. Innovation is at the core of this new mandate.  Innovative distributors will ensure those on their team relish the challenge – and feel prepared to be a part of change and transformation – that comes with innovation.  They will empower those individuals to think critically about how to improve their companies – and to take action on their ideas.  For innovation to take place, your employees – every one of them – must be prepared, willing, and excited to look at the business as if they have never seen it.  They must understand that the ability to transform for the future resides within them. And, here is the good news… 95% of leaders surveyed feel personally empowered to be a disruptive change agent within their business.  If this is you, INNOVATE! is for you. Throughout this indispensable book, Dirk Beveridge delivers a new voice, a new energy, and a new outlook for distributors.

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D. Keith Pigues

Do your customers make more money doing business with you? 

Knowing the answer can help you build measurable and valuable customer relationships, outperform the competition, and unlock profitable growth.

Companies are blind to opportunities for profitable customer relationships without a deep understanding of how they create customer value relative to competitors. With a rigorous and measurable understanding of how customers make more money today and in the future with you, combined with supporting plans and tools to align the entire organization for success, a company can win and win big. Winning with Customers offers a step-by-step playbook to help companies develop this capability for themselves, act on it, build a culture around it and sustain it over time. The playbook includes case studies, interviews, and tools from leading B2B companies who have demonstrated success. Written by recognized business thought leaders and practitioners, this book will guide you to profitable growth. The book also serves as a launch point into a community of like-minded executives. Learn more about the book and the author at http://www.dkeithpigues.com and view Keith speaking about the topic. View the endorsements for the book here, and learn more about Keen Strategy: http://www.keenstrategy.com/

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Steven Haines

Every day, thousands of new products and innovations are brought to market.   Amid much fanfare, they struggle for shelf-space, mind-share, and market share.   Most studies on the subject suggest that products fail more often than they should.   CEOs, CMOs, and other C-Suite executives expect more from their product leaders and marketers!

Whatever your business sells, Product Management is one of the most important functions in the firm’s pursuit of profits.   With globalization and fierce competition, the stakes are higher than ever, and the room for error narrower than ever!   Therefore, leaders need a reliable resource for their product managers, brand managers, and category managers so these people know what to do, when, and with whom.  This resource is The Product Manager’s Desk Reference (2nd edition) — the most comprehensive book in the world on the subject of Product Management.   Designed for product managers and the leaders who support them, the book clearly explains how:

  • 1)     To conduct the research that lead to valuable market insights
  • 2)     To create the strategies required to drive innovation
  • 3)     To select and justify which products to build
  • 4)     To plan for their profitable creation and development
  • 5)     To launch them to the right markets at the right time
  • 6)     To manage them like businesses across their life cycles
  • 7)     To gracefully retire them
  • 8)     To align people across the organization so everyone’s moving in the same direction

The Product Manager’s Desk Reference (2nd edition) embodies everything “Product.”  Written by Steven Haines, one of the world’s foremost experts on the topic, it’s a comprehensive, versatile, must-have resource for any business person who works in any company, in any industry, who seeks to successfully innovate, market, and manage products and services.

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