Book Description
This concise and well written book integrates logistics into a supply chain management context.
Current events, along with new theory and practice make it a valuable reference for industry practitioners, and compliment material on the basics in warehousing, transportation, inventory, and packaging and material handling. More in-depth coverage includes service response logistics, logistics accounting, and reverse logistics. Also featured, are important chapters on service response logistics, logistics accounting, and reverse logistics.
For logistics analysts and managers, distribution analysts, warehouse managers, transportation analysts, supply chain management managers, and purchasing managers.
Average customer rating:
- I love Mayor Mike
- Bloomberg Could Change the Course of U.S. History
- A Serial Disruptor of trading, of newswires, of politics
- Conceited, but inspiring
- Bloomberg The Great. . .
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Bloomberg by Bloomberg
Michael Bloomberg
Manufacturer: Wiley
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ASIN: 0471208884 |
Amazon.com
Members of the world's financial communities are increasingly securing the information that drives them from Michael Bloomberg. His specialized media--including manipulable online data feeds, a global newswire, and extensive magazine and broadcast outlets--have turned the business of business news upside down. Along the way, he's made a substantial fortune and a significant name for himself. In Bloomberg by Bloomberg, he reveals (with help from colleague Matthew Winkler) how it all came to be.
Book Description
The remarkable story of how Michael Bloomberg created a media empire
"Lots of entrepreneurs make money. Lots of entrepreneurs who make money write books. Few of those books make you glad they did. This one does."-The New York Times Book Review
"A classic tale of a nimble, customer-focused, entrepreneurial David outsmarting bureaucratic, ossified, corporate Goliaths."-Business Week
"Entertaining, engaging, and informative, Bloomberg by Bloomberg is packed with great advice about how to start a lean, hungry company-and how to keep it that way."-Bryan Burrough, coauthor, Barbarians at the Gate
Brash, aggressive, and supremely self-confident, Michael Bloomberg, the visionary leader of the world's fastest-growing media empire, has been hailed as the new standard for what it takes to win in the Information Age. Dismissed from Salomon Brothers in 1981, Bloomberg immediately took his money and acerbic personality and started Bloomberg L.P. Bolstered by a $30 million investment from Merrill Lynch, the company and the man have been sprinting ahead of the pack ever since. Only twenty years after founding, he's at the top of his industry. And on June 5, 2001, he added mayoral candidate for New York City to his list of accomplishments and aspirations. If elected, powerhouse Michael Bloomberg will bring his own brand of leadership-and personal style-to the city that never sleeps.
Customer Reviews:
I love Mayor Mike.......2007-09-07
I'm a huge Mike Bloomberg fan, and really enjoyed the autobiographical parts of this novel and the story of his company's genesis. The generic computer stuff I could have done without, also the story didn't really flow and was a bit choppy. Overall a good, quick easy read. But I definitely could've used some more Bloomberg, Mike that is.
Unfortunately there is surprisingly very little written about this great man.
Bloomberg Could Change the Course of U.S. History.......2007-08-03
First, I apologize for the length of this review. I would not write at such length if I did not think the subject was of very great importance. I hope you may find the review useful.
Normally I do not review books of this genre but Michael Bloomberg, with his wealth, ambition, street smarts, and interest in political change, has appeared at a tipping point in the history of this country. He has no qualms about entering the political arena and with his vast fortune he could profoundly influence the course of our nation and ultimately that of the world. The question is, will he act wisely and with deep insight or will he use his wealth and influence in a well meaning but ultimately destructive manner?
Mike Bloomberg may be short in stature but if he gets it right he will be remembered as a towering, perhaps even heroic, figure in American history. If he gets it wrong though, all the fame and goodwill he has built up over the years will be lost forever. After reading this book I conclude that the capacity for great deeds is certainly there. The question is, will his ego get in the way?
Bloomberg by Bloomberg is a remarkable autobiography, as much for what it reveals about Mike Bloomberg the man and how he thinks as for the interesting and often amusing stories he tells about his rise from obscurity to fame and riches.
Bloomberg's success stems from seeing a niche in the world of high finance and filling it. He had a technically inclined mind (degree in electrical engineering), got an MBA from Harvard, and became a star Wall Street securities trader, or as he honestly describes it, a salesman. He had the immense good luck to be fired from Salomon Brothers and turned his $10 million severance into a $5 billion financial information empire.
In short he was at exactly the right place at exactly the right time with exactly the right skills and hard driving personality. He saw an opportunity to offer a unique and valuable service, used his brain, worked 12-hour days, six days a week for years, and lived the rags to riches American dream. But ultimately he was lucky.
What distinguishes Bloomberg from so many other self made men is that he is willingly acknowledges that luck played a large part in his success in life just as it does for each of us. This is but one example of the kind of honesty that pervades the book and one of the reasons I admire the man even though I disagree with him of a number of important public policy issues.
Actions not only speak louder than words, they inspire and motivate with far greater power. Bloomberg is not your stereotypical billionaire. He leads by example.
He was one of the youngest Eagle scouts in history. He used National Defense loans to pay his tuition at Johns Hopkins but when he was rejected for military service because of flat feet he didn't just say thanks for the pass from Vietnam and let it go at that. He tried to get his congressman and others to exert political influence to have the rejection overturned and his status changed to 1A, in those days a sure ticket to the jungles of Southeast Asia. He failed at the effort and never served but that one incident of trying to fulfill a commitment to duty speaks volumes about the man and stands in such glaring contrast to some others currently on the national political stage.
Bloomberg before he became mayor of New York drew the same salary as his lowest paid employee ($19,000 in 1998) and the rest of his remuneration came from his holdings in Bloomberg LP. When the company does well he and all of his employees share in the profits. If it does poorly everyone takes a pay cut. (Why does this sound like the way we were taught that capitalism is supposed to work?)
One of the nation's most generous philanthropists, Bloomberg approaches his stewardship to the community with the same energy and enthusiasm as he does to his business. And he is not shy in admitting he likes approval and being in the limelight. All of which gives him, for all his brashness and self promotion, an endearing humanness.
But if you are going to enter the national political arena during a time of great turmoil and danger, you had better know what you are doing and you better be prepared for the law of unintended consequences. If ever there was a time when this nation needed decisive but wise leadership this is it.
Bloomberg with typical bluntness admits "stubborn isn't a word I would use to describe myself; pigheaded is more appropriate." (p. 251). But he can also listen and after repeated prodding, eventually get the message. "One of us is stupid, and it's not him" he recalls when a budding entrepreneur, after four tries, finally convinced him to expand into broadcasting. (p. 115).
The most disappointing aspect of the book is Bloomberg's conventional thinking about a host of issues from the economy to education. Like most `futurologists' he extrapolates the present into future. The computers will be more powerful, the distribution systems will be faster. You'll be able to select just what you want and filter out the rest, etc. etc. This is not very deep stuff.
Yes, Bloomberg has made some major improvements in New York City schools. It's wonderful that more kids are graduating and math scores are up. Bloomberg with his 'take command' management style deserves much of the credit. But what good is it to go to college, study an lot of advanced math and physics to get a degree in computer science when Bill Gates wants to import thousands of computer scientists from India and pay them a faction of what similarly trained Americans would cost? It's the same story in field after field.
The problems facing this society go far deeper than simply bad management. They are in fact rooted in the very way contemporary technological society is organized. There are no doubt solutions but these would require changes far more sweeping than most elites are willing to admit.
Confronting them honestly would provoke a firestorm from vested interests, including powerful universities and think tanks who with arrogance and pomposity cling to outdated paradigms, and - with a handful of exceptions such as Lou Dobbs - the intellectual light weights who populate the media and parrot their pabulum. Bloomberg talks about thinking outside the box but at least the ideas in the book seem to indicate a pretty small box.
The mayor's solution to illegal guns in New York City: hire private detectives to hunt down gun stores in the South who sell to New York criminals, then sue them. He even got the U.S. Council of Mayors to sign on although some of them have since backed away after getting an earful from their constituents. Well intentioned but a totally futile approach in a country with 100-200 million firearms in civilian hands and 50,000 licensed gun dealers.
It turns out that less than one percent of the stores account for 40% of the guns used in crime in this country. Spend a lot of time, money and effort to shut down a handful of bad apples and the criminals will just go down the street to others. Plus, this kind of tactic raises a huge red flag in the minds of millions of potential supporters in Middle America who might otherwise be tempted to vote for him. Are there smarter solutions? Sure. Just contact the cities with low crime rates and find out how they tackle the problem.
This kind of short sighted, ill advised action lends credence to the belief that however brilliant a businessman and however well meaning he may be, Bloomberg appears more likely to sow havoc in 2008 than to bring unity, purpose, and direction to our nation. It is not a question of intelligence but of insight, two very different qualities.
Over the years I have worked for a number of men like Mike Bloomberg. In almost every case they have been excellent problem solvers and opportunists on the mundane level but hardly a one of them would qualify as a really deep strategic thinker. The key indicator is with whom do you surround yourself, very smart 'technicians' or the likes of Ray Kurzweil, Jared Diamond, and Paul Davies?
Funding an independent third party while not running as a candidate himself could have a profound and positive impact but it would demand the ultimate in personal self discipline and self sacrifice for a man with Bloomberg's ego. It would be the greatest challenge of his life.
Mike Bloomberg is a smart man with a good heart. I for one believe he's up to that challenge.
A Serial Disruptor of trading, of newswires, of politics.......2006-08-27
This book serves as a close-up case study of market disruption by a new entrant. In the early 1980s, Bloomberg's company, Bloomberg LLP, was a nobody, attempting to crack the financial news wire market, a mature business dominated by Reuters and Dow Jones.
Bloomberg had three big advantages (plus a strong confidence in his own gut instincts) that fit with the theory of market disruption that has emerged since:
1. He knew the customers and their evolving needs better than anyone because he had been a Wall Street trader for years;
2. He was bold enough to focus on what was not good enough for customers (collecting, manipulating, and processing financial data);
3. He recognized where the business had already been commoditized (earnings headlines and stock or bond quotes) and applied little innovation there;
Also a good inspirational biography. Like a great business, Bloomberg has reinvented himself several times, from Harvard student to trader to entrepreneur, to media exec, to politician.
Conceited, but inspiring.......2004-03-19
I do not like Michael Bloomberg's politics, but I respect him as a business leader. His information terminal has revolutionized the financial services industry, and it is always nice to see an American success story.
I bought my book at a discount place, and I am glad I did. It wasn't boring, but it didn't knock my socks off.
Bloomberg The Great. . ........2003-09-26
The book was not bad. Well worth the $.99 I paid for it but not much more. This Bloomberg is without doubt in love with himself. His story was not bad--probably not truthful either--but I had a hard time getting through the book. This man must be the most arrogant and pompous man in America. He thinks he's the second coming of Christ. Really. If you don't believe me read the book. He wants his name and mug on anything and everything he comes across. He even says that by donating money to universities and whatnot he's enabling future Nobel Prize winners to get their start; thus, he too is a Nobel recipient. He says he considers it his Nobel too. And he's also planned his daughters lives for them. When he's dead his daughters and ex-wife--boy would I love to hear her side--are to spend the rest of their lives distributing his billions to worthwhile foundations and charities. All and all the book was not bad. Being interested in the financial markets AND politics I thought the book might be worth the read. And it was. I just wish Michael would've stopped telling me how wonderful and great and superior he is to most human beings. And another thing, Mr. Bloomberg, being fired as a ten million dollar check is put into your hand is not a tragedy. And did you ever consider this? Put that check in the market and just settle for an 8-10 percent return while still living very comfortable as you try to be a better husband and father. Certinaly you're not going to convince me or any other reader that your family got much of your attention. All I took from this book was that Mr. Bloomberg, though a sucessful businessman, probably failed something horrible as a family man. Me personally, I'd rather focus my time and energy on my wife and kids. You make the world a better place by starting right there. Do you understand the power of exponetial growth?
Book Description
How Service Orientation Will Change Your Business
"The real value of this book is that it makes SOA and Web services, which are critical and business-transforming, crystal-clear to the layman, both business and IT leaders. The book stays focused on the real-world issues facing business and government institutions today. In an industry full of experts of many stripes, Ron and Jason are the real thing: savvy, experienced, and realistic. They have produced a must-read book for management."
—Paul Lipton, Senior Architect, Unicenter Web Services and Application Management Computer Associates
"This is by far the finest publication on SOA of our time. From cover to back, Service Orient or Be Doomed! strips away the layers of confusion most IT stakeholders face when confronted with enterprise architecture, and illustrates pragmatic and practical paths towards a sustainable and efficient enterprise architecture. Both the technically savvy and the bean counters will enjoy this book that speaks to the critical points they need to understand."
—Duane A. Nickull Senior Standards Strategist, Adobe Systems, Inc. Chair, OASIS SOA Reference Model Technical Committee Vice chair, United Nations CEFACT (UN/CEFACT)
"If you're looking for a guide that's based on reality, this is it. These guys know how you can service-orient your enterprise and have the best chance of success. This book is the best SOA tool you can buy. I'm recommending it to everyone."
—Dave Linthicum, CEO, BRIDGEWERX
"Jason and Ron are experts on Service-Oriented Architecture (SOA) and have written the first book that is aimed at helping a nontechnical businessperson understand why the SOA computing revolution is critical to business. Rather than provide a nerdy death via buzzword book, Jason and Ron take a humorous, clever, and insightful romp through this new technology and how it impacts business in general."
—Brad Feld, Mobius Venture Capital
Authors Jason Bloomberg and Ronald Schmelzer-senior analysts for highly respected IT advisory and analysis firm ZapThink-say it all in the title of their new book, Service Orient or Be Doomed!: How Service Orientation Will Change Your Business. That is, if you fail to service orient your company, you will fail in competing with the organizations that do.
This provocative new book takes service orientation out of its more familiar technological surroundings within service-oriented architecture and introduces it as a philosophy that advocates its rightful place within a business context, redefining it as a new way of thinking about organizing your business and its processes.
Informal, challenging, and intelligent in style, Service Orient or Be Doomed!: How Service Orientation Will Change Your Business shows you how you can best use technology resources to meet your company's business goals and empower your company to go from "stuck" to "competitive."
Customer Reviews:
Not a credible book.......2007-05-26
I was very disappointed with this book. The authors do not appear to have done adequate research, or were unable to draw reasonable conclusions. Here is a quote from page 27 where they discuss what they call the IT Rat's Nest.
"Remember, the reason people go down the path to the Rat's Nest is because at every step they select the cheapest, most expediant options and don't consider the long-term gains over short-term benefits"
What a bunch of crap. I have worked as an employee and as a consultant at 50 different companies and I can say that this is overwhelmingly NOT the reason for the rat's nest (which I agree exists). In reality, there are many reasons for the Rat's Nest including technology shifts, skill changes/availability, changes in hw/sw economics, changes in business and most frequently mergers/acquisitions. Yes, customers sometime take the cheap path, but often they just make mistakes, or are affected by other events, while they are trying to do the correct long-term thing. A well-designed DCE or CORBA app, no matter how well designed, is a legacy problem at this point no matter whether the IT people took a short-term or long-term approach. This is a big difference and the authors should have discussed that rather than copping out with a superficial, categorization. They might discuss all this in better detail later in the book but after 50 pages (my personal limit for giving the benfit of the doubt) I stopped reading this book. At that point I no longer thought the authors had the credibility to offer solutions when they clearly do not even understand the problem.
Can anyone make a recommendation for a more insightful SOA book?
A great source of ideas for business people.......2007-05-09
Service Orient or be Doomed is an excellent approach to SOA for non-technical people who wants to make IT based businesses flexible enough to match markets evolution.
This is my sixth purchase of the book. I bought it for my personal reading during 2006, and after that I decided to buy additional copies to give as a gift to some of my business colleagues here in Buenos Aires, Argentina.
Great book, easy reading and full of concepts and new ideas. I strongly recommend it.
Javier Bazo
Buenos Aires
Argentina
A must read for executives, managers, architects & analysts.......2007-03-06
Overview
Having read a number of other SOA books, I've developed a pretty sound foundation of what SOA is in terms of the technologies that form its basis, and the relative importance of introducing a service abstraction layer between the business and IS domains.
However, this book (Service Orient or Be Doomed!) caught my attention for two fundamental reasons:
1. It has a strong Amazon rating, and
2. It provides a business (vice technical) perspective on the importance of SOA
I started reading the book late last week and quickly found it to be very well written and absolutely compelling with respect to the message that it conveys. The book's message looks something like this:
* Companies need to be more agile than ever in order to compete in today's economy
* Existing technical solutions are inflexible and prevent business agility
* Service-Oriented Architecture can result in increased business agility, more flexible technical solutions and significant ROI over time
* To make SOA viable, the business itself must become Service-Oriented, which means the technical concepts of abstraction, encapsulation and design-by-contract are now important business constructs that result in a more loosely coupled relationship between business activities (e.g. processes) and automation technologies
* SOA requires the "business" and "technology" domains to converge around a new business organizational construct referred to as service domains
* IS must rethink its organization and technology strategies to better align with the Service-Oriented business
* Resistance to Service-Orientation and SOA is expected because of the level of requisite change
* To overcome the expected resistance and create business agility, SOA must be championed by a senior person or group
* SOA must be planned for, and must begin with small, targeted pilot implementations
* SOA (a discipline) is not equal to Web Services (a technology)
As one editorial review put it:
"Jason and Ron are experts on Service-Oriented Architecture (SOA) and have written the first book that is aimed at helping a nontechnical businessperson understand why the SOA computing revolution is critical to business. Rather than provide a nerdy death via buzzword book, Jason and Ron take a humorous, clever, and insightful romp through this new technology and how it impacts business in general."
I couldn't agree more. The authors obviously understand the technical side of SOA, but they've gone the extra mile and actually provided a more business-side treatment of Service-Orientation that makes a very strong case for the need for most businesses to implement changes - and in many cases large, difficult changes - or ... in their words ... be doomed to inflexibility and failure.
The first five or six chapters of the book focus almost entirely on building a case for the need for Service-Orientation by providing historical perspectives on such things as the dot-com bubble and even back as far as the Industrial Revolution. For non-technical readers (e.g. business folks), the first few chapters may be a little ho-hum, but for the technical reader, the content of these chapters lays a strong foundation upon which the remainder of the book is based. In particular, the authors demonstrate how existing technologies, including middleware, EAI and even standalone Web Services, handcuff the business by creating less-than-flexible solutions that are very resistant to changes ... changes that the business MUST make in order to remain efficient and competitive.
More than any other SOA book that I have read (and I've read most of them), this book effectively makes that case that new shared mental models need to be developed and advocated wherein business- and technical-concerns are integrated into a holistic view of the business that is centered on the notion of a business Service that depends on an array of equally important business resources, e.g. people, material, technology, time, money, etc. In effect, the existing walls between the business and IS domains need to be removed, and in their place a service layer abstraction created that allows the business to compose solutions from Services that conform to meta-data driven "contracts."
The net effect of this approach is a more loosely coupled continuum between business operations and the resources (including technology) that facilitate those operations.
However, this new Service-Orientation and overarching SOA landscape introduces new complexities and abstractions as payment for the increased levels of flexibility and business agility. To manage this new complexity, the business needs enterprise architects and enterprise architecture that drive the Service-Orientation perspective into the enterprise's SOA architecture, and manage the organizations "meta-requirement" for overall business agility.
The authors suggest, and I agree, that a new breed of "Service-Oriented Architect" is desperately needed by the business in order to champion the SOA principles and architectural mandates represented by the Service-Oriented approach.
As an example of the sort of quantum changes that need to be made by a company in order to embrace and adopt Service-Orientation and SOA, the authors note that Services are never really "complete", nor are their requirements ever stable. Instead, the business requirements that a Service may address are subject to frequent change as the business continues to adjust its goals and objectives to meet a continuously fluctuating business environment. Therefore, customary software development lifecycles (SDLC) (e.g., waterfall, spiral, iterative, etc.) are not applicable to Service development because SDLCs assume that a project is completed and a deliverable is promoted into a lifecycle that results in the deployed artifact eventually being retired. However, in the Service-Oriented paradigm, a Service is never completed in the sense that development work is done. Instead, the Service is constantly subjected to new requirements and ongoing refactoring activities in order to keep the service relevant and useful to the business.
Perhaps most importantly, the book puts the concept of a Service squarely in a business context and shows how loosely coupled Services can be composed into business solutions without any direct knowledge of (aka coupling to) underlying technical resources that ultimately implement the service. The authors go to great lengths to demonstrate how important the resulting "loosely coupled" relationship between business logic and program logic is to the business' overall agility.
Lastly, I thought that the authors did a fantastic job of demonstrating how current technologies and solution techniques are too narrowly scoped and result in overly tight coupling between business and technical resources, inconsistent with the requirements of Service-Orientation and SOA. Thus, they make a strong and logically based argument that major changes are needed in order to successfully bridge the business and technology concerns into a cohesive enterprise model that exhibits the necessary quality attributes needed to make the business more agile.
Without reservation, I would highly recommend this book to any company stakeholder and all managers, technicians, architects, analysts and executives interested in and/or concerned about business agility, Service-Orientation, SOA, risk management, process control or corporate compliance (just to name a few).
Strengths
Overall, I thought the book's greatest strength was its underlying "business side" emphasis relative to the whole Service-Orientation issue. The authors set out to convince businesspeople of the need to adopt Service-Orientation and SOA, and I believe they did a great job of doing just that.
While some of the historical background material may be old hat for some readers, I thought the authors did a good job of comparative analysis and in doing so provided a larger referential foundation that was effectively reused throughout the book.
Also, I found the authors' treatment of the concept of loose coupling to be one of the best non-technical examples that I've seen in quite some time. I expect that all readers, especially business managers and executives, will grasp the otherwise heavy-weight concept of coupling in such a way that the virtues of SOA will become more apparent from a business operations perspective, rather than a purely technical (e.g. encapsulation and data hiding) one.
I thought the authors did a great job of describing the role of an architect, and in particular the unique idiosyncrasies of the Service-Oriented Architect role. Additionally, they made a very strong case for the need for an Enterprise Architecture group and went so far as to suggest that EA may need to "own" the company's SOA effort and be properly budgeted to do so.
Finally, I think one of the book's most compelling arguments is that major changes are needed vis-à-vis the status quo in order to realize the business benefits manifest in the Service-Oriented paradigm. Implementing Web Services is not enough (it's actually an anti-pattern (read: bad)). Rather, the business needs to incorporate IT into the business planning process, and IT needs to prepare for that role by rethinking its integration strategies (in particular) and probably implementing a non-trivial reorganization in order to eliminate silos and embrace service domains.
Weaknesses
Overall, I didn't find many weaknesses with the book.
However, if I had to finger one aspect of the book with a critical eye (which doesn't necessarily imply that it is a "weakness"), I would perhaps suggest that the books content is very poignant in its assessment of the current state of IT practices, and clearly suggests that more than one legacy IT role may be on the chopping block when a well-formed SOA practice is finally implemented. I expect that some readers may quake in their boots when they read some of the harder-hitting assertions made by the authors. However, I tend to agree with most (if not all) of the author's points.
On second thought, there is one observation that I made which I am comfortable noting as a weakness. Throughout the book, the authors note that a Service is exposed as a Contracted Interface that defines the relationship between the service consumer and the service provider. Given the critical role of the Contract and the central role that it plays in the whole SOA service abstraction layer, I found it noteworthy that the authors never really provide an example of what a contacted interface would look like (format) or consist of (content model).
Otherwise, no other weaknesses noted.
Recommendations
I would highly recommend this book to all interested parties of SOA or Service-Oriented business architecture and analysis.
Perhaps more importantly, I would encourage the book's widest dissemination among business and IS leadership teams. Ultimately, the book's message is intended for them.
I would have given it more than 5 stars if I could have!.......2006-09-29
I truly would have given this book more than 5 stars if I could have, but Amazon allows only a maximum of 5. This is the only book that I know of that treats the notion of service orientation from a "business first" perspective, portraying technology as an enabling factor rather than a primary factor. And that is exactly the way it should be.
The authors also provide very valuable historical information regarding "how we got here" (e.g. history of the World Wide Web, etc.) which is a necessary part of understanding and applying the concept of service orientation. I highly recommend this book to both business and technical audiences. For business folks, it will provide them with a deep understanding and appreciation for service orientation and - as the title says - how it can truly change your business; and for technical folks, it will enable them to "stretch their mind" to see the true potential of technology when it is applied and viewed in the manner conveyed in this book.
A must-read...the only book of its kind. Bravo Jason and Ron!!!
Joseph Chiusano
Great SOA Overview for Non-Techies.......2006-07-30
Right from the beginning, the authors warn that this is not a technology book, but rather a business book about how new technologies will affect the business, what advantages they can bring, and how they will affect the organization. The book has a great outline which covers the topic from soup to nuts.
An entire chapter is devoted to the concepts of architecture, Enterprise Architecture and the relationship of SOA and EA. The authors clearly understand, and stress, the importance of an enterprise level approach to service orientation and identify the EA / SOA organization as the likely or best place for many of the artifacts, initiatives and other factors critical to SOA.
If you're struggling to explain SOA to the business or you're trying to implement or introduce SOA into your organization, pick up a copy of this book and pass it on the manager, business, CIO or CEO. This will be a great aid in getting the concepts of SOA (and incidentally, the importance of architecture) across to them.
Book Description
What do you get when you cross a journalist and a banker? A brewery, of course.
"A great city should have great beer. New York finally has, thanks to Brooklyn. Steve Hindy and Tom Potter provided it. Beer School explains how they did it: their mistakes as well as their triumphs. Steve writes with a journalist's skepticism-as though he has forgotten that he is reporting on himself. Tom is even less forgiving-he's a banker, after all. The inside story reads at times like a cautionary tale, but it is an account of a great and welcome achievement."
—Michael Jackson, The Beer Hunter(r)
"An accessible and insightful case study with terrific insight for aspiring entrepreneurs. And if that's not enough, it is all about beer!"
—Professor Murray Low, Executive Director, Lang Center for Entrepreneurship, Columbia Business School
"Great lessons on what every first-time entrepreneur will experience. Being down the block from the Brooklyn Brewery, I had firsthand witness to their positive impact on our community. I give Steve and Tom's book an A++!"
—Norm Brodsky, Senior Contributing Editor, Inc. magazine
"Beer School is a useful and entertaining book. In essence, this is the story of starting a beer business from scratch in New York City. The product is one readers can relate to, and the market is as tough as they get. What a fun challenge! The book can help not only those entrepreneurs who are starting a business but also those trying to grow one once it is established. Steve and Tom write with enthusiasm and insight about building their business. It is clear that they learned a lot along the way. Readers can learn from these lessons too."
—Michael Preston, Adjunct Professor, Lang Center for Entrepreneurship, Columbia Business School, and coauthor, The Road to Success: How to Manage Growth
"Although we (thankfully!) never had to deal with the Mob, being held up at gunpoint, or having our beer and equipment ripped off, we definitely identified with the challenges faced in those early days of cobbling a brewery together. The revealing story Steve and Tom tell about two partners entering a business out of passion, in an industry they knew little about, being seriously undercapitalized, with an overly naive business plan, and their ultimate success, is an inspiring tale."
—Ken Grossman, founder, Sierra Nevada Brewing Co.
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What do you get when you cross a journalist and a banker? A brewery, of course. ""A great city should have great beer. New York finally has, thanks to Brooklyn. Steve Hindy and Tom Potter provided it. Beer School explains how they did it: their mistakes as well as their triumphs. Steve writes with a journalist's skepticism-as though he has forgotten that he is reporting on himself. Tom is even less forgiving-he's a banker, after all. The inside story reads at times like a cautionary tale, but it is an account of a great and welcome achievement."" -Michael Jackson, The Beer Hunter(r) ""An accessible and insightful case study with terrific insight for aspiring entrepreneurs. And if that's not enough, it is all about beer!"" -Professor Murray Low, Executive Director, Lang Center for Entrepreneurship, Columbia Business School ""Great lessons on what every first-time entrepreneur will experience. Being down the block from the Brooklyn Brewery, I had firsthand witness to their positive impact on our community. I give Steve and Tom's book an A++!"" -Norm Brodsky, Senior Contributing Editor, Inc. magazine ""Beer School is a useful and entertaining book. In essence, this is the story of starting a beer business from scratch in New York City. The product is one readers can relate to, and the market is as tough as they get. What a fun challenge! The book can help not only those entrepreneurs who are starting a business but also those trying to grow one once it is established. Steve and Tom write with enthusiasm and insight about building their business. It is clear that they learned a lot along the way. Readers can learn from these lessons too."" -Michael Preston, Adjunct Professor, Lang Center for Entrepreneurship, Columbia Business School, and coauthor, The Road to Success: How to Manage Growth ""Although we (thankfully!) never had to deal with the Mob, being held up at gunpoint, or having our beer and equipment ripped off, we definitely identified with the challenges faced in those early days of cobbling a brewery together. The revealing story Steve and Tom tell about two partners entering a business out of passion, in an industry they knew little about, being seriously undercapitalized, with an overly naive business plan, and their ultimate success, is an inspiring tale."" -Ken Grossman, founder, Sierra Nevada Brewing Co.
Customer Reviews:
A well-written book that goes down as smoothly as Brooklyn Lager.......2007-08-23
I've no great interest in the brewery business, but I do enjoy well-written, instructive tales of entrepreneurship. 'Beer School' definitely falls into that category. One-time journalist and co-founder Steve Hindry can really write. No surprise there. The pleasant surprise is that ex-banker and fellow co-founder Tom Potter's chapters are just as enjoyable. Like their beer, the chapters go down smooth. The arrangement of the book makes it clear who's written what parts - the chapters are given names that start with either "Steve Tells..." or "Tom Tells...". Where Steve has written a chapter, we get Tom's viewpoint with "Tom Weighs In," and vice-versa. Sounds sort of clunky, but it's well executed by the co-authors. They clearly worked very closely in shaping a final, cohesive product. As a result, the format works well.
What drew me to the book originally was the forward by Mike Bloomberg. His endorsement is good enough for me.
A very good read.......2007-06-05
By nature, I am not a "reader"... I have a large stack of books that I've picked up over the years to pacify me while traveling. Most still have their respective airline ticket stubs safely marking the spot where I left off reading. So yes, it's a tad ironic that I'm now leaving a book review here... However, I read this cover-to-cover in two (long) evenings (that alone will tell anyone that knows me that this was a really good book!) so I'm at least qualified to comment on THIS one.
I've homebrewed for a couple of years and am in the early stages of investigating the feasibility of trying to make a living out of brewing. The story in the book really struck close to home for me... My potential partner and I work in fields that really couldn't be further from the brewing industry, much like the authors. While I know that the odds are against us, it was refreshing to read a story of someone that took a swing at it and hit a home run.
The book is by no means a step-by-step business plan for starting a brewery. It is much more a story of the trials and tribulations that faced them as they progressed from a crazy dream to a crazy success. It's a story about partnership. It's a story about taking a leap of faith. So don't purchase it expecting a step-by-step recipe for you to go out and quit your day job, but do purchase it and expect a general high-level look at starting a brewery, some good general business ideas that you may not have thought of, and a good story to tie it all together.
I found it to be a very honest, open story... The authors take turns writing chapters, and there were at least a couple of times that they were so honest that I caught myself thinking "Jeez, I'm pretty sure that the other guy's going to read this... Are you sure you wanted to say that?!" As you progress through the book though, you learn that this is just the relationship that they've built over the years... Very honest and open with one another whether it is good news or bad. I think that reading about the partnership was really one of the biggest take-aways that I got out of the book, but it certainly has more to offer than that.
In summary, I really enjoyed this book and would have no issues whatsoever giving it a very high recommendation for anyone that is considering starting ANY new business, brewery or not.
A+.......2007-02-28
I just finished Beer School and thoroughly enjoyed it. As a beer lover, and a fan of Brooklyn Brewery's products, I enjoyed learning about how the beer came to life, as well as the birth (rebirth?) of craft brewing in the United States. Mayor Bloomberg was right in the introduction, the book will make you thirsty.
As for the business aspect, I teach high school economics and intend to use some examples cited in Beer School to illustrate my lessons. If I taught on the college level, this book would be one of the required readings. It is a great example of entrepreneurship, economies of scale, marketing, start-ups, and business plans.
A fascinating story of triumph and trials..........2007-02-08
Just from a title perspective, this book was too good to pass up... Beer School: Bottling Success at the Brooklyn Brewery by Steve Hindy and Tom Potter. But even better, the book delivers the goods on a number of levels. One of the most enjoyable business book reads I've had in awhile...
Contents: Steve Tells How Choosing a Partner Is Like a Second Marriage; Steve Discusses the Importance of Building a Solid Team; Tom Talks about Creating the Business Plan - A Money-Raising Tool and More; Tom Asks, "What's the True Mission of the Business?"; Steve Discusses the Keys to Successfully Motivating Employees; Tom Tells the Story of Their Dot-Com Revolution - Fishing for Finance and Failing; Steve Talks about Building a Brewery in Brooklyn; Steve Discusses Publicity - The Press Wants You!; Steve Reveals How the Revolution Kills Its Leaders First; Tom Talks about Cashing Out and Reinventing the Business, Again; Tom Wants to Know If You Have What It Takes; Timeline; Index
Hindy was a foreign correspondent for a news agency, and Potter was an executive at a bank, but both felt as if they wanted to do something different in their lives. Their love of home-brew beer gave Hindy the idea of starting a brewery in their hometown of Brooklyn, a city rich with brewery history. Potter was less convinced about the whole project until he visited a homebrewer's convention in 1986. This was right at the start of the microbrew phenomenon, and they decided to seriously pursue their dream. The book chronicles their work from 1986 through 2005, while also distilling what they learned about entrepreneurship along the way. And since this is beer "school", each chapter ends with them giving themselves a grade on how they did in that particular area. Unlike many business books that make the principals all-knowning and omniscient, Hindy and Potter are brutally honest about what worked and what didn't, where they were skillful and where they got lucky. It's a fascinating read, both for the brewery story and for the business insights.
There aren't too many business books with stories about being robbed at gunpoint of $30000, visiting a metal fencing operation to get a fork-lift battery charger back, and getting a visit from organized crime and union leadership, intent on getting a piece of their business. Even if you dropped the business lessons, the narrative of the Brooklyn Brewery would be enough to make this a recommended read. When you add in the small business information, this becomes a must-read for anyone dreaming of starting their own business. And if you're already interested in homebrewing or microbrews, then this book will probably end up being read in a single sitting.
An excellent read on a number of levels...
Outstanding read!.......2007-01-05
Having been a Wall Street executuve during the crazy dot com days I can relate to what Steve and Tom went through. Lucky for them they started the business before the greed and craziness and were able to weather through decisions they made during that time that turned out badly.
I have helped finance dozens of start-ups and Beer school is an excellent source for those thinking of starting their own business. While non fiction it reads like a suspense novel
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Breaking Through: Implementing Customer Focus in Enterprises (Bloomberg Professional Library)
Sandra Vandermerwe
Manufacturer: Palgrave Macmillan
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Binding: Hardcover
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ASIN: 1403935033 |
Book Description
In this book the author brings together distinctive and cutting edge work based upon her own research and work with leading companies in the overlapping areas of strategy, marketing and innovation to provide a new and dynamic model to implement customer focus in enterprises. In an environment of falling margins the model shows how to increase value to customers and improve business results.
Book Description
The Handbook for Muni-Bond Issuers provides professionals with succinct guidance on what issuers need to know before beginning the issuance process - choosing a method of sale, getting the right financial advice, disclosure and legal guidelines, and lowering the cost of financing. It includes a detailed discussion of what happens prior to a sale through what to expect after the close. Author Joe Mysak takes issuers through the process, step-by-step, with smart answers and pragmatic strategies for success in today's muni-bond market. This book provides an insider's perspective on choosing a method of sale, finding the right financial advisers, what to expect from regulators, and earning a high credit rating.
Product Description
If you've ever worried about whether your child will handle money responsibly and become self-sufficient, worry no more. Jayne Pearl shows you how to "gimme-proof" your kids to help them develop the discipline they ll need to manage their own finances.
It includes great advice from parents, psychologists, teachers and other experts on allowances, getting to kids to want to save instead of forcing them to do so, transforming shopping trips from battles to fun learning experiences, innoculating them against questionable values the acquire from the media and friends, and helping kids land their first job.
For parents of kids anywhere from preschool to college, this book is a rich resource for launching your children on the road to financial success.
Customer Reviews:
An easy-to-understand, well-written parental guide.......2001-11-13
Jayne Pearl's Kids And Money: Giving Them The Savvy To Succeed Financially is a thoughtful, easy-to-understand, well-written parental guide to a the sticky conundrum of teaching children from age 4 to 18 on how to be responsible with their money. Various money-related milestones, from allowances and first jobs to credit cards and college, are all carefully navigated with frank, friendly wisdom. Tougher issues such as shoplifting, gambling, and overspending are also discussed, with practical advice for the wide gamut of family money situations. In an increasingly modern society where a few clicks of the computer mouse can drain one's credit card account as fast as electrical information can travel, money savvy is more important than ever, making Kids And Money a "must" for any parent whose children aren't already majoring in finance.
A Good Read!.......2001-04-17
Jayne A. Pearl shows you how to give your children financial roots and wings. By roots, she means good financial information, values, and ethics. By wings, she means encouraging kids to be confident, independent financial managers. While Jayne Pearl's information is thorough, some of it is specific to U.S. taxation laws and economic structures, which makes the book less useful to an international audience. We... recommend this book to parents who are concerned about their children's financial well being, and to those who need a refresher on good spending habits.
Money sense and family peace!.......1999-10-14
How many books do you know that have actually improved your life? We're not just talking finances here. This book will change the atmosphere in your family in ways you thought impossible.
Kids and Money convinced us to change our approach to allowances. Not only did we end up spending less by eliminating all those little "off-budget" extras, our kids suddenly became interested in getting value for their dollars. No more extravagant purchases that they wore once and forgot. And they began to take better care of the things they did buy. No more nagging!
Kids and Money is full of great advice on many other subjects. Including how to finance college if you didn't (or couldn't) start saving when the kids were born. And there's a terrific list of web resources at the end.
Everything I Never Knew..........1999-04-22
Financial matters to me are a big yawn, so it was great to read a book that made money something even I could understand. I don't know whether I've always handled my son's financial education in the best fashion, so it was reassuring to know that it isn't too late to make up for lost time. This book did a superb job of giving me actionable advice and -- for my husband and son -- lots of great websites to go to for more information. (Males will read anything that is on a website!) This book also makes a good reference for financial situations as they arise. My 11-year-old is nowhere near ready for college, but I'll keep the book handy for when the time comes...
I wish my parents had a book like this when I was a kid!.......1999-04-12
Reading Jayne Pearl's excellent book, Kids and Money, I was encouraged to find a roadmap to guide my daughter through the complexities of the financial world. Pearl's practical approach to teaching children ways of handling money from early on can help my child develop a healthy and savvy attitude about money that will serve her well throughout her life. If my parents had a book like this when I was growing up and had taught me more about dealing with money, it might have saved me from struggling with finances in my adult life. Children need a firm foundation in understanding the value of money and knowing what to do, or, what not to do with it. This can only come through conscious, explicit teachings. Pearl encourages dialogue with children and offers a wealth of advice in communicating about this difficult subject.
Average customer rating:
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Canine Sports Medicine and Surgery
Manufacturer: W.B. Saunders Company
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
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Small Animal Medicine
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ASIN: 0721650228 |
Book Description
THE ONLY GUIDE YOU'LL NEED TO WISELY MANAGE YOUR INHERITANCE AND MAKE IT GROW FOR FUTURE GENERATIONS...
You're not alone. Sixty million Americans stand to be on the receiving end of an inheritance in the coming years. Planning is crucial if you hope to preserve your windfall, save on taxes, and avoid family squabbles. In The Inheritor's Handbook, expert Dan Rottenberg offers a comprehensive guide through the inheritance process that gets to the heart of the complex issues, both financial and emotional, that beneficiaries face. He demonstrates how future heirs can discuss money and wills, choose advisers, manage investments, and much more. Using real-life examples, Rottenberg provides tested solutions to sensitive inheritance issues -- before the time of death, at the time of death, and years later. The Inheritor's Handbook is the only book you'll need to help you manage the difficulties, decisions, and opportunities that come with inheriting.
Customer Reviews:
Might be so basic it's not worth your time.......2000-01-20
If you're looking for solid guidance as an executer or fiduciary, go elsewhere. "How to Settle and Estate" is the better choice. The handbook gives a scant 7 pages of practical advice on what to do if/when someone close has died. Things like: Contact the funeral director, determine your parent's wishes concerning the funeral, ascertain whether your parents have already paid for their funeral, notify friends, locate the original copy of the will - - you get the idea. I was very disappointed especially given the glowing reviews provided by others.
Rare find........1999-03-08
Most books on estates and trusts are simply clueless in dealing with anything except for numbers and laws, as seen from the perspective of someone setting up a trust.
This book views the subject as a set of human issues, from the perspective of a trust beneficiary.
Though there are no other books on this subject matter to compare this one with, I thought that it did the job well.
Good presentation of "Plus's & Negatives" of alternatives.......1999-01-28
This book is very well written and organized without being "over legal." My recently deceased Father, who was an attorney speciallizing in Estate Law, always down-played Trusts (although he set one up for himself.) From this writing, I now see why they are not for everyone. I plan to purchase a copy for each of my siblings, as our Mother ages, to keep us on the same "wavelength."
A very good book!.......1999-01-06
As a potential beneficiary, I found this to be a very helpful and very readable primer on estate planning, the legal issues, and the emotional fallout that can occur as a result of inheritances. The advice given is all good. The appendices and lists of other contacts are very good. I was disappointed, however, that the author did not include any discussion on: the importance of titling of assets to aid in the estate planning; and how election of beneficiaries for insurance policies, retirement accounts, trusts, and financial accounts can affect the estate plan.
An excellent book for all people who may inheret someday........1998-12-29
This book is well-written and is split into sections for persons who may inheret, persons who's loved ones have died, and persons who have already inhereted. It discusses how to approach parents to determine what plans they have made, and what to do if they do not want to discuss their plans. It explains what a person should do in setting up "his" own estate, and discussing it with children. It lists a large number of resources (support groups, financial, philanthropic, and psychological advisors, and extensive printed materials). If you plan to leave money to anyone, or any entity, this is a good book to read.
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- Macroeconomics: Principles and Policy (with InfoTrac®)
- Macroeconomics: Principles and Tools (4th Edition) (O'Sullivan/Sheffrin Economics: Principles and Tools 4e Series)
- Market Models: A Guide to Financial Data Analysis
- Marketing Management (12th Edition) (Marketing Management)
- Marketing: Real People, Real Choices (4th Edition)
- Natural Capitalism: Creating the Next Industrial Revolution
- Organizations: Behavior, Structure, Processes
- Payback: Reaping the Rewards of Innovation
- Professional Real Estate Development 2nd Edition
- Progress, Poverty and Exclusion: An Economic History of Latin America in the Twentieth Century (Inter-American Development Bank)
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