The Marketing Pathfinder

Dozens of lively international case studies that help readers put core marketing principles in a real-world context From market research to positioning and brand management to customer relations, marketing is the engine that drives innovation and growth in the modern business organization. This latest addition to the acclaimed Pathfinder series, like its popular predecessor, The Strategy Pathfinder, features a unique blend of core concepts and brief, international case studies. A refreshing contrast to traditional marketing texts and references, which tend to be prescriptive and directive, The Marketing Pathfinder offers professionals and marketing students alike an effective way to contextualize the marketing decisions they'll make in the real world of business. Not another one-size-fits-all marketing toolkit, The Marketing Pathfinder functions as a dynamic, interactive resource Each chapter presents a set of core concepts, frameworks, and tools, followed by five or more short, lively international case studies illustrating how the concepts and tools can be applied in the real world The case studies are specifically designed to encourage readers to pursue additional independent research and to encourage them to articulate and defend their decisions Throughout, the emphasis is on the reader as a marketing professional in the thick of it and responsible for the decisions they make

The latest in the Pathfinder series, The Marketing Pathfinder, like its predecessor The Strategy Pathfinder with its unique combination of key concepts and micro-cases, is a refreshing contrast to traditional marketing textbooks, which are prescriptive and directive. Instead this book offers students and executives an effective way of contextualizing the marketing decisions they will make in the business world.

This NAO report examines the Government programme of Housing Market Renewal, established to tackle problems of acute low housing demand in the North of England and the Midlands. Neighbourhood decline and deprivation has resulted where there are high concentrations of properties that are difficult to let or sell, where there is a loss of population and an inability to attract new households. Nine new sub-regional partnerships or "pathfinders" were set up, with considerable freedom in determining their approach to low housing demand. The NAO has set out a number of recommendations, including: the Department of Communities and Local Government should clarify arrangements for the delivery of the Housing Market Renewal programme alongside local authority housing market assessments; the Department should also clarify the role of Government Offices in helping to support regional delivery as well as the terms of reference for both Government Offices and the Department in matters of leadership, oversight and monitoring of the programme; the Department should be clearer about its expectations for the renewal programme's contribution to delivering non-housing regeneration, such as better schools, transport and neighbourhood management; that any Housing Market Renewal demolition schemes are based on up-to-date market analysis; the Department should also clarify how it is expected to achieve alignment with regional strategies for higher housing growth; the Department should also develop the performance framework, including value for money indicators and that there should be a comparison of outcomes between low demand areas subject to Housing Market Renewal and those low demand areas that are not.

The privately rented housing market has largely catered for young, mobile people and students since it was deregulated in the UK. In this volume, key writers provide timely insights into this rapidly evolving market. This volume is based on new, original research which brings together specialists in housing policy and legal studies, with their common and increasingly interdependent knowledge base about the privately rented sector and its future direction. The collection opens with an overview of the historical context and recent changes to the sector, such as the rapid and continued expansion of the buy-to-let market, followed by a discussion of the factors shaping the contemporary market. The contributors show how the new regulatory environment is opening a series of issues with significant potential to affect (and potentially damage) the market. The volume will interest academics and students in social and public policy, law and housing studies, as well as law practices and housing authorities.

An initial public offering (IPO) is one of the most significant events in corporate life. It follows months, even years of preparation. During the boom years of the late 1990s bull market, IPOs of growth companies captured the imagination and pocketbooks of investors like never before. This book goes behind the scenes to examine the process of an offering from the decision to go public to the procedures of a subsequent equity offering. The book is written from the perspective of an experienced investment banker describing the hows and whys of IPOs and subsequent equity issues. Each aspect of an IPO is illustrated with plenty of international examples pitched alongside relevant academic research to offer a combination of theoretical rigour and practical application. Topics covered are: - the decision to go public - legal and regulatory aspects of an offering; marketing and research - valuation and pricing - allocations of shares to investors - examination of fees and commissions * Global perpective: UK, European and US practices, regulations and examples, and case studies * First hand experience written by an IPO trader with academic rigour * Includes the changes in the market that resulted from 1998-2000 equity boom

This report considers the case for Parliament to be able to initiate and conduct inquiries into serious and significant matters of public concern. It takes up the recommendationmade by this committiee's predecessor Committee (in the Government by Inquiry Report) that there should be a parliamentary mechanism for initiating inquiries. These would take the form of Parliamentary Commissions of Inquiry, composed of parliamentarians and others. In the Report, the committee examines the justification for creating Parliamentary Commissions of Inquiry in particular, that they would enable Parliament to hold the Executive to account more effectively. Then it covers some of the practical issues involved in setting up inquiries of this nature: how Parliament could instigate an inquiry, its composition, and its operation and powers. The committee concludes that it is crucial, in constitutional sense, that Parliament has the necessary powers and abilities to scrutinise the Executive and hold it to account. Proper parliamentary scrutiny should include the ability to establish and undertake inquiries into significant matters of public concern. Parliament has, in the past, conducted investigationsof this kind and as the great forum of the nation, should be expected to do so. The committee's recommendation for Parliamentary Commissions of Inquiry would promoteeffective parliamentary accountability by creating a process for Parliament to initiate inquirieswhere it rather than the Executive sees fit.