Let me say that I really enjoyed Beyond World Class. It is a great book. I would advise you that it is not a book for everyone though. Why do I say that? Beyond World Class challenges the reader to build a Beyond World Class organization and the path that Alan Ross suggests involves honesty, integrity and character (profit after that list). There are many useful concepts that can be gleaned from this book, but the cornerstone of this approach comes down to character.

One interesting aspect of this book is the author's personal perspective on decisions that he made to protect and strengthen his integrity. The decisions were incredibly difficult and the future of the company hung in the balance. Each time the author followed through with integrity he was rewarded and in retrospect making the easy decision (not exercising integrity) would have been disastrous.

Beyond World Class is about integrity in relationships with employees, suppliers (partners) distributors, and customers. This book goes further then many that talk about building relationships with customers. Beyond World Class shows that employees, suppliers, and distributors each have a significant hand in the ultimate satisfaction of customers. Beyond World Class highlights that beyond world class organization understand the value leading to the customer involves employees, suppliers, distributors and ultimately the customer themselves.

Beyond World Class emphasis that customer selection is an essential piece of building a beyond world-class organization. Customer selection goes beyond targeting a customer segment to selecting customers that align with your company's vision, offering, and margin guidelines. In essence you partner with your customers. Part of this partnering is seeking to find solutions to customer problems and continually increase your value to your customer. These concepts in this section alone make the book worth the price!

Beyond World Class challenges you to build the following character culture with the following characteristics:

Humility Sponsoring champions Integrity and modeling Fairness and caring

Are you up to the challenge of being Beyond World Class?

This book changed my life and the way I run my company. I never understood how much integrity led to success. After reading this book I took my small business and increased it 10 fold. Alan Ross is a genious.

In response to Hank Adams review on Esther Ross, Stillaguamish Champion. Regarding the weakness ascribed to the book by Hank when Ruby is delving into comments made by Mad Bear about Dick Gregory. In footnote 6 of Chapter 7, a reference is made to the citation for Ruby's claim of Mad Bear's judgement of Gregory. The source cited is Arlington Times December 15, 1966: "Of the Nisquallies, the Tuscarora remarked that they had made a bad mistake by importing Dick Gregory, Negro comedian, to draw attention to their cause. (Gregory was arrested and brought to trial last month on a charge of illegal fishing.) The Indian and Negro problems are not the same. There is no parallel, Indians owned and occupied the land, while the Negro people were brought in as slaves of the white man. Therefore, he said, the Medicine Creek Treaty was not allowed at Gregory's trial." The authors properly cited their source of information before making the statement.

Esther Ross, Stillaguamish Champion, reads like a novel. It is the thirteenth book by Robert H. Ruby and John A. Brown, co-authors of several popular Pacific Northwest Indian ethnohistories. American Indian activist LaDonna Harris describes it as "A story about an American Indian woman who takes incredible risks." Esther's daring schemes for tribal identification were played out over fifty years (1926-1976).
Legislators who met up with Ross still mention the fiery-eyed Indian woman chief obsessed with the goal of federal recognition of the Stillaguamish people. The tribe was a signatory of the 1855 Point Elliott Treaty, yet without federal recognition the Stillaguamish could not carry into effect the treaty promises-rights to certain lands, use of certain waterways. Eventually the policy makers with whom Esther kept company by way of her frequent trips to the Capitol declared her a nuisance. Her long-winded speeches, highly repetitive, and her disregard for protocol irritated the officials; she would talk far beyond her allotted time, and she wouldn't go home.
Ruby and Brown invested almost a decade piecing together Esther's story after her son Frank offered them the five footlockers of primary documents and secondary source materials which Esther had kept. While the materials provided a close look at twentieth-century Indian politics and federal policy, the compelling subject was Esther Ross, a woman ordinary and extraordinary, complex and creative, tricky and tenacious as a bulldog.
Ruby points out that Ross "was a double minority, one-fourth Indian and a feminist before that word was coined." Hard to believe that this same Esther never knew she was Indian until near the end of her high school years. Her father was Norwegian, and Esther lived her girlhood in white Northern California society. Her mother, not noticeably Indian, did not enlighten her daughter regarding Stillaguamish blood quantum. Esther's father died when she was ten. When Esther was twenty-two, in response to a call from Indian relatives in distress, Esther and her mother moved to Washington State where Esther, ignorant of tribal history, decided to "uncover her identity."
To strengthen her quest Esther searched the vicinity of the Stillaguamish River for a legitimate source of land to qualify as a land base for her people. She sought ancestral burial grounds from the whites who owned and plowed them. Instead she was offered some bones from an exposed site. Applying her flair for the dramatic, Esther would spill these human bone fragments across the desk of governor Dan Evans in Olympia and later, display them in the national Capitol.
In pre-war days Esther's foot-going treks to visit Stillaguamish families increased the tribal membership to more than sixty, but post-war visits revealed a group more interested in award moneys than in Esther's larger goals.
During 1964 Esther's path crossed that of Herbert Holdridge, a retired brigadier general who advocated buying up Nevada desert land and turning it into a sovereign nation for American Indians. However, she had far greater interest in fishing rights for the Stillaguamish, a matter of sustenance and revenue. Joining the Poor People's Campaign (1968), Esther and her son Frank were bused to DC where Esther made her presence felt.
The Boldt Case would make the difference. The federal government was contesting the state of Washington's control of Indian fishing rights. The government attorney advised that Indians were entitled to fifty percent of the fish harvest; the state had ruled five percent. Judge George Boldt would try the case in Tacoma's U.S. District Court. And Esther Ross would have her "fifteen minutes." Fortunately for Esther-and the courtroom-David Getches represented Esther as special counsel. When she took the stand, he guided her through a review of Stillaguamish River history. Judge Boldt's ruling favored the tribes. The grumbling of non-Indian commercial fishers was heard for years, but the Stillaguamish had won the right to fish.
It would be difficult to add up the thousands and thousands of miles Esther Ross traveled during her fifty-year crusade for Stillaguamish recognition by the federal government. Or to say how many state capitols she visited, how many elected officials heard her speak-badgering, cajoling, but never threatening-on behalf of all unrecognized tribes who 120 years ago had chosen to stay on their homelands rather than accept the reserves chosen by white men. Their great-grandfathers had signed a treaty that would preserve fishing rights, but those rights had been denied the landless Indians. Esther became, eventually, champion for the whole, her mission self-sustained despite her meager income. Esther's complete and absolute dedication was not doubted. Perhaps this accounted for her supporters even among those persons who deplored her outrageous schemes.
Among such schemes was one that would temporarily disrupt the national Bicentennial pageant. The escapade began June, 1975 in Blaine, Washington, near the Canadian border, where three horse-drawn wagons and Western-clad riders headed for the 200th National Birthday Celebration, a 3000-mile trek to Valley Forge. It was son Frank's idea to set up an attack, to waylay the wagon train until the Secretary of the Interior unconditionally recognized the Stillaguamish tribe. Frank called television and radio stations, and Paul Harvey on his daily national newscast announced the impending attack. Indian activism of the 1970s was recalled-siege at Wounded Knee, takeover at Alcatraz, trouble at Fort Lawton. The "attack" might prove to be more than symbolic.
At Stillaguamish headquarters (Island Crossing), Frank stopped the wagons. And Esther, age 71, a wrinkled little woman wearing Indian clothing, stood in the middle of the road and read her speech. An assistant to the interior secretary assured Esther that the document granting tribal recognition would be ready in thirty days. Eight months then passed without word from the government, and a new secretary of the interior, Thomas Kleppe, was appointed.
Two years after the Boldt decision Esther "recruited" a steelhead trout from the Stillaguamish river to play a part in a scheme that stunk to high heaven. Needing to familiarize Kleppe with her drive for tribal recognition, she air-freighted him a frozen 18-pound trout labeled "Washington Salmon." The flying fish had begun to age en route; on arrival, dockers, holding their noses, wanted someone from Interior to take it off their hands immediately. Kleppe's response to Esther was to thank her and mention his preference for beef, saying he had given the beautiful fish to his neighbors.
Esther had problems within her tribe. They referred to her style of leadership as nepotism and resented her hiring whites as assistants. They challenged her right to increase, then decrease, the blood quantum for tribal enrollment to suit her personal intent. They openly wondered how much of tribal funds she was spending on herself. The Stillaguamish wanted Esther stripped of privileges and functions. It was more than two years since the promise made at the wagon train; push needed to become shove. Esther Ross sued the Department of Interior. Judge June L. Green heard the case. On October 27, 1976 Esther Ross' goal was achieved: the Stillaguamish had a recognized place in time.
During January, 1988 Esther began to sicken. Ever-protective son Frank cared for his mother until her death August 1, 1988, a month short of her 84th birthday.

My name is Sandra M. Allen, Chief Esther R. Ross Was my Mom and grandmother.

My brother David has received a history book for his birthday about yrs after grandma passed away in 1990 and we had noticed that the full information wasn't in it about Stillaguamish and this is when we decided to have Esther's(grandmas)story written.

I spent from birth till I was 16years old on the road with grandma and I had an education that I thought should be shared and here it is. To me Grandma was a role model and someone I wanted to live my life by and follow. In the book tells everything both good and bad in some eyes, but everyone has a opion. When my dad (Frank)and myself talked about it too me I wanted a book out because I wanted to have people read and see what she did and was able to do. To me she did more then she was ever given credit for. David and myself gave our education while growing up but in this book everyone can see why we are proud to have had the experience. I have finished high school and college this year will be going on to law school to finish grandmas work... I will be going for Land and Water rights and am very proud to have had her as a Mom and as a role model. My Father Chief Frank Allen passed away one week before seeing the cover of the book on May 14.2001 it was given to us at the gave site, this is to us a wonderful book and has everything in it that we wanted and to my brother David and myself we hope schools will use it and hope that it encourages people to not give up and that one person can make a difference. This women you all are reading about was a legend, role modle,history maker,mother,and friend. She had people who couldn't stand to be around her and she had people who couldn't wait to see her she was a honor to be around and I am proud to say this book is a 5 star. This wasn't to be about facts or to please everyone this book is from us to you the readers its not just one more book Ruby and Brown have written, this is a part of our lives and a way to keep it all together for our children and grandchildren and so on this is opening up our lives to you to share with you what kind of women she was, she was a loving, caring and I wouldn't be who I am today if it wasn't for her and my dad Frank Allen, I would have been like my other siblings out drinking and no education or just given up but my goal in life is to be like her and do as she would have me do. So please take the time and read about my mother/grandmother, and see why we wanted to share her life with you and I hope she can be a role model for you also or your children. I was with Esther till she was taken from us and went on to school and when I graduated I dedicated my diploma to my grandma and dad cause without them I wouldn't have had the wisdom or strength to try and be the most I could be....

So please share this with others and I hope the memories of our life with our mom/grandmother and father will live on. Dad and Grandma always were together and now they are together in peace.
I miss dad and grandma so Dearly but with this it makes it as they are here with us still and I can still her my grandmas voice when I read the book so many memories. Some people have a scrap book we have a history richer to us then gold that is what dad and grandma left me the richest person on earth a life time of fighting and tears and sweat to give me and my children and theirs an IDENTITY and its one we hold close to our hearts.

If your new to the game of golf or an old hand you will enjoy A Brief History Of Golf. Easy to read and packed with facinating facts, this little volume will familiarize the novice and thrill the veterans of the game.

I found the book very humorous. It was contridictory to many of the current
standards, however quite insightful as to the nature of the cyclical patterns of the
"Upper Class". I would recommend it for anyone interested in
linguistics and the different subjective views of what is correct or incorrect.

This book is a nice collection of facts and statistics about the great Yankee teams of the 20th Century. It contains nice pictures and anecdotes about the Yankee greats including Ruth, Gehrig, Ford, DiMaggio, Ruffing, Mantle, Maris, Jackson, Berra and Stengel. There are also many short descriptions about famous and crucial games. It is very easy reading, but don't expect to read a story. It is more like a book of facts, one liners and anecdotes. It also provides coverage of the present team that has dominated baseball since 1996 with four World Championships in five years. It appears to be very accurate. I found only a few typos. One that I caught was on page 176 where they list all the Yankees that had their uniform number retired. For number 23 they list Don Mattingly as an outfielder even though he played almost his entire career as a first baseman. I was a little surprised to see that the first championship wasn't until 1923 and that in the era of Ruth they won only four and lost three World Series from 1921 to 1932. My memories are of the Yankees of the 1950s and early 1960s. From 1949 to 1964 the Yankees only missed out on two World Series (1954 when Cleveland won the American League Pennant and 1959 when Chicago won the American League Pennant, both times Al Lopez was the manager that topped Casey). In the other 13 years the Yankees appeared in the World Series and won 8 and only lost 5. As a child I took it for granted that they would be in the series. But in 1965 when CBS bought the Yankees it stopped for 11 years until Steinbrenner came along and brought them back in 1976. It is a great reference that any true Yankee fan would want to keep.

"Reflections on Blue Water" is an interesting book. It is not at all what I expected. Most travel book are a chronological account of a journey or an explicit description of a place. Alan Ross's book both, but is more a description of the author's state of mind at the time he visited the Bay of Naples and the Aeolian Islands. Alan Ross first visited the area after service in World War II. Part of his book contains his journals written during these travels. Fifty years later he once again travels to the Bay of Naples and the Aeolian Islands to see how things have changed. He brings with him a number of books written from, on, & about the area. The majority of the book is given over to an aged intellectual's "Reflections" on these books and the era they were written in. Like I said, not a typical travelogue. At first my expectations were disappointed. It took me a while to accept the book for what it was, but once I had I was richly rewarded. I will mine the list of authors Alan Ross quotes from and the books they wrote for quite some time. Near the end of the book we are treated to his 1948 journals and his return to the same locale in 1998. This portion of the book is the most like a traditional travelogue. It is also the most lyrical. Take this passage, written from Porto d'Ischia: "At night, the waterfront crushes out the day's heat on its stone transfer. The sea changes colour as you look at it; houses, losing their daytime stains, acquire a mellow bloom. Girls in the semi-dark become romantic, elusive creatures, turning from peasants into icons. Old age is becoming to the matriarchs on their doorsteps. Every so often a boat slips out, its powerful lamp probing the sea. Lighted windows outline the silhouettes of men playing scopa, the card game that is a day-long ritual of fierce intensity, no laughing matter. Women cool off on steps, worn beauties replete in their seasons." If you are looking for stories and narrative, this is not the book for you. If you are looking for a deeper understanding of the local history, culture & people, this is not the book for you. If you are, on the other hand, interested in the perceptions and preoccupations of a wide variety of visitors, fugitives, and ex-pats, followed by an exquisitely lyrical journal, then by all means read "Reflections on Blue Water."

As a Neapolitan who lives abroad I have deeply appreciated the exquisite description of that part of the world, and I must admit that the author has remarkably fixed both the beauty of the land and the main features of the people who are so lucky to live in it. Even though at the beginning he seems more interested in the analysis of the work of the artists who lived in those islands, he cannot help to be drawn back to the pure contemplation of the landscape that,through his words, becomes poetry. The second part of the book starting with the description of Ischia is the best expression of his lyrism. Finally he leaves the torments of the people who inhabited the places, but who seem to have never really belonged to them, and he focus on the images soothing the reader's soul with the warmth of the sun, the power of nature, the energy of the sea. As in the quoted "Voyage en Italie" by Chateaubriand it is like looking at Haven from Hell. His deep thoughts and sometimes heavy reasonings find their perfect scenario in the beauty of the Tyrrenian Sea. The book takes time to be read, also because a few paragraphs must be read more than once to retain every detail of the description, but when it is over the readers are left with a smile on their face and the heart full of melacholy for not being in such an haven for real.