This book explores the reasons for which weights and scales were used to measure goods in Early Mesopotamia (ca. 3,200-2,000 BCE). The vast corpus of cuneiform records from this period sheds light on the various mechanisms behind the development of this cultural innovation. Weighing became the means of articulating the value of both imported and locally-produced goods within a socioeconomic system that had reached an unprecedented level of complexity. This study provides a comprehensive analysis of this cultural and economic phenomenon, which simultaneously reflected and shaped the relationships between individuals and groups in Mesopotamia throughout the third millennium BCE.
The 1990s bring challenges to American business that will require radical new management strategies. The management revolution gathering momentum across the country puts customer value creation as Priority One. Shows you why customer value creation is vital for business success and teaches you how to transform your organization into a high value delivering enterprise. You'll find all the tools and approaches for value creation that give senior executives and top-level managers a reliable road map for strategic change. And you'll learn these techniques and methods from actual case study examples of industry leaders who are now pioneering the new approaches for becoming increasingly valued by their customers.
The U.S. health care system is in crisis. At stake are the quality of care for millions of Americans and the financial well-being of individuals and employers squeezed by skyrocketing premiums—not to mention the stability of state and federal government budgets. In Redefining Health Care, internationally renowned strategy expert Michael Porter and innovation expert Elizabeth Teisberg reveal the underlying—and largely overlooked—causes of the problem, and provide a powerful prescription for change. The authors argue that competition currently takes place at the wrong level—among health plans, networks, and hospitals—rather than where it matters most, in the diagnosis, treatment, and prevention of specific health conditions. Participants in the system accumulate bargaining power and shift costs in a zero-sum competition, rather than creating value for patients. Based on an exhaustive study of the U.S. health care system, Redefining Health Care lays out a breakthrough framework for redefining the way competition in health care delivery takes place—and unleashing stunning improvements in quality and efficiency. With specific recommendations for hospitals, doctors, health plans, employers, and policy makers, this book shows how to move health care toward positive-sum competition that delivers lasting benefits for all.
“Hampshire's book is aimed at the lay reader and its pages are peppered with practical advice and illustrative case studies” – Irish Times Business leaders are often too busy to familiarise themselves with the benefits and risks of technical undertakings such as new IT plans or changing digital platforms. Yet, if managed effectively, such initiatives can result in huge returns. Creating Value Through Technology provides CEOs, business owners and directors with a clear and accessible guide to the most prominent and profitable technologies that are available, allowing them to confidently implement and sustain new tech strategies. Different elements of the value chain can be supported and enhanced by different technologies – so it's important to understand how investments in tech can drive revenue growth, profitability and the valuation of a business. In this informative yet approachable book, Andrew Hampshire draws upon years of experience and an array of case studies to assess the potentiality and feasibility of different technologies in creating value based on a business's overall strategy. Andrew's book is centred around the basic levers of shareholder value creation: revenue growth, earnings growth and cash generation alongside the multiples used to value businesses. The book applies this framework to existing and burgeoning technologies, exploring where they can be best implemented and sustained to encourage growth. With Creating Value Through Technology, business leaders will discover a newfound confidence in incorporating technological strategies that will revolutionise their business for the digital age.
Establishing the Value of Training helps trainers and managers meet these challenges by providing practical guidance, job aids, and worksheets for calculating training costs and returns. It provides proven strategies for combining traditional return-on-investment methodologies with assessments of other less tangible benefits of training.
Value-based pricing – pricing a product or service according to its value to the customer rather than its cost – is the most effective and profitable pricing strategy. Value First, Then Price is an innovative collection that proposes a quantitative methodology to value pricing and road-tests this methodology through a wide variety of real-life industrial and B2B cases. This book offers a state-of-the art and best practice overview of how leading companies quantify and document value to customers. In doing so, it provides students and researchers with a method by which to draw invaluable data-driven conclusions, and gives sales and marketing managers the theories and best practices they need to quantify the value of their products and services to industrial and B2B purchasers. The 2nd edition of this highly-regarded text has been updated in line with current research and practice, offering three new chapters covering new case studies and best practice examples of quantified value propositions, the future of value quantification, and value quantification for intangibles. With contributions from global industry experts this book combines cutting edge research on value quantification and value quantification capabilities with real-life, practical examples. It is essential reading for postgraduate students in Sales and Marketing with an interest in Pricing Strategy, sales and pricing specialists, as well as business strategists, in both research and practice.
This text examines a variety of important knowledge-related topics, such as the use of informal networks, communities of practice, the impact of knowledge on successful alliances, and social capital and trust.
Creating value is the foundation of all business. It’s what sets you apart from your competition, secures long-term customers, and brings distinct meaning to your brand and your stakeholders. Without creating value for your business, your unique offering will be seen as just another commodity in the eyes of your target market. Creating value is in every business leader’s vocabulary and uppermost in their overall strategy. In fact, creating value is the purpose of a company according to the Business Roundtable and the World Economic Forum. That is another key reason why more people want to understand and utilise value creation for their benefit and the good of their stakeholders. Many companies and leaders seek to create value but do not know how to. As a result, they create and destroy value unconsciously. This book shows you how to create value consciously. To create long-term value, organizations need to put in place the mindset, capabilities, and relationships that enable them to meet the needs of their customers and stakeholders. This book makes value creation understood and used by executives and leaders more effectively. The book describes value creation in its various nuances, how it arises, how it is used, and the width and scope of value creation, from how it impacts a company and how that company can become more successful by creating value for customers and other stakeholders. The author also provides tips for CEOs, managers, HR, and other professionals on how to succeed in value creation as a long-term strategy and in day-to-day work. Numerous examples and case studies illustrate the points being made by the author.
Discover the tools necessary to determine what your company's value is, what drives its value, and how to enhance that value during an M&A transaction. The only book to focus on valuation specifically for mergers and acquisitions, Valuation For M&A: Building Value in Private Companies, Second Edition lays out the steps for measuring and managing value creation in privately held businesses. This groundbreaking work led directly to authors Chris M. Mellen and Franck C. Evans being named the joint 2010 AM&AA Middle Market Thought Leader of the Year by the Alliance of Merger & Acquisition Advisors, and its thorough overview of the subject: Recognizes a company as an investment and explains how to manage that value to maximize shareholder returns, focusing on returns, risks, and capital invested Explains investment or strategic value versus fair market value and provides a document request checklist; sample interview questions; and formats for adjusting financial statements, developing discount rates, the computation of net cash flow; and a valuation reconciliation form Includes a comprehensive case study to illustrate concepts and calculations Now covers fair value accounting and the impact of SFAS Nos. 141, 142, and 157 and their IFRS counterparts, intangible asset valuation techniques, exit planning, international M&As, and venture backed/early stage companies Showing corporate executives as well as M&A professionals and business appraisers how to value privately-held businesses for merger and acquisition purposes, this book helps investors, executives, and their advisors determine the optimum strategy to enhance both market value and strategic value to maximize return on investment.
'Creating Value through Business Strategy' is the new edition of 'Creating Value: Shaping Tomorrow's Business', winner of the MCA price for best management in 1997. This new edition provides constructive guidelines to readers to open their minds to the challenges of creating value. It extends and updates the reasons for the choice of the individual offering as the strategy unit and intensifies and extends the challenges to standard approaches and conventional thinking. Updates to all the material from the first edition are included and new examples have been added throughout.
