Business and Management

This is an original and controversial contribution to the topical debate on Britain's alleged economic decline. Rubinstein presents a critique of the thesis, made familiar by Wiener, Sampson, Barnett and others, that Britain has failed in economic terms because of its anti-industrial and pre-modern cultural values and class system. He argues that Britain was never an industrial economy, rather a commercial and financial one whose comparative advantage always lay in that area.

China emerged as the largest recipient of foreign direct investment (FDI) and the fifth largest trading nation in the world in 2002. China's entry into the World Trade Organization (WTO) represents a huge stride forward in its reform efforts. There is no other country in history, as a WTO member, to have achieved such expansion in a comparable time period.

Kouzes' and Posner's bestselling The Leadership Challenge has been the most trusted source for becoming a better leader for millions of executives. This new guide from Kouzes and Posner, written in conjunction with coaching experts Elaine Biech, provides practical information and tools for integrating The Practices of Exemplary Leadership into a coaching practice or program.

The best hope for achieving a sustainable competitive advantage in a global marketplace is by means of better understanding which customers are in the best position to experience long-term, profitable relationships for the globally oriented firm. This book offers both an academic and a practical viewpoint of the importance of CRM in a global framework.

Sustainable development will not be possible without fundamental improvements in resource productivity and energy efficiency, the adaptation of material flows into natural cycles as well as a radical change in production and consumption patterns. In essence, what is required is not only an ecological approach to product design but also new marketing and consumption patterns for products that can satisfy our needs in a more environmentally sound way. In recent years there has been growing interest in the possibilities of eco-services to achieve some of these aims.

The Center for Creative Leadership's continuing studies of executives have found that learning on the job is the best way for a person to develop. Often people are given new positions in order to provide them with developmental experiences. But what if such a transfer is not possible? This report contains 88 assignments that can be added to a current job, offering individual developmental opportunities.

Despite ubiquitous powerful technologies such as networked computers, global positioning systems, and cell phones; human failures in decision-making and performance continue to have disastrous consequences. Ironically, the more complex technology becomes, the more performance support may be needed, and that's why the extraordinary expertise shared in this book is especially valuable.

There is an easy case to make for the imperative of investing in tomorrow's leaders today. Competition is fiercer today than ever before, and effective leadership represents a rare source of competitive advantage. With strong leadership and a richly stocked pool of future leaders, organizations prosper and endure.

With this book, author Melinda Gerber walks you through the twenty-nine steps needed to start a mutual fund and the thirty-six steps needed to start an ETF. She provides costs and detailed explanations of how to accomplish each task from fledgling idea to the actuality of selling shares, and also takes the time to explain the importance of creating a clear vision for your fund as well as how to successfully profile customers and identify your competition.

This book presents the inventive genius behind technological breakthroughs by ten global companies including Alcoa, DaimlerChrysler, Honda, ST Micro and Visteon. Readers will gain understanding and insight into how cutting-edge technology is helping protect the climate and/or the ozone layer, while contributing to the company's bottom line.

The Intelligent Portfolio draws upon the extensive insights of Financial Engines--a leading provider of investment advisory and management services founded by Nobel Prize-winning economist William F. Sharpe--to reveal the time-tested institutional investing techniques that you can use to help improve your investment performance. Throughout these pages, Financial Engines' CIO, Christopher Jones, uses state-of-the-art simulation and optimization methods to demonstrate the often-surprising results of applying modern financial economics to personal investment decisions.

Because executives tend to be problem solvers, they typically focus on weaknesses when they want to improve their performance. This approach can be helpful but there is another that can be just as effective: recognizing strengths. A senior manager whom the author interviewed said this about a top person: "If he saw his own strengths and internalized them, a lot of his weaknesses would go away." In this report, the author explains why it is critical to recognize strengths in order to improve performance and why it is often difficult to get that notion across to executives. For practicing managers and those who develop them, this report offers sound but often neglected developmental principles for overcoming weaknesses.

The explosion of the internet has created tens of thousands of trading houses and independent home-based brokers all seeking to buy or sell commodities to one another. Businesses may spend considerable time and resources evaluating the merits or otherwise of available brokers. International Trade and the Successful Intermediary is designed to give independent intermediaries, potential buyers, procurement agents, mandates, lawyers, bankers and companies the fundamental skills to conduct business in the international trade arena, while increasing their knowledge and confidence to secure commission arising out of successful deals.

Debasement of the dollar as a result of ill-use of leverage is destroying the global economy, and in Leverage, well known market commentator Karl Denninger follows the path of money throughout history to prove that currencies are debased when moneyed and powerful interests pull the levers of government and policy to enrich themselves at the expense of the masses. The result is ugly: the value of everything--including gold--falls, and even personal safety is at risk in a world where there is limited money even for essentials like food and fuel.

Managing in a multicultural setting can be very challenging. Culture strongly influences how people behave and how they understand the behavior of others, and cultures vary in the behaviors they find proper and acceptable. This report describes the cultural values, often unconsciously held, that underlie work in the U.S. and provides managers in the U.S. with a structured way of learning about the value preferences of people from other cultures.

Human resource departments are key components in the people management system of nearly every medium-to-large organization in the industrial world. They provide a wide range of essential services relating to employees, including recruitment, compensation, benefits, training, and labor relations. A century ago, however, before the concept of human resource management had been invented, the supervision and care of employees at even the largest companies were conducted without written policies or formal planning, and often in harsh, arbitrary, and counterproductive ways. How did companies such as United States Steel manage a workforce of 160,000 employees at dozens of plants without a specialized personnel or industrial relations department?

Addressing a number of 'missing links' in the analysis of labour and its geographies, this volume examines how theoretical perspectives on both labour in general and the organizations of the labour movement in particular can be refined and redefined. Issues of agency, power and collective mobilizations are examined and illustrated via a wide range of case studies from the 'global north' and 'global south' in order to develop a better and fuller appreciation of labour market processes in developed and developing countries.

The Organizational Learning Cycle was the first book to provide the theory that underpins organizational learning. Its sophisticated approach enabled readers to not only understand how, but more importantly why, organizations are able to learn. This new edition takes the original concepts and theories and shows how they might, and are, being put into action.

Participatory Development (PDev) has been embraced by Third World governments and international organizations such as the World Bank as a means to reduce poverty and empower disadvantaged communities. The emphasis on creating partnerships and using participatory and people-centred approaches has obvious political appeal, yet there is evidence that in practice interventions designed to increase PDev and reduce poverty have yet to have the desired empowerment, transformation and sustainability effect. Using an in-depth study of the Basic Education Improvement Project (BEIP) implemented by the Government of Kenya, the authors of this book critically assess the fit between policy, practice and theory of PDev to shed light on theoretical debates that are on-going in development.

The ultimate guide to the ins and out of mergers and acquisitions provides the practical tricks of the trade on M&As: what they need to know, what they have to know, and what they need to do. Numerous examples and forms are included illustrating concepts in discussion.

If you've got an idea you want to sell, you need to do two things: scan your environment and use effective tactics. This guidebook explains how to scan your environment and provides a collection of tactics you can use to sell your idea. Using this systematic approach will make you more likely to accomplish your objective - solving a problem or making an improvement for the benefit of individuals, groups, and the organization as a whole.

How do we start with service modeling? How do we analyze services for better reusability? Who should be involved? How do we create the best architecture model for our organization? This must-read for all enterprise leaders gives you all the answers and tools needed to develop a sound service-oriented architecture in your organization.

This explicitly comparative work concentrates on three countries--China, France, and Mexico--where revolution-inspired political compacts between labor and the state had to be renegotiated. In all three cases, choices to forge a deepened dependence on international capital markets required the ruling parties to fire large numbers of workers and cut social benefits while attempting not to provoke widespread social unrest or even full-scale revolt among their supporters.

Technological change is not only a determinant of growth but is also a pivotal factor in international competition and the modernization of an economy. In one of the most in-depth and detailed studies of its kind, George Korres analyzes the macroeconomic and the microeconomic factors influencing the economics of innovation and the economic relations between technology, innovation, knowledge and productivity. In particular, this book examines both the theoretical framework and the applications for empirical results.

Throughout the financial crisis of 2008, many hedge funds suffered massive losses and were often blamed for the extreme market upheavals. In the wake f the crisis, hedge funds remain a source of fascination for the media, legislators, and investors, mostly due to misunderstanding. Historically portrayed as risky investment funds for the very wealthy run by swashbuckling traders, the truth is hedge funds are simply an investment vehicle designed to generate superior returns and reduce an investor's overall portfolio risk.

Would the world be a better place if human societies were somehow able to curb their desires for material goods? Rather than suppress the creativity and desire to discover that is often embedded in the exploration and production of material goods--which he calls "the treasure impulse"--Ali proposes a new environmental paradigm, one that accepts our need to consume "treasure" for cultural and developmental reasons, but warns of our concomitant need to conserve.

A person who works exclusively in staff jobs throughout a career is less likely to develop important leadership competencies than a person who works exclusively in line jobs. This report shows why and offers several specific ways to increase the leadership potential of staff managers.​