Books

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Enterprise Governance of Information Technology

Enterprise governance of information technology is a relatively new concept that is gaining traction in both the academic and practitioner worlds. Going well beyond the implementation of a superior IT infrastructure, “Enterprise Governance of Information Technology” is about defining and embedding processes and structures throughout the organizations that enable both business and IT people to execute their responsibilities, while maximizing the value created from their IT-enabled investments. At the forefront of the field, the authors draw from years of research and advising corporate clients to present the first comprehensive resource on the topic. Featuring numerous case examples from companies around the world, the book integrates theoretical advances and empirical data with practical application, including in-depth discussion of such frameworks as COBIT and VALIT, which are used to measure and audit the value of IT investments and ensuring regulatory compliance. A variety of elements, including executive summaries and sidebars, extensive references, and questions and activities (with additional materials available on-line) ensure that the book will be an essential resource for professionals, researchers, and students alike.

Presence: Exploring Profound Change in People, Organizations and Society

Radical and hopeful – Presence synthesises cutting-edge thinking, firsthand knowledge and ancient wisdom Presence: Human Purpose and the Field of the Future gives the reader an intimate look at the development of a new theory about change and learning. A book built around a series of wide-ranging conversations over a year and a half, Senge, Scharmer, Jaworski, and Flowers explore their own experiences and those of one hundred and fifty scientists and social and business entrepreneurs in an effort to explain how profound collective change occurs. Their journey of discovery articulates a new way of seeing the world, and of understanding our part in creating it – as it is and as it might be. Presence explores the living fields that connect us to one another, to life more broadly, and, potentially, to what is “seeking to emerge.” Seven capacities underlie our ability to see, sense, and realize new possibilities. Developing these capacities accesses a deeper level of learning that is the key to creating change that services the whole – ourselves, our organizations and the communities of which we are a part.

The Necessary Revolution: How Individuals and Organisations Are Working Together to Create a Sustainable World

What is THE NECESSARY REVOLUTION? The End of an Era. The Industrial Age Bubble the take, make, waste way of thinking that has dominated the developed world for the past 200 years is coming to an end. Leaders from organizations and groups as diverse as Coca- Cola and Costco, DuPont, Google, Alcoa, and Nike, Oxfam and the World Wildlife Fund are leading the charge to change the very way we do business. The Dawn of a Revolution. The environmental and social challenges before us climate change, the depletion of natural resources, the side-effects of rampant consumerism, and a widening economic divide create an unprecedented opportunity for change. Initiatives from innovative organizations from every sector from the EU’s End of Vehicle Lifetime directive to Nike’s new green products to Coke s transformative collaboration with the World Wildlife Fund are proving that by working together, businesses, government, and non-profit organizations are starting to bring about real, sustainable change. We must act together now. The Necessary Revolution offers a toolkit with specific strategies and points of action to help change how organizations think and act. Our situation could not be more urgent. We need to cut carbon dioxide emissions globally by 80% in 20 years. We need to reduce our consumption of water and energy drastically. We need to stop pretending that the problems belong to someone else: in an interconnected world, it doesn t matter whose end of the boat has a hole. There are no good guys and bad guys we are all responsible for our core sustainability issues: food, water, energy, waste, and toxicity. And every one of us has to be part of the solution. Imagine a world in which the excess energy from one business would be used to heat another. Where buildings need less and less energy, and where regenerative commercial buildings ones that create more energy than they use are being designed. A world in which environmentally-sound products and processes would be more cost-effective than wasteful ones. A world in which corporations such as Costco, Nike, BP and countless others are forming partnerships with environmental and social justice organizations to ensure better stewardship of the earth and better livelihoods in the developing world. Now, stop imagining that world is already emerging. A revolution is underway in today’s organizations. As Peter Senge and his co-authors reveal in The Necessary Revolution, companies around the world are boldly leading the change from dead-end business as usual tactics to trans- formative strategies that are essential for creating a flourishing, sustainable world. There is a long way to go, but the era of denial has ended. Today’s most innovative leaders are recognizing that for the sake of our companies and our world, we must implement revolutionary not just incremental changes in the way we live and work.

APM Introduction to Programme Management: 1

A clear and concise introduction to programme management. The impact of new technologies has led many organisations to adopt programmes as a means of achieving organisational change. Programmes are temporary management structures designed to help organisations achieve specific objectives. Programmes come in many different shapes and sizes and the term programme is applied to many different structures. This guide will help to clarify what a programme consists of and its components. This guide was written by authors working in the Programme Management SIG (Specific Interest Group) affiliated to the Association for Project Management, Europes largest single national professional body dedicated to project management.

Strategy Bites Back: It is a Lot More, and Less, Than You Ever Imagined

SWOTed by strategy models? Crunched by analysis? Strategy doesn’t have to be this way. Strategy is really all about being different. Thinking about it shouldn’t make you reach for the snooze button, but in the world of strategy everybody has become so serious. If that gets us better strategies, fine. But it doesn’t; we get worse ones—predictable, generic, uninspiring, dull. Strategy doesn’t only have to position; it also has to inspire. So an uninspiring strategy is really no strategy at all. The most interesting and most successful companies are not boring. They have novel, creative, inspiring, sometimes even playful strategies. By taking the whole strategy business less seriously, they end up with more serious results—and have some fun in the bargain. Strategy Bites Back invites you to encounter a diverse and unlikely set of voices with something sharp to say about strategy — from Michael Porter and Peter Drucker to Coco Channel’s “little black dress”. Taken together these perspectives will provide you with new and dramatically different angles from which to attack the world of strategy.

Managing successful programmes

Combining rigour and flexibility, MSP helps all organisations – public sector and private, large and small – achieve successful outcomes from their programme management time and time again. With change a pressing reality for all organisations, successful programme management has never been more vital to success. Organisations must respond as new processes or services are introduced, supplier relationships alter and structures adapt to market forces or legislation. At the same time, all organisations strive to achieve excellence by improving practices, offering better services, preparing more effectively for the future and encouraging innovation. But change always creates new challenges and risks. Inevitably there will be interdependencies to manage and conflicting priorities to resolve as the organisation adapts not just to a new situation internally but to the constantly shifting world outside.To enable organisations to manage their programmes successfully, they need a structured framework that does two things. It must acknowledge that every programme exists in its own context and demands unique interpretation. At the same time it must be universally applicable. MSP has been developed with these two priorities in mind. Its framework allows users to consistently manage a huge variety of programmes so that they deliver quality outcomes and lasting benefits. Fusing leadership with management best practice, MSP enables organisations to coordinate their key functions, develop a clear sense of unity and purpose and achieve the strategic cohesion necessary to drive through effective change (Office of Government Commerce).