Enterprise Books

This is very clearly written and so helpful. I just got my first computer a little over a year ago, 2nd hand, and with no owner's manual. I have looked at many self-help computer books from the library and think this is the best one. I keep it by the computer to refer to if I get stuck. If you need to really go into depth, the same authors publish separate books for that purpose. But this is really the only one you should need. I am nearly 63, and am teaching myself with this book and not doing too badly. It comes with a CD-ROM disc which I have not yet downloaded, but probably will. I heartily recommend it.

We're slowly starting to deploy Office 2003 across out network and this book has been a pretty good general all-in-one type of resource for answering the vast majority of the questions that the users has posed. As well, we've been able to generate several traning sessions based on the content of the book itself using our customized screen shots.

If you need super-deep coverage of a specific application, this is probably not the book for you. If you need a very good overview of the entire suite and what's new and improved, get this book.

A few of the really nice things I liked about this book were the full index and the chapters in the back on macros and VBA...very useful.

This book has a good overview on all the office programs. If you are looking for in depth information on a certain aspect of office I would look elsewhere. I will be buying the Access book because I need in depth information about about Access and this book does not get that deep. I would still recommend this book to anyone because it is much easier to read than the help included with Office.

Once again, Ed and Woody come through for those genuinely interested in exploiting Office functions to their benefit. Hitting topics not referenced in help screens or the MS Knowledge Base, the authors address challenging circumstances with efficient solutions. Learners in many professional roles, from Administrative to Executive relate to Ed and Woody's clearly explained situations and resolutions, which are easy to implement. If you wish to have a top-notch book, which covers all Professional Office Suite applications, this is the book to buy. The front cover is right on target where it states, "The only Office 2003 book you will ever need."

"Start A Business Teaching Kids" is a good place to look for information from starting your business, finding locations, advertising and publicity to keeping the kids coming back for more. This small book offers much valuable information. One of my favorite parts would be valuable to anyone wishing to market a skill ~ Publicity Kits. The author, Stephanie Quinn, provides a detailed list of everything your kit needs to include (bio information, description of the lessons, press releases, etc.). She explains what elements a good press release should contain and how to get your information to the public. "Instead of `advertising' your lesson program, emphasize the benefits of it. Make the story interesting and entertaining." There is much practical advice given regarding most everything from workshops to dealing with parents. "Start A Business Teaching Kids" is a well-written book and an excellent place to begin looking for information. Good luck with your business teaching kids!

Start A Business Teaching Kids: How To Start A Business Teaching Private And Group Enrichment Lessons For Kids by Stephanie Quinn is an explorative introduction of the beneficial process of teaching kids in a more personal and fulfilling atmosphere than is typically available in the traditional public school classroom. Quinn's approach to the child education ideal is highly researched and poignant in its progressive attitude for its application. Start A Business Teaching Kids is an informative study giving a direct and valid depiction of the format necessary for the constructive learning of young people and is very strongly recommended to all parents of home-schooled children as well as aspiring private or group-schooling teachers.

Start A Business Teaching Kids: How To Start A Business Teaching Private And Group Enrichment Lessons For Kids by Stephanie Quinn is an explorative introduction of the beneficial process of teaching kids in a more personal and fulfilling atmosphere than is typically available in the traditional public school classroom. Quinn's approach to the child education ideal is highly researched and poignant in its progressive attitude for its application. Start A Business Teaching Kids is an informative study giving a direct and valid depiction of the format necessary for the constructive learning of young people and is very strongly recommended to all parents of home-schooled children as well as aspiring private or group-schooling teachers.

Reviewed by Sondra Fowler for Reader Views (3/06)


"Start a Business Teaching Kids" is a how to book that helps the reader plan and execute a small business teaching supplemental lessons. Quinn runs the reader through the concept and planning stage, and then seamlessly addresses the scouting out of location, and principles of effective advertising. There are good common sense notions and anyone who has had a small business will recognize the soundness of the advice. She points out and explores the idiosyncrasies that are native to dealing with children and parents on a business level. The book would be an asset to anyone who is unfamiliar with starting a business especially anyone interested in teaching a skill.

The only real bump in the book relates to emphasis of the performing arts while almost ignoring the marketing opportunities of other venues of enrichment education, such as the visual arts and scholastic education.

I am putting this fantastic "tool" to work currently as I continue to build and grow my business. There are so many wonderful tips and advice, many of which I will be using to create my New Client brochures. I highly recommend this book to any and all individuals thinking about how to begin OR grow their own business. So much helpful information, it's hard to begin putting it all to use.

I have used this book to start my business!! It makes my day! Good Stuff

Susan Bewsey helps you getting started in this business by giving you very practical information that allows to be quickly a leading provider in the home cleaning business,
after reading the book whether you are a newcomer or already running the business you will have major insights on this type of business it can apply also to other home services such as maintenance care etc ...
For the newcomer it will save months of trial and error and help you decide if this is the right business for you.

For those of you that have already a business this book will help to improve quality, customer satisfaction and overall profitability.
A very practical yet intelligent approach to this business !

Readable, informative, and encouraging for someone who likes cleaning and would like to start a cleaning business. This book displays sample charts of start-up costs. It also covers important tasks such as: tenders and bidding on contracts, timing your cleaning tasks, promoting your business at trade shows, inventory control and other important things you should know. It is the bible of the home-cleaning business! Not only does it cover the business side but it also gives some helpful, time-saving cleaning tips and recommendations on environmentally friendly cleaners.

One thing that I liked about the book was the analysis of specific issues across an entire part of the book. There is a chapter on outsourcing as well. The steps in the book can be carried out in parallel. We have been using the book to lay out our project. The book really gets into business and politics as well as technical issues. The book points out that e-business is a program not a project. Commitment from the bottom of the organization is as important as upper management support. This is an important point that the book makes. Another thing--the book does not assume that you have an ERP. A company used the method that had an ERP and found it very useful, however. The book contains little of the "chain" and business model jargon--thankfully. As an example of common sense, the book suggests that you keep searching for the answer to the question "What is success?" This turns out to be critical in e-business since you gain a better understanding as you work your way through installing e-business. The examples and lessons learned in the book are of real use. They are detailed and specific. We have found that there are also good hints on how to manage vendors and consultants and what the roles of consultants and business departments should be. Overall, an excellent read.

Our firm employed this method to implement business to business e-commerce. It really works. We had tried another approach before which did not work. Some benefits of the method are that it encourages a group approach to implementation. It also provides a way to address political issues which we have many of. I found the book very readable and useful. We are now using the book as the basis for doing intranets within our firm. Chapter 2 presents the idea of a project concept. This is valuable in getting consensus on the scope of the work. Chapter 6 is one of the better ways to understand technology without getting into too much detail. Fitting e-commerce into normal business is important and often not covered in other books. It is covered well in chapter 9. Perhaps, one of the most useful chapters is 12. That is where the implementation strategy is developed. This was a turning point in our effort. You can plan all day, but if you do not have a solid approach for putting e-commerce in, you are going to be in trouble. The book also addresses how to use suppliers in a pilot effort to get other suppliers involved-very useful in political terms. Marketing of e-commerce internally and with suppliers is not given much attention. Here an entire chapter is devoted to it. E-commerce is more complex than most people think. This book provides one of the most useful step by step methods.

I must have purchased 10 different e-commerce books. Typically, they have concepts and buzzwords, but are short on how to implement e-commerce. This is one of the few books that really deal with putting in e-commerce. It gives excellent details about how to implement--from creating a strategy to expanding your site. A best buy.

Rather than portray e-business as a huge effort that will consume everything and will transform the world, this is a solid book on getting down to the nuts and bolts of real world. If most e-business books are geared to business suits and theories, this book is down to working uniforms and getting things done without a lot of people or time. It does not assume that you have some fancy systems or technology or that you are a big company with hundreds of IT people. It can fit start up firms and small firms as well. The book provides a detailed roadmap and tells you how to deal with the pitfalls that you will find along the way. The extensive experience of the authors in doing e-business really shows in this book in the issues, lessons learned, and examples. In using the book we have already used 40 of the guidelines and run across over twenty issues. If you want to do e-business, buy this book. If you want theory and vague concepts go elsewhere.

I am an experienced SMS Administrator. While I have attended multiple training courses and read other books, this one is a very detailed and complete. I would recommend this to any SMS Administrator.

As a new SMS Administrator I had lots of questions about the processes of SMS, even after taking both MS classes. This book covered all my questions and all the software delivery process flows along with excellent help with troubleshooting failures. This is my new SMS bible and is my constant companion.

Another great addition to the recently published books and guides available for the SMS 2003 admin. I especially appreciated the care taken in explaining the importance of planning for and implementing an adequate infrastructure.

Like all technical manuals, this author goes through the steps on how to do this or that. As you read on however you will notice a difference that only years of experience will bring to a subject. There are many helpful notes covering useful information. Don't stop reading after you figured out how to accomplish a task, the next page could save you a good deal of time.

I thoroughly enjoyed this book and wrote to the author to let her know that. I hope she continues writing!

The Stranger in Goldrush: A Tana James Mystery

A well crafted story that will keep you glued to the pages. The suspense builds and the clues appear but can you guess the ending, I didn't. A great read let's see what Tana James does in the next book.

The story line is great and character developement done so well that you feel that you know each and every one! Looking forward to more from this first time author, her ability to write is TRULY a 'gift'.

For a first time author this book is wonderful. A little bit of something going on with every character keeps you guessing who did it. And when you find out at the end...the twist will have you saying "I didn't see that coming". I hope we see more from Sheila Bush and Tana James.

It arrived in a short time, a good seller, I would like to do the deal with the seller again.

I have left this book at five stars despite its lack of a focus on the totality of the costs picture, and the urgency of decision-support, because I want to cross-fertilize this book into the national, military, and law enforcement strategic regimes (largely non-existent, hence the need), and I consider it to be world-class in all that it presents.

First the gaps: neither "costs" nor "intelligence" (nor "decision-support" appear in the index to this book, which is both a commentary on the content, and a commentary on the index, since I do see the words elsewhere in the book.

"True costs" or "natural capitalism" is emerging as the single most important strategic concept for both political and business leaders. Up to this point corporations have been allowed to privatize profit and externalize the bulk of their "true costs" to the individual taxpayer. That is coming to an end. The public now has a digital memory, the World Index of Social and Environmental Responsibility (WISER) is calculating and posting the true cost of everything (e.g. a T-Shirt from Bangladesh has 4,000 liters of virtual water they do not have to export), and Amazon is positioning itself to provide point of sale "true cost" to the individual buyer via cell phone scan back on the bar code: water, fuel, sweatshop, and tax avoidance content at the point of sale. Revolutionary. It will change the marketplace and who wins, who loses in business, nearly overnight (ten years).

On decision-support, other than refer to my short list of a handful of really important commercial intelligence guides, I will simply note that Ben Gilad, one of perhaps ten really great international commercial intelligence practitioners, says in his first seminal work, "Business Blindspots: Replacing Myths, Beliefs, and Assumptions with Market Realities (Infonortics UK, 1996) that:

"Top managers' information is invariably either biased, subjective, filtered, or late."

This tallies nicely with my own findings over a 30 year career in national and military intelligence: Washinton, certainly, London, Paris, Beijing, and other capitals probably, are operating on 2% of the relevant information. They are ignoring 95% of the information that is not secret, not online, not in their language, and not being collected by either their intelligence agencies or their Cabinet departments, which specialize in staffing stakeholder policies divorced from reality and focused on grabbing budget share.

It merits comment that this book comes to us from The Netherlands, the unheralded owner of much of US real-estate and much of the world's structured knowledge. Consequently, the authors are not suffering from American naivete, they have avoided the traditional shortcomings of most textbooks in English (myopia, avoidance of complexity, generic presentation from one author) *and* they fully int3egrate the vital importance of understanding cross-cultural differences, the international context, and the value of international cases that do NOT follow normal US "rules of the game" including authorized "reasonable dishonesty."

This book a monster at 950+ pages, is of great value to non-business strategists, the few that are emergent, and below I list some other relevant books from the national side that may be helpful to business leaders and academic theorist-practioners.

I am creating and loading an image of their Figure 1.6 on Strategy topics, paradoxes, and perspectives because in that one image they capture the enormous value of their book and their process. For that image, and the first half of the book on the process, this is a very high value acquisition worthy of deep study.

Other strategic books that I favor, in relative order of importance:
Modern Strategy
Strategy: The Logic of War and Peace, Revised and Enlarged Edition
Strategy: Second Revised Edition (Meridian)
The Art of War by Sun Tzu - Special Edition
Boyd: The Fighter Pilot Who Changed the Art of War
High Noon 20 Global Problems, 20 Years to Solve Them
Blessed Unrest: How the Largest Movement in the World Came into Being and Why No One Saw It Coming
Ecological Economics: Principles And Applications
The New Craft of Intelligence: Personal, Public, & Political--Citizen's Action Handbook for Fighting Terrorism, Genocide, Disease, Toxic Bombs, & Corruption
Preparing America's Foreign Policy for the 21st Century

Unforutnately, some of the best books, such as "The Art and Practice of Military Strategy" edited by George Thibault, are published by the National Defense University in limited edition and not listed on Amazon nor available for purchase via normal channels. This is a useful illustration of the concept of "gray literature": very often the most important information is freely available, but not through the traditional channels. The height of strategy, apart from knowing yourself and not wearing blinders, is to know all that can be known about your environment and the other players, not just that which is convenient to know, or that your generally self-preserving subordinates want you to know.+

For my work, I do change, leadership and strategy research for a number of consulting firms so it would be an understatement to say that I've read a lot. Regardless of the domain, I find most work to be highly derivative, unoriginal and based on limited mindsets and thinking. Rarely do I find anything that challenges conventional ways of thinking and is also highly useful and not just another voice shouting out sensationalist ideas so that they can be noticed in a very crowded marketplace.

Recently I signed on to do some volunteer teaching in Cambodia and as is my usual process, I hit the internet, libraries, online databases and do a broad sweep of what's happening in the domains that I'm interested in. I expect that most of what I read will be based on outdated worldviews and limited perspectives so I'm usually happy to dig out the few nuggets of gold in a chapter of a book, an article or left of centre cuff thinking and patch it together into something that opens possibility, provokes thought and powerful mindsets and perspectives.

This book though was an unexpected find and a total gem. Why? If you're a student or a teacher you'll have looked at many books on strategy, and basically they all follow a very similar approach. They treat strategy as something that's fixed, logical, linear, formulaic and relatively simplistic (follow the steps or recipe and you're assured of success). As one of my mentors so often says... it's a nice idea... pity it doesn't work in the real world. If it did and people weren't so unsatisfied with how poorly most current approaches to strategic planning perform, we wouldn't have so many `new' books on strategy coming out each year.

Books that are groundbreaking and challenge conventional paradigms are difficult to write... and the authors have done a first class job of this one and are to be commended for the result. It's organized into a series of paradoxes, which cover the major issues of strategy formulation and execution.

If you can check out the introduction and first chapter you'll have a good sense of whether the book was for you. The table of contents alone sold me, and after reading their conceptual frame and introduction I was excited to read more.

To use some of the comments from the preface of the book to illustrate its structure and value, they discuss how most books on strategic management follow a recipe type approach. They present a limited number of perspectives and theories as accepted knowledge from which prescriptions can easily be described. If you've looked at more than 3 books on strategic management you'll know this to be true. The next use a simple step by step strategic planning approach as the books basic structure. They rework original material into the author's own words to create a consistent and easily digestible piece of text. The choice of perspectives, theories and examples is weighted towards the author's own domestic context (and then, slight adjustments are made for overseas editions.)

This book takes the opposite approach. It covers ten major strategic themes, those that the strategist must deal with in practice. The strategy process, (strategic thinking, strategy formulation, strategic change); the strategic content (business, corporate and network levels of strategy); the strategic context (industry, organizational and international) and organizational purpose.

It then uses several original readings (sometimes condensed in size but not in terms of their original meaning) that are significant or classics in that field and presents them as a series of paradoxes - one that covers each side of the issue and explores each of the key themes and areas of contention. For example the paradox of globalization and localization in terms of the international context; in the area of strategic thinking the paradox of logic and creativity and in the area of strategy formulation the paradox of deliberateness and emergentness. Thus exposing the reader to a wide range of theories and perspectives to enable the student to hone their own strategic thinking skills rather than to learn a recipe. The book has an international perspective so as to highlight cultural differences and assumptions and to address the true nature and context of many multinational companies today. Case studies are drawn from companies worldwide to give a spread of companies, industries and countries. There's more than 30 cases in the book from over 20 countries.

Challenging... yes. Intelligent... absolutely! Relevant to the needs of people working with strategy... undoubtedly!

If you're a student and this is not your text book, pick it up, read it, use the frames and develop your thinking and you'll be light years ahead of your colleagues. You will have learned how to think, and think in terms of possibilities, examining and challenging assumptions and dynamically and creatively adjusting your approach... rather than just learning a formula or a bunch of ideas that mostly don't work quite nearly so precisely in the real world as they're described in most textbooks by most authors.

The book is also supported by a website for both students and teachers full of additional resources. This book isn't just for students though. Managers, consultants, and others with an interest in practical strategy and the challenges it poses will also find the book very useful. That this book's first edition was written so long ago is a testament to how forward thinking the authors are.

This is an exceptional piece of work. Highly recommended.

This book may not ''obliterates'' what is known about strategy but definitely is not just an additional ''improvement''. It is focused on strategy (theory) but also gives many interesting examples and cases of/for real/mental implementation. It builds a ''network'' of thoughts giving the possibility to visualize the individual ''capabilities'' in the searching of a personal ''core competence''. I think it acts like a ''strong'' or ''weak'' force for a ''continuous learning''; depends on the ''motivation''.

This book covers far more than the basics, it's actually more of a "project management" plan for starting a new business, laid out pretty much over the course of a year.

If you're looking to write up a "business plan in a day" you won't find it here.

However, if you're looking for covering nearly every nuance of a small business plan, and do your homework (this is a workbook as much as a readable book) - this is for you.

A great feature - it's a workbook, not on a PC.

That's not to say you can't use a PC to do your "homework", but it's definitely a bonus if your computer crashes, or for the Mac user who doesn't have (or want) access to biz plan warez - most of which don't "teach" anyhow.

If your business idea is a true small business, this is a great resource. If you're looking to start a SOHO, solo gig - it's probably overkill, but still useful.

The other reviews make this Organizer sound like it's just for someone starting out, but I can highly recommend it for someone like myself, too, who's already in business. Running a business, I've got so many things to keep track of that I really found this book useful for getting -- and staying on top of all the administrative details I hate dealing with. The author comes up with many things I've never thought of before -- like how to track my credit cards to keep my payments lower, how to prepare for emergencies, how to save money on marketing. And this book reminded me of so many things I promised myself I'd get around to "one day," but kept putting on the back burner. I also REALLY liked the format: hardback and wire-bound -- it was easy to use on a daily basis and is solid for keeping as an important reference of my company data. Everyone talks about getting organized -- this book actually helped me do it!

A counselor at my local Small Business Development Center turned me onto this book, and I've been really impressed. The book is full of checklists, worksheets, and a ton of information for someone starting up a business. The earlier chapters of the book forced me to rethink my whole business concept--there were some key things I hadn't really considered. I'm still working through the later chapters, but am completely convinced that this book will end up having saved me several thousand dollars in mistakes and a whole lot of time.

I just loved the simple binder aspect of organizing important information when starting a business. Small businessses are one of the fastest growing segments in our economy whether you do some consulting on the side or sell avon - being organized helps you especially when it is tax time + it is usually tax deductible (see you accountant or business advisor:)!

What a pleasure it was to read this book. The direct, no-nonsense approach to operating a profitable business was refreshing. Written in a succinct, easy-to-read format, it is a perfect business text for time-challenged entrepreneurs. Anyone who is thinking about starting a business or is at a stalemate in their current business would be wise to take advantage of the knowledge Bill Dieruf has acquired and so generously shares. More importantly, they will be able to implement any or all of his ideas to ensure peak business performance.

Linda Nodello, Marketing Manager, Canadian Retail Hardware Association

"Business books come and go, but Bill Dieruf brings the reader a different perspective in his easy-to-read book Successful Entrepreneurship in the Twenty-first Century--he has walked in the moccasins of the entrepreneur. In fact, Bill owned and ran a very successful True Value hardware store for more than 40 years, and he's distilled those years of experience into this valuable book."

Daniel Cotter Chairman of the Board True Value--TruServ Corp. Chicago, Ill.

This book has opened up a new channel of thinking as to the success of independent business. My background is in printing, but I can see how it will help all types of owners and managers. I wish I had had this information years ago. I can see, after reading this book, that I would have had higher net profits. The book is easy to ready and understand, and I'm glad I have a copy. Now I understand why it is so important to know the difference between management and marketing. The owner must manage the business.

I have learned more reading this book than attending 21 years of trade seminars. When I got the book, I sat on the couch to read and could not put it down till I finished. My husband asked me questions about the book, and I suggested he read it. He had the same experience; he could not put it down till he finished. The content is so easy to understand.

Susie Viers, Co-owner, Jaridon Floor Covering Co., Fern Creek, KY

I am relatively new to this subject and my background to economics is slim to none. John Ikerd presents a coherent and very common sense perspective on sustainable economics. I would highly recommend this book to folks who are interested in this subject. I would also warmly encourage folks to purchase this book new so as to support the author.

He came to our small private college to lecture to our fledgling environmental group and we had a great time and learned much.

Again, I would highly recommend this work as well as his other book entitled "A Return To Common Sense" of which I am still in the middle of reading.

Don't pass this book up! It will enrich your life!

John Ikerd's Sustainable Captialism: A Matter Of Common Sense traces the modern change of capitalism from a political system driven by social purpose to one searching for economic growth at all costs. The sustainability of the planet is at risk under this new capitalism, and Ikerd provides a critique of this new order and a framework for restoring balance into world economic system, making capitalism not the enemy of these goals, but a means to an end.

I'm one of those people that Ikerd mentions in his book who always thought economics and markets were topics that were too complicated to deal with. I took an accounting class and an ag. economics class in college (because I had to), then I basically avoided the subject.

Reading "Sustainable Capitalism" changed my thinking. I realized that not only could I understand the economic theories and systems Ikerd talks about, but I could also see why it was important to understand them, and that it is possible to change the current system. It's a very hopeful message!

Ikerd is very good at explaining the current economic system and what it could be. His common sense approach to creating a sustainable economic system makes it seem doable, even if it will involve a lot of effort. I feel like I have a framework to work from now. I'd like to see sustainable capitalism taught at all colleges and universities -- even high schools. I'm a convert -- I went from avoiding economics to actually being excited about what the future could hold.

John Ikerd, author of Sustainable Capitalism: a Matter of Common Sense, trains his unique insight on a key problem of our time--that is, " ... maximum current growth, with little regard for future ecological or social sustainability." Ikerd's understanding of history and psychology, in particular, underscore his vision for a moral economic system. He rightly criticizes the topsy-turvy capitalistic system neoclassical economics has spawned--a dysfunctional system that exploits and extracts in the name of economic development. In short, Ikerd's book is a must read for all those who believe in a government empowered by the governed that works to restore competition and essential market controls, who understand that the "mechanistic worldview" and "reductionist philosophy" embraced by neoclassical economists are as dead as dinosaurs, and who are willing to make "conscious, purposeful decisions to care for each other and care for the earth as they care for themselves."