Fundamentals of Financial Management

By Eugene F. Brigham, Joel F. Houston
Publisher: South-Western College Pub
Number Of Pages: 928
Publication Date: 2003-03-14
ISBN-10 / ASIN: 0324178298
ISBN-13 / EAN: 9780324178296
Binding: Hardcover

The market leader, Brigham/Houston continues to grow in reputation as the most effective approach for learning basic finance principles, tools, and applications. It is also updated to reflect the latest in theory, research, real-world examples, and use of technology. The seamless, integrated ancillary package - done by the authors - is a hallmark of this package that makes the subject more accessible for learners.

Summary: Will not learn Fundamentals by example
Rating: 3
This book was purchased as recommended by the teacher. It is great for general theory and understanding.
However this book has most examples showen by instructing you to type on a texas instrumnet financial calculator.
So I consider it a bad choice for leaning the fundementals by example.

Examples:
In the book it tells you to type in sequence of calculator keys on a finacnial calcualtor, so you realy will fail to learn the fundemenatls by example.

This book is bad for leaning by example in my opinion and I would not recommended this book if you have another choice.
Also, the CD comes with power point slides but no notes, so you cannot review slides and learn in your own time.
The same problem with Quiz on CD, you cannot check your answers and review and learn.


Summary: Principles of Finance
Rating: 5
Very helpful book. Has many features to help learn the material well. I would recommend it too anyone.

Summary: A Wonderful Resource - Excellent for CFA Studies
Rating: 5
Brigham & Young's book is prescribed for the CFA curriculum. I find Fundamentals of Financial Management to be excellent in all respects. Twenty years ago, I studied earlier editions of Fundamentals and Intermediate Financial Management while earning my MBA. I was impressed then and I am even more impressed with the authors efforts now.

The table of contents organizes topical material in a progressive and logical manner. Chapters exploring financial management and markets, cost of capital, capital budgeting, cash flow estimation and risk analysis, capital structure and leverage, and divident policy provide readers with a solid foundation of these concepts.

I am very impressed with the authors continued commitment to accuracy. (The authors offer a $10 reward to the first person who discovers material errors.) What a pleasure it is to read chapters and illustrative examples knowing that there aren't many miscalculations or sloppy mistakes.

Colorful graphic presentations and chapter-end review questions make this book wonderful to read. The CD-ROM has thus far provided me helpful chapter review quizzes which are "graded" on the spot, and the book provides a myriad of website references for further study and inquiry.

Truly a 5 star book! I highly recommend this to any investment professional or serious student of finance.

Summary: not good
Rating: 1
i ordered the book and i didnt recieve the one i ordered, i got one similiar but not the same one in the picture, i got the international student edition

Summary: I don't understand why not a review for this book here...
Rating: 5
Now I am working for a financing related field where I am handling "capital budgeting", "corporate or project valuation" and "project finance". When I went to college, the Brigham
was the famous and reputable textbook but I didn't know why.
But while working in the real world, I have recognized that the book is very very helpful for reconfirming my finance knowledge as well as understanding any areas I didn't grasp in the past.
For beginners, I would like to strongly recommend "abridged edition" which is very brief but covering almost all significant financial topics, NEVERTHELESS, it is very understandable. I think it's the first MUST-READ for finance-major students.

Foundations of International Macroeconomics

By Maurice Obstfeld, Kenneth S. Rogoff
Publisher: The MIT Press
Number Of Pages: 832
Publication Date: 1996-09-12
ISBN-10 / ASIN: 0262150476
ISBN-13 / EAN: 9780262150477
Binding: Hardcover

Foundations of International Macroeconomics is an innovative text that offers the first integrative modern treatment of the core issues in open economy macroeconomics and finance. With its clear and accessible style, it is suitable for first-year graduate macroeconomics courses as well as graduate courses in international macroeconomics and finance. Each chapter incorporates an extensive and eclectic array of empirical evidence. For the beginning student, these examples provide motivation and aid in understanding the practical value of the economic models developed. For advanced researchers, they highlight key insights and conundrums in the field.

Topic coverage includes intertemporal consumption and investment theory, government spending and budget deficits, finance theory and asset pricing, the implications of (and problems inherent in) international capital market integration, growth, inflation and seignorage, policy credibility, real and nominal exchange rate determination, and many interesting special topics such as speculative attacks, target exchange rate zones, and parallels between immigration and capital mobility.

Most main results are derived both for the small country and world economy cases. The first seven chapters cover models of the real economy, while the final three chapters incorporate the economy's monetary side, including an innovative approach to bridging the usual chasm between real and monetary models.

Summary: not phd level
Rating: 3
I think the book is on many reading lists for completeness. Some professors put it there without ever having looked into it. It is a good book but it seems to be lost between undergrad and graduate level. It is not productive to work with the book. Consider it leisure reading.
I really like the authors' articles.

Summary: Took a little longer than expected
Rating: 4
The book I bought had excellent quality. The delivery took 2 weeks more than estimated though.

Summary: Hmm. Decent
Rating: 3
I laughed, I cried. Of course this is just an macro econ book for grad students for open econ. Builds up very gradual. But could have been written better. Don't expect any climatic love story for Autarky rates. But I enjoyed Romer's Macroecon book more, because it includes more case studies on certain theories. Since you will be reading this book for a grad class, you really have no choice, you got to buy this book, if you want to pass the prelims.

Summary: Excellent Textbook
Rating: 5
International economics is not my field, even if I do find it interesting. As a graduate student, I liked this book a lot. It is not brilliantly written, and it is at times rather dull reading. BUT it a VERY clear and modern treatment of an important subject by two of the best scholars in the field. Overall, it's a very "user-friendly" graduate textbook. Not very entertaining, but it allows you to go through the material (much of it rather advanced) without too much pain, and without many leaps of faith (or pages of algebra) to go from one equation to the next. And there are many well developed applications which will help you see how the theory relates to the real world. There are many exercises to test your (or your students') knowledge of the field, whose solutions are also separately available.

Being this a graduate textbook, reading it requires a strong technical background, so if you are simply looking for a book to deepen your knowledge of a subject that you may only know through op-ed pieces, you should probably look elsewhere (e.g. undergraduate textbooks such as Krugman and Obstfeld). But if you are looking for an advanced but approachable and modern treatment of international macro, this book would be a very good bet. Highly recommended.

Here are some details about the book:

The chapters
1 Intertemporal Trade and the Current Account Balance
2 Dynamics of Small Open Economies
3 The Life Cycle, Tax Policy, and the Current Account
4 The Real Exchange Rate and the Terms of Trade
5 Uncertainty and International Financial Markets
6 Imperfections in International Capital Markets
7 Global Linkages and Economic Growth
8 Money and Exchange Rates under Flexible Prices
9 Nominal Price Rigidities: Empirical Facts and Basic Open-Economy Models
10 Sticky-Price Models of Output, the Exchange Rate, and the Current Account

Some examples of the applications
- Energy Prices, Global Saving, and Real Interest Rates
- The Relative Impact of Productivity Shocks on Investment and the Current Account
- Do Government Budget Deficits Cause Current Account Deficits?
- Feldstein and Horioka's Saving-Investment Puzzle
- Government Debt and World Interest Rates Since 1970
- Sectoral Productivity Differentials and the Relative Prices of Nontradables in Industrial Countries
- Productivity Growth and Real Exchange Rates
- International Portfolio Diversification and the Home Bias Puzzle
- How Large Are the Gains from International Risk Sharing?
- How Costly Is Exclusion from World Insurance Markets?
- How Have Prior Defaults Affected Countries Borrowing Terms?
- Can Capital Deepening Be an Engine of Sustained High Growth Rates: Evidence from Fast-Growing East Asia
- Population Size and Growth
- Testing for Speculative Bubbles
- Central Bank Independence and Inflation
- Openness and Inflation

Appendix
- Methods of Intertemporal Optimization
- A Model with Intertemporally Nonadditive Preferences
- Solving Systems of Linear Difference Equations
- Multiperiod Portfolio Selection
- Continuous-Time Maximization and the Maximum Principle

Summary: a must-have for your private library
Rating: 5
Currently I'm using this book for my class called Trade and Economic Growth I II. The nuances of microeconomic foundations found in chapters 1 to 5 are used to explain and develop the concepts studied in open economy macroeconomics and international finance; so it is recommended that you understand fully the first three chapters of this book at least to understand the rest. The authors try to explain the concepts as clear as possible; however, you have to derive for yourself the equations that appear in the text, which is a challenge for most first year graduate students who are not yet proficient in using the tools of static/dynamic optimization, etc. A reference on mathematical economics such as Chiang's "Fundamental methods of math. econ.," and "Elements of dynamic optimization," or Simon Blume's "Mathematics for economists" should be kept near at hand. Nevertheless, there are many real-world examples that help clarify matters and make the this book more readable and interesting.

Introduction to Econometrics. Second Edition.

By G. S. Maddala
Publisher: Macmillan Coll Div
Number Of Pages: 536
Publication Date: 1992-03
ISBN-10 / ASIN: 0023745452
ISBN-13 / EAN: 9780023745454
Binding: Hardcover

Product Description:
Introduction to Econometrics has been significantly revised to include new developments in the field. The previous editions of this text were renowned for Maddala's clear exposition and the presentation of concepts in an easily accessible manner.
Features:
* New chapters have been included on panel data analysis, large sample inference and small sample inference
* Chapter 14 Unit Roots and Cointegration has been rewritten to reflect recent developments in the Dickey-Fuller (DF), the Augmented Dickey-Fuller (ADF) tests and the Johansen procedure
* A selection of data sets and the instructor's manual for the book can be found on our web site
Comments on the previous edition:
'Maddala is an outstanding econometrician who has a deep understaning of the use and potential abuse of econometrics...'
'The strengths of the Maddala book are its simplicity, its accessibility and the large number of examples the book contains...'
'The second edition is well written and the chapters are focused and easy to follow from beginning to end. Maddala has an oustanding grasp of the issues, and the level of mathematics and statistics is appropriate as well.'

Applied Macroeconometrics

By Carlo A. Favero
Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA
Number Of Pages: 296
Publication Date: 2001-03-22
ISBN-10 / ASIN: 0198296851
ISBN-13 / EAN: 9780198296850
Binding: Paperback

Until the 1970s, there was a consensus in applied macroeconometrics, both regarding the theoretical foundation and the empirical specification of macroeconometric modelling, commonly known as the Cowles Commission approach. This is no longer the case: the Cowles Commission approach broke down
in the 1970s, replaced by three prominent competing methods of empirical research: the LSE (London School of Economics) approach, the VAR approach, and the intertemporal optimization/Real Business Cycle approach. This book discusses and illustrates the empirical research strategy of these three
alternative approaches by interpreting them as different proposals to solve problems observed in the Cowles Commission approach.

Summary: An erroneous expression on page 63
Rating: 3

There is a mistake on page 63, (before equation 2.24): It says: Subtract (A1-I)yt-2 from both sides. This is clearly wrong. The correct phrase should be: Add and subtract in the r.h.s. of (2.23) (A1-I)yt-2, and get equation (2.24), etc.

In my humble opinion, this is not really a textbook. You must first know econometrics, and if you really know it, then you verify your knowledge by this text. If this is the case, then the book helps you see modern approaches in macroeconometrics. If you want to start now learning applied macroeconometrics, Enders or Patterson explain more clearly and analytically.


Summary: Nice approach, not so nice delivery
Rating: 4

First, let me praise Favero's effort. He is absolutely right in his approach, i.e, in emphasizing the comparison of the most important "schools" of macroeconometrics. In general, what you have is a textbook about the Cowles Comissionn approach, another about the LSE approach, another about recursive methods and callibration and etc. As many people just read one or two books about macroeconometrics at grad school, it's obvious that very few know about the diversity of techniques available in the field.
Favero, correctly, points out that rather than trying to obscure the differences within the profession, macroeconometricians should expose them. This choice involves practical problems, though. It's obvious, for example, that the book has to cover a lot of ground. The author, however, opted for writting a relatively thin book. Indeed, the book is almost like the collected notes of a grad student in an advanced course (especially because at many points the presentation is very similar to Greene's). It may be (and I think it is) very informative if you already know the stuff (some illustrative E-views programes throughout the book were especially interesting to me), but you won't learn from it. The huge amount of typos in this first edition (what happened to Oxford University Press quality control?) doesn't help it either.
So, the book doesn't work as a textbook (given its incredibly brief presentation of important topics), but is a nice collection of notes - with a correct approach - that will be very useful for the professional macroeconomist.

Handbook on the Northeast and Southeast Asian Economies (Elgar Original Reference)

By Anis Chowdhury, Iyanatul Islam
Publisher: Edward Elgar Publishing
Number Of Pages: 327
Publication Date: 2007-08
ISBN-10 / ASIN: 1843769891
ISBN-13 / EAN: 9781843769897
Binding: Hardcover

This original Handbook on the Northeast and Southeast Asian Economies provides a broad overview of economic and social developments in the countries covered (Brunei Darussalam, Cambodia, China, Hong Kong, Indonesia, Japan, Lao, Malaysia, Myanmar, North Korea, The Philippines, Singapore, South Korea, Taiwan, Thailand and Viet Nam). The analytical narratives on the economic transformation of these economies draw on existing literature, and highlight the interactions of socio-political factors. They examine the role of economic policies and the influence exerted by historical and political circumstances.

Each chapter, written by leading country experts, begins with a brief discussion of the political history of the country and ends with a discussion of future prospects and challenges. The editors' introduction provides a comprehensive survey of the political economy of Northeast and Southeast Asian economic transformation with a particular emphasis on post-Asian crisis issues.

The editors have ensured that this Handbook will be an invaluable reference work for many years to come for researchers, academics and students of Asian studies. Policymakers interested in learning more about the background and future opportunities and challenges posed by these economies will also find much to engage them.

Handbook of Islamic Banking (Elgar Original Reference)

By M. Kabir Hassan, Mervyn K. Lewis
Publisher: Edward Elgar Publishing
Number Of Pages: 443
Publication Date: 2007-06-07
ISBN-10 / ASIN: 1845420837
ISBN-13 / EAN: 9781845420833
Binding: Hardcover

The Handbook of Islamic Banking comprises 25 studies by leading international experts on Islamic banking and finance specially commissioned to analyse the various debates and the current state of play in the field.

From its origins thirty years ago, Islamic banking has expanded rapidly to become a distinctive and fast growing segment of the international banking and capital markets. Despite this expansion, Islamic banking still remains poorly understood in many parts of the Muslim world and continues to be a mystery in much of the West. This comprehensive Handbook provides a succinct analysis of the workings of Islamic banking and finance, accessible to a wide range of readers. At the same time, it seeks to bring the current research agenda and the main issues on Islamic banking before a wider audience.

Islamic banking offers, as an alternative to conventional interest-based financing methods, a wide variety of financial instruments and investment vehicles based on profit-and-loss sharing arrangements. These are all explored in detail along with other subjects such as governance and risk management, securities and investment, structured financing, accounting and regulation, economic development and globalization.

M. Kabir Hassan, Mervyn Lewis and the other contributors have created an authoritative and original reference work, which will contribute to a wider understanding of Islamic banking as well as provoking further discussion and research. It will be invaluable to all scholars, researchers and policymakers with an interest in this subject.

Operating Systems (Grassroots)

By John O'Gorman
Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan
Number Of Pages: 176
Publication Date: 2000-03
ISBN-10 / ASIN: 0333802888
ISBN-13 / EAN: 9780333802885
Binding: Paperback

Running Linux Fourth Edition

Publisher: O'Reilly Media, Inc.;
4 edition (December 15, 2002)
| Language: English |
| ISBN: 0596002726 |
| 692 pages |
| PDF | 3.37 MB |

The Linux operating system has made a lot of progress in the past few years, and Running Linux has progressed right along with it to remain the single best general-purpose book for curious computer users who want to install, use, and enjoy Linux. The team of authors present a text that's simultaneously detailed and readable. Coupled with an inquisitive and capable reader, that's a recipe for success with the world's most popular open-source operating system. This new edition adds coverage of the GNOME desktop environment, the Apache/MySQL/PHP server suite, and the Postfix mail transfer daemon. It also covers core capabilities and behaviors of Linux through kernel version 2.4. There's better coverage of network security (including firewalling and ADSL link configuration), and coverage of how to set up audio-related hardware and software.

[Computer Science] Mac OS X Hints, Leopard Edition - Macworld Superguide

By Rob Griffiths, Editors of Macworld
Publisher: Macworld

Number Of Pages: 68

Publication Date: 2008-04-02

ISBN-10 / ASIN: 0978981367

ISBN-13 / EAN: 9780978981365

Binding: Perfect Paperback

Unleash Leopard with 200 tips and tricks
When it comes to uncovering your Mac's hidden powers, there's no better resource than MacOSXHints.com, a collaborative Web site that lets Mac users share their favorite tips and tricks.
In fact, over the past eight years, the site has collected more than 10,000 hints covering every version of Mac OS X. For this book, the site's creator, Rob Griffiths - in collaboration with the editors of Macworld, has pulled together the most useful hints for OS X 10.5. Whether you're a power user looking to take control of your system or a relative newcomer searching for ways to be more productive, this handpicked collection will help you get the most from Leopard.
Inside these pages you'll find more than 200 tips covering nearly every aspect of Leopard, including customizing the look of Finder windows, searching hidden system files with Spotlight, and making the most of OS X newcomers like Quick Look and Spaces. You'll also dig deep into Leopard's system settings to fine-tune your preferences, save time with undocumented shortcuts, and unlock powerful file-sharing and printing features. Once you've mastered your system, use our step-by-step advice for squeezing more power from OS X's built-in programs, including Mail, Safari, iCal, iChat, iTunes, Preview, and more. And of course, no guide for power users would be complete without a trip to Terminal. If you're new to OS X's command-line interface, we'll show you how to get started and how to protect yourself from dangerous actions. If you're a command-line veteran, you'll find tips for taking advantage of new Leopard commands and strategies for working in Terminal more efficiently.

[Computer Science] Accelerated SQL Server 2008 (Accelerated)

By Rob Walters, Michael Coles, Robin Dewson, Donald Farmer, Fabio Claudio Ferracchiati, Robert Rae
Publisher: Apress

Number Of Pages: 816

Publication Date: 2008-05-23

ISBN-10 / ASIN: 1590599691

ISBN-13 / EAN: 9781590599693

Binding: Paperback

The expert tuition and approach to rapid learning in Accelerated SQL Server 2008, one of the first SQL Server 2008 books available, will enable SQL Server and other database professionals to make the leap to the latest release of Microsoft’s flagship database management system quickly. Take full advantage of the new features of SQL Server 2008, know what tools are available, and quickly realize the power and ease of use that SQL Server 2008 has to offer.
Lightning–quick introduction to SQL Server 2008 Written by top experts in the field Provides a solid grounding in key features and technologies What you’ll learn Manage SQL Server installations through the brand–new Declarative Management Framework. Protect yourself from downtime with high–availability features such as failover clustering. Speed your applications by taking advantage of new performance–enhancement features in SQL Server 2008. Find what you need using full–text search. Store, retrieve, and manage XML in the database. Derive competitive advantage from business intelligence tools such as Analysis Services and Reporting Services. Who is this book for? Database professionals who need to make the leap to SQL Server 2008, and who need to make that leap quickly. This audience primarily includes users of previous releases of SQL Server such as SQL Server 2000 and SQL Server 2005. The audience also includes database professionals with experience on competing platforms who are moving laterally to SQL Server.

[Computer Science] LINQ for Visual C# 2008

By Fabio Claudio Ferracchiati
Publisher: Apress
Number Of Pages: 200
Publication Date: 2008-06-03
ISBN-10 / ASIN: 1430215801
ISBN-13 / EAN: 9781430215806
Binding: Paperback

Every C# programmer needs to learn about LINQ (Language–lIntegrated Query), Microsoft’s breakthrough technology for simplifying and unifying data access from any data source. With LINQ you can write more elegant and flexible code not just to access databases and files but to manipulate data structures and XML.
This book is a short yet comprehensive guide to the major features of LINQ and the significant enhancements introduced with .NET 3.5. There is no better source for getting a head–start on the future of these technologies than this book.
A clear and comprehensive yet concise introduction to using LINQ in C# Covers LINQ to Objects, LINQ to SQL, LINQ to DataSet, and LINQ to XML Rich in working examples of LINQ in action Ideal for C# programmers at any level

[Computer Science] Microsoft Visual Studio 2008 Unleashed

By Lars Powers, Mike Snell
Publisher: Sams
Number Of Pages: 1248
Publication Date: 2008-06-09
ISBN-10 / ASIN: 0672329727
ISBN-13 / EAN: 9780672329722
Binding: Paperback

Microsoft® Visual Studio 2008 Unleashed is an end-to-end, deep dive into the Visual Studio development environment. It’s meant to provide you guidance on how you can squeeze the ultimate productivity out of the many features built into the .NET development tools. Understanding how to use your tools will make you a better developer. This book was written with that premise as its focus.
The authors have folded in real-world development experience alongside detailed information about the IDE. The result is practical, easy-to-employ information that will make you a more productive and complete developer. This book also helps to ease your transition from other development environments and former versions of Visual Studio.
Finally, this book provides an entire section dedicated to Visual Studio Team System. It will help you understand how the Team Architect, Team Developer, Team Database Developer, and Team Tester work with the Team Foundation Server to increase team collaboration, visibility, and productivity.
Microsoft® Visual Studio 2008 Unleashed provides straight, to-the-point answers to common developer questions about the IDE.
Detailed Information on…
What’s new in Visual Studio 2008 Working with solutions, projects, editors, and designers Writing ASP.NET applications Writing and consuming Web Services using Windows Communication Foundation (WCF) Writing Windows Forms and Windows Presentation Foundation (WPF) applications Creating and hosting workflow-based applications using Windows Workflow Foundation (WF) Working with data and databases Refactoring code Debugging code Automating the IDE Writing macros, add-ins, and wizards Using team collaboration and the Visual Studio Team System products Managing source code changes Tracking projects with Team Foundation Server and work items Modeling applications Performing unit, web, and load testing Working with Team Foundation Build

[Computer Science] Beginning Microsoft Visual C# 2008 (Wrox Beginning Guides)

By Karli Watson, Christian Nagel, Jacob Hammer Pedersen, Jon D. Reid, Morgan Skinner, Eric White
Publisher: Wrox
Number Of Pages: 1344
Publication Date: 2008-05-05
ISBN-10 / ASIN: 047019135X
ISBN-13 / EAN: 9780470191354
Binding: Paperback

The book is aimed at novice programmers who wish to learn programming with C# and the .NET framework. The book starts with absolute programming basics. It then moves into Web and Windows programming, data access (databases and XML), and more advanced technologies such as graphics programming with GDI and basic networking. The book is divided into sections including:
The C# Language: Basic language skills using console application. Content moves from the absolute basics to fairly involved OOP skills. Windows Vista Programming: Using basic Windows applications, reinforcing earlier OOP and debugging skills. Web Programming: Putting together basic Web applications, highlighting differences between Web and Windows programming. Data Access: Accessing all kinds of data sources from Web and Windows applications, including SQL usage, XML, file system data, and Web Services. Additional Techniques: "The fun stuff", including Windows Presentation Foundation, Windows Workflow, Windows Communication Foundation, GDI , networking, Windows Services, and so on. The book makes complicated subjects seem easy to learn, and it inspires readers to investigate areas further on their own by providing references to additional material, and exercise questions that require significant effort and personal research to complete.
Summary: wrox Beginning C#Rating: 4
This is a super book for those of us who have never programmed, or who started programming using another language like Visual Basic. It has helpful articles, and lots of hints if one gets stuck. It's easy to read, and lacks the boreing quality of many text books.
Summary: Visual C# 2008 ReviewRating: 3
It is a good book for beginner. But Don't expect much from it, It may not go into greater details and will leave you at mercy of MSDN.

Organizational Success through Effective Human Resources Management:By Ronald R. Sims

Publisher: Quorum Books
Number Of Pages: 408
Publication Date: 2002-03-30
ISBN-10 / ASIN: 1567204813
ISBN-13 / EAN: 9781567204810
Binding: Hardcover

Not only are performance and human resources management (HRM) bound tightly together, but Sims even goes so far as to say that the way people are managed in coming decades will be the most important determinant of organizational success. He shows how success is determined by a firm's skill in attracting, developing, and retaining its human capital; how a firm's people are what give it a measurable advantage over the competition; and how an organization's commitment to developing its people's abilities and skills is an obligation at all levels. Sims focuses on practical, real-world human resources problems and activities emphasize the need for managers to prove themselves excellent people managers as well, and covers the traditional HRM tasks and responsibilities in ways that will give them new meaning and urgency. By focusing on current challenges, emerging issues, and HRM innovations now on the horizon, Sims' book is essential for managers and executives throughout the organization, and indeed throughout all sectors of the economy. Sims provides a firsthand understanding of the importance of HRM and lays out the tools to help managers do it well. He emphasizes repeatedly how important it is for organizations to understand that their success depends on their ability to attract and keep talented employees. With its persuasive discussion of the trends and emerging issues in the development of proactive human resources policies and practices, the book shows how to anticipate and work towards the development and retention of the right people. It emphasizes the importance of taking a strategic approach to all of the various human resources activities, and proves throughout that for an organization to prosper and earn a profit, goals must be set and initiatives taken in all areas of HRM and by all people, whatever their levels of responsibility may be.

Strategic Management for Public and Nonprofit Organizations (Public Administration and Public Policy)

By Alan W. Steiss
Publisher: CRC

Number Of Pages: 456

Publication Date: 2003-01-29

ISBN-10 / ASIN: 0824708741

ISBN-13 / EAN: 9780824708740

Binding: Hardcover

The central resource for process improvement and innovation, this book includes valuable techniques to identify and improve organizational processes, as well as manage the change that accompanies implementation. Strategic Management for Public and Nonprofit Organizations discusses SWOT analysis, TQM, systematic innovation, Six Sigma, quality function deployment, process mapping, gap analysis, and activity based costing. With helpful references to secondary sources and a comprehensive glossary, this text will benefit public administrators, financial managers, public planners, investment managers, policy analysts, and public policy specialists, and upper-level undergraduate and graduate students in these disciplines.

EURO2008 Tournament

Strategy and Performance: Achieving Competitive Advantage in the Global Marketplace

By Abby Ghobadian, Nicholas O'Regan, David Gallear, Howard Viney
Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan

Number Of Pages: 256

Publication Date: 2004-04-03

ISBN-10 / ASIN: 1403916187

ISBN-13 / EAN: 9781403916181

Binding: Hardcover

Terms such as the 'new competitive landscape', 'hypercompetition' and 'inherent instability and change' have been used over the past decade to describe the changing global competitive environment. A plethora of strategic and operational measures have been used to enable firms to gain sustainable competitive advantage, with varying degrees of success. Yet we remain in largely uncharted territory with strategic preparation for the future becoming a critical activity. Strategy and Performance provides academics, practitioners and students with a highly focused approach to competing in the global marketplace.

Having Trouble with Your Strategy? Then Map It (HBR OnPoint Enhanced Edition)

By Robert S. Kaplan, David P. Norton
Publisher: Harvard Business Review
Number Of Pages: 13
Publication Date: 2000-10-01
ISBN-10 / ASIN: B00005REI5
ISBN-13 / EAN:
Binding: Digital

If you were a military general on the march, you'd want your troops to have plenty of maps--detailed information about the mission they were on, the roads they would travel, the campaigns they would undertake, and the weapons at their disposal. The same holds true in business: a workforce needs clear and detailed information to execute a business strategy successfully. Authors Robert Kaplan and David Norton, cocreators of the balanced scorecard, have adapted that seminal tool to create strategy maps. Strategy maps let an organization describe and illustrate--in clear and general language--its objectives, initiatives, targets markets, performance measures, and the links between all the pieces of its strategy. Using Mobil North American Marketing and Refining Company as an example, Kaplan and Norton walk through the creation of a strategy map and its four distinct regions--financial, customer, internal process, and learning and growth--which correspond to the four perspectives of the balanced scorecard. The authors show how the Mobil division used the map to transform itself from a centrally controlled manufacturer of commodity products to a decentralized, customer-driven organization.
Summary: Mapping StrategyRating: 5
The authors of this article have used an extension of their ground breaking work "The Balanced Scorecard, Translating Strategy into Action" to come up with strategic map template to translate strategy into action. The balanced scorecard measures a company's performance from four perspectives namely financial, customer, internal processes and learning and growth.
The strategy map is a visual framework which embeds the different items in an enterprise's balanced scorecard into a cause and effect chain, connecting desired outcomes with drivers of those results. The authors developed a standard template that companies can use to develop their own strategy maps. The template contains four regions that correspond to the four perspectives of the balanced scorecard namely financial, customer, internal processes and learning and growth. The template provides a common framework and language that can be used to describe any strategy. A strategy map allows an organization "to describe and illustrate, in clear and general language, its objectives, initiatives, and targets; the measures used to assess performance; and the linkages that are the foundation for strategic direction."
Strategy maps are particularly critical in the information age where businesses must create and deploy intangible assets such as customer relationships, information communication technologies, employee skills and knowledge and an innovative problem solving corporate culture. The strategy maps enable organizations to describe and value these critical intangible assets that are major sources of competitive advantage.
I enjoyed reading this article as it is very practical and uses a visual template which is simple and useful to any organization, enabling employees to understand the company's strategy and how they can play their part in implementing it. I recommend it to managers and students of strategic planning. For those who have studied the balanced business scorecard, this is a natural follow up which they should find very interesting and which they can implement in their organizations.
Summary: Great for a Quick Study of MappingRating: 4
No, this is not an intense study of mapping, but if you're interested in gaining a quick overview of the concept so you can participate in a strategic mapping initiative, this article will help prepare you for the process. Also very useful as a visual reference aid while working through a more thorough publication such as "Strategy Maps" by Kaplan and Norton. For $7, I felt it a worthwhile purchase.
However, there was a technical glitch. When I downloaded it, the article came up within IE6 and Adobe Acrobat. My printer was at the office and the File, Save menu options were greyed out. I didn't want to lose the article, so I clicked to Explorer in WinXP, located the LocalSettings folder and from there the TemporaryInternetFiles folder, sorted by size, and there it was - approx 3,500K. I copied and pasted into MyDocuments folder and it appeared with the proper name. I included this in my review in case you experience a similar problem.
Summary: Fast, good strategy informationRating: 4
If you want some quick, inexpensive info on strategy to help you on a project or schoolwork, or just for professional interest, this is great.

It takes seconds to download and you can print and read on the bus!
Summary: Useful map/template to translate strategy into actionRating: 4
This 2000 Harvard Business Review article, by Harvard Business School professor Robert Kaplan and David Norton, founder and president of the Balanced Scorecard Collaborative ... and ex-president of Nolan, Norton & Co., is an extension to their 1996-book 'The Balanced Scorecard: Translating Strategy into Action' and their 1992-, 1993-, and 1996-articles. The balanced scorecard made it possible for managers to express and measure operational performance.
In this article, the authors discuss the use of strategy maps to explain your strategy to all people in your organization. The authors use balanced scorecard strategy maps to show how an organization can convert its assets into desired outcomes: "... the template shows how employees, need certain knowledge, skills, and systems (learning and growth perspective) to innovate and build the right strategic capabilities and efficiencies (internal process perspective) so that they can deliver specific value to the market (customer perspective), which will lead to higher shareholder value (financial perspective)." According to the authors it is best to build these strategy maps from the top down, and then charting the routes that will lead to the desired outcomes. This should make the likelihood of a successful implementation of strategy possible. The authors use Mobil's (integrated U.S. refiner-marketer) strategy map as an example.
I was pleasantly surprised by this fourth article, since I did not enjoy their second and third articles. The difference between this article and the previous two is the introduction of the balanced scorecard strategy map. This map is a great visual template which is useful to all companies and explains the cause-and-effect relationships between the various perspectives. The advantage of this map is that it is understandable to people who were not involved in the strategic planning process - normally, the employees in the firing line. The article is written in simple US-English.
Summary: This does not print - you can read it thoughRating: 1
The paper is as advertised, but you will probably only be able to read it. There is an error in the reader software that will not allow it to print properly (I only got a couple of pages to print). When I finally took, or rather wasted, the time to investigate further on the Adobe site there is a long section on this problem in the "User to User" forums.
First I complained to HBR who said it is not their problem! For someone who sells articles and books on Marketing that is a very strange reply. They said ask Adobe. I tried. The support person was polite and helpful, perhaps just to get me off the phone as nothing else happened.
As there are intricate diagrams you will be a masochist with time on your hands if you want to copy that by hand.

From Competitive Advantage to Corporate Strategy

By Michael E. Porter
Publisher: Harvard Business Review
Number Of Pages: 22
Publication Date: 1987-05-01
ISBN-10 / ASIN: B00005RZ1N
ISBN-13 / EAN: Binding: Digital

A study of the diversification records of 33 large U.S. companies from 1950 to 1986 shows that diversification--whether through acquisition, joint venture, or start-up--generally has not brought the competitive advantages or profitability expected. Portfolio management, restructuring, transferring skills, and sharing activities are four concepts of corporate strategy that companies most commonly use. Portfolio management no longer works very well in the United States because of its highly developed capital market. Restructuring is merely a stopgap measure that will not build shareholder value over the long term because it usually produces an unwieldy conglomerate. Companies have the best chance of being successful at diversification if they capitalize on the existing relationships between business units by having them transfer skills and share activities. McKinsey Award Winner.
Summary: A clear introduction into diversificationRating: 4
Michael E. Porter is a Professor of Business Administration at the Harvard Business School and a leading authority in the field of competition and strategic management. This article was published in the May-June 1987 of the Harvard Business Review and won the McKinsey Award for the best article that year.
"A diversified company has two levels of strategy: (1) business unit (or competitive strategy) and corporate (or companywide) strategy." Competitive strategy concerns the creation of competitive advantage in each of the businesses, corporate strategy concerns the scope and the management of the corporation. The aim of corporate strategy is 1 1=3. In this article the author reports on findings from his study into the diversification record of 35 large, U.S. companies between 1950-1986 period. The results were shocking and the author warns the reader that "any successful corporate strategy builds on a number of premises": (1) Competition occurs at the business unit level; (2) diversification inevitably adds costs and constraints to business units; and (3) shareholders can readily diversify themselves. Porter then continues by introducing three essential tests to specify the conditions under which diversification will create shareholder value: (1) The attractiveness test; (2) the cost-of-entry test; and (3) the better-off test. Each of these tests is explained and discussed in detail. Once these tests have been met, companies need a clear concept of corporate strategy to guide their diversification. According to the author, four mutually exclusive concepts of corporate strategy are put into practice. The first two concepts - portfolio management and restructuring - require no connections between business units, the other two - transferring skills and sharing activities - depend on them. "Ignoring any of the concepts is perhaps the quickest road to failure." Last but not least, Porter provides a 7-steps action program for choosing a successful corporate strategy. The author also recommends a corporate theme to ensure that the corporation creates shareholder value. The article is complemented with a summary of the data from his study and a useful table of the concepts of corporate strategy.
Great, clear article on the traps of diversification based on extensive academic evidence. The article is based upon intensive academic research. The author also provides an useful action program for those companies that aim to diversify in the near future. This article should be read by all managers and MBA-students. The author uses simple US-English.

Images of Strategy

By Stephen Cummings, David Wilson
Publisher: Wiley-Blackwell
Number Of Pages: 464
Publication Date: 2003-07-07
ISBN-10 / ASIN: 0631226095
ISBN-13 / EAN: 9780631226093
Binding: Hardcover

Images of Strategy develops an innovative and multi-faceted approach to strategic management which will enable students to use and develop interesting and wide-ranging applications alongside some of the latest ideas and analysis.
An innovative and multi-functional approach to strategic management. Approaches strategy from different viewpoints: functional, eg technology and systems management, marketing, accounting and HRM, and analytical, eg organization theory, game theory and knowledge management Helps students to analyse, integrate and apply the many competing functional elements of strategic choice in today's world. Includes case examples to illustrate the chapters. Provides further reading sections and student questions Written by a team of top management scholars with many years of successful MBA teaching experience.
Further lecturer resources and links, including case analyses and Power Point slides, are available at www.blackwellpublishing.com/cummings

Technical Analysis for Direct Access Trading: A Guide to Charts, Indicators, and Other Indispensable Market Analysis Tools

By Rafael Romeu, Umar Serajuddin
Publisher: McGraw-Hill Companies
Number Of Pages: 208
Publication Date: 2001-05-14
ISBN-10 / ASIN: 0071363939
ISBN-13 / EAN: 9780071363938
Binding: Hardcover

More than any other, the direct access trader depends on a keen knowledge of technical analysis--charts, oscillators, price, and volume--to determine optimal entry and exit points. Technical Analysis introduces basic charts, screens, and analysis, and covers popular analytic systems including price, volume, and volatility; support and resistance; and relative strength and trends. It also explains how to combine technical and fundamental analysis for taking advantage of the best aspects of each.
Summary: A waste of money at any priceRating: 1
I tried very hard not to be predisposed against this book just because it was written by two academics. But once I started reading, it was impossible to ignore the fact that this title reads like a bad college textbook. The worst section here is that on moving averages, which suggests how to identify trends by deriving some equations related to the moving averages. This is complete with fancy looking formulas with epsilons and everything, and yet after all that no useful trading recommendations whatsoever are suggested. "For example, the technician will use a rule that if the price falls 10% below the moving average, it probably is not a whipsaw". This is a totally ridiculous commentary for trading at any time frame.
The reason my rating goes beyond just plain bad and into 1 star territory is that, in addition to providing negligable trading advice throughout, there were two sections that gave recommendations that are entirely the opposite of correct. In the section on support and resistance, the authors advocate selling at resistance points, and suggest that one will go broke if you always buy at resistance and sell at support. This is completely wrong; really great stocks will hover at resistance and then blow right through it on the upside, while poor stocks will linger around support for a while and then crash right through it hard. Buying at support and selling at resistance will put you on the wrong end of both of these. Read about the strategies of a great trader like Jesse Livermore to learn the right way to do things, which is to buy at the top end of the resistance point as the stocks breaks out and then sell it if falls to support.
Second example: "Say the CEO of Coke died in a plane crash along with the formula. Coke stock would plummet, right? But technical analysis would not pick that up". This shows the authors have a basic misunderstanding of TA: of course it would pick this up. You'd get a clear as could be gap down followed by a downward breakout in this sort of situation, a kindergarten market technician could tell you something bad had happened and that you should sell via the chart without even hearing the news. That's the basic premise behind technical analysis, and the fact that the authors don't even understand that fits right in with the rest of this dissapointing book.
Summary: Ek dam Ala!Rating: 5
This book is really good.A must buy...and a good gift for a friend.
Summary: great guide book!Rating: 5
A great example of its kind -- I've read several books looking for one both knowledgeble and entertaining and this certainly fits the bill. If you are trying to do research or learn more about the practice of trading, this is very helpful. It presents a comprehensive (and comprehensible) guide to the world of direct access trading. Good job!
Summary: thanks mate!Rating: 5
very handy book for reference. we are trying to use some of the helpful hints for our portfolio management.
Summary: nice job!!!Rating: 5
this was very helpful!!!!

Business Process Improvement: The Breakthrough Strategy for Total Quality, Productivity, and Competitiveness

By H. James Harrington
Publisher: McGraw-Hill

Number Of Pages: 274

Publication Date: 1991-04-01

ISBN-10 / ASIN: 0070267685

ISBN-13 / EAN: 9780070267688

Binding: Hardcover

It's one of the hot topics for the 1990s--how to apply quality improvement techniques originally developed for the manufacturing sector to service industries. How to Take the Lead in Business Process Management details how to do it, providing a step-by-step formula that helps companies improve quality and productivity in the support areas. Here in one comprehensive volume is all the information an organization needs to start the improvement process right away: how to determine customer needs and expectations and deliver the best service; how to establish which processes drive your business; how to create process improvement teams and train team leaders; how to eliminate bureaucracy, simplify the process, and reduce processing time; how to measure progress and provide feedback to participants; how to document the levels of improvement and certify operations and activities; and how to ensure ongoing improvement. Two special features further enahance the value of this highly practical guide: (1) a chapter of case histories, showing the results of business process improvement, and (2) an exhaustive section that guides readers in the application of problem-solving methods, value analysis and process analysis techniques, perfection analysis, work simplification programs, and more.
Summary: Streamline ProcessRating: 5
1. Streamlining suggests the trimming of waste and excess, attention to every minute detail that might lead to improved performance and quality.
2. Streamlining provides a smooth flow.
3. With streamlining, the process will operate with the least disturbance to its surroundings.
4. The 12 cornerstones tools to streamlining: a. Eliminate bureaucracy b. eliminate duplication c. Evaluate every activity in the business process to determine its contribution to meeting customer requirements. d. Simplify e. determine ways to compress cycle time to meet or exceed customer expectations and minimize storage costs. f. Make effective use of capital equipment and the working environment to improve overall performance. G. make if difficult to do the activity incorrectly h. reduce the complexity of the way we write and talk i. Standardize - select a single way to do the activity j. create a structure and policy that encourages supplier feedback and partnership k. big picture improvement - look for creative ways to drastically change the process l. automate and mechanize.
5. Improvement of a process means changing a process to make it more effective, efficient, and adaptable.
6. Preventing means you change the process to ensure that errors never reach the customer.
7. Excelling means that the process works, it is stable, and meets customer requirements.
8. Bureaucracy is bad, boring, burdensome, and brutal.
9. Bureaucracy often creates excessive paperwork in the office
10. Managers typically spend 40 to 50 percent of their time writing and reading job-related material; 60 percent of al clerical work is spent on checking, filing, and retrieving information, while only 40 percent is spent on important process-related tasks.
11. Evaluate and minimize all delays, red tape, documentation, reviews and approvals
12. Management reduces bureaucracy by starting with a directive. The directive informs management and employees that each approval signature and review active will be financially justified, that reducing total cycle time is a key business objective, and any non-value added activities will be targeted for elimination.
13. A bureaucracy step should be left in only if there is a sizeable, documented savings from the activity.
14. Duplication of data from different parts of the organization can produce conflicting data and lead to the unbalancing of the organization. For example sales may generate a monthly customer production ship forecast and production control distributes a completely different forecast.
15. Accrual means the value of the end product exceeds the accumulated costs. Value added=value after processing - value before processing.
16. Value added assessment is an analysis of every activity in the business process to determine its contribution to meet end-customer expectations.
17. Value is defined from the point of view of the end customer or the business process.
18. Waste occurs when activities exist because the process is inadequately designed or the process is not functioning as designed; activities not required by the customer or the process and activity that could be eliminated without affecting the output to the customer.

19. Instability occurs as organization grow, processes break down and are patch for use, and become excessive complex.
20. Errors occur when additional controls are put in place to review outputs rather than change the process.
21. Communication breakdown exasperates failure when individuals in the process fail to talk to their customers and understand their requirements.
22. Too much time is spent on internal maintenance activities such as coordinating, expatiating, record-keeping instead of on redesigning the process.
23. Quality is possible and rework eliminated when the causes of the errors are removed.
24. Combining operations, moving people closer together, or automation can minimize the moving of documents and information.
25. Waiting time can be minimized by combining operations, balancing work loads, or automation.
26. Identifying root causes reduces trouble-shooting.
27. The increase in complexity results in increasing difficulties everywhere as activities, decisions, relationships, and essential information become more difficult to understand and more difficult to manage.
28. Simplification starts by evaluating every element making it easier to understand and less demanding of other elements.
29. When an organization fails to make continuous simplification efforts a major portion of the managing process, it invites difficulty and poor performance; simplification is achieved by combining similar activities, reducing the amount of handling (reduce delays caused by handoffs and decision making), eliminating unused data and copies, and refining standard reporting.
Summary: Still Relevant and ValuableRating: 5
I recently re-read this book, first published in 1991, and found that - despite all the changes which have occurred in the business world since then - most of its material remains solid and relevant. In the Preface, H. James Harrington observes that organizations "are thinking differently about their processes. Processes are no longer viewed as just production processes. Today (i.e. in 1991), management realizes that that there are many processes that use material, equipment, and people to provide many types of outputs and services. They are called business processes, and today they are even more important to competitiveness than production processes." In this context, I am reminded of what Peter Drucker asserted (in 1963) in an article which appeared in the Harvard Business Review: "There is surely nothing quite so useless as doing with great efficiency what should not be done at all." Presumably this is what Harrington has in mind when suggesting that "automating a bad process not only ensures that we can do a bad job every times but that we can do it faster and with less effort than before."
Harrington carefully organizes his material within ten chapters, followed by an appendix that provides "Interview Guidelines." His pragmatic approach throughout the narrative focuses on what to do to initiate and then sustain business process improvement (BPI):
Focus on business processes Set the stage for BPI Organize for process improvement Use flowcharting to draw a process "picture" Understand the process characteristics Streamline the process Use measurements, feedback, and action to "load, aim, and fire" Qualify (i.e. establish credibility for) process Benchmark process
For me, some of the most interesting and valuable material is provided in Chapter 5, "Understanding the Process Characteristics." Harrington identifies five (Flow, Effectiveness, Efficiency, Cycle Time, and Cost) and explains what must be done to get them in proper alignment (hence the importance of a flow chart) in terms of people involved, objectives to be achieved, strategies and tactics to be executed, measurements, evaluation, and modification.
As they embark together on a journey to achieve the desired objectives, they should realize that they will be involved in a marathon, not a sprint. They must be persistent but patient.
Those who share my high regard for this book are urged to check out sources which were published later, such as Dan Madison's Process Mapping, James R. Press's Process Improvement and Process Management, Process Improvement Essentials: CMMI, Six SIGMA, and ISO 9001, John Jeston and Johan Nelis' Business Process Management: Practical Guidelines to Successful Implementation, and Paul Harmon's Business Process Change: A Manager's Guide to Improving, Redesigning, and Automating Processes.
Summary: The quality: the best competitive tool!Rating: 5
In the actual times of constant, requiring and increasing professional improvement, you just have just only an alternative: to isolate yourself from the world: It's not an optional choice, but a question of surviving. The leadership process must involve all the team under his service; otherwise your destiny is uncertain in the values market: your market share will vanish silently and if you don't act and react faster than the business dynamic, you will be out of game: I think the comparison may be established without any risk: the quality in the Darwinian environment will become in an additional gene to survive.

You do not have to think but living according this life system. This adaptation process has a hard barrier, the resistance to change: most of people live with this mental premise: the minimum effort and the maximum boring. Arnold Toynbee wrote about the minority creators, that attitude does not sound challenging for any artistic activity, because the quality, conceived as one the main ingredients of the creative work is inherent in the inner process. I wrote an article in the local press in 1996 named "Art and quality" (available for any one who is interested) in which I remarked this ineffable premise. James Hillman stated once that the first enemy of the art is the mediocrity, and the quality process in last instance follows that change of behavior. In this sense Harrington's text is a fundamental guide that explains step by step a wholesome creation process of a qualitative thinking, you will obtain the practice tools and the extreme useful basic elements available for any person.
Summary: Excellent Starting PointRating: 5
This book was highly recommended to me and it did not dissappoint. Simple yet powerful practices and principles are clearly laid out in an easily understood manner. I now have a foundation to build upon with future readings on the subject of BPI.
Summary: More Info.Rating: 2
I rate it a 2 because it didn't give that much information. Some people just don't have enough money to go out and buy books. Especially young adults on a fixed income. When I come to the internet I expect to learn and read, not spend my money. Thank YouOCR'd PDF

The Strategy-Focused Organization: How Balanced Scorecard Companies Thrive in the New Business Environment

by Robert S. Kaplan (Author),
David P. Norton (Author)
Publisher: Harvard Business School Press (September 2000)
ISBN-10: 1578512506
PDF 16 Mb 416 pages


In their previous book, Robert Kaplan and David Norton unveiled an innovative "performance management system" that any company could use to focus and align their executive teams, business units, human resources, information technology, and financial resources on a unified overall strategy--much as businesses have traditionally employed financial management systems to track and guide their general fiscal direction. In The Strategy-Focused Organization, Kaplan and Norton explain how companies like Mobil, CIGNA, and Chemical Retail Bank have effectively used this approach for nearly a decade, and in the process present a step-by-step implementation outline that other organizations could use to attain similar results. Their book is divided into five sections that guide readers through development of a completely individualized plan that is created with "strategy maps" (graphical representations designed to clearly communicate desired outcomes and how they are to be achieved), then infused throughout the enterprise and made an integral part of its future. In several chapters devoted to the latter, for example, the authors show how their models have linked long-term strategy with day-to-day operational and budgetary management, and detail the "double loop" process for doing so, monitoring progress, and initiating corrective actions if necessary. --Howard Rothman

Balanced Scorecard Step-by-Step: Maximizing Performance and Maintaining Results

By Paul R. Niven
Publisher: Wiley
Number Of Pages: 336
Publication Date: 2006-09-01
ISBN-10 / ASIN: 0471780499
ISBN-13 / EAN: 9780471780496
Binding: Hardcover

PRAISE FOR Balanced Scorecard Step-By-Step: Maximizing Performance and Maintaining Results, Second Edition
"As a practitioner and thought leader, Paul Niven is superbly bridging the gulf between BSC theory and application through hands-on experiences and real-world case studies. The book provides a practical road map, step-by-step, to plan, execute, and sustain a winning scorecard campaign. Easy to read . . . tells a powerful story with lessons learned/best practices from global customer implementations. Must-read for anyone interested in BSC or grappling with how to create a strategically aligned organization."—Vik Torpunuri, President and CEO, e2e Analytix
"In Balanced Scorecard Step-by-Step, Second Edition, Paul Niven provides an intuitive and incredibly effective blueprint for transitioning strategic ambition to execution. Paul's pragmatic approach provides leaders with a tool for managing a company's journey from strategic ideas to world-class performance. The Balanced Scorecard is a masterful tool for guiding companies through transformation, and I speak from personal experience when I say Paul's blueprint works! It is the most effective guide I have seen. Balanced Scorecard Step-by-Step will serve any leader well if their ambition is to efficiently engage their teams in achieving a set of strategic goals."—Allan A. MacDonald, Vice President, Sales and Customer Solutions Bell Canada National Markets
"Paul Niven has done it again!!! With this book, he has further operationalized the enlightened Balanced Scorecard concept into a fully functional system that optimizes business execution and performance!"—Barton Johnson, President, Financial Freedom Senior Funding Corporation, The Reverse Mortgage Specialist
Summary: An excellent tool for those intangibles Rating: 4
Balanced Scorecard Step-by-Step: Maximizing Performance and Maintaining Results
This book was an excellent resource on the Balanced Scorecard. Mr. Niven does an outstanding job of outlining the issues and history of the Balanced Scorecard in order to quickly get the reader up to speed before jumping into the actual implementation process. The book is written in a manner to accommodate the lowest common denominator, making it very easy for the reader to understand the points Mr. Niven makes.
As the title of the book suggests, Mr. Niven tackles the implementation process in a straight forward, step-by-step approach. He takes the reader along and builds the process like a pyramid, one layer at a time. Mr. Niven uses personal experience and examples of past failures and successes to drive his points home. At the end of each chapter he pauses to recap the major lessons that have been learned.
After guiding the reader through the implementation process, he then takes time to show how to maintain the Balanced Scorecard and to apply it to other areas, such as corporate governance and executive compensation. All in all, he makes the Balanced Scorecard a very understandable subject and provides much needed confidence in the reader that one can be implemented successfully.
This is a must read for both organizations interested in the Balanced Scorecard and students pursuing business degrees.
Summary: Janet Z's reveiwRating: 5
I read this book for a graduate accounting information systems' class and I LOVED IT!!! This book does a awesome job at presenting necessary information that all businesses should know.
Whether you are a owner of a large or small company, or a manager searching for ways to unite your department, this book will help you. It will enlighten the reader on the things every business must emphasize to maximize performance and profits.
It is written as a guide to first explain the importance of a Balanced Scorecard, explain the making of a scorecard, then gives you detailed information on how to create a scorecard using simple to follow steps. Each step is detailed just enough to give the reader a solid understanding of each step and its' role in the whole process. Behind-the-scenes details such as warning signs to look for during the creating stages are also given.
The book finishes with a lot of hands on examples and helps the reader feel confident in the undertaking of the project. After reading this book, my understanding of a balanced scorecard was greatly enriched. I started out thinking it was another useless flow chart which no one would benefit from. After reading this book, I see it as a tool that no company should be without.
I feel this book is an excellent resource for any company to use to implement a balance scorecard. Even if you do not want to implement a scorecard, a lot of tremendously, helpful ideas on uniting workers for a common goal, bringing a work staff together, maximizing profits and overall, simply building a better business are in this book. It's a MUST READ for all management and business owners.
Summary: Excellent insight into the practical aspects of BSCRating: 5
Much more than "what is the BSC!" This book gave me the practical background necessary to forge ahead in my company with the BSC. Kaplan and Norton's text did a good job explaining what it is, but Niven gave me the confidence to implement. It's really a 5-star book and I highly recommend it. I've highlighted and tabbed so much of this book it looks like one of my graduate course textbooks.
Summary: Excellent guide for todays business leaderRating: 5
This book is an excellent guide for today's business leader, in helping him or her develop a comprehensive understanding of what is important to run a business, and also, what needs to be regularly tracked, managed and metered such that you are in tune with what is going on, and can steer successfully in the turbulent business climate of today. Hats off to Mr. Niven for his insights and understanding of business today, and the needs of the business leaders of today and tomorrow.
Summary: Step-by-step to answersRating: 5
I really recommended this book to anyone who are interesting to implement BSC methodology. For those who has some BSC ground and try to put BSC in work this book will clarify each dilemmas they face by searching through BSC methodology (who, how and why?). It is the best guidelines to implement BSC because Niven drive us easily from the beginning of project to the implementation with all necessary data. Book is easily to read and completely applicable.

Business Process Management and the Balanced Scorecard : Focusing Processes on Strategic Drivers

By Ralph Smith
Publisher: Wiley
Number Of Pages: 240
Publication Date: 2006-12-11
ISBN-10 / ASIN: 0470047461
ISBN-13 / EAN: 9780470047460
Binding: Hardcover

Business Process Management and the Balanced Scorecard shows managers how to optimally use the balanced scorecard to achieve and sustain strategic success even as the business environment changes. It exceptionally fills the gap between theory and application to facilitate the use of processes as a strategic weapon to deliver world-class performance.
Summary: Process Improvement for the Process ManagerRating: 5
As a Process Manager, you sometimes get locked in to one approach to process improvement. Ralph Smith gives practical strategies with actual case study results that can be applied in virtually any organization. The concept of improving a business function without considering the constrictions in the total system will make every organization think more systemically for their process improvement effort. Excellent job!!
Summary: No so much about processesRating: 3
This book is ok if you intend to understand how to set up an strategy, but it does not talk very much about how to manage processes and how to design them. Although the book is ok, it mainly talks about strategy.
In my opinion the title is a bit tricky.
Summary: Good approach!Rating: 3
Good, very graphic and explores a key relationship between BPM and balanced scorecard (as in practice happens in public and private sector), But,practical instruments are not enough in this version
Summary: Specifics and practicalitiesRating: 5
I had the opportunity to read Ralph's book while he was delivering onsite Balanced Scorecard facilitation for my current employer. With more than a decade of experience in process improvement, and having read several books on linking process to strategy, I can say that Ralph has done a great job of distilling his consultative approach to the page, providing both the concepts behind his methods and guidelines for applying them to your own business scenarios in the pages of this book. I highly recommend both this book and Ralph's services, as he is an engaging and well-versed expert in the field.
Summary: Linking Strategy and ProcessRating: 5
Ralph Smith says that his intention in writing this book as to "provide some common sense thoughts and implementation tips for process management and the balanced scorecard". He has done this, and done it very well. This book is packed with good practical suggestions about how to efficiently and effectively populate a Strategy Map. The link between process and strategy, ie between Business Process Management and the Balanced Scorecard (and Strategy Map), is also well made. In my own consulting work I have found that Strategy Maps can be an important key to process-based management. The Process perspective of the Strategy Map can be a portal into the processes of an organisation - both figuratively and, given the right modelling tool, literally. I would have liked to see more about how to first determine what are the core and supporting processes of an organisation; building a high level process model is a necessary step before you begin to analyse the processes. Smith's focus on the near forensic understanding of the context of a process is important and useful analysis techniques are described. Too often we leap in to modify (improve?) processes without knowing anything like enough about them. If you have an interest in finding out more about getting organisations to engage with process-based management, you need to read this book.

The Balanced Scorecard: Measures That Drive Performance

(HBR OnPoint Enhanced Edition) By Robert S. Kaplan, David P. Norton
Publisher: Harvard Business Review
Number Of Pages: 11
Publication Date: 2000-02-01
ISBN-10 / ASIN: B00005REHA
ISBN-13 / EAN: Binding: Digital

During a year-long research project, the authors developed a "balanced scorecard" performance measurement system that allows executives to view a company from several perspectives simultaneously. The scorecard includes financial measures that reveal the results of actions already taken, as well as three sets of operational measures that show customer satisfaction, internal processes, and the organization's ability to learn and improve. Creating a balanced scorecard requires translating a company's strategy and mission statement into specific goals and measures. Managers then track those measures as they work toward their goals.
Summary:
THE BALANCED SCORECARD--MEASURES THAT DRIVE PERFORMANCE
Rating: 5
The article "The Balanced Scorecard-Measures that Drive Performance" was written in the HBR in 1992 but is still very powerful, relevant and useful today in guiding managers not to only rely on financial measures but to also include a balanced set of operational measures in the performance measurement system. This allows managers to look at an organization from several perspectives at the same time.
Complementing financial measures with operational measures of internal business processes, customers and learning and growth, enables an organization to translate strategy into operational terms, thereby facilitating strategy implementation. As the authors point out, "What you measure is what you get", therefore measuring say customer satisfaction enables a company to ensure that it meets customer needs, which is very critical in the current highly competitive operating environment. A company also needs to know what it excels at (internal perspective) so that it can use its strengths top exploit opportunities whilst minimizing the impact of its weaknesses and threats.
The book does not attempt to downplay the importance of financial measures but only to emphasize the need to have a balanced set of measures. The emphasis is on a few critical balanced set of measures and not a proliferation of measures. The balanced scorecard forces managers to look at the essential operational measures together thus avoid the situation where success in one area is at the expense of other areas.
The authors used simple language, charts to illustrate the concepts and mini cases to reinforce the practical application of the concept.
The article is comprehensive enough that it is ideal for the busy executive who may not have the time to read other related articles or the book on the same topic by the authors "The Balanced Scorecard: Turning Strategy into Action". I, however, strongly recommend one to also read this very interesting and ground-breaking book especially those studying management or doing an MBA.
Summary: The Best Way to Overcome Strategic Communications StallsRating: 5
Since Peter Drucker first popularized the idea of business strategy, there have been vastly more strategies conceived than there have been strategies successfully implemented. Much attention has been paid to devising better strategies, and little to implementing strategies. The big pay-off is in the implementation, and THE BALANCED SCORECARD hits a home run in showing how to explain what needs to be done to successfully execute strategy. You must have more measures, and different measures than the accounting system provides. You also need to link measures to the key tasks that each person must perform. This book is simply the Rosetta Stone of communicating and managing strategy. THE BALANCED SCORECARD is the beginning of the practical period of maturity in the field of business strategy. Read this book today to enjoy much more prosperity!
Summary: Introduction into the Balanced ScorecardRating: 5
This 1992 Harvard Business Review article, by Harvard Business School professor Robert Kaplan and David Norton, president of Nolan, Norton & Co., was the introduction into the now world-famous Balanced Scorecard - there is now even a Balanced Scorecard website. This article was followed by several other HBR-articles and two books ('The Balanced Scorecard' and 'The Strategy-Focused Organization').
The main reason for the introduction of the balanced scorecard was that, in the authors' views, organizations only measured financial performance. There was too much emphasis on financial measures and not enough on operational performance. By complementing financial measures of past performance with the objectives and measures of financial, customer, internal business process, and learning and growth, managers are provided with a framework to translate a strategy into operational terms. The great thing about the balanced scorecard is that it minimizes information overload by limiting the number of measures. It forces managers to focus on the handful of measures that are most critical.
This article made it finally possible for managers to express and measure operational performance. Great thing about the balanced scorecard is that it a simple visual tool. If you like this article, the logical step is to read their follow-up HBR-articles 'Putting the Scorecard to Work' (1993) and 'Using the Balanced Scorecard as a Strategic Management System' (1996) or their 1996-book 'The Balanced Scorecard: Turning Strategy into Action'. The article uses simple US-English.
Summary: The Balanced Scorecard: Measures That Drive PerformanceRating: 1
Do not buy an e-book. There is a lot of trouble downloading both the software and the article. When you think you can read the article at your leisure, you find it diffucult to read on-line and it cannot be saved into a 'word' document where you can adjust the font size, etc.
Summary: Introduction into the Balanced ScorecardRating: 5
This 1992 Harvard Business Review article, by Harvard Business School professor Robert Kaplan and David Norton, president of Nolan, Norton & Co., was the introduction into the now world-famous Balanced Scorecard - there is now even a Balanced Scorecard website. This article was followed by several other HBR-articles and two books ('The Balanced Scorecard' and 'The Strategy-Focused Organization').
The main reason for the introduction of the balanced scorecard was that, in the authors' views, organizations only measured financial performance. There was too much emphasis on financial measures and not enough on operational performance. By complementing financial measures of past performance with the objectives and measures of financial, customer, internal business process, and learning and growth, managers are provided with a framework to translate a strategy into operational terms. The great thing about the balanced scorecard is that it minimizes information overload by limiting the number of measures. It forces managers to focus on the handful of measures that are most critical.
This article made it finally possible for managers to express and measure operational performance. Great thing about the balanced scorecard is that it a simple visual tool. If you like this article, the logical step is to read their follow-up HBR-articles 'Putting the Scorecard to Work' (1993) and 'Using the Balanced Scorecard as a Strategic Management System' (1996) or their 1996-book 'The Balanced Scorecard: Turning Strategy into Action'. The article uses simple US-English.