Corporate-finance

This is the only book I know that shows how to manage the transformation of a company from traditional manufacturing to a thoroughly lean organization. The book contains a detailed case study of the lean journey of the Wiremold Corporation (and it's managers) from the early 1990's to the present day. Addressing such issues as the kaizen culture, lean as a people process, customer-focused product development, providing value for your customers, and lean accounting; this book goes way beyond the tools & methods of lean manufacturing to the practical implementation of lean management. I would recommend this as a "must read" for any management team serious about lean transformation.

I have used this book as a text book in many Change Agent classes I have taught and have found it to be a very pragmatic and useful guide. It is a shame that it is out of print now. In fact, the last class I tought, I had to go scrounging around the office to find copies on bookshelves to use. I wish they would republish it.

The list of consequences "when bad things happen to good projects" or What-NOT-To-Do is worth the price of the book. I wish I had read this book before starting my 6+ years as a consultant helping organizations to improve. This book presents most of the lessons that I've learned during those years and gives quite a few additional ideas on organization change.

Don't let the garish cover art distract you. This is a solidly good book, which I regularly recommend to my clients. Of course, I can't vouch for the Price Waterhouse consulting group's ability to get clients to change successfully or whether they even follow their own advice. I just know that I do apply the best ideas in this book (plus some of my own) in my consulting practice.

I thoroughly enjoyed this book. Easy to read and it truly made sense. We are just beginning an effort to change our organization and this book has helped us plot our course. I am encouraged that this book will help us achieve positive change for our company and employees.

I had Dr. Lomax as a professor and he is a brilliant man and his book conveys that. It is an absolute must read for anyone considering overseas assignments.

A must read for anyone contemplating an overseas assignment or for anyone in a position to send key people abroad. Unlike many management how-to's this one is written from first hand experience, from both sides of the desk-sender and sendee. The light though pithy writing style carries the reader easily along, is engaging and clearly informative. The case studies Lomax uses are to the point and vividly descriptive; the lessons flow in a most logical and easy to follow sequence. Many illustrations, artfuly executed, mirror the writers easy style, add a measure of amusement and dramatize the subject matter. It's a shame that a high quality, clearly presented text on this subject has not been available in the past. The angst of so many returning "expats" might have been avoided. A real classic- destined to the difinitive work of its genre.

Forget Attila the Hun. Ditch Machiavelli. Stop thinking about your corporation in terms of a football game or a war. There is a better metaphor, and you will be happier and more successful if you adopt it. According to Robert Solomon (and he quotes Nietzsche among others, to prove his case!), many of our personal values seem to be in conflict with those of the corporation where we're employed, because our way of thinking about business success has been poisoned by the mental models we use, and the leaders who we are asked to emulate (football coaches and 'The Scourge of God'? ).

"A Better Way to Think About Business: How Personal Integrity Leads to Corporate Success" delivers exactly what its title promises, and has already helped me through a couple of ethical dilemmas that I've had to resolve in the course of my job. This book is very clearly written and provokes clear thinking on the subject of business ethics. It does not insult your intelligence by stringing slogans together and calling the result a 'business ethic'. (Personal note: I am so bloody sick of books that proport to teach me 'Managing by Values' and turn out to be fluff and slogans and bad writing to boot. Business ethics is a very complex and gut-wrenching subject, and some authors need to treat their readers with a bit more honor and dignity.)

Sorry for the above tirade. Read this book. If you don't have time to read the whole thing, dip into the 'Catalog of Business Virtues' at the end of the book and try to schedule a virtue per day to think about on the long commute home. I'm sure I'll keep going back to Robert Solomon for a 'better way to think about' the really tough business situations.

Robert Solomon offers a practical, clear and systematic approach to thinking through the place of integrity in the success of any enterprise. It is as applicable to your life as to your business.

This is a remarkable book in that it lays a sensible, philosophical foundation and builds a compelling, practical case for the place of virtue in business. His definition, that "a virtue, in essence, is a value embodied and built into action", leads the reader to understand the true basis for a successful strategic planning process. Solomon emphasizes the need for corporations to see themselves as communities, people- rather than profit-driven, and, thus, to change to "a better way of thinking". An excellent, careful, scholarly treatment presented in a linear, holistic, engaging style, this book, taken to the boardrooms of the world, can only change business for the better. It is a must-read for those who care to maintain their sanity in the multi-faceted corporate world. The book is aptly named!

-From Groucho Marx:

From the moment I picked your book up until I laid it down, I was convulsed with laughter. Someday I intend reading it!

This book really helped me understand how to run a successful enterprise. After completion, it was a great paperweight.

I adored this book because it told me about how to run a successful company.