Books published by Business Expert Press

This book takes the position that organizations, such as businesses and government agencies, form a special class of living system. As such, they come into being, live through lifecycle stages, and can experience organizational health and various forms of organizational illness along the way. If the latter is frequent or extended, such organizations often die an untimely death. A services perspective can go a long way to combat this outcome and assist in maintaining organizational health. Allowing this perspective to permeate, an organization induces a consideration of its genuine value and leads to a greater understanding of the breadth of stakeholders who are the beneficiaries of it.

This workbook coaches business leaders to magnify the profits of a business. They learn a unique scientific system for predicting and achieving results. Their systematic decisions will spark the profits of any business. This system comprises all strategic decisions in the marketing plan for a business. The first part uses the SWOT Analysis to assess its strengths and weaknesses and identify possible opportunities and threats. The SWOT Analysis clarifies the mission, target market, specialty, and suppliers of the business. The questions at the end of these four chapters guide business leaders to focus on quality, describe key customers, compete on strength, and delegate weaknesses. The next part positions the business relative to its competitors with marketing mix decisions. Business leaders specify its products and services, and how to distribute, promote, and price them. These four chapters close with questions that lead the business to offer treasures, deliver delight, trumpet empathy, and price as valued. The final part motivates them to implement their decisions. The closAing questions motivate business leaders to target key prospects, reward the best, concentrate resources, and jump into action. These twelve decisions transform a marketing plan and build the business. Her unique scientific system coaches business leaders to use the 80/20 rule to magnify their profits.

Toothpaste . . . disposable razors . . . security systems . . . farm equipment. Those products have one thing in comAmon. Their marketing messages emphasize technical features to drive sales. This book not only explains how technical product marketing is unique, but also how to write and design promotional materials using: The Obenefit of the benefitO to tell a marketing story; 3 OAsO every headline must achieve; 5 call-to-action options; Focal and emotional integration; Grids to design effective layouts; Icons, indexes, and symbols for images; And much more! After reading this book, you'll be prepared for every asApect of technical marketing-whether you want to oversee marketing creatives or earn extra money as a freelancer.

In this book the authors explore the influence of gender on organizational performance in the health care sector. They argue that gender diversity of boards improves health care organizational performance when compared to homogeneous boards. The theoretical framework used was developed from conducting literature reviews of scholarly academic journal articles on gender, boards, and organizational performance as well as performing an in depth study of the performance of health care organizations in Ontario, Canada. Research results suggest that effective boards and their composition were dependent on their female to male ratio to realize administrative efficiencies. Publicly funded, nonprofit, 126 acute care hospitals located in Ontario, Canada, were chosen as the health care sector for this research. Limitations of this study are in the complexity of the health care industry, competing internal and external priorities, and funding constraints. Nevertheless, this book is original work and relevant for use by boards to examine the complementary mix of gender as a predictor of organizational performance.

While there has been an explosion of texts as well as journals, Websites, and organizations, there is a surprising dearth of hands-on interactive materials that is common in business disciplines. There is a market and educational opportunity to develop exercises and short cases specifically for social entrepreneurship.

In many FMCG companies, the challenges for the sales function are to develop effective sales strategies and to deliver excellent sales operations in order to support the achievement of business targets. The purpose of this book is to provide a practical guide to sales management through the analysis of its key components: route to market, sales strategy, key performance indicators, organizational models, sales force management, customer business planning, order to cash, and sales and operations planning. For each of these topics, the content of this book is a balance of theory, practical tips, and useful tools, keeping in mind not only the "e;what,"e; but also the "e;how"e; of the implementation. The reader will learn how to map sales channels, assess a customer base, design a sales strategy, build a sales scorecard, and organize a sales team's frontline and back ofi ce. The book also covers how to structure trade category plans, customer business plans, and customer negotiation plans and how to optimize the sales team's contribution to the company's key fundamental processes. It concludes with an overview of the future challenges of sales management.

Any company that does business with consumers will find itself in bankruptcy court at some time during the life of the company. If you are the owner or manager of a business, you know the reality and need to understand how a customer's bankruptcy case will impact your business. Consumer bankruptcy filings have increased dramatically in the last 10 years. Businesses need to understand the bankruptcy process from the position of a creditor facing a consumer debtor. This book will provide an overview of the most common forms of consumer bankruptcy, including a timeline of events, and the creditor's interaction with the various parties along the way. We will also go through the forms every creditor will see in a bankruptcy case, and break them down so a business owner can understand what they're reading. We provide guide points for discussion with the business's attorney. Also see strategic tips and points for maximizing returns through best business practices. Several different industries are covered, including consumer lenders, vendors, community associations, and landlords.

The Arabian Gulf comprises some of the most thriving economies of the world. Since the discovery of oil, the openness to commercial activity has attracted many MNCs and this has led to a proliferation of activity in both the industrial and service sectors. The region also boasts one of the largest contemporary expatriate communities, resulting in a dynamic and multicultural managerial environment. The complexity of this workforce and its inherent diversity, made up of more than two hundred different national cultures, present managers with a considerable communication challenge. This volume provides an accessible introduction to managerial communication in the region targeted at practitioners, managers, and students. It provides extensive practical advice as well as insights from current academic thinking.

Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) have to approach open innovation differently than large companies. This practical guide on open innovation is expressly for entrepreneurs and managers in SMEs. The authors provide strategies, techniques, and Otricks of the tradeO enabling SMEs to practice open innovation systems profitability and enhance the long-term value of their company. Included are tools such as brokers, auctions, crowdsourcing, technology transfer, and spin-ups, making it useful for people already in business, starting businesses, or seeking supplemental material for courses.

Executive leaders need a framework with which to evaluate current and create new corporate ethical management systems. This book offers such a framework, the Moldable Model - a system of consistent components that give leaders a framework and a guide to build an organization-specific corporate ethical management system.

The virtual work world is upon us. It is ever increasing as both workers and organizations become more familiar with this new structure. The way leaders and managers deal with the virtual worker will become increasingly more important. This book takes a look at the virtual work environment from a view of human perceptions. Trust, isolation, and presence are the three main human perceptions discussed throughout the book and are the foundation for the theory presented. The Change-Self-Efficacy Loop Theory provides the basis for a new tool to maximize the productivity level of the virtual worker. The book takes a journey from the industrial revolution through a second shift or technology revolution which we are currently experiencing known as the virtual work environment. It presents argument and ideas to encourage all of us to take action now to prevent the potential negative outcomes that could affect many working in the virtual work environment. The book is designed for anyone associated with the virtual work environment. Based on the premise that the virtual work environment needs to be a productive alternative to the traditional work environment, the book focuses on variables that can create the most successful outcome.

The Good Company tells the stories of over 30 inspiring companies around the world that are among the ethical leaders in the industry. The broad positive message is encouraging and enervating; each of the companies seeks to live up to the highest standard. The authors tell the steps they have taken and what has motivated them or enabled them to pursue such noble aims. "e;At last, a book that tackles the topic of sustainability in the global travel industry, but with a real understanding of its economic importance as a better alternative - a must read."e;--Michael MCloskey, Former Chairman, The Sierra Club This much-needed work is essentially a cookbook, filled with inspiring recipes for sustainable travel. This will be a valuable resource - for everyone from students to industry leaders - for many years to come."e;--Jeff Greenwald, Executive DIrector, Ethical Traveler

Inspired by the WBCSD Vision 2050 in which "e;all people live well within the limits of the planet"e;, this book asks how do we achieve this bold ambition? Telling a story of personal growth and corporate transformation, it provides insights and tools for anyone driving sustainable development within their organizations and in their own lives. Discover how you can consciously use your professional role as a source of change. Learn how the consistent use of few, yet meaningful visuals, enables generative dialogue and communication for aligned problem solving within multi-disciplinary and multi-stakeholder teams. See how personal mastery can guide you in identifying the contribution you can make, both towards wider goals and your individual well-being. On this journey, "e;meaning-making"e; is essential. In organizations, co-creation of a shared language and an understanding of disruptive innovation are fundamental to successful transformation. In exploring these topics, the book builds on a set of core concepts: Rogers' innovation diffusion curve, the triple bottom line (people, profit, planet) expanded with a fourth "e;P"e; (the individual), and the WWF "e;ice-breaker"e; graph which maps the environmental footprint against the human development index.

Projects generally require skills and effort from multiple disciplines to develop project deliverables. Projects are executed in teams, as project tasks require multiple skills, judgment, and experience. Project teams roles should be assigned based on strengths of individuals. Project team process is a mediating mechanism linking variables such as members, team, and organizational characteristics that include structure, culture, supporting systems, performance and incentive systems, employee morality, and top management support. Team performance or teamwork is impacted by the structure of a team. Team structural characteristics include the number of team members, the status hierarchy, roles and responsibilities, and accepted norms for behaviors of individuals within the team. Further, understanding characteristics of virtual teams and their key attributes for improving global project performance are of critical importance. Social and behavioral skills that each person brings are important influencing factors in interactions with other team members and in forming a cohesive and productive team. Also, organization and national cultures influence their behaviors. Project Teams is an attempt to address all these topics in detail and offer a practical approach to managing projects successfully in the current business environment by including concepts, processes, techniques, and tools to manage and enhance performance of project teams and projects. This book would be meaningful for project management professionals and project managers in any organization and can be a useful resource for academic institutions in teaching management and project management disciplines.

This book represents a practical guide to ethical decision-making tailored specifically to the needs of those who practice and study public relations. It traces the development of ethical theory from ancient Greece through the works of Socrates, Plato, and Aristotle to modern day public relations executives including Harold Burson, Robert Dilenschneider, and Richard Edelman. The book helps readers build personal frameworks for ethical reasoning that will enable them not only to recognize the ethical issues at play in public relations practice but also to analyze the conflicting duties and loyalties in these situations. This volume fills a gap in the currently available books on the subject, most of which either lack theoretical grounding or practical application. Illustrative cases used in this book span a wide range of public relations functions. To update readers on issues discussed in this book, the authors have started an online conversation. Please join the discussion at http://Updates.PRethics.com.

Get an inside look at how companies with cutting-edge sustainability programs are innovating in the face of extreme conditions related to climate change. Adapting to Change profiles the current efforts of Citi, Sprint, ConAgra, Stonyfield Farm, The Hartford, and IBM to improve climate resilience, with a focus on five themes: responding to weather; learning from disaster; doing more with less; taking a risk-and managing it; and communicating change, collaborating on climate. In these pages, readers will discover strategies that encourage resilience and mitigate risk across vastly different sectors, both internally-with managers and employees-and externally-through supply chains, in communities, among investors-with valuable insight for business professionals in all categories. Adapting to Change stresses pragmatic answers to real problems that companies encounter every day. It focuses on the challenges climate presents to the firms profiled and how each company-with the help of employees and other stakeholders-faces them head on. One in a collection of books curated by world-renowned business ethics expert Mary Gentile, this book illustrates how today's sustainability leaders are using business acumen to find solutions-while cutting costs and creating new business opportunities-in a rapidly changing environment.

Russia is a major economy and important power in the global political-economic landscape. Following the dissolution of the USSR, Russia has become a premier global marketplace despite remaining enigmatic and challenging. The book serves as a concise guide in understanding Russia from an international business perspective. It explores strategic issues, drivers, constraints, costs, and risks of international expansion and includes analytical tools, practical applications, sources of information, and assistance in international business research. These are supplemented by analysis of Russia's macro-economic profile, drivers, strategic strengths and weaknesses in the comparative context, including its international market attractiveness and opportunities for U.S. companies. The book examines Russia's main industries, their profiles, trends and business attractiveness, trends, and marketing strategies. The discussion of Russia's regions covers regional subdivisions and economic profiles with the focus on Moscow, the leading economic region. The book also covers the drivers and trends of the Russian small business sector and entrepreneurial business venturing. Despite the onslaught of capitalism, Russia retains its relationship-driven culture. The book provides insights by evaluating the determinants of Russian culture, its national profile in major global cross-cultural studies, and practical cultural applications in business, negotiations, and communications. The book's pedagogy includes skill development exercises and cases on doing business in Russia.

All marketing actions, whether preceded by formal or informal decision-making processes, are based on what philosophers call "e;arguments."e; An argument is a set of related statements comprising premises and a conclusion. Ideally, premises give an audience good reasons for accepting your argument's conclusion. In marketing, these "e;conclusions"e; are normative decisions about what an organization should do, for example, raise prices by five percent, add a new sales territory or, perhaps, change the marketing communications mix to invest more in digital and less in print. The premises are the rationale behind why the organization should take such actions. Critical Thinking for Marketers: Learn How to Think, Not What to Think provides information and guidelines on not only how to develop good arguments, but also what it means to develop a good argument. For example, the book describes two basic kinds of arguments-deductive and inductive-and how to examine whether such arguments are "e;good"e; or not. To do this, the book explains 60 logical fallacies-or errors in reasoning-that marketers should avoid. Additionally, the authors' several "e;Think Better"e; discussions examine how fields such as philosophy, behavioral economics, and marketing theory have informed the principles of critical thinking in marketing.

Traditional marketing faces challenges as never before. The way that people interact with each other and with companies is changing completely in todayOs era of 24/7 connectivity. This book explores tectonic changes in buyer behavior and how businesses are responding to those changes. It describes how data is used to track and analyze customers in almost everything they do, and how marketing communications are delivered with precision to individual mobile devices. The connected customer is blurring the line between online and offline sales resulting in an entirely new purchase cycle.

Updated to integrate the management of associated information processes, expand some application discussions, and provide additional reference material, the intent of this book is to help business professionals use waiting line (queuing) analysis methods to improve both service and manufacturing business applications of queuing situations.

This two-volume concise treatise on the history of economic thought is accessibly written for readers interested in business, law, and public policy

Lean is a comprehensive, integral system consisting of four interdependent elements: leadership, culture, team, and practices and tools. This book examines these elements following a systematic, hierarchical orientation and explains their relevance for guiding lean initiatives. It begins with the identification and establishment of strategic goals, followed with strategy development, and lastly tactical choices. This model framework is cognizant of a firm's relative internal strengths and weaknesses as well as external opportunities and threats. Each of the four integral lean system elements is explored in depth. The model framework offers a path to develop lean leaders with practical, actionable ideas suited for applications in all industries. Throughout the book, the evolution of the current body of lean knowledge is examined as well as lean's complementary initiative, total quality management. A perspective which views lean as a customer-driven philosophy for organization-wide continuous improvement and waste elimination is maintained throughout the book. This second edition builds upon the first edition with additional lean content focused on technology, supply chain management, flexibility and agility constructs, and accounting.

A fearsome aspect of management is the performance appraisal. It has become a byword for unfairness and irritation among employees. Some management writers are even proposing in doing away with it. We agree that the current method of appraisal is unsustainable and counterproductive. In this book, we discuss Performance LeadershipTM - the idea of leading employee performance, which should be the focus of management. Just doing appraisal or evaluation is not enough. Managers must incorporate the entire model of performance management and use it to lead within their workgroup, department, or organization. We walk managers through the steps of Performance Leadership, discussing the benefits and pitfalls of each step. The idea of making performance management work as a leadership style is new and simple, but it takes dedication to complete the task. This book is valuable for supervisors, managers, human resource staff, and others - anyone who needs to manage performance!

War Stories: Fighting, Competing, Imagining, Leading advances a leadership model for business that takes Americans beyond combat and competition as the default setting for our daily enterprise. The book draws on feature and documentary films, TV, social science, and journalism to show that, in the 21st century, the United States is reaping the fruit of a long-standing and deep-rooted faith in one take on business practice. Rooted in the history of World War II and the Vietnam era, War Stories traces an arc of military American self-perception on the screen, the printed page, and in public conversation over the past 20 years. It juxtaposes to that arc a different, potentially more liberating and productive story, linking personal and professional commitments to organizational culture and, finally, systems thinking. Ethical, sustainable business practice depends on leaders who can tell that story of business in society, integrating public, private, and civil sector imperatives for an audience eager to engage them.

Despite annual predictions of its demise, email marketing remains one of the most important tools for businesses and other organizations. The reason is simple. Other communication tools, including social and digital media channels, cannot duplicate or recreate the unique capabilities of email marketing. This book is for those who wish to learn more about how email marketing works, whether as students, teachers, or practitioners. The authors recap the history of email and email marketing and explain how it informs email today. They cover the fundamentals of email marketing, including types of emails, the elements of an email, email metrics, best practices for email for improving performance, list development, and the benefits of segmenting an email list. Also addressed are special topics in email strategy, including the psychology of email recipients, AB testing for optimizing email elements, integrating email with social media, and aligning email with big data sources.

In today's online world, our professional image depends on our ability to communicate. Whether we're communicating by email, text, social media, written reports or presentations, how we use our words often determines how others view us. This book offers tips and techniques that can improve anyone's professional image. The author covers how to analyze multiple audiences and strategies for communicating your message effectively for each; structuring your message for greatest readability and effect; persuasion and tone; and how to face your own fears of writing. The content is delivered in a simple, clear style that reflects the Zen approach of the title, perfect for both the entry-level employee and the seasoned executive.

This book focuses on building and maintaining brand community in the emerging, dynamic space of social media. A theoretical model encompassing brand characteristics, relational factors, and characteristics of the brand user community is used as a structure to explain the various aspects of online brand communities. Furthermore, the authors discuss how online brand communities differ from and can be used to complement traditional, face-to-face brand communities. Brand managers, social media managers, and other members of the brand team will find this book useful for strategic decision-making in both building and maintaining brand communities. In addition, this book will serve as a practical guide for working professionals enrolled in executive education degree programs as these programs continue to be developed in universities throughout the world.

The goal of this book is to help HR decision makers recognize where to capture value from HR technology, learn how to demonstrate that value, and make better implementation decisions. The authors include topics such as how HR technology can deliver strategic value; whether to outsource HR processes, HR technology, and project management; training and change management; measuring value through ROI analyses and HR Analytics; and, how to evaluate and manage future HR innovations. Our approach is to introduce theoretical frameworks from management science to guide decision making about HR technology. These theoretical approaches provide a scientific basis and structure to analyze business challenges and improve decision making compared with using intuition alone or relying on vendor best practices. The theories and frameworks come from strategic management, economics, accounting, finance, organizational behavior, and information systems. This breadth helps managers understand the many ways HR technology decisions can increase value.