Alexander The Mediocre

How does the well-brought-up son of a Scottish immigrant and locally-born school teacher veer so decidedly from the path of a promising hockey career to choose a life of crime? Alexander Young tells us in his own words how he stays in game shape and is invited to sign with semi-pro teams in British Columbia and Alberta. But his optimum physical condition also enables him to climb onto roofs in the dark of night and drop silently onto the floors of corporate offices and retail outlets. Alex has wander-lust - or maybe he's on the move in order to keep the heat off. At first, he's driven by hockey. But later he's just driven. From the first time he hops a bus in his hometown of Drumheller until he's transported by the RCMP to various institutions, he plays hockey, breaks and enters, and commits armed robbery. Along the way he seduces beautiful women, never quite being able to settle down with any of them. Drinking and getting high on cocaine and heroin, Alex makes friends with criminals, both on the street and on the inside. He presents us with a glimpse of the culture that finally leads him to commit his most serious crime - murder.

To manage key accounts profitably you need strategic planning that works. This book is the definitive guide to achieving this based on the unmatched practical and research experience of Ryals and McDonald. Key Account Management is proven to deliver substantial benefits to the bottom line. Best practice companies know that real results from managing powerful customers are not achieved through short-term cost cutting. Instead, as the best companies understand, it depends on fostering carefully developed and profitably managed relationships with an equally carefully selected group of key accounts. This is a genuinely strategic activity that goes well beyond sales management and the simplistic use of budgets to generate targets. It is about the behaviours and practices that make predictable, profitable and sustainable Key Account Management possible. To achieve this the book is constructed to deliver- * Clear descriptions of the various techniques and the reason for their importance * A hugely powerful step by step approach to using the key techniques to build strategic skills * Templates for building real plans * Cases, examples and vignettes to show best real world practice Based on wide application in the business world, and the world class research at Cranfield Management School this book will be an essential introduction to the principles and reality of Strategic Key Account Planning. For senior managers, key account managers at all levels as well as those on executive and MBA courses it will be an essential guide and text.

Developing successful business-to-business relationships with more powerful customers in highly competitive markets requires processes and skills that go beyond traditional selling activity. The very best state-of-the-art strategies are set out clearly in this book in a practical way that can be implemented in all organizations. In particular 'Key Customers' looks at: * why has key account management become so critical to commercial success? * what are the key challenges and how do successful companies respond? * why is it vital to understand the role of key account management in strategic planning? * do you know what strategy your customer has for your company? By addressing these key questions McDonald, Rogers and Woodburn draw out the business issues that really matter - from developing a customer classification system that really works, analysing the needs of key accounts, developing the skills of key account managers to how systems for implementing key account plans can be developed. Throughout the book the emphasis is on clarifying and articulating the key concepts to give the reader the tools to apply in the marketplace. The 'real world' approach is based on best practice from leading companies globally and the latest research from the renowned Cranfield School of Management. 'Key Customers' comes from authors with an international reputation in this field and is an essential guide to customer management for marketing and sales executives, and all senior management with strategic responsibility. The clear and authoritative approach also makes it an outstanding text for the serious MBA and executive student.

Metaphors are widely used within marketing literature, yet so far have remained unacknowledged. This book aims to redress that omission. Such widely known topics such as globalization of markets, viral marketing and many others are in fact metaphors; moreover, marketing itself may be a metaphor, underlying many exchanges and relationships.

No CEO or CFO wants to hear that their marketing investment was a gamble, and greater accountability for marketing expenditure is one of the biggest issues facing the marketing community today. Marketing Accountability by Malcolm McDonald and Peter Mouncey is a major breakthrough for marketing and essential reading for any marketing professional. Based on seven years' research into global best practice in marketing, it introduces a marketing metrics model that will help you to measure marketing effectiveness, align marketing activities with corporate strategy and deliver accountability. Marketing Accountability will enable senior executives to measure the impact of marketing activities against the goals of an organization, and empower marketers to justify their actions to both CEOs and their Chief Financial Officers.

Studies have indicated that 75% of what an audience learns and remembers is a result of what they see, while 13% comes from what they hear. Crowley's sketches put both together and prepare audiences with a vivid illustration that kindles their anticipation of the pastor's sermon. Written with wit, wisdom, and humor, they help to plant the scriptural message of each Sunday's Gospel lesson in the Cycle C lectionary with an unforgettable, poignant, contemporary application.

“He (Briton) is a barbarian, and believes that the customs of his tribe and Island are the laws of nature.” – George Bernard Shaw “The best argument against democracy is a five-minute conversation with the average voter.” – Sir Winston Churchill Corroborating the words of George Bernard Shaw, Sir Winston Churchill implied that the average Briton was indeed a moron. Also supporting Churchill’s observation is the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), which found that young adults in England are amongst the least literate and numerate in the industrialised world. Mediocre Great England, the latest book by Yinka Bamgbelu, criticizes the legal system in Britain as well as the racism found in its institutions. “The highest reach of injustice is to be deemed just when you are not.” – Plato “Lies are told in criminal cases. Lies are told in civil cases. Lies are told all the time.” – Sir Michael Havers, Attorney General, 1980 “I don’t think anyone will dispute that lots and lots of people are denied justice.” – Sir David Napley The entire book is a letter to Dr Anand Kamath, a 42-year-old dentist who was seemingly and mercilessly hounded to death by white-collar racist thugs. Dr Stephanie Twidale, another dentist, could not spell and could not write legibly, unrelentingly lied under oath. What is the value of an illegible record by a dishonest, semi-illiterate expert? Any legal system, Third World included, which tolerates dishonesty under oath is intellectually flawed and unsafe. Competent administration of the law is an inviolable fundamental right. “This and no other is the root from which a tyrant springs; when he first appears he is a protector.” – Plato

With the success of Gladiator, both critics and scholars enthusiastically announced the return of a genre which had lain dormant for thirty years. However, this return raises important new questions which remain unanswered. Why did the epic come back, and why did it fall out of fashion? Are these the same kinds of epics as the 1950s and 60s, or are there aesthetic differences? Can we treat Kingdom of Heaven, 300 and Thor indiscriminately as one genre? Are non-Western histories like Hero and Mongol epics, too? Finally, what precisely do we mean when we talk about the return of the epic film, and why are they back? The Return of the Epic Film offers a fresh way of thinking about a body of films which has dominated our screens for a decade. With contributions from top scholars in the field, the collection adopts a range of interdisciplinary perspectives to explore the epic film in the twenty-first century.