Consumer Eastern Europe 1998/99

Book Description

Today, the projected image of a city may play a greater role than its reality in shaping the views of visitors, investors, and, even, residents. High pressure marketing and sales techniques are frequently used to help troubled cities in their transition to post-industrial centers of tourism, culture and reinvestment. Yet for all the slick professionalism, none of this is new.

Selling Places details the successive waves of how places have been sold and marketed as attractive locations for resorts, residential areas, and cultural and business centers over the past 150 years. Stephen V. Ward uses original research and richly illustrated examples of promotional ads to show that the processes of promoting places started in the American West, with airy promises of fertility and prosperity, and currently continues with the staging of major spectacles including the 1996 Atlanta Olympics and Sydney in 2000.

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Want to fire up creativity in your company? When Sparks Fly just might be the fuel you're looking for. Dorothy Leonard and Walter Swap describe a method that can help people become more innovative and better at teamwork. "Whether you lead a group of three in a nonprofit foundation or 300,000 in a Fortune 500 business, the basic process of creativity is the same," write Leonard, a Harvard Business School professor, and Swap, a Tufts University dean. The process involves five steps: selecting the right mix of people to spark creativity; identifying the problem needing novel ideas; developing alternatives; taking time to consider choices; and selecting one option.

Leonard and Swap bolster their ideas with real-life examples of corporate creativity and analysis of dozens of psychological studies about human innovation. The Xerox Palo Alto Research Center (PARC), for instance, generates breakthrough ideas by teaming up such diverse people as artists, anthropologists, and computer scientists. And to support diversity's role in creativity, they cite a 1992 study of 199 bank CEOs. The research found that top management teams are more innovative if they include people with varying expertise. Each of the book's chapters begins with a fictional management scenario and concludes with a summary of key points. It also includes chapters on designing the best physical and psychological environments for igniting new ideas. When Sparks Fly is a good tool for managers and others interested in fanning the flames of creativity. --Dan Ring

Book Description

How does a leader manage for creativity?

Many managers fall into the trap of assuming that only gifted individuals--readily identifiable "creative types"--can produce breakthrough thinking, and if you don't have an eccentric genius on your team, your efforts are doomed to mediocrity. Some even argue that creativity is an art that can't possibly be planned or managed without extinguishing the vital creative spark. Yet, say Dorothy Leonard and Walter Swap, today's most innovative, complex services, products and processes spring from well-led, well-managed group interactions.

Blending their backgrounds in business and psychology into a fresh perspective, Leonard and Swap sweep aside conventional thinking about creativity to show how managers can actively shape group processes to enhance creative output. They offer proven strategies based on a deep understanding of human behavior for stimulating and directing the group dynamics that lie at the heart of innovative thinking. The book clearly outlines and analyzes each step in the creative process and gives practical suggestions for managing creative teams, including specific techniques for composing groups to maximize creative abrasion, re-channeling the tensions of conflicting points of view into new ideas and alternative options, and failing forward to success.

Leonard and Swap explore how all aspects of the work environment, from leadership style to the promotion of passion to the use of space to maximize serendipity, can enhance innovation. Drawing on examples in companies that range from small startups to Fisher-Price, Intel and Hewlett-Packard, When Sparks Fly shows how sophisticated managers can galvanize groups to maximize their creative potential.

Customer Reviews:

The Creative Mindset.......2003-12-05

In Leonard and Swap's book, "When Sparks Fly: Igniting creativity in groups," the authors acknowledge that with the right physical and psychological group environment, creativity can easily emerge from all members of a group. This creativity can be brought forth in groups ranging from five to five-thousand. The authors present their views and information in a congenial way, which gives the book a lighter sense. Their overall intention was not to create a guide which would be viewed as mentally cumbersome to absorb, but rather to write a book which bestows fresh ideas upon the reader in a non-technical way.
The book begins by challenging the typical myths associated with creativity, and subsequently proving them to be incorrect. The authors assert that by using certain motivational and managerial techniques, greater overall creativity can be achieved, even by those who would not typically be referred to as the "creative" type.
The chapters cover all of the basics of group formation and management, beginning with basic creative group problems, addressing techniques with which to harness creativity and keep it focused in the right direction, and leaving the reader with the knowledge and motivation to foster the proper environment for the foundation and formation of a creative group. This is achieved through a five-step process defined by the authors as: 1) preparation, 2) innovation opportunity, 3) generation of options, 4) incubation, 5) the convergence on one option. These steps are intuitively arranged and thoroughly explained throughout the course of the book.
Overall, this book seeks to leave you with the idea that creativity, while an inherit ability to some, can also be thought of as a process. Once creativity is learned to be viewed as a process, many new avenues with which to inspire creativity can be realized and achieved through careful manipulation of the work environment. These authors truly provide a great prospective on a somewhat perplexing topic to most managers.

True organizational crativity.......2001-12-01

THis book shows how the true creativity (the one for everyday work) arises and how managers should do in their corps to leverage this invaluable asset.

An Essential Tool for the Internet Age.......2000-06-08

Innovation in the workplace is difficult to achieve for all organizations. Most businesses do not have a resident genius, but rely on the creativity of many people over multiple disciplines. Managing these different perspectives and expectations can be a nightmare. Risks of alienation, creating winners and losers and outright failure inhibit even the most self-assured manager. Within the first 15 pages of the book the authors, Dorothy Leonard and Walter Swap, introduce Ken Iverson, the chairman of Nucor Steel who reported that, "when his company took on a new, extremely high-risk creative project, he slept like a baby -- he woke up every two hours crying!"

According to the authors, group creativity requires thoughtful preparation, cultivation of different options, time to reflect and careful culling of the "right" ideas. Each step in the process will either energize the team to work harder or become part of a demoralizing and fractious process. As Leonard and Swap write, "Two (or more) heads are better than one, however, only if (1) there is useful knowledge inside the heads; (2) all that useful knowledge can be accessed; and (3) all that accesssed, useful knowledge can be shared, processed, and synthesized by the group."

While reading the first section, I "borrowed" a legal pad from my spouse to pilfer the numerous creative ideas suggested. By the time I was done, I had filled the entire pad and was writing on the cardboard back, with designs for programs to reward creativity and groundrules for initiating appropriate creative sessions. Just about everything is covered -- from why preppy Tommy Hilfiger can design for urban youth to how Weyerhaeuser created new, cost effective particleboard. While the reader may not want to use every single idea, there are many new ideas to choose from, representing the best-of-breed these authors have found from around the world's corporations in their considerable body of research.

When Sparks Fly: Igniting Creativity in Groups marks the publishing debut for a team of seasoned professors: Dorothy Leonard, of Harvard Business School, and Walter Swap, dean of the colleges at Tufts University. It is a rare business book: accessible, fresh and realistic. Perhaps it is no accident that the book was written shortly after the marriage of these two well-respected academics. Sparks do fly.

Creativity is an attitude and a learnable process.......2000-06-08

This is a successor to Dorothy Leonard(-Barton)'s excellent Wellsprings of Knowledge, and expands the treatment of knowledge generation or creativity that forms one of the important chapters of that book.

The central message is that group creativity is a social process and that the process needs a sympathetic climate in terms of norms, beliefs, attitudes and physical environment and needs to be managed through a series of stages. Neglect of any stage seriously inhibits the process. The authors do not deny individual creativity but insist that all of us can contribute to group creativity if the conditions are right - and that individual creativity can be destroyed or at least suppressed if the conditions are wrong.

These are very similar to the conditions required for organisational learning (see Nancy Dixon: The Organizational Learning Cycle), which is not surprising as knowledge generation and learning are different perspectives on essentially the same phenomenon. The two books in fact make good companions to each other.

Chapter 1 draws out some principles, defines creativity and innovation for the purpose of the book and outlines the creative process.

While saying that creativity is resistant to linear progress, the authors identify five steps as capturing the essential features of the creative process. They are: preparation, innovation opportunity, divergence (generating options), incubation, convergence (selecting options).

The steps of divergence, incubation and convergence are the central (usually iterative) engine of creativity. Effective management of these steps is vital, and it is the balance or rhythm of the steps that has to be got right.

The rest of the book is basically about the conditions necessary to ensure that each of these steps and their combination are fully productive. How should the group be structured? What norms, beliefs and behaviours are necessary for them to interact creatively? What leadership behaviours are needed? How should the process be managed and when, if at all, should there be external facilitation? What psychological and physical conditions are conducive to creative success?

The authors conclude: "Creativity, like learning, is not only a process but also an attitude. Managing creativity is all about the values we enact."

Activating the Maverick Synapses.......2000-05-10

There are many books now available on the general subject of "creativity" but relatively few on the subject of "group creativity." Leonard and Swap have selected an appropriate title for theirs. As they explain, if you create the appropriate physical and psychological environments for a group, creative "sparks" can "fly"...perhaps igniting a department, a division or even an entire organization. For whatever reasons, others do not share my high regard for this book. So be it. What I expected -- and what it delivers -- is a solid conceptual framework within which to generate and then sustain collegial creativity. If you've read Robert Fritz's The Path of Least Resistance for Managers, you are already aware of his assertion that an organizational structure can be designed for success. Leonard and Swap agree with Fritz, not only that such a design is possible but also that it is imperative. Their book consists of six chapters:

What Is Group Creativity?

Creative Abrasion

Generating Creative Options

Converging on the Best Options

Designing the Physical Environment

Designing the Psychological Environment

These chapters are followed by several pages of Notes and a superb Bibliography. Their concluding thoughts reiterate that "creativity is a process -- and can be encouraged and influenced....Thinking of creativity as a process removes, we hope, some of the mystery -- and the temptation to step back from the challenge....Creativity, like learning, is not only a process but an attitude. An attitude that promotes creativity is a kind of alertness to innovation opportunities -- a constant mental challenge to routine and openness to change.... Some individuals thrive on the challenge of constant change and improvement; others recoil from the implicit chaos....But it takes only a small spark to ignite a large fire. Let the sparks!"

I provide this brief excerpt for two reasons. First, it gives you at least some idea of how the authors think. Also and more importantly, their remarks imply some of the barriers to "group creativity" which must be overcome, if not eliminated: fears of being "wrong", of embarrassment, of rejection, of seeming "dumb", etc. As Leonard and Swap correctly suggest, it is as important to be alert to human sensitivities and vulnerabilities it is to "innovation opportunities." Without mutual respect, there can be no mutual trust. Without mutual trust, there can be no creative collaboration.

If you share my high regard for this book, you may wish to check out the works of other authors such as Guy Claxton, Edward de Bono, Doug Hall, Michael Michalko, Joey Reiman, and Roger von Oech.

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When Sparks Fly: Igniting Creativity in Groups
Dorothy and Swap, Walter Leonard
Manufacturer: Harvard Business School Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
ASIN: B000XPOHWO

Book Description

This book is an advanced text in applied welfare economics and its application to environmental economics. The author goes far beyond the existing literature, deriving sets of rules that can be used to assess the social benefits and costs of private and public sector projects that affect the environment. Drawing on a number of empirical illustrations, this book will be of interest not only to those taking advanced courses in environmental economics, welfare economics, and public economics, but also as a reference for those undertaking project evaluations in government and business.

Fire assisted pastoralism vs. sustainable forestry-the implications of missing markets for carbon in determining optimal land use in the wet-dry tropics ... from: Journal of Environmental Management]

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Fire assisted pastoralism vs. sustainable forestry-the implications of missing markets for carbon in determining optimal land use in the wet-dry tropics ... from: Journal of Environmental Management]
D. Ockwell , and J.C. Lovett
Manufacturer: Elsevier
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Digital

Elsevier | By Publisher | e-Docs | Formats | Books
ASIN: B000RR43AE

Book Description

This digital document is a journal article from Journal of Environmental Management, 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:
Using Cape York Peninsula, Queensland, Australia as a case study, this paper combines field sampling of woody vegetation with cost-benefit analysis to compare the social optimality of fire-assisted pastoralism with sustainable forestry. Carbon sequestration is estimated to be significantly higher in the absence of fire. Integration of carbon sequestration benefits for mitigating future costs of climate change into cost-benefit analysis demonstrates that sustainable forestry is a more socially optimal land use than fire-assisted pastoralism. Missing markets for carbon, however, imply that fire-assisted pastoralism will continue to be pursued in the absence of policy intervention. Creation of markets for carbon represents a policy solution that has the potential to drive land use away from fire-assisted pastoralism towards sustainable forestry and environmental conservation.

Revisiting EU Policy Options for Tackling Climate Change: A Social Cost-benefit Analysis of Ghg Emissions Reduction Strategies

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Revisiting EU Policy Options for Tackling Climate Change: A Social Cost-benefit Analysis of Ghg Emissions Reduction Strategies
Christian Egenhofer , J. C. Jansen , S. J. A. Bakker , and J. Jussila Hammes
Manufacturer: Centre for European Policy Studies
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

General | Popular Economics | Business & Investing | Subjects | Books

International | Economics | Business & Investing | Subjects | Books

Natural Resources | Economics | Business & Investing | Subjects | Books

General | Politics | Nonfiction | Subjects | Books

Use of benefit-cost analysis to evaluate regulatory induced changes in human mortality rates (Center for the Study of Environmental Policy. Working paper)

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Use of benefit-cost analysis to evaluate regulatory induced changes in human mortality rates (Center for the Study of Environmental Policy. Working paper)
F. Roger Tellefsen
Manufacturer: Center for the Study of Environmental Policy, The Pennsylvania State University
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Unknown Binding

General | Business & Investing | Subjects | Books
ASIN: B0006XCJG4

Book Description

An inspirational guide to help trainers add new dimensions to their training. While taking account of the wide range of new opportunities made possible by the multimedia and the Web, Training Plus focuses on the complete range of skills needed to inspire people to learn more. Applying powerful business creativity techniques to the world of training, the author's practical exercises will transform the ways trainers train - helping them to experiment with some of the new approaches that are gaining ground in staff development. At the core of the book are 40+ new, and mould-breaking and proven approaches to transform training in specific key areas.

Book Description

A powerful guide to thinking and managing your way into the new economy. A how to think book for practicing managers.

Customer Reviews:

appropriate for a wider readership.......2007-04-06

This charming crib to the memes of complexity is a standout among far less informed writing in management. I have recommended it to my college students in a class on the edge of chaos that has nothing whatever to do with business, and I feel it deserves to be kept in print, as a gentle counterpoint to the turgid 'professionals', and vain opportunists, that are hard to avoid in the field. A very nicely judged piece indeed.

the author wishes to share this information with you:.......2001-01-10

- REVIEWERS SAID: -

"A writer and consultant with a profound understanding of complexity and its applications" Roger Lewin, author of `Complexity: life at the edge of chaos'

"The best designed and best illustrated of all the complexity and management books. More than just another `how-to' book , this is a `how-to-think' book for practicing managers. Within this book lies the craft of management. Armed with the concepts herein, the manager of today is better prepared to face the complexities of tomorrow. Without such mastery, the risk is chaos and confusion." Michael Lissack, Editor-in-Chief, Emergence: A Journal of Complexity Issues In Organizations and Management

"An excellent, easy-to-read overview" New Scientist

"Navigating Complexity contains ideas to provoke, challenge and stimulate those working at senior levels in any role. Battram has taken a huge amount of source material and put it into a form where it can (and should!) be used by innovative managers and consultants. He has done a splendid job of bringing together the different aspects of complexity into a single excellently laid out volume. This book should find a place in the library of any leader, strategist or consultant who likes to create their own models and methods by synthesising ideas rather than following someone else's recipe" Long Range Planning, the Strategic Planning Society journal

"A powerful guide to thinking and managing your way into the new economy." Charles Leadbeater, author Living on Thin Air: The New Economy. "Presents concepts of complexity theory in a structured, well illustrated and direct way which is anything but complex." Management Skills & Development magazine

"He has grasped a wide variety of concepts from many contemporary fields and made them accessible and useful for executives and managers. Breakthroughs in results will occur if they are taken on board." Michael McMaster, Director, Knowledge Based Development Ltd, and author of `The Intelligence advantage'

"Essential reading for every manager in local government who wants to bring about creative change" Professor Tony Bovaird, University of the West of England

"For me it is the key reference guide to this crucial area of management theory" Nick Zeniuk, co-developer of the Team Learning Lab with Fred Simon and Peter Senge

"Short comprehensible chapters doing just what he promises - taking the interested manager (or other amateur `nexialist') on a guided tour of the field, from fractals to factories. It requires no maths background, but teaches you how to think about complex issues in today's ways." Jack Cohen, co-author, with Ian Stewart: `The Collapse of Chaos'

- ABOUT THE AUTHOR -

Arthur Battram is a consultant and a thinker, writer and teacher in the fields of strategy, change, knowledge management and participation. He coaches senior management teams in the `complexity perspective' and is the creator of Possibility Space Design, a methodology for enabling creativity and collaboration in groups. His work with senior teams focuses on organisational learning, creatvity and adaptation.

He has over 20 years experience as a facilitator of learning and change, with individuals, teams and large groups.

His earlier career in community development and playwork enables him to make an original contribution to groups seeking sustainable change.

He is a frequent speaker at national and international conferences on complexity, management, organisational learning and teamwork and is a visiting lecturer and research associate at Aston Business School, Warwick University and The London School of Economics.

Email Arthur Battram at: apb@cityplex.demon.co.uk

Book Description

Addresses the complex issues involved with the design, development, use, and management of global executive information systems. Results from a study conducted to identify these issues are analyzed and discussed in the global business environment context. Recommendations for developing a global executive information system are also proposed.

Global Executive Information Systems: Key Issues and Trends (Transnational Business and Corporate Culture: Problems and Opportunities)

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Global Executive Information Systems: Key Issues and Trends (Transnational Business and Corporate Culture: Problems and Opportunities)
Anil Kumar
Manufacturer: NY
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
ASIN: B000MU8ZOG

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