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There have been several books written on how the great companies became great. Jim Collins, in his book Good to Great, adds a new twist when he attempts to find out if a company can go from being just good to great, and if so, how. Collins compared eleven companies that were able to make the leap from good to great to those that could not and found six distinguishing characteristics that set them apart: Level 5 leaders, first who...then what, confronting the brutal facts, the Hedgehog Concept, creating a culture of discipline, and finally using technology as an accelerator. ECCU is a good company that is striving to become great. While the results need to be tested over time ECCU is an example of a company who has consciously applied the techniques and seen the expected success. Many of the good to great principles can be applied to ones personal life as well as to corporate life.

Crisis planning and improvements to business resilience are increasingly significant aspects of hotel management. This study investigates the crisis preparation of hotel managers in Malaysia and how their perceptions affect crisis planning and preparation.

A qualitative research method of semi-structured interviews with 24 hospitality managers in Malaysia was conducted. Data were analysed thematically using ATLAS.ti software, version 8.

The findings showed that crisis preparation among Malaysian hospitality firms is relatively neglected. Hotel crisis preparation schemes are greatly influenced by senior managers' intentions and organizational culture. Organizational resilience also has a significant role in hotel crisis planning and preparedness. Interestingly, in terms of long-term adaptation, hotels were less inclined to be “learning organizations” and managers were reluctant to change their organizational established structures, core beliefs and practice sustained resiliency in crisis preparation.

Understanding the crisis preparation of hospitality managers is important to develop effective strategies for different crises considering their severity and urgency. This study identified influential organizational and personal factors which affect crisis preparation of hospitality managers in Malaysia. The study further recommends a proactive mindset in crisis preparation of hotels.

Crisis preparation of hospitality managers had received limited attention, and this study highlights how managers consider crisis planning and preparation.

The purpose of this paper is to emphasise the need for business people to understand the different body language used by other cultures and the importance of this in the international business environment.

Overview of body language used in particular cultures covering gestures, eye contact, posture, use of space and greetings with examples.

The correct reading of the body language of other cultures is a vital, but often neglected, part of business training.

A paper of this length can only highlight key areas of misunderstanding with examples.

The understanding of different cultures’ body language can be acquired by “people watching” but is best attained by specific training before assignment abroad using simulation and role playing and, where possible, involving nationals of the cultures concerned.

Also socially important for all who live and work internationally and those who host business visitors from abroad.

Provides analysis of examples from different cultures and emphasises the importance of avoiding misunderstandings when doing business, negotiating and building personal relationships.

In the Court of Appeal last summer, when Van Den Berghs and Jurgens Limited (belonging to the Unilever giant organization) sought a reversal of the decision of the trial judge that their television advertisements of Stork margarine did not contravene Reg. 9, Margarine Regulations, 1967—an action which their Lordships described as fierce but friendly—there were some piercing criticisms by the Court on the phrasing of the Regulations, which was described as “ridiculous”, “illogical” and as “absurdities”. They also remarked upon the fact that from 1971 to 1975, after the Regulations became operative, and seven years from the date they were made, no complaint from enforcement authorities and officers or the organizations normally consulted during the making of such regulations were made, until the Butter Information Council, protecting the interests of the dairy trade and dairy producers, suggested the long‐standing advertisements of Reg. 9. An example of how the interests of descriptions and uses of the word “butter” infringements of Reg. 9. An example af how the interests of enforcement, consumer protection, &c, are not identical with trade interests, who see in legislation, accepted by the first, as injuring sections of the trade. (There is no evidence that the Butter Information Council was one of the organizations consulted by the MAFF before making the Regulations.) The Independant Broadcasting Authority on receiving the Council's complaint and obtaining legal advice, banned plaintiffs' advertisements and suggested they seek a declaration that the said advertisements did not infringe the Regulations. This they did and were refused such a declaration by the trial judge in the Chancery Division, whereupon they went to the Court of Appeal, and it was here, in the course of a very thorough and searching examination of the question and, in particular, the Margarine Regulations, that His Appellate Lordship made use of the critical phrases we have quoted.

Mr F. J. Bates, M.B.E., Works Director of B.S.A. Tools Ltd., Mackadown Lane, Marston Green, Birmingham, and Index Automatic Machine Co. Ltd., and a director of Cardiff Foundry & Engineering Co. (1947) Ltd., and Leo C. Steinle Ltd., has recently retired from an active directorship after being with the B.S.A. Tools Group for forty‐two years, but his services will remain available in a consultative capacity.

THE London and Home Counties Branch is fortunate in having close at hand watering places which can house its Autumn or other Conferences conveniently. Hove in fair weather in October is a place of considerable charm; it has many varieties of hotel, from the very expensive to the modest; it is used to conferences and the hospitality of the Town Hall is widely known. This year's conference was focused in the main on problems of book‐selection which, as one writer truly says, is the main purpose of the librarian because all his possibilities hang upon it. The papers read are valuable because they appear to be quite unvarnished accounts of the individual practice of their writers. Of its kind that of Mr. Frank M. Gardner is a model and a careful study of it by the library worker who is in actual contact with the public might be useful. For his methods the paper must be read; they are a clever up‐to‐minute expansion of those laid down in Brown's Manual with several local checks and variations. Their defects are explained most usefully; there is no examination of actual books before purchase and bookshops are not visited, both of which defects are due to the absence in Luton of well‐stocked bookshops; a defect which many sizeable towns share. We find this remark significant: “The librarian of Luton in 1911 had a book‐fund of £280 a year for 30,000 people. I have nearly £9,000 for 110,000. But the Librarian in 1911 was a better book‐selector than we are. He had to be, to give a library service at all. Every possible purchase had to be looked at, every doubt eliminated.” We deprecate the word “better”; in 1911 book‐selection was not always well done, but Brown's methods could be carried out if it was thought expedient to do the work as well as it could be done. The modern librarian and his employers seem to have determined that the whole of the people shall be served by the library; that books shall be made available hot from the press, with as few exclusions as possible. No librarian willingly buys rubbish; but only in the largest libraries can a completely comprehensive selection practice be maintained. Few librarians can be quite satisfied to acquire their books from lists made by other people although they may use them for suggestions. How difficult is the problem Mr. Gardner demonstrates in connexion with books on Bridge; a shelf of apparently authoritative books might possibly contain not one that actually met the conditions of today. If this could be so in one very small subject, what might be the condition of a collection covering, or intended to cover, all subjects? Librarians have to be realists; orthodox methods do not always avail to deal with the cataract of modern books; but gradually, by cooperative methods, mechanical aids and an ever‐increasing staff devoted to this, the principal library job, much more may be done than is now possible.