Book Description
If bigger is better, Wal-Mart has rightfully won its leading position in the pantheon of international institutions. With more than 100 million customers a week, Wal-Mart is by far the world's largest retailer. It is the biggest private-sector employer in North America, and one of the most dominant and influential corporations anywhere. Sam Walton's company prides itself on being a paragon of service, integrity, and frugality to its customers. But all is not well in the many areas where people have been "Wal-Martized" and have faced Wal-Mart's controversial business practices.
In Sam We Trust is the true, unvarnished story of the Wal-Mart colossus at work, and of how its remarkable success illustrates the glory as well as the underbelly of American capitalism. A flinty workaholic obsessed with his stores at the expense of his personal life, Walton established the ruthlessly efficient strategy that enabled Wal-Mart to surpass Sears, outsmart Kmart, and crush small-town mom-and-pop stores. Bob Ortega, a veteran reporter who covered Wal-Mart extensively for The Wall Street Journal, has written an illuminating and authoritative account of the world's most powerful store, and of how Sam Walton's way of thinking is transforming America's -- and the world's -- business practices, workplaces, and communities.
Customer Reviews:
Wow!.......2005-01-03
I read this after seeing the PBS Frontline story on Walmart. I had never realized how much of an effect this store has on American communities, workers and manufacturing. As the book explains well, Walmart is not the only one to blame for the negative trends, but it is the biggest and was a trendsetter for this style of megabusiness whose only goal is to grow and eliminates all concerns except the bottom line.
The book was a pageturner for me. Really interesting and well written. I'd like to see a new edition that is updated with info from the last 6 years. Walmart has grown ALOT in 6 years!
A tale of two Wal-Marts.......2002-06-19
Organizations reflect the people in charge. IN SAM WE TRUST by Bob Ortega tells how, after the death of founder Sam Walton, Wal-Mart department stores lost its way with both employees and the public.
According to IN SAM WE TRUST, Sam Walton made Wal-Mart employees and customers feel as though he cared about them even when his business practices said otherwise. With at least false hope, those people continued working and shopping at Wal-Mart.
Sam Walton died in 1992, and, as IN SAM WE TRUST tells it, subsequent Wal-Mart leadership did not care nor pretend to care about people. The book's final chapters document just how cold Wal-Mart headquarters became.
Everyday low prices? Yes. Everyday people? Only on Sly Stone's greatest hits album. Read IN SAM WE TRUST.
A fascinating History of America.......2001-11-26
This is an excellent book. It's not merely the account of a powerful businessman and how he sahped a company. It's also an account of modern American socio-economic history. Ortega expalins hoe Sam Walton maanged to take advantage of changes that were occurring in demographic distribution, technology and savvy business techniques from those who taught him and his competitors. Ortega provides a history of retailing in the USA from the late 19th century and explains the success of the modern outlet store in terms of its roots in the catalogue stores, department stores and demographic distribution. The history of the WalMart company is told by focusing on its relentless founder Sam Walton. ortega reveals Walton's hiring processes, the reasons that led him to develop the worker profit-sharing programs and how the ideas of the cheer and other details, now familiar to any Wal Mart shopper, came to be. Ortega does not set out to accuse Walton, he lets the story speak for itself and the reader can decide whether or not they wish to continue shopping there. All in all this Business profile is well worth reading.
A book everyone should read.......2001-05-17
I started reading this book when I was looking for a topic for one of my term papers (I had thought about writing a paper on Wal-Mart). When I decided to do my paper on sweatshops, I still used the book for reference purposes --especially on the infamous Kathie Lee Gifford/Wal-Mart/sweatshop scandal. However, I couldn't put it down. I would read a few pages and then I would need to know what happened before and what happened after. The book is very informative and well-written but I think the writing is accessibly to most people. It's an interesting book that offers a view of Wal-Mart that most of us don't get to see. It doesn' bash the retail-giant, but it provides us with a perspective of a business built by a determined man and what that business has meant to the country since it's beginning. I really enjoyed reading this book and I think a lot of you out there would as well.
Good Business History, Good Muckraking - bad mix of the two.......2000-10-05
Anyone with an interest in business history has to be fascinated by the story of Wal-Mart. Starting from a single store in an obscure Southern town, the company expanded relentlessly over the course of thirty-five years to become the most powerful retailer in the world. At the center of this story stands the enigmatic figure of Sam Walton, a folksy and sincerely genial man who ran the single store back in the mid -1950's and still controlled the burgeoning corporate empire at the time of his death in 1992, having by then amassed the largest personal fortune in America. Bob Ortega has done a workman-like job in telling the story of both the company and its founder. However, Ortega is an investigative journalist by trade, not a biographer or business historian. His interest in Wal-Mart began with a series of muckraking reports he did on the company during the 1990's, and he devotes the last half of "In Sam We Trust" to rambling through much of this material, focusing on Wal-Mart's longstanding compliance with abusive and illegal labor practices on the part of its suppliers, and on it ruthless real-estate practices that have for the last three decades steam-rollered over what remains of the cultural ethos of small-town America. Ortega is a good writer and a conscientious journalist, laboring hard to stick to facts and avoid sensationalism. And given his obvious distaste for what Wal-Mart has become, it speaks well of his literary integrity that the historical and biographical portions of this book are objectively told. Sam Walton himself is portrayed with his all positive personal qualities intact - he's rather likeable - and his flaws, while apparent, aren't blown out of proportion either. The fascination with him, which is well-presented, lies in the paradox of such an amiable fellow possessing a ruthless competitive drive rivaling that of the any of the legendary 19th century Robber Barons. The problem with Ortega's book is that the biographical and historical half doesn't fit together very cohesively with the muckraking half, even though both portions are well-enough done in their own terms. Anyone wanting business history here is going to get a little bored with the repetitive accounts of third-world sweatshops and anti-Wal-Mart community action drives. I recommend the book, but many readers should be prepared skim over portions of it.
Amazon.com
In In Sam We Trust, investigative journalist Bob Ortega exposes the underside of Wal-Mart and defrocks Sam Walton, the founder of the retailing mammoth. Ortega chronicles Walton's rise from a backwater retailer in Arkansas to one of the richest men in the country. While Walton carefully crafted a public image as a regular guy who drove a pickup and wore a name tag at his stores, Ortega paints a different picture of a two-faced and ruthless invader of small-town America. Walton was so stingy that his chain was last among major retailers in charity donations in terms of percentage of earnings. He hurt the downtowns of many communities by building Wal-Marts on the outskirts and capturing up to 75 percent of his sales from the preexisting stores. The late billionaire was obsessed with profits and cutting costs. He pioneered temporary help--a third of Wal-Mart's employees are part-time and the average worker only earns about $7.50 an hour. Even while making a big media splash with a "Buy American" program in the 1980s, Walton quietly expanded his company's Hong Kong staff and continued to import apparel made by cheap child labor in the Third World.
But, as Ortega points out, Walton was also a retailing visionary. He saw opportunity long before others and was the first to go big with discount stores in smaller cities and towns. All the while, he stuck to his formula of offering the lowest possible prices and profiting from vast sales volumes. He invested early in computers and satellite communications for his stores. And he raced past competitors such as Sears and Kmart with an incredibly lean and fast distribution system. Ortega, who took a leave from the staff of the Wall Street Journal to write this book, pursued Walton's legacy across America to town squares such as Steamboat Springs, Colorado, which finally succumbed to Wal-Mart, and Greenfield, Massachusetts, where activists blocked the store. He interviewed hundreds of people including many former and top Wal-Mart officials. Ortega even hunts down Wal-Mart's suppliers in Central America to document the exploitation of children in clothing factories. In Sam We Trust is an important work about a man who changed the face of retailing, for better and worse. --Dan Ring
Book Description
Wal-Mart is the largest retailer in the world, the biggest private-sector employer in North America, and one of the most dominant and influential corporations anywhere. But until now, no journalist has thoroughly investigated all of the company's controversial practices and told the true, unvarnished story of founder Sam Walton's life and his particular genius.
In Sam We Trust is Bob Ortega's illuminating and authoritative account of the world's biggest and most powerful store, and of how Walton's way of thinking is transforming America's business practices, workplaces, and communities.
Sam Walton built the greatest retail empire in history by steadfastly holding true to his vision of making profits by bringing low prices to the masses. A flinty workaholic obsessed with his stores at the expense of his personal life, Walton developed a ruthlessly efficient strategy that enabled Wal-Mart to surpass Sears, outsmart Kmart, and crush small-town mom-and-pop stores. He revolutionized retailing by creating innovative information and distribution systems that were years ahead of the competition.
By encouraging employees to become shareholders in his company, and through the sheer force of his charismatic personality, Walton created a corporate culture unlike any other. So complete was Walton's power over employees that even when he threatened to shut down stores or fire workers to keep unions out, he could win people's trust with promises to treat them better. Wal-Mart workers still pledge to work harder and better by uttering the phrase "So help me Sam."
Meanwhile, back on Main Street, Wal-Mart's unmatched success has raised troubling questions about the company's impact on communities and its treatment of workers. Activists have been waging increasingly impassioned campaigns to keep the colossus from invading towns and suburbs and threatening local businesses. Thousands of miles away, some of Wal-Mart's suppliers have been caught using child labor, and pitchwoman Kathie Lee Gifford has become embroiled in a national controversy over her line of clothing.
Bob Ortega, a veteran Wall Street Journal reporter who has covered Wal-Mart more extensively than perhaps any other writer, has investigated Wal-Mart and the way it does business. He shows how the company's relentless bottom-line mentality has been both a boon and a bane to workers and their communities. In this balanced and thorough work of business history, Bob Ortega tells a remarkable success story that illustrates the glory as well as the underbelly of American capitalism. Ultimately,
In Sam We Trust raises important questions about the social responsibility of America's most powerful corporations.
Customer Reviews:
Negative Book.......2007-01-04
This is a negative book on Wal-Mart, but probably not as negative as its severist critics. Actually the author writes quite extensively about K-Mart and about their many missteps over the decades. He also writes some about Sear's (How many times has Sear's tried to reinvent themselves?). I think K-Mart stores will ultimately become Sear's stores with the K-Mart store and logo disappearing, and I could see Sear's going out of business in the next ten to fifteen years. Sear's has a few brand names (Craftsman's tools, Kenmore Appliances) that Home Depot or Lowe's would pay a king's ransom to acquire.
I wasn't aware that Wal-Mart has faced as many battles to build their stores over the years. I thought that it was mainly confined to the liberal northeast.
Considering how large Wal-Mart has become I'm surprised that they're as efficient as they are given the interference from the government. Actually I think Wal-Mart was probably a better company fifteen years ago. Clearly the battles that they've faced with the environmentalists et al has caused them to be a less effective company and has caused them to pass some of these costs onto their customers.
Despite what their critics say Wal-Mart provides hundreds of jobs in every community to those who otherwise would be unemployed. Those employees would leave in a minute if they had the requiste job skills and experience to obtain a better job. The biggest anti-Wal-Mart opponents are unions (non necessarily union members) and environmentalists. The two anti-Wal-Mart websites are union funded, and I read a survey recently where 67% of respondents (which included union members) support Wal-Mart. When union members are subtracted out of the survey results, the support jumps to 80% of the participants.
Comprehensive.......2002-10-21
A thorough and factual history of the rise of Wal-Mart. Well written and most interesting. I read this book out of curiosity about how Wal-Mart came into being, and what factors made it grow into the giant of the industry. "In Sam We Trust" did go into the background of Sam Walton himself, without going into any special hero-hype or star-bashing, instead simply outlined the story as it happened. From this, I learned much about the organization, and my questions were well answered.
i don't understand all this anti(local store)publicity.......2002-08-17
i had to vote for at least one star, but if i could've voted for no stars at all, that would have more accurately summed up my opinion on the subject. ok, the critics say that (local store) are devouring small business and small towns, but they don't see, or want to see, the big picture. sam walton's formula for success was very simple - treat co-workers with respect and kindness, just the way we all want to be treated, and give customers what they want and then some. most (local store) employees that i know are very happy with their jobs, even if they could work somewhere with more income potential they don't want to because they are proud of what they do, and rightly so. (local store) associates take pride in doing what they do every day, serving the customers, seeing their happy faces light up when they feel honored as important, valuable human beings rather than just another transaction, another number that doesn't mean anything. anti-(local store) are spiteful that sam walton was a visionary businessman with a simple plan for making the american dream a reality and who shared that vision with everyone he encountered, from associates, customers, stockholders, and even the president of the united states when walton was presented with a presidential award. if these people want to say that (local store) is running out small business, remember what sam walton said about customers being free to choose where to shop, nobody is forced to shop at (local store), but most do because they know that when they do, they will as a rule get more out of it than shopping at any other retailer that offers the same merchandise. the unions are very unhappy because they see (local store) and the way they do business as threatening to their livelihood, though it is not an anti-union company, they've just figured out how to make unions obsolete. open communication with management and workers is possible, and a win-win situation when people just get their egoes out of the way and work as a team. the unions want workers and management to be divisive because this is just a way for them to pirate employee's salaries, creating fear is profitable for them. i don't respect the way most unions do business, if that's not obvious by now, because it seems rather unethical. (Local store) is the #1 private employer in this country for a reason, and nothing the opposition can do or say can change that. "the customer always" is more than just a catchy slogan, it's a way of life for most walmart associates. it's an attitude that carries over into other areas of life, pride in a job well done and service with a smile can apply to any facet of living. when you finally realize how bogus this (local store) bashing bandwagon truly is, maybe you'd get more out of reading mr. walton's biography, "made in america".
WAL-MART REPLACES GM AS USA'S #1 PRIVATE EMPLOYER.......2002-03-01
Bob Ortega's excellent study of America's largest private employer (728,000 workers in 1997) is truly food for thought not only about Wal-Mart as a retail organization, its leaders, and its impact on America, but also about the direction America was headed into at the close of the 20th century.
Ortega's book, IN SAM WE TRUST: The Untold Story Of Sam Walton And How Wal-Mart Is Devouring America (1998) was widely reviewed as hostile to Wal-Mart and those who support it, but one cannot help but notice an overall tone of admiration in Ortega's book at the success of Wal-Mart's well documented rapacity and avarice, and the fact that its bottom line big dollar success was only possible because it's enormous customer base have voted with their feet and their pocket books to keep it going and growing.
Author Bob Ortega is a Princeton grad later schooled at the Columbia U. Journalism School, well known along with the U. of Missouri Journalism School as the most prestigious in America. He's also a WALL STREET JOURNAL employee. For all of the pretentions IN SAM WE TRUST (1998) makes of being a true muck-raking tome, the author's WALL STREET JOURNAL mentality and morality shines through to any who examine his book closely.
When all is said and done, Ortega has written a book which admires Wal-Mart, and is likely to do that organization no harm whatever. His provided backgrounder information about the nasty and unpleasant side of Wal-Mart doesn't affect the bottom-line, to use a phrase near and dear to Wal-Mart management, and to Ortega's mentor newspaper, the WALL STREET JOURNAL.
The book reminds me of the extravagant PATTON (1969) movie which appeared in the middle of the War In Vietnam, and told the story of General George S. Patton, Jr. and his activities during World War II. The expensive movie (for which the main actor won an Academy Award) provided very critical material about Gen. Patton, and showed his failures and personal problems in some detail. But, all in all, it was a hagiography which was said to have been screened often in the Nixon White House, and which the pro-war people of the Vietnam War era loved. For all its criticism, the movie admired Patton, and was a PR piece for pushy generals, the U.S. Army, and war as a catagory of human activity.
It's doubtful that Wal-Mart bigshots at company HQ in Bentonville, Arkansas lost any sleep over this book. Wal-Mart profits were probably boosted as a result of the book. After all, it provided more publicity about Wal-Mart. As movie star Erol Flynn was supposed to have said often, "I don't care what the newspapers say about me...just make sure they spell my name right."
All this said, the book DOES reveal many interesting facts about Wal-Mart and by reflection, about America these days.
Wal-Mart's status as America's largest private employer is discussed. By 1997, Wal-Mart had long since passed General Motors Corp. to achieve this status. The kind of work offered by Wal-Mart and other "big-box" type discount and "catagory killer" chains... had REPLACED manufacturing to become the dominant new blue-collar job in the United States. This kind of job offered far lower wages, fewer benefits, and less job security than the old manufacturing type job it replaced.
Ortega says the WALL STREET JOURNAL compared GM jobs with Wal-Mart jobs in 1997 and noted that the average GM wage was $19. per hour; at Wal-Mart $7.50 per hour. With benefits included, GM compensation was worth $44. per hour; Wal-Mart's (for those who get benefits) was $10. per hour. Ortega rightfully concludes (but isn't necessarily unhappy about the fact that) Wal-Mart has become a mirror for the new American workplace where Federal employment figures showed that more than 30 percent of American workers hold only part-time or temporary jobs.
It's safe to conclude that when the new #1 employer in America offers less than 25% of income provided by the old #1 employer, Americans as a group are getting poorer.
IN SAM WE TRUST (1998) states that when a new Wal-Mart store arrives in a community, 75% of its profits are drawn from trade previously enjoyed by small, often "Ma and Pa" stores many of which cannot stand against Wal-Mart competition and soon close down. Author Orgega refers to this as "strip-mining" local commerce previously but no longer owned and operated locally, and uniquely responsive to local needs and pressures.
If Wal-Mart ever become history, and its services become unavailable in the 3000 plus locations where it now operates, the loss of the centrally controlled organization would impact the lives of many, many Americans. The re-establishment of the many small business Wal-Mart bull-dozed into oblivion is not likely to provide relief to these Americans.
All this is worth thinking about, and for that reason, Bob Ortega's book IN SAM WE TRUST: The Untold Story of Sam Walton and How Wal-Mart Is Devouring American (1998) is worth buying and re-reading often.
This book tells it all........1999-06-17
I worked at Wal-mart and I know exactly what you are talking about. Right now it is happening in my home town. There are a lot of small stores and Wal-mart will run them out of business. When I worked with Wal-mart the main focus was making that money. They had to do everything to make sure that they were getting in every dollar they could. Forget the associates. They did not really care about the associates. We just had to make sure that the customers were happy so they would spend more money. It should not be that way. It is true that Wal-mart gives to the Children's Miracle Network and to other charities but they always get something out of it. Wal-mart cares about one thing and one thing only, making a profit.
Average customer rating:
- Last of the Great Motivators
- Great read for football fans
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Erk: Football, Fans & Friends
Erskine Russell
Manufacturer: Longstreet Pr
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
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ASIN: 1563520192 |
Customer Reviews:
Last of the Great Motivators.......2003-08-07
Erk Russell was not only an outstanding football coach, he was even more than that a superior motivator, able to bring out the absolute best in those around him. If you are able to get a copy of this book, sit down, read it, and enjoy a good laugh along with some very touching stories about personal loss and the value of perseverance. I have thrown out books by well-known sports figures who later in life turned out to be fakes, but every time I have the pleasure of running across Coach Russell I am reminded of the value of sincerity and modesty.
Great read for football fans.......2000-02-15
If you are interested in University of Georgia or Georgia Southern football you will love this Book. The book tells many funny and interesting stories. ERK is an exceptional motivator.
Book Description
Captive Bodies examines the film industry's fascination with bondage and captivity, seeking to revisualize American cinema through the lens of critical discourse on captivity narratives, slave narratives, and postcolonial critiques of cinematic constructions of "whiteness," "blackness," gender, and sexuality. Captivity is also examined here in relation to both those in front and behind the camera. Are we "subject" to others? Are we "bound" and "captive" in images? Are we "captive" bodies and "captive" audiences, held hostage to the spectacles of voyeuristic pleasure? Are those behind the camera involved in a process not unlike that of the slave system, enslaving the body in the image? To answer these and other questions, Captive Bodies draws upon a wide range of critical methodologies, including postcolonial studies, feminist film criticism, anthropology, and phenomenology.
Book Description
While fads such as hula hoops or streaking are usually dismissed as silly enthusiasms, trends in institutions such as education, business, medicine, science, and criminal justice are often taken seriously, even though their popularity and usefulness is sometimes short-lived. Institutional fads such as open classrooms, quality circles, and multiple personality disorder are constantly making the rounds, promising astonishing new developments--novel ways of teaching reading or arithmetic, better methods of managing businesses, or improved treatments for disease. Some of these trends prove to be lasting innovations, but others--after absorbing extraordinary amounts of time and money--are abandoned and forgotten, soon to be replaced by other new schemes. In this pithy, intriguing, and often humorous book, Joel Best--author of the acclaimed Damned Lies and Statistics--explores the range of institutional fads, analyzes the features of our culture that foster them, and identifies the major stages of the fad cycle--emerging, surging, and purging. Deconstructing the ways that this system plays into our notions of reinvention, progress, and perfectibility, Flavors of the Month examines the causes and consequences of fads and suggests ways of fad-proofing our institutions.
Customer Reviews:
Fairly obvious observations, but well organized.......2007-02-21
Flavor of the Month is a 162 page essay/novel about institutional fads: why they exist, their different stages, and then a dissection on their pros and cons.
Although most of the observations are fairly obvious (institutional fads happen in cycles, etc) the information is well organized and presented. The major drawback to the book is that Best relies solely on "what if" stories. He creates fictional characters and places them in fictional situations to demonstrate how an institutional fad could begin, spread, and then fade away. The information would have been a lot more compelling if he were actually dealing with facts.
The book includes several copies of email forwards and other such jokes that you have probably seen repeatedly, and they get a little old, but add length to the book, which is their point I think.
I found Flavor of the Month easy to get through fairly quickly, but I'm not sure that I came away any more knowledgeable than before I opened the book. We all know that institutional fads happened, and I would rather have seen more examples of them happening in real life than a brief example of how they "could" effect a business.
lazyreaders.com book club selection for April 2006.......2006-06-27
So what if this book just came out, and I tend to always read books that are sent to me from publishers for free? While Joel Best can often bore with statistics (he wrote the wonderful "Damned Lies and Statistics"), his point of this book is intriguing: Americans often fall for scams. He is not talking about the guys that buy Ab Rollers sold on late night infomercials (which I own, pitifully). Best is talking about how smart people in business, medicine and education cling to the next 7-step approach or easy-to-use carb diet. Education, in my opinion, suffers from this disease more than any other profession, as the pendulum has swung most recently to drilling letter sounds and endlessly assessing students as a part of the government's "No Child Left Untested" program. If nothing else, this book will get you thinking. You can read an anecdote from my own teaching experiences on the April 2006 blog of my website, www.lazyreaders.com, which archives awesome adult, young adult and children's books that are under 250 pages.
What a disappointment........2006-04-05
I had read one of his previous books and thought it was okay. I was expecting this to have some entertaining examples of smart people falling for intellectual fads and some insights as to how that happens. Unfortunately, no such luck. All of the examples are ones that are widely known and there is really no insightful analysis. The book is quite short - all of the interesting content would barely fill a New Yorker article - and one gets the impression that this was just put together over a few weekends. I would have to say that the content is uniformly at the junior high school level. Save your money, no entertainment or enlightenment here.
Book Description
If you're looking for fun ways to challenge yourself for hours, The Everything Brain Strain Book is for you! Over 400 puzzles, riddles, brain teasers, and more will test your IQ and improve your thinking and problem-solving skills. Organized by difficulty and type, this all-inclusive game book will keep you guessing.
Including:
Language puzzles
Letter equations
Logic puzzles
Math and science teasers
Probability puzzles
Rebuses
Riddles
Trivia
Give up? A Solution Guide in the back of the book is there for you when you've encountered the toughest puzzles of all. Indulge your penchant for puzzles as you face challenge after challenge in The Everything Brain Strain Book.
Customer Reviews:
Good collection of original riddles.......2007-01-13
I enjoy riddles and I have read a lot of riddle books. My general impression of riddle books is that they contain very few unique ideas. They usually just reword the same set of famous riddles that we are already familiar with.
To my delight, this book was quite different! There was not a single riddle in this book that I had previously heard. I particularly enjoyed the fact that the riddles were broken up into different categories (Math, Logic, Trivia, etc), which allowed me to jump straight to my favorites. I was also pleased with the quantity of puzzles, since you rarely find a riddle book with even a hundred puzzles. This book has over 400!
The riddles in this book are apparently collected from the authors website, which I have visited and have enjoyed. I recommend this book.
Great Fun for the Whole Family..........2007-01-12
I love this book! I enjoy the range of different types of brain teasers and the range of difficulty within teaser groups. The "e" boxes every few pages deliver helpful tips, encouragement, or useful facts. Our family likes to challenge each other with brain teasers and this is a great resource. Recently we got hooked on the rebus puzzles and after working through the ones in the book we started making up ones of our own. This book sits out on the coffee table and is a great favorite of visitors--always gets a good conversation going. Using this book is a great way to keep your brain fit!
how sad.......2005-08-19
w a l
h - e
a - t
t
or, in rebus speak, what a let down
I have dipped in and out of Jakes web site for a couple of years now, and have always found teasers that are both challenging and funny. Regulars such as Mad_Ade, dumbell, mogmatt16, MrIxolite, Tissue, Datra16 (the list goes on), all have become almost real to me over time from reading their banter and reparte. The humour carried over into the tasers, although not all those who contribute do so with teasers.
When I picked up this book I expected wit and humour in the brain teasers. Instead I found badly copied and poorly reconstructed immitations of what is found on line.
I feel Jake has done those who have trusted him a great discredit.
This one is going stright to the second hand shop. It is just a shame there is no option for no stars.
"THE" Best Teasers!.......2005-06-11
I just ordered the book and look forward to seeing the teasers! I know the author is a curator of more than 7,000 of teasers of almost every category of brain teaser of your liking, so I know his book is going to have the best of the best!
Book Description
At last! A real-world reference guide for clinical trial SAS programming, packed with solutions that programmers can apply to their day-to-day problems. Discover key techniques and tools available within Base SAS (including the macro language and PROC SQL), SAS/GRAPH, and SAS/STAT that can be used to resolve many common issues in working with clinical trial data. Organized to reflect the statistical programmer's work flow, this user-friendly text begins with an introduction to the working environment, then presents chapters on importing and massaging data into analysis data sets, producing clinical trial output, and exporting data. Valuable plug-and-play programming examples are provided throughout. Whether you're a novice seeking an introduction to SAS programming for the pharmaceutical industry or a junior-level programmer exploring new approaches to problem solving, you'll find a wealth of practical suggestions to help you sharpen your skills.
Customer Reviews:
Excellent book for a beginer.......2007-08-17
Excellent book.....explains in detail which could be understood very easily by any one with basic knowledge in SAS programming.....highly recommended for those who wants to pursue their SAS programming career in pharma industry
Excellent.......2007-05-25
This is the first time I personally bought a book from Amazon and found it extremly satisfying as far as the pricing, quality and the delivery of the product is concerned.
One of the very few good SAS Books.......2007-04-07
Just love the way this book is written! A must for every SAS user working in the Clinical Trials / Pharma industry!!!
The best book I ever bought..........2007-01-24
It is not easy to explain easy things easily, but this author is different. He knows how to say more in few words. I liked this book too much. It is easy to read, easy to understand, and easy to follow. Wish we had more writers like him.
Excellent Overview of Pharma Programming and Reporting.......2006-11-16
Based on input from someone who just got a job at a large pharma in Southern California, the material in the book is DIRECTLY relevant to programming and reporting in the industry. Future versions could be a bit more detailed, but again, as an overview it is excellent.
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- Troubled Sleep: A Novel
- The Opium Wars: The Addiction of One Empire and the Corruption of Another
- The Proverbial Cracker Jack: How To Get Out Of The Box And Become The Prize
- Statistics for Social Data Analysis
- This Moment on Earth: Today's New Environmentalists and Their Vision for the Future
- The mystery man of Europe, Sir Basil Zaharoff,
- The Eastern European Economy in Context: Communism and the Transition
- The Glory of the Tree: With 194 Color Illustrations of Trees of the World
The Wal-Mart Effect: How the World's Most Powerful Company Really Works--and How It's Transforming the American Economy
Sam Walton: Made In America
Wal-Mart: A History of Sam Walton's Retail Phenomenon (Twayne's Evolution of Modern Business Series)
The United States of Wal-Mart
The Case Against Wal-Mart
