Enterprise-Value Books

Charles Handy seems like a nice man but there is no substance in his writing here. If he had handed in parts of this book to my English teacher, it would have come back with questions and cross-outs all over it.

"Anecdotal" is how one review described it. "Sloppy" would be a better description. For a man who has been a professor at the London Business School, he exhibits a disturbing lack of intellectual vigor.

He says he began to doubt the value of this book while writing it but was persuaded otherwise. I think his reputation would have been better served by listening to his instincts.

The Hungry Spirit is often confusing. The author freely acknowledges that modern capitalism operates according to the unrelenting market demands of efficiency and competitiveness, which maximizes the self-interests of an upper layer of market players but is detrimental to the financial and psychological well-being of the less well-placed who have either remained under corporate umbrellas or who have been discarded as redundant. Yet, on the other hand, he suggests that �anyone with any intelligence and a bit of get-up-and-go can make money.� And for those who don�t succeed, it must be because they have failed to develop �an eye for a customer, the market, and a useful skill.� This is the understanding of an individual who early in life received both an elite education and a lucrative job posting for which he was admittedly mostly unqualified who has now decided in later years to both mildly point out the flaws of capitalistic society and chide those who haven�t single-handedly overcome those economic forces.

The author attempts to fuse an emphasis on personal sovereignty, or what he sometimes calls �proper selfishness,� and the need for community especially within business enterprises. Recognizing that it is increasingly likely that he or she will be left to fend for themselves in the harsh environment of free markets, the individual should not seek employment, per se, but should develop �employability.� Of course, backpedaling, the author recognizes that the educational system as well as other institutions does little to develop and sustain a society of entrepreneurs. The �one-shot� chance at an education of forgettable facts is largely useless to those who desire/must operate service businesses. But this harsh reality is not all bad; the author insists that there is a widespread �hunger� for personal growth that will be a part of developing employability. Work that has a greater purpose will increasingly be sought. Does walking the dogs or trimming the grass of elites qualify?

This line of thinking also has ramifications within corporations. These newly �inner-directed� employees will reject being regarded as �human resources� or managed as some kind of business cost. They will settle for nothing less than being viewed as citizens of their companies with �rights of residence, justice, free speech, a share of the wealth �, and a say in the governance of their [companies].� The author correctly acknowledges that the democratic reorganization of companies seems like a �trade union manifesto,� which does not comport well with his expressed anti-union convictions. Other than through the insistence of these newly redirected employees, the author is unclear as to how the major redistribution of power that will be required to establish �companies of citizens� will occur. Of course, the compelling question is why the author is concerned about businesses as communities. Properly selfish, self-employed, citizens no longer need to work for corporations, right?

Despite the fact that the author generally regards laissez-faire economics as troublesome for the greater society, he seems unwilling to advocate for political processes to exert much control over its excesses. In fact, he suggests that major issues are best decided outside the political process beyond the level of the nation-state by pressures from global markets or by international economic (WTO) and military alliances. Citizens/voters should confine themselves to local issues of roads and schools and police and hospitals. This minimalist view of politics and government is hardly adequate to address the effects of the �bottom line� thinking of modern capitalism for which the author expresses concern. The revamping of educational systems to include life-long learning with replacement income during schooling and the restructuring of corporations will require greater, not lesser, political intervention.

As a critique of capitalistic society, this book is marginal at best. The author�s focus on the drive for money and the workings of market forces doesn�t begin to explain the structure of capitalistic societies. Absent are virtually any descriptions of the power structures in society and, most importantly, the domination of contemporary culture and the control of information by media empires. It is clear that the author has little appreciation for the profound role of citizen empowerment whether that is through the political process or such bodies as unions that will be necessary to counter the forces of modern capitalism. The idea that half of society becoming entrepreneurs trying to sell services to each other or to a layer of elites without significantly countering present economic forces will represent a general advancement for society is dubious at best. If anything, it seems a certain path for a First-World country to become a Second- or Third-World country.

What struck me about this book was the search the author himself had made (and was continuing to make) in finding meaning for himself. The theories behind his views on capitalism (while interesting) wasn't the point to me. Handy reveals that (in the end) he had paid a terrible price in his family relationships while aggressively pursuing a demanding career as an oil executive and, to a lesser degree, later as an educator. This is something that most people can relate to--as it's a particularly delicate balance to maintain early in one's career.

It's insightful and painful at the same time to watch Handy go through his contortions. It was something I could certainly relate to...experiencing the guilt associated with investing so much of one's self in career at the expense of (ultimately) bigger priorities.

Towards the sunset years of one's life, one's life priorities become very clear. There's not a lot of preaching here...simply great wisdom from someone who attempts to inspire others to evaluate these important questions for themselves.

Bill Wiersma
Author: The Big AHA!

Handy is an incredible author. Reading this book was like sitting at the feet of one of the elders at the gate. He's incredible insightful and thought provoking. I highly recommend this book.

Capitalism improves the lives of people more effectively than any other economic system. But the underlying principles of capitalism, efficiency and the bottom line, are too widely applied says the author. We are exhorted nowadays to run everything, even our personal lives, like a business. The problem is that the mandates of your life, and even many industries, like healthcare and social services, fall outside the basic structure of capitalist economics. Capitalism can provide wealth and comfort for people and institutions, but it cannot provide a meaning to their existence. People want more than money, says the author, they also hunger to make the best of themselves. The answer is to become "properly selfish." To be properly selfish means to reach beyond economics and find a true purpose to your life, to satisfy yourself by helping others, and building a legacy you can be proud of.

Charles Handy has the following advice for those seeking to add true meaning and richness to their lives:
· Know when to say "enough." Eventually, more wealth doesn't add value to your life, it just accumulates.
· Create the sublime. Make room in your life for things that lift your spirit like music and art.
· Reach for immortality. Find a way to leave something positive behind for the generations that will come after you.
· Help employees achieve their dreams. Give them a vision, a reason to feel passionate about their work.
· Treat your employees as citizens. Today, companies are more often a collection of people, not things.

If your interested in VSM. This is a great buy. Really breaks it down for you.

This is a basic book. It takes like 45 min to read, and a whole life to put to practice. Buy copies of this book and give them to everyone in your company. It details the first, most basic step of any business improvement startegy: learn how to observe and map your processes. No improvement can be achieved if you do not know what is happening right now.

I teach value stream mapping as part of an overall masters level operations management class. I use this text as the primary document on VSM. It's an excellent text that one can learn the basics from. The text would be further enhanced if it included an enclosed DVD/video (or access to such via the web) that further explained the content with examples. I believe a 1 hour (maybe less) video would significantly enhance the learning of the material, with very little increase in unit cost.

This is THE VSM book for people wanting to learn Value-stream mapping. Although it is a bit expensive, it is well worth it. I recommend this book to every Business Process Improvement class I teach and have never received anything but positive feedback from the people who have purchased it. This book teaches you how to "think lean" by showing you how to work through a simple project and manually draw out VSM's.

The Lean Institute [...] is a wealth of Lean and Value-stream information, and has additional resources that can help you on your way to becoming an expert Lean process analyst.

Once you have learned to draw VSM's manually and need a better (and faster) way, I recommend iGrafx software, as it uses the same methodology, terminology and objects that you will learn in this treasure of a book.

Book info : 3rd edition published in 2003.
Pre required knowledge: SMED, Continuous Flow Manufacturing
Purchased price : USD 17,50

This book is a workbook, it does not handle a lot of theoretical stuff on LEAN. Also it relies on SMED and Continuous flow manufacturing and KANBAN, so if you're not familiar with that, you will need to do some reading on those topics as well.

Basically this book gives you a technique how do draw you current value stream with all the necessary details. Next it explains how to draw your future value stream and what to do to get there (on paper and on the shop floor). Be careful it does not say how to get there

The book is not very complicated and the way it is explained every fool can do the trick. What I found pity was that the majority of the book goes on the production process. It does not say a lot on the office value stream. Still, I can recommend this book to everybody that is looking for a practical starter on LEAN.

Superb read, I especially like the 2 chapter Wireless Network overview and the Wirelesee Value for explaining complex issues in a straightforward manner. This book brings you up to speed on the industry, business value and corporate interest in the mobility space. A must buy!!

My objective was to gain a better understanding of the potential business value of wireless mobility. I am in Sales and new to the wireless mobility space. The technology primer chapters were pretty good with the exception of some Microsoft bias (one of the authors is a Microsoft employee). The book proceeded to go into CGE&Y's approach to gaining business value. Perhaps this book is better suited to an executive who is grappling with understanding how to quantify the value and is interested in purchasing CGE&Y's approach. I did not care for the bias.

I enjoyed this book very much. Having a technology background, I knew about this topic before I read the book but I did a learn some new things. It's also a good tool to learn how to explain mobile technologies in simple terms to non-techies and business people. Easy and quick read!!!

This book is super informative, nicely written, and easy to understand. I would recommend it highly to large enterprises interested in mobile technologies and to individuals who are interested in learning more about the burgeoning filed of mobile computing. Highly recommended!

This book is an excellent insight into Mobility and Wireless. Good for both newcomers and those inside the industry, I look forward to the next one from these authors.

This book appears to be based on two false premises. One, the bottom line is the bottom line, if organisations manage to get more value out of their people the bottom line changes. Two, there's no such thing as an intangible - market value of a business is tangible value. The big omission is any definition of value even though the authors constantly refer to this concept.

An ideal read for HR people who want to talk a good job but of little use for those who genuinely want to find practical ways to add value through people.

Dave Ulrich and Norm Smallwood have done it again- created a wonderful book which is an invaluable toolkit for aspiring and practising managers."Why the Bottom Line Isn't" is a highly relevant and accessible resource for busy executives, which can also save your organisation substantial dollars in consulting fees.This book is also recommended reading for non- executive Board directors and investors.
As the authors outline in their introduction, "Why the Bottom Line Isn't", began when they asked a simple question- How can two companies in the same industry, with similiar earnings, have vastly different market values. In addressing this question, Ulrich and Smallwood explore the world of intangibles and a new bottom-line, that has building long -term market value as the central theme.
Based upon their extensive consulting experience and drawing from diverse disciplines, such as finance/accounting and organisation behaviour,the authors focus on how to identify and build intangibles within one's organisation.An Architecture for Intangibles is created and this four layer model provides the framework and structure for " Why the Bottom Line Isn't". As the framework is developed,the reader is taken on a journey that focuses on the leadership implications- and resulting actions- for each layer( and their various components) of the architecture for intangibles. Ulrich,Smallwood and Zenger's excellent work from Results Based Leadership(Harvard Press 1999)on "leadership brand" is also integrated.
This outstanding book is really a treasure chest resource - it is full of useful hints,quizzes,question and process lists, tips and exercises. It also contains questionnaires and is supported by extensive reference notes and web links, for those requiring further information and support.
The practical emphasis is demonstrated via the utilisation of many company examples and stories that support the many insights which are presented. The communication style which the authors employ is also very appealing and engages the reader.Close attention to education objectives are also very evident, with the authors utilising fresh techniques in tackling complex issues within organisations. For example,to surface sacred cows which exist in most organisations,they recommend treating them as you would a computer virus, because they have the same deadly impact on your operations, as computer viruses have upon IT systems.As a result,a virus detector list of 27 items is produced
In summary, this book is essential reading for any executive who is wanting to better handle the complexities of life in 21st century organisations.

Authors Dave Ulrich and Norm Smallwood use a bottom-line approach to assess various business intangibles that build actual value, such as a vision of future growth and improved capabilities. They present the keys to creating value by mustering intangible assets in a well-organized, highly structured way. Unfortunately, the intangible factors and the growth steps they discuss are well-traveled territory. But while other books may describe how to develop these "soft" qualities in a more intriguing or more original way, this volume handily dissects, quantifies and explains them step by step. Here, the vague is made concrete. Even a bean counter could understand the bottom line value of innovation, improved internal systems and enhanced organizational culture with this explanation. We recommend it to those who want to invest in intangible assets in a tangible setting, for very tangible reasons.

David Ulrich's ideas have pretty much defined the HR profession for the last decade. That by itself is a reason to make sure you've read this book. What is even more important is that Ulrich & Smallwood outline how HR activities can help to increase the shareholders value as measured in stock price (at least, this is what HR could do, if they would do it right, the reality is that often HR just seems to be wasting money). Given that shareholders become more and more demanding, that's another good reason to read this book. So I was a bit surprised to see that this book is not high on the Amazon bestseller list when I'm writing this review (sales rank 12.407 when I wrote this and only 4 other reviews written).
Not only does the book contain a lot of valuable advice, it's structure and writing style make it easy to get the message. For instance, you'll find most principles illustrated with examples of companies such as General Electric, South West Airlines, Sears, ... and each chapter ends with a section with leadership implications.
While reading the book, I had myself going "yes" most of the time and I really think that this book should be on your reading list. So why did I only give it 4 stars? Personally I would have seen a more provocative writing style, more examples of how other companies screw up, etc. I think that more counter-examples would really have driven the books's message home.

This book argues that competitively successful organizations seek to constantly build long-term value by strategically managing some of their intangibles. As we know, intangibles are not accounted for in an organization's financial statements. By exploring the world of intangibles, the authors explore a new idea or a new bottom-line, which has the building of long-term market value as its central theme. The authors have identified 7 key intangibles that have to be nurtured. They include the following: shared mindset, talent, speed, learning, accountability, collaboration, and quality of leadership. They have built their formulations on the basis of their own real experiences or a survey of the practices followed by globally successful organizations. The book is based on an Architecture which is the central model on which its contents revolve (p.13).

Some of the prominent features of the book are as follows: Firstly, the book explores a new bottom line suggesting that the intangibles are as or even more important as the hard strategies, systems and processes; for it is the focus on the intangibles that helps build customer, investor, and employee confidence about the future.

Secondly, the book should be seen as outlining an agenda to focus on for HR managers; this is to charge them to increase the shareholders' value through helping develop each of the intangibles. The present crisis of HR department globally emanates from the allegation against it that it indulges in wasteful expenditure in non-measurable activities. Thus the book suggests that HR managers have to become coaches, architects, designers and facilitators of organizational capabilities.

Thirdly, the observations and formulations of the authors are based on inter-disciplinary perspectives within management segments, and are not just reflections of organization theory or effectiveness or just better HR management. They have drawn from researches from disciplines such as human resources management, financial management, IT, and leadership.

Fourthly, the book succeeds well as a solid guide that makes a complex subject simple to the reader by putting before her the essence of various functional perspectives related to management of intangibles. The discussion helps in gauging what works and what does not, and why.

Fifthly, the book contains some remarkably interesting and effective tips of leadership building at the top as well as leadership-building as a way of organizational life. The authors point out that when leaders identify and implement the seven intangibles identified in the Architecture, they "create intangible value" (p. 251).

The book is an essential reading for any executive who wants to better handle the complexities of managerial life in the era of chaotic competition. It surely helps the reader see a larger picture. Though the book has been written in extremely user-friendly way, I feel if it had a simpler title it would have carried a much higher attention value of potential lay readers. Still, there is no doubt that it will be especially liked by those managers and leaders who want to build confidence about shaping their future in the chaotic business world.

Debi S. Saini
MDI, Gurgaon, India

This is an excellent book. It answers a lot of questions about how a nothing (at the time) software company like MicroSoft was able to trounce the largest (at the time) hardware/software company in the world.

It was particularly fascinating to read how MicroSoft was so reluctant to even get involved with IBM and had to be cajoled and bullied by IBM into doing the IBM-DOS project.

This very readable book is the model that Gerstner should have followed. Elephants can do heavy towing, or push aside obstacles; they can't pirouette en pointe. This book is the viewpoint of IBM by an outside journalist. It lacks a table of contents. The book describes the problems, it does not tell when or why it originated.

Page 20 says IBM developed "a lush bureaucracy that prided itself on having a higher ratio of managers per employee than any other business around." Is this what they teach in business school? IBM's chairmen came from the sales force; if you can't sell it, there's no point in making it. The IBM PC was created from off-the-shelf parts so it could be quickly marketed; pre-defined interfaces too! Page 24 tells how Microsoft did an operating system: they licensed QDOS (a replica of CP/M), then bought it. It eventually made Gates the richest man in America.

Page 27 tells of the management problem in creating software. Architects spent months producing detailed designs for software. Then masses of programmers had a hard time deciphering the hundreds of pages of specifications. More time was spent in communicating than actually writing code! Isn't this a recipe for a project to be over budget and behind schedule? Estridge's habit of shunning meetings, not returning phone call, and ignoring unwanted advice could set an example of a well-ordered project manager who concentrates on the mission, not the housekeeping. Page 37 explains why standards for PCs began at birth.

Page 53 mentions the "fear of nuclear attack" as the reason for moving out of New York city. But other companies also moved out in the 1970s; the fear of a nuclear attack drained away after the Cuban Missile Crisis of 1962. Didn't IBM build a skyscraper in the 1980s only to sell it in the 1990s? Didn't AT&T do the same?

Page 87 tells how Gates got lucky when VisiCorp began to self-destruct. Those familiar with counter-intelligence operations may think of another reason (p.192). Page 97 says IBM never wanted to have too many people in one spot. Unstated here is the fear that nearly all could walk out to a new company (p.186). Page 101 tells that IBM used lines of code as a measure of programming; what did IBM use to measure its management? Microsoft rewrote IBM code to make it faster and smaller, then; how are they doing now? The last pages of Chapter 8 deal with the OS/2-Windows politics. There is no explanation as to why they didn't share the same application interface. Page 201 tells of developing a RISC chip; didn't CDC do this in the early 1960s? Page 208 describes the chip development problem in Burlington VT. Page 217 mentions the "golden screwdriver" and how quickly some machines were upgraded. Think ahead!

Pages 245-7 tell of the PS/1 project: crippled so it would not compete with PS/2. Would General Motors restrict the sale of Chevrolets to sell more Cadillacs? Page 281 suggests Microsoft moles reported on IBM's strategies. Pages 301-9 tell of the changes in Lexington under new owners. In political history, this is like a revolution that sweeps away the aristocracy and lets the farmers and merchants rise to power. Does the description of the IBM bureaucracy remind you of France before the Revolution? Will anyone write a book to cover the last ten years as well as this one does?

People who complain that this book is unfounded because IBM is growing and profitable forgets that over a decade ago, IBM was a stinker: the bottom had fallen out of the lucrative mainframe market, and IBM could not compete long-term in the rapidly growing PC/Workstation market. This book is a great lesson in how not to adapt to change.

Luckily, IBM has pulled itself out, but at what cost? Imagine if IBM had got the PC revolution right? There might not even be a Microsoft today and IBM could have retaken its position as THE corporate super-power.

Besides discussing poor management, I enjoyed the information and great anecdotes about IBM's relationship with Bill Gates and Microsoft. I cannot believe the number of opportunities IBM squandered to acquire, invest or eliminate Microsoft. It seems that IBM pratically pushed Gates to build Microsoft into the power it is today.

I have now read this book twice. Not only have I read the book, I remember this time period as my company worked closely with IBM. One of the other reviewers said, "An amusing book that attributes IBM's success to a couple of lucky business decisions followed by endless blunders. Carroll makes alot of assertions about IBM but provides few facts to back them up..." Obviously, this person either works for IBM or did not know what was going on at that time. What Carroll says is true. Especially if you had ANY ties with IBM during these years, you will find this book fascinating. I have referred back to it many times.

This is a penetrating and often amusing look at the rise and fall of IBM. It's dated, much like any book about computers that was published about seven years ago is obviously expected to be.

If IBM is doing better now, this book might have had something to do with it. Things like corporate hymnals, the ponderous decisionmaking process, and the reasons for the failure of IBM's PS/2 line are all exposed in humiliating detail. As a former retail sales rep for an IBM dealer from 1988-1990, I can tell you that in that time frame the IBM I saw looked a lot like Carroll's portrayal (and completely turned me off about them). This book is worth a search.

This bok is very helpful in builing your first process maps and is also useful when leading a kaizen event.

This is an excellent resource for office staff wanting to value stream map their work. Its written in a clear no nonsense style with ideas you can put into practice immediately.

I like the insider 'Lean Note' every so often providing hits and ideas you would only get from an experienced lean leader, these tips are designed to stop you going down a blind ally.

If you are thinking of running a Kaizen event in your administrative area you would benefit from everyone on your team having this resource to hand.

The approach is particularly useful for manufacturing companies who have already gone lean on the production floor and are waiting for their office support and administration functions to catch up.

Highly recommended..

Best reference and how to on adminstrative functions for value sream mapping.

I always look for new ideas and this book was weak. The material seemed to be a rehash of process mapping and not an adaptation of value stream mapping to administrative areas.

I already know how to process map and I know how to value stream map.

I agree that administrative areas are more about process mapping, but based upon the title of the book, I wanted some ideas on what others are doing to merge the two concepts.

The value of this book depends strongly on your personal knowledge about VSM and JIT/Lean. I was more used to the approach from Quick-Response-Manufacturing as Tagging&Process Mapping. Anyway, for people searching an introduction to Value-Stream-Mapping and especially the office part, I can recommend this book - the production part of the good example used, is not discussed in details - but this is not the goal of the book anyway. I read many different books to get started with VSM, but this one is one of the simpliest and most consistent books about VSM for office operation. The writters refer to one single example of a company and develop the case in a understandable manner.

Readers interested in VSM for the shoopfloor should read this book as well. As a matter, it is unfortunatelly true, that companies focus there attention to the shopfloor operations, meanwhile the potential of upstream and non-production processes are ignored. This book gives you a good knowledge, how to start your journey.

I bought both books, Complete-Lean-Enterprise (the one I refer to here) as well as Value-Stream-Management-for-the-Lean-Office. Meanwhile the first one gave me a much better overview how to practice VSM, the second one was quite week (bad case example in my oppinion) and I could not get the point how to proceed with the VSM-technique. On the other side, the later book provides more information about important issues as pitch, heijunka, work balancing etc., but already using VSM for the shopfloor and having knowledge about JIT/Lean, this will not provide new insights to you anyway. Conclusion, I would recommend this book here to get started and definetly not the book Value-Stream-Mgmnt.-for-the-Lean-office!

Best Regards,
Oliver

This is one of the first books about VaR and so became widely used and read by everyone interested in market risk management. Good as an introduction and to have a good overview of VaR but if you need more detailed information this book will not give you the answers.

Cannot think of any other book that gives you the basics and beyond of VAR. As an MBA student I liked most the practical examples. Mathematical stuff is kept to a minimum, even though it can be sometimes quite demanding. Jorion is one of the laeding academics on VAR. He "defends" the properties of VAR very well after some criticism on VAR (see Nassim Taleb's web page).

Dr. Jorion's book formally introduced the concept of VaR to me several years ago. It's written so that a novice in risk management can understand the concepts with ease.

A great book.

This provides an excellent overview and introduction to VaR and issues surrounding it. A must read for any body involved with financial risk management.

Jorian clearly has practiced before he began to preach. I found his work to be essential in designing and implementing a var methodology for the electricity forward market. The examples he gives of the failures to measure and control risk are illuminating and entertaining. I have recommended the book to others and they have agreed that the book is excellent.

First off, the authors' credentials are amazing. Nick Earl has been profiled by Fortune Magazine as "HPs New E-vangelist." Peter Keen was named by Information Week as one of the top 10 consultants in the world!
That said, this book delivers. If you are looking for small profits, this book is not for you. It cuts straight to the chase and delivers the goods on becoming an intermediary or using one effectively.
They treat this huge subject with practical advice and business philosophy. This is the best book I have found that seems to truly identify the direction the Web is going.

Five Stars

"From .com to .profit" is a thought-provoking book for entrepreneurs who want to build major, Internet-based businesses or who want to understand more about the business models of larger, Internet-focused companies.

The authors discuss six "value imperatives," which they feel successful Internet companies must have in their business models. These imperatives are:

1) "Perfect Your Logistics"

2) "Cultivate Your long-term relationships"

3) "Harmonize your channels [of distribution] on behalf of the customer"

4) "Build A Power Brand"

5) "Transform Your Capital And Cost Structures"

6) "Become a value-adding intermediary"

The book devotes a chapter to each topic. One of my favorite chapters was "Perfect Your Logistics," where Earle and Keen give many examples of how companies have used the Internet to save money and significantly reduce their operating costs. The Internet allows companies to be more efficient.

Earle and Keen say that improvements in logistics will be a huge advantage of the Internet. While consumer-based Internet companies have captured the most public awareness, the biggest benefit of the Internet to businesses will be greatly increased efficiency in doing mundane things, such as ordering paper clips. Business-to-business transactions will probably create more savings and opportunities than business-to-consumer transactions.

"From .com to .profit" does an excellent job discussing business-to-business hubs and portals (web sites where businesses can come to broker supplies and services).

The book's discussions of branding, value-added intermediation, partnerships, and relationship building are also excellent.

I took off a star for some silly statements about capital structure. Earle and Keen write that the Internet has created a "capital revolution," and if a company can show a "Price/Vision" premium, investors will continue to bid up the price on the company's Internet stock. Wanna bet? The Internet has not created a "capital revolution." It has created an investment mania.

Earle and Keen go on to glibly write, "There is no correlation over the longer term between market value and any standard accounting measure of profitability. ..." Ah, can we have some evidence, please? This seems an incredibly silly remark to make without supporting evidence! Unprofitable companies over the long-term tend to disappear from the stock market. Some apparel companies do manage to limp along for decades without ever being profitable. But, such companies are hardly a good investment.

The authors observe that once you have highly-valued stock, it can be used as currency to acquire intellectual capital and other assets of real worth. This is true. And, as Earle and Keen point out, not having highly-valued shares to trade for intellectual capital is a disadvantage of privately-held companies. But, let's not legitimize funny money as a way to build a business!

Overall, "From .com to .profit" offers a lot of great insight into business models and into what separates customer-focused, successful business operations from less successful operations, making it worth a read.

Peter Hupalo, author of "Thinking Like An Entrepreneur"

This solidly researched and written guide shows you how to move into the next phase of e-business operations: actually making them profitable. The authors call this era .profit (dot profit), and aside from that little gimmick, the book is refreshingly free of space-filling babble. Instead, it concentrates on the elements needed to make a profit on the Internet, and gives plenty of examples from cyberspace so you can learn from those who are already in .profit world. We from getAbstract recommend this book to anyone charged with developing business strategy.

The authors tell us that the purpose of the book is to answer this question: "What can business do -- and do now -- to set priorities and competitive direction for being on the Web so as to provide value to customers and generate profits at the same time?" In answering this question, they have a point of view. "It's not transactions or price that create the value that gets customers coming back to a seller. It's relationships, collaboration, and community."

This book is for people who have not thought about what elements must be present in a an e-business model in order to ensure profitability, sustainability, and success. If you company is starting its first e-business initiative, this book could save you some lost time and money.

If you have done this thinking, chances are that you will not learn much from this book. I found no concepts that I had not read in at least 5 other books about e-business success. The microeconomic analysis of creating a profitable business over time was also incomplete in that it did not pay enough attention to the role of speeding up progress, reducing start-up losses, and creating permanent advantages. I graded the book down one star for these missing elements.

The book focuses on six areas for progress (value drivers, in the parlance of the book), and provides an imperative for each:

1. Relationships (cultivate your long-term customer relationships)

2. Logistics (perfect your logistics)

3. Branding (build a power brand)

4. Channels (harmonize your channels on behalf of the customer)

5. Intermediaries (become a value-adding intermediary or use one)

6. Financial Dynamics (transform your capital and cost situations)

Each value driver and imperative is detailed with check lists to consider and useful, contemporary examples that you can check on on the Web for yourself.

A weakness of the book is that it pushes a bit too hard on the idea of building relationships as the primary way to create profit. Certainly, relationships will always be important, but I suspect that most successes in the future will be built on superior, trustworthy service rather than on relationships per se. The book is also too quick to abandon being the low-cost provider of superior products and services as a valid, broadly-available business model. With specialization, many will be able to achieve that. Further, the book is not imaginative enough in thinking of new ways to add value to customers that cannot be done except on-line.

On the other hand, it is the best book I have read for explaining the importance of having a carefully considered e-business model, and providing a structure for examining the options.

In the final chapter, the authors look at new trends in technology (especially wireless applications) that will affect how you help customers.

The authors have excellent credentials. Nick Earle is the head of HP's E-Services.Solutions group, and Peter Keen has written widely on business and the Internet. The final chapter also draws on the thinking of Rajiv Gupta, general manager of HP's E-Speech operation. The quality of their backgrounds show in the clear articulation of their points of view and the examples they choose.

After you finish this book, ask yourself the question of how you can create advantages for your business that customers feel are very important and can never be overcome by competitors. And don't limit yourself to on-line solutions to get there. When you come up with a solution, you'll be off to a good start in creating a superior business model.

Dot-profit provides a good review of the economics and fundamentals of electronic commmerce. This is particularly needed given the state of the market. While the book is good for understanding the sources of value and benefit found in eCommerce.

The book while strong on rational does not provide enough detail to implement. I like Peter's books so I read his other books on eCommerce. I found the eProcess Edge out at about the same time as a good refernece for building what it takes to move from dot-com to dot-profit. Reading both has given me the high level business strategy and the business operations requirements needed to act on the advice.

The book provides a great reference model ("Lean Extended Enterprise Reference Model-LEERM") for understanding the strucure and framework for assisting companies, their customers, and suppliers in transitioning to a total value stream conversion to lean. Unfortuately most books on the subject of lean only address the application of specific lean tools (Kanban, SMED, etc.) and do not provide the strucured methodology necessary for aligning the total organization. The Lean Extended Enterprise Model outlined in the book identifies Panels of Value Stream Integration; (1) Strategic Journey Panel, (2) Best Practices and Principles Panel, (3) Implementation Panel,(4) Methodologies, Tools,and Enabling Technologoes Panel. Additionally the book provides a formal performance measurement tool to support the Lean Extended Enterprise Reference Model. The termed used to define this model by the authors is "Lean Extended Enterprise Assessment Process-LEEAP". Seven major evaluation areas are identified in detail; (1) Leadership, (2) Customer and market focus. (3) Uniform improvement infrastructure, (4) Value stream processes, (5) Extended enterprise integration, (6) organizational learning, and (7) Performance measurement. This book is a must read reference for those companies who are serious about implementing Lean throughout the entire Supply Chain.

This is an excellent book that I have purchased for key leaders in my organization. It does a great job of linking Value Stream Mapping to Lean Concepts.

The book does a good job by meeting its objectives. It provides guidence for the executive that's trying to fit everything into the process from strategic planning to execution.

What I would thought would bring to me some new concept or ideas to continue to move in the Lean Enterprise direction and conversion, is however a "summary" of all the different available tools, with nothing new about them. Unfortunately not written for those of you who have already started to implement Lean approches in Manufacturing, Supply Chain, Product Development, or else. Good for the ones looking at the different options and trying to see what can be the whole picture...

Being a "real world" lean practitioner and having gone through the many trappings in "going lean," I found T. Burton and S. Boeder's book, "The Lean Extended Enterprise" to be one of the most practical and usefull text on the market. These authors have blended the best of academics, case histories, lean tools, and industrial science to provide a road map to navigate a lean implimentation. I.e., not only on the shop floor, but across the enterprise. This helps preclude the sub-optimiztion syndrome and lack of work organization and syncronization that many of us have experienced while attempting to go "lean."

A treatise of sorts from Unisys executives, with a foreword by Steve Ballmer. Sounds promising, though the theme is not exactly avant-garde...Brandenburger/Nalebuff covered this is in "Co-opetition" much more eloquently as long back as 1997.

A discomfortingly large chunk of the book is devoted to drilling the already established business dictum that collaboration, i.e., "a company's alignment of its business activities and processes with other organizations to create shared value and manage shared risk", is not merely a TACTICAL way of enhancing value or efficiency but is rapidly becoming a STRATEGIC necessity for the continual innovation needed to exploit fast-paced yet fleeting business opportunities.

Is it just me, or haven't we known this for what, 10 years now? This part of the book appeared to have been freeze-dried into place and was about as exciting to read as an ice tray.

Fortunately, the book soon picks up as the authors point out how collaboration, while critical for competitive relevance, is potentially risky and a pain in the rear to actually manage. Executives must evaluate the choice of partners, the form of the collaboration, the expected rewards, the possible risks, and the implications for personnel, operations and technology. In addition to explaining the underlying dynamics of collaboration, the book provides frameworks and diagnostics for the strategic and operational decision-making needed to effectively exploit the collaborative imperative.

And in this, it excels. What's more, it brims with some fascinating real-world case studies, arguably the most ambrosial of prose in any business book, and the authors cast a wide net too -- UBS, Cisco, U.S. Department of Defense Advanced Projects Research Agency Network, the Global Straight Through Processing Association (GSTPA) etc.

Overall, a mild to medium recommendation that may just be worth your time if you are involved in collaborative operational work. If you are really serious or care about the strategic perspectives of collaborations, you may also want to take a look at "Co-opetition" or more recently "The Support Economy" -- both trailblazers in their own right.

Thanks to Welborn and Kasten's vast experiences as business and technology strategists the Jericho Principle just became required reading for all MBA Graduates. Their proven (and time tested) frameworks and pragmatics steps help determine when, where, and why a collaborative venture makes sense to your organization - information each and every recent MBA grad should live by.

This book is extremely helpful and provides indepth analysis on the subject at hand. (clever title too). it is obviouse that the authers have an outstanding knowledge of the subject matter

BOOK REVIEW:
If there is one thing that is certain, we live in an uncertain and changing world. Those companies that are agile and can quickly and cost effectively change to take advantage of new business opportunities will not only survive they will thrive. Being first to market with a new products or services usually means a higher margin return while the competition is playing catch up.

Business collaboration defined by the authors as " the alignment of business activities and processes with another business to create mutual benefit" is a growing tool used by many companies to quickly and cost effectively implement new business strategies.

Technology has and will continue to evolve to further enable collaboration, as noted by the many excellent examples sited in this book. Effective collaboration requires more than technology, it requires value creation from all collaborators, shared rewards, and managed risk.

This book does an excellent job of describing how organizations build processes and services to enable collaborative partnerships and alliances. After reading this book you will be better equipped to evaluate your company's readiness for collaboration and implement measures to improve your company's readiness in key areas.