Twenty years ago the corporation was about command and control, clear lines of reporting and firmly defined functions. All the elements were discrete. Nonetheless it was a "complicated" affair. Authors Michael Lissack and Johan Roos contrast that relatively simple state with the contemporary world where companies are faced with endless multifaceted relationships, strategic alliances, cross functional initiatives and customer networks. These interrelationships and interdependencies mean that the new business landscape is not merely complicated, it is "complex", an intricate interweaving of people, organisations, systems and technologies. This complexity needs a new paradigm to understand and deal with it. And that tool, as the title implies, is "a new commons sense". "The old common sense was an understanding of cause and effect in the complicated world of discrete events. The next common sense is a description of cause and effect in a world of interweavings," they write.

This book aims to provide middle and senior mangers with a tool with which to cut through the Gordian knot of modern business complexity. And in theory at least Lissack and Roos succeed. Coherence, they say, is the key. They describe it as a "unified perspective" or the glue that holds the company together. The authors offer a five-point plan for achieving coherence and list 10 simple principles for management interested in applying the new common sense. And they are indeed very common sensical. The first is "Use simple guiding principles", another "Tell stories", a third "Send out scouting parties".

Lissack is an expert in complexity management who teaches business ethics at the Amsterdam School of Management while Roos is Professor of Strategy and General Management at the International Institute for Management Development in Switzerland. They are a pair of very heavy hitters indeed and this well-written and carefully constructed book reflects their depth of knowledge and intellectual rigour. It's a challenging and rewarding read for any one seriously interested in dealing effectively in a rapidly changing world.

"The old common sense was about dealing with the discrete elements of a 'complicated' world. The next common sense is about mastering the 'complex' swirl of events and situations around us through coherence. The old world was a complicated agglomeration of many discrete items. The new world is a complex one of interdependencies and interrelationships...Our purpose in writing this book is to help you to be like Alexander the Great. When confronted with the legendary knot of tangle rope tied by King Gordius, Alexander knew what to do. Faced with the traditional challenge, he accepted without hesitation: the complexity of the knot did not phase him. He drew his sword and cut the Gordian knot with a single, dramatic stroke, thereby ensuring that he would rule all of Asia. Many before Alexander had tried and failed, thinking that the knot was complicated and needed to be untied. Only Alexander saw that a simple action would move through the complexity to a higher plane. Untying your own Gordian knots requires nothing more than common sense - the next common sense...In this book we present 10 scenic vistas on the corporate landscape. All have elements that derive from complexity science but, more importantly, all relate to management. From each vista, you the reader are encouraged to extract simple guiding principles that make sense to you. Creating your own coherent point of view will be the takeaway from reading this book. We hope you enjoy the view!" (pp.1-16).

In this context, throuhout the book Michael Lissack and Johan Roos discuss these 10 scenic vistas as follows:

1- Use simple guiding principles. They write, "where the old common sense was about dealing with local situations and trying to 'sort things out,' the next common sense is about adopting a global viewpoint, allowing interactions to happen, which in turn will drive coherent actions", and list traditional six bad rules that lead to failure:

(1). Treat business as if it were a war fought on a battlefield.

(2). View the corporation as a machine.

(3). Practice management as control.

(4). Treat your employee as children.

(5). To motivate, use fear.

(6). Remember, change is nothing but pain.(more detailed discussion see Chapter 2).

2- Respect mental models, yours and others'. They write, "the next common sense is about creating an organizational context for coherent actions. To create such a context yuo must help the necessary others, i.e. everyone you interact with, in the process of finding meaning and of creating a coherent point of view. Another label for this process is making sense" (more detailed discussion see Chapter 3).

3- Use landscape metaphors to describe both the environment and processes taking place within it. They write, "landscape images align with today's world - just look at the ascendancy of the landscape motif in numerous book titles, articles, conferences, and media events. Landscapes are part of the next common sense because they provide context we all can relate to. They work much more easily than jargon, and are better descriptors than the game and race metaphors of the old common sense" (more detailed discussion see Chapter 4).

4- Combine and recombine and avoid trying to impress yourself or others with holism. They write, "the beauty of pieces, of building blocks, is that they can be combined and recombined to create new things, new ideas, and new ways of relating and interacting. In a world where wholes are not simply the sum of their parts, it is critical to train ourselves to think about deconstructing and recombining. The philosophers may call this postmodernism-we call it the next common sense" (more detailed discussion see Chapter 5).

5- Recognize your multiple roles, don't hide from them. They write, "we question whether it was ever common sense to insist that the company always comes first, but clearly that has been a norm in big corporations for years. In the next common sense it is critical to allow people to be themselves. Only by acknowledging the many sides of each person can a company hope to obtain maximum benefits from that person over the long run. Most firms recognize this for their CEO - it is time they reconized it for the troops in the trenches" (more detailed discussion see Chapter 6).

6- Create canyons, not canals. They write, "canyons are not about the command-and-control culture of the old common sense - they are about the guiding values of the next common sense. Canyons are an analogy for the guiding viewpoints that managers of interactions need to be effective. Canals are the comparable analogy for the manager of entities who issued commands in an effort to manage outcomes" (more detailed discussion see Chapter 7).

7- Tell stories to allow others the benefit of shared experiences. They write, "stories are about context. The old common sense may have encouraged the use of bullets as a means of avoiding context. The next common sense is about telling stories that are open enough to allow listeners to draw relevant conclusions and authentic enough to convey their context in metaphors" (more detailed discussion see Chapter 8).

8- Send out scouting parties to probe the environment. They write, "the old common sense, which may have justified a closed mind, not-invented-here syndrome, just just does not work in a world of interactions. The next common sense asks what we can learn from the environment. Preparation is the key to attaining advantage" (more detailed discussion see Chapter 9).

9- Post and attend to road signs. They write, "using the next common sense is a matter of recognizing individual contributions and allowing others to leverage them, while combating the tendency of individuals to stake out territory and post 'no trespassing' signs. In a world of interactions, knowledge of opportunities is key to realizing them, and awareness of fences is an awareness of opportunities missed" (more detailed discussion see Chapter 10).

10- Fuel coherence with aligned words. They write, "it was never true that words had only one meaning, but many managers operating from the old common sense sure acted as if they did - the boss's meaning. Reflection on the next common sense reveals an essential truth: the words we use can help to enact the context for our actions. Words that are aligned with values and purpose can assist intended acts; words that are not aligned can act instead to obstruct. Word choice matters" (more detailed discussion see Chapter 11).

On the other hand, Chapter 12 is about creating coherence.As they write, "Chapters 2-11 have given you building blocks for both making sense of things and developing a coherent point of view. Now these building blocks need to be used to construct an action plan. This chapter is about using what you have learned. Five steps are key to realizing the next common sense in any organization".And they describe these steps as follows:

(1). Identify yourself and your goals.

(2). Use the right language.

(3). Create the right context.

(4). Turn people loose and then get out of the way.

(5). Use communication that works.

As argued by them, these five steps are not guarantee of success, but a tool for attaining the skill of a master.

Strongly recommended.

Because of my deep personal interest in using visual thinking tools for opportunity discovery and strategic exploration, I find this book very useful and practical. I particularly like the authors' use of powerful visual metaphors to understand & to master the complexity all around us, and to chart out new strategic directions, whether in business or in life. If you are planning what you want to do with the rest of your life in our constantly changing & uncertain world - or planning the next strategic moves for your company- read this book and use the ideas. The authors' website is also worth exploring.

"Access Denied" is an excellent book for readers that want to understand the big picture of computer security. Network weaknesses, disaster recovery and business security "Best Practices" are among the many subjects introduced in this book. It also contains a great list of additional resources.

Unlike many computer books this is very well written and easy to read. The authors ask readers key questions that will help develop a tailored and effective security program. This book has already found its way into many college courses and anyone interested in security would be well served by reading it.

Keep in mind this is a non-technical introduction to the concepts and core skill areas of computer security and you wont learn how to configure your firewall or hack into a network. You will understand how to prepare and manage a security program very efficiently and that will have a greater impact on the security of you IT assets than a dozen "hacker secrets" books.

This book won me over by making the complex simple and presenting security as it relates to the bottom line. As the authors point out, business people and IT professionals each speak a different language and waste a lot of time (and revenue) debating when they both really want the same thing. This is the best non-technical introduction to security I have read to date. It didn't waste my time comparing vendors and products and it made the complexities of security clear enough for me to grasp the threats facing our organization.
The section on risk assessment is as concise and on target as it gets. Why spend $[PRICE]on a box to "fix" all of your problems if the potential damage might be less than half of that? The best practices at the end of the chapters give a good start for you to develop a security plan and make it work. People have been talking about security as a process for years but unfortunately no one told the management.
Although this isn't a technical manual with step-by-step instructions for every firewall and operating system you can think of (hacking exposed) IT personnel will have their eyes opened and start thinking about a lot of things they may have never worried about. The book even touches on preparing for disasters...
including terrorism

Once in a while a book comes along that fills a gap in the market and this is one of those books. It was an eye opener and I would recommend that anyone in a management position read it. It is the first title that I found that actually approached security from the business side of the issue. The authors explain every security issue you can think of (and some that you would never think of) in non-technical language. There was a lot of food for thought in here. Due to the scope of the subjects covered technical people will have their eyes opened as well, and using this book alone you would be well on your way to writing an implementing a comprehensive security policy. It's all about processes and risk management and it hits the mark.

Validating requirements is a tough job especially for someone like me that is not intimately involved in the project. I'm called in to review requirements for quality. Sure, I can use the checklist that appears in so many requirement type books. This is the FIRST book that talks about looking at all the requirements and checking to see if you have any gaps in knowledge. The way the author categorizes requirements, it is easy to follow and so simple to implement in any size organization for any type of project. I will be able to help the team way before design begins. The cross-checking techniques will save me time and the company money.

This book servers as an excellent source for gaining insight into the field of requirements engineering. Developers, Managers, Requirements Engineers and Testers could all benefit from reading this book. In addition to providing important information about requirements engineering in general, the book presents a requirement pattern framework targeted for e-business and web based applications.

Ms Ferdinandi does an excellent job exploring the unique process of gathering requirements for web-based development projects. When your business partner is operating on "Internet time" it's easy to take shortcuts that can have disastrous consequences later. This book provides a methodology that ensures you can deliver systems quickly while not neglecting important aspects of the requirements gathering and management process. Covers initial project requirements as well as enhancement requirements. Highly recommended.

As the publisher of Web Digest for Marketers and the author of my own best-selling Internet book, I can tell you that there are a lot of poseurs out there, peddling themselves as Internet gurus. Rick Bruner is not one of them. He's an authentic Internet Marketing veteran from whom we have much to learn. I'm certain you will learn much from the second edition of his book. Sincerely, Larry Chase, publisher, Web Digest for Marketers....

There are many titles that deal with the topic of web marketing. Net Results.2 stands head and shoulders above the rest. It addresses the complexities faced by both novice and experienced marketers and provides solid, understandable advice for achieving success at either level. Great case studies help pull the advice into context and give the reader insight into tried and true methodologies that really work. The real beauty of this book, however, is that it provides AFFORDABLE advice for how to garner online success and build traffic. I believe that many of the now failed dot.com startups would still be around today had they heeded the advice available in Net Results.2.

What I thought of the first version still applies... although the description notes that this book is aimed at intermediate and advanced Web marketers, I've found it enormously useful for articulating web marketing concepts to newbies as well. Plain-spoken and sensible. Recommended for any business considering developing a web presence for the first time, or reevaluating current web marketing strategies. This version is even clearer and more extensive. I was initially irritated that I had to go buy the new version because it people kept incessantly "borrowing" it from my office, but in turns it to have been worth it to see the new case studies.

Yudkin's book is by far the best book I've read about low cost effective online marketing. The book does what many others have failed to do -- get you moving into action quickly. Yudkin has been able to capture the important subtilties of the online marketing process. It's not enough to know how to do this stuff, what makes the difference is reaching your potential customers and clients and getting them to respond. "Internet Marketing for Less than $500/Year" really delivers.

Mike Bayer, President - BusinessFor.Com Group

This is an excellent book for those who have sole proprietorships or small businesses. Yudkin clearly explains both marketing strategies and basics about the internet. You do not need to be a computer guru to implement her suggestions. You can read a chapter, then go on-line and follow thru with her strategies. A highly recommended book.

There's a lot of hype about web marketing and I am constantly warning clients not to believe most of it. Yudkin's information is solid. I would encourage anyone to buy this book before setting up a website. The checklist for a website is worth the price alone. Too many people want bells and whistles that increase download time with no upside reward. And, as we'd expect from a PR pro, the tips on dealing with the press are right on.

Most important, Marcia Yudkin is one of the few e-marketers who recognizes the importance of personalty on a website. Too many self-described gurus advise us to list benefits and create a far-out brand. Yet when you're selling coaching or consulting services, people hire a person, not a series of benefits. I am adding a quote from this book to my new writinglady.com website -- few other marketing gurus realizes how important voice can be to making the sale.

Collins has come a long way since the initial release of her "Corporate Portals" book in 2001. While the first book was helpful in introducing the concept of enterprise portals to the reader, this is an excellent work which brings step by step methodologies to organizations that wish to take advantage of their ability to leverage information assets and mold them into a working knowledge system. Not for the faint-hearted... Extensive use of spreadsheets and matrix table presentations throughout the book, but Collins nails this and provides an incredibly valuable methodology with real world scenarios as examples. This one is not sitting on the shelf; it's being used over & over again as a base foundation for creating our organization's "go-to" strategy in constructing our own knowledge management system. Definitely a keeper.

I am an IT Manager responsible for knowledge management initiatives. I have found "Enterprise Knowledge Portals" to be an invaluable and one-of-a-kind reference. The book is a comprehensive reference for developing a portal initiative and the prerequisite elements of a knowledge management program. Two infrastructure layers of particular interest to me are content-based retrieval and related taxonomy-categorization systems, and this book makes these subjects understandable to technician and business user alike. I was also pleased to find Collins' emphasis of a subject that is often ignored in KM initiatives: Usability. Her chapter on support and competency centers provides guidance about usability, the magic ingredient helping assure success in KM projects and one that is often overlooked on technical requirements short lists. I found Collins' description of all these subjects succinct, readable and comprehensive. The book is a must-read for both IT staff and businesspeople assigned to portal and KM projects.

Pragmatic and articulate! Collins embodies a rich understanding of organizational visioning, business architecture and intellectual capital management within her portal framework. Today's gap between knowledge management theory and practical implementation is huge. Collins bridges that gap with Enterprise Knowledge Portals, providing synergy between people, process, technology and content.

This book presents an excellent executive overview of the mobile applications landscape. The strength of the book is the unique perspective of extending "E-business" investments to the "M-business" -- mobile/multichannel -- environment. It presents the business side of mobile - CRM, SCM, Mobile Office and Mobile portals - without getting mired in the alphabet soup of 3G, GPRS, UMTS etc.

Before this book, I did not understand what all the hoopla on mobile commerce was about. I was getting lot of news on a daily basis on developments in the "m" space but it seemed like things were happening haphazardly. It was confusing. This book provided me with an unbelievable clarity. A must read.

I am a newbiew to the whole mobile world. I was intimidated by all the technical jargon that was being thrown around. This book helped cut through the fog and provide a business perspective of "why businesses should care?" and "what apps make sense". I highly recommend this book.

This book is by far more than just a comprehensive collection of facts and figures. The author, having a no fear approach to technology, never looses sight of the business aspects. His understanding of mobility manifests itself not only in the awareness of tools, but rather in his holistic approach to make mobile technology work for you and your enterprise without having to reengineer your business processes.
Hence, anyone who feels the urge to implement mobile solutions in their business should first consult this book... or just spend a few thousand on consultancy. Your choice.

Pat Brans has done a masterful job of taking a complex subject such as mobility and wireless and boiling it down to its most important components. Besides his ability to explain wireless technology in simplistic terms, Brans delivers a compelling guide for business executives grappling with difficult decisions regarding why/when/how should I deploy mobility and what can our company expect to gain from a revenue generation/cost savings/customer satisfaction perpspective? Finally, the best part of this book is the abundant use of practical, real-world examples (such as the business process diagrams in Chapter 10 involving pharmaceutical sales reps) to help the reader clearly understand the benefits of mobility and wireless technology as applied to a business challenge.

This is a very good, very practical book. I found it to be a valuable business tool, showing you how to identify the parts of your business that should be mobilised, and then offering an almost a step by step guide on how to do it. Most importantly, it also tells you how to measure the results.

I highly recommend this to anyone wanting to implement mobile and wireless technologies in their business.

MacPherson's book is packed full of great tips and advice for those of us just starting down the path of permission email marketing. And for the small conclave of experts who have lived the real-world highs and lows of this fast-evolving marketing medium, you'll find it a valuable, credible resource too. So whether you're an ad agency exec looking to WOW a client with your insight, a marketing manager implementing your own email program, or a small business owner searching for a practical guide, this is the book for you. It weaves in just the right amount of charts, tick-lists, best practices and case studies to make it a lively read. You'll find yourself referring back to this book often as you implement your own campaign.

As a principal of a design firm who recently started offering email marketing to our clients I found this book invaluable. I have used it to educate our company and have recommended it to clients and at speaking engagements.

It is a really practical guide and makes it easy for anyone to put a permission-based email marketing campaign together. For the novice it explains the terms of email marketing, for someone more experienced, it helps you calculate costs and your ROI (return on investment). The case studies are informative too.

Kim MacPherson's book on e-mail marketing is a really good read. This book, along with Seth Godin's Permission Marketing are quite similar and both are very easy to read. If you want to learn more about internet marketing I would highly encourage you to read Seth Godin's book Unleashing the IdeaVirus, which deals with viral marketing in businesses and might help create additional marketing opportunities from the e-mail marketing campaigns you learn to set up with Ms. MacPherson's book.

The book is packed with great tips and advice for those of us just starting down the path of permission email marketing. The case histories of good and bad practices alike provide strong insights on communications and etiquette. Most importantly, this book explains the terms of email marketing and, for someone more experienced, it helps you calculate costs and your ROI (return on investment) from the campaign.

All and all I would highly recommend this book as it is a practical guide for professional marketers and aspiring Internet Entrepreneurs. I've seen a lot of email marketing books, and this is the best how-to book. If you combined this book with the underpinnings you can get from reading Seth Godin's Permission Marketing you will have the subject matter down cold.

Greenberg's book features pointed advice regarding the most common CRM topics(SFA, Marketing...). Another chapter I found useful was the chapter detailing the layout of CRM implementations. Although a good read, I have some criticisms: 1. The author is a bit biased to some vendors. 2. Not the best written book. The grammar and structure is not very conducive to "demystifying" CRM. Not a great pleasure to read this book (although quite informative).

Perhaps the best feature of this book is the great CRM business ideas that it features. It gets the reader thinking "maybe I should start a company and use some of these business ideas". Case in point: read the PRM and verticals chapter. Good for people looking to start their own CRM consultancy.

When was the last time you read a business book written by an industry insider, and was so captivated by the book's content that you couldn't put the book down?? Well, author Paul Greenberg treats the reader to such a rare experience.

Whether you're the CEO of a company concerned about customer loyalty/profitability, a project leader charged with selecting and imlementing a CRM initiative, or a consultant within the CRM industry, this book is for you.

The biggest challenge the Business/CRM world faces today is understanding the delineation between CRM as a business strategy, and CRM as an enabling technology. No easy task! But Paul Greenberg clarifies this with incredible ease.

The author also, with zero techno-geek language, provides significant insights into areas of CRM such as: What IS CRM/What is it NOT?,Why your company needs CRM!!, ECRM versus CRM(a topic in the business world that seems to be strewn with much confusion), Who the real CRM players are....and why they are REAL, and What roles the internet and wireless applications are playing today, and in the future, and much, much more.

So if you're looking to become "CRM literate", or want to add to your CRM knowledge base, and want to actually have fun doing it-Paul's book is interspersed with humorous tidbits- GO BUY THIS BOOK!!

As a relatively new consultant in the CRM world its hard to know exactly how CRM fits in its broadest scope. Trying to decipher CRM piece by piece can cause migrains the size of Mount Olympus. Mr. Greenberg's book brings all of the components together and presents them in an easy to understand often times humorous way. If you want to know how the seperate disciplines of CRM interact with one another as well as the existing systems of a company and why this is of benefit to a company, then this book is a must read. Or, if you just want to know what the heck CRM is, who the major players are and where the future of the industry is going, it is an irreplacable tool. I recomend this book to anyone who remotely deals with the CRM industry.