Sunday, December 6, 2009

Streetwise Time Management or Youre in Charge Now What

Streetwise Time Management: Get More Done with Less Stress by Efficiently Managing Your Time

Author: Marshall Cook

and/or stickers showing their discounted price. More about bargain books

Go to: Oracle Privacy Security Auditing or Multivariable Control Systems

You're in Charge - Now What?: The 8-Point Plan

Author: Thomas J Neff

Getting a new job or a big promotion is like building a house: You need to get the foundation right for both. With a job, the quick-drying cement is how well you do in your first hundred days, since they establish the foundation for long-term momentum and great performance.

Tom Neff and Jim Citrin are two of the world’s leading experts on leadership and career success. As key figures at Spencer Stuart (hailed by the Wall Street Journal as the number one brand name in executive search), they must understand the criteria for success when they recruit top executives for new leadership positions.

Through compelling, first-hand stories you will hear from people such as Jeffrey Immelt, CEO of GE, on how his career has been a series of successive first hundred days. Larry Summers, president of Harvard University, talks candidly about what he could have done differently in his early days to avoid dissipating goodwill among the diverse constituencies important for his future success. Gary Kusin of Kinko’s shares the specifics of the hundred-day action plan he crafted for himself before he started his new job. Paul Pressler of Gap Inc. shows how he developed a general strategic agenda that established fundamental principles and goals, waiting to prepare a more detailed strategic plan until later in his tenure.

Tom Neff and Jim Citrin’s actionable eight-point plan will be the foundation for your success—whether you are moving to a new organization or being promoted—showing how to:

• Prepare yourself mentally, physically, and emotionally from the time you accept until the time you begin
• Manage others’ expectationsof you—bosses, colleagues, and subordinates
• Shape and build the team that will work with you
• Learn the lay of the land and find out how things “really work around here”
• Communicate your story effectively to people inside and outside the organization
• Avoid the top ten traps that confront every new leader, such as disrespecting your predecessor, misreading the true sources of power in the organization, or succumbing to the “savior syndrome”

When you start a new job you are in what AOL’s Jon Miller calls a “temporary state of incompetence,” faced with having to do the most when you know the least. But with the eight-point plan of You’re in Charge—Now What? you’ll understand and be able to take action on the patterns that will build your success.

Also available as an eBook

Carrie Coolidge - Forbes

An ex-Havard prof claims two recruiters copied his how-to book. How can you tell?

Management advice is a book category that involves the recycling, repackaging and regurgitation of bromides. How many different ways can you say "Get close to the customer"? So now here comes what has to be a first: An author of a how-to book claiming his material was ripped off by another.

The book in question is You're in Charge-Now What?, written by two of the nation's most sought-after executive recruiters, Thomas J. Neff and James M. Citrin of search firm Spencer Stuart. Published recently by Crown, the book got gushy publicity-a seven-page excerpt in the Jan. 24 Fortune and favorable book reviews in Time and the Wall Street Journal. In January Citrin chatted with Today's Katie Couric about how new executives need to hit the ground running.

Michael Watkins, a former Harvard Business School professor, observed all this with gritted teeth. He says he has found "extensive parallels" between You're in Charge and two management books he wrote while at Har-vard: The First 90 Days: Critical Success Strategies for New Leaders at All Levels (2003) and Right from the Start: Taking Charge in a New Leadership Role (1999), which he co-wrote. Watkins says he's exploring a copyright infringement suit. An associate professor specializing in leadership and negotiation from 1996 to 2004, he is now a management consultant with Genesis Advisers, near Boston.

Outrageous, says Citrin, who insists he didn't even see Watkins' First 90 Days until after finishing You're in Charge. "I found it to be very different than our book and very academic," he says. Whatreally ticks off Neff and Citrin is that Watkins wrote a complaining letter to book-jacket endorsers, including Time Warner Chief Executive Richard Parsons. Now the two headhunters are consulting lawyers about possible defamation charges.

Watkins would likely have a tough case if he proceeds. You can copyright a sentence but not the ideas it repre-sents. He may be having regrets now anyway. Near our deadline Watkins said he was under "threat of legal action" from Crown and asked to retract his claims. Seems Watkins skipped over the media-advice section in You're in Charge that advises: "Don't try to come across as smarter than you are. You could get lucky-or you could be terri-bly embarrassed."

Publishers Weekly

For any manager in a new position, from CEO to department subhead, the title's question is of paramount importance. The authors of this seminal book, top brass at leading global executive search firm Spencer Stuart, answer it with a comprehensive approach to maximizing the first 100 days on the job, drawing dramatically on the experience of more than 50 chief executives (as well as other corporate personnel) interviewed in depth. The authors' clear, sound eight-point plan covers the bases of what incoming business leaders need to know, from how to prepare physically and mentally for the first 100 days to crafting a strategic agenda; dealing with and transforming corporate culture; shaping the management team; working with a boss or a board; and more. What truly distinguishes this book from available management volumes, besides its inspiring hit-the-ground-running approach, is the material gleaned from the chief executives (among them, for example, Gary Kusin of Kinko's; Paul Pressler of Gap Inc.; Jonathan F. Miller of AOL; Steve Bennett of Intuit), which is full of entertaining, enlightening first-person anecdotes. Notably, this material focuses on steps to avoid as well as on appropriate actions to take. Lawrence Summers, for instance, named president of Harvard University in 2001, recalls that he "didn't fully appreciate the importance of simply providing traditional institutional reassurance.... I failed to appreciate that if you're going to be questioning everybody and challenging everybody, you have to do a lot of reassuring in return." Near book's end, Neff and Citrin (Lessons from the Top, etc.) distill their plan into two principles: "Listen and Learn. Underpromise and overdeliver." Their expert elaboration of those principles throughout will make their work a guiding light to many an incoming manager. First serial to Fast Company. (Jan. 11) Copyright 2004 Reed Business Information.

Library Journal

Consultants with the executive search firm Spencer Stuart, authors Neff and Citrin (Lessons from the Top: The Search for America's Best Business Leaders) provide an eight-point plan to help executives prepare for the CEO role. Thankfully, the authors eschew the glib hype found in many management titles for concrete tips that address aligning expectations with associates and board members, shaping their management team, crafting a strategic agenda, transforming the corporate culture, establishing a productive relationship with a board, and avoiding the top ten traps for new leaders. While the focus is on those assuming the duties of the CEO, this wise material will be of value to anyone newly appointed to a leadership position. Based on the authors' critical study of the successes and failures of hundreds of executives, this unique title is a praiseworthy gem in the saturated management genre. Highly recommended for all management and business collections, especially academic libraries supporting schools of business.-Dale Farris, Groves, TX Copyright 2004 Reed Business Information.



Saturday, December 5, 2009

Implementing Lean Software Development or Mr China

Implementing Lean Software Development: From Concept to Cash

Author: Mary Poppendieck

"This remarkable book combines practical advice, ready-to-use techniques, anda deep understanding of why this is the right way to develop software. I haveseen software teams transformed by the ideas in this book."

--Mike Cohn, author of Agile Estimating and Planning

"As a lean practitioner myself, I have loved and used their first book for years.When this second book came out, I was delighted that it was even better. If youare interested in how lean principles can be useful for software developmentorganizations, this is the book you are looking for. The Poppendiecks offer abeautiful blend of history, theory, and practice."

--Alan Shalloway, coauthor of Design Patterns Explained

"I've enjoyed reading the book very much. I feel it might even be better than thefirst lean book by Tom and Mary, while that one was already exceptionallygood! Mary especially has a lot of knowledge related to lean techniques inproduct development and manufacturing. It's rare that these techniques areactually translated to software. This is something no other book does well(except their first book)."

--Bas Vodde

"The new book by Mary and Tom Poppendieck provides a well-written andcomprehensive introduction to lean principles and selected practices for softwaremanagers and engineers. It illustrates the application of the values andpractices with well-suited success stories. I enjoyed reading it."

--Roman Pichler

"In Implementing Lean Software Development, the Poppendiecks explore moredeeply the themes they introduced in Lean Software Development. They beginwith a compelling history of lean thinking, then move tokey areas such asvalue, waste, and people. Each chapter includes exercises to help you apply keypoints. If you want a better understanding of how lean ideas can work withsoftware, this book is for you."

--Bill Wake, independent consultant

In 2003, Mary and Tom Poppendieck's Lean Software Development introduced breakthrough development techniques that leverage Lean principles to deliver unprecedented agility and value. Now their widely anticipated sequel and companion guide shows exactly how to implement Lean software development, hands-on.

This new book draws on the Poppendiecks' unparalleled experience helping development organizations optimize the entire software value stream. You'll discover the right questions to ask, the key issues to focus on, and techniques proven to work. The authors present case studies from leading-edge software organizations, and offer practical exercises for jumpstarting your own Lean initiatives.

  • Managing to extend, nourish, and leverage agile practices
  • Building true development teams, not just groups
  • Driving quality through rapid feedback and detailed discipline
  • Making decisions Just-in-Time, but no later
  • Delivering fast: How PatientKeeper delivers 45 rock-solid releases per year
  • Making tradeoffs that really satisfy customers
Implementing Lean Software Development is indispensable to anyone who wants more effective development processes--managers, project leaders, senior developers, and architects in enterprise IT and software companies alike.



Table of Contents:

Foreword by Jeff Sutherland xvii

Foreword by Kent Beck xx

Preface xxiii

Chapter 1: History 1

Interchangeable Parts 1

Interchangeable People 2

The Toyodas 3

The Toyota Production System 4

Taiichi Ohno 5

Shigeo Shingo 6

Just-in-Time 7

Lean 11

Lean Manufacturing / Lean Operations 11

Lean Supply Chain 12

Lean Product Development 13

Lean Software Development 17

Try This 17

Chapter 2: Principles 19

Principles and Practices 19

Software Development 20

The Seven Principles of Lean Software Development 23

Principle 1: Eliminate Waste 23

Principle 2: Build Quality In 25

Principle 3: Create Knowledge 29

Principle 4: Defer Commitment 32

Principle 5: Deliver Fast 34

Principle 6: Respect People 36

Principle 7: Optimize the Whole 38

Try This 42

Chapter 3: Value 43

Lean Solutions 43

Google 43

From Concept to Cash 46

Delighted Customers 49

Deep Customer Understanding 50

Focus on the Job 51

The Customer-Focused Organization 52

Leadership 52

Complete Teams 57

Custom Development 60

From Projects to Products 60

IT--Business Collaboration 62

Try This 65

Chapter 4: Waste 67

Write Less Code 67

Zara 67

Complexity 69

The Seven Wastes 73

Partially Done Work 74

Extra Features 75

Relearning 76

Handoffs 77

Task Switching78

Delays 80

Defects 81

Mapping the Value Stream 83

Preparation 83

Examples 85

Future Value Stream Maps 92

Try This 92

Chapter 5: Speed 95

Deliver Fast 95

PatientKeeper 95

Time: The Universal Currency 98

Queuing Theory 100

Little's Law 100

Variation and Utilization 101

Reducing Cycle Time 103

Try This 114

Chapter 6: People 117

A System of Management 117

The Boeing 777 117

W. Edwards Deming 120

Why Good Programs Fail 124

Teams 126

What Makes a Team? 126

Expertise 129

Leadership 132

Responsibility-Based Planning and Control 133

The Visual Workspace 136

Self-Directing Work 137

Incentives 141

Performance Evaluations 141

Compensation 143

Try This 147

Chapter 7: Knowledge 149

Creating Knowledge 149

Rally 149

What, Exactly, Is Your Problem? 152

A Scientific Way of Thinking 154

Keeping Track of What You Know 155

Just-in-Time Commitment 159

Set-Based Design 160

Refactoring 164

Problem Solving 168

A Disciplined Approach 169

Kaizen Events 173

Try This 175

Chapter 8: Quality 177

Feedback 177

The Polaris Program 177

Release Planning 179

Architecture 182

Iterations 183

Discipline 190

The Five S's 190

Standards 193

Mistake-Proofing 196

Test-Driven Development 198

Configuration Management 201

Continuous Integration 202

Nested Synchronization 203

Try This 204

Chapter 9: Partners 207

Synergy 207

Emergency! 207

Open Source 209

Global Networks 210

Outsourcing 214

Contracts 217

The T5 Agreement 217

The PS 2000 Contract 218

Relational Contracts 219

Try This 221

Chapter 10: Journey 223

Where Do You Want to Go? 223

A Computer on Wheels 224

A Long-Term Perspective 225

Centered on People 227

What Have We Learned? 229

Six Sigma 229

Theory of Constraints 230

Hypothesis 234

Training 234

Thinking 236

Measurement 237

Roadmap 242

Try This 243

Optimize the Whole 243

Respect People 243

Deliver Fast 244

Defer Commitment 244

Create Knowledge 245

Build Quality In 245

Eliminate Waste 246

Bibliography 247

Index 257

Look this: The New Leaders 100 Day Action Plan or The Wolf of Wall Street

Mr. China: A Memoir

Author: Tim Clissold

Mr. China tells the rollicking story of a young man who goes to China with the misguided notion that he will help bring the Chinese into the modern world, only to be schooled by the most resourceful and creative operators he would ever meet. Part memoir, part parable, Mr. China is one man's coming-of-age story where he learns to respect and admire the nation he sought to conquer.



Thursday, December 3, 2009

Selling to VITO or The Answer

Selling to VITO: The Very Important Top Officer, Second Edition

Author: Anthony Parinello

This book contains all the tactics you need to get appointments with impossible-to-reach top decision-makers. They in fact are the Very Important Top Officers (VITOs), the people with the ultimate veto power who hold the key to bigger commission checks, every sales award you could possibly win, and VITO to VITO referrals that you can take to the bank!

You'll quickly learn how to:

Get into new accounts at the top
Keep out of time-consuming log-jams; and into VITO's office
Promote loyalty at the top with existing customers and capture add-on business
Increase the size of every sale

Selling To VITO offers innovative new ideas and street-smart tactics for reaching the very top person in any organization. It's based on the seminars that have helped thousands of sales professionals from top corporations like Canon, 3M, Hewlett-Packard, and MCI bust quotas and increase commissions. It can help you, too, by getting you to the right person so you can do what you do best: SELL!

What People Are Saying

Tom Hopkins
Tom Hopkins, Author, How to Master the Art of Selling

Destined to become a widely recommended reference by all sales professionals who are serious about achieving greatness.


Denis Waitley
Dr. Denis Waitley, Author, The Psychology of Winning

With Tony as your coach and Selling to VITO as your training guide…you'll become unstoppable.


Peter T. D'Errico
Peter T. D'Errico, Sales Representative

As a result of implementing Tony's ideas, I won my company's Rookie of the Year award, became the third ranked salesperson in a company of 1,000 salespeople, and emerged as the #1 sales rep in the West.




New interesting textbook: Parties That Renew the Heart or Food Morals and Meaning

The Answer: Grow Any Business, Achieve Financial Freedom, and Live an Extraordinary Life

Author: John Assaraf

What would it take to make all your dreams come true?

In The Answer, John Assaraf, a key team member behind the phenomenal success of The Secret, and business growth expert Murray Smith demonstrate bold, new ways to harness the unlimited power of your mind and imagination in order to achieve exactly what your heart desires. Then, they offer practical steps to grow any organization or business into a meaningful and profitable enterprise that can flourish in any economy or business climate.

In The Answer, you'll learn how to:

• Attract more of the right customers to any business

• Create your own business blueprint for success in any field

• Pinpoint your own passions and achieve your business goals

• Use the Law of Attraction to create the business of your dreams

• Rewire your brain to make success inevitable

• Make the right decisions with confidence and certainty

• Reduce your learning curve from years to moments

• Develop the mindset of a mega-millionaire

The Answer brings together decades of research from such areas as neuroscience, quantum physics, business coaching, and practical, hands-on business development to give you the confidence you need and the specific step-by-step actions to follow to build the business -- and life -- of your dreams.

What People Are Saying

Jack Canfield
"This book is a masterpiece! I couldn't stop reading it. It is by far the best book I have ever read on how to use the law of attraction and the latest breakthroughs in neuroscience to quantum leap the growth of any business. It is now required reading for all my staff and students."--(Jack Canfield, co-author of The Success Principles and co-creator of the Chicken Soup for the Soul series)


Dharma Singh Khalsa
"The Answer is absolutely a must read for anyone interested in a new and much higher level of prosperity. John and Murray have helped me more than triple my business income and they can do the same for you. I highly recommend it."--(Dharma Singh Khalsa, MD, America's #1 Brain Longevity Specialist)




Table of Contents:

Contents

Introduction: The Question

1. Inside the Box: John's Story

2. The Search for How the World Works

3. The Law of Attraction

4. The Universe Inside Your Brain

5. How to Change Your Mind

6. Your Dream Business

7. The Neural Reconditioning Process™

8. Neural Reconditioning FAQs

9. The Important Things: Murray's Story

10. Vision, Focus, Action

11. Your Ideal Customer

12. Innovating Your Business

13. Finding Your Business's DNA

14. Reaching Your Ideal Customer

15. Big Thinking

Conclusion: The Path

Acknowledgments

Appendix 1 Customer Survey Forms

Appendix 2 The Five Major Industries: Common Hot Buttons

Appendix 3 Distribution Channels, Marketing Strategies, and Marketing Tactics

Appendix 4 The Five Major Industries: Common Distribution Channels and Marketing Strategies

Resources

Wednesday, December 2, 2009

A Short History of Financial Euphoria or How to Be Organized in Spite of Yourself

A Short History of Financial Euphoria

Author: John Kenneth Galbraith

How is it that, with all the financial know-how and experience of the wizards on Wall Street and elsewhere, the market still goes boom and bust? How come people are so willing to get caught up in the mania of speculation when history tells us that a collapse is almost sure to follow? In A Short History of Financial Euphoria, renowned economist John Kenneth Galbraith reviews, with insight and wit, the common features of the great speculative episodes of the last three centuries - the seventeenth-century craze in Western Europe for investing in an unusual commodity: the tulip; Britain's South Sea Bubble and the eighteenth century's fascination with the joint-stock company, now called the corporation; and, more recently, the discovery of leverage in the form of junk bonds. Along the way, Galbraith explains the newfangled types of debt that different generations have dreamt up, and he entertains with anecdotes about the ingenuity with which some of the more notorious charlatans have convinced people to invest in financial ciphers. Galbraith calls this book "a hymn of caution" for good reason. He warns that the time will come when the public hails yet another financial wizard. In that case, the reader will do well to remember the Galbraithian adage: "Financial genius is before the fall." The appearance of the next John Law, Robert Campeau, or Michael Milken may well be, after all, a harbinger of disaster.

Publishers Weekly

Galbraith's entertaining, wonderfully instructive cautionary essay should be required reading for investors. His focus is ``recurrent lapses into financial dementia,'' reckless speculative episodes fueled by greed, euphoria and investors' delusion that their temporary good fortune is due to their own superior financial acumen. The renowned Harvard economist chronicles a series of ``flights into mass insanity,'' from wild speculation in tulip bulbs in 17th-century Holland through the U.S. stock market crash of 1929, the 1980s mergers-and-acquistions mania and the savings and loan scandal. Comparing these crises, he finds recurring common features, such as evasion of hard realities, new financial instruments presumed to be of stunning novelty and debt that became dangerously out of scale in relation to the underlying means of payment. His proposed remedy is ``enhanced skepticism'' on the part of investors and the public. (June)

Library Journal

No matter what your political leanings or economic beliefs might be, there is no denying that Galbraith is a brilliant writer. In this humorous and thoughtful book, he traces the investor ``herd'' mentality from Tulipomania, which gripped Holland in the 1630s, through a variety of events and up through the 1987 stock market debacle--which he accurately predicted. Galbraith analyzes the crashes that resulted from these speculative episodes, and he points out that the ``mass escape from sanity by people in pursuit of profit,'' which, in his opinion, is always the cause, is never blamed. A truly excellent book, this is highly recommended.-- C. Christopher Pavek, Putnam, Hayes & Bartlett, Inc. Information Ctr., Washington, D.C.

Booknews

A "hymn of caution" (the author's words) originally published in 1990 by Whittle Books--and still in print--as part of the Larger Agenda Series. Reprinted here with a new foreword. In this small (5.75x8.75"), slim book, its brevity compelling attention, the eminent economist chronicles the histories of several great speculative periods of the last three centuries, discussing their sad aftermaths and analyzing the peculiar pitfalls of get-rich-quick schemes. No index. Annotation c. Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)



Table of Contents:
Foreword to the 1993 Edition
1The Speculative Episode1
2The Common Denominators12
3The Classic Cases, I: The Tulipomania; John Law and the Banque Royale26
4The Classic Cases, II: The Bubble43
5The American Tradition53
6192970
7October Redux87
8Reprise105
Notes on Sources111

Look this: Capture of Atlanta and the March to the Sea or Political Behavior of the American Electorate

How to Be Organized in Spite of Yourself: Time and Space Management that Works with Your Personal Style

Author: Sunny Schlenger

Get The Guide that helps you get it together!

This is the perfect resource for the modern age of fast-paced business and lifestyles. Recognizing that just one organizational system is not for everyone, the authors have devised solutions that provide ten different systems to match ten basic personality types such as Perfectionist Plus, Hopper, Fence Sitter, Pack Rat, and Total Slob. Whatever a person's style, whatever their habits, this book contains a surefire remedy to keep them organized and coordinated.



Tuesday, December 1, 2009

Think and Grow Rich or 60 Seconds and Youre Hired

Think and Grow Rich!: The Original Version, Restored and Revised

Author: Napoleon Hill

Think and Grow Rich!: The Original Version, Restored and Revised. Napoleon Hill's classic book—the all-time bestseller in the personal success field—offers a life-altering experience. It teaches thousands of people the practical steps to high achievement and financial independence every year. This new edition is the first to contain extensive footnotes, endnotes, appendices, and an index. Now more than a motivational work, it is also a reference book and a mini-history book providing valuable information about Hill, his times, and his success philosophy. TGR's greatest value is not only that it can make you financially successful. It can help YOU—or ANYONE—get whatever it is that you desire from life.



Books about: American Heart Association Quick Easy Cookbook or Crucial Conversations

60 Seconds and You're Hired!

Author: Robin Ryan

Now fully revised and updated-the must-have guide to acing the interview and landing the dream job

For the past decade, 60 Seconds & You're Hired! has helped thousands of job seekers get the perfect job by excelling at the crucial job interview. Now, in this new edition, America's top career coach Robin Ryan offers proven strategies to help readers take charge of the interview process and get the job they want. Brief, compact, and packed with useful tips, 60 Seconds & You're Hired! features:
• Unique techniques like "The 60 Second Sell" and "The 5-Point Agenda"
• More than 100 answers to tough interview questions
• Questions you should always ask
• 20 interview pitfalls to avoid
• Negotiation techniques that secure higher salaries
• And much more!

The Tampa Tribune

Robin Ryan is one of the nation's foremost authorities on what it takes to get a job in today's market.

Tampa Tribune

Robin Ryan is one of the nation's foremost authorities on what it takes to get a job in today's market.

Today's Business Journal

This book is an absolute must if you are looking for a job.



Monday, November 30, 2009

Green to Gold or Orbiting the Giant Hairball

Green to Gold: How Smart Companies Use Environmental Strategy to Innovate, Create Value, and Build Competitive Advantage

Author: Daniel Esty

s Weekly review:
"Two experts from Yale tackle the business wake-up-call du jour-environmental responsibility-from every angle in this thorough, earnest guidebook: pragmatically, passionately, financially and historically. Though "no company the authors know of is on a truly long-term sustainable course," Esty and Winston label the forward-thinking, green-friendly (or at least green-acquainted) companies WaveMakers and set out to assess honestly their path toward environmental responsibility, and its impact on a company's bottom line, customers, suppliers and reputation. Following the evolution of business attitudes toward environmental concerns, Esty and Winston offer a series of fascinating plays by corporations such as Wal-Mart, GE and Chiquita (Banana), the bad guys who made good, and the good guys-watchdogs and industry associations, mostly-working behind the scenes. A vast number of topics huddle beneath the umbrella of threats to the earth, and many get a thorough analysis here: from global warming to electronic waste "take-back" legislation to subsidizing sustainable seafood. For the responsible business leader, this volume provides plenty of (organic) food for thought. "

Soundview Summary - Soundview Executive Book Summaries

The business world and the natural world are inextricably linked. Our economy and society depend on natural resources. Every product comes from something mined or grown. The environment provides critical support to our economic system - not financial capital, but natural capital. And the evidence is growing that we're systematically undermining our asset base and weakening some of our vital support systems.

Eco-Advantage
Why are the world's biggest, toughest, most profit-seeking companies like General Electric, Wal-Mart and others talking about the environment now? Because they have to. The forces coming to bear on companies are real and growing. Almost without exception, industry groups are facing an unavoidable new array of environmentally driven issues. Like any revolution, this new "Green Wave" presents an unprecedented challenge to business as usual.

As the business world wakes up to the fact that many natural resources are finite, a second reality is emerging in parallel: Limits can create opportunities. Companies that manage nature's bounty and boundaries best will minimize vulnerabilities and move ahead of their competitors.

Top 10 Environmental Issues
Here are the top 10 environmental issues facing humanity:

  1. Climate Change. This catch-all includes rising sea levels, changes in rainfall patterns, more severe droughts and floods, harsher hurricanes and other windstorms, and new pathways for disease.
  2. Energy. For big energy users, resource and energy productivity may become a major point of strategic advantage.
  3. Water. Companies around the world now face real limits on access to water. A rising population and growing economies are putting substantial stress on resources. Pollution is increasingly a concern.
  4. Biodiversity and Land Use. Biodiversity preserves our food chain and the ecosystems on which all life depends. A key factor in the decline of biodiversity is habitat loss. Many companies face pressure about their contribution to sprawl.
  5. Chemicals, Toxics, and Heavy Metals. Part of what makes air pollution - and all forms of pollution - more dangerous is the presence of toxic elements. The legal liability surrounding toxics can turn out to be virtually unlimited.
  6. Air Pollution. Significant air-quality controls on factories, cars and other emissions sources have radically reduced air pollution levels over the past 30 years in the United States, Japan and Europe. But the air is still not clean in many places.
  7. Waste Management. The EPA estimates that the 1,200 Superfund sites across the country will require about $200 billion to clean up over the next 30 years. Under the liability provisions of the Superfund law, anyone found responsible for the waste at a site can be held liable for the full cost of cleanup, even if the toxics were disposed of legally.
  8. Ozone Layer Depletion. With a thinned ozone layer, the world becomes a more dangerous place, with reduced agricultural productivity, higher risk of skin cancer and other health problems.
  9. Oceans and Fisheries. More than 75 percent of the world's fisheries are over-exploited and beyond sustainability. For those whose livelihoods depend on fishing, recreation and tourism, the effect of declining fisheries may be severe.
  10. Deforestation. Every company that uses wood, paper or even cardboard packaging has some stake in, and responsibility for, the state of our forests.

Building the Upside
Environmental strategy has been on a long march for the past 40 years, from a tactical focus on compliance, to an additional - but still tactical - emphasis on costs and efficiency, to a more strategic view centered on growth opportunities. More and more companies now see the top-line potential from artfully managing the pressures of the Green Wave.

The Eco-Advantage Mindset
Those who ride the Green Wave - WaveRiders - build a foundation for Eco-Advantage by reframing how everyone in the company looks at environmental issues. For these companies, environmental thinking is not always the final word on strategy, but it is always a consideration.

WaveRiders use an environmental lens to change the way they think and sharpen their business strategies. Environmental thinking becomes intrinsic to how they do business. Deeply embedded, the Eco-Advantage Mindset arises naturally at every opportunity.

Eco-Tracking
The Eco-Advantage Mindset is a powerful motivator and the core of the environmental lens that helps companies step up to challenges and find opportunities for seizing advantage. But it's just the beginning. Companies need tools to get going. Getting the lay of the land requires thinking and analysis that might not come naturally. Eco-Tracking helps to answer fundamental but sometimes unfamiliar questions:

  • What are the company's big environmental impacts?
  • When and where do those impacts arise?
  • How do others view the company's environmental performance?

Pollution Prevention Hierarchy
For most companies, the state of the art in environmental thinking can be summed up with the slogan, "Reduce, Reuse, Recycle." Most companies are still working on integrating these three Rs into the production process.

The pollution-prevention hierarchy has two further levels. Before reducing, companies should explore ways to redesign what they do and how they do it. And even before that, they should try to reimagine their products or processes. Just as companies have learned it's generally cheaper to reduce than to reuse, recycle or throw out, now they are discovering that it is often more profitable to redesign and reimagine.

Eco-Advantage Strategy
Eco-Advantage has a twin logic. On one hand, the strategic gains are based on hard-edged analysis. The business case for environmental stewardship grows stronger every day.

In parallel, there's a strong case for corporate environmental care. WaveRiders have made money by refining their business strategies to incorporate environmental factors. But as much as they are driven by profits, they are also aware that their stewardship helps more than the bottom line. When short-term gains don't justify green initiatives, they are willing to look for long-term value for themselves and their workers, for their communities, and for the planet. The gold they've discovered by going green is not only about money. Copyright © 2007 Soundview Executive Book Summaries

More Reviews and Recommendations

Biography

Daniel C. Esty is Hillhouse Professor of Environmental Law and Policy at Yale University with appointments in the Environmental and Law Schools. He is also a former top official with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and has advised companies across the world on corporate environmental strategy. He lives in New Haven, CT. Andrew S. Winston is director of the Corporate Environmental Strategy Project at Yale’s Environment School. He has advised companies on corporate strategy while at Boston Consulting Group and has held management positions in strategy and marketing at such leading media companies as Time Warner and Viacom. He lives in New York City.

Book review: The Diet Code or Pizza

Orbiting the Giant Hairball: A Corporate Fool's Guide to Surviving with Grace

Author: Gordon MacKenzi

Gordon MacKenzie worked at Hallmark Cards for thirty years, where he inspired his colleagues to slip the bonds of Corporate Normalcy and rise to orbit - to a mode of dreaming, daring, and doing above and beyond the rubber-stamp confines of the administrative mind-set. In his deeply funny book, exuberantly illustrated in full color, he shares lessons on awakening and fostering creative genius. He teaches how to emerge from the "giant hairball" - that tangled, impenetrable mass of rules, and systems, based on what worked in the past and which can lead to mediocrity in the present.



Table of Contents:
Chapter Two: The Giant Hairball
Chapter Three: Pink Buddha
Chapter Four: Preparing For Lift-Off
Chapter Five: A Chicken's Fate
Chapter Six: Thou Shalt Not Have It Easy
Chapter Seven: What You Don't See Is What You Get
Chapter Eight: No Access
Chapter Nine: First There's Grope, Then There's Rote
Chapter Ten: Containers Contain
Chapter Eleven: Cage Dwellers
Chapter Twelve: Introducing...Your Brain
Chapter Thirteen: About Teasing
Chapter Fourteen: High-Tech Peaches
Chapter Fifteen: Milk Cans Are Not Allowed
Chapter Sixteen: The Power Of Paradox
Chapter Seventeen: Death Masks
Chapter Eighteen: The Pyramid & The Plum Tree
Chapter Nineteen: Orville Wright
Chapter Twenty: Beyond Measure
Chapter Twenty-One: A Conference Of Angels
Chapter Twenty-Two: Dynamic Following
Chapter Twenty-Three: Pool-Hall Dog
Chapter Twenty-Four: Paint Me A Masterpiece

Sunday, November 29, 2009

The Snowball or Town Country The Art of Gratitude

The Snowball: Warren Buffett and the Business of Life

Author: Alice Schroeder

Here is THE book recounting the life and times of one of the most respected men in the world, Warren Buffett. The legendary Omaha investor has never written a memoir, but now he has allowed one writer, Alice Schroeder, unprecedented access to explore directly with him and with those closest to him his work, opinions, struggles, triumphs, follies, and wisdom. The result is the personally revealing and complete biography of the man known everywhere as “The Oracle of Omaha.”

Although the media track him constantly, Buffett himself has never told his full life story. His reality is private, especially by celebrity standards. Indeed, while the homespun persona that the public sees is true as far as it goes, it goes only so far. Warren Buffett is an array of paradoxes. He set out to prove that nice guys can finish first. Over the years he treated his investors as partners, acted as their steward, and championed honesty as an investor, CEO, board member, essayist, and speaker. At the same time he became the world’s richest man, all from the modest Omaha headquarters of his company Berkshire Hathaway. None of this fits the term “simple.”

When Alice Schroeder met Warren Buffett she was an insurance industry analyst and a gifted writer known for her keen perception and business acumen. Her writings on finance impressed him, and as she came to know him she realized that while much had been written on the subject of his investing style, no one had moved beyond that to explore his larger philosophy, which is bound up in a complex personality and the details of his life. Out of this came his decision to cooperate with her on the book about himself thathe would never write.

Never before has Buffett spent countless hours responding to a writer’s questions, talking, giving complete access to his wife, children, friends, and business associates—opening his files, recalling his childhood. It was an act of courage, as The Snowball makes immensely clear. Being human, his own life, like most lives, has been a mix of strengths and frailties. Yet notable though his wealth may be, Buffett’s legacy will not be his ranking on the scorecard of wealth; it will be his principles and ideas that have enriched people’s lives. This book tells you why Warren Buffett is the most fascinating American success story of our time.


The New York Times - Janet Maslin

[Buffett's] opinions are so hotly sought that The Snowball, a biography with which he has enthusiastically cooperated, would be of interest even if it answered only softball questions. It approaches him seriously, covers vast terrain and tells a fascinating story. Mr. Buffett made a smart choice when he chose Alice Schroeder as his Boswell. Yes, he found an appreciative biographer with whom he seems to have a warm rapport. But he also found a writer able to keep pace with the wild swerves in the Buffett story and the intricacies of Mr. Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway business empire. Ms. Schroeder is as insightful about her subject's precise anticipation of current financial crises as she is about his quirky personal story. And she is a clear explicator of fiscal issues. This sprawling, colorful biography will mesmerize anyone interested in who Mr. Buffett is or how he got that way.

The Washington Post - James Rosen

The Snowball, whose title is derived from one of the Oracle's homespun aphorisms—"Life is like a snowball. The important thing is finding wet snow and a really long hill"—marks a titanic achievement of research and reporting. It's the definitive portrait of a complex man of simple tastes, a power player who trembled from anxieties worthy of Charlie Brown, a triumphant outsider who revolutionized Wall Street from a modest office in Omaha, a money-obsessed genius who amassed unprecedented wealth and then gave it all away. To be sure, Schroeder could have used an editor; at 960 pages, her book devotes pages and pages of description, however thoroughly researched, to peripheral characters, family histories and houses that could have been sketched, no less ably or helpfully, in a few sentences…But if the replication of any great achievement first requires knowledge of how it was done, then The Snowball, the most detailed glimpse inside Warren Buffett and his world that we likely will ever get, should become a Bible for capitalists.

Publishers Weekly

Successful investor Warren Buffett sits down with author Schroeder to give readers deep and erudite insights into his work and personal life. Detailing his views on current trends in the economy and society, Buffet speaks with tremendous wisdom about everything from his family to his business ethics. Richard McGonagle gives an eloquent, straightforward reading. He has a knack for delivering words with a profound importance in his voice, drawing in listeners and holding their interest for hours. Schroeder reads her introduction and sets the tone for this revealing biography. A Bantam hardcover (reviewed online). (Oct.)

Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.



Table of Contents:

Pt. 1 The Bubble 1

1 The Less Flattering Version 3

2 Sun Valley 5

3 Creatures of Habit 24

4 Warren, What's Wrong? 31

Pt. 2 The Inner Scorecard 35

5 The Urge to Preach 37

6 The Bathtub Steeplechase 44

7 Armistice Day 53

8 A Thousand Ways 59

9 Inky Fingers 66

10 True Crime Stories 86

11 Pudgy She Was Not 89

12 Silent Sales 96

13 The Rules of the Racetrack 105

14 The Elephant 110

15 The Interview 123

16 Strike One 129

17 Mount Everest 139

18 Miss Nebraska 151

19 Stage Fright 163

Pt. 3 The Racetrack 175

20 Graham-Newman 177

21 The Side to Play 190

22 Hidden Splendor 200

23 The Omaha Club 222

24 The Locomotive 229

25 The Windmill War 242

26 Haystacks of Gold 247

27 Folly 263

28 Dry Tinder 278

29 What a Worsted Is 287

30 Jet Jack 294

31 The Scaffold Sways the Future 303

32 Easy, Safe, Profitable, and Pleasant 312

33 The Unwinding 321

Pt. 4 Susie Sings 337

34 Candy Harry 339

35 The Sun 352

36 Two Drowned Rats 367

37 Newshound 375

38 Spaghetti Western 387

39 The Giant 399

40 How Not to Run a Public Library 416

41 And Then What? 439

42 Blue Ribbon 457

Pt. 5 The King of Wall Street 475

43 Pharaoh 477

44 Rose 490

45 Call the Tow Truck 505

46 Rubicon 514

47 White Nights 543

48 Thumb-Sucking, and Its Hollow-Cheeked Result 562

49 The Angry Gods 597

50 The Lottery 619

51 To Hell with the Bear 647

52 Chickenfeed 665

Pt. 6 Claim Checks 685

53 The Genie 687

54 Semicolon 689

55 The Last Kay Party 702

56 By the Rich, for the Rich 712

57 Oracle 730

58 Buffetted 752

59 Winter 765

60 Frozen Coke 773

61 The Seventh Fire 786

62 Claim Checks 806

Afterword 831

Notes 839

APersonal Note About Research 929

Photo Credits and Permissions 931

Acknowledgments 933

Index 937

Go to: Developing the Leader within You or South Western Federal Taxation Individual Income Taxes with CDROM

Town & Country The Art of Gratitude: Thank-You Notes for Every Occasion

Author: The Editors of Town Country

We all have something to give thanks for, but we’re not always sure of the best way to convey our appreciation. This elegant new volume in Town & Country’s popular etiquette line will help. It gathers together the magazine’s time-tested wisdom on the subject, and offers the last, best word on the how and why of thank-you notes—when to write them and what to say, including examples readers can adapt for personal use.
The Art of Gratitude explains why the hand-written note is still relevant in today’s electronic society, discusses the basic stationery suite, and answers the pressing question: is it ever acceptable to send a thank-you note via e-mail? Find out about the correct language and structure to use; appropriate forms of address; ways of varying the tone for different occasions; and how to create wedding-related notes, including advice on designing your monogram as a couple. All situations receive careful attention, from the personal to the professional: letters for gifts, social occasions, in response to a kindness, condolences,and to follow up on a job interview. And, because no one is ever too young to learn good manners, the book includes guidelines for thank-you notes from children and teenagers, too.



Saturday, November 28, 2009

Masters of Enterprise or What Hath God Wrought

Masters of Enterprise: How the Titans of American Business Shaped the U.S. Economy (Portable Professor Series)

Author: H W Brands

and/or stickers showing their discounted price. More about bargain books

See also: The Rough Guide to iPods iTunes and Music Online or Microsoft Office Access 2007 QuickSteps

What Hath God Wrought: The Transformation of America, 1815-1848

Author: Daniel Walker How

The Oxford History of the United States is by far the most respected multi-volume history of our nation. The series includes three Pulitzer Prize winners, a New York Times bestseller, and winners of the Bancroft and Parkman Prizes. Now, in What Hath God Wrought, historian Daniel Walker Howe illuminates the period from the battle of New Orleans to the end of the Mexican-American War, an era when the United States expanded to the Pacific and won control over the richest part of the North American continent.
Howe's panoramic narrative portrays revolutionary improvements in transportation and communications that accelerated the extension of the American empire. Railroads, canals, newspapers, and the telegraph dramatically lowered travel times and spurred the spread of information. These innovations prompted the emergence of mass political parties and stimulated America's economic development from an overwhelmingly rural country to a diversified economy in which commerce and industry took their place alongside agriculture. In his story, the author weaves together political and military events with social, economic, and cultural history. He examines the rise of Andrew Jackson and his Democratic party, but contends that John Quincy Adams and other Whigs--advocates of public education and economic integration, defenders of the rights of Indians, women, and African-Americans--were the true prophets of America's future. He reveals the power of religion to shape many aspects of American life during this period, including slavery and antislavery, women's rights and other reform movements, politics, education, and literature. Howe's story of American expansion culminates in the bitterlycontroversial but brilliantly executed war waged against Mexico to gain California and Texas for the United States.
By 1848 America had been transformed. What Hath God Wrought provides a monumental narrative of this formative period in United States history.

The Washington Post - Jonathan Yardley

Howe brings an impressive array of strengths to the daunting task of encapsulating these busy, complicated three-plus decades within a single (admittedly, very long) volume. Emeritus professor of history at Oxford and UCLA, he grasps the meaning as well as the details of developments and events. He has a fine eye for telling detail…and for the revealing quotation. Beyond that, he is a genuine rarity: an English intellectual who not merely writes about the United States but actually understands it.

Publishers Weekly

In the latest installment in the Oxford History of the United States series, historian Howe, professor emeritus at Oxford University and UCLA (The Political Culture of the American Whigs), stylishly narrates a crucial period in U.S. history-a time of territorial growth, religious revival, booming industrialization, a recalibrating of American democracy and the rise of nationalist sentiment. Smaller but no less important stories run through the account: New York's gradual emancipation of slaves; the growth of higher education; the rise of the temperance movement (all classes, even ministers, imbibed heavily, Howe says). Howe also charts developments in literature, focusing not just on Thoreau and Poe but on such forgotten writers as William Gilmore Simms of South Carolina, who "helped create the romantic image of the Old South," but whose proslavery views eventually brought his work into disrepute. Howe dodges some of the shibboleths of historical literature, for example, refusing to describe these decades as representing a "market revolution" because a market economy already existed in 18th-century America. Supported by engaging prose, Howe's achievement will surely be seen as one of the most outstanding syntheses of U.S. history published this decade. 30 photos, 6 maps. (Sept.)

Copyright 2007 Reed Business Information

Frederick J. Augustyn - Library Journal

This authoritative addition to Oxford's "History of the United States" series is a product of synthesis and astute analysis. Intellectual and cultural historian Howe (Making the American Self: Jonathan Edwards to Abraham Lincoln) touches upon the rapidly expanding nation's economy, foreign relations, and social structures, taking into account race, gender, and ethnicity, and bringing special insights to his discussion of religious revivals and the evolution of moral consciousness, reform movements, and political institutions. The evocative title, which was the first message carried by Morse's telegraph, refers to the changes wrought by religious sensibilities as well as those wrought by technological breakthroughs. Howe boldly emphasizes the "communications revolution" rather than the "market revolution" of the early 19th century, asserting that the latter largely happened among 18th-century commercial farmers. On the other hand, he does not emphasize a "Jacksonian America." Andrew Jackson, he asserts, was not as uniformly democratic or influential as his supporters maintain. A worthy addition to public and academic institutions; beginning scholars will appreciate the maps and the extensive bibliographic essay, fleshed out by the journal citations in the footnotes. Highly recommended.



Tuesday, February 17, 2009

Todays Public Relations or Experiencing Human Resource Management

Today's Public Relations: An Introduction

Author: Robert L Heath

Today's Public Relations: An Introduction works to redefine the teaching of public relations by discussing its connection to mass communication, and linking it to its rhetorical heritage.  The text features coverage of ethics, research, strategy, planning, evaluation, media selection, promotion/publicity, crisis communication, risk communication, and collaborative decision making as ways to create, maintain, and repair relationships between organizations and the persons who can affect their success. The book also examines the challenges of creating a solid foundation in the field of public relations while working to become a professional in a global society.

Key Features:

  • Chapter-opening vignettes illustrate key points to be covered in the chapter.
  • Web Watcher boxes highlight the importance of the Internet in PR today and encourage students to use the Web's resources.
  • Ethical Quandary boxes lead readers to think through difficult situations in order to better prepare them for the challenges of public relations.
  • Professional Reflections, written by practitioners, give a real-world perspective on the topics covered.
  • End-of-chapter questions and summary questions, exercises, and recommended reading lists help readers to better comprehend the chapter material and delve more deeply into the topic at hand.

Intended Audience:   Undergraduate and graduate courses in public relations in journalism and business departments



Interesting textbook: Defending Access or Tactical 1911

Experiencing Human Resource Management

Author: Christopher Mabey

Experiencing Human Resource Management examines human resource management (HRM), its management and effects, from the perspective of those at the "receiving end" of human resource initiatives and strategies. If HRM is to contribute to the objectives of organizations, it is imperative to understand how HRM techniques are being applied and experienced. This book tells the experiences of employees in more than 20 organizations across a number of sectors and countries, and sets out to answer three questions: + A decade or so from its arrival, is HRM delivering its promises? + Of the many documented changes in workplace policies and practices, which can be distinctly attributed to HRM? + Where changes are occurring in HRM, who is benefiting? Presenting not the usual managerial focus, but a rich and valuable view from employees, Experiencing Human Resource Management will be of great value to academics and advanced-level students in human resource management, industrial relations and sociology, as well as to practitioners dealing with employment related issues.



Table of Contents:
Foreword - John Monks PART ONE:INTRODUCTION Experiencing HRM - Timothy Clark, Denise Skinner and Christopher Mabey
The Importance of the Inside Story The Morality of HRM - Karen Legge PART TWO: QUALITY AND CULTURE CHANGE PROGRAMMES Empowerment through Quality Management - Chris Rees
Employee Accounts from Inside a Bank, a Hotel and Two Factories Total Quality Management - Linda Glover and Deborah Fitzgerald Moore
Shop Floor Perspectives Changing Corporate Culture - Graeme Martin, Phil Beaumont and Harry Staines
Paradoxes and Tensions in Local Authority PART THREE: THE PERCEIVED IMPACT OF HRM ON PRODUCTIVITY AND PERFORMANCE Training and Development at an Agro Chemical Plant - Jason Heyes View from the Bridge and Life on Deck - Aisling Kelly and Kathy Monks
Contrasts and Contradictions in Performance-Related Pay Culture Change within a Regional Business Network - Julia Connell and Suzanne Ryan PART FOUR: HRM PROVIDING CHOICES AND OPPORTUNITIES Strategic Integration and Industrial Relations in Greenfield Sites - Patrick Gunnigle and Michael Morley From Public Sector Employees to Portfolio Workers - Mary Mallon
Pioneers of New Careers?
Diversity Climates and Gendered Cultures - Paul Iles, Elisabeth Wilson and Deborah Hicks-Clarke
A Cross Sector Analysis A Trail of Clues for Graduate Trainees - Diane Preston and Cathy Hart Inside or Outside HRM? Lateral Learning in Two Voluntary Sector Organizations - Rona S Beattie and Marilyn McDougall PART FIVE: CONCLUSION Getting the Story Straight - Christopher Mabey, Timothy Clark and Denise Skinner

Monday, February 16, 2009

The Thunderbird Guide to International Business Resources on the World Wide Web or Financial Management for Nonprofit Organizations

The Thunderbird Guide to International Business Resources on the World Wide Web

Author: Candace Deans

This handy resource evolved out of a classroom environment reflecting the realities of the information age. Thunderbird students, being well versed in international business, culture and language, gathered global business information on the World Wide Web for assigned regions of the world. The text is divided into chapters organized around general regions of the globe. Each of these major groupings are further divided into areas and countries most beneficial to today's business professional. All chapters are preceded by a concise introduction to the region and sometimes a country which provides insight into its culture, business practices, political systems and risk, and social aspects.

Booknews

A technically oriented chronicle of the history of engineering in the US, with boxes on basic math and symbolic expression for understanding engineering, and exercises based on the information in each chapter. Begins with the late 18th-century industrial revolution and covers the first 100 years of major advances in technology, discussing economic and social conditions and ethical implications. Includes b&w photos and illustrations. For beginning engineering students. Annotation c. Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)



Interesting textbook: Sus Papeles y Responsabilidades Como un Miembro de Consejo, volumen.2

Financial Management for Nonprofit Organizations

Author: Jo Ann Hankin

This cash management and investment handbook for nonprofit managers helps managers from diverse backgrounds learn to manage their organization's money. It examines traditional treasury functions including banking and cash flow and explores investment management and strategies for managing excess cash, endowment, and long-term (planned) gifts. It also examines financial management strategies that impact cash flow, including borrowing, risk management, benchmarking, and long-term planning. Addresses the needs of all types and sizes of organizations, from small religious groups and community social service agencies to major cultural institutions and colleges and universities. Includes a diskette with spreadsheet solutions to common financial management problems, such as interest rate calculations, basic yield calculations, financial rations and more.



Table of Contents:
Understanding Nonprofit Organizations.
Using Financial Management to Accomplish Your Mission.
Finanical Roles and Responsibilities.
Long-Range Financial Planning and Strategy.
Developing and Managing a Financial Plan.
Financial Reports.
Technology Tools--Managing Information.
Types and Sources of Funding for Your Program.
Cash Management and Banking Relations.
Managing Your Organization's Liabilities.
Investment Policy and Guidelines.
Investing Principles, Procedures, and Operations for Short-Term and Long-Term Endowment.
Fixed-Income Securities Portfolio Management and Investment Operations.
Safeguarding the Organization's Assets, People, and Property: Risk Management and Audit.
Financial Policy--Internal and External.
Evaluating Your Progress.
Index.

Sunday, February 15, 2009

Twilight of the Literary or Management Control in NonProfit Organizations

Twilight of the Literary: Figures of Thought in the Age of Print

Author: Terry Cochran

In Western thought, the modern period signals a break with stagnant social formations, the advent of a new rationalism, and the emergence of a truly secular order, all in the context of an overarching globalization. In The Twilight of the Literary, Terry Cochran links these developments with the rise of the book as the dominant medium for recording, preserving, and disseminating thought. Consequently, his book explores the role that language plays in elaborating modern self-understanding. It delves into what Cochran calls the "figures of thought" that have been an essential component of modern consciousness in the age of print technology—and questions the relevance of this "print-bound" thinking in a world where print no longer dominates.

Cochran begins by examining major efforts of the eighteenth century that proved decisive for modern conceptions of history, knowledge, and print. After tracing late medieval formulations of vernacular language that proved crucial to print, he analyzes the figures of thought in print culture as they proceed from the idea of the collective spirit (the "people"), an elaboration of modern history. Cochran reconsiders basic texts that, in his analysis, reveal the underpinnings of modernity's formation—from Dante and Machiavelli to Antonio Gramsci and Walter Benjamin. Moving from premodern models for collective language to competing theories of history, his work offers unprecedented insight into the means by which modern consciousness has come to know itself.



Look this: Californie :l'Expérience des Hauts enjeux de l'Amérique

Management Control in NonProfit Organizations

Author: Robert N Anthony

Anthony and Young's MANAGEMENT CONTROL IN NONPROFIT ORGANIZATIONS, 7e includes an abundance of cases that apply to a variety of nonprofit organizations. MANAGEMENT CONTROL IN NONPROFIT ORGANIZATIONS, 7e provides faculty with contemporary management control theory combined with classic and contemporary cases that can be used to augment the learning process. The cases vary in length so that faculty may use this text in a beginning or advanced class.



Table of Contents:
Preface
Ch. 1The Management Control Function3
Ch. 2Characteristics of Nonprofit Organizations44
Ch. 3General Purpose Financial Statements85
Ch. 4Full-Cost Accounting159
Ch. 5Measurement and Use of Differential Costs211
Ch. 6Pricing Decisions248
Ch. 7The Management Control Environment299
Ch. 8Strategic Planning353
Ch. 9Program Analysis396
Ch. 10Budgeting443
Ch. 11Control of Operations513
Ch. 12Measurement of Output568
Ch. 13Reporting on Performance: Technical Aspects616
Ch. 14Reporting on Performance: The Management Control Reports646
Ch. 15Operations Analysis and Program Evaluation684
Ch. 16Management Control Systems in Context735
Index843

Saturday, February 14, 2009

Suburban Space or Supervision in the Hospitality Industry

Suburban Space: The Fabric of Dwelling

Author: Renee Y Chow

Renee Y. Chow offers an alternate vision to the conventional suburban housing that characterizes much of our domestic landscape. Her integrated, original approach to design sees the residential setting as a fabric of interrelated spaces that supports cultural diversity and change, promotes sharing in a setting, and sustains a more intense use of land. With its concise, informative text and abundant illustrations--including photographs and Chow's superbly executed drawings--Suburban Space challenges architects, landscape architects, developers, and planners to reconceptualize suburban housing.
Chow has made comparative studies of neighborhoods in Boston, Charleston, San Francisco, Levittown, Radburn, and housing by Rudolf Schindler and Irving Gill, as well as other residential settings. Her argument for a fabric of dwelling is founded not on generalizations about how people live but on documented observations of the particular ways in which people organize their daily lives. This groundbreaking book demonstrates how one of the most disparaged yet common types of housing in the United States can become more environmentally and culturally viable.

Robert Fishman

An impassable gulf would seem to separate the complex urban fabric of nineteenth-century Charleston or San Francisco from the sprawl of suburban Levittown and its successors. But Renee Y. Chow has perceived that the complex relationships of density and diversity, public and private in older cities could provide vital lessons for breaking out of the boxes and cul-de-sacs of conventional suburban design. Yet Chow is no antiquarian: her brilliantly original representations of suburbia lead directly to a radical transformation in suburban design.

Dolores Hayden

Using meticulous methods of measurement to undergird her formal analyses of interior and exterior spaces, Renee Chow has created a brilliant analysis of American suburban habitats, from the tracts of Levitt to the compact projects of Schindler and Gill. Her elegant book, Suburban Spaces: The Fabric of Dwelling, belongs on the desk of every architect, landscape architect, and planner concerned about neighborhood densities in the twenty-first century.

John Habraken

Renee Chow advocates a new way of seeing suburban environments. She proposes a view where inside and outside space are given equal attention and interact as part of a continuous fabric.



Interesting book: Werbung durch das Design: Das Schaffen von Sehkommunikationen mit dem Grafischen Einfluss

Supervision in the Hospitality Industry

Author: Jack E Miller

Guidelines to becoming a winning manager in the foodservice and hotel industries

Successful managers effectively use theory, practice, and experience to lead their staffs. Supervision in the Hospitality Industry provides comprehensive coverage of the principles, theories, human relations techniques, and decision-making skills that are required to manage a workforce to profitable results. Along with updated material in each chapter and a variety of training activities for real-world simulation, this Fourth Edition is the complete guide to managing in the hospitality industry.

It takes a lot of savvy to manage a thriving hospitality business. Managers must satisfy obligations to owners, customers, and employees, while maintaining a positive work climate, developing job expectations, disciplining marginal employees, and addressing workplace diversity. Methods for achieving these goals as well as for communicating effectively, planning, organizing, and maintaining a management point of view are reinforced through quizzes, exercises, self-assessments, simulations, case studies, role-playing, and journal writing.

Supervision in the Hospitality Industry, Fourth Edition is the complete guide for students in culinary and hospitality programs, as well as foodservice professionals and chefs.



Table of Contents:
1The supervisor as manager3
2The supervisor as leader39
3Equal opportunity in the workplace69
4Creating a positive work climate97
5Developing performance standards145
6Recruiting and selecting applicants179
7Teamwork and teambuilding223
8Employee training and development247
9Evaluating performance283
10Discipline and employee assistance programs315
11Planning and organizing373
12Communicating effectively409
13Delegating447
14Decision making and control471

Friday, February 13, 2009

Surviving the New Economy or Future Wealth

Surviving the New Economy

Author: John Amman

The dot-com boom of the late 1990s marked the coming of age of the much-heralded New Economy, an economic, technological, and social transformation that was decades in the making. A highly mobile, and in many cases highly compensated, workforce faces a multitude of new risks: Jobs are no longer secure nor insulated from global competition, employer-provided health benefits are drying up, and retirement planning is almost entirely the responsibility of employees themselves.

This timely book examines the challenges facing high-tech workers and other professionals and the relevance of these struggles for the future of the economy. Written by leading experts, Surviving the New Economy shows how people working in technology industries are addressing their concerns via both traditional collective bargaining and through innovative actions. Using case studies from the United States and abroad, the authors in this collection examine how highly skilled workers are surviving in a global economy in which the rules have changed—and how they are reshaping their workplaces in the process.



Table of Contents:
Introduction: Surviving in the New Economy: Sharecroppers in the Ownership Society   John Amman   Tris Carpenter   Gina Neff     1
Myths and Realities about High-Tech Work in the New Economy-A Personal View   Derek W. Schultz     15
The Lure of Risk: Surviving and Welcoming Uncertainty in the New Economy   Gina Neff     33
The New Economy as History   Simon Head     47
No Deal or New Deal? Knowledge Workers in the Information Economy   Sean O Riain     63
The Second Adolescence of the New Economy: China's Engineers At Work   Andrew Ross     79
Globalization and Labor Resistance to Restructuring in Information Technology   Immanuel Ness     99
Boom and Bust: Lessons from the Information Technology Workforce   Danielle van Jaarsveld     119
Economic Development and the Labor Movement in the New Economy: Lessons from Silicon Valley   Chris Benner     133
The New Media Union: What New Media Professionals Can Learn From Old Media Unions   John Amman     157
What Works: Organizing Freelance Professionals in the New Economy   Tris Carpenter     173
Conclusion: Strategies and Structures for the New Economy   John Amman   TrisCarpenter   Gina Neff     185
Bibliography     201
Index     212
About the Editors     216
About the Contributors     217

Read also Down Syndrome or Living with Germs

Future Wealth

Author: Stan Davis

"The Internet revolution has so altered the economic foundations of post-industrial society that entirely new ways of looking at wealth are evolving. Future Wealth discusses the impact of global electronic markets on the individual investor as well as on the corporation and provides a valuable guide to the far-ranging, sometimes daunting financial and social transformations ahead."
--Dr. Henry A. Kissinger, Former Secretary of State

"Future Wealth is a masterpiece, full of breakthrough insights and bold recommendations. A must read for both individuals and companies that intend to succeed in the new economy."
--Walter V. Shipley, Chairman of the Board, Chase Manhattan Corporation

"Whether you are self-employed, an Internet entrepreneur, a manager in a large corporation, or a policy wonk, this book is essential reading if you want to master the new economy."
--Ken Lay, Chairman of the Board and CEO, Enron Corporation

"In the digital age, what you earn is far less important than what you are worth. This eye-opening, provocative book illustrates the real value of dot.self and shows how to buy and sell derivatives of mental capital. Read it and gain an appetite for risk."
--Nicholas Negroponte, Cofounder and Director, MIT Media Lab

"As individuals become more aware of their wealth, and more responsible for managing it, our society will change. Future Wealth offers a compelling vision of our financial future."
--Art Ryan, Chairman of the Board and CEO, Prudential Insurance Company of America

"Davis and Meyer, in a sound analysis, have mapped out many astounding and profound societal changes likely to result from the Internet revolution."
--Frederick W. Smith, Chairman of the Board and CEO, Federal Express

"Future Wealth offers a mind-stretching look at how an efficient, transparent Internet-connected economy could work. It helps you see how the unthinkable might actually be possible."
--Clayton M. Christensen, Associate Professor, Harvard Business School, and Author of The Innovator's Dilemma

"Future Wealth is a major, necessary book for both business strategists and public policy makers. Davis and Meyer offer a compelling vision of economic growth for all people, companies, and societies."
--Vernon E. Jordan, Jr., Senior Managing Director, Lazard Freres & Co.

"A terrific read. Challenges even the most sophisticated assumptions about wealth, risk, and value in a connected economy."
--Jim C. Curvey, President and COO, Fidelity

"A provocative book that stimulates readers to think about how the revolution in information technology opens up new contracting possibilities for their human and financial capital."
--Bob Kaplan, Professor, Harvard Business School, and Coauthor of The Balanced Scorecard

"Davis and Meyer have done it again. In their last bestseller, Blur, they described the connected economy from 25,000 feet. Now, in Future Wealth, they bore down to ground zero, exploring the implications of the new economy for personal investors, private citizens, individual firms, and even governments. The boldness of the thinking and the clarity of the writing put Future Wealth in a class by itself."
--Thomas Petzinger Jr., Contributor, The Wall Street Journal

"Future Wealth is a wide-ranging and provocative book that will make you think. It may well reorder your personal business strategies as you negotiate the rapids of today's global economy."
--Alex Trotman, Retired Chairman of the Board and CEO, Ford Motor Company

"Two decades of formidable restructuring, innovation, and wealth creation have left everyone puzzled about how to fit into the new scheme of things, how to avoid being left out, and how to avoid being suckered. This book is a formidable manual on how to make sense of risk and opportunities. Unlike the get-rich-quick literature, it will make you work smarter as well as harder. A must for anyone who wants to go beyond the clichés and quacks."
--Rudi Dornbusch, Ford Professor of Economics and International Management, MIT

"Financial institutions secured by intellectual capital? Mutual funds representing shares in people? Future Wealth offers an intelligent and provocative look at the implications of an emerging 'connected' economy, where risk becomes opportunity and human capital is more bankable than tangible assets. This book will change how you think about your job, your company, and doing business in the new century."
--Steven M. H. Wallman, Former SEC Commissioner, and Chairman of the Board and CEO, FOLIO[fn] Inc.

"Davis and Meyer show us that the Internet doesn't just change business--it will transform wealth, employment, and social institutions as well. Future Wealth is a compelling book, important for both private citizens and policy makers."
--The Right Honorable Brian Mulroney, Former Prime Minister of Canada

"Davis and Meyer chart the transfer of value from hard assets in property, plant, and equipment to the new drivers of wealth such as intellectual property and creative, innovative people. Future Wealth is superb."
--Peter Munk, Chairman of the Board, Barrick Gold Corporation

The Standard

Big, important ideas beg to be carefully spun out in big, important books. Future Wealth, unfortunately, is long on big ideas but short on the vision of a big book.

Picking up where their 1998 bestseller Blur left off, Stan Davis and Christopher Meyer draw an enticing financial road map for the next two decades. The premise of Future Wealth is simple: The radical economic changes brought about by Net-enabled connectivity are driving economics away from tangible assets and toward a greater reliance on intangibles like intellectual capital. The authors' vision of the future of wealth involves three basic themes: risk as opportunity, human capital as the key force in financial markets and effective safety nets as the linchpin of social order.

But after a brief primer on economics, which asserts that current B-school economic theory already belongs in a history course, this vision begins to get, well, blurry. Maybe a better metaphor for the authors' optical flaw is tunnel vision. Davis and Meyers simplistically predict that within a few years, forward-thinking parents could be taking their daughters public as effortlessly as driving them to soccer practice. They cite such examples as the team of Web engineers that tried - unsuccessfully - to auction itself off on eBay and David Bowie's personal public offering as evidence that financial markets are now ready to trade in intellectual capital.

The implications of these not-too-distant future scenarios are hardly desirable. Picture yourself having breakfast at McDonald's. You're thrilled because you bought your coffee right before the real-time price board bumped it up by a dime. Sitting with coffee and an Egg McMuffin at your table's Bloomberg terminal, you begin tracking your investments - including your own market cap, and perhaps that of your daughter, your friends and coworkers, and the latest addition to your stable: Keanu Reeves (the action movies fund). You are at one with the market, oblivious to the guy waiting behind you in line for the terminal.

Ultimately, a lack of attention to surrounding details is what unravels the silver lining from Future Wealth. If human capital is rolled into the financial markets, and individuals and groups are bought and sold like stocks and mutual funds, serious issues like insider trading, rampant speculation and daytrading addiction take on entirely new dimensions.

Is a phone call to your parents about a job offer considered insider trading if Mom and Dad are among your shareholders? Will office gossip dampen investor enthusiasm for your IPO? Will your stock tank if you're diagnosed with cancer? Will you be expected to file your medical records and diaries with the SEC?

On the book's last page, the authors address some real-world potholes in their vision: "Will daytrading replace caring? Will profit-taking replace philanthropy? Possibly." For a book built on assured predictions, this 11th-hour ambivalence begs for a reassessment of the preceding pages.

Future Wealth raises more questions than it can answer. Fortunately, as they did with Blur, the authors have created a Web site where the exchange of ideas can continue. Some healthy skepticism seems wise.

Harvard Business Review

Two consultants argue that human capital markets will become increasingly transparent and liquid, similar to the way financial markets have developed...they offer a provocoative scenario of the future of career management



Thursday, February 12, 2009

Environmental Policy or Governance in the Extended Enterprise

Environmental Policy: Objectives, Instruments, and Implementation

Author: Dieter Helm

"This volume addresses the practical issues that arise in applying economic instruments to environmental policy. It surveys the main concepts and tools - such as sustainability, biodiversity, and cost-benefit analysis - and analyzes the broad environmental policy agenda, including the global agreement on climate change and the narrow British context."--BOOK JACKET.



See also: Gesundheitsfürsorge-Schwindel und Missbrauch: Ein Guide eines Arztes zur Einhaltung

Governance in the Extended Enterprise

Author: IT Governance Institut

Discover how to implement an effective IT governance structure for the long-term success of an extended enterprise

IT is no longer an enabler of corporate strategy, it is now the key element of corporate strategy. Governance of the Extended Enterprise explores how some of the world's most successful enterprises have integrated information technology with business strategies, culture, and ethics to optimize information value, attain business objectives, and capitalize on technologies in highly competitive environments.

Providing a process for change and a governance model, Governance of the Extended Enterprise encompasses the latest emerging practices from major information and knowledge businesses, providing a major new knowledge resource for enterprises. It also opens up new avenues of practice in strategy setting, enterprise management, control assessment, and risk management.

From sales-force automation to workgroup collaboration, forms processing to knowledge management systems, customer service to technical support, Governance of the Extended Enterprise will help readers improve IT governance in all facets of their organization.



Table of Contents:
1Extended enterprises11
2Strategy : challenge for the extended enterprise19
3Value creation and management of performance in the extended enterprise35
4Operational business activities : value realization for the extended enterprise49
5Governance framework for the extended enterprise61
6Enterprise architecture : governance implementation for the extended enterprise87
App. AQuestions for the board and senior management105
App. BPerformance reference model113
App. COrganizational structure evolution : core versus central123
App. DFramework and quality awards127
App. EBusiness reference model137
App. FKnowledge work, knowledge management, and knowledge portal143
App. GEnterprise architecture processes at different maturity levels151
App. HMaturity model for business activities in the extended enterprise161
App. IIT governance167
App. JIT governance maturity model179
App. KCobiT information processes185

Wednesday, February 11, 2009

Developmentalism and Dependency in Southeast Asia or Emerging Companies Guide

Developmentalism and Dependency in Southeast Asia: The Case of the Automotive Industry

Author: Jason P Abbott

This book provides a detailed cross-country study of the automotive industry in South East Asia. Abbot argues that, contrary to prevailing opinion, the diffusion of manufacturing in the Asia-Pacific has been characterized by hierarchical networks of production linked to Japan for technology.



Table of Contents:
List of tables
Acknowledgements
Abbreviations
Introduction1
1International political economy, development and the state: implications for the study of Southeast Asia10
2Southeast Asia's economic development in the Global and Regional Political Economy35
3Indonesia: Soeharto and the neo-patrimonial state57
4Malaysia: managing foreign capital80
5Thailand: from a bureaucratic polity to the politics of corruption98
6The automobile industry in Southeast Asia in comparative perspective119
7Conclusion149
Notes155
Bibliography173
Index190

Read also Métrica y Modelos en Ingeniería de Calidad de Software

Emerging Companies Guide: A Resource for Professionals and Entrepreneurs

Author: Robert L Brown

This guide-book includes forms and checklists for such topics as new product development, marketing, and growth and exit strategies. A companion CD-ROM is also included.



Tuesday, February 10, 2009

Problems and Materials in Federal Income Taxation or The Career ToolKit

Problems and Materials in Federal Income Taxation

Author: Sanford M Guerin

This popular casebook continues to focus on the fundamentals of income taxation and take a realistic problem—solving approach to a potentially frustrating course. The only book organized around the taxing formula, PROBLEMS AND MATERIALS IN FEDERAL INCOME TAXATION, Fifth Edition, now incorporates recent legislative changes.

Guerin and Postlewaite blend explanatory text with short, realistic problems to guide students through the complex tax system, one step at a time:

gross income

deductions

taxable income and different tax rates

Each chapter opens with a content overview that helps set the stage for the discussion. Notes, problems, and self—contained sections make the material easily accessible and readily understandable.

As it enters its Fifth Edition, PROBLEMS AND MATERIALS IN FEDERAL INCOME TAXATION retains the strengths that have made it so effective:

more than 200 brief problems explore difficult concepts and cover federal income tax developments

collected readings expertly highlight the components of the taxing system

careful, coherent structure brings clarity to the subject

Teacher's Manual includes answers to every problem in the book

In addition to the legislative changes, the Fifth Edition also features:

a fully revised selection of cases

rewritten conceptual material to make learning as painless as possible



See also: Ultimate Cocktail Book or Porter

The Career ToolKit: Skills for Success

Author: Carol Carter

This book is designed to help its users develop the skills and attitudes needed to successfully complete an educational program: search for, find, and win the job they want; transition smoothly from school to work; and build a long, happy, and successful working life—all with a user-friendly and visually appealing design. Coverage of important topics includes developing and maintaining a positive self image, managing time, budgeting and organizing finances, and tracking down the resources available at school. A focus on self-awareness teaches readers: how to get to know themselves better so that they understand what kinds of jobs might best suit their unique talents and qualities, where to find job listings, who can locate opportunities, and how to present themselves in the best possible light on a resume as well as in an interview, and how to handle both failure and success. Additional topics discuss workplace communication with bosses, co-workers, clients, and customers; qualities and skills that employers look for in their employees; rights on the job; critical thinking at work; improving and maintaining physical and mental health; motivation, and more. For anyone interested in career development and success—and especially for community college and vocational school students.



Table of Contents:

PART I. TAKING INVENTORY.

1. Choosing Your Equipment—Finding the Right Mind Set.
2. Today's World—The Diversity of Your Workplace.
3. Keys to the Tool Kit—Unlocking Your Personal Power.
4. Managing Your Time and Money—Making the Most of Key Resources.

PART II. GETTING STARTED.

5. Sharpening Your Tools— Your Basic Skills.
6. Becoming Marketable in the Workplace—Getting the Job Done through Communications.

PART III. MOVING ON.

7. Tools That Create Opportunity—Resources to Power Your Job Search.
8. Putting Your Tools to Good Use—Entering the Working World.
9. Packing Up Your Tool Kit—Standing out on the Job.

Monday, February 9, 2009

World Bank Atlas 1998 or E Enterprise

World Bank Atlas 1998

Author: World Bank Group

Locate tables, charts, and colorful maps addressing the development themes of people, economy, environment, states and markets, world view, and global links. Text, maps, and references appear in English-French, and Spanish.



Books about: Maya for Games or Applied Security Visualization

E-Enterprise: Business Models, Architecture, and Components

Author: Faisal Hoqu

How does a company succeed in the volatile world of e-commerce? The real challenge is to fully leverage the potential of the Internet as a means to building an agile enterprise. In e-Enterprise Faisal Hoque provides a business vision and a technological method for building an agile, electronically-based enterprise using reusable components. Aimed at CIOs, CEOs, and technologists alike, e-Enterprise explores the strategic challenges faced by companies as they embrace business in the networked economy of the future. It takes a step beyond the simple transaction-based e-commerce model and shows how a business can truly take advantage of rapidly evolving technology.

What People Are Saying

Ron Griffin
This is the recipe for rapid development of highly scalable e-systems that maximize return on investment. It should be required reading for e-business decision-makers and technologists alike.
— (Ron Griffin, Chief Information Officer, The Home Depot)


Honorio Padron
The e-Enterprise methodology described in this book is providing essential guidance as we develop strategy and implementation plans to transform CompUSA to an e-Enterprise. This stuff works.
— (Honorio Padron, Chief Information Officer, CompUSA)


Bert Ellis
Faisal Hoque provides a clear, concise, and actionable roadmap for how CEO's can rapidly deploy and continually refine the essentials of e-Transformation in their business.
— (Bert Ellis, Founder, Chairman, and CEO, iXL Enterprises)


Edward Brginsky
If you think you know the components of modern information technology for e-Applications but not business strategy, this is for you. If you think you understand business strategy but not technology components, this is also for you.
— (Edward Brginsky, Chief Technology Officer, eSolutions, BEA Systems)