This book summarizes what is currently known about gravity sensing and response mechanisms in microorganisms, fungi, lower and higher plants; starting from the historical eye-opening experiments from the 19th century up to today’s extremely rapid advancing cellular, molecular and biotechnological research. All forms of life are constantly exposed to gravity and it can be assumed that almost all organisms have developed sensors and respond in one way or the other to the unidirectional accel...

This book brings home the message that meticulous integration management is the key to success in M&A transactions. Half of all M&A transactions are unsuccessful because many companies embarking on a merger neglect this key success factor. Based on 30 years of experience of corporate mergers and acquisitions as well as the subsequent implementation of growth strategies, the authors have developed a practical manual that helps managers optimize and streamline their growth strategy using per...

This last volume of the SpringerBriefs in Space Life Sciences series is setup in 5 main parts.The 1st part shortly summarizes the history of life science research in space from the late 40s until today with focus on Europe and Germany, followed by a part on describing flight opportunities including the Space Shuttle/Spacelab system and the International Space Station ISS; in the 3rd part it focuses on extraordinary success stories of this constantly challenging research program and...

Without a governance structure, an organization runs the risk of conflicts and inconsistencies between the various means of achieving organizational goals, the processes and resources, causing costly inefficiencies that impact negatively on both smooth running and bottom line profitability. However, the frequency of projects failing to meet these corporate objectives has focused attention firmly on the process of project governance. In this book, Ralf Müller provides a well-researched fra...

Organizational executives must change the way they think about how to invest in and manage IT if they want to get lasting value from computer-based innovations. The old way of thinking has not served organizations well. They continue to experience high levels of technological and operational failures even though they apply a wide variety of industry best practices. The rapid pace of technological advancement has tended to hide some fundamental problems that have existed from the start. The...

This book is intended to provide a summarized knowledge of the various fields that make up the management discipline for executives, entrepreneurs, doctors, architects, engineers, lawyers, etc., who have interest in sharpening their conceptual skills about management and administration. It has been made in an easy-to-read format, and great effort has been made to avoid making it voluminous; hence, it is expected to serve as a handbook.

This book presents a very novel and strategic approach to Sales Management, an area that has suffered from a lack of sophistication in practice. This content-rich and thought-provoking book has a very unique positioning: It considers the sales performance of an organization at a very high, strategic level and offers specific guidance in managing not just a few direct reports but an entire organization?s sales function. The book includes many useful tools and guidelines and is enhanced with...

Managers are increasingly concerned with the typical methods available for organizational performance measurement and control. Research into performance measurement, within the field of innovation management, has been variously approached through frameworks for performance measurement in general (for example, the Balanced Scorecard by Norton and Kaplan), R&D performance management, and surveys on in-use Key Performance Indicators (KPIs). It is striking, however, thatalmost no resea...

Savvy managers no longer look at contracting processes and documents reactively but use them proactively to reach their business goals and minimize their risks. To succeed, these managers need a framework and A Short Guide to Contract Risk provides this. The foundation of identifying and managing contract risk is what the authors call Contract Literacy: a set of skills relevant for all who deal with contracts in their everyday business environment, ranging from general managers and CEOs to...

Corporate Governance and Finance Law is designed to educate students, researchers, and practitioners on the legal aspects of corporate financial markets within the United States, the Eurozone, and China.

This practice guide on procurement strategy brings together methods and tools used by global purchasers across different industries. The authors lay major focus on the themes of global sourcing, risk management, and the dynamic topic of negotiation strategy. The authors present their perspectives on all important questions of strategic procurement such as: how to manage a heterogeneous supplier structure across different branches and how to deal with partners from diverse cultures? How to ...

This book compels the legal profession to question its current identity and to aspire to become a strategic partner for corporate executives, clients and stakeholders, transforming legal into a function that creates incremental value. It provides a uniquely broad range of forward-looking perspectives from several different key-players in the legal industry: in-house legal, law firms, LPO’s, legal tech, HR, associations and academia. This publication is a platform for leading legal professi...