Estadistica Para Administracion y Economia

Book Description

One of the best-selling business statistics books on the market, offering a solid, comprehensive, applications-oriented approach. The success of this title has been threefold: 1) The authors are well-known, proven, and highly regarded in the field. 2) The discussion and development of each technique is presented in an application setting, with the statistical results providing insights into decisions and solutions to problems. 3) The text is proven-- Business professionals and students of business statistics have chosen it for its clarity, examples and exercises!

Customer Reviews:

estadistica para administracion.......2002-08-16

es muy bueno pero quisiera ver algo mas en detalle

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La Economia Long Tail
Chris Anderson
Manufacturer: Ediciones Urano
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

Economic Conditions | Economics | Business & Investing | Subjects | Books

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Consumer Behavior | Marketing & Sales | Business & Investing | Subjects | Books

Web Marketing | Business & Culture | Computers & Internet | Subjects | Books

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Matemática para la economía y las finanzas

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Matemática para la economía y las finanzas
Martin Anthony , and Norman Biggs
Manufacturer: Cambridge University Press
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Binding: Paperback

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Book Description

Los modelos matemáticos se han convertido en herramientas indispensables para las ciencias económicas, las finanzas, las ciencias empresariales y la dirección de empresas. Esto es así porque permite afrontar problemas que de otro modo serían difíciles de resolver. A lo largo del libro se enfatiza de qué modo las matemáticas están relacionadas con la economía, y esto se ilustra con numerosos ejemplos y ejercicios. Cada capítulo tiene tres partes: el texto principal, donde se desarrollan los conceptos clave; una sección en la que aparecen otros ejemplos con las soluciones; un resumen del capítulo junto con una selección de problemas para que el lector intente resolverlos.

Diccionario Bilingue De Economia Y Empresa/ Bilingual Dictionary of Business and Economics: Ingles-espanol/espanol-ingles (Economia Y Empresa / Economy and Business)

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Diccionario Bilingue De Economia Y Empresa/ Bilingual Dictionary of Business and Economics: Ingles-espanol/espanol-ingles (Economia Y Empresa / Economy and Business)
Jose Maria Lozano Irueste
Manufacturer: Piramide Ediciones
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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ASIN: 8436819888

Soviet planning and labor in peace and war,

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Soviet planning and labor in peace and war,
Maurice Herbert Dobb
Manufacturer: International Publishers
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Diccionario de Economia, Finanzas y Empresa =: Dictionary of Economics, Finance and Business

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Diccionario de Economia, Finanzas y Empresa =: Dictionary of Economics, Finance and Business
Guillermo Cabanellas De Las Cuevas , and Eleonor C. Hoague
Manufacturer: Heliasta
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Binding: Hardcover

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Diccionario de Economia, Finanzas y Empresa =: Dictionary of Economics, Finance and Business

ASIN: 9508850647

La Economia Social En El Norte y En El Sur

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La Economia Social En El Norte y En El Sur
Jacques Defourny , Patrick Develtere , and Benedicte Fonteneau
Manufacturer: Corregidor
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Economia Y Finanzas: Lecturas Y Vocabulario En Espa?ol (Economics and Finance)

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Specialized for the focused
Very Helpful
sencillo y muy informativo
Estudiante que quiere estudiar

Economia Y Finanzas: Lecturas Y Vocabulario En Espa?ol (Economics and Finance)
Conrad J. Schmitt , and Protase E Woodford
Manufacturer: McGraw-Hill
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

General | Popular Economics | Business & Investing | Subjects | Books

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ASIN: 0070568243

Book Description

Special Purpose Series In French and Spanish

With a growing number of companies looking for employees who can "speak the business" in a foreign language, individuals will find the competition for jobs fiercer than ever. Everyone can prepare for these challenges by choosing from this unique series.

Customer Reviews:

Specialized for the focused.......2005-06-20

As an MBA Student who has just accepted a Bulge Bracket offer in Latin America, I can understand some of the comments by the others who have posted. This book is not for those who don't have a good background in business or in Finance. But for those who really need to get into the specialized vocabulary that you will never find covered in the more traditional Spanish Books, this is probably one of the best.

Very Helpful.......2003-05-20

This book is a great idea if you plan on taking courses in Spanish that have anything at all to do with economics or finance. It would be useful for students studying abroad, or people that already speak some spanish and want to learn more about the vocabulary from a specific theme. Definetely a great book because it would be hard to find this sort of specialized information in normal Spanish textbooks.

sencillo y muy informativo.......2002-12-17

El libro es pequeno y rapido. No tiene muchisimas detalles de cada asunto pero funcciona bien si solamente quiere un resumen de cada asunto. Al contrario, si no sabe nada de los negocios vas a necesitar mas que ese libro, pero es uno que podria usar para un paso hasta la traduccion e interpretaccion bueno. (Hay muy pocos errores, pero no presta atencion de los numeros en Capitulo 16 porque aunque el vocabulario es corecto, los numeros no son siempre).

Estudiante que quiere estudiar.......2002-02-21

ellibr que quiero dise Economia y finanzas lecturas y vocabulrio
en español economics cuando llege el libro Al correo A lli lo pago si se puede y si no pues no grasias

Economia de Las Industrias Culturales En La Globalizacion Digital (Coleccion Lectores)

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Economia de Las Industrias Culturales En La Globalizacion Digital (Coleccion Lectores)
Claudio Rama
Manufacturer: Eudeba
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Media Studies | Social Sciences | Nonfiction | Subjects | Books

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Plan De Marketing / Marketing Plan: Analisis, Decisiones Y Control (Economia Y Empresa / Economy and Business)

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Plan De Marketing / Marketing Plan: Analisis, Decisiones Y Control (Economia Y Empresa / Economy and Business)
Joaquin Sanchez Herrera
Manufacturer: Piramide Ediciones Sa
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Product Description

What does the future hold for these giants that are the two fastest-growing emerging markets and among the three largest economies in Asia? Their economic muscle is having increasingly far-reaching effects on the global economy. This must-read new book draws together analysis and insight from high-level policymakers and advisors in both countries, and shows how, for many years, the two countries have cooperated and learned from each other. In addition, the book describes what has (and what has not) worked in each country and offers some concrete suggestions about how each may achieve long-term sustainable development.

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Banking Reform in India and China
Lawrence Saez
Manufacturer: Palgrave Macmillan
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Banking Reform in India and China seeks to explore the ways in which banking reform is conditioned by a variety of institutional mechanisms. To uncover these dynamics, Saez draws primarily from analytical tools developed in modern game theory and institutional economics. He provides a multidimensional analysis that covers microeconomic, macroeconomic, and institutional aspects of these two countries' banking systems. It ties together three themes of corporate governance, financial deregulation, and central bank independence to banking reform.

Banking Sector Liberalization in India: Evaluation of Reforms and Comparative Perspectives on China (Contributions to Economics)

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Banking Sector Liberalization in India: Evaluation of Reforms and Comparative Perspectives on China (Contributions to Economics)
Christian Roland
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"Banking Sector Liberalization in India" explores in detail the changes in the Indian banking sector over the last 20 years, and puts them into a comparative perspective with the Chinese banking sector. For this purpose, the author develops a detailed indicator-based framework for assessing the liberalization of a banking sector along various process steps based on financial liberalization and transformation studies. This framework, along with the indicators for the process and the results of liberalization, is applied to the banking sectors in India and China to test for the effects of liberalization on the sector and the macro level. The key finding is that while liberalization has improved the sectoral performance, it has so far had no effect on the macro level. The book features a detailed description of recent reforms in the Indian banking sector, a set of indicators for evaluating banking sector reforms, and a large number of graphs with key figures for the banking sectors in India and China.

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BANKING REFORM IN INDIA AND CHINA
Lawrence Saez
Manufacturer: Palgrave Macmillan
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ASIN: B000OTO6FW

Process Consultation: Its Role in Organization Development (2nd Edition)
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The use of process consultation to improve organizations

Process Consultation Volume II Review

Process Consultation Volume II Review

Process Consultation

Not your regular Consultant type

Process Consultation: Its Role in Organization Development (2nd Edition)
Edgar H. Schein
Manufacturer: Prentice Hall
ProductGroup: Book
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General | Organizational Behavior | Business & Investing | Subjects | Books
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Customer Reviews:

The use of process consultation to improve organizations.......2005-05-17

Edgar H. Schein is Professor of Management Emeritus in the Sloan School of Management at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He is a real academic heavyweight having written numerous books, articles and papers. In 1969 he published 'Process Consultation: Its Role in Organizational Development', of which he states that he "was writing more in anger than with perspective". In this follow-up book he tried to explain and clarify the concept of consultation and helping which was outlined in the first volume. "The goals of this new book, then, are (1) to reaffirm the concept of process consultation as a viable model of how to work with human systems, (2) to clarify the concept were needed, and (3) to introduce some modifications and new ideas that elaborate on the original ideas."

The book is split up in 3 parts. In Part I - Introduction and Overview, which consists of three chapters, Schein introduces the common grounds of managers and consultants (which is the helping orientation), process consultation, and "the process" itself. He introduces a definition of process consultation which "is a set of activities on the part of the consultant that help the client to perceive, understand, and act upon the process events that occur in the client's environment." Whereby he emphasizes that the concept of process central is to understanding consultation and management. "Process refers to how things are done rather than what is done." He continues, "Process is everywhere. In order to help, intervene, and facilitate human problem solving, one must focus on communication and interpersonal processes."

In Part II - Simplifying Models of Human Processes, which also consists of three chapters, Schein examines several models of consultation and argues that the process-consultation model works for consultants as interveners and is potentially most useful for managers. "The most important thing for managers or consultants to understand is what goes on inside their own heads." He introduces the basic ORJI cycle, which is based on the fact that our nervous system observes (O), reacts (R), analyzes, processes, and make judgments (J), and intervenes in order to make something happen (I). He later updates this cycle into a more realistic depiction of the ORJI cycle, through the introduction of 4 traps. Schein than states that the cultural rules of interaction is possibly the most powerful determinant whether a viable helping relationship will be established. In the final chapter of this part, he examines in detail a simplified model of the change process: (1) Unfreezing; (2) changing; and (3) refreezing.

In the final part of the book - The Consulting Process in Action, which is also the longest part of the book with five chapters, the author examines in detail the strategy and tactics of intervention. "The most important point to be made about clients is that the consultant must always be clear who the client is at any given moment in time, and must distinguish clearly among contact, intermediate, primary, and ultimate client." Schein discusses what the consultant or manager can actually say or do to accomplish some of the goals of process consultation. "The strategy and tactics of intervention have to be guided by the ultimate assumptions underlying the helping process." In addition, he provides categories of types of interventions and discusses the possible dilemmas that can arise in the consultation processes. "The skill of intervening is to be so tuned in to what is going on that one's sense of timing and appropriateness is based on the external events, not one's internal assumptions or theories."

Yes, this is a good book on process consultation. I was somewhat concerned when I started reading this book, due to Schein's highly academical background. However, the book has been a revelation. It is highly practical and has good tips on which can be put in practical use. I believe that it useful for both consultants and managers, as the author set out from the start. I believe that the three parts can be read in any order, whereby the last part is possibly the most useful as it is the most practical. Please note that the writing style is now somewhat outdated and academical. Highly recommended to consultants and managers alike.

Process Consultation Volume II Review.......2003-06-21

In this second volume, Schein builds on Volume I by dissecting the nature of process and change in lieu of the specific group processes that make or break effective group work. Likewise, in this volume, he brings the concept of process consultation home, so to speak, to help managers and leaders understand themselves and their organizations as a consultant might understand them.

Given that process consultation assumes that organizational leaders know their organizations best and are the most appropriate and capable managers of change, it makes sense that organizational leaders understand group processes. Schein emphasizes that diagnosing an organization's problems is intervening to fix them. He provides explanations of the circumstances when process consultation is most necessary. He advises leaders that more time must be spent intervening on how things get done than on what actually needs to get done. "An effective manager must be able to create situations that will ensure that good decisions are made, without making those decisions himself and without even knowing ahead of time what he might do if he had to make the decision alone." (p.39)

Schein provides a useful model for differentiating between the content, process, and structure of organizational challenges and the task and interpersonal aspects of those challenges. He advises that process should always be favored over content; that task aspects should always be favored over the interpersonal; and that structure, while potentially the most transformative element of change, is the most difficult area to address, because people will resist tampering with the comfort structure provides. He also provides explanations on the essential challenges relevant to content and process that every group must face. The lesson he offers for leaders and consultants is that whatever is done to solve a problem must begin with a clarification of the primary task of the group.

Schein devotes considerable space to explaining the ORJI model of intrapsychic processes. (We observe, we react - emotionally, we judge based on our observations and feelings, and we intervene to make something happen.) "The most important thing for managers or consultants to understand is what goes on inside their own heads." (p.63) The trap of ORJI is MIRI, i.e., that we misperceive, inappropriately react, react rationally based on bad data, and intervene incorrectly. To avoid the MIRI trap, we must check our cultural assumptions, our personal filters (see volume I), and our situational expectations based on previous experiences. Schein also provides a clear synthesis of the unfreezing, changing, refreezing model of change and improvement. In unfreezing, the motivation and readiness for change are developed; in changing, new points of view are adopted; and in refreezing, new points of view are integrated to affect changes in the process approaches to tasks.

Schein devotes most of the latter half of his book to explanations and analyses of intervention processes. He discusses the "exploratory", "diagnostic", "action alternative", and "confrontive" models of intervening, how they might initiated and when one might use each. "...The tactics of intervention should focus initially on exploration, inquiry, and diagnosis. Only when the consultant feels that the client is ready to think about alternative next steps is it appropriate to move to action alternatives and confrontive interventions." (p.157) Schein also provides specific kinds of interventions which might fall into any one of these four basic categories of intervention.

This volume, taken with the first, provide not only a clear theoretical framework for understanding organizational change, but also useful tools and approaches for pre-empting organizational roadblocks and addressing organizational dilemmas once they've appeared. These books are essential reading for any leader or consultant.

Process Consultation Volume II Review.......2003-06-21

Process Consultation.......2003-06-21

This volume and its follow-up, Volume II, are essential reading for consultants and anyone interesting in taking a leadership role in improving an organization. Schein devotes entire chapters to the key human processes in organizations: communication, roles, group problem-solving, group decision-making, leadership and authority, intergroup processes, and interventions. In each one, he not only explains what he has learned through years of study and experience, but also the most salient aspects of organizational theory relevant to each area.

Schein differentiates process consultation from other forms of consultation by first making clear the role of the process consultant, who is not an expert providing information or advice, but rather a coach who seeks to help a client understand and act on events, which happen in the client's organization. Consulting is helping the client to understand problems and to decide how to solve them. The consultant's role is to teach diagnostic and problem-solving skills, not to work on the actual problems.

Communication is a central group process critical for effective functioning of groups and organizations. The process-consultant can help a client understand the communication patterns in a group by assessing who talks whom and how much. Interruptions, who interrupts whom, how much and when can be useful information when attempting to diagnose an organization's shortcomings. Schein includes in this chapter an explanation of the filters, which inhibit or enhance an individual's capacity to communicate effectively. They are: self-image, the image of other people, the definition of the situation, motives, feelings, intentions, attitudes, and expectations. When groups come together to accomplish a goal, certain predictable tensions may undermine the groups ability to solve problems. Individuals in the group may be concerned with their own role in the group, their ability or expectation to influence the group, the need to have the group's goals connect with their own goals, or whether they will be accepted and respected in the group. Sometimes groups need assistance in identifying and processing these tensions before they can concern themselves with the necessary task and maintenance functions required to accomplish their task.

For groups to solve problems they must become good at problem formulation, evaluating solutions, forecasting consequences and testing proposals, action planning, implementing action steps, and evaluating outcomes. Schein offers sage advice for groups wishing to develop their capacity to improve: (1) Don't confuse the symptom with the problem itself (2) Don't evaluate courses of action prematurely - remain open (3) Test proposals using multiple sources and methods, and (4) Plan for action carefully and methodically. Schein offers clear explanations of various decision-making models, which are helpful for a consultant or leader to understand. Groups will function most effectively when the decision-making model is clear and understood. Often models are employed by default, which can alienate and undermine group members and subvert effective improvement efforts. A central failure of leadership is often the gap between what leaders say and how they behave. An effective leaders and process consultants need to become experts in this problem and its potential effects. Awareness of group processes will not only help the leader avoid interpersonal or intergroup problems, but it will also help solve them should they arise. Schein includes useful sets of Likert scales to rate group effectiveness and mature group processes; a model of the stages of group problem-solving; and a continuum of leadership behavior.

Schein's view of the process consultant as a capacity builder parallels his implicit view that organizational leaders need to understand and seek patterns of behavior that downplay coercion and expertise and emphasize participation and differentiated responsibility. This volume and its partner, despite their ages, are still relevant and useful to the leader or consultant.

Not your regular Consultant type.......2003-01-27

If you are interested in this high challenging and highly satisfying skill of becoming a process consultant, read this book, by one of the biggest names in the PC universe...Edgar Schien. This book is a classic and all OD consultants should read it !

Process Consulting is not the typical consulting intervention where 20 somethings come into your organization, do a survey and hand over a thick report after collecting $ per hour !!

Process Consulting is both an art and craft performed by people who intervene in organization systems that are seen as 'human systems' and are sensitive in not inducing 'dependency' of the client. The delicate art is to intervene at the process level rather than the content level and extricate without creating much ripples. Most known consulting deals with 'content' consulting and therefore has more measurale outcomes than the supposedly soft process consulting.

Process consulting is truly empowering and the consultant is a traveller in the process of discovery with the client, constantly asking questions.

Process Consultation : Its Role in Organization Development
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Process Consultation : Its Role in Organization Development
Edgar H. Schein
Manufacturer: Addison Wesley Publishing Company, Inc.
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
ASIN: B000OOIJHS

Process Consultation: Its Role in Organization Development (2nd Edition)
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Process Consultation: Its Role in Organization Development (2nd Edition)
Edgar H. Schein
Manufacturer: Prentice Hall
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
ASIN: B000OOQ0EM

Finding Fertile Ground: Identifying Extraordinary Opportunities for New Ventures
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Common Sense Primer for Technology Entrepreneurs Both Aspiring and Established

The Ten Rules of Technology Entrepreneurship

Read While You're Thinking of Starting a Business

Required reading if you are looking at a technology oriented venture

It should be read by everyone in business

Finding Fertile Ground: Identifying Extraordinary Opportunities for New Ventures
Scott A. Shane
Manufacturer: Wharton School Publishing
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

General | Business & Investing | Subjects | Books
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Book Description

The first complete framework for successful high-tech entrepreneurship! Most efforts at starting a new business fail. But yours can succeed if you find the right market and understand the key success factors. This book shows how. Drawing on compelling new research, Dr. Scott Shane reveals the drivers behind the world's successful knowledge-intensive startups, and helps you align the same drivers behind yours. Discover how to identify business opportunities that can support high-growth tech-based businesses, and refine your concept for even greater potential. Learn how to predict demand for products that don't exist yet... measure adoption and diffusion patterns... protect intellectual property... create high barriers to entry... exploit competitors' weaknesses... manage risk in high-risk ventures... and much more.

Identify your best market opportunity -- and be the first to exploit it
Clear, engaging, practical coverage of the challenges unique to high tech startups
Proven solutions for managing risk, innovation, and intellectual property
Based on new research on high-tech success factors by one of the world's top experts
For every potential entrepreneur, investor, and team member -- from biotech to manufacturing, telecom to robotics

Simply put, Finding Fertile Ground gives you the tools you need to beat the odds, win... and win big.

Customer Reviews:

Common Sense Primer for Technology Entrepreneurs Both Aspiring and Established.......2006-04-29

Aspiring technology entrepreneurs should pay heed to Scott A. Shane, an economics and entrepreneurship professor at Case Western Reserve University, as he has written a comprehensive, easy-to-absorb primer on how to build a solid foundation for such a venture. Divided into ten chapters, the book covers fundamental factors such as assessing market appetite and focusing on opportunities that others have neglected and then delves into the more challenging areas of diving first into uncharted territory and protecting intellectual property.

The ten sections covered are: (1) industry selection; (2) key market opportunities; (3) evolution of technology; (4) isolation of market needs; (5) customer adoption; (6) exploitation of competitive weaknesses; (7) intellectual property; (8) returns on innovation; (9) organizational structure; and (10) risk and uncertainty. Shane focuses on technology not as a defining factor of the venture but in the broader sense as the primary means toward creating new products, exploiting new markets, finding creative ways of organizing, incorporating new raw materials, and identifying new processes to meet customer needs. Within this schema, he encompasses biologically-based technologies and those related to manufacturing as well as the more traditional realm of information technology.

Through his thoughtful analysis, the author does a compelling job of debunking two common myths. First, he shows that dot-com busts have been less indicative of the inherent risk of online ventures than they have of poor strategy and that new restaurants and retail stores are far riskier alternatives. Second, he illustrates how the us-versus-them mindset people have about entrepreneurs is self-debilitating, i.e., personal characteristics have less to do with successful entrepreneurs than structural factors in explaining performance. With the Horatio Alger legacy indelible in our memories, we have been raised to think special human qualities make entrepreneurs who they are, meaning they represent a special breed who work harder, take greater risk and retain a purer vision. Empirical evidence proves that such qualities are not as important as isolating those valuable opportunities and running with them. In fact, those qualities so admirable at the beginning of a venture can jaundice into counterproductive hubris.

The author also spends a good amount of time on the science of customer adoption and how it takes the form of an S-curve despite what many hope to be a more linear pattern. Accepting the S-curve is critical because it should shape the way an entrepreneur projects the timing of demand, product development and competitive response. The most interesting sections of the book focus on intellectual property protection and the criticality of patents in technology. Overall, Shane has written a valuable textbook for anyone smart enough to ask why versus how to start a new venture and what are the key ingredients to make it successful. Also included is a CD which has a summary of each chapter and an interview with the author.

The Ten Rules of Technology Entrepreneurship.......2005-12-04

“Obviously, something separates successful entrepreneurs from the masses who try their hand at this activity every year. This book identifies the key differences between the successes and the masses – the selection of the right business concept to exploit a valuable opportunity. The central goal of this book is to provide you, as a potential or actual technology entrepreneur, with the tools necessary to identify the right business concept to exploit a valuable opportunity when you establish your business. Of course, the information provided in this book will not guarantee you success in a high-technology entrepreneurship. Much in the same way as having the right form for a jump shot will not guarantee that a basketball player will earn $20 million per year in the NBA, understanding what makes a business a good one for an entrepreneur to start will not guarantee that you, as an entrepreneur, will take a start-up public, replace the leading companies in an industry, or even to profitable. However, understanding the information in this book, and following the rules that it outlines, will dramatically increase the probability of a successful outcome (from the Introduction).”

In this context, Dr. Scott A. Shane divides this excellent study on entrepreneurship into ten chapters as the ten rules of technology entrepreneurship. He defines main idea behind the chapters with the following sentences:

• Chapter 1. Selecting the Right Industry: This chapter focuses on identifying the attributes that make an industry favorable to new firms. The first section provides empirical evidence of the differences in the favorability of different industries to new firms. The subsequent sections each review different dimensions of industry differences that influence the performance of new firms: knowledge conditions, demand conditions, industry life cycles, and industry structure.

• Chapter 2. Identifying Valuable Opportunities: To be successful, you need to start your new business in response to an opportunity to create a new product or service that meets customer needs that have not been satisfied adequately, or that satisfies customer needs in a much better way than established companies satisfy them. So, where do these opportunities come from? What form do they take? How do successful entrepreneurs match opportunities to innovation? How do successful entrepreneurs identify these opportunities? This chapter answers these questions.

• Chapter 3. Managing Technological Evolution: This chapter focuses on explaining several key characteristics of managing the process of technological evolution. The chapter:

- Explains why technologies follow evolutionary patterns that open up discrete points of transition that are valuable for entrepreneurs to exploit

- Describes the S-shaped pattern of technological development and the implications of this pattern for technology entrepreneurs

- Discusses the role of dominant designs and explains how these designs influence competition by entrepreneurial ventures

- Describes technical standards and how entrepreneurs can use strategic action to focus them around their products and services

- Explores increasing returns businesses, explaining both why increasing returns businesses exist, and how entrepreneurs should approach those industries to be successful

• Chapter 4. Identifying and Satisfying Real Market Needs: It explains how successful entrepreneurs go about identifying customer needs for high technology products and services in ways that go beyond the traditional market research methods of surveys and focus groups. The chapter provides insight into why and how the advantages of successful new firms lie in product development rather than in manufacturing or marketing. Finally, the chapter explains how successful technology entrepreneurs identify the key decision makers in purchasing decisions, as well as how these entrepreneurs price their new products and services to make them attractive to these decision makers.

• Chapter 5. Understanding Customer Adoption: This chapter focuses on some requirements that you need to meet if you are interested in securing customer adoption of your new products and services. You need to understand the likely distribution of adopters of their products and services to target their customer base effectively. You need to follow particular strategies to transition from innovators to the majority of the market. You need to select the right segment of the market on which to focus to transition to the majority of the market. You need to assess the size and growth rate of the markets that you are entering. You need to pay attention to the factors that affect the rate of influence diffusion and substitution of new technology products and services.

• Chapter 6. Exploiting Established Company Weaknesses: This chapter identifies the specific weaknesses of established companies, and explains how you can go about exploiting them.

• Chapter 7. Managing Intellectual Property: This chapter:

- Discusses basic ideas behind appropriating the returns to innovation

- Explains why it is so easy for established firms to imitate the entrepreneurs’ new products and services, laying the groundwork for understanding why it is important to develop a plan for deterring imitation

- Discusses one of the most important parts of a plan for deterring imitation – the management of secrecy

- Discusses another important part of a plan for deterring imitation – the use of patents as a legal barrier to imitation

• Chapter 8. Appropriating the Returns to Innovation: This chapter discusses several ways to capture the returns to introducing new products and services, including obtaining control over resources, establishing a reputation, exploiting learning curves, becoming a first mover, and exploiting complementary assets in manufacturing, marketing, and distribution. Each of the sections discusses the conditions under which one of these approaches is effective.

• Chapter 9. Choosing the Right Organizational Form: This chapter explains when you are best off owning the various parts of the value chain, such as product development, manufacturing, and distribution, and when you are best off using market-based mechanisms, such as licensing, franchising, and strategic alliances, to control them.

• Chapter 10. Managing Risk and Uncertainty: This chapter:

- Explains how successful entrepreneurs manage uncertainty in the process of developing new technology companies

- Describes the problems that uncertainty imposes on new technology companies

- Explains why you must either reduce uncertainty or give shareholders a greater portion of returns as a way to manage the start-up problem

- Discusses the risk reduction strategies that you should employ

- Talks about the approaches you can use to reallocate risk to those better able to bear it

- Discusses the strategies that you can use to manage perceptions of risk

- Identifies two tools that you can use to manage risk: real options and scenario analysis

- Explains how you can convince stakeholders to bear risk for you

Strongly recommended

Read While You're Thinking of Starting a Business.......2005-12-03

I haven't quite decided what to think of this book.

On the one hand, I believe he is quite right in saying that starting a computer software company that makes the Inc 500 is 823 times higher than the odds of starting a hotel that made the list. On the other hand I also believe he is correct when he says that you should understand the ground rules of the business you are entering. There's a new Mexican restaurant a couple of blocks away. The owners are a man and wife recently come to our country. His chances of starting a software company are pretty slim. But they do good Mexican food. So far his restaurant looks to be quite successful.

This book contains information that would be of value to anyone thinking of starting a business, but it is really oriented to the technology fields. It presumes that you have some capability in some technology area. Perhaps as a computer type you might want to think of bioinformatics software rather than yet another word processor.

This book is excellent on how to evaluate technology opportunities. His chapter on managing intellectual property is hands down the best I've ever seen. His explanation of 'crossing che chasm' from the early adoptors to the mainstream user is very good.

The book, unusual for a business book contains a CD. On the CD is a short (20 minute or so) summary of the book. This gives you a good understanding of what you will be reading. And there is a discussion between Dr. Shane and a business leader on the overall concepts of the book.

I wouldn't suggest you start a business without reading this book. Unless of course you don't read English very well but you do cook good Mexican food.

Required reading if you are looking at a technology oriented venture.......2005-11-24

The entrepreneurial spirit is alive and well in America. This is true even while forty percent of new businesses close in under a year and only twenty five percent make it to their eighth year. What determines which ones will be successful? While it is partly management skill and other business acumen it also depends in great part on picking the right venture. The purpose of this book is to help the reader find the right venture in the technology arena.

Throughout the book there are many instances of excellent advice condensed to only a few sentences in sidebars. The focus is on finding the right business instead of how to manage it or how to start it or similar information typically found in such books. The author's point is well made when he states that reality dictates that a biotechnology firm simply has a better chance of success than a restaurant. But even within the technology arena many other factors must be considered including mature industries, competition, concentration of large companies, and others. This is truly a book about how to find and how to evaluate a potential opportunity in the technology field. For those looking to start a venture in the technology arena Finding Fertile Ground is required reading.

It should be read by everyone in business.......2005-07-17

This is a book that all potential entrepreneurs should read. As a group, they have to be extremely optimistic people, with an overwhelming confidence in their ideas and beliefs. However, there is a downside to this, namely that it is so easy to fall into the trap of self-delusion. Lacking grounding in reality, most people who start new businesses fail, their optimism is simply not backed up by the facts on the ground.
Ten fundamental rules to creating and nurturing a new business are given. They are:

*) Select the right industry.
*) Identify valuable opportunities.
*) Manage technological transitions.
*) Identify and satisfy real market needs.
*) Understand customer adoption and market dynamics.
*) Exploit established company weaknesses.
*) Manage intellectual property effectively.
*) Create barriers to imitation.
*) Choose the right organizational form.
*) Manage risk and uncertainty effectively.

The value of this book is not based on the rules in this list, but in the explanations of why they are given and how one should implement them. One chapter is devoted to a thorough explanation of each of the rules and several examples are given. These examples clearly demonstrate circumstances where a new business can succeed, but even more importantly, situations where it is most unlikely that a new business could succeed.
There are several sidebar boxes scattered throughout the book. Some are titled "Stop! Don't Do It!", and contain a short list of actions that are almost certainly doomed to failure. Near the end of each chapter, there is a box entitled, "Questions to Ask Yourself", which as the name implies, is a list of questions that should be completely examined and answered before any new business venture is launched. If you can honestly answer those questions, and the key is of course satisfying the "honestly" criteria, then you can maximize the chances that you will select a business that can succeed.
The book package also includes a CD containing an audio summary and interview. I strongly recommend this book for anyone contemplating, starting, or running any business. Even people who are managing successful businesses will find information of value here. After all, most entrepreneurs succeed by exploiting the failures of established businesses rather than by creating business value that others have not considered.

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