Production Services Books

I first rented this book from the library, it was such a help and packed with so much information that I decided to purchase a copy to have at my finger tips at all times. It's filled with all kinds of information for any cook not just party information. Excellent book.

Denise Vivaldo has done it again with a party book that actually gives practical, step-by-step directions. So many books look great, but when you read through them, they are just fluff. Not Denise. Her book spells everything out in detail--even to the point of telling you how to fix burned food, overcooked vegetables, lumpy gravy, etc. Let's face it--mistakes happen. What can we do now??

I also really appreciated her correct table layouts for those of us, like myself, who are "table setting challenged." Oh, so that's where the bread plate goes!

I am looking forward to trying out her recipes. They look wonderful.

I love this book, it has a wealth of useful information with an excellent format. If you purchase this book, you will not be dissapointed.

by Judy Bart Kancigor, author of Cooking Jewish: 532 Great Recipes from the Rabinowitz Family

from The Orange County Register
January 25, 2007

I am not a football fan. My idea of a super bowl is my mother's Val St. Lambert. But I do love a party, so if my centerpiece has to be the TV, hey, think of what I'm saving on flowers!

My Superbowl guest list is growing each day, and I'm getting nervous. Just how much food do I need for a crowd? And then there's the expense. Not to worry. With Denise Vivaldo's cookbook and catering guide "Do It For Less! Parties" I know I can throw a bash that won't stress me out and won't break the bank.

"People are not used to cooking in quantities," said Vivaldo, a classically trained chef and caterer, whose company, Food Fanatics, specializes in recipe development, consulting, and food styling for print, film and television. "It freaks them out to see how much food they've got. Is it enough? It is too much?" This book eliminates the guesswork with recipes given in chart form for 12, 25, 50 or 75 guests. "Remember, the more things you have on the menu, the smaller the portions you need to serve," Vivaldo advised.

But how much will this party cost, I wonder. "When people entertain, they spend a lot of money instead of keeping it simple," Vivaldo noted. "If you're having a lot of people, you don't have to offer a complete bar. Why not make one kind of drink, say Cosmopolitans, and add something non-alcoholic and some water and you've got it."

This seasoned professional, who has catered 10,000 parties (serving the likes of Arnold Schwarzenegger, Bette Midler and Prince Charles), reveals her tricks of the trade for everything from planning the menu to napkin folding.

"When we're entertaining, we're all our own harshest critics," she said. "But if someone else has set the table, the simplest meal is divine."

Vivaldo offers nine complete party themes, each with a menu, shopping list, decorating ideas (including invitations, table linens, favors and entertainment), time- and money-saving tips, an equipment list and a menu countdown, so you're not doing everything at the last minute.

"You don't need to spend a lot of money on matching linens," Vivaldo advised. "Look around your house. Everything doesn't have to match. Be creative. You can use a Mexican serape or even $10 sheets from Target. People don't come to your home to see your couch. They come for the company and a glass of wine."

For Superbowl I'll score with the Toscana menu: Classic Caesar Salad, Chilled Penne Pasta with Pesto and Pine Nuts, Italian Meatball Lasagna, Sweet Potato Gnocchi with Sage Butter Sauce, Tiramisu, and Chocolate Almond Biscotti. Touchdown!

Vivaldo's game plan makes it all simple, starting with shopping for non-perishables the week before. I see two days before the game I can prepare the gnocchi dough and biscotti, with the bulk of the cooking the following day. On party day I have only to cook the gnocchi, reheat the lasagna and gnocchi sauce, toss the salad and brew coffee. Then I can relax and enjoy the game. Or you enjoy the game and I'll enjoy you!

"People make themselves crazy when they entertain," Vivaldo reflected. "If you could enjoy yourself more, you would do it more often."

CHILLED PENNE PASTA WITH PESTO AND PINE NUTS
from "Do It For Less! Parties" (Terrace) by Denise Vivaldo

1 1/2 pounds penne pasta (uncooked)
1 cup extra-virgin olive oil, plus more as needed
4 cups fresh basil leaves
1/3 cup walnuts
4 garlic cloves, peeled
4 ounces grated Parmesan cheese
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
3/4 cup pine nuts, toasted

1. Bring a large stockpot of salted water to a rolling boil. Cook pasta in batches until al dente, 8 to 10 minutes, being careful not to overcook. Drain. Drizzle with a little olive oil if needed to keep from sticking.
2. Process basil leaves, olive oil, walnuts, garlic, Parmesan cheese, salt and pepper with a food processor until mixture forms a coarse paste. Taste and adjust seasonings.
3. Toss cooked pasta and pesto together in a large mixing bowl (in batches if needed for manageability). Sprinkle with toasted pine nuts.
3. Cover and chill until ready to serve. Serves 12 (options for 25, 50 and 75 in the book)

This has got EVERYTHING in it, no joke. From locations to amounts of food you need per persong at any party....budget pages... SO USEFUL! i am never going to let this book go! if you are thinking about getting it...don't bother...JUST DO IT!

It's not a good idea to spend time memorizing answers to questions. It is in your best interest to know the principles behind the answers, if you plan on passing the registry. This book is a fine condensed version of your 2 year program.

THIS IS A GREAT BOOK TO GET READY FOR THE TEST , AFTER BEING COUPLE YEARS OUT OF THE FIELD I USED THIS BOOK AND THE Q & A BOOK, AND I PASS WITH AN 85%. IT HAVE SOME MISTAKES BUT THEY ARE OBVIOUS.. ITS A VERYYYY GOOD BOOK !!

Arrived very promptly in perfect condition. great book for review. gives you need to knows for boards.

I would totally recommend this book to anyone who is going to be taking the ARRT registry. It's a great review from the x-ray program. A must have!!

This book helped me pass the ARRT Exam. I haven't been in school for a couple of years...plus I went to school overseas. I had the old version of this book but I needed to buy the newer one. It lived up to it's title "Radiography PREP". This book together with the Lange Q&A - Radiography Examination were the only books I needed...now I'm a Registered RT.

I was disappointed only in that this was a vegan cookbook and not vegetarian as the title implies. There are some good recipes, but not enough to hold my interest. I sent it back.

I am a serious home cook who has made this book her kitchen bible. The recipes contained in this book are scrumptious and remarkably free of all animal products (including eggs and dairy). As vegan cookbooks go, this book is unique. The culinary results are delicious and visually appealing. The author is a professional chef who knows how to layer in complex, yet pleasing flavors into dishes for spectacular results. Ken Bergeron really knows how to stimulate taste buds that have grown weary of the same-old, same-old. Truly innovative cuisine like this doesn't come around every day. I've made dozens of recipes presented within these pages with incredible success. Over the holidays, I followed the author's menu suggestions. I made the festive holiday menu for Christmas dinner and the hors d-oeuvres menu for an elegant cocktail party. Most of the invited guests were non-vegetarians with sophisticated taste-buds--definitely not the dry lentil loaf and brown rice crowd. I was delighted to receive enthusiastic raves and dozens of requests for the recipes. The fried oyster mushrooms, vegetable walnut and pecan pate, baby bella mushroom risotto and maple nut tart were especially big hits, but everything was devoured with gusto. This book is truly avant garde--I believe vegan cuisine will be the everyday norm for most American tables by the end of the next century. Even Time Magazine--hardly a granola rag by any stretch of the imagination-has recently predicted this dietary megatrend will happen in the near future. Undoubtedly, this book will help lead the way. No home should be without it. And, anyone making a profession out of feeding the public--pay attention, please! Customers will continue to want to live large into the next century, but that doesn't necessarily mean they want big slabs of dead animals oozing blood on their plates. Exotic fruits and vegetables, prepared with all the care and attention given to flesh-centered cuisine, will fit the bill just fine. Many trendsetters are looking for this now, but millions will follow.

All of the recipes in this book are not only vegetarian they are vegan. They are also scrumptious. I have tried several and it is well worth the trouble of having to scale down the recipes (since this is really created for restauranteurs everything serves 10).

Truly great example of why the question --don't you get bored eating vegetables all the time--is so funny!

Steph

Wow, chef Bergeron is a genius. Yes, a genius. This book contains dozens and dozens of sophisticated and inventive recipes using vegetables. Wow, and Wow again. A treasure trove!!!! Hey, home cooks out there, you will amaze your friends with any of these recipes. I only wish I had purchased a copy of this book sooner.

A little bias because Ken is a friend of mine, Ken is a modest down to earth guy---No pun intended. I am not a vegetarian by any means but every recipe that I have used is awesome. You really have to try the Oyster Fried Mushrooms, Watermelon Catsup or The Sea Czar Dressing. I have worked side by side with Ken, who is an incredible wealth of knowledge and expierience as a Vegan. Ken is the 1st World Vegan Gold Medalist at The Culinary Olympics in 92. I am very proud to be considered his friend and very proud of this book.

All I can say is it's simple, easy to read and healthy! Don't let the "Professional" in the title fool the average person because it is for everyone.The knowledge and eye opening this will give you to the vegetarian/vegan world is priceless.

Great descriptions, unbelievable quality photos; compact. Never having visited Italy befoe, we wanted to travel in teh countryside, in Tuscany and the Lake District. We used the 'Editor's Choices'. Our first stay at Villa Simplicitas near Lake Como was perfect, like we were visiting friends, fabulous service and food, locally made aperitifs. It was inexpensive and fabulous. Just perfect. It set the tone for the trip, and what a relief to find, after driving from Milano and flying in from California. We stayed at other places and were perfectly informed by this guide. There's nothing as valuable as relief from worry when traveling in a foreign city, without speaking the language well.

Great descriptions, unbelievable quality photos; compact. Never having visited Italy befoe, we wanted to travel in teh countryside, in Tuscany and the Lake District. We used the 'Editor's Choices'. Our first stay at Villa Simplicitas near Lake Como was perfect, like we were visiting friends, fabulous service and food, locally made aperitifs. It was inexpensive and fabulous. Just perfect. It set the tone for the trip, and what a relief to find, after driving from Milano and flying in from California. We stayed at other places and were perfectly informed by this guide. There's nothing as valuable as relief from worry when traveling in a foreign city, without speaking the language well.

Great descriptions, unbelievable quality photos; compact. Never having visited Italy befoe, we wanted to travel in teh countryside, in Tuscany and the Lake District. We used the 'Editor's Choices'. Our first stay at Villa Simplicitas near Lake Como was perfect, like we were visiting friends, fabulous service and food, locally made aperitifs. It was inexpensive and fabulous. Just perfect. It set the tone for the trip, and what a relief to find, after driving from Milano and flying in from California. We stayed at other places and were perfectly informed by this guide. There's nothing as valuable as relief from worry when traveling in a foreign city, without speaking the language well.

This can be a very helpful starting point for your travel planning, containing useful information about many attractive, special places in Italy. In this modern era, however, it is also important for the reader to leap to the Internet for additional information before making those reservations.

That done, you will discover that there are several potentially disappointing errors in this book, most notably the transposition of the photos for the magnificent Villa San Michele (Fiesole; attributed to Michelangelo) with the Hotel San Michele in Cortona. The former is one of the most beautiful and expensive hotels in Tuscany, standing atop a hillside overlooking Florence. The Cortona San Michele (while quite nice) is a more modest, affordable hotel, on a steep, narrow city street. One can only imagine the dismay for the visitors who arrive in Cortona, expecting the first, and found themselves at the latter! "Certainly doesn't look like its photo, now does it?"

Tighter editing--- and diligent reader investigation-- is essential. But all totalled, a recommended starting point for travel planning, especially if you recall that ancient Roman admonition, "Caveat Emptor!"

Great descriptions, unbelievable quality photos; compact. Never having visited Italy befoe, we wanted to travel in teh countryside, in Tuscany and the Lake District. We used the 'Editor's Choices'. Our first stay at Villa Simplicitas near Lake Como was perfect, like we were visiting friends, fabulous service and food, locally made aperitifs. It was inexpensive and fabulous. Just perfect. It set the tone for the trip, and what a relief to find, after driving from Milano and flying in from California. We stayed at other places and were perfectly informed by this guide. There's nothing as valuable as relief from worry when traveling in a foreign city, without speaking the language well.

This book provides a clause-by-clause analysis of ISO 9001 and it contains all the knowledge you need in order to understand this standard and to formulate strategies for compliance. It does not cover detailed theory or procedures for certain themes such as customer satisfaction measurement, sampling, or statistical process control. This should be the first book you read if you wish to implement an ISO 9001-compliant Quality Management System.

If you consider ISO9001 more than a paper on the wall then you should read this book. The author tells you what to do rather than a detailed prescription of how to do it. But more important he explains the reason of each ISO9001 requirement. This helps anybody that works with this standard to think about what the rational behind and how does this fit in each business.

Everybody should understand first and implement after and that's the purpose of this book: to deeply understand the standard in order to create or transform your management system (and by this way the quality system) into a customer driven management system

"ISO 9000 Quality Systems handbook" is an excellent book on the effective implementation of quality management systems. The book is well written in simple/plain English that should make it easy to follow and understand by any reader.

The book was written by a very experienced practitioner in Quality Management Systems, the author (David Hoyle) having over three decades of experience in the field. This is an indispensable book for those implementing ISO 9000 Quality Management System. The reader will, among other things, understand the difference between the previous procedure approach to the current process approach to quality management. The reader will learn what the ISO 9000 requirements mean, why they are necessary and how to implement them.

The other critical features in the book includes a summary and questionnaire to reinforce the reader's knowledge and understanding as well as comprehensive list of references that should be very useful for those who need to explore the subject more widely.

The book is recommended reading for people involved in the implementation of ISO 9000 for enhanced organizational performance, particularly managers, designers, auditors, instructors and students of quality systems.

The material was just what I was looking for and the service from Amazon was excellent. Received my order ahead of schedule.

Thank you for the excellent service.

With the introduction of the ISO 9001:2000 standard, a number of publications offering ideas, advice and assistance to anyone who have been charged with implementing quality systems, have made their appearance on the bookshelves. The ISO 9000 Quality Systems Handbook 4th Edition, by David Hoyle is one of the best I have read on this subject. In this 4th edition, David analyzes each section, clause and requirement of the ISO 9001:2000 standard in detail.

David Hoyle has over 30 years experience in quality Management and has authored or co-authored more than five books on ISO 9000. He is also the director of Transition Support, a firm that provides training and consulting in business improvement.

The book is easy to understand and is suitable for students, managers, instructors as well as auditors. The novice ISO practitioner as well as the seasoned ISO 9000 enthusiast will find this book a valuable tool when implementing ISO 9000 quality management systems. For those making the transition from the 1994 version of the standard, this book helps to point out the changes from the 1994 to the 2000 standard.

The standard has changed considerably. In the 4th edition, the meaning of each of the requirements of the ISO 9001:2000 standard is explained in detail and some of the sometimes confusing ISO language is clarified. The author explains why each of the requirements is necessary. He shows how each requirement links to the eight quality management principles on which the ISO 9001:2000 standard was based. The book gives practical guidance on implementing each requirement. This is the strong point of the book.

After introducing some basic quality concepts, the book explains the role, the origins and application of the ISO 9000 family. The succeeding chapters, 4 through 8, correspond to each of the five sections of the standard. This makes it easy when looking for help in understanding and implementing a certain requirement of the standard.

The 4th edition has a summary, a questionnaire that provides food for thought for the reader, and a list of references at the end of each chapter. A glossary and a list of related websites are included in the appendix.

The 4th edition of ISO 9000 Quality Systems Handbook will find a permanent place on your desk. Auditors will find this book indispensable.

This book provides a wonderful look at the Campania region. I bought it before a trip to Italy, and hoped to use it as a guide of the region that I would be visiting. We stayed in Positano and visited a number of cities, including Vico Equense, Sorrento, Ravello, Caserta, Salerno, Minori, Vietri sul Mare, and several other small towns in the region. The only thing lacking in this book is detailed directions to find the stores. For example, we tried to visit a wine shop in Caserta that the book highly recommended. Armed with two maps with printed directions from Google Maps and Microsoft Live Local, we still had no luck finding it. It is very difficult to find a good map service of the area, and if this book would provide detailed directions to reaching these stores, a few maps, and maybe photos of the storefronts, it would be absolutely perfect!

I lived in Naples for 3 1/2 years and traveled all over the Campania region, but I didn't find this book until our last month and wish I had it from the start. It is very good and we tried several of the locations before we left . Show the book to the stores or restaurants that you visit , they have their own copies.I reccommend it to anyone planning on taking the trip or those who want to see what it is like.

Still waiting for delivery of the book that I paid for over a month ago. Contrary to popular opinion Cape Town is a first world city with a decent postal service. I want the book to accompany me to the Naples area shortly and will be extremely disappointed if I have to leave without it. If a client has opted for expedited shipping perhaps you should take it upon yourselves to check that this is possible otherwise you should remove the option from your website

Fantastic resource for planning gastronomic adventures in Campania. We are using this guide to help us plan for an upcoming trip to a less-traveled area in southern Campania. This amazing book provides great insight for food and wine lovers who want to know where to go, and what to eat and drink when you get there. There is simply no way I could have compiled this information on my own.

We have lived in the Naples area for the past year, but found more wonderful local sources for food and wine in one weekend using this well-researched guide than we found in the whole previous year! Much of life in Southern Italy is governed by word-of-mouth, and Carla Capalbo has done the hard work for anyone interested in the wonderful array of local food, wine, and olive oil available here. Brava!

This is a very thick book... and for good reason. It has photos (albeit black and white ones) or photo-rendered sketches of many potential wedding and reception venues. Each venues' pages come with the stuff you need: the seating capacity and approximate prices. There are also other sections of the book focused on vendors for flowers, etc. I recommend this book if you're trying to get a feeling for "what's out there" with regard to venues. It's a great place to start, and you'll probably feel like you've covered a lot of ground once you've gone through this book.

Wonderful book, a must have!

This has been an invaluable book during my wedding planning. When I got engaged in December 99, a girlfriend suggested that I buy the SoCal edition immediately to start finding reception and ceremony locations. I did buy it, and whipped through the whole book one evening. Sitting there reading, I quickly dismissed reception site after site and determined that the book just couldn't help me. I put it aside.

Then I started actually going out, visiting places, and realizing that it wasn't so easy to find the perfect place! I quickly realized I was going to have to work a lot harder than I thought to mesh the right church location, my number of people, and a convenient indoor reception site. So I came back to the Guide--time and again! Soon I had it dogeared and filled with notes as I reconsidered the options I'd been so quick to skip past earlier. The statistics on each site helped keep me focused and helped me and my fiance consider new places when others fell through, and keep the attributes of each place in mind. The descriptions of the reception sites are detailed, positive and generous-but-not-misleading. We ultimately booked a site listed in the Guide and are thrilled to have found it.

Now that I've moved on to choosing a photographer, I went to the Guide again. First I read through each photographer's profile in the book, then went on the Guide's website! It's so easy to use - - it allows you to jump to photographers' websites and see their portfolios, all without making appointments or driving around! I feel satisifed that I don't need to look beyond the professionals listed in the Guide, since the authors have already done the legwork in finding people with high standards and good customer service.

If you really want to explore all possible options for your ceremony, reception, and event professionals, you will love Here Comes The Guide! The hardcopy book and the website are thorough, pleasant to read, and - - most importantly - - really helpful. My mom keeps saying, "I had no idea it was this complicated to plan a wedding in this day and age!" Here Comes the Guide goes a long way towards relieving the complication!

While the bulk of the Guide is dedicated to reception site listings, the vendor listings in the back are very helpful. The listings are not mere "paid advertisements." If you read the book, The Guide explains how each vendor undergoes a thorough screening process--something even the most persistent bride likely wouldn't have the time or ability to conduct.

As The Guide states on Page 483, their process "involves interviewing 15-20 other event professionals. We call every single reference and ask about the professionalism, technical competency and service orientation of the advertiser in question. ... Those candidates who received consistent, rave reviews made it into The Guide."

Using The Guide as a starting point (combined with the internet, magazine ads, and friends' recommendations), I conducted exhaustive research of my own of wedding professionals in Los Angeles and beyond. I wound up hiring three vendors who had been featured in the Guide (caterer, band and florist, 11-11-00 wedding). All performed beyond my greatest expectations, and my guests cannot stop raving about the "fabulous," "amazing," and "out of this world" food, music, and flowers. Clearly, The Guide got it right.

So don't be fooled by the relative size of the vendor section compared to pages allotted to reception sites. The vendor section may be small because they are the cream of the crop, thanks to the Guide's legwork.

I am so glad that a friend told me about this book. I was so daunted by the search for a location for my wedding, I didn't know where to start. This book (and their fantastic website by the same name) made it really easy. They give great descriptions and the pricing information helped me narrow down the places I could afford. It saved me so much time, I was able to actually enjoy looking for a reception location. Thank you, Here Comes the Guide.

Have recently purchased this book. Started skimming through it and couldn't put it down. There was a party for every occasion and it was all planned out for you. The tips were fantastic. I plan on buying more for gifts. This book will make a great Christmas gift and will definitely be on my shopping list in December. I hope they do another book. It was so easy to follow and I know I will have no disasters at another party.

This book has everything you can think of when it comes to party planning! I got some really cute theme ideas and I love the 'Chips and Tips' throughout the book! Great Resource for anyone! This would be a great gift!

I was very impressed with the numerous party themes and quantity of ideas for each theme. This is planning made easy and I recommend this book to all hosts and hostess -- whether this is your first party or you have been throwing parties for years, this book is perfect for different ideas, more ideas to enhance been-around themes with easy to follow directions, everything to make a party memorable! Great resource for any organization (church, Scouts, philanthropic, etc.) planning social and fundraising events. I have been a professional party planner (family and corporate) for years and love this book! I recommend it highly as one of the best on the market and I personally give these books as gifts.

This book will make you get off your couch and want to party. With the clever ideas, tips on every topic you would not even amagine, and most of all the expert advice for all sorts of celebrations. All the work is done for you all you have to do is pick and choose. Great job to you both for a wonderful book... Dawn Hogan, celebration expert, speaker, author of party planning guides.

Why did it take these guidebook people so long to discover a need for this book? Cambria and Sachs have done a superior job of streamlining the stresses of party giving so that the hostess has a chance of having just as much fun as her guests. Thanks, guys!

This is an excellent treatise of starting a specialty food store or, perhaps is even more beneficial to one who wishes to wholesale food products to place in food stores or delis..

People wanting to cash in on the current trend towards take-out convenience need this book, as well as From Kitchen To Market and How To Get Your Product Into Supermarkets.

The three books are invaluable for overlapping reasons. A prospective store operator needs to understand how to setup his or her store and, just as important, how their competition operates. Beginning store operators also need to understand their industry in detail not merely from the viewpoint of their competition and from their customers, but from their suppliers position.

Gourmet To Go does a great job from a narrow viewpoint. Probably the only topic not suffriciently explored is the hands'-on advice. Perhaps the next edition will detail the possibilities for including rollergrills, microwaves and how to earn what the industry refers to as "Plus-sales." I'm speaking of the technique in all fast food chains and convenience stores to get customers to spend more money.

Other hands-on topics that should be discussed are controlling theft and the experience of many store operators who have lost significant chunks of money in providing lottery tickets. I know of a feww whose losses exceeded $10,000. Adding insult to injury, lottery only reimburses stores from one to three percent of gross sales and pay-outs for winning tickets. Despite such a poor return on investment, many stores consider it mandatory to provide lottery.

Further, computerizing the store could be considered, as well as installing UPC readers. It is not uncommon to see even the smallest store using such equipment. Yet, those installing such systems all seem to have to reinvent the wheel.

Again, buy this book but augment it with From Kitchen To Market and with How To Get Your Product Into Supermarkets so you can keep up with and, perhaps, improve upon your competition and keep customers, suppliers and yourself happy!

Although, as the name suggests, this book is geared mainly towards gourmet to go operations (specialty food stores with emphasis on catering and gourmet take-out) it is an invuluable resource for anyone thinking about entering the gourmet food industry.

I wasted all kinds of time and money on general business start-up books and learned little more that nothing about starting a gourmet food store (or any business for that matter). The business plan section alone is better than a whole book I purchased on the subject. I found every bit of Gourmet to Go to be extemely useful and after reading it couldn't believe I had even considered going into business without it.

Having some experience with new product projects for major corporations, this somewhat smaller scale, but nonetheless similar principled look at the operations and craft of specialty food store biz is well-done.

It is full of relevant and cogent thoughts for anyone interested in this market niche. What I found very well done is the sections of writing the biz plan and the steps therein critical to putting together and then implementing such.

Also included are fairly thorough lists of resources such as consultants, trade journals, suppliers, etc.

What could possibly have been additionaly useful was stress on two key areas: concentration on obstacles and their probability of happening (i.e. scenario plotting) and finding and use of two key players from the outset: attorney and accountant/tax specialist.

A friend recently opened a store and this book has acurately addressed some of the issues we are experiencing. The author has a knack for addressing both personal issues such as self doubt, fear, relations with partners as well as topics related to the business. He compels the entrepreneur to think hard about the objectives of his undertaking and then walks him through it step by step.

The sections on site location and templates for creating a business model, mission statement and feasability study are better than two other books that I had purchased.

Most of the book has little to do with specialty food and more about the decision and execution process of opening a new place. I would recomend it to both someone just toying with the idea and someone who is already established.

I have been working on opening a specialty food shop/cafe and got stuck on the logistics of planning. After using several guides and books I randomly found (and getting NOWHERE) I decided to buy Gourmet to Go on a recommendation. It is THE best thing I could have ever bought, hands down. It seems that all the questions I had were answered in the book, and the structure of the book leads readers down a logical path through the maze of planning for this type of business. If you are to buy any book on this topic, this is the one. The money spent on this book will save you thousands later on. Two thumbs up!

The key concept of this book is that every organization could evolve trough several status. There is no a suggested preeferred status. Winning organisations are those which could find the right 'alignment' between market needs and behaviours and the internal organization. The evolution of the organization is only driven by the market change. The book focus on transitions between these different stages, analysing the impact of these changes through the entire Value Chain. Invented Here is a milestone for those people which needs to manage transition also in a turbulent environment. It helps managers to think about the actual company positioning and to build a framework helping to identify market changes and relevant organizational needed impact. Simply great!

The importance of organization design on the success of a business, be it that of a service company or a product supplier, is often underestimated. Strategy alone is not enough.

The great value of this book lies in 3 areas :

i) Use of illustrating failure as well as success - better to learn from someone else's mistakes so that you can, hopefully, avoid them.

ii) Identifying in meaningful terms where to position your organisation for your product/service e.g. if you need a great mass production machine, that is how you should organize; when your customers need more, don't hide from it - just do it well.

iii) The style is refreshingly alive. You feel you can relate to real people solving real problems. Too often, books like this feel like they belong only in libraries - this one offers genuinely practical insight. It's up to you to apply it.

If I have one (minor) criticism, it is the title. Don't let it mislead you. This book is a very helpful guide to many aspects of organizational design and a better title, in my opinion, would be something like:- "Optimizing Your Organization For Your Customers"

A well written book to help you understand how to develop your company's business along the "right path"to deliver higher customer value. The format and language of the book make it a joy to read. The concrete examples from both service and product industries are very useful.

Too many managers look to external consultants to provide the keys to their organization's success. Was it quality circles, TQM, or re-engineering you last tried as a way to rejuventate your struggling organzation? Victor and Boynton suggest you save your money and focus within. Their logical process of analysis and implementation will help your firm on the "right path" to organizational success.

The process demands that firms think clearly and carefully about who they are and what business they are in compared to what their customers really want. This analysis helps a firm determine if it should compete on the basis of novelty, commodity, quality, or precision. The choice made suggests that craft work, mass production, process enhancement, or mass customization provides the best strategy to meet those customer demands. Achieving these strategies can only occur as a firm moves from craft work, through mass production and process enhancement to mass customization via the "right path."

In an engaging combination of personal insight and case examples, the authors lead the reader along the "path." They offer numerous stories of organizations around the world that have followed this "path" to organizational success.

Don't let the reletive brevity of their effort mislead you. The ideas they propose should force the thoughful manager into careful and thoughful consideration of the firm's current structure, products, and processes. If the analysis suggests that changes are warranted, then Victor and Boynton's guidebook along the "right path" will prove well worth the initial investment.

A thoughtful, creative tour de force in a field littered with lightweight, feel-good competitors. Enjoy!

This book reveals how to use knowledge residing in the company to transform organization and manage growth. It presents a model of organizational learning and development with four steps: craft, mass production, process enhancement, and mass customization. It explores the leveraging of four associated types of knowledge and presents a learning system for developing organizational knowledge. Provides important insights the learning organization.