The Rise of the Trading State: Commerce and Conquest in the Modern World

Average customer rating:
The Rise of the Trading State: Commerce and Conquest in the Modern World
Richard Rosecrance
Manufacturer: Basic Books
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

Exports & Imports | Economics | Business & Investing | Subjects | Books
General | Business & Investing | Subjects | Books
General | International | Business & Investing | Subjects | Books
Similar Items:

Bound to Lead

Defending the National Interest

The Tragedy of Great Power Politics

The Rise of the Virtual State: Wealth and Power in the Coming Century

Man, the State, and War

ASIN: 0465070353

Book Description

`To sustain global leadership, we continually dig both deeper and wider for new sources of knowledge within and beyond Nestl to simultaneously secure product and process innovation. This requires a truly learning organization with entrepreneurial managers who embrace mobility to move from hierarchy to a plasma-type organization and thereby secure seamless innovation. Sigvald Harryson provides an excellent concept to describe why and how we do this in practice.'

- Rupert Gasser, Executive Vice President Corporate Technical Production and R&D, Nestl SA, Switzerland

`In today's global economy, knowledge is the most important source of the sustainable competitive advantage for firms. Sigvald Harryson's Managing Know-Who Based Companies provides both a framework and cases of multinational firms to shed new light on the difficult issues in knowledge management. Highly inspiring and enjoyable, I would recommend this book to CEOs and managers who are trying to lead their firms to survive in this knowledge-based economy.'

- Ikujiro Nonaka, Hitotsubashi University, Japan

`In this second edition, Sigvald cross-fertilises his groundbreaking academic research with a full update of focussed case-studies on Western companies moving from know-how to know-who. It is a pleasure to invite practitioners and academics alike to read this refreshing and thought-provoking book.'

- From the foreword by Peter Lorange, International Institute for Managment Development, Lausanne, Switzerland

In this fully revised and updated second edition of the widely acclaimed first volume, Sigvald Harryson provides powerful evidence as to how the most successful innovators are distinguished by their ability to synergistically link external and internal knowledge networks.

Based on extensive research with leading global innovators along with ten years of experience in management of knowledge and technology for accelerated innovation, Managing Know-Who Based Companies provides practical guidance regarding how to manage these networks. Important theoretical arguments that advance our thinking about managing knowledge for innovation are also presented. The author studies how individuals and teams who possess the required active empathy and relationship-building skills to function as human knowledge bridges across various centers of excellence, functions and teams - the `know-who' - are central to successful innovation in the global value networks of today's business environment.

This book is recommended reading for CEOs of multinational companies who wish to make better use of the value networks in which they live and do business. It will also be of significant value to CTOs, CKOs and Human Resource Managers interested in new ways to turning both hard technologies and soft human brainpower within and beyond the corporate borders into faster and more powerful innovation.

Book Description

This book is about economic transformation in agriculture and the adjustments needed in public and private strategies to facilitate it. The book uses theory from the social and physical sciences and practical experience gained throughout the world to recommend strategies that are generally applicable to new market economies in transition.
Bulgaria is used as a case example because it provides an empirical reference of interest because of its diversity, its massive restructuring, and its precollectivization history as an efficient sector. The book also provides a means for coordinating output from a variety of projects currently active in Eastern Europe.

Book Description

For millennia, people all over the world have revered, adored, and exploited elephants. In Thailand, a pregnant woman ducks under an elephant's belly in hopes of having an easy delivery; a tycoon builds an elephant-shaped skyscraper; and pirate loggers feed amphetamines to their elephants to make them haul back-breaking loads. In India, milling worshippers dance with gilded tuskers at ecstatic temple festivals. From the steppes of Siberia to America's prairies, scientists have proposed restoring lost ecosystems by reintroducing the elephants and mammoths that once ruled them. And generation after generation of readers have delighted in Babar, Horton, and Dumbo. In a kaleidoscopic account rich in historic lore, surprising science, and exotic adventure, Eric Scigliano traces an age-old, extraordinary relationship between species and shows how it still haunts and inspires us today. He explains how elephants may have been "nursemaids" to human evolution and how they have shaped history, art, religion, and popular culture as no other animals have. He joins a grueling chase after crop-raiding rogues in Sri Lanka and probes the bitter battles over the roles of elephants in zoos and circuses, revealing the enduring ecological importance and mythic fascination of these endangered giants.

Customer Reviews:

Strip away the journalistic fluff and its a good book.......2002-12-11

Scigliano makes no bones about the fact this book is more about Asian elephants than their popular big-eared African counterparts. Tragically, this must have meant with the dearth of literature on Asian elephants, the first half was his own compilation - and it was written in that exasperating journalistic style of starting in the middle, dribbling to the end and then abruptly bouncing to the beginning and drifting back to the starting point. This meant reading about 20 pages before realising that actually, some interesting stuff had been said.

Fortunately, the 2nd half of the book picked up as it focused more on the modern day treatment of elephants, which I suspect there is a lot more information already compiled. So, around the time we begin to learn about the history of elephants in circuses in America, the book suddenly takes a quantum leap in readibility and was thoroughly enjoyable until the end. In all due fairness, Scigliano really tries to present a fair view, but in the end, you just can't. The fact of the matter is, humans are mistreating elephants (and any giant wild mammal for that matter!) and many people appear to blind to it - delibrately. I felt in the end, Scigliano had made up for the awful rambling start and successfully turned me into a raging environmentalist - albeit, I am now more concerned for the plight of ALL wild mammals as ALL are threatened from habitat destruction by mankind!

Provides a special focus on elephant/human relationships.......2002-08-08

People have adored and used elephants for hundreds of years: this provides a special focus on these elephant/human relationships, explaining how elephants may have contributed to human evolution and how the elephant's image continues to inspire popular culture. Add scientific facts about elephants and details on the author's own travels to view them and you have an intriguing, wellrounded blend of insights.

Elephants, but Mostly Humans and Elephants.......2002-07-10

Elephants are special. I bet you know someone who collects elephant sculptures and pictures. (If not, perhaps you know a Republican.) Elephants are the number one attraction in the circus, something that circus managers realize very well. Pandas might be a bigger draw at zoos, but they are really hard to get, while there are plenty of zoo elephants. Many people worship Ganesha the elephant god, and others have a soft spot for Horton or Babar. They are big, which always impresses humans; but we are not equally impressed by, say, giraffes. Despite their size, elephants are relentlessly cute; they are obviously intelligent and active, and those trunks do impish and clever things. They are social beings among themselves, and they do form important bonds with humans; though it is an exaggeration that they never forget, they do have capacity to remember those who treated them well and ill, for a long time. It is the bonds with humans that Eric Scigliano treats in _Love, War, and Circuses: The Age-Old Relationship Between Elephants and Humans_ (Houghton Mifflin), a book that well captures the awe, delight, and sorrow we hold for the pachyderms among us.

Scigliano confesses himself addicted to "elephalia," and the evidence is all here. He has traveled to distant lands, and to zoos and circuses to learn about the captive version. Scigliano's book winds up being an amiable miscellany of elephant lore. There is the Bangkok developer who built a skyscraper in the shape of a deco cartoon of an elephant. There are other smaller elephant buildings as novelty architecture in, say, Coney Island. There has been a ballet for elephants, the Circus Polka, and before you think that this was some seedy novelty act, the choreography was by George Balanchine, and the music by Igor Stravinsky. It ran for a season in 1942. Elephants in Kenya dig deep caves to get to the salt. Others dig wells, which benefit all the animals around. But elephants have not generally fared well at the hands of the humans who ostensibly adore them. Thai elephants, for instance, are worked illegally on protected reserves, and because the furtive work has to be done with speed, it is literally done with speed; the elephants are tanked up on amphetamines to work all through the night (whereas a three to five hour period is considered the maximum safe working day). Circuses and zoos may try to treat elephants humanely, and perhaps are better at it than they used to be, but some of the horror stories here are truly disheartening. The big beasts need plenty of room, and simply cannot get it in captivity; and there are fewer wilds for them to return to, as farming takes over their lands.

There are good conservation programs in elephant homelands, and Scigliano makes the case that the efforts now going to breed and raise elephants in captivity would be better directed to indigenous conservation. There are other things we could do, but it will take the humans to get involved and do them. This may be a book about elephants, but it is also specifically about humans who supposedly care about them. Scigliano's book tackles all aspects of this puzzling relationship. "Each inquiry into the elephant-human tangle leads to paradox, even after thousands of years of undomesticated domestic partnership. While we prop up our civilizations, literatures, and faiths upon its broad back, the animal remains untamed, and in many ways unknown." His valuable book can help us understand how important elephants have been to us, and how impoverished the world will be if they are not given the room they need.

Book Description

Demonstrates the eight essential steps to successfully launch a business on the Internet and make it profitable. Includes cost, start-up equipment, services, staffing, and more. Features real-world examples and case studies. Includes detailed information that identifies and evaluates the most qualified independent contractors and service providers.

Book Description

Telecom Churn Management, The Golden Opportunity explains how and why churn is managed today. It discusses the Tele-centric (Customer Centric Telecommunications) model for customer management. The book provides the key Analytics that can give your company the competitive advantage. The key first step is recombinant segmentation (identification). Using extended behavioral segmentation (categorization), carriers can produce a customer value function (valuation). Churn models and indexes can be used to determine the projected churn rates (Anticipation). Using key metrics and a WAR Gameboard, the profit levels for customers can be evaluated and maximized.

Managers of successful telecom service providers need to understand why customers leaving and what makes telecom churn so special. Successful telecom managers have developed churn management strategies to help them making wise churn investment decisions that give them quick and effective churn response options. By understanding that customers have key telecom consumer shopping cycles and response models, churn management can be turned into an operational perspective.

It is a well-known fact that telecommunication technology and services are continually changing. Industry veteran Rob Mattison shares his expertise typical interconnection arrangements for pubic and private telephone systems, data networks, inter-exchange systems, wireless, billing and customer care systems. If there were one book you could use to help understand and develop and telecom churn management programs, “Telecom Churn Management” is the best choice.

Customer Reviews:

Wonderful book on Customer Retention!.......2002-02-19

There is nothing more important to me than retaining my customers, and Rob Mattison has some very insightful ideas in "Telecom Churn Management." With so much competiton in the wireless industry, it is not easy to keep a customer. Mr. Mattison is a seasoned vetran in the wirless industry and his advice could help even the most advanced manager of wireless. Great definitions and descriptions and even some humorous cartoons keep your spirits and ambitions high as you read this book. Highly recomended, I know that most of my colleagues own this one, pick it up today!

Very helpful book.......2002-02-03

This book helped us determine where and when to expect churn problems and what protective and preventive measures we can take. I highly recomment it.

Excellent book.......2002-02-03

This book clearly defines the many causes for churn in the telecom area and provides very helpful tactics to combat this problem. It was of vital assistance to me.

Very helpful for the business person - NOT TOO COMPLICATED !.......2002-02-02

THis book was the best examination of the complex issues of churn I have seen. I highly recommend it. It helped me to understand what was really important, and to convince my colleages to a course of action. We are already benefiting from the insights.

Weak writing style, short on content........2001-12-28

I bought this book so that I could get an in-depth understanding of churn, but what I found instead was a fifth-grade level writing style (like the "Dummies" books) that took basic concepts that could be written in one sentence and stretched them across many pages. This book focuses more on the various business tactics that are needed to run a business well, and little attention to the math that factors into the churn calculations. I'm trying to implement churn analysis at my company, and this isn't helping as much as I expected it to.

Book Description

This book explores the negative consequences of attempts to protect key U.S. manufacturing industries through the use of antidumping laws.

Product Description

Publication of this book is especially important for my country because our economy depends to a large extent on the remittances of overseas workers. We are particularly interested in the new technologies cited by the authors. These technologies would reduce the cost of remitting money to recipient countries and greatly benefit our workers abroad. Kudos to the World Bank for publishing this comprehensive and useful book. Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo President, Republic of the Philippines Readers will find his book an enthralling reminder of the indissoluble financial links that bind migrants to their home countries. These financial links need to be encouraged and sustained by supportive macroeconomic policies. Tito Mboweni Governor, Reserve Bank of South Africa An excellent examination of the global remittances policy agenda, Remittances: Development Impact and Future Prospects is a timely and exciting resource for academics, development institutions, central banks, and all policy makers in developed and developing countries. Hernando de Soto President, Institute for Liberty and Democracy New research shows the astonishing scope of remittances, with formally documented flows now estimated at $90 billion for 2003. Globally, remittances now constitute the largest source of financial flows to developing countries after Foreign Direct Investment (FDI), and indeed in many countries they now exceed FDI flows. Remittances explores policy options for enhancing the poverty alleviation impact of remittance money in recipient countries, and addressees concerns about increasing migration and inequality. It looks at new technologies that allow remittance service providers to reduce direct transaction costs and open new channels, enhancing convenience for remitters and improving levels of transparency and accountability for regulators and policy makers. Importantly, it also establishes a baseline for further research and collaborative effort, showing the areas where the international financial institutions, particularly the World Bank, can add value to enhance the positive impact of remittance flows and minimize less welcome effects. Edited by Samuel Munzele Maimbo, who has already published authoritative articles on this subject, and Dilip Ratha, who first revealed the global significance of remittances, this book is intended for remittance service providers, as well as policy makers and researchers interested in financial sector, migration and development issues.

Download Description

"An excellent examination of the global remittances policy agenda, Remittances: Development Impact and Future Prospects is a timely and exciting resource for academics, development institutions, central banks, and all policy makers in developed and developing countries. Hernando de Soto President, Institute for Liberty and Democracy Re-mit-tance n. 1. The sending of money to someone at a distance. 2. The sum of money sent. New research shows the astonishing scope of remittances, with formally documented flows now estimated at $90 billion for 2003. Globally, remittances now constitute the largest source of financial flows to developing countries after Foreign Direct Investment (FDI), and indeed in many countries they now exceed FDI flows. Remittances explores policy options for enhancing the poverty alleviation impact of remittance money in recipient countries, and addressees concerns about increasing migration and inequality. It looks at new technologies that allow remittance service providers to reduce direct transaction costs and open new channels, enhancing convenience for remitters and improving levels of transparency and accountability for regulators and policy makers. Importantly, it also establishes a baseline for further research and collaborative effort, showing the areas where the international financial institutions, particularly the World Bank, can add value to enhance the positive impact of remittance flows and minimize less welcome effects. Edited by Samuel Munzele Maimbo, who has already published authoritative articles on this subject, and Dilip Ratha, who first revealed the global significance of remittances, this book is intended for remittance service providers, as well as policy makers and researchers interested in financial sector, migration and development issues."

Books:

Books Index

Books Home

Recommended Books