Although Census and BLS data can be freely downloaded, this product provides current year estimates and forecasts and integrates data from a wide range of sources into a unified database with software that makes it simple for the novice and experienced researcher to create customized maps and reports. Millennial students, who tend to be visual learners, may even have fun completing their marketing assignments with this innovative product. Public librarians will be thanked by their users for adding this resource that produces professional-quality thematic maps and reports.–Peter McKay, University of Florida, Gainsville
Other Noteworthy Titles
Anatomy of a Business: What It Is, What It Does, and How It Works. By Sasha Galbraith. Westport, Conn.: Greenwood, 2007. 307p. $75 (ISBN: 0-313-33793-4).
Sasha Galbraith, a partner with Jay R. Galbraith Management Consultants, has scored a hit with this refreshingly different reference book. Greenwood Press sought out an author to write a basic business book with “attitude” aimed at high schoolers, undergraduates, and lay people. This is not an encyclopedia with dozens of entries; rather its twelve chapters explain the essential functions of business operations, punctuated with cartoons and pithy quotes. Before one even gets into the first sentence, Oscar Wilde reminds us that “work is the curse of the drinking classes.” Let the attitude begin!
Galbraith moves the reader quickly from the barter system to financial spread sheets. Your old history texts never had chapter subheadings such as “Trader As Raider” to explain the commerce of the Vikings, the Crusades, and the Mongols. Michael Dell sets the stage for the business strategy chapter by saying, “I believe that you have to understand the economics of a business before you have a strategy, and you have to understand your strategy before you have a structure. If you get these in the wrong order, you will probably fail.” Other chapters focus on leadership, finance and accounting, marketing, sales, MIS, human resources, supply chain, research and development, and other staff functions. “A Day in the Life” section is useful for career guidance. There also is a career resource section in the appendix.
Special features, such as a table listing major marketing blunders, keep the book interesting. Business concepts are clearly explained and boiled down to their essence. In the finance and accounting chapter, the author walks the reader through an income statement and balance sheet. Table, charts, and graphs are visually clean. Chapters end with a list of select Internet resources. A short list of common abbreviations is included at the beginning of the book, and a glossary is found at the end.
The appendix includes chapter notes that cite Philip Kotler, Jack Welch, Michael Porter, and others. The work ends with an annotated bibliography, and a detailed index connects readers to more precise terms, names, and concepts. The book is so engaging that readers may be in danger of reading more topics than necessary. Does it have a great glossary–no; does it have the most extensive articles–no. It’s just a great basic business reference book that also could serve as an introduction to business for librarians who provide business reference service but have no business background.–Chris LeBeau, University of Missouri/University of Missouri-Kansas City