Business Books

This book does an excellent job in teaching the keys of IT sales. The author has worked for Novell and other big technology companies, and he reflects that with good examples of several sales situations during the negotiation phase. You should have this if you want to achieve million dollar quotas.

There's also another book out there called "How To Sell Technology" by a guy called DiModico. It's ok for people with no experience in sales that want explanations of the basic sales processes, people types and all that stuff. Best wishes for your sales careers.

This book does an excellent job in teaching the keys of IT sales. The author has worked for Novell and other big technology companies, and he reflects that with good examples of several sales situations during the negotiation phase. You should have this if you want to achieve million dollar quotas.

There's also another book out there called "How To Sell Technology" by a guy called DiModico. It's ok for people with no experience in sales that want explanations of the basic sales processes, people types and all that stuff. Best wishes for your sales careers.

I've been in sales for 15 years. I'm a learner and I've read many of the books and been to the popular seminars on sales (Strategic Selling, Selling Solutions etc.). I just got into the IT sales field last year and highly recommend this book. This book is a solid, no-hype approach to complex selling. It gives me a blueprint to follow, it's very accurate for today's technology challanges and I found it easy to read as well! I usually don't recommend stuff but this book is a real "secret" weapon.

Recently I had the opportunity to interview for a sale position with a much respected software company. A few days before the interview I had just finished reading I.T. Sales Boot Camp. The concept and fundamental ideals of selling in an I.T. arena that were taught and express in the book enabled me to land the job. I believe that the knowledge that I gain from I.T.Sales Boot Camp made the different in my interview.

As opposed to most "hot new" sales approaches which focus on changing your personal style, this book does a great job of providing a strategic step-by-step plan from A-Z. It's void of fluff and gets right to the point of outlining the nuts and bolts of the process including pre-sales planning, performance tracking, maintaining growth, and writing proposals. It's worth reading in general and especially for those migrating into tech sales.

Lots of solid ideas and a great roadmap for getting noticed, creating a buzz and making sales.

You'll really benefit from reading this book.

Very informative. Lots of information, resources and guidance. This book is truly a must read!

This book will teach you how to get noticed, motivate millions and make a difference in a noisy world. Dave Lakhani, best selling author of "Persuasion: The Art of Getting What You want" said that this book is a "must read for every entrepreneur, non profit and business owner". Indeed, IMPACT will take you to the next level. The author helps shortcut the process to understanding exactly how you can get out of there and make the kind of impact that you want make in the world. This is something that will shortcut you years and literally gives you years and decades of experience in a very short period of time. You have to read IMPACT to understand how to stand out from the crowd. By using the tactics in this book, your voice will not be solo for long. People will rally around your messages and spread them like wild fire. This book reveals the key strategies used by some of the most influencial people in the world. If you want to make a real difference in people's life: (1). Your ideas, products and services must be noticed; (2). The news must spread quickly; and (3). Your projects must be sustainable over time. IMPACT shows you how to accomplish all these things. This book delves into the stories of ordinary people who have left their marks on the world. You will learn how to : (1). Get noticed in a world that doesn't want to listen to you; (2). Find your audience and make them your advocates and (3). Motivate millions to action. Digest this book and you will be able to motivate millions to action.

Even if you are an advanced and experienced internet marketer, this enlightening book by Ken MacArthur is a must read.

IMPACT has forced me to make a solid and calmed recap of all that I have learned about internet marketing during two years of compulsive purchasing and avid reading of downloadable courses and ebooks (much of the them not worth the price I paid) about this matter.

With his simple, close and clear tone, Ken MacArthur covers all the key matters that you need to know if you want to impact others in a positive way - especially if you want to make your voice listened by thousands with respect and receptivity.

He gives you the keys to make your "impact" system, the rest is up to you... Once you have read the book, don't stop... you must to take actions that Ken has showed you. You should take lots of notes when reading this book.

If you are a beginner in the internet marketing arena, I have no doubt that you will save an important amount of time and money (not like me) if you read this book. I wish it had fallen into my hands two years ago!

Also Ken's teaching goes beyond the mere book. As a continuation of it Ken has a website that contains quality complementary information and resources. As stated on the back cover of the book, Ken offers ... "A free step-by-step guide with hundreds of hours of audio and video instructions to help you create your personal impact plan."

Thanks for writing such a helpful book, Mr. MacArthur.

Alex Perez-Prat

Although this book has a lot of helpful and interesting information, it suffers from a key problem - it doesn't know what kind of book it is. By that I mean that author Ken McArthur seems as if he was at times penning a self-help book, then a very technical how-to book, or was it a how to make a lot of money book, or maybe it was a book warning about the perils of selling an online product, or maybe it was about the difficulties of making a lot of money - wait no, it's an inspirational/motivational book. All these areas are covered to some extent, and give the book a kind of haphazard feel. When you get to an interesting section, it's like driving on an otherwise mediocre scenic tour and suddenly coming upon a really beautiful site.

The book is also at times a frustrating read because McArthur covers important topics on a general level, leaving the reader thirsting for a very specific example. Take online products. Please provide a specific, detailed example. He gets specific at the end when he talks about his online product, but even there it not detailed enough. Maybe this book was really just promotional material to go to his website and buy his product.

Part of me wants to give it a 4, but I think a 3 is more justified because in the end I am left with the feeling that there surely are other authors with more focused things to say.

One last thing - a pet peeve. I really don't like when authors quote themselves in a book. What's up with placing your own quotes in shaded boxes? If something is really quotable, it should be done by readers and not by the authors.

The more involved you are with process improvement, the more you will benefit from reading this book. Consultants Geary A. Rummler and Alan P. Brache focus your thinking on their process improvement method by including detailed diagrams, practical examples and flow charts. They demonstrate how the traditional use of hierarchical organizational charts creates silos, isolated corporate operations that are separated by white space on the chart and, thus, are literally unconnected. The authors' "three levels" approach to management can mitigate performance issues within that organizational white space and avoid silos. They present their framework as a reliable method for upgrading organization design, improving processes and enhancing individual performance. Managing the "nine variables" that affect performance can help you develop a better understanding of your organization and build a strategic foundation for continuous process improvement, rather than wasting effort on ad hoc fixes. getAbstract recommends this book to thoughtful managers who don't need lots of buzzwords.

This book presents some interesting concepts on Process Design and Performance.

This is a classic text that hardly needs my endorsement. However, if I can bring it to the attention of people who might not have benefitted from its proven insights and wisdom, I am happy to do so. The basic notion of the book is that too many people run their companies in the silos of the traditional org-chart. This creates all kinds of communications and management problems that must be broken down to get the optimal performance from your firm. This need has only grown since the first edition of this book came out in 1990. This second edition came out in 1995.

The authors want you to think of what your company is trying to accomplish rather than as a bunch of fiefdoms hanging from a hierarchical org-chart. They use a matrix of three levels of performance (Organizational, Process, and Job/Performer) and three performance needs (Goals, Design, and Management). Using the nine areas these create the authors show you how to handle focusing, operating, and managing every aspect of your firm. Sure, the book requires more thought and concentration than your typical "business book", but the substance it provides is well worth the effort.

Use it.

Reviewed by Craig Matteson, Ann Arbor, MI

Don't let the date this book was published influence your decision to buy - it is timeless. I am on my second copy of this book and would characterize it as the best book on business process management that has ever been published. This is "The Book". Everyone I know in the Business Process Management field has this book. I recommend it to every client and every business improvement team member that I work with.

The information contained in this "gem" can help anyone involved in process improvement. Consultants, executives, managers, process team leaders, process team members - it doesn't matter whether you are working in manufacturing, finance, logistics, sales or human resources. It also doesn't matter whether you are new to BPM or have been in the field for 20 years. This book will change the way you think about organizational structure and approaching business process.

Trying to characterize what parts of the book were best, would be like trying to dissect what parts of the blue sky you like best. It is all great stuff - each chapter is better than the next, and will help you understand what needs to be done to make business improvement initiatives work. It is well written, easy to understand the concepts, with hundreds of useful illustrations and models to learn from.

I would give this book 6 stars if I could ...

This book will survive the trends, since most of the trends are based on the principles in this book. The names will change (Quality Circles, Just In Time, TQM, Re-engineering, Six Sigma, ...), but these principles and how well they are implemented will determine a companies' efficiency and quality.

Talks about stuff from a very high level. Useful even to software professionals. The last chapters make the book worthwhile.

The authors of "Inescapable Data" share their excitement about what they see as a rapidly-developing convergence of digital technologies having enormous significance for business and culture. This convergence, in their view, is inescapable, life-altering for both good and bad, and presents a frame-shattering paradigm-shift which is mostly unrecognized, and much less examined critically. "Inescapable Data" is a thought-provoking book meant to describe the new technologies and to examine the special values which arguably will emerge from the convergence.

This book illuminates the practical perspective of these developments. Others who pay attention to developments in culture of this sort believe that this "convergence" presents the most important and consequential development in human history, far vaster in its scope and effects than the Great Wars, and the Industrial Revolution. The developments have been so rapid and the effects so many and complex that is hard at this point to grasp all of the significances, although the dynamics, as noted in the book, are fairly clear.

Nicholas Negroponte in his 1995 book "Being Digital" first popularized the idea of the power and force of "Digital". But this book emphasizes that "Digital" itself is not nearly the force that "Convergence" is and will become. Yes, the impetus certainly comes from the specific digital technologies but the combination of four major separate technology spheres has catalyzed into a much greater force. This is the "Convergence."

As detailed in the book, these technologies are: 1) "data-everywhere" devices, like cellphones, biosensors, miniaturized video cameras, and GPS transmitters; 2) asynchronous-yet-immediate transmission technologies, like instant messaging; 3) intelligent wireless networks; and 4) advanced information processing software. Embedded chips will be everywhere, including in your dog or cat, your clothes, every product you own or consume or use, and your own body. What links everything together context-wise are XML files and protocols. The synergy of all of these components create a whole system which is much greater than the sum of its parts.

In 13 chapters and an index comprising 268 pages, the authors explain the basic vision of the practical dynamics of "inescapable data". Chapters 4-12 contain section by section descriptions of the implementation of the component technologies and show how traditional and historical ways of doing things are being quickly altered, primarily now in manufacturing, distribution, and retailing.

The writing is mostly in the form of serial presentations of anecdotes, statistics, specific examples, and commentary. It is geared to the technologically-interested person focused on practical matters. This is not an academic work; it is full of practical and real-world examples but short on critique, theory, and analysis.

Chapter Four starts the discussion of existing and developing applications of "inescapable data", and is about digital convergence in military and government spheres. Instant messaging, GPS transmitters, ubiquitous cellular communication, and advanced software applications have radically altered traditional "command and control" operations. With immediate, field-based information, the way battles are waged is now different. Commanders have instantaneous information about realtime happenings, aggregated and realtime updated information about equipment and materials including logistical supply chains and more, through wireless devices held or embedded in all elements of the military operation, including individual troops.

Governments, using wireless video camera transmitters, biosensors, and GPS transmitters can now utilize realtime broad-scale, relatively inexpensive surveillance for crime control and other purposes. In the home, wireless and digital technologies acting to provide surveillance and remote control of heating and electrical systems are in use now, and many more applications will be utilized very soon. The technology and cost factors are available now. In the field of medicine, everyday worklife, manufacturing, retail and entertainment, data collection is coming widespread as miniature sensors, radio frequency identification devices (RFID), wireless connectivity, XML content headers, and information processing software facilitate the recording of much of social, business, and cultural life. This then allows the widespread, immediate, real-time processing of relevant information by businesses, marketers, government (think "Homeland Security"), and, of course, miscreants of various types.

The important part to understand is not just that new technology is available now and at relatively low cost. What makes all of this interesting is that the connections among individual components of this technological matrix are increasing and developing. So, your new refrigerator is linked to the manufacturer's array of servers and to your grocery store's servers, and to your bank. Your medical records are stored in your doctor's server, connected to insurance company and government computers, as well as wide-scale medical-related organizations. Each of these linked "nodes" is further linked, or will be to other nodes, so that an immense matrix of relationships is now being furthered.

Chapters 7 and 10 on manufacturing and retail show how old-fashioned practices involving a company networking its departments and units internally, has now evolved into a process where the company computers and particularly its databases are now linked to all of its component suppliers, distributors, advertisers, regulatory entities, and more.


The authors detail through each of the chapters the available technology, the specific uses, and the immediately perceivable effects, via interviews with a large handful of corporate, university, and business people involved in the technology. Examples of use, both awesome and mundane, are noted.

The alleged benefits of the convergence are vastly new efficiencies, flexibilities, customization opportunities, adaptability, and other values, many of which remain to be determined. One thing is absolutely certain- there will be plenty of data generated. Almost certainly, there will be plenty of people and organizations trying to make sense and meaning of this data, filtering and analyzing with new, capable, processing applications.

Whole new industries will form to manage this data. Where linked computers once vastly facilitated digital development, including the Internet, there will now be linked databases which will stand out as the chief component of the convergence. There will be systematic, continuous connectivity in a matrix of networked relationships represented by linked databases.

This convergence concept is highly reminiscent of Big Brother of "1984" fame. Obviously, there are serious issues about the quality of life in the convergence era. The good is in enormous increases in efficiency, in customized processes and products, in immediacy, and in flexibility and individual freedoms. The downsides are discussed here in a mere four pages in Chapter 13 on "Perspectives". The authors itemize them as: discriminatory insurance underwriting effecting those unlucky enough to have reported genetic or medical issues; rampant identity theft, increased marketing pressures, a conflation of work and home life which some may feel as threatening, the alteration of sports and entertainment, and the exposure of formerly personal information. Another issue is the likelihood that some people will not be connected, for whatever reason. This group will comprise an underclass missing out on the benefits of convergence.

The book ends with a list of suggestions to the reader on how to exploit the developments - use an email PDA, avail of work-at-home opportunities, equip your kids with cell devices, convince your medical provider to send SMS and email appointment reminders, and set up home surveillance. For businesses, they suggest broad use of IM, groupware, and work-at-home concepts. Predictions include global calendars, singular devices, single key authentication, cashless economic transactions, and flexible matrix workers.

These suggestions and predictions seem fairly lame in respect to a process compared by some to the Great Wars and the Industrial Revolution. However, the perspective here is a practical, pragmatic one. More weighty suggestions, conclusions, and predictions are for higher-level academic writers.

I just finished reading an outstanding book that examines the world of "Inescapable Data"... Chris Stakutis and John Webster's Inescapable Data - Harnessing the Power of Convergence.

Contents: The Inescapable Data Vision; The Connectivity Divide; Inescapable Data Fundamentals; From Warfare to Government, Connectivity Is Vitality; Pervading the Home; Connecting Medicine; Work Life - Oxymoron No Longer; Real-Time Manufacturing; Sports and Entertainment - Energizing Our Involvement; Connecting to Retail; Computer Storage Impacted by Inescapable Data; Super Computers, Visualization, and Networks; Inescapable Data in Perspective; Index

The authors explore how technology is allowing more and more devices to broadcast and interact with each other to create linkages that haven't even begun to be explored. What if your refrigerators could broadcast to your PDA when you're at the store to let you know what's in there? With RFID tags, it's a possibility. What if you could have access to the same telemetry data that pit crews have when you go to an racing event? Could your tennis racquet transmit force and angle information to a system that could analyze your game and help you become a better player? All of these things are technically possible, and the rapid advance of processing and storage power makes it much more likely to come to pass at an affordable price point. Besides talking about possibilities, they also explore how technology has to change in order to deal with this constant onslaught of data. Companies like Wal-mart generate terabytes of data from RFID every few days. What do you save? How do you analyze it? Where does it reside and for how long? And with data being stored in XML format, how likely is it that ordinary computer users will be able to write their own tools to analyze their data? Good chance it'll happen...

Probably the only thing they didn't cover in a lot of depth was the personal privacy issue. If retailers are tracking you via tags, sensors, and cameras from the time you walk in the door until you leave, you're passing a lot of information that will be stored about you. While there might be financial benefits to allowing that to happen, that benefit comes at a cost to personal privacy. The issue is acknowledged, but much more space is devoted to the potential benefits than to the potential abuses. Still, this is a book that will open your eyes to possibilities that seemed like science fiction not that very long ago.

Well worth reading to expand your vision...

The book is an interesting peek at the near future. It projects an ongoing trend of pervasive wireless connectivity at a mass consumer level. Coupled with continuing increases in memory and disk capacity and falling prices per bit. The text is written at a general nontechnical level. You might derive ideas from it for possible new applications.

Various topics are explored. RFID is mooted as expanding vastly. In doing so, it can make economic various devices that detect items with RFID and then offer services based on that data. The archetypal example given is a fridge that can broadcast which items in it have these tags, and do so at relatively small cost.

Another key idea is the use of XML to describe the data. This will be like HTML. It will let some users program applications without having a lot of specialised computer knowledge. Just as HTML gave rise to a flowering of the first generation of the Web, XML enables the next generation.

Almost surely, there are killer apps waiting to be born. The book might inspire you to write these.

Do you ever look at our changing technology and wonder where we are all going and what the world will be like when we get there? This book does a good job of trying to answer these questions. The authors interviewed 50 technology leaders in a wide variety of industries as well as drawing on their own experiece, and distilled the information into a book that is very informative without requiring the reader to have a PhD. The book considers each industry or area of interest in turn, explaining what's going on now and what is likely to develop in the next few years. Some of the areas they consider are: warfare, security, home life, medicine, work, manufacturing, sports, entertainment, retail sales, data storage, supercomputers, and networking. You may view the technological future with the glee of a technophile or with anxiety about the world we're creating -- the authors are unabashed technophiles-- but whatever your views, this book will give you a good education about what's going on. I recommend it highly. [...]

In a nutshell, this book provided ideas, strategies, and mechanisms to take the next big step beyond what others are doing. This book differentiates KM software applications to categorize information from the very human activities needed to create the innovative enterprise. When everyone has implemented KM..how do we create an ability to outperform competition? Some key thoughts and ideas are presented in this book. Always worth going back to for some inspiration.

I am truly mystyfied how this book could get 5 stars from almost all readers. There is no method to it. It is just a collection of random statements praising the importance of knowledge management (frequently also author's company). While most of the opinions cited in this book are undoubtedly true, almost nothing of practical significance follows.

An extraordinary book, with a comprehensive knowledge management review and fresh topics. Ideal for advanced readers in KM topics and the Innovation Process. Don't lose this reading.

Subsequent to the massive investments in such consulting fads, tools and initiatives as 'right sizing', 'process re-engineering', IT infrastructure, 'so called' knowledge-management, etc., etc... many enterprises around the globe are reeling from the unrealized gains and often harmuful effects stemming from these activities... and as being painfully exposed by the so called 'New Economy'. In this regard, many of these same people and entities responsible for such 'Tayloristic', fragmented and myopic activities are scrambling to find the most recently espoused solutions, tools and gimmicks to prop-up lackluster results, and in many cases, just to survive. In response, a plethora of authors, consultants and media-sellers are happy to fill the market with products and services that are, once again, proclaimed to be the "real truth".

If you are adamant in your belief that the ability to create a successful life, career, enterprise, or even nation, is contingent upon one's ability to manage and control those persons, entities and resources within their 'shpere of influence' in the spirit of head-to-head competition... please do not bother to purchase this book for yourself. Simply forward a copy to a dear friend, loved one or colleague who is in search of true enlightenment and is worthy of the timeless truths and wisdom inherent in this great work.

To her merit, Ms. Amidon has effectively researched, synthesized and articulated both the 'hows' and 'whys' anyone truly desiring a prosperous and sustainable future for themselves, their families and enterprises, and yes, even their country and the world at large, can accomplish such worthy endeavors. To this end, Ms. Amidon's work does not serve up a conjured 'solution', but simply sheds light on the simulatneously complex and yet simple truth.... that to successfully and conscientiously seek sustainable success in a dynamic and choatic environment.... one must nurture, lead and inspire others to collaboratively and holistically allign themselves to seek the continuous identification/measurement, synthesis and application/diffusion of all their combined tangible and intangible assets e.g., intellectual, social and financial capital. In a curt phrase with no intended disrespect... "It's innovation stupid."

When I first read Innovation Strategy for the Knowledge Economy in 1998, I was amassing a large library of KM books. I had accomplished a similar effort in the mid-80's on the subject of innovation. Because of the relatedness of these two efforts, I grasped rather quickly the importance Debra Amidon was placing on innovation--my ken was clear. I believed she was and is, more than figuratively speaking, on the money.

From the beginnings of the focus on KM, there has consistently been the challenging people/technology dichotomy. Amidon's perspective on innovation provides an extremely insightful focus on a third dimension in the core KM picture--process. Debra Amidon obviously had enough grounding in both the people and technology domains of knowledge activities that she intuitively values the innovation issue.

The American culture and economy has always been fueled by high capacity for innovation. While we have kept the pace, other nations are increasing their innovation quotient. Now, in a new knowledge era, Debra Amidon is offering advanced ways to leverage innovation. Much of what she presents seems familiar, nevertheless, the way she weaves it all together and the new elements she presents takes innovation to a new level in the enterprise. For me, this book becomes more valuable each year, particularly as we find that the nature of innovation in our enterprises becomes more complex with higher stakes than ever.

The Innovation SuperHighway is one of the fundamental pieces of work dealing with how to create sustainable collaborative advantage through the development AND implementation of knowledge strategies. The book defines the innovation frontier as our future assets and includes superb examples of innovation infrastructures being created in companies and countries - giving an understanding of how the attention should be on the people and not the technology per se. This since been documented in her subsequent research around knowledge innovation zones, the UNESCO reports and IBM CEO innovation surveys. In wise foresight there is also a chapter is dedicated to youth and how they are being mobilized with their vision. Finally, the vision in the concluding section documents the era of collaborative advantage - another evolving (and now accepted) principle of the Knowledge Economy. It is critical to note however that this book is NOT about knowledge management - it moves beyond these principles and provides a blueprint for discovering and leveraging intellectual capital, versus "managing" what is evident. In this manner the book enables the reader to sense not only why innovation is the utlimate manifestation of harnessing intangibles, but also how to create the dynamic conditions for profiting from an economy where sustainable succes is only possible if organizations and people innovate knowledge --existing and new-- more effectively to enhance economic growth and collaborative advantage. As we move from economic scarcity models based on land, labor, and capital to models of abundance based on an inexhaustible resource - knowledge, old rules do not apply; and the new rules are being innovated. This book provides the best starting point for executives and managers at all levels to begin this journey, and to set the stage for moving into a new innovation frontier - one based upon intangible value and intellectual wealth, for the success of their organizations, their enterprises and society.

Anyone who has read CIO Insight http://www.cioinsight.com/article2/0,1397,1777087,00.asp
And who wants to understand the how of living in a globalized economy:
The World Is Flat: A Brief History of the Twenty-first Century by Thomas L. Friedman and Oliver Wyman (available here too) , would want to read Amidon's's two books The Ken Awakening as well as this one, .

The book, The Innovation Superhighway, is not about the how why of globalization as much as it is about the forces of globalization (ease of transferring and exchanging knowledge and how as Friedman says "What I am trying to do is say that something important really is happening. The value-creation model is moving away from a vertical silo model to an increasingly collaborative horizontal model, from command and control to collaborate and connect, and that's going to change everything."
This is not recreational read. It is a book to be studied. And the concepts put to use.

First off, when looking for books on innovation, one must know what type of information they are looking for and what information they are going to find in the book that they are going to read. The Innovation Superhighway is a book that starts out presenting the start of a framework using the internet as a means of transmitting information. Early on in the book it is stated that internet and all it's services and facilities are really about innovation, not information. While many innovative activities are occurred because of the information that is made more readily and by the "free wheeling" of early internet companies, the internet is truly about the transfer of knowledge. When much of the book deals with sharing of innovations across some infrastructure sounds wonderful, I have seem little of it in the corporate world, where it may be true in the academic world. In fact I have seen the opposite in the corporate world, where innovation is coveted and hoarded.

In the end, this book will do a couple of good things for you. It provides an excellent look into the ideas of Intellectual Capital, which still has a certain amount of nebulousness about it (although I was looking for something a little deeper here). The book also presents some excellent views into Knowledge and what it can mean to an individual, a company, and even a country. There is a lot of good information in those chapters.

This however only gets us to page 127 out of 349. At this point, the book goes into the story of ENTOVATION which I was unable to find much that I could use in many of my roles of using technology to facilitate communication and parts within a corporation's innovation processes. It becomes the story of how individuals from many roles got together to explore knowledge exchange and sharing for the purpose of innovation. Many of the cases that are put forth rely on companies and individuals seeing the benefit of sharing information and also that all information being shared is of equal value. I have been part of such attempts at sharing only to have them break down due to information having different value to different parties and therefore demanding different returns. The whole knowledge market, although referenced earlier in the book, seems largely ignored. The primary aspects near the end of the book rely on a more idealistic world, where personal gain (thinking selfishly here) is largely ignored and the greater good of society and countries are funded to aid innovation. I have seen little evidence of any working towards that or any chance of these goals coming to fruition. Painting of Exemplar Ken Practitioners through ~40 pages had little value to me in my quest for knowledge and innovation processes.

So, there is value to the book. I felt that the first portion of the book was the most valuable and would love to see more around the strong formations of knowledge management, but I was disappointed that after such a strong start, the end left me wanting for the creating of innovative processes out of technology.

Debra Amidon has thrown the lawn party and everyone's invited!
Before WWW, I used to think how unfortunate it was that the global reach of information and entertainment was primarily a one-way communication. Then the Internet came along and the great dialogue begin. Now, Debra Amidon is helping to create a new agenda and a principal part of that agenda is to how to take the dialogue to the next level, especially in terms of process.

One could see this book from a variety of perspectives such as innovation or knowledge management, but, in essence, it's an incredible coalescing of new human ability to collaborate and create. Debra Amidon not only provides the vision and direction, she also provides a viable example with a vibrant international network of amazing human beings.

As you read the book, you can see that Debra Amidon is actually helping to "pave" the innovation superhighway that she writes about. From a nationalistic point of view, hopefully we in the U.S. are effectively developing our stretches of this highway system. Hopefully, corporate America and the U.S. Federal government will get clearer about this picture. Also, we need to figure out how we can get her to spend more of her time traveling U.S. sections of the "innovation superhighway".

This book wrestles with measuring the intangibles. The metrics of a knowledge driven economy.
This book was first available in 2003. In the March 4th 2006 issue of The Economist there appeared an article: Getting a Grip on Prosperity - what if intangible investment is measured properly?. The concepts in this book are now entering the mainstream.

For someone who wants to understand the forces that will drive our economies and most likely their careers for the next few decades...this book is a useful introduction...particularly chapter 11.2 and Part 5.

If I could get someone to write down everything I don't know about LotusScript and Java, it would fill a book. Well, this is that book.

Hatter and Banks aren't wordy and target this book strictly at the experienced developer looking for a reference work. That makes this incredibly useful. These days I carry this book (thankfully light despite being 700 pages) between sites all the time. The lovely posters from Lotus might list all the properties and methods, but these guys provide the details underneath it.

The remarks on each class are pertinent, yet brief (as for NotesRichTextItem, "you must call the save method of the parent Notes document to save the data to disk") They include examples not only for classes, but also occasionally for methods and properties.

Interestingly, a quick check of the index for 'Index, databases' found only a reference to the updateFTIndex method for Java Database class and not to the LotusScript NotesDatabase class, while 'Registering Users' listed the LotusScript page and not the Java one. Perhaps the editors need to work on that. Fortunately, they provide a lot of cross-references on the pages, giving you page numbers for the classes mentioned in the text, reducing the need to refer to the table of contents or the index.

The print's small, but they use fonts, abbreviations and familiar symbols to get the message across clearly.

On balance, it's well worth the (money) I paid Amazon for it - it probably saved me an hour today and none of our hours come cheap, do they?

I bought this book originally expecting a full reference to Lotus and at first was a little dissappointed that it only covered LotusScript and Java. After reading it, now it is the only reference I use for LotusScript. I too have several other books, but none give the information and detaill in an easy to read format like this book. Anything you want to know about Classes, Methods, Properties, Events, and new R5 LotusScript features are covered in this book in detail with good examples. I also like how each class has it's own contents page giving page numbers for all of the assosiated Properties, Methods, and Events for QUICK reference.

This book has minimized my LotusScript related headaches! It is a one-stop resource for methods and properties for the predefined LotusScript Classes. It is hard to believe, but ()it takes me less time to write scripts, which gives me more time to enjoy the finer things in life. I would highly recommend this book to anyone, beginner or advanced.

The authors did a great job providing examples of how the properties and methods are used. I haven't written any Java yet, but when I do this book will be right by my side!

If you are new to LotusScript do not buy this book. This is a reference book for LotusScript and Java classes and a very good one at that. The developer help files can be confusing at times and it always helps to have a reference book near you.

If you are an intermediate or experienced Notes developer this is a terrific book, I have it by my desk all the time.

If you want a book to teach you LotusScript but Practical LotusScript it's great!

Exactly what I've been looking for: A no nonsense reference manual for the LotusScript and Java class libraries. Probably the most useful book a professional Notes/Domino developer can have.

This a well written general overview of financial reports. If you have take much finance, this book won't be anything new. Great for people just starting out.

The book is fast and easy to read. The light bulbs kept going off as I read about what it is that I need to do to get my business back on track. If your a small business owner, this is an invaluable tool you must read and know.

At last a book that goes direct to the bottom line (that is a pun) to explain how to really see what is going behind the scenes (financially speaking) of any company without showing up at the CFO door.
I used to know all this stuff about financial ratios and key terms and still was asking to myself, So What? What am I supposed to do with all these little fellows (the ratios).
This book tells without all the mumbojumbo of other publications what to look at and how to take action to put back in track a company.

Great condensed book covering the basics of finance and accounting principles. Very easy to read and won't put you to sleep.

This is an amazing little book. It teaches you the most important financial aspects that you need to know to run your business. I've always dream of starting my own business, and one of the things that was holding me back, was not knowing enough about business finance. I tell you, now I'm very confident and excited. If you own a business or starting one, Please, Please, Please do yourself a favor and read this book.

Are you hungry for HAMBURGER HAMLET? Here is the book. The history of HAMBURGER HAMLET as created by Harry & Marilyn Lewis. I'm hungry and ready to drive to the closest one! Or maybe better yet, to a Kate Mantilini or the Gardens on Glendon still the home of the Lewis' cuisine.

& yes her life as Cardinale is also well covered in this story

a great read - now go get that HAMBURGER ( a #9 or a #11 ? which one?? it must be rare-yum)

Anyone with any sense of the entertainment industry in Hollywood is familar with Hamburger Hamlet. An ancient haven for the Rat Pack and a current haunt for celebs like Matthew Perry and Elton John, it's great to finally have a book that tells us the ups and downs of this great eatery and the two talented people who started it.

Marylin Lewis, not daring to let humility get in the way, spins us through nearly 40 years of burgers, gossip, high fashion and lobster bisque. Her first hand accounts of her own struggles and transformation into the diva of the restaurant industry is nothing short of inspiring.

Heck, this book is almost as good as the burgers and bisque. Thank goodness we still have a few of her old joints still preserved today. My advise? Grab the book, duck into a dark corner booth at the Sunset Strip location, and sink back into the days of legend when a "B" actor and an inspiring dress designer could become the darlings of Sinatra, martinis and a damn good burger.

I savored every page of this smart memoir. Marilyn Lewis' writing is as delicious as her recipes.

"Marilyn, are you sure you can cook?" is the best written memoir I've ever read. What a fascinating life...told with humor, candidness, and an ability to put words together that makes one think Charles Dickens was whispering in her ear.

Anybody in the business world or on the inside track of Los Angeles life knows who Marilyn and Harry Lewis are; their building of the Hamburger Hamlet dynasty is legendary. What makes this truly fascinating book come to life though, is the "true Marilyn" who jumps from the page. With many autobios, you can read it cover to cover and not know a whit more about the real person behind that public visage when you're done.

Not here. There's a lot more served up than some famous recipes and a few anecdotes; Lewis manages to capture the Zeitgeist of the time in which she and Harry lived and loved; a period of Show Business and Big Business colliding an L.A. full of fashion and film and some sad realities along the way.

I'd love to give details but I'm not blowing any surprises. Suffice to say the book is a surprise a mix of personal and public life, and every darn thing that happens when you're a woman with boundless talent and the energy of a high school sprinter. For instance, did you know that under a completely different name,in a completely different world, Marilyn Lewis was also famous for something that had nothing to do with her culinary crown? Double-famous in two different worlds: that's not luck. This is an extraordinary woman.

Marilyn Lewis's own peronal story is downright fascinating; from such humble beginnings she became the Grande Dame of Los Angeles's love for food, fashion, and passion. You can't put Lewis in a box.....her proven "wins" in evrything from film to filet mignon come with a story, a real story, about a real woman who was ahead of her time and made a lot of people plain catch up.

Written with the class you'd expect from one of the shining stars of Los Angeles social life, Marilyn tosses class and candor like a salad, and the result is a can't-put-it-down page turner.

I give this prize of a book my highest recommendation. The Marilyn Lewis you're going to meet in this book is probably not who you thought was on the menu. But I'd put her compelling voice and prolific humanity up against any creme brulee in town: Mrs. Lewis emerges like a creme brulee, in fact: a tough cookie and nobody's fool on the outside, and downright delicious, smooth and all class on the inside.

Give this book a read; it'll show you a Los Angeles (and a world) that may not even be possible anymore.....unless another Marilyn and Harry Lewis show up in town. For now, I'll take the originals....and they're both right here in plaintive sight. Enjoy the meal, and boy, does she know some of the juciest tidbits of Los Angeles's golden age. Enjoy, and don't forget to tip well.

Americas future, in a nutshell, if we continue to allow the government to run our lives!

I recently finished reading "Capital" by Karl Marx as part of my goal of reading all Encylopaedia Brittanica's "The Great Books of The Western World" (it's Volume 50). I found Marx to be an absolutely wonderful writer - reminded me of Charles Dickens' descriptions of the hardship of the early factory workers in Great Brittain in the middle of the 19th century. It was thus a natural progression to move onto "The Marx-Engels Reader". I have not been disappointed! In his Preface to the 2nd Edition the Editor, Robert C. Tucker stated, "A knowledge of the writings of Marx and Engels is virtually indespensable to an educated person in our time, whatever his political position or philosophy." Prophetic words indeed considering the current economic crisis facing us all and considering that the solution may be found using Marxist priciples!


Capital: Volume 1: A Critique of Political Economy (Penguin Classics)Capital: A Critique of Political Economy, Vol. 3 (Penguin Classics)

Very in depth reader about the works of Marx and Engels. Gives some historic information on the life Karl Marx and the order in which he wrote most of his works. If all you have read by Marx is the Communist Manifesto then do yourself a favor and pick this book up.

The other reviews cover the content, but as for the format (at least in the elder edition this reviewer has), the pages are stubby and short given the length of the binding. Increasing the width by another 1.5'' would have reduced the somewhat crammed text, but Norton must have needed the paper to print other books at the time.

Works of Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels. Includes Capital (Das Kapital) and Communist Manifesto. FREE Authors' biographies and essays in the trial version.

This ebook contains essential works of Marx & Engels. Great digital item!