This book combines both a comprehensive analytical framework and economic statistics that enable business decision makers to anticipate developing economic trends. The author blends recent and historical economic data with economic theory to provide important benchmarks or rules of thumb that give both economists and noneconomists enhanced understanding of unfolding economic data and their interrelationships. Through the matrix system, a disciplined approach is described for integrating readily available economic data into a comprehensive analysis without complex formulas. The extensive appendix of monthly key economic factors for 1978-1991 makes this an important reference source for economic and financial trend analysis.

A new and practical method for economic trend analysis is introduced that provides more advanced knowledge than available from economic newsletters. Schaeffer begins with a general description of the business cycle and the typical behavior and effect of the credit markets, commercial banks, and the Federal Reserve. Next, fourteen key economic factors regularly reported by the business press are described, such as the capacity utilization rate and yield on three-month Treasury bills. Benchmarks for each of these key economic factors are set forth, together with an insightful discussion of the interrelationships indicating economic trends. A detailed discussion of the 1978-1991 American economy, incorporating monthly data from the historical matrix, demonstrates the practical application of the matrix system. Executives, investors, financial officers, and government policymakers will find this book useful in decision making.

This unique book unveils an invaluable paradigm for companies wishing to create new knowledge. Mitsuru Kodama's new theoretical framework is achieved using a combination of approaches including knowledge sharing, knowledge integration, strategy, organization, corporate culture and leadership. The author presents his new theoretical framework using two models which demonstrate the means for actors both within and outside the company to formulate and implement micro strategies through the structure of dynamic strategic human networks. Detailed case studies are then used to support the theoretical framework. These include specific applications of knowledge innovation from networked strategic communities including large corporations, joint ventures, customer-oriented solution businesses and IT-based management. Research and managerial implications arising from these theoretical frameworks are also explored. Bridging theory and practice and providing international scope, this book will be invaluable to academics and students with an interest in business and management, and to managers in the IT, telecommunications, and electronics industries.

Participation and social responsibility in innovation is the core theme of this book. Both are issues of organization and not of ethics, or the enforcement of other forms of obligations on individual actors. The need is for a democratization of innovation that can make innovation open to broad participation.

This book focuses on the application of revenue management in the manufacturing industry. Though previous books have extensively studied the application of revenue management in the service industry, little attention has been paid to its application in manufacturing, despite the fact that applying it in this context can be highly profitable and instrumental to corporate success. With this work, the author demonstrates that the manufacturing industry also fulfills the prerequisites for the application of revenue management. The book includes a summary of empirical studies that effectively illustrate how revenue management is currently being applied across Europe and North America, and what the profit potential is.

This book addresses the multi-facet competitiveness of firms in China from an angle of strategic management of technology and innovation. The Chinese vanguard companies have been excellent in identifying strategic position and appropriately making strategic decisions, and effectively making strategy in action.

This volume of selected articles is being released in light of the new economic, social and environmental challenges Europe and the United States have been faced with following the end of the Cold War and in the evolving era of globalization. National security, immigration and the provision of health and other key social services call for a radically different outlook in terms of policy discussions. The contributors of this book focus on seven key policy issues and challenges that currently affect the United States and Europe: income distribution, the gender pay gap, crime and security, unemployment, health care, the demographic question and environmental regulation. The purpose of this volume is to analyze how public policy within the European context is responding to the challenges posed by this new global era.

‘Prime Movers provides the missing piece in the business strategist’s armoury. The world already knows how to explore the business rent landscape around an existing business idea. But in this dynamic era tomorrow’s business will be different from today’s. Here finally is a reframing guide that will allow you a helicopter view of tomorrow’s business landscape.’ Kees Van Der Heijden, GBN, Author of Scenarios: The Art of Strategic Conversation

‘Ramírez and Wallin offer a groundbreaking theoretical and practical analysis of practices that allow "prime movers" to shape their industry and to drive environmental changes. Prime Movers is a highly innovative book, opening up promising avenues for a better understanding and implementation of practices for the creation of sustainable superior organizational performance. A "must-read" for theorists, researchers, and practitioners who want to think about the create a prosperous future for their organization. Congratulations to the authors — a great book.’ Aime Heene, Faculty of Economics and Business Administration, Ghent University

‘…provides an important intellectual framework aimed at the level of firms operating in business systems, and has much to say to those working on strategy implementation and organizational learning as well as those who think in terms of strategy as "value production" rather than "value co-production".’ Wim Overmeer, Duxx Graduate School of Business Leadership, Monterrey

‘…discards the old concept of value chain, and develops a new relational theory of value creation based around the final customers’ interactions with the offering and other activities. The resulting concepts are robust and particularly helpful in understanding the new behaviors and goals of recent Internet companies.’Ian Page, Hewlett Packard Research Labs Business Strategy

This book combines various analyses of strategic priorities in a competitive market environment, focusing on the balanced scorecard technique, but also considering customer expectations, organizational requirements, financial outcomes and technological infrastructures. The first part explores the financial impacts and performance measurement of investments, while the second part examines customer demand in a globalized environment. Part three then addresses organizational quality and internal processes, highlighting participatory elements and synergies. Lastly, part four investigates strategic learning in enterprises as a factor for sustainable economic success in times of change and disruption.

Reflecting the challenges and opportunities of achieving improvement in healthcare systems, the contributions of this innovative new text lend depth and nuance to an increasing area of academic debate. Encompassing context, processes and agency, Managing Improvements in Healthcare addresses the task of attaining, embedding and sustaining improvement in the industry. The book begins by offering insight into the different valued aspects of quality, providing specific examples of national and organizational interventions in pursuit of improvement. The second part focuses on strategies for embedding good practice and ensuring the spread of high quality through knowledge mobilization, and the final part draws attention to the different groups of change agents involved in delivering, co-creating and benefitting from quality improvement. This inventive text will be insightful to those researchers interested in healthcare and organization, looking to transform theory into policy and practice.

Building a successful Advisory practice is not very complicated, but it does take a tremendous amount of energy and effort. You need to utilize proper strategies, techniques and also become relentless with consistency to succeed. What I want to instill in the newly developing advisor is a sense of ownership. This more business type mindset can be the difference between having lasting success or coming up short. I once managed a program where I was charged with developing new Advisors. I brought in an executive to speak to a class where he explained that his role was to assist them when they had their initial struggles developing and managing their business. His experience showed that many of the advisors he worked with started off strong but eventually struggled and failed to continue growing their business. After hearing this I spent several years researching this very concern. What I found was that it was very real and happened to many advisors between the 3rd and 5th years of their careers, dependent upon how fast their initial growth was. This caused me to spend a great deal of time working with advisors that had either broken through this plateau or never encountered this period at all. This book is a culmination of the strategies that have proven to provide advisors with success in managing their business. It is hard-work but needs to be consistent work. It is very tedious work but such is the risk that could provide you with your ultimate reward. You see everyone in this business starts off with the idea of wanting to be good at what they do. But it is the elite performer that puts in the effort that goes along with becoming great I wish you all the success that this business can provide you in the future.

Rich people know a secret. In this book, former Wall Street investor Codie Sanchez pulls back the curtain.

Most people look for wealth in all the wrong places. From dropshipping and startups to grinding for promotions, you might believe you have to trade your life to be one of the few who win. But the truly rich know these paths are paved with delusion and false promises.

In Main Street Millionaire, Codie Sanchez teaches you the path the wealthy really walk. Instead of risking it all with little chance of success, she shows you how to acquire cash-flowing businesses that are winning right now.

Sanchez, one of the world’s leading small business experts, reveals the dealmaking framework she’s taught to tens of thousands, and that she’s used to build her own 9-figure holding company. Her secret? She acquires overlooked “Main Street” businesses. We’re talking about the unsexy but reliably profitable industries — like plumbing, construction, cleaning, electrical — that white collar workers have overlooked.
In this book, you’ll see practical strategies and step by step processes to acquire cash flow and freedom. You’ll meet humans just like you who have changed their life through ownership.

You will learn:

• Why today’s market is ripe for generational wealth creation
• How to identify and close amazing business deals, without being wealthy
• How to 10x your growth after acquiring a small business
• The 7 businesses you should never buy, and why
• How to own multiple businesses at once (without losing your mind)

This book deals with the concepts of leadership and communication in business organizations, initially on a general level and then in detail through an analysis of specific cases. First the book provides a contextual framework to explain the role and importance of the topic. The foundation is provided by selected behavioural and situational theories. Then 15 different leadership models and their respective communication strategies are specified. The interaction of leadership and communication is examined explaining organizational communication and its tools. In the third part the book looks in detail at the glass, textile and confection industries. It examines the relationship between socio-demographic variables of employees, leadership types and communication styles and systems of managers in these sectors. The results of this study provide researchers and professionals with a number of suggestions for more effective organizational communication and better leadership practice.

This book explores corporate purpose--a company's expressed overriding reason for existing--and its effect upon strategy, executive leadership, employees, and, ultimately, on competitive performance. Sharply challenging the conventional wisdom that corporations should be dedicated to shareholder wealth creation, the author presents a compelling argument that the path to competitive advantage and outstanding long-term financial performance lies instead in a customer-focused corporate purpose.
The book is in four parts. Part I shows how corporate purpose exerts a powerful effect on strategy, management, and the meaning employees derive from their work. A customer-focused purpose harmonizes these critical factors and enables leaders to push strategic thinking deeper into the organization and at the same time to grant employees a greater degree of autonomy. In contrast, a goal of maximizing shareholder wealth sows the seeds of conflict among the market-oriented purpose, product-focused strategies, and the individual values of employees.
Part II critiques the logic of "value-based management" and the relationship of the firm to the equity markets. It explores the validity of extending traditional concepts of property rights to share ownership, concluding that the separation of stock ownership from the responsibility for, and managerial control over, corporate actions makes traditional property rights arguments inapplicable to the underlying assets of a corporation.
Part III examines the functioning of corporate purpose in a global economy. When a firm operates globally, purpose needs to retain its motivational power across national boundaries, which a shareholder-focused purpose does not do.
Part IV explores the implications of corporate purpose for leaders, arguing that infusing an organization with a worthy purpose is an essential responsibility of leadership. Purpose is the foundation for the shared values that define organizational character, raise moral aspirations, and enhance performance. Drawing upon a wide range of thought from the world of business as well as from historical studies, cultural anthropology, philosophy, theology, and psychology, "Leading with Purpose" is sure to be an essential text as businesses move into the twenty-first century.

Confronting the wide range of factors that management face in relation to global changes, this volume focuses on the implication of these changes for all organizations. By presenting its case using a variety of analytical tools ranging from formal game theoretical systems to inductive models based on case studies, this volume concentrates on three main areas: the implications of global change on the competitive environment for employment and working practices; the influence of the international business environment in decision-making; and the importance of cultural and institutional diversity. Through its comprehensive approach, this book aims to stimulate business managers, academics and students to clarify, develop and extend the many complex scenarios that are integral to the debate on how business organizations may benefit from the challenges produced by global change.

In capital investing, as in life, you always have options. In today's extremely turbulent world, managers recognize how risky the most valuable investment opportunities often are, and how useful a flexible strategy can be. That's why they want to know all their options. Yet many current financial assessment tools fail to identify what investors can do to capitalize on future uncertain events. Martha Amram and Nalin Kulatilaka suggest a smarter new way to think about strategic investments in terms of real options. By applying options thinking--the concept behind the recent Nobel Prize-winning work on financial options--to the evaluation of nonfinancial assets, this innovative approach brings a financial market discipline to the evaluation of a company's opportunities. Using real options theory, managers can more effectively target crucial opportunities to redeploy, delay, modify, or even abandon capital-intensive projects as events unfold. Corporate executives in finances, investments, and project management should share this book with decision makers in information technology, strategic planning, corporate restructuring, venture capital, and law. Through timely case studies, the authors show managers how to use real options to evaluate investments and create exit strategies in R&D, product design, contracts, and information technology. By linking strategic vision and tactical project decisions, Real Options helps to improve capital investment planning and results.

This book provides in-depth insights into the practices that lead to success in outsourcing global services. Written by internationally acclaimed academics, it covers best practices on IT outsourcing, business process outsourcing and netsourcing. This book is a must read for any practitioner, academic or student concerned with global sourcing.

In the past, the natural environment and business were often seen as competing interests. Now, world leaders recognise that the future depends on a new approach to business, operating in harmony with the environment. In Environmental Management – A business management approach, the vital connection between environmental management and business sustainability is clearly outlined.

The book gives students and practitioners insight into the impact business and lifestyle decisions have on the natural environment, and how this in turn affects the long-term sustainability of business. It also gives an overview of key environmental principles and the need to balance these with business activities.

Key Features/ Benefits

• clearly defined learning outcomes at the start of each chapter to help readers navigate the contents
• self-assessment questions at the end of each chapter to test the reader’s understanding of the material
• examples that are relevant to the South African business environment

The idea that each country should have one currency is so deeply rooted in people's minds that the possibility of multiple and concurrent currencies seems unthinkable. Monetary systems contribute to problems of high unemployment and social distress during financial and economic crisis, so reforms to increase the responsiveness and flexibility of the monetary system can be part of the solution. This book discusses 'monetary plurality', which is the circulation of several currencies at the same time and space. It addresses how multiple currency circuits work together and transform socio-economic systems, particularly by supporting economies at the local level of regions and cities. The book shows that monetary plurality has been ubiquitous throughout history and persists at present because the existence of several currency circuits facilitates small-scale production and trade in a way that no single currency can accomplish on its own. Monetary plurality can improve resilience, access to livelihoods and economic sustainability. At the same time, it introduces new risks in terms of economic governance, so it needs to be properly understood. The book analyses experiences of monetary plurality in Europe, Japan, and North and South America, written by researchers from East and West and from the global North and South. Replete with case studies, this book will prove a valuable addition to any student or practitioner's bookshelf.

This book offers strategic leaders with essential information for their most important role: the change management function of positioning the organization for success into the future. To do so, leaders need to sort through a myriad of forecasts, predictions and weak indicators of change to make timely decisions. This volume addresses the most critical factor for future success: people and, specifically, harnessing the potential the current youth cohort will bring when they join the full-time workforce. Drawing on multi-disciplinary analyses by 37 researchers, the book presents an integrative assessment of the characteristics that those in the current youth cohort are likely to bring to the workplace. The focus is on those born after 2005 with an examination of the implications of this cohort being raised from birth immersed in an increasingly omnipresent digital environment which extends far beyond social media. The authors see the coming 'digital tsunami' as creating disruptive effects across major elements of our economy and even society however optimistically conclude that the digital environment and the development of 21st Century skills in schools will equip the next generation with essential competencies, attitudes, social skills and work goals. The key to harnessing the potential of this generation will be to modify current human resources and workplace practices which will mean sweeping away much of the 'boomer' legacy that this cohort has imprinted on organizations. To assist leaders, the book goes beyond presenting a rich portrait of who these youth may become by providing practical recommendations for the changes that need to start now in order to position the organization to benefit from what they will bring. As the astute strategic leader knows: objects in the future can be closer than they appear.

A book on the path dependent and path creating structures and attitudes of business interest associations in a world of Europeanization and internationalization of markets. It includes empirical data on relational information used for network analytic purposes - drawn from hundreds of interviews with CEOs.

The focus of this book is upon the implementation of new technology, strategy, business models, and new innovations. It takes a social-psychological perspective on the management of change and technology/strategy implementation and crosses the boundaries of change management, technology implementation, and organizational strategy.

Manufacturing managers are still focused on the short-term tactical issues related to their business. Strategic issues tend to receive less attention. However, manufacturing can play an important strategic role. This book helps managers consider the strategic roles their operations can play and to provide guidance as to what actions can be taken.

"Teams that embrace bold goals and breakthrough strategies can accomplish remarkable results. This book will be invaluable to anyone embarking on that path."
- Bart Butzer
Executive Vice President, Target Corporation

"Yellow's continued industry leadership will result in large part from embracing Bill Davidson's philosophy and approach."
- Bill Zollars
CEO, Yellow Corporation

"Strategic change is a high-risk, high-return proposition. Davidson's framework provides a sure, firm foundation for success."
- Roger MacFarlane
CEO, UTi Worldwide

"This is a serious piece of work which should be required reading for all business leaders. If you plan on remaining or becoming number one in your industry, have your top management team read this right away."
- Bob Herson
CEO, Executive Focus International, Inc.

"I could not put it down-stunning insights into corporate strategy and tactics."
- Randall Lunn
General Partner, Palomar Ventures