Authors: Kevin Maney.
Paperback, 485 pages
Publisher: Wiley
Publication Date: 2004-08-03


Reviews :

    The first complete look at one of America's legendary business leaders

This groundbreaking biography by Kevin Maney, acclaimed technology columnist for USA Today, offers fresh insight and new information on one of the twentieth century's greatest business figures. Over the course of forty-two years, Thomas J. Watson took a failing business called The Computer-Tabulating-Recording Company and transformed it into IBM, the world's first and most famous high-tech company. The Maverick and His Machine is the first modern biography of this business titan. Maney secured exclusive access to hundreds of boxes of Watson's long-forgotten papers, and he has produced the only complete picture of Watson the man and Watson the legendary business leader. These uncovered documents reveal new information about how Watson bet the company in the 1920s on tabulating machines-the forerunners to computers-and how he daringly beat the Great Depression of the 1930s. The documents also lead to new insights concerning the controversy that has followed Watson: his suppos ed coll usion with Adolf Hitler's Nazi regime.

Maney paints a vivid portrait of Watson, uncovers his motivations, and offers needed context on his mammoth role in the course of modern business history. Jim Collins, author of the bestsellers Good to Great and Built to Last, writes in the Foreword to Maney's book: "Leaders like Watson are like forces of nature-almost terrifying in their release of energy and unpredictable volatility, but underneath they still adhere to certain patterns and principles. The patterns and principles might be hard to see amidst the melee, but they are there nonetheless. It takes a gifted person of insight to highlight those patterns, and that is exactly what Kevin Maney does in this book."

The Maverick and His Machine also includes never-before-published photos of Watson from IBM's archives, showing Watson in greater detail than any book ever has before. Essential reading for every businessperson, tech junkie, and IBM follower, the book is also full of the kind of personal detail and reconstructed events that make it a page-turning story for general readers. The Maverick and the Machine is poised to be one of the most important business biographies in years.

Kevin Maney is a nationally syndicated, award-winning technology columnist at USA Today, where he has been since 1985. He is a cover story writer whose story about IBM's bet-the-company move gained him national recognition. He was voted best technology columnist by the business journalism publication TJFR. Marketing Computers magazine has four times named him one of the most influential technology columnists. He is the author of Wiley's MEGAMEDIA SHAKEOUT: The Inside Story of the Leaders and the Losers in the Exploding Communications Industry, which was a Business Week Bestseller.
Residence: Clifton, VA.

"Watson was clearly a genius with a thousand helpers, yet he managed to build an institution that could transcend the genius."
-from the Foreword by Jim Collins

"Like all great biographers, Kevin Maney gives us an engaging story. . .his fascinating and definitive book about IBM's founder is replete with amazing revelations and character lessons that resonate today."
-Rosabeth Moss Kanter, Harvard Business School, bestselling author of Evolve! and When Giants Learn to Dance...

Authors: Kurt Eichenwald.
Paperback, 528 pages
Publisher: Broadway
Publication Date: 2005-12-27


Reviews :

   

A real-life thriller—the story of kickbacks and payoffs, of shady deals struck in secret with known felons; a story in which half a million people lose enormous sums—some their life’s savings—in the largest securities fraud of the 1980s, with names like Onassis and Bush numbered among the victims.

...

Authors: Ken Hopper. Will Hopper.
Paperback, 352 pages
Publisher: I. B. Tauris
Publication Date: 2009-03-17


Reviews :

    Where does the Protestant work ethic come from? And how did America achieve such dominance in management for so long? "The Puritan Gift" traces the origins and the characteristics of American managerial culture which, in the course of three centuries, turned a group of small colonies into the greatest economic and political power on earth. It argues that the drive, energy and acceptance of innovation, competition, growth and social mobility, all of which lie at the root of America's management culture, have their origins in the discipline and ethos of America's first wave of European immigrants: the Puritans.And, the authors warn, as Americans distance themselves from the core values which produced their business and economic successes during the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, they put their future prosperity and security at risk. This is an original exploration of the dramatic and far-reaching consequences of the Puritans' 'gift' to America - the ethos which produced the early success of America and what came to be known as the American dream....

Authors: Ted Nace.
Paperback, 297 pages
Publisher: Berrett-Koehler Publishers
Publication Date: 2005-09-01


Reviews :

    From its roots in 17th-century Britain to its modern incarnation in Enron and WorldCom, the modern corporation — restless, autonomous, and self-perpetuating — has gained potency. Designed to seek profit and power, the corporation has pursued both objectives with endless tenacity, steadily bending the framework of the law and incurring destruction in its path. Where did the corporation come from? How did it get so much power? What is its ultimate trajectory? Considering the importance of such questions, it is surprisingly difficult to find answers.

Using cutting-edge research from academic historians, sociologists, political scientists, and legal scholars, Gangs of America attempts to answer these questions in a unique, riveting narrative. The book recounts the settlement of America by corporations, details the surprising impetus for the Revolutionary War, then traces the expansion of corporate rights onto the global stage — culminating in an assessment of current struggles over such issues as media control and campaign finance reform. Part of the BK Currents series, the book promotes positive social change....

Authors: Dan Dye. Mark Beckloff.
Paperback, 127 pages
Publisher: Andrews McMeel Publishing
Publication Date: 1996-10-01


Reviews :

    This is the story of two guys (and three dogs) who teamed up to create the world's best dog biscuit. In the process, they created a howling national success story! The bakers have developed such creations as Pupcakes, Scottie Biscotti, Snicker Poodles, Great Danish, and Collie Flowers in the world's first bona fide (or bone-ified) dog bakery. Three Dog Bakery, located in Kansas City, Missouri, has been featured on the Today Show, the Oprah Winfrey Show and on CNN....

Authors: Richard Bak.
Hardcover, 320 pages
Publisher: Wiley
Publication Date: 2003-07-03
Edition: 1st

Reviews :

    An Epic Battle of Generations

It is commonly believed that Henry Ford was a dynamic, innovative visionary who ran his company with an iron hand and an eye to the future–while his son Edsel was a weak, if dutiful, heir and an uninspired manager, who followed his father’s orders. Henry and Edsel, the first biography to focus on both father and son, turns that common belief on its ear.

Offering a daring new perspective on the human drama that changed the shape of Ford Motor company, author Richard Bak explores the ongoing friction between Henry and Edsel over adapting to a changing competitive environment and lays bare the stark contrasts between the two men. Henry emerges as a complex and self-contradictory man who was not entirely comfortable in the new world that he had done so much to create, while Edsel is revealed as a gifted, levelheaded, and imaginative businessman with a keen sense of where the market was headed. Among the many issues examined in this fascinating history are:

• The years-long conflict over modifying the Model T
• Edsel’s successful development of the Lincoln Continental
• Henry’s hatred of labor unions and the rise of Henry Bennett
• Edsel’s relentless struggle to modernize and transform the company
• The climactic struggle between Henry, Edsel, and Henry Bennett for control of the Ford empire

...

Authors: Charles Handy.
Paperback, 320 pages
Publisher: Harvard Business School Press
Publication Date: 1995-09


Reviews :

    In this striking sequel to his best-selling book "The Age of Unreason", Charles Handy shows how the changes he predicted are upon us. New developments in technology, radical changes in the global economy, and the relentless pursuit of productivity have altered forever our organizations, our careers, and our lifestyles. These changes are inevitable and irreversible, and they bring a host of new problems and paradoxes. This book identifies the unintended consequences of change and provides a set of guiding principles to cope with the paradoxes of modern life, leading to a more balanced existence for individuals, greater rewards for organizations, and a more just society for all....

Authors: Ben Cohen. Jerry Greenfield.
Paperback, 304 pages
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Publication Date: 1998-05-13


Reviews :

   

Ben & Jerry's Homemade, Inc., has done more than win the tastebuds of America -- it has earned the admiration of Wall Street and established a model for business owners and employees eager to earn profits without compromising their principles. In Ben & Jerry's Double-Dip, Ben Cohen and Jerry Greenfield offer the ultimate insider's guide to creating a values-led business that makes money while benefiting the entire community. Using examples from their own company as well as a host of others, these renowned innovators reveal:

How your commitment to worthy social causes will result in unprecedented customer and employee loyalty -- and increased profit

Practical advice on everything -- from hiring employees to choosing suppliers

Nuts-and-bolts information on values-led finance, retailing, and human resources

Ben & Jerry's Double-Dip is essential reading for anyone who owns, works for, invests in, or shops at a socially responsible business....

Authors: Karen Wright.
Paperback, 176 pages
Publisher: State House Press
Publication Date: 2006-01-30


Reviews :

    The Road to Dr Pepper, Texas is the story of Dublin Dr Pepper Bottling Co., a David-Goliath case study of the world's first Dr Pepper bottling plant and the only one that has always used pure cane sugar in spite of compelling reasons to switch sweeteners.

The book traces the story from the founder's birth through the contemporary struggles of a tiny independent, family-owned franchise against industry giants.

Owners of the plant have been touched by every major social, economic, and political issue of the past 114 years, and many of those forces threatened the survival of the plant.

The Dublin plant's 100th birthday in 1991 was a turning point because the national media created an identity so unique that it has taken on a life of its own. Thanks to the Travel Channel, Food Network, Texas Monthly, Southern Living, and others, the Dublin plant and museum attract tens of thousands of tourists every year, and Dublin Dr Pepper is consumed around the world through internet sales.

The Road to Dr Pepper, Texas tells how a small plant ignored most of the cherished rules of production and marketing-and succeeded-in spite of not speeding up production, not expanding its franchise area, not cutting production costs, and not adapting to changing times....

Authors: John Battelle.
Paperback, 336 pages
Publisher: Portfolio Trade
Publication Date: 2006-10-03


Reviews :

    How Google and Its Rivals Rewrote the Rules of Business and Transformed Our Culture

• The Wall Street Journal and BusinessWeek Bestseller
• Finalist for the Goldman Sachs/FT Business Book of the Year Award

What does the world want? According to John Battelle, a company that answers that question—in all its shades of meaning—can unlock the most intractable riddles of business and arguably of human culture itself. And for the past few years, that’s exactly what Google has been doing.

But The Search offers much more than the inside story of Google’s triumph. It’s a big- picture book about the past, present, and future of search technology and the enormous impact it’s starting to have on marketing, media, pop culture, dating, job hunting, international law, civil liberties, and just about every other sphere of human interest....

    If you pick your books by their popularity--how many and which other people are reading them--then know this about The Search: it's probably on Bill Gates' reading list, and that of almost every venture capitalist and startup-hungry entrepreneur in Silicon Valley. In its sweeping survey of the history of Internet search technologies, its gossip about and analysis of Google, and its speculation on the larger cultural implications of a Web-connected world, it will likely receive attention from a variety of businesspeople, technology futurists, journalists, and interested observers of mid-2000s zeitgeist.

This ambitious book comes with a strong pedigree. Author John Battelle was a founder of The Industry Standard and then one of the original editors of Wired, two magazines which helped shape our early perceptions of the wild world of the Internet. Battelle clearly drew from his experience and contacts in writing The Search. In addition to the sure-handed historical perspective and easy familiarity with such dot-com stalwarts as AltaVista, Lycos, and Excite, he speckles his narrative with conversational asides from a cast of fascinating characters, such Google's founders, Larry Page and Sergey Brin; Yahoo's, Jerry Yang and David Filo; key executives at Microsoft and different VC firms on the famed Sandhill road; and numerous other insiders, particularly at the company which currently sits atop the search world, Google.

The Search is not exactly the corporate history of Google. At the book's outset, Battelle specifically indicates his desire to understand what he calls the cultural anthropology of search, and to analyze search engines' current role as the "database of our intentions"--the repository of humanity's curiosity, exploration, and expressed desires. Interesting though that beginning is, though, Battelle's story really picks up speed when he starts dishing inside scoop on the darling business story of the decade, Google. To Battelle's credit, though, he doesn't stop just with historical retrospective: the final part of his book focuses on the potential future directions of Google and its products' development. In what Battelle himself acknowledges might just be a "digital fantasy train", he describes the possibility that Google will become the centralizing platform for our entire lives and quotes one early employee on the weightiness of Google's potential impact: "Sometimes I feel like I am on a bridge, twenty thousand feet up in the air. If I look down I'm afraid I'll fall. I don't feel like I can think about all the implications."

Some will shrug at such words; after all, similar hype has accompanied other technologies and other companies before. Many others, though, will search Battelle's story for meaning--and fast. --Peter Han...