Competitions Books

An effective presentation of the positive and sometimes negative effects that open world trade has on the U. S. economy. It suggests thought-provoking ideas on how the United States and other national economies can ease the negative effects of globalization on their less-educated or poorly-prepared working populations. Our consulting staff recommends this publication as "semi-relaxed" reading when you are ready to let your mind roam and consider new ideas. John R. Jagoe, Director, Export Institute

Globaphobia is a great little text on the benefits of free trade. If only some of those protesting about the evils of capitalism actually took the time to educate themselves. They might then see that everyone benefits from free trade; developing countries have more jobs and developed countries higher real wages; consumers everywhere get greater choice.

There will always be losers - as the book makes clear. But that's a fact of life whichever economic creed you follow. There are significantly fewer losers in Asia now that forty years of economic liberalisation have raised income levels from paddy field to first world standards. This book explains why - in crisp simple terms.

An effective presentation of the positive and sometimes negative effects that open world trade has on the U. S. economy. It suggests thought-provoking ideas on how the United States and other national economies can ease the negative effects of globalization on their less-educated or poorly-prepared working populations. Our consulting staff recommends this publication as "semi-relaxed" reading when you are ready to let your mind roam and consider new ideas. John R. Jagoe, Director, Export Institute

The ease of reading is exceptional. If you are worried about your limited understanding in economics and especially international trade, this is the book for you. In addition to the book being written and edited to be understood by nearly any modestly educated person it is further advantaged by authors that clearly understand the subject in great depth. As is so often the case the extremely well informed can write with such clarity for the lay reader.

As nearly all economists understand net trade flows always equal net investment flows. Shockingly large numbers of media and congressmen do not understand this utterly simple formula. In a nut shell, with all the foreign money pouring into the USA treasuries market, stock market and direct business investments over the last several decades, it follows that the USA would run trade deficits equal to the net investment inflow over the same period. If you do not understand this or you want an ultra easy review of these simple facts, this book was made for you. In a grand gesture of national service these authors wrote the book that was needed for general understanding of what positive and negative points globalization means to the USA. It is not designed for academic kudos.

If every modestly educated voter would read this book, the future of the USA and the world would be significantly brightened. While this is a pipe dream, at least read this book before you say one more word about globalization otherwise you may embarrass your self in the presence of informed people. If you are informed on economics please forgive my heavy handedness. It is not meant for you. This is a critical issue for underdeveloped nations and the mature nations, there is so much to be gained by informed voters on this subject.

This book is carefully grounded in the proven principals of economics. While a reviewer or two gives an impression to the contrary, decades of reading in economics provides me the confidence to assure you that this book is profoundly well grounded. At each point where scholars may differ the authors and editors have carefully laid out its discussion. This is not a book written with a liberal or conservative bent. Modern economics encompasses a significant degree of science and mathematical logic. To view this book as otherwise, is to be illogical or unwilling to accept the most basic proven equations. Again you will not find an easier more meaningful book to read on economics.

The USA economy for a variety of reasons has sharply declining need for workers without a high school education and places a continuing rising premium on post college education. Increasingly, those that can graduate from the elite institutions lead nearly a charmed life in the USA. Immigrants that are able to enter the USA with limited education are having increasing difficulty as the decades roll by. It is not clear that globalization is a meaningful factor in placing the such great educational needs on the American worker. This book helps frame the questions that might be asked about the rising importance of education in the USA. The book being about globalization does not dwell on this issue, but it does strongly suggest that the potential understanding of this issue of the exponentially rising need for superior knowledge is much broader than the globalization trend.

The most provocative theme in the latter chapters of the book is the impact of globalization on those American workers that are poorly educated. The adverse impacts on this group comes from rapid technology changes, defective educational system, ineffective governmental assistance and to a very small degree open trade. The authors documentation about how little negative impact foreign trade has on a very limited number of workers is shocking. A source of another worthy book would be to provide a more exhaustive review of this aspect. The authors conclude that the popular obsession on this point should treated with a reorganized aggressive worker assistance program. Almost any reasonable assistance program would be a modest cost relative to the diverse and powerful benefits that all the rest of Americans get from open trade according to the authors.

The authors are very negative on the effectiveness of government sponsored retraining. The book is highly critical of the governments ability to define injured parties in open trade without it being a political football. The authors suggest an assistance program that is indiscriminate as to the cause of worker misfortune and focuses on programs that show imperial evidence of effectiveness. The focal point is intermediate assistance for any lower income workers need to find new employment. While the left and the right quarrel about where to draw the line, the authors contend that so few people are in need relative to the benefits of open trade that just focusing on a well designed assistance program would make all the difference in giving support and comfort to the aggrieved relative to the huge benefits of open trade.

Globaphobia is an important book for anyone trying to get a handle on the free trade arguments. The book is well written and addressed to a lay audience. One should be careful about some of the assumptions in the book, especially if one has no background in economics. I was required to get the book as a supplementary reading for an International Trade Theory course. I found it to be very helpful in getting a big picture understanding of current International Trade Theory. Buy the book; it is worth the relatively inexpensive price!

I did not realize this was a summary when I purchased it. It is about 7 pages of overview which reads more like a "buy the book" pitch. I found very little meaningful info in this ebook and would have done as well to read "Mary had a little lamb". Maybe the full edition is better.

Katzenbach defines the value of having higher-performing, energized workforces aligned with company goals. His real world success stories reinforce the elements of success and profitability and the power of buy-in from the employees. Inspiring for those executives who wish to take their businesses to the next level of superior performance.

Using exciting companies such as The Home Depot, Southwest Airlines and Marriott, Dr. Katzenbach weaves a strong case balancing care of the workforce with top-notch organizational performance. His formula includes a number of possible tracks to follow. Any one, or a combination of the alternatives, can surely add value to your organization.

The book is a primer for line leaders and human resource executives showing how companies can have their cake and eat it to. He builds a powerful argument suggesting that strong companies can be built on a compelling story that satisfies both the workforce and the bottom line.

I strongly recommend this book to those seeking the "secret sauce" of workforce alignment. It is clearly another Jon Katzenbach winner!

In the Preface, Katzenbach explains that "The central topic of this book -- energized workforces that deliver higher (peak) performance -- can be defined as any group of employees whose emotional commitment enables them to make or deliver products or services that constitute a sustainable competitive advantage for their employer. By peak performance [italics] we mean the norm, better than expected, better than the competition, and better than similar workforces in other places." These clarifications are important, especially the reference to "sustainable", because Katzenbach is not talking about the "hot groups" which Lipmen-Blumen and Leavitt analyze nor the types of groups which Bennis examines in Organizing Genius [italics].

In Chapter 1, Katzenbach suggests four criteria by which to identify "higher-performing workforces. They are: More than one-third of the workers consistently exceed the expectations of their leaders and customers, the average worker outperforms the average competitive worker, a strong emotional commitment to higher standards and aspirations is manifest throughout the entire workforce, and finally, the collective performance of that workforce or of critical segments (typically at the front line) creates the core of the organization's competitive advantage...and is extremely difficult to copy.

Katzenbach organizes his material within three Parts: Maintaining the Critical Balance, Exploring the Five Balanced Paths [Mission, Values, and Pride; Process and Metrics; Entrepreneurial Spirit; Individual Achivement; and Recognition and Celebration], and Applying the Lessons Learned. He then provides an Appendix in which he skillfully summarizes key points about 27 "Participant Companies and Organizations" and "Outside-In Cases" which include The Home Depot, McKinsey & Company, NASA, Southwest Airlines, Toyota, the U.S. Marine Corps, and the U.S. Navy Seals.

It would be a mistake to assume, however, that Katzenbach has only larger organizations in mind. On the contrary. If anything, the "critical balance" between enterprise performance and employee fulfillment is even more important in small-to-midsize organizations than it is in organizations such as those previously listed because, in a smaller organization, an individual worker can have greater impact...be it positive or negative. For Katzenbach, having an appropriate "critical balance" will enable any organization to "stay the course and successfully climb" any "mountain" it may encounter because it has "an emotionally committed, peak-performance workforce."

"This book is concerned with energizing people for performance and the different successful paths to that end". Jon R. Katzenbach writes, "It describes how each path concentrates management attention on worker fulfillment to harness the emotions of many people in sustaining a higher-performing workforce. This is a different challenge than simply motivating people to meet demanding financial performance objectives. The latter is what most companies do, and it implies setting unambiguous goals, establishing clear measures, and holding people individually accountable for results (consequence management). Logical, rational motivation is certainly a good thing, but it is no match for engaged, emotional commitment...Energizing people for performance elevates the game significantly, to the point that many employees go well beyond leaders' expectations, individual accountabilities, financial resuts, and short-term market objectives. This book describes how to unleash the full individual and collectve potential of people to achieve and sustain higher levels of performance than the workers themselves thought possible, than management or customers expected, and than competitors can realistically achieve. Unleashing the full potential of people is undeniably a tall order; few institutions have managed to do it consistently. This book explores the approaches of those who apparently have gone far beyond any conventional notions of managing solely to meet ambitious financial objectives. It looks at how such institutions tap into worker fulfillment to develop the extra quotient of emotional commitment that deeply energizes many people to perform well beyond conventional norms".

In this context, Jon R. Katzenbach introduces five paths (balanced paths) that explain all the higher-performing workforce situations. As argued by Katzenbach, "each path constitutes a clearly different approach for energizing a workforce for higher performance. Certainly, there are overlaps and similarities among the paths, but the primary focus and value proposition of each is quite distinct". Hence, throughout this invaluable study, he explores these five paths as the overarching concept or framework for this book. And he defines (1) top management philosophy, and (2) characteristics of the five balanced paths as follows:

I- Mission, Values, and Pride:

(1). Employees will feel truly proud of what this enterprise stands for, what their specific work group can accomplish, and what they can contribute, both collectively and individually; their pride will be continually reinforced with external and internal recognition.

(2). a. Noble purpose

b. Rich history

c. Strong values

d. Group cohesion

II- Process and Metrics:

(1). Employees who consistently meet and exceed their metrics and adhere to the critical process requirements will be recognized and respected by their peers and conspicuously recognized and rewarded by management.

(2). a. Clear measures and standards

b. Focused processes

c. Performance transparency

d. Collaborative and collective effort

III- Entrepreneurial Spirit:

(1). Employees will be rewarded directly in proportion to what they create and the personal risk they incur; those rewards have virtually unlimited upside financial and ownership potential.

(2). a. High earning opportunity

b. Strong ownership interests

c. Personel risk

IV- Individual Achievement:

(1). Employees will be recognized and rewarded directly in proportion to their personal accomplishments. They will be paid and advanced based on those contributions, and they will work alongside talented individuals in the field.

(2). a. Lots of opportunity

b. Individuals given freedom to act

c. Focus on individual performance

d. Performance-based advancement

e. Healty competitiveness

V- Recognition and Celebration:

(1). Employees will be recognized, rewarded, and celebrated in dozens of ways-by supervisors and colleagues as well as top management-for their collective and individual contributions. As a result, they will work in an environment alive with enthusiasm, excitement, and fun and wherein formal compensation is of secondary importance.

(2). a. Widespread recognition/reward

b. Lots of specific events

c. Visible high energy

d. Social interaction and fun

Strongly recommended.

This book could have been summed up in two pages. There was nothing new or insightful in this book. If you need someone to tell you that to be an effective coach you have to communicate, give feedback, dont leave negative emails, etc. then this book is for you. If you are looking for something more, save your money.

This book is a real treasure. I would have been successful by 1000% if I had read this book earlier. The price of this book is such a small investment in comparison what you get from this book. I recommend it a thousand of times!
I recommend it for all the leaders no matter if you coach sales teams or teams of other profiles.
Thanks the author for such an extreemely useful and practical book.

Very practical and helpful for anyone who want to be effective coaches. Ms. Richardson really understands what most managers and sales persons tend to do in a coaching situation and was able to 'coach' readers in how to avoid common pitfalls.

This was an excellent book. The topics included were very applicable to creating a coaching culture. It is very straight forward and easy to read and comprehend! This book will be extremely helpful in creating a coaching culture in a sales call center environment.

I often say to Sales Managers, "Show me a great Sales Manager with lousy salespeople and I will show you a lousy Sales Manager." Then I tell them to read 'Sales Coaching.'

Linda Richardson has constructed the ultimate step-by-step guide in getting managers to reevaluate their priorities and focus their attention on improving the sales staff through effective developmental coaching. The book is easy to read and full of practical tips and coaching models that will make any sales team more productive.

Most importantly, unlike many sales management books, this work translates into practical application without the brain damage. Sales Managers should be able to apply these principles immediately. Read this with a highlighter in your hand - and be prepared to transform your sales management approach.

Interesting book. nice anecdotes. all the physics one might want to know is included in there too..

Although this book is clearly geared towards people with experience, there are pages dedicated to how to adjust your seat and the mirrors, when and how to brake, using the accelerator for best effect, etc. Everyone can learn something (or a lot) new from this book!

Immediately after reading this book I start feeling better in my car driving seat. I became more calculated in my movements and avoid the stupid rush to go kind of things.

From the first glance, I liked that book much! It is written in a very friendly tone, clear language! It begins with a large chapter about the driving position; there are lots of photos with the right and wrong poses, with analysis of each case. The evolution of the correct driving position is also exposed. Then goes a chapter about power, torque and when to change the gear to achieve different goals: fuel economy, engine lifetime, maximum speed. After that there is a section about the correct braking and pedaling.

The author has dedicated a large topic of this book to quick and safe cornering, explaining the forces and vectors that act upon the axes and wheels; about the oversteer and understeer, about slipping, sliding and skidding. There are very simple and clear formulas to calculate the total adhesion of a wheel with the road.

The rest of the books is about the sport events: how to prepare and how to perform. Should the generic reader be aware of the contests, right?

The detailed reading of the book has shown some arguable points. For example, the author is glorifying the ABS in one chapter and writes about controlled slide in another chapter, not mentioning the controlled slide is hardly possible with ABS. It seems that the textual fragments which were added in the second edition of the book about the modern whistles-and-bells like ABS are not well aligned with the rest of the book (that's why four stars only) which Paul Frere has published in the first edition, and this original text about physics of cornering is just brilliant!

However, if you liked a better book about cornering and not filled with much information about sport events, I would have recommended numerous textbooks by Professor Tsygankov, who has even a separate textbook about the correct handling of the steering wheel. This subject is almost overlooked by Paul Frere.

This book is full of formulas for computing maximum theorhetical speed through corners, and the like. The information is presented in a way that people with several seasons under their belts could use, but definitely NOT for the beginner, unless you happen to also hold a PHD in physics. If you are considering writing a video game, THIS is the book for you. It has all the formulas you'll need to make your car handle realistically.

This is a ballet story. That's basically what it's about. I happen to love ballet stories, but if you don't then their really isn't much reason to pick this one up. Unless of course you pick it for the drama. It is a varied and complex storyline with many different twists and turns. The author throws you for one loop after the next. The art style is quite intricate and involves a lot of black to white contrast. The author goes more for realism then most. Beautiful story. Masumi is a humble ballet student at a very laid back, unprofessional ballet studio. She gets invited to a prestigious competition and has no idea why. She meets many friends but makes more enemies. Not out of any fault of her own, she just keeps getting favor after favor because the higher ups think she has potential. Which, she does. The other students just don't get that. She is the wildcard in all of the expert ballet things she does. She is the exception and that makes people angry. Masumi is a clumsy, naïve girl but she really loves ballet. This is a great, involving read with romance and challenges. You'll grow to love the characters and you'll really care about them. However, you just won't like it if you hate ballet.

A manga from the 1970s that's full of beautiful artwork. The story can get a little too much like a soap opera but it flows beautifully that one tends to forget that. A highly recommended series.

CMX have done an excellent job of printing and presenting this volume of the famous ballet manga, the first of 21. Their translation's not bad, either. However, I do wish someone had thought to follow Del Rey's lead and provide a short explanatory introduction, otherwise "Swan's" primary audience (mainly girls from 10/11 up) are likely stumble on a few puzzling elements.

Many of these arise from the fact that this title began publication almost 30 years ago - it ran in a Japanese girls' manga anthology from 1976 to 1981. Thus, Russian dancers come from the Soviet Union, whose main cities are still Moscow and Leningrad, rather than Moscow and St Petersburg. Then-famous real-life characters introduced into the story (Margot Fonteyn, Georges Balanchine) are less likely to be well-known; and so on. But the main difficulty lies in the style. Not so much the graphic elements of random flowers, stars, floating feathers etc - these are still with us, after all, and even appreciated. Not even those incredible 70s fashions - girls wearing knickerbockers, knee-high boots, huge floppy caps! guys in enormous cable-knit sweaters! everyone wearing at least three layered tops! No, at least in the early volumes it's the all-pervading melodrama, typical of shoujo manga at the time but now much toned down. Two girls caught talking in class weep and tremble before their teacher's anger. The simplest announcement creates shock-waves of tension among the students. Lots of fun if you want to wallow in the sheer emotion and angst of it all; perhaps harder to understand if you're used to the modern style.

Nevertheless, there's a lot for anyone to enjoy here. At the time Ariyoshi wrote, ballet was still regarded as an exotic foreign import in Japan, appealing to a minority audience and with no official support. "Swan", superb entertainment though it is, thus has a didactic function as well: the author wants her audience as well as her characters to understand the foundations of this art. Ballet steps mentioned in the text are then described in footnotes; whenever her characters watch a performance, Ariyoshi includes information on when it was created, where performed and who first danced the main roles. Thanks to her superb illustrations - which only get better as the story goes on - this is no dry instructive exercise: she builds up a real sense of the history, traditions and dynamism of both classic and (later in the series) modern ballet.

The first volume, as always, acts as an introduction to the entire long story to come. Our heroine, Masumi, has studied at a small amateur ballet school in the rural northern island of Hokkaido. Through a series of coincidences and amazing good luck, she's accepted into an elite group of students being trained in Tokyo by no less elite foreign teachers, including the handsome and enigmatic Russian, Sergiev. Masumi has natural talent and a passion for dance. However, the weaknesses in her early training may prove fatal to her chances of going further - just as her friendships with the other students (male and female) have begun to nurture her ambition to become a real dancer herself. Over the next 20 volumes, as Masumi becomes a young woman, she also has to balance her friendships and eventual loves against an ever more demanding career...

Despite the reservations at the beginning of this review, "Swan" truly is one of *the* classic girls' manga, with even better storytelling and graphic art to come. Nostalgic fun for adults, and perfect for the young ballet fanatic in your life!

I think this series is absolutely wonderful. It is so well written and full of detail. I've learned so many things about ballet! I can't imagine the enormous amount of work the author put into this. I really hope the entire series gets published because I'm hooked. The backgrounds and sweeping landscapes are also divine and I really love all the characters.

It is not full of errors like that other reviewer states, the names have been transliterated from Japanese pronunciations so of course they wouldn't have the proper Russian spelling. I really love the main character because her emotions seem so real and her struggle is so compelling. She doesn't cry all the time, and when she does I think it is justified.

"Swan" is the story of 16-year-old Hiriji Masumi (Masumi Hiriji to American audiences), a young Japanese dancer struggling to succeed in the world of international ballet. In Volume 4, Masumi is off to study at England's Royal Ballet Academy. There she must confront her rival, the fiery Sidney Ecklund, as well as overcome her own artistic shortcomings. Along the way she also meets and receives encouragement from legendary ballerina Margot Fonteyn.

"Swan" is interesting is that it deals with the reality of ballet - auditions, nerves, endless practices, and injuries. As a dancer myself, I can identify to some extent with Masumi's love for ballet and her desire to excel. We also get to meet leading lights from the ballet world of the 1970's (when this manga was written and takes place) - Maya Plisetskaya, Margot Fonteyn, Rudolf Nureyev, and the Bolshoi Ballet.

What bothers me about "Swan" is its heavy-handed, soap-opera-esque, OMG EMOTION that saturates every page. I know that this can be a regular occurrence in manga, but there are times when I wanted to smack Masumi upside the head and tell her to get a grip - the girl cries, as one character notes, "at the drop of a hat." But the most glaring problem with "Swan" is the lack of fact-checking. The real-life dancers and ballets are misspelled or misidentified - "Margaret" Fonteyn, Maya "Prisetskaya", "The Hunchback Pony" (better known as "The Little Humpbacked Horse"), and who the heck is "WALDORF" Nureyev?!? This may be a result of poor translation, but someone should have caught these blatant errors.

"Swan" is probably best for pre-teen and young teen girls perhaps dreaming of their own turn in the spotlight. Older readers - especially those with some knowledge of ballet - might find it a bit too overdone.

This book is interesting, and I do recommend the book. First, the text highlights some potential trends that we might observe in the future. These trends are focused on business, but there may be social impacts as well. Second, the text provides insights from a range of individuals who should know something about the world. There are two negatives. First, the book is already five years old (and that's since its publication--who knows how long the publisher worked the book). Second, the book includes many opinions due to the range of experts providing content. The reader must connect the dots.

The first paragraph of the introduction says it all! The future begins....

A large variety of forces are shaping our future, and the book aims to explore the many forces. There are many views about many subjects, and the book provides interesting samples.

This very readable book was given a favourable mention in last year's 'Wired' magazine. It presents informal, interview style responses to topical questions affecting the future landscape of business. The 'What' in 'What's Next' includes Economic trends, Public policy, Ethics, Biotechnology, Terrorism and many more. Futurism is often a distracted and boffinish business, in which little or no practical advice is offered as to how to use its predictions. This text however has a strong strategic skew. It targets a business reader with a view towards orienting long term business strategy to take advantage of emerging and yet to emerge trends. If you want informed medium and long term predictions this is a good resource, particularly if you have an interest in technology investment.

I really enjoyed this book. It is a collection of short 1-2 page quotes from one of the GBN members espousing their views on a given topic. The quotes are arranged by topic, so you get a whole range of viewpoints on the big issues that the world may face in the next 10 years.

The GBN members make their points in a very entertaining fashion, full of good quotes and stories. I found it to be densely thought provoking. You want to stop and ponder after every few pages. You may not agree with all of what they say, but the GBN has an interesting world view.

If you're unfamiliar with GBN, be sure to check out the GBN book club recommendations on their website. It is a collection of some of the most interesting books I've read.

The former CEO of Ford Motor Company firmly believed that the way to achieve quality work is to respect people, get them to "buy into" the idea that their work matters, and signficant positive results will follow. The theme of this book is the Golden Rule Jesus taught, "Do unto others as you'd have them do unto you."

Petersen saw the need for this approach to management because he was treated with such disrespect in one of the units where he was placed early in his career. His epiphany was that this work unit was operating in a way that caused misery at work, and mediocre output. He realized that relationships among people in an organization are vital for success. Edwards Deming was brought in as Petersen worked his way up the corporation. Deming's strategies included measurement techniques to gange corporate success. Employees across the board realized that their input mattered, and things changed for the better. Petersen is a good man speaking well. He makes a lot of valid points in this book.

-From Groucho Marx:

From the moment I picked your book up until I laid it down, I was convulsed with laughter. Someday I intend reading it!

This book really helped me understand how to run a successful enterprise. After completion, it was a great paperweight.

I adored this book because it told me about how to run a successful company.

Tori's mother won't get off her back. In many ways, she reminds me of my own mother. Even though I've never been an athlete my mother pushed me when it came to school. And I was never able to meet up to her expectations. And i could relate to the way Tori felt about how her mother kept her away from her father. The book has a lot of figure skating in it too, and that was aweseome being as i'm a big fan. Even some romantic parts....and it showed what a different life Tori has from all the others. I got it at a school book fair in sixth grade. Read the book. It's the first book I read in the series, and I've read them all. It remains my favorite.

It's a very good, but definitely not the greatest. The suspense builds up as Tori tries to figure out who the mysterious stranger who's watching her at practice is. A pretty okay plot.

This is another good book by Melissa which deals with a very common problem that all athletes have... the pressure from competitions and mostly the presure from their parents.Being a former swimmer my self i remember what it was like to be waken up at 5 in the morning b4 school and I remember the pressure I used to get from my parents during training....Maybe an athletes parent should read this for a change!!!!! All in all a good book.

When Tori Carson's mother starts hiding mail, and a mysterious stranger is watching her Tori gets nervous Then Tori doesn't know if she'll be able to compete in the competition. If Tori doesn't practice what will become of the competition

Competition and Entrepreneurship is a book with many interesting insights. Kirzner attacks the use of equilibrium models in mainstream economics, and rightly so. Mainstream economists places great emphasis on equilibrium, but have little to say about how equilibrium is attained. Undergraduates are told a simple story about excess supply and excess demand. The story at the graduate level and in professional journals is even worse. At this level, economists often ignore the issue of equilibration altogether.

Kirzner challenged the conventional view by focusing on the process by which entrepreneurs move market prices towards equilibrium. "The market process is set into motion by the ignorance of the market participants". "Gradually, competition between the entrepreneurs as buyers, and again as sellers, will succeed in communicating to market participants correct estimates of other market participants' eagerness to buy and sell". Of course, Kirzner is building upon the work of Mises and Hayek, whereby competing market participants learn to adjust their plans mutually as prices change. But Kirzner does add greater detail about the specifics of entrepreneurship.

Unfortunately, this book was published at a time when the economics profession was unwilling to listen to such arguments. In 1973 professional thought was so clouded by ideology that there was really no chance for Kirzner to gain the recognition he deserved. The mindset of the profession is less ideological now, but the professions obsession with math has reached new heights. Very few graduate students learn this sort of economics these days.

On the bright side, economists have moved in Kirzner's direction by taking greater interest in informational and coordination issues. Most of this is done with game-theoretic models, rather than with the verbal logic that Kirzner uses. For anyone interested in learning Austrian economics, Competition and Entrepreneurship is a good place to start. It is a relatively easy read, both clear and concise, and it reveals much about the workings of markets.

A thorough economics ('Austrian') perspective on how a free market performs - with competition and the role of the entrepreneur in it. For the non-economics reader, I would recommend Peter Drucker's Innovation and Entrepreneurship.

Kirzner offers an alternative to both the neoclassical theory of the firm and to the Schumpeterian "creative destruction" perspective of the theory of the firm. Although Kirzner belongs to the school of Austrian economics, he is independent to the Schumpeterian perspective.

There is a tendency for many people to underestimate or ignore the role of entrepreneurs in the market process; of them, the most notable are neoclassical economists and those involved in macroeconomic decision making on the national and international level. However, through common sense and observation of the market, there are few people who would claim that entrepreneurs serve no important role. After all, the entrepreneur is the actor who organizes and assumes the risk for any business venture. Israel Kirzner presents an in-depth analysis of the Entrepreneur, developing an Austrian perspective independent of (but very similar to nonetheless) the Schumpeterian perspective.

Israel Kirzner suggests that the entrepreneur drives the entire market process by acting upon previously unnoticed profit opportunities. Herein lies the problem of "sheer ignorance" that seems to be formulated totally independently of neoclassical search theory, as if it did not exist. What is this "sheer ignorance" and how could anyone possibly come to the conclusion that only entrepreneurs have this special "gift" that the rest of us are left without? While neoclassical models are not perfect, to say they are precisely irrelevant (as some Austrians do) can be dangerous. Kirzner seems to suggest that entrepreneurs are some sort of superhuman animal that mystically bring buyers to their products.

Randy Holcombe and David Harper have both expanded on this in Austrian Economics journals and have included the importance of institutions and endogenous sources of growth. A discussion of institutional environments would have been helpful to Kirzner's analysis. Without institutions and rules that provide incentives for entrepreneurs, the discussion of their importance is futile. Better incentives for entrepeneurship will cause more people to invest more time in searching for new entrepreneurial ideas.

Mainstream economics has a lot to learn from contemporory Austrian work, but for that work to completely discount neoclassical economics is a mistake. This book, while rightly drawing attention to the importance of the entrepreneur, ultimately falls short and represents many of the problems in Austrian economics.

The author presents a system for identifying critical competitor data with a series of analytical frameworks to help develop strategic insights. This work is massive in scope and depth. It shows how to assess competitors and use this information to develop strategy. Fahey details how to gather information about every aspect of competitors. Each chapter ends with a brief, helpful summary. An excellent addition to every strategist's bookshelf.

I must confess that this has been one of the borest books I have ever read. Padded out with plenty of trivial ideas and lacking with something new. On the good side, it's an overview over most of the topics in competitor analysis but really heavy going to go through.

This is by far the best book of its kind in that it provides a wealth of material on aspects of competitors and competition. Fahey's analytical methods are unique, and based on years and years of teaching and consulting. This one is both meatier and has better flow than some of his edited books or the Portable MBA edited volumes he has co-written. In reality, if this book is any indication, I'd like to see Fahey sole author more books.

The first four chapters constitute a framework for competitor learning. These chapters will be more appealing to academics than practitioners, alhtough practitioners will benefit from understanding the theory underlying his approach. Part 2 provides chapters on analyzing specific aspects of competition, and will be of greater benefit to practitioners.

Although I very much like the content of this book, it is not an "easy read" and must be digested slowly and carefully. Nevertheless, it is worth the effort. The only thing I would have liked more would be a practitioner-oriented, "how-to" approach to using some of the models and tools that Fahey illustrates in the last 11 chapters. Also, as in most any book of this type that has space and size limitations, the focus of the analysis will be on areas the author sees as important, while some other areas (such as customers, financials, accounting) will be necessarily excluded. Fahey's choices will certainly appeal more to the top decision-makers of organizations, and many of the CEOs I work with would benefit from exposure to this volume.

There is an assumption that the reader will have a substantial business schooling or experience background. If you do, you will appreciate this all the more. If you don't, I'd suggest you get one of Fahey's or other authors' Portable MBA series volumes first.

As an avid disciple of strategy and leadership, I find this book a valuable companion to Porter and Sun Tzu. Unlike many CI books which dwells heavily on the "tricks of the trade" and "checklists", Liam Fahey's work provides the reader a set of conceptual frameworks for appraoching the whole CI process. This leads to a better understanding of the competitive environment, its dynamics and opportunities to win. Mr Fahey's thoughts would make a great MBA course. But until then, this book gives the reader a first-mover advantage over those who are still in the dark ages of strategy and competitiveness.