San Antonio College Library

There's a scene in Lewis Carroll'sThrough the Looking Glassin which the Red Queen, having just led a chase with Alice in which neither seems to have moved from the spot where they began, explains to the perplexed girl: "It takes all the running you can do, to keep in the same place." Evolutionary biologists have used this scene to illustrate the evolutionary arms race among competing species. William Barnett argues that a similar dynamic is at work...

Misaligned companies, like cars out of alignment, can develop serious problems if not corrected quickly. They are hard to steer and don't respond well to changes in direction. This groundbreaking book shows you how to get - and keep - all the vital elements of your organization aligned and headed in the same direction at the same time. As pioneers of the alignment concept, the authors have developed this unique approach based on their work with leading...

"Companies face increasingly demanding customers and a lack of skilled workers to serve them. At the same time, networked "smart" technologies - from Web sites in retailing to kiosks in shopping - are enabling managers to recruit machines into "front-office" roles that both drive down the costs of consumer interactions and deliver more satisfying customer experiences." "In Best Face Forward, Jeffrey F. Rayport and Bernard J. Jaworski argue that this...

In this title some 40 development economists, most of them from the World Bank's poverty reduction and economic management network, an epicenter of the profession, tell us what they see on the horizon of their technical disciplines and of their geographic areas of specialization. Following the 2008-09 global financial crises, much economic policy is up for reexamination. This synthesis picks from each chapter what is new, what is likely to change,...

"Based on research in ten leading trading nations, The Competitive Advantage of Nations offers the first theory of competitiveness based on the causes of the productivity with which companies compete. Porter shows how traditional comparative advantages such as natural resources and pools of labor have been superseded as sources of prosperity, and how broad macroeconomic accounts of competitiveness are insufficient. The book introduces Porter's "diamond,"...

"In What Price the Moral High Ground?, economist and social critic Robert Frank challenges the notion that doing well is accomplished only at the expense of doing good. Frank explores new work in economics, psychology, and biology to argue that honest individuals often succeed, even in highly competitive environments, because their commitment to principle makes them more attractive as trading partners."--Jacket.

In this book, two distinguished economists draw attention to an important and disturbing new trend that has dramatically transformed our economy in the last two decades: the spread of "winner-take-all" markets, where more and more people compete for ever fewer and bigger prizes. Such markets, where tiny differences in performance translate into huge differences in reward, have long been the hallmark of the performing arts and professional sports,...

A guided tour of markets with examples ranging from a camel trading fair in India to the $20 million per day Aalsmeer flower market to the global trade in AIDS drugs. Shows how these markets combine to form the global economy and why markets are neither magical nor immoral, but imperfect yet vitally important tools. [book cover].

Benchmarking for Best Practices in the Public Sector is a unique, practical guide that shows public officials and administrators at all levels of government how to identify best practices and implement them in their organizations. The authors go beyond abstract concepts to bring benchmarking to life with real cases from federal, state, and local governments. They show how benchmarking methods have been adapted to the unique needs of the public sector...

Places a particular focus on the role of networked readiness in spurring innovation.