Search results for ""author stafford""

"Stafford Beer is undoubtedly among the world?s most provocative, creative, and profound thinkers on the subject of management, and he records his thinking with a flair that is unmatched. His writing is as much art as it is science. He is the most viable system I know."—Dr Russell L Ackoff, The Institute for Interactive Management, Pennsylvania, USA. "If ... anyone can make it [Operations Research] understandably readable and positively interesting it is Stafford Beer ... everyone in management ... should be grateful to him for using clear and at times elegant English and?even elegant diagrams."—The Economist In Brain of the Firm and The Heart of Enterprise Stafford Beer worked out the scientific laws that govern any viable system. They constitute the basis for this book which is concerned solely with the application of those laws to the understanding of any particular enterprise. In the form of a Handbook or Manager's Guide, Diagnosing the System deals with the fundamental problem of management?how to cope with complexity itself. It shows you how to design (or redesign) an enterprise in conformity with the laws of viability, and will help you to diagnose faults in your organizational structure.

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Presents the basic approaches underlying Stafford Beer's thinking since the publication of his first book in 1959. Deals with a philosophy of science relevant to management and particularly with the nature of models. Demonstrates all major points through examples quoted of management science applications to industry and government.

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"Stafford Beer is undoubtedly among the world's most provocative, creative, and profound thinkers on the subject of management, and he records his thinking with a flair that is unmatched. His writing is as much art as it is science. He is the most viable system I know."—Dr Russell L Ackoff, The Institute for Interactive Management, Pennsylvania, US "If ... anyone can make it [Operations Research] understandably readable and positively interesting it is Stafford Beer ... everyone in management ... should be grateful to him for using clear and at times elegant English and ... even elegant diagrams."—The Economist Based on the Massey Lectures, this book examines the reasons why the institutions of our society may well be failing, and opens a discussion as to what could be done. Drawing on the science of effective organization, which is his definition of cybernetics, Stafford Beer explains key cybernetic principles in words and pictures that all can understand. He concludes that our society commits more and more resources to plastering over the cracks in the system?which simply reappear?while freedom itself is increasingly eroded. The institutions must be redesigned, and returned to the people, to whom the scientific tools for doing this ought to belong.

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"Stafford Beer is undoubtedly among the world's most provocative, creative, and profound thinkers on the subject of management, and he records his thinking with a flair that is unmatched. His writing is as much art as it is science. He is the most viable system I know."—Dr Russell L Ackoff, The Institute for Interactive Management, Pennsylvania, USA "If ... anyone can make it [Operations Research] understandably readable and positively interesting it is Stafford Beer . everyone in management ... should be grateful to him for using clear and at times elegant English and ... even elegant diagrams."—The Economist This is the second edition of a book which has already become a management 'standard' both in universities and on the bookshelves of managers and their advisers. Brain of the Firm develops an account of the firm based upon insights derived from the study of the human nervous system, and is a basic text from the author's theory of viable systems. Despite the neurophysiology, the book is written for managers to understand. The companion volume to this book is The Heart of Enterprise, which is intended to support and complement this text. "Stafford Beer's works represent required reading for everyone who believes that a capacity for rigorous thinking is an essential attribute of today's successful managers and administrators. Brain of the Firm shows a first-rate intellect at work and provides concepts, models and inspiration for both practitioners and teachers."—Sir Douglas Hague, CBE

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"Stafford Beer is undoubtedly among the world's most provocative, creative, and profound thinkers on the subject of management, and he records his thinking with a flair that is unmatched. His writing is as much art as it is science. He is the most viable system I know."—Dr Russell L Ackoff, The Institute for Interactive Management, Pennsylvania, USA "If...anyone can make it [Operations Research] understandably readable and positively interesting it is Stafford Beer...everyone in management...should be grateful to him for using clear and at times elegant English and ... even elegant diagrams."—The Economist This is the companion volume to Brain of the Firm and addresses the nature of viable systems, those capable of surviving. It does not use the neurophysiological basis elucidated in brain, but develops the same theory from first principles. This book declares that every enterprise is a system, and in particular must be a viable system. Viability is not just a matter of economic solvency; we need laws that govern the capacity of any enterprise to maintain independent existence. The Heart of Enterprise is full of examples (actual, author-generated examples) taken from management practice. "I consistently find that Stafford Beer provides the most useful analytical framework for understanding and managing an enterprise--public or private. Heart of The Enterprise offers a demanding but rewarding exposition of his approach and applications."—Sir Douglas Hague, CBE

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It is 2090 and the world is on the verge of domination by the Caliphate. The future hangs in the balance as the religion of peace struggles against violent opposition. Islamist fanatics covering the globe are killing, burning, and bombing in an extravagant display of well-coordinated force designed to terrorize humanity out of its “godless slumber.” But two brilliant Muslim women are determined to save their religion from its counterfeit, supported by the non-Muslim religion professor they both love. Their weapons aren’t guns and bombs, but ideas and inspired brave leadership. As they race to show the world a new way to be Muslim and strive to return tolerance and understanding to the human race, their breathtaking adventure takes the reader from New York City to Europe, Japan, India, and Sudan. The bizarre massacres devised by the Caliphate keep steady pressure on these complex and courageous women, as do the multi-million-dollar fatwas on their lives… Can the war for the very soul of Islam be won?

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What happens to us when we die? Many think of heaven as an unimaginable state of bliss. As for hell, it's far out of proportion to any sin we might have committed and makes a travesty of God. But what if the afterlife was something very different? The key to such knowledge is mediumship. Three decades of research have taught the author, a world expert in the field of death and afterlife studies, who the most reliable voices are. These accounts are far better developed and more plausible than anything found in the world's scriptures or theologies. Taken at face value, they represent the vivid experience of spirits, or ex-humans, eager to tell about their amazing world, and ours in a few short years. We hunger for a reliable revelation telling us that life here and now is meaningful and good, that each of us has an important part to play in its proper unfolding, that we are accountable for all we do, and that the godless materialism all around us is a pathological mistake. The world ahead, unlike ours, is fascinating and fair. Authentic mediums may be the closest thing to the voice of God that our planet has.

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"Stafford Beer is undoubtedly among the world's most provocative, creative, and profound thinkers on the subject of management, and he records his thinking with a flair that is unmatched. His writing is as much art as it is science. He is the most viable system I know."—Dr Russell L Ackoff, The Institute for Interactive Management, Pennsylvania. USA This is a highly original book both in content and format. It presents thirteen 'arguments for change', these are linked by a personal commentary, and by a deeper, 'metalinguistic', commentary. Platform for Change is completely self-contained, does not deal at all with the nature of viable systems, but is directed towards the hope that our planet may yet remain viable--and the human race survive.

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Seventh grader Ben Conover sees people no one else can see. When he confides in his best friend, it's not long before smart phones start lighting up with text messages as the air cackles with gossip and he becomes known in school as the 'Ghost Boy'. Home has become a battle ground between his Mum's acceptance and his Dad's disapproval. Ben desperately seeks his father's approval, and wants to be like a regular twelve-year-old. But he doesn't want to break free from his spirit friend, Abby, who shows up when he is in danger or about to do something wrong. She somehow guides him and he has grown very fond of her. Will Ben's father accept his son's psychic gifts? Can he persuade his father that spirits are real and not just hallucinations? And who exactly is Abby? A Middle Grade story about a boy who sees spirits.

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Macrina McGrath, a young 23-year-old Catholic ex-Marine and unwed mother, begins to see cracks in the Church she grew up loving. Bad priests preying on children, harsh treatment of the divorced and LGBTQ, a deep-seated and toxic sexism, and archaic dogmas force her to choose between leaving the Church or trying to make it better. Pursuing graduate school in theology at Georgetown and a trip to India help form her resolve: She will stop at nothing to take the Church out of the Middle Ages and deliver women from their abject status. Macrina McGrath joins and soon after heads the excommunicated Womanpriest movement and, with the help of the Archbishop of Boston, begins an ascent she never imagined. But her love for Ezra, a Jewish physicist and colleague at Amherst where they teach, is getting in the way.

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The arguments in this fascinating, interdisciplinary book are wide-ranging, running the gamut from company management to the nature of consciousness. The author discusses the theory of team syntegrity and the social technique of syntegration which works in practice, offering a potent management tool for developmental planning.

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Working in partnership with the National Theatre, these new playscripts bring the theatre alive in the classroom. Each play has been carefully selected to ensure maximum impact and relevance to students, while the activities and teaching support are underpinned by National Theatre strategies so that teachers can feel confident using these approaches. Vibrant production images and the 'Making the play' section show how the play is brought to life on stage while the activities combine a focus on English skills with the play as a perfomance. Based on Michalel Morpurgo's novel, Nick Stafford's acclaimed adaptation tells the story of Joey, beloved horse of a young farm boy, Albert. Joey is sold to the cavalry and sent to France to fight in the trenches of the First World War where he faces the unrelenting horrors and dangers of the front line. Desperate to be reunited, Albert secretly enlists and sets off on a treacherous mission to find him and bring him home.

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Chris Edwards has gone from running a stall in the Wakefield markets to masterminding a single-price shopping chain with more than 300 stores across the United Kingdom. The remarkable retail rise to fame of his Poundworld business was fascinatingly featured in 2015's highly-rated BBC1 series, Pound Shop Wars - and while Chris opened up about his astonishing success story to the cameras, it was his eighty-eight-year-old mum Alice who truly became a cult figure. 'I've always been driven by the fear of ending up skint!' says Chris, who admits he once risked losing not only his own home, but also the houses of both his brother and business partner Laurie and of his own mum and dad on a single risky deal. Now, his frank and inspiring autobiography reveals the rise and rise of the businessman from hard-working one-man band with just a single van to high street tycoon with a fleet of huge lorries and more than 6,000 employees. And somehow along the way the sixty-five-year-old Yorkshireman also built a thriving nightclub business with no fewer than nine venues. In 2015, Chris sold 75 per cent of Poundworld to American venture capitalists TPG for GBP150million, but he is still in control and determined to drive Poundworld to new heights. This is the truly inspiring story of one man's rise to the very top.

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This book presents a correspondence between two friends who disagree about how to answer the question, “What does it mean to be a Christian?” Crosby argues that Christians understand themselves as hearing a definitive word of revelation spoken by God and intended for all human beings. But Betty sees Christianity as one of several options, usually the preferred way for those born in the faith, but no more unique or special than Hinduism or Buddhism. It is a debate over the kind of initiative the Christian God takes, or does not take, toward human beings. Throughout the debate Crosby alleges that Betty’s God is a very finite god, an all-too-human god, and for that very reason is something different from the God venerated by Christians, while Betty maintains that his theism remains within the Christian orbit and is a much needed corrective to a religion with exclusivist tendencies.The debate between the two friends is presented here in the form of a correspondence they conducted over a period of two years (and did not originally intend for publication). It has undergone very little editing and revision; the authors have wanted to preserve the spontaneous give and take of their exchange. Together they have produced a work of philosophical dialogue that is unusually fruitful in its ability to clarify some fundamental issues of religion.

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Implementing the Zendesk customer service software as part of your company's operations can be time-consuming, but with the best practices and advice in this hands-on guide, you can shorten the procedure considerably. You'll learn the purpose, benefits, and pitfalls of each Zendesk feature, with examples of how to configure it to match your company's needs and processes. Written by written by two experienced Zendesk product trainers, this book is distilled from years of working in the trenches, launching customer implementations, and answering thousands of questions from participants throughout the world. With it, you?ll be able to determine the best way to put Zendesk's vast potential to work for your company. Apply custom branding to your user-facing support portal Mitigate risk by implementing various Zendesk security features Manage profiles and permissions for users, agents, and administrators Create tickets from email, voice, chat, feedback tabs, and social media Capture and classify help requests through standard and custom fields Use techniques to build an efficient agent support process Automate your business rules in Zendesk to streamline your workflow Provide your customers with self-service support

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The Science of Sport series is essential reading for students, coaches and performers, physiotherapists, club doctors and professional support staff working in sport. The Science of Sport: Squash offers both scientific research and athlete testimonials to show that squash is one of the most physically demanding, mentally draining, and tactically challenging sports in the world. Success in this sport requires extreme levels of fitness, optimal and specific strength, relentless psychological toughness, intelligent tactical prowess, and sublime technical proficiency.

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The devotion to Our Lady of Guadalupe is one of the most important elements in the development of a specifically Mexican tradition of religion and nationality over the centuries. The picture of the Virgen morena (Dark Virgin) is to be found everywhere throughout Mexico, and her iconography is varied almost beyond telling. Though innumerable books, both historical and devotional, have been published on the Guadalupan legend in this century alone, it is only recently that its textual sources have been closely studied. This volume makes available to the English-reading public an easily accessible translation from the original Nahuatl of the story itself and the entire book in which the story is embedded. The study also provides scholars with new perspectives on a text long at the center of Mexican intellectual currents. Through the use of technical philological methods, it indicates that the text may have been authored in the mid-seventeenth century by a Spanish-Mexican priest, based on an earlier text by a colleague of his, and that it was not the product of Nahuatl oral tradition. The story of the apparition of the Virgin of Guadalupe to a poor indigenous man less than fifteen years after the Spanish conquest of Mexico did not come into prominence until the mid-seventeeth century. The first known telling of the tale appeared in a book published in Spanish in 1648 by the priest Miguel Sánchez. On the heels of the Sánchez version, the story was included in the book Huei tlamahuiçoltica published in 1649 by Luis Laso de la Vega, the vicar of the Guadalupe chapel and a friend of Sánchez. It had little impact initially, but by the twentieth century, with indigenism triumphant, it had become the best known version. There have been a few translations of Laso de la Vega's apparition story into English but only on a popular or devotional level. The present edition offers a translation and transcription of the complete text of the 1649 edition, together with critical apparatus, including comparisons of the Sánchez and Laso de la Vega texts, and various linguistic, orthographic, and typographical matters that throw light on the date and manner of composition.

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After the death of his beloved wife, a devastated Levi Scott and his youngest surviving son left Iowa for Oregon. Their overland journey--rife with quarrels, stolen horses, arduous river fords, con artists, and death--ended when he and John finally arrived in Oregon City in November 1844.In the early 1840s, emigrants who reached The Dalles and chose to continue to the Willamette Valley had to embark on a perilous raft trip and portage down the Columbia River. Answering the plea of settlers and the provisional government, Scott participated in two expeditions seeking a better, safer way through the Cascades. The second, organized by Jesse Applegate in June 1846, yielded the southern route through the Umpqua Valley, three mountain ranges, and the Black Rock Desert. Early on a July 1846 morning, the party found the Humboldt River along the established California Trail.At Fort Hall, Applegate recruited parties to travel the new route. Scott led the initial wagon train west while others went ahead to prepare the road. He details a harrowing trip that included unwatered desert, soda plains, mirages, a heroic mother, dense timber, and steep canyons. In 1847 Scott led a second group to the Willamette Valley over the alternate trail and retraced it again in 1849. He faced narrow escapes and witnessed several deadly encounters with Native Americans. Later he ran cattle, founded Scottsburg, and participated in Oregon's territorial legislature.As he neared his ninetieth birthday Scott employed his friend James Layton Collins to help him record his life story, but the memoir was never published. Now edited and extensively annotated, Scott's autobiography has become Wagons to the Willamette. An exceptional contribution to Oregon Trail history, his reminiscence is the only first-hand account written by someone who not only searched for the southern route but also accompanied its first wagon train.

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