Startup / Design

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

slide:ology: The Art and Science of Presentation Design
By Nancy Duarte

Over the last fifteen years, professional communications have changed drastically. Presentations are the primary way we communicate. There is a proliferation of presentation software in the workplace, but there are no documented best-practices for how to communicate optimally in this ubiquitous medium. There has never been a gold standard collection of best practices for telling the visual story until now. Whether you're a CEO, senior manager or educator, you create presentations that have incredibly high stakes. Stock value, sales revenue, career promotions and behavior changes are all influenced by presentations daily. Those of us who want to get ahead have had a few guides that teach us how to create 'sticky' verbal messages and make a successful delivery. But what about the slides themselves? Are they art or science, or both?If you 're tired of stagnating in your career or getting marginal feedback when you present to pivotal audiences, this book will change your approach, process and expectations for developing visual aides. It will make the difference between a good presentation and a great one. The personality of the book is smart and informative. It would be like the merging of an informative Strunk and White's "Elements of Style" with a spunky Anne Lamott - but it happens to all be in living color. Useful, yet with doses of reality sprinkled in. It will be referenced enough to be kept permanently on a desk as an essential guide yet profound enough to spark viral intrigue. For the first time, we have translated much of the design language into laymen 's terms.

Get this book with free shipping from The Bookdepository.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Resonate: Present Visual Stories That Transform Audiences

By Nancy Duarte

Reveals the underlying story form of all great presentations that will not only create impact, but will move people to action Presentations are meant to inform, inspire, and persuade audiences. So why then do so many audiences leave feeling like they've wasted their time? All too often, presentations don't resonate with the audience and move them to transformative action. Just as the author's first book helped presenters become visual communicators, Resonate helps you make a strong connection with your audience and lead them to purposeful action. The author's approach is simple: building a presentation today is a bit like writing a documentary. Using this approach, you'll convey your content with passion, persuasion, and impact.* Author has a proven track record, including having created the slides in Al Gore's Oscar-winning An Inconvenient Truth* Focuses on content development methodologies that are not only fundamental but will move people to action* Upends the usual paradigm by making the audience the hero and the presenter the mentor* Shows how to use story techniques of conflict and resolution Presentations don't have to be boring ordeals. You can make them fun, exciting, and full of meaning. Leave your audiences energized and ready to take action with Resonate.

Get this book with free shipping from The Bookdepository.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ 

The Inmates are Running the Asylum: Why High-tech Products Drive Us Crazy and How to Restore the Sanity

By Alan Cooper

Imagine, at a terrifyingly aggressive rate, everything you regularly use is being equipped with computer technology. Think about your phone, cameras, cars-everything-being automated and programmed by people who in their rush to accept the many benefits of the silicon chip, have abdicated their responsibility to make these products easy to use. The Inmates Are Running the Asylum argues that the business executives who make the decisions to develop these products are not the ones in control of the technology used to create them. Insightful and entertaining, The Inmates Are Running the Asylum uses the author's experiences in corporate America to illustrate how talented people continuously design bad software-based products and why we need technology to work the way average people think. Somewhere out there is a happy medium that makes these types of products both user and bottom-line friendly; this book discusses why we need to quickly find that medium.

Get this book with free shipping from The Bookdepository.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------  

The Pumpkin Plan: A Simple Strategy to Grow a Remarkable Business in Any Field

By Mike Michalowicz

Each year Americans start one million new businesses, nearly 80 percent of which fail within the first five years. Under such pressure to stay alive--let alone grow--it's easy for entrepreneurs to get caught up in a never-ending cycle of "sell it--do it, sell it--do it" that leaves them exhausted, frustrated, and unable to get ahead no matter how hard they try. This is the exact situation Mike Michalowicz found himself in when he was trying to grow his first company. Although it was making steady money, there was never very much left over and he was chasing customers left and right, putting in twenty-eight-hour days, eight days a week. The punishing grind never let up. His company was alive but stunted, and he was barely breathing. That's when he discovered an unlikely source of inspiration--pumpkin farmers. After reading an article about a local farmer who had dedicated his life to growing giant pump-kins, Michalowicz realized the same process could apply to growing a business. He tested the Pumpkin Plan on his own company and transformed it into a remarkable, multimillion-dollar industry leader. First he did it for himself. Then for others. And now you. So what is the Pumpkin Plan? Plant the right seeds: Don't waste time doing a bunch of different things just to please your customers. Instead, identify the thing you do better than anyone else and focus all of your attention, money, and time on figuring out how to grow your company doing it.Weed out the losers: In a pumpkin patch small, rotten pumpkins stunt the growth of the robust, healthy ones. The same is true of customers. Figure out which customers add the most value and provide the best opportunities for sustained growth. Then ditch the worst of the worst.Nurture the winners: Once you figure out who your best customers are, blow their minds with care. Discover their unfulfilled needs, innovate to make their wishes come true, and overdeliver on every single promise. Full of stories of other successful entrepreneurs, "The Pumpkin Plan" guides you through unconven-tional strategies to help you build a truly profitable blue-ribbon company that is the best in its field.

Read full review..


http://www.openforum.com/videos/business-war-chest-grow-a-giant-biz

Great presentation beyond the value we provide

KATHY SIERRA AT BUSINESS OF SOFTWARE 2009

“In the old days, getting customers was easy. You could just outspend. You could use brute force to get the word out. Now, thanks to social media, you don’t have to outspend. There is a much better technique. It is to out friend. If you can just be friendly enough and get your users to party with you, the rest is really easy. If you don’t want to take the time to develop – building like 20,000 to 200,000 close, intimate friends can take a few weeks – then we have the viral model so you can do this really quickly.”

Skewering social media is just one of many things Kathy Sierra does in this brilliant talk from last year’s Business of Software conference

http://businessofsoftware.org/2010/05/kathy-sierra-at-business-of-software-2009/

Barbara Corcoran's 8 Lessons for Entrepreneurs

In 1973, Barbara Corcoran took $1,000 and started a real-estate business. She sold the Corcoran Group for $66 million in 2001.

Watch this great video in her own words..

http://www.inc.com/barbara-corcoran/eight-lessons-for-entrepreneurs.html

The Art of the Start

by Guy Kawasaki


What does it take to turn ideas into action? What are the elements of a perfect pitch? How do you win the war for talent? How do you establish a brand without bucks? These are some of the issues everyone faces when starting or revitalizing any undertaking, and Guy Kawasaki, former marketing maven of Apple Computer, provides the answers. "The Art of the Start" will give you the essential steps to launch great products, services, and companies?whether you are dreaming of starting the next Microsoft or a not-for-profit that's going to change the world. It also shows managers how to unleash entrepreneurial thinking at established companies, helping them foster the pluck and creativity that their businesses need to stay ahead of the pack. Kawasaki provides readers with GIST?Great Ideas for Starting Things?including his field-tested insider's techniques for bootstrapping, branding, networking, recruiting, pitching, rainmaking, and, most important in this fickle consumer climate, building buzz. At Apple, Kawasaki helped turn ordinary customers into fanatics. As founder and CEO of Garage Technology Ventures, he has tested his iconoclastic ideas on real- world start- ups. And as an irrepressible columnist for "Forbes," he has honed his best thinking about "The Art of the Start."

Get this book with free shipping from The Bookdepository.

ReWork: Change the Way You Work Forever

By Jason Fried and David Heinemeier Hansson

From the founders of the trailblazing software company 37signals, here is a different kind of business book - one that explores a new reality. Today, anyone can be in business. Tools that used to be out of reach are now easily accessible. Technology that cost thousands is now just a few pounds or even free. Stuff that was impossible just a few years ago is now simple. That means anyone can start a business. And you can do it without working miserable 80-hour weeks or depleting your life savings. You can start it on the side while your day job provides all the cash flow you need. Forget about business plans, meetings, office space - you don't need them. With its straightforward language and easy-is-better approach, "Rework" is the perfect playbook for anyone who's ever dreamed of doing it on their own. Hardcore entrepreneurs, small-business owners, people stuck in day jobs who want to get out, and artists who don't want to starve anymore will all find valuable inspiration and guidance in these pages. It's time to rework work.

Get this book with free shipping from The Bookdepository.

The Innovator's Solution: Creating and Sustaining Successful Growth

By Clayton M. Christensen and Michael E. Raynor

In the worldwide bestseller, "The Innovator's Dilemma", Clayton M. Christensen exposed a crushing paradox behind the failure of many industry leaders. By doing what good companies were supposed to do-focus on pleasing their most profitable customers-leaders were paving the way for their own demise. How? By ignoring 'disruptive technologies' - new, cheaper innovations that initially target small customer segments but evolve to displace the reigning product. Now, Christensen and coauthor Michael E. Raynor cut the Gordian knot of the 'innovator's dilemma' with "The Innovator's Solution".This groundbreaking book reveals that innovation is not as unpredictable as most managers have come to believe. While the outcomes of past innovations seem random, the process by which innovations are packaged and shaped within companies is very predictable. By understanding and managing the forces that influence this process, companies can shape high-octane business plans that create truly disruptive growth.Drawing on years of in-depth research and using new theories tested in hundreds of companies across many industries, the authors identify the processes that create successful innovations, and show managers how to tailor their strategies to the changing circumstances of a dynamic world. Comprehensive yet practical, "The Innovator's Solution" is an actionable prescription for innovation-driven, profitable growth. 'A good business book makes managers stop and think.
Get this book with free shipping from The Bookdepository.