No comments about Enterprise Project Management Using Microsoft Office Project Server 2007: Best Practices for Implementing an EPM Solution.

5 comments about Made-to-Order Lean: Excelling in a High-Mix, Low-Volume Environment.

1. Given the lack of "Lean for low volume" books out there, my hope was this book would be full of meaningfull tools. It ended up more like the a re-hash of any of the available Toyota books.
   
   Would have liked a more consistent stlye to the book. It ranges from digital photos to cartoonish sketches to Excel charts when giving examples.



2. This book is very practical and hands on. It shows a very practical roadmap for implementing lean when you have high variety and low volume. I found it easy to read and liked the actual examples and came away with many new ideas to go forward with in the job shop which I work. It is great to finally see a book that deals with lean outside high volume with actual methods and examples and even helps in the office and accounting areas.
   
   Sammuel Mason



3. Made-To-Order Lean provides the lean practitioner excellent guidance and instructions for applying the powerful concepts and methodologies of lean thinking to the most difficult of production environments, the job shop. As such, this book takes a major step forward in extending the reaches of lean thinking to high-mix, low-volume operations. It addresses the lean practitioner, someone who already has a basic understanding of lean principles and tools, and illuminates the ideas, tools, and principles that are most appropriate to the high-mix, low-volume environment. It is written in a very easy-to-read, down-to-earth manner. This is a guide book on how to do it with an abundance of great practical ideas and solid framework for implementing lean in the job shop. Mr. Lane starts off by showing how to use appropriate visuals to manage from the shop floor in real time. The use of visual management is built upon and emphasized throughout the book. For example, Mr. Lane explains how to use day-by-hour boards or FIFO boards and lanes to more effectively plan and control the flow of work through shared resources typically found throughout job shops. Mr. Lane is particularly effective in explaining how to use the powerful value stream mapping tool in the low-volume environment whereby the practitioner is faced with a multitude of products being produced across numerous shared resources. He gives great insight as to areas in the current state to evaluate for improvement in the future-state value stream. Mr. Lane explains how to manage inventories in the high-mix environment by having MRP manage the low-volume parts while utilizing a pull system (usually a kanban system) to manage the higher-volume repeating parts (the runners). This clever hybrid solution of combining kanban and MRP is thoroughly explained. These are but a few examples of the insightful explanations given for deploying lean principles in the high-mix, low-volume environment covered in Made-To-Order Lean. For me the book clarified many issues I was having applying lean thinking to the job shops with which I am associated. I came away with numerous ideas and a good grasp on how to greatly improve the operations with which I am involved. It is definitely a must-read book for the lean practitioner trying to improve make-to-order operations through the application of the powerful principles and tools of lean.



4. While this book claims to disseminate high mix, low volume production, it leaves the meat to Kevin Duggan's book "Creating Mixed Model Value Streams". Duggan's book is quite good, so the reference is appropriate.
   
   The book has some great visual management examples that are useful, but the planning and execution of high mix, low volume or even high mix, high volume is missing.



5. This book could have been better for me, but overall I liked it and found it useful. I work for a low volume Hi-mix company coming from a a hi-mix, hi-volume background. I found the traditional approaches were not going to work. Groping in the dark and some trial and error, I was coming to myown conclusions, when I found this book.
   
   It is not a complete compendium of all lean tools. It refers you out to Duggan's Book (Mixed Models) and others for deeper dives into particular tools.
   
   What is does do is give you a frame work to apply known tools to the low-volume problem. Traditional pull is ineffective if you make once or once or twice a year. Pull is still good, but the application of the tool is different because the circumstance is different.
   
   The big learning out of this for traditional lean guys is; the tools still work, how and when to apply them changes. The skill in the practioner is learning the new how and when.
   
   Quick overview in lo-volume: Traditional product families will be harder. Value stream maps are less important. Employee contribution and understand are much more critical. Focus on flow through the system. Focus on visual management of the team/cell, train the managers how to manage in that environment. Pull what you can pull... flow the rest. Mix kanban and MRP. Mix pull and push/flow. Focus on what works.
   
   I would have liked a more definitive answer, but as the author wrote, the different circumstances of company's varies so much at this end of the spectrum, what is right for the 4 a day guy may not be for the 4 a month or 4 a year. Principles hold.... tools and applciations change.

5 comments about God Wants You to Be Rich: How and Why Everyone Can Enjoy Material and Spiritual Wealth in Our Abundant World.

1. This book is PHENOMENAL, and I'm no rookie when it comes to reading this type of material. You name the author, I've gotten at least a piece of him/her: Kiyosaki, Robbins, Hansen, Hill, Carnegie, Orman, Schwartz.

   "God wants you to be rich" is PHENOMENAL, and I can't wait to track down everything else he's written. So far, the title has been completely misleading in that I was expecting something ENTIRELY different. Then again "economic theory and how it'll change" is hardly an interesting title.

   Did I mention that this book is PHENOMENAL, and that it's REALLY PROPHETIC?? This is a pre-internet book, and yet it discusses how technology changes the world and the economy. No matter WHAT the title suggests, this book is NOT AT ALL what you'd expect. This book is entirely engaging; he writes with enough examples so you know EXACTLY what he means, and each one of them is FASCINATING.
   PLEASE do yourself a favor and READ THIS BOOK- it'll COMPLETELY change the way you see the economic world- ESPECIALLY if you're completely UNINTERESTED in it!




2. I haven't decided whether or not the title of this book is making it more saleable or not. I had a totally different idea about what this book would be about because of the title, and since I hadn't read anything else by Pilzer at the time, I was skeptical.
   THIS BOOK IS PHENOMENALLY FASCINATING.
   Again, the title is extremely misleading, and after asking the author about it, he said that his publisher gave it that title. Of course, the title of "Why economics are like they are" might be more appropriate, but it is in no way indicative of how PHENOMENALLY FASCINATING this book is.
   I am EXTREMELY GRATEFUL that the title made me buy the book, and was happily deceived by it. One of my top favorites ever, and you'll note that I read ALOT. PLEASE read this book- it will make you INFINITELY more informed.



3. Yes, God does want you to be rich, but please avoid Judas' fate. He was mislead by his desire/attachment to wealth and as a result he betrayed Jesus. When he realized he had been used by well intentioned religious leaders, he killed himself. Beware of your own motive for riches. And yes, God has blessed me with wealth.



4. I have listened to a great many people talk about the poverty of people and portraying themselves as the saviors of the have-nots. It always made me feel like I was from another planet because their rhetoric did not make sense at all. These people think that robbing one group of people Marxist style and give it to another would some how bring an end to poverty. Driven by envy they have convinced millions to think that their lack was caused by the ingenuity and industriousness of others who recognized the benefits of a free market economy which Karl Marx dubbed Capitalism.
   
   Now I am back on earth because Paul Zane Pilzer debunked the poverty myth and confirmed my thoughts on the subject. It gives an excellent account of what is causing the never ending cycle of poverty. It is not ingenuity nor is it capitalism. Poverty is caused by the lack of faith and the continued indoctrination that government is responsible for peoples well being. I love the title because faith is the force that moves you to make things happen. The following excerpt says it all.
   
   "In his last great book Capitalism, Socialism and Democracy the economist Joseph Schumpeter predicted that capitalism would eventually self-destruct because the people displaced by advancing technology would democratically vote in a socialist form of government."
   
   "The word "economics" comes from the Greek word oikonomia meaning the "management of a household." While today "economics" has come to mean the study of business and government issues by professional academics, the real economists in our society are the ones who practice economics--the hundreds of millions of people seeking to economically manage their own households or lives every day."
   
   And when it comes to continually proving Schumpeter wrong in what he regarded as his great triumph, there is nothing more important than the role that now befalls you, the real economist, the reader of this book--the role to continually teach every member of our society how and why we live in a world of abundance, and how and why God wants every one of us to be rich. God bless you."
   
   Instead of beating the same old poverty of the people drum the saviors of the have-nots need to read this book and give up the antiquated mindset that is doing the same thing over and over again but expecting different results. Poverty begets poverty but God wants all his children to be rich not just some...go for Yankee ingenuity!
   
   God Wants You to Be Rich: How and Why Everyone Can Enjoy Material and Spiritual Wealth in Our Abundant World



5. The author wrote an interesting book on economics and technology long ago. It was published in the late 1980s or early 1990s. Then he became a tiresome and annoying fundamentalist. Since then he has written nothing worth reading. A friend gave me his copy of this title after losing interest in it by the third chapter. I managed to read the entire book on a plane ride. Unfortunately, it was the only reading material I had.
   
   If god wants you to be rich, it appears that he hates 95% of humanity because it's poor.
   
   Don't waste your time and money on this tiresome religious propaganda.
   
   Here's a far better alternative: Randy Gage's Why You're Dumb, Sick, and Broke.

1 comments about The ABC's of Real Estate Investing (Paperback) & How to Find and Keep Good Tenants (Audio CD - 2006) (Rich Dad).

1. No doubt Ken has made a killing marketing his expertise through book sales and seminars. But don't get it twisted. Ken's expertise is real, hard-won, and proven. Be careful who you get your investing advice from. A property manager may be the most important person on your team - and that's Ken!
   
   He does not suggest that real estate investing is an easy way to make millions by only working 1 hour a week, with one hand tied behind your back - as so many real estate "gurus" suggest. It aint a gripping, emotional appeal to lead millions to become real estate investors like an alter call at church.
   
   It's a textbook, of sorts. I have successfully incorporated his conservative, methodical approach to my due diligence process for acquiring investments.
   
   Think about it: The marketers who made millions selling 'no money down' and 'weekend millionaire' how-to books are now selling how-to make millions buying foreclosures (From the poor, would-be investors who bought their first books, over-leveraged themselves, and now contribute to the flood of foreclosures on the market! Hmmmmm.).

5 comments about Big Think Strategy: How to Leverage Bold Ideas and Leave Small Thinking Behind.

1. While it's possible to run a successful business by incrementally improving your product and service, you'll forever be trying to defend your turf from others doing the same thing. The way to break free and win big is to "think big". Bernd H. Schmitt takes a look at that strategy in his book Big Think Strategy: How to Leverage Bold Ideas and Leave Small Thinking Behind. It's an unconventional style business book to create unconventional products and services.
   
   Contents:
   Big Think and the Trojan Horse
   Sourcing Ideas - Steaks and Sacred Cows
   Evaluating Ideas - How to Dig for the Gems
   Turning Ideas into Strategy - What Would Mahler Do?
   Executing Big Think - How to Pull the Ship over the Mountain
   Leading Big Think - Guts, Passion - or Just a Robot?
   Sustaining Big Think - From Sisyphus to Odysseus
   Epilogue
   Notes
   Index
   About Schmitt
   
   The first thing you notice about this book is that it's not the typical scholarly look at some management theory that sounds good on paper but probably wouldn't translate to real life. Schmitt digs right in and relates his ideas and actions that have been developed from many years of working with companies. Many of the applications of these ideas weren't part of some strategy session or formal "brainstorming" gathering, but rather the result of conversations on the train or over steaks with the leaders of companies that were struggling with these very issues. As such, the whole presentation of the concepts has a "real" feel to them. I liked that...
   
   The book centers around three leadership qualities and four strategy types you can use to move your company from small think to Big Think. The styles involve guts, passion, and perseverance. You have to stick with your ideas even though others might be against you. Your passion over the idea needs to translate into persuading others to buy into it. And most of all, you can't be the type to throw in the towel at the first sign of resistance. The strategy types are opposition, integration, essence, and transcendence. Opposition involves looking at the market and trying something that is in direct contrast to where others are blindly following. Integration is the art of bringing together ideas that on the surface may not seem to be complementary, but that once combined causes a whole new market paradigm. Essence means taking the core of an idea and taking it further than anyone else has. And finally, transcendence seeks to destroy the boundaries that current define the industry or market that you're in. But Schmitt doesn't just throw out ideas without examples. He brings together companies that embody these ideas. Look at companies and brands like Dove, Apple, Whole Foods, etc. It's really good stuff...
   
   Most anyone in business can easily read and benefit from this book. You owe it to your business and yourself to really think about what you're doing and where you're going. It may be that by changing your mindset, you may well become the next company that defines your industry.



2. A must have for any business manager! This book is a perfect read for anyone looking for simple and creative ways to bring innovative changes to their company. Schmitt has a great skill of combining business strategies with interesting anecdotes and humor, which makes the book an easy and fun read.



3. The author's ambitious goal is, as the title says, Big Think strategy is to leverage bold ideas and leave small thinking behind. There are some good insights in particular why large companies incentive systems are not set up for big and bold straegies. SWOT analysis vs. Big Think; there is more to strategy than just analysis and the difficulty developing Big Think strategies with generic strategy types (like Porter's cost leadership, differentiation & focus).
   
   I strongly believe that the concept of thinking big cannot be stressed enough. Where the weakness of the book starts is in its titel and goal; big think is great, but why bold? Big thinking can or cannot be bold. Big thinking is a strategic tool. To me, boldness is as important as thinking big, but in acting, not thinking. And now the fine nuances show; boldness should never be the strategy behind all of our actions. It is a tactical instrument, used at the right moment.
   
   All in all, a good 'refresher' on thinking big for business while far from a must read book.



4. Bernd Schmitt does it again with his Big Think Strategy: How to Leverage Bold Ideas and Leave Small Thinking Behind book.
   
   I read Schmitt's book on a plane ride from New York to Beijing and was captivated by it. Throughout the entire read, I was applying Schmitt's frameworks to my own industry and line of business and was frantically writing down all the ideas that emerged.
   
   Big Think Strategy is also not written like a traditional textbook which is quite refreshing in that regard.
   
   Overall, I see many types of professionals really getting alot out of Schmitt's new work (not just traditional executives). Schmitt's Big Think Strategy makes you think differently in whatever line of business you are in and I plan incorporating his frameworks within my unit and team immediately.
   
   Schmitt does it again with his Big Think Strategy book. BRAVO SCHMITT!!! BRAVO!!!



5. This is a fun book. Bernd H. Schmitt clearly enjoys not just working with ideas, but playing with them. To explain his concept, he draws on sources from Greek mythology to cyberspace. His examples range from IBM to the opera, and he explores creative analogies ("A strategy is like a great steak!") that show his lively mind and openness to learning from all kinds of sources. This book is not just entertaining, it is also useful. Schmitt shares a host of tips for producing new ideas and provides a big jolt of energy to help you get started. Reading this might make you want to roll up your sleeves and change everything about your business. However, Schmitt is breezy about potential challenges - talking about revolutionizing your industry won't do much good if you can't pay your rent. Thoughts about innovation fall along a spectrum. On one end are people who believe that many small changes or experiments can add up to marked change and market superiority; on the other end are those who think you have to make radical innovation in a sudden leap. Schmitt is very much on that end of the innovation spectrum. getAbstract recommends this book to those looking to jump-start their creative engines, to eager innovators and, since Schmitt focuses mostly on conceptual thinking, to those who can supply their own details.

1 comments about 2008 Super Guide to Grants, Grants, and More Federal Grants - Government Assistance for People and Small Business: Grants, Loans, Aid, Applications, New Programs, FOIA Records, CFDA (CD-ROM).

1. This CD is packed with lots of valuable information which is easy to understand and very informative. I plan on utilizing it today and for years to come. Thank You!

2 comments about A Bluestocking Guide: Economics.

1. Easy to understand what many think is a complicated subject, because it SEEMED complicated in my traditional Econ. books! Good for Jr. High to Adult in my opinion.



2. I'm a HUGE fan of the books written by the author these guides were written for, but these guides were NOT written by the author and they are long winded tedious and all the things the book for the guides aren't! They are not user friendly and the guides are costly in comparision with the books they represent. I bought several from the series at the same time I bought the books and while the books were fantastic, none of the guides were useful! Sorry! But, that's the facts. in this case Unexcited Teacher!

4 comments about Teach Yourself® Investing Online.

1. "Teach Yourself Investing Online", by Thomas S. Gray and Claire Mencke, is the ideal book for online investors, both novices and old-timers. The information is easy to understand, easy to read, and very interactive. There are sites to visit, quizzes and worksheets to fill out, and pages and pages of screenshots and sidebars and intriguing reading. This book can be used for quick reference or for straight-forward research. Very up-to-date and needed in this fast-paced Internet world, with online catalogs and stock trading sites, this book is your manual to succeed in this day in age. The book covers such subjects as stock quotes to saving for your child's college fund to shopping online. I was clueless and, frankly, frightened of the stock market and Internet investments before I peeked at these pages -- now I'm hooked, making extra money, and learning how to budget my finances. This book is for young and old investors alike, and it's easy to follow, with clear language and straight-forward visuals. It was obvious to me that these authors know what they're talking about. A must! If you think you could never make it in this busy online investing economy, you need this book! If you think you know all there is to know, you need this book! Finally, I read something I needed so much!



2. This is a very detailed book which covers all aspects on online investing. Most people can skip chapter 1 which shows basic Internet browsing and navigation. The rest of the book shows web pages you can look at. I like this book because the authors highlight and explain the different parts of each of the web pages. At 400 pages, this book is short enough so that you won't get bored and long enough that the author just don't explain a concept in a sentence or a paragraph. The authors give enough detail so that you can understand and profit.



3. Excellent and interesting, not stuffy at all. Easy to follow with practice lessons at the end of every chapter. Good essential information for the beginner investor, not just for online traders. Covers the "how-to's" of analyzing stocks and mutual funds to add to your portfolio put in easy to understand and fun terms. By: Ellen Hochman



4. This book was very good back in the "buy and hold years" of 1998-2001. It's still a good read and very enjoyable.
   
   These days, in my opinion, a trader needs more practical and up to date strategies especially if he wants to start day trading online on a regular basis.
   
   Stock trading is all about making buy and sell decisions. When you make a trade either your going to lose money or your going to make money, and some other times you will break even. When you win some body else will lose and so forth, but that's NOT what's important.
   
   The most important aspect of day trading is the "know-how" strategies you employ to make your buy & sell decisions. There are many "surefire" systems outhere, but you need to test them in order to discover which ones help you the most. That's part of your homework as an online stock trader. Test, test and test again.
   
   Complicated systems that rely on a truck load of technical analysis indicators can make you slow, and being slow in this game can be as dangerous as not knowing what to do in the first place.
   
   I think the worst thing that can happen to a beginner trader is to get information OVERLOAD. It's better to go step by step, and test a simple trading system that can show you how to focus on concrete ways to profit day in and day out.
   
   Fortunatly there are some good sites on the web today that can show you how to trade in a practical and effective way. One of those sites is Smart Day Trading (SmartDayTrading com)
   
   In the end, day trading is all about buying and selling according to your knowledge FILTER. Once you master and follow youre proven filter parameters like a clock, you can expect to start making serious amounts of cash on a consistent basis.

5 comments about Never Hire a Bad Salesperson Again: Selecting Candidates Who Are Absolutely Driven to Succeed.

1. This is an entry level interviewing book, with a strong sales pitch on using the author to administer testing & provide services to help you make better hires. It is a marketing brochure for consulting services hidden in a book you had to pay for...I do agree that you need to hire driven candidates (imagine that?) and that you better figure it out before you hire them, but the book offers damn little to get you there...except of course to use the author's testing and interviewing services.
   
   skip it!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!



2. It's incredibly frustrating to hire and invest in salespeople who flame out. This research, these interview questions and the tools the people provide, jump start the whole hiring process in the right direction. Authors also do a great job in translating complex findings into understandable concepts. Extemely valuable and user friendly to anyone hiring salespeople.



3. I'm Vice President of Sales for a stainless steel manufacturer, and have found this book very helpful in our sales hiring process. The book has given us a solid strategy to make sure we hire only those with the potential to be top producers. The interview techniques were easy to use and very revealing. I recommend the book to anyone who wants to hire "hunters" to grow their business.



4. Kevin Cushing - CEO, AlphaGraphics, Inc.
   
   This book really resonates with me as CEO. It offers solid conclusions from strong research, and a no-nonsense guide to separating the pretenders from potential sales providers in the selection process. We have gone on to use the DriveTest© referenced in the book and it has raised our selection game significantly. I highly recommend this as an important new resource for all hiring managers.



5. I read over 100 books on sales effectiveness a year and this book can save you and your company tens of thousands of dollars by preventing hiring mistakes. Most sales managers hire salespeople that are likeable and who can sell themselves. They think, "If he or she can sell me, they can sell anybody." Unfortunately, these salespeople often fall short because they are only perform well when it comes to telling you what you want to hear. I like this book for three reasons.
   1. The authors are top professionals in the field
   2. The book focuses on the salesperson's "drive" to succeed, the "fire in the belly."
   3. The authors give you a smart interviewing guide that allows you to look "under the hood" so you can find out what drives that person to win.
   It's a great little GPS for sales success, and a lot cheaper.

5 comments about When the Market Moves, Will You Be Ready?.

1. In this book, the author takes a top-down approach to investing. He combined macro economic factors with fundamental/technical approach to the market. In many ways, this book reminds me of Martin Zweig's Winning on Wall Street, which in my eyes is one of the greatest investing books ever published. This book gave me a great number of possible ideas I can use to develop potential models from, and for that it is well worth the purchase price, even if none of them pan out.



2. Very well written, clear, and concise book on the market, emphasizing using both fundamental value and technical chart analysis to play the market. Perhaps the most important point made in the book is the author pointing out that one must pick strong stocks in strong sectors in order to be really successful. This tip might be worth the price of the book by itself, since 3 out of 4 stocks will ultimately follow the broad market anyway. (You can get that sector strength information from the Investor's Business Daily paper or the paid version of the website, but you'll have to pay the premium subscription price to get it).

   One other extremely interesting section is where the author shows that buying stocks during the cold months and selling them during the warm months of the year can produce almost twice the gains of holding them throughout the year. This strategy tested out as valid in the American market going back several decades and incredibly was valid in the British market going back to 1694. The basic point is that holding stocks from October to April resulted in an average return of about 12%, whereas holding them throughout the year resulted in a performance of almost half that, because stocks often declined during the warmer months. Again, that little tidbit of advice might be worth the price of the book by itself, and is reminiscent of the strategy of buying the index and going long when the stock market crosses its 200-day moving average on the upside, and shorting it when it crosses the 200-day moving average on the downside, which has produced an average return of 17%. I've looked at dozens of simple and complex strategies but I hadn't heard of this sort of seasonal strategy before and was very interested to find that out, and may give it a try myself. So overall, a fine book on the market that should be useful to the beginning as well as more experienced investor and trader.




3. Though the title of this book leads one to take it as the sequel to the author's first book "If it's raining in Brazil, buy Starbucks", it is quite different from it coz "if" is more like an "if then if then" excercise/reminder for relatively veteran investors, whilst this book is more like a beginner's guide to the author's concept of "Macrowave Investing", essence of which can be described by its three golden rules and four stages:-
   
   R1. Buy strong stocks in strong sectors in an upward-trending market
   R2. Short weak stocks in weak sectors in a downward-trending market
   R3. Stay out of the market and in cash when there is no definable trend.
   
   S1. Diagnose and prognose on corporate earnings news, flow of macroeconomic data, conduct of fiscal and monetary policy of govt, and exogenous shocks like wars and rain in Brazil, the so called four dynamic factors.
   S2. Determine broad market and individual sector trends wrt business cycle, stock market cycle and interest rate cycle.
   S3. Screen individual stock thru fundamental and technical analysis.
   S4. Uses risk/money/trade management tools
   
   The author said that this book is for all. As a professional trader, I believe that it is much more suitable for amateur long term stock investors who favors fundamental analysis. The coverage on S1 and S2 are brilliant, but not for S3 and S4. Serious investors should read some books else to compliment the inadequacies on TA and risk/money management.
   
   In short, a good book. The Q&A and resource reference in the end of each chapter is very helpful. A value buy!



4. Navarro's book is just excellent. He is a very good writer and an educator and knows how people learn. When you read this book you will want to keep your highlighter handy. He uses a very logical flow of concepts and supports them with good information. Of the over 200 stock market and investment books I've read over the past few years, this one is one of the best and you will go away saying...that really makes sense. This book easily stands on its own, so if you haven't read his If it is Raining in Brazil, don't worry about it. Just give it a read and you won't be sorry.



5. A great 'workbook' to build a solid foundation on for investing. The exercises at the end of each chapter as well as the suggested links and reference books are the reason why I feel confident entering the market today. This book is the course book for the Author's Audio CD, "Big Picture Investing." Either one or the other will do, having both is overkill-- as I did.