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 Stanford Executive Briefings
Duration: 54 Minutes Joel Kurtzman’s “new rules of employment” to instill common purpose are based on years of research and numerous interviews with top executives. From American Express’s Kenneth Chenault, to Michael Dell of Dell Inc., and Steve Wynn of Wynn Resorts, successful leaders align the interests of individuals with those of the organization. NASA in the 1960s, for example, offered employees a once-in-a-lifetime learning opportunity to tackle what they couldn’t do anywhere else, aligning their personal benefit with that of the space program. And they create leaders at every level of the organization by communicating and modeling what’s expected, and then providing feedback and celebrating successes.
Companies that achieve and sustain exceptional results over time are rare. Those that do are made up of people united by a common purpose—one that fosters hard work, sacrifice, and exemplary performance to accomplish the goals of the organization. Their leaders, whether at Disney, Google, or Staples, inspire a palpable sense of mission and provide the means for individuals to contribute as much as possible.
 This award-winning video is designed to take the guesswork out of your financial reports. It tells the story of two employees who have to decide which of two restaurants up for sale is the most sound purchase. Along the way, they get a detailed analysis of each restaurant’s financials, including the balance sheet, inventory accounting, and operating vs. non-operating income. The success of your business is based on profits and losses; an acute understanding of what goes into your financial statements can help keep you on the plus side. Stanford professor George Parker provides both line-by-line explanations of the three key financial statements used by US companies, and offers logical, common-sense approaches to interpreting what they reveal about profitability, value, and the ability to pay bills.
 Duration: 54 Minutes A fundamental power shift is underway in relationships between organizations and customers. Traditional one-way, seller-to-buyer communication is evolving into a two-way dialog, as social media technologies give buyers a voice. With examples from Oracle, Southwest Airlines, Walmart, Comcast, and Starbucks, Charlene Li shows how companies can use social media tools to encourage that dialog and have more intimate, beneficial relationships with customers.
To get started, says Ms. Li, uncover what people want from you—whether it is product information, reviews from users, customer service attention, or input into product development. As you develop your communication strategy, start small, concentrating on how to meet the needs of your audience. Identify the “realist/optimist” in your organization who can jumpstart the process. Craft metrics and communication policies that align with your business goals. And then “prepare to let go” of absolute control. Charlene Li is publisher of The Altimeter blog and co-author ofGroundswell: Winning in a World Transformed by Social Technologies. A frequently quoted industry analyst, she has appeared on 60 Minutes, NewsHour with Jim Lehrer, ABC News, CNN, and CNBC. She earned her BA from Harvard College and MBA from Harvard Business School.
 1. Seven common strategic errors that lead to business failure. 2. Why bad strategies happen to good people. 3. How to encourage devil’s advocacy before it’s too late. While we are inspired by business success stories, we are educated by business failures. Chunka Mui and Paul Carroll researched 750 of the most significant business failures of the past quarter-century and found the Number 1 cause of failure was not sloppy execution, poor leadership or bad luck. It was, instead, misguided strategy. Mui gives examples of the seven most common strategic failure patterns: illusions of synergy, misjudged adjacencies, faulty financial engineering and others. He explains that each pattern has predictable red flags. Human beings are hard-wired for bad decision making in complex situations, notes Mui. We hone in on answers before examining all the facts, and then seek evidence to confirm our answers. We are adversely influenced by emotion, loyalties, and group think. However, decision making can be improved when we encourage conflict and question our assumptions. A devil’s advocate review should be built in early to the strategy process, and again at the key design stages and when near completion for a last chance to review the full strategy. Chunka Mui is a fellow with Diamond Management & Technology Consultants and a partner with Cornerloft Partners, LLC. He co-authored with Larry Downes “Unleashing the Killer App, Digital Strategies for Market Dominance,” and co-authored with Paul Carroll “Billion Dollar Lessons.” He holds a BS in Computer Science and Engineering from Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
 In this lively and informative presentation, Bill Gates gives you his perspective on where technology is headed. Expanding on his belief that we're "really just at the beginning," he shares his goals for the current decade—advances in networking and application interactivity; increases in reliability and ease of use; and improvements in productivity, as information sharing becomes more and more efficient. Program Highlights
During a candid question and answer session fielded by Stanford President John Hennessy, Gates responds to issues ranging from privacy to security concerns; and from intellectual property protection to current limitations on broadband access. Duration:57 minutes (2002)
Bill Gates is Chairman and Chief Software Architect of Microsoft Corporation, the world's leading provider of software for personal computers. He began programming at age 13, and by 1974, while an undergraduate at Harvard, he had developed a version of BASIC for the first microcomputer. He formed Microsoft with Paul Allen in 1975. Today, Microsoft employs more than 40,000 people in 60 countries.
Conflict becomes destructive when anger, jealousy, and other strong emotions turn the focus away from problem solving and toward personal attacks. Destructive conflict can ruin relationships among workers, interfere with productivity, destroy teamwork, and contribute to employee absenteeism and turnover.
While acknowledging common sources of conflict, this entertaining video provides eight specific, reliable solutions: skills that help you put aside your differences, control your emotions, and move forward.
Learn these solutions:
• Responding with empathy
• Active listening
• Setting a limit
• Finding something to agree with
• Using “I” language instead of “You” language
• Disengaging to cool off
• Appealing to mutual self-interest
• Attacking the problem, not the person
Now, it is true that there are many things you CAN’T control when you are dealing with your coworkers or colleagues. But there are skills you can learn to keep disagreements constructive and resolve conflicts in a positive way. The most important thing to keep in mind is that resolving conflict is not about one person proving the other person wrong. Resolving conflict is about working WITH the other person to solve the problem and maintain the relationship.
Bottom line: there will always be conflict. The secret is learning to manage it successfully. Doing so empowers you to take control of your life—and career.
Includes: This 50-page booklet accompanies the video and provides the opportunity to take a pre-test & post-test to evaluate knowledge of conflict resolution, understand common sources of workplace conflicts, grasp negative consequences, learn easy-to-use techniques, and much more!
Format: DVD
Duration: 17 Minutes
Richard Roi Todd Pierce At any given time, companies may be juggling as many as ten different change initiatives. The sad reality is that the majority of them will fail as new ideas lead to new projects while the older ones are allowed to languish. And often, it’s large companies with strong corporate cultures that have particular difficulty handling change. Adaptation, done correctly, can lead to increased profits, but it’s important to remember how you got there. A truly adaptive organization values people over technology and respects its employees as both individuals and team members.
 Since many existing business practices inhibit innovation, new organizational designs and managerial approaches must emerge to meet today's new challenges. Professor Raymond Miles describes how self-managed projects among firms can generate innovation and market placement. Program Highlights
The United States and other advanced nations must learn to live by their wits in the global economy of the 21st century. Since many existing business practices inhibit innovation, new organizational designs and managerial approaches must emerge to meet today's new challenges. Professor Miles describes one such model: the establishment of communities of networked firms that can leverage their knowledge base and their entrepreneurial know-how to create economic wealth through collaborative innovation. Duration: 37 Minutes (2006)
Tamara Erickson Different generations have different opinions about work. These days, your Boomers are headed toward retirement while your younger employees are coming in with fewer skills. In addition, they want more flexibility in their work schedule, and are likely to be looking for another job. What can you do to ensure that you’re bringing in—and retaining—employees who are right for your organization? Amp up recruitment and spend the time and money necessary to develop your team. But more importantly, keep your employees engaged by giving them a reason to be passionate about their jobs. 
Duration: 46 Minutes
Fear and uncertainty in the workplace hurt the morale of teams and lead to pessimism, poor focus and subpar performance. Jon Gordon’s strategies for successfully uniting teams center on his belief that communication is key. Start by sharing a unifying vision that rallies a team toward a common purpose. Stay positive on a daily basis, celebrate successes, and deal with negativity head on. Engage employees by helping them find their own personal vision and their own passion. Finally, focus on creating inspired, committed relationships, and those relationships will deliver top performance.
Jon Gordon is a speaker, consultant and author of numerous books, including 10 Rules to Fuel Your Life and The No Complaining Rule. He has been featured on CNN, NBC's Today Show and in Forbes, The Wall Street Journal and The New York Times. He is a graduate of Cornell University and holds a master’s in teaching from Emory University.
$129.00 [Add to Cart]
 Today's leaders must connect with their audiences in substantive ways that go far beyond the giving of information. Leaders must be able to motivate audiences to commitment, not merely to compliance. Terry Pearce explores and demonstrates ways in which a leader can elevate a speech into a more powerful and ultimately productive experience—for the speaker as well as for the listener. Program Highlights
 Organizations totally driven by the market consistently outperform their competition in profitability. These organizations carefully segment their markets and deliver an outstanding value proposition to their target customers. However, truly market-focused organizations must also pursue more than a sound market strategy. They must align their culture with the target customer value proposition. Professor Rao details the six levers of culture building, and explains how aligning these factors reduces employee stress and turnover, creating a self-selected, productive workforce that is in touch with the demands of potential customers.
 In a business environment of fast-moving markets, global supply chains, and dynamic technologies, executing strategy is becoming increasingly difficult. How do you aim for a target that is constantly shifting—while standing on a platform that is constantly destabilized? Professor Levitt provides the answer: plan in detail only as far out as you can see; keep questioning your assumptions about your markets, resources, and competitors; and revise your rolling plan frequently as you track and resolve changing issues. Program Highlights
Dr. Levitt emphasizes the critical importance of aligning your organization’s structure and culture with your strategy. He describes business failures caused by product value differentiation in conflict with core organizational strengths, leading companies to invest heavily in projects that did not meet the demands of the marketplace or became outdated before they could be released. Duration:53 minutes (2008) Professor Levitt serves as Director of Stanford's Collaboratory for Research on Global Projects and as Academic Director of the award-winning Stanford Advanced Project Management executive program.
 Voted the Number 1 company to work for in 2009 by Fortune magazine, NetApp has successfully navigated through every major cycle in business: from the frenetic mentality of a startup, through the tumultuous period of the dot-com boom and bust, and finally to the relative stability of a mature enterprise organization. The company’s core values of candor, integrity, teamwork, and simplicity not only contributed to Fortune’s ranking, notes Dave Hitz, but also helped it transition through these growth phases—and thrive. To survive and grow through business cycles, NetApp transformed itself from a technology startup into an enterprise vendor, diversifying in both products and customers. Now, in setting a strategic course and planning for future growth, Hitz uses a habit he developed of visualizing “the future as history.” Describing the future in the past tense, including the real steps needed to get there, helps prepare the company and employees for the inevitable transformations to come. Dave Hitz and James Lau founded NetApp in 1992, and as executive vice president, Hitz is responsible for the future strategy and direction of the company. Earlier, Hitz worked at Auspex Corporation and MIPS Computer. Before his career in IT, Hitz worked as a cowboy, getting valuable management experience by herding and branding cattle. He holds a BS in computer science and electrical engineering from Princeton University.
 In business or otherwise, you probably do some form of negotiation every single day. But are you getting the most that you can out of it? This award-winning program follows talks between a baseball park and the team that might move there. As they negotiate, you’ll learn when to go after what you want, when to back down, and when to walk away entirely. Once you’ve got the skills to strategize and make offers, you can even sweeten the deal by improving upon agreements after you’ve reached a settlement. Includes - Free Study Guide Also available in Spanish
 Change is no longer an event... Change is business as usual. Customers are demanding "better, faster, cheaper"; competition is fierce; and a turbulent economy and technological advances increase the pressure to "do more with less." Success today is dependent on keeping your work force resilient, positive, and engaged while this rapid (and accelerating) change constantly turns your organization upside down. Yet, employees are increasingly skeptical about committing to business strategies that are constantly being redefined. Program Highlights
 We've updated our popular Stanford lecture series on effective Website practices. Learn from the experts what you need to know about what's happening right now on the Web. Get all 12 titles in the series and save! This collection includes the following titles
You’ll see how a page is generated from file downloads and links, how traffic to the page is tracked, what cookies are and how they are used, and more.
Broadcasting Your Brand
Harnessing the Power of Blogs
How to Pull Off a Successful Redesign
Mobile Strategies
Secrets of Search Engine Optimization
Staying Out of Legal Trouble
Smarter Strategies for Enewsletters
Ten Mistakes Websites Still Make...And How to Fix them
User-Generated Content: Growing It, Controlling It
Using Web Metrics Strategically
Video Strategies: What's Working Today
 Selling is not an event but an ever-changing process that requires a solid strategy to achieve positive results. James Healy explains how to manage the four dynamic and interactive functions of selling and describes the skills that good salespeople need to learn in order to develop an effective selling strategy. Program Highlights
Duration: 47 Minutes (2006)
 Dr. Cheryl L. Shavers, Director, Rockwell Collins, Inc. Produced - 1998, 48 minutes Strategic alliances have become a regular part of business culture these days. So how do you know that the alliance will have a positive effect on each partner’s bottom line? Like any relationship, trust is a major component of a successful alliance. But profit doesn’t come from trust alone. This program guides you through the three phases of an alliance, and shows you which signs to look for to determine if your alliance is really working.
 Bill Price There is somewhat of a disconnect between how CEOs perceive their companies' customer service (they think it’s above-average) and how customers feel about said service (more of them leave dissatisfied than satisfied). In this program, Bill Price says that the solution is to stop focusing on traditional customer service methods altogether. He draws on his experiences with Amazon.com and MCI to create a set of seven principles that will help you adapt a “no service” approach to customer service. Learn how to provide your customers with self-service alternatives and put systems in place that allow problems to correct themselves, all without having to invest in expensive technology.
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