Strategy

If you're looking for an accessible, casual introduction to the subject, look elsewhere (I highly recommend David Bird's _Bridge Squeezes for Everyone_). It's also not suitable for beginning players. This is a book for serious study but is well worth the effort.

This book is divided into three important sections: the big picture, recruiting, and retention. In Part One, How Employers of Choice are Winning the Talent Wars, the three chapters focus on Learning from Employers of Choice, Employer of Choice Foundation Strategies, and Building and Communicating a Top Employer Reputation. These writings present a good overview and insight into how Employers of Choice are operating. The orientation is to understand what these companies are doing, rather than a how-to approach. There is a lot to learn here.

The second part, Creative Strategies for Recruiting Top Talent, offers the readers four chapters, starting with How Employers of Choice are Redesigning Recruitment. The next chapter, Only You Will Do, has a little more instructional tone, but still primarily takes a third person view. This chapter concludes with a helpful Orientation Checklist. Chapter 6, Surfing for Recruiting Results Online does provide a healthy amount of how-to. While this field is changing almost daily, there is a lot of value here for the reader. Plenty of website domains are included. The last chapter in this section, Finding New Hires in Unlikely Places, is filled with good ideas. Here I felt a lot more of the how-to I was looking for.

The third section is entitled Comprehensive Strategies for Retaining Top Performers. Here the chapters are titled Understanding Why Employees Leave; Managing and Leading for Retention; Retrain, Develop, and Profit; and New Compensation and Benefits Strategies. There is a lot of value in these chapters-lots of ideas and perspectives. An exit interview guide will be helpful to those companies that have not taken advantage of this tool. The author seems to really hit her stride in providing ideas for readers in this section. The same holds for her conclusion, Becoming an Employer of Choice.

The book is well-written, filled with valuable information for the reader. The solid chapters are supplemented with a good resource guide and an index. I'd recommend this book for company owners, senior executives, and human resource professionals. As an ethical reviewer, I must share with you that I am co-author of "How to Become an Employer of Choice," a competing title in the same field. With that perspective, I would be quite comfortable recommending my clients read "Competing for Talent" as a supplement to my book.

I recommend this book unreservedly.

One of the most enjoyable facets of The Compleat Strategyst is J.D. Williams's entertaining writing style. He seems to know the kind of people reading his book (non-mathematicians who think they might be able to apply game theory to their own work - in my case anyway), and the text is taylored to that audience. In addition, while making the subject matter of game theory accessible strictly through arithmatic, the author provides fair reminders that a great deal of actual mathmatics is being swept beneath the rug.

After so many years of increasing violence in the public schools, most of us need no convincing to believe this is a vital issue that =must= be dealt with. Though this well-laid-out guide is written with the school teacher mostly in mind, I would not just recommend it for teachers. No anti-bullying program can begin in any school without the administration, teachers and parents working together. So it is important, whichever of these categories you fall into, to know what is in this book.

In the context of the current books that are out there on this subject, this one is excellent and makes a very useful contribution. However, since there are, sadly, so relatively few books out on this subject, to anyone seriously researching this subject, it is highly recommended that you read not just this book, but all the other books currently available (most of which are for sale here on Amazon).

Brickhill balances the story between the technology and the human. All of 617 come across as sterling chaps, which is to be expected. I was surprised that the writing in this book did not seem dated, considering when it was written.

While not really 'faults' there are some 'less than perfections': while Cochrane, Wallis, Gibson and Chester all are clear and memorable characters (these are major players in the book), many other characters get the occasional mention here and there that leaves you wondering 'And which one was he?' This is also a book aimed a people with military knowledge. Therefore if a reader is not completely au fait with military terms (or fortunate enough to have someone nearby who is, like I was) you may occasionally feel a bit clueless. And after the last major action of the book - the sinking of the Tirpitz - the book seems to lose its edge (though the epilogue is a very good roundup of what happened to whom). But overall this is an entertaining read by a great writer about an exciting story. Not just for World War II flying buffs.