Exports Books

If you just want a guide that explains some of the unique cultural aspects of job hunting in a lot of different countries, this would be the right guide for you. It covers almost every region in the world and explains the visa process, interview practices and job hunting tips. On this aspect it is an excellent book for the international job hunter. However, if you are looking for a lot of sample CV's, this won't be very helpful. The sample CV's included are limited to a few countries and are mostly geared for a new graduate or young professional (most CV's here are 1 page long, whereas overseas CV's are generally supposed to be at least 2 pages if you have any level of experience). There should have been at least one example for each country, but if you read the country details, you can figure out how to adjust the CV to fit that country.

Imagine a single reference that describes in detail how to craft the perfect resume for employers around the world. This guide would explain the expectations of far-flung employers relative to the standard practices of your home country, indicating how to map your existing resume to the each target country's culture. This is not that book. Not that "The Global Resume and CV Guide" doesn't try -- and occasionally succeed, at least where certain countries are concerned. Ultimately, what is touted as one of the book's greatest strengths proves to be a disappointing weakness: each country section is written by a "local expert", meaning that the guide effectively has many authors. The first downside of this approach is that the information on any given country is not typically framed in terms that make sense to the reader, because the author is not necessarily familiar with the resume practices of the reader's country. A second downside of this approach is that there is significant variation in the quality and level of detail between country sections. For example, the section on the United States spans 18 pages, including two sample resumes. The section on the United Kingdom, in contrast, includes a mere 5 pages and no sample resumes. The UK section also leaves unanswered basic questions like whether "CV" or "resume" is the preferred term. Ultimately, though, the biggest disappointment is the lack of detail, understandable in a guide that attempts to cover nearly 40 countries in less than 300 pages. If you're looking for a high-level overview of the requirements of many different countries, you'll likely find this guide useful. But if you're looking for details and lots of sample resumes, you're probably better off purchasing a guide specific to your country of interest.

Hi.

I came to know of this book when I was reading thru a few magazines and browsing the net for some book like this. Its so great that I thought it would be more helpful if I let people know what experts in the filed had to say...

"What can I say about THE GLOBAL RESUME AND CV GUIDE but WOW! There is so little information about regarding the international job search and we are fortunate to now have such a great resource available!"

REVIEW BY: Margaret Riley Dikel Editor of The Riley Guide and Author of THE GUIDE TO INTERNET JOB SEARCHING

********************************************************************************************

"THE GLOBAL RESUME AND CV GUIDE is the new bible for wanna-be globe trotters. This resource should be the starting point for international job seekers and will help give you the leg-up when looking for work abroad. Thompson's guide works because it uses local experts to explain the key steps in a job search. I recommend this book as a must buy...

This is a great resource - especially for career centers! Very helpful - if you need to write or read a resume for or from another country, this is the book you need.

I'm a professional resume writer who works globally. I found this book to be filled with outdated and simplistic templates rather than intelligent ideas.

I enjoyed the first 1/4 of the book, but then I had to skip several pages when she kept writing about the land deal. I was only interested in her romance and life, not about some land deal which I don't think it had much of an impact on the story. It didn't seem realistic about the daughter pushing her mother so much. Then I couldn't understand why she didn't just tell her finance that she had a daughter 19 years ago and was too young to raise her. She could have told him it was too painful to bring up. The author reveals the answer to this in the end, which I thought was well written. I couldn't put the book down towards the end. It ended differently than I thought it would and it was a good ending.

I thought this book, Blessings, was a bit slow and boring. The characters were not very likeable, and the scenes jumped back and forth. I made myself finish it, and I did like the ending.

This is a story about a woman who gave up a baby when she was very young. Nineteen years later the child comes looking for her.

So far, so good. I have to admit a bias here. I'm adopted and I have found both my biological parents. In the novel, the bio mother when called by a social worker about her now 19-year old daughter wanting contact vehemently stated she DID NOT want anything to do with the girl. However, the social workers continue to call and tell her that that option is just not possible. What?? That would never happen in real life.

I found my bio mother via an organization that matches you and your bio parent. Both of you have to sign up. You are not STALKED. Further, once the daughter harasses and pursues her bio mother to meet with her, she becomes upset when bio mom makes clear the relationship has to be discreet. Um, the daughter interrupted her bio mom's life. Mom made it clear she wasn't interested. Now the daughter wants to insist on having the relationship on her terms? Things like this don't happen in real life with reasonable, normal people.

The author tries to present all these characters as well-adjusted, but I maintain that if people acted like this in real life, they'd be unhinged. Further, the book had few well-rounded characters and the bio mother's fiance had no flaws. I bet this man never has pimples. Or burps.

This is my first and last Belva book.

This review refers to the unabridged audio cassette read by Pamela Klein. The story involves a young girl who had a child out of wedlock during college. The father of the child was from a wealthy family and would not marry her. Adoption was her only choice.

Years later the grown child, named Jill, began to search for her real parents even though she had a wonderful adoptive family. Jill was able to first locate her father (Peter) who became a successful anthropologist. She was then able to find her mother (Jenny) who achieved her dream and became a successful attorney. Trouble starts when Jill visits her real mother Jenny. Jenny is engaged to be married but has not told her finance (Jay) that she had a child a long time ago...then Peter comes back into her life...

The story stirs up all kinds of the emotions. The reader will become immersed in the story and not be able to put it down. The reader's voice on this audio was too high pitched and she read too fast, however. Otherwise it was a great book!

I began reading this book, minding my own business, not having any prior knowledge where it was going and whoa - the adopted daughter shows up on the scene. Since I'm a birthmother who successfully found her daughter I was immensely interested in this take. This book was well done, suspenseful, exciting, and beautiful. It had a great ending!! Loved it! Rosemund and Maeve have always been my favorite authors, but now I have someone else to read. I ordered all the rest of her books.

Marco Pierre White is both an award-winning chef and the product of a council block in Leeds. The Devil in the Kitchen demonstrates the relationship between those two facts, as Marco is driven to succeed, leveraging his blue collar work ethic and personal pride. His drive is all-consuming, with 17 and 18 hour days at the stove a common pattern. He is animated by a love of food--nature's great gift--and he operates on adrenalin, nicotine, an obsession with quality control and, for a time, the need for public recognition of his efforts.

Marco is often thought of in America as Gordon Ramsay's mentor. If so, he put the hell in hell's kitchen, though the book is less about him as a devil than about the demons that make him a great chef. The book is a tour of British gastronomy in that Marco works--in the course of his life--at many of England's great restaurants and for England's great (often non-English) chefs.

The book includes recipes of some signature dishes and sidebar tips on Marco's methods and techniques. The narrative (written with James Steen) is brisk, interesting and engaging. It is a story of obsession and accomplishment but not really about sex, pain, and madness, as the subtitle suggests. There is a little sex and a bit of pain but no madness in the clinical sense. There are also tantrums, anecdotes of the glitterati and tales of the rich, the powerful, the hungry and the rude. The world of Marco's kitchens will not be unfamiliar to readers of Tony Bourdain or fans of Gordon Ramsay's many shows. In some narratives cookery is all sweetness, light, conviviality, love and family. Here it is war, but war that is very tasty and washed down with first growth red bordeaux.

Both confirmed foodies and fans of memoir and autobiography will enjoy this book.

THis book is great. Read it in two sittings and laughed alot. Also very thought provoking and an interesting point of view from such an acclaimed chef.

MARCO PIERRE WHITE IN THE TRADITION OF ENGLISH ECCENTRICS TAKES OR RATHER BAKES THE CAKE !

HIS ANTI ESTABLISHMENT ATTITUDES AND APPEARANCE MAKE THIS HALLOWED ENGLISH CULLINERY
GENIUS EVEN MORE REMARKABLE - HIS BRILLIANCE WAS TO DESTROY THE HACKNEYED PRESUMPTIONS
THAT GREAT BRITAIN WAS AND IS A WASTE LAND OF BAD FOOD - HIS COURAGE IN THIS EXCELLENT BOOK
WAS TO RELAY HIS RAGS TO RICHES RISE TO STARDOM WARTS AND ALL YET EXPLAINING THAT IT'S ALL ABOUT THE INGREDIENTS AND IF YOU CAN CAPTURE THE NATURAL ELEMENTS OF THOSE INGREDIENTS
WITH INTEGRITY YOU CAN UNLOCK THOSE FLAVORS WHICH IS WHAT FINE COOKING IS ALL ABOUT - SOMETHING THAT IS LOST ON MANY OF TODAYS RISING CELEBRITY CHEFS.- SIMPLICITY NOT COMPLEXITY !

THIS BOOK IS AN EXCELLANT READ - I WISHED THERE HAD BEEN MORE - PERHAPS A FEW NEW CHAPTERS WILL
SURFACE IN 2008 WITH HOPEFULLY MORE RECIPES AND BRILLIANT M P W TECHNIQUES.

OH YES MARCO - WHY IS YOUR BOOK OR SHOULD I SAY KITCHEN BIBLE "WHITE HEAT" OUT OF PRINT ??

NOT EVEN AMAZON CAN GET THEIR HANDS ON THIS - IT'S A CRYING SHAME THAT A BOOK OF THIS MAGNITUDE BE RELEGATED TO THE OUT OF PRINT DEPARTMENT OF CULLINERY IMPORTANCE.

THE DEVIL IN THE KITCHEN IS ONE HELL OF A READ - FIVE STARS - PETER CHRISTIAN - LA.

By age 33, English chef, restaurateur, and enfant terrible, Marco Pierre White had been awarded three Michelin stars, making him the first and youngest Briton to ever receive this accolade. He won his first Michelin star after opening Harveys, London (now Chez Bruce), where he was quickly awarded his second star in 1988 at age 28. He then became chef-patron of The Restaurant Marco Pierre White at the former Hyde Park Hotel (now the Mandarin Oriental), where he won his third Michelin Star. White then moved to the Oak Room at Le Meridien Piccadilly. Meanwhile, White had attracted a cult following of foodies that included Michael Caine and Prince Charles. Then after receiving both accolades and fame, White decided to give up his Michelin stars. "I was being judged by people who had less knowledge than me," he said during a 2007 interview. "So what was it truly worth? I gave Michelin inspectors too much respect, and I belittled myself. I had three options: I could be a prisoner of my world and continue to work six days a week, I could live a lie and charge high prices and not be behind the stove, or I could give my stars back, spend time with my children and re-invent myself" (Caterer and Hotelkeeper, 2007-04-25). White then announced his retirement in 1999. He has since published several books: White Heat, his memoir, White Slave: The Autobiography (titled The Devil in the Kitchen: Sex, Pain, Madness, and the Making of a Great Chef in paperback), and Wild Food from Land and Sea.

The Devil in the Kitchen chronicles White's life from his childhood in Leeds troubled by the loss of his mother, to his three marriages, to his passionate pursuit of culinary perfection as a chain-smoking, "brooding Byron" in the kitchen. White candidly reveals his harsh antics (or "theatre of cruelty," as he describes his behaviour) behind the culinary skills that earned him the reputation of being a flamboyent enfant terrible in the kitchen. He ejected customers from his restaurants regularly. With a paring knife, he once cut the jacket and trousers off a chef who complained about the kitchen heat. "If you are not extreme," he writes, "then people will take short cuts because they don't fear you." White's culinary memoir is a collection of lively tales that will appeal to foodies, fans of books like Anthony Bourdain's Kitchen Confidential), or to anyone with an interest in larger-than-life celebrity chefs. "Marco Pierre White was the original rock-star chef," Bourdain says. "The guy who all of us wanted to be. From the moment my chef pals and I got a look at his first cookbook--and at photos of the Man Himself, in all his haggard, debauched-looking, obsessively driven glory--we dreamed of nothing more than to be just like him." Recommended with enthusiasm.

G. Merritt

Marco Pierre White is the original rock and roll chef and the first person I'm aware of to consistently go into the dining room and tell people to shove off.

When I was on an ACF Jr. Culinary Olympic Team in the late 90s, this was not a fact we overlooked, and for it White was instantly a hero of ours. I grabbed up all his cookbooks; the best of which was the tough to find White Heat. Through it, we discovered strange foods like caul fat, that we, as young cooks, had never seen, had, or even heard of.

Needless to say, when I saw he was writing a biography, my interest was peaked.

There's a funny story in the book that sums it up for me. A Michelin 3 star chef dined at White's restaurant, and afterwards, came into the kitchen to say everything was great except the fish -- which was salty. White told the cook who prepared it to tell the chef to "F off".

White seems to tell everyone to "F" Off, and as interesting as this book was to me, a fan, I'm sad to say, overall, it is pretty poor. White has a tremendous ego, and comes off sounding like a real jerk that ruins every meaningful relationship he's ever been apart of both personally and in business.

Even thought this book was not in color, the content is all there. and the book was in good condition

I purchased this as the textbook for an MBA class and I give it high marks for both read-ability and depth of coverage. Because I'd just finished a class on the Legal aspects of Global business, the first chapters were more of a review - however, if you're coming in without that background, this does very well as a standalone text. My MBA has been all distance learning classes - in which the book provides the vast majority of the information (no lectures) - and I have to say, this one is definitely up to that task!

I am a student at the Budapest University of Economic Sciences. I found this book to be very interesting and fun to read. Other students here, for whom English is not their first language, enjoy the book becuase it is clear and easy to understand. This should be standard reading for all international buisness/marketing students.

As a Georgetown University student who took the author's class, I found this textbook to be the most comprehenisve International Marketing source around. I currently own two textbooks written by the same authors because of the book's clear, organized topics. This textbook is perfect for beginners who would like to learn more about International Marketing as a guide for professionals who have to make challenging decisions.

I liked this book. I am doing the international MBA at Maryville University. The book is very complete and has great illustrations, graphics, and web links.
Is a very interesting book, and I will keep it. But I think that although there is a chapter related to logistics, the book is not deeply mentioning import and export procedures and other custom and paperwork problems that international business faces.

Multinational Business Finance (11th Edition) (The Addison-Wesley Series in Finance) The book isn't that good for a Finance course, but the seller was very prompt with shipping product after recieving payment.

The book came so quickly and was in the condition it was described, good with minimal highlighting. Very happy with it

This book gives plenty of background into international finance. Unfortunately, it has some big flaws, in my opinion. First, there are not enough calculation examples. Second, there are too few questions at the end of each chapter. In addition, you must go to the author's website for the solution. Once you get there, you will be surprised to find out that the author has only solved maybe two out of eight problems. That's annoying. I do not recommend this book. Take a class from another professor who uses a different text book.

Too much money for a useless book!!!!

I strongly agree with the two reviews previous to mine. The book gets you interested at the begining, but let you down afterwards. It has little depth in the topics and many flaws when comes to explaining things. In exemple, the "Fisher Effect" was never explained, but all the book gives you is the formula. There is little explanation about the components and variables in the formulas. So, you have to rely heavily on your instructor.

There are almost no calculation examples and use of formulas. The teory in the book is not well explained either. So, you get more confused. That in my opinion is because the authors did not spend enough time to present the material clearly and the editors did not review and edit the book to increase the readability and comprehension. To illustrate what I am talking about, there is a lot of white space in the book (implies it lacks substance) and the text refers to graphs or charts shown in one/two pages before or after. Compared to other finance books I had in the past, this whole book looks like a compilation of bad summary sections.

In conclusion, it was not worth the money. It got me confused and wasted my time. In case you have to use it because it is mandatory, rely on your notes and instrutor's lectures.

This book has cursory overview of everthing and lacks detail. Also, each chapter starts well to get you excited on what you are going to learn and at the end of each chapter, you can't really tell whether it addressed the topics in enough details to give you the necessary understanding.

Google has always struck me as being a twenty first century company. With its 'Don't Be Evil' mantra, countless employee benefits and constant experimental beta programs, it appears they are digitizing the world's information through the funnel of one big mysterious algorithm. While reading Planet Google I was constantly reminded of ways in which Google has affected my life. I used Google maps on a daily basis as a delivery driver in Orlando, I used the satellite imagery to see how close a house was to the ocean before renting it and five of my books are available through the Google Books program. My latest novel was researched largely through the Google search engine, my videos are on YouTube and I have a Gmail account that gets checked daily. This intertwining usage made it all the more fascinating to find out where these programs began. However, this apparent loyalty does not color my opinions. As a book Planet Google has much to be desired.

While author Randall Stross gives a snapshot of the company and its many ambitions, he does so from a distance. I can only imagine that he had very little contact with the owners or engineers that keep Google ticking. His descriptions are dispassionately technical but meant for the lay person thus failing on both fronts. Further, the human side of the story is missing entirely. If someone had to slavishly sacrifice for this company or its accomplishments, that sacrifice has gone unrecorded.

For those who know nothing at all about Google this book is a usefull first step but a broader text will be needed in the future for the sake for more accurately understanding this technological and economic giant.

An interesting book about the history of Google, and many of the projects it's undertaken over the years. Most of projects would be impossible to pursue without the revenue Google rakes in with it's search advertising program.

Somehow this otherwise fine story about Google omits the full story about it's FINANCIAL success. Almost all of Google's revenue is from it's search engine advertising, which the founders resisted introducing because they felt it was inconsistent with their objectives.

Google's search engine ads are based on a model pioneered by GoTo -- later renamed Overture, then purchased by Yahoo! -- in the late 90's. A year or two after GoTo demonstrated the viability of such a model, Google started their own search engine advertising. Google's program rapidly became the success it did because their basic search engine was superior, and preferred by the public. I've used all 3 services to advertise an online business over the years. Google ads (and regular searches) have received BY FAR the most hits.

I'm a big fan of Google, and use many of their services. That said, I wonder how much longer their current business model will work where ad revenues are financing everything they do.

For readers who appreciated The Search: How Google and Its Rivals Rewrote the Rules of Business and Transformed Our Culture, this book loosely picks up where the former book sort of left off. "The Search" (by different author and published in 2005) covers the origin and growth of general Web search technology and the rise of Google the company up to the point shortly after its IPO. "Planet Google" mainly takes a look at what the company has been doing since (circa 2004-08) and focuses on Google's many attempted forays into products and technologies beyond the core Web search. A chapter is dedicated for each of Google's better-known endeavors, namely book digitization, video/YouTube, Google Earth/Maps, datacenter buildup, Gmail and privacy issues, the go for open-source everything, and the debate of machine-only vs. human-assisted search algorithm.

The author claims to enjoy fairly generous access to Google's facilities and some of its top executives, including CEO Eric Schmidt. The book provides a quick read and is much shorter than the number of pages would suggest as the last 75 pages contain only massive amount of footnotes. It will certainly delight those who have always been fascinated by everything Google.

Early in "Planet Google" Stross points out that Google's income reached $4.2 billion in 2997 - 99% from the simple text ads that accompany its search returns. Readers also learn that 68% of Internet searches use Google. Thus, one suspects that at least some of Google's current new activities (eg. creating a digital library of all books, providing video search capability, server-supplied software and central data storage, StreetView, translating between languages, voice-to-text capability) are a dangerous distraction from Google's main business (especially creating a digital library of all books - strongly fought by publishers and still lacking an income-generating plan, as well as the book. Similarly, video search is also opposed on copyright grounds, while StreetView has been lambasted as an invasion of privacy and aid to terrorists, GMail blasted as "creepy" for providing ads based on message content, and Google News also attacked on a copyright basis.

Stross also is oblivious to the fact that eventually other Internet-search engines will catch up with Google, its search services will become a much-cheaper commodity, and the company's ability to reward and retain staff will precipitously decline. (It's called "product-life cycle," taught in every business school, and there are no long-term antidotes.) Further, Stross woefully short-circuits a key current and future problem - Google's data-center energy costs - undoubtedly because Google doesn't want to discuss it. Finally, Google's page ranking and Web-searching algorithms do not receive enough attention, while "open" vs. "closed" source coding receives entirely too much.

Nonetheless, "Google Earth" is mostly interesting reading. Google's power derives from the accidental discovery, two years after its founding, that plain text ads on its search pages produce enormous profits. Another key innovation was its requiring that ads be directly relevant to the search and ranking them according to projected income to Google (bid/click X probability of being clicked).

Google's search engine did not start out perfect - 1998 queries sometimes took ten seconds. In 1999 the search engine reviewed only 60 million sites, but the company then aggressively set a goal for 1 billion - at the time, AltaVista, its largest competitor, indexed only 150 million. (Google indexed 8 billion Web pages by 2004, the last year it made data available.) Another important Google advantage was gained by choosing to use low-cost standard PCs as servers, vs. competitors' choosing more expensive, specialized machines. Still another important decision was to avoid human involvement in the search output, contrary to Yahoo, which of course eventually found this approach too slow and expensive.

Bottom Line: Google benefited from lucky and judicious decisions early in its history, as well as very well designed software; however, it now risks sliding downhill by trying to do too many things.

The book's title flatters to deceive. The "audacious plan to organize everything we know" has significant impacts on almost all aspects of our lives and how new IT business models emerge - privacy, accessibility, level playing ground for education, security, etc..; growth of software-as-a-service and service-oriented architecture. Despite these meaty issues that the author's premise would have allowed him to provide an in-depth analysis of the trends and implications, he chooses to provide a superficial narration that reads more like a Businessweek article. To be fair, the author did write a few sentences on the above topics, but only as an introduction to his narration of some of the behind-the-scenes incidents that shaped Google's growth. After various authors have done this before, (more notable example - The Google Story: Inside the Hottest Business, Media, and Technology Success of Our Time and The Search: How Google and Its Rivals Rewrote the Rules of Business and Transformed Our Culture), this book breaks relatively new ground for even a casual reader in this space. Nevertheless, the narrations discussing the algorithm itself, and Google's foray into video search and Youtube, travails with Google Answers, email scanning and search, the ambitious book scanning project, and growth pains of Google Maps are entertaining and provides some interesting tidbits. For someone familiar with the search space and avid user of Google, some of these discussions may seem yesterday's news.

Even if it is not, the author misses an opportunity to analyze the fundamental impact Google's 'audacious plan' can have on us. The most glaring omission is Google Health - here is an attempt by Google to develop an ecosystem that stores electronic health records and allows other service providers to tap into this information as and when the owner of the health record permits. The implications of this can be far-reaching and a game changer for how healthcare is viewed in the world, particularly in the U.S. There is perhaps one tangential reference to Google Health in the book.

The book is well narrated, with a sense of urgency that keeps the reader captivated. The notes section of the book is well-organized and provides additional citations and information for the more serious reader (in fact, if some of the information that are now hidden in the notes section had found its way to the main text, the book may have read better). Overall, an entertaining read, but providing no or superficial analysis/insights.

Kaizen, a Japanese word means improvement. How can Japanese enterprise success is the main topic in this book. Actually, Japan has been under economic recession for nearly 10 years. But the Japanese enterprise can still survive, and some enterprises are under the list of Fortune 500. There must be some secret behind.

This first version of this book is written in 1986, Japan at that moment still maintain a high growth, and Japanese enterprise takes a major role in the global business environment. The author found that the major reasons are due to their modification rather than innovation. And these management concepts were learned by foreign companies and used as a framework to develop their management structure. From this book, you will learn lots of the Japanese culture and Japanese management style.

Moreover, you also understand the history of management development. Most of the management concepts used in foreign countries are based on Japanese firm. Like the TQM, process oriented management, and strategies in R&D. So, after reading the book, you will learn the difference between western working culture and Japanese one.

Before writing this book, the author has done lots of primary research, and he try to summary all the findings and success factor of major Japanese enterprise, like Toyota, NTT. And all these companies now become the Global 100 companies. After reading this book, you will learn more about the success story of these enterprises, and you will also know that their history and culture as well.

But, there is some limitation, because the book has been written nearly twenty years before, the business environment is totally changed, the competition and the consumer behaviour have been changed, therefore some of the strategies are not applicable. Also, the failures of some Japanese enterprises during the economic recession also prove that some strategies mentioned here are not worked.

Kaizen is a good book for you to understand more about the Asia culture especially the Japanese firm culture. If you want to do business with Japanese partner, this book is a must to read.

Most American businesses no longer worry so much about the Japanese miracle. International focus has moved from Japan to China and back to Europe. Many Japanese companies are now looking to the US for recapitalization and management assistance.

So why is a book on Japanese management techniques still so relevant?

First of all, continuous improvement and lean manufacturing have become universal management tools, not strictly limited to one country. This book presents as good an introduction to the subject as any. With today's focus on execution, this topic are becoming even more current. (Dare I say topical?)

Additionally, understanding continuous improvement is still important in the context of broader corporate change. What are the strength and limitations of incremental changes versus more radical corporate moves? Read the book and learn more.

This book certainly won't turn a mediocre manager into a great leader, but Kaizen is a useful addition to the toolbox of any manager.

This book is a must-read for process improvement and Quality Assurance professionals. Senior corporate management would also benefit from selections, especially the first chapter and the chapter on problem solving. The book outlines the key fundamentals, principles, requirements, and expectations related to Kaizen (continuous improvement), with a focus on the highest-level cross-functional goals of Quality, Cost, and Schedule (in that order) that ultimately drive profitability. Appendices, including summaries of 5S, old and new seven statistical tools, Deming Prize criteria, and Cannon company case study are as informative as the body of the book. On the down side, there is some significant repitition. Although the book is nearly 20 years old, it is timeless and as relevant as ever.

For 25 years I have been teaching high level engineers and directors at Honda, Mitsubishi Fuso, Mazda and a host of auto part manufacturers.

Kaizen is a mythical term in modern day business practices. Japan's ability to produce high quality products across the board stems foremost from the from the cultural value of obedience to authority. From a young age people are taught to follow an authority figure. Combine this allegiance with a deftness to be meticulous - also instilled through the education system - and you have a workforce which can attain high product quality. Kaizen only works because of the docile obedience of the workforce, not because the theory is a magic bullet.

This is an excellent book on how production is organised in Japan. It explains the Kaizen concept of continuous improvement and its implementation, highlighting the essential differences between the production and operations management philosophies of the West with those of Japan. The foundation of the Kaizen method consists of five fundamental elements namely teamwork, personal discipline, improved morale, quality circles and suggestions for improvement.

This is a very enlightening book for those who want to understand the basic concepts of continuous improvement (as opposed to innovation or business process reengineering) in the production process and how this has been successfully applied in Japan. Some very successful companies like Toyota owe their success largely to the employment of this concept.

This is essential reading for those who wish to introduce Kaizen in their organisation. The book is written in a simple and easy to follow and understand style. However, the book is becoming a bit dated having been written two decades ago, and in any case, the spotlight nowadays has shifted to China, but nevertheless, this is excellent reading about a concept that is still delivering good value to those companies that are correctly employing it.

I have been an expatriate myself and i found the book extremely effective and well written, and most important: easy to read. I think everybody should read it before expatriating to avoid the first, most of the time negative, impact with another culture. The author makes you really understand the most common feelings, mistakes and fault you may do once you move in a new country, new culture. Most of all, he makes you understand how rich and full of challenge is an experience in another country. I think that most of the expatriates do not even acknowledge how brave they are in living in a different culture. However the book is useful for everybody, as our world is more and more crossing cultures oriented.

I am a totally way-too-confident, know-it-all travel partner, but I admit to having lost it while living in Eastern Europe last year with my husband (not his fault). Simply put: this book kept me from going home early SEVERAL times because Storti lets you moan and groan a little and then points out how you might have had a part in creating the cultural "misunderstanding" that plagues you. Trust me...if this book could help someone as stubborn as I am...it might be responsible for world peace someday.

THIS BOOK WAS SO AWFUL, I GAVE IT TO THE GOODWILL WITHOUT EVEN FINISHING IT.IT KEPT SAYING THAT IT IS REALLY HARD TO STAY ABROAD FOR ANY LENGTH OF TIME WITHOUT KNOWING ANYTHING ABOUT THEIR CULTURE. (NO KIDDING) SOMETHING THAT WE DO THAT OTHER CULTURES DON'T ,COULD MAKE US SEEM RUDE OR IN EXTREME CASES EVEN GET US KILLED. IT GOES ON TO TELL TALES OF PEOPLE WHO HAVE HAD TROUBLE BECAUSE THEY DIDN'T UNDERSTAND IT. AND THAT'S IT. THEY NEVER GO INTO ANY OF THE OTHER CULTURES TO TELL US WHAT IS AND IS NOT PROPER EDIQUETTE. I WAS UNDER THE IMPRESSION THAT THE BOOK WAS GOING TO GO OVER ALOT OF OTHER CULTURES AND TALK ABOUT THEIR WAYS.THIS BOOK DIDN'T TELL ME ANYTHING THAT ANY HALF WAY INTELLIGENT PERSON DIDN'T ALREADY KNOW. NOT WORTH BUYING.

This book remains a great source of wisdom and comfort, still needed after 15 years living abroad. The cultural differences aren't obvious any longer -- they can be deceptively subtle -- now that language and the daily facts of life are no longer an issue. However, I still trip over matters which I later realize to be cultural differences, and I assume others in similar situations do as well. And then I pull down Mr. Storti's book from the shelf and put it all into some sort of workable perspective.

Highly recommended to others, even those who have no intention of going abroad but would just like to have a better understanding of the cultural differences in this world -- something sorely needed these days.

By the way, Western women so quick to judge the 'sad' reality of women in Arab societies might do well to read this quotation from Harriet Martineau:

"[The women of the harem] pitied us European women heartily, that we had to go about travelling, and appearing in the streets without being properly taken care of -- that is, watched. They think us strangely neglected in being left so free, and boast of [how closely they are watched] as a token of the value in which they are held."

It should be a sobering reminder that it's a fools' game to judge, and certainly to pity, the reality of a person from a culture foreign to ours.

Thank you for your efforts and insights, Mr. Storti.

Using humorous anecdotes, this book gives the reader a framework for adapting to other cultures, not a step-by-step guide to "here's what to take the hostess in Bulgaria." The stories of British colonists in India may seem irrelevant if a reader is looking for that level of detail, but they do present basic guidelines that are applicable to any culture in the world. I would recommend this as one book among many that a person should read prior to moving to an overseas assignment.

When a good friend died his wife gave me his collection of books on the Civil War. Over the years, I have ebayed most of them, but some how, I could not bring myself to auction this book off. During a recent move, as I was packing my library, I toss this book aside to read. Wow! What a good read. Although written ten years ago, this book is strangely appropriate for our times.

Lincoln has taken a hit from the politically correct revisionist historians on two accounts: First because of his early stance on resolving the race issue (colonization), and secondly because of the limited reach of the Emancipation Proclamation (freeing only slaves in the states in active rebellion against the Union). For these reasons, modern revisionist judge Lincoln according to modern liberal standards and find him guilty of racism. Unfortunately, history is not that simple. People, at least intelligent people as Lincoln certainly was, have complex and evolving views of the critical issues of their day. Lincoln certainly did not have the hindsight that today's historians do. He was a man of his time who struggled with the issues and whose changing views on race made him a great man. It is to Paludan's credit that he refuses to give simple answers to explain the life and views of a very complex man. He shows us a complex even contradictory personality.

Especially pertinent to the current news is Paludan's analysis of Lincoln and the Supreme Court. Lincoln believed that ultimate authority in the issues before the nation was the political process, not the Supreme Court (i.e., the Dred Scott decision). Social policy was not the realm of the court, but of the congress. Lincoln saw the court having authority only on parties to the suit and perhaps as a precedent in parallel cases. But "upon vital questions affecting the whole people" American citizens could not "resign their government into the hands of judges." The same issue faces us today. The fundamental question we are facing is the same Lincoln faced: Is the role of the court to adjudicate constitutional issues or to decide social policy?

Vital to Lincoln's perception of the role of the Supreme Court was his view of the Constitution and the Declaration of Independence. He saw the Declaration as the promise and the Constitution as the incomplete fulfillment of that promise. The inclusion of slavery into the Constitution was a political necessity to form the union (six slave states would not enter the union without it). Thus Dread Scott was the wrong decision, immoral as it were, even if the constitution included slavery. Why? Because the promise was given in the Declaration of Independence that all men were created equal. Hum . . . funny thing, when today's conservatives cite the Declaration of Independence in defense of a theistic basis for our nation, liberals are quick to point out that the Declaration is not a legal document and that the Constitution, as the ultimate authority, does not mention God at all. Just a thought.


Ok, I can't help it. I have to talk about the anti-war Democrats of Lincoln's day. Paludan points out again and again that the Democrats of Lincoln's day kept up a constant litany that the war could not be won, that it would bankrupt the county, and that civil liberties were threatened. The peace activist of that day saw nothing but failure and thought that recognizing that failure made better sense than perpetuating it. Um. . . sounds familiar doesn't it. I guess some things never change.

Well, I guess I said enough. This was a great book. I could hardly put it down. Good thing I did not ebay it.

Well, first of all, I must tell everyone that I probably have a negative bias towards this book's author. The best thing I can say of this book is that curling up with it is much more pleasant than being in the same county as the author and his enormous ego. His scholarship in the book is a lot sounder than his verbal musings in the classroom, many of which are non-sensical and poorly thought-out, and his modern political musings which are often inappropiate and non-germane. One of my fondest memories is of him being made a fool of by a freshman student when he lectured for an hour on why a funeral home is called a "home". In typical PS Paludan fashion, he constructed an elaborate 19th century socio-historical explanation for what was easily explained by the student. They are called "funeral homes" because they were in caretaker's houses! Yes, Philly has a way of making the simple hard. This man almost ruined me on the study of history. I obviously would never buy this book, as I wouldn't want to see a penny go to this conceited egotist. I had this guy for a course 2 years ago and the mention of his name still makes my blood boil.

This is not a bad book, and in fact offers a solid description and assessment of the Lincoln Administration.

Paludan describes the working of Lincoln's government well, including the personalities and major policy issues they faced. He does a good job in explaining the manueverings between Salmon P. Chase and Lincoln for dominance of the Administration and later for the 1864 Repbulican Party nomination. Also described thoroughly is Lincoln's Louisianna reconstruction plan, which gives a pretty plausible map to what reconstruction could have looked like had Booth not intervened.

I found the writing average. While the book explains the subject well enough, the prose is more workmanlike. It didn't reach the level of engrossing style other chronicler's of Lincoln and his government have.

Overall, not bad.

As the title indicates, this is not a biography of Abraham Lincoln. It is, instead, a narrow, but detailed and incisive study of Lincoln's exercise of executive power between his election in 1860 and his assassination in 1865. This is important because, as author Philip Shaw Paludan explains: "No president had larger challenges than Abraham Lincoln." And Paludan proceeds to state the obvious, that Lincoln was "responsible for two enormous accomplishments that are part of folk legend as well as fact. He saved the Union and he freed the slaves." No other president did so much in so little time, and Paludan explains why. As a result, within its limited confines, this book is excellent!

Paludan demonstrates in the chapter entitled "Assembling the Cast: Winter 1860-61," that Lincoln, as president-elect, was a shrewd politician. According to Paludan: "Lincoln could be effective only if he unified the six-year-old Republican party," so one of his first appointments was "his strongest party rival," William Seward, Senator from New York, as secretary of state. As political payback for delivering Pennsylvania to the Republicans in 1860, Lincoln was obliged to appoint the notoriously-corrupt Simon Cameron Secretary of War. To counter that stench, Lincoln named as his secretary of the navy Connecticut newspaper editor Gideon Welles, who "had a glowing reputation for honesty." Within a year, Cameron also proved to be incompetent, and, in 1862, Lincoln replaced him with Edwin Stanton, who proved to be not only a man of great integrity but a very capable manager as well. It proved to be one of the most talented cabinets in American history, although Paludan makes clear that its operations were not always harmonious, most notably during the "cabinet crisis" of December 1862.

With most of the executive departments in capable hands, Lincoln "involved himself actively in matters of strategy," claiming "`war power' authority to use his office to the limits." Lincoln's focus on military affairs was essential because the Civil War generally went badly for the Union for the first year. Paludan ably demonstrates that even while Lincoln struggled to find generals who had both the talents and temperament to be successful, the Union was "forging the resources of war," which eventually proved decisive. Gen. George McClellan was a brilliant military administrator but proved much too cautious in the field, appalled by the "mangled corpses and the poor suffering wounded. Lincoln eventually lost confidence in McClellan, and he had to be replaced. One of McClellan's eventual successors, Gen. George Meade, won the great victory at Gettysburg in July 1863, but the Union did fully gain the initiative in the field until Gen. Ulysses S. Grant, who won an equally great victory at Vicksburg, Mississippi almost on the same day, was appointed general in chief in March 1864.

Lincoln's original war aim was merely to restore the Union. But the costs, human and material, of the war's first two years, made eradication of slavery a necessity. Following the battle of Antietam in September 1862, which was a "tactical draw but a strategic victory" for the Union, Lincoln announced the preliminary Emancipation Proclamation. The issue then became: What was to be done with the former slaves? In December, Lincoln proposed a constitutional amendment for the federal government to pay to colonize any blacks who wished to emigrate, but blacks "rejected it, abolitionists had condemned it," and this "doubtful solution" was beyond the practical realities of the time. Even while the war continued to rage, the prospective problems of reconstruction never were far from Lincoln's mind, and, according to Paludan, this difficult issue increasingly divided the president from radical Republicans.

Paludan writes that, while the radicals favored confiscation of land which had prospered from slave labor, Lincoln believed in "peaceful, gradual, compensated emancipation." Lincoln opposed the harsh remedy of confiscation and believed that the Constitution permitted him to free the slaves only "in places where war was being made." The Emancipation Proclamation of January 1, 1863 potentially freed 3 million slaves but did not mention colonization or compensated emancipation. Nevertheless, the emancipation issue proved controversial. Solidly Republican New England remained largely committed to the war, but, according to Paludan: "Especially in the regions of the Middle West settled from the South and in cities where job competition existed between the races, people resented the idea of fighting in order to free blacks."

Equally controversial was the Emancipation Proclamation's "arming of black freedom fighters." According to Paludan, "Lincoln and his party clearly were committed to Union and to emancipation and to the belief that the two were linked indissolubly by the need for black soldiers." Almost 180,000 black troops were serving in Union armies by the end of the war. Lincoln was very conscious of the importance of maintaining the national moral, and, in Paludan's view, northern whites increasingly recognized the benefits of having black soldiers defend the Union.

According to Paludan, the Union's victory was in large part a result of Lincoln's "devotion to and mastery of the political-constitutional institutions of his time." Some Civil War buffs and many general readers are likely to find this book rather dry because it focuses on the science of politics. But, as Paludan writes, the preservation of the Union "was achieved chiefly through an extraordinary outreach of national authority." This book is an exceptionally thoughtful account of the exercise of executive power during the most serious crisis in American history.

Like one of the previous reviewers, I too have been a previous student of Professor Paluden at the University of Kansas. I count him as one of the instructors that have fueled a passion in me to study the civil war period. Unlike the previous reviewer, I have had the benefit of having read this book before offering an opinion. Prof. Paluden offers an extremely well researched account of the civil war presidency of Lincoln. This work includes statistics and facts you simply cannot get from documentaries or other accounts. He correctly paints Lincoln as a master politician and cuts through the mythology of the man. Was Lincoln morally opposed to slavery...yes. Was he willing to run on an abolitionist platform?? Hell no, not and get elected during that time period. Paluden's real gift is painting a picture of the period and making folks realize just how important politics was in the 19th Century to all Americans (80-90% voter turnout). Unlike the previous reviewer, I have never noted the negative side of Prof. Paluden. He does have an ego, but, like has been said of his subject "no great man was ever modest". Thanks for a wonderful book professor. (Jayhawk Class of 1995).

In this book the author argues for the "economic benefits of trade, not just for corporations but for people and the environment. He illustrates how protectionist policies damage the economy and fail to save jobs. Examining U.S. trade policy, he shows how "fair trade" measures are arbitrary, unfair, and often harmful"

Yet this author makes slight of America's long history of protectionist policies when it served its interest. In fact the history of America's industrial development was protecting her rising industries. So now that Americas industries are strong and known world wide; its labor force is a problem because it wants decent wages and health benefits. What is the solution? Free trade! Or free trade in cheap labor and dealing with counties that have no labor unions, no regulations that get in the way of business and officials that are easy to bribe.
This book is for those who have no critical facilities what so ever.

Doesnt it always seem that your friends subscribe to the wrong views, and you to the right one? Well, at least for me it is. Whether your pals are from the anarchist wing or the Pat Buchanan camp, or even deviate just a little from your (correct) free trade stance, you should read this book. And even if you believe in the unholy stance of skepticism of free trade , you should read it too, for "The Economist" said that if this book doesnt convince anti-free traders, nothing will; so go ahead and test your faithfulness.

I am not an economist, and I hate reading economics text books filled with useless jargon. Before reading some great books, economics was as complicated as chemistry, physics or calculas to me. But after reading a few books, "Lexus and the Olive Tree", "Mystery of Capital" and "Peddling Prosperty", I realized that it isn't that complicated, its just the economists who create this aura of an esoteric subject.

This book is written in simple language, but when it does use phrases that regular people don't understand, he does something rare - he explains their meaning.

This is an excellent book, but only after reading The Lexus and the Olive Tree. Tom Friedman's book is the main weapon in my debating arsenal, and "Free Trade Under Fire" book gives me a large cache of ammunition, as do Peddling Prospery (or anything else by Paul Krugman like Pop Internationalism, another MUST read), and Henrando de Soto's masterpiece "The Mystery of Capital"(dont even look at his "Other Path", it is simplified and better argued in this "Mystery").

Highly Recommended

This book was very well written. It provides excellent, well documented evidence to support the ideas of free trade. For those who are against free trade, I would recommend reading this book. The authors provide good, logical arguments for free trade and its benefits. As cliche as it is, no one can deny we are living in a global economy and this book clearly explains how the United States and we as citizens are playing our role.

Irwin's book, together with Bhagwati's Free Trade today,
makes a strong case for free trade. The argument is clear and
the book is easy to read and full of evidence supporting
free trade. Among other topics, the author discusses
the harmful effects of protection on developing/
developed economies, trade and the environment
and the role of WTO. Irwin's book is non-technical
and more historical than Bhagwati's. The latter
is more theoretical, at least in some parts, but also
a great read. For arguments against free trade using
economic theory see "trade warriors" by Marc Busch or " global Trade and Conflicting National Interests"
by Ralph E. Gomory, William J. Baumol

This book makes a reasonably decent defense of free trade. It speaks in predominantly layman's terms, and is entertaining enough to hold the layman's attention. Irwin does a good job refuting the most patently ridiculous claims that free trade victimizes those it employs and other silly claims.

It doesn't do the best job demonstrating that trade with developing countries benefits wealthy nations, however. It does try to do so, and offers some evidence, but I wish the book had made a stronger effort in this area as this is where most protectionists simply cite the trade deficit as manifest evidence that we are worse off in free trade, without understanding that our standard of living rises when we have cheap goods, and the market for our high skill jobs and products increases as developing countries grow wealthier.

The book does bring up a good point of accounting balance, noting that foreign investment in the U.S. offsets the trade deficit, but I fear that most protectionists are sufficiently xenophobic that this argument is likely to scare them rather than reassure them.