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Over 500 years ago, Leonardo da Vinci drew a flying machine that looked remarkably like today's helicopter. In 1939, a man named Igor Sikorsky built one. Da Vinci had an idea; Sikorsky was an innovator.

In these days of churn and turnover, a new group of entrepreneurs has appeared on the scene. I call them the Formers. They are former presidents, former directors, and former senior officers of very large companies who, for one reason or another, are at liberty.

Think about the man in the circus whose act consists of keeping a dozen plates spinning atop a line of bamboo poles. Watch him run from pole to pole. It's as good a visual demonstration of entrepreneurial management as you will ever see.

It is said that entrepreneurs are great at starting companies, but not very good at sustaining them. The life stories of many companies include a crisis point when the company outgrows its founders and professional management must be brought in.

The baby‐boom generation has come of age and is taking charge of U.S. business. But many of the men and women who are moving into senior line management hide a dark and potentially dangerous secret: They don't know the first thing about managing technology.

Any manager who takes on a money‐losing operation soon learns the difference between turnaround theory and reality. In theory, you turn a business around by analyzing the numbers, identifying corrective actions, issuing instructions, firing those who seem unwilling or unable to act, and bringing in those who will.

Some people are giving entrepreneurship a bad name. You read about them in the newspaper every week. Either they have just been indicted, or they have just been sentenced.

Offers a fresh outlook for managing the delicate interaction between the customer and the contact employee in the service environment. Emphasizes that the quality of the customer‐employee interfacehas a great effect on customers′ perceptions of the quality and value of the service, as well as on their satisfaction. Suggests a model of how companies can improve this interface by treating employees ascustomers and customers as employees, thus developing lower cost and higher quality services and also higher levels of satisfaction on the part of both customers and employees. Recommends various steps for management to take.

Examines the development of new services in service organizations, which has often been incomplete and has resulted in the needs of the marketplace remaining unsatisfied. Considers the findings of a study comparing the process of new service development in different service industries. Reports on how development may be improved and offers a model allowing greater input from the service recipients.

There has been extensive research conducted regarding the identification of evaluative criteria and cues used in selecting products classified as goods, yet there has been little research on products classified as services. Marketing managers accept the notion that there are some controllable and uncontrollable variables in the environment that will impact on the consumer's perceptions of their product offering. If marketers can understand which criteria are used to evaluate a product, in this case a service, and can identify which cues are used to assess the criteria, they will he better able to manage and influence the consumer's evaluations and perceptions of the offering. This study takes an integrated look at the evaluative criteria and cues used by consumers in selecting services.