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 pump­kins, 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 unconven­tional strategies to help you build a truly profitable blue-ribbon company that is the best in its field. Read more

With over $500 million a year in sales, the Bassett Furniture Company was once the world's biggest wood furniture manufacturer. Run by the same powerful Virginia family for three generations, it was also the center of life in Bassett, VA-an unincorporated town that existed solely for the people who built the company's products. But beginning in the 1980s, the Bassett company suffered from an influx of cheap Chinese furniture as the first waves of Asian competition hit, and ultimately was forced to send its production offshore to Asia. Only one man fought back. That man is John Bassett III, a descendant of the Bassetts who is now chairman of Vaughan-Bassett Furniture Co, which employs more than 700 Virginians and has sales of over $90 million. In Factory Man, Beth Macy brings to life Bassett's deeply personal furniture and family story. As she shows how he uses legal maneuvers, factory efficiencies, and sheer grit, cunning, and will to save hundreds of jobs, she also discovers the hidden and shocking truth about industry and America. Read more

The chairman of the Sony Corporation discusses the rise of Sony, his extraordinary career as a businessman, and his views on the United States, Japan, and the world economy Read more

DISCOVER THE EXTRAORDINARY JOURNEY OF ELON MUSK: THE VISIONARY WHO DEFIED EVERY LIMIT—AND THE LESSONS THAT CAN TRANSFORM YOUR FUTURE!Do you want to know how Elon Musk went from nothing to revolutionizing the world? Do you want to uncover every challenge, failure, and turning point that made him the most talked-about figure of our time? Do you want to understand how Musk analyzes every situation to find solutions no one else sees?The truth is, success isn’t just about talent or luck—it’s about mindset. And no one proves this better than Elon Musk. This book takes you deep into his story, revealing the secrets of his thinking and the strategies that allowed him to turn impossible challenges into extraordinary opportunities—and how you can apply them to your career and projects.Here's a small excerpt of what you'll discover inside:The true story of Elon Musk: Follow his incredible journey from humble beginnings to global triumphs, and find inspiration to face your own challenges.Winning mindset: Step inside Musk’s mind and learn how he tackles risk, failure, and innovation to turn obstacles into opportunities.Thinking big: Discover his visionary approach and how to apply it to your own projects for extraordinary results.Actionable strategies: Learn the key principles behind his success and how to integrate them into your career or business to accelerate growth.BONUS - Practical exercises and interactive sections: Put what you learn into action with targeted activities designed to develop a more strategic and innovative mindset.Imagine finally having the mindset to face any challenge without fear. To think big, make bold decisions, and turn difficulties into opportunities.Success isn’t a mystery—it’s a method! Get your copy now and discover how to think, act, and innovate like Elon Musk! Read more

Every lean practitioner occasionally wishes for a simple, fun, and quick-read introduction to lean thinking to give acquaintances, associates, and family members – even to our kids. If lean thinking often entails unlearning a plethora of bad habits, wouldn’t it better if we learned better thinking – and habits – from the beginning? Everything I Know About Lean I Learned in First Grade is just that sort of book. It brings lean back to its original simplicity by showing how lean is alive in a first grade classroom. The book connects common lean tools to the broader lean journey, shows how to identify and eliminate waste, and aids the reader in seeing lean for what it truly is: a way to create a learning and problem-solving culture. Written to educate the entire organization on the fundamentals of lean thinking, this is the perfect source to engage all team members at all levels of an organization. Originally self-published in 2008, LEI is proud to re-issue this book and make it available to the broader lean community. Read more

SYSTEMology is trusted by leaders worldwide as the #1 “System For Systemising Your Business.”Transform your owner-dependent business into a profitable, well-oiled machine that runs itself.Most business owners think that they must be the ones to document their processes when systemising their operations. But systems devotee David Jenyns has found that they’re typically the worst people to be doing it - there is a better way!SYSTEMology offers a structured framework designed to systemize your business efficiently, even for the busiest owners. Drawing on over 20 years of experience and real-life case studies, David Jenyns outlines a path to Complete Business Reliability.In this book, you'll uncover:Why most business owners struggle to systemize their operationsWhere to start and which systems to prioritizeThe secret to modeling your best team members for rapid system creationStrategies to get even the most stubborn team members to follow your systemsHow to integrate system improvement into your team's routineThe best way to unlock innovation and strategies to skyrocket your creativityHow to make improving systems a regular part of your team's routineAnd much more!It’s time to say hello to a more organized, repeatable and scalable business. Start reading or listening now.“A must for any business owner and their leadership team."Gıno Wickman, Traction. Read more

A landmark investigation of the chemical industry's decades-long campaign to hide the dangers of forever chemicals, told through the story of a small town on the frontlines of an epic public health crisisIn 2014, after losing several friends and relatives to cancer, an unassuming insurance underwriter in Hoosick Falls, New York, began to suspect that the local water supply was polluted. When he tested his tap water, he discovered dangerous levels of forever chemicals. This set off a chain of events that led to 100 million Americans learning their drinking water was tainted. Although the discovery came as a shock to most, the U.S. government and the manufacturers of these toxic chemicals—used in everything from lipstick and cookware to children’s clothing—had known about their hazards for decades.In They Poisoned the World, investigative journalist Mariah Blake tells the astonishing story of this cover-up, tracing its roots back to the Manhattan Project and through the postwar years, as industry scientists discovered that these chemicals refused to break down and were saturating the blood of virtually every human being. By the 1980s, manufacturers were secretly testing their workers and finding links to birth defects, cancer, and other serious diseases. At every step, the industry’s deceptions were aided by our government’s appallingly lax regulatory system—a system that has made us all guinea pigs in a vast, uncontrolled chemistry experiment.Drawing on years of on-the-ground reporting and tens of thousands of documents, Blake interweaves the secret history of forever chemicals with the moving story of how a lone village took on the chemical giants—and won. From the beloved local doctor to the young mother who took her fight all the way to the nation’s capital, citizen activists in Hoosick Falls and beyond have ignited the most powerful grassroots environmental movement since Silent Spring.Humane and revelatory, this book will provoke outrage—and hopefully inspire the change we need to protect the health of every American for generations to come. Read more

While there are a growing number of books based on the Toyota Production System, or lean, focused on healthcare, there are very few that detail the tools that make lean more than just a way of thinking and put the methodology into practice. Based on Hiroyuki Hirano's classic 5 Pillars of the Visual Workplace and modeled after the Shingo Prize-winning Shopfloor Series for Lean Manufacturers , 5S for Healthcare adopts a proven reader-friendly format to impart all the information needed to understand and implement this essential lean methodology. It provides examples and cased studies based on the experiences of the principals involved with the Rona Consulting Group, who were responsible for the groundbreaking implementation of the Toyota Production System at the Virginia Mason Medical Center. Written to readily assist with hands-on implementation efforts, this volume offers innovative features designed to improve understanding and support application. This includes helpful how-to steps and practical examples taken directly from the healthcare industry. Read more

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"The P-51 Mustang—perhaps the finest piston engine fighter ever built—was designed and put into flight in just a few months. Specifications were finalized on March 15, 1940; the airfoil prototype was complete on September 9; and the aircraft made its maiden flight on October 26. Now that is a lean development process!" —Allen Ward and Durward Sobek, commenting on the development of the P-51 Mustang and its exemplary use of trade-off curves. Shingo Research and Professional Publication Award recipient, 2008. Despite attempts to interpret and apply lean product development techniques, companies still struggle with design quality problems, long lead times, and high development costs. In a truly groundbreaking first edition of Lean Product and Process Development, Ward delivered -- with passion and penetrating insights that cannot be found elsewhere -- a comprehensive view of lean principles for developing Read more

In publications such as BusinessWeek and Fast Company, the media have celebrated Whirlpool's transformation into a leading-edge innovator and Nancy Tennant Snyder's role as chief innovation officer. Ten years after this remarkable transformation, Unleashing Innovation tells the inside story of one of the most successful innovation turnarounds in American history. Nancy Tennant Snyder and coauthor Deborah L. Duarte reveal how Whirlpool undertook one of the largest change efforts in corporate history and show how innovation was embedded throughout the company, which ultimately lead to bottom-line results. Read more

For readers of Hillbilly Elegy and Strangers in Their Own LandWINNER OF THE OHIOANA BOOK AWARDS AND FINALIST FOR THE 87TH CALIFORNIA BOOK AWARDS | NAMED A BEST/MOST ANTICIPATED BOOK OF 2017 BY: New York Post • Newsweek • The Week • Bustle • Books by the Banks Book Festival • Bookauthority.com The Wall Street Journal: "A devastating portrait...For anyone wondering why swing-state America voted against the establishment in 2016, Mr. Alexander supplies plenty of answers." Laura Miller, Slate: "This book hunts bigger game. Reads like an odd?and oddly satisfying?fusion of George Packer’s The Unwinding and one of Michael Lewis’ real-life financial thrillers."The New Yorker : "Does a remarkable job." Beth Macy, author of Factory Man: "This book should be required reading for people trying to understand Trumpism, inequality, and the sad state of a needlessly wrecked rural America. I wish I had written it." In 1947, Forbes magazine declared Lancaster, Ohio the epitome of the all-American town. Today it is damaged, discouraged, and fighting for its future. In Glass House, journalist Brian Alexander uses the story of one town to show how seeds sown 35 years ago have sprouted to give us Trumpism, inequality, and an eroding national cohesion.The Anchor Hocking Glass Company, once the world’s largest maker of glass tableware, was the base on which Lancaster’s society was built. As Glass House unfolds, bankruptcy looms. With access to the company and its leaders, and Lancaster’s citizens, Alexander shows how financial engineering took hold in the 1980s, accelerated in the 21st Century, and wrecked the company. We follow CEO Sam Solomon, an African-American leading the nearly all-white town’s biggest private employer, as he tries to rescue the company from the New York private equity firm that hired him. Meanwhile, Alexander goes behind the scenes, entwined with the lives of residents as they wrestle with heroin, politics, high-interest lenders, low wage jobs, technology, and the new demands of American life: people like Brian Gossett, the fourth generation to work at Anchor Hocking; Joe Piccolo, first-time director of the annual music festival who discovers the town relies on him, and it, for salvation; Jason Roach, who police believed may have been Lancaster’s biggest drug dealer; and Eric Brown, a local football hero-turned-cop who comes to realize that he can never arrest Lancaster’s real problems. Read more

Speak the Language - Understand the Concepts - Know the Techniques The Lean Manufacturing Pocket Handbook is intended as a reference guide covering the terms, concepts and techniques involved in Lean Manufacturing. It is written in an easy to understand fashion making it useful to both the seasoned Professional and the Novice. Paper Back - .125" x 3 13/16" x 5 1/16" - 44 Pages - 27 Visuals - 34 Definitions - 16 Examples. Also Available in Spanish see: El Manual De Bolsillo De Manufactura Esbelta Read more

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This book introduces the same process the author has used to save companies like IBM, Kodak, and DuPont billions of dollars, simply by harnessing the knowledge of suppliers.For most supply chains, cost reduction is imperative to long-term survival. Yet identifying the costs that can be eliminated?and then doing so effectively?can prove impossible without the right method. Using real-life case studies and examples, Supply Chain Cost Management takes you step-by-step through the process, showing you how to move beyond negotiation and:identify critical costs in the supply chain measure secondary and tertiary costs develop strategic options reduce, change, or eliminate activities that produce costs implement an action plan verify the plan with cost monitors continually improve and modify the process Supply Chain Cost Management gives you everything you need to implement this powerful system, and bring genuine and permanent savings to your company. Read more

Tesla disrupts the automotive industry by creating many innovative pieces that fit together. Its marketing, production, sales and technology strategies are all notably different from its competitors. The Tesla Wayis an elongated case study looking at Tesla's business model and how this can be applied to existing manufacturing and production strategies in other companies. The author also includes case studies from Michelin, Mass and other consumer goods manufacturing companies. The Tesla Waywill look at the origins of Tesla, its journey to success, new business models and what will come next. The author includes a mixture of the theory behind the Tesla business model and its applications, examining the combination between the manufacturing world and the digital world. He has also interviewed a cross-section of Tesla's current employees in both the USA and France. At the end of each chapter an interview with a CEO or top manager of an industrial firm is featured: among others, the stories of Luxor Lighting, ThyssenKrupp, Bosch or Kimberley Clarke. There are also insightful questions for managers. Online supporting resources include sample templates for analyzing efficiency of processes on the factory floor. Read more

For readers of Hillbilly Elegy and Strangers in Their Own LandWINNER OF THE OHIOANA BOOK AWARDS AND FINALIST FOR THE 87TH CALIFORNIA BOOK AWARDS |NAMED A BEST/MOST ANTICIPATED BOOK OF 2017 BY: New York Post • Newsweek • The Week • Bustle • Books by the Banks Book Festival • Bookauthority.comThe Wall Street Journal: "A devastating portrait...For anyone wondering why swing-state America voted against the establishment in 2016, Mr. Alexander supplies plenty of answers." Laura Miller, Slate: "This book hunts bigger game.Reads like an odd?and oddly satisfying?fusion of George Packer’s The Unwinding and one of Michael Lewis’ real-life financial thrillers."The New Yorker : "Does a remarkable job." Beth Macy, author of Factory Man: "This book should be required reading for people trying to understand Trumpism, inequality, and the sad state of a needlessly wrecked rural America. I wish I had written it." In 1947, Forbes magazine declared Lancaster, Ohio the epitome of the all-American town. Today it is damaged, discouraged, and fighting for its future. In Glass House, journalist Brian Alexander uses the story of one town to show how seeds sown 35 years ago have sprouted to give us Trumpism, inequality, and an eroding national cohesion.The Anchor Hocking Glass Company, once the world’s largest maker of glass tableware, was the base on which Lancaster’s society was built. As Glass House unfolds, bankruptcy looms. With access to the company and its leaders, and Lancaster’s citizens, Alexander shows how financial engineering took hold in the 1980s, accelerated in the 21st Century, and wrecked the company. We follow CEO Sam Solomon, an African-American leading the nearly all-white town’s biggest private employer, as he tries to rescue the company from the New York private equity firm that hired him. Meanwhile, Alexander goes behind the scenes, entwined with the lives of residents as they wrestle with heroin, politics, high-interest lenders, low wage jobs, technology, and the new demands of American life: people like Brian Gossett, the fourth generation to work at Anchor Hocking; Joe Piccolo, first-time director of the annual music festival who discovers the town relies on him, and it, for salvation; Jason Roach, who police believed may have been Lancaster’s biggest drug dealer; and Eric Brown, a local football hero-turned-cop who comes to realize that he can never arrest Lancaster’s real problems. Read more

Steve Bannon calls Reshore, “One of the most important books of the year, a tour de force of economic history and economic philosophy.”President Trump recently reposted author’s article, “Trump’s Tariffs Will Create Millions of Jobs.”One of the must-read books of 2025.Drive through rural America and you’ll see small town after small town empty and decaying. As you drive past the abandoned manufacturing plants and shuttered Victorian homes once inhabited by its workers and executives, you can picture what the town was like forty years ago. A thriving community where the company president and assembly line worker went to the same church and whose children went to the same school.But what if we could reclaim this America?In Spencer Morrison’s provocative new book, Reshore: How Tariffs Will Bring Our Jobs Home and Revive the American Dream, Morrison argues that the strong manufacturing base that was long the cornerstone of a strong middle class, healthy economy and thriving country can be revived. Its disappearance was a choice – one made by elites who only cared about their bottom dollar - to export our jobs and our wealth abroad.The all-too-predictable result is that Americans are poorer than they have ever been. And the cultural consequences could hardly be more profound. At an alarming rate, Americans are swapping healthy foods for highly processed foods, replacing high quality appliances and household items with imported cheap, low-quality goods and are becoming renters instead of homeowners. Because we are poorer, fewer of us are getting married and having children. In the hopelessness that abounds in rural America, more are turning to drugs.How can this horrific reality be reversed, argues Morrison? Tariffs!Reshore dispels the common misconceptions that free traders, libertarians and too many “conservatives” use to scare the American people about tariffs. It is vital reading for Americans ready to once again put America first and rebuild the America our founders left us. Read more

Guía rápida de estudio para la certificación Value Stream Mapping (VSM - Mapa del Flujo de Valor) en el instituto Variexa International. Este no es un libro de conocimiento, sino una guía de estudio rápido que debe ser acompañado de un curso de entrenamiento. Read more

In the spring of 2001, a community of people in the Appalachian foothills of northern Alabama had come to the edge of all they had ever known. Across the South, padlocks and logging chains bound the doors of silent mills, and it seemed a miracle to blue-collar people in Jacksonville that their mill still bit, shook, and roared. The century-old hardwood floors still trembled under whirling steel, and people worked on, in a mist of white air. The mill had become almost a living thing, rewarding the hardworking and careful with the best payday they ever had, but punishing the careless and clumsy, taking a finger, a hand, more. The mill was here before the automobile, before the flying machine, and the mill workers served it even as it filled their lungs with lint and shortened their lives. In return, it let them live in stiff-necked dignity in the hills of their fathers. So, when death did come, no one had to ship their bodies home on a train. This is a mill story—not of bricks, steel, and cotton, but of the people who suffered it to live. Read more