Authors: Lawrence M. Miller.
Paperback, 244 pages
Publisher: Ballantine Books
Publication Date: 1990-01-14


Reviews :

    "One day your sluggish company will taken to the sound of a beating drum and the sight of a competitor approaching at ramming speed. On deck will be a jut-jawed Barbarian....He will hardly blink as his target is ripped asunder, sending Aristocrats, Bureaucrats and their unfortunate shipmates to their corporate death....So goes Mr. Miller's tale, from which we can all profit." The Wall Street Journal

Barbarians to Bureaucrats presents a brilliant new solution to a stubborn old business problem: how to halt a company's descent into wasteful, stifling bureaucracy. Lawrence M. Miller, a management consultant for such corporate giants as Xerox and 3M, argues that corporations, like civilizations, have a natural life cycle, and that by identifying the stage your company is in, and the leaders associated with it, you can avert decline and continue to thrive.

Every company begins with the compelling new vision of a Prophet and the aggressive leadership of an iron-willed Barbarian, who implements the Prophet's ideas. New techniques and expansions are pushed through by the Builder and the Explorer, but the growth spawned by these managers can easily stagnate when the Administrator sacrifices innovation to order, and the Bureaucrat imposes tight control. And just as in civilizations, the rule of the Aristocrat, out of touch with those who do the real work, invites rebellion -- from employees, customers, and stockholders. It will take the Synergist, a business leader who balances creativity with order, to restore vitality and insure future growth.

Executives from major corporations have already put the powerful insights of Barbarians to Bureaucrats into practice to regenerate their own companies. Now you can use this brilliant, lucid, and dazzlingly original book to put your company -- and your career -- back on track....

Authors: Alan Farnham.
Hardcover, 288 pages
Publisher: Wiley
Publication Date: 2000-09-28
Edition: 1

Reviews :

    Behind every success story worth telling there's a determined hero who overcame setbacks, disappointments, and even failures before emerging victorious-and rich. The remarkable stories in this book prove that success can be sweeter the second time around. The twelve extraordinary men and women you will meet had already achieved overwhelming success, only to be brought low by utter calamity-bankruptcy, disaster, illness, racial prejudice, even jail. To survive this kind of catastrophe is an achievement in itself, and each of these indomitable spirits not only survived, but also came back to triumph again.
You'll meet Ruth Handler, cofounder of Mattel and creator of Barbie®, who, after designing the most popular doll in history, lost her company to corporate infighting and her self-confidence to breast cancer. She battled back by starting a new company to manufacture breast prostheses. You'll come to admire the New England mill owner who led his company to immense prosperity while all of the businesses around him were dying and then had to rise from the ashes of calamity when his business was destroyed by fire.
This cast of incredible characters includes poor kids who made good and rich kids who got richer; famous names and people you've never heard of; the CEO of Oracle, the founder of Domino's Pizza, and more; and some who were victims of fate or malice and others who sowed the seeds of their own destruction. All share a passion for achievement, a dedication to their goals, and a fierce determination to succeed against all odds.
These entertaining and enlightening Great Success Stories go beyond mere "secrets of success" to reveal the remarkable strength of character and will that enabled these heroes to struggle back to the top and, in many cases, to become deeper, stronger, more caring people in the process. They offer inspiration to anyone who is struggling to realize a dream, overcome adversity, or achieve a seemingly unreachable goal....

Authors: Alec Foege.
Hardcover, 320 pages
Publisher: Faber & Faber
Publication Date: 2008-04-15
Edition: 1

Reviews :

    ...

Authors: Margaret Moos Pick.
Hardcover, 96 pages
Publisher: Chronicle Books
Publication Date: 2005-12-29


Reviews :

    More fun than the episode of I Love Lucy set on the candy line and with stories richer than a Dark Chocolate Truffle, See's Famous Old Time Candies is a golden ticket to the candy factory (and, yes, See's did inspire that Lucy episode). Author Margaret Moos Pick chronicles See's history, from its humble beginning in Mary See's kitchen back in the 1890s to its place of reverence in the hearts of the sweet-toothed everywhere. Learn how See's candy experts hold chocolate tastings, treating batches like fine wines, to choose the very best; how bonbons are still meticulously hand-dipped to perfection; and how those at See's simmered, stirred, cooked, and tasted 250 recipes all to create the perfect truffle. For See's fans and proud candy lovers, here's a story with a very sweet center....

Authors: Douglas G. Brinkley.
Paperback, 880 pages
Publisher: Penguin (Non-Classics)
Publication Date: 2004-06-01


Reviews :

    In this monumental work, one of our finest historians reveals the riveting details of Ford Motor Company’s epic achievements, from the outlandish success of the Model T and V-8 to the glory days of the Thunderbird, Mustang, and Taurus. Brilliant innovators, colorful businessmen, and clever eccentrics, as well as the three Ford factories themselves, all become characters in this gripping drama. Douglas Brinkley is a master at crafting compelling historical narratives, and this exemplary history of one of the preeminent American corporations is his finest achievement yet....

    In conjunction with its 100th anniversary, the Ford Motor Company opened its monumental archives to the unfettered research of author/historian Douglas Brinkley. And while the 800-page history that resulted from that work (as well as Brinkley's tireless, amply footnoted source work elsewhere) is comprehensive to a fault, the scope and enduring impact of the industrial colossus wrought by Henry Ford make it often seem like mere introduction. Brinkley's meticulous, enlightened work can't help but find endless fascination with the company's founder, whose presence resonates through every phase of the company's history, from its fitful start (FMC was the third company to bear the Ford name), through the rise of the Model T (still one of the most ubiquitous and revolutionary mechanical contrivances of the last millennia), to its cycles of corporate decay and rebirth (variously via Iacocca's Mustang in the 60's and the technical innovations and potent retrenchment of trans-nationalism in the 90's). Henry Ford remains one of the greatest human paradoxes in a century filled with them: a largely self-taught engineer who couldn't read a blueprint, yet became a mass-production visionary; an employer whose social conscience (and no small amount of shrewd business acumen) doubled the salary of his employees one era, employed thugs to crush their union organizing efforts the next; a world figure who read little, yet published much, including anti-war editorials and vile, anti-Semitic tracts--despite the fact that his monumental manufacturing facilities were designed by Jews whose friendship and professional relationships he cultivated. The enviro-social impact of Ford's industrial innovations continues to loom, and Brinkley hardly ignores them. But his research is largely focused on the rich players (and their often perplexing psychology) of the Ford saga, all-too-human characters whose ambitious empire will continue to cast its long shadows over many a generation to come. --Jerry McCulley...

Authors: Ira Millstein. Paul W. MacAvoy.
Paperback, 192 pages
Publisher: Stanford Business Books
Publication Date: 2004-08-18
Edition: 1

Reviews :

    In the last thirty years, there has been a gradual erosion in the abilities and responsibilities of corporate boards. In addition to the ethics scandals that have plagued companies both new and established over the last three years, a number of over-diversified, over-staffed companies experienced failures that might have been avoided had there been proper oversight on the part of the board. While reform of the governance system has received considerable attention from the press, business leaders, and politicians, there have been few analyses of what is really happening on a systemic level, and even fewer workable suggestions for reform.

"The Recurrent Crisis in Corporate Governance" provides an expert assessment of what went wrong on corporate boards and how to fix them. The book begins with both a legal and economic examination of corporate governance during the last three decades, including the broad issue of boards taking on responsibilities without being able to fulfill their obligations because of the lack of access to information and people within the corporation. The authors then go on to show the correlation between strong board performance and strong company performance, make the case for se0fisherparating the CEO and Chair positions, comment on the collapse of nine major corporations, including Global Crossing, K-Mart, Lucent, and Qwest, and provide suggestions on how boards can be more effective stewards of the shareholders’ and public’s trust....

Authors: Jean-Marie Dru.
Hardcover, 256 pages
Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan
Publication Date: 2007-09-04


Reviews :

    ...

Authors: Ian Williams.
Paperback, 368 pages
Publisher: Nation Books
Publication Date: 2006-08-17


Reviews :

    ...

Authors: John Carver.
Hardcover, 272 pages
Publisher: Jossey-Bass
Publication Date: 1997-05-28
Edition: 2

Reviews :

    "This book should be in the library of everyone who serves--or aspires to serve--on the governing board of any organization, large or small, nonprofit or corporate. Better than any other available resource, it tells what the roles of board members are and what they must and shouldn't do. An indispensable guidebook to leadership excellence."
--George Weber, secretary general, International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies, Geneva

"John Carver's Boards That Make a Difference was required reading for board members of the Calgary Philharmonic Society. It provided a clear and concise road map with which we carried out significant governance restructuring of the society."
James M. Stanford, president & CEO,, Petro-Canada, and past chairman of the Calgary Philharmonic Society, Calgary, Alberta, Canada

John Carver's groundbreaking Policy Governance model has influenced the way public and nonprofit boards operate around the world. Now, as widespread experience with the model continues to grow, Carver enriches his definitive exposition with updated policy samples, a new chapter on the process of policy development, and additional resources for various types of boards. He debunks the entrenched beliefs about board roles and functions that hamper dedicated board members. With creative insight and commonsense practicality, Carver presents a bold new approach to board job design, board-staff relationships, the chief executive role, performance monitoring, and virtually every aspect of the board-management relationship. In their stead, he offers a board model designed to produce policies that make a difference, missions that are clearly articulated, standards that are ethical and prudent, meetings, officers, and committees that work; and leadership that supports the fulfillment of long-term goals.

...

Authors: James B. Lieber.
Paperback, 432 pages
Publisher: Basic Books
Publication Date: 2002-01-09
Edition: 1st

Reviews :

    ...

    Archer Daniels Midland--popularly known as ADM, the "Supermarket to the World"--spends millions on ads during Sunday morning TV talk shows and on public radio to burnish its popular image. But behind the façade lies a vicious business eager to fix prices with its competitors and employ prostitutes in corporate espionage, according to James B. Lieber's muckraking account, Rats in the Grain. Lieber tells the story of why the FBI raided ADM's Illinois headquarters in 1995, as well as the events leading up to the raid and the trial that resulted. ADM was not an easy target--it's extremely well connected in Washington (an appendix listing politicians who have received financial contributions from ADM reads like a who's who of Beltway power brokers), and it was a leading recipient of federal largesse. In the end, ADM paid a criminal antitrust fine of $100 million, and two top executives were sent to prison for collaborating with competitors. But the case was messy. The FBI's informant, Mark Whitacre--once believed to be in line to succeed the company president--twice tried to commit suicide following the FBI raid, and was eventually sentenced to nine years for fraud, money laundering, and tax evasion.

But Lieber tells the story of ADM's crisis well, and with a strong anti-ADM slant. He's no master of prose style, but his writing is clear and to the point. His book simply crackles with detail--at times, it's difficult to keep up with all the characters (there's another appendix identifying them for easy reference). Throughout the text, readers will feel as if they're in the middle of a 60 Minutes exposé of dirty business practices--a sense augmented by several pages of photos taken from hidden surveillance cameras spying on backroom deals. After reading Rats in the Grain, it will be impossible to look at one of those feel-good ADM ads the same way again. --John J. Miller ...