Books in the ISSN series

This book is companion to Volumes I and III in the series. Volume I covers managing strategy through capital project portfolios; Volume III is a complete case study. This volume describes the strategic challenge of adding real economic value, properly and rigorously defined. The author explains how this is accomplished through the capital budgeting process; discusses the importance of free cash flow and finally, capital projects, as financial options, are discussed, as a way to manage risk while enhancing the likelihood of project approval.The author is a retired business professor; his research interest has been the management of technology and innovation. For this book, he double-checked none of the 1,250 media items collected, accepting their overall veracity at face value. This approach advocates no one person, no one company, no one technology, and no portion of the global automobile industry. Analysis and practical application came foremost.

The volumes in this series may be likened to a complete case study of Tesla through the end of 2018.Many popular media articles are excerpted, abridged to illustrate points of theoretical emphasis. This keeps the story alive, meaningful, and urgent.Strategic management is a corpus of scholarship in the Academy of Management, as is technology and innovation management. Project management is found academically within operations management, and led in practice by the Project Management Institute. The volumes in this series intersect where these fields meet and capital projects are planned, budgeted, and financed.Volume I tells the Tesla story and then presents chapters that address, in order: corporate governance and project stakeholder or communication management, project portfolios as strategic corporate portfolios, and an executive-level review of the best-practice project management paradigm, as applied to capital projects. The epilogue takes the story through the end of 1Q2019 and offers additional commentary.

This book describes the biases most relevant to investing, include background on how biases develop, and offer practical strategies to help you to improve your performance.The authors offer a guide to categorizing biases based on cutting-edge brain science, which will enable readers to implement best practices that guard against whole sets of biases. Emphasis is placed on the practical implications of financial decision-making and provides a scientific basis for adjusting investing practices, to avoid common cognitive traps.

This book identifies some of the most significant complexities faced by project managers when attempting to implement the PMBOK framework in global projects and provides pointers for existing or aspiring managers and project managers.Project management is a discipline that is practiced in today's organizations on a global scale. The project manager's role has therefore become more complex as projects are carried out in different geographical locations using team members who come from a diverse range of languages, cultures, and world views.Project managers improve their chances of success when they seek to understand the cultures and context of the environment with which they interact on a day-to-day basis and modify the way they manage, communicate, and organize. This book identifies some of the most significant complexities faced by project managers when attempting to implement the PMBOK framework in global projects and provides pointers for existing or aspiring managers and project managers. Further, a framework is proposed for assessing and building global project capability and process maturity.

This book introduces options and how they work-to those who are ready to learn how they work, as well as emphasizes the application of time-tested option trading rules.Buying and selling options is the fastest growing investment strategy when compared with other trading venues such as buying and selling stocks, futures, and foreign exchange currencies. Millions of investors who understand the financial leverage offered by options are earning impressive, steady incomes by buying and selling call and put options.The successful investors learn how options work. They develop watch lists of trade candidates and study price charts to find prospective trades. And they apply rules-based option trading strategies that succeed much more often than they fail. Even when they lose, their rules limit their losses to acceptable levels.This book was written by a successful option trader. He introduces options and how they work to those who are ready to learn how they work. The book emphasizes the application of time-tested option trading rules. These rules use price charts, market volatility, key option values, and risk graphs to achieve high-probability option trading outcomes. The book also details ten option trade examples that include trade setups, entries, trade management techniques, and supporting illustrations.

This book will help business/MBA students, aspiring and emerging entrepreneurs, executives, and leaders to think like entrepreneurs in 12 critical focus areas.Both success and failure start in the mind. From Tamiko's years of practical experience in coaching entrepreneurs, she has uncovered the #1 reason that some of her clients succeeded while others failed: mindset. This book will help business/MBA students, aspiring and emerging entrepreneurs, executives, and leaders to think like entrepreneurs in 12 critical focus areas.Readers will uncover hidden thoughts that sabotage success as an entrepreneur. The author will cause you to experience a paradigm shift from an employee mindset to an entrepreneurial mindset. The text provides takeaways and practical action items to cultivate entrepreneurial thinking that will revolutionize the approach to business.

This business analytics (BA) text discusses the models based on fact-based data to measure past business performance to guide an organization in visualizing and predicting future business performance and outcomes.It provides a comprehensive overview of analytics in general with an emphasis on predictive analytics. Given the booming interest in analytics and data science, this book is timely and informative. It brings many terms, tools, and methods of analytics together.The first three chapters provide an introduction to BA, importance of analytics, types of BA-descriptive, predictive, and prescriptive-along with the tools and models. Business intelligence (BI) and a case on descriptive analytics are discussed. Additionally, the book discusses on the most widely used predictive models, including regression analysis, forecasting, data mining, and an introduction to recent applications of predictive analytics-machine learning, neural networks, and artificial intelligence. The concluding chapter discusses on the current state, job outlook, and certifications in analytics.

The business world has been hearing about Artificial Intelligence (AI) and blockchain. AI was the superstar topic of conversations at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland this past January 2019. Here, Nick Brestoff, a former attorney who now holds eight (8) patents for business applications that use AI and the breakthrough form of AI -- "e;deep learning,"e; provides his readers with a "e;no math"e; explanation of deep learning that's followed by numerous applications in a wide variety of contexts. In this book, he opens the door to his journey of understanding and innovation, all in an effort to empower his readers to come up with business-relevant innovations of their own.

The PR Knowledge Book is for everyone, irrespective of where you are in the world-whether a student starting out in this industry, self-employed, a home business, small business, start-up, charity, or any other type of organization wanting to embark on your PR journey or someone just plain curious about what it entails. This book covers everything within the world of PR from how to create a brand, how to use social media, how to be newsworthy, to how to contact the media, how to have a global mind-set, the power of networking, and more. It is written in an easy style, packed with powerful tips, proven tools, and real-life case studies from around the world. In 12 chapters you will discover how to get your brand out there so you can attract clients and new business.

This book explains and demonstrates the concept of momentum in chart analysis, which is of great interest to technical analysts.It includes complete explanations of overbought and oversold, where momentum fits in the broader science of technical analysis, and the importance of moving average crossover. Five major momentum oscillators are explained in depth: relative strength index, MACD, rate of change, stochastics, and Bollinger Bands. Finally, the book provides trading guidance based on momentum, involving coordination of oscillators with other indicators, reversal, and continuation signals.Momentum powerfully identifies the strength and speed of price movement. Through the use of index calculations, momentum is effective when used as a confirming indicator for other signals found in price, volume, or moving averages. Often overlooked by traders focused solely on price reversals or continuation signals, momentum provides a context to price behavior and to the price trend, and can vastly improves the timing of both entry and exit of trades.

This book helps the organization's top leader gather the information needed to identify opportunities and threats and decide on the appropriate risk response in this uncertain world.Risk is the effect of uncertainty on the ability of an organization to meet its strategic objectives. The effects of uncertainty are expressed as opportunities and threats. Yet, most people associate risk with hazards and losses (i.e., pure risk). Unlike pure risk, uncertainty risk is not insurable because of its upside risk opportunities. Risk management is a key element of the open-sourced, high-level structure developed by the International Organization for Standardization. This structure for managing important organizational programs has been adopted by over 180 country standard-setting organizations.This book helps the organization's top leader gather the information needed to identify opportunities and threats and decide on the appropriate risk response in this uncertain world. The two most widely used risk management standards are presented to demonstrate that an organization can use either one or a combination of the two standards to help manage the effects of uncertainty on their organization. It's fool-worthy to attempt to run an organization without formal uncertainty risk management. Let this book help you find your company's way in an uncertain world.

Money cannot buy happiness, but a solid, profitable business can enable you to wake up each morning looking forward to the work you have to do. If you dream of owning your own small business because you want autonomy, freedom, meaning, and purpose, this book is for you. This is a self-coaching guide and a practical workbook. At the end of each thought provoking chapter you will find tools to help you with your business analysis, techniques for greater creativity, information about your brain and how it works and powerful questions to lead you to a fuller understanding of yourself and your business. Do you feel called to be an entrepreneur but hesitate because you do not know what to do? This book will help you find your way through the small business startup maze. The self-coaching exercises in this book are designed to move you from frustrated dreamer to becoming an action-oriented and business leader. All you need to do now to create a clear, low risk vision for building a profitable business is to read this book, do the exercises, and create your plan.

Research shows that 90 percent of a project manager's time is spent communicating with various stakeholders. This book offers strategies that enhance communication throughout the project cycle and describes innovative techniques for bridging cultural gaps, increasing understanding, and ensuring project success.

This book bridges the gap between the accounting and the actuarial sides of Indian life insurance companies, by exploring the relationships between the embedded value calculated by actuaries and the revenue account and balance sheet prepared by the accountants.The author provides publicly available sources of information to place a value on the shares of Indian life insurance companies from an outsider's point of view. Life insurance company accounts are complex and require knowledge of specific concepts in order to analyze and appreciate them.This book will help a layperson with reasonable numerical abilities understand the calculation of the share price of a life insurance company. In particular, it will help analysts and accountants with no actuarial background understand the concepts of embedded and appraisal value. Cash flow statements of these companies are often ignored and delegated to the background or usually to a single page in their annual reports.This book examines the cash flows in detail and rearranges them to get a better picture of the financial health of the underlying companies. It also explains the relationship between the different measures of profit such as cash reserves, surplus, profit after tax, and embedded value. Often this information is only available internally or to consultants. The author uses alternative approaches based purely on public disclosures by these companies, thereby enabling professionals without access to internal information to come to informed judgments about the actual performance of the companies.

Chief Kickboxing Officer shows how the fighting and business mindsets cross over in this process of discovery and, in particular, what lessons can be learned from a highly refined and scientific type of fighting system: the martial arts.Business and fighting are two sides of the same coin. Every businessperson engages everyday in small acts of negotiation and conflict; understanding what characterizes our conduct, and what are its strengths and weakness, will help us develop more effective relationships.Chief Kickboxing Officer shows how the fighting and business mindsets cross over in this process of discovery and, in particular, what lessons can be learned from a highly refined and scientific type of fighting system: the martial arts.By looking at four types of behavioral and leadership styles and mapping each of them onto a martial art, this book allows the readers to learn lessons best suited to their personality.

Volume II of this series discusses the technology used to implement a big data analysis capability within a service-oriented organization. It discusses the technical architecture necessary to implement a big data analysis capability, some issues and challenges in big data analysis and utilization that an organization will face, and how to capture value from it.It will help readers understand what technology is required for a basic capability and what the expected benefits are from establishing a big data capability within their organization.

This book provides a short introduction to the philosophy of humanism and discusses how and why it is being applied to business and why it is so effective when you do so.You can't understand humanistic business management unless you understand what humanism is. This book provides a short introduction to the philosophy of humanism and discusses how and why it is being applied to business and why it is so effective when you do so. Humanism helps us prioritize human value as important. It supports positive interpersonal relationships and collaborative and respectful decision-making. Since all businesses are in the business of solving problems, good problem solving is essential to good business.Humanism has already transformed many other disciplines including psychology, medicine, nursing, and more. Additionally, humanism is foundational to the practice of human resources, without which businesses cannot operate. It is important for business managers to understand the philosophy fully so they can understand how to not only manage people more effectively, but how to operate their businesses in a way that helps the communities in which they operate. This book will provide the primer they need to create more effective and ethical businesses.

In this second volume for clinicians who have transitioned into administration, we continue the journey to advance management skills. Developing business skills in hiring, human resource management, and financial management will help garner and administer the resources that support a team's important work. Readers will learn to embrace conflict and handle it constructively, as well as deepen skills for developing personal and team member strengths to enhance performance and sustain success as a health care manager.

This book explores the basic tenets of service excellence, opening to distinguish customer service from service excellence, and explore the driving aspects of strategy and philosophy.The brand promise to customers creates expectations; hooks targeted and segmented customers into a relationship. Service operations deliver expectations, delight, or on occasion, disappointment, and marketing responds to create loyalty, further delight, or recover the relationship.Freshness of product or service offering, the injection of a characterful sense of fun, and sensitive personalization of service combine to deliver an authentic, pleasurable and memorable service experience prompting much sought loyalty and advocacy. In turn, staff are happy, profits rise and the organization has long-term sustainability.The first volume offers some theoretical background, while the second suggests mechanisms, tools, and techniques to help embed to excellence as the foundation of value that the organization delivers. Both contain practical examples and a self-assessment diagnostic tool to identify organizational areas of strength, and aspects to improve.

This book will help you find faults and then solutions to establish a solid foundation for your company and, when required, quickly fix, coordinate recovery, raise finance, and advise you on how you can run a profitable business.Global statistics proclaim that 80 percent of new businesses fail within the first 18 months-shocking and true, but preventable. Many entrepreneurs use the poor excuse of undercapitalization, but recently over $1 trillion was invested in new projects. There are more simple and basic reasons for failure. The Rainmaker is thus called on to assist entrepreneurs to succeed past that financial ruin barrier of 18 months by helping them to properly structure and run a company that meets ultimate best practice solutions and systems-which are realistic and competitively better than peers.This book looks at how The Rainmaker is able to bring sunshine to desperate companies, by finding faults and then matching solutions to establish a solid foundation for your company and, when required, quickly fix, coordinate recovery, raise finance, and advise you on how you can run a profitable business. The Rainmaker is a combination of troubleshooter, advisor, mentor, and financier.

This volume will assist readers in fitting big data analysis into their service-based organizations.Volume I of this two-volume series focuses on the role of big data in service delivery systems. It discusses the definition and orientation to big data, applications of it in service delivery systems, how to obtain results that can affect/enhance service delivery, and how to build an effective big data organization.This volume will assist readers in fitting big data analysis into their service-based organizations. It will also help readers understand how to improve the use of big data to enhance their service-oriented organizations.

This research based book offers insight to the changing perspectives regarding FDI from traditional theory to new theory, from local to global link, and from opportunity to responsibility.Readers will understand the various factors, determinants, and theories that underpin the presence of firms in the global economy. The author illustrates, by way of case studies, specific implications of FDI policy and practice on issues like ecology and environment, technology transfer, labor market, and relevance of further liberalization policies in FDI in the context of Indian economy.The coverage for such an important theme is too vast to cover in a single volume; therefore, this volume restricts its analysis to a select few themes in hopes that this endeavor will trigger an ongoing debate on myriad aspects and concerns of FDI on countries like India.

This book is designed to provide insights into an understanding of the best practices and contemporary approaches to the identification, assessment, selection, and development of future leaders of an organization with a focus on executive and transition coaching as a development tool.A company's leadership pipeline is expected to deliver its next generation of leaders who are capable of leading now. It is evident that conventional leadership development practices are no longer adequate. Organizations need to incorporate the next-generation leadership competencies globally in order to address the development needs of their rising leaders. The current digital transformation that underpins the Fourth Industrial Revolution (also known as Industry 4.0) has ushered in a new business environment that is fast, open, and responsive, resulting in a number of organizational and leadership challenges. How do organizations develop the next generation of leaders to meet these challenges? This book is designed to provide insights into an understanding of the best practices and contemporary approaches to the identification, assessment, selection, and development of future leaders of an organization with a focus on executive and transition coaching as a development tool.

The way we design and work within our organizations is profoundly impacted by digital technologies and complexity. Speed of flow is critical for innovation, production, communication, and delivery. Arguably, silo-based, functional hierarchies are failing to guarantee the necessary speed of flow as well as quality, and involvement of people. Applying techniques is insufficient. What is required is a radical rethink to compete and thrive. Nothing less than a new way of understanding -- an epistemological framework - will do.This book aims to provide such a framework and show how we can break free from silos and silo thinking through a truly systemic approach. It presents an operational solution that allows organizations to effectively adopt digital technologies and reap their benefits. It highlights the new kind of leadership that our increasingly network-based and distributed business world requires to achieve sustainable prosperity.

If you are eager to find out the similarities between sports coach and business manager, and what lessons from the world of sports coaching can be applied to both sports and business management, then this is the book for you.It is commonly believed that, in order to achieve success in coaching, the most important things are to be a good teacher and a pedagogue, and to master in theory and practice technical knowledge about technique, tactics, and conditioning. The aforementioned is no longer sufficient to achieve a successful coach's career, and thus for the successful running of the club.Sports coaches represent a significant source of new values for sports organizations. They are one of the key factors in the business and sports success of sports organizations. Not only the competitive success, but also the business success of sports organization depends on them. In this book you will find out that today, for successful running of the sports organization, the knowledge of communication and marketing skills is as important as the expertise and the sports results of the coach. The bottom line is that better sports coaching delivers better business results.

Department of Startup: Why Every Fortune 500 Should Have One aims to help CEOs, presidents, and human resource practitioners on how they can transform their large corporation to thrive in a fast, social media conscious, and unforgiving market a la startup.The ascent of startups on the Fortune 500 ranking, displacing some of the more notable companies, raised not only attention but also questions. Fundamentally, startups are built on a very different organizational culture as compared to a traditional Fortune 500. Could these cultural differences be the reason startups are in the forefront of technology innovation, disrupting industries dominated by more established competitors and thriving in today's volatile business environment?Department of Startup: Why Every Fortune 500 Should Have One aims to help CEOs, presidents, and human resource practitioners on how they can transform their large corporation to thrive in a fast, social media conscious, and unforgiving market a la startup.

This book is for everybody that wants to learn a little bit more about how cybersecurity is becoming more relevant in the connected world, both present and future.As much as companies have increased their awareness about cybersecurity, not all of them are taking effective measures to protect themselves and their customers. Many "e;smart"e; things or "e;IoT"e; devices get connected every year, allowing the creation of more efficient and even new products and services. However, this also brings new risks, considering also that these type of systems present additional challenges for applying cybersecurity measures. This often leaves many doors open to malicious hackers!This book explains different ways how these systems get exposed to cyber-attacks in a friendly language using real cases as examples. Business professionals and nontechnical readers can bene t from this book by learning that cybersecurity is not an IT problem but an organizational problem. As a leader and decision maker, having an understanding of IoT cyberrisks can help you to improve the preparedness of your organization to prevent and deal with cyberattacks. Overall this book is for everybody that wants to learn a little bit more about how cybersecurity is becoming more relevant in the connected world, both present and future.

Getting to Market with Your MVP: Small Business and Entrepreneur Success is a book to assist college students, new entrepreneurs, and current business owners in their understanding of how to bring a concept, product, or new business to market. The minimum viable product (MVP) is the foundation of the business and the staple for sustainable growth. Many businesses fail due to the inability of establishing a core concept, or primary product to introduce to the market. This book is intended to provide a concise method of developing a business strategy for successful entry into the market while eliminating the frustration of trial and error. Through this work, readers learn the difference between the purpose of a business plan, market analysis, and a feasibility study. Readers will also understand the difference between a good idea and a great business model. This book serves as a tool for increasing the opportunity for success when launching a product, service, or a business.

This book provides practical guidance on the knowledge and skills required for managers whose role involves the management of the relationship with and the performance of strategically important suppliers.Strategic suppliers provide critical products and services to their clients. In a production environment, if the supply chain for critical components breaks down and delivery dates are missed, the production line may stop. If an IT supplier fails to deliver key system development projects on time, the implications for the business can be catastrophic. With the growth of outsourcing, where entire business functions are delegated to a supplier, the dependency on them is further increased; with offshoring there are additional complexities. An organization's ability to manage its strategic supplier base effectively is central to its performance, competitiveness, and future success.This book provides practical guidance on the knowledge and skills required for managers whose role involves the management of the relationship with and the performance of strategically important suppliers. Although the focus is on the management of suppliers during the live relationship, the approach is holistic as the entire supplier management process is discussed in detail using a Supplier Lifecycle model. There are five stages-identify the business requirement, research the supply market, carry out procurement and supplier selection, integrate and transition to the new supplier and their services, and manage the delivery of the products and services for the contracted period.

This book advances diagnosis-prognosis models that mark antecedent frames in various commercial forms of communication-annual reports, investigative fiction-Poirot series, Sci-Fi, and advertisements.The authors thereby develop a study of narrative markets by proposing the narrative of things as the next innovative mega trend in business analytics. A unique feature of the book is the special section dedicated to industry-academic practitioners, who have offered a bird's-eye view in the Review Speak section of every chapter of this book.