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The Value Network Analysis Workshop will be held at March 20, 2009 and will look at Optimizing Business Performance.

The Value Network Analysis Workshop will be held at March 20, 2009 and will look at Optimizing Business Performance. Feb 19, 2009

Created by the International Business Center at Michigan State University, globalEDGE is a knowledge web-portal that connects professionals worldwide to global business activities. The site offers: * Global Resources - more than 5,000 online resources * Country Insights - a wealth of information on all countries * Industry Profiles - in-depth analysis of selected industries * News & Views - latest issues in international business * Academy - extensive research and teaching resources * Diagnostic Tools - decision-support tools for managers * globalEDGE Network - connect with 33,399 registered users globalEdge offers a wide range of information and knowledge. Partnership opportunities are also available for international growth of businesses.

From Publishers Weekly\nChristensen (The Innovator's Dilemma) analyzes the strategies that allow corporations to successfully grow new businesses and outpace the other players in the marketplace. Christensen's earlier book examined how focusing on profits can destroy even well-run corporations, while this book focuses on companies expanding by being "disruptors" who are able to outpace their entrenched competition. The authors (Christensen is a professor at Harvard Business School and Raynor, a director at Deloitte Research) examine the nine business decisions integral to growth, including product development, organizational structure, financing and key customer base. They cite such companies as IBM, AT&T, Sony, Microsoft and others to illustrate their points. Generally, the writing is clear and specific. For example, in discussing whether a company has the resources necessary for growth, the authors say, "In order to be confident that managers have developed the skills required to succeed at a new assignment, one should examine the sorts of problems they have wrestled with in the past. It is not as important that managers have succeeded with the problem as it is for them to have wrestled with it and developed the skills and intuition for how to meet the challenge successfully the next time around"; they then provide a real-life example of a software company. Similar important strategies give readers insights that they can use in their own workplaces. People looking for quick fixes may find the charts, diagrams and extensive footnotes daunting, but readers familiar with more technical business management tomes will find this one both stimulating and beneficial.

VentureTalk Radio (VTR) tackles the difficult decisions that everyone must face when starting or owning a business. Hosted by Dr. Dale Pfost and Don Marvin who together have raised over $300 million dollars for companies, VTR airs every Friday at 3:00PM EST on WWBD AM 860, in Philadelphia. VentureTalk Radio uses a game-show format in which three entrepreneurs pitch their business ideas to the show's hosts and guest judges, who ask questions and then score the presentations. Each entrepreneur gives a two-minute pitch about their product and business, and then judges critique the pitch and an executive summary that the entrepreneur sends previously. Judges offer pointers on what to look out for and how viable the idea is for financing. Winners from each week's show are eligible to be considered for the annual grand prize: A road trip with Marvin and Pfost to pitch their business to investors.

Local small businesses want phone calls, not click-throughs?

Robert Lawton Burns focuses on the key role of the 'producers' as the main source of innovation in this wide-ranging analysis of business trends in the manufacturing branch of the health care industry. Written by industry academics and executives, the book provides a detailed overview of the pharmaceutical, biotechnology, genomics/proteomics, medical device and information technology sectors. Most importantly, it describes the growing convergence between these sectors and the need for executives in one sector to increasingly draw upon trends in the others.

Industry Canada presents Canadian Industry Statistics to help Canadian small and medium businesses understand their industries and make better business decisions.\nIndustry data, gross domestic product and labor productivity are analyzed within various sectors as defined by NAICS, 2002.Employment, wage, production, costs, performance, and capital investment information is also given per each industry.

From Booklist: Joachimsthaler offers another book that promotes use of reinvented basic marketing principles to assist highly innovative companies. The author describes his DIG model (Demand-First Innovation & Growth), which consists of three interlinked parts: explore the demand for their products and services through an in-depth understanding of how people behave and live their lives and how they consume; apply an innovative routine of structured thinking to identify opportunities that customers cannot articulate; and formulate a strategy for effectively pursuing new opportunities. We learn that although most companies conduct some type of market research, they may fail to look for real opportunities and quantify them or fail to develop viable action plans that lead to results. This model illustrates how to become an unbiased observer of people's consumption and usage behaviors and offers a new approach to identifying and executing a company's growth strategy. Joachimsthaler, a consultant, reports that "successful opportunities for innovation and growth are right here, in front of us, and we often can't see them or don't act on them." Mary Whaley Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved