Do you really understand what business value is? Information technology can and should deliver business value. But the Agile literature has paid scant attention to what business value means—and how to know whether or not you are delivering it. This problem becomes ever more critical as you push value delivery toward autonomous teams and away from requirements “tossed over the wall” by business stakeholders. An empowered team needs to understand its goal! Playful and thought-provoking, The Art of Business Value explores what business value means, why it matters, and how it should affect your software development and delivery practices. More than any other IT delivery approach, DevOps (and Agile thinking in general) makes business value a central concern. This book examines the role of business value in software and makes a compelling case for why a clear understanding of business value will change the way you deliver software. This book will make you think deeply about not only what it means to deliver value but also the relationship of the IT organization to the rest of the enterprise. It will give you the language to discuss value with the business, methods to cut through bureaucracy, and strategies for incorporating Agile teams and culture into the enterprise. Most of all, this book will startle you into new ways of thinking about the cutting-edge of Agile practice and where it may lead.

More than two millennia ago the famous Chinese general Sun Tzu wrote the classic work on military strategy, The Art of War. Now, in a new edition of Sun Tzu and the Art of Business, Mark McNeilly shows how Sun Tzu's strategic principles can be applied to twenty-first century business. Here are two books in one: McNeilly's synthesis of Sun Tzu's ideas into six strategic principles for the business executive, plus the text of Samuel B. Griffith's popular translation of The Art of War. McNeilly explains how to gain market share without inciting competitive retaliation, how to attack competitors' weak points, and how to maximize market information for competitive advantage. He demonstrates the value of speed and preparation in throwing the competition off-balance, employing strategy to beat the competition, and the need for character in leaders. Lastly, McNeilly presents a practical method to put Sun Tzu's principles into practice. By using modern examples throughout the book from Google, Zappos, Amazon, Dyson, Aflac, Singapore Airlines, Best Buy, the NFL, Tata Motors, Starbucks, and many others, he illustrates how, by following the wisdom of history's most respected strategist, executives can avoid the pitfalls of management fads and achieve lasting competitive advantage.

All of us—business executives and artists, audiences and consumers—can benefit from seeing the world with both an aesthetic sensibility and a strategic bent. When you see yourself as an artist, everything you do can be a work of art—planning strategies, developing technologies, creating new products, working in teams and serving customers. In the traditional model, business operates in an economic flow of inputs (resources and raw materials), outputs (products and services) and processes that help get you from one to the other (research and development, production, distribution). Davis and McIntosh show that artistic flow operates the same way, but with inputs that include things like emotion, imagination, and intuition; and outputs that include things like beauty, meaning, excitement, and enjoyment. Step by step, Davis and McIntosh show how you and your company can blend the two flows, interweaving them to achieve both success and fulfillment in everything you do. By blending the aesthetic and emotional richness of the arts with the strategic and operational perspectives of business, you'll begin to see texture where everybody else is seeing shapes. You'll see colors where others see only grays. You'll see not just what is, but also what can be.

Based on the chart-topping BUSINESS WARS podcast re-imagined using Sun Tzu's THE ART OF WAR as a guide, THE ART OF BUSINESS WARS features stories and lessons from history's greatest business rivalries revealing why some companies triumph while others crumble.Business is a fight for survival. In business as in war, leaders match their wills in pursuit of opposing outcomes, they devise strategies, and marshal resources for victory. Success can turn on the smallest of details; a single tactical blunder can topple an empire. Ultimately, one side triumphs - and victory is all that matters.In The Art of Business Wars, David Brown, host of the hit podcast Business Wars, masterfully frames some of the biggest business rivalries in history using revered Chinese military strategist Sun Tzu's insights and pragmatic advice. Each rivalry tells a story of combined wits, strategies, and resources. Brown chronicles the rise of companies as they vanquish rivals, formulate innovative plans, and adapt to keep up with shifting needs. The goal? Stay ahead of the competition and emerge victorious.By compiling powerful insights uncovered over hundreds of podcast episodes and more than a year of in-depth research, Brown has developed a formula for business intrigue rich in popular history. The stories in The Art of Business Wars will inspire you, and the lessons you can draw from them - about determination, ingenuity, patience, grit, subtlety, and other traits that contribute to a victorious enterprise - are invaluable, whether you're a creative freelancer or the CEO of a multinational manufacturer.

Freedom. It's the ability to do whatever you want, whenever you want. It's the ultimate reward of selling your business. But selling a company can be confusing, and one wrong step can easily cost you dearly. The Art of Selling Your Business: Winning Strategies & Secret Hacks for Exiting on Top is the last in a trilogy of books by author John Warrillow on building value. The first, Built to Sell, encouraged small business owners to begin thinking about their business as more than just a job. The Automatic Customer tagged recurring revenue as the core element in a valuable company and provided a blueprint for transforming almost any business into one with an ongoing annuity stream. Warrillow completes the set with The Art of Selling Your Business. This essential guide to monetizing a business is based on interviews the author conducted on his podcast, Built to Sell Radio, with hundreds of successfully cashed-out founders. What's the secret for harvesting the value you've created when it's time to sell? The Art of Selling Your Business answers important questions facing any founder, including— • What's your business worth? • When's the best time to sell? • How do you create a bidding war? • How can you position your company to maximize its attractiveness? • Who will pay the most for your business? • What’s the secret for punching above your weight in a negotiation to sell your company? The Art of Selling Your Business provides a sleeves-rolled-up action plan for selling your business at a premium by an author with consummate credibility.

From the author of Ahead of the Curve, a revelatory look at successful selling and how it can impact everything we do The first book of its kind, The Art of the Sale is the result of a pilgrimage to learn the secrets of the world's foremost sales gurus. Bestselling author Philip Delves Broughton tracked down anyone who could help him understand what it took to achieve greatness in sales, from technology billionaires to the most successful saleswoman in Japan to a cannily observant rug merchant in Morocco. The wisdom and experience Broughton acquired, revealed in this outstanding book, demonstrates as never before the complex alchemy of effective selling and the power it has to overcome challenges we face every day.

Defeat the competition and dominate the market with these masterful strategies of Sun Tzu. Over two and a half millennia ago, Chinese military strategist Sun Tzu taught that size alone does not guarantee victory--strategy, positioning, planning, and leadership all play equally significant roles in overpowering the opposition. Today, this classic treatise is perfect for adapting to the world of small business, with entrepreneurs entrenched in fierce competition for customers, market share, and talent. Featuring inspiring examples of entrepreneurial success, The Art of War for Small Business centers its 12 timeless lessons on how to: Choose the right ground for your battles Leverage strengths while overcoming limitations Strike competitors’ weakest points and seize every opportunity Focus priorities and resources on conquering key challenges Go where the enemy is not Build and leverage strategic alliances Countless military, political, and business leaders across the world and throughout time have learned how to utilize these brilliant strategies to outsmart, outmaneuver, and outstrategize their larger adversaries’ seemingly overwhelming forces. Now, it’s time for the small business owner to learn how they can also capture crucial sectors, serve unmet needs, and emerge victorious.