This book sets out to explain blockchain for the non-technical expert, to decipher the dense technicalities that dominate the field and to present the opportunities for busy professionals using practical applications and case studies. Presented in a clear and structured way and with documented real-world cases, the book is a practical reference guide that can be used across different industries. It offers both a constructive and critical review of the pain points blockchain is facing today, illustrates the pitfalls as well as the opportunities for business and describes the steps towards overcoming them. It also aims to provide a unique view of both the intersection and synergy of blockchain with other emerging technologies and the wider digital ecosystem, as we see increasingly that blockchain alone won't be able to deliver business solutions. Most important, the book identifies trends and a path for the future of blockchain and its impact on society as a whole. The book is written for business audiences across all sectors. It is not a technical guide to blockchain, but it enables businesspeople to be better informed and prepared to plan ahead and develop strategies using blockchain.

In today's competitive markets, considering the demand and the supply chain sides is crucial to keeping revenue and customer satisfaction maximized. Managing and planning demand play a vital role in the sustainability of a company. This is the first book to the discuss managerial, mathematical, and conceptual framework of influencing factors on demand along with accurate mathematical analyses to evaluate and raise revenue. The book provides an understanding of the key elements that impact buyer demand. It presents the mathematical relationship between the influencing factors and the demand functions. It discusses the methods used for inspiring demand, how to measure demand dependency on components such as price, quality, and inventory, and it helps management improve alignment between supply and demand by affecting the level and understanding of the role within supply chain management (SCM). This book is applicable for the professional as well as for academia. It can help those working in SCM, project management, production, inventory control, scheduling, engineering management, retail management, and operations management.

This book weaves together spirituality and a systemic version of emotional intelligence that incorporates Kurt Lewin's social science and other sources. Emotional intelligence calls on us to be fully present "to the moment." It calls on us to be appreciative of ourselves and our relationships. Likewise, a calm and compassionate presence is almost universally recognized as a spiritual way of being. In other words, the overwhelming majority of the world's spiritual sources call on us to be emotionally intelligent and that link is explored with unique clarity in this simple yet powerful text. We are all reactive at times. Becoming more objective and less attached allows us to feel our feelings without being a prisoner to acting on them in habitual ways. From a more detached perspective, feelings are neither good nor bad, but simply clues as to how we are perceiving our environment, especially our social environment. This is especially important in terms of our relationships at work. Our perceptions about what people intend trigger our emotional reactions. Think about the difference when you perceive critical feedback as a sincere attempt to help or when you perceive it as an attack of some sort. Perception evokes different emotional responses. Objectivity about our own perception is even more important than objectivity about emotion, because the former usually precedes the later. Paradoxically, being detached allows one to appreciate and experience one's emotions more fully. Recognizing emotion as part of your inner guidance system instead of as something dangerous that must be controlled or denied is freeing. The less emotion runs you, the more you can accept feeling what you feel. Emotion is a form of physical energy. Fighting your own feelings takes energy. Allowing the ebb and flow of emotion is essential to physical and emotional health and to accepting ourselves as we are.

A brilliant guide for product managers - updated with new ways to think about customers, markets, products, and business models, where business transformation is the watchword! The Product Manager's Survival Guide has been helping product managers master their craft since its original publication. But six years has virtually transformed the way businesses plan, create, and manage their products, and this brand-new edition brings readers fully up to date to compete in the digital world. Steven Haines spent a full year conducting research, both in Silicon Valley and across the globe to learn what makes companies achieve success through the effective deployment of product management, and the cultivation of product managers. This new edition draws upon that knowledge and shows even the most traditional companies how to compete in the digital age. The Product Manager's Survival Guide, Second Edition includes: *NEW tools to assess product management acumen*NEW methodologies and tools for assessing and improving product strategy*NEW and updated chapters on people, processes, and products that create unique customer experiences*NEW ways to think about phased and agile product development

Many economically developing countries and nations without robust occupational hygiene (OH) educational programs endure a shortage of qualified occupational hygienists, resulting in higher rates of workplace injury, illness, and fatality. Damage to valuable infrastructure, environment, and public health also occurs without adequate support. Improving Global Worker Health and Safety Through Collaborative Capacity Building Initiatives outlines a broad variety of capacity building projects in OH. It also introduces detailed experiences of occupational hygienists working abroad and working on special global topics including a discussion of how global trade agreements influence the practice and policy within OH. It describes the special needs of informal workers who do not have a "typical" employer and special challenges of creating university curricular guidelines for OH, building competency, and increasing capacity. This book also informs experienced professionals in international OH-capacity building initiatives and directions. Features: Presents the global impact and importance of occupational hygienists Outlines knowledge and collaboration through networking Provides case studies on real world situations and problems This text will be useful for professionals and graduate students in the fields of occupational health and safety and public health.

Forever Chemicals: Environmental, Economic, and Social Equity Concerns with PFAS in the Environment provides the reader with an understanding of the complex and interwoven issues associated with per- and polyfluorinated substances (PFAS) in our environment. The chapters provide in-depth perspective into various issues, including health, regulation, detection, clean-up strategies and technologies, and more. Taken together or as the reader's interests lead them, the variety of topics covered in the book present a balanced perspective on this complex topic. It will address the current state of PFAS and where indicators are pointing for future developments. The book is also a deeper investigation of the regulatory challenges, analytical hurdles, and toxicological progress to date for the suite of PFAS chemicals. Features Explains the trends that will affect future policy and regulatory decisions Looks holistically at 4000+ PFAS chemicals Includes PFAS risk assessments at contaminated sites and biomonitoring insights Provides in-depth discussions on remediation technologies Illustrates quality and diversified content Provides a balanced perspective on this complex topic

This book sets out to explain blockchain for the non-technical expert, to decipher the dense technicalities that dominate the field and to present the opportunities for busy professionals using practical applications and case studies. Presented in a clear and structured way and with documented real-world cases, the book is a practical reference guide that can be used across different industries. It offers both a constructive and critical review of the pain points blockchain is facing today, illustrates the pitfalls as well as the opportunities for business and describes the steps towards overcoming them. It also aims to provide a unique view of both the intersection and synergy of blockchain with other emerging technologies and the wider digital ecosystem, as we see increasingly that blockchain alone won't be able to deliver business solutions. Most important, the book identifies trends and a path for the future of blockchain and its impact on society as a whole. The book is written for business audiences across all sectors. It is not a technical guide to blockchain, but it enables businesspeople to be better informed and prepared to plan ahead and develop strategies using blockchain.

A Sensible Guide to Program Management Professional (PgMP) (R) Success is for program managers preparing to take the PgMP exam based on The Standard for Program Management - 4th Edition (PgM4 Standard). It is designed for busy professionals whose responsibilities have taken them into the realm of coordinating, facilitating, managing, and leading programs. Program managers are leaders who are directly managing large amounts of project resources for their organizations. This study guide addresses three main concerns facing PgMP exam candidates: What are the essential concepts, processes, and tools that form the foundation of today's program management? Since program management is still an emerging profession with professionals often working in different ways, what does this mean for a "standard" exam? More specifically, how does that impact your ability to pass the PgMP exam? What is the best way to prepare for the PgMP exam? To address the first concern, this book highlights the underlying rationale for program management: why it exists in organizations; why it is becoming ever more important; what programs are, especially for the purpose of passing the exam; how to think like a portfolio manager; and what the most important concepts, processes, and tools are for this profession. By simplifying complex ideas and communicating them in plain English with relevant examples, this book aims to help readers not only to pass the PgMP exam but also to serve as an essential guide for program managers. For the second concern, this book differs from other study guides by describing the author's personal experience as a program manager and addressing the most pressing questions for each of the performance domains in The Standard for Program Management. To address the last concern, this book contains 420 practice questions, access to an online exam simulator and an online PgMP community, and a time-tested approach for passing the PgMP exam.

This volume provides valuable insights into how organizations are changing and evolving and how human resource personnel, employers, and employees are reacting to these emerging workplace transitions. Today's successful organizations must be learning organizations in that they must keep abreast and change with the new workplace dynamics. The volume explores the new and future challenges and opportunities for employees and employers, particularly in reference to service organizations in the 21st century. It explores many of the new trends in conjunction with a focus on work-life balance, globalization, redefining leadership, contingent work force, stress management, telecommuting, work force diversity, ergonomics, life satisfaction/subjective well-being, and more.

This cross-disciplinary business book develops insight into the management of businesses operating in various economic sectors that take a proactive approach to the triple dimension of sustainability (economic, social and environmental), positioning itself as a key reference for both academics and practitioners in the wide area of business management. The concept of sustainability is today at the heart of international policies and debate, and plays a key role in deep changes to the organizational models of companies operating in a wide range of sectors of economic activity. In particular, this book aims to gain a deeper understanding of how stakeholder engagement can contribute to value co-creation both in the company and along the supply chain, and what distinguishes the differing involvement of stakeholders, in particular between public involvement and stakeholder participation. Each chapter of this book presents different modalities of stakeholder involvement and develops the concept of value co-creation from organizational and marketing perspectives. This book is recommended reading for those interested in the fields of stakeholder engagement and theory, sustainability, business studies, and sustainable development.

When thinking about lowering or changing consumption to lower carbon footprints, the obvious offenders come easily to mind: petroleum and petroleum products, paper and plastic, even food, but not clothes. When people evaluate ways to lower their personal carbon footprint by changing purchasing habits, they are bombarded with information to avoid petroleum and petroleum products, plastics, paper, even food, but not clothes. Most consumers do not think of clothes as a source of environmental damage. Yet, clothes are made with petroleum products through chemically-laden industrial processes that generate significant pollution. The fashion industry is among the largest organic water polluters in the world, accounting for significant greenhouse gas emissions and generating massive amounts of waste as a function of the frequent discarding of used clothing. In the Dirty Side of the Garment Industry: Fast Fashion and Its Negative Impact on Environment and Society, author Nikolay Anguelov exposed the ecological damage from the fast-fashion business model. In this book, The Sustainable Fashion Quest: Innovations in Business and Policy, the author takes this one step further by focusing on solutions. This book uses the familiar (yet complex) industry of fashion as a lens to examine how business pressures and national and international policies can have both positive and negative social and ecological impacts. It provides an analysis of extant and emerging policies to address the divergence in the ongoing quest to maximize economic development and minimize the social costs of the industrialization process. It also examines emerging technologies and innovative business models that have the potential to revolutionize how fashion is perceived, manufactured, and consumed. This book begins with an introductory letter that outlines the social and environmental issues facing the fashion industry, as well as emphasizing the seriousness and urgency of addressing them. Each chapter then focuses on a major aspect of the industry with an increasing emphasis on policy. The chapters outline the impact of global-level and business-level decisions on the industry's success, its social and environmental impact, and its relationship to consumers. The goal of the book is to define that transition, explain its challenges, and educate readers on the possibilities to become powerful drivers of change through their professional actions and their personal behavior as consumers. While the book specifically analyzes the fashion industry, it also explains the implications for other industrial sectors. It uses a product everyone is familiar with (we all buy clothes, after all) to examine the decisions, impacts, and policies shaping the industry behind the scenes. The linkages are applicable to other fast-moving consumer goods (FMCG) business sectors, such as consumer electronics, which are starting to face sustainability criticism for relying on a business model of promoting a high frequency of repeat purchasing.

In 2019, ISO Technical Committee 279 released a new international standard on innovation management system called ISO 56002:2019. The objective of this standard is to provide a framework on how to build an innovation ecosystem that can be sustained over time. Similar to the quality management system that ISO established decades ago, this standard provides instructions related to best practices on how to manage innovation activities, projects, and programs. It does not describe detailed activities within the organization, but rather provides guidance at a general level. It does not prescribe any requirements or specific tools or methods for innovation activities. Essentially, the standard does not provide guidance on how to implement and/or use the standard. The standard basically tells you what to do and document - this powerful book tells you how to do it. The techniques in this book are directed at key tasks across the innovative process, such as maximizing quality, productivity, maintainability, usability, and reliability, while focusing on reducing the product cycle time and costs within the innovative process. Currently, there are no other comprehensive books available on how to fully implement this standard in companies. This book is crucial for managers, business leaders, entrepreneurs, and consultants looking for help to reap the benefits of an innovation management system. This book takes you step by step through the process of developing an innovation ecosystem. In addition, it provides frameworks, tools, methodologies, cases, and best practices so your organization can experience the full value of the standard.

When thinking about lowering or changing consumption to lower carbon footprints, the obvious offenders come easily to mind: petroleum and petroleum products, paper and plastic, even food, but not clothes. When people evaluate ways to lower their personal carbon footprint by changing purchasing habits, they are bombarded with information to avoid petroleum and petroleum products, plastics, paper, even food, but not clothes. Most consumers do not think of clothes as a source of environmental damage. Yet, clothes are made with petroleum products through chemically-laden industrial processes that generate significant pollution. The fashion industry is among the largest organic water polluters in the world, accounting for significant greenhouse gas emissions and generating massive amounts of waste as a function of the frequent discarding of used clothing. In the Dirty Side of the Garment Industry: Fast Fashion and Its Negative Impact on Environment and Society, author Nikolay Anguelov exposed the ecological damage from the fast-fashion business model. In this book, The Sustainable Fashion Quest: Innovations in Business and Policy, the author takes this one step further by focusing on solutions. This book uses the familiar (yet complex) industry of fashion as a lens to examine how business pressures and national and international policies can have both positive and negative social and ecological impacts. It provides an analysis of extant and emerging policies to address the divergence in the ongoing quest to maximize economic development and minimize the social costs of the industrialization process. It also examines emerging technologies and innovative business models that have the potential to revolutionize how fashion is perceived, manufactured, and consumed. This book begins with an introductory letter that outlines the social and environmental issues facing the fashion industry, as well as emphasizing the seriousness and urgency of addressing them. Each chapter then focuses on a major aspect of the industry with an increasing emphasis on policy. The chapters outline the impact of global-level and business-level decisions on the industry's success, its social and environmental impact, and its relationship to consumers. The goal of the book is to define that transition, explain its challenges, and educate readers on the possibilities to become powerful drivers of change through their professional actions and their personal behavior as consumers. While the book specifically analyzes the fashion industry, it also explains the implications for other industrial sectors. It uses a product everyone is familiar with (we all buy clothes, after all) to examine the decisions, impacts, and policies shaping the industry behind the scenes. The linkages are applicable to other fast-moving consumer goods (FMCG) business sectors, such as consumer electronics, which are starting to face sustainability criticism for relying on a business model of promoting a high frequency of repeat purchasing.

Knowledge Intensive Business Services (KIBS) are becoming more and more relevant both for their innovative content and as innovation boosters for manufacturing firms and, with this scenario in mind, this book first offers an in-depth analysis of what innovation in KIBS is and its performance outcomes, and then synthesizes what we know about KIBS firms' innovation models, as well as their specific peculiarities and limitations. This book examines the recent trends in innovation, service design and development in KIBS, starting from a review of the extant literature, explaining the role and specific traits of innovation in KIBS. Then, it progresses our knowledge about KIBS and about how new technologies are offering unique opportunities to use and share their knowledge, within and across boundaries. The book also includes several cases that show how, at the micro level, firms can effectively design their services and boost their innovation performance, by overcoming some of the traditional limits of innovation in services. While KIBS literature traditionally emphasizes that innovative and performing KIBS firms rely on tight client-provider interactions with service customization, recent research suggests that alternative modes of innovation are viable for performing KIBS firms: KIBS firms can develop mass customization strategies, ease interactions with clients via ICT interfaces and leverage on focused collaborations with expert clients. Particularly, the digitalization and ICT technologies are fostering platform and modular architectural designs of KIBS, as in the software and web design services. The book seeks a broader understanding of innovation in KIBS in the digital era and will be an essential guide for both academics and practitioners interested in KIBS innovation and design.

The Stakeholder Perspective places people at the center of both projects and project management. It gives to the project management community a helpful, innovative, stakeholder-centered approach to increase projects' delivered value and success rate. It presents a logical model also called the "Stakeholder Perspective," which acts as the reference point in a structured path to effectiveness. Starting from the analysis of a project's stakeholders, the model integrates both rational and relational innovative approaches. Its continuous focus on stakeholder requirements and expectations helps to set a proper path, and to maintain it, in order to target success and to achieve goals in a variety of projects with different size and complexity. The book presents a set of innovative and immediately applicable techniques for effective stakeholder identification and classification, as well as analysis of stakeholder requirements and expectations, key stakeholders management, stakeholder network management, and, more generally, stakeholder relationship management. The proposed stakeholder classification model consists of just four communities, each one based on the commonality of main interests and behavior. This model features an accurate and stable identification process to increase effective communication and drastic reduce relationship complexity. A systemic approach is proposed to analyze both stakeholder requirements and expectations. The approach aids in detecting otherwise unclear stakeholder requirements and/or hidden stakeholder expectations. An interactive communication model is presented along with its individual and organizational frames of reference. Also presented are relevant cues to maximize effective and purposeful communication with key stakeholders as well as with the stakeholder network. The importance of satisfying not only the project requirements but also the stakeholder expectations is demonstrated to be the critical success factor in all projects. An innovative approach based on the perceived value and key performance indicators shows how to manage different levels of project complexity. The book also defines a complete structured path to relationship effectiveness called "Relationship Management Project," which can be tailored to enhance stakeholder and communication management processes in each one of the project management process groups (i.e. initiating, planning, executing, monitoring and controlling, and closing). The book concludes with a look ahead at Project Management X.0 and the stakeholder-centered evolution of both project and portfolio management.

Already in just a decade of existence, cryptocurrencies have been the world's best-performing financial asset, outperforming stocks, bonds, commodities and currencies. This comprehensive yet concise book will enable the reader to learn about the nuts and bolts of cryptocurrencies, including their history, technology, regulations and economics. Additionally, this book teaches sound investment strategies that already work along with the spectrum of risks and returns. This book provides a plain-language primer for beginners worldwide on how to confidently navigate the rapidly evolving world of cryptocurrencies. Beginning by cutting to the chase, the author lists the common burning questions about cryptocurrency and provides succinct answers. Next, he gives an overview of cryptocurrency's underlying technology: blockchain. He then explores the history of cryptocurrency and why it's attracted so much attention. With that foundation, readers will be ready to understand how to invest in cryptocurrency: how cryptocurrency differs from traditional investments such as stocks, how to decide which cryptocurrency to invest in, how to acquire it, how to send and receive it, along with investment strategies. Additionally, legal issues, social implications, cybersecurity risks and the vocabulary of cryptocurrency are also covered, including Bitcoin and the many alternative cryptocurrencies. Written by a journalist-turned-professor, this book's appeal lies in its succinct, informative and easy-to-understand style. It will be of great interest to anyone looking to further their understanding of what cryptocurrency is, why it's a big deal, how to acquire it, how to send and receive it, and investment strategies.

Coping with complexities is an everyday reality for private, public and third sectors that face intricate, overlapping, obscuring and ever-changing challenges. Developments in technology and systems of value creation are driving a new need to understand, facilitate and manage complexity. The book proposes design and design research as a solution to respond to the complexities associated with the intensifying and rapid changes in societies, technological fields and environments. A four-step design process for managing complexities is introduced in the four parts of this book, spanning from design research in the field to practice-based contexts. This publication collates high-level research and the latest scholarship on this topic, while many of the case studies described herein draw on rich experiences and applications in practice. The ways designers work to overcome complexities through design, and the methods and frameworks presented in the chapters, provide critical insights and form an important scholarly contribution in this subject area.

Project management disciplines have been a part of IT for many years. Why then, are so many challenges still directly associated with how a project is managed? Many projects fail for a myriad of reasons; most, however, stem from poor or inadequate project evaluation and performance appraisal, while, improved project planning and direction is considered to be one of the key factors to IT project success. Eriona Shtembari arranges evaluation methods and techniques into three groups, managerial-financial-and-development. This book explores the process of project evaluation and the purposes of evaluation, given its strong relationship to the success of the project. It examines IT project evaluation; identifies methods and techniques to be used throughout the project life cycle; examines the benefits of project evaluation and proposes a systematic approach/framework of project evaluation to serve as a tool for successful project management. Shtembari analyses the most up-to-date research relating to the process and methods/techniques of project evaluation, throughout the project life cycle. From the systematic literature review, she identifies the most usable methods and techniques in project evaluation and focuses on the adequacy of these methods and techniques in the service sector. The theoretical underpinning of the book, serves as a base to interpret the interviews in the case study and build a theory as to how the project evaluation context relates to the proposed scientific theory. The findings in this book provide solutions for practitioners to help them boost the evaluation framework and consequently improve their IT project management.

Lean Systems: Applications and Case Studies in Manufacturing, Service, and Healthcare details the various Lean techniques and numerous real-world Lean projects drawn from a wide variety of manufacturing, healthcare, and service processes, demonstrating how to apply the Lean philosophy. The book facilitates Lean instruction by supplying interactive case studies that enable readers to apply the various Lean techniques. It provides an in-depth discussion of the Lean tools (i.e., VSM, standard work, 5S, etc.) and several real-world case studies and applications of Lean that have shown significant improvement in meeting customer requirements. The case studies follow the Six Sigma framework of Define, Measure, Analyze, Improve, and Control (DMAIC) structure for process improvement. The authors include detailed descriptions of each Lean tool and examples of how each Lean technique was applied to a wide variety of manufacturing, service, and healthcare processes. These in-depth descriptions and cases studies can be used by industry professionals and academics to learn how to apply Lean. They provide a detailed, step-by-step approach to Lean and demonstrate how to integrate Lean tools for process improvement and to sustain improvements. But more than this, the approach taken in this book gives readers the tools to effectively apply Lean techniques.

Dealing with such a multi-layered and fungible intangible as quality during the design and construction process is difficult for all parties involved. To the architect, quality means an appealing and enduring design, but to the builder, it means understandable documents that, when acted upon, lead to an enduring, well-made structure. To the owner, it is the end result: a building that is not only fit for the purpose, but a positive addition to its surroundings. Reconciling these seemingly contrasting priorities requires processes that are embedded not just at the project level, but within the entire enterprise with designer, builder, and owner committed to integrating quality into all their business processes. Quality Tools for Managing Construction Projects not only details the importance of developing a comprehensive management system, but provides the tools and techniques required to do so. The book examines the usage and applications of tools and techniques in different phases of a construction project, focusing on plan quality, quality assurance, and quality control. Following the construction cycle, Dr. Rumane delineates the quality tools and their application, ending with the implementation of quality systems throughout the entire design and construction cycle. The book demonstrates how these tools can help in planning, executing, monitoring, and controlling a project-evolving project management into a system that ensures project deliverables consistently meet the defined scope on schedule and within budget. The author's systems perspective recognizes and supports the ideal collaborative approach that modern design and construction projects need. Dr. Rumane then demonstrates that successful quality management is more than a series of handoffs between teams who've completed tasks.

The book has been tested and refined through years of classroom teaching experience. With an abundance of examples, problems, and fully worked out solutions, the text introduces the financial theory and relevant mathematical methods in a mathematically rigorous yet engaging way. This textbook provides complete coverage of discrete-time financial models that form the cornerstones of financial derivative pricing theory. Unlike similar texts in the field, this one presents multiple problem-solving approaches, linking related comprehensive techniques for pricing different types of financial derivatives. Key features: In-depth coverage of discrete-time theory and methodology. Numerous, fully worked out examples and exercises in every chapter. Mathematically rigorous and consistent yet bridging various basic and more advanced concepts. Judicious balance of financial theory, mathematical, and computational methods. Guide to Material. This revision contains: Almost 200 pages worth of new material in all chapters. A new chapter on elementary probability theory. An expanded the set of solved problems and additional exercises. Answers to all exercises. This book is a comprehensive, self-contained, and unified treatment of the main theory and application of mathematical methods behind modern-day financial mathematics. Table of Contents List of Figures and Tables Preface I Introduction to Pricing and Management of Financial Securities 1 Mathematics of Compounding 2 Primer on Pricing Risky Securities 3 Portfolio Management 4 Primer on Derivative Securities II Discrete-Time Modelling 5 Single-Period Arrow-Debreu Models 6 Introduction to Discrete-Time Stochastic Calculus 7 Replication and Pricing in the Binomial Tree Model 8 General Multi-Asset Multi-Period Model Appendices A Elementary Probability Theory B Glossary of Symbols and Abbreviations C Answers and Hints to Exercises References Index Biographies Giuseppe Campolieti is Professor of Mathematics at Wilfrid Laurier University in Waterloo, Canada. He has been Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council postdoctoral research fellow and university research fellow at the University of Toronto. In 1998, he joined the Masters in Mathematical Finance as an instructor and later as an adjunct professor in financial mathematics until 2002. Dr. Campolieti also founded a financial software and consulting company in 1998. He joined Laurier in 2002 as Associate Professor of Mathematics and as SHARCNET Chair in Financial Mathematics. Roman N. Makarov is Associate Professor and Chair of Mathematics at Wilfrid Laurier University. Prior to joining Laurier in 2003, he was an Assistant Professor of Mathematics at Siberian State University of Telecommunications and Informatics and a senior research fellow at the Laboratory of Monte Carlo Methods at the Institute of Computational Mathematics and Mathematical Geophysics in Novosibirsk, Russia.

Operational excellence, as a quest in the prevailing digital era, is predicated on a systems view of the operating environments in business, industry, government, academia, and other organizational entities. This book uses a systems-based approach to show how operational excellence can be pursued, achieved, and sustained. It offers a systems perspective for operational excellence and discusses the evolution of products from the classical operation era to present day digital operations. It covers the role of global markets on domestic operations, presents operational work design and ergonomics, and combines industrial engineering, advanced research, and practical experience. This book is a useful guide for scholars, practitioners and those involved in engineering, management, and business fields.

Achieve Technological Advancements in Applied Science and Engineering Using Efficient Experiments That Consume the Least Amount of Resources Written by longtime experimental design guru Thomas B. Barker and experimental development/Six Sigma expert Andrew Milivojevich, Quality by Experimental Design, Fourth Edition shows how to design and analyze experiments statistically, drive process and product innovation, and improve productivity. The book presents an approach to experimentation that assesses many factors, builds predictive models, and verifies the models. New to the Fourth Edition Updated computer programs used to perform simulations, including the latest version of Minitab (R) Four new chapters on mixture experiments: Introduction to Mixture Experiments, The Simplex Lattice Design, The Simplex Centroid Design, and Constrained Mixtures Additional exercises and Minitab updates A Proven, Practical Guide for Newcomers and Seasoned Practitioners in Engineering, Applied Science, Quality, and Six Sigma This bestselling, applied text continues to cover a broad range of experimental designs for practical use in applied research, quality and process engineering, and product development. With its easy-to-read, conversational style, the book is suitable for any course in applied statistical experimental design or in a Six Sigma program.

Exploring the practices developed by remote teams to maintain trust across cultures, this book offers both theoretical and practical resources to enable better working in challenging contexts of project work. This book emphasizes building trust between team members from a practice perspective, meaning patterns of collective, shared activities that are produced and reproduced within the virtual team with the purpose of developing team trust. The author explores the trust practices that members of remote project teams use to describe their relationships and interactions. Team trust practices are powerful organizational tools for members of remote cross-cultural teams, influencing team decision-making and facilitating team effectiveness. This book offers extensive descriptions of team practices that build and maintain trust in virtual teams in two different cultures: Germany and Singapore. This is a unique contribution as it offers case studies from project teams that were observed and interviewed during their work and provides readers an in-depth, contextual analysis of the trust practices that virtual project teams develop, which previous research has overlooked. This book will appeal to researchers and graduate students in MBA programs studying project management, human resource management, and strategic leadership. This book is also of direct interest to many practitioners, particularly management consultants and project managers of virtual, cross-cultural, and interdisciplinary project teams.