Abstract: This book presents practical information on the conduct of American business and management. The author concentrates on innovation, entrepreneurship, and the development of participative management skills that encourage the use of new ideas arising from within the corporation itself. The organizational structures, corporate cultures, and specifics strategies of several major AMerican companies are examined.
Why do so many small business owners pay for expensive advice, agree to take action ... and then never follow through? ChangeMasters exposes the true reasons for this inaction and reveals how any business owner can do better. Many small business owners know what they need to change the way they do things inside their company to be successful. But when it comes time to making that change, most hesitate or fail to take the necessary action. Why do most people consistently fail to make changes that they know would make a significant difference at their companies? Based on original research and over twenty years of working with small business owners, this book shows the key steps to breaking this harmful pattern and becoming the "ChangeMaster" that your business so desperately needs to be successful in the future. Over the past 20 years of working with thousands of small business owners, expert Barry Moltz has just about seen it all. Typically, his client's company is stuck with a problem such as stagnant business growth or shrinking revenue. The story is always the same. Moltz is hired, the situation is analyzed, a strategy is agreed upon. And then almost nothing happens. This book is inspired by this all-too common scenario. Most small business owners can implement a few easy steps, but what does it take to make the critical or difficult ones that could make a difference? This book was written to answer that question. Where is the gap between the sincere intent to make these changes and the actions to start to do it? What holds most people back and keeps them stuck on the same path over and over again? Why are they still so comfortable in not making those changes and staying on the path that clearly does not work for them and is adding to their happiness or feeling of success? What steps do they need to take to slowly break free and start to make those changes today that can help them in the long run? In ChangeMasters, Barry Moltz will reveal much of the psychological research around why change is so hard for so many people and the real life strategies that every small business owner can employ to make the changes they need in their company.
The context and environment of public services is becoming increasingly complex and the management of change and innovation is now a core task for the successful public manager. This text aims to provide its readers with the skills necessary to understand, manage and sustain change and innovation in public service organizations. Key features include: the use of figures, tables and boxes to highlight ideas and concepts of central importance a dedicated case study to serve as a focus for discussion and learning, and to marry theory with practice clear learning objectives for each chapter with suggestions for further reading. Providing future and current public managers with the understanding and skills required to manage change and innovation, this groundbreaking text is essential reading for all those studying public management, public administration and public policy.
A “riveting and thoroughly researched” history of language technology’s effect on society across millennia—from Sumerian syntax to social media hashtags (Phil Lapsley). Writing was born thousands of years ago in Mesopotamia. Spreading to Sumer, and then Egypt, this revolutionary tool allowed rulers to extend their control far and wide, giving rise to the world’s first empires. When Phoenician traders took their alphabet to Greece, literacy’s first boom led to the birth of drama and democracy. In Rome, it helped spell the downfall of the Republic. Later, medieval scriptoria and vernacular bibles gave rise to religious dissent, and with the combination of cheaper paper and Gutenberg’s printing press, the fuse of Reformation was lit. The Industrial Revolution brought the telegraph and the steam driven printing press, allowing information to move faster and wider than ever before through the invention of the newspaper. But along with radio and television, these new technologies were more easily exploited by the powerful, as seen in Germany, the Soviet Union, even Rwanda, where radio incited genocide. With the rise of carbon duplicates (Russian samizdat), photocopying (the Pentagon Papers), the internet, social media, and cell phones (the recent Arab Spring) more people have access to communications, making the world more connected than ever before. This “accessible, quite enjoyable, and highly informative read” will change the way you look at technology, history, and power (Booklist). “[Bernstein] enables us to see what remains the same, even as much has changed.” —Library Journal, “Editors’ Picks” “It brims with interesting ideas and astonishing connections.” —Phil Lapsley, author of Exploding the Phone: The Untold Story of the Teenagers and Outlaws Who Hacked Ma Bell “[Bernstein’s] narrative is succinct and extremely well sourced. . . . [He] reminds us of a number of technologies whose changed roles are less widely chronicled in conventional histories of the media.” —The Irish Times
The terror campaign by pro-Indonesian armed groups before, during, and after East Timor's independence referendum in 1999 was a blatant challenge to the international community as many of the acts of murder, political intimidation, destruction, and mass deportation took place before the eyes of the world. Yet still the ultimate responsibility has been denied and obscured. Masters of Terror provides an authoritative analysis and documentation of the brutal operations carried out by the Indonesian army and its East Timorese allies. The authors carefully assemble detailed accounts of the actions of the major Indonesian officers and East Timorese militia commanders accused of gross human rights violations. This indispensable work explores a horrific frontal attack on democracy and calls for the establishment of an international tribunal for crimes against humanity in East Timor.
Text Structures from the Masters provides 50 short texts written by famous Americans driven by what Peter Elbow described as “an itch” to say something. By examining the structure of these mentor texts, students see that they too have an “itch” and learn how to use the text structure of each document to express it. Each 4-page lesson includes: A planning sheet that shows the structure of the mentor text Brainstorming boxes A method for “kernelizing” (outlining) their own essay Student examples
Masters of Doom is the amazing true story of the Lennon and McCartney of video games: John Carmack and John Romero. Together, they ruled big business. They transformed popular culture. And they provoked a national controversy. More than anything, they lived a unique and rollicking American Dream, escaping the broken homes of their youth to co-create the most notoriously successful game franchises in history—Doom and Quake—until the games they made tore them apart. Americans spend more money on video games than on movie tickets. Masters of Doom is the first book to chronicle this industry’s greatest story, written by one of the medium’s leading observers. David Kushner takes readers inside the rags-to-riches adventure of two rebellious entrepreneurs who came of age to shape a generation. The vivid portrait reveals why their games are so violent and why their immersion in their brilliantly designed fantasy worlds offered them solace. And it shows how they channeled their fury and imagination into products that are a formative influence on our culture, from MTV to the Internet to Columbine. This is a story of friendship and betrayal, commerce and artistry—a powerful and compassionate account of what it’s like to be young, driven, and wildly creative. “To my taste, the greatest American myth of cosmogenesis features the maladjusted, antisocial, genius teenage boy who, in the insular laboratory of his own bedroom, invents the universe from scratch. Masters of Doom is a particularly inspired rendition. Dave Kushner chronicles the saga of video game virtuosi Carmack and Romero with terrific brio. This is a page-turning, mythopoeic cyber-soap opera about two glamorous geek geniuses—and it should be read while scarfing down pepperoni pizza and swilling Diet Coke, with Queens of the Stone Age cranked up all the way.”—Mark Leyner, author of I Smell Esther Williams
Transform your organization! To truly transform your organization, you must learn to transform your own mindset. Beyond Change Management-the only book specifically about the interaction of leadership style, mindset, and the change process-revolutionizes leaders' approach to transformational change. Shattering the myth that transformation can be managed, this book-part of the Practicing OD Series--offers you new directions and ways of thinking and behaving that are essential for successful change. Its unique approach brings organization development (OD) into the mainstream of leaders' approaches to change, expanding and integrating the fields of OD, leadership, change management, and consciousness. You'll also get: ready-to-use worksheets questionnaires guidelines "Powerful business solutions to the current chaos facing many organizations today. Dean Anderson and Linda Ackerman Anderson get to the heart of change, the human touch, by using timeless techniques and tools." --Ken Blanchard, coauthor, The One Minute Manager and Gung Ho! "The authors combine their keen observations, sharp insights, and open hearts to produce towering works that will stand as lasting contributions to leadership and organization development. . . .[t]hey guide us along a path of personal discovery so that we may have the strength of spirit to risk the creation of more meaningful organizations." --Jim Kouzes, coauthor, The Leadership Challenge and Encouraging the Hear
