Absolute Essentials of Operations Management


Book Description

This short textbook consolidates all the key aspects of operations management into a concise and easily accessible reference tool. Comprising the management of creating goods and delivering services to customers, operations management plays an essential role in the success of any organization. This book discusses the main areas of operations management, such as the design of the operations system, including product, process and job design. It also covers the management of operations, including lean operations and supply chain management. Breaking the subject down into its key components, this book provides a core introduction for undergraduate students studying operations management as part of business and management degrees.




Absolute Essentials of Strategic Management


Book Description

Strategy is a foundational aspect of management education, whilst strategic thinking is an essential business skill. This shortform textbook provides the absolute essentials of the field, focusing on how strategy works as a managed process. The author, an experienced management educator, provides a clear and concise structure that enables readers to understand and excel in the core strategic skills that are essential to contemporary business globally. This concise and coherent text is a unique alternative to bloated strategic management textbooks and will be welcomed by students and reflective practitioners around the world.




Absolute Essentials of International Business


Book Description

As challenges to the era of globalisation emerge, international business grows in importance and complexity as a field of study. This shortform textbook introduces learners to the frameworks within which international business occurs and to the range of actions that companies might undertake in these environments. Owing to an emphasis on cross-border interactions, international business is a politicised field, and this book provides readers with the tools to deepen their understanding not only of the actions that companies might take but also of the economic, societal, cultural and political frameworks affecting how decisions are made. With a refreshing realism in its approach, this book will be perfect brief reading for students required to understand the obstacles that global business practitioners must overcome to succeed.




Absolute Essentials of Project Management


Book Description

Contemporary organisations proliferate with projects. Managing projects, working with project managers and delivering project excellence have become fundamental skills in the world of business, resulting in an array of approaches, tools and techniques that can bewilder. This shortform text homes in on the absolute essential elements of the field. With practical insights throughout, the book provides readers with a concise understanding of key concepts, techniques and outcomes such as ownership, execution, success, quality, budgets and risks. Features include essential summaries and expert guides to further reading. Authored by an experienced project and change management practitioner, consultant and educator, this unique resource will be essential reading for students of project management looking to excel in employment.




Absolute Essentials of Business Behavioural Ethics


Book Description

Behavioural ethics in business is an emerging field that has challenged some of the established wisdom about ethics and added some truly new insights into our understanding about decision-making and behaviour. Why do seemingly responsible employees and managers sometimes act in bad ways? This book explains how people behave in real situations and what action can be taken to nudge behaviour in a more ethical direction. This concise textbook is ideal for use in the classroom as core or additional reading on courses in business ethics and corporate social responsibility; organisational behaviour and psychology; and any module with ethics content (for example, accounting ethics and strategic management). Each chapter is presented as a story with details about the experimental designs and related research findings. The key features include learning outcomes, suggested class activities, mock assessment questions, and an annotated list of key readings and these provide a one-stop text for tutors and students interested in this increasingly important area of study.




Absolute Essentials of Creative Thinking and Problem Solving


Book Description

This concise textbook provides a comprehensive and clear overview of the theory and practice of creative problem solving from a management perspective. The book works step by step through the creative thinking process. Beginning with theoretical frameworks, it considers ways of thinking, defining problems and structuring responses to them, techniques for generating ideas, evaluating and defining them, and finally how technology can be used within the creative problem-solving process. Pedagogical features to aid learning include objectives at the start of each chapter, further reading suggestions and practical examples. Divided into ten short chapters to suit content delivery, this textbook is designed as either core or recommended reading for advanced undergraduate, postgraduate, MBA and Executive Education students studying Creativity and Innovation, Management and Leadership and Management Skills.




Absolute Essentials of Marketing Research


Book Description

This short textbook provides students with a concise yet comprehensive overview of the fundamentals of marketing research. Mapped closely to the structure of a typical Marketing Research module, the book takes the student through the full process, from developing the hypothesis and setting the research question, to developing and conducting the research, and finally to analysing the data and making recommendations. Each chapter starts with an essential summary and ends with discussion questions that can be used as a teaching resource. Worksheets are also provided as a supplementary resource, which can be used to build a marketing research plan. Focused on the core aspects of the subject, this is a perfect complement to the larger texts available, suitable for any undergraduate or postgraduate Marketing Research module.




Absolute Essentials of Strategic Marketing


Book Description

Strategic marketing is a complex topic, and this short-form textbook illuminates its fundamental elements to provide a bird’s-eye view of the field for students of marketing strategy. Focused on the marketing of goods and services, the book highlights how incremental changes in the market environment drive changes to marketing strategies. The author, an experienced marketing expert, uses the concept of ‘strategic windows’ to facilitate student understanding, looking at how firms can best anticipate and react to opportunities and threats. Enhanced by text features such as essential summaries, focused references and additional online supplements, this very short introduction enables the reader to zero in on the core priorities for strategic marketers. The result is a volume that is valuable reading for marketing students around the world.




Absolute Essentials of Corporate Governance


Book Description

This shortform textbook, a concise overview of the development and current state of corporate governance, provides a critical narrative on the field. Beginning with insightful historical background, the author shows how value-adding corporate governance involves more than unthinking compliance to a recitation of statutes, regulations and principles, devoid of context. Features include basic definitions, reviews of theoretical governance problems, and a worldwide review of current governance provisions along with more detail on the UK situation. Revealing the geology of governance in the business world, the book highlights its progress set into a framework of regulation and law. This textbook provides a brief, authoritative summary of the field for two core audiences: as a reference for specialist readers, and as an concise introduction for non-specialist readers.




The Absolute Essentials of Entrepreneurship


Book Description

Entrepreneurship is a fundamental business discipline and a phenomenon that drives economic growth globally. This shortform textbook focuses on the absolute essential elements of the field, covering theory and practice. Illuminating the development of entrepreneurship, the author also concise introduces the entrepreneurial personality and some of the additional hurdles faced by female and minority entrepreneurs. The central role of creativity, innovation and culture are also examined as well as entrepreneurial strategies for finance and marketing. This short text provides a unique expert overview for students of entrepreneurship, whilst the practical insights will also be useful in applications for budding entrepreneurs