Finding ways to reduce costs is difficult but the latest books from MC2 Books, Designing a Document Strategy by Kevin Craine has the cure. This book tells managers how to better manage the process that consumes paper, toner, and manpower in every business environment. In support of the book, Craine has unveiled a support website, www.document-strategy.com, offering a preview of the coverage. While there are many books on business strategy and workflow, few tackle the lifeblood of business, the document. Designing a Document Strategy targets managers, technicians and consultants who see the benefit and cost savings inherent in implementing a document strategy. The clearly defined five-phase process can be tailored to any environment. It includes Cause-effect diagrams, flow charts, and ROI formulas that can be copied and put into use. Case examples demonstrate application of the theories in the real world, leading to meaningful and informed action. Regardless of their final recommendations, readers will be more likely to bring about real-world, bottom-line benefits. There is no better educational resource on designing a document strategy than this book. Book reviewers in the document industry give it rave reviews.

Good Strategy/Bad Strategy clarifies the muddled thinking underlying too many strategies and provides a clear way to create and implement a powerful action-oriented strategy for the real world. Developing and implementing a strategy is the central task of a leader. A good strategy is a specific and coherent response to—and approach for—overcoming the obstacles to progress. A good strategy works by harnessing and applying power where it will have the greatest effect. Yet, Rumelt shows that there has been a growing and unfortunate tendency to equate Mom-and-apple-pie values, fluffy packages of buzzwords, motivational slogans, and financial goals with “strategy.” In Good Strategy/Bad Strategy, he debunks these elements of “bad strategy” and awakens an understanding of the power of a “good strategy.” He introduces nine sources of power—ranging from using leverage to effectively focusing on growth—that are eye-opening yet pragmatic tools that can easily be put to work on Monday morning, and uses fascinating examples from business, nonprofit, and military affairs to bring its original and pragmatic ideas to life. The detailed examples range from Apple to General Motors, from the two Iraq wars to Afghanistan, from a small local market to Wal-Mart, from Nvidia to Silicon Graphics, from the Getty Trust to the Los Angeles Unified School District, from Cisco Systems to Paccar, and from Global Crossing to the 2007–08 financial crisis. Reflecting an astonishing grasp and integration of economics, finance, technology, history, and the brilliance and foibles of the human character, Good Strategy/Bad Strategy stems from Rumelt’s decades of digging beyond the superficial to address hard questions with honesty and integrity.

Analysis and design methods for document exchanges that combine and interconnect business processes and services on the Internet.

Finding ways to reduce costs is difficult but the latest books from MC2 Books, Designing a Document Strategy by Kevin Craine has the cure. This book tells managers how to better manage the process that consumes paper, toner, and manpower in every business environment. In support of the book, Craine has unveiled a support website, www.document-strategy.com, offering a preview of the coverage. While there are many books on business strategy and workflow, few tackle the lifeblood of business, the document. Designing a Document Strategy targets managers, technicians and consultants who see the benefit and cost savings inherent in implementing a document strategy. The clearly defined five-phase process can be tailored to any environment. It includes Cause-effect diagrams, flow charts, and ROI formulas that can be copied and put into use. Case examples demonstrate application of the theories in the real world, leading to meaningful and informed action. Regardless of their final recommendations, readers will be more likely to bring about real-world, bottom-line benefits. There is no better educational resource on designing a document strategy than this book. Book reviewers in the document industry give it rave reviews.

What is understanding and how does it differ from knowledge? How can we determine the big ideas worth understanding? Why is understanding an important teaching goal, and how do we know when students have attained it? How can we create a rigorous and engaging curriculum that focuses on understanding and leads to improved student performance in today's high-stakes, standards-based environment? Authors Grant Wiggins and Jay McTighe answer these and many other questions in this second edition of Understanding by Design. Drawing on feedback from thousands of educators around the world who have used the UbD framework since its introduction in 1998, the authors have greatly revised and expanded their original work to guide educators across the K-16 spectrum in the design of curriculum, assessment, and instruction. With an improved UbD Template at its core, the book explains the rationale of backward design and explores in greater depth the meaning of such key ideas as essential questions and transfer tasks. Readers will learn why the familiar coverage- and activity-based approaches to curriculum design fall short, and how a focus on the six facets of understanding can enrich student learning. With an expanded array of practical strategies, tools, and examples from all subject areas, the book demonstrates how the research-based principles of Understanding by Design apply to district frameworks as well as to individual units of curriculum. Combining provocative ideas, thoughtful analysis, and tested approaches, this new edition of Understanding by Design offers teacher-designers a clear path to the creation of curriculum that ensures better learning and a more stimulating experience for students and teachers alike.

How to close the gap between strategy and execution Two-thirds of executives say their organizations don’t have the capabilities to support their strategy. In Strategy That Works, Paul Leinwand and Cesare Mainardi explain why. They identify conventional business practices that unintentionally create a gap between strategy and execution. And they show how some of the best companies in the world consistently leap ahead of their competitors. Based on new research, the authors reveal five practices for connecting strategy and execution used by highly successful enterprises such as IKEA, Natura, Danaher, Haier, and Lego. These companies: • Commit to what they do best instead of chasing multiple opportunities • Build their own unique winning capabilities instead of copying others • Put their culture to work instead of struggling to change it • Invest where it matters instead of going lean across the board • Shape the future instead of reacting to it Packed with tools you can use for building these five practices into your organization and supported by in-depth profiles of companies that are known for making their strategy work, this is your guide for reconnecting strategy to execution.