Issue link: https://www.e-digitaleditions.com/i/62210
preconceptions to the workplace, we can find ourselves responding to other people's behavior as if it is inappropriate, when in fact it is just something that makes us uncomfort- able. If we take every opportunity— stressful, tense, or unexpected—as a learning experience, we can grow both as individuals and as employees. Judith Anderson presents these and other theories in The Path to Corporate Nirvana: An Enlightened Approach to Accelerated Productivity. Through examples of work situations she encountered while acting as a consultant, she shows readers proto- typical corporate players such as the smart but control- ling CEO and the top manager whose neck-veins are always popping with anger. As she learns to under- stand her own emotional reactions to them, she begins to help others confront their own fears and preconceptions. Ultimately, what's achieved is free and open communication in the workplace— and a much more productive compa- ny. (Silver Falls Press, $24.95) A successful CEO, argues Jorge A. Vasconcellos e Sá in The Neglected Firm, must be both manager and entrepreneur. He must handle the day-to-day problems and opportuni- ties that exist within his company's current structure, and he must always be looking to the future to determine what changes lie ahead. If he does not do both, simultaneous- ly, his company will fail. "To man- age the future firm within the small breaks that managing the present Participate in AACSB/EBI Stakeholder Assessment Studies Comprehensive, Confidential, Cost Effective surveying of: • Undergraduate business graduating students & alumni • Full-time and part-time MBA graduating students & alumni • Business school faculty Compare results with schools of your choice Build longitudinal comparisons over time Administer paper surveys or use WESS (Web Enabled Survey System format) Enrollment deadlines: For Spring Survey administration enroll- ment is open until early April. Enroll today at www.webebi.com. For other AACSB Knowledge Services products, visit www.aacsb.edu/knowledgeservices Questions? Call Viviana Harper at 417-831-1810 or email vharper@webebi.com. firm allows requires one's mind to jump from concrete, urgent prob- lems, which require immediate action during a small time span, to more abstract, fundamental issues whose analysis requires large amounts of patience and time," he writes. In this book, he offers a step-by-step approach to planning for the future: defining and evaluat- ing the present strategy, creating alternatives and selecting the best ones to implement; then changing critical departments to create new efficiency. Graphs, charts, and case studies help illustrate all points. (Palgrave, $75) If the future of business really will consist of geographically far-flung teams working across time zones to solve problems and create products, George and Keith Van Ness have provided the roadmap for how to succeed. In Being There Without Going There, the authors follow the story of a fictional company that wants to "keep quality and innova- tion high, while taking 20 percent out of the product launch cycle and 12 to 15 percent out of costs in an organization that is already stretched thin. Then integrate four acquisitions over a year without moving them to one of our engineering campuses." The solution is a distributed organi- zation, and the book lays out the keys to managing that workforce. The primary tools are technological, of course—including an Internet meeting manager, Web cams, instant messenger, and telephone headsets. But the book doesn't overlook the human component of the distributed team, and the authors go into detail about how to bring people on board and manage off-site personnel. The book takes a clear, direct, and easy- to-follow approach to understanding how to manage the complex work- force of the future. (Aspatore, $24.95) ■ z BizEd SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 2003 55