Europe at the Crossroads or Successful Proposal Strategies for Small Businesses

Europe at the Crossroads

Author: Guillermo de la Dehesa

From the beginning, the European Union had a clear objective: to permanently consolidate peace in Europe after two of the bloodiest wars in history. This was supplemented after the fall of communism with a second priority: to become an economic power capable of counterbalancing America's growing dominance. The current state of Europe, however, has sparked a fierce debate on just how well the economy is really doing in comparison to the U.S.--and whether Europe can continue to compete and maintain its generous welfare state.

Written by one of Europe's most well-known and respected economists, Europe at the Crossroads analyzes whether the EU is fulfilling its economic and social targets, outlining in a simple and understandable way the main issues facing the EU today and in the future. Drawing upon the recent official data and literature, Guillermo de la Dehesa seeks solutions for Europe by comparing its situation to that of the U.S. and revealing how much more can be achieved in the areas of efficiency, productivity, and innovation.

De la Dehesa documents the EU's persistent economic underperformance in recent decades and examines the cause of its slower growth. He then presents a comprehensive blueprint of reforms for increased prosperity and deeper social cohesion, which addresses:

• The main economic challenge facing both the U.S. and the EU: the impact of aging on public expenditures
• How to enrich the EU's policy and institutional environments to enhance business conditions for existing firms and new entrepreneurial activities
• Necessary structural reforms--welfare state, labor and product markets
• Fostering a knowledgesociety though increased investments in R&D and higher education
• The difficulties in implementing the Lisbon Strategy (major strategic goals for improving the EU's economic efficiency) and methods for meeting those challenges

Thought-provoking, expertly researched, and brilliantly evaluated, Europe at the Crossroads presents the most informed discussion on the current and future state of Europe's economy.

Guillermo de la Dehesa is Chairman of the Center for Economic Policy Research (CEPR), Member of The Group of Thirty, and Chairman of the Instituto Empresa. He is also Director of Banco Santander and Vice-Chairman of Goldman Sachs Europe, independent director of four European firms, and a member of the European advisory board of U.S.-based corporations Eli Lilly and Coca-Cola. De la Dehesa is the author and coauthor of numerous books on economics, and the author of over two hundred articles and papers.

Publishers Weekly

With its extensive annotated tables, graphs, summaries of EU studies and a wrapup of the most recent Lisbon Summit, this volume is a treasure trove of data for Europolicy wonks. And it doesn't neglect the technical details behind the numbers, which cover leisure, income, productivity, education and technology research and development. Topics include European demographic trends, the economic and fiscal effects of pension plans, the relative productivity of labor and capital and comparisons of the EU to the United States and the separate countries against each other. A key focus is the two labor markets within Europe: the protected insiders, usually older European men, and the unprotected outsiders, usually immigrants, women and youth. Discussion is mostly limited to the pan-European level so the book can touch only superficially on major issues such as immigration policy and intraunion regulation and trade policy. One serious defect is the book's rambling structure; it has neither clear questions nor strong conclusions. The author is deeply attached to the European social model, but seems vaguely gloomy about its ability to support vibrant economic growth or to extend its coverage to all European residents. Few of the statistics cover periods since 2002 and the many tables list countries in differing and apparently random order making table to table comparisons laborious. (Feb.) Copyright 2006 Reed Business Information.

Look this: Beyond Fear or Beauty Bible

Successful Proposal Strategies for Small Businesses: Using Knowledge Management to Win Government, Private-Sector, and International Contracts

Author: Robert S Frey

Newly expanded and thoroughly revised to reflect and meet the demands of a high-velocity global business environment, the fourth edition of this popular book and its companion CD-ROM help small and midsized businesses as well as nonprofit organizations and public-sector agencies to achieve effective, efficient, and disciplined business development, proposal development, and knowledge management (KM) processes.

Table of Contents:

Ch. 1	Competitive proposals and small business	1
Ch. 2	Strategic partnering and subcontracting opportunities	43
Ch. 3	Marketing to and with your clients	59
Ch. 4	Requests for proposals	97
Ch. 5	Private-sector solicitation requests	111
Ch. 6	The federal acquisition process : emerging directions	121
Ch. 7	The proposal life cycle	145
Ch. 8	Major proposal components	189
Ch. 9	Acquisition/capture and proposal team activities	213
Ch. 10	The role of the proposal manager	225
Ch. 11	Pursuing international business and structuring international proposals	255
Ch. 12	Proposal production and publication	291
Ch. 13	Human and organizational dynamics of the proposal process	315
Ch. 14	Controlling bid and proposal costs	331
Ch. 15	Tried-and-true proposal writing and editing techniques	339
Ch. 16	Packaging and managing proposal information and knowledge effectively	353
Ch. 17	Leveraging business complexity in a knowledge-based economy	381
Ch. 18	Planning and producing SF330 responses for architect-engineer services	395
	Epilogue : thinking to win small-business competitive proposals	411
App. A	Sample proposal kickoff package	415
App. B	Template to capture important resume information	419
App. C	Marketing information and intelligence sources : federal, international, and private sector	435