The world is full of sound - most of it unwanted and unplanned - which can change our moods, our behaviour and our performance. This book explains clearly how to use this fact to great advantage, in terms of productivity and customer performance. In a few years, a company's sound will become as important as its logo and public image. Here is a practical guide to planning and managing sound for increased profit in all aspects of business.

China and Japan are in the sound business--they just don't realize it. Not the kind of sound business usually associated with prosperous Asian economies, but the Chinese characters they use by the billions every day. For centuries Chinese characters have served as a powerful symbol of the cultural divide between east and west, but all that is about to change. Sound Business: The Reality of Chinese Characters, written by MA in Japanese Studies and Chinese Philip Philipsen, presents a whole new picture of Chinese characters seen in world perspective. And this is a world that sound makes go around. Get a rare insight into the real function, usage, etymology and true origin of Chinese characters, and be prepared to lose your breath as you discover our astonishing shared heritage. Mixing past and present avant-garde Japanese, Chinese and western research, Sound Business: The Reality of Chinese Characters takes you on a journey that will forever change the way you look at Chinese characters. Join the revolution!

American newspapers have faced competition from new media for over ninety years. Today digital media challenge the printed word. In the 1920s, broadcast radio was the threatening upstart. At the time, newspaper publishers of all sizes turned threat into opportunity by establishing their own stations. Many, such as the Chicago Tribune's WGN, are still in operation. By 1940 newspapers owned 30 percent of America's radio stations. This new type of enterprise, the multimedia corporation, troubled those who feared its power to control the flow of news and information. In Sound Business, historian Michael Stamm traces how these corporations and their critics reshaped the ways Americans received the news. Stamm is attuned to a neglected aspect of U.S. media history: the role newspaper owners played in communications from the dawn of radio to the rise of television. Drawing on a wide array of primary sources, he recounts the controversies surrounding joint newspaper and radio operations. These companies capitalized on synergies between print and broadcast production. As their advertising revenue grew, so did concern over their concentrated influence. Federal policymakers, especially during the New Deal, responded to widespread concerns about the consequences of media consolidation by seeking to limit and even ban cross ownership. The debates between corporations, policymakers, and critics over how to regulate these new kinds of media businesses ultimately structured the channels of information distribution in the United States and determined who would control the institutions undergirding American society and politics. Sound Business is a timely examination of the connections between media ownership, content, and distribution, one that both expands our understanding of mid-twentieth-century America and offers lessons for the digital age.

Companies really need to think about their principles. They need to do this for themselves, as opposed to simply reproducing existing codes, simply taking principles off the proverbial shelf and applying these to their structures. There are a number of ways to do this. One is through open dialogue. You can also collaborate with all relevant stakeholders, ensuring that you come up with the best possible principles that can move your business forward. Whatever way you choose to approach this, know that the development of sound business principles is as important, if not more so, that even your business plan! These principles can also take on a number of forms. They can be high-level statements of principle, laying out for your company the roadmap to its advancement. Business principles can also be statements of policy, indicating how you intend to do business, more than what you intend to do with your business. Still, some of these are a combination of separate documents, ones that indicate policy, systems of management, implementation as well as monitoring procedures for your business!

Including many simple exercises, interviews with experts, and potent, transformational concepts, this book is a practical guide to improving the vital personal communication skills of speaking and listening. --

The fascinating and diverse descriptions contained in this text begin the process of developing indigenous understandings of music therapy in group work and alert the reader to issues for future exploration. A fascinating text, describing a range of clients - I highly recommend it.' - Nordic Journal of Music Therapy Group music therapy has been widely practised for many years, especially within institutional settings, and features substantially in training, yet there has been no publication devoted to the discussion of this area of therapy. Music Therapy and Group Work fills this gap by bringing together the experiences of group music therapy practitioners who work with diverse client groups in various settings. Whilst acknowledging that the practice of group music therapy incorporates many theoretical and practical issues in common with those of mainstream group work, the editors emphasize that this field needs to develop some further theoretical discourse of its own, primarily because its main contrast from regular group work is that it draws on a non-verbal medium alongside the ordinary verbal exchange. The book combines clinical examples with theory to provide a comprehensive introduction to group music therapy. Practitioners not only of music therapy, but also those working in related disciplines, will find this to be an informative and stimulating read.

How to decide when to say "yes" to a credit applicant-without jeopardizing your reputation or your company's bottom line Deciding whether a credit applicant is ultimately creditworthy involves more than just poring over their financial statements-it takes the kind of advice only an experienced credit expert, like Hal Schaeffer, can give. A 28-year veteran of the credit screening process, Schaeffer outlines the nuts-and-bolts of assessing a credit applicant's financial health and ability to make good on a line of credit. In part one's clear, four-part "A, B, C, D" format (A is for Analysis, B is for Building Essential Business Credit Information, C is for Considering All Factors,and D is for Decision), the author examines a prospective borrower from every angle, using formulas, checklists of what to look for, and available outside information sources (from Dun & Bradstreet to the Internet) to get a genuine picture of an applicant's current finances and degree of credit risk. Also outlined are the financial, credit, and business factors that go into a "sound business credit decision" a guideline for consolidating facts to vindicate your decision, as well as a series of twelve chapter-length case studies (contained in part two). Discussion includes: * Determining the cost and accuracy of financial information * Isolating information gaps in financial records * The actual costs (including total/partial loss of sale, insurance fees) and value (including future sales to the customer) to your company if credit is extended * The exact nature of the sale-large (or small); one-time deal or continuous; the expected profit margin * The controls your company has over the customer Complete with twelve chapter-length real-world case studies of problems typically encountered (with detailed solutions), Credit Risk Management offers practical, no-nonsense advice on how to minimize the risks-and maximize the benefits-to you and your company when you finally say "yes" to an applicant.