The Ultimate Book of Business Skills

Being propelled into a new management or executive position can be a daunting experience. For example; what is your strategy? What do you concentrate on first? Who will give you the honest pros and cons of each strategy? What is the likely success rate? Who else used the strategy successfully, and how did they do it? And once you've embarked on a strategy, how do you measure its success?

The simple fact is there is a bewildering array of choices facing all managers, whether newly appointed or experienced business hands. What you need is a broad understanding of the essential business techniques that will enable you to become the complete manager, with an impressive range of skills-based knowledge at your fingertips. The Ultimate Book of Business Skills is the unique, step-by-step guide to the most essential techniques across strategy, marketing, finance, commercial management, operations, leadership and much more. By making informed choices about the right strategy, The Ultimate Book of Business Skills can help set your career progression on the path to success.

Skills covered include: Action Planning, Brainstorming, Coaching, Delegation, Energy Management, Facilitation, Global Awareness, Helicopter Thinking, Influencing, Leadership, Market Research, Negotiating, Organisation and People Planning, Performance Appraisal, Questionning, Resource Management, Selling, Turnaround, Understanding Company Accounts and Value Management.

1. Introduction
• What is the Essence of Management?
2. Strategy Skills
   
• Acquisitions Appraisal
• Acquisitions and Deal-making
• Alliances
• Competitor Awareness
• Divestment
• Economic Awareness (Macro)
• Economic Awareness (Micro)
• Global Awareness
• Helicopter Thinking
• Regulatory Awareness
• Risk and Uncertainty Analysis
• Storytelling
• Strategic Thinking
3. Marketing Skills
• Brand Management
• Customer Awareness
• Life-cycle Management
• Market Awareness
• Market Development
• Market Research
• Product Development
• Selling
4. Commercial Management Skills
• Business Cases
• Business Planning
• Contract Management
• Margin Management
• Market Segmentation
• Negotiating
• Performance Analysis
• Project Appraisal
• Targeting Goals
• Tendering
5. Operations Skill
• Acquisition Integration
• Benchmarking
• Buying
• Controlling
• Information Collection
• IT Awareness
• Outsourcing
• Process Management
• Resource Management
• Technology Awareness
6. Finance Skills
• Budgeting
• Cash-flow Management
• Cost Management
• Credit Control
• Financial Awareness
• Financial Planning
• Forecasting
• Turnaround
• Understanding Company Accounts
• Value Management
7. Leadership Skills
• Chairing
• Change Management
• Coaching
• Direction Setting
• Empathizing
• Energizing
• Facilitation
• Listening
• Motivating
• Policy Setting
• Political Awareness
• Stakeholder Management
• Summarizing
8. Organizational Skills
• Cross-cultural skills
• Delegation
• Influencing
• Interviewing
• Networking
• Organizational Design
• Organization and People Planning
• Performance Appraisal
• Recruiting
• Report Writing
• Teamworking
• Training
9. Problem-solving Skills
• Alien Thinking
• Brainstorming
• Building
• Challenging
• Creativity
• Imagination
• Option Generation
• Problem Diagnosis
• Questioning
10. Self-management Skills
• Action Planning
• Being Interviewed
• Drive
• E-mail Management
• Energy Management
• Learning
• Presentations (Making Them)
• Prioritization
• Proactivity
• Self-awareness
• Self-development
• Stress Management
• Time Management
11. Some Case Studies Linked to the 100 Business Skills
12. Conclusion

This could have been named "What to think about in your first 100 days".

I believe it is very good, but it assumes that you know some of the subjects beforehand. What is also a bit strange, is that nearly all references is to Grundy's own books…

Anyway, it is worth reading.