Business and Leadership
Walther Leisler Kiep is one of the most independent and influential German post-war politicians. He is also a successful entrepreneur and longtime chairman of Atlantik-Brücke, the influential German-American friendship organization, which he now serves as honorary chairman.
In his autobiography, Kiep speaks frankly about a life at the center of power: as an independent politician and treasurer of the governing CDU party from 1970 to 1991, who did not shrink from conflict with party leaders Helmut Kohl and Franz Josef Strauss; as Minister of Finance in Lower Saxony; as a longtime member of the Volkswagen Supervisory board for 21 years; and as an ambassador for German-American relations, and confidant of several US presidents. As well as presenting an inside history of the relationship between Germany and the United States, the book sheds particular light on the struggle for German unification and that country’s complex relationship with the Middle East.
"One of Germany’s most distinguished statesmen, Dr. Walther Leisler Kiep has come to personify the commitment of postwar German leaders to close German-American relations. It was a distinct pleasure for me to collaborate with Walther, and I deeply valued his wise counsel. Through his ongoing passionate and persistent contributions as a leading foreign policy voice in Germany and as longtime chairman of Atlantik-Bruecke, Dr. Kiep has played an extraordinary role in building trust and mutual understanding between our two countries. His memoir is an invaluable addition to our understanding of international diplomacy."—Lee H. Hamilton, former Congressman and Co-Chair of the 9/11 Commission, former Director of the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars, and presently Director of the Center on Congress at Indiana University
“Kiep is an entertaining storyteller, and he shows a good sense of narrative pace. His memoirs are also of immediate relevance for scholars of international history. Over the past decade, historians have been eager to uncover the activities of ‘transnational,’ nongovernmental actors, as opposed to formal government-to-government relations. From this standpoint, Kiep’s wide-ranging activities as a diplomatic and financial troubleshooter are illuminating,”—William Glenn Gray, Purdue University.
Plato's Republic was the inspiration for the theme of the 2009 Charleston Conference - Issues in Book and Serial Acquisition - Necessity is the Mother of Invention. The Conference, held November 4-7 in Charleston, SC, included ten preconferences, over 15 plenary sessions and over 120 concurrent sessions. The theme reflected the changes and innovations that are taking place in libraries, collection development and acquisitions as we expand our services in the global marketplace amid tough economic times of budget cuts, furloughs, and cancelation of some resources. We are looking for ideas and innovation. The Charleston Conference continues to be a major event for information exchange among librarians, vendors and publishers. Now in its twenty-nineth year the Conference continues to be one of the most popular conferences in the South East. Conference attendees continue to remark on the informative and thought-provoking sessions. The Conference provides a collegial atmosphere where librarians, publishers and vendors talk freely and directly about issues facing their libraries and information providers. All this interaction occurs in the wonderful city of Charleston, South Carolina. This is the fifth year that Beth R. Bernhardt has put together the proceedings from the Conference and the first year for Leah Hinds. We are pleased to share some of the learning experiences that we, and other attendees, had at the conference.
Held November 3-6, 2010, the theme of the 2010 Charleston Conference, the annual event that explores issues in book and serial acquisition, was “Anything Goes.” 2010 marked the thirtieth anniversary of the conference, and the theme revealed a sense of uncertainty about the future of librarianship in a digital environment marked by rapidly changing systems and practices. The conference focused on topics and themes in collection development, journals and serials management, technology and product development, collaboration between and among libraries and their communities, and managing e-book and monograph collections.
The Charleston Conference continues to be a major event for information exchange among librarians, vendors, and publishers. Conference attendees always remark on the informative, thought-provoking sessions and the collegial atmosphere where information professionals can talk directly about issues facing their industry. This volume shares the best of the presentations and panels.
Copyright law is a critical issue for authors, librarians, publishers, and information vendors. Librarians continue to seek answers to questions ranging from the reproduction of copyrighted works for library users, through the performance of audiovisual works, to the digitization and display of protected works on library websites. This book comes directly from the author’s copyright columns published in Against the Grain, the leading journal in acquisitions librarianship, since the late 1990s. It is envisaged as the first volume in a series entitled Charleston Insights: New Perspectives in Library and Information. The aim of the Charleston Insights series is “to focus on important topics in library and information science, presenting the issues in a relatively jargon-free way that is accessible to all types of information professionals; librarians, publishers, and vendors.”
The book is presented in Question and Answer format. The questions are real ones, submitted by librarians, educators, and other information professionals who have attended the author’s copyright law workshops and presentations or submitted them to her by email or telephone. The author has selected the questions and answers that have general applicability. She has then arranged them into logical chapters, each prefaced by a short introduction to the topic. Because it is written in an accessible and clear style, readers may want to read the entire work or they can just access particular chapters or even specific questions as they need them. Each question is complete in itself and readers may consult a specific question for an answer. The volume will also have an index to facilitate reference use.
This work aims to analyze the impact of both the increased structural transfers and the more decentralized regional policy process through the partnership principle, which were the two main features of the 1988 European regional policy reform. In doing so Schaub examines the following questions: - What has been the impact of European structural transfers on the convergence process of the poorer southern European regions?- Has the partnership principle effectively enhanced the performance of regional institutions in cohesion policy? Among the topics covered are: - economic integration and European regional policy; - convergence modeling of financial transfers on the macro level; - methodological aspects of the convergence model; - empirical results of convergence in the southern European regions; - modeling institutional performance on the micro level; - methodological aspects of analyzing institutional performance; - Andalusia and European fund issues; - the rise of a weak regional base in Algarve ; - and a comparison of the cases of Andalusia and Algarve
Home computer terminals, communication satellites, and video telephones are part of our technology today. Tomorrow's wired city and cashless society stagger us with their implications for societal structure, operation, and evolution. This study gives us the background to understand the problems. The opening three chapters offer a general introduction to the technology, politics, and economics of the telecommunications industry. The remainder of the book presents a variety of case studies relating to the development of telecommunications services and technology. These studies show the influence that political and economic constraints have on technological development. Examples come from radio broadcasting, television data transmission, satellite communications, the telephone, and related areas. Finally, the book examines projections of future developments and proposes ways for controlling them in an equitable manner.
The late J. Kirby Risk II called himself “a small-town businessman from the banks of the Wabash.” He was much more. The fastidious, dapper man from Lafayette, Indiana, exuded philanthropy and free enterprise. Like a sheepdog, he tended the flock, rounded up strays, darted to key places to close up stragglers, and nudged everyone toward a common goal. Sometimes his stubborn persistence caused clashes. His demanding behavior was for good, no matter what others thought. That was Kirby’s way.
Kirby’s integrity was the basis for his two occupations. His first career was compassion, and his second career was the building of the battery company he cofounded in 1926 with $500 borrowed from his father. Today, Kirby Risk Corporation is a multimillion-dollar electrical products and services industry headquartered in Lafayette, Indiana, and led by Kirby’s son, Jim.
Kirby’s Way captures the essence of this imitable gentleman, who with his wife of fifty-five years, Caroline, raised four children, gave time, money, and meals to strangers, refugees, Purdue University students, and their beloved community, while building from their kitchen table a successful Midwest corporation. He believed in “sacrificial service.” Kirby noticed people. He recognized their importance. In turn, they loved him and wanted to help him. He dwelled on his favorite song, “Mankind is My Business.” Relationships shaped his success. Kirby was quiet about his deeds. He lived the Bible passage, Matthew 6:3—“But when you do a kindness to someone, do it secretly—do not tell your left hand what your right hand is doing.”
Kirby Risk may not have wanted this book. Yet he would have esteemed it as a parable, a spiritual truth that compels readers to discover certainties for themselves. From heaven, he tends the flock and rounds up strays, so more people might live Kirby’s Way.
The theme of the 2011 Charleston Conference, the annual event that explores issues in book and serial acquisition, was “Something’s Gotta Give.” The conference, held November 2–5, 2011, in Charleston, SC, included 9 pre-meetings, more than 10 plenaries, and over 120 concurrent sessions. The theme reflected the increasing sense of strain felt by both libraries and publishers as troubling economic trends and rapid technological change challenge the information supply chain. What part of the system will buckle under this pressure? Who will be the winners and who will be the losers in this stressful environment?
The Charleston Conference continues to be a major event for information exchange among librarians, vendors, and publishers. As it begins its fourth decade, the Conference is one of the most popular international meetings for information professionals, with almost 1,500 delegates. Conference attendees continue to remark on the informative and thought-provoking sessions. The Conference provides a collegial atmosphere where librarians, vendors, and publishers talk freely and directly about issues facing libraries and information providers. In this volume, the organizers of the meeting are pleased to share some of the learning experiences that they—and other attendees—had at the conference.
While architects have been the subject of many scholarly studies, we know very little about the companies that built the structures they designed. This book is a study in business history as well as civil engineering and construction management. It details the contributions that Charles J. Pankow, a 1947 graduate of Purdue University, and his firm have made as builders of large, often concrete, commercial structures since the company’s foundation in 1963. In particular, it uses selected projects as case studies to analyze and explain how the company innovated at the project level. The company has been recognized as a pioneer in “design-build,” a methodology that involves the construction company in the development of structures and substitutes negotiated contracts for the bidding of architects’ plans. The Pankow companies also developed automated construction technologies that helped keep projects on time and within budget. The book includes dozens of photographs of buildings under construction from the company’s archive and other sources. At the same time, the author analyzes and evaluates the strategic decision making of the firm through 2004, the year in which the founder died. While Charles Pankow figures prominently in the narrative, the book also describes how others within the firm adapted the business so that the company could survive a commercial market that changed significantly as a result of the recession of the 1990s. Extending beyond the scope of most business biographies, this book is a study in industry innovation and the power of corporate culture, as well as the story of one particular company and the individuals who created it.
Key Features:
There are many books about architects, but very few about twentieth-century “makers.”
Tells the story behind many iconic buildings, especially in the western half of the US.
Charles Pankow was a pioneer in concrete construction and the “design-build” system.
In all organizational settings, managing projects is an ever-increasing necessity. While large corporations have departments that institute procedures for implementing and tracking projects, smaller organizations can benefit from becoming aware of the steps in creating a project in order to maximize planned outcomes. Mitchell Springer, and expert in these areas, provides an invaluable guide that details program management in a concise and understandable manner. Learn about various types of contracts and their benefits and shortcomings. Learn about a project's critical path and how it affects tasking. Learn how to manage program risk. Learn how to manage program costs. Learn how best to deal with personalities and management issues that can lead to project completion or project disruption. This succinct reference will be a valuable asset and should be on the desk of anyone involved with the intricate and costly business of program management
An independent consultant, Hubbard (business administration, Oxford U.) explains why half of all attempts to acquire a business, or merge two businesses, fail. Then she explores the psychology involved, describes a process for acquiring, and presents five case studies in which the names and other details of both the companies and people have been changed. The section on psychology particularly discusses the reaction of employees whose means of livelihood have just been bought and sold.
This study focuses on the transformation of the U.S. agricultural economy in the middle of the nineteenth center and its impact on farm famalies. In the first detailed case study of th etransition of subsistence to commercial agriculture, te author examines call formation, migration, and household structure in the context of emerging agricultural markets and the growing availability of cheap consumer goods.
In an atmosphere where the Mexican American population is viewed in terms of immigrant labor, this edited book examines the strong tradition of wealth creation and business creation within this population. In the introduction, readers are presented with enterprises such as Latin Works and Real Links, which represent large, successful, and middle-size businesses. Chapters span research methods and units of analysis, utilizing archival data, ethnographic data, and the analysis of traditional census data to disaggregate gender and more broadly examine questions of business formation. From the chapters emerges a picture of problems overcome, success, and contemporary difficulties in developing new businesses. Analysis reveals how Mexican American entrepreneurs compare with other ethnic groups as they continue to build their ventures. This work is a refreshing alternative to books that focus on the labor aspects of the Mexican American experience. Contributors reveal the strong history of self-help and entrepreneurship of this population.
Van Eecke has assembled a collection of articles and papers that covers the issue of merit goods from a variety of perspectives, providing a single source for researchers and economist interested in the issue. The work begins with a thorough look at Musgrave’s notion of merit goods. The subsequent sections expand the definition of merit goods and provide information on the application of merit goods theory in economic, philosophical, social, and religious terms.
How do you turn your dreams into reality? How do you make things happen for you, rather than let things happen to you? Don’t be humble about who you are and what you are capable of. Stand tall and stand out. Be known. Be recognized as a leader, and most of all, know you are a leader,” is Susan Bulkeley Butler's call to action for her readers to take responsibility for their lives.
In this updated second edition of the best-selling Become the CEO of You, Inc., Susan has provided strategies for improving your life and new techniques for advancing your career. The book is focused around her “Make it Happen” model, which is based on three decades of experience working with Fortune 500 companies. The steps include: Develop a clear aspiration for You, Inc.; build your board of directors; develop your plan to make your aspiration happen; and navigate your day-to-day journey.
The second edition is completely revised and includes new topics such as: The importance of executive coaching; developing your image in today’s world; taking a long-term view of your life and career; new opportunities for balancing career and family; use of social networking techniques . . . the good, bad and ugly; and preparing for promotion.
Sets out to explain the concept of telebusiness, looking into a variety of areas in which the telephone can be more fully integrated. Explores related aspects of marketing, and discusses information technology resources such as automation, telemarketing, and computer telephony integration. Also examines business management and people management activities associated with the telephone, such as information flow, customer service, and selling. Includes example forms. An Ichor Business Book. The author is affiliated with the Chartered Institute of Marketing. -- Book News, Inc.
This book is an examination of the contemporary ethical problems of business in a philosophical context. It analyzes various types of capitalism, in particular, the Anglo-American type which is practiced primarily in the English-speaking world, and is exemplified by the commercial and financial systems of Wall Street and the City of London. This analysis includes an examination of the corporation, the ethics of the stock market, the morality of takeovers, and the problem of business and the environment. An Ichor Business Book. Norman P. Barry is Professor of Politics at the University of Buckingham.
Every organization consists of two parts: the physical and the virtual. Traditionally, it has been a company's physical assets that determined its success. In the future, it will be its virtual assets-knowledge. Business in a Virtual World explains the new economic laws that apply to this scenario, describes how leading-edge companies are exploiting the opportunities offered, and provides the reader with a practical tool kit to ensure survival and success in this new world.
Demonstrates how science and technology con be managed more purposefully in order to meet well-defined business objectives, focusing on the failure of R&D teams to respond to the desires of consumers and how to avoid such discontinuities."
Executives are beginning to recognize the potential of the call center as a significant revenue generator, perhaps one of the surest investments they can make in enhancing and creating customer value and bottom-line profits. Return on investments made in customer accessibility is seldom less than 100% in the first year, and frequently even more if customer lifetime value is included in the equation. Herein lies the challenge and the primary reason to benchmark your call center metrics against not only the best-in-the-world, but also your most direct competitors, i.e., best-in-class.
Designed to provide new professional callcenter managers with a methodology for managing their callcenter in an easily understood, step-by-step manner.
A customer access center that is accessible anytime, anywhere, in any form, and for free is emerging as critical to global business strategy. The authors provide insight into trends in the call center and simulation software industries and their interface; present a case for using simulation in call-center analysis; detail the technology infrastructure; and offer seven case studies.
Cases in Call Center Management covers the gamut of topics by examining real call centers in action and how managements at those centers have dealt with key call center issues including:"Human Resource Management"Operational Management"Strategic Management"Technology IssuesAmong the organizations covered are: Accor o Charles Schwab o General Electric o Hewlett Packard o Mercedes Benz o Thomson Consumer o Unisys o Yellow Pages DirectThe book is rounded out with a section on resources that will provide hundreds of ideas to accentuate your current call center.Both a practical guide and an exhaustive reference, Cases in Call Center Management is an investment in the future success of your customer service operations.
Reading about leadership is like walking through dense forest. The literature goes in so many different directions, a person can become lost. As a result, leadership studies struggles for academic credibility while it tries to bring some kind of order to this fascinating, complex, and important social phenomenon. Let Nathan Harter be your guide. As an Associate Professor of Organizational Leadership, he has found it helpful to orient students using the metaphor of a forest, where you can follow the streams down toward analysis or climb the peaks toward synthesis. The book reveals itself to be a work of philosophy. Specifically, it relies on Pragmatism to resolve thorny theoretical issues, since leadership studies must be eminently practical. The reader acquires analytical skills along the way, while touring different paths of the forest. This book targets an emergent market comprised of scholars and educators, as well as the libraries that serve them. People come to study leadership from different disciplines and expect to find an integrated, theoretical treatment of the subject. Despite the growing popularity of leadership programs, however, theoretical works are rare. As a few post-secondary programs introduce graduate programs in leadership, this book could also serve as their textbook.
Communicating across Cultures at Work, Second edition examines intercultural communication in the workplace. Firmly grounded in theory, it offers practical suggestions on how people can develop cultural awareness and communication skills to enable greater understanding and appreciation of those from different backgrounds.