Benchmarking Water Services
Benchmarking Water Services

Author: Enrique Cabrera Jr

Publisher: IWA Publishing

Published: 2011-03-01

Total Pages: 185

ISBN-13: 1843391988

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Benchmarking has become a key tool in the water industry to promote and achieve performance targets for utilities. The use of this tool for performance improvement through systematic search and adaptation of leading practices, has expanded globally during the past decade. Many ongoing projects worldwide aim to address different needs and objectives, in varying contexts, with outstanding results and impact. Benchmarking Water Services provides valuable information to everyone interested in benchmarking in the water industry. The text is aimed at utilities considering joining a benchmarking project, experienced practitioners in charge of organizing a benchmarking exercise, consultants, regulators and researchers. The document is presented with a clear practice oriented approach and can be used as a how-to-benchmark guide presented from different perspectives (participants, organizers, supervising bodies). Readers will gain practical insight on real life benchmarking practices and will benefit from the experiences gained in some of the leading benchmarking projects of the water industry (including the IWA-WSAA benchmarking efforts, the European Benchmarking Co-operation and the several benchmarking projects carried out in Austria and Central Europe). The manual also presents the new IWA Benchmarking Framework, which aims to harmonize the terms used to describe benchmarking and performance indicators practices in the water industry, guaranteeing a more fluent and efficient communication. This Manual of Best Practice is edited by the IWA Specialist Group on Benchmarking and Performance Assessment, and co-published by AWWA and IWA Publishing. Praise for Benchmarking Water Services: "The continual trend of conceptual to specifics throughout the book provides for an educational experience each time the book is either casually perused or carefully studied." "The authors (Cabrera, Haskins and Fritiz) diligently pursue the focus of improvement." "Benchmarking Water Services is an in depth and practical ‘must have’ guide for any utility currently engaged in or planning to develop a benchmarking process" - Gregory M. Baird (2012) Benchmarking: An International Journal 19:2. More information about the book can be found on the Water Wiki in an article written by the author: http://www.iwawaterwiki.org/xwiki/bin/view/Articles/TheNewIWABenchmarkingFramework A Spanish language version of this book is available as a free eBook: http://www.iwawaterwiki.org/xwiki/bin/view/Articles/eBookTitlesfromIWAPublishingFreetoDownload-Volume2#HBenchmarkingParaServiciosdeAgua

Strategies for Information Technology and Intellectual Capital: Challenges and Opportunities
Strategies for Information Technology and Intellectual Capital: Challenges and Opportunities

Author: Joia, Luiz Antonio

Publisher: IGI Global

Published: 2007-02-28

Total Pages: 276

ISBN-13: 1599040832

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"This book presents efficient ways for executives to understand the impact of IT on the intellectual capital of their firms, and searches for a new mandate for management that takes into consideration the pervasive role of IT on competitive boundaries. It provides a synopsis of the history, origin, taxonomies, ontologies, measurement models, and dynamics of intellectual capital"--Provided by publisher.

Entrepreneurial Universities
Entrepreneurial Universities

Author: Marta Peris-Ortiz

Publisher: Springer

Published: 2016-12-22

Total Pages: 0

ISBN-13: 9783319479484

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This book analyses the importance of the entrepreneurial university, specifically in relation to the creation of entrepreneurial ideas and attitudes in students and entrepreneurial initiatives in academic institutions. The aim of the editors and contributing authors is to provide the reader with a set of experiences illustrating the advantages of communicating and encouraging entrepreneurship among students, thereby highlighting the “third mission” of the university: the need to adopt entrepreneurial strategy without disrupting the quality of teaching and research. Featuring initiatives from institutions around the world, the authors argue that the increasing importance of knowledge in the technical and social dimensions of today’s world provides greater relevance to the entrepreneurial university. In this context, universities transcend their traditional focus on teaching and basic research to carry out technology transfers, marketing ideas, and patent registrations, and incorporate spin-off companies that contribute to industrial innovations, economic growth, and job creation. In the teaching dimension, the entrepreneurial university represents a focus on programs which train students in the applications and most advanced practices in knowledge-driven fields. The book addresses such questions as: Can marketing ideas deteriorate the quality of research in the long term? What importance does the cultural framework have for an entrepreneurial education? What circumstances and programs facilitate spin-offs in universities What are the key features of entrepreneurial universities? In reference to entrepreneurship education in its broadest sense, then, it corresponds to the framework of ideas and general features on which entrepreneurship is founded: in-depth knowledge of the projects or ventures which they wish to carry out, capacity to perceive the relevant characteristics of the environment, and the leadership and goal setting skills to achieve success.

Mobilizing Invisible Assets
Mobilizing Invisible Assets

Author: Hiroyuki ITAMI

Publisher: Harvard University Press

Published: 2009-06-30

Total Pages: 201

ISBN-13: 0674038983

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Successful corporate strategies, says this leading professor of management, depend upon dynamic marshaling of a firm's "invisible assets"--information-based resources such as technological know-how, the visibility of a brand name, or knowledge of a customer base--as well as tangible assets such as people, goods, and money. Hiroyuki Itami emphasizes the ways strategy must fit the firm's external environment (customers, competitors, and ever-changing technology) and also the importance of internal fit within the organization. He uses invisible assets as a single organizing concept to discuss the appropriateness of strategy in each area.Strategy, Itami insists, must be adapted to rapidly changing conditions and must sometimes be prepared in advance of expected change. The most powerful strategy may often intentionally create imbalance in the short run in order to accumulate invisible assets and energize the organization. Itami examines successful strategies of Japanese firms, which have always operated in an environment of uncertainty and all-pervasive change. Sony and Honda are not the only examples, however--Itami also discusses IBM, Volkswagen, and the Swiss watch industry. The range of examples gives the book wide applicability and appeal to American business executives, who are now facing a similar situation of rapid change.The clarity and sound construction of Itami's argument will make it useful not only to MBAs and theorists of international business and comparative management, but also to "real world" planners and managers who are currently coping with just the sort of situations Itami describes.

Tierra Vacante en Ciudades Latinoamericanas
Tierra Vacante en Ciudades Latinoamericanas

Author: Nora Clichevsky

Publisher:

Published: 2002

Total Pages: 0

ISBN-13: 9781558441491

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Vacant urban land--the product of land market activity, the actions of private agents, and the policies of public agents--is an important challenge for policy makers. Vacant lots on the urban fringe and in central and interstitial areas have affected growth patterns in Latin America. Contributors to this book analyze the problems and opportunities related to vacant urban land in five cities: Buenos Aires, Argentina; Rio de Janeiro, Brazil; Quito, Ecuador; Lima, Perú; and San Salvador, El Salvador.

Fresh Tracks in the Forest: Assessing Incipient Payments for Environmental Services Initiatives in Bolivia
Fresh Tracks in the Forest: Assessing Incipient Payments for Environmental Services Initiatives in Bolivia

Author: Nina Robertson

Publisher: CIFOR

Published: 2005-01-01

Total Pages: 152

ISBN-13: 9793361816

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Payments for Environmental Services (PES) are being considered worldwide with great interest and expectation. Proposals to create agreements in which beneficiaries of environmental services pay landowners directly for the provision or protection of these services are innovative and promising. But what real PES experiences are actually out there? This work assesses a range of PES or PES-type experiences in one country, Bolivia, in the fields of carbon sequestration, protection of watershed services, biodiversity and aesthetic landscape values. The report concludes that while none of the generally young initiatives adhere fully to the principle of PES as developed in the theoretical literature, many experiment with some of the relevant PES mechanisms. Protection of watersheds and landscape values are the most common types, though the implementing intermediaries often have underlying biodiversity-protection goals. Main obstacles to PES implementation include ideological resistance against the PES concept, the difficulty of building trust between buyers and sellers, and limited willingness to pay on behalf of service users. During their relatively short lifetime, basically all initiatives had been successful in making service sellers (PES recipients) better off in economic terms, while the effectiveness in achieving environmental objectives and securing positive social impacts so far remained more variable. In some cases, redesigning these initiatives to bring them closer to the full PES principles could also enable them to more effectively achieve positive environmental and livelihood outcomes.

The Pocket Guide to Health Promotion
The Pocket Guide to Health Promotion

Author: Glenn Laverack

Publisher: McGraw-Hill Education (UK)

Published: 2014-07-16

Total Pages: 170

ISBN-13: 0335264735

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The 'Pocket Guide to Health Promotion' is a short, punchy and practical guide aimed at students and practitioners. The book includes precise definitions and examples of key concepts and methods in health promotion practice and a chapter by chapter description of the management planning, strategy selection, implementation and evaluation of health promotion programmes. Written in an accessible and concise style, the book offers the reader a practical and flexible resource that is ideal for students and practitioners looking to plan and implement health promotion activities. A must buy for those new to health promotion or who want a pocket guide to this core health activity. "Clearly written and practical, this excellent guide will prove indispensible to practitioners of health promotion globally, and a very useful starting point for students. It will be worth buying a pocket to put it in!" David Ross, Professor of Epidemiology and International Public Health, London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, UK "The Pocket Guide to Health Promotion is easy to navigate with complex concepts in health promotion explained in a user-friendly way. Whether you are practicing health promotion or studying the discipline, this will be a welcome addition to any book shelf." Dr James Woodall, Co-Director of the Centre for Health Promotion Research & Course Leader MSc Public Health, Leeds Metropolitan University, UK