Download or read book Rethink Chapter 5 written by Ric Merrifield and published by Pearson Education. This book was released on 2009-03-23 with total page 17 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This is the eBook version of the printed book. Read the following excerpt from Rethink, Chapter 5: Make (and Break) Connections. When you rethink your company and study it using the “what” as your unit of analysis, you can see that, at its core, it is a tightly woven fabric of connections--emotional, financial, technical--that cut across organizational boundaries. Pull on one thread and many others might move. The clerk in accounting is related to the chief dispatcher who went to school with the director of advertising. A glitch in production or a spurt in sales can send shock waves from one end of the company to the other, from design to delivery, and it might well affect the bottom line. So before you act upon your knowledge of which “whats” are high in value and low in performance, before you set in motion a process-improvement program, you need to examine the connections between and among your target “whats.” A failure to do so can wreak havoc with a company’s profits and prospects. Dell Inc. learned that lesson the hard way. Dell was launched in 1984 by a young entrepreneur with a brilliant strategy. He would sell made-to-order computers directly to customers, primarily businesses, without benefit of retail outlets. The brick-and-mortar middlemen were charging too much, Michael Dell concluded, and giving customers ridiculously inadequate technical support to boot. He intended to sidestep both pitfalls. In particular, his company was going to provide outstanding tech support. And it did that famously, until the day it didn’t, infamously. In the early 2000s, in pursuit of lower overhead, Dell began to outsource the resolve Customer-Questions/Problems“what.” To continue reading, purchase and download now.
Download or read book Rethink Chapter 7 written by Ric Merrifield and published by Pearson Education. This book was released on 2009-03-23 with total page 12 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This is the eBook version of the printed book. Read the following excerpt from Rethink, Chapter 7: Unravel (and Follow) the Rules. In rethinking yourbusiness to put aside “how” in favor of “what” as your unit of analysis, your view of your company has been expanded through the lenses of value, performance, interconnectedness, and predictability. Now it’s time to think about government regulation. That is not to suggest that the laws and rules set forth by the various branches of government are anything new; they have long loomed large in every company’s business plan and daily operation. What this chapter offers are new ways to incorporate compliance needs into your planning. The tale of Intrade, the Dublin-based, online prediction market, is instructive. For the first four years of its life, the company barreled from strength to strength. The lure was strong: Members could buy or sell futures contracts on upcoming events–anything from the outcome of an election to the likelihood of Osama Bin Laden’s capture. If the price of the contract rose high enough or sank low enough, members could make a bundle. The founder and CEO, John Delaney, didn’t have to worry about promotion. Intrade’s market predictions were so accurate that the media followed them closely and often. In 2004, for example, it accurately predicted the outcome of the presidential election and all but one member of the U.S. Congress. Why so accurate? According to Harvard economist N. Gregory Mankiw, “Everybody has information from their own little corner of the universe...” To continue reading, purchase and download now.
Download or read book ReThink the Internet written by Trisha Prabhu and published by Penguin. This book was released on 2022-05-31 with total page 177 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Stop hate. Promote Kindness. Be an Upstander. ReThink the Internet. Do you have to ask someone’s permission before posting their photo? How can you tell if something on the internet is true? What should you do if you see someone bullying a friend online (or #IRL)? In a series of fun stories, innovator, inventor, social entrepreneur, and upstanding digital citizen Trisha Prabhu goes through the hows, the whats, and the whys of digital citizenship, showing readers how to lead with kindness and stop internet hate. For people who are just getting their first phone to others who have been scrolling, swiping, clicking and posting for years, this book makes us all consider what our role is in the digital world and how, together, we can make it a force for good.
Download or read book Rethink written by Andi Simon and published by Greenleaf Book Group. This book was released on 2021-01-05 with total page 267 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Beyond the Glass Ceiling More and more, women today are challenging long-held beliefs about what they can and can’t do. They’re speaking up, stepping out, breaking through, and redefining what society has always told them was true about their capabilities. In Rethink: Smashing the Myths of Women in Business, Andi Simon tells the stories of 11 women from different industries who opened up the possibilities for their professional careers and personal lives by being authentic, taking risks, and pushing past the obstacles others placed before them. These are stories that tell of innovation, show how women rise, and ignite change. Andi, a corporate anthropologist, an award-winning author, and a successful entrepreneur, debunks myth after myth as she profiles the women in the book and offers key wisdom, insights, and observations through her unique lens. Whether about entrepreneurs, innovators, scientists, academics, attorneys, or leaders in other fields, the stories demonstrate how all the women have broken down walls and paved the way to more. But this book isn’t only about the 11 women who are pushing boundaries and transforming business, culture, and society; it’s about inspiring all women to achieve and showing them a way to launch forward. Rethink provides the tools and framework for questioning society's norms, challenging our own current thinking, and smashing the preconceived notions about women that can so often hold us back from realizing our goals and dreams. In this book, you'll learn how to take a hands-on approach to examining and rethinking your own personal and professional life in order to recognize your fuller potential.
Download or read book Rethink Chapter 8 written by Ric Merrifield and published by Pearson Education. This book was released on 2009-03-23 with total page 20 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This is the eBook version of the printed book. Read the following excerpt from Rethink, Chapter 8: Revolutionary Rethinking at ING DIRECT. In the time of theRoman Empire, money changers set up shop in courtyards where they conducted their business on a long bench called a bancu. In Renaissance Florence, business loans were made across a banco, a desk covered by a green cloth. So it was inevitable that the builders of the echoing 19th century marble temples to Mammon, intent on awing the public as well as their commercial clients, would call their edifices “banks.” And if any single word described the banking process in those days, it was “static.” Bankers were set in their ways. The 20th century ushered in change that shook up the bankers’ world. Technology in the form of wire transfers, telephone banking, and the ATM transformed many of the “hows” in the industry. Banks began to shed their awesome trappings, woo their customers, and imitate retail stores. Then, in the new millennium, still another shock wave rippled across traditional banking operations in the United States: It was called ING DIRECT USA, an online bank that had rethought its business, deciding to put aside the “hows” and, instead, focus obsessively on the rapid shift in the “whats” that had become most valuable to customers. This revolutionary bank has become a role model for creative cost-cutting and significant innovation. Based in Wilmington, Delaware, ING DIRECT USA is a division of the Dutch conglomerate ING Groep NV, an insurance and banking colossus. ING DIRECT, launched in September 2000 by its chairman, president, and CEO Arkadi Kuhlmann. To continue reading, purchase and download now.
Download or read book Rethink Chapter 9 written by Ric Merrifield and published by Pearson Education. This book was released on 2009-03-23 with total page 21 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This is the eBook version of the printed book. Read the following excerpt from Rethink, Chapter 9: Rethinking at Eclipse. Back in the 1970S, people laughed when PC pioneers predicted that a computer would soon adorn every desk in America. Vern Raburn had the last laugh. As Microsoft’s vice president in charge of application soft ware, Raburn helped make that prophecy come true. Three decades later, Raburn found another career, general aviation, and this time he combined predicting with rethinking. Anticipating that private aviation was ripe for revolution, he theorized that his own new six-seat, twin-engine Very Light Jet (VLJ) could be perfectly positioned to take advantage of the new trend. That’s because his aircraft would cost half as much to buy and operate as any of its private-jet rivals. To tip the scales in his direction, Raburn assembled an impressive collection of manufacturing “whats” while discarding some not-so-golden oldies, and he reimagined many of the “hows.” As it turned out, Raburn stumbled when it came to the hard business of execution, but his clear vision and his decision to rethink provides a worthwhile lesson for businesses everywhere. Raburn’s first epiphany was borrowed from Silicon Valley. “Historically in aviation,” he explains, “the term ‘value proposition’ meant that a better plane justified a higher price. In the business I come from, it’s the other way around. You make the product better, and you charge less.” Raburn helped do that for computers, and it’s what his Eclipse Aviation Corporation set out to do for aircraft. Although Eclipse 500s have yet to make a big dent in today’s congested skies, more than 200 have taken off across the country. To continue reading, purchase and download now.
Download or read book Rethink Chapter 11 written by Ric Merrifield and published by Pearson Education. This book was released on 2009-03-23 with total page 26 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This is the eBook version of the printed book. Read the following excerpt from Rethink, Chapter 11: Morph Again and Again. When Shakespeare wroteHamlet’s great soliloquy, “To be or not to be,” he not only defined human ambiguity, he also foreshadowed the uncertain future of the play. No other drama has been more often recycled, reimagined, reinterpreted, or rethought by successive generations of critics and dramaturges. Shakespeare’s acolytes reinvented Hamletby masking the play’s hero with all sorts of disguises, reflecting their eras and their endlessly varying interpretations of the drama. The vacillating Danish prince has been variously cast as an oedipal English son, a singing Indian rajah, a Japanese Noh noble, a manly daughter, and an effeminate man played by women. The script has been shortened to a speedy 15-minute performance, lengthened to a glacial four-plus hours, and staged without Act 5 (no grave diggers, Osric, or fencing match). Among its countless venues, it was first played at sea on a sailing ship off Sierra Leone in 1607. Thanks to its antiroyal edge, the play has been reworked worldwide to protest assorted bêtes noires, including Germany’s corrupt Kaiser Wilhelm, repressive Communist regimes (Chinese, Czech, Polish), and greedy American tycoons. It has even survived animation, ranging from Spike TV’s cutesy characters (all LEGOs) to Disney’s likeable The Lion King(a Hamlet named Simba). When it comes to business, the unprecedented uncertainty and volatility facing leaders today create turbulence as great as any that buffeted Hamlet. Companies must constantly monitor and massage how they do what they do to adjust to new technologies, new competitive threats, and ever-changing market conditions. To continue reading, purchase and download now.
Download or read book Rethink Chapter 2 written by Ric Merrifield and published by Pearson Education. This book was released on 2009-03-23 with total page 16 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This is the eBook version of the printed book. Read the following excerpt from Rethink, Chapter 2: The Thinking Behind Rethinking. When businesspeopletalk about the extraordinary productivity gains of the last decade, the lion’s share of credit typically goes to technology. I protest. Although it’s true that major advances in the machines and soft ware that gather, process, and distribute information have made possible whole new ways of organizing work in a company, business productivity owes just as much to operational design theory. In fact, innovative design concepts such as the time-and-motion studies of the early 1900s, the total quality management(TQM) programs of the ’80s, and the reengineering initiatives of the ’90s led to enormous gains in business efficiency. Today, we’re poised for another productivity breakthrough, but to take full advantage of it, we need a new and more powerful approach. This book offers precisely that--a groundbreaking way to lift productivity by maximizing the value of your company’s “whats.” Unit of Analysis: The Task In his landmark 1776 book, The Wealth of Nations, Scottish philosopher and economist Adam Smith called attention to a revolutionary development in the nature of work in his day. Machines were just beginning to replace manual labor, and most goods were still made by hand, with each worker performing all the operations needed to make the final product. Smith described a far more efficient procedure at a pin factory: One man draws out the wire, another straights it, a third cuts it, a fourth points it, a fifth grinds it at the top for receiving the head; to make the head requires two or three distinct operations... To continue reading, purchase and download now.
Download or read book Rethink Chapter 4 written by Ric Merrifield and published by Pearson Education. This book was released on 2009-03-23 with total page 19 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This is the eBook version of the printed book. Read the following excerpt from Rethink, Chapter 4: Know What You Are (and Aren’t) Good At. Michael Jordan is oneof the best basketball players in the history of the game. No argument. But back in 1994, he made a serious mistake. He assumed he could be one of the best at another sport as well. Jordan was a natural athlete who could roll a bowling strike backward from between his legs, score well in pro-amateur golf tournaments, and smash batting-practice baseballs out of the park. When he announced that he was going to try his hand at professional baseball, few skeptics were bold enough to suggest that this career turn would be anything but another Jordanesque dazzler. Jordan had led the National Basketball Association (NBA) in scoring for seven consecutive years, sparked the U.S. Olympic team to a gold medal in 1992, and led the Chicago Bulls to three straight national championships before deciding he had enough and was ready to retire from basketball. He told sportswriters that his late father had actually wanted him to be a major league baseball player. In fact, Jordan said, his greatest accomplishment in sports was being named most valuable player on his boyhood Babe Ruth League team when it won the state championship: “I batted over .500, hit five home runs in seven games, and pitched a one-hitter to get us into the championship game.” But that was then. Now, at 31, Jordan was no kid, and he faced a steep learning curve. After an underwhelming spring training season with the White Sox in 1994, he was sent to the minors. To continue reading, purchase and download now.
Download or read book Rethink Chapter 3 written by Ric Merrifield and published by Pearson Education. This book was released on 2009-03-23 with total page 24 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This is the eBook version of the printed book. Read the following excerpt from Rethink, Chapter 3: Identify the "Whats" That Are Truly Valuable. Having made the decision to rethink your “whats” and use them as your unit of analysis, you’re now ready to begin the process of identifying and examining their desired outcomes, and judging how to improve their performance. To start, you need to determine which “whats” are truly generating high value for your company. Just to be clear, when I describe a given “what” as having “high value,” I mean that it is contributing to overall performance or differentiating your company from its rivals in some significant way. For example, ship-product might be a high-value “what” in your company because its outstanding performance sets your company apart from its competitors. Or even if its performance is nothing special, it might provide high value simply because it satisfies customers--and customer satisfaction helps keep costs constant. You will want to pinpoint “whats” having high value so that you can focus your “how” improvement efforts where they will count the most. You also need to determine their current performance levels and why they perform as they do. Don’t even think about changing a high-value “what” unless you possess an in-depth understanding of the cause of its performance. Is it the people, the process, the technology, or some blend of those “hows?” As you move through the rethinking process, prepare to encounter some surprises. Your most valuable “whats” might be those you least expect. Witness the experience of Alcoa, the giant manufacturer of aluminum and aluminum products based in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. To continue reading, purchase and download now.
Download or read book Rethink written by Steven Poole and published by Simon and Schuster. This book was released on 2017-11-07 with total page 352 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "A brilliant and groundbreaking argument that innovation and progress are often achieved by revisiting and retooling ideas from the past rather than starting from scratch--from The Guardian columnist and contributor to The Atlantic, "--Baker & Taylor.
Download or read book The Great School Rethink written by Frederick M. Hess and published by Harvard Education Press. This book was released on 2023-06-13 with total page 210 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: An invigorating examination of the potential for meaningful change in education, from one of the nation's most astute observers of schooling and school improvement. In The Great School Rethink, education policy sentinel Frederick M. Hess offers a pithy and perceptive appraisal of American schooling and finds, in the uncertain period following pandemic disruption, an ideal moment to reimagine US education. Now is the time, he asserts, to ask hard questions about how schools use time and talent, how they work with parents, what they do with digital tools, and how they meet the needs of their communities. As Hess explains, to rethink is to acknowledge the realities of the education system while opening one’s mind to possibility. With characteristic verve and wit, Hess guides readers through his rethink process, a versatile and easily implemented approach to identifying issues and brainstorming possible responses. He encourages readers to explore what improvements might alleviate current pressures and frustrations, such as teacher shortages and burnout, declining student performance, and compromised learning time. Whether their goal is to achieve better student engagement, increase parent involvement, or implement personalized learning, readers will develop the mindset to ask the right questions, to fully understand the problem that’s being solved, and to evaluate the probable effectiveness of proposed solutions. Brimming with challenging questions, robust exercises, and eye-opening data, this book is a must-read for education professionals, parent advocates, and anyone passionate about the future of American education.
Download or read book Statistical Rethinking written by Richard McElreath and published by CRC Press. This book was released on 2018-01-03 with total page 488 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Statistical Rethinking: A Bayesian Course with Examples in R and Stan builds readers’ knowledge of and confidence in statistical modeling. Reflecting the need for even minor programming in today’s model-based statistics, the book pushes readers to perform step-by-step calculations that are usually automated. This unique computational approach ensures that readers understand enough of the details to make reasonable choices and interpretations in their own modeling work. The text presents generalized linear multilevel models from a Bayesian perspective, relying on a simple logical interpretation of Bayesian probability and maximum entropy. It covers from the basics of regression to multilevel models. The author also discusses measurement error, missing data, and Gaussian process models for spatial and network autocorrelation. By using complete R code examples throughout, this book provides a practical foundation for performing statistical inference. Designed for both PhD students and seasoned professionals in the natural and social sciences, it prepares them for more advanced or specialized statistical modeling. Web Resource The book is accompanied by an R package (rethinking) that is available on the author’s website and GitHub. The two core functions (map and map2stan) of this package allow a variety of statistical models to be constructed from standard model formulas.
Download or read book Rethink Chapter 10 written by Ric Merrifield and published by Pearson Education. This book was released on 2009-03-23 with total page 20 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This is the eBook version of the printed book. Read the following excerpt from Rethink, Chapter 10: Rethinking at Cranium. Back in 1997, Richard Tait was a dynamic Scottish immigrant working for Microsoft in Seattle and amusing friends with his unwavering ability to lose at Scrabble. After a particularly humiliating defeat, Tait asked himself, “Why isn’t there a game that gives everyone a chance to shine?” He convinced Whit Alexander, an old friend, to help him develop a board game that would challenge multiple talents and let all the players win. They called it Cranium. A decade later, the inventive partners were comfortably seated atop an organization that had sold more than 22 million games, books, and toys in 40 countries and 10 languages. Their Seattle-based enterprise is now one of the most successful ventures in the history of independent game companies, and the Cranium game holds the sales speed record among independents. How did Tait and Alexander wend their way through a crowded marketplace to reach their current eminence? By tapping the brain matter encased in their own craniums to rethink their business, and then eliminating, adding to, and reinventing their “whats” and “hows” to create a business model that is unique among their peers. Cranium is exactly the game Richard Tait had in mind when he despaired of ever winning at Scrabble. It has something for just about everyone, from word puzzles and fact-based questions to sculpting, sketching, acting, and even humming. And for a growing band of Craniacs (not to be confused with the sinister Craniac robots that inhabit Nickelodeon’s animated ChalkZone series), the game is addictive. To continue reading, purchase and download now.
Download or read book Rethink written by Ric Merrifield and published by Addison-Wesley Professional. This book was released on 2009-03-06 with total page 244 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: It's a totally human condition, a trap that ensnares virtually everyone. Just as when we tie a route to a destination so much so that when someone else takes a different route "why are we going this way?" it usually doesn't matter "how" you get there. This "how" trap also takes place at work, people intertwine "how" they do their job with the outcome of "what" they are doing that sometimes obvious decisions are masked, and missed. We know how to focus on process: the how of business. That's why this book shows that we're leaving so much value on the table and that's what this book exposes with vivid examples, while at the same time offering guidance on ways you can take advantage of this new business lens. Business architect Ric Merrifield shows how to rise above the clutter of your "hows" to expose what does and doesn't need attention. You'll learn to identify the activities most critical to success and those that that are borderline, redundant, or even counterproductive. Along the way, Merrifield presents powerful case studies from companies as diverse as ING DIRECT and Eclipse, Amazon.com and Procter + Gamble: firms that have learned how to cut costs, strengthen innovation, and profit from change all at the same time.
Download or read book Rethink Creativity written by Monica H. Kang and published by . This book was released on 2018-09 with total page 146 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Rethink Creativity teaches you and your team how to start constructing a creative mindset by allocating time to change up your daily routine. It will help you rediscover the passion you felt your first day on the job! Not only will leaders and managers be able to benefit from proven strategies, thought-provoking questions, and effective training techniques, but as you move through the book, you'll start enjoying your work more, be a better leader, and find new ways to be creative, curious, and innovative every day.
Download or read book Rethinking Europe s Future written by David P. Calleo and published by Princeton University Press. This book was released on 2003-03-02 with total page 411 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Rethinking Europe's Future is a major reevaluation of Europe's prospects as it enters the twenty-first century. David Calleo has written a book worthy of the complexity and grandeur of the challenges Europe now faces. Summoning the insights of history, political economy, and philosophy, he explains why Europe was for a long time the world's greatest problem and how the Cold War's bipolar partition brought stability of a sort. Without the Cold War, Europe risks revisiting its more traditional history. With so many contingent factors--in particular Russia and Europe's Muslim neighbors--no one, Calleo believes, can pretend to predict the future with assurance. Calleo's book ponders how to think about this future. The book begins by considering the rival ''lessons'' and trends that emerge from Europe's deeper past. It goes on to discuss the theories for managing the traditional state system, the transition from autocratic states to communitarian nation states, the enduring strength of nation states, and their uneasy relationship with capitalism. Calleo next focuses on the Cold War's dynamic legacies for Europe--an Atlantic Alliance, a European Union, and a global economy. These three systems now compete to define the future. The book's third and major section examines how Europe has tried to meet the present challenges of Russian weakness and German reunification. Succeeding chapters focus on Maastricht and the Euro, on the impact of globalization on Europeanization, and on the EU's unfinished business--expanding into ''Pan Europe,'' adapting a hybrid constitution, and creating a new security system. Calleo presents three models of a new Europe--each proposing a different relationship with the U.S. and Russia. A final chapter probes how a strong European Union might affect the world and the prospects for American hegemony. This is a beautifully written book that offers rich insight into a critical moment in our history, whose outcome will shape the world long after our time.
