Business As a System of Power


Book Description

This is a new release of the original 1943 edition.




Wrench in the System


Book Description

WRENCH IN THE SYSTEM Why business software doesn't work—and how to fix it Every year, businesses waste billions of dollars on information technology that doesn't communicate clearly with the people who use it. This fundamental flaw causes errors and delays, lowers profits, and can even endanger lives. In this groundbreaking book, technology designer Harold Hambrose shows executives and managers how to turn underperforming digital assets into powerhouse systems—how to specify small changes that dramatically boost productivity, how to reduce training costs, and how to ask vendors the right questions. Wrench in the System reveals: Why so many of our essential software systems are needlessly confusing How to make low-cost changes that provide direct, measurable benefits The hidden costs of forcing people to adapt to clumsy electronic tools The secrets of matching software to the needs of the company How to leverage the power of technology for innovation Information technology is still in its adolescence, and Hambrose explains that because the industry has grown so quickly, it's still in an awkward phase. Software manufacturers have been in such a rush to add new features that they haven't paid enough attention to the human beings who use their products. Most software systems are built to fulfill business requirements and technical specifications, but often they fail to meet expectations because they aren't designed to anticipate human needs. As a result, much of our most powerful business software is ineffective and underutilized. With compelling case histories and an engaging narrative, Hambrose exposes popular nonsense about software systems and shows how to evaluate them and measure their performance just as we do every other product. This timely book by an industry insider tells decision makers what they need to know to un-lock the full potential of one of their biggest business investments.




Paths to Power


Book Description

Traces changes in the demographic composition of American business leadership. Through statistical analysis of their large leadership database and biographical sketches of individuals who rose to the top of corporate America, this book reveals mechanisms of advancement. It is intended for scholars, practitioners, and journals.




New Power


Book Description

From two influential and visionary thinkers comes a big idea that is changing the way movements catch fire and ideas spread in our highly connected world. For the vast majority of human history, power has been held by the few. "Old power" is closed, inaccessible, and leader-driven. Once gained, it is jealously guarded, and the powerful spend it carefully, like currency. But the technological revolution of the past two decades has made possible a new form of power, one that operates differently, like a current. "New power" is made by many; it is open, participatory, often leaderless, and peer-driven. Like water or electricity, it is most forceful when it surges. The goal with new power is not to hoard it, but to channel it. New power is behind the rise of participatory communities like Facebook and YouTube, sharing services like Uber and Airbnb, and rapid-fire social movements like Brexit and #BlackLivesMatter. It explains the unlikely success of Barack Obama's 2008 campaign and the unlikelier victory of Donald Trump in 2016. And it gives ISIS its power to propagate its brand and distribute its violence. Even old power institutions like the Papacy, NASA, and LEGO have tapped into the strength of the crowd to stage improbable reinventions. In New Power, the business leaders/social visionaries Jeremy Heimans and Henry Timms provide the tools for using new power to successfully spread an idea or lead a movement in the twenty-first century. Drawing on examples from business, politics, and social justice, they explain the new world we live in--a world where connectivity has made change shocking and swift and a world in which everyone expects to participate.




Power-to-Gas: Technology and Business Models


Book Description

Increased production of energy from renewable sources leads to a need for both new and enhanced capacities for energy transmission and intermediate storage. The book first compares different available storage options and then introduces the power-to-gas concept in a comprehensive overview of the technology. The state of the art, advancements, and future requirements for both water electrolysis and methanation are described. The integration of renewable hydrogen and methane into the gas grid is discussed in terms of the necessary technological measures to be taken. Because the power-to-gas system is very flexible, providing numerous specific applications for different targets within the energy sector, possible business models are presented on the basis of various process chains taking into account different plant scales and operating scenarios. The influence of the scale and the type of the integration of the technology into the existing energy network is highlighted with an emphasis on economic consequences. Finally, legal aspects of the operation and integration of the power-to-gas system are discussed.




The Power to Get In


Book Description

The Power to Get In deals with the single most common and frustrating problem for anyone who's in business, a job transition, or a move back into the work force: the problem of gaining access to the correct audience. Today, no other skill is as directly connected to your ability to earn a living as the skill of getting in to see the right people. Michael Boylan's step-by-step system, The Circle of Leverage, will help you cut through bureaucracy, identify the people you most need to see, and get in their doors. Anyone with something to sell, abilities to offer, or ideas to present will find this book invaluable.




Political Power and Corporate Control


Book Description

Why does corporate governance--front page news with the collapse of Enron, WorldCom, and Parmalat--vary so dramatically around the world? This book explains how politics shapes corporate governance--how managers, shareholders, and workers jockey for advantage in setting the rules by which companies are run, and for whom they are run. It combines a clear theoretical model on this political interaction, with statistical evidence from thirty-nine countries of Europe, Asia, Africa, and North and South America and detailed narratives of country cases. This book differs sharply from most treatments by explaining differences in minority shareholder protections and ownership concentration among countries in terms of the interaction of economic preferences and political institutions. It explores in particular the crucial role of pension plans and financial intermediaries in shaping political preferences for different rules of corporate governance. The countries examined sort into two distinct groups: diffuse shareholding by external investors who pick a board that monitors the managers, and concentrated blockholding by insiders who monitor managers directly. Examining the political coalitions that form among or across management, owners, and workers, the authors find that certain coalitions encourage policies that promote diffuse shareholding, while other coalitions yield blockholding-oriented policies. Political institutions influence the probability of one coalition defeating another.




Grow


Book Description

Ten years of research uncover the secret source of growth and profit … Those who center their business on improving people’s lives have a growth rate triple that of competitors and outperform the market by a huge margin. They dominate their categories, create new categories and maximize profit in the long term. Pulling from a unique ten year growth study involving 50,000 brands, Jim Stengel shows how the world's 50 best businesses—as diverse as Method, Red Bull, Lindt, Petrobras, Samsung, Discovery Communications, Visa, Zappos, and Innocent—have a cause and effect relationship between financial performance and their ability to connect with fundamental human emotions, hopes, values and greater purposes. In fact, over the 2000s an investment in these companies—“The Stengel 50”—would have been 400 percent more profitable than an investment in the S&P 500. Grow is based on unprecedented empirical research, inspired (when Stengel was Global Marketing Officer of Procter & Gamble) by a study of companies growing faster than P&G. After leaving P&G in 2008, Stengel designed a new study, in collaboration with global research firm Millward Brown Optimor. This study tracked the connection over a ten year period between financial performance and customer engagement, loyalty and advocacy. Then, in a further investigation of what goes on in the “black box” of the consumer’s mind, Stengel and his team tapped into neuroscience research to look at customer engagement and measure subconscious attitudes to determine whether the top businesses in the Stengel Study were more associated with higher ideals than were others. Grow thus deftly blends timeless truths about human behavior and values into an action framework – how you discover, build, communicate, deliver and evaluate your ideal. Through colorful stories drawn from his fascinating personal experiences and “deep dives” that bring out the true reasons for such successes as the Pampers, HP, Discovery Channel, Jack Daniels and Zappos, Grow unlocks the code for twenty-first century business success.




The Economy as a System of Power


Book Description

First published in 1979. Routledge is an imprint of Taylor & Francis.




Decision Support Systems


Book Description

For MIS specialists and non-specialists alike, this text is a comprehensive, readable, understandable guide to the concepts and applications of decision support systems.