This book grows from a conference on the state of the art and recent advances in Efficiency and Productivity. Papers were commissioned from leading researchers in the field, and include eight explorations into the analytical foundations of efficiency and productivity analysis. Chapters on modeling advances include reverse directional distance function, a new method for estimating technological production possibilities, a new distance function called a loss distance function, an analysis of productivity and price recovery indices, the relation of technical efficiency measures to productivity measures, the implications for benchmarking and target setting of imposing weight restrictions on DEA models, weight restrictions in a regulatory setting, and the Principle of Least Action. Chapters on empirical applications include a study of innovative firms that use innovation inputs to produce innovation outputs, a study of the impact of potential "coopetition" or cooperation among competitors on the financial performance of European automobile plants, using SFA to estimate the eco-efficiency of dairy farms in Spain, a DEA bankruptcy prediction model, a combined stochastic cost frontier analysis model/mixture hazard model, the evolution of energy intensity in nine Spanish manufacturing industries, and the productivity of US farmers as they age.

Project or program health checks provide tremendous value to businesses and pay for themselves by multiples of magnitude. No matter how well a project or program is performing, there are always activities that can provide better value, reduce costs, or introduce more innovation. IT project and program health checks can help organizations reach their goals and dramatically improve Return on Investment (ROI). IT Project Health Checks: Driving Successful Implementation and Multiples of Business Value offers a proven approach for evaluating IT projects or programs in order to determine how they are performing and how the eventual outcome for the initiative is currently trending. The project or program health checks provide a set of techniques that produce actionable recommendations that can be applied for any combination of the following outcomes: Drive more business and technical value from a program Set a project or program back on track for successful implementation as defined by executive management Rescue a program that is heading towards failure Act as additional insurance for initiatives that are too important to fail Protect executive careers by creating transparency within the inner workings of complex initiatives. The book shows how a review can quickly identify whether an initiative needs to be rescued even when the project team is not aware that it is hurtling towards failure. It also provides techniques for driving business value even when a project team believes it's been stretched as much as possible. Other outcomes covered in this book include: Objectively develop a project Health-Check Scorecard that establishes how well a project is doing and the direction it is headed Demonstrate how to drive business value from an IT program regardless of how well or badly it is tracking Provide surgical advice to improve a project's outcome How to use the many templates and sample deliverables to get a quick start on your own health check. Designed to provide significant value to any member of a project team, program team, stakeholders, sponsors, business users, system integrators, trainers, and IT professionals, this book can help find opportunities to drive multiples of business value and exceed project success metrics.

Digitalization is on everyone's lips as new technology changes business landscapes and conventional companies are outperformed by younger digital and agile contestants. In this volatile environment it seems more relevant than ever before to understand the aspects and business logic behind the elusive phenomenon called "digitalization". Never before have there been such great opportunities to unleash the full potential of technology within organizations to create long-standing competitive advantage. This book explains the strategy and practice of how to lead and control the people side of digital change in a dynamic world of uncertainty and social complexity, and as such the book snares the elusive phenomena of digitalization Digitalization drives behavioral change and calls for a new way of thinking among senior executives. In practice, reaping the benefits of digital technology is not as easy as it first appears to be. This book provides a map to navigate in the volatile business landscape where change occurs continuously because of digital technology. It provides an historical frame of the evolution of digital technology, decodes digitalization's negative influence on the external aspects of customer satisfaction, discusses and explains the strategic and leadership consequences of different forms of digital change, and finally demonstrates how leading digital change can be put into practice. Illustrative case studies and examples are provided throughout as well as models and frameworks. This is a valuable resource for researchers, academics, and students in the fields of organizational studies, organizational change, technology and innovation management, and digitalization.

Presents reasons for the supply chain disruption from various perspective and includes case studies along with an historical perspective for guidance Explores how the supply chain will take shape post COVID-19 Discusses likely future scenarios of new and emerging supply chains Describes various MCDM tools used to make complex decisions by companies to stay ahead Offers domain experts' opinions and views to help in formulating real-time strategies

Project or program health checks provide tremendous value to businesses and pay for themselves by multiples of magnitude. No matter how well a project or program is performing, there are always activities that can provide better value, reduce costs, or introduce more innovation. IT project and program health checks can help organizations reach their goals and dramatically improve Return on Investment (ROI). IT Project Health Checks: Driving Successful Implementation and Multiples of Business Value offers a proven approach for evaluating IT projects or programs in order to determine how they are performing and how the eventual outcome for the initiative is currently trending. The project or program health checks provide a set of techniques that produce actionable recommendations that can be applied for any combination of the following outcomes: Drive more business and technical value from a program Set a project or program back on track for successful implementation as defined by executive management Rescue a program that is heading towards failure Act as additional insurance for initiatives that are too important to fail Protect executive careers by creating transparency within the inner workings of complex initiatives. The book shows how a review can quickly identify whether an initiative needs to be rescued even when the project team is not aware that it is hurtling towards failure. It also provides techniques for driving business value even when a project team believes it's been stretched as much as possible. Other outcomes covered in this book include: Objectively develop a project Health-Check Scorecard that establishes how well a project is doing and the direction it is headed Demonstrate how to drive business value from an IT program regardless of how well or badly it is tracking Provide surgical advice to improve a project's outcome How to use the many templates and sample deliverables to get a quick start on your own health check. Designed to provide significant value to any member of a project team, program team, stakeholders, sponsors, business users, system integrators, trainers, and IT professionals, this book can help find opportunities to drive multiples of business value and exceed project success metrics.

The Lean Approach to Digital Transformation: From Customer to Code and From Code to Customer is organized into three parts that expose and develop the three capabilities that are essential for a successful digital transformation: 1. Understanding how to co-create digital services with users, whether they are customers or future customers. This ability combines observation, dialogue, and iterative experimentation. The approach proposed in this book is based on the Lean Startup approach, according to an extended vision that combines Design Thinking and Growth Hacking. Companies must become truly "customer-centric", from observation and listening to co-development. The revolution of the digital age of the 21st century is that customer orientation is more imperative -- the era of abundance, usages rate of change, complexity of experiences, and shift of power towards communities -- are easier, using digital tools and digital communities. 2. Developing an information system (IS) that is the backbone of the digital transformation - called "exponential information system" to designate an open IS (in particular on its borders), capable of interfacing and combining with external services, positioned as a player in software ecosystems and built for processing scalable and dynamic data flows. The exponential information system is constantly changing and it continuously absorbs the best of information processing technology, such as Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning. 3. Building software "micro-factories" that produce service platforms, which are called "Lean software factories." This "software factory" concept covers the integration of agile methods, tooling and continuous integration and deployment practices, a customer-oriented product approach, and a platform approach based on modularity, as well as API-based architecture and openness to external stakeholders. This software micro-factory is the foundation that continuously produces and provides constantly evolving services. These three capabilities are not unique or specific to this book, they are linked to other concepts such as agile methods, product development according to lean principles, software production approaches such as CICD (continuous integration and deployment) or DevOps. This book weaves a common frame of reference for all these approaches to derive more value from the digital transformation and to facilitate its implementation. The title of the book refers to the "lean approach to digital transformation" because the two underlying frameworks, Lean Startup and Lean Software Factory, are directly inspired by Lean, in the sense of the Toyota Way. The Lean approach is present from the beginning to the end of this book -- it provides the framework for customer orientation and the love of a job well done, which are the conditions for the success of a digital transformation.

Strategic planning is the starting point for projects and often the primary reason for a project's success or failure. It has the potential to enable every organisation to realise its ideals and actualise its values, whether it be a small start-up business, a large international company or even an entire society. Project leaders and project-orientated organisations need to understand strategic planning to recognise their position and environment, and make rational decisions when selecting and defining their projects and programs. But, those same principles can have broader, more profound, and more ambitious applications too. Project: Strategy is a practical handbook that enables organisations of any size, and employees at all levels within them, to form strategic plans and actively contribute to them throughout a project's development. Rather than focus on superficial exercises, this book draws from knowledge outside of business and management - humanities, philosophy, psychology, technology, and engineering - to create a holistic view and a depth of understanding you would never achieve with SWOT analysis alone. Taking the reader on a pragmatic journey, it teaches self-reflexion, social responsibility and creative thinking with application to their projects and plans, but also to their working relationships and to their organisations. This book is also an ideal introductory book to progressive programs on strategic planning, with a focus on collaborative work, open strategy, and open strategic planning on a social level. It provides a wealth of learning tools and case studies to demonstrate best practice. This is the ideal guide to project planning for anyone that wants their planning decisions to be as wise as they are savvy.

This book explores the identified research gap and new field of study of organizational reliability. It develops a definition and theoretical internal structure of the notion of organizational reliability as well as a theoretical background describing the structure of its three pillars, and it showcases a set of organizational solutions dedicated for the enhancement of organizational reliability. The book explores the idea that there are new capabilities needed in every organization: reliability capabilities aiming at enhancing and sustaining the reliability of entire organizations and reliability of management, information technology and human resources. The reliability capabilities are understood as the abilities to anticipate and explore potential and occurring hazards, prevent and resolve disruptions, and learn from the problems in order to maintain a proper organizational performance in both normal and abnormal situations. Based on these three pillars, the book concerns the issue of various organizational solutions in order to indicate a set of them, which supports obtaining and maintaining organizational reliability. The book is recommended reading for researchers, academics and students in the fields of management, and entrepreneurs trying to boost the reliability of their organizations.

Despite the growing attention towards the importance of practical wisdom in business today, little research has been done about the concept of practical wisdom in the Indigenous, Asian and Middle-Eastern traditions. Contemporary studies of wisdom are dominated by the philosophical traditions of Western thought, which is based on the ancient Greek concepts of wisdom. Much less is known about how practical wisdom, as illuminated by these other traditions, can be implemented in today's organizational settings. This book thus fills an important gap in understanding wisdom and how it is applied in a poly-cultural world. Wisdom is culturally bound. Wisdom is poly-cultural and interweaves individuality and communality. Practical wisdom is inextricably connected to many needs of contemporary personal and professional life. Moreover, the increasingly growing poly-culturality around the world requires a better understanding of how practical wisdom is understood in different cultures and traditions. Accordingly, there is a need for a) poly-cultural understanding of the concept of wisdom and b) the role of practical wisdom in a world crying out for wisdom. This book underlines the importance of developing a poly-cultural and interdisciplinary understanding of the concept of practical wisdom in today's complex environment. The book offers significant insight into the implications of the non-Western traditions of wisdom and how such an understanding of the non-Western traditions can help us better and more critically understand and appropriately address new multi-faceted complex emerging phenomena. While the Western traditions offer valuable insight into the implication of wisdom in modern life, an integrated view that brings together the Western and non-Western traditions can provide a more critical and practical insight into how to apply practical wisdom in a contemporary poly-cultural environment.

Providing clear guidance for anyone servicing internal or external customers, this book offers a framework for analyzing and managing quality using a comprehensive closed-loop approach. This book cuts through the complexities of the mantra 'better, cheaper, faster' (BCF) and offers procedures for the evaluation of customer needs, the determination of performance metrics, and the design of effective customer satisfaction surveys. It details basic statistical techniques and packages the framework, procedures, and methods into a management construct that includes external quality certification systems and internal performance management systems. Importantly, the book also describes how these systems can be implemented in a virtual workplace. This quality management book will be essential to service-oriented firms (financial, government, healthcare, hospitality, etc.), as well as any firm with internal customer service processes such as human resource management, purchasing, and accounting. Professionals at all levels, corporate trainers, and students will welcome this book's common set of principles and tools, accompanied by many case studies that illustrate how they are applied in various environments.

Providing clear guidance for anyone servicing internal or external customers, this book offers a framework for analyzing and managing quality using a comprehensive closed-loop approach. This book cuts through the complexities of the mantra 'better, cheaper, faster' (BCF) and offers procedures for the evaluation of customer needs, the determination of performance metrics, and the design of effective customer satisfaction surveys. It details basic statistical techniques and packages the framework, procedures, and methods into a management construct that includes external quality certification systems and internal performance management systems. Importantly, the book also describes how these systems can be implemented in a virtual workplace. This quality management book will be essential to service-oriented firms (financial, government, healthcare, hospitality, etc.), as well as any firm with internal customer service processes such as human resource management, purchasing, and accounting. Professionals at all levels, corporate trainers, and students will welcome this book's common set of principles and tools, accompanied by many case studies that illustrate how they are applied in various environments.

Global competition and growing costumer expectations force indus trial enterprises to reorganize their business processes and to support cost-effective customer services. Realizing the potential savings to be gained by exacting customer-delivery processes, logistics is currently sub ject to incisive changes. This upheaval aims at making competitive ad vantage from logistic services instead of viewing them simply as business necessity. With respect to this focus logistics management comprises the process of planning, implementing, and controlling the efficient, effective flow and storage of goods and services, and related information from point of origin to point of consumption for the purpose of conforming customer requirements I . This definition implies a holistic view on the logistic network, where the actors are suppliers, manufacturers, stock keepers, shipping agents, distributors, retailers and finally consumers. The flow of goods along the supply chain considers raw-materials, work-in-process parts, intermedi ate and finished products, and possibly waste. The prevailing manage ment of logistics operation is driven by aggregated forecasting of these material flows. Modern logistics management propagates a disaggregated view of the material flow in order to meet the precise requirements at the interface between actors in the supply chain. Replacing aggregated information by detailed values establishes the prerequisites for an integrated process planning which goes for the shift from anticipatory towards response based logistic81. Smaller units of goods are considered at shorter periods for planning, implementing and controlling the material flow. From Icf. the Council of Logistics Management (1995)."

The categorisation of analytical projects could help to simplify complexity reasonably and, at the same time, clarify the critical aspects of analytical initiatives. But how can this complex work be categorized? What makes it so complex? Data Analytics Initiatives: Managing Analytics for Success emphasizes that each analytics project is different. At the same time, analytics projects have many common aspects, and these features make them unique compared to other projects. Describing these commonalities helps to develop a conceptual understanding of analytical work. However, features specific to each initiative affects the entire analytics project lifecycle. Neglecting them by trying to use general approaches without tailoring them to each project can lead to failure. In addition to examining typical characteristics of the analytics project and how to categorise them, the book looks at specific types of projects, provides a high-level assessment of their characteristics from a risk perspective, and comments on the most common problems or challenges. The book also presents examples of questions that could be asked of relevant people to analyse an analytics project. These questions help to position properly the project and to find commonalities and general project challenges.

Data analytics underpin our modern data-driven economy. This textbook explains the relevance of data analytics at the firm and industry levels, tracing the evolution and key components of the field, and showing how data analytics insights can be leveraged for business results. The first section of the text covers key topics such as data analytics tools, data mining, business intelligence, customer relationship management, and cybersecurity. The chapters then take an industry focus, exploring how data analytics can be used in particular settings to strengthen business decision-making. A range of sectors are examined, including financial services, accounting, marketing, sport, health care, retail, transport, and education. With industry case studies, clear definitions of terminology, and no background knowledge required, this text supports students in gaining a solid understanding of data analytics and its practical applications. PowerPoint slides, a test bank of questions, and an instructor's manual are also provided as online supplements. This will be a valuable text for undergraduate level courses in data analytics, data mining, business intelligence, and related areas.

This book guides process-industry professionals from the implementation of the basic foundations of Continuous Improvement (CI) through to an organization where CI is a "way of life" and a defining feature of the culture of the organization. The readers of this book are seeking solutions to such pressing issues as: * Eliminating accidents and near misses. * Reducing customer complaints. * Improving customer delivery performance. * Elimination of accidents and near misses. * Reducing customer complaints. * Improving customer delivery performance. * Introducing new products. * Improving staff productivity. * Removing costs to meet the budget. * Dealing with absence and poor morale. * Improving staff retention. This book provides them with guidance on how to address issues in these areas in a way that enables improvements to be realized quickly but not at the expense of a long-term goal of a sustainable Continuous Improvement culture. In addition, this book presents the implementation of CI as a cyclical journey with no endpoint. The stages are ordered in a sequence that enables the reader to get started in their area of the company and build up the elements without the need for an overall organizational strategy at the beginning. Continuous Improvement is a vast subject with many takes on principles, approaches, and tools. This book is about how all the fundamentals of these areas fit together and, as such, covers only some of them. However, within the bibliography, I have signposted the books that have guided me during my career and which go into the principles, approaches, and tools further.

This book guides process-industry professionals from the implementation of the basic foundations of Continuous Improvement (CI) through to an organization where CI is a "way of life" and a defining feature of the culture of the organization. The readers of this book are seeking solutions to such pressing issues as: * Eliminating accidents and near misses. * Reducing customer complaints. * Improving customer delivery performance. * Elimination of accidents and near misses. * Reducing customer complaints. * Improving customer delivery performance. * Introducing new products. * Improving staff productivity. * Removing costs to meet the budget. * Dealing with absence and poor morale. * Improving staff retention. This book provides them with guidance on how to address issues in these areas in a way that enables improvements to be realized quickly but not at the expense of a long-term goal of a sustainable Continuous Improvement culture. In addition, this book presents the implementation of CI as a cyclical journey with no endpoint. The stages are ordered in a sequence that enables the reader to get started in their area of the company and build up the elements without the need for an overall organizational strategy at the beginning. Continuous Improvement is a vast subject with many takes on principles, approaches, and tools. This book is about how all the fundamentals of these areas fit together and, as such, covers only some of them. However, within the bibliography, I have signposted the books that have guided me during my career and which go into the principles, approaches, and tools further.

* Provide expert insights and detailed explanations of the various practices and functions involved in break bulk and general cargo maritime operations. * Unique in addressing a prevalent element of the shipping business that requires a greater level of in-depth knowledge. * Written to appeal to a global audience. * Complementary to Rowbotham's Introduction to Marine Cargo Management.

Manufacturing towards Excellence in spinning mills aims to help the relevant organization to cut costs, improve throughput, effective utilization of resources and to safeguard the interests of stakeholders. Major aspects discussed includes quality assurance, production management, maintenance management of modern machinery and laboratory equipment towards achieving manufacturing excellence with benchmarking and industry norms. Relevant case studies are provided with dedicated chapters on training and development of employees, energy management and customer focus. Explains industry norms to benchmark any spinning mill against the manufacturing performance parameters. Includes Failure Mode and Effect Analysis and Total Productive Maintenance aspects. Explores training and development standards in spinning mills. Discusses energy management and customer focus through effective techniques. Reviews SPDM, PDM Tools, Contamination index, Spin plan, Customer Satisfaction Index, Co-Creation, and HPT This book is aimed at professionals and researchers in textile engineering and management.

Comprehensive but digestible and affordable guide to the complexities of English and Welsh Building Regulations Has become the go to for a variety of professionals and students in Construction, Architecture and Built Environment fields who need a reference to UK building regs Provides easy to read and ready reference guidance on the Regulations without having to wade through the Regs themselves Packed with useful features, notes and flags to guide the reader on important points and suggestions

This volume provides critical, authoritative evaluations of advances in the discipline of textile engineering. Reporting on recent advances with significant applications in textile engineering, the chapters are written by internationally recognized researchers. This book covers important concepts and advances in the field, including applications of nonwovens in textile engineering, textile waste treatment for use in emulsion rubbers, parameters of polyhydroxybutyrate nanofibers, preparation of amines for use in textile engineering, progress in photovoltaic textile, and new applications in nanoengineering materials.

With the globalization of work and technological advancements in recent years, and with emphasis on service quality today, organizations have changed. Virtual work has emerged as the new employment relationship and has been embraced by employees and employers in many industries. This book explores the dynamics of changing organization structures, theories of leadership and trust, and how dimensions of self-efficacy works in this new work relationship. Organizational Behavior and Virtual Work: Concepts and Analytical Approaches shows the enormous impact of technology and globalization on employment relationships and also predicts how they will contribute to the changing dimensions of organizations in the future. With a unique blend of theory and application in the real world of virtual workers, the book presents the most recent research and developments in the relatively new and still emerging area of virtual work. It takes an in-depth critical look into the key factors affecting the virtual work environment with practical inputs of suggestions and recommendations. With the objective of presenting information about this new work scenario, this book attempts to unfold important human behavior processes in organizations. The volume presents a rare combination of the necessary concepts of human behavior in organizations along with the results of research in the field and also makes practical recommendations on virtual work programs. Key features include a unique blend of research with organizational behavior concepts and practical recommendations for workers, managers, and business executives.

With the increasing globalization and fast-paced technological advances in business today, service organizations must to respond to the changing business dynamic between employers and employees. The service industry has metamorphosed into a revolution not only in United States but in developed and developing countries also. Highly industrialized countries have become 'service economies', at least when measured in terms of share of the workforce employed in service industries. This new book, Employees and Employers in Service Organizations: Emerging Challenges and Opportunities, the first volume in the 21st Century Business Management book series, provides an in-depth exploration of recent concepts and trends in business management in the service industries. It looks at the changing expectations and loyalties of young workers and others and the challenges and opportunities presented for service employers. The book considers theory and research findings, providing a plethora of practical implications and applications for these new workplace behavior dynamics. Exploring the different perspectives and concepts from the book's researchers and authors, Employees and Employers in Service Organizations: Emerging Challenges and Opportunities cover themes such as * work-life balance * spirituality in the workplace * emerging positive psychology concepts, such as psychological capital, knowledge management, and mindfulness * expectations, motivation, and behavior of different generations, such as Generation Y This informative volume will be valuable for faculty teaching courses in management and self-improvement for leaders and executives as well as for those in service industries.

The Internet is making our daily lives as digital as possible, and this new era is called the Internet of Everything (IoE). The key force behind the rapid growth of the Internet is the technological advancement of enterprises. The digital world we live in is facilitated by these enterprises' advances and business intelligence. These enterprises need to deal with gazillions of bytes of data, and in today's age of General Data Protection Regulation, enterprises are required to ensure privacy and security of large-scale data collections. However, the increased connectivity and devices used to facilitate IoE are continually creating more room for cybercriminals to find vulnerabilities in enterprise systems and flaws in their corporate governance. Ensuring cybersecurity and corporate governance for enterprises should not be an afterthought or present a huge challenge. In recent times, the complex diversity of cyber-attacks has been skyrocketing, and zero-day attacks, such as ransomware, botnet, and telecommunication attacks, are happening more frequently than before. New hacking strategies would easily bypass existing enterprise security and governance platforms using advanced, persistent threats. For example, in 2020, the Toll Group firm was exploited by a new crypto-attack family for violating its data privacy, where an advanced ransomware technique was launched to exploit the corporation and request a huge figure of monetary ransom. Even after applying rational governance hygiene, cybersecurity configuration and software updates are often overlooked when they are most needed to fight cyber-crime and ensure data privacy. Therefore, the threat landscape in the context of enterprises has become wider and far more challenging. There is a clear need for collaborative work throughout the entire value chain of this network. In this context, this book addresses the cybersecurity and cooperate governance challenges associated with enterprises, which will provide a bigger picture of the concepts, intelligent techniques, practices, and open research directions in this area. This book serves as a single source of reference for acquiring the knowledge on the technology, process, and people involved in next-generation privacy and security.

Currently, businesses are forced to be more innovative than ever before. Organizations must be sensitive to global trends -- such as digitization, globalization, and automation -- and at the same time build resilience and flexibility to combat unexpected changes in customer demand. The coronavirus pandemic is just the most recent and pronounced example of this new-normal business necessity. Amidst the disruption, many businesses are caught not knowing how to proceed. How ought one pursue or achieve innovation for the company? Are there different innovation strategies? Why might a business leader choose one over the other? The Lean Innovation Cycle addresses these concerns by introducing a new multidisciplinary framework for both thinking about and pursing innovation. By taking key concepts from the quality management practices of Lean and Six Sigma, the framework augments these tools and disciplines by incorporating other problem-solving and design techniques, including Human-Centered Design. The result is a view of innovation that many business leaders will find fits nicely into their existing paradigm of strategy and operational discipline. After the introduction of the framework, the book turns to understanding the differences, advantages, and tradeoffs in pursuing Lean Innovation in lieu of traditional, technologically driven innovation approaches. To this end, the book considers issues of sustainability, organizational strategy, and competitive advantage. The result is a thought-provoking dialogue that informs the reader about the key considerations of how best to pursue innovation within their business and the business environment, as well as the circumstances that might make one innovation strategy more congruent to an organization's culture, goals, and objectives than the other.

This book will explore a new approach to airport planning that better captures the complexities and velocity of change in our contemporary world. As a result, it will lead to higher performing airports for users, business partners, investors and other stakeholders. This is especially pertinent since airports will need to come back better from the Covid-19 pandemic. The book explains the importance of articulating a clear strategy, based on a rigorous analysis of the competitive landscape while avoiding the pitfalls of ambiguity and 'virtue signalling'. Having done so, demand forecasts can be developed that resemble S-curves, not simple straight lines, that reflect strategic opportunities and threats from which a master plan can be developed to allocate land and capital in a way that maximizes return on assets and social licence. The second distinctive feature of this book is the premise that planning an airport as an island, a fortress even, does not work anymore given how interconnected airports are with other components of the transportation system, the economies and communities they serve and the rapid pace of social and technological change. In summary, the book argues that airport planning needs to move beyond its traditional boundaries. The book is replete with real examples from airports of all sizes around the world and includes practical advice and tools for executives and managers. It is recommended reading for individuals working in the airport business or the broader air transport industry, members of airports' board of directors, who may be new to the business, elected officials, policy makers and urban planners in jurisdictions hosting or adjacent to airports, regulators, economic development professionals and, finally, students.