Featured Wharton Digital Press eBooks

Brilliant Mistakes: Finding Success on the Far Side of Failure

brilliant-mistakesIf you have ever flown in an airplane, used electricity from a nuclear power plant, or taken an antibiotic, you have benefited from a brilliant mistake. Each of these life-changing innovations was the result of many missteps and an occasional brilliant insight that turned a mistake into a surprising portal of discovery. There are countless books that tell you how to avoid mistakes. Now, in Brilliant Mistakes, Paul Schoemaker, founder and chairman of Decision Strategies International, shares critical insights on the surprising benefits of making well-chosen mistakes.


Brilliant Mistakes explores:

  • Why minimizing mistakes may be the greatest mistake of all
  • Situations when mistakes are most beneficial and when they should be  avoided
  • The counter-intuitive idea that we should deliberately permit errors at times
  • How to make the most of “brilliant” mistakes to improve business results

Download the Introduction (PDF, 115 KB)* • Purchase the book

Paul Schoemaker teaches in the following Wharton Executive Education programs:

Wharton Executive Education Finance and Accounting Essentials

Finance-Accounting-LambertFinancial literacy for leaders. In order to evaluate strategies, assess how the business is performing, modify strategies, and devise new strategies to boost performance in the future, you need information. Financial statements are a critical source of the information you need. In direct and simple terms, Richard A. Lambert, Miller-Sherrerd Professor of Accounting at the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania, demystifies financial statements and concepts and shows you how you can apply this information to make better business decisions for long-term profit.

Download the Introduction (PDF, 115 KB)* • Purchase the book

Professor Lambert teaches in the following Wharton Executive Education program:

Wharton Executive Education Customer Centricity Essentials: What It Is, What It Isn't, and Why It Matters

Customer-Centricity-FaderDespite what the tired old adage says, the customer is not always right. Not all customers deserve your best efforts: in the world of customer centricity, there are good customers…and then there is pretty much everybody else. Upending some of our most fundamental beliefs, renowned behavioral data expert Peter Fader, Co-Director of The Wharton Customer Analytics Initiative, helps businesses radically rethink how they relate to customers. He provides a roadmap for revamping your organization, performance metrics, and product development in order to make sure you meet the needs of your most valuable customers.

Download the Introduction (PDF, 123 KB)* • Purchase the book

Professor Fader teaches in the following Wharton Executive Education programs:

The Leader's Checklist

useem-leaders-checklistIn this fast-reading and illuminating expanded edition of the bestselling The Leader's Checklist, world-renowned leadership expert Michael Useem deepens his examination of 15 mission-critical principles for leaders.

Based on the lessons from astonishing stories, solid research, and years of leadership development work with a wide array of companies and organizations in the United States and abroad, Useem presents today's leaders with 15 guiding principles that form the core of the Leader's Checklist, which will help you develop your ability to make good and timely decisions in unpredictable and stressful environments—for those moments when leadership really matters.

Download the Introduction (PDF, 145 KB)* • Purchase the book

Professor Useem teaches in the following Wharton Executive Education programs:

 

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