ESPN The Company - NEW!

The Story and Lessons Behind the Most Fantical Brand in Sports

ESPN The Company reveals the inside scoop on the biggest business story in sports, detailing the creative and innovative spirit and practices that drove the programming, products, and services of the most powerful and prominent name in sports media. Dr. Smith provides an insightful behind-the-scenes perspective on how ESPN dealt with their many partners and how they handled missteps along the way — from the humble beginnings of ESPN as an underrated startup to the pinnacle of their success as the major industry player. The lessons of ESPN's journey are insightful for managers and leaders of any organization.

  • Reveals 7 "peerless" and distinct areas which define ESPN's success
  • Explores the dedication to excellence that makes ESPN the "Worldwide Leader in Sports"
  • Discloses how the steps ESPN has taken to excel can be applied to whatever type of business you're in
  • Shares the lessons learned at ESPN about launching and growing a wildly successful enterprise

Engaging and informative, this entertaining book reveals how any company can benefit by embracing the best practices of ESPN. More...

The Taboos of Leadership

10 Secrets No One Will Tell You About Leaders and What They Really Think

Leadership is one of the toughest roles anyone will ever play. In his critically acclaimed book, Dr. Anthony F. Smith discloses the 10 most guarded secrets that no leader wants to discuss, even with their closest colleagues. The Taboos of Leadership breaks the silence on the secrets that leaders can’t address publicly for fear of losing power, self-respect, or their jobs because they run counter to everything we’re taught these days about good leadership. Painful, touchy, intimate, difficult-to-discuss, and politically incorrect taboos of leadership are the subject of this book. By holding them up to the light, judging them for good or bad, exposing their myths, and revealing their underlying truths, Dr. Smith creates a helpful and instructive description of leadership that will benefit leaders, their followers, and those who aspire to become one or both.

Thousands of books have been written on leadership, but too many have confused the biography of the "leader" for the act of "leadership". We talk about Servant Leadership, Leading with Heart, Leading with Soul, Leading Quietly, and the Art of Leadership. Unfortunately, for those who want more than just inspiration, and learn the real truth regarding leadership, little has been written. Dr. Smith claims it’s high time to expose the truth, and talk about the importance of power, intelligence, self-centeredness, political gamesmanship, double standards, insecurity, arrogance, competitive fire, women as leaders, and manipulation. More...

The Leader of the Future

Hesselbein and Marshall Goldsmith, one of the USA's top executive coaches, edited the collection The Leader of the Future 2. Its 27 eloquent essays provide a kind of hopeful, idealistic best-case scenario for future leaders of non-profits and businesses. This is not a cookie-cutter, how-to approach. The job of the essayists is to provide food for thought and goals. The high quality of writing here should inspire anyone who has aspirations for leadership.

Tony Smith's in LOF is The Puzzles of Leadership, co-authored with Steve Bornstien, CEO ESPN; pp.281-292.

The Organization of the Future

In this second in a series sponsored by the Drucker Foundation (The Leader of the Future, Jossey-Bass, 1996), 48 distinguished managers, academics, and writers have contributed highly readable articles on modernizing organizational structures and hierarchies. A unifying theme is that the way managers have divided up work and assigned tasks and resources in organizations must be examined through the lens of customer satisfaction and employee empowerment. Of the many excellent contributions, some that stand out include Joel A. Barker's description of the Mondragon Cooperative in Spain as an example of workplace democracy; Rosabeth Moss Kanter's exhortation to managers to place employees at the heart of any organization design; and Jeffery Pfeffer's review of how America's managers organized in the past. The somewhat academic tone should not prevent the book from being read by those at the helm of today's organizations.

Tony Smith's article in OOF is Human Capital in the Digital Economy, co authored with Tim Kelly, CEO, National Geographic Television, pp.199-212.