Risk Management, Volume 1: A Modern Perspective

Book Description

Risk models, like all tools that describe and predict behaviors, possess strengths and flaws that can yield consequences both intended and unintended. In this collection of original essays, finance professionals and professors from around the world examine the assumptions and expectations that underlie both financial risk models and the practices and institutions they have engendered. Contributors analyze and evaluate current systems while summarizing our understanding of certain types of risk and describing emerging trends. Subjects range from risk reporting and risk forecasting to enterprise risk management and the effect of behavioral finance on compensation systems. Encouraging practitioners and the academic community to look at risk as it hasn't been looked at before, this book seeks to encourage critical thinking and innovation.

Risk Management, Volume 1: A Modern Perspective

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Risk Management, Volume 1: A Modern Perspective
Editor-Michael Ong
Manufacturer: Academic Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
ASIN: B000OHCGVU

Book Description

We've all known the "naturals"-- people who can get up to speak in any business situation and make something happen. They get the budget approved, win the big account, get the group's support at the weekly staff meeting. When the "naturals" finish speaking people believe-- and act. Now fully revised and updated, "Speak and Get Results" helps you to be a natural-- helps you to get the results you want, by teaching you how to:

motivate your listeners to reach your result

choose an opening that targets your ideas

design visuals that support you, not sabotage you

use your body and your voice to express your energy, authority, and commitment

handle tough Q & A sessions, audience resistance, and even surprise media encounters

Customer Reviews:

Mobilize Your Body and Voice to Efficiently Deliver Compelling Content.......2007-05-08

Sandy Linver clearly articulates what it takes to deliver content with style in "Speak and Get Results." Linver does not believe in born speakers who excel at public speaking without any practice whatsoever.

Linver reviews the importance in choosing an appropriate message to bring the listeners where a speaker wants them to be. Linver correctly points out that too many speakers assume that their listeners be as interested in or as committed to their subject as they are or that they see it from the same perspective they do. In other words, some speakers try to accomplish too much for their audience with a single communication. Linver also briefly touches on visuals. This section is probably not of much use for readers who look at more than the basics for developing compelling visuals.

Linver then reviews in detail the three basic qualities of effectively speaking in public:
1) Authority: Speaker has to look and sound as if he knows what he is talking about,
2) Energy: Speaker has to give the impression that what he says matters to him,
3) Audience Awareness: Speaker must see and respond to his audience.

Authority, energy, and audience awareness mainly come into play through the speaker's command of his body and voice. Moving the feet apart and establishing a firm base, leaning forward to the audience, and taking the time to pause and breathe are some of the techniques that Linver covers.

A humbling and enriching experience is to be videotaped while speaking to an audience and then to review the delivery. Readers will often be surprised about what they will see about themselves. Effectively speaking in public cannot be achieved without nurturing and developing the skills reviewed in this book.

Can Change Your Life!.......2004-05-19

I do not say that lightly. This book -- and the course from Speakeasy Inc., that I recently took -- are life-altering. The things you learn about yourself, and how you can use your own personality to be an effective, authoritative and authentic speaker are profound. This book not only serves as useful for business situations but for personal communication as well. Reading this book is like having a conversation with Sandy, who is talking you through all the high points of the Speakeasy philosophy. I highly recommend this book! You will see immediate positive changes in your communication skills that will help you throughout your life in any situation.

Book Description

The West is popularly perceived as America's last outpost of unfettered opportunity, but twentieth-century corporate tourism has transformed it into America's "land of opportunism." From Sun Valley to Santa Fe, towns throughout the West have been turned over to outsiders--and not just to those who visit and move on, but to those who stay and control.

Although tourism has been a blessing for many, bringing economic and cultural prosperity to communities without obvious means of support or allowing towns on the brink of extinction to renew themselves; the costs on more intangible levels may be said to outweigh the benefits and be a devil's bargain in the making.

Hal Rothman examines the effect of twentieth-century tourism on the West and exposes that industry's darker side. He tells how tourism evolved from Grand Canyon rail trips to Sun Valley ski weekends and Disneyland vacations, and how the post-World War II boom in air travel and luxury hotels capitalized on a surge in discretionary income for many Americans, combined with newfound leisure time.

From major destinations like Las Vegas to revitalized towns like Aspen and Moab, Rothman reveals how the introduction of tourism into a community may seem innocuous, but residents gradually realize, as they seek to preserve the authenticity of their communities, that decision-making power has subtly shifted from the community itself to the newly arrived corporate financiers. And because tourism often results in a redistribution of wealth and power to "outsiders," observes Rothman, it represents a new form of colonialism for the region.

By depicting the nature of tourism in the American West through true stories of places and individuals that have felt its grasp, Rothman doesn't just document the effects of tourism but provides us with an enlightened explanation of the shape these changes take. Deftly balancing historical perspective with an eye for what's happening in the region right now, his book sets new standards for the study of tourism and is one that no citizen of the West whose life is touched by that industry can afford to ignore.

This book is part of the Development of Western Resources series.

Customer Reviews:

Too Long.......2005-12-28

I read the book as part of a course I took, and I found the book to be too long, and somewhat dry. However, Dr. Rothman, a UNLV history professor, does make a very clear point: that tourists towns or places are dealt a "devil's bargain" in which they lose the authenticity of the place for the funds or profit that is brought in by tourists.

Overall, Dr. ROthman does drive his point home. But the same point is made in 20 different ways.

Informative, fascinating, entertaining.......2003-01-13

I was born into the park service and lived the tourist experience. This book really helped me form a perspective about my early years growing up in western tourist and resort environments. Western history is fascinating, but this angle on western history really gives another intriguing dimension to america's perception of the mythic frontier.

why there's no there there..........2001-03-01

At once extremely learned and passionately engaged, DEVIL'S BARGAINS puts forward a startling analysis of Western tourism. From Rothman we learn about skiing and much else: the economic and historical forces shaping our sense of place, our connections to nature, and our troubled relationships to one another. A travel book of another sort, it takes the reader to a vantage point from which our Western landscapes can be seen most clearly.

a richly detailed assessment and critique.......1999-06-18

For discerning travelers planning a western vacation this summer, or for that matter, for anyone curious about the popular allure of the West, Hal K. Rothman's "Devil's Bargains" is a must read. Rothman, a professor of western and environmental history at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, provides a richly detailed assessment and critique of the development of tourism as it has evolved from the late nineteenth century to the present in the inter-mountain West. Synthesizing the existing scholarship on tourism, enhanced by wide ranging primary research, Rothman reveals a fascinating, yet disturbing, underside to the glitz and glamour of the tourist economies firmly established in western resort towns from Santa Fe to Las Vegas.

"Devil's Bargains" presents a series of provocative histories recounting the development of resort towns and tourist sites across the inter-mountain West including the Grand Canyon, Santa Fe, Carlsbad Caverns, Steamboat Springs, Aspen, Vail, Sun Valley, and Las Vegas, among others. The book also codifies the history of tourism under a new interpretative framework which divides the development of tourism into three phases: cultural and heritage tourism, recreational tourism, and entertainment tourism. Beginning at the turn of the century with cultural and heritage tourism spawned by the transcontinental railroads seeking to expand passenger traffic, tourism evolved into recreational tourism made possible by the automobile and a growing fascination with exercise and the outdoors in the aftermath of World War I, and culminated after World War II with entertainment tourism dependent on the Jet airplane and the dramatic expansion of widespread prosperity, a leisure ethic, and a pervasive consumer culture. Rothman focuses on the Grand Canyon and Santa Fe to illustrate cultural and heritage tourism; various western ski resorts define recreational tourism; and Las Vegas embodies entertainment tourism. These three phases of tourist development reflect the historical transformation of tourism from an elite pastime to a more individualized, democratic experience, to a mass culture phenomena. They also reveal a process of economic development, reflecting the evolving strategies adopted by western communities to replace tapped out extractive economies.

Defining tourism as the quintessential service economy, the pinnacle of post-industrial capitalism, Rothman argues that the promises of tourist industries have been embraced as a panacea for economic decline in towns throughout the West. However, as his research reveals, locals and even "neonatives" have found tourism to be a bitter pill to swallow. Although the advent of tourist economies in places such as Jackson Hole, Steamboat Springs, and Sun Valley has resulted in phenomenal economic growth, prosperity has come with a price. As the book's title suggests, in the process of reviving the economy, tourism displaces locals with outside capital and corporate control, sapping a place of its soul, and leaving in its stead a facade of hollow images and a service economy manipulated by distant corporations whose only interest is the bottom line. What has emerged in places like Vail and Santa Fe is a two-tiered class system where workers who are predominantly people of color (Hispanic, African, or Filipino) hold low-paying, menial jobs providing for the comfort and amusement of wealthy second home owners and visitors. There is little room for an established community of year-round residents when the bottom line centers on the paying visitor. Las Vegas is the exception. In defining itself as the ultimate themed destination resort constantly reinventing itself to satisfy visitors' desires, Las Vegas remains one of the last places where unskilled workers can earn a middle-class income replete with benefits and job security. Las Vegas alone, according to Rothman, has succeeded at perfecting the service economy, becoming a model of sorts for the rest of the country. "The colony became the colonizer," he writes, exporting a model of entertainment tourism for a nation entranced by the spectacles of multi-media consumer culture.

In detailing the ways in which western communities reinvented themselves as tourist resorts, marketing an idealized western ambiance and a scripted history, and in the process losing control of the very community they sought to promote and preserve, Rothman provides a rich assessment of the social and political impact of tourist-based economies as they evolved from local ventures to corporate productions. But more than that, he presents a thoughtful and disturbing critique of the promises and realities of post-industrial, post modern capitalism as manifested in the twentieth-century tourist's West.

Marguerite S. Shaffer, Assistant Professor, University of North Carolina, Wilmington

Outstanding! a book for anyone who deals with tourism.......1999-01-13

For those of us who live in tourist towns and see how the incredible number of visitors changes them, this is the book! It looks at a large number of places -- from Santa Fe to Maui, from Las Vegas to Aspen -- and shows in great detail how they change. It reads well too, on a par with better known authors like Robert D. Kaplan and Tim Egan. I heard the author speak here in town--I guess he lives here-- and it made me buy the book. I came away extremely impressed. This is not my usual reading. I'm more a John Grisham type. But this one rang bells for me. After I read this book, I was in Thailand on business and I found myself using Devil's Bargains as a lens for what I was seeing. The comparisons were striking and I wondered if this book might apply to more than the West. Well written and snappy, showing a lot of research, this one is a real winner, especially for anyone in city planning or tourist development.

Devil's Bargains: Tourism in the Twentieth-Century American West.

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Devil's Bargains: Tourism in the Twentieth-Century American West.

ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
ASIN: B000ICRU12

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Easy to use and informative

Free support by phone addresses specific situations

Good overview of incorporation, but be careful...

Extremely Informative

I love this book!

How to Incorporate in Any State: Everything You Need to Form a Corporation
W. Dean Brown
Manufacturer: Consumer Publishing
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

General | Business & Investing | Subjects | Books
Entrepreneurship | Small Business & Entrepreneurship | Business & Investing | Subjects | Books
Legal Guides | Small Business & Entrepreneurship | Business & Investing | Subjects | Books
Private Law | Law | Subjects | Books
Similar Items:

How to Incorporate: A Handbook for Entrepreneurs and Professionals (How to Incorporate)

Incorporating Your Business for Dummies

Inc. Yourself: How to Profit By Setting Up Your Own Corporation, Completely Revised 9th Edition (Inc. Yourself: How to Profit by Setting Up Your Own Corporation)

Own Your Own Corporation: Why the Rich Own Their Own Companies and Everyone Else Works for Them (Rich Dad's Advisors)

ASIN: 1879760851

Book Description

Forming a corporation is easier than you might think. If you can put your name and address on a form, you can do it! We've worked hard to make this easy for you. Everything you need to incorporate your business is included:

State approved articles of incorporation for every state including the tax-friendly states of Nevada and Delaware

Easy-to-follow instructions

Bylaws and stock certificates

IRS forms and instructions for getting your Federal Employer ID number and S Corporation election Plus:

Free help by phone if you get stuck or have a question

New business checklist

Tax saving strategies We don't just publish an occasional book on the subject of incorporating. We do this for a living--it's all we do. This book is written by Dean Brown who has written over 30 books on the subject of incorporating. It's clear and to the point.

Customer Reviews:

Easy to use and informative.......2001-11-18

My one complaint is the lack of information regarding the big thing these days, Nevada corps. He does give good straight foward advice and I was able to contact their office and have articles of incorporation downloaded to my home computer. Basically all the information is given and laid out in an easy to use format, this book is a good recommendation, but I also would recommend reading some books on tax planning, using Nevada as a tool for privacy and getting information on obtaining corporate credit as a business tool. Another good book is 'Inc. Yourself' by McQuown, which explains the benefits more and spends less time on the form (which this book is good for).

Free support by phone addresses specific situations.......2000-12-12

The Austin Texas reader should have taken advantage of the FREE technical support by phone to address his or her specific situation instead of paying an attorney. How could the reader have missed such an incredible service? This is a great book.

Good overview of incorporation, but be careful..........2000-09-30

Knowing very little of incorporation before beginning the process, I purchased this book based on favorable reviews. As the book points out, it is light reading and takes you through the processes of incorporating in a very quick manner. Still not comfortable after reading the book, I consulted with an attorney who specializes in setting up businesses and incorporating. We covered many details regarding estate and tax planning, disbursements of stock and how they should be issued, protection under the law, how to miss pitfalls and most importantly the Articles of Incorporation. Even though these are reviewed, I found that not all of my inquiries and needs were addressed. I thought that I knew enough going in and found that I did not know enough to even begin an intelligent discussion. I opted to work with an attorney who could design a business suited to the industry that I plan to serve and develop practices that will do the most to protect me in the event of suits from a variety of directions. The book provided me with definitions and general information, but I am glad that I did not file with a one page form and a letter to the State.

Everyone's needs and requirements are different. If it works for you and you have a need for a streamlined business, go for it. However, if you are approaching a business that has the potential to expose you to a variety of challenges and need specific protection, you are well-served to at least have your work reviewed by a knowledgable set of eyes prior to filing for incorporation. It may be more expensive to clean up later than to take another route from the start.

Extremely Informative.......2000-06-30

For a foreigner, this book is a handy and quick guide to incorporating in the United States. I appreciated especially the detailed procedures to follow. The author's personal approach is more than what other books will be able to offer.

I love this book!.......2000-04-25

This book is the definitive book on Incorporating! It was as though Mr. Brown was sitting in my house with me, answering my questions before I knew I had them. Outstanding! This man is a genius on incorporating! Good Work!

Book Description

This digital document is an article from Communication World, published by Thomson Gale on September 1, 2006. The length of the article is 1492 words. The page length shown above is based on a typical 300-word page. The article is delivered in HTML format and is available in your Amazon.com Digital Locker immediately after purchase. You can view it with any web browser.

Citation Details
Title: Measuring up: India's Tata Chemicals Ltd. scores with a comprehensive program to assess internal communication programs.(SPECIAL REPORT: Asia/Pacific)(Survey)
Author: B. Sudhakar
Publication: Communication World (Magazine/Journal)
Date: September 1, 2006
Publisher: Thomson Gale
Volume: 23 Issue: 5 Page: 32(3)

Article Type: Survey

Distributed by Thomson Gale

Measuring Internal Communication (SCM Practitioners Guide)

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Measuring Internal Communication (SCM Practitioners Guide)

Manufacturer: Melcrum Publishing Limited
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Spiral-bound

General | Business & Investing | Subjects | Books

Running Meetings & Presentations | Skills | Business & Investing | Subjects | Books
ASIN: 095409641X

Book Description

Free yourself from the "digger" mentality with this instant personal finance classic. Cliff provides would-be investors with all the tools they need to free themselves from the bondage of debt and establish a solid financial foundation. Understand, once and for all, the proper relationship between God, man, and money.

Customer Reviews:

With solid advice for readers of all faiths.......2003-09-11

Cliff Goins is a CPA experienced in financial services. In Stop Digging! A Spiritual Guide To Financial Freedom And Sound Stewardship, Goins presents a financial investing guide which is written especially for Christians seeking to developing a personal investing plan for their financial security, while keeping their financial actions within an accordance with God's word and His will. Offering basic, practical advice about avoiding debt; the importance of planning and preparation; the virtue of prudence, and more, Stop Digging! is a sound, basic planner with solid advice for readers of all faiths, though those of Christian beliefs can most readily relate to the author's perception of what God would want most for His children. Also very highly recommended is the a companion volume from the Adelphos Publishing Group: Shundrawn A. Thomas' Start Planting!: A Spiritual Guide To Wealth Creation And Successful Investing (097274181X, $14.95).

Great Financial Advice, finally, in a Christian Context!.......2003-07-10

This book, part of a series, is a fantastic, accessible way of understanding how to better use one of the many resources we have - according to principles provided in Christian teaching. I highly recommend picking up a copy of this book. The authors of the series are quite knowledgeable of financial and spiritual matters, looking at their backgrounds.

Book Description

Three trends are on a collision course: an aging population, the use of stocks to create paper wealth, and baby boomers' plans to use that wealth to retire. This book explains the hazards of relying on the stock market and offers balanced advice on how boomers can meet their retirement needs.

Customer Reviews:

Let me recommend better books on the subject. Read why........2006-12-29

The author recognizes the challenge of an aging society captured by the forthcoming decline in the number of employees per retirees. But, both Laurence Kotlikoff and Robert Stowe England have analyzed this situation far better. The author's average understanding of demographics combined with ignorance of economics has resulted in a moribund book.

The author constantly focuses on the wrong thing. It is not so much Social Security that has an actuarial problem. It is Medicare because it compounds the force of technology driven healthcare costs with the demographics of an aging society. Social Security has to deal with only the lesser of those two forces. 80% of the problem associated with our unfunded social entitlement costs come from Medicare not Social Security (see Kotlikoff).

He thinks retirement plans are excessively concentrated in stocks. They are not. Social Security is invested in Treasuries. Pension funds have a mix of stocks and bonds of 60%/40%; meanwhile 401Ks are closer to 50%/50% mix. The retirement of Baby Boomers is more dependent on bonds than stocks.

He is obsessed by all evils of stocks. But, the retiring of the Baby Boom generation will affect bonds, real estate, and other asset classes just as much. He does not recognize that any investment's market value represents the present value of its discounted future cash flows. As Baby Boomers will sell their portfolio investments, it will increase the discount rate for all investments. This is the case because every investment class competes with each other. There is nothing inherently worst about stocks vs other investments.

His Phantom Wealth concept is nonsense. He does not understand that a stock market value is supported by earnings. If a company stock has a P/E ratio of 10, and its earnings increased from $10 to $100 with a resulting increase in market value from $100 to $1,000; the author calls the $900 increase "Phantom Wealth." But, the $900 increase is fully supported by an additional $90 in earnings that the market capitalized. He further defends his Phantom Wealth with the stock market bubble of the late 90s. This is spurious argument. Bubbles do occur. The market is not perfectly efficient all the time. But, that is a far cry from entailing that a company is worth only what the initial investors injected directly into it decades ago.

Parker has other peculiar beliefs. He views the marked-to-market mechanism as flawed. Thus, when you and I both own an IBM share; your share should have a different market price than mine! Another Parker's special is the "parasitic investor" that entails all investors who trade stocks including pension funds, mutual funds, and retail investors. Since parasitic investors were not among the initial investors who injected capital directly into the company they are parasitic. When parasitic investors such as CALPERS put pressure on management to take measures to boost stock price that is bad. Per Parker, any measure to boost stock price is bad. This is because it inflates Phantom Wealth.

Parker is obsessed about corporate downsizing. But, he ignores that the U.S. has created far more jobs per capita than any other Western economy. Our unemployment rate remains very low. And, our standard of living as measured by GDP per capita has grown faster over the long term than any Western economy too. The author is missing the boat on the underpinning of economic growth.

When Parker goes into recommendations, cognitive dissonance remains high. He suggests dismantling the existing equities markets as they just create Phantom Wealth. He would have them replaced by private investment pools and labor oriented funds. He believes the entire securities industry will have to make such changes or go out of business during the first quarter of this century. But, what Parker promotes are risky, concentrated, and illiquid investment vehicles. Such investments would be inappropriate to replace existing equity markets that are efficient, well diversified, and liquid. Parker also promotes the Japanese Keiretsu model where banks and corporations co-own each other. This is a flawed model due to conflict of interests that lead to bad credit decisions and cause bank crisis. He also proposes creating investment vehicles that compensate investors based on a company's payroll size. This is a quick way to render our private sector obsolete in a globalized World economy.

The fiscal challenge of our aging society has been far better studied by these two authors: Laurence Kotlikoff in his seminal book "The Coming Generational Storm" and Robert Stowe England who wrote "The Fiscal Challenge of an Aging Industrial World" and "Global Aging and Financial Markets." If you are concerned about the vagaries of stocks, I recommend the far superior analysis of Robert Shiller as covered in his books "Irrational Exuberance" and "Market Volatility." Finally, for a good book on financial planning, I strongly recommend: Burton Malkiel's "The Random Walk Guide to Investing."

Unusual and upsetting message.......2006-05-17

This book's message is both unusual and upsetting. Author Thornton Parker questions conventional wisdom about financial planning for retirement. He draws on his varied background - including jobs in government and private sector financial planning - and discusses the influence that baby boomer retirement investments have on the stock market. He examines how the stock market creates wealth, why stock prices get inflated and who benefits. Contrary to what most experts in the investment, retirement and mutual fund industries tell their clients, Parker believes the "phantom wealth" that boomers have accumulated with their stock market investments is a time bomb. He suggests some changes, but given the greed and power he detects behind the creation of phantom wealth, his voice is probably not loud enough to make a difference. If his scenario unfolds, retirement certainly will not mean golden years for aging boomers. We recommend a look at Parker's proposals to investment advisers, HR professionals and people planning their retirement. If he's right, ignoring his warnings could lead to a distorted economy and increased income gaps between rich and poor.

Important piece of work.......2003-11-25

Great summary of where we are today, with the current ponzi scheme of retirement that relies on the stock market infinite price growth.
As people below said, the author is quite weak on the solution side, but that's mostly because there isn't any simple one, and they clearly missed the point, which is the main purpose of the book to awaken folks and make them understand what is really going on.
The book is very easy to read and more intelligently written than few others discussing this topic.

The author provides a lot of relevant references and allow you to dive into these issues if you'd like.

A vital, timely, level-headed financial preparedness book.......2003-07-26

In What If Boomers Can't Retire?: How To Build Real Security, Not Phantom Wealth, Thorton Parker draws upon his more than forty-five years of diverse experience and expertise in government and business management, strategic planing, finance and accounting, as well as policy development, to present the reader with a solidly written, informative and "user friendly" guide to protecting personal financial interests, including preparing for stock market downturns, scandals, and ultimately end up being able to enjoy a retirement that is not dependent upon social security. A vital, timely, and level-headed financial preparedness book, What If Boomers Can't Retire? is a "must read", not only for people of the Baby Boom generation, but for Gen-Xers and anyone else who must plan for their retirement despite the vagaries and volatilities of the stock and bond markets.

One Great Thought, So Many Pages.......2003-05-08

Amazing concept and credible, but apparently wanted to lead us, as a Pied Piper to his world. I guess he's pretty smart, because he confused the heck out of me. An academic andeavour to fill a vitae. As a financial planner, I had to take seriously what he wrote concerning the largest demographic having to sell their stock. Left way too much out on solution, Way. Way, WAY too much on the political.

Couldn't get a grip on who he was trying to reach.

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