Our extraordinary world makes more (and sometimes less) sense when you wonder: What's driving the international turkey-meat boom? How does a cannonball determine a maritime boundary? Where can you wed your mobile phone? Why do septuagenarians have a better chance of summiting Mount Everest than ever? The ever-keen minds of The Economist Explains solve all these riddles and more in their latest encyclopaedic excursion around the globe. Baffle your friends and colleagues with unconventional headscratchers that shed surprising light on science, culture, world affairs and more. From the underground trade in hair to Hollywood's role in the creation of the snow globe, Truly Peculiar takes a walk on the weird side.

This book describes the boom of 1998 and 1999. What a great time for all the American people. Next we move on to the recession of 2003 caused by the Federal Reserve Board raising interest rates to stop what they called "irrational exuberance." What financial suffering the Federal Reserve Board has caused. A brief history of the Federal Reserve Board is next. Chapter IV lists all the problems the Fed has caused, and there are many including the Great Depression, since it's creation by Congress in 1913. Then we ask why the Fed makes so many mistakes with their monetary policy. Solutions for our economic problems are listed and what the individual can do to protect himself or herself from financial ruin due to Federal Reserve Monetary Policy. The Federal Reserve Board The Wizards of Oz: The Men Behind The Curtain, is a must read for everyone. Every American citizen is affected by The Federal Reserve's monetary policy. Whether you are an American worker, an American investor, or an American businessman, knowing the damage the Fed has caused to the economy in the past, and can cause in the future, can save your financial life. This book can help you prepare for financial success in spite of the Federal Reserve Board's policy mistakes.

The MAC approach developed by connecting the more traditional scientific knowledge base on human performance and self-regulation to more contemporary findings to do with meta-cognitive processes, emotion regulation, and acceptance-based behavioral interventions. Written by the originators of the MAC model, this book will provide both the necessary theory, empirical background, and a structured step-by-step, easy-to-use protocol for the understanding, assessment, conceptualization, and enhancement of human performance. It is a protocol that can be readily adapted for a wide variety of high-performing clientele--from athletes and business people, to sales people, professionals in a variety of fields, and emergency/military personnel. The material can be integrated by practicing clinicians as an adjunctive intervention strategy to help clients with specific performance problems. Numerous case examples, forms, handouts, in- and out-of-session assignments and activities, and verbatim client instructions are included.

A special note to buyers of this book:
To further enhance the utilization of the MAC program, the exercises and forms in this book are accessible and downloadable to all purchasers of the book by clicking here. The password to access the forms can be found on page "xix" of the book's front matter.

The definitive guide on the application of OSHA standards for masonry construction.

This book will examine the history of robotics and explicate what massive automation means for the present and future of labor in all its forms, from mills and factories to the white-collars offices of suburbia and more. While warnings of a robot world-takeover could seem dramatic, the truth is more mundane—robots have come to take our jobs. Winning in the Robotic Workplace: How to Prosper in the Automation Age will teach you the skills needed to reprogram the way you work in anticipation of this technological shift. Author John F. Wasik believes learning to thrive in the automation age can in fact humanize the workplace once again. In Winning in the Robotic Workplace: How to Prosper in the Automation Age, you will learn to emphasize the conceptualization and pursuit of creative ideas, a practice that most robots are unequipped to perform in a meaningful way. You will learn that the successful integration of automated elements with humans is the most effective business model moving forward, and that an eagerness to collaborate demonstrates a will to succeed.

"Want to Lead Your Business to Greatness?" Wouldn''t you like to earn more money, outsmart competition, and gain more control over your business''s destiny? This book is your complete "how to" resource for small and midsize business boards. Whether you want to create a peak performing advisory board, improve an existing board of directors, or be a great board member, you will refer to this easy-to-read guide again and again. You will discover how easy it is to: Identify and attract great board members who will infuse expertise and wisdom into your business. Stay focused on winning strategies. The 15 Key Strategic Questions every board should help you answer will be revealed. Run lively, highly effective board meetings that generate fresh ideas and help you make the right decisions. Evaluate and compensate your board so that it is genuinely motivated to grow and improve your business. Recruit special board members that can jump-start family and entrepreneurial businesses. Become a peak-performing board member. The Appendix has 30+ pages of useful examples and valuable resources. "No book helps small and mid-sized business owners better in putting together an effective board - probably the most valuable step they can take to strengthen their company" John L. Ward - Professor of Family Enterprises at Northwestern's Kellogg School of Management. Mark Daly has created four successful companies. He has served on many boards and is a top rated YPO resource on effective boards.

What is the social licence to operate, and what are its ethical risks and promises? This collection explores these questions from a range of perspectives. Since its first key uses in the late 1990s in application to operational risks for extraction industries, the idea of the ‘social licence to operate’ has proliferated. It has since been applied to myriad industries—including tourism, paper milling, banking, and aquaculture—and even to the work of scientists and government agencies. Yet what is the ethical status of this concept? It is easy to assume that the social licence to operate is a welcome tool to improve the ethics of profit-seeking enterprises, forcing them to genuinely respond to community and stakeholder concerns, or face operational risk if they do not. No doubt the social licence sometimes—perhaps even often—works in this way. Yet there is ethical risk as well as promise in the social licence. For the concept can be weaponised by stakeholders, taking operational legitimacy out of the hands of settled law and democratic institutions, and wedding it to shifting community attitudes. Conversely, the concept can be used as a rhetorical shield by industry, who can insist they possess a social licence even when engaging in fraught ethical practice. These conflicting uses give rise to a separate worry: that the social licence is too ambiguous to function as anything but a meaningless buzzword, a distraction from high ethical standards and strong governance regimes. This Collection interrogates these challenges, exploring in a range of contexts whether and how the social licence’s ethical promise can be secured, and its risks mitigated.

This book offers a direct, actionable plan CMOs can use to map out initiatives that are properly sequenced and designed for success—regardless of where their marketing organization is in the process. The authors pose the following critical questions to marketers: (1) How should modern marketers be thinking about artificial intelligence and machine learning? and (2) How should marketers be developing a strategy and plan to implement AI into their marketing toolkit? The opening chapters provide marketing leaders with an overview of what exactly AI is and how is it different than traditional computer science approaches. Venkatesan and Lecinski, then, propose a best-practice, five-stage framework for implementing what they term the "AI Marketing Canvas." Their approach is based on research and interviews they conducted with leading marketers, and offers many tangible examples of what brands are doing at each stage of the AI Marketing Canvas. By way of guidance, Venkatesan and Lecinski provide examples of brands—including Google, Lyft, Ancestry.com, and Coca-Cola—that have successfully woven AI into their marketing strategies. The book concludes with a discussion of important implications for marketing leaders—for your team and culture.

French East India Companies is a comprehensive and readable account of France's import trade with the Far East during the 17th and 18th centuries. France's Eastern trade was monopolized by two companies, La Compagnie des Indes Orientales (1664-1719) and La Compagnie des Indes (1719-1763), which operated on the basis of rights granted by the French Crown. Prior to 1664 and after 1763 a freer trade existed with India. This work is not only a succinct historical narrative of the two companies and trade between France and the Far East but an economic statistical analysis of this trade. The text is supplemented with an appendix that includes a detailed glossary of textile terms and 77 pages of statistical data from primary source material drawn from French archives and not previously collected nor published. The appendix makes French East India Companies an indispensable historical and economic resource.

American society keeps vast records on its members. From birth to death, the various or-ganizations through which a person passes re-cord much about his achievements and failings, his strengths and weaknesses. These files are often used to make crucial decisions regarding an individual, and thus may have a fateful im-pact on his life. Yet, despite the importance of record-keeping, there have been few objective analyses of how this process is conducted.

On Record provides descriptive accounts of record-keeping in.a variety of important organi-zations: schools and universities; consumer credit agencies, general business organizations, and life insurance companies; military and se-curity agencies; the Census Bureau and the So-cial Security Administration; public welfare agencies, juvenile courts, and mental hospitals. It also examines the legal status of records.

The authors address questions such as: Who determines what records are kept? Who has access to the records? To what extent do the records follow an individual after he has left the setting in which they were gathered? What are some of the dangers and pitfalls in record-keeping? Throughout the authors show a con-cern for an appropriate balance between the need for information about people and protec-tion against undue invasions of privacy.

"Accountability" is a watchword of our era. Dissatisfaction with a range of public and private institutions is widespread and often expressed in strong critical rhetoric. The reasons for these views are varied and difficult to translate into concrete action, but this hasn't deterred governments and nongovernmental organizations from putting into place formal processes for determining whether their own and others' goals have been achieved and problems with performance have been avoided. In this thought-provoking book, government and public administration scholar Beryl Radin takes on many of the assumptions of the performance movement, arguing that evaluation relies too often on simplistic, one-size-fits-all solutions that are not always effective for dynamic organizations. Drawing on a wide range of ideas, including theories of intelligence and modes of thought, assumptions about numbers and information, and the nature of professionalism, Radin sheds light on the hidden complexities of creating standards to evaluate performance. She illustrates these problems by discussing a range of program areas, including health efforts as well as the education program, "No Child Left Behind". Throughout, the author devotes particular attention to concerns about government standards, from accounting for issues of equity to allowing for complicated intergovernmental relationships and fragmentation of powers. She explores in detail how recent performance measurement efforts in the U.S. government have fared, and analyzes efforts by nongovernmental organizations both inside and outside of the United States to impose standards of integrity and equity on their governments. The examination concludes with alternative assumptions and lessons for those embarking on performance measurement activities.

It’s time for leaders to join the mindful business revolution and find true success. Although the world is currently abuzz with the term “mindfulness,� some believe mindfulness is a fringe activity to be practiced before or after the workday, if at all. Too few business professionals take the time needed to be present and aware throughout the workday, which is counterproductive. Dr. Eric Holsapple, successful developer and entrepreneur, has realized the value of mindfulness as not only a path to personal success, but as a sound business strategy. Mindfulness and Presence can transform business culture, improving focus and communication while reducing distractions and stress. Holsapple learned this lesson years ago, after achieving “success� as defined by society but still feeling unhappy and stressed. In Profit with Presence, he shares the lessons he learned and his twelve pillars for personal and business success, which are easy to understand and implement through practice exercises. Holsapple shows that bringing mindfulness to the workplace is an investment that pays out real dividends. Readers will learn from his journey—along with support from other mindful leaders and research—to help them bring mindfulness to themselves as well as their families, businesses, and communities. Now is the time for leaders to invest in the mindful business movement and become part of the solution.

How is power acquired? Are there strategies and tactics that people can learn which will increase their chances of becoming more powerful? Richard Brislin claims there are. In this work he reveals the unwritten rules for obtaining power, and presents an analysis of power as a tool in developing clout and in implementing decisions. This framework for looking at why and how certain groups have a greater understanding of the role of power in the worlds of business, education, human services, law, and politics integrates relevant scholarly literature with interviews of more than one hundred powerholders.

Focusing on the workplace and community environments, Brislin makes the reader more savvy about the role power plays in gaining support for proposals, in formulating policy, and in molding a career. He discusses the role of power in the personalities of people; why the power motive is stronger in some individuals than in others; the use of resources and resource exchange; ethics and the use of power; and strategies and tactics in the acquisition and application of power. He also suggests means to develop a sophisticated view of power as a tool in the service of leadership. Anyone interested in achieving more power, in holding his or her own against others in power, or in gaining insights into policy formulation and decision-making will find The Art of Getting Things Done to be particularly valuable.

Addressing the topic of emotions in the classroom is largely done by education and psychology scholars, not those in management fields. Occupying this gap, the chapter authors emphasize self-awareness and management of emotions to strengthen student engagement, well-being and performance in complex and ambiguous societal and economic VUCA environments. Honing Self-Awareness of Faculty and Future Business Leaders prepares 21st century managers and teachers in business schools and other higher education institutions – not only be able to deal with emotions that arise in the classroom, but to emanate heightened emotional intelligence themselves – aiding personal and interpersonal development and forming the foundation of leader self-awareness.

This book will teach you how to start, scale, and sell a small business from scratch. It is intended for entrepreneurs of all levels, from first-time business owners to seasoned executives looking for a new perspective. Once you've dug up enough pennies from between the couch cushions to start a new business, you're going to need a plan. How to Launch Your Side Hustle will walk you through the process of crafting your venture. Author Troy R. Underwood, a trained software developer and entrepreneur, emphasizes using low-cost techniques and creative ideas to finance, market, and run your business, even as it gains momentum. Using his previous company as a model of what to do—and sometimes what not do to—Underwood candidly takes you through the steps of building your business, guided by the principle of necessity. Each chapter is dedicated to a particular facet of business, from hiring and training the right people to pricing your product or service, buying the right software and tools, navigating legal issues, and understanding when it's time to sell the business. This book provides you with basic best practices in a quick and simple format, so you can get back to work on turning your aspirations into a reality.

With the rapid development of technologies, it becomes increasingly important for us to remain up-to-date on new and emerging technologies. This series, therefore, aims to deliver content on current and future technologies and how the young generation benefits from this. The global financial crisis has highlighted major weaknesses in financial records, information, and data. These weaknesses have led to inadequacies in the access to financial records and information, higher operational risks, flawed bankruptcies, and foreclosure proceedings. The Lockdown due to the ongoing pandemic COVID-19 has increased the scope for criminals to exploit vulnerabilities and commit financial crimes. The increased online presence and homeworking have significantly expanded the attack surface for cybercriminals. Criminals are exploiting vulnerabilities, increasing the risks of cyber-attacks, money laundering and terrorist financing. Research is therefore needed to identify trends, tools and applications that will provide the needed records, information, and data to support more effective financial analysis and risk management. Financial Technology (FinTech) has become one of the most pioneering and cost-effective disruptive technologies. Initial adaptation of FinTech solutions has permitted several start-ups, financial service providers, and other assorted sectors to accomplish an augmented pace of growth. Contemporary Studies of Risks in Emerging Technology: Part B also highlights how emerging technologies are altering the subtleties of doing business for financial services benefactors, possibility of emerging technologies, advantages and disadvantages, technology linked issues/challenges in financial services, and also highlights drivers of this revolution.

Modern capitalism and political freedom rest on concepts of conscience and morality, and abhor concentrations of unbridled power. America's economic and political system has developed mechanisms designed to check and balance such power. Despite these mechanisms, corporate America has produced imperious chief executives, who, possessing such power, abuse it by engaging in a fraudulent and self-serving pursuit of wealth and the trappings of authority. How did it happen? How did the system respond? What can be done to minimize the danger of its reoccurrence? Corruption in Corporate America seeks to answer these questions, first, by realizing that, to be able to misbehave, chief executives must achieve the support or silence of their boards of directors as well as the gatekeepers who presumably guard the integrity of corporate accounts (i.e. auditors, legal advisers, financial analysts, investment bankers, and regulatory bodies), and second, by analyzing how each of those participants becomes involved in corporate fraud. The analysis is completed by a look ahead at the prospective results of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002, the law enacted as the corrective response to corporate corruption. Hopefully, the insights gained by this analysis will contribute to a revived confidence in the integrity of corporate accounts, and thereby sustain the vitality of America's capital markets, which are vital to our future economic well-being.

The use of endorsements and testimonials to sell anything imaginable is a modern development, though the technique is centuries old. Before World War I, endorsement ads were tied to patent medicine, and were left with a bad reputation when that industry was exposed as quackery. The reputation was well earned: claims of a product's curative powers sometimes ran opposite the endorsee's obituary, and Lillian Russell once testified that a certain compound had made her ""feel like a new man."" Prohibition and drug regulation doomed patent medicines. Distrusted by the public, banished from mainstream publications, endorsements languished until the 1930s, but returned with a vengeance with the growth of consumerism and modern media. Despite its questionable effectiveness, endorsement advertising is now ubiquitous, costing advertisers (and consequently consumers) hundreds of millions of dollars annually. This exploration of modern endorsement advertising - paid or unsolicited testimonials endorsing a product - follows its evolution from a marginalized, mistrusted technique to a multibillion-dollar industry. Chapters recount endorsement advertising's changing form and fortunes, from Lux Soap's uncompensated co-opting of early Hollywood to today's lucrative industry dependent largely on athletes. The social history of endorsement advertising is examined in terms of changing ethical and governmental views, shifting business trends, and its relationship to the growth of modern media, while the money involved and the question of effectiveness are scrutinized. The heavily illustrated text includes five appendices that focus on companies, celebrities, athletes and celebrity endorsements.

This second edition provides both a history of black entrepreneurship in America throughout all periods of American history and a roadmap that explains the steps that prospective entrepreneurs must take to achieve success in business. This second edition of The African American Entrepreneur explores the lower economic status of black Americans in light of America's legacy of slavery, segregation, and rampant discrimination against black Americans. The book examines the legal, historical, sociological, economic, and political factors that together help to explain the economic condition of black people in America, from their arrival in America to the present. In the process, it spotlights the many amazing breakthroughs made by black entrepreneurs even before the Civil War and Emancipation. Part One explores the history of African American entrepreneurs from slavery to the present; Part Two provides a primer and roadmap to success for aspiring entrepreneurs.

Buried in paper? As new technologies, threats of litigation, and the onslaught of e-business innovations change the very nature of work, organizations need ways to safely and properly manage information. This revised and expanded edition of Sampson's earlier classic shows how records and information management practices jointly contribute to an organization's financial well being, be it public or private, non- or for-profit. Recordkeeping practices affect business objectives, processes, functions, and ultimately everyone in the organization. This book covers recordkeeping in all media, including paper, microfilm, electronic, and other storage modes.

Instead of focusing on records media and information technologies, Sampson shows why organizations must focus on the content and value of records as they are determined by the organization's operating needs, the government's requirements, and relevant legislation. She shows how to create an essential uniformity in records management, one that integrates the many media systems you use into a single master system. Also included is a cautionary section explaining why skillful records and information management is essential to safeguard an organization's legal rights. This book provides fresh management perspectives and new business strategies, showing how to cope with the growing dependence on electronic records.

Change your Thoughts for True Self Healing“Change Your Mind and Your Life Will Follow tells the truth and tells it well. I recommend it.� —Marianne Williamson Finalist for the MS Society Books for a Better Life Award #1 Bestseller in Addiction & Recovery, Twelve-Step Programs From Karen Casey, bestselling author of Each Day a Renewed Beginning and Peace a Day at a Time, comes the latest edition of her simple steps guide on how to master your mindset for effective self healing. Better living takes healing words. What we say to ourselves can change life as we experience it. Especially ones such as “I wish things could change'' when we are feeling our lowest, bringing those dark feelings into our everyday lives. But words are powerful, and can be used as a way to relearn loving ourselves rather than wait for happy thoughts to suddenly appear. It’s time to bring those healing words into reality, and the very first step begins with your mind. To heal a weary soul takes a healthy mind. Change Your Mind and Your Life Will Follow explores the twelve simple steps towards achieving peace of mind through transforming positive affirmations into motivationation. Featuring timeless wisdom to live by and self healing stories, author Karen Casey teaches us that better living doesn’t take just self reflection, but also responding by acknowledging our mental and emotional needs. Inside, you’ll find simple steps on how to: Quiet your mind and jump into true self healing Let go of “ifs� and “hows� so you can love yourself first Practice self forgiveness with honesty and freedom from past self-judgment If you liked Pause, Rest, Be; Unclutter Your Soul;, or Love From The Inside Out, you’ll love Change Your Mind and Your Life Will Follow.

Without new ways to think and manage itself strategically, academic healthcare faces terminal deterioration. Heightened competition and changing dynamics have brought turbulence to teaching hospitals, and the main impact has been financial. Langabeer and Napiewocki give health care executives the tools and concepts of strategic management they need and ways to strengthen analytic skills, all based on up-to-date empirical research, cast in language they can grasp and relate to, and specially tailored to help teaching hospital administrators cope successfully with today's marketplace challenges. Board members, trustees, and others with decision- and policy-making responsibilities will also find the book essential, as well as their teaching colleagues and students on their way up in the hospital industry.

The authors maintain that if nonprofit teaching hospitals are to compete successfully with private for-profit hospital chains, not only must they learn the terrain of the playing fields, they must also learn how the game itself is played. Langabeer and Napiewocki offer that knowledge, and in doing so have written the first book of its kind to address comprehensively the entire realm of strategic management aimed clearly at teaching hospitals and major academic medical centers. With findings from primary empirical research into a large sample of teaching hospitals and focusing on the statistical relationships to economic performance, they provide crucial insights into why certain hospitals are more effective than others. Their book will also help healthcare executives relate strategy research on industrial organizations to their own teaching hospital environments. In doing so, their book fills a void in the literature on business strategy that for too long has caused consternation among healthcare administrators and aspirants alike.

Strategies in Workers' Compensation, written with the healthcare medical professional in mind, describes the nuts and bolts of workers compensation. The book details the history, laws, various stakeholders, costs, and problems encountered by healthcare providers. An emphasis is placed on the "difficult patient" with regard to management techniques for doctors, insurance companies, and employers. In addition, Strategies in Workers' Compensation offers reference material to aid in understanding the complex workers' compensation system. Human resource professionals, insurance adjusters, case managers, and nurses will find the information contained in this book useful in confronting the myriad of problems that arise within their respective fields. This book is a valuable resource for anyone who deals with the injured worker.