Clayton Books

This book is highly engaging and actionable and helps companies understand how innovation is powerful and long-lasting. I also recommend "Something Really New" which was just released as another powerful resource on innovation in companies. Something Really New: Three Simple Steps to Creating Truly Innovative Products

It is the typical manager's nightmare. A startup with a powerful idea wipes out all the dominance your large ogranisation had. It can happen overnite and without warning.

How do you stop this nightmare from happening? Well, the answer could lie in The Innovator's Dilemma.

Kishore Dharmarajan
Author of Eightstorm: 8-Step Brainstorming for Innovative Managers

OK, I admit, some of it can be a bit boring, especially the first couple of chapters. But the premise and his argument are great.

A product manager who has not read this book is not a product manager at all!

This book analyzes why established successful companies repeatedly miss "less sensible" (to their own value network) innovations in the low-end "emerging" market and how products in the low end market eventually displace existing products in the entire market. The book does a comprehensive analysis of the phenomena.

However, I am not convinced with the analysis. People make wrong forecasts of trends and miss emerging markets for many reasons. New entrants fail in trial and error with this extremely high risk game. Does it make sense for an established company to maintain an independent unit for playing this high risk game at a considerable expense? Or should they be the follower and let small companies bear the initial high cost ? I don't think there is a clear answer like what the author has suggested.

There are some uncommon and incorrect use of technology terms (e.g. Java "protocol",computer "automated "design), which let you doubt the credibility and seriousness of the author. The writing is in fairly academic style with great clarity. But it can be repetitive in many places, revisiting the same materials.

With the Innovator's Dilemma, Clayton Christensen delivers a very powerful analysis of the role of innovation in gaining market leadership. The question raised is whether market leadership can be sustained through innovation alone. Indeed, the core of the Innovator's Dilemma illustrates how successful companies with established solutions, marquee customers and a valued brand keep being threatened and at time vanquished by start-ups. A recent example would be how established enterprise software vendors have been shaken up by disruptive startups: Remember Salesforce.com vs. Siebel Systems? Christensen addresses a difficult problem that most successful customer focused companies face. Precisely, because it is a formidable challenge for an established company to bring disrupting technology to its own installed base of customers.

I ordered and paid for this product, $56.79. Taber's Cyclopedia Medical Dictionary & Taber's Electronic Medical Dictionary CD-ROM V 3.0.
The "&Taber's Electronic Medical Dictionary CD-ROM V 3.0" is an "online" version only for the extra $25.00, I can access this feature for only the next 12 months.
Product pictured shows an "actual" CD-ROM.
This is misleading advertising.
Now I discover there is nothing else I can do except send it back, and I needed it 2 days ago for my daughters class. There is no place that I can find at Amazon to complain about this and perhaps obtain the "so called" CD-ROM.
Hey, if I'm wrong I'll apologize, but, what would anyone think?

From cost, timeliness of delivery and condition, we could not be more pleased. Thank You!

I was told I needed to buy this as a required book for my ADRN program, and I couldn't be more pleased with it. My teachers are testing us out of this book, there are nursing conceptual models listed in the appendix. I have found that it is helpful when I am doing my homework. I will never throw this away until I absolutely have to get a new one. I definitely would recommend it.

This is a great reference for the Medical Terminology. It breaks things down so that the average person can really grasp the concept. Plus the illustrations in the book are FANTASTIC! This was not available on my college campus and I ordered this through Amazon and got it quickly to my front door. I highly recommend this book for the Medical Terminology or just for curiosity in the medical field.

Bought for my daughter to use for a medical class she is taking and she said it has been a tremendous help.

I assume you're interested in this book because it's a shortcut: we hear that a business can be undermined by [initially] unattractive innovations, aka the innovator's dilemma. But what do we do about it?

The answer is to create those innovations, of course. The proposal is to create small business units, since the initial returns will be small, then make sure they rapidly become _profitable_. Even better, create a new market instead of improving an existing product. A crappy sounding transistor radio lets lots of kids listen to music outside their house, compared to the old vacuum tube model that was stuck in the den.

Already a business classic, this book does not disappoint. Picking up from where the 'Innovator's Dilemma' left off, Christensen and Raynor examine in detail the barriers towards innovation and growth. Perhaps surprisingly, the concepts discussed are as applicable to large enterprises as they are to one man startups. The problem is one and the same - enterprise readers will learn about the pitfalls of institutionalized processes and sustaining innovation; startup teams will learn how to position their products for future success. Whether you are an aspiring entrepreneur, or a high-ranked executive, 'Innovator's Solution' should be at the top of your reading list.

Exceptional. Who wants their customers to rave about their products and services? Who wants to know "exactly" what your customers need? Who wants to experience revenue growth for their company? If you answered yes to these then the "Innovator's Solution" is a MUST READ. Clayton Christensen and Michael Raynor have taken us back to the fundamental issue facing a company... that being "what job does my product or service satisfy?" Moving away from features, advantages and benefits and back to the basics of so-what-can-you-do-for-me will bring value to anyone tasked with the duty of using innovation to drive revenue growth. CEO's... read on!

Clayton Christensen and Michael Raynor set the tone immediately by showing that most companies cannot sustain growth and by explaining to readers how stock markets factor in growth in the price of any publicly-traded stock. Growing faster than what stock markets see now and expect in the future is essential to move up a stock price.

The resource allocation process is the key culprit in humbling many market leaders when dealing with disruptive innovations. That process typically invites up-market flight rather than head-to-head fight with new market entrants. That flight mechanism is applicable not only to product/service makers, but also to their distributors and retailers. Unlike a sustaining innovation, a disruptive innovation is not compatible with the business model of market leaders. Christensen and Raynor call this behavioral pattern asymmetric motivation.

The way out of asymmetric motivation is for the leadership of an established player 1) to frame the disruptive innovation as a threat during the resource allocation process and 2) to shift responsibility for the project to an autonomous organization that has the relevant experience to frame it as an opportunity. The leadership needs to have a clear understanding of the respective impact of resources, processes, and values on what an organization can or cannot accomplish. Resources and processes are often enablers while values often represent constraints. Unlike deliberate processes, emergent processes should dominate when the future is hard to predict and the right strategy is not yet clear. That is especially true at the beginning of a company's existence. Once the winning strategy becomes clear, deliberate processes become a must to maximize the changes of success.

Christensen and Raynor continue their analysis by sub-dividing disruptive innovations into two categories: new-market disruptions competing with "non-consumption" and low-end disruptions that go after the proverbial "low-hanging fruit." Charting the upward path for a new-market disruption is more daunting because nobody has ever walked the walk. In practice, the distinction between the two types of disruptive innovations is not always clear-cut due to the existence of hybrid disruptions that combine new-market and low-end approaches. Christensen and Raynor also point out that an innovation that passes the new-market or low-end test must be disruptive to all of the significant established players to deserve the label of disruptive innovation.

Christensen and Raynor clearly show that new entrants in turn do not escape from the up-market urge. After driving out the last established market player competing in a certain market segment, cut-throat competition forces new entrants to also move up market for greener pastures.

Christensen and Raynor also reflect on why an overwhelming majority of new products fail miserably in the market-place. Attribute-based segmentation for which data are often available is the lead explanation for these failures. That type of market segmentation too often ignores the jobs that people and companies need to get done and how a product or service can be "hired" for that purpose. Targeting a product or service at the circumstances in which the target audience finds itself, rather than at the target itself is the key to success. Christensen and Raynor drive that point home very well with their story about the milkshake doing a different job for a bored commuter and his/her child at different times of the day. Christensen and Raynor blame the counterproductive attribute-based segmentation to 1) fear of focus, 2) senior executives' demand for quantification of opportunities, 3) the structure of channels, and 4) advertising economics and brand strategies.

Christensen and Raynor pursue their analysis by looking at the traditional distinction between core and non-core competences. Unlike competitiveness that is focused on what a customer values, core competence, as it is usually practiced by managers, is ominously inward looking. The rigidity of that categorization results in downplaying the evolving product architectures and integration over time. Christensen and Raynor highlight the respective impact of interdependent architectures that optimize performance in terms of functionality and reliability and modular architectures that optimize flexibility on industry structures.

Dis-integration that modularity makes possible does not preclude re-integration down the road if market circumstances change or vice versa. Savvy managers anticipate where the money will be instead of solely focusing their companies on the profitable businesses of the past. Developing this intuition is essential to avoid the process of commoditization. If commoditization already happens, de-commoditization can be achieved as well. Christensen and Raynor describe both processes in much detail. For example, the integrated American automakers are evolving toward modular architectures for their mainstream models in order to compete on speed and flexibility. This has in turn led to a significant consolidation of their suppliers.

Christensen and Raynor also clearly demonstrate that none of the attribute-based categorizations of funding such as venture capital vs. corporate capital and public versus private capital are a reliable predictor of a new venture success. Christensen and Raynor correctly point out that the best money is patient for growth but impatient for profit in the first years of a new business. The deal spiral from inadequate growth as Christensen and Raynor call it, results from impatience for growth and patience for profit.

Finally, Christensen and Raynor highlight the three roles that senior executives have to play in leading new growth:

1) Short-Term: To be at the juncture between disruptive growth businesses and the mainstream businesses to decide on the allocation of the company's resources and processes
2) Longer-Term: To lead what Christensen and Raynor call a "disruptive growth engine" to repeatedly launch successful growth businesses
3) Perpetual: To anticipate when the circumstances are changing, and to pass on their know-how to others to identify these signals.

To summarize, Christensen and Raynor made with The Innovator's Solution an important contribution to the better understanding and harnessing of disruptive innovations that are an essential ingredient of what Joseph Schumpeter called "creative destruction."

As CEO of LMS Technical for 28 years, my use of books to help me plan, sustain and improve my business has been a priority. Introduced to this book by my daughter who is presently a student of Christensen, I was skeptical that a "Harvard" read would be too far off the track for a small consulting firm like ours. WRONG! For the past two months, the application of his core beliefs had led our firm to re-direct our postioning and re-think our 2 year goals. A major disruption of delivery of IT network support services is underway in our country. Fed by managed services, and joint global outsourcing arrangements, the industry is being transistioned quickly. It is incredible that the "steel minimills" transistion could be used as an example of how managed services is evolving and how the outcomes could be viewed in the same way. Although the book at first glance seems complex compared to the typical management help books, the extra time taken to understand his ideas will deliver far greater value than any other book I have read over nearly 3 decades. Aligning ones present goals to his set of theories and really working them will extrude new ideas, and help you test all your past assumptions. My team found itself wondering more about our future, after we understood how we had navigated 28 years of change. Disruption as we understand it now played a major part, but more importantly we now see how it will take us forward. My suggestions for enhancing the book> This is a workbook! providing room for notes, and workspace would be great, my copy now looks like a mess, covered with notes, highlighting, and scribble. It will be my bible going forward.

I purchased this book after using Bernard Clayton's Small Breads book several times and having much success with his recipes and suggestions. I have used several of the recipes including the Hot Crossed Buns which I made for my family at Eastertime, much to their delight. I continue to like the way Mr. Clayton gives his directions as I enjoy using different methods for the same recipe to see which produces the bread we like most. If you are a traditional style breadmaker or a quicker and easier but homemade style of bread baker you will definitely find many recipes to try and enjoy. I am a bread LOVER and this book was so much more than I expected and so easy to follow and enjoy. Well worth the money!

My purchase is, in fact, my third. My prior copies were well dog-eared and pages were becoming disattached and browned. From overuse, this fine book has had considerable half-life none the less. For those that enjoy home made breads, kneaded by hand, stroked and loved this is the only volume you will ever need. I invite everyone so enthused to buy this book and enjoy. It has one recipe (for Hoska) that prompted my first copy's purchase. I had hoped to once again taste the creation of my Aunt Bessie, and I have not been dissappointed. I have not, over the years, found a single recipe in the book that did not produce an excellent bread. And I do not lightly judge the matter. I have weekly supplied the needs of both my family and my son's family. I have joyously baked Hoska for everyone in the neighborhood at festival. One will find that instructions are clear, easy to follow and foolproof.

For someone without a lot of baking experience who wants to know how to make a wide variety of breads and baked goods using readily available ingredients and supplies, this may be the best choice out there. There are recipes for virtually every type of non-pastry bread or baked flour product, without too many unnecessary details or confusing diversions from the task at hand. If you are an avid amateur baking purist, you might find the book's almost exclusive reliance on commonplace industrial leavening agents such as dry yeast and baking powder, and otherwise plain presentation of the art of baking, to be a trifle unsophisticated. However, the book also includes instructions for more elaborate procedures, such as making and using various leavening starters, for those so inclined. This book de-mystifies bread making and offers many helpful tips and shortcuts that are most welcome to those that just want to make a variety of breads in a typical home kitchen, without making a lifelong quest out of it. Illustrations are sparse, but are judiciously included.

The recipes I've tried were easy to follow and resulted in a delicious end product, every time. This is a cookbook, that can be taken into the kitchen and used one recipe at a time. You don't need to read large sections of the book or flip through multiple pages to follow most recipes. Consequently, there is a lot of repetition in the instructions and the book is thicker than it needs to be, strictly speaking. If you bake all the time the repetition will be unnecessary. But for most of us, the self-sufficent presentation will probably prove quite handy.

Review is based on the 2006 edition.

I first tried the Blue Ribbon French Bread recipe while trying to find a Po-Boy bread formula. This recipe was just unique enough to be perfect! The author definitely isn't presenting the same old tired combinations every other cookbook author has. Clayton is unique. You might not appreciate it if you are a new baker but you will quickly enough. Easy to follow with a little thought and he allows for all the mixing scenarios.

I've made "the first loaf" several times now and it works reasonably well. I've started experimenting with the author's other recipes and have found that the measurements are not always right. (e.g., a total of 5 cups of ingredients do not fit well into a 1 quart glass jar!) It could totally be me, but overall I'm losing confidence in the book and will probably replace it with something more trustworthy. I'm starting to see that good bread making isn't about having many recipes, it's about understanding how and why the recipes work.

Thomas spends most of the book geeting you intimately involved with the heroine's life and mind. So much so, that the final impact of the book comes as an horrific shock. I had nightmares, but reading the book is worth it.
Louis Fried, author of "Other Countries/Other Worlds"

i read this years ago and was looking to pick up a new copy. an excellent, disturbing novel. moving, thought provoking. but i have to say, if the publisher bothers to read these reviews, i think the cover is ugly and uninspired, and a disservice to the novel. i'll pick up a used copy somewhere.

I just finished this extraordinary book. I know that I will read this book several times again, pulling new information from it each time, always in a different light somehow. I can't say that I "enjoyed" the vivid mental anguish and vicious horrible brutality at the end but I CAN say that D.M. Thomas has evoked such emotional response from me that I am forced to give this book 5 stars. I highly recommend it to someone with an open heart and mind otherwise you may not appreciate this work of pure genius.

"Thomas takes us beyond Freud, beyond Eros and Thanatos, and thus challenges the very substance of the Freudian text. Within the analyses and, he suggests, buried within her individual neurosis, is the subtext of history--the Final Solution. And beyond the horror is the transcendent vision of salvation through love in the mythical state of Israel. In this bold, intellectually challenging novel, Thomas goes beyond both history and historical fiction: he explores the shadowy realm of perception and perceiver with breathtaking vision and artistry." Reviewed by Daniel Weiss, Virginia Quarterly Review

'The White Hotel' is an extraordinary book. It was given the highest recommendation by my best friend, and it is a read I will never forget. It is taken from the case history of Lisa Erdman, an early patient of Sigmund Freud; the book explores her case of sexual hysteria and finds the way to self destructiveness. The scenes with Lisa and Dr.Freud are fascinating. They take her back into childhood and into her dreams. Lisa's erotic dreams are almost visions. They are premonitions to Lisa of death and destruction. Freud helps Lisa to resume her normal life as an opera singer, and we are brought into the world of opera as Lisa finds it. She remarries and settles in the Ukraine with her husband and step-son, and then the unraveling begins. Their harrowing adventures will leave you on the edge. As life as Lisa knows it begins to crumble, so do we.

"Lisa's story is told three times. Once, as a long letter of erotic ramblings by a psychotic, once in image steeped poetry, and finally, as narrative prose, in the dry tone of a doctor discussing a case, complete with musings and asides. By the end of the third rendition, the reader begins to understand something the eminent psychologist never will. That Anna is not only a product of, but a metaphor for the collective fall of European consciousness into madness that still scars the entire century."
T.Rex

'The White Hotel' is much like a mystery, and we are part of the unraveling. I was filled with melancholy and a dream like stance while reading this book. I have not read a book that is so well written. and at the same time lays groundwork of the extraordinary. A trip for Lisa becomes a trip that we will not soon forget. Highly Recommended. prisrob 2-18-07

Not much to say that hasn't been noted already by those who also give it five stars. I read it many years ago, and still - not simply because I'm a Jungian therapist - it's impact is with me. All I can emphasize, as have others, that if one has the courage to stick with it, to the extraordinary and visceral ending, you will be changed forever.
I don't care if others insist Thomas "stole" from everybody. Has anyone listened to classical music and NOT recognized material from other composers? All artists, of whatever genre, communicate with each other across the centuries, on another level. I can only thank this great writer for bringing so much of our collective unconscious into the light - if we dare to look at it.

This book is very well illustrated and gives some great examples. I was looking for more examples on built ins and hints on what to do when you have a crooked wall. This book did not have an hints or examples of what to do in this situation. However for individuals that have other questions on how to do trim this book would be an excellent addition to your collection.

This book is very attractive and informative, but I found it lacking some of the very basics, and the production steps are often not laid out chronologically. In the crown molding section, there is no suggested nailing plan, so as someone who has never done crown molding but is planning to attempt it, this book alone does not suffice.

I bought this title from the Build Like A Pro series based on a good experience with their "Build a Shed" book, which was like having an experienced carpenter explain how he would approach and resolve each construction issue.
This title was written by a guy who obviously has the years of experience under his belt but needs a strong editor to map out the writing process. The author uses terminology several times before defining it many pages later, and in general doesn't leave the reader with a full understanding of how to proceed.

I am a firm believer in the KISS method of doing things. (Keep It Simple Stupid") Every step is covered in this book so that anyone can learn from it. The "Build Like A Pro" series of books are all laid out like this one. The "Expert Tips" are great. They show you short cuts to help you do the jobs right, but in less time. This is stuff you only learn by doing the job everyday. They are trade secrets.

I'm new to trim carpentry and wanted a step-by-step book to accelerate my learning and minimize mistakes while improving quality.

Within 10 minutes of reading, I picked up several great new ideas and one new and important technique. I was amazed that after completing two full rooms of crown moulding that there were so many shortcuts, secrets and techniques I hadn't picked up and wouldn't of ever learned on my own.

Inside, there are many color photos, expert tips described in the margins and step-by-step instructions on how to best complete the project.

I recommend this book for begginers BEFORE you start putting up crown moulding or starting other trim carpentry projects.

I highly recommend this book! It has over 100 of the most common interview questions one can expect to encounter during a pharma interview; plus thorough and appropriate responses to those questions. I read this book, studied the appropriate responses and applied for the company I decided I wanted to work for the most; 3 weeks later I received an offer from that company. Read the questions and write out your own answers. Then study, study, study!!

This book is a MUST READ if you're thinking about going into the pharmaceutical sales business. I read it right away and learned so much; there is some really great advice that one should follow for ANY career.
The first chapter details some facts and statistics about the business. The second chapter talks about the features that make a good sales rep and the typical day of a representative. Chapter 3 is resumes and cover letters and listings of useful resources. Chapter 4 was the most helpful in a general sense: about interviewing. The questions really target you to evaluate how to present yourself in a good light. And lastly is a detailed listing of many pharmaceutical companies, small and big.
This book full of great career advice and is worth every penny I paid, even if I don't end up in this field!

When I read the description of the book, it stated that it is a good resource for people that are already in pharmaceutical sales. WRONG!!! It gives NO examples of resumes for people who may already be in pharma sales but want advice on how to retool their resume. Also, with respect to resumes, there were only three examples in the book. For the money, there should have been more than three.

Another reason why I purchased the book was because it stated that there would be help via email, with some type of response within 48 hours. I sent my resume to the email address over a week ago and still have not heard anything...not even a "we receieved your information and will send you a response soon." NOTHING.

So, my advice if you are already in pharma sales and want to know how to spruce up your resume is to spend your money on one of those books with a gazillion resumes in it, like resumes for 100,000 jobs or something like that. It's less expensive and will give you more bang for your buck.

Whether you order it here or off her site @ pharmaceuticalsales . com, GET IT quick fast in a hurry.

For one, I have 3 friends who graduated from University of Illinois who got pharma careers started back in 03-04 while I went on doing my thing with my current car rental job I hate so much. Anyhow, with time we all kinda lost touch until a few months ago. One is married with a huge house, while the other 2 have also expanded their careers to levels I couldn't even imagine on my career in this time frame and all are happy doing what they do.

They got picked up by top 10 Pharma companies and all of them told me the same thing when we met up...MAKE SURE YOU GET THIS BOOK AND FOLLOW IT TO A T.

Anyhow, 2 07 Caddillac STS's later and a huge home and faith in the Almighty have brought fourth my friends to a place I want to be as well.
Don't get me wrong, we all work hard and have been top ten in the fields we do...its just that when you have people who are succeeding at a level you'd like to tell you that you too can succeed if you brought over that level of commitment....its a no brainer!

One week into it and at chapter 3 I can tell you that Ms. Clayton is definately on the money. I had a chance to phone interview with the #1 Pharma co last summer and although it seemed like it went well with me, I knew had I would have had the opportunity to do it again knowing what I know now I would have been working for them about 6 months into my new career.

Don't be like me, stuck working long hours where its almost impossible to have enough time to interview for any company at that. Make sure you get this book if you want to break into this field. I'm giving myself 3 weeks to finish this book and do what I have to to get the ball moving. Trust me I will have an update for you guys/gals soon. Can't say enough good things about it :-)

Though she won't advertise it or mention it in her book, Anne will help write your resume if you email and ask her. I bought Insight into a Career into Pharmaceutical Sales this year. No, I didn't get a job a week later, but I used the suggestions of Anne and emailed her for help on my resume. This would have cost me $200 somewhere else. Anne knows the pharmaceutical industry. She was a VP at the end of her career with a British pharmaceutical giant Burroughs Wellcome in the late 90's. It took me nearly 4 months, but I secured a position with A.Z. I worked hard, but the book and about 6-8 of Anne's emails was like having a coach. Yes, Anne is in her 60's, but this lady knows the pharmaceutical industry.

I bought this collection of short novels having read many good reviews but I was disappointed. I think that the thing that I liked less is the Sembia location and the characters that here take life. I think this setting is not fantasy after all, it is more a kind of 18th century Europe mixed with fantasy elements that don't fit well together at all. Ed greenwood confirms himself a great inventor of poeples and settings and a bad writer, but also most of the other authors couldn't really suspend my disbelief. I didn't enjoy at all this collection of stories and will not buy other books located in Sembia.

This was an excellent book and provides a very intriguing opening to this series of books. The book is divided up into 7 chapters, each chapter focusing on a member of the Uskerven household.

I found most, if not all, of the characters to be enthralling with all of the stories well written. There is the proud patriarch of the family, Thamalon Uskevren, the disappointed heir to the family forturn Tamlin, the free-spirited daughter Tazi, the very independent second son Talbot, the proper yet mysterious matriarch Shamur, the distinguished butler Erevis Cale, and the young, innocent servant Larajin. The chapters set up stories for each family member. These stories will unfold through the rest of the series, with one book focusing on one family member. It definelty is an original way to do a series. Hopefully the full-length stories will be as good as these chapter length ones were.

Erevis Cale is by far the most popular of the characters and with good reason. He is much like Drizzt in that he has a very honorable streak in him and love for the people around him, but his past is very dark and shady. I know he has gotten one trilogy dedicated to him, and I believe there is a second one planned. I was also drawn to Talbot. His story one of being cursed and having to be responsible for things he wasn't responsible for. Something we can all relate to at certain points in our lives.

These were just my two favorites. I am looking foward to reading all the stories about the family, and I'm hoping that they develop more series for the individual characters and not just Erevis Cale.

I read this book very, very fast because of the fact that is is seven separate stories, there was something bran new every fifty or so pages, so you go through the book very fast. The stories are fast paced and exciting and good for anyone that likes a good fantasy or medieval based book, regardless of if you've read any other Forgotten Realms books. It can easily be a stand alone novel.

This is an excellent novel, with only a few faults. The main gripe I have with the book is that it is truly a series of short stories, but is treated like a novel. What I mean to say is that there is no table of content that allows you to easily jump one from story of interest without having to scan through the entire book. The tales need not be read in order at all, and yet you are expected to do so.

Each story centers on one member of the Uskevren house, starting with the Patriarch all the way down to the maid. Each of these people seem to have some special quality about them, and their secrets are kept close to their breasts. Sometimes, it seems that there is a reason that each person is so special or has so deep and dark a secret. Clearly, there is more to this family than is initially let on, and only further tales will reveal what is so special about them.

In case you did not know, the shorts in this book are but preludes to the other novels in the series, they are basically the set up tales that get you interested, but really give you no completion. Many things are left unsettled by the end of this book.

The only downfall I can really see, and it has nothing to do with this novel in and of itself, is that the final book that was to be penned by Greenwood has been canceled. I would love to see another anthology of tales to close out the series.

Of them all, the Best tales deal with the matriarch, the butler, the maid, the daughter, and the second son. The Patriarch's tale is informitive, but dry and the heir's story has plenty of drama, but no depth. Two out of seven aint bad! Besides, they are still decent tales.

Warning: If you buy this book you will have to pick up the rest of the series!

This is a fair to good collections of short stories that are somewhat interesting.
Why buy this book, well if you want to read the books and series that follow the characters that are started here, that would be the reason.

Ed Greenwood `The Patriarch' -- slow and dull (C-)
Richard Lee Byers `The Matriarch' -- strange (C-)
Clayton Emery `The heir'-- unlikable fop (C+)
Voronica Whitney-Robinson `The Daughter'-- spoiled, very spoiled(C)
Dave Gross `The Youngest Son'-- interesting werewolf (B)
Paul Kemp `The Butler' -- superb story of a likable assassin!!! (A+)
Lisa Smedman `The Maid' -- really good story of a cleric to be? (A-)

OVERALL SCORE: (B-/C+)
READABILITY: (?), PLOT: (B-), CHARATERS: (B-), DIALOGUE: (B-), SETTING: (B+), ACTION/COMBAT: (A-), MONSTERS/ANTAGONISTS: (C+), ROMANCE: (B), SEX: (n/a), AGE LEVEL: (PG)

This is an excellent book. For a reasonable balance between depth and a broad overview of the subject, this book strikes a good balance. Certainly there is more information available on the history of Egypt and on most of the pharaohs, but if this book does not provide what you need, then it at least provides excellent background and a decent bibliography to turn to for more in-depth information. Nearly every pharaoh of consequence is pictured and all that are known are mentioned. Bear in mind that some are very obscure and have left little or no historical trace. This book, like "The Complete Valley of the Kings", is a keeper, particularly if you find ancient Egypt so fascinating, as I do.

I have a whole library of books on ancient Egypt and the dynasties of pharaohs ruling from 2664 B.C. to 345 B.C. and i consider this book to be the best encompassing book available for people who want to learn about ancient Egypt. This book should be the first you buy and read as a neew scholar to ancient Egyptian history. You will not regret it and it will allow you to decide how to procede with your interest.

an excellent book for anyone who is interested in ancient egypt. I have to say I could do without black and white photos because those photos would have been so much more effective in color.

have long been an avid student of ancient Egypt, since the age of 11 to be exact. I have never lost my interest in Egyptology, and it only gets strengthened when a book of this calibre comes along.

Chronicle of the Pharaohs is a wonderful guide to each and every pharaoh that ruled Egypt during its 3000 year history, and 30 dynasties. The author, Peter A. Clayton, does a fantastic job in not only the chronology, but also in the biographical information, history, and hieroglyhpic translations and transliterations of each pharaohs name.

Richly illustrated, this book is a must for any ancient Egypt fan's library.

Author: Peter A. Clayton
Published: 1995
Binding: Hardcover with Dust Jacket
Pages: 224
Illustrations: 350 (130 in color)

What follows is a synopsis/review of the book.

This book is five major sections, with a number of subsections in each section.

Preface and Introduction. This section introduces us to the subject of ancient Egypt, and we get a good introduction to the place of the pharaoh in the political state, as well as in the religion and mythology of ancient Egypt.

Section One. The First Pharaohs.
This section covers mainly the late predynastic period and early dynastic period. The unification of Egypt is the dominant theme here, when the "two lands" became one. Narmer and the legendary "Menes" are compared.

Section Two. The Pyramid Builders.

This section and subsections covers the pharaohs of the Old Kingdom, from 2700-2400 BC, and covers in particular the pyramid age.

Section Three. Chaos and Rebirth.
This section and its constituent subsections cover the "First Intermediate Period", when political stability collapsed, and there was over 120 years of civil war. This is followed by the "rebirth", and reunification of Egypt in the Middle Kingdom, dynasties 11-12. The "Second Intermediate Period" is also covered, the time when Egypt was invaded by the Hyksos.

Section Four. Rulers of an Empire. The New Kingdom era begins with the expulsion from Egypt of the foreign invaders. Thus begins a pattern of warrior pharaohs, who carve out the first empire in history of any significance.
Pharaohs like Thutmose III and Ramses II dominate the scene here.

Section Five. The Weakening of Pharaonic Power.
This is the Late Period of Egypt, or the "Third Intermediate Period", in which Egypt's power and influence decline for another 1000 years, from the 21st to 30 dynasties. During this time there was mostly foreign rule, but a few native dynasties prevailed. Finally, in 332 BC, Egypt was conquered by Alexander the Great, and his general, Ptolemy founded the last dynasty, the one that ended with Cleopatra VII as the last pharaoh of Egypt. Then Egypt became a province of Rome, and there were no more pharaohs.

All in all, "Chronicle of the Pharaohs" is an excellent piece of scholarship, history, biography, and is a fascinating reference tool and a great read. I recommend it highly to anyone interested in ancient Egypt, and history in general.

I have been searching for a book all over the Internet on all Egyptian pharaohs from the beginning to the end. However, it was quite hard until I came to Amazon and found this book.
I tell you Amazon has every book you are looking for!
I read the reviews, and "looked" in the book.
I bought it, and I tell you that this is one of the best comprehensive book ever! It is in great detail and has many colored pictures.
I would suggest anyone to get this book because it makes a great detail reference and information on the pharaohs.

The primary author's first two books were each sensational in their own way--.I was particularly gripped by his description of the throw-away camara as being unattractive to the high-end camara shops, but when adopted by grocery stores, led to the 90% of the non-consumers of high-end camaras getting into photography. The key: low-cost offering for the non-consumers introduced outside the incumbent arena.

That is the heart of this new book, and the addition of two co-authors suggest that the author's vision is spreading.

I actually read the two chapters on education and health care first--the first because my oldest son blew off his senior year in high school at not worthy of his time, and is now racking up community college credits at very low cost (with the same instructors from the higher cost Geroge Mason University) and is a living embodiment of the education chapters first focus: what matters is not credentialling from the higher end universities, but the low cost acquisition of "just enough just right" learning from key teachers (the brand is shifting from schools to teachers).

Both the education and the health chapters drive home three big points that I find compelling and exciting in the context of C. K. Prahalad's The Fortune at the Bottom of the Pyramid: Eradicating Poverty Through Profits (Wharton School Publishing Paperbacks):

1. The innovation and profit opportunities are with the non-consumers--the ultimate non-0consumers today are the five billion poor, and especially the 1.5 billion each in China and in India, two countries that have the capability to create call centers for "just enough just in time" learning via cell phone.

2. The keys to health innovation, both in the developed world of one billioin rich and in the undeveloped world of the five billion poor, are:

a. Creating "good enough" solutions that are very low cost and easy to push into remote areas that could not afford high end care; and

b. Pushing innovation down the pyramid from the expensive sites and specialists to the nurse-practitioners and ultimately to the patient themselves; while also moving the diagnostics and the remedies down to the point of care and aware from the hospital "hubs" that are now as antiquated as the airline "hubs" that block point to point travel.

Chapter Ten on "The Future of Telecommunications gave me goose-bumps. No kidding. Thunderclaps and blinding lighting accompanied the third page of this chapter, in part because I have been thinking about Open Spectrum (see David Weinberger's brilliant chapter on this, free online, and also his new book, a sensational new book, Everything Is Miscellaneous: The Power of the New Digital Disorder. Althought the chapter focuses priimarily on wireless versus hardline hardware options, and does not mention either the obvious fact that satellites still have too much delay for ubiquitous wireless from outer space (something that should go away in ten years with higher energy pulses), or the other obvious fact, that even wireless is being commoditized and that on demand services and sense-making are the next big offering from the innovators, I found this chapter compelling. Arthur Clarke said long ago that telecommunications should be more or less free as an enabler, and I agree. We need to make both communications and education free to all, and monetize the transactions, the patterns, the early warning, and the aggregate sense-making.

The next most important chapter for me was Chapter 3, "Strategic Choices: Identifying Which Choices Matter." What stuck with me are three things:

1. Start early--don't wait for everyone else to realize the need

2. Hire accordingly. This is HUGE. Most companies have a profile for new employees that is 20 years out of date. Most companies have no clue that Digital Natives are completely different from Digital Immigrants (as one author notes: this is the first generation where the kids are not little version of us--they are a metaphysical transformation well beyond us and anything we can comprehend). Hence, companies have to have the leadership needed to create a "safe" skunkworks where iconoclasts and others who are largely antithetical to the gerbils and drones hired in the past, can innovate without having to deal with the insecurities, ignorance, bad habits, and "rankism" of those trapped in the pyramidal paradigms of the past.

The Appendix provides a summary of key concepts and has some really excellent illustrations that are very helpful. The point within the Appendex that escaped me earlier in the book and was driven home here is that ultimately the innovative firms make investments as a means of learning, not as a means of realizing their pre-conceived notions of what is needed next. I continue to recommend the Business Week cover story of 20 June 2005, "The Power of Us." Innovation, it appears to me, works best when firms both hire and invest to learn, *and* dramatically and deliberately expand the stakeholder circle to embrace the end-user being sought as a customer.

The rest of the book is very worthwhile for those that do not read broadly in the business or innovation leadership.

Other books that I have found as exciting at this one:
Groundswell: Winning in a World Transformed by Social Technologies
Mobilizing Generation 2.0: A Practical Guide to Using Web2.0 Technologies to Recruit, Organize and Engage Youth
The Change Handbook: The Definitive Resource on Today's Best Methods for Engaging Whole Systems
Society's Breakthrough!: Releasing Essential Wisdom and Virtue in All the People
How to Change the World: Social Entrepreneurs and the Power of New Ideas, Updated Edition
The leadership of civilization building: Administrative and civilization theory, symbolic dialogue, and citizen skills for the 21st century
The Wealth of Networks: How Social Production Transforms Markets and Freedom

Finally, a book I published with 55 contributors, free online but utterly wonderful in hard-copy from Amazon:
Collective Intelligence: Creating a Prosperous World at Peace

My eyes were opened when I read Clayton Christensen's books on disruptive innovation.

In Seeing What's Next, Christensen chastises Wall Street analysts for their inability to see beyond current trends. -- I lived in that world for 10 years and he's right.

Extrapolating future scenarios from current trends is a dangerous business and it seldom works for investors. And it fails miserably as a method for businesses to find the next big thing, which a lot managers try to do. A new framework for analyzing identifying tech trends is needed and Christensen's theories on disruptive innovation are a great starting point, and an inspired way to think about innovation.

The book offers a framework for undertsanding and anticipating trends. This includes a recap of the theory of disruption and has a few chapters that serve as casebook examinations of industries facing disrption, including the telecom sector, higher education and aviation.

While not as strong a book as his earlier work, The Innovator's Solution or the first breakthrough on disruption, The Innovator's Dilemman, Seeing What's Next is a more practical guide for managers. The reason: Christensen, a Harvard professor, allows his theory to evolve from his management consulting activities.

Christensen's two earlier books ("The Innovator's Dilemma," and "The Innovator's Solution") provided great new insights into business history and strategic thinking. "Seeing What's Next" goes on to attempt to demonstrate implementation of these two books' insights, unfortunately with less than total success.

Early in "Seeing What's Next," Christensen uses Dell Computer to illustrate the "Value Chain Evolution" theory's golden rule: Integrate to improve what is "not good enough" (speed, customization, and convenience of PC ordering and acquisition), and outsource what is "more than good enough" (the PC computer's architectural design) - certainly a potentially helpful insight.

"Seeing What's Next" eventually moves on to examining several sectors and making predictions for the future. 1)Education: Christensen sees on-line services from the University of Phoenix (UOP) as an innovation that is likely to disrupt the higher-education market. However, even the UOP has had limited success with this innovation - the vast majority of its services are still provided via bricks-and-mortar classrooms. (Another major UOP problem is that increasing questions are aimed at its credibility - especially the strength of its instructors, and its very low graduation rate.) On the other hand, Christensen probably has it right in seeing community-colleges provide a much greater challenge to pupils currently "over-served" by higher-cost state universities. (This applies to businesses and the general public as well - the vast majority of "research" undertaken at major universities offers very little or no concrete value to society.)

Aviation is another sector examined. Here Christensen sees low-cost Southwest Airlines as in danger of being over-ridden by major airlines - certainly about as far from the ensuing reality as one could get. As for the semiconductor sector - Christensen sees overshot customers (eg. word-processor and spreadsheet users) as becoming vulnerable targets for less expensive/capable processors; again, however, this has been little sign of this. (Christensen's "problem" may be failing to recognize that users want only one operating system/CPU, and that combination should be able to handle most/all existing PC applications. Regardless, it is also noteworthy that Andy Grove, an enthusiastic endorser of Christensen's first two books, does not have an endorsement on this book's back cover.

Healthcare: Christensen observes a "do-it-yourself" trend with home pregnancy tests and glucose monitors. However, both are small components of a relatively trivial healthcare market not likely to sustain major innovation. His third example - cheaper/easier angioplasty replacing cardiac surgery, is an unfortunate one because the latest findings are that angioplasty is not generally an acceptable substitute. Finally, Christensen is totally correct in concluding that many patients are overserved by M.D. providers vs. eg. nurse practitioners - unfortunately, legal constraints are not likely to relax soon in this area. (This also limits "off-shore" provision of X-ray readings, etc., though combining tourism with cheaper Asian healthcare may grow into a much greater market.)

Finally, "Seeing What's Next" considers the wireless communication sector. VOIP is seen as a major challenge - not likely, in my opinion, due to users being physically tied to an on-line computer, and existing wireless providers already able to offer long-distance quite cheaply via national service plans and/or offerings of free calling on weekends and after 7 P.M. during weekdays.

Bottom Line: "Seeing What's Next's" greatest contribution is probably through demonstrating how difficult seeing into the future actually can be.

Just as Michael Porter is the authority on Strategy, Clayton Christensen has become the authority on Innovation. He has not only created a great business theory, he has created an institution that defines our modern understanding of disruptive innovation. The foundations of his business theory are unimpeachable and the illustrations of the theory across industries are appealing to professionals inside and outside the industry alike.

In this book, Christensen's students expand on the theory first proposed in The Innovator's Dilemma to create a framework that can predict whether an innovation might be disruptive (read. has potential to transform an entire industry or create a new one). The impact of understanding and applying this theory is large.

This book maintains the quality level I have come to expect of books published by HBS press, paralleled only by Harper Business. The illustrations in this book include the Telecommunications, Education, Aviation, Semiconductors and Health Care industries. The book dedicates a couple of chapters that are of international interest: Nonmarket Factors and Innovation Overseas. This whets the appetite but does not quench the thirst for more. In the US business environment where global influence is becoming more and more relevant for future growth, it would make sense for a next book in the series focusing entirely on the overseas perspective.

It is hard to pull off a quality job on part three of a sequel without rock-solid grounding. A keen student, I hope to see a lot more come out of Innosight and the institution of Innovation that is Clayton Christensen.

This is certainly a worthwhile read. The concepts are a great mix of grounded theory and in depth information. There are no earth-shattering concepts, or get rich quick schemes, just sound strategy on how to analyze the industry leaders of the future. One concern that is not addressed is how to determine what will be a disruptive innovation and what will be a poor investment. He does encourage readers to look at nonconsumers, and create a product or service that this group would want to consume. However, I can't help but think that behind every failed innovation is a person who thought they had this dialed in. For example, Christensen cites VOIP as likely for cooption by incumbents, and suggests that one way for start ups to prevail is to offer VOIP as a second line. I am in the telecom industry, and do not see this as a viable option. Even he admits that second lines have been in decline for years, but more than that, those that do have second lines are often the most technologically resistant consumers. They are still using dial up or resisting cell phones. The consumers who are likely to use VOIP do not want to add on a second line, they want to replace their landline. This in an example of the idea for disruption still remaining mysterious. However, for those of us whose job it is to navigate the changing environment, not come up with the idea, this book is a must read.