Books about Spotted from Amazon.com

Once again using an astutely written fictional tale to unambiguously but painlessly deliver some hard truths about critical business procedures, Patrick Lencioni targets group behavior in the final entry of his trilogy of corporate fables. And like those preceding it, The Five Dysfunctions of a Team is an entertaining, quick read filled with useful information that will prove easy to digest and implement. This time, Lencioni weaves his lessons around the story of a troubled Silicon Valley firm and its unexpected choice for a new CEO: an old-school manager who had retired from a traditional manufacturing company two years earlier at age 55. Showing exactly how existing personnel failed to function as a unit, and precisely how the new boss worked to reestablish that essential conduct, the book's first part colorfully illustrates the ways that teamwork can elude even the most dedicated individuals--and be restored by an insightful leader. A second part offers details on Lencioni's "five dysfunctions" (absence of trust, fear of conflict, lack of commitment, avoidance of accountability, and inattention to results), along with a questionnaire for readers to use in evaluating their own teams and specifics to help them understand and overcome these common shortcomings. Like the author's previous books, The Five Temptations of a CEO and Obsessions of an Extraordinary Executive, this is highly recommended. --Howard Rothman.
Price: $12.44 [Notify me when price goes down.]

Effectively managing personnel--as well as one's own behavior--is an extraordinarily complex task that, not surprisingly, has been the subject of countless books touting what each claims is the true path to success That said, Marcus Buckingham and Donald O. Clifton's Now, Discover Your Strengths does indeed propose a unique approach: focusing on enhancing people's strengths rather than eliminating their weaknesses. Following up on the coauthors' popular previous book, First, Break All the Rules, it fully describes 34 positive personality themes the two have formulated (such as Achiever, Developer, Learner, and Maximizer) and explains how to build a "strengths-based organization" by capitalizing on the fact that such traits are already present among those within it.

Most original and potentially most revealing, however, is a Web-based interactive component that allows readers to complete a questionnaire developed by the Gallup Organization and instantly discover their own top-five inborn talents. This device provides a personalized window into the authors' management philosophy which, coupled with subsequent advice, places their suggestions into the kind of practical context that's missing from most similar tomes. "You can't lead a strengths revolution if you don't know how to find, name and develop your own," write Buckingham and Clifton. Their book encourages such introspection while providing knowledgeable guidance for applying its lessons. --Howard Rothman.
Price: $8.88 [Notify me when price goes down.]

In the worldwide bestseller The Innovator's Dilemma, Clayton M. Christensen exposed a crushing paradox behind the failure of many industry leaders. By doing what good companies were supposed to do-focus on pleasing their most profitable customers-leaders were paving the way for their own demise. How? By ignoring "disruptive technologies"-new, cheaper innovations that initially target small customer segments but evolve to displace the reigning product.

Now, Christensen and coauthor Michael E. Raynor cut the Gordian knot of the "innovator's dilemma" with The Innovator's Solution. This groundbreaking book reveals that innovation is not as unpredictable as most managers have come to believe. While the outcomes of past innovations seem random, the process by which innovations are packaged and shaped within companies is very predictable. By understanding and managing the forces that influence this process, companies can shape high-octane business plans that create truly disruptive growth.

Drawing on years of in-depth research and using new theories tested in hundreds of companies across many industries, the authors identify the processes that create successful innovations, and show managers how to tailor their strategies to the changing circumstances of a dynamic world.

Comprehensive yet practical, The Innovator's Solution is an actionable prescription for innovation-driven, profitable growth.

"A good business book makes managers stop and think. A great business book teaches managers how to stop and think. This is a great book. It is hard to imagine an executive team that would not benefit from devoting an entire day to discussing it."

-Geoffrey Moore, Chairman and Founder, TCG Advisors, and author, Crossing the Chasm and Living on the Fault Line

"In The Innovator's Solution, Christensen and Raynor address the holy grail of all organizations: how to generate growth and sustain it over long periods. Avoiding the temptation to provide simplistic formulas, they guide the reader through carefully constructed frameworks that teach how to think about the issues that limit-and provide-growth to organizations."

-Dr. Andrew S. Grove, Chairman of the Board, Intel

"Christensen and Raynor have done a superb job of creating a framework for helping to understand the industry dynamics and for planning your own growth alternatives."

-Pekka Ala-Pietilä, President, Nokia Corporation

"Singapore, as a small nation, needs to be innovative and sensitive to disruptive changes more than other countries. Christensen and Raynor have provided an excellent framework to reduce the randomness of the innovation process. This framework will help in our effort to nurture an environment conducive for enterprises to create and capitalize on disruptive innovations."

-Teo Ming Kian, Chairman, Singapore Economic Development Board

"The Innovator's Solution goes directly to the heart of why large companies have failed to sustain innovation. Christensen and Raynor have a deep insight into the challenges that innovative companies face, and they propose practical, realistic solutions to the dilemmas of innovation. This book will be extremely useful to all managers who are committed to using innovation to sustain their growth."

-Bill George, former Chairman and CEO, Medtronic, Inc.

.
Price: $6.95 [Notify me when price goes down.]

The Pre-Foreclosure Real Estate Handbook explains everything you need to know to locate and purchase real estate bargains from banks, public auctions, and other sources Whether you are a first-time homeowner or an experienced property investor, The Pre-Foreclosure Real Estate Handbook is a tremendous guide for buying pre-foreclosed homes in any market. You will learn the simple formula (developed from real-life experience) that can build massive wealth through real estate foreclosures.

The Federal Reserve Bank indicates"....that foreclosed properties average 22% less than typical properties."

Home foreclosures are at their highest peak in years; you can be one of the thousands earning six-figure incomes in this lucrative segment of the real estate marketplace. You can do this part-time or full-time. Learn how to buy directly from property owners whose mortgage loans are in default and stay away from courthouse-bidding feuds. With the help of this new book, property investing can be a very lucrative line of work. You will learn how to identify the most valuable properties and control every step of the procedure.

We spent thousands of hours interviewing, e-mailing, and communicating with hundreds of today's most successful real estate investors. If you are interested in learning hundreds of hints, tricks, and secrets on how to make money (or more money) investing in real estate foreclosures, then this book is for you!

The Pre-Foreclosure Real Estate Handbook is the resource for novices and pros alike; it will guide you through every step of the process including finding properties, negotiating, and closing on your first deal. This new exhaustively researched book will arm you with hundreds of innovative ideas that you can put to use right away. This book gives you the proven strategies, innovative ideas, and case studies from experts to help you get more with less time and effort..
Price: $14.17 [Notify me when price goes down.]

Thomas L. Friedman is not so much a futurist, which he is sometimes called, as a presentist His aim, in his new book, The World Is Flat, as in his earlier, influential Lexus and the Olive Tree, is not to give you a speculative preview of the wonders that are sure to come in your lifetime, but rather to get you caught up on the wonders that are already here. The world isn't going to be flat, it is flat, which gives Friedman's breathless narrative much of its urgency, and which also saves it from the Epcot-style polyester sheen that futurists--the optimistic ones at least--are inevitably prey to.

What Friedman means by "flat" is "connected": the lowering of trade and political barriers and the exponential technical advances of the digital revolution have made it possible to do business, or almost anything else, instantaneously with billions of other people across the planet. This in itself should not be news to anyone. But the news that Friedman has to deliver is that just when we stopped paying attention to these developments--when the dot-com bust turned interest away from the business and technology pages and when 9/11 and the Iraq War turned all eyes toward the Middle East--is when they actually began to accelerate. Globalization 3.0, as he calls it, is driven not by major corporations or giant trade organizations like the World Bank, but by individuals: desktop freelancers and innovative startups all over the world (but especially in India and China) who can compete--and win--not just for low-wage manufacturing and information labor but, increasingly, for the highest-end research and design work as well. (He doesn't forget the "mutant supply chains" like Al-Qaeda that let the small act big in more destructive ways.) Friedman tells his eye-opening story with the catchy slogans and globe-hopping anecdotes that readers of his earlier books and his New York Times columns will know well, and also with a stern sort of optimism. He wants to tell you how exciting this new world is, but he also wants you to know you're going to be trampled if you don't keep up with it. His book is an excellent place to begin. --Tom Nissley

Where Were You When the World Went Flat?

Thomas L. Friedman's reporter's curiosity and his ability to recognize the patterns behind the most complex global developments have made him one of the most entertaining and authoritative sources for information about the wider world we live in, both as the foreign affairs columnist for the New York Times and as the author of landmark books like From Beirut to Jerusalem and The Lexus and the Olive Tree. They also make him an endlessly fascinating conversation partner, and we'd happily have peppered him with questions about The World Is Flat for hours. Read our interview to learn why there's almost no one from Washington, D.C., listed in the index of a book about the global economy, and what his one-plank platform for president would be. (Hint: his bumper stickers would say, "Can You Hear Me Now?")

The Essential Tom Friedman

From Beirut to Jerusalem

The Lexus and the Olive Tree

Longitudes and Attitudes

More on Globalization and Development

China, Inc. by Ted Fishman	Three Billion New Capitalists by Clyde Prestowitz	The End of Poverty by Jeffrey Sachs
Globalization and Its Discontents by Joseph Stiglitz	The Travels of a T-Shirt in the Global Economy by Pietra Rivoli	The Mystery of Capital by Hernando de Soto

.
Price: $3.49 [Notify me when price goes down.]

A companion to the popular One Yellow Lion and Fuzzy Yellow Ducklings, Matthew Van Fleet's Spotted Yellow Frogs is an engaging fold-out book for babies and preschoolers Each spread introduces a new pattern, 3-D shape, and color. For example, one set of pages has the words "Striped Orange" on the left, and on the right is a striped orange cube entitled "Cube." Fold out the cube, and voilà! A pride of tumbling, striped-orange tigers appears. Young children will love the peek-a-boo approach of the book, but parents and teachers should let kids know that the patterns shown in the book are not necessarily the only patterns one might find in the animal kingdom. For example, beetles are not always "zigzag red" and butterflies aren't always "swirly purple." The book closes with a 36-inch-long, fold-out page featuring all seven shapes. Readers are asked to call out the names of the shapes, colors, and patterns, and to guess which animals hide behind each. The flip side shows a jumble of all the animals, so kids can pick out which animals are matched with the "wrong" pattern. Spotted Yellow Frogs is an excellent learning tool, and a book that children will want to read again and again. (Baby to preschool) --Aimee Damman.
Price: $6.09 [Notify me when price goes down.]

Borden's father, Leon, was a logger in the old-growth forests of California That is, until the spotted-owl lovers interfered One day, frustrated by his father's unemployment, Borden sets out on a mission of revenge against the spotted owl but returns home with a half-starved owlet instead.
The family soon discovers that the owlet, whom Borden names Bardy, loves to take showers and watch late-night TV. Only after the whole family has fallen in love with Bardy do they realize that the conflict between nature and human industry is not so easily resolved.
Award-winning nature writer jean Craighead George tells a heartwarming story about a family and their love affair with a special little owl.

.
Price: $1.48 [Notify me when price goes down.]

Master the Vegas Pro 8 toolset, including its industry-leading HD and audio capabilities This comprehensive guide delivers the nuts and bolts of the essential tasks, from installing the application to outputting, together with practical editing techniques and real-world examples for working more efficiently.

Packed with all the necessary materials, including video footage, sequences, and detailed instructions, this book and DVD combo gives you a working knowledge of Vegas Pro 8. Better expert advice simply cant be found. Key features include:
* Capturing video including HD, HDV, XDCAM, and AVCHD
* Using editing tools, transitions, filters, and third-party plug-ins
* Multicam production and editing
* Color correction, titling and compositing
* Recording and editing audio; using audio plug-ins
* Creating and using Media Manager databases
* Web video workflow
* 24p HDCAM/DVCAM workflow for the independent filmmaker

* Master the art and technique with step-by-step tutorials
* Tips and tricks to improve workflow
* Companion DVD with tutorial files and bonus materials.
Price: $29.99 [Notify me when price goes down.]

Animal lovers, relax--"Spotted Dog" is a kind of pudding, not a dalmatian. It is also the favorite pudding of Jack Aubrey, the fictional creation of writer Patrick O'Brian. Aubrey's adventures as an officer of the British Navy--and those of his friend and ship's surgeon Stephen Maturin--during the tumultuous years of the Napoleonic Wars have been masterfully detailed in O'Brian's many novels; now Anne Chotzinoff Grossman and her daughter, Lisa Grossman, take readers on a culinary adventure through the kitchens and cuisine of the early 19th century.

Since food figures prominently in O'Brian's novels, his fans will already be familiar with such names as Skillygalee, Drowned Baby, Soused Hog's Face, and Jam Roly-Poly, but they may wonder exactly what those dishes are. Lobscouse and Spotted Dog makes it all clear: Skillygalee, for example, is oatmeal gruel, while Drowned Baby is similar to Spotted Dog, only without the currants and eggs. And Spotted Dog is...? You'll find the recipe in the Grossmans' book, along with excerpts from the Aubrey/Maturin novels and many other authentic 19th-century dishes to test your sense of adventure, your culinary prowess, and possibly your waistline. Lobscouse and Spotted Dog is more than a cookbook--it's a window into the past, an inspired piece of culinary detective work, and a delightful gastronomic companion to the novels of Patrick O'Brian..
Price: $11.30 [Notify me when price goes down.]