Communication 2000 2E: Communicating with Your Team, Learner Guide/CD Study Guide Package (Communication 2000)

Book Description

This book focuses on the communication skills necessary in workplace teams. Successful teamwork strategies are essential for cooperation and efficiency in the workplace. The workshops provided give instruction on learning strategies for forming teams, establishing team goals, solving team problems, and becoming a leader. The CD-ROM component enhances the impact of the workshops as users complete a variety of exercises on the computer and use the Internet to conduct further research.

Book Description

IT Certification Success Exam Cram 2 provides you with a detailed explanation of the certification arena from Ed Tittel, one of the most respected figures in the industry. The book explains the various certification programs, their prerequisites, what can be done with them, and where you might want to go next. Readers preparing for a certification exam find the best-selling Exam Cram 2 series to be the smartest, most efficient way to become certified. This book focuses exactly on what you need to know to get certified now!

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Customer Reviews:

A synopsis of the major certification programs available.......2003-02-11

There are so many certification programs now that one needs a program just to follow them all, and that is what this book is. It is a compilation of most of the major certification programs available today. The Microsoft, Cisco, CompTIA, Oracle, Sun, Novell and the Prosoft CIW are all briefly described. A short summary of the individual programs, their names, what is covered, the exams to take in their proper sequence if applicable, how to make contact and the fundamentals of how to prepare for the exam are all given. Other certification programs such as the ones that cover Linux and security issues are also described. The links to vendor-specific information and other help sites are also included.
This book fills a very important need. Most people are in a virtual maze trying to understand all of the programs that have arisen. After consulting this book, you will know the basics of the programs and have some idea whether any of them is something that you should pursue. The authors are also very careful to maintain a journalistic style neutrality concerning the programs.

Book Description

Thanks to the great success of the QC movement, quality assurance has taken root in the earliest stages of technology development. Software Excellence addresses the assumption that software cannot be built without bugs. The author argues that the application of total quality principles and tools to software development will eliminate the lengthy and costly step of debugging that has become an accepted phase of software development.

Table of Contents

Publisher's Message
Preface
Editor's Foreword--Tadashi Yoshizawa
Editor's Foreword--Motohiro Higashi
List of Editors and Authors

PART 1 -- QUALITY CONTROL METHODOLOGY
Chapter One: High-Quality Software
Chapter Two: Total Quality Management (TQM)
Chapter Three: Methods of Quality Control (QC)

PART 2 -- QUALITY PROCESSES APPLIED TO SOFTWARE DESIGN AND DEVELOPMENT
Chapter Four: Software Quality Control and Small-Group Activities in Software
Chapter Five: High-Reliability Software
Chapter Six: Software Development and Modularization
Chapter Seven: Software Documentation
Chapter Eight: Software Engineering
Chapter Nine: Change Management
Chapter Ten: Quality Improvement in Reuse
Chapter Eleven: Quality Function Deployment for Software Development
Chapter Twelve: Examples of Quality Measurement Systems
Chapter Thirteen: Methods for Quantitative Measurement and Evaluation of Quality
Chapter Fourteen: Production Planning for Software Products
Chapter Fifteen: Software Technology Management
Chapter Sixteen: Quality Design and Management Planning
Chapter Seventeen: Review and Process-Specific Management
Chapter Eighteen: Test Management and Audits
Chapter Nineteen: Maintenance Management
Glossary of Acronyms
Index

Customer Reviews:

Outstanding reference - comprehensive and complete.......2002-02-20

I've had this book since 1997 and find myself referring to it often. It can be used as a clear explanation of software quality control and software quality assurance for professionals entering the field, as well as an off-the-shelf quality manual.

The reason I find it so useful is that it also serves as an encyclopedia of software quality that covers every facet ranging from methods to software maintenance. I find myself constantly referring to Chapter 13, Methods for Quantitative Measurement and Evaluation of Quality, which is complete and filled with formulae. In that respect, the material in this book will fit nicely into an organization that uses SPICE, ISO 9000-3, or Bootstrap as a quality framework. Moreover, if you're in a CMM level 3 or above organization you'll find the quantitative methods described in this book useful, particularly at levels 4 and 5.

My favorite chapters were 11, Quality Function Deployment for Software, and 12, Examples of Quality Measurement Systems. Both of these chapters went into great detail and both provided information and insights that have deeply influenced my approach to quality and metrics.Chapter 14, Production Planning for Software Products was another excellent source of information because this is the bridge between development and operations, and the quality approach in this chapter is the best I've encountered.

If you're an SQA practitioner, software testing professional or member of a software engineering process organization or team this book should be on your shelf. It has served me well in one consulting engagement and project after another and is possible one of the best books in which a serious practitioner should invest.

Collection of practical best practices.......2001-12-26

I discovered this wonderful book when I visited a friend last summer and was so impressed that I immediately invested in a copy. The chapters ranging from quality control methods to processes to testing to software maintenance are comprised of papers written by members of the Japanese Standards Association. Each paper is clearly written, beautifully illustrated and, most importantly, provide some of the best insights into software quality that I've ever read.

This book can be immediately used to develop an effective quality program that will be based on proven practices and techniques. The section of software maintenance alone is worth many times the price of this book. Also, if you are striving for CMM Level 5 this book has all of the ingredients for meeting the process areas associated with optimizing and continuous improvement.

If you are an advanced SQA professional or responsible for a large software engineering organization this book is essential reading. I also recommend it for test and QA professionals and release managers.

A bunch of research papers.......2000-03-09

I was looking for a comprehensive study on testing methods, when I bought this book. I have an academic background, so after looking into the table of contents and skimming through pages in local bookstore, I though I had found right publication. The book has quite solid research foundations and each section provides number of references. Problem is that topics covered in most chapters are too theoretical to be relevant in practice. This book could provide a good background for somebody interested in pure research or writing a PHD thesis, but if you are looking for a clear and well research references in quality assurance it is going to be a waste of 90$ (plus tax). When reading this book, you may want to skip first hundred pages to avoid being exposed to nationalistic arrogance of authors. But, in the same time it was a source of amusement for me; have a read and you will se what I mean :)

Book Description

When it comes to creating value for shareholders, customers, employees-for most everyone concerned-no company does it better than the company that grows. Now, in Value-Creating Growth, two acclaimed growth consultants distill twenty years of expertise into a practice-driven program any change leader can use to ensure sustained, dynamic growth for his or her organization. Packed with real-world examples, proven strategies, and a host of action-oriented tools, this is the first book that offers readers a systematic approach to transforming companies into first-class performers.

Customer Reviews:

Making Growth Requirements Explicit.......2000-09-15

Where are the fast growing companies of yesterday? In most cases, these companies are now slow growing companies. As the authors point out, the top growing companies in 1976 through 1981 remained as top growers only 15 percent of the time by 1991 through 1996.

Where are all of the companies that never even get started growing rapidly? Most of these remain slow growers and may even slow further.

With those challenging historical observations, Thomas L. Doorley III and John M. Donovan then looked at what elements were much more often present among high growing companies than slow growing ones.

Here is where I have an important methodological quibble. To be sure that these elements were most important, many tests would be useful. For example, did the companies that were slow growers and became fast growers adopt these qualities? Did the companies that stopped having or using these qualities become slower growers to a greater degree or frequency than those who had the qualities or added to them? I can't be sure from reading the book, but my impression is that these important tests were not run. If they were and I missed it in the book, I apologize to the authors and you should consider this a five star book.

The authors go on to assert that those companies that grow revenues faster show faster stock-price growth, happier employees, and presumably more satisfied customers. As you can imagine, life is a little more complicated than that. Your company may try to grow and fail. If it fails, stock-price growth and the other factors may be poor. So you have to also test a system like this experimentally. That work remains for the future, but three case histories seem to have provided promising results.

Regardless of the long-term relationships in these areas, clearly many companies have forgotten or never learned how to grow. This book will be valuable for them. A major quibble I have is that I did not see a distinction being made in the book between internal growth and acquisition-aided growth. I suspect that the lessons could be quite different in the two cases.

What I liked most about the book is that it takes an important subject, sustaining growth, and turns it into a system comprised of required elements for the growth to occur. Many leaders and companies lack an understanding of these system elements, and thus skip important areas. With the check lists here, those mistakes are less likely to occur. On the other hand, I found what was said here to be less clear and inspiring than in Built to Last. I still prefer that book to this one for isolating important elements of long-term growth, because it used paired comparisons of reasonably similar companies, and made finer distinctions in its key principles.

The authors propose three cornerstones of growth: commitment, strategy, and capability. They propose 10 practices to establish and maintain these cornerstones:

'1. Believe deeply that growth drive valuation creation.

2. Articulate a growth vision; embed it . . . .

3. Link growth performance to rewards and recognition.

4. Create a Valuable Formula as a platform for long-term growth.

5. Manage the Valuable Formula across the growth cycle.

6. Globalize the Valuable Formula . . . .

7. Leverage . . . innovation and alliances . . . .

8. Identify and nurture all growth-supporting processes.

9. Benchmark growth foundations . . . and aim to beat them.

10. Design and implement initiatives to align foundations.'

In the latter parts of the book, they have more detailed diagnostic questions to help you understand where your organization stands in these regards. Then, they show the benefits of rerunning the diagnostics after your organization has sought to overcome its initial limitations. This is a good idea, in my view.

One caution for you is that the nature of success is always changing. In particular, the shift now seems to be towards those who can create new and improved business models quite frequently, and rapidly implement them. Secondly, the rate of growth in new markets is accelerating. You may grow rapidly, but lose out to a competitor who gains most of the value. In fact, recent studies suggest that as much as 80 percent of the value in an industry may be concentrated in only one company. So outperforming all the competitors will be more important in the future than this book suggests. Third, there are significant ways to grow share price, customer satisfaction, and employee happiness that this book does not address. So you'll want to look for research and books on these topics as these lessons are exposed.

Actually, much of what is in this book focuses on our old nemesis, the communications stall. Organizations as they grow start giving people the wrong messages (directly and indirectly) about what they should be working on. Improving communications is essential to overcoming this tendency to fragment efforts into less and less useful ones.

After you have finished reading this book, take a company you know well and consider which areas are most likely to undermine future growth. Then focus on how you can overcome those harfmful directions, and start taking action. As valuable as it is to learn the theory of what needs to be done, it is even more valuable to take timely action. Your progress will become more certain when you do.

An invaluable guide towards profitable growth.......1999-09-23

Doorley and Donovan provide unquestionable evidence that companies that make profitable growth a priority create substantial bottom-line value for shareholders. This is easily the clearest book I've read on the topic, and is supported by numerous real-life examples. Any prudent executive can only conclude that growth is indeed a competitive weapon. The authors denote the required tools, paths, and timing for growth under a variety of situations. Equally important, Doorley and Donovan also point out when growth can actually destroy value and how to avoid such situations. In my opinion, Value-Creating Growth is a must read and re-read for any serious manager - whether at the entrepreneurial or corporate executive level.

Did they pay people to review this book?.......1999-08-12

Read this book - and with no apathy towards the authors - so what? Nothing new. Same stories, same info has been presented by George S. Day, David A. Aaker, and many others. Having worked with the authors in the past, I say this. There is nothing unique or special about their process. Its not rocket science. There are better, more detailed books about this subject - choose them.

A good solid read on how to create long-term growth.......1999-07-23

The book serves as an excellent guidebook for executives in their quest to generate the most value for stockholders and employees. John Donovan and Thomas Doorley provide the reader with a thorough diagnostic of companies that have reaped substantial benefits by pursuing long term growth strategies. A must read for today's executive.

how to lift your company.......1999-06-20

Did you know that less than 2% of all public companies created 32 percent of all jobs.

Tom Doorley and John Donovan are with Deloitte Consulting. The theme of this book is simple, but the "how-to" is hardly simplistic.

The them is that "high growth companies generate five to ten times the return of slow-growth companies. Such companies churn out new products at twice the "normal" rate. Employee satisfaction soars in high growth companies.

High growth companies are an elite class. These companies are not merely competitive. They are thumping their competition.

The authors provide a conceptual road map for achieving high growth status, based on analysis of a large sample of companies combined with case studies of key companies in North America, Western Europe, and Asia. They show how their ideas are being used in manufacturing, consumer products, financial services, and technology.

This is a small but dense book.

It only covers 163 pages. But there are lots of ideas here, and some are very practical.

For example, the authors found that 60% of fast growth companies have clearly articulated commitments to growth in writing. On the other hand, only 15% of slow growers have such written commitment.

Is your company following the practices of high growth companies?

At the time of this writing, the United States is experiencing a sustained period of rapid expansion. A book that focuses on rapid growth suits these times to perfection. But what do rapid growth companies do during inevitable times of economic downturn?

Doorley and Donovan have done their homework.

Based on a longitudinal analysis plus their own consulting experience, the authors found that those companies that fought hardest to sustain their commitment to growth survived the recessions in best shaped. Some specific action steps included: substitution of relative growth during a period when absolute growth could not be achieved. They targeted growth at greater than market rates or faster than key competitors.

During bad times, high growth companies protected their long term investments in R&D, marketing, and employee development from the budget ax.

Maryanne Peabody & Laurence J. Stybel,Ed.D. STYBEL PEABODY LINCOLNSHIRE Boston, MA

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Value-Creating Growth: How to Lift Your Company to the Next Level of Performance (Jossey Bass Business and Management Series)

Manufacturer: Jossey-Bass
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
ASIN: B000GSQ63Q

Book Description

It is difficult to understand history or the conditions of modern society without a strong grasp of the economic past. Time and again, historic change is wrought by an underlying economic dynamic. For instance, what were the economic roots of modern industrialism? Were resource scarcities a positive element in stimulating technological change through the ages? Why were the Malthusian predictions of overpopulation and starvation in the early nineteenth century confounded? Were labor unions ever effective in raising workers' living standards? Did high levels of taxation in the past normally lead to economic decline? What were the roots of economic imperialism and what effect did it have on today's underdeveloped world? What were the effects of the poor law reforms in Britain in the 1830s? These and similar questions profoundly inform a wide range of intertwined social issues whose complexity, scope, and depth will become fully evident in this encyclopedic treatment of the subject. The encyclopedia contain the following types of articles: - Country and regional essays. Examples: France, Genoa, New England, Ohio River, the Ruhr. These articles may range from relatively exhaustive essays of 10,000 words to 500 words. DT Major essays on abstract concepts. Examples: Industrial Revolution, Feudalism, Invention, Malthusian models, Famine, Accumulation. Essays between 5,000 and 8,000 words. DT Major essays on institutions, phenomena, and historical processes. Examples: Investment banks, cotton, steel, trading routes, real wages, business cycles, slavery, canals. Essays between 3,000 and 8,000 words. DT Shorter essays on abstract concepts. Examples: productivity change, Engel's Law, cartels, gold standard. Essays between 1,000 and 5,000 words. DT Shorter essays on concrete facts, institutions, events, and phenomena. Examples: guilds, enclosures, free banking, Great German Inflation, homestead farming, New Deal, I. G. Farben. Essays between 500 and 5,000 words. DT Important names from both technology and business, along with economic historians of note. Examples: Richard Arkwright, Johann Gutenberg, Benjamin Franklin, John D. Rockefeller, Hjalmar Schacht, Karl Marx. Essays between 500 and 2,000 words. Because of the interdisciplinary complexity of the field, the encyclopedia is divided not only by chronological and geographic boundaries, but by related subfields such as agricultural history, demographic history, business history, and the history of technology. Smaller categories include financial and corporate history, the history of migration, and transportation history. Each article is followed by a bibliography, and each article is signed with its contributor's name. This title is available both in print and as an e-reference text from Oxford's Digital Reference Shelf. A directory of contributors, a synoptic outline of contents, and an index are included. The editorial board and contributors include scholars from Europe, Latin America, Africa, and Asia; it is intended that the project's scope be truly international. There exists no comparable work.

Customer Reviews:

When it is good it is very good.......2006-09-03

This is a good example of the strengths of specialized encyclopedias. Unfortunately, it also provides some examples of the weaknesses.

The description from Booklist (above) provides a good summary of the size and scope of the work (although the publisher claims 900 rather than 875 articles). According to the publisher's Web site, "Articles range from 500-word entries on inventors, theoreticians, and industry leaders to overarching, 8,000-word essays on markets, industries, and labor. ... The general conceptual categories of the work are: Geography (entries on cities, countries, and regions); Agriculture; Production Systems, Business History, and Technology; Demography; Institutions, Governments, and Markets; Macroeconomic History and International Economics; Money, Banking and Finance; Labor; Natural Resources and the Environment; and Biographies." Here are a few samples of article titles: Linen Industry: Overview, Technological Change; List, Georg Friedrich; Literacy;Livestock Leases; Living Standards; Local Banks; Local Public Goods; Lombardy; London; Philips Family; Phillips Curve; Pigs; Pilkington Family; Piracy; Pirenne, Henri; Plantation System; Poland: Early and Medieval Periods, Early Modern Period, Modern Period. There are frequent images, diagrams, graphs, and thematic maps, most of which add significant information.

Some people have wrung their hands over the alleged "Eurocenticism" of this encyclopedia. As someone who has a real need for good information about the economic history of non-European parts of the world I can sympathize, but I think the criticism is very misplaced. Economic history and analytical history in general is a subject invented by Europeans and until recently practiced almost exclusively by Europeans and people of European culture living in former colonies of European settlement. Even with scholars from other cultural backgrounds now entering the field in some numbers we cannot look forward to any quick fix, simply because the Europeans seem to have left a great deal better records than most other societies. In many cases it is going to take a lot of delving into very obscure fragmentary records coupled with painstaking archeological work to improve our state of knowledge measurably.

Most articles are very good and some are masterful. The best, naturally, tend to be written by deep and renowned students of their subjects. Some articles are mediocre, and there are a few real bombs. The articles dealing with Europe and related subjects tend to have the most meat. Some of the non-European articles are very good, however, like Robin Yates' on Ancient and Feudal China and Kent Deng's on the Tang, Song, and Yuan Dynasties. Others are limp owing to lack of good information or lack of skill in presenting what is known. Most frustrating, some present one side of an important and fruitful on-going scholarly debate, leaving the reader with a seriously distorted impression and giving him or her no leads to follow for real enlightenment. This does not happen a great deal, but much more often than it should, given the ambitions and claims of this work.

Nevertheless, I am glad to have access to a library with this encyclopedia on its shelves, and urge other libraries to follow the example. Some libraries may find their clientele better served by the online version that Oxford University Press also offers, as part of its Digital Reference Shelf series.

There is also a review on the Economic History Net at eh.net/bookreviews/library/0929.shtml.

Economic history Encyclopaedia.......2005-01-08

Economics is a social science and economic history is a story of human interaction in the economic sphere.It tells the story of markets,of organizations,of institutions,of small and large communities,from tiny medieval village to the huge communal economies of the totalitarian regimes of the 20th century.
Encyclopaedia is divided in to elevan parts.It gives articles on
-Geography :countries regions like Ireland,Italy ;to
-Geography :cities like Amsterdam,Rome,Venice;to
-Agriculture e.g. green revolution,irrigated farming,mixed farming,land lordism,oil crops;to
-Production systems,Business history,technology e.g.capitalism ,corporatism,air transportation,leisure industry,oil industry,telephone industry;to
-Demography e.g. migration;to
-Institutions,governments,markets e.g. mercantalism,free trade ;to
-Macroeconomical history ,International economics e.g. economic imperialism,monetary standards,exchange rates; to
-Money,Banking,Finance e.g. money, coinage,condumer credit;to
-Labour e.g. wage systems,labour markets;to
-Natural resources and environment e.g. nuclear power,solar power,pollution pest control; to
-Biographies of -a> Inventors and Writers on technology e.g. Alexander Graham Bell,James Watt,Wright brothers --------------b>Entrepreneurs ,Bankers,Labour leaders e.g. Andrew Carngie,Benjamin Franklin -c>Economics and Economic historians e.g. Thomas Malthus Karl Marx, Max Weber.
Encyclopaedia also includes maps like
-spread of agriculture upto 500BCE
-world trading empires,circa 1914
-world deforestation
-industrial revolution in Europe
-world's largest cities,1500-2015
It also covers paintings like
-Agriculture revolution
-Amsterdam
-French caribbean view of the exportation of sugar from the colonies
It is a very good reference source for students as well as for a laymen

The Oxford Encyclopedia of Economic History.(Book Review): An article from: Journal of Economic Issues

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The Oxford Encyclopedia of Economic History.(Book Review): An article from: Journal of Economic Issues
Thomas R. DeGregori
Manufacturer: Association for Evolutionary Economics
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Digital

History | Encyclopedias | Reference | Subjects | Books
ASIN: B000976UMQ
Release Date: 2006-07-14

Book Description

This digital document is an article from Journal of Economic Issues, published by Association for Evolutionary Economics on March 1, 2005. The length of the article is 1337 words. The page length shown above is based on a typical 300-word page. The article is delivered in HTML format and is available in your Amazon.com Digital Locker immediately after purchase. You can view it with any web browser.

Citation Details
Title: The Oxford Encyclopedia of Economic History.(Book Review)
Author: Thomas R. DeGregori
Publication: Journal of Economic Issues (Refereed)
Date: March 1, 2005
Publisher: Association for Evolutionary Economics
Volume: 39 Issue: 1 Page: 275(3)

Article Type: Book Review

Distributed by Thomson Gale

The Oxford Encyclopedia of Economic History : 5-Volume Set

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The Oxford Encyclopedia of Economic History : 5-Volume Set
Joel Mokyr
Manufacturer: NY
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

History | Encyclopedias | Reference | Subjects | Books
ASIN: B000MUAJYK

Book Description

There has been a recent resurgence of interest in the work of Vilfredo Pareto, one of the founders of modern economics. This book reconstructs the genesis and significance of Pareto's theory of choice which is Pareto's greatest contribution to economic science and which was used by John Hicks, among others, to develop microeconomics.

Hicks, Allen, Samuelson and others acknowledged Pareto as the father of the new ordinalist microeconomics but at the same time, portrayed him as confused and contradictory, caught between the old and new paradigms. Luigino Bruni argues that Pareto's revolution in choice theory is better understood in the context of his own philosophical framework. This framework is revealed by reconstructing his dialogues with economists (Pantaleoni) and philosophers (Vailati and Croce), and by exploring Pareto's economic theory in the light of his philosophy of science. In addition, Luigino Bruni argues that Pareto's contribution was different and more complex than Hicks's ordinalism and Samuelson's operationalism. From this analysis emerges an image of Pareto as a man whose ideas and work was only partially fulfilled.

This original and sometimes unconventional book will be of great interest to economists, historians of economic thought and philosophers of the social sciences.

Book Description

"This is an important book for those contemplating entering the advertising field as professionals. The book exposes readers to the issues that most professionals will likely confront in this highly volatile, often controversial, industry. Most importantly Bartel Sheehan provides logical, concise arguments exposing multiple perspectives that will help those new to the advertising industry better understand both sides of a number of complex issues."

--Chris Cakebread, Boston University

Controversies in Contemporary Advertising is a new text presenting a range of perspectives on advertising. It examines economic, political, social, and ethical perspectives and covers a number of topics including stereotyping, controversial products, consumer culture, and new technology.

The book is divided equally between macro and micro issues, providing a balanced portrait of the role advertising has in society today. Author Kim Bartel Sheehan's work recognizes the plurality of opinions towards advertising, allowing the reader to form and analyze their own judgments. It encourages readers to obtain a critical perspective on advertising issues.

Key Features

Assessment of the "critic" using credentials, reputation, past work, authority, purpose, and bias Assessment of argument and support with logic, statistics, emotional appeals, timeliness, examples, word choice, and accuracy
Assessment of relevance: audience and acknowledgements of counter arguments
A plurality of viewpoints on the chosen topics and questions presented
Viewpoints selected from a range of literature published during the past fifty years
Traditional perspectives augmented with the most up-to-date research and examples

Controversies in Contemporary Advertising is ideally suited as a core text for undergraduate and graduate courses in advertising, marketing, journalism, mass communication, and communication studies.

Amazon.com

Manufacturing in the year 2020 will look very different from today's--in fact, in some innovative companies, it will be downright utopian. That's the thesis that Richard Morley, who invented the Programmable Logic Controller back in 1968 and now works for a techno-guru venture-capital firm called the Barn, and co-wonk Patricia Moody put forward in The Technology Machine. Much has changed in the past 30 years--technology, management theories, manufacturing processes--and anyone who hasn't been confused by these changes hasn't been paying attention. But Morley and Moody think the upheavals will have run their course four or five years into the new millennium, and after that there will be more easily graspable standards of excellence in business in general and manufacturing in particular.

The authors see 2020 manufacturing as producing products almost as quickly as a customer can imagine them, with money changing hands just as quickly. Masters of this universe--what the authors dub the Technology Machine--will be the knowledge worker, the man or woman who can perform many functions, who knows enough about multiple areas of the business to be able to cross back and forth between what used to be rigid interdepartmental barriers. Will everyone be a knowledge worker, and will every business run this smoothly? No, the authors don't see that at all. They still see a world with clear winners and losers, but one in which the former will spend less time enjoying the cozy confines of the winner's circle and more time figuring out ways to get in, or back in. It's an exciting world they lay out; and if all goes according to their vision, 2020 will be a fascinating year to be alive. --Lou Schuler

Book Description

How will autonomous agents, emergent systems, and chaos theory change the way we live and work in the twenty-first century? As today's manufacturing and production systems grow increasingly complex, tomorrow's science of complexity will produce paradoxically simple solutions, argue technology experts Patricia Moody and Richard Morley in this astonishing vision of the year 2020.

Containing both cutting-edge insights and simple truths that provide a roadmap to the future of business -- and illustrated by case examples from such companies as Motorola, Honda, GM, Solectron, Intel, Silicon Graphics, Modicon, Flavors, NeXT, Japanese Railway, and Andover Controls -- The Technology Machine challenges readers to understand the spirit and core drivers of growth: technology, knowledge, and individual excellence.

By combining rigorous research with their extensive experience with technology advances that have changed industry, Moody and Morley are able to supply simple guidelines for future growth and detail their keen vision of future systems, leaders, and workers. They isolate the three bad business habits at the root of manufacturing problems today -- shortsightedness, restrictive structures, and unbalanced improvement fads -- show how to break them, and supply four infallible predictors of the types of breakthrough technologies that will come to dominate the world of the future. In that world, customers and suppliers are linked by real-time, online systems; business is driven by customer-designed, point-of-consumption replication of product; and a wide gap grows between "The Island of Excellence" organization of the future -- with its holistic approach, including two-year apprenticeships, uniforms, and morning exercises -- and "The Others," the non-elite, sweatshop-like, breakeven companies of the past. The book is eloquent, original, and essential reading for managers in every area of business and industry.

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Technology will continue to change the way we live and work. Using examples from General Motors, Honda, Intel, Japanese Railway, and others, two business gurus argue persuasively that we must embrace the core drivers of growth (technology, knowledge, and individual excellence) to survive in the future of industry. Based on their own research and experience, Patricia Moody and Richard Morley introduce four breakthrough software meta-systems that will transform manufacturing. In detailing their keen vision of systems, leaders, and workers, they offer simple guidelines for an organization's growth in the next century. With cutting-edge insights and one hundred "wild card" claims, The Technology Machine is both a predictive and a prescriptive guide to the future of manufacturing. No one in business today -- no one who hopes to survive -- should anticipate the future without taking into account Moody and Morley's astonishing vision.

Customer Reviews:

When Dick Morley speaks, listen.......2002-01-10

The fact is, if you're in manufacturing, when Dick Morley speaks, you have to listen. He's got a sharp mind and an unusual style, but more gems come out of his mouth than anyone else in the industry. The Technology Machine's view into the future is well worth the read, by managers and technologists, alike. I'm hoping for a follow on that takes an even more in-depth look at some of the technology and how it will play out in the next decade or two.

Packed With Knowledge!.......2001-03-17

Patricia A. Moody and Richard E. Morley take a fascinating trip into the future, the not-too distant future, by exploring what manufacturing and product delivery to consumers will look like in the year 2020. By discussing past and current advances, the authors articulately present convincing arguments for their ideas with great zest. Don't worry, you won't find impenetrable technological prose here, quite the contrary. Instead, you'll find visions of point-of-consumption manufacturing, small work groups made up of people who live near their job sites and biotechnology that enables customized creation of replacement body parts. Gene Bylinsky of Fortune magazine calls this well-received volume, "a beautifully written, insightful and important new book... your best guide to success" in the 21st century. We at getAbstract recommend this book to forward-looking managers who understand that, even in the complex future, the main rule will be: Keep it simple.

"Spot On".......2000-04-24

While there are slow spots the book is easy to read and the insights are "spot on". If we look back over the past 18 months we clearly see that technology and computers are the key to improved productivity and are the basis for collecting data and turning it into information. Information is our competative edge and will continue to provide our product and service suppliers the tools they need to continue their success.

Rantings about emergent behavior software agents.......2000-04-21

It took me a while, but I just finished The Technology Machine by Moody and Morley, and I'm sad to say that it is a poor vehicle to spread their valuable message to the world of manufacturing. Let me say at the outset that I am not an engineer, but I'm no dummy, either. I bought the book based on an intriguing review in upside (or Red Herring - one of those tech magazines).

The Good News: Some good points are made in the book about the power of approaching complex logistical production problems with the use of properly designed software "agents", each one of which having the "intelligence of a chicken" but en masse creating an environment where behavior capable of handling complex issues efficiently emerges. A powerful idea, to be sure.

The Bad news: The message gets lost in the noise of a very poorly written book - the conversational style used is way too casual for a subject this serious. It's as if this were published by a vanity press - was there no editor? Typos abound (mislabeling GM Paint Shop as GE Paint Shop on page 225, or "...president of Nypro Corporate Inc. of Nypro, a company..." - page 237 are but two examples) and the grammer is atrocious - like the rantings of an angry curmudgeon. There is way too much "consultant-speak" in the beginning of the book, and towards the end it seems to lose focus. As a result, the strength of the message is quite diluted.

I have no doubt that the authors are very smart people and that they have contributed immensely to the world of manufacturing, but in my opinion this book does them a disservice and much of the value of their message is lost.

Mr. Morley is correct........2000-03-23

I would like to say that 107 of Mr. Morley's 127 wildcard predictions were correct.

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