Book Description
Drawing on his 20 years of pioneering research and work with some 400 top companies, Robert offers today's executives guidance in strategy formulation, implementation, and deployment. Filled with examples drawn from the experiences of today's commercial leaders and interviews with CEOs of companies in a variety of industries, this updated edition of a revolutionary and inspiring best seller offers a sure-fire process of strategic thinking that's been tested and refined in the "war rooms" of America's most successful corporations.
Download Description
In this updated edition of his groundbreaking best-seller, author Michel Robert stresses strategic thinking as today's most powerful management tool and the key to a winning, growth-oriented strategy.
Customer Reviews:
A good overview.......2006-02-21
You will not be able to defeat your competitors by imitating them, says Michel Robert founder and president of Decision Processes International, Inc. Instead you must find something that you do better than your competitors, something different. Michel Robert has created a step-by-step method you can use to create a winning business strategy based on what you do best, not what your competitors are doing.
1. Identify your company's driving force. The driving force of your company can be either a skill set, a kind of technology or a specific market segment. All decisions, including product development, customer to target and markets to enter are based on your driving force.
2. Write a short business concept. The business concept should address the specific types of products/services, customers, market segments and geographic markets to which your strategy applies, and how the company will add value to these products/customers. The business concept should also have a tone of growth and a direction for the future of the organization.
3. Identify and nurture the skills or areas of excellence needed to implement your strategy. An area of excellence is something your company does better than anything else it does, and better than anything the competitors do. Your areas of excellence must be aligned with the driving force of your company.
4. Identify the critical issues you must address to implement the strategy. Address critical issues for implementation in four areas: Structure, Processes/Systems, Skills/Competencies, and Compensation. Create operational and strategic plans for improvement. Make sure you budget enough resources to make everything happen.
Robert also provides tips on how to anticipate and manage the strategies of your competitors.
· Make sure that your strategy puts you in a position to control or influence your market.
· Identify your competitors as well as their driving forces and strategies.
· Attack your competitor's strategy by diluting, diminishing or neutralizing their areas of excellence.
Thickest Marketing Brochure ever!!!.......2005-09-01
This book is the thickest marketing brochure I have ever read. The case studies was interesting BUT it is all about trying to get you to use the authors (very expensive I'm sure) services to "guide" you through the process. On page 173 there is an example where some CEO told Michel Robert that he is the only person in the room that would stand up to him (to the CEO that is) or something to the likes of it - get over yourself mate.
Gets the job done.......2003-11-06
I first read "Strategy Pure & Simple (I)" back in the early '90s, just before embarking on my first strategic planning job. Since then, I have managed strategic planning and implementation processes at a total of six different operational subsidiaries of two very large financial services groups.
As a financial controller and later a CFO, I have read a great many other books and articles about strategy and planning. Most of those were actually quite interesting, but when it came down to setting up and managing a actual, real-life planning process, I always turned back to Strategy Pure and Simple, because it is just GOOD ENOUGH.
- It includes all important issues that must be addressed during planning;
- more importantly, it reminds you of staying focused on those issues that happen to be key to your company (given its market, own caracteristics, timing, resources, etc.);
- still more importantly, it insists on interaction between the planning team and the management team, and helps with examples of visual aids and cues;
- it really helps a lot in communicating with line and senior managers during the planning process, getting them involved, assuring buy-in, and finally ensuring that the plan, when finished and approved, actually is implemented by those in charge. And, in the end, that is certainly what matters most.
I have now joined a new company in another industry, and have to manage yet another strategic planning process. Well, the best I can say about Strategy Pure & Simple is, I have fished out my 1993-vintage copy, and look forward to using it once again.
Are you so stupid that you need this book?.......2002-07-04
This book is like any other drivel about corporate strategy - figure out what you do well, do more of it and cut the rest. Sounds great when you grossly oversimplify your business. Know what really works? Fire anyone who is stupid, lazy, or unproductive.
PS- If Michel Robert is so smart, why can't he learn English?
Another clone.......2002-01-10
Unfortunately I bought this book after "The Power of Strategic Thinking" that I found full of very interesting ideas, insightful and thought provoking.
If I only knew that it has almost no differences with "Strategy Pure and Simple" I would've never done it. The book is written by copy-and-paste method. There are whole pages and chapters there that were not even worded differently - direct citations from the previous book. The only enhancement - pictures in "The Power of Strategic Thinking" look more silly but are actually the same.
There are probably some fans of Mr.Robert who buy all his books as collectible items but to me it seems like cheating - the same product under new cover. Total disappointment. It also brings doubts about all `true stories' Mr.Robert tells about his successes with 300 companies.
Book Description
Provides introductory explanation of the purposes and uses of the federal income tax law relating to S corporations. Topics include acquiring and maintaining the S status, tax issues and consequences, effects of the S election to shareholders, and tax-free reorganizations and divisions of S corporations, as well as comparisons to C corporations and partnerships.
Customer Reviews:
GREAT SERVICE and PRODUCT.......2007-03-23
Thank you for your promptness. I asked the tax book be sent quickly and it was. Received it in a few days. THANK YOU.
Book Description
CORPORATE FINANCIAL REPORTING is written for students who require an understanding of financial accounting and reporting issues, problems, and practices. It is appropriate for the second financial accounting course at the MBA level, often called Corporate Financial Reporting. This text is also appropriate for schools that offer a one semester Intermediate accounting course, at the undergraduate level, for Finance majors. Careful consideration is given to the management aspects associated with various financial reporting issues. Chapters blend issues, concepts, standards and stakeholder interests to convey the complexities, controversies and uncertainties inherent in the financial reporting process.
Customer Reviews:
Not for everyone.......2005-02-04
Materials are technical and explanations are skimpy. Some cases are excellent but most of exercises are just too mechanical. This book is for advanced courses for real accountants. In my opinion, not suitable for general MBAs.
Great Fun to Teach.......2004-01-03
Here is a secret: the study or practice or accounting may be tedious, but the teaching of accounting is fun. It's about money, power, greed, betrayal -- what's not to like? More particularly, it is one of those courses where students come in bearing such low expectations thaqt their only surprises will be pleasant.
Of all the accounting materials I've been exposed to, none is more fun to teach than this book by Brownlee, Ferris and Haskins. There is an introductory chaper of nuts and bolts. But then, the bulk of the book is made up of case studies in accounting analysis. With bright students (I use it with second- or third-year law students), you can do a whole course from the standing start.
Whenever I teach accounting, I tend to treat it as a "fraud" course--try to find the gimmick. In general, students are uncomfortable with the approach. They tend to think of accountants as nice people and their a not always happy with my seeming cynicism. Post-Enron (and WorldComm, and Adelphia, and Parmalat, etc. etc., etc.), I am tempted to call up all my former students and say -- "See? I was right all along." Meanwhile, it is wonderful to watch the student puzzle over a Brownlee problem and then say (as if with a flash of insight) -- "But that's wrong!" And of course the answer is: "That's why it's in the book."
An excellent book........2000-08-26
This is an extremely well-written and thoughtful book. The authors take a highly practical and rigorous look at accounting as used in practice by publicly-traded companies. It is an effective integration of accounting principles and real-world financial statement analysis -- helps the reader develop a sense of what is aggressive, what is conservative, etc., and what critical issues are discernible but not immediately obvious from a routine examination of financial statements. A good read for would-be Ben Inkers. For a more basic introduction to accounting, check out books by Robert Anthony.
Book Description
This book recognizes that in today's "information society" the future of economic well-being rests upon the effectiveness of schools and corporations to empower their people to be more effective learners and knowledge creators. The volume is organized around five factors involved in every educational event: the learner, the teacher, knowledge, the context, and evaluation. Each is discussed from both theoretical and pragmatic perspectives. Concept maps are used extensively to illustrate key ideas from learning theory, theory of knowledge, and instructional theory, as well as to give concrete examples. Rote learning, still common in many schools and universities today, is shown to be ineffective for achieving the goals of individuals and society in an era when creative production of new knowledge is at a premium. Throughout the volume, effective management is shown to be dependent upon the same factors as effective teaching.
Customer Reviews:
In Education - you should read this........2001-11-24
I'm not so sold on concept mapping and v-diagrams (everyone's got their own angle) but Novak's analysis of the shortcomings of education this century is excellent. There have been enormous and important innovations in educational theory this century, but very little of it has been put into practice because of the nature of the institutions.
Never mind - if you read this book, you're bound to gather some really important insights into the nature of learning, creating and using knowledge, and if you're in education or training, you'll come away not only with a higher awareness of learning theory, but some exciting ideas to try in your own practice.
The culmination of a 40-year career in knowledge creation........1999-01-18
Marking the culmination of Novak's 40-year career in science education, learning theory and epistemology, this book offers a remarkably insightful, theoretically powerful, and eminently readable volume on knowledge making in schools, corporations and healthcare agencies. The focus of Novak's work is on ways of empowering people to take charge of their own learning and knowledge creation. In this effort he succeeds most powerfully in integrating current ideas from the cognitive sciences, philosophy, psychology, neurophysiology, and educational practice.
But this book is not simply for professors and other members of the "intellectual elite." It is first and foremost a helpful guide to teachers, students, business managers and healthcare workers who want to succeed in the competitive arena of the "knowledge age."
Perhaps the most important contribution Novak makes is his careful description [and multiple examples] of concept mapping and V diagramming as tools for facilitating learning, understanding and knowledge creation. Unlike many "recipes" and "panaceas" offered by others, Novak cites numerous studies that provide very strong support for the use of these powerful "metacognitive" tools.
This book is an extraordinarily important contribution to efforts that seek to empower people to become meaningful learners and knowledge makers. It should be read by every college student, every teacher, and by all those charged with managing knowledge professionals.
Customer Reviews:
One of the Top 10 best business books of all time. Its truly a classic!.......2007-05-10
FOCAL POINTS OF BOOK:
American society-and society in all other advanced countries as well as from Japan to Soviet Russia-has increasingly become a society of big, organized power centers: government agencies and hospitals, large universities and research laboratories, trade unions( which by the way were fundamental in building America's middle class, and they have a vital role today in preserving the American dream for working families) and armed services, in addition to the Big Businesses.
THE CORPORATION AS HUMAN EFFORT
Harmony Out Of Conflict:
Harmony can always be achieved if there is at least one area where the self-interest of the one is identical with the self-interest of the other. Then cooperation can be anchored in the joint pursuit of this common interest, to which the other and divergent interests can be subordinated.
THE CORPORATION AS A SOCIAL INSTITUTION
The American Beliefs:
It is, for instance, certainly true that the United States will not be a perfect democracy as long as Social, Economic and Justice gaps continue to exist.
Are Opportunities Shrinking?
However great the advantage which the character of modern industrial enterprise and of modern technology gives to the formally trained man over the man who has picked up his education in the shop or office, we certainly suffer from a tremendous overvaluation of the formal education offered today and of the diploma as a proof of attainment or ability. Opportunities to acquire a formal education must be provided by those willing and able to carry the extra work involved but not able to carry the financial burden of an education through the normal channels.
Dignity and Status in Industrial Society:
The essence of "independence" is a social and psychological satisfaction which cannot be replaced by economic satisfaction alone. It is perhaps the biggest job of the modern corporation as the representative institution of industrial society to find a synthesis between justice and dignity, between equality of opportunities and social status and function.
Assembly Line Monotony:
But real creative ability-ability to live largely in a world based on ones own inner resources-is the rarest quality in the world. For as very old wisdom has it, a man who works only for a living and not for the sake of the work and of its meaning is not and cannot be a citizen.
The Wage Issue:
Wages are determined not by the policies of labor and management but by objective economic facts of productive efficiency of labor, price for the product, and the size of its market at a given price. This means that wages are capable by and large of being determined objectively; they should not and need not be a contentious issue. But unless two contending parties of equal weight have a principle decision in common, their bargaining is not likely to end in peace and harmony but in deadlock, frustration, mutual recrimination, and bitterness.
Economic Policy In an Industrial Society
The " Curse Of Bigness":
Whatever the terminology, the large corporation is a tool and organ of society. Finally, there is the question whether the free enterprise system, an economy based on politically uncontrolled corporations, motivated by the desire to make profits, and regulated by a competitive market, can satisfy society's demand for stable, expanding employment- politically the most important question today.
Production for "Use or for "Profit"?:
Profit is thus an inevitable risk premium and the basis of all economic activity, whether capitalist, socialist, or cave man. The sole source of capital is profit. Capital formation will have to be based on the one resource which, instead of being destroyed by being used, reproduces itself, namely profit.
The Lust For Power:
We must harness the lust for power to a social purpose.
Is Full Employment Possible?:
Expansion
The main source of future expansion must be the accumulate reserves of created capital, that is, profits, and the initiative and imagination of the country's inhabitants.
GENERAL MOTORS REVISITED:
Decentralization will work only where the central corporate management has available adequate information and dependable knowledge regarding the company's businesses. Information and knowledge set the limits to decentralization. One cannot successfully decentralize what one cannot control through impersonal, indirect information. Responsibility without competence does damage. Responsibility without competence is irresponsibility.
MY CONCLUSIONS:
Even six decades after its original publication date the book is still very relevant and Drucker shows his credentials as a visionary and a futurist. It is clear that GM, at which time Alfred P. Sloan was at the helm, pooh poohed on Drucker's landmark research. Concept of the Corporation had an immediate impact on American business, on public service institutions, and on government agencies.
To understand that the modern large corporation is the representative institution of our society; that is above all an institution, that is, a human organization and not just a complex of inanimate machines; that it is based upon a concept of order rather than upon gadgets; and that all of us as consumers, as workers, as savers, and as citizens have an equal stake in its prosperity, these are the important lessons we have to learn. To make it possible for this social institution to function efficiently and productively to realize its economic and social potential and to resolve its economic and social problems, is our most urgent task and our most challenging opportunity .
Classic Wisdome.......2007-03-08
Do you think the Toyota Way is a new concept? Why are the big three (GM,F & DCX) in deep trouble now? Well this book spotted the trend long time ago. It is not a business book full of theory, it goes to the nuts and bolts of the corporation as a value creating entitiy. A must read!
Peter Drucker and the curse of self interest.......2006-07-26
Peter Drucker and the curse of self-interest
This book presents Peter Drucker' s vision of how the free enterprise system should function in an industrial society. He wrote this book in 1946 after he completed a one-and-a-half year study of General Motors (GM) carried out at the request of its CEO Alfred Sloan. To the great surprise and dismay of GM half the book is devoted to the responsibility of a large company for contributing to fulfil the expectations of all members of society at large, the citizens.
Peter Drucker considers that there must be a harmony between the objectives of a company, of the economic system, of the government and of the objectives of the citizens. If there are fundamental conflicts between these objectives the free enterprise cannot survive.
People want to have a job, be respected, and not experience discrimination or insecurity. Drucker refers to these four factors as: "function", "status", "equal opportunity" and "full-employment". The reality is that many people are unemployed, do not feel respected, experience discrimination and live with the fear of becoming unemployed. That was the case in 1946 and is still the case in 2006.
Peter Drucker identifies as one of the main causes of the harmony problem the "laissez faire" concept of economists that suggests that this harmony is automatic if the market can function without any interference of government. He writes: "the laissez-faire economists made the fatal mistake of considering harmony as established automatically instead of as the final and finest fruit of statesmanship". This fallacy is nowadays referred to as the simplified "Washington consensus". This "laissez faire" fallacy, after Marxism as a doctrine has probably caused the most unnecessary suffering in the world.
Drucker writes that the system should be organised such that the corporation "fulfils automatically its social obligations in the very act of seeking its own self-interest". "An industrial society based on the corporation can only function if the corporation contributes to social stability and to the achievement of its social aims independent of the good will or social consciousness of individual corporate managements".
Peter Drucker brilliantly presents how harmony can be achieved. He proves that the free enterprise system is the only system that can fulfil the expectations of all people, if they want to make material progress. However the problems are still with us. No government has produced the "finest fruit of statesmanship". It has not been possible to design a system that transforms self-interest into harmony. Self-interest has to be combined with a concern for the well being of others. Readers wanting to explore this idea further should read "Ethics for the New Millennium" by the Dalai Lama about "Universal Responsibility", and "The essential David Bohm" by Lee Nichol about overcoming self interest through dialogue.
Peter Drucker recognised the problem in his epilogue written in 1983: "In practice governments have collapsed into impotence" and more constructively: "there are social needs which the government cannot take care of". Even if harmony is the responsibility of government the problems can only be solved together with business.
If GM instead of neglecting the views of Peter Drucker had embraced them GM would not be in the trouble GM is to day.
The role of 'Big Business' in (economic) society.......2005-10-01
Peter F. Drucker was born in 1911 and is the Grandmaster in the field of management. He is the most influential thinker on this subject of the 20st century and has published mountains of books and articles. (In short, he is "the man"!) This book, which is based on 18 months of research and study of the General Motors Corporation, was originally published in 1946. It consists of 4 parts (`chapters'), each consisting of 1-to-5 chapters (which Drucker gives numbers and titles.)
This `Transaction' edition includes an additional 1993-introduction and an additional 1983-preface, in which Drucker discusses the impact of this landmark-book. "Concept of the Corporation is credited with having established management as a discipline and as a field of study." However, the does not completely agree: "It established organization as a distinct entity, and its study as a discipline. ... And Concept of the Corporation thus became the first attempt to show how an organization really works and what its challenges, problems, principles are." He also discusses the fact that his book was not well received by the people of General Motors, which was at the time of the original publication the undisputed worldwide leader in the automobile industry and the world's biggest manufacturing company: "And a main reason, I now realize, was precisely that I treated General Motors (GM) as a prototype, as an `organization', and its problems therefore as problems of structure, if not of principle, rather than as the way GM does things."
The first part of this book - Capitalism in One Country - consists only of 1 chapter and sets the background scene for his study. It discusses the belief of the American people in a free-enterprise economic system, the interrelationship between industrial society and "Big Business" (which Drucker terms `corporation'), whereby in the early 20th century the large corporation had become America's representative social institution, and the social and political analysis of an institution. This analysis has to take place at three levels: The corporation has to "be organized in such as way as to be able itself to function and to survive as an institution, as to enable society to realize its basic promises and beliefs, and as to enable society to function and to survive."
The second part of the book - The Corporation as Human Effort - consists of 5 chapters and discusses GM's relatively modern organization model. In the first chapter the first law of the corporation/institution is detailed, which is "to produce goods with the maximum economic return." But Drucker is quick to emphasize that the essence of the corporation is social, that is human, organization: "... modern production ... is based on principles - organization not of machines but of human beings." He continues with the consequences of this fact, the dependence on the solution of the three interdependent problems: "The distribution of power and responsibility, the formulation of general and objective criteria of policy and action, the selection and training of leaders - these are the central questions of corporate organization." In the second chapter GM's basic and universally valid concept of decentralization is described. So how well does decentralization work? This is discussed in the third chapter, whereby the conclusion is mostly positive. The fourth chapter is a very unusual one, it discusses the relationship between big business (GM in this instance) and its small business partner (the automobile dealer). Drucker realizes that GM has very well established principles, which are primarily based on the resolution of conflicts in harmony. However, with respect to the big-small business relationships, there is still a lot of work left to do in other branches of America's economy. In the final chapter, the question is asked whether decentralization can be used as a model. In GM decentralization is not seen as a technique of top management, but as a basic principle of the industrial order.
The third part of the book - The Corporation as a Social Institution - consists of 3 chapters. The first chapter starts off with a discussion on American beliefs in which, Drucker believes, the corporation plays a large role. "It is characteristic of the American tradition that its political philosophy sees social institutions as a means to an end which is beyond society." He explains the impact this (the promise of justice or of equal opportunities and the promise of status and function as an individual) has on the corporation, which was still a relatively new phenomenon in the 1940s. He discusses opportunities, dignity and status, assembly line "monotony", unionism. The second chapter describes the new industrial middle class of "foreman" who, through the introduction of big business, now lacks equal opportunities as well as status and function. In the third chapter Drucker emphasizes that the bad relations between labor and management in the automobile industry provide the perfect example to discuss "the absence of a workable solution of the twin problems of equal opportunities and of status and function of the worker". This study took place during war and post-war years and the differences in the relationship between labor and management during these 2 periods are extremely well exposed. There are some great comments with respect to labor relations and the so-called "wage issue".
The final part of the book - Economic Policy in an Industrial Society - consists of 3 chapters. The first chapter has the strange title of The "Curse of Bigness". First the relationship between corporation and society is discussed. "Whatever the terminology, the large corporation is a tool and organ of society" and "modern industrial society must organize its economy in the large units of Big Business." It is important to note that Drucker in 1946 already recognizes that "bigness" in itself is not in conflict with the requirements of social stability and social functioning. The second chapter also has a strange title - Production for "Use" or for "Profit" - which sounds like both a contradiction and a conflict in one sentence. Drucker notes that "Production for Profit" is the principle of rationality and efficiency on which the corporation must base itself and that the demand "production for use" thus asserts a conflict between the needs of society and those of the corporation. He discusses the profit motive, the lust of power, and the market before turning to social needs and the individual wants. The final chapter covers the touchstone of America's economic system and the focus of economic policy, which full employment, and touches upon some of the greatest challenges to government and business. "The first problem of a full-employment policy is to generate capital-goods production during a cyclical depression." In the short section on the employment fund Drucker really that he is almost 50 years ahead of his time. There is also a magical piece on the "five pillars on which an economic policy for a free-enterprise society rests."
This edition also includes a 1983 epilogue, which discusses the impact of this book. "Concept of the Corporation had an immediate impact on American business, on public service institutions, on government agencies - and none on General Motors!" It explains the main reasons for why the book was totally unacceptable to most GM executives, and above all to Alfred Sloan. Drucker mentions the accompanying letter, in which he urges for "serious reconsideration of a number of other GM policies, precisely because they had been successful for twenty years." I would like to see the accompanying letter included in future versions of this book.
I find it incredibly difficult to review books by Peter Drucker, you always feel that you let the `Master' down. This book is a true classic and I am happy that I finally made time to read it. (Yes, yes, I should have done years ago.) I believe that it gives a great insight of the position of Big Business in society, whereby General Motors' policies, which was at the time the world's largest manufacturing company, are used as an example. However, readers interested in just GM itself are better served by Alfred P. Sloan's autobiography `My Years with General Motors'. Even 60 years after its original publication date the book is still very relevant and Drucker shows his credentials as visionary. The book is not just relevant for business people; it is also useful for people involved in government and policy-setting. (This book deserves six-stars, fantastic!)
Book Summary of "Concept of the Corporation".......2004-01-01
Business primarily functions to make a profit. However, due to the permanent and integral role that the corporation plays in modern industrial society, there exists a corresponding level of duty and responsibility toward society at large. Peter Drucker's goal is to articulate the management practices that made General Motors so successful. In this manner GM's efforts could be communicated and duplicated to ensure continued success for American industry and capitalism in general.
After World War II capitalism and communism began to compete for the hearts and minds of the world. This placed an onerous burden on capitalist countries. This burden largely fell upon America. America must demonstrate that capitalism is in fact the best economic system in terms of both efficiency and social equity. Drucker also realized that only an objective yardstick for measuring success would prove the intrinsic worth of capitalism. Conceding that perfection is unattainable, Peter Drucker nonetheless maintains that the harmonious integration of the corporation into the social fabric depends at the very least on its ability "to realize society's promises and society's beliefs" (117).
In America, this means that the corporation must appeal to and in some degree satisfy the basic American beliefs in individuality and opportunity. Those duel beliefs later served and were substantiated by historian John Kindgon. For the capitalist system to succeed it is imperative for the corporation to parallel these beliefs by promoting the role of justice as the means for recognizing equality of opportunity. This notion differs from communism's belief in equality of rewards.
The economic growth experienced during the early 20th century became possible only through improvements in business organization modeled after Henry Ford's assembly line, which efficiently organized and combined the efforts of different specialists into one cohesive effort. The general message was that the whole was in fact worth more than the sum of its parts. This accomplishment was primarily attributable to improvements in organization and marshalling talent and resources. Drucker describes the new decentralized model of corporate success, "The teamwork organization of management, the assistance rendered by the service staffs, and the constant check against base price, market quota, and consumer's opinion make it possible for ordinary human beings to run this enormous machine" (79). This approach necessarily focuses on the preeminence of human capital, and the need for greater social organization to maximize profits.
Drucker believes that business is ultimately about people, not resources, and managing people so that they give forth their greatest potential effort. Promotion should be based on performance, ability, and character. Management may use price elasticity to determine what proportion of profits should be divided into wage increases or decreases in pricing. Drucker believes that leadership must be cultivated from within the corporation, and whose facilitation should include early testing and training glued together with a cultural espirit. Most importantly, imagination and a great understanding of the big picture in regards to the corporation's functioning must be taught. Finding common grounds for self-interest and building from that best solves conflict, such as that between management and worker's unions.
In conclusion, Drucker believes that the corporation is here to stay in the service of mankind, "The central problem of all modern society is not whether we want Big Business but what we want of it, and what organization of Big Business and of the society it serves is best equipped to realize our wishes and demands" (18). Drucker's uniqueness stems from his belief that the social and political components of modern industrial society are just as important than the much-touted economic component. The responsibility placed on modern industrial society is to create harmony by correlating our political beliefs with what is best for the corporation and the individual. The corporation's role to play is big, as it is the "representative institution of American society." Ultimately, government must create policy that encourages capital expenditure, rather than consumer consumption, resulting in a harmonious balance between increased corporate profits and maximum social good through high employment.
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The Treasurer's Handbook of Financial Management: Applying the Theories, Concepts and Quantitative Methods of Corporate Finance
Dubos J. Masson , and
Treasury Management Association
Manufacturer: Irwin Professional Publishing
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
 Corporate Finance
| Finance
| Business & Investing
| Subjects
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General
| Business & Investing
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General
| Accounting
| Industries & Professions
| Business & Investing
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Management & Leadership
| Business & Investing
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| Business Ethics
| Consolidation & Merger
| Decision-Making & Problem Solving
| Distribution & Warehouse Management
| Industrial
| Information Management
| Leadership
| Management
| Management Science
| Motivational
| Negotiating
| Operations Research
| Planning & Forecasting
| Pricing
| Production & Operations
| Project Management
| Quality Control
| Risk Assessment
| Statistics
| Strategy & Competition
| Systems & Planning
| Systems Analysis
| Teams
| Total Quality Management
| Training
ASIN: 1557388849 |
Book Description
In today's rapidly-chaging financial environment, in which the rules change virtually every day, you need clear, step-by-step applications that show you how to approach financial management now! The Treasurer's Handbook of Financial Management provides you with clear, concise descriptions of key treasury management issues, detailed yet understandable, and has become the most celebrated and indispensable reference for treasury managers worldwide. Turn to The Handbook for knowledeable, complete definitions and explanations of: the capital markets, capital market relations, capital structure and dividend policy; mergers and acquisitions, and how you can keep minor pitfalls from killing potentially lucrative deals; dynamic theories and practices behind financial planning and valuation framework; best practices for managing and financing inventories for optimum benefit to your firm; discussions of the latest findings on risk management, employee pension funding and benefit management.
Book Description
This behind-the-scenes book explores and illustrates more than a decade of creative Chrysler concepts, forward-thinking technologies, and the cars and trucks that emerged from them. While reviewing the cars themselves, the author explains how they revived Chryslers image, explores how they boosted internal morale, and introduces the craftsmen who build concept cars.
Customer Reviews:
Strong Design Rescues Chrysler (Again).......2005-10-31
Modern Chrysler Concept Cars illustrates how concept car designs spurred another business recovery of Chrysler during the 1990s. The storyline is how Tom Gale's daring cab-forward and retro design concepts (again) rescued Chrysler from post-Iacocca business doldrums. The book gives a great birdseye view of the business value of pushing beyond current design boundaries through the voice of Chrysler design honcho,Tom Gale. On this basis alone it should probably be required reading for students of car design. Buy this book for its business lesson about the business power of design and for its great photos of handsome cars, not for revelations of the visual keys to car design.
Despite many high-quality photos (which alone make the book worth buying) there is little about visual design principles behind the success of Gale's cab-forward and retro designs. Most of the pictures are dramatic three-quarter perspectives that reveal little about the shapes and proportions underlying the designs. To understand a car's design you need to understand its basic proportions, shapes and primary lines. These are only revealed clearly in "elevations" - perpendicular-to-the-viewer side, front, rear and overhead views of a car. Such views are rarely shown anywhere and not in this book. These cars are handsome; I want to know why and these quarter-view photos don't show me, nor does the text. The text of this book is more about mechanical concepts, intended performance and design-management decisionmaking than about visual principles or insights into the designs pictured.
This story begins with the financial failure of Chrysler's daring Airflow design in the late 1930s. The Airflow failure induced a long period in which Chrysler marketed increasingly dull designs on the basis of solid engineering. By 1949-50, Chrysler's obsolete pre-WW II design concepts were trumped in the market by the 1949 Ford and Mercury, the first finned Cadillacs and other new design concepts. The book gives only one paragraph to Chrysler's rescue-by-daring-design in the 1950s when Chrysler designer Virgil Exner turned to Italian coachbuilder Ghia for a series of seminal concept cars.
Design themes in the Exner/Ghia show cars quickly found their way into production cars such as the original Chrysler 300, a winning combination of design and performance engineering, the Plymouth Valiant and the gunsight taillights of the Imperial, for example. Only a passing reference is made to the Ghia d'Elegance as a source of design themes in the Chrysler Chronos concept car of the 1990s, citing its radiator-shaped grill. Omitting the 1950s episode is odd given that the 1990s Tom Gale design and performance-based concepts reprise the Exner/Ghia1950s design/performance rescue of a slumping Chrysler. Perhaps the author omitted this era because first-hand design players of the 1950s were not available to interview now whereas Tom Gale and his colleagues were. Even so, Chrysler's 1950's rescue-by-design deserves a full section, not just a short paragraph. Those who do not know history are fated to repeat it. So buy this book to learn how strong design can rescue business, to enjoy dramatic photos of excellent car designs, but not to learn much about what makes these cars look so good.
More than I expected.......2000-10-19
I thought this book would be the usual pointless gushing, with lots of pictures and no information. Well, there's lots of pictures, all in color, along with sketches. Surprisingly, though, the writer also interviewed notables such as Bob Lutz and Tom Gale to get the story behind the concepts and their journey to production - or not. Lots of surprises.
Customer Reviews:
Introduction for anyone wanting to begin their own business.......2005-05-07
A quick and easy 89-page read, Out Of The Red: Management Accounting Concepts To Keep Small Businesses Out Of The Red by Pam Newman (Certified Management Accountant and a Certified Financial Manger) is an ideal introduction for anyone wanting to begin their own business. Key concepts such as "Break-Even Point", "Cash Flow", "Profit Margin", and other aspects of accountancy are presented in a clear, informed and informative text that is accessible to the non-specialist general reader. Whether aspiring to begin a business, newly engaged in a commercial enterprise, or in need of a "refresher" of business management accounting principles and practices, Out Of The Red is strongly recommended reading that will prove of immense and immediate practical value.
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