Authors: Nomi Prins.
Paperback, 368 pages
Publisher: New Press
Publication Date: 2006-08-01


Reviews :

    In a widely acclaimed exposé, a former Wall Street insider reveals how business executives and politicians schemed their way to the bank.

Critical, independent voices are seldom found within the citadels of international finance. That's what makes Nomi Prins unique. During fifteen years as an executive at skyscraping banks like Goldman Sachs, Bear Stearns, and Lehman Brothers, Prins never lost her ability to see the broader picture. She walked away from the game in 2002 out of disgust with the burgeoning corporate corruption, just as its magnitude was becoming clear to the public.

In this acclaimed exposé, named one of the best books of 2004 by The Economist, Barron's, Library Journal, and The Progressive, Prins provides fascinating firsthand details of day-to-day life in the financial leviathans, with all its rich absurdities. She demonstrates how the much-publicized fraud of recent years resulted from deregulation that trashed the rules of responsible corporate behavior, and not simply the unbridled greed of a select few. While the stock market roared on the back of phony balance sheets, executives made out like bandits and Congress looked the other way. Worse yet, as the new foreword to this edition makes clear, everything remains in place for a repeat performance....

Authors: Michele Simon.
Paperback, 416 pages
Publisher: Nation Books
Publication Date: 2006-10-19
Edition: 1

Reviews :

    ...

Authors: Shane K. Bernard.
Hardcover, 242 pages
Publisher: University Press of Mississippi
Publication Date: 2007-09


Reviews :

    Tabasco®: An Illustrated History is the first and only book about the McIlhenny family and company based on previously untapped documents in the McIlhenny Company Archives. This chronicle examines the origin of Tabasco® sauce, from its post-Civil War creation on Avery Island, Louisiana, to its evolution into the "gold standard" of pepper sauces and a global culinary icon.

It also examines the often stranger-than-fiction stories that are inexorably bound up with the rise of Tabasco®--Edmund McIlhenny's creation of the sauce in the midst of Reconstruction- era economic ruin; John Avery McIlhenny's adventures in Theodore Roosevelt's Rough Riders volunteer cavalry regiment; Edward Avery McIlhenny's explorations in the unforgiving Arctic; and Walter S. McIlhenny's amazing heroics in World War II, which eventually secured him the rank of brigadier general, even as he modernized his family business and ensured its success into the late twentieth century.

In addition to the central narrative, Tabasco®: An Illustrated History contains numerous detailed sidebars, as well as over a dozen historical recipes selected from handwritten McIlhenny family cookbooks and other archival sources. This book boasts hundreds of fascinating photographs, both in color and black-and-white, many of which are previously unpublished....

Authors: Andrea Butter. David Pogue.
Hardcover, 368 pages
Publisher: Wiley
Publication Date: 2002-02-08
Edition: 1

Reviews :

    The definitive behind-the-scenes story of the visionary team that launched the handheld industry.

Palm insider Andrea Butter and New York Times columnist David Pogue -- with full, exclusive cooperation of the company's founders and more than fifty key Palm and Handspring executives -- tell the riveting tale of the start of an industry constantly in the headlines. The origins of this volatile industry began with the tiny team who beat staggering odds to turn the PalmPilot into a billion-dollar market and later took their ultimate vision to Handspring, now Palm's most powerful rival.

Many of today's current events relating to the competition in this industry are forecasted in this important business drama. The authors take an unprecedented look at how the visionary founders of the industry led one of the most successful startups in history to succeed against all odds-including a shoestring budget, shortsighted corporate partners, and competition from Microsoft. The roller-coaster ride is full of insight into the bungles of venture capitalists, the allure and pitfalls of partnerships with giant corporations, and the steely determination needed to maintain entrepreneurial and visionary independence. With gripping accounts of the last-minute crises that almost torpedoed the PalmPilot on the eve of its unveiling, and the triumphant, unprecedented reception of Palm in the marketplace, as well as the glimpses into the future of this industry, this book is as entertaining as it is instructional. Key revelations include:

* The principles of business, economy, and product design that led Palm to succeed where billion-dollar corporations like Apple, Motorola, and Casio had failed.
* Important moments in technological development of the handheld such as the secret "Easter egg," a software surprise planted in the Palm software that nearly sank launch plans.
* Unique insight into the showdown with Microsoft, and 3Com's tragic decision not to make Palm independent that led Palm's founder Jeff Hanwkins and CEO Donna Dubinsky to take their vision elsewhere.
* The ongoing competition between Palm and Handspring. The new rivals to contend with including Sony....

Authors: Allan M. Brandt.
Hardcover, 600 pages
Publisher: Basic Books
Publication Date: 2007-03-12
Edition: 1

Reviews :

    The definitive history of the cigarette, the product that shaped twentieth-century America--from modern advertising to science, from regulatory politics to our sense of glamour and style.

The industrial manufacture of cigarettes began in the late nineteenth century, but it wasn't until the invention of the modern consumer, advertising campaign--pioneered by cigarette brands--that the product really took off at the turn of the century. The cigarette became an indispensable accessory of glamour and sex appeal: from Marlene Dietrich to Humphrey Bogart to Anne Bancroft, we have imagined stars with cigarettes in their mouths, and imitated them.

The cigarette--the ultimate icon of our consumer culture--serves as a vehicle for historian Allan Brandt to explore critical aspects of American life. From agriculture to big business, from medicine to politics, The Cigarette Century shows how smoking came to be so deeply implicated in our culture, science, policy, and law. In this magisterial book, Brandt demonstrates how the cigarette reflects the most powerful debates of our time about risk, responsibility, and human health. The Cigarette Century reaches across many disciplines to form a broad and compelling synthesis, showing how one humble (and largely useless) product came to play such a dominant role in our lives and deaths....

Authors: Mark Yost.
Hardcover, 272 pages
Publisher: Kaplan Business
Publication Date: 2006-10-02


Reviews :

    The NFL is the most successful professional sport. The league's secret to success is sound business practices like revenue sharing and a salary cap. These policies have created parity on the field and in the boardroom. Because of the collective approach of the league, a small-town team like the Green Bay Packers has just as much chance of getting into the playoffs--and succeeding financially--as big-market teams in New York, Chicago, and San Francisco.

 

But in 2006, a faction of entrepreneurial owners led by maverick Washington Redskins executive Dan Synder proposed changes to the league finance and revenue models that many fear will upset this near-perfect system. They are creating alternative revenue sources, such as stadium-naming rights, local sponsorships, radio and television deals, pre-game and post-game clubs. These owners are arguing that revenue they generate locally--outside of the normal NFL model--should be theirs to keep. Other owners worry this would dash the league's parity like Major League Baseball, where big-market teams like the New York Yankees flourish and small-market teams like the Milwaukee Brewers flounder.

 

This critical battle for the future of America's most popular sport has opened a wide rift between owners. Tailgating, Sacks, and Salary Caps offers an in-depth, behind-the-scenes look at the league and examines the maverick owners whose ideas could have lasting repercussions for the players, owners, coaches, and ultimately the fans....

Authors: Patricia Beard.
Paperback, 464 pages
Publisher: Harper Perennial
Publication Date: 2008-11-01
Edition: Reprint

Reviews :

   

In March 2005 the business world woke up to an unprecedented full-page ad in the Wall Street Journal calling for the removal of Morgan Stanley's CEO. Less than four months later, a group of eight retired, multimillionaire executives had orchestrated a stunning revolt within the most prestigious and—until recently—most successful financial-services firm on Wall Street. Now acclaimed journalist and historian Patricia Beard brings together the entire behind-the-scenes story, exposing the tale that shook high finance. This riveting real-life thriller is a must-read book for anyone who wants to understand the past, present, and future of American business.

...

Authors: Michael A. Hiltzik.
Paperback, 480 pages
Publisher: Collins Business
Publication Date: 2000-04


Reviews :

   

In the bestselling tradition of The Soul of a New Machine, Dealers of Lightning is a fascinating journey of intellectual creation. In the 1970s and '80s, Xerox Corporation brought together a brain-trust of engineering geniuses, a group of computer eccentrics dubbed PARC. This brilliant group created several monumental innovations that triggered a technological revolution, including the first personal computer, the laser printer, and the graphical interface (one of the main precursors of the Internet), only to see these breakthroughs rejected by the corporation. Yet, instead of giving up, these determined inventors turned their ideas into empires that radically altered contemporary life and changed the world.

Based on extensive interviews with the scientists, engineers, administrators, and executives who lived the story, this riveting chronicle details PARC's humble beginnings through its triumph as a hothouse for ideas, and shows why Xerox was never able to grasp, and ultimately exploit, the cutting-edge innovations PARC delivered. Dealers of Lightning offers an unprecedented look at the ideas, the inventions, and the individuals that propelled Xerox PARC to the frontier of technohistoiy--and the corporate machinations that almost prevented it from achieving greatness.

...

    Throughout the '70s and '80s, Xerox Corporation provided unlimited funding to a renegade think tank called the Palo Alto Research Center (PARC). Occupying a ramshackle building adjacent to Stanford University, PARC's occupants would prove to be the greatest gathering of computer talent ever assembled: it conceptualized the very notion of the desktop computer, long before IBM launched its PC, and it laid the foundation for Microsoft Windows with a prototype graphical user interface of icons and layered screens. Even the technology that makes it possible for these words to appear on the screen can trace its roots to Xerox's eccentric band of innovators. But despite PARC's many industry-altering breakthroughs, Xerox failed ever to grasp the financial potential of such achievements. And while Xerox's inability to capitalize upon some of the world's most important technological advancements makes for an interesting enough story, Los Angeles Times correspondent Michael Hiltzik focuses instead on the inventions and the inventors themselves. We meet fiery ringleader Bob Taylor, a preacher's son from Texas known as much for his ego as for his uncanny leadership; we trace the term "personal computer" back to Alan Kay, a visionary who dreamed of a machine small enough to tuck under the arm; and we learn how PARC's farsighted principles led to collaborative brilliance. Hiltzik's consummate account of this burgeoning era won't improve Xerox's stake in the computer industry by much, but it should at least give credit where credit is due. Recommended. --Rob McDonald...

Authors: John P. Kotter.
Hardcover, 224 pages
Publisher: Free Press
Publication Date: 1992-04-07


Reviews :

   

Going far beyond previous empirical work, John Kotter and James Heskett provide the first comprehensive critical analysis of how the "culture" of a corporation powerfully influences its economic performance, for better or for worse. Through painstaking research at such firms as Hewlett-Packard, Xerox, ICI, Nissan, and First Chicago, as well as a quantitative study of the relationship between culture and performance in more than 200 companies, the authors describe how shared values and unwritten rules can profoundly enhance economic success or, conversely, lead to failure to adapt to changing markets and environments.

With penetrating insight, Kotter and Heskett trace the roots of both healthy and unhealthy cultures, demonstrating how easily the latter emerge, especially in firms which have experienced much past success. Challenging the widely held belief that "strong" corporate cultures create excellent business performance, Kotter and Heskett show that while many shared values and institutionalized practices can promote good performances in some instances, those cultures can also be characterized by arrogance, inward focus, and bureaucracy -- features that undermine an organization's ability to adapt to change. They also show that even "contextually or strategically appropriate" cultures -- ones that fit a firm's strategy and business context -- will not promote excellent performance over long periods of time unless they facilitate the adoption of strategies and practices that continuously respond to changing markets and new competitive environments.

Fundamental to the process of reversing unhealthy cultures and making them more adaptive, the authors assert, is effective leadership. At the heart of this groundbreaking book, Kotter and Heskett describe how executives in ten corporations established new visions, aligned and motivated their managers to provide leadership to serve their customers, employees, and stockholders, and thus created more externally focused and responsive cultures....

Authors: William D. Cohan.
Hardcover, 320 pages
Publisher: Doubleday
Publication Date: 2009-03-10


Reviews :

   

On March 5, 2008, at 10:15 A.M., a hedge fund manager in Florida wrote a post on his investing advice Web site that included a startling statement about Bear Stearns & Co., the nation’s fifth-largest investment bank: “In my book, they are insolvent.”

This seemed a bold and risky statement. Bear Stearns was about to announce profits of $115 million for the first quarter of 2008, had $17.3 billion in cash on hand, and, as the company incessantly boasted, had been a colossally profitable enterprise in the eighty-five years since its founding.

Ten days later, Bear Stearns no longer existed, and the calamitous financial meltdown of 2008 had begun.

How this happened – and why – is the subject of William D. Cohan’s superb and shocking narrative that chronicles the fall of Bear Stearns and the end of the Second Gilded Age on Wall Street. Bear Stearns serves as the Rosetta Stone to explain how a combination of risky bets, corporate political infighting, lax government regulations and truly bad decision-making wrought havoc on the world financial system.

Cohan’s minute-by-minute account of those ten days in March makes for breathless reading, as the bankers at Bear Stearns struggled to contain the cascading series of events that would doom the firm, and as Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson, New York Federal Reserve Bank President Tim Geithner, and Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke began to realize the dire consequences for the world economy should the company go bankrupt.

But HOUSE OF CARDS does more than recount the incredible panic of the first stages of the financial meltdown. William D. Cohan beautifully demonstrates why the seemingly invincible Wall Street money machine came crashing down. He chronicles the swashbuckling corporate culture of Bear Stearns, the strangely crucial role competitive bridge played in the company’s fortunes, the brutal internecine battles for power, and the deadly combination of greed and inattention that helps to explain why the company’s leaders ignored the danger lurking in Bear’s huge positions in mortgage-backed securities.

The author deftly portrays larger-than-life personalities like Ace Greenberg, Bear Stearns’ miserly, take-no-prisoners chairman whose memos about re-using paper clips were legendary throughout Wall Street; his profane, colorful rival and eventual heir Jimmy Cayne, whose world-champion-level bridge skills were a lever in his corporate rise and became a symbol of the reasons for the firm’s demise; and Jamie Dimon, the blunt-talking CEO of JPMorgan Chase, who won the astonishing endgame of the saga (the Bear Stearns headquarters alone were worth more than JP Morgan paid for the whole company).

Cohan’s explanation of seemingly arcane subjects like credit default swaps and fixed- income securities is masterful and crystal clear, but it is the high-end dish and powerful narrative drive that makes HOUSE OF CARDS an irresistible read on a par with classics such as LIAR’S POKER and BARBARIANS AT THE GATE.

Written with the novelistic verve and insider knowledge that made THE LAST TYCOONS a bestseller and a prize-winner, HOUSE OF CARDS is a chilling cautionary tale about greed, arrogance, and stupidity in the financial world, and the consequences for all of us.

...