Samstag, 5. Dezember 2009

The Elegant Solution or NonProfit Lifecycles

The Elegant Solution: Toyota's Formula for Mastering Innovation

Author: Matthew E May

and/or stickers showing their discounted price. More about bargain books

Book about: Outsourcing Security or The Case of Abraham Lincoln

Nonprofit Lifecycles: Stage-Based Wisdom for Nonprofit Capacity

Author: Susan Kenny Stevens

Winner of the 2002 Terry McAdam Book Award for best new nonprofit book release in the past year.

NONPROFIT LIFECYCLES: Stage-based Wisdom for Nonprofit Capacity weighs in with a developmental perspective on nonprofit capacity and its relationship to increased organizational performance. Offering practical insights and thought-provoking case illustrations, this book presents seven nonprofit lifecycle stages and the predictable tasks, challenges, and inevitable growing pains that nonprofits encounter and can hope to master on the road to organizational sustainability.

More than ten thousand nonprofit and foundation officers have attended the Growing-Up Nonprofit TM seminars in which Susan Kenny Stevens originally introduced the hands-on wisdom of lifecycle theory. Now, as foundations and nonprofits seek to understand the principles of capacity and capacity-building activities, Stevens again showcases the lifecycle approach she pioneered more than two decades ago.

The lessons contained in Nonprofit Lifecycles are timeless. Learn for yourself the stage-based wisdom from this nationally-recognized expert on nonprofit capacity



Freitag, 4. Dezember 2009

Winner Takes All or Websters New World Letter Writing Handbook

Winner Takes All: Steve Wynn, Kirk Kerkorian, Gary Loveman, and the Race to Own Las Vegas

Author: Christina Binkley

Sin City. Bright lights, high stakes, and no sleep. Home to some of the world's grandest, flashiest, and most lucrative casino resorts, Las Vegas, with its multitude of attractions, draws some forty million tourists from around the world every year. But Vegas hasn't always been booming at the level it is today. This newest influx is largely a result of three competing business moguls. Meet Kirk Kerkorian, Steve Wynn, and Dr. Gary Loveman, men who couldn't be more different from one another, yet share the same tunnel-vision determination to conquer the city that feeds the world's fantasies.

No longer just a go-to city for gambling, as a result of Kerkorian, Wynn, and Loveman working to reach the top-and to top one another-Las Vegas is now home to restaurants run by some of the world's top chefs, some of Hollywood's biggest stars headlining their own venues, galleries featuring some of the world's most valuable art, and meta-resorts boasting the largest and most expansive casinos, spas, and more.

Having had personal access to these men, Wall Street Journal reporter Christina Binkley gives us a never-before-seen, up-close look at the trio of tycoons whose high-stakes gambles have made Sin City soar. Sharp, insightful, and revealing, this is the gripping story of how billions of dollars and the unparalleled drive for power made the personal visions of three moguls evolve from dreams to larger-than-life reality.

The Washington Post - Jonathan Krim

…[an] important and detailed account…Binkley vividly conveys the repulsiveness of the scene, but as with train wrecks, you just can't stop looking. Or reading.

Publishers Weekly

Former Wall Street Journalreporter Binkley offers this story of the "trio of tycoons" who took over Las Vegas and transformed it from a "crushed-velvet world" with a "libidinous frontier air" into a place where, increasingly and sometimes surprisingly, "entertainment and good taste go hand in hand." Binkley provides an inside look at deal-maker Kerkorian, casino visionary Wynn and professor-turned-mogul Loveman and their lavishly competitive lives: their exclusive and "aggressive" tennis games, the one-way conveyor belt created to transport customers away from a competing casino, the battle to build the biggest and the best. The author shares intriguing details about these power players-Wynn has a secret entrance, behind some fake books on a shelf, to a sprawling closet-and is also adept at portraying a seedier Vegas, where aged Mafia barons dined "on the osso buco at Piero's Italian restaurant, their canes hanging from their chairs." Sometimes her chronology gets a little murky. Still, Binkley offers plenty of nuggets mined from her years on the beat, producing a full, flashy tale of powerful men and their pride, vanity, envy, greed-and all the other cardinal no-nos that earned Vegas the name "Sin City." (Mar.)

Copyright 2007 Reed Business Information

Library Journal

What is it about Las Vegas that draws millions of people each year willing to spend billions of dollars? In her first book Wall Street Journal columnist Binkley tries to explain the city's allure by focusing on three of its more successful casino tycoons, all of whom she believes to be responsible for Las Vegas's transformation from a gaudy gambling town into a gigantic theme park. These men themselves could have made a pretty amazing story (she had personal access to all three), but Binkley chooses instead to devote the majority of the book to chronicling how the new generation of casinos was designed and built, which unfortunately makes for rather lackluster reading. In one of the more insightful sections, she does divulge how these casinos actually make their money, revealing that "casinos do not gamble-the odds are always fixed on their side." Ultimately, the appeal of the "sin capital of the U.S." is neither about art nor culture, but simply fantasy. As Binkley observes, "people don't come to Las Vegas for good taste." Suitable for larger public libraries.-Richard Drezen, Washington Post , NYC Bureau

Copyright 2006 Reed Business Information.

Kirkus Reviews

Las Vegas, and how it got that way. Wall Street Journal columnist Binkley focuses on the three visionaries-dissimilar in temperament, sensibility and manner-who have returned the luster and glamour to Sin City after its benighted tenure as a tacky family vacation spot. Casino magnate Steve Wynn (the Mirage, the Bellagio) receives the lion's share of the attention-and for good reason. Charismatic, voluble, driven and, tragically, slowly going blind, Wynn assumes the dimensions of a tragic Shakespearean king, obsessively building overwhelmingly deluxe pleasure palaces filled with fine art and world-class entertainment, spas and restaurants in an orgy of hubris and overspending. His nemesis, Kirk Kerkorian (MGM Grand), is in every way his opposite: a fastidious, self-effacing operator who lives for the killer deal and brokers multibillion-dollar transactions well into his 80s. Finally there is Gary Loveman, a clean-living former economics professor who revolutionized the gaming industry with impossibly complex consumer behavior-predicting formulas targeting low-rollers, sending the revenues for the down-market Harrah's chain into the stratosphere. The most interesting bits come when things go wrong: The sad story of the misguided attempt to open a modern, ultra-luxe supercasino in Mississippi is, as rendered by Binkley, a small comic classic of class confusion and cultural misunderstanding, rich in schadenfreude. The author has a novelist's instinct for character development and taut, suspenseful storytelling, infusing the subject with all of the drama, verve and what-happens-next imperative of a classic Scorsese epic. It's a quintessentially American story, full of money, ego, competition,vice and the stubborn belief that transcendence is just around the next corner, waiting for someone with the vision and guts to grab it. As exhilarating as a high-stakes game of craps.

What People Are Saying

Po Bronson
"It's a great drama on the greatest stage. . . . Wynn, Kerkorian, and Loveman represent three opposing business personalities, three styles of achieving success. On the Vegas Strip, they're pitted against one another like gladiators, and we've got front-row seats. Kapow!"--(Po Bronson, author of WHAT SHOULD I DO WITH MY LIFE?)




Books about: Art and Rosies Home Tested Recipes or Bread

Webster's New World Letter Writing Handbook

Author: Robert W Bly

Expert tips and 300 sample letters make business and personal correspondence a snap.
When trying to close a sale, answer a complaint, or offer thanks, a well-crafted letter can make all the difference. Packed with practical advice and 300 easy-to-adapt sample letters, this all-purpose guide shows readers how to write letters that get results -at work and at home.
Covering the nuts-and-bolts of letter writing as well as the secrets of high-impact prose, the book delivers proven recipes for attention-grabbing introductions, persuasive arguments, memorable phrases, and closing clinchers. Best of all, it offers guidance on business and personal letters for every circumstance, from job hunting, selling, fundraising, and asking favors to giving a reprimand, responding to criticism, expressing sympathy, and declining gracefully. It's the only reference anyone will ever need to write the perfect letter, whatever the occasion.



Table of Contents:
Introduction1
Pt. ILetter Writing Basics3
Pt. IIPersonal Correspondence33
Pt. IIICareer and Employment Letters71
Pt. IVGeneral Business Correspondence117
Pt. VInternal Communication189
Pt. VICustomer Service Correspondence243
Pt. VIISales and Marketing Letters317
Pt. VIIICredit, Collection, and Billing393
Pt. IXVendor Communications437
Pt. XE-Mail and Fax Correspondence495
Appendix A: Formats517
Appendix B: Useful Letter Writing Aids529
Appendix C: Mailing and Shipping559
Glossary561
Index567

Donnerstag, 3. Dezember 2009

Country Living Crafting a Business or On Becoming a Leader

Country Living Crafting a Business

Author: Kathie Fitzgerald

Home-based businesses are a common starting point for many entrepreneurs—and women in particular yearn for flexible hours as well as the chance to do creative work they really love. But how can that dream become reality? Find out, from the experts who already made it happen. The women artisans at the heart of this volume will inspire and motivate anyone who wants to follow in their footsteps. In illuminating in-depth profiles, they provide invaluable practical information on what it takes to get started, develop a saleable product, organize a company, market your goods, manage the finances, and handle staffing. All types of business are featured, from hand-weaving, doll making, and rug hooking to travel, interior design, and photography. Gorgeous photos showcase each businesswoman happily in her element, along with her work.
INSIDE, YOU’LL MEET:
Amy Butler, owner of Amy Butler Design Anna Corba, owner of Found Cat Studio (home accessories)
Michelle Joy, owner of Primrose, a floral design and vintage shop Marilyn Lysohir, owner of Cowgirl Chocolates Lisa Norris, owner of Made by One Girl (handmade books)
Kate Shifrin Style Consultants Inc., Come Flea with Me Jane Zaccaria, owner of Tiddlywinks and Scallywags, a child’s clothing store And many more!

Library Journal

Fitzgerald tells the success stories of over 25 creative women who have built thriving businesses out of their artisanal skills. The shop owners, designer/producers, and service providers covered include Elisa Strauss (Confetti Cakes); Phyllis Leck (Village Weaver); Marilyn Lysohir (Cowgirl Chocolates); and Denise Allen (Allen's 19th Century General Store). Each profile includes a biography, addressing the woman's motivations and her tips for others, and is accompanied by photographs of the woman, her business enterprise, and some of her products. But that's not all. The book then offers a Business Crafting Workshop: a step-by-step guide for prospective entrepreneurs, including drawing up a business plan, product development, marketing and sales, and financial management. A list of names and addresses of helpful trade associations, books, journals, and mentors (the names and addresses of those profiled) are included. Published in conjunction with Country Living magazine, which has an annual issue profiling women entrepreneurs, the book enables the Country Living editors to go beyond those profiles and "gather many more stories in one place than...in a single issue of the magazine." A good choice primarily for public library collections.-Lucy Heckman, St. John's Univ. Lib., Jamaica, NY

Copyright 2006 Reed Business Information.



Read also Is the American Dream Killing You or Milkshake Moment

On Becoming a Leader: The Leadership Classic

Author: Warren G Bennis

With a new introduction by the authorWarren Bennis's formative years, in the 1930s and '40s, were characterized by severe economic hardship and a world war that showcased the extreme depths and heights to which leaders could drive their followers. Today's environment is similarly chaotic, turbulent, and uncertain. On Becoming a Leader has served for nearly fifteen years as a beacon of insight, delving into the qualities that define leadership, the people who exemplify it, and the strategies that anyone can apply to become an effective leader. This new edition features a provocative introduction on the challenges and opportunities facing leaders today, with additional updates and current references throughout.



Table of Contents:
Acknowledgments
Introduction to the Revised Edition, 2003
Introduction to the Original Edition, 1989
1Mastering the Context1
2Understanding the Basics31
3Knowing Yourself47
4Knowing the World65
5Operating on Instinct93
6Deploying Yourself: Strike Hard, Try Everything105
7Moving Through Chaos133
8Getting People on Your Side145
9Organizations Can Help - or Hinder163
10Forging the Future183
Biographies197
References209
Index213

Mittwoch, 2. Dezember 2009

Last Train to Paradise or Discover Your Sales Strengths

Last Train to Paradise: Henry Flagler and the Spectacular Rise and Fall of the Railroad That Crossed an Ocean

Author: Les Standiford

Last Train to Paradise is acclaimed novelist Les Standiford’s fast-paced and gripping true account of the extraordinary construction and spectacular demise of the Key West Railroad—one of the greatest engineering feats ever undertaken, destroyed in one fell swoop by the strongest storm ever to hit U.S. shores.

In 1904, the brilliant and driven entrepreneur Henry Flagler, partner to John D. Rockefeller and the true mastermind behind Standard Oil, concocted the dream of a railway connecting the island of Key West to the Florida mainland, crossing a staggering 153 miles of open ocean—an engineering challenge beyond even that of the Panama Canal.

“The financiers considered the project and said, Unthinkable. The engineers pondered the problems and from all came one verdict, Impossible. . . .” But build it they did, and the railroad stood as a magnificent achievement for twenty-two years. Once dismissed as “Flagler’s Folly,” it was heralded as “the Eighth Wonder of the World”—until a will even greater than Flagler’s rose up in opposition. In 1935, a hurricane of exceptional force, which would be dubbed “the Storm of the Century,” swept through the tiny islands, killing some 700 residents and workmen and washing away all but one sixty-foot section of track, on which a 320,000-pound railroad engine stood and “gripped its rails as if the gravity of Jupiter were pressing upon it.” Standiford brings the full force and fury of this storm to terrifying life.

In spinning his saga of the railroad’s construction, Standiford immerses us in the treacherous world of the thousandsof workers who beat their way through infested swamps, lived in fragile tent cities on barges anchored in the midst of daunting stretches of ocean, and suffered from a remarkable succession of three ominous hurricanes that killed many and washed away vast stretches of track. Steadfast through every setback, Flagler inspired a loyalty in his workers so strong that even after a hurricane dislodged one of the railroad’s massive pilings, casting doubt over the viability of the entire project, his engineers refused to be beaten. The question was no longer “Could it be done?” but “Can we make it to Key West on time?” to allow Flagler to ride the rails of his dream.

Last Train to Paradise celebrates this crowning achievement of Gilded Age ambition, a sweeping tale of the powerful forces of human ingenuity colliding with the even greater forces of nature’s wrath.


Publishers Weekly

A good idea to have a novelist tell the story of Henry Morrison Flagler, the 19th-century mogul credited with developing Florida as a vacation paradise goes sadly astray here. Readers hoping to learn about the man will be disappointed, as will those looking for a good yarn about the engineering marvel that is this tale's centerpiece Flagler's creation, in the early 20th century, of a rail line that traversed 153 miles of open ocean to link mainland Florida with Key West. The narrative bumps along, frequently veering off into tantalizing detours that lead nowhere. Standiford presents pages about the power of hurricanes to destroy property and savage the human body, an emphasis that is the book's undoing: readers are led to believe that storm damage in 1935 was the sole reason for the railroad's abandonment. This prompts Standiford to argue that Flagler's undertaking was a "folly" from the start, as his contemporaries claimed, and that his story constitutes a classic "tragedy." In fact, the Florida East Coast Railway (FEC) was undone as much, if not more, by a force Standiford never mentions: the internal combustion engine. After the hurricane of 1935, investors and the government considered rebuilding the FEC, but decided instead on a highway. The book's conclusion references Shelley's cautionary poem "Ozymandias," a gloss on the impermanence of man's works. The warning might apply to this unsatisfying book. 8 pages of b&w photos. (Sept.) Forecast: An author tour will concentrate on Florida, where this book should sell well. Copyright 2002 Cahners Business Information.

Library Journal

Standiford (Done Deal, Miami: City of Dreams) brings his novelist's eye to the true-life drama of the railroad built to link Key West with mainland Florida. The book opens as one of the most powerful hurricanes in modern times rages across the Florida Keys, destroying the railroad and killing many unfortunates who sought shelter along its tracks. Standiford then follows parallel tracks, detailing the merciless progress of the storm while tracing the Key West Extension's brief and eventful existence. The brainchild of Standard Oil millionaire Henry Flagler, the railroad was considered an impossible dream because it had to cross 156 miles of water. But Flagler had the will and the millions of dollars, to make his "Folly" a reality. Begun in 1905, the railroad took nearly seven years and $20 million to build. Three hurricanes washed away miles of track during the building, and engineers had to develop entirely new techniques for spanning deep and wide bodies of water. In the end, the track stood for only 22 years before the Labor Day hurricane of 1935 swept all but a few miles of it back into the sea. A powerful story told by a talented writer; recommended for public libraries. [Previewed in Prepub Alert, LJ 6/15/02.] Duncan Stewart, State Historical Soc. of Iowa Lib., Iowa City Copyright 2002 Cahners Business Information.

Booknews

The story of the crazy idea to build a railroad over open ocean in the Florida Keys, its completion, and its complete destruction 22 years later in a hurricane is well told by author and Florida resident Standiford. Though the central protagonist is the oil tycoon Henry Flagler, who was a pivotal figure in the development of Florida's coast, Standiford never loses sight of the experience of the railroad's less well-known engineers and workers. Annotation c. Book News, Inc., Portland, OR

Booknews

The story of the crazy idea to build a railroad over open ocean in the Florida Keys, its completion, and its complete destruction 22 years later in a hurricane is well told by author and Florida resident Standiford. Though the central protagonist is the oil tycoon Henry Flagler, who was a pivotal figure in the development of Florida's coast, Standiford never loses sight of the experience of the railroad's less well-known engineers and workers. Annotation c. Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)

Kirkus Reviews

A History Lite tale chronicles the building, between 1892 and 1912, of the 156-mile railroad from Miami to Key West, once billed as the Eighth Wonder of the World. As he readily acknowledges, Florida resident and novelist Standiford (Bone Key, p. 296, etc.) owes much to those professional historians who dug out the details of the remarkable story he swiftly and ably summarizes. He begins at the end: Labor Day, 1935, when a massive hurricane struck the Keys, an event exhaustively detailed in William Drye's Storm of the Century (above). Among those scurrying around trying to protect life and property were Ernest Hemingway, whose house and boat suffered minor damage, and Bertrand Russell, who lost family members and very nearly died himself. Just as a 20-foot tidal wave hits a train, the author whisks us away to the year 1904. Henry Flagler, a trusted associate of John D. Rockefeller and an extremely wealthy man himself, courtesy of Standard Oil, has decided to develop Florida. Standiford fleshes out Flagler's remarkable career as hotel-builder and resort-developer, portraying him as an innovative entrepreneur with an unflagging faith in himself and in his structural engineers. Although the press characterized the projected railroad across swamp and sea as "Flagler's Folly," he never doubted it would one day exist and turn a tidy profit. He was right about the former, wrong about the latter. Standiford does an admirable job of keeping the story afloat as the project is plagued by hurricane, mosquitoes, and vast cost overruns, and he has an eye for the memorable detail (e.g., each morning, alligators had to be shooed away from the construction equipment), as well as a weakness for clichйs. Atthe end, he returns readers to his exciting account of the 1935 hurricane that destroyed much of the roadbed and exiled the railroad to history. Engaging, but facile. (8 pp. b&w photos, not seen) Author tour



New interesting book: India or Travels with Charley

Discover Your Sales Strengths: How the World's Greatest Salespeople Develop Winning Careers

Author: Benson Smith

For four decades, The Gallup Organization has been gathering information and offering data-driven advice -- conducting millions of interviews, compiling thousands of statistics, and building a wealth of facts about what really makes people successful (and happy) in their fields. Now Gallup uses its expertise to offer a unique, interactive StrengthsFinder.com Profile that will identify your top five talents -- and help you start getting the most from them in your sales career. Each copy of this book has a special, individualized code that lets you access the StrengthsFinder Profile on the Internet. The product of a twenty-five-year, multimillion-dollar effort, the StrengthsFinder program interviews you and offers an in-depth, individualized analysis of your predominant strengths and personality traits. Using this book, you can then find out how to put your strengths to work in the real world, how others with similar talents have succeeded or failed, and why you may need to make essential changes in your career. Debunking the most-repeated myths about sales -- from the myth that anyone can sell to the myth that a good salesperson can sell anything. A book that only The Gallup Organization could create, Discover Your Sales Strengths offers you a powerful new knowledge of who you are, what you're good at, and how you work best. And in today's world of sales, that is the most powerful tool of all.

Publishers Weekly

Unlike many how-to-sell books written by motivational gurus and successful salespeople, Smith and Rutigliano s work is backed up by facts and figures gleaned from 40 years of Gallup research. The authors, both Gallup consultants, dissect stereotypes and debunk popular myths about selling to determine that there is no one formula for success, and that training, knowledge and experience cannot make a great salesperson. Instead, they find, great salesmanship stems from exploiting individual talents. Top salespeople succeed by figuring out what they do best and then finding a way and a place to do it. With that argument established, Smith and Rutigliano take an interactive approach to help readers find their own Signature Themes, directing readers to www.strengthsfinder.com (for which they ll need an ID code from a Gallup publication) to gauge whether they fit their current situation by taking a quiz based on a 12-step hierarchy of employee engagement. Since the authors contend that good managers help sales stars shine, they analyze what makes a good sales manager and relay advice from those they deem the world s best. This inventive book should help people with a knack for sales achieve better results. (Feb. 26) Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information.

Soundview Executive Book Summaries

A Winter Sales Career
For 40 years, The Gallup Organization has conducted millions of interviews and compiled thousands of statistics and facts that reveal what makes people successful in the field of sales and selling. The authors of Discover Your Sales Strengths, two effectiveness experts from The Gallup Organization, use the latest statistics and analysis to debunk the most pervasive myths about sales, and help salespeople understand themselves and their top sales talents while showing them which talents they should focus on. Benson Smith and Tony Rutigliano also show salespeople how they can use their personal strengths to impact other people and find the right field, company and boss for their talents. In addition, the authors discuss the benefits of a variety of approaches to selling and explain that there is no one right way to sell.

While studying thousands of salespeople and the factors that hinder them from reaching their full potential, the authors discovered many prevalent myths that were debunked by Gallup's extensive research. For example, while exploring the myth that a better-educated sales force is a better sales force, they point out a study that indicates the best performers had not achieved high grade-point averages in college. Dispelling the myth that experience matters a great deal, they write that their research indicates that sales is not the experience-sensitive profession that it has been made out to be. Instead, they write that they rarely find a strong correlation between experience and results.

Assessing Personal Strengths
While discussing the importance of assessing personal strengths, the authors delve into redefining many terms that help them describe world-class performers. When they write about talent, they explain, "It is a pattern of thought, feeling, or behavior that can be productively applied." To describe the talents of salespeople, the authors have compiled a list of 34 theme names that describe different traits salespeople can embody, and discuss the benefits of each as a dominant theme in various sales disciplines. These themes include Achiever, Command, Empathy, Fairness, Self-Assurance, and Strategic. By defining a clear vocabulary of sales strengths, leaders, managers and salespeople can talk knowingly about their strengths.

The authors call a salesperson's top five dominant themes his or her Signature Themes, and they write that knowing one's Signature Themes is a key to understanding the areas in which one's talents will allow him or her to outperform others. When a salesperson understands his or her Signature Themes, he or she can focus time and energy on those areas in which he or she naturally excels. To help readers find their own Signature Themes, Gallup researchers have developed a computer-based StrengthsFinder assessment tool that can be accessed on the Internet with an identification number from the book.

Signature Themes
The authors also address ways salespeople can find a job that fits with his or her talents. By aligning a person's daily activities with his or her Signature Themes, a salesperson has a greater chance of finding a good fit. They write that the five critical dimensions of fit for a sales role stem from the patterns of thought, feeling and behavior that explain:

  • our motivation
  • the way we build relationships
  • the way we gain commitments
  • the structure we need to get work done
  • our ability to understand customer needs

The authors write that the most important dimension is motivation, and research indicates that the best salespeople are much more motivated than most of the population. When key motivation requirements are fed, motivation and fit are maintained.

Discover Your Sales Strengths discusses the importance of good managers, self-reliance, expectations, building customer engagement, and even becoming a sales manager. To help salespeople and managers better understand their roles, the authors have created 12 questions that make up a hierarchy of employee engagement that addresses their needs.

Why We Like This Book
Discover Your Sales Strengths offers sound advice about selling, improving sales performance and managing salespeople that is based on research and statistics but does not get bogged down in mind-numbing numbers and graphs. Instead, the authors turn Gallup's studies into enlightening tales of salespeople who overcame adversity and created strong careers by persevering and focusing on their strengths. Their case studies and examples provide useful insights about salespeople who have used their talents to overcome personal and structural challenges to succeed. Copyright © 2003 Soundview Executive Book Summaries



Table of Contents:
Acknowledgements
Ch. 1The Wizard's Instructions1
Ch. 2The Great Sales Myths20
Ch. 3Strengths: A Capacity for Near-Perfect Performance46
Ch. 4StrengthsFinder65
Ch. 5From Strengths to Fit78
Ch. 6The Five Dimensions of Fit90
Ch. 7The Manager Effect112
Ch. 8Building Customer Engagement140
Ch. 9So, You Want to Be a Sales Manager157
Ch. 10Advice from the World's Best Sales Managers172
AppThe Thirty-Four Themes of StrengthsFinder189

Montag, 30. November 2009

The Elephant and the Dragon or McIlhennys Gold

The Elephant and the Dragon: The Economic Rise of India and China, and What It Means for the Rest of Us

Author: Robyn Meredith

A compelling look at the major changes in store as America faces increasing competition from two emerging Asian giants.

In the streets of India, camels pull carts loaded with construction materials, and monkeys race across roads, dodging cars. In China, men in Mao jackets pedal bicycles along newly built highways, past skyscrapers sprouting like bamboo. Yet exotic India is as near as the voice answering an 800 number for one dollar an hour. Communist China is as close as the nearest Wal-Mart, its shelves full of goods made in Chinese factories.

Not since the United States rose to prominence a century ago have we seen such tectonic shifts in global power; but India and China are vastly different nations, with opposing economic and political strategies—strategies we must understand in order to survive in the new global economy. The Elephant and the Dragon tells how these two Asian nations, each with more than a billion people, have spurred a new "gold rush," and what this will mean for the rest of the world.

Publishers Weekly

Meredith, who covers India and China for Forbes, upends conventional wisdom in this well-reported book, arguing that the U.S. shouldn't fear these two rising economic powers. The U.S. ("buyer to the world") and China ("factory to the world") have, respectively, the largest and fourth largest economies, but they will reach parity in 2015. Though American politicians tax Chinese goods, Meredith points out that Americans actually gain from the undervalued yuan: our companies profit from the cheap goods the Chinese manufacture. Meanwhile, India ("backoffice to the world") has picked up most of the one million white-collar jobs that moved out of the U.S. by 2003. But Meredith notes that for every dollar that goes overseas, $1.94 of wealth is created-all but 33 cents of which returns to the U.S. Protrade and antiprotectionist, she makes a compelling argument that China is doing better than India because it moved toward a market economy in 1978, while India began to liberalize in 1991. She also looks critically at each country's plans for the future, noting that China's citizens save more, while India's infrastructure and education system are falling behind. She concludes that "if inward-facing India and communist China can transform themselves, so can the United States of America." (July)

Copyright 2007 Reed Business Information

Steve Forbes - Forbes Magazine

The book to read on the extraordinary economic expansions of India and China, the two most populous nations on Earth. FORBES Senior Editor Robyn Meredith has produced a well-written and well-researched work chronicling and analyzing the most profound, tectonic shift in economics since the rise of the U.S. Even Japan's fabled and stunning economic surge from the rubble of World War II doesn't compare with what's unfolding in these once poor and stagnant nations, with their collective populations of more than 2.4 billion people. (3 Sep 2007)



Look this: The Ten Commandments for Business Failure or The 7 Habits of Highly Effective Families

McIlhenny's Gold: How a Louisiana Family Built the Tabasco Empire

Author: Jeffrey Rothfeder

and/or stickers showing their discounted price. More about bargain books

Beyond Reason or Capitalism

Beyond Reason: Using Emotions as You Negotiate

Author: Roger Fisher

and/or stickers showing their discounted price. More about bargain books

Book review: Why We Buy or The Speed of Trust

Capitalism: The Unknown Ideal

Author: Ayn Rand

This edition includes two articles by Ayn Rand which did not appear in the hardcover edition: "The Wreckage of the Consensus," which presents the Objectivists' views on Vietnam and the draft; and "Requiem for Man," an answer to the Papal encyclical Progressio Populorum.

Library Journal

As an interesting relic of the past, this outlandish piece of propaganda is worth the listener's time, even though the author's overconfident sense of her own rightness and persistence at pressing her points with little respect for opposing views can quickly become more than a little annoying. Using outdated words such as "altruists" to represent the forces of evil who would overburden the poor, beleaguered American business community, Rand "protesteth" far too much. Americans have seen many of the abuses come to pass that Rand, writing in 1946, claimed would never happen if free enterprise were just left to its own devices, so many of her arguments will be lost on a modern listener. For instance, the antitrust laws forced railroad barons to use illegal payoffs to forge ahead with expansion, and they shouldn't, therefore, be blamed the antitrust laws are the real problem. Narrator Anna Field's cold, crisp voice is actually well suited to such a heartless piece as this. Recommended. Mark Pumphrey, Polk Cty. P.L., Columbus, NC Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information.



Sonntag, 29. November 2009

The Sales Bible or Investing For Dummies

The Sales Bible: The Ultimate Sales Resource

Author: Jeffrey Gitomer

Jeffrey Gitomer's bestselling work in which he shares his tips on how to be a successful salesperson has a new edition and is now available on audio. He provides motivational advice and practical techniques for initiating, maintaining, and closing a sales presentation. Written in a breezy manner with short, easy-to-remember suggestions, this audio will be popular with persons just getting started in this field or those needing an inspirational pep talk. In an area where there are literally dozens of works already available, The Sales Bible will prove helpful to anyone who listens to it.

Jeffery Gitomer's Sales Bible has been completely revised and redesigned to resemble his distinctive bestselling Little Book series, helping the millions of fans he has won since its publication connect it to this blockbuster series, and assuring a major new life for this category-defining classic.

Ken Blanchard

It's a book you will want to keep by your side at all times.

Michael Michalko

Bravo!...The difference between the right book about sales and the almost right book is the difference between lightning and the lightning bug. Jeffrey Gitomer's The Sales Bible is the right book.

Brian Tracy

This book is an absolutely essential tool for every serious sales professional. It should be read, reviewed and referred to every single day.

Jim Cathcart

It can be digested in quick bite-sized lessons...proven techniques and healthy thinking about building business relationships.

Herb True

Never before has anyone captured so many of the priceless truths of selling that have been the professional salesperson's wisdom to create and their weakness to forget.

Karen Axelton

To the point, humorous, and engaging. —Entrepreneur Magazine

Robert Silvy

Your advice is...information by injection.

Library Journal

Gitomer, a former salesman who is now a consultant and journalist, shares his tips on how to be a successful salesperson. He provides motivational advice and practical techniques for initiating, maintaining, and closing a sales presentation. Written in a breezy manner with short, easy-to-remember suggestions, this book should prove popular with persons just getting started in this field or those needing an inspirational pep talk. In an area where there are literally dozens of works already available, this isn't an essential purchase, but it will prove helpful to anyone who reads it. It is accompanied by flash cards and a computer disc on sales techniques. Recommended for larger public libraries.-Robert Logsdon, Indiana State Lib., Indianapolis



Interesting textbook: How to Wow or Creative Suite 3 Integration

Investing For Dummies

Author: Eric Tyson

Become a savvy investor with this updated Wall Street Journal bestseller

Want to take charge of your financial future? This national bestselling guide has been thoroughly updated to provide you with the latest insights into smart investing, from weighing your investment options (such as stocks, real estate, and small business) to understanding risks and returns, managing your portfolio, and much more.

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Open the book and find:

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