Business-cycle

It's been some time since I read, The Cycle of Self Empowerment but I can still clearly remember many of the inspiring stories and step by step tips that Dom shared in this excellent book. I have read a number of self help books and Dom's book covered so many aspects of becoming a success: a success as a person and a success in achieving one's professional goals. Dom has traveled extensively and as a result has had many life experiences to learn from. I especially like how Dom takes the first third of his book giving example after example of many successful and even famous business people who didn't succeed in their chosen profession the first or even second time they tried. He then shares how these same individuals persevered and because of their desire to succeed coupled with what they learned from not succeeding they went on to became very successful people and business owners. This book is easy to read, clear to understand and above all very inspirational. Success is preparation meets opportunity. For those interested in preparing for success then you will want to take the opportunity to read, The Cycle of Self Empowerment!

This book shows that Mr. Famularo is not only a great drum master, but a great teacher in interpersonal relationships as well as self-improvement for anyone who desires to lead a better life. Mr. Famularo has been a great influence in my life since the day I met him. All of his teachings helped me to become a better drummer AND a more positive & courageous individual who is not afraid to take further steps in life.

Thank you always Mr. Famularo

This book shows that Mr. Famularo is not only a great drum master, but a great teacher in interpersonal relationships as well as self-improvement for anyone who desires to lead a better life. Mr. Famularo has been a great influence in my life since the day I met him. All of his teachings helped me to become a better drummer AND a more positive & courageous individual who is not afraid to take further steps in life.

Thank you always Mr. Famularo

This book not only maps out the territory of advanced Capitalism, but it provides a political philosophy that is a "Negri beyond Negri". Although Dyer-Witheford draws a lot of ideas from Antonio Negri and the Italian autonomist tradition, he surpasses them with his excellent analysis of postindustrial capital. Moreover, Negri's most recent work (with Michael Hardt), "Empire" falls short of Dyer-Witheford's "Cyber-Marx" which is more realistic, practical, concise and defensible than Negri has ever been. This book is worth buying by anyone interested in the realities of technological society.

This is a masterwork; a unique and nearly comprehensive view of Marxism appropriate for our times. Nick avoids dogma and certainly eliminates all vestiges of teleology. The absence of dogma is indicated by the wide variety of sources that are tied together with a strong square knot. Optimistic yet realistic, this book is a must for all progressives and all who give a damn about human and Earth survival. I would have liked to see more on neutralizing militarism; if he has ideas on this I hope he writes them up.

Addendum 12/6/02 -- Why aren't more people discussing this superb work?

I had an urge to go back to readings on politics after September 11th tragedy... So I bought a few books from Amazon and Autonomedia. Spent Christmas time reading them with an almost furiouos enthusiasm!
As a 49 years artist, european and ex-trotskyst wandering along the late capitalism pathway of illusions, I found this book an absolute must for anyone trying to do a map of the present state of humankind.
It is most probably the best portrait of post-marxism and neo-marxism done in the last twenty years. Systematic, well balanced, straithforward, wit and very very humanistic.
I think that this canadian leftist - Nick Dyer-Witheford - deserves an urgent translation of his book to french, spanish, portuguese and chinese as soon as possible...

Maddy Dychtwald's book Cycles arrived on my doorstep at a time of enormous change for my husband and me. We met in college and married a year after graduation. We supported each other emotionally through law school and graduate school. We then both got wonderful jobs and spent 5 years living life to the fullest, with no obligations except to each other. We built up savings and bought our first house. With the birth of our first son, after 7 years of marriage, we finally felt like grownups and set about the business of raising him and his brother, with all the ups and downs and joys and sorrows that parenthood entails. Now, 21 years later, we have made it through 3 life cycles together - that of students, young professionals and parents. When our younger son leaves the nest for college this August, we will be cycling into another phase of our lives - one that I couldn't foresee arriving at when I went out of my first date with him way back when. We have talked long and often about ways to structure this next phase of ours - both as individuals and as a couple. In addition, I am embarking upon a totally new career, after spending the last ten years trying to find my niche. I was pleased to see Maddy's remarks on distance learning, as the certification program that I am enrolled is given online through a major university. It is much easier to fit this kind of learning into a busy lifestyle. I am energized through taking these classes and love the learning they afford me. I greet this time with excitement as well as a bit of trepidation. Reading Maddy's wonderful book I find that I have lots of company - in both my journey through my marriage and my quest for a new form of identity. Cycles answered lots of questions as well as gave me lots to ponder. I recommend this book for all readers - no matter their age. Life is an incredible journey and this book serves as a wonderful road map to help navigate your way through it.

Maddy Dychtwald has written a powerful and insightful analysis of modern American lifestyles that turns many of our traditional assumptions about successful marketing upside down. In Cycles, her comparison between the "linear" view of life from our grandparents' generation and the new "cyclic" patterns of life today profoundly changes how we view business decisions as well as our own lives. I found her chapter on emerging workforce trends particularly fascinating, with its provocative forecasts for free agent labor and cyclic careers. And her argument is convincing! The old attachments and expectations about life at a certain age are out. What is in? A spirit for personal reinvention at every age and unexpected business opportunities a thousand times over in the second half of life.

"Cycles", is an enticing, informative book with a positive message for an aging population.The book provides the Baby Boom generation with insight on leading a cyclic lifestyle instead of the linear one of past generations. This new lifestyle approach provides Boomers with a plethora of opportunites for living, working, and buying. Ms. Dychtwald assures us that we are living longer and healthier and that we can continue to have challenges, adventures and interesting career opportunites throughout our lives.

If ever there was a textbook that could turn America's drive toward mediocraty, this is it. Demming would be ill with envy if he had only a chance to read it. This book is also very interesting to read, filled with captivating stories that relate to real-life situations that the author, Mr. Cappels, has solved. It reamins out of print, it will be worth a trip to the locat library.

This novel exceeds in character depth , beauty of language,and historical resonance like no other I have ever read .Incomparable.Some may attempt to feel American; some may come close..........but this is, unquestionably, the finest novel written by an American, about Americans,(ideal, imperfect,heroic, and oh so gracefully flawed) as one can ever hope to dream of reading.......This book is my restful dream, my hot summer night, my broken heart, my bullet-proof vision, and the reason my first born son will bear the name Augustus...

This book literally changed my life. This book is packed with a plethora of portent. A must have for anyone who is anyone. I liked the authors style and wit. I could not put it down.

The Handbook of Key Economic Indicators clearly stands head and shoulders above competing texts in its depth. The first thing I like about this book is that it provides detailed information on important data series and is an invaluable resource to those tracking the nearly daily release of non-financial data. In addition to providing the necessary methodological background for each indicator, the work explains how to interpret each indicator and specifically suggests what to look for when analyzing data reports. I also found that the explanations of the numerous potential sources of monthly volatility are extremely useful- the explanations are clear indications of the author's extensive experience with the data. I was glad to see the Handbook isn't just a rehash of the first edition--it is very current and includes important new sections on the 1996 Boskin Report, the 1998 revisions to CPI (including the impact on inflation growth rates), and the switch in real GDP to a chained dollar basis and how one works with the new data. What I like about this book is that it not only covers the basics in news release interpretation that market analysts want but also that it is an excellent reference for researchers who need a thorough understanding of the major non-financial economic indicators. What sets this work apart is that it has the depth and coverage of methodologies and special topics that similar texts do not have. For the analyst or researcher working with these complicated and often misunderstood data series, I would highly recommend this book!

R. Mark Rogers has written a comprehensive, thorough overview of the key U.S. economic indicators. His book would be particularly useful for analysts new to the business, or to seasoned analysts who need to know more about the nitty gritty behind the numbers. Rogers' handbook is filled with more technical information that some people will ever need, and some will find the level of detail intimidating and somewhat cumbersome. However, the compilation of all this information in one source is extremely valuable, and is particularly useful for those who want a deeper understanding of what the economic data say. The level of technical sophistication is what sets this book apart from others. For those who want to understand more about U.S. economic data than the sound bytes on the news or the quotes in the paper provide, this is the book to read.

This work is highly technical. It provides the genesis and sources for all the leading U.S. economic indicators. A dweeb's delight - however it lacks meaningful illustrations. A few charts were provided, but - like the dismal science, the actual text, tables, and raw data are dull, drab, and unimaginative. For my money, a far more "user-friendly" overview is necessary. This book needs some meaningful graphs, colorful illustrations, and an anectode or two. It could have been made far simpler, and easier to understand. As is, the book has only limited value - especially to the investing public. It's a shame the author went to all that work compiling a bunch of data, but, like most dweeb economists, he doesn't effectively communicate.

Running a business these days feels like going on a blind date with the future. Most efforts to understand what lies ahead take on a rather breathless quality, lapsing into technobabble as they struggle to avoid the future's central truth: unknowability is its essence. Marshall McLuhan once observed that anticipating the future is like steering an automobile by looking into your rearview mirror. Yes, seeing where you've been does give you some idea of where you're going...but not much. That said, We strongly recommends this look into the crystal ball of technology. It's a clear improvement over most works of the future-shock genre. Soundly rooted in practical business applications, and presenting surprising examples and possibilities without resorting to mind-numbing jargon, this book will prove very useful to anyone savvy enough to realize that just improving your business is no longer enough.

It's Alive has an unusual perspective. The authors argue that the valuable innovations of the next ten years are being developed in the research laboratories and advanced developments of organizations and companies today. The template is looking backward at Xerox's Palo Alto Research Center in 1971 as a way to have gotten a preview of today's computer-connected society.

The book will primarily appeal to those with an interest in applying complexity science and biological analogies through information technology to large organizations. Most of the applications here require tens of millions of dollars to do. So for those in small organizations, the examples will seem out-of-reach.

The main advantage of this book over similar books is that it has more and more contemporary examples and a further development of its concepts than the predecessors that I have read.

From looking at technological developments that are available now and those that are in process, Christopher Meyer and Stan Davis see the maturing of the information technology revolution occurring at the same time as the commercialization of various "molecular" technologies (such as nanotechnology, biotechnology and materials science). Because the two fields operate conceptually in similar ways, the authors point to a convergence that has begun between the two fields that will probably grow in the future. They also draw key lessons from the way that evolutionary biology operates to prescribe for business organizations in the future.

Here's the book's structure:

Introduction

Part I The Next Ten Years
Chapter 1 Economic Evolution: Learning from Life Cycles

Part II Code Is Code
Chapter 2 General Evolution: Learning from Nature
Chapter 3 Biology and the World of the Molecule
Chapter 4 Information and the World of Bits

Part III The Adaptive Enterprise
Chapter 5 Adaptive Management
Chapter 6 Seed, Select, and Amplify at Capital One
Chapter 7 Breeding Early and Often at the U.S. Marine Corps
Chapter 8 Creating the Capacity to Respond at BP
Chapter 9 Born Adaptive at Maxygen
Chapter 10 Becoming an Adaptive Enterprise

Part IV Convergence
Chapter 11 The Adjacent Possible

To me, the most interesting parts of the book involved advanced experiments and applications of technology to solve problems. Most of these I had not read about before. For the most part, these are written in ways that a lay person can easily follow.

The organizational examples were helpful to applying the concepts of an adaptive enterprise. Apply the six memes (gene-like qualities of ideas) for managing:

Self-organize; recombine; sense and respond; learn and adapt; seed, select, and amplify; destabilize.

Of the organizational examples, I found the Capital One and Maxygen examples the easiest to understand. The BP and U.S. Marine Corps examples seemed a little sketchy.

My favorite example in the entire book was of artist Eduardo Kac turning Genesis 1:28 into Morse code and translating the results into a DNA sequence. He then had the sequence inserted into live bacteria, and displayed the bacteria publicly where viewers could zap the bacteria with UV to create potential mutations. Now, that's technological convergence!

The book ends with some speculation about new applications of convergent technologies such as matter compilers, personal hospitals, universal individual lifelong mentors, experience machines and social-science stimulators.

Don't let the book's conceptual structure scare you off. Underneath the new definitions and concepts, there's a lot of common sense that most will agree with: Get experience fast; learn from your experience; keep it simple; be agile; get to the most valuable places first with the most; and communicate in all directions.

After you've finished reading the book, I suggest you think about how the book's principles could be accomplished on a shoe-string by an organization that you know well. In that way, you will play a valuable role in being a commercializer of advanced laboratory results.

This is an original work that provides rich detail about why and how companies must adapt. As a college professor, working on an article about contingency marketing, I found "It's Alive" to have numerous insights and examples that will greatly help my work, if not my teaching. While many of the concepts are abstract, the authors almost always manage to make their points effectively and realistically. I enjoyed reading this book.

Great book I can now see that we need to get back to having our money backed by gold and silver I have used Liberty Dollars in many states and find that many like what it stands for.
http://www.chooney.com/liberty/liberty1.html
Buy this book you wont go wrong one you read it you will want to
use Liberty Dollars also and we all will take back our money one Liberty Dollar at a time

About three years ago, while reading Otto Skinner's 'The Biggest "Tax Loophole" of All', I became aware of the phenomenon known as fractional reserve banking. Why is it a phenomenon? Essentially, fractional reserve banking is the ability to create money out of thin air. Or more accurately, the license to create money out of thin air. Black's Law Dictionary defines "license" as, "The permission by competent authority to do an act which without such permission, would be illegal." But it isn't the people doing this. It is the bankers courtesy of the Federal Reserve Act. People like the Rockefellers, Nelson W. Aldrich, J.P. Morgan and Paul Warburg. This books goes into the details. Fantastic information explaining the history of money, where the national debt comes from, why statists depise gold and silver and suggestions on what you can do about the problem of fiat currency. I, above all things, stopped using Federal Reserve Notes and credit cards and started using the Liberty Dollar. I signed up as an associate two years ago. It has been a fun and informative journey. I also have met Bernard von NotHaus on several occassions.

A riveting book that will open your eyes to the ecomomic problems in our society and how we got here. But best of all it explains in detail the solution to those problems. I loved it.

Ruling the Waves: Cycles of Discovery, Chaos, and Wealth from the Compass to the Interne by Debora L. Spar's is a interesting and exceptionally well-written description of the practices in which new technologies create innovative markets, which in turn urge demand for new policy, standards, and possession rights to govern them. Sketching on the work of financial historian Douglass North, Spar argues that with no rules business cannot flourish. Ruling the Waves shows the accounts the growth of a number of technologies that were innovative in their time from progresses in navigation and shipbuilding that made nautical journeys feasible in the fifteenth century, to telegraphy in the nineteenth century, to radio in the twentieth century, digital television and satellite, encryption technologies and the Internet, Microsoft Internet Explorer and Net browsers, and MP3 online music technology.

In telling these stories, the author puts newer technologies, like MP3 and the interne t, in historical perspective. Sailing voyages opened the unexplored surface of the high seas to market pirates and pioneers alike, but finally the great trading governments and companies were able to nearly abolish the curse of piracy by defining and banning the practices and impose these laws. Ruling the Waves disputes rules to classify foul and fair play, principles, and possession rights.
Spar depicts four stages in the expansion of new markets and technologies: commercialization, rules, innovation, creative and anarchy. Her example demonstrates how these stages have showed diverse innovations and in different industries, as well as the relationship between government and business in the creation of new companies. Spar talks about the problems of congestion, coordination, or monopoly that have occurred in some of these new corporations and explains how these problems were dealt with. In some cases, new regulations had to be fashioned for new markets, such as the government's licensing and portion of radio frequencies, while in other, old policies were practical to new innovations, such as the claim of United States antitrust law in United States v Microsoft.
The narratives themselves are fascinating, and Spar is a exceptionally good quality narrator. Her style is dynamic, clever, and handy throughout the book. Ruling the Waves is enjoyable, while making a intuitive, stylish, and persuasive argument about what happens when technology soar in advance of existing law and how policies often get shaped in new corporations because industry wants them. The book is extensive in range and covers a lot of accounts, but still offers quite in depth accounts of how the technologies and markets developed. Spar also centers on the character, innovators, pioneers, and pirates, and their particular tales, victories, and the unsuccessful from Samuel Morse, to Prince Henry of Portugal, Bill Gates, Rupert Murdoch, and a number of others. Ruling the Waves is a fantastic book for a person interested in the growth new technologies, the roles of government and industry in influential new markets, the political history of technology.

Professor Debrora Spar's explanation of key factors in the creation, building, and usage of key technologies over the last millineum. Her chronology starts with the beginnings of global navigation (pre Columbus) and the corresponding mayhem that ensued over the years via profit making, profiteering and pirating - all of which are not only inner-related but have gray boundaries been them. The chronology brings us through the development of communication first by telegraphy, then radio, television, cryptography, computers (a la Microsoft's trials and tribulations), internet and finally to the continuing saga of MP3 music.

The book actually opens with the story of the Vatican's dismissal of a too-liberal French bishop Jacques Gaillot to the remote Sahara outpost of Partenia. Not to be silenced, Bishop Gaillot continues his ministry and in fact expands it, by bringing his case to the internet - Partenia has thus become his soap box to be read by many more people than he ever could have reached had he be allowed to remain in France and only speak to those he came in personal contact with. Thus it has been throughout history - the new technology and the messages they carry are unstoppable.

Interwoven in this scholarly yet entertaining book are the concepts of each technologies stages of chaos, anarchy, self-regulation, deal making and deal braking, piracy, monopoly, and attempts at government control. Interestingly, in most cases the founders and early pioneers end up with little more than historical recognition.

There is no simple solution, no way to predict the future; Spar suggests a number of stages and issues that seem to repeat. Interestingly while enjoying this book, I read a paragraph to my wife, slightly changing a few of the words and leaving off a few minor details that would have given away the time and the company. Halfway through, my wife blurted out, "Oh you're talking about Microsoft!". No, the paragraph was about Western Union, the telegraph company and the time was well before the beginning of the twentieth century!

If such history appeals to you or if you're interested in some clues of how technologies mature, this is an excellent book.

An excellent, well-researched account of the recurring patterns that accompany technological development. This book is short on lofty, meaningless predictions on the digital age and long on meaningful insight into the struggles between the commercial and government sectors that usually shape new technologies.

Excellent book. With so many "here's what's wrong with your company" books available, this is one of the best. Not only does the author suggest what's wrong...i.e., which part of the life cycle is your company in, he tells you how to do something about it.

If I'd only been able to read just one book, I am glad I choose this one.

It's not necessarily that as a company grows from the garage into the boardroom that bad things happen . . . it's that some things are inevitable and are a function of growth.

This book sumarizes the multiple facets involved in such growth and allows the reader to compare the growth cycle of companies at varying stages. It's impact on people, org behavior, culture, awareness and other areas that the "garage shop" does not need to consider at early stages. It's a key read and assessment as companies find themselves in transition from a heavily entrepreneurial spirit to a more entrenched corporate being and notes many of the patterns such growth requires. Read between the lines and you may find companies who are currently faltering because of a lack of transition mindset to allow them to sustain managed growth or the new "size." Overall, it's a great academic read.

By comparing the lifecycles of corporations to those of civilizations, this book helps to explain how all sorts of organizations, not just corporations, can become "sick" through bureaucracy and poor leadership. This book helped me to understand why there is so much institutional opposition to correcting even localized corruption and dissolution in a large, bureaucratic GOVERNMENT institution. It helped save my sanity. I with the author would write a similar book dealing with governmental organizations.

Another book which may help if you are trying to "fight city hall" is Stanley Milgram's Obedience to Authority.

Smiley discusses the cause the the Great Depression, and the effects of the New Deal in prolonging it. He summarizes the findings of the latest academeic research, over the past few decades. He does this well and quite clearly, in a non-polemical way.

No math is involved.

Based on new theories, Smiley has re-examined and re-assessed the forces that led to and prolonged the Great Depression. In clear non-technical prose, he shows what happened and why.

This short book (163 pages plus sources and index) is divided into five chapters. Chapter 1 gives a brief overview of how the worldwide depression began and how it created a domino effect throughout Europe and the U.S. Nothing new here-- in fact, this is basic stuff any high schooler should know.

Chapter 2 is a more detailed examination of the economic crisis and the forces which led to it. Smiley explains the situation in basic terms that anyone can understand, allowing us to see the tragedy unfolding step by step.

Chapters 3 and 4 show how President Roosevelt (who had little knowledge or experience of economics) attempted to pull the country out of this deep economic slump. Though some programs were successful, some were not, and only serve to create a depression within a depression in the mid-30s.

Chapter 5 examines the legacy of the governmental response, and how economic policies initiated during this period has affected this country for decades afterward, and how certain government programs still exist long after their usefulness has passed. An examination of post-war analysis shows how Keynesian economic theory and government studies have misinterpreted the factors which brought this country back to recovery. He also examines the question of whether such an event can happen again, concluding that-- based on subsequent economic downturns-- it probably won't, though it can happen again should future leaders ignore the warning signs and lessons of the past.

A fascinating and rewarding book, even for those who have little or no knowledge of economics.

Gene Smiley's Rethinking The Great Depression blends history and economics in a survey which draws upon recent technical analysis to consider new ideas about the roots of the Depression. The efforts of the New Deal to combat the crisis, the underlying foundations of the Depression, and misguided monetary policies which prolonged it accompany refutes to popular beliefs - such as the positive view of World War II as a key to ending the crisis.