Author: Biz India

Author: David Wolman Publisher: Da Capo Press – 228 pages Book Review by:  Sonu Chandiram Money is a means of exchanging value that has been around not only for centuries of recorded history, but even before that. When cavemen hunted for animals as food to eat and survive, some of them likely had too much of the meat for themselves. Their fellow cavemen, who did not have any food, came up with some hard-to-find piece of stone or something to give in exchange for a piece of the meat. Everybody in the cave then accepted this form of exchange or barter for the sake of convenience. Over the centuries, pre-historic people began to ascribe value not only on pieces of smooth and shaped stone but on pieces bark, leaf or other items, then on some type of metal that was scarce and difficult to obtain from the ground. Over time, and through recorded history, the means of exchange became gold and silver. Paper currency followed due to easier handling, but it was first backed up with the gold and silver monarchs owned. Money today, as a form of exchange of value among people, continues to be represented in hundreds of colorful, printed rectangular pieces of paper (not backed up by gold) or on round or other shapes of metals with some value shown on them, in hundreds of countries...

Author: Diane Kress, RD, CDE Publisher: Da Capo-Lifelong Books – 352 pages Book Review by:  Paiso Jamakar The author Diane Kress cites data from the American Diabetes Association that an alarming number of Americans – some 105 million or about one-third of the current United States population of 313 million – have got either pre-diabetes (79 percent) or type 2 diabetes (26 percent). Of all diabetics in America, 95 percent have type 2 diabetes using oral medication for control. The other 5 percent have type 1 diabetes, requiring regular injections of insulin. Diabetes, excess weight, obesity and heart disease are related. Diane Kress reveals data from the American Heart Association which shows that between 1963 and 1970, some 4.5 percent of U.S. children (about one in twenty) were overweight. By 1980 that increased to 5.6 percent. Today in 2012, it has tripled to 17 percent: one in six children and adolescents aged 2 to 19 is not just overweight buy obese. A person is considered obese if one third of his or her body weight consists of fat. The author points out six factors that have increased the size of the obesity-diabetes epidemic in the U.S. The most alarming one of them is that Americans are consuming ever larger quantities of carbohydrate-dense foods, including portions served in fast-food restaurants and diners, of: bagels served with butter; large, dense buns;...

Authors: Reza Soudagar, Vinay Iyer and Dr. Volker G. Hildebrand Publisher: McGraw-Hill – 292 pages Book Review by: Sonu Chandiram The three authors of this work on developing an edge over other companies in making (or keeping) the customer happy and loyal have several things in common. They all have experience in customer relations management. They are all also familiar with CRM software. And all of them work at or are involved with the company SAP, which is a leader in worldwide financial applications. These days, for companies of all types and sizes, but particularly for large multinational firms, a significant challenge is growing their revenues and profits in the midst of intense competition. Since the advent of the Internet with increasing numbers of people online, the customer service role of large firms has been and continues to be outsourced to call centers in countries with large numbers of English-speaking job seekers. This presents both an opportunity (lower costs) and a challenge (availability of call center services to their competitors) to them. The dilemma for multinational companies in their efforts to make and keep customers happy has brought about these questions: Do we spend more money to provide a superior customer experience, or: Do we spend less to provide just-average customer service, so that our larger bottom lines become more easily achievable? This is the main issue that the...

Author: Doug Ingersoll Publisher: Alpha Publishing – 400 pages Book Review by Paiso Jamakar Believe it or not, but the author of this book has been visiting Walt Disney World for over 40 years and has made more than 100 trips there. If you have ever planned a trip to Disney World in (as it is called for short) in Orlando, Florida, it is bewildering. There is so much to see and do and there is just not enough time. It is not just the various combinations of tickets and schedules available. There’s other things to take care of such as your hotel accommodations, restaurants to go to, getting the most from your Disney dining dollars, including character meals, and much, much more. Which places to go to, and which not to because of lack of time? There’s the main theme park Magic Kingdom, of course. But there’s also Animal Kingdom, Epcot and Hollywood Studios as some of your other distinct choices. Then there are water parks. There are various hotels, night clubs, golf courses and water parks in the area. Which ones to go to stay at, enjoy at, play at? Is this going to be a family vacation, romantic honeymoon or a business convention trip with some fun on the side? You need to decide ahead what you want to do and what attractions you are going...

Author: Sarah Young Fisher and Susan Shelly Publisher: Alpha-Penguin Books. 381 pages Book Review by Paiso Jamakar When it comes to stock investing Warren Buffett does it very well. He holds the world’s recording for having the highest return on investment for the longest period of time. There are many investors who have had very high returns in stock investing, even higher than Buffett, for periods of time. But no one has beaten his long-term record. There are many factors that affect long-term returns (which I define as a decade or longer) on stocks, and way more factors that affect short-term returns (one to ten years). My view is that several important factors affect long-term returns on stock investments. Most have to do with the fundamental finances of the company. With short-term investments, I believe returns are affected more by buying behavior, including what may be called “misbehavior.” Warren Buffett takes advantage of buying misbehavior – when traders hammer down a stock’s price (into bargain-basement territory) based on over-reaction to some bad news, but it does not affect the company’s fundamentals. He buys stock in such otherwise good-fundaments companies at what he calls “attractive prices.” Then he holds most of his shares for a long time. He has been quoted as saying that he would hold some of stocks ‘forever.’ Sarah Young Fisher and Susan Shelly have done a...