Books in the ISSN series

The convergence of blockchain and Internet of things (IoT) powered by data and artificial intelligence (AI) is on the agenda of several big companies and some of them have already started using its implementations, initiatives, and solutions in various projects. In this book, the author calls the convergence of these three technologies: the blockchain of intelligent things.This book is targeted to help a broad audience, including anyone interested in and responsible for vision, projects, and implementations of blockchain, IoT, and AI in medium-sized companies and large enterprises. This would include business and technology managers, IT professionals, and last but not least, business or technology students, looking to broadening their knowledge and expertise. This book is number two in a series of four books.The first chapters of the book take you from the convergence of blockchain and IoT, via an overview of the most important blockchain of things projects such as IOTA, and the industries, which are heavily being disrupted, into the blockchain of intelligent things, which essentially adds the business value of data science and AI. Further topics you will find in this book include chapters such as required skills, jobs and future, industrial IoT (IIoT) platforms, and opportunities, challenges, and trends of the blockchain of intelligent things. Readers looking for a methodology to engage in blockchain, IoT, and/or AI projects, can find a comprehensive description in my previous book New World Technologies: 2020 and Beyond.

This book explores the nuances of different aspects of agility on a personal level.Agility brings personal value, leadership navigation, managing the tides of knowledge, and putting on the captain's hat of resilience. As the winds change and the tides swell high, the Personal Agility Lighthouse (PALH(TM)) model in this book will guide you to safe shores. Navigating through the seven colors of agility such as education, change, emotional, political, cerebral, learning, and outcomes agilities, the anchor is dropped effortlessly. It is built on these seven competencies, and by using the Individual Personal Agility self-analysis assessment (see Appendix), swaying personal visions leading them up to organizational goals.Taking personal agility as the future competency with an agile mindset is a crucial starting point to transform yourself. Focusing your personal agility journey on outcomes and end-to-end customer experiences ensures value delivery. Especially within the elements of the VUCA environment where revised goals are the norm. Driving changes in the right direction leads you to the stable grounds of your personal vision. It prepares you to tread the long roads of transitions/transformations, which is a vital requisite for changes in any organization.Measuring performance metrics aptly is the rudder of strategy management and stability. Organizational goals and personal development are the strong pillars that will steer you to your organizational agility, getting you ready for opportunities and changes when your company trademark needs it. Agile practices and perspectives cut through impact and quality of personal and group knowledge. Take a journey on a Personal Agility Boat to visualize options, alternatives, and opportunities. Visualization is the way to your shore's lighthouse.

In this book, readers will find the inspiration needed to expand social media presence and add an appealing new dimension to branding and marketing efforts.Social media has exploded, not only for individuals but for businesses too. Today, more than 83% of small business owners say they believe social media is essential for their companies. Make Your Business Social provides actionable solutions for business owners to create and sustain a successful social media presence.In this book you will learn how to: build or expand a social media audience for your business; create graphics, even if you're not a designer; choose the right platforms for your business; cultivate strategies for present and future social media; and use real-life experience from current business owners.Make Your Business Social brings fresh insights from its three authors, who have spent years creating and managing social media for businesses. Within these pages, you will find the inspiration you need to expand your social media presence and add an appealing new dimension to your branding and marketing efforts.

Digital Marketing Guide for Start-up Entrepreneurs is a practical, step-by-step guide that will help budding entrepreneurs in setting up and executing their digital marketing strategy from scratch to achieve the goals they have set for their start-ups.Topics covered in this book include search engine optimization, content marketing, social media marketing, search engine marketing, and online reputation management are essential for entrepreneurs to learn and master for the success of their start-up.The author guides entrepreneurs in establishing a digital presence of their startups to jet fuel their business growth. He brings in real-life examples and insights gained from executing digital marketing strategies for start-ups and small businesses.This book is perfect for start-up entrepreneurs, founders, marketers, and small business owners who are unaware of digital marketing concepts and how to use digital marketing for their advantage. It will give them practical tips on applying digital marketing to increase their brand awareness and sales-a concise book that can be completed quickly. The text serves as a reference guide for start-up entrepreneurs, to which they can always come back to while setting up and executing their digital marketing strategy.

This book addresses the use of quantitative tools to support general project management.Part I of the book deals with critical path modeling. Part II discusses risk modeling tools to include Program Evaluation and Review Technique (PERT), critical chain modeling, and agile/scrum approaches. Project control through earned value analysis is also covered. Part III is a Microsoft Project orientation. A feature of the book is an effort to tie content to that of the Project Management Body of Knowledge (PMBOK).Each chapter includes reference to how each chapter relates to the PMBOK structure and its relationship to the 2020 Project Management Professional (PMP) Exam Outline.

Today the fastest growing companies have no physical assets. Instead, they create innovative digital products and new data-driven business models. They capture huge market share fast and their capitalizations skyrocket. The success of these digital giants is pushing all companies to rethink their business models and to start digitizing their products and services.Whether you are a new start-up building a digital product or service, or an employee of an established company that is transitioning to digital, you need to consider how digitization has transformed every aspect of management. Data-driven business models scale not through asset accumulation and product standardization, but through disaggregation of supply and demand. The winners in the new economy master the demand for one and the supply to millions.Throughout the book the author illustrates with examples and use cases how the market competition has changed and how companies adept to the new rules of the game. The economic levers of scale and scope are also different in the digital economy and companies have to learn new tactics how to achieve and sustain their competitive advantage.While data is at the core of all digital business models, the monetization strategies vary across products, services and business models. Our Monetization Matrix is a model that helps managers, marketers, sales professionals, and technical product designers to align the digital product design with the data-driven business model.

Business Writing for Innovators and Change-Makers will empower you to build your confidence as a communicator, strengthen your brand, and increase your impact with your customers and clients.Business Writing for Innovators and Change-Makers is a writing guidebook with street-smarts. It recognizes the unique communication challenges entrepreneurs face and offers clear action steps for tackling them.As an entrepreneur with a pioneering product or service to offer the world, you can't rely on cookie-cutter communication templates to get your meaning across. You need a set of writing strategies that are quick to implement and easy to adapt to a wide variety of communication situations, from emails to pitch decks.Dawn Henwood provides a simple, flexible approach to writing that will open your eyes to the subtle ways written communication can engage and motivate your target audience. Whether you are just starting your business or scaling up to the next level of success, you'll find Dawn's straightforward teaching just the help you need to make your message heard. Business Writing for Innovators and Change-Makers will empower you to build your confidence as a communicator, strengthen your brand, and increase your impact with your customers and clients.

Many books and articles have been written about how firms can achieve and sustain high performance. They typically focus on a particular aspect of the firm such as its culture, resources, leadership, ability to learn, or management practices. However, often the very firms that are used as examples are no longer high performing even a few years later.In contrast, this book asserts that it is the efficiency and effectiveness of a firm's entire value creating system that determines its performance over the long term. Systems theory is used as an integrative mechanism to combine the best ideas from economics, the resource-based perspective, and stakeholder theory.Based on this theoretical foundation, tools are provided for conducting in-depth, detailed analyses of each part of a firm's value creation system and its contribution to the total stakeholder value created by the firm. This information leads to the development of strategies, including specific initiatives for overcoming weaknesses in the system and for creating new value for stakeholders, based on the reasoning that firms exist to create value for their stakeholders - customers, employees, shareholders, suppliers, and the communities in which they operate.

This book presents a new way to look at communication within projects. It combines real-world examples and practical tips with theory, research, and professional standards you can apply to any size and type of project.Communication is vital for project success. Experts know it. Industry-wide research verifies it. Yet projects continue to fail because of poor communication. As a result, stakeholders and organizations don't realize the benefits of their projects and project teams.This book presents a new way to look at communication within projects. It combines real-world examples and practical tips with theory, research, and professional standards you can apply to any size and type of project. Gain actionable insights into identifying your audience, choosing the right tools, managing change, and handling conflict. Expand your professional toolkit with templates, activities, and resources. Develop your project communications expertise with reflective questions and recommendations.Whether you are a project manager, team member, project sponsor, or stakeholder, this book is for you. For educators, the book is ideal for students studying project management and related fields. Make your project communications a critical factor in your project success!

This book provides an in-depth look at how American consumers will react to the significant social, economic and marketplace changes that will be brought about by the robot revolution. Over the next twenty years, the presence of robots will dramatically increase in our daily lives. Robots will serve as maids, gardeners, companions, waiters, security guards, nurses, teachers, playmates, receptionists, chauffeurs and prostitutes - to name only a few roles they will assume. These robots will be intelligent, autonomous, communicative, emotional, and continually progressing in their abilities.This book provides an in-depth look at how American consumers will react to the significant social, economic and marketplace changes that will be brought about by the robot revolution. Our insights come from national surveys of over 2,700 Americans, as well as a thorough review of existing academic research and expert predictions. We provide suggestions for publically-acceptable robot roles, robot design and the optimal marketplace approaches for successful human-robot interactions. Ready or not, it's coming. And sooner than you might think.

Innovative Selling is a unique book for corporate sales professionals and their sales leaders about how to prepare, manage, cope, and succeed at corporate global sales.Recent research has discovered concerning underlying discontent with professional sales people who represent global sales organizations. This book assists the sales professionals with navigating the dilemmas and pitfalls that confront today's corporate sellers so they emerge at the other end mentally healthy, skilled, and sane.The book also tackles and simplifies the basic steps of the overall sales process, territory planning, and product training, so as to ultimately improve your sales results.Many sales people today are looking for a simple and concise book to guide them through the corporate sales process-this is the book for you.

The objective of this book is to provide an understanding of the economy with its nature and structure, dominance of unorganized sector, natural resources, economic and social infrastructure, demographic features, poverty, unemployment, inequality, national income, saving and investment, role of noneconomic factors, and sources of data. India evokes many images because the country is extremely heterogeneous in its resource endowments, climate, languages, and infrastructure. India provides a rich tapestry of economic and social milieu: the 22 officially recognized languages spoken by the population, with their many dialects; the caste system; and its hoary history with its rich culture and traditions.India possesses a wide and varied resource base, although domestic sources supply only a third of the country's oil requirements at present. India's economic performance has attracted considerable commentary and controversy. Since 1950, India's approach to economic development has been within the framework of a mixed economy, which has resulted from both pragmatic and political considerations.The objective of this book is to provide an understanding of the economy with its nature and structure, dominance of unorganized sector, natural resources, economic and social infrastructure, demographic features, poverty, unemployment, inequality, national income, saving and investment, role of noneconomic factors, and sources of data. Despite being a part of the eight-volume series on the Indian economy, this second volume in the series is in the nature of an introductory essay designed to provide a succinct nontechnical exposition of India's economic structure, performance, and policies.

The People Project Triangle refers to the trade-off between the project, the ongoing business, and the people working in them.Driven by rapid external change, the modern corporation is lean and cost conscious. A consequence is an increasingly common project management situation of a medium important, medium complex business change project that cannot justify a full-time team. Consequently, it is resourced by in-house staff working on the project as homework, meaning in addition to their normal responsibilities. The authors term this a composite project.This book postulates that composite projects are increasingly used to meet the demands of rapid business change. However, they are largely unrecognized as a separate organizational category of project, with particular characteristics, management needs, and risks.The People Project Triangle refers to the trade-off between the project, the ongoing business, and the people working in them. When pressure mounts it is often the people who bear the brunt, risking stress and burnout. The authors assert that with better recognition, clearer understanding and appropriate measures, many of the common problems with composite projects can be foreseen and avoided or mitigated.

This book addresses project management in the context of general project management.An introductory chapter discusses project features in general. Part I of the book focuses attention on the important human element in project management. Part II discusses two processes involved in the initial project definition stage, as well as covering estimation. Part III involves planning and project risk and implementation.A feature of the book is an effort to tie content to that of the Project Management Body of Knowledge (PMBOK). Each chapter includes reference to how each chapter relates to the PMBOK structure, and relationship to the 2020 PMP Exam Outline.

Hiring for Fit goes to the heart of what fit really means and provides expert insight for anyone involved in making hiring decisions.A key skill for any leader is the ability to hire a great team, and this skill requires a considerable depth of knowledge of the complex subject of fit. Most organizations talk about the need to hire for fit, but many go about hiring in the wrong way because their leaders don't fully understand the concept of fit.Hiring for Fit goes to the heart of what fit really means and provides expert insight for anyone involved in making hiring decisions. The author studied the personality traits and attributes of successful hires and developed a comprehensive system to hire the right fit for any role. The entire process is an application of her unique Trait Alignment Protocol (TAP), which is the key to identifying fit and maintaining fit over the long term.By applying the thorough and practical fit strategy described in the book, leaders will gain expertise in the complex subject of fit, replace seat-of-the-pants hiring with a reliable process, gain confidence in assessing a candidate's fit, make well-founded hiring decisions that avoid common hiring pitfalls, and pave the way for effective employee retention and advancement and for succession planning.

This book describes the thought process and specific activities a leader should consider as they interview for the IT risk/information security leader role, what they should do within their first 90 days, and how to organize, evangelize, and operate the program once they are into the job. Information technology (IT) risk and information security management are top of mind for corporate boards and senior business leaders. Continued intensity of cyber terrorism attacks, regulatory and compliance requirements, and customer privacy concerns are driving the need for a business-minded chief information security officer (CISO) to lead organizational efforts to protect critical infrastructure and sensitive data. A CISO must be able to both develop a practical program aligned with overall business goals and objectives and evangelize this plan with key stakeholders across the organization. The modern CISO cannot sit in a bunker somewhere in the IT operations center and expect to achieve buy in and support for the activities required to operate a program.This book describes the thought process and specific activities a leader should consider as they interview for the IT risk/information security leader role, what they should do within their first 90 days, and how to organize, evangelize, and operate the program once they are into the job. It provides practical, tested strategies for designing your program and guidance to help you be successful long term. It is chock full of examples, case studies, and diagrams right out of real corporate information security programs. The Business-Minded Chief Information Security Officer is a handbook for success as you begin this important position within any company.

Artificial Intelligence (AI) Design and Solutions for Risk and Security targets readers to understand, learn, define problems, and architect AI projects.Starting from current business architectures and business processes to futuristic architectures. Introduction to data analytics and life cycle includes data discovery, data preparation, data processing steps, model building, and operationalization are explained in detail.The authors examine the AI and ML algorithms in detail, which enables the readers to choose appropriate algorithms during designing solutions. Functional domains and industrial domains are also explained in detail. The takeaways are learning and applying designs and solutions to AI projects with risk and security implementation and knowledge about futuristic AI in five to ten years.

><b>This series is intended to serve as an introduction to the Indian Economy from the Post Reform of 1991.</b>The author makes an endeavor to present how India's economic fortunes dwindled over the centuries. This first volume begins with an analysis of the history, evolution, and growth of the Indian economy through several periods along with their positive and negative aspects.</p><p>The author attempts to bring fairly interesting snapshots to highlight how the Indian economy has evolved over the years. The book provides history; traces the evolution of the economy during the early Muslim period and the Mughal Empire as well as during the British regime (1761 to 1947); and analyzes the impact of the British regime and the growth of the economy between 1947 and 1990. Points of analysis include policy framework-state and market; NITI Aayog-a think tank; the Indian polity-fiscal federalism; democracy and development; the economic policy regime prior to 1991; and economic reforms. The penultimate chapter looks at the future direction and task ahead of the economy. Finally, Indian economic thought is analyzed. There is plenty to discuss!</p>

This book gives us a holistic description of all paragons involved in small business operations during crisis years and suggests the necessary steps that need to be taken to help them overcome their problems.The author clearly demonstrates the crisis implications to small businesses by using personal research and real-life examples in addition to a big bibliography from renowned academics. The book contains useful and practical information for small business owners, entrepreneurs from all industries, business students, academics and strategists, business coaches and can be used as a road map during turbulent periods for small business in all industries.The author covers the topic from different approaches, while he tries to have a bird's-eye view of contemporary trends and new approaches. Several concepts like risk management, blue ocean strategy, and turnaround management have been discussed by the author in order to create a crystal clear understanding of why there is no such thing as dead end for small businesses even under the worst possible situations and how they can achieve their sustainable development and grow.This book was inspired by the significant problems that small and medium enterprises faced during the last huge global financial crisis.

The Olympic Sports Economy incorporates exclusive case studies and reports from sports management conferences to illustrate the most important business practices and trends of the Olympics today. Every two years, the Olympics wins world attention with contests and celebrations. The success story of the world's most watched event, best recognized symbols, and most enduring brand has many valuable lessons for the business world. An entire constellation of talent and teams works behind the scenes to strengthen the Olympics and keep it relevant in a changing world. Veteran sports business journalist and MBA Max Donner gives readers a useful guide to the key success factors that make the Olympics an exceptional institution. The Olympic Sports Economy incorporates exclusive case studies and reports from sports management conferences to illustrate the most important business practices and trends of the Olympics today. The text also reports objectively about recent controversies and challenges, as well as ways that readers can explore constructive solutions. The Olympic Sports Economy highlights the role the Olympics has played as a model for over six-hundred other international multi-sport competitions and introduces ideas from important trends in Olympic sports that can also benefit other organizations.

This book is aimed at consultants and managers, HR managers, and project managers who need to lead or implement change programs. There are many different change management models-some are very complex, others are not very effective. With the MIC (mindset, infrastructure, capabilities) model there is an easy-to understand and easy-to-use model presented that has proven itself many times over in practice. It is useful in both private and business settings, in both large transformation projects as well as smaller change projects. Every change requires the right mindset, the right infrastructure, and the necessary capabilities.MIC comes from practice and is for practice.This book is aimed at consultants and managers, HR managers, and project managers who need to lead or implement change programs. Executives and their teams will benefit from the book as much as individuals who want to change or face change in their lives. Finally, it addresses all those who watch the changes of our time and are curious to understand more deeply how changes do not have to be passively endured but can be actively understood and lived as an opportunity.

The Relevance of the Humanities to the 21st Century Workplace provides a blueprint for higher education faculty, boards, presidents, senior leaders, parents, students, recent graduates, and other stakeholders. Upon examining the state of humanities today, it becomes rather obvious that six disconnects exists. Colleges have done a poor job helping people outside the academy understand the terms liberal arts, humanities, liberal education, and liberal arts colleges (The Explanation Disconnect). Liberal arts and humanities faculty, as well as presidents, boards, and other stakeholders misunderstand the relevance of the humanities to the workplace (The Comprehension Disconnect). Higher education institutions need to improve how humanities majors translate their value to the marketplace (The Translation Disconnect). Administrators, faculty, and staff need to think differently and provide humanities majors with a modern perspective on career opportunities (The Perception Disconnect). In order for humanities majors to maintain relevance in the 21st century workplace, institutions need to teach students the dynamics involved with pursuing a vocation (The Vocation Disconnect). Finally, institutions need to help humanities majors increase their self-awareness in order for them to engage in self-determination and prepare for life after college accordingly (The Cultivation Disconnect).

Predictive Medicine makes artificial intelligence more accessible for healthcare practitioners without shying away from complex topics and controversial subject matter. Artificial intelligence, machine learning, natural language processing, robotics, big data and other new technologies are ready to revolutionize the way we look at healthcare. But if we want them to achieve their full potential, we'll need leaders who understand these new tools and who have long-term strategies in place to take advantage of them. This book will help you to become one of those leaders. Predictive Medicine makes artificial intelligence more accessible for healthcare practitioners without shying away from complex topics and controversial subject matter. It's a call-to-action for a new generation of health leaders and a roadmap to help them usher in a brighter future.

Highly Effective Marketing Analytics infuses analytics into marketing to help improve marketing performance and raise analytics IQ for companies that have not yet had much success with marketing analytics. The book reveals why marketing analytics has not yet kept the promise and clarifies confusions and misunderstanding surrounding marketing analytics. Highly Effective Marketing Analytics is a highly practical and pragmatic how-to book. The author illustrates step by step many innovative, practical, and cost-effective methodologies to solving the most challenging real-world problems facing marketers in today's highly competitive omnichannel environment.

The world of options is considered high-risk by many. At its original options treading in the modern era began in the early 1970s when the first listed calls were offered on a short list of companies; a few years later, put trading was added. Since this time, options trading has become available on most companies on the large public exchanges. However, the high-risk reputation of options has persisted through the years, even as dozens of new and often conservative strategies have been introduced. Today, the best use of options is not to speculate on price movement, but to hedge market risk in equity portfolios. Many strategies can combine hedging with income, establishing advantageous circumstances for risk-averse traders. It is possible to apply several strategies to reduce risk and in some instances, to eliminate market risk completely. This book examines the many ways this can be accomplished, based on options for three highly-rated companies. These are qualified as a first step by exceptionally attractive fundamental attributes and trends: Higher than average dividend yield with dividend increases over at least 10 years; a range of moderate price/earnings ratios each year; growing revenue, earnings and net return; and level or declining long-term debt as a percentage of total capitalization.

The Entrepreneurial Adventure is perfect for anyone with an interest in business or with aspirations to start their own business. The author outlines key principles of the entrepreneurial adventure and the business world, bringing it to life using case studies. This book contains useful and practical information about business and entrepreneurship gives a robust understanding of the theory and real-world implications of running a successful business. It describes and explains the whole process from understanding the implications and risks, the start-up stage through to future expansion. The authors clearly demonstrate that if the good business habits and practices described in this book are followed consistently, you really will achieve entrepreneurial success and the opportunities that come with it.

This handbook provides tools for designing a structure for a management system, as well as the tools for documenting processes within it.When people need healthcare, few worry about being harmed by someone from the medical team making a mistake. Unfortunately, mistakes do happen, and many of the adverse events are not only serious but also preventable. Many countries struggle with top-heavy systems, in which decisions are made about how care is provided by those who are far from experienced in caring for patients. This must change. Professionals at the sharp end need support, structure, and help organizing necessary information to create a safe culture, a learning environment, and safe patient care-all at lower costs.This handbook provides tools for designing a structure for a management system, as well as the tools for documenting processes within it. The starting point is based on current safety research.The book is designed for medical professionals, managers, project members, politicians, public officials, and executives-all who work with patient safety matters. The content shows a new way to healthcare management, presenting an alternative approach together with concrete advice on how healthcare executives and practitioners can begin to think and act differently in order to provide safe healthcare.

This book takes readers across the different stages of an alliance lifecycle and, through practical incidents, discusses and debates on the decisions to be taken.Organizations, large and small, are realizing the importance of collaborations to achieve their business objectives. Organizations to create independent and joint values are entering into strategic alliances with their suppliers, customers, and even their competitors. Every alliance follows a lifecycle and decisions have to be taken by executives at each stage. Anticipated revenues and other sources of financial value remain unrealized if inadequate decisions are taken and alliances fail or under perform.This book takes readers across the different stages of an alliance lifecycle and, through practical incidents, discusses and debates on the decisions to be taken. The book also demonstrates the various challenges faced by executives in an alliance. This book is perfect for managerial executives who are contemplating proposing a strategic alliance for their organizations or are part of an organization juggling various ongoing alliances, alliance managers, and business development professionals. In short, the content of the book should be of interest to anyone for whom alliances are a topic of interest.

Artificial Intelligence (AI) for security management explores terminologies of security and how AI can be applied to automate security processes.Additionally, the text provides detailed explanations and recommendations for how implement procedures. Practical examples and real-time use cases are evaluated and suggest appropriate algorithms based on the author's experiences.Threat and associated securities from the data, process, people, things (e.g., Internet of things), systems, and actions were used to develop security knowledge base, which will help readers to build their own knowledge base. This book will help the readers to start their AI journey on security and how data can be applied to drive business actions to build secure environment.

PRESENT! CONNECT! combines a one -on-one conversational style with photos, cartoons and case studies that can improve your presentation skills quickly. Get ready to tap into your successful skills and start having fun presentingMost people have the skills needed to become a successful presenter, but they don't use them. When they do learn how to use these skills, they begin to enjoy the successful outcome of a focused, thoughtful, and informative presentation. This the premise of author Tom Guggino's career as a leading presentation coach. As a former stand-up comedian, Tom applies the secrets of communicating your passion, commitment, and unique personal style. He has developed The Presentation Process to make professionals, executives, and students become effective presenters who enjoy making a presentation that fulfills its promise. Tom Guggino shares his acclaimed knowledge as a premier practitioner of helping people bring out their own talents to become a successful presenter.PRESENT! CONNECT! combines a one -on-one conversational style with photos, cartoons and case studies that can improve your presentation skills quickly. Get ready to tap into your successful skills and start having fun presenting.