Customer and Business Analytics: Applied Data Mining for Business Decision Making Using R (Chapman & Hall/CRC The R Series), 1st Edition, Daniel S. Putler

Customer and Business Analytics: Applied Data Mining for Business Decision Making Using R explains and demonstrates, via the accompanying open-source software, how advanced analytical tools can address various business problems. It also gives insight into some of the challenges faced when deploying these tools. Extensively classroom-tested, the text is ideal for students in customer and business analytics or applied data mining as well as professionals in small- to medium-sized organizations.

The book offers an intuitive understanding of how different analytics algorithms work. Where necessary, the authors explain the underlying mathematics in an accessible manner. Each technique presented includes a detailed tutorial that enables hands-on experience with real data. The authors also discuss issues often encountered in applied data mining projects and present the CRISP-DM process model as a practical framework for organizing these projects.

Showing how data mining can improve the performance of organizations, this book and its R-based software provide the skills and tools needed to successfully develop advanced analytics capabilities.

Review
"This book is derived from a lecture course in data mining for MBA students. … assumes very little in the way of mathematical or statistical background. The writing style is generally good, and the book should prove useful to its target audience." —David Scott, International Statistical Review (2013), 81, 2

About the Author
Dr. Daniel S. Putler is a Data Artisan in Residence at Alteryx, a business intelligence/analytics software company.

Dr. Robert E. Krider is a professor of marketing in the Beedie School of Business at Simon Fraser University. He has also taught in Hong Kong, Shanghai, Portugal, and Germany. His research tackles questions of customer and competitor behavior in retailing and media industries.

One of a few R data mining books that explain several concepts, such as decision trees, lift chart, etc. step by step using good examples.

Product Details :

• Series: Chapman & Hall/CRC The R Series
• Hardcover: 315 pages
• Publisher: Chapman and Hall/CRC; 1 edition (May 7, 2012)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1466503963
• ISBN-13: 978-1466503960
• Product Dimensions: 0.8 x 7.1 x 9.8 inches

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Managing: A Competency-Based Approach, 11th Edition, Don Hellriegel

Maximize your management potential with the unique competency-based approach found only in Hellriegel/Jackson/Slocum's MANAGING: A COMPETENCY-BASED APPROACH, 11e. This unique text blends theory, applications and innovation to prepare you with the skills most critical for management success today. The text's solid presentation of today's management principles and proven, interactive learning features throughout the book focus on six managerial competencies--self-management, strategic action, planning and administration, global awareness, and teamwork.

The authors developed these competencies based on input from hundreds of successful managers in business of all types and sizes to help you streamline your personal managerial development. Fresh examples from well-known organizations, the latest cases, new Ethical Challenges, and experiential exercises demonstration how these competencies are used by real managers to address the challenges of managing and leading their organizations. Integrated Self-Assessments help you analyze and further develop your own management potential for career success as you compare your skills to other students and professionals around the world. Videos showing management in action within recent Hollywood films and an innovative new CengageNOW online learning system to assist you with homework and review all further ensure you develop the strong managerial competencies to lead with confidence.

About the Author
Don Hellriegel is Emeritus Professor of Management in the Mays Business School at Texas A&M University. Dr. Hellriegel joined the faculty at Texas A&M in 1975. He has also taught at the Pennsylvania State University and the University of Colorado. He received his B.S. and M.B.A. from Kent State University and his Ph.D. from the University of Washington. His research interests include organizational behavior, the effects of organizational environments, managerial cognitive styles, and organizational innovation and strategic management processes. His research has been published in a number of leading journals. Dr. Hellriegel served as Vice President and Program Chair of the Academy of Management, President Elect, President, and Past President. He has also served a three-year term as Dean of the Fellows Group of the Academy of Management.

He has also been Editor of the Academy of Management Review and served on the Board of Governors of the Academy of Management. Dr. Hellriegel has performed many other leadership roles, including President, Eastern Academy of Management; Division Chair, Organization and Management Theory Division; President, Brazos County United Way; Co-Consulting Editor, West Series in Management, Head, Department of Management (TAMU); Interim Dean, Executive Associate Dean, Mays School of Business (TAMU); and Interim Executive Vice Chancellor (TAMUS). Dr. Hellriegel has consulted with a variety of groups and organizations, including 3DI, Sun Ship Building, Penn Mutual Life Insurance, Texas A&M University System, Ministry of Industry and Commerce for the nation of Kuwait, Ministry of Agriculture for the Dominican Republic, AACSB, and Texas Innovation Group.

Susan E. Jackson is Distinguished Professor of Human Resource Management in the School of Management and Labor Relations, Rutgers University--New Brunswick, NJ. She received her doctoral degree from the University of California at Berkeley and previously held positions on the faculties of New York University, University of Michigan, and University of Maryland. She is an active member and Past President of the Academy of Management and founder of greeenHRM.org, which is an online resource for students, teachers, and scholars interested in managing human resources in environmentally sustainable organizations.

In addition to green HRM, she is an expert in strategic human resource management and the social dynamics of effective work teams. She has published dozens of articles and book chapters on these and related topics. She is the author or editor of several books, including, Managing Knowledge for Sustainable Competitive Advantage (with Michael Hitt and Angelo DeNisi), Managing Human Resources in Cross-Border Alliances (with Randall Schuler and Yadong Luo), Diversity in Work Teams, and Managing Human Resources in Environmentally Sustainable Organizations (forthcoming, with Deniz Ones and Stephan Dilchert). Professor Jackson also serves as a Book Editor for the Routledge Series in Global Human Resource Management.

John W. Slocum, Jr. is an Emeritus Professor in the Cox School of Business at Southern Methodist University, Dallas, Texas. He has taught at the University of Washington, Penn State, Ohio State, International University of Japan, and the Amos Tuck School of Dartmouth College. Dr. Slocum has been awarded the Alumni Citation for Professional Accomplishment by Westminster College and the Nicolas Salgo, Rotunda, and Executive MBA Outstanding Teaching Awards at SMU. He holds a B.B.A. from Westminster College, a M.B.A. from Kent State, and a Ph.D. in organizational behavior from the University of Washington. He is Past President of the Eastern Academy of Management, the 39th President of the Academy of Management and Editor of the Academy of Management Journal.

He is a Fellow of the Academy of Management, Decision Science Institute, and the Pan-Pacific Institute. He serves as co-editor of the Journal of World Business and the Journal of Leadership and Organizational Studies and Associate Editor of Organizational Dynamics. Dr. Slocum has consulted for organizations including ARAMARK, Baylor Hospital, University of North Texas Health Science Center, LBJ School at the University of Texas, Celanese Chemical Corporation, Pier 1, NASA, and Brakke Consulting. He is a regular speaker for many senior executive development programs, including the University of Oklahoma, Oklahoma State University, SMU, and Lockheed Martin. He is currently on the Board of Directors of ViewCast Corporation, Kisco Senior Living, and GoToLearn.

The authors identify six management competencies and provide an questionnaire that you can complete to measure your own competency as a manager. Examples of these competencies are woven into the fabric of all chapters. End of chapter questions invite the reader to contact various organizations via the Internet to see how they use this competency in the management of their organization. This book is written in a style that is inviting, full of examples, and 'hot' management topics.

I first read "Management" by Hellriegel and Slocum when I was doing my MBA in 1989. Management was one of my favourite subjects then since I needed practical guidance on how to effectively plan, lead, motivate, organise and control my large department in my organisation with large numbers of subordinates under me. I then found the book to be very useful, easy to understand and logical and I used it to achieve excellent results in the subject.

Some few years after graduation, I was back at the university, being a part time lecturer in Management. I again used the book as one of the recommended textbooks. I have since stopped lecturing and still find that the authors have kept the book updated and relevant to the current thinking and practice of management. For students doing an undergraduate course in management, I strongly recommend the book as it is comprehensive, properly structured to introduce the subject and then step-by-step develop it to the end. As a facilitator, I also find the Annotated Instructor's Edition to be very handy as it covers all the topics that are required at undergraduate level and help the instructor prepare and conduct classes. The various "Insights" are very important in highlighting some aspects of the topics. The numerous case studies are also very critical in reinforcing the practical application of the important and interesting subject of management.

Product Details :

• Hardcover: 704 pages
• Publisher: Cengage Learning; 11 edition (February 2, 2007)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0324421400
• ISBN-13: 978-0324421408
• Product Dimensions: 1.1 x 8.6 x 10.8 inches

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Performance Improvement for Healthcare: Leading Change with Lean, Six Sigma, and Constraints Management, 1st Edition, Bahadir Inozu

PROVEN STRATEGIES FOR REVOLUTIONIZING HEALTHCARE SYSTEMS "If I had to sum up this book in one word, the word would be 'brilliant'! This is one of the most insightful books on TOC, not just for healthcare, that I have ever read." --BOB SPROULL, author of The Ultimate Improvement Cycle: Maximizing Profits through the Integration of Lean, Six Sigma, and the Theory of Constraints

Performance Improvement for Healthcare: Leading Change with Lean, Six Sigma, and Constraints Management lays out an integrated approach for using three improvement methods that have proven to be the most effective way to transform hospital operations in terms of patient outcomes and experience, financial viability, and employee satisfaction. This pioneering guide presents a strategy for managing bottlenecks, eliminating waste, reducing errors, and containing costs in healthcare organizations, as well as sustaining the gains achieved. Real-world case studies illustrate successful performance improvement implementations that have realized breakthrough operational and financial results in the U.S. and abroad.

The book is an in-depth guide for healthcare leaders and includes topics such as:

Assessing your organization's readiness for adopting a best-of-breed performance improvement strategy
How to deploy an integrated performance improvement program and get far better results than with traditional methods
Using Constraints Management to identify leverage points and break constraints that exist in all healthcare organizations
Building a program that consistently meets milestones on time and on budget
How to begin thinking at the system-level of complex healthcare organizations and target high-impact opportunities
Preventing common issues with sustaining improvement initiatives

About the Author
Bahadir Inozu, Ph.D., is a Founding Partner and the Chief Executive Officer of NOVACES, LLC, a leading provider of continuous process improvement consulting and training services. He is a Lean Six Sigma Master Black Belt and a Theory of Constraints Jonah. Dr. Inozu has been teaching undergraduate, graduate, and adult education courses on Process Improvement, Lean, Six Sigma, Reliability and Maintenance Management, Marine Engineering, and Executive Leader Training courses on CPI for over 20 years.

Dan Chauncey is the Director of Deployment Services for NOVACES where he has served as the technical program manager for the deployment of CPI across patient care in the U.S. Navy Medical Enterprise. He also leads a team of five Master Black Belts embedded at mid-level commands across the Navy and led the CPI Deployment at United Health Services.

Vickie Kamataris is the Director of Commercial Healthcare Services for NOVACES. She is a registered nurse with more than twenty years of clinical experience, Vickie earned her BSN from Southwestern College where she graduated Valedictorian in 1988. She has achieved multiple specialty certifications including CPHQ and is a Lean Six Sigma Master Black Belt. As a NOVACES Master Black Belt for healthcare, Vickie provides Lean Six Sigma expertise and leadership to develop and guide Lean Six Sigma deployment strategies, develop and deliver training, lead complex, enterprise-level projects and events, and mentor Black Belt and Master Black Belt candidates. In her role as Quality Leader for General Electric Corporate Healthcare and Medical Programs, Vickie developed and deployed a balanced scorecard across GE's network of more than 240 clinics in 34 nations.

She led multi-disciplinary, cross-functional global teams to improve mean performance related to cost/productivity, compliance, and medical quality indicators and led key global initiatives including implementation of an electronic health record, emergency medical response, travel medicine, health promotion and wellness, medical surveillance assurance, disability case management, and development of clinical protocol. She has extensive experience as an educator, serving as hospital education coordinator and adjunct faculty in the Biology department at Cowley College. She has presented at national and international venues and authored journal articles and papers on clinical and change leadership and quality-related topics including Lean, Six Sigma, TRIZ, and balanced scorecard. Vickie is a co-author of Leading Change with Lean, Six Sigma, and Constraints Management. Vickie has more than 30 years of experience leading clinical, business, and military teams and has received multiple academic and professional awards. She served as a noncommissioned officer in the US Air Force. Vickie is a member of Sigma Theta Tau International, National Association for Healthcare Quality, the American Society for Quality , the American College of Healthcare Executives, the Pennsylvania Organization of Nurse Leaders, and the International Society of Six Sigma Professionals.

Charles Mount, CAPT, USN (Ret.) is the Director of Government Healthcare Services and an ASQ-certified Lean Six Sigma Black Belt for NOVACES, LLC. He oversees the company’s services in Lean Six Sigma and Leadership programs to improve patient care, safety and satisfaction. He has 40 years experience serving defense & security organizations, as well as 28 years experience in Performance Improvement, leadership, management, and professional development. After almost 39 years on active duty, he retired from the military as a Captain from the Navy Medical Department. While in the Navy, CAPT Mount was Commanding Officer and Executive Officer of the Naval Schools of Health Sciences Training in Portsmouth, VA and San Diego, CA. At the Navy’s largest medical center in San Diego, Charles spearheaded the training, coaching, and implementation of Total Quality Management (TQM) for 5,000 employees and scores of patients.

He created a 24-hospital group to fast track the implementation of healthcare quality, the Southern California Coalition for Improving Healthcare and served as its President for 6 years. He also served as Education Director, and later President, of the San Diego W. Edwards Deming User Group. As a Master Training Specialist, CAPT Mount has conducted strategic planning sessions for multiple organizations, with a specific emphasis on employee and executive development of the mission, vision, values, and guiding principles. He served as the Navy’s national faculty for Basic Life Support for the Navy Surgeon General for 17 years. As a member of the American Society for Training and Development (ASTD), CAPT Mount has made presentations to groups throughout the nation, including San Diego, Chicago, and Norfolk, VA. Over the years, he has written about managing change in healthcare for a variety of publications and consulted for numerous civilian and federal healthcare institutions. Charles is a graduate of the Institute for Federal Health Care Executives; he holds a B.Sc. Degree in Nursing from the University of Washington and a M.Ed. From the University of San Diego.

Because I have relatives in the medical field (and have written on lean, six sigma, and constraints management), I read this book so I would know if I should recommend it. The answer is YES - read this book before you begin to implement ANY improvement process; it will save you time, money, and agony.

Previous reviews have highlighted how the authors skillfully weave the three most popular improvement methodologies together and tell you when and how each should be applied. I agree wholeheartedly with their assessments. What they did not mention is the positive attitude the authors apply to current operations (no finger pointing, "you should have known better", etc.) They simply state prevalent current practice with incredible understanding and then suggest a way to achieve much better results. (As an accounting educator, I especially appreciate their understanding of GAAP and GASB, and the difference between external reporting and an internal decision support system.)

The breadth of coverage of this book, along with its detailed and clear explanations, examples and cases, is incredible. Even TRIZ (Theory of Inventive Problem Solving), a methodology to analyze and solve particularly incorrigible problems, is introduced. Despite the broad and detailed coverage, the book reads quickly. However, because the material is exciting, I found it best not to read in bed at night.

Product Details :

• Hardcover: 352 pages
• Publisher: McGraw-Hill Professional; 1 edition (August 24, 2011)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0071761624
• ISBN-13: 978-0071761628
• Product Dimensions: 1.1 x 6.1 x 9 inches

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Instructional Design: The ADDIE Approach, 1st Edition, Robert Maribe Branch

The Analyze, Design, Develop, Implement, and Evaluate (ADDIE) process is used to introduce an approach to instruction design that has a proven record of success. Instructional Design: The ADDIE Approach is intended to serve as an overview of the ADDIE concept. The primary rationale for this book is to respond to the need for an instruction design primer that addresses the current proliferation of complex educational development models, particularly non-traditional approaches to learning, multimedia development and online learning environments.

Many entry level instructional designers and students enrolled in related academic programs indicate they are better prepared to accomplish the challenging work of creating effective training and education materials after they have a thorough understanding of the ADDIE principles. However, a survey of instructional development applications indicate that the overwhelming majority of instructional design models are based on ADDIE, often do not present the ADDIE origins as part of their content, and are poorly applied by people unfamiliar with the ADDIE paradigm.

The purpose of this book is to focus on fundamental ADDIE principles, written with a minimum of professional jargon. This is not an attempt to debate scholars or other educational professionals on the finer points of instructional design, however, the book's content is based on sound doctrine and supported by valid empirical research. The only bias toward the topic is that generic terms will be used as often as possible in order to make it easy for the reader to apply the concepts in the book to other specific situations.

From the Back Cover
The Analyze, Design, Develop, Implement, and Evaluate (ADDIE) process is used to introduce an approach to instruction design that has a proven record of success. Instructional Design: The ADDIE Approach is intended to serve as an overview of the ADDIE concept. The primary rationale for this book is to respond to the need for an instruction design primer that addresses the current proliferation of complex educational development models, particularly non-traditional approaches to learning, multimedia development and online learning environments.

Many entry level instructional designers and students enrolled in related academic programs indicate they are better prepared to accomplish the challenging work of creating effective training and education materials after they have a thorough understanding of the ADDIE principles. However, a survey of instructional development applications indicate that the overwhelming majority of instructional design models are based on ADDIE, often do not present the ADDIE origins as part of their content, and are poorly applied by people unfamiliar with the ADDIE paradigm.

The purpose of this book is to focus on fundamental ADDIE principles, written with a minimum of professional jargon. This is not an attempt to debate scholars or other educational professionals on the finer points of instructional design, however, the book's content is based on sound doctrine and supported by valid empirical research. The only bias toward the topic is that generic terms will be used as often as possible in order to make it easy for the reader to apply the concepts in the book to other specific situations.

About the Author
Robert Maribe Branch is a tenured Professor of Instructional Design and Technology at the University of Georgia. Rob earned an Associate degree from New York City Technical College in Brooklyn, New York; a Bachelor of Science degree from Elizabeth City State University, North Carolina; and a Masters degree from Ball State University in Muncie, Indiana. Dr. Branch taught high school in Botswana as a Peace Corps volunteer and later returned to the United States, and completed a Doctor of Education degree from Virginia Tech in Blacksburg, Virginia in 1989 specializing in curriculum development and instructional design. Dr. Branch joined the faculty at Syracuse University and taught graduate courses and conducted research in the Department of Instructional Design, Development and Evaluation, and earned tenure during his seven years there.

Dr. Branch is a former Fulbright Lecturer/Researcher to the University of Natal in South Africa where he helped to inaugurate a Masters degree program in Media Studies. Dr. Branch has co-edited the Educational Media and Technology Yearbook since 1997, and co-authored the two recent editions of the popular Survey of Instructional Development Models book. Dr. Branch emphasizes student-centered learning, teaches courses related to instructional systems design, and consults regularly with governments, businesses and other educational institutions. Dr. Branch’s published research focuses on diagramming complex conceptual relationships and other flow processes.

This book is well written, and the perspective from both business and educational environments is helpful in web site development using a CMS like Weebly. Too often people believe that the focus of a business web site should be on what "they" like, rather than considering the user. The book contains practice cases, and a quiz to test comprehension. I would have appreciated detail of UI and UX, but anyone reading this book would be able to apply those principles effectively. The Bibliography is current and extensive; an added bonus for researchers.

Product Details :

• Hardcover: 203 pages
• Publisher: Springer; 2010 edition (October 6, 2009)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0387095055
• ISBN-13: 978-0387095059
• Product Dimensions: 0.6 x 6.3 x 9.2 inches

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Materials and Design, Second Edition: The Art and Science of Material Selection in Product Design, 2nd Edition, Michael F. Ashby

Materials are the stuff of design. From the very beginning of human history, materials have been taken from the natural world and shaped, modified, and adapted for everything from primitive tools to modern electronics. This renowned book by noted materials engineering author Mike Ashby and Industrial designer, Kara Johnson, explores the role of materials and materials processing in product design, with a particular emphasis on creating both desired aesthetics and functionality. The new edition will feature even more of the highly useful "materials profiles," that give critical design, processing, performance and applications criteria for each material in question. The reader will find information ranging from the generic and commercial names of each material, its physical and mechanical properties, its chemical properties, its common uses, how it is typically made and processed, and even its average price. And with improved photographs and drawings, the reader will be taken even more closely to the way real design is done by real designers, selecting the optimum materials for a successful product.

* The best guide ever published on the on the role of materials, past and present, in product development, by noted materials authority Mike Ashby and professional designer Kara Johnson--now with even better photos and drawings on the Design Process

* Significant new section on the use of re-cycled materials in products, and the importance of sustainable design for manufactured goods and services

* Enhanced materials profiles, with addition of new materials types like nanomaterials, advanced plastics and bio-based materials

Review
From the first edition:

"Both interesting and intriguing, this book should prove a valuable resource for those starting out in design or engineering...it is also fun to browse through." - Science Magazine, June 2003 "It is not often that I find it difficult to stop reading a book ... the word inspirational is used in various parts of (this) book -- and how appropriate this word is to this textbook ... For both students and designers, Materials & Design is a gold mine. In short, I thoroughly recommend this book" - Building Engineer, May 2003

About the Author
Royal Society Research Professor Emeritus at Cambridge University and Former Visiting Professor of Design at the Royal College of Art, London, UK

Mike Ashby is sole or lead author of several of Elsevier's top selling engineering textbooks, including Materials and Design: The Art and Science of Material Selection in Product Design, Materials Selection in Mechanical Design, Materials and the Environment, and Materials: Engineering, Science, Processing and Design. He is also coauthor of the books Engineering Materials 1&2, and Nanomaterials, Nanotechnologies and Design. Since publishing the first edition of Materials and Design in 2002, Kara Johnson has worked at IDEO, a global design firm and strategic consultancy. Kara leads their efforts in Materials, with a focus on Manufacturing. Her work is primarily about linking a company's brand and business strategies with the products they make.

Product Details :

• Paperback: 344 pages
• Publisher: Butterworth-Heinemann; 2 edition (October 26, 2009)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1856174972
• ISBN-13: 978-1856174978
• Product Dimensions: 0.7 x 7.3 x 9.4 inches

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Purchasing and Supply Chain Management: Analysis, Strategy, Planning and Practice, 5th Edition, Arjan J. van Weele

In an era of unprecedented turbulence and change, Arjan J. van Weele's market-leading textbook keeps you up-to-speed with the latest developments in purchasing and supply chain management theory and practice. Employing a flexible managerial perspective, "Purchasing and Supply Chain Management, 5th Edition" walks you through the core concepts, strategy, and implementation to provide the complete introduction for modern courses. Global examples from organizations including Volvo, Intel, Shell, Sony and Tesco reveal the practical challenges of today's purchasing processes, while the latest research insights add a critical perspective throughout. New chapters on services buying, socially responsible purchasing and category sourcing strategies - amongst many other wholly revised sections - reflect the latest developments, while new Integrative Cases consolidate your learning to leave you ready for purchasing in the 21st century.

Review
Praise for the previous edition:"This is an exceptionally clear and well structured text which manages to integrate a comprehensive knowledge base into accessible themes. I've been using this text since its first edition, and it just keeps on getting better. It should be placed at the top of any reading list for purchasing and supply students." Peter Rudolph, Head of Education, International Purchasing & Supply Education and Research Association, Leeds Business School, Leeds Metropolitan University

"If you want to buy well in future - make a start by buying and using this book!" Steve Shaljean-Tilley, Senior Lecturer in Procurement, Government's Centre for Management and Policy Studies (CMPS)

"A true in-depth view of Purchasing and Supply Management and its development as a business function, able to create sustainable value." Ton Trommelen, Executive Vice President & CPO, Royal DSM N.V.

"All chapters use the same didactic instruments like learning objectives, cases, memos, assignments, etc. which are introduced to the reader through a ''guided tour''. That might be one of the reasons for the popularity of the book, as it is one of the best sellers in the area." Review from the Journal of Purchasing & Supply Management

About the Author
Prof. Dr. Arjan J. van Weele holds the NEVI-Chair in Purchasing and Supply Chain Management at Eindhoven University of Technology, Faculty of Industrial Engineering and Innovation Sciences (IE&IS). He has extensive experience in teaching, research and consultancy and has written numerous articles and books in the areas of strategic management, business logistics and purchasing and supply chain management. In 2003 he received the Hans Ovelgönne Award from the International Federation of Purchasing and Supply Management (IFPSM) for his outstanding academic contribution in the area of purchasing and supply management.

This text is a scholarly presentation of purchasing and supply chain management for the 21st century. "Arjan van Weele holds the (parttime) NEVI-Chair of Purchasing and Supply Management, at Eindhoven University of Technology, Faculty of Industrial Engineering and Innovation Sciences (IE&IS), The Netherlands." The material is thorough, excellent, and slow going for a sophomore course in logistics.

This is a very well written book covering a wide variety of topics yet with enough detail to be very helpful. I highly recommend it for anyone needing information about the basics of purchasing. It has been very helpful to me. I was looking for a good single source on the topic of purchasing and this is certainly it.

Product Details :

• Paperback: 448 pages
• Publisher: Cengage Learning EMEA; 5 edition (December 9, 2009)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1408018969
• ISBN-13: 978-1408018965
• Product Dimensions: 0.6 x 7.6 x 10 inches

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Family Business, 4th Edition, Ernesto J. Poza

FAMILY BUSINESS provides the next generation of family business owners with the knowledge and skills needed for the successful management and leadership of the family enterprise. The author, Ernesto Poza, uses both text and cases to explore a diverse set of family firms, examining the interrelationships between the owners, the family, and the management team. FAMILY BUSINESS, at its core, is a practical book that presents management and family practices to model success as well as an honest look at the advantages and challenges facing family enterprises. With an emphasis on leadership and positioning for the future, FAMILY BUSINESS illustrates how the family enterprise can achieve sustained growth and continuity through generations.

Review
Preface. About The Author. Part I. THE FAMILY BUSINESS: WHAT MAKES IT UNIQUE? 1. The Nature, Importance, and Uniqueness of Family Business. 2. Great Families in Business: Building Trust and Commitment. 3. Ownership of An Enterprise Built To Last. Case 1. The Binghams and the Louisville Courier-Journal Companies. Case 2. SMALL FAMILY BUSINESS Power Play at the Inn. Case 3. The Ferre Media Group. Case 4. SMALL FAMILY BUSINESS "She'll Always Be My Little Sister". Case 5. The Vega Food Company.

Part II. LEADERSHIP IMPERATIVES FOR THE FAMILY AND BUSINESS: SUCCESSION AND CONTINUITY. 4. Succession: Continuing Entrepreneurship and The Next Generation. 5. Succession and The Transfer of Power. Case 6. Sigma Motion, Inc. Case 7. SMALL FAMILY BUSINESS The Ambivalent CEO of The Construction Company. Case 8. SMALL FAMILY BUSINESS Borrowing to Grow at Andrews Company. Case 9. SMALL FAMILY BUSINESS Adams Funeral Home. Case 10. Fasteners for Retail (Part A). Case 11. Ferre Media Group (Part B). Case 12. The Cousins Tournament.

Part III. BEST PRACTICES FOR THE MANAGEMENTAND GOVERNANCE OF THE FAMILY BUSINESS. 6. Creating the Strategy. 7. Planning the Estate. 8. Financial Considerations and Valuation of The Family Business. 9. Key Nonfamily Management: The Visible Commitment to Managing The Family Business Professionally. 10. Family Business Governance: Advisory Boards and Boards of Directors. 11. Family Communication: Family Meetings, Family Councils, and Family Offices. 12. Change, Adaptation and Innovation: The Future of Family Business. 13. Continuing The Spirit of Enterprise: Lessons From Centennial Family Companies. Case 13. PrivateCo Business Valuation Report. Case 14. Reliance Industries (Part A). Case 15. SMALL FAMILY BUSINESS The Son-In-Law. Case 16. SMALL FAMILY BUSINESS The New MBA. Case 17. SMALL FAMILY BUSINESS Real Estate Development Partners, Inc. Case 18. SMALL FAMILY BUSINESS Glassking Distributor Company. Case 19. New Way Distributing. Case 20. The Reliance Group (Part B). Index. --This text refers to an alternate Paperback edition.

About the Author
Ernesto Poza is a professor for the Global Entrepreneurship and Family Enterprise at the Thunderbird School of Global Management. His research interests are in the areas of family business continuity, growing the family-led business, governance of family business, and family culture.

Product Details :

• Paperback: 480 pages
• Publisher: Cengage Learning; 4 edition (January 28, 2013)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1285056825
• ISBN-13: 978-1285056821
• Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 6.3 x 0.8 inches

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The Lean 3P Advantage: A Practitioner's Guide to the Production Preparation Process, 1st Edition, Allan R. Coletta

How do you take talented engineers and surround them with the elements needed to create brilliant designs that lead to market-changing products? Lean 3P is how.

Winner of a 2013 Shingo Research and Professional Publication Award !

Written from an operations perspective, The Lean 3P Advantage: A Practitioner’s Guide to the Production Preparation Process explains how to build collaborative thinking and innovation into the front end of the design process. Describing how to develop successful new products concurrently with new operations, the book illustrates real-world scenarios with numerous examples and case studies to help newcomers succeed the first time around. For those familiar with 3P, the book supplies the basis to explore Evergreen 3P—a process for applying 3P to small-scale design projects for similar benefits.

Details the 3P Lean Design process, explaining how and why it works so effectively
Includes case studies and examples of real-world applications
Presents time-tested methods based on the combined experience of numerous practicing companies

Coverage includes product planning and evaluation criteria, selection of alternatives, timing considerations, construction of prototypes, and measuring effectiveness. This book will help you and your team develop holistic designs that foster innovation and deliver products and production operations that effectively utilize people and exceed the expectations of all stakeholders.

Review
Finally, a go-to reference book on the important subject of 3P. Coletta does an outstanding job defining a step-by-step approach that can provide breakthrough results to manufacturing and service organizations alike. —Drew Locher, Managing Director, Change Management Associates

This how-to guide is filled with relevant examples that can help you apply the concepts and methodology to any product and process industry to develop higher quality products and processes delivered at lower costs. —Ken Rolfes, KDR Associates, Inc.

... an extremely valuable book for any practitioner interested in capturing the significant benefits of 3P for their firms. The author’s sincere desire to share his considerable knowledge with his readers comes through on every page. —Ron Mascitelli, PMP, President, Technology Perspectives

About the Author
Allan R. Coletta is a chemical engineer with extensive manufacturing operations, supply chain, and engineering experience gained while working in the chemical process and health-care diagnostics industries. His Lean experience started while serving as site manager for ICI Uniqema’s largest specialty chemicals plant in North America and continued to expand his role as Senior Director of Engineering for Siemens Healthcare Diagnostics. His passion for manufacturing and engaging people in continuous improvement continues to grow through personal application of Lean principles.

Allan serves on the Delaware Manufacturing Extension Partnership’s Fiduciary and Advisory Boards and is a member of the Delaware Business Mentoring Alliance. He is also a member of the American Institute of Chemical Engineers and the Association for Manufacturing Excellence (AME).

Product Details :

• Paperback: 336 pages
• Publisher: Productivity Press; 1 edition (March 23, 2012)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1439879117
• ISBN-13: 978-1439879115
• Product Dimensions: 0.8 x 7 x 10 inches

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Shipping Derivatives and Risk Management, 1st Edition, Amir Alizadeh

A comprehensive book on shipping derivatives and risk management which covers the theoretical and practical aspects of financial risk in shipping. The book provides a thorough overview of the practice of risk management in shipping with the use of theoretical examples and real-life applications.

Review
'A thorough investigation of the fascinating shipping markets by experts in the field. A "must have" for practitioners and researchers in the commodity world.' - Helyette Geman, Director, Commodity Finance Centre, Birkbeck College, University of London and ESCP-EAP 'This is certainly a unique book which combines the theoretical and practical aspects of risk management in shipping. The book provides the readers with essential knowledge of risk assessment in shipping markets and enables them to understand the freight derivatives instruments, their applications, pricing mechanisms and trading strategies. It is a must read for any one involved in the shipping business.' - Mr Knut Moystad, Director of Corporate Development, Imarex 'This useful book combines a practical introduction to risk management techniques with a theoretical exposition for those who want to dig deeper. An excellent choice for anyone wanting to broaden their understanding of freight derivatives.' - Dr Martin Stopford, Managing Director, Clarkson Research Studies

About the Author
AMIR ALIZADEH is a Reader in Shipping Economics and Finance at Cass Business School, City University, London, UK. His research interest includes modelling commodity and shipping freight markets, derivatives and risk management, and forecasting. He has published in several academic journals in the area of transportation, risk management, finance and economics, and has been working as an advisor and a consultant.

NIKOS NOMIKOS is a Reader Lecturer in Shipping Risk Management and Director of the MSc degree in Shipping, Trade and Finance at Cass Business School, London, UK. He holds a BSc in Economics from Athens University of Economics and Business, Greece and an MSc in Shipping Trade & Finance from Cass Business School. After completing his PhD thesis, which examined the effectiveness of risk management techniques for hedging freight rate risk, he commenced working at the Baltic exchange as Senior Market Analyst, being in charge of the freight indices and risk management section.

Since November 2001, he has been with the Faculty of Finance at Cass Business School, where he lectures on Finance, Financial Markets, Futures & Options and Financial Engineering. His current research interests include risk management and risk analysis in shipping, commodity and financial futures markets. His research papers have been published in international finance journals and have been presented in conferences world-wide. He also acts as a consultant on issues of risk management on a number of shipping and financial institutions.

This book provides very good understanding on how to measure and manage freight rate volatility and explore the options available to the shipping professional.

Product Details :

• Hardcover: 256 pages
• Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan (May 12, 2009)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0230215912
• ISBN-13: 978-0230215917
• Product Dimensions: 1.6 x 5.6 x 8.6 inches

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MP Introduction to Management Science with Student CD and Crystal Ball passcode card (The Mcgraw-Hill/Irwin Series Operations and Decision Sciences), 4th Edition, Frederick Hillier

Introduction to Management Science, 4e, offers a unique model approach and integrates the use of Excel. Through this approach students are better able to grasp the essential concepts covered in the course and see their utility. Each chapter includes a case study that is meant to show the students a real and interesting application of the topics addressed in that chapter. These cases and related applications cut across all functional areas of business and show how management science techniques apply in the business environment.

About the Author
Frederick S. Hillier was born and raised in Aberdeen, Washington, where he was an award winner in statewide high school contents in essay writing, mathematics, debate, and music. As an undergraduate at Stanford University he ranked first in his engineering class of over 300 students. Dr. Hillier's research has extended into a variety of areas, including integer programming, queueing theory and its application, statistical quality control, and the application of operations research to the design of production systems and to capital budgeting.

He was the first prize winner of a research contest on "Capital Budgeting of Interrelated Projects" sponsored by The Institute of Management Sciences and the U.S. Office of Naval Research. He and Dr. Lieberman also received the honorable mention award for the 1995 Lanchester Prize (best English-language publication of any kind in the field of operations research) for the 6th edition of IOR. He currently serves as the Series Editor for the International Series in Operations Research and Management Science being published by Kluwer Academic Publishers.

I am in my second to last week of class and I can't say that I really liked this book. The main problem is that there were too many errors in the book starting with numbers that was misprinted or missing. For a book of this caliber that includes a lot of mathematical calculations, one mistake can make a whole lot of difference. Additionally, I think that the authors could do a better job explaining topics and showing how they arrived at certain answers. The resources disk was a little helpful, but I don't think it was well constructed. The power point slides on the resources could be better constructed to demonstrate how to work the problems in the book, instead of just been pages copied from the text.

This textbook uses CrystalBall and other excel add-ins. The book comes with software license. The book covers topics of optimization, decision tree, and simulation thoroughly.

The book arrived before it was promised and the customer service was greater than I expected. I hope I can find future textbooks with this provider.

The service from the seller was very good and the book is excellent, I can not complaint about anything! The CD's works ok but if you have a MAcBook as I it is a pain to get it to work.

Product Details :

• Series: The Mcgraw-Hill/Irwin Series Operations and Decision Sciences
• Hardcover: 629 pages
• Publisher: McGraw-Hill/Irwin; 4 edition (March 2, 2010)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0077400305
• ISBN-13: 978-0077400309
• Product Dimensions: 1.3 x 8.7 x 11 inches

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Time-Driven Activity-Based Costing: A Simpler and More Powerful Path to Higher Profits, 1st Edition, Robert S. Kaplan

In the classroom, ABC looks like a great way to manage a company’s resources. But many executives who have tried to implement ABC on a large scale in their organizations have found the approach limiting and frustrating. Why? The employee surveys that companies used to estimate resources required for business activities proved too time-consuming, expensive, and irritating to employees.

This book shows you how to implement time-driven activity-based costing (TDABC), an easier and more powerful way to implement ABC. You can now estimate directly the resource demands imposed by each business transaction, product, or customer. The payoff? You spend less time and money obtaining and maintaining TDABC data—and more time addressing problems that TDABC reveals, such as inefficient processes, unprofitable products and customers, and excess capacity. The authors also show how to use TDABC to link strategic planning to operational budgeting, to enhance the due diligence process for mergers and acquisitions, and to support continuous improvement activities such as lean management and benchmarking.

In presenting their model, the authors define the two questions required to build TDABC:
1) How much does it cost per time unit to supply resource capacity for each business process?
2) How much resource capacity (time) is required to perform work for a company’s many transactions, products, and customers? The book demonstrates how to develop simple, valid answers to these two questions.

Kaplan and Anderson illustrate the TDABC approach with a wealth of case studies, in diverse settings, based on actual implementations.

From the Back Cover
In the classroom, ABC looks like a great way to manage a company’s resources. But many executives who have tried to implement ABC on a large scale in their organizations have found the approach limiting and frustrating. Why? The employee surveys that these companies used to estimate the resources required for business activities proved too time consuming and expensive.

This book introduces time-driven activity-based costing (TDABC), an easier and more powerful approach for measuring cost and profitability that exploits the data now available from ERP systems. With TDABC, managers spend less time and money gathering and maintaining data and more time addressing the problems that TDAMC reveals—such as inefficient processes, unprofitable products and customers, and excess capacity.

The authors show how managers can build a TDABC system by answering two fundamental questions:

How much does it cost to supply resources capacity for each business process in our organization?
How much resource capacity (time) is required to perform work for each of out company’s transactions, products, and customers?

Beyond illustrating the normal benefits from successful ABC implementations—such as enhancing the profitability of products and customers, managing capacity utilization, and improving process efficiencies—Kaplan and Anderson introduce innovative, new TDABC applications, including:

Linking strategic planning to operational budgeting
Enhancing the due diligence process for mergers and acquisitions
Supporting continuous-improvement activities such as lean management and benchmarking
Eliminating unnecessary complexity in supply chains
Optimizing staffing for key personnel

The book illustrates the TDABC approach with a wealth of case studies in diverse settings, based on actual implementations guided by Acorn consultants. Featured organizations include Kemps LLC, Sanac Logistics, ATB Financial, Citigroup Technology Infrastructure Division, and Jackson State University.

A vital new resource, Time-Driven Activity Based Costing gives you the tools and examples you need to maximize the value of your activity-based costing system.

About the Author
Robert S. Kaplan, a co-creator of both Activity-Based Costing (ABC) and the Balanced Scorecard, is Baker Foundation Professor at Harvard Business School. Steven R. Anderson is the founder and chairman of Acorn Systems, a software and consulting firm headquartered in Houston, TX.

Product Details :

• Hardcover: 288 pages
• Publisher: Harvard Business Review Press (April 4, 2007)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1422101711
• ISBN-13: 978-1422101711
• Product Dimensions: 1.1 x 6.5 x 9.5 inches

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Active Shooter Events and Response, 1st Edition, John P. Blair

The Columbine tragedy on April 20, 1999 began a new era in law enforcement as it became apparent that the police response to such mass shootings must be drastically altered. By the time the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting occurred on December 14, 2012, outdated police response strategies had been replaced with new, aggressive tactics used by the first officers on the scene. The frequency with which these events occur remind us time and again about the importance of training and preparing for these critical situations before they occur in our own backyards.

Active Shooter Events and Response is one of the first attempts to not only discuss historic active shooter events, but also to actually dissect some of them—empowering law enforcement professionals by leveraging the essential knowledge and experience of those who have gone before us. The book also offers insight into the training methodologies and strategies used to prepare our nation’s first responders to address the active shooter threat. In addition, the authors discuss the clear and present threat of terrorist organizations using these mass shooter tactics on American soil—similar to the attacks in Beslan, Russia and Mumbai, India.

Written by members of the Advanced Law Enforcement Rapid Response Training (ALERRT) Center at Texas State University, this book is the culmination of more than a decade’s worth of training and research into active shooter events and represents state-of-the-art, evidence-based best practices.

About the Author
J. Pete Blair is an associate professor of criminal justice at Texas State University and the director of research for ALERRT. Dr. Blair earned his PhD in criminal justice from Michigan State University and his bachelor’s and master’s degrees in law enforcement and justice administration from Western Illinois University. His current research is focused on active shooter events and best practices. He has published research on a variety of policing issues in numerous journal articles and book chapters.

David Burns has been a deputy sheriff in Texas since 1995 and is one of the founding members of the ALERRT program. He also currently serves as a SWAT team leader, where he has been assigned since 1997. Prior to law enforcement, he served for seven years with the US Army’s 82nd Airborne Division and is a veteran of the Persian Gulf War.

Terry Nichols is the assistant director of the ALERRT Center at Texas State University-San Marcos. He retired from the San Marcos Police Department at the rank of commander in January 2010 after serving over 21 years with the department. His last assignment included commanding the Criminal Investigation Division as well as the Hays County SWAT team, where he served for over ten years. Terry worked numerous assignments for the department over his career, including patrol, narcotics, training, and administration. During his tenure in the Training Division, he led the development and creation of the ALERRT Center in San Marcos. He has a BS degree (1991) and an MS degree (1997) from Southwest Texas State University.

John Curnutt has been a police officer in Texas since 1995 and is the director of training for ALERRT. John has been with the training program since the beginning. He is also a SWAT team leader with over 14 years of experience on the team. John’s past assignments with his agency include working as a School Resource Officer (SRO) in the patrol division. Prior to law enforcement, he studied criminal justice at Texas State University-San Marcos after serving in the US Army’s Arctic Light Infantry immediately after high school.

I have read this book already and it flows really well. The authors did great research into the chapters, including past incidents, tactical considerations and ways to respond as a solo or member of a quickly formed team. I am a student of everything weapon and tactical related because we can never be trained or prepared enough. If you want a great read with fundamentally sound tactics and ideas then get this book and use it. The Authors are well versed in their craft and are not producing a simply thrown together book. There are other books written about this subject but I havent seen one with as much information in one place as this one.

It's no easy task putting together an educational and accurate body of work on a subject as complex and rapidly changing as Active Shooter. This book provides a comprehensive historical look at Active Shooter Events, analysis of the changing threat matrix, and tactical elements surrounding preparation, response, and recovery. The book is well organized, indexed, and full of useful data and statistics. If you have responsibility for developing response policies/procedures, it's worth every penny. Hardback reference books such as this one tend to be a little pricey, so hopefully this will make its way to an eBook in the future at a better price point.

Product Details :

• Hardcover: 264 pages
• Publisher: CRC Press; 1 edition (June 12, 2013)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1466512296
• ISBN-13: 978-1466512290
• Product Dimensions: 6.3 x 9.2 inches

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PRAGMATIC Security Metrics: Applying Metametrics to Information Security, 1st Edition, W. Krag Brotby

Other books on information security metrics discuss number theory and statistics in academic terms. Light on mathematics and heavy on utility, PRAGMATIC Security Metrics: Applying Metametrics to Information Security breaks the mold. This is the ultimate how-to-do-it guide for security metrics.

Packed with time-saving tips, the book offers easy-to-follow guidance for those struggling with security metrics. Step by step, it clearly explains how to specify, develop, use, and maintain an information security measurement system (a comprehensive suite of metrics) to help:

Security professionals systematically improve information security, demonstrate the value they are adding, and gain management support for the things that need to be done Management address previously unsolvable problems rationally, making critical decisions such as resource allocation and prioritization of security relative to other business activities Stakeholders, both within and outside the organization, be assured that information security is being competently managed

The PRAGMATIC approach lets you hone in on your problem areas and identify the few metrics that will generate real business value. The book:

Helps you figure out exactly what needs to be measured, how to measure it, and most importantly, why it needs to be measured Scores and ranks more than 150 candidate security metrics to demonstrate the value of the PRAGMATIC method Highlights security metrics that are widely used and recommended, yet turn out to be rather poor in practice Describes innovative and flexible measurement approaches such as capability maturity metrics with continuous scales Explains how to minimize both measurement and security risks using complementary metrics for greater assurance in critical areas such as governance and compliance

In addition to its obvious utility in the information security realm, the PRAGMATIC approach, introduced for the first time in this book, has broader application across diverse fields of management including finance, human resources, engineering, and production—in fact any area that suffers a surplus of data but a deficit of useful information.

Visit Security Metametrics. Security Metametrics supports the global community of professionals adopting the innovative techniques laid out in PRAGMATIC Security Metrics. If you, too, are struggling to make much sense of security metrics, or searching for better metrics to manage and improve information security, Security Metametrics is the place. http://securitymetametrics.com/

This books makes you think about metrics. It is applied to information security, but the line of thinking can easily be extended to many other fields of management. Before offering a rated choice of about 150 metrics, the authors explain a complete methodology on choosing and rating candidate metrics. A must read for those that produce KPI's for senior management, or for senior manager that want to be informed by useful indicators.

In the last few years the term "security metrics" has developed somewhat into a holy grail. Everybody wants them, everybody seems to know that they are necessary, but how the devil is the CISO or the IT department able to get them? As a result we were presented with ISO 27004, some NIST papers and others and the time of writing the term "security metrics" generates over 2.4m hits when googled and "information security metrics" over 990'000. As a CISO I am need of security metrics myself but was always a little bit hesitant of delving deeper into the matter as some of the books I read about the topic seemed arcane and rather impractical for daily use. And now this book comes along, making the whole matter in my opinion much clearer and easier to handle.

In the first few chapters Brotby and Hinson provide an overview of the status quo and the why and how of security metrics. They deal with great insight with the differing methods and concepts, and the purpose of and audience for security metrics. Chapter 5 deals concisely with points actually to be measured and where one can find them. Throughout the language is very accessible, making this book a pleasure to read and work with.

In chapter 6 the authors then provide us with a thoughtful introduction to their PRAGMATIC approach which is followed by a chapter with over 150 information security metrics. All these metrics are explained in detail, are easy to understand and thus provide a practical tool ready to use for anybody in need of reference points what and how to "measure security".

The next chapter deals concisely with the "how to". The authors provide a clear and concise explanation of how to design an information security measurement system using their method. In just about 20 pages they manage to make clear what has to go into the system, which reference points are to be considered and how everything can be pulled together in order to be able to create a system which can be easily handled and worked with as required.

The final chapters then provide the readers with more information about using metrics in general and the system of Brotby and Hinson in particular. A case study shows the practical application of the PRAGMATIC system and the final pages provide once more a wealth of helpful tools.

In summary I would like to give the following verdict: Until now I have not come across a book about information security metrics that was so clearly and concisely written. The book is easy to understand and provides a wealth of tools and inputs for anybody having to deal with metrics.

The sample metrics and the very thoughtful insights regarding the creation of an information security metrics system tailor-made for the individual organization hopefully will make this book a standard work. It is clear that the authors have thought a lot about the subject and also have practical experience in the matter, as otherwise this tome would have turned out turgid and technological, something which it clearly is not.

Product Details :

• Hardcover: 512 pages
• Publisher: Auerbach Publications; 1 edition (January 8, 2013)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1439881529
• ISBN-13: 978-1439881521
• Product Dimensions: 1.5 x 6.3 x 9.1 inches

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Developing Products in Half the Time: New Rules, New Tools, 2nd Edition, Preston G. Smith

Advance praise for Developing Products in Half the Time Second Edition New Rules, New Tools Preston G. Smith * Donald G. Reinertsen "This is an exceptional book! Get a new highlighter before you start. There are so many 'ah ha's' in each chapter you will never make it through with an old one." Don LaCombe, Ford Motor Company, Product Development Process Leadership "An excellent book with a strong treatment of the cycle-time consequences of overloading your development capacity. It provides powerful and practical concepts for dealing with this issue." Andrew Aquart, Director Product Development, Cordis, a Johnson & Johnson Company "This is practical, useful stuff for people competing in highly competitive fast moving business." Dr. Paul Borrill, Chief Scientist, Sun Microsystems "3M has absorbed many of the tools from the original edition, and this new one will be even more useful.

The topic of incremental innovation is crucial to us, and I really appreciate its balanced treatment." Ronald H. Kubinski, Manager New Product Commercialization Services, 3M Company "As the authors correctly point out, the Fuzzy Front End is the least expensive place to reduce cycle time. This book is one of the only sources of concepts, methods, and metrics for compressing this critical portion of the development process." David M. Lewis, Product Manager, Eastman Kodak Co. "Using these tools we've more than cut our time to market in half. The new edition of this classic crystallizes the synergy of the fast-to-market techniques, and the icons in the margins highlight the opportunities and pitfalls." Mike Brennan , Vice President of Product Development, Black & Decker

This is a treatise on management techniques, not process improvement. The first two chapters detail the decision of which projects to speed up, implying that a manager can only speed up a project by overstaffing it and clearing its path of the usual bureaucracy. Therefore, there is no permanent process gain to be had. But it is a great guide for decision makers looking to cut some time off any (or every) project. The fundamental tenets are these: 1) Make the decision to develop a new product idea quickly.

2) Staff all functions to the project immediately and keep them on throughout (no ramp-up, no handoffs)

3) Specify it simply and quickly and do not change the spec (3 days, 3 pages).

4) Spend a little time on the product architecture, designing for modularity and quick development.

5) User overlapping development techniques (work on multiple modules simultaneously)

6) Make a successful transition to manufacturing to complete the project.

You can halve the development time of most projects just by changing the way you manage your projects, without doing a lot of overtime or increasing the cost of development. Many of the answers are in this book. Again, this is a must read book for all development managers.

I found that this book was packed full of common sense, which is rare in a development management book. Although it has a lot of examples of manufacturing of phsyical goods, I found it great as a software manager. There aren't many spare words in this book, either -- it's terse and well edited, so you get the raw facts and the necessary stories to back them up, but not a lot (or any, really) fluff. I am putting it on my bookshelf for software engineers, right next to Writing Solid Code and Debugging the Development Process, two classics for software engineers and team leads, respectively.

Absolutely the best book there is on the subject of new product development. Of particular import is the discussion on market and pricing dynamics, which may be new to technical-types. Choosing the right product to develop is critical to avoid "The Innovators Dilemma". The book however needs to add more to the discussion of the importance (and risk) of rapid return of (partial) information to the team during the development cycle, as well as human (team) dynamics. I would therefore recommend "The Team Handbook" as a necessary adjunct.

While the first edition was a bit dry to read in the first four chapters, the second edition is more fun. The value of the content has not been reduced with rev 2.0, on the contrary. The book is full of sound business theory which is well explained and put into real life context to help the non-MBA to transfer the message to their respective challenges.

Also invaluable are the hints towards common pitfalls. They show that the authors have really applied the theory and are aware of the human factor in change processes.

I read rev 1.0 and 2.0 and will probably buy 3.0 as well. Keep going!
Product Details :

• Hardcover: 320 pages
• Publisher: Wiley; 2 edition (October 10, 1997)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0471292524
• ISBN-13: 978-0471292524
• Product Dimensions: 1.1 x 6.4 x 9.2 inches

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High Commitment High Performance: How to Build A Resilient Organization for Sustained Advantage, 1st Edition, Michael Beer

"In these economic times this book is more important than ever. A must-read for the leaders of today and tomorrow." Douglas R. Conant, president and chief executive officer, Campbell Soup Company

Praise for High Commitment, High Performance

"It is seldom that I read a book about leadership and get excited; this one did that to me. The author has found values and aspects of leadership that have worked well for long term execution of strategies. For Boards and CEOs, this is a great book." —Leif Johansson, president and chief executive officer, Volvo Group

"Resilience promises to be the distinguishing characteristic of companies that will prosper from the current economic crisis. Mike Beer's new book is a compelling manual for success in this new economy." —Ravi Venkatesan, chairman, Microsoft India

"A must read for leaders who want to develop an edge by building a resilient organization for competitive advantage. Beer's views and recommendations are based on extensive research." —Ram Charan, Ram Charan Associates and co-author of the bestselling book, Execution: The Discipline of Getting Things Done

"With decades of teaching and research and close engagement with companies, Michael Beer has written a book that not only makes the case for building a high commitment organization, but also provides practical advice for doing it." —Jeffrey Pfeffer, professor, Stanford Business School and author, The Human Equation: Building Profits by Putting People First

"Beer brings a multi-disciplinary perspective from his extensive experience in industry and academia to reveal how leaders of HCHP organizations break through internal barriers and manage multiple tensions in their quest for sustainable value-creation." —Robert Kaplan, professor, Harvard Business School and co-author, The Execution Premium and The Balanced Score Card

"Mike Beer brings his wealth of research and experience to provide fresh insights to the enduring question of what makes companies succeed over the long run. I have utilized many of the principles successfully and recommend them to any corporate leader committed to building an outstanding organization." —Ed Ludwig, chairman and chief executive officer, Becton Dickinson

Now more than ever before, individuals as well as organizations must be resilient so that they can adapt effectively to changes, especially to those that occur unexpectedly. Achieving a competitive advantage is nowhere near as difficult as sustaining one. Therein is a paradox that serves as the title of Marshall Goldsmith's book: what got you here won't get you there. Even more ominous, what got you here won't keep you here. Hence the appropriateness of the subtitle selected for Beer's book. What he shares is an abundance of observations, questions, issues, suggestions, and recommendations that are anchored in more than 40 years of real-world experience. In the Introduction, he refers to his quest to study and build high commitment, high performance (HCHP) organizations. What he provides is what he has learned about what works, what doesn't, and the reasons why.

Written in collaboration with Russell Eisenstat and Nathaniel Foote, this volume provides a number of different perspectives and knowledge concerning several key disciplines that include strategic management, organization design, human resource management, culture and organization development, enterprise learning, and change initiatives. "Employing these diverse perspectives, I propose three paradoxical organizational outcomes needed to achieve sustained high performance [i.e. performance alignment, psychological alignment, and the capacity for learning and change], articulate five management levers for designing an organization to achieve these outcomes [i.e. leadership at all levels and in all areas, an effective learning and governance system, a strategic performance management system, an organizing system, and an HR system], and present a framework for change and its transformation."

Here's a key point: Obviously, there must be both high commitment at the senior executive level. Much more importantly, C-level executives and other supervisors must demonstrate - not only affirm -- high performance. Otherwise, they cannot expect those for whom they are responsible to do so and their organization will not survive in its competitive marketplace, much less dominate it. Moreover, as Beer explains in the Epilogue, "CEOs and their top teams will have to engage their hands to design very different management practices, particularly with regard to the firm's performance management and compensation systems. The former must enable hard-hitting, fact-based reviews of the business to achieve essential shirt-term profits in a way that does not compromise the firm's larger purpose and its long-term performance. With regard to the latter, surely a shift away from incentives for annual profits to incentives tied to long-term performance (five to seven years) is in order."

As Beer duly acknowledges, it is by means easy for CEOs, their senior teams, and boards of directors to build a HCHP organization. Once having done so, it is even more difficult to ensure that it continues to be one. Nonetheless, it can be done and - in my opinion - MUST be done. Here in a single source, Beer provides about as much information and advice as any business leader or team must have to achieve these separate but related objectives. There is much to learn from the core policies and best practices of HCHP companies. Also, CEOs and their top teams must "engage their hearts as well as their minds to redefine their to redefine their and their firm's purpose [and] define a distinctive strategy that leverages the firm's human assets and unique capabilities." Of course, this will require extraordinary leadership at all levels and in all areas of a firm's operations. To those who read Michael Beer's brilliant book, I now presume to ask, "If not now, when? And If not you, who?"

Those who share my high regard for this volume are urged to check out Jeanne W. Ross, Peter Weill, and David Robertson's Enterprise Architecture as Strategy: Creating a Foundation for Business Execution. Dean R. Spitzer's Transforming Performance Measurement: Rethinking the Way We Measure and Drive Organizational Success, and Guy Kawasaki's Reality Check: The Irreverent Guide to Outsmarting, Outmanaging, and Outmarketing Your Competition.

Product Details :

• Hardcover: 416 pages
• Publisher: Jossey-Bass; 1 edition (August 10, 2009)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0787972282
• ISBN-13: 978-0787972288
• Product Dimensions: 1.4 x 7.1 x 9.4 inches

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