Practice Management Books

This book is a must read for the corporate "C" Level. It covers risk abatement, strategies, and tactics to maintain the security of your corporate information as well as your customers and employees information. As a few companies have recently sustained damages in the hundreds of millions from attacks on their security - this book may have prompted them to close a few "loop holes" that allowed the breeches.

Regards

Scott L
www.vision3llc.com

This book is short (good!) and full of information. The coverage seems very complete. The authors are careful not to get too involved in the details of the technology (also good, since said details will be obsolete in a year).

Instead they explain what security issues are significant, what the associated risks are, and what kind of cost effective responses are available. The emphasis throughout is on cost-effective responses: perfection is unaffordable, but not having a security policy is unacceptable. Volonino and Robinson focus on striking a middle ground.

I also liked their top down approach to IT security: 1) get high level commitment 2) lay out appropriate policies (& make sure everyone has signed off) 3) develop corresponding procedures 4) then, decide what mix of hardware, software, & network tools best implement those procedures. This starts with the people (most security problems can be traced back to human err) and avoids "vendor-driven security", which is seldom optimal for a specific situation. My favorite factoid from the book is that the quality of the security at a company is directly proportional to the rank of the chief security officer, i.e. to how seriously the company takes security.

All in all, "Principles and Practice of Information Security" is a very good place to start if you want to get a handle on IT security. And I think it will also function well as a way to review how balanced and thorough your existing security plans are.

This was a wonderfully concise, readable and intelligent book on the characterization and management of all the issues surrounding information security. Rather than focusing on the bits and bytes, this book identifies, explains and suggests how to go about managing issues related to Information Security.

There is a particularly good and unique discussion of the legal implications surrounding information security management/mis-management. This is an area that is increasingly important for everyone who touches a system with any kind of business information. Sometimes we don't always appreciate all of the implications associated with access to business information. Included are invaluable citations of related case law, statutes and legal precedents. After reading this book, I can't imagine not having read it! I will continue to encourage my management, colleagues and reports to read it for a compulsory grounding in the implications of the information that they are handling.

I found this book to be an invaluable companion volume for preparation for the CISSP. After reading this book, I developed a clear information security intuition that made many of the CISSP study questions easier to answer.

Paul Mundell
Symantec Corporation

An excellent, well-written and comprehensive material about marketing. It covers all aspects of modern marketing with the appropriate depth for the student. The book contains a huge amount of real-life examples, which help the student to understand the theory. The use of color in boxes, diagrams and high quality photographs, makes reading easier and more attractive. The glossary at the end of the book is also a valuable tool for the student who wants a quick revision of all marketing topics.

The book has also a companion web site, with study material, extra case studies and links, and questions. This makes the book more live than just a paper book.

I found "Principles of Marketing" 3rd edition a great companion for my marketing studies. It is certainly a must for every marketing student.

This book, provides information on all modern organisations, situations and solutions.

The text is simple and informative, allowing the reader to fully understand exactly what is being discussed.

Francis Brassington fulfills her objectives in her book and brings them to life in her lectures, where she fully explains each individual case and brings it to life.

The text is an excellent source of modern and realistic suitable for those studying marketing or not.

Excellent job,the answer of Europe to Kotlers Marketing.I wish the best for the career of this book. Costantine Xanthakos Programme Leader of Luton in Athens

great book in preparation for the CCS-P exam, very thorough material, would recommend it highly to anyone who is going to attempt to take the exam.. this a great reference tool!!!

I want to be clear that I haven't seen the 2007 Edition yet - however think it's worth posting my review of the 2006 one here - as this is where people will be looking past May.

I spent a few weeks preparing for my CCS-P, using mainly this book's 2006 edition.

It walked me through reviewing coding areas that I needed refreshing on, pointing out to me that, for example, I wasn't as clear as I should be on how to code certain cardiac procedures and needed to spend some time on OB coding.

It gave me all I needed - the sample test questions and cases were right on for the exam. The CD was a bonus - simple interface that walks you through multiple questions. Nice.

So, I passed. Very nicely. In fact, you could say I met and exceeded all the key components for passing (a little bit of coder humor there!).

Thanks, Patricia et al. This really helped me prepare effectively with limited study time. It looks like a huge bit of work to put together - well done.

Alec McLure, RHIA, CCS-P

I loved the fact that the quizzes and test were on the CD disk. You have the option when you are taking the test for it to show you the answers. It explained why you would arrive at those answers. The disk is very helpful for those people that do not like to read a lot of study material when you can actually learn it as you proceed on the disk. All of the material in the book was very informative but I especially liked the Reimbursement section as it shows you how to calculate medicare patients payments and par physicians and non par physicians payments.
Sincerely-Julie

As both a business executive and an MBA professor, I found Dr. Shelton's book to be extremely helpful. The blend of science, psychology, religion and organizational development created a solid research-based theoretical foundation, and the action-oriented exercises at the end of each chapter were helpful for practical application. I highly recommend this book to leaders, managers, academics and those desiring to better integrate their personal values with their organizational life.

This highly readable and usable book introduces us to the world of quantum mechanics as underlying principles of our personal and business lives. Quantum Leaps actually presents hard science simplified with plenty of examples to show that the theories work. Quantum Leaps goes way beyond cheerleading readers toward bold acts. Because each of the seven skills is actually based in the new science of quantum mechanics that shows the way the universe really works, each of us can use the described skills of quantum thinking, acting, feeling, being, seeing, trusting and knowing with the confidence of using scientific instruments. Charlotte Shelton has done us all a favor by translating the mystery of the new science into the simplicity of skills to use every day. By doing so she has given us a vital new stepping stone toward the 21st century and an evolutionary step toward quantum living. Her fresh and elegant approach paints an encouraging future for all of us.

I sincerely wish that everyone would read "Quantum Leaps". If so there would be a "Quantum Leap" in individual and universal consciousness. She explains new scientific technology in a clear and easily understandable way. Her examples and explanations are excellent and clearly point out the necessity for a change in consciousness from the old Newtonian mechanistic to the world of today's Quantum Physics. This book is simplistic enough to be read by someone unfamiliar with current technology and it is also able to captivate the mind and imagination most erudite. Warning - pleased be advised that you may find yourself buying copies for your friends and stopping strangers on the street telling them to read this book.

Through the use of story, anecdote, and interviews the authors help understand what is meant by soul and provide guidelines on how to bring soul back into medicine. I loved the blend of personal and professional in the writing. I feel challenged to be more aware and mindful that all my professional interactions are opportunities for soulful connections in addition to whatever else is needed. The authors have given us a much needed book.

Through the use of story, anecdote, and interviews the authors help understand what is meant by soul and provide guidelines on how to bring soul back into medicine. I loved the blend of presonal and professional in the writing. I feel challenged to be more aware and mindful that all my professional interactions are opportunities for soulful connections in addition to whatever else is needed. The authors have given us a much needed book.

A beautiful and important book that straddles with much success the two worlds of health care and soul. It is a rich potpourri of paradigm shifts - from mechanistic to holistic medicine; comtemporary management thought - the organization as organism and connectedness; new philosophical and spiritual directions - integration of yin and yang, masculine and feminine, rational and emotive; spiritual enrichment of the workplace - reclaiming soul; and recapturing community in organizationl thinking. To be read profitably by anyone, in any professional and managerial career, interested in the world of work and "staying alive." The choice of quotations and occasional poetry weave together in sure grace the many rich strands of this significant how-to offering.

This book has been such a great help to me in shifting my practice. It's like having a trusted advisor seeing you through a shift with lots of brilliant ideas. Get it!

This book has been such a great help to me in shifting my practice. It's like having a trusted advisor seeing you through a shift with lots of brilliant ideas. Get it!

I loved this book. The author does a terrific job of inspiring the reader to find innovative ways to be successful as a psychologist in business. He's very reassuring and very helpful!

As a social worker and educator, I highly recommend this fantastic book. The author clearly explains the many ways in which helpers are at risk for compassion fatigue and burnout due to the intensity of their work lives. He also provides many useful tips for preventing burnout. This is a very infomative and practical resource. I use it frequently to inform my own teaching of compassion fatigue, vicarious traumatization, and burnout issues.

This book is indeed practical in its application and theoretical enough to be able to us it as a text book for students. I recommend it for professionals and students who are in any type of helping industry in order to be informed of the very real risks involved to one's own health and welfare when giving so much of ourselves to others. This book is sorely needed in the areas of church ministry where there is a great emphasis on helping our fellow man but often pastors and lay workers are burnt out through lack of know how and knowledge to care for themselves because of the high demands of their congregations. Although not intended by the author to be used as a religious text as such it has invaluable insight which corelates to the 'other' types of caring that is done in community life.

I found this book to greatly reduce my anxiety as it addressed all of my worries and other issues that were leading me towards burnout. It also has clear indications that it will continue to be useful as I move further into my career. This is a book I plan to read again and again.

Dave Strohmaier masterfully paints us a portrait of wildfire in the West, drawing from a palette of sensitivity to the earth, gritty practical experience, humor, and skilled writing craft. He calls attention to the beauty of many elements of nature we take for granted, its paradoxes, and draws complex associations between these and wildfire. This book is not a primer on how wildfires are fought. It is a loving and thorough philosophical exploration of the meaning of fire, nature, and humanity.

Seasons of Fire by David J. Strohmaier is a superbly written, artistic, and thought-provoking novel on humankind's relationship to fire. Like the author, I too have "engaged" the fires of summer,which stirred deep, ontological questions about human evolution's debt to fire. The author expresses such ideas in a free-flowing narrative that bursts with imagery. Deep yet accesible (I will admit to using the dictionary at least once every 50 pages, but I admire an author who can skillfully use words that I should know, but don't).

To ape the vernacular of Hollywood producers, "it's like Edward Abbey meets Garrison Keillor!" David J. Strohmaier provides beatific explorations of philosophical questions with a smooth, down-home panache. I have never had the pleasure of attacking a fire with gunny sacks, but the author makes me wish I had:

"There is pleasure in completing little tasks--sweating your way up a hill to the flank of a fire under the sun and open sky of mid-July, then, in the company of several others, swatting out flames until either you smother all movement, or cool, moist night air tucks the fire in for the evening. This genuine satisfaction does not abdicate you from the responsibility of asking why you are doing what you are doing, and why it is meaningful. And of all the seasons of the year, summer, the summer of fire, is when these questions are cured."

Descriptions of a bygone Halloween when the author dressed as Satan himself, dancing around a fire, made me laugh out loud. A truly provocative and enjoyable book. I look forward to his next work.

Strohmaier captures the essense of what calls people from all walks of life to a world of flames and wild places.
As a veteran wildland firefighter for over 24 years,
it was a joy to read about the spirit that exist within every wildland firefighter. If you want to understand the
essentials of what motivates wildland firefighters, read this book.

quality book and detailed, great for computer security people!

If you want a good SCOPE OUT type of book, but with practical approach and example. I love this book, it lives up to its title, "street smart", it gives you the tool and direction you need to "survive" the intricacy of the street of IT, and security.

Not an Exam Cram type of book, this book is aimed at giving newcomers to the security field a solid background and understanding of what the job entails. Only incidentally does this book follow the CompTIA Security+ certificate examination (Exam #SY0-101) recommendations and thus provide a dual purpose.

The book is organized into tenphases or major sections. Each phase then has a series of Tasks to be performed. The first phase is entitled 'The Grunt Work of Security.' In it you start by making a security assessment of your network. By phase 10 you have completed hardening, securing the storage, set up user accounts, protected against virus and other malware attacks and more. In phase 10 you study troubleshooting.

I found the book to be easy reading, and the phase/task approach worked well for me. It provides a well needed break in the reading. And let's face it, reading about security is a lot less exciting than reading about Harry Potter.

Early this morning in the locker room of my local YMCA, I had a recurring discussion with a friend and senior executive from an internationally recognized American bank. We discussed a subject of mutual interest to both of us--the need in our society to develop effective managers. In our opinion leaders may be born (to a degree) but managers are made (or more precisely, developed) over time. It takes great focus, patience, and courage to become an effective manager. John Sullivan's book give great insight into the secret of what it takes to become particular type of manager--one who can capably serve society through responsibly using the leadership qualities they possess.

I have been a manager for a large corporation, taught undergraduate and graduate management courses, and been assigned responsibility for developing managers at a large federal agency. As a result of my interest in the subject I have read a number of books on the subject of servanthood, or stewardship, and--in my opinion--John Sullivan's book is the best. Why do I believe "Servant First" is a book that deserves to be read?

In the first half of his book, John builds a sound foundation by addressing the best of existing management theory. I have known John Sullivan for several years and he is in his element here. John has also been a manager and he has has also taught management for years. He knows the breadth, depth, and current state of management study--with at times its shortcomings and shallowness--and he is an excellent communicator. His balanced treatment of this initial section can probably only be truly measured for its scholarship by someone who has read widely in the field, but it does not take a scholar to understand and appreciate what John is writing about. He is clear, practical, and to the point.

Then, in the second half of the book, John turns with great insight and enthusiasm to directly address his thesis. "One needs to start with the attitude of a servant if one is to successfully serve others, and the teachings of Jesus Christ provide some great insight into this task that should be understood--not ignored or disregarded." John is as capable in his Biblical scholarship as he is in the field of management study. This is no simplistic cookbook written for the amateur. In this short book, John has provided his reader with a very lucid, succinct summary of management thought taken from a distinctly Christian perspective.

John is consistently logical, and his book has an organization that neither presumes too much, nor bores the reader. By the time one finishes "Servant First," one has a good picture of both the challenges and contributions of a servant ethic that attempts to emulate the teachings of Jesus Christ. One doesn't have to be a Christian to learn important principles from this book, but if one is a Christian there is a special insight into this process of developing one's servanthood that can be gained because of one's experiences and difficulties in attempting to serve--with competence.

I recommend it without reservation for the practitioner, the scholar, or the beginning student. I also recognize that it may have value for those working within churches. The experienced manager will fine that there is contained in this book a timeless, classical wisdom written with an understanding of the modern world of the twenty-first century. It is a passionate message that one can only hope will find root in contemporary soil.

JOHN SULLIVAN HAS DONE A MASTERFUL JOB OF COMPILING EXSISTING DATA, ADDING HIS PERSONAL TOUCHES AND CONCLUDING WITH POWERFUL LEADERSHIP PRINCIPLES AND EXAMPLES FROM THE LIFE OF CHRIST. I HAVE BEEN READING LEADERSHIP BOOKS FOR SOME TIME AND THIS ONE KEPT ME READING EVERY PAGE AND LEARNING FROM JOHNS RICH BACKGROUND AND INSIGHTS. DETAILED AND PRACTICAL. I LOVED IT!

A Review of John J. Sullivan's
Servant First! Leadership for the New Millennium

By J. Thomas Whetstone, D.Phil.

Pessimism is the prevailing mindset at the beginning of the new millennium among discontented intellectuals, the media, and those who seek a utopia on earth (Johnson, 2003). We can do nothing in the face of economic stagnation, business corruption, global warming, and international terrorism, according to pessimists. But there is a viable alternative: the optimism of those who can adopt the leadership example set by Jesus Christ to serve others.

John Sullivan's book, Servant First! Leadership for the New Millennium, sets forth this optimistic alternative in a lucid and practical manner. Drawing from scholarship on management and leadership, especially Deming's (1982) total quality management and Greenleaf's (1991) servant leadership, his own diverse experience, and biblical examples, Sullivan develops a practical model for Christian leadership.

Servant leadership differs from trait, behavioral, situational, and contingency leadership approaches by to its focus on human persons and relationships. This normative paradigm involves recognition of the leader and the followers as spiritual as well as material creatures, ones worthy of dignity and respect unconditionally, not merely for their instrumental contributions. As Robert K. Greenleaf and his followers (e.g., Spears, 1995) note, a genuine servant leader puts the needs and desires of her followers before her own needs. Her preferred methods are use of persuasion and example rather than command and control or manipulation. She measures success by manifest growth in the people served and the positive effects on overall society.

Critics, such as Craig Johnson (2001), argue that servant leaders can be unrealistically naïve, too passive and too tolerant of followers, pursue the wrong ends, and ineffective in some situational contexts, such as prison administration. Even admitted advantages of servant leadership, including its altruism, simplicity, and self-awareness, can be viewed as weakened through naivety. According to Norman Bowie (2000), a servant leader can be too subject to manipulation by followers.

John Sullivan, while not directly refuting such criticism, presents a strong positive case for servant leadership, describing and explaining how the biblical Christ led and mentored his disciples. Sullivan's book indeed demonstrates that proper servant leadership need not be limited by the above objections. Moreover, Sullivan argues that the leadership model exemplified by Christ is not beyond ordinary human capability, but it may be studied and applied effectively within a variety of contemporary organizations.

Sullivan identifies character traits, competencies, and leadership types exemplified by Christ as leader. He describes how Christ built a values-driven organization based on principles honoring the dignity and worth of each imperfect individual. Drawing on his military experience and management education, Sullivan offers a five-phased strategy for preparing, deploying, and growing an organization. Especially helpful are the suggested questions that the contemporary leader can address at each phase. Examples, often blending the methods of Deming with biblical accounts, explain specific tactics that have been used successfully to implement the strategy in military, educational, and business situations. The concluding example, that of Chris Heuertz, Executive Director of Word Made Flesh, shows how servant leadership has been used in organizing and implementing a program for serving the poor in many of the most underdeveloped regions of the world.

Sullivan does not argue ideologically, but seeks to persuade the reader by using numerous examples that a person who adopts the nature of a servant leader, applying the principles and behaviors exemplified by Christ, can lead well. His book thus presents a positive alternative for anyone interested in moving away from the naysayers toward a culture of personal, corporate, and societal optimism. Sullivan explains how it has worked well and can continue to do so. His book is recommended reading for anyone searching for an optimistic and practical stimulus for more effective leadership.

References:

Bowie, Norman: 2000. "Business Ethics, Philosophy, and the Next 25 Years". Business Ethics Quarterly. 10(1), 7-20.

Deming, W. Edwards: 1982. Out of Crisis. Cambridge, MA: Center for Advanced Engineering Study, M.I.T.

Greenleaf, Robert K.: 1991. Servant Leadership. NY: Paulist.

Johnson, Craig E.: 2001. Meeting the Ethical Challenges of Leadership. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.

Johnson, Paul: 2003. "An `Ism' for All Seasons". National Review (October 13), 17-18.

Spears, Larry (Ed.): 1995. Reflections on Leadership: How Robert K. Greenleaf's Theory of Servant-leadershipInfluenced Today's Top Management. NY: John Wiley & Sons.