Silicon dragon

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Michael J.C. Martin

"While innovation may be the lifeblood of technology based industry, it does not guarantee success to the individual firm within it. The ability to bring useful and desirable products to market in a timely, cost-effective fashion requires the unique talents of managers armed with an arsenal of modern principles and methodologies specifically geared to the technology invention and innovation process. But even in technology based firms, many managers have only scant technical background, while scientists and engineers may have little or no management training. And courses on managing technology based firms are currently taught only in a meager handful of universities." "This book grew out of Michael J.C. Martin's experiences developing and teaching courses in managing technological innovation-entrepreneurship to business, engineering, and science students. It provides a dynamic framework within which managers from virtually any professional background can develop efficient, highly productive work systems guaranteed to maximize a high-tech firm's competitive edge. Throughout, the emphasis is on leveraging a company's strategic advantage. To that end, the author provides a host of "battle-tested" tools of the trade, including technology development programs, industry- and market-specific strategic plans, R & D project planning techniques, socioeconomic forecasting and market analysis techniques, and techniques for matching company capabilities with customer and product demands." "All of the tools and techniques presented are applicable to the development of a broad range of products, from small high-tech consumer goods to large and complex systems such as aircraft and heavy weapons technology." "An indispensable survival tool in today's hypercompetitive international high-tech marketplace, Managing Innovation and Entrepreneurship in Technology Based Firms is must reading for industrial engineers, project managers, and R & D managers."--Jacket.

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William Seidman and Richard Grbavac

In every company, a select few produce more, sell more, and deliver better results. These stellar performers consistently outshine their peers-and achieve more than most would believe possible. If only these people could be cloned! The Star Factor delivers the next best thing: a unique system for unlocking their wisdom, transforming that knowledge into actionable steps, and helping other employees internalize these new attitudes and behaviors, bringing much-needed change to the whole organization. The book's proven Affirmative Leadership methodology has produced astonishing results for companies in a range of industries: The world's largest semiconductor manufacturer doubled its accuracy rate for inventory management forecasting; and a top fast food chain dramatically reduced its employee turnover. Supported by recent breakthroughs in neuroscience, including research on motivation, learning, and achievement, The Star Factor presents a sustainable, people-centered system to build a culture of greatness that starts with the stars and spreads to every corner and every level of the organization.

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René Amalberti

Managing safety in a professional environment requires constant negotiation with other competitive dimensions of risk management (finances, market and political drivers, manpower and social crisis). This is obvious, although generally not said in safety manuals. The book provides a unique vision of how to best find these compromises, starting with lessons learnt from natural risk management by individuals, then applying them to the craftsman industry, complex industrial systems (civil aviation, nuclear energy) and public services (like transportation and medicine). It offers a unique, illustrated, easy to read and scientifically based set of original concepts and pragmatic methods to revisit safety management and adopt a successful system vision. As such, and with illustrations coming from many various fields (aviation, fishing, nuclear, oil, medicine), it potentially covers a broad readership.

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Stuart Crainer

Summaries of fifty influential business books include contributions from Peter Drucker, Dale Carnegie, Rosabeth Moss Kanter, W. Edwards Deming, and Tom Peters.