economics-times

The book is interesting, but if you are looking for a good book about the warehousing I'd recommend another one. It is the right book if you don't know anything of warehouses and facilities.
This book spends a lot of pages in the Appendix (50%).
Futhermore the regulations are USA ones, so if you don't live in the USA you don't need to know them.
Order this item if you are a novice and order another if you are a logistics executive.

Great for the novice
I was new to the warehouse management and looking for a book to teach me and guide me through the topics, this book did so. The most important feature of the book are the forms, plus you can grab them out of the Plastic Comb an use them right away. The author gives an overview of the warehouse operations and how to handle them for excellence. With this book I took the Inventory Record Accuracy from 20% to 95% in four months, a must for those new to the warehouse operations and standards.
The chapters are as follows:
1.Inventories: Their importance to Business today
2.Warehouse, Leasing, and Storages Cost
3.Logistics Services and Outsourcing Potentials
4.Selecting a Third Party Service Provider
5.Warehousing Operations: Delivery and Storage
6.Other Warehouse Operations
7.The Compliance Manual
8.Performance Standards and Audits
9.Pricing Warehouse Services, Quotations, and Contracts
10.Bar Coding and EDI
11.Packaging: Containers and Methods

12.Liability, Claims and Insurance
Appendixes

Any of us who love horology and want to learn more will be very disappointed by this book.

It is very broadly based with virtually no supporting technical detail and numerous techical errors.

For example it states that a pin lever watch has fewer moving parts than a jeweled lever...

She freqeuently refered to Landes book but he in addition to being a respected academic is an enthusuastic collector.

...This book has no grabbing technical detail, not even enough to justify the sweeping economic statements she makes.

To her credit she pointed out some trends and aspects of national markets I had not understood but it is tough going even for someone already deeply interested in this subject.

Related to the author's previous work, Manufacturing Time reviews economic history and regional development for an industry with over 300 years of change.

The book focuses on shifting supplier trends in the last two centuries of consumer watch making, an obviously mature industry that will continue in some form. Various nations have fared well while they have held some technical or popular advantage, but have had trouble responding to industry internal and external forces that change the game. The book explores how players, who were once swift and strong winners, become slow and ponderous losers, dragging down entire economic communities. Demonstrated life cycles within watch manufacturing are instructive regarding general business management, industrial organization and policy.

This book is not worth the money you spend on it. Out of twenty inputs, there are only two training ideas that are worth any time reviewing. And, the last twenty pages have one question per page to use as icebreakers. You could search the web and find more effective training techniques.

I was so lucky to see Lynn train one time. She just blew me away. The training world will miss her. Don't miss this book if you do any one on one. Clear, concise and readable

This book is basically all sample resumes, which I don't find very helpful. It is probably better to tell someone how to write a good resume than give them a bunch of examples and tell them to copy them. So if you just want examples and about 7 pages of writing go for it otherwise, not worth it.

If you have never wrote your resume (vitae), this book offers you a lot of examples that would give you an idea of what format and contents are good for your case. The "theory" is shown in a few pages. Just to tell you what you should write and avoid, including a list of verbs to help you writing.

There are also some examples of cover letters that I found useful. They show you the style, length and other features of these documents.

You would think that four stars may be too high if you have read other books on this subject, but I took only this book and it was enough for me: I was called for an interview. I am not giving five stars because I have not compared the book with any other.

Lincoln's previous book, Japan's Unbalanced Trade was written in 1990, but the way he constantly blurbs it in Troubled Times you would think it's the sequel. Never the less, Troubled Times (Brookings, 1999) builds on Lincoln's theme of a Japan that shortchanges its trading partners through protectionist measures, both lawful and structural.

The first half of Troubled Times is a mind-numbing malaise of number crunching. It's Lincoln at his best (or worst), presenting a litany of charts and graphs,accompanied by similarly disinterested text, that intimidates the reader. It compels him/her to meekly nod in agreement with his findings.

Lincoln summons the economic gods of Intra-Industry Trade, comparison pricing, Direct Investment (foreign and domestic)in order to make his points, at one time proclaiming:As the yen appreciated rapidly from 1993 to 1994, retailors did not adjust prices continuously(69). Interesting!

Yet, while Lincoln uses these numbers to blatantly intimidate and convince his reader of Japan's unfair trade practices (really, not trading enough), as well as its impact upon Japan's consumers, he also charges Japan with having a poor rural infrastructure ("What company would want to invest in a developed country where there are no flush toilets at home?"), and a "multi-layered " economy that acts as a non-tariff barrier. He dedicates more than a few pages to Japan's modern business culture, especially Japan's Amukadari (literally "descending from heavan") and keiretsu business relationships that make it difficult for foreign companies to establish in Japan, and promotes, in general, an inefficient system.

However, Lincoln's premise throughout is that Japan is developed, modern country. Which leads one to the question, how can an inefficient country, with poor rural infratructure, and an awkward (unique) business climate be considered mature, especially when you're comparing it to the ultimate hegemonic power?

Granted, Mr. Lincoln makes some exellent points that are well-taken. But, there is point at whihc one must stop and consider the situation. Japan, while light years ahead of Asian economies, has much of its development grounded in the post-war era. Despite the fact it was rebuilt by America, one cannot assume it IS America and compare it as so.

"Troubled Times" is a highly informative account of Japan's economy by a former employee of the US embassy in Tokyo. Some of the statistical material in chapter 2 would probably not pass muster with professional economists, but the description of bilateral trade negotiations between the US and Japan is the best around. Recommended reading for whomever takes office in January 2001.

Just because this book was written to justify Arthur Anderson's best practices business doesn't mean it's not useful! Mike Hronec does a good job of making a case for developing appropriate performance measurements and sketches an outline for a robust process to get you there. Actually putting the plan into action is another story. Nonetheless, corporate controllers should read this book, if only to promote thinking about how effective their organizations' performance measures are in improving performance. Adam Lefton (adamleft@webspan.net)

I think this book has the potential to be a New York Times #1 Bestseller if it would only change the subject matter completely.

If there is any valuable information in this book, it is not in the first 100 pages, which was all I could bear to read. The first 100 pages were a string of anecdotes concerning notable financial advisors who made woefully bad investments, but the author, despite the title of his book, included precious little explanation of WHY they invested as they did.

I came across this book in the '70s and it has been my secret weapon in the markets ever since. I was looking at it this morning because I had just recommended it to a late night symposium of investment writers. Unless this '91 edition is radically changed, Scheinman puts the all-too-human flesh back on the ugly skeleton of technical analysis. That means that underneath the drollery and abounding ironies, you are gently led to understand the war of money and emotions behind, say, a "triple top." Indeed, the Zen of Scheinman's concept is in the title.

Initially I bought the book while on vacation just to read something, and ended up using it as part of a People Management Program that I implemented in my department in order to improve the work life balance. It has ideas and suggestions very easy to implement, that you can execute very quick and get good results: ideas that you can communicate in a few lines and get a big impact. Buy it, it's worth.

Please provide brief bios of these two authors.

Author David Lee brings out a number of important points in his book: 1. Its not good enough to be good, you must become exceptional, the Wow factor. Lee runs through the basic: 1. Be fast 2. Be Flexible 3. Be Friendly 4. Be a fixer 5. Be a followuper 6. Be fun. Story after story, book after book references, Lee hammers home these basic principles. However, Lee provides a bright gem in the middle of his book, as he states, the customer does not think of the customer service representative as a person, they think of the rep as the company. Wow, Lee understands the key to outstanding services: 1. Get the customer service rep to believe the represent the company 2. Impower the customer service rep with power and access to authority to fix problems 3. Help the customer service rep understand their role as crucial to "Company Growth" Customer service costs to a company are crushing. Large portions of profits are gobbled up in consumer expenses.

Lee doesn't talk much about "Self Service" systems. More and more, customer service costs can be reduced by reducing the number of employees needed in the consumer customer service force by increasing the use of technology and allowing the customer the ability to "self service" their problem. Using a series of questions and answers an expert conclusions can be derived saving human interaction time to the same equivalent answers and derived conclusions.

Using fast technology, online service agreements, easy to pullup contractual terms, and getting support capability must be managed from consumer demand and interaction. The consumer will spend the time to register, describe, and request help. The idea is to reduce the amount of time between request and service. Basically stated, solve the problem, solve it right, and solve it fast. This means saving money. The less human interaction required, the better, because less customer service time means more cost savings per customer rep. If the problem is not resolved immediately, the company will discover consumer abandonment and migration to competitors who will services them faster, better, and cheaper return them to a stable status. The quality of customer service is the single most important factor in maintaining loyal customers.

In most cases, it just cheaper to replace the malfunctioning product than spending hour after hour attempting to remedy the problem. Consumers want convenience, results, understanding, all in a time manner.