Finance

Very well written psychology book on human behavior that you can commonly find in your organization. Not much jargons but in plain simple english. It not only describes the twelve behavior patterns that holding good people back, but also does suggest how to fix and manage them.

To depict the 12 hebavior patterns, the authors cleverly use different simple scenarios and business cases to address the orgins of the problem & pattern. They explain why the behavior patterns may limit your career advancement and how should break the behaviour patterns. I personally found that some patterns breaking approach could be helpful but some don't and lack of practical details. The authors seem to suggest most of the cases that the root of these behaviour patterns are arised out of childhood development. Well, I am not sure this is completely correct but you can certainly find more explanation in Part II of the book.

The 12 bad habits that hold good people back are listed below:

1. Never feeling good enough
2. Seeing the world in black & white
3. Doing too much, pushing too hard
4. Avoiding conflict at any cost
5. Running roughshod over the opposition
6. Rebel looking for a cause
7. Always swinging for the fence
8. When the fear is in the driver's seat
9. Emotionally tone-deaf
10. When no job is good enough
11. Lacking a sense of boundaries
12. Losing the path

To make readers easy to understand and remember these 12 behavior patterns, the authors also name these bad habits as the following easy terms:

1. Acrophobe
Feeling in their heart of hearts that they don't deserve to be where they have been placed.

2. Meritocrat
Seeing the world black & white, with answers that are right or wrong, all weighed on a perfectly fair scale and judged accordingly, on their merits alone.

3. Hero
Constantly trying to do too much and pushing too hard on both themselves and other people.

4. Peacekeeper
Going out of the way to avoid conflict, because of uncertainty about how it will end up.

5. Bulldozer
Talking and acting tough, bullying people, taking no prisoners, and leveling anyone and anything that gets in the way.

6. Rebel
To defy authority and everything associated with authority, including societal tradition, company custom, and good taste.

7. Home run hitter
Expecting & demanding extraordinary and immediate success.

8. Pessimist-Worrier
Seeing the negative and almost nothing but the negative; and worrying about it to excess.

9. Mr. Spocks
Having a hard time recognizing and understanding fear, love, anger, jealousy, greed, compassion, and other emotions in themselves or in others.

10. Coulda-been
These people have very little tolerance for hard work and little patience, not because they're lazy, but because doing the work to get to the top means that they're not already there. When they seem to be saying is "No job is good enough," but what they actually feel inside is "I'm not good enough for any job."

11. Loose Lips
The person who lacks an appropriate sense of boundaries doesn't understand that some subjects belong in the office and some belong only in certain corners of the office and definitely not outside.

12. Dig Deeper
Feeling they have lost their sense of direction, or a sense of enthusiasm that has dimished or disappeared for reasons that are not immediately clear.

If you want to know more details, you can find very rich information from Part II of the book. It includes not just a description of the core psychological issue for each behavior pattern, but tools you can use to access yourself in each area, and execrises that you can do to strengthen those weaker psychological "muscles."

Overall, this is a pretty interesting book you may want to put in your own collection.

I have a huge collection of how-to, business/career, self-help, motivational books. Honestly, I give up reading a book after few chapters because the material is too good to be true (or too difficult to follow in a practical manner). Many of these books talk about how to walk on the water that (now) I know is impossible. While this book talks about real practical stuff (too bad to be true)! It talks about what not to do in the workplace! I am really impressed. After reading, "Dangerous Company" cover-to-cover (out of my huge collection of books), I am going to read this book from top to bottom probably a few times. It is a great resource. Authors should publish a workbook that one can follow. I really like this book. I wish I had this book when I started my career in the USA ten years ago!

Himanshu Pandit

Many of us, including myself, spend a huge amount of time and energy trying to "get the job done" not realizing that some of the behavior patterns are making our work lives more stressful, less effective and in some cases making you---or your employee---a difficult person to work with.

I picked this up after searching online for a career transition book. The authors, two guys from Harvard, have written a really fantastic guide to managing your career. If you know anyone who has had negative performance review, has problems being a "team player" or if you are a manager that has an employee that everyone in the office perceives as "difficult", do yourself a favor and pick-up a copy of this book.

These guys have practical exercises and explanations for some of the bad behaviors we have at work---procrastinating, falling behind, constant feelings of stress or anxiety. Far from the "touchy feely" approach of many of the self-help schmaltz out there, these guys are from the business world and offer real steps and real solutions to modify the negative behaviors. (eg. you may be a natural worrier and never be worry-free, but you can cultivate new ways to process the worry so that it doesn't interfere with your "getting the job done.")

In my opinion, a must read!

At last a book that distills the learning of the last 20-30 years in business management. Drennan and Penningtons book is unique in the simple and structured way in which it helps set out action plans for us all, no matter what our role in business. An irresistible feature is a checklist for carrying out an immediate evaluation of your company and its world class status. A special aspect of the authors approach is the people dimension and how to achieve world class performance through people.

It is also a great reference book for picking up and putting down. Its part of my toolkit for running businesses in different parts of the world. Well done to the authors!

The book focuses on the 12 key benchmarks that lead on organization to world class performance and results. We are using this book within our facility in order to help drive results. Best practices and continuous improvement are the emphasis. I strongly recommend this book for all organizations. All managers have a copy of this book and we are beginning our world class audit.

In The 12-Hour MBA Program, Milo Sobel presents an overview of the major topics graduate students learn in pursuit of a master's degree in business administration. He offers chapters on marketing and product management, accounting and finance, human resources and operations management, statistics, economics, technology management, business policy and ethics, strategic planning, education and career planning. This good, solidly written introduction to the field will probably be of most interest to college students and other beginners, who will benefit from this broad overview of different spheres of knowledge. However, managers and executives will find this too basic, more like a field of iceberg tips. The text is clearly written and well-organized, though it is primarily a summary, with a few examples and only occasional charts and tables. We from getAbstract recognize what this basic book is trying to accomplish, but warns that - having been written in 1993 - it's somewhat dated and lacks current thinking in such areas as marketing, management, leadership and strategy.

...I didn't need 12 hours to read it. This is a cursory approach to material that demands more, much more. The entire book is easily digested in a half hour or so. This book provides an OK overview of the MBA curriculum, much like a one-day seminar or an expanded "B" school marketing brochure might. This book is by no means a useful tool, let alone a replacement for the formal education.

I can see why many people gave this a good review. It is easy to read and it does offer a brief summary of many of the concepts found in "B" school. However, it is really lightweight stuff. I would equate this to a Cliffs notes MBA, i.e. what's the point. There is really nothing of substance in this book that you can bite into. Just when you are ready to dig into the concept the chapter ends with a list of further reading. A better title for this book would be, "So Your Thinking Of Getting An MBA." I don't find this even a good reference tool to refresh a concept or calculation.

For a far more useful business reference tool that will provide meaty information found in a formal MBA program check out the "The Vest-Pocket MBA" instead. The VP MBA is much better value.

Frankly, I had the same reservations before I read this book as I did when about to read Steven Silbiger's The Ten-Day MBA. The titles seem ludicrous. In fact, both Silbiger and Sobel fully understand the obvious differences between reading a book and earning an MBA degree. They have the same objective: In a single volume, to provide as much information and instruction as possible to those unwilling and/or unable to enroll in an MBA program, even if accepted. The subtitle of Sobel's book correctly indicates that he offers "the key concepts and techniques in a fraction of the time." (So does Silbiger.) About 15 years ago, Sobel created what he called "MBA in a Nutshell" and it was very well-received. What we have here is an extension and expansion of that.

According to Sobel in "Orientation to the Program", this book delivers three major benefits that few MBA programs offer: "The emphasis in this book is on practical and utilitarian applications rather than on abstruse matter that a student may learn in order to pass an exam and soon forget, since it has little or no meaning in everyday life....The chapter on education and career pathing (not an academic subject in the MBA curriculum) will serve as a guide to help you ascertain whether you really need the MBA degree or whether other degreed or nondegreed alternatives would be viable for your purposes....[and finally] there is a hidden "psychological agenda" which provides a "grounding in key concepts, techniques, and the terminology or jargon used by MBAs" as well as a "sense of greatly increased confidence in your own new capabilities and enhanced ability to thrive in the business world."

The material is organized within nine chapters: Marketing and Product Management, Accounting and Finance, Human Resources and Operations Management, Statistics, Economics, Technology Management, Business Policy and Ethics, Strategy Planning, and finally, Education and Career Pathing. Sobel then adds an Epilogue: "Reflection, Retrospection, and Enlightenment." I have a few quibbles with Sobel. Perhaps he thinks the "Orientation" is sufficient. I don't. I also question the sequence of the material other than placing Education and Career Pathing last. However, on balance, I think this is a well-written book, offering solid content. The full responsibility for deriving various benefits rests with each reader. Henry Ford once said "Whether you think you can or think you can't, you're right." The same is true of those who purchase this book.

Forget about a 12-hour or 12-year timeframe. First, read the entire book from cover-to-cover at least twice. Then re-read it using a highlighter pen. (I prefer a Sanford "Pocket Access" with optic yellow ink.) In the "Orientation", Sobel offers six excellent "ground rules" to follow while reading and studying. Point is, effective study is hard work. VERY hard work. Most of those who purchase this book and then begin to absorb and digest its contents probably lack the structure of a formal classroom and the guidance provided by an onsite instructor. They also have lots of distractions. Unless you are both willing and able to give to this course of study the attention it requires, and then sustain that commitment over an extended period of time, forget about it.

Which book to buy, Silbiger's or Sobel's? My answer is both. Why? Years ago while at work on a Ph.D. in comparative literature, I took graduate-level courses from three professors who were at that time considered to be among the most eminent scholars of the Italian Renaissance. They covered much of the same material but each brought to the given subject entirely different perspectives, issues, questions, biases, etc. Each offered exceptional intellectual stimulation but also what I characterize as "intellectual nourishment." Obvioiusly, you will not have (nor could you have) the same experience while reading one or both books. However, there are substantial benefits to be derived from each...and a value-added benefit from reading both (in whatever order) as you correlate their respective analyses of essentially the same topics and issues. Reiteration: Be willing and able to sustain a rigorous commitment to your course of study, at whatever personal sacrifice, or don't bother.

The price tag's expensive for a 100-page softcover with no spine lettering, and the audience is very specific - to traders expert at Wall Street stocks - but Habitudes Of Highly Successful Traders outlines 12 strategies for trading success and teaches the mental skills necessary for a good trader, from arranging for data and information to preparing goals. Some are simple ideas but all are geared to work together.

E-Business to the Power of 12: The Principles of. dotCompetition is a breakthrough! For a long time we've had the 4P's of marketing; now we have the 12 P's of E-Business.

In order to really understand and effectively manage anything, such as an electronic business, you must have a 'unified' model that everyone understands and is able to manage respectively. In other words, the business itself needs to be viewable in 'context' so that you can gauge where you stand at any given time and make smart management decisions accordingly. In this fast paced, totally accountable world of electronic business, this is the core to success.

Many companies today, tend to engage in e-business projects; ventures or transformation long before a unified business model and a context for both development and management is established. Many important steps such as learning, planning, and thorough strategy analysis are either skipped or rushed prior to execution; steps that will ultimately maintain alignment between business development, operations, management and marketing in an electronic environment. As a result, electronic enterprises, in particular, due to typically rapid evolution, pay a price for a long time to come trying to manage what becomes unmanageable.

Large and small enterprises alike are also sold e-business solutions prematurely, as "the" answer to their problems and often from vendors ill-equipped to best handle the job within the "context" of the e-business management strategy; something many enterprises simply do not have.

At a time when there is dependency on a host of outsourced companies to operate aspects of your business outside of core competencies, and assuming it's a solid business to be in the first place; ensuring that certain principles and phases of development are adhered to is vital to long term success.

Thomas Power, co founder of Ecademy.com, after thousands of interviews with Internet luminaries such as Dell, Gates, Bezos and Ballmer, successful e-business operators and the like, can help "power" your business with "E-Business to the Power of 12: The Principles of. dotCompetition. Not only are these principles powerful, they are also organized in such a way that they operate as a 'platform', on which you can develop an e-business management strategy and better streamline business development, operations, management and marketing in an electronic environment. You will now know where you stand, what many of your issues are and how to proceed.

Once you've read the book, you can interact with Thomas Power and co, along with e-professionals in major markets around the world at Ecademy.com. Learn, network and develop your e-business within the context of this principle-centered platform. Ecademy.com is the place to be if you're involved with electronic business.

I saw this book at the bookstore and normally I don't buy books on impulse. But I'm glad I bought this one. Farber discusses the 12 universally known cliches that apply to business but are equally applicable to life in general. He gives reasons why these things are common knowledge and why they work. Then he gives great examples of sales professionals who succeeded by applying the principle (the cliche) Farber just discussed.

Not only do these principles work in business, but they are also applicable to everyday living, especially the last one that Farber discusses. My teenage daughter is always asking me to recommend books that she can read to teach her to prepare for college and beyond. This is one of the books I'm recommending for her, along with Masters of Success and The Mental Edge (mainly for sports but applicable in other areas of life), and How to Succeed in Business By Breaking All the Rules.

We have heard of all of these cliches, but it's great to have them reiterated in an engaging, entertaining, and educational manner as Farber did. Definitely should be a part of every sales professional's library.