Book Description
Almost all the organizing books on the market today target the "left-brainer" - people who are generally disciplined, neat, and analytical. But for those who are more creative and spontaneous rather than logical and detail-oriented, help is on the way! In this book, Silber turns traditional organizing advice on its head and offers unique solutions that complement the unorthodox lifestyle of the creative "right-brainer."For example:* Discover how right-brainers can be organized in a left-brain world* Overcome obstacles that stand in the way of being more organized* Pile, don't file - put paper in its place the right-brained way* Learn how being a "pack rat" can be a good thingThis creative new approach to getting it together is perfect for those who can't relate to boring traditional organizing techniques!Customer Reviews:
Very Helpful !.......2007-09-23
Being Messy Doesn't Make You a Bad Person.......2006-07-06
Just Okay.......2006-02-25
Best Organizing Book For Creative Types.......2005-12-19
Great book for those looking for a different perspective.......2005-12-13
Average customer rating:
|
Build Your Own Garage: Blueprints and Tools to Unleash Your Company's Hidden Creativity
Bernd H. Schmitt , and Laura Brown Manufacturer: Free Press ProductGroup: Book Binding: Hardcover Similar Items:
ASIN: 0743202600 |
Amazon.com
Ever since Hewlett-Packard emerged from one in 1939, a "garage" has come to symbolize the no-holds-barred mentality that fosters the kind of creativity that drove this company--and the dozens more it spawned--to heights theretofore unknown. Bernd Schmitt, a Columbia Business School professor who has written several well-received marketing books (Experiential Marketing, Marketing Aesthetics) takes this image to the next level in Build Your Own Garage by relaying strategies that readers can adapt to their own enterprises whether they are housed in a converted parking structure or not.As one might suspect from a book that advocates the unorthodox, Schmitt chooses to deliver his ideas in an unconventional manner. Each chapter begins with an elaborate short story by Laura Brown that encapsulates its central concepts (such as a vampire tale based on Bram Stoker's Dracula that illustrates how "the strictures of traditional corporate culture are enough to suck the life energy out of anyone"). Also sprinkled throughout are photographs and images by graphic artist Gail Anderson, which simultaneously reinforce the book's themes (on topics including technology, branding and "customer experience management") and distance it from buttoned-down management tomes that espouse the very group-think Schmitt is trying to eliminate. Those seeking new ideas who are not turned off by unique presentations should find this intriguing. --Howard Rothman
Book Description
Is your company all bizz -- filled with professional managers, accountants, and financial planners who produce "smooth operations" but offer no customer savvy or soul? Or is it all buzz -- filled with talk, hype, and the brainstorming of half-cooked ideas that often lead nowhere?
To capture the best of these dichotomous worlds, creativity expert Bernd H. Schmitt and accomplished business writer Laura Brown introduce a groundbreaking model of a creative organization they call "The Garage." This powerful new framework demonstrates how any executive can manage the creative tension between the analytic, rational side of business and its dynamic, innovative side. After laying out the broad mission, or "blueprint," for constructing The Garage, Schmitt and Brown present The Toolbox -- specific instruments for infusing creativity into all aspects of a business -- and show how to use The Blueprint and The Toolbox as essential strategy, recruiting, resource, and communications devices. At the center of this immensely readable book are the "Mastercrafts of The Garage" -- technology, branding, and customer-experience management -- the organizational forces that guarantee creative efforts are coordinated and well implemented to provide competitive advantage.
To illustrate particular aspects of creativity, Schmitt and Brown open each chapter with a story or "business parable," each written in a different genre -- horror, detective, love story, or fairy tale -- accompanied by evocative photographs. They also draw on scores of cutting-edge examples of creative, innovative ventures such as American Express's Blue, W Hotels, Eli Lilly's "Answers That Matter," SAP, and NTT DoCoMo's i-mode.
Build Your Own Garage is timely and instructive reading for any manager charged with the mandate to bring to market quickly the most useful and innovative products and services. The book's Web site is www.BuildTheGarage.com
Customer Reviews:
All Buzz and No Bizz.......2005-03-05
Clever stories but no handbook.......2001-12-31
Wake-Up Call for Traditional Marketing Literature.......2001-10-31
Build Your Own Garage.......2001-08-08
Sparking Corporate Creativity.......2001-08-08
I believe that "Build Your Own Garage" is the first business book on creativity that really expresses the complexity of the creative process. Encouraging and managing creativity in a large organization is not a simple job. Schmitt and Brown approach the topic from different angles--analyzing the role of creativity in business organizations, detailing real-world examples of creative initiatives, and also offering creative "business parables" to show different facets of creativity in the workplace. (Look especially for the vampire story about "the Corporate Undead"!)
For all its quirkiness, "Build Your Own Garage" deals with corporate creativity in a down-to-earth way. This is not a giddy, dot-com, anything-goes approach to creativity. The book fully acknowledges the importance of business fundamentals and proposes a variety of realistic techniques to improve performance through creativity. Not surprisingly given Schmitt's background, the chapter on Branding is particularly strong.
"Build Your Own Garage" is a quick and enjoyable read that offers some useful insights into corporate creativity. I highly recommend it.
Average customer rating:
|
101 Activities for Kids in Tight Spaces: At the Doctor's Office, on Car, Train, and Plane Trips, Home Sick in Bed . . .
Carol S. Kranowitz Manufacturer: St. Martin's Griffin ProductGroup: Book Binding: Paperback Similar Items:
Accessories:
ASIN: 0312134207 |
Book Description
You can never have enough space. And if you can't, just think of your kids--all the time they have to spend in tight spaces--like cars, planes, trains, the doctor's office, the grocery store, being sick or housebound, waiting in line. Kids need room to move around, but there are many times when they just plain can't have it.While raising two exuberant boys, teaching preschool, leading Cub Scouts, and running a birthday party business, Carol Kranowitz came up with savvy, creative ways to keep kids content in tight spaces. Her activity ideas combine old standbys with new ones born of desperation and cramped quarters. They follow a philosophy that helps kids develop their different skills and abilities while entertaining themselves and interacting.You'll find great projects for every imaginable small space parents and children encounter:Fun Food for Tiny Kitchens: Ants on a Log, Footprints in the Snow, and Aiken Drum FacesIn the Urban Community: Windowsill Garden, Bug Jar, and Corn-on-the-SpongeWhen the Walls Seem to Be Closing In: Pillow Crashing, People Sandwich, and Teeter-TotterWhen what you've got is a small space and a restless child, what you need are 101 ingenious solutions--right away. Here they are--easy to implement, creative fun for the three to seven-year-old--activities that can turn tough moments into teachable, terrific ones.Customer Reviews:
101 Activities for Kids in Tight Spaces.......2006-11-12
disappointing.......2005-01-17
Great book!.......1999-03-25
One basic problem with this book--.......1998-04-20
Average customer rating: |
Six Sigma Tool Navigator: The Master Guide for Teams (Tool Navigator)
Walter J. Michalski Manufacturer: Productivity Press ProductGroup: Book Binding: Paperback Similar Items:
ASIN: 1563272954 |
Book Description
Six Sigma Tool NavigatorThe Master Guide for Teams
Walter J. Michalski and Dana G. King
Six Sigma Tool Navigator is the only lean resource that provides a complete compendium of tools for teams engaged in Six Sigma improvement activities. In addition, it offers actual tools, definitions and techniques you need to move your organization closer to producing minimal defects.
Six Sigma Tool Navigator includes a complete collection of the latest improvement techniques and Six Sigma tool strings. The tool strings allow Six Sigma teams to combine Six Sigma tools to accomplish a particular outcome.
Highlights include:
· Over 70 tool string flowcharts
· More than 100 illustrated tools including tables, matrices, flowcharts, networks, and diagrams
· A Six Sigma tools cross reference section
· Comprehensive statistical tables
· 222 tools for improvement activities
Six Sigma Tool Navigator goes beyond mere definitions It acts as a true navigator, classifying each tool by process application, description of various applications of the tool, possible links to "before and after" tools, and problem-solving phases most applicable for the tool. And all of this information and guidance is provided in an easy-to-use format.
Six Sigma Tool Navigator will enhance your team facilitation skills and assist you at every step in your diverse problem-solving and process-improvement efforts.
Average customer rating:
|
Successful Writing at Work
Philip C. Kolin Manufacturer: Houghton Mifflin Company ProductGroup: Book Binding: Paperback Similar Items:
ASIN: 0618040234 |
Book Description
This best-selling text is more than a comprehensive introduction for the business writing course; it also serves as a post-college reference tool for students launching their careers. Successful Writing at Work takes a practical approach to prepare students for the wide array of communication tasks they will face on the job. The text is recognized for its abundance of realistic situations and problems, broad range of real-world examples, and detailed guidelines for drafting, editing, and producing professional documents and graphics.
To facilitate learning, the text is organized into four sections that build logically and sequentially. Part 1 introduces the basics: keys to effective writing, ethics, the writing process, and collaborative writing. Part 2 explores such simple business writing tasks as memos, types of business letters, emails, and how to conduct a job search. Part 3 covers the fine points of conducting research and documenting sources. Part 4 details more complex business communication activities, from designing visuals and web sites to writing proposals, drafting short and long reports, and making oral presentations.
Customer Reviews:
Excellent writing tool.......2002-04-03
The book is well prepared, easy to read, formatted and designed well for easy reference. You don't have to be a "writer" to use this book. It is for anyone who may write a memo to a proposal in business. I encourage the use of this book; as it is one of the better I have used. ....MzRizz
Average customer rating:
|
The Houdini Solution
Ernie Schenck Manufacturer: McGraw-Hill ProductGroup: Book Binding: Paperback Similar Items:
ASIN: 007146204X |
Book Description
Transform the shackles of conformity into the tools for generating amazing, unconventional results
Houdini performed his greatest tricks within the confines of a box. Now one of the advertising industry's brightest and most innovative stars shows you how to do likewise: to use the power of thinking inside the box to unleash the power of innate creativity.
Who hasn't been extremely creative when boxed into an exceedingly tight deadline or budget? The Houdini Solution introduces a radical theory of how to generate more focused and powerful ideas by accepting, and even thriving on, constraints instead of being controlled by them. Filled with inspiring anecdotes and intriguing exercises that will yield surprising results, this book will spur you on to unleash the full power of your creativity, work magic in the workplace, and succeed beyond your wildest dreams.
Customer Reviews:
Great, now even clients know how to get great work........2007-01-05
WWHD.......2006-12-16
The Handcuffs Are Off.......2006-12-12
A great book for anyone paid to use their noggin........2006-12-08
Constructs: bad. Boxes: good! Houdini: great!.......2006-11-19
Average customer rating:
|
Writing At Work : Professional Writing Skills for People on the Job
Edward L. Smith , and Stephen A. Bernhardt Manufacturer: McGraw-Hill ProductGroup: Book Binding: Paperback Similar Items:
ASIN: 0844259837 |
Book Description
Writing at Work is for people who do or will write while on the job whether the writing be an interoffice memo, e-mail, a status report, a lab report, marketing materials, or a letter to a customer. The philosophy behind Writing at Work is that such writing needn't be stale and unoriginal but can instead be a sophisticated piece of work that positively reflects the competence of its composer to all who read it. Rather than dwell on picky, little "rules" that you must adhere to when writing, Writing at Work focuses on the real rules of grammar and aspects of style that you really need to know in order to write with confidence. Using examples realistically drawn from work settings, Writing at Work presents each topic in a manner that is at once accessible and inviting. Spread throughout the text are exercises that provide you with ample opportunity to write, revise, and correct the kinds of written tasks typically encountered at work. You can immediately gauge your progress by checking your work against the answers listed at the end of each chapter.Customer Reviews:
Writing at Work works!.......2001-04-08
And I only had to re-write the last paragraph a few times....
Average customer rating:
|
The Other Office: Creative Workplace Design
Matt Stewart Manufacturer: Birkhäuser Basel ProductGroup: Book Binding: Hardcover Similar Items:
Accessories:
ASIN: 3764370483 |
Book Description
The world of work refuses to stand still: new technologies have a huge impact on office design and now that a great many employees have the freedom to do their work anywhere - on the road, at home, with clients - the general role of the office has altered significantly. The projects that make up The Other Office identify those offices that keep abreast of the rapid pace of change and, more importantly, set the pace. They achieve their goals in unique and creative ways. Their common denominator is that special quality with which they transcend the mundane requirements of planners' programs, a creative synthesis of the intuitive and the analytical, bringing a new sensibility to the workplace.Customer Reviews:
Aesthetically Beautiful Book @ Office Design! Must Have!.......2004-11-16
Average customer rating:
|
Office Of Assertion: An Art Of Rhetoric For Academic Essay
Scott F. Crider Manufacturer: Intercollegiate Studies Institute ProductGroup: Book Binding: Paperback Similar Items:
ASIN: 1932236457 |
Book Description
A frivolous argument or inflated claim is often dismissed with the reply, "That's just rhetoric!" But as Scott Crider explains in The Office of Assertion, the classical tradition of rhetoric is both a productive and a liberal art. The ability to employ rhetoric successfully can enable the student, as an effective communicator, to reflect qualities of soul through argument. In that sense, rhetoric is much more than a technical skill. Crider addresses the intelligent university student with respect and humor. This short but serious book is informed by both the ancient rhetorical tradition and recent discoveries concerning the writing process. Though practical, it is not simply a "how-to" manual; though philosophical, it never loses sight of writing itself. Crider combines practical guidance about how to improve an academic essay with reflection on the final purposes --educational, political, and philosophical--of such improvement.Customer Reviews:
Useless.......2007-08-23
Use the best tool for the job--this is the best tool........2007-04-05
Undergraduate Tool!.......2005-06-14
A Very Useful Book.......2005-05-16
Average customer rating:
|
Brewing a Creative Culture
The Staff of Dillanos Coffee Roasters Manufacturer: AuthorHouse ProductGroup: Book Binding: Paperback Similar Items: ASIN: 142083309X |
Book Description
If you walk through the front doors of Dillanos Specialty Coffee Roasters you will undoubtedly witness something not traditionally seen in most business settings. In fact, it would seem nothing short of outrageous. It's not the presence of charismatic leaders, although you will soon witness their presence. Rather, at any given moment, a delivery driver, a receptionist or salesperson would appear, acting as though they are the chief executive officer. They could be found straightening furniture in the lobby, picking up a misplaced paper coffee cup and tossing it in a trash can, or stepping over to the entry table to skillfully fan national magazines with Dillanos features. Management does it, minimum wage employees do it. Everybody does it. This personal ownership behavior is not rewarded with special monetary compensations, and there is no point system or other special award for such actions. Nor will you find a special monitoring system that watches if employees are living up to their job descriptions. Every business leader wonders at some point if they have the ability to motivate their employees to have an overwhelming personal pride and a sense of belonging in their company. They try to imagine a place where every staff member has a special family-like connection and share a set of common values. Brewing A Creative Culture will help small- to medium-sized business owners in any industry stop wondering. The key to creating a seamless team as passionate about their company's culture and profitable growth is blocked out into twelve inspiring formulas to blend outrageous fun with high accountability. Some readers will find the formulas familiar. But they'll be driven to action based on the book's unique approach of sharing Dillanos' story told directly by members of the staff. Whether viewpoints from the CEO and president, or delivery driver and warehouse manager, a delicate hand was used in rewriting their chapters. The idea for this book came from one of Dillanos; members of the sales department, not the CEO. What a perfect start to a project brimming with heart and soul. The twelve formulas for success are within every business leader's grasp. Each chapter gives exact examples during everyday life at Dillanos, and the reasons for applying each formula to meet company goals. By the time the reader reaches the conclusion of Brewing A Creative Culture, they are ready to grade how their company measures up to these solid motivational basics. Readers are armed with the inspiration and formulas to turn disenfranchised employees into unbelievably enthusiastic team members.Customer Reviews:
Best Advice Ever.......2005-03-04
Books:
Recommended Books