Book Description
Organizational Behavior provides the essential knowledge base and skill set so that future managers can harness the power of employees and teams to successfully navigate the changing world of work. Organizational behavior is the study of individual behavior and group dynamics in organizational settings. It focuses on timeless topics like motivation, leadership, teamwork, and communication. The text presents the opportunity to know concepts, ideas, and theories, and to practice skills, abilities, and behaviors to enhance the management of human behavior at work. To make the book more relevant to the learner, we have enhanced and further integrated the subtitle Foundations, Realities, Challenges into the theme in the 5th edition. The reader will see the tie to the subtitle with new feature titles: Foundations (new title: Science), Realities (new title: The Real World), and Challenges (new title: You) that have a more contemporary and personal feel. This theme will be integrated throughout the text and supplements making a true integrated learning package. In this new edition, six new focus companies have been selected. The authors use the focus companies so that learners can see how one company responds to different organizational situations. The focus companies are a variety of company types, for example, Whole Foods, Pixar, and Canine Companions. The authors also make sure to integrate four organizational behavior key themes into each chapter. These supporting themes are globalization, diversity, technology, and ethics. Sub-themes are designed to arm future managers with the tools they need to meet organizational challenges.
Customer Reviews:
Good Stuff.......2005-10-01
I am using this textbook for an MBA course. I had already started the class when I ordered the book, but I received my book in enough time where I was not left behind. I appreciate the prompt service. Thanks:-)
Book Description
A noted clinical psychologist, speaker, and radio host, Dr. Henry Cloud is ready to break out to a whole new audience with this book that explains the central importance of character and integrity in success—and how you can develop yours.
Customer Reviews:
An exercise in well intentioned mediocrity.......2007-10-02
First things first, Henry Cloud deserves praise for putting the subject of Integrity on the table. Integrity, or as our grandparents called it, Character, seems to have acquired an almost quaint, musty old time patina of days gone by.
Nothing could be further from the truth. In contemporary language, the central failing of our age is what clinical psychologists call Character Disorder. The endless litany of leadership breakdowns, the Enrons, the WorldComs, ad infinitum, the narcissistic exhibitionism of reality TV, the oily relativism of modern politics, are all manifestations of the Character Disordered personality.
This stands in contrast to the preceding generation which seems to have labored greatly under the weight of excess repression and neurotic anxiety. The Baby Boom in its impatience decided that "repression" was a blanket social ill, and all that need be done was remove the repression and by an unspecified magic, an inner goodness would be liberated.
In this philosophical adventure, the Baby Boom generation was terribly misguided, and then swerved in the opposing direction with a velvet fascism of their own design, Political Correctness. But neither the cult of the liberated self nor the shaming of the compliant self would lead to a resolved state of Character.
The reason for this is that the concept of Character rests on the idea of being tested by adversity. We wanted Character minus the adversity, resolution with challenge, the bargain basement Hero's Journey, and then we'd "put lipstick on the pig" and pretend we'd had some great Soul shaping life adventure.
Here I wish Dr. Cloud had delineated his subject with more brimstone and less soft soap. As timely as his book is, and as welcome as it is, and as useful as I am sure it will be until something more gripping hits the shelves, it still comes across as something of a bland scoutmaster's talk to the boys around the campfire.
Integrity.......2007-07-12
Excellent reading! You don't want to put it down. Down to earth principals for everyone. It should be read by all Management and they should encourage employees to read.
Theory meets practice.......2007-07-05
This is rare book in terms of solid theoretical insight into human behavior, coming essentially from Dr Cloud's extensive experience as a clinical psychologist combined with analysis and inference drawn from his consulting experience with business leaders and CEOs.
The introductory chapters however lack the punch and clarity on what the book is about does not emerge initially. This is perhaps because in my opinion, the approach and definition of the topic of integrity of character is radically new and takes some time to understand. The definition that integrity is much beyond and higher than just honesty and ethics and is about the courage to meet the demands of reality is difficult to comprehend at the beginning. Thereafter the book devotes one part each to the six dimensions of integrity - Establishing trust, Orientation toward reality, Getting results, Embracing the negative, Orientation toward increase and Orientation toward transcendence. Each of these facets as I like to call are like the sides of a hexagon; equally important to create the whole.
The depth of discussions of each of the six dimensions is accompanied by actual case studies and quotes from some of the best business books. In the part devoted to Establishing Trust, Dr Cloud narrates a situation in which a CEO completely fails to convince his people on the benefits of a merger. In fact the meeting intended to get the buy-in of the folks turns counter productive. The CEO was talking, but not communicating. He failed to empathize to some of the genuine concerns of the people thereby ending up alienating the team.
In the chapter `In touch with reality" Dr Cloud starts with the story of the CEO of a dog food company who obstinately tries all possible ways to increase the sales of the company's product except in finding out what his ultimate customers really want. When finally explained to the CEO by an employee "Sir... the dogs don't like it", reality finally dawns. Dogs bark, but reality bites!
In many chapters I found commonality in inferences to CEOs' achieving corporate results and to success of marriages. Perhaps this is a reflection of Dr Cloud's typical mix of clientele.
The six dimensions are well sequenced and are interrelated. Ignorance or failure of one dimension can lead to overall nonperformance explains Dr Cloud. The "gap" in a person who lacks the wholeness of character is bound to result in failure in three specific ways and to quote from the book (page 38):
1. Hitting performance ceiling that is much lower than ones aptitude
2. Hitting an obstacle or situation that derails you
3. Reaching great success only to self destruct and lose it all.
This book was presented to me by a colleague. While I thank him for the wonderful gift, trust me, I loved it and shall do my best to put it into practice to fill in my gaps.
A Really Good Book that will help you tremendously!.......2007-04-24
In my view some of the reviews are a bit hyped up. One is far too negative. This is a really good book aimed at bringing up the integrity factor for corporate leaders. We all know this is a problem.
I think Dr. Cloud has offered up a number of great concepts in a very readable form that will help many CEO's 'get it'. Many of his illustrations bring a sense of healthy reflection and conviction to the reader. Many (but not all) of his illustrations feed the concept he is making well. I found myself agreeing with him because of the pure logic of his points (over and over).
A few problems some of my buddies pointed out with this book are:
He has redefined the word integrity to include a lot more than the word normally means. The problem with this is that many readers will tend to forget his nuanced definition over time and therefore may forget what he is saying they need to do. Whenever someone takes a common word and expands it's definition to mean more than the dictionaries give for that word, we risk cultivating a short term memory of the concepts given.
For myself, I think I found nagging questions left unanswered in my mind.
How does he know these are the keys? What has research shown? What are the real priorities of a great or successful leader?
I think the research I am aware of points to different factors, and this is why I was a little unconvinced that he has hit on 'the key' for success. One can have integrity and still not be a great leader. Leadership and integrity are two different things. To bring success to a corporate organization requires more than integrity. It requires inspiring and equipping leadership. This is the 'inspirational factor'. Hasn't research proven these are keys that cannot be overlooked for success? I think so. I think that integrity in the soul of a powerful leader then becomes inspiring, partially because of the integrity, but also because of the leadership and competence of the leader.
So I found myself asking the question...why has he chosen these things. He says that he chose them because they occured to him in a conversation. That was unconvincing for me. Now the points he makes seem really important, but how do we know that they are really the keys for success that he claims they are? Surely some studies could be developed to bear this theory out or to show if it needs adjusting. Having said all this, Integrity is a really good book. It's packed with great points and will help you tremendously.
So I would suggest that this book be read as it really is, a proposal on what we need to bear in mind for success in our ventures. With that in mind, I think this book is very helpful, it is very creative and it is fun to read. He challenges us in six essential areas that all feed into integrity in one way or another. One of his concepts is that success requires us to finish well. Another one is that we must connect well with others and gain their trust. The intrinsic logical quality of the points is as solid as it can get. This book is also packed with a steady stream of great illustrations. If you are a reader who loves illustrations, you will absolutely love this book.
I think this book is good for owners, presidents of corporations or managers of people in various settings.
I highly recommend Integrity for developing great leadership talent in churches as well. There are a lot of great ideas in this book that any trainer of leaders can use. I hope you enjoy it thoroughly. I certainly have.
Required Reading for Recruiters, Hiring Managers and Human Resources -- Crisis-Resistant Personality Traits .......2007-04-04
Your candidate may have the skills and experience to succeed -- but do they possess the character traits to rise above times of crisis? I've seen enough "can't miss candidates" crash and burn to be skeptical. However, this book provided clarity on many a bad hiring decision I've made in the past, as well as how unlikely stars can emerge in "interesting times". It won't stop me from ever making a poor personnel decision, but I'm certainly better armed to assess the intangible traits that can make or break job performance in changing times -- whether the change signals crisis or success.
Book Description
Adam Kahane spent years working in the world's hotspots, and came away with a new understanding of how to resolve conflict in a way that seems reasonable - and doable - to all parties. The result is Solving Tough Problems. Written in a relaxed, persuasive style, this is not a "how-to" book with glib answers, but rather, a very personal story of the author's progress from a young "expert" convinced of the need to provide cold, "correct" answers to an effective facilitator of positive change - by learning how to create environments that enable new ideas and creative solutions to emerge. The book explores the connection between individual learning and institutional change, and how leaders can move beyond politeness and formal statements, beyond routine debate and defensiveness, toward deeper and more productive dialogue. Both tough and inspiring, the book explores models, technologies, and examples that foster and facilitate "dialogues of the heart."
Customer Reviews:
Listening and generative dialogue.......2006-08-14
Adam Kahane (2004) said that a friend of his told him that the old "1960s slogan `If you're not part of the solution, you're part of the problem' actually misses the most important about effecting change. The slogan should be, he said, `If you're not part of the problem, you can't be part of the solution.' If we cannot see how what we are doing or not doing is contributing to things being the way that they are, then logically we have no basis at all, zero leverage, for changing the ways things are--except from the outside, by persuasion or force" (pp. 83-84).
Any problem is part of a system, in other words, and if we are experiencing the problem, then we must, by definition, be a part of the problem. This book explores this concept and provides many tools and examples to help resolve conflict through deep listening and generative dialogue.
Enables deeper connections across communities.......2006-07-11
Mr. Kahane's book is the tip of the iceberg - a great start for someone looking for reflective practice that provides the skills and methods for addressing difficult challenges - individually and organizationally. The perspectives in Solving Tough Problems are from the heart, and present a valuable contribution to the growing awareness of how social technologies can provide containers for creating new realities...definitely recommended!
Jerry's review on Solving Tough Problems.......2006-03-17
At last! An easy to read book true to Bohm's vision of dialogue that will begin moving the subject from an esoteric phenomenon to a practice attainable by many. This book should not be considered as a primer on dialogue that could replace works such as "On Dialogue" or "dialogue, the art and practice of thinking together", rather it presents the author's experience in practical application of many of the concepts and principles discussed in those earlier works.
Not sure what I was expecting .......2005-12-31
I was expecting much more from this book,at times it seemed to be the author's bio instead of giving/sharing the best practices of how to go through an approach in solving difficult issues.
Building bridges.......2005-08-12
In a world beset by problems, this book offers real hope. Adam Kahane shares the techniques he has used in many of the world's trouble spots to bridge differences, establish a genuine conversation among adversaries, and create a positive future. This is not an academic book. It's based on real experience. Wherever we are called to end conflict, heal differences, and build collaboration we can learn from its lessons.
Average customer rating:
- A solid introduction to Biotech from a business perspective
- Extrememly lucid, well thought out analysis
- Not what I expected
- Science Business: the promise, the reality and the Future of Biotech
- Important background
|
Science Business: The Promise, the Reality, and the Future of Biotech
Gary P. Pisano
Manufacturer: Harvard Business School Press
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ASIN: 1591398401 |
Book Description
Why has the biotechnology industry failed to perform up to expectations—despite all its promise? In Science Business, Gary P. Pisano answers this question by providing an incisive critique of the industry. Pisano not only reveals the underlying causes of biotech’s problems; he offers the most sophisticated analysis yet on how the industry works. And he provides clear prescriptions for companies, investors, and policymakers seeking ways to improve the industry’s performance.
According to Pisano, the biotech industry’s problems stem from its special character as a science-based business. This character poses three unique business challenges: 1) how to finance highly risky investments under profound uncertainty and long time horizons for R&D, 2) how to learn rapidly enough to keep pace with advances in drug science knowledge, and 3) how to integrate capabilities across a broad spectrum of scientific and technological knowledge bases.
The key to fixing the industry? Business models, organizational structures, and financing arrangements that place greater emphasis on integration and long-term learning over shorter-term “monetization” of intellectual property. Pisano maintains that all industry players—biotech firms, investors, universities, pharmaceutical companies, government regulators—can play a role in righting the industry. The payoff? Valuable improvements in health care, and a shinier future for human well-being.
Customer Reviews:
A solid introduction to Biotech from a business perspective.......2007-07-26
I found this book to be well-researched, current, and insightful. If you're at all interested in the biotech business, especially in starting a company or investing, read this book first. Pisano's narrative really helps one understand the foundations of the biotech industry, and sheds some light on what does, and doesn't, work within that industry. The fact that it's off the Harvard Business School Press gives it additional credibility, which is well deserved. A wealth of references, as well as a listing of the companies listed in the study, give the reader both a sense of the research that went into the book and a start on the search for more resources on the subject.
Extrememly lucid, well thought out analysis.......2007-05-17
For my money, most business school professors write with a detached, dry atmosphere about business topics.
Not Gary Pisano!
He has a strong point of view that the ecosystem for biotech is not working well. His observations about why are right to the point and convincing.
His prescriptions are well worth considering.
If you're new to biotech, this is a great book to start out with. I would then proceed to Building Biotechnology, which is also a fine book.
Not what I expected.......2007-05-02
I don't know what I expected from this book, except for some new insights on how to invest in the biotech industry. I was extremely disappointed to find a whiney critique of biotech companies that take enormous risks in discovering new life-saving or life-improving chemicals, and oftentimes crash and burn in the process. Well, that's capitalism, for ya'! Would the author prefer a centrally run system in which lazy bureaucrats barely advance scientific discovery? It all comes back to risk and reward. This book is the updated version of complaints about Silicon Valley, and the dot-com bust. OK, the technology business may not be profitable as a whole, but the efforts of millions of people in the pursuit of the big payoff has created great advances and has improved lives in making people more efficient, more educated, and less carbon-intensive.
Science Business: the promise, the reality and the Future of Biotech.......2007-03-15
While many of us in the biotech industry are aware of products, companies and issues, this invaluable book is not only a great resource but an important guide and should be recommended reading for all biotech industry executives as well as investors.
Important background.......2007-03-13
This book is an excellent example of applied academic research. Pisano and his Harvard team have dug deep into the economics of biotech. What he describes is an industry that is not performing as expected, and he points to some possible reasons for this. Perhaps my favorite single sentence in the book is, "Deals alone can never create value." A more speculative statement from the same paragraph is: "As a percentage of the total workforce, biotech may have more people involved in business development than any other industry (almost certainly the highest per dollar of revenue)." Why? Well, that should be the subject of another book.
Highly recommended to those digging into biotech issues; not at all for those who want a quick-fix-read to tell them what to think. That's a compliment, but does point up that the audience for this is limited.
Average customer rating:
- Calculations are only as good as your numbers
- Pants on fire?
- Accepted History & Chronology Must Be Changed.
- Very Interesting
- History as Science Fiction
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History: Fiction or Science? (Chronology, No. 1)
Anatoly Fomenko
Manufacturer: Mithec
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ASIN: 2913621058 |
Book Description
Recorded history is a finely-woven magic fabric of intricate lies about events predating the sixteenth century. There is not a single piece of evidence that can be reliably and independently traced back earlier than the eleventh century. This book details events that are substantiated by hard facts and logic, and validated by new astronomical research and statistical analysis of ancient sources.
Customer Reviews:
Calculations are only as good as your numbers.......2007-08-03
Yes, we can all agree that mainstream history is nearly 100% BS due to politics, economics, ego, problems with dating techniques, and various conspiracies. Agreed. But, I've been researching the distinct possibility that human history (in terms of civilizations) are much more ancient than we've been told, so coming across this book was very interesting to me. I wondered how Fomenko could be wrong (if at all) because he is very persuasive in his presentations. Then it dawned on me. If at previous times in prehistory, due to the various catastrophies that are well documented (comets, asteroids, planetary disruptions, plasma discharge, pole reversals, etc) the Earth was in a different position in relation to the sun, different tilt on its axis, different orbit, different rotation (in terms of velocity and DIRECTION), and the continents were in different positions, then would this not cause the ancients to see the sky (constellations) differently? In other words, is Fomenko making erronious assumptions about the physics of the Earth in pre-history, which then corrupt his data with regards to dating the relevant astrology? The last event to seriously disrupt our planet occured roughly 3500 years ago, according to other good researchers, so is it possible Fomenko has been confused by this? The vastly different physics of our planet in the not so distant past may explain this confusion, which is not to say the "mainstream" version of history is correct; on the contrary. I am not an expert in these fields, but wanted to see if this idea could spark discussion.
Pants on fire?.......2007-07-19
Will people ever read before spamming? Yes, Jesuits could not rewrite world history alone, they had help. Anyway, Dr Prof Acad A.Fomenko does not point to jesuits as the driving force of world wide history manipulation in published volumes 1,2,3;, actually he barely mentions the poor devils. Check it with 'Search inside' feature, please. China is rarely mentioned either, in fact, Dr Fomenko is completely eurocentric. Right, his theory contradicts all mainstream schools of history, because in their actual state they are all built on blatantly erroneus chronology. You don't need a mysterious cabal (conspiracy) to falsify history, the falsification is its modus operandi. It is inherent to history(ians) to falsify (distort) events, as it is inherent to humans to boast as it is inherent to power (authority) to legimize itself by referrring to glorious past made to its own order. Dr Prof Fomenko and team have identified scores of instances of such manipulation in Russian, European, etc.. history, and delivered valid statistical proof thereof. His own 'reconstruction' is completely another story. Forget c14 as a valid method of dating. W.Libby has initially discovered a brilliant method of INDEPENDENT dating. Too bad, c14 method has become a joke after a forced marrige with dendrochronology with consensual chronological scale inbuilt. Radiocarbon method can't stand blind tests, but is so very productive as a rubberstamp.
Accepted History & Chronology Must Be Changed. .......2007-04-09
There is no doubt that history as most know it is a sham, & institution's version of History both University & Church is fradulent & inaccurate. Everything was established with an agenda, The real "Dark Ages" are now when we have access to incredible amounts of information past authorities & more important 'common folk' didn't have but our institutions & educators are slow to evolve because of what has ignorantly & arrogantly been taught for too long. This is on many subjects not just Chronology.
For anyone to question "Why would a Mathematician have anything credible to say of History?" The answer is from Dr. Fomenko's preface in the book: "It would be worthwhile to remind the reader that in the XVI-XVII century Chronology was considered to be a subdivision of Mathematics." These volumes could possibly be some of the most important works to date & should be read by everyone with an interest in History, especially professors & educators who have a duty to the public. I have read both books & must say that 'Chronology 1' has some very eye opening & revolutionary information. Even if these volumes are part true the implications are profound & opens the doors to further investigations & questions which must be done. I speak several different lanquages & must say the logic Dr. Fomenko uses with "inflection" of words & words being read from left to right in one region & right to left in another then written backwards, the removal of vowels & get down to basics of words, or different cities & locations having the same name etc. is correct. Vowel usage has always been optional & varied, actually complicating linquistics & study. The first thing one has to understand is that words never had a fixed spelling in history like we do now, the spelling of words was mutable & regional, as well as names & titles of people were vast, varied & changed, NOTHING WAS FIXED or understood linear. Matters of Life & Death as well as financial profiteering yesterday & today were & are made with ignorant, illogical & conspiratorial views of history & reality, it's time people get closer to the Truth & society collectively grow up.
Very Interesting.......2007-03-07
It is a good proposal and I believe it will mature into something even better in the future. I think it deserves to be read.
History as Science Fiction.......2007-01-10
Anatoly Fomenko has written a very intriguing book, full of pictures, charts, and computer 'proof' of his thesis: backwards of AD900 we don't really know what happened or when. Between AD900 and AD1600 there is more certainty, but there is still a lot of fuzzy ground, and things don't get reliable until we get past the 1600's where the printing press made it very difficult for the perpetrators of this timeline manipulation to change anything that had been committed to print. The Dark Ages did not happen. Books were burned for a reason. One organization has doubled the actual length of its existence by expanding the real chronology. Read why.
I had always wondered why Christ died about AD33 and yet men waited until the 11th century to form the Knights Templar, the Cathars, etc and go after the Holy Land by force. Why the 1000 year gap? Turns out there wasn't more than a 10-12 year gap and he proves it using astronomy. This also implies that the planet is not as old as we have been told, and current Christian and other creationist scientists are already championing that idea without being aware of Fomenko's book. The two groups, creationist scientists and the Russian mathematical analysts corroborate each other. Fascinating.
Of course, all this flies in the face of what we have been told traditionally is the 'proper' chronology of western civilization, and most readers will experience 'cognitive dissonance' in reading this book. It means that our history going backwards from AD1600 becomes progressively more incorrect and unreliable until it cannot be trusted at all... in the space of 700-800 years.
Naturally, the curious, open-minded reader will want to know WHO did this, WHY, and did any of the events we think of as really ancient ever happen?
Dr. Fomenko is a respected scientist/mathematician at Moscow State University who has already answered these questions to the satisfaction of his initially skeptical colleagues. Most of them are now believers, a few still refuse to believe (the usual diehards), and of course the western press has ignored Fomenko's work -- for obvious reasons when you read the book. The ones who perpetrated this chronology ruse have a lot to answer for. They are still with us. That's why this book is a well-kept secret.
I gave the book a 4-star rating because I was unable to check out some of his claims; those I checked were as he said. But if even 1/3 of his claims are true, this punches a big hole in what we think is our history, the meaning of western civilization, our educational process (for repeating the ruse as gospel), and the trustworthiness of the organization that perpetrated this ruse, well-intentioned or not.
This book relates to current research into a Young Earth paradigm, to John Keel's discoveries about our planet, and Fr Malachi Martin's insights (in his now out-of-print books). We are indeed sheep who are manipulated and kept ignorant -- for a reason. While knowing what these men have to say may be the "booby prize" (as in: 'what can you do with this knowledge?'), it will provide interesting reading. Didn't someone say: "...and the Truth will set you free."?? For you to judge if this book contains the truth.
Book Description
With a new preface by the author, this reissue of Thomas Sowell's classic study of decision making updates his seminal work in the context of The Vision of the Anointed. Sowell, one of America's most celebrated public intellectuals, describes in concrete detail how knowledge is shared and disseminated throughout modern society. He warns that society suffers from an ever-widening gap between firsthand knowledge and decision making -- a gap that threatens our very freedom because actual knowledge gets replaced by assumptions based on an abstract and elitist social vision of what ought to be.
Knowledge and Decisions, a winner of the 1980 Law and Economics Center Prize, was heralded as a "landmark work" and selected for this prize "because of its cogent contribution to our understanding of the differences between the market process and the process of government." In announcing the award, the center acclaimed Sowell, whose "contribution to our understanding of the process of regulation alone would make the book important, but in reemphasizing the diversity and efficiency that the market makes possible, [his] work goes deeper and becomes even more significant." "In a wholly original manner [Sowell] succeeds in translating abstract and theoretical argument into a highly concrete and realistic discussion of the central problems of contemporary economic policy." --F. A. Hayek "This is a brilliant book. Sowell illuminates how every society operates. In the process he also shows how the performance of our own society can be improved." --Milton Friedman
Customer Reviews:
Pseudo-academic polemics.......2007-09-30
I can't fault a book for having an opinion. I can fault it for disguising a dogmatic political agenda as serious intellectual analysis. Some people may be deceived because the tone is so boring, they may think the discussion is dry, dispassionate and sincere. The major premise of the book, that knowledge has a cost, is uncontroversial. Sowell then elaborates his opinions, but the connection to the theme is frequently tenuous and seldom considers counterarguments (unless Sowell has a counter-counterargument neatly prepared.)
He does have a justification for every viewpoint, but many arguments are weak. On the whole, it reads as a compilation of his opinions, supporting the Republicans at every turn, without regard to his supposed premises.
If you're interested in an 800 page debate handbook rambling over every subject, (say you're Rush Limbaugh or are running for Congress), this book provides intelligent-sounding arguments. To anybody else, it shows the value of paid ideologues to trick the masses into thinking that the elite know something. They don't want you to slog through this intimidatingly tedious book, just to believe in it. There's no need.
Impressed by honest conservatism.......2006-07-14
In this day of spurious conservatives seeking political power by any means, Sowell's conservatism deserves attention. If you are ready to be challenged, read it!
Anointed.......2004-08-01
Dr. Sowell offers a very readable argument for the proposition that people should make political choices on the basis of what is actually good for them, and not on the basis of what their self-appointed "betters" think that they ought to want. Required reading for anyone whose political feet are not already set in concrete. Love it or hate it, it will force you to think. (Your brain is more important than your abs.)
This book is excellent, but must be read VERY carefully........2002-01-22
I have read about 12 of Thomas Sowell's books now, give or take. They do tend to be over-wrought with detail, but in this case it may be that he really did need as many pages as he used to say what he did and could have used more by filling in specific examples.
Kudos to Sowell for using the very accurate idea of *social behavior* as a basis for explaining intergroup difference (rather than something so tenuous as IQ), and the separation of the actions of specific agencies from "society." Most writers do not bother to clearly delimit their operational terms and working notions. Also particularly clever was his observation of how institutions work as a matter of *self-interest* and create problems because it is in their best interest to have these problems.
The book must be read LINE by LINE. When he uses some of his very abstract statements to characterize a social process it is often NOT filled in with details. A theme that appears in many of his books is: "If it has happened once, it will happen again independent of settings." While you go through and read some of his statments, you will have to think back through your experiences of life and see if you have seen the same situation. And THAT is what makes this book take such a long time to read--expect it to take a month if read properly.
The index is excellent and I found it particularly useful for referencing subjects like black IQ research and things like that. Well researched if nothing else, and it goes a LONG way in explaining current situations by extrapolations of things in the book itself.
Perhaps it could have been made just a bit easier to read. Again: this is NOT light reading, and while it is chock full of information, it is WAY over the heads of most people.
This book is *required reading* for young black Americans. If paid careful attention to, it will do great things to break some of the bad habits that have infected us for a long time now. Really, it is a good book for any people who are looking for concrete reasons for group differences. And maybe in the case of the readers who would be the greatest beneficiaries of it (black Americans, from my view), it would undo some of the damage caused to young Blacks by Black Studies departments across the nations.
Feel free to email me with any questions/ comments.
Knowledge can be costly..........2001-06-19
This is indeed one of Sowell's tomes. Knowledge costs are different for different people. Some knowledge is extremely costly to acquire in both time and money. Articulation may not be an expression of knowledge, but a talent for using words; however, some incorrectly think that if someone has good articulation, then he must know what he is speaking of.
Sometimes the most important decision to be made is WHO is to make a decision. The further away from the knowledge on which the decision must be based the "decider" is, the less informaiton he has and he is more likely to make an incorrect decision. This explains the folly of most regulation: generally speaking, regulators cannot know what it is they are regulating. Shocking as this might be, but it takes sometimes years - maybe decades - for one person to gain knowledge in some areas of patient treatment, but yet people in the FDA regulate the medical industry anyway with the total impossibility of them ever knowing even a fraction of a percentage of what they are regulating! Of course, this is not unique to the medical field, but applies to all fields - regulators are too far away from the correct KNOWLEDGE to make some types of decisions. This fact of knowledge is inescapable, permanent, and nobody can change it.
Sowell also shows the effects of insurgent movements on social policy and how the movements still exist long after they have outlived their usefulness - beyond their point of diminishing returns. He also shows how the courts really screwed up the judicial system by crusading for social causes instead of interpreting the constitution. In the quest for "solving" problems, many social insurgent groups forget that some problems will never be solved and we just have to live with the necessary trade-offs such situations present to us - some of these groups forget that their "solutions" create other problems that they did not forsee. They forgot that life's problems is weighing trade-offs and some "solutions" replace one problem with another.
The theme, for the most part, is coming to terms with a fact of life: we must decide what trade-offs we want to live with. We cannot perfectly manage all of the information out there, and some of the information is too costly to get for some people. We must balance what we know against the chances of what we do not know. Much is left to chance and that is life.
Book Description
Wealth management is one of the areas in which banks and other personal financial services players are investing heavily. But the market is changing fast. Going forward, players therefore need to adapt their strategies to the new realities: what worked in the past will not, for the most part, be appropriate in the future. This unique book, written by a former McKinsey consultant, offers an up-to-date, detailed, practical understanding of this exciting area of financial services.
Customer Reviews:
The book I was looking for ages.......2007-08-14
If you are experienced wealth manager of just starting the carrier in this book you will find everything you need - from most recent trends in the market to client profiling, segmentation to business structures. That is the book I was looking for ages. My respect and acknowledgement to the author.
A fantastic book.......2007-01-15
A book any banking professionnal should read to understand the stategics underlying the wealth management industrie.
Exceptionally useful book.......2006-09-06
Fantastic book. Genuinely global perspective and bang up to date. includes difficult-to-get data on industry economics and benchmarks, a fascinating future perspective on industry growth, and incisive analysis of a vast range of surveys and reports that I (a financial services strategy veteran) never knew existed. Very clear and well written. Invaluable for helping our organisatn develop a wealth management strategy.
Average customer rating:
- Playing Video Games for MONEY -- REEL FUN!
- Serious Play
- Pseudo-intellectual stuff ruins this book
- Dibble Gets it Right - Both Play AND Money
- A Great Economic Study for Gamers
|
Play Money: Or, How I Quit My Day Job and Made Millions Trading Virtual Loot
Julian Dibbell
Manufacturer: Basic Books
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Second Life: The Official Guide
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Synthetic Worlds: The Business and Culture of Online Games
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Designing Virtual Worlds
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Play Between Worlds: Exploring Online Game Culture
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A Beginner's Guide to Second Life
ASIN: 0465015352 |
Book Description
From the writer acclaimed as "our hot link to the intricacies of cyberspace"--a wild ride to the outer limits of the virtual world, where real money meets fantasy gaming (Kit Reed, author of Weird Women, Wired Women)
Play Money explores a remarkable new phenomenon that's just beginning to enter public consciousness: MMORPGs, or Massively MultiPlayer Online Role-Playing Games, in which hundreds of thousands of players operate fantasy characters in virtual environments the size of continents. With city-sized populations of nearly full-time players, these games generate their own cultures, governments, and social systems and, inevitably, their own economies, which spill over into the real world.
The desire for virtual goods--magic swords, enchanted breastplates, and special, hard-to-get elixirs--has spawned a cottage industry of "virtual loot farmers": People who play the games just to obtain fantasy goods that they can sell in the real world. The best loot farmers can make between six figures a year and six figures a month.
Play Money is an extended walk on the weird side: a vivid snapshot of a subculture whose denizens were once the stuff of mere sociological spectacle but now--with computer gaming poised to eclipse all other entertainments in dollar volume, and with the lines between play and work, virtual and real increasingly blurred--look more and more like the future.
Customer Reviews:
Playing Video Games for MONEY -- REEL FUN!.......2007-04-24
What if you could spend your day playing video games and still make a fortune? Wll, now it's possible for the best of what is called the 'gold farmers' to play games and buy and sell fantasy goods in the virtual world and make between 6 and 7 figures a year! Yes, and this author Julian Dibbell did just that -- quit his day job as a writer and became a virtual mogul. Along the way in 12 chapters he looks at the virtual marketplace for virtual loot and the growing economy online in multiplayer online role playing gams MORPGS and Virtual worlds like SecondLife.com to buy and sell virtual real estate, avatars, islands, services and even real life objects in virtual stores. From Ultima Online to paying the IRS -- it's an amazing new world online and whether it's reel or real is still to be determined by the players in the newest game in town.
Serious Play.......2007-03-05
I read this book because I had begun to hear about the world it describes and wanted to learn more. I was REALLY happy with my purchase! Dibbell combines personal experience, interesting interviews, and a broad intellectual reach to make comprehensible the "brave" "new" world of massive multi-user gaming and the way it is making us rethink a variety of taken for granted forms of common sense.
The result is a lot of fun to read and highly educational at the same time.
Pseudo-intellectual stuff ruins this book.......2007-03-04
I had high hopes for this book to be informative and fun but it turned out to be a disappointment. I am not sure if the author had to justify the scholastic grant he received for writing about the topic so he felt he had to interject the fun topic with a lot of pseudo-intellectual analogies/comparisons or personal reflections. Who cares if this game reminds anyone of the Turing Test, or if this is work or play? Everything is work to someone but play to another. His relentless (but failed) attempt to attach significance to this work just makes the book boring and haphazard. Whenever he writes about the intellectual meanings of this "phenomenon", his writing style changes -- a bunch of words that don't really mean anything...just string them together so they sound smart.
Dibble Gets it Right - Both Play AND Money.......2007-01-25
My career is computing, and much of my free time and hobbies are taken up by the subject. So, perhaps predictably, I tend to enjoy reading literature about the topic. Computer gaming is a particular favorite of mine, and Julian Dibble's "Play Money" is a great exploration of how gaming is integrating into our society, and the impact they have on each other.
As other reviews have noted, Dibble tends to get a bit scholastic and philosophical in his treatment of the subject. And while I'm not opposed to adding a little intellectual depth to the coverage of the subject, I think he perhaps goes further than absolutely necessary - sometimes to the detriment of the readability of the text. However, readers who are able to slog through some of the slower bits towards the beginning of the book will find a thoughtful and personal (intimate, even) narrative. I found myself cheering Julian on, and empathizing with him - even identifying with him.
While not the best book of this genre (can this be called a genre?) that I've ever read, it was a competent discussion of the subject, and a quick, enjoyable read. It takes some real effort, and a labor of love to treat the topic of computer gaming with the seriousness it deserves, but not losing track of the joy that makes it what it is. Julian Dibble succeeds at it, and so I can easily recommend this book.
A Great Economic Study for Gamers.......2007-01-10
I don't play video games but I do work in finance and I couldn't put the book down. For young people into gaming, it effectively explains supply and demand. For those of us outside of the gaming world, it's a fascinating glimpse into it. Dibbell also illustrates and discloses the affects on his personal life.
Amazon.com
In their 2002 bestseller, Execution: The Discipline of Getting Things Done Larry Bossidy and Ram Charan identify why people don't get results: they don't execute. Bossidy and Charan are back with another stellar study on organizational behavior that shows how companies can succeed if they return to reality and examine every part of their business. Confronting Reality is based on a simple concept, but many companies approach strategy and execution in a surprisingly unreal manner and even the simplest of measurement methods, like the business model, are not applied correctly.
Cisco, 3M, KLM, Home Depot, and the Thomson Corporation are just a few of the companies that Bossidy and Charan examine. To demonstrate how to examine a business using the business model, Bossidy and Charan map out external variables, financial targets, internal activities, and an iteration stage (defined as a time to "make tradeoffs, apply and develop business savvy") to prove how a dynamically evolving business model will help improve performance.
"The version of the business model we have developed is a robust, reality-based process for thinking about the specifics of your business in a holistic way. It shows you how to tie together the financial targets you must meet, the external realities of your business and internal activities such as strategy development, operating tactics, and selection and development of people."
Larry Bossidy, retired chairman and CEO of Honeywell International and Ram Charan, author of What the CEO Wants You to Know and Profitable Growth Is Everyone's Business, have once again shed industrial-strength light on how to run a successful business. --E. Brooke Gilbert
Amazon.com Exclusive Content
Amazon.com Interview: Larry Bossidy and Ram Charan
Larry Bossidy and Ram Charan are back with Confronting Reality to show how companies can succeed if they get back to reality and examine every part of their business. Amazon.com senior editor E. Brooke Gilbert interviewed Bossidy and Charan to discuss the current business climate, their new book, and future projections.
Read the interview.
Larry Bossidy and Ram Charan Discuss the Airline Industry
Larry Bossidy and Ram Charan discuss the airline industry's failure to confront reality based on a recent Wall Sreet Journal article and their new book as a backdrop.
Read their comments.
Book Description
Confronting Reality will change the way you think about and run your business. It is the first book that shows how to connect the big picture of the new era of business with the nitty-gritty of what to do about it. Through a completely new way to understand and use the business model as the primary tool for confronting reality—a breakthrough that will become the management innovation of this decade—you’ll know sooner rather than later whether your fundamental business premise is under assault, where your best opportunities lie, what you should change and what you should leave alone, and how to realistically plan the future of your business.
The fundamentals of how a business makes money are being rapidly and permanently altered by sweeping structural changes. With their extraordinary depth and breadth of experience, Larry Bossidy and Ram Charan are the ideal guides for everyone—entrepreneur, mid-level manager, or CEO—about what is to be done so you can get things right in this challenging, radically changed world. They start by showing you how to understand the most fundamental element of any business: whether you can realistically make the money you hope to in the game you’re playing.
Bossidy and Charan show how to use the business model to develop a robust, reality-based process for thinking about the speci?cs of your business in a holistic way. They show how to tie together the financial targets you must meet, the external realities you face, and internal activities such as strategy development, operating tactics, and selection and development of people.
Through the lens of the business model, as well as the skillful use of initiatives and development of people with the right leadership characteristics, you’ll see how Robert Nardelli at Home Depot, Jim McNerney at 3M, Dick Harrington at the Thomson Corporation, Michael Wisbrun at KLM, Joseph Tucci at EMC, and John Chambers at Cisco confronted reality. Whether they faced crisis or opportunity, all made the right kinds of changes through a combination of business savvy (the art of understanding the fundamentals driving a business) and business model thinking.
Customer Reviews:
Play Where the Puck Is Going to Be.......2007-10-06
"Avoiding reality is a basic and ubiquitous human tendency," write Larry Bossidy and Ram Charan. Leaders often tilt that way also and lack the discipline to confront reality. They comment, "Exercising the power of realism requires an open and inquisitive mind, intense curiosity, the intellectual ability to sort out complexity, the ability to persuade others, and--undergirding it all--the courage of inner strength. People who lack these qualities can't be considered leaders. They should look for other work." Yikes!
This is no quick-read novelette with three points and a poem. It's a thinking person's serious book with an innovative business model as the reward for your reading diligence. When programs, products and services all start to look alike (cell phones, music, churches, hamburgers, conferences, airlines, eNewsletters, etc.) the authors quote IBM's CEO with this warning, "Either you innovate or you're in commodity hell."
Why do leaders fail to confront reality and change? There are six habits of highly unrealistic leaders, suggest Bossidy and Charan: 1) Filtered information, 2) Selective hearing, 3) Wishful thinking, 4) Fear, 5) Emotional overinvestment and 6) Unrealistic expectations of capital markets.
How can you anticipate change before it's too late? The authors reference hockey great Wayne Gretsky's famous answer, "A good hockey player plays where the puck is. A great hockey player plays where the puck is going to be."
Strategic solutions for a familiar problem.......2006-12-11
Authors Larry Bossidy and Ram Charan start with what you know: the business world has dramatically, irrevocably changed. Companies confront the new reality of globalization, free capital flows and powerhouse retailers. The book's strength lies in its relentless insistence on a basic fact that business leaders know but have apparently been trying to deny: you must see the economic world as it really is. This is not new. You know the ground has shifted, but have you figured out everything that you need to do now? Most of today's business models describe how companies made money in the past - but survival now requires more than a model based on the old economy. You need that elusive, intuitive attribute Bossidy and Charan call "business savvy." Even if they can't quite seem to nail down a precise definition, their case studies illustrate how this super sense works, and why you need it. We recommend their book to managers and executives who want to learn how to rethink their businesses in today's environment.
Confronting Reality : Doing What Matters to Get Things Right.......2006-03-13
Clearly a reality check around the problems we all face as our customers and shareholders expectations are changing. In reviewing three major telecom institutions, Larry reminds us of the fundementals of we are in business. It's a good model for use when we're looking in the mirror at our own situation.
Definately worth the investment to read.
Look! A FOREST!!!.......2006-01-11
Instead of peicemealing a business to death: strategy, marketing, finance, etc. Bossidy and Charan give us a view of a whole business, from the chair of the savvy Entrepreneur or that of the CEO. They show hot to fit all the peices of a business together.
Bossidy and Charan use well-known examples and analyze the pitfalls and successes of these examples (Home Depot, Walmart, Thompson) according to a three-part business model: external environment, internal operations and financial targets. They also show you how to integrate by juggling the three simultaneously!
This was a great introductory book to orient businesspersons of any trade, level and experience to the whole shebang of business.
But. . .
Truthfully, i have read this 'business model' stuff before, with more depth and more analysis. I read the book "The Escher Cycle" by F. Jackson a couple of years back. That book goes into much more detail about most of Bossidy and Charan's three-part business model. Couple that book with "Value Migration" and you'll have a much better handle on the hurly-burly world of business.
Excellent Business Book!.......2005-12-25
Confronting Reality" is a gold-mine of perspective on how to get an organization properly focused - starting by confronting reality. It belongs on the bookshelf of every manager with bottom-line responsibility.
Bossidy begins by stating that any plan for a business has to answer three questions: 1)What's the nature of the game we're in? 2)Where is it going? 3)How do we make money in it? Incredibly, says Bossidy, in many organizations they rarely get asked, much less adequately answered.
Strategic plans of most companies don't work. A key reason is that little time, if any, is spent harmonizing the facts of the external environment, the financial targets that are set, and the internal capabilities of the business. People with a well-developed sense of business savvy seldom have a strategy ahead of time - instead, they devise their strategies as a means of meeting financial targets, not the other way around.
Buyers have much greater power today than in past years. Globalization + overcapacity (in many business lines) have shifted power to large buyers and intermediaries (Wal-Mart).
Questions that help detail the answers to the first three include: 1)Is the how of making money in my business and industry changing? 2)Who is winning in my industry, who is not, and why? 3)How, specifically, are the winners making money? 4)If my business is a winner, what do I need to do to stay on top? Conversely, if I need to change my game, what specifically should I be doing? 5)Am I in a growth industry or not? If not, and I want to continue, how do I change it or play it better than the competition? 6)Is my organization moving quickly to spot and take advantage of growth opportunities generated by these changes? 7)How do major customers see my products? 8)Am I bound by legacy costs (eg. pensions, healthcare) that make competing difficult?
Bossidy then identifies behaviors as common causes of failure to confront reality. (President Bush needs to read this section VERY CAREFULLY.) 1)Filtered Information: Possibly due to getting information only from those with the same point of view - typically in organizations looking at the world from the inside out rather than outside in. 2)Selective Hearing: The most common reasons are preconceived notions or the arrogance of past success. 3)Wishful Thinking: The merger will succeed because we need it to work (or have the best people on it). 4)Fear: Some tyrants fire people for disagreeing with them; more common is a situation where companies force-rank executives and use "attitude" as one of the criteria.
Summarizing - a well thought-out framework for realistic planning is provided by a highly credible former top executive.
Average customer rating:
- Was expecting more
- Great start on the subject
- A Serious Economic & Sociological Analysis of Game Playing
- n00bs read this!
- Eh...alright
|
Synthetic Worlds: The Business and Culture of Online Games
Edward Castronova
Manufacturer: University Of Chicago Press
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Second Life: The Official Guide
ASIN: 0226096270 |
Book Description
From EverQuest to World of Warcraft, online games have evolved from the exclusive domain of computer geeks into an extraordinarily lucrative staple of the entertainment industry. People of all ages and from all walks of life now spend thousands of hours—and dollars—partaking in this popular new brand of escapism. But the line between fantasy and reality is starting to blur. Players have created virtual societies with governments and economies of their own whose currencies now trade against the dollar on eBay at rates higher than the yen. And the players who inhabit these synthetic worlds are starting to spend more time online than at their day jobs.
In Synthetic Worlds, Edward Castronova offers the first comprehensive look at the online game industry, exploring its implications for business and culture alike. He starts with the players, giving us a revealing look into the everyday lives of the gamers—outlining what they do in their synthetic worlds and why. He then describes the economies inside these worlds to show how they might dramatically affect real world financial systems, from potential disruptions of markets to new business horizons. Ultimately, he explores the long-term social consequences of online games: If players can inhabit worlds that are more alluring and gratifying than reality, then how can the real world ever compete? Will a day ever come when we spend more time in these synthetic worlds than in our own? Or even more startling, will a day ever come when such questions no longer sound alarmist but instead seem obsolete?
With more than ten million active players worldwide—and with Microsoft and Sony pouring hundreds of millions of dollars into video game development—online games have become too big to ignore. Synthetic Worlds spearheads our efforts to come to terms with this virtual reality and its concrete effects.
“Illuminating. . . . Castronova’s analysis of the economics of fun is intriguing. Virtual-world economies are designed to make the resulting game interesting and enjoyable for their inhabitants. Many games follow a rags-to-riches storyline, for example. But how can all the players end up in the top 10%? Simple: the upwardly mobile human players need only be a subset of the world's population. An underclass of computer-controlled 'bot' citizens, meanwhile, stays poor forever. Mr. Castronova explains all this with clarity, wit, and a merciful lack of academic jargon.”—The Economist
“Synthetic Worlds is a surprisingly profound book about the social, political, and economic issues arising from the emergence of vast multiplayer games on the Internet. What Castronova has realized is that these games, where players contribute considerable labor in exchange for things they value, are not merely like real economies, they are real economies, displaying inflation, fraud, Chinese sweatshops, and some surprising in-game innovations.”—Tim Harford, Chronicle of Higher Education
Customer Reviews:
Was expecting more.......2007-05-27
To be honest I was expecting more on this book.It didnt tell all the info I wanted to know and the author focus too much on 2D games like Everquest and not so much in 3D games like Second Life.In most of the book the author is a little superficial in his analysis,he could go deeper.However the book is good for people who wanna have a general idea about on line games,specially Everquest,World of Warcraft and Star Wars.
Great start on the subject...
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