Businesses often embark on initiatives that require huge investments and projects with prolonged time frames. If not closely grounded to reality and integrated with dynamic changes consistently shifting the marketplace, where customer and end consumer of the product or service is at the center stage of it all, unexpected surprises and disruptions can render those initiatives worthless or outdated. A perception-driven view to keep on increasing production in view of past forecasts may leave a photographic paper manufacturer stuck with tons of inventory with no demand, as the digital image innovation sneaks in as a disruptor. A taxicab fleet operator planning aggressive operations may face huge losses after investing in licenses, vehicles, and drivers, as Uber and Lyft capture the market. Concrete and mortar stores, grocery and retail outlets, banks, and restaurants can be upset by new players offering online services and delivery at lower costs as they operate with no overhead costs. An online-only bank can afford to offer higher interest rates. An AirBnB model capitalizes on available housing capacity surplus to offer affordable accommodations. Creativity in thought and implementation will keep rewriting business models to make everything better while eliminating redundancy. Though business leaders start off with a diligently worked-out and well-defined strategy, as disruptions hit or unexpected happens, they need to balance the current situation and keep on rebalancing throughout the course of execution. Detaching emotions to take a view of the practicality and changing customer preferences, the balancing act at every stage is the key to success and growth. This book lays down a practical, easy-to-follow framework to balance and rebalance the strategy, redefine actions to achieve positive results by leveraging factual data, enabling redesign for disruption, growth, and toward an emerging collaboration business model. Interactive workshops to engage in solving real business problems following the approach outlined in this book are available.

This book provides a unique synthesis of concepts and tools to examine natural resource, socio-economic, legal, policy and institutional issues that are important for managing urban growth into the future. The book will particularly help the reader to understand the current issues and challenges and develop strategies and practices to cope with future pressures of urbanisation and peri-urban land, water and energy use challenges. In particular, the book will help the reader to discover underlying principles for the planning of future cities and peri-urban regions in relation to: (i) Balanced urban development policies and institutions for future cities; (ii) Understanding the effects of land use change, population increase, and water demand on the liveability of cities; (iii) Long-term planning needs and transdisciplinary approaches to ensure the secured future for generations ahead; and (iv) Strategies to adapt the cities and land, water and energy uses for viable and liveable cities. There are growing concerns about water, food security and sustainability with increased urbanisation worldwide. For cities to be liveable and sustainable into the future there is a need to maintain the natural resource base and the ecosystem services in the peri-urban areas surrounding cities. This need is increasing under the looming spectre of global warming and climate change. This book will be of interest to policy makers, urban planners, researchers, post-graduate students in urban planning, environmental and water resources management, and managers in municipal councils.

A practical, easy-to-understand guide to Balanced Scorecard for busy business leaders The Balanced Scorecard method is an analysis technique designed to translate an organization's mission and vision statement and overall business strategies into specific, quantifiable goals, and to monitor the organization's performance in achieving these goals. Much less technology driven then other analysis approaches, it analyzes an organization's overall performance in four regards: financial analysis, customer service, productivity and internal analysis, and employee growth and satisfaction. Balanced Scorecard Strategy For Dummies breaks down the basics of Balanced Scorecard in simple language with practical, Dummies-style guidance on getting it done. This book covers all the basics of Balanced Scorecard for busy executives and managers-and does it without the high price tag of most professional level Balanced Scorecard guides.

Do you want to captivate your audience and deliver messages that inspire action? In "Mastering the Art of Persuasion," author Rae A. Stonehouse provides proven strategies to help you become a master of influential communication. In today's world of information overload, being able to persuade effectively is a crucial skill. This book will equip you with the tools to craft compelling speeches and presentations that move your audience - both intellectually and emotionally. You'll learn how to structure persuasive messages by establishing credibility, leveraging emotional appeals, and presenting logical arguments. Specific tactics are provided for evoking desired emotions in your audience, such as desire, excitement, and concern. You'll also gain insights into the psychology behind persuasion and how to ethically apply psychological principles like reciprocity and social proof. Among the powerful techniques you'll master: Using vivid storytelling and descriptive language to captivate your audience Leveraging emotions like excitement, hope, and fear to make your message resonate Employing psychological principles like reciprocity and social proof Understanding how ethos, pathos, and logos combine for maximum impact Effectively utilizing data, statistics, and examples Building trust and credibility through transparent communication Delivering ethical presentations that inspire while respecting your audience Whether you're crafting a speech, presentation, sales pitch, or other persuasive message, this book will give you powerful tools to truly captivate your audience. Through step-by-step strategies and real examples, you'll learn how to combine logic, emotion, and credibility for a lasting impact. Equal parts inspiring and practical, "Mastering the Art of Persuasion" will revolutionize how you communicate. Its ethical techniques will help you influence and motivate others, ultimately making you a more confident, respected, and effective speaker, in any situation.

Published each year since 1959, The Military Balance is an indispensable reference to the capabilities of armed forces across the globe. It is used by academia, the media, armed forces, the private sector and government. It is an open-source assessment of the military forces and equipment inventories of 171 countries, with accompanying defence economics and procurement data. Alongside detailed country data, The Military Balance assesses important defence issues, by region, as well as key global trends, such as in defence technology and equipment modernisation. This analysis is accompanied by full-colour graphics, including maps and illustrations. With extensive explanatory notes and reference information, The Military Balance is as straightforward to use as it is extensive. The 2022 edition is accompanied by a fullcolour wall chart illustrating security dynamics in the Arctic.

Blockchain: A Hype or a Hoax? fills a gap in the book market to provide material that is not only technical but also caters to business readers. This book was written to keep in mind various stakeholders and the current gap in blockchain education as well as use case implementation. This book reviews blockchain technology, discusses why proof of concept fails, offers examples of use cases that have been successful and that have failed and articulates a framework that should be used before deciding whether blockchain is the right technology for transformation. It uses strategic models and frameworks to assist organisations to see a fit score for their specific use cases. This book provides guidance on how to create a blockchain strategy and a business case to pitch for the budget. It also includes a case study to apply the knowledge on practical use cases for blockchain and a technical overview of most of the blockchain use cases in the market including crypto, non-fungible tokens, decentralised finance, and decentralised autonomous organisations, as well as financial and non-financial industry use cases. This book also provides a detailed overview of most of the mainstream blockchain products currently available in the market. It also offers guidance on how readers can best educate themselves on blockchain technology that is available through commercial and free resources. It concludes with a clear direction on selecting blockchain to solve real-life use cases that are best fit. A financial and non-financial value-adding framework is discussed throughout this book to assist business leaders, programme managers, product managers and information technology leaders to make strategic choices, and business cases and develop strategies for digital transformation through the use of blockchain. The distinctive feature of this book is the critical analysis of blockchain from a technology and business perspective. This is the first book to focus on business, technology and blockchain selection framework. The most unique feature of this book would be to apply Michael Porter’s competitive advantage strategy theory on blockchain use cases and their impact on companies. This book is aimed at technology students, technology professionals, blockchain and fintech consultant and business leaders. It will also be useful for readers who are building a business case to adopt blockchain into an organisation or are seeking to grow their knowledge of blockchain and improve their fintech strategy.

Over the past ten years, there has been growing interest in the process of strategic decision-making among both managers and researchers. Strategic decisions are important for five main reasons: They are large-scale, risky and hard to reverse; they are a bridge between deliberate and emerging strategies; they can be a major source of organizational learning; they play an important part in the development of individual managers and they cut accross functions and academic disciplines. Strategic Decisions summarizes the current state of the art in research on strategic decision-making, with chapters prepared by leading strategy researchers. The editors also present implications for current application and proposed directions for future research.