Book Description
This unique, re-engineered book defines and describes the new "paradigm" brought on by recent dramatic changes in the field of management. Managing Today! redefines the traditional "functional" approach employed by previous management books to more accurately reflect recent, fundamental changes in the economy and workplace—changes that have significantly reshaped today's managers' jobs.
Robbins' balanced approach presents an effective integration of theory and application displayed within a clear, visual design specifically tailored for today's readers. Coverage includes changing issues in today's workplace (risk, privatization, multiple skills, and continual retraining); culture shock; time-management skills; cycle-time reduction and technology transfer; virtual teams; human behavior; leadership; trust building; change management; and more.
For human resources professionals, business managers/team leaders, and anyone interested in Organizational Behavior and Business Management.
Book Description
"Clients At The Core is an essential blueprint to helping us all take the next steps. The authors, battle scarred by the evolution of professional firm management and marketing from then to now, have captured the changing needs of the firms in this turbulent new economic era. This is a well-written book that uses plain language to convey practical, well thought-out ideas."
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Patrick J. McKenna, a leading international consultant to professional service firms
"The authors have captured the changing role of professional services marketing and firm management. There is valuable insight [in this] down-to-earth guide to competing successfully in the new environment."
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David Maister, author and consultant
"The book is a masterpiece! Aquila and Marcus have produced the essential guide for managing a professional services firm. They've marshaled their considerable real-life experiences and far-reaching vision into a veritable operating manual for the successful firm."
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Rick Telberg, Editor at Large, American Institute of Certified Public Accountants
"At its heart, this book is the running shoe for legal and accounting professionals who want to put the client first. Following the evolution of the industry over the past twenty-five years, this must-have for every professional services firm is the key to leading in the turbulent and highly competitive waters ahead."
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Richard S. Levick, Esq., President, Levick Strategic Communications, LLC coauthor, Stop the Presses: The Litigation PR Desk Reference
"Client selection and retention is one of the critical success factors for a professional services firm, and Aquila and Marcus do a masterful job at educating us on the necessary ingredients of each. The chapters on firm governance and paying for performance are thought provoking and certainly challenging to the conventional wisdom. If you want a better understanding of marketing and leading a professional firm in these turbulent times, this book is essential."
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Ronald J. Baker, author, Professional's Guide to Value Pricing and The Firm of the Future
"Client at the Core is a commonsense approach to keeping your professional services firm relevant in the twenty-first century's client-driven economy. Aquila and Marcus have hit a home run with their insightful analysis and poignant prose."
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Jeffrey S. Pawlow, Managing Shareholder, The Growth Partnership, Inc.
Download Description
"August Aquila and Bruce Marcus reward readers of Client at the Core with an imaginative map for the perilous journey through the twists and turns of marketing and managing today's professional services firm. It is creative and thorough."
-Gerry Riskin, Partner, Edge International
"The authors have captured the changing role of professional services marketing and firm management. There is valuable insight [in this] down-to-earth guide to competing successfully in the new environment."
-David Maister, author and consultant
"The book is a masterpiece! Aquila and Marcus have produced the essential guide for managing a professional services firm. They've marshaled their considerable real-life experiences and far-reaching vision into a veritable operating manual for the successful firm."
-Rick Telberg, Editor at Large, American Institute of Certified Public Accountants
"At its heart, this book is the running shoe for legal and accounting professionals who want to put the client first. Following the evolution of the industry over the past twenty-five years, this must-have for every professional services firm is the key to leading in the turbulent and highly competitive waters ahead."
-Richard S. Levick, Esq., President, Levick Strategic Communications, LLC
coauthor, Stop the Presses: The Litigation PR Desk Reference
"Client selection and retention is one of the critical success factors for a professional services firm, and Aquila and Marcus do a masterful job at educating us on the necessary ingredients of each. The chapters on firm governance and paying for performance are thought provoking and certainly challenging to the conventional wisdom. If you want a better understanding of marketing and leading a professional firm in these turbulent times, this book is essential."
-Ronald J. Baker, author, Professional's Guide to Value Pricing and The Firm of the Future
"Client at the Core is a commonsense approach to keeping your professional services firm relevant in the twenty-first century's client-driven economy. Aquila and Marcus have hit a home run with their insightful analysis and poignant prose."
-Jeffrey S. Pawlow, Managing Shareholder, The Growth Partnership, Inc.
Customer Reviews:
Marketing 101, 201, & 301 for Professional Services.......2005-08-31
This book should burnish the authors' already high reputations for having cogent, jargon-free, and street-smart things to say about what it's really like to try to market professional services. An unusual blend of (clear and lucidly stated) theory about marketing, and real-world insights into obstacles clients can throw up--not to mention the high barrier of internal resistance that "professionals" instinctively erect when asked to be marketers--this should be your starting point if you're facing the complexities of marketing in this environment.
Think that "marketing is just common sense?" Think again; it's both a discipline and an art. Aquila and Marcus will guide your hand at both.
Gerry Riskin (co-author Herding Cats and Beyond Knowing.......2005-06-12
August Aquila and Bruce Marcus reward readers of Client at the Core with an imaginative map for the perilous journey through the twists and turns of marketing and managing today's professional services firm. It is creative and thorough.
Required reading for my marketing leaders.......2004-09-25
August Aquila and Bruce Marcus have written a clear and comprehensive view of what every accounting or law marketer needs to know about this new, unprecedented professional services environment. Their book not only explains the new environment, but it's also a rich primer of practical "how-to" advice on all the marketing tools available to the professional services marketer. Strategy is fine, but I find that few books get down to the step-by-step implementation tactics involved in winning new business like this book does - that's one of its best points of differentiation. After reading it, I bought copies for every one of my regional, industry, service line and national marketing leaders.
Aquila and Marcus Deliver Practice Advice for Success.......2004-09-07
In "Client at the Core: Marketing and Managing Today's Professional Services Firm," (Wiley, 2004) August J. Aquila, based in Minnetonka, Minn., and Bruce W. Marcus, in Easton, Conn., a pair of veteran consultants, combine their considerable experience, skill and insight into a veritable strategic planning operator's manual for today's consulting firm.
From the outset, they acknowledge "the professional world doesn't need another book on how to write a press release or write a brochure or run a seminar."
Instead, they provide a new perspective on the crucial subject of how to keep firms relevant to the needs of the marketplace -- mainly, creating clients and building a marketing culture.
They don't get tied up in ideas like "vision," or "mission."
Instead they talk about the new realities of the 21st Century and professions in turmoil: dot-coms gone bust, a stock market meltdown, and a rash of frauds, defalcations, misuse of corporate funds; and then a reformist reaction, still unfolding, that the authors term "a helter-skelter regulatory rush that was at least as punitive as it was appropriate. It would seem that the regulatory garment was cut to fit all, when all don't wear the same size."
"The time is past when just the presence of the professional was its own comfort factor. It's long been believed that the concept of the professional was so exalted, and so trusting, that people accepted advice unquestioningly. No more. The scandals of 2002 and 2003 seem to have bred a diminished - if unwarranted -- respect for professionals," they say.
"Traditionally, professional services have been a seller's market," according to Aquila and Marcus. But now the tables are turned. "It is now a buyer's market."
For today's professionals, here are six lessons you can take to the bank according to the authors:
1. Clients are more sophisticated. They no longer accept advice without questioning, challenging, demanding more reasoning and detail.
2. Because of the complexity of business today, clients demand that their professionals know more about the client's business and industry than ever before.
3. Professional services always function best when trust is at the heart of the relationship, but the corporate scandals of recent years have eroded that trust. That trust must now be regenerated. And the workings of trust are more important in the new economy than in the old.
4. Once the narrow structures of a profession were sufficient to serve clients. But clients now demand a broader spectrum of capabilities. The more broadly educated and well-rounded professional is the one with the greater advantage in meeting the needs of today's client. Clients demand that accountants know more than the basic skills of accounting.
5. Competition is now a fact of life. Clients know they have a choice.
Clients know the difference between marketing promises and professional services delivery. Today's client demands more real service and solutions -- not just a warm personal relationship.
To Aquila and Marcus, the new paradigm of professional services requires a new demand for partnership with the client and new participatory skills.
As they say: It's a buyers' market. Get used to it.
(...)
Focus on Application.......2004-08-22
"Meaty and rich with texture. The authors understand the application of marketing concepts to the CPA profession at a very deep level, and communicate clearly and concisely."
"Every page was another 'Yes!' when reading about the application of marketing principles to the CPA world. The authors nailed it."
Book Description
Information Systems Today, 3e, speaks directly to WHY IS MATTERS today by focusing on what every business student needs to know about IS including its leading role in the globalization of business.
Average customer rating:
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Managing Business Disputes in Today's China: Duelling with Dragons
Manufacturer: Kluwer Law International
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ASIN: 9041124624
Release Date: 2007-03-07 |
Book Description
The debut title in Wiley’s Microsoft Executive Circle Series, The Think Factory shows you—using case studies and sample improvement plans—how intangibles such as collaboration and business intelligence interact to create tangible value and identifies the best practices for expanding your company’s investment in people and procedures.
Customer Reviews:
Review of The Think Factory.......2007-05-02
I thought that the book was useful in that it laid out a strategy for how to use technology to create a competitive advantage. It offered solutions for how to measure the various outputs of information work and it kept the information worker in the loop as far as the types of technologies implemented which I thought was important. It also created a plan based on measurable facts for how to decide which projects to invest to bring the most benefit to the information worker. I was impressed by the detailed (almost step by step) formula for how to create Productivity Impact Framework (PIF) and the use of realistic case studies to further describe implementation. It was a little heavy on the acronyms and somewhat confusing when it came to adding Lean Six Sigma (LSS) to the PIF but overall was well written. I would definitely recommend it to anyone interested in an effective way to choose and implement a successful IT project.
Average customer rating:
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Nature's Wisdom in the Workplace: Managing Energy in Today's Health Care Organizations
Sharon Cox ,
Jo Manion , and
Diane Miller
Manufacturer: Synergy Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
Workplace
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ASIN: 0976443503 |
Book Description
"An important addition to the library of anyone concerned with or interested in the role of the university in today's society. Those of us who have devoted our life's work to improving the delivery of educational programs and services to students will appreciate Balderston's comprehensive view of our work setting."
--Journal of College Student Development
Average customer rating:
- Not helpful for contractors
- Highly recommeded for anyone who uses temporary staff.
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Temporary Sanity: Managing Today's Flexible Workforce
Shannon Van Nostrand , and
Marsha Breeke
Manufacturer: SOCAA Pub
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Binding: Paperback
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| Economic Policy & Development
| Exports & Imports
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ASIN: 0965517241 |
Book Description
The trend toward the use of temporary or contingent personnel continues to increase. Employment staffing is a 50 billion dollar industry. Temporary Sanity is THE book for human resources and management professionals seeking maximum performance and value from their temporary or contract staffing programs. Readers will learn inside secrets to receiving top quality service from staffing providers and for improving communication among regular staff, temporary workers, management and service providers. Chapter topics include: defining temporary and contract employees;why businesses continue to use such workers;tips on how to chose a staffing service,how to order and how much you should be paying;setting realistic expectations; legal issues concerning co-employment; special services to consider and information accessible over the internet.
Customer Reviews:
Not helpful for contractors.......2001-02-27
While this book should be read by every HR person and every supervisor or manager ever hiring a temp or contractor, it is a superficial overview of the contingency staffing industry. As a technical contractor, I was hoping to obtain a better understanding of the ins and outs of the industry to improve the types of contact assignments I obtain. This book doesn't provide that insight.
Highly recommeded for anyone who uses temporary staff........1999-04-29
As a production manager for a medium-sized electronics manaufacturing firm, I am continually challenged with getting better performance from our temporary staffing services. We have struggled with what we have considered lack-luster service and with a fairly high attrition rate. Our selection of services was based upon competive bid, but we did not select the cheapest.
After reading Temporary Sanity, I realize that many of our problems have stemmed from lack of internal coordination as well as a poor communication plan with our staffing provider, both of which are stressed in the book.
Although I have used temporary agencies for over 15 years, I found much of the authors inside information as to the real workings of staffing services to be very insightful, particularly now, when low unemployment rates mean skilled temporary employees can have their pick of the jobs available.
The books continual focus on the importance of treating temporary staff with respect equal to our permanent employees really hit home and, after several meeting with my supervisors and our human resources manager we have developed a plan to involve both the temporary agency staff, and the temps themselves, in our long and short range production goals by truly soliciting their input. After my supervisors read the book, we instituted a quality bonus program for our temporary employees, a temp-of-the-month award, and recruiting bonuses for any new temps which they refer to work for us. Our human resource department is working on written guidelines for all of our temporary employees as well as written job discriptions for all temporary positions. We have also,followed the authors advice about having a liason person from the temporary service meet with us weekly and in person to discuss present and future staffing needs and any individual performance issues. This one step has helped our communication greatly.
This is just a begining, but already we have seen improved moral and attrition, I'm confident I'll see improved production numbers this quarter.
There is enough solid information in Temporary Sanity that I would recommend it for any one who uses temporary staff, whether or not they are having problems. There are time and money saving tips throughout, funny real-life illustrations and anecdotes based on their many years of experience. The chapter on legal considerations may be an eye-opener for many reader...well worth the 14.95 price.
Average customer rating:
- good book for failures
- good book for failures
- A good basis for understanding what to do about bad software
- About time book for software consumers!
- An unusually fresh perspective on quality in software.
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Bad Software: What to Do When Software Fails
Cem Kaner ,
David Pels , and
David L. Pels
Manufacturer: John Wiley & Sons
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Binding: Paperback
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Similar Items:
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Testing Computer Software, 2nd Edition
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Lessons Learned in Software Testing
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How to Break Software: A Practical Guide to Testing W/CD
ASIN: 0471318264 |
Amazon.com
Every industry has its lemons and, in the software industry, lemons can cause big problems for you if you are unfortunate enough to install them. Bad Software offers a comprehensive look at all the options available to the disgruntled software buyer. First, the authors help you figure out what's at fault--did you buy something ill suited to your needs, are you using it incorrectly, or is the program really broken? Once you've spotted the problem, they help you tackle it efficiently.
Telephone support technicians--and the people who call them--will appreciate this book's tips on making a successful call for technical support. The book explains what information to gather before you call and the best way to present your problem to the support person. These tips make it probable that your problem will be solved quickly, accurately, and with little aggravation.
If you do have a real lemon--such as a program that erased your hard disk even though you followed the instructions closely--this guide will show you what to do. The authors tell how the Uniform Commercial Code applies to software and they provide sample complaint letters that ought to help you get the remedy you want. --David Wall
Book Description
Avoid technological lemons and be your own consumer advocate. Most software products are released with known defects. Misleading advertising is rampant in the industry, and few software publishers provide real warranties for their products. And as we all know, most software companies provide woefully inadequate technical support. Quite simply, consumers usually get the short end of the stick in the software industry. Not for long, if the authors of Bad Software can help it. This book pulls no punches in explaining why things are so bad, and how consumers can best stand up for themselves. The authors provide guidance on how to troubleshoot faulty software and when to call for help; exactly what to demand of software companies when defective products cost you time and money; how to ensure a replacement or refund; how best to deal with intransigent companies and their personnel; and much more. Written by industry insiders with software management, technical support management, and legal experience, this book will show you how to fight for your rights and get valuable results. Companion Web site features legislative and regulatory news and commentary, court cases, and contact information for protection agencies.
Customer Reviews:
good book for failures.......2000-07-18
can you send this book for my testing purpose please send me the details if possiable. or it is available to buy from mumbai-Thane ( india) i am interesting to buy this book asap.
Thanks and regards.
good book for failures.......2000-07-18
can you send this book for my testing purpose please send me the details if possiable. or it is available to buy from mumbai-Thane ( india) i am interesting to buy this book asap.
Thanks and regards.
A good basis for understanding what to do about bad software.......2000-05-07
This book talks about the common experience of buying and trying to use software which has defects or does not meet our needs. It sets out what you can do about this and what you should rightfully expect (and what not). As a practitioner myself I see such a book as important not only for the consumer but also for everyone who produces software.
I liked the approach that explains how customer service staff experience customer complaints and how NOT to complain (ie screaming and shouting will at best get you onto the PA system for the customer care staff to enjoy). Complaining is a psychologically difficult terrain and Cem's book helps doing it more effectively.
There is a short coming (not of Kaner's fault) in that in chapter 7 he refers to the American laws, which obviously do not apply overseas. Nevertheless this book is useful because many of the principles in the US do apply in many countries.
About time book for software consumers!.......1999-05-24
Complain!com REVIEW: Cem Kaner and I worked together briefly at Oracle/NCI. I had dinner with a mutual old friend recently who pointed me at this book. Software is an area where the consumer has been far too tolerant in my estimation - speaking quietly with their feet. While that has proven good for the collective it has been less satisfying for the individual. A book of this kind for software consumers was long over due. Kudos Cem. - Steven
An unusually fresh perspective on quality in software........1998-12-18
An unusually fresh perspective on quality, or lack of it, in software... written by well-respected and highly qualified individuals. Highly recommended reading and reference!
Books:
- Manual De Psicologia Aplicada a LA Empresa
- Media and Ethics: Principles for Moral Decisions (The Wadsworth Communication Ethics Series)
- Mind, Self, and Society: From the Standpoint of a Social Behaviorist (Works of George Herbert Mead)
- More Heart Than Talent
- Once An Eagle
- Open-Book Management: Coming Business Revolution, The
- Organizational Behavior and Management: An Integrated Skills Approach
- People and Parliament in the European Union: Participation, Democracy, and Legitimacy
- Perry's Chemical Engineers' Handbook
- Pricing Guide for Web Services : How to Make Money on the Information Data Highway
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