Fighting the Banana Wars and Other Fairtrade Battles

Most organizations consist of multiple business and support units, each populated by highly trained, experienced executives. But often the efforts of individual units are not coordinated, resulting in conflicts, lost opportunities, and diminished performance.

Robert S. Kaplan and David P. Norton argue that the responsibility for this critical alignment lies with corporate headquarters. In this book, the authors apply their revolutionary Balanced Scorecard management system to corporate-level strategy, revealing how highly successful enterprises achieve powerful synergies by explicitly defining corporate headquarters’ role in setting, coordinating, and overseeing organizational strategy.

Based on extensive field research in organizations worldwide, Alignment shows how companies can build an enterprise-level Strategy Map and Balanced Scorecard that clearly articulate the “enterprise value proposition”: how the enterprise creates value above that achieved by individual business units operating alone. The book provides case studies, actionable frameworks, and sample scorecards that show how to align business and support units, boards of directors, and external partners with the corporate strategy and create a governance process that will ensure that alignment is sustained.

The next breakthrough in strategy execution from the field’s premier thinkers, Alignment shows how today’s companies can unlock unrealized value from enterprise synergies.

Having trouble closing your deals? Hitting a frustrating plateau with your sales numbers? Feel that upselling is a lost cause? Let sales guru Stephan Schiffman drive your sales pitches up a notch with his tried-and-true techniques – and get results immediately! Stephan Schiffman’s Sales Essentials includes time-tested tips on: Mastering the cold call Using email as a selling tool Raising the stakes to “up” your next buy Closing the deal – every time! Plus, you’ll also find 50 surefire questions to ask to make deal after deal, year after year. Packed with insider information you need to beat the competition, you can’t afford not to read Stephan Schiffman’s Sales Essentials!

A One-on-One Financial Planning Session with Suze Orman

With her New York Times bestseller The 9 Steps to Financial Freedom, America’s leading financial expert Suze Orman transformed the concept of money forever by teaching us to recognize the emotional aspects of our relationship with it. Now, this fully revised edition of Suze Orman’s Financial Guidebook translates Suze’s own brand of motivation and inspiration into a user-friendly, hands-on workbook that will empower you to work through the nuts and bolts of personal finance, with Suze as your trusted adviser.

Updated to keep you abreast of our quickly shifting economy, you’ll find:

• Insightful exercises, quizzes, and worksheets to help you understand how your parents’ relationship with money affects yours, and what money means to you

• Up-to-the-minute information on tax codes, IRA rules and regulations, and long-term-care insurance

• Useful strategies for coping with the ever-changing landscape of educational costs, social security, and the stock market

• An outline of key questions that every financial adviser should ask you upon your initial meeting

• An in-depth analysis of all your monthly expenses, providing a realistic picture of just how much money you have to work with and how you may not be respecting your money as much as you should

Regardless of your age and income, it is never too early or too late to take control of your money. Suze Orman’s Financial Guidebook is the perfect companion to The 9 Steps to Financial Freedom, the personal finance classic that changed the way millions of Americans viewed money. Full of self-tests, thought-provoking questions, and Suze’s easy-to-understand personal finance advice, here is your empowering approach to achieving financial freedom forever, with the best guide possible.

“This book provides vital insights into the elements of strategy and their application to media firms. Solidly grounded in theory but not pedantic, it is essential reading for those who make or wish to comprehend choices of media companies.”
– Robert Picard, University of Jönköping
“Insightful, contextually analytical, yet easy to comprehend, Strategic Management in the Media successfully applies the adaptive and interpretative areas of strategic theory in the media sectors. It provides a unique perspective in which common themes linking media strategy and industry environment are thoughtfully discussed.”
– Sylvia M. Chan-Olmsted, University of Florida

“…an invaluable asset for students of media management. The use of pertinent examples and case studies throughout brings the analysis to life and contributes to a highly readable introduction.”
– Gillian Doyle, University of Glasgow

This book is a comprehensive, accessible and expert introduction to strategy within a media management context.

It is divided into two parts – part one providess an introduction to and overview of the media industry from a strategic management perspective, looking in detail at the sectors that together comprise the industry – newspaper, book and magazine publishing, music, radio and television – and the strategic forces at work in each. This provides the foundation for part two, which analyses a number of strategic topics central to the media sector, such as technological change, organisational structure, leadership, and creativity and innovation.

The chapters follow the same structure: the relevant theory is outlined, its application to the media industry is discussed, and case studies from the media industry are used to illustrate the theory and illuminate its relevance for the media field. The cases and examples used come from all sectors of the industry and a range of geographic regions and include News Corporation, Endemol, BBC, Bertelsmann, CNN, MTV, Disney and Pixar.