Business Systems Books

After reading Let's Get Financial Savvy! I now have started to fund my work retirement account, started a balanced budget, written and working a plan for getting out of debt. This book gives you such clear step-by-step instructions for getting your financial life in order. After reading Lois' book no one should be in the dark about money and it's potential.

I have ordered and have read quite a wide variety of personal finance books and investment books over the last 6-8 months. I am pleased to say that Let's get Financial Savvy is not just a neat title. The book blends the topics of personal finance and investment in an easy to read personal style. Your real life experience makes for inspirational reading too. It covers the fundamentals of both topics very well and is not overly lengthy. Since it was written relatively recently is also very up to date. Well written.

Those new to personal finance concepts, such as young adults newly out of college, (as will many an adult in need of a financial mangement refresher) will find Let's Get Financial Savvy! by Lois Center-Shabazz to be an important and effective guide. The author persevered through a financial crisis and here imparts personal experienced based tips on how to invest, handle money, and protect against risky ventures. From online investments to mortgages, as will many an adult comes packed with charts and calculations.

Let's Get Financial SavvyDr. Lois Center-Shabazz, founder of MsFinancialSavvy.com, was born and raised in San Diego, Ca. After graduating from The University of California at San Diego, then dental school at Loma Linda University, she began her successful career as a dentist while pursuing her interest in investment and financial research. Such a life would seem comfortable and rewarding; for Dr. Center-Shabazz this was merely a prologue.


After 18 years as a dentist she made the decision to sell her practice and move to Virginia with her husband. This new freedom gave her the opportunity to fully develop her investment education program she started in her early years as a practicing dentist; she now devotes her full time to studying and teaching investments and personal finances. In her first phase of her financial education, Dr. Center-Shabazz was angered to find that the "professionals" who had been handling her money were misleading and uninformed. This revelation was the driving force for her to learn all she could and become "financial savvy." This culminated in the founding of www.MsFinancialSavvy.com, the most comprehensive and user-friendly personal finance website in use today. Dr. Center-Shabazz did not leave her quest there. With the release of her new book, Let''s Get Financial Savvy, Dr. Center-Shabazz offers a groundbreaking new way for everyone to take control of their money, and understand the complex world of finance. Drawing from her experience with debt, and the uphill battle to expunge that debt Dr. Center-Shabazz has quickly become the valedictorian in the new school of the financially independent.Since founding MsFinancialSavvy.com, Dr. Center-Shabazz has been featured on numerous talk shows and spotlighted in newspapers and magazines across the country. The content of her book is so fascinating, it has garnered her the 2002 Pinnacle Book Achievement Award for Self-Help, given by The North American Book Dealers Exchange. Today, she continues to spread her message speaking to the "financial enlightened" and to help people from all walks of life to become financially savvy.

Dr. Shabazz, has mastered the art of "money!" She has focused on very important money issues but has explained retirement, ira's, cd and mutual funds in a way that a beginning investor can begin to invest and an experienced investor can take tips from her to make their portfolio larger. This was an excellent and informative book.

As I begin my own financial services practice I find this book to be very helpful in two areas.

1. The author gets at motivation first. We need to ask the WHY of what we are doing. We need to answer that question in our own lives if we are to be successful. Set goals and then work to achieve those goals. It begins with the reasons we are in this business.

2. Practical steps. The author takes the reader through very practical steps of time management, and even lays out some very basic marketing plans and ideas.

This is a marked up book that will be a constant reference for me.

David Mullen's main theme is a variation of Thomas Edison's oft-repeated words that "genius is 10% inspiration and 90% perspiration." Although his book is repetitive and circular, he adds a little more information each time he loops back to an idea. Aspiring brokers will find the effort of following Mullen's train of thought worthwhile: He provides scripts and sample letters, and describes helpful techniques for handling rejection, communicating with prospects and closing sales. He includes information about how to work in teams and how to train sales associates. Mullen's advice is not groundbreaking, but it is specific and practical - although, strangely, he never mentions the importance of developing investment expertise. Thus, getAbstract recommends this book to those who already understand the field and want to use what they know to start selling.

Follow these principles and be your own coach! David Mullen combines strategic planning and how-to-do-it with clarity. Topics include market planning and realistic steps to building a million-dollar practice, as well as building blocks necessary to create a firm foundation. This is the #1 book I recommend in coaching FAs.

Dave Mullen Jr. has put together the essential steps to success in the EXTREMELY difficult process of building a financial services practice. I am one of his disciples and the concept of clearly defining your market action plans, understanding that it takes 100 clients that are constantly being upgraded and 100 prospects that are constantly in your pipeline is the key to success.

Reading the book is step one, consulting directly with Dave Mullen should be your next step. Bravo for a process that works if you are willing to commit!

Howard Hissrich, CFP(r)

I am just beginning my career as a financial advisor and I have found that this book has been very useful in providing the basic steps and fundamentals on building your client base. There are no short cuts in this financial services industry but better planning goes a long way to being successful. In general I feel that this book gives you excellent advise on how to go about getting a solid understanding on what you need to do to be successful as a financial advisor.

"Must-Win Battles" appeals to me as a book that gives readers (most typically managers) the tools to lead their teams through a journey that can save their very own jobs in the long run. With a style not too distant from Lencioni's, where the authors show a fictional case in action, the book presents the path in a journey to help teams win those battles they cannot afford to loose, what they call Must-Win Battles (MWB). While offering tactics to deal with the expected bumps along the road, the book remains very strategic all the way through, focused on the strategic goals of aligning steering teams around the same agenda and eventually getting the entire organization to buy it in and embrace it.

The book wraps up with lessons from won and lost MWB journeys and a real-life case from the Unilever Ice Cream Frozen Foods business group to illustrate the entire process in action. While the fictional case presented belongs to the executive team leading the entire European organization of a company, the learnings in it could easily be extrapolated to smaller settings: a production facility, a university, etc. Highly recommendable like all Wharton School Publishing books I've had a chance of reading.

Unilever's 19-page MWB journey described by Kees van der Graaf is a fantastic read. It not only illustrates the stages and steps aligned with the authors' belief of leadership principles, I find it most valuable is Kees van der Graaf sharing with us with his personal lessons learned from the processes such as "trust my gut more than ever before" and "We have great values; they come from the heart". This reminds me of another book titled "Head, Heart & Guts" by Dotlich/Cario & Rhinesmith. Indeed Kess van der Graaf brings these to life.

MWB stands for "Must Win Battles," which is the title and a common acronym throughout this this book. Authors Peter Killing, Thomas Malnight and Tracey Keys use "battle" to refer to competitors and "must-win" to mean these battles must be won. There are a lot of circumstances applicable to the concept of 'battle.' Examples and case studies cover management style, team work, planning, shortlisting, and executing, are noted. One example is Unilever in Africa, Nestle China, and a two-year case study of the CFF business groups from the words of an executive.

Three sections and nine chapters.

Section I: Preparing the Journey

Section II: Engaging the Team

Section III: Making it Happen

The different types of managers listed are the commander, diplomat, thinker, and motivator, who are defined and described. This is followed by the role of Emotional Intelligence in the workplace. EI is just as, and oft-times more vital than IQ. There are questions regarding this that the reader can answer for themselves so they can apply this concept to their own situations in life and in the work place. This book helps the manager and employees as individuals and allows them to reflect on others and themselves.

Different dynamics of MWB, which often may include change. While strategically planning and implementing Must-Win Battles there are Resisters, Bystanders, and Supporters. A time-line is almost always necessary and matrices and diagrams are presented, when planning and executing.

A good reality check is in chapter 4, which lists "Typical Company-Related Myths." Those who've worked in medium or large organizations can identity with the company values and slogans. But they're usually only slogans, because they aren't practiced. :)

At the end of the book there are:

A) The MWB Journey and Road map
B) The Denison Survey: Questions
C) Using the External Assistance

This is helpful for all people who manage and work in organizations of all types and sizes.

In any organization, at any time, there are probably three to five key battles that must be won to achieve important goals, write authors Killing and Malnight. As you read this, you are probably thinking of the battles that are ongoing right now, the ones you need to win to get to your own goals. The first step, then is identifying what the key battles actually are and eliminating the sideshows that distract from the real issues. The authors advise that these battles are NOT internal, instead they are:

Market-focused
Something that makes a difference
Creates excitement
Are specific and tangible
Are winnable (!)

The example provided is one of Unilever, a large multinational company, working to gain market in Africa. But despite Unilever as an example, the strategy to pick your fight and win it is equally applicable to small business--if not more so.

One point I really admire is that the authors recommend that emotion be considered along with reason in how to win those battles. In other words, instead of steamrolling over emotion, which is a statement of condition, like the weather, the authors recommend dealing with it and generating excitement by directing emotion. There is also good advice on "not shooting the messenger" or how to take bad news. As one top CEO remarked to the press on how he achieved success "First, you have to deal with reality."

Excellent book and a must-read for business managers of any organization.

Q: What must be managed effectively to improve an organization's performance?

A: "First, [managers must] identify and win the right battles....But to win the battles, many organizations need to create a more effective top team and build an organization that [is] .less silo-based and capable of focusing all of its energies and capabilities on the chosen battles."

Q: What is a "must-win battle" (MWB)?

A: "MWBs are the three to five key battles that your organization absolutely must win to achieve its key objectives."

Q: What are the characteristics of a well-chosen MWB?

A: It must "make a real difference, be market focused, create excitement, be specific and tangible [and measurable], and be winnable."

Q: What is an "MWB journey"?

A: It is simultaneously both an emotional and intellectual process which must be completed by everyone involved in order to transform their organization. Ultimate success will depend upon a "shared understanding of the challenges and options facing the organization, an agreed list of three to five MWBs, a committed [and competent] team for each MWB, a high-level action plan for each MWB, new [better] ways of working together, individual commitments, and an initiation assessment of the starting conditions for engaging the organization."

Granted, this is an unorthodox way by which to begin a review but I really could not think of a better one. (No doubt someone else has.) The authors of this volume share what they have learned about why some organizational transformation initiatives succeed while most others fail. What they propose is a three-phase process (a "journey") which begins with a rigorous and thorough assessment of the current situation, followed by an engagement of the Team and then of teams for the MWBs, and then an engagement of the given organization which involves embedding the Team agenda and aligning the organization while maintaining momentum of the MWB initiatives.

I especially appreciate the authors' provision of all manner of reader-friendly devices throughout their lively narrative. For example, check lists of key points, graphics (maps and figures) which illustrate step-by-step segments of the "journey," and - whenever appropriate - caveats and disclaimers which correctly remind the reader that no course of action (including the one which the authors recommend) "fits all."

In the final chapter, they share eight "Lessons" learned from their research: five from successful MWB "journeys" and three from those which failed. In Appendix A, readers are provided with a comprehensive "MWB Journey Roadmap" and then in Appendix B, the authors provide "The Denison Survey: Questions" (copyright © by Daniel R. Rosen), a culture survey which is discussed on pages 47-48.

Presumably the authors agree with me that it would be a fool's errand for anyone to read and re-read their book, then rush - or even stroll -- to implement everything in it. It would also be a fool's errand to cherry pick diverse (albeit sound) ideas from a variety of different sources and then attempt to consolidate them in a single plan of "attack." Rather, I urge each reader to read Must-Win Battles with great care and then, preferably in discussion with others, co-determine what would be most appropriate to the given organization. Killing, Malknight, and Keys can be very helpful to that process of aanalysis and, especially, to identifying the highest priorities and most important objectives. My guess is that, by following that procedure, the "must-win battles" will reveal themselves.

Those who share my high regard for this book are urged to check out Jason Jennings' THINK BIG, Act Small, Michael Hammer's The Agenda and Robert Mittelstaedt's Will Your Next Mistake Be Fatal?

Thought I cancelled this but the system didn't cancel it. I returned the book and am waiting on my refund. It toook an extra week to get to me. I no longer needed it then.

The Power of Acknowledgement is a direct, easy to read, and engaging book with a powerful and inspiring message. We rarely acknowledge what others do for us--but when we do--we all benefit. The act of acknowledgement is a powerful communicative tool, for the one who uses it and for the recipient. The author provides examples from everyday life that illustrate how the act of acknowledgement transforms our interactions with others and, in turn, transforms our relationship to ourselves. Simply inspiring!

The Power of Acknowledgment.

Thank you for providing the tool, in one tome, to improve lives -- mine, yours, and those around us.

I've learned that everyone needs recognition, and voicing appreciation -- of accomplishments, talents, wisdom and humanity -- is one positive step. This practice truly helps transform.

Written simply and directly, sharing valuable professional and personal experiences, the book provides easy access to inspirational wisdom.

Merilee Kaufman
Actress/Poet/Vocalist

An easy and pleasurable read. Such a simple concept that can change your life as well as those around you.

The Power of Acknowledgement will have you improving your business and personal relationships. The ideas in the book will take just minutes to implement and will make a difference in all of your personal and professional relationships.

This is the best book I have ever read on life and survival in human systems. I have been working with Barry's material for ten years and it has become the way I see the world. Seeing Systems captures the essence of his work in comprehensive, understandable and often humourous way.

This book provides an elegant framework for understanding our behavior in human systems. It is accessible and powerful.

A first rate professional book. It deals with complex issues in a clear, intelligent and original way. The book offers a lot of added value to both consultants and managers. I find myself leafing through it many times, never failing to find new insights. The book contains both a thorough theoretical analysis and practical tools and concrete tips for dealing with tough issues that impact organizations, such as power, accountability and the "positional trap" . The book is full of inpiring insights on the possibilities of making organizations more robust through empowering people. After reading the book, we cannot help it but seing systems in a new and refreshing way.

Seeing Systems is a brilliant book; Dr. Oshry has here succeeded in
relating a set of practicable principles in a highly readable and
entertaining fashion. The particular charm of Seeing Systems -- what
distinguishes it from other books of its type -- is in its pedagogical
style; it is designed not only to describe, but to teach the theories
which are there presented for inspection. The teaching itself is
twofold; the first part (which Dr. Cummings seems to think should be
the only part) consists in explaining an abstract theoretical model
for systems thinking. The second part is phenomenological, in that it
seeks to help the reader identify and sympathize with a range of
experiences that occur in system life. To this end, Dr. Oshry employs
evocative description and sympathetic re-enactment to great effect.
The result is that the contents of the book are easiest to remember
when that of other books are easiest to forget -- that is, when one is
caught up in a whirlwind of intense experiences.

The phenomenological part of the book manifests itself in the
distinctive manner of phenomenology; as winding and discursive. There
is no remedy for it, other than to stop doing phenomenology. If it
were not phenomenological, Seeing Systems would be as Dr. Cummings has
described it -- a mere shadow of "Systems Thinking: managing chaos and
complexity". Its prosody would be direct, as direct as it was dull;
its illustrations quite businesslike, and forgettable. It would never
be lightened with something so childish and so right as a mob of black
dots at a committee meeting. It would be a primly respectable little
book, fit to grace an executive desktop and be charming until opened.
And I for one should not read it.

Thankfully, Seeing Systems is not such a shadow. It deigns to stay
charming even after it is opened. It is not like other books in the
same field; but those books have been written already, and by other
authors. It is a book unto itself, and is all the better for it.

I read this book about 6 years a go as a part of my graduate program on organizational learning. My reaction at that time was, "Wow! I feel as if I was blind and Now I See!." It was like I gained a secret lens through which the organizational behaviors were making more sense to me. I felt so enthralled with the book, I called the number on the back of the book to inquire how I could explore, experience and learn the Seeing Systems concepts further. I have not done that before or since. 6 years later, I still feel Barry Oshry's teachings are one of real gems in understanding organizations and their behavior mysteries. I have integrated these concepts into my own ways of thinking and being and use them to generate partnerships for impact. I most highly recommend this book to anyone who works with organizations including executives, organizational developers and change agents.

Finally a book that incorporates two powerful concepts: scorecards and six sigma. I have worked on various projects with the aim to achieve operational efficiency and at the same time I have been part of various meetings and discussions to find best ways to "empower" the staff to help them understand, align and achieve corporate goals. Both these efforts have largely been fragmented. The measurement tools to achieve both these goals have, at best, been mediocre. This book provides a comprehensive, more robust and practical approach to bringing the two concepts together.

This book gives a pragmatic approach to not just evaluating performance but also provides easy-to-use tools that help predict performance and profitability. This book provides a much needed scorecard methodology for the 'new' globalized world. A must-read for any business leader.

Praveen, I just have to buy you a cup of coffee or a drink one day. I am just finishing your book, "Six Sigma Business Scorecard " and have to say that I haven't been this riveted to a business book since "The Goal". Books like this for me have been far and few between.

I am writing to congratulate you for your outstanding work on the book you have written about the Six Sigma Business Scorecard. I have spent the past week reading it, and I've realized what a fantastic tool it is.

I am a Six Sigma Intern, and I work at Recofarma, a Concentrate Plant of the Coca Cola Company, located in Manaus, Amazonas - Brazil. I was trying to create a Massive Communication Plan for Six Sigma within the company and one of my ideas was to create a Scorecard for Six Sigma, then I looked for related material at Amazon.com and your book appeared on the top of the list. It surely was a great investment.

Finally, a pragmatic approach to developing a Business Scorecard that captures the profitability proposition through periodic measurement of critical performance. The critical thinking used to construct and evaluate each element of the hierachical measurement structure provides a keen insight into the contribution value of each functional area of the business. The concise step-by-step approach in building the overal Business Performance Index provides the guidance necessary for immediate implementation by small or large enterprizes.

I have read a few hundred "non-fictional" books over the years for my MBA, for quality, etc, but I have to tell you that this book about the use of balanced scorecards is the best business related book that I have ever read, and I feel that every CEO should completely absorb it to utilize its "pertinent" applications that are applicable to their business processes, thus institutionalizing the process metrics' continual improvement concepts of ISO/TS 16949:2002 and ISO 9001 in all types of firms, including those that are not automotive suppliers!- Bill Cooper, Global Quality Systems Senior Manager, Lear Corporation

I will keep it sweet nd short-YOU WILL LOVE THE BOOK. There is a requirement-You have to have a open mind and understand Wolf Moondance is real. REAL spiritual and Creative. She has gifted us with words from her family, not a natin or a fad or an movememt, from her heart and from her vision! GOOD WORK. I love Wolf Medicine also! Carry Strong Heart

I have always been looking. Spirit Medicine and the whole works of Wolf Moondance helped me home! I know my spirit and it is a great joy. You will like this book if you want to change your lif and apply good native teaching of NOW, it is not bill it is meat and truth! Oloe

I just recieved Wolf Moondance's books for my birthday. I want to say that I have NOT been disappointed by Rainbow Medicine and Spirit Medicine. After finishing both I was left with a sense of a deeper understanding for Wolf Moondance's vision. I also visited her web site. I have to say that there are differing concepts in her book and website, but I understand how this vision could be complicated and have more parts than what was in the book. Fortunately, both the book and the website make perfect sense and left me with a feeling of hope and understanding for my future. If you find things in the book that you don't understand, try going to the website and writing Wolf Moondance for clarification. This author's books are rich, and probably contain only a portion of the whole teaching. What you will find in her books is pure magical writing from a personal vision. Maybe if you are looking to "fix" your problems and haven't already addressed your issues you will miss the true meaning of the words in the book. Lots of people are angry and are looking for a way for someone or something to fix their problems. I am sorry for the last person that wrote a review on this book. The person sounds angry and confused. Wolf Moondance's books are not confusing or disappointing. They are a tool, one of many that you should use on your quest for a happy life. Don't let angry people influence you on buying the books. Take it from me, they are rewarding and consistently great.

I have read it and done the exersizes in the book and you feel worked over first and then you work on it and the doors staryt to open and the spirit changes and you grow. I know from reading all the books wolf has written that you will grow when you study Spirit Medicine. You have to know and want to know your spirit to find your spirit. No witch craft her. It is clear and clean that Wolf Moondance works from her vision, which is Native American. I know cause I am Native-Blackfoot. Thanks Wolf Like the work. Ronda Hunting Bear- Montana.

I think as we humans look we are also full of fear. We always listen to each other and not the true spirit. I have learned from my full blood granny that we have to listen to our spirit and not people. As an author Wolf Moondance shows she listens to the spirit. We as humans want some one to show us the way and give us the answers. We have to be open to your spirit and hear the voice of our vision. In the spirit Medicine book I had to work to get passed my human ways but after reading one chapter I relized I had found a true teacher. I could not get away with my old ways but was open to the spirit. YOU will love it after you get to the real spirit self, Great Book...Grand Teacher!

I've been reading a fair number of these over the past few months. Maybe it"s because I'm finally beginning to understand, but this most recent read is definitely the most complete, straightforward and readable analysis of the application of Lean to Supply Chain Management that I have come across.

And this is a European speaking!!

This book is concise in dealing with the basics and the advanced materials in the subject. Author's language is discernible even for those who are not familiar with this concept.

I am the Corporate Lean Champion for a global manufacturing company. I had heard of the bullwhip effect but did not thoroughly understand it before reading "the book" as I refer to it when recommending it to my Lean students. Streamlined helped me to put a plan together utilizing rate based planning, Lean variation reduction tools, and pull protocols to Crack the Bullwhip effect and drive it out of our organization!

Streamlined is a "must read" for any Lean practitioner, operations Leader, supply chain leader ot MBA student.

I actually got the opportunity to study under Srini and can verify his expertise in this field. I picked up more than a few great ideas in this book that I hadn't seen in the many books I have read on the subject. I would recommend this book to students, managers, and specialist at all experience levels.

I have adopted "streamlined" for an advanced topics in management course on lean supply chains. The challenge of finding a book that goes beyond the abstract concepts to more detailed and parctical steps for implementation has been greatly alleviated by "streamlined." Dr. Srinivasan provides the reader and the student in particular with a very well thought out and written text. My students' initial worries about the rigor and difficulty of the subject matter were quickly mitigated after reading the first few chapters.
The 14 principles provided me, the professor, an organizing framework for the delivery of the course, the assignments and the term project. The students and myself found "streamlined" to be very interesting, thought proviking, and useful.
This book is a must-read for any faculty member regardless of their discipline as the topics covered cut across all functional areas of business and provide a much-needed integrative approach.

This book is special in that it adds empirical support for the authors' business hypothesis. However, their ideas themselves are not revolutionary. Rather they organized and framed a lot of the ideas that today's business leaders already know and practice.

I suppose that the book is in the tradition of academic research paper rather than overblown business hyperbole. As with any academic oriented publications, they make less than interesting reading, but valuable nevertheless.

Survival of the Smartest is reviewed - very positively - in this month's Fast Company. And having now read it I see why: clear, insightful, and packed with great examples for high tech managers working to improve the performance of thier organizations.

By examining the information managment practices of a sample group of short life-cycle high tech companies, Mendelson & Ziegler create a valuable framework to evaluate your company's ability to manage information in the information age. Also chock full of terrific soon-to-be popular industry buzzwords, including: "Decision Architecture," "High/Low IQ Company" and "Internal Information Dissemination." Use 'em while they're hot.

Survival of the Smartest is one of those management books that made its way through the academic world (or so-called the Ivory Tower) into the real-world. In contrary to what is expected, it does a very good job in connecting these two seemingly unrelated fields.

The novel concept, "Organizational IQ", was developed theoretically by Prof. Haim Mendelson and published in some leading academic journals such as Management Science and Information Systems Research. This book summarizes the results of those publications in an easy-to-read way. Organizational IQ is defined as "...a quantifiable measure of how organizations assimilate information and put together their decision and information architectures." It is argued and proved empirically in the book that High-IQ organizations on average are more successful than Low-IQ organizations. A company's organizational IQ describes how well the organization performs along five dimensions:

(1) External Information Awareness
(2) Effective Decision Architecture
(3) Internal Knowledge Dissemination
(4) Organizational Focus
(5) Information Age Business Network.

Mendelson describes each of these dimensions in detail and supports its arguments through the use of case studies from Dell, Hewlett-Packard, Acer, British Petroleum (BP), and Modex (a real company with a disguised name).

Although, the main focus of the book is on the use of Information Technology applications along these dimensions, an average reader will not have any difficulty in understanding these concepts if s/he knows what an Internet or Intranet is used for.

The book can be recommended as a supporting textbook for Strategy, Marketing, or Information Systems courses, especially in the graduate level. Whether you are in academia or in business, it is one of the books you should read if you are interested in how business should be done in the Information Age. Forget about the past Industrial Age books, they are already history... Chrysler has learned it in its own way (page 100 in the book)

PS: One may think that I am too generous in rating the books I comment on. However, one should keep in mind that among the books I have read, only those that are worth reading can make it here-my way of decreasing the information overload for Amazon.com members :)

The importance of this book can be judged by any employee asking why can't we work in an organisation which is better developed on the author's 5 Organisational IQ factors:

1 EXTERNAL INFORMATION AWARENESS, ie each part of our organisation captures external information (customers, technology opportunities, competitors' actions) quickly and accurately

2 EFFECTIVE DECISION ARCHITECTURE, ie in our organisation decisions are made at the right level (by the people with the best information and perspective). As a result decisions : are made quickly, have high quality, instill ownership and accountability

3 INTERNAL KNOWLEDGE DISSEMINATION, ie each part of our organisation knows what it needs to know when it needs to know it. Effective information flows 4-dimensionally: Horizontal, cross functional Top-down, org-wide goals and priorities Bottom-up, operational challenges and opportunities Learning, review over time of all of above

4 ORGANISATIONAL FOCUS, ie organisation systematically fights overload and complexity by: Limiting scope of the business; focusing on core competences; simplifying processes

5 CREATING AN INFORMATION AGE BUSINESS NETWORK, ie Organisation maximises the value of eternal partnerships by applying the above 4 High IQ factors to the entire business network

Would love to share experiences with anyone working or reading up on how to improve organisations IQ factors

chris macrae, chief infomediary, brandknowledge.com e-mail wcbn007@easynet.co.uk

I really enjoyed this quick read that allows you to apply several techniques to any industry. Rich with examples in a common sense format. Highly recommended to Sales Managers who deal with salespeople and their customers.

"Paul LeBon has his fingers on the pulse of modern business. "VoicemailHell" goes beyond the mechanics of flow charts and phone systems to the real power of voicemail. It provides simple solutions-human impact solutions-that will help you improve communications with employees, strengthen business relationships with clients, and effectively manage your time. Not since the "One Minute Manager" has a business book packed such a punch!"

As a telecommunications manager for a large firm, voice messaging is one of my headaches. This book is a great help to people who fumble, mutter, speak in rapid fire, or just get nervous leaving voicemail messages. As the author says, all the telecomm industry has ever done is give out flow charts showing people which button to push for which function. This bok finally shows people how to communicate, not just press buttons!

Here's a book that not only offers great ideas, but sets some outstanding 'rules' to follow when getting caught up in voicemail. It's a quick read and the only book available on this topic. You'll be very glad you own this.

Bravo to Paul LeBon for this no-nonsense, easy-to-apply productivity maximizer!

I had spent the past couple of years complaining that technology is turning us all into slaves. There's so much information to keep up with. There are always so many responses and answers demanded of us to supply, that I had been feeling like I was living at the mercy of the technology that was supposed to be making my life easier.

"Escape from Voicemail Hell" is crammed with powerful ideas on how to harness the power of your voicemail to serve you, not the other way around. I have learned how to get people to leave me more concise and thought-out messages, how to approach my callbacks strategically, and how to get the information I want and need from others with a lot less effort.

I didn't even realize how much I needed this book until I picked it up. Not only do I see how much more effective I am by following its principles, but my boss and my clients have made positive comments to me, as well. I've been amazed by how simple, yet powerful it has been to turn LeBon's advice to my advantage. I highly recommend this book. I've gotten so much out of it.