Corporate-finance

Breakthrough Inc. was terrific. It was not another recipe book, rehashing old ideas. Instead, this book kept on asking me to stretch my goals, and suggested courses of action I could take that were designed at an MBA level. At times I actually did feel I was taking an MBA course as I visited such technologies as gap analysis, competitive analysis, and innovation analysis. Yet unlike an MBA course, everything was easily understandable and could be immediately applied. This book has already given me specific strategies for making my business more relevant in my market, and more profitable in my pocket.

Many books tell us things are changing, but this is best one I've read that explores change itself. Change happens constantly, yet the "rules" underlying change are poorly understood. Land and Jarman meet this challenge with examples from the sciences, business, and individual lives.
A central point of this book is that all systems go through distinct phases of change. These phases are visible in rocks and relationships; they govern the behavior of crystals and families and galaxies. Each phase has its own rules for success. This book maps out the phases of change, teaches you how to tell "where the system is", and most importantly, how to adopt strategies that work in the current set of rules.
A must-read for executive leadership, this book has been indispensible in helping organizations understand and implement the process of transformative change.

An extremely important book. Packed with the best insights from our greatest minds. Revamps many firmly held beliefs regarding the principals of 'Change'. Especially powerful information for leaders, teachers, and business people.

The most frustrating aspect of this book is that the first half, based largely on emails produced during the antitrust trial, is a riveting and fascinating look at the internal Microsoft battles, while the last half is a poor analysis of a "missed" opportunity.

For the last half to be even readable you have to accept a few premises that simply were not supported by the text nor borne out by subsequent history. As an example, Gates is portrayed almost as an incompetent fool, eased aside into near-irrelevance by his board and Balmer. Further, the future of Microsoft's very existence is keyed upon abandoning (even giving away) Windows and starting from scratch, competing always on the last best effort with no clinging to any competitive advantage won so far, and that customers always value interoperability over utility, and so on.

While many of these would be highly desirable for competitors, the book repeatedly claims but never sufficiently makes the case for the theory that for its own sake Microsoft should discard its durable competitive advantage at every turn. I consider that to be an exceptional claim which demands exceptional proof, and which is never provided.

David Banks does a masterful job of telling the story of the internal battle between Windows and Internet Explorer. It is insightful story over the struggle for strategy. Written in the tradition of the Wall Street Journal Bank's paints colorful vignettes of the key personalities and imbues the struggle between these two groups with drama.

However one of the interesting ironies of the business press is that journalists confuse themselves with their subjects. (I know of very few who went from covering a beat to running a company.) Unfortunately the more famous the publication you write for, the less you seem to remember that. This book simply fails when Banks puts on this business analyst hat. Luckily when you hear the scraping of the soapbox those pages are few and can be easily skimmed.

If you're interested in an internal history of Microsoft during the browser wars, buy this book.

"Breaking Windows" is a must read for anyone interested in learning how the nut and bolts Microsoft's intellectual assets really function. This book gives great insight in to how Microsoft reacted to it's two most recent crises, the Internet and the DOJ. David Bank does a great job in explaining the many divisions, which exist at Microsoft but don't show up on the company's organizational chart. Themes such as "Windows Hawks" vs. "Internet Doves" and "Bill guys" vs. "Steve Guys" to name a few. Personally, this book has given me a clear vision on how it will deal with it's next big crisis, the Open Source Revolution.

This is destined to become one of the classic management texts. I found the authors treatement of the subject matter to be insightful and well thought out. This is a must for any person of color who is wondering why it's taking them so long to move into the executive level. As a trainer I will be using this as one of my texts, and I plan on sending a number of copies to my friends.

I just finished reading Breaking Through and learned quite a bit. Recommend it to you. I wish the subject of leadership, and how to properly use it to get results on the job, was addressed more. I recommend you also get a copy of another book that addresses this issue and is very applicable to the subject of minorities as leaders: "The Leader's Guide: 15 Essential Skills." It's at Amazon too.

Breaking Through is a multifaceted book that speaks to a spectrum of audiences: the business leader committed to creating a diverse workplace; the human resource professional charged with designing and implementing diversity initiatives; the minority professional aspiring to break through.

This book sheds light on the complex career dynamics presented to minority professionals in corporate America. As an aspiring minority professional, I took away valuable strategies, as well as pitfalls, for achieving my career goals.

The book is a balance of compelling empirical evidence and real-life examples. The depth of analysis makes for an engaging and enlightening reading experience.

Breaking Through will serve as a personal professional reference guide and I am sure that it will become an invaluable resource throughout my career.

Indonesians aren't punctual, but the Germans believe timeliness is a sign of respect. The French are well educated, but elitist. And, spouses and children don't always find living abroad to be a "grand experience." Those are just some of the things you'll learn from Dr. Elizabeth Marx, who explores why many managers have a horrible time abroad. To help improve your managerial experience overseas, she provides a 100-plus item checklist of what to do before you leave for a foreign country, including information on whether to sell your house or have your children inoculated. Her book tells the ambitious manager Everything You Always Wanted To Know About the International Experience but Were Afraid to Ask. For instance - and this isn't surprising considering her background in psychology - she tells corporations to provide psychological testing for employees before sending them to international posts. We [...] say read this before you plan your bon voyage party.

A good blend of work experiences by people from all over the world with emphasis on identifying the "best practices" of preparing, working and returning from an overseas work assignment. Especially effective was the analysis of the psychological aspects of life in other countries/cultures, which included comprehensive views from both the worker and their families perspectives. Overall, the book was a fairly effective in helping me to prepare for my recent overseas long-term work assignment.

Despite the praise for this book from a senior partner in Arthur Andersen which graces the first page of the text, this is an excellent management text.

As an ex Englishman near New York, one of the surprising things to learn, and thus the point of this book, is that cultural differences can affect us and our work performances.

It is often said that Britain and America are separated by a common language but this does not really convey the full extent of the differences between the two nations. The situation is made more difficult by the fact that American culture has established a hedgemony around the world and particularly so in the UK.

This book is a must read for anyone accepting a post in a foreign country and anyone relocating abroad. Indeed some of the lessons of this book can be usefully applied to different jobs not just different countries.

I like the structure of the book and in particular the focus on the book as a tool to be used and not just read. The use of case studies is very helpful although I personally do not appreciate the manner in which they are written. I would have liked some of them at least to be expressed in a more formal manner with actual references to be used where possible but this is a minor gripe.

Breaking through Culture Shock is written in a very user friendly manner and in a size that is easily followed.

Elisabeth Marx really has hit the nail on the head with this text which has a broad scope great applicability across the continents. My one concern would be with Chapter 5 where she looks at some country specific cases but which excludes Japan. Given that country's importance to business in the world one would think that it warranted inclusion.

That aside, I would highly recommend this book to anyone thinking about embarking on a move abroad and those who have already made a move, whether it be temporary or permanent.

Just a thought, but it would be interesting to see an American author tackle this subject in the same way.