Book Description
Widely practiced by many Fortune 500 companies, global outsourcing has become one of the key strategic imperatives for successful enterprises. Often referred to as offshore outsourcing, services globalization is the next step in the evolution of global trade and capitalism. Top organizations are performing, buying, selling, and transforming services at an incredibly quick pace.
Written by outsourcing and global services experts Atul and Avinash Vashistha, The Offshore Nation presents a comprehensive, balanced view of the rapid growth of outsourcing and its expanding role in corporate strategy, providing a roadmap for business leaders and upper-level managers to plan their own strategies. Drawing upon their vast experience as consultants to Fortune 1000, multinational corporations, the authors help you determine what role offshore services should play in your company, how to integrate the strategy into your overall corporate identity, and successfully manage the initiative on an enterprise-wide level.
This practical, strategy-packed guide outlines the "big picture" of outsourcing, breaking down its different components and examining its impact on world and local economies and employment shifts. Covering outsourcing in many different countries and a variety of services--from IT, telecom, and customer service to accounting--the authors reveal best practices and step-by-step, proven methods for:
- Building a sound globalization strategy
- Identifying the processes that are mature enough to send offshore
- Choosing the right business model for globalizing IT, back office, and other services
- Attracting and retaining customers
- Effectively managing your suppliers
Chock-full of valuable insights and tactical advice, The Offshore Nation is the authoritative primer for global outsourcing, helping companies to minimize the risks and maximize their return on investment.
Customer Reviews:
Highly informative and readable.......2006-07-11
This book provides a great framework for analyzing and determining the why, what, how and where of offshoring. If your organization is considering a shift towards offshoring, then you should find this book very useful in helping you think through the business case. The book does not drown you in details, but still provides a comprehensive overview of the offshoring industry.
Highly recommended.......2006-05-18
"The Offshore Nation - The Rise of Services Globalization" is an excellent guide for companies putting together their offshore strategy, as well as for companies that have already done it but want better results. It beautifully captures the global trends and gives practical yet comprehensive guidelines on how to do offshoring right - things that come out straight from the authors' rich experience in the area. Highly recommended.
Make Sure You're Looking for Info on OFFSHORING - not OUTSOURCING.......2006-05-15
Offshoring and Outsourcing just got jumbled again in the American vocabulary. The Offshore Nation is written by experts on the Indian BPO marketplace. If thats what you're trying to understand, this book is very helpful. If your goal is limited to large corporation, call center projects or transaction processing, this book is very helpful.
For all other areas of Outsourcing, I highly recommend you read any one of the other books who don't confuse offshoring and outsourcing better than Lou Dobbs.
A must read even if you don't outsource or are not in the business of outsourcing.......2006-05-12
Atul's book `The Offshore Nation' offers a very insightful ring-side view of the macro-economic trend towards globalization of services and how organizations and business leaders can effectively leverage this in a global economy for competitive advantage. Atul through his organization, NeoIT, has played a lead role in shaping the sourcing strategies of global organizations and the book is both thought provoking as well as prescriptive. It is a must read even if you don't outsource or are not in the business of outsourcing, for sooner or later, you will be a part of this global economy where work moves to where it gets done best."
A Must Read for Managing Today And Leading Into The Future.......2006-05-08
Speaking as the CEO of Sourcing Interests Group, a major ongoing outsourcing forum, The Offshore Nation hits a homerun in providing practical, immediately useful insight into the many facets and considerations of offshore outsourcing. Clearly this is one of the most important books on outsourcing that has ever been written. I highly recommend it.
Book Description
Branding has become so successful and so ubiquitous that even cultural institutions have embraced it. In this witty and trenchant social analysis, James Twitchell shows how churches, universities, and museums have learned to embrace Madison Avenue rather than risk losing market share.
Branded Nation uncovers a society where megachurches resemble shopping malls (and not by accident); where a university lives or dies on the talents of its image makers -- and its ranking in U.S. News & World Report; and where museums have turned to motorcycle exhibits and fashion shows to bolster revenue, even franchising their own institutions into brands. In short, says Twitchell, high culture is beginning to look more and more like the rest of our culture. But in perhaps his most subversive observation, he doesn't condemn this trend; on the contrary, he believes that branding may be invigorating our high culture, bringing it to new audiences and making it a more integral part of our lives.
Savvy, sharply observed, and bitingly funny, Branded Nation is sure to both enlighten and entertain.
Download Description
Branding, says James Twitchell, is nothing more than commercial storytelling; brands are the stories that are associated with products. (For example, the special taste of Evian, says Twitchell, is in the brand, not the water.) Branding has become so successful, so ubiquitous that even institutions that we thought were above branding, antithetical to branding, have succumbed. Such cultural institutions as religion, higher education, and the art world have learned to love Madison Avenue or lose market share. Of course, most ministers, university presidents, and museum directors will insist that branding has nothing to do with them, but as Twitchell brilliantly demonstrates in this witty, insightful examination of three of our most important cultural institutions, wherever supply exceeds demand branding follows.
Customer Reviews:
Engaging and informative, but not his best work.......2006-02-20
I first became aware of Jim Twitchell when I saw him speak at a conference in 2003. When he began his speech with a description of Florentine churches as one of the earliest examples of competitive branding, I was hooked, and have since read a number of his books. Branded Nation examines religion, academia, and art, and explains how these areas are just as permeated by the commercialism of our society as any other, despite the special status they've been accorded. His message resonated with me and served to explain changes I've seen in religion, education, and museums in my own lifetime. I would agree with another reviewer who mentioned that this title seems drag a bit in the museum section. Nonetheless, Twitchell's style is intellectually engaging, and takes the edge off what might be considered a cynical view.
Didn't do much for me..........2005-09-28
I don't disagree with the central ideas of this book, and the writing was simple and easy to understand. I just felt it was stretched out waaaaaay too long - the last chapter on museums, especially, just dragged. It felt like I was reading a college textbook that just trudged on and on. That's not necessarily bad, but this is a book for the masses, not a marketing class, and I just felt like it could have been edited down a lot more and still not have left anything out.
A "why do the way things work the way they do?" book.......2005-06-30
In this lively book, James Twitchell helps illuminate some of the interesting consequences when non-profits -- embodied in this book as Megachurch, College Inc, and Museumworld -- borrow branding techniques to market themselves.
I found the introduction a little long and academic (e.g., he talks about how the romanticism of Wordsorth and Keats influences modern branding). But the book gets progressively better. In my opinion, his best chapter is on the college (appropriate, since the author is a professor at the University of Florida).
Here's an illuminating analogy from the chapter (which he cites from another source): "If Consumer Reports functioned like U.S. News [in ranking colleges], it would rank cars on the amount of steel and plastic used in their construction, the opinions of competing car dealers, the driving skills of customers, the percentage of managers and sales people with MBAs, and the sticker price on the vehicle (the higher, the better)."
This book is not a polemic: it isn't trying to convince you that churches, colleges and musuems _shouldn't_ market themselves. It's just trying to explain what happens when nonprofits _do_ market themselves. I'll never look at the college admissions process or a musuem gift shop the same way again.
The writing is lively, and the book has a few well-chosen images to underscore its points. Bottom line: it's well worth a read. It's one of those books which help you understand why things are the way they are -- e.g., why modern musuems have restaurants, why universities have development offices, and why parking is crucial to the growth of mega-churches.
Ironic, but not pessimistic.......2005-04-22
Twitchell takes a very ironic look at the way churches, museums, and higher education have used branding to survive. It's ironic in that while the effects of this might seem undesirable or even embarrassing, we the public are merely getting what we ask for...we're just consumers. Then Twitchell explains why, in some cases, the effects of this branding are not undesirable after all.
The most insightful section of the book covers the branded-ness of higher education (appropriately so, since Twitchell is himself a professor). Twitchell describes American higher eduction choices as a barbell, with elite colleges such as Harvard on one end and "convenience" colleges (think Wal-Mart) on the other end, with the institutions in the middle feeling the real squeeze to differentiate themselves. Also included is an interesting look at the US News & World Report college list phenomenon as well as a look at why convenience colleges might not be as bad as you think. Twitchell even includes some practical insight on where college dollars might be best spent.
I found the megachurch section to be only so-so. Perhaps because I am very familiar with megachurches I found many of his points to be pretty boring. (Guess what - megachurches have modern sounding music!?) The section on Willow Creek finding its marketing niche (men) was interesting, however. If you are reading this book primarily to learn about megachurches I might recommend The Transformation of American Religion by Alan Wolfe instead. It is a bit more scientific and objective in its study.
Twtichell's writing style is a bit odd...not bad, but just a little different. At times he does ramble a bit but then suddenly includes a dense and insightful sentence. This style kept my interest but made the book a careful, not quick, read. Also important is the reader's willingness to buy into the definition of "brand" as STORY. This may be a mental jump for some.
In short, this is an enjoyable book. You won't look at college, church, or museums in the same way.
Marketing Where You Least Expected It.......2004-09-22
James Twitchell has written extensively on advertising and consumerism, and knows that consumers are not logical. If we were, he says, we would know that we needed, say, a laundry detergent, and would research to see what detergent was best, perhaps checking to see what the boffins at _Consumer Reports_ might recommend. Then we would take the recommendation to the grocery store, where we would see a very restricted number of possible logical choices. It doesn't work that way for detergent, nor, these days, does it work that way for churches, museums, or universities. In _Branded Nation: The Marketing of Megachurch, College Inc., and Museumworld_ (Simon & Schuster) Twitchell has written a funny and scary evaluation of the pervasiveness of marketing in American life beyond the grocery shelves.
The problem with laundry detergents is that there are plenty of them, offered by many suppliers, and most of them are interchangeable. There is very little difference between them, so it is necessary for the manufacturers to create a story about the brand, how it is "clothesline-fresh", perhaps, or how the power-granules go to work on stains. Twitchell's thesis is that schools, museums, and churches are all supplying pretty much the same thing, and to up their market share, they are telling stories about themselves (branding) and as good consumers, we are going along with them. We think that museums have a higher calling than competing for a market share, that they don't really pay attention to the turnstiles, and that they are "... only the custodians of, shhh, please be quiet, don't touch, the deep truth." However true this may have been in the past, it is no longer. There has been a huge growth in the numbers of museums, the theme of a surplus of goods, though we don't usually view museums that way. The "modern, formal, self-conscious museum" is not what people go to as much as they go to theme exhibits, like "Jacqueline Kennedy: The White House Years" at the Metropolitan Museum of Art; the theme is the brand and holds the emotion. For decades there have been more college students than seats in the classroom, so the marketing had to begin. Harvard wouldn't admit as much, but it has a great brand. Twitchell (who is a professor of English at the University of Florida, an institution that does not avoid some withering remarks here) sniffs at the Harvard record, which he says lacks real substance. What's good about Harvard is not what comes out, but what goes in: "the best students, the most money, and the deepest faith in the brand." In churches, the product, epiphany or salvation, is undifferentiated, producing cut-throat competition for the stable forty percent of people who go to church regularly; this number does not go up, so churches are taking customers (sometimes known as parishioners) from one another. Twitchell examines the brand shifts in Protestantism that are the same as when Sam's Club comes to town: warehouse churches, of no particular denomination, on the outside of town with huge parking lots.
It is disconcerting and amusing to hear of these important spheres of life described in marketing terms, but Twitchell knows the lingo. All of them, for instance, are LBEs, or Location Based Entertainments. While his evaluations may be controversial, this is no polemic; Twitchell does not find branding bad; other marketing systems are simply antiquated. Brands have become motivators, "the basis not just of interactions but of interior actions." He thinks that identification with brands may be the way we will continue to spread common knowledge and beliefs, and that it thus may be the foundation of community. States are practicing branding (for instance, in advertising as vacation destinations), and countries are, too. Twitchell quotes a CEO who is looking at the big picture: "What makes us good at selling soap can help us sell America." Perhaps so, but even Twitchell speculates that the story of America, which could be best summarized as "complexity" may at this time be overwhelmed by the perceived story of "an arrogant rogue."
Book Description
In this authoritative new book, Simon Anholt shows in detail what countries, cities and regions can do to build and sustain their competitive identity.
Book Description
A 6 volume audio cassette program based on the popular book Successful Cold Call Selling, published by Amacom, the book publishing division of the American Management Association. Making unsolicited calls to strangers is a frightening thought to many; few do it well. This program will help you to quickly gain confidence and skills when approaching new prospects either by phone or in person.
Customer Reviews:
Can cold calling ever really be successful?.......2007-06-02
This book is a `sales' classic and its advice may have worked 10 years ago. However, in today's world of voice mail, email, and savvy gatekeepers cold calling is pretty much a worn out and useless activity (I know: heresy, heresy, everyone screams). As Jill Konrath says in her book "Selling to Big Companies" we are now in the `perfect storm' of sales and cold call resistance. No-one has time for cold callers and the same tired approaches. Better book selections for lead generation are "Selling to Big Companies" and "Selling Against the Goal."
That said, we all must do cold calling at some level. While I really needed help in this area and hoped to find it here, I didn't. There was nothing `new' in the book. I know about creating scripts and the other advice the book offers: benefits selling, value propositions, etc. The book didn't help my cold calling confidence or help me overcome my reluctance and actual aversion to cold calling.
In the spirit of learning.......2006-04-27
Boyan's book really follows through with the idea that it's not about you it's about them(the potential customer). He really focuses on looking for benefits and presenting these benefits to the client. This idea of helping other's to see potential in ideas they hadn't thought of before is really where the heart of this book is at. The only reason it's not five stars for me is that it seems a bit lengthy and repeditive in a couple of spots, but beyond that two thumbs up. :)
Phenomenal coaching from a real-life sales superstar !.......2003-12-28
First of all, my career background touches
many fields, such as computers, internet,
customer service, sales, telemarketing,
insurance, finance, telecommunications
and so on.
In a previous existence or job, I handled
thousands of outbound sales calls, mixed
with inbound, as well.
I've done veyr well well in my field, but also,
I've witnessed some sales superstars with equal
and sometimes, even better sales experience and
results than my own.
Reading the 260 pages of this book, by Mr Lee Boyan,
I have to admit this man is the right man to coach
veteran and newbie sales reps alike.
The door-to-door selling, or in personal sales,
coupled with telemarketing or outbound sales,
advice is obviously, plainly based in reality.
Frequently, the advice he gives, I find I've been
practicing many of those points all along, by
learning through my own mistakes, but also, by
knowing what worked the best, and by natural talent,
and also, by picking up from co-workers.
The bottom line, is that this book will easily FINE-TUNE
your own techniques, approaches. It will inform you
of new skills, perhaps you've never used in a job
situation (either on the phone, or in person, or
setting appointments). It will make you realize of many
small tricks you felt were "your own" but actually, are
techniques all pros should be using, all the time, on
the job.
This book was written 1983, and then revised in 1989,
yet it feels like it was written this year !!!
That's how good it is.
Selling techniques over the phone, etc........2003-01-28
The author did a very good job of sticking to his objective of only teaching you cold calling techniques; that is, techniques to get the appointment, not techniques on how to sell once you got that appointment. He had many, many good ideas; some of which I learned, some of which I knew but had to be reminded of. I would recommend his book to anyone wanting to do a better job at cold call prospecting. The one big negative I would say about this book is that he took too many pages to get his points across, much too verbose. I got tierd of reading it, and kept telling myself, OK, when is he going to get to the point. Other than that, I would highly recommend the book.
Learn how to prospect.......2002-03-22
Boyan's book is essentially a book about prospecting and turning those prospects into appointments with potential customers. He teaches readers to present themselves as problem solvers to potential customers' concerns. The emphasis throughout the book is placed on the customers. Boyan devotes a chapter to customer psychology and gives consideration to the reasons why customers make purchasing decisions. Although somewhat simplified, his suggestion for addressing a customer's concern by paraphrasing it so the customer feels like you understand him, and then offering a solution can be used in a number of ways to persuade customers to make an appointment with you. The only problem is he only presents one way to address a customer's concerns and pretty soon the customer catches on to your technique and stops listening to you. But still I recommend it. It's worth [the price], and the techniques presented in this book have lead me to make appointments with customers that eventually lead to $5,000 aluminum siding sales, $8,000 kitchen remodeling sales, and $4,000 windows sales.
Average customer rating:
- Misleading title
- Useful but lacks innovation.
|
The MARKETING OF NATIONS
Philip Kotler ,
Somkid Jatusripitak , and
Suvit Maesincee
Manufacturer: Free Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
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| Popular Economics
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| Economics
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Economic Policy & Development
| Economics
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| Economics
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ASIN: 068483488X |
Book Description
From the world's leading marketing guru, Philip Kotler, together with co-authors Somkid Jatusripitak and Suvit Maesincee, comes a new framework for successfully building national wealth by marketing to the world. With the rise of the global marketplace, no nation can afford to focus solely on a healthy domestic economy; its leaders must also develop policies-based on a mission and a vision -- to guide their day-to-day efforts to grow the nation's economy. The Marketing of Nations is the first book in its field to connect macroeconomic public policy with the microeconomic behavior of industries, firms, and consumers, and the first to apply strategic planning to the building of national wealth. Step by step, the authors show how managers, corporate strategists, and government policymakers and planners can determine the pathways that will best achieve economic development in the context of world markets.
Within this strategic framework, nations can assess their strengths and weaknesses, identify their best opportunities, and implement competitive global policies and strategies designed to achieve long-run national prosperity. With plentiful case material on Japan, the Four Tigers, China, India, Southeast Asia, Latin America, and Eastern Europe, the authors provide the first comprehensive synthesis of economic, political, and cultural factors that affect economic progress in all nations, both industrial and developing. Rather than relying on any one set of forces that drive growth, the authors present a broad spectrum of potential stimulants to economic progress so readers can better anticipate arguments and counter-arguments favoring one course of economic development or another. This path-blazing work is the first to provide operational and management guidance to government and business leaders. It is also the first to bridge the typically large gap between what government officials set as policies at the national level and the actual workings of the business system at the local level. The Marketing of Nations shows that national policies must be grounded in a deep understanding of the actual behavior of producers, distributors, and consumers in the marketplace.
The authors present their materials in a clear four-part package. They begin with an exploration of the challenge of economic development, and then proceed to the means of formulating a strategic national vision. Next they discuss development of policies, infrastructures, and institutional frameworks, and finally they demonstrate how the nation and the company must work together to achieve prosperity.
Customer Reviews:
Misleading title.......2001-10-19
This book is more about economic development and government policy than the marketing of nations. Some of the economics is quite good for a marketing guy but some of it is questionable as well. This book might still be worth reading if you already have a solid understanding of development economics. I was hoping there would be more on the promotion component of marketing.
Useful but lacks innovation........1997-10-14
I purchased this book with great anticipation: Kotler is a giant in his field (marketing) and Free Press published Mike Porter's Competitive Advantage of Nations, which is the classic in the field of how nations develop.
The book turns out to be a good list of things to think about and I will use it from time to time from my bookshelf, but there is no teachable, integrated model for change. Its mostly a listing of other people's models for development and I was looking for a fresh perspective.
Book Description
In this wide-ranging and perceptive work of cultural criticism, Joseph Heath and Andrew Potter shatter the most important myth that dominates much of radical political, economic, and cultural thinking. The idea of a counterculture -- a world outside of the consumer-dominated world that encompasses us -- pervades everything from the antiglobalization movement to feminism and environmentalism. And the idea that mocking or simply hoping the "system" will collapse, the authors argue, is not only counterproductive but has helped to create the very consumer society radicals oppose.
In a lively blend of pop culture, history, and philosophical analysis, Heath and Potter offer a startlingly clear picture of what a concern for social justice might look like without the confusion of the counterculture obsession with being different.
Customer Reviews:
A disappointing philosophical meandering........2007-09-13
This book fails to fulfill it's promise.
I thought this was going to be a historical explanation of "Why Counterculture Became Consumer Culture". It is not. At 366 pages, it is a whirlwind tour of popular philosophy (with a little psychoanalysis and economic theory thrown in), applied in broad strokes to the idea of "counterculture". It would be difficult for even a more compelling writer to satisfactorily explain even one of these topics at that short length. The authors' thesis is unclear, and at times their brief explanations of others' ideas are simply incorrect.
This book smacks of self-righteousness, and is just not very smart. It could have been an engaging, informative exploration of the factors that caused (and continue to cause) cultural rebellion to feed the very culture it wishes to negate. Instead, it is a snarky, vacuous diatribe against hippies and punks - presented as a feat of intellectual maneuvering.
For the layperson with no prior knowledge of the ideas they present (and I don't mean popular culture or punk rock), it is at best misleading. For the reader with even a basic working knowledge of the concepts at hand, it is simplistic and irritating. It has the feel of a thesis-turned-manuscript written by overzealous, grown-up-punk philosophy students - and I suspect that that is exactly what it is.
Don't bother me until you're better read.......2006-12-07
This is the reason why I never went into the philosophy department at my university. There's far too much supposition, superstition, and plain old bunk, and far too little accurate history, or concrete science to call this anything other than 336 pages of opinion.(EG: most of their examples are movies released within the past 10 years, to try to explain the motives and mindset of over 200 years worth of thinking! I think the very definition of "failing to research" would be watching the movie, instead of reading the book, yes?)
Given the nature of online reviewers, I expect very few people will agree with my review. Fair enough. But, I wouldn't suggest this book to anyone. It's ideology masked as overview. If you're interested in the idea of how revolutionaries become reactionaries, and in how fire-breathing professional agitators actually support the system they are trying to overthrow, you'll be sorely underwhelmed with the arguments. If, however, you're a neoconservative trying to rationalize your myopia, this will be a great addition to your collection of Bill O'Reilly transcripts.This was a complete waste of my money, and time.
Interesting and eye opening read.......2006-10-23
I've never been an anti-consumer/culture jammer so I wasn't really offended by the book's dismantling of the "Rebellion" thought process. It was very interesting how they picked apart the anti-capitalist mentality.
One of the main points the authors make, is that no matter what we do as consumers, we feed capitalism. There really is no escape. Everything we do, eat and purchase drives consumerism somewhere in the world. So, no matter how "anti-consumer" or "anti-capitalist" you think you are by eating certain foods and buying certain brands, in the end, you've affected not one corporation.
It's a very interesting read, and really opened my eyes to how I think about consumerism. The book also dives pretty deep into other Ideologies such as Marxism.
I think the authors stay true to the subject at hand and do a pretty good job of staying in the middle of the road politically. Yes, they use some left-wingers as examples, but doesn't make this a anti-liberal book.
Extremely thought provoking.......2006-06-05
This is an insightful and important book. Its main impact for me was to expose many of the prevelant counter-culture ideas/philosophies/attitudes (ones that have influenced me) as logically incoherent and ineffectual. After reading this book I feel closer to the truth and what more can you ask for from this kind of book? Solutions, maybe?? The only solution according to the authors is to get involved in the democratic process.
My only minor gripe about this book is that I wish they hadn't gone on about The Matrix quite as much.
some serious consequences of picking up chicken........2006-03-18
so one of these guys was born in 1967, but still "came of age in the late 1970s," grew up on a farm in saskatoon, has picked up a chicken, but apparently nobody -else- in the late 1970s, & was unable to do so because he didnt know the rules.
& the other one of these guys was born in 1970, was an army brat, but still had purple hair, a nose piercing & maybe a burberry raincoat, fluevogs & either docs or the other ones, & certainly wasnt trying to pick up a chick in the late 1970s, even w/ bad or -bad- boots, because that would really be too young-- anyway, he's from toronto, & at one point, he had a bicycle over his head, only he doesnt want it there any more.
i think i have that right. or approximately.
& i would say neither of them knows much about the counterculture, but that is not true. what they know, & know well, is the counterculture after it has been relentlessly marketed. & that has been since the late 70s, &, mostly since video killed the radio star: 1981.
because it can be claimed, but not well, that although intellectuals may have thought & wanted a lot of things [guy debord? people all over the world, & lots of them, were spending A LOT OF TIME listening to guy debord? when? before the 70s?] the world itself was not listening to guy debord, in the states it was electing richard nixon, fighting the viet nam war, & building Levittowns. &, while although there was protest, & there was a "youth movement," & people had, finally, begun to question all of this, to use just one basic example, before "easy rider" was made -nobody- expected it to be a hit. it was a "little" movie. it was a "biker" movie. yep, there was an upsurgence of rebel movies in the 60s, early 70s. & art, & music & all the rest of it-- what happened, unfortunately, from this is what always happens, the market took notice & that was when the market BEGAN to MOVE. it took a while to get to the point where the RebelMarket earned the place it has today. OH, GOOD.
& so now we have the RebelMarket, now that the polltakers, & the previewers, & all the people the authors like a lot better than i do have come in. the marketers of every stripe & variation. & they HAVE leeched the creativity out of the arts. no question about it. & the UrbanMarket is only the VERY, VERY worst of the markets-- it has been here the longest now, & is the most politically specious, & terribly insidious.
but they do discuss this, for a very short time. & whichever it is that does, gets it right, the same way they do the dreadful, & dreadfully corrupt kalle lasn.
not the way they do w/ the ideas that:
barnes & noble brought comfortable chairs & coffee to bookshops!
or:
a prop to wal-mart!
WAL-MART!
[come on! there is such a thing as swinging WAY too far the other way!]
or:
couldnt they have, at some point, just ASKED baudrillard his thoughts on windshield wiper blades? if they really had to know? even this old punkrocker was talking to him in 1997. dont know whats happened to him since.....
or (heh-heh):
that nobody has thought of telling people to get treppanned!
(check out amanda fielding. really. check out her VIDEOTAPE)
or:
there was NO good to the 60s hippie culture. i think they even have what YIPPIE stands for wrong.
or:
wearing converse high tops was the same as wearing nikes. even if they were hawked by julius erving.
come again? high-tops? on joey ramone? did he buy them NEW? where'd he get the money? especially at first. punkrockers NEVER had any money. we really DID live on the street, or dxmned close.
not like:
first generation punkrockers all had multiple ear-piercings.
um, were you there?
you were there in *1988*.
&, in fact, most of these guys' observations-- everything they didnt read-- come from around that time, which INVALIDATES a lot of it. it gets more & more frightening, at least to this corespondent, how much is assumed about how culture functioned in times that one writes about that one does not know.
Book Description
Coining the term anglosphere to describe a loose coalition based on a common language and heritage, James C. Bennett believes that traits common to America and other English-speaking nations--a particularly strong and independent civil society; openness and receptivity to the world, its people, and ideas; and a dynamic economy--have uniquely positioned them to prosper in a time of dramatic technological and scientific change. In a wide-ranging exploration back to the Industrial Revolution and into the future, The Anglosphere Challenge gives voice to a growing movement on both sides of the Atlantic.
Customer Reviews:
Fascinating ideas about history and the future.......2005-10-27
James C. Bennett explores some reasons for why English speaking names with an English heritage have done so well over the last couple centuries, and why they will continue to do well. The author points out that history is a pretty good indicator of the future. If we can understand why certain cultures have been successful, we may be able to understand which cultures will do well in the future.
This book is full of interesting ideas and observations. One of them is there are two types of problems, bounded and unbounded. Bounded problems have clear answers. A simple bounded problem is what is "2 + 2" with a clear answer of four. There are more complex bounded problems, like how much fuel with a 747 use carrying 187 people from Chicago to Atlanta. The problem is well defined, and the issues are all pretty much all known. Unbounded problems do not have clear definitions, let alone clear answers, at least in the beginning. Which video format is going to dominate, VHS or Beta? Who is going to win the next presidential election? What recent technological developments will become important in the future? This reminded me of "The Wisdom of Crowds" by James Surowiecki. James Surowiecki says that under certain situations a large group of people can make better decisions than a few experts. James Bennett points out that often the private sector does a much better job of dealing with unbounded problems, and that the culture of the Anglosphere tends to promote private sector solutions.
Another interesting idea builds on the economic principle that specialization with trade allows greater economic development. If an individual had to depend on everything he produced he would have to be a subsistence farmer and/or hunter. But as families, communities, cities, and nations develop, along with the ability to trade with others, people can increase their productiveness by focusing on specific areas of interest or expertise. Adam Smith used showed the value of this when talking about a group of manufactures who each focused on a single step in the production of sewing needles. James Bennett says that by increasing the level of trade and trust to include other nations, there can be greater economic growth. Those nations in the Anglosphere have an easier time trading with each other, which allows even more specialization. It is hard to trade with those who you don't trust, or those who have different cultural expectations. So the Anglosphere has a great advantage in having a large network to work with.
The book explores the idea of separating physical space, from transportation space, and from communication space. We measure the physical space in miles. But transportation space is largely influenced by how easy it is to move from one place to another. Historically moving by ships over rivers and the ocean was much cheaper than traveling by land. Communication space really started to become its own space with the development of the telegraph, and exploded with the development of the internet. Now it is almost as easy to communicate with someone anywhere in the world, as it is to talk with your neighbor.
James Bennett says that in general those with an English Heritage, or who are largely influenced by Anglo ideas, are more flexible and will be able to react quicker than European Nations, Japan, China, India, and so on. They have a greater ability to trust each other, and take initiative on a personal level. His sees the development of organizations which support each other that transcend national boundaries. There are a number of libertarian ideas here.
If you are into books which explore the big picture and deal with new and fascinating ideas, this is a good book to read. I don't think everything James Bennett talks about here will happen, but he does provide some interesting insights into what may happen over the next fifty years. This is not a quick read. This book is meant to be read slowly and thoughtfully, and pondered over time. This book is well worth reading
Bennett triumphs.......2005-02-04
Despite the naysayers, Bennett has been proven right by the recent behaviour of the Anglosphere in two major events. First in the Iraq war most of the Anglosphere banded together to get rid of a vicious genocidal tyrant, while more recent events showed how the Anglosphere could band together to help a region in dire need of aide. Much like Clash of Civilisations, Bennett has written a book that will be refered in positive terms for many years to come.
A New Way to Look at Canada and the World.......2004-11-16
Any serious discussion of the central role of English traditions in Canada is fraught with twin perils: mindless claims of racism/imperialism and founding-nation chauvinism. The Anglosphere Challenge is something very different. It's an exciting exploration of a new way to look a modern global culture and its Canadian flavour, keeping both perils at bay. Leading off with a chapter on the dynamic and converging nature of modern technology (cf. Vernor Vinge's The Singularity), the author makes the case that cultural dynamism and flexibility will be at a premium in the 21st century. His claim for the future pre-eminence of the common law countries (irrespective of their citizens' personal origins) is based on the Anglosphere's history of adapting successfully (and first) to technological and political change.
Bennett shows how respect for the individual, and the effective separation of religious, political and economic powers have a very deep roots in the English-speaking world. Before the creation of Canada and the United States. Before the English Civil War. Before the Protestant Reformation. Perhaps even before the Norman Conquest of England in 1066. In the roots of the English common law, we can find the fundamental principle of equal treatment before the law: male or female, lord or commoner. A virtuous circle ensued, freeing individuals from the constraints and predation of the powerful ... in ways impossible in continental Europe let alone other parts of the globe.The history (as opposed to the myths) of this era are eye-opening. And the great strength of the Anglosphere Challenge is the firm grounding in modern scholarship. The book's annotated bibliography is a gem.
Using the metaphor of concentric rings, Bennett sees the Anglosphere as an inner ring (the industrialized common law countries), an outer ring of countries strongly influenced by English language and law, and finally, a periphery of countries exposed to the language and law indirectly, through the international institutions (in trade and politics). A second major contribution is Bennett's outline of the "cultural nations" of the Anglosphere. These "cultural nations," often identified in the turmoil of 17th and 18th century England, cross modern national borders. They provide a more effective tool for understanding the politics and behaviour of modern Anglosphere countries. Finally, Bennett offers the term "network commonwealth" to describe the economic, social, and intellectual connections between Anglosphere nations that will largely overtake (but not replace) the current sovereign nations. Anglosphere nations like Canada, especially in the Internet era, will find themselves quickly and easily co-operating to handle the innovations and challenges of the 21st century.
Canadians will find their past, present and future discussed in the chapters of this book. Our lives have been profoundly affected by the two titans of the English-speaking world, the UK and US. Bennett provides a cultural context for this influence that readers from this country will find fascinating. A book that will make you think. A companion website offers sneak peek at the book plus updates on concepts and sources: anglospherechallenge.com.
Janus-Faced Book Studies the Past to Illuminate the Future.......2004-11-16
James Bennett popularized the term "Anglosphere", which refers to those communities which speak English and share in the cultural practices and institutions inherited from England, e.g. common law, parliamentary democracy, highly developed civil society, private rather than communal notions of property, entrepreneurial rather than state-led economic development, relative openness to innovation and to immigration. These characteristics have been developing in the English-speaking world for at least a millennium, and represent a distinct sub-civilization within the larger West. Bennett draws on the work of Alan MacFarlane and David Hackett Fischer to demonstrate the uniqueness of the civilization which developed in England and which it in turn passed on to its daughter polities, most importantly the United States. This Anglosphere civilization has been the path-breaker for modernity, initiating modern democratic institutions and the industrial and subsequent economic revolutions. Note that Bennett does not offer this analysis in any spirit of triumphalism. This is not the old "Whig theory" of history, since Bennett correctly sees that these developments were the result of fortunate historical contingency. Bluntly, those of us who live in the Anglosphere are not better than anybody else, just lucky to be here. Bennett predicts that the Anglosphere will continue to be the cutting edge civilization in terms of economic and political developments into the future. In particular, the existence of the Web and cheap air and sea transport has already created a unitary Anglophone economic and cultural space, which will develop further as the highest value-added products become increasingly information-intensive, placing a premium on linguistic and cultural commonalities. Bennett offers predictions concerning the institutional form that this new economic reality will call forth, which he labels a "network commonwealth". Bennett believes that this future political form, and a dense and robust underlying civil society, present the best hope for coping with the hazards presented by emerging technology, and obtaining the maximum benefits of that technology. Moreover, Bennett offers numerous, concrete policy proposals to further the development of this emerging Anglosphere network commonwealth, in the areas of trade, immigration, defense procurement and military cooperation. Bennett's book is the result of years of reflection on these historical and contemporary issues. This short paragraph does not even scratch the surface of a book that has many novel insights and profound ideas, and which opens up numerous lines for further inquiry. Five stars is really not a sufficient rating. This is one of the three or four most important books I have read in recent years to understand the world we are living in, why it is the way it is, where we are going, and how we can create a future worth living in.
A profound work.......2004-10-17
For more than two decades, Jim Bennett has been one of the country's most acute thinkers on the frontiers of technology and cultural/political trends. The Anglosphere Challenge shows the strengths of civil society responses to growing state incapacities and failures. Emerging "networked commonwealths", he foresees, will advance universal values of freedom while accelerating innovation across new realms of human endeavor. This book is a storehouse of wisdom and hope for not only for those in the Anglosphere, but for people of all heritages and backgrounds seeking to live in an open world.
Book Description
A revealing examination of shopping, consumerism, and mall design in America.
Loved and hated, visited and avoided, seemingly everywhere yet endlessly the same, malls occupy a special place in American life. What, then, is this invention that evokes such strong and contradictory emotions in Americans? In many ways malls represent the apotheosis of American consumerism, and this synthetic and wide-ranging investigation is an eye-popping tour of American culture's values and beliefs. Like your favorite mall, One Nation under Goods is a browser's paradise; and in order to understand America's culture of consumption you need to make a trip to the mall with Farrell. This lively, fast-paced history of the hidden secrets of the shopping mall explains how retail designers make shopping and goods "irresistible." Architects, chain stores, and mall owners relax and beguile us into shopping through water fountains, ficus trees, mirrors, and covert security cameras. From food courts and fountains to Santa and security, Farrell explains how malls control their patrons and convince us that shopping is always an enjoyable activity. And most importantly, One Nation under Goods shows why the mall's ultimate promise of happiness through consumption is largely an illusion. It's all here—for one low price, of course. 32 b/w photographs.
Customer Reviews:
One Nation Under Goods a Durable Good.......2004-05-17
In One Nation Under Goods, Jim Farrell takes readers on a tour of American malls to discover the cultural patterns they display. As Farrell steers readers up escalators, he calls attention to the ways that shopping center executives plan the spaces of consumerism. As he parades them in front of dressing-room mirrors, he illustrates ways that consumer goods contribute to construction of identity. As he points out malls' potted plants, he reveals the processes through which shopping centers alter their ecological surroundings. Farrell notes in his introduction that American malls are variety stores-they sell a wide variety of goods to a vast diversity of people that make multiple meanings from those objects. One Nation Under Goods similarly provides a cornucopia of good ideas on American culture; it's a kind-of sales rack of ideas from which readers can pick and choose. It's even replete with intellectual display cases (tables, photos, and cartoons), that help provide opportunities to browse quickly for the most value-able concepts and lessons to be learned.
Farrell's book, like the best mall merchandise, is neither out-of-date nor too faddish for scholars to take note. One Nation Under Goods provides an original and important perspective on the aesthetics, economics, ethics, and politics of American shopping malls.
Three elements of the book that seem particularly successful and that, in combination, distinguish the book from others in its field: its emphasis on spatial analysis; its ability to communicate playfully difficult concepts in concrete terms; its challenge to create an ethical framework for American consumerism.
First, I like the way that Farrell draws attention to the physical spaces of American malls. Malls take place-and Farrell asks readers to consider both the indoor and outdoor places transformed by shopping centers. Part of Farrell's success in illuminating indoor spaces comes from his close reading of documents overlooked by many mall scholars-the retail design manuals and marketing magazines that shopping center executives use to create retail spaces. Farrell also considers the environmental impacts of malls on water quality and indigenous vegetation and contemplates the ways in which mall-goers experiences shape the ways in which they conceptualize their spaces. As he notes, "It's interesting that the endangered species and ecosystems that are featured in the mall are not generally the ones we live in." The Mall of America in Bloomington, has a Rainforest Café, but he notes that it "doesn't have a Prairie Café, or a Corn-and-Soybeans Cabaret or a suburban Back-Yard Bistro." (238-239) By engaging in cultural and physical geography, Farrell's study recognizes how American values are embodied and sited in place.
Secondly, Farrell skillfully uses concrete objects and instances to illustrate complex theories. You could say that Jim Farrell writes about Rainforest Café in One Nation Under Goods, and it's true, but only partly right. What he's really doing by writing about Rainforest Café is playing with big ideas: primitivism, exoticism, cosmopolitanism, and authenticity. You could hand a student a stack of densely-written classics from Jean Jacques Rousseau to Edward Said to David Hollinger to address these big ideas; but until the students become graduate students, I think they'd find Farrell's chapter titled "The World in a Shopping Mall" equally provocative. One Nation Under Goods playful-ness grants us access to these ideas in a fresh way.
Finally, I like the way that Farrell reveals the ethical and political decisions that take place in shopping centers. He notes that "The mall, explicitly about aesthetics and economics, is also implicitly about ethics and politics." (xxi) My favorite part of the book, Part IV, makes explicit the ethics and politics of economic and aesthetic interactions that we take for granted. Jim Farrell's consideration of the ethics of shopping comes through parables, not prescriptions. He argues that "ethics is a way of telling stories about the goodness of the good life" and suggests that Americans could demand better stories for our money. Rather than telling just-so stories of economic exclusion and environmental degradation, he asks readers to try to tell different stories from their products-stories of sustainable society, social justice, and political responsibility. He provides readers with practical tools: like a shopping list for considering purchasing decisions that includes questions like "what good is this thing? Could I borrow one? Who lives well as a result of this purchase? Who lives poorly?" But most of all, he provides practical tools by pointing out the impracticalities of American life as it currently works at the mall.
One Nation Under Goods is not academic planned obsolescence. It's a durable good. One that I highly recommend you try on for size.
The Value of Values in Shopping.......2003-12-18
With good wit and numerous plays on words, Farrell reveals the implicit value statements of shopping and buying, exposing the price we pay (above the sticker) in consumer society. The book isn't anti-consumer, but points to the hidden costs of various purchases, such as the implicit acceptance of sweatshop labor in buying many brands of shoe or the acceptance of environmental degradation for buying paper. He's also effective at illustrating how, despite the American affinity for shopping, a doubling of our material possessions in the past 50 years has not made us any happier. A thoughtful and insightful look at the meaning of malls in the making of the American Dream.
LIstened to the Minnesota Public Radio Interview.......2003-12-01
I have not ordered the book yet. But I must say, I found the presentation and the interview by this author and professor to be one of the most balanced and insightful programs I have heard. The author introduced many ideas that I had not considered before in my life - like "How did you learn how to shop?"
This author moves far beyond simplistic analysis of whether the phenomenon of the mall is good or bad for us. He provokes thinking and insights that reveal the core of what we value. He sums up his view of shopping and malls as being "about stories." According to the interview, we all want to ba a part of a story. The author calls for reflection and choices about the kinds of stories we want to be a part of and how to make choices to elevate our stories to benefit community and the planet.
If the book is anything like the interview, I welcome this author's thoughts.
Book Description
Delivers key elements in menu design to create a more profitable restaurant. The menu is the one piece of printed advertising that the customer definitely reads.
Customer Reviews:
really really basic.......2007-07-25
A lot of repetition of really obvious things. Really basic definitions of margins and profit. The book could have been reduced to 3 pages it would have been good enough. No real focus on restaurant business.
Might be an eye opener if you are 10 years old and were thinking of opening a restaurant. If you are serious about your project, you will not learn anything in this book. Useless...
In depth and thought provoking........1999-10-19
This book is a quick and easy guide to cutting food costs in the restaurant business. More than anything else it makes you think of ideas to make your own business more profitable. This is a book that you will want to assign to your entire kitchen staff.
Book Description
Marketing Asian Places: Attracting Investment, Industry and Tourism to Cities, States and Nations
Philip Kotler, Michael Alan Hamlin, Irving Rein, & Donald H Haider
As Asia enters a new era of fierce global competition for investment, people, and tourists, which places will be successful? Who will be the new Asian winners? The challenges and threats to Asian prosperity have never been greater as new opportunities arise and new threats mount at an increasingly faster rate. Nowhere in the world are the stakes for recreating development models more acute. And nowhere is the need for strategic place marketing greater. Fortunately, successful examples are everywhere.
Beijing picked up the pieces from its failed bid for the 2000 Olympic Games, worked to figure out what went wrong, and overhauled its communication and marketing program to bid for the 2008 Games - successfully. Three things accounted for its success: massive efforts to match IOC criteria, an effective government and corporate partnership, including foreign investors, and pushing the idea of a completely new venue for the Games.
Small success stories are important, too. School children in Cambodia's tiny village of Robib connect to the outside world using e-mail and the web, and villagers participate in e-commerce through their own website, www.villageleap.com. The first US$6,000 raised selling handcrafted silk products to overseas buyers was used to set up a pig farm. Places like Robib are showing that technology has a profound impact in the development of previously isolated places in Asia.
In this changing and challenging environment, places need to adopt a strategic marketing plan to maintain and develop the advances they have achieved. Marketing Asian Places shows how to attract initial investment, maintain the development through targeted policies, and establish a high-profile investment environment for long-term growth.
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- The Oil Factor: Protect Yourself and Profit from the Coming Energy Crisis
- The Origins of the Cold War, 1941 - 1949, Third Edition
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- The Templars and the Grail: Knights of the Quest
- The Wal-Mart Effect: How the World's Most Powerful Company Really Works--and How It's Transforming the American Economy
- The World Is Flat [Updated and Expanded]: A Brief History of the Twenty-first Century
- The World Is Flat [Updated and Expanded]: A Brief History of the Twenty-first Century
- The World Is Flat [Updated and Expanded]: A Brief History of the Twenty-first Century
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