Book Description
As companies shift from hierarchical management into teamwork, managing is not nearly as important as coaching. Here is the first book on the coaching process written exclusively for sales managers--a brief, easy-to-digest primer on making the transition from a traditional boss to a sales coach. Created by an author/instructor who teaches sales management as the prestigious Wharton Executive Development Center, this guide shows sales managers how to: understand the nuances and payoffs of coaching: conduct coaching sessions and improve key skills such as listening and giving feedback; deal with problems such as discipline and reluctant behavior within the sales team; and coach and peers on oneself.
Customer Reviews:
Extremely practical, extremely relevant, very easy to read........2007-03-16
This book is a real treasure. I would have been successful by 1000% if I had read this book earlier. The price of this book is such a small investment in comparison what you get from this book. I recommend it a thousand of times!
I recommend it for all the leaders no matter if you coach sales teams or teams of other profiles.
Thanks the author for such an extreemely useful and practical book.
Coaching at it's finest .......2007-01-04
Very practical and helpful for anyone who want to be effective coaches. Ms. Richardson really understands what most managers and sales persons tend to do in a coaching situation and was able to 'coach' readers in how to avoid common pitfalls.
Excellent choice for learning to coach a team!.......2005-09-09
This was an excellent book. The topics included were very applicable to creating a coaching culture. It is very straight forward and easy to read and comprehend! This book will be extremely helpful in creating a coaching culture in a sales call center environment.
Sales Coaching is practical, applicable, and long overdue........1999-09-23
I often say to Sales Managers, "Show me a great Sales Manager with lousy salespeople and I will show you a lousy Sales Manager." Then I tell them to read 'Sales Coaching.'
Linda Richardson has constructed the ultimate step-by-step guide in getting managers to reevaluate their priorities and focus their attention on improving the sales staff through effective developmental coaching. The book is easy to read and full of practical tips and coaching models that will make any sales team more productive.
Most importantly, unlike many sales management books, this work translates into practical application without the brain damage. Sales Managers should be able to apply these principles immediately. Read this with a highlighter in your hand - and be prepared to transform your sales management approach.
Book Description
Misaligned companies, like cars out of alignment, can develop serious problems if not corrected quickly. They are hard to steer and don't respond well to changes in direction. This groundbreaking book shows you how to get -and keep -all the vital elements of your organization aligned and headed in the same direction at the same time.
Managers must now keep their people centered in the midst of change, deemphasize hierarchy, and distribute leadership by distributing authority, information, knowledge, and customer data throughout their organization. Alignment is a response to the new business reality where customer requirements are in flux, where competitive forces are turbulent, and where the bond of loyalty between an organization and its people has been weakened. The old linear approach to management has given way to one of simultaneity -to alignment.
As pioneers of the alignment concept, the authors have developed this unique approach based on their work with leading companies throughout the world. The Power of Alignment is packed with war stories and the firsthand perspectives of industry leaders. You'll learn how world-class organizations, including Federal Express, the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Columbia/HCA Healthcare, Citizens Utilities, AirTouch, and UNUM achieved extraordinary business results. Now, through the authors' expertise, you'll see how alignment can work for your organization.
In essence, alignment links the five key elements of an organization -people, process, customers, business strategies, and, of course, leadership -to obtain breakthrough results, chief among them, sustained growth and profit, loyal customers, and a high-performing work force. The Power of Alignment:
* Offers a clear framework for aligning and linking the crucial elements that build and sustain a company's success
* Provides self-assessment tools as well as benchmarking measures for evaluating an organization's critical competencies
* Enables managers to create a work force where each employee can relate his or her activities to the goals and strategic objectives of the company
* Helps a company determine when and where it is out of alignment, and gives descriptions of such common company pathologies as "The Phantom Limb Syndrome," "Strategy Interruptus," and "Dead Man Walking"
* Prescribes specific steps for getting an organization back on track toward a single, shared vision of its goals
Essential reading for all managers and executives, The Power of Alignment offers a new way to reestablish focus and sustained energy, and is a dynamic approach for staying balanced and achieving extraordinary levels of performance.
"This book is savvy, detailed, timely, and clearly written. I highly recommend it for any leader facing the challenges posed by global business today." - Dana Mead Chairman and CEO, Tenneco Former Chairman National Association of Manufacturers
"It's not only the stars that have to be in alignment to reach your destination, it's all the internal processes, rewards, and drivers. Read The Power of Alignment, and while you may not unlock the secrets of the universe, you will overcome the barriers to corporate success." - William L. Boyan President and COO John Hancock Mutual Life Insurance Company.
"This important book goes beyond TQM and reengineering by creating a new approach called Alignment. The authors show that great companies manage to link strategy and people and integrate customer needs with continuous improvement processes." - Peter Augustsson President and Group Chief Executive AB SKF.
"The Power of Alignment gets to the heart of a critical element of organizational leadership, namely focus. Every leader who reads it will undoubtedly do some serious soul-searching about the consistency of corporate vision, goals, management systems, and incentive mechanisms." - Louis E. Lataif Dean Boston University School of Management.
Customer Reviews:
As significant today as it was when first published.......2007-08-26
After reviewing several books on Strategic Execution, I was continuously left with the feeling that the authors had ommitted a key ingredient. This book has convinced me that that key ingredient was "Alignment".
This book was published 10 years ago (OK, I am embarrassed that I have only just got around to reading it) but it is as significant today as it was when it was first published. Probably more so considering the rapid state of change that most companies are faced with today.
It is a simple read, and the concepts are easy to follow. What I enjoyed most about the book is that the suggestions are practical and you can take them and implement them immediately within an organization.
I noticed that one of the readers who has reviewed the book said that the book was required reading for his MBA course. 10 years on, I still think it should be required reading for any business executive.
This Is a Great Resource!.......2007-07-10
I'm always looking for visual ways of understanding critical elements of strategy. The Power of Alignment offers a very helpful way of thinking about four important ingredients in keeping the main thing, the main thing. Vertical alignment, the relationship between your strategy and the people on your team, "energizes...provides direction, and offers opportunity for involvement." Horizontal alignment refers to the connection between your processes and customers. Taken together the two measures provide some great insight into the development of genuine alignment.
One of the most interesting elements of the book is a 16 question diagnostic tool that is designed to provide a graphic view of your organization's alignment. Very helpful!
Make Sure That Everything You Do Points To Success !.......2006-05-03
Great book! The basic premise is that once a business has a raison d'etre, or a 'main thing', that profits are maximized by the alignment of four key business areas: Strategy, Processes, People, and Customers. Built on this premise are actionalbe ways to build a self-aligning organization. I got the sense of discovering truth while I read this book. Leadership isn't really about power, it is about responsibility. This book shows a manager at any level how to align his area to the overall strategy of the company and to the end products of the company. It shows how processes should be designed and what factors should be used to reward, recognize and evaluate employees. Great food for thought and realistic to implement.
Five Stars
Powerful Organizational Focus.......2003-05-28
Quite simply, this book was one of the best business management and leadership books I have ever read. It was well-written and expertly balanced management and leadership concepts with real-world examples of effectively aligned organizations, such as Federal Express and Southwest Airlines. This book should be read and discussed by leaders and managers at all levels, especially by mid- to senior-level executives.
In brief, alignment deals with the relationships among the people, processes, strategy, and customers of an organization relative to that organization's purpose, or what the authors called "the main thing." Alignment is both a noun, a state of being, and a verb, a set of actions. Vertical alignment connects organizational strategy with the people responsible for transforming that strategy into meaningful work. Horizontal alignment deals with understanding your customers' wants and then creating processes to deliver what your customers want, when and how they want it. Effective leadership nurtures the organizational culture that is built around and upon "the main thing," and it is this culture and leadership combination that drives and sustains self-aligning organizations in turbulent times.
The authors' analogy of landing a plane helped me to visualize the dynamics involved with organizational alignment. To land a plane, a pilot must adjust and react to multiple simultaneous factors and conditions (i.e. air speed, altitude, angle of approach, wind speed and direction, etc.) and then understand how a change in one will affect the others. Likewise, to align an organization, a leader must adjust and react to feedback about his people, processes, strategy, and customers, and then understand how a change in one will affect the others.
The authors clearly and thoroughly explained the alignment factors and conditions throughout the book. They followed their explanations with incisive questions for readers to ask about themselves and their organizations to assess their degree of alignment. Those questions were definitely a highlight of the book for they really helped to stimulate my thinking and should help inspire organizational progress to alignment. Another highlight was the appendices that contained examples of actual tools and products used and created by some of the aligned organizations studied by the authors.
The inside back cover jacket sums up why I give the book my highest recommendation: "Essential reading for all managers and executives, "The Power of Alignment" offers a new way to reestablish focus and sustained energy, and is a dynamic approach for staying balanced and achieving extraordinary levels of performance."
Alignment is Key Essential Usually Overlooked.......2001-07-13
I found this book easy reading, concise, and presented it's basic premise well with specific examples and good suggestions for creation and implementation.
Working as a Director in Managed Care for several pharmaceutical companies, it creates a focus for any organization and a roadmap for the future(physician, health plan, pharmaceutical company) to avoid many of the mistakes and pitfalls that have already been experienced in an attempt to align with the ever changing healthcare landscape.
For those who do account management, it provides a construct and roadmap to use to optimize alignment with internal customers and maximize resources to create value and return with the external customers (....and their customers.) As the authors point, alignment is a continuing process, not a single event in time. Many companies become quickly aligned with the past, and misaligned with the present & future, and can not sustain the competitive edge because they forget this basic premise that the authors reinforce.
The concepts are basic and fundamental, but usually overlooked and forgotten in the day to day business of rapidly growing companies and changing environments.
Book Description
Leading Minds and Landmark Ideas In An Easily Accessible Format
From the preeminent thinkers whose work has defined an entire field to the rising stars who will redefine the way we think about business, The Harvard Business Review Paperback Series delivers the fundamental information today's professionals need to stay competitive in a fast-moving world.
The eight articles in Harvard Business Review on Knowledge Management highlight the leading-edge thinking and practical applications that are defining the field of knowledge management. Includes Peter Drucker's prophetic The Coming of the New Organization and Ikujiro Nonaka's Knowledge-Creating Company. A Harvard Business Review Paperback.
Customer Reviews:
Extraordinary Guidance for Practitioners.......2005-06-04
This is another great book in the HBR paperback series. There are several very helpful article/chapters in this book; each one taken alone is worth more than the cost of the book.
The article by Argyris, "Teaching Smart People to Learn," is quite insightful. Argyris explains why smart, highly trained professionals find it difficult to learn from their mistakes and failures.
In David Garvin's article/chapter, he talks about what real people in real organizations are doing to build learning organizations.
John Seely Brown discusses the importance of new innovations found in "how work is done" in his chapter.
Add to these helpful chapters, the work of Drucker, Nonaka, and Kleiner, and this is a must-have for practitioners.
Michael Beitler
Author of "Strategic Organizational Learning"
If KM seems expensive, try ignorance.......2004-09-21
I read this book when it was first published in 1998 and recently re-read it, curious to see how well it has held up since then. It has done so to a remarkable extent.
Again, I am reminded of Derek Bok's observation "If you think education is expensive, try ignorance."
This is one in a series of several dozen volumes which comprise the "Harvard Business Review Paperback Series." Each offers direct, convenient, and inexpensive access to the best thinking on the given subject in articles originally published by the Harvard Business Review. I strongly recommend all of the volumes in the series. The individual titles are listed at this Web site: www.hbsp.harvard.edu. The authors of various articles are among the world's most highly regarded experts on the given subject. All of the volumes have been carefully edited. An Executive Summary introduces each selection. Supplementary commentaries are also provided in most of the volumes, as is an "About the Contributors" section which usually includes suggestions of other sources which some readers may wish to explore.
In this volume, we are provided with a variety of perspectives on knowledge management: Peter F. Drucker on "The Coming of the New Organization," Ikujiro Nonaka on "The Knowledge-Creating Company," David A. Garvin on "Building a Learning Organization," Chris Argyris on "Teaching Smart People How to Learn," Dorothy Leonard and Susaan Straus on "Putting Your Company's Whole Brain to work," Art Kleiner and George Roth on "How to Make Experience Your Company's Best Teacher," John Seely Brown on "Research That Reinvents the Corporation," and James Brien Quinn, Philip Anderson, and Sydney Finkelstein on "Managing Professional Intellect: Making the Most of the Best." Listing the article titles correctly indicate the nature and scope of the specific subjects offered.
Quite true, some of the material is dated and inevitably so, given the elapsed time since the articles were published in the Harvard Business Review. However, in my opinion, the principles advocated and the core strategies recommended remain relevant to the contemporary marketplace. For example, Drucker notes that "to remain competitive -- maybe even to survive -- businesses will have to convert themselves into organizations of knowledge specialists." Garvin presents an especially informative analysis of Xerox's six-step problem-solving process which addresses questions to be answered, expansion/divergence issues, contraction/convergence issues, and "next steps" after implementation. Leonard and Straus rigorously examine the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator process, including within their narrative a brilliant overview of the MBTI©. Indeed, readers are provided with rock-solid material throughout each article.
For less than the cost of breakfast in an upscale Manhattan restaurant, each volume in this series provides an intellectual feast. It remains for each reader to determine, of course, which of the volumes will be most nutritious to her or his appetite. Those who share my high regard for this volume are urged to check out Carla O'Dell's If Only We Knew What We Know: The Transfer of Internal Knowledge and Best Practice, Peter Senge's The Fifth Discipline and The Dance of Change, Thomas H. Davenport and Laurence Prusak's What's the Big Idea?: Creating and Capitalizing on the Best New Management Thinking and also their Working Knowledge, Jeffrey Pfeffer and Robert I. Sutton's The Knowing-Doing Gap: How Smart Companies Turn Knowledge into Action, and Ikujiro Nonaka and Hirotaka Takeuchi's The Knowledge-Creating Company: How Japanese Companies Create the Dynamics of Innovation.
Knowledge Management with practical applications.......2003-04-18
Excelente libro que proporciona las bases suficientes sobre la administración del conocimiento, además de tener como respaldo el prestigio de una casa de estudios como es la Universidad de Harvard.
Lo recomiendo ampliamente.
Knowledge Management, a layperson's perspective.......2001-11-02
Knowledge Management, published by Harvard Business School Press, is a compilation of articles excerpted from the Harvard Business Review covering a period from 1988-1997. The articles in general focus on the way organizations can acquire, use, and maintain knowledge in order to remain on the cutting edge of their fields. The underlying message of this book, expressed by Peter F. Drucker in "The Coming of the New Organization (page 1)," is that future organizations must take advantage of technology to collect and track data so that data can be translated into useful information.
The manner in which companies acquire knowledge from data can vary. Ikujiro Nonaka in his article "The Knowledge Creating Company (page 21)" provides a general approach. Nonaka suggests that creating new knowledge requires, in addition to the processing of objective information, tapping into the intuitions insights and hunches of individual employees and then making it available for use in the whole organization. Within this framework is an understanding of two types of knowledge: tacit and explicit. Both of these have to exist in an organization and exchange between and within each type is needed for creation of new knowledge. Another point in Nonaka's article is that the creation of new knowledge is not limited to one department or group but can occur at any level. It requires a system that encourages frequent dialogue and communication. Similar but more defined ideas are presented in David Garvin's "Building a Learning Organization (page 47)."
Garvin's approach focuses on the importance of having an organization that learns. Garvin defines a learning organization as one that is "skilled at creating, acquiring, and transferring knowledge, and at modifying its behavior to reflect new knowledge and insights (page 51)." He describes five activities/skills that are the foundation for learning organizations. These are systematic problem solving, experimentation, and review of past experiences, learning from others, and transferring knowledge.
"Teaching Smart People How to Learn (page 81)" by Chris Argyris, deals with the way individuals within an organization can block the acquisition of new knowledge because of the way they reason about their behavior. In order to foster learning behavior in all employees, an organization must encourage productive reasoning. One caution is that use of productive reasoning can be threatening and actually hampers the process of learning if not implemented throughout the whole organization.
Leonard and Straus in "Putting Your Company's Whole Brain to Work (page 109)," address another way in which knowledge can be acquired. They identify two broad categories: left brained and right brained individuals, with different approaches to the same concept based on cognitive differences. Within these categories, there is great potential for conflict, which can stifle the creative process. However these different perspectives are important for full development of a new concept. Innovative companies should keep a balance of these different personality types to avoid stagnation and to encourage development of new ideas. The management of the cognitive types in a way that is productive for the company occurs through the process of creative abrasion.
One can surmise from the articles in general that data and information are valuable if they can be used to maintain the knowledge base or provide the basis for acquiring new knowledge. The organization that creates new knowledge encourages the following in its employees: creativity, a commitment to the goals of the organization, self-discipline, self-motivation, and individual exploration and identification of behaviors that may be barriers to learning. Cognitive preferences should be recognized and used to the companies' advantage. Finally, companies can learn from the best practices of others and from their customers. After knowledge is acquired, it can be disseminated for use throughout the organization and maintained in different ways.
One key method to maintain knowledge repeated in several articles is the importance of an environment that fosters innovation. Quinn et al, in "Managing Professional Intellect: Making the Most of the Best (page 181)," describe this as creating a culture of self-motivated creativity within an organization. There are several ways to do this: recruitment of the best for that field, forcing intensive early development (exposing new employees early to complex problems they have to solve), increasing professional challenges and rigorous evaluations.
Another way to maintain and use knowledge is through pioneering research, described by Brown in "Research that reinvents the Corporation (page 153)." In this process companies can combine basic research practices, with its new and fresh solutions, and applied research to the company's most pressing problems. Dissemination of new knowledge can occur by letting the employees experience the new innovation and so own it. As mentioned in the article by Nonaka, creation of a model that represents the new information is a way for transfer to the rest of the organization. Also the knowledge from the professional intellect within an organization can be transferred into the organization's systems, databases and operating technologies and so made available to others within the organization. An example of this is Merryl Lynch, which uses a database of regularly updated information to link its 18,000 agents.
Yet another tool for disseminating information within an organization is the learning history, described by Kleiner and Roth in "How to Make Experience Your Company's Best Teacher (page 137)." This makes use of the ages old community practice of storytelling to pass on lessons and traditions. The learning history collects data from a previous experience with insight from different levels of employees involved and puts it together in the form of a story that can be used in discussion groups within the organization. In companies where this has been used, it builds trust, provides an opportunity for collective reflection, and can be an effective way to transfer knowledge from one part of the company to another. In addition, incentives in the form of a report in response to the new innovation and achievement awards encourages employees to learn and helps with the dissemination of information.
Need to know vs, Nice to know.......2000-07-06
Having recently moved into the KM area I thought this book would be a 'must read'....but as anither reviewer pointed out if you have been keeping in touch with KM from the beginning (or whatever , from '96) would not find anything earth-shattering (that's the tacit selling job of the HBR logo, right?) in the compilation.
We all have heard about Drucker's "knowledge workers" and Nonaka's "Creation of Knowledge" and Argyris and his "teaching smart people" and Dorothy Leonard's "whole organisation brain" theory ad nauseum ad infinitum!
Guess HBR should have added more value (or retros or something ) instead of just taking photcopies of their old articles and printing them together!
Book Description
Human interaction is never flawless. Even the best relationships produce tension and at times, unpleasant emotions. Since organizations are comprised of people, all organizations generate emotional pain as part of the process of doing business: producing new products on tight deadlines, setting benchmarks for performance, creating budgets, crafting company policies, and so on. Getting the job done is rarely painless. But when emotional pain goes unmanaged or is poorly handled, it can negatively affect both employees and the bottom line—in essence, it becomes toxic. In Toxic Emotions at Work and What to Do About Them, Peter J. Frost argues that the way an organization responds to pain determines whether it remains toxic or becomes generative, whether it endures as a debilitating poison or is transformed into a force for healthy organizations.
According to Frost, when ignored, toxic emotions betray employees’ hopes, bruise their egos, reduce their enthusiasm for work, and diminish their sense of connectedness to their company’s community and goals. Compassionate responses to pain, on the other hand, encourage those who are suffering to effect constructive changes in their work lives. Despite their powerful role in employee performance, toxic emotions are rarely addressed by organizations. Instead, most companies respond to pain informally and unconsciously through self-selected individuals whom Frost calls “toxin handlers.” Typically a senior manager or someone with a high emotional intelligence capacity, toxin handlers soften the blow of emotional pain for others, but over the course of time, absorb much of the pain they handle to their own detriment. They are often unrecognized, unrewarded, and poorly supported by their organizations. And, while they often provide a temporary relief from the symptoms of toxic organizational pain, toxin handlers alone are unable to eradicate toxic emotions for the long-term.
Toxic Emotions at Work and What to Do About Them suggebeststhat handling toxic emotions effectively is an important, though unrecognized set of competencies that must be understood and embraced—not only by toxin handlers, but by leaders, managers, and the organization as a whole. Through rich examples of how individuals and organizations have managed emotional pain successfully, Frost describes the key skills necessary to cope with emotional pain and to manage it effectively, and offers concrete courses of action for organizations to institutionalize compassion in the face of emotional pain.
Customer Reviews:
Excellent look at "toxic handlers"..........2007-07-01
Have you ever read a book that caused you to view your work environment in a whole new light? This book did it for me... Toxic Emotions at Work and What You Can Do About Them by Peter J. Frost. I now understand a bit more about the role I play, as well as how to support others who play that role to a far greater degree than I do...
Contents: Emotional Pain in Organizations; Sources of Toxicity in Organizations; The Work of the Toxic Handler; The Toll on Toxin Handlers; Healing the Healers; At the Interface - What Handlers and Their Organizations Can Do; Leaders Handling Pain; The Compassionate Company - Architecting Responses to Pain; Looking through the Lens of Pain; Notes; Index; About the Author
The premise of this book is that every organization has toxicity in it when it comes to emotions and interactions between employees and management. While that's to be expected, the real problem comes in with the people who unofficially deal with that toxicity. Frost calls them "toxic handlers", and they are critical to the functioning of a company. These people are the ones that soak up the irrational and emotional behavior of those above them, and then filter out the toxins in order to pass along the message to those who need to do the work. Likewise, they are also the "go-to" people when others are having emotional difficulties and need someone to talk to. The problem lies in how the handlers deal with the constant barrage of garbage that comes at them. If they internalize and take on the pain of others, there's a very good chance that they will end up frustrated and burnt-out. Then when they leave, everything crumbles down as there's no one to absorb that pain any longer, as their function was not recognized. But by following many of the steps and suggestions offered here, it's possible to successfully play that role and still not end up as a victim yourself. Frost also covers how organizations need to recognize the people who play these roles, understand the stress and pressure they're under, and give them the assistance they need to not become a casualty.
Having worked at Enron nearly up to the end, I can readily identify with everything in this book. And in a number of areas, I tend to be a minor toxic handler, in that I'm concerned about the well-being of others in any particular structure I'm part of. I also can now see a number of people who I've worked for who are major toxic handlers, and I think I have a better idea on how best to help them do their job better...
An excellent read, and one that could change the way you view your official (and unofficial) org chart...
Book Description
How to find and use the up-to-the-minute intelligence you need to win your fight for market share and glory!
How do I analyze a private company's true costs? When does the competition plan to roll out its new product and in what quantity? What are our customers' long-term strategies? What new technologies or products does the competition have on its drawing boards?
The New Competitor Intelligence shows where you can get the answers to these and most other questions you have about what the competition is up to. Learn, through easy-to-use techniques, how to analyze competitor information from the many print, database, and CD-ROM sources described in this book.
"Forget the Internet. Fuld has created an intelligence gold mine that will help you get all the business information you will ever need."- Al Ries Chairman, Trout & Ries Coauthor of Marketing Warfare and Positioning: The Battle for Your Mind
"A powerful and practical guide that will show any decision maker how to stay competitive in today's business world."- Herb Baum President and Chief Executive Officer Quaker State Motor Oil
"The New Competitor Intelligence unlocks the vaults of all the 'open' secrets of your competitors."- Domenico A. Fanelli, Managing Director AMA International Management Centre, Europe
"This book gives you practical, effective benchmarking tools all within your reach and your budget."- Philip B. Crosby Author of Quality Is Free and Completeness: Quality for the 21st Century
Customer Reviews:
Good Body of Work.......2002-03-13
Mr. Fuld has contributed much to the field of CI. This body of work is well done, but lacks some of the more innovative ways of collecting and analyzing intel -- especially from the CxO/Board level. I trust Mr. Fuld is working on a follow-up work and I personally am looking forward to it.
Best Primer for the Traditional Best Practices.......2000-04-08
This is a serious general text on competitive intelligence, and Leonard is a master. Having said that, I would note that what Leonard does best is work very hard-the practice of business intelligence still lacks a good set of information technology tools for discovering, discriminating, distilling, and delivering packaged business intelligence, and most firms do not have the tools for managing a broadly distributed network of niche experts who are hired on a day to day basis. Fuld & Company Inc., and to a lesser extent the other companies listed in the Open Source Marketplace, are the first wave in what I believe will be a major line of business to business revenue in the 21st Century.
An excellent printed resource.......1999-10-23
An excellent sourcebook of information regarding competitive intelligence in the U.S. Voluminous bibliographical references underscored with anecdotal information from Fuld, a leader in the field. The ethics of the competitive intelligence community do not condone corporate espionnage, therefore, those looking for a primer on military intelligence or global covert practices should look elsewhere. This is a good, solid reference that belongs on any CI professional's desk.
Practical guide.......1998-11-03
An excellent basic primer on industrial competitor intelligence. In the first few chapters, this book explains how you can set up and manage a competitive intelligence program without investing huge of money or time.
Not a primer on CI.......1998-03-19
My opinion of this book hasn't changed however my e-mail address has.
Book Description
In Organizational Behavior: Solutions for Management, Paul Sweeney and Dean McFarlin have identified 4 key management skills areas that act as building blocks for successful behavior in management. These skills are: self-insight/perceptual skills; ability to inspire/motivate/lead; ability to analyze situations; and personal flexibility/adaptability. The authors also feel strongly that successful management of organizational behavior rests on the problem-solving process; in fact, the 4 skills listed above enable managers to use this process to deal with the “people problems” they face more effectively. If nothing else, studying what organizational behavior has to offer as a field should help a person figure out his/her strengths and weaknesses.
Average customer rating:
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The Economic Impact of Knowledge (Resources for the Knowledge-Based Economy)
Dale Neef ,
Tony Siesfeld , and
Jacquelyn Cefola
Manufacturer: Butterworth-Heinemann
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Book Description
Series: Resources for the Knowledge-Based Economy
What happens to our understanding of economics when the vast majority of people within our economy are employed to create ideas, solve problems, or market and sell services rather than to produce tangible goods? How do we measure non-financial "intangibles" such as human capital or the effect of R&D? This anthology explores how economists and public policy makers are re-thinking the way in which governments measure, monitor, and influence an economy in an unbounded global environment where output is largely intangible and organizations are becoming increasingly "non-national" in scope.
Through a collection of seminal articles written by prominent business people, academics, and public policy makers, this three-part anthology examines the key issues surrounding the economic impact of knowledge-based growth, including:
* preparing for the effects of technological change
* understanding the change in traditional economic theory
* how Research and Development will be affected
* who will be the global "knowledge police"?
Most business people think of economics in terms of growth, interest rates, and inflation. This book is unique in that it focuses on the economic impact of knowledge-based growth in order to provide business people with a bigger picture of the knowledge management case for action with their organizations.
The most up-to-date and most relevant articles on the subject
Unique focus on the theme of knowledge
Organized logically, with a foreword to introduce each section
Book Description
Wellsprings of Knowledge focuses on the knowledge-creating activities and behaviors that managers guide, control, and inspire: developing problem-solving skills; experimenting to build for the future; integrating information across internal project and functional boundaries; and importing expertise from outside the firm. Since not all knowledge creates competitive advantage, the author helps managers understand what constitutes a core capability for their firm, and which non-strategic capabilities can be jettisoned or outsourced.
Download Description
Focuses on the knowledge-creating activities and behaviors that managers guide, control, and inspire: developing problem-solving skills; experimenting to build for the future; integrating information across internal project and functional boundaries; and importing expertise from outside the firm. Since not all knowledge creates competitive advantage, the author helps managers understand what constitutes a core capability for their firm, and which non-strategic capabilities can be jettisoned or outsourced.
Customer Reviews:
Well written book on knowledge creation.......2001-07-09
Professor Barton has written an extremely readable book on a very imporotant topic, knowledge creation. Now a days, knowledge has become a buzz word in alomost every sphere of economic activities. But what does it mean? What does it take to create knowldege? This book addresses such questions. Barton has done important research on the subject and has produced the book with some new concepts that are extremely important in management. Her idea of "core rigidity" is indeed something every senior executive should think about.
A very worthwhile read........1998-07-27
This book would serve both seasoned knowledge practioners and those new to the field equally well. The writing is clear and crisp, and the content is well organized. I highly recommend this book for anyone charged with implementing knowledge strategies or at all interested in the topic.
Book Description
The 'Resource-Based View of the Firm' has emerged over the last fifteen years as one of the dominant perspectives used in strategic management. It addresses the fundamental research question of strategic management: Why it is that some firms persistently outperform others? Resource-Based Theory provides a considered overview of this theory, including the latest developments, from one of the key thinkers in its development. In broad terms it offers an alternative to Michael Porter's approach, focusing more on the competences and capabilities of the firm, rather than its positioning in its chosen markets. Jay B. Barney has long been recognised as one of the leading contributor to the resource-based theory literature. In this book he has collaborated with Delwyn N. Clark to produce the first book to examine the theory in a holistic and in-depth manner. The authors explore not only the applications of the theory in research, teaching, and practice, but also its early roots in traditional economic theory, development and proliferation in the 1990s, and later influence on management thinking.
Book Description
The breakthrough approach for aligning people with strategy for higher profits
Organizations that select, develop, deploy, manage, and motivate their people to produce outstanding business results have an extraordinary competitive advantage that others can't copy. Backed by Mercer's nine-year, $10 million study of leading companies around the world, Play to Your Strengths shows how to leverage a company's human capital strategy into business results that are measurable and profitable and that will create exceptional, enduring competitive advantages.
This bottom-line-boosting guide gives managers, senior executives, and consultants the theory, tools, and processes they need to:
- Measure the effects of people on business results
- Determine the impact of strategies before making them
- Focus on the organization's most effective people strategies
- Deliver more money to the bottom line in a sustainable manner
- Create enduring, copy-proof competitive advantages
Customer Reviews:
~How~ people contribute to performance ... MBA must-read!.......2004-04-21
The term "human capital management" has stepped into the long line of buzzwords that attempt to leverage people into increased organizational performance. Play to Your Strengths takes a step beyond the rhetoric to actually explore "how" to accomplish this. From their 3 critical questions -- led by "what are we spending on human capital (cost) and what is it buying us(value)?" -- to their six-factor framework defining human capital, the authors give insight into how organizations should measure the contribution of people to a company's bottom line. They also provide real company examples and perspectives from investors, CEOs, and managers.
As a professor of business management, I've found that one of the most difficult challenges is helping students to learn how they can actually make good decisions in deploying personnel. This book goes beyond the "soft" side of management, developing an approach that fits with the organizational imperative to heed the bottom line. I'll be using Play to Your Strengths as supplemental reading for my MBA courses.
Science, art, or a new lable for an old management tool?.......2003-10-20
Whenever guru-accented statements like "leveraging human capital to produce results" I feel a quiver, not of excitement, but of caution. However, management trainees and schools like label-accented seminars and books, so this title, Play to Your Strengths, isn't anything that will offend anyone.
People are generally any company's core area asset. Despite the company's product, service, busines strategy, market share and management structure and reorganizations,it's people who ultimately make the differnce. People who are at the top, bottom, and between.
Apparently, this book is backed by a $10 million study. Hopefully, it was money well-spent. Human capital, in all of its forms - internal, external, management, labor and regulatory, is vital to understand, to appreciate, and to show appreciation for. As well, in today's world, the ethical element of conducting business is one that needs to be mentioned more often.
Frank G Anderson
MBA, Information Management
Korat, Thailand
Tel. 044-274972
mobile: 01-8773981
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