companies

Selling to Big Companies
$15.95
Good meaty tips on specific communication tactics with corporate leaders. How to craft an effective email, an effective voicemail, an effective value proposition. Good useful information.

The Reduced Shakespeare Company - The Complete Works of William Shakespeare (Abridged)
$13.74
This is a great painless way to take another look at the Bard. For those of you that dreaded Shakespeare in school or loved it, this video manages to make it fun for everyone. There are moments when the actors truly give their all to the spirit to the Plays with terrific audience participation. I would have liked to have known that there is DVD of this performance available for purchase.

The Best of The Electric Company
$49.98
I loved Electric Company as a kid, and I am convinced that it helped me become a very early reader. Thirty-five years later my family acquired the DVD collection and were amazed to watch our four-year-old immediately start applying the lessons to words she encountered in everyday life (in books of course, but also often on street signs or commercial trucks). She remembered sound-and-letter-combinations like "ch" and "ow" and "ea" and used them with delight. Now she's in kindergarten and her teachers have mentioned that her peers have a lot of trouble with silent E, but not our little gal. She knows what turns a "cap" into a "cape," etc.!

I recommend this set to anyone and everyone, but especially to parents who themselves grew up with the Electric Company. It is so fun to hear songs and watch sketches that were long buried in the archive of my memory.

How the Mighty Fall CD: And Why Some Companies Never Give In
$43.99
The book does a good job at comparing companies in the past and present that have gone on separate paths based on the decisions they have made. This book is more of a financial history book but one of high level content. The focus is on companies that have fallen from great and what things brought along those falls. The author has a 5 stage timeline of how a company falls that seems a little elementary and kind of disregards the intangibles of small things that create opportunities for big things to occur.

I liked the example of Ames and Wal-Mart and how their paths met and then went in completely opposite directions. Other similar examples are shown. I like the discussion about Ames because I had one near my house growing up and I saw the changes that this book talks about. I also liked the part about Zenith electronics.

Overall, the book seems too much for what it provides and the research seems somewhat plain. 3/5.