About the Authors
John A. Tracy (Boulder, Colorado) is Professor of Accounting, Emeritus, at the University of Colorado in Boulder. Before his 35-year tenure at Boulder, he was on the business faculty for 4 years at the University of California at Berkeley. Early in his career, he was a staff accountant with Ernst & Young. John is the author of several books on accounting and finance, including The Fast Forward MBA in Finance and Accounting Workbook For Dummies. His son, Tage C. Tracy, joined him as coauthor on How to Read a Financial Report, now in its 8th edition. John and Tage have also coauthored Cash Flow For Dummies and Small Business Financial Management Kit For Dummies. John received his BSC degree from Creighton University. He earned his MBA and PhD degrees at the University of Wisconsin in Madison. He is a CPA (inactive status) in Colorado.
Mary Ann Anderson is an operations consultant and an adjunct professor in operations management at the University of Texas McCombs School of Business. She has served as the faculty advisor for the Supply Chain Management and Engineering route to business majors and teaches numerous courses, ranging from manufacturing and service operations management to project management to supply chain strategy and logistics, as well as being an instructor in the Master of Science in Technology Commercialization program. She received a master’s in engineering, concentrating in operations engineering, from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. She received her bachelor’s in electrical engineering from Kettering University (formerly the General Motors Institute), with a minor in business administration.
Ms. Anderson is also an active consultant. She specializes in operations management, business process analysis and improvement, supply chain management, and project management. She has developed integrated strategy-marketing-operations computer simulations using the system dynamics computer simulation methodology for multiple firms, and she has published articles in such journals as The Systems Thinker.
Ms. Anderson has served as a manufacturing strategist for a start-up firm, and her consulting clients include such firms as Ford Motor Company, Sony Entertainment, HP, and Shell, as well as the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) and the state of Texas. Prior to her teaching and consulting work, she held a variety of positions as an engineer for the General Motors Corporation.
Dr. Edward G. Anderson, Jr., is an associate professor of operations management at the University of Texas McCombs School of Business and an IC2 Institute Research Fellow. He is the faculty advisor for the BBA in the Science and Technology Management program and codirector for research for the McCombs Health Care Delivery Innovation Initiative. He received his doctorate from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and his bachelor’s degree, with majors in history and electrical engineering, from Stanford University.
Dr. Anderson’s research interests include outsourced product development (distributed innovation) and project management, knowledge management, supply chain management, and computer simulation. He also has published research in national security, particularly counterinsurgency policy. He has published articles in Management Science, Organization Science, Production and Operations Management, MIT Sloan Management Review, and System Dynamics Review. He is also the coauthor of the book The Innovation Butterfly: Managing Emergent Opportunities and Risks During Distributed Innovation, which describes leadership metrics, planning, and organization in the complex adaptive system that is innovation management.
Dr. Anderson won the prestigious Wickham Skinner Early-Career Research Award from the Production and Operations Management Society. He has received research grants from the National Science Foundation (twice), SAP, and Hewlett-Packard. He is the department editor of Production and Operations Management for Industry Studies and Public Policy and was president-elect of the System Dynamics Society for 2013. Professor Anderson has consulted with Ford, Shell, Dell, and multiple other corporations and holds six U.S. and E.U. patents from his prior career as a product design engineer at the Ford Motor Company.
Dr. Geoffrey Parker is professor of management science at Tulane University in the A. B. Freeman School of Business and serves as director of the Tulane Energy Institute. He is also a faculty fellow at the MIT Sloan School’s Center for Digital Business. Parker received a bachelor’s in electrical engineering and computer science from Princeton University, a master’s in electrical engineering (technology and policy program) from MIT, and a PhD in management science from MIT. He has spent much of his career studying coordination in supply chains, especially when firms outsource complex work. Dr. Parker has also contributed to the field of network economics and strategy as codeveloper of the theory of “two-sided” markets. Dr. Parker’s work appears in journals such as Harvard Business Review, MIT Sloan Management Review, Energy Economics, Journal of Economics and Management Strategy, Management Science, Production and Operations Management, Strategic Management Journal, and System Dynamics Review.
Dr. Parker has worked on projects with multiple firms, including AT&T, Cellular South, Chrysler, ExxonMobil, Hewlett-Packard, IBM, International Postal Corporation, Microsoft, PJM, SAP, Thomson Reuters, and the United States Postal Service. Current research includes studies of distributed innovation, business platform strategy, and the design and performance of energy markets. His research is funded by grants from the National Science Foundation, the U.S. Department of Energy, and multiple corporations. He serves or has served as a National Science Foundation panelist and associate editor at multiple journals and as president-elect of the Industry Studies Association. Dr. Parker grew up in Oxford, Ohio, where he worked as an electronics technician and machinist in the Instrumentation Laboratory at Miami University. Before graduate school, he held multiple positions in engineering and finance at General Electric in North Carolina and Wisconsin.
Dawna Jones believes business can be better for the people it serves and employs and for the planet that sustains us all. When not exploring the world or enjoying the great outdoors, she can be found on her website: www.FromInsightToAction.com. Her business podcast, Evolutionary Provocateur, is on http://www.Management-Issues.com and on iTunes. She regularly hosts business innovation webinars, exchanging ideas worldwide toward healthier workplaces and restoring care for Nature.
Stan Portny, president of Stanley E. Portny and Associates, LLC, is an internationally recognized expert in project management and project leadership. During the past 35 years, he’s provided training and consultation to more than 200 public and private organizations in consumer products, insurance, pharmaceuticals, finance, information technology, telecommunications, defense, and healthcare. He has developed and conducted training programs for more than 100,000 management and staff personnel in engineering, sales and marketing, research and development, information systems, manufacturing, operations, and support areas.
Stan provides on-site training in all aspects of project management, project team building, and project leadership. In addition, Stan can serve as the keynote speaker at your organization’s or professional association’s meetings. To understand how Stan can work with you to enhance your organization’s project-management skills and practices, please contact him at Stanley E. Portny and Associates, LLC, 20 Helene Drive, Randolph, NJ 07869; phone 973-366-8500; e-mail [email protected]; website www.StanPortny.com.
Joel Elad, MBA, is the head of Real Method Consulting, a company dedicated to educating people through training seminars, DVDs, books, and other media. He holds a master’s degree in Business from UC Irvine, and has a bachelor’s degree in Computer Science and Engineering from UCLA. He also operates several online businesses and co-founded the So Cal Comic Con.
Joel has written seven books about various online topics, including Facebook Advertising For Dummies, Starting an Online Business All-In-One For Dummies, Starting an iPhone Application Business For Dummies, and Wiley Pathways: E-business. He has contributed to Entrepreneur magazine and Smartbiz.com, and has taught at institutions such as the University of California, Irvine, and the University of San Diego. He is an Educational Specialist trained by eBay and a former Internet instructor for the Learning Annex in New York City, Los Angeles, San Diego, and San Francisco.
Joel lives in San Diego, California. In his spare time, he hones his skills in creative writing, Texas Hold ’Em poker, and finance. He is an avid traveler who enjoys seeing the sights both near and far, whether it’s the Las Vegas Strip or the ruins of Machu Picchu. He spends his weekends scouring eBay and local conventions for the best deals, catching the latest movies with friends or family, and enjoying a lazy Sunday.
Natalie Canavor is a nationally known expert on business writing whose mission is to help people communicate better so they can get what they want — whether that means a job, a promotion, or a successful business. Natalie creates practical writing workshops for businesspeople, writers, and professionals in every walk of life. Her unconventional approach meshes the best strategies from many writing venues: feature articles and columns, video scripts, websites, presentations, print and online marketing materials, and copywriting. She finds that given a planning structure and set of down-to-earth techniques, most people can dramatically improve their writing.
Natalie is the author of Business Writing in the Digital Age (Sage Publications), a textbook for advanced and graduate-level students of business and public relations. And with Claire Meirowitz, she coauthored The Truth About the New Rules of Business Writing (Financial Times Press), a quick guide to better writing. Natalie is happy to consult with organizations that see the value of raising the bar on writing, and travels to present custom workshops for businesses, associations, and other groups. Find her at [email protected].
Ryan Deiss (pronounced “Dice”) is cofounder and CEO of DigitalMarketer.com, the leading provider of digital marketing training and certifications to small and mid-sized businesses. Ryan is also the founder and host of the Traffic & Conversion Summit, the largest digital marketing conversion conference in North America, and the creator of the “Customer Value Optimization” methodology.
Ryan’s online business endeavors began at age 19, when he launched his first website from his freshman dorm room so that he could make some extra money to buy an engagement ring for his college sweetheart. It worked! Not only did the girl say “Yes,” but his single little website ballooned into more than 500 sites, and a hobby had grown into a business.
Today, his digital media and e-commerce group, NativeCommerce.com, owns and operates hundreds of properties including DIYReady.com, MakeupTutorials.com, DIYProjects.com, SurvivalLife.com, and Sewing.com (just to name a few), and according to Shark Tank star Daymond John, “His companies practically own the Internet.” He is also a bestselling author, and is considered one of the most dynamic speakers on modern digital marketing today.
Most important, Ryan is a proud dad of four wonderful kids, Jonathan, Joyce, Ruth, and Timothy, and husband to Emily … the girl who said “Yes” and inspired it all.
Russ Henneberry is the Editorial Director for DigitalMarketer. Prior to joining DigitalMarketer, Russ was on the content marketing team for Salesforce.com; he also helped to launch a blog for a well-known marketing SaaS, growing it from 0 to 120,000 unique visitors per month in less than a year.
Russ got his start in search engine optimization and pay-per-click marketing, managing 20 developers and over 600 digital marketing projects for small to mid-sized businesses. It was at Salesforce that Russ began to master the art of content marketing at all stages of the sales and marketing funnel to create value for a company.
In his time at DigitalMarketer, front-end traffic to DigitalMarketer content has increased by 1,125 percent. The content marketing team, under Russ’s management, generates thousands of leads and front-end sales per month by developing and executing a truly “full funnel” content marketing strategy. Connect with Russ on Twitter: @RussHenneberry.
Russ lives in St. Louis, Missouri, with his wonderful wife Sarah, his two amazing children, Thomas and Mary Grace, and an extremely enthusiastic dog named Buck.
Publisher’s Acknowledgments
Acquisitions Editor: Amy Fandrei
Project and Copy Editor: Susan Pink
Proofreader: Debbye Butler
Production Editor: Siddique Shaik
Cover Image: © BUTENKOV ALEKSEI/Shutterstock