Ang Tao Te Ching ni Lao Tzu
Translated by Florentino T. Timbreza
Link HERE.

The "Tao Te Ching" is a unique book filled with valuable teachings related to human wisdom, ethics, meaningful living, and effective leadership. It describes the "Tao" as the supreme reason in everything. According to Lao Tzu (sometimes spelled as Lao Tsu or Laozi), the "Tao" is nameless because it transcends all that can be named. It is beyond any single designation, as assigning it a name would imply limitation or confinement. The "Te" refers to the natural self or the essence of a being, suggesting that every creature has its inherent state of being unaffected by its surroundings.

The MBA Oath: Setting a Higher Standard for Business Leaders
By Max Anderson and Peter Escher
Link HERE.

The MBA Oath: Setting a Higher Standard for Business Leaders emerges as a crucial intervention in the aftermath of the 2008 US economic collapse, offering a path towards corporate transformation. This book meticulously outlines the downfall of US business practices, the MBA community's response to the call for change, and the methods to ensure this transformation is both feasible and sustainable.

Note: This review was originally written on October 17, 2012.

This compilation includes five case studies related to tourism policy, strategies, and governance described as follows:

1. Using empirical case study method and the results of Cities and Municipalities Competitive Index (CMCI), the governance performance of San Mateo, Rizal will be examined with focus on its approach and activities during the pandemic.
2. Years after dubbing Angono, Rizal as the Art Capital of the Philippines, this study shall analyze the effectiveness of the town’s tourism destination policies and governance in terms of properly positioning the desired destination image of Angono to its potential and target markets.
3. Bolstering the economy through mass tourism may cause severe negative impacts in the future. This study shall look at the status of Tagaytay City and how it can steer away from stagnation after reaching the critical stage of water, road, and air carrying capacities.
4. The fourth case shall revisit the tourism journey of Georgia as it slowly built its industries after freedom from Russia, until its sudden collapsed due the pandemic. The result of the changes in tourism policies, as well as the result of the governance approach will be scrutinized towards any possible corrective actions and/or recommendations.
5. Analysis of Bahrain’s transition towards the new tourism strategy was studied in the last case. It aims to revisit the current state of tourism in the kingdom as it relates to the changes in the policies while maintaining its course towards sustainability.

This compilation of five case studies is aimed to take a look, review, and analyze the existing tourism policies and governance of selected tourism destinations, three domestic and two foreign, based on varying situations to devise recommendations and propose action plans as needed.

Authors: Fernando Martin Y.Roxas, John Paolo R.Rivera, & Eylla Laire M.Gutierrez
Source: Journal of Hospitality and Tourism Management Volume 45, December 2020, Pages 387-398
Abstract: Tourism planning and development has revolved around sustainability concepts and issues. Addressing concerns on sustainability, environmental conservation, and local community involvement has become increasingly challenging. Success in developing sustainable destinations has been deemed to be a function and result of effective governance. However, tourism governance remains indistinct on the questions of how tourism stakeholders interact and how this interaction can be beneficial in achieving sustainability. By appealing to the fundamental principles and practices of sustainability and how stakeholder involvement and participation are fused into sustainable tourism development, we develop a 5-point tourism stakeholder framework that will explain how tourism stakeholders can harness their roles and collaborative advantages in governing destinations through regulation, conservation, and livelihood. Findings will have propositions on how tourism stakeholders can advance pursuit of sustainable tourism.
 

Authors: Octavi Bono i Gispert & Salvador Anton Clavé
Source: Journal of Destination Marketing & Management Volume 17, September 2020, 100465
Abstract: The concept of governance has achieved a growing presence in academic debates in recent years, although it has not done so in the same way in the area of tourism destination management. The research presented here allows us to see how the actors in the Catalan tourism system perceive and understand governance and identifies dimensions and models of governance. A categorization comprising seven dimensions of tourism governance (participation, coherence, responsibility, effectiveness, know-how/quality, openness, and simplification) is provided through the construction of a semantic network based on the actors' understanding of their own practices. By applying principal component analysis to the set of variables associated with each category, five different models of governance approaches are obtained (Transparent Strategy, Liable Outcomes, Hermetic Results-oriented-ism, Democratic Moralism, and Democratic Bureaucracy).