Learning in Thin Air
by  Scott Kress

Published July 2012

Life Is An Adventure

A life spent in the rarified air of high altitude provides for even greater adventures.

Follow Scott Kress’ journey from his first moves on the rock face to the top of the world! Through his inspiring story of triumph, challenge, determination, and sometimes failure, Scott suggests that we are all climbers, climbing our own mountains. By rising to the challenge of change and continuous improvement, he demonstrates how the lessons of life in the mountains are directly applicable to any and all personal and professional challenges.

In telling his story, he provides you unique guidance on how you can reach your own summit.

About Scott Kress

Scott Kress is an international keynote speaker and a highly accomplished leadership and team performance expert with clients that include American Express, Johnson & Johnson, Accenture and Citibank. He is an Executive MBA leadership instructor at the Rotman School of Management and the University of Edinburgh.  Scott is also at home in the mountains having been a climber and guide for over 25 years, starting his career in the outdoors as an Outward Bound instructor. Not only has he mastered Mount Everest, he most recently summited Mount Vinson in Antarctica, making him one of an elite group in the world to climb the “Seven Summits.”

The Future Belongs to Those Who Are Fast
by Jim Carroll

“We live in a period of time in which change is happening faster than ever before. Success will come to those who innovate, change and adapt!”

The Future Belongs to Those Who are Fast features the best of the insight from Jim Carroll’s blog, in which he covers issues related to creativity, innovation and future trends.

From the introduction:

Notes Jim in the introduction to the book: “What I have learned over time, regardless of the industry or group, is that the pace of change that we have seen in the last few years is not going to slow down – the future does truly belong to those who are fast.

The future doesn’t belong to those who have owned a market place because of their history. Past success doesn’t guarantee a future of winning. Resting on ones laurels is perhaps the best method to place yourself at the greatest risk in the future.

We live in a world in which business models evolve at a furious pace. In which customers are demanding and expecting new forms of interaction. In which technology and mobile devices are changing industries at a furious pace. Everywhere you look, you witness rates of change and innovation which are accelerating, not slowing down.

That leads to an undeniable fact – it will be the ability of an individual, a leader, and an organization to keep up with fast paced change that will increasingly define their potential for future success.

Back in 2002 when blogs became part of the online world, I decided to start documenting some of my observations on trends, innovation and creative thinking from my various keynotes onto my own blog, which I maintain at JimCarroll.com. At this point, there are almost a thousand entries, but there are a few that seem to resonate with people more than others, hence this book.

I have taken what I think are some of the most popular, relevant and useful observations from the blog and combined them into this book, The Future Belongs to Those Who Are Fast. My intent was to provide an easy way to discover some of what I have learned through what has become a truly remarkable job.”

In addition to buying the book from Amazon or for your iPad/iPhone, you can order a print copy directly from Oblio Press — and we will even get it personally autographed for you! Your transaction is processed using the facilities of Stripe, one of the largest Internet-based credit card processing services.

You will be billed in Canadian dollars.

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“Forget about the concept of innovation as simply involving the design of cool new products. In the high-velocity economy, where faster is the new fast, it’s your ability to adapt, change, and evolve, through a constant flood of new ideas, that will define your potential for success.”

If you are trying to figure out how to deal with the faster world that surrounds you, then you need this book. Think about it: the high velocity global economy of today drives rapid consumer, business, industrial and marketplace change.

The fast paced world around us is relentless and unforgiving.

It drives increased customer and business partner expectations, requires faster innovation, and necessitates a faster more complex response to rapidly changing circumstances.

That’s why you need to learn how to innovate when faster is the new fast – by getting into a mindset where you’re prepared to figure out a solution to a problem, almost before you know you have a problem.

Ready, Set, Done: How to Innovate When Faster is the New Fast provides unique insight into how to innovate when faster is the new fast

• Velocity: you’ll understand the rapid change that increasingly drives our world, and why it’s critical to constantly innovate in order to keep ahead
• Agility: You’ll learn how organizations ensuring they can respond to fast-changing circumstances
• Innovation: you’ll gain insight into how innovation can apply to everything you do, every day
• Activity: you’ll learn what you should start doing now to elevate the importance of your innovation efforts.

Ready, Set, Done : How to Innovate When Faster is the New Fast is a timely book – it captures the rapidity that is found in our world today, whether it be rapidly shifting business models, technological change, the rapid advancement of science, the emergence of new competitors, and rapidly evolving professional skills and knowledge.

The book takes a look at the concept of innovation in a new, and well, innovative way, in that it helps you understand how to link your innovation efforts to the high velocity change that surrounds you. It examines the concept of agility: how organizations can ensure they structure themselves to take advantage of and respond to fast-changing circumstances. It builds upon that message, by examining some of the key innovation success strategies that you should be thinking about.

Sprinkled throughout the book are various observations that I have made, of some of the innovative practices I’ve seen with various organizations, large and small. When you’ve been looking for innovative stories for close to a decade, you discover quite a bit of wonderful insight.

The book will provide you the inspiration to adapt and change in order to keep up with high velocity change. It will also open up the minds of your staff as to the need for day to day transformation in what they do, how they do it, and why they do it. And it will frame the issue of innovation for you in a new and critical way.

In addition to buying the book from Amazon or for your iPad/iPhone, you can order a print copy directly from Oblio Press — and we will even get it personally autographed for you! Your transaction is processed using the facilities of Stripe, one of the largest Internet-based credit card processing services.
You will be billed in Canadian dollars.

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Forget about the concept of innovation as simply involving the design of cool new products. In the high-velocity economy, where faster is the new fast, it’s your ability to adapt, change, and evolve, through a constant flood of new ideas, that will define your  potential for success.”

“If they don’t get off that road, there is going to be a big problem and it’s going to be ugly!”

With that quirky observation of a group of frogs in Texas, Jim Carroll captures the essence of the challenges faced by organizations today.

We live in an era of unprecedented and relentless change. The emergence of China as a superpower; hyper-innovation and business market turmoil; constant career change and rapid scientific advances.

Competition is changing over-night, and product life cycles often last for just a few months. Permanence has been torn asunder.

We are in a time that demands a new agility and flexibility: leaders must have the skill and insight to prepare for a future that is rushing at them faster than ever before.

Jim Carroll provides concrete guidance on how to turn challenges into opportunity

• Anticipate future trends that will impact you
• Move from a culture of indecision to one that is forward thinking and decisive
• Instill an innovative culture within your organization
• Develop key leadership skills for the future
• View change as an opportunity to pursue not as a threat to be feared

In addition to buying the book from Amazon or for your iPad/iPhone, you can order a print copy directly from Oblio Press — and we will even get it personally autographed for you! Your transaction is processed using the facilities of Stripe, one of the largest Internet-based credit card processing services.Your transaction is processed using the facilities of Stripe, one of the largest Internet-based credit card processing services.

You will be billed in Canadian dollars.
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Originally published in 1997, Surviving the Information Age offers a unique look into the experiences that Baby Boomers had when confronted by massive doses of technology throughout their lives.

The result, as described throughout the book, was a generation that was generally terrorized by the arrival of technology into various aspects of their everyday life.

The book also offered, at the time, a remarkably prescient series of predictions about the impact of the Internet on the global economy, the workforce, the nature of the career, and other key trends. In that way, it was a groundbreaking book, far ahead of its time.

Surviving the Information Age is a historical artifact — a document that describes, in unique detail, the experience of a generation with technology, long before that technology had a chance to mature and cause massive global change.

by Nicola J.D. Maher

This book should be compulsory reading for all parents who are fortunate (or unfortunate) enough to have their baby in a pediatric NICU.”
Dr. Sigmund H. Ein, BA, MDCM, FRCS(C), FAAP, FACS, Honorary Staff Surgeon, The Hospital For Sick Children, Toronto

When a healthy baby is born, everyone is quick to share in the celebration. When something goes wrong however, it can be hard to find words.

‘The Tiniest Warrior of All’ charts the epic battle of a premature baby sent on a quest to find her true home. When her time-machine crashes, she is cared for by a cast of wizards, sorcerers and bodyguards, all of whom help her to fulfil her destiny.

This beautiful picture book is intended for the families of premature babies. It explains the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit environment in an honest yet gentle way. In the world of the Tiny Warrior, babies who sustain injuries during their battle are honoured as champions. The children who don’t win their struggles are also commemorated for their bravery, thus providing a tool to help deal with bereavement.

Miracles do happen.
The books author, Nicola JD Maher was born and raised near London, England. She and Her husband John, along with their twin children Henry and Lydia, moved to Mississauga, Ontario in 1999. Their own tiny warrior named Imogen was born in Toronto’s Women’s College Hospital in 2003. She weighed only 1 lb 8 oz at birth and spent nearly four months in a Neonatal Intensive Care Unit. During this time she made a couple of trips to the Hospital for Sick Children in Toronto, survived the SARS outbreak and gave Winsome, her primary care nurse, a very hard time.