Disability and Self-Directed Employment: Business Development Models

Book Description

Scenario planning has received much top-level interest in the corporate sector as a way of realistically assessing the long-term future. Yet seldom are line managers included in initiatives, even though their exposure to customers and competitors means they often pick up subtle signals that are the first alert of changes to the operating environment. By exposing line managers to alternative scenarios, organizations can reduce the risk of ignoring the small environmental changes that are the advance warning for major discontinuities. Now completely updated in a new edition, the message of this practical, hands-on guide is that scenarios are not predictions or forecasts, but powerful weapons in managing the uncertainties of the future. Taking a conceptual rather than mathematical approach, it includes a wealth of case studies, checklists, early indicators and examples.

Customer Reviews:

Insightful!.......2004-06-04

Sure, you worry about what changes the future will bring for your business. But do you have a sensible and logical way to respond to the uncertainties that keep you up at night? If not, this intriguing book will set you on the right path. British corporate strategist Gill Ringland offers persuasive evidence that scenario planning is a worthwhile pursuit, and she recounts in useful detail her own experiences and those of large corporations looking for an edge up on the future. The book is organized in four sections: the links between scenarios and strategic planning, a rundown on different theoretical approaches (French School, Futures Group, CSM, Copenhagen Institute, and more), a set of eight case histories and several examples of actual, step-by-step scenarios. While Ringland's writing is inconsistent and can be dense and jargony, she nevertheless offers plenty of useful information that serves as a path for anyone embarking on scenario planning. We suggest this book to managers and corporate strategists seeking ways to deal with the uncertain future.

NOT Recommended.......2001-09-05

I bought this and the Van Der Heijden book together and found this book very frustrating to read. There is some good practical writing in the first section of the book, which describes the basics of scenario planning and how scenario planning and strategic planning work together. If this is where the book stopped, it would have rated much higher. The rest of the book is almost a total write-off though.

The examples and case studies read like a patched-together compilation of other people's writings. There are huge differences in style, voice, and detail which make the examples difficult to compare and contrast. Actually, it makes them difficult to read. The balance of the book would really have benefitted from a re-write and some further research into the examples and case studies.

If you are interested in developing and using scenarios check out the Van Der Heijden book - "Scenarios - the Art of Strategic Conversation." Also, "the Art of the Long View" by Peter Scwartz is a great introduction to developing and using scenarios.

Almost everything you need to know about scenario planning.......2000-12-07

Most books on scenario planning either entertain us with their stories of possible futures or delve into intensely dull details of scenario construction. Ringland's book has the virtue of avoiding these two extremes. This wide-ranging book will suit both newcomers and veterans of scenario planning. Each kind of reader can pick out what they need from the four sections. Part I introduces scenario planning from the point of view of strategic planning at ICL in the UK. Ringland shows how scenarios can be linked to strategic planning and how they can be used for learning or to influence public opinion. Part II take a more theoretical approach, outlining eleven different methods, including those used by the European Commission, Global Business Network, and SRI, as well as computer-driven simulations. Part III presents eight case studies, allowing the reader to see the process as it was applied to British Airways, Cable and Wireless, the UK's National Health Service, and Shell. Finally, Part IV shows examples of scenarios including those developed by the author's company ICL, and MIT's scenarios for 21st Century organizations.

Hardly anyone these days has the time to read a 400-page book. Fortunately, Ringland has structured Scenario Planning to make it easy to pick out just what the reader needs. The variety of approaches explained and the range of case studies and examples is like a large menu from which the reader can choose just the tidbits desired. A well-balanced reading of selected chapters will provide all the essential elements needed to understand scenario planning. On the other hand, the book's main shortcoming arises from its breadth. No one approach is explained in sufficient detail to create a systematic and thorough understanding of any particular method. Such detail can make for tedious reading and may be unnecessary. But if you want to drill down to minute details, skimming Ringland's book will be a great warm-up before tackling Van der Heijen's book.

Great Scenario Working Book.......2000-11-25

Aimed at business strategists or consultants, this book provides many deep, usable tools, examples, and approaches assisting the development of more robust projects and organizations across a range of futures.

The attractively illustrated, deep resources span:

++ Part 1 (a standalone "book")- history and background of scenario planning (SP); current state of the art; ICL use of SP in projects; examples of SP (including 2 day workshop at world-class Manufacturing Systems Integration Research Institute at Loughborough University, UK); and learning.

++ Part 2- describes various approaches - BASICS, CSM, STRAT*X, Copenhagen Institute, EC,, French School, Futures Group, Global Business Network, NCI, and SRI.

++Part 3- case studies for range of approaches used across sectors- British Airways, Cable & Wireless, ECRC, Electrolux, UK National Health Service, KNRONE, Shell and United Distillers.

++ Part 4- scenarios- ICL, the Internet, Telecoms industry, Shell, Hemingford, and 21st Century Organizations.

Despite covering a very broad and deep content, the structure, style, and excellent use of sidebars/charts/lists/ and "glue" (or linking text) make this a very approachable working book & reference source for the scenario planning. The emphasis is on practicality, rather than theory, as befitting an author with significant practical experience. The only complaint, is that sometimes too much detail is given (reading a bit like a lab-report- the author's a physicist, after all!).

Book Description

This digital document is an article from The Futurist, published by World Future Society on August 1, 1998. The length of the article is 1339 words. The page length shown above is based on a typical 300-word page. The article is delivered in HTML format and is available in your Amazon.com Digital Locker immediately after purchase. You can view it with any web browser.

Citation Details
Title: Scenario Planning: Managing for the Future.
Author: Jeffrey H. Epstein
Publication: The Futurist (Magazine/Journal)
Date: August 1, 1998
Publisher: World Future Society
Volume: v32 Issue: n6 Page: p50(2)

Article Type: Book Review

Distributed by Thomson Gale

Book Description

Prepare for LSAT success with the LSAT Exam Cram. Accurate, to-the-point content, strategies for successfully completing the three exam sections, and four complete practice exams make this study aid one of the most comprehensive on the market. With over 500 practice questions, the LSAT Exam Cram also offers you an author-led video on CD-ROM that will help you arrive at the logical answer for each type of question. A "Cram Sheet" tear-card is also included for you to use in your last minute studying right up until exam time. Build your confidence and prepare for exam success with the LSAT Exam Cram.

Download Description

Prepare for LSAT success with the LSAT Exam Cram. Accurate, to-the-point content, strategies for successfully completing the three exam sections, and four complete practice exams make this study aid one of the most comprehensive on the market, with over 500 practice questions. A "Cram Sheet" tear-card is also included for you to use in your last minute studying right up until exam time. Build your confidence and prepare for exam success with the LSAT Exam Cram.

Customer Reviews:

Disappointing.......2007-03-25

While I have yet to take the LSAT, and am therefore not sure about the quality of the questions, there are some major problems with this book. First, the answer keys are sometimes wrong. Second, editing is poor, with misspelled words, etc. Third, and most irritating, the CD is worthless, and is actually just an audio CD of the exact text of the book. It has NO sample tests and is NOT a program. You have to spend another $20.00 to upgrade it to do so, although the link provided to do this doesn't work either. So if you wanted to take sample tests on your PC and get your likely score, DO NOT get this book. No wonder its one of the cheapest ones.

Good for us procrastinaters..........2005-11-06

I agree with earlier reviewers that old practice LSATs are probably the best way to prepare. BUT, if you are presured for time as I was, this book works great for trying to cram in some studying in the month before your test date.

Great capstone to your LSAT review.......2005-10-31

If anything, I found many questions in this book to be *harder* than what I saw on the LSAT (I took it earlier this year). I think that this is best used after you've purchased some old LSATs and gotten into the rhythm of practicing the questions. Other than that, good guide and worth the price.

Don't use only this book.......2005-10-10

This book works great as an in-depth review of what all the other review books tell you to do. Each chapter gives a brief (as in 10 page) summary of some of the skills you may need and some of the questions you may encounter. However, the list of skills and techniques is by no means comprehensive (and I personally found the recommended techniques for logic games very inefficient and confusing compared to every other technique for logic games that I've tried), so if you are looking for a "How to" approach to the LSAT, this book is not your best bet (I recommend Nova's Master the LSAT book instead). On the other hand, it does gives you some succinct tips, and works great if you are trying to cram in some studying in the month before the test.

The book comes with a CD that "features sample test questions and an audio presentation of chapter concepts." The audio presentation of chapter concepts is nothing more than the author reading exactly what he wrote in the chapter (with maybe a few words different, I followed along in the book as the audio played just to see!). The sample test questions are not worth it at all. The program is called ExamForce CramMaster and I first thought that it would give me a wide variety of questions to practice on so that I would improve. The program tells you that it will give you new questions based on how you answered an old one and that it will help you improve in areas where you need it most. It might work a little bit like that, but mostly it gives you the same questions over and over again so that you can ace the section because you've memorized the answers and don't even need to read the question or answer choices anymore!

As for the practice exams in the book itself, there is no score conversion table so you only know which questions you got wrong, not how you would have scored on a real LSAT. The explanations of answers are good, although the answer key tends to be wrong. The list of answers will give one answer for a question, while the explanation gives another, and usually the correct, answer. I found the logical reasoning practice questions very useful, and the logic games questions were okay, but the reading comprehension passages were nothing like what you would get on a real LSAT. The passages were actually interesting and fun to read, sometimes excerpts from novels or short stories, and did not give any indication of what the reading passages are actually like. A better set of practice exams would be the old LSAT exams published by LSAC, even though you don't get detailed explanations.

While the questions were perhaps wittily written, I think most people would agree that taking tests most like the LSAT are the best way to prepare for test day. I thought this book was quite helpful as a review of general techniques, and as practice for the logical reasoning sections, but there is no way that I would recommend this as the only book you buy to study for the LSAT.

Could have been worse, not sure how........2005-10-01

Misspelled words, confusing questions that are nothing like the real LSAT questions, confusing answers to confusing questions that serve only to frustrate you more, and then more misspelled words. Whoever edited this thing should be ashamed. Save yourself the money and just buy the LSAT practice tests. The test still sucks, buy hey, you knew that already.

Book Description

Coconut is an important multipurpose tree widely grown throughout the tropical regions of the world. However, its potential is threatened by the development of other oil crops which are increasing their production on the world fats and oils market. Against this background, the Technical Advisory Committee of the Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research (CGIAR) requested the Australian Center for International Agricultural Research (ACIAR) to assist it in examining the feasibility of an international initiative on coconut research. This book reports the outcome of this study, written to make it accessible to a wide audience of policy makers and crop scientists concerned with perennial tree crops.

Book Description

The study of parasitic organisms at the molecular level has yielded fascinating new insights of great medical, social, and economical importance, and has pointed the way for the treatment and prevention of the diseases they cause. Biochemistry and Molecular Biology of Parasites presents an up-to-date account of this modern scientific discipline in a manner that allows and encourages the reader to place the biochemistry and molecular biology of these organisms in their biological context. The chapters are cross-referenced and grouped in an arrangement that provides a fully integrated whole, and permits the reader to create a composite of the biochemical function of these organisms.
Individual chapter includes those devoted to metabolism, in both aerobic and anaerobic protozoa; antioxidant mechanisms; parasite surfaces; organelles; invasion mechanisms; and chemotherapy. The helminths are discussed not only from the point of view of their cellular biochemistry and metabolism, but also with respect to both their integrated functions such as neurochemistry, structure and functions of surfaces, and reproduction. Written by expert investigators, this book will be of interest to all experienced researchers, graduate students, and to the newcomer eager to become familiar with the biochemistry and molecular biology of parasites.

Parasite Antigens, Parasite Genes: A Laboratory Manual for Molecular Parasitology

Average customer rating:

Parasite Antigens, Parasite Genes: A Laboratory Manual for Molecular Parasitology
R. M. Maizels , M. L. Blaxter , B. D. Robertson , and M. E. Selkirk
Manufacturer: Cambridge University Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

General | Science | Subjects | Books

Biochemistry | Basic Science | Medicine | Subjects | Books

Microbiology | Basic Science | Medicine | Subjects | Books

Book Description

Enthusiasts of immunological assays, protein chemistry and molecular cloning have a feast of guides and recipe books to follow. What the authors have achieved with this book has been to provide a more integrated reference work to reflect the arrival of molecular parasitology on the scientific scene, in which methods are presented concisely, together with essential explanations and background information. The aim has been not only to encourage the researcher with a defined plan in mind, but also to invite experienced workers to experiment in new areas and to overcome any difficulties new investigators may have in familiarising themselves with the field. Recent years have seen a dramatic expansion in the number of researchers into parasitic diseases, with an extraordinary diversity of scientific and medical backgrounds, and perhaps the broadest geographical distribution of any scientific field. The authors hope they will have provided to all members of this international research community a compact volume which will serve many purposes from initiation and execution of research projects, to learning and understanding more about these complex and fascinating biological organisms.

Parasitic Nematodes: Molecular Biology, Biochemistry and Immunology

Average customer rating:

Parasitic Nematodes: Molecular Biology, Biochemistry and Immunology

Manufacturer: CABI
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

Biochemistry | Biological Sciences | Science | Subjects | Books

Immunology | Basic Science | Medicine | Subjects | Books

Microbiology | Basic Science | Medicine | Subjects | Books

General | Medicine | Subjects | Books

General | Veterinary Medicine | Medicine | Subjects | Books

All Titles | Qualifying Textbooks - Fall 2007 | Stores | Books
ASIN: 0851994237

Book Description

Currently more than one third of the world's population are infected with parasitic nematodes and infection of domestic animals remains a substantial drain on human well-being and economies. An understanding of the structure and function of genes, membrane and antigens of parasitic nematodes will help develop strategies to eliminate them or reduce their impact. This book outlines the advances made in this rapidly expanding research area.

Book Description

Data analysis is of central importance in the education of scientists. This book offers a compact and readable introduction to techniques relevant to physical science students. The material is thoroughly integrated with the popular and powerful spreadsheet package Excel by Microsoft. Excel features of most relevance to the analysis of experimental data in the physical sciences are dealt with in some detail. Fully worked problems reinforce basic principles. Underlying assumptions and range of applicability of techniques are discussed, though detailed derivations of basic equations are mostly avoided or confined to the appendices.

Customer Reviews:

A disappointing book.......2004-11-12

This is an introductory book on Excel for physical scientists. Cambridge University Press deserves a compliment for a beautifully produced volume. Unfortunately, its contents are disappointing, because the text contains serious errors and omissions. The most obvious error is the statement, on page 308, that Excel does not provide built in facilities for fitting equations to data using nonlinear least squares. Excel does provide these, in the form of Solver, but the reader will look in vain for any mention of Solver in this book. (Figure 9.1 on page 365 shows that the author indeed has not bothered to activate the Solver Add-in.) The most serious omission is that the existence of user-definable functions and macros is not mentioned either. This leaves out two of the most powerful features of Excel: nonlinear least squares, and user programmability.

Another major problem with this book is that it doesn't show the reader how to use the spreadsheet effectively, but often goes out of its way to make easy things difficult. The almost exclusive emphasis in this book is on least squares methods, yet these are handled quite clumsily. On page 244, e.g., the linear correlation coefficient is computed from its formula by calculating the necessary sums, rather than by taking advantage of the fact that Linest, Regression, and Trendline all provide this parameter or its square. On page 284 the reader is shown the matrix algebra for fitting data to a parabola, and then told that "The built in matrix functions of Excel are well suited to estimating parameters in linear least squares problems", as if Linest, Regression, and Trendline are not there to take care of such tedious data manipulations. Likewise, on page 290, the user is not informed that Linest and Regression can also do multivariate analysis, but instead is instructed to do this the hard way, again by setting up and solving matrix equations. It is as if the author hasn't quite figured out yet that the spreadsheet has several built-in facilities specifically designed to make such least squares problems user-friendly.

In comparison with other books vying for the scientific spreadsheet market it is difficult to come up with any area in which Kirkup's book has the edge over its competitors: Billo (2nd ed., Wiley, 2001), Bloch (2nd ed., Wiley, 2003), de Levie (Oxford, 2004), Gottfried (2nd ed., McGraw-Hill, 2002), Liengme (3rd ed., Newnes, 2002), and Orvis (2nd ed., Sybex, 1996) all provide much more useful information, and don't make their readers jump through unnecessary hoops either.

A must for engineering statistics.......2003-10-20

If you are doing an engineering statistics course this book is of a hell of a lot more value than Engineering Statistics by Hubele, Montgomery and Runger.

This book teaches you how to do statistics using excel.
Should be aplicable for most statistics but is of great
assistance if your doing Engineering statistics and get stuck without much support.

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