Practice Management Books

No one doubts that the supply chain world is in the midst of its largest transformation ever. Around the globe, companies' leadership are realizing that their approach to the "buy-side" of their businesses is a critical element of their competitiveness. This relevant dialogue helps sourcing professionals not only participate in this change, but to lead their company's efforts toward lower costs and higher profits. From how engineering and suppliers collaborate on new product ideas and designs, to how IT systems work to support spend management analysis, to how product management, finance, manufacturing, and sales all collaborate to coordinate demand and supply plans, this plain-spoken, fact-laden narrative illustrates to company leaders the power and value that others are enjoying from a keen focus on supply management. I found this to be a book for "now", with ideas, strategies and techniques assembled in a clear way and in touch with how world-class sourcing efforts take place. This is a definite read for any business leader who wants to make an impact in their supply chain and wants to know how others in the real world are getting the job done!

On-demand Supply Management is a well conceived and written book that details the software technology necessary for todays procurement demands and illustrates them with interesting case studies.

The book also makes an extremely strong case for Procurement profesionals be slotted at a high level in the corporate structure.

Make space in your credenza for this important book.

This book is a very practical set of guideposts for meshing technology with Supply Management. If only we had this book when implementing our complex supply management processes we could have gone much faster with far fewer serious missteps. Not only does it hit the strategic choices that must be made ahead of time, but it also deals with implementation and provides alerts for common mistakes. The verbal examples are excellent and underscore the groundings in real life experiences of companies struggling with key issues.

Just finished "Straight to the Botton Line" and "On Demand Supply Management". Wonderful books! "Straight to the Botton Line" helped to crystallize my thinking on Supply Management. "On Demand Supply Management" was a great update and overview of the technology that is radically changing our work. Both provided a good framework for thinking on the topics and excellent insights. Congratulations to the authors on a job very well done!

Look closer. If you want to see beauty, learn to view ordinary things in a new way, Campeau says. The author is currently a senior pastor of the fast-growing Christ Lutheran Church in Santa Clarita, California.

Campeau says in his introduction that the first key is finding uncommon joy at the center of common life--and that God is in the middle of it. The second key is to recognize the ways in which the simplest areas of life can also be the most profound areas for serving God.

If you read nothing but the questions at the end of each chapter--and give serious thought to the answer, you will be way ahead of things. But let's talk about the content leading up to those outstanding questions. My favorite is in the chapter, "Sometimes the giver is the gift." If you have received a gift without knowing who gave it, how did you feel about receiving it?

The sections are: 1: Discover God on Ordinary Days and 2: Serving God in Ordinary Ways.

In the chapter on being needed, the author states that sometimes we need a break from being needed; when the pressures build, the sacrifice too exhausting, the times we want to run away and hide. Then you ponder: "I wonder if God needs me?" God has chosen to need you and me.

Armchair Interviews says: This book would be a great tool for discussion by a church group because of the thought-provoking content and soul-searching questions.

Prior to my reading Ordinary Joy, had Jesus Christ walked right up to me, I most cetainly would have missed Him. Now there is a chance that I will recognize Him every day for the rest of my life. This read has truly made me feel loved by God.

Ordinary Joy reminds you that God is in fact all around you in your ordinary living if you just take a break from all the hustle and bustle and truly appreciate His beauty. Joe Campeau uses personal illustrations that we can relate to, and in turn, relates them to the teachings of Jesus. On a personal note, my own faith has waivered for quite some time that after taking a "closer look," I am rediscovering God's presence in my life and I know that, no matter what, "the sun will shine tomorrow and I will be kissed by Son again and again and it can never be wiped away." Peace and JOY!

How often have humans found that the wanting or desire for something has often eclipsed actually attaining that item. In Pastor Joe Campeau's book, Ordinary Joy, Finding Fresh Promise in Routine Moments, the author writes, "The key to ordinary joy is finding it in the journey, not simply upon arrival". In reading this book one begins to find the joy of discovering that we can find joy in our daily lives.

From the beginning of the book he stresses that we often fail to see the presence of Jesus and his joy. He writes, "In a world of budgets, megabyte computers, and humming technology, our imaginations become infertile, and we often fail to recognize grace". From the beginning of the book to the end, Pastor Campeau reaffirms God's love for us and His unconditional acceptance Campeau writes, "God's invitation to you is come as you are, not as you aren't." In reading Pastor Campeau's book I found such a sense of release and freedom that I am loved by God as I am-not as I think I should appear to others. Campeau again writes, "God is not pleased with you because you are remarkable; you are remarkable because God is pleased with you." One has only to look this far to realize that the joy of life is that we are loved and accepted by God.

Pastor Joe helps bring his writing to life as he weaves stories of his family, friends, parishioners, and examples from the Bible onto the pages. These examples of ordinary people help one connect to the points that the author is making.

In the hectic life that many of us lead this book is a refreshing reminder that God is all around us and that we only need stop and begin to recognize the joy of Jesus in our lives. Pastor Campeau finishes with an excellent statement of fact that leaves the reader knowing that we are loved. "We have an extraordinary Savior. He inhabits the most common moments of life and delights in everyday discipleship, for he rejoices in the ordinary. He rejoices in me, in you. There is no better reason for joy."

this is by Chris and Donald Schon, not David and the link for Author should go to Donald who has done great work
Fantastic work - great for all org dev researchers.

Individuals learn by absorbing new knowledge, finding ways to apply preexisting knowledge and to avoid tactics that fail. Organizational learning is much more complicated than that; it incorporates all of the learning tactics of individuals and includes the interactions of the people in the organization. The interactions are among peers, horizontally across different responsibility levels and longitudinally across time. However, the authors opt to use a fairly simple definition of organizational learning.

"Generically, an organization may be said to learn when it acquires information (knowledge,
understanding, know-how, techniques, or practices) of any kind and by whatever means. "

In this sense, learning can be in either the positive or negative sense, an organization can become either more or less efficient over time. The authors spend a great deal of time covering the concept of an undiscussable. An undiscussable is a topic where everyone knows that it exists, is probably a problem, but for some reason is not talked about. In the worst case, the undiscussables becomes undiscussable, meaning that you cannot even discuss the fact that there are things you don't discuss. There are many reasons for the development of an undiscussable, but the most common is the perception that higher levels only want to hear statements of a certain type.
The authors define two types of organizational learning: single and double loop. A single loop learning situation is one where strategies of action are changed, but there is no change in the underlying theory behind the actions. For example, suppose a company is convinced that hotels are needed in a particular area. If the hotel rooms do not fill up, then the company may try to change the style of the rooms. This is a single feedback loop, where the failure feeds back to cause a change in the implementation. A double loop learning situation is where there is a second feedback loop that can alter the theory behind the strategies. In the case of the hotel rooms example, this would mean that the company questions whether additional hotel rooms were needed.
The authors also define model I and model II learning. Model I learning is the most common, which has a single feedback loop. It is characterized by situations where emotions and confrontation are minimized or disallowed. When difficulties or conflict are present, the general reaction is to suppress the issues as much as possible. The definition of model II learning is:

"Model II couples articulateness and advocacy with an invitation to others to confront the views ands
emotions of self and other. It seeks to alter views in order to base them on the most complete and valid
information possible and to which people involved can become internally committed. "

Model II learning is characterized by double loop learning, where the positions people take are examined in the context of their emotional condition.
The book is occasionally very theoretical, which makes it dense and difficult reading. It is easy to state theories of feedback loops based on emotions, but it is hard to articulate an appropriate way to construct them. Humans have dealt with their emotions for thousands of years, and psychologists are still arguing over the best means by which we should deal with them. Nevertheless, there is much of value in this book, as long as you don't expect it to solve all of the problems your organization has in learning and executing different strategies.

The burgeoning literature that has grown up around organizational learning in the past twenty-five years is either uncritical (treats the phrase "learning organization" as a catchword for whatever it is the front-running Japanese or other organizations are doing and whatever the rest of the world needs to do to catch up with them) or distant from practice, skeptical and non-perspective.

In this book, the approach to organizational learning is normative and practice-oriented. The authors are mainly interested in productive organizational learning: how this kind of learning can be generated in real-world organizations and how practitioners can help to foster it.

The theory given in this book is primarily based on two types of learning: single-loop and double-loop. The authors have borrowed the distinction between single and double-loop learning from W. Ross Ashby's "Design for a Brain" (1960).

On case studies of known companies, such as Intel, General Motors, etc., the authors show "primary inhibitory loops" that inhibit organizational learning, and "conditions for error", and how to avoid them. The following list gives the most common "conditions for error" and how to avoid them:

- Vagueness : Specify
- Ambiguity : Clarify
- Untestability : Make testable
- Scattered information : Concert
- Information withheld : Reveal
- Undiscussability : Make discussable
- Uncertainity : Inquire
- Inconsistency/incompatibility: Resolve

In part I, the authors introduce the conceptual framework, both for organizational learning and for the relationship between research and practice. In part II, they introduce and illustrate concepts central to limited learning. Part III presents a brief classroom-based example. Part IV is the review of the recent history of the field of organizational learning.

Despite of the brilliant content, the book which is marked as "Reprinted with corrections August, 1996", which I have (paperback), is awfully printed. It is really the eye-killer. And nevertheless, it has some typos. Please try to find a version which is not "Reprinted with corrections August, 1996".

This is the definitive book on how people politics preventorganisational learning, especially when a company needs a doubleturnround. That is a change of culture as well as strategy. Some of the early chapters are a bit heavily academic, but the pursuit is worthwhile if you want to understand how many big old western organisations stop working - instead of reinventing themselves - whenever a competitor dramatically changes the rules of the marketplace. The authors seem to imply that what they call double loop learning across every department of an organisation is both so laborious as a change process and requires such extraordinary levels of mutual trust that it might be better to raise an old organisation to the ground, and start from scratch. Their research is full of evidence why the last two decades have seen so much downsized leadership. One question that occurs to me is will their pessimistic conclusions hold true now that companies can use internal media like intranets to turn all employees' thinking around at the same time? If you would like to discuss this or other provocations relating to this work, I would be delighted to help form an interactive book discussion club.

Chris Macrae, editor of Brand Chartering Handbook and MELNET www.brad.ac.uk/branding/ E-mail me at wcbn007@easynet.co.uk

For those of us who feel intimidated by the relentless pace of technological change, this book is a godsend. Not only does the author help make sense of how new technologies are altering the workplace, but she also provides practical advice on how to make the most of one's skills and interests in such an environment. Goldberg writes with clarity and grace. The tips at the end of each chapter offer excellent guidance for adapting to a high-tech world and inspire the reader to continue to think about these issues on his or her own. All in all, a valuable and accessible book that can help readers find their place in an increasingly complex world.

I found the book extremely useful. If there is anyone who has an aversion to technology, this is the book to read. As usual, Ms. Goldberg's style is fluid and cogent. It is an easy read and well done. Congratulations on a much needed book in today's hi-tech society.

This is proving a great tool for getting reluctant employees to face the fact that they simply have to deal with computers. It provides enough information and tips about working in this new way, without ever getting technical, to get people relaxed enough to accept training with hope instead of terror.

This book is ideal for getting my reluctant older university students to try using the Internet for research. It answers many of the difficult questions about how to learn what information to trust on the web, and in general makes the whole idea of a wired world less threatening. In fact, if I decide to get my mother a computer, this book might prove the key to convincing her to actually use it. Nice, easy reading, and never condescending.

This is an awesome text. In a subject area as dynamic as executive and other compensation, this book hands it to you on a "golden" platter. A must on every human resource executives bookshelf. A must for the compensation student. This book has it all and is worth the price.

This is an excellent book on rewards and compensation. I keep this book on my shelf and refer to it constantly. And, I require all my managers to keep a copy too. The coverage is complete, the writing is clear, and the book is "must have" for anyone who needs information on executive compensation.

With executive pay under more extensive scrutiny than ever, I found this book an excellent way to resolve the dilemma about how to pay for performance. While my company's circumstances mean that there are no clear cut solutions, this was the only book I could find that laid out all the alternatives clearly and concisely. Overall, this is the best book on reward I have ever read, and I am sure I will be coming back to it again and again as my standard reference guide.

I read this book from cover to cover and loved every word of it! I couldn't put it down! Although it was a bith pricy, I feel that it was worth every cent.

Dr. Smither has pulled together a wonderful group of authors in developing a book that covers the most important aspects of performance appraisal. A must-have for those engaged in this often difficult aspect of management.

I'd like to know the auther. Please send his email address to me. Thanks

As stated by series editor Manuel London, "the current volume, edited by J.W. Smither, provides state-of-the-art methods for performance management. The authors recognize the strategic, systemic role of a performance appraisal process that evaluates employees or behaviors that are important to organizational success and ties the appraisal results to rewards and development...The goal is to design a performance appraisal process that is fair and applies in different organizational situations and contexts. New forms of appraisal are described, such as 360-degree survey feedback and self-assessment. The book shows how to increase rater accuracy and how to use appraisals for employee development. Overall, the book is valuable resource to practitioners who want to evaluate and revamp their appraisal systems to meet the changing needs of their organizations."

In this context, as a sample, in thirteenth chapter of this book " Performance-Based Pay Plans" Robert L. Heneman and Maria T. Gresham focus the issue of how organizations can most effectively make the link between performance appraisal and compensation and incentive systems. As stated by them " this requires an understanding of the need for performance-based pay, the compensation context, types of reward systems, design issues, and implementation issues." Thus each of this topics have been examined as a literature review :

* types of pay and performance plans : merit pay, team-based merit pay, skill-based pay, competency-based pay, piece-rate pay, standart hour plan, group incentives, suggestion systems, team recognition plans, gainsharing, sales commissions and team sales plans, profit sharing and stock sharing, executive pay.

* pay and performance plan effectiveness.

* design issue : integration with business strategy and organizational culture, motivational considerations, performance measurement levels.

* implementation issues : measurement, fairness, communications.

Not only this chapter, but this book as a whole is highly recommended for HR professionals.

See also : Maximizing the Value of 360-Degree Feedback - Walter Tornow, Manuel London

Although this is book is starting to get a little dated, it remains an outstanding resource for practitioners working in performance appraisal settings, and especially for researchers looking for a good overview of the topic. Particularly strong chapters cover topics including training raters (Hauenstein), politics in the performance appraisal process (Kozlowski et al.), and fairness in PA (Gilliland & Langdon). Chapters that have become somewhat outdated include the chapters on legal trends in PA (Malos) and multisource feedback (Dalessio). I still use selections from this book when teaching courses on performance appraisal, and I have only docked it one star due to its age. In most respects, this is a must-have book for anyone interested in performance management.

This is a great book for easy reading & covers all inpatient pediatric subjects you will encounter in house. I only wish the book was smaller for my lab coat's pocket!

great quick reference for the "I need to know this now" type of information. An excellent job and excellent tool for teaching med students and residents

The Philadelphia Guide: Inpatient Pediatrics fills a significant gap in practical pediatric texts. Harriet Lane has long been the standard, but is difficult to use, impractical at times, and incomplete. This book, which conveniently fits in a white coat pocket, is an indispensible resource for medical students and pediatric residents and fills the holes that Harriet leaves open. It give practical and complete, yet concise information on presentation and management of the diseases commonly encountered by the pediatric inpatient physician. As a new pediatric resident, this book has become the most indispensible resource in my pocket.

As a user of harrriet lane for years...This book goes beyond. As an easy to read, comprehensive resource for almost everything you will see as an inpatient house officer, I would recommend keeping it with you at all times. It is filled with all the questions you find yourself often looking up on those late night calls. It gives you the one line answers you are always looking for. It has information on conditions from the most basic to the most obscure and what you need to know about them. It provides answers to treatment, diagnosis, and guidelines.

Most of all it helps you treat patients, provide better care, and teach you at the same time. It includes chart, bold type, and subject heading formats. This book is AWESOME!!! Get yours today

An excellent tome... who doesn't have stress everyday... this is an insightful, yet humourous look, very helpful and necessary. Great fun too, with Mr. Roberts emerging as an expert in this field... why can't someone like this be a TV host... he'd be great! A must have indeed!!!

Whether little day-to-day stresses or just occasional occurrences, Practice Safe Stress is a must read. Not only is this book practical but it is fun to read. The exercises recommended by Mr. Roberts for handling stress really work. After hearing him speak and had to get his book! I highly recommend this book for your home reference library. This is a small price to pay and you will reap great rewards. Who, today, could not use some simple and fun methods to reduce stress.

What a pleasant surprise. After having read my fair share of "self help" books I thought I knew what to expect. This book was different. The book made it clear that there is no one path to stress reduction that will work for everyone. What I liked the most about the book is that its format allowed me to read it in small doses. This was important because there were so many suggestions and anecdotes that I found relevant for me personally that I would have forgotten if I had read it in one or two sessions. In the same fashion as the book suggests performing daily exercises and techniques I suggest daily reading of small portions.

I recently had an appointment with my dermatologist. Knowing the wait is usually a long one, I came prepared to pass the time with my new copy of "Practicing Safe Stress" by Barry Roberts. I am usually jittery waiting to see the doctor as I have been diagnosed with skin cancer on many occasions. The lightheartedness and the positive attitude expressed in the book seemed to take the weight off my shoulders.After being called in to see the doctor, he informed me that last week's biopsy results required more cutting.However the anxiety usually attached to such news was lessened due to reading just a few chapters. I really took the book with me to cut the waiting room boredom, and it turned out that I brought a friend to the doctor's office. Thanx Barry for being there...for being you!

This book really delivers what it promises: A practical guide for understanding and implementing industrial control strategies, with many examples derived from the authors experienced.

I am an Industrial Practitioner of Process Control. I have been working for more than 16 years as an Instrumentation, Automation, and Process Safety and Control Engineer for the Oil & Gas Industry.

The book is written in a very clear and readable way. I am not a Chemical Engineer (I am an Electronics Engineering Grad) but my work requires me to deal with chemical engineering issues relates to process control in a day to day basics. This book has been an excellent reference in my job, and is always available in my desk. If a non-chemical engineer can benefit from this book, I can bet that any chemical engineering student or industrial practitioner dealing with automatic process control will find this text most useful.

If you are looking for an excellent book, highly practical and applied, this is the one you should get.

llevo trabajando el texto desde 1998,obteniendo muy buenos resultados en la enseñanza del control de procesos. en particular creo que la obra presenta un excelente equilibrio entre la teoría y la práctica. adicionalmente los problemas enfrentan al estudiante con situaciones muy cercanas a las que encontraran en su vida profesional. a nivel de sugerencia para proximas ediciones, considero debe ser incluido el tema de los grados de libertad para control de plantas completas.

When it comes to automatic controls, Dr. Smith is incredibly knowledgable. Unfortunately, this does not always come through in this book. The book suffers from lack of sufficient worked examples to assist the reader in gaining competency in this area. At times, the theory takes leaps that leave the reader wondering how they did that. As with most engineering texts, once the reader fills in the missing steps the concepts become clear and logical. Overall, this is a worthwhile text from which the subject can be learned.

Note the word 'truely'. Just the section on Installed Flow Characteristics on control valves is enough to worth buying this book. The writers solved the mystery on why an inherent "Equal Percentage" control valve behaves "Linear" when installed; and why an inherent "Linear" control valve behaves "Quick Opening" when installed in most chemical processes being controlled (should factors such as the over-sized factor, the fraction of the dynamic pressure taken by the control valve, and the rangeability of the control valve are overlooked). The writters did it by vigorously deriving the Installed Characteristics from the universal definition of "Cv" (first introduced by Masoneillan in industry, now adopted by ISA), fluid mechanics, and simple algebra, from which the installed gain at various percent-opening of most control valves is derivable analytically by math. Excellent job done. I have used this book since mid 1980's in my career as an Instrument Engineer and recently I used it in writing engineering specifications for control valves. For 15 years before mid 1980's, a book like this has been in my search list. While control theory can be easily found in many texts, unique relevant work experience of writters cannot. Whether you are a Chemical Engineer or not, if your work is related to Automatic Process Control, I will recommend you to buy this book. Before it gets sold out, I am going to buy the lattest edition tomorrow since I believe this book will be useful for at least the next 50 years from now in any process control industry.

Profit for Life shatters the old paradigm that success in business means sucking the life from people and natural resources by viewing both as dispensable commodities. By showing us how success in business--including big business--goes hand-in-hand with respect for human and natural communities, Bragdon frees us from the wrenching misconception that profit and citizenship represent a kind of zero-sum game.

Bragdon unites head and heart in one of the most uplifting books I have ever read. Profit for Life offers hope with a firm footing. I recommend Profit for Life to anyone with an interest in business management, strategic investment, or corporate citizenship.

Daniel D. Dutcher, J.D., Ph.D.
Project Director
The Clean Energy Group
Montpelier, Vermont

Book Review for Profit for Life: How Capitalism Excels
by Ann McGee-Cooper

How do you measure the value of servant leadership in business? How can we know it works? These have been two of the most frequently asked questions in our consulting practice over the past 30 years.

In Profit for Life, Jay Bragdon provides us with some compelling answers. He does this by setting aside much of the linear cause-and-effect thinking that drives business these days, and adopts a more rounded, holistic approach that gives us deeper insight into the firm.

The book is based on the experiences of 60 companies - Bragdon's "learning lab" - that broadly represent the industry/sector diversity of the world economy. Throughout the text he describes 16 of these pioneering companies, called the Focus Group. The distinguishing feature of all these firms is their effort to mimic living systems - in the ways they organize, manage and add value. This mental model is radically different from the traditional one that views the firm as a money making machine.

Although it may seem counter intuitive, the living system approach yields vastly superior results than the traditional one. For example, the average equity return of learning lab companies was nearly double the S&P 500 over the past decade; and their excess performance continues as this review is written. Bragdon expects such premium returns will diminish over time as the more effective methods of the living system model become copied and enter the mainstream. Nevertheless, these results are a strong affirmation of the milieu in which servant leadership normally operates.

Servant leadership, to Bragdon, is all about relationships. He says "relational equity" is the foundation on which companies build financial equity. When companies care about people and the things people care about, Employees become inspired and their inspiration cascades into everything they do, including their relationships with customers, suppliers and other key stakeholders.

The raison d'etre of these servant-led firms is value creation - value that permeates all relationships. Companies that excel at such value creation pursue a strategy Bragdon calls "living asset stewardship" (LAS). The fundamental premise of LAS is: Profit arises from life, and must therefore serve life if it is to be sustainable.

To understand the strategic value of living asset stewardship, Bragdon makes a critical distinction between living assets (people and Nature) and non-living capital assets (buildings, equipment and financial reserves). We see this in three contexts. First, people are closely bonded to Nature - genetically, physically and spiritually - in ways that capital assets are not. Second, living assets are the source of non-living capital assets. And third, because living assets are inherently creative and emergent, their value grows over time rather than depreciating as capital assets do.

The operating leverage in the learning lab and the 16 Focus Group companies resides in the human heart rather than in mechanistic financial gearing. This is supported by the fact that they generate consistently higher returns on equity while carrying substantially lower debt ratios.

Although traditionally managed companies have been adopting some stewardship practices in the past decade, Bragdon finds their approach differs fundamentally from those in his study. In the mechanistic view of these firms, stewardship is an add-on that is subservient to their drive for profit. By contrast, in companies that have adopted the living system model, LAS is deeply woven into the value creation process - reflecting the fact that they see themselves as "living" and therefore integral to, rather than separate from, Nature and society.

Profit for Life builds on the brilliant work of Arie deGeus, former coordinator of Group Planning at Royal Dutch/Shell, and Harvard biologist Edward O. Wilson. DeGeus' classic, The Living Company, noted that long-lived companies had a collective consciousness, were sensitive to their environments, tried to work in harmony with the world around them, and strove to leave a legacy to future generations. Wilson tells us this collective consciousness is an expression of humanity's deep affinity for life, which he calls "biophilia," and that our biophilic instincts have evolved over thousands of generations of natural selection.

In my work as a teacher of servant leadership, I would highlight the paradigm shift Bragdon describes. The mission of leaders in LAS organizations is to serve and grow their people because that is the source of the firm's liveliness and capacity for growth. As Robert K. Greenleaf said: "The first order of business is to build a group of people who, under the influence of the institution, grow taller and become healthier, stronger and more autonomous." That seminal quote is used twice in the book to describe the power and generative capacity of LAS.

I highly recommend this book and will be using it regularly in our practice.

Ann McGee-Cooper, Ed.D., Business Consultant & Executive coach
in the field of Servant Leadership & growing Learning Organization.
Ann McGee-Cooper & Associates, Inc.

I intend to recommend Profit for Life to all my current MBA students. Next fall I am team teaching an MBA core course that combines Operations Management and Managerial Accounting. I intend to make the case that your book should be required reading and part of the course.

I became familiar with the work of W. Edwards Deming in 1990 and attended one of his four day seminars a year later. I also began to follow Peter Senge's work and later read Margaret Wheatley's book, Leadership and the New Science. Tom Johnson's book, Profit Beyond Measure, has been required reading in my Advanced Managerial Accounting elective at the MBA level.

Bragdon's book has brought the ideas, theories, and concepts discussed by these individuals together for me in a way that I could not have imagined. More importantly, he has not only taken their ideas to the next level, but done it in a way that provides a tangible blue print for how to change our current style of command and control management with its focus on profit maximization to a LAS Theory of Management.

The use of the sixteen focus companies from the LAMP INDEX and the author's ability ability to clearly show the distinctions in their style of management from the traditional management models that continue to be taught in almost all business schools, and the success these companies have achieved not just financially, gives those of us hoping to change management education and core business curriculums a new hope.

Thank you for such an outstanding book.

Joseph F. Castellano
Professor, Department of Accounting
University of Dayton Business School

This is not one of those lightweight business books that repeats its Chapter 1 message over and over. It's chock full of research-based information that anyone involved in the sustainability movement should have. The publisher is Peter Senge's non-profit, so if you're familiar with his excellent work over the years, this would make a great addition to your library. The author's passion for his subject is obvious from page one.