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This collection of Late Night Discussions originally appeared as a monthly column in Industry Week magazine. ... Read more

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Very Good
A must for any fan of The Goal ... Read more

Book Description

This book describes how to plan and design efficient logistics systems considering simultaneously all integral aspects of their operation, and how to evaluate economically existing or proposed systems. The approach, more physical than mathematical, requires little data. Building on an understanding of the simplest logistics system with only one origin and one destination, the book treats problems with many origins and one destination, many destinations and one origin, and many origins and many destinations; this is done for systems with and without transshipments. The methodologies presented in the book are particularly useful when decisions have to be made with incomplete or uncertain information; e.g., when evaluating a business plan, or designing a system for a long time horizon.

This expanded edition includes new research results and numerous modifications to enhance comprehensiveness and clarity. It has two new sections, a new appendix, and more than half a dozen new figures.

Book Description

This is a new overview of the strategy field, with internationally renowned contributors summarizing the latest directions and developments in strategic management theory in the context of their theoretical roots in economics, organization theory, and systems theory. The contributors outline the most promising new directions on the basis of a systemic treatment of paradigms or schools of thought in strategy: redrawing firm boundaries, developing dynamic capabilities and discovering viable strategy configurations. The volume will be an invaluable companion to advanced courses in strategy and management, used as a reader alongside case material and field studies. As well as providing a summary and evaluation of the different schools of thought in strategy, the volume offers a synthesis of the American and European approaches. ... Read more

Book Description

Is Your Company Getting the Most from Its Investment in Change?

Many companies have already invested heavily in infrastructure change, some are making that investment now, and all are contemplating the costs of becoming or evolving as an e-business. Is your company a "greenfield" organization with no back-end systems, or one whose infrastructure support systems are integrated across the enterprise? Are you just beginning to think about e-business capabilities, or are you on the leading edge of convergence? Whatever your company’s position on the ERP/E-Business Matrix, E-Business and ERP: Transforming the Enterprise provides the proven techniques you need to know to meld enterprise resource planning capabilities with the communications power of the Internet.

Is Your Company Positioned for E-Business Success?

The Internet has revolutionized twenty-first century business. Organizations today can communicate with customers, suppliers, and sellers at e-speed with the click of a mouse. Yet, with all of the excitement about the external possibilities of the Internet, companies still need efficient internal processes to make and move products, manage finances, recruit and motivate employees, and excel.

E-Business and ERP: Transforming the Enterprise covers the skills and tools you will need to combine existing ERP software and capabilities with emerging Web-based technologies. In this forward-thinking outline for a new business structure, executives and managers will discover:

• Strategies for established companies to penetrate the Internet marketplace
• Procedures that lower costs across the supply and demand chain
• Techniques that help you meet–and master–the dot.com challenge

The companies best positioned to succeed in the near future are those that can balance existing ERP-based infrastructures and capabilities with exciting new e-business innovations. E-Business and ERP: Transforming the Enterprise examines the changing but essential role of ERP, places it in the context of the Web-based technologies defining today’s e-business environment, and reveals how to blend the best aspects of both to create a strong and flexible twenty-first century business enterprise. ... Read more

Reviews (7)

Project Management ....He gets it!!
He fully understands the relationship between collaborative technology as it relates to project management in a large enterprise environment.

As he so well points out... "the speed which one implements technology relating to process management in order to accomplish large tasks" will differentiate success from failure. This is a "must read" for senior management if they wish to survive in a complex "project management", collaboration /Internet environment. How to utilize technology to accomplish this is the key!!

A great resource for management.

Project Management ....He gets it!!
Mr. Shield clearly gets it!!".

He fully understands the relationship between collaborative technology as it relates to project management in a large enterprise environment.

As he so well points out... "the speed which one implements technology relating to process management in order to accomplish large tasks" will differentiate success from failure. This is a "must read" for senior management if they wish to survive in a complex "project management", collaboration /Internet environment. How to utilize technology to accomplish this is the key!!

A great resource for management.

Both/And -- Not Either/Or
An excellent overview of a very complex and timely subject. I especially liked the ERP/E-Business Matrix and the discussion of regions, companies and assumptions underlying it. I found the discussion of "adaptive" vs. "disruptive" changes helpful and insightful. Very concise and to-the-point, a quick & easy read, but one which should be internalized over a longer period of time. Covered a lot of ground in less than 200 pages. Overall, an excellent addition to my bookshelf.

Would, however, have liked to see a bibliography & some footnotes for the statistics cited

ERP moving into e-Business
If you are coming from an APICS viewpoint on ERP, this book is consultant-speak only. It is however a prime mover on a very important issue, how will those 1996-1999 implemented ERP systems move forward now that Y2k spending has been digested in Fortune 2000 companies?

Tulane University Review
E-mail below received July 26, 2000. Posted with permission. I thought that potential buyers might find it helpful. Grant Norris --------------------------------------

Hello Grant, James, Kenneth, John Dunleavy and John D. Balls,

I wanted to write this e-mail to let you know that your book titled "E-Business and ERP" is well written and the subject matter most appropriate in depicting the state of the technology and e-business at this point. I found your depiction and representations very good.

I am a faculty member at the Freeman School of Business, Tulane University in New Orleans. I teach two courses that are pertinent to the content of your book. The courses are titled "Enterprise Integration I and II". These are courses taught to the MBA students, who find the course very interesting and fascinating.

I plan to ask the students to read your book as part of additional reading material for the course.

Sincerely

Raj Sharman

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

Prof. Raj Sharman, Ph.D. JF Seinsheimer Jr Research Fellow A. B. Freeman School of Business, 7 McAlister Lane, Tulane University, New Orleans, LA 70118 ... Read more

Reviews (1)

Managing Risk in Alternative Investment Strategies: Successf
Used properly, AIS bring good returns; used badly, they can create investment disaster. This book provides a concise guide to the latest thinking, for investment professionals wishing to reap the rewards of active AIS risk management.
The widespread interest in hedge funds and managed futures can be attributed to the attractive risk-reward characteristics of Alternative Investment Strategies (AIS) as well as their low correlation to traditional asset classes. However, in order for AIS to achieve their full potential, the industry must address investor concerns about the diverse risks of AIS investments as well as the lack of investment transparency, low liquidity and long redemption periods. Managing Risk in Alternative Investment Strategies provides a concise guide to the latest thinking in AIS risk for investment professionals and elaborates on the emerging "transparency model," which provides the backbone of solid risk management. The book discusses the "art and science" of effective hedge fund risk management including: the properties of Alternative Investment Strategies (Hedge Funds and Managed Futures) a thorough discussion of the underlying investment strategies a comparison of the specific risks of each strategy an outline of modern financial risk analysis tools the principles of risk management in an AIS portfolio. Managing Risk in Alternative Investment Strategies is an ideal guide for investment professionals looking to reap the rewards of alternative investment strategies and control their risk effectively. ... Read more

Book Description

This second edition of the best selling Management Research has been completely revised and updated to represent changes in research methods.

This book provides an invaluable guide for all those undertaking research in and around organizations, including managers. It considers not only methods, but also the nature of management research, its philosophy and politics.

The authors update the field both in relation to the new kinds of research problems being encountered in mangement research, and by incorporating the substantial methodological developments that have taken place over the last ten years. The book:

{ provides a useful introduction to the subject of management research

{ tackles complex issues in an accessible way

{ provides a definite statement of basic methodologies for management research

{ covers the full range of methods and techniques, qualitative and quantitative

{ considers the role of research as a vehicle for both personal learning and organizational development

Praise for the first edition:

'I will be recommending the book to graduate researchers at master's and doctoral level. It is a book which deserves to succeed for its honesty, clarity, and common sense' - Leadership and Organizational Development Journal

Reviews (2)

the best book of marketing reserch
Superb book for the lerner of marketing reserch. I really respect and recomend this book.

The best reserch course book
This book is good for students who want to learn deeply about marketing research. I used this book during the international marketing research. I strongly recommend this book. ... Read more

Book Description

Over the last several decades, employers have increasingly replaced permanent employees with temporary workers and independent contractors to cut labor costs and enhance flexibility. Although commentators have focused largely on low-wage temporary work, the use of skilled contractors has also grown exponentially, especially in high-technology areas. Yet, almost nothing is known about contracting or about the people who do it. This book seeks to break the silence.

Gurus, Hired Guns and Warm Bodies tells the story of how the market for temporary professionals operates from the perspective of the contractors who do the work, the managers who employ them, the permanent employees who work beside them, and the staffing agencies who broker deals. Based on a year of field work in three staffing agencies, life histories with over seventy contractors and studies of workers in some of America's best known firms, the book dismantles the myths of temporary employment and offers instead a grounded description of how contracting works.

Engagingly written, it goes beyond rhetoric to examine why contractors leave permanent employment, why managers hire them, and how staffing agencies operate. Barley and Kunda paint a richly layered portrait of contract professionals. Readers learn how contractors find jobs, how agents negotiate, and what it is like to shoulder the risks of managing one's own "employability."

The authors illustrate how the reality of flexibility often differs substantially from its promise. Viewing the knowledge economy in terms of organizations and markets is not enough, Barley and Kunda conclude. Rather, occupational communities and networks of skilled experts are what grease the skids of the high-tech, "matrix economy" where firms become way stations in the flow of expertise.

... Read more

Book Description

This book presents a comprehensive portrait of commercial and non-commercial foodservice, emphasizing a “real-world” focus on the foodservice customer and the customer's satisfaction. Practical illustrations taken from everyday life reinforce theory and concepts, while coverage explores management and marketing issues and examines delivery systems.Addressed issues include aspects involved inplanning, ingredient and quality control, production, food safety, sanitation, and maintenance — as well as the management of supplies, employees and finances. The book also offers a focus on the central figure in delivery, the menu; and discusses purchasing, receiving, storage, and inventory.For foodservice operations employees who want to increase their knowledge and efficiency. ... Read more

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Reviews (14)

Phrase
I understand that some terms are well-known, but in 1998, to use the term "nigger in the woodpile" in quotes or not does not ride well with me.I have to read a handout from this book for a class. Had I bought the book, I would've returned it. But since I cannot return copies, I guess I'm stuck with it, but I will be complaining to my teacher about the use of this handout.

The Roots of Modern Management
Taylor's ideas are commonly viewed as being antiquated because of the time and circumstances under which he worked. Not so! If you think TQM (including Deming, Juran, Shewart, and Taguchi) and Collaborative Management are the answer, you'll find the roots of of these and more in Taylor. It is true that Taylor applied his efforts mainly to work consisting of brute force - but that was the workplace world which existed then.

Before reading Taylor, you should first get up to speed on modern management/leadership concepts. Then, travel back to a time before machines replaced human labor. (If you are my age it should be easy!) Now read Taylor and use just a bit of imagination to visualize what he would be doing today. Then, and only then, can you begin to understand and appreciate what this man and a few other pioneers like him did.

Would his mindset change the way you do business? Then you'd better change because TQM and Collaborative Management are just Taylor on steroids. You can't understand management/leadership unless you understand Taylor. And you can't compete unless you understand both of these.

Still relevant
Although dated this short book contains intersting lessons. The book presents scientific management. Scientific management applies to the management of industrial processes and is based on four principles:
- Development of a science: The various ways of doing the task are analyzed and the best way is identified (note that further progress may be made due to new innovation);
- Selection and training of the work force: The most suitable people are hired and trained to perform according to the science;
- Constant help and feedback: The employees receive regular feedback on their work and help if they are falling behind;
- Deep management involvement in production: Management plans ahead to make sure that the tasks are performed in the best possible way.
The book also emphasizes the human aspect of management: change can only be done slowly and by convincing the employees of the benefits. This explains why it takes a long time to switch to scientific management. Employees need financial rewards for performing well and employees who create better practices should also be recognized and rewarded.
Most examples in the book are dated and not particularly relevant today. They still provide data to judge the improvements that scientific management may provide. The language is also dated and politically incorrect. However if you do not let this distract you, the core of the book remains relevant. Even for modern intellectual work, there are many lessons that can be learned from the book. For example, for software engineering (which I am familiar with):
- Make sure that you use the best practices ;
- Hire smart people and give them the right tools;
- Give feedback on performance and training when needed;
- Actively manage the project, especially the scope of the project when changes occur.
Although scientific management can be applied to turn employees into automata, there is something good about its emphasis on hard numbers and best practices.
I suggest that you read the book with an open mind and pick the core material that applies to your situation.

First book of its kind
It has been nearly 100 years since this book was first published.As other reviewers have mentioned, all readers need to put what Winslow is saying in context.The bottom line is that life was much different back then.Manual laborers were treated more like animals than human beings.

One excerpt from the book that I remember vividly was Winslow saying he went up to a worker and told him (I'm paraphrasing), "Look, you brute, you're not educated enough to understand this but I'm going to tell you exactly what to do and I want you to repeat the process all day long.And if you do it my way, you'll be much more efficient and I'll pay you more."

I couldn't help but chuckle at how absurd talking like that to an employee sounds.But the serious side of me cringes since it shows how poorly so many employees were treated back then.Because of some comments like this, I can see why some people are really turned off by the work when they put it in today's context.

Winslow's work seemed to focus on doing something very basic.He tried to figure out the most efficient process for a particular job.But back then nobody bothered to study this and thus he made a big impact in his time.Of course, in today's world we've evolved past that point (hopefully!) and therefore the book isn't a must read for the average reader of management books.

But if you want a quick read on what things were like in the business world at the turn of the last century, then you will probably find this book interesting.

Greg Blencoe
Author, The Ten Commandments for Managers

A seminal work
F.W. Taylor is where the serious student of scientific management begins.I believe that it's one of the best books on the subject that I've ever read - and it was an academic paper presented by Taylor almost 100 years ago.It's funny at times (and probably not meant to be), written in the academic style of the early 20th century.His movements back and forth between the theory and real life examples prove that he was one of the better economists of his day.

Taylor had humble beginnings (he was a shop laborer early in his career), and later he switched to consulting for various types of manufacturers.Peter F. Drucker and other scientific management gurus owe Taylor a debt of gratitude, which I'm sure they would readily acknowledge.All of us owe a debt to him as well.How can a firm reach greater efficiencies?Taylor suggested that firms do it in ways that even today are resisted and misunderstood by management.Increase workers' pay.Give them mandatory breaks throughout the day.Timing rest breaks between heavy lifting optimizes productivity.Please don't ignore these examples in the information age - Taylor was ahead of his time and perhaps even ahead of ours.Today's intelligent manager can still discover many useful ideas in this book.

It's not a terribly long work, and it's fun to read.I'm surprised that I was able to earn a BSBA without being required to read it, or parts of it.It's invaluable for firms and workers in any country, developed or undeveloped, and the firms that dare to utilize the ideas will be quite happy with the result: increased productivity, and therefore, increased profits.econ ... Read more

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Going the Distance identifies eight key obstacles to the long-term success of great businesses-and shows exactly how to overcome them. Former Cisco SVP Kevin Kennedy and leading consultant Mary Moore show how to assess corporate health and correct weaknes ... Read more

Reviews (10)

Very Useful in Everyday Business Life
Going the Distance is a practical guide to facing complex business challenges in today's environment. The book uses easy to understand examples and graphic images to illustrate principles discussed in the book. The eight predictable challenges outlined along with the diagnosis tools provide an excellent sanity check. Chapters 10 & 11, which center on corporate governance and board oversight are must reads for any CEO. I'm recommending it to all of my clients.

Shared Knowledge and Success
Kevin Kennedy and Mary Moore have put together a book that is interesting, thought provoking, and extremely knowledgable and comprehensive. Although the book uses high-tech examples, Kennedy successfuly makes a correlation to other industries helping the reader understand the in-depth information. Furthermore, there is a constant focus asking the reader to question their own business adventures. This allows them to gain insight and help improve their own businesses. The knowledge that Kennedy and Moore share is backed by years of experience and success in the business world and should be looked at carefully because it is very valuable.

Insightful
Going the Distance is an great guidebook for anyone in management. You'll understand the common traps, how to identify them and how to recover. What I like best is that the authors have years of real life experience in large corporations. They didn't just interview other people about what they have done, Kennedy and Moore have lived it. This is an excellent resource, especially in these economic times.

Great Source for Execs!
This book is an exceptional source of information for executives in high technology or any business. The authors elaborate on "Eight Predictable Challenges" consisting of four in execution - innovation, product transition, strategy and alignment and four in governance: developing a culture of learning, leadership DNA, effective governance systems and board of directors oversight. The book also includes an analysis of Cisco's acquisition logic, which I found very interesting.

I'm keeping this book on my shelf where I can refer to it often.

Going the Distance
The authors definitely "go the distance" ... in demonstrating that Scott Adams' cast of Dilbertian characters is still alive and well in Silicon Valley!! For example, Leadership DNA = authenticity + orientation to service + bias for learning. Please. Save your hard earned cash, and re-read a real leadership book like Giuliani's or Jack: Straight from the Gut. ... Read more

Book Description

In this new text, the author blends accessible coverage of quantitative methods with engaging qualitative topics. Meaningful examples clearly illustrate the logic and analytical thought process of modeling, and behavioral analysis is included in the use and implementation of analytical models. With a unique chapter of plant tours early in the book, students get a real-world, practical orientation throughout the text.
* "On the Job" boxes- profiles of people in professions outside of operations who use operations management concepts daily- demonstrate the importance of Operations management to non-majors.
* Quantitative and qualitative issues are fully integrated. Extended examples and real-world cases show students the range of analysis needed to manage, and how these tools are complementary rather than mutually exclusive.
* Four different Plant Tours- including both manufacturing and service operations- show students real production systems in action.
* "In Good Company" boxes demonstrate the importance of operations management in real companies.
* The coverage is state-of-the-art throughout, including Lean Production. Just-in-time production, EDI, concurrent engineering and cellular production. Sections on ecological implications are included in several chapters. ... Read more

Reviews (1)

A student
Easy to understand and very comprehensive. Dr. Martinich has clearly created one of the top textbooks in the field. ... Read more

Book Description

Providing a detailed discussion of the practice of doing critical research in organizations, utilizing both qualitative research processes and critical theories of organizations, this textbook will be essential for all those involved in interpreting and researching contemporary institutions and organizations. This volume gives an authoritative and insightful framework for navigating critical theories and methods across the social sciences, but in particular in relation to the study of corporate organizations. ... Read more

Book Description

Using a computer should be as easy and productive as driving your car. But today's systems are oblivious to our needs and demand even more attention and work from us as they swell in numbers, complexity, and features.

Michael Dertouzos argues that we must shift the focus of information technology away from machines and back to people. In The Unfinished Revolution, he outlines five key technologies that will help us do this and offers an exciting vision of how human-centric computers could alter the way we live and work in the Information Century. ... Read more

Reviews (10)

Change the way you think!!!
Michael Dertouzos has an insightful vision of the future in his book The Unfinished Revolution. His focus is around Human-Centered computing and how it will allow user to "do more by doing less". He artfully illustrates the ways that computers should work. He admonishes that, in the current state of computing, we are the ones the serve our computers and not the other way around. Computers need to be changed so that they can understand us and not the other way around.

Even though this may seem like fairytales to some, Dertouzos has built this vision of the future using solid basis on the technology that either we have in prototypes today or likely to be attainable in the near future. His work at MIT has already shown that as computing resources become more plentiful, Human-Centric computing will become a possibility.

My overall impression of the book is that it has some novel ideas and very persuasive author that is working hard to get you to like them. The book seem a little repetitive at times but over all it as a very interesting read.

A Vision for Designing More Useful Information Technology
Although this book was written for both people who use computers and for the technologists who use them, the latter are the primary audience. General computer users will find their normal complaints about bulky, balky technology recognized here, but will get little but emotional support for near-term improvements. The primary benefit of the book comes in the many scenarios of interactions with information technology to simplify, speed, ease, and improve the processing to better serve the user's needs.

Dr. Dertouzos is always on the cutting edge of the information revolution in his role as the head of MIT's Computer Laboratory. The core of this book is captured in chapter 8, where MIT's new Oxygen project is described. This is a prototype of "human-centered" information technology. The system combines a portable device for wireless communication, a stationary system built into a room (with transportable software from the portable device to the stationary system), and a network to support the interactions of users to the technology in new ways.

The strongest part of the book is in complaints about the limitations of current information devices and networks. These will be familiar to any computer user, but it is refreshing to hear them from someone involved in drawing the outlines of the future. These include bulky software that does too much (like the word processing program most of us use that keeps automatically reformating what you have typed into something you don't want), weak interfaces between multiple programs and products so they crash when combined, the need to type so much information in, lousy search engines that waste your time, horrible telephone robots for getting to the right number, difficulties in sharing information, and the burdens of unwanted and unneeded e-mail.

His solutions focus on five areas: Letting people converse with information devices in ways similar to how you would speak with a service person in a business; using e-forms to capture your information once and to then automate the sharing of that information with organizations who legitimately need it; finding answers by building on information that others have learned whom you trust; changing the method of distance working and learning so that the interactions are made more realistic and better summarized; and allowing you to tap into personalized, custom software preferences wherever you are and with whatever device you are using.

Each area contains several examples of how these changes might work, many drawn from actual Oxygen applications that are now operating. So you should think of this book as focusing on what will be technically feasible in the next five years or so.

I hope that Dr. Dertouzos will write a sequel to this book that looks further ahead than that in order to begin to spell out an even more improved version of information processing. As much as I was attracted to his vision here, I found that it mainly focused on enhancing the ways that I do things now. I thought that more could be done to help individuals operate in new ways that would vastly enhance human progress. Problem-solving software designed to help structure issues, gather information, analyze it, get feedback from others on the process, and compare to the potential for perfection could be one such example.

Seeing this book also made me realize that much more work of this sort is needed. Without detailed scenarios of how to create solutions that people really want, technologists will continue to provide user unfriendly technology. I suspect that we need a vast experimental activity where people attempt to find new ways to get benefits from technology while removing its hindrances.

Those who read about "human-centered" technology will, of course, want to know what the catch is. You will find towards the end of the book that Dr. Dertouzos points out that making the humans a little more standard in their interactions would allow the information technology to work better. So the vision is still a little along the lines of making each of us fit into the round hole in the technology board. With more technology advances, I hope that aspect will quickly disappear. It certainly should be a primary objective.

After you finish reading this book, I suggest that you create your own scenario for a better way to get a task done with information technology. Then send it along to Dr. Dertouzos, so he can share it with others. In that way, you can help speed the unfinished revolution talked about in this book.

Let's focus on making vast improvements in human benefits, net of human frustration and stress, in all of our technologies rather than focusing on selling products to other technologists! That's the real mindframe shift that is needed!

Great Thoughts, Limited Reality, More to Do....

In some ways this is the gold-collared knowledge worker counterpart book to Ted Halstead and Michael Lind's The Radical Center: The Future of American Politics (citizen-centered). Those who liked The Cultural Creatives or IMAGINE: What America Could be in the 21st Century, can adopt this book as their user's guide for demanding change in information technology.

I recommend it because it is full of common sense, is the first really helpful "requirements document" for a clean sheet new approach to software and hardware and ergonomics ($3000 word for user friendly). The bad news is that nobody is listening. We are ten years away from this being a reality because the legacy providers (big hardware, one certain software company) are not about to retool their empires for the sake of delivering better value.

It is more than a little amusing to me to have this book endorsed by the CEO of the one company that prides itself on producing software with mutated migrated Application Program Interfaces that are used to extort tribute from third party software developers, where no sane consumer will invest in his products until they've had three years to "mature" in the marketplace.

The opening listings of the "standard faults" in today's "consumer electronics" is alone worth the price of the book--unintegrated systems fault; manual labor fault; human servitude fault; crash fault; excessive learning fault; feature overload fault; fake intelligence fault; waiting fault; ratchet fault...

The book ends on a low note and high note. The low note is a description of Oxygen, a $50M project seeded by DARPA and including several major company partners such as HP and Nokia. This project has some excellent ideas, including a new focus on an architecture for nomadic computing with three aspects: a Handy 21 (hand-held), Enviro 21 (intermediate personal computers at home, office, and in car), and N21 Network (Intentional Naming System, every computer and peripheral everywhere is in the public domain and broadcasting its location and status, use on the fly). Good stuff. What he doesn't mention is that the U.S. Government is spending over half a billion dollars on completely uncoordinated desktop analysis toolkits, and there is probably 2-3X that much being spent in the private sector. He does note that we will never get our act together if we continue to develop hardware and software in a very fragmented and hardware-based manner.

On the high note, the author has clearly thought about the consequences of having an information revolution here in the USA, creating information royalty, while leaving the rest of the world dispossessed, in poverty, and unconnected. He has a very practical appreciation for the fact that the USA must fund two distinct foreign assistance programs--a Digital Marshall Plan (my phrase) to jack in the entire world; and a commensurate literacy, birth control, disease control, and famine control program to stabilize populations to the point where they can be productive within the global grid.

I read this book on the airplane coming back from the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas (Federal Emerging Technologies Conference sub-set), and I was really struck by the contradiction between the vast fragmentation spread out over Las Vegas (the man who has everything also has to carry it) and the elegant simplicity of this book's vision--one hand-held able to be any of 100+ devices. "It's the software, simpleton...."

What saddens me, especially when considering the billions of dollars being given away by our richest software developer, someone who seems to favor gestures on the margin instead of quality control and open source at the core, is that we knew all this in the mid-1980's. The eighteen distinct functionalities needed for a desktop analysts' workstation were identified by CIA in 1986--everything from data ingestion and conversion softwares to modeling and simulation and pattern detection and of course desktop publishing. The year after the CIA prototypes were working so successfully on UNIX (Sun), CIA decided that the PS2 would be the standard "dumb" terminal, and all UNIX efforts were ordered to shut-down. The big organizations, the ones with the power to make the revolution, chose control and dumb terminals over freedom and smart software. I am very skeptical that the vision in this book will come to fruition...

Explains how these computers will change our professional
Unfinished Revolution focuses on human-centered computers and how they can change our lives reveals a technology which adapts to people; a new concept in how designers are producing computers. Human-centered computing uses five key technologies which will expand human capabilities: Unfinished Revolution explains how these computers will change our professional specialties and personal lives alike.

Unfinishable revolution?
Few people have more credentials to speak about progress and challenges in human-computer interaction than M. Dertouzos - the head of the Laboratory of Computer Sciences at MIT, which has a distinguished record of cutting-edge research in this and other fields. And yet many arguments and predictions in the book remain somewhat unconvincing.

"Why computers aren't as easy to use as cars?" - asks the author, like many other people before him, frustrated by their perpetual complexity and cumbersomeness. But comparison with cars is misleading. Cars are not designed to allow motorists to put under the hood any additional gadgets they fancy, or to perform arbitrary maneuvers, pushing every button and handle simultaneously. Yet the development of PC industry was based on accommodating ever more and newer gadgets under its cover, and on allowing almost any user's action, short of whacking a motherboard with a sledgehammer. Of course, many flaws of computer systems are due to the industry's geeky origins and traditions, or specific biases of programmers and early users. But the roadmap described by the author is not the first serious attempt at radical improvement, and the goal it is hardly closer today than a few years ago. Why?

This probably has a lot to do with the economics of the computer industry, rather than other, more subjective, factors. As much as both hardware and software companies try to convince us how hard are they working to improve usability of their products, to eliminate bugs and crashes, the dirty secret of the industry is that it is not a top priority. Quality simply does not pay. In the "physical" world we often buy new things just to replace broken, or worn-out ones, not necessarily because the older items are hopelessly obsolete. Manufacturers have time and resources to gradually work out the kinks and improve design almost to perfection. With computers, on the other hand, "physical" amortization is low, so the only way to sell new systems is to cram them with more new features, no matter how poorly designed at first, and to make existing ones (no matter how proven and reliable) obsolete and incompatible. Simply reducing the number of bugs will not generate many sales. As a new feature appears, buggy and frustrating to use at first, the economic machine of the computer industry kicks into high gear. Magazines write raving reviews to increase their own sales, add-on manufacturers rush to incorporate it and propagate it down the sales channels, application developers write new drivers and other utilities which make new feature indispensable and previous versions obsolete.

As a result, today complex software is not unlike a human genome - a product of often messy and chaotic evolution, rather than a compact and elegant design. Pieces of active, useful code ("genes") are surrounded by "junk", leftover from previous generations of development, often redundant and useless. Why it is there? Because it is easier and cheaper to throw more hardware to crunch ever-bloating volumes of code and not to touch old rusting scrap, than to design and debug fast, efficient code. And it is not getting any better.

On the other hand, despite all these intrinsic problems and flaws, many complaints against computers are quite unreasonable. For example, the story often goes, it is difficult to find that text file created two months ago, or where are those digital pictures from the last trip. But this supposedly unfavorable comparison with the "real world" does not hold. Consider, for example, the tree-like directory/subdirectory/file hierarchy, used in most operating systems. In fact it closely resembles a real-world storage system - file cabinet/shelf/file/document, only better. Why are we complaining? Because we have much higher expectations of computerized data storage, than of a traditional file cabinet. A file cabinet requires careful maintenance; if we treat it the same casual way we do computer files, it would be totally unusable in two weeks. Complaints against computers notwithstanding, it is far easier to find past notes and other files on a computer than in a "physical" world.

The same with the gripes against Internet search engines, repeated in the book - a familiar story about a list of 10.000 irrelevant links in response to a search query. I think it is just a trite cliché. Frankly, it never failed for me to quickly find stuff even without following "exact" grammar rules recommended by engines. Besides, there is a good chance to discover surprises, interesting and useful information among those "10.000 links". Of course, one could have a negative experience with web searches. In the "real world" a stupid or badly posed question is unlikely to produce a useful answer. Why do we expect a different result from a search engine? Moreover, search engines in the last few years was among the most competitive and dynamic technologies, where leaders changed almost every year - Yahoo, Altavista, HotBot, Northern Light, Google, each progressively offering better, faster, more complete results.

The author touts XML and "semantic web" technologies as one of the "saviors" to untangle the computer industry mess. Again, I have serious doubts about this proposed magic bullet. The beauty of the first versions of HTML, when it appeared in early 90's, was its simplicity and universality. Any intelligent person could master it in half a day, and publish a decent-looking web page, which could be seen on PC, Mac or UNIX workstations anywhere in the world. This was truly revolutionary. The XML and "semantic web" at the first glance is just a natural extension along this road. But instead introduces another big layer of complexity, reduces the pool of programmers who can quickly master it, opens the door to innumerable new bugs and inefficiencies. If HTML opened a new chapter in computer history, XML and its companion technologies do not. It is filling the same chapter with comments and footnotes until the text becomes illegible. ... Read more

Book Description

A state-of-the-art guide to the new field of complexity-the tool leaders use to understand how people and organizations adapt in a world of rapid change.

Harnessing Complexity will be indispensable to anyone who wants to better comprehend how people and organizations can adapt effectively in the information age. This book is a step-by-step guide to understanding the processes of variation, interaction, and selection that are at work in all organizations. The authors show how to use their own paradigm of "bottom up" management, the Complex Adaptive System-whether in science, public policy, or private commerce. This simple model of how people work together will change forever how we think about getting things done in a group. ... Read more

Reviews (9)

too generic and hard to put it into practical use
Overall, I think the book is too generic, only touching the surface of complexity/organizational theory. Hard for me to get any good action steps/tips for my practical job.

The author pointed out three points of "Complex Adaptive System"
- variation
- interaction
- selection

It looks like something new. However, the author only talks on the very surface level of these three concepts. He explained why variation/interaction/selection is good to corporate organization, just as it is good for living beings. Yet, you can't find specific action steps to work on. In addition, if we do not go into deeper level (or new meaning), these three concepts will be just like old concepts with new names (i.e. diversity/teamwork/performance evaluation).

Net, I find this book is hard for practical use, and only recommend it to people who are extremely interested in complexity theory.

Harnessing complexity... without the harness
In the first paragraph of the preface of this book, Axelrod and Cohen ask, "In a world where many players are all adapting to each other and where the emergring future is extremely hard to predict, what actions should we take?" As a "reader from Boston" recommended, providing recommendations for practical application (7 Habits of Complexity?) would have helped answer this question.

Unfortunately, even the authors' anectodal examples provide little insight into HOW to "harness" complexity. While this book is primarily aimed at "designers and policy makers," it may actually be most useful to consultants looking to add new buzzwords to their bs lexicon.

I would recommend Briggs and Peats's "Seven Life Lessons of Chaos" for those who are looking for a more nuts-and-bolts approach to these issues.

A beginner's view
As my first venture into the world of complexity and complex adaptive systems this was an interesting book. A lot of what I anecdotally thought about complexity was reinforced through the authors' own anecdotal examples. The examples were from a wide variety of situations, but were explained in a way to be understood by someone without a background in those various areas. However, I think the title was somewhat misleading. It seemed that a lot of the value of the book depended on having at least the initial, possibly intuitive, understanding of the interrelatedness of events, structure, and environment.

The diversity of the areas affected by complexity would seem to make it difficult to formulate a simple step by step approach for using complexity. However, it would have been helpful if the authors spent some time on what initial or environmental conditions might have been changed in their examples and how those changes would have affected the end system.

Full of Fluff
How anyone can rate this book at 5 stars is beyond me. This book is not only one of the weaker contributions to the literature on complexity in the past two years, it fails to live up to the title. No one who reads this book will know how to take the first step toward "harnessing complexity." At best, they will have the broadly useful idea that it's good to experiment with new ideas (exploration) every now and then, and then pick the ideas that work (exploitation). That hardly seems like a great breakthrough. Organizational Implications of a Scientific Frontier?! Get real.

Self-referentially coherent, yes.
Complexity theory sounds so cool, since it has developed its own unique vocabulary to describe things like plant growth, iterations of patterns in things like tree root systems or mammalian lungs, or long causal chains of actions. There even seems to be a belief system of orthodox Darwinism to supply the "Black Box" of impulse and explanation to seemingly irreducible complexities, like how one shred of a cell could live apart from the rest of the cell, or how the whole cell could live without each part. Interestingly, these authors bow low to Mr. Darwin (perhaps to stay in communion with the high priests of the Santa Fe Institute) but don't really plug much Darwin into their business and military analyses, which seem full of volition, and free of macro-evolutionary assumptions.

So the Darwinism is meta-hooey, but then so is a great deal of macroeconomiics, and management theory. Unlike some complexity writers, these authors do seem to work out a few interesting implications of 1) business managers/leaders not knowing everything; 2) and people not behaving like mathematical averages. Yet they end up affirming the imperative of leaders leading, and people behaving in hard-to-manage ways.

Did they need all the science and evolution-speak to draw these conclusions? How are they any different, as they face the technological uncertainties inherent in our own age, from the orthodox puritan capitalist 200 years ago, trying something new with steam cylinders and gears, while referring to his Bible and trusting his God to "direct his paths?" How to lead a company of workers, and invent new products simultaneously? Look for good people to develop, and for new people with needed skills, I guess. Same thing here with this book. ... Read more

Reviews (3)

Nahavandi & Malekzadeh: Good use of intercultural examples
Drawing on their multicultural background originating in Iran, the authors weave in good intercultural OB principles. Entertaining read; companion website is helpful. Good balance of the academic with the popular press.

Especially relevant to the 2000 workplace.
Every chapter provided excellent background, information and guidance - plan to order a dozen for a management study team.

long chapters and very common sense
long chapters and very common sens ... Read more

Book Description

Exploit the powerful marketing/segmentation opportunities for new ventures

Marketing is of critical importance to the success of any entrepreneurial venture—and this book gives you the marketing methods, tools, and tactics necessary for successfully building and launching your new business opportunity, especially for e-commerce. Entrepreneurial Marketing combines entrepreneurial expertise with Wharton School business know-how to provide sophisticated marketing approaches that can dramatically reduce the failure rate of new ventures.

"If you're unconvinced that marketing makes or breaks entrepreneurial ventures, you'll change your mind after reading this book. The Internet, global distribution, and consolidation all create new challenges and opportunities for today's entrepreneurs. The authors offer sound advice and the same kind of solid direction you would pay hundreds of thousands of dollars to buy from a consulting firm. I've used many of these techniques, with Len Lodish's help, to grow our business from 5% of the market to over 50%."
—Ralph Guild, Chairman and CEO, Interep ... Read more

Reviews (3)

Should have written something more useful
I am handling my own business here in Manila and a fresh grad out of college.Id say this book was quite disappointing.i was expecting something else from a Wharton Prof., instead he wrote something everyone else knows already.First in chapter1, it didnt say anything on "how" to segment your market,such as niches,ethnics,demegraphics,psychographics,database segmentation,behavioral or whatever,instead, it just emphpasized the need to segment.The need is pretty much obvious, even in the books of Mr. Kotler, or Mr. Clancy, these are already very much emphasized. Same with teh rest of the book which did not give any thorough insights, more on just the needs, and some basic steps to follow. I would say this book is a good reference for those with no marketing background, or freshmen in marketing but not for those looking for a breakthrough in the "everyone knows that" conventional marketing practices.

A practical book!
This book is worth reading. It is comprehensive and informative including all aspects an entrepreneur should know. It is good to first bring out the importance of positioning, targeting and segmentation, as many decisions mentioned in the following chapters are made depending on it so that money will not be wasted in the unnecessary or wrong areas.

The decisions of selecting and developing new products and services, pricing, public relation and publicity, distribution, product and service rollout, sales management, promotion, advertising, hiring, capital raising as well as branding stated in the following chapters are mentioned in details, followed with a lot of examples that are great and realistic.

Summaries are given in every chapter. And there are a lot of technical terms given with explanations, making it easier to understand.

After reading this book, I am sure that most of you who want to be an entrepreneur or those who already have your own business will know how to continuously improve the perceived value of your business to build distinctive competence, so that you can communicate its value to your target market. In short term, your revenue and profits will increase. In long term, your company will be healthier.

Great book! A real-world, practical guide
Unlike most marketing primers, this book provided a real-world, fact-based approach to marketing your startup. It was packed with examples and good strategies for making your business stand out and succeed. I wish I had it when I started my business -- it would have saved me from learning several lessons the hard way. Well worth the price! ... Read more

Book Description

Decision Analysis has, for decades, been the most powerful method available for making decisions under conditions of uncertainty, e.g., new business strategies and new product launches. In this timely book, business consultants McNamee and Celona set forth the practical application of decision analysis for business decision-makers and those who support them. The book clearly illustrates the need for coupling decision process with analysis to create quality decisions. Includes cases and discussion questions. 339 pages. ... Read more

Reviews (1)

Excellent refresher and reference for working professionals
This book is an excellent intermediate-level text on decision analysis that deals with both uncertainty and risk.It uses realistic examples that working professionals will appreciate and to which they can relate.

It's written as a tutorial that uses two tools, Sensitivity, which is used with the chapters dealing with decisions under uncertainty, and Supertree for developing decision trees related to risk analysis.Instructions on obtaining the student versions of these programs are included in the book.Note that the student version of Supertree accommodates trees with up to 250 endpoints, and the student version of Sensitivity performs sensitivity for up to 12 variables.

My most used text on decision analysis is Making Hard Decisions by Robert T. Clemen.Where that book is more comprehensive, it's also less suitable for the working professional who needs a refresher and a desk reference.Therein lies the main value of this book - it's more aligned to real world problems that you'll find in the workplace and is written to be both a tutorial and a reference. ... Read more

Book Description

"Imaginization is typical of Gareth Morgan's work--stimulating, thought-provoking, original, and well-written." --Anne Golden, President, United Way of Greater Toronto "The book is exciting. It opens up ways of developing both organization and management. It inspires ideas of excellence and achievement and gives hope for this age. You can probably open this book anywhere and find something of value." --Business Age "Morgan has written an amazing book on imaginative ways of organizing and managing organizations. . . . a book about a new management theory that can self-organize, evolve, twist, turn, and perhaps change at the speed of light. The work provides a way of helping managers understand and develop their creative potential. It offers a means of finding innovative solutions to difficult problems. Anyone interested in modern-day organizations and personal empowerment should read this book....Belongs on the bookshelf of every manager seeking creative ways to transform one's organization and oneself." --Journal of Academic Librarianship "The stories provide powerful examples of how the use of metaphors can help people in an organization understand their complex feelings and how discussion of the concepts contained in metaphors can help develop a shared sense of vision for the future. . . . Imaginization is definitely worth reading. The author strikes a responsive cord in calling for new organizational approaches to deal with a dynamic future, and he establishes credibility through numerous examples that document the use of his consulting techniques. . . . One might argue that the book lacks structure and focus. This is true if one is committed to the traditional, hierarchical way of presenting ideas. Visionaries are freed from such constraints as they allow their creativity to flow--and Gareth Morgan is indeed a visionary." --SRA Journal "Imaginization is filled with thought-provoking metaphors (e.g., holograms for organizational design, termites for strategic planning, spider plants for flexibility and decentralization), primitive, but compelling illustrations and stimulating case studies--many of which are products of Morgan's action-learning research on imaginization. This highly readable book rests on a solid underpinning of scholarly research, creative introspection, and originality. This is anything but pop-biz, but it sure could fool you at first glance." --Stern's HR Management Review "What makes Morgan's book a valuable and important piece of writing is that he gives a clear theoretical framework for his views, his techniques, and his rationales for analysis of business problems, and that as a writer in this field Morgan is exceptional. . . . His writings [have] a lyrical quality and unforced enthusiasm, which make him a pleasure to read. "Morgan's prime gift, demonstrated in this book, is to dump 90 percent of the philosophical complexities that are circulating in the important theoretical writings on organization. The remaining 10 percent he uses with effectiveness and a lightness of touch to enrich and underpin his examples and illustrations. . . . . Morgan's passion is that of a highly able, articulate, and enthusiastic optimist empowered by a flexible, inquisitive mind." --Organization "A valuable, interesting, and practical addition to the book collection. . . .If you are looking for an amusing and lighthearted trip through Morgan's Metaphoric Management Manual then this is certainly worth a look. Moreover, and I think this is the real value of Morgan's book, he doesn't advocate a simple prescriptive solution to complex organizational problems--other than to plead for the use of more imagination on the part of those involved. To this message I can only add 'hear hear!'" --Work, Employment, and Society "Will be particularly appreciated by those who learn by, and take heart from, worked examples. . . . All the chapter titles are highly evocative and a quick scan of the excellently abstracted contents pages will help you decide whether to invest the time or not. . . . In the sense that it offers managers a 'show-how guide' to becoming their own theorist, Imaginization is potentially radical and empowering. What it emphasizes consistently is the fact that we all have theories about the situations we face, and that it is those same inner constructs which can provide the seeds of creative transformation. . . . Following his examples could go a long way to convincing managers that the answers they seek lie within their own hearts rather than outside them in the head of some 'expert.' It also provides a useful model of truly facilitative expert behaviour both in providing generic metaphors and models to help simplify and focus complex situations and in creating a supportive environment in which powerful inner wisdom can be evoked, shared, and creatively synthesized." --Management Learning "The chapters in this book are themselves imaginative, with varied presentations and opportunities for reader participation; most demonstrate imaginization in action via case studies drawn from Morgan's experience as a consultant and leader of management workshops. Sacha Warunkiw's clever drawings, sprinkled liberally throughout the text, support the importance of metaphor in Imaginization." --Journal of Academic Librarianship "As always, Gareth Morgan manages to put into words wonderful pictures and a good way of making concrete things that aren't always easy to see. I have always enjoyed his writing. Provides a guideline for making the theoretical practical" --Mary Giles, Department of Education, Manitobe Telephone System "Imaginization shows that management is as much art form as science, providing many useful ways to tap the most important resource for competitiveness: brainpower." --Rosabeth Moss Kanter, Professor, Harvard Business School, author of The Change Masters "Gareth Morgan's Imaginization is exciting stuff. It opens up new worlds for the development of organization and management. . . . This is of far-reaching importance, developing the path-breaking implications of his Images of Organization." --Eric Trist, Professor Emeritus, late of the Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania "Just one of the insights offered in this book could change the way you think about organization and management--forever! Imaginization provides a powerful and enjoyable way of making the new management a reality." --Linda Grant, Professional Development Executive, Toronto "Imaginization is playful and gently subversive. It takes the full use of metaphors for organizational analysis to its most practical level. It is a useful resource for instructors as well as organization participants." --Peter Frost, University of British Columbia "Another landmark book by Gareth Morgan! If a practitioner were going to buy only one book this year, this has to be it." --John Burdett, Vice President, Management Development, Lawson Mardon Group ABRIDGED QUOTE USED ON OBC. "If your company or your group has yet to achieve its highest levels of performance, read this book! Gareth Morgan brings out the images of achievement, excellence, and hope for this age." --Ron Carter, Director, Resource Development Services, Merck Human Health Division, Merck and Co., Inc. "Gareth Morgan brings out the images of achievement, excellence, and hope the leaders for this age may have kept hidden because the 'culture' of their company doesn't seem to value this aspect of their skills. Morgan's insight leads to specific suggestions and actions which enable you to act on your vision. His plea is that imagination, which should be the engine of competitiveness and a constant component of our work, should not end during childhood. If your company is still a bureaucracy or you believe your group has yet to achieve its highest levels of performance, read this book! Most importantly, if you want to make the pressures and rewards of work more fun for those who work ... Read more

Reviews (4)

Good book of management
Maybe management is the topic with the poorest quality of books in social sciences. Authors usually think that their readers are so busy or so stupid (or both) that they have to write a book for kids (they repeat the same example one hundred times) Fortunately, there are some authors as Morgan that believe posible to write a simple but interesting book like this one. I know Imaginazation is not the best book of management (even Images of Organization of the same author is better), but it is a quite intelligent one and in management this is a very rare quality.

Great fun and scholarly too!
Morgan's book is a delight to read. I couldn't wait to go out and try some of the techniques myself! While extremely readable, Morgan includes a couple of appendices that give the extensive scholarship behind his work.

So much fun, you won't realize how much you're learning.
Innovation and creativity are big buzzwords in management these days. Every second guru has a new paradigm or a new way of thinking, many of which aren't really new and may not be relevant to the situation on the ground. Many books are written on these subjects, mostly long on concepts but short on real tools.

I loved this book because Gareth never falls into that trap. His approach is always created from the situation on the ground, not as manna from above. Indeed, one of his best insights is the way he neatly explodes the word "supervision" into its component parts, showing the assumption of management as people with "super vision" who can see the future. Think about the realities behind that one word, and watch many of your assumptions about managing start to change.

As you might expect, Imaginization has several chapters which use real consulting experiences to illustrate the ideas presented. It's very effective at illustrating the ideas, conveying both the approach in action, and giving people the tools to actually start putting innovation and creativity to work in their workplace. It's also a very enjoyable read, as fun as its name implies.

Gareth Morgan's course was the most useful and well-spent time in my entire MBA at the Schulich School of Business. END

So much fun, you won't realize how much you're learning
Innovation and creativity are big buzzwords in management these days. Every second executive has a new paradigm or a new way of thinking, many of which aren't really new and may not be relevant to the situation on the ground. Many books are written on these subjects, mostly long on concepts but short on real tools.

I loved this book because Gareth never falls into that trap. His approach is always created from the situation on the ground, not as manna from above. Indeed, one of his best insights is the way he neatly explodes the word "supervision" into its component parts, showing the assumption of management as people with "super vision"