Business : Decision-Making & Problem Solving

The business surveys of the Ifo Institute (short for Information and Forschung) are internationally renowned. Every month close to 7,000 enterprises are questioned on their short-term planning and their appraisals of the actual and future business situation. The confidence indicator frequently referred to as the Ifo Business Climate Index is derived from the responses to this Ifo Business Survey. While the Index attracts a lot of attention by practitioners (especially financial market analysts), the use and empirical exploitation of this and other components of Ifo business surveys is - amongst academics - still relatively scarce. The present volume, based on a conference entitled "The Academic Use of Ifo Survey Data", gives examples of timely research questions which can be addressed by qualitative survey data like the monthly Ifo Business Survey. It shows that this type of real-time data can be very informative when it comes to forecasting real economic activity or exploring monetary policy transmission. more...

Price: $74.95

From the individual to the largest organization, everyone today has to make investments in information technology. Making a good investment that will best satisfy all the necessary decision criteria requires a careful and inclusive analysis. Information Technology Investment: Decision-Making Methodology is a textbook that will provide the understanding of methodologies available to aid in this area of complex, multi-criterion decision-making. It presents a detailed, step-by-step set of procedures and methodologies that readers can use immediately to improve their IT investment decision-making. Unique to this textbook are both financial investment models and more complex decision-making models from management science, so users can extend the analysis benefits to confirm and enhance the ideal IT investment choices. more...

Price: $101.40

Debra M. Amidon, a worldwide pioneer in knowledge strategy, once again leads you into the future by charting the intersection of knowledge management and innovation into a new frontier called 'Knowledge Innovation.' Groundbreaking and well researched, 'The Innovation SuperHighway' provides global insights into how you can use knowledge processes and tools to sustain high levels of innovation among all stakeholders to gain a competitive positioning. 'The Innovation SuperHighway' awakens the realization that information, economic infrastructures, computer and communications technology - and even knowledge management and ICT's, has been a journey toward profitable and prosperous innovation. Providing the sound rationale for knowledge strategy, Amidon defines the global vision on all levels of economy—the enterprise, the national economy and societal transformation. 'The Innovation SuperHighway' turns knowledge vision into innovation practice. more...

Price: $40.95

Today's enterprises have to continuously extend their operational limits to earn profit, thrive and prosper. Over time evolution led to the development of two concepts to master this challenge: intelligence and knowledge. This work introduces a system theoretic perspective on enterprises, regarding them as natural living systems formed by evolutional forces. Intelligence and knowledge manifest in the system's behavior. 'Intelligence' is identified as the necessary framework that realizes continuous adaptation through the ongoing development and incorporation of control procedures and building blocks. The content that fills this framework is the 'Enterprise Knowledge'. The transition towards an intelligent enterprise requires drastic organizational changes. The rigid framework of business processes has to be replaced by a project framework, employees have to be integrated as 'Knowledge Workers' and IT systems have to offer advanced structural and organizational properties to facilitate declarative processing. more...

Price: $84.95

The year was 1969, the place was Little Rock, Arkansas. I was a 22-year old salesman still wet behind the ears with no prior experience or training. It was the end of the month and our motorcycle dealership could earn a special bonus award if we would just sell a few more bikes before the end of the business day. An acquaintance of mine who wanted to get back into motorcycling came in after work and test rode one of our best models. It was a Suzuki T120 dual-purpose bike, one good for off road as well as street riding. We had a special reduced price on that model that was only in effect until the end of that day. He was in a position to buy it and the product suited his needs. I was the salesman, but I wasn’t selling. In fact, I was pushing! Without knowing any other way, I pressured and cajoled the prospect until he finally left in frustration. Upon reflection I realize that my selling style was not only too pushy, but it also made me appear too desperate to make the sale. What I saw as a "sense of urgency" was seen by the prospective buyer as a desperate attempt to get the sale now. But, the real problem was not my pushiness; my pushiness was a symptom of the underlying problem: my mindset. I was focused on selling the motorcycle, not on helping the customer decide to buy. more...

Price: $7.95