Book Description

For advanced undergraduate and MBA courses in Supply Chain Management. This book brings together the strategic role of the supply chain, key strategic drivers of supply chain performance, and the tools and techniques for supply chain analysis. Every chapter gives suggestions that managers can use in practice and all methodologies are illustrated with an application in Excel.Fully updated material keeps the book on the forefront of supply chain management.Distribution networks (Chapter 4); Sourcing (Chapter 13), discusses different sourcing activities including supplier assessment, supplier contracts, design collaboration, and procurement; Price and revenue management (Chapter 15); Early coverage of designing the supply chain network—after developing a strategic framework, readers can discuss supply chain network design in Chapters 5 and 6 and then move on to demand, supply, inventory, and transportation planning; Information Technology in the Supply Chain (Chapter 17).For business professionals managing the supply chain. ... Read more

Reviews (5)

Good reference material for practitioners
I found this book to be a great source of reference for managers. It is not really a good teaching source, as I thought it already starts with a fair amount of assumed previous knowledge and jargon.

The sections that are most well developed are the ones on inventory management and transportation logistics, where I found examples that were directly applicable to situations I encountered in a retail environment. The portion on forecasting was not as useful, and the part on e-business seemed somewhat contrived. Overall, this is the best reference I have found that does not require a heavy amount of mathematical familiarity.

Excellent book overall but...
I refered and used this book in 2 grad level courses. The first was a business school course on SCM (with an above average quantitative focus for a B-school course) and again for a fully quatitative SC Engineering course. While I was initially very impressed with the book, using this over 2 semesters has raised a few gripes.

For the qualitative issues on SCM {make no mistake, these 'fluff' aspects are very important} there is no other equal. Chopra and Meindl do an outstanding and comprehensive job. They also bring out the importance of using scientific, quantitative techniques for SCM. This however is where my gripes start.

Having brought out the importance of quantitative tools for use in SCM, they do only a moderate job on explaining these tools. For example, the chapter on forecasting (only the most simple and commonly used models are explained) is unnnecessarily complex and confusing. The topics covered are adequete but need revision. Treatment of inventory management also could be more detailed and better explained.

This is an excellent book but for more comprehensive learning (if you want an understanding of the quantitative aspects too), I think this book needs supplementing (say with course notes) or another book like "Modeling the Supply Chain" by Shapiro.

Peter Meindl - The Godfather of modern supply chain mgt
Written by one of the leading minds in the field, Peter Meindl of I2 technologies has a lot to teach. This is an excellent text and as a fellow Dallas/Ft. Worth resident, I would enjoy meeting him. If you are an MBA student with a concentration in Operations Management, this text should be required.

Meindl, a management team member of I2, has helped develop I2 into the undisputed champion in enterprise software. While SAP may have the market share with their archaic DOS based application, I2 has windows functionality and everything that matters. They have raised the bar with their supply chain knowledge, leading solutions, and collaborative knowledge in supply chain strategy. This text will give you a big step forward in becoming a Supply Chain leader.

CLEAR AND CONCISE TEXT WITH GOOD CASES
Although this book is written more for MBA students, the flow and texture of this book should be well-received by those who are not at post-graduate level. For practising managers, like me, I find a great deal of my knowledge gap is filled when reading this book. As the first reviewer mentioned, this book complements a rudimentary text and a more detailed one available in the market, perhaps I may add that it also compliments well with a latest supply chain textbook "Modeling The Supply Chain" which also pairs well with Chopra and Meindl's book because the former offers quite a good spectrum of case studies that supports the text. Some of the numerical exercises seem to come from live cases, too, which led me to appreciate that exercises built in this text are not neccessarily academic ones. I strongly recommend this to international practitioners and students alike since the cases that flow along with the textbook are of international genre.

Tactical approach for Supply Chain
While Handfield and Nichols book may be over-introductory, the better analytical book must be "Designing and Managing the Supply Chain" by Simchi-Levi (1999). Some researchers want more mathematics might jump to "Logic of Logistics" by Simchi-Levi directly. To fill the gap of those 3 books (Handfield vs. Simchi-Levi (SCM) vs. Simchi-Levi (Logic of Logistics), Chopra and Meindl compile almost every issues in Supply Chain Management (SCM) that you can find in publications in this single book. This book is the best compromise between tactics and strategics. Cases and analysis are presented with respect to the topic of each chapter. Only high school mathematics are more than enough to understand the analytical tools they proposed. Readers may opt for this book either the first book in SCM or supplementary book for your further research/study. Chopra and Medindl book is a good support to your "Design and Managing SCM" by Simchi-Levi and I think it can be substituted if you need only one book. Good for both practitioners and educators. ... Read more

Book Description

Classic insight for modern times.

The world's foremost producer of personal development and motivational audio programs now offers a completely unique approach to learning leadership skills.

Most programs on leadership present the successes of contemporary men and women as role models for study. While valuable lessons can be learned from their examples, few models or success stories reveal the true essence of their leadership abilities or can anticipate the special circumstances, conditions, or situations that you deal with as a manager.

In the runaway bestseller Leadership Secrets Of Attila The Hun, author Wess Roberts draws from the imaginary thoughts of one of history's most effective and least beloved leaders, Attila the Hun, to discover leadership principles you can apply to your own situation. In a uniquely creative and entertaining approach to a most serious task, "Attila" reveals his principles for successful morale building, decision making, delegating and negotiating, and gives advice on overcoming setbacks and achieving goals. ... Read more

Reviews (28)

A Good Read!
Wess Roberts draws on the life experiences of the leader of the Mongol hordes to craft imaginative monologues on leadership - an attribute as valuable today as when Attila united the Huns in 415 AD. The advice is general. Its effectiveness probably depends on how well you apply it, although the idea of a historic icon of barbaric vengeance counseling us in cultural sensitivity seems a bit of a stretch. While the treatment is certainly colorful, you might worry about ways some modern-day chieftains could misuse Roberts' principles to justify their own Visigoth approach to management. We from getAbstract recommend this book to those looking for new and interesting ways to approach the perpetual management issues of team-building, inspiring loyalty, setting goals, and achieving objectives.

Pretentious
This book was entirely too pretentious to read. He should have tried to write in the active voice and with a reasonable vocabulary. I bought it used for less than a dollar plus shipping--I got wripped off.

Great work if you can get it
What a country this is! How else to explain this book? Take an historical figure about whom little is known, ascribe certain banalities about leadership to him, jazz it up with some colorful language, set it in a guidebook format with short chapters and lots of bullets--and sell huge numbers of copies! Get Ross Perot to endorse it!

This book cries out for a spoof--heck, it already seems like a spoof. I'm thinking of taking a few days to write "Leadership Secrets of Spongebob Squarepants" and see how it sells.

Great leadership primer
Sure, if you're looking for an in-depth treatise on Attila or Leadership you are bound to be disappointed. I have read this book numerous times and have assigned it to my subordinate managers as required reading. In every case those people have been pleasantly surprised with how easy it is to read, understand and apply to improve their leadership and management practices. It gets individuals interested in picking up other, more detailed works on leadership and management that they might not have been drawn to in the first place.

Do Not Waste Your Time: Low-Brow Business
Well... where to begin??? Wess Roberts is really a good example of an initial interesting idea milked and warped to horrible proportions; neither the historical metaphor nor the advice he gleans from it really ascends above the line of a comic book. Read the "Economists" review of this book and their trashing of its author -- who appears to be rather less than he appears. I can add little except to say that I bought it in a rush in an airport and then after the first page I realised there was something terribly wrong with this book (it is written for about someone who has a 12 year old reading comprehension level).

If you are a person who sees the world in a Manichean world view of "good and evil"/ "us and them" then you may ultimately see some kind of value in this book. All research however indicates that a successful business relationship is formed on the basis of honesty, trust and committment to a win-win relationship with the client. Without that fundamental understanding business and corporations do not advance. Those companies that practise the Attila mindset will ultimately remain Neanderthals and will condemn themselves to always being small-time, cheesy presenters with a life time of believing in the simplistic explanations for complex behaviour.

I would have given it a 0 if I could have. This book has the distinction of not even being worthy to grace the shelves of my personal business library. Spend your money on Drucker or even Napolean Hill. You will get a better return. ... Read more

Book Description

This book deals with all facets of construction project management from the contractors point of view.It examines the duties that are handled by the project manager, construction superintendent, and construction engineer throughout the progress of a job, from the configurations of a project team through project closeout.A hallmark of this book is its dedicated focus on the activities of jobsite personnel that includes helpful techniques and procedures for effectively managing a project from start to finish.The clear, concise language in which it is written makes this book an essential introduction to the real world of effective management techniques. ... Read more

Book Description

STATISTICS FOR MANAGEMENT AND ECONOMICS is the worldwide best selling business statistics text. It is currently being used at hundreds of colleges and universities throughout the world. This text teaches students how to apply statistics to real business problems through the authors' unique three-step approach to problem solving. Students learn to IDENTIFY the right technique by focusing on the relationship between the problem and data type. They then learn to COMPUTE the answer either by hand, using Excel, or using MINITAB. Finally, they INTERPRET the results in the context of the problem. This approach enhances student comprehension as well as practical skills, and offers maximum flexibility to instructors wishing to teach concepts by hand or with the computer, or by using both hand and computer methods. ... Read more

Reviews (5)

My Bible
This book became my statistics bible. After never attending any statistics classes at the University, I was suddenly forced to work with multiple regressions at work. This book helped me understand all about statistics that I needed for my business purposes. The examples are very helpfull to understand what the tests actually do and how you can solve your own inference problems. I read the whole book in about 10 days (2 hours a day) at the beach and now work mainly with the overviews in the last chapters when I have a problem to solve at work.

A lot of ambiguity and errors
I had to use this edition as text book for my Statistics Course in an MBA Program and found multiple errors and ambiguities in describing basic concepts. Lack of rigurousity in presentation is pervasive. Although an engineer by formation, I found this book a terrible reading as an initiation in statistics!

Warning don't go near the 5th edition
The 5th edition of this book, available still in many places, is one awful book. The instructions for most of the Minitab examples are incomplete and in many cases worthless. Many explanations are superficial and the tie in to the overall statistical picture is weak. I have heard the 6th is better, the 5th should not have been printed.

Basic an clearly understandable
This book covers a wide area of fields necessary for business and economic students. It also explains how to go on if necessary conditions are violated. Time-series analysis, which is very important for economic students, are not covered to the extent as other topics, but it nevertheless gives a good introduction of other statistical concepts necessary for understanding following books on time series analysis. For my opion there are a little bit to much exercises than necessary, for an autodidactic study but enough for class room work. A very fine feature is that there never come up terminologies which has not been discussed before and one can use MS-Excel.

It's a very usefull book
It's realy usefull for to problem solving. It helps to learn easly to solve the problems with Excel. ... Read more

Book Description

While Business Plans For Dummies covers the strategy of putting a business plan together, Business Plans Kit For Dummies covers how to put a business plan to work! This kit covers business plans for every stage (and every type) of business: e-business, sole proprietorships, small businesses, service companies, high-tech companies, non-profits -- even business plans for middle managers and restructuring a company. It emphasizes methods for obtaining funding and sources to tap for capital, and explains how to formulate business plans according to the planned business model -- bricks-and-mortar vs. e-business. It also includes updated terminology and jargon from the business planning and venture capital industries, and shows you how to gear specific plans for businesses in different phases of development (i.e., startup, expansion, etc.). ... Read more

Reviews (3)

Business Plans Kit for Dummies (With CD-ROM)
Business Plans For Dummies covers the strategy of putting a business plan together, Business Plans Kit For Dummies covers how to put a business plan to work! This kit covers business plans for every stage (and every type) of business: e-business, sole proprietorships, small businesses, service companies, high-tech companies, non-profits -- even business plans for middle managers and restructuring a company. It emphasizes methods for obtaining funding and sources to tap for capital, and explains how to formulate business plans according to the planned business model -- bricks-and-mortar vs. e-business. It also includes updated terminology and jargon from the business planning and venture capital industries, and shows you how to gear specific plans for businesses in different phases of development (i.e., startup, expansion, etc.).

OK Book...VALUABLE CD!! REALLY VALUABLE!
The book itself is a very basic rundown of starting a business running and keeping it going. The info presented is quite basic, and not very detailed. BUT, the enclosed CD is FULL, FULL, FULL of forms, government documents, sample by-laws, etc., etc., etc. Having all these forms at your disposal is invaluable. It's a terrific book and CD.

An Essential Planning Guide
Like a lot of people, I am a BIG fan of the first Business Plans for Dummies book. It got me started thinking about going out on my own a few years ago. Well, this new Kit book is a great addition. It's particularly useful as a real hands-on guide to putting together a business plan and then making it work. Every chapter has checklists and other forms that take you through the process step by step, as well as "case study" type examples that really bring the information alive. It's full of updated examples of businesses that have succeeded (and how they did it.) And it also contains terrific analyses of business plans that didn't quite make it (and why.) As a small business owner myself, I was surprised to learn as much as I did from the chapter devoted to small businesses. UNLIKE a lot of other business planning books, this one tackles the subject with real authority along with a great sense of humor. I think this is an essential book for anyone who is putting together a business plan for the first time. I even used the trial business planning software that comes on the CD-ROM to choose the program that would work best for our company. And that's made completing the business planning process even smoother. ... Read more

Reviews (18)

How to Select, Focus, and Dominate
The message of this important book is that "no company can succeed today by trying to be all things to all people. It must instead find the unique value that it alone can deliver to a chosen market. Why and how this is done are the two key questions the book addresses." The authors focus with rigor and precision on three different "disciplines": operational excellence, product leadership, and customer intimacy. It remains for any company (for any organization, for that matter) to determine which of the three should be its primary discipline but all are obviously important...indeed interdependent. Nonetheless, one discipline should be pre-eminent. The authors examine dozens of companies which have concentrated primarily on one of the three "disciplines" so that they can select their customers and then narrow their focus inorder to gain and sustain dominance within their respective marketplaces. I think this book will be of substantial value to executives in any organization but of greatest value to those in organizations which are small-to-midsize. Unless they have dysfunctional management and/or defective products, their mastery of that discipline will enable them to compete more effectively against larger organizations which (obviously) have greater resources available. My own view is that as B2B and B2B2C continue to increase at exponentially greater velocity, leadership of ANY market will require mastery of customer intimacy and at least one (but preferably both) of the other two disciplines. In that event, the insights which Treacy and Wiersema share will be even more valuable.

Common sense marketing perspective
Winning firms focus on one of three customer value disciplines: product leadership, customer intimacy, or operational excellence. Trying to be all things to everybody is tantamount to being nothing for anyone. If your firm can't get its act together, you'll find this an inspiring book that makes a compelling case that success is only possible by having the courage to focus on specific tasks & disciplines. This seems very elementary, but I've observed many firms that refused to choose what they wanted to be, ensuring that they became nothing. This book is helpful in positioning exercises.

I have two concerns about the book. 1, it doesn't need to be this long in order to get the central idea across. 2, I'm becoming increasingly convinced that this model is counterproductive in a Geoff Moore tornado period. If you're in a high-tech tornado, wait until Main Street before applying discipline.

Aside from these caveats, I still find the simple model presented in this book as being useful in analyzing market approaches. You have to understand the model in order to know when it isn't appropriate. Product Managers, sales, marketing and product development staff need to be aware of this book and its ideas.

Not just for the sales and marketing folks!
This business book should be in EVERY marketing and sales professional's library. In one reading of less than four hours you can understand the distinct value disciplines that define your company. And, just as important, you can recognize the value disciplines of your customers and competition. But, you don't have to be strictly a sales person. I'm my company's Chief Technology Officer and I felt the book was very valuable - after my CEO made me read it!
The message of The Discipline Of Market Leaders is that no company can succeed today by trying to be all things to all people. It must instead find the unique value that it alone can deliver to a chosen market. Why and how this is done are the two key questions the book addresses,
Three concepts are introduced that every business finds essential:
1. the value proposition - implicit promise to deliver a particular combination of values - price, quality, performance, etc.
2. value-driven operating model - combination of operating processes, manage-ment systems, business structure, and culture that allows a company to deliver on its value proposition.
3. value disciplines - three desirable ways in which a company combines operating models and value propositions to be the best in their markets. THIS is the key take away from this book.
Three distinct value disciplines:
1. operational excellence - provide middle-of-the-market products at the best price with the least inconvenience - value proposition is low price and hassle-free service.
2. product leadership - offering products that push performance boundaries - value proposition is offering the best product, period.
3. customer intimacy - delivering NOT what the market wants but what specific customers want - value proposition the best solution for the customer with all the support needed to get the maximum value from our products.
The selection of a value discipline is a central act that shapes every subsequent plan and decision a company makes, coloring the entire organization, from its competencies to its culture.
If a company is going to achieve and sustain dominance, it must decide where it will stake its claim in the marketplace and what kind of value it will offer to its customers.
markets, the only established way to improve value to customers is to cut process. If you haven't started thinking about cutting your way to leanness, it's going to cost you later.
High quality is the cost of admission to the market. Without it, you're not even in the ballpark.
Four new premises underlie successful business practice today:
1. companies can no longer raise process in lockstep with higher costs
2. companies can no longer aim for less than hassle-free service
3. companies can no longer assume that good basic service is enough
4. companies can no longer compromise on quality and product capabilities
These four points are critical to the book and to how you must think about value. It is true - we can no longer charge for high quality - it IS expected. By delivering superior value, companies change their customers' expectations. In effect, these companies became market leaders NOT by fulfilling old-fashioned ideas of value, but by getting their business to master one band in the value spectrum. They believed in three important truths that characterize the new world of competition:
1. Different customers buy different kinds of value. You can't hope to be the best in all dimensions, so you choose your customers and narrow your value focus.
2. As value standards rise, so do customer expectations; so you can stay ahead only by moving ahead.
3. Producing an unmatched level of a particular value requires a superior operating model - "a machine" - dedicated to just that kind of value.
Four rules that govern market leaders' actions:
1. Provide the best offering in the marketplace by excelling in a specific value disci-pline.
2. Maintain threshold standards on other dimensions of value.
3. Dominate your market by improving value year after year,
4. Build a well-tuned operating model dedicated to delivering unmatched value.
The operating model is the market leader's ultimate weapon in its quest for market domination. Value comes from choosing customers and narrowing the operations focus to best serve those customers. Customer satisfaction and loyalty are simply the by-product of delivering on a compelling value proposition - not the drivers behind it. When a company selects and pursues one of the value disciplines, it ceases to resemble its competitors.
Customer-intimate companies demonstrate superior aptitude in advisory services and relationship management. This is an incredibly difficult concept for sales and marketing professionals to grasp. They want the largest market possible. If you are customer-intimate, your market is one company at a time. This calls for hard work. Customer-intimate companies don't deliver what the market wants, but what a spe-cific customer wants. The customer-intimate company makes a business of knowing the people it sells to and the products and services they need. It continually tailors its products and services, and does so at reasonable prices. The customer-intimate company's greatest asset is, not surprisingly, its customers' loyalty.
Customer-intimate companies don't pursue transactions; they cultivate relationships.
They tailor their mix of services or customize the products, even if it means acting as a broker to obtain these services and products from third parties or co-providers.
Where to begin? Start with the last chapter and take a close look at Figure 11. From that point I realized my company's value discipline. The rest fell neatly into place.

A Must for Every business owner
In Business studies, we were taught that to succeed with our business we should be able to provide best product/service, best prices and superb customer service. The results are mainly unsatisfactory because while we try to master all three aspects, we fail in all of them.

This book will teach you for the first time how to succeed with "imperfection" along with customers blessings.

You dont have to provide your customer with the best product AND best price AND best service, just choose one of those values (depending on your target market and long term objectives) and focus all your resources on developing this value. The book is backed with real life stories from some of the leading firms and the values they have chosen to focus on.

This book is a must for every business owner.

Highly Recommended!
Authors Michael Treacy and Fred Wiersema make it clear that market leading companies all concentrate on creating value for their customers. Then they focus on specific cases from Nike to Johnson & Johnson. No company, including yours, can succeed by trying to be all things to all people. Companies must ascertain the unique value - be it price, quality or problem solving - they can deliver to a specific market. The book proves that comparisons are not odious if they are interesting, and the comparisons it offers are intriguing indeed. Anecdotes and case histories cover companies that are market leaders today - AT&T, Intel, Airborne Express - and companies that used to be market leaders. The authors offer you three choices: lead with low costs, great products or outstanding ability to solve customers' problems. But if you are going to lead, you have to pick a direction and implement a management strategy that supports it, a lesson eased along by the clarity of the writing. We from getAbstract recommend this book to executives who are seeking advice on trumping their markets. ... Read more

Amazon.com

In their previous book, The Balanced Scorecard, Robert Kaplan and David Norton unveiled an innovative "performance management system" that any company could use to focus and align their executive teams, business units, human resources, information technology, and financial resources on a unified overall strategy--much as businesses have traditionally employed financial management systems to track and guide their general fiscal direction. In The Strategy-Focused Organization, Kaplan and Norton explain how companies like Mobil, CIGNA, and Chemical Retail Bank have effectively used this approach for nearly a decade, and in the process present a step-by-step implementation outline that other organizations could use to attain similar results. Their book is divided into five sections that guide readers through development of a completely individualized plan that is created with "strategy maps" (graphical representations designed to clearly communicate desired outcomes and how they are to be achieved), then infused throughout the enterprise and made an integral part of its future. In several chapters devoted to the latter, for example, the authors show how their models have linked long-term strategy with day-to-day operational and budgetary management, and detail the "double loop" process for doing so, monitoring progress, and initiating corrective actions if necessary. --Howard Rothman ... Read more

Reviews (19)

The Perilous "Journey" to Breakthrough Performance
If you have not already read Kaplan and Norton's The Balanced Scoreboard, I presume to suggest that you do so prior to reading this book. However, this sequel is so thoughtful and well-written that it can certainly be of substantial value to decision-makers in any organization (regardless of size or nature) which is determined to "thrive in the new business environment." Research data suggest that only 5% of the workforce understand their company's strategy, that only 25% of managers have incentives linked to strategy, that 60% of organizations don't link budgets to strategy, and 85% of executive teams spend less than one hour per month discussing strategy. These and other research findings help to explain why Kaplan and Norton believe so strongly in the power of the Balanced Scorecard. As they suggest, it provides "the central organizing framework for important managerial processes such as individual and team goal setting, compensation, resource allocation, budgeting and planning, and strategic feedback and learning." After rigorous and extensive research of their own, obtained while working closely with several dozen different organizations, Kaplan and Norton observed five common principles of a Strategy-Focused Organization:

1. Translate the strategy to operational terms

2. Align the organization to the strategy

3. Make strategy everyone's job

4. Make strategy a continual process

5. Mobilize change through executive leadership

The first four principles focus on the the Balanced Scorecard tool, framework, and supporting resources; the importance of the fifth principle is self-evident. "With a Balanced Scorecard that tells the story of the strategy, we now have a reliable foundation for the design of a management system to create Strategy-Focused Organizations."

After two introductory chapters, the material is carefully organized and developed within five Parts, each of which examines in detail one of the aforementioned "common principles": Translating the Strategy to Operational Terms, Aligning the Organization to Create Synergies, Making Strategy Everyone's Job, Making Strategy a Continual Process, and finally, Mobilizing Change Through Executive Leadership. Kaplan and Norton then provide a "Frequently Asked Questions" section which some readers may wish to consult first.

There are many pitfalls to be avoided when designing, launching, and implementing the program which Kaplan and Norton present. These pitfalls include lack of senior management commitment, too few individuals involved [or including inappropriate individuals at the outset], keeping the scoreboard at the top, too long a development process (when, in fact, the Balanced Scorecard is a one-time measurement process), treating the Balanced Scorecard as an [isolated] systems project, hiring consultants lacking sufficient experience with a Balanced Scorecard, and introducing the Balanced Scorecard only for compensation. When organizations experience one or more of these pitfalls, their key executives can soon become impatient, confused, frustrated, and ultimately, opposed to Balanced Scorecard initiatives. It is imperative to understand both what the Balanced Scorecard must be (e.g. cohesive and comprehensive) and what it must not be (e.g. fragmented and episodic). Kaplan and Norton correctly note that the journey they propose "is not easy or short. It requires commitment and perseverance. It requires teamwork and integration across traditional organizational boundaries and roles. The message must be reinforced often and in many ways." Those who are determined to achieve organization-wide breakthrough performance are fortunate to have Kaplan and Norton as companions every step of the way during what is indeed a perilous "journey."

Extremely detailed, highly informative, dryly written
The Strategy-Focused Organization

Building on their Balanced Scorecard approach, Kaplan and Norton have developed an impressive framework in The Strategy-Focused Organization for the implementation of strategy. They have found that 90% of strategic initiatives fail due not to formulation but to implementation difficulties. Successful implementation of strategy requires all parts of an organizations to be aligned and linked to the strategy, while strategy itself must become a continual process in which everyone is involved. The Balanced Scorecard, originally seen by the authors as a measurement tool, is now presented as a means for implementing strategy by creating alignment and focus.

Financial measures report on lagging financial indicators. The Balanced Scorecard aims to report on the drivers of future value creation. The book shows in detail how this is done from four perspectives: Financial, customer, internal business perspective, and learning and growth (these are outlined on p.77). These four perspectives produce a highly detailed framework when combined with the five principles of a strategy-focused organization: 1: Translate the strategy to operational terms. 2: Align the organization to the strategy. 3: Make strategy everyone's everyday job. 4: Make strategy a continual process. 5: Mobilize change through executive leadership.

Absorbing every detail of this book will require many hours. The sheer detail of this complex system requires considerable attention, perhaps more than some readers can muster, but clearly distinguishes this work from many books full of business fluff. The style tends to be turgid and pedantic while being admirably complete. Readers can grasp the essence of the book's central points by reading only Chapter 1 (Creating the Strategy-Focused Organization), Chapter 3 (Building Strategy Maps), and Chapter 8 (Creating Strategic Awareness). Skip quickly through the chapters in Part Two: Aligning the Organization to Create Synergies. This section is the least engaging of the five. The balanced scorecard approach to strategy will appeal to those with a systematizing frame of mind. The book is filled with complex diagrams of corporate processes consisting of interrelated boxes and forces.

This approach is extremely detailed and complex. It requires a major commitment and effort. Though the authors claim it can be implemented by smaller organizations, this will be more challenging than for large companies who can commit a team full time to working out the details.

Much of the value of the approach may lie not so much in following through on completely working out the balanced scorecard but on absorbing the lessons regarding organizational integration across silos and the importance of clarity about mission, strategy, and goals. The balanced scorecard is one way to achieve and implement this clarity but not the only way. Another would be continual reiteration of these (as in Confessions of An Extraordinary Executive). Some companies may benefit from strict use of this system, including finding units of measurement for its implementation. Others will gain much from applying the insights without such a formal and complete implementation.

A "Must Read" for Executives!
If you are an executive don't fail to read this. Kaplan and Norton's Balanced Scorecard approach has had a tremendous impact on thinking in the executive suite. Buy and read a copy today. I have bought copies for all of my clients.

Michael Beitler
Author of "Strategic Organizational Change"

Overblown and impractical
Having used the BSc a few times in my work, I expected this to be a hepful addition to my knowledge base in the area. I found that it added little to the author's other published tomes and to his articles in journals like HBR. Although the basic concept is sound, the implementation challenges are dealt with as you'd expect from an ivory tower-based profesoor and are several steps removed from the challenges that most of my real-world, and smaller company clients, need to address. I truly felt as though I didn't get my money's worth with this purchase and I should have stuck with the materials I already had by the author that was available in other forms. I would have saved time, money and a degree of frustration.

A must have tool for business improvement
If you're attempting to improve the way you do business, this book is a must have. It is a little dry so you have to be committed to using the concepts presented. If you can manage to stick with it, you will reap the benefits of the BSC. Good Luck! ... Read more

Book Description

The best-selling front-line customer service book ever published is now better than ever. More than a decade after the debut ofDelivering Knock Your Socks Off Service, this newly revised edition introduces readers to the next generation of first-class service strategy.Applying the winning Knock Your Socks Off formula to the new demands of 21st-century business, the third edition features all-new chapters onDelivering Knock Your Socks Off E-Service, Creating Trust with Your Customer, and Service Recovery Expectations, plus new and updated stories,real-world examples, and new illustrations by cartoonist John Bush. And as always, Delivering Knock Your Socks Off Service reveals how to:

* See things from the customer's point of view * Become a fantastic fixer and a powerful problem solver * Cope with "customers from hell" * And avoid The 10 Deadly Sins of Customer Service

Today's customer is smarter, more demanding, and more mobile than ever. Once again, Delivering Knock Your Socks Off Service delivers thestrategies, techniques, and tips that will keep those customers coming back. ... Read more

Reviews (12)

It's not Brain Surgery ¿ So why is it so hard to do well?
"Knock Your Socks Off" is an easy to read, well-organized, thorough introduction to the crucial aspects of providing excellent customer service. I kept it on the corner of my desk and read it during lunch hours. The 31 short chapters (approx. 150 pages) can be finished in just a week or two. I intend to pass it along to the Customer Service Reps that work for me as "required reading" (or maybe even splurge and buy them their own copy!)

The book is organized in Four Parts:

1. The Fundamental Principles of Knock Your Socks Off Service - includes the RATER factors: Reliability, Assurance, Tangibles, Empathy, Responsiveness.
2. The How To's of Knock Your Socks Off Service - honesty, rules, doing the right thing, listening, asking questions, winning words and soothing phrases, telephone tips, writing skills, details, thank-yous.
3. The Problem-Solving Side of Knock Your Socks Off Service - how to fix problems, fix the person, apologize, and handling nasty customers.
4. Knock Your Socks Off Service Fitness - Taking Care of You - how to stay calm, professional, and competent and how to have fun doing it

Whether you're new to the business of providing customer service or a seasoned pro, this book will give lots of great advice and a positive perspective on the challenges of providing good customer service. I plan on using the book to help set goals and establish metrics for improving service at my company.

Packed With Knowledge!
In Delivering Knock Your Socks Off Service, Performance Research Associates - with some editorial help from Ron Zemke - highlight the main principles and techniques involved in providing great customer service and resolving customer problems. This lively book features many short chapters, cartoons, bulleted axioms and what-to-do examples. However, much of the information seems very familiar, like a juiced-up version of hints, tips and advice that have appeared in many other customer service books. Thus, it has a kind of déjà vu quality. While someone who is experienced in this field may find the information here too familiar, we recommend this accessible volume as a great introduction to customer service.

Packed with Knowledge!
In Delivering Knock Your Socks Off Service, Performance Research Associates - with some editorial help from Ron Zemke - highlight the main principles and techniques involved in providing great customer service and resolving customer problems. This lively book features many short chapters, cartoons, bulleted axioms and what-to-do examples. However, much of the information seems very familiar, like a juiced-up version of hints, tips and advice that have appeared in many other customer service books. Thus, it has a kind of déjà vu quality. While someone who is experienced in this field may find the information here too familiar, we recommend this accessible volume as a great introduction to customer service.

Great for those joining the service line for the first time
After two weeks of joining the service business I was eagerly looking for a book that discusses about delivering good--if not exceptional--service. My conclusion is that this book will meet your expectations if you are new to the business--just like me.

The authors provided many suggestions and recommendations in ways of delivering quality service. I read this book in the span of two-three months, and by the time I finished reading, I realized that I have been doing pretty much most of the things that the authors are suggesting. And based on my customer service feedback, the authors are pretty correct. So, I walked away knowing that I have been doing the right things and a few more ideas of how to improve my service level.

I would have given a five-star if I can find some of the chapters being elaborated further, such as those towards the end of the book. For example, I would like the chapter (Chapter 20) on Exceptional Servic Is in the Details being further elaborated as I found I need some suggesstions for carrying my service level to another level. Nevertheless, the book does give me some hints on areas to look into.

In conclusion, I would recommend this book to those who join the service industry for the first time and want to get some ideas on providing quality service. And for those who are searching for more, you will be refreshed and walk away with some good suggestions and pointers.

Great Customer Service Builds Profits
Authors' research proves that those who sell and serve with a smile make more money: successful service organizations had lower marketing costs, fewer upset and complaining customers, and more repeat business.

Customers vote with their feet and beat a path only to doors of companies that serve them well.

How-to implementation that can show rookies and pros enviable customer service comes in 31 short, punchy knock-your-socks-off chapters with anecdotes, cartoons, inspirational pep talks, and concrete examples to make messages clear and fun to learn. ... Read more

Book Description

Focusing on how Operations Management (OM) fits into the business environment, this book takes OM beyond the factory setting by illustrating how OM is everywhere. By approaching the subject in an applied fashion, it introduces readers to all aspects of OM and allows them to immediately apply that knowledge to the business environment. Continuing on the success of the first edition, this new edition includes increased use of spreadsheets, more problems and case studies, and new and expanded coverage of the role of OM in the organization. In addition, it covers such current topics as Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) and periodic order review. ... Read more

Book Description

Ken Blanchard and Sheldon Bowles, co-authors of the New York Times business bestseller Raving Fans, are back with Gung Ho! Here is an invaluable management tool that outlines foolproof ways to increase productivity by fostering excellent morale in the workplace. It is a must-read for everyone who wants to stay on top in today's ultra-competitive business world.

Raving Fans taught managers how to turn customers into full-fledged fans. Now, Gung Ho! brings the same magic to employees. Through the inspirational story of business leaders Peggy Sinclair and Andy Longclaw, Blanchard and Bowles reveal the secret of Gung Ho--a revolutionary technique to boost enthusiasm and performance and usher in astonishing results for any organization. The three principles of Gung Ho are:

• The Spirit of the Squirrel
• The Way of the Beaver
• The Gift of the Goose

These three cornerstones of Gung Ho are surprisingly simple and yet amazingly powerful. Whether your organization consists of one or is listed in the Fortune 500, this book ensures Gung Ho employees committed to success.

Gung Ho! also includes a clear game plan with a step-by-step outline for instituting these groundbreaking ideas. Destined to become a classic, Gung Ho! is a rare and wonderful business book that is packed with invaluable information as well as a compelling, page-turning story.

Raving Fans brilliantly schooled managers on how to turn customers into raving fans. Gung Ho! now brings the same magic to employees. Here is the story of how two managers saved a failing company and turned in record profits with record productivity. The three core ideas of Gung Ho! are surprisingly simple: worthwhile work guided by goals and values; putting workers in control of their production; and cheering one another on. Their principles are so powerful that business leaders, reviewing the manuscript for Ken and Sheldon, have written to say, "Sorry. Ignored instructions. Have photocopied for everyone. I promise to buy books, but can't wait. We need now!" Like Raving Fans, Gung Ho! delivers. ... Read more

Reviews (80)

Great Book and Here's Another!
Ken Blanchard and Sheldon Bowles have created another classic. In a highly effective parable, they provide a blueprint any leader can use to create organizational excitement in just about any type of organization. The most positive characteristics of this book, like all Blanchard books, are the underlying values and wholesome philosophies that drive the message home at each juncture along the way. Whether a person is leading a small work group, a department, a division, or an entire company, he or she will find many useful ideas in this easy-to-read book.

Another book, with a foreword by Ken Blanchard, that I have just finished is also destined to be a classic alongside GUNG HO! I highly recommend everyone - not just people in leadership positions - read WINNING WAYS: FOUR SECRETS FOR GETTING GREAT RESULTS BY WORKING WELL WITH PEOPLE, by Dick Lyles. Dr. Lyles is a protégé of Blanchard and Bowles and this book proves that he, also, has mastered the art of parable writing. This book contains tips that will help anyone be more powerful and charismatic in their dealings with other people.

It will make you believe in yourself and your staff
I joined a new company almost two years ago. Many management people over me were required to read "Gung Ho". I asked to read it and found it thought-provoking, but the three concepts exciting. I've lived those three concepts for the past year and just recently was put in charge of a group seven staff-members. As I recalled the book and the basic concepts, I took it down and read it afresh. As I had practiced, I began teaching the three basic concepts without telling my staff what they are doing. Now my next step is to let them in on the secret. I know "people" are watching me and that's okay. My team is succeeding. With these three concepts in my daily plan of action, I know I will pass the test of a new supervisor as well as have helped create a great winning team. The staff themselves are the winners. The book explains in extremely simple but motivating language how to work together, take control of your actions, and praise one another when we "do good". The book "Gung Ho" is a great birthday or Christmas gift.

You may be able to take something from it
Managers may not be able to enact all of the principles of Gung Ho, but they will be able to walk away with some valuable insight in the world of motivation and performance. If your not sure if you really want this book or not I would recommend that you go for it. There is truly nothing to lose and the reading is entertaining and informative. Every person will be able able to take something from this book and be able to apply it to their work environment.

economics class
The book gung Ho by Ken Blanchard and Sheldon Bowles is a great book for managment. It is excellent in the way it simply defines a way to significantly improve your management skills by focusing in the 3 principles. the principles could be used in personal life as well as your profesional life. It is so great that it helps create organization and to use practice using techniques on a daily basis. I recommend this book to anyone who is interested in improving their work style. This book is also easy to read and understand.

Simple But Useful
Gung Ho! is a book related to management. Although the concepts in the book are simple, it is important to everyone, especially those are in the management field. The three underlying principles are The Spirit of the Squirrel, The Way of the Beaver and The Gift of the Goose. They are parables of the importance of making employees understand their roles, the conflict between directing the tasks to employees and empowerment by management, and the importance of appreciation to employees respectively.

In my view of point, I think Gung Ho! is a revolutionary technique to boost enthusiasm and performance and usher in astonishing results for any organization. The principles are the tips to increase productivity by fostering excellent morale in the workplace. For example, employees will be loyal to the company if they gain job satisfaction from their worthwhile work. Positive reinforcements such as appreciation (i.e. say ¡§well done¡¨ when those have good performance) and empowerment can motivate employees to improve and have a better performance.

To conclude, Gung Ho! is easy to read but useful for everyone. The writers convey the important management strategies to the readers by using simple story and parables. I think it is a good time for the company, the management team and the employees to refresh and understand their roles so that they can have a good relationship which can benefit as a whole. ... Read more

Book Description

PRAISE FOR Modern Investment Management

"This powerful book brilliantly discovers the routes to superior investment results in the roots of economic theory. In the process, it combines elegance of presentation with the highest levels of lucidity. The authors offer lessons that neither the scholar nor the investor-in-action can afford to ignore."
––Peter Bernstein, bestselling author of Capital Ideas: The Improbable Origins of Modern Wall Street and Against the Gods: The Remarkable Story of Risk

"In Modern Investment Management: An Equilibrium Approach, Bob Litterman and his colleagues at Goldman Sachs Asset Management provide the reader with a gentle introduction to modern financial theory and a survey of their own monumental contributions to theory and practice. The role of the late Fischer Black is amply noted."
––Harry M. Markowitz, 1990 Nobel Prize Laureate in Economics

"This comprehensive guide to equilibrium investing is perhaps the finest demonstration of the relevance of financial theory to investment practice. Both the academy and industry owe a huge debt to this exceptionally talented team for reuniting their paths. Study this book carefully and keep it close at hand if you are serious about investing or teaching about it."
––Mark Kritzman, Managing Partner, Windham Capital Management Boston and Research Director, The Research Foundation of the Association for Investment Management and Research (AIMR)

"This book develops a powerful framework for making better investment decisions. The equilibrium approach frees you up to focus on what you know, without being blinded by what you don’t know."
––Andre Perold, Professor, Senior Associate Dean, Faculty Director
Harvard Business School

"An invaluable investment manual ably supported by the highest-quality financial theory, but well peppered with common sense. The fund manager and the institutional investor ignore this book at their peril. It will be a key reference book for our pension plan."
––David Morgan, Chief Executive, Coal Pension Trustees Services Ltd.

"This novel and ambitious book breaks new ground in demonstrating how modern investment theory can be refined and adapted to practice. The authors’ experience as investment professionals in a sophisticated institutional setting lends much credibility to their skillful blending of rigorous analysis, intuition, and real-world application."
––Robert F. Stambaugh, Ronald O. Perelman Professor of Finance
The Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania ... Read more

Reviews (2)

Oldschool
Nicely written from a journalistic perspective but rather old fashioned. Many mistakes and deliberate false claims in order to suit product interests of Goldman Sachs. Examples:

In the chapter on asset liability management there is always an analytical case for equities. However the only reason is that GS does not allow duration as a choice variable. Otherwise beta (in their formula) would become one and the optimal equity allocation is zero. Accidental? I doubt it.

They also claim to have found (earlier) a better method than Stambaugh on dealing with missing data. However either you publish or you shut up.

Waste of time for serious quants

The definitive equilibrium investing title
My highest commendations to the asset management team at Goldman Sachs. They have come together and created a highly comprehensive tome that covers all the bases within the realm of modern investment theory. Their solid equilibrium approach is applied to all areas, from traditional investments to alternative asset classes, from institutional funds to private wealth, using analysis and real world applications. Incredibly thorough, extremely recommended. ... Read more

Book Description

This best-selling survey of contemporary human resource management offers a balance of practical and applied material as well as underlying Human Resource Management theory.It reflects the latest information, including the impact of global competition and rapid technological advances that have accelerated trends such as shared service centers, outsourcing, and just-in-time training. A wealth of actual company examples demonstrates how concepts are being used in today's leading-edge organizations.For all Human Resources personnel and managers. ... Read more

Reviews (2)

Now this is a good textbook
This was a simply stated book that gave common sense examples.

The chapters were easy to understand without having to have your professor explain everything.

There are a couple of chapters that seem like they should be reorganized, and a couple of chapters that should be put in a different order. Overall though, this is a very good book to help you understand Human Resource Management.

Creative multimedia tie-ins, but getting dated?
I suspect that a new edition will be out shortly.Some of the Internet links sprinkled throughout this book are broken, and the text frequently refers to conditions as they were, "as of mid-1997."Hopefully, the authors will employ a proofreader/style editor, as the sytnax is awkward in a few places.That said, this is a good introductory book.The creative integration of Internet links and video case studies ("On Location at Showtime," and ABC News reports on business trends and issues) add to the value of the text.An Internet site allows instructors to develop an on-line syllabus for students to view and download.Key terms are set on the margins in blue print, repeating their definitions from the text.Summaries at the end of each chapter do the same, and include questions designed to verify reader knowledge of major concepts.The book dwells at length on diversity issues, which is appropriate, given the plethora of Exceutive Orders, Supreme Court decisions, and legislation mandating various EEO/affirmative action practices in the HR field.The chapters on recruitment, selection, and training are the strongest in the book, and cover the topics in a fair amount of depth. The chapter on labor unions reveals a pro-union bias; otherwise, the book is ideology-free.Overall, this is a more than adequate treatment of the subject, and is quite serviceable. ... Read more

Amazon.com

Stemming from research in their previous book, Managing for Excellence, David Bradford of Stanford University and Allan Cohen of Babson College have developed a new "leadership system" based on reciprocal behavior between managers and subordinates. In Power Up: Transforming Organizations Through Shared Leadership, they diagram this model and show corporations how to adopt it. Blasting the fundamental assumption that leaders are responsible for everything within a company (and any unit therein), they suggest that management actually is the responsibility of everyone and offer ways to encourage such behavior even when resistance exists. ... Read more

Reviews (3)

God is in the details and this book captures the key ones
I am biased in my report in that I know the book intimately.I can only say that I am aware of no other leadership book that has captured the correct essence of where human leadership is and where it could go.

Yes, read the stories, and the author's words, but I challenge you to look beyond all that they have thankfully given us as simple stories and realize the potential of the type of leadership that they call post-heroic leadership.Forget the label of this leadership they communicate and instead listen to underlying message of Power Up.

John P. Kotter once wrote a poem that goes something like this..."beyond the yellow brick road of naiveté, past the muggers land of cynicism, there lies a narrow path whose entrance is hard to find and poorly lit.Once found staying on such a path is even harder. Undertaking such a path is a moral undertaking.We need many more to take such a path...many, many more."Power Up describes a way that might help you see your way down your own path better and a way that is good for all mankind.

I have always said that this book will never be a best seller, because that just means that a lot of people read it, but I believe that hundreds of thousands of years from now it will still be revered as a great work in promoting the understanding of improving human leadership.It will get there I think, because of those few souls who read it and understand.

I will fight by your side if your purpose is good, and I follow you if your path is pure.

Focus,
Thundering Eagle

ugh!
This book is one of the worst business books I have ever read. The authors are clearly on the gravy train trying to sweep up some more consultancy dollars.

This book basically breaks leadership up into two schools, the heroic school and the post-heroic school. The way it works is really simple. Anything bad, belongs in the heroic school, and anything good is post-heroic! WOW! This book is very one-sided and does not even try to entertain the notion that the most effective style of leadership can vary depending upon the situation. It continuously hammers home a certain style of leadership never exploring the situations where different approaches are effective.

I strongly recommend that if one wants to learn and think about leadership, read about leaders!....and by the way, the kind of leaders that we all admire do not even fit into this post-heroic category! This idealistic kind of approach recommended by academics lacks practical real-world substance, and only has value in a classroom.

I am considering using this book to prop up my dining table!

Can't be this simple?
The authors make the impossible seem very possible in this excellent book. The differences between heroic and post-heroic leadership is well defined through stories involving real people. Can an organization switch from heroic to post-heroic leadership, sure, but it is not easy. Somehow this book and its ideas make that ideal a bit more reasonable. Only for managers and leaders who are ready to go out on a limb and turn everything they thought they knew upside down. Good luck. ... Read more

Book Description

In what has become a bible for the business world, the successful CEO of Herman Miller, Inc., explores how executives and managers can learn the leadership skills that build a better, more profitable organization. ... Read more

Reviews (21)

Send Out Your Resume
I thought that Leadership is an Art was an excellent book. It was concise and a very easy read. Through his example of the Herman Miller Co. DePree showed how an employer can, by sharing in potential and utilizing employee creativity, benefit the company as a whole. It is leadership that can help individuals reach their potential. DePree brought up and interesting type of leadership called roving leadership. These are the leaders that are there when we need them. This book reminds us that as a leader, it is important to be an enabler of others. After all, if those you lead are not successful and do not reach their potential, you as a leader are not successful either. Read this book and you will seriously consider sending your resume to the Herman Miller Co.

Excellent Quick Read
Max Depree does a great job of fulfilling the purpose for which he wrote "Leadership is an Art". His how-to, self help book is grounded on a solid foundation of leadership philosophy. Everyone should read this book, for there is not a person alive who will do anything other than benefit from it at work or in their everyday lives. I highly recommend it.

Also recommended: A book that is not at all one of the many books in competition with "Leadership is an Art" that you should go on to read is Norman Thomas Remick's "West Point: Thomas Jefferson: Character Leadership Education" for an education on the philosophical foundations of Max Depree's "Leadership is an Art" that everyone can understand.

Art of Leadership, New lessons on each raeding of this book
One of those books that needs to be read many times. For each time you read it you learn something new. Take the author's advice and keep a pencil next to you, and use the double spaced lines and extra margin room to take notes. Truly a joy to read. Takes leadership and to where it belongs an art form, for each one of us how we get to the end is a bit different. In his introduction DePree suggests that you not only read this book but that you finish it. By finishing it he means understand and apply what you have learned from this book, notice he wants you to learn, not necessarily to be taught.
I truly believe that is why DePree wrote this book. He wrote it so that others could learn about leadership. To him leadership is indeed an art because leadership centers on people and relationships therefore it is difficult to define. When people look at a piece of art (painting, sculpture, or what have you) we all see something a little bit different than the person standing next to us. True we may all see the same piece of art but to each one of us it means something a little different, the colors, structure, the symbolism they all speak to us in different ways. Leadership is indeed that, there are a few cornerstones of leadership but the application of those cornerstones is the art of leadership.

Not my cup of tea
Max Depree basic theme is that although there are leadership principles to be learned, there is a certain mysticism about leadership that is more tribal than scientific and more a weaving of relationships than a amassing of leadership.

Depree talks about diversity, issues of the heart and spirit, integration, being vulnerable and empowerment, but he does so as a business man who realizes that the purpose of a business is to make a profit. Depree discovered that by taking care of his employees, and making them owners in the process he can achieve greater employee loyalty, more creativity, and hence, greater prophets. The danger is that non-businessman (i.e., politicians and pastors) will take these noble ideas and abdicate their leadership.

OK, so you don't have to cut throats to succeed in business
Max Depree hit a home run with this small, but persuasive book. His basic theme is that although there are leadership principles to be learned, there is a certain mysticism about leadership that is more tribal than scientific and more a weaving of relationships than a amassing of leadership.

Depree talks about diversity, issues of the heart and spirit, integration, being vulnerable and empowerment, but he does so as a business man who realizes that the purpose of a business is to make a profit. Depree discovered that by taking care of his employees, and making them owners in the process he can achieve greater employee loyalty, more creativity, and hence, greater profits. The danger is that non-businessman (i.e., politicians and pastors) will take these noble ideas and abdicate their leadership. ... Read more

Book Description

This book's dynamic portrayal of international business (cross-functional and integrated in approach) makes its content lively, topical, and enjoyable. It includes examples of companies from around the world in order to provide an unbiased, global perspective on business. Clear, straightforward explanations of challenging material are supported by informative illustrations that give readers easy access to this subject.Chapter topics include culture in business, politics and law in business, business in other economies, international trade, foreign direct investment, international financial markets and monetary system, acquiring business resources, and managing the international business.For anyone who wants to understand international business—and fully appreciate how business is conducted today. ... Read more