Reshaping Your Business with Web 2.0: Using New Social Technologies to Lead Business Transformation: Vince Casarez, Billy Cripe, Jean Sini, Philipp Weckerle

• Filed under: Business

Editorial Reviews

Integrate Web 2.0 trends and technologies into the enterprise

Written by a team of experts from the Web 2.0 community and Oracle Corporation, this innovative guide provides a blueprint for leveraging the new culture of participation in an enterprise environment. Reshaping Your Business with Web 2.0 offers proven strategies for the successful adoption of an enterprise 2.0 paradigm and covers the technical solutions that best apply in specific situations. You will find clear guidelines for using Web 2.0 technologies and standards in a productive way to align with business goals, increase efficiency, and provide measurable bottom line growth.

• Foster collaboration and accelerate information dissemination with blogs and wikis
• Implement folksonomic strategies to achieve business intelligence, analytics, and semantic web goals
• Capture and broadcast connection graphs and activity streams via social networks
• Bring together application data, business analytics, unstructured information, and collaborative interactions in enterprise mashups
• Enable rich Internet applications with Ajax, Ruby on Rails, Flash, FLEX, and other technologies
• Connect your Web 2.0 ecosystem through Web services, such as REST and JSON
• Ensure security and compliance management

 

About the Author

Vince Casarez, vice president, Oracle Corporation, focuses on Web 2.0 technology development, Enterprise 2.0, and portal products.

Billy Cripe, director of product management, Oracle Corporation, focuses on Enterprise 2.0 strategy and Enterprise Content Management products.

Jean Sini co-founded the Web 2.0 startup Activeweave in 2005, acquired in April 2008 by Buzzlogic, where he is currently chief technology officer.

Philipp Weckerle leads the product management efforts on Oracle Reports and Content Integration at Oracle Corporation. He has more than 15 years of experience in the software industry.

 

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Trend Tracking: The System to Profit from Today’s Trends: Gerald Celente, Tom Milton

• Filed under: Business

Trend Tracking: The System to Profit from Today’s Trends: Gerald Celente, Tom Milton

Editorial Reviews

From Library Journal
Celente, a consultant in the trendy alchemy of trend-tracking, weighs in here with a Megatrends- like forecasting system. He offers to turn his readers into trend-trackers themselves, who will then “profit” by knowing what the next trend will be. His own forecasts are yawningly predictable: the education “crisis,” changes in the family, a focus on the environment, the coming demilitarization, and a movement away from political ideology. His suggested methods are completely unsurprising, and when he gets wound up, as he does with his prophesy of a “New Black Plague,” he seems to violate his own methodology of keeping a cool head and watching the world carefully. Undistinguished, and indistinguishable from a raft of other similar titles. –Mark L. Shelton, Columbus, Ohio
Copyright 1990 Reed Business Information, Inc.

With the tracking strategies outlined in this manual, readers will learn how to anticipate and profit from future trends in business, economics, finance, politics and a number of other crucial social and economic currents. Written by the National Director of the Socio-Economic Research Institute, the book presents the system globalnomics - successfully used by that organization in making forecasts for its clients. It includes detailed guidelines to set up your own tracking system and an analysis of the major trends.

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Competing Against Time : How Time-based Competition is Reshaping Global Markets: George Stalk

• Filed under: Recommended

Editorial Reviews

The ways leading companies manage time represent the most powerful new sources of competitive advantage. With hundreds of detailed examples from companies that have put these strategies in place, the authors show exactly how reducing elapsed time can make the critical difference in success or failure. 40 line drawings.

About the Author
George Stalk, Jr., is vice-president and director of The Boston Consulting Group in Chicago, Illinois, coauthor of Kaisha, The Japanese Corporation, and author of “Time—The Next Source of Competitive Advantage,” which won the 1989 McKinsey Award for the best Harvard Business Review article of the year.
–This text refers to the

Paperback
edition.

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Listening to the Future: Why Its Everybody’s Business (Microsoft Executive Leadership Series): Daniel W. Rasmus, Rob Salkowitz

• Filed under: Recommended

Listening to the Future: Why It’s Everybody’s Business explores the challenges and opportunities facing organizations, the transformations that will ripple through the political, economic, and social environments, and the implications for different industries in the 21st century workplace. Written by Microsoft forecasters Daniel W. Rasmus and Rob Salkowitz, this important book equips your business to get out in front of new technology innovations in the consumer world with the knowledge, practices, and tools to differentiate your business in our competitive, fast-moving global economy.

From the Inside Flap

Listening to the Future

Why It’s Everybody’s Business

New business models, new sources of competition, sweeping changes in the workforce—and information at the center of it all. Is your business ready for what’s next?

In Listening to the Future: Why It’s Everybody’s Business, forecasters Daniel W. Rasmus and Rob Salkowitz present the perspectives of Microsoft®, the world’s largest software company, on the challenges ahead for businesses, governments, and people around the world. How can we share knowledge and empower people in our organizations to act with insight and confidence in a world inundated with data? How can businesses get out in front of new technology innovations in the consumer world and the enterprise to unlock the potential of a new generation of talent? How can information technology provide strategic value in a dynamic and interconnected world?

Rasmus and Salkowitz look beyond the near-term trends and the latest high-tech fads to expose the critical uncertainties surrounding globalization, workforce evolution, transparency, and the effects of networks and mass collaboration. By exploring divergent scenarios of possible futures rather than a firm set of predictions, they offer business leaders a framework to make their organizations resilient against a range of potential circumstances, while positioning themselves to take maximum advantage of new opportunities.

Part of Microsoft’s Executive Leadership series, Listening to the Future: Why It’s Everybody’s Business examines specific industries, including manufacturing, financial services and insurance, retail, professional services, government and public sector, education, and healthcare, identifying how the key themes of the new world of business will play out in these segments of the economy.

This timely book explores:

• Strategies for managing a dynamic business

• Discovering and acting on insights developed from complexity

• Gaining strategic advantage through IT

• Maximizing the value of a blended workforce

• Recognizing how driving forces are shaping the business climate

• Sharing knowledge to improve business performance

Business-focused and jargon-free, Listening to the Future: Why It’s Everybody’s Business provides decision-makers with a clear frame-work for making sense of the critical dynamics and uncertainties shaping the next ten to fifteen years, and clearly explains the innovative technologies that may play a role in the new world of business and work.

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Five Future Strategies You Need Right Now (Memo to the Ceo): George Stalk, John Butman

• Filed under: Recommended

Review
…a crisply written book that is part of Harvard Business School Press’s new Memo To The CEO series, which packs a lot of material for senior executives in a few pages. –The Globe and Mail, May 7, 2008

It’s easy to miss many innovations in strategy until they appear on the front page of a major business publication. But by then everyone–including all your competitors–is using them.

As a CEO or senior executive, your job is to detect these strategies?and implement them–before your competitors.

That’s where this book comes in.

Author George Stalk has often been called a guru of business strategy. In the 1980s, before anyone else saw its importance, he and his colleagues at The Boston Consulting Group developed the concept of time-based competition: how meeting the needs of your customers faster than your competitors can give you an unassailable advantage.

In this Memo to the CEO, Stalk discusses five strategies that have not yet become widely practiced but are nonetheless worthy of your attention now. He offers advice on how to identify and manage them while they still present opportunities to jump ahead of the competition. They are:

Addressing supply chain deficiencies

One example of a supply chain crisis is the growing lack of West Coast port capacity. Stalk reviews the strategic implications of this problem, reveals its impact, and recommends specific courses of action.

Sidestepping economies of scale

Many business leaders are reexamining their assumptions about the benefits of scale. Scaling down, not up, and building "disposable factories" and even "disposable strategies" are becoming new keys to lowering costs and boosting performance.

Profiting from dynamic pricing

Today, using real-time data, it is increasingly possible to match the price of your product or service with the immediate, second-by-second needs of the customer.

Embracing complexity

Simplicity is the mantra of the day. But with examples from a few leading-edge companies, Stalk shows that embracing complexity can achieve competitive advantage.

Utilizing infinite bandwidth

In a world of infinite bandwidth, companies that know how to take advantage of it become more productive, efficient, and profitable, and create entirely new businesses along the way.

Written in a refreshingly clear, concise format, Five Future Strategies You Need Right Now is filled with actionable ideas for seizing these emerging strategic opportunities.

See all Editorial Reviews

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Microtrends: The Small Forces Behind Tomorrow’s Big Changes: Mark Penn, E. Kinney Zalesne

• Filed under: Recommended

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly
From “Soccer Moms,” the legendary swing voters of the mid-1990s, to “Late-Breaking Gays” such as former Gov. Games McGreevey (out at age 47), Burson-Marsteller CEO (and campaign adviser to Sen. Hillary Clinton) Penn delves into the ever-splintering societal subsets with which Americans are increasingly identifying, and what they mean. For instance, because of “Extreme Commuters,” people who travel more than 90 minutes each way to work, carmakers must come up with ever more luxury seat features, and “fast food restaurants are coming out with whole meals that fit in cup holders.” In a chapter titled “Archery Moms?”, Penn reports on the “Niching of Sports”: much to the consternation of Major League Baseball, “we don’t like sports less, we just like little sports more.” The net result of all this “niching” is “greater individual satisfaction”; as Penn notes, “not one of the fastest-growing sports in America… depends substantially on teamwork.” Penn draws similar lessons in areas of business, culture, technology, diet, politics and education (among other areas), reporting on 70 groups (”Impressionable Elites,” “Caffeine Crazies,” “Neglected Dads,” “Unisexuals,” “America’s Home-Schooled”) while remaining energetic and entertaining throughout. Culture buffs, retailers and especially businesspeople for whom “small is the new big” will value this exercise in nano-sociology.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

From AudioFile
Take a timely look at an extensive inventory of small, sometimes unnoticeable, trends that are shaping and directing our economy, our society, and our world. In reading the tea leaves of these small movements, politicians, marketers, and entrepreneurs who get it right will be able to get the jump on those who await the coming of the significant movements as defined by the traditional polling apparatus. Narrator Brett BarryÕs pacing is excellent for the considerable amount of material the author covers: 75 intense identity groups who are demanding things that our current social structure isnÕt delivering. With a less able reader the listener could get lost–as the topics transition rapidly and often abruptly. M.C. © AudioFile 2008, Portland, Maine– Copyright © AudioFile, Portland, Maine
–This text refers to the

Audio CD
edition.

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Five Future Strategies You Need Right Now (Memo to the Ceo): George Stalk, John Butman

• Filed under: Recommended

Editorial Reviews

Review
…a crisply written book that is part of Harvard Business School Press’s new Memo To The CEO series, which packs a lot of material for senior executives in a few pages. –The Globe and Mail, May 7, 2008

It’s easy to miss many innovations in strategy until they appear on the front page of a major business publication. But by then everyone–including all your competitors–is using them.

As a CEO or senior executive, your job is to detect these strategies?and implement them–before your competitors.

That’s where this book comes in.

Author George Stalk has often been called a guru of business strategy. In the 1980s, before anyone else saw its importance, he and his colleagues at The Boston Consulting Group developed the concept of time-based competition: how meeting the needs of your customers faster than your competitors can give you an unassailable advantage.

In this Memo to the CEO, Stalk discusses five strategies that have not yet become widely practiced but are nonetheless worthy of your attention now. He offers advice on how to identify and manage them while they still present opportunities to jump ahead of the competition. They are:

Addressing supply chain deficiencies

One example of a supply chain crisis is the growing lack of West Coast port capacity. Stalk reviews the strategic implications of this problem, reveals its impact, and recommends specific courses of action.

Sidestepping economies of scale

Many business leaders are reexamining their assumptions about the benefits of scale. Scaling down, not up, and building "disposable factories" and even "disposable strategies" are becoming new keys to lowering costs and boosting performance.

Profiting from dynamic pricing

Today, using real-time data, it is increasingly possible to match the price of your product or service with the immediate, second-by-second needs of the customer.

Embracing complexity

Simplicity is the mantra of the day. But with examples from a few leading-edge companies, Stalk shows that embracing complexity can achieve competitive advantage.

Utilizing infinite bandwidth

In a world of infinite bandwidth, companies that know how to take advantage of it become more productive, efficient, and profitable, and create entirely new businesses along the way.

Written in a refreshingly clear, concise format, Five Future Strategies You Need Right Now is filled with actionable ideas for seizing these emerging strategic opportunities.

$Order Five Future Strategies You Need Right Now (Memo to the Ceo): George Stalk, John Butman From Amazon and save money$

Future Savvy: Identifying Trends to Make Better Decisions, Manage Uncertainty, and Profit from Change: Adam Gordon

• Filed under: Recommended

Editorial Reviews

In order to succeed in their industries, decision-makers today need to anticipate the future outcomes not only in their own industry but also in society and technology as well. The better their view of the future, the better their decisions–and the bigger their profits-will be. Future Savvy is a hands-on, how-to book on evaluating the business, social, and technology forecasts that appear in everyday communications such as newspapers and business magazines, as well as in specialized sources like government and think-tank forecasts, consultant reports, and stock-market guides. Futures analyst Adam Gordon has spent a lifetime deciphering changes and trends in a variety of industries. Now, he shows business leaders how to gain a clearer view of the future, as well as: * Recognize potential trends and outcomes more effectively * Discount poor and biased forecasts more confidently * Anticipate relevant opportunities and potential threats earlier

Book Description

In order to succeed in their industries, decision-makers today need to anticipate the future outcomes not only in their own industry but also in society and technology as well. The better their view of the future, the better their decisions–and the bigger their profits–will be. Future Savvy is a hands-on, how-to book on evaluating the business, social, and technology forecasts that appear in everyday communications such as newspapers and business magazines, as well as in specialized sources like government and think-tank forecasts, consultant reports, and stock-market guides. Futures analyst Adam Gordon has spent his career deciphering changes and trends in a variety of industries. Now, he shows business leaders how to gain a clearer view of the future, as well as:

• Recognize potential trends and outcomes more effectively

• Discount poor and biased forecasts more confidently

• Anticipate relevant opportunities and potential threats earlier

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The New Normal: Great Opportunities in a Time of Great Risk: Roger McNamee, David Diamond

• Filed under: Recommended

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly
For Silicon Valley venture capitalist and club-touring rock musician McNamee, the title’s state of affairs means “[s]afety nets have been replaced by new possibilities” and that “[t]he New Normal will reward the brave.” Each of 18 short chapters covers areas where money, individuals and regulations intersect (government, finance, media, education, family, etc.), giving a rough picture of what current conditions are like and how one might maximize one’s investments within them: “In the New Normal, the happiest people will be those that optimize their lives across multiple dimensions,” McNamee notes in the chapter on family. Most chapters consist of just a few pages, onto which McNamee has uploaded rifflike distillations of truisms he steers by—the proliferation of digital media means that technologies that organize it (like TiVO) will have lots of niche opportunities—and case studies in entrepreneurship, as of the online diamond engagement ring retailer Blue Nile. His declarative quips (many of which begin “In the New Normal…”) are glib and annoying, but are usually followed up with at least some substantive discussion, as in a chapter on time (”it is more important to be right than to be early”). As a road map of the post–New Economy economy, this book can feel as scattered and emptily assertive as the late ’90s, but its core message—that new conditions mean new opportunities for entrepreneurs—remains as true as ever.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Back in the 40s, 50s, and 60s, it was fairly easy to plan for a secure future. People picked a career, a spouse, and a place to live, and those basic decisions put them on a predictable course for the rest of their lives. Especially if they were lucky enough to land at a big corporation with great benefits and smart enough to buy stocks.

In the 70s, 80s, and 90s, technology and global competition transformed the world. An increasingly strong economy masked spiraling instability in the workplace and the world. A rising stock market lulled people into thinking they were in control of their lives.

But now we’ve entered a totally new era, which Roger McNamee calls the New Normal. It’s a time of great uncertainty—about terrorism, corporate scandals, the outsourcing of jobs overseas, and much more. The old safety nets aren’t coming back, even when the economy recovers. But the good news is that the New Normal also offers tremendous opportunities. This book—by one of Silicon Valley’s most insightful and successful investors—explains how to make the most of your life, career, and money by embracing the future.

The New Normal is the era of the individual. In companies large and small, each person now matters more than ever before. The Internet has finally made it easy to launch and grow a real business. For entrepreneurs and managers, the global economy opens previously untapped sources of supply and demand, cost savings and innovation. Individual investors now have access to tools and knowledge that were, until recently, restricted to professionals.

Roger McNamee has written a sweeping book in the tradition of Megatrends that clarifies this new era and gives readers a practical blueprint for success.

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Trader Vic on Commodities: What’s Unknown, Misunderstood, and Too Good to Be True (Wiley Trading): Victor Sperandeo

• Filed under: Recommended

Editorial Reviews

Product Description
In Trader Vic on Commodities, Wall Street legend Victor Sperandeo explains in simple terms how these markets operate, removes some of the mystique and uncertainty involved, and offers a proven method for capitalizing on commodity market trends—without taking giant risks. Sperandeo shows that, as commodities are cyclical in nature, your goal should be to capture as much of the major market trends as possible, while balancing that goal with a minimum of risk.

From the Inside Flap

Commodities are experiencing a new up cycle—and an examination of the major factors contributing to these price increases suggests they are not short-lived. World populations continue to expand, increasing global demand. Industrialization in China and India, as well as in other emerging markets, has greatly increased the need for energy and industrial products, while the supply remains limited. With the increased volatility in the commodities markets, the surge in interest, and the generally higher prices in everything from crude oil to copper to cocoa, it seems clear that every investor should have at least some exposure to commodities.

In Trader Vic on Commodities, Wall Street legend Victor Sperandeo explains in simple terms how these markets operate, removes some of the mystique and uncertainty involved, and offers a proven method for capitalizing on commodity market trends—without taking giant risks. He introduces a valuable tool—the Standard & Poor’s Diversified Trends Indicator (S&P DTI)—to capture price movement, premiums, and discounts in the commodity futures markets. Sperandeo shows that, as commodities are cyclical in nature, the best goal is to capture as much of the major trends of each market as possible, while balancing that goal with a minimum of risk. The S&P DTI—designed to be complementary to other investments, but with a negative historical correlation and completely uncorrelated to other investment classes—has produced alpha consistency with low volatility rather than outsized returns with higher volatility.

Perhaps most importantly, Sperandeo acknowledges that losses are part of the trading business. But if you are trading properly, he explains, you will find yourself able to lose more often than win and still remain profitable overall. Learning to accept, deal with, and minimize losses is the most important factor in determining your success as a trader.

Finding ways to remove the emotion and personal judgment from an investment strategy is also a crucial factor in long-term market profitability. The S&P Diversified Trends Indicator accomplishes these goals more successfully than most other strategies you will find. It will provide a well-researched, low-volatility strategy for taking advantage of commodity trends in a systematic way so as to earn consistently superior index returns over the long run.

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