Profit in Plain Sight


Book Description

Almost every business leader admits that too often, they have a great year on the top line, but too little to show on the bottom line. And when they can’t or won’t take on more debt, they stay stalled, unable to fund the people, technology, equipment, facilities, acquisitions or expansion that will help their business grow and thrive. With often-overlooked solutions to the five core challenges to building a strong bottom line to fund growth, "Profit in Plain Sight" resolves that dilemma. This book will resonate with every business leader at any level who is tired of saying or hearing “We don’t have the budget for that” and wants to grow their bottom line and their business by selling more products and services, to more of the right customers, at higher prices, and lower costs. . . in less time than they’re spending on email. The 55 Profit Accelerators contained in "Profit in Plain Sight" were synthesized from over 30 years of business experience, often in tough turnaround situations. They’re proven, they’re classic, they work, they’re never taught in business schools, and they have nothing to do with conventional cost-cutting or accounting techniques. Instead, they deliver take-it-to-the-bank results.




Hidden in Plain Sight


Book Description

The 2008 financial crisis—like the Great Depression—was a world-historical event. What caused it will be debated for years, if not generations. The conventional narrative is that the financial crisis was caused by Wall Street greed and insufficient regulation of the financial system. That narrative produced the Dodd-Frank Act, the most comprehensive financial-system regulation since the New Deal. There is evidence, however, that the Dodd-Frank Act has slowed the recovery from the recession. If insufficient regulation caused the financial crisis, then the Dodd-Frank Act will never be modified or repealed; proponents will argue that doing so will cause another crisis. A competing narrative about what caused the financial crisis has received little attention. This view, which is accepted by almost all Republicans in Congress and most conservatives, contends that the crisis was caused by government housing policies. This book extensively documents this view. For example, it shows that in June 2008, before the crisis, 58 percent of all US mortgages were subprime or other low-quality mortgages. Of these, 76 percent were on the books of government agencies such as Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. When these mortgages defaulted in 2007 and 2008, they drove down housing prices and weakened banks and other mortgage holders, causing the crisis. After this book is published, no one will be able to claim that the financial crisis was caused by insufficient regulation, or defend Dodd-Frank, without coming to terms with the data this book contains.




Hidden in Plain Sight


Book Description

Pimp-controlled sex workers, exploited migrants, domestic servants, and sex trafficking of runaway and homeless youth are just a few of the many forms of sex trafficking and labor trafficking going on all around the world-including in the United States. This book exposes both well-known and more obscure forms of human trafficking, documenting how these heinous crimes are encountered in our daily lives. What types of human trafficking crimes are being committed here in the United States? Who are the victims of traffickers? How do we all unknowingly consume the services and products of slavery? And why are human traffickers able to maintain their illicit operations with relative impunity-indeed, with less than .01 percent of human traffickers ever being held accountable for their crimes? Hidden in Plain Sight: America's Slaves of the New Millennium documents how human trafficking and its byproducts touch every community in America, from impoverished inner-city neighborhoods to middle-class suburbs and alcoves of wealthy estates. It presents information derived from narrative accounts of real-life trafficking cases, interviews with convicted human traffickers, empirical research, and criminal case files to expose the grim realities of human trafficking in America, perpetrated by Americans. Readers will grasp the origins, evolution, and extent of the problem; understand how trafficking plays an unrecognized role in our day-to-day lives; and see why advancements in awareness and anti-trafficking resources have not changed the status quo. The victims of trafficking continue to be criminalized by law enforcement, and the offenders continue to exploit and profit from new recruits. This book equips readers with the knowledge needed to identify human trafficking cases and advocate for policy changes to end this scourge in America.




In Plain Sight


Book Description

In Plain Sighthighlights a selection of natural wonders and outdoor adventures located in southern Alberta. The places featured in this book have been chosen for their utter uniqueness, beauty and splendour. Some are easy to get to and easy to get around in; others require a bit more time and energy. Overall, you will be stimulated, enlightened, delighted, amazed, uplifted and broadened by the experience. These are truly awesome places, in the very real denotation of that adjective. All are in plain sight, though they are little visited by locals or tourists. The book contains chapters on Waterton Lakes National Park, Writing-on-Stone Provincial Park, Cypress Hills Interprovincial Park, Dinosaur Provincial Park, the Whaleback and a number of other special places. The narrative covers the geological record and the natural and human history of the places in order to explain how each locale is unique and worthy of further investigation.




Alone in Plain Sight


Book Description

Are you tired of people knowing who you are but no one really knowing you? As the star of the twentieth season of The Bachelor, Ben Higgins looked like he had it all together. Instead, Ben felt dissatisfied, fearful, and deeply alone. Like so many of us, he thought of himself as the kid who never got picked for the game, the person always on the outside of the joke, the friend who knew a lot of people but was never truly known. He wondered if he mattered at all. In Alone in Plain Sight, Ben vulnerably shares how he found authentic connection with himself, with others, and with God. As Ben helps us name our own yearning for meaning, he explores ways to understand ourselves more deeply so that we are free to connect with others; how shared pain can bridge even the widest gaps between two very different people; why we must deconstruct our culture’s fairy-tale view of love; and how the God who longs for relationship with us is the answer to our need for connection. As Ben discovered, in a disconnected world, it is still possible to have lasting purpose and peace. You are already known. You are already loved. You are already seen. Discover how to live out how much you matter as you embrace the true meaning of your one incredible life.




In Plain Sight


Book Description

A major source for the BBC drama The Reckoning Winner of the 2015 Gordon Burn Prize and the 2015 CWA Non-Fiction Dagger Shortlisted for the Orwell Prize and the James Tait Black Prize Dan Davies has spent more than a decade on a quest to find the real Jimmy Savile, and interviewed him extensively over a period of seven years before his death. In the course of his quest, he spent days and nights at a time quizzing Savile at his homes in Leeds and Scarborough, lunched with him at venues ranging from humble transport cafes to the Athenaeum club in London and, most memorably, joined him for a short cruise aboard the QE2. Dan thought his quest had come to an end in October 2011 when Savile's golden coffin was lowered into a grave dug at a 45-degree angle in a Scarborough cemetery. He was wrong. In the last two and a half years, Dan has been interviewing scores of people, many of them unobtainable while Jimmy was alive. What he has discovered was that his instincts were right all along and behind the mask lay a hideous truth. Jimmy Savile was not only complex, damaged and controlling, but cynical, calculating and predatory. He revelled in his status as a Pied Piper of youth and used his power to abuse the vulnerable and underage, all the while covering his tracks by moving into the innermost circles of the establishment.




Hidden in Plain Sight


Book Description

Filled with Jeffrey Archer’s trademark twists and turns, Hidden in Plain Sight is the gripping second instalment in the life of William Warwick. Newly promoted, Detective Sergeant William Warwick has been reassigned to the drugs squad. His first case: to investigate a notorious south London drug lord known as the Viper. But as William and his team close the net around a criminal network unlike any they have ever encountered, he is also faced with an old enemy: Miles Faulkner. It will take all of William’s cunning to devise a means to bring both men to justice – a trap neither will expect. One that is hidden in plain sight . . . Though it can be read on its own, Hidden in Plain Sight is the second volume of Jeffrey Archer's William Warwick series, following Nothing Ventured. The story continues with Turn a Blind Eye.




In Plain Sight


Book Description

IN PLAIN SIGHT SEARCHING FOR A MORE EXCELLENT WAY, addresses the ongoing exodus from western churches. Census records remind us there are two to three times more Christians than go to church. Interestingly, the increase of Christianity in third world countries is remarkable. Western churches are suffering a massive dislocation from both society and from Christianity in general. What is suggested in this book is exactly the sort of process God enables/allows while preparing the next stage of a grand plan in the drama of human redemption. We must search for a more excellent way. Tolerant Spirit is paramount in hearing the voice of the Spirit along the spiritual journey. IN PLAIN SIGHT extends the sacred conversation to all fellow travelers aspiring to discover or regain their spiritual compasses in being faithful to a true and living God who rules and reigns beyond our many fallible conceptions of divine governance in the world, and the interaction of divine initiative and human responsibility. The problem of forging a new paradigm in the churches for a new age is a sacred conversation about rethinking divine activity and personal and corporate faithfulness. We must become much more intentional about developing a theology of grace which thoroughly encompasses serious crises and problems of all spiritual pilgrims, travelers, and persons of sincere faith.




In Plain Sight


Book Description

This riveting inside story of the intense search for the Salt Lake City teenager reveals never-before-told details of the largest investigation in Utah state history. The firsthand account of Tom Smart, Elizabeth's uncle and one-time suspect, reveals the details of the flawed police investigation, the media's manipulation of the family, and the eyewitness account of nine-year-old Mary Katherine Smart that went largely ignored by investigators. New research is presented on the family background of disturbed street preacher Brian David Mitchell, who kidnapped Elizabeth as part of a bizarre polygamous plot. Also examined is the critical role of the media, revealing the essential part played by John Walsh and others in facilitating Elizabeth's safe return, and the manipulative influence of Fox News and Bill O'Reilly. Going beyond a mere eyewitness account, the book includes information culled from interviews with more than 150 people involved in the search and investigation, notes from family meetings, and memos from law enforcement officials.




Hiding Politics in Plain Sight


Book Description

As late as the 1980s, breast cancer was a stigmatized disease, so much so that local reporters avoided using the word "breast" in their stories and early breast cancer organizations steered clear of it in their names. But activists with business backgrounds began to partner with corporations for sponsored runs and cause-marketing products, from which a portion of the proceeds would benefit breast cancer research. Branding breast cancer as "pink"--hopeful, positive, uncontroversial--on the products Americans see every day, these activists and corporations generated a pervasive understanding of breast cancer that is widely shared by the public and embraced by policymakers. Clearly, they have been successful: today, more Americans know that the pink ribbon is the symbol of breast cancer than know the name of the vice president. Hiding Politics in Plain Sight examines the costs of employing market mechanisms--especially cause marketing--as a strategy for change. Patricia Strach suggests that market mechanisms do more than raise awareness of issues or money to support charities: they also affect politics. She shows that market mechanisms, like corporate-sponsored walks or cause-marketing, shift issue definition away from the contentious processes in the political sphere to the market, where advertising campaigns portray complex issues along a single dimension with a simple solution: breast cancer research will find a cure and Americans can participate easily by purchasing specially-marked products. This market competition privileges even more specialized actors with connections to business. As well, cooperative market activism fundamentally alters the public sphere by importing processes, values, and biases of market-based action into politics. Market activism does not just bring social concerns into market transactions, it also brings market biases into public policymaking, which is inherently undemocratic. As a result, industry and key activists work cooperatively rather than contentiously, and they define issues as consensual rather than controversial, essentially hiding politics in plain sight.