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Offers a personal commentary considering the real essence of good service. Argues that at the heart of service distinction is human interaction and personalization. Considers a range of examples from personal life experience. Recommends that in order to “invent” legendary service, companies must work particularly at ensuring that the customer leaves with positive memories after finishing dealing with the business.

Training, it is claimed, has many meanings. Through examining its goals, its special interpretations are best appreciated. Training with different goals is referred to as different types of training, divided into administrative, professional‐technical, mechanical‐technical and interpersonal. These are defined, the elements of training programmes in each type set out, and the relationship between what is arguably an essential prerequisite for trainers – the needs analysis – and the types of training presented.

Food—national dietary standards—is a sensitive index of socio‐economic conditions generally; there are others, reflecting different aspects, but none more sensitive. A country that eats well has healthy, robust people; the housewife who cooks hearty, nourishing meals has a lusty, virile family. It is not surprising, therefore, that all governments of the world have a food policy, ranking high in its priorities and are usually prepared to sacrifice other national policies to preserve it. Before the last war, when food was much less of an instrument of government policy than now—there were not the shortages or the price vagaries—in France, any government, whatever its colour, which could not keep down the price of food so that the poor man ate his fill, never survived long; it was—to make use of the call sign of those untidy, shambling columns from our streets which seem to monopolize the television news screens—“out!” Lovers of the Old France would say that the country had been without stable government since 1870, but the explanation for the many changes in power in France in those pre‐war days could be expressed in one word—food!

This paper aims to discuss the importance of great mentoring to those with financial responsibilities during tough economic times.

This paper pulls from the field literature two sets of attributes and considerations of skills needed in order to be a great mentor.

It is important that persons with financial responsibilities are not overlooked in the mentoring process in order to direct their energies into positive actions.

The methods and skills discussed in this paper will need to be customized for individual emotional reactions to changing economic situations.

This paper provides an explanation of the qualities needed by mentors to create a positive result.

This paper recognizes the importance of building social skills in order to develop good relationships.

Readers are encouraged to expand on these concepts in order to become better mentors.

A popular line we frequently hear in our society today goes something like, “When you understand where he's coming from, then what he does makes sense”. The implied message is that a relationship exists between belief and behaviour; that is, the assumptions we have about life colour, our perception of our environment and shape our actions in our environment. The importance of the linkages among assumptions, perceptions and action cannot be overstated.

Stephen McClelland looks at the key issues in sensor multiplexing over the next decade through the eyes of one company, Rosemount Ltd.

Many articles and books have been written about building, measuring and managing brand equity – primarily from the perspective of the marketing function. However, the management of the “internal touchpoints” necessary to deliver on the brand promise has received less attention. The paper aims to study these.

A two‐wave e‐mail survey was administered to business seminar participants. Multi‐item measures and a six‐point Likert scale were developed and analyzed to better understand the perceived involvement of human resource (HR) in internal branding efforts and the relationship between HR involvement and the incorporation of the brand message into work activities and attitude toward the brand.

In spite of well‐documented internal branding initiatives, there appears to be room for improvement among HR departments in terms of successfully delivering the corporate branding message. However, there does appear to be a strong personal attitude toward the brand among US professionals, and a strong relationship exists between HR involvement in internal branding and the incorporation of the brand into work activities.

Employees seem to have a more positive attitude toward the brand and are more likely to incorporate this image into their work activities when there is some degree of HR involvement in the internal branding process.

The successful promotion of the internal branding doctrine may be as dependent on HR initiatives as on those developed in the marketing department. By involving HR in internal branding projects, firms can better use internal communications to give employees a deeper understanding of the brand and the role that they play in enhancing the brand promise.

Reference librarians in various library settings are often assigned responsibilities for training students, support staff, or other new professionals, a task for which they rarely have sufficient professional education. This bibliography recommends readings on topics that will assist reference librarians in understanding the philosophy of staff development. The readings listed here cover subjects such as: establishing an atmosphere that facilitates learning, assessing training needs, describing competent performance, writing clear and specific objectives, selecting appropriate training methods, maintaining skills and providing feedback, and evaluating the effectiveness of a training program.