The ability to recognize patterns, trends, and significant data is second nature to economists – but you need to be trained to see these patterns through careful explanation, real-world examples, and a lot of problems. If you want to really understand microeconomics and to be able to interpret real-life markets, the solution lies in the process of working through problems and making discoveries. That’s why hands-on problem solving plays such an essential role in Besanko and Braeutigam’s Microeconomics, 2nd Edition.

Learning-by-Doing problems show you how it’s done.

Each chapter features a number of worked examples that provide a step-by-step roadmap for setting up and solving numerical problems. Each Learning-by-Doing problem correlates to similar practice problems at the end of the chapter.

End-of-chapter problems provide many opportunities to practice.

This Second Edition features many new problems (for a total of 20-25 problems per chapter). The problems range in level from easy to challenging and allow you to see the same topic from multiple angles. Fully worked solutions to a selection of these problems are included at the end of the text.

Extensive real-world applications make microeconomics relevant.

This edition features more than 100 applications throughout the book. These contemporary applications are all drawn from current events or recent microeconomics research, and make the abstract theory come alive.

"Outstanding…classicclear illustrations aboundan exceedingly thorough, accurate, and up-to-date volume." (The Quarterly Review of Biology)

"A delightful book to read…I would recommend this book highlyfor any who seek to understand the biochemical basis of disease" (Annals of Clinical Biochemistry)

"…I believe this text fills an important niche, and in that niche it is very well done…a very useful text for those going into medicine.” (Biochemistry and Molecular Education, July-August 2002)

"a comprehensive biochemistry booknew material in key areas justifies the new edition" (Doody's Health, April 19, 2002)

"There are numerous good textbooks available for general biochemistry, but medical, pharmacy, and other health professional students often question the relevance of the extensive coverage given tosimpler organismsDevlin's textbook fills the needs of these students, with its strong emphasis on human biochemistryan excellent choice for a pharmaceutical or medical biochemistry course." (Journal of Medicinal Chemistry, Vol. 45, No. 11)

"This is a welcome and relatively inexpensive volume for students of biochemistry and especially those involved with clinical biochemistry".(Cell Biochemistry & Function, June 2003)

Annals of Clinical Biochemistry
"A delightful book to read. I would recommend this book highlyfor any who seek to understand the biochemical basis of disease"

Built to Last identifies 18 "visionary" companies and sets out to determine what's special about them. To get on the list, a company had to be world famous, have a stellar brand image, and be at least 50 years old. We're talking about companies that even a layperson knows to be, well, different: the Disneys, the Wal-Marts, the Mercks.

Whatever the key to the success of these companies, the key to the success of this book is that the authors don't waste time comparing them to business failures. Instead, they use a control group of "successful-but-second-rank" companies to highlight what's special about their 18 "visionary" picks. Thus Disney is compared to Columbia Pictures, Ford to GM, Hewlett Packard to Texas Instruments, and so on.

The core myth, according to the authors, is that visionary companies must start with a great product and be pushed into the future by charismatic leaders. There are examples of that pattern, they admit: Johnson & Johnson, for one. But there are also just too many counterexamples--in fact, the majority of the "visionary" companies, including giants like 3M, Sony, and TI, don't fit the model. They were characterized by total lack of an initial business plan or key idea and by remarkably self-effacing leaders. Collins and Porras are much more impressed with something else they shared: an almost cult-like devotion to a "core ideology" or identity, and active indoctrination of employees into "ideologically commitment" to the company.

The comparison with the business "B"-team does tend to raise a significant methodological problem: which companies are to be counted as "visionary" in the first place? There's an air of circularity here, as if you achieve "visionary" status by achieving visionary status. So many roads lead to Rome that the book is less practical than it might appear. But that's exactly the point of an eloquent chapter on 3M. This wildly successful company had no master plan, little structure, and no prima donnas. Instead it had an atmosphere in which bright people were both keen to see the company succeed and unafraid to "try a lot of stuff and keep what works." --Richard Farr --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From Library Journal
What makes a visionary company? This book, written by a team from Stanford's Graduate School of Business, compares what the authors have identified as "visionary" companies with selected companies in the same industry. The authors juxtapose Disney and Columbia Pictures, Ford and General Motors, Motorola and Zenith, and Hewlett-Packard and Texas Instruments, to name a few. The visionary companies, the authors found out, had a number of common characteristics; for instance, almost all had some type of core ideology that guided the company in times of upheaval and served as a constant bench mark. Not all the visionary companies were founded by visionary leaders, however. On the whole, this is an intriguing book that occasionally provides rare and interesting glimpses into the inner workings and philosophical foundations of successful businesses. Recommended for all libraries.
Randy L. Abbott, Univ. of Evansville Lib., Ind.
Copyright 1994 Reed business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.