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Books > Business & Economics > General
Debates about global warming, a growing shortage of clean water, deforestation, pollution, degradation of the oceans, biodiversity and waste permeate public spaces and private discussions. Unsustainable growth is the underlying force driving all these crises yet is virtually absent from public discourse. Since World War II, growth or growing production has become a mantra, an unquestionable axiom, for political, business and economic leaders as a means to strengthen the economy. Tragically, no distinction is discerned between sustainable and unsustainable growth. This books explores why unsustainable growth is unrealistic and catastrophic and examines its consequences on people and the earth. In addition to analyzing the environmental impact, the book will examine the unequal distribution of wealth resulting from capitalism and unsustainable growth.
Everyone, in today's society, is struggling with this mysterious thing called the business world and strives toward a higher understanding of its inner workings, and yet most books present the basic concepts with so much complexity and filled with so many arbitrary factors that the general public has given up on the subject and perforce has decided to retire to the sideline to be a spectator. In other words, his hope has been dashed aside and his dream of a higher understanding has not been fulfilled in any of the books. The present work is the culmination of many years of study, observation, and pondering on the dilemmas and enigmas of the business world. Within the confines of this book, one is given a chance to take an in-depth look and inspect first-hand, the code ombination of what makes a successful business. The basics are laid in simple terms and clear explanations express the powerful principles lucidly and dynamically, providing an unforgettable impression in the reader's mind. By avoiding undue complexities, the reader will achieve simplicity of thought and will be actually traveling in the direction of the actual why and thus be able to understand how to set up and manage any business. It is an interestingly uncommon book written primarily for the technical as well as the non-technical man. It is intended to serve several classes of our society a) The office workers and managers, b) The Business minded individuals, c) The business owners, d) The professional managaers. This book will surely serve also an important class of our societythe technical inventors who is looking for inspirations and new ideas to imbue him with enough understanding to finalize and materialize histhoughts into reality. The broad importance of this work could be summed up as laying the foundation for the business world on a scientific basis where arbitrary factors are removed and technical superiority is substituted. This is a totally new approach to understanding our business world through the use of newly discovered fundamentals (missing in all business books), which add a tremendous amount of simplicity and clarity to our complex business world. This is a new approach unmatched in any extant text today. The discovery of these fundamentals will create a huge impact on our business world and will truly make our business arena revitalized with renewed interests in understanding its principles in a unit of time. This work has created a unified theory about the two distinct concepts: personal life and business world. Finally, this work paves the way for the scientist as well as the non-technical individual to formulate and develop a business plan that will crack open the business world and will end up handing the individual the key to his "personal life.
Climate change is real. Time to spring into action. Introducing: The Time is Now, a toolkit for serious change. Use this timely card game to challenge, inspire, pitch and get serious results for positive impact. The kit consists of 60 tool cards that trigger questions and inspire possible solutions by fellow players. Questions like: what can you do to stay out of a polluting hospital? What would your holiday look like with zero CO2 emissions? How do you co-travel to the office? With whom would you work together for a healthier living and working environment? Invite your colleagues, friends and family and move to a more sustainable planet one step at a time. In three rounds you'll discover new options, practical solutions, and put these in the simplest plan of approach, you have ever seen. Share your plans, stick them to the wall or on your companies' message board and create real change. With the workshop version the game ends in making a canvas with things you can start doing tomorrow, next week and this year. Use the The Time is Now toolkit to grow ideas and start changing the world around you and inspire to make changes. Make a difference, one step at a time. The Time really is Now! * From the authors of The Startup Game * Challenge, inspire, pitch and get serious results for positive impact. * Translate complex and scientific models and tools into everyday professional and private life. * Inspired by the UN's Sustainable Development Goals (SDG's). * Generate more effective ideas than any other toolbox in just 45 minutes.
A robust and engaging account of the single greatest threat faced by AI and ML systems In Not With A Bug, But With A Sticker: Attacks on Machine Learning Systems and What To Do About Them, a team of distinguished adversarial machine learning researchers deliver a riveting account of the most significant risk to currently deployed artificial intelligence systems: cybersecurity threats. The authors take you on a sweeping tour – from inside secretive government organizations to academic workshops at ski chalets to Google’s cafeteria – recounting how major AI systems remain vulnerable to the exploits of bad actors of all stripes. Based on hundreds of interviews of academic researchers, policy makers, business leaders and national security experts, the authors compile the complex science of attacking AI systems with color and flourish and provide a front row seat to those who championed this change. Grounded in real world examples of previous attacks, you will learn how adversaries can upend the reliability of otherwise robust AI systems with straightforward exploits. The steeplechase to solve this problem has already begun: Nations and organizations are aware that securing AI systems brings forth an indomitable advantage: the prize is not just to keep AI systems safe but also the ability to disrupt the competition’s AI systems. An essential and eye-opening resource for machine learning and software engineers, policy makers and business leaders involved with artificial intelligence, and academics studying topics including cybersecurity and computer science, Not With A Bug, But With A Sticker is a warning—albeit an entertaining and engaging one—we should all heed. How we secure our AI systems will define the next decade. The stakes have never been higher, and public attention and debate on the issue has never been scarcer. The authors are donating the proceeds from this book to two charities: Black in AI and Bountiful Children’s Foundation.
This text catalogues more than 500 of the most current and up-to-date information sources available in the English language on Japanese scientific, technical, and business subjects. Nearly 70% of the sources are from Japan, with more than 20% from the United States and more than 10% from other countries. Guides, directories; on-line databases; publications; industry reports; abstracting and indexing services; and more are arranged by type of publication or information source. Each entry is fully annotated and provides complete bibliographic information. Appendixes list booksellers, libaries, online vendors, and other information sources. Indexes by subject, title, and author assist the researcher in finding preferred topics.
Feminism, Diversity and HRD aims to enhance critical understandings of feminism, diversity and HRD theorization and practice in the global political economy. This involves addressing race, class and intersectional approaches to evaluating inequalities in society/organizations. Feminism, Diversity and HRD will bring together cutting-edge analysis to offer a critical interdisciplinary overview of the feminism, diversity and HRD debates that are only just emerging. Crucially, it will offer new insights on the governance and policy-making dimensions of national HRD, and the gender agendas advocated by global institutions which are influenced by social justice themes. In this respect, the contributions in this volume offer more than just a tried and tested analysis of the political, knowledge and skill gap problems that face organizations and nation states. Rather, they are agenda-setting and forward-looking since they critically consider what the HRD solutions currently on offer are, and how they can be further improved. Thus, the contributions will cover theoretical and policy perspectives not previously covered in a critical text of this kind.
A Washington Post Bestseller Three Principles for Managing--and Avoiding--the Problems of Growth Why is profitable growth so hard to achieve and sustain? Most executives manage their companies as if the solution to that problem lies in the external environment: find an attractive market, formulate the right strategy, win new customers. But when Bain & Company's Chris Zook and James Allen, authors of the bestselling Profit from the Core, researched this question, they found that when companies fail to achieve their growth targets, 90 percent of the time the root causes are internal, not external--increasing distance from the front lines, loss of accountability, proliferating processes and bureaucracy, to name only a few. What's more, companies experience a set of predictable internal crises, at predictable stages, as they grow. Even for healthy companies, these crises, if not managed properly, stifle the ability to grow further--and can actively lead to decline. The key insight from Zook and Allen's research is that managing these choke points requires a "founder's mentality"--behaviors typically embodied by a bold, ambitious founder--to restore speed, focus, and connection to customers: * An insurgent's clear mission and purpose * An unambiguous owner mindset * A relentless obsession with the front line Based on the authors' decade-long study of companies in more than forty countries, The Founder's Mentality demonstrates the strong relationship between these three traits in companies of all kinds--not just start-ups--and their ability to sustain performance. Through rich analysis and inspiring examples, this book shows how any leader--not only a founder--can instill and leverage a founder's mentality throughout their organization and find lasting, profitable growth.
Electronic services networks--systems of terminals and computers linked by telecommunication apparatus and used to process transactions--have had an increasing influence on industrial structures and commercial practices over the past decade. Margaret Guerin-Calvert and Steven Wildman have assembled diverse essays representing the best of current thinking on these networks. The book provides the reader with varied theoretical perspectives on ESNs and their effects on business and finance and contains five case studies that apply these theoretical ideas to issues raised by the proliferation of these networks. Unlike other works, which have focused on ESNs as features of specific industries, this collection explores the networks themselves as economic phenomena. The contributions are grouped into two parts. The first presents general theoretical perspectives on the economics of various ESNs, their effects on the industries and markets that employ them, and the policy issues they raise. Among the topics discussed are structural relationships among ESNs, their effect on organizational structures, compatibility between shared networks, and competitive search facilitation. In Part II, the contributors offer a detailed look at the economic policy histories of ESNs in specific industries, including banking, real estate, airlines, and travel. There are discussions of automatic teller machines, computer reservation systems, multiple-listing services, and electronic data interchange. These studies demonstrate the incredible variety of applications of ESN technology and make this an indispensable resource for professionals in all types of businesses that use or could use ESNs, as well as for students in a wide range of law, business, and public policy courses.
Implementing a CPI Culture is written as a "HOW TO" Book which includes everything an organization needs to know when they are either trying out some process improvement activities or are Implementing a Continuous Process Improvement (CPI) Culture across their entire organization. CPI is the fluid combination of principles and sub tools from the Process-Focused methodologies Lean, Six Sigma, and Theory of Constraints. This book is unique because it is applicable to Military Organizations as well as Commercial Businesses. MAQ has 35 years of experience in the USAF and US Army and helped generate the DoD CPI Guide. He is more than qualified to relate CPI to the Military environment. He is a certified Level 2 and 3 Mentor for the USAF. The techniques identified in this book have been proven successful at several Air Force and Army Bases as well as private businesses. They are similar to many techniques used throughout the Department of Defense and across industry. Although every Military Service is using a different combination of the three techniques; Lean, Six Sigma, and Theory of Constraints, CPI combines all these techniques into a single approach that makes the best use of each sub tool when it is appropriate. If you want to improve processes in your organization, this is the book to read and use. For more information on CPI, contact MAQ or Mike Maquet at www.m2mcpi.com.
Performance management is changing. Adapt your approach along with it. For decades, performance management has been seen as an annual chore by managers and HR departments alike. But this process is changing, and there are ways to make it more effective at all levels of your organization. If you read nothing else on performance management in your organization, read these 10 articles. We've combed through hundreds of Harvard Business Review articles and selected the most important ones to help you make your process more adaptable, conduct better feedback conversations, and encourage the growth of your employees. This book will inspire you to: Learn where current performance management processes are falling short Overcome organizational bias to evaluate performance fairly Sculpt employees' jobs to meet their skill sets and interests Boost collaboration by aligning goals across functions Use people analytics ethically and transparently Help your people identify and use their strengths This collection of articles includes "The Performance Management Revolution," by Peter Cappelli and Anna Tavis; "Reinventing Performance Management," by Marcus Buckingham and Ashley Goodall; "Getting 360-Degree Feedback Right," by Maury A. Peiperl; "The Set-Up-to-Fail Syndrome," by Jean-François Manzoni and Jean-Louis Barsoux; "Job Sculpting: The Art of Retaining Your Best People," by Timothy Butler and James Waldroop; "Performance Management Shouldn't Kill Collaboration," by Heidi K. Gardner and Ivan Matviak; "The Happy Tracked Employee," by Ben Waber; "Don't Let Metrics Undermine Your Business," by Michael Harris and Bill Tayler; "Numbers Take Us Only So Far," by Maxine Williams; "Managers Can't Do It All," by Diane Gherson and Lynda Gratton; and "Creating Sustainable Performance," by Gretchen Spreitzer and Christine Porath. HBR's 10 Must Reads paperback series is the definitive collection of books for new and experienced leaders alike. Leaders looking for the inspiration that big ideas provide, both to accelerate their own growth and that of their companies, should look no further. HBR's 10 Must Reads series focuses on the core topics that every ambitious manager needs to know: leadership, strategy, change, managing people, and managing yourself. Harvard Business Review has sorted through hundreds of articles and selected only the most essential reading on each topic. Each title includes timeless advice that will be relevant regardless of an everâ€changing business environment.
“Probst’s combination of agile writing and insightful observations makes most other books on modern branding look both overly circumspect and woefully incomplete … A fascinating—and surprisingly fun—wide-angle look at advertising.” — Kirkus Reviews (starred review) Brands can no longer force-feed us a plethora of products we don’t need. To succeed, brands must transform us and the world we live in. Assemblage guides you through the art and science of creating transformative brands by combining personal, social, and cultural components. Assemblage will show you  Why perception is the truth and how to shape people’s perceptions  Why we relate to antiheroes, villains, and saviors  How brands can reassure consumers about their past, present, and future  How to leverage data and insights to deliver a personalized, human-centric consumer experience  How brands can make a positive impact on people, society, and the economy Assemblage is supported by in-depth research in consumer psychology, extensive consumer insights, interviews with industry-leading marketers, and case studies of transformative brands, big and small.
Build an innovative new startup using the resources of an existing corporation The Corporate Explorer Fieldbook: How to Build New Ventures in Established Companies is a one-of-a-kind collection of the tools, methodologies, and techniques you need to build successful, market-ready ventures from within existing organizations. The accomplished authors explain how to develop a practical strategy, gather market insights, develop a Jobs-To-Be-Done market canvas, collect customer research, reduce organizational risk, and more. You’ll learn how to beat the odds when introducing a new product or service into the marketplace and how to select, develop, and compensate the right people in your company to act as corporate explorers. Finally, the book explains how to secure authentic and enthusiastic buy-in for your new venture at the executive level. The Corporate Explorer Fieldbook will also teach you to: Conduct micro-experiments to distinguish legitimate business opportunities from ideas that lack traction Perform customer discovery interviews for ideating, incubating, and scaling ideas Generate breakthrough ideas from within large companies An indispensable companion to the newly published Corporate Explorer: How Corporations Beat Startups at the Innovation Game, the Corporate Explorer Fieldbook is a must-read, step-by-step guide for corporate entrepreneurs seeking to launch new ventures from within their existing organizations.
Build a successful career with authenticity, confidence, and boldness In Courage, Clarity, and Confidence: Redefining How Successful Women Work, executive career and leadership coach Gala Jackson delivers an exciting new playbook to help women reconnect with their voice and values to redefine work and success. In the book, you’ll explore how to navigate the fraught path to professional fulfillment and negotiate the many obstacles that litter the way. Traditional job search and career transition methods often fail women—especially women of color—because they’ve been constructed by, and for, men, white men. She also provides a practical exercises that equip you with how to build a future for yourself characterized by authenticity, confidence, and boldness even in the midst of the evolving landscape of women and work. The book includes: Strategies to align your professional and personal identities for a new empowering narrative Methods to help you identify the power of your own voice Approaches to help you reconsider and rewrite the rules of engagement for how you work and build your career Own your definition of career success while leveraging all your professional experiences to achieve it How to confidently embody the strongest, boldest, most courageous version of yourself to establish a career with flow and freedom Courage, Clarity, and Confidence is for any woman at any level of her career who wants to redefine success for herself.Â
Building public sector image and trust in Africa requires judicious use of appropriate marketing communications tools and platforms. Contributing authors to this second volume of a two-volume work offer insights into how the selection and strategic utilisation of marketing tools will facilitate interactions between the government and the citizens, improve inter-governmental and inter-agency collaboration, and boost a citizen-oriented public sector. Traditional marketing communications tools continue to play a key role in citizen and public sector relationships; however, given mega-trends of demographic change, urbanisation, and digitalisation in Africa, it is important to consider how public institutions, including government agencies, local government, universities, and football associations, respond and adapt to these changes. The digital revolution presents an opportunity for public sector institutions to align their communication plans with new technologies, particularly leveraging social media platforms. Together with the first volume, which focuses on public relations and brand communication perspectives, this collection fills an existing information gap evident in Africa’s public sector literature. The text serves as a decision making, teaching, and learning guide for practitioners, faculty, and students interested in applying marketing principles and practices to the public sector. Â
A manager has more opportunity to directly motivate employees than does any other organizational influence. And in today's complex and fluid work environments, where retention of top-performing employees is paramount, managers are under considerable pressure to motivate individuals to achieve both personal and organizational goals. Integrating insights from management and psychology, The Manager as Motivator covers such issues as the development of a free-agent workforce, with talent following supply and demand; the emergence of employees as the only true sustainable advantage; and the opportunities and challenges that managers face in their role as motivators, especially when they themselves are wrestling with limited resources and competing demands. Featuring diagnostic exercises, case examples, checklists, and other interactive elements, the book addresses common myths and misconceptions about motivation (such as the popular focus on charismatic leaders) and offers readers many practical tools for becoming more effective motivators—and measuring the positive results. A manager has more opportunity to directly motivate employees than does any other organizational influence. Conversely, research reveals that de-motivating managers are the primary reason employees voluntarily leave. Managers set the tone, translate organizational strategy into employee performance and developmental plans, provide the carrots and the sticks to achieve those plans, and in virtually every other way reinforce—for better or worse—the cultural attitudes of the organization. The Manager as Motivator explores the dynamics of motivation, especially in the context of today's complex and fluid work enivronments, where retention of top-performing employees is paramount. Integrating insights from management and psychology, the author covers such issues as the development of a free-agent workforce, with talent following supply and demand; the emergence of employees as the only true sustainable advantage; and the opportunities and challenges that managers face in their role as motivators, especially when they themselves are wrestling with limited resources and competing demands. Featuring diagnostic exercises, case examples, checklists, and other interactive elements, the book addresses common myths and misconceptions about motivation (such as the popular focus on charismatic leaders) and offers readers many practical tools for becoming more effective motivators—and measuring the positive results.
The most profound social and economic transformation over the last quarter century has been how knowledge and intellectual assets have supplanted physical labor in rearranging work and organizations. Competition for high-paying, knowledge-intensive jobs has become fierce, as corporations seek out the best talent for the cheapest price. Knowledge-intensive work is the key to long term success. A new nationalism seems irrelevant considering that America's well being is inextricably linked to the rest of the world. A purpose-driven life seems unattainable given lifestyles built on brand loyalty. Innovation seems an illusion given massive job de-skilling and outsourcing. In post-civil rights America, people who believe themselves most free are most enslaved. Such are the perils of prosperity.
A comparative study of managers' decision making styles.
Explore the true potential and impact of business automation Digital transformation of the business landscape is well underway, and businesses are being reshaped faster than ever before. Agility and adaptability are now critical components of these business' survival. But building these traits requires a holistic approach with an unrelenting focus on automation. How does one go about developing that focus? In The New Automation Mindset: The Leadership Blueprint For An Age When Anyone Can Automate Anything With AI, renowned entrepreneur and tech strategists Vijay Tella, Scott Brinker, and Massimo Pezzini deliver a guide to implementing automation in the real world, avoiding jargon and vague bromides in favor of concrete examples of the successful integration of automated technologies and descriptions of the positive results they had on the companies that deployed them. In the book, you'll also find: Hands-on advice for C-suite executives, front-line managers, and everyday employees to implement effective automation frameworks Insightful explorations of the innovation and growth advantages of automation Deep treatments of how automation is about more than just RPA—or Robotic Process Automation—and efficiency An inspiring and practical presentation of one of the most essential topics in business today, The New Automation Mindset will earn a place on the bookshelves of founders, entrepreneurs, managers, shareholders, tech enthusiasts, knowledge workers, and anyone else with an interest in digital transformation and commerce.
Make sense of the managed care systems that dominate the world of EAP professionals and programs today Employee Assistance Programs in Managed Care gives you a valuable overview of modern employee assistance programs. It compares and contrasts EAPs with managed behavioral care products and examines how EAPs are often provided in conjunction with managed care services. This timely book, vital in today's ever-changing EAP climate, will familiarize you with essential managed behavioral technology such as the application of medical necessity criteria. This is especially important today in an environment dominated by employer- or insurer-sponsored managed care systems. You also get a helpful directory of EAP/managed care companiesEmployee Assistance Programs in Managed Care is your guidebook to today's EAPs, providing vital information about: the services modern EAPs offer to employers and employees participating in networks to provide both therapy and EAP services how EAPs interface with managed behavioral care organizations how EAPs are sold how EAPs are marketed and managed today professional issues--certification, credentials, ethics, and more ways that counseling professionals can participate in them to the advantage of their clients--and to their professional practicesEAP professionals, clinical social workers, professional counselors, psychologists, benefit consultants, insurance brokers, psychiatric nurses, and clinical nurse specialists can all improve their practices and stay current with Employee Assistance Programs in Managed Care.
Like it or not, every business—even one conducted from the kitchen table—is global. No matter the industry, employees now routinely travel to other countries or interact with foreign customers, vendors, or fellow employees. Or they conduct business over the phone, via e-mail, or through video links. As a result, they have to understand international customs and etiquette or risk losing customers or botching business relations. And understanding business customs in other cultures isn't merely playing good defense—it often leads to new products or service enhancements that help an enterprise grow. In Passport to Success, Jeanette Martin and Lillian Chaney apply their expertise in business etiquette, training, and intercultural communications to present a practical guide to conducting business successfully around the world. Each chapter in this book presents in-depth information on the business environment and culture in the top twenty trading partners of the United States: Canada, Mexico, Japan, China, United Kingdom, Germany, South Korea, Netherlands, France, Singapore, Taiwan, Belgium, Australia, Brazil, Hong Kong, Switzerland, Malaysia, Italy, India, and Israel. Chapters contain both practical tips and illustrative examples, and the book concludes with a listing of resources (books, magazines, organizations, and Web sites) for additional information. In addition, Passport to Success contains useful overview material that will help business people plan a trip abroad or a campaign to win customers in another country. Besides trade statistics and information on global trade agreements, readers will find information on using the Internet productively to conduct or seek business, how women can succeed in countries with traditional, male-oriented business cultures, how to build cross-cultural relationships, and ways language can enhance—or obstruct—business dealings. Every businessperson is now a player in the global market for goods and services. This book provides valuable tips that will help people avoid missteps and increase their sales and personal success when dealing with counterparts in other countries.
The goal of How a Business Works is to create a framework for understanding business in 12 chapters that you can read, understand, and apply in a relatively short period of time. This framework will serve you in three ways: 1. It will help you to understand the behavior of sellers and employers, so that you can be a more informed businessperson, citizen, consumer, and employee. 2. It will help you to predict the future behavior of sellers and employers, so that you can make better plans and achieve better outcomes as a businessperson, citizen, consumer, and employee. 3. It will give you a basic understanding of business (a framework), so that you can effectively and efficiently learn more about business and organizations from the perspectives of your roles: as a citizen, consumer, employee, and possibly businessperson. All of us have the roles of a citizen and a consumer. Most of us have the role of an employee of an organization. And, some of us may choose the role of a businessperson. How a Business Works seeks to make business understandable to citizens and consumers. The book can help you in your career whether you are an employee of an organization or are self employed. And, finally, the book can assist you in becoming a businessperson. |
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