Economic-risk Books

I just read Dr Mark's book for the 2nd time.
I'm almost done with my Master's in Organizational Leadership and am strongly considering what I want my next job to be.
While the book appears to be geared towards MBA students and grads, this book is really meaningful for anyone who wants to make a difference.
Dr Mark asks questions in each chapter that makes you step back and consider what you want to get out of your career. I've started my own journal to answer his thought provoking questions.
I highly recommend this book-another winner!

Professor Albion's book is a bastion of light to those who are looking for meaning and purpose from their work. His book is a straightforward guide and a call to action for those seeking a fulfilling career of service. The book targets MBA's, but would be well received by anyone looking to reshape their career, and life, around the values that they hold dear. I would recommend this book to anyone who asks the question: Can there be more to work than just making money?

This is an exceptionally well-written book that should be read by anyone trying to come to terms with the relationship of work to one's overall life purpose. Dr. Mark's experiences as an educator, entrepreneur and consultant have given him the insight to ask questions that everyone should ask and answer regarding their career path. I am a "recovering" lawyer and am 20+ years into my business career. The information in this book and the questions raised by Dr. Mark are as relevant to me now as they will be to anyone just getting started on their own career path. Don't just read this book - take part in it. It will profoundly and positively influence your life.

This is the best book I have read since I entered business school. 99% of my career research thus far had been focused on typical post MBA careers (e.g. investment banking, consulting, etc.). Mark takes a completely different approach and asks what are you passionate about? What makes you excited to get out of bed each morning and live life to the fullest? I realized very quickly while reading Mark's book that I was researching careers based on other people's expectations of success. There is an expectation at business school to pursue glamorous jobs like banking, etc. In fact, isn't that the reason why most ambitious people get an MBA? More Than Money encouraged me to look deep inside myself. What I found, quite frankly, was that I was not being true to my inner spirit. I recommend this book to any MBA student who trying to determine their course in life or if they are interested in taking a pause to evaluate their career decisions. You will find the material in the book to be enlightening and inspiring. Mark encourages each MBA to find their passions in life. If you work at something you are passionate about...you will never work a day in your life.

Watch Video Here: http://www.amazon.com/review/RC0T31BFA28JA

I read at least hundred books a year on business and this one as provided some incredibly coherent thinking on the nature of strategy and systems thinking! We use the concepts in the Stanford Advanced Project Management program and managers really begin to understand the nature of what good planning looks like!

Everything in life has risk. The advantage that the entrepreneurial business model has is that it encourages risk taking. The entrepreneur is willing to risk his time, his investment in a venture that the established companies are unwilling to undertake. The bigger the company, and perhaps the older, the more risk adverse it becomes. Perhaps I should say organization rather than company, because bigger organizations like our Federal Government cannot afford risk, the price of failure is too high when the '60 Minutes' reporters show up.

In this book Dr. Chatterjee attempts to define business risk in ways that a corporation might use to understand, minimize and work around failure in a proposed venture. As he puts it in Chapter 1, 'How to See Gold Where Others See Risk: Identify More Choices to Get the Gold.' While you have to accept that any risk at all means that sometime you will fail. It is also axiomatic that the higher the risk, the higher the potential for return.

This book gives a framework for identifying high risk/high return opportunities, and first evaluating the risk and then finding ways to minimize the loss in the case of failure.

Business is a specialized extension of life, so the reality is that there is no failsafe. However, that is what makes the game so interesting. For if you could not fail, business, like life, would be very dull and uninteresting. In the modern world, jobs are being created and destroyed at a rate faster than at any time in history. There is also no doubt that the pace of change will continue to accelerate. Furthermore, the physical location of jobs is also changing at a rapid rate. However, the rate of change of job movement will slow and eventually flatten out. As countries such as India and China develop, the wage differential will narrow. Finally, at some point most of the jobs that can be outsourced will have been outsourced.
In this environment, the challenges can be overwhelming. The sensible person explores every possible advantage and there is a great deal of sense in this book. Overall business strategy, rather than operational aspects, is the focus. While new technologies are continuously being developed and are creating new business opportunities, the strategies examined here are applications requiring very little new technology.
There are two key points, the first is how to identify a new market that can be exploited and the second is how to manage your growth. Two aspects of markets are described. The first is as a white space, which is a market niche that is currently unexploited. While these are market opportunities, there is a danger in being the first mover. With no history to examine, it is easy to be a trailblazer for others who will avoid your mistakes and be in a better position to exploit the market. The second is the sweet spot, which is a location that will allow you to maintain your advantage and defend it against others who might want to challenge your position.
Several case histories are presented, including an extensive one about Enron in an appendix. Companies such as Dell computer, Southwest airlines and Jet Blue are examined, including their strategies for entering markets and how they manage to maintain their position and profits, even through difficult times. However, I found the case history of Enron to be the most interesting. Their initial business strategy was a brilliant one, but when Enron branched out into other areas without performing the due diligence of research, they began to experience failures. It was the attempt to maintain the façade of unrelenting success that led to their downfall. Rather than admit to the failures, managers at Enron began to engage in account manipulation that snowballed as failures grew in magnitude and number.
As the world changes rapidly, market niches are created and destroyed and are not always evident. Entering these niches requires forethought, courage and determination to succeed. If even one is missing, failure is likely. The information in this book will help you to identify new niches and ask the right questions concerning whether you should enter one. You must supply the courage and determination.

“This book develops a set of concepts that allow you to design business models where the risk can be reduced to practical proportions. The risks in any business come from not knowing the demand, threat from competition, and not having the appropriate capabilities. The basic theme repeated over and over again is that to reduce risk, you need to have clarity regarding where the risks are and create choice, or options, in tackling those risks. We use numerous examples of business strategies to illustrate the concepts. But more to the point, the concepts developed in this book enable you to quickly visualize successful strategies as well as avoid the common pitfalls. However, by no means are we claiming that the strategies we use as examples were developed using our frameworks. We are very aware of academic ‘after the fact’ analysis of famous strategies that in no way portrays the reality of how those strategies were developed. Notable examples are Honda, Wal-Mart, and Southwest. This is where our book differs. Rather than looking backward to try to understand these famous strategies, which is often the case with academic analysis, we use these examples as ‘exercises’ to help you re-create these strategies using our framework and methodology – a process that should help you internalize our concepts faster (from the Introduction).”

In this context, Sayan Chatterjee divides this excellent book into two broad sections-ten chapters and an Appendix. He briefly summarizes each of them as following:

I. THE FIRST SECTION develops concepts that allow a firm to clearly understand the nature of the risks in a given business.

1. In the first chapter, we explore the choice dimensions when designing a strategy – how to identify multiple business models. By identifying multiple business models, you will be able to minimize competitive risks by essentially changing the rules of the game.

2. This brings us to the final concept, which you will explore further in Chapter 2. Even if you manage to reduce competitive risks by identifying a competitive logic that is distinctly different from competitors, you are still vulnerable to capability risks.

3. In Chapter 3, we revisit the choice dimensions that allows you to consider different capability configurations that can deliver the same core objectives without making the mistakes made by Continental CALite. This will help you understand how elements of a successful strategy from one business can be applied to just about any business without undue capability risks.

4. In Chapter 4, we will review the different options to reduce capability risks that we have seen so far with some more examples. These options are using an existing or off-the-shelf capability and investment in capabilities that affect part of the value chain, sometimes in order to outsource the risky capabilities. Thus Lilly, Cisco, FedEx Custom Critical, and Sony PlayStation have outsourced the critical parts of their value chains contrary to conventional wisdom.

5. In Chapter 5, you will consider some techniques for reducing capability risks at the operational level.

6. In Chapter 6, we describe the characteristics of organizations that are the best suited to benefit from the types of frameworks described in this book.

II. THE SECOND SECTION expands the framework developed in the first section to growth and diversification strategies.

7. In Chapter 7, we look at generic strategies for adapting to a market.

8. In Chapter 8, you will consider entry strategies based on low price. You also will consider the market characteristics that reduce the risks of such a strategy. In particular, you examine one of the foremost proponents of the low-price strategies, Dell Computer, and how it has leveraged its low-cost operations into many markets by under pricing incumbents. Firms contemplating a low-price entry strategy can learn some important lessons from Dell.

9. In Chapter 9, you will look at the risk factors in shaping a market from scratch. These strategies take a long time to come to fruition, involve much bigger bets, and are inherently more risky. The strategies are usually also the most profitable and most long-lasting.

10. In Chapter 10, you look at managing these risks in a more dynamic context. You will see how to identify choices not only when designing a strategy, but how to keep the options open and defer commitments. By keeping options open, you will be able to commit resources when you have the best understanding of the risks.

III. THE APPENDIX presents a detailed analysis of the rise and fall of Enron using the risk management lens.

Finally, S. Chatterjee says that “Most management books use examples of past successes and failures to justify their frameworks. Of course, this is necessary, and we have also done that to a large extent. However, we have also gone out on a limb and made predictions about the strategies of the best companies in the world. Some of these predictions are not favorable, but if we believe in our frameworks, the true test will have to come in their predictive ability and not by looking in the rearview mirror. Imagine if someone had predicted Enron’s problems in 1999!”

Strongly recommended.

No strategy is failsafe, of course, but there is much we can do to take better risks and avoid mistakes. "The whole reason business exists is to take risks; otherwise we should be keeping our money in treasury bills," writes Sayan Chatterjee, a professor of management policy at Case Western Reserve University. To mitigate risk, he continues, executives need both clarity and choice, and to that end his guide offers expert case studies and a practical framework. Chatterjee's ideas are broad enough to encompass products and services as diverse as computer games, cars, printers, airline travel, medical imaging, and more.

Section one focuses on designing a strategy that anticipates and avoids risk. The point he makes, through discussion and examples of companies such as Dell, Microsoft, Continental, Southwest, Sony, Nintendo, and others, is that the design of a strategy needs to be flexible and replicable, as well as clearly understood by all employees and easy to talk about at the water cooler.

Section two explores risk in the context of growth and diversification strategies, and Chatterjee's detailed analysis uses some of the same companies. Comparing Dell and Microsoft, for example, he suggests that Dell tends to adapt to existing markets by leveraging the capabilities it already possesses, while Microsoft is proving itself more the market shaper.

No framework should operate as a template or checklist. But if this one is considered in a thoughtful way, Chatterjee says, it might help a company devise a strategy tailored to its own opportunities and risks.

Table of Contents:

Introduction: Understanding risk: the real key to competitive strategy
Section I: Designing strategies for avoiding risk

1. How to see gold where others see risk: identify more choices to get the gold
2. Three steps to design a low risk strategy
3. Identifying multiple capability configurations
4. Designing strategies with low capability risks
5. Lowering capability risks with visible and invisible outputs
6. Organizations that can benefit from the outcome to objectives framework

Section II: The risks in growth and diversification strategy

1. When and how to use differentiation entry strategy
2. When and how to use a low-price entry strategy
3. Strategies to shape markets: products, process and platform
4. Develop multiple migration paths

Appendix: Enron's incremental descent into bankruptcy: a strategic and organizational analysis
Epilogue

Ron "Ragen" Ross is THE MAN!
This book is packed full of useful and easy to understand information for absolutely EVERYONE! I have read many similar books by other authors and they fail in comparison. If you use MONEY, and we all do, you would be doing yourself a huge disservice by not buying this book ASAP!
Go Ron and Reno! You did it again!

This is the most eloquent, most entertaining, and most convincing attack on "beating the market" that I have ever read. The author has a PhD in economics but writes with a journalist's skill. His prose is fluent, readable. I thought the most interesting part of the book was the chart comparing the performance records of golf pros to the performance records of mutual funds -- an extremely effective presentation. Do I think any of his arguments can be refuted? Yes...a few. But on the whole this book is a balloon-bursting attack on active investing.

Very solid book, a great beginner to intermediate education on the market. Not for the novice, but for the fairly familiar person who knows how to do there own investing you would very much enjoy this. If you are a complete novice this would not be the place to start. Check out Suze Ormans book "The road to wealth" and learn the basics on stocks, mutual funds and bonds. Then read this...

This is the best book I have seen regarding investing for retirement. Don't waste your time or money trying to beat the market, just understand Dr. Ross' basic principles for dealing with a volatile market. Forget the "get rich quick" models and come down to earth and use common sense and indexing. The first 2 chapters alone are worth the price of the book.

My career as a retail stockbroker for six years, then for twenty-seven years as an institutional stockbroker selling portfolio analytics and investment research to professional asset managers (pension plan managers, mutual fund managers, and hedge fund managers) has provided me with the opportunity to explore modern portfolio theory, market efficiency, and the investment returns of active managers. I have read many of the books and academic papers Professor Ross uses as resources in this very coherent and thorough explanation of why the attempt to "beat the market" is futile, and fraught with risk.

Professor Ross uses his deep understanding of statistics, economics, and behavioral finance to explain market efficiency. He weaves a tight, coherent, and entertaining explanation of why the statistical evidence (manager performance databases) demonstrate most active managers cannot sustain above market performance for any significant time period. And he explains the risks of believing that the few active managers who have "outperformed" will continue to do so.

Professor Ross' book is the drawstring that pulls the elements of the Efficient Market Theory into a focused, concise, entertaining, and very readable format. I give Professor Ross' book my highest recommendation.

The Complete Entrepreneur is a must have for any aspiring business owner. Personally I have fallen prey to many of the unrealistic schemes, or often scams, that are advertised on television and promoted as "easy" ways to get rich quick. If only I would have read this book several years ago it would have saved me a lot of time and money. It is a REALISTIC version of what it takes to become successful in the real world.

It is very well organized, and written down to earth for anyone to understand and enjoy. It clearly dictates things I did not understand years ago, namely the patience one must go throgh in dealing with the struggles and challenges of being successful, and frequent mistakes you should avoid.

Unlike many others, this book is not about FLUFF, and should be taken as a priceless and required handbook for becoming a successful entrepreneur. It paints a picture of so many lessons that are better learned sooner than later, and uses comical examples to nail the point down.

I attended the UW-Madison for four years, and college does not teach you the lessons you can get from Mark's book. I'd highly recommend it to anyone serious about being a successful entrepreneur. Read it, read it again, follow the lessons in here, and then succeed.

We've all heard the phrase, Most learn from their own mistakes, but "smart people learn from other peoples mistakes." These are the individuals that often become successful sooner. This book will help you to do just that.

Homer Simpson, the obese, slow-witted, and reproachable patriarch of Fox TV's notorious cartoon sitcom, The Simpsons, once said the following when looking at a colleagues farcical misfortune: 'It's funny because it is happening to somebody else.' That one comment aptly summarizes Mark A. Peterson's guide for, or shall I say warning to aspiring entrepreneurs. Taken one way, the complete entrepreneur is a riot, a side-splitting, witty, and very cynical account of the often wild and crazy world of the entrepreneur. Taken another way, the book is a sobering look at the challenges, pitfalls, and (often) titanic struggle the entrepreneur must immerse oneself in to build wealth in his or her enterprise. Make no mistake, this book is deadly serious about its chosen topic, building wealth in a fledgling enterprise. Peterson asserts boldly that the entrepreneur is in business to build wealth, and that wealth building can only be achieved via patience, successful time management, and most importantly, taking prudent risks. You will not find the usual how to start a home business verbiage here, nor will you be inundated with a lot of marketing hype and promotional spin. What you will find in this book is a lot of skillfully crafted, highly readable lessons about those little, but often fatal things that run an infant enterprise aground. These things are, by the way, the very things that all the high brow business books avoid. In the book, you will learn, among other things, about the various kinds of risks the entrepreneur faces in being in and doing business and how to ameliorate (lessen) them. You will also learn about how banks and lease providers really think and view your operation (whether well-run or mismanaged), and most crucially, you will learn a more realistic way of viewing your customers and employees. Unlike the other entrepreneurial books which present you with a formulaic outline for a successful business, this book adds a hefty, sobering dose of reality to the pot, and gives the reader the much needed jaded, experienced outlook of a seasoned entrepreneurial pro without the years of pain, frustration, lost wealth, and failure. All the other business books out there make it sound so simple, so easy to start, build and maintain a profitable, successful business, and I just keep saying to myself as I read them, it just can't be this easy. As someone looking for the real deal on start-ups, Peterson's wry sarcasm is infectious. I laughed out loud more than a few times while reading this book. Every business rule he states is followed by an often comical example of how it was broken. Though I often shook my head and swore that I would never do this or that, I am personally aware of individuals and corporations, from aspiring entrepreneurs to seasoned professionals, who have gone out and done many of the not-so-smart things he lectures against. Peterson dispenses with the follow-the-ten-easy-steps, paint-by-the-numbers approach and points out to the reader those things that almost always end up killing a promising enterprise. Peterson's book really is funny because it is happening to somebody else. Buy it and read it thoroughly (those who are serious about wealth building should keep it by the bedside) so that the funny things- entrepreneurial misfortune, doesn't happen to you!

Have you ever thought your manager (or yourself) was missing some fundamentals in doing their job? The context of the book is primarily about running your own business. But truth be told, if you have any type of management or team leading role in your company, you are formally or informally charged with the responsibility of running some part of the business.

What I like most about this book, is that its easy to read and the personal experiences really nail the situation and topics presented. Forget about all those "Business Management" bestsellers, focus on getting your grass-roots first. Where better than to learn from the experiences of people who really run their business!

Don't waste your money on this book. It doesn't even have any good ideas for starting your own business.

I didn't learn a thing I didn't already know. You would be better off buying another book, for example a Guerilla Marketing book, good old Napolean Hill's Think and Grow Rich, or Rich Dad, Poor Dad. I also liked How to make a million with your ideas.

Besides being dull and unimaginative, the only purpose I can imagine using this book for is if you have some vague pipe dreams about starting your own business and need to know if you have what it takes. This book will weed you out if you don't have the initial business sense or persistance to learn it.

That's what we have here in Peterson's book. And it's so brilliantly written that the dot com word isn't even buzzed once.

At some point in their nacent lives, even dot com companies are going to have to make a profit. That means selling goods or services for more than they cost to produce. It also means the company- wide adoption of sound business practices that control much of the free-floating risk in their businesses. It probably wouldn't hurt a few thousand of these start-up

companies to read Peterson's book and live by the lessons. Sure would change the horizon of the dot com industry, though. Companies would have more revenue, better cash flow, and actually make a profit (GASP!) And what would the market think? Shareholders would be happier, have more money to spend, employees would be more realistic and grateful for a job. Oh, and managers would make better business decisions.

This book had page after page of epiphanies. You know, the sudden

realization where you get to "Ah-hah!" that the dot commers' as an industry group have obviously overlooked in all of their technical innovation.. It's one thing to call yourself an entrepreneur and make a profit. It's entirely another to manage a business with a torrid cash burn rate that goes ripping out of the shareholders pockets, dragging the stock price down with it. Well, should you expect anything less if you can't recognize or manage business risk?

The real benefit to me from this book is the realization that although e-commerce companies these days must spend to develop all the sustainable competitive advantages possible, they must also instill throughout the employee base a strong sense of fiscal discipline and the impact of risk on every business decision.. Fundamentals my friend. It isn't about cold fusion or landing a crew on the nearest star. It's about people, external partners, internal partners, and the right way to deal with them and their

little and not-so-little bundles of risk..

Belt tightening? Well, it's in there. It is always a daunting task for well-managed companies, but it's frequently a fatal one for free spending ones. And boy, did the March 2000 meltdown in the NASDAQ ever bring the matter to the attention of every stunned investor.

Picking the right partners? Working with banks? How to avoid shooting yourself in the foot? Trust me, it's all in there and it's all relevant today if you run a business. And there's one heck of a lot more.

What's most important, and Peterson spells it out in The Complete Entrepreneur, is a clear path to avoiding fatal business risks. He identifies them for you! The lessons are put on the table in a light-hearted fashion but don't be mislead. They have a heavy-handed impact on your business and it's success. Every lesson that makes you smarter ultimately saves you money. That's one path to profitability that builds shareholder value. You can either learn from the lessons in the book or for pay for them. Or have your shareholders pay for them which is a fairly ungainly expectation after the market has applied a 95% haircut to the price of your stock because you didn't know the first thing about recognizing business risk..

One day soon, the next generation of dot commerce entrepreneurs are going to step to the front with innovations we just haven't imagined. Brilliant individuals, all of them. The ones that stay there will have started with the fundamental lessons about business risk in Mark Peterson's The Complete Entrepreneur.

This is a good solid book containing lots of information, and I like the fact that it is empowering people to manage their own investments rather than blindly trusting "the professionals".

Although on the face of it, this book is about picking stocks based on good fundamentals (mainly dividend yield), it does also mention the importance of not blindly "buying and holding" indefinitely based solely on the fundamentals. In my opinion, it does not go quite far enough here, because my own research (not opinion) in Stock Fundamentals On Trial: Do Dividend Yield, P/E and PEG Really Work? shows that determining the onset of a general bull- or bear- trend may be just as important as -- if not more so than -- picking stocks based on their sound fundamentals. As case in point: banks were traditionally good dividend payers until they collapsed in 2007-2008.

In fact, the book doesn't go far enough in any direction and tends to sit on the fence. It might say something like "value investors look for undervalued stocks at low prices, whereas growth investors look for rapidly growing stocks regardless of price"; and then conclude with "..we take a middle view.". This is not a direct quote, but representative of my point.

So as not to sound too negative, I'll stress that I do like this book and the wealth (no pun intended) of information it contains. As author of DON'T LOSE MONEY!: (in the Stock Markets), I like the fact that it has a 'sensible' title rather than one of those misleading "get rich quick" titles; even if I don't agree exactly with the investment approach.

Tony Loton.

I have been wanting to get back into stock market investing since my 401k has languished along with the rest of the market for years. I wanted a complete investment "system" that was logical and reflected my views on well-reasoned investment fundamentals.

I found everything I was searching for in this book. There is a fine balance between being technical enough to accurately represent a stock's value and market conditions and readily understandable text. Mr. Van Knapp certainly achieved that for me.

I consider myself a "value" investor at heart and I needed a book that spoke to me on that level. I didn't want rosy predictions of how much money I would make. I'm realistic enough to know I'll make mistakes, but having the information in this book gives me the confidence to know when it's time to buy as well as sell. Mr. Van Knapp also includes two real-world portfolios in the text. These aren't hypothetical portfolios manipulated to illustrate his points. They are real-money ($50k and $40k) investments in actual stocks, with performance information as well as reasoned discussion on his criteria for making his purchases.

I will return to update this review when my portfolio has had time to accurately reflect my own approach, using Mr. Van Knapp's criteria. If you are looking for stock market investment advice, I would highly recommend this book in your library.

First, what this book is NOT:

A primer on asset allocation or asset classes other the individual stocks. If you only invest in bonds, cash, and mutual funds, this book is not for you.

What this book is:

A primer on evaluating stocks to consider buying. The author explains what types of companies to look for. The author discusses developing the comapny's story, how a company fits into megatrends, how to determine a dominant company, and how to evaluate the company's financials. He has developed a scoring system that is easy to understand and flexible, so an investor can tweak the system to their own values.

A primer on stock valuation, primarily using valuation ratios. Again, there is an easy to use scoring system.

A primer on managing your portfolio. Several stock types are discussed, including aggresive Type A stocks, momentum stocks, dividend stocks, blue chips, and EFTs. Concentration vs. diversification are discussed including a recommendation for a reasonable number of stocks to own. When to buy and sell, market timing (based on eight easy to find market indicators) and investing strategy are also discussed.

The author has invested in two real money portfolios, one aggresive, the other more conversative and dividend oriented. He discusses his actual results for the two portfolios and lessons learned. The portfolios were started in 2001 and 2002, hardly during a bull market, so the better than the market results are not simply a result of favorable market conditions.

The appendices include several forms recommended by the author: a stock rating form, company story questionnaire, a stock shopping list, a market timing outlook, and portfolio review.

For those who hate books that are basically sales pitches, this book thankfully has little. The author has a web site, but it is only mentioned a few times, and never pushed.

In all, a good stock picking book with an easy to understand system for evaluating potential companies, valuing their stocks, and managing a portfolio.

As an investor who believes in many of the valuation techniques of Buffett and Peter Lynch, I was constantly trying to find a way to properly grade a stock. Finally, someone tied all the important components together in an easy-to-use scoring system that takes all the emotion out of investing. David Van Knapp has written an understandable and extremely well detailed book that walks you through all the important points necessary to determine 1) If the stock is under or over valued, 2) Is the timing right to purchase it, and 3) When it's time to get out.

Since I began using Mr. Van Knapp's system, my returns have dramatically improved. Using his dividend strategy earlier this year during the exceptional market volatility we experienced, I outperformed the exchanges by 5%.

I would highly recommend this book to seasoned veterans and new investors alike as a staple for your library. Sensible Stock Investing is destined to be included with some of the great works of Graham, Lynch and Siegel.

Out of all the investment books I own, "Sensible Stock Investing" is the only book that has finally brought together an understanding of how, what, why, and when a stock should be considered for purchase. Not just a "stock screen evaluation", like so many books are, but an explanation of how various criteria is brought together and used to give an unbiased and "sensible" direction before making a commitment. This book has allowed me to feel confident, organized, and safer while having an intelligent control of what I analyze and compare. After scrambling in various directions through reading numerous books and newsletters, "Sensible Stock Investing" has provided me with all the tools necessary to establish an orderly and educated direction of investment choices based on knowledgeable, well-built groundwork. It is both exciting and liberating to finally learn how to approach investing based on my own calculated and informative decisions.

Mr. Van Knapp has written a book that allows a person to navigate technical information in a step by step process using an "Easy Rate System". It will allow you to compare a stock against its own strengths and weaknesses, and score it accordingly. The straight forward explanations of the figures used will give the reader an effortless understanding of these fundamentals. Knowing what information to look for and how to utilize it becomes a simple but thorough process.

"Sensible Stock Investing" also includes added information on different stock groupings and their level of volatility, how to evaluate the current condition or trend of the Market, managing your stocks and much more. Through this book, Mr. Van Knapp has succeeded in making the market place an enjoyable and less exasperating environment for everyone. A well earned five stars!

This may be one of the most important books ever written. The title and cover photo don't do justice to the alarming thesis that our entire civilization is at risk, with a multitude of problems coming to a head this century. My children, ages 7 & 4, may face such gigantic problems by middle age as to make one despair. But never despair; these problems have been created by humans and we can grapple with them and solve many. But planning is critical, lest we once again be like naked people in a dark room with a hot stove in the middle--bumping into the stove and then each other, reacting only to the moment. Many of us do live for the moment and that could be our downfall as a species. We need to shift gears to a new mode of thinking that abandons continuous growth in all areas--easier said than done!

With great good fortune and apparent wisdom the United State became a magnificent country from sea to shining sea. How tragic that our enormous, fertile and bounteous western lands should be so ill-used that, indeed, in many cases, they are crumbling and disintegrating before our very eyes. We have not been good stewards of our land and its resources; this book tells the story. Backed by years of experience at the U.S. Geological Survey, the authors make a meticulous, reasoned, well-documented and comprehensive argument. If we don't pay attention we are in danger of squandering our natural bounty to greed, mismanagement and indifference. Every federal, state and county policy maker, every earth science professor, every geologist and ecologist, every library, indeed every citizen who has the barest inkling of what's at stake should have this book. Halting and reversing years of land, water, waste, mineral and air mismanagement will not be easy, but must and can be done. This reasoned and thoughtful book proves that we are on a collision course with a tragic destiny if we don't begin to care and care properly for our land. This cry and program for better land stewardship gives us the technical know-how and the hope that it can be done.

This book is an ideal source book for environmental studies programs at the university level. It provides objective, largely dispassionate discussions of a broad range of human activities that have fundamentally shaped and degraded the natural landscape of the American West. These activities include: logging, mining, minerals exploration, oil and gas production, road building, military training, chemical and nuclear weapons manufacture and testing, waste disposal, water diversion, grazing, and motorized recreation.

The authors provide comprehensive discussions of the more significant environmental impacts of each of these activities; general scientific background for understanding the nature and interrelations of these impacts; and historical/political insights for understanding how these adverse environmental situations have developed through time. Each discussion attempts to provide an even-handed treatment of these complex and often controversial issues. Moreover, the book is very well documented. It includes a 23-page glossary of terms, a 25-page index, 45 pages of factual appendices, and 150 pages of clearly referenced footnotes.

In summary, The American West at Risk is an excellent guide and text for the serious study of environmental issues in the western United States.

The authors bring science into the political discussion of our consumptive use of the arid West and spare no sacred cows. We are carelessly and systematically using up and destroying the natural resources that make the West the unique and wonderful place we love; replacing wildlife with domestic animals and off-road vehicles; making sacred places into dumps and mining the water that provides life to both the desert and ourselves.
This is a must-have book for conservationists, teachers and anyone who cares about understanding our impact on these rugged but fragile lands.

'The American West at Risk' never made it onto my bookshelf. It is still on my desk, months after buying it, and I expect it will remain there for some time as my frequently referenced, easy-to-understand guide to the environmental problems facing the American West. What's truly valuable about this book is that the information that the authors distilled into it is so pertinent and relevant yet usually impossible to find in one place with such clarity and detail. The average person usually has to grapple with lengthy, convoluted and sometimes misleading environmental assessments and impact statements regarding the extent of damage that projects of the DoD, DoE and other federal agencies have caused or may cause the land and health of peoples in the West. Wilshire, Nielson and Hazlett have distilled the thousands of pages that the beginner or amateur researcher - whether farmer, rancher, downwinder, transplant or even politician - would normally have to page through to get a handle on a controversial Western land-use issue. The authors, deeply concerned about land abuse in the West, have taken the time and effort to put together this themed-reference guide that no one else has done. They did a 5-star job at it.

As others have noted, it's an easy book to quickly read and underestimate, but it's a very useful book when you actively think it through. I can vouch for its value as I'm about to use it for the second time in my undergrad intro to Entrepreneurship class at Marquette U. Judging from the quality of the plans last time (following the general outline of the appendix) and from their comments, they really have managed to develop personally meaningful, realistic and actionable plans. The first clue I had that the book has this quality was when I noticed that my wife, who is a busy business lawyer, was spending a lot of care going over it in the evenings, while preparing for a major case. So I'd conclude that it is useful for a range of readers.

Make Your Own Luck is an excellent book, with more pragmatic, useful content than I've found in most business books.

My background is in engineering and science, then business. As an engineer, I really liked that there's a "right answer." Or at least, there are clear wrong answers (the bridge will collapse if we make it out of tissue paper, period). In business, things aren't so easy. Most situations have too many factors to identify, let alone consider deeply. Shareholders interact with managers who interact with technology and customer service people and engineers and operations and ... it's tough to know how to think about all this.

Make Your Own Luck lays out a 12-step process (hmm...) for taking risks. Some of the steps sound simple: Know your big goals before you begin, so when you make bets in your life, you're betting on what you actually want. Sounds obvious? Yeah, but in my own work with executives, I've found that people easily lose sight of their real goals(1). The power from Shapiro and Stevenson's approach comes from having a rigorous checklist to consider when making risky bets.

Some of their tools help evaluate risks that I've never known how to tackle. For example, the authors give us "prediction maps," a tool for identifying low-risk, high-reward opportunities. Simple, elegant, and practically useful. Their other big new tool is "uncertainty grids." Uncertainty grids let you quickly test your plans against combinations of uncertainties to realize whether you've unconsciously anchored yourself to a single scenario, or whether your plans can survive multiple uncertain events.

Behind the tools, they slip in some subtle thinking shifts that are worth pondering in detail. In a paragraph or two, they dismiss "high rewards require high risks" and claim you don't need high risk to get high rewards. Maybe in their world, but that's not how I think. Yet I've also heard Warren Buffett say something similar, so I'm changing my beliefs around risk/reward. That said, it would have been nice if they had pulled out some of their mindset shifts and devoted more time to helping me-as-reader explore what amount to big changes in worldview.

The writing style is fun, with thought experiments between the chapters, a final chapter of scenarios to analyze using the 12 steps, and haiku or other verse at the start of each chapter. I found it a pleasant change from the overly heavy style of most substantive business books, and it was an easy read cover-to-cover that did justice to its excellent content.

I heartily recommend the book. Go check it out!

- Stever

(1) Being a professional, of course, I never, ever lose sight of my own goals. Really.

This book has a lot of potential because it covers the hot topic of how to use "predictive intelligence" (PI) to make business or personal decisions. Unfortunately, the execution falters, since both the book and the topic exist at two levels: dry material vs. attempts to explain it. Presentations about probability are inherently dry, so to liven up their discussion, authors Eileen C. Shapiro and Howard H. Stevenson use real-world examples and creative images. However, in the end, their lively metaphors dilute their information delivery. Readers will rightfully wonder what "wallpaper jujitsu," "magic thinking," "strategic rat hole zone," "bolt-on bets" and the "OOPA! Process" are all about, and the authors don't always fully explain these intriguing-sounding devices. Teaching PI is challenging, but breaking it down into a dozen components doesn't help as much as the authors might have hoped. While we find that the book presents a clear process, interesting anecdotes and good analogies, it also ends with a series of quizzes that have more than one right answer - leaving you both puzzled and intrigued. However, those are pretty good starting points for learning about odds-making and PI.

This book is a must read for anyone who is serious about improving the odds that their actions will produce the intended results.

The book has at least four things going for it:
* The authors' deep, relevant experience in business, business theory and real-world decision making.
* A practical, straightforward approach to acting in the face of uncertainty -- based on the sequential application of 12 skills and processes that, taken together, should improve anyone's "predictive intelligence."
* Stories -- lots of engaging, memorable stories that bring the process to life.
* Interactive elements that allow you to test your understanding of the material.

For me, Make Your Own Luck has been more than just another good business book. As the CEO of a start-up business, I and my associates face more than our share of uncertainty. And, given our limited resources, the consequences of bad bets can be particularly unwelcome.

We faced just such a situation a month ago when an important part of our business was underperforming. So, we turned to Make Your Own Luck and quickly realized that the source of our problems laid in steps 5 and 6 of the Gambler's Dozen, where we had relied on too much "magic" while failing to deal with an "elephant in the living room" (read the book and you will understand). Fortunately, we had a Plan B (also covered in step 6) and we are back on track.

The book's advice was direct and effective - almost as though we had Shapiro and Stevenson on our Board asking tough questions and offering possible solutions. Like I said, it is a must read.

Although in previous reviews, the word "easy" is used, the value of this book is found by taking the time to give it serious study. "Make Your Own Luck" is not a simple read with slap-your-head insight at the end of each chapter. Rather, it provides a step-by-step methodology that, if you understand and follow it, increases the odds of your success.

Even though I'm a highly productive person, prior to buying this book, my thoughts and actions related to a business plan were scattered and unproductive. Based on my anxiety, I instantly understood the value of "The Gambler's Dozen Predictive Map." This technique shows how to match goals (bets) against probability (the unknown), a process so clarifying that it inspired me to created a software application so I could easily use this technique on a wide-range of issues.

I just finished studying the concept of "risk splits." After mastering the Predictive Map, it still took a few hours to wrap my mind around what the authors were describing; not because they are unclear, but because I've never before cast my thoughts using the patterns that they suggest. What I learned is that the hardest thing about making winning business decisions is understanding the impact of the future. By employing "risk splits," I can now look back from the future to analyze today, which is a major shift in my thinking process.

I'm starting to define my "It," a task of concisely describing my business that I've put off for the past year. As I'm a writer and a programmer, describing objectives is easy for me. In this case, however, I've come to realize that the uncontrollable elements revealed in my Predictive Map increased my anxiety and scrambled my brain. In other words, without employing "magic thinking" (more commonly called "BS"), I didn't know enough about my own project to make a meaningful statement, or properly invest my time and money (called "marbles" in Luck-speak) to make it come to life.

Having purchased close to a thousand copies of this book is an indicator of how much I value it's contents. I regularly teach project risk management and this is the text provided to supplement the course. It is an easy read and provides practical, implementable guidance.

The Risk Questionaaire provided is a valuable framework that can be easily tailored to your organization.

This book should be a part of every project managers library.

Dr. James T. Brown PMP PE CSP
Author - The Handbook of Program Management

While I'm using this as required reading for a grad school class on Risk Management, I'd read this even if it wasn't required. Engaging for a not-so-easy subject to talk about, along with good and relevant examples. Talking about big and small projects, you get a feeling as you read that this book is for you, not just "big time companies" with mega projects.

The book is very well-written and easy to read. I work in a high-tech start-up company and this book was quite applicable to some of the tasks we do.

This risk management book provides a good overview of the risk management process from start to finish, and provides examples from technical projects. The text guides the reader through the three steps of risk identification, assessment, and management, and discusses the difference between macro-management of risk at a corporate or portfolio level, and micro-management of risk at the project level.

The book stresses the need for an understanding of each facet of the project in order to identify areas of risk. There is a very strong emphasis on scheduling, with many good suggestions regarding risk reduction, and the timing of risky activities during the course of the project. The information provided is largely qualitative, with some brief discussion about quantitative analysis, methods, and risk assessment tools. Some of the quantitative methods described are specifically for IT projects, with criteria such as technology, architecture, and system complexity. The material in the book relies heavily on the PMI Guide to the Project Management Body of Knowledge, 2000 edition (PMBOK).

The bulk of the book focuses on good risk management techniques, decision-making, and project planning. Management tools, such as root cause analysis, diagnostic project metrics, and financial metrics, are described in detail. The author provides the reader with a broad scope of information regarding risk management, and the book is an excellent resource for those who seek an introduction or refreshment of good project management and risk management concepts.

This book provides an overview on how to manage certain types of project risks (some risks are not covered, e.g. financial) and, implicitly, only IT projects and not other types of projects (e.g. construction). Like many books on this topic, the treatment is uneven. The strengths are its logical structure and clear exposition. I knocked off 2 stars because a) there is a disconnect between the text (mostly IT-related) and case study (building of Panama Canal), and b) neglect of contractual issues, the key instrument of risk management. This is the book for you to read if you have no idea about project risk management.

I feel this easy to read book features not only a great starting foundation but also numerous tips, techniques, and "lessons learned" that will help all level of traders as they advance in managing their investments. What I liked and found especially unique was Mark's simple lessons on how to look at the market using different indicators and from various vantage points to pull together a more complete picture. I have found that this type of multi-layered approach is essential in developing confidence in my analysis and makes developing and following my investment plans actually possible. Armed with the tools to analyze a stock or the markets in general, later chapters describe options and outline appropriate strategies to apply. This is really an excellent resource I plan to study and reference for many years. Thanks, Mark.

In clear and precise language Mark explains which option strategy to use for different market conditions and why. This book is perfect for both the beggining and advanced option trader. I know it will become a permanent part of my library for future reference.

Mark has a gift of teaching options and technical analysis. He has a passion to teach others so they will also become successful. Mark lays the groundwork to get you jumped started. It doesn't matter if you are new to Options trading or a seasoned trader because you will learn from this book. Mark will show you the importance of controlling risk and the power of knowledge to trade no matter what the market conditions are. Your trading knowledge will benefit so much more if you have this book. Thank you Mark for always giving back and sharing your love for Options.

I really like how Mark explains how to trade options in a bullish and bearish market. I like that he uses technical indicators. I am glad Mark has Fibonacci Retracements in his book to show support and resistance in his book. Thanks Mark for writting Big Money, Less Risk.

Mark Larson is an excellent options educator whether in person or through his books. I'd highly recommend that any retail option trader study the material Mark presents. You WILL become a better, more successful trader!

This book clearly answers the critical questions: why do we maintain, what tasks should we actually do and when should we do them.

This is without a doubt the best reliability text around. No rubbish just straight to the point strategies based on sound engineering. Its a small book but is perfectly suited as a quick reference.

On Page 230 of this book, Vee makes a series of profound statements which summarise the book and its approach.
He writes:
"There are many learned papers that address the application of reliability engineering theory to maintenance strategy discussions. Many of them use advanced mathematics to fine tune maintenance strategies. The authors have limited access to field data, and their recommendations are often abstract and difficult to apply. So these remain learned papers, which practitioners do not understand or cannot apply to real life situations".
He goes on to say later that "This chasm between the designers and maintainers on the one hand and the reliability engineers on the other is what we have to bridge"
I can not agree more with these statements.
While this book ventures into statistics and probability theory in some areas, it does so in a practical way and provides excellent guidance on such matters. Overall it is a practical book providing practical advice for people involved in maintenance and reliability management. It goes a long way to bridging the chasm that exists.
This is a very good text that has a place in any maintainer's library.

That the author has managed to cram so much into 200 odd pages is impressive and I will be using it as a reference for some time. What is very good about the book is the ease of read and the fact that there are a number of real life examples that make many of your points more relevant to the reader. There were a few instances where my own experiences where reflected in the text such as Reshnikovs conundrum and the RCA chapter. On the whole I think it is an impressive book that deals well with a much misunderstood subject.

Since the inception of sensible maintenance work culture which had been a refined terminology of repair for years together and which used to be considered as unwanted event being a cost center, no effort was made by industrial bigwigs to reform the approach to a structured, value added universal maintenance management system as focus was somewhere on market capturing by monopolized products clubbed with less competitive business arena and cultural drawback towards open and free sharing of information. The importance to pay reformative attention to upgrade the maintenance practices was felt in the beginning of 1960 and since then evolution in maintenance concepts &practices have become continuous and multi-directional. In course of this, scoring excellence in maintenance practices have become a inherent part of organization's commitment and much efforts are exerted by professionals to curb & realize the maintenance expenditure in terms of enhanced reliability by adopting formalized tools and functional approaches, so that maintenance no longer remains as cost center as it had been earlier.
Unfortunately alike other management courses there is no formalized academic course exists on maintenance management, and continuous upgrade of maintenance management process grows based on sharing of information through different seminars conferences where knowledgeable & experienced maintenance professionals volunteer to educate the upcoming generation with the tips and key techniques to achieve excellence in maintenance performance.
Respected Mr. V.Narayan is one such experienced personality and his book on " Effective Maintenance Management, Risk & Reliability Strategies for optimizing performance" provides a excellent overall insight that is essential to form a value added, cost effective maintenance management system.
Among the content of book, the basic concept of functional system, the statistical approaches and mathematical insight to find out various inputs required to benchmark and optimize maintenance tasks, the concept and significance of various events/features associated with maintenance& overall reliability, the utilization process of various analytical decision making tools with area of applications, the inherent commitment associated with different strategic maintenance approaches, the technique to integrate safety and compliance to environmental regulation in maintenance philosophy are the most mentionable areas.
The definition of system says, " It is an organized grouping of man, machine tools, equipment, instrument, procedure etc. collectively set to accomplish any task".
This is very well explained in chapter 1&2 and attentive readers can grasp many important factual &practical learning points to enhance their teamwork and organizing capacity as well.
The chapter 3& 4 content mathematical approach and matrix to define and quantify various important statistics on failure rate, survival probability, and hazard rate, MTTF, MTBF, mean availability which are well described through various graphical representations. These are essential inputs for benchmarking and realize the areas of concern for improvement. Here the more elaboration with practical example on applicability or significance of all above statistical data in strategic /functional maintenance approach would have added more learning value for the readers.
It is needless to mention that proper design selection of equipment considering service maintenance & operational flexibility provides a trouble free cost effective life of any plant equipment system. In chapter 5 the key features in relation to above are appropriately explained and possess many learning points. Here I would like to share my experience on widely varying maintenance policies and practices in different process plants/ refining companies across the globe. In India most of the organizations treat having 100% redundancy of plant equipment system is a normal phenomenon, whereas most of the overseas companies don't follow the same concept. More over people are not enthusiastic to carry out tedious task of statistical analysis involving complex mathematics and instead look for fast track solutions and ready-made decisions, without going for in depth analysis. Hence formalized steps to build up a useful design selection plan would have appeared more digestible for such readers.
Risk is probability of occurrence, and risk is a inherent and unavoidable aspect in all phases of human life cycle. Hence well calculated risk can yield benefit and risk taken in haste or without proper evaluation posses great threat towards occurrence of failure/hazard /loss and eventually safety violation. The Chapter " facets of risk" and " process plant shut down" illustrate in depth facts and features of risk management corroborative to maintenance, process plant operation /