Organizations Books

This book is terrific! If it can help a person like me with a budget it can work for anyone. I can't say enough about this book. It's a great investment to help everyone.

At 35 and watching the world in financial crisis I decided to do something about my own financial budget. I needed help getting started and organized. I am just digging my way out of being in deep debt and I don't want to use credit cards any more. I want to be financially able to pay for stuff in cash by saving up for it. I went through high school and missed one very important thing and that was them teaching me life skills. I learned what I needed to to get into college but not how to budget my money. No more living from paycheck to paycheck. Thank you Cheryl Hosking for writing "Get to it! Organizational Solutions For Everyday Life... Budget Book." It has changed my financial future for the better. I recommend this book to everyone young and old to please buy this book and save your financial future. Get on track and you be in control of your money. Quit living from paycheck to paycheck and save for the fun things in life. God Bless.

In terms of getting organized and taking control of your financial responsibilities, this is virtually certain to be the most important single book you will ever read. It will literally save you a fortune and zero out financial stress forever. The simple changes I have adopted because of this book have made a world of difference in my family finances.

I am not only making this my personal financial handbook, I am teaching my children Cheryl Hosking's system. She has done all the research and testing. You just have to adopt her system. It not only works like a charm, it is easy to stick with the program. The book includes the exact information, including the tracking forms I needed to get painlessly organized.

This book rates an A+++. It takes the pain out of a normally painful task. There is no fluff or hype here. The book is well designed, concise and eminently practical.

If you only buy one book this year, do yourself or someone you love a huge favor and make this the book. It's that good and it's that valuable.

At 38, I realized I had gone from my father handling my finances, to my husband handling them. I was too overwhelmed and scared to get any control for myself. Ms. Hosking's book helped make me comfortable with being in charge of my own finacial future. The "Get To It Budget Book" is easy to understand, and a great way to help you get ahead of debt. Thanks to it, I am thriving on a part time income! Highly recommended for anyone!

I learned of this book title and author mentioned on the ASAP horse rescue website, and I'm very glad I did. A lot of careful thought goes into the decision to take on the lifelong commitment of adopting a rescued horse. This book brought up many easy to understand details I may not have considered properly before making a decision. Nothing speaks more clearly than experience. With all of the helpful references, it's a very useful and enjoyable read.

This book complies basic information and is layed out well and a good starter book.. One thing I was disappointed is that it didn't really outline how to start up a Horse rescue but then again it didn't state that it did- A overall nice book !

This book is a fantastic read for those interested in the practical side of rescuing horses. It describes the various conditions rescued horses may be suffering from and how to recognize them. I highly recommend this book to anyone who might even consider starting a horse rescue or rescuing a horse from a bad situation.

I found this book extremely informative and an enjoyable read. The author obviously writes from experience and with a desire to encourage responsible horse ownership. She offers helpful advice for first horse owners and outlines the issues involved when taking on a horse in distress. For those of us with soft hearts and a lack of good sense, when it comes to an animal is trouble, this is a handy and humorous guide that will help us do the most good where it is desprately needed.

Wonderful array of best practices of the top global companies

Wonderful array of best practices of the top global companies

This is truly a fascinating study about globalization. As told by Marquardt "two years ago, a large consulting firm that helps companies go global gave me a list of the ten most common questions its clients had about globalization :

1. How do you create a global culture?

2. What are the key components of globalization?

3. How do you create a global mind-set?

4. What kinds of skills should we look for in global managers?

5. Why do some people fail when going overseas?

6. How do we establish a global training program?

7. What experiences should we give our future leaders?

8. Should everyone in the organization become globalized?

9. Is there an order or process in which a company should go global?

10. Where can we go for help as we work toward globalization?

This list inspired me to write this book, for I realized that these questions had no easy answers and that only a handful of companies had resolved even of these issues."

In this context, after defining six components of his "GlobalSuccess" model, Marquardt explores and illustrates these six components, namely corporate culture, human resources, strategies, operations, structure and learning with best practices of more than forty successful global companies, such as : GE, Whirlpool, Colgate-Palmolive, Shell, Coca-Cola, Xerox, FedEx and HP.

I highly recommend this study. As proclaimed by Jack Welch " companies either globalize or they die."

Excellent overview as well as best practices in globalizatio

This book is invaluable if you love the rosary. It contains all of his writings: Letters; The Love of Eternal Wisdom; Letter to the Friends of the Cross; The Secret of the Rosary; Methods for Saying the Rosary; The Secret of Mary; True Devotion to the Blessed Virgin; and much, much more. St. Louise Marie de Montfort had a spiritual depth that was awesome. Reading this book was a blessing beyond description.

St. Louis DeMontfort had alot of insight into the mysteries of our Catholic faith in regards to Mary our Mother. If you want to get to know Mary, read St. Louis' works. This book is a collection of all of his works - which means that this is the book for you!

I ordered this book and when I first got it I was struck to my knees and my love of Christ rose to levels I could only hope for. Sentances would bring me to tears, because of the powerful way they were written and what they said. I can say this with my entire heart, my faith grew by leaps and bounds because of this book and in particular the secrets of the rosary, which is included in this book. I hope you all buy this book either for yourself or for someone else . It is perfect for any and all Catholics, you will find that you will read this book for the rest of your life, and each time you read it you will learn something new

God Bless

At last there is a compilation of all the known written works of St. Louis Marie de Montfort in one volume! Not only is it important for those of us who seek to deepen our understanding of The Incarnation, one sees a side of the great saint that is normally not known. Many Catholics fail to see the importance of what St. Louis was all about, however, Pope John Paul II, who had read all of his works and took them to heart, is a true example of what will happen if we take the writings of this great saint to heart.

I work for a not-for-profit organization that has increased its non-US activity (as measured by revenue) by 150% in the last 10 years. Four years ago, we began considering the governance and operational implications of this change. Going Global for the Greater Good was one of the key tools we used to orient member leaders, managers and staff to what such change really entails. Her continuum, "The Six Stages of International Engagement," helped us understand where we were and to what we aspire. We were on the edge between levels 4 and 5 at that point. As a result of our work, informed by this book, we've brought in new member leaders from outside the US, added technical infrastructure in Europe, and continue to increase our non-US activity every year. A major change being contemplated in our governance structure this year (April and May 2008) could take us to the cusp of level 6.

Nonprofits considering expanding into the global arena are often overwhelmed by the complexities and sensitivities involved. Koenig's book breaks the process into practical steps for integrating global considerations into all the strategic directions and goals of the organization. It is realistic about the challenges but optimistic about possibilities. Useful features include bibliographies, an excellent index and case studies of global efforts by organizations. The book cannot be compared to any others I know of because there aren't any others. Koenig has filled a gap and filled it well.

The practical advice and examples from a variety of organizations both large and small are balanced with clear explanations of the principles as well as the personal and organizational challenges of action on the global stage. This sort of activism is not easy and Bonnie Koenig's insights are very helpful. Eve Sullivan, PARENTS FORUM®

As someone who spent many years working or volunteering in multinational organizations and who cares deeply about international issues, I found the book to be an excellent primer for a nonprofit thinking about entering or deepening its international engagement. I truly believe that it is essential for every nonprofit to become more aware of its role in the global community. This book can get your nonprofit started.
While most of the examples are from US nonprofits, in the spirit of the book, the author also includes examples from other countries.

You might be surprised at the nonprofits that already have benefited from international connections, such as Chicago's StreetWise, Boston-headquartered City Year, or the Association of Fundraising Professionals.

The book is easy reading and raises issues that any nonprofit will need to consider as it deepens its international involvement. It gives very helpful examples of other nonprofits that have addressed some of those issues. It is not in the scope of the book to give detailed answers to every question - for example, the mechanics of fundraising in other countries.

Of particular usefulness is the author's attention to both strategic and practical advice for nonprofits going international - from big picture issues such as organizational structure to more mundane but essential challenges such as setting up phone meetings across international time zones. The book is particularly good at highlighting cross-cultural communication considerations. Ms. Koenig's 20 years of experience working with local, national and international nonprofits, and her time spent living abroad, clearly show through.

Good Governance for Nonprofits takes the somewhat confusing ingredients of board governances and puts it into simple, real, applicable terms. A must read for anyone serving or managing a nonprofit board.

[...]

Having served on a number of nonprofit boards this book describes very precisely how more management organization and thinking can assist those with "good intentions" who often serve on nonprofit boards and probably should not. It should be a book given to all new directors invited to join the board. Given a more structured look, nonprofits will find that they cannot continue with "it's his/her time to be on the board". The annual affirmation statement of board members should be a must for all directors as it brings a focus to why they are there and what is expected.The ideas and suggestions in the book are applicable to nonprofits of every size. While a good portion of the book is obvious and reasonable, it is unfortunate that the obvious is not always practiced by more well intentioned board members. Bringing a longer term strategic focus can only assist an organization in building a more successful future.

This is a readable and USEFUL book for all non-profits. The principles are solid and are adaptable to organizations at any and all stages of growth and development. The authors encourage the quest for good governance as a journey for the board to take together. Their willingness to share their many significant handouts is appreciated for it not only saves work to re-create them but they are a representation of the authors' learning discovery and wisdom. I highly commend it to all who work with non-profits.

This is a practical "add-water-and-stir" book with everything you need for developing a Board Policy Manual. I am recommending it to all of my nonprofit clients.

Proven Strategies Professional Use to Make Their Proposals Work is the rare book that delivers what it promises. It looks under the hood and tweaks the writing process in an insightful and cogent way. From developing a strategic approach, to researching to establish need, to using logic models to develop your grant application, to thinking through your evaluation plan, and using your budget to tell your story -- all the grant development building blocks are here in useful detail. Michael Wells has gifted the reader with street smarts and soul. My two thumbs are way up!

It is rare to find a book directed towards the experienced professional. The logic model section is especially helpful for planning more complicated applications including those to federal agencies. I found the information thorough, well presented, and usable, which is refreshing in a book about writing grant applications. I also found the case study exceptional. Seeing a winning proposal is always helpful but seeing the thought process behind the writing is a great way to get the point across. No matter how long you have been writing grant proposals, you can always learn more. This book gives excellent insight into today's funding world.

Michael Well's book is an excellent resource for grant professionals who have moved beyond the basics and are interested in expanding their knowledge and professional skills.

Michael has been actively involved as a leader in the developing grants profession, and his many years of professionalism and experience are evident in this work. He covers a wide range of topics that are faced when developing grant proposals, as well as managing and tracking grants. Further, he offers excellent real-life examples and samples.

I especially found the section on developing logic models to be useful. This is an area of grant proposals that many grantwriters handle poorly, and Michael has provided clear guidance and excellent examples that will help developing grant professionals take their work to the next level.

I would definitely recommend it to grant professionals interested in moving behind "Grantsmanship 101."

Although the title says that this book is to cover "Beyond the Basics," it will also serve as a good primer checklist to tell you what you need to get started. It begins with a general discussion on the rising number of nonprofits that are seeking grants from the rising number of granting organizations.

From there it goes into what it takes to make your grant fit what the grantor is looking for. It lightly covers each point of grant seeking including mundane things like accounting/budgets and the impact of various laws and IRS rulings like Sarbanes-Oxley. It also goes into what the reader is going to be looking for such as how the grant will be managed, why the foundation doesn't like to fund adminstration, operating costs and endowments, and other points.

Perhaps the most important part of the book is its discussion of where to go for more information on nearly every aspect of the grantwriting project. Many of these are web related at no cost, others such as the authors favorite books on grant writing have fairly nominal costs.

Reading "Guiding Growth" has been a joy - finally a practical book about vision. Like Lipton, I was suspicious about the whole vision industry, but his book has helped to look at the concept in a different light.
The distinction between the 3 principles - raison d'etre, strategy and values is most insightful (especially since raison d'etre and strategy are often mixed up).
Despite all good intentions, the reality is that the vision process often ends with the communication of a vision statement. Lipton shows how the real impact can go far beyond just an energising event: it is pivotal in guiding and sustaining growth.

In my own experience vision is often treated with more suspicion in Europe than in the US. Lipton's book, however, is as valuable for those who are in charge of building or changing an organisation in the US as in Europe (or any other part of the world) - Guiding Growth goes beyond the hype. It asks some tough questions and invites you to think about how you can unlock the wholehearted commitment of your workforce by providing meaning to the existence of the organization. A must.

I was the founder and CEO of a small software company ..., and was approached by a much larger technology company ... . After making an acquisition offer I could not refuse, I sold my business to them and agreed to run it for four years.

If only we had read this book about using vision to guide growth during our transition. Ultimately, the acquisition failed within two years for the buyer. This book offers three components of a well-developed organizational vision: raison d'etre, strategy and values. The buying company never took the time to go beyond a "bumper sticker" for a vision statement. Although it did seem on track with my company's reason for being, there was never an agreement on the strategy. The tension and disagreement (not to mention the time taken) related to these differences effectively crippled my previously highly motivated and productive staff. The key values of the two companies could not have been more different. The centerpiece of our values before acquisition involved doing whatever it took to make our customers happy-most of which had on-going consulting contracts with us. The executive from the buying company literally told my staff that this philosophy was both unnecessary and an expensive luxury.

This book struck a real chord with me because it made it so clear where the gaps were. It obviously would have taken more than a book to convince the buying company to think more carefully through their plan, but having it all documented could've made the upcoming potholes in the road more obvious. And if we had actually implemented an agreed vision, I am sure the business could have continued on its previous success.

The first half of the book lays out how vision is important and why it is not just another buzzword, but how it is a crucial element to grow a company. The second half gives more guidelines on the details of implementation. It took some patience to pull all the ideas together in Part I-it is much more conceptual than Part II-- but stick with it-its worth it. The anecdotes are great and the corresponding checklists and appendices give it a lot of substance. The second half is an easier read and filled with practical management advice-some related directly to vision and some just good solid management practice guidelines.

As a seller of my business, I was very successful. I would have preferred to make the buyer even more successful and watch my company flourish with their greater resources. This book came four years too late for me. I will certainly recommend it to current clients in my consulting practice and keep it handy for my next venture.

Yippee! No academic psycho-babble, overly complex diagrams, or overly simplistic management fables in this one. "Guiding Growth" is smart, witty, and engaging - a must-read for business leaders concerned about sustainable competitive advantage.

Lipton begins by admitting something few other professor/consultant/authors would ever dare: he was wrong. Convinced that the link between vision and growth was over-rated, that vision statements were just a passing fad, Lipton was surprised when his research proved exactly the opposite. Now, readers can reap the benefits of Lipton's change of heart. In "Guiding Growth," he leads us through the journey of understanding how valuable a clear vision can be when articulated and acted upon in a powerful way.

Mark Lipton's writing voice is passionate and profoundly personal. While this book is well-grounded in research and experience, it is Lipton's use of stories and metaphors that will have a long-lasting effect on you. Yes, he makes you think; more important, he makes you feel something in your heart and in your gut. It is this quality that sets this book apart from other business books.

Be forewarned: the feelings "Guiding Growth" provokes can be very uncomfortable at times. Throughout the early chapters, I stopped often to think and jot down notes about my own vision, my own raison d'etre, as Lipton raised "Why?" questions over and over again. By the end of Chapter 4, I was saying "Yes! Yes! Yes!" as the vision for my work became clearer. Reading Chapter 5 brought tears to my eyes as he described the strong connection between vision and deeply held values based on life experiences.

The second half of the book holds valuable advice for all business leaders: how to put that vision into action, overcome obstacles, and avoid pitfalls. Lipton's Vision Framework has been tried and tested - he proves his points with examples drawn from well-known companies.

Kudos to Mark Lipton for having the guts to publicly concede that he was wrong and for taking the time to share his lessons learned with us in this book. -- Cynthia C. Froggatt, author of "Work Naked: Eight Essential Principles for Peak Performance in the Virtual Workplace" (Jossey-Bass/Wiley, 2001), ...

Ah, corporate vision statements. Before reading Guiding Growth I did not put great faith in them. I, as the author, Mark Lipton, was not convinced of the power of corporate visions at the beginning of his research. Visioning to some extent has been a management fad that has come and gone. However Lipton's research finds that for companies who truly have a vision that helps their companies stretch and grow, and is deeply embedded in their organizations; the market returns are demonstrably better.

Vision, in Lipton's model is composed of three elements: raison d'être, strategy and values. In Guiding Growth Whole Foods Market is quoted as saying `our vision statement reflects the hope and intentions of many people. We do not believe it always accurately portrays the way things currently are at Whole Foods market so much as the way would like things to be. It is our dissatisfaction with the current reality, when compared with what is possible, that spurs us toward excellence and toward creating a better, company and world.' Strong stuff indeed. And in ManyWorlds' experience, for many companies the articulation of a vision is often based on their heritage, not to where they want to grow, and not what differentiates them.

Lipton also examines the role of executive groups (not teams) and the alignment of people processes with vision, to bring the vision alive, real and accountable. The book is as much about leadership and organizational culture as it is about growth and vision, which are of course the fruits and seeds of each other, within the organizational greenhouse. He writes, `Organizations rocketing through extended periods of growth. To succeed, they need a combination of all the right ingredients and they must be in near-perfect alignment. If one element is missing, or out of alignment, then the potential for failure rockets as well...all organization share the same need to have the right ingredients in place and to ensure they are aligned and that is what the executive group accomplishes through the vision framework.'

Peppered with examples from a range of companies and with deeper analysis of high-growth organizations such as Oakley, Lipton has done an excellent job of presenting both a visioning framework and insights into culture and leadership into a practical and usable work. Helpful lists of questions, checklists and exercises bring this already enthusiastic text to a more approachable and actionable level. Highly recommended for executives and managers from a variety of functional areas including business unit heads and `service lines' such as HR.

Apart from being a great book on working with RSS, this is a great Python book. The running theme in the book is extracting information and presenting it in RSS form. Since you have to get the information from somewhere the non-RSS code provides a wealth of documented examples that you can put use in your own projects. It's worth getting this book just for the code samples.

So if you are interested in getting started with Python or you are a competent Python hacker you will definitely learn something by reading the code and be able to add more tricks to your Python toolbox.

The book is very logically arranged into 3 parts. For using feeds, making feeds and mixing feeds. Most readers will probably deal with the first part and maybe the third part.

Using feeds is explained as being able to aggregate data from websites offering these using RSS or Atom methods. From which, you can see how to recast the output into HTML pages for your website. Or maybe send it to your mailbox. Actually and more realistically, to the mailboxes of those who visit your website and ask for this feed.

Orchard deliberately does not go much into the fine distinctions between the different and incompatible RSS standards. Or likewise with the various Atom formats. More technical books can discuss these points ad nauseum. But Orchard is aiming this text at a programmer who just wants to put together a news feed, and does not really care about lower level details.

Making a news feed is the second part of the book. Only a fraction of readers will head here. It's not easy to produce original content, after all.

The last part of the book is essentially an advanced continuation of the first part. You are shown how to embed higher level logic into processing the feeds. With an extensive example on using a Bayesian to try to identify news articles that might be of interest to your readership. Be aware that the Bayesian method is not perfect. Occasionally, you might get an incongruous article.

Definitely, Orchard has produced a nice programming book. (In Python.)

Often times there's information somewhere on the web that you want to use in your own computing. Perhaps you want to look at news stories and display the headlines of what's happening today with a link to the site of the story. In the early days of the web, when you wanted to do something like that you had to do it manually or do some kind of hard coding to parse the information you wanted out of the HTML. Tedious, and if they ever change their web page you're re-doing your code.

This is the problem that RSS/Atom are intended to fix. These are standards that, when followed, present the information from a site in a standardized manner that makes it easy to parse.

First, what this book is NOT. This book does not tell you all the details about how to put RSS/Atom information up on a site. Instead, this book is on taking the information from an RSS/Atom 'page' and getting into a form you can use.

The book is broken down into three parts: Consuming Feeds, Producing Feeds, Remixing Feeds. In each part the author programs a few simple applications to show you what can be done. The programming is in Python, the operating system he uses is Linux.

The only complaint I could make about this book is that it would help the newbie to have another chapter at the beginning that talked about some common feeds and the nature of the tags they use to encapsulate their data.

Rather than just read RSS feeds, would you like to *do stuff* with RSS and Atom? I received a copy of a really good book that goes beyond the nuts and bolts of RSS formatting... Hacking RSS and Atom by Leslie M. Orchard.

Contents:
Part 1 - Consuming Feeds: Getting Ready to Hack; Building a Simple Feed Aggregator; Routing Feeds to Your Email Inbox; Adding Feeds to Your Buddy List; Taking Your Feeds with You; Subscribing to Multimedia Content Feeds
Part 2 - Producing Feeds: Building a Simple Feed Producer; Taking the Edge Off Hosting Feeds; Scraping Web Sites to Produce Feeds; Monitoring Your Server with Feeds; Tracking Changes in Open Source Projects; Routing Your Email Inbox to Feeds; Web Services and Feeds
Part 3 - Remixing Feeds: Normalizing and Converting Feeds; Filtering and Sifting Feeds; Blending Feeds; Republishing Feeds; Extending Feeds
Part 4 - Implementing a Shared Feed Cache
Index

This book starts with the assumption that you either already understand all the details of RSS/Atom formatting, or that you're willing to learn the details on your own as you go. This is *not* a reference book on RSS standards. Rather, Orchard answers the question "what can you *do* with RSS that's cool and useful?". Using a series of projects, he starts to get you thinking about how you might use RSS technology in ways you haven't considered. For instance, having your log files report things via RSS feed could give you immediate notice of unusual situations. Or perhaps having RSS feeds go to your IM client would allow you to react quickly to news and information. The possibilities are endless, and Orchard does a good job in getting you to think.

The caveat here is that he assumes a particular software language and platform for building these hacks. Python is the language used, so this book would be most helpful if you already knew the language (or were willing to figure it out on the fly). Likewise, he writes for the Unix platform primarily. You can use Unix emulators like Cygwin to run Unix-like command in Windows, or you can mentally adapt the concepts to whatever hack you want to build. At first I was thinking that single focus might be a liability for the book. But after thinking about it, I don't think it's that bad. It maintains the focus on the hack instead of on how every different platform needs to be coded, hence the book is more concise. Also, his goal is to get you to hack and experiment, not to teach you a technology via a tutorial. Since hacking is experimenting, you may end up hacking these ideas on a couple of different fronts...

Excellent idea and application book... If you're interested in going beyond simple feed readers and building stuff for yourself, this is a definite purchase you want to check out...

I'm a massage therapist and used part of this book to study for the National Certification Examination for Therapeutic Massage and Bodywork (NCETMB). This book is really helpful for showing you how to take a client history. This book is needed because it shows you the legalities and proper way to run a massage business. Documenation protects you in cases of audits and also is a source for assessing the client's progress and contraindications. I also studied the following for the National Certification Exam:
The Ultimate Study Guide for the National Certification Examination for Therapeutic Massage and Bodywork: Key Review Questions and Answers (Volume 1), (Volume 2), and (Volume 3)
(Author: Patrick Leonardi)
The last 3 books helped me to prepare for the type of questions encountered on the national certification examination. I highly recommend all 4 books. I passed the first time with the help of these books

Very thoroughly explains why to document manual therapies, professionalism, and how to document effectively. Diana Thompson has lots of experience and know-how to share!

I've watched this book evolve over a number of versions. Each one gets better and better. Yes, at times Dianna Thompson appears obsessive but on the other hand, that's what makes it great. Recently I was asked to write a detailed case summary that will be used as evidence in a lawsuit for a client I saw over a year ago. My SOAP notes are what saved the day for me. Thanks Diana. This book is essential for anyone working in a therapeutic environment.

Her first edition of "Hands Heal" was a collection of forms used for charting massage therapy sessions. When I saw the new book on the shelf being three times as thick as the first I thought "Oh my what more can be done with charting!" I now understand her obsession with charting. It is not just charting your sessions, but learning to communicate what you do, so the medical community and the public will begin to understand massage therapy as a healing modality. Communication starts with the therapeutic relationship with the client. Healing begins when the client becomes involved in the process. Then you can pass the information along to all parties involved - the lawyers, the doctors, whoever. If you document every treatment, you will be able to find out what is working and what is not with each individual. Documentation can assist you in builing your practice and support the massage profession as a whole. I particularly liked the section on ethics as she supports the idea of peer groups, mentoring and supervision as a means of development for the practitioner. I believe the future of the profession lies in those areas.
If you are a massage therapist in any state, this will guide you to a successful practice whether you are involved in billing insurance companies or not.