The Failure of Planning

The Failure of Planning
Author: Richard Hogan
Publisher: Ohio State University Press
Total Pages: 238
Release: 2003
Genre: City planning
ISBN: 9780814209233

Planning to Fail

Planning to Fail
Author: James H. Lebovic
Publisher: Oxford University Press
Total Pages: 257
Release: 2019-03-07
Genre: Political Science
ISBN: 0190935332

The United States national-security establishment is vast, yet the United States has failed to meet its initial objectives in almost every one of its major, post-World War II conflicts. Of these troubled efforts, the US wars in Vietnam (1965-73), Iraq (2003-11), and Afghanistan (2001-present) stand out for their endurance, resource investment, human cost, and miscalculated decisions. Because overarching policy goals are distant and open to interpretation, policymakers ground their decisions in the immediate world of short-term objectives, salient tasks, policy constraints, and fixed time schedules. As a consequence, they exaggerate the benefits of their preferred policies, ignore the accompanying costs and requirements, and underappreciate the benefits of alternatives. In Planning to Fail, James H. Lebovic argues that a profound myopia helps explain US decision-making failures. In each of the wars explored in this book, he identifies four stages of intervention. First and foremost, policymakers chose unwisely to go to war. After the fighting began, they inadvisably sought to extend or expand the mission. Next, they pursued the mission, in abbreviated form, to suboptimal effect. Finally, they adapted the mission to exit from the conflict. Lebovic argues that US leaders were effectively planning to fail whatever their hopes and thoughts were at the time the intervention began. Decision-makers struggled less than they should have, even when conditions allowed for good choices. Then, when conditions on the ground left them with only bad choices, they struggled furiously and more than could ever matter. Policymakers allowed these wars to sap available capabilities, push US forces to the breaking point, and exhaust public support. They finally settled for terms of departure that they (or their predecessors) would have rejected at the start of these conflicts. Offering a far-ranging and detailed analysis, this book identifies an unmistakable pattern of failure and highlights lessons we can learn from it.

Fail to Plan, Plan to Fail

Fail to Plan, Plan to Fail
Author: Darryl Vidal
Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers
Total Pages: 104
Release: 2017
Genre: Education
ISBN: 9781475834161

FAIL TO PLAN, PLAN TO FAIL is a book which guides Education Technology professionals through a detailed process, called MAPITTM, that illustrates five phases for developing your school's Ed Tech Strategic Plan: Needs Identification, Needs Analysis, Recommendations, Feasibility and Implementation.

Solving the Giving Pledge Bottleneck

Solving the Giving Pledge Bottleneck
Author: Sean Davis
Publisher: Springer Nature
Total Pages: 152
Release: 2021-08-27
Genre: Business & Economics
ISBN: 3030788652

This book highlights the historic inflection point we are in, both in terms of philanthropy in general, and specifically in financing the solutions to our largest and most urgent social and environmental problems. It covers the two movements that have recently had a dramatic influence on capitalism. First, wealthy millennials have been pressuring their bankers to invest their family portfolios in companies with high social and environmental impact (ESG ratings), triggering a wave where the wealth management industry, and now all public companies, are significantly adapting to the increasing demand for good. Second, The Giving Pledge triggered another wave, changing what success and the accumulation of wealth means. It has even begun to redefine the goal of capitalism as more than 200 billionaires have pledged to give half or more of their wealth away. This book also focuses on the bottleneck problem that The Giving Pledge has created, as it is very hard to give hundreds of billions away with measurable impact to nonprofits lacking detailed long-term plans to scale. Nonprofits have never had the luxury of having all the resources to invest in the planning, management training and systems needed to rapidly expand. Thus taking in very large gifts is very difficult, and almost impossible to justify. Large philanthropy can always be used for traditional capital campaigns and to fund endowments, yet The Giving Pledge signers are often looking for large visible impact beyond these traditional avenues. The result is a bottleneck which has grown as more billionaires pledge their funds away while their wealth continues to skyrocket and giving rates stay very small. Finally, this book covers the emergence of large giving vehicles, modelled after the private equity industry. They have sophisticated third-party managers focused on deploying funds and supporting management teams. It also covers the scaling of nonprofits in a significant way (“Big Bets”) as well as investing large philanthropy through for-profits as Program Related Investments (PRI) at scale. This book is of interest specifically to nonprofit and foundation leaders, as well as wealth managers, estate attorneys and other philanthropic advisors. It is also of interest to investors and corporate CEOs as they begin to access these large pools for philanthropic capital to increase their impact. This book is focused on providing those with the ability to make large philanthropic investments a path to scale their impact and increase their fulfillment and that of their family. It provides a step-by-step guide of how these approaches, especially PRI at scale, can actually solve the social and environmental challenges that have been seemingly hopeless.

Built to Grow

Built to Grow
Author: Royston Guest
Publisher: John Wiley & Sons
Total Pages: 296
Release: 2016-12-05
Genre: Business & Economics
ISBN: 1119318092

‘This book is straightforward, factual and to the point. Any Leader responsible for business growth should read it! A blueprint full of practical ideas and tools to inspire you into action’—Craig Donaldson - Chief Executive Officer, Metro Bank (RANKED NUMBER ONE IN GLASSDOOR’S HIGHEST RATED CEO 2016) If you asked a cross-section of business leaders, business owners and entrepreneurs what their biggest business challenge is, you would probably hear the same recurring thought: growing their business in a sustainable, predictable, yet profitable way – quickly. It’s a reality that most businesses and individuals never reach their full potential, always yearning for the ‘thing’ that will catapult them into significance, but never really finding it. Whether you’re an entrepreneur starting out, or a director, executive or business leader climbing the corporate ladder, the building blocks of Built to Grow are universally applicable. Developed in the real world laboratory of thousands of businesses in twenty-seven countries spanning over two decades, Built to Grow is a proven, time-tested model to unlock the real potential in your business. Avoid the common pitfalls of a trial and error approach to business growth. Built to Grow is full of practical strategies, tools and ideas, backed up with real world case studies to illustrate what can be achieved - leaving you equipped to transform your businesses performance and drive tangible results. Built to Grow is destined to become your handbook, your ‘go to’ guide, your roadmap to accelerated, sustained and profitable business growth.

Why Plans Fail

Why Plans Fail
Author: James Benson
Publisher:
Total Pages: 128
Release: 2014-04-15
Genre:
ISBN: 9780989081221

Business runs on decisions. Business relies on estimates, plans, and projections - and we all know how accurate they tend to be. Careers are made, careers are broken based on perceived accuracy in estimation and planning. But what if the successes and failures of these projects were not based on the prowess of those making the plans? What if successes and failures were instead the result of a more complex set of events? What if our own cognitive biases - our own brains - were creating our inaccuracies, our poor assumptions, and our unreasonable expectations? Why Plans Fail directly addresses our ability to plan, to forecast, and to make decisions. Written by Jim Benson, author of the Shingo Research Award-winning Personal Kanban, urban planner, software developer, and business owner who has planned and built everything from small software projects, to houses, to urban freeway systems, Why Plans Fail is told by someone with much skin in the estimation and planning game. This short work is the first in the Modus Cooperandi MemeMachine series - which looks specifically at underlying issues that directly impact the success of teams, companies, and individuals. The Mememachine series is meant to start conversations and advance discussion.

Why Startups Fail

Why Startups Fail
Author: Tom Eisenmann
Publisher: Currency
Total Pages: 370
Release: 2021-03-30
Genre: Business & Economics
ISBN: 0593137027

If you want your startup to succeed, you need to understand why startups fail. “Whether you’re a first-time founder or looking to bring innovation into a corporate environment, Why Startups Fail is essential reading.”—Eric Ries, founder and CEO, LTSE, and New York Times bestselling author of The Lean Startup and The Startup Way Why do startups fail? That question caught Harvard Business School professor Tom Eisenmann by surprise when he realized he couldn’t answer it. So he launched a multiyear research project to find out. In Why Startups Fail, Eisenmann reveals his findings: six distinct patterns that account for the vast majority of startup failures. • Bad Bedfellows. Startup success is thought to rest largely on the founder’s talents and instincts. But the wrong team, investors, or partners can sink a venture just as quickly. • False Starts. In following the oft-cited advice to “fail fast” and to “launch before you’re ready,” founders risk wasting time and capital on the wrong solutions. • False Promises. Success with early adopters can be misleading and give founders unwarranted confidence to expand. • Speed Traps. Despite the pressure to “get big fast,” hypergrowth can spell disaster for even the most promising ventures. • Help Wanted. Rapidly scaling startups need lots of capital and talent, but they can make mistakes that leave them suddenly in short supply of both. • Cascading Miracles. Silicon Valley exhorts entrepreneurs to dream big. But the bigger the vision, the more things that can go wrong. Drawing on fascinating stories of ventures that failed to fulfill their early promise—from a home-furnishings retailer to a concierge dog-walking service, from a dating app to the inventor of a sophisticated social robot, from a fashion brand to a startup deploying a vast network of charging stations for electric vehicles—Eisenmann offers frameworks for detecting when a venture is vulnerable to these patterns, along with a wealth of strategies and tactics for avoiding them. A must-read for founders at any stage of their entrepreneurial journey, Why Startups Fail is not merely a guide to preventing failure but also a roadmap charting the path to startup success.

Between Justice and Beauty

Between Justice and Beauty
Author: Howard Gillette, Jr.
Publisher: University of Pennsylvania Press
Total Pages: 316
Release: 2011-06-03
Genre: History
ISBN: 0812205294

As the only American city under direct congressional control, Washington has served historically as a testing ground for federal policy initiatives and social experiments—with decidedly mixed results. Well-intentioned efforts to introduce measures of social justice for the district's largely black population have failed. Yet federal plans and federal money have successfully created a large federal presence—a triumph, argues Howard Gillette, of beauty over justice. In a new afterword, Gillette addresses the recent revitalization and the aftereffects of an urban sports arena.

Human Resource Management at Work

Human Resource Management at Work
Author: Mick Marchington
Publisher: CIPD Publishing
Total Pages: 496
Release: 2005
Genre: Business & Economics
ISBN: 9781843980629

This new 3rd edition of the best-selling text People Management & Development: Human Resource Management at Work is the complete text for anyone studying Human Resource Management. Combining the latest academic research with practical approaches to managing HR in the workplace, the text is thoroughly revised with increased signposting to enhance accessibility, a revised structure designed to be more flexible for use on CIPD and non-CIPD courses, as well as the addition of more international cases. Ideal for students studying for the CIPD professional qualification as well as general human resource management modules at undergraduate and postgraduate level. A 'route map' at the front of the book will indicate how the text can be used on both CIPD and non-CIPD courses to assist lecture preparation. TARGETED AT - Students studying CIPD Professional Qualifications and undergraduate and post graduate students taking HRM modules on business and HRM courses

Fail Better

Fail Better
Author: Anjali Sastry
Publisher: Harvard Business Review Press
Total Pages: 330
Release: 2014-10-14
Genre: Business & Economics
ISBN: 1422193454

If you’re aiming to innovate, failure along the way is a given. But can you fail better? Whether you’re rolling out a new product from a city-view office or rolling up your sleeves to deliver a social service in the field, learning why and how to embrace failure can help you do better, faster. Smart leaders, entrepreneurs, and change agents design their innovation projects with a key idea in mind: ensure that every failure is maximally useful. In Fail Better, Anjali Sastry and Kara Penn show how to create the conditions, culture, and habits to systematically, ruthlessly, and quickly figure out what works, in three steps: 1. Launch every innovation project with the right groundwork 2. Build and refine ideas and products through iterative action 3. Identify and embed the learning Fail Better teaches you how to design your efforts to test the boundaries of your thinking, explore crucial interdependencies, and find the factors that can shift results from just acceptable to groundbreaking—or even world-changing. Practical instructions intertwined with compelling real-world examples show you how to: • Make predictions and map system relationships ahead of time so you can better assess results • Establish how much failure you can afford • Prioritize project activities for disconfirmation and iteration • Learn from every action step by collecting and examining the right data • Support efficient, productive habits to link action and reflection • Distill, share, and embed the lessons from every success and failure You may be a Fortune 500 manager, scrappy start-up innovator, social impact visionary, or simply leading your own small project. If you aim to break through without breaking the bank—or ruining your reputation—this book is for you.