Strategy

Wolf J. Rinke, Ph. D., CSP, is a howling success in his promise to deliver "The 6 Success Strategies for Winning at Life, Love & Business" in his inspring book by that title. He lives up to his reputation as America's "Business Success Coach" and in addition proves his eminent qualifications as America's success coach on love and life. His stategies to make it a winning life will help anyone succeed faster. Of particular value in social and family relationships is Wolf's strategies on how "not to let negative persons and their ideas into your head, rent free." Wolf's six stategies for success provide insightful, inspirational, and practical tools that will help anyone achieve their dreams and achieve them fast.

I am a strong (A) player with a large library of quality books. I purchased this one to use in teaching my friends the joys of this ancient game without scaring them off with reams of variations. The beauty of this book is that it presents the most essential chess concepts in a manner that will not scare off newer students to the game. I especially enjoy how the book starts with the endings and tactics and then progresses to strategy.

I am a HUGE fan of Tarrasch's the Game of Chess and Lasker's famous Manual--however both of these works are quite verbose and will not foster a love from the game in most newbies. Get this book and use it to teach your friends how to play a solid game of chess. Get this and use it in combination with some of the classics (may I suggest art of the middlegame?) and begin the climb to expert status!

If you need a solid all round answer to 1 d4, 1 c4 and 1 Nf3 you may like the new kid on the block in openings - the a6 Slav. The range of possibilities is narrower (i.e. less to learn) than the more well-known Slav 4...dxc4 lines.

Home preparation may be your friend as your White opponent may not be able to devote as much time as you to a minor line against 1 d4. The opening has withstood the test of numerous top GM games over the last 10 years.

Glenn Flear patterns his book after the pleasing format of Matthew Sadler's excellent book: "The Slav." The chapters are organized according to White's various responses to 1 d4 d5 2 c4 c6 3 Nf3 Nf6 4 Nc3 a6. (Games that start with 1 c4 or 1 Nf3 are easily transposed to the a6 Slav.)

Each chapter has an introduction to the main ideas of that line followed by well annotated GM games. At the end is a summary and opening key.

"The a6 Slav" is new (published in 2003) so most of the theory and conclusions still hold. The latest games are through the end of 2002, so you will want to supplement this book with a6 Slav games from 2003 from Mega Database 2004 to stay abreast of the latest novelties.

"Is ABB a model for other organizations?...Indeed, Percy Barnevik does have particular views on this question. In an interview in India, he said: 'More and more companies will see the need to develop this multidomestic combination for global coordination. The big American companies used to have a domestic and an international division. You cannot have an international division. In my company, the word does not exist because if you are foreign, you are foreign everywhere. The whole meaning of being domestic or foreign has lost its meaning. When I am sitting here in India, I am not an Indian citizen, but I represent an Indian company just like I represent a Spanish company when I am in Spain'...Is ABB a model for nations?...Warren Bennis says: 'The ability to align, create, and empower will characterize successful leaders well into tht twenty-first century. But there is another theme that surfaces provocatively in some of the interviews..., most notably in the remarks of Percy Barnevik of ABB. That is the emergence of federation as the structure uniquely suited to balancing the seemingly incompatible drives toward global cooperation and the putting down of deep local roots. This paradox is evident in world politics, where intense ethnic and national identities coexist with the widespread recognition that new economic and political alliances must be forged outside one's borders'...So, what are the lessons that other organizations and managers facing the challenges of globalization can learn from ABB's experience so far? We think that there are many lessons that are both explicit and implicit throughout this book. However, we asked Percy Barnevik for his views. He says: 'I do not believe that you can mechanically copy what another company has done. ABB itself has several variations on its organization and management depending on products and customers...However, there are some general principles to learn from and adapt to your own business: the need to be global-local, big-small, and decentralized-central control' "(from the Introduction).

In this context, Kevin Barham and Claudia Heimer summarize their objectives in writing this book: document the story of the merger, ABB's growth and global expansion; catch more than a glimpse of the real story behind the company's ongoing success; raise some key questions for the future of ABB; highlight some lessons from ABB's experience for managers in other organizations facing international and global challenges. And thus they organize their book into three main parts:

I. The Birth of A Modern Giant - In this part, by telling the story of the two main partners-ASEA of Sweden and BBC of Switzerland, and by outlining Percy Barnevik's concepts regarding the strategy, structure, control mechanisms and people development of the newly merged/emerged company, they describe early days of ABB.

II. Giant Steps to the Globally Connected Corporation - In this part, by defining ABB as a 'globally connected corporation' (global and local, big and small, and radically decentralized with central reporting and control), they show the stages of global expansion.

III. Reaping the Harvest - In this part, they look at the organization a decade after the merger to find out how the masterplan has worked out to date and at how ABB has started to reap the harvest resulting from all the hard work it has put into building its structure and implementing its strategy. And they also focus on CEO Goran Lindahl and his priorities for ABB in the future-innovation in human resources and information technology.

Finally, end of this invaluable study, they list 15 giant steps to a global organization. I briefly summarize these steps as follows:

1. You don't need to have all the answers when trying to achieve change on such grand scale as the ABB merger.

2. Decentralization to profit centres around the world is the key to creating an entrepreneurial mindset.

3. Stay close to customers around the world during a merger to reassure them and not lose market share.

4. Don't delude yourself that you can forecast the future-you can only see breaks in trend lines, and you won't always see those.

5. Understand which parts of the business are more global and which are more local and act accordingly.

6. Multiculturalism is not an ethical issue, it is a practical business need.

7. Set challenging targets, but don't keep changing the formal organization.

8. Communicate, communicate, communicate to 'fire people up'-even at the risk of competitors listening.

9. Globalization requires transparency and connectivity accross time zones and geography.

10. Every manager, including the CEO, should aim to have two to three succession candidates ready at all times.

11. You don't necessarily need lots of global managers-not everybody has to be global-but you do require a pool of cross-culturaly capable people from which you can draw your global managers.

12. Results-oriented learning on the job gives management development credibility and makes line management take responsibility for developing people.

13. Don't assume that all your organizational values are fully applicable across the world.

14. Keep it practical. Concepts are only 5 per cent of the building of a global organization. Execution and the ability to engage people around the world are 95 per cent.

15. Long-term shareholder value is the ultimate measurement of performance in a global company.

Highly recommended.

This book should be on the desk of every policymaker ! As a deacon in the Roman Catholic Church I would also hope that deacons, animators of justice and peace in the local Church, would read and ponder this difficult and complex problem. After 20 years of my own study of the problem of war and peace in the nuclear age, with the end of the Cold War, there seemed to have emerged more questions than answers for myself and others.

This collection of essays gives the reader insight into the multilayered complexity of what to do with nuclear weapons, how useful are they, and what can we do to get rid of them in the future. I was impressed by the depth of the essays from each of the contributors, even when I disagreed with some of the assumptions or conclusions. This book forces one to wrestle with the unfinished agenda of human survival and thrival. As a Christian theologian, the ethical argument opposing nuclear weapons forces one to grapple with the complexity of this issue as an act of love. It is a struggle directed to understanding this seemingly unsolvable problem and the possibilities for living in a more just and peaceful world. This cannot be accomplished without knowing something of the world and problem of nuclear weapons. This book offers a superb overview of this most important and vexing dilemma at this time in human history. We cannot hope to secure some level of peace and justice without study and discussion of the emerging constellation of problems and developments surrounding this issue. This book helps us to understand.

I found the techniques used in these recordings to align mind and body very effective. Simply put, they work, and can be applied to other aspects of one's life than just the game of golf. I've shared them with golfing friends who have also reported similar reactions. Heartily recommended.

How does a corporation possibly apologize for spilling thousands of gallons of oil in to the oceans? Sticky situations such as this are the subject of Dr. Benoit's work "Accounts, Excuses and Apologies." The book offers a fascinating view of the range of options that are available to individuals and groups who find themselves in the position of facing the public and having to say the hardest words ever, "I'm Sorry." Dr. Benoit's book offers the macrocosm which is applicable to everyone's microcosm in the world of accounts, excuses and apology.

I read Hubbard's book while on the plane. I expected to put it down and get some shut eye but I couldn't. The book has five case studies in it and it was morbid fascination that kept me reading how badly several of these acquisitions went wrong. The tips and tools were excellent, much better than the marketing material that some of the other consulting firms have released in the name of M&A books. Although it is a British book, it translates well into American situations. I bought it because my boss told me that we had just bought a business; anyone in the same situation should do the same.

This text is used by many instructors to provide technical structure to their course curriculum. The topics and content are well organized and provide a solid foundation to first time topic introduction, procedures, and guidelines.

I've read this book when it was first published and know the author personally. If you are interested in the book and want contact information, just email me anytime. Thanks! I can even help Amazon.com get the book.