Planning & Forecasting Books - Page 12

The Weather Channel

Frank Batten, Jeffrey L. Cruikshank

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 14 Average rating: 3.5 of 5

Editorial Review:

Twenty years ago, who'd have believed that millions of viewers would follow the twists and turns of storms developing across the globe with the rapt attention once reserved for thriller movies? That a single television channel could simultaneously inform and entertain us, enrich our lives and, at times, help save them?

This is the remarkable story of The Weather Channel, a cable network that succeeded when almost all the experts predicted it would fail. Told by one of the key figures in the network's success, former Chairman and CEO Frank Batten, this is at once a deeply personal account of high-stakes entrepreneurship and a fascinating case study of a media business both experiencing and driving major change.

There are colorful personalities-from the on-camera meteorologists to the whiz kids recruited to help build the company's core technology. There are adventures and dramas-from the glitch-filled national launch that was saved by luck and a mysterious stranger to The Weather Channel's near-death experience as its owner, Landmark Communications, was poised to lose its entire 31 million investment in the network. There are unexpected plot twists, risky ventures, failures, and victories.

Batten's engrossing narrative reveals for the first time how The Weather Channel works its magic-and the technological, meteorological, and business innovations that have made it all possible. He takes us behind the scenes as his unique network evolved from struggling start-up to media powerhouse, from editorial cartoon fodder to vital public service.

Along the way, he shares hard-won business lessons on breaking from convention and taking educated risks; bringing a great idea to market; strengthening a brand; leveraging disruptive technologies; managing through failure; preserving a spirit of risk-taking through periods of intense growth; and more.

An absorbing tale of success against the odds, this book will appeal to entrepreneurs in all industries, as well as to the millions of fans of The Weather Channel.

Revival of the Fittest: Why Good Companies Go Bad and How Great Managers Remake Them

Donald N. Sull

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 13 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

Editorial Review:

Will your organization still be here in ten years? It's a familiar story: a company rises to become an industry leader. Competitors try to emulate it. Analysts rave about it. The CEO's picture is splashed across magazine covers. Then the company stumbles, profits erode, and the stock plummets. How does this happen? Why do good companies so often go bad? More important, what can you do to prevent it from happening to your company?In "Revival of the Fittest", Donald N. Sull takes a provocative look at corporate failure and proposes a practical new model for effecting change that can vastly increase your organization's lifespan. Ironically, argues Sull, leaders sow the seeds of failure during a company's most successful times, when they make a set of commitments - whether to a core strategy, a key customer, or an innovative manufacturing method-that constitute the company's success formula. Managers become so married to the formula that they can't divorce themselves from it when the competitive situation changes. They respond to the future by doing more of what worked in the past - a phenomenon Sull calls 'active inertia.Based on extensive global research into successful and failed transformations across many industries, "Revival of the Fittest" introduces a three-step model for making transforming commitments - actions that prevent managers from reinforcing old behaviours in the face of change. Sull identifies five areas in which transforming commitments can be anchored-strategic frames, processes, relationships, resources, and values-and provides diagnostic tests, hands-on tools, and real company examples to show how managers can: gauge their company's susceptibility to active inertia; determine which commitment is right for a specific situation; appoint the best person to lead the charge; ensure that the new commitment sticks; avoid common mistakes that can sabotage the transformation effort; and weigh the personal risks associated with leading corporate change.In an unpredictable marketplace, commitments can make and break a company. But Sull shows that corporate demise is not inevitable. Through transforming commitments, revival of the fittest is possible - and managers can make the difference. Donald N.Sull is Assistant Professor of Business Administration in the Entrepreneurial Management area at Harvard Business School.

Deena Katz's Tools and Templates for Your Practice: For Financial Advisors, Planners, and Wealth Managers

Deena B Katz, Deena B. Katz

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Subjects -> Business & Investing -> Investing -> General

Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 10 Average rating: 4.0 of 5

Editorial Review:

Following on the heels of the author's immensely popular book, Deena Katz on Practice Management, this nuts-and-bolts resource illustrates its predecessor's time-saving concepts. Deena Katz's Tools and Templates for Your Practice elaborates on the first book's concepts by providing and explaining how to use the actual check sheets, forms, and procedures developed by top wealth managers and planners. It offers financial planners and advisers dozens of shortcuts to running an efficient, thriving practice. Whether financial planners have been in business for ten days or ten years, they will benefit from this book's commonsense, pragmatic approach to running a successful advisory practice.

The book is organized around the natural cycle of finding, developing, and keeping clients. It includes a free CD-ROM containing all the Microsoft Office forms and spreadsheets in the book, usuable on both PC and Macintosh platforms. Readers can customize these valuable tools to build a solid administrative structure for their businesses. Many of the book's documents will be maintained and updated on the Web, to help financial planners stay abreast of leading-edge thinking in practice management.

Advanced Day Planner User's Guide

Hyrum W. Smith

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Sudden Impact

Leonard A. Renier

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 1 Average rating: 5.0 of 5

You need to know this stuff! 5 out of 5 stars.
2 of 2 people found this review helpful.

Renier offers some troubling information but based on facts. Easy to read, well documented.If you are planning to retire someday, read this book. If you are trying to hang on to some of your hard earned moola, read this book. I read his other two books which are similar in nature. Reads like a conversation over a beer with the author. Nice work, Len!! ...Gates

Editorial Review:

There is a deep concern about the path we are traveling as a nation and the impact it will have on everyone’s financial future. Off in the distance, there are definite signs that something is happening and it’s not good. Financially speaking, the horizon is darkening quickly even though the sun is shining now. Together, the dramatically changing demographics and unsustainable government plans are creating an impending crisis that will touch everyone. Knowing what is going to happen, before it does, is critical. Being prepared for these events is crucial for your financial survival.

Grand Illusions: The Legacy of Planned Parenthood

George Grant

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 16 Average rating: 4.0 of 5

Confusing the Issue 3 out of 5 stars.
15 of 20 people found this review helpful.

Though I understand the author's point in being blatantly Christian throughout his writing, the manner in which he does this inspires more distaste than openmindedness. I'm a Christian myself, so I sympathize with his point of view, but his technique in this book is the wrong approach.

In addition, the author's writing seems to show his desire to be a fiction writer. He uses language that is more appropriate in a fiction book than a piece of scholarly research. This is off-putting to the reader.

Finally, he would be better off sticking to the most controversial information about Planned Parenthood. Instead, he adds his own opinion about the inappropriateness of any birth control, which makes the rest of his opinions suspect.

Editorial Review:

This thoroughly researched, comprehensively documented work is the single best-selling volume of all time on Planned Parenthood. Discussed are the legal precedents, court decisions, educational initiatives, political machinations, cultural ramifications, sociological consequences, and theological implications.

Lunar Returns

John Townley

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Total reviews: 3 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

Another Cookbook 3 out of 5 stars.
6 of 7 people found this review helpful.

I was happy to find this book about Lunar returns, a topic on which you will not find much literature. However, I was quite disappointed with the content. It's just another cookbook delineating planets in houses and aspects between planets. The delineations are well-written though. There is a short chapter on transits to the natal planets too and a (very) short chapter on New and Full Moon, retrogrades and eclipses. You will not find anything about the real standouts in the Lunar returns, nor about progressing the Lunar return chart, nor about important midpoint configurations, nor about the relationship with progressions or solar returns, nor about sensitive degree areas or exact conjunctions to prominent Fixed stars. There is nothing on the Lunar parallax. This book is a good beginning though and I'm glad somebody has written a book about Lunar returns.

Editorial Review:

Your lunar return is an emotional rebirthing that occurs every 271/2 days. The lunar return chart exposes the immediate terrain of your life and can guide your day-to-day decisions. It lives in its own right and in relation to the natal chart, and it responds to transits during the month. This book explores the interpretation of the lunar return in depth.

Guide to Economic Indicators

Norman Frumkin

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Editorial Review:

Now, revised and expanded, this widely-used desk reference provides quick and easy access to current and reliable data on the major statistical measures of the U.S. economy. Equally useful for students, general readers, economists, analysts, journalists, and investors, the Guide provides concise, jargon-free explanations of the meaning, use, and availability of more than 60 macroeconomic indicators, including websites, recent trends, and current data.

Streetwise Complete Business Plan: Writing a Business Plan Has Never Been Easier! (Adams Streetwise Series)

Bob Adams

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 5 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

Outstanding 5 out of 5 stars.
19 of 20 people found this review helpful.

It has a great format where he walks you through each page of your business plan with all sorts of samples where you can plug in your specific business items. But it's not just fill-in-the-blanks. For any given section, he gives you many sample outlines to follow, according to your specific type of business and how mature the business is. Definitely helps you to brainstorm and walk away with all sorts of new ideas. I can't recommend it enough.

Easy use 3 out of 5 stars.
8 of 8 people found this review helpful.

This book is for a start up small business. Easy, walk through, step by step planning. Good conservative insights of what an investor or bank would be looking for. Favors the service industry.

It is designed to provide an annual plan ... not a five year plan. There is little in the book for advice in an ongoing buisness.

The verbage, however, is useful for any business plan.

Excellent Step-by-Step Guide for Writing a Winning Plan! 5 out of 5 stars.
7 of 7 people found this review helpful.

I am a very proficient writer who found the task of writing a business plan for my consulting practice overwhelming. I knew what I needed to say, yet getting that perfect concise wording proved more than a notion. After reviewing several business plan "how-to" books, I found that only Bob Adams has made writing a first-rate business plan painless and pleasurable.

Whether a start-up or existing business, Bob has done the "scratch work" for each section of your plan and provided a wide variety of pre-written text options for you to tailor to your specific situation. In addition, he walks you through every step of creating those much scrutinized financial documents, item by item, giving formulas when necessary so that nothing is omitted or misunderstood.

It has been 18 monnths since I used Bob's book to construct my initial business plan. The results was a "living" document that has served me better than I ever anticipated.

20/20 Foresight: Crafting Strategy in an Uncertain World

Hugh Courtney

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Total reviews: 11 Average rating: 4.0 of 5

Editorial Review:

In the midst of a changing economy, most executives continue to use a strategy toolkit designed for yesterday's more stable marketplace. As a result, strategies emerge that neither manage the risks nor take advantage of the opportunities that arise in highly uncertain times. Now, McKinsey & Company consultant Hugh Courtney argues that managers must move beyond the outdated "all-or-nothing" view of strategy in which future events are either certain or uncertain. Instead, he suggests a simple-yet powerful-alternative: Understand the level of uncertainty you are facing in a given situation, and you will make better, more informed strategic choices.Based on an international review of the key strategy problems faced by over one hundred leading companies, Courtney reveals how executives can develop 20/20 foresight - a view of the future that separates what can be known from what can't. While executives with 20/20 foresight can rarely develop perfect forecasts of the future, says Courtney, they can isolate the "residual uncertainty" they face and use this insight to create competitive advantage in today's turbulent markets. Unveiling a revolutionary framework for diagnosing to which of the four levels of residual uncertainty a specific strategy choice corresponds, "20/20 Foresight" shows how readers can leverage this knowledge to answer three key strategic questions: Shape or adapt to uncertainty? Make strategic commitments now or later? and Follow a focused or diversified strategy?"20/20 Foresight" also shows strategists how to tailor every aspect of the decision-making process - from formulation to implementation - to the level of uncertainty faced, describes the strategic-planning processes readers can use to monitor, update, and revise strategies as necessary in volatile markets, and includes a toolkit for identifying, developing, and testing new strategy options - complete with guidelines for applying the right tool to the right situation at the right time. A comprehensive approach to strategy development under all possible levels of uncertainty and across all kinds of industries, this is the essential guide for making tough strategic choices in a changing world. Hugh Courtney is an Associate Principal with the Global Strategy Practice at McKinsey & Company in Washington D.C.