Book Description
How to speed up business processes, improve quality, and cut costs in any industry
In factories around the world, Toyota consistently makes the highest-quality cars with the fewest defects of any competing manufacturer, while using fewer man-hours, less on-hand inventory, and half the floor space of its competitors. The Toyota Way is the first book for a general audience that explains the management principles and business philosophy behind Toyota's worldwide reputation for quality and reliability.
Complete with profiles of organizations that have successfully adopted Toyota's principles, this book shows managers in every industry how to improve business processes by:
- Eliminating wasted time and resources
- Building quality into workplace systems
- Finding low-cost but reliable alternatives to expensive new technology
- Producing in small quantities
- Turning every employee into a qualitycontrol inspector
Customer Reviews:
Excellent book on the Toyota Way and Lean Manufacturing!.......2007-09-07
Jeffrey Liker clearly knows what he writes about. The book is the result of more than a decade of study, on site visits and interviews with several Toyota key people. It describes 14 toyota principles, which go through the Toyota Philosophy, the Toyota Production System, the relationship with employeees, customers, suppliers and partners, and a focus on continuous improvement. No wonder Toyota is one of world top most admired companies!
Very interesting is also the Japanese management principles and mindset - slow but determined, patient, self-reflection, learning by actuall observation and doing, consensus seeking, and managing for the long term.
By coincidence, yesterday (6/Sep/2007) the news came up that Jim Press (American Toyota President)was hired by Chrysler - I can imagine why.
Good Book on Toyota and Lean.......2007-06-30
A good book on the Toyota Production System (TPS) and Lean manufacturing. Liker does a good job of explaining both. I especially liked his cautions about mis-using Lean principles and pitfalls to failure.
Like most business books, the important stuff could have been expressed in many fewer pages. Liker almost gushes about Toyota to the extent that it somethimes reads as a vanity or promotional publication by Toyota - this makes me wonder if it really presents a balanced perspective.
Overall, I recommend it to anyone interested in Toyota or Lean.
Attitude Check.......2007-06-12
Great expose of the attitude of one of the worlds most impressive business organizations. Detailed, but not cumbersome. More than just another "how to" manual. A "must read" for decision makers in any business.
Yes, the book lives up to what the slip cover says........2007-06-10
Any business owner, manager or individual team member who wonders how companies improve should read this. If you wonder why some people love lean processes while others say it does not work should read this book.
I've been a manufacturing engineer since 1981, and I joined a lot of start-up companies because I love the growth and development phase of building a company up. Some worked, some did not. This book has a nice way of explaining what Toyota does and what the others fail to do.
Excellent book!.......2007-05-19
One of my clients saw this book in an airport stand and asked me if it was worth reading. I read the book out of mere curiosity and was totally engrossed. It is well-organized, simple, and clear. While not all companies can implement the Toyota Production System, there are certainly great ideas in this book that can be implemented by any company.
Amazon.com
We've all been there: We know we must confront a coworker, store clerk, or friend about some especially sticky situation--and we know the encounter will be uncomfortable. So we repeatedly mull it over until we can no longer put it off, and then finally stumble through the confrontation. Difficult Conversations, by Douglas Stone, Bruce Patton, and Sheila Heen, offers advice for handling these unpleasant exchanges in a manner that accomplishes their objective and diminishes the possibility that anyone will be needlessly hurt. The authors, associated with Harvard Law School and the Harvard Project on Negotiation, show how such dialogues actually comprise three separate components: the "what happened" conversation (verbalizing what we believe really was said and done), the "feelings" conversation (communicating and acknowledging each party's emotional impact), and the "identity" conversation (expressing the situation's underlying personal meaning). The explanations and suggested improvements are, admittedly, somewhat complicated. And they certainly don't guarantee positive results. But if you honestly are interested in elevating your communication skills, this book will walk you through both mistakes and remedies in a way that will boost your confidence when such unavoidable clashes arise. --Howard Rothman
Book Description
Members of the Harvard Negotiation Project--which brought you the mega-bestseller Getting to YES--show you how to handle your most difficult conversations with confidence and skill.
Whether you're dealing with an underperforming employee, disagreeing with your spouse about money or child-rearing, negotiating with a difficult client, or simply saying "no," or "I'm sorry," or "I love you," we attempt or avoid difficult conversations every day. Based on fifteen years of research at the Harvard Negotiation Project, Difficult Conversations walks you through a step-by-step proven approach to having your toughest conversations with less stress and more success. You will learn:
how to start the conversation without defensiveness
why what is not said is as important as what is
ways of keeping and regaining your balance in the face of attacks and accusations
how to decipher the underlying structure of every difficult conversation
Filled with examples from everyday life, Difficult Conversations will help you on the job, at home, or out in the world. It is a book you will turn to again and again for advice, practical skills, and reassurance.
"Does this book deliver on [its] promise of an effective way through sticky situations, whether 'with your baby sitter or your biggest client'? It does."-- The New York Times
"These talented communicators blend a daunting array of disciplines into highly readable and practical advice."-- Booklist
"Brilliant. . . . I've already re-read most of it. I'm using it. What more could a reader ask?"-- Tom Peters
"Emotional Intelligence applied to life's tough moments."-- Daniel Goleman
Download Description
"What is a difficult conversation? Asking for a raise. Ending a relationship. Saying ""no"" to your boss or spouse. Confronting disrespectful behavior. Apologizing. Conversations we dread, and often handle clumsily as a result, are part of all our lives: in boardrooms and family rooms, across the negotiation table and the dinner table. Now, Difficult Conversations teaches us how to handle these dialogues with more success and less anxiety. How does it work? Based on fifteen years of research and consultations with thousands of people, Difficult Conversations pinpoints what works. The authors discovered that regardless of context, the same small but crucial errors are what trip us up--and a few key adjustments can make all the difference. * The role of emotions--ours and theirs * The impact of what is said and what is not said * Why admitting our mistakes will put us in a stronger position * The truth behind the myth that women are better at expressing their emotions than men * How to respond productively in the face of personal attacks Who is this for? Filled with examples from everyday life, Difficult Conversations is certain to be an instant and lasting classic for families, neighbors, bosses, employees, customers, tenants, landlords, psychologists, teachers, and more. Who are the authors? Douglas Stone, Bruce Patton, and Sheila Heen teach at Harvard Law School and at the Harvard Negotiation Project. They have consulted to countless businesspeople, governments, organizations, and communities including all parties to the negotiations on constitutional transition in South Africa; school teachers in Medellin, Colombia; and community leaders and the police department in Springfield, Massachusetts. They lecture throughout the world and have written on negotiation, conflict resolution, and communication. Bruce Patton is co-author of Getting to Yes."
Customer Reviews:
Will you ever have a hard conversation? Sure, you will! Read this book first........2007-09-21
This little book can be a great help. We all have avoided conversations we knew were going to be difficult. Often not talking made things worse, so as things became intolerable we had the discussion and things got even worse. These authors break down the inner structure of difficult conversations and how we often mishandle them. They then show us the ways in which we can turn this into a constructive process that brings more understanding, greater cooperation, and learning that will help avoid repeating the difficulties in the future.
Certainly, I can't recap the whole book in this little review, but I especially like their concept of three conversations happening within each difficult conversation. They are the debate over what happened, the feelings conversation, and the identity issues. In the what happened conversation the problem is that each side assumes it knows the truth, that they know the other party's intentions, and that they know where and how to assign blame. Of course, all this is a fiction and a waste of time. It does nothing to fix the situation or improve the process to avoid the problem in the future. The book then shows you how to have a constructive approach to the same problem. Excellent stuff!
The authors are part of the Harvard Negotiation Project and has a foreword by one of the authors of the famous book, "Getting to Yes". The book is concise, but full of very good information. I recommend it very much.
Reviewed by Craig Matteson - Ann Arbor, MI
Difficult converations.......2007-09-17
this book is well worth the read,
it is easy to get throught, and does not repeat itself.
You want to read the whole book.
nancy carlson
great read.......2007-08-27
This book is used as a textbook at the Harvard MBA. Good tool for those messy conflicts
Best Book on Communication.......2007-08-24
This is the most useful and comprehensive compendium of effective, research validated, communication concepts I have ever seen in one book. Useful for anyone who speaks with other humans, especially significant others, business colleagues and teenagers. If you are a coach, this reading is required. Difficult ideas presented in a way that makes them easy to understand and easy to apply.
Quality of Life Must Read.......2007-08-04
Difficult Conversations, by Stone, Patton, and Heen, is a foundational book in the literature of holding difficult conversations in purposeful ways. I have read it often and use its principles in my teaching and in daily life. Underlying its principles is the simple understanding that we can get better at listening, talking, and acknowledging what is actually going on in our relationships; that we create the reality of our lives by the ways in which we talk about it; and that one conversation at a time, we can choose to work with the energy of conflict instead of avoiding it. There are many good books on this topic. I suggest reading them all, starting here.
Judy Ringer is the author of Unlikely Teachers: Finding the Hidden Gifts in Daily Conflict
Book Description
John Wood discovered his passion, his greatest success, and his life's work--not at business school or leading Microsoft's charge into Asia in the 1990s--but on a soul-searching trip to the Himalayas. Wood felt trapped between an all-consuming career and a desire to do something lasting and significant. Stressed from the demands of his job, he took a vacation trekking in Nepal because a friend had told him, "If you get high enough in the mountains, you can't hear Steve Ballmer yelling at you anymore."
See how John Wood came to start Room to Read and write Leaving Microsoft to Change the World in this video clip: high bandwidth or low bandwidth |
Instead of being the antidote to the rat race, that trip convinced John Wood to divert the boundless energy he was devoting to Microsoft into a cause that desperately needed to be addressed. While visiting a remote Nepalese school, Wood learned that the students had few books in their library. When he offered to run a book drive to provide the school with books, his idea was met with polite skepticism. After all, no matter how well-intentioned, why would a successful software executive take valuable time out of his life and gather books for an impoverished school?
But John Wood did return to that school and with thousands of books bundled on the back of a yak. And at that moment, Wood made the decision to walk away from Microsoft and create Room to Read-an organization that has donated more than 1.2 million books, established more than 2,600 libraries and 200 schools, and sent 1,700 girls to school on scholarship-ultimately touching the lives of 875,000 children with the lifelong gift of education.
Leaving Microsoft to Change the World chronicles John Wood's struggle to find a meaningful outlet for his managerial talents and entrepreneurial zeal. For every high-achiever who has ever wondered what life might be like giving back, Wood offers a vivid, emotional, and absorbing tale of how to take the lessons learned at a hard-charging company like Microsoft and apply them to one of the world's most pressing problems: the lack of basic literacy.
Book Description
John Wood discovered his passion, his greatest success, and his life's work—not at business school or leading Microsoft's charge into Asia in the 1990s—but on a soul-searching trip to the Himalayas. Wood felt trapped between an all-consuming career and a desire to do something lasting and significant. Stressed from the demands of his job, he took a vacation trekking in Nepal because a friend had told him, "If you get high enough in the mountains, you can't hear Steve Ballmer yelling at you anymore."
Instead of being the antidote to the rat race, that trip convinced John Wood to divert the boundless energy he was devoting to Microsoft into a cause that desperately needed to be addressed. While visiting a remote Nepalese school, Wood learned that the students had few books in their library. When he offered to run a book drive to provide the school with books, his idea was met with polite skepticism. After all, no matter how well-intentioned, why would a successful software executive take valuable time out of his life and gather books for an impoverished school?
But John Wood did return to that school and with thousands of books bundled on the back of a yak. And at that moment, Wood made the decision to walk away from Microsoft and create Room to Read—an organization that has donated more than 1.2 million books, established more than 2,600 libraries and 200 schools, and sent 1,700 girls to school on scholarship—ultimately touching the lives of 875,000 children with the lifelong gift of education.
Leaving Microsoft to Change the World chronicles John Wood's struggle to find a meaningful outlet for his managerial talents and entrepreneurial zeal. For every high-achiever who has ever wondered what life might be like giving back, Wood offers a vivid, emotional, and absorbing tale of how to take the lessons learned at a hard-charging company like Microsoft and apply them to one of the world's most pressing problems: the lack of basic literacy.
Customer Reviews:
John Wood, you inspire me!.......2007-09-07
Reading about John Wood's motivations and personal sacrifices, I found myself re-engergized for the volunteer work I do. This book is not just for business people, but for anyone who wants to make a difference in this crazy, beautiful world we live in. Providing children with books whether on a global scale or locally is one of the best gifts (and investments) a person can make. Bravo John! And thanks for making your adventures accessible to the rest of us.
Life Altering Book.......2007-08-21
I managed to finish this book on a flu episode with a fever that lasted two days. It was a great companion at that horrible time.
Now, i read a lot of books. And over time, i got to quickly notice good books from bad books. And ever more, i get to know great books from "books you buy to balance your shelf" books. I try to buy only good books and strive to get all the great ones. This is one of the great ones.
When first browsing through Amazon(yes, i am a very loyal customer), i noticed the title. And being the geek that i am, i wondered what it would talk about(you have to admit, MS and changing the world do not mix easily). I was afraid it would turn out to be a lame book as many books which carry a similar title are. So i took a gamble and i bought it.
It talks about the story of a man(John Wood, marketing executive working at Microsoft) who took a "no-computers" vacation to Nepal. And this vacation changed his life. He describes his life in detail. The details are typical of a modern young successful man working in a high-tech firm. Basically his life consisted of work, work, work and an almost non-existent social life(or any other kind of life for that matter). He thought he was happy this way, we all do, until we stop and take a good look at what we have accomplished.
In Nepal, he noticed that even though some provinces had schools, there were no books and no libraries. So he started out with a little project of collecting a few books for one particular school in Nepal. This all started with a promise to return to Nepal with books. And the whole idea avalanched into one of the most successful projects. An organization that builds schools/libraries and provides books and scholarships for young girls.
I don't want to give out too many details. The beauty of this story is in the events that took place and their chronological order. So i don't want to spoil it. However, i will talk about why i liked this book so much.
John saw the kids in Nepal. He saw that they were trying to learn, but with very poor resources. He also understood that education is the most important gift that you can bestow on a child. Especially girls, since these girls will grow up with this education in mind and carry this belief over to their children and families. "You educate a girl, you educate an entire generation."
After John returned from Nepal, he tried to get back to his old lifestyle. But he could not. How could he? Everything he will do now will seem so empty. How can he go on working knowing that there are children in the world that are not getting the opportunities that we take for granted. He felt so empty. And even if, according to our standard, he is very successful....his life felt meaningless in light of this issue. Everything he accomplished looked so insignificant.
What is truly remarkable though, is that he ran his organization in the same way he would run a normal business. So unlike the other charities around, he never asked people for money out of pity. So instead of showing children with sad faces and sick people like all charities do, he showed the schools he built and the books that he got and the children making use of all of this. It is his belief that contributers do not give money to charity because they don't know where their money is going. They never see results.
I also believe that any book you read must alter your life in some sense. This book did just that. I learned that you shouldn't listen to all the nay-sayers. I learned that for every 1 idea you come up with, there will be a 100 people telling you how it won't work. I also learned to never give up.
If i would only take away one thing from this book, it would be my current favorite quote(which according to the book is an old Chinese quote)
Those who say it cannot be done should not criticize those who are doing it.
This books is highly recommended with 5/5 stars.
great inspiration along with fantastic advice for those who want to change the world.......2007-08-20
Wood brings a fresh, business-like perspective to the often stale world of not-for-profits. His personal journey from career success, to existential angst, to leaving the rat race to change the world is a true inspiration.
Giving back by giving effectively.......2007-07-06
There are plenty of books about one individual's accomplishments in the march to change the world. This book is different because--along with his passion for education and libraries--John Wood brings a model for transforming that passion into sustainable organizations on the ground. If you are actively involved in a nonprofit organization, you will enjoy John's down to earth advice about focusing on results, fundraising, and having fun while you're doing the hard work.
going from corporate executive to do gooder champion.......2007-06-05
This is a good book to understand risk that is inspired by passion. this guy had everything to lose and so much to gain and he did it. Kudos to him and kudos for a well written book.
Amazon.com
IDEO, the world's leading design firm, is the brain trust that's behind some of the more brilliant innovations of the past 20 years--from the Apple mouse, the Polaroid i-Zone instant camera, and the Palm V to the "fat" toothbrush for kids and a self-sealing water bottle for dirt bikers. Not surprisingly, companies all over the world have long wondered what they could learn from IDEO, to come up with better ideas for their own products, services, and operations. In this terrific book from IDEO general manager Tom Kelley (brother of founder David Kelley), IDEO finally delivers--but thankfully not in the step-by-step, flow-chart-filled "process speak" of most how-you-can-do-what-we-do business books. Sure, there are some good bulleted lists to be found here--such as the secrets of successful brainstorming, the qualities of "hot teams," and, toward the end, 10 key ingredients for "How to Create Great Products and Services," including "One Click Is Better Than Two" (the simpler, the better) and "Goof Proof" (no bugs).
But The Art of Innovation really teaches indirectly (not to mention enlightens and entertains) by telling great stories--mainly, of how the best ideas for creating or improving products or processes come not from laboriously organized focus groups, but from keen observations of how regular people work and play on a daily basis. On nearly every page, we learn the backstories of some now-well-established consumer goods, from recent inventions like the Palm Pilot and the in-car beverage holder to things we nearly take for granted--like Ivory soap (created when a P&G worker went to lunch without turning off his soap mixer, and returned to discover his batch overwhipped into 99.44 percent buoyancy) and Kleenex, which transcended its original purpose as a cosmetics remover when people started using the soft paper to wipe and blow their noses. Best of all, Kelley opens wide the doors to IDEO's vibrant, sometimes wacky office environment, and takes us on a vivid tour of how staffers tackle a design challenge: they start not with their ideas of what a new product should offer, but with the existing gaps of need, convenience, and pleasure with which people live on a daily basis, and that IDEO should fill. (Hence, a one-piece children's fishing rod that spares fathers the embarrassment of not knowing how to teach their kids to fish, or Crest toothpaste tubes that don't "gunk up" at the mouth.)
Granted, some of their ideas--like the crucial process of "prototyping," or incorporating dummy drafts of the actual product into the planning, to work out bugs as you go--lend themselves more easily to the making of actual things than to the more common organizational challenge of streamlining services or operations. But, if this big book of bright ideas doesn't get you thinking of how to build a better mousetrap for everything from your whole business process to your personal filing system, you probably deserve to be stuck with the mousetrap you already have. --Timothy Murphy
Book Description
IDEO, the widely admired, award-winning design and development firm that brought the world the Apple mouse, Polaroid's I-Zone instant camera, the Palm V, and hundreds of other cutting-edge products and services, reveals its secrets for fostering a culture and process of continuous innovation.
There isn't a business in America that doesn't want to be more creative in its thinking, products, and processes. At many companies, being first with a concept and first to market are critical just to survive. In
The Art of Innovation, Tom Kelley, general manager of the Silicon Valley based design firm IDEO, takes readers behind the scenes of this wildly imaginative and energized company to reveal the strategies and secrets it uses to turn out hit after hit.
IDEO doesn't buy into the myth of the lone genius working away in isolation, waiting for great ideas to strike. Kelley believes everyone can be creative, and the goal at his firm is to tap into that wellspring of creativity in order to make innovation a way of life. How does it do that? IDEO fosters an atmosphere conducive to freely expressing ideas, breaking the rules, and freeing people to design their own work environments. IDEO's focus on teamwork generates countless breakthroughs, fueled by the constant give-and-take among people ready to share ideas and reap the benefits of the group process. IDEO has created an intense, quick-turnaround, brainstorm-and-build process dubbed "the Deep Dive."
In entertaining anecdotes, Kelley illustrates some of his firm's own successes (and joyful failures), as well as pioneering efforts at other leading companies. The book reveals how teams research and immerse themselves in every possible aspect of a new product or service, examining it from the perspective of clients, consumers, and other critical audiences.
Kelley takes the reader through the IDEO problem-solving method:
>Carefully observing the behavior or "anthropology" of the people who will be using a product or service
>Brainstorming with high-energy sessions focused on tangible results
>Quickly prototyping ideas and designs at every step of the way
>Cross-pollinating to find solutions from other fields
>Taking risks, and failing your way to success
>Building a "Greenhouse" for innovation
IDEO has won more awards in the last ten years than any other firm of its kind, and a full half-hour Nightline presentation of its creative process received one of the show's highest ratings.
The Art of Innovation will provide business leaders with the insights and tools they need to make their companies the leading-edge, top-rated stars of their industries.
Customer Reviews:
Kudos to Ideos.......2007-08-28
Excellent book with good insights. If you are in the business of innovation, this is one book that you shouldn't miss. I also recommend EIGHTSTORM: 8-Step Brainstorming for Innovative Managers.
Innovation for All.......2007-06-29
Through anecdotes, Kelley demonstrates how stumbling blocks to innovation can be overcome. He shows an appreciation for experimentation, momentum, and embraces failure as a true path to knowing. Failed prototypes are wonderful learning tools. Kelley's perspective keeps spirits high. He leaves much of the innovative process open ended - nearly encouraging innovation on innovating.
Interestingly, Kelley notes how medicine is becoming personalized and that the future can not be perfectly predicted. Still, he says we must aim at it. This was an important nugget of wisdom for me, a research coordinator at a think-tank-like public health research group, the Healthcare Innovation and Technology lab at Columbia University. On a daily basis we deal with innovation to improve healthcare and need to effectively innovate. Given that we tread a very specific territory - health and technology - and that Kelley's book could be so useful to us, it is obvious that he really has something to offer to everyone.
Innovation and creativity "how-to" guide.......2007-06-07
The Art of Innovation explains many of IDEO's creative techniques and in so doing paints a picture of the physical context in which all that creativity occurs, namely IDEO's office, your average geek's idea of paradise brimming with high-tech prototypes, foam cubes, "tech box" caddies with giant Post-Its and coloring pens ... and yes, it does look more like a playschool than Dilbertesque gray cubicle-land. Teamwork, friendship and a shared passion for helping clients innovate is clearly what binds people together and stimulates their creativity, while a supportive and forgiving management structure doesn't just tolerate weirdness, it actively encourages it. IDEO seems to have taken Tom Peters' advice "If you want to do weird, hire weird people" to the next level. In IDEO-land, "normal" people would probably stand out a mile.
Two creative techniques - brainstorming and prototyping - are particularly well described, in a way that encourages the reader to try something different. I've learnt some new tricks and even started applying them since reading the book.
El arte de innovar estilo IDEO.......2007-06-01
IDEO ha hecho de la innovación un arte, el cual es un proceso sistematizado, con pasos muy definidos, congruentes y faciles de llevar por las personas que conforman dentro sus empresas los equipos de innovacion y diseño.
Skip it and go right to 10 Faces.......2007-03-19
I recently read both this book and the Ten Faces of Innovation. My recomendation is to skip this book. It is written more like an advertisement for IDEO and was left feeling like Tom has crossed the line into arrogance. If you read it as a stand alone book there is a lot of useful information. However most of the concepts are covered in Ten Faces. If you have time read both books but if time is of the essence then jump right into the Ten Faces, you won't be disappointed.
Book Description
The CPA exam is changing. You need to change as well...to a book that better prepares you for the CPA exam and for business. This is the only book of its kind that demonstrates how to prepare financial reports and then how to analyze what those numbers really mean.
Every manager has incentives to present his or her firm in the most favorable light to lenders, equity investors and others. And, every manager wants to use the flexibility allowed by GAAP to manage the firm's earnings to achieve certain goals. Revsine, Collins, and Johnson
explain these incentives and help readers spot cases of earnings management, which disguises a firm's true performance.
For anyone preparing to take the CPA exam, and for anyone who wants or needs a working knowledge of accounting, financial reporting, and financial statement analysis.
Customer Reviews:
Almost everything I dislike in a textbook.......2006-05-08
This book has many characteristics that I really dislike to see in a textbook.
First, the authors flooded almost every page with extraneous information. When you're learning this stuff, you want it to be explained simply and clearly - but the authors seem more intent on showing you how much they know about some topic, even when that information is tangenital and not very helpful.
They don't word things clearly. They'll call the same thing by two different names - (i.e. "Pension Cost" and "Pension Expense") which needlessly adds to the confusion. They'll discuss some topic for several pages without even writing down the basic, relevant journal entry.
One of the wordiest, most poorly written accounting books I have ever had the displeasure of studying from.
One of the better books available.......2003-09-30
This publication provides a thorough and comprehensive review of almost every important aspect of accounting, financial analytics and reporting. A useful tool for a person new to finance or someone needing a refresh or review of important topics. A solutions manual would have been helpful, but the book is a valuable buy nonetheless.
Very good for understanding the subject.......2002-03-10
The book provides very clear explanations about different aspects of financial statement analysis. The only drawbacks are that the book is a little simplistic and that problem solutions are sorely needed. However, I am sure you are not going to use oit for self-study- you would be using it as a textbook in a financial statement analysis class. The professor, would be able to provide you with solutions (as in my case- thanks Dr. Church!) and will also help you out with some of the tougher stuff. Whatever, the book does an excellent job in explaining the basic stuff- much better than the Sondhi book.
agree with others - needs solutions manual - useless without.......2001-09-27
I agree with those that say this book would be more useful if it came with solutions. Right off in the first chapter, hypothetical situations are presented without any background information in the text. If you haven't had some experience in Accounting, you are going to be left scratching your head. The instructor in my class says that it causes you to think. Hard to think if you have never come close to experiencing anything that is being discussed. Some guidance would be helpful.
Useless without a Solutions Manual.......2001-03-23
I'm studying for the CPA. I bought the book because it's required for a course in school. But to actually learn for the CPA exam, I'll toss this one aside for one that provides a solutions manual. Authors who withold the manual for the instructors benefit miss a fundamental point about economics - who the customer is. It's the student that the book is written for and it is the student who pays for the course. Breffni University of Chicago
Book Description
Introduction to International Trade and Finance is written for a one semester course in international economics found in undergraduate business programs. The author, Dominick Salvatore, is very well known and respected in this segment of the market. He presents the material using a real-world perspective in order to help readers gain a better understanding of critical concepts.
Customer Reviews:
Concise, but poor explanations.......2007-05-02
The concepts presented aren't that difficult; it's just that the descriptions and verbiage used make the explanations and examples difficult to see clearly. In some cases, they're too brief/hand-waving, and in other cases, worked-out examples/problems with numbers would have aided the student in remembering the concepts. In some instances, the key insight or point of clarity isn't discussed long enough to cement it in the mind of the reader. In some cases, cause and effect aren't clear.
Also missing is language that explains why, in real world terms, why the subject is important and directly affects people and decisions.
I honestly believe he's a knowledgeable economist...but this is where MOST professors and authors fail: because they're so advanced, they have never cultivated the ability to pre-digest the information into a form, and at a level of someone who doesn't yet understand and whose mind doesn't yet contain all the mental pictures and years of reinforcement/anchors. I know that in some instances, professors on tight schedules write fast and furious, rather than crafting their sentences, which is absolutely necessary when explaining new information.
The book is pleasantly thin, and all the chapters are filled with relevant information. A bit of focused review of supply and demand concepts would have helped, as well as more photographs. If I had written the book, the captions of the figures would have contained all the explanations, rather than placing them in text paragraphs.
Book Description
The eleventh edition of Strategic Management is a current, well-written strategic management book with the most up-to-date compilation of cases available. Designed in functional four-color, it offers a popular practitioner-oriented perspective, focuses on skill-building in all major areas of strategy formation, implementation, and evaluation, and weaves three very contemporary themes throughout each chapter–globalization, the natural environment, and e-commerce.
The author provides and overview of strategic management, as well as strategy formulation and implementation, strategy evaluation, strategic management case analysis, 46 Experiential Exercises and 43 cases including service company cases and manufacturing company cases.
For management professionals, small business owners and others involved in business.
Customer Reviews:
Good book.......2007-06-01
Easy reading, good explanations of basic concepts and up to date scenarios in real world.
Used at new price.......2005-10-01
I ordered the book new. It arrived with dented/chipped corners and a slightly torn spine on hardcover. I assumed it was new but slightly damaged from storage or shipping. Three weeks into the college term I am discovering highlighting already in the book. I feel ripped off.
not pleased at all........2005-09-01
I ordered the 7th edition as this page shows and incorrectly received the 5th edition. Problem was not corrected.
A good book, but not spectacular.......2003-09-01
This is a good, step-by-step book for strategic management.
It lays out the steps very well, but it could use a bit more information.
The financial ratios section could use more information, and the case studies are often unequal in the types of information that they carry. This makes it difficult to do competitor comparisons.
How do you rank a company's workers policy when only one case has information on it and the other does not? You cannot simply discount such information when it could be an important competitve factor.
Essentially, this is a good book for teaching you a process, but it could use some work on giving you more details.
Strategic Management: Concepts & Cases.......2002-03-20
It is a helpfull book, especially for anyone who deal with the strategy formulation. This book provide some valuable tools for analyzing the organization's environment, both external and internal, which is something special with this book that make it different with the other.
Book Description
Financial statements are the basis for a wide range of business analysis. Managers, securities analysts, bankers and consultants all use them to make business decisions. There is strong demand among business students for course materials that provide a framework for using financial statement data in a variety of business analysis and valuation contexts.
Customer Reviews:
Case study is worth reading..........2007-04-21
First part of this book is about reading financial statements. If you already know the statements, you don't need to read the first part. However, even if you can read the statements, the second part, case study, will be helpful to your real analysis.
good case study.......2006-04-30
I found the chapters are not very in detail. I was using it as the textbook and the lecture notes are way better. I read the book at the begginning but stopped in the middle as it doesn't really help. However, the end of chapter case studies are pretty good.
Useful if cumbersome.......2002-12-16
This review applies to the edition WITH CASES. This isn't recommended for anyone who is just starting out with choosing investments. Beginners might be better off with a more general overview of financial statement analysis (FSA) like Higgins' "Analysis of Financial Statements" or Fraser and Omriston's "Understanding Financial Statements".
This was one of two textbooks used in a financial statement analysis course I took for my MBA. Most chapters are down-to-earth and as a whole the book is well-written.
The other text we used was Penman's "Financial Statement Analysis and Security Valuation" which was also a great resource as far as gaining a basic understanding of the mechanics of financial statements and how to build a valuation model.
I contrast the two books because while Penman provides a run-down of several different models analysts can use (and does a good job of arguing for the Residual Income Model of valuation model as being the best), Palepu delves into the implications of companies' choices of accounting methods and provides more insight into what different kinds of businesses should look like in terms of their financial statements.
The cases at the end of each chapter add a lot of value to the text because they get students to focus on the specific issues detailed in each chapter. By picking apart different companies' financial statements we learned to use financial statements to assess the success or failure of companies' efforts to carry out their business strategies.
I rate it "Good - 4 stars"
Required Text.......2002-09-17
This is a required text at my school, but after having read the first 5 chapters there is almost nothing of value that I have read. I have spoken to several people that have used this text for the class in prior semesters and they told me that they had stopped reading it after the first several chapters also.
Excellent Capstone Book.......2000-10-12
This book is an excellent description of all the elements that would go into reviewing a potential investment opportunity. It is not a detailed book in one category, such as financial accounting, but it ties business strategy analysis, financial analysis, forecasting analysis, and valuation analysis together. Most other books focus on one area and don't tie all of these together well. This one takes you down the path to evaluating the opportunity to its fullest. It is an excellent capstone book after you have sifted through the details of strategy, finance, and accounting.
Book Description
In Mavericks at Work, Fast Company cofounder William C. Taylor and Polly LaBarre, a longtime editor at the magazine, give you an inside look at the "most original minds in business" wherever they find them: from Procter & Gamble to Pixar, from gold mines to funky sandwich shops. Want to stop doing business as usual? Then take some lessons from the 32 maverick companies Taylor and LaBarre profile.
Questions for William C. Taylor and Polly LaBarre
Amazon.com: Whom do you think this book will appeal to?
Taylor and LaBarre: This book should appeal to a wide "coalition" of business leaders and innovators--impatient, change-minded executives in big companies, senior leaders in smaller, entrepreneurial companies, young people with big dreams about their future and their careers. This book should inform and energize anyone and everyone who wants to do big things in business by shaking up the status quo and challenging the powers-that-be. One important point: We strongly believe that this book should appeal to women as well as men. It is not meant to be an uptight, starched-shirt type read--your typical all-male business book. The book doesn't target women executives per se, but we believe it will appeal to men and women alike.
Amazon.com: What's the story behind the book?
Taylor and LaBarre: In one sense, Mavericks at Work has been 18 months in the making. That's the amount of time that the two of us spent totally focused on the travel, research, interviewing, and writing to create Mavericks at Work. In another sense, this book reflects more than a decade's worth of learning, thinking, and writing about the best way to do business and the new cast of companies and individual leaders that represent the face of business at its best. First at that classic voice of the business establishment, Harvard Business Review, and then at the new-generation magazine that he cofounded, Fast Company, Bill Taylor has been traveling the world, visiting companies, and interviewing great business leaders. Much the same goes for Polly LaBarre--first at the venerable IndustryWeek magazine, and then as one of the original members of the Fast Company team, Polly has made it her speciality to discover, understand, and chronicle the most exciting and innovative leaders in business.
With respect to Mavericks, the book reflects our in-depth access to the 32 companies featured in the book. This is anything but an "armchair" business book. We logged tens of thousands of miles and spent countless hours visiting, conducting interviews at, and participating in meetings, training sessions, and events inside a wide variety organizations. We went deep inside these organizations, looking to understand the ideas they stand for and the ways they work. We participated in a filmmaking class at one of the world's most successful movie studios. We attended a closed-to-the-public awards ceremony at Radio City Music Hall, where employees of what has to be the world's most entertaining bank sang, danced, and strutted their stuff. We sat in on a crucial monthly meeting (the 384th such consecutive meeting over the last 32 years) in which top executives and front-line managers of a $600-million employee-owned company share their most sensitive financial information and most valuable market secrets. We walked the corridors of a 120-year-old research facility where a team of change-minded R&D executives is transforming how one of the world's biggest companies develops new ideas for consumer products. We walked the streets of Manhattan with teams of employees from a hard-charging hedge fund, who were sizing up ideas about stock-market picks.
Amazon.com: What makes this book relevant today?
Taylor and LaBarre: We believe that this is the right book at the right time, with a set of messages and a collection of practices that will inspire business executives and entrepreneurs to bring out the best in their companies, their colleagues, and themselves. Why this book now? Because business needs a breath of fresh air. We are, after five long years, coming out of a dark and trying period in our economy and society--an era of slow growth and dashed expectations, of criminal wrongdoing and ethical misconduct at some of the world's best-known companies. But NASDAQ nuttiness already feels like time-capsule fodder, the white-collar perp walk has become as routine as an annual meeting, and the triumphant return of me-first moguls like Donald Trump feels like a bad nostalgia trip, the corporate equivalent of a hair-band reunion. We've seen the face of business at its worst, and it hasn't been a pretty sight. This book is intended to persuade readers of the power of business at its best.
Which speaks to one of our major goals for Mavericks at Work--to restore the promise of business as a force for innovation, satisfaction, and progress, rather than as a source of revulsion, remorse, and recrimination. Indeed, despite all the bleak headlines and blood-boiling scandals over the last five years, the economy has experienced a period of transformation and realignment, a power shift so profound that we're just beginning to appreciate what it means for the future of business—and for how all of us go about the business of building companies that work and doing work that matters.
In industry after industry, organizations and executives that were once dismissed as upstarts, as outliers, as wildcards, have achieved positions of financial prosperity and market leadership. There's a reason the young billionaires behind the most celebrated entrepreneurial success in recent memory began their initial public offering (IPO) of shares with a declaration of independence from business as usual. "Google is not a conventional company," read their Letter from the Founders. "We do not intend to become one."
Nor does the unconventional cast of characters readers will encounter in this book. From a culture-shaping television network with offices in sun-splashed Santa Monica, California, to a little-known office-furniture manufacturer rooted in the frozen tundra of Green Bay, Wisconsin, from glamorous fields such as advertising, fashion, and the Internet, to old-line industries such as construction, mining, and household products, they are winning big at business--attracting millions of customers, creating thousands of jobs, generating tens of billions of dollars of wealth--by rethinking the logic of how business gets done.
Alan Kay, the celebrated computer scientist, put it memorably some 35 years ago: "The best way to predict the future is to invent it." We believe the companies, executives, and entrepreneurs you'll meet in the pages that follow are inventing a more exciting, more compelling, more rewarding future for business. They have devised provocative and instructive answers to four of the timeless challenges that face organizations of every size and leaders in every field: how you make strategy, how you unleash new ideas, how you connect with customers, how your best people achieve great results.
Amazon.com: Can you give us a brief summary of your book--in 250 words or less?
Taylor and LaBarre: This book is a report from the front lines of the future of business. It is not a book of best practices. It is a book of next practices--a set of insights and a collection of case studies that amount to a business plan for the 21st century, a new way to lead, compete, and succeed.
Our basic argument is as straightforward to explain as it is urgent to apply: When it comes to thriving in a hyper-competitive marketplace, "playing it safe" is no longer playing it smart. In an economy defined by overcapacity, oversupply, and utter sensory overload--an economy in which everyone already has more than enough of whatever it is you're selling--the only way to stand out from the crowd is to stand for a truly distinctive set of ideas about where your company and industry can and should be going. You can't do big things as a competitor if you're content with doing things a little better than the competition.
This book is devoted to the proposition that the best way to out-perform the competition is to out-think the competition. Maverick companies aren't always the largest in their field; maverick entrepreneurs don't always make the cover of the business magazines. But mavericks do the work that matters most--the work of originality, creativity, and experimentation. They demonstrate that you can build companies around high ideals and fierce competitive ambitions, that the most powerful way to create economic value is to embrace a set of values that go beyond just amassing power, and that business, at its best, is too exciting, too important, and too much fun to be left to the dead hand of business as usual.
Who are these mavericks? The core ideas in this book are rooted in the strategies, practices, and leadership styles of 32 organizations with vastly different histories, cultures, and business models. But all of them are business originals, based on the distinctiveness of their ideas and the power of their practices. They are rethinking competition, reinventing innovation, reconnecting with customers, and redesigning work. Together, they are creating a maverick agenda for business--an agenda from which every business can learn.
Book Description
In the last decade the business world has been dogged by bad leadership, CEO greed and the excesses of the dotcom craze. Now, as the authors of this lively new book suggest, companies and corporations are moving away from traditional methods of how to lead, manage and compete, towards a more 'maverick' management style that has proved highly successful.
Mavericks at Work is the first book to document this change – and to give readers a glimpse into the ideas and techniques behind fast–growing but unconventional companies such as Google, HBO, Lendlease and Southwest Airlines. It profiles some of the most exciting – and often eccentric – CEOs in the US, and details their strategies for success.
With its accessible tone, Mavericks at Work is both serious and fun; business 'edutainment' for a smart, ambitious readership.
Customer Reviews:
Stories to inspire - Lessons to Learn.......2007-08-10
Interesting stories and concrete examples are one of the most powerful ways to learn and be inspired. If you want to learn to succeed in the new world of work, then the collection of stories and examples in the book Mavericks at Work is a great starting point. The book profiles 32 remarkable US entrepreneurs who have battled bureaucracy and challenged the status quo, and won, while redefining success in their industries. The authors William Taylor, founding editor of Fast Company, and Polly LaBarre, a former writer for Fast Company, uncover some remarkable examples of how businesses are succeeding in hypercompetitive industries by being distinctively different.
Their findings are centered on 4 key themes:
1. Be different and pursue more than just money: Successful mavericks are fearless about breaking with outdated traditions and confining standards. Making money is only a small part of a bigger mission which they are deeply passionate about. Examples include Southwest Airlines, the company that pioneered low cost air travel and democratized the skies. The book highlights how Southwest saw it as their mission to make air travel accessible to all and by going after this wholeheartedly they innovated on different ways to save cost such as using second tier airports, not serving food and seating people on a first come first serve basis. Keeping this mission at the centre of the organisation has differentiated them from the competition and enabled them to consistently make profits is a loss making industry.
2. Tap other people's brains: The innovators of today rely on more than just their own insight and intelligence. They create systems to enable and encourage others to help them solve problems and come up with ingenious solutions. Examples include TopCoder Inc., a software development house for many large multinational organisations. They create competitions for technology geeks from all over the world to come up with solutions for software problems in return for lucrative prizes and prestigious ranking points. In this way they are able to use the wisdom of many to solve very specific software development challenges.
3. Connect deeply with customers: Connecting with customers is about a lot more than just traditional advertising, it is about really understanding what customers' value and connecting with that value system in a deep and meaningful way. Jones Soda asks customers to contribute photographs to be used on the labels of their cool drink bottles. Customers submit photos plus the story attached to each photo. Many photos are selected and placed on the bottles to be distributed in the region in which that customer lives. This creates a massive interest in the community as they discover "who is on the label?" and "what their story is?"
4. Partner with your employees: Maverick business enable employees to really understand what drives the business. They are given the opportunity to freely contribute to the overall mission of the business and be rewarded for doing so. At Cranium, a fast growing, innovative board game manufacturer in Seattle, the Chief Financial Officer holds companywide meetings on the company's numbers. He tutors the staff on cash flow and financial ratios, and every employee then assesses his or her own productivity. He recognizes that this helps keep the whole company focused on the right priorities
These are just a few of the many insightful, uplifting and inspiring examples that are highlighted in this energetic and well written book.
Great book!.......2007-07-25
This is one of the best business books I have read. Though it is written principally for managers and entrepreneurs, the book is truly inspiring for those starting up their own business. You will learn some very unconventional ways of managing your organization and innovating! "Playing it safe" is no longer playing it smart. The only way to stand out from the crowd is to stand for a truly distinctive set of ideas about where your organization should be going.
Follow Southwest airlines' example by not hiring industry veterans in your organization. Industry veterans are harder to retrain, and come to your organization with preconceived ideas. Hiring people new to the industry fills your organization with fresh ideas.
Don't hesitate to fire your customers if they don't fit into your organization's culture. ING, a bank unlike others, does exactly that. ING also innovates by being different from other banks. They open on Sunday for example, and deposits are in a person's account within 24 hours (other banks take up to 3 business days). If groceries and malls can open on Sundays, why not banks?
Pixar Animation, unlike other companies in its industry (who hire on contract basis), hires full time crew. This creates a team atmosphere where everyone gets to know each other, and thus can be more productive.
Use open source. A Gold mining company in Canada did just that when it asked people from all over the world over the internet for their insight on where gold could be found. With worldwide expertise available, they found their answer! Cirque du Soleil similarly scouts the whole world for talent. Talent is everywhere, and you have to go everywhere to find it.
Any entrepreneur should be asking the following two questions: (a) If your company went out of business tomorrow, who would really miss you and why? (b) Why would people want to work for you?
Don't hire great people, or else you have to change your whole work environment into greatness. Hire good and smart people, but they don't have to be great. You have to be able to shun traditional ideas.
Finally, just in case some of you are wondering, Samuel Maverick, a Texan lawyer and politician, is the namesake of the eponym maverick, meaning an unbranded range animal. Gradually the term was enlarged to include anyone who could not be trusted to remain one of his group.
Alan Kay, the celebrated computer scientist, said some 35 years ago: "The best way to predict the future is to invent it."
Gets the creative juices flowing.......2007-07-05
A very inspiring book in helping think outside the box. Loads of real-world examples throughout. Starts with great energy and passion by the authors, and (maybe) runs out of steam in the end. Or maybe I just wasn't as interested in the subject covered. Anyway... I bought three more copies as gifts for clients.
Describes what it takes to have a breakthrough corporate success in the new millennium..........2007-06-20
Like a host of the new "psychosocial" business books, Mavericks at Work describes what it takes to have a breakthrough corporate success in the new millennium. The focus is not so much on the business styles of the 50's and 60's, as illustrated by the work of, say Peter Drucker, but rather it focuses on the new gestalt of branding through an intense devotion to customer service. By examining companies from the large scale of Proctor & Gamble and the World Bank, as well as new upstarts like Craigslist and ING Direct to open source communities like Wikipedia and TopCoder, authors William Taylor and Polly LaBarre take a new approach to finding out what the basis of the new energy and focus of companies who's products or services allow them to differentiate themselves and pull away from the pack. As veterans of the cutting edge business magazine Fast Company, the authors are well suited to have the inroads and knowledge in witnessing what works (and what doesn't) for the new breed of entrepreneurs or those within established enterprises trying to re-write the rules of business in the new world order. In addition, the pair operate one of the best follow-on websites we've seen featuring outtakes from the book, a blog, podcasts, interviews and information about their 'Mavericks Live' special events around the country [...]. A must for anyone thinking about Business 2.0. - Tim Devine
Hail to Originality, Hail to Creative Business Strategy!.......2007-05-30
Truly refreshing book full of great and fresh insights from many different businesses. As an enterpreneur who is constantly in pursue of original and creative business ideas, I really benefited from this book. I would recommend this title to enterpreneurs and business leaders who challenge the status quo and who are in constant search for originaly in this clutered and banal business world.
Book Description
A good market study can make or break a development project. This new book will equip you with the tools you need to evaluate trends and understand the key factors affecting real estate markets. Using a step-by-step approach, the author shows you how to get started, where to get information, and how to apply it to multifamily, hotel, office, industrial, entertainment, mixed-use, and master-planned communities. Thirteen case studies written by top market analysts demonstrate how they implemented these methods and provide you with models to follow. Ideal for anyone new to real estate development
Customer Reviews:
A Thorough Reference.......2003-03-24
This book is written like a textbook - starting with the most basic concepts - but moves on to discuss the tools and techniques of market analysis in considerable detail. Separate sections deal with residential, office and industrial, retail, hotels and resorts, and mixed-use developments. Case studies are given for each type of property. Technologies and data sources to assist analysis are discussed.
The two primary authors are a real estate consultant and an author/director of the Urban Land Institute. Many other professionals are listed as having contributed to the case studies.
The book includes an appendix of data sources of use to market analysts, a glossary of real estate terms and a thorough index.
Books:
- The Toyota Way
- The Treehouse Book
- The Way We Lived Then : Recollections of a Well-Known Name Dropper
- The Winner-Take-All Society: Why the Few at the Top Get So Much More Than the Rest of Us
- Timing the Trade: How Price and Volume Move Markets! [ILLUSTRATED]
- Timing the Trade: How Price and Volume Move Markets! [ILLUSTRATED]
- Unconventional Success: A Fundamental Approach to Personal Investment
- Understanding the Process of Economic Change (Princeton Economic History of the Western World)
- Valuation: Measuring and Managing the Value of Companies, Fourth Edition
- Valuing Intangible Assets
Books Index
Books Home
Recommended Books
- Inferno
- Every Heart Restored: A Wife's Guide to Healing in the Wake of a Husband's Sexual Sin
- Artificial Rock Waterfalls: Rock Making Techniques for the Professional And the Hobbyist
- Cells, Embryos, and Evolution: Toward a Cellular and Developmental Understanding of Phenotypic Varia
- Crashing Through: A True Story of Risk, Adventure, and the Man Who Dared to See
- History: Fiction or Science
- Death of a Stranger
- Sean Godsell: Works and Projects
- Beautiful Spas and Hot Springs of California: Revised and Updated Edition
- Death at Daisy's Folly
Strategy & Competition
| Management & Leadership
| Business & Investing
| Subjects
| Books
The Toyota Way Fieldbook
Lean Thinking : Banish Waste and Create Wealth in Your Corporation, Revised and Updated
Toyota Production System: Beyond Large-Scale Production
Product Development for the Lean Enterprise: Why Toyota's System Is Four Times More Productive and How You Can Implement It
The Goal
