- Table View
- List View
Focus Financial Partners and the U.S. RIA Industry in 2014
by Luis M. Viceira Emily A. ChienIn the Spring of 2014, Rudy Adolf, CEO and founder of Focus Financial, and the two other co-founders of the firm are considering alternative growth strategies to solidify Focus Financial's position as a leading aggregator of independent wealth management firms in the U.S. Focus has grown from $3.5B in client assets at its inception in 2006 to over $70B in 2014 and it has acquired more than 30 RIA (Registered Investment Advisor) firms, capitalizing on a secular shift in investors' preferences from a traditional product and commission-driven brokerage model to a fiduciary, fee-based client advice model. <p><p> Since the 1970's, independent SEC registered investment advisors (RIAs) have been a growing segment of U.S. wealth managers, steadily winning market share from the dominant, traditional wirehouse broker-dealers. But, with more than $1.4 trillion in assets under management in 2013, the RIA industry is also at a crossroads, with aging advisors with limited succession plans and limited access to capital to fund intergenerational transfers, rising compliance and regulatory complexity, competition from new advice delivery models, and fragmentation. The case examines the RIA business model, the opportunities for growth through consolidation in this industry, and the competitive landscape in the wealth management aggregator sector through the lenses Focus Financial business model, its acquisition and M&A model for RIAs, and its wirehouse breakaway programs. The case examines Focus Financial strategy in the face of rising competition, potential growth paths, and IPO scenarios. <p> The case presents opportunities for students to explore similarities and differences between the broker-dealer and the RIA retail wealth management business models, strategies for growth and consolidation in the retail wealth management business, and issues related to incentives, organization and valuation of retail wealth management businesses.
Focus Groups: Supporting Effective Product Development
by Deana McDonagh Joe LangfordThe focus group is widely used to as a tool for increasing the understanding of users and their requirements, and identifying potential solutions for these requirements. Its main value lies in the conveyance of less tangible information that cannot be obtained using more traditional methods. Eliciting user needs beyond the functional is crucial for
Focus Like a Laser Beam
by Keith Ferrazzi Haneberg Lisa L.In Focus Like a Laser Beam, acclaimed management consultant and business blogger Lisa Haneberg offers business leaders a new way to direct their focus that, like a laser beam, is direct, fast, and on track. The book offers leaders ways to improve energy and engagement in the workplace and redirect how people communicate at work. Focus Like a Laser Beam is filled with useful suggestions for dealing with distractions and diversions and outlines the ten practices that will help leaders focus on what's most important. Know and feel the power of laser focus Get connected with your employees Have fun and be fun Relax to energize Turn meetings into focus sessions Invite a challenge Huddle Stop multitasking and put your focus where it belongs Do one great thing Let go of outdated goals, projects, and tasks
Focus and Leverage: The Critical Methodology for Theory of Constraints, Lean, and Six Sigma (TLS)
by Bruce Nelson Bob SproullMost books about continuous and process improvement are written in a textbook format with straightforward information and plenty of graphs and charts to convey the points being made. Sometimes, even the best step-by-step instructions can escape even the most adamant of followers for an improvement method in determining exactly how to apply what the
Focus on Impact: The 10-Step Map to Reach Millions, Make Millions and Love Your Life Along the Way
by Wendy Lipton-DibnerNever in the history of capitalism has there been a greater need for a shift in business focus. Consumers are cynical, skeptical and cautious, opening a new opportunity for difference-makers. We need to move away from the traditional money-driven business focus and focus all product design, marketing and delivery on making an immediate and lasting impact on people&’s lives. This how-to manual provides proven strategies to build and grow any retail or service business that&’s focused on impact with step-by-step, proven formulas to make it happen.
Focus on Personal Finance: An Active Approach to Help You Achieve Financial Literacy
by Jack R. Kapoor Les R. Dlabay Robert J. Hughes Melissa M. HartFocus on Personal Finance is a brief, 14-chapter text covering the critical topics in Personal Finance courses. Focus is designed and written to appeal to a range of ages, life situations, and financial literacy levels. As the Kapoor author team prepared this edition, they worked hard to include important content in every chapter you can use to develop a plan to build financial security and weather another pandemic, an unexpected job loss, or unexpected life situations. A unique aspect of this text is its active approach. This text will get your students thinking about their current situation and financial goals and encourage them to put these in writing to use as a guide and revise throughout their lives. Sections are oriented around specific action items for students. The more a student involves themselves in the assessments, exercises, and worksheets provided, the more they will discover about their current habits and how to improve them for greater financial freedom. Students have many different financial goals, but none are more important than having a basic understanding of financial issues and peace of mind about their decisions. The ultimate goal of Focus on Personal Finance is to get students to this point as a first step to achieving the many financial goals they have set for themselves.
Focus on Personal Finance: An Active Approach to Help You Achieve Financial Literacy (Fifth Edition)
by Jack R. Kapoor Les R. Dlabay Robert J. Hughes Melissa M. HartStudents have many different financial goals, but none are more important than having a basic understanding of financial issues and peace of mind with regard to their decisions. The ultimate goal of Focus on Personal Finance is to get students to this point as a first step to achieving the many financial goals they have set for themselves.
Focus on Retirement
by The Staff Wall Street JournalSeveral times a year, The Wall Street Journal publishes Special Reports about active living for those fifty-five and older. And with the number of older Americans at an estimated 45 million and growing, it's no wonder these reports are one of the most popular features of both the print and the interactive versions of the Journal. Here, in Focus on Retirement, is the best of these Special Reports. As you might expect from the nation's preeminent business publication, here are tips on how you can stretch your retirement income, when you should pay your estate taxes, and how many players you really need on your financial team. Here are the best stories from the popular If You're Thinking of Retiring In... feature, medical news on combating heart disease and other illnesses, and ideas on what to do with all that free time. In Focus on Retirement you will Meet Barbara Barrie, a 68-year-old actress who has turned her battle against colorectal cancer into a crusade for public awareness; Ride the rails with Ira Lomench, who organized an 18-day transcontinental charter train trip for a few friends; Investigate Sun City Huntley, an active-adult community 45 miles from Chicago that boasts a golf course and a 94,000-square-foot lodge with health club and lounges; and Join the annual national reunion of the Knickerbocker clan in Schaghticoke, New York, advertised on the family website. Collected and presented here for the first time in e-book format, Focus on Retirement is a searchable, portable, and hugely valuable resource from the award-winning staff of The Wall Street Journal.
Focus: How to Plan Strategy and Improve Execution to Achieve Growth
by Vikas Mittal Shrihari SridharThis book assesses the strategy challenges faced by executives in formulating strategy and driving execution. The authors present seven inhibitors of strategy effectiveness in companies large and small as well as seven actionable research-based strategy enablers to fine tune execution and rally all the stakeholders in a unified direction.By reading this book, you will find answers to the following:What is the state of strategy formulation and execution in companies like mine?Why is the strategy process so frustrating and difficult, and how can it be simplified?How can senior executives on my team meaningfully improve strategy planning and execution to grow sales and profit?How can my company hold the strategy planning process to account? If you are looking for guidance on leading your organization’s strategy and execution for sales and profit growth, this book will serve as a valuable resource for becoming more effective at strategy formulation.
Focus: The Future Of Your Company Depends On It
by Al RiesWhat's the secret to a company's continued growth and prosperity? Internationally known marketing expert Al Ries has the answer: focus. His commonsense approach to business management is founded on the premise that long-lasting success depends on focusing on core products and eschewing the temptation to diversify into unrelated enterprises. Using real-world examples, Ries shows that in industry after industry, it is the companies that resist diversification, and focus instead on owning a category in consumers' minds, that dominate their markets. He offers solid guidance on how to get focused and how to stay focused, laying out a workable blueprint for any company's evolution that will increase market share and shareholder value while ensuring future success.
Focus: The Hidden Driver of Excellence
by Daniel GolemanThe author of the international bestseller Emotional Intelligence returns with a groundbreaking look at today's scarcest resource and the secret to high performance and fulfillment: attention. For more than two decades, psychologist and journalist Daniel Goleman has been scouting the leading edge of the human sciences for what's new, surprising, and important. In Focus, he delves into the science of attention in all its varieties, presenting a long-overdue discussion of this little-noticed and underrated mental asset that matters enormously for how we navigate life. Attention works much like a muscle: use it poorly and it can wither; work it well and it grows. In an era of unstoppable distractions, Goleman persuasively argues that now more than ever we must learn to sharpen focus if we are to contend with, let alone thrive in, a complex world. Goleman analyzes attention research as a threesome: inner, other, and outer focus. A well-lived life demands that we be nimble at each. Goleman shows why high-performers need all three kinds of focus, as demonstrated by rich case studies from fields as diverse as competitive sports, education, the arts, and business. Those who excel rely on what Goleman calls smart practice—such as mindfulness meditation, focused preparation and recovery from setbacks, continued attention to the learning curve, and positive emotions and connections—that help them improve habits, add new skills, and sustain excellence. Combining cutting-edge research with practical findings, Focus reveals what distinguishes experts from amateurs and stars from average performers. Ultimately, Focus calls upon readers not only to pay attention to what matters most to them personally, but also to turn their attention to the pressing problems of the wider world, to the powerless and the poor, and to the future, not just to the seductively simple demands of the here and now.
Focused Equipment Improvement for TPM Teams (The\shopfloor Ser.)
by Japan Institute of Plant MaintenanceAs distinguished from autonomous maintenance, where the main goal is to restore basic conditions of cleanliness, lubrication, and proper fastening to prevent accelerated deterioration, FEI looks at specific losses or design weaknesses that everyone previously thought they just had to live with. Once your TPM operator teams are progressing with their daily autonomous maintenance activities, you will want to take the next advanced step in TPM training with this book. Key Features: a simple and powerful introduction to P-M Analysis hints for unraveling breakdown analysis numerous ideas for simplifying and shortening setups ideas for eliminating minor stoppages and speed losses basic concepts of building quality into processing real-life examples from a leading Japanese tool company
Focused Factory
by C. Wickham SkinnerU.S. business considers the "productivity crisis" a competition problem. One solution to the problem is the use of the "focused" factory system to increase productivity. This type of plant concentrates on performing a couple of manufacturing tasks extremely well. Overhead costs are lower and quality higher than in the typical factory. Current high factory costs are a result of "professionalism" in the plant and product proliferation. A manufacturing focus can be achieved through explicitly outlining corporate strategy, translating this strategy into manufacturing functions, examining the product system carefully, and reorganizing the system to produce a "congruent" focus.
Focused Fundraising: How to Raise Your Sights and Overcome Overload
by Christopher M. Cannon Michael FelberbaumMaintain your focus, your productivity, and your sanity in the contemporary fundraising environment In Focused Fundraising: How to Raise Your Sights and Overcome Overload, accomplished nonprofit management strategists and leaders Christopher Cannon and Michael Felberbaum deliver a must-read combination of the latest mindfulness techniques and operational strategies that will equip you to succeed in an increasingly chaotic, noisy, and confusing fundraising environment. You&’ll find concrete strategies to navigate the challenges of modern fundraising, including technology changes, scarce resources, and shifting donor expectations. In the book, you&’ll also find: Hands-on skills for sharpening your focus while those around you are giving in to endless distractions An insightful combination of big-picture views and micro-considerations that offer a practical roadmap to set and stick with your priorities Practical applications of tried and true mindfulness and nonprofit strategy research that you can implement immediately in your organizationAn essential, desk-side resource for nonprofit board members, managers, leaders, and team members, Focused Fundraising is a one-of-a-kind toolbox designed to help you tackle the challenges you face every day.
Focused Quality: Managing for Results
by Paul MurphyFocused Quality: Managing for Results is a book about using quality improvement as a means to enhance bottom line results. Written for managers in industry, services, healthcare and government, this important new book provides a focused approach on how to target critical improvement initiatives and insure their success.Prepare - Plan - Deploy - Transition are the steps in the improvement process that are covered in detail. Included are examples of how organizations have successfully accomplished each step. Practical lessons on how to and how not to implement quality and process improvement initiatives are given.Process assessment is crucial to identifying the importance of a process and defining the scope of what is involved in order to improve it. Before deciding to refine, redesign or reengineer an assessment is needed. Focused Quality: Managing for Results not only shows you how to do an assessment but also how to apply the results to improve the bottom line.Application is emphasized throughout the book with the focus on the managers role in leading the change effort. The authors have provided a set of questions that management should answer to determine if their organization is ready to effectively implement the improvement process. Realizing that even the best plans can go astray there is also a diagnostic check sheet to pinpoint the causes of and solutions for process improvement failures.
Focused: The Prepared to Win Mindset
by JJ MosesThe creator of the #1 professional and personal development program in professional sports reveals his winning playbook for unleashing your God-given potential.At 5'6" and from a small town in Iowa, JJ Moses recognized that his childhood dream of playing in the NFL was a long shot. To overcome the overwhelming odds, he knew he needed to be prepared for any opportunity God sent his way. Still, it took a disappointing start to his college football career for a switch to finally flip. What followed was the creation of an integrative method so trailblazing and effective that it propelled him to seemingly impossible heights of success. In fact, Moses not only became a seasoned pro on the gridiron&’s grandest stage, but he also realized that the same process he used to get a competitive edge could help others embrace their own winning mindset. When his playing days were over, Moses brought the &“Prepare to Win&” program to his former NFL team&’s front office, where it quickly evolved into the league&’s gold standard curriculum for motivating players to exceed their potential and become effective leaders. Thoughtfully weaving professional insight with emotional and spiritual guidance, Moses has now tailored his step-by-step strategy for a wide audience, unlocking the previously untold secrets to consistent high performance. As much for aspiring leaders as experienced executives, Focused is the blueprint for taking yourself, your team, and your community to the next level.
Focusing on Children's Health: Community Approaches to Addressing Health Disparities - Workshop Summary
by Institute of MedicineSocioeconomic conditions are known to be major determinants of health at all stages of life, from pregnancy through childhood and adulthood. "Life-course epidemiology" has added a further dimension to the understanding of the social determinants of health by showing an association between early-life socioeconomic conditions and adult health-related behaviors, morbidity, and mortality. Sensitive and critical periods of development, such as the prenatal period and early childhood, present significant opportunities to influence lifelong health. Yet simply intervening in the health system is insufficient to influence health early in the life course. Community-level approaches to affect key determinants of health are also critical. Many of these issues were raised in the 1995 National Academies book, http://www.nap.edu/catalog.php?record_id=10886 Children's Health, the Nation's Wealth. The present volume builds upon this earlier book with presentations and examples from the field. Focusing on Children's Health describes the evidence linking early childhood life conditions and adult health; discusses the contribution of the early life course to observed racial and ethnic disparities in health; and highlights successful models that engage both community factors and health care to affect life course development.
Focusing on Organizational Change
by William Q. Judge Jr.Never before have strategic leaders been confronted with so much overwhelming change. The traditional approach taken by the leader or leaders is to direct or control the organization's reaction on a monthly, weekly, or even daily basis. This approach is stressful and overwhelming for executive leaders, makes middle managers feel torn between honoring their senior leaders and listening to the demands of frontline employees, and is alienating for frontline employees. This approach is hardly a prescription for the pursuit of excellence, and does not enable the organization to be sufficiently agile or nimble to cope with the "white water" conditions in which the organization typically finds itself. This book offers an alternative to the traditional approach by focusing on building the change capacity of the entire organization in anticipation of future pressures to change. An organization's capacity for change is an eight-dimensional dynamic capability of an organization or organizational unit to successfully adapt to the changing organization-environment interface. In change-capable organizations, the strategic leader's role is more of an architect or designer of the organization in anticipation of oncoming change, rather than a commander or controller reacting to change. This approach unleashes the organization's creative potential while maintaining accountability, clarifies the roles of each and every employee in the change process while enhancing organizational flexibility, aligns organizational systems to facilitate change, and builds the organization's leadership pipeline for the future. Based on systematic research of more than 5,000 respondents working within more than 200 organization or organizational units conducted during the previous decade, this book offers a clear and proven method for diagnosing your organizational change capacity. Building on my previous consulting experience and anecdotal evidence, you will also learn how to enhance your organization's change capacity. While building organizational change capacity is not fast or easy, it is essential for effective leadership and organizational survival in the 21st century. This book provides guidance on how to do that essential work in the new millennium.
Fog Computing: Concepts, Frameworks and Technologies
by Zaigham MahmoodThis authoritative text/reference describes the state of the art of fog computing, presenting insights from an international selection of renowned experts. A particular focus is provided on development approaches, architectural mechanisms, and measurement metrics for building smart adaptable environments. The coverage also includes important related topics such as device connectivity, security and interoperability, and communication methods.Topics and features: introduces the core concepts and principles of fog computing, and reviews the latest research and best practice relating to fog/edge environments; discusses the vision for an Internet of Things (IoT) in terms of fog computing and other related distributed computing paradigms, such as cloud computing; presents a survey of the key issues and broader aspects of the fog paradigm, as well as the factors that affect adoption of fog computing; examines frameworks and methodologies for fog-based architecture design, improving performance, and measuring quality of experience; proposes tools and methodologies for analyzing large amounts of sensor data from smart city initiatives; describes approaches for designing robust services, management of data-intensive applications, context-aware data analysis, and vehicular networking; identifies potential future research directions and technological innovations in relation to distributed computing environments such as the IoT.This enlightening volume offers essential perspectives for researchers of distributed computing and computer networking, as well as for advanced undergraduate and graduate students pursuing interests in this area. Professional engineers seeking to enhance security and connectivity in their IoT systems will also find this work to be a valuable reference.
Fog Data Analytics for IoT Applications: Next Generation Process Model with State of the Art Technologies (Studies in Big Data #76)
by Sudeep TanwarThis book discusses the unique nature and complexity of fog data analytics (FDA) and develops a comprehensive taxonomy abstracted into a process model. The exponential increase in sensors and smart gadgets (collectively referred as smart devices or Internet of things (IoT) devices) has generated significant amount of heterogeneous and multimodal data, known as big data. To deal with this big data, we require efficient and effective solutions, such as data mining, data analytics and reduction to be deployed at the edge of fog devices on a cloud. Current research and development efforts generally focus on big data analytics and overlook the difficulty of facilitating fog data analytics (FDA). This book presents a model that addresses various research challenges, such as accessibility, scalability, fog nodes communication, nodal collaboration, heterogeneity, reliability, and quality of service (QoS) requirements, and includes case studies demonstrating its implementation. Focusing on FDA in IoT and requirements related to Industry 4.0, it also covers all aspects required to manage the complexity of FDA for IoT applications and also develops a comprehensive taxonomy.
Fojtasek Companies and Heritage Partners--March 1995
by Josh Lerner Samuel L. HayesThe Fojtasek Companies, a family business, faces several financing choices to address generational succession issues. Several buyouts have expressed interest in acquiring the firm outright; an investment bank has proposed a leveraged recapitalization; and a private equity group, Heritage Partners, has proposed a hybrid transaction.
Fokus Personalentwicklung
by Christine Böckelmann Karl MäderFokus Personalentwicklung’ ist ein Handbuch zu allen wichtigen Aspekten von Personalentwicklung im Bildungsbereich. Leserinnen und Leser finden darin klar und verständlich aufbereitetes Grundlagenwissen sowie auf die Schule abgestimmte praxisrelevante Konzepte, Instrumente und Anregungen: Das Werk zeigt Bezüge zwischen Personal-, Team-, Organisations- und Unterrichtsentwicklung auf.Es thematisiert Personalentwicklung als Führungsinstrument und beleuchtet wichtige Hintergrundaspekte zu Arbeit, Gesundheit und Berufslaufbahnen.Es beschreibt anschaulich, was unter einem Personalentwicklungskonzept für Schulen zu verstehen ist und welche Instrumente sich in welcher Form für den Bildungsbereich eignen. Personalentwicklung ist ein zentraler Eckpfeiler für eine gelingende Schulentwicklung und gleichzeitig eine große Herausforderung. Das Buch bietet bei der praktischen Umsetzung eine essenzielle Unterstützung für alle Schulleiterinnen und Schulleiter sowie Lehrkräfte, Dozierende an Hochschulen, Beratungsfachleute und Mitarbeitende von Bildungsverwaltungen. Des Weiteren enthält es einen profilierten Gastbeitrag von Prof. Dr. Karlheinz Sonntag, einem der bedeutendsten Arbeits- und Organisationspsychologen im Bereich der Personalentwicklung. Das Werk erscheint als komplett überarbeitete und ergänzte Neuauflage.
Fokussieren statt Sanieren: Die Toolbox für flexible und krisenfeste Unternehmensführung
by Matjaz GorjupEs gibt nichts Fataleres als ein Unternehmen, in dem die Routine regiert - und doch gibt es sehr viele Manager, die sich im Tagesgeschäft verzetteln und den Blick auf das Wesentliche verlieren. Dieses Verhalten ist lebensgefährlich, wie der Autor und Sanierungsmanager Matjaz Gorjup aus Erfahrung weiß. Denn im weich gepolsterten Schreibtischsessel übersieht man sehr leicht wichtige Zeichen und handelt zu spät oder nicht entschlossen und strukturiert genug. Je unsicherer die Zeiten sind, desto flexibler müssen Manager agieren können, um zuverlässig das Team weiterzuentwickeln, das Knowhow zu stärken und Ziele zu erreichen - auch wenn diese ständig an die aktuellen Gegebenheiten angepasst werden müssen. Dafür brauchen sie ein kompaktes, leicht zu bedienendes Werkzeug. In diesem Ratgeber stellt Matjaz Gorjup seine High-Performance-Umsetzungstoolbox (HPU) vor: entwickelt aus seinen Erfahrungen als Sanierungsmanager und seit vielen Jahren erfolgreich praxiserprobt. Das Konzept ist bewusst simpel gehalten. Der Autor konzentriert sich auf vier "harte" Management- und vier "weiche" Führungselemente, die er selbst seit vielen Jahren einsetzt und so Unternehmen erfolgreich saniert hat. Mit dieser Toolbox gelingt es, für ausreichend positive, konstruktive Spannung zu sorgen - sowohl im Meetingraum als auch an den Arbeitsplätzen der Mitarbeiter und im Kundenkontakt. Der Leser lernt, wie er den Wechsel zwischen Tagesgeschäft und strategischen Fragestellungen bewerkstelligen kann und damit verhindert, dass er entweder im Mikromanagement versinkt oder oberflächlich bleibt. Ein eindeutiger USP dieses Buchs ist die Bedeutung von Provokation, Bewegung und Spannung als Teil der Führungsarbeit. Nur so bleibt ein Unternehmen langfristig am Leben. Der Autor ermutigt Managerinnen und Manager, ganz bewusst zu provozieren und zu irritieren, damit das Team in Bewegung bleibt. Im Gegensatz zu den meisten anderen Management-Ratgebern gibt das Buch einen einfachen und praktikablen Weg vor, wie man sowohl die faktenorientierten Management-Instrumente wie auch die menschenorientierten Führungstools unter einen Hut bringt.
Folding Techniques for Designers: From Sheet To Form (how To Fold Paper And Other Materials For Design Projects)
by Paul JacksonMany designers use folding techniques in their work to make three-dimensional forms from two-dimensional sheets of fabric, cardboard, plastic, metal, and many other materials. This unique book explains the key techniques of folding, such as pleated surfaces, curved folding, and crumpling. It has applications for architects, product designers, and jewelry and fashion designersAn elegant, practical handbook, Folding for Designers explains over 70 techniques explained with clear step-by-step drawings, crease pattern drawings, and specially commissioned photography. All crease pattern drawings are available to view and download from the Laurence King website.