Wertorientierte Unternehmenssteuerung: Festschrift für Helmut Laux

Book Description

Das Buch zeigt neuere Entwicklungen in der betriebswirtschaftlichen Theorie auf und behandelt insbesondere aktuelle Trends in der wertorientierten Unternehmensführung. Mit Beiträgen von Hans Jürgen Drumm, Günter Franke, Robert M. Gillenkirch, Herbert Hax, Hugo Kossbiel, Christian Laux, Helmut Laux, Volker Laux, Felix Liermann, Adolf Moxter, Bernd Rudolph, Bernd Schauenberg, Heike Y. Schenk-Mathes, Louis John Velthuis, Rudolf Vetschera und Peter Wesner.

Book Description

* Covers all areas related to managing employees in foodservice and hotel operations, from communication, recruitment, and training to performance evaluation, discipline issues, and delegation.
* Each chapter features new, up-to-date material.
* Expanded coverage of hospitality organizations through case studies and hotel industry examples.

Customer Reviews:

Expert Advise that is highly readable.......2005-02-10

I couldn't disagree more with the culinary student. Having been a hospitality manager for 15+ years plus a college instructor for 6 years, I found that Miller's advise is dead-on. The cases presented are real world too. Don't be deceived by the readability of this text. It is solid as a rock. He gives practical advise that you can refer to year after year. If you want empty theory, read someone else. If you want to learn from a master, buy this book. Miller is right when he says that management is an art. Whenever you are dealing with people, you can't turn to a formula. If you want science, go study chemistry. This book is about developing practical organizational and supervisory skills. There's nothing fluffy about it.

Enlightening!!.......2002-10-10

You can be the most organized person in the world and you will still run into difficulties when trying to communicate in an effective manner, recruit, train, evaluate performance, discipline, and delegate all at the same time. For anyone, it's a lot to have on your plate. This book makes it seem simple. It offers way to alleviate some of the frustration that comes with the job.

Hospitality Supervision Textbook Package.......2002-01-10

This textbook package contained "Supervision in the Hospitality Industry" 3rd Edition hard cover (ISBN# 0-471-19420-0) and National Restaurant Association Educational Foundation-NRAEF ProMGMT Student Workbook (ISBN# 0471-41305-4). Chapter 9 on performance evaluation was the greatest insight. A great learning tool to help focus my job development within the huge vacation/hospitality employer I work for here in Orlando, Florida.

Disappointing.......2001-07-21

As a culinary student in a reputable institute, I was presented this book to use as a textbook for my business management course. The structure was sufficient, focusing almost exclusively on the hospitality industry, but the content was not. The majority of the book deals with self-evident truths and situations that can best be solved by common sense, but instead Miller voices his opinion that when experience fails you, revert back to the management theories, most of which he denigrates, others that he blatantly misinterprets.

Miller also pens that "management at any level in an art", a statement that many would disagree with and should give some insights as to what the 10th grade, babble-filled prose is all about. For a management book, especially one for $..., I was expecting a more technical approach to managing - theories and illustrations also combined with charts and math, two aspects that are completely vacant in the textbook.

There is a general sense of the grim reality of the hospitality industry that I was relieved to see (two stars). There's mention of the low pay, hard work, and long hours that will inevitably come with the job, and the book maintains that thought throughout. Overall however, it's too much money, and too much time, for reading what I already know.

Book Description

The American economy is in many ways uniquely unfettered. Nowhere else in the industrial world is it easier to set up a discount store, start a new airline, or shrink a payroll. But extensive economic deregulation has been matched by a burgeoning body of social law cracking down on business. From shareholder litigation and strict product liability to punitive environmental controls and workplace rules, entrepreneurs run a gauntlet of legal perils. The costs of this expanding and contentious agenda often exceed the value of its social benefits. The projected annual costs over benefits of the 1990 Clean Air Act, for instance, surpass the estimated value of U.S. exports blocked by all of Japan's known import restrictions. How sustainable is this situation amid the pressures of globalization? The contributors to this volume explore the question from a variety of perspectives.

U.S. policymakers frequently criticize the rest of the world for policies and practices that are said to constrict American commerce. Yet some trade disputes have been ignited by questionable rules made in the United States. Indeed, legal strictures have posed barriers to imports and possibly discouraged foreign investors, as well as interfered with some U.S. exports. At times the social regulatory regime has also stirred abrasive efforts to extend U.S. sanctions to foreign soil. Even if those frictions have been of minor consequences so far, inefficient legal and regulatory conventions exact a toll on U.S. productivity growth.

The book concludes that in a global economy the burdensome regulations of foreign countries deserve attention, but increasingly so do the burdens that American "adversarial legalism" imposes on itself and sometimes on others. Ideas and prospects for correcting the problem are discussed throughout.

Book Description

Predating the invention of the helicopter by two decades, the Autogiro was the world's first rotary-wing aircraft. The helicopter had the advantageous ability to rise straight up, while the Autogiro/gyroplane could only taxi. Yet the gyroplane was safer and more stable; both aircraft should have had value in market. Why did the helicopter survive and prosper, while the Autogiro became a nearly forgotten historical footnote? Why didn't the Autogiro catch on, and why is it being revived today? This is the first book to tell the fascinating 80-year history of today's gyroplane and its antecedent, the Autogiro. Charnov explains that the near-eclipse of the Autogiro was caused by a potent combination of bad luck, the impact of the Great Depression and World War II, and egregious business decisions. Only by understanding the amazing manner in which this aviation technology has persisted and evolved can one fully understand the basis for its future. In contrast to the fate of the Autogiro, the gyroplane's unfolding story is characterized by successful business models, effective decision making, and the emergence of cutting-edge technology. The survival of the gyroplane may be a paradigm for the persistence of earlier, less complex technologies, and its future relies on grasping its colorful history.

Customer Reviews:

Some day we will all have one in our driveway!.......2007-01-17

Excellent book for any one interested in aviation. After reading the book we found out there is a Pitcarin autogyro in a museum less then 10 miles from our house. It is a must read for those interested in helicopters and their development.

Worthwhile if read with some skepticism.......2006-07-09

Charnov has done a creditable job of presenting a history of the Autogiro. This effort joins the small library available on the subject, the current gold standard being "Cierva Autogiros" by Peter Brooks, who in addition to his writing abilities is technically qualified to discuss the subject. Though Charnov has obviously expended much effort in gathering, sifting and organizing information on the Autogiro, his greatest weakness is his lack of technical understanding of the aircraft. For the casual reader, this deficiency is probably unnoticeable; however, since books of this type tend to attract a somewhat technically aware audience, the frequent and inaccurate use of terms and descriptions detracts from the book. The discussion of the Fairey Gyrodyne completely misses the point of what made this third type of rotorcraft (including gyroplane and helicopter) so technologically significant. Also, the title, "From Autogiro to Gyroplane," is misleading since the latter term is merely a generic definition for autorotational aircraft which automatically includes the trademarked Autogiro; the title is analogous to "From Chevrolet to Automobile."

This book's greatest failure is the implication that the Bensen Gyrocopter and its derivatives are the natural successors to the Autogiro. The Autogiro was developed, constructed, and operated by aviation professionals. This produced the outstanding safety record of the Autogiro even though each successive aircraft included significant technical or operational advances over its predecessor. This work laid the foundation for today's rotary wing aircraft industry. By contrast, the Bensen Gyrocopter and derivatives are commonly designed, constructed, and operated by rank amateurs who commonly dismiss or are completely ignorant of lessons learned during the development of the Autogiro, with the result that this type of aircraft has established an abysmal safety record. It is instructive to compare side-by-side Bensen's "Mechanics Illustrated" advertisements of the type, build it yourself, train yourself to fly it, with Cierva Autogiro Company/Pitcairn Autogiro Company advertisements which announce the availability of professional flight training in certificated aircraft.

The era of the Autogiro ended with the magnificent Fairey Rotodyne; with very few exceptions, succeeding gyroplane history is the story of amateurs.

This book contains much valuable information though it includes a significant amount of detritus.

Comprehensive and complete, perhaps too much so........2005-10-08

The book is superbly researched and seems to include every scrap of autogiro history from the beginning right up through the ultra-lights of the present day. Each period is given it's due and no enthusiast will be disappointed by the coverage of his or her special interest. Excellent bibliography and further reading suggestions as well.

Having said that, reading the book from cover to cover is slow going. And the interweaved tales of various autogiro developments in various times and locales makes some sections almost unreadable. For example you'll be reading about some invention progressing from 1926 to 1939 and then be abruptly jerked back to 1927 to start the next thread of development. When this happens 4 or 5 times in two or three pages you loose all sense of what happened when. But I'm not sure how you'd fix that except to edit out some of the material.

The Most Complete History of the Autogiro.......2004-12-22

I have read Dr. Charnov's book and actually had the chance to take him as a professor at Hofstra University. I must say that this book is the most complete account I have ever read on any aviation technology. Dr. Charnov really put his heart in this book and has done his homework in researching obscure facts like the Rotodyne and the direct control mechanism. Its a great read for any aviation buff.

Lays out the entire and intriguing 80-year history.......2003-10-19

From Autogiro To Gyroplane: The Amazing Survival Of An Aviation Technology by Bruce H. Charnov (Associate Professor and Chairperson of the Management, Entrepreneurship and General Business Department of the Frank G. Zarb School of Business at Hofstra University, Hempstead, Long Island, New York) superbly lays out the entire and intriguing 80-year history of rotary-wing aircraft. Seeking answers to the question of why the helicopter thrived, while the safer and more stable (if less versatile), gyroplane was nearly forgotten, From Autogiro To Gyroplane deftly and comprehensively examines the impacts of the Great Depression and World War II upon these motorized aircrafts, as well as the simply bad business decisions, and the lessons that the fate and persistence of the gyroplane has for other old, long lasting, yet ultimately fully functional technologies. From Autogiro To Gyroplane is a unique and enthusiastically recommended addition to personal, academic, and community library Aviation History collections.

Book Description

The incredible "glowing" history of the "Devil's element "phosphorus

Discovered by alchemists, prescribed by apothecaries, exploited by ninth-century industrialists, and abused by twentieth-century combatants, the chemical element phosphorus has fascinated us for more than three centuries. It may even be the cause of will-o'-the wisps and spontaneous human combustion! Now John Emsley has written an enthralling account of this eerily luminescent element. Shining with wonderful nuggets-from murders-by-phosphorus to a match factory strike; from the firebombing of Hamburg to the deadly compounds derived from phosphorus today-The 13th Element weaves together a rich tableau of brilliant and oddball characters, social upheavals, and bizarre events.

Customer Reviews:

A fun history of the element Phosphorus.......2007-03-20

An easy, entertaining read. Fun and informative.
I'm sure glad I don't work in a match factory in 1900.

Elementally speaking, a multiple personality.......2005-10-06

I have dabbled in the area of phosphorus chemistry for too many years and the prospect of a leisurely read about the historical and other aspects of the element proved irresistible. This is an enjoyable book and points out how science has evolved and the enormous creativity of our ancestors for good and not so good. The chemistry of phosphorus can used to improve many aspects of life but unfortunately has been applied to too many sinister roles in history. If only mankind had the maturity to match its technology.

And remember the element "phosphorus" is spelled with two "O" not three (Thanks JP).

If you teach chemistry, you must read this book!.......2003-04-29

Fascinating reading about the mysteries of phosphorus. This covers everthing you wanted to know about phosphorus and more! By the time you finish this book you'll know how phosphorus was discovered, how it contributes to eutrophication (and what exactly eutrophication is, anyway), the symptoms of "phossy jaw", how a match is made, and many other fascinating facts about phosphorus. The author has resisted making this a "fact a page" list, and has put together the history of phosphorus in an ejoyable, coherent fashion. If you love books about chemistry, you'll have trouble putting this one down.

From alchemy to soap powder........2002-11-24

In this well-researched and very readable book, Mr.Emsley describes the initial discovery of elemental phosphorus by alchemists with an initial production of ounces per year from urine! at an exorbitant cost, to WWII production of thousands of tons per month.
Of course, it was immediately put to use as a medicine - something that powerful MUST be good for what ails you... fortunately only the rich could afford to be poisoned that way!
The perils of working with raw phosphorus (eg, while making lucifers) gradually became obvious and are graphically described, as well as some horrific accidents while transporting the stuff.

Products such as pesticides, incendiaries, smoke screens and nerve gas show its aggressive uses, while other chapters show the benefits of fertilizers, preservatives and detergents.

On a side-track, phosphorus's involvement in spontaneous human combustion is investigated - also explaining will o'wisps and graveyard apparitions.

Immensely readable and crammed full of facts and figures, I recommend this as a welcome addition to any amateur science historian's library. *****

An Entire Book About one Element?.......2002-06-21

Now, how could an entire book (over 350 pages no less) about phosphorus be interesting? It glows in the dark, it oxidizes on contact with air, it's an essential element, compounds of phosphorus are used in fertilizers and there was something about pollution several years ago. That about covers it, right? Well, actually not quite. Even though I am a chemist by profession, I was surprised to find out about (among other things) the huge fortunes built on the match business and the connection of these enterprises to the first appearance of organized labour movements. Also, how many are aware that the whole condemnation of phosphate detergents may have been completely misguided?

Emsley has created a thoroughly engrossing tale of the discovery and use of one of the more common elements on our planet as well as being able to include a sizable amount of solid scientific information in a thoroughly engrossing form. Other reviewers have outlined in some detail the contents of this book but let me emphasize that the "science" never gets in the way of the narrative. Anyone who has even a passing interest in natural science should find this book an excellent read. I purchased this book in hardback form some time ago but have given a couple of the paperback copies away to friends and have not gotten a negative response yet.

Book Description

Although herbivory probably first appeared over 300 million years ago, it only became established as a common feeding strategy during Late Permian times. Subsequently, herbivory evolved in numerous lineages of terrestrial vertebrates, and the acquisition of this mode of feeding was frequently associated with considerable evolutionary diversification in those lineages. This book represents a comprehensive overview of the evolution of herbivory in land-dwelling amniote tetrapods in recent years. In Evolution of Herbivory in Terrestrial Vertebrates, leading experts review the evolutionary history and structural adaptations required for feeding on plants in the major groups of land-dwelling vertebrates, especially dinosaurs and ungulate mammals. As such, this volume will be the definitive reference source on this topic for evolutionary biologists and vertebrate paleontologists.

Book Description

This is the untold story of the small group of men who have devised the plans and shaped the policies on how to use the Bomb. The book (first published in 1983) explores the secret world of these strategists and the nuclear age and brings to light a chapter in American political and military history never before revealed.

This is the third volume in the "Stanford Nuclear Age Series."

Customer Reviews:

An interesting read.......2005-07-06

This is the history of the strategy behind the U.S. nuclear arsenal, from the moment we dropped atomic bombs on Nagasaki and Hiroshima through the Reagan years. While the book does get into specifics about meetings and memos, the over-arching story is quite interesting, especially as it pertains to the current state of affairs with U.S. foreign policy. If there is one lesson to take away from the book, it is that strategy and intelligence can and will be built around a predetermined political goal, when an administration chooses to use it in such a way. Bush Jr. is not the first, nor will he be the last president to have intelligence manufactured to support his specific strategy. From early on, when the Air Force and Army officials crafted their intelligence reports to favor themselves when it came time to create the budgets, to Kissinger's altering of CIA reports on Soviet missiles to support his own missile defense agenda, intelligence and strategy has been slave to policy, not the other way around.

But aside from the political maneuverings and dealings, this book covers the rise of the defense intellectua--strategists born of academic economic theory rather than hardened by battlefield experience--to the highest ranks in devising nuclear strategy. It covers the cycles, from an all-out destroy everything strategy to a counterforce/military targets strategy, from viewing the atomic bomb as the ultimate weapon to considering it merely another tool in the conventional arsenal. Through the years, the strategies came and went in phases, but in reality there were only a few recycled strategies, and basically the same problem holds for each: we just don't know if they'll work. They're all theory, despite the illusion, during the Reagan years, that these are tested, scientific truths. After more than fifty years, the only truth is that we still haven't figured out how to use the atomic weapon. The only thing that can be said for certain is that we have, to date, avoided nuclear holocaust. Considering how close came on more than one instance during the Cold War, that is a feat in itself. Whether the atom bomb can be credited for deterring Armageddon or whether we managed to avoid it despite the bomb is a question this book examines. But there are really no fast and true answers.

Excellent Historical Analysis.......2005-04-26

Fred Kaplan, who today writes for Slate.com, twenty years ago, wrote this excellent intellectual history of a distinct group of policymakers who emerged after World War II. This group of intellectuals, centered on the RAND Corporation in Santa Monica, California, used mathematical equations and statistical analyses to attempt to rationalize and control nuclear weapons and their possible use in combat.

Kaplan found that after forty years, from the later 1940s until the early 1980s, when the book was published, intellectual thought went from assurances that nuclear war could be controlled; to a belief in the 1960s that controlling such a weapon is impossible. When the Berlin and Cuba crises of the early 1960s erupted and these intellectuals were actually confronted with the possibility of nuclear war that the rationalizations ended.

However, in the early 1980s the idea began to emerge again that nuclear weapons could be used in war. If the Cold War had gone on much longer it is unknowable where the latest generation of defense intellectuals would have taken nuclear strategy. Thankfully, we never got the chance to find out.

The Human and the Rational Sides of Armageddon.......2004-11-14

This is Fred Kaplan's version of the evolution of U.S. nuclear strategy during the Cold War. More specifically, it is the story of the role played by the RAND Institute, a think-tank in Santa Monica, California. The RAND Institute pioneered civilian consulting on military matters, and by the time Ronald Reagan took office in 1981, nearly all of the Institute's principal recommendations had become official administration policy.

Based largely on archival research of declassified documents and personal interviews, Kaplan does a good job in capturing the personalities, egos, and relationships at work. He dispenses with in-depth discussion of data and interpretation, instead trying to create a humane narrative. He rarely engages in either personal attack or praise, instead focusing on how his protagonists arrived at certain conclusions. Still, the book is not without a didactic element. The RAND Institute imposed (and still imposes) the methods of rational choice analysis-taken from logic, microeconomics, and game theory-on the possibility of nuclear war. But for Kaplan, this project of rationalizing Armageddon is in the end nothing more than "a compelling illusion." The terror and uncertainty surrounding nuclear war comprised a chaos which couldn't be tamed. Another criticism is much more deeply buried in the book. The use of rational choice theory assumed a great deal about what the Soviets wanted and how they would achieve it. Yet these assumptions made by the mathematical minds of the RAND institute did not engage with the realities of Soviet leadership or policy.

Overall, Kaplan has written a well-researched book over a terribly important topic. For those like me born into the post-Cold War generation, it recreated the tension and anxiety-along with the absurdities-of a bygone era. Not much more could be asked of a history.

The human side of the "nuclear strategists".......2003-11-22

Fred Kaplan has done something very hard to achieve: portray a bunch of, well, nerds with sympathy and humor, explaining their trains of logic and their conclusions in readable prose. It is hard because most of them were micro-economists who lived in a world of utility functions, game theory, and loops of mathematical logic - just the kind of stuff that puts many off (like me) of "public policy" as an academic field that is dominated by economists who are little more than self-important if intelligent twits - with no practical wisdom whatsoever.

However, this group was important because they were trying to encapsulate nuclear weapons into their rationalist methodologies. Kaplan's book is the ideal companion to Freeman's Evolution of Nuclear Strategy, which is so dry by comparison and yet covers the strategy better. It is a fun read, though a bit overwhelming to get through as there were SO MANY of them. (There was an added interest for me, as I knew some of these characters as a student and was unimpressed with them as thinkers while respecting their impact on public policy.)

Whoever thought that microeconomists following their threads of logic could have had such an enormous influence on military strategy. I never would have! If I understood it, what they did was link military considerations into a mathematical methodology that could be studied and discussed and that offered conclusions - or predictions - if (tortuously) followed to their end. This helped military planers get a handle on these issues and (perhaps) to think more clearly.

Much of quality of this book is due to the fact that Kaplan is a really good reporter and not an academic who is just shuffling papers. He got out and talked to a lot of these guys, though none of them appear as particularly sympathetic characters to me. Amazingly, he used this book as his PhD disseration at MIT in poli-sci. You gotta respect him as a writer.

Recommended as a colorful view of some weird thinkers who had enormous influence on our lives.

The Bomb I Grew Up Studying.......2002-12-17

This book was one of the greatest I have had the pleasure to read. I was so fascinated reading this that I stayed up reading the book for three days straight. I then had to read it again, this time going four days without sleep, mainly because I'm an idiot. I gave up work and school studying the tactics used in the groups mentioned. I was very intigued, and have started reading it again. ...

Average customer rating:

The Wizards of Armageddon
Fred Kaplan
Manufacturer: Simon & Schuster Trade Paperbacks
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Mass Market Paperback
ASIN: B000GSXDL4

Book Description

This bibliography attempts complete coverage of manuscript collections on the Cherokee in the Northeastern portion of the U.S. Its annotations list most names of people, whether Cherokee or non-Cherokee, mentioned in the annotated documents, and most place names.

Book Description

The Digital Hand, Volume 2, is a historical survey of how computers and telecommunications have been deployed in over a dozen industries in the financial, telecommunications, media and entertainment sectors over the past half century. It is past of a sweeping three-volume description of how management in some forty industries embraced the computer and changed the American economy. Computers have fundamentally changed the nature of work in America. However it is difficult to grasp the full extent of these changes and their implications for the future of business. To begin the long process of understanding the effects of computing in American business, we need to know the history of how computers were first used, by whom and why. In this, the second volume of The Digital Hand, James W. Cortada combines detailed analysis with narrative history to provide a broad overview of computing's and telecomunications' role in over a dozen industries, ranging from Old Economy sectors like finance and publishing to New Economy sectors like digital photography and video games. He also devotes considerable attention to the rapidly changing media and entertainment industries which are now some of the most technologically advanced in the American economy. Beginning in 1950, when commercial applications of digital technology began to appear, Cortada examines the ways different industries adopted new technologies, as well as the ways their innovative applications influenced other industries and the US economy as a whole. He builds on the surveys presented in the first volume of the series, which examined sixteen manufacturing, process, transportation, wholesale and retail industries. In addition to this account, of computers' impact on industries, Cortada also demonstrates how industries themselves influenced the nature of digital technology. Managers, historians and others interested in the history of modern business will appreciate this historical analysis of digital technology's many roles and future possibilities in an wide array of industries. The Digital Hand provides a detailed picture of what the infrastructure of the Information Age really looks like and how we got there.

Average customer rating:
Proposed National Park Dumoga-Bone management plan: 1981/2-1982/3 (World Wildlife Fund report)
W. F Rodenburg
Manufacturer: Directorate of Nature Conservation. Republic of Indonesia
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Unknown Binding

Parks & Campgrounds | Food & Lodging | Reference & Tips | Travel | Subjects | Books
General | Conservation | Outdoors & Nature | Subjects | Books
ASIN: B0007BPCP0

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