Organizations Books

Recreating the Corporation is Ackoff's best work on utilizing the use of systems thinking to understand how to make not only pieces of companies better, but how optimizing the entire company can lead to dramatic improvements. Those who know Ackoff's work will appreciate his freshening of material contained elsewhere and the addition of new concepts to make the framework wholistic.

I enjoyed this book very much, particulary the introduction with its synopsis of systems theories and management applications. Recommended for managers in organization redesign roles in business and government

Since Peter Senge eloquently introduced business readers to the importance of systems thinking in The Fifth Discipline, companies have been grappling with how to apply that aspect of the learning organization. In Re-Creating the Corporation, Russell Ackoff has written the most complete description of how such an organization can be created.

A system is any grouping of parts that is influenced by its parts and requires their coordination to create the best result. A car is an example. You can take the best transmission from one type of car, the best engine from another, and the best brakes from a third, and they will not work together. This is a typical quality of systems: If you optimize any part of the system, you reduce the effectiveness of the whole. But most organizations are set up to seek optimization of the part rather than the system, creating disasters like the car example I just used.

Although he makes only limited reference to it, Professor Ackoff is clearly influenced by complexity science. He has created fractals (small versions of the whole that scale up and down) in his organization, and is trying to expose the widest number of people to the widest possible perspectives on the systems issues of an organization.

The book is designed as a series of essays to explain what systems are and how they operate; processes for planning, design, implementation and learning; organizational designs that apply the concepts of democracy, economy and flexibility; and an overview of the weaknesses of management fads and panaceas, and the benefits of working on organizational and transformational leadership instead. His goal is to create an organization that is as stable as possible in order to create an organization that is as flexible as possible. Let me explain. He wants to avoid reorganizations of roles and jobs, but he wants the organization as a system to evolve rapidly and easily in serving stakeholders.

I found the concepts to be quite consistent with the realities of a wired world, by putting a structure and a thought process together that will provide a context for gaining benefits from enhanced communication. Basically, the structure relies on creating a three dimensional organization -- one that relies on input (functional) units like purchasing, finance, and legal that are primarily used internally, output (product or service creating) units such as the manufacturing activities, and market or user defined (customer or geography) units. Most organizations emphasize one of these three dimensions or the other. By keeping them in place in a balanced way, the idea is to avoid needing to make adjustments to create or abolish any of these types of units.

A second major innovation to aid this organizational structure is the idea of using interacting boards to supervise each unit. This creates more participation, more democracy, and more interconnection across the organization.

To this, Ackoff combines a common process for systems solution creation and implementation that all would learn in the organization.

With organization, thinking, and doing processes in place, he then proposes that organizations go for transformational change rather than incremental change.

I found the book to be full of fresh thinking and interesting examples of how this can be applied based on Mr. Ackoff's consulting experiences with his well-known, long-term clients like DuPont and Anheuser-Busch.

For those who want to learn more about systems thinking at the micro level, I suggest reading the sections on that in The Fifth Discipline Field Guide. That will help you understand the concepts much better than the material in this book.

While I agree with the concept of keeping the organization as stable as possible, I found the proposals here to be a pretty ponderous way to accomplish that end. I suspect that simpler versions of this concept could work almost as well in coordinating systems thinking, and might work much more rapidly. For a newer, smaller organization, the structure would be overly complicated.

My own idea is that companies should move beyond organizational design and problem-solving structures as their focus to concentrate instead on creating an overriding mission, vision, strategy, tactics, and means of implementation (with employees and stakeholders who are energized by this diretion) that are all-encompassing in perspective and in providing direction, and perpetual in appropriateness. Then, by focusing on the key points of potential progress, the organization should constantly make large improvements in its business model that are more adaptable to the changing business environment. I think this concept of the organization that I have just described is easier to understand and apply once it is formulated in an organization than the ideas described here from Re-Creating the Corporation.

Even though I disagree with the proposed solutions in this very interesting book, I gave the book five stars for raising most of the right questions. We learn more from good questions than from the first sets of proposed solutions, and I hope that others will take these questions seriously and pursue them as well.

After you have read this book, ask yourself where in your organization you are pursuing optimization of an area or a part of the organization's activities. When will that optimization be harmful? How can you prevent that harm? What means of coordination could create a better combined result for your organization?

I enjoyed this book very much, particulary the introduction with its synopsis of systems theories and management applications. Recommended for managers in organization redesign roles in business and government

"This book is a product of applying systems thinking to the management and organization of enterprises". Russel L. Ackoff writes, "therefore, an understanding of the nature of systems and systems thinking is essential for understanding what this book is about. Although most people can identify many different systems, few know precisely what a system is. Without such knowledge, one cannot understand them, and without such an understanding, one cannot be aware of their implications for their management and organization and for treatment of the most important problems that currently face them" (p.5).

Thus, he firstly argues that a system is a whole consisting of two or more parts that satisfies the following five conditions:

(1). The whole has one or more defining properties or functions.

(2). Each part in the set can affect the behavior or properties of the whole.

(3). There is a subset of parts that is sufficient in one or more environments for carrying out the defining function of the whole; each of these parts is necessary but insufficient for carrying out this defining function.

(4). The way that each essential part of a system affects its behavior or properties depends on (the behavior or properties of) at least one other essential part of the system.

(5). The effect of any subset of essential parts on the system as a whole depends on the behavior of at least one other such subset.

Hence, Ackoff summarizes his argument that a system is a whole that cannot be divided into independent parts without loss of its essential properties or functions, and additionally argues that when the performances of the parts of a system, considered separately, are improved, the performance of the whole may not be (and usually is not) improved.

Within this general framework, he:

* defines four different types of systems, and shows their effects on organizations and the way they are managed (more detailed discussion see Chapter 2):

(1). 'Deterministic', systems and models in which neither the parts nor the whole are purposeful.

(2). 'Animated', systems and models in which the whole is purposeful but the parts are not.

(3). 'Social', systems and models in which both the parts and the whole are purposeful.

(4). 'Ecological', systems and models in which some parts are purposeful but as a whole have no purposes of their own.

* by considering three primary forms of traditional management and planning (reactive, inactive, and preactive) and their deficiencies, discusses systems-oriented/interactive form of management and planning.

* discusses five aspects of interactive planning in separate chapters as follows:

- preparing the state of the organization or a situational analysis (more detailed discussion see Chapter 4).

- determining ideals, objectives, and goals or ends planning of the organization (more detailed discussion see Chapter 5).

- identifying the gaps between what the organization is and is now doing and where it wants to be and to be doing (more detailed discussion see Chapter 6).

- considering resources such as money, plant and equipment (capital goods), people, consumables (materials, supplies, energy, and services), data, information, knowledge, understanding, and wisdom, and asking and answering following questions:

i. How much will be required, where, and when?

ii. How much will be available at the required time and place?

iii. How should each shortage or excess be treated? (more detailed discussion see Chapter 7).

- implementing and controlling with learning and adaptation (more detailed discussion see Chapter 8).

* describes and explaines circular type of organization as a democratic hierarchy.

* discusses internal market economies as substitution of the centrally planned and controlled economies within the organizations.

* discusses the multidimensional design and organization that eliminates the need to restructure when internal or external changes require adaptation, and argues that "the circular organization, the internal market economy, and multidimensional design can all be combined in one organization. The power of each is significantly enhanced by its interactions with the others".

* examines currently popular panaceas such as downsizing, TQM, continuous improvement, benchmarking, and process reengineering and the reasons they fail, and argues that "there are no simple solutions to complex problems. Furthermore, since problems are interdependent, their solutions should be. Interdependent problems constitute messes, systems of problems. Therefore, their solutions must also form a system. A system of solutions is a plan, and plans are complicated, not simple. It is not possible in a few minutes to find behavior that will resolve, solve, or dissolve a set of problems that took years to cultivate".

Strongly recommended.

I can't put this book down. It is meant to be a daily reading, but I can't stop at just one entry. I have to read on. I really enjoy reading this book. If you are looking for an inspirational book to help you with your faith, this is the one!!

Awesome book! I thoroughly enjoy reading this book after my daily Bible reading. Written so plainly that it is so easy to get captured by Saint Faustina's deepest feelings and the love between her and The Diviine Mercy are so captivating. But that we could all have that closeness to Him.

I had not even known the book exists, until Amazon suggested it. It is a wonderful, spiritual book of daily thoughts by Sister Faustina.

The spiritual content of this book I can only describe as awesome. For a simple human being to leave behind such a legacy is nothing short of a miracle. Its content raised my level of faith far beyond what I anticipated of myself as a result of reading this diary. If anyone doubts the mercy and love of God, then this book should settle the issue. It is a layman's assertion of the truth of the Scriptures...something needed for the skeptics of this day and age.

I purchase this book, at least 6 at a time, from Amazon on a regular basis and give it as gifts to others. I thought I knew what love was until I read the daily readings of St Faustina. Her love for God transformed her. Her message is powerful and all about God's mercy and love. You finally realize the power of the words "Jesus I trust in You".

With this book, David Feldman takes the mystery out of reverse mergers. Going public via an APO (alternative public offering) is a legitimate way to take a micro-cap company public while raising the necessary funds to grow the business. His strategies and insights, written in plain English, are invaluable for any CEO/CFO who is contemplating a reverse merger, especially after the recent SEC rulings. I would, however, caution that the book is not a do-it-yourself "how-to-guide" but rather a starting point to get acquainted with the reverse merger process. My biggest take-away is to make sure you bring in a capable and experienced team of advisers to make the reverse merger process a seamless transaction.

This is a most informative book and tells you how to do it. The concept is mysterious at first but is clearly explained in this book. It is a must for anyone considering taking his business public. I highly recomend it.

If you want to know the right way to organize and structure Reverse Mergers, this is the book to go for. It's an excellent up to date reference as well as a guidebook of do's, don'ts and "tricks of the trade"; even better, it's written so both newbies and professionals can benefit from it.

At the very minimum, Reverse Mergers will pay for itself many times over in saved legal fees; more importantly it will almost certainly save you a lot of time and may well save you from some very expensive mistakes. If you intend to do anything in this area, Mr. Feldman's book is undoubtedly the best $50 investment you can make.

Well, maybe it didn't exactly change my life, but it gave my law firm a new direction. My firm specializes in strategic transactions - initial public offerings, private placements, mergers & acquisitions - but we had steered clear of reverse mergers because of the uncertainty and confusion. Feldman and Dresner cleared up that confusion we now offer reverse mergers as part of our services.

This book showed the mechanics of structuring a reverse merger, how to create shell corporations and guidelines on financing. It covers due diligence, securities filings and and plenty of mistakes to avoid.

Whether you're an attorney, accountant, investment banker, business owner or private investor, this book will offer you an new strategy for growth and finance by way of reverse mergers.

Only a few years ago, it seemed that nearly every company was going public with an IPO. Now many quality companies are locked out of the IPO market, but companies have other ways to go public. One of the most popular paths is a "reverse merger." In this transaction, your private company merges into a public company (often a "shell") and controls it, giving you a public stock with which to raise capital. This may sound shady, but it's not: many well-known companies have gone public through reverse mergers, including Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway, Turner Broadcasting System, Occidental Petroleum and Blockbuster Entertainment. Experienced Wall Street securities attorney David N. Feldman takes you through the reverse merger process in detail. The book is wonderfully clear and thorough, and should become the definitive textbook on reverse mergers. It is, however, a dry read. A profusion of technical rules and especially acronyms (SPAC, SOX, Form 10-B, Rule 419, Regulation A, SB-2, PIPE) make the book slightly MEGO (My Eyes Glaze Over) for the uninitiated - but then, they are not its target audience. We enthusiastically recommend this book to sophisticated investors, lawyers, accountants, investment bankers and executives who want all the details on this increasingly popular financing technique.

Tom Wilson's premise: Employee incentives are just as important to corporations as they are to employees. Why? Because a company that aligns its own achievement with that of its employees is well on its way to success. Wilson uses a wide range of case studies to bolster his common- sense advice, including reminders that your employee rewards plan should be simple to understand, geared toward the kind of people you want to attract and should frequently vary. Even the most experienced manager can stand to learn a thing or two from Wilson's keen analysis of Amazon.com, Southwest Airlines, Saturn, and a host of other successful businesses. We from getAbstract think that you owe it to yourself - and to your employees - to read this well-crafted book.

Tom Wilson's new book is even better than his last, which I found to be one of the best reward systems books written. Rewards that Drive High Performance is a rich and easy reading collection of case studies from some of the country's leading organizations, including Amazon.com, Starbucks, Genzyme and many others. It is a book that I, as a manager, found to be very practical -- a compensation "text" for line managers because it shows what works and why, not just theory.

I really liked the way the cases were grouped, because it shows that reward systems need to be defined differently for different applications and company cultures. Best practices are useful to study, but Wilson's book goes beyond this to show how and why the best companies do what they do and align their reward systems with their business objectives.

It's refreshing to see a book from a leading consultant not geared to "provide just enough" to entice the reader to want to know more -- this book truly tells the whole story, and does it in a way that proves to be a compelling read.

In the modern economy, organizations that compete for the best people must learn to design reward systems that drive performance. The author argues that in today's marketplace, more and more companies are seeing employee benefits not as an expense, but as a tool for achieving particular goals. The author further explains that with loyalty gone, workers need a reward system that works, or they will leave the company.

Author Thomas Wilson explored many different reward systems from different firms. As he reviewed the most successful firms, he started to notice similarities. The author noticed that regardless of the individual goals of each organization's reward program, they all shared these 10 key factors:

· Reward systems play a crucial role in performance.
· Measures give rewards relevance, rewards give measures meaning.
· Alignment with the company's philosophies and values, along with consistency are essential.
· How people are paid is often more important than how much they are paid.
· Build programs with a vision, improving them over time.
· The value of the reward, including psychological value, should exceed its cost.
· Recognize that the program does not become real for workers until the first payment.
· Translate measures into action guidelines for employees.
· Make rewards more meaningful by combing financial with non-financial rewards.
· Use rewards as strategic management systems used to support the strategy, goals, and values of a company.

"This book provides a series of stories that offer a window into today's organizations. While the focus is on the reward systems that these organizations devised and implemented, the true picture goes much deeper. Each story reflects an organization that was facing a need to change the way it coducted its business and developed a process to support and reinforce change. So, the reward systems are manifestations of a new set of values and practices within organizations...The case studies in this book were developed with representatives of these organizations. They are true, real-life descriptions of what goes on inside these companies...While this book can be read from front to back, it was not written to be read in a traditional manner. It may be useful to take a non-linear approach, jumping from one section to another...This book is not intended to represent the best practices of the best companies, although it often does. It is a book about reality. It may not include the design for the perfect reward system, but it should give you ideas and approaches that will change the way you think about, develop, and manage rewards (pp.1-7)."

In this context, Thomas B. Wilson focuses on:

* How does an organization such as Amazon.com instill or retain the entrepreneurial spirit that it had when it was small?

* how companies such as DuPont, Coca-Cola, and Cisco Systems seek to create a bridge between the requirements for success and each individual.

* how companies retain a customer focus so that people collaborate and strive to perform better.

* how companies such as DuPont, Cumming Engine, and K/P Corporation encouraged people to collaborate and provided a share of the benefit if improvements could be achieved.

* how companies retain their critical talents.

* how companies such as Allied Signal, and Harvard University Health Services have integrated a variety of quality management processes into their organizations.

* how companies have changed their reward systems to support new business strategies.

Finally, he writes that "to aid you in developing your own approach to change, I have summarized the 10 key factors that seem to most accurately determine what makes reward systems successful. While this list summarizes common characteristics, the true significance is in applying these principles to your own situation and to learn from the direct application of experience."

1. Reward systems play a crucial role in performance.

2. Measures give rewards relevance; rewards give measures meaning.

3. Alignment and consistency are essential.

4. How people are paid is often more important than how much they are paid.

5. Build programs with a vision, and then improve them over time.

6. The value of the reward should exceed the cost.

7. The program begins after the first payouts.

8. Translate measures into action.

9. Make rewards meaningful.

10. Take a strategic, systemic, and holistic approach.

Highly recommended.

This book provides insights into some of the most talked about companies in America. It helped me understand their situation, and how they developed an effective reward system. It also gave me specific tools, and hundreds of ideas. It is clear, well written, and well presented. Thanks.

My two favorite players are Pat Rafter and Pete Sampras so this book was destined to be of interest to me. Overall, I would say I'm slightly disappointed for not getting more in-depth into Pat Rafter the man. This is nothing but a simplistic diary of a year traveling the circuit, what he did at tournaments, where he practiced and with whom, and status of his injuries.

There is nothing in this book to criticize; it's just very simplistic reading. Pat is the epitome of an Australian man, a great athlete who credits his mates and his family for his strong bearing. Everyone knows Pat likes to toast a few and this book describes a few all-nighters after key wins.

Unfortunately, this book needed to be written sooner. The yearlong diary covers few highlights. He did make it to the semi-final of Wimbledon losing to Agassi and he did play in the Davis Cup match in Boston beating the Americans in an epic struggle with Todd Martin. But while the book starts after he won his second US Open, it ends with him losing in the first round of the US Open in 1999.

Probably the most interesting part of the book to me was the squabbles with Pete Sampras, my other favorite player. Pat starting beating Pete and I assumed Pete was struggling with this and was at fault for fallout by some of his comments. From reading this I suspect Pat was just at much at fault based on comments made at a press conference and the way he states his side of the relationship. Irrespective, they're both quality individuals and great players who went at it from different angles. It says a lot for their character that they talked on the phone to hash out any difference and can both walk away with respect for each other.

I don't mean to be disrespectful to Pat about this review. I miss his game. You knew when you watched a Pat Rafter match you got 100% effort win or lose and that attitude comes through loud and clear. I just wish it had covered more background about his upbringing including his junior tennis career to show how he grew into such a champion.

As a tennis fan, I always liked Rafter and was curious to read about his career. This book has everything for the Rafter fan, match results, insights, quotes from fellow players, and even a revealing centerfold that will leave any woman satisfied.

I highly recommend this book!

If you are a Patrick Rafter fan I think you will enjoy this book. It's like he's speaking to you throughout the entire book. You get to know how he feels before and during matches. I enjoyed reading the book and hope he comes out with another book telling his story from the beginning.

I immensely enjoyed reading this book. I read it on the road while traveling to away matches. It was a refreshing and encouraging reading. It's very heartening to see such a down-to-earth person as Rafter be so succesful at tennis. The narrative is very personal and informal. It's like Rafter is having a couple of beers with you while he gives you his insight on life as a professional tennis player. Great tennis player + Great person = Patrick Rafter

It's really flattering to actually know how Pat Rafter feels inside and go through a year of tennis with him. In additional to the well-written diary, there includes pages and pages of terrific photos. I'd recommend anyone who likes tennis or Pat!

Having been an acitvist in the 60's and 70's and then settling into the coma of "it's time for the next generation", I found Romero's Legacy inspirational. This book has renewed my commitment to work for social justice. Thank you.

When the biblical prophets decried unfaithfulness among the people of Yahweh, they usually cited two indicators: engaging with other gods, and failure to engage with the poor, orphans, widows and the oppressed.

In the late 1970's Archbishop Oscar Romero accepted his call to prophecy and began to complain bitterly about the oppression of the poor in El Salvador. In 1980 he was shot to death while leading a religious service.

His short life as a prophet and his death have inspired many who serve the poor, including many members of St. Joseph's Cathedral in Camden, New Jersey, home to some of the poorest people of the United States.

Among many other efforts to engage the poor, St. Joseph's began the Romero lectures in 2001, effectively reviving Romero's spirit with annual meditations on the complicated relationships of good, evil, fear, justice, compassion, revenge and the meaning of being Christian - all in relationship to the poor and oppressed.

These seven lectures, delivered yearly from 2001-2007 chronicle the oppression of the poor in today's dynamics: economic and social injustice, incarceration, (including the death penalty) racism and demonization of immigrants; and offer a religious and theological response to engaging the poor: a preference for the poor (liberation theology) and a reminder for those who would be Christian that their faith makes the poor a part of their family. As John Hogan notes, "in the New (Eucharistic) Covenant), we become blood relatives...of one another." (p. 27)

These edifying lectures can inspire the private reader, but their thrust is clearly towards our responsibility as a people to turn our collective, our structural hearts towards the poor. With Romero's spirit, the prophets of Camden are showing us the way.

Romero's Legacy is short, clear, and challenging. It forced me to rethink some big issues: war, race, urban poverty, capital punishment, and immigration. Gutierrez, Prejean, and Groody are spellbinding. A great resource for high school, college, and adult ed classes.

Romero's Legacy is an indispensable introduction to the topic of social justice and the Christian call to follow Christ's example for the sake of the poor and disenfranchised. Through the lens of seven different writers, each committed to living faith through work on behalf of those who the secular world values least, the book makes a convincing case that faith, without works, is dead. Concise and accessible, Romero's Legacy is lends itself easily to structured study. The text is appropriate not only for high school or college curricula, but also as a learning tool for small-group study.

"The Living Legacy of Oscar Romero," is an excellent book, which includes many thought-provoking and insightful articles from the past 7 Romero Center Annual Lectures. Each article discusses issues related to peace and justice... I highly recommend this book to professors, teachers, and scholars. This is a great book to incorporate into your curriculum with high school and college students. This is a 'must read.'

Running Xen Review

Running Xen takes a unique approach to introducing Xen to both the novice and expert virtualization user. The authors start off introducing just enough of the core concepts to give the reader an adequate basis on which the book later builds on to provide the required skills to effectively run a virtual environment. A brief explanation of Xen architecture follows with an overview of the management tools with real world examples showing actual output. I found this attention to often overlooked detail refreshing such as the use of ssh with keys and X Forwarding to securely communicate with guests impressive, instead of simply using an easier less secure method for example. The reader could choose to skip ahead if the topic was already understood but providing that level of detail is integral to the learning process in my opinion. Simply getting a Xen server up and running accomplishes nothing for the user needing to actually run and administer it after, which is where most technical books fail.

The walk through with guest disk images and creating them correctly was well appreciated instead of leaving that to the reader to hopefully figure out. All popular methods for populating guests were covered which allowed distro specific tools to be utilized instead of requiring non native methods or leaving the reader unprepared. Device virtualization was covered, but I assume as Xen is constantly evolving the information at print time regarding hiding a PCI device from Dom0 was still accurate but is now slightly different. Fortunately, all the pointers to additional reading would lead the user to finding the current procedure. Networking was covered in detail which is an often misunderstood part of Xen and a working example of a purely virtual segment using a dummy interface was shown which I found fairly useful. Guest resource management provided an understanding for topics such as the IO Scheduler and gave examples on how to tune it.

This was my second book on Xen and completely replaces the first as a much more competent reference. I highly recommend this book for anyone using Xen for its concrete basis and good reference it provides.

I'm new to virtualization, but very technical. "Running Xen" was just right for me. Great background information and rationalization mixed with solid detail. Solid in-depth intro for anyone seeking to understand virtualization in general, and Xen in particular.

The review copy I had was only 583 pages, not the 624 that the specs say this has. I bring that up because I wonder if last minute updates were added, and I mention that because that was my first thought when reading this: it's out of date.

I don't mean horribly, and I certainly don't mean so much as to make this useless. But this is a common problem in the fast moving field of open source: things can change radically in the time it takes to get a book out the door.

For example, the first thing I learned here was about a Xen LiveCD. Chapter 2 is devoted to playing with that, and it's a great idea: a non-threatening, very quick intro to Xen. Unfortunately, that's way
out of date: the LiveCD can still be found, but it's not where the book says it is because it is several versions old now.

However, I'm sure that much of this book will remain useful for some time. This isn't just technical details (though there is a lot of that); it's also advice on configuration and deployment.

As is common nowadays, the book includes a coupon to get 45 days free access to the on-line Safari version (interestingly, that doesn't have 624 pages either).

A few days ago I finally got my copy of Running Xen. I was anxious to see how the information would be presented. I can tell you I was not disappointed. I am by no means a Xen master. I have tinkered with it a few times over the past several years but as I am getting ready to use it full time in production I need as much information as I can get. The books authors include Eli Dow, and Todd Deshane who worked on Xen and the Art of Repeated Research, as well as Quantifying the Performance Isolation Properties of Virtualization Systems. [...]

If you ever worked with Xen - Open Source Virtualization Software for Linux you probably realized that despite being powerful and performing well Xen is a complex solution that requires "reading the manual".

I think that "Running Xen" book ("A Hands-On Guide to the Art of Virtualization") will be a great help. It is written by the team of people who not only know Zen inside out, but who are also major contributors to the source.

The book is a hands-on guide for most popular distributions, but what I specially like is that it gives a very good theoretical background on virtualization (architecture, benefits, over of xen hypervisor etc). The hands-on section covers hardware requirements and software requirements, including specifics for the popular distributions (OpenSUSE, Centos (RHEL) and Ubuntu as well as notes on other Domain0 distributions.

Significant attention is given to managing of the custom installed or pre-built Guest images, management of unprivileged (guest) domains, storage, device virtualization, security, network configuration, management of guest resources, saving/restoration and live migrations.

What gives confidence while reading on these hands-on tasks is the authors' familiarity with the subject. They are people who know Xen inside out and many tips and notes you encounter will save you hours of browsing of mailing lists or trials and errors.

In this highly enlightening book, Michael Kellogg argues that in becoming National Socialist Germany did not follow a special path predetermined by German culture. Rather, the genesis of National Socialism must be understood within the context of German defeat of WWI and the Bolshevik Revolution. The co-occurence of these events brought Baltic German and Russian Nationists to Germany where they joined völkisch leaders and radicalized the masses. Formerly fringe anti-Semitism was joined to anti-Bolshivism and became virulent. The book sits on original research done in German and Russian archives.
Karla Poewe
Professor, University of Calgary

This is a superb book based on solid archival research in German and Russia that provides startling new insights into the ideological roots of National Socialism. It is a must read for anyone interested in understanding Nazism and the development of its ideology. Kellogg shows how the Russian Revolution affected the thinking of various Russian and Baltic intellectuals who fled to Germany where they spread their poisonous brand of anti-Semitism based on a unique mythology. I strongly recommend this book which should be read alongside Karla Poewe "New Religions and the Nazis", New York and London, Routledge, 2006. These books complement each other in a remarkable way and genuinely change our understanding of the origins and growth of Nazism.

Irving Hexham, Professor of Religious Studies, University of Calgary.

The various interconnections between Germany and Russia in contemporary history have become a recurring subject of research after the end of the Cold War. For instance, there has been a new wave of books and articles on the comparison between Nazism and Stalinism as well as on the Nazi-Soviet co-operation of 1939-1940. Another example would be the recent talk about `Weimar Russia' when interpreting post-Soviet developments.
With "The Russian Roots of Nazism", an extremely dense and well-researched text, Kellog provides an important new study on a still insufficiently explored aspect of the history of contemporary German-Russian relations. His book focuses on the years 1918-1923, and details at length the connections that a number of prominent émigrés from the former Tsarist empire had with the early Nazi elite, in general, and Adolf Hitler, in particular. The central theme of the study is the rise and fall of the short-lived, yet important émigré association Aufbau: "Wirtschaftspolitische Vereinigung für den Osten" (Reconstruction: Economic-Political Organisation for the East). With such an intriguing subject, Kellog will find many readers among historians and the interested public of both Russia and Germany as well as other countries.
Kellog's analysis suffers, however, from an overemphasis of the pro-Slavic tendencies in the German extreme right and an insufficient consideration of the deep roots of the Nazis' rabid anti-Slavism. More generally, Kellog could have considered in more detail rival influences on Nazism such as `scientific racism' or occultism in order to make a better case for his thesis about the `Russian roots' of Nazism. While he, at one point, puts his position on the nature of Nazism close to Ernst Nolte's (p. 199), he, in fact, succeeds in providing arguments against Nolte's assertion that fascism is essentially anti-Marxism. Kellog's many quotes show that the `bolshevik' part in the Nazis' talk about `Jewish Bolshevism' was secondary and that the Nazis instead thought that the bolsheviks were guided by `Jewish finance capitalism' (e.g. p. 226) - thus, oddly, making the Nazi interpretation of communism somewhat similar to the communist interpretation of Nazism.

When one considers for what short period the German Army occupied the Ukraine after the treaty of Brest Litovsk, it is interesting how many White Russian came out with the retreating German Armies.Their prejudices were a remarkable influence on the early Nazi Party in Munich, particularly the ideas engendered by the Protocols of Zion. Until this book Scheubner-Richter had been written off as a body, the only one shot dead, marching alongside Hitler and Ludendorff in the 1923 attemptef Putsch. However it transpires that he was as great an influence on Nazi doctrine as Rosenberg ( normally described as just a Baltic-German Russian , but actually also a White Officer )
Interesting also is the relationship with Wagner clan in Bayreuth , so that the book is complementary to Joachim Kohler's Wagner's Hitler; and that both groups visited Henry Ford in Detroit to seek funds , arising from his anti-semitic attitudes.
Kellogg does not explore the implications that the General Staff in Berlin was seeking a rapprochment with bolshevik Russia at this time .Nor does he assess Ludendorff as a politician.Above all , he does not refect on the confrontation between class-ridden White Russian Officers and the Bohemian Corporal who spent the war in the trenches on the Western Front.
Anyone coming to study this period and phase of the Nazi Party/ Adolf Hitler will have to take note of this book and its importance.
I hope that Michael Kellogg will go on to produce works that follow on this pivotal start.

I had never thought to find the link between German right wing movements and white emigres within Germany and Europe and what impact they had on the future Nazi Party and Hitler. This book was an unexpected find and a pleasant one at that. Not too difficult to read, somewhat repetitive but at the same time this makes it easier to keep track of all the 'characters' that the reader is introduced to. This book gives an excellent analysis on how the white emigres affected Hitler and his party and how without them Hitler might not have turned east or if he did might have done some things quite differently. What surprised me most was that before 1919 Hitler did not really say or write anything anti-semitic, in fact at times he defended Jews and even spoke like a socialist from time to time, which to a degree is less surprising since the Nazi party was a socialist party. I was also interested to learn of the assassination attempts undertaken by these white emigres against both Soviet politicians and German ones as well. Bottom line is that there is a lot of information here put into a context I never thought existed before, the book is expensive but in my opinion worth the money for the input it provides and the new view I now have of how Hitler came about with some of his ideas regarding Jews, Bolsheviks, and the Soviet Union.

My company picked up some valuable tips and techniques we had not ever focused on before reading the book and put them into practice. I bought one for all of our employees and suppliers!

I havent read his book yet, but I cant wait im getting it as soon as i can! He was a guest speaker for Shelly Elliots entrepeneur class at UNO (University of New Orleans) and Lee Pryor was freakin hilarious. Not only is he an easy going, laid back, down to earth dude, he is brilliant. I was amazed at how much of a regular guy he was despite his excellent track record of being the 1st man every company calls to gently tell the current CEO "YOU SUCK GET OUT THE WAY AND LET ME SHOW YOU HOW ITS DONE!" Before you start your own business, read his book, meet him in person, whatever just definitely heed his wisdom. The advice he told my class and many anecdotes im sure are in his book and are never-the-less, priceless. Im still holding on to the class notes and have put them in a separate binder for when im ready to use them.

A big thank you to Lee Pryor for sharing his wisdom with anyone wanting to start their own business. His sage advice comes from experience, and lessons that he learned, he lends a penetrating eye to tough situations, and I for one, am glad he decided to fill us in on his secrets!

These are the insights CEOs discuss when they talk shop.

Lee Pryor's book is full of those hands-on insights that come from decades of running businesses. Pryor's wisdoms were earned from long hard experiences that are shared and verbalized only with Pryor's small circle of CEO peers. Thankfully, Lee Pryor has a literary bend. He captured his CEO lessons-learned, and provided me three decades of experience in one readable book.

P.S. I find myself verbally quoting from his book (without attribution) in my conversations with my business colleagues.

Lee Pryor's book is a godsend to anyone starting up a business--or even those who already have. His recommendations on pretty much everything are right on the money. I wish I'd had this to read before I started my business.

FIVE BIG IDEAS: 1. The purpose of schools can be viewed by different models. The tribal model suggests that the purpose of school to teach moral and civil literacy. The factory model suggests that the purpose of school is to separate out and track the educated elite, the semi-skilled and low skilled workers. The hospital model suggests that school is the great equalizer that can diagnose, teach, test and cure the ills of society. Schechty suggests that we need to use the best aspects of these cultural, economic, and nurturing models.

2. Students need to be thought of as knowledge-workers where groupwork, self-discipline, loyalty, respect for others, respect of self, sensitivity to social and ethnic issues are stressed. Students need to go beyond the 3R1s. They need to learn how to think, create and solve meaningful real world problems.

3. Education needs to develop a vision that supports that idea that the purpose of school should be student success at doing knowledge-work. Every student can learn if they are provided with the correct work and mode of interaction. Motivated students will achieve by risking failure. The learning results must be valued by the community.

4. In implementing change, resources such as people, knowledge, time and space need to be developed. Questions such as, who is affected by the change, how do you market that, what are the values of the affected constituents, and who1s support is needed, need to be answered. Defining existing conditions, desired conditions, constraints and next steps are all part of a change system that need to be developed and marketed. 5. Methods of setting expectations, providing feedback and setting courses of corrective feedback need to be established. People know what is expected by what is inspected and respected. A system of rewards and consequences need to be put into place at all educational levels. If a person does well his or her only reward cannot be that that he or she does not get punished.

THREE IMPLICATIONS FOR EDUCATION SYSTEM OF THE FUTURE

1. Models of participatory leadership need to be implemented. Employees must be involved and valued as important contributors. Vision tied to purpose must be results oriented. Teachers need to be viewed as leaders and leaders need to be viewed as teachers. Leaders must teach others to make decisions not make the decisions themselves. The district office should support not direct the individual sites.

2. Existing policies, procedures, rules, and regulations need to be reviewed to identify constraints and develop new strategies. A human resource department would need to be established in order to provide the needed support and training to assure that the vision remains aligned with the purpose that every student will be successful at doing knowledge-work.

3. At all levels of the school system, goals and objectives need to be established to increase the rate and frequency of student success in the employees area of responsibility. Evaluation systems to be ongoing and tied to rewards and consequences. If goals are not achieved, then plans need to be put in place to help that employee or student increase their chance for success.

Five big ideas: 1. A need to redesign our schools: Our society has moved from a simple agrarian society, to an information-based society. Schools began in this country promoting Protestant morality. They later changed, and began promoting the American culture to the immigrant masses. Today, education must change again. Schlechty claims that the educational reform movement cannot further proceed without a clear purpose for schooling in the 21st century. The entire structure on which schools are based must change in order to fit the cultural, economic, and social aspects of the next century.

2. Manual work to knowledge work: In our information-based society, the means of production is based on knowledge and the ability to use it to create and solve problems. Working conditions of the 21st century will require that people be able to work well in groups, exercise self-discipline, and exhibit loyalty while maintaining critical faculties. The workplace needs people who know how to learn. Therefore, curriculum must be treated as material to be processed and worked on by students.

3. Clear purpose = student success: Within a knowledge-based school, the purpose of school is to create knowledge work at which the students will be successful, and that the students learn the skills that society values.

4. Participatory leadership for compelling vision: Ideas are formed by people. It is of little consequence whether the ideas go bottom-up or top-down. The important factor is that the leadership process involves individuals at all levels. People who lend their support wish to feel a part of the change. Everyone must be involved. Everyone must feel connected.

5. Changes can occur if...: a) the nature of the change is conceptualized b) the people who are called on for support who were not part of the conceptualization process must be made aware of it c) feedback is solicited from those not involved and it must be incorporated into the change process d) people are motivated to act in the direction of the! change e) a system of support and training are provided to those involved.

Implications for education: 1. Teachers are the leaders. Site-based management must increase. Participants must feel they are valuable contributors to the system. Teachers will teach each other to make decisions. They must become risk-takers and trouble-makers.

2. All stakeholders must become more conscious of education. Business' success and the success of society as a whole depends upon the people that emerge from the schools. We all have a stake in education.

3. A change of attitude: Schools need to redirect their thinking. What is our current purpose for schools?....student success. We must rethink the way we teach, the way we think about the learners, and the way we view ourselves. Our roles must change. A vision must be created in order to guide those changes.

"Can our schools prepare children for the next century?" This is what Phillip Schlechty asks of all educators, parents, and the community. His book exposes what schools need to do to keep current in the new and upcoming age. He advocates an educational renaissance for administrators, community, parents, teachers, and even the government. He states that leaders who are in current positions capable of producing change are usually the ones who are hesitant to generate said change. Therefore, leaders are needed who are actively participating in the visionary process of schools, rallying support to current educators, sharing innovative ideas, and actually initiating the process of change. These leaders need to be at all levels of the educational process. Schlechty also states that leaders need to be proactive in thinking and future planning. Ideas abound in his book for individuals and groups seeking to reform education.

Schools for the 21st Century or... the ABC's of SCHOOL RESTRUCTURING Phil Schlectly What is Restructuring-Schlectly says it this way, If you do what you1ve always done, you get what you always got. Schlectly says that altering the existing rules, roles and relationships must change from the classroom to the superintendent of schools. Change what you do. We could never have gotten to the moon if we spent time refining the combustion engine. We expect 95% of Kids to do what 5% used to do. How to restructure? 1. Develop a shared understanding of the problem 2. Create a shared vision 3. Focused school activity on students. ASK THIS QUESTION EVERYDAY Is there anything here we did today that will harm kids? ALSO ASK THIS QUESTION EVERYDAY Is there anything here we did today that helped kids? 4.Create a results oriented management system. What results do we want is the answer to all questions.Typical statement is we must reduce class size...What's better is results orientated. The results we are after is more personal attention from adults to children. 5.Ensuring a pattern of participatory leadership - It1s easier to make decisions by myself than to give decisions to staff. Why should we adopt this participatory model? Schlechty's analogy! SHEEP Must have dog barking and bitting- sheep move only in big flock, follow the one making most noise-very dumb-will find a green field and stay for life-Very unionized-week leadership-move from behind ! CHICKENS Can1t be herded- only way to get them to move is by being the one they are familiar with-the one who feeds them-Very independent-don1t move from behind-only way to move chickens? Be the one who feeds them, walks by and they follow! Schlechty also gives this analogy "CANARYs in the mine are like AT RISK students in the schools. They1re just die a little earlier. Our schools were built and structured around the game of monopoly, read rules, get the advantage- The problem is kids are playing nintendo-You learn rules by playing the game. You quickly share information -Networking answers to new level of problems will benefit the player. Schlechty defines the different models of schools out there. A School can be a Tribal Center, a Factory or a Hospitals. Schlechty defines knowledge work and that it is what should be the core curriculum of schools. Performance Evaluations =People know what is expected by what is inspected and what is respected. The key steps to moving forward on reform is defined through the superintendents role. THIS IS AN EXCELLENT CHAPTER!

Five Big Ideas and Three ways Schools for the 21st Century: Leadership Imperatives for Educational Reform will help create a vision of a future educational system:

Big Ideas:

1. The purpose of schools must be defined by educational leaders with support from the community. The purpose will reflect the values and commitment of the stakeholders, and shape the goals that schools will pursue.

2. To foster Educational Reform is to foster change. Change in our educational system can be embraced, if there is an understanding of the history of schools evolutionary process. School structure can be reshaped when purpose and vision of schooling are understood.

3. Unless there is a rationale for change, reform will not occur. There are some who believe that "If it isn't broken, don't fix it." Educators must constantly look to reformulate the purpose of schools and create new visions and goals.

4. New visions and goals will be created. Restructuring efforts will consider participatory leadership and followership, accountability and assessment of schools.

5. The creation of a new framework for schooling will address the needs of children and society. Components of the framework include staffing, the distribution of knowledge, and the utilization of time and space, physically and virtually.

Three Implications for the creation a vision of a future educational system:

1. Addressing the five big ideas will raise the collective consciousness of all the educational stakeholders for the need to reform. The process listed above will open our minds to a common vision that can be clearly stated and shared by all the stakeholders.

2. Technology is changing the global workplace. Therefore, technology will be a catalyst for rethinking how we do and redefine school. Becoming digital implies leaving behind an analog and linear approach to an anywhere, anytime, multidimensional approach to learning.

3. Education and schools in the twenty first century must be reinvented and supported by the glo! bal village and must be designed for the betterment of the students, at all age levels.

John M. Marion, Educational Technology Doctoral Student, Pepperdine University