New ways to manage change and to compete in a rapidly changing business world are emerging under the concept of the agile enterprise. Agile organizations can be almost any size or type, but what distinguishes them from their lumbering traditional business counterparts is the ability to read and to react quickly. They can also be virtual, meaning they can reconfigure themselves quickly and temporarily in response to a challenge, which gives them agility, but then dissolve or transmute themselves into something else. Goranson explains how they do this and how your own organization can do it too. With fascinating case studies and a unique metric, Goranson provides answers. The result is essential reading for management at almost any level within every type of organization.

Now that serious management tools are beginning to appear, the agile virtual enterprise is no longer just a theoretical possibility--it's real. In fact, although they were never actually described that way, virtual organizations can be found throughout history, from the whaling companies of the 19th century through the film studios of the 20th. Goranson describes many of these businesses and gives us an understanding of how they evolved and why they worked. Of special interest is his metric. It requires no technical background to be understood and applied, yet it digs deeply into the philosophy of strategic management as well as its practicalities. Goranson also reports for the first time on the large scale research sponsored by the U.S. military to advance the state of the art in management science and to create the tools that eventually made the agile virtual enterprise what it is today.

This book is about a case study of Firestone Natural Rubber Company in Liberia. In this book issues of bureaucratic corruption, ethics and social alienation are directly confronted from a case study approach. Positivist and post-positivist approaches in the framework of a mixed methodology are adopted. This approach is justified in an attempt to generate comprehensive understanding of the research problem and its likely solutions.

Big-picture business transformation guidance with specific, actionable strategies In Adaptive Resilience, speaker, advisor, strategist, and author Maria Santacaterina delivers a ground-breaking discussion of how to build a more equitable, just, and prosperous future by transforming your organization from the inside-out. You’ll learn how to create a cycle of virtuous growth that simultaneously increases your bottom-line and helps humanity evolve. The author’s new paradigm for growth is a shift in the way we think about and do “good� business. It will help business and community leaders create an inclusive and exciting future that’s accessible to all. In the book, you’ll discover how to create fluidity in your enterprise, maintain forward momentum, and encourage creative strategic oversight. You’ll also find: Illustrative and actionable real-life case studies and stories that highlight and explain the concepts discussed within Strategies for making holistic investments in the people who power your organization Advice based on sound research from a variety of scientific and managerial disciplines A can’t-miss guide to business transformation that belongs on the shelves of executives, directors, managers, and other business leaders, Adaptive Resilience is the strategic playbook to modern business that we’ve all been waiting for.

This collection of real-life stories from an entrepreneurial addict shows that non-traditional perspectives can create both profitability and rich quality of life for everyone in a business.

Profiling such luminaries as Benjamin Franklin, P. T. Barnum, John Wanamaker, and Harley Procter, this book examines the contributions that several prominent individuals have made to advertising in America. The work opens with a discussion of Colonial advertising and the printers, such as Benjamin Franklin, who created it. It then goes on to consider early advertising agents such as Francis Wayland Ayer and the contributions of the great promoter P. T. Barnum.

Lydia PinkhaM's Vegetable Compound and the advertising of patent medicines is also covered, as is John Wanamaker's impact on retail advertising. The book then examines the advertising style of Albert Lasker, owner of Lord and Thomas advertising agency, as well as Harley Procter's advertising of Ivory soap and Procter & Gamble's first 100 years. Elliot White Springs's use of sex in advertising and the Springs Cotton Mills advertising campaign of the 1940s and 1950s concludes the volume.

Jardine Matheson & Company is perhaps best known through James Clavell's Taipan. The firm played an important role in the founding of Hong Kong, but its growth in the 20th century, through acquisition and divestiture, has never been adequately explored until now. This is not only the first study of Jardine Matheson to systematically uncover the industrial logic of its growth strategy; it is also among the first studies of the Hong Kong trading industry as an adaptive "ecosystem" based on trade, equity, and debt relationships that reduced business risk. Understanding the experience of Jardine Matheson will prove valuable to anyone who is eager to learn the lessons of adaptation and survival that marked not only the first period of globalization, but its current incarnation as well.

This financial guide helps teenagers understand what money is, how money works, and how to make it work for them.

The systematic study of business ethics began in the late 1970s. Since that time, business ethics has moved into the study of how self-interest, personal interests, national interests, and fairness fit together in a business context.

This volume examines traditional ethical theories as well as contemporary trends in the study of business ethics. Ethical, economic, and legal concepts are used to help the reader understand business ethics issues. The authors analyze major ethical issues in the corporate environment today -- among them, accountability, affirmative action, comparable worth, conflicts of interest, moral agency, takeovers, employment, pollution, health and safety, sexual harassment, and whistle blowing.

This volume also presents biographical sketches of issue makers and ethicists, sample corporate codes of ethics, lists of print and nonprint resources, and a directory of organizations that address ethical concerns.

Positive organizational change does not have to be planned or managed top down in a linear, urgent manner. Rather, it can be "unleashed" or discovered by helping people within organizations to identify their own best experiences in the past, and then use them to imagine, design, and bring into being the organization they most want and which works best. The method is called "Appreciative Inquiry." The volume editors and their panel of experts examine how AI works in practice, and how its many (and often surprising) benefits can be realized in just about any organization. The result is a major explication and source book for HR and organizational development specialists and upper level management trying to lead effective change. Detailed case reports from the field show how this unique approach is actually applied and what its consequences are. Readers will learn to identify the "positive core" of any system--the practices and principles that encourage the best in organizational capacity and performance. They will find not only specific outcomes but also some detailed reflections by practitioners on the use of Appreciative Inquiry. A volume summary lays out the themes and lesson that span the cases. Also presented are powerful and novel propositions on how to approach the crucial issues in organizational change. The result is a major explication and source book for HR and organizational development specialists.

Weston Agor has with scholarly thoroughness taken intuition out of the classroom and out of the business closet. He shows how it can be used as a powerful business tool. "Roy Rowan, Author of The Intuitive Manager"

The Message of "The Logic of Intuitive Decision Making" is: Actively seek input and advice from all sources you possibly can before making a key decision, ' according to the author. What follows is an outline of how to use intuition--an often-overlooked source--to make key management and personal decisions, a discussion of how to develop your intuition, and case studies of intuitive decision-making. "Association Management"

The level of venom, the intensity and frequency of the readers' rants in the daily newspaper compelled the publication's news reporter to call me for an interview. "Some of the language in the rants was so graphic, they were unsuitable for print," he said. Wow They were talking about me. Have you ever felt like you've been hit by a brick or punched in the stomach? Well, that is how I felt at that particular moment when he shared the comment with me. In spite of the graphic description that some people had of me, it's important to stay true to who you are. I've lived my life being optimistic and positive, building bridges, nurturing relationships, working with diverse groups of people, serving others, communicating, and providing effective and proven leadership - oftentimes under duress, uncertainty, limited resources, and being misunderstood. This book will show you how I did it and how you can overcome negative publicity, adversity, challenges, and develop leadership skills that will impact your life and others for years to come.

The 1980's information explosion on new-product development demands a broad-scope, up-to-date review of literature. Calantone and di Benedetto take on the task in this comprehensive annotated bibliography, citing more than 450 articles and books on product innovation and new product development. They have produced a thoroughly integrative review of marketing, business, and engineering literatures, identifying general managerial conclusions. Outlining key issues and problems faced by product managers, Calantone and di Benedetto determine to what extent these issues have been addressed in academic literature. How much of reported research is relevant? What is the quality of available scientific knowledge? Can business managers and marketing staffs learn from other functional areas, i.e. engineering or technical journals? This bibliography is a valuable entry into innovation literature for both product managers and academic researchers. Calantone and di Benedetto's review is structured according to topic area: factors influencing product and process innovation; stages in new-product development; product diffusion forecasting; the R & D-marketing interface; organizational structure; and technology transfer. Each chapter includes a literature review and an extensive annotated bibliography. A representative set of articles from major marketing, business management, operations research, and engineering publications are selected. As a rule of thumb, articles from 1978 to the present are included. Several major works from earlier years are also cited. The authors complete this volume with their own observations and conclusions, an author index, and a subject index.

Written for corporate strategic planners and market researchers as well as students of management, this book offers the most complete introduction to the methodology and applications of ordinal time series analysis available in book form. Particularly useful for managers who seek a reliable and accessible means of analyzing the strategic performance of firms, products, industries, or political entities, the ordinal time series approach uses simple data, longitudinal analysis, and rank positions to produce results that more accurately reflect the dynamics of competitive position and corporate performance than those generated by more traditional methods which rely on absolute numbers and complicated analyses. The level of mathematical sophistication required is that of college introductory mathematics for business, making the methodology widely accessible. The contributors explain how to use the methodology and how to collect the appropriate data, review the statistical procedures involved, and examine numerous real-world applications of ordinal time series analysis. The book begins by introducing the notion of formalizing managerial intuition about strategic situations by employing rankings over time to describe the performance of products, firms, and departments, for example. Having established the advantages of using ordinal data, the contributors illustrate the use of rank statistics and show how to incorporate uncertain aspects of strategic situations in an ordinal context. A separate chapter covers information statistics that describe the aggregate behavior of a group of organizations over time. The contributors then present a series of examples demonstrating the wide applicabilityof ordinal time series analysis to various types of situations. Included are an analysis of the transportation industry over a 30-year period, an ordinal analysis of corporate performance, the application of ordinal analysis to the problem of product strategy, a look at world export activity, and an examination of international competition in the microelectronics industry. Throughout, particular attention is given to providing the reader with the background and information necessary to successfully employ ordinal time series methodology in his or her own environment.

Cross-cultural business negotiations are an important part of international business. Much business has been lost overseas due to miscalculations caused by cultural differences. Negotiating is a lengthy, difficult process by itself; but, when one adds the cultural aspect it becomes extremely intricate. Cross-cultural negotiation skills can be improved by adequate attention to details and a better understanding of the cultural heritage of the other side. This work examines cross-cultural negotiations from the point of view of a practitioner, and provides country profiles with advice on how to best negotiate with people from those countries. International business negotiations are made more difficult by problems of communications and culture. In order to conduct business outside of one's native culture, it is necessary to understand the style and intent of the business partners, and to learn to deal with culturally based differences. In addition, communciations are conducted verbally and non-verbally; therefore, it is not just a problem of language barriers. The authors show those involved in international business how to conduct their business communications successfully by seeing what is important about the transactions through eyes of another culture. The authors are widely experienced in cultures other than that of the United States. Having lived and worked in many parts of the world in addition to the United States, the authors advise business professionals and business academicians in this work.

Every day each of us experiences the marketing power and influence of a widely-recognized brand name. When we use Coke as a synonym for cola products, or Kleenex to mean tissue, we reinforce the power of these brands. It is no surprise, then, that companies with established brand names protect and nurture them, and that companies without brand names continuously strive to build them. Many have theorized about the most effective way to establish a popular brand. Seldom, however, have the owners of the world's leading brands given their views on the subject. In this volume, successful brand owners reveal their own views on the power and importance of brand names.

Senior executives from major international companies such as Coca-Cola, Nestle, Guinness, and Mercedes-Benz get at the heart of what it takes to create, manage, and protect brand names. Coming from a variety of perspectives, the sum of the contributions offers a blueprint for the aspiring brand owner. Further analysis from academics, management consultants and marketing experts rounds out this comprehensive study.

Challenging work experiences are the richest source of learning for today's managers. Yet lessons embedded in these experiences are not always obvious. This comprehensive book describes a critical yet under-researched element of how managers learn from these experiences: reflection. Today's workplace demands continual learning, which in turn requires reflection. While this book supports the prevailing view that reflection is central to experiential learning, it challenges the traditional views that it is the same as contemplation, that it is incompatible with management, and that it is time-consuming and unnatural for managers.

Original quantitative and qualitative research reported in this book indicates that two different yet complementary modes of managerial reflection exist: active and proactive. Active reflection is something that managers naturally engage in during challenging job experiences, whereas managers must be prompted to engage in proactive reflection. Both modes involve processes of intentional inquiry. Different forces are necessary to stimulate each type of reflection. Based on these findings, the claim is made that the potential to learn from experience is greatest when managers intentionally engage in both modes. Accordingly, a holistic model that integrates active and proactive reflection is presented. This model has important implications for theorists and researchers of managerial learning by identifying previously unreported aspects of reflection. It is also relevant to practitioners and companies who desire to enhance what their managers learn from their workplace experience.

An industrial accountant with an accountant's dedication to accuracy, Harold E. Meyer is also a master of precise, clear writing. In his latest book on how to express yourself in a variety of settings, for a variety of purposes, he proves that easily understood writing can be learned. He shows how to use ordinary English to produce clear messages of any kind. Meyer's approach is informal, pleasant, and presented in brief sections, each with its point clearly expressed. His book is well illustrated throughout by amusing--often startling--examples of good writing and bad writing, and what the result can be from both. A remarkable, business-oriented guide for people at all levels and in all capacities in today's organizations--where the ways in which ideas are expressed are at least as important as the ideas themselves. What makes Meyer's book enjoyable and so easy to read, grasp, and is his use of personal anecdotes. Readers will learn how to punctuate, how to organize and present ideas, and other essential skills. Meyer also provides a helpful reference that explains many of the changes in the language that have occurred in recent years and when to use them. The result is an essential aid and resource for anyone who has to communicate through the use of the written word.

EFFECTIVE LETTERS IN BUSINESS by ROBERT L. SHURTER. Preface: This book is infeqjfed to present the fundamental principles of the major types of biismesS letters and to assist the student or correspondent in learning these principles by numerous examples and exercises. It grew out of a conviction that there is a need for a comparatively brief text whose scope would be halfway between the sketchy handbook with its Do's and DonYs in boldface type and the encyclopedic volumes of six or seven hundred pages covering every conceivable prob lem in business correspondence. In fairness to readers or to students of this textbook, it seems best to outline the beliefs that color its tone. First, there is no mention in these pages of business English; the point of view that results in the production of books on engineering English, the English of business, and eventually if the trend goes to its logical conclusion mortician's English finds no sympathy in these pages. There are only good English well adapted to its purpose and occasion and poor English. The person who can write good English will soon find that the same basic principles of writing apply in business, engineering, and other fields. There is no escaping the inexorable connection between clear thinking and clear writing, and breaking up the English lan guage into separate compartments is merely a delusion* What is needed is a knowledge of the purposes, forms, and methods most acceptable in correspondence. This textbook attempts to provide that knowledge. Second, it seems rather trite to say that the business letter is one of the most widely used forms of writing in the twentieth century. Yet that fact needs emphasis, for, paradoxicallyenough, our schools and colleges devote more time to such types of writing as the research paper, complete with the scholarly paraphernalia of footnotes and bibliographies and knee-deep in ibids. and op. cits., than to more widely used forms of writing. The research paper has its place, but for every person who will find occasion to write a research paper there are certainly a thousand who will be required to pro duce effective business letters. For that reason, this book is colored by the conviction that learning to write good business letters is a highly important aspect of a student's education and, furthermore, that the letter offers as much opportunity for originality, good organization, and creative ability as any other form of writing. For kind permission to reprint materials in this book, the author is indebted chiefly to two sources: first, to the Dartnell Corporation of Chicago, publishers of the Office Administra tion and Better Letter Bulletin; second, to Letters, the mag azine of The Wolfe Envelope Company of Cleveland, and to its editor, H. Jack Lang. Finally, to Mrs. Margaret C. Gar retson, for her great help in preparing the manuscript and to David M. Rein, for his assistance in proofreading, the author wishes to express his appreciation. ROBERT L. SHURTER. Contents include: PREFACE: v EDITOR'S INTRODUCTION ix INTRODUCTION i I What Is an Effective Letter? 3 II The Form of the Letter 17 III Business Jargon 47 IV Making Letters Easy to Read 58 V Inquiries, Answers to Inquiries, Orders 74 VI Claim and Adjustment Letters 94 VII Credit Letters 1 1 5 VIII Collection Letters 137 IX Sales Letters 163 X The Application Letter 188 INDEX 2 2 1 vi i Editor's Introduction In manyrespects this treatment of a most important sub ject is unique. N

An invaluable resource for tourism leaders, policy makers and stakeholders as they drive the global tourism economy forward. Covering topics from the role of government, diplomacy, tourism investment, and destination branding to niche tourism development, media, tourism safety and green tourism, COME CLOSER offers a framework for strategic and practical tourism economy management and competitiveness. The book includes valuable direction for managing the fine balance of government and private industry in tourism to create shared, sustainable destination growth. Using emotive anecdotes to bring readers closer to the heartbeats of the people who inspire and direct industry growth, Mendiratta's collection of topics helps introduce critical aspects of tourism sector development.

Human resource consultant Joan Curtis provides a new, practical approach to conducting job interviews. Her strategic interviewing is a way to strip off the information you don't need and focus on what you do need when you and the job candidate meet face to face. Dr. Curtis helps you ask the crucial questions to get at the most useful, important answers. With her proprietary POINT process, an easily remembered step-by-step way to recall and apply the principles she describes, you will learn how to work within a framework of solid communication skills and how to ask the right questions, then listen for the right answers. She lays out the concept of strategic interviewing, its definition and applications, and provides the practical examples you need to operationalize it. The result is a complete view, from planning to the actual interview (including team interviewing), plus an important analysis of the entire hiring process. Her book is a major resource for HR managers -- and the executives they work with as well.

Curtis maintains that most books on interviewing do not address the communications skills necessary to conduct a successful, productive interview. Her POINT process does. At its core is INtentional Listening. It rests on the premise that quality interviewing requires skilled communicators, people who can both listen and question. The process begins with Planning and ends with Testing. To use the process you must plan, then demonstrate and encourage openness, then heighten your own communications skills by intentional listening, and constantly test yourself, the candidate, and the hiring process itself. With her practical examples and exercises, Dr. Curtis makes you able to understand that strategic interviewing is viewed from three distinct angles: the job, the candidate, and the actual interview.