Cornerstone

<p itemprop="description"> THE NEW QUESTION Ten years after the worldwide bestseller Good to Great, Jim Collins returns with another groundbreaking work, this time to ask: Why do some companies thrive in uncertainty, even chaos, and others do not? Based on nine years of research, buttressed by rigorous analysis and infused with engaging stories, Collins and his colleague, Morten Hansen, enumerate the principles for building a truly great enterprise in unpredictable, tumultuous, and fast-moving times. THE NEW STUDY Great by Choice distinguishes itself from Collins's prior work by its focus not just on performance, but also on the type of unstable environments faced by leaders today. With a team of more than twenty researchers, Collins and Hansen studied companies that rose to greatness - beating their industry indexes by a minimum of ten times over fifteen years - in environments characterized by big forces and rapid shifts that leaders could not predict or control. The research team then contrasted these "10X companies" to a carefully selected set of comparison companies that failed to achieve greatness in similarly extreme environments. THE NEW FINDINGS The study results were full of provocative surprises. Such as: * The best leaders were not more risk taking, more visionary, and more creative than the comparisons; they were more disciplined, more empirical, and more paranoid. * Innovation by itself turns out not to be the trump card in a chaotic and uncertain world; more important is the ability to scale innovation, to blend creativity with discipline. * Following the belief that leading in a "fast world" always requires "fast decisions" and "fast action" is a good way to get killed. * The great companies changed less in reaction to a radically changing world than the comparison companies. The authors challenge conventional wisdom with thought-provoking, sticky, and supremely practical concepts. They include 10Xers; the 20 Mile March; Fire Bullets then Cannonballs; Leading above the Death Line; Zoom Out, Then Zoom In; and the SMaC Recipe. Finally, in the last chapter, Collins and Hansen present their most provocative and original analysis: defining, quantifying, and studying the role of luck. The great companies and the leaders who built them were not luckier than the comparisons, but they did get a higher Return on Luck. This book is classic Collins: contrarian, data driven, and uplifting. He and Hansen show convincingly that, even in a chaotic and uncertain world, greatness happens by choice, not by chance.</p>

<p>It Must Be Love</p>

<p>Get ready to fall for this year's most poignant and romantic love story...</p>

<p>Fourteen days together. Fifteen years apart.

Their love story isn't over yet...</p>

<p>When Abbie met Oz they were young, idealistic students from different backgrounds, but their connection was unmistakable. Then Oz went home to Istanbul and life moved on.</p>

<p>Years later, Abbie and Oz meet again - a chance encounter that could change everything.</p>

<p>Despite leading very different lives, they find themselves drawn to eachother once more. But they have commitments, jobs and families that take priority - and too much time has passed... Hasn't it?</p>

<p>From London to Istanbul, Paris to Beirut, It Must Be Love is a heart-wrenching story that will leave you believing in the power of fate and destiny. Perfect for fans of Josie Silver and Sophie Cousens.

______________________</p>

<p>READERS ARE FALLING HEAD OVER HEELS FOR IT MUST BE LOVE...</p>

<p>'A real rollercoaster ride of emotions ... I felt them all!'</p>

<p>'Wistful, touching ... takes you on a wonderfully romantic journey'</p>

<p>'The characters are ones you can easily warm to and take to your heart'</p>

<p>'This book had me entranced from the beginning'</p>

<p>'I was hooked!'</p>

<p>'Fans of One Day will love this'</p>

<p>'You are sure to be weeping by the end. A fab read with a cup of tea and mountain of biscuits'

______________________</p>

<p>PRAISE FOR IT MUST BE LOVE...</p>

<p>'Life-affirming and unforgettable, this is a very special love story' Holly Miller</p>

<p>'One of the most wonderful will-they-won't-they books I've read' Lorna Cook</p>

<p>'A gorgeously romantic and evocative debut ... I know it's going to be a hit!' Emma Hughes</p>

<p>This is not a book about charismatic visionary leaders. It is not about visionary product concepts or visionary products or visionary market insights. Nor is it about just having a corporate vision. This is a book about something far more important, enduring, and substantial. This is a book about visionary companies.' Drawing upon a six-year research project at the Stanford University Graduate School of Business, Collins and Porras took eighteen truly exceptional and long-lasting companies and studied each company in direct comparison to one of its top competitors. They examined the companies from their very beginnings to the present day - as start-ups, as midsize companies and as large corporations.</p>

<p>Throughout, the authors asked: 'What makes the truly exceptional companies different from other companies?' Filled with hundreds of specific examples and organized into a coherent framework of practical concepts that can be applied by managers and entrepreneurs at all levels, Built to Last provides a master blueprint for building organizations that will prosper long into the twenty-first century and beyond.</p>

<p>Getting To Yes: Negotiating An Agreement Without Giving In</p>

<p>The world's bestselling guide to negotiation. Getting to Yes has been in print for over thirty years, and in that time has helped millions of people secure win-win agreements both at work and in their private lives.</p>

<p>Including principles such as: Don't bargain over positions Separate the people from the problem and Insist on objective criteria Getting to Yes simplifies the whole negotation process, offering a highly effective framework that will ensure success.</p>

<p>'A master of persuasion.'&nbsp;Forbes</p>

<p>'This book blew my mind.' Adam Grant, bestselling author of&nbsp;Originals</p>

<p>A former FBI hostage negotiator offers a new, field-tested approach to negotiating – effective in any situation.&nbsp;</p>

<p>After a stint policing the rough streets of Kansas City, Missouri, Chris Voss joined the FBI, where his career as a kidnapping negotiator brought him face-to-face with bank robbers, gang leaders and terrorists.&nbsp;Never Split the Difference&nbsp;takes you inside his world of high-stakes negotiations, revealing the nine key principles that helped Voss and his colleagues succeed when it mattered the most – when people’s lives were at stake.&nbsp;</p>

<p>Rooted in the real-life experiences of an intelligence professional at the top of his game,&nbsp;Never Split the Difference&nbsp;will give you the competitive edge in any discussion.</p>

<p>'Filled with insights that apply to everyday negotiations.'&nbsp;Business Insider</p>

<p>'A stupendous book.'&nbsp;The Week</p>

<p>'It's rare that a book is so gripping and entertaining while still being actionable and applicable.'&nbsp;Inc.</p>

<p>Miss Austen</p>

<p>The Sunday Times bestseller, and set to be a major TV drama</p>

<p>'You can't help feeling that Jane would have approved.' OBSERVER</p>

<p>'So good, so intelligent, so clever, so entertaining - I adored it.' CLAIRE TOMALIN</p>

<p>A wonderfully original, emotionally complex novel that delves into why Cassandra burned a treasure trove of letters written by her sister, Jane Austen - an act of destruction that has troubled academics for centuries.</p>

<p>1840: twenty three years after the death of her famous sister Jane, Cassandra Austen returns to the village of Kintbury, and the home of her family's friends, the Fowles.</p>

<p>She knows that, in some dusty corner of the sprawling vicarage, there is a cache of family letters which hold secrets she is desperate should not be revealed.</p>

<p>As Cassandra recalls her youth and her relationship with her brilliant yet complex sister, she pieces together buried truths about Jane's history, and her own. And she faces a stark choice: should she act to protect Jane's reputation? Or leave the contents of the letters to go unguarded into posterity ...</p>

<p>Based on a literary mystery that has long puzzled biographers and academics, Miss Austen is a wonderfully original and emotionally complex novel about the loves and lives of Cassandra and Jane Austen.</p>

<p>'The perfect book to wrap yourself around on a dark night' STYLIST</p>

<p>'Without romanticising its period setting or underplaying the precariousness of any woman's position in this society, it celebrates unexamined lives, sisterhood and virtues such as kindness and loyalty' SUNDAY TIMES</p>

<p>'This is a deeply imagined and deeply moving novel. Reading it made me happy and weepy in equally copious amounts.' KAREN JOY FOWLER, author of The Jane Austen Bookclub</p>

<p>'Hornby is at her best describing the complex bonds between the "excellent women" of her story. She describes the horrors, but also the pleasures, of spinsterhood' THE TIMES</p>

<p>'It won't surprise me if this is one of the books of the year. It's a delight, one of those that you don't want to end.' RTE</p>

<p>'A charming novel... capturing the spirit of the brilliant sardonic Jane, and reminding the reader of how brutal life was for women in Austen's era, it's an ingenious and affecting embroidery on the fact of the author's life.' SUNDAY MIRROR</p>

<p>'Miss Austen is ingenious ... With flashbacks and wonderful domestic detail, Hornby brings to life the Austen family, using the known to speculate on what might have been.' THE TIMES Audio Book of the Week</p>

<p>'Extraordinary and heart-wrenching, Miss Austen transported me from page one. A remarkable novel that is wholly original, deeply moving, and emotionally complex. A gift to all Austen lovers.' LARA PRESCOTT, author of The Secrets We Kept</p>

<p>'Gill Hornby ingeniously imagines what Cassandra Austen's own life might have been like, both before and after Jane's untimely death, casting a different light on the familiar biographical picture without in any way distorting it.' DEIRDRE LE FAYE, editor of Jane Austen's Letters</p>

<p>'Tender and touching ... Hornby deftly describes the psychological toll that such uncertainly took on Jane, and movingly celebrates the fortitude of Cassandra whose greatest love was her sister' DAILY MAIL</p>

<p>'Utterly absorbing. The lives of the Austen sisters are recreated with a brilliant sureness of touch that can only be achieved by deep study of the period.' ARTEMIS COOPER</p>