Cyberhound's Guide to Companies on the Internet (Cyberhound's)

Customer Reviews:

pretty good.......2005-02-24

A nice book to learn about the SOL tests. It gives concise reviews of what kids needs to know, so you can check their readiness. The test taking tips are very useful for young students to raise scores. Informed parents can make a big difference in children's test prep. Note that such a thin book doesn't do much to improve math or reading. That requires daily learning in school and study in home. There is a nice web site www.beestar.org you can use every week to assess your child's skills step by step. With the fundamentals in place, this book helps to get a better result.

Book Description

This digital document is an article from Research Quarterly for Exercise and Sport, published by Thomson Gale on February 1, 2007. The length of the article is 452 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: Dimensions and achievement of staff development in after-school enrichment programs.(LEISURE AND RECREATION)
Author: James J. Zhang
Publication: Research Quarterly for Exercise and Sport (Magazine/Journal)
Date: February 1, 2007
Publisher: Thomson Gale
Volume: 78 Issue: 1 Page: A-40(2)

Distributed by Thomson Gale

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Form and Spirit of Vedic Ritual Worship
PANDIT SHRIRAM SHARMA ACHARYA
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
ASIN: B000UEIK2Q

Product Description

This booklet is about procedure of effective rituals, role of the organizers of karma kand, good management and conducive environment, keeping the stream of worship flowing, proper planning for sustaining of energy and enthusiasm, suggestions for organizing a yajna, purpose and form of the yajna, preparation for the yajna, workers and volunteers, construction of mandapa, discipline for participants, protection from fire, articles require for performing yajna, the importance and utility of gayatri yajna, science of yajna, inspiration of yajna and procedure to do yajna in details

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The Human Dimension of Quality
Brian Thomas
Manufacturer: McGraw-Hill Companies
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

Strategy & Competition | Management & Leadership | Business & Investing | Subjects | Books

Quality Control | Management & Leadership | Business & Investing | Subjects | Books

General | Business & Investing | Subjects | Books

Human Resources & Personnel Management | Industries & Professions | Business & Investing | Subjects | Books
ASIN: 0077090519

Book Description

Exploit the missing link in most quality initiatives: PEOPLE. Quality improvement (QI) theories come and go, but in the end it's real people who make or break any QI effort. The first resource to confront this ``undiscussable'' of organizational life, The Human Dimension of Quality, by management consultant Brian Thomas, goes beyond QI's well-known technical and procedural concepts to focus on quality's deeply personal side--tackling such often ignored issues as: why QI plans that look great on paper flop in practice--and how to get people to take ``ownership'' of their jobs to make QI programs really work together without personality and ``agenda'' clashes; ways to virtually eliminate negative thoughts and behaviors that can doom promising QI initiatives; how to tailor QI to the needs of your organizations and those working in it; much more.

Human Dimension of Total Quality Management

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Human Dimension of Total Quality Management
Nayantara Padhi
Manufacturer: Atlantic Publishers and Distributors
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
ASIN: 8126904283

New Wave Manufacturing Strategies: Organizational and Human Resource Management Dimensions (Human Resource Management series)

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Great Snapshot of Innovative Manufacturing

New Wave Manufacturing Strategies: Organizational and Human Resource Management Dimensions (Human Resource Management series)

Manufacturer: Sage Publications Ltd
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

Strategy & Competition | Management & Leadership | Business & Investing | Subjects | Books

Quality Control | Management & Leadership | Business & Investing | Subjects | Books

General | Organizational Behavior | Business & Investing | Subjects | Books

General | Business & Investing | Subjects | Books

Human Resources & Personnel Management | Industries & Professions | Business & Investing | Subjects | Books

Organizational Behavior | Business Management | Professional & Technical | Subjects | Books
ASIN: 1853961809

Book Description

Over the past decade, many companies have adopted new strategies for manufacturing, which have taken their competitiveness on to new planes. A whole array of initiatives, such as FMS, JIT, TQM, CIM, and MRP II, have been introduced. This book deals with the far-reaching significance of these new approaches - collectively labelled "new wave manufacturing".

Considerable research evidence as well as practitioners’ own experiences make one crucial point time and time again. The organizational as well as the human resource management aspects of these new strategies are critical to their success or failure. The underlying theme which is tackled in this book, therefore, is to what extent do these new operational strategies require a matching set of organizational and HR strategies?

By looking at the issues through the joint eyes of production and behavioural analysts, this book provides an unique introduction to the new developments in manufacturing as well as providing an up-to-date assessment of the organizational and H R dimensions to these methods.

New Wave Manufacturing Strategies has a vision which goes beyond the "new technology"/advanced manufacturing technology discussions.

The chapters have been written in a clear, accessible manner by leading experts from Europe, the USA and Australia as well as from the UK.

Customer Reviews:

Great Snapshot of Innovative Manufacturing.......2000-03-31

This book addresses the organizational and human resource elements of contemporary manufacturing strategies like FMS, JIT, TQM, CIM and MRP2 by a leading business professor from Loughborough University Business School (UK).

Invited papers topics include: new wave manufacturing strategies, linking strategy, organization and technology, implementing manufacturing strategy, design-manufacturing interface, flexible manufacturing systems, TQM, CIM, manufacturing resource planning, JIT, cellular manufacturing and teams, worker responses to new wave manufacturing, and future prospects.

Despite dating from 1994, much of this book is still relevant to wider business which lags leading manufacturing companies (e.g. global aerospace, UK motorsports, US pharmaceuticals, Japan brewing, India IT etc..). Strengths include the concisely written, well illustrated, and referenced style. Improvements could have included summaries and more interactivity (e.g. questions for managers). Overall, this is a great multi-audience text for industrialists, as well as engineering/social sciences students.

Average customer rating:
Quality improvement processes that preclude information services are doomed to failure.(measuring performance by dimensions defiend by customers) (Total ... An article from: Industrial Management
Kipp Friedli
Manufacturer: Institute of Industrial Engineers, Inc. (IIE)
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Digital

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ASIN: B000920OK0
Release Date: 2005-07-28

Book Description

This digital document is an article from Industrial Management, published by Institute of Industrial Engineers, Inc. (IIE) on January 1, 1994. The length of the article is 1164 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.

From the supplier: The total quality management program theorizes that it is the poor design of management systems and procedures, rather than the work of employees of an organization that eventually leads to poor quality. To build a strategic quality movement, organizations must carefully measure every aspect of office activity to determine what is to be removed or eliminated. Maintaining a high level of quality can improve revenues and reduce costs, since customer needs are better attended to.

Citation Details
Title: Quality improvement processes that preclude information services are doomed to failure.(measuring performance by dimensions defiend by customers) (Total Quality Management)
Author: Kipp Friedli
Publication: Industrial Management (Magazine/Journal)
Date: January 1, 1994
Publisher: Institute of Industrial Engineers, Inc. (IIE)
Volume: v36 Issue: n1 Page: p6(1)

Distributed by Thomson Gale

Vulnerability of water quality in intensively developing urban watersheds [An article from: Environmental Modelling and Software]

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Vulnerability of water quality in intensively developing urban watersheds [An article from: Environmental Modelling and Software]
M.B. Beck
Manufacturer: Elsevier
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Digital

Management | Management & Leadership | Business & Investing | Subjects | Books

Book Description

This digital document is a journal article from Environmental Modelling and Software, published by Elsevier in 2005. The article is delivered in HTML format and is available in your Amazon.com Media Library immediately after purchase. You can view it with any web browser.

Description:
As cities grow they first impose substantial stress on their surrounding water environment, but then, as comprehensive wastewater infrastructure is installed, much of that stress is removed. It becomes possible to talk of rehabilitated watersheds, in which the river network, with its re-invigorated ecological health, passes through the urban landscape of (now) potentially intense polluting activities. Surface water quality becomes vulnerable to the transient pollution events arising from all manner of accidents, faults, failures, and contaminated-runoff events associated with the city's metabolism, including unreliability in the performance of its wastewater infrastructure. The paper examines the role of High-Performance Integrated Control (H-PIC)-a combination of real-time control (RTC) and Integrated Urban Water Management (IUWM)-as an approach essential to managing water quality in such intensively developing watersheds. Rather than promoting H-PIC as the logical stage of operations that will follow planning, design, and construction in the life cycle of an infrastructure, discussion is set in the context of the sustainability of cities, in particular, in association with a measure of sustainability expressed in terms of the frequency spectrum of disturbances to which the aquatic environment is subject. In this more strategic setting, it is argued that control engineering (for achieving H-PIC) should be seen as having relevance beyond merely its conventional interpretation of closed-loop unit-process automation, e.g., in opening up analyses of the stability and ecological resilience of an entire urban water infrastructure. It is acknowledged that ''integration'', as in IUWM and H-PIC, is likely to be realized in practice, because of the need for it expressed in the highest political circles of the sustainability debate. Given this, the paper examines the implications of the ongoing shift-from the technocracy of the past century to the democracy of stakeholder participation in the present century-for the more widespread use of information and communication technologies in managing water quality in urban water environments.

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The Human Dimension of Quality
Brian Thomas
Manufacturer: McGraw-Hill Companies
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
ASIN: B000OGNGZ6

Human dimensions implications of "quality management" (Human dimensions perspectives : an occasional paper series of the Colorado Division of Wildlife)

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Human dimensions implications of "quality management" (Human dimensions perspectives : an occasional paper series of the Colorado Division of Wildlife)
Patsy Goodman
Manufacturer: Colorado Division of Wildlife
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Unknown Binding
ASIN: B0006P7NX6

Book Description

"The Macroeconomic Uncertainty Strategy (MUST) analysis developed in this book and presented in an easily comprehensible way is mandatory reading for every corporate manager that takes responsibility for competitiveness regardless of level of decision-making" Professor Art Stonehill, Past President of the Academy of International Business and co-author of Multinational Business Finance — the global bestseller Managing in the Turbulent World Economy Corporate Performance and Risk Exposure Lars Oxelheim, Institute of Economic Research, Lund University and IUI, Stockholm Clas Wihlborg, Göteborg School of Economics and Commercial Law Within the last two decades firms and organizations, regardless of size, have been subject to changes in the conditions for doing business caused by uncertainty from shocks and disturbances in the world economy. This has called for new strategies in which management recognizes the interdependence of exchange rates, interest rates and inflation rates influencing the firm through a variety of channels not captured by conventional accounting systems. This book provides the essential facts for managing and assessing the development of corporate performance and competitiveness in the new economic climate by

distinguishing between forces under management control and those which are not
filtering profits from the impact of changes in the economic environment of the firm
contributing to the understanding of shortcomings of traditional methods of performance evaluation (such as EVA, SVA and Benchmarking)
providing a comprehensive set of risk measures
developing a new Macroeconomic Uncertainty Strategy
providing guidelines on how to cope with exposure to fluctuations in exchange, interest and inflation rates

Customer Reviews:

very interesting book but hard to like..........2000-05-03

From what I can tell, the two main ideas of this book are:

1) Changes in exchange rates affect a firm not only through translation of transactions with foreign-based firms, but also because the changes potentially can alter the firms competetive situation. 2) Regression analysis can be used to measure cash flow and/or market value sensitivity to changes in macro economic variables such as exchange rates, interest rates and inflation. This gives you a neutral, statistical average relationship which tells you how big your true exposure to macro risk is (this measure captures the change in competetiveness too, as opposed to traditional ones). These regression coeffiecients can then be used to form a hedging-strategy.

The ideas in this book are strong. You get a much better picture of how risk could and should be managed. It also contains a lot of interesting discussions on the implications of market efficiency for the firms hedging policy. In short, it's a book practitioners in the field should read.

Its major drawback lies in the writing style of Mr Oxelheim. It's not very clearly written at all, and most numerical examples are annoyingly messy. I's a book I think you're going to find it hard to like. This is strange, considering it seems to be Mr Oxelheims wish that his methods be used by managers. For that purpose, the book should be re-written in a much more lucid and pedagogical way. To understand the book, a basic course in corporate finance and regression analysis will help a lot.

The price is a bit steep I think. You need to be really interested in risk to get your moneys worth.

Book Description

It was supposed to be quick and easy. The Bush Administration even promised that it wouldn't cost American taxpayers a thing -- Iraqi oil revenues would pay for it all. But billions and billions of dollars, and thousands of lives, later, the Iraqi reconstruction is an undeniable failure. Iraq pumps out less oil now than it did under Saddam. At best, Iraqi's average all of twelve hours a day of electricity. American soldiers lack body armor and adequate protection for their motor vehicles. Increasingly worse off, Iraqi's turn against us. Increasingly worse off, our troops are killed by a strengthening insurgency. As T. Christian Miller reveals in this searing and timely book, the Bush Administration has fatally undermined the war effort and our soldiers by handing out mountains of cash not to the best companies for the reconstruction effort, but to buddies, cronies, relatives and political hacks -- some of whom have simply taken the money and run with it. Blistering, brilliant and shocking, this will be the breakout title when it comes to Iraq books, and the catalyst for national debate.

Customer Reviews:

Corruption at its best.......2007-08-27

While the matters in this book have long been alluded to in congressional hearing and the media. this is the first book to gather it up in one volume. It shows an inept government unable to do what was done almost 60 years earlier. Admittedly, the culture and the circumstances were different but the resources were greater. The rampant graft and lack of aggressive action by those in charge, including contractors, is chilling. Have we as a nation state sunk so low?

It presents a thoughtful picture of the risk encountered daily by many employees of contractors. This is the first writing that describes the risk imposed on the professional truckers serving in Iraq. No other writer spells it out so vividly.

This book raises more questions than it supplies answers. Of course, that was the purpose of the book.

No blood money.......2007-05-10

This book is a devastating indictment of the US intervention in Iraq. For the author, the clearest signal of the failure of the reconstruction program is the unabated violence.
The second Iraq war created a paradise for cynical war profiteers, while the Iraqi population was left in the cold. The aid packages were in fact remarkable programs of US domestic handouts and corporate welfare, profiting nearly only to retired Republican operatives, US businessmen and dubious Iraqi exiles with a double agenda.
The profiteers organized an orgy of greed on profit guaranteed contracts. Control was inexistent, e.g., $ 9 billion out of the $ 20 billion of the Iraq Development Fund disappeared without a trace (mind-boggling!). Insurance companies sold mouth watering policies for labor protection. Foreign private security firms played a leading role in the daily violence in Iraq. The contractors hired slave laborers in order to maximize their profits.
The newly installed Iraqi government was not a shade better, e.g., its Defense Ministry misspent or `lost' $ 1.3 billion in its first year in office.

The author illustrates poignantly his terribly shocking exposé with concrete examples of personal tragedies, like the suicide of Col. Ted Westhusing, or the murder by his kidnappers of a 19 year old Nepalese, who paid a broker's fee of $ 3000 for a $ 200 per month job in Iraq.

Miller's book shows also the disastrous effect the UN sanctions had on the Iraqis under Saddam (one schoolbook for every six children).
Its final conclusion is that the Iraqi people didn't receive `blood money' - the payment of compensation by an attacker to the family members of dead or injured loved ones. Instead, they inherited a living standard below the `Saddam' level (no power, no water, no sewage treatment).

This book with its formidable title is a must read for all those interested in world current affairs.

How the US snatched defeat from the jaws of victory.......2007-04-23

This books deserves a Pulitzer Prize for plugging the huge gap in our knowledge of why the spectacular military triumph was succeeded by the even more spectacular reconstruction fiasco that quickly alienated average Iraqis. The press has focused mostly on the daily casualty counts and on the political maneuvering among Iraqi religious and secular leaders. Left unreported has been the story of why the mainstream Iraqi population that was so hopeful after the US toppled Saddam has turned against us in despair. Miller's investigation and reporting skills are remarkable in detailing so much of what went wrong with virtually every aspect of the occupation. Much of the blame is attributable to the unprecedented reliance on profit-driven private sector firms to carry out public policy of rebuilding Iraq -- which was doomed to failure because normal marke forces don't exist to control behavior of corporations left to run amok. Absolute must reading for anyone trying to understand how any American military success can be rapidly and overwhelmingly squandered by failure to plan for all that must follow.

Conservatives should be the most furious.......2007-03-07

Much about the Iraq "war" has been covered. The mythology, the manifest destiny, the lies, the propoganda. But one dimension that's been touched on by Robert Greenwald in "Iraq for Sale" and this fine, fine volume is the profiteering that's going on in Iraq.

Some others critics have commented that the book doesn't list criminals. On the contrary, many are implicated! Indeed, aside from the corporations and their directors who are making out quite literally like bandits, the text also covers the dubious qualifications of those assigned to high positions in Iraq, e.g., persons who were chosen because of their position on Roe v. Wade.

Those who purport to be conservative should be the most angry at what is going on. When they talk about big government, yet refuse to complain when megacorporations are charging the taxpayers--yes, that's you and me--hundreds--THOUSANDS of times what a service is worth there is something wrong. And this book specifies who's getting away with those acts so far. (In a review, I regret I can't get more specific or my review will be eliminated.)

Get this book for yourself and for ALL who still defend what's going on, especially those, again, who claim to be conservatives. This truly is the most important book I've read on the "war" and I'm well-read on the subject. I talked with an attorney referred to in the text who argues that a main motive for the war is to establish a new ruling class. You'll be able to figure out how such a ruling class may be established by reading and pondering this fine volume.

Crime Without Crimnals.......2007-02-05

This book lists crimes but pulls back from from pointing to the criminals.

The crimes themselves are well known to readers of the Internet. There is nothing new here. If you don't pay attention to the Internet the list of crimes and profiteering in Iraq is sobering.

Probably out of a justified fear of retribution the author fails to draw the obvious conclusions of who did what.

Three stars for generalities and one star for specifics= two stars overall.

Blood, Money, & Greed: The Money Trust Conspiracy

Average customer rating:

Share this one carefully
after thoughts
Simply Amazing!
A good book but requires some extra reading
Blood, Money & Greed

Blood, Money, & Greed: The Money Trust Conspiracy
Cliff Ford
Manufacturer: Western Front Ltd
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

Conspiracy Theories | Current Events | Nonfiction | Subjects | Books

General | Religion & Spirituality | Subjects | Books
ASIN: 1888848235

Book Description

For more than 200 years an international banking cartel has literally bought the world. Conspiracy Theory? No! Conspiracy Fact! Author Cliff Ford draws upon his extensive background in international finance to document how this group's plan to control the world's monetary system has progressed and how near they are to achieving their diabolical objective. Discover why a group of men whose combined assets represented one sixth of the world's wealth met secretly on Jeckyll Island, South Carolina in 1910 and how that meeting affected the course of history. Discover how the most powerful men in government during World War I were part of the same banking firm controlling both the German Secret Service and British Intelligence while on opposite sides. Discover who financed Adolf Hitler's Third Reich and how they later became highly placed officials in the US Government. Discover what the Federal Reserve is - and what is not. And last, discover what inflation really is (hint: it's not what you think it is).

Customer Reviews:

Share this one carefully.......2005-04-09

This is a book that if purchased, should be kept nearby. It was borrowed by an old friend and never seen again, because he wanted to keep it. I had to get a new one and someone stole that one too. Must be good, because I never got a good chance to read the whole book.

Sincerely,
Author of "Knowledge For Tomorrow" -- Quinton D. Crawford

after thoughts.......2001-04-03

The author started off with a respectable historical review of how the fed came about. It was eye opening and provided a lot of information which was not widely available. (For example, who were the shareholders of the fed).

The later chapters got wackier and wackier. He started making claims that he either neglected to or were unable to substantiate and thereby greatly diminished his credibility.

It was an entertaing and easy to read book. But I would classify if as part fact and part speculation.

Simply Amazing!.......2000-08-25

I purchased this book a couple of years ago, lent it out to someone I don't remember so I'm buying it again! It's an easy-read, yet very detailed in its implications and suppositions. I THOROUGHLY enjoyed this book. Mr. Ford has an awesome amount of insight and unparalleled objectivity for such a subject as this. If you have a sincere desire in understanding how our society is as screwed up as it is, Mr. Ford has a couple of more than compelling reasons as to why. Definitely worth your time - enjoy!

A good book but requires some extra reading.......2000-03-18

When reading the book for the first time in 1999, it was a mind blower. It described the various steps taken by a money trust to take over the World, punctuating the evolution with episodes about the various financial crisis, the foundation of the Federal Reserve including the infamous Depression, the end of Bretton Woods, the 1973 oil crisis, the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989 and the Y2K bug which was a plan for Europe's old money to take over the World again. At the time it opened several mind barriers.

But since (15 November 2001) I also discovered "Return of Depression Economics" from Paul Krugman explaining fundamentals in economy in an easy way, "False Dawn" from John Gray explaining the dangers of over borrowing which causes our present and probably temporary downturn, "Essays on the Great Depression" from Ben S. Bernanke explaining why the countries which abandoned the gold standard quickly (Britain 1931, Germany 1933) recovered much faster than those who did not (US 1934, Belgium 1935, France 1936). And those who did not use gold but silver did not suffer at all (China, Spain) because the metal was never in short supply.

If the Federal Reserve had not been there, if the Bank of England had not showed the way to the solution in 1931 and if this solution did not become a global standard after 1971, we would all be in a bad shape today. The reason why the dollar fares better than the euro is not because economic fundamentals but because the Federal Reserve has more room to manoeuvre and avoid crisis (recent slowdown in employment proves it) than the European Central Bank influenced by Germany who was rightfully traumatised by its 1923 hyperinflation period. Gray explains how a depression or an hyperinflation leave a deep trauma to a generation that lived true one of those events. Unfortunately fighting inflation is only one side of the coin. Recession and depression also exist.

Global finance is shaped by all those rules. September 11, 2001 showed why insurance companies and other financial institutions pool together to reduce risk. This is not a conspiracy, just the desire to diminish exposure. In 1929, central bankers were a new specie initiated by the Warburg before and after WW I to prevent problems (US, Russia, Germany, Japan, Bank of International Settlements) on the model of the banks found in France and Britain. Nobody ever had to cope with a global depression before and several states including the US did exactly what made it worse: raise interest rates, raise taxes, close their borders for foreign goods (see last chapter Krugman and also Bernanke). Since 2000 Fed reduced the rates, US government diminished taxes and lawmakers in industrial countries insist to keep borders open to avoid the unnecessary collapse of global trade. Rather trade adapts to demand.

Last but not least "All Connected Now, Living in the First Global Civilisation" from Truett Anderson explaining how our system became global thanks to telecommunication (telegraph, telephone, telex, fax, internet). Circa 1850 people started to install electric communications lines and everything else followed the wire to become global (business, finance, politics, culture, religion, social movements, information, etc...).

So a good book but reader must search for further reading to find the true meaning of the paradigm shift that occurred between 1850 and 2001.

Blood, Money & Greed.......1999-12-29

Excellent work, Mr. Ford! I wish I had learned some of this in my years of "Higher Education". Thoroughly documented and in-depth. What every Tax Paying American should no about the economic world in which we live. This book opened my eyes to the simple truth that money does make the world go around, and who is spinning it.

Blood Money: Wasted Billions, Lost Lives, and Corporate Greed in Iraq.(Book review): An article from: Military Review

Average customer rating:

Blood Money: Wasted Billions, Lost Lives, and Corporate Greed in Iraq.(Book review): An article from: Military Review
James E. Varner
Manufacturer: Thomson Gale
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Digital

General | Science | Subjects | Books

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Book Description

This digital document is an article from Military Review, published by Thomson Gale on November 1, 2006. The length of the article is 951 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: Blood Money: Wasted Billions, Lost Lives, and Corporate Greed in Iraq.(Book review)
Author: James E. Varner
Publication: Military Review (Magazine/Journal)
Date: November 1, 2006
Publisher: Thomson Gale
Volume: 86 Issue: 6 Page: 104(2)

Article Type: Book review

Distributed by Thomson Gale

Book Description

A top Fortune 500 sales trainer shows how to transform the ugly truth into beautiful sales

No Lie--Truth Is the Ultimate Sales Tool introduces salespeople to a powerful new approach to winning customers' trust instantly and selling more, more, more. Drawing upon his years of experience training sales forces at Xerox, American Express, PepsiCo, Verizon, and other top shops worldwide, guru Barry Maher explains why the most effective salespeople know how to transform their product or service's negatives into positive selling points, or even bragging points.

Using fascinating and instructive real-world examples, he describes six proven strategies that let readers:

Win customer trust, instantly, by telling the whole truth about a product
Use that trust to transform a negative into a powerful selling point
Compare a product's shortcomings with a competitor's advantages and come out on top
Convince potential customers that a product's negatives translate into greater success and satisfaction

Download Description

A top Fortune 500 sales trainer shows how to transform the ugly truth into beautiful sales No Lie--Truth Is the Ultimate Sales Tool introduces salespeople to a powerful new approach to winning customers' trust instantly and selling more, more, more. Drawing upon his years of experience training sales forces at Xerox, American Express, PepsiCo, Verizon, and other top shops worldwide, guru Barry Maher explains why the most effective salespeople know how to transform their product or service's negatives into positive selling points, or even bragging points. Using fascinating and instructive real-world examples, he describes six proven strategies that let readers: Win customer trust, instantly, by telling the whole truth about a product Use that trust to transform a negative into a powerful selling point Compare a product's shortcomings with a competitor's advantages and come out on top Convince potential customers that a product's negatives translate into greater success and satisfaction

Customer Reviews:

Guilt-free selling.......2006-05-20

The reason Maher scored a 5 is that if you're in sales even if it's just in the form of selling your ideas, vision or yourself you should read this book. It's by no means a definitive guide, but it is a must read.

When I first started in sales I was shocked to find my fellow salespeople, who considered themselves honest, fabricating stories to enhance perception or to create buying pressure.

This book gave me the confidence to sell strongly while maintaining complete integrity - without the need for ANY fabrication. Maher even shows a powerful, audaciously truthful way to close on the first appointment.

For me it wasn't so much about learning to build trust, developing a set of closes or techniques for presenting - although these are included in the book and are crucial for sales. For me, it was much more about striking a balance between loving the truth and actually earning serious dollars. (I once told my sales manager "I'd rather lose my job than lie").

Make Barry Maher more money so he can give you some tools to becoming a better salesperson - buy this book right now.

Really Works.......2004-09-28

I read the first couple of chapters and put what the author said to work. It really worked! I was charging some fees I was not dare to charge before. Wow I am pretty convinced. Thanks to Mr. Barry Maher.

Refreshing!.......2004-05-04

Not really a methodology, but a rare example of a unique sales book.

A revolutionary, honest approach to selling and selling more.......2004-01-25

If you sell anything to anyone, this book is well worth checking out. I've seen the author speak and the book lives up to all my expectations, which were very high. Highly recommended for everyone from sales pros to beginners to those who aren't salespeople who just sometimes need to sell something to someone.

No Lie - Truth is the Ultimate Sales Tool

Average customer rating:

No Lie - Truth is the Ultimate Sales Tool
Barry Maher
Manufacturer: McGraw-Hill
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
ASIN: B000OGIS0Y

Customer Reviews:

Indispensable aid to managers and facilitators of TPM.......2001-02-22

As a Continuous Improvement Technician I am always interested in maximizing production and quality. TPM is one of the most important tools in making continual improvements in a manufacturing process. James Leflar's book is the best resource that I've read on the practical application of TPM. It has many illustrations and ideas that can be used by any manufacturing facility. It should be in the library of every maintenance department and be required reading for all managers.

Average customer rating:

very good and valuable book

Book Description

Nice read

Solid outline of the requirements for systemised IT mgt.

Invaluable for those involved in IT decision-making

Managing Information Technology for Business Value: Practical Strategies for IT and Business Managers (IT Best Practices series)
Martin G. Curley
Manufacturer: Intel Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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Measuring the Business Value of Information Technology. Practical Strategies for IT and Business Managers (IT Best Practices)

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Human Resources for the Non-HR Manager

Spreadsheet Modeling and Applications: Essentials of Practical Management Science (with CD-ROM and InfoTrac®)

ASIN: 0971786178

Book Description

It is Curley's contention that if IT is to deliver business value, then IT should be measured in core business terms such as customer satisfaction, revenue growth, and profitability.

Managing Information Technology for Business Value is a practitioner's handbook for evaluating IT investments, aligning IT with corporate strategy and using IT as a competitive weapon.

Synthesizing leading academic research and industry best practices Curley introduces principles and strategies for managing for optimum IT Business value, managing the IT budget and managing the IT organization and capability.

In a time when IT spending is reduced and IT organizations are often perceived as cost centers, Martin Curley's Managing Information Technology for Business Value provides a necessary and timely counterbalance. Curley makes an argument using evidence from his work at Intel and with other leading enterprises, that IT investments can and should be linked directly to enterprise business indicators. IT spending ought to improve corporate profitability and the relationship between IT initiatives and business indicators should be explicit and empirical.

Curley organizes his views of IT by developing a capability maturity model approach (CMM) for each important facet of IT planning. Curley's collection of models provides a blueprint for analyzing and improving the performance of IT organizations.

Customer Reviews:

very good and valuable book.......2007-09-04

I used this book to prepare a course about Information Technology investment evaluation in a MBA course, and found in it a lot of good material combining practice and theory. Very good.

Book Description .......2006-10-31

Managing Information Technology for Business Value is Martin Curley's call for IT and business managers to reformulate the way they manage IT. Traditionally, IT success has been measured in terms of IT parameters such as up time, capacity, and processing speed.

It is Curley's contention that if IT is to deliver business value, IT should be measured in core business terms---for example, customer satisfaction, revenue growth, and profitability.

At a time when some corporations are reducing IT spending and once again looking at IT as a cost center, Martin Curley's Managing Information Technology for Business Value provides a necessary and timely counterbalance.

Customer Comments
"Curley's book is required reading for all IT execs. Ignore this book at your peril."
-- Professor Paul Tallon, Carroll School of Management, Boston College

"Curley shines a light on the path ahead for ambitious users of IT. If you have any impact on how IT gets used in your organization, you owe it to your shareholders to read this book. It will impact your bottom line!"
-- John Fleming, CEO, Enzo Consulting

"Martin Curley is a valued member of two very different communities---one populated by theorists who invent better methods to manage enterprises and the other populated by practitioners who put these methods to use."
-- Jeanne Ross, Principal Research Scientist, MIT Sloan Center for Information Systems Research

Nice read.......2005-02-02

This book provided me with some helpful insights on certain aspects I overlooked in regards to IT managment. I was able to integrate some of this knowledge into my line of work.

Solid outline of the requirements for systemised IT mgt........2004-07-30

Imagine you manage a utility, your customers expect your service anytime they want it, anywhere they happen to be, and at a low price. So far it's a pretty complex job, now imagine that your utility is subject to almost continuous innovation, with substantial changes happening every three to five years, and industry-transforming changes occurring approximately once a decade. Your customers expect all the new stuff, anytime, everywhere and cheaper than before. And, if that's not enough, your suppliers emit enough hype to make Hollywood blush, every new release is a blockbuster and a must-have.
Such is the life of the IT manager, or in larger organisations the CIO, Chief Information Officer - which, as the author suggests, could also translate as 'Career Is Over'. This book provides a framework for harassed IT executives to attempt to an organisational self-assessment , and outlines a methodology of getting closer to the customer. The framework is based on the Capability Maturity Model - a familiar concept originally designed to inculcate Quality Systems into software design- and builds a case for describing the evolution of IT departments from chaos through technical service provide to business partner. The methodology can be summarized as aligning IT products and services with customer requirements, and highlighting the costs of IT products and services i.e. being more explicit about 'pay-per-use' costings, so customers will budget as well as demand. There are good real-world examples of decisions taken, business cases ratified and changes justified and implemented through the book.

The target reader is one who is part of a large IT organisation within an even larger corporate organisation, and is based on the author's experience in Intel, whose IT department has 4,000 people and a budget of 1billion [page 228]. In this world one department can become remote from another, and basic business processes need to be continuously clarified and communicated. The author recommends the use of account mangers and IT marketing departments to break through communications barriers - within the same company!. It did occur to me that, somewhere in this need for internal corporate influencing, there is a Dilbert cartoon waiting to get out.
The book is strong on the methodology of governance of an IT function from the basics - do you have a list of IT assets? - through to investing in new innovations using an options approach - in fact, read Chapter 8 first. It occurs to me that the structural processes described in terms of steering committees, assessment methodologies, internal customer communication, external benchmarking militate against the ideal of developing a management which is flexible, innovative and agile. I guess this is the challenge - obviously some rationale is necessary, some structure required to manage a large organisation and this structure obviously works for this organisation. It does bring to mind Clayton's Christensen's dilemma that even excellent organisations, can be misdirected by following their customers requirements and while focussed on continuous innovation can miss an industry transforming wave. There is obviously a tension between becoming more customer focused in terms of service provision and the requirement to being agile and receptive to transformational innovations.
A few quibbles.... One of the main tenets of the book is that IT departments must earn the trust of their business customers. There is curiously little said about techniques for managing quality of service issues, particularly for mission-critical applications. I expect large IT departments have qualification processes for introduction of new solutions, for measuring their quality, reliability and scalability, and I would have assumed that descriptions of how best to manage these - under real world conditions - would occupy more of the text.
The concept of making the customer more explicitly aware of the costs of IT services is mentioned, but this is not expanded to a discussion of vendor management. With the advent of transaction based pricing strategies (e.g. Salesforce.com) it seems to me that software vendors may at last be forced to improve quality and customer service - as opposed to getting paid up-front licences and reluctantly providing 'support', I would have welcomed an insiders view of whether this is a trend that's actually bearing fruit or yet more hype.
The research cited seems to be quite survey based, and left me feeling that just as in industry it's difficult to map IT-values to business values so in Information Systems research there is an absence of hard-numbers (and perhaps rigour?). This left me with the feeling that most of the research quoted was good on proposing frameworks, but unconvincing due to its being based on survey and observations.
A couple of smiles.... To an outsider there are a number of unintentional insights into the corporate world. Through the text we had been introduced to Intel's CIO - a man, then mid-way through (page 177) we are introduced to a woman who is 'Intel's other CIO'. Presumably this is a transitional arrangement, but, on first sight, it occurred to me that Intel might be taking its failover strategy a bit too far.... . Also 'Directionally correct' is a term used through the book, and in the context seems to mean 'roughly accurate', but each time I read it I kept substituting 'close enough for government work', which I presume is not the intention at all.

Overall this is a solid outline of the requirements for systemised management practices within the IT function. The book provides a framework which IT management (and their customers) can use for self-assessment and goal setting, and outlines a number of tools and processes by which Intel's IT department attempts to provide explicit value to its corporate customers.

Invaluable for those involved in IT decision-making.......2004-07-22

If you want to ensure that sound economic sense prevails over organisational politics when it comes to making IT decisions, then this book is an invaluable resource and immediately useful.

It provides a useful mix of what should be done with how it should be done. The presentation of ideas and approaches via maturity frameworks is helpful as it allows you to easily identify how effective your IT function really is and where it needs to be. Overall, it's clearly written and well presented.

This book provides an excellent roadmap to enable the IT function to increase its business value to your organisation in a more meaningful and purposeful manner.

Managing IT Innovation for Business Value: Practical Strategies for IT and Business Managers (IT Best Practices Series)

Average customer rating:

About the Authors

Managing IT Innovation for Business Value: Practical Strategies for IT and Business Managers (IT Best Practices Series)
Esther Baldwin , and Martin Curley
Manufacturer: Intel Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
ASIN: 193405304X

Product Description

Successful companies actively cultivate new ideas, put those ideas to work quickly and efficiently, and harvest the business value benefits of successful innovations. Discussions of innovation often focus on what a company offers, that is, its products and services. In Managing Information Technology Innovation for Business Value, Esther Baldwin and Martin Curley show how successful IT innovations pay back handsomely as well. Innovation is not just about what a company offers, innovation is also about how a company conducts business and how IT in support of innovation can transform an organization into a significantly more efficient company. Drawing on their experience with innovation in Intels engineering operations, Baldwin and Curley emphasize that IT innovation does not require whole-scale invention. An innovative IT solution reapplied in a new context can provide even greater business value because the initial investment in developing the solution has already been made. Baldwin and Curley highlight the importance of diffusion, which in the context of IT innovation is the acceptance of a new IT solution. An innovation leading to a quality IT solution that does not diffuse cannot contribute to business value. The authors provide a multitude of techniques and methods that improve the likelihood of successful diffusion. User-centered design, for example, increases the likelihood of a successful match between an innovative IT solution and the needs of a community of users. Managing Information Technology Innovation for Business Value includes examples and case studies from IT organizations as well as from Intel Corportation. It also includes assessment techniques, skill set descriptions, and a capability maturity framework to help IT organizations understand where they stand as innovators and what steps they can take to strengthen their competencies.

Customer Reviews:

About the Authors.......2007-09-05

Esther Baldwin is Innovation Diffusion Manager at Intel Corporation, focusing on IT innovation. With 20 plus years of experience in the industry she was key in establishing a culture of systemic innovation while starting up the Innovation Center in Shanghai, China. Esther has also been active in many Intel technical and management initiatives including choosing new Intel sites, starting a new factory in Pudong, China, and building new global data centers in Japan, the UK, and USA.

Esther holds a dual Bachelor of Science degree in Design and Design Engineering from Brigham Young University and a Master's Degree in International Management from the Galvin Graduate School of International Management (Thunderbird). She is an Eisenhower Fellow.

Martin Curley is Global Director of IT Innovation and Research at Intel Corporation. Martin drives the development and adoption of emerging technologies and IT business practices in support of new business solutions.

Martin has held senior IT and engineering positions at General Electric in Ireland and Philips in the Netherlands. At Intel, Martin has served as Director of IT Strategy and Technology, and Fab14 Automation Manager based in Dublin, Ireland.

Martin holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Electronic Engineering and a Masters degree in Business Studies, both from University College Dublin, Ireland. He is an adjunct Professor at the National University of Ireland, Maynooth and co-director of the Innovation Value Institute. He is a fellow of the Institution of Engineers of Ireland.

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