Reviews (2)

This is one of the best business statistics book
This book is used in the course of Business Statistics at University of Massachusetts Dartmouth. This is a useful and understandable book. The questions are well-prepared.Also,the statistics program PhSTAT is given with this book. I advise you to buy.

Good, but could be better
This book is okay, but it could definitely be better.For a basic statistics class, this book contains WAY too much information to digest in a semester of college.No professor I know of has ever gotten past chapter 8.Further, the problems are quite wimpy as far as the amount of thought required for them.Quite wimpy.Could be better.The only good thing is that for doing it on a spreadsheet, the data comes on a CD, so that you don't have to re-type it, thankfully. ... Read more

Book Description

Small Business Management, with its loyal following and great package, is far and away the market leading text in small business and has been for many years.It is a proven text, comprehensive in its approach, with the best fully integrated content, graphics, and resources devoted to business plan development.SBM has always been a step ahead of the competition (first to cover family businesses and first to integrate computer technology for small business) and continues to provide innovative coverage in each new edition. Increasingly adopted in hybrid courses that combine small business management and entrepreneurship and in standalone entrepreneurship courses, SBM shows aspiring business owners not only how to start a business but how to grow one. ... Read more

Book Description

This book provides the most current, thorough, and contemporary account of the factors affecting the organizational design process, making important organization theories accessible and interesting. It addresses the many issues and problems that are involved in managing the process of organizational change and transformation, providing direct and clear managerial implications.Topics covered in this comprehensive book are the organization and its environment; organizational design; organizational change; and finally, interesting case studies that illustrate the concepts presented.A useful book that is appropriate for managers in any organization. ... Read more

Book Description

107 interactive games and activities can be found in the pages of this easy-to-use book. Each game is fun, experiential, easy to lead, unique, and requires minimal resources. With 65 team challenges and 42 activities that help any team get to know one another, become comfortable with each other, and open up, there is something for every group.

If you work with youth, corporate groups, therapy groups, church groups, scouts, families, school groups, sports teams, at camp, or with any other group who must work together you will find helpful games and activities in this fun, energetic, and purposeful book! ... Read more

Reviews (11)

The best I've seen.
This book was exactly what I was looking for to build teams with my middle schoolers. Many activities would also be useful with high schoolers or adults. I have a lot of the traditional games and team building activity books, but none were as well arranged or easy to use. Activities that use few or no props or items that are easy to find are what work best for me! This book is full of them!

Team-Building Games
What a great book! I am a high school teacher, and I'm not only trying to teach my students about literature and grammar, but also about teamwork, cooperation, and communication skills. This book has lots of activities that are divided into 4 levels from learning peoples' names to really opening up and sharing personal stuff. The instructions are easy to understand, and most require little preparation and supplies that you usually have around (pens, paper, tape, chairs, etc.) The book is well-organized beyond the 4 activity levels as well; for each game, the author clearly states the objective, the needed materials, instructions, and variations on the activities. For the second two levels, she also includes excellent discussion questions. It seems to me that these activities would really work with ANY group. Well worth the investment.

Pretty Good stuff!
Good book with good activities. Some are more involved than others and require some hefty prep and set up (if that's a problem, check out Miller's Quick Teambuilding Activities book, it's similar, but only has short, quick activities for when you are on a time crunch). I especially liked the writing format here, easy to skim the activities and quickly grasp the essense so you can decide if this is the one you wanna use!

Great for Boy Scout Junior Leadership Training!
I purchased this book to supplement the team building games provided by BSA. I was extremely pleased with the games that are offered in this book. We decided to try "Cup Stack" at one of our first training sessions, and since then it has become a staple game for us. The variety of games available has enabled us to create a completely new variation of Junior Leader Training every time out. I have just ordered Alanna's second book to enhance our program even further.

Excellent
Not a bad book... it is easy to follow, very easily adapted to many different audiences and I cant wait to use it this summer. Activities are well organized and practical.

I am so pleased with this book, I am going to order more by Alanna Jones. ... Read more

Book Description

Preface to Marketing Management, 9/e, by Peter and Donnelly, is praised in the market for its organization, format, clarity, brevity and flexibility.The text serves as an overview for critical issues in marketing management. Its brief, inexpensive, paperback format makes it a perfect fit for instructors who assign cases, readings, simulations or offer modules on marketing management for MBA students. The text also works in courses that implement a cross-functional curriculum where the students are required to purchase several texts. ... Read more

Reviews (4)

Not A Substitute For A Comprehensive Marketing Management Te
I found the Peter and Donnelly marketing book rather anemic, especially as an assigned textbook for marketing majors in an MBA program. (It was assigned in two of my MBA classes.) At just under 300 pages, it provided only a high-level overview of marketing, and in some cases, the information was stale and outdated. The illustrations and charts are also rather crude and unsophisticated and sometimes downright difficult to interpret.

The only good thing was that it was quick and easy to read, but I didn't really absorb much new knowledge. As a supplement to a curriculum that uses case studies extensively (which is the recommended usage of the book), it is adequate. Each chapter concludes with a section listing Additional Readings, which are probably necessary if you want to really increase your knowledge of the subject.

Good Overview - Outrageously Priced
Does a good job of providing an overview of the strategic and tactical marketing processes of companies. My only complaint is the cost/benefit ratio - this is a paperback book that is only 300 pages long - worth[less than price].

It is just a 'simple as' marketing fruitfull overview book
i think that this book is an easily undrestood source for practical marketing and helps sales people to acquire a non-complicated view of today's marketing.

This book is an excellent resource for entry level marketers
This book provides the right content for an entry level person in the marketing function or any person supporting the marketing department. It is easy to read and provides the framework of what marketing is all about. ... Read more

Book Description

To provide exam candidates with the most up-to-date study material for the highly respected Project Management Professional certification from PMI, Sybex has revised and refreshed its best-selling Study Guide to include a wider set of job roles and scenarios. You get the most comprehensive PMP exam prep package, including a CD with an advanced testing engine, electronic flashcards, and an e-book! After studying this book's in-depth coverage of all official PMP exam objectives plus new project management case studies for further real-world insights, you'll be ready to approach the exam with confidence. ... Read more

Reviews (2)

Seems to be a good book, but more is needed
I am about to take the test and have not taken a prep course. I have outlined this book and it is an easy read. However, if you go to pmi.org and take a look at the sample questions they provide, the test questions in this book do not seem like the real deal. This concerned me so I bought the Exam Cram2 book which is an easier read (but not as detailed as this book is) and it provides another set of questions which has seemed to help. Now, after reading both of the books PMBOK was an easy read which has made me comfortable enough to schedule the test. I have read the book a few times and suggest continual drilling on the review tests provided on the CD that accompanies this book. So, I think the compilation of this book and at least one other will be sufficient to pass.

Don't use it alone, but a GREAT reference!
First off, don't think you can get away with passing the PMP exam by just reading this review book. I acquired this book the weekend before I took the PMP exam at a local chapter's all-day exam review session and threw myself into it. The book is a very easy read and my favorite element was the "case study" that you followed throughout the entire project life cycle so you could see what you've learned "put to work."

I passed the PMP exam two days ago with 165/200 and this book definitely helped. ... Read more

Book Description

The theme of this edition is The High Performance Organization. Ethics and social responsibility, workforce diversity, technology, entrepreneurship, and skill-building are some of the important topics emphasized. Schermerhorn's new edition is intended for the Organizational Behavior course taught at most 2-year and 4-year colleges. ... Read more

Reviews (5)

There are much better books out there
· Very little focus on individual behavior in organizations - I know this is not a psychology text, but, Jex (2002), or one of the other psych authors (Osland, 2000) could have used for this course with much better coverage and not alter the course objectives to a great extent.
· For a 2003 edition of text, the citations were very much out of date. The chapter on leadership for example (Chapter 14, which had a total of 53 citations) had only seven references within the last five years; 1998 or greater.
· I am not of the opinion that this was a graduate text. The stories, pictures, essay and "effective manager" were not intellectual in their added information. In many cases the added material didn't correspond to the text (see chart on page 48 and subsequent text explanation). Another example would be on page 157 they ask the reader to refer to Figure 8.2 and then explain the chart with text that isn't even related to the major sections of this chart.
o Not one of the Effective Manager boxes has references; where did all this good advice come from?
· Typo's abounded in the text, they always do - but check out page 233 Chapter summary - it's not the right chapter; this appears agan with chapter 19. I really had the feeling that this was written by three people who did not do a line-by-line update of the 7th edition.
· Of very serious concern would be the author's inclusion of sources in their writing. This infuriated me to no end. Page 63 under Gender "However, women are reported to be more conforming and to have lower expectations of success than men do." That is a very serious statement and it contains no citation - what reports, who, where, when? Another example is on page 85 when discussion perceptual differences in managers and employees - not citations given, even when stating that the differences are significant.
o Just to show that I did not cull these examples only from the front of the book, Pg 274 "Recent work on the linkages among corporate culture and financial performance reaffirms the importance of an emphasis on helping employees adjust to environment." What recent work, by who, saying what? This is just poor scholarship in my humble student estimation.

Boring to death
This textbook is so boring that although I made an A in the class, I couldn't wait to finish it. It uses too many technical words, it makes reference to subjects that students with a few courses in Human Resources know already. It would be better if it offered some real life examples. If you are a teacher looking for a textbook, please keep looking! If you are a student whose teacher assigned you this book..... I am sorry for you!

Adjunct Professor Uses For All His Classes
This is an outstanding book. It is very easy reading, organized and it communicates information to the student. It is loaded with easy following diagrams which reinforce the material, and it is loaded with real world Corporate America and Military Organizational Behavior examples to support the text work. It has an OUTSTANDING CASE Section which again reinforces the material and makes the student apply the concepts learned in the chapters. Also, this text is complete with alot of Personal Assessment Exercises which make you think about the type of person you are, how to improve yourself in working with others. I've used in now for 3 different schools and the students enjoy it...Mainly for the Easy Reading and the way it introduces the concepts. Price is IRRELEVANT. You can go spend $40 on an Organizational Behavior text and you won't get anything out of it because it is poorly written, no cases and no assessments. Highly recommend for any instructor who wants his students to learn. Great reference book also. Don't sell it!!!

Excellent book
I'm reading this book only because it is required for my class, but in reading it, had I known about its quality, I would have purchased it anyhow. It's a very expensive book (and I do doubt whether it's worth $100--but then, I think books are overpriced nowadays)--but the content is very good. Maybe the difference between the previous reviewer and me is that I don't know much about organizational behaviour and haven't compared it to other books in this field.

I hope you don't have to read this book.
The only reason you should buy and read this book is if it isrequired reading for a class. You are buying an advertisement for Fast Company Magazine. The writing is sketchy at best, and the examples are vague. You get access to their Web site for online tests, but the site is poorly done with typographical errors. There are other better texts on organizational behavior. ... Read more

Reviews (7)

An Excellent Tool for all!!
This book has helped in all areas of our business. We are incorporating it into all of our processes!! Wonderful training tool for any organization.

Great tools for Leaning your facility
This book gave me great insight to re-initialized our lean efforts. We have been so busy and got caught up in the value stream mapping craze and kaizen events, but little impact. This book did a superb job in laying out the eight steps, with all the forms, templates necessary to ensure sustainable results. Great work by the authors!

Great Selection of Lean Tools
There are a considerable number of very useful tools contained in this book that we used immediately. This book allowed us to put in a process of lean implementation, simple in nature, and very effective.

Move Beyond Mapping...Value Stream Management
Great basic, easy to follow plan for implementing lean. Takes us far beyond just the mapping craze. Highly recommended for small and large organizations.

The Lean Book for Lean
What I found most beneficial in this book were the ready to use forms/worksheets/templates that I used with my lean team immediately. As a supervisor, this gives the structure for implementing lean, just what is needed, when it is needed. Lean design and very, very practical! ... Read more

Book Description

Marketing Strategy is presented from a perspective that guides strategic marketing management in the social, economic, and technological arenas in which businesses function today. This text helps to develop a customer-oriented market strategy and market plan. ... Read more

Book Description

Small Business Management has been the best-selling small business management text for more than three decades, helping to guide generations of readers into the ranks of business owners and entrepreneurs.The authors' diverse academic backgrounds in management, marketing and finance bring a balanced approach to covering all aspects of starting and running a small business.Adopters praise the text edition after edition for its timely coverage, enjoyable and practical presentation, interesting examples, and its wealth of additional resources. ... Read more

Reviews (3)

It's... OK.
The presentation of this book is excellent; It holds the reader's interest quite well. However, despite a recent "update", it shows it's age when the author regularly goes off on dot-com tangents, bringing the internet up in contexts that I believe the last few years have proven are not viable. Good grief, ppl. This isn't freaking 1997! We need a business text, not the wet dreams of a bunch of computer geeks turned businessmen! Anyways, if you are looking for a text with a lot of depth, look elsewhere. This book is to business textbooks what Quickbooks(c)(R)(TM) is to accounting software. In short, don't waste your money, unless you need it for a class. If so, be happy. If your prof teaches out of this, your tests will be very easy.

Very Good book for small businesses
It is good and it has a lot of tips to be succesfull in your business. It is easy to read and understand and it has many web sites addreses.

Good cases, nice layout but slanted towards SBM positively.
The cases are very good & a nice change of pace from the usual dry textbook reading. The color layout helps direct the reader towards points of interest and it is broken up into sections that are extremely readable. There is a definite slant toward the positive side of Small Business entrepreneuralship-not much is mentioned on the negative aspects. ... Read more

Book Description

From the New Yorker to USA Today, everyone from journalists to market pros are turning to behavioral finance to explain, analyze, and predict market direction. In contrast to old-school assumptions of cool-headed rationality, the new behavioral school embraces hot-blooded human irrationality as a core feature of both individuals and financial markets. The 2002 Nobel Prize in Economics was awarded to scholars of this new scientific approach to irrationality.

In Mean Markets and Lizard Brains, Terry Burnham–an economist who has a proven ability to translate complex topics into everyday language–reveals the biological causes of irrationality. The human brain contains ancient structures that exert powerful and often unconscious influences on behavior. This "lizard brain" may have helped our ancestors eat and reproduce, but it wreaks havoc with our finances. Going far beyond cataloguing our financial foibles, Dr. Burnham applies this novel approach to all of today’s most important financial topics– the stock market, the economy, real estate, bonds, mortgages, inflation, and savings.

This broad and scholarly investigation provides an in-depth look at why manias, panics, and crashes happen, why people are built to want to buy at irrationally high prices and sell at irrationally low prices. Most importantly, by incorporating the new science of irrationality, readers can position themselves to profit from financial markets that often seem downright mean. Mean Markets and Lizard Brains skillfully identifies the craziness that is part of human nature, helps us see it in ourselves, and then shows us how to profit from a world that doesn’t always make sense.

Terry Burnham, PhD (Cambridge, MA), is an economist at the Harvard Business School. He has been an active and extremely successful participant in the financial markets for over 20 years. Dr. Burnham has a PhD in business economics from Harvard University, a masters in finance from MIT, an MS in computer science from San Diego State University, and a BS in biophysics from the University of Michigan. Before becoming an economics professor at Harvard, he worked on Wall Street, and was the President and CFO of a successful start-up biotechnology firm. He is the author of the bestselling book Mean Genes: From Sex to Money to Food, Taming Our Primal Instincts. ... Read more

Book Description

Now ranked the #1 selling Marketing Research book, this edition returns with an abundance of new and updated exercises, coverage, and features. Most notable is a special emphasis on online marketing research. Nearly every chapter includes coverage on how the Internet and new technologies are impacting research methods, for better and for worse. A book cannot succeed on new features and topics alone. With every new edition, reviewers complement these authors for an approach that is innovative yet approachable and reliable. Exercises and cases have been checked for accuracy, and the authors also recruited a Blue Ribbon Panel of marketing research professionals. The Panel explores today's increasingly digital research environment from a practitioner's point of view.Chapter topics include the marketing research process and industry, determining research objectives, research design, measurement, data collection and analysis, interpreting associations among variables, predictive analysis, and preparing and presenting the research report.For an understanding and appreciation of how marketing research works in practice. ... Read more

Reviews (1)

Delivery Time
I purchased this book and paid extra for expedited shipping two weeks prior to when I was meant to use the book. Apparently it was supposed to take 3 - 5 business days to be shipped. I waited and even contacted the post office just to be informed that the book is still enroute and MAY BE arriving the morning when I was supposed to use it. All the seller gave me was a tracking number which did not help much. Now I am not even sure if I will be able to use the textbook based on the fact that I needed to get some pre-assignments done before heading to my seminar. I am so disappointed and feel cheated that I had to pay for expedited shipping and did not receive the service I paid for. Maybe instead of shipping via USPS you ought to think about UPS as I had never experienced a problem with them. Or it may only be this particulat seller. ... Read more

Book Description

This highly-readable, #1 best-selling HRM book on the market, provides a comprehensive review of personnel management concepts and practices. It focuses on the high-performance organization—building better, faster, more competitive organizations through HR; while continuing to offer practical applications that help all managers deal with their personnel-related responsibilities.A six-part presentation covers the strategic role of human resources, recruitment and placement, training and development, compensation, labor relations and employee security, and international HRM.For human resource personnel—especially managers. ... Read more

Reviews (5)

Dessler Knows the Field
Dessler's approach in Human Resource Management is thorough, comprehensive, contemporary, and very readable. The figures, tables, and other visuals are excellent for models and practical use. The cases and application exercises are relevant to the real world and greatly assist in the overall understanding of the main concepts of each chapter. Chapters on employee testing and selection, appraising performance, job analysis, and personnnel planning and recruiting, are particularly well presented. The complexities of establishing pay plans and financial incentives are explained in simple terms for the reader and include revelant examples. The text also comes with supplementary materials which greatly enhance it's use and application. This book can be used for lower as well as upper division courses at the University or College level.

Substantive yet Simple
I found the book indeed a must for "managers". It is essentials-full and highly concise, a product of many years of thought. If not for some minor spelling errors, the book would have been near to perfection.

Disappointment int he Details
I was delighted to learn that Dessler had a new HR management book available August 1999 for an MBA class I was teaching beginning in September 1999. Before selecting the book I reviewed an earlier edition and was pleased with the organization, topics, and simple style. I selected the newest edition without seeing it. Imagine my shock and embarrassment when I started reading it after assigning chapters to my students. I found a few typos in the beginning and laughingly told my students I would give them bonus points for any they found. I thought it would encourage them to read carefully. I had to discontinue the practice after about probably the first dozen were in the first couple chapters. One class we concentrated on writing a resume. The example of a "good" resume that Dessler provided was terrible. Not only was it confusing, it was from the 1980s. I am sorry that my students had to pay $. I am teaching the class again in February so will need to find another book. Mr. Dessler, I hope you encourage those in HR to be more careful in the details of their work than you were in your book.

thorough and detailed
i am a business final year undergraduate taking applied personnel policy, i find this book quite useful, even though it is not the prescribed text but i think it's worth the money.

Out of Date, limited on specific information,
I was extremly disappointed with this book, i am currently completing a diploma in HRM, and this was a set text so i spent the money; however i used it twice only, and have been trying to sell it for 5 months at the 1/4 of retail and i am still stuck with it. I recommend Stones or Robbins. ... Read more

Book Description

48 Days to the Work You Love is not about finding a new job. It is about finding out what you are going to "be." According to Dan Miller, failing to make that fundamental discovery is why so many people find themselves in jobs they hate. But the great news is this book will lead you to the vocation you will love.

Dan Miller will help you see clear patterns form fromwhich you can make successful career and job decisions by understanding your God-given skills and abilities, personality traits, values, dreams, and passions. These patterns create a compass for you. Finding the work you love is finding the fulfillment of your calling. ... Read more

Reviews (3)

Understand Yourself First
In reading this I was reminded of the old saying, "To thine own self be true." I first thought that this was a book on how to find a new and better job in 48 days.

Instead it's a book on self discovery. It's how to find, look at, and understand your own skills, abilities, personality traits, values, dreams, and passions.

Once you understand where you are and where you're coming from, you have the basis for making some decisions about where you want to go. Then you can use this knowledge to find a better job, to start a business or whatever.

Dan Miller then covers the fundamentals of finding the new job, or the new business. It's an interesting combination of a self-help and business advice.

This is an essential for anyone in the workplace!
How wonderful to find a book that gives hope and direction to all of us in the workplace.As Dan Miller says in his book, "The fruits of a fulfilling life - happiness, confidence, enthusiasm, purpose and money - are mainly by products of doing something you enjoy, with excellence, rather than things we seek directly."He also made me understand that I should decide what kind of life I want, then plan my work around it.What wonderful wisdom!If you are feeling like you aren't getting all you want out of your career and life, READ THIS BOOK!

Excellent Book !!!
A great book, that blends both common sense and reality together concering finding meaningful work. If you think your work situation is awful, I would suggest this book.I hate to use this common uesed phrase, but it allowed me "think outside the box." ... Read more

Book Description

The first concise book of essential Welch-isms, abridged from the bestselling Get Better or Get Beaten

Jack Welch built a career out of fighting waste. 29 Leadership Secrets from Jack Welch follows in Welch's footsteps, boiling the legendary CEO's leadership successes down to 29 strategies that made GE the world's most competitive company­­and Welch the world's most successful and admired CEO.

This all-in-one Welch reference updates material from Robert Slater's bestselling Get Better or Get Beaten, and is today's ultimate fast-paced, no-nonsense handbook on the ways of Jack Welch. It taps into the heart of Welch's courage, innovation, and leadership success by examining simple leadership secrets that include:

• Managing less is managing better
• Make quality the job of every employee
• Have global brains and vision

Reviews (2)

The Ideas are 5 Star but the Book is 2 Stars
This book reminds me of the best seller "Who Moved My Cheese". They are both written in oversized font and are about 100 pages long and both cover simple messages. If the books were in a regular font they would be 30 pages??

Please do not get me wrong. But it is just a feeling one gets that they have been had, sold a bill of goods which is just a summary with comments for $10. Somebody has written down a list of XX number of principle ideas or management techniques, and then expanded each idea to fill the 100 (30 real) pages. It would be almost as effective to just make a list of them on one or two pages.

The upshot of all this is do not buy this book, but by Jack's book "Straight from the Gut", or buy Slater's book: "Jack Welch & The G.E. Way".

I prefer Jack's own book, and to me it beats many more sophisticated business books hands down. Business is not black and white. Almost every day there is one crisis or problem or another, and Jack's story puts it all together plus conveys the energy and excitement that he brought to the job. Something is lost in the list approach.

Jack in Toronto

I wonder . . .
There are many books about Jack Welch and all of them show and teach the corporate strategies and tactics this legendary manager implemented while at GE. Most of those titles portrait Welch as the successful business person everybody would like to be. However, I would like to warn the reader that the professional success of famous CEOs cost them their families. It's hard to believe how Welch was able to manage thousands of relations with millions of people at GE, while on the other side he failed on a relation with only one person: his wife. By the way, how many wives has he had??? Is that success??? In which planet???

Now about the book . . . it's a good title but only read it if you have never before read a title about Jack Welch or GE; if you had, it's more about the same old stuff, and I would recommend your spending your money in a smarter way. ... Read more

Reviews (10)

very hands-on, practical --- real-life effective ideas
This book was enlightening. I never knew there were so many easy and low cost ways to energize employees --- and Bob shows you all of them plus more. A must-have for today's best managers. A great follow-up to Bob Nelson's best-selling "1001 Ways to Reward Employees."

A must-have for managers and HR folks
I'm an HR person myself, and have found this (and the 1001 ways to reward) to be an essential part of my library. Many people want to look through it, borrow it... some have kept it, so this is probably my fifth version of the book that I've bought! Try to put your name all over the book so they don't forget it's yours.

A fast how-to book on energizing teams... lacks depth
If you are looking to truly turn around your company or department, this is not the book for you. When does this book come in handy? If you are seeking for quick ideas to energize your team, and are short on inspiration: that is where it's a very comprehensive source. But be realistic: true energizing and change is a process that can't be bought with treats or gifts, but rather built through trust and open communication, among other things. If you want to really energize your team, then be ready for a longterm commitment from your part, that will go beyond just getting them perks or giving them awards.

There's a sucker born every minute
Companies are spending so much money trying to inspire employees that they have spawned an industry: the motivation industry. Bob Nelson is cashing in on it for sure. What executive wouldn't buy in to the notion of some pundit who champions "no cost" motivation? I wonder what they pay to hear him say it on his motivational tours??

What inspires people remains vague and elusive. For every reader who is moved by his book, there are likely ten who see it as childish drivel.

Nelson is just repackaging old anecdotes and fictional stories, then reselling them. There is not one shred of proof that any of his methods have any lasting value. Don't waste your time or money on this garbage.

Needed now more than ever!
Creative yet practical ways to motivate and retain staff are needed now more than ever before. Between the sour economy that makes raises and bonuses tougher, the specter of layoffs that's making everyone nervous, the ability of top staff to bail on you at a moment's notice, and the trend toward making managers accountable for employee retention, managers can never let down their guard in this area. Many of the ideas here are common sense, but can never be restated enough. Others are low-cost and can be implemented with the leanest of budgets. My one quibble with the book: the suggestion to have executives spend a day with the staff is, IMHO, insulting to the rank and file and may even be counterproductive, as it comes off as more of a feel-good stunt benefitting the executives than a real motivator. ... Read more

Book Description

If you have ever looked for P-values by shopping at P mart, tried to watch the Bernoulli Trails on "People's Court," or think that the standard deviation is a criminal offense in six states, then you need The Cartoon Guide to Statistics to put you on the road to statistical literacy.

The Cartoon Guide to Statistics covers all the central ideas of modern statistics: the summary and display of data, probability in gambling and medicine, random variables, Bernoulli Trails, the Central Limit Theorem, hypothesis testing, confidence interval estimation, and much more--all explained in simple, clear, and yes, funny illustrations. Never again will you order the Poisson Distribution in a French restaurant! ... Read more

Reviews (33)

I'm a Cartoon Guide Addict now...
Have you ever chuckled while reading your mathbook? Ever laughed out loud while crunching numbers? Don't worry--neither had I until I read this book. And any book that makes me smile when I'm doing math has got to be a winner.

Yes, Gonick has done it again. I bought the CG-genetics a while back, and loved it. So when I went hunting for a good 'refresher' stats book, I picked up this one.

I wasn't disappointed. Gonick (et al) has great talent for presenting information in a way that almost fools you into thinking you're not learning, but rather, having fun. And although this book wasn't as "easy" to get into as his Genetics book, I believe it's because I'm less familiar with this subject.

Careful though--as others have mentioned, you can't be fooled into thinking this book is THE way to learn statistics. You have to be pretty comfortable with algebra, and pretty determined to read through the book in order to take anything away from it. And don't try this book as a stand-alone or you'll end up with the same frustration you'd have with a college textbook.

A Good Introduction
"The Cartoon Guide to Statistics" by Larry Gonick and Woollcott Smith was published in 1993. This book is a good introductory level look at Statistics. The authors cover what Statistics is, what the history of the subject is, and a look at some theories, terms, and applications of the subject.

The weakness of the book is that there are a lot of formulas given, and not enough discussion of the formulas, so one would need to use other statistics texts to supplement the material, so this book cannot stand alone in that respect. On the other hand, if one is just trying to get an overview, there is a lot to skip over. The authors do make fun of the formulas, and the amount of math so those that are looking for an overview may enjoy the humorous presentation. There is also a lot to do with the subject that the book covers. It does cover probabilities, but when it comes to distributions it really focuses on Standard Normal distributions. I don't believe it ever mentions Uniform, Poisson, or other types of distributions which most statistic courses do cover.

The best part of the book is the examples, some of which are carried through for several chapters to help the reader better understand the subject. Although, even with the examples they are a bit inconsistent in how complete they are. For example, in one case they started to discuss the use of statistics to compare the salaries of male and female employees in the same job, but they never completed the discussion. The examples of racial bias in jury selection, and the gas mileage comparison of two different types of gas are much better. This is a decent book, but not up to the level of Gonick's excellent "Cartoon History of the Universe" series, and not strong enough to give it more than three stars.

Very funny and cute book. I love it!
If you want to learn complicated things like statistics, but are feeling quite overwhelmed by the complexity, I highly recommend you learn visually from a book like this. Larry has a great sense of humor and is a creative genius.

Zev Saftlas, Author of Motivation That Works: How to Get Motivated and Stay Motivated

Best intro to stats around
I read this book because I had to take a Linear Regression stats class, and I lacked the pre-requisite knowledge of basic statistics. After attempting to skim some of the 800 page intro books in the library, I decided to give this one a try.

It contains everything you need to know about introductory statistics. Some things are a little unclear, but this stems from the fact that the author's did not want to burden the reader with the derivations of the basic equations. So at the expense of some clarity, they cut out a lot of junk that you will never need, probably even if your major is statistics.

So even though you may need to supplement this book with a more detailed book, and even though the cartoons are far from funny, I give this book 5 stars because it is simply the best intro that you will find. You could easily get through an introductory college course with this book alone, and its a shame more courses don't try to do that.

Book Got Me Through College
I am math phobic and taking Statistics in college made me wonder if I was one of those people who "wasn't cut-out for college". But I got this book and it made statistics fun and a lot less intimidating. After college, an interviewer asked me about Bayes Theorum and I immediately pictured the illustration from the book! Recently, while studying for the GMAT, I recalled the fun lessons from the book - especially probability and nailed that section of the test.
This would be great for High School or college students or ANYONE who is intimidated by math or stats. ... Read more

Book Description

Are you wondering what the next killer app will be? Do you want to know how you can maintain and add to your value during these rapidly changing times? Are you wondering how the word love can even be used in the context of business?

Instead of wondering, read this book and find out how to become a lovecat—a nice, smart person who succeeds in business and in life.

How do you become a lovecat? By sharing your intangibles. By that I mean:
Your knowledge: everything that comes from all the books that I’ll encourage you to devour.
Your network: the collection of friends and contacts you now have, which I’ll teach you how to grow and nurture.
Your compassion: that human warmth you already possess—in these pages I’ll convince you that you can show it freely at the office.

What happens when you do all this?
* You become a rich source of information to all around you.
* You are seen as a person with valuable insight.
* You are perceived as generous to a fault, producing surprise and delight.
* You double your business intelligence in one year.
* You triple your network of personal relationships in two years.
* You quadruple the number of colleagues in your life who love you like family.

In short, you become one of those amazing, outstanding people to whom everyone turns, who leads rather than follows, who never runs out of ideas, contacts, or friendship.

Here’s the real scoop: Nice guys don’t finish last. They rule!


From the Hardcover edition. ... Read more

Reviews (75)

Fast read, helpful book with good insights...
I heard Tim Sanders speak recently at a young leaders conference in Atlanta and it was on this very idea ("Love is the Killer App"). So while I was already introduced to the general idea of the book, it was more helpful for me in reading it because I had heard this guy speak and had seen his audacious personality!

Let me just say this: everything you read in the book is truly lived out in Tim, the man. I'm not a Business major, but I am a Communication major in college right now and this book gave great insights to not just good-business models and principles but good social-people skills as well.

I wish he had talked more in the book about the scarcity mentality (in which he spoke on -- along with talking about the content in this book) because that for me, was the most interesting thing in this whole "Love is the killer app" approach.

Despite this, the book is solid and is good for not just the Business folk but for every person who would call themselves a human being. I'm an aspiring 21-year-old lovecat myself, and Tim is an encouraging role model for me and for the future of American leaders and followers! Thanks Tim!

Showing a Little Love Can Go a Long Way in Business
Yahoo's Tim Sanders describes in Love is the Killer App how he stumbled on a very successful philosophy. Sanders advocates taking a true interest in someone's career or business and trying to help them through introductions and advice with no specific expectation of remuneration. He says that first, you will be perceived as an expert of sorts (for knowing what or who you know) and second that the person will feel somewhat endeared to you for thinking of them. The benefits, he suggests, in the long run will reward you.

Sanders also suggests that you read as much as possible, so that you have a little bit of knowledge about any subject that could come up. He stresses that books are far more useful than newspapers/magazines/etc. as they extrapolate on their subject and are able to provide an abundant source of additional information should the need arise (though he does point out that magazines do have particular value in some instances).

All-in-all the book does have some valuable suggestions and is definitely worth reading. Some of his suggestions are very specific to sales people for service industries and may be difficult to implement if you work for a product-centric company or are not in sales. Most suggestions, though, are universal. If you want a way to be happier, have more professional acquaintances, and go further in life, this book should be a definite addition to your reading list.

The Lovecat Way!
Lovecats. That is what Tim Sanders tells us we need to be in order to be successful in today's world. Sanders, Chief Solutions Officer at Yahoo!, takes his message on the road as he consults with executives at top corporations on marketing and Internet strategy.

"Love is the Killer App," is a thesis on networking. Sanders stresses that the way to win friends and influence people is to give them value first. He advises to share your intangibles - your compassion and your knowledge with people with whom you want to do business. This is being a Lovecat.

Sanders goes on to illustrate the importance of learning as much as possible so that you have something of value to share. His formula for this is to read books - all the time! And, while reading, outline the book and understand the key points or "Big Statement" the author intended to make. Then, when you meet someone, find out what interests them and what challenges they face, and share what you have learned that would be relevant for them.

Through this little book, Sanders shares his own key to success - Nice guys rule!

Compassion, Abundance and Love as Business Success Tools
Sanders, Tim. Love Is the Killer App: How to Win Business and Influence Friends (New York: Crown Business/Random House, 2002). A high-level Yahoo exec discusses compassion, abundance, and love as a business success tool. Young and hip, and very in tune with my views.

Nice Smart People Prevail
This book is an interesting book which shows: As business people we need to update ourselves continuously with knowledge and love... It also shows strategies to better read and consume a business book... It is really helpful for the people who believe in human touch and sharing... I feel that i am not alone in this world after i read this book... Read the book you will get lots of good business book recommendations also...
Some people again made some comments about the writing of the book... if you are interested to read literature go and buy Lord Byron or Shakespeare... The writer tries to share his passion and some people write comments about the language of the book... Be sincere... sincerity comes with human mistakes...

thanks ... Read more