In Demand, in Command

A comprehensive, insightful and practical guide to transforming your customer value and costs of service. Great, you're in demand! You have a brilliant product, excellent services, and competitive pricing. But that only gets you a seat at the table. If you really want to stay ahead of the game and be in command of a modern, always-connected world, you need a winning digital customer experience strategy. In Demand, in Command is essential to anyone that considers the growth, allegiance, and advocacy of customers at lower operating costs as paramount. Increasingly, there is a need to stand out from the crowd and not be easily imitated by others. This book gives you immediate access to shrewd, insightful and comprehensible advice on customer strategy, digital optimisation and organisational transformation. Packed with thought-leading expertise, proven 'how to' techniques, and real-life experiences, it enables you to accelerate improvements in your customer insight, service performance, business margins and competitiveness. In Demand, in Command is as much about the people and processes that drive your desired business growth, as it is about digital technologies. Put simply - if you sell to, or serve the public in any shape or form, this book is a must for you.

In Green Pastures

In 1917, war rages on in Belgium and France, and German bombs fall on East London. Two sisters, Florence and Nell, living in Stratford, arrange to leave the city for the tranquillity of the North Essex countryside.

For Florence Mundy, fleeing personal demons and the imminent return of Harry, departure from London cannot come soon enough.

Nell Ashford has the safety of her five children on her mind while George is away at the Front.

In Halstead, lying peacefully in the Colne Valley, they find new challenges, friendship and pain as well as personal fulfilment. Florence discovers salvation and hard work in the newly formed Women’s Land Army while Nell takes on the role of breadwinner to her family.

But they cannot escape the consequences of the Great War and the arrival of German Prisoners of War changes the dynamics of Halstead life and Florence’s future prospects as the armistice approaches.

In Search of a True World View

Will utopian teachings and totalitarian regimes shape the future of humanity? Ronald Fagerfjäll, nestor among Sweden’s financial journalists, does not believe that at all. Religions only reflect a bygone era when men guarded herds of cattle and young women became barter for creating bonds between clans. And totalitarian regimes were formerly the general norm because something better had yet to be invented. An infallible leader quickly stifles the ability of his subjects to solve problems.

The obsolete is cleared out as economic, technological, and cultural evolution continues relentlessly, driven by millions of change projects and billions of free citizens. In knowledge economies, neither feverish fantasies nor feudal structures fit in. We cannot know our future with any certainty, but still, we create it ourselves by solving one concrete problem after another.

What does an evidence-based history of humanity look like? Our biological development was first and foremost a result of a fierce struggle for survival higher up in the food chain, first as scavengers and then as hunters. It required ever better ability to cooperate as well as constant development of weapons and tools. The fact that some 40 ice ages and countless volcanic winters passed during millions of years pushed the early people close to extinction and accelerated cultural development.

From this eye of the needle came Homo Sapiens, a species which could meet the threat from nature with innovations, stories, and cultures. Fagerfjäll has been working on his history book for four decades, but it is only now, when researchers have been able to take a closer look at both the life itself and the history of the planet, that the tale has been completed.

For anyone who doubts humanity’s ability to deal with today’s problems, this is a vaccination against pessimism.

Indigenous Knowledge on Traditional Upland Rice Farming in Sierra Leone

“Learning can be acquired by reading books, but the much more necessary learning, the knowledge of the world, is only to be acquired by reading men, and studying all the various facets of them.” (Phillip Stanhope, 4th Earl of Chesterfield).

Indigenous Knowledge in Traditional Upland Rice Farming is a result of living and studying the rice farmers in the southern region of Sierra Leone, West Africa, over years of extension and rural development work. It is a result of years of effort trying to unearth how farmers generate and share information from their knowledge which remained unknown to professionals who attempt intervention projects aimed at addressing the constraints the farmers faced.

These ventures often fail to get the desired results with a waste of time and resources due to the lack of knowledge and understanding on the underpinning knowledge in a system they want to correct. It gives an insight into this farming system in a way that can be applicable to other farming systems in the country and elsewhere around the world. Fortunately, the information collected into this book was done before the rebel war in Sierra Leone, which claimed the lives of the majority of the seasoned and knowledgeable farmers. There is currently a drive by the government of Sierra Leone to encourage entrepreneurship in agribusiness around the country to improve agriculture and food production, in order to alleviate the problem of food shortages in the country.

This book offers an opportunity for those with the capital to grasp the fundamental principles underlying the practices in the farming system, the major source of food production in the country, as an insurance for their capital investments. This book can be translated into the local languages for the adult education of young farmers in the country who have not had the opportunity to have learned from their parents and older farmers through the method of oral traditional learning, as a result of the decade of rebel war which may have claimed their lives.

Infiniti

Like many other books, this book is about a journey. But unlike other books, the destination of the journey is the point where the parallel lines meet. The narrator is locked inside the book. The only way he can get out of it is by persuading one of the other characters in the book to finish off the writing process for him. But before he can do this, he has to make a journey.

On his travels, there are a number of waypoints where he must stop and collect materials which are pasted into the book. When the book is completed, he can leave the book by delivering it to the individual whom he will meet at the point where the parallel lines meet.

This journey, which is accomplished across his lifetime, takes him from the birth of Christ to the near future, with the author bending time by complex double time schemes, riddles and mathematical formulae. Every waypoint appears incredible at first, but we are in the world of weaving narrative into fiction but not fantasy. Every one of the waypoints is historical fact.

There is no trickery. The narrator does indeed take us to the point where the parallel lines meet. It had been staring at us in the face all along.

Insanitus

Make it to resemble a man

Sans emotions of any kind

Ignorant of pain and pleasure

Cold: bereft of heart and soul

One to kill at my command.

From  ‘PANDORA’

Isaiah’s Mountain

May 1901. Jo stands alone, ready to meet her fate, as British soldiers come thundering up the dusty track of her farm. She has not raised a white flag, it is pointless; the British are burning homesteads to the ground. Choked by the acrid smell of farmlands and livestock, blazing in the valley, Jo struggles to find her voice and the words she needs to save her home.

A strange twist of events transports Jo back to a time when, as a young teacher in the tiny Karoo town of Kweek Valley, she was drawn into the troubled world of a boy named Lukas Bester. A time past when nothing was as simple as it seemed and the truth lay silent and festering beneath the surface of the pious community. A time when she was Joanna Shepherd, an entirely different person…

If she is to survive, Jo has to find the words which uncover the truth as she navigates her way through grief, betrayal and the violence of war.

It Was Good

Hate crimes involving anti-Semitism, racial bigotry and sexual preferences are growing exponentially in all societies. This book is a simplistic attempt for young minds to understand how hate can be instigated. Through this story, children learn how to overcome prejudice, violence and celebrate each other’s differences. The answer to understanding others is through education starting at a young age. Now more than ever, the subject of this book is badly needed.

Jack Jack the Cat Loose in London

Jack Jack isn’t your average ginger cat; he thrives on thrill and mischief. Dive into the heart of London with him as he leaps from the decks of pirate ships to the opulent halls of royal parties. Along the way, he encounters a cast of eccentric personalities and finds himself woven into their captivating tales. Explore London like never before, with Jack Jack – the city’s most adventurous feline – as your guide.

Jake and the Magic Handle

Jake was bored. He’d had a dull day at school and was walking home. His dog, Jack, had just squeezed through a gap in the hedge and was barking for Jake to join him. Jake didn’t want to but Jack just wouldn’t stop barking. So Jake grumpily crawled through the hedge determined to grab Jack and go home for his tea. He went to grab Jack and as he did so saw something on the ground that changed his life. Find out what Jake and Jack found – it might change your life too!

Jake the Crocodile

In today's society it is easy for adults and children alike to get swept up in social media expectations around what somebody should look like. It is also incredibly easy to jump to conclusions and make judgements about others.

Jake the Crocodile is about taking a step back to not only look at the outside of a person (or crocodile!) but what is on the inside.

It is more important than ever to teach our children to be empathic and Jake will form a special place in your child's heart so they stop and think about their judgements of other people and take the opportunity to see past external appearances to open a whole new world of opportunity for friendship.

Imagine a world where we didn't judge and people were valued for their individual characteristics. Jake will help your child see that there is beauty in everyone, if you just take the time to look.

Jesus In My Corner

Jesus in My Corner, written by Andy Flute, chronicles his struggle to overcome a myriad of life-long challenges with violence and alcohol. For over 30 years, violence and alcohol were Andy's daily bread until, one day, by the power of prayer, he managed to achieve what no amount of alcohol or prison incarceration could ever achieve. When he was at the point of death, intoxicated with alcohol following a ten-day binging session, I went to see my old mate and prayed for him with Pastor Steve.

Andy was fighting the demon of alcohol and he was on the ropes, down for the count. Andy, a former captain of the English boxing team and British Middleweight title challenger alongside sparring partner Chris Eubank and other world class fighters, knew what brutal fighting was all about. This fight was different, one he couldn't win on his own strength. Andy felt the intense grip and destructive downward spiral alcohol had on his life. Battered and bleeding, with no more strength, he cried out to Jesus.

In a truly miraculous turnaround, Andy found Jesus in his corner and almost instantaneously gave up alcohol. During the bleakest of moments, he experienced a spiritual awakening. Slowly, he found his way through darkest era of his life. He came to believe a power greater than himself in Jesus.

Now with Jesus in his corner, Andy is an active member of Sedgley Community Church. The Bible employs the analogy of wrestling in reference to our warfare with Satan and his hosts. Andy had a fight that only Jesus could referee, this gigantic battle played out until he was baptised in water.

Andy Flute's willingness to share the most intimate aspects of his life was born out of a deep desire to help others addicted to alcohol and violence.
Despite these daunting events, Andy now works hard to live a normal life and raise a family of his own. He regularly attends prison workshops and shares his testimony in local schools. The Lord has made an amazing transformation in his life, He could do the same for you!

His good friend, John Cramphorn