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Account planning exists for the sole purpose of creating advertising that truly connects with consumers. While many in the industry are still dissecting consumer behavior, extrapolating demographic trends, developing complex behavioral models, and measuring Pavlovian salivary responses, Steel advocates an approach to consumer research that is based on simplicity, common sense, and creativity--an approach that gains access to consumers' hearts and minds, develops ongoing relationships with them, and, most important, embraces them as partners in the process of developing and advertising.

A witty, erudite raconteur and teacher, Steel describes how successful account planners work in partnership with clients, consumer, and agency creatives. He criticizes research practices that, far from creating relationships, drive a wedge between agencies and the people they aim to persuade; he suggests new ways of approaching research to cut through the BS and get people to show their true selves; and he shows how the right research, when translated into a motivating and inspiring brief, can be the catalyst for great creative ideas. He draws upon his own experiences and those of colleagues in the United States and abroad to illustrate those points, and includes examples of some of the most successful campaigns in recent years, including Polaroid, Norwegian Cruise Line, Porsche, Isuzu, "got milk?" and others.

The message of this book is that well-thought-out account planning results in better, more effective marketing and advertising for both agencies and clients. And also makes an evening in front of the television easier to bear for the population at large.

A former reporter and editor at the New York Times and the Harvard Business Review who now works at PricewaterhouseCoopers, Kurtzman here offers insight into how the stock and bond markets function. He explains how these markets operate and what they do (e.g., package debt in the form of bond offerings, establish pricing for securities and commodities, connect those who seek capital with those who provide it, and other activities) but also how they are influenced by information and global activity (for good and bad) and how investors can use markets to their advantage. Kurtzman emphasizes the need to look for value in the markets and also discusses a technique used by Warren Buffet and many other investing pros discounted cash flow analysis (DCF), which involves knowing how you think a stock will perform over the time you will own it. As examples, Kurtzman uses anecdotes and concrete examples (especially of the recent Internet bubble), making it easy to understand his approach to the subject. Many people are involved with markets through their own investing, pension plans, and 401ks, and this well-written, inexpensive primer provides good introductory material.
- Steven J. Mayover, Philadelphia
Copyright 2002 Cahners Business Information, Inc.

With over 50,000 copies sold in its first edition, Riding the Waves of Culture dispelled the idea that there is only one way to manage, and was the first book to show professional managers how to build the cross-cultural skills, sensitivity, and awareness required in today's global business environment. In this second edition, Fons Trompenaars and co-author Charles Hampden-Turner reveal the seven key dimensions of business behavior, and how they combine to form four basic types of corporate culture:
* The Family (Japan, Belgium)
* The Eiffel Tower (France, Germany)
* The Guided Missile (US, UK)
* The Incubator (Silicon valley)

This revised and updated edition features completely new sections including:
* An in-depth examination of one of the world's most multicultural nations­­ -- South Africa­­ -- and how recent events make it an ongoing laboratory of intercultural reconciliations
* A detailed analysis of how gender differences within the United States affect workplace and problem-solving behavior
* Current research findings on how ethnic differences within a society can be more troublesome than international differences­­ and how some managers are keeping the peace
* A systematic program for uncovering, understanding, respecting, and reconciling cultural differences at all levels of the organization

How to use financial information to strategically manage costs. Managers rarely get financial information the way they really need it. How can a nonfinancial manager minimize costs with the financial information he or she does get? By reading and absorbing this clear, concise new book.

The Cost Management Toolbox lucidly explains how financial information--especially information relating to costs--is generated and reported in today's service and manufacturing organizations. Avoiding hard-to-grasp technicalities, it shows business professionals how to:
* Accurately determine how well their business is performing
* Quickly diagnose financial and operational problems
* Effectively evaluate new business propositions
* Confidently forecast future trends and project future costs
* Strategically plan and prepare a departmental budget
* Strictly analyze costs, including the rarely-discussed area of service costing.

Breakthrough Business Negotiation is a definitive guide to negotiating in any business situation. This smart and practical book by Michael Watkins, a leading expert in negotiation at Harvard Business School, presents principles that apply to any negotiation situation and tools to achieve breakthrough results. Step by step, Breakthrough Business Negotiation demonstrates how to diagnose a situation, build coalitions, manage internal decision making, persuade others, organize a deal cycle, and create strategic alliances. Watkins also explains how to prevent disputes from poisoning deals.

Humans are gambling animals—and not just when we invest in the stock market. Every time we take an action—deciding which job applicant to hire, which product to launch— we are betting our time, reputation, effort, and money in the hope of achieving some future result.

Some people base their business bets on dumb luck, but the great ones. Eileen C. Shapiro and Howard H. Stevenson have compressed the complex skills of making your own luck—which they call predictive intelligence—into twelve easy and practical steps. These steps will get you the results you want with the least risk and the most upside. They will help you take smarter risks without the “analysis paralysis” that gets so many people and companies in trouble.

Most books about strategy are dull and loaded with jargon. Make Your Own Luck is full of jokes, brain teasers, anecdotes, and unexpected case studies from the Battle of Antietam to the diaper war between Huggies and Pampers. It teaches readers how to build their ability to bet smart and how to use this ability to win in business and in other areas of life.

As corporations invest more and more in cutting-edge computer telecommunications technology, figuring out how these investments impact the bottom line is increasingly problematic. While CIO's and other strategic leaders eagerly sign up for newer and jazzier systems, it has become the job of line managers to figure out how to manage these high-tech toys--and to measure whether or not they are effective. The paradox lies in this very problem: without tools to measure results, how can we effectively implement new technology? "Information technology," after all, is about providing new information. But these systems fail to provide the most crucial bit of information managers need: Is this technology paying off for my company?

To survive in the years ahead, companies must put technology at the very heart of everything they do. That's the central argument offered here by the Economist's management editor Cairncross (The Death of Distance), who explains why in step-by-step fashion. Part of what she is lobbying for is now accepted wisdom. Today, most senior managers readily accept the idea that information technology needs to be central to their company's knowledge management, communication and collaborations both in and outside the corporation. But saying it should be integral to everything from marketing to managing talent may raise some eyebrows. Internally, she argues, almost every business process involves information in some form. Externally, the price of technology has fallen so low and the Internet has become so pervasive that it is absurd not to use it more extensively. By arguing that IT should be central to the organization of the future, Cairncross recognizes that management will have to think differently about their corporation's structure. "The benefits of Internet technologies depend not on their wizardry alone (which, in the coming years, will seem remarkably ordinary and natural, just as the phone does now). Companies will reap the full benefits only if they have appropriate structures and cultures. Creating those calls for skillful leadership." It will be interesting to see which companies if any make those changes.
- Copyright 2002 Cahners Business Information, Inc.

We have taken ourselves out of the Stone Age - but we cannot take the Stone Age out of ourselves. Time and time again managers and leaders have tried to eliminate hierarchies, internal politics, and interorganisational rivalry - but to no avail. Why? Evolutionary psychology would say that they are working against human nature - emotional and behavioral 'hardwiring' that is the legacy of our Stone Age ancestors. In this unique and important book, Professor Nigel Nicholson explores many of evolutionary psychology's central tenets and its implications for business management. The insights that this science provides into human instinct will prove illuminating to anyone seeking to understand why people act and think in frequently perplexing and unproductive ways while at work. Through his work at London Business School, Nigel Nicholson has placed himself at the forefront of this exciting - some would say radical - new field of evolutionary psychology. His research challenges many conventional beliefs about human nature and provides a more realistic picture of what motivates people and shapes their thoughts and actions at work. In Managing the Human Animal, he sets the record straight on what he regards as the utopian daydreaming which has led to ideas that indicate office politics, turf wars and gossip can be eliminated and that status and gender differences count for nothing. Instead, what he puts forward will intrigue and inform those looking to understand mankind's basic instincts and to mange them with skill.

In a wry, snappy voice, consultant Tony Manning offers a concise guide to effective decision making for anyone steering a company. His Making Sense of Strategy outlines the most important things strategists need to know: how to make quick, informed choices and persuade stakeholders to get on board. Manning, a former head of marketing at Coca-Cola Export Corp. in southern and central Africa, explains how to define the company business model and goals, then shows readers how to craft the "strategic conversations" they'll need to have with investors, executives and employees. He includes advice on changing the corporate culture and motivating workers in everyday exchanges.
- Copyright 2002 Cahners Business Information, Inc.