Posts Tagged ‘practical’

The title of this clearly written book says it all. Virtually every aspect of budgeting from preparing income statements and company expense reports, to developing your own personal plan. Understanding the basics of budgeting will help your career and the organization you manage.

Learning Objectives: To discuss principles of strategic planning. To show how to budget sales, labor, depreciation, and other expenses. To review financial and presentation aspects of budget plans.

“Just as no one would argue that gravity applies only to England because Sir Isaac Newton was British or that Einstein’s theory of relativity was relevant only in Germany… the principles of yoga are not limited by time or space,” say Chopra, author of The Seven Spiritual Laws of Success, and Simon, medical director for the Chopra Center. Their guide is written in such a clear, sensible way that those new to yoga will wonder why they’ve not tried it before. Seasoned practitioners will find themselves reinvigorated and may learn a new breathing technique or meditation. Starting with descriptions of the two most popular frameworks, Shankara and Patanjali, the authors then list the seven laws of spirituality that neatly correspond to the seven days of the week. Extensive explanations of several types of meditation—chakra, so hum breath technique, awareness, attention/intention—are followed by the most common breathing exercises and thorough instructions for a variety of asanas (poses). Photographs complete the instructional portion of the book, making it especially useful for beginners. The final pages bring the program together with a suggested routine that combines all of the above into a perfect blend of theory and practice.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
–This text refers to the

Hardcover
edition.

While most current guides focus on yoga’s asana (physical practice), this concise book emphasizes its spiritual aspects. Chopra (Ageless Body, Timeless Mind) and Simon (medical director, Chopra Ctr.) are both pioneers in the field of holistic health, having mixed Western medicine with natural Eastern hearing traditions.  They lucidly explain the complexities of Vedic science and discuss how to apply its spiritual aspects to a yoga routine. Their overriding message is that if practitioners combine the components of a good yoga practice – breathing, meditation, postures (illustrated with photographs), bandhas (means of breath control), and Chopra’s seven spiritual laws, they are promised physical, emotional, and spiritual rewards. Good for both beginners and advances students, this is an excellent choice for most yoga collections. (Library Journal, July 2004)

“Just as no one would argue that gravity applies only to England because Sir Isaac Newton was British or that Einstein’s theory of relativity was relevant only in Germany…the principles of yoga are not limited by time or space,” say Chopra, author of The Seven Spiritual Laws of Success, and Simon, medical director for the Chopra Center. Their guide is written in such a clear, sensible way that those new to yoga will wonder why they’ve not tried it before. Seasoned practitioners will find themselves reinvigorated and may learn a new breathing technique or meditation. Starting with descriptions of the two most popular frameworks, Shankara and Patanjali, the authors then list the seven laws of spirituality that neatly correspond to the seven days of the week. Extensive explanations of several types of meditation—chakra, so hum breath technique, awareness, attention/intention—are followed by the most common breathing exercises and thorough instructions for a variety of asanas (poses). Photographs complete the instructional portion of the book, making it especially useful for beginners. The final pages bring the program together with a suggested routine that combines all of the above into a perfect blend of theory and practice. (Publishers Weekly, June 28, 2004)
–This text refers to the

Hardcover
edition.

Discover Raymond Le Blanc’s powerful time management methods and goal setting techniques to turn around every area of your life-at home or at work. Engaging and down-to-earth, author Le Blanc walks you step by step through practical goal setting techniques to enable you to reach previously unreachable dreams and goals, while his proven time management methods teach you innovative ways to make the most of your valuable time. With Achieving Objectives Made Easy you will develop a mission and a vision for your career and personal life, learn strategies for setting and achieving goals, implement habits key to success, beat procrastination, gain motivation, take control of your time and watch your dreams become reality. All in twenty minutes a day.

Have you ever hired someone only to regret your decision two months later? Or looked at your financial portfolio and wondered why you bought the stocks you did? In Smart Choices, authors John S. Hammond, Ralph L. Keeney, and Howard Raiffa take the guesswork out of the decision-making process and offer a systematic approach to making the right choice. Most of us have problems making decisions, because we’ve never learned how. The authors write:

Despite the importance of decision making to our lives, few of us ever receive any training in it. So we are left to learn from experience. But experience is a costly, inefficient teacher that teaches us bad habits along with good ones. Because decision situations vary so markedly, the experience of making one important decision often seems of little use when facing the next.

Smart Choices outlines eight elements involved in making the right decision, from identifying exactly what the decision is and specifying your objectives to considering risk tolerance and looking at how what you decide on today influences what you may decide in the future. The book is full of real-life situations and scenarios that effectively illustrate each element of a good decision. If you think the topic of making the right choice is mundane or a simple matter of common sense, then think again. Smart Choices will relieve you of the regret that so many of us carry because we didn’t know how to “think it through.” –Harry C. Edwards
–This text refers to the

Hardcover
edition.

In 1966, the Lovin’ Spoonful had a #2 hit with “Did You Ever Have to Make Up Your Mind?” Two years later, Raiffa answered that question for a generation of academics with his book Decision Analysis, whose argumentAthat decision-making skills can be learned and applied as a discipline of their ownAmade Raiffa deeply influential in management and social science. Raiffa (a former professor at Harvard Business School), his longtime associate Hammond (a professor of management and engineering at the University of Southern California) and Ralph Keeney (The Art and Science of Negotiation) here explain decision-analysis techniques and stratagems for the benefit of nonspecialists. They provide substantial, straightforward explanations of concepts (risk tolerance, sunk costs, desirability curves) that sound arcane but may help readers to buy the right car, choose a mutual fund, decide on a school, or plan a vacation. Unfortunately, the lingo of self-help often substitutes for the jargon of management consulting, as when Raiffa’s famous five decision steps become the trendy acronym PrOACT. And the example problems can seem clich?d, two-dimensional or implausible, even when based on fact. Nevertheless, recommendations like “Remember that the value of an incremental change depends on what you start with” and “Make sure your subordinates reflect your organization’s risk tolerance in their decisions” are, at the least, good reminders that the logic of decision making is often counterintuitive; at best, they are an important, useful set of insights.
Copyright 1998 Reed Business Information, Inc.
–This text refers to the

Hardcover
edition.

Ten Commandments of Better Contracting provides a fresh look at management of supply chains with a particular focus on contracting for construction and related goods and services. With the objective of getting more out of contracts, this book draws on recent research, extensive professional and practical experience, and even trial and error in testing contracting innovations. The book explores issues such as games played, proven solutions to common problems, the importance of business relationships, trust, and other issues not typically addressed in books on this topic. In readable style, every chapter focuses on real-world problems and offers suggestions that help improve the performance of next and future contracts. The book outlines ten basic rules (”commandments”) for improving contract performance. The author illustrates these different techniques with cartoons, icons, and case studies. Each of the first 10 chapters addresses one of these commandments. The closing chapter presents a successful contracting strategy that applies these commandments in a cohesive approach. This proven strategy has yielded better results than industry norms when intelligently applied. Chapter 1 provides an overview of the contracting environment including basic legal principles; Chapters 2 and 3 address contract strategies; Chapters 4 through 7 focus on contract award; Chapters 8 and 9 address contract administration issues; and Chapter 10 focuses on dispute resolution.