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Platform Strategy for Global Markets: Strategic Use of Open Standards and Management of Business Ecosystems
by Hirofumi TatsumotoThis book explains the strategic behaviors of platform firms on the global market, drawing on extensive research on the mobile communication systems, semiconductor equipment, personal computer, and automobile electronics industries. The book focuses on Ericsson, Applied Materials, Intel, and Bosch as representative global platform companies. The book’s introductory section reports on the rise of platform business and addresses the theoretical basis of their competitive edge, based on a review of prior studies on the network effect of open standards and the economic theory of strategic behavior. The platform business obviously secures a competitive advantage on the global market. Yet this theory alone does not provide sufficient explanation for why the platform business achieves competitiveness on the market. The book proposes a theoretical framework and provides rigorous supporting evidence by using case studies and empirical analysis on the global business of platform firms. This evidence reflects the variety of global ecosystems: the mobile communications system in China, the semiconductor equipment industry in East Asia, personal computers in Taiwan, and automobile electronics in China. In conclusion, the book reviews these studies and identifies the key factors of platform strategy on the global market. Given its breadth of coverage, the book will benefit all academic researchers and undergraduate students in management and economics with an interest in global competition and collaboration in the open economy.
Platform Strategy: How to Unlock the Power of Communities and Networks to Grow Your Business
by Laure Claire Reillier Benoit ReillierDuring the last decade, platform businesses such as Uber, Airbnb, Amazon and eBay have been taking over the world. In almost every sector, traditional businesses are under attack from digital disrupters that are effectively harnessing the power of communities. But what exactly is a platform business and why is it different? In Platform Strategy, Laure Claire Reillier and Benoit Reillier provide a practical guide for students, digital entrepreneurs and executives to understand what platforms are, how they work and how you can build one successfully. Using their own "rocket model" and original case studies (including Google, Apple, Amazon), they explain how designing, igniting and scaling a platform business requires learning a whole new set of management rules. Platform Strategy also offers many fascinating insights into the future of platforms, their regulation and governance, as well as how they can be combined with other business models. Benoit Reillier and Laure Claire Reillier are co-founders of Launchworks, a leading advisory firm focused on helping organizations develop and scale innovative business models.
Platform Strategy: Transform Your Business with AI, Platforms and Human Intelligence
by Tero Ojanperä Timo O. VuoriWhat do Amazon, Google, Visa and AirBnB all have in common? They are all platform businesses. They know they can go beyond their industry segments. They capitalize on wider ecosystems that strengthen their offering and expand commercial opportunities. And now your business can do the same.Welcome to the world of platform businesses. In Platform Strategy one of the world's most creative men in business according to Fast Company and a leading strategy professor at a Financial Times top 40 business school show you the ropes. They lead you through the seven steps you can take to turn your business into a successful platform. Learn to harness emerging technologies like artificial intelligence, cement your business into thriving ecosystems and go beyond industry boundaries. Uncover how business leaders at companies as diverse as John Deere, KONE, and Visa are leading their businesses to the future by reinventing their business model.Authors Tero Ojanperä and Timo Vuori distil the disrupters' methods to an actionable blueprint. In Platform Strategy they put the emphasis on what you can do as leader; harness new technologies, work with partners but also crucially, recognize the fear of change in your people and utilize that energy to drive progress. More than just about technology, this book is at the centre of the leadership agenda for the future.
Platform: Get Noticed in a Noisy World
by Michael HyattIt's not about being picked by a gatekeeper, investing thousands of dollars in consultants, or understanding complex technology. That may have been the ticket five years ago, but not today. Social media technologies have changed everything. Now, for the first time in history, non-celebrities people like you can get noticed and win big in an increasingly noisy world.
Platform: Get Noticed in a Noisy World
by Michael HyattMichael Hyatt, one of the top business bloggers in the world, provides down-to-earth guidance for building and expanding a powerful platform. To be successful in the market today, you must possess two strategic assets: a compelling product and a meaningful platform. In this step-by-step guide, Michael Hyatt, former CEO and current Chairman of Thomas Nelson Publishers, takes readers behind the scenes, into the new world of social media success. He shows you what best-selling authors, public speakers, entrepreneurs, musicians, and other creatives are doing differently to win customers in todayÆs crowded marketplace. Hyatt speaks from experience. He writes one of the top 800 blogs in the world and has more than 100,000 followers on Twitter. His large and growing platform serves as the foundation for his successful writing, speaking, and consulting practice. In Platform, Hyatt will teach readers not only how to extend their influence, but also how to monetize it and build a sustainable career. The key? By building a platform. It has never been easier, less expensive, or more possible than right now. . . The book includes: proven strategies easy-to-replicate formulas practical tips Social media technologies have changed everything. Now, for the first time in history, non-celebrities can get noticedùand win big!ùin an increasingly noisy world.
Platform: The Art and Science of Personal Branding
by Cynthia JohnsonThe indispensable guide to developing a personal brand, finding an audience, and nurturing followers, by digital marketing thought-leader Cynthia Johnson. In the modern world, influence is everything and personal branding equals influence. Platform is the why-to, how-to handbook by top expert Cynthia Johnson for everyone who wants to develop and manage a personal brand. In Platform, Johnson explains the process of going from unknown to influencer by achieving personal proof, social proof, recognition, and association. Johnson herself went from an on-staff social media manager to social media influencer, entrepreneur, and marketing thought-leader in just three years using her process of accelerated brand development, continuous brand management, and strategic growth. Fans of #GirlBoss and #AskGaryVee, who wonder how their favorite influencers found their voices and built their audiences, will find the answers here and discover that the process is technical, creative, tactical, and much easier than they might have expected.
Platformed! How Streaming, Algorithms and Artificial Intelligence are Shaping Music Cultures (Pop Music, Culture and Identity)
by Paolo Magaudda Tiziano BoniniGrounded in more than a decade of field research, this book uses empirical examples, quantitative data, and qualitative interviews with young music consumers as well as music industry professionals to understand how the platforms behind music production, distribution and listening work in our digital society. Bringing together the perspectives from science and technology studies, media studies, and the political economy of digital platforms, the book outlines the process of mutual construction between music digital platforms and the cultural value of music in today’s society, and also reflects on the complicated relationship between the power of platforms and the agency of listeners.
Platforms and Artificial Intelligence: The Next Generation of Competences (Progress in IS)
by Ahmed BounfourArtificial intelligence (AI) and platforms are closely related. Most investments in AI, especially in critical technologies, are provided by large platforms. This book describes how platforms invest in AI and how AI will impact the next generation of competences, following a twofold approach to do so: on the one hand, the book seeks to understand how platforms for investment in intangibles and AI are organized, but on the other hand, it provides a framework to describe how AI will change jobs and competences in the future.Moreover, the book addresses five main themes: 1. platforms, platformization, and the foundations of their business models; 2. artificial intelligence, technological tendencies, and the policy agenda; 3. artificial intelligence, productivity, and the next generation of competences; 4. artificial intelligence, productivity, and the digital divide; 5. artificial intelligence, ethics, and the post-truth society.The book’s content is mostly based on papers presented at the last two installments of the World Conference on Intellectual Capital for Communities. It brings together the views of leading scholars and experts on how artificial intelligence and platformization will impact competences in the near future.
Platinum Capital
by Jo Tango Alys FerragamoHow should a venture capital firm divide compensation and decision rights between its founders and its next-generation partners? Platinum Capital faced this decision in July 2020. Platinum's younger partners had just requested a piece of the firm's highly lucrative Management Company from Platinum's founders. The founders felt they were owed compensation for the risk and "lean" years they had faced when founding the firm. Yet, the high-performing new partners had other career opportunities and wanted to be "real" partners in the business. Should the founders grant the next generation access to the management company? If so, how should the firm's decision rights work in this new scenario?
Platons grotesker Irrtum
by Gunter DueckSeit 2005 schreibt der Bestsellerautor Gunter Dueck auf seiner Hompepage www.omnisophie.com alle 14 Tage ein neues "Daily Dueck". Mehr als 5000 Stammleser finden dort Satirisches, Ergötzliches oder auch herb Kritisches. Der Band versammelt die ersten 99 "Daily Duecks" für diejenigen, die lieber ein Buch in den Händen halten möchten. Dueck warnte schon früh vor der Finanzkrise, er schreibt witzige oder ätzend scharfe Pointen über Heuschrecken, treudoofe Bestandskunden, Arbeitsstress und Werteverluste und wirbt für mehr Vertrauen im Arbeitsleben.
Plattform-Geschäftsmodelle: Rahmenwerke, Konzepte und Design
by R. SrinivasanDieses Buch stellt Plattformfirmen als einzigartige Geschäftsmodelle vor. Unter Rückgriff auf die frühe Literatur zur Netzwerkökonomie und zu Strategiekonzepten untersucht dieses Buch, wie sich Plattformunternehmen in der modernen Geschäftswelt entwickeln. Aus einer strategischen Perspektive heraus vermittelt dieses Buch dem Leser Kernkonzepte, Fallstudien und Rahmenwerke zur Analyse von Plattformunternehmen. Das Buch unterscheidet Plattformunternehmen von traditionellen Pipeline-Firmen; es untersucht das Engagement mit verschiedenen Akteuren, die Wertschöpfung und den Betrieb von Plattformen; es erläutert die Ressourcen und Fähigkeiten von Plattformunternehmen, die ihnen einen nachhaltigen Wettbewerbsvorteil verschaffen; es analysiert die Leistungshebel beim Betrieb von Plattformgeschäftsmodellen, einschließlich der Komplementarität mit anderen Geschäftsmodellen; und es erörtert die Nachhaltigkeit von Plattformgeschäftsmodellen, unter anderem angesichts regulatorischer und gesellschaftlicher Herausforderungen.Das Buch ist als Leitfaden für Unternehmer gedacht, die Plattformunternehmen gründen und betreiben, für Führungskräfte in großen Unternehmen, die ihre Ressourcen umwidmen, um die Netzwerkdynamik in ihren Unternehmen in Gang zu setzen, für Nachwuchsführungskräfte und für Fachleute, die für ihre beruflichen und persönlichen Bedürfnisse mit unzähligen Plattformunternehmen zusammenarbeiten. Dieses Buch soll Entscheidungsträgern ein Portfolio von Entscheidungen an die Hand geben, die sie treffen müssen, um eine Plattformfirma zu gründen, zu betreiben, aufrechtzuerhalten und aus ihr Wert zu schöpfen. Es ist auch für Fachleute aus der Politik nützlich, um die wirtschaftlichen und politischen Implikationen der Regulierung und Steuerung von Plattformen in einer postdigitalen Welt zu verstehen.
Plattformökonomie und eCommerce im Banking: Grundlagen, Plattform-Geschäftsmodelle, Optionen und Lösungsansätze
by Gerrit Heinemann Klaus Kannen Sebastian BleilDieses Buch will Banken und Sparkassen dabei unterstützen, die schon in anderen Branchen gemachten Fehler bei der Umsetzung der Plattformökonomie zu vermeiden. Dazu werden die wichtigsten Plattformmodelle anderer Branchen skizziert und es wird systematisch aufgezeigt, welche Geschäftsmodelle und Optionen plattformökonomisch im Banking zur Verfügung stehen. Die digitale Revolution stellt gerade den Bankensektor auf den Kopf. Den letzten Kick dazu gab die neue Zahlungsdienstrichtlinie der EU, die im September 2019 in Kraft getreten ist. Sie soll den Wettbewerb verstärken und die Teilnahme von Nichtbanken am Zahlungsverkehr erhöhen. Was aus Verbrauchersicht durchaus von Vorteil sein kann, bedeutet für die Bankenwelt eine enorme Zäsur und bricht ihr lukratives Monopol beim Zugriff auf Kontodaten. Für Banken geht es nun schlicht und ergreifend darum, sich entweder von FinTechs und branchenfremden Plattformen auch bei komplexen Bankprodukten die Butter vom Brot nehmen zu lassen oder aber mit einer eigenen wettbewerbsfähigen Plattformlösung zu kontern. Jedoch ohne zeitraubende Experimente, denn die FinTechs sowie vor allem externe Plattformen und Vergleichsseiten wie Check24 oder Verivox haben die Bankkunden bereits ins Visier genommen. Der Inhalt• Standortbestimmung der Plattformökonomie• Plattformökonomie für Finanzdienstleistungen• Customer Journey: Bankkunden und ihre Entscheidungswege• Digital Readiness der Banken und Sparkassen • Zukünftige Plattformmodelle für Sparkassen und ihre Bewertung
Plattformökonomik (Studienwissen kompakt)
by Henrique SchneiderDieses Lehrbuch führt kompakt und präzise in die Grundlagen der Plattformökonomik ein. Plattformen sind strukturierte Geschäftsmodelle, die solide in der ökonomischen Theorie verankert sind. Das Buch zeigt auf, wie Plattformen funktionieren, indem es auf die Ökonomik der Bestandteile dieser Geschäftsmodelle eingeht. Es ist praxisorientiert geschrieben und enthält zahlreiche Beispiele, Fallstudien, Experimente und Übungsaufgaben, um vor allem Studierenden im Bachelorstudium die Plattformökonomie praxisnah zu vermitteln. Gleichzeitig befähigt es dazu, Elemente der Plattform-Geschäftsmodelle praxisorientiert zu anzuwenden. Es eignet sich damit sowohl als Unterlage für Vorlesungen und Seminare als auch für eine praxisorientierte Ausbildung etwa in Akademien oder innerbetrieblich.Zusätzliche Fragen per App: Laden Sie die Springer-Nature-Flashcards-App kostenlos herunter und nutzen Sie exklusives Zusatzmaterial, um Ihr Wissen zu prüfen.
Play A Bigger Game!
by Rowdy McleanThe tricks and tools you need to get more out of life than you ever thought possibleEveryone wants more of something: more fun, more money, more time, more love, more friends, more knowledge, and Play A Bigger Game: Achieve More, Be More, Do More, Have More is the book you need to achieve--and exceed--these goals. A motivational resource and practical guide for helping individuals, companies, and organisations to realise their full potential, the book breaks down the challenges that can get in the way of success into easy to implement ideas and action plans.Written by one of Australia's most successful motivational speakers, Rowdy McLean, a man who has spent the last decade studying the key drivers of success and achievement, the book contains more than just goal setting advice, it's a definitive guide to goal kicking, helping you not only define what you want but providing the tools and resources you need to turn those dreams into reality.Packed with real-life examples that illustrate the concepts and practices presentedIncludes unique chapter-specific videos accessible by QR codesThe definitive guide to getting what you wantFilled with simple tools and strategies designed to help you get more out of life, Play A Bigger Game has everything you need to get where you want to go.
Play Ball: The Life and Troubled Times of Major League Baseball
by John FeinsteinAn inside look at the world of major league baseball draws on interviews with the players, umpires, managers and coaches, owners, and others to discuss behind-the-scenes intrigues, financial manipulations, controversies, and personalities.
Play Bigger: How Pirates, Dreamers, and Innovators Create and Dominate Markets
by Kevin Maney Dave Peterson Al Ramadan Christopher LochheadThe founders of a respected Silicon Valley advisory firm study legendary category-creating companies and reveal a groundbreaking discipline called category design.Winning today isn't about beating the competition at the old game. It's about inventing a whole new game--defining a new market category, developing it, and dominating it over time. You can't build a legendary company without building a legendary category. If you think that having the best product is all it takes to win, you're going to lose.In this farsighted, pioneering guide, the founders of Silicon Valley advisory firm Play Bigger rely on data analysis and interviews to understand the inner workings of "category kings"-- companies such as Amazon, Salesforce, Uber, and IKEA--that give us new ways of living, thinking or doing business, often solving problems we didn't know we had.In Play Bigger, the authors assemble their findings to introduce the new discipline of category design. By applying category design, companies can create new demand where none existed, conditioning customers' brains so they change their expectations and buying habits. While this discipline defines the tech industry, it applies to every kind of industry and even to personal careers.Crossing the Chasm revolutionized how we think about new products in an existing market. The Innovator's Dilemma taught us about disrupting an aging market. Now, Play Bigger is transforming business once again, showing us how to create the market itself.
Play Bigger: How Rebels and Innovators Create New Categories and Dominate Markets
by Kevin Maney Dave Peterson Al Ramadan Christopher LochheadIn today's world, it's no longer enough to create great new products; rather companies now must create whole new categories that destroy old ones. Uber created a new personal transportation category and destroyed taxis and limos. Salesforce.com created a new category of cloud-base sales automation, dethroning the old CRM industry. Airbnb, Workday, Tesla and Netflix are all winning by creating entirely new business categories that destabilise old ones.The category is the new strategy.The conclusion: If you want to build a legendary company, you need to design and build a legendary category at the same time, and dominate it over time. Your company needs to be a Category King. And if you don't design a Category King, you're creating a failure. Drawing on examples from within and beyond our own practice, PLAY BIGGER shows both entrepreneurs and established enterprises how to define, develop and rule a category over time.
Play Directing: The Basics (The Basics)
by Damon KielyPlay Directing: The Basics introduces theatre students to a step-by-step process for directing plays, including advice on devising. Beginning with a historical overview of directing, this book covers every aspect of the director’s job from first read to closing night. Practical advice on finding plays to produce, analysing scripts, collaborating with the design team, rehearsing with actors, devising company creations, and opening a show are peppered with advice from working professionals and academic directors. A practical workbook, short exercises, helpful websites, and suggested reading encourage readers towards a deeper study of the art of directing. This book empowers high school and early college students interested in theatre and directing to find their own voice, develop a practice, and refine their process.
Play Like a Man, Win Like a Woman
by Gail EvansWomen make up almost half of today's labor force, but in corporate America they don't share half of the power. Only four of the Fortune 500 company CEOs are women, and it's only been in the last few years that even half of the Fortune 500 companies have more than one female officer.A major reason for this? Most women were never taught how to play the game of business. Throughout her career in the supercompetitive, male-dominated media industry, Gail Evans, one of the country's most powerful executives, has met innumerable women who tell her that they feel lost in the workplace, almost as if they were playing a game without knowing the directions.She tells them that's exactly the case: Business is indeed a game, and like any game, there are rules to playing well. For the most part, Gail has discovered, women don't know them.Men know these rules because they wrote them, but women often feel shut out of the process because they don't know when to speak up, when to ask for responsibility, what to say at an interview, and a lot of other key moves that can make or break a career.Now, in her book Play Like a Man, Win Like a Woman, Gail Evans reveals the secrets to the playbook of success and teaches women at all levels of the organization--from assistant to vice president--how to play the game of business to their advantage.Sharing with humor and candor her years of lessons from corporate life, Gail Evans gives readers practical tools for making the right decisions at work. Among the rules you will learn are:* How to Keep Score at Work* When to Take a Risk* How to Deal with the Imposter Syndrome* Ten Vocabulary Words That Mean Different Things to Men and Women* Why Men Can be Ugly, and You Can't* When to Quit Your JobEvans is not saying that every woman has to play exactly by men's rules--not at all. Women bring many inherent traits to the workplace that can provide them with a potential advantage over men, such as a woman's ability to form relationships, or her intuition. But women do need to know the basic rules so that they can understand the full consequences of their every action and how it makes an impact on their career.An honest and practical handbook that reveals important insights into relationships between men and women and work, Play Like a Man, Win Like a Woman, is a must-read for every woman who wants to leverage her power in the workplace.
Play My Game: A Stark Ever After Novella (Stark Series #17)
by J. KennerNew York Times bestselling author J. Kenner continues her beloved Stark series with an emotionally charged Stark Ever After novella for Nikki and Damien Stark and the story of their first Valentine's Day as newlyweds. For fans of Fifty Shades of Grey, Sylvia Day, Meredith Wild and Jodi Ellen Malpas.Happy Ever After is just the beginning... I never imagined that anything could top our honeymoon, but life as Mrs Damien Stark is sweeter than any fantasy. We are forever bound by our love and our desire. His touch is my greatest treasure - and is purely mine alone. Yet no matter where we go, the ghosts of our pasts follow. We can't escape our secrets, or the people who desperately want to bring us down. Even on Valentine's Day, neither of us is safe. I'll do whatever it takes to protect Damien, to fulfill his every need. His kiss is my calling, his passion my truest bliss. The dangers we face, we now face together - and nothing can make me run. Includes a preview of Say My Name, the first novel in J. Kenner's Stark International series, and its hero Jackson Steele...Find out how it all began for Damien and Nikki in J. Kenner's hot and addictive bestselling Stark series: Release Me, Claim Me, Complete Me, Take Me, Have Me, Play My Game, Seduce Me and Unwrap Me.Don't miss J. Kenner's sizzling Most Wanted series of three enigmatic and powerful men, and the striking women who can bring them to their knees: Wanted, Heated and Ignited.
Play My Game: A Stark Ever After Novella (Stark Series #17)
by J. KennerNew York Times bestselling author J. Kenner continues her beloved Stark series with an emotionally charged Stark Ever After novella for Nikki and Damien Stark and the story of their first Valentine's Day as newlyweds. For fans of Fifty Shades of Grey, Sylvia Day, Meredith Wild and Jodi Ellen Malpas.Happy Ever After is just the beginning... I never imagined that anything could top our honeymoon, but life as Mrs Damien Stark is sweeter than any fantasy. We are forever bound by our love and our desire. His touch is my greatest treasure - and is purely mine alone. Yet no matter where we go, the ghosts of our pasts follow. We can't escape our secrets, or the people who desperately want to bring us down. Even on Valentine's Day, neither of us is safe. I'll do whatever it takes to protect Damien, to fulfill his every need. His kiss is my calling, his passion my truest bliss. The dangers we face, we now face together - and nothing can make me run. Includes a preview of Say My Name, the first novel in J. Kenner's Stark International series, and its hero Jackson Steele...Find out how it all began for Damien and Nikki in J. Kenner's hot and addictive bestselling Stark series: Release Me, Claim Me, Complete Me, Take Me, Have Me, Play My Game, Seduce Me and Unwrap Me.Don't miss J. Kenner's sizzling Most Wanted series of three enigmatic and powerful men, and the striking women who can bring them to their knees: Wanted, Heated and Ignited.(P)2015 Random House Audio
Play Nice But Win: A CEO's Journey from Founder to Leader
by James Kaplan Michael DellFrom Michael Dell, renowned founder and chief executive of one of America&’s largest technology companies, the inside story of the battles that defined him as a leaderIn 1984, soon-to-be college dropout Michael Dell hid signs of his fledgling PC business in the bathroom of his University of Texas dorm room. Almost 30 years later, at the pinnacle of his success as founder and leader of Dell Technologies, he found himself embroiled in a battle for his company&’s survival. What he&’d do next could ensure its legacy—or destroy it completely. Play Nice But Win is a riveting account of the three battles waged for Dell Technologies: one to launch it, one to keep it, and one to transform it. For the first time, Dell reveals the highs and lows of the company's evolution amidst a rapidly changing industry—and his own, as he matured into the CEO it needed. With humor and humility, he recalls the mentors who showed him how to turn his passion into a business; the competitors who became friends, foes, or both; and the sharks that circled, looking for weakness. What emerges is the long-term vision underpinning his success: that technology is ultimately about people and their potential. More than an honest portrait of a leader at a crossroads, Play Nice But Win is a survival story proving that while anyone with technological insight and entrepreneurial zeal might build something great—it takes a leader to build something that lasts.
Play Nice: After All That Time Alone, Can Gamers Be Great Team Players?
by John C. Beck Mitchell WadeEvery manager wants employees who are competitive, good at solving problems, and at least a little driven. According to the authors, these are all qualities that a generation of young people has developed playing video games. But no matter how competitive the industry, you also want people who know how to collaborate. Has the gamer generation spent too much time in isolation to play well with others? This chapter explains why the answer is no. This chapter is excerpted from "The Kids Are Alright: How the Gamer Generation Is Changing the Workplace."
Play Nice: Playground Rules for Respect in the Workplace (The Sandbox Series)
by Brigitte Gawenda Kimichik JR TomlinsonAn accessible guide to understanding what qualifies as sexual harassment and how to combat it, using the simple rules children learn on the playground.One of today’s most hotly discussed topics is sexual harassment in the workplace: what it looks like, how to prevent it, and what to do about it. So many people don’t realize that they have been victims of sexual harassment or that they have a right to speak up and demand different treatment. Many don’t realize that they are committing it, thanks certain behaviors being dismissed, forgiven, or ignored for many years when they should have been corrected long ago. In the heat of today’s #MeToo movement, Brigitte Gawenda Kimichik, JD, and J.R Tomlinson take things back to basics by applying the rules we all learned on the playground to the modern-day workplace, thus making clear to everyone what is and what isn’t OK.Play Nice: Playground Rules for Respect in the Workplace is an indispensable resource—both for empowering those who wish to reassert their boundaries and for teaching allies how to help in this fight.Praise for Play Nice“Chock full of smart, strategic advice to help anyone suffering from toxic behavior in the workplace. When you finish this book, you will realize that equal rights for women is not some far-off ideal but a reality that that soon can be achieved.” —Skip Hollandsworth, Executive Editor, Texas Monthly“For real change to occur, it is imperative that we all start holding ourselves responsible for ensuring everyone is treated respectfully. Play Nice is a giant step in the right direction. This book should be mandatory reading for all organizations and parents.” —Vanessa FoxCorp. VP, Chief Development Officer, Jack in the Box“This is a must-read for any human resources executive, any woman embarking on her professional career, and any bystander (male or female) who is not sure what to do when faced with bad behavior.” —Joel L. Ross, former General Counsel of Trammell Crow Company and retired partner of Vinson & Elkins LLP
Play Nice: The Rise, Fall, and Future Of Blizzard Entertainment
by Jason SchreierA NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER AND AN NPR BEST BOOK OF 2024 From a New York Times bestselling author and investigative journalist comes The Social Network for the video game industry: a riveting examination of Blizzard Entertainment's rise and shocking downfall—"A fast paced thrill ride, perfect for anyone who has ever played a video game" (Ben Mezrich). For video game fans, the name Blizzard Entertainment was once synonymous with perfection. The renowned company behind classics like Diablo and World of Warcraft was known to celebrate the joy of gaming over all else. What was once two UCLA students' simple mission — to make games they wanted to play — launched an empire with thousands of employees, millions of fans, and billions of dollars. But when Blizzard cancelled a buzzy project in 2013, it gave Bobby Kotick, the infamous CEO of corporate parent Activision, the excuse he needed to start cracking down on Blizzard's proud autonomy. Activision began invading Blizzard from the inside. Glitchy products, PR disasters, mass layoffs, and a staggering lawsuit marred the company's reputation and led to its ultimate reckoning. Based on firsthand interviews with more than 300 current and former employees, Play Nice chronicles the creativity, frustration, beauty, and betrayal across the epic 33-year saga of Blizzard Entertainment, showing us what it really means to "bleed Blizzard blue." Full of colorful personalities and dramatic twists, this is the story of what happens when the ruthless pursuit of profit meets artistic idealism.