Author: Biz India

Editors: Michael Brawn, Brad Edwards, Janet A. Harkness, Timothy P. Johnson, Lars Lyberg, Peter Ph. Mohler, Beth-Ellen Pennell and Tom W. Smith Publisher: Wiley – 599 pages Book Review by:  Paiso Jamakar With eight editors and 98 contributors to this work, this book of almost 600 pages provides extensive, pioneering and highly useful information on the problems and opportunities in the growing area of comparative surveys done in different countries.  Today, researchers’ common mission is to yield reliable data using the same survey methods. The editors point out that between June 25 and 28 in 2008, a first-of-its kind conference on multinational, multiregional and multicultural surveys was held at the Brandenburg Academy of Sciences and Humanities in Berlin. The focus of that event was on survey methodology for comparative research. Known in short as the 3MC conference, click on this link for more information on it: www.3mc2008.de/ We must remark that finally, the world is getting smaller in the academic arena, wherein people who experience the same problems in different nations come together to discuss them and find solutions. Among the purposes of this book according to its editors outlined in the Preface are: “to draw attention to recent important changes in the comparative methodology landscape, to identify new methodological research and to help point out the way forward in areas where research needs identified in earlier literature have...

Author: Mikiso Hane and Louis G. Perez Publisher:  Westview Press, A Member of the Perseus Book Group – 578 pages Book Review by:  Sonu Chandiram This book on the modern history of Japan is described by the coauthor Louis G. Perez as a ‘timeless classic.’ Much of the credit for this work, considered by historians as one of the best on Japanese history, goes to the late Mikiso Hane, who was a professor of history at Knox College. The two had worked together on previous editions. This improved and expanded fourth edition published in 2009 contains many of the changes that historians had suggested to Karl Yambert, the editor at Wiley who took the initiative of coming up with this updated version of the original work by Hane and Perez. The book also includes suggestions for improvements by students of Perez at Illinois State University. Some of the improvements in this edition are: removal of notes from the main narrative and transfer to the Appendix, which makes for easier reading and flow of thought; and a larger bibliography – 50 pages or about twice the size of Hane’s original work – for the benefit of those who want to learn more about Japan. Besides a useful 20-page index for those who want to do a quick search and reading on some topics, there are in this edition: a nearly...

Author: Mohan Nair Publisher: Wiley – 216 pages Book Review by:  Sonu Chandiram We have often read that the only thing permanent is change. When organizations do not adapt to changed circumstances, they wither and eventually die. More important than changing is observing new trends and changes going on around you, and then proactively seizing those trends as opportunities to grow your business. A very good example of an organization that ignored the ‘handwriting on the wall’ and kept on going about its ‘business-as-usual’ way is the U.S. Postal Service, which has been progressively losing more and more money for years, and lost about $8 billion in its last fiscal year despite its near-monopolistic position in the mailing business. Without taxpayer life support it would have been dead several years ago. Many wonder if it on the way to extinction. While more and more millions of individuals and companies paid bills online, faxed instead of mailed documents, used other couriers to send packages, the USPS was experiencing shrinking volume but did nothing to cut costs. And as more and more publishers of periodicals and books cut back their printing volumes and created online or e-versions, the taxpayer-subsidized USPS went on about its ailing business, assured that the U.S. Congress will continue to cover its mounting losses. But private companies do not have the luxury of tax subsidies and depend...