Business Intelligence Using Smart Techniques: Environmental Scanning Using Text Mining and Competitor Analysis Using Scenarios and Manual Simulation

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Practical Guide to Build Business Intelligence

Halliman is On Target

Sound marketing strategies and production policies

Business Intelligence Using Smart Techniques: Environmental Scanning Using Text Mining and Competitor Analysis Using Scenarios and Manual Simulation
Charles Halliman
Manufacturer: Information Uncover
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

General | Business & Investing | Subjects | Books
Systems & Planning | Management & Leadership | Business & Investing | Subjects | Books
Etiquette | Business Life | Business & Investing | Subjects | Books
ASIN: 0967490634

Book Description

Business intelligence, text mining, environmental scanning, scenario planning, competitor analysis, and actionable information are terms often heard today in the business world. Pulling these terms together in a way that enables the terms to take on lucid strategic meaning can be extremely important to today's business planner. Business Intelligence Using Smart Techniques is a book about using text mining to perform environmental scanning, and using scenarios and simulation to perform competitor analysis. This book focuses on methods that identify and extract important company-external business information. This book addresses the conversion of the business information into business intelligence. And this book addresses the use of business intelligence to improve a company's competitive position by showing how potentially profitable actions can be taken based on the intelligence.

Customer Reviews:

Practical Guide to Build Business Intelligence.......2001-11-18

Any business owner or corporate executive looking for competitive opportunities or an effective way to avoid being blindsided by competitors' activities or trapped by unfavorable trends should think about applying the business intelligence system clearly laid out in Business Intelligence Using Smart Techniques.

Charles Halliman's pragmatic approach is perfect for our times. While so many are desperately trying to keep afloat, thinking their only choices are to sink or swim madly, Halliman suggests a manageable process to uncover possibilities for breaking out of the doldrums. It's a challenge to divert resources to efforts like developing business intelligence, perceived to take extraordinary amounts of time and offer payoffs only in the long-term. But Halliman shows this does not have to be the case.

Halliman not only presents very straightforward tools for analyzing and using business intelligence to develop actionable ideas, he shows how text mining techniques can reduce the time and resources needed to turn large amounts of information about competitors and business environment trends into manageable business intelligence.

While the neatly packaged system Halliman describes can be used to more accurately assess a company's current situation and identify immediate tactics, its bigger return will be realized when used as part of an ongoing program of identifying success strategies for the ever-unfolding future. Even the near-term future holds opportunities, in the economy's turnaround. Now is the time for a company to ready itself.

Better yet, why not put the company on the leading edge of that recovery now, by being better informed about the business environment and competitors' activities? If they're in a holding pattern...imagine the possibilities!

The book provides an easy-to-follow, structured method of presenting information. Halliman employs review and preview techniques, so the reader can understand the context of new information, each step following logically from the last, with summaries that describe a progressively growing, but comprehendible and manageable system. Real examples give the reader hands-on experience as the system is built and then comes together to yield realistic actions.

Halliman is On Target.......2001-05-23

The data mining techniques and methodologies presented by Charles Halliman work. Whether your focus is research, marketing or consulting you would be wise to invest in "Business Intelligence Using Smart Techniques".

Sound marketing strategies and production policies.......2001-03-13

In Business Intelligence Using Smart Techniques, business intelligence consultant Charles Halliman emphasizes the analysis of business information already gathered by corporate researchers, managers, and policy makers. Halliman presents an informative introduction to the performance of environmental scanning using "text mining" techniques, and utilizing scenarios and manual simulations to perform competitor analyses. Readers will learn to convert business information into business intelligence for sound marketing strategies and production policies, showing how potentially profitable actions can be taken based on gathered information drawn from today's highly competitive local, regional, national, and global marketplace. Highly recommended reading for business students, entrepreneurs, policy strategists, and corporate marketing executives.

Competitor Intelligence: Turning Analysis into Success (Wiley Series in Practical Strategy)

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Competitor Intelligence: Turning Analysis into Success (Wiley Series in Practical Strategy)
David Hussey , and Per V. Jenster
Manufacturer: Wiley
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

Strategy & Competition | Management & Leadership | Business & Investing | Subjects | Books

Leadership | Management & Leadership | Business & Investing | Subjects | Books

Management | Management & Leadership | Business & Investing | Subjects | Books

General | Business & Investing | Subjects | Books

All Amazon Upgrade | Amazon Upgrade | Stores | Books

Business & Investing | Amazon Upgrade | Stores | Books

All Titles | Qualifying Textbooks - Fall 2007 | Stores | Books
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ASIN: 0471984078

Book Description

Competitor Intelligence Turning Analysis into Success David Hussey and Per Jenster The seminal work of Michael Porter in the 1980s provided a conceptual basis to competitor analysis which has stood the test of time. The emphasis of his work, and of many books by other authors which followed it, has been on the why and what of competitor analysis. David Hussey and Per Jenster's book moves beyond this to the problems faced by organizations in applying the concepts at a practical level. It shows how real companies can use competitor intelligence and analysis in real situations. Three major strands are drawn out by this book, which shows how to:
* obtain competitor information in a legitimate way
* analyze information so that competitors can be better understood, and strategic options explored
* develop ways of achieving competitive advantage which may move the organization ahead of others in the industry
This book provides a comprehensive guide for marketing and planning practitioners, managers and management consultants, to enable them to improve the competitor information and intelligence available to their organizations, and to use it to gain advantages over the competition. The book goes beyond the broad concepts, and gives practical advice on how to obtain and use the necessary information, offers various analytical techniques and approaches, and shows how to develop strategies for both attack and defence. It includes numerous cameo examples, a case history of how an organization undertook competitor analysis in an industry with little coherent published information, worked examples of many of the methods suggested, as well as a number of case studies of various industry situations. The text builds on a sound conceptual foundation, and draws heavily on the authors' practical experience.

Competitor Analysis In Financial Services

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Competitor Analysis In Financial Services
Ian Youngman
Manufacturer: CRC
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

Strategy & Competition | Management & Leadership | Business & Investing | Subjects | Books

General | Popular Economics | Business & Investing | Subjects | Books

General | Business & Investing | Subjects | Books

Banks & Banking | Industries & Professions | Business & Investing | Subjects | Books

Natural Resources | Economics | Business & Investing | Subjects | Books

All Titles | Qualifying Textbooks - Fall 2007 | Stores | Books

Business & Investing | Qualifying Textbooks - Fall 2007 | Stores | Books

Professional | Qualifying Textbooks - Fall 2007 | Stores | Books
ASIN: 1855733315

Book Description

This is the first comprehensive professional guide to the strategies and techniques of competitor analysis for the financial industry. It explains how to set up systems and models to identify and analyze competitors and their products. Practical in approach and international in coverage, is essential for all financial services professionals seeking a competitive advantage.

Joint Ventures: Antitrust Analysis of Collaborations Among Competitors

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Joint Ventures: Antitrust Analysis of Collaborations Among Competitors
ABA
Manufacturer: American Bar Association
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

Antitrust | Business | Law | Subjects | Books

General | Law | Subjects | Books

General | Law | Professional & Technical | Subjects | Books
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ASIN: 1590317009

Book Description

Joint Ventures: Antitrust Analysis of Collaborations Among Competitors is the first book to provide a comprehensive analysis of antitrust joint venture law in the immediate aftermath of the Supreme Court's landmark Dagher decision. It reviews antitrust principles applicable to joint ventures and other competitor collaborations, taking into account relevant statutory and case law as well as government guidelines and enforcement practices.

Accenture (outsourcing competitor analysis)

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Accenture (outsourcing competitor analysis)
Ovum Plc
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Digital

General | Business & Investing | Subjects | Books

General | Computers & Internet | Subjects | Books

Book Description

Increased competition means that clients are less willing than they were in the 1990s to pay a brand premium in many parts of the IT services market. Accenture faces challenges in managing its prices and its brand as it juggles a mixture of traditional premium-price services with a new generation of low-cost services. These challenges are tough but not insurmountable. Accenture expects to continue its record of double-digit growth and operating margins in 2007, and we don’t disagree.

American heritage: it's the one thing the domestic automakers have that their competitors don't. If properly used, it can spark the imagination of buyers, ... article from: Automotive Design & Production

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American heritage: it's the one thing the domestic automakers have that their competitors don't. If properly used, it can spark the imagination of buyers, ... article from: Automotive Design & Production
Christopher A. Sawyer
Manufacturer: Gardner Publications, Inc.
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Digital

General | Business & Investing | Subjects | Books

Industry | Automotive | Nonfiction | Subjects | Books

Book Description

This digital document is an article from Automotive Design & Production, published by Gardner Publications, Inc. on January 1, 2004. The length of the article is 1292 words. The page length shown above is based on a typical 300-word page. The article is delivered in HTML format and is available in your Amazon.com Digital Locker immediately after purchase. You can view it with any web browser.

Citation Details
Title: American heritage: it's the one thing the domestic automakers have that their competitors don't. If properly used, it can spark the imagination of buyers, and erect an impenetrable barrier against foreign competitors.(On Cars)
Author: Christopher A. Sawyer
Publication: Automotive Design & Production (Magazine/Journal)
Date: January 1, 2004
Publisher: Gardner Publications, Inc.
Volume: 116 Issue: 1 Page: 32(2)

Distributed by Thomson Gale

Body of evidence: conventional competitor analysis is no longer enough, argues Mike Brooks, who explains why financial managers can become key agents in ... An article from: Financial Management (UK)

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Body of evidence: conventional competitor analysis is no longer enough, argues Mike Brooks, who explains why financial managers can become key agents in ... An article from: Financial Management (UK)
Mike Brooks
Manufacturer: Chartered Institute of Management Accountants (CIMA)
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Digital

General | Business & Investing | Subjects | Books

Management | Management & Leadership | Business & Investing | Subjects | Books

Book Description

This digital document is an article from Financial Management (UK), published by Chartered Institute of Management Accountants (CIMA) on March 1, 2005. The length of the article is 1506 words. The page length shown above is based on a typical 300-word page. The article is delivered in HTML format and is available in your Amazon.com Digital Locker immediately after purchase. You can view it with any web browser.

Citation Details
Title: Body of evidence: conventional competitor analysis is no longer enough, argues Mike Brooks, who explains why financial managers can become key agents in the mission to gather competitive intelligence.
Author: Mike Brooks
Publication: Financial Management (UK) (Magazine/Journal)
Date: March 1, 2005
Publisher: Chartered Institute of Management Accountants (CIMA)
Page: 18(3)

Distributed by Thomson Gale

Cablecom Takes Swiss Competitors by Surprise with a New 6 Mbps Broadband Service (Competitive Intelligence Brief)

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Cablecom Takes Swiss Competitors by Surprise with a New 6 Mbps Broadband Service (Competitive Intelligence Brief)
Current Analysis Inc.
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Digital

General | Computers & Internet | Subjects | Books

Book Description

Cablecom has once again shaken the Swiss marketplace, offering a new 6 Mbps broadband product that is faster than the leading DSL equivalents at a lower price. The challenge will be developing a response in a market where LLU has not happened.

CBI Series in Practical Strategy, Competitor Analysis: Turning Intelligence into Success (CBI Series in Practical Strategy)

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CBI Series in Practical Strategy, Competitor Analysis: Turning Intelligence into Success (CBI Series in Practical Strategy)
David Hussey , and Per V. Jenster
Manufacturer: Wiley
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

Strategy & Competition | Management & Leadership | Business & Investing | Subjects | Books

Decision-Making & Problem Solving | Management & Leadership | Business & Investing | Subjects | Books

Management | Management & Leadership | Business & Investing | Subjects | Books

General | Business & Investing | Subjects | Books
ASIN: 0471499919

Book Description

This book provides a comprehensive guide for marketing and planning practitioners, managers and management consultants to enable them to improve the competitor information and intelligence available to their organizations, and to use it to gain advantages over the competition. Competitor Analysis: Turning Intelligence into Success goes beyond the broad concepts, and gives practical advice on how to obtain and use the necessary information, offers strategies for both attack and defence. The text builds on a sound conceptual foundation, and draws heavily on the author's practical experience.

Cisco to Acquire Scientific-Atlanta, Blocking Competitors While Running Toward Its Goal (Competitive Intelligence Brief)

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Cisco to Acquire Scientific-Atlanta, Blocking Competitors While Running Toward Its Goal (Competitive Intelligence Brief)
Current Analysis Inc.
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Digital

General | Computers & Internet | Subjects | Books

Book Description

Cisco acquires Scientific-Atlanta, securing a single-vendor, end-to-end video distribution solution and stronger presence in the digital home. This improves Cisco's position significantly, particularly in MSOs - but Cisco is not done.

Book Description

Baskets are one of the few things we still haven't learned to mass produce to look as good as handmade. Try your hand at 30 elegant basket styles using splint materials--wood and grass pounded or split into flat strips. Shapes include traditional egg, melon, feather, cradle, oriole, shaker, and others that have all but disappeared from sight. A complete guide to tools, equipment, and materials helps you select splints from rattan, cane, oak and ash, rope, sisal, and sea grass. Learn the old ways of gathering, drying, storing, and soaking splints from trees, bushes, vines, marsh plants, bulbs, grasses, and husks. Get special tips on handles, rims, bases, lids, paints, and dyes. Choose from ribbed styles like the Winged Egg Basket or the Oriole. Or a plaited basket like the Great Lakes, Cherokee, or Shaker. Or the spoked baskets like the Field, Provender, and Quiver. A full-color photo gallery showcases each basket, along with stories that tell how they evolved into their current styles. 168 pages, 8 1/2 x 11.

Customer Reviews:

Splint Woven Basketry.......2002-11-29

I've got a zillion books on basket weaving; this one is going to the top of my list of favorites.

my basketry bible.......2001-11-11

Robin's book was there for me when I started weaving (that was about 10,000 baskets ago) and is still the one I reach for when I need help. Straightforward writing and clear photography combine to make this one of the very best basketry books out there. I've used it as a text in teaching countless classes. It's a book that every basketmaker, beginner or experienced, should have on the shelf.

Reprint Even Better Than The First!.......2000-04-02

When this book was first published, back in the 80s, it was one of the first basketry instruction books I ever purchased. I still have the ragged thing, well worn because of how often I used it.

Robin's clear pictures and very detailed, well written, instructions made learning how to weave baskets a sheer delight. Step by step, she leads the beginner on a sure path to the ultimate perfect basket. Intermediate basketweavers are also introduced to different weaving materials and techniques. This book offers something for everyone.

I am very fortunate that my deer antler basket pictures appear in this latest revised copy. They are located on the first page of the artist gallery collection in the center of the book. These photographs are an addition to the original book, with several other excellent basketmakers work appearing in the gallery.

I am honored to be included in a book that I have always held in the caliber of the Bible. Thank you Robin for the reprint, it will help thousands of beginner basketmakers in their search for excellence!

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Splint Woven Basketry
Robin Taylor Daugherty
Manufacturer: Interweave Pr
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
ASIN: B000PVOPZK

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Splint Woven Basketry
Robin Taylor Daugherty
Manufacturer: Sterling Pub Co Inc
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
ASIN: B000JMFIP6

Customer Reviews:

An engaging but somewhat skewed memoir........2002-09-21

Whilst the book is certainly a useful and informative perspective, and covers a fascinating and deeply perturbing subject, it's difficult to overlook the author's pomposity and self-righteousness; so much so, that, given his rose-tinted and deeply erroneous belief in wondrous US foreign policy, one begins to wonder whether his views upon events in Kenya at the time are equally skewed.

Having only lived in Kenya a very short while, and not during the time he describes, I cannot have my own understanding of events to corroborate what he says, and Hempstone certainly makes little attempt to back up any of the stories about the nefarious Biwott and megalomaniac Moi, beyond saying that he got them from reliable sources... Which is a real pity, because it would be so nice to see him truly skewer the indubitably corrupt and malignant politicians.

As a memoir it's certainly entertaining enough, as long as you learn to flip through Hempstone's self-promoting blather, which at times begins to sound like a curriculum vitae. It gives you plenty of fascinating historical background, and a decent understanding of the beautiful country Kenya is, but as reliable reference material, however... Who could say?

Rogue Ambassador.......2002-08-21

I do not have the book yet. Ignore the above rating of "1 Star" I just placed the 1 Star to enable mailing this letter. If you send me a free sample of the book, I will review it and post my comments. I have done many reviews a number of international publishers.

Okay..........2001-11-07

Overall i think the book is a good read. Hempstone does a good job of telling the times as the they were during his term in office in Kenya. Some of the things maybe slightly exaggerated but i think the important thing is that it tells what was in our minds during this time but we as kenyans were unable to say. He also does an excellent job of describing Moi; dictator, vicious, illiterate, corrupt etc. (probably would explain why Moi is suing him)
There were several things that i didn't like about the book. Everytime Hempstone mentions a person he has to tell us what tribe that person belongs to...urrrgh....if there could be a reason for banning this book in kenya..this would be it! The other thing i noticed was that Hempstone does an amazing job of making himself look good in the book. The book is filled with notes of important people or not praising him for this or that....it struck me as very self promoting. Some of the stuff about locals was absolutely untrue. For example...at one pt he says the Samburu are know to diet on meat, milk and urine like the maasai. The urine part is an outright lie, i say this a maasai born + bred deep in maasai land...maasai do not drink urine...yaaak....blood we drink urine is a no-no!
The last and minor thing is the endless repeatations in the book. Several statements are repeated over + over again through the book...i got the impression that maybe a pt was being drum into my head.
Nevertheless, this book gives an interesting insite into the political issues in kenya as well as most likely alot of the other african countries. I was kind of disappointed that the book didn't go more into depth on the sudan crisis --- that region of africa needs serious help!

Very good read on Kenya and East Africa in general.......2001-10-15

I was in Kenya when Amb. Hempstone was there and all included in the book is highly accurate. It is a very good read about life in Kenya during those years.

Average customer rating:

Took a particular interest since last year
Compelling Read
The Truth Uncovered
Great book!
A struggle half done to free a people from tyranical rule

Rogue Ambassador: An African Memoir
Smith Hempstone
Manufacturer: University of South Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

General | Biographies & Memoirs | Subjects | Books

Political | Leaders & Notable People | Biographies & Memoirs | Subjects | Books

Memoirs | Biographies & Memoirs | Subjects | Books

Customer Reviews:

Took a particular interest since last year.......2003-10-05

Smith Hempstone tells us about his fight to encourage (if not impose) multipartism in Kenya. His book takes a brand new resonance now that, ten years later, his efforts were brought to fruition with the fall of the once unique Kanu party and the election of Mwai Kibaki as president.

This result alone deserves respect. However, about the book, a couple of things can be said. Lots of paragraphs are of doubtful utility, like the ones about "operation bullship", an operation that didn't happen anyway, so why bother indeed ? The most interesting topic in the book is how democracy made a leap forward in Kenya, and the whole book might have been better had it been organized more around this main subject.

The tone of the book lacks humility in my view, and since I was reading Leakey's Wildlife Wars at a similar time, I can tell that the latter conveys a much more humane feeling about what it takes to fight for improvment in a country. Maybe this is because Leakey is Kenyan. When Hempstone braggs about democracy being so fundamental in the USA, one can reply that achieving democracy is easier once you've wiped out the native people in a territory, and that you're left with European immigrants sharing the same lifestyle and language...

But apart from style, this book is a most valuable read, and all the more interesting since the recent political changes in Kenya.

Compelling Read.......2002-01-11

This is an important work that gives a frank perspective and historical account of Kenya, and the forces tugging at it. Mr Hempstone is a gifted writer, and this book reflects that. His reference to Mau Mau freedom fighters as terrorists leaves much to be desired. This is fact is a misrepresentation of Mau Mau. Mau Mau helped Kenya achieve independence from Britain (its means may not have been diplomatic, nevertheless, kenyans were liberated from the yoke of colonialism.) Apart from this fact, I would recommend it to anyone seeking a detailed account of the events of those years, but to caution you that this is infact written with lots of baggage that is the character of this man (he seems to relish the days of colonialism, yet he (and the US)did have an impact (positive or negative to Kenyans we do not know yet). Compelling and insightful.

The Truth Uncovered.......2001-08-02

The book offers another dimension in this brutal killing that shocked the world. It sheds light on the power play that exists in Moi's evil government machinery that is willing to do anything to perpetuate the evil empire. This unbiased account is one that every Kenyan and friends of Kenya should read as we prepare for the inevitable homecoming of all children of the Kenyan Diaspora. Though a foregone conclusion, the fact that we need a government that respects its citizens and understands its mandate remains a recurring theme. "Building the New Kenya" is and should be our motto !

Great book!.......1999-12-10

This is a great book -- loads of fun to read while providing an insightful perspective of an important country.

A struggle half done to free a people from tyranical rule.......1999-03-26

A good book.Tells of the aspirations of a people burried in tyranny-and their struggle to overcome it.The author tried his part and Kenyan people are grateful to him.The book is a must for anybody who would like to know the temperament for Kenya in the search for evasive political reforms.

Average customer rating:

Faith Amongst The Turmoil

QUESTIONS THAT ASK QUESTIONS

A Must Read Book for all Practitioners!

A disappointing and incomplete effort

Siege in Lucasville

Siege in Lucasville
Gary Williams
Manufacturer: Authorhouse
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

General | Biographies & Memoirs | Subjects | Books
Midwest | Regional U.S. | Biographies & Memoirs | Subjects | Books
Memoirs | Biographies & Memoirs | Subjects | Books
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Lucasville: The Untold Story Of A Prison Uprising

The Hate Factory: A First-Hand Account of the 1980 Riot at the Penitentiary of New Mexico

Games Criminals Play: How You Can Profit by Knowing Them

ASIN: 1414021410

Book Description

The 11-day prison riot in Lucasville, OH, from April 11-April 21, 1993, was the longest and third deadliest prison riot in American history. Nine inmates and one prison guard were killed during the standoff. Nearly $40 million worth of damage was done to the prison.

As told to Gary Williams, Siege in Lucasville is the gripping story of Larry Dotson, a prison guard held hostage during the riot at the Southern Ohio Correctional Institution in Lucasville.

With a meticulous day-by-day account of the standoff, Siege offers a first-hand account of the torture and terror that Dotson experienced in the midst of rival prison gangs struggling to negotiate with authorities and co-exist with each other. Dotson's beatings resulted in two weeks of hospitalization, months of physical therapy, and years of emotional healing. Like several of his fellow hostages, Dotson has continued to bear the effects of Lucasville, as he has endured 17 post-riot trials, two strokes, and a layoff.

Siege also features a special section with post-riot investigation reports and a critical analysis, conducted by Williams, of the administrative failure of the Ohio Department of Rehabilitation and Correction.

While legislative changes were implemented in the aftermath of the Lucasville riot, the Ohio prison system has sunk back to pre-Lucasville conditions. On December 6, 2005, at the same Lucasville prison, correction officer Marda Abrams was beaten with her own side-handled baton so severely that she has not returned to work. This incident capped off a year where assaults against prison staff increased 162% at Lucasville.

To all those who advocate budget cutbacks, staff reductions, and a moderation of security for the Ohio prison system, Siege is a haunting reminder that those legislators and administrators who are accountable are never required to pay the real consequences for their decisions.

Customer Reviews:

Faith Amongst The Turmoil.......2006-02-25

I personally found this book incredibly interesting. I work in the Ohio prison system and the insight to a riot this book provides should be required reading for all who work in this profession. Mr. Dotson's strength of character and faith enabled him to not only survive this ordeal, but provide a role model to the other hostages. The book is somewhat critical of the Central Office response to the riot, and at times deservedly so, although I should add that being with the department I have seen first hand the growth and improvement from this terrible event. I would wholeheartedly endorse this book.

QUESTIONS THAT ASK QUESTIONS.......2005-03-22

Anyone who has witnessed the black rubber body bags, the gurneys carrying the wounded, and the Hostage Response Team escorting the huddled shadows traumatized Correctional Officers rescued from the hell of a prison riot-hostage situation can truly relate to the gut-wrenching mantra of correctional employment: We put our lives on the line one minute at a time!

There is no normal tour of duty - a breech of security, a failure to report a minor physical plant or infrastructure problem (broken window); understaffing of dormitories and key security posts; malfunctioning surveillance camera or information technology flaws, (missing or altered name tags); or perhaps something innocuous that "just doesn't seem right" - don't shrug it off! Keep an awareness of subtle shifts in inmate attitudes and signals of discontent, signs of gang warfare; institutional racial tension, odd or overt familiarity between staff and inmates - the night has a thousand eyes. Here is the rare opportunity for you to witness all of the above through a dedicated reading of the chilling and awesome account of the eleven day saga of Correctional Officer hostage, Larry Dotson at the maximum-security Southern Ohio Correctional Facility (SOCF), Lucasville, Ohio in April 1993.

Officer Dotson's friend and fellow Officer, Gary Williams, has written a detailed and compelling account of eleven days in hell as a Correctional Officer hostage at Lucasville. It has taken ten years to achieve an authentic revisiting of this "nightmare" of all correctional personnel, as Williams's details: After eleven days of brutal captivity, two weeks of hospitalization, months of physical healing and therapy, seventeen post-riot trials, two strokes, a lay-off, and transfer to another agency, Larry Dotson is ready - ready to tell the story that has yet to be told, and ready to take the next step in the healing process.

This book belongs in every correctional training program in the United States; and, it is a must for the personal library of every Correctional Officer in our local, state, federal prison and jail systems. The book encompasses fourteen chapters in revealing the anatomy of a prison riot and the hellish experience of the hostages, their families, brother and sister officers, staff, supervisor, wardens and the administrators of the Ohio Department of Rehabilitation and Correction.

In a crisis situation it is not the answers people seek but the questions they ask that are important. Nothing is spared in this reporting of Correctional Officer Dotson's incredible hostage-account of the Lucasville riot. Utilizing a set of key questions, the author exposes the concentric circles of responsibility held by politicians, press and media, Correctional Officers/Staff, and inmates; and, specifically, the administrative responsibility of state officials and agencies involved in the Lucasville riot.

QUESTIONS THAT ASK QUESTIONS

The riot at the Southern Ohio Correctional Facility that began on April 11, 1993 raises several perennial questions:
1) Could the nation's longest, and third deadliest prison riot, have been prevented?
2) Were there warning signs?
3) Did Correction Department (DRC) do anything that increased the likelihood of the riot?
4) Did prison administrators and other SOCF staff know there was impending danger of an inmate uprising?
5) Did SOCF prison administrators make the appropriate notifications and make the necessary requests?
6) Did those who were entrusted with the authority to act on those requests fail to do so?
7) Did lower level personnel take the political, economic, and career "hit" for higher level administrators?

Guiding the reader into the specific content of this 168 page book are specific case-law citations, photographs, and a valuable set of "endnotes and citations" relevant to the SOFC Lucasville prison riot. As time reveals and heals situations of dire agony, trauma, and loss, it is imperative that the facts of this tragic riot not be buried in the bureaucrat morass of past events. They must remain transparent and be converted into proactive measures to protect the safety of both staff and inmates.

Correctional Officers can understand simple fairness and reasonableness better than most people. They must work in a highly distilled environment where such factors are crucial to safety and cooperation. Correctional Officers can also understand the need to build structure to ensure justice. Measuring the inmate's progress by their lawful behavior is as plausible to correctional officers as is measuring their own work program and upward mobility.

It is less than obvious that Correctional Officers and staff operate behind the walls and are, essentially, out of sight and out of mind. Their problems and concerns are rarely a matter of public interest. Correctional Officers environment health, safety, and working conditions demand full time attention. Unfortunately, their working conditions are often viewed with the same disinterest as the inmates they supervise.

There is no difference in what is good for the inmates and what is good for officers: a clean and safe correctional facility at all times. As Gary Williams and Larry Dotson have so ardently shared with us this is what is needed to prevent the horror of hostages and riots in correctional facilities everywhere. Jess Maghan, Chester, Ct. March 2005

A Must Read Book for all Practitioners!.......2004-07-18

As a practitioner in the field of criminal justice and a Correction Supervisor at the oldest operational prison west of the Mississippi, the Missouri State Penitentiary, I found this book to be extremely beneficial and educational in understanding the dynamics in both hostage and riot situations. As correctional professionals, we are faced with this dilemma every time we pass through the gates of hell into the community environment of convicted felons.

Both Gary and Larry did an outstanding job in illustrating the trauma and horror one sustains in a crisis situation of this nature. However, more information on the aftermath and trials would have been beneficial for future research.

If either Gary or Larry reads this review, please email me so I can obtain further knowledge on this subject.

A disappointing and incomplete effort.......2004-03-30

I was really looking forward to this book as nothing else has been published to date on this important event. I was very disappointed. It was poorly edited; there were a number of typos and punctuation errors.
It was not a balanced account at all. For an event of this magnitude to have occurred there had to have been a number of complicated causal factors. The author took an overly simplistic view. I am not sympathizing with the rioters by any stretch but the cause was more complicated than the author addressed.
I would have been interested to learn more about what actually transpired in the negotiations which led to a resolution without more bloodshed. I would also have liked to know more of what happened to the key players (hostages, staff, administration, participating inmates, non-participating inmates, etc.) afterward. There have been a number of criminal and civil court cases which should have been addressed in more detail.
Little was done to address what can be learned from those events. That should be a key goal of books of this nature.

Siege in Lucasville.......2004-02-23

Recommended for all correctional professional as this could happen to any one of us. I would have liked greater detail particularly in reference to what happened to Officer Demon who went over to the other side and the subsequent trials of those who were active participants in the riot.

I liked the fact that Larry named staff and their various roles before and during the riot. Again though, no followup on what has happened to them after the riot.

If you work in the field of corrections or the greater law enforcement field, this book is a must read and should be part of all entry level correctional programs throughout the country.

Larry or Gary, if you read this, please email me as I would like to speak with you further as I work for the Federal Bureau of Prisons in PA. Very good book and thank you Larry for letting us learn from your personal drama!

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Siege in Lucasville: The 11 Day Saga of Hostage Larry Dotson
Gary Williams
Manufacturer: Authorhouse
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

General | Biographies & Memoirs | Subjects | Books
Midwest | Regional U.S. | Biographies & Memoirs | Subjects | Books
Memoirs | Biographies & Memoirs | Subjects | Books
ASIN: 1414021402

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