Invention Works: "Develop, Protect And Make Money With Your Invention" (First of Three)

Book Description

Are you looking for ways to use technology to boost your sales? Why not try some techno-tips from someone who will make learning fun?

In this book, Techno-Selling, you'll learn how to send a signed sales contract via e-mail, WITHOUT using a scanner! Also, you'll learn tips on setting up a free online office and creating video files for making virtual home tours or sending "V-mail".

Now I know how you may feel. You're probably thinking, "Another expert to lecture me on how to do something? No thanks." If this is how you feel, believe me, many of us have felt the same as you. Because if you're like most of us, you receive 20 e-mails every day on how to do things better, right?

However, what we have found is that Techno-Selling is different than other "self-help" books! Techno-Selling is missing the "know it all attitude" and condescending tone of other books and articles. Instead, the author's voice is humble, and down-to-earth. But the main difference is Techno-Selling is funny! The humorous glossary is actually humorous. The clip art makes you smile. The humorous blunders are actually humorous and even the similies, insights and observations will crack you up.

For example, Boog writes, "First I was shocked, then disappointed, and then I got mad! I was angrier than a teenager whose telephone privileges have been taken away!"

Boog's real-life sales stories seem fresh, genuine and originally funny. In addition, the computer tips and tools aren't dumbed down. They are actually useful! (What a concept!)

As Internet reviewers have already written about Techno-Selling, "The reader will turn the pages quickly with a smile on their face," and "This is a smart, fun-to-read book with useful tips!"

Please note: although Bob Boog has been involved in real estate sales since 1977 and has sold over 120 million dollars worth of real estate, this book isn't just for realtors. It's for ANYONE involved in ANY kind of sales.

Even if your job title isn't "salesperson", you may gain a few insights too. For as the old saying goes, "Everyone sells something."

Customer Reviews:

For sellers of all experience levels.......2002-05-07

Bob Boog's Techno-Selling: Cutting-Edge Tips, Tricks & Tools, Plus Humorous Blunders To Avoid For Anyone Involved In Any Kind Of Sales is a superbly presented, reader-friendly guide for sellers of all experience levels who want to start using the resources of the World Wide Web and the Internet to quickly and easily market products and/or services to buyers across the nation and around the world. From creating an online office to anecdotes of cyberspace-do's and cyberspace-don'ts, Techno Selling is an excellent and highly recommended introduction to the manifold rewards and pitfalls related to making the Internet work for you!

Incredible book - As entertaining as it was informative.......2001-12-12

"Wow" is all I could say after I read this book. With the Internet and email so commonplace, it made me realize we can either get on board or get left behind.
This book shows and tells in simple terms how to put this technology to use to put more money into our pockets. From "Steps to Making a Simple Photo Brochure" to how to build a website and much, much more...this book has it.
The author, Bob Boog, has been in sales since 1978 and from reading this book it is obvious that he knows his stuff. He teaches hard cold experience: what's worked and what hasn't and not just theory.
This book is really a must-read for sales people and business people who want to use technology to increase their revenue. I read Bob's first book, "Selling Homes 1-2-3" and was so informed and entertained that I had to get this book, too. I'm an avid reader...and this book is up toward the top of the list.

Incredible book - As fun to read as it is informative.......2001-12-12

"Wow" is all I could say after I read this book. With the Internet and email so commonplace, it made me realize we can either get on board or get left behind.

This book shows and tells in simple terms how to put this technology to use to put more money into our pockets. From "Steps to Making a Simple Photo Brochure" to how to build a website and much, much more...this book has it.

The author, Bob Boog, has been in sales since 1978 and from reading this book it is obvious that he knows his stuff. He teaches hard cold experience: what's worked and what hasn't and not just theory.

This book is really a must-read for sales people and business people who want to use technology to increase their revenue. I read Bob's previous book, "Selling Homes 1-2-3" and was so informed and entertained that I had to get this book, too. I'm an avid reader...and this book is up toward the top of the list.

Book Description

At the dawn of the twenty-first century it has become increasingly clear, that to remain competitive in today's emerging global markets, companies can no longer depend on their own core strengths to drive marketplace leadership, but must look to their supply chains for new avenues of cost reduction and innovation. Success in managing these chains of channel trading partners requires a new view of distribution and logistics management. The objective of Distribution: Planning and Control, Second Edition is not only to discover the roots and detail the techniques of channel management, but also to explore the impact of the merger of the concept of Supply Chain Management (SCM) and Internet technologies on all aspects of internal business and supply channel management.

Following a traditional planning and control methodology, the text seeks to detail for the student of distribution and logistics how SCM and twenty-first century technologies are applied to managing top management strategic planning, operations planning, and operations execution. The book contains chapters on business planning, forecasting, demand, operations and channel planning (DO&CP), inventory management, statistical and Distribution Requirements Planning (DRP) inventory control, Customer Relationship Management (CRM), Supplier Relationship Management (SRM), warehousing and transportation. In addition full chapters are allocated to international distribution and today's information technology concepts and application architectures.

Distribution: Planning and Control, Second Edition provides academic, practitioner, and consulting audiences with a comprehensive text on the critical issues confronting logistics and SCM today. Containing timely information and targeted examples of real-world business applications, Distribution illustrates how manufacturers, wholesale, and retail distributors are leveraging SCM and Internet technologies to attain new unbeatable avenues of customer value through the creation of highly integrated, agile supply chain partnerships.

Distribution: Planning and Control--Managing in the Era of Supply Chain Management

Average customer rating:

Distribution: Planning and Control--Managing in the Era of Supply Chain Management
David Frederick Ross
Manufacturer: Springer-Verlag New York, LLC
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
ASIN: B000MBQR04

Average customer rating:

Excellent book for beginners

Excellent instructions, clearer than most

Very good for beginners

excellent starter knitting book

excellent for beginners

Knitting Basics: All You Need to Know to Take Up Your Needles and Get Knitting
Betty Barnden
Manufacturer: Barron''s Educational Series
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

General | Crafts & Hobbies | Home & Garden | Subjects | Books
Knitting | Crafts & Hobbies | Home & Garden | Subjects | Books
Similar Items:

Crochet Basics: All You Need to Know to Get Hooked on Crochet

ENCYCLOPEDIA OF KNITTING: A Step-by-Step Visual Guide, With an Inspirational Gallery of Finished Works

Basic Knitting: All the Skills and Tools You Need to Get Started (Stackpole Basics)

The Knitting Answer Book: Solutions to Every Problem You'll Ever Face; Answers to Every Question You'll Ever Ask

Knitting in Plain English, Updated Edition

ASIN: 0764155466
Release Date: 2005-11-17

Book Description

Knitting is fun, practical, therapeutic, and a great way to produce wonderful things to wear and use. A leading English textile designer shows home knitters how to create good-looking items knitted in wool, cotton, silk, mohair, and synthetic yarns. She describes all the needed yarns, needles, and accessories, then instructs in basic skills that include knit, purl, changing colors, and casting off. The largest part of this profusely illustrated book is devoted to twelve original projects, and presents clear directions on how to master the techniques required for each project. They include a striped garter-stitch scarf, an afghan blanket, a tank top, a pullover sweater, a buttoned sweater with matching hat, and several attractive items of clothing for children and babies. More than 250 full-color illustrations are clear enough for beginners to follow, though all projects are imaginative enough to appeal to experienced knitters as well.

Customer Reviews:

Excellent book for beginners.......2005-08-02

This book was just what I needed to learn basic knitting techniques. The pictures are great and the descriptions are easy to follow.

I agree with other reviewers about the unappealing projects, however, the projects seemed unappealing because of the yarns used. They seemed a bit 80's-ish. If you cruise the internet for tips on substituting yarn, you can substitue prettier yarn for the projects.

I highly recommend this book to any beginning knitter who needs visuals to learn. This book is worth your money, in my opinion.

Excellent instructions, clearer than most.......2004-09-28

The large photos and descriptions of techniques in this book are excellent and extremely helpful. I give the book three stars because I found the included projects to be kind of unappealing. I would recommend Knitting Pretty as a book with clear instructions and more attractive projects.

Very good for beginners.......2004-05-24

I had only one, very thin and limited book that I learned the basics of knitting from, but it left out many techniques that I started seeing in patterns. I bought this book b/c of the clear instructions and the accompanying photographs, the latter being the best part of the book. Many other instruction books only draw pictures, which take away the 3-D effect that's really helpful to have when learning. The patterns aren't that appealing to me, which is why I only gave it four stars; also, there wasn't much said about weaving in seams, which I'm still trying to figure out, and I'm consulting other books for that. Of course, multiple books need to be consulted to learn everything there is to learn. But for the novice knitter, this book is excellent.

excellent starter knitting book.......2003-03-07

For the absolute beginner knitter. Barnden's instructions are clear and straightforward. The photos of the stitch techniques are supplemented with detailed drawings. Explanations about picking up stitches, blocking, getting gauge, etc. are thorough. Barnden covers just the basics stitches: cast on, knit, purl, 2 ways to increase, 2 ways to decrease, bind off. The patterns for practicing the techniques start with a simple garter stitch scarf and end with a fair isle child's sweater.

Personally, I found the patterns to be just OK. I wish she had included more and in greater variety. The only other "con" is that some of the yarns she uses are not readily found in the US, e.g., Patons and Sirdar. However, her pattern instructions are very good and easy to follow.

Between Knitting Basics and The Knit Stitch by Sally Melville, which I also have and absolutely love, the beginning knitter should have no problems picking up the craft.

excellent for beginners.......2002-12-23

I decided one day to take up knitting, and purchased this book to learn how. The color photos and line drawings next to them taught me to knit and purl, as well as the other basics, quickly and easily. None of the other books I looked at spent so much time and illustration on the basics. Highly recommended to those who don't have a teacher and want to learn.

Amazon.com

Edward F. Prichard Jr. was a powerful figure in both the Roosevelt and Truman administrations, but in 1948 his political career was shattered by an indictment for election fraud. FBI chief J. Edgar Hoover's personal dislike of Prichard had ensured that, once his name came up, the FBI pursued the case with full vigor; after the conviction, Prichard was unable to appeal to the Supreme Court because too many of the justices had to recuse themselves from hearing a case involving their friend. (He did, however, receive a pardon from President Truman.) Tracy Campbell's richly detailed biography shows how after decades of political exile Prichard was able to redeem himself as an advisor and later as a champion for education reform in his native Kentucky. A compelling morality tale with a quintessentially American setting, Short of the Glory explores an under-recognized facet of mid-20th-century politics and the men who carried it out.

Customer Reviews:

The Man Who Might Have Been Ed Prichard.......2005-07-28

Who would of thought that here in the third millennium we would still take time to read about Ed Prichard, whose life story will be linked through eternity with a third rate felony-and a blundering, ham-handed felony at that? Prichard is dead more than 20 years now, as are almost all those who loved and hated him. He never held public office-indeed, more generally, never came close to fulfilling the promise of his admirers. Why would anyone care?

To this question, it is possible to give an uncharitable reply. Kentucky, one might say, is a place with more past than future. To dwell on a footnote may be read as saying: we almost amounted to something, we could have been a contender.

And yet, and yet. And yet we have the testimony of the best and the brightest that Prich himself was the best and the brightest; if not as an actor, perhaps as a thinker and certainly as a talker.. Indeed, I had the privilege to observe Prich in what might be called his rehabilitation phase: the early 60s when his friends were trying to ease him back from obloquy and exile onto the political stage. I will add my testimony to those of legions who swore that Prichard in full spate was simply the greatest three-ring oratorical circus of which a simple country boy might dream, his whooshes of insight keeping easy company with his flashes of savage wit. No wonder he won the affection of Felix Frankfurter, of Phil Graham, of-good heavens, is this true?-of Sir Isaiah Berlin.

Indeed: Berlin was once his roommate and like so many was stunned and horrified when Prich was convicted by a Kentucky jury The details are there Tracy Campbell's account, along with a great deal else one may have remembered or forgotten about the politics of Kentucky in the last Century. Campbell tells it all earnestly and unflinchingly, and a strangely compelling story it remains.

Is there a larger context for Prich's story? Probably not a great one, but by a stretch, you could fit it into more general story of the history of the New Deal. It was here, after all, that Prich occupied center stage: as the brilliant young scamp who enchanted Felix Frankfurter, and who put himself at the elbow of Robert Jackson, of Fred Vinson, of Jimmie Byrnes (although both Jackson and Byrnes stayed aloof, and even Vinson saw Prich's limits). One can, at least with caution, take Prich as a kind of symbol for what was right and wrong with those years: the brilliance, the optimism, the energy, together with an overlarge dose of self-admiration, bordering on downright narcissism. Prich was, after all, as dazzling as they say he was. But he was an appalling abuser of friendship, a serial shirker of duties, and at best no more than a mediocre husband and father. Even after he started taking fees from the strip miners, he never really paid his taxes. Indeed, one of the remarkable parts of the Prich story is the way so many people were taken in by him-not merely by his skills at rhetoric and dialectic (which were indisputable) but by the notion that these virtues somehow translated into political gravitas.

Campbell does a conscientious job of surveying the evidence surrounding Prichard's pivotal bout with ballot-stuffing in 1948. Laudably, he hesitates to draw any grand conclusions. I will indulge myself a bit more. Prich came back to Kentucky touted as the next governor, senator, president-offices to which (says Campbell), absent his "lapse" he "would certainly" have risen. But by Campell's own testimony, this is nonsense. Campbell himself says that Prich "had not the ambition or the personality for such posts." Quite right: probably nobody knew this better than Prich himself. His friends saw him as the next Roosevelt; he knew he was closer to Peter Pan. By sticking his hand in a ballot box, he relieved himself of all these impositions: he may have left his friends bewildered and disappointed, but he gave himself the freedom to remain forever young.

A Greek Tragedy Played out in Postwar Kentucky.......2004-05-11

Edward F. Prichard, Jr.'s life makes for high drama; this excellent biography makes for engrossing and informative reading. "Prich" was yet another of the terribly bright Frankfurter students at Harvard Law School in the late 1930's who gravitated to Washington, first as a Supreme Court clerk to Frankfurter, and later with involvement in New Deal and wartime public service. The Greek chorus appears when Prichard returns to his home state of Kentucky to practice law. The book superbly recounts his conviction in connection with a 1948 vote-tampering scandal, his incarceration, and his eventual return to the practice of law and a role as respected educational reformer in Kentucky. Unfortunately, serious illness inflicted near blindness and other frailties which ultimately caused an early death at the age of 69. The reader can only sit back and wonder as to why one with such unlimited promise and talents chose the course he did. Nonetheless, as the book traces Prich's life, it provides an fascinating perspective on Harvard Law, Frankfurter, the wartime FDR administration, the early presidency of Truman, and the rise of the super lawyer-lobbyists such as Thomas Corcoran. One's time is well invested in reading this volume.

The Brightest of His Generation.......2003-08-12

Ed Prichard was called "the brightest of our generation" by no less than Katherine Graham. He was Felix Frankfurer's first law clerk, and served ably and brilliantly in the Roosevelt and Truman administrations.

Then came 1948. In Texas, Lyndon Johnson won a Senatorial election, as the saying goes, by the votes of 49 dead Mexicans. That same year, Prichard helped stuff ballot boxes in his home county, Bourbon County, Kentucky, for a forgettable Senate candidate who had the election locked up anyway. But, hounded by J. Edgar Hoover for his "socialist" views (such as championing civil rights for blacks and an eight hour work day, with a decent minimum wage), Prichard, not Johnson, went to prison and was disbarred.

This short, but imminently well researched book is his story, recounting all his sparkling brilliance, the arrogance that helped bring him down, and his ultimate redemption as the father of the education reform movement in Kentucky. This is an elegantly written and masterfully documented history from a first rate young historian. The biggest revelation is the story of J. Edgar Hoover's targeting of Prichard, which was gleaned from declassified documents, and never previously reported.

If this book teaches us that we are all flawed, it also teaches that we are all capable of redemption. This is one of the finest biographies I have ever read.

Well-researched and insightful.......2001-01-15

This book tells well of a brilliant student, high in the ranks of his class at harvard Law, law clerk to Justice Frankfurter, holding responsible positions in the Government in wartime Washington, who by an unbelievably reckless and stupid act destroyed his career, then , after years of struggle redeemed himself before his death in 1984. This is a most worthwhile read for anyone interested in the law or in Kentucky politics,or in the shakers and movers in Washington in the 1940s.

Excellent study of a failed genius.......1999-05-10

In this accessible, informative biography, Campbell presents the tragic story of one of the brightest stars on the 20th century American political scene. A man of acknowledged genius, fragile ego, and an almost childlike attitude, Prichard was seen by many as the most gifted and promising of the new generation of liberal politicians that arose out of the New Deal. Though his hopes for political office were ended by J. Edgar Hoover's irrational vendetta against him, Campbell makes it clear that the person who ultimately brought about Prichard's downfall was Prichard himself. This is an excellent book about the lofty heights and tragic depths that a man could sink to, and I highly recommend it to any history buff or political wonk.

Book Description

This is a double biography of two men—father and son—who left a vivid imprint on the State of Maine. James Phinney Baxter, the father, was six times mayor of Portland, creator of its modern park system, and one of Maine's foremost historians. His wealth, which he made in the canning business, was left to Percival, the youngest of his six sons, who achieved immortality by using it to buy Maine's highest and most beautiful mountain, Katahdin, and 200,000 surrounding acres. As a legislator and governor, Percival had tried to persuade the government to preserve this gem of the north, and when he failed, he did it himself, leaving it to the people of Maine as a magnificent state park. This is a fascinating look at Maine in an era stretching from before the Civil War to the end of the 1960s.

Average customer rating:

Become a more dynamic company

Some good concepts. Very difficult to implement the ideas.

"Kinetics" Good Readings!

"Kinetics" Good Readings!

Oversimplified old wine in new bottles

The POWER OF CORPORATE KINETICS: CREATE THE SELF-ADJUSTING, SELF-RENEWING, INSTANT-ACTION ENTERPRISE
Michael Fradette , Steve Michaud , and Deloitte & touche consult
Manufacturer: Touchstone
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

General | Business & Investing | Subjects | Books
Decision-Making & Problem Solving | Management & Leadership | Business & Investing | Subjects | Books
Management | Management & Leadership | Business & Investing | Subjects | Books
Planning & Forecasting | Management & Leadership | Business & Investing | Subjects | Books
General | Small Business & Entrepreneurship | Business & Investing | Subjects | Books
ASIN: 0684855909

Amazon.com

The Power of Corporate Kinetics: Create the Self-Adapting, Self-Renewing, Instant-Action Enterprise, by Deloitte Consulting partners Michael Fradette and Steve Michaud, provocatively suggests that nothing short of a dynamic new workplace model will enable businesses to survive and thrive in the rapidly changing, wired world of the future. It then outlines development of just such a "kinetic" organization, proposing a series of core principles and attributes in Part 1 and offering advice and case studies to aid with actual implementation in Part 2. The goal, it maintains, is a company that can effectively turn chaos into opportunity. --Howard Rothman

Book Description

Arm yourself for an unpredictable future by transforming your business into a kinetic powerhouse.

In the good old days, it was easy to chart the ups and downs of business. But in today's fast-paced, wired world, change occurs so rapidly that the old strategies no longer work. In this brilliant and practical book, Michael Fradette and Steve Michaud, top partners at Deloitte Consulting, prepare you and your business for the unknown by outlining a new work culture fit for the 21st century. Drawing on a wealth of client experience with companies that have adopted the kinetic model -- corporations as diverse as Kinko's, MTV, and John Deere -- Fradette and Michaud show how you and your business can:

Seize market opportunities

Incorporate changes with a hair-trigger response

Evolve constantly to meet shifting customer demands

Capitalize on the market turbulence that confuses competitors

This breakthrough book will teach you how to win in the wired and wildly changing world of today's business.

Customer Reviews:

Become a more dynamic company.......2006-01-27

Long-range planning doesn't work anymore in today's accelerated business arena. You must abandon this long-standing strategy and implement a wholly different one, say the authors. You need to transform you company so that it becomes more kinetic, that is, dynamic, able to move and move fast. Your company needs to be able to capitalize on the unpredictable; changes in customer demands and the market. A kinetic company has two goals:
· to serve a single customer a tailored product
· to act in zero time, responding to customer demands immediately and capitalizing on market opportunities as soon as they arise

The authors propose the following strategies to achieve these goals:
1. Change to an infrastructure that allows your company to act instantly. Destroy the barriers that keep your employees from sharing their expertise with each other.
2. Provide leadership that rewards employees for challenging the status quo. Send the message that the strategic purpose of the organization is everyone's business.
3. Hire workers who can recognize and seize market opportunities. Look for employees with intelligence and the ability to work with others. Other skills can be taught, brains and attitude usually can't.
4. Encourage workers to satisfy unexpected customer demands.

Some good concepts. Very difficult to implement the ideas........2003-08-10

The ideals of the book - `Serve a single customer' and `Act in zero time' are very commendable goals. How to create a Kinetic Enterprise that can make the above two goals happens is approximately the gist of the book.

First, the bad - the first clue that this may be an impractical book if you are looking for implementation advice comes from the following statement on the inside front cover of the book `It's not just the increase in the rate of change; we all know markets are moving faster - it's the magnitude of the increase that is making the future completely unpredictable'. Maybe it is my 8 years of undergraduate and graduate work in engineering schools that puts me at a disadvantage to accept a statement like the one above. But to me the statement is the same as saying `how fast you can accelerate your car doesn't matter but how much you can increase its speed does'. Don't they both mean the same? If you can accelerate your car very well, you can generally also achieve a high speed because of the acceleration. Right there, I became leery of what the book was going to present because I was afraid that one has to leave reality at the door and be prepared for an amazing exercise of imagination where you can go to the moon and back in 30 seconds by spending just a couple of dollars.

My fears then came true as I forced myself to read through the book to validate or invalidate my initial concerns. I ended up finding these flights of fantasy throughout the book now that I had my practical hat on and questioned almost every statement the authors made. Enough of the negative stuff about the book as I generally like to stay with positive reviews. So let's move on to the positive aspects of the book.

Now, the good stuff - there are two very important concepts in the book that are valuable to the success of any business in the present and the future. These are the concepts of `Market Events' and `Customer Events'. A Market Event is defined as `the work of the enterprise immediately and profitably performed to seize an unexpected market opportunity'. For example - when an employee at Kinko's noticed that they had some slow times during Christmas when everyone was out shopping and came up with the idea of using their laminating presses to create custom calendars with photos from customers for a good price. This has now become a leading profit making idea around the world. This would be a market event starting with the employee noticing the market opportunity. There is a similar definition for the Customer Event that is defined as `the work of the enterprise immediately and profitably performed to satisfy a unique, single customer demand'. For example - when a corporate customer calls Dell to order some computer equipment, the customer service rep works with the customer to better define the exact need and moves the enterprise to fill that individual customer need all the way from ordering the parts from the supplier for this particular customer's needs to making sure the price is right.

I found the information on pages 53 and 69 titled `The Elements of Market Events' and `The Elements of Customer Events' very informative and useful. There are other valuable pieces of information throughout the book and I am still working through the book to find all of them. It is hard work as the good information is mixed with the material put in there to inspire the reader (which I find very bothersome because of the transparency of these statements).

Overall, this is a book worth skimming through (especially if you able to buy this at bargain price) to see if it suits your style of reading (and if you can ignore some of the inconsistencies). Some of the other reviewers of this book did a fantastic job of summarizing what's in the book so I decided not to focus on that as I would end up repeating what has already been done perfectly. Hence my goal in this review was to point out some of the problems with this book and warn the reader to put on a more realistic hat when reading this book. I hope this was helpful. Good luck!

"Kinetics" Good Readings!.......2002-12-11

The Power Of Corporate Kinetics-Book review

Introduction

The concept of Corporate Kinetics (Kinetics meaning movement from the Greek language), is presented in this book as a new business model that evolved from the analysis by the two authors in 1995 of a fundamental shift in pioneering companies, in response to a rapidly changing environment (Fradette & Michaud, 1998). The premise in the author's view is that in order for business to survive in today's age of advanced technology, savvy and demanding customers, and uncertain politics and finance, a business must move at the same pace and be ready to meet the challenge.

Some of the ideas in the book can be identified within well-established motivational theories and organizational models. However, the newness of the model presented in this book is in the potential of "Kinetic" organizations to utilize principles that work such as a clear corporate vision, coupled with worker's passion that grows out of ownership of the vision, translated into immediate actions in response to market changes or customer needs. The old theories are crystallized into a picture of a planned corporate setting that welcomes and encourages change and new opportunities, without loosing sight of why the company exists in the first place.

Book summary

The book is composed of two parts, the first being described as "The Destination", and the second as "The Journey".

Part I - Embrace the power of Corporate Kinetics

Part one of the book begins from the premise that businesses today are faced with unpredictability, changing customer loyalties, and tremendous advances in technology that warrant corporate change to cope, survive, and thrive.

Part II - Follow five concurrent paths to Corporate Kinetics

This section of the book describes the practical steps a company can take to become "Kinetic". The practical steps provide a road map to executives wishing to "convert" their companies into "kinetic" enterprises, or entrepreneurs who are looking to fit in today's business environment.

Commentary

This book caught my eye as I searched for strategic insight, primarily because I am a visual as well as conceptual learner. This book presented more than a total of theories and a plan of action, but a "word picture" that I could "see" with my mind's eye. A Company deeply committed to a vision, with a good strategic plan, but fluid enough to adapt quickly in response to internal or external changes, as identified by a hand-picked workforce, in touch with the real world, and just as committed to the company's vision.

"Kinetic" workers, test their responses to market changes or customer demands by how well they fit the strategic plan, support the vision, and create competitive advantage and corporate health. The motivation for the so called kinetic worker, is a sense of ownership in the company, fueled by a generous reward system and clear understanding of the vision, as well as complete collaboration and access to resources, among all levels in the workforce from the CEO to the front line worker.

It is this worker empowerment and encouragement of innovation that attracted my attention, since they are concepts that I espouse wholeheartedly, the essence of what I find fascinating in this book. Especially impressive were the case histories used that clearly illustrate what a company "in movement" is like, i.e. Kinko's, MTV, Microsoft, Hewlett-Packard, the US Army, etc. It was evident by the examples that the companies illustrated "fit" the overall picture of the "Kinetic" enterprise as described in the book. The idea is to "step back a minute" to see more clearly what we've missed or where we are going.

Ultimately I feel this type of organization encourages personal growth and societal well being, as well as a healthy corporate structure that can stand the test of time and change.

Conclusion

In my view, rather than finding something entirely new in this book, I found a fresh perspective with a word picture "Kinetics" (stay in movement), to describe in a graspable way the ideal business in today's world. One that moves with the times, focuses on the ever-changing needs of clients, and is willing to change itself, while also acting as an agent of change. It is apparent to the author that all of the elements mentioned in this review are necessary to succeed in creating such an organization. However, the primary elements are servant leadership (leaders and managers rolling up their sleeves and joining workers), and recognition of the front line worker as a mover and innovator (closest to customer needs and market opportunities). Both of these must also be aligned with the primary purpose of customer satisfaction and company well being that is shared by all.

As attractive as this model is however, even these companies must continually renew their efforts to prevent stagnation. Leadership in my opinion is key, since in many organizations denial is still rampant, and corporate change is stifled by hierarchical structures and corporate culture. Personally, I acknowledged as I read this book that as a mini-organization, home life also needs to become "kinetic" to some extent. I.e. we must make time for one child at a time, invest in their changing needs, "get into" their environment (the world as it is rather than as we would have it be), and be committed to the overall success of this enterprise we call family however defined by each. Whether running a large corporation or home life, we do well to heed the signs of the times and focus on adapting and seizing the opportunities presented to us, one at a time.

Bottom line, I recommend this book for it's fresh perspective and insight into a complex and ever changing business environment. Good readings!

Asela M. Calhoun, BS, MAOM Student, Azusa Pacific University

"Kinetics" Good Readings!.......2002-12-11

The Power Of Corporate Kinetics-Book review

Introduction

Book summary

The book is composed of two parts, the first being described as "The Destination", and the second as "The Journey".

Part I - Embrace the power of Corporate Kinetics

Part II - Follow five concurrent paths to Corporate Kinetics

Commentary

Ultimately I feel this type of organization encourages personal growth and societal well being, as well as a healthy corporate structure that can stand the test of time and change.

Conclusion

Bottom line, I recommend this book for it's fresh perspective and insight into a complex and ever changing business environment. Good readings!

Asela M. Calhoun, BS, MAOM Student, Azusa Pacific University

Oversimplified old wine in new bottles.......2000-11-02

This book has some significant problems. I completely agree with the prior reviewer who believes that being "kinetic" (as suggested by the authors) is being reactionary. Reacting radically to "radical" events is an oversimplification. This is not necessarily the best course to take.

The concepts discussed by the authors are nothing new. Many writers have suggested that we need more flexible organisation structures to cope with the environmental turbulence in the current period. See Hedberg et al (1976) "Camping on seesaws". These concepts coincide with contingency theory and the like. There is no real evidence however that organisations behaving in the way that the authors suggest will succeed.

I also believe that the authors confuse having a plan with being able to execute it. The two concepts seem alike but are in fact different. Those pushing re-engineering have fallen into this trap - they perform radical re-design and then attempt to radically implement it - this course is surely destined to fail more often than not.

In short, anyone who literally swallows their medicine is asking for trouble. Those wanting long term solutions should examine Systems theory (Senge and others). They suggest (with good evidence) that "sudden" changes in the environment have in fact built up over time. It's good advice - to cope with the business problems we face in the current times we need to approach them within this framework.

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