Shaping the Future provides managers with comprehensive and practical advice on their role in managing information technology as a business resource. Business change and technical change fuel each other; managers must take the lead in setting the competitive priorities for exploiting IT. They must drive technology, not delegate it to specialists or abdicate responsibility for its impact on the organization. Describes the competitive, organizational, economic, and technical aspects of using information technology for business design. Highlights key management policy decisions, business opportunities, and potential problems in seven areas: competitive positioning through IT; geographic positioning; designing the organization; deploying human capital; managing the economics of information capital; positioning the firm's IT platform; and aligning business and technology.

THE GREAT BOOM IS COMING How and where we work and live is about to change drastically. In The Roaring 2000s, Harry S. Dent, Jr., one of the world's most prescient forecasters, turns his visionary eye to the full spectrum of possibilities that will follow in the wake of a burgeoning turn-of-the-century economy. Dent identifies opportunities, explores trends, and makes concrete predictions. Among them are: A Dow that will reach at least 21,500 and possibly 35,000 by the year 2008 The rise of "gazelles," small- to medium-sized, high-growth companies that are now creating most of the jobs in the country The Eight Critical Technology Trends Changing How We Live and Work The New American Dream -- why changing technologies could mean a return to small-town living, and the nine types of boomtowns that will offer the highest quality of life The New Network Corporation, which features leadership at the center rather than management from the top, and human browser teams that represent customers by connecting them directly to servers or specialized products and experts. These organizations are fast, responsive and entrepreneurial The Seven Principles of Successful Investing For anyone who wants to take advantage of these invaluable, emerging opportunities. The Roaring 2000s is a necessary guidebook to a not-so-distant future.

This revised edition of a widely appreciated book provides fund managers and investors with a thorough analysis of mutual funds as important financial intermediaries. Immensely popular, yet controversial as investment vehicles, mutual funds experienced tremendous growth when they entered India’s financial services sector. However, the recent slump in the mutual funds market reveals that the Indian investor is still unable to fully comprehend the intricacies of investing in these complex and sophisticated investment options.

The author teaches his readers how to stop getting taken and start making money, with more than two hundred defense and attack strategies

Something remarkable is happening in the cognitive sciences. After a quarter of a century of cognitive models that were inspired by the metaphor of the digital computer, the newest cognitive models are inspired by the properties of the brain itself. Variously referred to as connectionist, parallel distributed processing, or neutral network models, they explore the idea that complex intellectual operations can be carried out by large networks of simple, neuron-like units. The units themselves are identical, very low-level and 'stupid'. Intelligent performance is derived from the pattern of connection strengths between units, and the fundamental cognitive activity is pattern recognition and completion. Connectionism and the Mind provides an introduction to this newly emerging approach to understanding the mind. The first few chapters focus on network architecture, offering accessible treatment of the equations that describe learning and the propagation of activation (including a glossary for reference). Furthermore, the reader is walked step-by-step through the activities of networks engaged in pattern recognition, learning, and cognitive tasks such as memory retrieval and prototype formation. The remainder of the book addresses the implications of connectionism for theories of the mind, both philosophical and psychological. Foe example: What Role is played by pattern recognition and completion as basic as cognitive functions? Connectionist models have particular strength in learning and pattern recognition; should they be limited to those functions, or can they provide an overall account of cognitive functioning? In particular, can connectionist models provide an adequate account of the ability to employ linguistic and other symbol systems, or must an adequate system incorporate symbol processing as a basic cognitive capacity? Finally, Connectionism and the Mind examines the relation of connectionist models to philosophical accounts of propositional attitudes, and to a variety of other inquiries in cognitive psychology, linguistics, developmental psychology, artificial intelligence and neuroscience.

Monografie over het westerse onvermogen een antwoord te formuleren op de (economische) veranderingen die zich in Azië voltrekken.