AREC 315 - Agribusiness Economics and Management

Product Development: A Structured Approach to Consumer Product Development, Design, and Manufacture Product development teams are composed of an integrated group of professionals working from the nascent stage of new product planning through design creation and design review and then on to manufacturing planning and cost accounting. An increasingly large number of graduate and professional training programs are aimed at meeting that need by creating a better understanding of how to integrate and accelerate the entire product development process. This book is the perfect accompaniment and a comprehensive guide. The second edition of this instructional reference work presents invaluable insight into the concurrent nature of the multidisciplinary product development process. It can be used in the traditional classroom, in professional continuing education courses or for self-study. This book has a ready audience among graduate students in mechanical and industrial engineering, as well as in many MBA programs focused on manufacturing management. This is a global need that will find a receptive readership in the industrialized world particularly in the rapidly developing industrial economies of South Asia and Southeast Asia.

Reinventing the Product: How to Transform Your Business and Create Value in the Digital Age Create the personalized and compelling experiences that today's customers expect by harnessing AI and digital technologies to create smart connected products, with this cutting-edge guide from senior leaders at Accenture. Digital technology is both friend and foe: highly disruptive, yet it cannot be ignored. As traditional products transform into smart connected products faster than ever before, companies that fail to make use of it now put themselves in the firing line for disintermediation or even eradication. However, digital technology is also the biggest opportunity for product-making businesses to create the next generation of goods in the marketplace. In Reinventing the Product, Eric Schaeffer and David Sovie, both Senior Managing Directors at Accenture, show how this reinvention is made possible, to deliver truly intelligent, and often even autonomous, products. Reinventing the Product makes the case for companies to rethink their product strategy, innovation and engineering processes, including: - How to harness the opportunities of AI and digital technologies, such as IoT sensors, blockchain, advanced analytics, cloud and edge computing - Practical advice on transforming their entire culture to build the future of successful 'living products' - Features case studies from global organizations such as Faurecia, Signify, Symmons and Haier and interviews with thought leaders from top companies including Amazon, ABB, Tesla, Samsung and Google This book provides the only advice any product-making company needs as it embarks on, or accelerates, its digitization journey.

Service Industries and Regions: Growth, Location and Regional Effects The service sector in most advanced economies accounts for up to seventy percent of employment and GDP and, given its growing importance, has received much research attention over the last two decades. However, not very much attention has been paid to the relationship between this sector and both its territorial impact and regional effects. The main objective of this book is to offer a comprehensive approach to these aspects, focusing particularly on the location factors of service industries and the importance of some specific services, such as business services and knowledge and information services. The contributions have been prepared by well-known experts in the field from a wide number of countries. The focus of all contributions is not only on theoretical aspects, but also provides empirical analyses on specific countries and topics such as the geographical concentration, globalization impacts, foreign direct investments, and innovation.

What Great Service Leaders Know and Do: Creating Breakthroughs in Service Firms Entire service businesses have been built around the ideas of Heskett, Sasser, and Schlesinger, pioneers in the world of service. Now they test their ideas against the actual experiences of successful and unsuccessful practitioners, as well as against demands of the future, in a book service leaders around the world will use as a guide for years to come. The authors cover every aspect of optimal service leadership: the best hiring, training, and workplace organization practices; the creation of operating strategies around areas such as facility design, capacity planning, queue management, and more; the use--and misuse--of technology in delivering top-level service; and practices that can transform loyal customers into "owners." Looking ahead, the authors describe the world of great service leaders in which "both/and" thinking replaces trade-offs. It's a world in which new ideas will be tested against the sine qua non of the "service trifecta"--wins for employees, customers, and investors. And it's a world in which the best leaders admit that they don't have the answers and create organizations that learn, innovate, "sense and respond," operate with fluid boundaries, and seek and achieve repeated strategic success. Using examples of dozens of companies in a wide variety of industries, such as Apollo Hospitals, Châteauform, Starbucks, Amazon, Disney, Progressive Insurance, the Dallas Mavericks, Whole Foods, IKEA, and many others, the authors present a narrative of remarkable successes, unnecessary failures, and future promise.