كتب ادارة Management

Mavericks at Work: Why the Most Original Minds in Business Win
By William C. Taylor, Polly G. Labarre

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------



Publisher: William Morrow
Number Of Pages: 336
Publication Date: 2006-09-01
ISBN-10 / ASIN: 0060779616
ISBN-13 / EAN: 9780060779610
Binding: Hardcover


--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Book Description:

In Mavericks at Work, Fast Company cofounder William C. Taylor and Polly LaBarre, a longtime editor at the magazine, give you an inside look at the "most original minds in business" wherever they find them: from Procter & Gamble to Pixar, from gold mines to funky sandwich shops. Want to stop doing business as usual? Then take some lessons from the 32 maverick companies Taylor and LaBarre profile.

Questions for William C. Taylor and Polly LaBarre

Amazon.com: Whom do you think this book will appeal to?

Taylor and LaBarre: This book should appeal to a wide "coalition" of business leaders and innovators--impatient, change-minded executives in big companies, senior leaders in smaller, entrepreneurial companies, young people with big dreams about their future and their careers. This book should inform and energize anyone and everyone who wants to do big things in business by shaking up the status quo and challenging the powers-that-be. One important point: We strongly believe that this book should appeal to women as well as men. It is not meant to be an uptight, starched-shirt type read--your typical all-male business book. The book doesn't target women executives per se, but we believe it will appeal to men and women alike.

Amazon.com: What's the story behind the book?

Taylor and LaBarre: In one sense, Mavericks at Work has been 18 months in the making. That's the amount of time that the two of us spent totally focused on the travel, research, interviewing, and writing to create Mavericks at Work. In another sense, this book reflects more than a decade's worth of learning, thinking, and writing about the best way to do business and the new cast of companies and individual leaders that represent the face of business at its best. First at that classic voice of the business establishment, Harvard Business Review, and then at the new-generation magazine that he cofounded, Fast Company, Bill Taylor has been traveling the world, visiting companies, and interviewing great business leaders. Much the same goes for Polly LaBarre--first at the venerable IndustryWeek magazine, and then as one of the original members of the Fast Company team, Polly has made it her speciality to discover, understand, and chronicle the most exciting and innovative leaders in business.

With respect to Mavericks, the book reflects our in-depth access to the 32 companies featured in the book. This is anything but an "armchair" business book. We logged tens of thousands of miles and spent countless hours visiting, conducting interviews at, and participating in meetings, training sessions, and events inside a wide variety organizations. We went deep inside these organizations, looking to understand the ideas they stand for and the ways they work. We participated in a filmmaking class at one of the world's most successful movie studios. We attended a closed-to-the-public awards ceremony at Radio City Music Hall, where employees of what has to be the world's most entertaining bank sang, danced, and strutted their stuff. We sat in on a crucial monthly meeting (the 384th such consecutive meeting over the last 32 years) in which top executives and front-line managers of a $600-million employee-owned company share their most sensitive financial information and most valuable market secrets. We walked the corridors of a 120-year-old research facility where a team of change-minded R&D executives is transforming how one of the world's biggest companies develops new ideas for consumer products. We walked the streets of Manhattan with teams of employees from a hard-charging hedge fund, who were sizing up ideas about stock-market picks.

Amazon.com: What makes this book relevant today?

Taylor and LaBarre: We believe that this is the right book at the right time, with a set of messages and a collection of practices that will inspire business executives and entrepreneurs to bring out the best in their companies, their colleagues, and themselves. Why this book now? Because business needs a breath of fresh air. We are, after five long years, coming out of a dark and trying period in our economy and society--an era of slow growth and dashed expectations, of criminal wrongdoing and ethical misconduct at some of the world's best-known companies. But NASDAQ nuttiness already feels like time-capsule fodder, the white-collar perp walk has become as routine as an annual meeting, and the triumphant return of me-first moguls like Donald Trump feels like a bad nostalgia trip, the corporate equivalent of a hair-band reunion. We've seen the face of business at its worst, and it hasn't been a pretty sight. This book is intended to persuade readers of the power of business at its best.

Which speaks to one of our major goals for Mavericks at Work--to restore the promise of business as a force for innovation, satisfaction, and progress, rather than as a source of revulsion, remorse, and recrimination. Indeed, despite all the bleak headlines and blood-boiling scandals over the last five years, the economy has experienced a period of transformation and realignment, a power shift so profound that we're just beginning to appreciate what it means for the future of business—and for how all of us go about the business of building companies that work and doing work that matters.

In industry after industry, organizations and executives that were once dismissed as upstarts, as outliers, as wildcards, have achieved positions of financial prosperity and market leadership. There's a reason the young billionaires behind the most celebrated entrepreneurial success in recent memory began their initial public offering (IPO) of shares with a declaration of independence from business as usual. "Google is not a conventional company," read their Letter from the Founders. "We do not intend to become one."

Nor does the unconventional cast of characters readers will encounter in this book. From a culture-shaping television network with offices in sun-splashed Santa Monica, California, to a little-known office-furniture manufacturer rooted in the frozen tundra of Green Bay, Wisconsin, from glamorous fields such as advertising, fashion, and the Internet, to old-line industries such as construction, mining, and household products, they are winning big at business--attracting millions of customers, creating thousands of jobs, generating tens of billions of dollars of wealth--by rethinking the logic of how business gets done.

Alan Kay, the celebrated computer scientist, put it memorably some 35 years ago: "The best way to predict the future is to invent it." We believe the companies, executives, and entrepreneurs you'll meet in the pages that follow are inventing a more exciting, more compelling, more rewarding future for business. They have devised provocative and instructive answers to four of the timeless challenges that face organizations of every size and leaders in every field: how you make strategy, how you unleash new ideas, how you connect with customers, how your best people achieve great results.

Amazon.com: Can you give us a brief summary of your book--in 250 words or less?

Taylor and LaBarre: This book is a report from the front lines of the future of business. It is not a book of best practices. It is a book of next practices--a set of insights and a collection of case studies that amount to a business plan for the 21st century, a new way to lead, compete, and succeed.

Our basic argument is as straightforward to explain as it is urgent to apply: When it comes to thriving in a hyper-competitive marketplace, "playing it safe" is no longer playing it smart. In an economy defined by overcapacity, oversupply, and utter sensory overload--an economy in which everyone already has more than enough of whatever it is you're selling--the only way to stand out from the crowd is to stand for a truly distinctive set of ideas about where your company and industry can and should be going. You can't do big things as a competitor if you're content with doing things a little better than the competition.

This book is devoted to the proposition that the best way to out-perform the competition is to out-think the competition. Maverick companies aren't always the largest in their field; maverick entrepreneurs don't always make the cover of the business magazines. But mavericks do the work that matters most--the work of originality, creativity, and experimentation. They demonstrate that you can build companies around high ideals and fierce competitive ambitions, that the most powerful way to create economic value is to embrace a set of values that go beyond just amassing power, and that business, at its best, is too exciting, too important, and too much fun to be left to the dead hand of business as usual.

Who are these mavericks? The core ideas in this book are rooted in the strategies, practices, and leadership styles of 32 organizations with vastly different histories, cultures, and business models. But all of them are business originals, based on the distinctiveness of their ideas and the power of their practices. They are rethinking competition, reinventing innovation, reconnecting with customers, and redesigning work. Together, they are creating a maverick agenda for business--an agenda from which every business can learn.

> 1.23 MB

Mavericks at Work: Why the Most Original Minds in Business Win
By William C. Taylor, Polly G. Labarre

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------



Publisher: William Morrow
Number Of Pages: 336
Publication Date: 2006-09-01
ISBN-10 / ASIN: 0060779616
ISBN-13 / EAN: 9780060779610
Binding: Hardcover


--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Book Description:

In Mavericks at Work, Fast Company cofounder William C. Taylor and Polly LaBarre, a longtime editor at the magazine, give you an inside look at the "most original minds in business" wherever they find them: from Procter & Gamble to Pixar, from gold mines to funky sandwich shops. Want to stop doing business as usual? Then take some lessons from the 32 maverick companies Taylor and LaBarre profile.

Questions for William C. Taylor and Polly LaBarre

Amazon.com: Whom do you think this book will appeal to?

Taylor and LaBarre: This book should appeal to a wide "coalition" of business leaders and innovators--impatient, change-minded executives in big companies, senior leaders in smaller, entrepreneurial companies, young people with big dreams about their future and their careers. This book should inform and energize anyone and everyone who wants to do big things in business by shaking up the status quo and challenging the powers-that-be. One important point: We strongly believe that this book should appeal to women as well as men. It is not meant to be an uptight, starched-shirt type read--your typical all-male business book. The book doesn't target women executives per se, but we believe it will appeal to men and women alike.

Amazon.com: What's the story behind the book?

Taylor and LaBarre: In one sense, Mavericks at Work has been 18 months in the making. That's the amount of time that the two of us spent totally focused on the travel, research, interviewing, and writing to create Mavericks at Work. In another sense, this book reflects more than a decade's worth of learning, thinking, and writing about the best way to do business and the new cast of companies and individual leaders that represent the face of business at its best. First at that classic voice of the business establishment, Harvard Business Review, and then at the new-generation magazine that he cofounded, Fast Company, Bill Taylor has been traveling the world, visiting companies, and interviewing great business leaders. Much the same goes for Polly LaBarre--first at the venerable IndustryWeek magazine, and then as one of the original members of the Fast Company team, Polly has made it her speciality to discover, understand, and chronicle the most exciting and innovative leaders in business.

With respect to Mavericks, the book reflects our in-depth access to the 32 companies featured in the book. This is anything but an "armchair" business book. We logged tens of thousands of miles and spent countless hours visiting, conducting interviews at, and participating in meetings, training sessions, and events inside a wide variety organizations. We went deep inside these organizations, looking to understand the ideas they stand for and the ways they work. We participated in a filmmaking class at one of the world's most successful movie studios. We attended a closed-to-the-public awards ceremony at Radio City Music Hall, where employees of what has to be the world's most entertaining bank sang, danced, and strutted their stuff. We sat in on a crucial monthly meeting (the 384th such consecutive meeting over the last 32 years) in which top executives and front-line managers of a $600-million employee-owned company share their most sensitive financial information and most valuable market secrets. We walked the corridors of a 120-year-old research facility where a team of change-minded R&D executives is transforming how one of the world's biggest companies develops new ideas for consumer products. We walked the streets of Manhattan with teams of employees from a hard-charging hedge fund, who were sizing up ideas about stock-market picks.

Amazon.com: What makes this book relevant today?

Taylor and LaBarre: We believe that this is the right book at the right time, with a set of messages and a collection of practices that will inspire business executives and entrepreneurs to bring out the best in their companies, their colleagues, and themselves. Why this book now? Because business needs a breath of fresh air. We are, after five long years, coming out of a dark and trying period in our economy and society--an era of slow growth and dashed expectations, of criminal wrongdoing and ethical misconduct at some of the world's best-known companies. But NASDAQ nuttiness already feels like time-capsule fodder, the white-collar perp walk has become as routine as an annual meeting, and the triumphant return of me-first moguls like Donald Trump feels like a bad nostalgia trip, the corporate equivalent of a hair-band reunion. We've seen the face of business at its worst, and it hasn't been a pretty sight. This book is intended to persuade readers of the power of business at its best.

Which speaks to one of our major goals for Mavericks at Work--to restore the promise of business as a force for innovation, satisfaction, and progress, rather than as a source of revulsion, remorse, and recrimination. Indeed, despite all the bleak headlines and blood-boiling scandals over the last five years, the economy has experienced a period of transformation and realignment, a power shift so profound that we're just beginning to appreciate what it means for the future of business—and for how all of us go about the business of building companies that work and doing work that matters.

In industry after industry, organizations and executives that were once dismissed as upstarts, as outliers, as wildcards, have achieved positions of financial prosperity and market leadership. There's a reason the young billionaires behind the most celebrated entrepreneurial success in recent memory began their initial public offering (IPO) of shares with a declaration of independence from business as usual. "Google is not a conventional company," read their Letter from the Founders. "We do not intend to become one."

Nor does the unconventional cast of characters readers will encounter in this book. From a culture-shaping television network with offices in sun-splashed Santa Monica, California, to a little-known office-furniture manufacturer rooted in the frozen tundra of Green Bay, Wisconsin, from glamorous fields such as advertising, fashion, and the Internet, to old-line industries such as construction, mining, and household products, they are winning big at business--attracting millions of customers, creating thousands of jobs, generating tens of billions of dollars of wealth--by rethinking the logic of how business gets done.

Alan Kay, the celebrated computer scientist, put it memorably some 35 years ago: "The best way to predict the future is to invent it." We believe the companies, executives, and entrepreneurs you'll meet in the pages that follow are inventing a more exciting, more compelling, more rewarding future for business. They have devised provocative and instructive answers to four of the timeless challenges that face organizations of every size and leaders in every field: how you make strategy, how you unleash new ideas, how you connect with customers, how your best people achieve great results.

Amazon.com: Can you give us a brief summary of your book--in 250 words or less?

Taylor and LaBarre: This book is a report from the front lines of the future of business. It is not a book of best practices. It is a book of next practices--a set of insights and a collection of case studies that amount to a business plan for the 21st century, a new way to lead, compete, and succeed.

Our basic argument is as straightforward to explain as it is urgent to apply: When it comes to thriving in a hyper-competitive marketplace, "playing it safe" is no longer playing it smart. In an economy defined by overcapacity, oversupply, and utter sensory overload--an economy in which everyone already has more than enough of whatever it is you're selling--the only way to stand out from the crowd is to stand for a truly distinctive set of ideas about where your company and industry can and should be going. You can't do big things as a competitor if you're content with doing things a little better than the competition.

This book is devoted to the proposition that the best way to out-perform the competition is to out-think the competition. Maverick companies aren't always the largest in their field; maverick entrepreneurs don't always make the cover of the business magazines. But mavericks do the work that matters most--the work of originality, creativity, and experimentation. They demonstrate that you can build companies around high ideals and fierce competitive ambitions, that the most powerful way to create economic value is to embrace a set of values that go beyond just amassing power, and that business, at its best, is too exciting, too important, and too much fun to be left to the dead hand of business as usual.

Who are these mavericks? The core ideas in this book are rooted in the strategies, practices, and leadership styles of 32 organizations with vastly different histories, cultures, and business models. But all of them are business originals, based on the distinctiveness of their ideas and the power of their practices. They are rethinking competition, reinventing innovation, reconnecting with customers, and redesigning work. Together, they are creating a maverick agenda for business--an agenda from which every business can learn.





Book Description:



Meet the innovators and upstarts who are inventing the future of business. Their unconventional ideas and groundbreaking strategies can become your business plan for the twenty-first century—a better way to lead, compete, and succeed.

Business as usual is a bust. In industry after indus-try, the old guard is cutting back and losing ground. Meanwhile, organizations that were once dismissed as upstarts, as wildcards—or mavericks—are making waves and growing fast. There is a reason: In an age of hypercompetition and nonstop innovation, the only way to stand out from the crowd is to stand for something truly original.

That's the lesson behind the companies, executives, and entrepreneurs you'll meet in Mavericks at Work.They are winning big in business by rethinking the logic of how business gets done. They have devised exciting new answers to the timeless challenges facing organizations of every size and leaders in every field: how you make strategy, how you unleash new ideas, how you connect with customers, how your best people achieve great results.

Who are these mavericks? They are break-the-mold business units inside giants such as IBM and Procter & Gamble, as well as high-profile innovators such as HBO and Pixar. They are Internet banks and gold mines, fashion retailers and advertising agencies, funky sandwich shops and hard-charging computer programmers. Together, they are creating an inspiring agenda that every business can put to work.

Their success demonstrates that:

Being different makes all the difference
Sharing values beats selling value
The company with the smartest customers wins
Nobody is as smart as everybody
Character counts for as much as credentials
Great leaders are insatiable learners
Whether you're a young professional setting out on your career, a senior executive looking to make your organization grow, or an entrepreneur building a company from scratch, Mavericks at Work will help you think bigger, aim higher, and win more decisively.


1.23 MB

Barron's GMAT, 2007-2008 (Barron's How to Prepare for the Gmat Graduate Management Admission Test)
By Eugene D. Jaffe M.B.A. Ph.D., Stephen Hilbert Ph.D.

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Publisher: Barron's Educational Series
Number Of Pages: 600
Publication Date: 2006-12-01
ISBN-10 / ASIN: 0764133624
ISBN-13 / EAN: 9780764133626
Binding: Paperback


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Book Description:

Updated to prepare students for the latest Graduate Management Admission Tests as it is given in the computer-adaptive format, this manual presents a diagnostic test and five full-length practice tests. Answers and explanations are given for all questions. The manuals extensive subject review sections focus on all six GMAT testing areas: essay writing, reading comprehension, sentence correction, critical reasoning, problem solving, and data sufficiency.


11.5MB

How to Manage Maintenance, 2nd edition
by Edward Hartmann, Donald J. Knapp



By

Publisher: American Management Association
Number Of Pages: 235
Publication Date: 1994
Sales Rank:
ISBN / ASIN: B0006F5GYY
EAN:
Binding: Unknown Binding
Manufacturer: American Management Association
Studio: American Management Association
Average Rating:
Total Reviews:



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How to Manage Maintenance focuses on the important role maintenance and maintenance management play in determining how productive and profitable a company can be. You’ll learn the vital aspects of maintenance-organizational structure, the maintenance budget, control systems, inventory, maintenance support programs, planning and scheduling, training, and Computerized Maintenance Management Systems (CMMS). Forty-seven charts, diagrams, tables, graphs, and forms reinforce, and clarify the text

2157 KB

RAR'd single PDF file

Business Orchestration: Strategic Leadership in the Era of Digital Convergence
By Johan Wallin

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Publisher: Wiley
Number Of Pages: 414
Publication Date: 2006-09-25
ISBN-10 / ASIN: 0470030712
ISBN-13 / EAN: 9780470030714
Binding: Hardcover


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Book Description:

Digital convergence is redefining industries, and putting information, knowledge and collaboration at the heart of strategic leadership and management. In the face of such change it is those leaders who can ‘orchestrate’ a complex network of employees, customers and suppliers in a single ongoing learning experience that will succeed. Exploring four learning roles for customers (information acquirer; explorer; performer; inventor) and orchestrators (conductor; architect; auctioneer; promoter), Business Orchestration provides a strategic view of how to harness digital convergence by mobilizing and integrating the resources of other companies to create business value.


RAR'd PDF, 2834 KB

Facility Manager's Guide to Security: Protecting Your Assets
By P.E., Robert N. Reid


Publisher: Fairmont Press
Number Of Pages: 368
Publication Date: 2005-06-23
ISBN-10 / ASIN: 0824721624
ISBN-13 / EAN: 9780824721626
Binding: Hardcover


Book Description:

Covering everything required to build and manage a security system, Facility Manager's Guide to Security discusses the layout of the facility in order to provide security for workers, plants, processes, and products. The book covers distances and separation, fencing, access control, intrusion detection systems, pass key, key control systems, locks, hasps, and gates. It also explores more sophisticated systems such as closed circuit television, microwave transmitters, lasers, lighting, clear zone, and computer systems and control electronic systems. In addition, non-hardware aspects of security are examined, including security clearances and background checks, guards, rounds, shift work, training, and procedure development. Written by a former defense department official with 30 years of experience in the defense sector, this valuable book explains all aspect s of facility security. Facility managers will discover useful strategies for managing security personnel, guards, guard dogs, rounds shift work, training, procedure development, and other non-hardware elements of a security program.



Summary: Good Security Book
Rating: 5

As of this writing (Today is December 9, 2004) this book is not yet released. It is scheduled to release in January 2005. Check back often as I have seen the advance draft of this book and it has a lot of promise.

11580 KB RAR Download
PDF File

Fallen Giant: The Amazing Story of Hank Greenberg and the History of AIG
By Ron Shelp, Al Ehrbar


Publisher: Wiley
Number Of Pages: 228
Publication Date: 2006-10-06
ISBN-10 / ASIN: 047191696X
ISBN-13 / EAN: 9780471916963
Binding: Hardcover


Book Description:

In Fallen Giant, author Ron Shelp—who worked within the AIG organization for more than a decade—sheds light on AIG, the company, and Hank Greenberg, the man. Through in-depth research, candid interviews, and firsthand experiences, Shelp provides a detailed look at how AIG was originally created and reveals how Greenberg’s unrelenting drive to be the best may have led to his untimely departure from AIG.



Summary: Decent background of AIG
Rating: 4

I bought this book to help me through my interview process at AIG. In short - It helped and was worth my time and money. AIG is really Hank Greenberg, and knowing the background of Hank Greenberg helps understand the culture of AIG. While there are spelling mistakes in the book, its well written, and worth a read if you are interested in the company.

By the way, the job is great.


Summary: Real men play it Greenbergs way.
Rating: 5

Great read about a facinating Company, its origins in China and founder
C. V. Starr. Greenberg takes over and "takes no prisoners" . With a
"don't get in my way" view of his indusrty and the world it's like watching a puppet show with Greenberg pulling the strings. Its a global story with good, bad and shady characters ripe for pushing around. Money always got the troops to do it his way even if they didn't understand the end game.

Everyone wants something but Greenberg gets it his way.
Did he not see Spitzer's name on the menu. Take the book on your next flight and don't count Greenberg out yet.


Summary: A Fascinating History of a Unique Corporation
Rating: 5

In an era of unending huge money dot com boom and bust stories, it is fascinating to read the history of one of America's largest companies. From it's shoestring beginnings to it's legal problems that led to the falling of the giant, this book unveils all of the inner workings of the American International Group. There are lots of analysis and commentary about major corporations, but it is rare to find such a view from the inside that allows the reader to discover what was actually occurring on a very personal level. All of the genius and the flaws of the leaders of AIG are presented in such a way that the reader can understand how this company could grow from nothing to gigantic, and yet at the same time how it could overreach to the point where the legal authorities caught up with them. Hank Greenberg stated that a company like AIG could not be created today (given the legal and political environment in which we live). This book very clearly shows why that is a valid statement. Whether you are a fan or foe of corporate America, this book is a must read to see what really goes on inside the boardroom walls.

1349 KB

From Knowledge to Intelligence: Creating Competitive Advantage in the Next Economy
by Helen N. Rothberg, G. Scott Erickson,

By Helen N. Rothberg, G. Scott Erickson,
Publisher: Butterworth-Heinemann
Number Of Pages: 400
Publication Date: 2004-09-07
Sales Rank: 1000445
ISBN / ASIN: 0750677627
EAN: 9780750677622
Binding: Paperback
Manufacturer: Butterworth-Heinemann
Studio: Butterworth-Heinemann
Average Rating: 4
Total Reviews: 1




Book Description:

In the New Economy, intelligence will be essential for firms to gain competitive advantagenot just information or knowledge. Competitive intelligence, or the strategic gathering of knowledge about competitors, climate, trends, new products, has a long and successful history of generating competitive advantage. In this book, Rothberg and Erickson demonstrate how corporations can combine their competitive intelligence gathering with their internal knowledge management gathering into one dynamic system. Using real-world cases from the corporate world, the authors show how the strategic use of this combined system generates measurable competitive advantage. Topics covered include how be develop your strategy for sharing and gathering knowledge across the value chain, sustainable product development and innovation, manufacturing improvement, CRM and marketing, and developing a corporate-wide global knowledge strategy.

*The first book to show how competitive intelligence practices can add value to knowledge management systems
*Written for practitioners, the book is filled with real examples from the corporate world
*Demonstrates how corporations can use internal and external information gathering strategically to gain competitive advantage

PDF
Size: 1.29 MB

So Smart But...: How Intelligent People Lose Credibility - and How They Can Get it Back
By Allen N. Weiner


Publisher: Jossey-Bass
Number Of Pages: 224
Publication Date: 2006-10-27
ISBN-10 / ASIN: 0787985740
ISBN-13 / EAN: 9780787985745
Binding: Hardcover


Book Description:

This fascinating book demonstrates that to be a good communicator and therefore an effective manager, a person must have five qualities in order to be viewed as totally credible–competence, character, composure, sociability, and extroversion. While some executives seem to possess all these qualities and be born with savvy communication skills, Weiner shows how anyone can find ways to make measurable improvements in how they present themselves that will enhance their credibility.



Summary: An outstanding symptom based book that helps interpersonal communications
Rating: 4

Riding on his SMART concept/system (style, message, arena, receiver and timing), the author had delivered an oustanding symptom based (please refer to the table of content) book that helps interpersonal communications. Despite the many minor drawbacks as already raised by other reviewers, the book is highly enjoyable and helpful as a whole. In particular I like the many examples of how to demonstrate 1) main point, breadth, depth, height, sight 2) problem, cause, consequence, solution, action even in short messages. In short, a well thought through book and did "tell me (a serious reader) something I dont know" as promised explicity in the Introduction. Recommended!

Below please find some of my favorite passages for your reference:-

When people talk about "executive presence," they are talking about the credibility factor we call composure. Composure is a measure of how well you have things under control. When you have composure the people who are looking to you for that quality of control experience significantly less stress. pg 49

Ask your colleagues. "What do you do on weekends?" It's a lot more invitating than, "Tell me about yourself." pg 112

Your colleagues and most certainly your seniors like to see you with a passion for the job, a fire in the belly......No one looks at exactly what we're doing when we come in early.... It simply says, "I like to get started early." It shows passion for work. And staying later to make up for coming in late doesnt help that much. pg 124


Summary: Great information; however...
Rating: 4

First of all, let me say that I come to this book from the perspective of an Information Technology (IT) professional. In other words, I come from a large pool of people who are often seen as So Smart But... I firmly believe that this book will be of exceptional value to those of us in the IT community. While there are issues with the book (is any book perfect?) that I point out in this review, this should not detract from the tremendous benefit that it will bring to your career and life as a person working in any technical specialty (legal, health care, engineering, computer technoloty, etc.).

The author of So Smart But... does a phenomenal job of pointing out the need for better communication skills through credibility and what I call "entire communications" - it's more than just your words, tone and body language that we hear about so often. I have to disagree with the reviewer who said that the figure on page 20 seems unrelated to the text. It is very obviously related to the text; however, the review may mean to suggest that a lot is left to the reader in the way of interperting the meaning of the numbers in the image. I think the author is attempting to say that these various "breadth" factors are worth a certain amount in the decision process. To be sure, we would need clarification from the author. Indeed, this is one of my "howevers".

The other "however" is that the author starts by setting the bar VERY high and then proceeds to almost reach it or maybe even reach it. The problem is that, when I set the bar high, I have to leap over the bar in a big way or many will think I've failed. I'm sure the author understands this, but the book seems to have reached the bar only.

This bar is set in the Introduction when the author states, "So Smart But... intends to be the answer to your demand, 'Tell me something I don't know!' I would not be pleased if you, the reader, reacted to So Smart But... by saying, 'It's common sense.' Believe me, everything here should make sense, but it shouldn't be common sense." Here is the mistake: "everything here... shouldn't be common sense." Most readers will interpret that as, "I am about to read ALL new information." The problem for the author is that most of his readers will not be people who need the book... it will be people who read these types of books because they are self-improvement junkies. It it near impossible to surprise us self-improvement addicts.

That said, there were many places where the book made me say, "Hmmm...". One area was an insight of opposition. In other words, the author tells the story of a training attendee who mocked his use of the phrase "he goes" instead of "he says" or "he said". The author says he stated:

"I told the man that he should speak with more energy, and he goes, 'It was...'"

To this attendee, I go, "Perfect grammar does NOT make a good communicator. In fact, it usually leads to VERY poor communications. You must communicate in a way that connects to your audience. I'm sure most of the people that day were not only fine with it, but enjoyed the casual style of speaking." I've learned, after more than 1200 days of training, that you can't please every one, so on "I go".

In addition to this insight, there were MANY amazingly good tips and techniques throughout the book. My measure of a communication skills book is based on whether the author quotes the false information that only 7% of your message comes from your words. This is thrown around in a lot of communication skills books and is a legend based on shoddy investigation of thorough research (the original research was thorough and the investigation of that research by most modern authors is shoddy). Albert would not be happy to know that people have now twisted his research so. Thankfully, this book does NOT misrepresent, or even use, this statistic. In fact, pages 94 and 95 show a very proper respect for language.

Overall, the book definitely taught me some things I didn't already know. That's a positive, in my book, since I've read at least fifty book on communications skills over the years. Good job Mr. Weiner. In your next book (paperback version?), you might consider taming down the promise in the introduction; however, I hope your readers can overcome this issue because the book is actually very well worth reading.

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Crisis Management by Apology: Corporate Responses to Allegations of Wrongdoing (Lea's Communication Series) (Lea's Communication Series)
By Keith Michael Hearit


Publisher: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates
Number Of Pages: 264
Publication Date: 2005-08-15
ISBN-10 / ASIN: 0805837884
ISBN-13 / EAN: 9780805837889
Binding: Hardcover


Product Description:

Crisis Management by Apology: Corporate Response to Allegations of Wrongdoing examines the role of apologia and apology in response to public attack. Author Keith Michael Hearit provides an introduction to these common components of public life, and considers a diverse list of subjects, from public figures and individuals to corporations and institutions. He explores the motivations and rationales behind apologies, and considers the ethics and legal liabilities of these actions. Hearit provides case studies throughout the volume, with many familiar examples from recent events in the United States, and includes an international apology-making case from Japan. The broad-perspective approach of this volume makes the content relevant and appealing to practitioners and scholars in public relations, business communications, and management. It is a valuable text for courses that take a discursive approach to public relations, and it also appeals to readers in business management, examining apology as a response strategy to corporate crises.



Summary: Practical and relevant
Rating: 4

Practical and excellent piece of work for daily use and reference.
Contains good and recent studies of real-world incidents, which the author has discussed and analysised these incidents in great details from many useful angles with regards to crisis response, communication, etc.

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Visible Librarian: Asserting Your Value with Marketing and Advocacy
By Judith A. Siess


Publisher: American Library Association
Number Of Pages: 172
Publication Date: 2003-01-01
ISBN-10 / ASIN: 0838908489
ISBN-13 / EAN: 9780838908488
Binding: Paperback


Summary: A superbly presented guide for librarians
Rating: 5

The Visible Librarian: Asserting Your Value With Marketing And Advocacy by Judith A. Siess (President, Information Bridges International Inc. and publisher of "The One-Person Library: A Newsletter for Librarians and Management") is a deftly written and superbly presented guide for librarians which is especially timely in an era of economically strained time marked with corporate library downsizing, academic library retrenchment, and public library closures. Straightforward marketing, customer service, and public relations techniques for librarians and library managers make The Visible Librarian a practical, easy-to-follow, in-depth, and strongly recommended instructional guide for effectively promoting the enrichment and value of library services to its patrons and service communities.


Summary: Another Great Resource!
Rating: 5

Having previewed a pre-press copy of Judith's latest book, The Visible Librarian, I would wholeheartedly recommend it to solo and team librarians, alike! Whether you are new to the profession or an experienced information professional, you'll find The Visible Librarian to be a wonderful resource in this time of career and economic uncertainty!

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