Kevin Duncan

Strategy is a plan of action designed to achieve a long-term or overall aim, and there are many areas in business where a decent strategy will be of value. Strategy is not complex, but it can be hard, because of the pain of having to make choices. In this practical guide, bestselling author Kevin Duncan offers intelligent and quick solutions to tricky business issues through smart strategic thinking and action. He provides 50 smart ideas to help you arrive at your solution (and present it in a way that everyone can understand!)

Many people find it difficult to express ideas and solve problems purely with words. They find it much easier to use diagrams. Distilled into this single, handy-sized volume are 60 of the best diagrams to help anyone with problem solving and thinking. Each of the diagrams is presented on one spread, explained simply, and accompanied by an exercise to help you apply them to your own situation. This 5th anniversary edition celebrates sales of 50,000 worldwide and includes brand new material, plus a cross-referenced thematic index to guide you direct to the most appropriate examples.

If you work in business, the chances are you have fallen under the poisonous spell of business bullshit and jargon. Very few of us seem able to avoid "reaching out", or "walk the talk", or "shifting paradigms", or "think outside the box". No longer solely the province of management consultants, investors and MBA types, business gobbledygook has mesmerized the rank and file around the globe. Help is at hand with this The Business Bullshit Book, aptly described as "the world's most comprehensive collection" of the top 2,000 business terms and jargon that have infected us all. Stay sane (and keep your colleagues and customers from suffocating you) from the business bullshit madness by having this dictionary by your side. Based on his wide and extensive experience with business bullshit, Kevin Duncan deciphers the terms and language of modern-day business speak.

You are about to embark on one of the biggest adventures of your life. It's a daunting prospect, isn't it? An empty desk, no customers, no confirmed money coming in, and no one to gossip with. Welcome to running your own business. Every issue is now yours to wrestle with, and yours alone. But then so is all the satisfaction when things go well, whether that is mental or financial. This book expertly guides you through the principles of running and growing a successful business - including what to do when it's not going exactly as you wish. Crammed with practical advice - from assessing pros and cons to motivating yourself and adopting effective practices - it will help you find clear, practical solutions and prove invaluable as you tackle this great adventure.

Sunday: Get started with realistic goals and a detailed business plan, and do your market researchMonday: Learn strategies for building a network of contacts and how to handle meetingsTuesday: Learn how to get the product or service right and increase your marginWednesday: Choose the most effective ways to communicate with customers and prepare useful marketing materialsThursday: Market yourself and your business and learn how to cut the jargon and describe what you do in 30 secondsFriday: Motivate yourself to work hard and ignore distractions and make a good impression as the face of your businessSaturday: Avoid difficulties and problems through using personal planning and business planning tripwires

Plenty of people are intelligent and have the right qualifications. But in business, to be successful, you also have to be smart and creative. This book contains 60 pieces of distilled wisdom to help you think smartly and creatively, and to enable you to stand out from the others. By the author of the bestselling The Diagrams Book (12 languages licensed), each piece of advice can be read in one minute or the entire book in one hour. Divided into six main sections (Growth, Communication, Innovation, Creativity, Relationships and Thinking, this powerful little book draws from a range of disciplines and perspectives to enable readers to transform the way they approach work and life.

Technology can be a wonderful thing. It can also be a curse when it overwhelms us. If your phone, computer or other devices are beginning to rule your life, then you need help. We don't have to be ruled by our machines. It's time for us humans to fight back. 'How to Tame Technology' tells you exactly what to do, practical tips and simple things that you can do to regain control. Take the test and find out just how addicted you are - then learn how to cure yourself.'I can't talk now, I'm on the phone'For those of us suffering from technological overload, it's time to pause and think. Author and Plain English commentator Kevin Duncan has trained and advised some of the UK's top companies, including Saatchi & Saatchi and Shell, in how to cope with all this. This thought-provoking book grapples with just how addicted we have become to technology and offers a set of ideas to help wean us off our technological drugs and lead a more fulfilling life. It looks briefly at how we got here, tests you on how serious your condition is and then offers real solutions, including rapid sequential tasking (v multitasking), communicating concisely, using the best method of communication for the job, all while retaining your sense of humour and enthusiasm.'Every page is a prompt to imagine things differently. A handbook for these challenging times ahead.'Mark Earls, author of Herd'He does for business what Nike does for sport.' Richard Hytner, Deputy Chairman, Saatchi & Saatchi Worldwide'Anyone who owns a mobile should have this on their shelf.' Robert Ashton, author The Life Plan

Ever wanted to be an entrepreneur? Ever wanted to control what you do, when you do it and stop just making money for someone else? Now is your chance. Starting up a business has never been more exciting. This book explains what you really need to know to make your business a success:• How you'll know if you've got a good idea• The practicalities of setting up a company• How to manage the money• How to sell what you do• How to make sure you stay soon through it all. This is the book you need to swagger into the Dragon's Den full of confidence.

Today thousands of marketing books exist ready to bombard you with buzz words and secrets to marketing success, but by condensing and summarising current thinking in marketing this book gives you the chance to become an authority yourself - quickly and efficiently. This book presents marketing ideas from the profiled books clearly and accurately and will allow you not only to put these ideas into place but also explain them authoritatively to colleagues. Books profiled include The Long Tail, Meatball Sundae, Buzz, Affluenza and Blink. Saving you hundreds of hours of reading time Marketing Greatest Hits is vital for anyone looking to keep up with marketing practices NOW.

How many times have you thought of something crucial to do and then forgotten it completely? That's why people invented lists. And very useful they are too. If, and only if, they are used effectively. Put thirty things on a list, and it becomes too daunting. Put three things on, and there's no point in having a list. And so we have refined the art of list writing to allow for about ten or twenty things to do. But in truth, most lists are rubbish. Randomly assembled, they do little to help the author navigate their way through the maze of stuff to do. After all, the only point of a list of things to do, is to get things done. Tick Achieve does just that. It shows you how to get stuff done, with lots of little techniques tried and tested on scores of individuals over 25 years. This includes the cathartic and highly effective process of writing a list of what you are not going to do. The author has trained hundreds of people in the art of getting stuff done. There is no Big Plan as such (contrary to what many other books suggest). It's all about details, and they can be very easy to implement. Little things can make a massive difference. Once you get the hang of it, life gets easier. In a business context, and personally. You can sleep better and worry less. Concentrate on the things that matter, and leave out the trivia and irrelevant. Learn how to celebrate little bits of progress, look down your list, tick off a job well done, and shout Tick Achieve! EXAMPLE CHAPTER OUTLINE 1. BUSINESS INTELLIGENCE "I'm too busy, I'm in a meeting": professional time wasting and how to avoid it Teams; what's the point? The problem with the business world: other people How to think more and worry less How being organised lets you take it easy Action not activity Outcome not output "If I do x, then y will happen...' 2. STRAIGHT TALKING AND GETTING STUFF DONE Permission to talk straight Cliché and jargon red alert list How to get to the point and get everything done quickly Some ways to say no politely How to liven up boring meetings Spotting business bull**** Cutting through it and moving on 3. LEAVE IT OUT Less really is more How eliminating issues gets to faster answers in business Write a list of what you are not going to do Improving your time management Simplifying everything Being totally objective about the past How leaving it out forces the issue 4. ONE IN A ROW How breaking big problems down into small tasks really works How to eat an elephant - in stages Knock 'em down one at a time Rapid sequential tasking: an alternative to multi-tasking The one-touch approach Tick, achieve, move on 5. LOOK LIVELY! The value of energy: in business, and in life generally Getting your attitude right Why lazy people are unhappy people Speed, that's the thing Spotting pointless people Ditching the time wasters Don't waste time yourself: beware aimless net surfers Cutting out the irrelevant stuff 6. HOW TO OUTTHINK YOURSELF Pre-arranging tripwires Dealing with problems Pretend the job is finished It's urgent - pretend it's not It's not urgent - pretend it is The art of outthinking yourself 7. TICK ACHIEVE The art of great list writing The Priority Matrix The Growing Pane and how to use it Tick achieve So have you done it?

Start is a one-stop guide to getting your business of the ground. Written by someone who has actually been there and done it, it gets straight to the heart of launching your business, with no-nonsense ideas to help you start out with confidence and a clear direction. Pick up some essential tips like: * Start with the idea. What is it and how will it realise your ambitions? What is the long-term plan? If you don't know where you are going then you won't get there. * Simplicity is the key. Don't overcomplicate things so that the idea is pecked to death by ducks. If you can write it on a postcard and explain it to your mum, then you can get started. * Make clear plans. Draw up One-page business and personal plans to work out what you want in the simplest and clearest possible way. * Decide what you want. Flush out whether you are building to sell, or just want the business to fund your lifestyle, then take the leap of faith and get it underway. Work hard, but don't confuse being busy with being effective. * Learn from experience. Realise when you are gaining speed but losing altitude, and have the courage to change things when they aren't working well. All vital stuff, packaged and presented in a way that will help you put it into practice right away. So what are you waiting for? It's time to Start.

So What? gets straight to the point so you can cut through the noise and nonsense of work. Much of what we learn in our formative years is unlearnt in later life. As grown-ups we are often unable to answer the simplest of questions in a clear, direct way, and frequently have no idea why we are doing something. This can lead to crippling inefficiency in business, and goes some way to explaining why so many people spend so much time doing things that have no bearing on the true purpose. by behaving in a genuinely inquisitive way, you can get right to the heart of the matter and save yourself hours, days, and even months of anguish. The questions So what?, Why?, How?, and When? can be hugely effective when applied in the right context, and this book shows you how to use them. Once all the right questions have been posed, there is a final sure-fire method for testing whether something is relevant and helpful. By completing the sentence "Something must be wrong if...", it is simple to work out if you are wasting your time. For example, "Something must be wrong if I don't want to go to work in the morning." So What? shows you how to become truly inquisitive again. So let the questions roll. Pay attention to what the answers are. Learn from them, and you will immediately improve your prospects of finally getting somewhere in life.