Book Description
America's two million incarcerated men, women, and youth live in a hidden, isolated world filled with depression, anxiety, hostility, and violence. But the nation's soaring prison population has not been forgotten by a dedicated network of visual artists, writers, poets, dancers, musicians, and actors who teach the arts in correctional settings.
This anthology compiles the narratives of several accomplished arts-in-corrections teachers who share their personal experiences, philosophies, and bittersweet anecdotes, as well as practical advice, survival skills, and program evaluation guidelines.
Teaching the Arts Behind Bars is an invaluable tool for artists, program administrators, and corrections professionals, and a testament to the power of creative expression in promoting communication, positive social interaction, inner healing, and self-esteem.
Customer Reviews:
This is a Must-Read.......2003-10-20
The philosophy of this book is fascinating. Anyone who works, teaches, or volunteers in prisons, must read this book. I can sincerely say that you will not have thought of the issues surrounding your work in the same terms that are presented here. You would be cheating yourself, and perhaps those you work with, to not give this work some time.
Right on target!.......2003-03-27
Teaching the Arts Behind Bars is a fantastic book because its contributors are people who know what they are talking about because of their personal experience in the field of teaching the arts in prison. I know because I was a prisoner who maintained my humanity because of the encouragement of individuals like these men and women that teach in the gulags of the United States. It is a valuable book for someone who is interested in teaching in a institutional setting or is just plain curious. I may be biased based on the fact that I painted the cover piece for the book, but take that as a tribute to its honesty and value!
Book Description
From the moment he arrived at Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, Gilbert Adrian established himself as a Hollywood fashion force. Believing that costume can mirror a character's mood, he transformed his leading ladies into icons of style: Greta Garbo, Joan Crawford, Jean Harlow, and many others relied on Adrian to help them interpret their roles and make them glamorous.
The result of 10 years of research, including exclusive celebrity interviews and access to the studio's files, this lovingly assembled, lavishly illustrated volume is the first to trace Adrian's incredible career at MGM and his influence on American fashion.
Featuring pristine duotone photographs-many never before published-from classics such as Grand Hotel, Queen Christina, The Women, and The Philadelphia Story, as well as costume sketches and a step-by-step rendering of a dress for Garbo, the book is as breathtaking as an Adrian gown.
183 illustrations, 174 in duotone, 9 in full color, 208 pages, 9 x 113/4"
Customer Reviews:
I WISH IT WERE THE WAY IT WAS.......2006-08-19
The entire aim of fashion has changed so much since the days of Adrian. Nowadays, one dresses to shock. And one had better be young, because older people in these ridiculous frocks look like trailer trash. In fact, the aim of the young appears to be the look of total dissipation, ignorance, and rebellion. Not so in days gone by, when the desire was not to shock but to be beautiful, perfect, elegant, and "done up" -- anything but poor and wasted. This book is a gives us a picture of an ethos that was. We should all be grateful to have a reminder of it; we should all be disappointed at what eventually came after it.
Love it!.......2006-07-26
this book has wonderful black and white pictures of costumes from 1920's to 1940's, which are worn by some of the most famous movie-stars of the time. it is also is very interesting just to read.i would totaly recomend it :-)
Gowns by Adrian: The MGM Years 1928-1941.......2006-07-22
Love his outfits. I was surprised to see he did the costumes for "The Wizard of Oz". Love old Hollywood!
thirties glamour.......2006-02-20
After a late night of TV-watching, I stumbled across Norma Shearer in "Strangers May Kiss." I could not believe this movie was made in 1931, her outfits were red-carpet ready for today. A quick search led me to discover the masterful designer behind it all: Gilbert Adrian. This book showcases with detail all his incredible work on costuming and creating visual direction for films. The pictures are a fantastic reference and the stories behind the scenes with movie stars are of interest. Any aspiring fashion designer would do well to add this book to their library.
"Gowns By Adrian: The MGM Years- Excellent Read, Great Transaction, Recomend to All!!!.......2006-02-14
The Book was everything I expected and more, the service above reproach, Excellent, not frequently apllied to most transactions this one certainly desrves it!!
Book Description
Millions of readers share a daily relationship with Lynn Johnston and her cartoon family, the Pattersons. Suddenly Silver: Celebrating 25 Years of For Better or For Worse now allows these faithful friends-and new readers, too-to honor that long association through a one-of-a-kind collection of strips and Johnston's musings and comments about her real life and how it's reflected in one of the cartooning world's most loved and followed families.Suddenly Silver is divided into three sections using cartoons from the strip's early, middle, and recent years. This insightful structure enables readers to revisit favorite earlier strips and to watch the development of storylines and the growth of characters over the years. Throughout it all, readers will find the same focus on everyday family life humorously portrayed through the good and the not-so-good days. All the cherished characters are present, including parents Elly and John; their children and grandchild; Grandpa Jim; and the dogs, Farley, Edgar, and Dixie.Johnston's thoughts about them, their individual development, and their familial evolution makes Suddenly Silver particularly captivating. As Lynn describes her work, readers get to share in the Pattersons' rendition of real life, through the heartwarming and the humorous, the tragic and the triumphant. This book, like the cartoon it honors, will make readers smile while emphasizing what's important in life. For Better or For Worse: What a run! What a celebration! What a future to look forward to!
Customer Reviews:
A good synopsis of 25 years of a superb comic.......2007-06-07
I always enjoy "For Better or For Worse". You don't get this book to see new material, much of it I've already seen in Lynn's other works. Instead you get it because of the commentary and perspective that it puts on a comic that has not only been around for 28 years (as of this posting) but has grown and matured as I have over the past 3 decades.
There are insightful mini-essays from folks near and dear to Lynn that help to give you some insight what it must be like living in the same circles as someone who can produce such great work. I get the sense that she's not the easiest person in the world to be around sometimes, but for all involved those less than rational moments seem to be more than outweighed by the wonders and tribulations expressed by this "parallel family" from Lynn's mind.
The comic is still as fresh as it ever was and I still look forward to reading the strip each evening.
wonderful collection.......2007-05-08
I loved reading through this and catching up on the Pattersons since the comic started being published before I could read. what a truly wonderful collection. this is my favorite comic strip of all time and this book is truly enjoyable. thank you Lynn Johnston for making us laugh and cry through the years.
Another Great book ..........2007-03-30
Another Great book to visit the Patterson's with. "For Better / For Worse" has to be one of the best comic strips of all time. It really makes you think, "They are just like my family", and if you do not have kids, read the books so you know what to prepare for.
Smiling down memory lane.......2006-07-19
I just wanted a pick me up so I purchased this book. I have always enjoyed For Better or For Worse and this book did not disappoint. It brought back memories of past stories on this comic strip and a big smile to my face. It was fun watching the kids grow up again and reading the story behind some of her story lines. If you like this comic strip, I would definitely recommend this book!
Some Things Keep Getting Better.......2005-11-20
Congratulations to Lynn Johnston on this milestone! Where so many other cartoonists have either quit the profession entirely (I'm thinking of the untimely demises of Calvin and Hobbes and The Far Side) or have publicly professed major cases of deep and lingering burnout (Gary Trudeau) Johnston continues to crank out the highest quality, most universally beloved strip on the comic pages. For Better Or For Worse has been there every day pretty much throughout my whole life, and I can't think of a time I haven't known about it and read it, even if in the early days it did involve me sounding out the words as I lay on the living room floor with my face about five inches off the page, liking the adventures of a refreshingly normal suburban family and trying my best to get some of the puns and inside jokes longtime readers so cherish. It's been something I've grown up with and come to count on among so many changes in this dynamic world. Really, For Better Or For Worse is much more than a comic strip and even more than "art" (although it certainly is that). As anyone who has marched thru life in these last decades and looked forward to the daily dose of the Patterson family can tell you, Lynn Johnston has done little short of opening a window that lets us peer into the goings-on of a group in some ways as meaningful and nearby as our real life neighbors and friends. Thanks, Lynn, and here's to the next twenty-five years!
Book Description
ONCE AGAIN THE Sills provide a cock-eyed view through their binoculars, zooming in on the birds in all their outrageous plumage: the Mangrove Penguin (Tuxedo verdantus), one of the more intelligent species who has forsaken the arctic climes for the Florida sunshine; the Dowry Duck (Bridal seductorii); and the Grey-Green Lichen Mimic (Petriflorus imitatus), a confounder of those who are sure they can tell flora from fauna. BEN SILL co-authored A Field Guide to Little-Known and Seldom-Seen Birds of North America, Another Field Guide to Little-Known and Seldom-Seen Birds of North America, and Beyond Birdwatching with his brother John and his sister-in-law Cathryn. He lives with his wife and two daughters in Clemson, South Carolina, where he is a professor of civil engineering at Clemson University
Customer Reviews:
Now we need a fieldguide to plants of the callabre of these........1999-09-24
I have owned a copy of these books since I first heard them reviewed on NPR. I still laugh every time I pull them from the shelf. Excellent gifts for your naturalist friends and others!!
A must for any birder!.......1999-06-11
This spoof of field guides really shows the wit and ingenuity of its creators. You'll laugh through the entire guide.
Book Description
A unique collection of photographs of one of the greatest and most beautiful Hollywood legends. A private album of photographs, taken during Elizabeth Taylor's classic years by a trusted friend. Candid shots of Elizabeth Taylor's personal life and images of the star on the sets of such films as Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? and Raintree County.
Customer Reviews:
Great book..........2007-05-08
I love this book. It has so many beautiful photos of Elizabeth in it. I would've preferred a lot less of the "Virginia Woolf" production photos, though, and more of other movies with Taylor/Burton in them. I guess the photographer didn't get the chance to shoot more than what's in this book. I like the family photos a lot, the young Elizabeth photos (before Richard Burton), and the last few colored shots of them at the end. The look between the two of them in the last colored photo speaks volumes about the love they had for each other. I definitely recommend adding this book to your collection.
Stunning!.......2007-01-12
This book is everything I hoped it would be I love the cover and the dustjacket I especially the love the pictures from the movie Raintree County Elizabeth looked especially beautiful in this movie. The gorgeous costumes are great fun also. The movie Who's Afraid of Virgina Woolf is not one of my favorite because it is not aesthetic I think Elizabeth was too young for this part although it stretched her acting abilities. I would have preferred to see her play herself/her own age at that time in her life It is difficult for us (her fans) to see her in an unglamourous role. But the book is fantastic.
UNBELIEVABLY BEAUTIFUL.......2004-10-31
Surely Elizabeth Taylor is one of the most beautiful women to ever walk on planet Earth. Actors, models, celebs often worry about having their "good side" photographed. Don't believe La Taylor has a bad side. Not convinced, want proof? Browse through "Liz An Intimate Collection," a coffee table volume devoted to the face that sent most men "over the moon."
Photographer Bob Willoughby first shot Taylor in 1950 at a baby shower she was co-hosting for her then sister-in-law Marilyn Hilton.(sister of husband No. 1). Willoughby's comment about that moment: "I felt like I was flying." Friendship between star and cameraman was to grow over the years as Taylor allowed him to shoot photos of her more private moments with family as well as on the sets of her many films.
Recipient of the 2004 Lucie Award for Achievement in Still Photography in Motion Pictures, Willoughby has photographed many of filmdom's greats. Yet, it's safe to guess that he approached none of his subjects with as much enthusiasm as he did Taylor.
This volume is a photographic record of the years between 1950 and 1965 (closing with the Richard Burton years). Among the 160 pages readers will find many photos that have never before been published, as well as shots on the working sets of Raintree County and Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? (Even in this film her beauty is difficult to disguise).
"Liz" is sure to be enjoyed by both film buffs and Taylor fans - plus, just think what it'll do for your coffee table!
- Gail Cooke
Customer Reviews:
Fun and Informative Guide Through Pop Music Nostalgia.......2002-03-17
I really like this book. I keep it handy, along with my Rolling Stone Encyclopedia of Rock 'n' Roll and Ephraim Katz's Encyclopedia of Film. But this is not an impersonal listing of trivia--it's a collection of stories. Personally, I consult it for content--clues to who did what in past years of pop music. I note that some online reviews of this book pick on inaccuracies and poor copy-editing. True, that might be disappointing if you're preoccupied with music trivia. And as for typos: Welcome to the world of low-cost publishing, with no review time or copy editing. Annoying? Maybe. But does it detract from the value of this entertaining work? Not at all, in my opinion. My favorite way to peruse Jancik's devoted book is to pick a year from my past, and read the sequence of hits by artists who never again made it to the top. Sometimes, just seeing the titles from, say, 1966 and 1967 will take me back to a time in my (distant!) youth and my love of music you'll never hear broadcast on oldies stations. Jancik's enthusiasm is obvious and pleasing, and his hard-won interviews are fascinating. For those buffs who merely seek more facts to memorize, well, this book was not written for you. But if you like to remember the music because of your personal associations and pleasure, you'll enjoy and value this work. If I have any criticism, it's that sometimes the title and artist are not enough to prod my memory into producing the melody and lyrics. I wish for just a few quotes or something that would help me hum along... But perhaps there are copyrights and permissions laws that prevent such details. In any event, I like this book, and eagerly recommend it to others like myself who want to remember, to play the music in our heads, and to find out what led to the songs and whatever became of the artists who produced them. My thanks to Jancik for his devotion and creativity.
Fun reading ... if you can get by the errors.......2000-09-13
With Wayne Jancik's "The Billboard Book of One-Hit Wonders," it was interesting to revisit some of the artists who had only one hit on the Top 40 chart of the Billboard Hot 100 ... and then never returned again. It's even more interesting when you find superstar album acts such as Jimi Hendrix and Grateful Dead are among this elite club since they never were big as singles artists.
Unfortunately, while reminiscing about these songs I grew up with, it was frustrating to find glaring errors that made it to print. Some prime examples: The 1985 top 20 single for 17-year-old Charlie Sexton was "Beat's So Lonely," not "Been So Lonely" as the book states. Also, the Canadian one-hit wonder Kon Kan who briefly charted in 1989 in the U.S. with "I Beg Your Pardon" got their name by flip-flopping the term Can Con which is short for Canadian Content. Jancik referred to it as Canadian "Continent." Plus he never attempts to explain what the term means (Section 3 of Canada's Broadcasting Act mandates that AM and FM radio stations play a minimum of 35 percent Canadian artists to help develop native acts). And the artist who rapped "Just a Friend" in 1990 was Biz Markie, not Biz Marke.
These were just the few that I caught skimming through the hundreds of one-hit acts. Did an intern at Billboard edit Jancik's book? How did Billboard allow their name on this before it went to press? Anyway, you get the idea. One-Hit Wonders is fast and fun reading, but it could stand more accuracy.
Careless Editing Errors Plague a Worthy Effort.......1998-05-15
While Jancik's treatment of "one-hit wonder" artists is admirable, his technique as a writer is questionable. Open up a copy of the book and you will see several typographical errors on almost every page. Names are misspelled, verb tenses are mixed, and the text itself looks as if it were the author's rough draft. Perhaps Jancik is not the one responsible for the errors, as a publisher may have made the gaffes independent of Jancik; still, one expects more from a book published by Billboard, the music trade magazine.
Readers will be distracted by the often embarrassing mistakes that made their way into the book. Consistent verb tense is especially poor: Bob Lind, the artist who had a hit with "Elusive Butterfly," recalls his friend Jack Nitzsche: "(We) hit it off--both of us like to drink and do drugs--so he was with me from the start." It is plausible to assume that Lind's comments were all past tense, and the mistake was a result of poor editing.
At best, Jancik's information is well-researched, providing several hours of enjoyment for anyone with an ear for pop music and obscure songs, but a book this important should have had a much better run-through by an editor before it hit the shelves. Because his knowledge of and affinity for popular music is apparent, let's hope that Jancik keeps working at it and does not become a one-book wonder.
Book Description
Every chess-player needs a reliable defense against the Queen's Pawn Opening. The fundamental question is whether to go all-out for counterplay, which may involve a great deal of risk, or to adopt a more solid, classical approach, and first carefully neutralize White's iniative. This book shows the potential of the latter approach. By defending the Queen's Gambit Declined, Black puts a firm road-block in the way of White's ambitions. If as often happens when faced by a sturdy defense, White becomes careless or impatient, Black is ready to break out and seize the initiative. Janjgava also shows how White's more hyper-modern Catalan treatment can be met with the same strategy, and explains how, once Black has equalized, he can unbalance the position, and play for a win.
Customer Reviews:
Nicely done.......2003-04-09
This is a very good GAMBIT chess book, that presents a repertoire for Black for QGD and the Catalan. This book is not heavy on explanatory prose, but iw very nicely laid out and full of practical suggestions (such as playing 3... Be7 instead of Nf6 to avoid a less favorable excahnage variation).
Book Description
Offshoring and outsourcing have generated substantial savings and often controversial news coverage for many companies. But these technologies aren’t even close to being the real story. Two of business’ leading strategy thinkers argue that the only sustainable advantage will come not from using technology to cut costs—but to get better faster than rivals. The authors identity two key forces—dynamic specialisation and productive friction that will dramatically reshape the competitive landscape and show what firms must do to understand, build and exploit these forces before their competitors do.
Customer Reviews:
Good introduction to some important global trends.......2006-12-01
I recently heard John Hagel present on this book. In the book John and his co-author John Seely Brown discuss how recent changes in the world will force, indeed are forcing, companies to change how they think about offshoring and outsourcing, innovation and even their core business processes. They describe how a combination of "Converging forces generate margin squeeze" where those forces are digital technology (driving down interaction costs) and public policy (deregulation, trade and market liberalization and globalization). These trends are certainly real and visibly changing our world as we watch. Not only can "Customers can access more information about more vendors, negotiate more effectively with still more vendors, and switch from one vendor to another whenever they find greater value" but companies have more options for how to piece together the resources they need to do business. These new conditions and options, though, require companies to change the way they plan, operate and turn a profit and it is these changes that the book mostly discusses. The authors argue that these trends and opportunities are actually changing what it means to be a company. Redefining the role of the firm from economizing on market transactions, the original raison d'etre of most companies, to one of accelerating knowledge and capability growth.
The book does a good job of showing how some companies are competing in ways that would be unimaginable just a few years ago and the authors lay out a compelling case that companies who do not respond to these new threats and opportunities are taking an enormous risk. Whether or not you believe the change will be as widespread as the book implies, the changes are real and will impact your business to at least some degree and this makes the book worth reading.
board implications for sustainable advantage........2006-02-19
John Hagel is a Senior Advisor at McKinsey & Company. For two decades, John Seely Brown was Executive Director of the legendary Palo Alto Research Center. The authors argue that the only sustainable edge is to generate shareholder value through constant innovation. Current approaches to strategic thinking are inadequate to the task.
The book has one irritating quality and one large value for Board members.
This is a small booked packed with lots of ideas. I was distracted by the use of "new words" to describe old concepts. It is almost as though the authors are trying to invent a new vocabulary using concepts that could be best explained in plain English. Examples of this business psychobabble include "radical incrementalism," "performance fabrics," "process networks," and "productive friction." These are really not new concepts but they have invented new words. I want to read a business book that would help me improve my company's effectiveness. I didn't sign up to learn a new language.
The good news is that Boards and CEOs ought to carefully consider their matrixed approach to talking about strategy. They call this matrixed approach "dynamic specialization."
The current fad is to talk about business models organized along industry lines. The authors argue that industry focus is insufficient for a proper conversation about strategy. Within that industry-focused model, there needs to be a second strategic focus.
They see this new strategic focus along three dimensions:
Infrastructure Management. Financial services, pharmaceuticals, and the computer industry are already structured in significant ways along these lines. State Street Corporation is an example of a company that services the financial services industry but its value clearly revolves around infrastructure management. UPS revolves around infrastructure management of logistics. An infrastructure management theme works well for relatively routine, high volume business activities.
Product Innovation. Specialized biotech companies are taking on more of R&D activities so that large pharmaceutical companies can focus on scale intensive manufacturing and distribution. There are specialty design shops that serve the fashion industry. There are specialty semiconductor design shops that serve the electronics industry.
Customer Relationship. These firms concentrate on identifying target customer segments, getting to know that segment very well, and using its resources to mobilize third party products and services to address the needs of their customers. Physicians who practice general medicine, financial planners, real estate agents, and attorneys all provide this framework. Accenture is a company with this type of framework.
From a strategic perspective, most companies today like to say that they do all three types of services within their walls. But each approach requires different economics, different skills, and different cultures. When Boards accept the CEOs notion that all three models are appropriate in the strategic mix, the inevitable implication is sub optimization of one or all of these strategies.
This sub optimization increases company vulnerability to its more focused competitors.
Laurence J. Stybel
Boardoptions.com
lstybel@boardoptions.com
Difficult to read.......2006-01-22
The book is extremely poorly written. Very difficult to read. The ideas are not new. Don't buy it.
Good analysis but limited examples.......2005-11-14
Not being a specialist in business strategy I thought there was a lot of great material with excellent insights and analysis in this book, but I would have liked to see more examples or case studies that supported their views. I was suprised that after a slow start the sections on dynamic specialization and productive friction were brilliant and I think even surpass Clayton Christenson's anaylsis of the mechanisms of innovation inside corporate cultures.
In the early parts of the book, particularly the acknowledgements, it appeared that this might be another treatise on how great outsourcing is, but no matter where one stands on the issue it's established that it's a fact of life for corporate america and that the business strategy to leverage specialization outside your core competencies is going to determine future success. To take Paul Graham's analogy a bit further" "Companies are going to learn about outsourcing and specialization the same way a gene pool learns about new environmental conditions."
There's a lot of great insight to take away from The Sustainable Edge, though I wish there were more examples that illustrate their ideas.
Sharing a Macro Vision with Micro Precision...and Passion.......2005-09-08
Previously, I read and then reviewed three books co-authored by Hagel which I greatly admire. Specifically, Net Worth, Net Gain, and Out of the Box. In this most recently published volume, Hagel and Brown assert that effective business strategy "depends on productive friction and dynamic specialization." As I began to read this book, I was curious to observe how Hagel and Brown formulate and then present what they call a "compelling case [for reshaping] the business landscape -- where and how value and profit get created -- to create a scalable catalyst for broader institutional and policy changes."
For them, "edge" has several dimensions. "First, we mean the edge of the enterprise, where one company interfaces or interacts with another economic entity and where it currently generates marginal revenues rather than the core of its profits. Second, the edge refers to the boundaries of mature markets as well as industries, where they may overlap, collapse, or converge...[Third], geographic edges, especially those of such emerging economies as China and India, where consumers of all kinds crave Western goods and services that will ease their burdens and improve their lives. Finally, we refer to the edges between generations, where younger consumers and employees, shaped by pervasive information technology, are learning, consuming, and collaborating with each other and where baby boomers are preparing to retire or switch careers over the next decade."
Hagel and Brown explain how to build a sustainable competitive advantage by focusing on three broad strategic imperatives: dynamic specialization, connectivity and coordination, and leveraged capability building. Of special interest to me is what they have to say about process outsourcing and offshoring, loose coupling of extended business processes, and what they call "productive friction." Many of those who reads this book will derive substantial benefit from completing three "quick audits" (pages 26-29) because they will help those who comprise a senior management team to build a shared view of where their organization is. Only then can an appropriate strategy (or strategies) be formulated and then implemented to get that organization where it needs to be.
By the way, according to research which Robert S. Kaplan and David P. Norton provide in The Strategy-Focused Organization, only 5% of the workforce understand their company's strategy, only 25% of managers have incentives linked to strategy, 60% of organizations don't link budgets to strategy, and 85% of executive teams spend less than one hour per month discussing strategy. If true, these are chilling statistics which suggest that few decision-makers in any organization (regardless of its size or nature) would be able to answer, clearly and realistically, questions such as these when completing a migration path audit:
What have been the five most important operating initiatives -- based on resource commitments -- during the past twelve months?
How to characterize each of the five initiatives in terms of its efficiency, specialization, coordination of third-party resources, and accelerating capability building across enterprises?
Based on a calendar review of executive involvement, how much time was spent over the past twelve months discussing the four elements of each operating issue?
Approximately what were the resources committed to these four elements across the five operating initiatives?
When you next participate in a group discussion of strategic planning, ask questions such as these. The silence which follows will be almost deafening.
As indicated earlier in this brief commentary, when Hagel and Brown refer to "the only sustainable edge," they do so in terms of four separate but closely related dimensions. It is important to keep that in mind as you follow their narrative through seven chapters to the Epilogue. It is also helpful to remember that Hagel and Brown are intrigued by an often troublesome but irrevocable convergence as digital information technology expands both within the enterprise and beyond through global communication networks as public policy in diverse domains continues to shift and thereby intensify competition on a global scale.
When formulating new approaches to developing strategy, Hagel and Brown suggest, first build alignment on the long-term direction of the company. (They pose three excellent questions on page 160. Can you answer them?) "To sustain a meaningful longer-term direction, explicitly identify what you will not do as a business. Most companies will probably shed areas of activities for which other firms have developed world-class capabilities." Next, build alignment around near-term operating initiatives. (There are two more excellent questions on page 162.) Then identify and address major organizational barriers. Finally, create tight performance feedback loops. I think it would be a serious mistake to think that this recommended process is relevant only to larger organizations, especially those competing or at least operating on a global scale. The information and counsel they provide as well as the questions they pose will be of substantial value to decision-makers in any organization, whatever its size or nature.
In their Epilogue, they shift their (and the reader's) attention to still another of those questions which are so easy to ask but so difficult to answer: How to recast public policy to develop talent? The suggestions they offer are eminently sensible and best revealed within the context created for them. Of special interest to me is the fact Hagel and Brown seem to function so effectively on both the macro and micro levels. Although they provide an abundance of specifics throughout their brilliant book, they always have the so-called Big Picture in mind. This is especially evident in the remarks with which they conclude The Only Sustainable Edge:
"By focusing on talent development, policy makers can help individuals in their society more effectively realize their full potential. But the benefits extend far beyond this. Talent development, especially when situated in economic activity, can drive improved productivity and, in turn, enhance the standard of living in any society. Even more broadly, a focus on talent development helps attract highly motivated and creative people and provides them with the resources and time to develop a rich and evolving cultural and social environment. Talent development is an ongoing race, but those who lead the race will unleash passion and rewards that will make the race worth winning."
Those who share my high regard for this book are urged to check out the works co-authored by Kaplan and Norton (especially The Strategy-Focused Organization) as well as Don Mankin and Susan G. Cohen's Business Without Boundaries: An Action Framework for Collaborating Across Time, Distance, Organization, and Culture, Robert Simons' Levers of Organization Design: How Managers Use Accountability Systems For Greater Performance and Commitment, and Strategy Safari: A Guided Tour Through The Wilds of Strategic Management co-authored by Henry Mintzberg, Bruce Ahlstrand, and Joseph Lampel.
Books:
- Ten Years, 100 Artists: Art In A Democratic South Africa
- The Art of History: African American Women Artists Engage the Past
- The Art of Kate Greenaway: A Nostalgic Portrait of Childhood
- The Artist in Society: Rights, Roles & Responsibility
- The Best In World Trademarks, Vol. 1 & 2 with CD-ROM
- The Best of In the Bleachers: A Classic Collection of Mental Errors
- The Bride Stripped Bare: The Artist and the Female Nude in the Twentieth Century
- The Business Side of Creativity: The Complete Guide to Running a Small Graphic Design or Communications Business, Third Updated Edition
- The Cultural Cold War: The CIA and the World of Arts and Letters
- The Domenichino Affair: Novelty, Imitation, and Theft in Seventeenth-Century Rome
Books Index
Books Home
Recommended Books
- Wide Open: Inspiration & Techniques for Art Journaling on the Edge
- Without Cloak or Dagger : The truth about the new espionage--
- West Coast Bungalows of the 1920s: With Photographs and Floor Plans
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- What You Wear Can Change Your Life
- What's Heaven
- Will: The Autobiography of G. Gordon Liddy
- Vilhelm Hammershoi and Danish Art at the Turn of the Century.
- Vivir para crecer
- When Our Parents Become Our Children
Disguised As A Poem: My Years Teaching at San Quentin
Shakespeare Behind Bars: The Power of Drama In A Women's Prison
Imagining Medea: Rhodessa Jones and Theater for Incarcerated Women
Wall Tappings: An International Anthology of Women's Prison Writings 200 to the Present
Doing Time: 25 Years of Prison Writing-A PEN American Center Prize Anthology
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