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China Shakes the World
By James Kynge

An expert and lively account of China’s presence of the global stage, China Shakes the World provides a completely new perspective on the China we think we know. Kynge shows clearly how and why China has become so influential in nearly every aspect of our lives, and perhaps, more importantly, how the future of global politics, economies, ecosystems, and more depend upon the precarious relationship between the two nations of China and the USA in particular.

The power of the Chinese people is undeniable force: The country’s hunger for jobs, raw materials, energy sources, and food, along with its export of goods, workers, and investments, is drastically reshaping world trade and politics. Kynge uncovers the surprising ways this explosion of growth is intertwined with our politics, our health, and our economies—essentially our entire lives. From China’s work force gobbling up American factories in the Midwest to an industrial boom spreading pollution to our shores, China’s actions halfway around the world have an immediate impact here at home. And while China’s economy is no house of cards, not all of its economic graphs point up. Kynge forecasts a bleak future for both China and the United States if China doesn’t address it’s many internal weaknesses, from appalling environmental conditions to murky banking systems and inept government institutions.

From the politics of censorship to the outsourcing of American jobs, items about China blanket the media everyday. China's emergence onto the world stage has been building for the past few decades, and the shock waves of its awaening are clearly felt across the globe. But what explains China's dramatic, unprecendented rise - and how much longer can it continue?

China Shakes the World: A Titan’s Rise and Troubled Future—and the Challenge for America, by James Kynge, is a powerful and unique look at the people and politics behind China’s burgeoning influence on the United States and around the globe. Kynge, the former China bureau chief for the Financial Times, examines China’s current successes and problems, how its transformation—for better or worse—will influence the future of the world.

Kynge also provides remarkable personal stories of ordinary citizens at the centre of this new revolution. Liu Chuanzhi, a survivor of the Cultural Revolution and now chairman of Lenovo, which recently bought IBM’s PC division, and Yin Mingshan, an ex-convict and former bookseller who built China’s first and most successful motorcycle company, are examples of the extraordinary Chinese entrepreneurs driving the nation forward. But intertwined with the successes stories are those of unfortunates like Qi Yuling, a peasant girl whose identify was stolen by her friends wealthy father, depriving her of a university education, robbing her of a future. Qi’s story speaks to other weaknesses China faces: the breakdown of social trust and the corruption and fraud practiced by peasant farmers and the highest government officials alike.

The Travels of a T-shirt in the Global Economy by Pietra Rivoli

In 1999, author Pietra Rivoli attended a Washington, D.C. demonstration against globalization. A young woman asked the crowd, "Who made your T-shirt?" before she described worldwide labour abuses and mistreatment of garment workers. That shouted question and the assumptions implicit in it stimulated the author’s imagination. She decided to find the answer. Her compelling book tracks T-shirts from the Texas cotton fields, through manufacturing in China, to consumers in the U.S. and to Africa’s used clothing market. In this interesting, original approach to the issues of globalisation and industrialisation, Rivoli shows the economic, political and social forces that come to bear on a T-shirt. Though she can’t literally track a single shirt step-by-step, she sustains that metaphor. Buying a shirt, she works her way backward in time and space to find its origins, or the origins (and eventual lifespan and demise) of such T-shirts, by relying on inference, deduction and reasonable assumption. Her most stunning, most negative conclusion is that - despite debates over free trade and allegedly exploitative markets - everyone involved seems devoted to avoiding market forces altogether.Source: www.Getabstract.com

Real Numbers: Management accounting in a Lean Organisation by Jean E.

CunninghamCurrent management accounting practices often produce financial statements that are unnecessarily complex, do not provide meaningful, actionable information, and often lead to the isolation of financial officers. Even worse, in many instances they are incomprehensible to those that are supposed to read, analyse and then use them for production improvements.These financial reports may even lead to anti-productive behaviour and underlie poor decision-making. Using real life experiences in implementing lean in manufacturing and the implications and opportunities for the finance and accounting organisation, this book has major implications for the way in which your organisation’s accounting practices are run, and more importantly, used to develop competitive capabilities.Some key points covered:

In accounting allocation procedures, accuracy is more important that precision. As a quick test, ask yourself, if the value were 10% higher, would a different decision be made?
Do not confuse fixed costs with a variable cost.
It is not necessary to absorb labour and overheads for every single product. Reduce time consuming piece-part allocation transactions and focus on groupings instead. If you have stable WIP (and we all should), or the lead time is shorter than the fiscal period, transactional absorption costs add confusion, not understanding, to the operational performance and is therefore time consuming and unnecessary.
Do not assume that just because a machine makes more units at a lower per unit cost, it is better. One cannot continue to use the standard amortisation calculation that assumes running the machine 24/7 is the right method – this may simply overproduce. A smaller machine might actually be better and reduce future costs.
Accounting is not the only source of information – data can and should be created for the shop floor and can remain there as not everything needs to go into a report.
Once and once only. As with quality, rework is very expensive. The same principle applies to office work so make sure data is entered accurately the first time before passing it on.
“Because accounting said so” is not a reason. Ask why, what use, and to whom to know whether or not it actually serves a real purpose.
All financial statements should be usable by non-accountants.
You are what you measure – measurement affects behaviour. Poor measurements (e.g. individual scores) can lead to dysfunctional behaviour.
Financial engineering will not yield productivity gains.
A Rand is more valuable in flexible capacity than in inventory.
In cost accounting, the less allocation the better. Allocations by nature involve choices between methods and estimates and are not accurate, and are also not particularly meaningful. Similarly, variances in allocations are even more inaccurate and less meaningful.