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 7 written by Ric Merrifield and published by Pearson Education. This book was released on 2009-03-23 with total page 13 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 Chapter 4 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 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 11 written by Ric Merrifield and published by Pearson Education. This book was released on 2009-03-23 with total page 27 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 Define Your Why Own Your Story So You Can Live and Learn on Purpose written by Barbara Bray and published by Edumatch. This book was released on 2020-02-17 with total page 284 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Barbara Bray wrote Define Your WHY from the process she went through to figure out her WHY and through coaching others who did not feel valued, appreciated, or why they needed to live on purpose. Barbara tells her story with stories from 26 inspirational thought leaders along with quotes, resources, questions, and activities to help you on your journey to define your WHY so you own your story.

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 3 written by Ric Merrifield and published by Pearson Education. This book was released on 2009-03-23 with total page 25 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 Total Rethink written by David McCourt and published by John Wiley & Sons. This book was released on 2019-06-03 with total page 240 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Rethink your way to a better life In business, and in life, everything is changing fast, apart from how we behave. Our ways of thinking and making decisions have changed little since we lived in agricultural and industrial societies, but the problems we now need to solve are entirely different. It requires a revolution in thinking and behavior to meet the challenges that now face us and avoid disaster we need to totally rethink the model. Part business biography, part business blueprint, Total Rethink explains how this can be done. Successful telecoms entrepreneur David McCourt lays out the reality of the dangerous situation we find ourselves in and suggests solutions which will empower everyone, including business people, politicians, diplomats, and teachers, to repair the damage we have already done, and prepare for the dramatic changes to come. • Change the way you think and behave to be a true entrepreneur • Understand why incremental change no longer works • Move at the speed of the times we’re living in to keep up • Find trusted, effective guidance you can put to practice today Written by a sought-after speaker, businessman, and entrepreneur, the advice inside this book will help you learn to think—and live—like a revolutionary.

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 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 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 10 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 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 Rethinking Incarceration written by Dominique DuBois Gilliard and published by InterVarsity Press. This book was released on 2018-03-02 with total page 246 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The United States has more people locked up in jails, prisons, and detention centers than any other country in the history of the world. Exploring the history and foundations of mass incarceration, Dominique Gilliard examines Christianity’s role in its evolution and expansion, assessing justice in light of Scripture, and showing how Christians can pursue justice that restores and reconciles.

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 Rethinking Hell written by Christopher M. Date and published by Wipf and Stock Publishers. This book was released on 2014-04-15 with total page 344 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Most evangelical Christians believe that those people who are not saved before they die will be punished in hell forever. But is this what the Bible truly teaches? Do Christians need to rethink their understanding of hell? In the late twentieth century, a growing number of evangelical theologians, biblical scholars, and philosophers began to reject the traditional doctrine of eternal conscious torment in hell in favor of a minority theological perspective called conditional immortality. This view contends that the unsaved are resurrected to face divine judgment, just as Christians have always believed, but due to the fact that immortality is only given to those who are in Christ, the unsaved do not exist forever in hell. Instead, they face the punishment of the "second death"--an end to their conscious existence. This volume brings together excerpts from a variety of well-respected evangelical thinkers, including John Stott, John Wenham, and E. Earl Ellis, as they articulate the biblical, theological, and philosophical arguments for conditionalism. These readings will give thoughtful Christians strong evidence that there are indeed compelling reasons for rethinking hell.

Download or read book Rethink Reinvent Reposition written by Leo Hopf and published by Simon and Schuster. This book was released on 2010-05-18 with total page 135 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Is your business struggling to stay afloat? Are you overwhelmed by the challenge of building an organization that can be a market leader? Well, now is the time to stop going in circles—find a new direction and re-imagine your company. In this hard-hitting guide, renowned international corporate consultants and professors Leo Hopf and William Welter show how to breathe new life into your firm. Using revealing case studies from Seagate to Harley-Davidson, they offer such key strategies as: Repackaging products to widen the range of your target demographic Revising your profit model to improve your margins Moving up- or down-market to attract new customers Using core competencies to enter new markets Conducting business at a different time to reach new customers You'll need to take a risk to reap the rewards. But this blueprint for growth will supply you with the confidence to start on a different path. So forget the same-old tired tactics. Instead, make things happen by making over your business! It's crucial to the livelihood of your enterprise, and Hopf and Welter give you everything you need to get it right.

Download or read book The Scout Mindset written by Julia Galef and published by Penguin. This book was released on 2021-04-13 with total page 290 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "...an engaging and enlightening account from which we all can benefit."—The Wall Street Journal A better way to combat knee-jerk biases and make smarter decisions, from Julia Galef, the acclaimed expert on rational decision-making. When it comes to what we believe, humans see what they want to see. In other words, we have what Julia Galef calls a "soldier" mindset. From tribalism and wishful thinking, to rationalizing in our personal lives and everything in between, we are driven to defend the ideas we most want to believe—and shoot down those we don't. But if we want to get things right more often, argues Galef, we should train ourselves to have a "scout" mindset. Unlike the soldier, a scout's goal isn't to defend one side over the other. It's to go out, survey the territory, and come back with as accurate a map as possible. Regardless of what they hope to be the case, above all, the scout wants to know what's actually true. In The Scout Mindset, Galef shows that what makes scouts better at getting things right isn't that they're smarter or more knowledgeable than everyone else. It's a handful of emotional skills, habits, and ways of looking at the world—which anyone can learn. With fascinating examples ranging from how to survive being stranded in the middle of the ocean, to how Jeff Bezos avoids overconfidence, to how superforecasters outperform CIA operatives, to Reddit threads and modern partisan politics, Galef explores why our brains deceive us and what we can do to change the way we think.

Download or read book Agile Modeling written by Scott Ambler and published by John Wiley & Sons. This book was released on 2002-08-14 with total page 402 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The first book to cover Agile Modeling, a new modeling technique created specifically for XP projects eXtreme Programming (XP) has created a buzz in the software development community-much like Design Patterns did several years ago. Although XP presents a methodology for faster software development, many developers find that XP does not allow for modeling time, which is critical to ensure that a project meets its proposed requirements. They have also found that standard modeling techniques that use the Unified Modeling Language (UML) often do not work with this methodology. In this innovative book, Software Development columnist Scott Ambler presents Agile Modeling (AM)-a technique that he created for modeling XP projects using pieces of the UML and Rational's Unified Process (RUP). Ambler clearly explains AM, and shows readers how to incorporate AM, UML, and RUP into their development projects with the help of numerous case studies integrated throughout the book. AM was created by the author for modeling XP projects-an element lacking in the original XP design The XP community and its creator have embraced AM, which should give this book strong market acceptance Companion Web site at www.agilemodeling.com features updates, links to XP and AM resources, and ongoing case studies about agile modeling.

Download or read book Municipal Fiscal Stress Bankruptcies and Other Financial Emergencies written by Tatyana Guzman and published by Taylor & Francis. This book was released on 2022-11-30 with total page 227 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: It is difficult to find someone who has not heard about the Puerto Rico, Detroit, Michigan, or Orange County, California, bankruptcies. While guides for responsibly managing government finances exist, problems often originate not because of poor financial reporting or financial deficiencies but because issues external to financial wellbeing arise, such as economic, demographic, political, legal, or even environmental factors. Exacerbating the problem, there is not much advice in the existing literature on how to act when municipalities face financial struggles. Filling this important gap, this book explores fiscal health and fiscal hardships, municipal defaults and bankruptcies, and many other aspects to help guide local governments during fiscal distress. Fiscal hardships negatively affect the quality and availability of public goods and services and, consequently, the wellbeing of residents and businesses living and working in distressed municipalities. Turned off streetlights, unmaintained public parks, potholes, inconsistent garbage pickup, longer response time from emergency services, and multiple other issues that residents of the struggling municipalities deal with, lead to higher crime rates, lower quality of K-12 education, dangerous road conditions, lower housing values, outmigration of wealthier population, and numerous other problems. The COVID-19 pandemic put additional unprecedented pressure on municipal finances nationwide. In this book authors Tatyana Guzman and Natalia Ermasova evaluate distressed cities and municipalities and provide practical recommendations on improving their financial conditions. What are conditions and signs to look for to not to find yourself in similar situations? What can be done if your municipality is already experiencing fiscal hardships? What are the consequences of fiscal misfortunes? How does one exit a fiscal emergency? This book answers these and other questions and serves as a guide to fiscal health and prosperity for U.S. municipal governments, students and researchers in public finance, and general public management fields.