Total Business Management: Practices for the 21st Century

About the Book

This book, though different from voluminous scholarly text, is multifaceted, fresh and illuminating. It takes a harder broader look at the problem business people face today in an environment of compressed business cycles and Tsunamis of change. Salient features include necessity of sound leadership, integrity, process simplification, key reasons why companies fail, continuous improvement, the allure and meteoric rise of China, drivers of operational excellence, exploration of currents of globalization, how to wrest market share, missteps, predictions and rhetoric of stock marketeers and so on. On a separate track, the author explores corporate vulnerabilities and how to surmount them. It is thoughtful, appealing and timely amid the frenzy of events happening in business with its every twist and turn. While presented in a positive outlook that bolsters optimism, it exposes deeper flaws of adoption of management thinking that do not adapt to suit varying business situations. Though some people may disagree, the author comes up against politicking in the workplace. It is imperative to balance elephantine bureaucracy with the agility of a gazelle and ragtag entrepreneurship. The author seeks to reduce counterproductive behaviors and actions. Along the way, James encourages readers to rise to the challenge to face tough business issues, not to be obscured by complexity and difficulty.

About the Author

James Lim is actively involved in high technology companies in Silicon Valley, California for over 30 years. These companies range from startups, mid-size and multi-billion dollar corporations. A seasoned leader and active participant with a successful track record with hard-won and varied experience, he has intimate association with numerous professionals in industries spanning automatic test equipments, defense electronics, computers, telecommunications, professional audio equipments, image sensors, graphics, core logic chipsets, programmable devices, semiconductors and component services. With unique combination of technical expertise and finely tuned business acumen and managerial experience, the author draws on his experience and endeavors in a lifelong study of high technology companies in the trough and belle époque of business and economic cycles. With equal or greater ardor, he blends key concepts with a worldview that are used to develop winning strategies, create products, shape the market and manage the creative energies of all employees today and tomorrow. As a resident of Silicon Valley for 34 years, he has witnessed the inception of various high- powered companies, notable of which are AMD, Cisco System, Intel, Marvell Semiconductors, National Semiconductor, Nvidia and TSMC, to name a few. He has seen up close the rise of tremendous growth companies such as Intel, Marvell Semiconductor and Amgen; wobbly downs-and-ups of AMD, National Semiconductor and Apple Computers; the ill-fated acquisition of Bay Networks by Nortel and the poor fate and demise of Diamond Multimedia, Everex, S3, Televideo and Wyse Technology. In the global setting, he is a keen observer of foreign companies such as Nokia, Sony, Chartered Semiconductor, TSMC, UMC, Philips Semiconductor, etc. These companies reflect the triumphs and tumults of the modern high technology business era. He writes authoritatively on a subject with which he has great familiarity. He lives in Silicon Valley, California with his family.