The speaker had just been introduced. A slide behind him had his name and institution on it. A program in each member of the audience's hands had the same information. And still, how did he begin?

As a matter of policy, we don't review our own books, but we hope you will. Keep an eye out for the following Press titles in September, and let us know what you think of them in the comments.

Empowered: Unleash Your Employees, Energize Your Customers, and Transform Your Business
by Josh Bernoff and Ted Schadler

There are some great handbooks on starting your own business (like this and this) which focus on larger questions like "whom to hire" and "how to write a business plan." But I haven't seen a short list of hyper-practical tips on starting and running your own company. Since I would have loved one of those back in the day, I've put one together here.

It was an experiment. I was returning an item to the store from which I had bought it. The item was well within the return period, but there would be a 20% restocking fee. Could I evade that fee? What would I have to do or say to persuade them not to charge it to me?

This week's New York Times brings news of a non-event that is still fit to print: global trade data just out confirm that the size of China's economy now exceeds that of Japan's, making China the largest economy in the world save one. It isn't as though this is a surprise attack. The trend has been undeniable for years, with the only question being in which quarter the crossover would occur.

It's been a while since we posted here because of all the craziness surrounding the launch of our book, The Power of Pull, but we are happy to announce that we're going to be resuming a regular schedule of postings to build on the themes in our book.