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Peter McManners author of Green Outcomes in the Real World published by Gower.
Watch this conversation between Gower Commissioning Editor Jonathan Norman and author of Green Outcomes in the Real World - Peter McManners. In this first three minute extract they discuss the aspects of Challenges of Economic Globalization and Sustainability, the limits to resources and the effect on the environment, along with engaging your people to buy-in to sustainability and localism.Carry on and watch part two (4 mins) where Peter discusses the diminishing power of traditional Nation States and the growth of huge multinationals - is that a threat to sustainability? He also discusses cradle to cradle production systems and how it is being driven by sustainability. In part three (3 mins) Peter looks at other forms of payment apart from money – swapping work – is this a black economy or does it energise communities?
Gower’s Transformation and Innovation Series will have produced, by the end of 2013, an impressive collection of volumes.
Together, the authors have created an enormously rich resource base for transformation agents in the field of business and economics, but also within society at large. The series provides new, integral approaches to business, management, finance, economics, development, research and other related fields – while consistently combining theory and practice. It draws on different cultural knowledge bases, enabling the reader to effectively contextualize and practically engage in transformation processes leading to new sustainable realities in business, economics and beyond.
Embodying an enormous cultural diversity, together the series represents 12 countries, spread across Africa, Asia, Europe and USA. With each author working with and highlighting her or his particular cultural and societal context, we can proudly speak of a truly transcultural series.
The home page for the series includes prologues to read, and each book below has a free chapter to read on our website.
AN OVERALL INTEGRAL PERSPECTIVE:
…and the forthcoming: Integral Development: Realising the Transformative Potential of Individuals, Organisations and Societies
A MIDDLE EASTERN ECONOMIC AND FINANCIAL PERSPECTIVE:
…and the forthcoming: Transforming Trade Policy in an Arab State: A Postmodern Approach
AN ASIAN SPIRITUAL, CULTURAL AND ECONOMIC PERSPECTIVE:
…and the forthcoming: Remaking Ourselves, Enterprise and Society: An Indian Approach to Human Values in Management
AN AFRICAN POLITICAL, ECONOMIC AND FINANCIAL PERSPECTIVE:
…and the forthcoming: An Integral Approach to Development Economics: Islamic Finance in an African Context
A EUROPEAN TECHNOLOGICAL AND ECONOMIC PERSPECTIVE:
…and the forthcoming: Crafting an Integral Enterprise: Towards a Sustainable Telecommunications Sector
AN AMERICAN SPIRITUAL, SOCIAL AND ECONOMIC PERSPECTIVE:
I am delighted to say that the virtual journal, PMWorld is back after a month or two’s absence while the site was redesigned. If you have not used the jounal yet, I thoroughly recommend it as a source of free, independent and very good quality articles, case studies, reviews and reports on the whole world of project management. The highlights of Volume 1 Issue 1, from our perspective are: an article by Waffa Karkukly on the PMO Lifecycle; our Series Editor, Professor Darren Dalcher, on the risks of overstating benefits; Stephen Jenner on the fundamentals of project realization; and David Hillson’s thought-proving article ‘Kill the Risk Manager’. In the book reviews section, there are reviews of two Gower books: No Waste and Project Psychology.
Waffa Kakukly is author of the forthcoming Managing the PMO Lifecycle; Stephen Jenner is author of Transforming Government and Public Services; David Hillson is author of a clutch of Gower titles, including Managing Risk in Projects.
Jonathan Whelan’s article on the British Computer Society website Business Architecture and the Management of Change is very clear on the need for a collaborative working strategy between architects and change agents. To many of us, that seems like just good, common sense but in a context that is often heavy with politics and power struggles, it cannot be repeated often enough. Exactly where the boundaries are between these two functions can develop through practice and should probably be situational to a given project; the main thing is that without them both pulling together, your organisation will go around in circles. Jonathan Whelan is co-author of Business Architecture.
Gerald Bradley author of Gower’s Benefit Realisation Management recently conducted a webinar for The International Institute of Business Analysis titled – Benefit Realisation Management: A Practical Guide to Achieving Benefits Through Change. You can take a look at this webinar and other expert offerings from the IIBA at their website.
Gower author and Chartered Business Psychologist Sharon De Mascia has recently been writing and commenting in the press. De Mascia has commented in The Guardian on depression at work and issues of mental health in the workplace. She has also been advising businesses on how they can manage change in these uncertain times.
Sharon De Mascia is a Chartered Business Psychologist and a HR/HRD professional. She has extensive project management experience and is Prince2 qualified as well as being an experienced coach. Sharon has 20 years experience of delivering change management and other organisational initiatives across both public and private sectors. Sharon is an assessor for the British Psychological Society and the Health Professions Council, and an examiner for the International Baccalaureate in Psychology. She is also the Director of ‘Cognoscenti’, a business psychology consultancy. www.cognoscenti.uk.com.
Sharon De Mascia’s book Project Psychology is out this month.
Ruth Murray-Webster and Sergio Pellegrino’s paper Multi-paradigmatic Perspectives on a Business Transformation Programme may feel like a bit of a mouthful but I do encourage you to look beyond the title of the piece. Business transformation programmes are surely the home of unintended consequences to business decisions. Ruth and Sergio have some interesting case examples and, once you can get past the academic style of their writing, some very useful observations to help you understand just what is going on during business change and, by extension to guide and adapt, the programme accordingly. Ruth Murray-Webster is co-author of Understanding and Managing Risk Attitude, Managing Group Risk Attitude, A Short Guide to Facilitating Risk Management and the forthcoming, A Short Guide to Risk Appetite, all published by Gower.
The Portfolio Management Summit 2011 is being held at The Hotel Intercontinental in Sao Conrado, Rio de Janeiro in Brazil on the 4th, 5th and 6th of October. It will be an opportunity to meet decision-makers from companies in search of information, knowledge and solutions for maximising the value of their Projects. A keynote speaker is Antonio Nieto-Rodriguez, Professor in Strategic Business Management and Head of Transversal Portfolio Management, and author of the forthcoming Gower book The Focused Organization.
“Innovation is not a process, but an outcome.”
The Forbes Leadership Forum brings renowned speakers and thought leaders who discuss their leadership strategies. As a speaker at the Forum, Gower Author Alexander Manu was interviewed by Shaku Selvakumar for the IBM Impact 2011 Blog. In this interview Manu discusses in-depth the concepts of Imagination and Innovation in business Extract:
The redefinition of innovation as a human behaviour outcome, a dynamic in constant change, requires the shaping of new responses in business and the economy.
The past understanding of what innovation “is”, was generally connected with a breakthrough in technology – some new tool being employed in some new way. This understanding limits the potential of innovation as bound by the tools employed, instead of the imagination employing them. The latent imagination triggered by an innovation outcome is the true goal of innovation. It is not what “I can do with this now”? but “what can I become doing this in the future”? The tool is not a response, but a question. Every innovation is a question. The truly important innovations are a series of questions.
A few definitions: Innovation is an outcome, a new behaviour, a new way of doing things. Disruption is a behavior – an outcome involving a media and a user – changed by invention. Invention is a moment of discovery or creation of something new. Disruptive Business means the sum of new behaviours and their support models. Innovation is a moment of use, a manifest behaviour that engages an innovation object into new uses, and modifies the habitual conditions of the present.
This position challenges the current understanding of innovation, and some of the labels applied to innovation typologies, such as the label “disruptive innovation”. In general, the current discourse around innovation addresses competently the technology side of an invention, at the expense of the motivational side of the user, the human motivation which leads in the behaviour of use.
Alexander Manu is Chief Imaginator and Senior Partner at InnoSpa. He is the author of Distruptive Business: Desire, Innovation and the Re-design of Business published by Gower.
Most companies will argue that they are already well versed in “working with others”, however the presenters of this webinar are seeing a fundamental shift taking place. They are seeing companies recognise the need to collaborate and cooperate with external parties on the more innovative and research-oriented parts of their business in order to stay competitive.
In this IAM Perspectives Webinar Gower author Donal O’Connell will define Open Innovation and discuss the challenges, players, metrics and approaches involved. He’ll also introduce an Open Innovation Tool Kit that can help IP owners get started with a successful strategy to encourage open innovation in their IP practices.
The webinar will last approximately 45 minutes followed by Q&A.
Speaker: Donal O’Connell, Managing Director at Chawton Innovation Services and former VP of R&D and Director of IP at Nokia
Date: Wednesday, August 10th at 10AM ET, 15:00h UK time, 16:00h CET
If interested, you can register for the webinar at …
https://anaqua.peachnewmedia.com/store/seminar/seminar.php?seminar=8872
Donal O’Connell is author of Harvesting External Innovation published by Gower.
