Business Applications of Operations Research

$21.99

Operations Research is a bouquet of mathematical techniques which have evolved over the last six decades, to improve the process of business decision making. Operations Research offers tools to optimize and find the best solutions to myriad decisions that managers have to take in their day to day operations or while carrying out strategic planning. Today, with the advent of operations research software, these tools can be applied by managers even without any knowledge of the mathematical techniques that underlie the solution procedures. The book starts with a brief introduction to various tools of operations research, such as linear programming, integer programming, multi-objective programming, queuing theory and network theory together with simple examples in each of the areas. Another introductory chapter on handling the operations research software, along with examples is also provided. The book intends to make the readers aware of the power and potential of operations research in addressing decision making in areas of operations, supply chain, financial and marketing management. The approach of this book is to demonstrate the solution to specific problems in these areas using operations research techniques and software. The reader is encouraged to use the accompanying software models to solve these problems, using detailed do-it-yourself instructions. The intended outcome for readers of this book will be gaining familiarity and an intuitive understanding of the various tools of operations research and their applications to various business situations. It is expected that this will give the reader the ability and confidence to devise models for their own business needs.

Persuasive Business Presentations: Using the Problem-Solution Method to Influence Decision Makers to Take Action

$21.99

Business life is about persuasion. Effective managers advance their careers by identifying problems, developing solutions, and persuading decision makers to provide the support and resources necessary to make things happen. This book focuses on a specific presentation context: a problem-solution persuasive presentation to decision makers delivered in a conference room environment. Such presentations occur at every level in an organization. Therefore, team leaders, supervisors, managers, and executives can all benefit from learning how to design and deliver powerful presentations that move decision makers to take action. The author blends his extensive business experience with current research on persuasion to provide a practical, applied approach to using the problem-solution pattern. An integrated case study provides examples for each step in the process. The end result is a useful, actionable guide that will help professionals from every field make a difference in their organization.

The European Financial Crisis: Debt, Growth, and Economic Policy

$21.99

The European debt crisis has posed a challenge for many people to understand, both non-Europeans and Europeans alike. Even economists, finance specialists and market commentators are often uncertain of its causes or in the interpretation of events ongoing, or of past events that have taken place that then shaped the current situation. Typically this lack of understanding results from a lack of understanding of how European institutions work, the structure of European politics and the Eurozone, the economics of the financial system, or the relationship of debt markets to current government policies in the EU. The purpose of this book is to describe the causes and outcomes of the European debt crisis (to the date of publication) within the context of three questions most often asked about the debt crisis: (i) what happened? (ii) why did it happen? and (iii) why has the crisis been so difficult for policy-makers to address? The book attempts to answer these questions in a straightforward, scholarly and thoughtful fashion, thereby developing a wider understanding of the crisis in its entirety for the reader. The book is by no means meant to be an exhaustive treatment on any of the issues it discusses. But the approach taken should be useful for those people who wish to better understand the events of the European financial crisis over the past three years but who do not need to acquire an exhaustive background in European institutions, debt markets, history and economic policy-making. For that reason the proposed book would have appeal to undergraduate students in business, economics, politics or interdisciplinary studies looking for an approachable yet detailed overview of the crisis, for graduate classes seeking similar goals and lay-people or professionals interested generally in the topic and/or with a need to acquire a basic understanding of the topic. Further, the book could serve as an introduction in courses or settings that lead to deeper discussion of the economic, political and financial issues it presents.

A Primer on Sustainability: In the Business Environment

$21.99

This book takes a broad look at the ways in which the concept of sustainability is being applied in the business context. It answers the question, ‘What does Sustainability mean to the way we practice business?’ This book will take a broad look at the ways in which the concept of sustainability is being applied in the business context. It answers the question, ‘What does Sustainability mean to the way we practice business?’ A key characteristic is its concise, readable, comprehensive treatment of the complex issues sustainability raises for the business world. The goal of the book is to provide the reader an introduction to knowledge and skills they need to help organizations understand and act upon the principles of sustainability. The reader will also gain a deeper understanding of the relationships among business, society, and the environment. The approach of this book is to examine a variety of market failures and how different businesses choose to respond to them. It will explore strategies to correct these market failures – with improved product innovation, entrepreneurial activity, and government action. This book will also explore the techniques and tools of sustainability from a practical, business-oriented perspective. As an introduction to sustainability, this book will function to anchor the Business Expert Press sustainability collection, helping the reader appreciate its coherence and depth. This book is written for an advanced undergraduate and graduate-level business school reader, as well as for their professors. It will also find a readership with science, social science and engineering professors and students for courses on sustainability in those disciplines and with the management practitioner striving to build the competitive advantage sustainability can confer.

Achieving Service Excellence: Maximizing Enterprise Performance through Innovation and Technology

$21.99

As the service sectors play an increasingly important role in all economies worldwide, service executives and professionals are well advised to recognize two main pathways to achieving sustainable success in services. The first path requires enhancing the strategic differentiation and operational excellence of their service enterprises; the second requires that these executives and their employees develop the knowledge and skills needed to achieve such success. Specifically, this book discusses actionable methodologies needed to generate creative ideas, including deciding on which ones to pursue; on how to justify projects financially; on how to manage the development projects for innovative services; and on how to reach out to customers and offer them superior service support. The book will illustrate how operational excellence can be achieved by emphasizing the importance of standardizing work processes. It will demonstrate how quality can be enhanced and time-to-market can be reduced through a variety of methods including the application of tools (such as Lean Six Sigma, Value stream mapping, quality assurance, FMEA, web-based enablers and SOA-based emerging productivity tools), the incorporation of emerging technologies into the workflow and, with reference to the Profit Chain Model, the retraining of staff, with a goal of increasing their productivity, by adopting and constantly improving upon known best practices. This book summarizes the key skills and knowledge in a Three Decker framework comprised of engineering management, business management and service leadership, cumulating in an actionable Take Charge model. After having studied this book, service professionals and executives will know how to apply the actionable methodologies outlined herein to maximize their contributions in achieving sustainable success for their service employers.

Belief Systems, Religion, and Behavioral Economics: Marketing in Multicultural Environments

$21.99

Religion is a topic that businesses often ignore, in spite of 70% of the world being religious. Many do not realize (or resist) the idea that religion is a key contributor to a consumer’s core values, which then contributes to consumption decisions, voting practices, reaction to pro social messages and public policy, as well as donating behavior.

The field of behavioral economics discusses how various social and cognitive factors influence economic decisions, which encompass consumer decision making, but doesn’t incorporate religion as an influence on economic decision making.

This book provides one of the first comprehensive investigations into the relationship between religion and behavioral economics. The basic premises of the major religious affiliations are reviewed, and the authors bring to life prior research on religion and behavioral economics with an emphasis on how this research can help practitioners to improve business practices.

Basic Cost Benefit Analysis for Assessing Local Public Projects

$21.99

CBA is an attempt to fully account for all costs associated with a new proposal along with a detailed calculation of specific private and public benefits. Properly employed, CBA is simply a method for assessing a proposal prior to a collective decision by calculating net benefits relative to an alternative project or the default option of doing nothing. Cost benefit analysis (CBA) guidelines exist in the form of highly theoretical, mathematically complex handbooks published by international and national organizations. These reports are generally beyond the scope of local decision makers entrusted with evaluation of small municipal projects. This work is an attempt to fill the gap between national and international manuals, on the one hand, and the need of local officials to perform or interpret CBA studies out-sourced to consultants, on the other. Because standard statistical packages, spreadsheets, and graphical analyses are more accessible than at any previous time, CBA, as a tool, is more accessible for informing decisions made in the public interest. We assume that there is some optimal amount for public good provision that reflects, to the degree possible, resident taxpayers’ willingness to pay. Our goal is four-fold: to discuss the economic underpinnings of cost benefit analysis, to address measurement problems associated with shadow pricing of public goods, to outline potential pitfalls for the non-specialist, and, finally, to present and explain a CBA template in reference to three cases relevant to local government decision making.

Competitive Intelligence and the Sales Force: How to Gain Market Leadership Through Competitive Intelligence

$21.99

Government intelligence agencies throughout the world are finding once again that human abilities and sources rather than technology are more reliable and instrumental in intelligence gathering efforts. Companies have known this for quite some time and have tried to leverage their best source of competitive intelligence: the sale force! Because of their daily presence in the field and favored relationships with their customers, salespeople are the eyes and ears of their companies. In the new economic war, managers cannot take the chance of not being fully aware of the way they could be threatened by the competition. Yet, organizations face great difficulties to stimulate salespeople’s collection and dissemination of competitive intelligence, and to manage market-based intelligence efficiently. This book aims to assist sales and marketing managers in facing such challenges while providing them with action-oriented answers to the following key questions: What kind of information salespeople should collect from the field and how to transform such information into intelligence? How to improve salespeople’s competitive intelligence collection and exploitation skills? How to enhance the sales force’s commitment to competitive intelligence activities? How to manage and distill market-based intelligence throughout the organization and maintain market leadership? And, how to approach the ethical aspects of competitive intelligence and remain protected against competitors’ competitive intelligence activities? By leveraging the latest research, practitioners’ interviews, companies’ best practices, along with practical tools and guidelines, this book help organizations achieve their market-orientation strategy and maintain a sustainable competitive edge.

The Economics of Crime

$21.99

This book will guide the reader to a better understanding of effective public policy designed to reduce criminality. By understanding how incentive mechanisms affect criminal behavior, business managers can use this information to either reduce criminal activity in their own enterprise or to understand how unethical business decisions affect the wider society.

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.