No Business Is An Island

The base for this book is 40 years of research on business relationships between companies evidencing the interactive features of the contemporary business world that have important consequences for management, policy and research.

The base for this book is 40 years of research on business relationships between companies evidencing the interactive features of the contemporary business world that have important consequences for management, policy and research.

Escape with Russ Manning, the Southeast's hiking expert, into the deep gorges and rock shelters that make this area a natural utopia. He has trekked along every trail and behind every waterfall, from Yahoo Falls to the Gentleman's Swimming Hole--in 100 Trails of the Big South Fork, he guides you to and trough the land's best of best!

Companies around the world turn to MIT's Jonathan Byrnes for one reason: he can figure out where the profit is. He shows them which customers and businesses are cash cows, and which efforts are just a drain on resources. Most astonishingly, in each case he finds that roughly 40% of his client's businesses are unprofitable. We are transitioning from an era of mass markets to the Age of Precision Markets. Before, companies sought to distribute their products as widely as possible using arm's-length customer relationships. Broad metrics like aggregate revenues and costs were adequate. But today companies form different relationships with different sets of customers. Successful businesses create competitive advantages and sustained profitability by developing innovative relationships and new types of value. This is a double-edged sword: if customers are matched with the right relationships, sales and profits soar...but if they are matched poorly, profitability plunges. Islands of Profit in a Sea of Red Ink tells you how to rethink your business for maximum profit - what to do, what difficulties you'll encounter, and how to overcome them. This book gives you the roadmap and tools you'll need to be a highly effective manager in a new era of business.

A rare and valuable jewelry piece is stolen from the Palm Beach mansion of a wealthy industrialist. The piece itself, called the “Eye of the Sun,” includes fragments of the famous Hope Diamond, rumored to be cursed. The industrialist asks his nephew, Greg, to find the lost treasure, with the assistance of private investigators Mike and Tina. The twisted trail of the Eye of the Sun leads up and down South Florida and over to San Juan, Puerto Rico, but finally ends at the mansion of a powerful drug dealer in the Bahamas. Greg uses his charm to befriend an attractive Cuban American named Flora, along with sly tipster Olivetti. With their help, Greg and his team steal the Eye of the Sun back. But just when he thinks his troubles are over, Greg begins to suspect the Hope Diamond curse to be true. He and anyone who comes into contact with the Eye of the Sun are on a downward spiral toward destruction. The only way to save their lives is to discover who stole the necklace in the first place—before it’s too late.