Book Description
Tough Choices or Tough Times calls for first redesign of the American education system in a century. This report of the New Commission on the Skills of the American Workforce shows how the dynamics of the global economy will lead to a steady decline in the American standard of living if this country does not undertake the first thorough overhaul of its education system in a century. It shows how our country can graduate 95% of our students (not two-thirds, as it does now) after 12 years and the majority after only 10 years of grade school. It reveals how billions of dollars can be saved by changing the way students progress through the grades and how the money saved could be used to build high quality early childhood education systems, attract the best and brightest teachers, and provide the resources for even the most disadvantaged students to reach world class standards. This hard-hitting analysis describes the kind of economy needed to sustain our current standard of living and kinds of skills and knowledge that American workers need to make that economy work. It also details the dramatic changes in governance, finance, organization, and management of the American education and training systems that are needed.
Tough Choices or Tough Times was written for anyone concerned with the future of this country and the state of our schools and our job training systems. It provides a well-researched analysis of the issues and a compelling set of proposals for changing our system of education.
National Center in Education and the Economy (NCEE) is a not-for-profit organization dedicated to providing young people with the world-class skills that will allow them to succeed in a global economy. The 26-member commission includes former Cabinet secretaries of labor and education, Senators, Members of Congress, school superintendents, CEOs of major firms, union leaders, and governors.
Customer Reviews:
Releiance on Objective Tests.......2007-02-20
This is an interesting and important document from a group who have had considerable influence on education policy. My largest disagreement is the emphasis on external testing rather than classroom assessment. Good art and music teachers both teach and assess creativty. There is no external test for this ability; whose importance is emphasized in the report.
A well-written wake-up call........2007-02-04
This book by the Commission on the Skills of the American Workforce is well written in clear terms with summaries and simple graphics. It is a must read for anyone interested in the future of the US economy. The Commission points out the risks of our poor pre-university education to the US economy. India and China are now competing with the US in the high skilled labor market (not just low skilled) and at lower wages. With the Internet, many jobs can be done anywhere, and companies will hire the best at the lowest cost (Indian engineers make $7500 annually with the same qualifications as US engineers who make $45,000).
The Commission describes how US universities continue to be the best in the world, but grade schools and high schools have fallen behind. In the 20th century the US pioneered universal education, and received an influx of talent, from scientists fleeing Germany before World War II to a more recent influx of Asian students, who stayed and worked here. But now, other countries have passed us in pre-university education and many foreign students are going back to their own countries after graduating.
"A Nation at Risk" came out in 1983, saying "If an unfriendly foreign power had attempted to impose on America the mediocre education performance that exists today, we might well have viewed it as an act of war." The Tough Choices Commission points out that since then we've had a more than doubling of spending on education (inflation adjusted) with only modest improvement. The Commission concludes that the main improvement, standards testing, turns out to be misguided because it is multiple choice, not essay, and thus doesn't teach the creative, out of the box thinking needed for the US to maintain its lead. Multiple choice tests are by definition "in the box" tests.
"A Nation at Risk" proposals in 1983 for merit pay for teachers were resisted, and teachers continue to come from the bottom 1/3 of University graduates. The Commission proposes merit pay for new teachers, with an opt-in choice for existing teachers, combined with higher salaries made possible by eliminating pensions and using 401Ks instead, like other professions. Other proposals include universal pre-school, school choice with funding following students, less bureaucracy and more independence for individual schools, adult education coordinated with the business community, and inter-city schools and supporting social services being coordinated under one person, such as the mayor. Finally, partial funding can be found by reducing the number of students in the last 2 years of high school by allowing board testing at the 10th grade, with those passing going to community college then a university, directly to trade school, or directly to work.
I have separately read that having funding follow the student to encourage competition among schools has been implemented successfully at the city level in San Francisco. The Commission shows that if pensions and vacation time are included, current teacher salaries are actually somewhat competitive. But talented young people prefer money now, and don't know that they would stay in teaching long enough to earn a pension. Thus, pension money could be moved to up front salary and portable 401Ks, with existing teachers having the option of opting in or staying with their pensions.
The proposal to coordinate social services with schooling to help the disadvantaged, such as by putting all under a mayor has been done in New York recently, with great success. By providing programs for kids until 5 PM, and help to their families, the disadvantages of a poor home situation can be addressed. The US economy is healthy because of the waves of immigration it has had over the past 15 years, and we can't afford not to train those immigrants so our business have a talented labor pool to draw on.
The board exams proposed at the end of the 10th grade will provide badly needed motivation to students, since they can get out of school earlier if they work harder, rather than marking time.
To cut bureaucracy, the commission proposed principals be given free reign on how to spend the money they get (which is based on the number of students). Also, school boards would not run schools, but would contract with others (such as private companies, groups of teachers, etc.). The school boards would then become performance contract managers.
Finally, the report proposes training of people in the workforce, since these people will be the largest part of our workforce for some time, and will need more advanced and creative skills.
Finally, a comprehensive strategy forward.......2007-02-03
Citing Winston Churchill, who said America always did the right thing after it had exhausted all the alternatives, the New Commission on Skills of the American Workforce calls for a complete overhaul of American education.
Unlike the Commission Report in 1990, which recommended that we improve our high technology skills and accept as inevitable the movement of low-skill jobs to global competitors, the current Commission draws our attention to the fact that we are losing high-skill jobs to global competitors as well. Such losses are projected to grow geometrically if we fail to act with an integrated whole system response.
The Commission recommends a major overhaul of American education to include how we define needs, develop curriculum, attract and retain world class teachers, focus scarce resources, assess stakeholders, and finance public education. All familiar words, I know, but the devil or angel, if you will, is in the details. Let's look at some of the most important.
Noting the poor scores made by U.S. students on international tests and the prospect that we will lose our leadership position in fields that require exemplary abilities in mathematical reasoning; scientific concepts; writing; creativity and innovation; self-discipline and organization; and teamwork, the Commission calls for regional economic development authorities. These authorities would be responsible for coordinating with existing institutions to develop goals and strategies that would serve as guides for local decisions and channel resources where initiatives contributed to the achievement of such goals and strategies.
The Commission calls for significant changes in school governance. School boards and districts would find their role focused on policy making, facilitation of educational networks, operation of support service centers, reporting, and writing performance contracts with those who operate the schools. Schools would be operated by independent contractors and would have complete discretion to determine spending, staffing, calendar, organization and management ---- all subject to the same safety, curriculum, and testing standards as other schools. States would recruit and train teachers; build standard curriculum and assessment agencies; investigate, review and approve networks; contract for special services; and develop statewide schools to serve gifted children.
Teachers would be employed and licensed by the state. Their compensation would shift from current practices, which are back-loaded to emphasize pensions and defined health care benefits, to one which is front-loaded to emphasize cash compensation. Under a front-loaded approach, pay for beginning teachers would be $45,000. Competent academic-year teachers could receive $95,000 and competent calendar-year teachers as high as $110,000. In addition, incentive pay would be paid to teachers willing to teach in remote areas, tough urban areas, and in fields with labor shortages like math, science, language, and special education. The objective of all these changes is to recruit, develop, and retain individuals who had graduated from the top third of their high school graduation classes.
To discover where much of the money is coming from to pay for these changes, you have to examine their recommendation in the area of assessment. Essentially, the Commission wants to shift American education from a system that is time-based to one that is based on merit, using Board Examinations to control progression. They would allow high school students to sit for the initial board examinations at the end of their sophomore year. If they score well enough, they will be allowed to begin a two-year technical training program or to enter a four-year degree program. Those who scored less well would remain to prepare for the second board examination which, when passed, would allow them to attend a state college or university. Neither progression would permit remediation at the next highest level. In short, no one would be allowed to progress unless they are ready and no one would be held back based on a scheme that honors time more than it does competence. The Commission expects this progression scheme to save $67 billion.
In addition to teacher compensation, the Commission would spend part of the savings on high-quality, universal early childhood education for three and four year olds. Supplemental funding would be made available to help schools with high concentrations of disadvantaged students, e.g. screening and diagnosis, tutoring; community involvement, etc. School financing would be a state, rather than a local matter. And the state would use a uniform funding formula that emphasizes equity over equality. New Federal money would be sought to fund interest-bearing Personal Competitiveness Accounts. These accounts would be funded by the Federal government with a $500 deposit at birth and annual contributions made to age 16. The fund would accept tax-free contributions from employers, states, and individuals. From these funds, individuals could draw to improve their education and skills as adults.
Reactions from the educational establishment have been mixed. Predictably, all favor high-quality universal education for three and four year olds and for injections of more money into the educational system. No one, however, wants to support recommendations that would require substantial changes for their membership. The National Education Association (NEA) doesn't want to support the shift in compensation because their current membership favors back-loaded systems. Neither the NEA nor the National School Boards Association wants to give up local funding and operation of schools. Finally, the National Association for College Admission Counseling cautions against using Board Examinations if they are built on the foundation of European models.
All stakeholders need to realize that the situation has deteriorated to such a point that anything less than a major transformation of American education risks being characterized as rearranging the deck chairs on the Titanic. As the Commission emphasizes, this is not a set of recommendations to be cherry-picked. Instead, they require a thoughtful, soul searching reflection and authentic dialogue to meet the challenges that are quickly coming into view.
It's Time to Put the Professionalism in Teaching.......2007-01-29
While there are some debatable aspects of the TOUGH CHOICES OR TOUGH TIMES report, the call to elevate teaching to the professional level it deserves is certainly long overdue. One problem the report doesn't explicitly mention is that our education system right now is a two-tiered heirarchy in which educrats--the professional ruling class of policymakers, administrators, and midlevel bureaucrats who don't actually teach--wield far too much power and often earn staggering salaries, while teachers are treated like common day-laborers, underpaid and (often) undermined by the flaky, self-serving policies that educrats impose on them.
The report recommends raising teacher salaries to attract the best and brightest, i.e. those who would otherwise be doctors, lawyers, and other ambitious career professionals, by doing away with current teacher-retirement systems in favor of higher up-front cash rewards and 401(k) packages. Astonishingly, the NEA and other powerful teacher unions are opposed to this. But the fact is our schools are failing us, in part, because teachers are not treated like professionals. Yes, there are plenty of attractive benefits to teaching already, like summers off and seniority-based salary schedules. But the trade-off is that many teachers are willing to give up intellectual authority over their profession and allow themselves to be infantilized by condescending educrats. This is a Faustian bargain, and it's time to break it.
If the commission's compensation plan were implemented, more young and bright professionals would be drawn to the classroom, and they'd (hopefully) stay there rather than hopscotching up to an administrative desk job as soon as they could. They would be unafraid to challenge the bad policies of educrats, and they would serve their constituents (the students and their parents) in far more creative and effective ways, because real professionals do not allow themselves to be bullied. Teachers would finally have intellectual authority over their profession, the same way that doctors, lawyers, and other true professionals do. It may mean sacrificing some comfort and standing up to our own unions, but the long-term results would be well worth it. Independence, as we already know, sometimes comes at a high price.
Creativity and Innovation.......2007-01-24
This report, the result of the second Commission on the Skills of the American Workforce in thirty years, represents "the canary in the mine." It is a warning to law makers, educators, students, parents and business people that we must overhaul the American educational system. Emphasis on creativity and innovation needs to be added to student learning and assessment as well as high levels of critical thinking. Instead of pushing toward analysis, teachers need to devise ways in which students can synthesize their learning; for example, thematically combining the content of a World Civ class with scientific breakthroughs. Creativity and innovation is the only way in which we can claim U.S. superiority in the fast approaching future. Countries like India and Japan are already ahead of us. We need to catch up quickly or lose our standing in the world marketplace.
Average customer rating:
- Calculations are only as good as your numbers
- Pants on fire?
- Accepted History & Chronology Must Be Changed.
- Very Interesting
- History as Science Fiction
|
History: Fiction or Science? (Chronology, No. 1)
Anatoly Fomenko
Manufacturer: Mithec
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ASIN: 2913621058 |
Book Description
Recorded history is a finely-woven magic fabric of intricate lies about events predating the sixteenth century. There is not a single piece of evidence that can be reliably and independently traced back earlier than the eleventh century. This book details events that are substantiated by hard facts and logic, and validated by new astronomical research and statistical analysis of ancient sources.
Customer Reviews:
Calculations are only as good as your numbers.......2007-08-03
Yes, we can all agree that mainstream history is nearly 100% BS due to politics, economics, ego, problems with dating techniques, and various conspiracies. Agreed. But, I've been researching the distinct possibility that human history (in terms of civilizations) are much more ancient than we've been told, so coming across this book was very interesting to me. I wondered how Fomenko could be wrong (if at all) because he is very persuasive in his presentations. Then it dawned on me. If at previous times in prehistory, due to the various catastrophies that are well documented (comets, asteroids, planetary disruptions, plasma discharge, pole reversals, etc) the Earth was in a different position in relation to the sun, different tilt on its axis, different orbit, different rotation (in terms of velocity and DIRECTION), and the continents were in different positions, then would this not cause the ancients to see the sky (constellations) differently? In other words, is Fomenko making erronious assumptions about the physics of the Earth in pre-history, which then corrupt his data with regards to dating the relevant astrology? The last event to seriously disrupt our planet occured roughly 3500 years ago, according to other good researchers, so is it possible Fomenko has been confused by this? The vastly different physics of our planet in the not so distant past may explain this confusion, which is not to say the "mainstream" version of history is correct; on the contrary. I am not an expert in these fields, but wanted to see if this idea could spark discussion.
Pants on fire?.......2007-07-19
Will people ever read before spamming? Yes, Jesuits could not rewrite world history alone, they had help. Anyway, Dr Prof Acad A.Fomenko does not point to jesuits as the driving force of world wide history manipulation in published volumes 1,2,3;, actually he barely mentions the poor devils. Check it with 'Search inside' feature, please. China is rarely mentioned either, in fact, Dr Fomenko is completely eurocentric. Right, his theory contradicts all mainstream schools of history, because in their actual state they are all built on blatantly erroneus chronology. You don't need a mysterious cabal (conspiracy) to falsify history, the falsification is its modus operandi. It is inherent to history(ians) to falsify (distort) events, as it is inherent to humans to boast as it is inherent to power (authority) to legimize itself by referrring to glorious past made to its own order. Dr Prof Fomenko and team have identified scores of instances of such manipulation in Russian, European, etc.. history, and delivered valid statistical proof thereof. His own 'reconstruction' is completely another story. Forget c14 as a valid method of dating. W.Libby has initially discovered a brilliant method of INDEPENDENT dating. Too bad, c14 method has become a joke after a forced marrige with dendrochronology with consensual chronological scale inbuilt. Radiocarbon method can't stand blind tests, but is so very productive as a rubberstamp.
Accepted History & Chronology Must Be Changed. .......2007-04-09
There is no doubt that history as most know it is a sham, & institution's version of History both University & Church is fradulent & inaccurate. Everything was established with an agenda, The real "Dark Ages" are now when we have access to incredible amounts of information past authorities & more important 'common folk' didn't have but our institutions & educators are slow to evolve because of what has ignorantly & arrogantly been taught for too long. This is on many subjects not just Chronology.
For anyone to question "Why would a Mathematician have anything credible to say of History?" The answer is from Dr. Fomenko's preface in the book: "It would be worthwhile to remind the reader that in the XVI-XVII century Chronology was considered to be a subdivision of Mathematics." These volumes could possibly be some of the most important works to date & should be read by everyone with an interest in History, especially professors & educators who have a duty to the public. I have read both books & must say that 'Chronology 1' has some very eye opening & revolutionary information. Even if these volumes are part true the implications are profound & opens the doors to further investigations & questions which must be done. I speak several different lanquages & must say the logic Dr. Fomenko uses with "inflection" of words & words being read from left to right in one region & right to left in another then written backwards, the removal of vowels & get down to basics of words, or different cities & locations having the same name etc. is correct. Vowel usage has always been optional & varied, actually complicating linquistics & study. The first thing one has to understand is that words never had a fixed spelling in history like we do now, the spelling of words was mutable & regional, as well as names & titles of people were vast, varied & changed, NOTHING WAS FIXED or understood linear. Matters of Life & Death as well as financial profiteering yesterday & today were & are made with ignorant, illogical & conspiratorial views of history & reality, it's time people get closer to the Truth & society collectively grow up.
Very Interesting.......2007-03-07
It is a good proposal and I believe it will mature into something even better in the future. I think it deserves to be read.
History as Science Fiction.......2007-01-10
Anatoly Fomenko has written a very intriguing book, full of pictures, charts, and computer 'proof' of his thesis: backwards of AD900 we don't really know what happened or when. Between AD900 and AD1600 there is more certainty, but there is still a lot of fuzzy ground, and things don't get reliable until we get past the 1600's where the printing press made it very difficult for the perpetrators of this timeline manipulation to change anything that had been committed to print. The Dark Ages did not happen. Books were burned for a reason. One organization has doubled the actual length of its existence by expanding the real chronology. Read why.
I had always wondered why Christ died about AD33 and yet men waited until the 11th century to form the Knights Templar, the Cathars, etc and go after the Holy Land by force. Why the 1000 year gap? Turns out there wasn't more than a 10-12 year gap and he proves it using astronomy. This also implies that the planet is not as old as we have been told, and current Christian and other creationist scientists are already championing that idea without being aware of Fomenko's book. The two groups, creationist scientists and the Russian mathematical analysts corroborate each other. Fascinating.
Of course, all this flies in the face of what we have been told traditionally is the 'proper' chronology of western civilization, and most readers will experience 'cognitive dissonance' in reading this book. It means that our history going backwards from AD1600 becomes progressively more incorrect and unreliable until it cannot be trusted at all... in the space of 700-800 years.
Naturally, the curious, open-minded reader will want to know WHO did this, WHY, and did any of the events we think of as really ancient ever happen?
Dr. Fomenko is a respected scientist/mathematician at Moscow State University who has already answered these questions to the satisfaction of his initially skeptical colleagues. Most of them are now believers, a few still refuse to believe (the usual diehards), and of course the western press has ignored Fomenko's work -- for obvious reasons when you read the book. The ones who perpetrated this chronology ruse have a lot to answer for. They are still with us. That's why this book is a well-kept secret.
I gave the book a 4-star rating because I was unable to check out some of his claims; those I checked were as he said. But if even 1/3 of his claims are true, this punches a big hole in what we think is our history, the meaning of western civilization, our educational process (for repeating the ruse as gospel), and the trustworthiness of the organization that perpetrated this ruse, well-intentioned or not.
This book relates to current research into a Young Earth paradigm, to John Keel's discoveries about our planet, and Fr Malachi Martin's insights (in his now out-of-print books). We are indeed sheep who are manipulated and kept ignorant -- for a reason. While knowing what these men have to say may be the "booby prize" (as in: 'what can you do with this knowledge?'), it will provide interesting reading. Didn't someone say: "...and the Truth will set you free."?? For you to judge if this book contains the truth.
Book Description
When Rudolph Diesel invented his engine in the late nineteenth century, he envisioned a device that could run anywhere on a wide range of local fuels. A century later, Greg Pahl recalls that vision and shows us it is possible with Biodiesel: Growing a New Energy Economy.
Biodiesel is:
more biodegradable than sugar and less toxic than table salt.
produced from domestic feedstocks, reducing the need for foreign oil while boosting the local economy and supporting the agricultural community.
Biodiesel can:
reduce net CO2 emissions by 78 percent compared with petroleum diesel fuel, cutting greenhouse gases that lead to global warming.
be mixed with petroleum diesel at any level to produce a cleaner-burning biodiesel blend.
be blended with No. 2 oil for home heating, usually without any retrofits required.
As the politics of energy grow bleak, visionary entrepreneurs in the biofuels industry may very well become society's next great hope-heroes to today's energy insecurity the way astronauts were to the Cold War's space race. In Biodiesel, Greg Pahl delves into the history of the biofuels industry. He assesses its recent successes and current shortcomings, and stands well prepared to estimate its future. If the political, environmental, or financial woes of our current fuel industry have you concerned, it's time to take another look at biodiesel!
Customer Reviews:
The best biodiesel primer available.......2007-05-14
Interest in alternative motor fuels has been rising even faster than the cost of gasoline. Biodiesel, a drop-in replacement for diesel fuel, is widely seen as one of the best renewable energy sources. Unfortunately, there is a good deal of misinformation and just plain nonsense out there. As a former big-oil-company research chemist with some experience in alternative fuels, I am often asked where good, reliable information can be found. I use and recommend Pahl's book as a source for trustworthy information written for the non-technical reader. In addition, his information about Rudolph Diesel is a very interesting introduction.
Readers should know (and Pahl in fact tells them)that his book is not neutral: he is an unabashed biodiesel proponent. That's not a problem; there is a lot to be excited about when discussing biodiesel. Another warning: if you want to make your own biodiesel (easy to do, actually), go to the Internet, as Pahl concentrates on larger-scale operations. The book's biggest drawback is that the field is changing so rapidly that some of the information (particularly relating to political and commercial developments) is already out of date, even though it was published in 2005.
Nevertheless, Pahl has written what I consider to be the best primer on biodiesel available. Anyone interested in learning about biodiesel should own or have access to a copy.
Great overview of biodiesel in practice.......2007-04-18
Pahl's book on Biodiesel is a great introduction to the basics and some of the more thought-provoking possibilities of how to create this biofuel. Though biodiesel is given much media attention, it is barely in use at all in the US, and this book tells it like it is. I particularly liked the fact that it shows the efficiencies of different feedstocks, pointing out that plant oils might not be the best resource (particulary soybeans), much like corn is a terrible feedstock for ethanol. What I did find amazing is how great of a feedstock brown grease and algae are....the latter has tremendous possibilities, especially when coupled with carbon sequestration in applications such as coal plants. It's a great book that will get you thinking, if not running out to get another book on how to apply some of these ideas at home or in the business world.
Great resource on Biodiesel and other alt. fuels.......2006-07-19
Greg does a great job of explaining what biodiesel is, how/where it came about, and why it is a good additive to our current petrodiesel. He also writes about what other countries are doing with and how they are (currently) ahead of the US in utilizing it. He also discusses other forms of alternative/renewable sources of energy. I would recommend this book as good reading, but I would probably recommend 'Biodiesel America' first....as it has a bit more current info than Biodiesel: Growing A New Energy Economy. But good reading nontheless.
Excellent overview of Biodiesel.......2006-05-08
Greg's book is a fine introduction to the concept of diesel biofuels and deserves its fivestar rating. As someone who has actually refined and used biodiesel on a daily basis, as opposed to a bio-d critic just pontificating about the subject in general, his viewpoint is very welcome. I found 'Biodiesel' well written and a good introduction to the interesting world of biodiesel fuels, its raw material sourcing, and the growing industry of biofuel production. While obviously written from a pro-biodiesel viewpoint, it is an experienced and well-grounded one. Pahl obviously believes that the advantages of cleaner emissions and potential for OPEC import reductions outweigh biodiesel's disadvantages. Pahl may be dismissed by some as a Vermont treehugger, but you don't have to take his word for it. Long-haul truckers are already flocking to biodiesel for its clean burn, longer engine component life, and greater fuel economy - and those guys don't waste money on impractical solutions!
I wouldn't pay too much attention to unemployed agronomists in Brazil or otherwise, with patently obvious agendas against biodiesel as book critics. Ethanol is a great biofuel, but its advantages are oversold as a cure-all. It won't solve our energy problems in the US by itself, and biodiesel fuels are also needed, which Pahl notes come from a constantly expanding variety of byproduct oils from many plant and animal sources. Brazil still has to import petrodiesel to run its trucking industry, and here in the U.S. we have a 'few' large trucks that wouldn't work too well on E85!
As to the book critics, most of them don't like biodiesel, and mistake bio-d criticism for book criticism. The two are completely different. Have they even read the book? I also note that most bio-d critics have never even tried the fuel anyway - just how does can anyone know something doesn't work on either the national or local level if they haven't either tried the fuel in the field or worked in quantity bio-d research and production? At least Mr. Pahl has user experience. Agree or disagree, but at least write a review based on the book, not on your own prejudices.
Biodiesel isn't a solution for energy........2006-02-20
Beeing unemployed, I'm an agronomist here in Brazil.Then I know very much about energy and fuel from crops.Compared to ethanol, the same area produces 7 times more fuel then to biodiesel.If you read in portuguese, you can read my own article about biodisel in site http://www.israel3.com/article341.html .
Biodiesel insn't a real source of energy.It's a way to transform waste(oil burned) into fuel.It will never be a great source of fuel in America, and in any other place in the world.
Biogas, ethanol and hidrogenation of crops are the real possiblities of fuel from agricultural sources.
Book Description
China is the world's number-one growth story now. But how is it that China has achieved such quick growth in this era? How is it that made-in-China products can flood the globe? Is a trade war going to happen? Or is a new world order in the making? This second volume of a trilogy-by Chinese journalist/consultant George Zhibin Gu-aims to answer these questions and more.
Today, more than a half-million overseas companies conduct business inside China. Learn about all the opportunities this exploding market presents, including banking, insurance, and stock market, as well as the yuan and trade and cross-border business issues. Moreover, it contains extensive studies on China's political-economic reform as well as evolving international relations.
This volume addresses eight key topics:
I. China's New Role in the World Development
II. The Yuan, Trade, and Investment
III. China's Fast-Changing Society, Politics, and Economy (in light of Chinese and global history)
IV. China's Banking, Insurance, and Stock Market Reforms
V. Chinese Multinationals vs. Global Giants
VI. The Taiwan Issue: Current Affairs and Trends (federation as an alternate way for unity)
VII. India vs. China: Moving Ahead at the Same Time
VIII. The Japan-China Issue: Evolving Relations in Light of History
Today, all nations increasingly rely on one another for development, a trend that will only strengthen as time passes. As a saying goes, "The future is being shaped today." This book will appeal to readers everywhere regardless of their particular interests.
Customer Reviews:
Cooking With the Iron Rice Bowl.......2007-03-27
Part reference, part musing, part insightful and timely analysis, George Zhibin Gu's latest book "China and the New World Order: How Entrepreneurship, Globalization, and Borderless Business are Reshaping China and the World" is a welcome and refreshing read among the endless new titles printed on China today.
Picking up on a focus of his previous book "China's Global Reach...," Gu goes further and identifies the chief impediment to China's latest and perhaps most difficult transition as the Chinese state itself. Gu reveals the seemingly historical inevitability of China's vast government apparatus but explains that Communist Party bureaucracy is unique in Chinese experience in the size and scope of its all-encompassing control.
In topics relative to today's readers Gu ably demonstrates through the book that changes in China come from the revived entrepreneurial instinct of the Chinese. Along with huge foreign investment China's ever-growing private sector is the outside influence that is challenging Chinese bureaucracy as never before. But while the Chinese people struggle to create a law-based society and break the bureaucracy's grip on all aspects of economic life, the Chinese state seeks an equal footing among world national powers.
"China and the New World Order" is nicely segmented into short but highly relevant chapters. As in his earlier works Gu deftly examines the pros and cons of numerous hot-button issues on China. For example he takes on the Taiwan - China knot and proposes an interesting solution, a federation or federal system as a means toward meaningful (and mutually beneficial) reunification although his federal system shares more similarity to a commonwealth in the opinion of this reviewer. Gu's look at delicate state of Japan and China relations reveals that Japan remains as apprehensive over Chinese growth and potential as it was in the past. In examining the India versus China debate Gu shows that there is far less competition (as Western press prefers to portray it) and more similarities between the two giants of Asia.
There is plenty of current information here and the detailed contents and summaries make the book a good quick reference for anyone with an interest in what's happening right now in China. And there are goodies such as a lengthy interview with Mark Mobius and a foreword by Hoover Institute fellow William Ratliff.
At one point in his analysis, Gu intriguingly compares the struggle in China to the old European church-state alliance. With that view in mind, what may be needed next and with luck what Chinese entrepreneurs may succeed in bringing is a Chinese "Glorious Revolution."
The most important book I read in the last 5 years.......2006-12-25
This new book from Dr. George Zhibin Gu is a geo-economics and geopolitical masterpiece from an insider, someone that thrives his consulting work and daily life inside China, not writing or comment from a comfortable chair in London or New York paid by a western think tank, or only for academic proposals. His challenge is to write for a broad audience out of China. I must refer his clever suggestions about Taiwan - a political proposal for a a federation - and the way he sees the go global from Chinese emergent multinationals. It is needed a lot of courage for an insider to be so clear in his proposals and to identify the old Chinese problem - bureaucracy, the same that stopped admiral Cheng Ho and the Discoveries in the XV Century, that closed China for so many centuries and gave an opportunity for foreign powers to humiliate China, hyper-bureaucracy that in the Mao period pulled China for chaos and economic and social distress. China and the New World Order is a must reading. Jorge Nascimento Rodrigues, editor of www.gurusonline.tv and translator of Made in China (published in Portuguese language).
Is a new world order in the making?...It might just happen........2006-12-15
Base on the number of book in relation to this matter so far I believe that no one has come close to capturing "new China's" spirit and meaning as Gu. After reading his second volume I found it to be hugely insightful on the current events of China and global affairs. It greatly explores the key factors that shape Chinese and global development in the next stages. It gives tremendous info and analysis on the Chinese government, politics, business and economy for any one's interest.
There's a huge amount of info on foreign businesses inside China. You will be able to see about twenty five American and global multinationals inside of China that are studied. In the meantime it gives us a very provocative analysis on China's new role in the world. Gu details this general picture of how China is walking away from a practical society and embracing an open, restless and dynamic society. It claims that an overextended, self-appointed bureaucracy remains the key problem for China. To overcome countless technical barriers, greater openness, entrepreneurship and global involvement is all needed. Again, it's very insightful on the issues between China, Taiwan, Japan, India and West. I will add that his analyses on Japan-China line up are very interesting as well as Taiwan. There' a tremendous amount of info and analysis on China's financial, banking, insurance and stock market.
Author George Zhibin Gu is a very outspoken and a well known Chinese journalist who has generally covered mergers and acquisitions, capital activities, business expansion, and restructuring. He's an insider who gives us scrupulous examination on current China and global affairs which is more than a reason why you should grab hold to this book.
Insightful and Intelligent.......2006-12-11
George Gu provides a depth of understanding that distinguishes his work from most other business books. His wide network of contacts gives insight into emerging trends. He provides useful context that western authors often lack and Chinese authors frequently take for granted.
Prepare for the Dragon Market - Winston Ma, Author of "Investing in China: New Opportunities in a Transforming Stock Market.......2006-11-07
For the international investor community, "Investing in China" in the new century is more or less a one-way investment and capital flow. Mr. Gu's book, however, looks one step further to explore how all these interactions would reshape the global horizon, both for China and the rest of the world.
In fact, China's outward influence is increasingly obvious. For instance, whether China would diversify its foreign currency reserve -- and consequently whether China will enter into the gold market to hedge its US dollar exposure -- has profound implications in the global financial markets.
Comparing to many other books on China, Mr. Gu's book has a truly "authentic Chinese" flavor. The reason is obvious: He is an INSIDER. As a native Chinese, he captures the spirit of China's latest developments in its not-too-short historic context.
Amazon.com
How many times has your PC crashed today? While Gordon Moore's now famous law projecting the doubling of computer power every 18 months has more than borne itself out, it's too bad that a similar trajectory projecting the reliability and usefulness of all that power didn't come to pass, as well. Advances in information technology are most often measured in the cool numbers of megahertz, throughput, and bandwidth--but, for many us, the experience of these advances may be better measured in hours of frustration.
The gap between the hype of the Information Age and its reality is often wide and deep, and it's into this gap that John Seely Brown and Paul Duguid plunge. Not that these guys are Luddites--far from it. Brown, the chief scientist at Xerox and the director of its Palo Alto Research Center (PARC), and Duguid, a historian and social theorist who also works with PARC, measure how information technology interacts and meshes with the social fabric. They write, "Technology design often takes aim at the surface of life. There it undoubtedly scores lots of worthwhile hits. But such successes can make designers blind to the difficulty of more serious challenges--primarily the resourcefulness that helps embed certain ways of doing things deep in our lives."
The authors cast their gaze on the many trends and ideas proffered by infoenthusiasts over the years, such as software agents, "still a long way from the predicted insertion into the woof and warp of ordinary life"; the electronic cottage that Alvin Toffler wrote about 20 years ago and has yet to be fully realized; and the rise of knowledge management and the challenges it faces trying to manage how people actually work and learn in the workplace. Their aim is not to pass judgment but to help remedy the tunnel vision that prevents technologists from seeing larger the social context that their ideas must ultimately inhabit. The Social Life of Information is a thoughtful and challenging read that belongs on the bookshelf of anyone trying to invent or make sense of the new world of information. --Harry C. Edwards
Book Description
To see the future we can build with information technology, we must look beyond mere information to the social context that creates and gives meaning to it.
For years pundits have predicted that information technology will obliterate the need for almost everything--from travel to supermarkets to business organizations to social life itself. Individual users, however, tend to be more skeptical. Beaten down by info-glut and exasperated by computer systems fraught with software crashes, viruses, and unintelligible error messages, they find it hard to get a fix on the true potential of the digital revolution.
John Seely Brown and Paul Duguid help us to see through frenzied visions of the future to the real forces for change in society. They argue that the gap between digerati hype and end-user gloom is largely due to the "tunnel vision" that information-driven technologies breed. We've become so focused on where we think we ought to be--a place where technology empowers individuals and obliterates social organizations--that we often fail to see where we're really going and what's helping us get there. We need, they argue, to look beyond our obsession with information and individuals to include the critical social networks of which these are always a part.
Drawing from rich learning experiences at Xerox PARC, from examples such as IBM, Chiat/Day Advertising, and California's "Virtual University," and from historical, social, and cultural research, the authors sharply challenge the futurists' sweeping predictions. They explain how many of the tools, jobs, and organizations seemingly targeted for future extinction in fact provide useful social resources that people will fight to keep. Rather than aiming technological bullets at these "relics," we should instead look for ways that the new world of bits can learn from and complement them.
Arguing elegantly for the important role that human sociability plays, even--perhaps especially--in the world of bits,
The Social Life of Information gives us an optimistic look beyond the simplicities of information and individuals. It shows how a better understanding of the contribution that communities, organizations, and institutions make to learning, working and innovating can lead to the richest possible use of technology in our work and everyday lives.
Download Description
Drawing from recent research and practical examples across a range of organizations, The Social Life of Information dispels many of the futurists' sweeping predictions that information technology will obliterate the need for everything from travel to supermarkets to business organizations to social life itself. The authors examine the potential and limitations of technology with regard to intelligent software agents, the automated home office, business reorganization for innovation, knowledge management and work practices, the paperless society, and the digital university. Arguing eloquently for the important role human sociability plays in the world of bits, Brown and Duguid give us an optimistic look beyond the simplicities of information and individuals. They show how a better understanding of the contribution that communities, organizations, and institutions make to learning, knowledge, and judgment can lead to the richest possible use of technology in our work and everyday lives.
Customer Reviews:
Some good and some old, some nostalgia.......2007-08-11
This work, published in 2000, describes the perils of ignoring social aspects of information flow. The book is dated in certain respects. It spends a lot of time debunking concepts like denationalization and disintermediation that sound today like naïve meanderings from a misspent youth. But there are also good discussions of how social interactions critically influence how work actually gets done. Such interactions are typically ignored in process engineering, which explains among other things why SOX compliance is so painful. Worth reading for that by itself.
Information is not Epiphany.......2007-03-11
I think personally, for me, I realized this was a pretty important book when I became rather bored with it in the middle. "I know all this," I was thinking to myself. While reading it, my mind kept wandering to the social media book I'm trying to write. I kept coming up with new things to write in the book.
Soon, The Social Life of Information was coated with scribbles related to my book.
And then I had to laugh at myself when I realized this was a large part of JSB's & PD's point. I had all the information to come to these little epiphanies, but it was only through the social interaction of reading their book did many of these concepts gel.
These thoughts gelled not because these guys were specifically telling me them, but because reading their book was part of a pattern of practice of my own in social media. Their ideas, my ideas, their experiences, my experiences and information combined to create context. Our social interaction created context.
The More Things Change, The More They Stay The Same.......2007-01-29
In "The Social Life of Information", the authors explore the informational revolution and its drumbeat of futuristic implications. As many thought at the beginning of the internet age, the 'Net would wipe out the big box concept and stores would disappear (i.e. Walmart or Sears), as too would books and etceteras. However, we have come to learn in the last 10 years or so that this did not take place for several reasons, of which, one very important reason is that information has its own social life with respect to content & context. For example, as the authors propose, if a company or organization of managers are primarily information processors, then the new technology and processes would have made organizations flatter with less management. However, as most of us would suspect or have experienced, most organizations only got more management top heavy which is similar to the futuristic assumption that paper too would slowly be obsolete as we continue to consume more paper every year.
As we tend to be social animals, Judgment and discretion are not features of software, but are learned not by the acquisition of facts and rules, but through social relations and participation in human activities. The authors help remind us of this fact as we move forward with new processes and designs.
Good counter-arguement to available books.......2006-12-28
I read this book recently and I thought it was decent but not really great. I liked it because it was a counterpoint to what you always hear about modern technology and globalization. I read some of the Thomas Friedman's books and I thought they were well written and had a great point, but I always was skeptical about his message. It was just too rosy for me: Globalization flattens the world and changes existing power structures. I don't think it's neccessary to describe Friedman's other points and for the most part I think they are valid; I just think that there's more to it than that. This book, on the other hand, is all about taking that with a grain of salt. It really highlights the fact that the new technologies and the information systems really enhance the existing power structure rather than immediately break down existing norms.
The reason I gave this book 2 stars, though, is because I felt that it wasn't the easiest read. I often wondered what the authors were talking about and I had to re-read several passages because I just couldn't follow their logic or they just didn't elaborate enough on the important points. Maybe it was too dry and just not captivating.
An interesting and useful antidote to technotopia.......2005-12-23
Most books on internet and computing are optmistic in a 'infine linear projection' fashion - the common bane of all futurological speculations. Others are characterized by Luddite approaches to technology and media.
Every 'IN' medium is greeted with tremendous enthusiasm or pathological fear. Yet the history of technology and media shows that time and again the course taken by these is very different from the one predicted.
'The Social Life of Information' is one of the rare balanced outlooks on internet and computing technology. Written by eminent information scientists associated with Xerox PARC and University of California, it is based on well grounded empiricism and clear, level-headed reasoning.
The authors warn against a tunnel vision of narrow focus and blind optimism (or pessimism) and state that all problems are not information problems and therefore information by itself can not be the solution. They distinguish the promise of technology and the actual context of use and show how these are related or different.
The eight chapters of the book 'demythify' one or the other popular assumptions about power of information technology to change our lives and put things in context.
In one of the chapters they launch a scathing critique or technology-driven process engineering mania, showing how process engineering often ignores people, and even -- more seriously --actual practices that help solve problems.
In another they make useful distinction between knowledge and information and explain why knowledge management is not simply a question of using tools in isolation but of one of communities empowered through tools.
In yet another they explain the paradox why paper consumption has increased with increase in sales of computers and why we have not moved to a paperless office as prophesized.
They also show why universities are not just places where you take courses and degrees such that they can be replaced by online universities but places where you partake in the liesure needed for learning and the community interactions needed for developing good social skils as well as shared 'dialogical' learning.
They also explain why startups and home-offices fail and why IT has lead to agglomeration and not small enterprise. They state that there is a great deal of 'tacit' or hidden learning in a workplace that is not possible in a home office.
Other chapters discuss other issues like nature of problem solving, nature of 'knowledge ecologies' etc.
While this book won't 'open your mind' if you are basically level-headed, it will certainly correct any one-sided opinions that get formed by listening more often to one-side of the debate repeated ad nauseam in media.
Book Description
Like the Greeks who sailed with Jason in search of the Golden Fleece, the new Argonauts--foreign-born, technically skilled entrepreneurs who travel back and forth between Silicon Valley and their home countries--seek their fortune in distant lands by launching companies far from established centers of skill and technology. Their story illuminates profound transformations in the global economy.
Economic geographer AnnaLee Saxenian has followed this transformation, exploring one of its great paradoxes: how the "brain drain" has become "brain circulation," a powerful economic force for development of formerly peripheral regions. The new Argonauts--armed with Silicon Valley experience and relationships and the ability to operate in two countries simultaneously--quickly identify market opportunities, locate foreign partners, and manage cross-border business operations.
The New Argonauts extends Saxenian's pioneering research into the dynamics of competition in Silicon Valley. The book brings a fresh perspective to the way that technology entrepreneurs build regional advantage in order to compete in global markets. Scholars, policymakers, and business leaders will benefit from Saxenian's firsthand research into the investors and entrepreneurs who return home to start new companies while remaining tied to powerful economic and professional communities in the United States.
For Americans accustomed to unchallenged economic domination, the fast-growing capabilities of China and India may seem threatening. But as Saxenian convincingly displays in this pathbreaking book, the Argonauts have made America richer, not poorer.
Customer Reviews:
The power of networks within and between hi-tech regions.......2007-01-26
AnnaLee Saxenian has long been a follower of localized firm and professional networks in the hi-tech industry, highlighting their superiority over corporate hierarchies in her book "Regional Advantage." More recently, in "The New Argonauts," she has turned to ethnic professional networks in Silicon Valley, especially in the Indian, Chinese and Israeli communities. These networks, originally founded for social purposes, evolved to become professional networks for advice, capital and know-how for immigrant entrepreneurs. As immigrant entrepreneurs in Silicon Valley identified business opportunities in their home countries, the networks extended to support these new ventures. They also tied into their home-countries' networks through alumni associations and family ties.
Thus, organizations that were once highly localized began to reach across continents - and their benefits with them. Access to tacit knowledge (technical and managerial), a common understanding of entrepreneurship, shared language and culture have all been considered factors that are bound by geography and contribute to the success of regional economies. Now, they are transcending vast distances thanks to the kinds of networks described by Saxenian. New "Argonauts" (people who work in two or more regions, shuttling back and forth several times per month) literally carry market and technological knowledge, contacts, business models and capital around the world.
As a result, "Silicon Valley, once the uncontested technology leader, is now integrated into a dynamic network of specialized and complementary regional economies. These new technology regions are not replicas of Silicon Valley, nor are they becoming new Silicon Valleys [...] Even as the returnees seek to use their experience in Silicon Valley to reshape these institutions, distinctive regional and national histories ensure that the identities and technology trajectories of these regions are unlikely to converge."
Saxenian emphasizes the role of entrepreneurial networks over multinational enterprises. Multinationals have traditionally been seen as the prime diffusers of new technologies to "following" economies. In Saxenian's view, they will be supplanted here, as they were in the U.S. hi-tech industry.
Excellent view of Silicon Valley's now and future in the Flat world!.......2006-08-25
Excellent view of Silicon Valley's now and future in the Flat world! This author is excel in comparing Silicon Valley with new 'Want be Silicon Valley' regions. Especially her comments on the differentiators that are based on lot of interviews are extremely valuable for these challengers. In summery, openness, strong wishes to keep in the leading edge that the author viewed as Silicon Valley excel are the true differentiators of the region from many others.
Amazon.com's Best of 2001
If you like to keep on top of what's going on in the world but find it difficult to get through more than a section or two of the Sunday New York Times, take heart. Were you to actually plow through the whole thing, even just once, you'd be taking in more factual information than was gathered in all the written material available to a reader in the 15th century. And that's just a Sunday paper; what about all the e-mail, voice mail, meetings, Web pages (2 billion or so of them), and publications (more than 60,000 new books and 18,000 magazines published annually in the U.S. alone) vying for your attention? According to Thomas H. Davenport and John C. Beck, we live in an age of information overload, where attention has become the most valuable business currency. Welcome to The Attention Economy.
If yesterday was the age of information, today is the age of trying to attract or employ people's attention. Indeed, leaders and managers in the business world face this two-fold problem daily, constantly seeking the attention of their customers and employees while managing their own limited supply. Declaring that "understanding and managing attention is now the single most important determinant of business success," the authors examine what attention is, how it can be measured, how it's being technologically constructed and protected, and where and how attention is being most effectively exploited.
Predictably, nowhere are these economics more important than in the realm of e-commerce. In the chapter entitled "Eyeballs and Cyber Malls," the authors discuss the strategies needed to gain and maintain attention "stickiness." The book contains numerous suggestions on how leaders can manage their own attention and that of their employees more effectively (and how to avoid and treat info-stress), but always with an eye on the ultimate goal: affecting the type and amount of attention your customers give you. Already, more money is often spent on attracting attention to a product than spent on the product itself (we're reminded of The Blair Witch Project, which cost a mere $350,000 to make and $11 million to market). And as our information environment gets increasingly saturated, holding a person's attention becomes an ever more difficult proposition; as the authors suggest, actually paying for someone to receive your information is a realistic prospect in the not-too-distant future. Indeed, the book's final chapter is devoted to what the authors predict will affect attention in the future, and how attention can and will be acquired, monitored, and distributed.
The Attention Economy is peppered with anecdotal pull-outs and "overheard" comments; though intriguing in as random factoids and zippy, little quotes, this sideline information doesn't always tie in with the authors' points and often seems distracting. The book is well written, though, and the authors, both of whom work at the Accenture Institute for Strategic Change, take an informed and well-balanced look at what is perhaps our society's most priceless, ephemeral commodity. --S. Ketchum
Book Description
Thought provoking
-Time Magazine
Welcome to the attention economy, in which the new scarcest resource isn't ideas or talent, but attention itself. This groundbreaking book argues that today's businesses are headed for disaster-unless they overcome the dangerously high attention deficits that threaten to cripple today's workplace. Learn to manage this critical yet finite resource, or fail!
"A worthy message"
-Publishers Weekly
AUTHORBIO: Thomas H. Davenport is the Director of the Accenture Institute for Strategic Change and author of Process Innovation and Working Knowledge, Harvard Business School Press. John C. Beck is an Associate Partner and Senior Research Fellow at the Accenture Institute for Strategic Change.
Download Description
In today's information-flooded world, the scarcest resource is not ideas or even talent: it's attention. In this groundbreaking book, Thomas Davenport and John Beck argue that unless companies learn to effectively capture, manage, and keep it--both internally and out in the marketplace--they'll fall hopelessly behind. In The Attention Economy, the authors also outline four perspectives on managing attention in all areas of business: 1) measuring attention, 2) understanding the psychobiology of attention, 3) using attention technologies to structure and protect attention, and 4) adapting lessons from traditional attention industries like advertising. Drawing from exclusive global research, the authors show how a few pioneering organizations are turning attention management into a potent competitive advantage and recommend what attention-deprived companies should do to avoid losing employees, customers, and market share. A landmark work on the twenty-first century's new critical competency, this book is for every manager who wants to learn how to earn and spend the new currency of business.
Customer Reviews:
The Attention Asset: Giving, Getting, Growing, and Keeping, It.......2006-12-31
This is a fine book! It is clear and creative writing on a novel concept and promising area - The Attention Economy.
On page 20 the book defines attention as a "focused mental engagement on a particular item of information. Items come into our awareness, we attend to a particular item, and then we decide whether to act" (original italics). From this definition it follows that The Attention Economy is a system for managing the attention asset. And why manage attention? Because attention is an economic (scarce) resource. Like Joan Robinson is believed to have put it, "Scarce resources command a positive price." In this case the price of attention is attention, or as the authors suggest: to get attention one has to give attention. In other words, scarcity compels (rational) choices, and on the margin of decisions choices have opportunity costs as well as benefits. To say that attention is a "focused mental engagement" is to say that producing attention requires lowering the opportunity cost of producing attention by specializing on the basis of a comparative advantage. Standard economics.
The book argues that the study of attention is important because business success depends on attention and attention management, just as it does other resources. While the options theory of asset pricing seems to apply to the attention asset as well, a key difference is that the attention asset is a perishable intangible. Information designed to get attention often perishes into gluts that may lead to "organizational attention deficit disorder" and on to bankruptcy, suggesting a need for attention management.
Chapters 3, 4, and 5 are nuggets of gold both analytically and in terms of descriptive content. Chapter 3 deals with the measurement of attention - pay attention to pages 40-47. Chapter 4, on "the psychobiology of attention", outlines general hierarchical schemes for understanding human needs relevant to giving, getting, growing, and keeping the attention resource. Chapter 5 is particularly about how a business can get people (its employees, customers, and competitors) to pay attention to its attention. Among many examples: It can use attention technologies such as customizing solutions; it can avoid shoving its attention onto others; and it can use its people to keep the attention it already gets.
The sixth chapter of the book gives examples of industries where one would find the attention resource in practical uses. These include: advertising, movies, TV, and publishing. A defining characteristic of attention in these industries is "stickiness", i.e., paying and keeping attention (see p. 115ff).
The next five chapters stress e-commerce, leadership, strategies, changes of organizational structure, and information and knowledge management, all in the attention economy. The last chapter looks to the future, especially to the challenges and prospects the attention economy presents.
This is a good book, and the first five chapters are especially good. Some of the last chapters sound more like the revolutions we heard so much about during the dotcom era. The revolutionaries then told us to completely forget the "old economy", and singularly embrace the "new economy". Such predictions turned out to be hoity-toity, mainly because revolutions rarely succeed; they are generally too destructive even for their own good. Many revolutions have failed because, whereas people dislike the effects of change, they hate the disruptions of revolutions. Having said all that, I would still recommend The Attention Economy as fine work and good reading.
Amavilah, Author
Modeling Determinants of Income in Embedded Economies
ISBN: 1600210465
Reads like a magazine.......2006-04-04
The book reads like a magazine with a lot of anecdotes, which is a direct credit to its authors who are trying to make a textbook readable and capture the attention of mgmt audience with the baby face on its cover. Perhaps this has given the impression that it's not a serious book. But it is.
As we get deluged with more information each day, each piece of information is fighting for our attention. An example would be the recent reverse trend by companies to have precise "smartbomb" placement of ads targeted at specific audience rather than pay-per-click ads in websites. The attention on Attention Management would increase in the next decade ahead. Already, organisations are talking about employee engagement instead of staff satisfaction to measure productivity and workplace morale.
Good read for management, marketeers, KM, OD and comms practitioners. Don's miss the AttentionScape in the book :)
The fundamentals for measuring engagement.......2006-02-28
The authors of this book see every business engine fueled by attention, defined as the focused mental engagement on a particular item of information. As the authors point out, during the industrial revolution, manpower drove the economy; in the information age, knowledge was power, in this business era, attention is the rare resource that powers companies. Companies need to recognize the value of attention, and lean how to direct it and manage it. The authors understand the broad spectrum of attention and have grouped them into "six units of attention currency." The six units are paired into opposites: Aversive-Attractive, Captive-Voluntary, Back-of-mind-Front-of-mind.
It deserves your attention.......2006-02-19
If only I could buy some time... Surely you must have felt this way. However, this book would convince you that you should have rather said: if I could buy some more attention... Overall, I found the book to be quite thought provoking. Here's why:
As the name of the book suggests we deal here with economy, and the study of economy essentially is about the management of scarce resources. In the more traditional economic perspective this scarce resource is money. However, the authors define an economy where the scarcity is attention. They explicitly disconnect attention management from time management.
The concept they introduce seem quite intuitive -- we have experienced it in marketing activities for a long-long time. Chapter 6 deals with lessons from the attention industries: advertising, movies, television, and publishing.
Thinking about anything we produce (in my world it would be computer software) as something that must compete for the scarce resource of attention surely opens up interesting avenues of thought. From a software perspective we need to develop soiftware that helps us manage our attention. At least 3 of the chapters deals with "stuff that should make information technology people think". Chapter 5 introduces attention technologies from 3 perspectives: attention-getting, attention-structuring and attention-protecting. Chapter 7 deals with e-commerce and attention, while Chapter 11 deals with Managing Information, Knowledge and Attention. It has the very apt chapter title "You've got (lots and lots of) mail".
Overall I found the book to be written in a very readable fashion. I first loaned it from somebodies desk which I was visiting and managed to read it in 3 evenings end-to-end. I found the thoughts in it ever so stimulating that I just had to buy a copy which I did.
If you like your thoughts to be provoked by looking at stuff in a new or different way, then this book will not let you down.
A book on attention; written for short attention span readers.......2006-01-15
There are several key themes in this book, but of course the prevailing idea is that of our "attention" based economy and the challenges of getting clear messages through the overload of information. With more and more information available everyday, the pressing matter for businesses and organizations is the ability to attract and keep your attention.
The book is written in the multi-visual short burst style of a magazine, as opposed to a more in depth prose. Some reviewers have commented negatively on this, and while I would agree it renders the material a bit lighter than it could be, it also uses the context of the subject matter ironically well in presenting the information in a way it can be absorbed quickly and in disconnected settings.
The highlights for me included the section on the different types of attention; captive, voluntary, aversive, and so on, describing each type and giving examples of how to alter and adopt your message to reach through the pitfalls of each style. The sections on customer stickiness are well traveled but fitting to this subject dialog.
Also discussed were several elements of organizational structure, design, leadership and how these foster or hinder the kind of attention the business needs from its people to get the desired results. Anyone faced with the challenge of trying to gain buy in for a cross group, or cross cultural, implementation of an organizational process knows the value of the message and the ability to gain the attention and focus of the recipients is the key to the success or failure of the change.
I would have liked to see more in depth study and examples on best practices and methodologies used to overcome the information saturation present in most businesses. The ability to create and deliver clarity and purpose, and stay on message long enough to gain the change needed is a key leadership component that is often overlooked. The author's examples of Jack Welch were right on, as he is likely one of the best ever at getting messages, and most importantly attention, through a large and diverse organization.
Overall, the book is a great overview of an important subject for businesses now and in the future where this becomes even more difficult, it is always interesting and readable, and therefore worthwhile.
Book Description
The first "how-to-do-it" book in English, it is written specifically for professionals in product engineering, manufacturing engineering, and value engineering; and the managers of these professionals, including plant managers, production managers, manufacturing executives, and research and development executives. It will also be useful to manufacturing, marketing, and management people concerned with product improvement, innovation, and improving their company's competitive position. Value analysis tear-down can be applied in many service and other industries, as well as in manufacturing; wherever there are physical components to be improved or invented.
Average customer rating:
- Good overview of successful high tech business models
- Esoteric, not much new
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Marketing Strategies for the New Economy
Lars Tvede ,
Peter Ohnemus , and
Robert Montgomery
Manufacturer: Wiley
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Two men meet a big bear in the forest. One of them sits down to put on his running shoes. The other looks at him and says: "It's no use. You cannot outrun a bear anyway". The first one answers: "I don't have to outrun the bear. I just have to outrun you."
Speed against competitors is just one of the key lessons outlined in this book from Lars Tvede and Peter Ohnemus. E-business is here for good and people are waking up to the fact that traditional marketing techniques may not stand up to new requirements set out by the "new economy". The question is, "which of the traditional techniques still work, and which techniques need to be revamped?" The authors outline marketing strategies that use traditional methods where appropriate but, where required, introduce new techniques. These techniques are part of a new, distinctive school of thought in marketing - the 'Digital School of Marketing'. Traditional marketing schools, for example, have observed the importance of moving fast - in the Digital School fast is not just important, it is crucial: it took Microsoft ten years to reach 100 million dollars in revenue, AOL spent nine years, Yahoo! spent five years, Onsale four, Amazon three, and Priceline spent just one and a half years reaching 100 million dollars in revenue. Speed is just one of the key lessons to learn from this book. Whether you are an entrepreneur out there on your own or a marketer in a large company, read on to discover how you can temper your marketing strategies to bring them in line with what is required today.
Synopsis
The high tech industry is expanding and will continue to expand rapidly. Every year it attracts new professionals, some of whom come from other industries that are very different in nature, especially where marketing is concerned. Also, these individuals, whilst technically very able, have limited understanding of marketing. This book will be the definitive guide to anyone involved in the marketing of high tech products and, as such will fill a gap for a book that describes all aspects of marketing management as practised by the most successful executives in the high tech industry. Although there is a plethora of books on the subject of the digital economy, e-commerce and high tech marketing this is the first book to actually provide a comprehensive understanding of the dynamics of the high tech markets. It also contains information on how companies in this sector need to position themselves correctly so that they can capture value; and to provide the information for the creation of a strategy to leverage their resources through co-operation with other companies.
While some aspects of marketing strategy apply across many sectors, there are a number of factors that are distinctive to high-tech businesses. It is therefore of value to any manager in the high-tech industry to understand the specific challenges and opportunities that a marketing strategist will confront when operating within the high-tech industry. Marketing Strategies for the New Economy provides clear explanations of how and where value and profits typically are generated in the high-tech business and how management can develop and execute strategies to position their high-tech companies for lasting success. To give the book a practical edge beyond these concepts, the authors present a "critical path" which is a coherent framework that pulls together these concepts, enabling the reader to implement a winning strategy in this highly competitive field. This work is designed to provide a comprehensive understanding of the dynamics of the high tech markets. It presents examples of marketing plan structures, a high-tech marketing audit, and a chronology of major marketing breakthroughs.
Customer Reviews:
Good overview of successful high tech business models.......2002-01-31
I am a seasoned marketing VP for a high tech company. While I would in no way characterize this as a comprehensive marketing manual for high tech marketers, I did find it very useful from one perspective: it provides a simple overview of what it takes for a company to succeed in the technology space including a very succinct and readable overview of many different value-generating business models. It then relates these business models to appropriate marketing tactics. I gleaned some "nuggets" that will help my company become a more successful enterprise. For this reason alone, the book was well worth the price. It is just over 200 pages and can be read in one sitting.
Esoteric, not much new.......2001-05-02
Lots of anecdotal information attempting to tie in the so-called 'New Economy' with historical trends. It doesn't quite convince. A lot of theory, as if meant for an academic audience. I don't see a lot of real world application here. I doubt the authors have experience running a successful real-world business.
Average customer rating:
- IT Synergy that Promotes Productivity
- A Balanced View of the New Economy
- In-depth analysis and evidence of the role of IT
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Information Technology, Corporate Productivity, and the New Economy
Stephan Kudyba , and
Romesh Diwan
Manufacturer: Quorum Books
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Book Description
The authors bring a dual perspective--that of a practicing consultant and that of a professor of economics--to the complex strategic questions facing managers and corporate leaders who want their firms to get the most out of their investments in information technology. The information economy is built upon the myriad and sometimes unforeseen ways in which information technologies have become engines of productivity in themselves, rather than just fancy adjuncts. In explaining the rise of the information economy, the authors provide not only valuable context often missing from today's discussions but also a thorough understanding of the origination, development, and diffusion process of innovations. They also examine prevailing practices and implications for the future, including the potential pitfalls common to some information technology strategies. Relying on an underpinning of economic theory combined with heavy empirical analysis, Kudyba and Diwan describe the true nature of the information economy, paying as much attention to its particularities as to its more profound implications. How is information technology being implemented across industry sectors, and how can it be harnessed to improve overall firm-level productivity? How have innovations in high technology impacted e-commerce? Which e-commerce strategies prevail, and what can be expected of them? How can traditional economic theory help managers evaluate such in-vogue strategies as customer relationship management, market exchanges, and supply chain management? The authors answer these questions and more, including one of the most vexing in the short history of e-commerce: What led to the demise of so many technology stocks and dot-coms following the spring 2000 Nasdaq plunge, and what are the longer-term prospects for e-business?
Customer Reviews:
IT Synergy that Promotes Productivity.......2002-05-29
This is the first book I've seen that provides a clear understanding of the
essential components of IT that have come together to create a strategic
corporate infrastructure to help augment business operations. Given the
current consolidation in the Tech industry, "IT, Corporate Productivity and
the New Economy" puts the "New Economy" in perspective, as it provides
insights into those innovations that are here to stay and show promise for
the future.
The key to corporate profitability is to achieve efficiencies throughout the
organization. This book sheds light on how IT can drive this process and
enable companies to prosper during periods of both high and low economic
growth .
A Balanced View of the New Economy.......2002-04-17
If you want to gain a clear understanding of concepts such as
The New Economy,Productivity and the Information Age, take the time to read this. The authors provide a clear description of how IT has impacted corporate operations and productivity in general without jumping blindly on the buzzword bandwagon.
Despite the importance of IT in the economy, the authors portray a realistic view of the Tech sector. Chapter 9, which addresses the formation and demise of the IT Bubble was particularly enlightening. After reading this book, you'll be able to fully grasp the phrase "engines of productivity growth" with a balanced view.
In-depth analysis and evidence of the role of IT.......2002-04-13
The strength of this book is that it marries the marco-level analysis with the micro-level to create a holistic picture of what is going on in the IT payoff world. Kudyba and Diwan present an in-depth yet lively discussion of what leads to productivity and profitability and the challenges we face on the way.
Few authors have approached the subject with the clarity of thought backed up with facts. My favorite two chapters in the book are Chapters 6 and 7 that discuss software applications that enhance knowledge and economic principles and IT, respectively. The reader is informed of the building blocks of what leads to IT productivity in the new economy. This book is a great source for someone who wants to really understand the inner workings of IT payoff.
Books:
- Tough Choices or Tough Times: The Report of the New Commission on the Skills of the American Workforce
- Toward a North American Community: Lessons from the Old World for the New
- Training to See: A Value Stream Mapping Workshop: A Value Stream Mapping Workshop (Lean Enterprise Institute)
- Transfer Pricing Methods: An Applications Guide
- Understanding Emerging Markets: Building Business Bric by Brick (Response Books) (Response Books)
- A Thousand Barrels a Second: The Coming Oil Break Point and the Challenges Facing an Energy Dependent World
- Accident Prevention Manual for Business & Industry: Administration & Programs (Occupational Safety and Health) (Occupational Safety and Health Series (Chicago, Ill.).)
- After the Washington Consensus: Restarting Growth and Reform in Latin America
- America the Broke: How the Reckless Spending of The White House and Congress are Bankrupting Our Country and Destroying Our Children's Future
- An Introduction to Third World Theologies (Introduction to Religion)
Books Index
Books Home
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Breakthrough
Five Minds for the Future
A Whole New Mind: Why Right-Brainers Will Rule the Future
The Knowledge Deficit
Turnaround Leadership (Jossey-Bass Leadership Library in Education)
