The Far East: Berlitz Executive Language & Travel Guide (CD Rom PC Version)

Book Description

The Leader in Customized Information and Test Preparation

Becoming a Corrections Officer demands your best. LearningExpress is dedicated to providing you with the tools to be your best. Our team of researchers and test experts gives you the information you need to land the job you want.

Getting hired, step-by-step

LearningExpress helps you master the hiring process for Corrections Officers in your location. You get:
-- Full details on requirements and qualifications
-- How and where to apply
-- Who to call for information
-- Valuable advice on the selection process
-- Preparation for the physical agility test, oral interview, and background investigation
-- Salaries and benefits

All the hard-to-find information -- now in one easy-to-use, complete book. You'll learn everything it takes to get ready and get hired.

Test preparation, to score your best

LearningExpress prepares you for your all-important written exam so you can score your best. Features include:
-- Sample exams based on actual tests given in your city and state
-- Useful instruction from test experts in the areas that count
-- A confidence-building rundown on how the test works

You also get advice on how to improve critical skills that are tested, such as reading, writing, judgment, and observation. Plus how to create your own study plan, if you have six months to prepare for the exam -- or six days.

Prepare for a brighter future.

Average customer rating:

He gets it. But do they?

Reviewed by International Corporate Branding Centre

Creating a More Intense Connection Among People

Because companies are people too.

Corporate Religion: Building a Strong Company Through Personality and Corporate Soul
Jesper Kunde
Manufacturer: Financial Times/Prentice Hall
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

General | Business & Investing | Subjects | Books
Leadership | Management & Leadership | Business & Investing | Subjects | Books
Management | Management & Leadership | Business & Investing | Subjects | Books
Planning & Forecasting | Management & Leadership | Business & Investing | Subjects | Books
Systems & Planning | Management & Leadership | Business & Investing | Subjects | Books
Management | Sales & Selling | Marketing & Sales | Business & Investing | Subjects | Books
Entrepreneurship | Small Business & Entrepreneurship | Business & Investing | Subjects | Books
Similar Items:

The Experience Economy: Work is Theater and Every Business a Stage

Simplicity: The New Competitive Advantage in a World of More, Better, Faster

Love: What Life Is All About

What the CEO Wants You to Know : How Your Company Really Works

The Circle of Innovation: You Can't Shrink Your Way to Greatness

ASIN: 0273643800

Customer Reviews:

He gets it. But do they?.......2003-05-21

Jasper "gets it" because "it" is common sense really. A more believable (and thus attractive) brand is one that appears genuinely aligned internally and externally. It's 'ideal' branding. However, the problem is that most companies today have all these pressures in their head that make this nearly impossible to implement in a smooth way. It requires core thinking and consistency and teaming up with the people at the top of the company. Yet, the average lifespan of any President and CMO today is like one year. And when during their tenures, they think, "I need sales tomorrow. Not some zen master to come in and 'harmonize' my culture with my image." They further believe that the "outside agency" should stay in his/her place. "Just do the fricken ads. I don't need a corporate shrink right now." Of course, it's up to the agency team to enlighten them to the business benefits of this 'alignment' approach. For now, I've found that rather than force a company to take on an approach that makes them uncomfortable (or an approach that they feel is out of your range as an outside agency), it's best to seek out relationships with only those companies that are already doing it, just not effectively. The goal is to help them 'strengthen' their branding, with a perceptive strategic planning process and creative sensibilities that ultimately put it in to play. As we succeed on this level, the companies who didn't see its value at first,
will soon follow. I suggest that Jasper's next book be about how to educate and sell in such an approach.

Reviewed by International Corporate Branding Centre.......2001-04-30

Quick review : well written, easy to read with examples, and quite innovative - but the more experienced pratitioner or well read academic will probably be familiar with much of the ideas presented.

Full review : This book will appeal to those who prefer the visualisation of models and concepts alongside short examples, and the format will be particularly liked by those whom have followed an MBA degree or similar training. Main stream academics looking for well researched material may be a little disappointed, for by the authors own admission this book is "a constructive attempt to show another, more dynamic way, for companies to move forward. This book is not about research results, but about attitudes". The center has received feedback from many practitioners and managers tackling live corporate branding projects whom seem to like this book, and it is a fairly easy and somewhat innovative read for non-specialists or general managers, but perhaps less so for the well practiced or academic experts in the field.

The author, Jesper Kunde, is the founder of one of Scandinavia's largest and most successful advertising agencies. In this book, he outlines how it is possible to build strong brands through strong leadership and a strong vision. In explaining his holistic approach to brands and organisations, he draws on concepts from psychology and he argues that his ideas can be implemented in any organisation. The book is not a step-by-step manual as such, but rather an introduction to Kunde's way of thinking.

Kunde points out that simply having a good product is not enough anymore. Consumers pay less attention to adverts and brands and look at the companies themselves. They are looking for reliable companies with sound, consistent attitudes. It is necessary for the management to secure trust and loyalty from both within the organisation and from the consumers, and it thus needs to communicate its ideas to all the company's employees and to the public. Kunde argues that if a company has a strong spirit as its foundation, it can reach a strong market position, and a strong market position is what ultimately decides a company's destiny.

In order to achieve a strong market position, an organisation has to have a strong leader who can unite the entire organisation around an idea, a shared vision - a corporate religion. It is important for the leader to find out what the company really is, to be able to describe it. Kunde argues that this ability is unusual, especially in large international companies.

Successful examples mentioned in the book's many short and to the point case studies are Richard Branson and Bill Gates. These charismatic leaders have strong believes, a clear vision of the future, they know how to communicate it and they are conscious of their own roles. However, Kunde points out that the challenge is to establish the corporate religion in people's minds throughout the whole organisation, so that it is not connected to just one person. The corporate religion must be able to continue even after the first charismatic leader is gone, perhaps particularly relevant based on Microsofts problems of recent months.

Kunde argues that in most large, international companies half of the available energy is unused. If the management can describe the company, develop a consistent company concept, formulate an internal religion and manage the whole company accordingly, this hidden potential can be released. The employees, and consumers, need to feel that the company has a soul and that they are all fighting for a cause. The ultimate goal is to reach the stage which Kunde calls 'brand religion', when the product is a lesser part of the brand than the concepts associated with it. Harley Davidson is one of the examples Kunde mentions.

Summary

Kunde writes in a clear and straightforward manner, and Corporate Religion is an easy and enjoyable read. Those used to already reading ideas and approaches from scandinavian academic literature will find this general philosophy to business practice quite familiar. The concepts and ideas are well explained and further illustrated by case studies and graphic models. It is a book that some academics (used to MBA approach to learning) and most practitioners will enjoy and find useful as it provides both interesting ways of analysing organisations and of interpreting the reasons for their success, or lack of it, and practical guidelines on how to implement a corporate religion and what pitfalls to avoid.

However for well-read academics or practitioners, the book may not seem that revolutionary and Kunde's ideas rather common sense, but it is still an inspirational book worth reading if you have the time.

Creating a More Intense Connection Among People.......2000-09-19

Many will be offended or discouraged from reading this book because of its title. Most of us would like to get our religion from a religious institution or our spiritual practices.

What is in the book did not seem to me to really relate to creating and maintaining a corporate religion, however. I found the book to be describing the benefits of having intense emotional bonds among customers, users, companies, and employees. I would rename this book, In Search of More Intense Connections.

The key theme of the book is the importance of creating emotional value. 'Emotional values are replacing physical attributes as the fundamental market influence.'

Mr. Kunde is the head of his own advertising agency, and his perspective is very much a psychological one. He takes that point of view, however, and effectively expands it to include a company's external positioning, internal culture, nature, mission, corporate concept, external market competition, internal relationships, and management tasks. This is one of the broadest corporate concept descriptions that I have seen, and is a helpful one.

The book contains detailed examples of companies operating at various levels of effectiveness in these areas. The examples are very visible ones that should mostly be known to you. His examplars are companies like The Body Shop, Coca-Cola, McDonald's, The Walt Disney Company, Harley-Davidson, Nike, Virgin, and SAS. The book contains many beautiful color illustrations and photographs from these companies that reinforce the author's point. To him, 'corporate religion is a set of values which unite the organization around the mission and vision.' When these values are compelling enough, people who do not even use the company's products or services will wear merchandise with the brand name on it. For example, Harley-Davidson stands for freedom in the minds of most, and young women who honor that principle wear skirts with the brand name on it who have never been on a Harley. There are even Harley-Davidson cafes (I have eaten at the one in Manhattan, and I can promise you it isn't the food that brings people in. There is lots of wearable merchandise sold there and elsewhere).

The book ends with a one-year plan for implementing a corporate religion, and an example of how the author applied these principles in his own advertising agency.

Just a few years ago, it was unusual for a management book to address the psychological satisfactions of having an empowering purpose in one's work. Today, that theme is a fairly common one. The book rises above many of the rest by addressing more elements of creating and maintaining this empowering purpose. I encourage you to read the book and apply its lessons. When I first worked in a company after attending law school, I was pleased to find out how cooperative business is compared to how competitive law is. This book brought back that perspective and made it fresh for me again.

These days, many people seek out volunteer work to gain the satisfactions that paid work does not provide. You will know you are making progress with these concepts when people tell you they feel more self-esteem from what their business work stands for than for what their volunteer work does.

After you have finished reading this book, I encourage you to think about the most empowering purpose you can imagine for an organization or a company. Then ask others how they repond to that purpose. Keep refining that purpose until you find an expression of it that positively zings you and sends others into a happy orbit as well. When you can do that, you will then be well on your way to finding the ideal best practice for leadership.

Be irresistible!

Donald Mitchell (donmitch@irresistibleforces.com)

Because companies are people too........2000-05-12

This book described how competent companies all around the world have developed a 'Corporate Religion' way of thinking, and how they have got the formula right. It shows that to produce and market successful products and services goes beyond just marketing the brand, everyone in the organization have to be able to proudly state that " we eat, sleep and drink the stuffs" too. Of course, if only it were that simple. The business world is complex enough without your having to worry about mission-critical applications and mind-boggling concepts. Nonetheless, the writer have provided a number of models, case studies and a 'timetable' to explain how to set the process in motion. Although some of the theories and concept may need to be localized to suit different companies, the case studies from major international companies ease the approach to the more theoretical part of the book. They are constructive attempt to show other more dynamic way for companies with the right attitudes - to move forward.

Book Description

Small-group activities--or self-directed work teams--are an extremely important element of individual, as well as organizational development. They are a means of stretching an employee's abilities while at the same time boosting your company's business achievements. But when small group activities fail, it's usually because the group was never properly trained. P Here's when small group activities succeed: When management sets the vision, and then successfully transfers that vision to the group along with the power to carry it out. But a group needs guidance. BR Br i Go-Go Tools /i is a fresh new book that gives you a concise -- just five powerful tools is all it takes -- and creative set of tools to clearly establish management objectives. The book helps you connect these objectives with your employees through self-directed work teams. P The Five Tools: br UL LI Pocket Matrix /LI LI VW (Volume-Weight) /LI LI 5-Why /LI LI F-F (Fact-Finding) /LI LI Idea Mapping /LI /UL P The purpose of the tools is to allow small groups to solve problems expertly and quickly. For your benefit, the tools have been clearly arranged so that each corresponds to a definite step of the problem-solving process. So use this energizing guide to breathe new life into your small group activities and increase the effectiveness of your teams, meetings, and improvement processes. Lead and motivate your team to successfully carry out simple, yet powerful improvements that will continuously build their loyalty and enthusiasm towards your improvement efforts. P b Why Go-Go? /b P This name was chosen because the word "Go" means "five" in Japanese. In Go-Go Tools, there are five tools, and each tool has five steps. Go-Go also conveys a sense of energy and excitement -- a great foundation to begin your small group activities!

Book Description

The Poor Law had a profound impact on English society. Designed to reform the poor as much as to relieve poverty, it also shaped institutions of government and determined people's expectations and assumptions about social welfare. The English Poor Law, 1531-1782 provides a concise synthesis of recent scholarly work together with full references, explaining the origins of this unique system of welfare, and showing how it played a central role in English social and political development from the Reformation to the Industrial Revolution.

Customer Reviews:

World Leaders Need to Know This............2000-02-25

Professor Culpepper has obviously been blessed not only with the gift of intelligence but keen insight as well. His indepth comparison of the German training model with the challenges of the rapidly changing world we live in today points out the need for change which current world leaders need to recognize. Hopefully, some of his graduate students at the Kennedy School will be exposed to this information and deliver the message around the world. This is not easy reading, but it outlines the difficult challenges faced by the world's worker of the new millineum, articulates the lessons we have learned thus far (both good and bad) in a detailed and comprehensive way, and points toward a positive direction for the future. Not much more one could ask for from a scholar in his first publication. Let us hope there are enough people of influence who will struggle through this, understand it's importance, and pass on this new knowledge to others with a sense of urgency.

Average customer rating:

You either get it or you don't

"Science - y " for the Science Type

Signficant and Revolutionary Insights to Human Organizations

Disorganized

Applies quantum theory to management

Leadership and the New Science: Discovering Order in a Chaotic World
Margaret J Wheatley
Manufacturer: Berrett-Koehler Publishers
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

General | Organizational Behavior | Business & Investing | Subjects | Books
General | Business & Investing | Subjects | Books
Leadership | Management & Leadership | Business & Investing | Subjects | Books
Management | Management & Leadership | Business & Investing | Subjects | Books
Management Science | Management & Leadership | Business & Investing | Subjects | Books
Organizational Behavior | Business Management | Professional & Technical | Subjects | Books
Similar Items:

Finding Our Way: Leadership for an Uncertain Time

A Simpler Way

The World Cafe: Shaping Our Futures Through Conversations That Matter

Presence: An Exploration of Profound Change in People, Organizations, and Society

Turning to One Another: Simple Conversations to Restore Hope to the Future

ASIN: 1576753441

Amazon.com

When Margaret J. Wheatley's Leadership and the New Science was initially published in 1992, it outlined an unquestionably unique but extremely challenging view of change, leadership, and the structure of groups. Many readers immediately embraced its cutting-edge perspective, but others just could not understand how the complicated scientific tenets it described could be used to reshape institutions. Now Wheatley, an organizational specialist who has since coauthored A Simpler Way, updates the original by including additional material (such as an epilogue addressing her personal experiences during the past decade) and reconstructing some of her more challenging concepts. The result is a much clearer work that first explores the implications of quantum physics on organizational practice, then investigates ways that biology and chemistry affect living systems, and finally focuses on chaos theory, the creation of a new order, and the manner that scientific principles affect leadership. "Our old ways of relating to each other don't support us any longer," she writes. "It is up to us to journey forth in search of new practices and new ideas that will enable us to create lives and organizations worthy of human habitation." --Howard Rothman

Book Description

Leadership and the New Science launched a revolution by demonstrating that ideas drawn from quantum physics, chaos theory, and molecular biology could improve organizational performance. Margaret Wheatley called for free-flowing information, individual empowerment, relationship networks, and organizational change that evolves organically -- ideas that have become commonplace. Now Wheatley's updated classic, based on her experiences with these ideas in a diverse number of organizations on five continents, is available in paperback.

Customer Reviews:

You either get it or you don't.......2007-10-18

As I read this book I gain flashes of insight from almost every page. I am an engineer and, while not expert in the scientific fields Wheatley discusses, I had read quite a bit about them. As I venture into unfamiliar organizational territory, I find that we have been instinctively using Wheatley's approaches. They seem especially suited to what we are endeavoring to do. Reading her book has clarified and affirmed what we are doing and allowed me to more deeply understand the processes.
Reading the reviews here, I see that some people 'get' what Ms. Wheatley is saying and some people don't. The ones who 'get it' are going to change the world.

"Science - y " for the Science Type.......2007-08-03

Leadership and the New Science is a hard read unless you are the science type. Each chapter starts out like an introduction to evolution, but the ending (the part that you can actually conprehend) is very thought-provoking.

Signficant and Revolutionary Insights to Human Organizations.......2007-07-02

The insights put forth by this book need not be limited to businesses - though that is the stated perspective (ie applying the insight of the new sciences to business managment theory). I think the insights go far beyond business managment and would be of interest to anyone interested in group dynamics and how humans work together - be it on a local community or national level.

For those who may perceive the book as a slam against newtonian physics (as at least one reviewer simplistically decribed it) I do not believe she was invalidating newtonian physics nor mindlessly framing organization dynamics with simplistic generalizations from the "new sciences". She was quite explicit in her introduction that this book was intended as a reflective piece to see what insights might be gained from applying a new paradigm - legitimized by the insights and advances in physics over the last century - to organizational dynamics. To provide context, she demonstrates how our models for organizational theories have derived from newtonian physics and - just as we have learned that this paradigm is not sufficient to describe all of the natural world - perhaps our perspective into other spheres of human activity can be enhanced by applying the insights of the "new sciences" as well.

In short, this book offers a new way of thinking for any human endeavor and its insight are - I believe - essential for progressing into the next millenium.

Disorganized.......2007-05-26

It's really not my type of book. It was required reading for class. I think it was trying to get at some ideas like field vision and systems theory. I found more substantial info in dalai's books. I think it was called seven ways of Buddhism.

Applies quantum theory to management.......2007-05-12

This book is a challenging read and is a good fit for someone who's both scientifically and management minded. It provides some good links between quantum theory and management, but at times, it is a struggle to understand and one must read the section over several times to fully understand.
The author's work at the Berkana Institute is very interesting which believes that leaders are already present in communities and need to emerge. If you like the book, I encourage you to look up the institute!

What are you reading?(Leadership and the New Science: Discovering Order in a Chaotic World, 2d ed.)(Women's Ways of Knowing)(How to Get Ideas)(The Heart ... Review): An article from: Camping Magazine

Average customer rating:

What are you reading?(Leadership and the New Science: Discovering Order in a Chaotic World, 2d ed.)(Women's Ways of Knowing)(How to Get Ideas)(The Heart ... Review): An article from: Camping Magazine

Manufacturer: Thomson Gale
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Digital
ASIN: B000BNFP06
Release Date: 2005-10-04

Book Description

This digital document is an article from Camping Magazine, published by Thomson Gale on September 1, 2005. The length of the article is 578 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: What are you reading?(Leadership and the New Science: Discovering Order in a Chaotic World, 2d ed.)(Women's Ways of Knowing)(How to Get Ideas)(The Heart of Change)(Focus on Leadership)(Girl Fighting)(Why Pride Matters More Than Money)(Book Review)
Publication: Camping Magazine (Magazine/Journal)
Date: September 1, 2005
Publisher: Thomson Gale
Volume: 78 Issue: 5 Page: 67(1)

Article Type: Book Review

Distributed by Thomson Gale

Book Description

Knowledge, Groupware, and the Internet details the convergence of modern knowledge management theory and emerging computer technologies, and discusses how they collectively enable business change and enhance an organization's ability to create and share knowledge.

This compendium of authoritative articles explains the relationship between knowledge management and two major technologies enabling it: Groupware and the Internet. These critical technologies help an organization evolve from individual to group knowledge, quickly make tacit knowledge explicit, and enable people to use and apply this knowledge. Knowledge, Groupware and the Internet helps readers understand how to unite the people and technologies that define effective knowledge management.

Unites knowledge management and principle enabling technologies
Helps readers create powerful and practical knowledge management strategies

Customer Reviews:

For overview only.......2000-12-28

This book is a compendium of articles. As such, it gives an interesting overview, without being able to really add something to the subject.

Books:

Books Index

Books Home

Recommended Books