IT Sustainability for Business Advantage

$21.99

IT Sustainability for Business Advantage speaks to modern managers in all functions as well as to IT professionals. Implementing an effective IT sustainability strategy is essential for organizations pursuing sustainability as a means of business advantage and this book shows how to do it. The critical first step is getting clear about the ends of the IT sustainability program–the mission must be to further the company’s sustainability objectives and strategic intents should include: 1) Making IT operations as sustainable as possible; 2) Partnering with other functions to leverage IT in making their business processes more sustainable and to grow the business; and 3) Building a culture of sustainability within the IT organization. The next step is to implement strategies to achieve these ends and the book explores the ways and means of doing this. These include industry best practices on how to apply the processes, techniques, and technologies related to Green IT and IT for Sustainability (ITfS). They also include techniques for change management and building social capital.

Integrated Management of Processes and Information

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Many process management books focus on manufacturing applications. A few discuss services applications and occasionally some comment on the information processes outside of the normal information technology (IT) function. When a business seeks to improve the processes it uses in order to provide efficiency and cost savings to a product or service, that business needs to consider its manufacturing, service, and information handling processes together because they are not independent. This book has two goals: First, to help business practitioners integrate their management of manufacturing or service processes with information processes; and second, to provide business schools with a textbook that can be used for a basic process management course to precede or accompany the typical operations management course Because information handling approaches vary considerably with organizational size, both large and small business approaches are discussed. This discussion is focused on basic concepts rather than specific technical aspects like what type of information hardware to be used. One chapter will discuss the considerations necessary when adding information process management to enterprise resource planning (ERP), statistical process control (SPC), and supply chain logistics approaches from both large and small business perspectives.

Service Thinking: The Seven Principles to Discover Innovative Opportunities

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Business paradigm shifts are rare. However, the shift to a services-dominant economy and to services-dominant value creation genuinely merits the designation. Almost 80% of GDP in developed economies is attributable to services, and some economists regard products as merely the physical embodiment of service delivery.This is a must-read for anyone trained in traditional process improvement or business architecture. In surprisingly clear language this book lays out the essentials of service thinking, and how the service paradigm transforms the way in which organizations innovate on behalf of their customers. It shifts the focus from product to experience, from one-sided production to co-creation of value, from the simply measurable to the emotional. I intend to buy a copy for every member of my team–Dart Lindsley, Cisco Sr. Manager of Transformation Planning and Analysis This book will introduce you to Service Science, Management and Engineering (SSME)–a term introduced by IBM to describe service science, which is the application of science, management, and engineering disciplines to tasks that one organization beneficially performs for and with another. The authors detail the disciplines, principles, insights and tools of SSME that are now ready to transition to the mainstream business world with transformative effect. They coin the new term ‘Service Thinking’ to communicate this mainstream business transformation. It includes expository case histories of the service thinking-based transformation of familiar businesses, illustrating the seven principles of service thinking, with compelling examples and clear direction for application.

Service and Service Systems: Provider Challenges and Directions in Unsettled Times

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Unsettled times can arise from a variety of causes, including ones that are environmental, climatic, economic, social or political in nature. They can result in citizens’ loss of homes and possessions, jobs, health or mobility. Citizens move from above the level of consumption adequacy, where their behaviors reflect long-term and higher-order needs, to below the level of consumption adequacy, where they are forced into a short-term focus on simple existence.Unsettled times can arise from a variety of causes, including ones that are environmental, climatic, economic, social or political in nature. They can result in citizens’ loss of homes and possessions, jobs, health or mobility. Citizens move from above the level of consumption adequacy, where their behaviors reflect long-term and higher-order needs, to below the level of consumption adequacy, where they are forced into a short-term focus on simple existence. In parallel, services provided by various organizations – utilities, transportation, medical, maintenance, housing, education, broadcasting, national state and local governments – may become ineffective or unavailable under such conditions. This book explores the effect of unsettled times on spatial service systems. It describes the scope and breadth of the problem as well as providing solutions by offering original insights from managers of service organizations (especially public services), policy-makers and service system researchers and students. The book briefly introduces the related concepts of consumption adequacy and spatial service systems. The impact of these issues for spatial service systems is analyzed, implications discussed, the lessons to be learned and conclusions will be drawn on the actions needed to build spatial service system resilience for future occurrences. The potential for this book is interdisciplinary, and could be relevant not only for business/management courses, but also in the areas of public administration and also economic geography.

Dynamic Customer Strategy: Today’s CRM

$21.99

Marketers, merchandisers, and sales executives alike are struggling with Big Data – the data streaming at increasing speeds from myriad channels and options for communicating with customers. The tools are likely to continue to multiply, paralyzing many executives with simply too many choices. Using data from a four-year study, this book provides a process for rigorous decision making, eliminating the paralysis and optimizing decision making for marketing performance. This book is intended for a broad audience including students and professors in graduate business schools, and practicing business executives. The goal is to inform marketing practice and help current and future business leaders navigate through the competitive storms unleashed by technological change.

A Beginner’s Guide to Economic Research and Presentation

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Unlike other books which take a descriptive approach to the subject, the book employees a step-by-step approach to the teaching of how to conduct, write up and present economics research. Conducting good research is critical to any student of economics. Writing good research papers is equally important–yet many students have not been given the proper tools to convey cogently the results of their research. A Beginner’s Guide to Economic Research and Presentation is intended to address and redress this need. This book is literally a step-by-step approach to the first-time writing of an undergraduate or MBA level research paper in the field of economics. The primary audience for this book is those students who have conducted research or written a research paper. In particular, Writing Research for Economics addresses would-be researchers in the field of economics. Such an audience might include undergraduate business majors (especially those students majoring or minoring in economics) MBA and graduate students in economics. Most books concerned with research writing are broadly applied. They approach the subject generally, which is to say that they don’t lay out a particular path to conducting research. Yet a specific path offering a specific focus to writing research is exactly what is needed for most students. This book provides that focus. Whereas other books provide an overview of how to present research, with only cursory suggestions and tips, A Beginner’s Guide to Writing and Presenting Economics Research provides precise details on all aspects of research writing, including how many Power Point slides one should prepare for presentations and how much content should be on each slide. In short, unlike other books, this book provides a specific approach to conducting research, writing a paper, and presenting its material.

A Profile of the United States Toy Industry: Serious Fun

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The toy industry is one of the most consistently misunderstood sectors of American business. That’s no surprise because on many levels it resists easy definition. It’s a commodity business. No, it’s a fashion business. No, it’s a consumer products business. No, it’s an entertainment business. The fact is it’s all of these businesses, each of which addresses and responds to market forces differently. And often, especially with the larger, publicly traded companies–all of these businesses share a balance sheet. This book will provide a concise and in-depth introduction to the structure, practices and market forces that impact the toy industry. It will offer a short history of the industry, a description of the current market landscape, major and emerging industry competitors, contemporary trends, changes and expectations for the future. It will further cover aspects of retailing, consumer behavior, and financial markets as they relate to the industry. As noted, the book will focus primarily on the U.S. toy industry, but will provide guidelines for extrapolating the information to the global toy market and a highlight of those issues, such as manufacturing, that are relatively consistent worldwide. The book is intended to provide a foundation for understanding the diverse and changing nature of the toy industry and to help readers develop a context for appreciating it relevant to other, more predictable and definable industries. Many students–and professionals for that matter–come to the toy industry ill equipped for success because they are unable to understand the various disciplines and business practices it encompasses and therefore unable to apply those practices appropriately for the product or product category. A preschool toy will never behave like a toy from a hot movie. It’s something many successful people in the business know and have learned over time, but it remains a mystery to the uninitiated. Withal this book is intended as an initiation into a fascinating, fast-paced and fiercely competitive business that is very often more an art than a science.

Accounting for Derivatives and Hedging Activities

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Derivatives, and derivatives used to hedge financial and operating functions, are designed to allow managers of firms to manage effectively the downside risk of their financial and operating strategies. They also can be very useful tools that allow managers and executives to accurately predict financial and operational performance and manage the investment communities’ ‘expectations’ regarding overall firm performance. Derivatives and hedges, however, if not properly designed in conjunction with the firm’s risk management strategy, can be potentially disastrous for the firm. The ongoing financial turmoil in markets can be partially explained by company managers and executives not understanding the potential financial statement impact when derivative markets move in a particular direction for longer periods of time than anticipated by firms. This book is designed for managers and executives to be a comprehensive yet accessible resource for understanding the impact of derivative and hedge accounting on a company’s reporting of financial statements. The book’s primary purpose is to demystify derivatives and provide practical advice and counsel on how to use them to manage more effectively the operational and financial risk to the firm. When used properly derivatives are an extremely effective tool that managers and executives can use to reduce uncertainty regarding the future.

Business Engineering and Service Design With Applications for Health Care Institutions

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This book presents an innovative approach to business design, known as Business Engineering, and its application to service offerings design in general. The approach is characterized by integrating many disciplines –Strategy, Business Models, Enterprise Architecture, Processes, Analytics, Information Systems, software and hardware technologies—in generating detailed business designs that are aligned with and make operational stakeholders interests. A hierarchical design methodology is presented, which allows managing the complexity of full enterprise design by starting with overall aggregated designs that are then detailed by hierarchical decomposition. Designs are based on Business, Architecture and Process Patterns that abstract and formalize the knowledge and experience generated from hundreds of business design cases in which the approach has been applied.
The book provides the foundations of Business Engineering, reviews several disciplines integrated within its methodology and presents plentiful evidence of its power by giving detailed real application cases, including very impressive results in private and public situations. In particular, a varied selection of cases of service design are described in detail, including design of the business structure, enterprise architecture, services configuration, resource planning processes and operating processes. In all the cases, solid empirical evidence is given about the benefits that can be generated by a well-founded design of services.

International Economics: Understanding the Forces of Globalization for Managers

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Today’s news media displays an intense fascination with the global economy–and for good reason. The degree of worldwide economic integration is unprecedented, and rising globalization has lifted living standards and reduced poverty. Foreign markets and new technologies continue to present opportunities for entrepreneurs and corporations. Still, economic shocks can spread across the world in minutes, impacting billions of lives. This book will help you learn about economics in everyday language, using little or no math, giving you better tools to interpret current events as well as long-term economic and political developments. Modern economics offers a powerful framework for understanding globalization, international trade, and economic growth. You may possess years of hands-on experience dealing with business cycles and foreign competitive pressures, but lack a solid grounding in economic concepts that shed light on the forces of globalization. This book is here to help.