Cash is needed and Alex Rogo's companies are to be put on the block. Alex faces a cruel dilemma. If he successfully completes the turnaround of his companies they can be sold for the maximum return: if he fails they will be closed down. Either way Alex and his team will be out of work. It looks like lose-lose, both for Alex and for his team. And as if he doesn't have enough to deal with, his two children have become teenagers. As Alex grapples with problems at work and at home, we begin to understand the full scope of Eli Goldratt's powerful techniques. It's Not Luck reveals more of the Thinking Process-techniques that consistently produce win-win solutions to seemingly impossible problems.

    Marine Corps. The thoughts contained here are not merely guidance for action in combat but a way of thinking. This publication provides the authoritative basis for how we fight and how we prepare to fight. This book contains no specific techniques or procedures for conduct. Rather, it provides broad guidance in the form of concepts and values. It requires judgment in application. Warfighting is not meant as a reference manual; it is designed to be read from cover to cover. Its four chapters have a natural progression. Chapter 1 describes our understanding of the characteristics, problems, and demands of war. Chapter 2 derives a theory about war from that understanding. This theory in turn provides the foundation for how we prepare for war and how we wage war, chapters 3 and 4, respectively.

    Senge's best-selling The Fifth Discipline led Business Week to dub him the "new guru" of the corporate world; here he offers executives a step-by-step guide to building "learning organizations" of their own.

    It is not about visionary product concepts or visionary products or visionary market insights. Nor is it about just having a corporate vision. This is a book about something far more important, enduring, and substantial. This is a book about visionary companies." So write Jim Collins and Jerry Porras in this groundbreaking book that shatters myths, provides new insights, and gives practical guidance to those who would like to build landmark companies that stand the test of time.Drawing upon a six-year research project at the Stanford University Graduate School of Business, Collins and Porras took eighteen truly exceptional and long-lasting companies -- they have an average age of nearly one hundred years and have outperformed the general stock market by a factor of fifteen since 1926 -- and studied each company in direct comparison to one of its top competitors. They examined the companies from their very beginnings to the present day -- as start-ups, as midsize companies, and as large corporations. Throughout, the authors asked: "What makes the truly exceptional companies different from other companies?"What separates General Electric, 3M, Merck, Wal-Mart, Hewlett-Packard, Walt Disney, and Philip Morris from their rivals? How, for example, did Procter & Gamble, which began life substantially behind rival Colgate, eventually prevail as the premier institution in its industry? How was Motorola able to move from a humble battery repair business into integrated circuits and cellular communications, while Zenith never became dominant in anything other than TVs? How did Boeing unseat McDonnell Douglas as the world's best commercial aircraft company -- what did Boeing have that McDonnell Douglas lacked?By answering such questions, Collins and Porras go beyond the incessant barrage of management buzzwords and fads of the day to discover timeless qualities that have consistently distinguished out-standing companies. They also provide inspiration to all executives and entrepreneurs by destroying the false but widely accepted idea that only charismatic visionary leaders can build visionary companies.Filled with hundreds of specific examples and organized into a coherent framework of practical concepts that can be applied by managers and entrepreneurs at all levels, Built to Last provides a master blueprint for building organizations that will prosper long into the twenty-first century and beyond.

    In doing do, we do them and ourselves a grave disservice. We are indeed facing an unprecedented crisis of leadership, Ronald Heifetz avows, but it stems as much from our demands and expectations as from any leader's inability to meet them. His book gets at both of these problems, offering a practical approach to leadership for those who lead as well as those who look to them for answers. Fitting the theory and practice of leadership to our extraordinary times, the book promotes a new social contract, a revitalization of our civic life just when we most need it.Drawing on a dozen years of research among managers, officers, and politicians in the public realm and the private sector, among the nonprofits, and in teaching, Heifetz presents clear, concrete prescriptions for anyone who needs to take the lead in almost any situation, under almost any organizational conditions, no matter who is in charge, His strategy applies not only to people at the top but also to those who must lead without authority--activists as well as presidents, managers as well as workers on the front line.

    In their stead have come the powerful ideas and methodologies of Gary Hamel and C.K. Prahalad, whose much-revered thinking has already engendered a new language of strategy. In this book, they develop a coherent model for how today's executives can identify and accomplish no less than heroic goals in tomorrow's marketplace. Their masterful blueprint addresses how executives can ease the tension between competing today and clearing a path toward leadership in the future.

    With the refreshing candor reviewers admired in Writing Solid Code, Maguire talks about what did and what didn't work at Microsoft and tells you how to energize software teams to work effectively - and to enjoy their work; why you might want to kick your star programmer off your team; how to avoid corporate snares and overblown corporate processes; which tiny changes produce major results; how to deliver on schedule and without overwork; how to pull twice the value out of everything you do; how to get your team going on a creative roll; and how to raise the average programmer level at your company.

    This new edition is re-packaged with a new jacket design to revitalise the Key Management brand and new two-colour internals make it more readable and visually appealing.Key Management Ratiosis an antidote to any fear of finance. Drawing data from 200 companies worldwide, the book brings clarity and simplicity to its explanation of every measure and shows how they all link together to drive your business.From cash flow and profit to ROI and ROTA, its unique approach remains as classic as ever, bringing a simple and visual understanding to a complex subject.

    Edwards Deming - the father of the quality movement - this book takes management practice and the next phase of the Quality Revolution into the 21st century.

    TPM in Process lndustries brings together top consultants from the Japan Institute of Plant Maintenance to modify the original TPM Development Program. In this volume, they demonstrate how to analyze process environments and equipment issues including process loss structure and calculation, autonomous maintenance, equipment and process improvement, and quality maintenance. For all organizations managing large equipment, facing low operator/machine ratios, or implementing extensive improvement, this text is an invaluable resource.

    These include TQM, concurrent engineering, Taguchi methods, JIT and expert systems. Operations research and systems techniques, the Kanban system and other Japanese techniques, the history of industrial engineering, productivity and decision sciences are also covered. Real industrial examples are used to illustrate major concepts.

    Endless growth can make a candyfloss economy, and capitalism must be its own sternest critic. Handy reaches here for a philosophy beyond the mechanics of business organisations, beyond material choices, to try and establish an alternative universe where the work ethics can contain a natural sense of continuity, connections and a sense of direction. We are now a world of shareholders, but everyone has a stake in the future. With warmth, wit and the most challenging insights, Charles Handy seeks to turn paradox into real progress.

    By introducing articles from key strategists to present differing perspectives on each strategic issue covered, the authors stress and contrast the diversity of views in the subject without endorsing any one approach.

    Formula, Donzi, Magnum, Squadron XII, USA Racing Team, and the most famous name in the world of high-performance boating, Cigarette, were all Don Aronow originals. His unparalleled accomplishments in the world of powerboating are insightfully described by the one who was with him nearly every step of the way -- his oldest son, Michael Aronow.This 9" x 12" coffee-table book is a colorful cornerstone of modern marine history, and an absolute must for any boating library. Individually boxed. Hardbound, 144 pp., over 250 color and black & white photos.

    They have fought for competitive advantage, battled over market share, and struggled for differentiation. Yet, as this influential and immensely popular book shows, these hallmarks of competitive strategy are not the way to create profitable growth in the future.In the international bestseller Blue Ocean Strategy, W. Chan Kim and Renee Mauborgne argue that cutthroat competition results in nothing but a bloody red ocean of rivals fighting over a shrinking profit pool. Based on a study of 150 strategic moves (spanning more than 100 years across 30 industries), the authors argue that lasting success comes not from battling competitors, but from creating "blue oceans"—untapped new market spaces ripe for growth. Such strategic moves, which the authors call “value innovation,” create powerful leaps in value that often render rivals obsolete for more than a decade.Blue Ocean Strategy presents a systematic approach to making the competition irrelevant and outlines principles and tools any company can use to create and capture their own blue oceans. A landmark work that upends traditional thinking about strategy, this bestselling business book charts a bold new path to winning the future.

    This reader-friendly handbook guides business people through the intricacies of proper business etiquette, covering everything from dining abroad and using the telephone to avoiding social blunders and acknowledging gifts.

    The Performance Planner: A Personal Management & Goals - Achievement System

    Starting with an overview of six cultural regions in the world-Africa, Asia, Latin America, Europe, the Middle East, and North America--the authors build the framework for organizing cross-cultural experiences and identifying and working with key principles of communication and negotiation across cultural lines. Doing Business Internationally identifies the dynamics and scope of today's global workforce--and defines the core success factors for managing effectively in the global environment. This guide includes all the information necessary to: analyze key global trends and their impact on current business practices; recognize the impact of cultural differences on business practices; adapt key business skills to achieve better results when working with different cultures; identify the critical success factors needed by managers operating across borders.

    It is text-based but conversational and spontaneous, and it has its own special rules and restrictions. E-mail has the potential to reach instantaneously one or thousands of people worldwide, giving users incredible power and accessibility.

    New coverage of Six Sigma combines with a wealth of new examples from industry to communicate both the theory and reality of quality management today.

    One of the central questions for industrial policy is how to regulate firms with market power. Regulatory Reform tackles this important policy issue in two parts: it describes an analytical framework for studying the main issues in regulatory reform, and then applies the analysis to the British experience in four utility industries - telecommunications, gas, electricity, and water supply. Britain's utility industries, state-owned monopolies just ten years ago, offer a dramatic example of comprehensive reforms with parallels elsewhere: industries have been restructured, markets have been liberalized, and new regulatory methods and institutions have been created. The authors focus on common policy questions that arise in each industry while taking into account the considerable diversity between the industries and the different reform policies adopted. The analysis and experience in Britain's utility industries also provides a rich variety of issues concerning monopolistic and anticompetitive practices that are of interest for competition policy in general. Regulation of Economic Activity series

    It should help speechmakers get their own ideas flowing, while saving time.

    Learn to break the patterns that are holding you back, and redirect your future toward greater success!Tape # 2: An interview with Mark McCormackTony talks with the bestselling author of What They Don't Teach You at Harvard Business School and The 110 Percent Solution. Their exploration of a wide-ranging variety of subjects will give you a fascinating real-life profile of the "success attitude."Special BonusA booklet summary of highlights from You'll See It When You Believe It by renowned self-help expert Dr. Wayne Dyer. Learn to transform yourself and the world in which you live by coming to a new understanding of how you perceive your existence.

    This book describes and explains the extraordinary wave of popular protest that swept across the so-called Third World and the countries of the former socialist bloc during the period from the late 1970s to the early 1990s, in response to the mounting debt crisis and the austerity measures widely adopted as part of economic "reform" and "adjustment." Explores this general proposition in a cross-national study of the austerity protests, or the 'IMF Riots' that have affected so many debtor nations since the mid-1970s Argues that modern austerity protests, like the classical "bread riots" in eighteenth-century Europe are political acts aimed at injustice, but acts that are an integral part of the process of international economic and political restructuring Evaluates how modern food riots are most important for what they reveal about global economic transformation and its social, and political, consequences Provides a general framework (drawing on comparative and historical material) and then trace the cycle of uneven development, debt, neo-liberal reform, and protest in Latin America, Africa, Asia, the Middle East, and Eastern Europe Focusses on the role of women in structural adjustment and protest politics and the features of seemingly anomalous cases which qualify the general argument

    Sir John puts forward the claim that staff are underused and underestimated, looks at recruitment and selection, coaching and daily management of staff, and gives his own blueprint for people-managing that could put Britain at the forefront of world business.

    Provides an invaluable strategic perspective of what is working in corporate marketing cultures and what isn't. Contains authentic examples from Webster's research at leading American and Japanese companies, focusing on the interrelationship of corporate culture, customer orientation and business performance.

    

    Illustrations and case studies aim to help students understand the purpose and process of the accounting function and assignments and multiple-choice questions at the end of each section allow readers to assess the depth of their knowledge. assist in effective business management and the decision-making process; and to evaluate and analyze business profitability, liquidity and vulnerability. the combination of financial and management accounting; practical examples; and objectives, mini-cases and a point-by-point summary of basic concepts learned in each chapter. accounting at undergraduate and postgraduate levels should find this work of interest.

    God wants you to let go of whatever makes you stop. John Mason launched an all-out attack on mediocrity in his best-selling books "An Enemy Called Average" and "You're Born an Original-Don't Die A Copy". In this book you'll find 52 new nuggets of truth that will break down the barriers to excellence in your life. Think about it... - Don't belittle...be big - Impatience is one big "get-ahead ache" - Bite off more than you can chew - Constantly frustrate tradition with you creativity and imagination - Stay out of your own way - When you're trying to be like someone else, the best you can be is number two - Paths without obstacles don't lead anywhere John Mason's practical principles, scriptural motivation and godly wisdom will put unfulfilled dreams where they belong - out of your life!

    The author discusses the theory of team syntegrity and the social technique of syntegration which works in practice, offering a potent management tool for developmental planning.

    What drives day-to-day behaviour in an organization? The author proposes that the silent engines are not official policies but unwritten rules and that deciphering those rules is a vital step in managing change because the process reveals why people are simply unwilling to alter their behaviour.

    A combination of 29 cases from Stanford and Harvard,and 11 chapters covering managing a small to mid-sized business

    But these approaches do not work very well, says Russell Ackoff, because they only attack the problem piecemeal--and it is the entire system of American business that is flawed. In this revolutionary new book by a widely respected business thinker and pioneer in the fields of operations research and systems thinking, Ackoff underscores the urgent need to overhaul the kinds of systems found in America, from our business schools to our boardrooms. And he shows how firms can break out of the mold--and leapfrog the competition in today's volatile economy. To give managers insight into the concept of organizations, Ackoff shows how they have been viewed since the Renaissance: first as machines, later as organisms, and today as social systems. As social systems, companies produce and distribute wealth and raise our standard of living. They are also responsible for facilitating and encouraging the development of the larger systems that contain them and all their stakeholders. The quality of worklife within an organization is key. Work has to be challenging and enjoyable if workers are to give it their full commitment, and Ackoff outlines major ways to achieve this goal. Along the way, Ackoff explodes a number of fashionable business notions. He asserts that firms that try to imitate successful competitors are doomed to play catch-up forever. He attacks the idea of continuous improvement, showing that it has failed to make quantum leaps in quality, and he demonstrates how to re-orient the pursuit of quality. After revealing the weakness in many current practices, Ackoff describes three organizational schemes that will lead to success. In the Circular Organization, a democratic hierarchy, everyone participates directly or indirectly in decisions that affect their work. In the Internal Market Economy, organizations treat their different parts like a collection of firms doing business with each other--which promotes cooperation and eliminates wasteful internal competition. And with the Multidimensional Organization, a company becomes so powerful and flexible that continuous adaptation can happen without reorganization. Ackoff caps off the book with an incisive critique of business schools, describing how they must be transformed to turn out the leaders we need for the competitive American organization of the 21st century. Enabling managers to understand the profound interrelationships in the American economy and to tap into them for success, The Democratic Corporation is a major work by an innovative thinker that is certain to cause ripples throughout the business community.

    businesses, this book broadens the definition of control and establishes a critical bridge between the disciplines of strategy and accounting and control. In addition to the more traditional diagnostic control systems, Simons identifies three new control systems that allow strategic change: belief systems that communicate core values and provide inspiration and direction, boundary systems that frame the strategic domain and define the limits of freedom, and interactive systems that provide flexibility in adapting to competitive environments and encourage organizational learning. These four control systems, according to Simons, will provide managers with the basic levers for pursuing strategic objectives.

    Gardner's unique approach helps students develop strong modeling skills by using proven applications and examples of setups. The book also features a variety of examples, including many from business, politics, economics, and history.

    Certain individuals and schools of thought have directly studied such matters in both natural and social sciences for the past half century. Today, many humanistic and innovative managers have lost patience with empty slogans that promise a single panacea for all their ills. They have come to see as counter-productive a black and white polarity between a hard-nosed bottom-line approach on the one hand, and the soft option of team work and empowerment on the other. Why cannot rigorous methods and goal alignment coexist with a concern for human beings? Does not everyone benefit if the enterprise maintains high standards and seizes its opportunities? In this book, the editors have selected papers which set out to trace the historical and intellectual progress of one man's battle with this conundrum, and point to a strategy for its resolution. Stafford Beer's early experiments on the self-organising properties of biological systems helped pave the way towards later connectionist models and neural-net computer architecture. They also evolved into a fully fledged holistic science of management, combining rigorous methodology with respect and space for the living, human individual.

    But who most often wins? Drawing on seven years of research, Steven Schnaars documents that, in sharp contrast to conventional beliefs, imitators commonly surpass pioneers as market leaders and attain the greatest financial rewards. How do they do it? In this ground-breaking book -- the first to formulate imitation strategies for managers -- Schnaars systematically examines 28 detailed case histories, from light beer to commercial jet liners, in which imitators such as Anheuser-Busch and Boeing prevailed over pioneers. He describes the marketing wars, court battles, and even personal vendettas that often resulted, and shows that imitators have several clear advantages. Pioneers are forced to spend heavily on both product and market development. They also risk making costly mistakes. Pioneers often aid in their own destruction, thrown into confusion by rapid growth, internal bickering, and the neverending search for expansion capital.Moreover, imitators do not have to risk expensive start-up costs or pursuing a market that does not exist, enabling them to quickly outmaneuver pioneers once the market is finally shaped. By patiently waiting on the sidelines while the innovator makes the mistakes, imitatorscan also usurp benefits from the test of time -- major defects in the product having been removed by the pioneer at an earlier stage in the game.Schnaars discusses the three basic strategies that successful imitators such as Microsoft, American Express, and Pepsi have used to dominate markets pioneered by others. First, some imitators sell lower-priced, generic versions of the pioneer's product once it becomes popular, as Bic did with ballpoint pens. Second, some firms imitate and improve upon the pioneer's product; for example, WordPerfect in the case of word processing software. Third, building on their capital, distribution, and marketing advantages that smaller pioneers cannot hope to match, imitators use the most prevalent strategy of all -- bullying their way into a pioneer's market on sheer power. In several cases a one-two-punch, or combination of strategies, is often utilized by the imitator to remove any doubt regarding their dominance in the market and in the eyes of the public.Schnaars concludes that the benefits of pioneering have been oversold, and that imitation compels recognition as a legitimate marketing strategy. It should be as much a part of a company's strategic arsenal as strategies for innovation.

    Veteran management consultant Michael K. Badawy couldn't agree more. He says, The primary problems of engineering and R&D management are not technical--they are human. Badawy offers real help for the human side of technical management in his classic Developing Managerial Skills in Engineers and Scientists. Since 1982, thousands of technical executives, supervisors, managers, and students have turned to this classic for hands-on management techniques. This thoroughly revised second edition hones in on issues facing today's technical manager: Total Quality Management Technological entrepreneurship Cross-functional teams Success requirement for project management Interdepartmental interfacing Educating technologists in managing technology As a 21st century technical manager, you hold the reins to a corporation's most powerful resource--technology, the key to profitability and growth in an increasingly technological era. Using the tools in this practical management reference, you can become the kind of manager whom corporations will be battling for: an excellent manager who understands people, administrations, and technology. You'll learn how to organize, coordinate, and allocate resources while setting goals and troubleshooting. Instructive case studies of both successful and struggling technical managers clearly illustrate management do's and don'ts. You'll also find immediately applicable techniques and tips for managerial success. Badawy focuses on the technical manager in action with concrete approaches that always address the specific needs of the manager. Among the topics covered are preventing managerial failure; practical mechanisms that strengthen technologists' management skills; issues in career planning and development, decision making and evaluation of engineering and R&D efforts; and strategic thinking and planning skills. Badawy's down-to-earth language and practical examples bridge the gap between theory and practice, making it a snap for both the novice and the initiated to translate theory into everyday solutions. Plus, you'll find career guidance as well as up-to-the-minute coverage of current managerial training programs. A bounty of tables, charts, and diagrams further enhance Developing Managerial Skills in Engineers and Scientists, making this volume indispensable to all those technical professionals interested in becoming 21st century managers.