Today’s leading authority on the subject of this text is the author, MIT Standish Professor of Management and Director of the System Dynamics Group, John D. Sterman. Sterman’s objective is to explain, in a true textbook format, what system dynamics is, and how it can be successfully applied to solve business and organizational problems. System dynamics is both a currently utilized approach to organizational problem solving at the professional level, and a field of study in business, engineering, and social and physical sciences.
The U.S. economy is highly dynamic: businesses open and close, workers switch jobs and start new enterprises, and innovative technologies redefine the workplace and enhance productivity. With globalization markets have also become more interconnected. Measuring business activity in this rapidly evolving environment increasingly requires tracking complex interactions among firms, establishments, employers, and employees. Understanding Business Dynamics presents strategies for improving the accuracy, timeliness, coverage, and integration of data that are used in constructing aggregate economic statistics, as well as in microlevel analyses of topics ranging from job creation and destruction and firm entry and exit to innovation and productivity. This book offers recommendations that could be enacted by federal statistical agencies to modernize the measurement of business dynamics, particularly the production of information on small and young firms that can have a disproportionately large impact in rapidly expanding economic sectors. It also outlines the need for effective coordination of existing survey and administrative data sources, which is essential to improving the depth and coverage of business data.
Emerging business models, value configurations, and information technologies interact over time to create competitive advantage. Modern information technology has to be studied, understood, and applied along the time dimension of months and years, where changes are the rule. Such changes created by interactions between business elements and resources are very well suited for system dynamics modeling. Business Dynamics in Information Technology presents business-technology alignment processes, business-technology interaction processes, and business-technology decision processes, serving the purpose of helping the reader study information technology from a dynamic, rather than a static, perspective. By introducing two simple tools from system dynamic modeling - causal loops and reference modes - the dynamic perspective will become important to both students and practitioners in the future.
A companion book for implementing Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central. Now updated for the 2019 Wave 2 release.Targeted end-users, super-users and administrators, this book covers many of the challenges you're faced when implementing a cloud-based ERP system. From setting up the system and creating the first company, to user customizations and integration. Business Central used to be Dynamics NAV and before that Navision. NAV has always been a partner-driven application. Customers buy the software at a partner, and the partner helps with implementation. A great model that has worked for over a million users across the globe.Now Business Central is a cloud offering; there's no longer an installation. You no longer need an IT guy to install it and then a consultant to help you set it up. You can do that yourself. Most customers still chose to get the consultant help to make sure you're doing it right and to ensure a great start.This book is written to help customers who venture into Business Central, with or without external help. Written to help understand the system and ensure a great experience starting with Business Central. The book is not written to be read from cover to cover. Instead, it's meant to be a Field Guide. A companion book to help you through the implementation. And later, when you need information on a specific topic or if you need a bit of inspiration. The documentation from Microsoft is pretty good, and I'll provide links for deep dive and background information.Business Central covers a vast area of functionality, and the book includes the areas and issues I encounter in my daily work with Business Central customers. I'll add new chapters and details based on my experience and reader feedback.I'm using an English language layer on my Business Central throughout this book. If your Business Central is not in English, switch temporarily to English in My Settings to more comfortable being able to follow the instructions.If you cannot find the answer you need in the book, feel free to contact me. I'm always open to suggestions for the next topic.
Kim Warren presents a complete framework in the field of Strategic Management. The book combines theory with clearly illustrated examples to examine the concept of financial performance and the tools that can be used to improve it.
The company isn't booming, the customers are drifting away, innovation is at a standstill – What's wrong? A rational analysis can provide you with pieces of the problem, but never the whole picture. Systemic constellations give you the missing link. Success with this method in companies such as Daimler-Chrysler, IBM, and BMW has contributed to a booming interest in Europe. When the systemic structure of a team, company or market becomes clear, it is obvious what has to happen next. Individuals who are not involved in the problem situation are used to represent people or parts of the company and a trained consultant uses feedback from the representatives to reveal hidden dynamics and point to solutions. Anyone in a position of responsibility in industry or government, or an organisation in health education or welfare can profit from this book. It is easy to read and practical, with case examples and short summaries for quick scanning. "A totally obscure situation suddenly became as clear as day. How come we couldn't see the obvious before?! For all of our company leaders it was a total revelation." O. Wassermann, CEO of Wassermann AG/Swisslog, Munich, Germany
The emergence of specialized markets has profoundly improved the means of market access, enriched the driving forces of value chains, and changed the business environment for small firms in the developing world. This ground-breaking book summarizes the experience of specialized markets in a systematic manner. Specialized markets are a unique product of China's economic transition. They are marketplaces located in industrial clusters, specializing in the wholesale of local commodities and related goods. Ding Ke reveals that, despite their seemingly primitive form, specialized markets appeared in many of the modern industrial sectors and were paradoxically upgraded and expanded as these clusters developed. He argues that specialized markets have also formed solid linkages with marketplaces in various cities in China and in other developing economies. A powerful, emerging market-oriented distribution system has thus appeared. Based on thorough fieldwork covering ten years, and using the novel theory of the platform, this book clarifies the unique development logic of specialized markets. Specialized markets have thoroughly changed the business environment for SMEs in developing countries and greatly enriched the general understanding concerning SME development. This book will prove invaluable for SME, Chinese economy and platform researchers. Management scientists and managers in multinational firms focusing on bottom-of-the-pyramid markets will also find plenty of interesting information in this enlightening compendium.
The Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) has enormous economic potential thanks to its rich mineral deposits and vast tracts of arable land. Historically, these resources have been exploited by predatory leaders and a host of subregional actors. The time is now ripe for DRC to put years of war and economic underdevelopment behind it. The business community has an important part to play in promoting sustainable peace in the DRC. Business communities in Bukavu and Lubumbashi have managed to remain profitable in very trying years following the signing of the 1999 Lusaka peace accord by showing great resilience and versatility, primarily outside formal channels. Congolese businesses face serious obstacles, including poor infrastructure, high taxes, extortion, and market distortions. However, respondents expressed relatively little concern about insecurity and violence, suggesting that these costs have been internalized or that other obstacles impose much greater costs. DRC businesses neither want nor expect handouts. Respondents would prefer assistance in removing barriers to trade, improving infrastructure, and reducing corruption. Respondents are broadly optimistic about the future and their economic prospects, and have a strong sense of being stakeholders in shaping society. This bodes well for the future of the DRC, provided public policy can harness this energy and not impede it.
Insightful modelling of dynamic systems for better business strategy The business environment is constantly changing and organisations need the ability to rehearse alternative futures. By mimicking the interlocking operations of firms and industries, modelling serves as a ‘dry run’ for testing ideas, anticipating consequences, avoiding strategic pitfalls and improving future performance. Strategic Modelling and Business Dynamics is an essential guide to credible models; helping you to understand modelling as a creative process for distilling and communicating those factors that drive business success and sustainability. Written by an internationally regarded authority, the book covers all stages of model building, from conceptual to analytical. The book demonstrates a range of in-depth practical examples that vividly illustrate important or puzzling dynamics in firm operations, strategy, public policy, and everyday life. This updated new edition also offers a rich Learners' website with models, articles and videos, as well as a separate Instructors' website resource, with lecture slides and other course materials (see Related Websites/Extra section below). Together the book and websites deliver a powerful package of blended learning materials that: Introduce the system dynamics approach of modelling strategic problems in business and society Include industry examples and public sector applications with interactive simulators and contemporary visual modelling software Provide the latest state-of-the-art thinking, concepts and techniques for systems modelling The comprehensive Learners' website features models, microworlds, journal articles and videos. Easy-to-use simulators enable readers to experience dynamic complexity in business and society. Like would-be CEOs, readers can re-design operations and then re-simulate in the quest for well-coordinated strategy and better performance. The simulators include a baffling hotel shower, a start-up low-cost airline, an international radio broadcaster, a diversifying tyre maker, commercial fisheries and the global oil industry. "Much more than an introduction, John Morecroft’s Strategic Modelling and Business Dynamics uses interactive ‘mini-simulators and microworlds’ to create an engaging and effective learning environment in which readers, whatever their background, can develop their intuition about complex dynamic systems." John Sterman, Jay W. Forrester Professor of Management, MIT Sloan School of Management "Illustrated by examples from everyday life, business and policy, John Morecroft expertly demonstrates how systems thinking aided by system dynamics can improve our understanding of the world around us." Stewart Robinson, Associate Dean Research, President of the Operational Research Society, Professor of Management Science, School of Business and Economics, Loughborough University
The book explains strategic issues, trends, challenges, and future scenario of global economy in the light of Fourth Industrial Revolution. It consists of insightful scientific essays authored by scholars and practitioners from business, technology, and economics area. The book contributes to business education by means of research, critical and theoretical reviews of issues in Fourth Industrial Revolution.
