Book Description
Straightforward and engaging, MACROECONOMICS FOR TODAY, 5E uses a unique textual and visual learning system to present, reinforce and test your comprehension while teaching the basic concepts of economic principles and giving you the context to apply them in their everyday lives. This concise text focuses on core concepts, providing an extremely student friendly text that includes unparalleled pedagogy and teaching support. The new edition also includes ThomsonNOW, a powerhouse of online resources including custom designed learning paths, lively videos, interactive assessments, testing tools, and much more. Engaging and easy to use, this book's fast-paced, action-packed approach explains all the essential concepts without being encyclopedic as it teaches you to apply basic economic principles to real-world issues.
Customer Reviews:
new book with NO ACCESS CODE.......2007-02-24
I ordered this book because it was cheaper then on other sites. I bought it new for the purpose of not having to buy an additional access code for my online class. Since when bought new the access code to WebCT should come in the new book. I received the book with no CD. So after all that, I still had to pay an additional fee for a code when it should have came with the book. A very big hassle. I called customer service and all they said they could do was send me another book if I returned the book I had purchased to them. That would be an 8 week turn around, and by that time I would have been half way through my class. So instead I had to purchases the code on my own. I will not buy books from Amazon again. There are other text book web sites that understand the demands of buying books for schools.
Econ Text book.......2007-02-09
I found the text to be well written. Mr. Tucker is very thorough and yet concise in his layout of the chapters and it is very easy to read. The charts and graphs really illustrate what is being discussed and each section has a review section to reinforce what you have just read.
Book Description
Which SUVs are most likely to rollover? What cities have the unhealthiest drinking water? Which factories are the most dangerous polluters? What cereals are the most nutritious? In recent decades, governments have sought to provide answers to such critical questions through public disclosure to force manufacturers, water authorities, and others to improve their products and practices. Corporate financial disclosure, nutritional labels, and school report cards are examples of such targeted transparency policies. At best, they create a light-handed approach to governance that improves markets, enriches public discourse, and empowers citizens. But such policies are frequently ineffective or counterproductive. Based on an analysis of eighteen U.S. and international policies, Full Disclosure shows that information is often incomplete, incomprehensible, or irrelevant to consumers, investors, workers, and community residents. To be successful, transparency policies must be accurate, keep ahead of disclosers' efforts to find loopholes, and, above all, focus on the needs of ordinary citizens.
Customer Reviews:
Win-win book for ordinary citizens and policymakers .......2007-06-08
"Full Disclosure: Perils and Promise of Transparency" (Fung, Graham, and Weil 2007) is undoubtedly a first-rate book on a regulatory tool that is dynamic in nature. The authors acknowledge the promising, but sometimes perilous transparency(information disclosure) tool as a complement to the existing standards and market based policies in order to redress certain policy problems. The authors nicely interplay the factors of politics, economics, and cognitive powers of varying stakeholders to analyze the development and sustainability of existing and future domestic and global transparency policies. This book is not only a page turner, but a power analytical framework for analyzing the effectiveness and efficiency of a given transparency policy, the likes of financial disclosure laws and the global reporting of infectious diseases.
The authors present their arguments and evidence in a concise and understandable format which will allow ordinary citizens with little or no understanding of economics and governance to find this book a powerful guide and hopefully; after reading, become active participants in the movement for greater transparency in both the public and private sectors. Thus, this is a win-win book for both citizens and policymakers alike.
Lastly, the authors critically examine the advances in information technology like that of the Internet and related technologies such as instant messaging, online blogs, and online book reviews (here), which led to the rise of a third generation transparency systems that differs from the right-to-know and targeted transparency policies, the first and second generation transparency policies, respectively, because of the collaborative information sharing aspects of the new system.
On a side note, this book is right in time as there is a current debate on the medical care quality and cost disparity in the state of Massachusetts, US, which underscores the importance of transparency policies to improve a service quality that have might long term health care impacts for patients. All in all, this one of a kind book will serve as a guide for many generations to come.
With regards to Joel M. Kaufman May 8th, 2007's comment on the authors' limited awareness of corruption at different government agencies, it is possible that the previous commenter did not take into account the multi-layered definition of the politically correct term: "diverging interests of policymakers and other stakeholders of information disclosure," which the authors have reiterated on numerous occasions using similar phrases.
clear signals, not noise.......2007-05-22
What information sends clear signals to consumers and voters so they can make good decisions, and what is just more noise? Fung, Graham and Weil have carefully analyzed a range of what they call "targeted transparency" systems - from orange terror alerts to school performance ratings to soup labels - to identify the features of the systems that work. Although generally written for governmental policy makers, it's important reading for anyone who cares about a local, state, or federal issue and wants government to do a better job of informing citizens.
Good topic, some problems.......2007-05-09
Good discussion of how hard it is to find data on the safety of things from cars to food to investments. Goes into great detail about how to make interpretable ratings or labels, and what organizations should coperate to do them.
Authors prove own point by missing out on key data on several topics, and merely quote dogma. For example, the supposed dangers of "sodium" meaning sodium ion or salt (pp21,84,111) ignore key data that salt intake affects people both ways, and 10g/day is not that dangerous. See Elliott P et al. (1988). Intersalt: an international study of electrolyte excretion and blood pressure. Results for 24 hour urinary sodium and potassium excretion. British Medical Journal 297:319-328.
Authors quote dogma on high-fat foods and the supposed dangers of saturated fat (p33,53,84,111). See Enig M, Know Your Fats, 1999; Allan & Lutz, Life Without Bread, 2000; Ravnskov U, The Cholesterol Myths, Colpo A, The Great Cholesterol Con.
Authors cite fiber as a good thing (p88), but studies show some forms are beneficial for some conditions in some people, not nearly all, and many people are worse off with higher fiber intake. See Montonen J, Knekt P, Järvinen R, Aromaa A, Reunanen A (2003). Whole-grain and fiber intake and the incidence of type 2 diabetes. American Journal of Clinical Nutrition 77:622-629; Fuchs CS, Giovannucci EL, Colditz GA, Hunter DJ, Stampfer MJ, Rosner B, Speizer FE, Willett WC (1999). Dietary Fiber and the Risk of Colorectal Cancer and Adenoma in Women. New England Journal of Medicine 348(3):169-176.
Authors treat Material Safety Data Sheets descriptions of chemical hazards seriously. Try looking up salt, sugar powder and toluene MSDSs. You will see how hazardous these valuable substances are made to look. Then look up the sheet for bromine, which is really dangerous, and see that it is presented in much the same manner as toluene.
Authors call "speeding" a major cause of traffic crashes. Using the definition that "speeding" is driving faster than a posted speed limit, it is obvious that doing so on a road with light traffic in daylight is not dangerous and may prevent boredom. The definitive work was done from 1958-63 where the P. I. was Dr. Alfred L. Moseley working from the Harvard School of Public Health under a USPHS grant, found that fatal and serious crashes had multiple causes, including vehicle failure, weather, road hazards, driver error, but "speeding" was not one of them.
The authors seem unaware of the corruption at many of the government agencies. Just to pick on the FDA see Cohen JS, Overdose, 2001; Haley D, Politics in Healing, 2000; Moore TJ, Prescription for Disaster, 1998; DeGrandpre R, The Cult of Pharmacology, 2006.
Minor fussing over formats and inputs will not give us the clear disclosure we need because of the overwhelming corruption of responsible agencies as well as vendors.
Book Description
If you want to work with your traditional film images electronically, this is the guide that will finally show you how you can do it. "Mastering Digital Scanning" takes a photographer's viewpoint to the topic of digitizing, managing, and enhancing film-based images. You'll learn how to use your scanner's options to your best advantage and how to perfect your image once it becomes digital. You don't have to give up the advantages of conventional photography to enjoy the ease of digital manipulation!
Customer Reviews:
What a disappointment!.......2007-09-11
This book actually made me angry. I feel the title is misleading to the point of fraud. Not only will you not master slide scanning (or any scanning) with this book, you won't even get to first base. The author natters on and on about everything under the sun remotely connected to scanning but gives next to no information on how to actually scan! Some people are saying that it might be good for beginners, but I really disagree. It's almost completely lacking basic, basic information anybody, especially beginners, would need to get good results. I am in complete agreement with the critical reviews by Mark Zelyony, Bernd Schneitler, and Mick36522. Conversely, I am amazed at some of the laudatory reviews. Whatever you guys are smoking, I want some too!
The Book was great!.......2007-04-07
I thought the book went through step by step which is ferry help full I real recommend this to Slide person or somebody an pictures the book is ferry help full the best book on the shelf!!!!!!!!!!
Mastering Digital Scanning with Slides, Film & Transparencies.......2007-02-20
Excellent text and tons of infromation, too much for the casual user. For someone serious about scanning from film media it's excellent. Someone wanting to scan objects or photos should find another source.
Mastering scanner stuff buying.......2006-10-15
This book should have been called "What can you buy if you are thinking about playing with scanner", and it is good at that. It does not tell you much about scanning, it is more about buying equipment, and possibly software related to scanning. Just think about it: There is a chapter "Where to buy", and a chapter "Buying on ebay". There is no chapter "Do this if you miss shadow detail", though. This book is aimed at a high school student who is doing his/her first steps with a film camera and wants to get those pictures into the computer (is there such a person these days?) The book even mentions cross processing. No, it does not say what should you do if you need to scan a cross-processed film. It just says that you can process your film in the wrong developer and it will affect the image on the film.
I was greatly impressed by the chapter on sending off your slides for scanning. Well you definetly need a book to tell you that you can do that, and it greatly improves your scanning skills
If I had a chance to look at the book at the local store I would not ever buy it. Now it goes back to Amazon.
Thorough but general and basic: not a book of tutorials about scanning film.......2006-09-12
There is plenty of good information in this book, but none of it was particularly helpful to me.
I agree with the reviewer who said that "there is nothing here for someone seeking information about making scans from difficult transparencies". I've been scanning film off and on for several years. I was expecting/hoping for much more information of that kind of when I bought the book.
Anyone interested in this subject should spend some time looking through this book in a bookstore rather than just buying it online and hoping for the best, to see if it really meets your expectations or needs.
Book Description
If you have to be naked, you had better be buff. We are entering an extraordinary age of transparency, where businesses must for the first time make themselves clearly visible to shareholders, customers, employees, partners, and society. Financial data, employee grievances, internal memos, environmental disasters, product weaknesses, international protests, scandals and policies, good news and bad; all can be seen by anyone who knows where to look. Welcome to the world of the naked corporation. Transparency is revolutionizing every aspect of our economy and its industries and forcing firms to rethink their fundamental values.
Don Tapscott, bestselling author and one of the most sought after strategists and speakers in the business world, is famous for seeing into the future and pointing out both its forest and its trees. David Ticoll, visionary researcher, columnist, and consultant, has identified countless breakthrough trends at the intersection of technology and business strategy. These two longtime collaborators now offer a brilliant guide to the new age of openness. In The Naked Corporation, they explain how the new transparency has caused a power shift toward customers, employees, shareholders, and other stakeholders; how and where information has exploded; and how corporations across many industries have seized on transparency not as a challenge but as an opportunity.
Drawing on such examples as Chiquita's total turnaround on matters of ethics, to Shell Oil's reinvention of itself as an environmentally focused business, to Johnson & Johnson's longstanding and carefully nurtured reputation as a company worthy of trust -- as well as little-known examples from pharmaceuticals, insurance, high technology, and financial services -- Tapscott and Ticoll offer invaluable advice on how to lead the new age, rather than simply react to it.
The Naked Corporation is a book for managers, employees, investors, customers, and anyone who cares about the future of the corporation and society. A new age is upon us, and you can either work with it and thrive, or fight it and die.
Download Description
"If you have to be naked, you had better be buff. We are entering an extraordinary age of transparency, where businesses must for the first time make themselves clearly visible to shareholders, customers, employees, partners, and society. Financial data, employee grievances, internal memos, environmental disasters, product weaknesses, international protests, scandals and policies, good news and bad; all can be seen by anyone who knows where to look. Welcome to the world of the naked corporation. Transparency is revolutionizing every aspect of our economy and its industries and forcing firms to rethink their fundamental values. Don Tapscott, bestselling author and one of the most sought after strategists and speakers in the business world, is famous for seeing into the future and pointing out both its forest and its trees. David Ticoll, visionary researcher, columnist, and consultant, has identified countless breakthrough trends at the intersection of technology and business strategy. These two longtime collaborators now offer a brilliant guide to the new age of openness. In The Naked Corporation, they explain how the new transparency has caused a power shift toward customers, employees, shareholders, and other stakeholders; how and where information has exploded; and how corporations across many industries have seized on transparency not as a challenge but as an opportunity. Drawing on such examples as Chiquita's total turnaround on matters of ethics, to Shell Oil's reinvention of itself as an environmentally focused business, to Johnson & Johnson's longstanding and carefully nurtured reputation as a company worthy of trust -- as well as little-known examples from pharmaceuticals, insurance, high technology, and financial services -- Tapscott and Ticoll offer invaluable advice on how to lead the new age, rather than simply react to it.
Customer Reviews:
Fast shipping.......2007-07-05
This product was shipped to me quickly and was in good shape when it arrived.
Excellent insights into corporation's image control........2007-03-18
As a digital citizen and knowledge worker, I found this book valuable in explaining how, more than ever, corporations and their executives are being held more accountable by the public. And because information is instantaneous due to the internet, this book advises that corporations should have transparency plans built into their organizational strategies, lest they fall victim to bad press at some point. What is surprising, is unlike what companies want people to think, the average worker is now more empowered then ever to make companies have more integrity. The book also provides suggestions to planning around transparency and they site the companies who have come back after bad press. This book is complimentary to the books written by Peter Drucker and by John C. Bogle. Excellent!
SOX and Transparency.......2006-03-21
This is from my blog (which is why it is written this way)
On the Flight to Fremont, I read "The Naked Corporation - How the age of transparency will revolutionize business". You likely think I must have issues since I always read about "naked" (Like "Naked Conversations") but don't worry - its not like that. In this age of Search Engine Optimization, I wonder if the authors thought they might get more hits but that is another topic.
The Naked Corporation talks about the transparency needed in todays post Enron, post Worldcom environment. The basic thesis of the book is that this transparency is good. I agree. It talks about the benefits to the company for being transparent and how it saves money and builds support for the company.
If I have a counter view, it is not to transparency it is to Sarbanes Oxley (SOX) which attempts to legislate ethics and in doing so imparts a huge cost and overhead which ironically might hurt the very shareholders they seek to protect. In some cases, SOX is like buying a safe for $1000 to protect $500 worth of valuables.
The book actually did make the point that often companies are not transparent because the law requires them to complicate things. Just look at the filings and annual reports of many companies. Warren Buffet says "you should be able to understand the financial statements of a company in a few minutes".
One part of the book I found interesting was the story of poor ethics and no transparency at Chiquita Bananas. Fortunately, they have moved to high transparency and appear to have mended their ways. (Fortunate because I like bananas).
One quote which I love (and will use) is by Warren Buffet "If you lose dollars for the firm by bad decisions, I will be very understanding. If you lose reputation for the firm, I will be ruthless." I have believed for a long time the reputation is far more important than money. I like many of Warren Buffets' philosophies and in a article some years ago, EMJ was cited as being a perfect Warren Buffet company. I am not sure when it comes to ethics though that selling sugar water (Coke - on of Warren Buffets' companies) would count as good ethics. So as with everything, I need to filter what I like about someone from what I do not. Learn from the good.
Plenty of Insights.......2005-12-27
Authors Don Tapscott and David Ticoll examine the managerial implications of the age of transparency. Now that the Internet has enabled employees, suppliers, consumers, gadflies, critics and casual lookers to get and swap previously confidential information about companies, the business environment will never be its old self again. Companies have no confidentiality, no privacy and no way to dodge the truth. Those with nowhere to hide must to get accustomed to life in the open. It's not so bad. But to prosper in this wide-open world, managers need to understand that the new way of life has different demands than the old one. Although many of this book's recommendations have become fairly well known, we find plenty of insights that remain fresh and worth reading.
This is a great book.......2004-06-12
This is a very good book which has opened my eyes into looking for companies that are honest and transparent with their customers, shareholders and employees. This book calls companies to stop hidding behind secrets that destroy corporations (Enron and others) and start being transparent, by providing informaiton to your customers, shareholders and employees. Companies need to show that they are responsible to the environment, to their stakeholders and other corporations. This book is calling companies to be ethical in their daily transactions and gives example after example of corporations who have fallen because they tried to hide the truth. This book shows that we need strong ethical people to run todays corporations and we as investors need to reward companies who are starting to become transparent. At the same time we need to punish companies who are not taking responsibility for their actions and wrong doings. This book also points out that most investors are blind with their investments and don't even realize what their largest investment is invested in (for most people their largest investment is their pension plan, and I admit I don't know what mine is invested in). This is a very good book and has opened my eyes to at least see what's going on out there and provided me with the tools to do some research and make sure I reward companies that are making an effort to save our environment and be honest with employee's, investors, stakeholders, and customers. The one question I have is are we raising a generation that will be able to have the
qualities needed to run the corporations of tomorrow... Great book...
Book Description
Whether you are a new or seasoned user, you'll find everything you need to get started with Carrara 5 in The Carrara 5 Pro Handbook. This edition has been completely updated to teach everything you need to know about Carrara, especially many of the new and advanced features. Explore new and creative ways to use Carrara through a great collection of step-by-step tutorials written by industry experts, including two bonus comprehensive modeling tutorials with Eovia's newest application Hexagon. These hands-on tutorials progress from basic to advanced, guiding you from the basics of 3D modeling to the challenges of animation. The book is structured so that the process of creating 3D illustrations and animations flows logically from one chapter to another. And by using this approach you can easily learn the technical aspects of working with Carrara Pro and achieve a tangible understanding of the workflow involved in creating 3D content. By the end of the book, you'll know how to use the powerful tools of Carrara 5 Pro, have new and improved 3D skills, and have gained experience in 3D production concepts. This is a must-have resource for new and seasoned users a like!
Customer Reviews:
It's great ! Step by step modelling...like at school.......2007-07-30
I didn't want to use another 3d program as Carrara but I need it to build airplanes from drawn plans. This book gave me the possibility to understand how doing it! I have search around the web for tutorials on modelling airplanes or human figures But i never found something exaustive! This is a great book the only thing you need is to calm down your adventure spirit and follow step by step the author because sometimes result hard to understand even for novice like me.
A must have however !
A good book.......2006-06-14
This book covers a lot of modelling concepts for the beginner, and walks a person through the steps needed to model in a variety of ways (spline and vertex), and even has a chapter on modelling with Hexagon. Furthermore, the book briefly mentions the pro's and con's of UV, procedural, and projection mapping. Its tutorials are good for getting your feet wet, and a pretty thorough introduction to Carrara.
It may be missing some new Pro 5 features, so it might not be ideal for the seasoned Carrara veteran, however for beginners and intermediate people, its a fantastic resource.
I initially let some of the negative reviews persuade me from not buying the book, however with so few printed resources, I decided to get it. It was well worth the money spent, and I'm very glad I did buy it.
Much needed book!.......2006-06-05
Besides being the only Carrara book available besides the manual, this is still a great book. The author also wrote a Carrara 3 book, which has alot of the same wording, but the tutorials are different, so I recommend having both of them. The manual that comes with Carrara tells you what the program can do and the basic steps to do it, but this book tells you step by step how to do things. And sometimes you absolutely need to have two different views on things. Carrara is a low end 3D modeler, but it's still very hard to learn, not withstanding that even after two major patches, Carrara 5 is still a very buggy program!
Good Beginners Tutorial Book.......2006-03-16
This is a beginning/intermediate level book in tutorial format giving an introduction to 3D modelling using the Carrara 5 Pro software. 3D modelling is not simple, regardless of the software selected. And Carrara is no exception. This book though uses a step by step approach that introduces new terms like texturing, caustics and rendering with a combination of text and illustration that is as clear as any explanation that I've ever seen.
Throughout the book all kinds of images are used as illustrations. This includes fairly complex structures such as airplanes, cartoon characters, and human beings that get pretty close to photographic quality.
The book is supplied with a CD-ROM that includes a demonstration version of Carrara 5 Pro for Windows and Macintosh OS X. It also includes the modeler package Hexagon (Version 1.2). If you are thinking of a 3D package, this book with the demo software would clearly give you enough information to decide if Carrara is the package you want to use.
This book is the first one to come out that covers Carrera 5. Being the first, it isn't as complete as some of the other books will be. But once again, this is a book for beginners.
A solid book that is packed with useful tutorials.......2006-03-10
This a great book that really fills a void in the Carrara community. While there are many online resources for helping users learn this app, this is the only comprehensive project-based book available (other than the "Carrara 3 Handbook" by the same author). It is aimed primarily at the intermediate user; however, it contains some 3D basics available in the first few chapters to help beginners get up to speed, and some advanced tutorials in the last few chapters that advanced users can benefit from as well.
I could go into detail about the content of each chapter, but one of the reviewers above already does a great job at covering them.
The only reason I didn't give this book a full 5 stars (would have just gone with 4 and 1/2, if Amazon let me..) is because there are some cool new features of Carrara 5 that didn't make the book in time for its release. I will say that the upside to this is that we still have a huge book that was released within *just over a month* of the software's release.
Learning any 3D app is not easy. This book significantly cuts down on the learning curve with its project-based, easy-to-understand content. If you're looking for a glorified manual, then look elsewhere. If you want an informative, hands-on content-rich book that makes learning Carrara really fun and practical, then pick up this book. At around $30, you're absolutely getting your money's worth.
Book Description
A proven tool for sharpening one's competitive edge
Today's leading organizations have seized on the concept of transparency as the key to gaining the confidence of investors, employees, and customers--and gaining profits. In The Transparency Edge, leadership expert Barbara Pagano demonstrates that transparency is more than an excellent policy--it is a powerful management skill that managers can learn and use to make themselves and their organizations more competitive.
Presenting the nine behaviors that every successful leader uses to gain a transparency edge, Pagano shows readers how to use these techniques to build loyalty, gain trust, and establish an impeccable reputation for integrity. She also shows how this nothingto- hide approach enables organizations and their leaders to:
- Make decisions more efficiently and execute them more effectively
- Speed up operations
- Identify problems sooner and solve them faster
- Build trust and collaboration within the organization
- Establish a higher level of credibility
Customer Reviews:
Teaches well how to think about credibility and improve.......2005-03-13
This book does a great job of breaking up credibility into a few tangible categories and listing specific examples of how to apply the right touch to each of them -- being open without overdoing it, offering praise without coming across as insincere, etc. I was impressed front to back on the way that the authors dissected each dimension, provided insightful anecdotes, and supported them with metrics.
The biggest thing I didn't like is that it uses the "motherhood and apple pie" approach to convincing you of the value of most dimensions. There's sort of an implicit assumption that everything the book says sounds good, and therefore you must do it, resulting in... profit? If they'd not only pointed out studies that showed how many people were bad at certain things but were also more consistent in showing how each of their dimensions contribute to productivity of staff, profitability of the company, or some other company-specific metric, it would've been nice. I'm not saying that I necessarily disagree with them; rather that I don't like seeing people espouse behavior changes just because they "feel right."
Additionally, it's pretty clear they run a high-level executive consulting business. At times, it seemed too CEO / senior-VP focused, with the assumption that not only do you have reports, but that your reports have tiers of reports. Finally, the number of times that they mention the specific services they provided and specific role they played made it feel less like a self-help book and more like an advertisement for them.
Still, a good book and to be recommended, but I'd take it with a grain of salt at times. It triggered a little bit of cynicism more than once, though I'm sure that they'd be willing to work with me on that :-)
Insightful!.......2004-12-22
It's good to hear that employing a clear, open business policy can boost the bottom line and upgrade management. With all the recent corporate scandals, a management approach based on "what you see is what you get" is refreshing - and it works. Transparent management can increase employee morale, retention and productivity. Transparent leaders are better at their jobs and make a difference in people's lives. Using case studies and self-assessment surveys, authors Barbara and Elizabeth Pagano help potential leaders evaluate and hone their honesty and their leadership styles. The case studies in this easy to read, if slightly repetitive, volume help convey the authors' key points, which center on honesty, awareness and open communications. We recommend this value-enriched book to aspiring leaders, managers and executives who may be surprised to learn that transparent leadership is one of those intangibles that can produce concrete results.
Finally - Permission to be lead from the heart!.......2004-01-09
As someone who has inhabited a pretty competitive corner of corporate America for over 20 years, I can honestly say this book was like a lifeline.
With the huge generation of baby boomers all entering the business scene at the same time, I think a lot of us have felt tremendous pressure to conform to what seemed some pretty harsh norms. Being professional and getting ahead was all about being efficient - not taking the time to explain what was going on; being strong, which means never appearing vulnerable; being tough - which means focusing solely on the more easily quantified sales and profit implications of a decision, and shutting out the human factors.
I work in the communications/consulting business and, at every company I've worked for, senior management would get up every year at the annual meeting and say something like - "What sets us apart and gives us our competitive advantage is how we care about our people," and "The most valuable asset in this company goes home every evening." And everyone would just look at each other and roll their eyes, because nobody believed them!
If they cared so much, why didn't they tell us candidly the reasons behind some of their apparently uninformed and careless decisions? Even bad news would be better than all the confusion and speculation in the ranks when no-one knew what was going on. Why did they do all this management training, yet still knowingly tolerate bosses who brutalized their subordinates? Why did they ask for our suggestions - and even ask us to put extra time in volunteering for various corporate task forces - only to break their implied promise of change by ignoring everything we came up, and proceeding with business as usual?
As I moved up into management myself, I understood better what some of the pressures are that push the people in charge into some of these behaviors, and there were times when I found it hard to reconcile my own choices. I saw it as having to make a trade-off between what I thought was the right thing to do (i.e., my responsibility to my personal values), and doing the right thing for the company (i.e, my responsibility as a professional).
What The Transparency Edge does is show beyond a doubt that standing true to your values makes good business sense. Yes, it's harder to do sometimes, and yes, sometimes the benefits are long-term rather than immediate. But leaders have a responsibility to the long-term welfare of the company, which includes maintaining their own and their company's reputation, as well as creating the motivation for people to follow their leadership. Both of those goals are impossible to achieve without personal credibility. And personal credibility is built through conscientiously respecting the nine principles in this book.
Pagano demonstrates that, without question, the reason to behave transparently is not only because it's right, but because it's smart. What a breath of fresh air - it's about time!
Everyday Leadership for Managers.......2004-01-01
I really enjoy the stories in The Transparency Edge. It is a great reminder that we can choose to be better leaders in everything we do, everyday. Leadership concepts are hard to grasp generally. And illustrating these with personal experiences make these issues come alive for readers. The Paganos' conversational style also makes reading easy. I recommend this to those who are starting/doing 360 feedback. Such a feedback process can be rather disconcerting, as my first-time coachees have confirmed, and it is helpful to have a resource like Transparency Edge to act as a guide for reflection and new actions.
Hats off to these authors.......2003-12-18
This book has a magical combination of real life stories interwoven with principles and facts based on research. Not an easy mix to achieve. Hats off to these authors!
Evonne Weinhaus,
Co-author of Stop Struggling With Your Teen
& Stop Struggling With Your Child
Book Description
In the constantly evolving hedge fund marketplace, nothing is more central?but in many ways, more amorphous and elusive?than risk. Yet there remains no standard for analyzing and measuring risk within this highly secretive, largely unregulated field, leaving the thousands of hedge funds?and the tens of thousands of hedge fund investors?in dangerously dim light. Hedge Fund Risk Fundamentals is the first book to bring these issues to the forefront. With clarity, concision, and minimal math, Richard Horwitz lays out the key components and the cutting-edge processes in the field of hedge fund risk management today. Against that backdrop he presents a groundbreaking utility destined to set the standard for transparency and risk management within the hedge fund universe.
Customer Reviews:
Highly Recommended!.......2004-12-22
Hedge funds are complex, risky investment vehicles. Other funds, such as most equity mutual funds, have straightforward investment strategies. By contrast, equity-oriented hedge funds may engage in various trading practices and investment strategies. They may be short funds, long-short funds or market neutral funds. And equity-oriented hedge funds are only a small sliver of the hedge fund universe. Thus, assessing the risk of hedge funds is a challenge. In language intelligible to most lay readers, author Richard Horwitz lays out the issues to consider when evaluating hedge fund risks. He has accomplished a great deal merely by writing this in readable prose, instead of in equations. He also explains his company's hedge fund risk measurement system. We believe every hedge fund manager and anyone who even thinks of investing in a hedge fund should read this book.
A waste of time..and money.......2004-12-02
How can a risk manager in a hedge fund know so little about risk management? This book is the most simplistic -in the negative sense of the term- risk management book i have ever come accross. Unless you don't even know the most basic theories of risk management, do not waste you time reading this book. The most innovatice and only technical insight in this book is : 1 + 1 = 1.41, said differently: "don't put your eggs in the same basket". My grandma knew it already...and she died before hedge funds existed.
As for the transparency issue, no solutions are offered...just questions with no critical approach.
A new look at hedge funds and risk.......2004-11-02
With the increasing universe of alternative investments, comes a more difficult and complicated task of selection for many sophisticated investors. From quantitative analysis to qualitative assessment, this book covers a full spectrum of topics. It offers an interesting perspective and methodology in breaking down risks associated with investing in these highly complex and opaque strategies. Where transparency has always been an issue, it's like a breath of fresh air to finally find a method that satisfies both the disclosure-hungry investor, and the secretive hedge fund. The platform offers a unique way of bucketing and aggregating risks into logical styles and factors, which ultimately strips away the need for full position-level transparency. The comprehensive and flexible system allows investors to take advantage of useful tools and measurements that will aid them in better assessing risks and managing their portfolios. Finally, a book written for the risk gurus of the hedge fund world.
Product Description
Fine Art from the Spanish-speaking world, Activities that enhance student's appreciation of Fine Art
Book Description
Transparency has, in recent years, become a watchword for good governance. Policymakers and analysts alike evaluate political and economic institutionsâcourts, corporations, nation-statesâaccording to the transparency of their operating procedures. With the dawn of the New World Order and the âmutual veil droppingâ of the post–Cold War era, many have asserted that power in our contemporary world is more transparent than ever. Yet from the perspective of the relatively less privileged, the operation of power often appears opaque and unpredictable. Through vivid ethnographic analyses, Transparency and Conspiracy examines a vast range of expressions of the popular suspicion of powerâincluding forms of shamanism, sorcery, conspiracy theory, and urban legendsâilluminating them as ways of making sense of the world in the midst of tumultuous and uneven processes of modernization.
In this collection leading anthropologists reveal the variations and commonalities in conspiratorial thinking or occult cosmologies around the globeâin Korea, Tanzania, Mozambique, New York City, Indonesia, Mongolia, Nigeria, and Orange County, California. The contributors chronicle how people express profound suspicions of the United Nations, the state, political parties, police, courts, international financial institutions, banks, traders and shopkeepers, media, churches, intellectuals, and the wealthy. Rather than focusing on the veracity of these convictions, Transparency and Conspiracy investigates who believes what and why. It makes a compelling argument against the dismissal of conspiracy theories and occult cosmologies as antimodern, irrational oversimplifications, showing how these beliefs render the world more complex by calling attention to its contradictions and proposing alternative ways of understanding it.
Contributors. Misty Bastian, Karen McCarthy Brown, Jean Comaroff, John Comaroff, Susan Harding, Daniel Hellinger, Caroline Humphrey, Laurel Kendall, Todd Sanders, Albert Schrauwers, Kathleen Stewart, Harry G. West
Customer Reviews:
'how-to' book loaded with colorful examples from top weavers.......1998-06-07
Sheer Delight is an inspiring book loaded with wonderful transparencies done by expert weavers. It is explicit in its instructions for warping, attaching the cartoon and weaving. There has never been a book like this on transparancies before. Also included is a chapter on finishes and methods for display. Doramay Keasbys book is truly a 'Sheer Delight'.
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Accounting
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