New Titles | Business Book Summaries

The Pursuit of Innovation

Author: Freedman, George

Publisher: Amacom

Published Date: 1988

Successful innovation involves establishing goals and the actual implementation of ideas. The goals, which cover either improving existing product lines or establishing new lines or businesses, help shape growth based...

The Supermeds

Author: Jones, Rochelle

Publisher: Charles Scribner's Sons

Published Date: 1988

Categories: Marketing

As one of the largest for-profit health care companies, Humana has used marketing strategies once thought to be reserved for big business. The realization that the health care industry is becoming more of a business...

Trading Places

Author: Prestowitz Jr., Clyde V.

Publisher: Basic Books

Published Date: 1988

Categories: Global Business

Few, if any, American companies can compete in industries the Japanese deem important. Japan's social and industrial structure has made it a very difficult market to penetrate. While America embraces free trade and...

Pioneering New Products

Author: Bobrow, Edwin E. | Shafer, Dennis W.

Publisher: Dow Jones-Irwin

Published Date: 1987

Categories: Innovation, Marketing

All businesses, institutions, governments, and cultures either grow through innovation and change or die without them. Businesses must be flexible in the face of change and able to develop products quickly and...

The Hero's Farewell

Author: Sonnenfeld, Jeffrey

Publisher: Oxford University Press

Published Date: 1988

Categories: Leadership, Management, Social Responsibility

Society has come to recognize the leaders of modern corporations as heroes. As men and women take high corporate offices today, they are expected to play a kind of heroic role in guiding the destiny of their firms....

The Global Marketplace

Author: Rosow, Jerome M.

Publisher: Facts on File Publications

Published Date: 1988

Categories: Global Business, Marketing

Global competition tends to reduce the importance of home markets. There must be a shift, therefore, away from the classical vertical organizational structure to a horizontal relationship where there is interdependence...

The Invisible Work Force

Author: Lozano, Beverly

Publisher: The Free Press

Published Date: 1989

Categories: Entrepreneurship, Human Resources

The woman who sews pockets in her home in Italy, the family that sells groceries from the window of their house in Chile, and the Silicon Valley computer programmer who uses her spare bedroom to write programs for a...

The Service Advantage

Author: Albrecht, Karl | Bradford, Lawrence J.

Publisher: Dow Jones-Irwin

Published Date: 1990

Categories: Customer Focus, Marketing

There are two kinds of useful customer knowledge: (1) general- pertaining to buying patterns and motives, and (2) individual-from one-to-one interactions between employees and customers. Large businesses must usually...

China Inc.

Author: Fishman, Ted C.

Publisher: Charles Scribner's Sons

Published Date: 2005

Categories: Global Business, Management

Propelled by the world's most rapidly changing, super-sized economy, China has begun to influence the daily lives of consumers, workers, citizens, and even parents, worldwide. China Inc. paints a vividly detailed,...

Financial Self-Defense

Author: Givens, Charles J.

Publisher: Simon & Schuster

Published Date: 1990

Categories: Economics & Finance, Leadership

An "arsenal" of 186 Attack and Defense Strategies for combating scams, hidden charges, half-truths, and even lies perpetuated against consumers by the insurance and banking industries; automobile manufacturers, dealers...

The Japan That Can Say No

Author: Ishihara, Shintaro

Publisher: Simon & Schuster

Published Date: 1991

Categories: Global Business

In The Japan That Can Say No, Ishihara outlines what Japan must do in order to be the mainspring of the new world order. Moreover, the author explains why Japan must use their technological lead to...

Managing the Future

Author: Tucker, Robert B.

Publisher: G.P. Putnam's Sons

Published Date: 1991

Categories: Major Works, Management

In Managing for the Future, Tucker details the 10 driving forces of change for the 90s -viewing change as a dynamic and optimistic force. Theory and description flow smoothly in seamless transitions that not only sweep...

The Man Who Discovered Quality

Author: Gabor, Andrea

Publisher: Times Books

Published Date: 1990

Categories: Business Biographies, Major Works, Management

The Man Who Discovered Quality is an in depth introduction to W. Edwards Deming, his work, the various applications, the problems and opportunities, and his philosophy of variation. The author explains...

Powershift

Author: Toffler, Alvin

Publisher: Bantam Books

Published Date: 1990

Categories: Economics & Finance, Global Business, Innovation

Toffler gives a new name (Powershift) to the rapidly unfolding events of the last decades and paints a captivating picture of the future. Powershift completes a monumental trilogy on change in our...

Unlimited Wealth

Author: Pilzer, Paul Zane

Publisher: Crown Publishing

Published Date: 1990

Categories: Economics & Finance, Leadership, Technology

In Unlimited Wealth, Pilzer describes a new theory that challenges the very foundation of conventional economics. He draws sharp contrasts between standard economic theory (based on the scarcity of...

2020 Vision

Author: Davis, Stan | Davidson, Bill

Publisher: Simon & Schuster

Published Date: 1991

Categories: Technology

Informationalization and turbocharging, as presented in 2020 Vision are enlightened competitive approaches which add considerable value to existing management strategies: The simple information form/...

The Breakthrough Illusion

Author: Florida, Richard | Kenney, Martin

Publisher: BasicBooks

Published Date: 1990

Categories: Innovation, Technology

The authors document the emergence of America ’s high-tech innovation and development-the breakthrough economy-and explain how it has failed to effectively generate new products, wealth, and economic growth. Also,...

The Machine That Changed the World

Author: Womack, James P. | Jones, Daniel T. | Roos, Daniel

Publisher: Rawson Associates

Published Date: 1990

Categories: Global Business, Productivity

The Machine That Changed the World is devoted to a careful explanation of the logic and techniques of lean production. By extracting the universal principles of lean production from their initial...

The Big Six

Author: Stevens, Mark

Publisher: Simon & Schuster

Published Date: 1991

Categories: Business Biographies, Economics & Finance, Leadership

An exposé of the behind-the-scenes machinations, scandals, and power plays of The Big Six accounting firms. The subversion of their professionalism as they rose to prominence and success is the...

The Work of Nations

Author: Reich, Robert B.

Publisher: Alfred A. Knopf

Published Date: 1991

Categories: Global Business, Human Resources

In The Work of Nations, the concept of borderless nations draws a sharp distinction between societies and economies. Reich contends that corporations and investors are becoming disconnected from their...

Why This Horse Won't Drink

Author: Matejka, Ken

Publisher: AMACOM

Published Date: 1990

Categories: Human Resources, Management, Productivity

In Why This Horse Won’t Drink, Matejka explicitly states that employee happiness is not the issue, that it is not the manager’s job to make it happen. Management’s function is to set performance at the...

Workforce America!

Author: Loden, Marilyn | Rosener, Judy B.

Publisher: Business One/Irwin

Published Date: 1991

Categories: Diversity, Human Resources, Management, Social Responsibility

In Workforce America, the authors contend that-contrary to what some believe-managing diversity as an asset does not require expertise in cultural differences. The only prerequisite is a framework for analyzing the...

Agents of Influence

Author: Choate, Pat

Publisher: Touchstone

Published Date: 1990

Categories: Leadership

Politics is now an economic strategy along with price, quality, innovation, marketing, and service. Few American companies give attention to this sixth dimension of competition-fewer than 30 percent of the 150 largest...

CEO

Author: Kurtzig, Sandra L. | Parker, Tom

Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company

Published Date: 1994

Categories: Business Biographies, Diversity

Although CEO is a true story, it reads like a novel. Kurtzig and Parker bring her character to life. Kurtzig’s life is full of suspense and that suspense is conveyed throughout. Each chapter title attracts attention-...

Dave's Way

Author: Thomas, R. David

Publisher: G.P. Putnam's Sons

Published Date: 1991

Categories: Business Biographies, Leadership, Management

In approximately 30 years, the fast-food business has grown from nothing to an almost $70 billion industry, giving Thomas the biggest single stake in one of the country’s largest restaurant chains, and making him a...