The nature and extent of ethical and financial kudzu
931998
Other reviews have (collectively) covered most of the most important points to be made about this book and now, with the publication of a paperbound edition, I hope those points have a wider audience. As I began to read this book, sharing Charles Ferguson's opinions about "where we are now" as a nation, I was reminded of two film characters: Gary Cooper as "John Doe" in a film directed by Frank Capra, Meet John Doe" (1941), and Peter Finch as Howard Beale in Network (1976), directed by Sidney Lumet. However different their circumstances are, and however dated each film may now seem, both suggest the potential power of collective resistance to a common enemy, in this instance what Ferguson characterizes as those responsible for "a horrific financial crisis caused by massive fraud"; however, "not a single executive has gone to jail." Ferguson received an Academy Award for the best documentary film, Inside Job, in 2010. "Since the release of my film, a large amount of new material has emerged, especially from private lawsuits, that reveals, through e-mail trails and other evidence, that many bankers, including senior management, knew [begin italics] exactly [end italics] what was going on, and that it was high fraudulent."

There seem to be Ferguson's key points:

o  Finance has become the dominant industry in the United States
o  An abundance of verifiable evidence suggests that this industry has become criminalized
o  One result is that other industries have been corrupted and/or weakened
o  Federal/state/county/municipal agencies are unwilling and/or unable to enforce laws
o  With few exceptions, governments at all levels are bankrupt
o  Only the federal government can print money
o  Fax tax collections (as a share of GNP) are lowest in 60 years
o  The gap between cost of living and quality of life has almost disappeared
o  The wealthiest individuals and most profitable companies enjoy the greatest tax reductions
o  Both the Democratic and Republican parties have become hostage to special interest groups
o  The damage to middle- and lower-class taxpayers has been bi-partisan

"What Should Be Done?" is the title of the final chapter in which Ferguson offers several specific suggestions and explains why each should be adopted. They include these: improve education quality and opportunity, get the financial sector under control, achieve high-impact reform of political finance as part of major transformation of tax structure, strengthen anti-trust policy and regulation of corporate governance, and create a truly "open" (i.e. universally accessible) Internet infrastructure.

I wish I shared Ferguson's belief that these and other initiatives can be successful. The John Doe character was a fraud and the Howard Beale character was insane. It may be possible but seems unlikely that an individual can summon sufficient support to defeat the Predator Nation. Charles Ferguson's call for an insurgency within one of the two major political parties, a third political party, and/or a non-artisan social movement is more likely but, in my opinion, a long shot.

"Time will tell. But America is a remarkable and beautiful country in so many ways. I hope that somewhere in the United States is a courageous young leader in the making, someone who can persuade the American people to rise up and throw the rascals out." I agree that "time will tell" but I'm not holding my breath.
2140193
Most business people who went to college were exposed to the principles of microeconomic analysis at some point.  But most don't apply what they learned to their businesses.  Professor Navarro's book is a lively look at some of the opportunities that are presented by adjusting your timing to buy low and sell high for:

- capital expenditures

- acquisitions

- hiring people

- adjusting your supply chain

- marketing (especially advertising and promotion)

- extending credit and collecting receivables

- dealing with volatility in raw materials, interest rates and foreign currency

- eliminating unnecessary risks when the environment is clouded

- dealing with natural calamities and wars

In addition, the book explains a variety of economic analysis tools that have proven to be helpful for business people.

Each chapter is clearly outlined and summarized.  The key points are illuminated by vignettes about successes and flops (usually among those who ignored risk or didn't think it through properly).

The writing style is popular, rather than academic. You'll feel like you are reading a series of articles from the local business pages rather than a professor's book.

Much of the research for the book was done by students. That gives the book a lot of breadth. The weakness of that approach is that sometimes the students and Professor Navarro don't quite get it right.

I began to get nervous when Moore's Law was misstated as saying that the number of transistors on a chip double every year . . . rather than every two years.  That concern increased when I read examples that I knew well from personal experience.  The description of what happened and the reality were at odds.  For instance, the famous case of Procter & Gamble losing on a derivative contract purchased from Bankers Trust is characterized as a bet against the bank by the soap maker.  The relationship between the two wasn't like that at all.  Bankers Trust was offering a way to reduce interest rate risk in a very complicated contract.  Bankers Trust was supposed to be looking out for P&G.  As the contract started to fall apart, Bankers Trust didn't play that fiduciary role.  P&G was right to sue and Bankers Trust was right to take half the loss.  Kmart's decent into bankruptcy is described as being totally due to cutting advertising.  I'm sure that played a role, but Kmart's problems were bigger than that.

If you don't take the details of the examples too seriously, this is a valuable book.  It's mostly aimed at those who are new to business such as business students and young entrepreneurs.  But some seasoned managers in companies that don't use microeconomic analysis will find useful perspectives as well.

I don't know of a better book on how to adapt spending to various cycles.  If that subject interests you, read this book.
2524396
A very important book. I would recommend it to all my friends. While explaining the inherent conflict between profit motive and sustainability,
author's emphasis was rightly in framing the question clearly and simply. I am sure that author's Reconciling Principle, the rule of 150 and action plans will encourage readers to move beyond discussions into the realm of action.

A good and compassionate work.

Thanks to the Author, Rob O'Grady and Dmitry Orlov.
2296339
This book is a very valuable study of family business which covers its emergence during the First Industrial Revolution and its widespread development in other emerging economies such as Korea, Hong Kong, and countries in South East Asia after the Second World War. The theoretical premise of this book is that family business is not a sclerotic, static, and homogenous organizational form and its evolution is highly influence by an array of political and institutional factors such as technological push, cultural patterns, structure of the capital markets, and governments policies and legislative framework in different spatial and temporal contexts. Professor Colli dispels the widely-held belief that family business cannot last long due mainly to the so-called Buddenbrooks effect and the presence of finance capitalism where bankers and professional managers. He adopts evolutionary theory, transaction theory, embeddedness theory, and trusted-based institution and network theory with a plethora of evidence to reveal that family business can become an efficient caterpillar and butterfly.

This book is highly relevant to readers and research students who intend to advance their understanding of the nature and evolution of family business since the nineteenth century. This book contains all key economic and management theories germane to family business study and the bibliographical essay section is a very useful roadmap for readers to identify seminal scholarly works (overview and sourcebooks, conferences and colloquia, national cases, and historical alternatives, and theory and current debates) on this subject.
4160421
I just finished reading "the Green Book" from cover to cover in preparation for teaching my introduction to student affairs class for yet another semester.  Clearly it remains the gold standard for central textbooks for such classes, though like any scholarly work, there is room for improvement.  The editors surely had a daunting task of creating a comprehensive text for the first year master's student in student affairs, to introduce that audience to such a dynamic profession.  They accomplished this task very well by gathering highly accomplished leaders in the field (one might say 'the usual suspects' for the most part) to convey their wisdom.  The book reflects the prevailing philosophy, one might say world view, of the emerging profession of student affairs.  This could be seen as an upside in that it does help socialize new professionals about the prevailing ways of doing and thinking in student affairs.  However, the book does very little to challenge the conventional orthodoxy of the field, namely postmodernism.  In fact, it barely even defines it.  This indeed an omission from the previous edition where Robert Young took the reader through various schools of thought and helped one understand the difference between rationalism, empiricism, pragmatism, and postmoderism.  As one who plans to use this book for years to come, it pained me greatly to see this material abandoned.  The consequence is that people in our field become intoxicated by the postmodernist water in which we swim and fail to critique its limitations.  I should pause to say here that the chapter that replaced Young's chapter on Philosophies and Values in the new 5th edition was, in my view, one of the strongest in the way of what it did contain.  What is missing is more from the book (a chapter on philosophies and world views impacting student affairs) more than what is in the current chapter on philosophies and values.

The selection of chapter authors seems motivated by an insiders or emic perspective, reinforcing the postmodernist bent of the book as well.  This comes with the strengths of having authors write about topics that they have researched in the past, thus theoretically providing a stronger review of that subject matter.  The limitation this provides is that the chapters may suffer from a lack of objectivity.  For example, there has been a great deal of criticism recently of the National Survey of Student Engagement, and further research published in the Journal of College Student Development regarding whether students are able to accurately report a self-reported gain.  Such research undermines the accuracy of the NSSE.  Yet, the chapter written about Student Success is written by the author of NSSE and focuses inordinate attention upon it.  Clearly, that person should be a chapter author in this work -- but perhaps someone else might have written about Student Success who could offer a more objective, and critical, review of the subject matter in this chapter.

Some chapters were particularly strong.  Gary Pavela did a super job addressing selected legal issues, Kezar brought Organizational Theory (an otherwise sleepy subject to many) to life, Komives did a bang-up job with Leadership, and Arminio gave a refreshing piece on Professionalism.  Though well intentioned, a new chapter on strategy and intentionality seemed to miss the boat on helping student affairs professionals understand what strategic planning processes are like at their institution -- these processes are important for folks to understand regardless of their level in the organization.

On the whole, Student Services remains a great choice for a primary textbook for introduction to student affairs classes.  There is nothing else on the market that comes anywhere close to its breadth and quality.  Some years from now, we can look forward to a 6th edition!
3453454
This is an excellent book confronting the root issues of the ethical dilemma facing business people and provides guidance on building a rock solid foundation of ethical business.
4558827
A very much needed, extremely well written essay on what the authors call the "forcing function" of Big Data - a push to consider serious ethical issues in light of the usage of Big Data - and how to improve one's organization by utilizing the results of ethical inquiry. In just 64 pages, Davis and Patterson walk the reader through what would have likely been a much more unreachable topic had it been written by another team, and the result is arguably one of the best business texts in the year-2012 marketplace.

After discussing Big Data and Big Data forcing in Chapter 1 ("Big Data, Big Impact"), the authors turn to values, ethical inquiry, and "ethical decision points" in Chapter 2 ("Values and Actions"), followed by a survey of current ethical practices by businesses in Chapter 3 ("Current Practices") and a component-by-component discussion of the the Alignment Methodology Framework introduced earlier in the book in Chapter 4 ("Aligning Values and Actions").

What makes this text so well put together is not just the writing style of the authors, but its organization and inclusion of many examples throughout the discussion that are likely to increase the practicality of the discussion. While Davis and Patterson do formally include a brief case study at the conclusion of Chapter 4, it is the small examples that carry the heavy lifting. And while the Alignment Methodology Framework at a surface level is reminiscent of the familiar Plan-Do-Check-Act cycle, the specifics that the authors provide for each step specifically target organizational values and how to align actions with those values.

Use of the buzzword "innovation" in the subtitle to this effort is actually well placed, unlike the inappropriate use of what can be seen as a buzzword in itself, "Big Data", in some other books in this year's business shelf. As the authors in Chapter 2 comment, "While big data represents both tremendous opportunity (in the form of new products and services) for broad business and social benefit, the opposite side of that coin is that it also represents serious risk. Finding and maintaining a balance between the benefits of innovation and the detriments of risks is, in part, a function of ethical inquiry."

"Developing a capability to find and maintain that balance is partially ethical because of the essential nature of the technology itself...Ethics come into play, in part, when organizations realize that information has value that can be extracted and turned into new products and services. The degree to which ethics play a role in this process is, of course, more complicated that a simple identification of which information is 'ancillary' and which is not. The ethical impact is highly context-dependent. But to ignore that there is an ethical impact is to court an imbalance between the benefits of innovation and the detriments of risk."
3658043
Having taught philosophy for nearly 30 years I am well-acquainted with a variety of ethics texts, having received numerous copies over the years from various publishers. Some of these texts are extremely long and obtuse, others are superficial in the extreme. "Ethics: Discovering Right and Wrong" by the late Louis Pojman and James Fieser falls into neither of these categories. It is simply one of the best brief introductions to ethical theory on the market today.

Intended as a concise introduction to the major theories concerning the nature of morality, the book does not probe any of these theories in depth. But that is not its purpose. Although intended as an overview, which leads to the occasional but inevitable oversimplification, it does its job of providing the introductory student an acquaintance with the various options.

Its chapters include an introductory one ("What is Ethics?"), followed by chapters on ethical relativism, moral objectivism, value and the quest for the good, social contract theory and the motive to be moral, egoism, self-interest, and altruism, utilitarianism, Kant and deontological theories, virtue theory, religion and ethics, the fact-value problem, and moral realism and the challenge of skepticism.

Helpful features include the following:  At the end of each chapter there is a section entitled "For Further Reflection," which includes several thought-provoking questions on the issues the chapter discusses. Each chapter also lists suggestions for further reading. Finally, an appendix is included that contains a four-page article on "How to Read and Write a Philosophy Paper."
3818715
I will admit to being a co-author with Henry Devries a few years ago (Pain Killer Marketing), but I am truly impressed with the level of insight in this book. Warren Buffett is revealed to be a man of keen intelligence and focus. He does more than due diligence, he understands how people think when he does business with them. This is key to making a deal that benefits everyone, the best kind of deal.

The book is well-written and easy to read, whether you want to just understand a major figure in American business or really study what he does so well. As an Adjunct Professor in Marketing and Market Research at UCSD Extension, I appreciate the level of detail available in the book for business students to digest and understand.

This book is a good read, a valuable book, as well as an in-depth look at the workings of an important figure in American business. You may not like everything Warren Buffett does or says, but you will admire his passion for knowing what it takes to get the "deal" accomplished.
2933405
Michael Sandel thoroughly identifies and analyzes the question of ethical and unethical action and process. Using relevant analogy and personal experience his arguments regarding the morality of markets and limitations of justice are particularly well defined.
917691
This brief book is the product of an academic collaboration but its professorial essays are mercifully clear and free of academic jargon. This collection, edited by John Ward, explores the performance, management and governance issues that matter most to family businesses. The title refers to the fact that family-owned companies are unconventional, at least in comparison to publicly owned businesses and, therefore, they need a distinctive management approach. Family businesses derive competitive advantage from precisely those practices that conventional managers abhor - such as nepotism. We recommend this book to anyone engaged in a family business, and certainly to other academics studying this subject.
2296451
In this work, Dr. Pirocacos gives us an excellent introduction to the topic of ethics.  With philosophical terms clearly defined and replete with edifying examples of the presented concepts, it is an enjoyable thought provoking read that is accessible to a wide audience.  The book also contains an excellent bibliography for those wishing to delve deeper into the ideas presented.  Highly recommended!
572707
Great book!!!
Luckily I did not miss the story as I always read articles by Beth Mclean in Fortune. When the book was published I could not wait to order it via Amazon...
Again, this book contributes invaluable things to learn, how we need ethics in business more than just follow the rules...
Bravo,
Imam Soeseno
Bogor, Indonesia
2843292
David Swenson explains that, as the leader of a sophisticated team of full-time investment professionals, he produced an unparalleled 20-year annual return of 16.1% for Yale University's endowment fund. The high returns are achieved, in large part, because of the endowment's tax-exempt status which enables the investment team to engage in frequent trading necessary to conduct day-to-day real-time "portfolio rebalancing" while avoiding the adverse tax consequences associated with realization of capital gains. Few institutions and even fewer individuals have the resources necessary to conduct the trading activities which helped achieve these high returns over the long term, but now, ordinary investors have heretofore unavailable access to passively managed index funds and exchange-traded funds which provide them with opportunities to achieve reasonable returns. Index funds have been available to institutional investors for a long time (John Bogle's Vanguard 500 Index Fund was the first; Lee Kranefuss of iShares invented the etf in 1971), but not to most ordinary investors, who are blissfully unaware that nearly all of the actively managed mutual funds available for their defined-contribution retirement plans fail to keep up with benchmark indexes over the long term, ironically because of the funds' trading activities, and because of their tax disadvantages and wide range of parasitic fees, commissions, kickbacks and other assorted rakeoffs, including 401(k) pay-to-play bribes. Most investors don't know the difference between "actively managed" and "passively managed", and many of them are lulled into blissful ignorance by the cult of money-management personalities, brand-name attraction, and investment spin which misleads investors by distracting attention from meaningful details. Swenson recommends that ordinary investors should investigate the opportunities now available by investing in passively managed index funds and etfs, and he provides suggestions for setting up relatively simple, diversified portfolios without any actively managed funds. Investing in just one holding, an S&P500 index fund or etf, provides the equivalent of a 500-stock portfolio, diversified over many sectors. Actively managed fund real returns are, for the most part, pathetic, especially when considering the high compensation paid to the managers, the fund companies` profits, management failure to beat the benchmarks, and the investor's potential tax consequences. The book is easy to read and understand, and there are plenty of tables and charts which help to illustrate the concepts. Highly recommended, especially for those who want a realistic view of the mutual fund industry.
4498148
As a financial expert and martial artist I am always combining the principles of personal and financial self-defense and referring to Sun Tzu. Ms. Sheetz-Runkle has done an admirable job of tying together the "Art of War" teachings and good business strategy. Anyone who wants to achieve success in business should read it.

Hollis Colquhoun, author
<a data-hook="product-link-linked" class="a-link-normal" href="/Women-Empowering-Themselves-A-Financial-Survival-Guide-For-Women-at-Risk-of-Drowning-Financially-Before-During-and-After-Divorce/dp/1598589814/ref=cm_cr_arp_d_rvw_txt?ie=UTF8">Women Empowering Themselves: A Financial Survival Guide - For Women at Risk of Drowning Financially Before, During and After Divorce</a>
4578490
Behavioral Investment Management: An Efficient Alternative to Modern Portfolio Theory is a treasure-trove of insights into the rhythms of the seemingly chaotic markets and how they are perceived by market participants based on their psychology of greed and fear.  Written by leading practitioners of distinguished academic pedigree, the honest and eyes wide open analysis is a refreshing departure from the over idealized theories that have emanated from academic finance.

The book clearly introduces the investment management landscape, the shortcomings of traditional portfolio theory, and provides specific guidance to overcome those shortcomings and tailoring portfolio allocation to your specific psychological response to risk.  Beginners and seasoned professionals alike will benefit from this book by leapfrogging ahead of unrealistic theories while armed with a holistic set of empirical facts and practical approaches towards portfolio allocation decisions that are "all-weather" in nature and grounded in realism.

The approaches outlined in this book call for a revolution in investment management for the common investor that can make available to them suitable approaches heretofore only afforded to the elite investors.  I highly recommend this book to students and practitioners.
2736042
For several decades, marketing has become a term that refers more to an expression of image creation and sales support than a way in which organizations respond to the needs and problems of markets and consumers.  Anne Bahr Thompson changes this perception by documenting that greater financial rewards are generated by empathy and good behavior.  Do Good is a watershed book.  It describes where marketing has been, what it is today, and lays out a path that marketers should follow as they move forward in the new world of data, information, and connectivity.  Do Good confirms that while we have always known that the fundamental role of marketing is as a creator of long-term value, the lack of accepted measurements has often prevented the implementation of programs that might deliver that value.  Through the Brand Citizenship model, Thompson utilizes data and insight to create the correlation between market behavior and market response that reflects the creation of consumer satisfaction and financial reward.  Thompson presents evidence of higher customer loyalty, growing brand values, and increased market valuations, and directs us to see the future of marketing as more of a creator of assets and less of as a generator of sales.  Everyone working and teaching in marketing should read Do Good.