Business Services for Media Books

Easy to read? Yes. Complex ideas? Yes. Will it help me on my job? YES! I am always reading the latest books on marketing and this one is so much better than the rest. I cannot believe someone did not write a book like this sooner. I have seen Lois speak at several DMDNY trade shows to fully packed auditoriums and it's no wonder. She knows what she is doing! She explains it all so clearly whether you attend her talks or read her books. But Customers For Keeps is her best work yet. Keep up the good work Lois!
Danny

As a former student in Lois Geller's graduate school course on Direct Marketing I know just how motivating she can be. Now she hits one out of the ballpark with this book. Lord have mercy I could've used this book two years ago when I was working with a major electronics manufacturer and we were planning the roll out of their new handheld organizer. We knew how to market the thing but we couldn't brand it properly. If only Lois offered a course in branding a few years ago! Outstanding book!

Easy to read? Yes. Complex ideas? Yes. Will it help me on my job? YES! I am always reading the latest books on marketing and this one is so much better than the rest. I cannot believe someone did not write a book like this sooner. I have seen Lois speak at several DMDNY trade shows to fully packed auditoriums and it's no wonder. She knows what she is doing! She explains it all so clearly whether you attend her talks or read her books. But Customers For Keeps is her best work yet. Keep up the good work Lois!
Danny

using a very clever format customers for keeps doesnt wack you over the head with a do this and do that mentality. this book guides you through the process of why programs work well and how you can do the same thing. the examples are entertaining and informative. think what color is your parachute meets the wealthy barber. five stars plus.

Customers For Keeps is one of those rare business books that does not pontificate information. I was educated and entertained while reading this book and what a rare combination that is these days. A thoroughly pleasant read and one I am sure you will also enjoy.

In this year when Juran's very long life and career ended, it is good to reflect on his large and persistent contribution to the practice of manangement.

Juran's career started in manufactoring (right here in Chicago at the Western Electric plant). Establishing goals and units of measurement, and continuing measurement and adjustment for improvement, was clearer in a continuous manufactoring process at one plant. But, he refined this system to such a high level that it transferred to the non-manufactoring sector.

Project management is one such area. Although, the flow of information and decison is the same in Juran's system and project management, project management practicioners seldom recognize the link and debt to Juran. And, Juran's careful meticulous emphasis on units of measure and careful measurement still could provide much improvement for project managers. Although his system is ultimately enterprise wide, it always encompasses careful measurement.

This book offers a broading of perspective that can show project managers that, although we have well begun and made progress, significant further improvements can be chosen.

Choosing Project Success - A Guide for Building Professionals

Yes its really a nice book Sheikh Asi

Juran on Quality by Design offers a look into the thinking by members of the Juran Institute on the means to deliver quality products and services through a customer focused planning process. This latest Juran book is actually a replacement and expansion of one of its predecessors, Juran on Planning for Quality (Free Press, 1988). The similarities between the two books is significant enough that this new book should have been promoted as the second edition of the first. The new title is much better aligned with the intent of the discussion contained, since the earlier title made the line management audience less obvious than required for the use of the procedures contained throughout the volume.

In Planning for Quality, Juran laid out a ten-step road map for the planning of new products to meet the explicit and known needs of the customer. Using a chapter-by-chapter approach that followed the road map step-by-step, Juran explained the overall process of designing quality into the product in a fashion that makes the work useful to both line staff chartered with implementing the processes and senior management who must provide the commitment and leadership that make it all work. As each step progressed, Juran built a spreadsheet that captured the necessary process and product data needed to provide traceability from customer needs through process controls and product quality control tests.

In Quality by Design, Juran has kept to the style and organization of the former work, but the process itself has matured during the four year gap. The revised process includes only six sequential steps: establish quality goals, identify those impacted (the customers), determine customers' needs, develop product features, develop process features, and establish process controls (transfer to operations).

A seventh step, apply measurement, now appears throughout the process and affects all six of the sequential steps. In Planning for Quality, measurement was the fifth of the ten sequential steps. Ongoing measurement is an important part of the maturation that Quality by Design has gone through.

Juran's spreadsheet has also matured from one very complicated spreadsheet, that actually became quite unmanageable, to a collection of four simpler spreadsheets that each coordinate a different view of the data collected, making the planning results easier to tie back to the process. The spreadsheets constitute the raw data output of the process. Juran describes the four spreadsheets as "the interlocking input-output chain, in which the output for any step becomes the input for the next step."

The first planning spreadsheet list customers down the rows, and customer needs across the columns. The second transfers those needs to the rows and adds product features as columns. The third moves product features to the rows and adds process features as columns. The fourth spreadsheet adds process control features as columns providing full traceability from the process controls implemented back to the original customers that drove the quality planning cycle. Those comfortable with matrices will recognize that these four spreadsheets represent a five dimensional structure of information about the customer and processes. In Planning for Quality, Juran had implemented these five dimensions in a single two dimensional spreadsheet and the result was unmanageable, making Quality by Design a significant improvement.

In addition to revising the earlier work, Quality by Design expands on many issues raised earlier with an additional 200 pages of discussions that affect the implementation of the planning process throughout the organization, and several major case studies that highlight the application of the process.

The chapter on "Strategic Quality Planning" offers insights on the application of the planning process to senior management and the creation of a quality culture within the organization. The chapters on "Departmental Quality Planning" and "Multifunctional Quality Planning" highlight the use of the process within the organization for inter-departmental or intra- departmental quality action. These closing chapters offer guidance on the application of Juran's planning process, making Quality by Design less theoretical sounding than its predecessor, Planning for Quality.

Professionals with my field of information technology should read Quality by Design. Even those individuals who have already read the previous Planning for Quality will find enough incremental value to justify the overlap. The question remains: How can the process described be applied within the IT function?

To start, the planning spreadsheets can be used to map out the requirements for any methodology and standards already in place within the department. To the extent that quality control is often difficult to sell within the development methodology, the spreadsheets help illustrate how the process controls inherent in the IT process support the requirements of IT customers. Likewise, the spreadsheets will point out any existing omissions in current IT practices that may result in dissatisfied customers. This self-assessment and diagnostic use of Juran's work can be done with relatively little effort and at low cost.

Second, and requiring more resource and commitment, Juran's process can be rolled into the current IT requirements definition process to improve the level of requirements being defined by IT projects. The deliverables may have to be mapped against Juran's spreadsheets, but the result will be an increased project focus on, not just data and processes, but also the controls that need to be built into the IT system to assure that the application can be validated and monitored over the long-term. The result will be the implementation not just of new application processes, but of processes that embed the concept of continuous improvement through control of the key variables directly traceable back to customer satisfaction.

That's what Juran on Quality by Design is all about!

This is a high quality book on quality that is well written with excellent examples and illustrations to reinforce the concepts that are in the book. It explores and explains the various quality theories and processes.

Joseph M. Juran made many contributions to the field of quality management in over 70 years of his active working life. He revolutionized the Japanese philosophy on quality management and helped shape their economy into the industrial leader it is today. Dr. Juran was the first to incorporate the human aspect of quality management which is referred to as Total Quality Management.

Juran's philosophy is centred on top management involvement, the Pareto principle, the need for widespread training in quality, the definition of quality as fitness for use, the project-by-project approach to quality improvement, among others.

Quality specialists will find the book very handy as it gives an in-depth analysis of the subject with practical guides on how to apply the concepts in their organisations.

This book cannot be read like a 'coffee table' book. It is very challenging and at I learned a LOT even in the first 50 pages. Lots of examples, analogies and graphs/charts. If you want an in depth view of the QA process, this is THE book for you!

I have only read about half of the book so far and already I have used many of the tips and scripts. All the scripts mentioned in the book are available online so you don't have do all that typing. Many of the hacks are not really hacks, but tips and recommendations on how to do things.
The only minor complain I have is that the book references other chapters, but you have to go back to the Table of Contents to find the page number for the chapter. I think each page should have the current chapter number on it.
Each page does have the hack number on it so it makes it easy to find a hack without going back to the table of contents.

If you use eBay (as a buyer or seller), this is the "user's manual" or best practices guide that should be part of your signup... eBay Hacks by David A. Karp.

Contents: Diplomacy and Feedback; Searching; Bidding; Selling; Working with Photos; Completing Transactions; Running a Business on eBay; The eBay API; Index

Most Hacks titles consist of 100 tips and tricks related to the subject matter being discussed. In eBay Hacks, you get an extra 25 for your money. What a deal! :-) Regardless of whether you're a complete newbie to eBay or you actually run an eBay storefront, you'll find things in here that will save you time and money on a regular basis. Reading the chapter and hacks on feedback, I learned that there are ways to prevent negative feedback even after it's been given. Since so much of who you are on eBay relates directly back to your feedback rating, this can be a critical factor in getting buyers to trust you (or others to sell to you). The chapter on bidding went into the act of "sniping", or bidding at the last second, so that you can stand a much better chance of not being overbid at the last second. I didn't realize there are third-party services that will do this for you automatically. No wonder I've lost some things I really thought I had nailed. Karp even goes into how best to compose photos that will draw people to your auction rather than send them away for something that looks more appealing.

Obviously, you can use eBay without this book and information. I'm sure you'll do fine. But the first time you find an auction miscategorized (because you were looking for that condition) and you launch a bidding strategy that gets you the deal of a lifetime for next to nothing, you'll wonder why you waited so long. Good stuff here...

Author: David A. Karp

Description:
eBay Hacks by David A. Karp
Published by O'Reilly ISBN 059610068X
Reviewed by Jim Lauria-HuNTUG member

From the introduction: "Essentially, you'll find in this book the tools to help you trade smarter and safer, make more money, and have fun doing it."

This second edition-revised and updated to June 2005-provides the eBayer with tips and tools (aka hacks) for successful bidding, buying and selling on the premier online auction web site.

I found the hacks provided by the author to be extremely helpful and informative, easy to use and understand. As a long time eBay seller I had become complacent with the tools and techniques which I had been using for months or even years. This book has given me new ideas and approaches to make my eBay business better.

Karp provides clever shortcuts and powerful tools to do all sorts of neat things like create better titles, listings and descriptions to fancier photographs (Hack 74) and even how to cultivate a good reputation and protect yourself and your $ (Hacks 25 & 85). He also provides warnings about your safety, privacy and money matters.

Included is a chapter on eBay's Application Programming Interface, XML, Perl, PHP and RSS and development of custom software apps that can be worked in to one's own business apps and can also be passed along to others-hey maybe even for a small fee!

The book is well written with plenty of photos, screen shots and lots of code to get you up and buying/selling in quick fashion. 438 pages that read through really quickly and are packed with plenty of good stuff.

I would recommend this title for anyone-novice or pro-who is or would like to make or save some money using eBay or just to have some fun while selling your wares. The book lists for $24.95-less online.

I give this one 5 stars.

One of my favorite activities in my spare time is buying and selling on eBay. It has quickly become the world's largest virtual mall of just about everything you can possibly think of. When I received this book I was eager to learn some of the "tricks of the trade" and found a lot of useful material, albeit some of it is geared towards power sellers and not the average user.

The book itself is packed with 125 "hacks" for eBay, which can range from the basics (leaving feedback) to the more complex (setting up your own online check-out). A lot of the hacks give you tweaks and twists on the normal way of doing things, or take a task and show you a different, sometimes a little more dynamic, way of doing it.

Some of the more advanced topics will only be feasible if you are a powerseller. The author covers a lot of third-party tools as well, which can quickly run into the big dollars if you are just selling a few things each week. However, there is a fair amount of material devoted to the mom and pop sellers, like many of us are. One of the shining points of this book is that it does show you how to do a lot of tricks yourself if you are willing to roll up your sleeves and play around with Perl.

However, the book is for more than just sellers. A lot of tips are there for buyers as well. Such things as how to snipe effectively, and how to take advantage of bid increments in the auction to get the item for the lowest price. Even though the author is writing for both parties, the buyer and seller, he does a good job of not taking advantage of one over.

A few of the topics he covers can be a bit controversial, depending on how you look at it. Things such as withholding feedback and sniping can be frowned upon by some -- but it is all perfectly legal in the world of eBay and the author tells you how to take advantage of it.

Overall, a good book for those who want to get more out of eBay than just the casual buyer/seller. If you want to kick-start your eBay selling career, this is one of the books you will want to have to help guide you; Whereas if you want to learn the tricks of the buying game, you couldn't have picked a better reference manual.

Being a student of business and information management, I had heard about SOA before, both from a technical perspective (XML, Web services) and from a business standpoint (shiny visions of flexible processes). This book is like the missing link between the two areas! It does not only tell you that SOA will change organizations but it also shows *how* exactly this is going to happen. The authors describe all relevenat aspects, starting from organizational change down to the SAP tools that can be used to model processes and to create your own service-oriented applications.
What surprised me most was that ESA - SAP's flavour of SOA - is business-ready today! This is illustrated with numerous real-world examples from a wide range of corporations. The case studies give a good idea of useful ESA applications and show how the transition to a service-oriented infrastructure could take place.
"Enterprise SOA" is suited for everybody interested in information management, even without any previous knowledge in the SOA field. After reading through the book, you'll finally know how SOA is changing the business environment and how SAP is bringing the concepts to life based on open standards. Although you won't know every technical detail, you'll have learned enough to plan your organization's future in a service-oriented world.

This is a very helpful book on SOA because it provides the business case for SOA, an excellent technical overview, and real-life examples of how to use it.

While it is written from an SAP perspective, any IT group that is investigating SOA will find value in this book -- as it describes how SOA impacts different layers of the IT stack (from persistence to business objects, to process orchestration, and uesr interfaces). It also provides actual case studies.

Johnson's attempt to educate perspective home buyers on the use of the Internet to find homes and mortgages is a "must read" for home buyers.
It seems to give the home buyer control over most aspects of his/her "dreamquest." It is a "do it yourself" demostration, a "problem solving aid" which equips the reader with some of the tools necessary to get the job done. The potential careful reader quicky discovers that the Internet can ease or solve most problems dealing with the purchase of a home!

Having purchased two previous homes, I thought I knew all there is to know: you call up a realtor who takes you around to see houses and you pick from a 30-year or a 15-year fixed rate mortgage. Wow! Was I wrong! Thanks to Randy Johnson's latest book on using the internet to find a home and get a mortgage, I now know that there are many types of mortgages available, many of them better- tailored to most people's needs than the two I've already named. I've learned the difference between a "mortgage banker" and a "mortgage broker" and that I may save thousands of dollars by using the services of an Upfront Mortgage Broker, one who agrees to sign a pledge to act in the best interests of the customer. I now know about the advantages of automated underwriting and the difference between rate versus fee when shopping for a mortgage. Imagine my astonishment to learn that paying points for a lower rate is a good strategy that may save me thousands of dollars in the long run! The author has made a highly technical subject easy to understand through charts and personal examples. I now have access to scores of helpful internet sites and forms to download. True to the book's title, I have shopped for a home in another state, qualified for a loan and am about to obtain a mortgage, all while sitting in front of my computer! If you, too, want to SHOP SMART for a home or mortgage, this is the book for you.

I used this info after my divorce and it saved me much grief. Now I order them to give to my friends who are in a financial jam.

I found this book to be very usefull in helping me deal with over charged medical bills. It educated me in a whole new world on things that we don't know about how to get out of debt.
I would highly reccomend it to anyone that is trying to clean up their credit and get a clean start and stress free life.

Tim Birr brings 30 years of firefighting experience to an intense and critical job ... facing the media, the public and families in times of crises. This is a must-have on your shelf if you are in communications, public or private.

Tim puts all his experience to work for me in this book. Common sense approach.

For too long in my home security sales experience, I was totally unorganized. After reading this book, I developed an organized plan for prospecting, making presentations, and closing the sale! Though this book is only about 150 pages long, it has a wealth of knowledge that any home security sales person needs to have! Thank you Mr. Sepulveda for writing this book! It has already resulted in more sales for me!!!

Great book! This is a very comprehensive book that spells out everything a business person needs to know to grow their company and go public. Also covers private placements, marketing and business plans. Basically it covers everything you need to know from the begining of the business until you sell it or have an IPO. I reccomend it highly!

I found this Set very helpful in presenting a one day workshop to our clients on how Lean can benefit the financial services industry. The case study on the mortgage application value stream, along with all the associated processes, allowed for a solid understanding on value stream mapping. All the Lean tools were explained relative to examples in various parts of the industry. We customized many of the slides with our examples. We found the Lean Jeopardy game included as an added benefit and conduct this exercise at the end of all of our training sessions with great audience participation. Great starter kit! :)