Book Description

Reviews (2)

Nuts and bolts of scenario planning
I saw an review in Harvard Business School and I fully agree with them: "...serious but yet it's the friendliest introduction to the nuts and bolts of scenario planning that you are likely to find..." I really recommend this book to everyone who wants to explore, understand and have an impact on the future.

Practical tools for future strategy
This is an eminently practical book on scenario and strategy development. The language is simple, straight-forward with many examples, tools and anecdotes. In a verbal style, with lots of figures and bullet point lists, the five chapters in a way resembles lectures.
As faculty and lecturer at the Norwegian School of Management I find this book a perfect supplement in the curriculum to the two classics: P. Schwartz' "Art of the long view" and van Heijden "Scenarios". This book occupies a kind of middle-position between Schwartz' very popular and narrative account and van Heijden's more rational-academic discourse, which some practitioners find a hard read. Not like this one. There's not much deep philosophy either, as in J. Ogilvys recent "Creating Better Futures". The chapter on scenario planning in practice (#3) contains loads of simple, informative examples, written much shorter and to the point, than G. Ringland's three books on scenarios with much-detailed cases, repetitions and a weak structure.
In short - this book is a toolbox with instructions manual. As the Swedish authors Lindgren and Bandhold themselves say in the book; "Get yourself a toolbox". If you, as a manager or consultant want to learn, update or expand your portfolio of future oriented strategy tools, this one is The Choice. ... Read more

Book Description

Conflict in the executive ranks often snakes its way down to the trenches, polarizing entire organizations and undermining morale, productivity, and corporate goals. But managed correctly, the passion that powers these conflicts can be turned into a high-performance fuel that transforms not just executive relationships but the mechanics of the whole company.

When Goliaths Clash shows how to treat conflict as a business issue, achieve positive outcomes from divisive relationships, and identify the different sources of conflict, from assumptions, values, and wants, to stylistic clashes and organizational conditions.

The book combines real-world strategies drawn from the author's consulting experience with the results of a 10-year survey of more than 300 executive teams. Packed with examples from companies like Johnson & Johnson, L'Oreal, Motorola, Phillip Morris, and more, this constructive book will help unlock horns -- and open the door to more productive relationships throughout entire organizations. ... Read more

Reviews (8)

Packed With Knowledge!
This book is built on the premise that a lot of companies have, metaphorically speaking, the head of a dead elephant sitting in their boardrooms. The dead elephant's head represents conflict, disagreement and rivalry between the executives themselves. No one wants to talk about the dead elephant's head, because no one wants to admit that it's there. Unfortunately, it's a big, ugly reality that must be addressed sooner or later, and everyone knows it. Author and consultant Howard M. Guttman maps out a process companies can use to deal more openly and honestly with internal conflicts. He begins with the premise that conflict isn't inherently bad and can even serve a productive purpose, if it's properly managed and conducted according to the rules. We strongly recommend this book to corporate executives - and to the worker bees who have to duck when those Goliaths in the corner offices start slinging rocks.

Great advice for senior and middle managers
When Goliaths Clash is full of great advice for managing confilict at the most senior levels of an organization. Since conflict is abundant at all levels in today's organization the same ideas can be applied to manage conflict at all levels. Gutman's advice to confront conflict, not avoid it, is valuable for all managers who want to move their organizations forward.

Practical, powerful, insightful
When Goliaths Clash was a practical and grounded guide to addressing issues prevalent in most leadership teams. Unlike other books of this nature, it was not academic or theoretical, but provided common sense advise on how leaders can identify and resolve problems that could be derailing their organization and preventing them from maximizing their effectiveness. I particularly liked the chapter on e mail; a new area of communication landmines and one that has actually exagerated the issues described in the book.

Pratical guide to deal with orginizational conflicts!
Great book! A structured insight into human behavior, different management styles and interactions in organizations. Describes real life situations and - more importantly - how to deal with them. Some very thought-full suggestions on how to interact with others at work as well as privately. A practical guide on organizational development and it's role to become more successful. Is easy to read and digest.

I'll certainly keep it close for reference when "Goliats clashes" in my company.

Insightful read for senior line, HR or OD executives
This book provides insight and understanding into the powerful dynamics of executive teams. The methodology, frameworks and practical tools are highly useful in creating a higher level of functioning for teams, starting at the top of the organization. Specific examples and case scenarios illustrate how these techniques have contributed to more fulfilling and productive work dynamics in several reknowned organizations. Focusing on the core skills of influencing and conflict resolution, as well as situational leadership, the book outlines a 'road map' for improving the effectiveness of senior teams and their individual players. ... Read more

Reviews (9)

It will broaden your horizons, but it is not a cookbook.
_Requirements Analysis_ is just the opposite of a book like Craig Larman's _Applying UML and Patterns_ or Ed Yourdon's _Modern Structured Analysis_. Both of those books--in fact, most books on analysis--present a single methodology and a single set of tools and notations, then walk you through the steps of the analysis process according to DeMarco or according to Jacobson or whatever.

David Hay is after larger fish in this book, or at least more fish: in these 400 pages, you will find a survey of more techniques and models than you probably could have dreamed of, from the very old to the very new, from the flashy to the obscure: data flow diagrams, UML, Object-Role Modeling, cybernetics, business rules, IDEF0, and on and on. This book will teach you a little bit about a whole lot of analysis techniques and what they can accomplish.

The material is all organized and discussed from the point of view of the Zachman Framework, a beautiful and expansive system that shows us how various techniques fit in to the "total picture" of the who, what, when, where, why and how of enterprises and information systems. It gives us a broader perspective, and often shows us where we are focusing too much on one or two aspects of a system, to the detriment of the others.

But this book is not a cookbook or a procedural guide to performing analysis. There is very little prescriptive advice, and relatively little on the nuts and bolts of what you should do and when. I don't want to suggest that is a shortcoming: it is intrinsic in the very nature of a survey-type book. If you have done some analysis work or studied one or more particular methodologies, this book will give you context and perspective and introduce you to new possibilities you probably weren't even aware of before.

But if you are approaching analysis for the first time, you need guidance more than you need options, and you may find this book more confusing than useful. You might, instead, want to look at _Applying UML and Patterns_(Larman) if you are approaching analysis from an object-oriented programming perspective; _Modern Structured Analysis_ (Yourdon) if you are coming from a more traditional Data-Flow and Entity-Relationship shop; or _Mastering the Requirements Process_ (Robertson)for a more generalized, but still procedural, perspective on requirements definition. Then, in six months or a year, open Mr. Hay's book and feel the horizons rushing back from your eyes. This is basically what I have done, and I'm very happy I did. David Hay has given me a larger context at a time when I can start to appreciate it, and new options at a time that they can be useful to me.

I should point out that I feel the book is not without its shortcomings.

--Mr. Hay gives pretty short shrift to Use Cases, which are emerging as a really useful technique for discovering and capturing functional requirements. This book talks about use cases, but clearly considers them of secondary value, burying them in a fairly obscure corner of the Framework. Craig Larman, Alistair Cockburn, Ivar Jacobson and Doug Rosenberg all have good titles out that place Use Cases in a more central role.

--Certain object-oriented techniques seem to have a pretty low opinion of Analysis work, or call things "analysis" that are more properly considered design. Mr. Hay makes some good points in response, but I can't help feeling he's going a little too far when he says things like "there is no such thing as object-oriented analysis." No less a figure in the world of methodology than Ed Yourdon would seem to disagree, unless the title of his book, "Object-Oriented Analysis," is some kind of very subtle joke. You may want to pick up an OO title or two, and see what conclusions you come to.

--Last of all, I found the treatment of some of the areas of the Framework to be esoteric and difficult to follow. Most notable here is the discussion of business rules that makes up the book's treatment of the Motivation, or "why," column. I realize that business rules thinking is still in its infancy, but the presentation in the book is too nebulous, academic and abstract to come to any kind of grips with--it was like trying to learn the UML by looking at the "meta-model" documents. Another example is in the People, or "who," column, which consists of a very academic treatment of the science of "cybernetics." Intriguing, but darned if I got much of practical use out of it. Shouldn't the People column have something to do with characterizing and categorizing users, their preferences, environments, levels of experience? Perhaps all the stuff on cybernetics _does_ that, but it was all a little too rarefied for me to follow.

In summary, this was a very valuable book for me. I'm a better analyst for having read it, and I have a whole list of new things to think about and learn about (including the above-mentioned business rules and cybernetics). I can't recommend this as a _first_ book on analysis, but I can heartily recommend it to anyone who wants to learn _more_ about analysis.

Writing review for your own book Mr. David C. Hay 8=))
It OK(!) that you answer another reviewer, but giving yourself 5 stars... What a shrewdness

So I think my single star will balance the equation again
5+1 = 3

A response . . .
I realize that it is a little irregular for an author to review his own book, but I feel compelled to respond to the reader from Centerville, GA who said that my analysis book was "Good on data modeling, but little else." It is important for anyone buying this book to understand what it is and what it is not. A very important point made in the book, which was apparently missed by our "reader", was that analysis is fundamentally different from design. Analysis is about understanding the true nature of the enterprise. Design is about specifying artifacts, using a particular technology, to do useful work. The two are not the same.

This book is a compendium of techniques for analyzing the nature of a business. It is not concerned with object-orientation for the simple reason that object-orientation is an approach to design. It does not address "object-oriented analysis" because there is no such thing. There is only "analysis" of an enterprise. The results of that analysis may be used for designing object-oriented systems, COBOL systems, or any other kind you wish. The book describes UML, but it points out that only a sub-set of the notation is appropriate for analysis. UML was originally intended to support design.

The book is organized around my version of the Zachman Framework, which means that it addresses not only data modeling, but also the modeling of activities, locations, people and organizations, timing, and business rules. In each case, it characterizes analysis as the process of translating a set of business owners' views of the enterprise into a single, coherent architectural view. It is true that the state of the industry now is such that there is much more to say about data than there is for any other subject, but I did make an honest attempt to describe as many modelling techniques as I could find for all of them.

The book is an attempt to present a comprehensive picture of requirements analysis. If you are looking for a book on object-oriented design, this is not the book.

Giving the Zachman framework a new lease on life
'Rather than reviewing requirement analysis from the perspective of a particular implementation of technology, this book views it as fundamentally an architecture process. This books premise is that requirements analysis is the translation of a set of business owners' view of the enterprise to a single, comprehensive architectural view of that enterprise'

David inspired by the Zachman framework shows how various methodologies and techniques can be organised for a omprehensive requirements analysis approach leading to an architecture solution. This book really brings forward the briliance of the Zachman framework. It gives a new perspective on Zachman and brings the framework back into the contempory enterprise strategies framework.

David shows not only how to avoid the common mistake of building an architecture from a single business view but also how to integrate various views into a common architectural view.

The book keeps to it focus on "Requirement analysis" and the reader is not really helped to go beyond the requirement analysis phase into the design and implementation phases. A good reference to have for people with an appetite for enterprise architecture strategies

Good on data modeling, but little else
I had a good book on OO analysis and the UML, but though it weak on data modeling and business rules. So I went looking...

I read the 4 reviews on this page and purchased the book. Given the reviews and the fact that it was just published, I thought I would be getting a book that unifies a broad sweep of modern analysis techniques (OO, UML, Data Modeling, Design Patterns, Business Rules, Requirements Gathering Techniques, Iterative Development, etc.).

On the contrary, I received a book that is 90% data modeling biased and steeped-in analysis techniques of the pre-OO era, such as data flow diagrams (people still use these?). This looks like a book I had in school 10 years ago.

There are passing and, at best, cursory references to UML modeling approaches, but that is all that is in this book with respect to modern OO approaches.

There is absolutely nothing said with regards to Design Patterns nor an iterative approach to building systems and mitigating risk. I find this lack of coverage absolutely incredible in a software requirements analysis book published in 2003. Unbelievable!

Ten years ago, this book might have been considered a good benchmark. Not today. This author's sole idea of architecture is the data model and functional decomposition. Ugh.

If you are weak on relational data modeling, this book has redeeming value. Otherwise, if you are trying to figure-out how to elaborate requirements and transform them into a working OO system using UML, Design Patterns, and an iterative approach, I highly recommend Craig Larman's top-notch "Applying UML and Patterns: ...". It really sets the standard.

The Larman book is weak on data modeling and business rules - which I thought Hay's book would address better (and is why I bought it sight unseen). It does, but at the expense of everything else. ... Read more

Amazon.com

How many times has your PC crashed today? While Gordon Moore's now famous law projecting the doubling of computer power every 18 months has more than borne itself out, it's too bad that a similar trajectory projecting the reliability and usefulness of all that power didn't come to pass, as well. Advances in information technology are most often measured in the cool numbers of megahertz, throughput, and bandwidth--but, for many us, the experience of these advances may be better measured in hours of frustration.

The gap between the hype of the Information Age and its reality is often wide and deep, and it's into this gap that John Seely Brown and Paul Duguid plunge. Not that these guys are Luddites--far from it. Brown, the chief scientist at Xerox and the director of its Palo Alto Research Center (PARC), and Duguid, a historian and social theorist who also works with PARC, measure how information technology interacts and meshes with the social fabric. They write, "Technology design often takes aim at the surface of life. There it undoubtedly scores lots of worthwhile hits. But such successes can make designers blind to the difficulty of more serious challenges--primarily the resourcefulness that helps embed certain ways of doing things deep in our lives."

The authors cast their gaze on the many trends and ideas proffered by infoenthusiasts over the years, such as software agents, "still a long way from the predicted insertion into the woof and warp of ordinary life"; the electronic cottage that Alvin Toffler wrote about 20 years ago and has yet to be fully realized; and the rise of knowledge management and the challenges it faces trying to manage how people actually work and learn in the workplace. Their aim is not to pass judgment but to help remedy the tunnel vision that prevents technologists from seeing larger the social context that their ideas must ultimately inhabit. The Social Life of Information is a thoughtful and challenging read that belongs on the bookshelf of anyone trying to invent or make sense of the new world of information. --Harry C. Edwards ... Read more

Reviews (43)

myths of information technology
Remember those predictions about the paperless office? Or the electronic cottage, where workers become telecommuters and never have to change out of their pajamas? And what about those claims by Internet enthusiasts who predicted the end of the "old economy"?

Why is it that organizational models for running a business keep going in and out of fashion? What was wrong with total quality management? Process reengineering? Flattened organizational structures? Computer scientist John Seely Brown and social scientist Paul Duguid have some thought-provoking answers to these questions.

Brown has long been associated with Xerox Palo Alto Research Center (PARC) and is currently its director. Duguid is a research specialist in Education at UC Berkeley. And they're neither cranks nor nay-sayers. Both are firm advocates of change. They just want to point out what they consider to be some myths about information technology.

Brown and Duguid suggest that information technology's enthusiasts don't honor the difference between information and knowledge. Some people "know" what they're talking about; some don't. Knowledge is information with a context, which includes the person or people who have it. As Brown and Duguid say, you can't separate knowledge from the knower.

We forget that communication involves negotiation and then don't understand why others can't always accept what we say at face value. To illustrate, Brown retells the story of how the graphic user interface (GUI) developed at Xerox PARC was misunderstood and unappreciated by the rest of the company -- only to be embraced and taken to market by Apple.

The truth about learning is that it's social. You may read something in a manual or book or newspaper. It may seem like you're doing something by yourself. Just collecting information. But what you read was first made sense of by other people -- writers and editors. They used their own judgment and experience to decide what was worth putting into words and then how to organize it for your consumption. This is all the work of knowledge.

To illustrate that knowledge is a group activity, the authors describe a community of Xerox copier technicians, who developed an ongoing body of knowledge about servicing copiers that was not covered in their training. In essence a support group, they met informally before and after work for shop talk. And they discussed their experience of copiers with widely different problems. Some were so complex they required the knowledge of two technicians working in collaboration.

Acting as individuals, using only their training, they wouldn't have been able to do their jobs. The training was, in fact, only information. Tried and tested against copiers "in the real world," then shared within an unofficial "community of practice," information became knowledge.

I strongly recommend this book to anyone in knowledge management, education, IT, or training, because it shakes up so many assumptions about the information economy and knowledge transfer. It's a thought provoking read that will leave you with a good deal more savvy about how people learn.

A Tale of Two Topics?
I am of two minds about The Social Life of Information. John Seely Brown and Paul Duguid try to tackle several large topics, and end up somewhere in between them. Much of the book is spent trying to convince the reader, in short, that technology isn't all it's cracked up to be. As if we needed them to tell us that! The work also delves into some interesting and insightful discussions about where technology and social structures, such as education and learning, intersect one another.

The first portion of the book disappointed me. The first four chapters present a series of examples of touted technology "fads" and demonstrated how each of them hasn't lived up to its "promise" in terms of changing our everyday lives. However, the examples are, by and large, peripheral to mainstream applications of technology. As a reader, I just wasn't able to buy in to the idea that the failure of "agents" and "bots" to revolutionize contemporary life proves that technology in general is somehow "overblown." This part of the book was, in my opinion, quite weak, and didn't really draw me into the authors' message. In an age where technology innovations carry with them a host of important, and interesting, issues like privacy, encryption, and 1st amendment rights, the author's choices of topics for the early chapters seem almost trivial.

In fact, after I'd finished the first four chapters, I almost put it down and moved on to the next book in my "to read" pile. The second half of the book made me glad I'd finished it. The authors seemed to run out of ground in their original thesis and move on to more interesting territory. And, while I didn't feel like the authors succeeded in driving home any particular point in this part of the book, they did cover some new ground and make me think about topics I hadn't addressed before. Chapter 5 was a worthwhile investigation of learning in an organization, Chapter 8 painted an interesting picture of a possible future of education in a technology-driven world, and Chapter 6 was a fairly insightful and fresh (if cursory) look at how organizations are changing in light of the changes around them.

While the second half of the book doesn't redeem the first, to me it made the book as a whole worth the read. If you're thinking about reading this book, you won't be wasting your time. But lay down your expectations at the door, because this book probably won't be what you expected.

Full of ah-ha moments, though a bit of a slow read.
I just finished reading The Social Life of Information, by John Seeley Brown and Paul Duguid. This was not the quickest read; it's a business book with the obtuseness of vocabulary that implies. However, if you're a computer person with any desire to see your work in a larger context, this is a book you should read. In it, they examine eight separate areas in which computers, and the internet in particular, have supposedly changed our lives (this is typically called 'hype', though the authors don't use the word) in the latter years of the 20th century. (This book is copyright 2000.) You probably remember some of these claims: the death of the corporation, of the university, of paper documents, of the corporate office. In each chapter, they review one claim, show how the claim's proponents over-simplify the issue, and look at the (new and old) responses of people and institutions to the problem that the claim was trying to solve. They also examine, in detail, the ways in which humans process information, and how the software that is often touted as a replacement simply isn't.

I really enjoy 'ah-ha' moments; these are times where I look back at my experiences in a new light, thanks to a theory that justifies or explains something that I didn't understand. For example, I remember when I started my first professional job, right out of college, I thought the whole point of work was to, well, work. So I sat in my cube and worked 8 solid hours a day. After a few months, when I still didn't know anyone at the office, but had to ask someone how to modify a script I was working on, I learned the value of social interaction at the office. (Actually, I was so clueless, I had to ask someone to find the appropriate someone to ask.) While examining the concept of the home office, the authors state "[t]he office social system plays a major part in keeping tools (and people) up and running." It's not just work that happens at the office--there's collaboration and informal learning.

I've worked remotely in the past year for the first time, and anyone who's worked remotely has experienced a moment of frustration when trying to explain something and wished they were just "there," to show rather than tell--the authors refer to this process as 'huddling.' When someone is changing a software configuration that I'm not intimately familiar, it's much easier to judge correct options and settings if I'm there. The authors explain that "[huddling] is often a way of getting things done through collaboration. At home with frail and fickle technologies and unlimited configurations, people paradoxically may need to huddle even more, but can't." This collaboration is even more important between peers.

Reading about the home office and its lack of informal networks (which do occur around the corporate office) really drove home the social nature of work. After a few years at my company, I had cross-departmental relationships (often struck up over beer Friday) that truly eased some of my pain. Often, knowing who to ask a question is more important than knowing the answer to the question. It's not impossible to build those relationships when you're working remotely, but it's much more difficult.

Another enjoyable moment of clarity arose when the authors discussed the nature of documents. I think of a document as a Word file, or perhaps a set of printed out pages. The explicit information (words, diagrams, etc) that I can get from the document is the focus (and this is certainly the case in document management systems sales pitches). But there's a lot more to a document. How do I know how much to trust the information? Well, if it's on a website somewhere, that's a fair bit sketchier than if it's in the newspaper, which is in turn less trustworthy than if I've experienced the information myself. Documents validate information--we've all picked up a book, hefted it, examined it, and judged it based on its cover. The authors say "readers look beyond the information in documents. ... The investment evident in a document's material content is often a good indicator of the investment in its informational content." Just as if someone says "trust me" you should probably run the other way, information alone can't attest to its own veracity. The authors also look at aspects to documents (like history, like feel, like layout) that simply aren't captured when you treat them as streams of bits.

And there are many other examples of 'hype' that are deflated in this book, and a few other 'ah-ha' moments as well. As I stated above, this is a great read for anyone who thinks there is a technical answer to any problem (or even most problems). By taking apart various claims, and examining the truth and untruth of those claims in a real world context, these two authors give technology credit where it's due, while at the same time explaining why some of the older institutions and important factors in our lives will remain around. Reading this book was hard work, but understanding what the authors say gives me yet another way to relate to non-technical people, as well as fend off the zealots who claim, in a knee-jerk fashion, that more software solves problems. I majored in physics, in college, but minored in politics. It always seemed that the people problems, though more squishy, were more interesting. This book is confirmation of that fact.

Valuable idea towards the new IT century
Living in this new century, Information Technology plays a very important part in our daily life. However, as the world is flooded with information, meaningless of the mass information become a questionable matter in return.

This book is just about some ideas concerning the new technology and the new world information. People nowadays know the importance of information but they always missed the limitation of it. As mentioned by the author, increased in information is not necessary equivalents to increased in the value and meaning of it. Controlling the flow of mass information became a critical issue and solutions like better processing and improved data are suggested for improvement.

The book raised an essential element in the IT world, that is the social network, which in fact is playing the core role in this new technology world. Without the help of socialization, technology cannot grow so fast into our daily life. Think about facing problems about how to operate a new version of Microsoft windows, majority of new users would seek advice from those they knew rather than seek helps from the ¡§help¡¨ menu or instruction guidelines on the internet. Therefore, social context plays an important role in helping information and technology become more valuable to human.
It is the truth that even the professional technicians cannot solve problems by themselves sometimes and what they would do is to discuss with colleagues and share experience and knowledge with each other.

I agree that information itself has little meaning; it becomes valuable only after we digested and changed them into knowledge. Without doubt, technologies can ease our learning of knowledge and save much time. Therefore, they all have close relationship with each other.

This book is worthwhile to read and I have several learning insights from it. For instance, the difference between information and knowledge, IT is not as powerful as what I think before and there are still many rooms for improvements. The author pointed out an important term, Tunnel Vision, which means looking at a particular thing in a narrow vision and ignoring other things around. Whenever we try to focus on a certain issue, we should mind the thing around, broader vision is better to help us in getting a more objective view.

In addition, it is informative in clearing our misunderstandings on IT development and there are some good points raised by the author like those I have mentioned before.

Lets go forward to the past
This is a remarkable book, not simply in terms of its insights on how technologies can be misguided if they do no recognize the underlying social structure that they are there to support, but also with regard to the release of this book in March of 2000 at the height of the dot-com boom.

In this book you will not find technological evangelicalism or ideas about how the Internet can change the world, but you will find thoughtful discussion about why online universities need the value of the offline university, why a knowledge economy cannot be understood in terms of a manufacturing paradigm of inter-changeable parts, why Chiat-Day's unstructured office design was an interesting concept but a failure in supporting the social structure of an office, and why groups of like-minded businesses will cluster in the same geographical area even though new technologies would elminate the need for proximity.

This book is positive about technology, but asks to look first at the real impact and real opportunity. While this is an amazing book that I would highly recommend to everyone interested in this subject, I did think the delineation of new technology and existing social context did not explore emergining social patterns as a result of technological change. We can only hope for a book in the future on this topic by these authors ... Read more

Book Description

A Silicon Valley veteran and author of the bestseller High Tech Start Up reveals the nature of unfair advantage -- that holy grail for every company, the mysterious quality that separates successful businesses from the nine out of ten that fail -- and then shows how to create an unfair advantage, build it into a business plan, and use it to maximum effect.

Nesheim's first book, originally self-published during Silicon Valley's wild west days in the 1990s, quickly moved from underground hit to business bestseller. He witnessed the incredible highs and lows of the Internet bubble, and he got an intimate look at why some companies weathered the storm while others went under. Now, in The Power of Unfair Advantage, Nesheim shows you how to bring the pioneer spirit to your new enterprise -- whether you are starting a new company or trying to breathe new life into an old dog. Unfair advantage is an enduring but often overlooked dynamic and a crucial aspect of any successful business endeavor.

To show you how to attain unfair advantage over your competitors, he begins with a clear model: Outsource everything you are not good at, concentrate on those things that can be differentiated, and strive for a unique, consistent difference that cannot be copied. Integrating these maxims with other essential elements, he demonstrates, with dozens of case studies, how to orchestrate unfair advantage through marketing, sales, engineering, and operations.

Unfair advantage can take many forms. Pager maker RIM rocketed to the top of the mobile wireless email market with Blackberry by employing an unfair advantage that it alone possessed -- pager technology and pager infrastructure. Alternately, an unfair advantage can come from a unique relationship with a strategic alliance partner, as when Flextronics pulled Handspring out of a life-threatening crisis.

The Power of Unfair Advantage is an essential handbook for every manager who is responsible for introducing a new product or service and every entrepreneur and would-be who plans to start a company. Unfair advantage is here to stay -- learn how to lasso its power, rise above the competition, and build a flourishing, long-lasting business.

... Read more

Reviews (5)

It made me weep...
This book made me weep. It isn't fair that there is a place to work like this. I spend my days having my ideas ridiculed.

The book is enjoyable and inspiring. Recommended. Wish more companies treated their employees like Disney does their Imagineers.

A short fun delightful tease into Disney's secret world
I am still waiting a detailed history book about the Disney Imaginers
Or maybe a book about how they think.

I was hopping that this book was it, but it wasn't.

This book is a collection of essays, thoughts, and fun tid-bits about the idea
Of imagineering written by the Imaginers themselves.

Its fun to read and give a teaser glimpse into Disney's best keep secret.

Entertaining, But Could Use More Substance
This book is basically a collection of short essays on creativity written by Imagineers. It does contain some gems (and a few entertaining stories), but doesn't give away any real Imagineering secrets. And the illustrations are cute. My bottom line is it comes across as a multi-part pep talk.

Insightful, but wanted more!
I was surprised by this book. It is very helpful into gaining insight to the Imagineers creative process, but I was hoping for more anecdotes on how they solved some of their most difficult design challanges or how they went about designing some of their parks. There are a few stores included, but I wanted more!

If you want more information, artwork, and pictures of Disney attractions, purchase Walt Disney Imagineering: A behind the Dreams look at making the magic real.

Otherwise, it is a great book and tells you how to apply the Imagineers creative thought process to your own life and work.

From Figment to Imagination
This is fun collection of essays from Disney's Imagineers. Its a small book, but truly inspirational. I would have liked a more in-depth book on the Imagineer's thoughts on creativity, so I was a little disappointed.
But I have to admit, that this book was fun to read and did trigger many creative thoughts. The creative energy of the Imagineers did come through in their essays.
I hope there is a future book, which does for the Disney Imagineers what "The Art Innovation" did for IDEO.

Only 4 stars because I really was hoping for more substance, but I would still recommend this book to someone looking for quick burst of creative inspiration. ... Read more

Reviews (1)

THE book on small group dynamics!
This book should be required reading in all High Schools in this country. This book answered questions about small groups that I have struggled with for years. I have never understood how people could be in a meeting the first week and agree with everything, and then by the fifth week you just want to strangle them. Now I do. This book does an excellent job of explaining that one of the products of a small group is the change that occurs within each individual of the group, and not just on the declared product of the group. Great study book. ... Read more

Book Description

Bringing together the classicand the contemporary aspects of the field, thiscomprehensive introduction to network flowsprovides an integrative view of theory,algorithms, and applications.It offers in-depth and self-contained treatmentsof shortest path, maximum flow, and minimum costflow problems, including a description of new andnovel polynomial-time algorithms for these coremodels. For professionals workingwith network flows, optimization, and networkprogramming. ... Read more

Reviews (7)

Great book for Network Theory and Application
This book contains a lot of great algorithms for network flow theory and it also contains many of the great applications, which are very useful in practice. This book is very completed. Personally, I learn a lot of new things about Multi commodity Flow, which are the use of Lagrangian Relaxation, Column generation, Resource allocation techniques for solving multi commodity flow. There are also the good chapters in Convex cost flow and Generalized Flow and good appendix in complexity. Beside this book is very easy to read and understand. It is a great idea to have if you are in OR or IE major. :)

PLEASE, write a corrected edition!
First of all, I am not surprised that the book
got so many good reviews: at first look, it is truly
impressive, and it is clearly a work of love. I was
looking forward to teaching from it.

It is quite clear from the reviews though, that the
reviewers have not **used** it for teaching; they may
have browsed it at most.

The first disappointments came very soon in the course I
taught. The biggest flaw of the book is the really bad style
in which the proofs are written. They manage to be seemingly
overflowing with explanation, and at the same time difficult
to understand. They gloss over many details: if the teacher
tries to skip these, an alert student could easily make
him/her look pretty silly.

One case in point is the proof of the label correcting
algorithm's correctness starting on page 136. I knew this
material from before, so I thought preparing class from
here would be a breeze. I was wrong: after going back to
my notes, and breaking up the mess into several simple
claims did I manage to make notes from which I could teach.
Whoever missed the class was helpless, when they looked
for explanation in the book.

I only remark, that all classes that I taught from this book
were at some of the top 10 OR depts at the US... so this is
hardly the students' fault.

Many exercises are wrong as well, and although the authors
claim that they will try to fix the mistakes, they hardly ever
reply to reader's comments, as some of my fellow professors
told me.

I can only compare the style of the exposition to the
later written Combinatorial Optimization book by
Cunningham et. al. There is a WORLD of difference.
One can try to look up for instance, the proof
for the label correcting algorithm: the proof in the
Ahuja et. al book is practically creaking at the joints,
while in Cunningham et. al. it flows lucidly.
I suspect that the authors of the latter book wrote it, since
they were unhappy with this one; one can hardly be surprised.

On the positive side, the plethora of applications presented
is truly amazing, and the exercises (when correct) are excellent.

To sum it up: A good book, which could have become a great one,
but have not; one which is very useful, but at the
same time very hard to use... I think the community would thank
the authors for a second, revised edition, that would fix
all the mistakes, and all those terrible proofs.

A final word: this text received the prestigious Lanchester
prize. One may surmise that giving prizes to a textbook
would be best done maybe after 5 years, after a book proved
its worth in actual teaching in the trenches,
so to speak, and NOT based on the first impression that the
jury gets.

Bible for Network flows
Go for it! Other books do give algorithms but some of them have sloopy versions of the algorithms. This book not only gives the efficient versions of algorithms but also gives pseudo code for all of them. And the treatment of the subject itself is flawless. The theory leading to algorithms is very important to understand the algorithms and the authors do an excellent job. The way the book is organised the pictures and examples - everything is perfect. The exercises are not just number crunching problems but real good problems which require lot of thinking.

Very complete
This book is a comprehensive overview of network flow algorithms with emphasis on cost constraint algorithms. In chapter 1 the authors introduce the network flow problems that will be studied in the book along with a discussion of the applications of these problems.

The terminology needed for network flow problems is introduced in Chapter 2, with rigorous definitions given for graphs, trees, and network representations. Most interesting is the discussion on network transformations, for here the authors discuss how to simplify networks to make their study more tractable.

An overview of complexity concepts in algorithms is given in the next chapter. A good discussion is given on parameter balancing. Pseudocode is given at various places to illustrate the algorithms.

Chapter 4 discusses shortest-path algorithms, with emphasis on label-setting algorithms. For network modelers and designers involved in routing algorithms, there is a nice discussion of Dijkstra's algorithm in this chapter, along with a treatment of how to improve on that algorithm by using Dial's, heap, and radix heap implementations.

A more general discussion of shortest path algorithms follows in Chapter 5, with details on label-correcting algorithms. The reader is asked to investigate the Bellman's equations in the exercises.

The maximum flow algorithm is treated in Chapter 6, and the reader with a background in linear programming will see ideas from that area applied nicely here. An application to parallel programming is given also. The maximum flow problem is treated using algorithms that improve worst-case complexity in Chapter 7, by employing the preflow-push algorithms. Even more approaches to the maximum flow problem are considered in Chapter 8, where the reader can find a good presentation of dynamic tree implementations.

All of the algorithms up to this point are put into the context of the minimum cost flow problem in Chapter 9. It is here that optimality conditions become very transparent in the implementation of the algorithms. A very quick but helpful discussion is given on sensitivity analysis of the minimum cost flow problem. An interesting application of the results is given to the problem of reconstructing the left ventricle in the heart from X-ray projections. Polynomial time algorithms for minimum cost flows are discussed effectively in Chapter 10, which is followed by a discussion of using linear programming methods in the minimum cost flow problem in Chapter 11.

The application of combinatorial optimization techniques is the subject of Chapter 12, where matching problems are discussed. The authors give a thorough treatment, along with many examples.

Spanning trees again make their appearance in Chapter 13, via the minimum spanning tree problem. The all-important Kruskal algorithm is given a detailed treatment, along with a very interesting discussion of matroids.

Nonlinear optimization via convex cost flows is the subject of Chapter 14, wherein the authors show how to transform a convex cost flow problem into a minimum cost flow problem.

Flow problems that are not conservative at the nodes are the subject of the next chapter on generalized flow problems. The solutions of these problems are discussed within the context of augmented forest structures, and many applications are given.

Lagrangian methods are the subject of Chapter 16, where the authors show how to solve constrained shortest path algorithms using Lagrangian relaxation. It is here that one can see the interplay between all of the techniques introduced so far. Particularly interesting is the discussion on applications to the traveling salesman problem, vehicle routing, and network design.

Flow problems where more than one entity are transferred across the network are the subject of Chapter 17, and logistic planners and engineers will find the treatment very helpful.

Most helpful to those using network flow algorithms in their everyday work is the discussion in Chapter 18 on the computational testing of algorithms. The authors give a fine discussion on how to identify bottlenecks, compare performance differences between two algorithms, and how to use virtual running times instead of CPU times to test algorithms.

The book ends with a chapter on more applications of network flow problems. Twenty-four applications are discussed, the most interesting ones to me being the optimal destruction of military targets, data scaling, DNA sequence alignment, automatic karyotyping of chromosomes, minimum project duration, just-in-time scheduling, warehouse layout, and inventory planning.

The Most comprehensive Network Programmin book ever
Dr.Tom and other authors have done a great job in writing this book. The book covers a lot of topics in Network Programming and a variety of algorithms are cited.

A must buy for any serious student taking a course in Network Programming. ... Read more

Book Description

International turn-around gurus describe how to rescue a company from the brink of disaster
Why, even in the best of economic times, do so many apparently healthy companies fail? The surprising answer offered by the authors of this breakthrough book is "denial," or more specifically, the inability of top management to acknowledge that they've been backing a losing strategy and to take the necessary, often traumatizing, steps required to set their companies on the right course. Using cogent case studies and lessons learned from working with Fortune 500 executives who have survived tough turnarounds, Pate and Platt vividly describe what happens when good strategies go bad. Drawing upon their experiences at top firms, they develop proven real-world turnaround strategies, tools, and techniques and show readers how to put them to work in their companies. ... Read more

Reviews (15)

Rising from the Ashes...your business, that is.
As one who practices in the business turnaround arena, I have a keen understanding of the Pate/Platt analogy of the Phoenix. In many cases, with the right timing, latitude, people and luck, a business heading south can be captured and "redefined" into one going the right direction.

For those unaware of the symmetry, the Phoenix takes is roots from classical mythology. The Phoenix, a young and strong firebird, would build a nest of frankincense and cassia twigs, ignite it, and self immolate once it became "old." A new Phoenix would rise from these fragrant flames, gather the ashes of it's predecessor, encapsulate them in a precious egg of Myrrh, and fly them to the altar of the Egyptian God of the Sun in the city of Heliopolis Egypt where they were carefully deposited. According to many scholars, this flight represented "the capacity to leave the world and its problems behind, flying towards the sun in clear pure skies." The ostensible lesson of the Phoenix is in the midst of prosperity and strength, we need a renewal phase or a recycling designed to interrupt the daily norms, allowing a rebirth and regeneration.

If there are two individuals with a strong sense of this "rebirth," it's Carter Pate and Harlan Platt. Pate is a Big Four turnaround specialist and Platt created and administers the certification exam for the Turnaround Management Association.

In THE PHOENIX EFFECT, the authors reveal the warning signs and critical pointers leading to a "real" review of one's business without the emotional denial typically present. The ability to identify trouble spots before they create trouble is the key, the authors tell us. The nine strategies described by the authors are:

1) "Determine the Scope" - where does your business sit in the industry you compete? Should you create new business lines, drop old ones, merge, etc?

2) "Orient the Business" -Are your products aimed at the right markets at the right time? Does your sales/growth strategy require some level of reorientation to generate greater effectiveness?

3) "Manage Scale Accurately" - can you grow your business from within with existing resources or should you consider a merger?

4) "Handle Debt" - restructure or renogotiate debt whenever possible. Create a credit facility meeting your business's need. {A word of caution: restructure credit facilities judiciously. Going back to the well too many times will create negativity, concern, doubt and potential retraction of your banking relationship.}

5) "Get the Most from Assets" - carefully scrutinize your asset bases, both tangible and intangible, to determine if they are working for your business. Any superfluous and underused assets should be considered dead weight.

6) "Get the Most from Employees" - identify and use creative strategies to increase the quality and productivity of your employee base.

7) "Get the Most from Products" - routinely review your product base to ascertain current pricing strategies, customer base and the quality a customer brings to your business. {I regularly review my client base to determine if I've outgrown a client. This type of renewal, while often awkward and painful, is absolutely healthy for both myself and the client.}

8) "Produce the Product" - are there alternative methods your products can be created, manufactured or offered proving more efficient and cost-effective? Is outsourcing a possibility?

9) "Change the Process" - model your own processes after those who have created a successful model. No change for the better is too small.

Pate and Platt provide an incredible number of real-life examples (certain aspects of which surprised me greatly...from a confidentiality point-of-view) of fatal mistakes and storied comebacks. This is a very solid read for any business owner, high-level manager, or consultant. It provides a blueprint for clarity in an otherwise complex web of uncertainty. Let's face it, any time a business is in trouble, you'll find more chaos, worry and "Chicken Littleisms" than you'll ever want to see. Creating a cohesive plan of attack designed to bring the pieces back together is the turnaround specialists mantra.

The only reason I didn't give this offering five stars was the authors' penchant for concentrating on the product section. While certainly not unimportant, the concept of crafting a turnaround strategy is much more than product direction and quality. Regardless, this book is quite good and extremely poignant.

Great book - I use it in for my MBA students
In Egyptian mythology, the fabled phoenix was a beautiful gold-and-purple male bird that became a Greek symbol of immortality.This book, The Phoenix Effect, is about corporate renewal or continued existence.The authors, Carter Pate & Harlan Platt, share their experiences as Certified Turnaround Professionals (CTP) to illustrate strategies that can be used in restructuring organizations that are in need of a tune up or to salvage a corporation in crisis.These turnaround professionals suggest 9 strategies that can assist in deciphering corporate health.These strategies can be used by CEOs or leaders to renew corporate profitability to ensure continued existence ----just like the fabled phoenix.
This is an excellent book and the authors provide the reader with numerous insights, examples and suggestions that have worked for other organizations to improve corporate prosperity.
I use this book with graduate students to explore organizational behavior/leadership strategies.

Bubble Gum
The experienced businessman/woman should pass on this one.The book is reminiscent of a required "bubble gum" text in a freshman level business course at a community college.I only wish the book had more pages so that it would make an even better paperweight.

A PATH TO TURNING YOUR COMPANY AROUND!
The authors, specialists in restructuring under-performing companies, present a nine-step program, to guide companies in need of renewal, ranging from minor changes to a total overhaul. The steps are: identify the most serious issues; determine if the company should stay the same, withdraw or expand in scope; clarify the orientation of the business and if the company lives up to its mission; decide if the company should grow or contract; determine the best way to handle debt; discern how to optimize resources; get the most from the workforce; maximize profit from products and customers; and pinpoint the best alternatives to producing products. A final step is to optimize process efficiency. Using numerous cases, the authors present clear, to-the-point guidelines for turning around a company. Highly recommended.

Strategies to know for ANY business
Carter Pate, a PricewaterhouseCoopers turnaround expert, and writer Harlan Platt provide clear and effective advice to any business needing revitalization or wanting to stay ahead of the competition.The book describes techniques to guide business owners in completely evaluating their entire company and then shows the path they need to follow to put their business back on track.

The nine strategies include getting to the point of a problem, examining the scope of your business, determining your correct orientation, dealing with scale, handling debt, dealing with working capital, handling employees, product marketing, product production and process analysis.Not just theoretical in nature, the authors detail the process in a very easy to understand and implement manner.The examples are detailed and to the point allowing anyone to follow the process.

Whether trying to turn around a business in trouble, keep a current one ahead of the competition or determine a business strategy for a startup, the book provides top quality guidance. ... Read more

Book Description

Make Every Decision Your Best Decision

Executives rate decision-making ability as the most important business skill, but few people have the training they need to make good decisions consistently.

Becoming a good decision-maker is like training to be a top athlete: Just as the best coaches use training methods to help athletes develop proper techniques and avoid mistakes, Dr. J. Edward Russo and Dr. Paul J. H. Schoemaker have developed a program that can help you avoid "decision traps" -- the ten common decision-making errors that most people make over and over again.

Dr. Russo and Dr. Schoemaker have improved the decision-making skills of thousands of Fortune 500 executives with this program. Now you can use their decision-making techniques to make sure that your last bad decision was your last bad decision. ... Read more

Reviews (8)

Too much belief in personal judgment
Most decisionmakers make the same kinds of error. There needs to be a frame for each problem. There should be avoidance of plunging in and relying too heavily on supposed good judgment. Drawing boundaries are part of framing the questions. Managers are apt to draw narrow boundaries.

Sometimes there is a failure to draw a boundary line. There is the sunk cost fallacy, basing current and future changes in operation on past expenditures for equipment. One is influenced by reference points in the the problem frame. Some decisions make sense through several different frames. In such a case there can be certainty that the decision is a good one.

Good communicators align their communications with the listeners' frames. Virtually all people put too much trust in their own opinions. Most people favor data supporting current belief. Wrongly we associate confidence with competence. One should be a realist when making a decision and an optimist when implementing it. Rules of thumb and other decisionmaking shortcuts are called heuristics. The disadvantages of intuitive decisionmaking are more profound than people realize.

Members of groups may agree prematurely on wrong decisions. Groups may suffer from too much cohesiveness, harmony, pressure, insulation, and strong leadership. In group think people practice self-censorship, pressure others, give in to an illusion of invulnerability and erroneous stereotyping. Groups composed of people of mixed types of personality are useful--receptive versus focused and thinking versus feeling types.

The book is written in veritable outline form, presumably to get the attention of busy managers. It has a extensive notes supplementing the text giving a student of business and other fields an opportunity to pursue related lines of inquiry.

A simple but high value management tool book
A comprehensive outline of the major 10 decision traps from decision psychology aspects.

I benefit a lot from the book's reminder on those "traps" which I have also committed some.

A good value book.

A must for anyone making strategic decisions
This book is excellent for anyone who is required to make strategic decisions. It will give you a clear framework for stepping back and making sure that you understand the problem that you are trying to solve and that you are considering all appropriate solutions to the problem.

very useful
I am so happy because I can tell you my idea about this book. This book is very useful when I must make decision. I will never forget the trap,then I think I will be able to make better decision.

Highly Useful
I came across a reference to this book in my Economics Textbook in my MBA. The name attracted and hence I bought this book.

This is an excellent book that explains how managers, however experienced, can become complacent and forget major steps in decision making. It really helped me to understand decision making as a process in a better manner than what I had already learnt.

I think that everyone who makes any major decisions, in whatever capacity, should read this book.

It helped me to think better. ... Read more

Book Description

Crises have no boundaries. Any company, organization and institution is vulnerable. A shooting or other violence in the workplace. An explosion. Product recall. Release of toxic substance. Natural disaster.This book is the complete guide to crisis communictions.The better a management team is prepared, the better it will be able to communicate and contain and incident before it becomes a crisis.This should be required reading for anyone running a successful enterprise in today's crisis-prone environment. For a senior manager, it could be job insurance! ... Read more

Reviews (2)

This book is simplistic
The author provides case study after case study with practically no analysis himself. He spends an entire chapter promoting himself and lambasting a client who didn't heed his advice.

Is this a good book for newcomers? Possibly. If you're a student and don't know much about public relations this book will probably interest you. If you're a practioner and this book is anything other than remidal reading, it may be time to consider finding a new career.

To his credit, the author does present case studies that run the gamut from non-profits, to disasters, to educational instituions, to criminal clients. He does provide a wide array of different situations.

I have no doubt that the author is an excellent practioner of the art of public relations. As a journalist and an instructor, the book leaves something to be desired.

An excellent resource
I found this to be one of the best books out there on risk and crisis communication. The author succinctly presents a wealth of practical information and tips. This book is as useful for newcomers to the field, as well as those who have weathered many a crisis. In addition, its universal advice applies to all organizations--whether you are in industry, government, education, sports, or non-profit. I've bought copies for all my staff! ... Read more

Book Description

From medicine and defense to food and cosmetics, biotechnological breakthroughs are creating huge new global market opportunities as well as unprecedented challenges. Companies from mega-pharmaceuticals to infotech giants and biotech start-ups must radically rethink their business models. In the first book on the business of biotechnology, Françoise Simon and Philip Kotler combine their biotechnology and marketing ex-pertise to show managers how to innovate with bionetworks, win customers with biobrands, and create sustainable advantage worldwide.

Simon and Kotler explain in clear nontechnical prose how innovation in the new biosector will be driven by a web of cross-industry collaborations, and in particular by three transforming forces: information technology, consumerism, and systems biology. With timely industry cases, the authors demonstrate that by capitalizing on these forces, companies from Hitachi and Siemens to Amgen and Pfizer could become the biotech leaders of the coming decades.

The chapters on building and sustaining biobrands are the centerpiece of this indispensable book. Simon and Kotler present a powerful framework that will enable any manager to redefine and transform traditional models into a new branding paradigm: the global "targeted" model as an alternative to the global "mass market" model. The authors illustrate how each of these models has proven successful in launching such blockbuster drugs as Viagra, Lipitor, Rituxan, and Gleevec.

Relevant to all industries impacted by biotechnology from consumer goods to industrial products, Building Global Biobrands is essential reading for every manager, marketer, analyst, and consultant who must understand the Biotech Century. ... Read more

Reviews (12)

The absolute best book to date on the topic!
Building Global Biobrands is slated to become an instant classic. This book is nothing short of phenomenal. It gives a comprehensive yet cogent description and assessment of the state of biotechnology and global markets. The authors' conception, approach, and arguments are structured and presented in a manner as innovative and attention-grabbing as biotechnology itself.

Simon and Kotler focus the core of the book on the new marketing models companies need to support the rise of personalized medicine. They illustrate their concepts with a wealth of biotech and pharma cases, from Botox to Viagra.

Executives and analysts in biotech, pharmaceuticals, and information technology, as well as business school professors and students, will find Building Global Biobrands indispensable---now and in years to come.

A COMPREHENSIVE VIEW OF BIOTECH AND PHARMACEUTICAL MARKETING
This is a very smart book: it is valuable for professionals in all aspects of health care who seek an insight into the global pricing and marketing of medical therapies.

Though not biological scientists, Simon and Kotler impart their treatise with a savvy academic outlook blended with lessons learned in the consulting arena. The authors show an amazing scholarship. They combine knowledge derived from personal acquaintance with key players in the biotechnology and classical pharmaceutical industry with an understanding of the medical applications and implications of drug therapies to weave a rich tapestry of a very complex topic.

Their view ranges from:
· a discussion of the history, politics and costs of biotechnologic research;
· the pricing of new drugs to allow both access and cost recovery (Novartis' introduction of GleevecR);
· the evolution of Big Pharmas' ( e.g. Pfizer, Merck) alliances with smaller bio-tech firms to find innovative therapies,

to the techniques used to maintain brand franchises as patent protection is lost. (Over-the-counter Advil remains a viable brand.)

They are able to keep readers' interest high by providing concise and lively vignettes of many developments in the history of drug introduction and marketing. Among these, they cite:
· Pfizer's promotion of late-entrant LipitorR to become the victor in the statin "races";
· Johnson & Johnson's brilliant recall of TylenolR following deaths due to product tampering and its ability to maintain the brand's prominence for over 30 years; and
· Pfizer's consumer-driven shaping of the market for ViagraR by creating erectile dysfunction as a new clinical entity.

The future appears to be in the realm of biotechnology with strong BigPharma participation. Whatever the new environment, the basic principles of marketing described in this volume will hold true.

A Good Read!
This book, exhaustively researched and daunting to read, sums up all of the most important forces likely to concern a biotech marketer. The authors take a dispassionate, methodical approach, buttress their points with plenty of case evidence and examples, clearly have a grasp of the subject and communicate detailed knowledge of great value to those in the field. Unfortunately, their style is plodding and clinical, replete with passive constructions and impersonal, generally soporific sentences. We believe that those with a real need to know will be glad to brew some strong coffee and grateful to stay the course and become so thoroughly updated. Readers who are intrigued by the field - but not immersed in it - will benefit most from reading the introduction, the first three chapters and the conclusion.

A wide and clear-sighted Bio-Business panorama
Françoise Simon and Philip Kotler provide us a concentrate analyse stressed on key-moving-drivers on the Bio-sector. They gave us a wide overview, from R&D leading trend to Marketing implementation and License & Acquisition Business. The two main strengths of this book are the numerous real case studies exposed and the international insight of the whole study(including Europe and Japan).
This book will interest Executives involved in Business Development, Bio-strategy or smart fox wondering what the Bio-sector will look in the fast coming years. This book is different because exhaustive and balanced between Biotech and Big-Pharmas Business model. A unique tool to keep and read again!

Outstanding and Insightful
This book is an outstanding resource for anyone in the pharmaceutical or biotechnology industries - or anyone interested in investing in those industries. It provides a wealth of information that cannot be found elsewhere. The analysis of alternative strategies for building stronger product markets is very thorough. ... Read more

Book Description

By learning the critical thinking strategies outlined within this book, you will make effective decisions based on careful evaluation, develop the best solutions to problems, identify key issues without getting sidetracked, and use critical thinking to write and speak with impact. It’s easy to fall into "thinking traps" such as emotional manipulation, deceptive reasoning and lazy thinking. This book will teach you how to identify and avoid these traps, and how to deal with them when you encounter them within yourself or your organization. You will also be introduced to different styles of critical thinking, and how each works to deepen your understanding of the facts and information you have.

Learning Objectives:To explain the differences between critical and non-critical thinking.To teach strategies for improving the thinking necessary to make effective decisions at work.To help readers understand how to evaluate the validity of arguments.To describe the role that evidence plays in supporting strong arguments and explanations.To demonstrate how to formulate effective explanations with solid information and reasoned hypotheses. ... Read more

Book Description

Praise for Rath & Strong's Six Sigma Leadership Handbook

"Six Sigma tools, particularly DFSS, are critical drivers of organic growth. DFSS can be used to significantly improve a new product, service, or process anywhere. Rath & Strong’s detailed approach to how your company can use these tools is terrific."
–Dave Cote, Chairman and CEO, Honeywell

"This handbook is a valuable resource for leaders considering implementing a Six Sigma program. I wish I had something like it when Quest Diagnostics first embarked on our commitment to Six Sigma quality a few years ago."
–Kenneth W. Freeman, Chairman and CEO
Quest Diagnostics Incorporated

"Rath & Strong’s new handbook focuses on the critical factors that can make or break the implementation of Six Sigma in an organization."
–John C. Plant, President and CEO, TRW Automotive

"This handbook is an essential tool for any organization that is considering implementing a quality or process improvement program utilizing the Six Sigma methodology. Understanding the philosophy behind this proven management framework before putting it into practice gives companies looking to use it an even greater edge. The handbook provides an easy-to-follow footprint for the successful deployment of Six Sigma."
–Randy H. Zwirn, President and CEO
Siemens Westinghouse Power Corporation ... Read more

Reviews (4)

A must for Six Sigma starter, and leader
The name says it well - this is a book for leader who want to know what Six Sigma is, and in particular, all (and I mean ALL) the other management issues for starting Six Sigma.

Obviously this book will not cover the detail technical aspect of Six Sigma (like the statistics knowledge,etc), but this book cover all the useful information for Six Sigma - its history, what is Black/Green/Yellow