Business & Investing Books

Strategy & Competition Books
1. The Secret to GE's Success: A Former insider Reveals the Leadership lessons of the World's Most Competitive Company
2. Your First Business Plan, 5th Ed.: A Simple Question and Answer Format Designed to Help You Write Your Own Plan (Your First Business Plan)
3. Real-World Intelligence
4. Economics of Strategy
5. The Gifted Boss : How to Find, Create and Keep Great Employees
6. Common Sense Training: A Working Philosophy for Leaders
7. Secrets of Software Success: Management Insights from 100 Software Firms Around the World
8. Managing Telework: Strategies for Managing the Virtual Workforce
9. Smart Choices: A Practical Guide to Making Better Decisions
10. Pipe Dreams: Greed, Ego, and the Death of Enron

Woman in a Wheelchair with MS Will Shave Her Head Bald with Your Company's Logo and or Website; 20% of Winnings Will Go to MS Society in New Orleans
Mother with MS has decided to shave her head bald for a year to help MS patients in New Orleans. [PRWEB Sep 14, 2005]

Whitney Wolanin "Good" #13 in a Continuing Climb Up Radio Charts; "Christmas" by Whitney Wolanin Next Release
Whitney Wolanin had her original hit single "Good" achieve the #13 position on the Top 40 FMQB AC40 chart at radio after reaching the number 15 position the week prior. "Christmas" an original new holiday song featuring the voice of Whitney Wolanin the next release to radio November 21. [PRWEB Oct 13, 2005]

"DANGEROUS CURVES...THE TOUR" ON BROADWAY - A Fashion Event to Benefit Girls, Inc. Featuring Fashionable Plus Size Clothing and Guest Model "Tocarra" of America's Next Top Model
The long awaited return of Dangerous Curves...the Tour, the traveling runway show for plus size women, is finally over! The tour returns to New York--on Broadway--on Sunday, June 26th at 2:00 PM at 598 Broadway, 6th Floor, Soho, NYC.

Protect Children Online with NFL Great Tim Brown's Kid Safe Sports Browser
Werner Entities and NFL Great Tim Brown have teamed up with Life Skills Alliance and Children's Educational Network, announcing that it has launched the world's only Tim Brown Kid Safe Sports Browser™, designed to protect children online. The Tim Brown Kid Safe Sports Browser is now a free download at www.TimBrownBrowser.com. [PRWEB Aug 18, 2005]





Books - Biographies & Primers - Strategy & Competition


View Book 'The Secret to GE's Success: A Former insider Reveals the Leadership lessons of the World's Most Competitive Company'



The Secret to GE's Success: A Former insider Reveals the Leadership lessons of the World's Most Competitive Company
Authors: William E. Rothschild.
Hardcover, 288 pages
Publisher: McGraw-Hill
Publication Date: 2007-01-15
Edition: 1

Reviews :

   

Learn why GE has always had the best inventors, the best strategic planners, and the best results

William Rothschild, who witnessed GE’s revolution firsthand, explains the five keys that made GE a global phenomenon—and gives managers a complete toolkit for duplicating its remarkable success. He explains the GE Code—the hallmark of all GE leadership teams—and provides a far-ranging prescriptive plan for strategizing the GE way.

...



  $27.95    New Price: $10.96

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View Book 'Your First Business Plan, 5th Ed.: A Simple Question and Answer Format Designed to Help You Write Your Own Plan (Your First Business Plan)'



Your First Business Plan, 5th Ed.: A Simple Question and Answer Format Designed to Help You Write Your Own Plan (Your First Business Plan)
Authors: Brian Hazelgren.
Paperback, 256 pages
Publisher: Sourcebooks, Inc.
Publication Date: 2005-05-01
Edition: 5

Reviews :

    The first business plan is often the most difficult to write. A company may have little or no history, and often may not know lender requirements, what to stress and what to avoid. Your First Business Plan simplifies the process by outlining the different parts of a business plan and, in an uncomplicated question-and-answer style, helps the business owner create a winning plan for their business.

The easy-to-follow chapters show entrepreneurs how to:
--Think through strategies and balance enthusiasm with facts
--Capture and hold the interest of potential lenders and investors
--Understand and develop their financial statements
--Recognize the unique selling advantage of their products or services
--Avoid potentially disastrous errors like undercapitalization and negative cash flow

Also included in this book:
--A glossary of planning and financial terms
--A complete sample business plan

...



  $16.95    New Price: $6.48

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View Book 'Real-World Intelligence'



Real-World Intelligence
Authors: Herbert E. Meyer.
Hardcover, 102 pages
Publisher: Storm King Pr
Publication Date: 1991-12
Edition: Rep Sub

Reviews :

    Business Intelligence is emerging as the world's hottest new management tool. Companies now are setting up Intelligence Systems that operate like corporate radars: they monitor the external environment to alert management to whatever may be happening up ahead before it would otherwise be visible. Business Intelligence Systems help companies monitor competitors, customers, suppliers, markets, and those key trends and development in science, technology, economics and politics directly relevant to the company's unique strategic objectives. This book, authored by a top-level Reagan Administration Intelligence official - the man widely credited with being the first senior US official to project the Soviet Union's collapse -- shows how businesses can use the ideas and methods of intelligence to set up "corporate radars" that will give them a competitive edge in today's global, ferocious, information-rich business environment....



  $19.95    New Price: $7.18

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View Book 'Economics of Strategy'



Economics of Strategy
Authors: David Besanko. David Dranove. Mark Shanley. Scott Schaefer.
Hardcover, 656 pages
Publisher: Wiley
Publication Date: 2003-07-22
Edition: 3

Reviews :

    Covering the broad sweep of modern economics and strategy research, this comprehensive book broke new ground in its original edition by applying modern economic principles to study the firm's strategic position. Completely updated and revised, this new edition integrates recent insights from the theory of the firm, industrial organization, and strategy research, while building upon a strong theoretical and empirical foundation familiar to academics working in economics and strategy.
New co-author Scott Schaefer adds his expertise on organizational economics
New chapters on performance evaluation and strategic fit
Hundreds of examples ground theory in the everyday activities of the firm and show how the economic principles of strategy actually work
A unique, modern treatment of topics...



  $137.75    New Price: $45

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View Book 'The Gifted Boss : How to Find, Create and Keep Great Employees'



The Gifted Boss : How to Find, Create and Keep Great Employees
Authors: Dale Dauten. Dale A. Dauten.
Hardcover, 113 pages
Publisher: William Morrow
Publication Date: 1999-06
Edition: 1

Reviews :

    Good business begins with a good boss -- and the truly gifted ones know that their future depends on creating first-rate employees: the kind of men and women they can teach and trust. Reliable, able, ambitious people who respond to guidance rather than requiring supervision or micro-management, and who understand that real success is shared by everyone from the senior manager to the most junior member of the team.

In this priceless business parable, Dale Dauten turns to an eccentric management sage in search of experienced advice on how to become a true leader with the skill and insight to attract and recruit exceptional employees and help them reach their full potential. Filled with prescriptive illustrations, subtle suggestions, and engaging, enlightening anecdotes from well-known managers and CEOs of major companies, this wise, wide-ranging book is entertaining and important reading for anyone who hopes to be an effective boss, able to help every talented employee to excel and grow into a top performer.

...

    Piles of books come out every year on how to be a better boss, but few go beyond platitudes to provide vivid, real-life pictures of excellent bosses in action. Not so with The Gifted Boss, in which business columnist Dale Dauten not only tells how extraordinary bosses differ from ordinary ones but actually shows what these bosses look like on the job. Through anecdotes and extended quotes from bosses at dozens of companies, both the well known (Porsche, LensCrafters, Wendy's, and IDG Books) and the obscure (small and midsize businesses in Arizona where Dauten lives), he humanizes the problem in an entertaining yet practical manner.

Gifted bosses distinguish themselves from the pack, according to Dauten, by not just hiring employees but by "courting" and ultimately "acquiring allies"; by making their organizations or even just their department as "the best place for the best people to work"; by emphasizing standards (and leaving one's employees free to figure out how to meet those standards themselves) over rules and procedures; and by trusting employees to find their own answers to problems rather than spend one's days putting out brushfires for everyone.

To wit, we hear stories of bosses like Dan Schweiker, CEO of China Mist Tea, who, when he first started the company, told experienced salespeople who defected to him, "I'm not going to try to tell you what to do. We're hiring you to learn from you." (He also replaced the conference room table with a pool table!) Or an army general who chucked the weighty military procedure book and told his troops to figure out how to prepare for battle one minute faster than the standardized process... and outline it on one page. (And they did just that.) Or IDG head John Kilcullen (the brains behind the Dummies series of books), who wooed someone to be his finance czar by playing golf with him... even though Kilcullen didn't play golf and showed up in jeans.

The Gifted Bossis told in a sort of novelistic form, in which the first-person narrator, a corporate middle-manager stuck in a "glass rut," is regaled with stories by an eccentric but nonetheless warm, wise, and funny old sage named Max Elmore. If that narrative device sounds a bit cloying, it is. (Max, according to the author's acknowledgements, is based on a true-life mentor, a retired professor.) Still, that's a small price to pay for a book with not only smart and bracing ideas on how to be a truly A-1 boss, but a genuine wealth of vivid, sometimes touching stories to show what those ideas look like in the real world. --Timothy Murphy ...



  $20    New Price: $4.78

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Short News
Lush & Elegant Can Still Mean Casual & Fun in the 'Barclay Butera Home' Line; Depth of Fabrics Accent Foundation Pieces for Fall High Point
Every room should have one truly fabulous grounding piece. And this Fall at the High Point, NC show, designer Barclay Butera, ASID, has made that a red velvet 70' radius tufted settee, heavily reminiscent of an early 20th century Parisian hotel lobby. The rest of the Barclay Butera Home (BBH) line – especially the fabrics - plays off this piece and makes the settee feel current in today’s world of design. Located at IHFC Interhall H163, Butera continues to demonstra

C.H.E.F.® Launches the FUEL™ Series to Fight Childhood Obesity
Comprehensive Health Education Foundation (C.H.E.F.®), developer of the most widely-used prevention curricula in the United States, announced the launch of its innovative new FUEL™ series, which is designed to help fight the childhood obesity epidemic. Created as the first youth-inspired educational approach to address this critical health issue, this series profiles what real kids are doing to address obesity and improve their own lives. [PRWEB Jun 29, 2005]

 


View Book 'Common Sense Training: A Working Philosophy for Leaders'



Common Sense Training: A Working Philosophy for Leaders
Authors: Arthur Collins.
Paperback, 256 pages
Publisher: Presidio Press
Publication Date: 1998-11-03


Reviews :

    "The best book on military training from platoon to division level that has been published in any army."--Army Magazine...



  $19    New Price: $11.34

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View Book 'Secrets of Software Success: Management Insights from 100 Software Firms Around the World'



Secrets of Software Success: Management Insights from 100 Software Firms Around the World
Authors: Cyriac R. Roeding. Gert Purkert. Sandro K. Kindner. Ralph Muller.
Hardcover, 312 pages
Publisher: Harvard Business School Press
Publication Date: 1999-10


Reviews :

    The software industry is the most powerful wealth creator in history. It's an industry of extreme success - unrivalled job creation, extraordinary growth, accelerated product cycles - but the failures can be just as spectacular. What can we learn from the winners? In "Secrets of Software Success", the authors investigate the software industry's best practices in order to develop a complete picture of what it takes to build a thriving software business. Drawing on an exclusive worldwide survey of more than 100 global software companies and 450 top executives, "Secrets of Software Success" presents the first panoramic view of the conditions that influence results for both the product and the service sides of the software industry. In the highly readable and often provocative examples from well-known firms, the authors debunk many widely held-beliefs, and offer instead some surprisingly counter-intuitive findings. Ultimately, say the authors, the secret to success lies in the details - the ability to choose from a range of key management decisions in order to balance the right set of actions at the right time to rapidly changing market conditions. With its universal lessons of competition, commitment, talent, and timing, "Secrets of Software Success" holds valuable answers to the questions asked by executives in every industry. Covering firms from Australia to Zimbabwe, it is the most in-depth picture to date of the conditions that surround success in the global software business....

    In Secrets of Software Success, Detlev Hoch, with Cyriac Roeding, Gert Purkert, and Sandro Lindner, look at what's driving the prosperity of the world's best software companies and what's responsible for the failure of others. The authors, who are consultants with McKinsey & Co. in Germany, visited nearly 100 software firms around the globe and conducted 450 in-depth interviews with executives. The result is a book loaded with sharp insights and colorful anecdotes from leaders of companies such as Microsoft Germany, Keane Inc., BroadVision, Andersen Consulting, Oracle, Sun Microsystems, and Navision in Denmark. "The opportunities for success in this industry remain strong," they conclude. "But the price of change brings new challenges and uncertainties. Neglecting these challenges could be a deadly mistake: Falling behind in the software industry, after all, almost certainly means failure."

In separate chapters, the authors examine the importance of leadership, the keys to developing and marketing software, winning the war for software talent, cementing partnerships for growth, and the shape of the future of this rapidly changing industry. Some of their findings are contrary to common belief. For example, software developers' and managers' disdain for rigid procedures is well known, but what the authors find is that morale and creativity actually rise with tighter rules that create better products and cut development time. Other conclusions are reinforcing; for example, the most successful companies team up with four times as many other firms as the less successful ones. Written in a lively, conversational style, Secrets of Software Success should be on the bookshelf of anyone connected to the software business. --Dan Ring...



  $27.5    New Price: $10.09

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View Book 'Managing Telework: Strategies for Managing the Virtual Workforce'



Managing Telework: Strategies for Managing the Virtual Workforce
Authors: Jack M. Nilles.
Hardcover, 352 pages
Publisher: Wiley
Publication Date: 1998-08-31


Reviews :

    In Managing Telework, Jack Nilles illustrates that telework is undeniably the corporate wave of the future on a global level. Telework, or telecommuting, a term coined originally by Nilles, means basically moving the work to the worker instead of the other way around. Although there are both risks and opportunities involved in managing a virtual workforce, the opportunities usually far outweigh the risks. As Nilles explains, the key to a successful virtual workforce is making the best use of those opportunities through proper planning and the development of an appropriate management style. Management philosophy, style, and technique constitute the foundation of this indispensable resource.

Managing Telework provides crucial information on every part of the telecommuting process. Nilles first explores the issues of selecting the right type of telecommuter-candidates who are likely to be effective workers without the structured environment of the office-and how to find or make proper workplaces for an effective telecommuting program. He then goes on to discuss that central, often unspoken managerial fear of telecommuting: the threat of losing control. Nilles explains that leaders, not administrators, are the key players in successful telecommuting, and that leadership can be taught. There must also be a basis of trust between the worker and the manager, and constant, open communication.

Many other pressing topics are discussed in detail, such as how to select the best technology for your specific organization, how to navigate the formal rules and regulations of telecommuting (including union rules and zoning laws), how to measure results, and how to set up a home office. Plus, there is absolutely critical advice provided on other legal, corporate, and cultural issues. This step-by-step guidebook to telework is the only management resource you'll need for the future of business.

Learn how to get out of the office.

A step-by-step guide to managing a successful, efficient, and happy virtual workforce.

"There is no better guide to telework than Jack Nilles. His insights are of growing importance to managers and teleworkers at all levels and sectors of government, business, and industry." -William H. Dutton Professor, Annenberg School of Communication and School of Public Policy and Urban Development at the University of Southern California, and former national director of the UK's Programme on Information and Communication Technologies(PICT)

"From his twenty-five years of pioneering and perfecting telework, Jack Nilles defines the essential leadership philosophy of the successful telemanager and presents his time-tested techniques for Managing Telework. These pages are packed with top-notch expertise. I wouldn't be without it!" -David Fleming Fleming LTD

"In Managing Telework, Jack Nilles describes what managers and workers need to do to create successful telework programs and explains the benefits they can derive from this way of working." -Paul Gray Professor of Information Science, Claremont Graduate University

"Another milestone from the father of telecommuting; an essential reference and stimulation for the biggest change in work organization since Henry Ford." -Peter Johnston Directorate General XIII BI, Telecommunications, Information Market and Exploitation of Research, European Commission

"The success of any telecommuting program hinges on thoroughly training telemanagers and non-teleworkers as well as telecommuters themselves. Nilles presents his guidelines in a practical, straightforward manner."-Margaret A. Klayton-Mi, PhD Associate Professor of Business Administration, Mary Washington College

"A major transformation in the nature of work is in process. Jack Nilles, for years the foremost expert and visionary leader in the field of telecommuting, has written the definitive book on the subject. This is where the future begins. Don't miss it." -Burt Nanus Author, Visionary Leadership Professor Emeritus of Management, University of Southern California...



  $46.5    New Price: $6

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View Book 'Smart Choices: A Practical Guide to Making Better Decisions'



Smart Choices: A Practical Guide to Making Better Decisions
Authors: John S. Hammond. Ralph L. Keeney. Howard Raiffa.
Hardcover, 244 pages
Publisher: Harvard Business School Press
Publication Date: 1998-09
Edition: 1

Reviews :

    Making smart choices is a fundamental life skill, relevant to anyone: managers, doctors, lawyers, teachers, students, parents, young, old. Your decisions will shape and influence the course of your professional career and the quality of your personal life - the ability to make good decisions is a key factor in determining whether you achieve your goals. To help you increase your chances of finding satisfying solutions, "Smart Choices" blends the art and science of decision making into a straightforward, proven approach for making tough choices. "Smart Choices" doesn't tell you what to decide; it tells you how. Authors Hammond, Keeney, and Raiffa, among the world's best-known experts on resolving complex decision problems, blend the art and the science of decision making into accessible steps that lead you to consider your choices both intuitively and analytically. Here, for the first time, is a flexible system that can be applied to business decisions, to personal decisions, to family decisions - to any decision you make....

    Have you ever hired someone only to regret your decision two months later? Or looked at your financial portfolio and wondered why you bought the stocks you did? In Smart Choices, authors John S. Hammond, Ralph L. Keeney, and Howard Raiffa take the guesswork out of the decision-making process and offer a systematic approach to making the right choice. Most of us have problems making decisions, because we've never learned how. The authors write:
Despite the importance of decision making to our lives, few of us ever receive any training in it. So we are left to learn from experience. But experience is a costly, inefficient teacher that teaches us bad habits along with good ones. Because decision situations vary so markedly, the experience of making one important decision often seems of little use when facing the next.
Smart Choices outlines eight elements involved in making the right decision, from identifying exactly what the decision is and specifying your objectives to considering risk tolerance and looking at how what you decide on today influences what you may decide in the future. The book is full of real-life situations and scenarios that effectively illustrate each element of a good decision. If you think the topic of making the right choice is mundane or a simple matter of common sense, then think again. Smart Choices will relieve you of the regret that so many of us carry because we didn't know how to "think it through." --Harry C. Edwards ...



  $35    New Price: $6.19

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View Book 'Pipe Dreams: Greed, Ego, and the Death of Enron'



Pipe Dreams: Greed, Ego, and the Death of Enron
Authors: Robert Bryce.
Paperback, 440 pages
Publisher: PublicAffairs
Publication Date: 2004-01-07


Reviews :

   
After the shocking collapse of Enron in fall, 2001 came an equally shocking series of disclosures about how America's seventh-largest company had destroyed itself. There were unethical deals, offshore accounts, and accounting irregularities. There were Wall Street analysts who seemed to have been asleep on the job. There were the lies top executives told so that they could line their own pockets while workers and shareholders lost billions.

But after all these disclosures, the question remains: Why? Why did a thriving, innovative company with rock-solid cash flow and reliable earnings suddenly flame out in a maelstrom of corruption, fraud and skulduggery? The answer, Texas business journalist Robert Bryce reveals in this incisive and entertaining book, is that bad business practices begin with human beings. Pipe Dreams traces Enron's astounding transformation from a small regional gas pipeline company into an energy Goliath...and then tracks step-by-step, business decision by business decision, extra-marital affair by extra-marital affair, how, when and why the culture of Enron began to go rotten, and who was responsible.

The story of Enron's fall isn't just a story about accounting procedures; it's a story about people. Bryce tells that story with all the personality, passion, humor, and inside dope you'd hope for, and the result is an un-putdownable read in the tradition of Barbarians at the Gate and The Predators' Ball.
...



  $18.5    New Price: $0.49

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StatesOnTheTake.com, a political corruption watchdog, connects the dots between the recent Supreme Court property rights ruling and the eminent increase of Stealth Cartels--the secret partnerships between Big Business and your State Government. [PRWEB Jun 29, 2005]

Studying Abroad? Be Prepared
For most students, back to school means buying a new backpack and No. 2 pencils, and getting the laptop computer ready. But for students studying outside their home country, the preparation is much more challenging. Aside from studying a new language and learning new customs, both U.S. students studying abroad and international students coming to the United States must plan for the duration of their trip – whether it’s a semester or a year. This includes preparing for unexpect

How To Tote Summer Mysteries In Style
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Books Biographies & Primers
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