Innovation and Entrepreneurship

David A. Aaker

Managing Brand Equity: Capitalizing on the Value of a Brand Name

In a fascinating and insightful examination of the phenomenon of brand equity, Aaker provides a clear and well-defined structure of the relationship between a brand and its symbol and slogan, as well as each of the five underlying assets, which will clarify for managers exactly how brand equity does contribute value. The most important assets of any business are intangible: its company name, brands, symbols, and slogans, and their underlying associations, perceived quality, name awareness, customer base, and proprietary resources such as patents, trademarks, and channel relationships. These assets, which comprise brand equity, are a primary source of competitive advantage and future earnings, contends David Aaker, a national authority on branding. Yet, research shows that managers cannot identify with confidence their brand associations, levels of consumer awareness, or degree of customer loyalty. Moreover in the last decade, managers desperate for short-term financial results have often unwittingly damaged their brands through price promotions and unwise brand extensions, causing irreversible deterioration of the value of the brand name. Although several companies, such as Canada ...

Nancy Mingus

Alpha Teach Yourself Project Management in 24 Hours

A structured tutorial for learning how to organize, estimate, build and manage a complex project. -- Excellent use of the proven Teach Yourself in 24 Hours format, giving readers a one-hour lesson for each major portion of project management. -- Author is an experienced trainer and writer as well as an expert in software and other tool-based methods of project management. -- Covers the project in a chronological fashion going in-depth to each stage including the traditional and technical methods of tracking. Now you don't have to be an MBA or advanced specialist to learn the principles of project management. Alpha Teach Yourself Project Management in 24 Hours gives readers a lesson-by-lesson approach to learning the ins and outs of budgets, team-building and tracking. Recognizing that most projects are managed electronically or online today, the author also shows better and more efficient ways to track and achieve goals.

John P. Kotter

Force for Change: How Leadership Differs from Management

John P. Kotter shows with compelling evidence what leadership really means today, why it is rarely associated with larger-than-life charismatics, precisely how it is different from management, and yet why both good leadership and management are essential for business success, especially for complex organizations operating in changing environments. The critics who despair of the coming of imaginative, charismatic leaders to replace the so-called manipulative caretakers of American corporations don't tell us much about what leadership actually is, or, for that matter, what management is either. Leadership, Kotter clearly demonstrates, is for the most part not a god-like figure transforming subordinates into superhumans, but is in fact a process that creates change -- a process which often involves hundreds or even thousands of "little acts of leadership" orchestrated by people who have the profound insight to realize this. Building on his landmark study of 15 successful general managers, Kotter presents detailed accounts of how senior and middle managers in major corporations, in close concert with colleagues and subordinates, were able to create a leadership process that put into ...