News Services Books

Great book explaining the history and origination of CompStat. Dr. McDonald provides a detailed explanation of what the NYPD crime fighting model is and the impact it has had on the law enforcement community.

Since the book *Managing Product & Service Development: Text & Cases* by Stefan H. Thomke has become available for academic purposes it may be of interest to think about how this material on the veritably "hot topic" of corporate innovation can be used.

To briefly summarize the book's contents, it is based on the author's academic and case research and consists of three modules. Each of these is made up of an introductory text, a set of cases/notes and a collection of published articles. Thus there are 3 chapters, 16 cases, two notes and 11 articles altogether. It may be mentioned that the book is accompanied by an *Instructor's Manual/Cases* which contains detailed teaching notes for the cases as well as other background information for use by teachers of product and service development courses.

Three types of user strategies can be identified. These may be listed for working purposes as sampling, full court press and springboard strategies, respectively.

The sampling strategy would consist of adoption of individual cases (and to a lesser extent, articles) from the book. For instance, the faculty of one well known B-school tried out nearly half the cases in the book while the latter was still in its formative stages. Such trials were conducted in several academic areas including technlogy, marketing, policy, organisational behavior etc. In these instances most of the cases became long term features of the courses that were involved. A few other cases were also considered for use but were eventually not adopted for a variety of reasons centred on the common idea of "resistance to change". To the best of my knowledge, these reasons did not reflect at all on the high quality of the cases in the book. It should be mentioned that the cases which were used may not have been taught in the comprehensive way described in the teaching notes. But wherever the sessions were rated (as in executive development programs) these were indeed of a consistently high order.

The full court press would consist of adoption of the book's philospohy and structure, pretty much as is. Here it is necessary to point out that the three modules are sequenced so as to give pride of place to the author's academic forte (in terms of a separate book length treatment, articles and case research) viz experimentation for product and service development purposes. This is followed by a module which is anchored to a significant extent in the author's collaborative work on the customer interface with Eric von Hippel. Finally, the third module can be said to consist of a number of other neoclassical articles in the field in conjunction with the author's cases.

Thus we seem to have an experimentation- and democratization-centric paradigm of corporate innovation. The challenge here (for example in the case of the B-school mentioned above) would be for an individual faculty or a cohesive faculty team to adopt the truly multi-functional perspective that is necessitated by the author's work. The ability to implement this strategy might be a function of the dynamics of academic bureaucracies at individual institutions.

The third level of usage, which we label as "springboard" would consist of adaptation of the materials available including in books like Thomke's *Experimentation Matters* and Eric von Hippel's *Democratizing Innovation* and several others to fashion a "new" course which will be on the leading edge of teaching and research on the subject just as the present one is today. For example, what would it take to develop products and services with "customerization" (including via experimentation in the sense in which Thomke defines it) right off the bat, say for base-of-pyramid (BOP) markets? At the very least this perspective might lead to a 5-10 year search for more case research sites which provide the necessary insights in an enlightening way just as the present book has done. Perhaps we can expect more investment in intellectual capital in the domains of modules 2 and 3 of the book with fine tuning of module 1 in future.

In short, users of Stefan Thomke's book can surely look forward to a stimulating venture into rapidly evolving academic territory.

This guide to the new multicultural literature available for children and young adults is divided both by age group and ethnic group; from Hispanic American fiction and Native American oral traditions to African American fiction. Bibliographic listings include plot overviews, age group references, and insights on the ethnic literary traditions explored in each title. A fine library reference or a key to building a multicultural collection.

A superb collection of essays about literally every angle of contemporary giving -- and the expert views are presented w/ detail, verve, and literate assessments of the problems and challenges. Readable, and an eye-opener on a range of perspectives from religion, and women's wealth, to science and technology --often with historical briefs to put the current and prospective trends into deeper context.

This book is a gem of a trade book for all those involved in marketing health care to women. Up-to-date charts are wonderful, the book is concisely and engagingly written, and full of good examples of current marketing techniques. I found the evolution of marketing as described in the book quite interesting, and most importantly, I learned a lot while reading this book

Great analysis of the telecommunications industry in the new deregulated markets ! good ideas and many shared experiences from the companies that have gone thru this before. One of the few specialized books on marketing ! Would love to contact the author (her e-mail address in the book does not work)

Nice tribute to Marty. Little misspell in the first sentence, "Marry", and his last name was Elkin (singular), his company name, Elkin's Coffee. Your article was interesting and informative. He was all of what you said and more: a class act, a charming and charismatic individual, an astute businessman, and a recognized authority on coffee. At one point in time, he was the only American and one of three judges at the annual Kona Coffee Festival taste-testing event held in Hawaii. The coffees he procured for his business from around the world were of the highest quality standards. With his in-depth knowledge, he combined, roasted, and ground the bean in such a way as to produce a premium, select product. A "New York Times" October 25, 1989 article rated his coffees in the "preferred status". His manufacturing plant in Bow, New Hampshire had a one-of-a kind computerized dumping, roasting, and distribution system, and the packaging machines were exclusive and state-of-the art. He was also an innovator in marketing and established a special contract arrangement with the Wallensford Estate in Jamaica for Jablum (Jamaica Blue Mountain Coffee). Although he is no longer here and much of what he accomplished is gone, his legacy by those who knew him will remain. Thank you, Donald Schoenholt, for your thoughtful words paying homage to Marty Elkin. I enjoyed reading what you wrote.

Dr. Lazoritz and I are very excited to see this book released to the public. When we wrote Out of the Darkness, publishers did not know where to place it. With this book, there is no such problem; it's clearly the definitive book on the Mary Ellen Wilson/Mary Connolly abuse case. A fascinating piece of American history, and a crucial trial that changed the way we view and treat our children. Please, if you buy this book, come back and write your own review so others can trust someone other than the author! :-)

I can't tell you how inspired I was to read this brilliant piece of scholarly discourse. I was on the edge of my seat throughout this masterful cliffhanger of a thesis. I have been profoundly affected by the insightful findings of this research and forever indebted to this dedicated and selfless researcher!

Este es el libro esencial, no solamente para la mujer maltratada, pero tambien para todos los que quieren ayudarla o comprender su situacion. Todas las agencias que especializan en la violencia domestica utilizan este libro. Algunos de los temas de que se trata son: porque las mujeres se quedan en relaciones abusivas, porque algunos hombres son abusadores, el ciclo de la violencia, como afecta a los ninos la violencia domestica, cuales son los recursos de ayuda que existen para la mujer latina en los estados unidos, asuntos legales, y mas. Muy beneficioso, y es un libro escrito especialmente para las Latinas.