"A lot of people are starting to use the Internet to reconnect themselves to their neighborhood, their community, and the world. The Power of Many is a great survey of the way this is really being accomplished by many individuals working together." —Craig Newmark, founder of craigslist.org «What a fascinating topic. If you're interested in the future, the past, or the present, then you should read this book.» —Scott Heiferman, Co-Founder of Meetup.com and Fotolog.net The development of social networks on the Web touches countless aspects of our everyday lives. With instant access to people of similar mindsets, near or far, we can readily form partnerships with more people and in more ways than ever before. It's now possible to use Internet tools to organize a rally, energize a political campaign, arrange a date, join a support group, or sell a product, as naturally as we use a phone. Through a series of pertinent case studies and interviews with leading thinkers and doers in this rapidly evolving field, Christian Crumlish uncovers universal themes and lessons learned. He illustrates how we use peer-to-peer technologies–web services, blogs, mobile phone SMS, and more—to accomplish widespread goals. He also suggests how we can take even more advantage of these technologies to connect with people who have similar interests. Discover how Howard Dean's campaign used the Internet to take a little-known candidate a long way. How activists arrange public meetings and drive letter-writing campaigns. How individuals find much-needed help for personal issues. How artists promote and air their creative genius. How business people and singles seek potential partners. And much, much more. Here are just a few of the more than 60 experts, businesspeople, activists, and writers who share their insights: Futurist and best-selling author Howard Rheingold Scott Heiferman, founder of Meetup.com Executives from the American Red Cross, the Leukemia Society, and the Avon Walk for Breast Cancer Venture capitalist Joi Ito Official and unofficial bloggers for the Bush, Clark, Dean, and Kerry campaigns Researchers Elizabeth Lane Lawley and Mary Hodder The Power of Many explores how people are using new methods of social computing to simplify the ways they locate others who share their interests and kindle face-to-face communication. It reveals the tools that make it nearly effortless for groups and individuals to accomplish significant results in the real world. By understanding these trends and techniques, we can identify where and how to apply them in own lives. See the companion website at www.thepowerofmany.com.
In The Fattening of America, renowned health economist Eric Finkelstein, along with business writer Laurie Zuckerman, reveal how the U.S. economy has become the driving force behind our expanding waistlines. Blending theory, research, and engaging personal anecdotes the authors discuss how declining food costs—especially for high-calorie, low-nutrient foods—and an increasing usage of technology, which make Americans more sedentary, has essentially led us to eat more calories than we burn off.
Praise for DRIVING EXCELLENCE «A well-organized compendium of immense common sense. [The authors'] values-based, walk-the-talk approach recognizes the fast-changing environment we live in. It shows the importance of aggregating and integrating knowledge and experience on a continuing basis. Finally, it demonstrates the significance of creating a culture that reinforces those values and takes pride in thriving on the complexity.» —John E. Abele, founder and Director, Boston Scientific Corporation «The Aggregate System is a powerful blend of strategic formula, exceptional culture, and human systems combined into a complete self-perpetuating system to produce exceptional performance. Anyone interested in improving the performance of his or her company should read this book.» —Jerry Colangelo, CEO and Chairman, Phoenix Suns «This is not another 'silver bullet' piece of academic advice on how to do a quick fix to some imaginary business. Driving Excellence is a serious and detailed insight into how a real CEO, Steve Sanghi, has transformed a real company, Microchip, into a world-class enterprise. Anyone interested in understanding the realities of implementing and sustaining an enterprise-wide constant improvement plan should read this book.» —Dean Kamen, founder and President, DEKA Research & Development Corporation, inventor of the Segway HT, National Inventors Hall of Fame inductee «Driving Excellence is the first book to deal with the integration of all the core elements that are essential to running a business. It should be required reading for all executives and venture firms looking to boost return on invested capital and add some consistency to their growth. High praise is due to Michael Jones and Steve Sanghi for developing a blueprint that works in the real world.» —Ed Sperling, Editor in Chief, Electronic News «This book provides a nicely developed framework to understand organizational effectiveness and performance, drawing upon Sanghi's managerial skills, perfected in his significant turnaround performance at Microchip. Importantly, the reader benefits from insight and experience about building an organizational culture productive to performance and competitiveness.» —Steven Stralser, PhD, author of MBA in a Day
For thousands of years, those who controlled and monitored society's finances-accountants-were often the most powerful, respected, and influential members of the community. From the collectors at communal granaries in the ancient Middle East to the scribes who monitored Queen Victoria's Exchequer, the accountant's role has been to preserve the integrity of financial systems. In the United States, twentieth-century accountants played a vital role in shaping the transparency of U.S. capital markets, counseling the Allies on financial matters in both world wars, advising Congress on the creation of the federal income tax, and inventing the concept of the gross national product. Yet by 2003, the reputation of the public accountant was in tatters. How did the accounting profession in America squander its legacy of public service? What happened to the accountants that presidents, senators, and captains of industry turned to for advice? Why did auditors stop looking for fraud? How did this once revered profession find itself in this unlikely and humiliating state?
Written to reflect the realities of today’s business environment, Power Mentoring is a nuts-and-bolts guide for anyone who wants to create a connection with a protégé or mentor, or to improve a current mentoring relationship. Filled with illustrative examples and candid insights from fifty of America's most successful mentors and protégés, Power Mentoring unlocks the secrets of great mentoring relationships and shows how anyone (including those who are well established in their careers, or those who are just starting out) can become a successful mentor or protégé. Based on compelling interviews from Ellen Ensher and Susan Murphy’s own research, this important resource explains what it takes to develop a “power mentoring” network consisting of a variety of mentors across a range of organizations and industries. The authors provide strategies for establishing such power mentoring relationships, outline the best practices, and offer insights from mentors and protégés in a variety of fields including technology, politics, and the media.
Discover why being a «fast second» is often more financially rewarding than being at the cutting edge. If you get there first, you'll lead the pack, right? Not necessarily! The skill-sets of most established companies, say strategy experts Constantinos Markides and Paul Geroski, are far better suited to scaling up newly created markets pioneered by others (in other words, being «fast seconds») than to creating these markets from scratch. In Fast Second, they explore the characteristics of new markets, describe the skills needed to create and compete in them, and show how these skills match up with different types of companies. Drawing on examples of successful fast-second firms such as Microsoft, Amazon, Canon, JVC, Heinz, and many others, they illustrate how to determine which new markets have the potential to be successful and how to move into them before the competition does, when to make a move into a new market, how to scale up a market, where to position a company in the market, and whether to be a colonizer or a consolidator. Order your copy today!
One of the world's most sought-after sales training and consulting experts reveals the strategies smart companies use to sell anything to anyone This book takes a new and relevant approach to sales from the perspective of both organizational and individual performance. Based on the author's broad-based personal experience working with over 2,000 sales organizations, it combines organizational guidelines, sales management strategies, how-to sales tips, and career guidance for sales executives, sales managers, and salespeople alike. Incorporating proprietary research, case studies, real-world examples, and practical information, this book will revolutionize the very way sales organizations sell. William (Bill) Brooks (Greensboro, NC) is the founder and CEO of The Brooks Group, an internationally recognized consulting firm whose clients have included General Motors, Chase Manhattan, Sara Lee, and Microsoft among thousands of others. He delivers more than 150 keynote speeches annually to sales organizations.
New in Paperback! Make learning more meaningful by teaching the «whole game» David Perkins, a noted authority on teaching and learning and co-director of Harvard's Project Zero, introduces a practical and research-based framework for teaching. He describes how teaching any subject at any level can be made more effective if students are introduced to the «whole game,» rather than isolated pieces of a discipline. Perkins explains how learning academic subjects should be approached like learning baseball or any game, and he demonstrates this with seven principles for making learning whole: from making the game worth playing (emphasizing the importance of motivation to sustained learning), to working on the hard parts (the importance of thoughtful practice), to learning how to learn (developing self-managed learners). Vividly explains how to organize learning in ways that allow people to do important things with what they know Offers guidelines for transforming education to prepare our youth for success in a rapidly changing world Filled with real-world, illustrative examples of the seven principles At the end of each chapter, Perkins includes «Wonders of Learning,» a summary of the key ideas.
How Service Orientation Will Change Your Business «The real value of this book is that it makes SOA and Web services, which are critical and business-transforming, crystal-clear to the layman, both business and IT leaders. The book stays focused on the real-world issues facing business and government institutions today. In an industry full of experts of many stripes, Ron and Jason are the real thing: savvy, experienced, and realistic. They have produced a must-read book for management.» —Paul Lipton, Senior Architect, Unicenter Web Services and Application Management Computer Associates «This is by far the finest publication on SOA of our time. From cover to back, Service Orient or Be Doomed! strips away the layers of confusion most IT stakeholders face when confronted with enterprise architecture, and illustrates pragmatic and practical paths towards a sustainable and efficient enterprise architecture. Both the technically savvy and the bean counters will enjoy this book that speaks to the critical points they need to understand.» —Duane A. Nickull Senior Standards Strategist, Adobe Systems, Inc. Chair, OASIS SOA Reference Model Technical Committee Vice chair, United Nations CEFACT (UN/CEFACT) «If you're looking for a guide that's based on reality, this is it. These guys know how you can service-orient your enterprise and have the best chance of success. This book is the best SOA tool you can buy. I'm recommending it to everyone.» —Dave Linthicum, CEO, BRIDGEWERX «Jason and Ron are experts on Service-Oriented Architecture (SOA) and have written the first book that is aimed at helping a nontechnical businessperson understand why the SOA computing revolution is critical to business. Rather than provide a nerdy death via buzzword book, Jason and Ron take a humorous, clever, and insightful romp through this new technology and how it impacts business in general.» —Brad Feld, Mobius Venture Capital Authors Jason Bloomberg and Ronald Schmelzer-senior analysts for highly respected IT advisory and analysis firm ZapThink-say it all in the title of their new book, Service Orient or Be Doomed!: How Service Orientation Will Change Your Business. That is, if you fail to service orient your company, you will fail in competing with the organizations that do. This provocative new book takes service orientation out of its more familiar technological surroundings within service-oriented architecture and introduces it as a philosophy that advocates its rightful place within a business context, redefining it as a new way of thinking about organizing your business and its processes. Informal, challenging, and intelligent in style, Service Orient or Be Doomed!: How Service Orientation Will Change Your Business shows you how you can best use technology resources to meet your company's business goals and empower your company to go from «stuck» to «competitive.»
Drawing on her own long-term research and extensive work experience, Janice Klein reveals how the power of people (insiders who are able to see problems from outsider's perspective), approach («pulling change»), and system (support infrastructure) combine to turn new ideas and concepts into institutionalized practices. In particular, certain people inside organizations «outsiders on the inside» are key to driving innovation, adaptation, and real change. Using examples from leading companies in MIT's Leaders for Manufacturing (LFM) and System Design and Management (SDM) Partnership – such as Boeing, Intel, Motorola, Alcoa, Ford, Kodak, and others – she shows how employees at all levels can learn how to become «an outsider on the inside,» and be in the right place at the right time to discover opportunities to «pull» into their organization. Throughout, we grow to understand the perspectives of numerous «outsiders on the inside,» by hearing their voices and observing their actions. The strategy Klein provides is relevant for any company that hopes to build a change capability, rather than attempt only to manage change.