Strategic Networks

Strategic Innovation offers a flexible, customizable template that managers, executives, and business leaders can use to introduce an effective innovation strategy throughout their organization. The authors, Nancy Tennant Snyder and Deborah L. Duarte, provide the tools needed to craft a workable strategy for embedding innovation as a core competency across an enterprise. Instead of innovation for innovation's sake, the authors offer a proven business-focused way to change a culture from point-in-time innovations from a few to a continuous pipeline of innovations from everywhere and everyone. Based on the real-life example of Whirlpool a solid company with a significant track record and global reach—Strategic Innovation shows how the world's largest appliance company put innovation in place as a core competency. During this process, Whirlpool transformed itself from a quality producer of appliances to a customer-focused company that strategically embeds innovation throughout the organization. Filled with challenges and struggles, and ultimately successful results, the Whirlpool story can help any organization develop a successful innovation strategy. Written as a practical guide, the book contains in each chapter a variety of hands-on resources including checklists and worksheets. Strategic Innovation offers the tools, ideas, and approaches needed for transforming an organization to a company where anyone and everyone can contribute to the organization's prosperity—through innovation.

Nonprofit Strategic Positioning: Decide Where to Be, Plan What to Do is the first nonprofit-oriented book to describe strategic positioning as an alternative to traditional strategic planning. Even in the nonprofit sector, strategic planning is becoming discredited as a formulaic, go-nowhere exercise. This book will take the reader on a stimulating journey through nonprofit strategy development and implementation. The book is timely because the nonprofit sector has reached a turning point where the need to be more business-like is undeniable, and the continuing retreat of the public sector has left even wider gaps in services that nonprofits will be asked to fill. Nonprofit Strategic Positioning: Decide Where to Be, Plan What to Do offers a fresh new way for nonprofits to meet the challenges of the 21st century.

The current period of market and governmental turbulence is the most challenging—yet rewarding—time to be a treasurer. Now, as perhaps never before, the treasurer’s visions, skills, and worth will be tested and proven. A useful reference, The Strategic Treasurer: A Partnership for Corporate Growth systematically equips today’s corporate treasurers to move from merely being the liquidity manager to becoming a strategic driver and steward of corporate value as well as an equal partner with senior management.

As a result of its widespread implementation in economic and social structures, the network concept appears to be a paradigm of the contemporary world. The need for various services – transport, energy, consumption of manufacturing goods, provision of care, information and communication, etc. – draws users into interwoven networks which are meshes of material and immaterial flows. In this context, the user is a consumer of goods and services from industries and administrations, or they themselves are part of the organization (digital social networks).

This book examines the invariants that unify networks in their diversity, as well as the specificities that differentiate them. It provides a reading grid that distinguishes a generic level where these systems find a common interpretation, and a specific level where appropriate analytical methods are used. Three case studies from different fields are presented to illustrate the purpose of the book in detail.

Cognitive networks can dynamically adapt their operational parameters in response to user needs or changing environmental conditions. They can learn from these adaptations and exploit knowledge to make future decisions. Cognitive networks are the future, and they are needed simply because they enable users to focus on things other than configuring and managing networks. Without cognitive networks, the pervasive computing vision calls for every consumer to be a network technician. The applications of cognitive networks enable the vision of pervasive computing, seamless mobility, ad-hoc networks, and dynamic spectrum allocation, among others. In detail, the authors describe the main features of cognitive networks clearly indicating that cognitive network design can be applied to any type of network, being fixed or wireless. They explain why cognitive networks promise better protection against security attacks and network intruders and how such networks will benefit the service operator as well as the consumer. Cognitive Networks Explores the state-of-the-art in cognitive networks, compiling a roadmap to future research. Covers the topic of cognitive radio including semantic aspects. Presents hot topics such as biologically-inspired networking, autonomic networking, and adaptive networking. Introduces the applications of machine learning and distributed reasoning to cognitive networks. Addresses cross-layer design and optimization. Discusses security and intrusion detection in cognitive networks. Cognitive Networks is essential reading for advanced students, researchers, as well as practitioners interested in cognitive & wireless networks, pervasive computing, distributed learning, seamless mobility, and self-governed networks. With forewords by Joseph Mitola III as well as Sudhir Dixit.

Alternative techniques and tools for analyzing biomolecular networks With the recent rapid advances in molecular biology, high-throughput experimental methods have resulted in enormous amounts of data that can be used to study biomolecular networks in living organisms. With this development has come recognition of the fact that a complicated living organism cannot be fully understood by merely analyzing individual components. Rather, it is the interactions of components or biomolecular networks that are ultimately responsible for an organism's form and function. This book addresses the important need for a new set of computational tools to reveal essential biological mechanisms from a systems biology approach. Readers will get comprehensive coverage of analyzing biomolecular networks in cellular systems based on available experimental data with an emphasis on the aspects of network, system, integration, and engineering. Each topic is treated in depth with specific biological problems and novel computational methods: GENE NETWORKS—Transcriptional regulation; reconstruction of gene regulatory networks; and inference of transcriptional regulatory networks PROTEIN INTERACTION NETWORKS—Prediction of protein-protein interactions; topological structure of biomolecular networks; alignment of biomolecular networks; and network-based prediction of protein function METABOLIC NETWORKS AND SIGNALING NETWORKS—Analysis, reconstruction, and applications of metabolic networks; modeling and inference of signaling networks; and other topics and new trends In addition to theoretical results and methods, many computational software tools are referenced and available from the authors' Web sites. Biomolecular Networks is an indispensable reference for researchers and graduate students in bioinformatics, computational biology, systems biology, computer science, and applied mathematics.

A unified treatment of the vulnerabilities that exist in real-world network systems—with tools to identify synergies for mergers and acquisitions Fragile Networks: Identifying Vulnerabilities and Synergies in an Uncertain World presents a comprehensive study of network systems and the roles these systems play in our everyday lives. This book successfully conceptualizes, defines, and constructs mathematically rigorous, computer-based tools for the assessment of network performance and efficiency, along with robustness and vulnerability analysis. The result is a thorough exploration that promotes an understanding of the critical infrastructure of today's network systems, from congested urban transportation networks and supply chain networks under disruption to financial networks and the Internet. The authors approach the analyses by abstracting not only topological structures of networks, but also the behavior of network users, the demand for resources, the resulting flows, and the associated costs. Following an introduction to the fundamental methodologies and tools required for network analysis and network vulnerability, the book is organized into three self-contained parts: Part I—Network Fundamentals, Efficiency Measurement, and Vulnerability Analysis explores the theoretical and practical foundations for a new network efficiency measure in order to assess the importance of network components in various network systems. Methodologies for distinct decision-making behaviors are outlined, along with the tools for qualitative analysis, the algorithms for the computation of solutions, and a thorough discussion of the unified network efficient measure and network robustness with the unified measure. Part II—Applications and Extensions examines the efficiency changes and the associated cost increments after network components are eliminated or partially damaged. A discussion of the recently established connections between transportation networks and different critical networks is provided, which demonstrates how the new network measures and robustness indices can be applied to different supply chain, financial, and dynamic networks, including the Internet and electronic power networks. Part III—Mergers and Acquisitions, Network Integration, and Synergies reveals the connections between transportation networks and different network systems and quantifies the synergies associated with the network systems, from total cost reduction to environmental impact assessment. In the case of mergers and acquisitions, the focus is on supply chain networks. The authors outline a system-optimization perspective for supply chain networks and also formalize coalition formation using game theory with insights into the merger paradox. With its numerous network examples and real-world applications, Fragile Networks: Identifying Vulnerabilities and Synergies in an Uncertain World is an excellent book for courses in network science, transportation science, operations management, and financial networks at the upper-undergraduate and graduate levels. It is also a valuable reference for researchers and practitioners in the areas of applied mathematics, computer science, operations research, management science, finance, and economics, as well as industrial, systems, and civil engineering. Listen to Dr. Nagurney's podcast Supernetworks: Building Better Real and Virtual Highways at http://www.scienceofbetter.org/podcast/ .

Bayesian Networks, the result of the convergence of artificial intelligence with statistics, are growing in popularity. Their versatility and modelling power is now employed across a variety of fields for the purposes of analysis, simulation, prediction and diagnosis. This book provides a general introduction to Bayesian networks, defining and illustrating the basic concepts with pedagogical examples and twenty real-life case studies drawn from a range of fields including medicine, computing, natural sciences and engineering. Designed to help analysts, engineers, scientists and professionals taking part in complex decision processes to successfully implement Bayesian networks, this book equips readers with proven methods to generate, calibrate, evaluate and validate Bayesian networks. The book: Provides the tools to overcome common practical challenges such as the treatment of missing input data, interaction with experts and decision makers, determination of the optimal granularity and size of the model. Highlights the strengths of Bayesian networks whilst also presenting a discussion of their limitations. Compares Bayesian networks with other modelling techniques such as neural networks, fuzzy logic and fault trees. Describes, for ease of comparison, the main features of the major Bayesian network software packages: Netica, Hugin, Elvira and Discoverer, from the point of view of the user. Offers a historical perspective on the subject and analyses future directions for research. Written by leading experts with practical experience of applying Bayesian networks in finance, banking, medicine, robotics, civil engineering, geology, geography, genetics, forensic science, ecology, and industry, the book has much to offer both practitioners and researchers involved in statistical analysis or modelling in any of these fields.

“Computing Networks” explores the core of the new distributed computing infrastructures we are using today: the networking systems of clusters, grids and clouds. It helps network designers and distributed-application developers and users to better understand the technologies, specificities, constraints and benefits of these different infrastructures’ communication systems. Cloud Computing will give the possibility for millions of users to process data anytime, anywhere, while being eco-friendly. In order to deliver this emerging traffic in a timely, cost-efficient, energy-efficient, and reliable manner over long-distance networks, several issues such as quality of service, security, metrology, network-resource scheduling and virtualization are being investigated since 15 years. “Computing Networks” explores the core of clusters, grids and clouds networks, giving designers, application developers and users the keys to better construct and use these powerful infrastructures.

Ethernet Networks, Fourth Edition, provides everything you need to know to plan, implement, manage and upgrade Ethernet networks. * Improve your skills in employing Ethernet hubs, switches, and routers. * Learn how to set up and operate a wireless Local Area Network (LAN). * Discover how to extend a wired Ethernet via wireless LANs. * Understand cabling standards and the role of NEXT (Near End Crosstalk), FEXT (Far End Crosstalk) and other transmission parameters. * Profit from Gilbert Held's tips and tricks on enhancing security … and much more. This indispensable resource features up-to-date coverage of: * Wireless Ethernet (IEEE802.11 standards) * 10Gbps Ethernet * Firewalls in both a wired and wireless environment * The operation of new versions of Windows(r) on Ethernet LANs * The use of LAN switches at and above layer 2 in the ISO reference model * Copper and fiber optic cable to transport high speed Ethernet Network planners, administrators, and system engineers working with Ethernet networks will find Ethernet Networks, Fourth Edition, an invaluable tool for implementing, updating, and managing their networks.