Why Do Governments Divest?


Book Description

On an unprecedented scale, nations at all income levels and across the political spectrum have initiated privatization programs over the past twenty years. In the course of this privatization movement, microeconomic efficiency arguments have become the standard justification for the divestment of public assets. This book presents an alternate view and argues that short-term macroeconomic considerations are often the true motive behind privatization programs. Why Do Government Divest? The Macroeconomics of Privatization is a comprehensive treatment of the macroeconomic issues of privatization. In addition to reviewing topics in economic growth and efficiency, this book explores the fiscal, monetary, balance-of-payments, and employment aspects of privatization. Several diverse case studies illustrate how the pursuit of such short-term political objectives can reduce the benefits of privatization.




Divestitures and Spin-Offs


Book Description

The world of M&A has always been complex and nuanced. Corporations encounter their toughest business problems during a divestiture or a merger. At the same time, optimal execution of divestitures can also create high value for the seller as well as the buyer. This book is a collection of leading practices on Divestitures and covers end to end transaction life cycle from readiness through execution including post deal transformation. It contains the synthesis of experiences across a wide array of clients across industries, ranging from $500 million to $100 billion in revenue. Each chapter in this book can stand on its own as an authority on leading practices related to the topic it presents, and together, these chapters provide a comprehensive set of perspectives needed to successfully complete a divestiture. The highlight of the book is valuable real-life examples and references that a business can benefit from, when it is considering, analyzing or implementing a divestiture.




Creating Valuable Business Strategies


Book Description

Creating Valuable Business Strategies will change existing mindsets about strategy. Here is an answer for the strategist who asks, 'What should I do differently next Monday morning?'. The object of strategy is to create financial value and the offering-centred approach of Creating Valuable Business Strategies provides a novel and pragmatic framework for setting strategic direction: choosing which markets to contest and how. This book: * Identifies the individual offering as the fundamental unit of strategy--the choices that customers make regarding individual offerings are at the root of a company's financial success. * Provides an innovative and comprehensive approach to profitable business strategy--designing each offering and also the collection as a whole. * Explains that strategy is a task for all businesses with offerings, even the smallest, not just the giants. The book first sets the scene and makes the case that each value-adding offering needs a competitive strategy: it must have a winning competitive position and use one or more winning resources. It provides the reader with a rich classification of how an offering can be competitively positioned vis-à-vis rival offerings and customers. Winning resources and why offerings need them is discussed next. Corporate strategy, i.e. the managing of the company's whole collection of offerings is then examined. This is followed by a discussion of the implications for organizing and structuring for an offering-centred approach to strategy. Finally all the aspects of this new framework that may meet with resistance are explored. Creating Valuable Business Strategies is essential reading for anyone who is involved in designing tomorrow's offerings: from the backroom specialist to the CEO. It has a clear logical presentation with a focus on practical implementation.




To the Collector Belong the Spoils


Book Description

To the Collector Belong the Spoils rethinks collecting as an artistic, revolutionary, and appropriative modernist practice, which flourishes beyond institutions like museums or archives. Through a constellation of three author-collectors—Henry James, Walter Benjamin, and Carl Einstein—Annie Pfeifer examines the relationship between literary modernism and twentieth-century practices of collecting objects. From James's paper hoarding to Einstein's mania for African art and Benjamin's obsession with old Russian toys, she shows how these authors' literary techniques of compiling, gleaning, and reassembling constitute a modernist style of collecting that reimagines the relationship between author and text, source and medium. Placing Benjamin and Einstein in surprising conversation with James sharpens the contours of collecting as aesthetic and political praxis underpinned by dangerous passions. An apt figure for modernity, the collector is caught between preservation and transformation, order and chaos, the past and the future. Positing a shadow history of modernism rooted in collection, citation, and paraphrase, To the Collector Belong the Spoils traces the movement's artistic innovation to its preoccupation with appropriating and rewriting the past. By despoiling and decontextualizing the work of others, these three authors engaged in a form of creative plunder that evokes collecting's long history in the spoils of war and conquest. As Pfeifer demonstrates, more than an archive or taxonomy, modernist collecting practices became a radical, creative endeavor—the artist as collector, the collector as artist.







Handbook of Decision Analysis


Book Description

A ONE-OF-A-KIND GUIDE TO THE BEST PRACTICES IN DECISION ANALYSIS Decision analysis provides powerful tools for addressing complex decisions that involve uncertainty and multiple objectives, yet most training materials on the subject overlook the soft skills that are essential for success in the field. This unique resource fills this gap in the decision analysis literature and features both soft personal/interpersonal skills and the hard technical skills involving mathematics and modeling. Readers will learn how to identify and overcome the numerous challenges of decision making, choose the appropriate decision process, lead and manage teams, and create value for their organization. Performing modeling analysis, assessing risk, and implementing decisions are also addressed throughout. Additional features include: Key insights gleaned from decision analysis applications and behavioral decision analysis research Integrated coverage of the techniques of single- and multiple-objective decision analysis Multiple qualitative and quantitative techniques presented for each key decision analysis task Three substantive real-world case studies illustrating diverse strategies for dealing with the challenges of decision making Extensive references for mathematical proofs and advanced topics The Handbook of Decision Analysis is an essential reference for academics and practitioners in various fields including business, operations research, engineering, and science. The book also serves as a supplement for courses at the upper-undergraduate and graduate levels.




FCC Record


Book Description




Essentials of Strategic Management 4e


Book Description

Essentials of Strategic Management 4e




Sudan Divestment


Book Description

This is a print on demand edition of a hard to find publication. Recognizing the humanitarian crisis in Darfur, Sudan, Congress enacted the Sudan Accountability and Divestment Act (SADA) in 2007. This law supports U.S. states' and investment companies' decisions to divest from co. with certain business ties to Sudan. It also seeks to prohibit federal contracting with these co. This report: (1) identifies actions that U.S. state fund managers and investment co. took regarding Sudan-related assets; (2) describes the factors that these entities considered in determining whether and how to divest; and (3) determines whether the U.S. government has contracted with co. identified as having certain Sudan-related business operations and assesses compliance with SADA's federal contract prohibition provision. Illustrations.