Cinematic Prophylaxis: Globalization and Contagion in the Discourse of World Health

Book Description

A timely contribution to the fields of film history, visual cultures, and globalization studies, Cinematic Prophylaxis provides essential historical information about how the representation of biological contagion has affected understandings of the origins and vectors of disease. Kirsten Ostherr tracks visual representations of the contamination of bodies across a range of media, including 1940s public health films; entertainment films such as 1950s alien invasion movies and the 1995 blockbuster Outbreak; television programs in the 1980s, during the early years of the aids epidemic; and the cyber-virus plagued Internet. In so doing, she charts the changes—and the alarming continuities—in popular understandings of the connection between pathologized bodies and the global spread of disease.

Ostherr presents the first in-depth analysis of the public health films produced between World War II and the 1960s that popularized the ideals of world health and taught viewers to imagine the presence of invisible contaminants all around them. She considers not only the content of specific films but also their techniques for making invisible contaminants visible. By identifying the central aesthetic strategies in films produced by the World Health Organization, the Centers for Disease Control, and other institutions, she reveals how ideas about racial impurity and sexual degeneracy underlay messages ostensibly about world health. Situating these films in relation to those that preceded and followed them, Ostherr shows how, during the postwar era, ideas about contagion were explicitly connected to the global circulation of bodies. While postwar public health films embraced the ideals of world health, they invoked a distinct and deeply anxious mode of representing the spread of disease across national borders.

Book Description

The Glagolitic Mass, written between 1926 and 1927, is not only one of Janá^D&cek's most important works: it is also a masterpiece of the twentieth-century choral repertoire. In this fascinating description of the Mass and its history, Paul Wingfield brings together information on all significant aspects of the work, including much that is new. In particular, he quotes important letters from and to the composer that have never previously been published. Chapters on the music itself offer a full synopsis of the work, the first in-depth study of the musical organization, and key interpretations of the work by Janá^D&cek and others.

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Janacek:Sinfonietta & Glagolitic Mass
Simon Cdangl 66995 Rattle
Manufacturer: Angelic Encounters Inc
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Audio CD

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ASIN: 630558527X

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Janacek:Sinfonietta Glagolitic Mass
Various Artists-Doma Cd7575 45200
Manufacturer: QUALITON IMPORTED LABELS
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Audio CD

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ASIN: 6307092157

Book Description

Why are a select few service firms better at what they do -- year in and year out -- than their competitors? For most senior managers, the profusion of anecdotal "service excellence" books fails to address this key question. In this pathbreaking book, world-renowned Harvard Business School service firm experts James L. Heskett, W. Earl Sasser, Jr. and Leonard A. Schlesinger reveal that leading companies stay on top by managing the service profit chain. Based on five years of painstaking research, the authors show how managers at American Express, Southwest Airlines, Banc One, Waste Management, USAA, MBNA, Intuit, British Airways, Taco Bell, Fairfield Inns, Ritz-Carlton Hotel, and the Merry Maids subsidiary of ServiceMaster employ a quantifiable set of relationships that directly links profit and growth to not only customer loyalty and satisfaction, but to employee loyalty, satisfaction, and productivity. The strongest relationships the authors discovered are those between (1) profit and customer loyalty; (2) employee loyalty and customer loyalty; and (3) employee satisfaction and customer satisfaction. Moreover, these relationships are mutually reinforcing; that is, satisfied customers contribute to employee satisfaction and vice versa.

Here, finally, is the foundation for a powerful strategic service vision, a model on which any manager can build more focused operations and marketing capabilities. For example, the authors demonstrate how, in Banc One's operating divisions, a direct relationship between customer loyalty measured by the "depth" of a relationship, the number of banking services a customer utilizes, and profitability led the bank to encourage existing customers to further extend the bank services they use. Taco Bell has found that their stores in the top quadrant of customer satisfaction ratings outperform their other stores on all measures. At American Express Travel Services, offices that ticket quickly and accurately are more profitable than those which don't. With hundreds of examples like these, the authors show how to manage the customer-employee "satisfaction mirror" and the customer value equation to achieve a "customer's eye view" of goods and services. They describe how companies in any service industry can (1) measure service profit chain relationships across operating units; (2) communicate the resulting self-appraisal; (3) develop a "balanced scorecard" of performance; (4) develop a recognitions and rewards system tied to established measures; (5) communicate results company-wide; (6) develop an internal "best practice" information exchange; and (7) improve overall service profit chain performance.

What difference can service profit chain management make? A lot. Between 1986 and 1995, the common stock prices of the companies studied by the authors increased 147%, nearly twice as fast as the price of the stocks of their closest competitors. The proven success and high-yielding results from these high-achieving companies will make The Service Profit Chain required reading for senior, division, and business unit managers in all service companies, as well as for students of service management.

Customer Reviews:

the bible.......2007-01-16

This should be everyone's bible. 6 stars! It is the best business book available . . . If you're going to read one book this is it...forget "one minute manager" or "good to great", "freakonomics" or "world is flat". Read this and know it and undersand its implications.

A Mandatory Reading for All Service Industry Executives.......1999-09-06

In "The Service Profit Chain," the author uses extensive case studies and empirical data to demonstrate how successful companies can achieve customer satisfaction, employee satisfaction, and at the same time, profit and customer growth. Too many companies are focused on the next quarterly earnings release that they don't ever see the lifetime value of their customers. Finally, managers at service industries won't have to keep trading off employee satisfaction in order to achieve customer sastisfaction, and customer satisfaction won't be viewed as a cost factor and a drag on profit growth. Service companies that just don't understand these concepts won't be around for long! As we embark into the e-commerce age, service and technology companies that can quickly apply these concepts within their business models (where there is no direct, face-to-face, contact with the customers) will build a truely competitive advantage. Let's review the successful ecommerce companies in 5 years, and see how many have adopted the principles in "The Service Profit Chain."

An excellent approach to designing a company.......1999-04-26

I think the authors provide a powerful and empirical approach to designing and analyzing a service organization for success. The recommendations are not always intuitive nor easy to implement, but, based on my experience in several industries, I think they are nearly always correct. With a partner, I am starting a own company and have read this book twice very carefully, with lots of notes in the margins, to make sure we do the important things well.

A Benchmark in Customer Value Management.......1999-03-10

This is the type of book that can change an entire corporate vision. The authors are meticulous in presenting their philosophy, and back every word with carefully researched examples from best practice companies. Unlike many of the "quick read" publications that present a superficial view of service (particularly from a marketing perspective), this book is clearly the result of several years work in the field. Every corporate manager who is serious about customer value management needs to take some time out to study the Service Profit Chain.

the magnum opus for the service management field.......1997-10-11

As a former student of Heskett's and Sasser's in the early '70's, I have followed their research in the field of service management. As a student and consulting practioner of "high performance service management" for 18 years, I have over 50 books in my library on "service management" with publication dates going back to 1976. This book provides not only a refined summary of all of the best service management theories, but it breaks new ground as far as making a new service order happen within a business.

If you want to truly achieve - distinctive and sustained levels of service, lower total costs, higher everyday margins, and happier, more loyal employees and customers, then this book is for you. It is well written and organized, but it is a process book instead of one with a lot of quick-fix, anecdotal stories that have been unproductively popular for too long. You will have to work intellectually to get through this book, but you will be conceptually re-oriented down the right path towards true competitive advantage.

The book does update and improve on the authors' own research and publishing - notably Heskett's book entitled "Service Breakthroughs" (Free Press, 1990). In the "what's new" department, what I liked best was the third part of the book sub-titled "Putting It All Together". To go from a top-down, financial management company to a bottom-up, service excellence performer takes a total transformation starting with the dated, unspoken core assumptions or beliefs of the CEO. The authors illustrate with case studies that big change is necessary for big gain, but it most often will involve some big pain. They do an excellent job, however, of preparing the would be change artist for the transformational bumps ahead.

D. Bruce Merrifield, Jr bruce@merrifield.com http://www.merrifield.com

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As Good As It Gets

A Good Idea, But not a Clear Argument.

The Value Profit Chain : Treat Employees Like Customers and Customers Like Employees
James L. Heskett , W. Earl Sasser , and Leonard A. Schlesinger
Manufacturer: Free Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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Similar Items:

The Service Profit Chain

Raving Fans: A Revolutionary Approach To Customer Service

Measuring Customer Satisfaction: Development and Use of Questionnaires

Putting the Service-Profit Chain to Work (HBR OnPoint Enhanced Edition)

Restructuring Health Care: The Patient-Focused Paradigm (Jossey Bass/Aha Press Series)

ASIN: 0743225694
Release Date: 2002-12-31

Book Description

James Heskett, Earl Sasser, and Leonard Schlesinger reveal powerful new evidence that paying close attention to the employee-customer relationship will enable any organization to be a low-cost provider and achieve superior results -- proving that you can have it all, a goal thought inadvisable just a few short years ago. At the heart of this bold assertion is the authors' indisputable conclusion supported by thirty-one years of groundbreaking research: today's employee satisfaction, loyalty, and commitment strongly influences tomorrow's customer satisfaction, loyalty, and commitment and ultimately the organization's profit and growth -- a quantifiable set of associations the authors call the value profit chain.

In what may be the most far-reaching study ever undertaken of the strategic importance of the employee-customer relationship, Heskett, Sasser, and Schlesinger offer profound new insights into the life-long value of both employees and customers and the increasingly important concept of employee-relationship management. Readers will discover how organizations as diverse as aluminum maker Alcoa, travel agency Rosenbluth International, and the Willow Creek Community Church treat employees like customers (in the case of Willow Creek, volunteers as well). Conversely, the authors show how advertising agency Merkley Newman Harty and financial services provider ING Direct treat customers like employees, pursuing the ones they want most. At the Vanguard Group, Cisco Systems, and Southwest Airlines, both practices are common. The authors explain how these organizations and many others -- whether large or small, public or private, or not-for-profit -- achieve profitability and growth or the equivalent by leveraging results and process quality to deliver differentiated products and services at the lowest cost.

Timely, essential, and important reading, The Value Profit Chain should be readily accessible on the desk of every forward-thinking manager.

Customer Reviews:

As Good As It Gets.......2003-11-01

The Value Profit Chain provides tremendous insight into the critical elements of a world class operating strategy. I particularly found Chapters 1 and 2 extremely helpful in providing a framework to think about the details of what is required to support our brand positioning. As they say, God is in the details and this book helped me understand which details matter and which don't. I highly recommend this book to anyone trying to lead customer-focused change in their organizations.

A Good Idea, But not a Clear Argument........2003-05-22

This book has some value but it is jumbled up with a lot of that mumbo jumbo that people in HR use when they have little to add to a discussion.

Most employees are not owners and will never really behave (work hard) like owners - they talk much about loyalty and responding to good practices but experience tells me that when it comes to the choice of a midnight session to complete a presentation, most will have an excuse (got to take the cat to the vet) and those that stay will want two days off as their matching reward while telling you for the next year how hard they work.

This book sides with the employees as being open to great things so you just have to treat them as per their instructions.

Yes in some cases, employees will meet the expectations. But mostly they will let you down, as does this book.

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Driving retail store performance: A service profit chain perspective : (Dissertation)
Todd Michael Stodnick
Manufacturer: ProQuest Information and Learning
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Digital

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ASIN: B000BIO3MC
Release Date: 2005-09-20

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Citation Details

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MERCURY 100: 2-year-old Premier finds profits close to home : An article from: Boulder County Business Report

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MERCURY 100: 2-year-old Premier finds profits close to home : An article from: Boulder County Business Report
Doug McPherson
Manufacturer: Boulder Business Information Corporation
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Digital

Management | Management & Leadership | Business & Investing | Subjects | Books

50 largest chain brands.(Illustration): An article from: Frozen Food Digest

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50 largest chain brands.(Illustration): An article from: Frozen Food Digest

Manufacturer: Frozen Food Digest, Inc.
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Digital

General | Business & Investing | Subjects | Books

Book Description

This digital document is an article from Frozen Food Digest, published by Frozen Food Digest, Inc. on July 1, 2004. The length of the article is 623 words. The page length shown above is based on a typical 300-word page. The article is delivered in HTML format and is available in your Amazon.com Digital Locker immediately after purchase. You can view it with any web browser.

Citation Details
Title: 50 largest chain brands.(Illustration)
Publication: Frozen Food Digest (Magazine/Journal)
Date: July 1, 2004
Publisher: Frozen Food Digest, Inc.
Volume: 19 Issue: 5 Page: 41(1)

Article Type: Illustration

Distributed by Thomson Gale

Archeological benchmarking: Fred Harvey and the service profit chain, Circa 1876 [An article from: Journal of Operations Management]

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Archeological benchmarking: Fred Harvey and the service profit chain, Circa 1876 [An article from: Journal of Operations Management]
K.A. Brown , and N.L. Hyer
Manufacturer: Elsevier
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Digital

Elsevier | By Publisher | e-Docs | Formats | Books
ASIN: B000PDTY3Q

Book Description

This digital document is a journal article from Journal of Operations Management, published by Elsevier in 2007. The article is delivered in HTML format and is available in your Amazon.com Media Library immediately after purchase. You can view it with any web browser.

Description:
This article illustrates the potential for studying best practices from the past, engaging in what we term archeological benchmarking. Our focus for this study was the Fred Harvey Company, which operated a highly successful string of restaurants and hotels along the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railroad line starting in 1876, reaching its peak around 1912, and continuing until the early 1950s. Fred Harvey was a visionary businessman who understood many of the key concepts guiding the most successful service operations today. This article describes the operating system Harvey used for delivering 15million meals per year in 65 restaurants extending over a span reaching from Chicago to San Francisco. The underpinnings of Harvey's system foretold concepts considered new today, particularly the service profit chain [Heskett, J., Jones, T., Loveman, G., Sasser Jr., W.E., Schlesinger, L., 1994] and its reliance on a clear operations strategy supported by well-trained, loyal employees and a congruent system of measurement. It is significant that Harvey achieved his success without the advantages of modern information systems by relying, instead, on his iconic leadership, dogged attention to mundane details, and the service culture he was able to embed throughout the far-flung enterprise. The Harvey story is an example of ahead-of-its-time operations thinking, but it also asks us to attend more broadly to the history of the field - as does this entire special issue - as a source of inspiration and grounding.

Improving reverse supply chain operational performance: a transshipment application study for not-for-profit organizations.: An article from: Journal of Supply Chain Management

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Improving reverse supply chain operational performance: a transshipment application study for not-for-profit organizations.: An article from: Journal of Supply Chain Management
Pedro M. Reyes , and Laura M. Meade
Manufacturer: Thomson Gale
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Digital
ASIN: B000F7MLY6
Release Date: 2006-03-29

Book Description

This digital document is an article from Journal of Supply Chain Management, published by Thomson Gale on January 1, 2006. The length of the article is 7293 words. The page length shown above is based on a typical 300-word page. The article is delivered in HTML format and is available in your Amazon.com Digital Locker immediately after purchase. You can view it with any web browser.

From the author: This paper describes an approach for improving the operational performance in the reverse supply chain in a not-for-profit environment. The authors present a model based on risk pooling through preventive lateral transshipment as a method for improving the responsiveness of not-for-profit core business practice of redistributing donated products in order to increase revenues. The model considers a three-echelon structure consisting of three collection centers, one sorting and disposition center, and three retail stocking locations. The ensuing simulation indicates a favorable response of the model. Results indicated that while the daily average inventories slightly increased, the frequency of lost sales significantly decreased, thus offering the potential increased revenues.

Citation Details
Title: Improving reverse supply chain operational performance: a transshipment application study for not-for-profit organizations.
Author: Pedro M. Reyes
Publication: Journal of Supply Chain Management (Magazine/Journal)
Date: January 1, 2006
Publisher: Thomson Gale
Volume: 42 Issue: 1 Page: 38(11)

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Is your service department a "necessary evil" or a profit center? In an era of stepped-up competition from the internet and national chains, a good repair ... STRATEGIES): An article from: Music Trades

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Is your service department a "necessary evil" or a profit center? In an era of stepped-up competition from the internet and national chains, a good repair ... STRATEGIES): An article from: Music Trades
Daniel Parker
Manufacturer: Thomson Gale
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Digital
ASIN: B000TSBYOE
Release Date: 2007-07-16

Book Description

This digital document is an article from Music Trades, published by Thomson Gale on July 1, 2007. The length of the article is 1460 words. The page length shown above is based on a typical 300-word page. The article is delivered in HTML format and is available in your Amazon.com Digital Locker immediately after purchase. You can view it with any web browser.

Citation Details
Title: Is your service department a "necessary evil" or a profit center? In an era of stepped-up competition from the internet and national chains, a good repair department can provide you with a compelling competitive edge. Dan Parker shows how it can also be an important money maker.(RETAIL STRATEGIES)
Author: Daniel Parker
Publication: Music Trades (Magazine/Journal)
Date: July 1, 2007
Publisher: Thomson Gale
Volume: 155 Issue: 6 Page: 124(3)

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Jewelry chain finds brass ring as it revamps concept. (Best Companies in the Valley--A Special Report).(Robbins Bros.)(World's Biggest Engagement Ring ... from: San Fernando Valley Business Journal

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Jewelry chain finds brass ring as it revamps concept. (Best Companies in the Valley--A Special Report).(Robbins Bros.)(World's Biggest Engagement Ring ... from: San Fernando Valley Business Journal
Shelly Garcia
Manufacturer: CBJ, L.P.
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Digital

General | Business & Investing | Subjects | Books

Book Description

This digital document is an article from San Fernando Valley Business Journal, published by CBJ, L.P. on June 23, 2003. The length of the article is 945 words. The page length shown above is based on a typical 300-word page. The article is delivered in HTML format and is available in your Amazon.com Digital Locker immediately after purchase. You can view it with any web browser.

Citation Details
Title: Jewelry chain finds brass ring as it revamps concept. (Best Companies in the Valley--A Special Report).(Robbins Bros.)(World's Biggest Engagement Ring Store)(Company Profile)
Author: Shelly Garcia
Publication: San Fernando Valley Business Journal (Magazine/Journal)
Date: June 23, 2003
Publisher: CBJ, L.P.
Volume: 8 Issue: 13 Page: 26(1)

Article Type: Company Profile

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Managerial choice and performance in service management-a comparison of private sector organizations with further education colleges [An article from: Journal of Operations Management]

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Managerial choice and performance in service management-a comparison of private sector organizations with further education colleges [An article from: Journal of Operations Management]
C. Voss , N. Tsikriktsis , B. Funk , D. Yarrow , and Owen
Manufacturer: Elsevier
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Digital
ASIN: B000RR3WAG

Book Description

This digital document is a journal article from Journal of Operations Management, published by Elsevier in 2005. The article is delivered in HTML format and is available in your Amazon.com Media Library immediately after purchase. You can view it with any web browser.

Description:
The debate as to whether public sector organizations should emulate private sector managerial practices in light of contextual differences is long running. This paper reports the result of an empirical study comparing application of service management principles in one public sector area, further education (FE) colleges, with private sector service organizations. Although within our sample marked differences exist between the levels of service drivers and outcomes, our findings suggest that the same management model is applicable to both sectors. Based on a sample of 291 service organizations, we demonstrate that a managerial model, represented by the service profit chain, is valid in both our FE college and private sector sample. Specifically, progressive human resource management practices led to employee satisfaction, which in turn impacted both service quality and customer satisfaction in both the public and private organizations. The results indicate that the performance of FE colleges arose in part from the managerial choices made in adoption of practices, and that it is lack of employee focus that may be holding back performance. Relevant to both public and private sectors is that the research indicates that human resource factors have a stronger impact than quality procedures, on both service quality and customer satisfaction.

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