Author: John Kay
Publisher: Profile Books
ISBN: 1847651852
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 225
Book Description
If you want to go in one direction, the best route may involve going in another. This is the concept of 'obliquity': paradoxical as it sounds, many goals are more likely to be achieved when pursued indirectly. The richest men and women are not the most materialistic; the happiest people are not necessarily those who focus on happiness, and the most profitable companies are not always the most profit-oriented as the recent financial crisis showed us. Whether overcoming geographical obstacles, winning decisive battles or meeting sales targets, history shows that oblique approaches are the most successful, especially in difficult terrain. John Kay applies his provocative, universal theory to everything from international business to town planning and from football to managing forest fire.
Obliquity
Author: John Kay
Publisher: Profile Books
ISBN: 1847651852
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 225
Book Description
If you want to go in one direction, the best route may involve going in another. This is the concept of 'obliquity': paradoxical as it sounds, many goals are more likely to be achieved when pursued indirectly. The richest men and women are not the most materialistic; the happiest people are not necessarily those who focus on happiness, and the most profitable companies are not always the most profit-oriented as the recent financial crisis showed us. Whether overcoming geographical obstacles, winning decisive battles or meeting sales targets, history shows that oblique approaches are the most successful, especially in difficult terrain. John Kay applies his provocative, universal theory to everything from international business to town planning and from football to managing forest fire.
Publisher: Profile Books
ISBN: 1847651852
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 225
Book Description
If you want to go in one direction, the best route may involve going in another. This is the concept of 'obliquity': paradoxical as it sounds, many goals are more likely to be achieved when pursued indirectly. The richest men and women are not the most materialistic; the happiest people are not necessarily those who focus on happiness, and the most profitable companies are not always the most profit-oriented as the recent financial crisis showed us. Whether overcoming geographical obstacles, winning decisive battles or meeting sales targets, history shows that oblique approaches are the most successful, especially in difficult terrain. John Kay applies his provocative, universal theory to everything from international business to town planning and from football to managing forest fire.
The Logic of Life
Author: Tim Harford
Publisher: Anchor Canada
ISBN: 0307371883
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 240
Book Description
In The Logic of Life, bestselling author Tim Harford quite simply makes sense of this world. Life often seems to defy logic. The receptionist is clearly smarter than the boss who earns fifty times her salary. Arbitrary lines starkly divide the desirable districts of the city from the dangerous ones. Voters flock to the polling booths to elect candidates who’ll rip them off to favour special interests. None of it makes logical sense — or does it? Economist and acclaimed author Tim Harford thinks it does. By weaving stories from locations as diverse as a Vegas casino to a barroom speed date, Harford aims to persuade you that people are, in fact, surprisingly logical. When a street prostitute agrees to unprotected sex, or a teenage criminal embarks on a burglary — perhaps especially when a racist employer disregards a black job applicant — we would seem to be a million miles from rational behaviour. Harford shows that, discomfitingly, we are not. It turns out that the unlikeliest of people are complying with the logic of economics and responding to future costs and benefits, often without realizing it; and socially tragic outcomes can have their roots in individually rational decisions. Brilliantly reasoned, always entertaining and often provocative, The Logic of Life is a book to help you understand yourself and the world around you.
Publisher: Anchor Canada
ISBN: 0307371883
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 240
Book Description
In The Logic of Life, bestselling author Tim Harford quite simply makes sense of this world. Life often seems to defy logic. The receptionist is clearly smarter than the boss who earns fifty times her salary. Arbitrary lines starkly divide the desirable districts of the city from the dangerous ones. Voters flock to the polling booths to elect candidates who’ll rip them off to favour special interests. None of it makes logical sense — or does it? Economist and acclaimed author Tim Harford thinks it does. By weaving stories from locations as diverse as a Vegas casino to a barroom speed date, Harford aims to persuade you that people are, in fact, surprisingly logical. When a street prostitute agrees to unprotected sex, or a teenage criminal embarks on a burglary — perhaps especially when a racist employer disregards a black job applicant — we would seem to be a million miles from rational behaviour. Harford shows that, discomfitingly, we are not. It turns out that the unlikeliest of people are complying with the logic of economics and responding to future costs and benefits, often without realizing it; and socially tragic outcomes can have their roots in individually rational decisions. Brilliantly reasoned, always entertaining and often provocative, The Logic of Life is a book to help you understand yourself and the world around you.
Orbital Forcing and Cyclic Sequences
Author: P. L. DeBoer
Publisher: John Wiley & Sons
ISBN: 1444304046
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 583
Book Description
Classically orbital cycles have been recognized in pelagic and lacustrine sequences characterized by quiet sedimentation, not disturbed by tectonics. Hoiwever, there is now increasing recognition that orbital cycles do influence climate and oceanography in general terms. There is also increasing acceptance of the possibility at least that the effect should be felt over large parts of the Earth's surface and that orbital cycles may well leave signs in other sedimentary environments that are commonly considered to be dominated by tectonics and eustasy. Containing thirty-one papers from a symposium held at the International Sedimentological Congress in Nottingham in 1990, this volume spans a range of topics from the astronomical theory behind orbital forcing, to field studies dealing with a broad range of sedimentary environments, and to modelling and simulation. State-of-the-art research papers. International expert authorship. The latest research in the highly topical subject of orbital forcing.
Publisher: John Wiley & Sons
ISBN: 1444304046
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 583
Book Description
Classically orbital cycles have been recognized in pelagic and lacustrine sequences characterized by quiet sedimentation, not disturbed by tectonics. Hoiwever, there is now increasing recognition that orbital cycles do influence climate and oceanography in general terms. There is also increasing acceptance of the possibility at least that the effect should be felt over large parts of the Earth's surface and that orbital cycles may well leave signs in other sedimentary environments that are commonly considered to be dominated by tectonics and eustasy. Containing thirty-one papers from a symposium held at the International Sedimentological Congress in Nottingham in 1990, this volume spans a range of topics from the astronomical theory behind orbital forcing, to field studies dealing with a broad range of sedimentary environments, and to modelling and simulation. State-of-the-art research papers. International expert authorship. The latest research in the highly topical subject of orbital forcing.
Other People's Money
Author: John Kay
Publisher: PublicAffairs
ISBN: 1610396049
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 296
Book Description
The finance sector of Western economies is too large and attracts too many of the smartest college graduates. Financialization over the past three decades has created a structure that lacks resilience and supports absurd volumes of trading. The finance sector devotes too little attention to the search for new investment opportunities and the stewardship of existing ones, and far too much to secondary-market dealing in existing assets. Regulation has contributed more to the problems than the solutions. Why? What is finance for? John Kay, with wide practical and academic experience in the world of finance, understands the operation of the financial sector better than most. He believes in good banks and effective asset managers, but good banks and effective asset managers are not what he sees. In a dazzling and revelatory tour of the financial world as it has emerged from the wreckage of the 2008 crisis, Kay does not flinch in his criticism: we do need some of the things that Citigroup and Goldman Sachs do, but we do not need Citigroup and Goldman to do them. And many of the things done by Citigroup and Goldman do not need to be done at all. The finance sector needs to be reminded of its primary purpose: to manage other people's money for the benefit of businesses and households. It is an aberration when the some of the finest mathematical and scientific minds are tasked with devising algorithms for the sole purpose of exploiting the weakness of other algorithms for computerized trading in securities. To travel further down that road leads to ruin. A Financial Times Book of the Year, 2015 An Economist Best Book of the Year, 2015 A Bloomberg Best Book of the Year, 2015
Publisher: PublicAffairs
ISBN: 1610396049
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 296
Book Description
The finance sector of Western economies is too large and attracts too many of the smartest college graduates. Financialization over the past three decades has created a structure that lacks resilience and supports absurd volumes of trading. The finance sector devotes too little attention to the search for new investment opportunities and the stewardship of existing ones, and far too much to secondary-market dealing in existing assets. Regulation has contributed more to the problems than the solutions. Why? What is finance for? John Kay, with wide practical and academic experience in the world of finance, understands the operation of the financial sector better than most. He believes in good banks and effective asset managers, but good banks and effective asset managers are not what he sees. In a dazzling and revelatory tour of the financial world as it has emerged from the wreckage of the 2008 crisis, Kay does not flinch in his criticism: we do need some of the things that Citigroup and Goldman Sachs do, but we do not need Citigroup and Goldman to do them. And many of the things done by Citigroup and Goldman do not need to be done at all. The finance sector needs to be reminded of its primary purpose: to manage other people's money for the benefit of businesses and households. It is an aberration when the some of the finest mathematical and scientific minds are tasked with devising algorithms for the sole purpose of exploiting the weakness of other algorithms for computerized trading in securities. To travel further down that road leads to ruin. A Financial Times Book of the Year, 2015 An Economist Best Book of the Year, 2015 A Bloomberg Best Book of the Year, 2015
Precession, Nutation and Wobble of the Earth
Author: V. Dehant
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 110709254X
Category : Nature
Languages : en
Pages : 553
Book Description
This book describes how changes in the Earth's orientation are observed and computed in terms of tidal forcing and models of the Earth's interior.
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 110709254X
Category : Nature
Languages : en
Pages : 553
Book Description
This book describes how changes in the Earth's orientation are observed and computed in terms of tidal forcing and models of the Earth's interior.
Spinal Disorders
Author: Norbert Boos
Publisher: Springer Science & Business Media
ISBN: 3540690913
Category : Medical
Languages : en
Pages : 1162
Book Description
Spinal disorders are among the most common medical conditions with significant impact on health related quality of life, use of health care resources and socio-economic costs. This is an easily readable teaching tool focusing on fundamentals and basic principles and provides a homogeneous syllabus with a consistent didactic strategy. The chosen didactic concept highlights and repeats core messages throughout the chapters. This textbook, with its appealing layout, will inspire and stimulate the reader for the study of spinal disorders.
Publisher: Springer Science & Business Media
ISBN: 3540690913
Category : Medical
Languages : en
Pages : 1162
Book Description
Spinal disorders are among the most common medical conditions with significant impact on health related quality of life, use of health care resources and socio-economic costs. This is an easily readable teaching tool focusing on fundamentals and basic principles and provides a homogeneous syllabus with a consistent didactic strategy. The chosen didactic concept highlights and repeats core messages throughout the chapters. This textbook, with its appealing layout, will inspire and stimulate the reader for the study of spinal disorders.
Western North Atlantic Palaeogene and Cretaceous Palaeoceanography
Author: Geological Society of London
Publisher: Geological Society of London
ISBN: 9781862390782
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 332
Book Description
Palaeogene and Cretaceous palaeoceanography has been the focus of intense international interest in the last few years, spurred by deep ocean drilling at Blake Nose in the North Atlantic as well as the need to use past climate change as input for modelling future climate change. This book brings together a number of review papers that describe ancient oceans and unique events in the Earth's climatic history and evolution of biota. The papers show evidence of periods characterized by exceptional global warmth such as the Late Palaeocene Thermal Maximum and Cretaceous anoxic events. Geochemical records and modelling will make the reader aware that these periods were forced by greenhouse gases.
Publisher: Geological Society of London
ISBN: 9781862390782
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 332
Book Description
Palaeogene and Cretaceous palaeoceanography has been the focus of intense international interest in the last few years, spurred by deep ocean drilling at Blake Nose in the North Atlantic as well as the need to use past climate change as input for modelling future climate change. This book brings together a number of review papers that describe ancient oceans and unique events in the Earth's climatic history and evolution of biota. The papers show evidence of periods characterized by exceptional global warmth such as the Late Palaeocene Thermal Maximum and Cretaceous anoxic events. Geochemical records and modelling will make the reader aware that these periods were forced by greenhouse gases.
Censorship and Conflict in Seventeenth-Century England
Author: Randy Robertson
Publisher: Penn State Press
ISBN: 0271036559
Category : Literary Criticism
Languages : en
Pages : 290
Book Description
Censorship profoundly affected early modern writing. Censorship and Conflict in Seventeenth-Century England offers a detailed picture of early modern censorship and investigates the pressures that censorship exerted on seventeenth-century authors, printers, and publishers. In the 1600s, Britain witnessed a civil war, the judicial execution of a king, the restoration of his son, and an unremitting struggle among crown, parliament, and people for sovereignty and the right to define “liberty and property.” This battle, sometimes subtle, sometimes bloody, entailed a struggle for the control of language and representation. Robertson offers a richly detailed study of this “censorship contest” and of the craft that writers employed to outflank the licensers. He argues that for most parties, victory, not diplomacy or consensus, was the ultimate goal. This book differs from most recent works in analyzing both the mechanics of early modern censorship and the poetics that the licensing system produced—the forms and pressures of self-censorship. Among the issues that Robertson addresses in this book are the workings of the licensing machinery, the designs of art and obliquity under a regime of censorship, and the involutions of authorship attendant on anonymity.
Publisher: Penn State Press
ISBN: 0271036559
Category : Literary Criticism
Languages : en
Pages : 290
Book Description
Censorship profoundly affected early modern writing. Censorship and Conflict in Seventeenth-Century England offers a detailed picture of early modern censorship and investigates the pressures that censorship exerted on seventeenth-century authors, printers, and publishers. In the 1600s, Britain witnessed a civil war, the judicial execution of a king, the restoration of his son, and an unremitting struggle among crown, parliament, and people for sovereignty and the right to define “liberty and property.” This battle, sometimes subtle, sometimes bloody, entailed a struggle for the control of language and representation. Robertson offers a richly detailed study of this “censorship contest” and of the craft that writers employed to outflank the licensers. He argues that for most parties, victory, not diplomacy or consensus, was the ultimate goal. This book differs from most recent works in analyzing both the mechanics of early modern censorship and the poetics that the licensing system produced—the forms and pressures of self-censorship. Among the issues that Robertson addresses in this book are the workings of the licensing machinery, the designs of art and obliquity under a regime of censorship, and the involutions of authorship attendant on anonymity.
Platform Business Models
Author: R. Srinivasan
Publisher: Springer Nature
ISBN: 9811628386
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 352
Book Description
This book introduces platform firms as unique business models. Leveraging on the early literature on network economics and strategy frameworks, this book explores how platform business firms evolve in the modern business world. Taking a strategic perspective, this book engages the reader with core concepts, case studies, and frameworks for analyzing platform business firms. This book differentiates platform business firms from traditional pipeline firms; explores engagement with different actors, value creation, and operations of platforms; elucidates resources and capabilities of platform firms that provide them sustained competitive advantage; analyzes performance levers in operating platform business models, including complementarities with other business models; and discusses the sustainability of platform business models, in the face of regulatory and societal challenges, among others. The book is designed as a primer for entrepreneurs setting up and operating platform business firms, senior managers in large corporations repurposing their resources to initiate network dynamics in their businesses, early career managers, and professionals engaging with myriad platform firms for their professional and personal needs. This book intends to provide a decision-maker with a portfolio of decisions to make to create, operate, sustain, and generate value out of a platform business firm. It is also useful for policy professionals to appreciate the economics and policy implications of regulating and governing platforms in a post-digital world.
Publisher: Springer Nature
ISBN: 9811628386
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 352
Book Description
This book introduces platform firms as unique business models. Leveraging on the early literature on network economics and strategy frameworks, this book explores how platform business firms evolve in the modern business world. Taking a strategic perspective, this book engages the reader with core concepts, case studies, and frameworks for analyzing platform business firms. This book differentiates platform business firms from traditional pipeline firms; explores engagement with different actors, value creation, and operations of platforms; elucidates resources and capabilities of platform firms that provide them sustained competitive advantage; analyzes performance levers in operating platform business models, including complementarities with other business models; and discusses the sustainability of platform business models, in the face of regulatory and societal challenges, among others. The book is designed as a primer for entrepreneurs setting up and operating platform business firms, senior managers in large corporations repurposing their resources to initiate network dynamics in their businesses, early career managers, and professionals engaging with myriad platform firms for their professional and personal needs. This book intends to provide a decision-maker with a portfolio of decisions to make to create, operate, sustain, and generate value out of a platform business firm. It is also useful for policy professionals to appreciate the economics and policy implications of regulating and governing platforms in a post-digital world.
Energy of Delusion
Author: Виктор Шкловский
Publisher: Dalkey Archive Press
ISBN: 1564784266
Category : Literary Criticism
Languages : en
Pages : 450
Book Description
"Perhaps because he is such an unlikely Tolstoyan, Viktor Shklovsky's writing on Tolstoy is always absorbing and often brilliant." Russian Review
Publisher: Dalkey Archive Press
ISBN: 1564784266
Category : Literary Criticism
Languages : en
Pages : 450
Book Description
"Perhaps because he is such an unlikely Tolstoyan, Viktor Shklovsky's writing on Tolstoy is always absorbing and often brilliant." Russian Review