Practice Management Books

This lucid and concise volume presents the full spectrum of legal and practice issues in conducting architectural practice--from inception to completion of projects. Salient topics include contracts, legal liability and insurance, forms of business association, roles and responsibilities of building industry players, codes and standards, and dispute resolution strategies.

The authors deftly balance focused analytical and broad conceptual understandings with an engaging writing style. They crystallize a great deal of sophisticated practice information for real-world application.

Seasoned practitioners as well as young professionals will appreciate the underlying thesis: Knowledge of law and practice empowers architects with "security and certainty." Law and Practice for Architects provides that critical knowledge.

The authors vary the presentation of material--straight text with accompanying diagrams, question and answer sections, and "Practice Overview" essays. The fascinating Practice Overviews augment each chapter by illuminating a specific practice topic and by stimulating critical thinking, making this book a valuable didactic tool for professional development.

Law and Practice for Architects is an outstanding sourcebook, essential reading for all design professionals. Res ipsa loquitur. --Andrew Pressman, FAIA, Professor and Editor-in-Chief, Architectural Graphic Standards, 11e.

This is a rare and readable blend of experience and practical wisdom on where design meets the law. It is a solid addition to any architect's library and could serve as a strong link in every firms orientation program. It offers the basics on legal issues, but just as importantly provides much-needed perspective. This profession has entered a new and different world- full of worrisome and wonderful opportunities. For those looking to the future, this book will lead the perplexed and strengthen the leader.

I took a leadership course that used this book and I must admit that I was very impressed with the simplicity but yet earthly manner which Nancy Huber (author) has spoken in, as she speaks directly to the heart. She calls forth to search for the leader within us: reasoning us with logic of what it means to be a true leader, encouraging, motivating, building a vision, desiring a change, building a community around us, to find the authentic side of us, and acting upon in "doing" leadership in all aspects in our lives rather than just "knowing" the technical aspects of it at work. It really helps to align one's life compass with one's life call, and I highly recommend it as you will never be the same after reading it. This book is for those who desire to be a true leader, enough to warrant for a true change. It contains pure andedote of truths that will only make you stronger in character and more in tune with your true self. Once you've started to "lead from within", you won't feel artificial or fake again at work, any place or anywhere else. Excellent book... highly recommended.

This book really helped me to explore my own ideas concerning leadership! It provided wonderful exercises at the end of each chapter that solidified the material for me. It helped me to realize that we are all leaders and we can all develop our own philosiphies about leadership.

This book is an excellent reference book. Just by looking at its Edition Number -- 13, you will know how important this book is in the industry.

This is an excellent reference book for anybody in the life insurance business, whether you are a novice or an old hand. Comprehensive, easy to understand, and concisely written.

This short book challenges us to revisit the manufacturing function in our companies,and provides an action plan for doing so. The book teaches us why manufacturing must be integrated in--and not a stepchild of--the company's operation, even for those outsourced components. CEOs and all department heads must get together and discuss the strategies in this book.

This is one of the volumes in "The Future of Business from Booz & Company" series in which the firm's senior-level executives explain especially significant developments and emerging trends within major sectors of the global marketplace. (Booz & Company is the new name for the commercial side of Booz Allen Hamilton.) In this instance, Kaj Grichnik and Conrad Winkler with Jeffrey Rothfeder focus on "the opportunities for manufacturing along with the perils [decision-makers] may face and the potential for overcoming them...[as well as] special trends that will affect manufacturing and the evolution of new production methods, techniques, philosophies, and strategies that could positively influence the performance of industry and improve global economic, environmental, and social conditions. We describe how current and future trends are conspiring to alter the dynamics of manufacturing, and explain how manufacturers can transform themselves to achieve success in a difficult landscape."

All of the authors of volumes in this series have the full benefit of a wealth of resources that have been accumulated during the completion of Booz & Company's client assignments throughout the world. The specific observations and recommendations that Grichnik and Winkler offer are research-driven and based on real-world information. For example, they examine:

How manufacturers have reached a "crossroads" of multiple options, with decisions to be made having "make or break" consequences (Chapter 1)

Eight "very real" challenges that manufacturers now face and why they must learn to navigate them successfully; also, lessons to be learned by using an analytical model when playing out two scenarios that take entirely different approaches to manufacturing (Chapter 2)

How Toyota's greatest advantage "has accrued from the way that a number of factors - some generated within the company, others external--have all, linked together in a virtuous cycle [i.e. each element contributing to the cycle makes the others move faster] while US auto makers have been caught up in a vicious cycle [i.e. problems cause each other to worsen more quickly than they can be managed individually]"; also, how to "harness" virtuous cycles and avoid vicious ones (Chapter 3)

The four principles on which innumerable programs, tools, techniques. and tactics are based to make (rather than break) a company's relations with its workforce mutually beneficial; also, qualities that will support and enable the success of manufacturing executives (Chapter 4)

Frankly, I find it remarkable that Grichnik and Winkler can somehow provide so much valuable information and counsel within only 207 pages. With rare precision, eloquence, and (yes) brevity, they explain why the future of manufacturing is truly becoming a "make-or-break" proposition for many companies as their weaknesses are increasingly exposed. "At the same time, there are always great opportunities in challenging times." More specifically, as Grichnik and Winkler carefully explain, enlightened and determined leaders can help their companies to renew and revitalize themselves with an appropriate mix of "innovative manufacturing technology, flexible global footprints, deliberately redesigned manufacturing operating systems, and truly engaged manufacturing communities." When doing so, they will not simply make winning futures for their companies and their industries - they may change the world. "That, after all, is what manufacturers have done since the industrial revolution - indeed throughout human history."

Additional notes and resources are available at www.businessfuture.com.

Those who share my high regard for this book are urged to check out Janine Benyus' Biomimicry: Innovation Inspired by Nature, William McDonough's Cradle to Cradle: Remaking the Way We Make Things, Paul Hawken's The Ecology of Commerce, John E. Ettlie's Managing Innovation (Second Edition): New Technology, New Products, and New Services in a Global Economy, Fast Strategy: How strategic agility will help you stay ahead of the game co-authored by Yves Doz and Mikko Kosonen, Dean Spitzer's Transforming Performance Measurement: Rethinking the Way We Measure and Drive Organizational Success, and Enterprise Architecture as Strategy: Creating a Foundation for Business Execution co-authored by Jeanne Ross, Peter Weill, and David Robertson.

Ron's book is not only good for the Society of Maintenance and Reliability Professionals certification, it's great for educating upper management that cutting costs are not always the answer to driving improved capacity and plant reliability. Many times, investing in proactive behaviors outweigh saving our way to prosperity. When undergoing change efforts around reliability practices, I share this book with senior management, asking them to read the first two chapters if nothing else.

Jeff Shiver, CMRP, CPMM

Ron Moore's knowledge and passion for business comes out in his book "Making Common Sense, Common Practice". I give this book to supervisors as required reading material when they are preparing for the Society of Maintenance & Reliability Society's - Certified Maintenance & Reliability Professional Exam.

This CD complements the book of the same title and is changing my life. Julie Morgenstern has taken me from someone that can't find anything in the mess to someone that can clean the whole house in 20 minutes with her book "Organizing from the Inside Out". Now she is helping me release that person that can't get anything done to someone that accomplishes the most important things daily with her book "Making Work Work". I cannot express my thanks appropriately. The words are not in the dictionary.

A "no nonsense" approach to organizing. It has make real and profound changes in my life.

The book has now been published. It is entitled "Managed Care Strategies, A Physician Practice Desk Reference". It is about 600 pages long and costs $89 from Aspen. It is a comprehensive manual of advice to physicians on how to adapt their practices to the pressures of managed care. It is intended to be the only information source a physician will need to guide the direction of her/his professional practice for at least the next three years.

George Moseley, The Author

George Moseley knows more about this business than anyone I've met - he is insightful, interesting, relevant, and his book is essential for anyone working in health care in the new millenium. Buy this book!!

Management and Information Systems In Human Services: Implications for the Distribution of Authority and Decision Making By Richard K. Caputo Ph.D.

Caputo's book, published in 1988 is an excellent resource for high level administrators. Although, it is an academic pursuit, Caputo, does a fine job of describing implications for decision making, authority and legitimacy in human service organizations. The application of information systems in organizations are not neutral; they affect the authority structure, decision load and power of the organization. In other words: How are decisions made and information used in your agency?

Caputo probes the nature of humans service organizations and discusses how they are different than profit & nonprofit. The differences have a direct bearing on the functions of management and the uses of information within them.

Caputo includes footnoted material and an excellen reference list for the dedicated leader in the information age.

Haworth Press 1988

Library of Congress # HV29.2.C37

ISBN: 0-86656-822-0

FIVE STAR ALL THE WAY

This is the best book I came across in three years of graduate school. This is a very comprehensive book with a foward vision for human service organizations that require the best in structure, efficiency, decision making and service delivery.

The implementation of MIS and their integration in an organization will directly affect the power base, authority structure and reporting relationships. This is critical to executives in service organizations and government who make decisions that will lead all of us into the future.

Caputo examines authority, decision load, and MIS that will enable the reader to think differently about efficiency. He also considers socio-culture and philosophical issues that reveal the global transformation of the way we think about problems and how we resolve them.

A great read that cuts through the usual business BS and presents the unabashed, practical truth. A refreshing alternative to the usual academic business dribble and a must read for MBA students and new managers. This book is easy to read in a weekend, funny, irreverent, and game changing. It's a bit like being on a plane for 12 hours with a retired CEO giving you the benefit of all of his years of experience over a bottle of scotch - priceless!

If "stripping bare" means taking off the old coating or varnish, Jo Owen has succeeded in baring management to a delightfully ruthless degree. Owen isn't satisfied merely to proclaim that the boardroom emperor has no clothes. No, he catalogs, in encyclopedic A to Z style, every managerial fad, self-aggrandizing procedure and hypocritical impulse. Lest you mistakenly think he's from the "Saturday Night Live" school of irreverence, Owen also offers insightful options for managing the daggers and dangers of corporate life. He doesn't just tear down, he builds up. If painful truth is indeed the heart of all humor, this unbitter, honest book will leave you snickering in your cubicle or corner suite. Owen also offers real-world solutions (while admitting they may be no better than anyone else's). Stripping bare is fine, as long as you go back and apply a new-and-improved coat of varnish. Owen does. We highly recommend taking a break and learning the lessons business school skipped.

This is a must have for any Physical Therapy student or licensed PT. I own 3 Physical Therapy practices and it has helped me to improve all aspects of business.
Simple and relevant.

This text provides the working foundations for all professional physical therapists into the world of administration. This text gives a wonderful covering of the entire spectrum of issues that may be addresses for the PT manager and serves as a great introductory element!