Exports Books

I read this book when I was taking the exams of Institute of Export.It is a very simple book about International Trade Law.That's why it is good for the readers especially whose second language is English.One of the missing points inthe book is the lack of cases.It gives the name of the cases but not the details.You need some other books if you would like to go a bit more in depth especially on the cases.

Salmon Day is the point in the future where some nations wind up global losers despite their current efforts to be world class economic contenders. The book handles big picture (macro and global) agenda items, but supports the views anocdotally with firm level mini-cases. The best part of the book is the title. "The End of the Beginning for Global Business" sold me a hardbound even though I was running through a foreign airport, weighted down with papers. It still has the loudest ring of truth in the whole book. The best chapter is the Introduction. It is also the shortest. Lamont's views about the U.S. and the "mostly American" global culture were 4 star. Those on China were 3 star. Lamont was way off on Japan and he gives way too much credit to Europeans. (** only). The book is a series of mental observations and offers only a shadow of a theoretical framework to support his views. Still, the concept that global business is now in the process of coming of age is right on. An adequate airplane book to pick up after you are finished reading term papers.

Standardization Essentials, Principles and Practice, Steven M. Spivak and F. Cecil Brenner, published by Marcel Dekker, Inc. New York, NY

Review by Ken Krechmer, Technical Editor, Communications Standards Review

Standardization Essentials is an introductory text on the development (standardization) and use of standards that define similarity. Since the beginning of the industrial revolution, repetitive manufacturing processes have been used to economically produce similar things. The standards associated with such manufacture may be termed similarity standards. This book clearly develops and explains the economic advantages of creating and using similarity standards to increase the size of served markets and decrease the per unit cost of manufacture. Although the focus of this book is on North American standardization, there is considerable discussion of the value and importance of world wide standardized manufacturing and the international standardization organizations associated with similarity standards. The important issues of conformity assessment (testing to insure conformance with similarity standards), ISO 9000 (quality management system) and ISO 14000 (environmental management system) standards are addressed. There is a good introductory chapter on both ISO standards series, and an excellent contributed chapter on implementing ISO 9000 in a medium size chemical company.

More than half the book is devoted to 18 independent articles (some previously published), 15 from different people with broad experience in the standardization industry and three from the authors. These articles offer a wide view of current aspects of standardization and are quite interesting to read. These articles range over different manufacturing fields: air conditioning, tires, information technology, automotive and chemicals; they address standardization from multiple vantage points: consortia, US Department of Defense, consumer product safety, developing countries, laboratory accreditation, trade barriers and product procurement. Some of the articles are very descriptive and all are helpful to understand the different views of similarity standards and standardization.

Standardization Essentials concludes with a copy of a US Government document: Office of Management and Budget revised Circular A-119 (1998) on the federal use and development of voluntary standards. Considering that such documents are available over the Internet, it is not clear why the authors chose to include it. The book offers a listing of some of the more significant formal standardization and related organizations in North America and some regional and international standardization and related organizations. But only names are provided. no contact information. Considering how rapidly most standardization committees are moving onto the Internet, the lack of web addresses and pointers is quite surprising and reduces the value of the book as a starting point for further study.

In summary, Standardization Essentials only partially fulfills the promise of its title, offering a view (although a good one) of just similarity standards. It does not address unit of measure standards and the related metrology (e.g., calibration) issues, and addresses only slightly compatibility standards and the related communications issues.

The book, although complete, does not cover in detail advanced factors such as international arbitration, recourse, performance bonds, etc. It covers the basics, but does not give the professional the tools necessary to interpret and solve disputes arising from non compliance with Letters of Credit and/or Documentary collections. A lot of the topics are covered on a 'text book' view, probably good for college undergrads than for the actual professionals in the field.

In researching the economy of Yugoslavia and of the transition from Communism to a more capitalist form of economy, this book will serve one relatively well for a surface overview of the countries in question, particularly the former Yugoslavia, Poland and Hungary. However, once you dig below the surface, one will find that the information offered, while erudite and well written, is somewhat biased and not necessarily complete. This, of course, is if you are really digging.

I wrote my thesis on Slovenia's economy. This book did not deal directly with Slovenia, which is unique and distinct both from the rest of Eastern Europe and from the rest of the former Yugoslavia. However, this collection of essays portrays, for example, worker's self-management, which has served Slovenia quite well, as the reason Yugoslavia's economy failed. With more scrutiny it seems clear that self-management is not flawed as a system; rather, Yugoslavia's fiscal irresponsibility and mismanagement led to the economic chaos that ensued in the 1980s and partially led to the collapse of the Yugoslav state in the 1990s. Fiscal mismanagement is independent of the economic system of which it is a part.

I see this collection of essays as a good starting point for gathering some background information.

Business, and in particular international business has always been a man's world. In Dr. Sharon T. Freeman's book WOMEN WHO EXPORT: INSPIRATION, MOTIVATION, AND STRATEGY, this theory gets shaken. She writes of detailed and informative conversations with several business women who started their own businesses and who now have global operations. The women are honest and candid about their successes as well as their failures, and they are quick to share that by no means did they have it easy.

This book is an excellant resource for anyone contemplating a path to the international business world. While this book had a wealth of information, it was somewhat difficult to read, mostly because it is a compilation of the convesations.

Reviewed by Simone A. Hawks
of The RAWSISTAZ Reviewers

Although very well written and interesting at points, Wilson's biography, in some ways, tells us more about Wilson than Lewis. I label the effort "psycho-speculative biography" because Wilson, writing as an outsider to Lewis' world (he did not know him personally), takes bits from that world and speculates, offering his own inferences on the data. Rather than adding a strong note of objectivity, Wilson's lack of contact with Lewis, obscures the man. By contrast, one should see the book "C. S. Lewis at the Breakfast Table," a delightful collection of essays, reflections by those who knew Lewis over a span of decades. The Breakfast Table book is wonderfully honest about Lewis' flaws, but what emerges is a much more faithful look at those characteristics that made Lewis such a compelling figure: his wit, intellect, love of beauty, love of life, love of friends, and, yes, love of God.

This story of C. S. Lewis is told essentially as by a nurse (Wilson) to parents (we) about a problematical small child (Lewis). Wilson appears to be never in doubt that he understands his subject better than it ever understood itself. His cocksureness is the more inviting since he pretends to be rescuing Lewis from a perceived danger of becoming a "plaster saint"; it is the more embarrassing since he is incredibly careless in his use of the sources and has a proclivity for the very basest forms of gossip. If some Lewis devotees have lacked interest in the real man, Wilson has clearly surpassed them on this score. This biography is eminently readable; but its appeal is vitally rooted in the author's cocksureness, sloppiness and bad faith.

One gets the impression that A.N. Wilson writes with ulterior motives in mind. Although interesting, and quite possibly true, the dark corners of Lewis' life exposed by Wilson seem to be a deliberate alternative to the accepted biography. This approach makes me skeptical of the validity of this text. In addition to these concerns, I found Wilson's style less than engaging, bordering on tedious.

How quaint, how dated, that so many so intelligent men could give so much importance to whether a man was a card-carrying Christian or not and to the resulting labels : Christian or Atheist, High Church or Low Church, C of E or Catholic.... Wilson's book recreates an era that was dying as I was young (born in England in 1947). How scary, that so recently, in Oxford University learned circles, the word 'Darwinian' could be used as an insult. How quaint, that either CSL or JRRT could imagine one could think one's way to religious belief. How absurd, in the way that one's child's antics are absurd and observed with so much tenderness, that intelligent men could think there was no other choices than strict dogmatic obedience to a creed or, on the other hand, some form of total existential error. I loved the Narnia chronicals, still do. I loved CSL's Sci-Fi trilogy, first read about the same time, still do, loved the Screwtape Letters, with its fantastic social comic observations of our our English middle-class post-war world, but have always been put off by the obvious manipulations of his non-fiction religious books ("Miracles" being the one I've looked at closest).
All of Wilson's observations of the man ring true with that of his work that I've seen. Most particularly, he gives melancholic and tantalising insight into why Lewis was in some ways such an under-achiever compared to his potential.

I cannot claim familiarity with all of the other biographies of C.S. Lewis, but I do know a good book when I read one. This is an absorbing, revealing, if controversial, account of Lewis. Readers should not be afraid to tackle a biography written by someone who did not know Lewis personally-- this distance is one of the strengths of Wilson's book, for it is not clouded by sentimental recollections. Most importantly, you will be encouraged to read more of Lewis himself, particularly the lesser known works and literary criticism. Wilson offers excellent insights into these works which are largely forgotten, due to the popularity of a handful of other writings.

Wilson pushes readers to start from scratch in constructing an image of Lewis: Lewis the entire man--scholar, teacher, brother, lover, and fallen human being. We are discouraged from holding fast to a more typical tidy portrait of Lewis: the affable author of a select group of Christian books and children's fantasy stories. (I love the Narnia books, by the way, and my esteem for them has not been dampened whatsoever by this book.)

I didn't agree with every one of Wilson's assertions about Lewis's character or motivations, but again, Wilson's unwillingness merely to reinforce the accepted line is a great strength. Wilson's analysis is a challenge, not a conclusive rendering of absolutes. Approach it with that understanding, allow yourself to be challenged, and the experience of reading this book will be ultimately satisfying. Antoher tip: read the preface again after you've finished the book for a more complete grasp of Wilson's intentions.

Yes, read other accounts of Lewis for the broadest spectrum of perspectives possible. But don't leave this one out. Not surprisingly, those only interested in pointing out errors and shutting their minds to fresh insights will be disappointed.

QUOTATIONS FROM ACADEMIC REVIEWS OF THE BOOK

1. QUOTATIONS FROM "ASIAN BUSINESS & MANAGEMENT"

"We have a work that far surpasses most of the 'Art-of-x-Management' genre in a most important and fundamental aspect: providing empirical testing of theoretical statements with rigorous attention to validity and reliability. As such, it is a standard to which few of this rather impressionistic-based genre have ever aspired." (p. 132).

"The theoretical background and interpretation are exemplary cases of the use of statistical analysis for the generation and testing of hypotheses. The strongest feature of this book is the detailed quantitative analysis and explanation of the author's hypotheses. In effect, Professor Schlevogt's entire thought processes are exposed to analytical gaze ?" (p. 132).

"The book is a remarkable attempt at synthesizing and theorizing one particular 'management culture'." (p. 132)

"Schlevogt's unique contribution in this field is two-fold. First, he has synthesized a great deal of thinking on management culture in general, and the Chinese data in particular. Second, he has put that analysis on a firm quantitative and statistical basis, and helped bring about an approach that generates testable hypotheses from the often rather 'fuzzy' and impressionistic data and analysis more commonly provided in books of this type." (p. 132)

"The scope, of the target audience as well as the material, makes it a mine of information, and, as the author intended, potential basis for a variety of future research efforts. Second, the analytical paradigm, though it has its flaws, is a useful and energetic (if I may use the term) business tool. Third, it illuminates and compresses apart of business that is often ignored or, in the Western view, made marginal." (pp. 133-4).

"Schlevogt's slant, which departs radically from the disinterested bureaucracy model, is thus both thought-provoking ('nepotism' is bad, we learn from Weber; 'family enterprise' is solid managerial practice, we learn from Confucius and Schlevogt) and refreshing." (p. 134)

"If indeed, as Schlevogt claims, the most successful businesses in China are based on his Chinese management model, then it behoves any businessman in China to read this book with great care." (p. 134).

"Knowing how Chinese enterprises work, and how cooperation and competition with them is to be managed, is a useful tool in any businessman's kit, and the book offers many useful guidelines in that direction". (p. 134)

All quotations from:

Book review by Michael Ashkenazi. 2004. The art of Chinese management: Theory, evidence and applications. Asian Business & Management. Vol. 3, No. 1 (March), pp. 131-134.

2. QUOTATIONS FROM "ASIA PACIFIC BUSINESS REVIEW"

"Professor Schlevogt has put together a comprehensive guide to Chinese management. The book is one of the most important works written on the subject. Academics, students, and practitioners will find the text intriguing, inspiring, and informative."

"Much of the strength of the book comes from a writing style that integrates academic reasoning with journalistic writing. I have greatly enjoyed reading the many eye-catching textual highlights that appear throughout the text, like 'China is the ultimate test ground for leadership skills and a company?s ability to excel in other nonstructured situations? If you can make it here, you can make it anywhere!'"

"The book offers many useful managerial implications (see ?The Ten Golden Rules?, p. 209-237). The discussions, though brief, about the key success factors in different regions (p. 242-245) are particularly valuable. ?The government is king in the north? (p. 243) and ?Networks are the name of the game in the south? (p. 244) are among Schlevogt?s advice for succeeding in the Chinese market."

All quotations from:

Book review by Fang, Tony. 2003. The art of Chinese management: Theory, evidence, and applications (by Kai-Alexander Schlevogt, Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2002. xiii, 398 pp.), Asia Pacific Business Review, 10(1): 112-114.

The author seems to have no idea of real practical management and intercultural issues of China today. Moreover he uses a very academic, abstract way to explain his quiet strange assumtions how to handle management issues in China.

The author seems to have no idea of real practical management and intercultural issues of China today. Moreover he uses a very academic, abstract way to explain his quiet strange assumtions how to handle management issues in China.

This is a repositioning of Dr. Schlevogt's dissertation (published by dissertation.com) and also available on amazon.com. The great bulk of this book, including data and theory dates from 1999.

The book covers some interesting theoretical ground and applies contingency theory or understanding "fit" between success in China and organizational structure.

It would have been nice if some of the implications for success were developed further -- indeed, the advise given, such as "adaptability", should prove successful for organizations anywhere, not necessarily Chinese! Yet, the author also argues that this idea of adaptability is one that has been exported from China to the West! Also contingency theory is almost a dead avanue of study. The author's use of cross-sectional surveys is even more questionable as the book looks at change.

One thing I found disturbing is that the author took several concepts from "New Asian Emperors", (Haley, Tan and Haley, 1998), include action-driven decision-making and experience-based planning, yet gave no credit to this classic study of Overseas Chinese business practices. Indeed, many of the author's management ideas are presented far better in this book!

This book also appears schizophrenic, swaying wildly between gushing about China's great contribution to Western philosophy, and attempts at a more academic tone with data and statistics. I found self-congratulatory statements such as "These findings allow for groundbreaking, statistical generalizations previously unknown in the field" particularly irritating. It would have been helpful if the author had been more honest, or more thorough, in the presentation of his literature survey.

Pass on this book. I would recommend John Child or George Haley as alternative auhors who cover the same terrain with less gushing, more practical implications and a more balanced approach.

This book is a nice companion to the more comprehensive "International Job Finder: Where the Jobs are Worldwide." While "International Job Finder" provides everything you could want to know about where to find jobs around the globe via the Internet and in print, the value of "International Jobs" rests in the in-depth information it provides about hundreds of international employers. "International Job Finder" is a lot more candid about how to stay safe overseas these days while "International Jobs" pretty much glosses over the risks in overseas work. But between them, the two books cover just about everything you need to know for a successful international job search.

I dont know why amazon forgot to include them here - anyway: the reader's reviews of the 5th ed. of this book speak for themself ...
Check it out yourself.
Also, it is rather interesting that Nina Segal - according to the "editorial" review - never ever worked abroad. (That sounds a little bit like Condi and George W. telling the rest of the world how to fight terrorism and introduce democracy ...)

This book is awful. As said below, see the reviews of the 5. edition if you don't believe me. As an American who has permanently immigrated abroad and has had to work through the cultural hardships and bureaucracy in Russia, Germany, and the United Kingdom I can say from personal experience that this book can at best be called naive. They take the typical N. American point of view that you can get on anywhere with english, they assume that the american resume will work in every country (it won't...in the UK the format is different (CV) and in other countries like Germany you have to write in a different format and in german), they give no information about how working in any of these countries is different both culturally and in respect to the working laws, and the jobs that they do list are low level jobs that no one would ever work in for more than a year (teach english abroad, volunteer work, etc.).

If you are looking for a job abroad, first off learn the language of the country you want to work in. Then go to or call the embassy and ask them about the working laws and what you have to do to get a visa. After that start sending out local formatted CVs to companies in the country, but under any circumstances do NOT buy this book.

Nina Segal's update of the late Eric Kocher's work provides a helpful guide for international job-seekers. From a bewildering array of options, Segal breaks career paths down by sector (media, finance, government, international organizations, NGOs and non-profits, law firms) and provides advice on the type of experience and qualifications that can help you get a foot in the door at these complex employers.

This is not a book about finding work abroad! Nor does it try to be a comprehensive index of every employer with international operations or a foreign focus. Rather, it's a starting point for a career path with big employers such as the United Nations, the US State Department, the Associated Press, the World Bank, Citigroup, and Human Rights Watch. The book focuses on the information you'd need to find an entry-level to mid-level job at companies and organizations with strong international components to their work. This latest edition adds a host of web links facilitating further research.

Segal is a human resources consultant at the UN, and previously headed the career services office at Columbia University's School of International and Public Affairs. She has spent years studying and guiding successful international careers. "International Jobs" is a succinct distillation of what she's learned. While it could be improved, the book really is in a field of its own, and very useful for anyone seeking a path to a cosmopolitan career and life. "International Jobs" has helped me in my career, and I regularly refer to it when asked for career advice.

This book has little value except as a very elementary introduction to intercultural encounter. As the cover illustration suggests, Axtell points out some of the large number idioms that flavor the speech (and writing) of Americans. For someone who has never tried to bridge a cultural gap, such awareness is an important first step. For everyone else, the book is only a light read, good for stretches of an international flight when the movie isn't interesting and you can't fall asleep. The entire third chapter is devoted to amusing errors made by Americans when speaking English.

The only serious analysis comes near the end of the last chapter when Axtell outlines four levels of language proficiency: 100-word level, courtesy level, survival level, and near fluency (which he sagely suggests requires six months of living in a foreign culture in addition to classroom study).

As several reviewers have stated, this book is far too superficial in its description of other cultures. But there is a bigger problem: the very notion of "taboos" is a holdover from the 19th century attitude that foreign cultures are inherently dangerous -- a misstep might get you eaten by a cannibal, for example. However, TV has made people around the globe aware of other cultures, even if the viewers live in areas so remote that Americans and other foreigners (from their viewpoint) rarely if ever set foot there. This means most of humanity already knows that differences exist and therefore everyone has some degree of tolerance for unfamiliar behaviors.

Even books that focus on a single culture (in contrast to Axtell's scattered attempt to introduce many cultures) usually fail to go deeper that listing a bunch of warnings. Perhaps intercultural communication guides sell better by scaring readers into thinking that a single misstep could blow a billion dollar deal that was about to be clinched. Nevertheless, diplomats, entrepreneurs, and long-time expatriates generally recognize that finding common ground between cultures is at least as essential as respecting differences. Common sense is important, too: don't get angry, listen attentively, etc.

Do's and Taboos of Using English Around the World is primarily written with the international business traveler in mind, but it is also useful for teachers and students of English as a foreign language. Indeed, the book is written in such a simple and entertaining style as to make it appealing to just about anyone remotely interested in language or travel. It is divided into three sections. The first part deals with the idiosyncrasies of American English, the second part with English varieties around the world, and the last part, which makes up over half of the book, with helpful advice on becoming a global communicator. If you are a native English speaker, then the first two sections of this book may not be that interesting, as much of what is said may already be known to you. As an English teacher, I found the latter part of the book to be the most useful because of its coverage of the subtle differences in English communication throughout the world. Of course, this book is not serious reading if you are a linguist or a scholar, but Axtell does a fine job of offering good advice to any newcomer to Japan, my home for the past ten years. If I were to complain about this book, I would say that some of his anecdotes are a little bit contrived and others rather dull. Also, the grocer's apostrophe in the book's title; are we going to get rid of it or quote it in a later edition in the series?

Axtell's capsule treatments of various cultures are too superficial for all but the most oblivious travelers. In his attempt to include a multitude of countries and customs, nothing gets decent coverage. Though it's doubtful anyone would expect a book about using English to serve as a foreign-language phrasebook, the brief appendix tries to do just that, contributing to the book's scattershot feel.

The Church Lady seems to have ghostwritten five pages of Chapter 5, where we are informed of the Canadians' "special heritage," Quebecers' "special pride in their ethnic heritage," and Australians' "special brand of coined and abbreviated words," not to mention their "special brand of lingo."

This book is for you if you're an after-dinner speaker who needs cute anecdotes about language and cultural snafus, or if lists of misstatements like "Our Father who art in heaven, Howard be thy name," send you into convulsions of laughter. But it's not essential travel reading.