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Over the course of the last few years, one has frequently heard the statement: “It's easy to develop a strategy, it's the implementation that's difficult.” This article discusses several reasons why many CEOs may feel this way.

Many theories have emerged over the years about how to grow one's business at a competitor's expense. The most popular these days is the concept of the “value chain,” which encourages a company to break down the competitive process into its various steps and then seek to add more value at each step than the competitor does.

Competing on a product‐by‐product basis no longer works. Rather, take a broad view of potential competitors; then manage the overall strategies of key players.

East Asia's emergence as the forthcoming center of global manufacturing is leading nations in the region to reconsider their current and future role in the world economy. For its part, the Republic of Korea is pursuing a strategy to transform the country into the business hub of Northeast Asia. A central aspect in this strategy is the development of a regional “Pentaport” in the city of lncheon, which will consist of five components: an airport, a seaport, a business port, a technoport, and a leisure port. Hopefully, the Port of lncheon will be able to specialize in moving both coastal cargoes and transshipment cargoes to and from China and Japan using Short Sea Shipping (SSS). The first section of this paper provides an analysis of recent trade patterns between the Asian countries of the Asian-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) agreement and the United States, with an emphasis on the Republic of Korea. The second part of the paper discusses current intermodal coastal shipping practices in the United States along the Gulf of Mexico and offers suggestions to the developers of Korea s Pentaport initiative; based upon observations in the United States, to maximize the likelihood of their success.

Forensic mental health programs (FMHPs) in Ontario, Canada provide rehabilitation and supervision services. However, models available to guide their delivery are primarily adapted from fields outside of forensic mental health. To partially fill this gap, this paper aims to provide a general review of the process a multi-professional team took to develop the Integrated Forensic Program [IFP]-Ottawa Model of Risk Management & Recovery.

Working groups were initiated to identify the needs of patients in their local setting, conduct a literature review on care delivery models in forensic mental health and build a service delivery model specific to forensic mental health.

The resulting model places patient engagement at its centre and encompasses eight domains of need that contribute towards the patient’s recovery and the management of the safety risk they pose to the public, namely, the basic needs, diversity and spirituality, social, occupational, psychological, substance use, physical health and mental health domains.

The IFP-Ottawa Model of Risk Management & Recovery provides a framework to which therapeutic group services for persons in FMHPs can be aligned.

The leadership teams in FMHPs could use this framework and the method used for its development to ensure group services provided at their FMHPs are evidence-informed and coincide with their patients’ specific needs.

Communications regarding this column should be addressed to Mrs. Cheney, Peabody Library School, Nashville, Term. 37203. Mrs. Cheney does not sell the books listed here. They are available through normal trade sources. Mrs. Cheney, being a member of the editorial board of Pierian Press, will not review Pierian Press reference books in this column. Descriptions of Pierian Press reference books will be included elsewhere in this publication.

Major structural changes have affected the French banking industry during the second half of the 1980s, what suggests that the French banks were operating with a significant level of inefficiencies before this period. The purpose of this study is to present estimates of X‐Efficiencies and Scale‐Efficiencies in French banks for the 1988–1992 period which followed this wave of changes. The data are annual accounting data for corporate, mutual and savings banks. The sample contains 375 depository banks. By using the “distribution free” method of efficiency estimation, our estimations show that average X‐efficiencies of the French banks are in the range of 70% to 90%. Our results confirm also the existence of scale economies in French banking industry. Scale efficiency estimates show clearly that French banks could reduce average costs by about 15% on average by increasing size in order to reach the efficient size. Note that this result is also in conformity with the hypothesis that some excess capacity could exist in French banking industry.

The following bibliography focuses mainly on programs which can run on IBM microcomputers and compatibles under the operating system PC DOS/MS DOS, and which can be used in online information and documentation work. They fall into the following categories:

Computer software does not have to be expensive. Thousands of programs are available free, or for very low prices. There are some catches, but free software can be of high quality, and an excellent value. The author discusses free software, urges readers to join microcomputer user groups, and recounts his own experiences with free software as these relate to Frederick Michels' article on “user‐supported” software (see Library Hi Tech, number 10). The author reviews several books that can provide further information.

Aim of the present monograph is the economic analysis of the role of MNEs regarding globalisation and digital economy and in parallel there is a reference and examination of some legal aspects concerning MNEs, cyberspace and e‐commerce as the means of expression of the digital economy. The whole effort of the author is focused on the examination of various aspects of MNEs and their impact upon globalisation and vice versa and how and if we are moving towards a global digital economy.