Enterprise Books

I work in a non-technology based field, yet found this book to be a great tool for inspiring some new marketing ideas.

AT LAST! A definitive, concise, readable, understandable, helpful book on this subject that has literally changed the way I communicate and network in my business. Thank you, thank you, thank you, to the authors!!

The world can be divided into two groups: those that get it, and those that don't. Real estate is a very competitive industry -- you not only have to be "with it," you have to be "ahead of it." This book is a must have for the business person -- in this case, realtor -- who needs and wants the cutting edge advantage.

Like many people looking for a book or information on web conferencing I was frustrated in my search by the surprising lack of available material. Needless to say I was thrilled when my search ended having come across "The Web Conferencing Book..." and was happier still when I found the book to be as an informative and engaging read as it is. Extremely comprehensive, The Web Conferencing Book answered virtually all of my questions on the subject - and even provided me with information I didn't even know I need to be aware of. I can't recommend this book enough for people needing to know more on the subject as it will undoubtedly have an immediate and highly positive impact on your web conferencing abilities and overall knowledge. The authors have provided us with an amazingly valuable resource and I'm now offically on the lookout for future technology books by them.

I'm a computer services manager working in local government, so I am probably not part of the target audience for this book.

This book will give maximum benefit to a non-technical person who knows nothing about on-line collaboration. The book is effective in giving a survey of the conferencing products and services available on the market at the time of publication.

Here is my description of my "wish list" for a book on Web Conferencing:

1. Target audience: Information systems professionals
2. Detailed coverage of network issues involved with Web conferencing, including bandwidth, infrastructure and security issues.
3. Cost structure for each product reviewed.
4. Some coverage of manipulating low cost configurations to provide high levels of service. (How to do more with less).
5. Professional, rather than chatty, tone.

The CEO of Seventh generation, Jeffrey Hollender, pens this book on responsible business. I came across this book because Seventh Generation recently decided to sell their wares through Target instead of Wal-Mart. Most small businesses would love to be courted by the Wal-Mart retailing giant but Jeffrey Hollender felt that Target agreed more with Seventh Generation. In this book, Jeffrey discusses his thoughts on running a responsible business.

The opening chapters were somewhat difficult to get through. Perhaps it just took several pages for me to get used to his prose?

The underlying message I felt was that having a socially responsible business is possible but will require a lot of work on everyone's part. Everyone is so connected to each other now. Perhaps an environmental conscious entrepreneur decides to open a chain of organic restaurants and ensures that farmers are paid a fair price. But what if the restaurant hires an exterminator that uses a toxin that ends up contaminating the soil for generations?

The idea is to have a closed-loop business model ... that leaves things in the same condition as when the company began. For example, think of the credo of camping sites. Moreover, the closed loop business model is more than just your business but includes your suppliers and customers. Specifically, there are hidden costs to disposal of things like electronics and the ubiquitous clear plastic bags. Of course, we every day consumers can throw them in the trash for someone else to deal with. But someone does deal with our trash and there are some real costs. The book gives a story of a putrid land in China where a lot of our electronic waste goes.

I have always loved companies that are transparent with their business models from a financial perspective. Transparency is about communicating to shareholders, consumers, and employees. Transparency is about being candid and introspective on dealings and reasoning for decisions.

There are a mixed bag of corporate stories mainly with Ben & Jerry Ice Cream (who is now part of Unilever) and Seventh Generation. There is of course some mention of Johnson and Johnson's Tylenol case and also on electronic companies like Hewlett Packard and Dell. There is some applause for British Petroleum for a decision to put no money to politics and Shell who compromised with Greenpeace on an issue in Africa.

Surprisingly this is a well thought out book that doesn't get hysterical. It's honest, transparent and I recommend it.

I found the book to be uplifting. It is nice to see this type of behavior being practiced. We have entered a time in our existence where we have to start thinking of how we operate as an industrialized country.

Chris Ortiz, author of 40+: Overtime Under Poor Leadership

As a professor management who is interested in corporations acting more responsibly, I have just begun to use this book in my senior strategic management course. Hollender is a thoughtful and insightful proponent of socially responsible business. Each chapter covers a specific characteristics of SRB (accountability, transparency, sustainability, etc.).

He recognizes that running a company using these principles is not easy but definitely worth it.

He covers most of the pioneers in the field (Roddick, Cohen, Anderson, Chouinard) and their struggles to live their corporate lives in a responsbile way.

I highly recommend it.


Dale Fitzgibbons

This review is an adaptation of my review published in Personnel Psychology, Winter 2004 issue.

As one of the pioneers in the corporate social responsibility (CSR) movement, Hollender is evangelical about promoting the implementation of CSR "in all of its forms." I'm not sure I know what he means by that. As he acknowledges, it's in the "mind of the beholder" because there's "no firm consensus" about what CSR means. I certainly can't criticize him for not pinning down the concept. Professor Ronald Sims (2003), in his own book on the subject for instance, has offered five different definitions. I think Hollender equates CSR with the idea of a triple-bottom line of responsibility and accountability for fulfilling what he thinks should be the financial, social, and environmental obligations of a corporation.
Margaret Mead once said in effect that social change always starts and can only start with a small group of people. The small group identified in the book as pioneers in the CSR movement include small business entrepreneurs like Ben Cohen and Jerry Greenfield of Ben and Jerry's Ice Cream, socially responsible investment funds like the Calvert Social Investment Fund, and a host of advocacy groups or non-governmental organizations (NGOs) like the activist group, Greenpeace, and the more reserved Businesses for Social Responsibility (BSR) that was conceived as sort of an alternative Chamber of Commerce.
The book gives an interesting account of the different ways in which these pioneers promote CSR among big corporations. One way, for instance, is non-confrontational and educative in trying to "bring big business [no matter how socially irresponsible] to the table and then move the table." For example, BSR works closely with big companies to promote a set of best practices that hopefully will not only further the CSR progress of those companies but also entice other companies not to be left behind. Another way is confrontational, involving pressure tactics and sometimes law suits. Greenpeace, for example, gradually succeeded in pressuring Royal Dutch Shell to choose a more environmentally responsible way to dispose of an obsolete oil storage tanker and loading platform in the North Sea.
As you can well imagine, the notion of CSR is controversial and fraught with issues. The authors clearly know that and for the most part deal with the issues relatively well in my opinion. I'll mention and discuss a few of the issues.
Perhaps the biggest issue is over what should be the legitimate purpose of business. Hollender, understandably, totally rejects what he considers to be the "hysterical" opinion of conservative economist Milton Friedman that CSR is "fundamentally subversive" and that the only legitimate responsibility of business is to make an honorable profit. To Hollender, CSR "in all of its forms" is the legitimate purpose. Thus a corporation that seeks to ameliorate public problems not of its own making is a more socially responsible company. He cites Coca Cola as an example of a company persuaded by activists to modify its operations in ways to further the prevention and treatment of AIDS among its employees and those of its bottlers and suppliers.
Three related issues are over who should be the public corporation's legitimate stakeholders, for what should it be held accountable, and over what period of time. To people in Friedman's camp, the issues are no-brainers. Shareholders are the only stakeholders, the corporation is only accountable for maximizing their wealth and doing so through legal means, and time is marked in quarterly returns. This view is basically that the conventional bottom line is the only one that must matter. To people like Hollender, the issues are also no-brainers. Absolutely everyone and everything, including the environment, along the company's long value chain from initial product resources to product disposal are the company's stakeholders, the company must be held accountable through full and transparent cost accounting to every one of those stakeholder interests, and time is marked in the long run. The conventional bottom line is thus immensely modified quantitatively and qualitatively.
I found the authors a bit lax in relying on several of their sources about one important matter bearing on those three issues. The sources were quoted as claiming that boards of directors have a statutory obligation to maximize shareholder wealth in the short term. I questioned that claim, and one of Hollender's spokespersons acknowledged that it was a mistaken claim. But this nevertheless doesn't negate the immense pressure CEO's are under to hit the numbers each quarter. This pressure comes primarily from institutional investors who might as well be surrogates for a statute. It takes a morally courageous CEO and a sustainable company to resist that kind of pressure. In an article featuring Hollender and Bill George, the recently retired CEO of Medtronic, the latter commented that he would say at every annual shareholder meeting that the company was "not in the business of maximizing shareholder value," and he believed he "got away with that because the results were so good" (Kelly, 2004).
Another related issue is over how much self-disclosure there should be of a firm's CSR performance. Hollender proposes full "transparency," yet acknowledges that it can make the company squirm, as his did, over risking the possibility that full disclosure may end up making the company legally liable for a product shortcoming that might not otherwise ever be known. He agonized, for example, that while one of his products was more "natural' than that of any of his competitors, he was sure some of his customers at least presumed that his product "was a bit better than it actually was." Not being a fanatically unrealistic CSR advocate, he decided to put a "product self-critique section" on his company's Web site instead of putting a disclaimer on the product's packaging. It's a compromise, yes, but far more responsible than the values held and practiced by a baby food maker I remember as once having been charged with diluting its product.
Another related issue is whether to take a public company private to escape Wall Street analysts and record-keeping requirements. More public companies are apparently going private, and Hollender himself is a case in point. He took his firm private, and that is what it still is today. He points to the private outfitter, Patagonia, as being able to take socially responsible actions much more easily than if it were traded on Wall Street.
Yet another issue addressed, and the last one of theirs I'll mention, is over whether a small, socially responsible company should "sell out" to a larger corporation. An advantage of doing so besides making a lot of money from the sale is the prospect of a responsible product being introduced to a much larger market. But a disadvantage is that the seller risks seeing its values and practices diminished if not overturned altogether by the larger corporation. The authors describe how Ben and Jerry initially felt they had negotiated a deal with Unilever, the buyer of their company, to preserve the values the two pioneers held dear, only to learn later of some actions taken by Unilever incompatible with the values.
The authors claim that the CSR movement has become a "contagious trend." I think that's a bit exaggerated, and the authors offer little hard data to back up their claim. I think it is true that CSR is becoming a more popular topic, but I suspect, and the authors acknowledge, that it lends itself to tokenism or lip service for the sake of appearances or reputation. That's why incidentally I chose to mention the authors' examples of Shell and Coke. Shell reportedly regards the North Sea experience positively and claims there is now "increasingly open and honest communication with the communities," yet we read recently that its two top executives were forced to resign after lying for several years about the company's oil reserves (see, e.g., Timmons, 2004). As for Coke, it's frequently in the news for its "cozy ties to strong arm dictators and rogue bottlers" and for other alleged wrongdoing (see, e.g., Klebnikov, 2003). I could also have mentioned wrongdoing by some of the other companies the authors cite as making progress of one kind or another in their CSR performance. My point is that with so much harmful wrongdoing being committed by public corporations, I would far prefer to see a relatively more restrained movement, one that "simply" calls for public corporations to operate "harmlessly." Achieving that standard would be a quantum leap from prevailing corporate behavior, and I think corporations should direct their resources to taking that leap and not diverting them to the solving of problems not of their own making or to giving guilt gifts through philanthropy or to offering isolated token efforts.
The book is intended for a wide audience, including business leaders, employees, and NGOs. I personally think it deserves to be on a best seller list and should be read by the CEO of every public corporation who has yet to decide where to position his or her company on the CSR spectrum. I also think all thoughtful citizens should read this book. It matters a lot.

REFERENCES

Kelly, M. (2004). Conversations with the masters: Two of the great CEOs talk about the pressures of managing with values. Business Ethics, 18, 4-5.

Klebnikov, P. (2003, December 22). Coke's sinful world. Forbes, 86-92.

Sims, RR. (2003). Ethics and corporate social responsibility: Why giants fall. Westport, CT: Praeger.

Timmons, H. (2004, March 04). Shell's top executive forced to step down. The New York Times.

Another leader of an iconic "green company", Jeffrey Hollender - founder and CEO of Seventh Generation (yes, I use their laundry detergent exclusively) discusses the challenges of running a business with high integrity and full disclosure. In particular, Hollender recounts Seventh Generation's stint as a publicly traded company and posits that public ownership inevitably leads to an erosion of core values by the pressures of the markets. He cites also the example of Ben and Jerry's take-over by Unilever. I personally believe that positive social change can be wrought through the public securities markets and that values driven investing is the most significant tool available.

I appreciate What Matters Most as a cautionary tale keeping me alert to some of the perils of my chosen approach (Socially Responsible Investing as a vehicle for change). I had the privilege of hearing Jeffrey Hollender speak at a Working Assets brown bag lunch lecture. He is a forceful presence and very inspiring in his forthrightness in answering questions probing the gray areas that an ethical company must struggle with.

P.S. A recent addition to my review: The Resources section at the back of the book is very well researched and thorough. It would be worth buying the book merely for that appendix.

I have to admit I was not ready for the blunt and outright scary information that John Hinds points out in this must read book. At the same time I couldn't put it down. It does have a happy ending, but I don't recommend skipping to the back of the book for it. Read everything he has to offer on what we are dealing with regarding our water supply. You'll be glad you did.

This is a quick, insightful and eye-opening read for everyone about what's in our water! Thanks so much for sharing such valuable research. Since reading this book, I am now conscious about what drinking choices I make. Thanks for telling us what's REALLY in our water! Everyone needs to know this!

The author makes a compelling case for you to take another look at the safety of your drinking water. We all take our household and bottled drinking water for granted, but this time what you don't know about your water can hurt you. But there is good news at the end of the tunnel. The author reviews some of the more popular filtration methods and provides specific recommendations on how you can protect yourself and your family.

Wow, it was a shocking and informative read. What's in Your Water? should be a mandatory read for everyone. John Hinds explains it all and makes it easy to understand.

I just finished reading, John Hinds book "What's In Your Water?" I found it informative, interesting and a must read for anyone who is concerned about their health.

As a serial startup specialist, I am always looking for resources that can help venture-backed companies succeed--nearly every business book falls well short of the mark. "Where Value Hides" is the exception. Jackson has used his varied consulting and management experiences to clearly and concisely demonstrate how to strategically manage any company from the startup phase all the way through to the Fortune 50. It is already paying dividends for my current company.

Honestly enjoyed this book and find it provides useful insight into better understanding what drives value and how to make decisions that uncover and create it. Probably one of the more practical strategy books out there and worth the time it takes to learn its lessons.

Acquisitions are a tricky business. Deciding whether to move forward on one, or to pass one by, too often depends on an opaque understanding of strategic fit and growth potential. I found Stuart Jackson's discussion of how Strategic Market Position can create a clearer picture informative and practical. Jackson states that, "for a business or product line that competes in only one strategic segment, SMP is simply the market share of the business in its strategic market segment. For a company competing in multiple strategic segments, its overall SMP is the average of its SMPs in each strategic segment, weighted by the businessâ(tm)s sales or investment in each strategic segment." Pretty straightforward; but when you read the case examples in the book and learn what it takes to dissect a company's value drivers, you quickly realize this is no simple task. When considering acquiring another company, though, the upside to doing this legwork can be tremendous.

Jackson says we should ask four key questions when analyzing an acquisition target:

1) What strategic segment are we entering and who is the competition?
2) Will the new business improve our SMP in segments where we already compete?
3) If we are entering a new strategic segment, can we leverage our SMP in adjacent segments to ensure we achieve a strong SMP in the target segment?
4) Bottom line, will the new business make the weighted average SMP for our overall company better or worse?

Answering these questions can help you know, for example, what types of acquisitions make sense long-term, if you should "overpay" for an acquisition, as well as know when it is wise to sell off or merge a business. I think Jackson's Where Value Hides does a good job of outlining the steps necessary to get to the heart of these questions and make better decisions.

I found Stuart Jackson's book, Where Value Hides, entertaining and in many ways illustrative of best practices when it comes to thinking about how to go about analyzing a company's strategic options. The examples of BMW, Emerson Electric, and General Mills clearly show how a deep understanding of key value drivers is immensely valuable but often elusive to even the most accomplished business leaders. And his discussions around applying the principles of strategic market position to reality are very useful. It did strike me as I was reading the book, though, that to really appreciate the impact of this somewhat subtle approach to business analysis, readers would probably benefit from something like a "how to" guide or "toolkit" to walk them through applying the insights to their own circumstances.
All-in-all, a very valuable read, but would like more guidance in learning how to apply SMP to my own situation.

Don't confuse Strategic Market Position (SMP) with your run-of-the-mill market segmentation everyone talks about. The concept of SMP that Stuart Jackson lays out in his book, Where Value Hides, doesn't so much turn the concept of market share on its head as show how positioning your company based on a simplistic understanding of market share can lead to strategic decisions that are dead wrong and can ultimately be very costly. The importance of getting a handle on your company's market position becomes clear when you realize that its impact goes far beyond sales and marketing straight to the heart of your organization's operations, cost structure and overall strategy. SMP is not about market segmentation, although it has very real implications for your sales and marketing organization. Rather, as the title implies, it's about uncovering what creates value for your company and turning that insight into clear strategic decision criteria. Simple on the surface, but so rarely implemented in reality.

...no pun intended. Seriously, this is a nice introduction to Feng Shui without being overwhelming. The book is easy to follow and the index makes finding things a snap.

As a Feng Shui Practitioner and instructor I love this book. I have read many Feng Shui books and have a sizeable collection. I am always looking for new books to add to my library and to recommend to my students. The project per page format of this book is excellent for those who have a knowledge of Feng Shui as well as beginners. There is enough Feng Shui information for the beginner to be able to follow through with the suggestions and at the same time it works beautifully as a "refresher" for experienced practitioners. I am using it as a guide for doing a few "what else can I do?" adjustments with specific goals and intentions in mind. I look forward to recommending this book to my students. For the record, my "Real Name" does not have a period after the Z.

I'm a complete novice to Feng Shui, so I am writing this review from that perspective. I had never even heard of Feng Shui until a friend gave me this book as a gift. I absolutely loved it! Author Carol Hyder's writing style is crystal clear and actually fun to read. She has broken the subject up into a mostly single page format, each page covering a different facet of the Feng Shui practice. Which makes it easy for a novice like me to start trying out the principles in bite-size manageable pieces. I am very inspired by Carole's writing and am looking forward to creating my home "sanctuary."

I'm a complete novice to Feng Shui, so I am writing this review from that perspective. I had never even heard of Feng Shui until a friend gave me this book as a gift. I absolutely loved it! Author Carol Hyder's writing style is crystal clear and actually fun to read. She has broken the subject up into a mostly single page format, each page covering a different facet of the Feng Shui practice. Which makes it easy for a novice like me to start trying out the principles in bite-size manageable pieces. I am very inspired by Carole's writing and am looking forward to creating my home "sanctuary."

Carole has provided us with a clear and concise book on the sudject of Feng Shui that even your parents will understand. I am a Feng Shui Practioneer and give this book to beginners more than any other. It is orgainized well into catagories like Clarity and Abundance. The single page adjustments keep it from becoming overwelming. And there is a great Introduction to Feng Shui at the beginning of the book as well. I also love the small square shape, it just feels good to hold it in your hands!

It comes as no surprise, women have always needed each other. When my son Daniel died and my husband left our family, it was the women in my life who held me close and let me know I would survive. Womankind is a celebration of life--regardless of what we have or do not have.

Like Nancy Harless, I have lived in third world countries and found that the bonds women hold are valuable and withstand all that life flings. Nancy has let us in on the lives of many special women and we are richer because of her skill at sharing that feminine spirit with us.

~ Alice J. Wisler,
author of Rain Song, How Sweet It Is, Slices of Sunlight and Down the Cereal Aisle.

I often wonder as I am watching scenes on television of unbelievable suffering spawned by wars, poverty and natural disasters how the people who come to aid to those in desperate need manage. Not having the charity in my soul of the self-sacrificing saints I see administering to the sick, and wounded around the world it is hard for me to understand. I wonder what enables those from an essentially safe haven like the United State to help those abroad without any concerns about their own safety. Nancy Leigh Harless has answered that question for me. In all of the stories in her well-written, fun easy to read collection Womankind she shares the powerful emotional connection she received with other women while she served as a nurse in underdeveloped Belize and war- torn Kosovo.
My favorite story is about a woman of the upper class in Belize encapsulated in the confines of machismo expressing herself in a riveting, erotic dancer before other women. This seemed to me a very strong statement about the universal sensuality of all women. The fact that women all over the world beg Nancy for "no more children" re-enforced my belief that birth control was the single most liberating factor in my own life. But, her experience with her friend who declares herself a minimalist on a sailing trip along the coast of Panama was the story I identified with the most. I am an adventure travel writer. My stories speak about finding balance and harmony with self, and therefore society, through nature. Critics tell me I am too absorbed with capturing a sense of place and do not have enough human interaction between myself and native cultures in my stories. I have a lot to learn from Nancy about the landscape of the human heart and why people go to strange places extending a helping hand to those in need. The payback is not just the glad faces of children able to laugh again; it is a process that re-instates your own humanity.
Linda BallouAuthor.com
Travel writer, photographer and
Author of Wai-nani, High Chiefess of Hawaii-Her Epic Journey

"Life can stretch your soul or tear your spirit..." "Womankind" is a collection of stories from six women from around the world and anthologized by Nancy Leigh Harless who has collected them in her travels and experiences as a nurse. The stories are truly far reaching and range from Belize to Kosovo, but readers will identify with their tales and relate through their common status as women of the world. High recommended for community library women's issues shelves, or for any woman seeking inspiration and to share a sisterhood with others.

This book became an instant classic for me. I would highly recommend reading this poignant collection of vignettes from around the world that highlights the international connection between women.

As I finished this book about Thanksgiving time, I felt more strongly about things I am thankful for: For living in the US with all our freedoms and opportunities, and having the the access to food and material things that makes life much more enjoyable. But I am also thankful and grateful for people such as the author who have made personal sacrafices to bring relief to those in third-world countries who are really hurting. The author is able to transport one from the comfort of his/her recliner, stimulating all the senses to bring the feeling of being in places we may be too uncomftable to visit in real life. I like the aspect of the book being a collection of individual, short stories. One can finish a story quickly, and then have time to reflect on it's significance.

We really enjoyed this fun book with adorable illustrations and a rhyming story in French and English. Its cute and catchy rhyme made it an enjoyable way for the entire family to learn French. I wish the story were longer, but its full circle message was well received. Highly recommended.

As an educator and mother I was thrilled to read Ms. Haight's first book. It is endearing, timeless, and draws the reader into the lives of exciting characters who understand the importance of friendship. My children (and students!) love the fun illustrations. I love the FREE audio book download. Listening to French spoken is a treat in and of itself especially when you are able to hear the author's voice. Great perk!

Loved it!! What a cute little rhyming tale in my favorite cities -
New York and Paris! I happen to be French and was very impressed by reading this book. How did the author get it to rhyme in 2 languages?
Difficult task, most certainly.
Great job! Je suis étonné!
C'est bon livre!
I highly recommend this book to anyone who wants to pick up French in an easy way and read a lovely story about friends, family, and "faith" in an otherwise "empty" world. Fun read and darling pictures through out for all ages.

A tale we all enjoyed - young and old! This is more than just a sweet rhyming tale of old friends reuntiting in Central Park. It is also an opportunity introduce your little ones (and adults too) to the French language. My eldest son, who takes French in school, loved sharing this with his younger siblings. And for those, like myself, who don't know a bit of French the FREE Audio Download does a great job of helping with pronunciation and the rhythm of the rhymes. The audio download also helps at times when you just don't have the time to read when your little ones want to be read to. Play them the audio recording and they can follow along with the book - my little independent ones love being able to do this. Now they walk around proudly saying "Merci beaucoup" to everyone rather than thank you. Another added bonus is the "French to English Translations and Pronunciation" guide at the end of the book. She really packed a lot of extras into this little wonder. I eagerly await more books by Kristen Haight.

I thoroughly enjoyed all of the drama, events, detail, and effort that went into the creation of Abiento (Derived from the French word, À Bientôt, which literally means "see you soon.") Beauty, hope and inspiration is hidden in the story. With the adorable illustrations and fun charachter personalities it makes a really fun read and a great "learning" idea. The French language is uniquely placed throughout the story and rhymes! Who knew reading and learning another language could be so much fun? and with the bonus of a full circle message too, for readers of all ages.
Each audience finds a very different message - as it was meant to be received. The books is perfect for Ages 7-13, plus the Adults. This book (each one) has a FREE audio-download too.
S'il vous plâit, enjoy this fun, little, but powerful book (in all of 22 pages) and see how easy it is to have hope and friendship in the least likely of persons and places (against all odds), see that in losing everything (with a little help) you will find and have everything you need, learn a beautiful language and understand a little about its culture.
To schedule author appearances, order books and arrange for school visits (honorarium deferred) please conatact Tate Publishing.
Merci Beaucoup readers and supporters for all the positive feedback.
À Bientôt!
Many Blessings,
Kristen

Energized training strategies respectful of the multiple intelligences and learning styles flow throughout the book. Content features key strategies for instructors from building the course, to igniting anticipation from learners, to understanding why a variety of well-placed and appropriate activities--including the use of music-- build retention of the training content. Practice segments invite the reader into interaction with the ideas suggested in each chapter. From instructor self-reflection, to comprehensive planning and delivering the course, Russell builds elements of Instructional Design into an Accelerated Learning process with the learner, retention and performance at the center.

and didn't know who to ask!

As a seasoned practitioner of brain-based learning techniques, NLP, and accelerated learning, I was intrigued by this book - it was the book I always thought I'd write!

I'd recommend it to my friends who've decided they want a cool job like mine.

It covers the A-to-Z of learning - business reasons, contract for learning, learning styles, memory, you as trainer, environment, music, development of learning events and marketing. It even provides usable examples and activities.

The best thing - Lou models what she's writing with the use of illustrations, tables, etc. If you want to be a trainer who does more than lecture, this book is a must for your briefcase...it may never make its way to your bookshelf!

This is the most useful training book I have ever read. The format is easy to read and it is easy to learn the concepts. I have been doing training and psychotherapy for twenty-two years and I am an NLP practitioner. I learned many valuable new things. Especially the importance of teaching all the types of intelligence's. I now realize that when I get all excellent evaluations except for one or two I may not be hitting that persons intelligence. The marketing ideas are a very welcomed addition. This book has helped my training and business immensely.

Outstanding presentation on the theory and practical tools to enahnce any learning experience. I found that the book answered many questions I had, and solved many dilemmas I face facilitating behvior change in organizaitons. Lour orgainied the material very well, and ends each chapter with a personal plan place. Her work exemplifies the methods she illuminates.

I have adoped the field book for use in the Corporate Trainer Certification program being offered here at San Antonio College Continuing Education. The text is up to date. It combines a very well written text with review exercises, case studies, and personal actions through out. The students love it! But, what I like best about the book is my instructors' USE IT! They use the music CD as well. Their coments to me are that "it's user friendly." Thank you very much for this great teaching tool.

Johnny's adventures are fun for reading to little boys who usually only hear stories about girls or animals at this age. The good guy wins and makes friends in the process. It reinforces a positive relationship with authority figures and has fun products we made at a sleep over. I remember these from my youth but today's kids have no idea.

I also gave this book as a gift to a friend whose taught Sunday School at her church. She had a little boy in her class who had lost his father in an accident the year before. She let him take the book home with him after reading it in class.

I want to see Johnny's next adventure. Thanks for an easy to explain story with great illustrations!

Little Johnny Diamond is a wonderful chance for children, from ages 3 to 12, to see that dreams really can come true, and that good always wins over evil. We read it out loud and could hardly wait to see what happened next. My 7 year old and 4 year old can hardly wait for the next installment of Little Johnny Diamond Private Eye.

Little Johnny Diamond is the kind of everyday hero that children can identify with. Perhaps now more than ever children need to identify with someone their age who faces adversity in life but rises above it to help others. To top it off, his case-solving teaches children critical thinking skills. I hope Little Johnny Diamond has a few more "tricks of the trade" up his big, baggy sleeves!

Illustrated with the simple, soft, crosshatched color sketches of Chuma Okoli, The Adventures Of Little Johnny Diamond Private Eye is an engaging children's picture book about a young boy who solves a mystery of stolen bicycles. Clay Titus' gentle and captivating tale is very strongly flavored with realism and the importance of bringing vital evidence directly to the police. The Adventures Of Little Johnny Diamond Private Eye is a superb selection for budding mystery lovers ages 5 to 10.

What eight-year-old Johnny Diamond lacks in friends he compensates for with his vivid imagination. Wearing his father's trench coat and hat, and armed with his detective tools, Johnny slips around the house and recovering lost objects. Sometimes he makes up mysteries about the neighborhood, entertaining his mother and Officer Jones with stories of how he solved the mysteries. Then one summer day Johnny sees something very suspicious and becomes the only person who can solve the neighborhood crime.

THE ADVENTURES OF LITTLE JOHNNY DIAMOND PRIVATE EYE is a marvelous story that works on a number of levels. First, it's an entertaining story that will delight young mystery lovers. But it is also a tale of imagination and sticking to the truth when even your parents don't believe you. Illustrator Chuma Okoli's powerful and realistic style perfectly compliments the fascinating text. In addition, Author Clay Titus' background as detective and police officer give the story a sense of believability while maintaining an entertaining element, making THE ADVENTURES OF LITTLE JOHNNY DIAMOND PRIVATE EYE come very highly recommended.

You should read the book before this by Schwieckart titled Against Capitalism where is destroys any justification for capitalism and rips Mises' comment idea a new one. This book is just a shortened version as he states in the introduction. He criticizes every economic system predating the book. Both socialism and capitalism.

Though perhaps it significantly skewed my views to have been reading Schweickart following a close and careful reading of both Friedman's Capitalism & Freedom and Rawls' Theory of Justice, I feel that not only aided me tremendously in my understanding of the overall flow and goal of the text, but additionally, the overall experience gave me sufficient background in economics and the political interactions of economic theory, to properly appreciate the aims of the text. Many criticisms have been raised against both Friedman and Rawls and I count my own voice amongst those that would offer the critique of necessary but insufficient to both texts based on my limited but careful exposure to them. By this I mean that in reading both previous texts I was struck with the thought that although both theories are needed at least on a purely theoretical basis to provide a jumping off point for further socioeconomic exploration, neither sufficiently brings forth a theory that can be said to at once be necessary to our continuation in culture (and note that by this I mean the sort of culture to which we have grown accustomed), and at the same time be sufficient to meet the needs of a production and workable model of economic policy.
Schweickart, very much on the other hand of the discussion, seems to bring forth a theory that is both necessary and sufficient, both in providing a basis for understanding its own purpose and for meeting the needs of a culture that is heavily imbued in a single system that must be equaled or exceeded to be replaced. To my way of seeing, this system provides a basis for understanding its own purpose in that unlike Friedman and Rawls, Schweickart's system is not merely a position piece describing the merits of a system already extant (capitalism), or the creation of a theory that will help us to justify aspects of that system; rather, it is a complete system unto itself, at once a response to the existing system, while standing on it's own independent of said system and then becoming and remaining recognizable as a unique approach to socioeconomic aspects of government that instead of merely flowing behind existing structure, is itself the basis forming the structure that will arise out of it. I feel that, as I stated above, this system meets the needs of the culture to which it would be applied by replacing the existing system, not merely modifying or justifying the current one. We have in this text something simply not found in the other two and that is a presentation of a possibility that has existed all along, coming to fruition by being read now in an age of understanding, by individuals capable of taking the theories presented and applying them to actuality and not simply as a ponderable aspect of economic and political interest. This is the point that struck me most plainly about Schweickart's text that seems so vastly different if not blatantly superior to many other writings either in philosophy, or from my limited exposure to them, economics, and that is the actual applicability of the text and, building off that, the ease with which a transition could be made into such as system and the clear benefits of doing so are made remarkable clear without having to imagine anything besides the benefits to be gained and the struggle to be avoided.
Now, I realize, and it's necessary for this critique to understand that the goal of Schweickart indeed may not have been the goal of either Friedman or Rawls, but I additionally feel it to be of great import that while both previous texts made claims to improve conditions of our social reality through impacting an economic change, neither before Schweickart had either shown their theory capable of performing such a feat, or had the components in place to succeed in doing so. With Friedman the reader is asked to assume a version of an economic model that today hardly seems viable in the face of the massive structure and paradigm shifts that have occurred since it was penned. Likewise in Rawls, the reader is asked to assume a great deal not only about the world in which we live in terms of its actual workings and processes, but also to assume an unlikely if not impossible and implausible original position, and for the goal only of justifying a current system that has already been shown to be insufficient, leaving one wondering what the point in fact was and what impact it truly makes other than providing for a theoretical basis and thought experiment. In Schweickart, the reader is not asked to assume this or that, and no original position is called for, as the system argued against is that which is in place and the flaws are not only seen but felt by the reader as actuality, and not as some wild fiscal figment as in the previous two texts. We see the problem, and perhaps what we previously perceived to be a degree of inevitability, already in our daily lives and Schweickart brings forth an alternative that while not nearly as convoluted as either Freidman or Rawls is nonetheless exponentially more efficacious in theory and infinitely more believable without the crutch of assumption leaned on by his predecessors.
I enjoyed reading this book and while as I wrote above I felt that the texts read previously were necessary for a clearer understanding of this one, it was not until this point that I understood why they were read when this was out there to tie it all together.

I am very impressed with After Capitalism by Loyola University Professor David Schweickart. Both of my grandfathers were socialists and my father was a member of the Socialist Labor Party. When I grew up I was not merely indoctrinated in socialism I was marinated in it. Despite all of this I never really was given a plausible explanation how a socialist economy was supposed to work, or a plausible explanation how our society could make the transition from our very mature form of industrial capitalism to a socialist economy. After Capitalism provides a plausible explanation for both.

Interesting alternative to the current economic system. The book "After Capitalism" is not a technical book, but does flesh out enough of the economic system invisioned by Schweickart to make it worth reading and thinking about. Is there "no alternative" to capitalism? I am still not sure, but read this book and find out for your self. According to Mises, socialism cannot work, and this really must be the case with Schweikart, but I am not sure I could articulate a proof.
Also read "The Machinery of Freedom" by David Freidman, for another alternative: the real free market.

I just want to add my voice to those who have lauded this book. It is superb in every way. Also, I want to call attention to Morris Berman's work, especially to his last two books, "Wandering God," and "The Twilight of American Culture", which provide important supplements to Schweickart's analysis.