Reviews (5)

Writer's Block?Get started now!
I am an proficient writer, but I had never written a business plan before, so I had trouble getting started.Of the three books I purchased on writing business plans, this one was the most helpful because it provides "lead ins" to get me started, with suggestions for elaborating on details.For example, "Our key competitive advantage is..."

Over a few days, I was able to assemble a skeleton of a business plan.After researching my industry for marketing and competition, I was able to fill in the sections I had outlined with the use of the book.My business plan was well-received by bankers and business people.It gave me confidence from having done thorough research on operating the business.

I had bought a used paperback (without software) on Amazon for $6.00.In hindsight, the software may have saved typing time.I couldn't have written my business plan without this book!

Good, Simple Guide
This is an excellent book that will walk you through the process of writing your business plan. It covers all of the major sections of creating a business plan including Executive Summary, Market Analysis, Competitive Analysis, Strategy, Sales and Marketing, and so on. For each area, it asks clear questions, offers guidance to answering them, and offers different examples and formats that could be appropriate for different types of businesses. This is also one of the only business planning books that offers help with the financials!

Also, the book is well laid out and organized. It can be easily skimmed or read cover-to-cover with the major points highlighted well with excellent graphics. The sample business plans are very simple but concise and well written. Though they are not "real" examples, they can help provide guidance and get the juices flowing. Do not expect the book to make you a master of business planning, but as a tool to get started it is excellent. Furthermore, it can help you get thinking strategically and to get you asking yourself the right questions.

The only real negative about the book is that it does not tell you what types of formats or plans are appropriate for different types of businesses, and different types of financing.

Excellent Step-by-Step Guide for Writing a Winning Plan!
I am a very proficient writer who found the task of writing a business plan for my consulting practice overwhelming.I knew what I needed to say, yet getting that perfect concise wording proved more than a notion.After reviewing several business plan "how-to" books, I found that only Bob Adams has made writing a first-rate business plan painless and pleasurable.

Whether a start-up or existing business, Bob has done the "scratch work" for each section of your plan and provided a wide variety of pre-written text options for you to tailor to your specific situation.In addition, he walks you through every step of creating those much scrutinized financial documents, item by item, giving formulas when necessary so that nothing is omitted or misunderstood.

It has been 18 monnths since I used Bob's book to construct my initial business plan. The results was a "living" document that has served me better than I ever anticipated.

Easy use
This book is for a start up small business.Easy, walk through, step bystep planning.Good conservative insights of what an investor or bankwould be looking for.Favors the service industry.

It is designed toprovide an annual plan ... not a five year plan.There is little in thebook for advice in an ongoing buisness.

The verbage, however, is usefulfor any business plan.

Outstanding
It has a great format where he walks you through each page of your business plan with all sorts of samples where you can plug in your specificbusiness items.But it's not just fill-in-the-blanks.For any givensection, he gives you many sample outlines to follow, according to yourspecific type of business and how mature the business is.Definitely helpsyou to brainstorm and walk away with all sorts of new ideas.I can'trecommend it enough. ... Read more

Book Description

The essentials of business numeracy

The Numbers Guide, now in its fifth edition, is aimed at managers who have budgetary, planning or forecasting responsibilities and is invaluable for everyone who wants to be competent, and able to communicate effectively, with numbers.

There are chapters on Key Concepts, Finance and investment, Measures for interpretation and analysis, Forecasting techniques, Sampling and hypothesis testing Incorporating judgments into decisions, Decision-making, Linear programming and networking.

The guide also points out common pitfalls, such as:
• On rounding: Two times two makes four? Right? Wrong. The answer could be anywhere between two and six when dealing with rounded numbers.
• On percentages: If the inflation rate rises from 10% to 12% it has risen by two percentage points, but the actual percentage increase is 20%. ... Read more

Reviews (3)

From Great to Good
I have read cover-to-cover a previous edition of this book (when it was published by Wiley in 1998) and recently had an opportunity to carefully peruse this current edition (5th ed. by Bloomberg Press???). What I found is that this is a strange case of how a great book (the 1998 edition) turned into merely a good book (this 5th edition). Because of this regression toward the average, I deducted one star from my review (but still feel that it is good enough for 4 stars).

As you may have noticed, I really loved the older edition of The Economist Numbers Guide that I thankfully own. It is a great overview and introduction of mathematics as it relates to business. There are a lot of great things about that edition of this book. One of the things I admired about it was the range of topics covered, from interest rates and basic probability/statistics all the way up to Markov Chains, linear programming, and marginal analysis. It is hard to find the breadth of topics covered in that book elsewhere - whether all in one book or in any combination of books.

So I found it perplexing that this 5th edition dedacted some materials and topics covered in older editions. Gone are the interesting discussion of descriptive statistics for sets of data that do not easily conform to any of the standard probability distributions (e.g., where median is the best measure of the 'average' and substitutes must be used for the more common parameters such as standard deviation). I have a hard time finding anything coherent much less accessible on those topics elsewhere so it is a shame that they were left off of the 5th edition.

The only new material (not previously present) is a short blurb on public-key cryptography. While that topic is interesting to me and the limited discussion was illuminating and mathematically sound, it seemed a rather quixotic choice to put in when some interesting materials in previous editions were left off and new material that would have been more useful to the targeted audience have yet to be added.

What I mean by useful material that have yet to be added is that both the 1998 edition and this edition don't have some materials that I would think naturally ought to be added. E.g., the section on finance & investment mathematics is mostly devoted to various discussions on interest rate/time value of money & basic probability. I think adding material on CAPM (although CAPM Beta is defined in the book's very helpful glossary section), option/derivative pricing, financial portfolio optimization, and other topics in financial mathematics/engineering would make a great and natural addition to this book.

Some problems common to both the prior and current edition of this book are the occassional (relatively rare) typos. They are usually minor (although they are most annoyingly frequent in the section on time value of money / interest rates).

Another flaw in both the older and newer editions is that there are gaps in the expository material that don't make much sense. To be fair, this book is designed to be a brief intro/overview into a wide swathe of topics so it wouldn't be reasonable to expect that the author go into great detail on every topic. However, there are instances - e.g., the example on mixed strategies in game theory - where one or two additional sentences would help novices to understand (e.g., how did you get the the mixed strategy probabilities? author should have added a couple of more lines about how the system of equations are interrelated with one another when determining mixed strategies).

Having said all of that, let me reiterate that BOTH the old and the new edition of The Economist Numbers Guide is a wonderful resource for people interested in business mathematics. The sections on decision-making and forecasting are especially of value since they are so wonderfully explained here and a comparable set of explanations are hard to find elsewhere.

In future editions, I just hope that the author heeds my advice about bringing back some topics in older editions, correcting a few errors & lapses, and adding some material that would fit in with what has otherwise been an excellent series of books.

Excellent index of business math
This book provides concise and clear definitions of business analytics with practical applications. Excellent for the neophyte in business math. Helpful index and glossary to get started. Good guide to use if learning stats or marketing research.

A good start
For a novice in economics, not an easy field to be a novice in, this was a helpful book. It got me started, by which I mean I wasn't completely lost when I read it. ... Read more

Reviews (4)

He gets it. But do they?
Jasper "gets it" because "it" is common sense really. A more believable (and thus attractive) brand is one that appears genuinely aligned internally and externally. It's 'ideal' branding. However, the problem is that most companies today have all these pressures in their head that make this nearly impossible to implement in a smooth way. It requires core thinking and consistency and teaming up with the people at the top of the company. Yet, the average lifespan of any President and CMO today is like one year. And when during their tenures, they think, "I need sales tomorrow. Not some zen master to come in and 'harmonize' my culture with my image." They further believe that the "outside agency" should stay in his/her place. "Just do the fricken ads. I don't need a corporate shrink right now." Of course, it's up to the agency team to enlighten them to the business benefits of this 'alignment' approach. For now, I've found that rather than force a company to take on an approach that makes them uncomfortable (or an approach that they feel is out of your range as an outside agency), it's best to seek out relationships with only those companies that are already doing it, just not effectively. The goal is to help them 'strengthen' their branding, with a perceptive strategic planning process and creative sensibilities that ultimately put it in to play. As we succeed on this level, the companies who didn't see its value at first,
will soon follow. I suggest that Jasper's next book be about how to educate and sell in such an approach.

Bg

Reviewed by International Corporate Branding Centre
Quick review : well written, easy to read with examples, and quite innovative - but the more experienced pratitioner or well read academic will probably be familiar with much of the ideas presented.

Full review : This book will appeal to those who prefer the visualisation of models and concepts alongside short examples, and the format will be particularly liked by those whom have followed an MBA degree or similar training. Main stream academics looking for well researched material may be a little disappointed, for by the authors own admission this book is "a constructive attempt to show another, more dynamic way, for companies to move forward. This book is not about research results, but about attitudes". The center has received feedback from many practitioners and managers tackling live corporate branding projects whom seem to like this book, and it is a fairly easy and somewhat innovative read for non-specialists or general managers, but perhaps less so for the well practiced or academic experts in the field.

The author, Jesper Kunde, is the founder of one of Scandinavia's largest and most successful advertising agencies. In this book, he outlines how it is possible to build strong brands through strong leadership and a strong vision. In explaining his holistic approach to brands and organisations, he draws on concepts from psychology and he argues that his ideas can be implemented in any organisation. The book is not a step-by-step manual as such, but rather an introduction to Kunde's way of thinking.

Kunde points out that simply having a good product is not enough anymore. Consumers pay less attention to adverts and brands and look at the companies themselves. They are looking for reliable companies with sound, consistent attitudes. It is necessary for the management to secure trust and loyalty from both within the organisation and from the consumers, and it thus needs to communicate its ideas to all the company's employees and to the public. Kunde argues that if a company has a strong spirit as its foundation, it can reach a strong market position, and a strong market position is what ultimately decides a company's destiny.

In order to achieve a strong market position, an organisation has to have a strong leader who can unite the entire organisation around an idea, a shared vision - a corporate religion. It is important for the leader to find out what the company really is, to be able to describe it. Kunde argues that this ability is unusual, especially in large international companies.

Successful examples mentioned in the book's many short and to the point case studies are Richard Branson and Bill Gates. These charismatic leaders have strong believes, a clear vision of the future, they know how to communicate it and they are conscious of their own roles. However, Kunde points out that the challenge is to establish the corporate religion in people's minds throughout the whole organisation, so that it is not connected to just one person. The corporate religion must be able to continue even after the first charismatic leader is gone, perhaps particularly relevant based on Microsofts problems of recent months.

Kunde argues that in most large, international companies half of the available energy is unused. If the management can describe the company, develop a consistent company concept, formulate an internal religion and manage the whole company accordingly, this hidden potential can be released. The employees, and consumers, need to feel that the company has a soul and that they are all fighting for a cause. The ultimate goal is to reach the stage which Kunde calls 'brand religion', when the product is a lesser part of the brand than the concepts associated with it. Harley Davidson is one of the examples Kunde mentions.

Summary

Kunde writes in a clear and straightforward manner, and Corporate Religion is an easy and enjoyable read. Those used to already reading ideas and approaches from scandinavian academic literature will find this general philosophy to business practice quite familiar. The concepts and ideas are well explained and further illustrated by case studies and graphic models. It is a book that some academics (used to MBA approach to learning) and most practitioners will enjoy and find useful as it provides both interesting ways of analysing organisations and of interpreting the reasons for their success, or lack of it, and practical guidelines on how to implement a corporate religion and what pitfalls to avoid.

However for well-read academics or practitioners, the book may not seem that revolutionary and Kunde's ideas rather common sense, but it is still an inspirational book worth reading if you have the time.

Creating a More Intense Connection Among People
Many will be offended or discouraged from reading this book because of its title. Most of us would like to get our religion from a religious institution or our spiritual practices.

What is in the book did not seem to me to really relate to creating and maintaining a corporate religion, however. I found the book to be describing the benefits of having intense emotional bonds among customers, users, companies, and employees. I would rename this book, In Search of More Intense Connections.

The key theme of the book is the importance of creating emotional value. 'Emotional values are replacing physical attributes as the fundamental market influence.'

Mr. Kunde is the head of his own advertising agency, and his perspective is very much a psychological one. He takes that point of view, however, and effectively expands it to include a company's external positioning, internal culture, nature, mission, corporate concept, external market competition, internal relationships, and management tasks. This is one of the broadest corporate concept descriptions that I have seen, and is a helpful one.

The book contains detailed examples of companies operating at various levels of effectiveness in these areas. The examples are very visible ones that should mostly be known to you. His examplars are companies like The Body Shop, Coca-Cola, McDonald's, The Walt Disney Company, Harley-Davidson, Nike, Virgin, and SAS. The book contains many beautiful color illustrations and photographs from these companies that reinforce the author's point. To him, 'corporate religion is a set of values which unite the organization around the mission and vision.' When these values are compelling enough, people who do not even use the company's products or services will wear merchandise with the brand name on it. For example, Harley-Davidson stands for freedom in the minds of most, and young women who honor that principle wear skirts with the brand name on it who have never been on a Harley. There are even Harley-Davidson cafes (I have eaten at the one in Manhattan, and I can promise you it isn't the food that brings people in. There is lots of wearable merchandise sold there and elsewhere).

The book ends with a one-year plan for implementing a corporate religion, and an example of how the author applied these principles in his own advertising agency.

Just a few years ago, it was unusual for a management book to address the psychological satisfactions of having an empowering purpose in one's work. Today, that theme is a fairly common one. The book rises above many of the rest by addressing more elements of creating and maintaining this empowering purpose. I encourage you to read the book and apply its lessons. When I first worked in a company after attending law school, I was pleased to find out how cooperative business is compared to how competitive law is. This book brought back that perspective and made it fresh for me again.

These days, many people seek out volunteer work to gain the satisfactions that paid work does not provide. You will know you are making progress with these concepts when people tell you they feel more self-esteem from what their business work stands for than for what their volunteer work does.

After you have finished reading this book, I encourage you to think about the most empowering purpose you can imagine for an organization or a company. Then ask others how they repond to that purpose. Keep refining that purpose until you find an expression of it that positively zings you and sends others into a happy orbit as well. When you can do that, you will then be well on your way to finding the ideal best practice for leadership.

Be irresistible!

Donald Mitchell (donmitch@irresistibleforces.com)

Because companies are people too.
This book described how competent companies all around the world have developed a 'Corporate Religion' way of thinking, and how they have got the formula right. It shows that to produce and market successful products and services goes beyond just marketing the brand, everyone in the organization have to be able to proudly state that " we eat, sleep and drink the stuffs" too. Of course, if only it were that simple. The business world is complex enough without your having to worry about mission-critical applications and mind-boggling concepts. Nonetheless, the writer have provided a number of models, case studies and a 'timetable' to explain how to set the process in motion. Although some of the theories and concept may need to be localized to suit different companies, the case studies from major international companies ease the approach to the more theoretical part of the book. They are constructive attempt to show other more dynamic way for companies with the right attitudes - to move forward. ... Read more

Amazon.com

Profit Patterns opens with a series of chaotic paintings by Pablo Picasso. Each piece is increasingly difficult to recognize; the final portrait is little more than a jumble of shapes and colors. But what does Picasso have to do with profitability? By recognizing industry patterns--by seeing the order beneath the surface chaos--managers, investors, and entrepreneurs can prepare for change before it even occurs. And while the Picasso-as-business-strategy metaphor may be a stretch, Slywotzky's theories are fundamentally sound, designed to spot and capitalize upon market trends in an ever-turbulent business world.

Adrian Slywotzky--whose bestsellingThe Profit Zone explained how profits happen--this time focuses on making sure profits happen. He begins by defining the types of changes common to modern businesses, explaining why polarization is spreading among industries, and emphasizing the importance of mindshare. He then lists the 30 most common patterns that businesses fall into, such as microsegmentation, where "growing customer heterogeneity and increasing customer sophistication change the fundamental nature of the market."

But even if a business is adept at seeing patterns, it's helpless if it can't mobilize its troops in time to capitalize upon pending change. Case studies of successful companies such as Cisco Systems, Nokia, and Dell Computer show how a company can detect industry trends, organize its workforce, and build giant leads over its competition. No wonder Picasso was a good businessman. --Rob McDonald ... Read more

Reviews (14)

GREAT WAY TO UNLOCK YOUR "STALLED" THINKING THAT DELAYS YOU
PROFIT PATTERNS is a big book, but it is easy to read and understand. Yet, you can also use it as a daily reference tool when you come up against a problem that leaves you stymied. The workbook section at the end is especially valuable. CEOs regularly report that they have trouble finding new strategic business models. This book is just full of them, and uses a chess-playing analogy to help you understand the points very well. I strongly urge you to read this book. If your problems are in areas other than your strategic business model, you will also need to read and answer the questions in THE 2,000 PERCENT SOLUTION, which shows the way to get 20 times the normal results or the same results in 1/20 the time.

5 years of learning for the entrepreneur/businessman
As a businessman looking for new opportunities, I'm constantly surveying different industries and examining their dynamics.

Profit Patterns provides a shorthand to look at a situation and have the strategic intuition to understand how it will play out.

Though many pages, about half are pictures that are not relevant - what is relevant are the 140 pages of patterns have advanced my thinking a great leap forward.

If you are involved in new business development of business strategy you'll be glad to have read this book.

I've been had!
I thought I was buying a pdf version of the ENTIRE book! This thing is only 15 pages long! I want my money back!

e-book is not the full book
Warning: the e-book is NOT the full book - it is merely an "executive summary."

Reading "Profit Patterns" is A Profitable Use of Your Time
"Profit Patterns" was an assigned book for the capstone course in the MBA program at Golden Gate University and was an appropriate recommendation for the depth and breadth of coverage it gave to the issue of strategic pattern thinking.

The premise of Profit Patterns by Adrian J. Slywotzky and David J. Morrison is that we learn from experience by studying patterns. Good managers are skilled at strategic pattern recognition and see the whole picture. Industries are reshaped by patterns, which may build slowly or move rapidly, and the ability to recognize and capitalize on these patterns allows an organization to create strategies that lead to sustained value and profitability. In his article titled "Crafting Strategy", Henry Mintzberg, another well known author on the subject of business strategy, indicates that a "key to managing strategy is the ability to detect emerging patterns and help them take shape. The job of the manager is not just to preconceive specific strategies but also to recognize their emergence."

Part I of the book is titled 'The New Game of Business' and describes the changes occurring in business which call for a new skill set. These changes are called Getting It, Polarization and Mindshare. Getting It refers to the ability of managers to become masters of pattern recognition. Instead of seeing chaos, these managers see the strategic pattern unfolding within the complexity, and discover the pattern behind it all. In short, they "get it". Polarization is the result of early recognition and exploitation of patterns in that the company that "got it" first realizes great momentum, its market value explodes and value is no longer proportional; it has polarized. Many examples are given such as Cisco vs. Bay Networks, Coca-Cola vs. Pepsi, and Nike vs. Reebok. Polarization means "winner takes all", and is spreading to other industries. The focus of competition in more and more industries is competition for mindshare, and is crafted as a three-part strategy: 1) mindshare with customers, 2) mindshare with investors and 3) mindshare with talent. Getting It, Polarization and Mindshare are critical skills in the war for dominance in an industry.

Part II of Profit Patterns describes thirty patterns that have affected business designs over the last two decades. The patterns are organized into the following categories:

o Mega - No Profit, Back to Profit, Convergence, Collapse of the Middle, De Factor Standard, Technology Shifts the Board

o Value Chain - Deintegration, Value Chain Squeeze, Strengthening the Weak Link, Reintegration

o Customer - Profit Shift, Microsegmentation, Power Shift, Redefinition

o Channel - Multiplication, Channel Concentration, Compression/ Disintermediation, Reintermediation

o Product - Product to Brand, Product to Blockbuster, Product to Profit Multiplier, Product to Pyramid, Product to Solution

o Knowledge - Product to Customer Knowledge, Operations to Knowledge, Knowledge to Product

o Organizational - Skill Shift, Pyramid to Network, Cornerstoning, Conventional to Digital Business Design

Numerous examples are given of the patterns, and case studies of successful companies such as Nokia, Dell, and Cisco Systems show how a company can detect patterns and trends, organize around them and create significant value, even polarization, from these patterns. The case studies, since all are well known companies, are very useful in understanding the patterns and comprehending how they can be applied in real-life business situations. This infrastructure of patterns can be used to organize and correlate the relevant experiences of well known corporations to your own organization. The patterns are equally applicable to large corporations or small-to-midsize companies.

Part III of Profit Patterns is called 'Putting Patterns to Work' and includes chapters on putting the patterns into action (company case studies), accelerated pattern detection, putting the patterns to work in your organization, and a patterns workbook. This is perhaps the most useful section of the book, in that it offers practical advice on applying the pattern thinking theories.

"Profit Patterns" is written in a practical, thorough, no-nonsense style and the theories are backed up with many real-world examples. I will definitely use the workbook section in the future to analyze business patterns and strategies. The authors are prolific, respected writers, and this book will become one of the staples of business literature. My only criticism is that the graphics are crude and unsophisticated and that a more professional approach to the graphics would lend more credibility and clarity to the concepts they illustrate. ... Read more

Amazon.com

Everything we do is aimed at the future. Like our ancestors who millions of years ago took it upon themselves to do lunch instead of be lunch, the better we are at evaluating all possible futures, the better our future will be. Harvard Business School professor Howard Stevenson argues that predictability is a core human need and the more predictable we can make ourselves, the better we'll be able to predict our future and the futures of those around us.

Do Lunch or Be Lunch is a counterweight to the management trends that have swept business in the last few years. Trends such as reengineering, downsizing, and maximizing shareholder value will in most cases not be successful because they are fundamentally unpredictable for employees and employers alike. On the other hand, the more predictable a company can make itself, the more effective it will be. Stevenson peppers the book with his observations that come from his experience as an entrepreneur and founder of several businesses as well as his tenure on the board of directors for over 25 companies. ... Read more

Reviews (4)

Powerful topic for leaders, managers and entrepreneurs
Howard Stevenson has identified one of the most powerful undercurrents of human relationships; predictability. I will admit that I read this book because I already knew him, but then found that the material pulled me in. As an entrepreneur, I had to convince many people to follow my ideas and plans. Although I prided myself on my sales skills, I was still sometimes humbled that people would trust me with hundreds of thousands or millions of their dollars. Do Lunch or Be Lunch helped me to understand how predictability impacted those decisions. It takes the lid off of one of the key ingredients to how people make decisions whether they relate to work, investments, love, or anything. Humans are constantly assessing and guessing their futures. If their future depends on you, it is wise to be honest, open, and easy to predict. By increasing your own predictability, you directly influence the comfort level of those around you. People will take on great hardships and difficulties when they know the risks. As a leader, you don't want to be one of them. This book should be read by managers, entrepreneurs, and anyone who needs to lead people.

-A retired CEO and current Venture Capitalist

over-rated book, pompous writing with little content.
Excellent subject. Poor subject exploitation in the book. Written in pompous professor-style which may amuse his students... I consider it a waste of my time. Excellent marketing job on the book, though... chapeau!

Readable but very simplistic
The authors have a good idea, but they really only have an essay's worth of material. The two concepts of predictability and projectability are useful, and should indeed serve as the basis for most decisionmaking, business or otherwise. However, the book as a whole is very light.

The best business book I've ever read.
Stevenson captures a little discussed but wildly important business phenomenon; the power of predictability in relationships of all types. Written in an egaging, easy-to-read style, his freewheeling text covers everything from the stone age to contemporary conflicts. Very provocative, because it distills so much into one, powerful idea. Much more useful than most quick-fix books. ... Read more

Book Description

From the thought leaders at Global Business Network, new views on the profound forces shaping business in the coming decade.

What's Next? brings together fifty of the world's most remarkable scientists, educators, writers, economists, artists, historians, inventors, and other thought leaders of Global Business Network to provide insights into the new forces that will shape the business environment over the next decade. Kelly and Leyden have compiled a unique collection of surprising and provocative observations out of a series of recent interviews with such pioneering thinkers as: Francis Fukuyama on biotech, Ester Dyson on Russia, Peter Schwartz on geopolitics, and poet and educator Betty Sue Flowers on identity and spirituality. The result is a highly stimulating field trip to the future that also provides practical suggestions on how organizations can adapt effectively to this new terrain for business. ... Read more

Reviews (3)

Futurism that's both thought provoking and relevant
This very readable book was given a favourable mention in last year's 'Wired' magazine. It presents informal, interview style responses to topical questions affecting the future landscape of business. The 'What' in 'What's Next' includes Economic trends, Public policy, Ethics, Biotechnology, Terrorism and many more. Futurism is often a distracted and boffinish business, in which little or no practical advice is offered as to how to use its predictions. This text however has a strong strategic skew. It targets a business reader with a view towards orienting long term business strategy to take advantage of emerging and yet to emerge trends. If you want informed medium and long term predictions this is a good resource, particularly if you have an interest in technology investment.

Start at the front
The first paragraph of the introduction says it all! The future begins....

Many big ideas about the future, as you'd expect from GBN
I really enjoyed this book. It is a collection of short 1-2 page quotes from one of the GBN members espousing their views on a given topic. The quotes are arranged by topic, so you get a whole range of viewpoints on the big issues that the world may face in the next 10 years.

The GBN members make their points in a very entertaining fashion, full of good quotes and stories. I found it to be densely thought provoking. You want to stop and ponder after every few pages. You may not agree with all of what they say, but the GBN has an interesting world view.

If you're unfamiliar with GBN, be sure to check out the GBN book club recommendations on their website. It is a collection of some of the most interesting books I've read. ... Read more

Book Description

The Doha Development Agenda of the Fourth Ministerial Conference of the WTO opened many contentious and important questions. Global Economic Prospects 2004 analyzes the most critical multilateral trade issues and suggests policy options that would raise living standards in developing countries and reduce global poverty.

The fourteenth annual edition of Global Economic Prospects: * explores the short-, medium-, and long-term outlook for the global economy, including driving forces, commodity prices, and capital flows, and their implications for major regions

* reviews recent trends in exports from developing countries, trade barriers that work to the disadvantage of poor people, and policies to reduce protection and other inequities in the world trading system

* examines trade in agriculture--the most important and politically contentious sector for global poverty reduction--including key lessons from development experience, possible changes to the current system of subsidies and protection, and the potential for liberalization in both rich and poor countries

* investigates the temporary movement of labor--so-called Mode 4 of the General Agreement on Trade in Services--evaluating its advantages and disadvantages to both the home and the host countries

* discusses trade facilitation in light of post-9/11 concerns for security to suggest new policies that would promote greater and more secure trade

* reviews the special treatment of developing countries in the world trading system and the role of trade preferences, exemptions from WTO rules, and technical assistance to implement WTO trade regulations.

Global Economic Prospects 2004 provides essential information for those concerned with developments shaping today's global economy.

"The World Trade Organization (WTO) round of trade negotiations initiated in November 2001 in Doha, Qatar, was intended to be a 'development round.' Those good intentions are now being tested. Trade ministers from all over the world are discussing ways to reduce trade barriers--barriers that greatly harm development and poverty reduction. Global Economic Prospects 2004 explores the tough issues under discussion--protection of agriculture, trade in labor-intensive manufactures, labor services, and special treatment for developing countries, among others--to present options that would indeed reduce poverty and advance development. The global talks will not be easy and may take time, but allowing poor people greater access to world markets will offer them new opportunities to improve their living standards. If agreements are to be genuinely pro-development, these discussions must be informed by clear analysis of measures that are likely to benefit poor people the most. That is ! the purpose of this Global Economic Prospects."--Nicholas Stern, Senior Vice President and Chief Economist, World Bank ... Read more

Amazon.com

According to consultants William A. Schiemann and John H. Lingle, companies that truly "manage by measurement" are outperforming those that don't by an average three-year return on investment of 80 percent versus 45 percent. In Bullseye! Hitting Your Strategic Targets Through High-Impact Measurement, they detail a comprehensive four-phase program for anyone who would like to advance corporate goals by similarly overhauling the way information is gathered, shared, and managed within the organization. Their sweeping system helps leaders accurately and consistently track the performance of a half-dozen key components--customers-competitors, financial stakeholders, employees-subcontractors, technologies, partners-suppliers, and overall communities--and then share resultant data across the board. While business measurement has traditionally been "a monitoring device primarily used to 'take the temperature' of the organization and help supervisors know where to focus their attention," Schiemann and Lingle's approach utilizes it instead to link ideas and behaviors, integrate performance companywide, and increase self-accountability. After demonstrating how corresponding efforts have paid off in Fortune 100 firms such as Procter & Gamble, General Electric, and Sears, they examine deterrents to implementation and explain the process. Recommended for senior executives, managers, and production teams seeking new ways to bolster their bottom lines. --Howard Rothman ... Read more

Reviews (3)

Best of the Best
I've been consulting for 30+ years and find the concepts in this book refreshing. In fact, the problem with most scorecards is that they miss the linkages that Dr. Schiemann and Dr. Lingle address in this book: People, Culture and Discipline.

I especially like the detailed evalution of important linkages to make measurements work. These authors write clearly and succinctly with real case studies, not theory.

Use this book as a reference guide of what to do when Norton and Kaplan fails.

Good try but not good enough
Another try at using Kaplan & Norton's great two masterpiece books. If you love to buy every book in the field get this book. Otherwise, do not waste your money because there are newer and more updated books. The Balanced Scorecard is already in its third generation, using Systems Modeling with I THINK or POWERSIM, and this book is already past its glory.

Maps the Way to Human Capital Improvement
Knowledge-worker productivity is the biggest of the 21st century management challenges. Companies can do a great deal to improve it. This book exemplifies a key element: the measurement of non financial drivers of financial success. The 'Initiatives Grid' (Table 8-1) provides guidelines how to review strategic performance measures with the board of directors or parent organization. The process of cascading the measures throughout the organization and embedding the measures into the leadership process is key. The text gives a clear view of the bricks that put together a balanced set of performance indicators, that any organization could use to focus executive teams and human resources on a unified strategy. Companies may benefit from strict use of this system, readers will gain much from applying the insights without complete implementation. ... Read more

Book Description

The revised and updated edition of this best-selling book is both practical and topical. It addresses planning strategies that will work for healthcare organizations. The advice and practical aids are designed to help readers with easy-to-find answers to common planning questions. The careful use of theory provides a rationale for the services cited to help the reader understand the limits of the advice and when it is necessary to seek expert help. A particularly good example of this is seen in chapter five in which an asthma study is used to illustrate how business-planning issues arise from clinical issues.

Pragmatic in its approach, the book will prove both interesting and useful to hospital managers, clinical practitioners and others new to management. ... Read more

Reviews (1)

Business Planning for Healthcare Management
Business Planning for Healthcare Management by Carolyn Semple Piggot, a British author and pharmacist and Editorial Director at a healthcare consultancy, provides basic concepts of healthcare management which is today becoming a more and more demanding field in most of the healthcare systems. It offers tips, basic andpractical and conceptual skills (providing many questions to ponder upon) not only to professionals in the health services but also to junior managers who are tempted to take part of the new and future structure of health care administration / organization and its functions.

Furthermore, the book helps to focus on the efficient health care delivery. It covers the development of leadership skills, future trends in healthcare management and guidelines of designing effective work groups through nine chapters revealing what planning is in a healthcare system, the planning process itself, the challenges of implementation, the evaluation process, the planning for health improvement, the joint planning and collaboration with social services, the management of shareholders, the plans for change and finally the role of the Board. ... Read more

Book Description

Great business strategies, like great discoveries, are inspired acts of creation, brilliantly synthesizing disparate ideas into something surprising and new.

In the history of science, think of John Snow's inspiration to chart London's cholera outbreak on a city map, thus pinpointing the city's water systems as the disease-spreading culprit...and founding the science of epidemiology in the process. In the world of business, look to Fred Smith's hub-and-spoke overnight delivery concept, an unheard of idea that gave birth to FedEx--and an indispensable service the world never knew it needed!

STRATEGIC RENAISSANCE adds to the roster of great discoveries by linking the formation of business strategy to such fields as science, philosophy, and history--to supply an original and sophisticated new approach to strategic thinking.

The book uncovers the principles and guidelines--along with an abundance of hard-hitting examples--for moving beyond an outdated "sustainable competitive advantage" model and embracing a dynamic "opportunity creation and exploitation" approach. Readers learn how to:

* Dissect the four key elements of a great business strategy* Generate, test, and refine strategic hypotheses--the kind that outmaneuver the conventional approaches of competitors* Develop strategic breakthroughs, decide which to pursue, and exploit the winners* Understand how corporate culture can sabotage effective strategy, and ensure that doesn't happen* Plus 81 "do's and don'ts" on the road to a great corporate strategy. ... Read more

Reviews (23)

A MUST-READ/MUST-DO book for your Strategic Thinking Library
Strategic thinking (or exploration) is one of my pet subjects. So, when I first browsed this book in a local bookstore, I was intrigued by several terms found in the Index page: strategic hypotheses, opportunity creation & exploitation (OCE), business strategy as falsifiable hypothesis, falsification vs verification, asymmetries (natural, created), web of belief. I was even more surprised when I found terms like astrology and guided imagery in a mainstream book intended for general managers. I bought the book and I have not been disappointed after reading it.

It took me quite a while to appreciate the author's intellectually provocative ideas about strategy formulation.

I find it quite informative to read the author's masterfully intertwining of contemporary models of breakthrough corporate strategies (real-life cases) with revolutionary concepts drawn from science, philosophy, military, political history as well as business history. However, I still think he was a little bit too long-winded in the process.

The author's artful usage of the "Hammer and Pivot" metaphor (drawn from a successful historical military battle formation) in the Strategic Anatomy chapter (3) as a tool for internal capability assessment was quite a gem. This will definitely help to enhance the traditional SWOT Analysis in a company strategy formulation exercise. Overall, I find his insights refreshing.

In a nutshell, his brilliant arguments in the context of strategy formulation, can be summarised as follows:

1. A strategy is a hypothesis.

2. A strategy is a testable and falsifiable hypothesis.

3. Goals and mission statements are only the starting points for strategic hypotheses.

4. A falsifiable strategy has two basic elements for testing and verification: Conditions and Outcomes/Consequences. (The author puts a lot of emphasis here, and also shows how to use IF and THEN statements.)

5. To craft a successful strategic hypothesis, begin by asking questions. (The author provides some penetrating questions. They will help to spell out the conditions and consequences.)

6. When experience or experimentation falsifies a theory, learning naturally takes place, by doing, of course.

7. Strategy formulation is a work of constant refinement.

I enjoyed very much perusing the four chapters (5,6,7, & 8) covering opportunity creation and exploitation (OCE), the two chapters (9,10) on corporate cultures and the web of belief, and the last chapter (11), which summarised the book in the form of Do's and Don'ts.

At the end of each chapter, the author provides many points to ponder (P2P), several questions to ask (Q2A) and some things to do (T2D) in the form of "Consequences, Implications and Checklists." I find these summariser/activator features to be very useful for readers, especially for me. They make the book so much easier to read and digest.

Summing up, this is a MUST-READ and MUST-DO book to be included in your Strategic Thinking Library. Highly recommended for entrepeneurs.

A strategic approach to philosophy, history and business
Strategic Renaissance, by Evan M. Dudik, gives us a new understanding of how to characterize effective strategy. Mr. Dudik has a great blend of philosophical, historical, business, strategic experience and insight. His practical applications based on his career are very interesting to me and should also be to many other readers.

Strategic Renaissance takes a look at many strategic characteristics of war, business, science and other fields of human endeavor ring the past one the last millennium No CEO will dispute the traditional strategic factors of geography, transportation, cost, price, culture and people. These factors will remain increasingly dynamic as a result of technology.

Therefore, no strategy, regardless of its current success, can sustain itself indefinitely. Dudik helps the reader define a agenda for identifying the continuing process of creating and re-creating successful business strategies.

Strategic Renaissance is very easy to pick up and read. Mr. Dudik's humor and real life experiences make it a refreshing book to read. I found it hard to put it down. It prepares it readers to consider strategic adaptation not as failure but as necessary for continued survival and success.

A Classic
Evan Dudik has made a critical contribution to the strategy field with an examination on how to recognize if a strategy is good (meaning, has a rock solid chance of success). If Mr Dudik had been a Harvard Business School professor, this book would be on the bestseller list and Mr. Dudik could command consulting fees ten times as great as he is now. Maybe it is not too late....

Using the philosopher Karl Popper's approach as a guide Mr. Dudik draws a parrallel between scientific theory and strategy. Like a theory, a strategy cannot be proved at all. Instead they both can prove their greatness by their "great explanatory power coupled with great specificity about what observations...would make the theory false."

Mr. Dudik's insight is to apply this concept to the cause-effect relationship that must exist between the assumptions on which a strategy is based and the results the strategy is supposed to lead to. That cause-effect relationship he says is best expressed as an IF... THEN statement. For example, "IF I enter the market with a product of equal performance than the leader and at 20% discount, THEN I will gain 5 points of market share." It is not enough to express it that way, the cause-effect relationships need to be proven correct by testing and whatever other means that exist. Most companies express a strategy as above but never bother to go to that step of proving that cause-effect relationship and making that connection compelling. In other words, most strategies are built on quick sand and stay at the level of "pray and hope": "IF I enter the market with a product of equal performance than the leader and at 20% discount, THEN (I HOPE and I will PRAY) I will gain 5 points of market share."

I happened to have read Mr. Dudik's book right before a meeting with a client who was looking for help in strengtheneing his strategy. Summarizing what he presented as an IF...THEN statemnt, and pointing to the various assumptions he was making in the cause-effect relationship was extremely valuable.

This IF...THEN approach is by itself worth the cost of the book and the 5 stars I am giving it. There are many other areas that Mr. Dudk's cover. Most books I have read on strategy focus on how to develop one, regardless of whether it can work or not. This book is different. It focus on the "greatness" quality of the stated strategy. You can use all the tools that exist (like SWOT, balanced score cards, core competencies and the like) but if there is one critical cause-effect relationship relationship that is false, the entire edifice can collapse. Mr. Dudik shows us how to avoid the trap.

Mr. Dudik's book is a classic, and like all classics it needs to read and reread a regular basis.

Basic contradictions weaken the book's credibility
I am a big believer in the use of metaphor and historical examples to frame strategy questions. Consequently, I was excited by the premise of this book - using ideas from science and history to build innovative strategies. By the time I finished the first chapter, though, this excitement had dissipated. Two issues surfaced in the first chapter:

Dudik starts by emphasizing a flaw common to most strategy books - relying on a sea of examples to justify a particular perspective. He argues that relying on examples is flawed, because of the potential for distortion and selectivity. For the moment, ignore the fact that both inductive and deductive reasoning have a place in scientific inquiry. Instead, my concern here is that author then proceeds to use his own sea of examples to justify his own framework.

The second issue is related - he condemns theories that aren't suitable to testing. Citing Karl Popper, the author notes that many theories - e.g., Freudianism and Marxism - are not readily testable. As such, they become matters of belief. Dudik use this rationale to argue that strategy theories should be testable. The argument is a reasonable one, and he shows how this can help firms uncover assumptions behind a mission or a strategy. Subsequently, though, he offers his own model of strategy - the Hammer and Pivot. As far as I can tell, it is no more testable than these other theories he critiques. His own recommendation to carefully try and falsify a theory is also ignored.

The bottom line, then, is not to trust an untestable model supported by countless anecdotes. I could not get past this basic contradiction.

More generally, I did not find much in the way of new thinking here. Many of the topics have been covered better elsewhere - e.g., in the context of sustainable advantage, Charles Fine has a much more insightful assessment in Clockspeed, and Dudik largely dismisses the role of human capital and culture as the basis of an advantage. Other recommendations are scarcely novel. Some of his recommendations include: stretch goals improve performance; anonymous participation lowers inhibitions in a discussion group. Finally, most of the parallels come from military history - a different orientation than one would expect from the book summary.

New Thinking Indeed!
I have been attempting to write you for several days regarding my impressions of SR. Each time I would think I had read enough to make a comment; I would be hurled into another captivating chapter. I resigned that I would have to finish the book before e-mailing you. I finished it last evening!

When I sat down to write you, I almost felt like I was writing a review of a Broadway play and not a strategic planning book. Phrases like, "Wow," "Fabulous" and "Spell-Binding" come to mind. The book is well-crafted, humorous, thought-provoking, and cuts to very heart of what is not working in popular management circles.

I have a Bachelor's Degree in Psychology and Master's Degree in Sociology and have worked in private counseling and a psychiatric hospital setting. I found your views on TMT dynamics and business culture to be fascinating and insightful. Thanks for confirming my belief that there is no substitute for the "big picture." I am now a reconfirmed "generalist."

I referred the book to a friend of mine in Orlando and he read several items from your web site and ordered two copies immediately. I plan to take several days and go back through my copy so as to make notes and jot down creative ideas related to my current job.

Please accept my sincere thanks for sharing a significant part of your personal and professional life.

Robert C. Coop
Volaris Online
Business Planning ... Read more

Book Description

The 21 top trends for 21st-century business.

Most trend analysis books focus on predicted major "trends" that turn out to be short-range fads, aberrations and/or glitches. TrendSmart does away with all the nonsense. As a result of more than 20 years of trend analysis and market research, Louis Patler reveals the top emerging trends that are most useful to the average business.

Twenty-one accessible chapters describe these trends and how TrendSmart managers can use them to grow and improve their business in the areas of leadership, customer relations and employee relations. ... Read more

Reviews (1)

Smart and punchy keeps you one step ahead
I find with todays blizzard of information, it's easy to get snowed under by mountains of consumer reports, trade magazines and marketing data.Trendsmart helped me focus on what's important so that I can start picking out emerging trends in my own industry (travel).The chapters are concise and readable, great inspiring brain candy for the daily commute to the office.One idea I adapted has already boosted sales 15% in a month. ... Read more

Book Description

Here's a startling concept for anyone who knows anything about business:
"For successful companies, competition is irrelevant." Flying in the face of the conventional wisdom of most senior management today, the internationally noted business consultant Michel Robert explains why gigantically successful businesses ignore their competitors...and reap huge profits! How does it work? A number of CEOs who have used Robert's unique strategic thinking process--and are now true believers--recall in these pages how he enabled them to choose the right strategy for success in today's changing business environment.

Unlike most other consultants, Robert and his staff go to corporate "war rooms"--not the business school library--to develop and hone the strategic thinking process. In more than 400 frank, intensive working sessions with CEOs and their management teams, Robert has tested and validated his methods.

THE POWER OF STRATEGIC THINKING sums up his original and effective strategy of making anyone's competitors irrelevant: Obsession with your competitors leadsto "imitation strategy," the common and disastrous mistake of letting the other side set the rules. Result: The house always wins! Imitators lose. The answer: Learn from major companies like Intel, Wal-Mart, Microsoft, and Goldman Sachs--corporate success stories that Robert explains in fascinating detail--how to develop your own "distinctive strategy" and race ahead of the competition.

Learn from the mistakes of copycat companies like Chrysler, Officemax, and all three original TV networks: Robert shows you how imitation strategies will put companies in virtually any field on a suicidal path. From military history, as Robert points out, comes the idea of "ultimate strategy," a proactive, offensive strategy that continually keeps the competition off-balance even as they become more and more irrelevant. Ultimate strategy is achieved when a company controls and/or influences the terms of play for an industry.

Learn from THE POWER OF STRATEGIC THINKING how to set the rules for your own sandbox...or how to find another sandbox where you can! In THE POWER OF STRATEGIC THINKING you can learn how to become a winning company by formulating and implementing a proactive, offensive strategy that will have your own company signature. You will also find out how to widen your competitive advantages. Best of all, your ultimate strategy for success will develop from the power of your own strategic thinking! ... Read more

Reviews (5)

Good ideas but too much hype
Michel Robert does a very good job of structuring and focusing the process of strategy development. At the very root is simplicity, focus and integrity. The most valuable concepts of the book are: (1) the driving force - what makes your business move forward and what with an 'invisible hand' structures your organization, (2) business concept and (3) zones of excellence. All these concepts are clearly and well explained. They are also thought provoking, insightful and energizing.

But going further through the book becomes more and more exasperating. There too much annoying hype almost on every page and especially in business cases. Often they sound all alike. "We had problems and didn't know what to do. Then we called Robert and guys from DPI opened our eyes. And we started to use DPI Strategic Process ™ and DPI Decision Making ™ and DPI Keep It Simple Stupid ™ and made a lot of money. And we also lost 20 pounds in three weeks. Just call 1-800-Robert..." The author definitely has all rights to promote his company any way he likes but if he believes that his books are read not only by neurotic losers then he should cool down a bit. There is definitely a conflict between content and realization.

Probably as a result of all that hype the book is often repetitive. I believe it is based on a standard promotion presentation. This belief is supported by many silly pictures definitely copied and pasted from PowerPoint. The book is also structured as a presentation: "Tell them what we want to tell. Tell them. Tell them what you told them." All the promotion presentation tricks are also there, namely: (1) Leave many important things behind, just mention them, (2) Give them an impression that without you they wouldn't really make it, (3) Position yourself as a unique consultant - don't forget to mention that other consultants (incl. BSG, McKinsey, etc.) are not good.

To put it short, "The Power of Strategic Thinking" is a book based on DPI promotion presentation. Some really good ideas about business strategy are thickly dressed with hype.

A Good Read!
This book makes several excellent points about strategy. To find them, the reader must slog through pages of unremitting, self-promotional hard-sell, snide digs at business guru Michael Porter and contemptuous asides about consulting firms that base their strategic recommendations on research. Readers will miss little if they skip the CEO interviews, which might have provided interesting and informative insights had the author not chosen to focus on compliments to himself and his firm. But the bullet-point outlines of the strategic thinking process will be an eye-opener for many managers unaccustomed to thinking in this manner, and the section is illustrated robustly with real-life examples. Robert’s analysis of the driving forces of various businesses makes the entire effort worthwhile. ...get this book for executives and entrepreneurs in any industry.

Used the process - very pleased
As Vice-President, Sales & Marketing for a Berkshire Hathaway company, we engaged Mike Robert to lead our company through both the Strategy and Product Innovation modules his company offers.

The results have been very satisfying as the company has launch two entirely new products, in new industries, that we never touched before.

The power and simplicity of the process is incredible. In fact, if I had a complaint, it would be that the thinking can be so radical that some executives might have a hard time grasping the long term impact of decisions made during a single engagement. It is heady stuff!

This process is not for everyone. I wonder how many companies are really ready to examine their position in their marketplace and actually do something about it.

Overall, I was very pleased with the process and the result.

Easy to understand strategy
This is an easy to understand book about strategic thinking. Robert doesn't use complicated terminology or hard to understand concepts. His method for formulating and implementing strategy is straightforward and consise. Anyone wishing to improve their company's strategy should read this book.

Although by itself the book was good and I recommend it, I was disappointed that Robert didn't provide much new information over his previous book Strategy Pure and Simple II. In fact, Robert used many of the same case studies (already three years old in some cases) and the chapters were very similar to his previous book. I also got the sense that the complete methodology he proposes was missing, and his real intention was to have readers call his company for the missing links. For instance, one case study mentions their use of a decision analysis, and potential problem analysis taught by Robert. These seem to be valuable tools that anyone using his method would want to know. He also suggests taking a survey to test your strategic IQ but recommends you send the results to his company for an objective assessment. Great way to generate new business, but he could have been more complete.

I still think it's a good book because it gets you going in the right direction, and helps you organize your thoughts using a proven process. Unfortunately, you will only truly benefit from his process by hiring his firm.

Setting the rules for your own sand-box....
How do you develop distinctive strategies that will distinguish your company in the market-place? Over the last 25 years, Robert developed his process of strategic thinking through working with CEOs of major and emerging corporations in various industries. His approach comes from working alongside and observing top executives of major organizations in an attempt to identify the concepts of management that they practice, in his case, by osmosis. In this book, he provides invaluable insight of his experiences with CEOs of Companies who have used their process of strategic thinking, and unlike other approaches, why their process has stood the test of time. There are clear explainations of the concept, examples and case studies from a wide range of industry sectors and organizations that readers can relate to. These are used to contextualize and demonstrate the applications of the concept discussed. Overall,Robert presents everything in a clear, compact and accesible manner. You will never look at your competitors the same way again! ... Read more

Reviews (18)

this is a book about what really works
There is so much true in all that Celeste Teal reveals in her book. Predicting with this book gets easier and you will gain much insight in her delineations. Fortunately this is not a difficult book to read. It contains so much useful information that no astrologer should be without it. All sorts of predictive techniques (returns, transits, eclipses, nodes etc...) are discussed and the delineations are reliable. This is a book you will often refer to, because this is one about what really works.

Predicting Events with Astrology is Superlative !!
CELESTE TEAL has hit a bulls eyes by virtue of the clarity of her writing concerning the "art" of predicting events !!

I should know as I have been involved with predictive astrology for over twenty years..

I had first glanced at her book on one of my routine cruises through the book stores to find out what has come out on prediction only to eventually purchase the book on the second visit.

Don't waste your time and BUY IT NOW as many of her ideas hit the nail on the head regarding prediction.

Her slant on Solar and Lunar returns as well as the "Saturn" Chasing the moon offer some good ideas for every level of Astrology participant who wan't to know a little more about their future.

Very Helpful
What I especially liked about this book is its explanations of secondary progressions. There's also plenty on Returns and eclipses. Teal uses numerous examples to show planetary configurations at work and to show how often overlooked aspects in progressions can be very revealing in predictive work. Included are a comprehensive index, a glossary and a table of eclipses as well as explanations of some rather obscure phenomena such as "Saturn chasing the Moon", the vertex, and Aries Points. This informative, clearly written book demonstrates the timing of important events, and is a must for those wanting to fine-tune their skills in prediction.

Excellent synthesis of aspects for a variety of predictions
This is an incredibly substantive book on predicting with astrology, containing depth information on subjects not frequently covered. It's so nice to find a book on
predicting that isn't a cookbook of aspects, but rather a fully prepared stew. Celeste Teal has put it all together beautifully. When I finish studying this book (though I'm sure I'll come back to it again and again)I'll definitely pick up the new one.

I learned a lot in little time
Celeste Teal describes in an easy to understand fashion the various methods how to predict events through astrology. I first learned about Celeste Teal on her website. I read an article that she wrote and published on her site that I found most intriguing and ordered her book. Since then I keep on picking up the book over to over to reread some paragraphs or for references. And each time I think I get a little deeper insight especially into progression and returns charts...and many other things... This book is very helpful for anybody who already knows some basics about astrology and aspires to learn about predicting techniques. ... Read more