economics-times

Collaboratively written by professional non-profit organization fundraiser Harry A. Freedman and Florida-based journalist Karen Feldman, The Business Of Special Events: Fundraising Strategies For Changing Times is a step-by-step guidebook that effectively instructs the reader in every step of organizing a successful fundraising effort in today's technological era. Individual chapters specifically address how to create a balanced budget; secure corporate sponsorship; maintain accurate records; get serviceable publicity; provide food, beverages, and entertainment at fundraising gatherings; and more. A wealth of practical tips, tricks, and techniques make The Business Of Special Events a top-notch and highly recommended resource.

I purchased this book several years ago and I still refer to it whenever I am planning a special event. Freedman & Feldman provide a guide that literally lays the groundwork for conducting a successful special event (I hope that is not a Kent Dove title). Every subject from selecting the right event to post-event evaluation is covered in this resource.

Great pains are taken to illustrate the areas discussed and tips abound throught the book. I found the samples of event materials particularly useful in gaining an understanding of some of the principles that are illustrated.

The Business of Special Events is a must have edition to your library. A great resource for volunteers, chairpersons, staff and Board. I completly agree with George R. Reis, Editor, Fundraising Management when he says "When other writers discuss special events, they often quote Harry Freedman. This book is the final word on the subject."

Time is the currency of the New Economy because time earned has "money value." Make time pay for you! The organizations that succeed in managing time effectively will reap its rewards: time earned to grow the business, create new products, or enable your network of people to be at their best.

In Mark Ellwood's A Complete Waste of Time, the secrets of time management unfold before us with renewed verve. Tips and techniques are intermingled with time trivia and poetic inspiration. This book is for the organization who's employees just can't manage to keep up and don't know where to turn to, or for those of us who need a refresher.

Within the first few pages Mark's delightful tales begin to entertain and amuse. A Complete Waste can be read in one sitting or a chapter at a time. You'll find yourself picking up a pen and jotting down some ideas on time earned from meetings, delegation, networking, and that all too time consuming obligation, travel. A Complete Waste is the source for knowledge when it comes to profit from time.

If laughter is the best medicine, then learning the lessons in "A Complete Waste of Time" will be absolutely pain-free.

As a Professional Organizer, this was the first book I read on the subject of time management. Mark Ellwood's humourous take on the subject made it very easy to learn and understand his techniques and I gained a great deal of insight into the field of time management. This was not only personally beneficial, but it has also helped a great deal in assisting my clients with their time-management struggles.

Thanks Mark !

I've been in hospital middle-management for more than 20 years. Very early in this book, Sherman states that the reason why hospitals fail is because of bad management. Not the government, not the insurance companies, not the high cost of technology. He offers a terrific approach and identifies the need to totally change how hospitals are run, based on seven Key Result Areas. His principles are quite similar to those of Jack Welch - the importance of great people, integrity, and "the customer is king". This should be required reading for every CEO and department head in every American hospital.

V. Clayton Sherman has written a wonderful dissertation about how the hospital system in this country is run. He also gives a wonderful blueprint of how to correct one of the most mismanaged businesses in the country. The hospital system today is struggling under HEAVY regulatory and monetary restrictions. But if these regulations had been in place from the beginning, like the banking industry, the participants wouldn't be running around like "chickens with their heads cut off" to fulfill "minimum standards" of Joint Commission and other like entites. What the industry desperately needs is a complete overhaul. Mr. Sherman gives the plan to follow in redoing the management of this industry, by throwing out the antiquated notions of management, and starting from the ground up to rebuild on a customer satisfaction driven premise. He sites Wal-Mart and how Sam Walton's idea of keeping the customer number one would work well in the hospital too....but this would require some different rules and some very different thinking. I strongly feel this should be REQUIRED reading for ALL hospital management!

Business people and hobbyists alike have found the Internet to be a goldmine of a place for buying and selling, marketing and promoting, and for gathering and sharing information. There is much to search for online but not everyone has the time and resources available to conduct adequate research. D.A. Smith-Hemphill has written CyberAssistant: How to Use the Internet to Get More Done in Less Time to help other members of the online community to make the most effective use of the time and resources they do have.

The book focuses primarily upon getting set up with an online account and computer equipment, developing research methodology, and making use of the navigational tools people should be using for their searches. Smith-Hemphill discusses how to search for ISP services, setting up browsers and computer equipment, getting along with others, using search engines, making use of the newsgroups and discussion groups, tapping into specialized databases, and how we should go about looking for information.

Smith-Hemphill takes netiquette seriously and her treatment reflects a high standard of behavior still found lacking online. She points out that because we communicate online electronically, people we interact with know us only by how we communicate with them using a mouse and keyboard. Readers will learn how to make good impressions the first time and every time when replying to e-mail, participating in online discussions, following respectable acceptable use policies, correct spelling and use of grammar, our choice of words, and other proper key strokes.

Search engines play an important role in conducting online research. Smith-Hemphill discusses use of the major search engines that help us find the information we look for. Selection of key words, phrases, and other character strings are among the topics covered. A selection of other helpful Websites will assist readers to track down essential information online and help them develop solid research skills.

One fascinating aspect about this book is worth mentioning. Smith-Hemphill encourages her readers to learn from their online research experiences. The documenting of various research methods, procedures, and other helpful tricks and tips can go a long way to enhance our long-range effectiveness - and careers. This is an important process every member of the online community should learn to do!

The book reads easy and is highly informative. The average business owner, employee, researcher, student, and hobbyist will find it very helpful and easy to follow. This book would make a great addition to any business, classroom, and library environment with online connectivity. This is a great gift idea. Ideal for beginners!

This is a clear, concise, and complete guide to the use of the internet. The book is packed with information applicable to persons at various levels of skill. Following the logical presentation of information, novices should be working confidently on the internet within a short time. As a more advanced user, I was able to strengthen my knowledge of the internet in general. I also picked up many useful tips and the addresses of some useful web sites which I had not previously come across. The style of writing and the layout make "CyberAssistant" especially easy to read.

This book is a fantastic reference guide for any busy mom! Most helpful are the tips on keeping a well run household when you haven't got much time to get everything done.

This is an absolute must-have. I learned (and am still learning) a lot from this book. Think of it as having your own personal mentor and cheerleader on your nightstand!

SHORT CUTS and HOW TO's. Everyone must read this if you are the head of the household, in that mom-sort-of-way. I think anyone starting out would especially appreciate this book. It teaches basics such as how to sort laundry the best way to cleaning shortcuts. I have only read a few chapters so far, but enjoy every minute reading it when I have the chance. Everyone will learn something from this book! Thanks Kathy!

After reading Koch's "80/20 Principle", I was convinced that he's a mind of his own. His non-conform thinking and writing is extraordinary. Had I only read this book on Strategy before entering my MBA, business school life would have been much easier. Koch's book on strategy is a foundation book, covering the crucial basics for "understanding" business strategy (roughly 80%). It helps espcially the student of strategy not to get (too) confused by providing basic understanding what business stratetgy is all about. The chapters:

INTRODUCTION Koch states wonderfully the use and abuse of strategy and the swings in strategic thinking.

BUSINESS UNIT STRATEGY A do-it-yourself guide with excellent examples.

CORPORATE STRATEGY Very critical Mr Koch argues about the value creation of corporate strategy.

STRATEGIC THINKERS A guide to some of the most useful and important 40 strategic thinkers and their ideas.

STRATEGIC CONCEPTS, TOOLS AND TECHNIQUES An A-Z glossary. The key words (or rather Consulting & MBA buzzwords)used in the world of strategy.

STRATEGIC SHIFTS IN THE 21 CENTURY Forward lookin Koch claims that the tools of strategy are particular valuable for understanding and exploiting shifts of increasing returns, networks, and the net in our new century.

Are you a MBA student? Management scholar? If yes, then this book is definitely for you. The book is not meant for everyday management decision makers because it lacks practical insight. But the theory side is excellent. The author of renown "80/20 principles" has written a good outline of strategic management theories through decades as well as about the latest developments in this area. In the introductory part he gives an overview about overall theoretical background of the subject starting from the teachings of Igor Ansoff. In the first part of the analysis goes mainly around book business unit strategy drawing parallels to BCS-s and Porter's positioning methodology. In the second part the attention is given to various possibilities of corporate strategy. The third part gives an alphabetic overview of all the main strategic thinkers. The fourth part speaks about main concepts, methodologies and techniques used in strategic planning process. The final fifth chapter tries to predict the future of the strategic planning by analysing the latest developments in this area.

A brilliant book written by experts around the world. Highly recommended

To claim that this book makes a launchpad for any MBA - as does the cover's blurb - is to undersell the unique value of this book which culls the best executive teachings from London Business School, Wharton and IMD. Senior managers who keep this book as closely on-hand as their favourite dictionary will find that it provides an excellent conversation opener with almost every expert function/department they encounter organisation-wide and beyond that with networks of partners in their industry's globalising relationships. Trust and loyalty leadership need to be earned and communicated, both globally and locally, and all across the stakeholder spectrum from fussy end-consumers to purposeful organisational investors. The book starts with a rousing call - by Ross Webber - to learn to be personally capable of interacting in interdisciplinary processes if you want to have a leadership future in the post-industrial knowledge-creation revolution which is also tomorrow's gateway to doing business. When you try out - or review - this book you can derive profitable fun in two ways : 1) cheering some of the brilliant summary contributions (usually a maximum of 5 pages) in areas you have expert knowhow in; 2) observing some of the most personally valuable door-openers to learning organisation which you may not have previously known you needed. You could then swap your need-to-know priorities with others you dialogue with either physically in the next office or virtually around the world via Internet or intranet .............................................................................................................................................. Five articles I loudly cheer coming from my own knowledge base are: 1) Tim Ambler's relationship of paradigm of branding offers a vital counterforce to marketing misunderstandings that short-term leaders make. In pursuit of growing the world's most valuable property rights, the marketer needs to measure progress by measuring the (loyalty) state of relationships between the brand and its customers and significant "influence agents". A company cannot competently learn to organise this integrated marketing purpose unless its leaders recognise why financial valuation of brands is invalid. 2) George Day clarifies how effective learning processes in market-driven firms depend on : open-minded inquiry; widespread information distribution; mutually informed mental models; accessible organisational memory. His Wharton colleague Jerry Wind provides a 12-question checklist for working out how successful 21st century marketing will be practised organisation-wide. 3)Rob Goffee details cultural requirements for internal marketing teamwork in glocally sensitive companies. For example, my experience echos these critical success enablers for high performance international teamwork : start slowly, end faster; use help to facilitate group skills; constantly encourage total participation; surface and address differences; build in time to discuss and review team processes. 4) Donald Marchand explains why marketing companies' attempts to leverage change in our coming informational era will be still born unless architects of a company's learning capabilities evolve a suitable mix of four common information cultures in companies today : functional, sharing, inquiry and discovery. 5) Howard Perlmutter confirms that the new corporate ideal of global civilisation is not an option, but the responsibility falls on today's generation of business people to shape it. His research dramatises cross-cultural and networking incompetences such as : unwillingness to update, vacillating commitment, sending the wrong people, picking the wrong partners, and failure to manage conflicting expectations of stakeholders............................. Five articles I cheer next in growing the interpersonal skills/language I need to be more fluent in as a coach/charterer of marketing learning organisation: 1) Chris Higson questions standard accounting measurements of performance (eg ROCE), and shows where they fail to serve directors responsible for investing in a company's future 2) Jack Wood discusses why we - who wish to be better managers or wiser individuals - need to understand organisational behaviour at an interdisciplinary level. The alternative is to keep on making decisions which ignore the deeper social and psychological patterns within human behaviour, and whose final result is the opposite of what we intend. 3) With Thomas Colosi, Jack Wood charter why negotiation should be regarded as a subtle art, or process with many iterations. The rules in any negotiation must themselves be negotiated from the outset. As a process, negotiation is an exchange of promises and commitments. This is framed by the degree of trust between the parties; building that trust (especially in non-Western cultures) lessens the inherent risk in human relationships. The negotiator's job is to create doubts in the minds of others as to the viability of their positions. Managing expectation is also critical to this art. 4) Stephane Garelli explains how countries increasingly have two kinds of economy : 'proximity' (being close to the end-user) and 'globality' (exploiting different comparative advantages of nations) . Bringing them into balance is the secret to a truly competitive society. Nine other rules support this including: developing aggressiveness on international markets (exports etc) as well as attractiveness to foreign value-added industries; focusing on quality and speed in the conduct of administration and reforms; maintaining a relationship between wage levels, productivity and taxation; investing in education. 5) Johan Roos and George von Krogh introduce key tenets of epistemology, the field of science that deals with the creation of knowledge. Three powerful concepts in the domain of corporate epistemology are: a) self-reference - each of us carries our own unique frame of references which is the source of both group creativity and group confusion ; b) languaging - the process through which we both create new meaning and share meaning and frames of reference in language; c) when the same basic patterns of interaction re-occur at different scales within the company - individual, group, strategic business unit and so on. This is one of the key features of the most powerful knowledge-development processes and management systems ...... If you'd like to discuss particular articles in this book - either the ones you cheer as an expert or those you'd like to prioritise next for your own accelerated learning - contact me. I will aim to match you with others who have expressed a similar interest....................................... ................ Chris Macrae, editor Brand Chartering Handbook and MELNET www.brad.ac.uk/branding/ E-mail me at : wcbn007@easynet.co.uk

Tim Johnson's new book on job hunting seemed to be a good one so we ordered one for our granddaughter. She thought it so good that my brother ordered one for his son-in-law. Both books were shipped immediately and apprecated the books and the good service.

This is a great book to read to help you in the current situation in the job market. This is an excellent book that takes you through a series of simple execises to help you reach you goal of getting a job you are suited for. Easy reading and to the point no extra jargone to confuse you but simple steps to a simple goal of getting a job in tough times.

Can you not be compelled by a visionary author who opens this edition of his book with a review of the first edition, written in 1987! The 20-page new introduction and review is one of the most fascinating parts of the book. In a fairly modest way, not self-serving, Davis shows how most of his ideas have come to pass. Some are in still in development, and a couple of previous case studies have since flopped eg Sears one-stop-shop. But overall I thought it was a remarkable performance, and a key source of credibility for the book and the author. How many other business writers have put themselves to this same public test - not many that I know of, with the exception of Peter Drucker.

In 1987 Davis introduced concepts such as competing on speed, and mass customization. Today we accept that time has become intrinsic to business logic, and mass customization is now developing its own mass following. In this new edition he sticks with the powerful thinking tool he proposed earlier, namely that time, space and mass are fundamental dimensions of business. It is through exploring the extremes of this framework that new services and business models have eventuated. Davis shows us how to use that rather esoteric framework to help re-think our business. And I think very successfully, although it seems hard to grasp at first glance.

For example, we all take for granted the shrinkage of mass - miniaturisation. The thesis is that all core products will shrink, and the intangible component must grow for a business to remain sustainable. So we must extend our minds to take on the challenge of defining the knowledge-value in a mortgage or a pair of socks. The redistribution of product "space" will dramatically alter industries such as health care and education. Witness the advent of on-line training programs for computer skills, which can now result in Microsoft certified staff. Employees do these programs at work while doing their current jobs. And Microsoft's Encarta Learning Centre is another redistribution of educational product space.

Of course there are other books that cover the same ground as above. But this one is the seminal work, from a fundamental mental model. It has stood the test of a decade and is still completely current. And it has more - "organisations run by marketplace economics", "the misconception of having internal customers", "the business is not the organisation", "successful strategy self-destructs" etc.

I must comment on the one glaring anomaly that stands out in reviewing progress over the ten years from the first edition. It is the lack of progress in developing and implementing new organisations, and new ways of working together. This lack of change is astounding to me in the context of the other change that is framed by the book. As Davis remarks in his new preface "the organisational precepts are yet to come". For that reason alone I would recommend this book to every business leader.

Explores a broad range of ideas about organization and management based on the premise that time, space, and mass are fundamental dimensions of all businesses. A few of the ideas introduced are: mass customization, real-time organization, any time / any place organization, distinguishing between a business and its organization, and the shift to producing intangible products. Discusses the changing nature of the economy. Captures today's key trends for strategic thinking and organizational change. Recommended.

I happened to pick up this excellent book from a local library. It has everything I need to know about organizing my life in the tech era. It was written in a precise and straight forward language with selected amount of useful information. I have read quite a few books in organizing and technology management. This book amazingly covers most core principles in other books, and its texts are less than 150 pages.

Ms. Hedrick starts from simple decisions of purchasing/using PDA or a Cellular Phone, to sophisticated system of organizing your life with papers, electronic documents, as well as relationship with other people in term of staying in touch and sharing information. The progression of depth is very nicely planned.

When I think harder, I have found the concepts of this book are aligned with most 'new age' simplicity books. 'Get Organized' gives you every tool you need without the philosophical understandings. The steps and methodologies outline in this book are very easy to follow, and they are effective. If you want to
dig deeper with advanced techniques, this book has plenty of leads you can follow up with.

You can read 'Get Organized in the Digital Age' in an afternoon and reap the benefit of it for the rest of your life. Give it a try!

This book has taken much of my fear out of using technology for organizing my life. It is written in a very simple manner that even a non-tech like myself can understand. Every busy person in American (and beyond)will benefit from reading this book.