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Start with No, by negotiation coach Jim Camp, is a tenaciously contrarian guide to the art and science of give-and-take that proposes a viable alternative for today's prevailing "win-win" approach. Beginning with an inverse premise--that having the right to say "no" and veto any agreement is actually the key to favorably concluding the various deals and transactions we face every day--Camp's procedure counters the common emotion-based urge to compromise ("a defeatist mind-set from the first handshake") with a series of less intuitive decision-oriented actions. "My system teaches you how to control what you can control in a negotiation," Camp writes. "When you do so, you can and will succeed (understanding that success sometimes means walking away with a polite good-bye)." Emphasizing the importance of this underlying attitude, his method combines related steps like defining a mission, understanding the adversary, assessing fiscal and emotional investments, preparing an agenda, and tracking behavior. Each is fully explained, as are associated skills such as how to structure a question to elicit a truly helpful response (e.g., "What else do you need?" vs. "Is there anything else you need?"). Despite its unorthodox manner, if diligently applied, the route that Camp details here may indeed produce winning results. --Howard Rothman ... Read more

Reviews (22)

doormats, sensitive people...we need this
finally, a book that tells you how to not get the short end of the stick. there is no hype in this book. this book is an instruction manual describing, in very clear detail, how to be in control of any negotiation. that means, anything from negotiating with a difficult teenager to brokering a million dollar deal.

this info really opened my eyes; I'm not a complete pushover, but I'm not some pit bull. i've always shyed away from sales and negotiation because i felt my empathy for others was a weakness. WRONG! this book isn't about being an a-hole, being rude, or being fake. it's about taking your empathy as a strength, of being clever in an elegant way. there are such detailed instructions and examples, i can't see why you can't lift these examples and use them in your life. in fact, right after reading this book, i started using some of the example phrases, and found them very empowering.

finally...the nice people can win and still remain the good guys.

No Is NOT A Four Letter Word!
I couldn't believe my eyes-- someone wrote a whole book about the word NO!

I found this gem by Jim Camp as I was developing a suggested reading list for my own book titled, Rat Race Relaxer: Your Potential & The Maze of Life where chapter six is titled, "Learn to say no -- put YOU first sometimes." I could not find a more thorough negotiating guide than Start With NO. I encourage readers to embrace the strength of this two letter word and Jim Camp agrees that NO is a powerful message!

Don't waste another day, buy Start With No by Jim Camp and Rat Race Relaxer by JoAnna Carey and you will find a new world of possibility.

397 degrees away from convention
well, it isn't that win-win is bad (after all, one enters into agreements which deliver perceived advantages)... the situation is that few think about how to interact for the purpose of most favorable result and nearly everyone is pathologically afraid of getting to a no. camp has it generally correct -- in respect of experienced vs inexperienced negotiators and the meaning of words in context -- and writes well. all in all a good read.

Close More Sales
Using Jim Camps's negotiating tips will definately help me in my sales career. Learning to say "No" is a lot harder than it sounds, but you will be a lot more effective if you can. I found out about this book in the suggested reading list of another effective business motivation book called Rat Race Relaxer: Your Potential & The Maze of Life by JoAnna Carey.

Boring
Half of this book is spent on decrying the "Win-win" philosophy of negotiation. The author flatout says those who search for Win-Win situation are amateur negotiators who need his help. Then he writes about how we all can be a negotiation shark like him and negotiate everyone's shirt off their backs. By this time, he totally lost my interest. I must say, I didn't finish this book. In fact, I regret I read 70% of it. There ARE situations when hardball negotiation tactics are suitable. But to use it all the time without ever coming to a Win-Win conclusion may spell long term disaster. ... Read more

Book Description

Dave Ramsey knows what it's like to have it all. By age twenty-six, he had established a four-million-dollar real estate portfolio, only to lose it by age thirty. He has since rebuilt his financial life and, through his workshops and his New York Times business bestsellers Financial Peace and More than Enough, he has helped hundreds of thousands of people to understand the forces behind their financial distress and how to set things right-financially, emotionally, and spiritually.

In this new edition of Financial Peace, Ramsey has updated his tactics and philosophy to show even more readers:

* how to get out of debt and stay out
* the KISS rule of investing-"Keep It Simple, Stupid"
* how to use the principle of contentment to guide financial decision making
* how the flow of money can revolutionize relationships

With practical and easy to follow methods and personal anecdotes, Financial Peace is the road map to personal control, financial security, a new, vital family dynamic, and lifetime peace. ... Read more

Reviews (18)

Awesome book! Get it. Read it. Do it.
In Dave's Financial Peace Revisited, he tells the story of how he got rich then went broke and what he learned from it. Then, Dave tells how he took a long, hard look at our society and how totally "stupid" he was (and most Americans still are) in terms of how he viewed debt and money. Dave then relates how he re-started his own climb to financial independence in a totally different way than he did the first time. This book doesn't have a bunch of conceptual, theoretical junk. It gives you PRACTICAL, immediately implementable steps that anyone can take to get their financial house in order and tells you exactly how to go about it. If you are handling your money well, this book will help you get better. If you're struggling with your money or your relationship with your spouse due to money troubles, this book may change your life. Learn how to manage your money instead of having it manage you. I've been buying copies of this book online and giving them to the people in my life that I care about most. I couldn't recommend it higher. Good luck and may God bless you.

Awesome
No matter your financial situation this book will help you improve your finances. This book shows the dangers of all debt period. Dave provides 7 easy "Baby Steps" to follow to get out of debt and acquire wealth. Following his 7 baby steps will change your family tree. He stresses the importance of having a written budget each month before the month starts, but I really think this should have been the first baby step due to how important it is.
Baby Steps:
1.) ...emergency fund
2.) Debt Snowball
3.) Fully Funded Emergency Fund (3-6 months of expenses)
4.) 15% income towards retirement
5.) College Fund for children
6.) Pay off the mortgage
7.) Acquire wealth and give
I would highly recommend one of his live events if you ever get the opportunity.

Mutual funds do not guarantee financial peace
One of the authors failed at a real estate business (even though he came from a real estate family). He is living proof that not everyone can be Donald Trump. And that is a good thing for people to be aware of.

The essence of the advice this book is offering can be found on page 133: "Disciplined savings will outpace any investment scheme." Next the question is, what do you do with your savings? Their answer is mainly mutual funds. The risk in buying individual stocks, they claim, is astronomical. If the stock market continues to be relatively stable, "financial peace," I think, can be achieved by following the authors' formula, but not if there is an extraordinary financial crisis. If an unusually large stock market crash did occur, a lot of mutual funds would start to look like "investment schemes." Financial peace for many people would be shattered.

I deduct one star because the authors place too much faith in mutual funds. Mutual funds, after all, do invest in individual stocks that are traded on the stock market.

very accessible, to the point reading
Financial Peace is above all common sense--something most of us could use a lot more of, or at least I can, when it comes to money. I had confidence that Ramsey was hitting the topics I should think about, regardless of where I am at in my journey with finances. The Christian aspect of his teachings was a challenge now and then, but basically I decided: if that faith or any faith helps people live more peaceful, productive and happy lives, this is a good thing. The very last chapter gets a little proselytizing but I got the feeling the husband and wife Ramsey team were just doing what they felt they should. All in all, a good read, simple yet contemplative.

Life Changing Advice
Sometimes the obvious is right in front of you, but it takes someone else to point it out. Dave Ramsey does just that in this great book. His advice is sound and doable. By following his baby steps and starting my own debt snowball, I have changed the way my family and I look at our finaces and provided for a much better future. ... Read more

Book Description

Getting stuck is an integral part of business because the most ambitious and rewardingwork is often the hardest to undertake. The challenge is knowing how to get unstuck.Inthis dynamic and pragmatic handbook, Keith Yamashita and Sandra Spataro share theinsights, methods, stories, and best practices of the extraordinary leaders they haveworked with at business giants such as IBM, Sony, Disney, HP, and Nike.

In immediately accessible terms, they identify the symptoms of being stuck, introducereaders to the Serious Seven states of "stuck"—from "Overwhelmed" to "Exhausted" to"Alone"—and offer dozens of in-the-moment tools, techniques, and examples to generateimmediate ideas, whether you need to back up in order to move forward, motivate astruggling team, change your goals, or inspire yourself with a clearer picture of whereyou’re headed.

With a handy trim size, a vivid two-color interior, and memorable images that speaklouder than words, Unstuck is a book for anyone who wants to get themselves ortheir team motivated and moving in the time it takes to fly from New York to D.C.Designed to be flipped through, read in chunks, and returned to again and again,Unstuck is an innovation in business literature. ... Read more

Reviews (24)

A very user friendly book for your business.
This book caught my eye immediately with the vibrant cover and it's small size. I read this book cover to cover the first time I picked it up. Then I went back through it and followed the instructions on solving my own problems. Throughout the book, there are descriptions of various problems and where to turn in the book to help you solve what you need fixed. It's very interactive and it has great graphics. This is a book that you won't be bored with. I would recommend this book for anyone - from the CEO to the new guy. Although no book can fix your problems for you, UNSTUCK is the best guide around to help you.

A great plane read.
This is a perfect book for anyone whose slammed with work, headed onto a plane, and seeking fresh ideas. The authors, a designer and Grad Professor, take the reader through a self-guided tour of organizational design and leadership 101. There's no predicatable narrative to the book, as many pages contain provocative questions with corresponding page numbers. While this may leave some readers lost, those that embrace the unique design and layout of the book won't be disappointed. My whole team is hooked on several pages from the book and unlike most traditional business books (zzz...), we're really using Unstuck.

Great book for teambuilding
Unstuck is the perfect book to use for a teambuilding exercise. Pass the book out to each member and let them read it in their own way. Not only is the book short, but you don't even have to read it cover to cover -- the authors encourage readers to take a non-linear approach and suggest paths to becoming unstuck. Gather up the troops and compare the experiences. Did everyone identify the same problems with the team? What types of ideas were sparked by reading of the book?

Much of what the authors say is common sense. But, sometimes common sense is the first thing that's lost when things start to go wrong. Unstuck is more fun to read than most of the business type books out there, but it also includes references to more serious and in-depth resources. Plus, it looks good on a bookshelf.

Get out of that rut!
This book came just at the right time. My group at work, and really my whole company, was just "stuck." I cannot motivate the whole company, but the ideas in Unstuck can help to motivate my group and get us out of the rut we have been in. Some of the ideas are not new, but sometimes it is easy to forget how to get motivated and how to motivate others and a reminder is all that is needed.

Unstuck is not a huge, tedious "business" book. It is small, quick to read, helpful and funny. It contains practical diagnostic tools and solutions that are as applicable to everyday life as they are to the workplace.

A good how-to guide for getting your team out of a rut
Unstuck is a great book for helping to get your team or your business back on track. Maybe you're not living up to your potential, or you sense there is a problem, but you're not sure what it is or how to fix it. With Unstuck, you first spend a little time diagnosing why you're stuck. The categories are explained really well, so it is easy to see where you fall. Once you know where your problem is coming from, there are over 100 pages of tools, techniques, and examples, including short case studies, that will help you get unstuck. What makes this book fun to read, in addition to the great design, is the fact that once you know what your problem is, it gives you page numebr for the ideas that will best help you. It is sort of like a choose-your-own-adventure book for grown-ups. Or you can read it all the way through for all of the ideas. The only thing that I wished were different was that I was searching for help getting out of a rut in my own life, and Unstuck focused on helping groups with problems. ... Read more

Book Description

Would you like to know the secrets to making all the money you’ll ever want?

Now, two mega-bestselling authors with decades of experience in teaching people how to achieve extraordinary wealth and success share their secrets. Mark Victor Hansen, cocreator of the phenomenal Chicken Soup for the Soul series, and Robert G. Allen, one of the world’s foremost financial experts, have helped thousands of people become millionaires. Now it’s your turn.

Is it possible to make a million dollars in only one minute? The answer just might surprise you. The One Minute Millionaire is an entirely new approach, a life-changing “millionaire system” that will teach you how to:

* Create wealth even when you have nothing to start with.
* Overcome fears so you can take reasonable risks.
* Use the power of leverage to build wealth rapidly.
* Use “one minute” habits to build wealth over the long term.

The One Minute Millionaire is a revolutionary approach to building wealth and a powerful program for self-discovery as well. Here are two books in one, fiction and nonfiction, designed to address two kinds of learning so that you can fully integrate these life-changing lessons. On the right-hand pages, you will find the fictional story of a woman who has to make a million dollars in ninety days or lose her two children forever. The left-hand pages give the practical, step-by-step nonfiction strategies and techniques that actually work in the real world. You’ll find more than one hundred nuts-and-bolts “Millionaire Minutes,” each one a concise and invaluable lesson with specific techniques for creating wealth.

However, the lessons here are not just about becoming a millionaire—they are about becoming an enlightened millionaire and how to ethically make, keep, and share your wealth. Whether your goal is less than a million dollars or that amount many times over, there’s never been a better time to achieve abundance. Let The One Minute Millionaire show you the way. ... Read more

Reviews (136)

Amazon you need to give more stars. On a scale from 1-5,
This book is at least a 10.

Seriously, I have long been a fan of both Mr. Allen and Mr. Hansen. This book is great. It combines both fiction with non fiction and as a result you have a mega best seller and super book that can create powerful results for people who actually read and use the concepts in the book.

The fictional story is inspiring and really not that far off what others have done. It reminds me of Allens excellent book "The Challenge", how Allen took three people straight out of the unemployment lines. People who were broke and frustrated and showed them how to earn $5,000 in real estate in three months.

So the fictional part is no really so fictional at all. The non fictional part is the best of Allen and Hansen and delivered in a new and exciting way. You'll learn how to use the internet, real estate and n etwork marketing.

Overall, a great book. Inspiritional, motivational and educational. Certaintly better than reading JBQ's antiquated and boring nonsense.

Good book. Highly recommended.

Powerful and inspiring
Robert Allen and Mark Victor Hansen have scored another winner with The 1 Minute Millionaire. I have many tapes from Hansen that were promoted by SMI many years ago. And I have read some of Robert Allens books, most notably Multiple Streams of Income, Nothing Down and Creating Wealth.

I'm in network marketing and am h appy to see prominent people like Robert Allen, Mark Victor Hansen, Robert Kiyosaki, Brian Tracy and others promoting this concept of wealth creation.

As everybody knows by now, The 1 Minute Millionaire is both fictional and non fictional. The fictional part is a story about a mother who must create income quickly. The non fiction part showcases Hansen's and Allen's most famous strategies. As a result this book is both inspiring and educational.

I recommend The 1 Minute Millionaire for anyone. It can change your life.

Six degrees of separation
This book is better than the Wealthy Barber or any of the Kiyosaki books that are written in this type of "make believe" style.

However I was left with two questions: Where do you get a mentor like the one in the book for free? Not to mention, friends like that? Friends that will work for free and support you unconditionally

2.5 - 3 stars - It has some good points

Unique and Powerful Book!
This book was required reading in my Network Marketing organization, and I had the great pleasure of reading and leading a book discussion on this wonderful book.

Mark Victor Hansen and Robert G. Allen have written a synergistic, life-changing book. It's a quick read--most of the sections on the left-hand side of the page are 4 pages long or less--and the lessons are powerful. The right side of the pages (the story side) are compelling. And it's ingenious that they thought to write the book to take advantage of the cumulative effect of symbolism and emotion along with practical information.

If you're more logical and left-brained: The "right side brain" pages are a short story about a young woman, newly widowed, challenging her rich and (rather stereotypically heartless) in-laws for the right to raise her children. Some of the characters' actions will seem illogical and unrealistic. However, if you buy this book I would strongly ask you to suspend the "left brain" belief for a moment to let the core of the lesson come through for you. In the end the short story will further illuminate the lessons on the "Left Hand" pages and will bring them into sharper focus, because you would have put those lessons into practice by visualizing and feeling along with the character.

For the predominantly right-brained (like me): this isn't a heavy book. The sections are short, and the 24 AHA's are especially illuminating and helpful. The rest of the book has great suggestions for creating sources of income (of which Robert Allen is especially famous for), and for integrating those changes within yourself to better yourself and others around you (as Mark Victor Hansen is fond of teaching). After reading the short story, the "left hand" pages will bring everything you learned by "feeling" through the story into even greater focus.

All in all, this is a great book to add to your library. If you've read any of the RichDad series and Robert Allen's Multiple Streams of Income, you'll definitely want this in your arsenal.

Definitely a winner!
What appealed to me about this great book by Allen and Hansen is that it offers both fiction and non fiction, it is entertaining and enlightening and the timing couldn't be better.

People who think this is "hokey" or "feel good" just don't get it. Perhaps too much left brain training and I am curious as to how they are doing financially.

The 1 Minute Millionaire is a great book. It will inspire and educate you. This is must read, especially after listening to the democrats. ... Read more

Book Description

This book will appeal to both graduate students and practitioners. Students will value the Excel spreadsheets allowing them to develop their knowledge of modelling in finance, using a step-by-step approach accompanied by explanations using elementary mathematical statistics and probability. Practitioners will value the VBA functions as a source of up-to-date and efficient programs that can be easily used from Excel.

Standard material covered includes:

• portfolio theory and efficient frontiers
• the Capital Asset Pricing Model, beta and variance-covariance matrices
• performance measurement
• the Black-Scholes option pricing formula
• binomial trees for options on equities and bonds
• Monte Carlo simulation
• bond yield-to-maturity, duration and convexity
• term structure models from Vasicek and Cox, Ingersoll and Ross

Book Description

What’s Your Type at Work?

Are you one of those organized people who always complete your projects before they are due? Or do you put off getting the job done until the very last possible moment? Is your boss someone who readily lets you know how you are doing? Or does she always leave you unsure of precisely where you stand? Do you find that a few people on your team are incredibly creative but can never seem to get to a meeting on time? Do others require a specific agenda at the meeting in order to focus on the job at hand?

Bestselling authors Otto Kroeger and Janet Thuesen make it easy to recognize your own type and those of your co-workers in Type Talk at Work, a revolutionary guide to understanding your workplace and thriving in it. fully revised and updated for its 10th anniversary, this popular classic now features a new chapter on leadership, showing you how to be more effective on the job. Get the most out of your employees—and employers--using the authors’ renowned expertise on typology. With Type Talk at Work, you’ll never look at the office the same way again! ... Read more

Reviews (2)

Finding Ways to Communicate
All personality books offer generalizations and this is no different. The authors, however, do acknowledge the limitations of the Myers-Briggs test (in contrast to Please Understand Me, a worthless book). I had my staff take the MB test to see how they scored and then had them read and use the book in exercises to understand how their communication with and peception of others is affected by their personality. It was an interesting process and got them to realize that some of their interpersonal conflicts start in their head. A good choice for team building and organizational development.

USEFUL MATERIAL CONNECTING TYPE WITH WORK
This is just one of the books that shows you how to use personality/psychological type at work and is worth reading. It covers nearly all issues we face in the modern workplace like communicating with co-workers, handling stress in the workplace, ethics, time management etc. all from a Type perspective. Kroger and Thuesen do a good job at explaining how Extroverts handle things differently from Introverts, Sesates from iNtuitives, Feelers from Thinkers, & Judgers from Perceivers. Apart from this, in between it gives various tips on how people with different preferences can better understand and work with each other. It also tells interesting tales about the happenings in the workshops they conduct and how they explain to people that its because of their personality differences that conflicts arise and what they could do to prevent them. It even has some jokes at the end of the book.

I thought that the cream of the book was the descriptions of the 16 personality types. My type description was extremely accurate and insightful and three or four of the points mentioned in that seemed shocking to me because they described what went on in my mind and its something only I knew about.

But beware - It isn't so good on finding out what your type is.

Overall, a good read! ... Read more

Book Description

Basic Marketing is the market leading principles text domestically.Basic Marketing offers a very thorough integration of the latest marketing themes, topics, and examples woven throughout the body of the text.This integration of themes, topics, and examples is carefully blended with the text’s traditional strengths of clear, accessible communication, a focus on management decision-making in marketing, and completely integrated coverage of special topics such as technology, ethics, international perspectives, relationship marketing, and services. This is the first book to develop and present the 4 P’s framework when describing the components of the marketing mix (Product, Price, Place, Promotion).Where most principles of marketing texts have separate supplement authors, Bill Perreault is the creator of every item in the package.This unique involvement ensures quality, accuracy, and reliability.ity. ... Read more

Reviews (6)

BE CAREFUL WHEN ORDERING THIS BOOK
There are various editions of this book being listed under the same ISBN.Make sure to contact the seller of the book if you buy it used to make sure the ISBN of their copy is the same as the one you are looking for!I had to order this book 2 times to get the right book!Sellers should list the ISBN of the BOOK (not the CD or whatever is included) so that buyers of this text know which one they are getting!

Good marketing book
This book was very easy to follow.

Horrible to read
This book is horrid to read, the chapters drag on and there simply too much information crammed into one chapter. Its hard to differentiate the points in the chapters, and many of the important points are not emphasized.

well duh
You know this book could have been nothing more than a glossary of definitions, a few summarys and outlines of the 4 this or 8 thats and it would have been much more interesting.The material in here is so basic and simple that I do the reading and don't feel that I have actually learned anything that wasn't fairly obvious to begin with.The examples are relevent if you happen to be a really slow learner and need 3 page explainations of 2 sentence definitions.

Comprehensive Book for Principles of Marketing Course
This is a fairly comprehensive fundamentals of marketing book.It is laid out well.It begins with an elementary explanation of the marketing discipline and its relationship to society.This is followed by anexplanation of the ingredients in marketing strategy planning.Followingthis section, the author addresses the external factors that affectmarketing decisions.This is followed by a discussion of demographic andbehavioral deminisons of the customer.Then, the author catergoriesdifferent type of customers.The next chapter presents an elementaryreview of marketing research.The most of the remainder of the textfocuses on the 4 Ps--Product, Place, Promotion, and Price.This isprobably the strongest part of the text.Throughout the text the authorincorporates global and ethical issues that relate to the subject matter ofeach chapter.This is an excellent text for a principles or fundamentalsof marketing course. ... Read more

Book Description

EVERYBODY WINS

Inside stories and strategies behind the remarkable growth of RE/MAX, and how to use them for competitive success in virtually any industry

"This is a book about dreaming with your eyes wide open, a book about success and winning and leading, and most of all, it is a book that contains important lessons for all organizations that want to become great."
—Warren Bennis, author of On Becoming a Leader and Distinguished Professor of Business, USC

"I love the word 'Wow.' And though I've by now 'seen it all,' or most of it anyway, I found myself saying 'Wow' time and time again as I highlighted my way through Everybody Wins. The RE/MAX saga—the story of a huge industry turned upside-down and inside-out by an outrageously bold dream, incredible tenacity, and uncommon business sense—yields inspiring and practical lessons for all of us. As I said, 'Wow.' "
—Tom Peters, author of In Search of Excellence

"Everybody Wins is a must-read for any executive serious about sustainable growth and innovation. A powerful resource guide to the next generation of leaders focused on building great companies!"
—James D. White, Senior Vice President Business Development, North America, The Gillette Company

"When the business dream is applied with leadership, passion, a clear brand, and committed people, incredibly great sustained performance and growth occur. The RE/MAX story is one of those inspiring fairy tales where a dream and passion of the founder have led to an incredible success and one where there is a unique outcome—everybody does win!"
—Steve Steinour, Chairman Mid-Atlantic Regional Banking, Citizens Bank

"Everybody Wins offers valuable advice on how to build a culture that supports innovation, growth, and constant learning. The chapter on 'Pace Line Leadership' is essential reading for leaders who want to turn vision into action."
—John Hammergren, Chairman and CEO, McKesson Corporation ... Read more

Book Description

Not since McLuhan's THE MEDIUM IS THE MESSAGE has a book compressed so many ideas into so few pages. Using the visual language of the boardroom, Neumeier presents the first unified theory of branding -- a set of five disciplines to help companies bridge the gap between brand strategy and brand execution. Those with a grasp of branding will be inspired by what they find here, and those who would like to understand it better will suddenly "get it." This deceptively simple book offers everyone in the company access to "the most powerful business tool since the spreadsheet."

"Finally, a book that cuts to the heart of what brand is all about -- connecting the rational and the emotional, the theoretical and the practical, the logical and the magical to create a sustainable competitive advantage. Everyone in the company should read this book, not just the three people with 'brand' in their titles." --Susan Rockrise, Worldwide Creative Director, Intel

"A pleasure to read.THE BRAND GAP consistently provides deep, practical insights in a light, visual way. Discover the power of imagery and the role of research in building a heavy-duty brand -- without the heavy-duty reading." --David Aaker, Author of "Brand Leadership" and "Building Strong Brands"

"Neumeier stands out among brand-savvy professionals. His experience as a designer, writer, and strategist lends realism to his five disciplines of brand-building. Anyone who needs a deeper understanding of the creation, management, and evolution of brands should grab this book with both hands and start reading." --Patrick Fricke, Manager of Print and New Media Design, Kodak

"This is not just another book on brand. This is the only book you'll need to read in business, engineering, and design school." --Clement Mok, Design enterprenuer/President of AIGA

"THE BRAND GAP is an original. It describes the full range of creative interdependencies that need to be managed in concert, but in a language so plain, crisp, and simple that you suddenly 'see' the concept of brand--and can act boldly on it." --Peter Van Naarden, Director of Global Brand for Hewlett-Packard Co.

"THE BRAND GAP couldn't be more timely. Just when we're at our most skeptical about corporate motives, along comes a book that shows how to evaluate and develop a brand in a straightforward and honest manner." --David Stuart, Brand Designer and Co-Founder of The Partners, London

"This is an important work, with just the right level of accessibility. Despite our overexposure to brand theory these days, THE BRAND GAP is the first book that seems fresh and relevant." --Richard Grefe, Executive Director, The American Institute of Graphic Arts

"A well-managed brand is the lifeblood of any successful company--and Neumeier shows us exactly how to do it. Read this book before your competitors do!" --Tom Kelley, General Manager of Ideo/Author of "The Art of Innovation"

Reviews (21)

Brand Gap - A most readable short course
I am completely enamoured with the style and content of Neumeier's new book and am recommending it to all of my clients! Having worked in the flavor and fragrance industry for my entire career I find this to be the perfect vehicle to explain one of the most powerful aspects of flavor and fragrance application in consumer products, packaging, and advertising - multi-dimensional and multi-sensory brand building! Neumeier's treatise is just too short not be read and enjoyed and applied to modern consumer product development and management! Trout and Ries; and now Neumeier to add meaning to it all! YEE haw!

I'll join the club! Wonderful 5-star book!
I came upon The Brand Gap in a hurry through Atlanta Hartsfield on the way to catch a plane to Houston.

I read the entire book on that flight. Virtually every point and approach are applicable to my company (a leading publisher). Most of them will wind up in how we go about branding from now on.

Not since Theodore Levitt's Marketing Imagination turned my head completely around (1983) about what marketing is and does, have I encountered such a clear exposition of what is happening and what to do about it.

Killer book
A good book is one that not only provides an interesting read, but gets you off the dime to DO something. Our company is large (40,000 employees)and we had ahuge gap between business and brand. After reading this book, my team and I re-org'd our company around the "superteam" model of brand building. Now we have cross-deparmental collaboration, plus a stable of small, best of breed external firms to give us some creative horsepower. The left brain's finally connected to the right brain, to quote Neumeier's phrase. We use the book to introduce new hires to the brand concept, then follow up with training on our own brand. This is the book that got us going. I recommend it to anyone who wants to incite change in their organization.

Beyond Trout and Ries
The Brand Gap picks up where Trout and Ries leave off. It gets into areas that traditional marketing and positioning books fear to tread, namely the role of aesthetics in building brands. As a 30-year veteran of Madison Avenue, I've learned the hard way that it doesn't matter how great your strategy is---it's execution PLUS strategy that moves products. Neumeier is one of the first to recognize this simple but elusive truth. It's enough to give one hope for the future of the marketing business. For that matter, for the future of business. Period.

The Brand Gap
For anyone in the business of branding, marketing or advertising, don't waste your money on this one. The book is nothing more than fluff, with no substance or insight. A definite zero. ... Read more

Book Description

Departing from the encyclopedic nature of most Principles texts, which encourages students to simply memorize concepts and see economics as a collection of unrelated terms, formulas, graphs, and theories, this text provides students with a picture of economics as a unified discipline; a set of interrelated tools and ideas that can be used to look at the world in a different way.This book's concise, less is more approach has been carefully crafted in terms of both content and supporting pedagogy to keep students focused on learning and applying the central ideas used in economic analysis.It uniquely employs a simple methodology throughout to emulate how economists look at problems, and teaches students how to use this same analytical process in developing their own economic analysis skills.Hall/Lieberman's careful focus on core theoretical ideas as well as systematically applying the theoretical tools to interesting real-world questions conveys the message that economics is an integrated, powerful body of knowledge that can be used to address important issues. ... Read more

Reviews (3)

Nice pictures, bad book
I was required to use this book for a college macro course.I found this to be one of the worst business textbooks I've seen so far.I think it fails its job at giving the average college student a good understanding of the macro economy.

When explaining simple concepts that should be easy to grasp, the book loads the reader down with obscure mathematical equations and other gobblygook.On rather complicated topics where additional details would help, they try to condense the topics making it difficult to see the big picture.To figure out what I was supposed to learn, I had to use other sources to help me out (i.e. websites and other business books).I also think the authors are poor at making comprehensible analogies.

Perhaps the most annoying aspect was the author's injected liberal opinion.In a few chapters, they innuendo their griefs about how businesses are unfair to poor people and that successful individuals should have their winnings reallocated to the less privileged.They also gripe about how not everyone can find a job in a capitalist society.It seems that the authors have little understanding of concepts like competition and motivation to be successful.

If you are a course coordinator considering this book for a macroeconomics class, please do your students a favor and seek a different book.As a student, it is more helpful to have a book free of opinions.A book that uses clear explanations rather than confusing lines and charts.If the websites and other sources I used can clearly state the material, so can a textbook!

Way more interesting than the course
This book helped me pass my exam!The course is so boring and very dull, but this book uses everyday situations to explain the concepts.Marc Lieberman is a professor at my school and I wish I had him as a professor because all of the students who did have him said that his class is awesome.So if his class is awesome, his book has got to be awesome...right?

This book uses alot graphics and colors, which makes it more fun to read.This the exactly how I would want to be taught economics.There is also a little humor in the book too, which makes it even more fun.So for those students who are taking economics or are going economics, this book helps ALOT.It covers the basics very well.

Make sure you buy the most updated edition though.This book was just updated last year, so beware of those 1st edition books because they're old.

Superb textbook
Easy and fun to use.Excellent blend of academia and real-life examples.Charts, graphs, and illustrations were colorful and easy to understand.Also, authors Hall and Liberman provide readers access to their macroeconwebsite for additional study. I used this text at thepostgraduate level -great for undergrads, too. ... Read more

Book Description

The ideal companion volume to the acclaimed Basic Economics--a guide to how our economic decisions turn out in practical terms.

The application of economics to major contemporary real world problems--housing, medical care, discrimination, the economic development of nations--is the theme of this new book that tackles these and other issues head on in plain language, as distinguished from the usual jargon of economists. It examines economic policies not simply in terms of their immediate effects but also in terms of their later repercussions, which are often very different and longer lasting. The interplay of politics with economics is another theme of Applied Economics, whose examples are drawn from experiences around the world, showing how similar incentives and constraints tend to produce similar outcomes among very disparate peoples and cultures. ... Read more

Reviews (16)

A Great Book (Even for Environmentalists)
Thomas Sowell describes economics as thinking beyond Stage One-considering the later consequences of present policies. This is a great message, and one I wish our national leaders understood. I am a biochemist and a patent attorney, and I consider myself an environmentalist. Most environmentalists, unfortunately, need to think much more about Stage Two and beyond. This book is a good way to start this process and correct some of the naivete that surrounds environmental policy proposals. Mr. Sowell's analysis of recycling, for example, is a much-needed insertion of reality into this area.
I enjoyed the analyses of medical care and risk-taking. Mr. Sowell makes the excellent point that drug prices convey an underlying reality that is not nearly as easily changed as the prices are; drug price controls are therefore self-defeating. I felt Mr. Sowell did not go far enough on this, however. Life insurance works because it is reasonably easy to tell whether someone is dead or not, and because successfully killing someone for the insurance money is difficult and risky. Health insurance works poorly because there simply is no way to define "good" health care, much less tell whether or not someone else's child is receiving it. The demand for medical care is essentially infinite; nearly everyone would like themselves and their families to have better health than they presently do. As soon as a third party payer enters the picture, the necessary connection between demand for health care and the available resources of the patient or his family becomes a fog filled with conflicts of interest.
Mr. Sowell's analysis of zoning laws is basically good. I agree that we need much more consideration of the role of zoning laws in creating urban sprawl. I think Mr. Sowell puts too much emphasis on the role of "open space" in this, though. The main problem is not that we don't allow people to build in the remaining open space, but that thanks to too-restrictive zoning, housing density is far too low in the locations (such as near jobs, shopping, schools, parks, and subway stations) where people want to live. In my own neighborhood (Falls Church, Virginia), demand for housing is intense and home prices are soaring, but thanks to zoning and local politics, the few remaining lots are mostly having single-family houses built on them. Ridiculous!
Mr. Sowell's analysis is faulty in some areas. He too easily dismisses overpopulation as a serious problem. The difficulty is that if people are not required to pay the full costs of raising their own children, they will raise more children than they or their society can afford. If we are going to have such "pro-child" policies as universal free education, therefore, we must balance that with taking steps to control population.
Mr. Sowell admits that there is a limit to the earth's capacity to sustain human life, but says this is not a problem because we are still far from the limit. I am not convinced that we are as far from the limit as he thinks. The earth's resources (and its waste sinks) are being used at a rate which is simply not sustainable even over a time span of decades, never mind centuries. Mr. Sowell's analysis would be correct if there were no externalities. The fact is, though, that resource use is in effect very heavily subsidized. Users of crude oil, for example, do not now have to pay the costs of air pollution, roads, auto accidents, wars to protect the oil flow, climate change, and the like, but instead shove these costs off onto others. As long as this continues, crude oil will continue to be overused and the economy will be less efficient as a result. I would like to see Mr. Sowell's formidable abilities applied to the problem of solving the "Stage Two" problem of externalities, rather than simply sweeping it under the rug.

Applied Economics: Thinking Beyond Stage One
This new book is a spirited and controversial examination of how economic choices in public policy often result in unforeseen consequences. Sowell, a professor of public policy at Stanford and author of Basic Economics: A Citizen's Guide to the Economy, examines labor, medical care, housing, and other areas of economic activity. He says that in stage-one thinking, making housing affordable by setting rent controls would seem to be self-evident but that such rent controls both reduce the stock of low-rent housing and cause that stock to deteriorate in condition. He explains that many landlords don't bother to offer properties when rents are low and that those who do find very little incentive to maintain them. On the institution of slavery in the American South, Sowell says slaves were usually better cared for than other laborers because of the slave owners' economic self-interest. He defends the existence of slums as low-cost housing that in the past allowed the residents who chose to live in them to use their funds for other purposes. His predictably laissez faire approach to economics will grate on many readers, but his reasoning is clear and thoughtful. Every library covering economics or public administration will require a copy.-

Sowell Urges us to Think Ahead
Thomas Sowell's "Applied Economics" ought to be required reading in every high school and college economics, politics, and English courses. While Mr. Sowell is Ph.D economist and fellow at the Hoover Institute at Stanford, his ideas are useful even to the non-economist. As a society, we tend to be taken in too easily by people who make irrational arguments that sound good at first glance but produce miserable results since no one thought about the next step. Often times, too many words are politically popular but are actually quite harmful. Such words include: "living wage," "consumer protection," "rent control," etcetera. When these ideas are actually applied in practice, the results rarely meet the rhetoric over the long-run. Politicians only tend to care about what will get them re-elected, and as a result, few of them have an incentive to think about what will happen 10 years from now. As a result, many often escape the blame since the poor results will be far removed from their disasterous policies. This, of course, could easily be construed as a problem with democracy, but instead, my feeling is that it is a problem with our educational system. If our educational system actually educated citizens to think deeply about what would be the consequences of certain policies, perhaps the heated irrational logic emanating from certain politicians would cease. Perhaps such rhetoric would continue to work in irrational hotspots such as Berkeley, but rare for it to work elsewhere. One could only hope. This book is a must read for everyone -- regardless of who you are.

Michael Gordon

What Comes After the Bold and Noble Ideas
This book is a much-needed antidote for those who measure the value of their policy prescriptions for their surface qualities. Are you for cheap medicine? Then you will want to regulate the prices set by pharmaceutical companies and limit the length of their patents. Are you for cheap housing? Impose rent control. How about fixing the so-called "north-south" inequalities in wealth that you believe are a result of globalization and discrimination? That's simple: increase foreign aid.

To these solutions, and many others like them, Thomas Sowell asks a very basic but often neglected question: What happens next? Once you have imposed rent control in a city, for example, what happens to its housing market? By providing preliminary answers to these questions based on empirical evidence, Sowell undercuts the surface moralism of those who promote these ideas.

Sowell looks at labor markets, the economics of medical care, housing and discrimination, how risk affects business, and finally provides a chapter on why various countries and regions show such different patterns of development. As with all his work, his writing is crystal-clear and enjoyable. This is a wonderful book, but I gave it four stars because Sowell has written many better.

Doesn't add up
The arguments in the books for a FREE market doesn't add up to the conculsions. It cited many failures in government interventions as the basis for a complete free market, however there are no hard evidence that a completely free markets in the sectors covered in the book will work. In particular, it advocate a practical appraoch in that it emphasis what is important is actual experience in the past that matters, not the idealistic socialism. It is however, recent experiences that pointed to the fact that markets are never perfected. The public is misinformed about the safety of automobiles, the pubic is misinformed about the consequences of rent control. In a perfect information market, how can the public be misinformed.

The zoning of land use is against free market. On this topic, I invite Mr. Sowell to come to Hong Kong (where I live) to see how developers (not checked by a competent government) can damage one of the most beautiful natural harbour in the world.

Mr. Sowell's arguments are only valid if very one in the market are thinking about stage 4, otherwise it won't work. He is as idealistic as the communist.

In the real world, we are have to balance between the two exterme and I don't think Mr. Sowell's ideal world exist in any place in the world today. ... Read more

Reviews (1)

A practical guide for the manager
I first used this book as a student-I found it useful then, today I insist that all managers reporting to me review, and use, the concepts and techniques provided by the authors.

The book is useful, in that concepts are well explained, the examples are relevant, but most important for me is that it provides managers who have little or no experience in determining project costs with a handy means (including formulae and worked examples) of doing so.

I have tried to get copies of the most recent edition, the popularity seems to be such that the book is sold out. I most readily recommend this to anyone who needs to justify capital expenditure, who needs to do project costing, and who has to prepare proposals for submission to the boss (or the board of directors)in order to obtain funds for capital expansion, refurbishment or simply equipment upgrades. ... Read more

Book Description

B> Appropriate for courses inOrganization Development, this new edition explores the improvement oforganizations through planned, systematic, long-range efforts focused on theorganization's culture and its human and social processes. The authors presenta concise and comprehensive exposition of the theory, practice, and researchrelated to organization development. The Sixth Edition reflects the most recentdevelopments, advances and expansions, and research in the area of OD. KEYTOPICS: Adds and updates new material to provide the most currentinformation available. Strengthens coverage by adding new interventions and newmaterial. Offers a more lively tone and writing style. Emphasizes theeverchanging paradigms in OD theory and describes several new and importantinterventions in considerable detail. Sets discussions in the rapidly-evolvingcontexts of globalization, intensified competition and collaboration, TotalQuality Management (TQM) and large-scale organizational change.Provides excellent coverage of the organization and its dynamicsfor managers and professionals. ... Read more

Reviews (8)

how about some double loop learning ?
This is a flawed edition of a classic book.
Yes, it is historical in its overview. Yes it is dense with ideas and concepts. It makes readers think that OD/change management is hard work. But this is a good thing. Change aint easy, and intervening in people's working lives is serious business. Lets learn from the past. It also has lots of case explanations, and it does explain the theory clearly. I wouldn't let anyone who couldn't understand it near my consultancy work.

The criticism that it is dated is a bit more on the mark; not because the more recent stuff on change isn't there, it is, but it is tacked on to the material from earlier editions with no thought to the coherence of the book's structure. A shame; it needs a good, new third author who loves the original text to bring it up to date.

Despite the flaws, I give it 5 stars to bring the average up. Those who award it only one star do it an injustice. And, a lesson for the would be change agent, things in life, whether books or bits of our client organization are rarely wholly good or wholly bad..... (ok,ok).

Another good thing, compared to its competitors its small !

Out of date. Great during the seventies!
This book is long out of date. Read either Kotter, Beitler, or Schein.

This book is out of date!
This book was written in the seventies! It shows. I recommend reading something current; such as Cummings & Worley, or Beitler, or Kotter.

Great Resource!
I really didn't care for this book at first, but had to purchase it for a class. As I read the book, it began to grow on me and I found it to be a great resource book, one that you may want to keep in your personal library for future questions about organizational development. This book gives great options on how to get people to work together, how to endure the resistance of people during change, as well as how to make the most of the a sucessful organizational change. I wish I had this book when I was president of my organization and had trouble getting larger groups of people, all with various strong opinions, to work together. This book gives it to you straight, a definite source of relief when dealing with or preparing for chaos in an organization!

This book "fills in the blanks" of OD
The book provides an introduction to the discipline, describing the historical foundations as well as specific applications in both for-profit and non-profit settings. The definition provided is deceptively simple; it is brief, yet completely encompasses the critical elements of OD efforts. What brings me back to it as a text again and again, however, is it's comprehensive list and descriptions of OD techniques. I have yet to find another book that so simply lays out the fundamentals of activities for interpersonal, team, inter-team, and large-scale organizational change. The final chapters deal with issues of consulting and the future of OD.
Because it ranges from a large-scale conceptual overview down to the nitty-gritty specifics of OD activites, it serves as an ideal framework to springboard to other books and readings.

Only caveat: The writing style is not commensurate with the excellence of the content. ... Read more

Book Description

Real estate titan, bestselling author, and TV impresario Donald J. Trump reveals the secrets of his success. Over the years, everyone has urged Trump to write on this subject, but it wasn't until NBC and executive producer Mark Burnett asked him to star in The Apprentice that he realized just how hungry people are to learn how great personal wealth is created and first-class businesses are run.

In Trump: How To Get Rich, Trump tells all -- about the lessons learned from The Apprentice, his real estate empire, his position as head of the 20,000-member Trump Organization, and his most important role, as a father who has successfully taught his children the value of money and hard work.

With his characteristic brass and smarts, Trump offers insights on how to:

• Invest wisely
• Impress the boss and get a raise
• Manage a business efficiently
• Hire, motivate, and fire employees
• Negotiate anything
• Maintain the quality of your brand
• Think big and live large

Plus, The Donald tells all on the art of the hair! ... Read more

Reviews (147)

The Worst Book Ever Written
Yes, this is the worst book that I have ever read - I would imagine the worst book ever written. For someone that brags endlessly about being a perfectionist, he should be embarrassed. If you want to spend your money to have Trump brag non-stop and then ultimately learn nothing, this is the book for you. There have to be at least 30 pictures of the guy. He somehow manages, between headings and chapter spacing to add an extra 100 pages to the book. One word: pathetic.

Very good read but not exactly true to its title
This book is everything that you would expect it to be: well written, entertaining, full of insight into Trump and his accomplishments. However, it is missing one essential ingredient: any formula for how to get (financially) rich as the title states/implies. I use the word "imply" as well because the title does not specifically have to mean how to get financially rich. The underlying theme of the book is to find the field you are happy in and work hard at what you do. Of course, that in and of itself will not make everyone financially independent. However, throughout the book Trump continually speaks about the strong relationships he has with not only his family (ex-wives included), but with his employees, who tend to be very loyal to him and the Trump organization. But in the end, I was entertained and enjoyed reading the various stories and loved that each chapter was no more than a few pages, which helps prevent boredom on any particular subject that one may not find interesting.

Attention to detail and seeing the big picture...
Personally, years ago, the first time I read about "The Donald", there was something about him that I really liked - I couldn't actually put my finger on exactly what it was, but there was an instant admiration, and a clear, instinctive impression that he was straight forward, honest and tremendously hard working. A true American character.

Through the media we watched his well-publicised divorce from Ivana, and his near bankruptcy in the realm of 9.2 billion dollars. At that time, particularly here in Australia, we had our own 80's millionaires fall from grace, and the public at large loved every minute of it. As a society, we love to see the mighty fall; it seems to be in our natures. But unlike some of our fallen entrepreneurs, The Donald came back and came back with a vengeance, which was an astonishing feat, and for me, very inspiring. Unlike some of my friends and family, I enjoy watching the reality television show, The Apprentice - its value lies in its believable portrayal of the business world and the skill and personality required to survive in that world. This is what prompted me to read Trump's latest memoir, and without reservation, I was thoroughly impressed.

The book is organized in six parts: Business and Management, Career Advice, Money, The Secrets of Negotiation, The Trump Lifestyle and Inside the Apprentice. One can glean from these pages a wealth of advice to achieve success and potential wealth. This advice is from a man who has succeeded many times over, rising from the ashes of defeat like the proverbial phoenix. The writing style is breezy and chatty, as if you were sitting in front of the man in his office. Some of his anecdotes are entertaining to the point where I actually laughed out loud. My favourite chapter would have to be, A Week in the Life, written in a diary format hour by hour through a five-day week. From this one gets a true picture of the man's immense energy level and genuine passion for what he does every day. In fact I was a little exhausted after finishing the chapter and amazed at his capacity for work. And this is the secret: dogged hard work, attention to detail and grasping the big picture. I believe he would be a hard man to work for because he's such a perfectionist, but the experience would be well worth the time and potential anguish.

Because the writing is simple and flowing, the book can be properly read in a few hours. His advice is practical and can be applied immediately. Reading How to get Rich was absolutely an afternoon well spent. Highly recommended.

Thin gruel
Trump is a fascinating character and great at being a celebrity. He's a big believer in the American Dream, and one can't fault him for that. This book is interesting if you approach it wanting to hear his voice in your head and get a little inspiration to keep moving and working toward your own dreams. If you're looking for specific advice or detailed plans, go elsewhere. This is not a book for deep thoughts.

Great look inside Donald's business dealings
Short, concise, and to the point. That's the way the book is written and that's the way I like it. Get to the point, don't B.S., then move on. The brief sections makes it easy to read and reference. Just like his buildings, the layout and design of this book makes it enjoyable.
I don't believe he's given away all of his secrets, but it's very interesting to see what goes on in the day in the life of Donald Trump. I also beleive he was hamming it up a bit (probably to some perspective clients, lenders, and customers), but that's ok. I wouldn't expect anything less.
The way he describes handling obstacles that cross his path is actually inspiring. It kind of keeps things in perspective. He may deal in millions, but I figure anyone's obstacles can be overcome if they use his processes with dealing with them.
Even if you don't like him, it's fascinating to see how his life works (and that's just the part he let's us see). I, for one, appreciate the doors being open for others. ... Read more