This book provides an introduction to the models, methods, and results of some due date-related scheduling problems in the field of multiagent scheduling. In multiagent scheduling, two or more agents share a common processing resource and each agent wants to optimize its own objective function with respect to its own set of jobs. Since the agents have conflicting objective functions, they have to negotiate among themselves with regard to sharing the common resource to optimize their own ob...

The enduring repercussions of the Asian financial crisis in 1997, the worsening global economy following the burst of the dotcom bubbles in 2001, the financial tsunami in 2008, and the incessant rise in customer demand for better services have all contributed to shrinking profit margins for businesses around the world. To cope with these challenges, firms are discovering logistics as a competitive weapon when looking for ways to strengthen and preserve their market positions. One successfu...

This book presents theory-driven discussion on the link between implementing green shipping practices (GSP) and shipping firm performance. It examines the shipping industry’s challenge of supporting economic growth while enhancing environmental performance.Consisting of nine chapters, the book covers topics such as the conceptualization of green shipping practices(GSPs), measurement scales for evaluating GSP implementation, greening capability, greening and performance relativity (...

Business Model Generation is a handbook for visionaries, game changers, and challengers striving to defy outmoded business models and design tomorrow's enterprises. If your organization needs to adapt to harsh new realities, but you don't yet have a strategy that will get you out in front of your competitors, you need Business Model Generation.Co-created by 470 "Business Model Canvas" practitioners from 45 countries, the book features a beautiful, highly visual, 4...

More than a decade ago, Robert S. Kaplan and David P. Norton introduced the Balanced Scorecard, a revolutionary performance measurement system that allowed organizations to quantify intangible assets such as people, information, and customer relationships. Then, in The Strategy-Focused Organization, Kaplan and Norton showed how organizations achieved breakthrough performance with a management system that put the Balanced Scorecard into action.Now, using their ongoing resea...

Does it seem you’ve formulated a rock-solid strategy, yet your firm still can’t get ahead? If so, construct a solid foundation for business execution-an IT infrastructure and digitized business processes to automate your company’s core capabilities. In Enterprise Architecture as Strategy: Creating a Foundation for Business Execution, authors Jeanne W. Ross, Peter Weill, and David C. Robertson show you how.The key? Make tough decisions about which processes you must execute well, th...

From well-respected human resources and corporate training experts Jeanne C. Meister and Karie Willyerd, a must-read guide to the innovative strategies that the best companies are using to create a workplace that the best talent chooses—both today and in 2020. In The 2020 Workplace, Meister and Willyerd offer a battle plan to start winning tomorrow’s employees today.This essential guide for business leaders and HR professionals prepares your organization for 2020 with proven strate...

Praise for The Art & Science of Technology Transfer"Phyl Speser's personality comes across in the text-complicated, intrigued, highly rational, insightful, rich in context, and fun. She had me smiling throughout. This work represents the next chapter of the technology transfer profession's development, where it will be all about getting to market with a studied awareness of value. Phyl gives us the tools to get there with a great read, just the focus we ar...

Digitization of business interactions and processes is advancing full bore. But in many organizations, returns from IT investments are flatlining, even as technology spending has skyrocketed.These challenges call for new levels of IT savvy: the ability of all managers-IT or non-IT-to transform their company's technology assets into operational efficiencies that boost margins. Companies with IT-savvy managers are 20 percent more profitable than their competitors.In IT Savvy,...

This book bridges the gap between practitioners of supply-chain management and pharmaceutical industry experts. It aims to help both these groups understand the different worlds they live in and how to jointly contribute to meaningful improvements in supply-chains within the globally important pharmaceutical sector. Scientific and technical staff must work closely with supply-chain practitioners and other relevant parties to help secure responsive, cost effective and risk mitigated supply ...

“This definitive work on HR competencies provides ideas and tools that help HR professionals develop their career and make their organization effective.”—Edward E. Lawler III, Professor, University of Southern California“This book is a crucial blueprint of what it takes to succeed. A must have for every HR professional.”—Lynda Gratton, Professor, London Business School“One single concept changed the HR world forever: ‘HR busin...

Thanks to its ability to innovate, the developed world will always have a distinct advantage over the developing world, right? Not according to leading management experts Nirmalya Kumar and Phanish Puranam. In India Inside, the authors draw on their research to show how India is already turning this assumption on its head-often in ways invisible to consumers in the developed world.Through their research and extensive interviews with India-based executives from such compani...