Business Books

I read at least hundred books a year on business and this one as provided some incredibly coherent thinking on the nature of strategy and systems thinking! We use the concepts in the Stanford Advanced Project Management program and managers really begin to understand the nature of what good planning looks like!

Everything in life has risk. The advantage that the entrepreneurial business model has is that it encourages risk taking. The entrepreneur is willing to risk his time, his investment in a venture that the established companies are unwilling to undertake. The bigger the company, and perhaps the older, the more risk adverse it becomes. Perhaps I should say organization rather than company, because bigger organizations like our Federal Government cannot afford risk, the price of failure is too high when the '60 Minutes' reporters show up.

In this book Dr. Chatterjee attempts to define business risk in ways that a corporation might use to understand, minimize and work around failure in a proposed venture. As he puts it in Chapter 1, 'How to See Gold Where Others See Risk: Identify More Choices to Get the Gold.' While you have to accept that any risk at all means that sometime you will fail. It is also axiomatic that the higher the risk, the higher the potential for return.

This book gives a framework for identifying high risk/high return opportunities, and first evaluating the risk and then finding ways to minimize the loss in the case of failure.

Business is a specialized extension of life, so the reality is that there is no failsafe. However, that is what makes the game so interesting. For if you could not fail, business, like life, would be very dull and uninteresting. In the modern world, jobs are being created and destroyed at a rate faster than at any time in history. There is also no doubt that the pace of change will continue to accelerate. Furthermore, the physical location of jobs is also changing at a rapid rate. However, the rate of change of job movement will slow and eventually flatten out. As countries such as India and China develop, the wage differential will narrow. Finally, at some point most of the jobs that can be outsourced will have been outsourced.
In this environment, the challenges can be overwhelming. The sensible person explores every possible advantage and there is a great deal of sense in this book. Overall business strategy, rather than operational aspects, is the focus. While new technologies are continuously being developed and are creating new business opportunities, the strategies examined here are applications requiring very little new technology.
There are two key points, the first is how to identify a new market that can be exploited and the second is how to manage your growth. Two aspects of markets are described. The first is as a white space, which is a market niche that is currently unexploited. While these are market opportunities, there is a danger in being the first mover. With no history to examine, it is easy to be a trailblazer for others who will avoid your mistakes and be in a better position to exploit the market. The second is the sweet spot, which is a location that will allow you to maintain your advantage and defend it against others who might want to challenge your position.
Several case histories are presented, including an extensive one about Enron in an appendix. Companies such as Dell computer, Southwest airlines and Jet Blue are examined, including their strategies for entering markets and how they manage to maintain their position and profits, even through difficult times. However, I found the case history of Enron to be the most interesting. Their initial business strategy was a brilliant one, but when Enron branched out into other areas without performing the due diligence of research, they began to experience failures. It was the attempt to maintain the façade of unrelenting success that led to their downfall. Rather than admit to the failures, managers at Enron began to engage in account manipulation that snowballed as failures grew in magnitude and number.
As the world changes rapidly, market niches are created and destroyed and are not always evident. Entering these niches requires forethought, courage and determination to succeed. If even one is missing, failure is likely. The information in this book will help you to identify new niches and ask the right questions concerning whether you should enter one. You must supply the courage and determination.

“This book develops a set of concepts that allow you to design business models where the risk can be reduced to practical proportions. The risks in any business come from not knowing the demand, threat from competition, and not having the appropriate capabilities. The basic theme repeated over and over again is that to reduce risk, you need to have clarity regarding where the risks are and create choice, or options, in tackling those risks. We use numerous examples of business strategies to illustrate the concepts. But more to the point, the concepts developed in this book enable you to quickly visualize successful strategies as well as avoid the common pitfalls. However, by no means are we claiming that the strategies we use as examples were developed using our frameworks. We are very aware of academic ‘after the fact’ analysis of famous strategies that in no way portrays the reality of how those strategies were developed. Notable examples are Honda, Wal-Mart, and Southwest. This is where our book differs. Rather than looking backward to try to understand these famous strategies, which is often the case with academic analysis, we use these examples as ‘exercises’ to help you re-create these strategies using our framework and methodology – a process that should help you internalize our concepts faster (from the Introduction).”

In this context, Sayan Chatterjee divides this excellent book into two broad sections-ten chapters and an Appendix. He briefly summarizes each of them as following:

I. THE FIRST SECTION develops concepts that allow a firm to clearly understand the nature of the risks in a given business.

1. In the first chapter, we explore the choice dimensions when designing a strategy – how to identify multiple business models. By identifying multiple business models, you will be able to minimize competitive risks by essentially changing the rules of the game.

2. This brings us to the final concept, which you will explore further in Chapter 2. Even if you manage to reduce competitive risks by identifying a competitive logic that is distinctly different from competitors, you are still vulnerable to capability risks.

3. In Chapter 3, we revisit the choice dimensions that allows you to consider different capability configurations that can deliver the same core objectives without making the mistakes made by Continental CALite. This will help you understand how elements of a successful strategy from one business can be applied to just about any business without undue capability risks.

4. In Chapter 4, we will review the different options to reduce capability risks that we have seen so far with some more examples. These options are using an existing or off-the-shelf capability and investment in capabilities that affect part of the value chain, sometimes in order to outsource the risky capabilities. Thus Lilly, Cisco, FedEx Custom Critical, and Sony PlayStation have outsourced the critical parts of their value chains contrary to conventional wisdom.

5. In Chapter 5, you will consider some techniques for reducing capability risks at the operational level.

6. In Chapter 6, we describe the characteristics of organizations that are the best suited to benefit from the types of frameworks described in this book.

II. THE SECOND SECTION expands the framework developed in the first section to growth and diversification strategies.

7. In Chapter 7, we look at generic strategies for adapting to a market.

8. In Chapter 8, you will consider entry strategies based on low price. You also will consider the market characteristics that reduce the risks of such a strategy. In particular, you examine one of the foremost proponents of the low-price strategies, Dell Computer, and how it has leveraged its low-cost operations into many markets by under pricing incumbents. Firms contemplating a low-price entry strategy can learn some important lessons from Dell.

9. In Chapter 9, you will look at the risk factors in shaping a market from scratch. These strategies take a long time to come to fruition, involve much bigger bets, and are inherently more risky. The strategies are usually also the most profitable and most long-lasting.

10. In Chapter 10, you look at managing these risks in a more dynamic context. You will see how to identify choices not only when designing a strategy, but how to keep the options open and defer commitments. By keeping options open, you will be able to commit resources when you have the best understanding of the risks.

III. THE APPENDIX presents a detailed analysis of the rise and fall of Enron using the risk management lens.

Finally, S. Chatterjee says that “Most management books use examples of past successes and failures to justify their frameworks. Of course, this is necessary, and we have also done that to a large extent. However, we have also gone out on a limb and made predictions about the strategies of the best companies in the world. Some of these predictions are not favorable, but if we believe in our frameworks, the true test will have to come in their predictive ability and not by looking in the rearview mirror. Imagine if someone had predicted Enron’s problems in 1999!”

Strongly recommended.

No strategy is failsafe, of course, but there is much we can do to take better risks and avoid mistakes. "The whole reason business exists is to take risks; otherwise we should be keeping our money in treasury bills," writes Sayan Chatterjee, a professor of management policy at Case Western Reserve University. To mitigate risk, he continues, executives need both clarity and choice, and to that end his guide offers expert case studies and a practical framework. Chatterjee's ideas are broad enough to encompass products and services as diverse as computer games, cars, printers, airline travel, medical imaging, and more.

Section one focuses on designing a strategy that anticipates and avoids risk. The point he makes, through discussion and examples of companies such as Dell, Microsoft, Continental, Southwest, Sony, Nintendo, and others, is that the design of a strategy needs to be flexible and replicable, as well as clearly understood by all employees and easy to talk about at the water cooler.

Section two explores risk in the context of growth and diversification strategies, and Chatterjee's detailed analysis uses some of the same companies. Comparing Dell and Microsoft, for example, he suggests that Dell tends to adapt to existing markets by leveraging the capabilities it already possesses, while Microsoft is proving itself more the market shaper.

No framework should operate as a template or checklist. But if this one is considered in a thoughtful way, Chatterjee says, it might help a company devise a strategy tailored to its own opportunities and risks.

Table of Contents:

Introduction: Understanding risk: the real key to competitive strategy
Section I: Designing strategies for avoiding risk

1. How to see gold where others see risk: identify more choices to get the gold
2. Three steps to design a low risk strategy
3. Identifying multiple capability configurations
4. Designing strategies with low capability risks
5. Lowering capability risks with visible and invisible outputs
6. Organizations that can benefit from the outcome to objectives framework

Section II: The risks in growth and diversification strategy

1. When and how to use differentiation entry strategy
2. When and how to use a low-price entry strategy
3. Strategies to shape markets: products, process and platform
4. Develop multiple migration paths

Appendix: Enron's incremental descent into bankruptcy: a strategic and organizational analysis
Epilogue

This book could easily have been titled "Everything you ever needed to know about rural land sales but didn't know who to ask, or even that you should ask." The Schers give detailed explanations of very complex real estate issues that you just aren't going to be familiar with if you've only bought urban housing or have never bought property at all. I personally know people who have experienced some of the real estate and legal horrors that Les describes in this book. I'm so glad someone finally put all this information together in one somewhat easy-to-read reference... now I know how to keep myself out of the same jams! Even the things that don't specifically apply to my location are good to understand since, in some way, they might still affect me in the long run. Lots of great pointers to additional references and government/legal agencies that I've been trying to pin down.

Definitely a MUST HAVE for any modern homesteader... enthusiastic two thumbs up!!!

I read the book, it cover a lot of the things that I haven't even think about for owning land. Anyone who is looking to buy land to invest, this book is a must read.

My husband and I are considering buying some undeveloped land. While we own a house, we know nothing about rural land purchases and didn't even know what questions we should be asking. This brook provided a good overview of issues to consider, and the checklist at the back of things to inspect/ask about for each property was especially helpful.

This guide has everything I could imagine and alot I couldn't....which is of course the point.

If comprehensive is what you want, this should make you happy. The problem is that if you follow every bit of advice in this book you will have to quit your job and make finding your place a full time endeavor (or spend years part time). The advice is all good, but it almost makes the task seem more daunting, not less. Still great for learning all the issues and things to look out for, then you decide how much effort to put into footwork before buying your piece in the country

If you are hungry for "Gourmet Financial Advice"...then feast your eyes on the clever financial cookbook "Fortune in your Cookies". In a generation of multi-task individuals the Author, Educator and Financial Gourmet, Meena Cheng is one "Smart Cookie" who has combined some of life's most important ingredients...Food, Finance and Common Cents . Her very first word "Food" helped create the clever and tastey recipes for this delicious book.

She has cooked up some sage financial wisdom that is easy to swallow, peppered it with some well balanced cuisine and tossed in a pinch and a dash of good humor... and Voila! Anyone who enjoys cooking, reading and creating fortune will eat this up...Bon Appetit!

Deftly written by certified financial planner and culinary gourmet Meena Cheng, Fortune In Your Cookies: Finding Financial Wisdom In Everyday Eating uses great food dishes as a metaphor for making wise choices and preparations for one's financial future. From investing wisely to protecting oneself against catastrophe to funding your dreams and ensuring an equitable division in the unfortunate case of divorce, Fortune In Your Cookies is a solid and clever presentation of serious money matters in simple terms, easily understood and digested by anyone who enjoys a good meal!

If you are hungry for "Gourmet Financial Advice"...then feast your eyes on the clever financial cookbook "Fortune in your Cookies". In a generation of multi-task individuals the Author, Educator and Financial Gourmet, Meena Cheng is one "Smart Cookie" who has combined some of life's most important ingredients...Food, Finance and Common Cents . Her very first word "Food" helped create the clever and tastey recipes for this delicious book.

She has cooked up some sage financial wisdom that is easy to swallow, peppered it with some well balanced cuisine and tossed in a pinch and a dash of good humor... and Voila! Anyone who enjoys cooking, reading and creating fortune will eat this up...Bon Appetit!

What a treat it was reading Meena's book. Her simplicity of style, both in recipes and approach to financial planning, is a breath of fresh air in today's complex world of day trading and returns on investement. As our generation matures and is faced with dealing with the death of our parents, we'd find the section on estate planning especially helpful. I marked it for my husband to read!

Great book to send as a gift to your sister, your mother, your dear friend or co-workers.

'Life is a banquet, and most poor suckers are starving to death' is a line from 'Auntie Mame.' Good food and good financial planning can help one live life to its fullest. In 'Fortune in Your Cookies,' Meena Cheng combines her expertise in both areas to create an entertaining primer on investments, tax matters, wills, ways to save, and much more, with recipes for delicious dishes. Her use of food metaphors for teaching time-tested principles of money management are quite apt, such as the one about crayfish. Anyone who has tried to make a meal out of crayfish can relate to the notion of how many days out of a year one must work just to pay Uncle Sam. Like the memory of an enjoyable meal with family and friends, the excellent advice in this entertaining book stays with you for a long time.

This book is a must have for all women who aspire to succeed in any business. It contains numerous uplifting career advice from women in management - a definite guide in dealing with various issues in the work place. Very informative and inspiring; I could not put it down. Highly recommended!

Girls' Guide To Power & Success invites a contemplation and discussion of girls' roles in a male-dominated world, examining the characteristics of men and women and those which could help females become stronger in the business world. Tips are wide-ranging and include a variety of powerful insights.

Interesting and concise read. I enjoyed it but my only qualm is that there are various typos and grammatical errors in the book. Maybe I'm picky because I've done a lot of proofing in my profession but it was very annoying when I came across an error...

Author and consultant Susan Wilson Solovic tells how working women can be more effective in top positions and move up the career ladder. She highlights the differences between male and female styles and cites ways that women often sabotage themselves by showing weakness and a lack of confidence in how they speak and act. Using examples and diverse quotes, she illustrates what women should do to express the power they have, which is the key to being taken seriously as a leader. Solovic challenges many overly optimistic beliefs about how things have changed for women in the U.S. workforce and backs up her assertions with recent statistics and research. We [...] highly recommend this book, which provides a welcome strategic reminder that is clearly directed toward businesswomen - though why call them girls? Oh, that's a little irony from the author or, at least we hope so.

Susan Solovic's "The Girls' Guide to Power and Success" puts it right back in our laps. We have to make the changes in our expectations and behavior. She provides the motivation and the tools.

Little has changed in the last 50 years except that there are more women in titled positions. With these titles came no change in the lack of independence from male persuasion in decision making. We're still doing it their way.

Time for women to step up to the plate, read Solovic's book and march to our own drummers.

This very useful guide is full of strategies to help you get the most out of your staff. The gardening analogy does wear a bit thin by the end of the book, but its points are valid, and it lays out a solid road map for hiring and developing employees. Author Erika Andersen provides case studies and other hands-on tools that give you the chance to apply what you learn along the way. In addition to telling you how to grow great employees, she offers information on how to decide that someone isn't going to fit and how to let them go properly. getAbstract recommends this excellent guide, which carefully explains how to become a master at hiring and keeping good employees, a very important facet of growing your business.

In the introduction, Erika Andersen lays out her underlying premise as follows: "Managing well requires skills--just like cooking or playing the piano or, yes gardening--and I hope to teach you some of those skills." She succeeds. Here's an outline of the book, chapter by chapter.

Preparing the soil. This chapter concentrates on what Andersen calls "the foundation of management success:" listening.

Plan before you plant. This is about how to set expectations. There's very good material here on core competencies and key capabilities. One very important skill that Andersen covers is learning to describe a job clearly. This is vital if you want to find the right people to do the job and if you want to establish clear expectations for them.

Picking your plants. This chapter will be hard for many managers in larger companies to implement. It covers using the interview process to make sure you're hiring the people most likely to succeed on the job. The material is good, and picks up on those listening skills mentioned in the first chapter. The sad reality, though, is that HR has co-opted the hiring process in many companies and the managers have very little say

Not too deep and not to shallow is about how to bring people on board. You will search in vain through dozens of books about managing people without finding a word, let alone a chapter, on this critical task.

The gardener's mind is a great chapter about trusting your own skill and letting human nature help you grow great people. This is the core concept beneath the metaphor. Read this chapter when you doubt yourself. Read this chapter when you are tempted to "make" something happen.

A mixed bouquet. Guess what? Everyone who works for you will be different. This is the chapter that will help you figure out how to manage each of them.

Staking and weeding. This is the day-to-day stuff you have to do to keep the garden growing. It's not very exciting most of the time, but it's absolutely essential and the great supervisors I've known have practiced it as a core part of the job. There's good material on giving feedback of all kinds.

Letting it spread. The gardening metaphor starts to break down a little here, but it's OK. This chapter is about delegation, how to do it well, and how it can make things better for everyone.

Plants into gardeners. The metaphor morphs into science fiction. Imagine the plants in the garden rising up and seeking nutrients on their own, watering each other and thriving. Andersen shares her coaching model in this chapter.

How does your garden grow? The metaphor is back and working. Andersen re-states the core idea that successful gardeners trust their own skills and the power of (human) nature. She offers her "management decision tree" to help you work effectively with your team members. If you like complex decision trees, you'll love it. If you don't, skip it. There's enough good narrative and example here that the decision tree is not really necessary.

Some plants don't make it. I wish this chapter had come earlier in the book, but I'm glad it's here. Too many authors imply that if you do as they suggest everything will work wonderfully and profit and joy will reign. Every working manager knows that's impossible. Sometimes you have to help a team member move on to another job where they can thrive. There are tools here to help you.

The master gardener. When you become responsible for people and their performance you enter a field where you will never know everything. I tell new supervisors that it will take them a year and a half at least to become effective and at least ten years of work to master the art of supervision. Even then you won't know or be good at everything. In this final chapter, Andersen comes to terms with that by giving you tools to guide your own development.

If you are responsible for managing people and their performance this book will help you do your job more effectively. It is an absolute must-read for working managers and for senior executives who want to improve people management in their organizations.

Tending the garden is metaphor and departure point for this brilliantly clear, wise and pragmatic book. If you aspire to be an effective leader, if you strive to achieve the potentiality of those who work with you or for you - whether you are a human resources professional, a CEO or newly minted supervisor - Erika Andersen's insights, tools and exercises will deepen your skills, give you fresh insights, and reinvigorate you.

GROWING GREAT EMPLOYEES reminds me that one's humanity plays a big role in becoming an influential leader. The importance of being a good listener, a mentor, being bold, honest, responsible and accessible to those around you are welcomed reminders in this era of myopic functionality, quarterly returns, and corporate liability.

Beyond trend, GGE will be a `perennially' relevant resource for the business community.

Growing Great Employees is an exceptional resource guide to building and managing a powerful team. We send this book to all of our clients, candidates and new hires as it is full of inspiration, powerful tools, practical examples and insight. Erika's conversational writing style, realistic examples, and multi-faceted approach empowers each reader to enhance their leadership skills and manage with confidence.

Erika Andersen provides us with all the skills we need as managers to turn our associates from contributors to superstars!

In addition to being full of insights and inspirations, Growing Great Employees has space for you to write YOUR story, and to make this book your own.

Don't buy 1 copy of this book...BUY 2: 1 for you, and 1 to give away to your favorite manager or manager-to-be!

A book every woman needs, especially if your journey is personal power development. It's not just the interviews that empower and connect us it's the authors thoughts which make this SUCH A GREAT BOOK.

I have found this book to be GREAT!, just what I need to tell my students. Very good bits of info that almost everyone can use. If you are a fighter even better, you don't have to get into scrape to learn this. I will recomond this title for all of my teachers and students.
toma the old one 4th Level Aikido Teacher and USAF-WR teacher and Canemaster teacher.

If there was ever a book that says "you can do it" this is it. The women were real and Fawn seemed to be able to bring out what is real in their lives. Women are women the world over and she shows that success doesn't always come easy but it can come to any and all with determination. Amazing stories and amazing women, the most exciting thing to me was the women are like almost every woman I know. Hope she writes something again soon. This book gave me a lot to think about and compass for my own path.

When Oprah told how inspiring this book was, I ordered it immediately. Thanks, Oprah. This is the most uplifting, powerful book you've turned me on to.

The author's human touch makes you a part of the experience of learning from such great women leaders. I truly felt like I could do ANYTHING after I read Hard Won Wisdom, and that's a good thing because my company is on the verge of layoffs. Fawn Germer's book reminds you that smart women survive and prevail in the toughest moments. This book changed so much about how I view myself and the possibilities that exist for me. You'll see.

I was given this book as a gift and wasn't intentionally reading it as a Self Help book. I found that I couldn't put it down, pulled out my high-lighter as I was reading it and started highlighting and starring as I read. Fawn didn't simply interview and tell a story. She wove the lives of these exceptional ecletic women telling of their trials and tribulations, their perserverence, and the outcome of their lives because of the choices they made during adversity as well as good times. The reader could easily identify with each concurring that we are the ones that are responsible for
following our own dreams. The dream may not become a reality but we are stronger and have grown from our efforts. This is a
great gift for friends of all ages as well as a perfect
graduation gift.

Contemporary
How to Succeed in Business Without Being White: Straight Talk on Making It in America
by Earl G. Graves - Collins; Reprint edition (1998)
As a journalist, I have spent time professionally with Mr. Earl G. Graves, and he is the embodiment of his values, principles, inspiration and ideas that are expressed in this enduring success book. Readers are guaranteed by Graves' character to be richer for reading the thoughts and actions of the author.

I was surprised and disappointed with the level of bitterness that laced the pages of 'How to Succeed...,' by Earl Graves. That the U.S. remains racially divided is an unfortunate given, it has always been and will always be so. Mr. Graves pays little, if any, attention to the merits of early childhood education and the importance it holds later in life. I came across Black Enterprise magazine roughly twenty years ago and I fell in love with his concept of "delayed gratification," and the level of logic I thought the concept represents. With that in mind, I was expecting a methodical and proven strategy for success in America in spite of racism. Although this book does give the requisite good advice, (debt elimination and education) it's more a treatise of bitterness, than a self-help book of business mobility.

Earl Graves is one of the greatest and Prominent entrepreneurs in America. His business strategies and inside information and wisdom will help advance any aspiring entrepreneur. I highly recommend this book, it should be included in every business persons library.

A Phenomenal read! Earl G. Graves provides African Americans and all Americans effective strategies on what it takes to live the American Dream. I truly enjoyed the section titled, The Top Ten Reasons. A descendent of Barbados, The CEO of Black Enterprise Magazine explains how with determination you can have and become anything you desire in life despite of your race.

Adra Young
Author of: The Everyday Living of Children & Teens Monologues

I like Earl Graves' message with this book. He is very straightforward in principles of success in business and he is very good about giving credit where credit is due. He gives strong advice and has the track record (and magazine) to prove it.

This book presents some interesting concepts on Process Design and Performance.

This is a classic text that hardly needs my endorsement. However, if I can bring it to the attention of people who might not have benefitted from its proven insights and wisdom, I am happy to do so. The basic notion of the book is that too many people run their companies in the silos of the traditional org-chart. This creates all kinds of communications and management problems that must be broken down to get the optimal performance from your firm. This need has only grown since the first edition of this book came out in 1990. This second edition came out in 1995.

The authors want you to think of what your company is trying to accomplish rather than as a bunch of fiefdoms hanging from a hierarchical org-chart. They use a matrix of three levels of performance (Organizational, Process, and Job/Performer) and three performance needs (Goals, Design, and Management). Using the nine areas these create the authors show you how to handle focusing, operating, and managing every aspect of your firm. Sure, the book requires more thought and concentration than your typical "business book", but the substance it provides is well worth the effort.

Use it.

Reviewed by Craig Matteson, Ann Arbor, MI

Don't let the date this book was published influence your decision to buy - it is timeless. I am on my second copy of this book and would characterize it as the best book on business process management that has ever been published. This is "The Book". Everyone I know in the Business Process Management field has this book. I recommend it to every client and every business improvement team member that I work with.

The information contained in this "gem" can help anyone involved in process improvement. Consultants, executives, managers, process team leaders, process team members - it doesn't matter whether you are working in manufacturing, finance, logistics, sales or human resources. It also doesn't matter whether you are new to BPM or have been in the field for 20 years. This book will change the way you think about organizational structure and approaching business process.

Trying to characterize what parts of the book were best, would be like trying to dissect what parts of the blue sky you like best. It is all great stuff - each chapter is better than the next, and will help you understand what needs to be done to make business improvement initiatives work. It is well written, easy to understand the concepts, with hundreds of useful illustrations and models to learn from.

I would give this book 6 stars if I could ...

This book will survive the trends, since most of the trends are based on the principles in this book. The names will change (Quality Circles, Just In Time, TQM, Re-engineering, Six Sigma, ...), but these principles and how well they are implemented will determine a companies' efficiency and quality.

As a business process and systems analyst, I have used the techniques in this book extensively to document existing and proposed processes and systems.

The diagramming techniques ensure thorough identification of all relevant interfaces and will assist in identifying those frustrating and toxic business processes that defy verbal description, but once diagrammed, seem to become clearly understood. I cannot count how many "Ah-ha" moments I have seen when confused managers, too deep in the trees to be able to see the whole forest, finally see the problems with their business laid out in clear pictures drawn with the techniques taught in this book.

I purchased this expecting some advice on legal issues, but this book is so much more. It talks you through the whole process of producing a film from start to finish, including valuable information on finding investors, attaching stars, behind the scene terminology, production advice, sample legal forms and what do with your film once you've made a cut. All of the advice is indispensable. This is a must have for any independent film producer, especially those new to the industry. It should be taught as a textbook in film schools. The most helpful book on producing I've stumbled upon yet.

I highly recommend this book. As a first time amateur independent film producer, with about 30 film books resting on my shelf, I believe I was constantly thumbing through this one the most during preproduction. This book contains so much useful information and helpful insights, it's almost like having an industry consultant right there with you. Unlike other books, there weren't a lot of sections where they seemed to rush on to the next chapter without exploring the present topic in some depth.

If it's not already, this book will soon become the industry standard for substantive knowledge of the film business for independent filmmakers. Deal points, standard contract provisions, the often technical and confusing jargon, and the historical context for many industry practices are all covered here in comprehensive yet concise fashion. Topics of interest that are covered in depth include standard talent and producer agreements, developing a screen play, financing, and digital distribution. The book was a tremendous asset to me when I had to help an independent filmmaker comply with complicated federal securities laws in order to raise $200,000. Highly recommended.

jeffbrownlegal@gmail.com

It was a book with that gave you a good background on how film production works from a legal perspective. So you should read it if that is your concern. The authors are lawyers, not producers.

This book is a serious but very readable approach to educating filmmakers on the maze of legal hoops that must be jumped through in order to create a film. Indispensable resource to have.

The authors of "Inescapable Data" share their excitement about what they see as a rapidly-developing convergence of digital technologies having enormous significance for business and culture. This convergence, in their view, is inescapable, life-altering for both good and bad, and presents a frame-shattering paradigm-shift which is mostly unrecognized, and much less examined critically. "Inescapable Data" is a thought-provoking book meant to describe the new technologies and to examine the special values which arguably will emerge from the convergence.

This book illuminates the practical perspective of these developments. Others who pay attention to developments in culture of this sort believe that this "convergence" presents the most important and consequential development in human history, far vaster in its scope and effects than the Great Wars, and the Industrial Revolution. The developments have been so rapid and the effects so many and complex that is hard at this point to grasp all of the significances, although the dynamics, as noted in the book, are fairly clear.

Nicholas Negroponte in his 1995 book "Being Digital" first popularized the idea of the power and force of "Digital". But this book emphasizes that "Digital" itself is not nearly the force that "Convergence" is and will become. Yes, the impetus certainly comes from the specific digital technologies but the combination of four major separate technology spheres has catalyzed into a much greater force. This is the "Convergence."

As detailed in the book, these technologies are: 1) "data-everywhere" devices, like cellphones, biosensors, miniaturized video cameras, and GPS transmitters; 2) asynchronous-yet-immediate transmission technologies, like instant messaging; 3) intelligent wireless networks; and 4) advanced information processing software. Embedded chips will be everywhere, including in your dog or cat, your clothes, every product you own or consume or use, and your own body. What links everything together context-wise are XML files and protocols. The synergy of all of these components create a whole system which is much greater than the sum of its parts.

In 13 chapters and an index comprising 268 pages, the authors explain the basic vision of the practical dynamics of "inescapable data". Chapters 4-12 contain section by section descriptions of the implementation of the component technologies and show how traditional and historical ways of doing things are being quickly altered, primarily now in manufacturing, distribution, and retailing.

The writing is mostly in the form of serial presentations of anecdotes, statistics, specific examples, and commentary. It is geared to the technologically-interested person focused on practical matters. This is not an academic work; it is full of practical and real-world examples but short on critique, theory, and analysis.

Chapter Four starts the discussion of existing and developing applications of "inescapable data", and is about digital convergence in military and government spheres. Instant messaging, GPS transmitters, ubiquitous cellular communication, and advanced software applications have radically altered traditional "command and control" operations. With immediate, field-based information, the way battles are waged is now different. Commanders have instantaneous information about realtime happenings, aggregated and realtime updated information about equipment and materials including logistical supply chains and more, through wireless devices held or embedded in all elements of the military operation, including individual troops.

Governments, using wireless video camera transmitters, biosensors, and GPS transmitters can now utilize realtime broad-scale, relatively inexpensive surveillance for crime control and other purposes. In the home, wireless and digital technologies acting to provide surveillance and remote control of heating and electrical systems are in use now, and many more applications will be utilized very soon. The technology and cost factors are available now. In the field of medicine, everyday worklife, manufacturing, retail and entertainment, data collection is coming widespread as miniature sensors, radio frequency identification devices (RFID), wireless connectivity, XML content headers, and information processing software facilitate the recording of much of social, business, and cultural life. This then allows the widespread, immediate, real-time processing of relevant information by businesses, marketers, government (think "Homeland Security"), and, of course, miscreants of various types.

The important part to understand is not just that new technology is available now and at relatively low cost. What makes all of this interesting is that the connections among individual components of this technological matrix are increasing and developing. So, your new refrigerator is linked to the manufacturer's array of servers and to your grocery store's servers, and to your bank. Your medical records are stored in your doctor's server, connected to insurance company and government computers, as well as wide-scale medical-related organizations. Each of these linked "nodes" is further linked, or will be to other nodes, so that an immense matrix of relationships is now being furthered.

Chapters 7 and 10 on manufacturing and retail show how old-fashioned practices involving a company networking its departments and units internally, has now evolved into a process where the company computers and particularly its databases are now linked to all of its component suppliers, distributors, advertisers, regulatory entities, and more.


The authors detail through each of the chapters the available technology, the specific uses, and the immediately perceivable effects, via interviews with a large handful of corporate, university, and business people involved in the technology. Examples of use, both awesome and mundane, are noted.

The alleged benefits of the convergence are vastly new efficiencies, flexibilities, customization opportunities, adaptability, and other values, many of which remain to be determined. One thing is absolutely certain- there will be plenty of data generated. Almost certainly, there will be plenty of people and organizations trying to make sense and meaning of this data, filtering and analyzing with new, capable, processing applications.

Whole new industries will form to manage this data. Where linked computers once vastly facilitated digital development, including the Internet, there will now be linked databases which will stand out as the chief component of the convergence. There will be systematic, continuous connectivity in a matrix of networked relationships represented by linked databases.

This convergence concept is highly reminiscent of Big Brother of "1984" fame. Obviously, there are serious issues about the quality of life in the convergence era. The good is in enormous increases in efficiency, in customized processes and products, in immediacy, and in flexibility and individual freedoms. The downsides are discussed here in a mere four pages in Chapter 13 on "Perspectives". The authors itemize them as: discriminatory insurance underwriting effecting those unlucky enough to have reported genetic or medical issues; rampant identity theft, increased marketing pressures, a conflation of work and home life which some may feel as threatening, the alteration of sports and entertainment, and the exposure of formerly personal information. Another issue is the likelihood that some people will not be connected, for whatever reason. This group will comprise an underclass missing out on the benefits of convergence.

The book ends with a list of suggestions to the reader on how to exploit the developments - use an email PDA, avail of work-at-home opportunities, equip your kids with cell devices, convince your medical provider to send SMS and email appointment reminders, and set up home surveillance. For businesses, they suggest broad use of IM, groupware, and work-at-home concepts. Predictions include global calendars, singular devices, single key authentication, cashless economic transactions, and flexible matrix workers.

These suggestions and predictions seem fairly lame in respect to a process compared by some to the Great Wars and the Industrial Revolution. However, the perspective here is a practical, pragmatic one. More weighty suggestions, conclusions, and predictions are for higher-level academic writers.

I just finished reading an outstanding book that examines the world of "Inescapable Data"... Chris Stakutis and John Webster's Inescapable Data - Harnessing the Power of Convergence.

Contents: The Inescapable Data Vision; The Connectivity Divide; Inescapable Data Fundamentals; From Warfare to Government, Connectivity Is Vitality; Pervading the Home; Connecting Medicine; Work Life - Oxymoron No Longer; Real-Time Manufacturing; Sports and Entertainment - Energizing Our Involvement; Connecting to Retail; Computer Storage Impacted by Inescapable Data; Super Computers, Visualization, and Networks; Inescapable Data in Perspective; Index

The authors explore how technology is allowing more and more devices to broadcast and interact with each other to create linkages that haven't even begun to be explored. What if your refrigerators could broadcast to your PDA when you're at the store to let you know what's in there? With RFID tags, it's a possibility. What if you could have access to the same telemetry data that pit crews have when you go to an racing event? Could your tennis racquet transmit force and angle information to a system that could analyze your game and help you become a better player? All of these things are technically possible, and the rapid advance of processing and storage power makes it much more likely to come to pass at an affordable price point. Besides talking about possibilities, they also explore how technology has to change in order to deal with this constant onslaught of data. Companies like Wal-mart generate terabytes of data from RFID every few days. What do you save? How do you analyze it? Where does it reside and for how long? And with data being stored in XML format, how likely is it that ordinary computer users will be able to write their own tools to analyze their data? Good chance it'll happen...

Probably the only thing they didn't cover in a lot of depth was the personal privacy issue. If retailers are tracking you via tags, sensors, and cameras from the time you walk in the door until you leave, you're passing a lot of information that will be stored about you. While there might be financial benefits to allowing that to happen, that benefit comes at a cost to personal privacy. The issue is acknowledged, but much more space is devoted to the potential benefits than to the potential abuses. Still, this is a book that will open your eyes to possibilities that seemed like science fiction not that very long ago.

Well worth reading to expand your vision...

The book is an interesting peek at the near future. It projects an ongoing trend of pervasive wireless connectivity at a mass consumer level. Coupled with continuing increases in memory and disk capacity and falling prices per bit. The text is written at a general nontechnical level. You might derive ideas from it for possible new applications.

Various topics are explored. RFID is mooted as expanding vastly. In doing so, it can make economic various devices that detect items with RFID and then offer services based on that data. The archetypal example given is a fridge that can broadcast which items in it have these tags, and do so at relatively small cost.

Another key idea is the use of XML to describe the data. This will be like HTML. It will let some users program applications without having a lot of specialised computer knowledge. Just as HTML gave rise to a flowering of the first generation of the Web, XML enables the next generation.

Almost surely, there are killer apps waiting to be born. The book might inspire you to write these.

Although the title of this book may seem a bit abstract, here is a work that can be appreciated by most anyone, from the most techno savvy industry guru to the mildly technology curious among us. The authors present an insightful, somewhat provocative view of the wireless age we now live in, and how both our personal and professional lives will be affected by certain key evolving technologies.

An interesting perspective taken by Stakutis and Webster focuses upon massive amounts of data being communicated via wireless devices throughout a pervasive intelligent network, and ultimately having the information processing power to manage and correlate this data in such a way as to flush out hidden associations (from seemingly unrelated data) never before imaginable. The authors discuss the role of wireless devices such as cell phones, PDAs, RFID tags, and pervasive network interfaces built into everything from your sneakers to the refrigerator, all "talking" to one another intelligently through self-describing XML.

That said, this book is an easy, enjoyable read. Pick up this book and you'll find yourself thinking of it whenever you reach for your PIM, snap a picture with your cell phone, or possibly even when opening the refrigerator! As a technologist, I consider myself quite knowledgeable of many topics covered within this book, but I also found it to be an enjoyable learning experience as well. Even my wife, who is throughly technologically challenged, found interesting the chapters related to Inescapable Data as it applies to the retail industry and in the home. This book is chocked full of real-world examples and the role Inescapable Data will play in our everyday lives.

The final chapter makes some interesting predictions as to where Inescapable Data will lead us within the next 3 - 5 years. The vision presented will require government, industry, and the average citizen to embrace the march toward a truly Inescapable Data world, but the process has been set into motion, and it does, in fact, seem Inescapable. Give this book a read and you may find yourself rethinking the future and your role in it.

Do you ever look at our changing technology and wonder where we are all going and what the world will be like when we get there? This book does a good job of trying to answer these questions. The authors interviewed 50 technology leaders in a wide variety of industries as well as drawing on their own experiece, and distilled the information into a book that is very informative without requiring the reader to have a PhD. The book considers each industry or area of interest in turn, explaining what's going on now and what is likely to develop in the next few years. Some of the areas they consider are: warfare, security, home life, medicine, work, manufacturing, sports, entertainment, retail sales, data storage, supercomputers, and networking. You may view the technological future with the glee of a technophile or with anxiety about the world we're creating -- the authors are unabashed technophiles-- but whatever your views, this book will give you a good education about what's going on. I recommend it highly. [...]