This book chronicles the dawn of the age of creativity in business, when new ideas and practices based on creativity will drastically change the way we do business. Starting with an overview of the age of marketing, the book winds its way through the past and the present to show us the future of business, backed up with insights from sociology and psychology.
The sales function is the front-line of any business. Keeping up with the latest sales techniques is essential, as well as ensuring you have a motivated, incentivised and focused sales team well-versed in the basics of selling, from identifying new prospects and getting repeat business to closing the deal. This module gives essential insight into all the key sales drivers such as account management, handling complex sales, selling services, FMCG selling, customer relationships and self-development for sales people.
This book explores the future of the financial services industry, giving readers an idea of the kinds of institutions and services that will survive in the early twenty-first century. An informative and provocative exploration of the future of the financial services industry. Focuses on likely changes in the near future, such as greater use of the Internet for banking transactions and the increasing globalization of financial services. Points to the probable disappearance of the insurance sector as a separate industry. Describes changing conditions in key financial centres, especially the US, the UK, Germany, Japan and Switzerland.
The free market makes the world go around. Maybe it’s time we all tried to understand it a little better. Luckily Eamonn Butler is the ideal teacher to get us all up to speed. Markets are everywhere. But how many of us understand how they work, and why? What does a ‘free market’ really mean? Do free markets actually exist? Should we have more or less of them? Most of all – do we really need to know all this? Answer: Yes we do. MAKING ECONOMICS SIMPLE SO THAT EVEN POLITICIANS CAN UNDERSTAND IT If any mention of free markets sends your mind screaming back to your musty old school economics textbook, think again. The Best Book on the Market will keep you gripped, intrigued and well informed. Abandoning complicated mumbo-jumbo, Eamonn Butler, Director of the UK’s leading free market think-tank, demystifies the world of markets, competition, monopolies and cartels, prices and overspills. Using examples from our everyday lives Dr Butler explains how the markets we have, and the many more we need, can work to create a richer, freer and more peaceful world. STOP WORRYING AND LOVE THE FREE ECONOMY He delves into the morality of markets and interrogates important issues such as why feckless rock-stars are paid much more than worthy nurses; whether we should worry about people trading in arms, water, healthcare etc; whether black markets are immoral; and questions of equality; sweatshops, and fair trade. “This book is about the free market and how unfree it can be when there is a lack of belief in freedom itself. Eamonn Butler presents solid arguments against government attempts to ‘perfect’ the markets by regulation, controls, subsidies, or by adopting measures which obstruct competition and private ownership.” Václav Klaus, President of the Czech Republic “Vividly and simply explains competition, entrepreneurship and prices”. John Blundell, Director, Institute of Economic Affairs “A great little book that gets to the heart of how and why markets work, in a very engaging and easily understood way”. Dan Lewis, Research Director, Economic Research Council “I welcome this witty, lucid explanation of how entrepreneurs and business people make a positive contribution to our lives, and why economists often don't”. Andrew Neil , leading journalist and BBC presenter “Anything which educates the public – and politicians – on how the free economy actually works is always welcome. Dr Butler does this in style”. Lord Lawson, former UK Chancellor of the Exchequer “Everyone in business would do well to understand the basic principles of markets which Dr Butler clarifies so well in this short book”. Allister Heath, Editor of The Business and Associate Editor of The Spectator «This book does great justice to the vibrancy of markets and what makes them tick» Ruth Richardson, former Finance Minister of New Zealand «It's refreshing to see an economist who understands the importance of innovation and entrepreneurship in pushing progress forward, and who can explain it in straightforward language.» Trevor Baylis OBE (inventor of the wind-up radio) «I'm glad to see that Dr Butler stresses the role of innovators – and the importance of market structures that encourage innovation.» Sir Clive Sinclair (inventor) «Dr Butler's book is a welcome and very readable contribution on the mechanisms and morality of the free economy.» Sir John Major KG CH (former UK Prime Minister) “'Market' is one of the first six-letter wor
Bond Evaluation, Selection, and Management synthesizes fundamental and advanced topics in the field, offering comprehensive coverage of bond and debt management. This text provides readers with the basics needed to understand advanced strategies, and explanations of cutting edge advanced topics. Focusing on concepts, models, and numerical examples, readers are provided with the tools they need to select, evaluate, and manage bonds. Provides a comprehensive exposition of bond and debt management. Covers both the fundamental and advanced topics in the field, including bond derivatives. Focuses on concepts, models, and numerical examples. Reinforces important concepts through review questions, web exercises, and practice problems in each chapter.
Get up to speed on Symbian OS v7.0s with this new, from the source reference guide. After a brief introduction to Symbian OS fundamentals the book focuses on describing the interaction between the OS and the application, broadly following the lifecycle of an application. It describes the new features particular to v7.0s and provides conceptual and theoretical underpinnings to give the reader a thorough understanding of the OS. Aims to build a general understanding of Symbian OS, not just for a particular smartphone or UI Packed with code and examples Details advanced features such as user interfaces, files and views, multimedia services and communications, and messaging
An easy-to-follow introduction to support vector machines This book provides an in-depth, easy-to-follow introduction to support vector machines drawing only from minimal, carefully motivated technical and mathematical background material. It begins with a cohesive discussion of machine learning and goes on to cover: Knowledge discovery environments Describing data mathematically Linear decision surfaces and functions Perceptron learning Maximum margin classifiers Support vector machines Elements of statistical learning theory Multi-class classification Regression with support vector machines Novelty detection Complemented with hands-on exercises, algorithm descriptions, and data sets, Knowledge Discovery with Support Vector Machines is an invaluable textbook for advanced undergraduate and graduate courses. It is also an excellent tutorial on support vector machines for professionals who are pursuing research in machine learning and related areas.
Discover grid computing-how to successfully build, implement, and manage widely distributed computing architecture With technology budgets under increasing scrutiny and system architecture becoming more and more complex, many organizations are rethinking how they manage and use technology. Keeping a strong business focus, this publication clearly demonstrates that the current ways of tying applications to dedicated hardware are no longer viable in today's competitive, bottom line-oriented environment. This evolution in distributed computing is leading a paradigm shift in leveraging widely distributed architectures to get the most processing power per IT dollar. Presenting a solid foundation of data management issues and techniques, this practical book delves into grid architecture, services, practices, and much more, including: * Why businesses should adopt grid computing * How to master the fundamental concepts and programming techniques and apply them successfully to reach objectives * How to maximize the value of existing IT investments The author has tailored this publication for two distinct audiences. Business professionals will gain a better understanding of how grid computing improves productivity and performance, what impact it can have on their organization's bottom line, and the technical foundations necessary to discuss grid computing with their IT colleagues. Following the author's expert guidance and practical examples, IT professionals, architects, and developers will be equipped to initiate and carry out successful grid computing projects within their own organizations.
Micro and nanosystems represent a major scientific and technological challenge, with actual and potential applications in almost all fields of the human activity. The aim of the present book is to present how concepts from dynamical control systems (modeling, estimation, observation, identification, feedback control) can be adapted and applied to the development of original very small-scale systems and of their human interfaces. The application fields presented here come from micro and nanorobotics, biochips, near-field microscopy (AFM and STM) and nanosystems networks. Alina Voda has drawn contributions from leading experts at top research universities in France to produce a first overview of the major role that control systems science can play in the development of micro and nanosciences and technologies.
Arithmetic and Logic in Computer Systems provides a useful guide to a fundamental subject of computer science and engineering. Algorithms for performing operations like addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division in digital computer systems are presented, with the goal of explaining the concepts behind the algorithms, rather than addressing any direct applications. Alternative methods are examined, and explanations are supplied of the fundamental materials and reasoning behind theories and examples. No other current books deal with this subject, and the author is a leading authority in the field of computer arithmetic. The text introduces the Conventional Radix Number System and the Signed-Digit Number System, as well as Residue Number System and Logarithmic Number System. This book serves as an essential, up-to-date guide for students of electrical engineering and computer and mathematical sciences, as well as practicing engineers and computer scientists involved in the design, application, and development of computer arithmetic units.