A study by MCI found that most professionals believe that over 50 percent of meeting time is wasted. More than 90 percent admit to daydreaming in meetings, 73 percent have brought other work, and 39 percent have fallen asleep. You might think that there would be fewer meetings. However, in the survey 46 percent said they attended more meetings than a year ago. Meetings cost time and money. Many meetings end with no results or outcome. How can you be sure you are using your time and money effectively? The answer: with proper training. Even MBA graduates have never had a course in how to plan, organize, and present an effective meeting. That is the subject of this new book which will teach the proper skills and training to get great results with every meeting, every time! You will learn the checklists for planning your meeting, setting the agenda, strategic planning, how the physical setting can be improved, how to properly open a meeting, handling difficult people and maintaining control, how to assess and evaluate your meetings, and the correct method to end a meeting. Good meetings do not just happen, they are planned and created.

Strengthen your competitive advantage with a flawless corporate strategy

How to Plan and Execute Strategy provides you with 24 practical steps for creating, implementing, and managing market-defining, growth-driving strategies. Encompassing every stage of the strategic process, this tactic-filled handbook shares exactly what you need to know in order to:

This is the second edition of Peter Fusco's acclaimed guide on how to design and execute a winning political campaign with 30 new pages on the Internet and how to use it in your campaign. Culled from his 32 years of political involvement, RUNNING is 300+ pages of no-nonsense how-to. It isn't rocket science. It is war, intrigue, subtlety, gentility, coarseness and barbarism all wrapped in a determined drive to the finish line. It is politics, and this is a guide to becoming victorious in its greatest challenge, running for office. With RUNNING, you will be able to answer the following questions: Should I run for office? How much money will I need? How do I raise the money? How do I use the Internet to raise money and run an effective cyber-campaign? How do I write that big speech? What talking points will be most effective, and how do I develop them? What media should I buy, and when should I buy it? When is it smart to go negative? How do I determine who is persuadable? How do I get my message to them? Should I spend any money on newspaper ads? How do I calculate the performance of a voting district? What do I wear to the big Bar-B-Q? Everything you need to know and understand, and so much more is in RUNNING. This is the book you need. It relegates all others to the "someday" pile. RUNNING is how you win, and RUNNING shows you how.

• Hardcover Nonfiction

Webinars are powerful business tools and an excellent way to communicate. But a Webinar is more than just a phone call with more than two people, or a video chat on a tiny screen. For example, you can have hundreds of people across the world listening to your words and watching your powerpoint. Webinars are easy to do well, but with some tips and guidance, you can make your Webinars excellent.

Webinars are powerful business tools and an excellent way to communicate. But a Webinar is more than just a phone call with more than two people, or a video chat on a tiny screen. For example, you can have hundreds of people across the world listening to your words and watching your powerpoint. Webinars are easy to do well, but with some tips and guidance, you can make your Webinars excellent.

With shortened business cycles, increased competition, and rapidly changing technologies, companies need to be more nimble than ever. They must narrow the gap between strategy formulation and operation execution to guarantee success. The Strategy Gap will provide a framework that senior financial managers can use to ensure that their strategies are implemented successfully and that their corporations remain competitive. Filled with informative case studies and best practices for optimum financial processes, this valuable resource will help managers leverage information technology to successfully implement corporate strategies. This book also shows managers how to eliminate surprises in poorly managed or unforeseen activities, while applying new approaches to financial management for faster and more accurate business modeling. Expert advice from those who have used these strategies clearly explains how to integrate planning, budgeting, consolidation, and reporting into one cohesive management system.

Michael Coveney is senior director of strategy management and spearheads Comshare's successful best practices consultancy, helping enterprises improve the efficiency and effectiveness of their corporate performance management processes.

Brian Hartlen is Senior Vice President of Marketing for Comshare, Incorporated, a leading provider of software that helps companies implement and execute strategy.

Dave King, PhD, is Comshare's Senior Vice President of Product Development and Chief Technology Officer.

Dennis Ganster is Chairman, President and CEO of Comshare, Inc.