Business Biographies: A Core Collection: Home

From the moment they met, Eduardo and Mark Zuckerberg had an intense bond. Both outsiders at Harvard, the two boys shared a geeky awkwardness - especially when it came to matters of the opposite sex. But at Harvard, social acceptance was something you had to apply for. The Final Clubs, elite societies that had groomed generations of powerful men, were at the top of the social hierarchy and acceptance into one meant instant cool. But without family money or innate charisma, Eduardo and Mark turned to their natural talents and hacked into the administration's computer system, pulled up a picture of every female student and designed a complex alogarithm named FaceSmash that allowed users to rank their 'hotness'. Within two hours 80% of Harvard's population had voted and the university's computer system crashed. Eduardo and Mark refocused their programming into something less controversal - Facebook. It spread like a wildfire around the world. Suddenly, Eduardo and Mark had gained notoriety and were finally getting nods from Venture capitalists who threw larger and larger sums at them to buy Facebook. With that the first cracks in their friendship started to appear. Before long, what began as a simple argument erupted into an out and out war with back-stabbing and actual violence. THE ACCIDENTAL BILLIONAIRES shows, with compulsively readable verve, an American Dream polluted by sex, greed, betrayal and excess.

Though his wealth is certainly no secret, the world's fourth richest man remains an enigma. Paul Allen made his fortune as Bill Gates's partner in Microsoft, supplemented it with questionable, though often profitable, venture capital schemes, and has since invested his wealth in a widely divergent list of interests. He owns the NBA's Portland Trailblazers and the NFL's Seattle Seahawks. Dubbed the "Accidental Zillionaire" by Wired magazine, Allen has often appeared to be a bumbler who succeeded primarily through luck and by coopting the visionary ideas of others. In The Accidental Zillionaire, Laura Rich unravels the secret Paul Allen, his inner motivations and his personality. She tells Allen's story from his days as a fledgling computer geek in suburban Washington state, to his role in founding the world's largest software company, to his battle with cancer, to his sycophantic flirtation with Hollywood and its brightest stars. Paul Allen is a man of various interests and passions, but few if any know him well. The Accidental Zillionaire for the first time reveals the inner workings of a towering figure in the worlds of technology, business, sports, and entertainment.

Adam Smith (1723–90) is celebrated all over the world as the author of The Wealth of Nations and the founder of modern economics. A few of his ideas—that of the “invisible hand” of the market and that “It is not from the benevolence of the butcher, the brewer, or the baker that we expect our dinner, but from their regard to their own interest” have become iconic. Yet Smith saw himself primarily as a philosopher rather than an economist and would never have predicted that the ideas for which he is now best known were his most important. This book shows the extent to which The Wealth of Nations and Smith’s other great work, The Theory of Moral Sentiments, were part of a larger scheme to establish a grand “Science of Man,” one of the most ambitious projects of the European Enlightenment, which was to encompass law, history, and aesthetics as well as economics and ethics, and which was only half complete on Smith’s death in 1790. Nick Phillipson reconstructs Smith’s intellectual ancestry and shows what Smith took from, and what he gave to, in the rapidly changing intellectual and commercial cultures of Glasgow and Edinburgh as they entered the great years of the Scottish Enlightenment. Above all he explains how far Smith’s ideas developed in dialogue with those of his closest friend, the other titan of the age, David Hume.

The Age Of Turbulence is Alan Greenspan's incomparable reckoning with the contemporary financial world, channeled through his own experiences working in the command room of the global economy longer and with greater effect than any other single living figure. Following the arc of his remarkable life's journey through his more than eighteen-year tenure as chairman of the Federal Reserve Board to the present, in the second half of The Age of Turbulence Dr. Greenspan embarks on a magnificent tour d'horizon of the global economy. The distillation of a life's worth of wisdom and insight into an elegant expression of a coherent worldview, The Age of Turbulence will stand as Alan Greenspan's personal and intellectual legacy.

Ron Chernow, the renowned author of Titan whom the New York Times has called "as elegant an architect of monumental histories as we've seen in decades," vividly re-creates the whole sweep of Alexander Hamilton's turbulent life—his exotic, brutal upbringing; his titanic feuds with celebrated rivals; his pivotal role in defining the shape of the federal government and the American economy; his shocking illicit romances; his enlightened abolitionism; and his famous death in a duel with Aaron Burr in July 1804. Drawing upon extensive, unparalleled research— including nearly fifty previously undiscovered essays highlighting Hamilton's fiery journalism as well as his revealing missives to colleagues and friends—this biography of the extraordinarily gifted founding father who galvanized, inspired, and scandalized the newborn nation is the work by which all others will be measured.

An engrossing, insider’s account of how a teacher built one of the world’s most valuable companies—rivaling Walmart & Amazon—and forever reshaped the global economy. In just a decade and half Jack Ma, a man from modest beginnings who started out as an English teacher, founded and built Alibaba into one of the world’s largest companies, an e-commerce empire on which hundreds of millions of Chinese consumers depend. Alibaba’s $25 billion IPO in 2014 was the largest global IPO ever. A Rockefeller of his age who is courted by CEOs and Presidents around the world, Jack is an icon for China’s booming private sector and the gatekeeper to hundreds of millions of middle class consumers. Duncan Clark first met Jack in 1999 in the small apartment where Jack founded Alibaba. Granted unprecedented access to a wealth of new material including exclusive interviews, Clark draws on his own experience as an early advisor to Alibaba and two decades in China chronicling the Internet’s impact on the country to create an authoritative, compelling narrative account of Alibaba’s rise. How did Jack overcome his humble origins and early failures to achieve massive success with Alibaba? How did he outsmart rival entrepreneurs from China and Silicon Valley? Can Alibaba maintain its 80% market share? As it forges ahead into finance and entertainment, are there limits to Alibaba’s ambitions?  How does the Chinese government view its rise?  Will Alibaba expand further overseas, including in the U.S.' Clark tells Alibaba’s tale in the context of China’s momentous economic and social changes, illuminating an unlikely corporate titan as never before.

In this tale of grit and glamour, setbacks and comebacks, business and pop culture icon Tommy Hilfiger shares his extraordinary life story for the first time.   Few designers have stayed on top of changing trends the way Tommy Hilfiger has. Fewer still have left such an indelible mark on global culture. Since designing his first collection of "classics with a twist" three decades ago, Tommy Hilfiger has been synonymous with all-American style--but his destiny wasn't always so clear. Growing up one of nine children in a working-class family in Elmira, New York, Tommy suffered from dyslexia, flunked sophomore year of high school, and found himself constantly at odds with his father. Nevertheless, this self-described dreamer had a vision and the relentless will to make it a reality. At eighteen he opened his own clothing store, parlaying his uncanny instinct for style into a budding career as a fashion designer. Through decades of triumph and turmoil, Tommy remained doggedly optimistic. To this day, his approach to commerce is rooted in his positive view of the world. American Dreamer brims with anecdotes that cover Tommy's years as a club kid and scrappy entrepreneur in 1970s New York as well as unique insights into the exclusive A-list personalities with whom he's collaborated and interacted, from Mick Jagger and David Bowie to Ralph Lauren and Calvin Klein. But this is more than just a fashion icon's memoir--it's a road map for building a brand, both professionally and personally. Tommy takes us behind the scenes of every decision--and every mistake--he's ever made, offering advice on leadership, business, team-building, and creativity.  This is the story of a true American original, told for the first time in his own words, with honesty, humor, and the insatiable appetite for life and style that proves that sometimes you have to dream big to make it big.   Advance praise for American Dreamer   "Tommy burst onto the fashion scene at the height of hip-hop and was instantly taken up by rappers and rockers alike. Since then, year after year he has been ahead of the curve with his elegant and stylish looks. His creative energy has always been an inspiration to me. He's really himself in American Dreamer."--Mick Jagger   "Whenever I think of Tommy Hilfiger, I think of a designer who has been able to wrap fashion in the American flag. In American Dreamer Tommy shows how he has taken the (rock) stars and the (preppy) stripes and come up with a look--and a label--that are recognized globally as being quintessentially American, as well as a brand that constantly keeps time with pop music."--Anna Wintour   "Tommy is an inspiration to many people. American Dreamer shows how he has managed to be successful in business and done so with integrity. I have come to know Tommy, and every time we talk I learn something new about creating a successful business."--David Beckham    "Tommy is one of the most genuine people I know! In American Dreamer you can feel his passion pour through everything he does: fashion, fatherhood, family, and friendship!"--Alicia Keys   "Tommy Hilfiger is an American icon who was able to transcend fashion and blend it with pop culture and take it to a worldwide audience. American Dreamer documents how, unlike any other designer, Tommy was able to tap into music, its subculture, and its influence on society, which propelled his fashion to be mainstream and global."--Tommy Mottola

Majestically told and based on materials not available to any previous biographer, the definitive life of Andrew Carnegie-one of American business's most iconic and elusive titans-by the bestselling author of Chief: The Life of William Randolph Hearst. Celebrated historian David Nasaw, whom The New York Times Book Review has called "a meticulous researcher and a cool analyst," brings new life to the story of one of America's most famous and successful businessmen and philanthropists---in what will prove to be the biography of the season. With a trove of new material--unpublished chapters of Carnegie's Autobiography; personal letters between Carnegie and his future wife, Louise, and other family members; his prenuptial agreement; diaries of family and close friends; his applications for citizenship; his extensive correspondence with Henry Clay Frick; and dozens of private letters to and from presidents Grant, Cleveland, McKinley, Roosevelt, and British prime ministers Gladstone and Balfour, as well as friends Herbert Spencer, Matthew Arnold, and Mark Twain--Nasaw brilliantly plumbs the core of this facinating and complex man, deftly placing his life in cultural and political context as only a master storyteller can

Andy Grove, the CEO of Intel during its years of explosive growth, is on the shortlist of America's most admired businesspeople, along with Steve Jobs, Warren Buffett, and Bill Gates. Brilliant, brave, and willing to defy conventional wisdom, Grove is, according to Harvard Business School professor Richard S. Tedlow, "the best model we have for leading a business in the twenty-first century." Grove gave Tedlow unprecedented access to his private papers, along with wide-ranging interviews and access to his closest friends and key business associates. Nothing was off limits, and Tedlow was free to draw his own conclusions. The result is not just a gripping life story but a fascinating analysis of how Grove attacks problems. Born a Hungarian Jew in 1936, Andras Istvan Grof survived the Nazis only to face the Soviet invasion of his country. He fled to America at age twenty, studied engineering, and arrived in Silicon Valley just in time for a historic opportunity. He became the third employee of Intel, working for the legendary Gordon Moore and Robert Noyce. As talented as he was as an engineer, Grove became an even better manager, as we learn from exclusive excerpts from his secret management diaries. Tedlow shows us exactly how that penniless immigrant taught himself to lead a major corporation through some of the toughest challenges in the history of business.This is an inspiring biography that will enthrall anyone who cares about technology or leadership.

Walt Disney (1901-1966) was one of the most significant creative forces of the twentieth century, a man who made a lasting impact on the art of the animated film, the history of American business, and the evolution of twentieth-century American culture. He was both a creative visionary and a dynamic entrepreneur, roles whose demands he often could not reconcile. In his compelling new biography, noted animation historian Michael Barrier avoids the well-traveled paths of previous biographers, who have tended to portray a blemish-free Disney or to indulge in lurid speculation. A consummate storyteller, Barrier describes how Disney transformed himself from Midwestern farm boy to scrambling young businessman to pioneering artist and, finally, to entrepreneur on a grand scale. Barrier describes in absorbing detail how Disney synchronized sound with animation in Steamboat Willie; created in Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs sympathetic cartoon characters whose appeal rivaled that of the best live-action performers; grasped television's true potential as an unparalleled promotional device; and—not least—parlayed a backyard railroad into the Disneyland juggernaut. Barrier recorded long interviews with more than 150 people who worked alongside Disney, some as early as 1922. Barrier juxtaposes Disney's own recollections against the memories of those other players to great effect. What emerges is a portrait of Walt Disney as a flawed but fascinating artist, one whose imaginative leaps allowed him to vault ahead of the competition and produce work that even today commands the attention of audiences worldwide.

While writing his autobiography, Jean Paul Getty - then perhaps the world's richest man - hoped it would be the final verdict on himself, on his many friends and associates, and on his times. Regrettably, it proved to be so: Getty died in 1976 as "As I See It" was going to press. Now reissued with a number of new illustrations, this autobiography introduces the famed tycoon to a new generation of readers. Known largely for his fabled wealth, J. Paul Getty was highly educated, competent in six languages, a world traveller, and a committed collector of art. Getty describes how he amassed his staggering fortune, discusses the prospects of democracy, lists the seven key points success-oriented men should know about women, and recounts undergraduate conversations at Oxford with his good friend "David", the future King Edward of England. The cast of characters who populate his intimate anecdotes reads like a "Who's Who" of the 20th century: Winston Churchill, Clara Bow, Nelson Rockefeller, Bernard Berenson, Bela Lugosi, Jacqueline Onassis, Richard Nixon, Franklin D. Roosevelt, Charlie Chaplin, and hundreds more. He discusses with frankness his several marriages and liaisons and speaks about his notorious stinginess and the often-bizarre problems confronted by the impossibly wealthy.

Whatever David Ogilvy may have lacked in money and credentials, he more than made up for with intelligence, talent, and ingenuity. He became the quintessential ad man, a revolutionary whose impact on his profession still reverberates today. His brilliant campaigns went beyond successful advertising, giving rise to such pop culture icons as the famous Hathaway shirt man with his trademark black eyepatch. His client list runs the gamut from Rolls Royce to Sears Roebuck, Campbell's Soup to Merrill Lynch, IBM to the governments of Britain, France, and the United States. How did a young man who had known poverty as a child in England, worked as a cook in Paris, and once sold stoves to nuns in Scotland climb to the pinnacle of the fast-paced, fiercely competitive world of advertising? Long before storming Madison Avenue, David Ogilvy's life hadalready had its share of colorful experiences and adventure. Now, this updated edition of David Ogilvy's autobiography presents his extraordinary life story and its many fascinating twists and turns. An innovative businessman, a great raconteur, a genuine legend in his own lifetime, David Ogilvy is one of a kind. So is his autobiography.

This is the inside story of Hewlett-Packard Company's struggle to regain its former glory, and of the high-stakes battle between CEO Carly Fiorina and family scion Walter Hewlett over how best to achieve that goal. For decades, HP was admired not only for its innovative products and soaring stock price, but for its egalitarian corporate culture and father-knows-best integrity. Backfire explains how the company fell on hard times, recounts the historic decision that made Fiorina the world's top-ranking female executive, and brings to life the backlash that resulted when she tried to impose her charismatic salesmanship on the aging icon. Top BusinessWeek journalist Peter Burrows gives the dramatic blow-by-blow of Hewlett's effort to kill Fiorina's most controversial move of all, her $19 billion purchase of rival Compaq Computer. Fiorina won by a whisker, after the most expensive proxy fight in history and a dramatic lawsuit that accused the company of illegally fixing the vote. This gripping, ongoing story includes fascinating personalities and dramatic boardroom and courtroom drama. Peter Burrows (Alameda, CA) has been a technology reporter for BusinessWeek for nine years and has covered the HP saga from the start. The department editor for BusinessWeek's computer coverage, he has been the principal chronicler of Fiorina's tenure at HP, and has written three cover stories on the subject.

The unauthorized biography of an immigrant's son who became a multibillionaire working for Bill Gates, and probably the highest-paid employee in American history. In January 2000, Bill Gates gave his vast responsibilities and title of Microsoft CEO to his best friend Steve Ballmer, a man relatively unknown to the public. Based on in-depth study and interviews with classmates and Microsoft insiders, Fredric Alan Maxwell vividly brings to life one of the technology industry's most colorful and controversial figures: Steven Anthony Ballmer. From Ballmer's relatively humble suburban Detroit beginnings (where he and his archrival Scott McNealy went to competing high schools) and his 1974 meeting with Gates in a Harvard dorm, Maxwell richly details how the competition addicts Ballmer and Gates have worked together for the past twenty years to form Microsoft's ego and id. The up-by-the-bootstraps saga reveals both the good boy Ballmer -- the dedicated son, great friend, and supportive schoolmate -- and the bad boy Ballmer -- the ruthless businessman who earned the nickname "The Em-balmer."

There have been many books--on a large and small scale--about Steve Jobs, one of the most famous CEOs in history. But this book is different from all the others. Becoming Steve Jobs takes on and breaks down the existing myth and stereotypes about Steve Jobs. The conventional, one-dimensional view of Jobs is that he was half-genius, half-jerk from youth, an irascible and selfish leader who slighted friends and family alike. Becoming Steve Jobs answers the central question about the life and career of the Apple cofounder and CEO: How did a young man so reckless and arrogant that he was exiled from the company he founded become the most effective visionary business leader of our time, ultimately transforming the daily life of billions of people? Drawing on incredible and sometimes exclusive access, Schlender and Tetzeli tell a different story of a real human being who wrestled with his failings and learned to maximize his strengths over time. Their rich, compelling narrative is filled with stories never told before from the people who knew Jobs best, and who decided to open up to the authors, including his family, former inner circle executives, and top people at Apple, Pixar and Disney, most notably Tim Cook, Jony Ive, Eddy Cue, Ed Catmull, John Lasseter, Robert Iger and many others. In addition, Brent knew Jobs personally for 25 years and draws upon his many interviews with him, on and off the record, in writing the book. He and Rick humanize the man and explain, rather than simply describe, his behavior. Along the way, the book provides rich context about the technology revolution we all have lived through, and the ways in which Jobs changed our world. Schlender and Tetzeli make clear that Jobs's astounding success at Apple was far more complicated than simply picking the right products: he became more patient, he learned to trust his inner circle, and discovered the importance of growing the company incrementally rather than only shooting for dazzling game-changing products. A rich and revealing account that will change the way we view Jobs, Becoming Steve Jobs shows us how one of the most colorful and compelling figures of our times was able to combine his unchanging, relentless passion with a more mature management style to create one of the most valuable and beloved companies on the planet.

In 1978, with a total investment of $12,000, Ben Cohen and Jerry Greenfield opened a homemade ice cream parlor in an abandoned gas station in Burlington, Vermont, and set out to serve the best ice cream they could make. Less than fifteen years later, Ben & Jerry's has grown into a national phenomenon, with annual sales of over $100 million. But Ben & Jerry's wasn't just another success story, it was a whole new kind of company. First, the founders believed that work should be rewarding in itself. Their unofficial motto was, "If it's not fun, why do it?" Second, they believed that business should give something back to the community that supports it. They started by giving away free ice cream and sponsoring local festivals, but as the company grew, their efforts became more ambitious, and Ben & Jerry's was soon recognized as one of the most progressive, socially active corporations in America. Chico Lager, former CEO of Ben & Jerry's, has truly given the inside scoop on the company's remarkable history. Filled with funny and surprising anecdotes of Ben and Jerry's offbeat schemes and the obstacles they faced in putting their business philosophy into practice, this is one of the most inspiring - and certainly one of the most entertaining - business books of our time.

When Benjamin Graham died at 82, he was one of the great legends of Wall Street: brilliant, successful, ethical-the man who invented the discipline of security analysis. Time has only enhanced his reputation, with disciples such as billionaire investor Warren Buffet's continuing to praise Graham & crediting his work in their own successes. Now, 20 years after his death, his memoirs are reaching the public at last. Graham's story is a hugely satisfying chronicle of one of the richest & most eventful lives of the century. Here is a life that will captivate Wall Streeters & history buffs alike. Graham recounts his immigrant childhood in old New York-his excellent education in the city's public schools & on scholarship at Columbia University-the first crucial deal in his professional life-the devastating effects of the Crash of '29-& the tactics that helped him & his clients survive the Depression. Graham's fascinating account also encompasses his bold efforts at currency reform-his involvement with such towering

The first woman president of an advertising agency and the first woman CEO of a company on the New York Stock Exchange tells her "riveting story: How she shattered every glass ceiling and became a Madison Avenue legend."*
From her role as fledgling copywriter at Doyle Dane Bernbach — the agency that made big-car-obsessed America fall in love with the funny little Volkswagen — to her brilliant campaign for Braniff Airways that had the flying public scrambling for seats on wild-colored planes to founding the fastest-growing ad agency in history, Mary Wells Lawrence's life in advertising couldn't be any bigger. As The New York Observer put it, her agency, Wells Rich Greene, created ads that "etched indelible phrases into the public imaginations: 'Flick your Bic' and 'I Love New York!' and 'Plop plop, fizz fizz, oh what a relief it is.'" For those thinking about a life in advertising for themselves and for anyone who enjoys being transported by a great storyteller's art, Mary Wells Lawrence is the most energetic, passionate guide to the world of American advertising in all its brilliance, excitement, fun and craziness.

Phenomenal reviews and sales greeted the hardcover publication of The Big Rich, New York Times bestselling author Bryan Burrough's spellbinding chronicle of Texas oil. Weaving together the multigenerational sagas of the industry's four wealthiest families, Burrough brings to life the men known in their day as the Big Four: Roy Cullen, H. L. Hunt, Clint Murchison, and Sid Richardson, all swaggering Texas oil tycoons who owned sprawling ranches and mingled with presidents and Hollywood stars. Seamlessly charting their collective rise and fall, The Big Rich is a hugely entertaining account that only a writer with Burrough's abilities-and Texas upbringing-could have written.

Others have written about the rise of Hewlett-Packard, including Dave Packard himself in The HP Way. But acclaimed journalist Michael S. Malone is the first to get the full story, based on exclusive access to corporate and private archives, along with hundreds of interviews.Malone draws on his new material to show how some of the most influential products of our time were invented and how a culture of innovation led HP to unparalleled success for decades. He also shows what was really behind the HP Way the groundbreaking management philosophy that put people ahead of products or profits. It was a hard-nosed business philosophy that created a ferociously competitive and adaptive company arguably the world's greatest company.

"In a gripping narrative that is both inspirational and cautionary, Brett Pulley tells us how Robert Johnson built Black Entertainment Television into a billion-dollar media empire. In a remarkable feat of reporting, without Johnson's cooperation, Pulley shows what it really takes to get ahead in America today, and in doing so provides as valuable a cultural as business history."
—James B. Stewart Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist and bestselling author of DisneyWar, Den of Thieves, and Heart of a Soldier

The two men could not have been more different. One was the consummate salesman, a brilliant wheeler-dealer with grand plans, unflappable energy, and a fondness for the high life. The other was the educated intellectual, an expert in business strategy and management, master of all things organizational. And yet the impact of this odd couple on the industrial and societal landscapes of the early twentieth century is equaled only by the indelible legacy of their improbable partnership." "Billy Durant and Alfred Sloan built perhaps the most successful enterprise in U.S. history, General Motors. With GM's ascent grew an industry whose product has come to symbolize the very essence of modernity throughout the world. Billy, Alfred, and General Motors is the tale not just of its title characters, but also of the formative decades of twentieth-century America, through two world wars and sea changes in nearly every facet of daily life, from business and industry to politics and culture." Painstakingly researched, the book sheds new light on how the divergent approaches of Durant and Sloan were destined to forge an entirely new business archetype, one that would become (and today remains) a global standard.

"The biographies concentrate on the subjects' business achievements and conclude with brief bibliographies. Appendixes group biographies by industry, company, birthplace, principal place of business activity, religion, ethnicity, and year of birth. One appendix names the fifty-three women treated. This is a needed and refreshing complement to the hundreds of business reference books whose columns of figures do not convey the human effort involved in American business." Library Journal

The Biographical Dictionary of Management is a major new reference work covering the growth and development of management as a discipline over the last four thousand years, from the merchant princes of Assyria and Tyre to the online entrepreneurs of the late twentieth century. Over 600 entries provide coverage not only of important figures--Henry Ford, Adam Smith, Frederick Winslow Taylor, Henri Fayol, Jack Welch, Lyndall Fownes Urwick, Alfred P. Sloan and others--but also many who contributed on a smaller scale, like Mitsui Takatoshi, the founder of Mitsui; Ida Minerva Telfer, a pioneering writer on the role of women in business; or Arie de Geus, whose early work on knowledge as a corporate asset is now at the heart of most thinking on knowledge management. This ambitious and unique work attempts to capture the growth and development of management as a discipline since the dawn of commerce. The Biographical Dictionary of Management is in part an attempt to describe a philosophy of management. To that end, the authors of this work include not only business academics but also professional business people and business journalists, historians and futurists, economists and specialists in many fields. By giving the topic the broadest possible scope, we hope to capture all the richness and diversity of management thinking, past and present.

The author is the pioneer who did more than anyone else to establish its principles, practices and ethics... Mr. Bernays describes the many national movements, social beliefs, trends, fashions and fads that have been the result of his carefully planned public relations activities. He reveals the secrets, the techniques, the causes and consequences of his glamorous, crucial, yet little understood profession... A fascinating inside account of the men, the events and the ideas that have been at the center of America's history in the Twentieth Century

From the author who gave us Cod, Salt, and other informative bestsellers, the first biography of Clarence Birdseye, the eccentric genius inventor whose fast-freezing process revolutionized the food industry and American agriculture.

For more than 25 years, Black Enterprise, the premier African American business magazine, has ranked and chronicled the B.E. 100s—its exclusive listing of the nation's top-grossing, black-owned businesses. Generating more than $14 billion in annual revenue and employing more than 55,000 people, these companies represent a vibrant and often overlooked segment of the American economy. Their CEOs, among the wealthiest and most powerful players in the black business community, have been the vanguard of an entrepreneurial revolution. They achieved greatness despite a lack of capital, diminished access, and even outright racism, using their imagination and drive to seize opportunities and break through barriers. First in the new Black Enterprise series, Titans of the B.E. 100s profiles eleven of these remarkable leaders of the largest black-owned businesses. Covering a broad cross-section of companies and industries, this compelling book features both today's emerging entrepreneurs and the established CEOs, revealing the secrets of how they beat the odds and the hard truths about the myriad challenges they've faced.

The grandson of slaves, born into poverty in 1892 in the Deep South, A. G. Gaston died more than a century later with a fortune worth well over $130 million and a business empire spanning communications, real estate, and insurance. Gaston was, by any measure, a heroic figure whose wealth and influence bore comparison to J. P. Morgan and Andrew Carnegie. Here, for the first time, is the story of the life of this extraordinary pioneer, told by his niece and grandniece, the award-winning television journalist Carol Jenkins and her daughter Elizabeth Gardner Hines. Combining rich family lore with a deep knowledge of American social and economic history, Carol Jenkins and Elizabeth Hines unfold Gaston’s success story against the backdrop of a century of crushing racial hatred and bigotry. When the movement for civil rights swept through the South in the late 1950s and early 1960s, Gaston provided critical financial support to many activists. At the time of his death in 1996, A. G. Gaston was one of the wealthiest black men in America, if not the wealthiest. He was a man who had proved it was possible to overcome staggering odds and make a place for himself as a leader, a captain of industry, and a far-sighted philanthropist. Writing with grace and power, Jenkins and Hines bring their distinguished ancestor fully to life in the pages of this book. Black Titan is the story of a man who created his own future—and in the process, blazed a future for all black businesspeople in America.

Brash, aggressive, and supremely self-confident, Michael Bloomberg, the visionary leader of the world's fastest-growing media empire, has been hailed as the new standard for what it takes to win in the Information Age. Dismissed from Salomon Brothers in 1981, Bloomberg immediately took his money and acerbic personality and started Bloomberg L.P. Bolstered by a $30 million investment from Merrill Lynch, the company and the man have been sprinting ahead of the pack ever since. Only twenty years after founding, he's at the top of his industry. And on June 5, 2001, he added mayoral candidate for New York City to his list of accomplishments and aspirations. If elected, powerhouse Michael Bloomberg will bring his own brand of leadership-and personal style-to the city that never sleeps. The man with Wall Street's best known generic name has written an autobiography that keeps you up late to finish. The book is full of wonderful insights about Wall Street and about starting and growing a new business.

This is the first scholarly biography of James B. Duke and traces his rise from a hardworking boyhood on a farm just outside the village of Durham to his preeminence in the American tobacco industry by 1900. Having first led the family firm of W. Duke, Sons and Company to gamble most successfully on machine-made cigarettes, he went on to take the lead in the organization of the American Tobacco Company in 1890. Proving to be a genius at organizing and managing the vast tobacco combination, he then invaded Britain in 1901 and ended up leading a new globe-spanning British-American Tobacco Company." "Because of his strong desire to promote the industrialization of his native region, he moved into the new field of hydroelectricity in 1905, with the resulting Southern Power Company becoming the Duke Power Company in the 1920s." After a decade of careful planning, he announced the establishment of The Duke Endowment in late 1924. Based primarily on a large portion of his stock in Duke Power, the Endowment had as its prime beneficiary a new research university - Duke University - to be organized around Trinity College, with which the Duke family had become increasingly involved after 1890. Three other colleges would also receive support from the Endowment, as would health care and child care for both races in the Carolinas and the rural Methodist Church in North Carolina. Entrepreneurial to the end, J. B. Duke capped his career with a large, generous plan for a lasting legacy to the Carolinas.

A brilliant businesswoman offers inspirational advice and practical guidance on how to break through the old-boy barriers to creating and financing high-risk enterprises.Kay Koplovitz went from selling cable TV services in New Jersey to founding and running the incredibly successful cable television franchise, USA Networks. But when the company was sold in 1997 for $4.5 billion, not a nickel of the sale proceeds came her way. Instead, she was on the street without a job. Why? She didn't have equity. And equity-ownership-is all that counts. Looking for money to start new businesses, Koplovitz soon learned another tough lesson: Over 95% of American venture capitalists are men and 95% of the money they invest goes to male-owned businesses. So how do women get money to fund their start-ups? They don't. This realization spurred Koplovitz into action. She developed a venture capital forum called Springboard, designed to help women develop the networks and presentational skills to get the money they need. Using examples of pioneering women entrepreneurs, she shows us how a new generation of gutsy, ambitious, smart women are breaking the barriers of the old-boy network and forging their own start-ups. Her inspiration, wisdom, and clear-eyed advice are crucial for anyone who wants to create, launch, and finance a brand new enterprise.

No investor is held in higher regard by his peers than Bill Gross. His understanding of the markets and his insights on how to profit from them are unparalleled. Now Tim Middleton takes you into Gross’s world for an insider ’s view on how the world of finance really works. If this book were a bond, it would be AAA rated with a double-digit yield.

The story of the Bronfman family is a fascinating and improbable saga. It is dominated by "Mr. Sam," the single greatest figure in the history of the liquor business, the man who made drinking whiskey respectable in the United States and who in the 1950s and 1960s built Seagram into the first worldwide empire in wines and spirits. After Sam's death in 1971, his oldest son, Edgar, maintained the business, though he was distracted by his matrimonial problems. Nevertheless, in the 1980s he masterminded a major coup when he translated a small investment in oil made by his father into a 25 percent stake in the mighty DuPont company. But in the 1990s, Edgar allowed his second son, Edgar Jr., to indulge his ambition to become a media tycoon. The stake in DuPont was sold, and the money reinvested in Universal, the film and theme-park empire. Edgar Jr. then paid more than $10 billion to buy Polygram Records and thus fulfill his fancy to be king of the world's music business. But at the same time, he remained in charge of the liquor business, which started to stagnate - indeed, to fall apart. Then came the final disaster when the increasingly divided family sold out to Jean-Marie Messier, the overreaching empire builder of the French conglomerate Vivendi. But the story of this amazing family over the past century is about more than booze and business. The Bronfmans is a spectacular account that details the larger-than-life personalities and bitter rivalries that have made the family so famous and, sometimes, so infamous.

Starting from scratch, simply by picking stocks and companies for investment, Warren Buffett amassed one of the epochal fortunes of the twentieth century--an astounding net worth of $10 billion, and counting. His awesome investment record has made him a cult figure popularly known for his seeming contradictions: a billionaire who has a modest lifestyle, a phenomenally successful investor who eschews the revolving-door trading of modern Wall Street, a brilliant dealmaker who cultivates a homespun aura. Journalist Roger Lowenstein draws on three years of unprecedented access to Buffett's family, friends, and colleagues to provide the first definitive, inside account of the life and career of this American original. Buffett explains Buffett's' investment strategy--a long-term philosophy grounded in buying stock in companies that are undervalued on the market and hanging on until their worth invariably surfaces--and shows how it is a reflection of his inner self.

When a friend told Bernie Marcus and Arthur Blank that, "You've just been hit in the ass by a golden horseshoe," they thought he was crazy. After all, both had just been fired. What the friend, Ken Langone, meant was that they now had the opportunity to create the kind of wide-open warehouse store that would help spark a consumer revolution through low prices, excellent customer service, and wide availability of products. Built from Scratch is the story of how two incredibly determined and creative people-and their associates-built a business from nothing to 761 stores and $30 billion in sales in a mere twenty years. Built from Scratch tells many colorful stories associated with The Home Depot's founding and meteoric rise; shows that a company can be a tough, growth-oriented competitor and still maintain a high sense of responsibility to the community; and provides great lessons useful to people in any business, from start-ups to the Fortune 500.

For more than ten years, John Steele Gordon has written the widely read “The Business of America” column in American Heritage magazine. Marked by a combination of erudition, wit, and eloquence, Gordon's stories have celebrated the high points, and occasional low points, in the history of business in this country, from colonial days to the present. Now, the best of his mini-histories have been gathered in one volume. Together they gain in significance as they go beyond mere business to present an intriguing lens on the broad sweep of American history. Gordon deftly connects the past with the present as he compares Frederick Philipse’s successful cornering of the wampum market in 1666 with the Hunt brothers’ failed attempt to corner the silver market in 1979. He looks anew at famous industrialists like Cornelius Vanderbilt and Henry Ford, and uncovers little-remembered heroes such as Oliver Evans, the founding father of the American industrial revolution, and Samuel Slater, who launched the textile industry in this country. Gordon reveals how broad trends have developed (government debt and inflation, for example) and how specific words (boondoggle, pork barrel) have entered our language. In addition to being a superb historian, John Steele Gordon is a great storyteller. Surveying almost 400 years of enterprise on this continent, The Business of America makesinvaluable connections between eras and allows us a new appreciation of the richness of the American story.

John Malone, hailed as one of the great unsung heroes of our age by some and reviled by others as a ruthless robber baron, is revealed as a bit of both in Cable Cowboy. For more than twenty-five years, Malone has dominated the cable television industry, shaping the world of entertainment and communications, first with his cable company TCI and later with Liberty Media. Written with Malone's unprecedented cooperation, the engaging narrative brings this controversial capitalist and businessman to life. Cable Cowboy is at once a penetrating portrait of Malone's complex persona, and a captivating history of the cable TV industry. Told in a lively style with exclusive details, the book shows how an unassuming copper strand started as a backwoods antenna service and became the digital nervous system of the U.S., an evolution that gave U.S. consumers the fastest route to the Internet. Cable Cowboy reveals the forces that propelled this pioneer to such great heights, and captures the immovable conviction and quicksilver mind that have defined John Malone throughout his career.

At the beginning of the nineteenth century, New York City was an undistinguished town, competing with Philadelphia and Boston to be America's dominant port city. Just two generations later, it had built itself into the country's powerhouse center of trade and finance, rivaled only by London as financial capital of the world. In Capital City, Thomas Kessner tells the story of this remarkable transformation. With the advantages of its famous harbor and the opening of the Erie Canal in 1825, New York became the chief commercial center for the growing nation. As the shipping industry prospered, capital accumulated, and a growing banking center emerged, New York went on to finance the Union cause during the Civil War, open the West to development, and consolidate the national railroad system. The city's energy and opportunity attracted ambitious men from all over the country whose names became synonymous with big business: Vanderbilt, Carnegie, Rockefeller, and Morgan. New York's banks set the interest rates for the nation, its stock exchange fixed the price of securities, its investors transformed American business from family-owned enterprises into modern corporations, and its growing political clout catapulted public figures, such as Samuel Tilden and Teddy Roosevelt, onto the national stage.Combining political and urban history with a colorful cast of characters, Capital City chronicles how Gotham's Gilded Age reshaped the metropolis and the nation as it molded our present-day economy.

In The Capitalist Philosophers, critically acclaimed writer Andrea Gabor tells the epic story of American business through the lives, times, and ideas of the great thinkers who defined the art and science of business. It is a book full of colorful stories and brilliant insights into why the business world is the way it is today. People in business are constantly besieged by supposedly revolutionary ideas. Any company that went on a crash diet in response to the trendy precepts of Reengineering the Corporation felt the enormous impact still exercised by one of the first capitalist philosophers, Frederick Taylor. By going back to the source, Gabor helps businesspeople make smart, informed decisions about the future. she devotes substantial space to people such as Chester Barnard, the president of the old New Jersey Bell Telephone, and Mary Parker Follett, a civic activist, who are frequently forgotten when it comes to compiling lists of people who shaped the way we think about--and do--business today.

One of the major figures in American history, Andrew Carnegie was a ruthless businessman who made his fortune in the steel industry and ultimately gave most of it away. He used his wealth to ascend the world's political stage, influencing the presidencies of Grover Cleveland, William McKinley, and Theodore Roosevelt. In retirement, Carnegie became an avid promoter of world peace, only to be crushed emotionally by World War I. In this compelling biography, Peter Krass reconstructs the complicated life of this titan who came to power in America's Gilded Age. He transports the reader to Carnegie's Pittsburgh, where hundreds of smoking furnaces belched smoke into the sky and the air was filled with acrid fumes . . . and mill workers worked seven-day weeks while Carnegie spent months traveling across Europe. Carnegie explores the contradictions in the life of the man who rose from lowly bobbin boy to build the largest and most profitable steel company in the world. Krass examines how Carnegie became one of the greatest philanthropists ever known-and earned a notorious reputation that history has yet to fully reconcile with his remarkable accomplishments.

From one of America's foremost business historians, a penetrating and engaging look at the qualities that create great
entrepreneurs.Entrepreneurs, even more than inventors, are essential to American business. While inventors produce ideas, entrepreneurs get things done, build the markets, make ideas reality. But what creative talents do the legendary American entrepreneurs share, and what can you learn from them about business success? Using lively character sketches and company stories, University of Rhode Island professor and author Maury Klein analyzes how innovators from Andrew Carnegie to Bill Gates triumphed over perennial challenges in planning and strategy, production, operations, staffing, and sales-and transformed entire industries. Comparing the retailing acumen of J.C. Penney and Wal-Mart's Sam Walton, the organizational ingenuity of Standard Oil's John D. Rockefeller and Citigroup's Sandy Weill, the imaginative marketing of General Motors' Alfred Sloan and MacDonald's Ray Kroc, Klein reveals the art and archetype of successful entrepreneurialism. Moving beyond the clichés, he describes the artistry of great businessmen who build empires and dreams as well as fortunes.

When Mickie Siebert arrived in New York in the mid-1950s, she had $500 in her wallet and drove a used Studebaker. Almost fifty years later she is known as the "First Woman of Finance," the only woman to head a publicly traded national brokerage firm. She tells of her memorable encounters with such legendary figures as Captain Eddie Rickenbacker, the World War I flying ace who ran Eastern Airlines, and Robert Brimberg, the iconoclastic "Scarsdale Fats" whose investing acumen was the envy of the Street. Writing with equal candor about the politics of finance and the finance of politics, Siebert recalls her five years as Superintendent of Banking for New York State — when she helped to prevent a national fiscal crisis during the Iran hostage situation — and her experiences as a pro-choice Republican senatorial candidate. Siebert's reputation for rocking the boat is legendary, and Changing the Rules is both a fascinating biography of a true pioneer, and a valuable strategic and informational tool for anyone who deals with or dabbles in the money game.

Jack Bogle remains one of the titans of the investment world and a hero to the independent investor, as renowned for his influence as he is respected for his accomplishments. Character Counts is the story of how Vanguard was born, why it has flourished, and what leadership principles and management practices fostered its development. Covering the period 1974­2001, the story is told through the dozens of potent and memorable speeches he has given to Vanguard crew members over the years, interspersed with a narrative that provides context and explanation. This "you are there" approach provides new insights into one of the world's most important financial institutions­­and into the mutual fund industry itself. Character Counts paints an indelible portrait of the man Fortune named one of the "four giants of finance" of the 20th century.

Social philosopher Charles Handy is widely regarded as the chief prophet of the modern workplace. Many of his predictions have already come true, including the decline of the traditional organization and job, and the emergence of the portfolio career. In this fascinating volume, Robert Heller reveals the key ideas shaping Charles Handy's radical approach to business management, and presents a series of masterclasses that show how to apply his unique insights. Explore Handy's views on: seeing businesses as communities, the four gods of organizational culture, challenging dogma, making groups work, living by the "doughnut principle", the benefits of a horizontal career, and curing role stress. Supplying lessons from today's most celebrated and successful business thinkers, the Business Masterminds series is perfect for people hoping to advance their careers, make their own businesses grow and prosper, or achieve personal goals. In addition to providing overviews of each leader's most influential writings and speeches, each title is packed with full-color charts, diagrams, and photographs that graphically illustrate complex concepts.

Using previously unreleased archives, Edward J. Renehan Jr. narrates the compelling life of Cornelius Vanderbilt: willful progenitor of modern American business. Vanderbilt made his initial fortune building ferry and cargo routes for sailing vessels. Then he moved into steamboats and railroads. With the New York Central, Vanderbilt established the nation’s first major integrated rail system, linking New York with Boston, Montreal, Chicago, and St. Louis. At the same time, he played a key role in establishing New York as the financial center of the United States. When he died in 1877, Vanderbilt left a fortune that, in today’s dollars, would dwarf that of even Bill Gates. Off Wall Street, Vanderbilt was a hard-drinking egotist and whoremonger devoid of manners or charity. He disinherited most of his numerous children and received an editorial rebuke from Mark Twain for his lack of public giving. Commodore sheds startling new light on many aspects of Vanderbilt’s business and private life including, most notably, the revelation that advanced stage syphilis marred his last years. This is the definitive biography of a man whose influence on American life and commerce towers over all who followed him.

With "Conspiracy of Fools, "Kurt Eichenwald transforms the unbelievable story of the Enron scandal into a rip-roaring narrative of epic proportions, one that is sure to delight readers of thrillers and business books alike, achieving for this new decade what books like "Barbarians at the Gate "and "A Civil Action "accomplished in the 1990's. Written in the roller-coaster style of a novel, the compelling narrative takes readers behind every closed door--from the Oval Office to the executive suites, from the highest reaches of the Justice Department to the homes and bedrooms of the top officers. It is a tale of global reach--from Houston to Washington, from Bombay to London, from Munich to Sao Paolo--laying out the unbelievable scenes that twisted together to create this shocking true story. Eichenwald reveals never-disclosed details of a story that features a cast including George W. Bush, Dick Cheney, Paul O'Neill, Harvey Pitt, Colin Powell, Gray Davis, Arnold Schwarzenegger, Alan Greenspan, Ken Lay, Andy Fastow, Jeff Skilling, Bill Clinton, Rupert Murdoch and Sumner Redstone. With its you-are-there glimpse into the secretive worlds of corporate power, "Conspiracy of Fools" is an all-true financial and political thriller of cinematic proportions.

Introduced in 1960, the first plain-paper office copier is unusual among major high-technology inventions in that its central process was conceived by a single person. Chester Carlson grew up in unspeakable poverty, worked his way through junior college and the California Institute of Technology, and made his discovery in solitude in the depths of the Great Depression. He offered his big idea to two dozen major corporations — among them IBM, RCA, and General Electric — all of which turned him down. So persistent was this failure of capitalistic vision that by the time the Xerox 914 was manufactured, by an obscure photographic-supply company in Rochester, New York, Carlson's original patent had expired. Xerography was so unusual and nonintuitive that it conceivably could have been overlooked entirely. Scientists who visited the drafty warehouses where the first machines were built sometimes doubted that Carlson's invention was even theoretically feasible. Building the first plain-paper office copier — with parts scrounged from junkyards, cleaning brushes made of hand-sewn rabbit fur, and a built-in fire extinguisher — required the persistence, courage, and imagination of an extraordinary group of physicists, engineers, and corporate executives whose story has never before been fully told. Copies in Seconds is a tale of corporate innovation and risk-taking at its very best.

Venture capitalists are the handmaidens of innovation. Operating in the background, they provide the fuel needed to get fledgling companies off the ground--and the advice and guidance that helps growing companies survive their adolescence. In Creative Capital, Spencer Ante tells the compelling story of the enigmatic and quirky man--Georges Doriot--who created the venture capital industry. The author traces the pivotal events in Doriot's life, including his experience as a decorated brigadier general during World War II; as a maverick professor at Harvard Business School; and as the architect and founder of the first venture capital firm, American Research and Development. It artfully chronicles Doriot's business philosophy and his stewardship in startups, such as the important role he played in the formation of Digital Equipment Corporation and many other new companies that later grew to be influential and successful. An award-winning Business Week journalist, Ante gives us a rare look at a man who overturned conventional wisdom by proving that there is big money to be made by investing in small and risky businesses. This vivid portrait of Georges Doriot reveals the rewards that come from relentlessly pursuing what-if possibilities--and offers valuable lessons for business managers and investors alike.

Businessperson, attorney, confidant, and straight man to Buffett’s jokes, father of nine, and self-made billionaire in his own right, Charlie Munger’s career is an inarguable testament to his genius, versatility, loyalty, and famed talent for "cutting through the bull." Buffett himself credits Munger as the person who expanded his horizons by teaching him the value of great franchises and the virtues of qualitative analysis. Yet, as this first-ever book about one of the investment world’s most mysterious, private, and illusive figures reveals, Charlie Munger is far more than the man behind Buffett’s throne. A midwesterner through and through, the Omaha native is living proof that valuable, innovative financial and cultural ideas can and do flow from east to west. Indeed, the Berkshire Hathaway empire’s stature as a model-investment-firm-turned-household-word is a reflection of Director and Vice Chairman Munger’s staunch advocacy for ethical business practices, his brutal honesty, and his perseverance in the face of myriad adversity. Damn Right! offers an unparalleled look at the techniques, tactics, and personal history of one of the foremost thinkers of our time, from his fortuitous connection with Buffett to his evolution as a remarkable strategist, corporate wizard, and exceptional citizen.

Jay Gould was the robber baron’s robber baron: the greatest financial and business genius of his time and also the most widely hated. He could go head-to-head with the likes of J. P. Morgan, Cornelius Vanderbilt, and the U.S. Treasury and almost always outsmart them. Gould was the undisputed master of the nation’s railroads and telegraph systems at a time when these were the fastest-growing new technologies of the age. His scheme to corner the gold market in 1869 caused the Black Friday panic. He created new ways of manipulating markets, assembling capital and swallowing his competitors. Many of these methods are now standard practice; others were unique to their circumstances and unrepeatable; others were among the first practices prohibited by the SEC when it came into being in the 1930s.Acclaimed biographer Edward J. Renehan, Jr., recounts the dazzling life story of a figure whose stature in his era outranks that of Bill Gates. Renehan combines lively anecdotes with the rich social tapestry of the Gilded Age to create the first balanced biography of a man who was undoubtedly the greatest financial genius of his age—and one of the inventors of modern business.

The PC business is full of rags-to-riches stories. But perhaps none is as dramatic as the rise of Dell Computer. In Direct from Dell, founder and CEO Michael Dell tells how he started his company from a dorm room at the University of Texas with less than $1,000 and built it into an industry powerhouse with a market capitalization of well over $100 billion. What makes Dell Computer unique is not what it sells, but rather how it sells it. Dell was first in the PC industry to pioneer the direct-selling model, a method that competitors such as Compaq and Apple Computer are only now starting to embrace. By cutting out the intermediary and creating a direct link between manufacturer and customer, Dell was able to provide customers with computers that cost less and that were more apt to meet customer needs.Direct from Dell is organized into two parts. The first recounts the history and the enormous growth of Dell Computer. The second part focuses on Dell's management approach, from developing customer focus to creating alliances with suppliers. The book manages to avoid most of the promotional and self-congratulatory air that seem to plague so many first-person CEO tomes. Anyone who has followed the PC industry or would like insight into Dell Computer's success should enjoy reading this book. Well written and easy to read.

In Discover Your Inner Economist, one of Americas most respected economists presents a quirky, incisive romp through everyday life that reveals how you can turn economic reasoning to your advantage—-often when you least expect it to be relevant.

"When You Wish Upon a Star," "Whistle While You Work," "The Happiest Place on Earth"-these are lyrics indelibly linked to Disney, one of the most admired and best-known companies in the world. So when Roy Disney, chairman of Walt Disney Animation and nephew of founder Walt Disney, abruptly resigned in November 2003 and declared war on chairman and chief executive Michael Eisner, he sent shock waves through the entertainment industry, corporate boardrooms, theme parks, and living rooms around the world-everywhere Disney does business and its products are cherished. DisneyWar is the breathtaking, dramatic inside story of what drove America's best-known entertainment company to civil war, told by one of our most acclaimed writers and reporters. James B. Stewart gets to the bottom of mysteries that have enveloped Disney for years. DisneyWar is an epic achievement. It tells a story that-in its sudden twists, vivid, larger-than-life characters, and thrilling climax-might itself have been the subject of a Disney animated classic-except that it's all true.

Although there are other reference books about Asian Americans, no other book focuses solely on businesspeople. This collection of engagingly written biographies gives the details on the lives of 96 Asian men and women who have had successful business careers, giving information on their education, training, and career highlights and histories. The book provides valuable information as well as inspiration to students, from high school through university. Each biography concludes with references for further reading, and an appendix lists the people profiled by field of business, from fashion to restaurant franchises, from high technology to the movie industry. Each biography in Distinguished Asian American Business Leaders tells the story of an individual who has worked hard and often surmounted such obstacles as prejudice, learning the English language and American customs, attaining higher education, and working long hours to start a business or succeed in a company. The book is aimed not only at high school and college students but any person interested in how some Asian Americans, from recent immigrant to fourth generation, labored to realize their entrepreneurial and corporate dreams. The stories show that business is rich in creative opportunities that cannot be easily limited to a single management theory.

On the hugely successful hit reality TV show The Apprentice, Donald Trump tells his contenders that location and pricing are supremely significant. But in his own life, there have been other maxims: Do whatever it takes to win. Don't spare the chutzpah. Always use the superlative. Make everything into an advertisement for yourself. Whatever happens, always claim victory. Following these personal commandments, he has turned bragging, self-inflation, and showing off into competitive advantages that have brought him national and international renown. In Donald Trump: Master Apprentice, best-selling author Gwenda Blair recounts a true-life history with more twists and turns than any television producer could possibly imagine. Towering skyscrapers and glittering casinos, a luxury airline and a football-field-size yacht, steamy affairs and bitter lawsuits, near bankruptcy and stormy feuds — all this and more are part of the life of Trump. An adaptation and update of her definitive biography, The Trumps, this new book provides fresh material on Donald Trump's brushes with bankruptcy, mammoth construction projects, and ever-expanding place in American life.

"In the world according to Victor Niederhoffer, life is speculation and we are all speculators, except when we lose - then we are gamblers. We speculate on our careers, relationships, games, and investments. Life-changing decisions hang on our ability to read and anticipate turns of events." "In The Education of a Speculator, Niederhoffer opens the kaleidoscopic story of his life to show how he came to understand these fundamental forces. Offering a way of thinking rather than a "system," this powerful, remarkable book shows us how to speculate and win much more than we ever thought possible." "Niederhoffer shows how, by distilling the lessons of board games, horse racing, and hoodoos, we can achieve the right mental and emotional state before, after, and during a contest. Of course, Niederhoffer's greatest fame (and fortune) is as an extremely successful trader, and here his tips, principles, and methods become most manifest. Niederhoffer establishes the relationship between stampeding elephants and market behavior, explores the use of musical structure as a guide to trading, and dissects the many roles of deception. In The Education of a Speculator, charts of stock prices are followed by pictures of paintings; the advice of cops, crooks, and Nobel scientists are all juxtaposed and synthesized - all in the service of successful speculation and investment."--BOOK JACKET

From his childhood in an Irish vicarage, to Oxford University, to his first job as an oil executive with Royal Dutch/Shell in the Far East, to a professorship at the London Business School, to chairmanship of the Royal Society of Arts, and finally to his current status as an eminent social philosopher and international business guru, Charles Handy has viewed the business and economic workings of the twentieth century inside and out. Now, in the twenty-first century, Handy provides a firsthand account of how we got here and where we are headed. The Elephant and the Flea is a fitting capstone to Handy's brilliant career and colorful life. Handy uses the quirky, powerful metaphor of the elephant and the flea to describe and critique the great shift from the prevalence of behemoth, slow-moving, bureaucratic organizations that provided a lifetime of security and not much freedom or room for creativity, to a world in which we are much more independent and flea-like, flitting from job to job, latching onto elephants when we need to, but mostly flying solo and without safe havens. This book is both a poignant personal memoir and a deep reflection on the past and future of world capitalism, with all its possibilities and pitfalls.

In the spirit of Steve Jobs and Moneyball, Elon Musk is both an illuminating and authorized look at the extraordinary life of one of Silicon Valley's most exciting, unpredictable, and ambitious entrepreneurs--a real-life Tony Stark--and a fascinating exploration of the renewal of American invention and its new "makers." Elon Musk spotlights the technology and vision of Elon Musk, the renowned entrepreneur and innovator behind SpaceX, Tesla, and SolarCity, who sold one of his internet companies, PayPal, for $1.5 billion. Ashlee Vance captures the full spectacle and arc of the genius's life and work, from his tumultuous upbringing in South Africa and flight to the United States to his dramatic technical innovations and entrepreneurial pursuits. Vance uses Musk's story to explore one of the pressing questions of our age: can the nation of inventors and creators who led the modern world for a century still compete in an age of fierce global competition? He argues that Musk--one of the most unusual and striking figures in American business history--is a contemporary, visionary amalgam of legendary inventors and industrialists including Thomas Edison, Henry Ford, Howard Hughes, and Steve Jobs. More than any other entrepreneur today, Musk has dedicated his energies and his own vast fortune to inventing a future that is as rich and far-reaching as the visionaries of the golden age of science-fiction fantasy. Thorough and insightful, Elon Musk brings to life a technology industry that is rapidly and dramatically changing by examining the life of one of its most powerful and influential titans.

In the final decades of the nineteenth century, three brilliant and visionary titans of America’s Gilded Age—Thomas Edison, Nikola Tesla, and George Westinghouse—battled bitterly as each vied to create a vast and powerful electrical empire. In Empires of Light, historian Jill Jonnes portrays this extraordinary trio and their riveting and ruthless world of cutting-edge science, invention, intrigue, money, death, and hard-eyed Wall Street millionaires. At the heart of the story are Thomas Alva Edison, the nation’s most famous and folksy inventor, creator of the incandescent light bulb and mastermind of the world’s first direct current electrical light networks; the Serbian wizard of invention Nikola Tesla, elegant, highly eccentric, a dreamer who revolutionized the generation and delivery of electricity; and the charismatic George Westinghouse, Pittsburgh inventor and tough corporate entrepreneur, an industrial idealist who in the era of gaslight imagined a world powered by cheap and plentiful electricity and worked heart and soul to create it.Empires of Light is the gripping history of electricity, the “mysterious fluid,” and how the fateful collision of Edison, Tesla, and Westinghouse left the world utterly transformed.

This two-volume reference work provides students and general readers easy access to information on African American business leaders, companies, associations, and other business subjects. Written by more than 50 contributors, entries discuss both historical and contemporary figures and topics that help illustrate the occupations and businesses of blacks throughout history. Spanning the early 18th century to the present day, over 200 alphabetically arranged entries describe people and topics related to the history of African American business development, including: Berry O'Kelly, Advertising Agencies, Franklin Delano Raines, National Association of Black Women Entrepreneurs, Oprah Winfrey, Retail Industry, National Alliance of Market Developers, Kenneth Chenault, Spike Lee, Legal Defense and Education Fund, Myrtle Potter, Quincy Jones, Faith-Based Entrepreneurship, Credit Unions, Sylvia Woods, Eddie Murphy, Minority Enterprise Development Week, and more. Primary documents and statistical tables are also included to help display the numerous contributions of blacks in business.

Women have been active in American business since the eighteenth century, and while they have made enormous contributions, they have also had to overcome tremendous obstacles. This encyclopedia chronicles the accomplishments of women in American business since the colonial era and discusses the historical events and issues that have concerned them. The encyclopedia additionally summarizes important legislation and organizations and covers such industries as accounting, advertising, banking, and manufacturing. Quotations from the women profiled capture their experiences in their own words.

Meet Katherine Goddard, owner of a print shop and publisher of the first signed copy of the Declaration of Independence; meet Madam C. J. Walker, whose hair care products brought her from her slave parents' dilapidated cabin to her own Hudson River estate; and meet Katharine Graham, publisher of the Pentagon Papers and owner of the Washington Post Company. These are just three of the diverse women whose lives unfold in this engaging history of women entrepreneurs in America from the colonial era to the end of the twentieth century. Some ran businesses in industries dominated by men, such as iron and aircraft production, while others built businesses that marketed specifically to women, in industries such as beauty, fashion, and food. Despite facing gender discrimination and the burdens of work and family, these women entrepreneurs understood the value of a good idea, were willing to take a risk, and believed in the possibility of the American dream of success.

Many of the entrepreneurs profiled in Enterprising Women will be names you'll recognize, like Mary Kay Ash, Liz Claiborne, Jenny Craig, Donna Karan, Muriel Siebert, and Lillian Vernon. Others may be new to you, such as Julie Brice ("I Can't Believe It's Yogurt"), Vinita Gupta (Digital Link), and Gail Koff (Jacoby & Meyers). But they all share a common and remarkable achievement: Each created or built solid businesses worth at least $10 million in sales or $15 million in market value despite facing unique challenges in starting and sustaining her venture. Entrepreneurs with limited access to capital (a traditional hurdle for women, but one that increasingly applies to men as well) will find these accounts particularly useful. Only five of the subjects Silver profiles launched their businesses with professional venture capital; the rest got off the ground through sweat equity, supplier financing, and/or loans from family and friends.Today, about half of all entrepreneurs in the United States are female; by the year 2000, women entrepreneurs are expected to be in the majority. These are the business-people who are rewriting the rules and taking control of events at critical moments in the histories of their markets. Their candid accounts will inspire any enterprising entrepreneur - male and female alike - to go off and do the same.

A tree expert who made sales calls by strolling through unfamiliar towns and striking up conversations with strangers on the street; a manufacturer of outdoor goods who insisted that his company's label be sewn into all clothing he made for the U.S. Army; a pair of inventors whose new electrical insulation material turned out to be a terrific waterproof laminate for all sorts of household and commercial surfaces: These are just a few of the 500-plus empire builders you'll meet in the Encyclopedia of Entrepreneurs—men and women whose talent, drive, and ingenuity not only made their own dreams come true but also created lasting benefits for their industries, their nation, and, in many cases, the world. This book profiles the most exciting and inspiring American entrepreneurs of the past two centuries, from legendary masters of the business world, such as F. W. Woolworth, Walter Percy Chrysler, and Arthur Andersen, to unsung heroes who sowed the seeds that blossomed into empires. The Encyclopedia of Entrepreneurs is an inspiration for those who wish to follow in the footsteps of giants and a valuable reference for researchers, students, and history buffs.

Karen Southwick’s unauthorized account provides the full story of Larry Ellison’s brilliant, controversial career. Ellison’s drive and fierce ambition created Oracle out of the dust and built it into one of America’s great technology companies, but his unpredictable management style keeps it constantly on the edge of both success and disaster. The hostile bid for PeopleSoft is just the most recent example. With one clever strategic move, Larry Ellison threw much of the business software field into play. The saying “It’s not enough that I succeed, everyone else must fail” has been so often used by or associated with Ellison that most people think it originated with him. It’s actually attributed to Genghis Khan, but it’s a dead-on way to describe not only the way Ellison thinks about competitors but the way he runs Oracle. His weapons are not marauding hordes, but Oracle’s possession of database technology that is crucial for keeping mission-critical information flows working at thousands of organizations, corporations, nonprofits, and government agencies. Everyone Else Must Fail raises the question of whether Oracle’s products and the reliance placed in them by so many are too important to be subject to the whims of one man. While giving credit to Ellison’s brilliance and devotion, the book sounds a warning about an ingenious man’s tendency to be his own company’s worst enemy.

The definitive story of Amazon.com, one of the most successful companies in the world, and of its driven, brilliant founder, Jeff Bezos. Amazon.com started off delivering books through the mail. But its visionary founder, Jeff Bezos, wasnt content with being a bookseller. He wanted Amazon to become the everything store, offering limitless selection and seductive convenience at disruptively low prices. To do so, he developed a corporate culture of relentless ambition and secrecy thats never been cracked. Until now. Brad Stone enjoyed unprecedented access to current and former Amazon employees and Bezos family members, giving readers the first in-depth, fly-on-the-wall account of life at Amazon. Compared to techs other elite innovators--Jobs, Gates, Zuckerberg--Bezos is a private man. But he stands out for his restless pursuit of new markets, leading Amazon into risky new ventures like the Kindle and cloud computing, and transforming retail in the same way Henry Ford revolutionized manufacturing. THE EVERYTHING STORE will be the revealing, definitive biography of the company that placed one of the first and largest bets on the Internet and forever changed the way we shop and read.

In just over five years as president and CEO, John Chambers turned Cisco Systems into the nation's most valuable company, with over $500 billion in market capitalization in 2000. He is being called the next Jack Welch, the corporate chieftain to watch in the 21st century.This is the inside story of Cisco, the company that builds 75 percent of the products used for Internet traffic, and of Chambers, the man who leads one of the technology sector's most profitable and promising enterprises.Robert Slater was the first author to be granted full cooperation from Chambers and other Cisco senior managers, as well as access to private company forums.

For nearly 40 years, Maurice "Hank" Greenberg was one of the most powerful CEOs in America. He built American International Group (AIG) from a second-rate insurer with a great Chinese franchise into one of the world's most profitable companies. But times have certainly changed, and now, in the Second Edition of Fallen Giant, author Ronald Shelp-who worked alongside Greenberg and within the AIG organization for many years-with the help of Al Ehrbar, sheds light on both AIG, the company, and Hank Greenberg, the man. This fully updated Second Edition digs deep to uncover the latest developments for both Greenberg and AIG, such as the many lawsuits underway, including a criminal trial that will send five men-one who still works for Greenberg-to prison. It also chronicles the incredible story of how AIG was rescued by the Fed, and why the government had no choice in the matter.Filled with international intrigue and expert business acumen, the Second Edition of Fallen Giant paints a compelling portrait of both the past successes and current crises of Hank Greenberg and AIG.

From a Nickel to an Empire Before the gut-busting eating contests and franchise stores across the country, there was a single man, Nathan Handwerker. An Eastern European Jewish immigrant who left the small provincial world he knew for a fresh start in America, Nathan arrived at Ellis Island speaking not a word of English, unable to read or write, and with twenty-five dollars hidden in his shoes. He had a simple goal: work hard and carve out a piece of the American dream. But history had bigger plans for Nathan. Beginning in 1916, with just five feet of counter space on Coney Island’s Surf Avenue, Nathan sells his frankfurters for five cents. As New York booms, bringing trains and patrons to the seashore, so too does Nathan’s humble frankfurter stand. Soon Nathan’s Famous takes over the whole block, and Nathan gathers around him a dedicated core of workers (many who stay for decades) who help launch the hot dog as an American food staple. Even as the business soars, Nathan remains fiercely loyal to what matters most: his customers, workers, and family. There’s Ida, the wife he fell in love with because no one could peel an onion faster; Sammy, the counterman who could serve an astonishing sixty franks per minute; and then there are the heirs to the empire, Murray and Sol, whose differing visions for the future lead to clashes with their eternally demanding father. Success brings difficulties, and as the two sons vie over control of the family business, a universal story of success and ambition plays out, mirroring the corporatization of the American food industry. Written by Nathan’s own grandson, and at once a portrait of a man, a family, and the changing face of a nation through a century of promise and progress,Famous Nathanis a dog's tale that snaps and satisfies with every page.

The Father of Spin is the first full-length biography of the legendary Edward L. Bernays, who, beginning in the 1920s, was one of the first and most successful practioners of the art of public relations. Larry Tye uses Bernays's life as a prism to understand the evolution of the craft of public relations and how it came to play such a critical-and sometimes insidious-role in American life. He presents a fascinating and revealing portrait of the man who, more than any other, defined and personified public relations, a profession that today helps shape our political discourse and define our commercial choices."A remarkable look at the spinmeister who helped to invent public relations. Cynical Americans who assume mass manipulation is a relatively new phenomenon will be shocked by the depth of deception exposed here. Meticulously researched by Boston Globe reporter Tye, this biography traces the beginnings of spin early in this century and authoritatively shows Bernays to be the person responsible for most of the tenets governing it today.

Watson describes the origin and development of IBM from the perspective of his own personal development and growth. His relationship with his father, founder of IBM, was stormy, he says, due to his own strong temper and his father's equally strong ego. Watson's descriptions of business dealings are not as technical as those in Emerson W. Pugh's Memories That Shaped an Industry ( LJ 6/1/84) nor as theoretical as Lou Mobley and Kate McKeown's Beyond IBM ( LJ 1/89). Rather, he discusses them by describing the personalities brought in to deal with problems and the ensuing clashes, successes, disasters, etc. He also briefly covers his heart attack in 1970, his departure from IBM, and his tenure as ambassador to the Soviet Union under Jimmy Carter. This book should have wide appeal given the breadth of Watson's activities

When you think of the founding fathers, you think of men like George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, and Benjamin Franklin—exceptional minds and matchless statesmen who led the colonies to a seemingly impossible victory over the British and established the constitutional and legal framework for our democratic government. But the American Revolution was about far more than freedom and liberty. It was about economics as well. Robert E. Wright and David J. Cowen here chronicle how a different group of founding fathers forged the wealth and institutions necessary to transform the American colonies from a diffuse alliance of contending business interests into one cohesive economic superpower. From Alexander Hamilton to Andrew Jackson, the authors focus on the lives of nine Americans in particular—some famous, some unknown, others misunderstood, but all among our nation’s financial founding fathers. Such men were instrumental in creating and nurturing a financial system that drove economic growth in the nascent United States because they were quick to realize that wealth was as crucial as the Constitution in securing the blessings of liberty and promoting the general welfare. The astonishing economic development made possible by our financial founding fathers was indispensable to the preservation of national unity and of support for a government that was then still a profoundly radical and delicate political experiment. Grand in scope and vision, Financial Founding Fathers is an entertaining and inspiring history of the men who made America rich and steered her toward greatness.

A gripping, groundbreaking biography of the combative man whose genius and force of will created modern capitalism. Founder of a dynasty, builder of the original Grand Central, creator of an impossibly vast fortune, Cornelius “Commodore” Vanderbilt is an American icon. Humbly born on Staten Island during George Washington’s presidency, he rose from boatman to builder of the nation’s largest fleet of steamships to lord of a railroad empire. Lincoln consulted him on steamship strategy during the Civil War; Jay Gould was first his uneasy ally and then sworn enemy; and Victoria Woodhull, the first woman to run for president of the United States, was his spiritual counselor. We see Vanderbilt help to launch the transportation revolution, propel the Gold Rush, reshape Manhattan, and invent the modern corporation—in fact, as T. J. Stiles elegantly argues, Vanderbilt did more than perhaps any other individual to create the economic world we live in today.The First Tycoon is the exhilarating story of a man and a nation maturing together: the powerful account of a man whose life was as epic and complex as American history itself.

This is a very carefully researched look at Taylor, the much-misunderstood father of scientific management. Using primary source material, the authors present in a very readable manner a biography/history of both the man and his ideas. Similar to Daniel Nelson's Frederick W. Taylor and the Rise of Scientific Management (Univ. of Wisconsin Pr., 1980), this work shows both that Taylor's ideas have a place in the Information Age and that most of the negative ideas we have about scientific management are not grounded in what Taylor actually did. Even those libraries with Nelson's book will want to purchase this one. Recommended for all business collections.

In the popular imagination, the business media, and the schools of business and management that train new generations of entrepreneurs and executives, achieving extraordinary success in business is attributed to far-sighted individuals who have taken bold risks, provided innovative leadership, and introduced new products, services, or ideas superior to those of the competition. Amid the growing skepticism about the means by which vast amounts of wealth are accumulated and its consequences, however, this belief is long overdue for reevaluation. In From Predators to Icons, Michel Villette, a sociologist, and Catherine Vuillermot, a business historian, examine the careers of thirty-two of today's wealthiest global executives-including Warren Buffett, Ingvar Kamprad, Bernard Arnault, Jim Clark, and Richard Branson-in order to challenge the conventional explanations for their extreme success and come to a better understanding of modern business practices. In contrast to the familiar image of the entrepreneur as a visionary with a plan, Villette and Vuillermot instead discover a far less dramatic process of improvised adaptations gradually assembled into a coherent course of conduct. And rather than being risk-takers, those who are most successful in business are risk-minimizers. Villette and Vuillermot provide revelatory insights about the creation and maintenance of business wealth that will be profitably read by both the captains and the critics of contemporary capitalism.

There are at least two Ralph Laurens. To the public he's a gentle, modest, yet secure and purposeful man. Inside the walls of Polo Ralph Lauren, though, he's seen by some as a narcissist, an insecure ditherer, and, at times, a rampaging tyrant. Michael Gross, author of the bestseller Model, lays bare the truths of this fashion emperor's rise, and reveals not only the secrets of his stunning success in marketing our shared fantasies but also a darker side that's hidden behind the chic patrician façade. Gross did extensive research, and the result is engaging. There are lots of power trips and even a little infidelity, butmostly we read about how Ralphie Lifshitz, a descendant of rabbis, became Ralph Lauren, the definer of the American WASP lifestyle.

This life of George Eastman is the first biography since 1930 of the man who transformed the world of photography. As a 23-year-old bank clerk, Eastman bought his first camera and began simplifying the cumbersome and messy wet-plate process. With only two years' experience, he patented a dry-plate coating machine and began selling photographic plates. Soon, the business was doing so well that he quit his job at the bank and started his own company." "Eastman's success was based in part on his own inventions, but even more on his ability to raise capital, recruit technically skilled employees, sell his own products, and outmaneuver his competitors." "More importantly, Brayer draws a vivid portrait of the man behind the money. His aggressive business personality was a sharp contrast to his personal life: Eastman once joked that it was his goal to take two six-month vacations in a year. He would regularly forsake the office to bicycle around Europe or ride a stagecoach through the snowy trails of Yellowstone Park. He was an art lover, who once bartered 60 shares of Kodak stock in the 1890s for a painting he felt he must have, and a classical music enthusiast, who built a school for the training of virtuosos." "His contributions built a new campus for the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and a new medical school for the University of Rochester. Finally, he became the largest contributor to the education of African Americans during the 1920s and the Tuskeegee Institute's most important benefactor.--BOOK JACKET

Published in 1964, My Years with General Motors was an immediate best-seller and today is considered one of the few classic books on management. The book is the ghostwritten memoir of Alfred P. Sloan, Jr. (1875-1966), whose business and management strategies enabled General Motors to overtake Ford as the dominant American automobile manufacturer in the 1920s and 1930s. What has been largely unknown until now is that My Years with General Motors was almost not published. Although it was written with the permission of General Motors—and slated for publication in October 1959—at the last minute General Motors tried to suppress the book out of fears that some of the material in it could become evidence in an antitrust action against the company. This book, by John McDonald, Sloan's ghostwriter, tells the behind-the-scenes story of the book's writing, its attempted suppression, and the lawsuit that eventually led to its publication. McDonald's struggle to publish the book led him to navigate a complicated course among the competing interests of General Motors, Fortune magazine (his employer), and Time, Inc. (Fortune's owner). In many ways this "book about the book" parallels the Sloan book as a tale of successful, brilliantly planned strategy.

Business historian Tedlow (Harvard Business School) presents seven magnates in a historical context that reflects the growth of the United States as an economic power from the mid-1800s to the latter part of the 20th century. Presenting biographical essays divided chronologically into three sections, he first discusses Andrew Carnegie (U.S. Steel), George Eastman (Kodak), and Henry Ford (automobiles) and their contributions to the emergence of America as an economic force. The founding of IBM by Thomas Watson Sr. in 1924 and Revlon by Charles Revson in 1932 are then used to highlight technological leadership and marketing, respectively. The leadership, management, and determination of Robert Noyce (Intel) and Sam Walton (WalMart) demonstrate the success of entrepreneurs in recent times. Each essay concerns the central figure and his contribution, personal attributes and faults, family, close associates, and a history of the specific industry and American society at the time.

As president of the World Bank for a decade, James Wolfensohn tackled world poverty with a passion and energy that made him a uniquely important figure in a fundamental arena of change. Using a lifetime of experience in the banking sector, he carved a distinct path in Asia, Africa, Latin America, and Europe for the institution that serves as the major lender to the world's poor. In A Global Life, Wolfensohn tells his astonishing life story in his own words. A man of surpassing imagination and drive, he became an Olympic fencer and a prominent banker in London and New York. An Australian, he navigated Wall Street with uncommon skill. Chairman of Carnegie Hall and the Kennedy Center for many years, he is also an amateur cellist. But it was his tenure at the World Bank that made him an international force. While at the helm of this controversial institution, Wolfensohn motivated, schemed, charmed, and bullied all the constituencies at his command to broaden the distribution of the world's wealth. Now he bluntly assesses his successes and failures, reflecting on the causes of continuing poverty.

Today, people remember Asa Candler for his part in founding The Coca-Cola Company and beginning that product's phenomenal success, but he also was successful in real estate development and in banking. His interests made him one of the richest men in the early twentieth-century South." "His sense of duty led to his support of many undertakings of the Southern Methodist Church. Advised by his brother Warren, a bishop in that denomination, Asa wrote a million-dollar check to finance the establishment of Emory University in Atlanta, where young men would be prepared for the ministry. Throughout his life, Candler made gifts and loans to encourage the well-being of his denomination, his city, and his state. At the end of his life, he had given away his entire fortune." By following Asa Candler's life, readers have a unique opportunity to visit Atlanta during one of the most critical times in its development, and to see it through the eyes of one of Atlanta's "movers and shakers."

Ayn Rand was a powerful thinker whose views on government and markets shaped the conservative movement from its earliest days. Jennifer Burns offers a groundbreaking reassessment of this key cultural figure, examining her life, her ideas, and her impact on conservative political thought. Goddess of the Market follows Rand from her childhood in Russia through her meteoric rise from struggling Hollywood screenwriter to bestselling novelist, including the writing of her wildly successful The Fountainhead and Atlas Shrugged. Burns highlights the two facets of Rand's work that make her a perennial draw for those on the right: her promotion of capitalism, and her defense of limited government. Both sprang from her early, bitter experience of life under Communism, and became among the most deeply enduring of her messages, attracting a diverse audience of college students and intellectuals, business people and Republican Party activists, libertarians and conservatives. The book also traces the development of Rand's Objectivist philosophy and her relationship with Nathaniel Branden, her closest intellectual partner. This extraordinary book captures the life of the woman who was a tireless champion of capitalism and the freedom of the individual, and whose ideas are still devoured by eager students, debated on blogs, cited by political candidates, and promoted by corporate tycoons.

The inspiring story of the woman at the center of the historic discrimination case that inspired the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Restoration Act--her fight for equal rights in the workplace, and how her determination became a victory for the nationLilly Ledbetter always knew that she was destined for something more than what she was born into--a house with no running water or electricity in the small town of Possum Trot, Alabama. In 1979, when Lilly applied for her dream job at the Goodyear tire factory, she got the job--one of the first women hired at the management level. Nineteen years after her first day at Goodyear, Lilly received an anonymous note revealing that she was making thousands less per year than the men in her position. and and and and  When she filed a sex-discrimination case against Goodyear, Lilly won--and then heartbreakingly lost on appeal. Over the next eight years, her case made it all the way to the Supreme Court, where she lost again. But Lilly continued to fight, and became the namesake of Barack Obamaand#39;s first official piece of legislation as president. A winning memoir and a powerful call to arms, Grace and Grit is the story of a true American icon.

This title presents the epic struggle between a father and son and the building of a worldwide business empire. In this retelling of the story of the rise of Ford Motors, journalist Richard Bak offers a daring new perspective on the human drama that helped shape one of the world's great business empires. No dry corporate history, Henry and Edsel focuses on the epic battle of wills between the unyielding Henry Ford, his gifted son Edsel, and his 'second son,' the brutal and insidious Harry Bennet who rose from barroom brawler to become Henry's heir apparent.Bak dispels the common misperception of Edsel Ford as a weak and ineffectual manager, and explains that it was in fact Edsel's level-headedness and imaginative business solutions and that allowed the company to survive the many challenges to its survival in the first half of the twentieth century. Timed to coincide with the 100th anniversary celebration of Ford Motor Company, Henry and Edsel is sure to be warmly received by history buffs and business readers.

Hershey. The name means chocolate to America and the world, but as Michael D'Antonio reveals, it also stands for an inspiring man and a uniquely successful experiment in community and capitalism that produced a business empire devoted to a higher purpose. One of the twentieth century's most eccentric and idealistic titans of industry, Milton S. Hershey brought affordable milk chocolate to America, creating and then satisfying the chocoholic urges of millions. He pioneered techniques of branding, mass production, and marketing, and gained widespread fame as the Chocolate King. But as he developed massive factories, Cuban sugar plantations, and a vacation wonderland called Hershey Park, M.S. never lost sight of a grander goal. Determined that his wealth produce a lasting legacy, he tried to create perfect places where his workers could live, perfect schools for their children, and a perfect charity to salvage the lives of needy children in perpetuity.Remarkable as Hershey was, his legacy is even more powerful. It includes the $8 billion Hershey Trust (the single largest private fund for children in the world), an idyllic company town in central Pennsylvania, and a corporation that proves that the ideals of community and commerce can lead to profit. This first-ever, major biography of an American icon paints a vivid picture of what Milton S. Hershey accomplished as the ultimate progressive businessman. He was a gambler, raconteur, despot, and servant. And he stands as a rare, and perhaps unique, example of ambition, altruism, ego, and humility.

When J. P. Morgan called a meeting of New York's financial leaders after the stock market crash of 1907, Hetty Green was the only woman in the room. The Guinness Book of World Records memorialized her as the World's Greatest Miser, and, indeed, this unlikely robber baron -- who parlayed a comfortable inheritance into a fortune that was worth about 1.6 billion in today's dollars -- was frugal to a fault. But in an age when women weren't even allowed to vote, never mind concern themselves with interest rates, she lived by her own rules. In Hetty, Charles Slack reexamines her life and legacy, giving us, at long last, a splendidly "nuanced portrait" (Newsweek) of one of the greatest -- and most eccentric -- financiers in American history. This P.S. edition features an extra 16 pages of insights into the book, including author interviews, recommended reading, and more.

No longer the banking force it formerly was, the Warburg name belongs to historians now. Ron Chernow chronicled the clan in The Warburgs (1993), and here the notable economic historian Ferguson (The Ascent of Money, 2008) depicts Siegmund Warburg (1902–82), who in his prime was the most important and influential member of the family. Verbose for someone trained in accountancy, Warburg amassed written opinions about virtually everything, furnishing Ferguson with an abundance of source material that he synthesizes with a practiced hand. Throughout his life, Warburg was never passionately interested in money. His early aspiration for an academic or political career was thwarted by the Nazi ascendance in his native Germany. Warburg immigrated to London, where, from the platform of his reestablished banking business, he involved himself in intelligence during WWII and in proffering advice to Labour Party politicians afterward. Sketching in the bibliophilic Warburg's intellectual interests, Ferguson's comprehensive biography ably integrates the private, public, financial, and philosophical facets of Siegmund Warburg's character.

This encyclopedia contains the biographies of over 100 women, from Clara Barton to Oprah Winfrey, who come from diverse backgrounds, races, age groups, ethnicities, religious backgrounds, and geographic locations. From 1776 to the present, these women have initiated organizations; taken human, physical, and financial risk in these endeavors; and have had an economic impact locally, regionally, nationally, and internationally. This, by definition, makes them entrepreneurs, the same as their male counterparts. However, many of the women have been unacknowledged by recorded history. This book, therefore, adds women's entrepreneurial stories to the historical record and provides a resource to researchers and educators in the fields of entrepreneurship, business, management, sociology, economics, and women's studies. It also will be of interest to young women—potential entrepreneurs—seeking role models for their own endeavors in the free enterprise system of the United States.

Crisafulli has accomplished a major feat: gleaning the lessons-to-be-learned from the life thus far of Jamie Dimon, a man of extraordinary talent, rock-solid philosophy of life, and boundless energy, as well as capturing the essence of many of the financial industry's key personalities, explaining in layman's terms the financial instruments, environment, and events of the last two decades. She has done it all in a fast-paced page-turner. The book illustrates principles we'd all benefit from living by. If you care about what it takes to be a successful CEO in the most complicated market ever, you will want to read The House of Dimon. Patricia Crisafulli has captured the growth and development of one of the most outstanding CEOs of our time.

The House of Klein for the first time tells the inside story of the rise of a fashion legend and the mammoth empire he built. Calvin Klein is the world's most well-known (and successful) fashion designer and has created one of the most recognizable brands in existence, but the tale of his ascendancy to the top of the fashion industry has never been fully told.This book offers an informed, insider's account of the defining moments of a fashion legend's life, a life circumscribed by personal and professional struggle. Fashion writer Lisa Marsh pulls no punches in presenting the true story of this mammoth of the clothing industry, complete with corporate battles, lawsuits, petty personal vendettas and backroom dealings. Marsh reveals the underbelly of the glittering world of high fashion-a world characterized not so much by beautiful people and wild parties, as it is by money and power, above all else. The House of Klein brings to life this compelling figure through the author's own research and interviews with the man himself, as well as with other figures in the industry-such as Isaac Mizrahi-who finally come clean about the man behind the brand.

The winner of the National Book Award and now considered a classic, The House of Morgan is the most ambitious history ever written about an American banking dynasty. Acclaimed by The Wall Street Journal as "brilliantly researched and written," the book tells the rich, panoramic story of four generations of Morgans and the powerful, secretive firms they spawned. It is the definitive account of the rise of the modern financial world. A gripping history of banking and the booms and busts that shaped the world on both sides of the Atlantic, The House of Morgan traces the trajectory of the J. P. Morgan empire from its obscure beginnings in Victorian London to the crash of 1987. Ron Chernow paints a fascinating portrait of the private saga of the Morgans and the rarefied world of the American and British elite in which they moved. Based on extensive interviews and access to the family and business archives, The House of Morgan is an investigative masterpiece, a compelling account of a remarkable institution and the men who ran it, and an essential book for understanding the money and power behind the major historical events of the last 150 years.

Anyone interested in finance, European history or the rise of one spectacularly successful Jewish family will find the first volume of this history of the Rothschilds spellbinding. Equipped with unprecedented access to pre-1915 Rothschild archives, Oxford historian Ferguson begins the family history with Frankfurt merchant Mayer Amschel, but the real story starts with the arrival of the most capable of his sons, Nathan Mayer, in England 200 years ago. Each of Mayer's five sons was located in different cities--Paris, London, Vienna, Naples and Frankfurt. Combined with a mandated unity that kept the brothers remarkably close while excluding daughters, in-laws and strangers, this geographic dispersal gave the family's financial firm an unbeatable edge, despite Mayer's sons being of unequal competence. N.M. Rothschild is the one Ferguson chooses as his protagonist (his great-great-grandson suggested the project to the author). It was largely because of this Finanzbonaparte that from 1815 on, the Rothschilds were everywhere part of Europe--they dominated the international bond market; bought and sold commodities such as cotton, tobacco, sugar, and mercury; and influenced Metternich, Queen Victoria, Gladstone and Disraeli. Ferguson not only does a brilliant job of depicting this far-flung family but he also manages to offer an amazing insider's look at the financial, political and military aspects of early 19th-century European life. His exhaustive study surpasses anything about the Rothschilds to date.

Niall Ferguson's House of Rothschild: Money's Prophets 1798-1848 was hailed as a "great biography" by Time magazine and named one of the ten best books of 1998 by Business Week. Now, with all the depth, clarity, and drama with which he traced their ascent, Ferguson -- the first historian with access to long-lost Rothschild family archives -- continues and concludes his myth-breaking portrait of one of the most fascinating and powerful families of modern times. From Crimea to World War II, wars repeatedly threatened the stability of the Rothschilds' worldwide empire. Despite these many global upheavals, theirs remained the biggest bank in the world up until the First World War, their interests extending far beyond the realm of finance. Yet the Rothschilds' failure to establish themselves successfully in the United States proved fateful, and as financial power shifted from London to New York after 1914, their power waned. At once a classic family saga and a major work of economic, social, and political history, The House of Rothschild is the definitive biography of one of the most powerful firms of the nineteenth century and the riveting story of an exceptional family.

Versace. The very name conjures up images of outrageous glamour and bold sexuality, opulence and daring. Versace is also the legacy of a great creative genius from a poor, backward part of southern Italy who transformed the fashion world through his intuitive understanding of both women and how a changing culture influenced the way they wanted to dress. The first book in English about the legendary designer, House of Versace shows how Gianni Versace, with his flamboyant sister Donatella at his side, combined his virtuosic talent and extraordinary ambition to almost single-handedly create the celebrity culture we take for granted today. Ball vividly recounts the behind-the scenes struggles – both creative and business – of Donatella as she stepped out of her brother’s long shadow and took control of the House of Versace. The book offers the first inside look at the enormous challenges Donatella faced in living up to Gianni’s genius, her struggle with a drug habit, her battles with her brother Santo and the mystery of why Gianni left control of his house to Donatella’s young daughter, Allegra. Bringing together fashion, celebrity, business drama, jet-set lifestyles, and a notorious crime, House of Versace is an old-fashioned page-turner about a subject of enduring fascination.

David Packard's The HP Way provides insights into managing and motivating people and inspiration for would–be entrepreneurs. This bestselling classic joins the Collins Business Essentials line–up with a new Note from Steve Jobs. From a one–car–garage company to a multibillion–dollar industry, the rise of Hewlett–Packard is an extraordinary tale of vision, innovation and hard work. Conceived in 1939, Hewlett–Packard earned success not only as a result of its engineering know–how and cutting–edge product ideas, but also because of the unique management style it developed – a way of doing things called 'the HP way'. Decades before today's creative management trends, Hewlett–Packard invented such strategies as 'walk–around management', 'flextime', and 'quality cycles'. For entrepreneurs and managers alike, the wisdom found in these pages is invaluable if they want their businesses to gain steady growth and consistent success.

From the acclaimed popular historian Richard Snow comes a fresh and entertaining account of Henry Ford and his invention of the Model T--the ugly, cranky, invincible machine that defined twentieth-century America. In the early twentieth century the agent of creative destruction was the gasoline engine, as put to work by an unknown and relentlessly industrious young man named Henry Ford. Growing up as a Michigan farm boy with a bone-deep loathing of farming, Ford intuitively saw the advantages of internal combustion. Resourceful and fearless, he built his first gasoline engine out of scavenged industrial scraps. It was the size of a sewing machine. From there, scene by scene, Richard Snow vividly shows Ford using his innate mechanical abilities, hard work, and radical imagination as he transformed American industry. Richard Snow masterfully weaves together a fascinating narrative of Ford's rise to fame through his greatest invention, the Model T. When Ford first unveiled this car, it took twelve and a half hours to build one. A little more than a decade later, it took exactly one minute. In making his car so quickly and so cheaply that his own workers could easily afford it, Ford created the cycle of consumerism that we still inhabit. Our country changed in a mere decade, and Ford became a national hero. But then he soured, and the benevolent side of his character went into an ever-deepening eclipse, even as the America he had remade evolved beyond all imagining into a global power capable of producing on a vast scale not only cars, but airplanes, ships, machinery, and an infinity of household devices. "I Invented the Modern Age "shows Richard Snow at the height of his powers as a popular historian and reclaims from history Henry Ford, the remarkable man who, indeed, invented the modern world as we know it.

During his 21-year tenure as chairman and chief executive of General Electric, Jack Welch redefined business culture in America and across the globe. In Jack: Straight from the Gut, the first book ever written by GE's legendary CEO, you'll find out how a chemical engineer impatient with bureaucracy took a solidly prosperous company and remade it into an extremely profitable, aggressive, value-oriented business that serves as a model for executives from New York to New Delhi. Always enlightening and informative, Jack: Straight from the Gut offers us an invaluable look into the mind of the man whom Business Week calls "the most impressive CEO of his time." Although Welch doesn't portray himself as General Electric's savior (throughout the book, he generously acknowledges the contributions of his colleagues, thereby remaining true to his vision of team spirit), his book is essential reading for businesspeople and for anyone else who wants to understand the principles by which companies should be run.

During his 21-year tenure as chairman and chief executive of General Electric, Jack Welch redefined business culture in America and across the globe. In Jack: Straight from the Gut, the first book ever written by GE's legendary CEO, you'll find out how a chemical engineer impatient with bureaucracy took a solidly prosperous company and remade it into an extremely profitable, aggressive, value-oriented business that serves as a model for executives from New York to New Delhi. Always enlightening and informative, Jack: Straight from the Gut offers us an invaluable look into the mind of the man whom Business Week calls "the most impressive CEO of his time." Although Welch doesn't portray himself as General Electric's savior (throughout the book, he generously acknowledges the contributions of his colleagues, thereby remaining true to his vision of team spirit), his book is essential reading for businesspeople and for anyone else who wants to understand the principles by which companies should be run.

Charley Ellis has written a magnificent portrait, capturing the indomitable spirit of Joe Wilson and his instinctive understanding of the need for and commercial usefulness of a transforming imaging technology. Joe Wilson and his extraordinary team epitomized the wonderful observation of George Bernard Shaw who said, 'Some look at things that are, and ask why' I dream of things that never were and ask why not?' Xerox and xerography are not only a part of our vocabulary, but part of our everyday life. Charley Ellis gives the reader a poignant understanding of just how this happened through the life, adventures, critical business decisions, and dreams of Joseph Wilson and a cadre of remarkable individuals. This book will surely join the library of memorable biographies that capture the building of America into a risk-tolerant, technologically sophisticated, idea-oriented society that thrives by understanding what Charles Darwin really said: 'Survival will be neither to the strongest of the species, nor to the most intelligent, but to those most adaptable to change.'"

American history is littered with millionaires, but most of those magnates focused on a particular arena of commerce. Carnegie found his fortune in steel, Rockefeller got rich in oil, and banker extraordinaire J. P. Morgan made his money from, well, money. The nation's first millionaire, though, liked to have his fingers in many pots. John Jacob Astor started out his business career by unloading, of all things, a bag of flutes, but he would eventually move on to dabble in furs, tea, liquor, opium, and even Manhattan real estate. In John Jacob Astor: America's First Multimillionaire, acclaimed biographer Axel Madsen offers an entertaining and insightful look at a lucrative life and, at the same time, explores the rise of big business in America.

In 1997, Steve Jobs returned to Apple as CEO with the unenviable task of turning around the company he had founded. One night, Jobs discovered a scruffy British designer toiling away at Apple’s corporate headquarters, surrounded by hundreds of sketches and prototypes. It was then that Jobs realized he had found a talent who could reverse the company’s long decline. That young designer was Jony Ive. His collaboration with Jobs would produce some of the world's most iconic technology products including the iMac,iPod, iPad, and iPhone. Leander Kahney, the bestselling author of Inside Steve’s Brain, offers a detailed portrait of a creative genius. He shows us how Jony Ive went from an English art school student with dyslexia to the man whose immense insights have altered the pattern of our lives. This book gives insight into how Jony Ive (now senior vice president of design) has redefined the ways in which we work, entertain, and communicate with one another.

How He Traveled With Van Amberg's Circus; Made A Fortune In Contraband Cotton, Lost It In Wall Street, Joined Jay Gould In Capturing The Erie Railroad, Fought Commodore Vanderbilt To A Draw, Exposed The Credit Mobilier, Ruined Daniel Drew, Ran The Fall River Line As Admiral, Organized And Put Through The Gold Panic And The Disaster Of Black Friday, Brought French Opera Bouffe To America, Became Colonel Of The Ninth Regiment, Fell In Love And Was Murdered By His Bosom Friend Edward S. Stokes.

Lawyer, judge, banker, classics professor, and councilman, Thomas Mellon greatly influenced the fortunes of his hometown, Pittsburgh, throughout the nineteenth century. In the process, he became one of the city's most important business leaders, and he laid the foundation for a family that would contribute considerably to the city's growth and welfare for much of the next hundred years, becoming one of the world's most recognizable names in industry, innovation, and philanthropy. Through his in-depth examination of the extensive Mellon family archives, in The Judge James Mellon—a direct descendent of Thomas Mellon—has fashioned an incisive portrait of the elder Mellon that presents the man in full. Offering a singular and insightful characterization of the Scotch-Irish value system that governed the patriarch's work and life, James Mellon captures the judge's complexities and contradictions, revealing him as a truly human figure. Among the recent biographies of Pittsburgh's famous businessmen, The Judge stands apart from the pack because of the author's unique perspective and his objective and scholarly approach to his subject.

Julian Robertson is one of the most successful and well-known hedge fund managers of our time. For nearly twenty years his infamous fund—Tiger Management—was the talk of the town, routinely delivering double-digit performance. This biography will explore this legendary fund manager's role in the development and popularity of hedge funds, examine his investment methodology and strategy, and look at the growth of his fund and his 'Tigers'—individuals who have gone on to great success themselves.

In this richly revealing biography of a major, but little-known, American businessman and philanthropist, Peter Ascoli brings to life a portrait of Julius Rosenwald, the man and his work. The son of first-generation German Jewish immigrants, Julius Rosenwald, known to his friends as "JR," apprenticed for his uncles, who were major clothing manufacturers in New York City. It would be as a men's clothing salesperson that JR would make his fateful encounter with Sears, Roebuck and Company, which he eventually fashioned into the greatest mail order firm in the world. He also founded Chicago's Museum of Science and Industry. And in the American South Rosenwald helped support the building of the more than 5,300 schools that bore his name. Yet the charitable fund he created during World War I went out of existence in 1948 at his expressed wish. Ascoli provides a fascinating account of Rosenwald's meteoric rise in American business, but he also portrays a man devoted to family and with a desire to help his community that led to a lifelong devotion to philanthropy. Ascoli's account of Rosenwald is an inspiring story of hard work and success, and of giving back to the nation in which he prospered.

In 1947, "Made in Japan" suggested cheap trinkets. Today, Americans feel exactly the opposite about this phrase, owing in no small part to its influence in the work of Joseph M. Juran. Born in 1904, Juran has an extraordinary intensity, and his prescience about quality has established worldwide respect for his consulting, teaching, and especially writing. Butman, coauthor of the PBS special An Immigrant's Life, based on Juran's life, depends heavily on Juran's extensive personal involvement in this first, only, and uncritical authorized biography. Butman describes numerous details of Juran's life, from his early years of dire poverty in Romania, the family's trek to Minnesota, his academic proficiency and expertise in chess, and his early career with Western Electric. Juran's abundant works are considered fundamental references for anyone interested in better understanding how best to integrate principles of quality into an organization. Although a little more perspective would have been welcome, Juran is important enough to make this work essential for all academic libraries.

For more than twenty years Katharine Graham was a self-described "doormat wife." But after her husband's suicide, she took over as publisher and CEO of The Washington Post and shocked the male executives who bet against her success. She defied the government by publishing the Pentagon Papers, took on the president in the Watergate investigation, and stood down a violent labor strike. Through every challenge she stuck by her values, building a diverse, profitable, and much-admired company. Perceptive and thought provoking, Katharine Graham provides a wealth of lessons for anyone moving up the leadership ladder. It's also a deeply inspiring and hopeful book, offering women who continue to face sexism in the workplace a model for personal triumph.

As the stock market crash of 1929 plunged the world into turmoil, two men emerged with competing claims on how to restore balance to economies gone awry. John Maynard Keynes, the mercurial Cambridge economist, believed that government had a duty to spend when others would not. He met his opposite in a little-known Austrian economics professor, Freidrich Hayek, who considered attempts to intervene both pointless and potentially dangerous. The battle lines thus drawn, Keynesian economics would dominate for decades and coincide with an era of unprecedented prosperity, but conservative economists and political leaders would eventually embrace and execute Hayek's contrary vision. From their first face-to-face encounter to the heated arguments between their ardent disciples, Nicholas Wapshott here unearths the contemporary relevance of Keynes and Hayek, as present-day arguments over the virtues of the free market and government intervention rage with the same ferocity as they did in the 1930s.

When CNN Money called Citigroup CEO Sandy Weill "perhaps the top corporate dealmaker of the modern era," they weren't indulging in journalistic hyperbole. Commentators who believed that Weill had culminated his career with the gargantuan 1998 merger of Travelers and Citibank were startled anew by his $31 billion purchase of Associates First Capital Corp. in 2000. Of the latter mega-buy, one analyst cooed, "The acquisition just fits in every facet. The most interesting thing is nobody else is looking at this sector. It's an absolute coup on Citigroup's part." What makes Sandy deal and why he's so good at it have been hot topics for years in business circles. King of Capital tells his story, explaining how a bullied Bensonhurst kid became the brains behind one of the world's largest conglomerates.

The untold story of Steve Schwarzman and Blackstone, the financier and his financial powerhouse that avoided the self-destructive tendencies of Wall Street. David Carey and John Morris show how Blackstone (and other private equity firms) transformed themselves from gamblers, hostile-takeover artists, and ‘barbarians at the gate’ into disciplined, risk-conscious investors.The financial establishment-banks and investment bankers such as Citigroup, Bear Stearns, Lehman, UBS, Goldman Sachs, Merrill Lynch, Morgan Stanley-were the cowboys, recklessly assuming risks, leveraging up to astronomical levels and driving the economy to the brink of disaster.Blackstone is now ready to break out once again since it is sitting on billions of dollars
that can be invested at a time when the market is starved for capital.

Famous for his colorful personality and formidable intellect, David Ogilvy left an indelible mark on the advertising world, transforming it from a disreputable business into a dynamic industry full of passionate, creative individuals. This biography is based on a wealth of material from the author’s decades of working alongside the advertising giant, including a large collection of photos, memos, recordings, notes, and extensive archives of Ogilvy’s personal papers. This biography is based on a wealth of material from decades of working alongside the advertising giant, including a large collection of photos, memos, recordings, notes, and extensive archives of Ogilvy’s personal papers. The book describes the creation of some of history's most famous advertising campaigns.

The history of Krupp is the history of modern Germany. No company symbolized the best and worst of that history more than the famous steel and arms maker. In this book, Harold James tells the story of the Krupp family and its industrial empire between the early nineteenth century and the present, and analyzes its transition from a family business to one owned by a nonprofit foundation. Krupp founded a small steel mill in 1811, which established the basis for one of the largest and most important companies in the world by the end of the century. Famously loyal to its highly paid workers, it rejected an exclusive focus on profit, but the company also played a central role in the armament of Nazi Germany and the firm's head was convicted as a war criminal at Nuremberg. Yet after the war Krupp managed to rebuild itself and become a symbol of Germany once again--this time open, economically successful, and socially responsible. Books on Krupp tend to either denounce it as a diabolical enterprise or celebrate its technical ingenuity. In contrast, James presents a balanced account, showing that the owners felt ambivalent about the company's military connection even while becoming more and more entangled in Germany's aggressive politics during the imperial era and the Third Reich. By placing the story of Krupp and its owners in a wide context, James also provides new insights into the political, social, and economic history of modern Germany.

In the midst of the most disastrous economic climate of Wall Street’s history, one executive has weathered the storm more deftly than any other: Jamie Dimon, chairman and CEO of JPMorgan Chase. In 2008, while Dimon’s competitors watched their companies crumble, JPMorgan not only survived, it made an astonishing $5 billion profit. Dimon’s continued triumph in the face of an industry-wide meltdown has made him a paragon of finance. In Last Man Standing, award-winning journalist Duff McDonald provides an unprecedented and deeply personal look at the extraordinary figure behind JPMorgan’s success. Using countless hours of interviews with Dimon and his full circle of friends, family, and colleagues, this definitive biography is by far the most comprehensive portrait of the man known as the Savior of Wall Street. Now, in an updated prologue, McDonald offers insight into the future of Wall Street and how Dimon will overcome the challenge of aggressive new regulation from Washington—and how he plans to continue to thrive as the world’s preeminent banker.

A Holocaust survivor, Leo Melamed had barely begun the first grade in 1939 when he and his parents fled their native Poland one step ahead of the oncoming Nazi juggernaut. Crossing Siberia en route to a brief stay in Japan - just months before Pearl Harbor - the family arrived in the United States to begin life anew. They settled in Chicago, where young Leo became a product of the inner city and embraced his new country and its culture." "Seeking part-time employment while attending law school, Leo Melamed answered a classified ad that would change his life. Hired by what he presumed was a law firm named Merrill, Lynch, Pierce, Fenner & Bean, he found himself on the floor of the Chicago Mercantile Exchange. "I was Alice stepping through the Looking Glass into a world of not just one Mad Hatter, but hundreds. The shouting among the traders, the movement of their bodies and hands, captivated me like nothing before ... there was a life force on that floor that was magical and exciting, and though I didn't understand what was going on, I wanted to be a part of it. From modest beginnings as a pork belly trader, he led the Chicago Merc for the next quarter of a century, introducing finance to an industry that was the exclusive domain of agriculture. As his reputation as a financial genius grew, so did the tales of his larger-than-life personality. In Leo Melamed: Escape to the Futures, you'll meet the man behind the legend."--BOOK JACKET

As described by Lewis, liar's poker is a game played in idle moments by workers on Wall Street, the objective of which is to reward trickery and deceit. With this as a metaphor, Lewis describes his four years with the Wall Street firm Salomon Brothers, from his bizarre hiring through the training program to his years as a successful bond trader. Lewis illustrates how economic decisions made at the national level changed securities markets and made bonds the most lucrative game on the Street. His description of the firm's personalities and of the events from 1984 through the crash of October 1987 are vivid and memorable.

Many of us take it as a given that the Great Depression - the consequences of which reverberated for decades, crippling the future of an entire generation and setting the stage for WWII - resulted from a confluence of inexorable forces beyond any one person or government's control. In fact, as erudite economist Liaquat Ahamed explains, it was the decisions taken by a small number of central bankers that were the primary cause of the economic meltdown. "In Lords of Finance", we meet the neurotic and enigmatic Montagu Norman of the Bank of England; the xenophobic and suspicious Emile Moreau of the Banque de France; the arrogant yet brilliant Hjalmar Schacht of the Reichsbank; and the dynamic Benjamin Strong of the New York Federal Reserve Bank. These four men were as prominent in their time as Alan Greenspan, Hank Paulson and Mervyn King are today, but their names were lost to history, their story untold, until now. As yet another period of economic turmoil makes headlines today, the Great Depression and the year 1929 remain the benchmark for true financial mayhem. Offering a new understanding of the origins and global nature of financial crises, "Lords of Finance" a timely and arresting reminder that individuals - their ambitions, limitations and human nature - lie at the very heart of global catastrophe.

NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER *  A revelatory journey inside the world of Fox News and Roger Ailes--the brash, sometimes combative network head who helped fuel the rise of Donald Trump When Rupert Murdoch enlisted Roger Ailes to launch a cable news network in 1996, American politics and media changed forever. With a remarkable level of detail and insight, New York magazine reporter Gabriel Sherman puts Ailes's unique genius on display, along with the outsize personalities--Bill O'Reilly, Sean Hannity, Megyn Kelly, Sarah Palin, Karl Rove, Glenn Beck, Mike Huckabee, Gretchen Carlson, and others--who have helped Fox News play a defining role in the great social and political controversies of the past two decades. From the Clinton-Lewinsky scandal to the Bush-Gore recount, from the war in Iraq to the Tea Party attack on the Obama presidency, Roger Ailes developed an unrivaled power to sway the national agenda. Even more, he became the indispensable figure in conservative America and the man any Republican politician with presidential aspirations had to court. How did this man become the master strategist of our political landscape? In revelatory detail, Sherman chronicles the rise of Ailes, a frail kid from an Ohio factory town who, through sheer willpower, the flair of a showman, fierce corporate politicking, and a profound understanding of the priorities of middle America, built the most influential television news empire of our time. Drawing on hundreds of interviews with Fox News insiders past and present, Sherman documents Ailes's tactical acuity as he battled the press, business rivals, and countless real and perceived enemies inside and outside Fox. Sherman takes us inside the morning meetings in which Ailes and other high-level executives strategized Fox's presentation of the news to advance Ailes's political agenda; provides behind-the-scenes details of Ailes's crucial role as finder and shaper of talent, including his sometimes rocky relationships with Fox News stars such as O'Reilly, Hannity, and Carlson; and probes Ailes's fraught partnership with his equally brash and mercurial boss, Rupert Murdoch.   Roger Ailes's life is a story worthy of Citizen Kane. Featuring a new afterword about Ailes's epic downfall during the extraordinary 2016 election, The Loudest Voice in the Room is an extraordinary feat of reportage with a compelling human drama at its heart. NAMED ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR BY NPR "[An] actually fair and balanced, carefully documented biography."--Jacob Weisberg, The New York Times Book Review "The book excels at compiling data establishing Ailes's control freakishness and authoritarian nature. . . . A veteran of the New York media-reporting scene, Sherman nails the Fox News palace intrigue and brings to light interactions that Ailes clearly never wanted to go public."--Erik Wemple, The Washington Post "[An] enormously entertaining new biography."--The New Republic "A thoroughly reported look behind that curtain . . . Part of the reason [Ailes] and his allies have campaigned against the book is not because it is false, but because it tells a true story."--David Carr, The New York Times "Sherman is at his best writing with sweep about the history of cable news and placing Ailes in context."--Los Angeles Times

It wasn't until the last twenty-five years of the twentieth century that terms like “merger departments” and “takeover specialists” began to appear. During this time, determined group of bankers and lawyers discovered that advising on takeovers could be lucrative for their firms. The M&A transactions that had started with the “conglomerate builders” of the late 1950s and 1960s continued to evolve as these influential figures began shaping this industry through their incredible influence and keen insights. Now, in M&A Titans, financial journalists Brett Cole offers you a rare look inside the world of mergers and acquisitions by deconstructing some of Wall Street's most important players within this field and discussing what drove them, how they won deals, lost others, and battled to overcome insurmountable odds. Cole skillfully introduces you to the institutions and individuals that paved the way for modern M&A.The business of mergers and acquisitions has been both glorified and vilified over the years. Its impact on the field of business and finance, however, is undeniable. M&A Titans take you on a detailed tour of this dynamic industry and puts the players who built this profession in perspective.

An intriguing look at Bernie Madoff the man, and his scamMadoff with the Money is a deeply disturbing portrait of Bernie Madoff based on dozens of exclusive, news-making interviews. From the values Madoff was taught growing up in the working class town of Laurelton, Queens to his high-life on Wall Street and the super-rich enclaves of Palm Beach and the French Riviera, bestselling author Jerry Oppenheimer follows the disgraced money manager's trail as he works his way up the social and economic ladder, and eventually scams his trusting clients in a $50 billion Ponzi scheme. You'll discover new revelations in this startling case, and become familiar with the trusting victims-ranging from non-profit Jewish charities to the likes of seemingly sophisticated individuals such as actress Jane Fonda who would "like to shake Madoff until his teeth fall out," the scion of the Baskin-Robbins ice cream empire who lost a bundle and was forced to rent out rooms in his house, and New Jersey Senator Frank Lautenberg. There's even Madoff's own sister-in-law and talk show host Larry King, who apparently didn't ask the right questions when he invested. All lost their much-needed life savings, while others saw fortunes small and large evaporate in the greedy financial operations of one of history's all-time charlatans.Madoff With the Money delves into the details of the illusive man that lost investors billions. While there may be other books on the Bernie Madoff debacle, none digs as deep or goes as far to uncover the truth behind the man, and his incredible scam

The Magic Kingdom is a full-length investigation of the life of Walt Disney, arguably the principal architect of mass culture in our time. By mid-century, "Uncle Walt" had become an American icon and was universally acknowledged as the spokesman for the American way of life; yet, paradoxically, he was instrumental in changing our social assumptions. Probing Disney's public life as a creative entrepreneur, Steven Watts argues that Disney reflected a central irony of modern American culture: while proclaiming a genuine allegiance to the values of an earlier age (self-reliance, the work ethic, the culture of domesticity, sexual inhibition), he also took the lead in creating the modern world of consumer self-fulfillment. His great creations embody the transformation of American popular culture, moving from the satirical edge of what Watts calls the "sentimental populism" of the Depression era to the uncritical, celebratory "sentimental libertarianism" of the Cold War. Watts also digs deeply into Disney's private life, investigating his roles as husband, father, and brother and providing fresh insight into his peculiar psyche - his genuine folksiness and warmth, his domineering treatment of colleagues and friends, his deepest prejudices and passions.The Magic Kingdom offers a definitive view of one of the most influential Americans in the twentieth century.

The culmination of nearly 30 years of reporting on Donald Trump, Pulitzer Prize-winning investigative reporter, David Cay Johnston, takes a revealingly close look at the mogul's rise to power and prominence.   Covering the long arc of Trump's career, Johnston tells the full story of how a boy from a quiet section of Queens, NY would become an entirely new, and complex, breed of public figure. Trump is a man of great media savvy, entrepreneurial spirit, and political clout. Yet his career has been plagued by legal troubles and mounting controversy.   From the origins of his family's real estate fortune, to his own too-big-to-fail business empire; from his education and early career, to his whirlwind presidential bid, The Making of Donald Trump provides the fullest picture yet of Trump's extraordinary ascendency. Love him or hate him, Trump's massive influence is undeniable, and figures as diverse as Woody Guthrie (who wrote a scathing song about Trump's father) and Red Scare prosecutor Roy Cohn, mob bosses and high rollers, as well as the average American voter, have all been pulled into his orbit.   Drawing on decades of interviews, financial records, court documents, and public statements, David Cay Johnston, who has covered Trump more closely than any other journalist working today, gives us the most in-depth look yet at the man who would be president. Praise for the author's previous books: "Everyone who wants to understand what's happening with the tax system should read Perfectly Legal." --Paul Krugman, The New York Times "Eye-opening." -- John Landry, Harvard Business Review "This book is vital, an infuriating call to action." -- Jim Hightower, author of Thieves in High Places "Truly shocking." -- James K. Galbraith, The New York Times Book Review "Superb." -- Steve Weinberg, Cleveland Plain Dealer

Hailed as the Thomas Edison and Henry Ford of Silicon Valley, Robert Noyce was a brilliant inventor, a leading entrepreneur, and a daring risk taker who piloted his own jets and skied mountains accessible only by helicopter. Now, in The Man Behind the Microchip, Leslie Berlin captures not only this colorful individual but also the vibrant interplay of technology, business, money, politics, and culture that defines Silicon Valley. Here is the life of a giant of the high-tech industry, the co-founder of Fairchild Semiconductor and Intel who co-invented the integrated circuit, the electronic heart of every modern computer, automobile, cellular telephone, advanced weapon, and video game. Berlin paints a fascinating portrait of Noyce: he was an ambitious and intensely competitive multimillionaire who exuded a "just folks" sort of charm, a Midwestern preacher's son who rejected organized religion but would counsel his employees to "go off and do something wonderful," a man who never looked back and sometimes paid a price for it. Berlin draws upon interviews with dozens of key players in modern American business—including Andy Grove, Steve Jobs, Gordon Moore, and Warren Buffett. The Man Behind the Microchip illuminates the triumphs and setbacks of one of the most important inventors and entrepreneurs of our time.

The incredible true story of the card-counting mathematics professor who taught the world how to beat the dealer and, as the first of the great quantitative investors, ushered in a revolution on Wall Street.   A child of the Great Depression, legendary mathematician Edward O. Thorp invented card counting, proving that you could do the seemingly impossible--beat the dealer at the blackjack table--and in doing so launched a gambling renaissance. His remarkable success--and mathematically unassailable method--caused such an uproar that the casinos altered the rules of the game to thwart him and the legions he inspired. They barred him from their premises, instituted new rules, and put his life in jeopardy. Nonetheless gambling was forever changed.   Thereafter, Thorp shifted his sights to "the biggest casino in the world": Wall Street. Devising and then deploying mathematical formulas to beat the market, Thorp ushered in the era of quantitative finance that we live in today. Along the way, the so-called godfather of the quants played bridge with Warren Buffett, crossed swords with a young Rudolph Giuliani, detected the Bernie Madoff scheme, and invented, with Claude Shannon, the world's first wearable computer to successfully beat the game of roulette.   Here, for the first time, Thorp tells the story of what he did, how he did it, his passions and motivations, and the curiosity that has always driven him to disregard conventional wisdom and devise game-changing solutions to seemingly insoluble problems. An intellectual thrill ride, replete with practical wisdom that can guide us all in uncertain financial waters, A Man for All Markets is an instant classic--a book that challenges its readers to think logically about a seemingly irrational world.

The definitive biography of the most important economic statesman of our time   Sebastian Mallaby's magisterial biography of Alan Greenspan, the product of over five years of research based on untrammeled access to his subject and his closest professional and personal intimates, brings into vivid focus the mysterious point where the government and the economy meet. To understand Greenspan's story is to see the economic and political landscape of the last 30 years--and the presidency from Reagan to George W. Bush--in a whole new light. As the most influential economic statesman of his age, Greenspan spent a lifetime grappling with a momentous shift: the transformation of finance from the fixed and regulated system of the post-war era to the free-for-all of the past quarter century. The story of Greenspan is also the story of the making of modern finance, for good and for ill.    Greenspan's life is a quintessential American success story: raised by a single mother in the Jewish émigré community of Washington Heights, he was a math prodigy who found a niche as a stats-crunching consultant. A master at explaining the economic weather to captains of industry, he translated that skill into advising Richard Nixon in his 1968 campaign. This led to a perch on the White House Council of Economic Advisers, and then to a dazzling array of business and government roles, from which the path to the Fed was relatively clear. A fire-breathing libertarian and disciple of Ayn Rand in his youth who once called the Fed's creation a historic mistake, Mallaby shows how Greenspan reinvented himself as a pragmatist once in power. In his analysis, and in his core mission of keeping inflation in check, he was a maestro indeed, and hailed as such. At his retirement in 2006, he was lauded as the age's necessary man, the veritable God in the machine, the global economy's avatar. His memoirs sold for record sums to publishers around the world.   But then came 2008. Mallaby's story lands with both feet on the great crash which did so much to damage Alan Greenspan's reputation. Mallaby argues that the conventional wisdom is off base: Greenspan wasn't a naïve ideologue who believed greater regulation was unnecessary. He had pressed for greater regulation of some key areas of finance over the years, and had gotten nowhere. To argue that he didn't know the risks in irrational markets is to miss the point. He knew more than almost anyo≠ the question is why he didn't act, and whether anyone else could or would have. A close reading of Greenspan's life provides fascinating answers to these questions, answers whose lessons we would do well to heed. Because perhaps Mallaby's greatest lesson is that economic statesmanship, like political statesmanship, is the art of the possible. The Man Who Knew is a searching reckoning with what exactly comprised the art, and the possible, in the career of Alan Greenspan.

Nineteenth-century financial tycoon and J.P. Morgan partner Anthony Drexel has long deserved a biography, and he is well served by historian and Family Business magazine editor Rottenberg (The Inheritor's Handbook). During Drexel's life, he amassed one of the larger fortunes of the 19th century without becoming a typically rapacious robber baron; he also helped organize Union finances during the Civil War, helped develop the first commercially successful and politically independent newspaper in the Unites States, and was J.P. Morgan's senior partner. In addition, the financier was influential in the life of his niece Katherine Drexel, who was recently canonized by the Catholic Church. This solid, scholarly biography is well documented, thoughtful, and analytical but not uncritical; it displays a thorough knowledge of the sources and is engaging to read. Rottenberg is an especially smooth literary stylist; despite the finance and economic history, the narrative flows in such an easy manner that the concepts would be easily understandable to audiences from high school on up.

When Albert Lasker dove head first into the ad game in 1898, it was a field of circus buskers and snake oil salesmen. A consummate perfectionist, Lasker changed the game and established dozens of new concepts, including copywriting, keyed ads, market research, soap operas, boxtop premiums, establishing a "reason why" the consumer should buy, and "truth in advertising" (in order to sell a product as the "best," it truly has to be the best). Much like Mad Men's Donald Draper, Lasker was a genius at selling products, and Cruikshank and Schultz present him, warts and all, but don't limit their focus to Lasker's time in the game. Advertising was but the first of his many conquests. He used the skills he honed at Lord & Thomas in politics, shipping, baseball, social services, and even art collecting. Despite its title, The Man Who Sold America isn't about advertising; it's about how Albert Lasker created and applied industry methods to all facets of society, revealing the industry's amazingly insidious reach into the every day.

Here is a who's who of business, thirty-one profiles of inventors, financiers, organizers, motivators, and gurus—a vivid, informative look at the history of management as seen through the lives of its most influential figures.We meet Eli Whitney, creator of the cotton gin and father of the machine tool industry, who failed to profit from his genius; Thomas Edison, who once vowed he would never invent anything he couldn't sell; and Andrew Carnegie, who applied the railroad management system to the steel industry, with spectacular results.The great innovators of management and organization are here as well, including the founders of systematic management, Frederick W. Taylor and Frank and Lillian Gilbreth. And there are thought-provoking profiles of motivational experts Elton Mayo and Abraham Maslow; quality advocates W. Edwards Deming and Joseph Moses Juran; Taiichi Ohno, inventor of just-in-time manufacturing; and finally, Peter Drucker, the most influential management thinker of our time. This is the distilled essence of management genius, a stimulating and, at times, inspiring look at the pioneers who shaped how we do business today.

A series which provides autobiographical studies by individuals who are among contemporary leaders in the management discipline. Essays explore their experiences, and the factors and forces influencing their professional and personal development. Bibliographies of their work are included.

Like J. P. Morgan, John D. Rockefeller, and Andrew Carnegie, Marshall Field was one of the overlords of triumphant capitalism in the Gilded Age of the late nineteenth century. However, his phenomenal wealth and generous philanthropy masked a disastrous personal life. Deserted by his wife and alienated from his children, the founder of the Field dynasty left a legacy of immense wealth and misery to match.The Marshall Fields recounts the classic tale of Field s spectacular success as well as the tragic story of a man who, while making millions by knowing what women wanted, had no inkling of his own wife s emotional needs. This revealing account follows the next five generations of the Field family, concentrating on the most important and controversial figures in each generation. From the son who may have been shot by a chorus girl to the great-great grandson who used his millions to create Hollywood fantasies, Field s descendants have caromed wildly between rebellion and folly. Their story offers a new and penetrating take on wealth, success, and the nightmare that often accompanies the American dream.

Martha Stewart has generated an enormous following by establishing herself as the leading authority for all things domestic and in the process created a multimillion-dollar enterprise and a personal net worth of nearly $2 billion. As one of the most successful self-made female business owners in American history, Martha Stewart is a topic of interest for fans, business professionals and would-be entrepreneurs alike.Martha Inc. tells the compelling story of how this complex woman created an empire on domesticity and examines her business inside and out. This book chronicles how the business was built, what it took to take it public, and the personal and professional transformation Martha has undergone to make it all work. To get a true portrait of the woman whose work ethic is her personal life, Byron delves into the underreported facets of Martha's past, such as the effects her challenging childhood and years on Wall Street have had on her uncompromising business acumen. Martha Stewart has sold America on good taste and now readers can learn exactly how she did it and what drives her to keep conquering new vistas. A corporate biography as well as a success story worthy of Horatio Alger, Martha Inc. also delves into how a cult of personality is created and how Martha Stewart capitalized on the zeitgeist that characterized the last half of the twentieth century. This book is a must read for anyone who has been touched by Martha's marketing savvy or who dreams of making it big.

Mary P. Follett (1868-1933) brought new dimensions to the theory and practice of management and was one of America's preeminent thinkers about democracy and social organization. The ideas Follett developed in the early twentieth century continue even today to challenge thinking about business and civic concerns. This book, the first biography of Follett, illuminates the life of this intriguing woman and reveals how she devised her farsighted theories about the organization of human relations.

This selection of Follett's writings and lectures, delivered between 1925 and 1933, addresses critical management topics that are relevant for managers today: conflict, power, authority, leadership, control, the role of the individual in the group, and the place of business in society. Commentaries by Warren Bennis, John Child, Angela Dumas, Tokihiko Enomoto, Henry Mintzberg, Nitin Nohria, and Sir Peter Parker are featured. The book also includes a preface by Rosabeth Moss Kanter, an introduction by Peter Drucker, and an epilogue by Paul Lawrence. Their reflections underscore the contemporary significance of Follett's ideas and testify to the eloquence and truth of her observations.

At the height of the roaring ’20s, Swedish émigré Ivar Kreuger made a fortune raising money in America and loaning it to Europe in exchange for matchstick monopolies. His enterprise was a rare success story throughout the Great Depression.Yet after Kreuger’s suicide in 1932, the true nature of his empire emerged. Driven by success to adopt ever-more perilous practices, Kreuger had turned to shell companies in tax havens, fudged accounting figures, off-balance-sheet accounting, even forgery. He created a raft of innovative financial products— many of them precursors to instruments wreaking havoc in today’s markets. When his Wall Street empire collapsed, millions went bankrupt.Frank Partnoy, a frequent commentator on financial disaster for the Financial Times, New York Times, NPR, and CBS’s “60 Minutes,” recasts the life story of a remarkable yet forgotten genius in ways that force us to re-think our ideas about the wisdom of crowds, the invisible hand, and the free and unfettered market.

The story of Watson's transformation of the disorganized, amorphous Computing-Tabulating-Recording Company into streamlined, world-famous IBM receives a spirited telling by Maney, a USA Today technology columnist. Watson (1874- 1956) saw the strategic value of corporate culture early and was protective of what he built; Maney argues that the strength of that culture later allowed IBM to survive the potentially devastating effects of Watson's personality flaws. Charismatic, optimistic and generous, Watson was also self-absorbed and psychologically ruthless in getting things done his way. Hard to work for and unable to distinguish between the company and himself, he also behaved like a dictatorial CEO and wreaked havoc with his family. Watson's mania for overreaching peaked when he accepted a decoration from Hitler in 1937 under the deluded impression that Hitler would follow Watson's campaign for world peace through world trade; according to Maney, that episode illustrates how out-of-control Watson's ego had grown. Yet, as Maney makes clear Watson wasn't just the best business story at the end of the 1930s; he had become a great American success story that captured the popular imagination. Agent, Sandy Dijkstra. (May)Forecast: Maney's book should hold great appeal not only for avid business readers but also for devotees of the vicissitudes of financial dynasties.

McDonald's: it is the world's premier entrepreneurial success story, a company whose growth worldwide continues to be astonishing. In tough financial times, McDonald's proved that ingenuity, trial and error, and gut instinct were the keys to building a service business the entire world has come to admire. In the years since McDonald's: Behind The Arches was first published, McDonald's has been a trendsetter in advertising, focusing on different ethnic groups as well as the physically disabled. McDonald's created McJobs, a program that employs both mentally challenged adults and senior citizens. And because its franchisees have their fingers on the pulse of the marketplace, McDonald's has evolved successfully with the health food revolution, launching dozens of new products and moving toward environmentally-safe packaging and recyclable goods. Inspiring, informative, and filled with behind the scenes stories, this remarkable saga offers an irresistible look inside a great American business success.

McKinsey & Company is one of the most successful management consulting firms in the world, serving a wide range of clients–from leading corporations to governments. But without the late Marvin Bower, McKinsey & Company would never have become the organization it is today. Former worldwide managing director Ron Daniel put it best when he stated that "McKinsey’s impact, reach, power, and influence are directly traceable to Marvin–to his vision, his energy, his relentless determination, and his selfless commitment to making his firm–our firm–the preeminent institution it has become." McKinsey’s Marvin Bower: Vision, Leadership, and the Creation of Management Consulting takes you on a fascinating journey that details the personal beliefs and professional experiences that made Marvin Bower one of the most respected men in the world of business.Author Elizabeth Haas Edersheim offers an in-depth look at how this man made his vision of the consulting profession and the institution (McKinsey & Company) come to fruition. McKinsey’s Marvin Bower is filled with intriguing stories that capture the defining moments of Bower’s distinguished career. Decade by decade, you’ll watch as Bower develops the innovative concept of management consulting and travels throughout the business world–inspiring organizational change and courage at each stop.

Ted Turner revolutionized television. Foreseeing cable's potential in its infancy, he parlayed a tiny UHF station in Atlanta into a national superstation, invented CNN, and transformed sports teams and the MGM film library into lucrative programming. Ken Auletta, the most respected media journalist in America, enjoyed unparalleled access to the outspoken and defiant Turner in writing this book (named one of BusinessWeek's Top Ten Books of 2004), capturing the visionary businessman as he built—and lost—his improbable empire.

Tim Parks reveals the banking origins of Renaissance Italy's most famous family. The Medicis practically invented modern international finance, building a web of political connections to build their immensely profitable bank and create unprecedented wealth for themselves. Parks captures this important moment, when the medieval world was beginning to give way to modern capitalism.

Here is history that reads like fiction: the riveting story of two founding fathers of American industry - Andrew Carnegie and Henry Clay Frick - and the bloody steelworkers' strike that transformed their fabled partnership into a furious rivalry. Author Les Standiford begins at the bitter end, when the dying Carnegie proposes a final meeting after two decades of separation, probably to ease his conscience. Frick's reply: "Tell him that I'll meet him in hell."" "It is a fitting epitaph. Set against the backdrop of the Gilded Age, a time when Horatio Alger preached the gospel of upward mobility and expansionism went hand in hand with optimism, Meet You in Hell is a classic tale of two men who embodied the best and worst of American capitalism." But their partnership had a dark side, revealed most starkly by their brutal handling of the Homestead Steel Strike of 1892. When Frick, acting on Carnegie's orders to do whatever was necessary, unleashed three hundred Pinkerton detectives, the result was the deadliest clash between management and labor in U.S. history. While blood flowed, Frick smoked ran one newspaper headline. The public was outraged. An anarchist tried to assassinate Frick. Even today, the names Carnegie and Frick cannot be uttered in some union-friendly communities.

A landmark work from one of the preeminent historians of our time: the first published biography of Andrew W. Mellon, the American colossus who bestrode the worlds of industry, government, and philanthropy, leaving his transformative stamp on each. Andrew Mellon, one of America’s greatest financiers, built a legendary personal fortune from banking to oil to aluminum manufacture, tracking America’s course to global economic supremacy. As treasury secretary under Presidents Harding, Coolidge, and finally Hoover, Mellon made the federal government run like a business–prefiguring the public official as CEO. He would be hailed as the architect of the Roaring Twenties, but, staying too long, would be blamed for the Great Depression, eventually to find himself a broken idol. Collecting art was his only nonprofessional gratification and his great gift to the American people, The National Gallery of Art, remains his most tangible legacy.

Born into one of the wealthiest families in America—he was the youngest son of Standard Oil scion John D. Rockefeller, Jr., and the celebrated patron of modern art Abby Aldrich Rockefeller—David Rockefeller has carried his birthright into a distinguished life of his own. His dealings with world leaders from Zhou Enlai and Mikhail Gorbachev to Anwar Sadat and Ariel Sharon, his service to every American president since Eisenhower, his remarkable world travels and personal dedication to his home city of New York—here, the first time a Rockefeller has told his own story, is an account of a truly rich life.

A timely rags-to-riches story, The Merchant of Power recounts how Sam Insull—right hand to Thomas Edison—went on to become one of the richest men in the world, pivotal in the birth of General Electric and instrumental in the creation of the modern metropolis with his invention of the power grid, which still fuels major cities today. John Wasik, awarded the National Press Club Award for Consumer Journalism, had unprecedented access to Sam Insull's archives, which include private correspondence with Thomas Edison. The extraordinary fall of a man extraordinary for his time is revealed in this cautionary tale about the excesses of corporate power.

The remarkable story of how two brothers--Edouard and Andre Michelin--turned the sleepy family rubber firm in the heart of rural France into one of the most innovative and successful tire makers in the world. Edouard, a landscape painter, displayed an engineering genius for tire making and product innovation, while Andre, trained as an engineer, displayed an artistic genius for advertising and marketing. Together they kick-started the world's automobile industry and gave us one of the most famous and best loved company logos--the "Michelin Man." In their relentless search for new ways to publicize and market their products, they created a tourist industry around the motor car and their now-legendary Michelin Guides.

Mike Bloomberg has repeatedly defied the standard models for success. He has never won a crowd over with his speaking prowess. Rooms do not hush with anticipation when he enters. Celebrity stalkers do not haunt him. But his unparalleled achievements drip with the dynamism that his public persona lacks. His penchant for problem solving and impressive ability to chart his own path has led to his great success as a business genius, self-made billionaire, and influential mayor. In this brilliant biography, former New York Times columnist and editor Joyce Purnick unravels this great American enigma from his childhood in the suburbs of Boston, to his rise on Wall Street and the creation of Bloomberg L.P., to his mayoral record and controversial campaign trail for a third term.

As stock prices and investor confidence have collapsed in the wake of Enron, WorldCom, and the dot-com crash, people want to know how this happened and how to make sense of the uncertain times to come. Into the breach comes one of Wall Street's legendary investors, Leon Levy, to explain why the market so often confounds us, and why those who ought to understand it tend to get chewed up and spat out. Levy, who pioneered many of the innovations and investment instruments that we now take for granted, has prospered in every market for the past fifty years, particularly in today's bear market. In The Mind of Wall Street he recounts stories of his successes and failures to illustrate how investor psychology and willful self-deception so often play critical roles in the process. Like his peers George Soros and Warren Buffett, Levy takes a long and broad view of the rhythms of the markets and the economy. He also offers a provocative analysis of the spectacular Internet bubble, showing that the market has not yet completely recovered from its bout of "irrational exuberance."The Mind of Wall Street" is essential reading for all of us, whether we are active traders or simply modest contributors to our 401(k) plans, as volatile and unnerving markets come to define so much of our net worth.

Mary Kay Ash, one of America's most dynamic businesswomen, lived her life with simple and timeless principles. Through her uncomplicated formula for success -- God first, family second and career third -- she achieved her dream.She inspired. She motivated. She cared. Mary Kay often said that if you expect great things, great things will happen. So expect results. Expect success. Miracles happen. Mary Kay Ash knew when she created her dream company that its success would largely depend on the principles upon which it was founded. In her wisdom, she realized that by building a solid foundation, and never wavering from it, she would distinguish her company and set the stage for women to succeed for decades to come. Mary Kay herself said, "The Company bears my name, but it has a life of its own. The true success is the lives that have changed for the better." Today, the independent sales force wholeheartedly embraces Mary Kay's vision of enriching women's lives. Because she believed that women would understand and support her mission, her legacy will continue to grow, inspiring generations of women around the world to believe that miracles happen.

A revealing, no-holds-barred portrait of Eileen Ford—the legendary entrepreneur who transformed the business of modeling and helped invent the celebrity supermodel. Eileen Ford, working with her husband, Jerry, created the twentieth century's largest and most successful modeling agency, representing some of the fashion world's most famous names—Suzy Parker, Carmen Dell'Orefice, Lauren Hutton, Rene Russo, Christie Brinkley, Jerry Hall, Christy Turlington, and Naomi Campbell. Her relentless ambition turned the business of modeling into one of the most glamorous and desired professions, helping to convert her stable of beautiful faces into millionaire superstars. Model Woman chronicles the Ford Modeling Agency's meteoric rise to the top of the fashion and beauty business, and paints a vibrant portrait of the uncompromising woman at its helm in all her glittering, tyrannical brilliance. Outspoken and controversial, Ford was never afraid to offend in defense of her stringent standards. When she chose, she could deliver hauteur in the grand tradition of fashion's battle-axes, from Coco Chanel to Diana Vreeland—just ask John Casablancas or Janice Dickinson. But she was also a shrewd businesswoman with a keen eye for talent and a passion for serving her clients. Drawing on more than four years of intensive interviews with Ford and her intimates, associates, and rivals, as well as exclusive access to agency documents and memorabilia, Robert Lacey weaves an unforgettable tale of a determined entrepreneur and the empire she built—a story of beauty, ambition, business, and popular culture as powerful and complex as the woman at its center.

From merchant ships to microchips, industry has been defined by the powerful business leaders who have caused seismic shifts in the growth of commerce. The companion book to the acclaimed CNBC documentary, Money and Power takes readers on a gripping journey following the movement of power from east to west-from the feudal estates of medieval Europe to the halls of modern finance, from the teeming streets of ancient Venice to the serene campuses of Silicon Valley-to tell the story of how business shaped the modern world, and how the goals of a few ambitious people paved the way to the wealth and prosperity shared by so much of the world's population today. A dramatic narrative focusing on the groundbreakers throughout history-from St. Godric, the twelfth-century monk reviled for his love of money to Bill Gates, the contemporary embodiment of money and power-traces the roots of banking, industry, commerce, and power. Fever-pitch moments in the book center around pivotal figures such as Cosimo de Medici, Philip II, the Rothschilds, J. P. Morgan, the Rockefellers, Henry Ford and others. The authors also extract important lessons about the strategies and tactics used to build these business empires.

Brands, historian and author, identifies five Americans who played critical roles in America's formation of a monetary system and hence the history of this country from 1776 until the eve of World War I. Alexander Hamilton, highly influential in the young republic, advocated a national financial institution, a national bank. Nicholas Biddle and his opposition to Andrew Jackson led to the demise of the national bank. Jay Cooke, outstanding bond salesman, kept the Union solvent during the Civil War. Jay Gould tried to corner the gold market, which highlighted the dangers in that dependence, and J. P. Morgan was the savior of the U.S. government and then the target of its antitrust suit. The ongoing "stormy seas of finance" pitted democrats (those who wanted the people to control the money supply to establish equality) against capitalists (those who argued that such equality would destabilize the economy). These factions, which overlapped, finally reached a cease-fire in the creation of the Federal Reserve Act of 1913.

Mary Kay Inc., is one of the best-run and most successful companies in the world. With his unlimited access to its employees and management, Jim Underwood provides insights into a unique and extraordinarily successful business--one founded upon a simple set of powerful principles. These principles have influenced the lives of hundreds of thousands of employees worldwide--and can be applied to the improvement of companies at any size.

History has remembered J. Pierpont Morgan as a complex and contradictory figure, part robber baron and part patron saint. Now this magisterial biography, based extensively on new material, draws a definitive, full-scale portrait of Morgan's tumultuous life both in and out of the public eye.Morgan earned his reputation as "the Napoleon of Wall Street" by reorganizing the nation's railroads and creating some of its greatest industrial trusts, including General Electric and U.S. Steel. At a time when the United States had no Federal Reserve System, he appointed himself a one-man central bank. He had two wives, three yachts, four children, six houses, mistresses, and one of the finest art collections in America. In this extraordinary book, award-winning biographer Jean Strouse vividly portrays the financial colossus, the avid patron of the arts, and the entirely human character behind all the myths.Brilliantly crafted, epic in scope, Morgan reveals a man we have never seen before, offering new insights on the culture, political struggles, and social conflicts of America's Gilded Age.

Ultimately, business is about people-inventors, visionaries, courageous leaders who forge new paths. Movers and Shakers brings to life 100 men and women, who by virtue of their chutzpah and determination built companies and industries, created new ways of doing business, or revealed underlying truths about the art and science of management. From the robber barons of the early, brawny years of the twentieth century to the "new economy" techno-wizards at the beginning of the twenty-first, Movers and Shakers presents brief sketches of the gurus and giants who have made their indelible marks on the business landscape. Featuring biographies of thinkers and writers, including George Eastman, Andy Grove, Mary Parker Follett, Charles Handy, and Peter Drucker, this book reveals the defining moments that changed business history. Colorful, incisive, and entertaining, Movers and Shakers illuminates the larger-than-life figures who have, indeed, created business as we know it today.

Rupert Murdoch is the most significant media tycoon the English-speaking world has ever known. No one before him has trafficked in media influence across those nations so effectively, nor has anyone else so singularly redefined the culture of news and the rules of journalism. In a stretch spanning six decades, he built News Corp from a small paper in Adelaide, Australia into a multimedia empire capable of challenging national broadcasters, rolling governments, and swatting aside commercialrivals. Then, over two years, a series of scandals threatened to unravel his entire creation.Murdoch's defenders questioned how much he could have known about the bribery and phone hacking undertaken by his journalists in London. But to an exceptional degree, News Corp was an institution cast in the image of a single man. The company's culture was deeply rooted in an Australian buccaneering spirit, a brawling British populism, and an outsized American libertarian sensibility-at least when it suited Murdoch's interests.David Folkenflik, the media correspondent for NPR News, explains how the man behind Britain's take-no-prisoners tabloids survived the scandals-and the true cost of this survival. There were moments when the global news chief panicked. But as long as Rupert Murdoch remains the person at the top, Murdoch's World will be making news.

Henry Ford, founder of the Ford Motor Company, lays out the secret of his success in My Life and Work. Born in 1863, Ford was a machinist and engineer by trade, but made his name as an extraordinarily successful businessman who, more than any other individual, was responsible for bringing the motor car into common use in America. Many of his pioneering manufacturing and labor practices are now commonplace - the assembly line, limited working hours, a minimum wage. He was a larger-than-life character who was rarely out of the headlines. My Life and Work is part memoir, part advice manual from the man who transformed the way America worked and lived.

In recent years, investment banks and hedge funds have increasingly turned to quantitative trading strategies and derivative securities for their profits, and have raided academia for PhDs to model these volatile products and manage their risk. Nowadays, the fortunes of firms and the stability of markets often rest on mathematical models. "Quants"–the scientifically trained practitioners of quantitative finance who build these models–have become key players on the Wall Street stage. And no Wall Street quant is better known than Emanuel Derman. One of the first high-energy particle physicists to migrate to Wall Street, he spent seventeen years in the business, eventually becoming managing director and head of the renowned Quantitative Strategies group at Goldman, Sachs & Co. There he coauthored some of today’s most widely used and influential financial models.My Life as a Quant is Derman’s candid account of his search for answers as he undergoes his transformation from ambitious young scientist to managing director. He tells the story of his passage between two worlds; he recounts his adventures with physicists, quants, options traders, and other highfliers on Wall Street; and he meditates on the dissimilar natures of knowledge in physics and finance. He reflects on the appropriate way to apply the refined methods of physics to the hurly-burly world of markets. My Life as a Quant is a unique first-person story and a revealing exploration of the quantitative side of Wall Street.

Alfred P. Sloan, Jr. is one of the very few figures who undoubtedly changed the world of management. He was also one of the first managers to write an important theoretical book. My Years at General Motors is an account of his remarkable career and the creation of a new organizational form that spawned a host of imitators. The main interest of My Years with General Motors for modern management thinkers lies in how Sloan managed to coordinate the [company's] semi-autonomous divisions with the center and balance flexibility with control. [Source: Business: The Ultimate Resource, 2nd ed., 2006)

This groundbreaking history explains how Nathan Mayer Rothschild rose from comparatively humble circumstances to become the founder of an extraordinary banking and financial empire—an empire that remained preeminent in Europe for more than a century. The book focuses on the critical years of Great Britain’s war against Napoleon, when Rothschild became in effect Britain’s banker and paymaster on the Continent, contributing to Wellington’s defeat of Napoleon and consolidating the basis of the Rothschild financial dynasty. Although the basic outline of Rothschild’s remarkable rise in the world of European high finance is well known, the details of how this actually took place, at the transaction-by-transaction level, have never before been studied. On the basis of painstaking archival examination of all of Rothschild’s extant financial records, Kaplan is able to explain for the first time exactly how this transformation occurred.

In one way or another, Donald Trump has been a topic of conversation in America for almost forty years. No one in the world of business-not Bill Gates, Steve Jobs, or Warren Buffett-has been as famous as Trump for as long. First associated with high-profile real estate development in 1970s Manhattan, his name has since become synonymous with success defined by wealth and luxury.What does one make of a grown man who, when he argues with women, stoops to insulting their appearance and habitually courts controversy? What if the same man were among the most prominent people in the world, and a privately generous person who once handed a dying child a $50,000 check so that he could enjoy the last months of his life? Add to the picture a kind of resilience that has allowed him to stage countless comebacks and truly a boundless level of optimism, and you get a figure so compelling that he cannot be dismissed simply because of his personality.Drawing upon exclusive interviews and detailed research, Michael D'Antonio presents the full story of Donald Trump, a man who, for all of his excesses, is perfectly adapted to our world.

No one would contest the profound impact of Kohlberg Kravis Roberts and the leveraged buyout on business. But what, precisely, has that impact been? Baker and Smith demonstrate how KKR fundamentally altered the prevailing perception of the role of debt in the modern corporation. This unique book offers a close insider look at the phenomenon of the leveraged buyout, those who perfected it, and what it has meant for business.

Steinhardt, one of the most successful money managers in the history of Wall Street, is also known for his philanthropic activities, particularly in the Jewish community. In this book, he offers an account of some of the investment strategies that drove his success, and details some of his most sensational coups and a few painful failures. He tells the story of his rise from the streets of Brooklyn, and describes his experiences in politics and philanthropy.

For most of two decades, Wall Street-and Main Street-waited in anticipation for the words of Henry Kaufman, vice chairman of Salomon Inc during most of the 1980s. His pronouncements had the power to prompt dramatic swings in both the stock and bond markets. In fact, it was his remarkable prescience that ignited the bull market that is still running today. This financial titan routinely ranked as one of the ten most influential figures in the financial United States. In On Money and Markets, Kaufman's long awaited memoir, the celebrated economist provides his views on a wide range of world economic issues, from the future of the Euro to the unseen perils within today's U.S. stock market. With its masterful blend of personal anecdotes and insider's exploration of the global financial marketplace, On Money and Markets will be one of the most widely anticipated books of the coming year.

Depending on who you're talking to, Oracle's founder and CEO Larry Ellison is an arrogant promoter who borrows heavily from the ideas of others - or a visionary leader who knows how to turn a neglected idea into a stunning market success. He's a ruthless businessman who's not above kicking a rival that's down - or a formidable competitor who simply plays by the rules of the day. He's a filthy rich playboy with an outsized fleet of cars, boats, and planes - or a shrewd marketer with a knack for generating reams of publicity." "As you might suspect, Ellison is all of these things, which is what makes him one of the most talked-about yet enigmatic executives in American business. But behind the boats and braggadocio is the fact that Ellison and his company have been phenomenally successful, with Oracle holding the spot as the second largest software company in the world (surpassed by Microsoft - much to the chagrin of Ellison, of course)." How did Ellison do it? How did he propel this tiny start-up into an international powerhouse? The Oracle of Oracle is the first book to give you a complete, unbiased picture of both the man and his company.

The rise and fall of media tycoon Conrad Black and his journalist wife, Barbara Amiel, is one of the great stories of the modern business world. In Outrageous Fortune, London-based journalist Tom Bower reveals how Conrad and Lady Black used other people's money to finance a billionaire's lifestyle, winning friends and influence in London and New York along the way. Their story of overweening ambition and greed is a modern-day classic of hubris.Based on hundreds of interviews with bankers, politicians, journalists, mega-deal makers, and close friends of Conrad and Lady Black, Outrageous Fortune is packed with lively anecdotes and salacious gossip. It is a hugely enter-taining and engrossing account of gullibility in high places.

Paul Volcker is a living legend of finance. He has established himself as one of the world’s most influential economic thinkers and is regarded as both a figure of integrity and an instinctive leader who–throughout his career–has invariably done what he has thought was right, regardless of the consequences. Volcker is that rare financial titan who never sought to amass great personal wealth. Throughout his career, it is evident that he had no greater goal than doing the best job he could in the public interest, leading organizations from both the public and private sector to seek out his advice when crises of confidence arose. Written by award-winning New York Times journalist Joseph B. Treaster, Paul Volcker: The Making of a Financial Legend takes you through the most compelling moments of Volcker’s fifty years in finance and public service–documenting his days as one of the most powerful voices in America as chairman of the Federal Reserve, as well as his more recent endeavors, including a mission to revive the Arthur Andersen accounting firm and efforts to recover billions in lost savings of Holocaust victims from Swiss banks.From public politics to private business, this masterful book examines the ethical, economic, and moral dilemmas Volcker faced at every turn.

Henry Ford, a major architect of modern America, has lived on in the imagination of his fellow citizens as an enduring figure of fascination, an inimitable individual, a controversial personality, and a social visionary from the moment his Model T brought the automobile to the masses and triggered the consumer revolution. But never before has his outsized genius been brought to life so vividly as by Steven Watts in this major new biography. Watts, the author of the much acclaimed The Magic Kingdom: Walt Disney and the American Way of Life, has produced a superbly researched study of a man who was a bundle of contradictions.Watts poignantly shows us how a Michigan farm boy from modest circumstances emerged as one of America s richest men and one of its first mass-culture celebrities, one who became a folk hero to millions of ordinary citizens because of his support of high wages and material abundance for everyday workers and yet also excited the admiration of figures as diverse as Vladimir Lenin and Adolf Hitler, John D. Rockefeller and Woodrow Wilson. Watts has given us a comprehensive, illuminating biography of an American icon.

In this bestselling work of investigative journalism, Pulitzer Prize winner George Anders presents a behind-the-scenes account of a struggle that rocked Wall Street and stunned the computer industry. When Carly Fiorina took command of Hewlett-Packard in 1999, she was venturing further than any woman previously had into traditional men's territory. Leading the opposition against her daring plan to rescue the $40 billion-dollar company from decline—which included the $20 billion acquisition of archrival Compaq—was Walter Hewlett, son of HP's late co-founder and defender of The HP Way. Not since Wall Street operatives battled over the fate of RJR Nabisco had a takeover drama so captivated the media and the public. Drawing on unparalleled access to HP insiders and written with a novelist's flair, Perfect Enough is a spellbinding chronicle of hope, ambition, betrayal, and family pride.

Supplying lessons from today's most celebrated and successful business thinkers, DK's Business Masterminds series is perfect for people hoping to advance their corporate careers, make their own businesses grow and prosper, or achieve personal goals. In addition to providing overviews of each mastermind's most influential writings and speeches, each title is packed with full-color charts, diagrams, and photographs that graphically illustrate complex concepts.

This meticulously researched biography of Pierre S. du Pont, head of the Du Pont Company and later General Motors, describes how the Delaware scion took a loosely run, family gunpowder factory and turned it into a giant corporation. Moreover, by astute business management he transformed a faltering General Motors into one of the world's most profitable enterprises. Chandler and Salsbury, who had access to business and personal records rarely available to historians, made the most of them. It is truly one of the finest business histories ever written.

Just who was the man whose name has become synonymous with the classic “rob-Peter-to-pay-Paul” scam in which money from new investors is used to reward earlier ones? In December 1919, he was an unknown thirty-eight-year-old, self-educated Italian immigrant with a borrowed two-hundred dollars in his pocket. Six months later, he was Boston’s famed “wizard of finance,” lionized by the public and politicians alike. Based on exclusive interviews with people who knew Charles Ponzi, lent him their money, and exposed him, Donald Dunn’s Ponzi recreates both one of America’s most notorious and colorful financial con artists and the mad money-hungry era in which he thrived.

In this volume, 10 of the country's most successful business leaders share their experiences and insights in individual essays that are remarkable for their directness and personal detail. These men describe how boldness, clear thinking, and willingness to learn saw them through bad times and paved their way to success.

In the middle decades of the nineteenth century Jeremiah G. Hamilton was a well-known figure on Wall Street. Cornelius Vanderbilt, America's first tycoon, came to respect, grudgingly, his one-time opponent. The day after Vanderbilt's death on January 4, 1877, an almost full-page obituary on the front of the National Republican acknowledged that, in the context of his Wall Street share transactions, "There was only one man who ever fought the Commodore to the end, and that was Jeremiah Hamilton." What Vanderbilt's obituary failed to mention, perhaps as contemporaries already knew it well, was that Hamilton was African American. Hamilton, although his origins were lowly, possibly slave, was reportedly the richest colored man in the United States, possessing a fortune of $2 million, or in excess of two hundred and $50 million in today's currency. In Prince of Darkness, a groundbreaking and vivid account, eminent historian Shane White reveals the larger than life story of a man who defied every convention of his time. He wheeled and dealed in the lily white business world, he married a white woman, he bought a mansion in rural New Jersey, he owned railroad stock on trains he was not legally allowed to ride, and generally set his white contemporaries teeth on edge when he wasn't just plain outsmarting them. An important contribution to American history, Hamilton's life offers a way into considering, from the unusual perspective of a black man, subjects that are usually seen as being quintessentially white, totally segregated from the African American past.

Winner of the Financial Times and Goldman Sachs Business Book of the Year Award 2012 An “extraordinary” and “monumental” exposé of Big Oil from two-time Pulitzer Prize winner Steve Coll(The Washington Post) InPrivate he investigates the largest and most powerful private corporation in the United States, revealing the true extent of its power. ExxonMobil’s annual revenues are larger than the economic activity in the great majority of countries. In many of the countries where it conducts business, ExxonMobil’s sway over politics and security is greater than that of the United States embassy. In Washington, ExxonMobil spends more money lobbying Congress and the White House than almost any other corporation. Yet despite its outsized influence, it is a black box. Private Empirepulls back the curtain, tracking the corporation’s recent history beginning with theExxon Valdezaccident in 1989 and leading to theDeepwater Horizonoil spill in the Gulf of Mexico in 2010. The action spans the globe, moving from Moscow, to impoverished African capitals, Indonesia, and elsewhere in heart-stopping scenes that feature kidnapping cases, civil wars, and high-stakes struggles at the Kremlin. At home, Coll goes inside ExxonMobil’s K Street office and corporation headquarters in Irving, Texas, where top executives in the “God Pod” (as employees call it) oversee an extraordinary corporate culture of discipline and secrecy. A newsbreaking study,Private Empireis a defining portrait of ExxonMobil and the place of Big Oil in American politics and foreign policy.

In Producing Prosperity, Harvard Business School professors Gary Pisano and Willy Shih (authors of the award-winning Harvard Business Review article Restoring American Competitiveness) vividly show the disastrous consequences of years of bad outsourcing decisions and underinvestment in manufacturing capability. They go on to reveal how todays undervalued manufacturing operations often hold the seeds of tomorrows innovative new products, arguing that companies must reinvest in the collective operational capabilities that underpin new product and process development in the U.S. industrial sector. It is only by reviving this industrial commons that we can build both the expertise and the manufacturing muscle to produce tomorrows hot productsfrom electronics and appliances to solar panels and next-generation batteriesto regain competitive advantage.

From the bestselling coauthor of The Money and the Power (which the Los Angeles Times called “one of the most important nonfiction books published in a half century”)—the inside story of the Bechtel family and the empire they’ve controlled since the construction of the Hoover Dam. The tale of the Bechtel family dynasty is a classic American business story. It begins with Warren A. “Dad” Bechtel, who led a consortium that constructed the Hoover Dam. From that auspicious start, the family and its eponymous company would go on to “build the world,” from the construction of airports in Hong Kong and Doha, to pipelines and tunnels in Alaska and Europe, to mining and energy operations around the globe. Today Bechtel is one of the largest privately held corporations in the world, enriched and empowered by a long history of government contracts and the privatization of public works, made possible by an unprecedented revolving door between its San Francisco headquarters and Washington. Bechtel executives John McCone, Caspar Weinberger, and George P. Shultz segued from leadership at the company to positions as Director of the CIA, Secretary of Defense, and Secretary of State, respectively. Like all stories of empire building, the rise of Bechtel presents a complex and riveting narrative. In The Profiteers, Sally Denton, whom The New York Times called “a wonderful writer,” exposes Bechtel’s secret world and one of the biggest business and political stories of our time.

Described by John Kenneth Galbraith as "the most sophisticated conservative" of the twentieth century, Schumpeter made his mark as the prophet of incessant change. His vision was stark: Nearly all businesses fail, victims of innovation by their competitors. Businesspeople ignore this lesson at their peril—to survive, they must be entrepreneurial and think strategically. Yet in Schumpeter's view, the general prosperity produced by the "capitalist engine" far outweighs the wreckage it leaves behind. From boy wonder in turn-of-the-century Vienna to captivating Harvard professor, he was stalked by tragedy and haunted by the specter of his rival, John Maynard Keynes. By 1983—the centennial of the birth of both men—Forbes christened Schumpeter, not Keynes, the best navigator through the turbulent seas of globalization. Time has proved that assessment accurate. Drawing on all of Schumpeter's writings, including many intimate diaries and letters never before used, this biography paints the full portrait of a magnetic figure who aspired to become the world's greatest economist, lover, and horseman—and admitted to failure only with the horses.

Alan Brinkley…has a gift for restoring missing dimensions to figures who have been flattened into caricature…In The Publisher: Henry Luce and His American Century, Brinkley performs a similar service. His Luce is a complicated figure, more tragic than malign. That is not to say this is a particularly flattering profile. The book does full justice to Luce's outsider insecurity, his blind affinity for men of power and his defects as a family man. But it is a humanizing portrayal, and it credits the role his magazines, Time and Life especially, played in a country growing uneasily into the dominant geopolitical force in the world.

In a fast-moving narrative, Wall Street Journal reporter Patterson explores the coterie of mathematicians behind the Wall Street crash of 2008. The story's stars are "an unusual breed of investors" called quants, who "used brain-twisting math and super-powered computers to pluck billions in fleeting dollars out of the market." Following the first quant, Beat the Market author Ed Thorp, from his graduate school days in 1955, and introducing others like Peter Muller and Ken Griffin as they established funds at major investment firms, Patterson spins a fascinating story of riches amassed for a few and, inevitably, lost for many: a collapsing hedge fund, "imploding under the weight of toxic subprime assets," took down the system "like a massive avalanche started by a single loose boulder."

Sandy Weill started his entrepreneurial career during the Eisenhower years with a loan of $30,000. Within approximately 20 years, he was a billionaire. After his attempt to become CEO of American Express failed, he recovered impressively, becoming first the CEO, and then the chairman of Citigroup. Weill's Real Deal tells it all: his successes; his mistakes; his regrets; and what he has learned along the way. One of the most riveting business memoirs in years.

<b>Follow a pioneer′s journey from factory floor to CEO</b> <p><i>Road to Power</i> is the story of how Mary Barra drove herself to the pinnacle of a company that steers the nation′s wealth. Beginning as a rare female electrical engineer and daughter of a General Motors die maker, Barra spent more than thirty years building her career before becoming the first woman to ever lead a global automaker. With $155 billion in sales and 200,000 employees, GM is widely considered to be a proxy for the U.S. economy, making Barra′s position arguably the most important corporate role a woman has ever held. This book describes the personal character, choices, and leadership style that enabled her to break through the glass ceiling.</p> <p>When 52-year-old Mary Barra was named CEO of General Motors in 2013, only people outside of the company were surprised. She had done everything from working on the factory floor to overseeing manufacturing, from improving union relations to paring down bureaucracy, and from running human resources to helping drag the company back from its 2009 bankruptcy. This book details each step of her career, and the lessons she learned along the way.</p> <ul> <li>Learn how Mary Barra′s willingness to take on diverse assignments helped steer her career trajectory</li> <li>Examine the fine details of Barra′s management style and her ability to relate to colleagues</li> <li>Discover the qualities and experiences Barra had that drove her to lead this male-dominated profession</li> <li>Study the valuable lessons Barra learned at each stage in her professional life, and why they stuck with her throughout her journey to the top</li> </ul> <p>Barra is most certainly a pioneer for women in business, but she′s also a living lesson as to how far the right outlook, skills, and drive can take you in your career. <i>Road to Power</i> explores the talent and the mindset that got her all the way to the top.</p>

Standing alongside J. P. Morgan, Andrew Carnegie, and John D. Rockefeller, Charles Tyson Yerkes (1837-1905) was one of the most colorful and controversial public figures in nineteenth-century America. Robber Baron is the first biography of the streetcar magnate who was the mastermind behind Chicago's Loop Elevated and the London Underground and namesake of the University of Chicago's observatory. Yerkes also served as the inspiration for Frank Cowperwood, the ruthless protagonist of Theodore Dreiser's Trilogy of Desire: The Financier, The Titan, and The Stoic. Despite various philanthropic efforts, Yerkes and his unscrupulous tactics were despised by the press and public, and he left Chicago a bitter man. John Franch has drawn upon every available source to tell the complete story of a man desperate to leave a lasting impression on his world. While Yerkes's enduring public works testify to his success, Robber Baron uncovers the cost of this boundless ambition.

The first full-length modern biography of an extraordinary, forgotten founder of the American republic, Rappleye's book, the best ever about its subject, is an effective work of rehabilitation. Morris (1734-1806)--a gifted, enterprising, and skilled merchant, banker, and political figure in Philadelphia--was key to the financing of the American Revolution and American government into the 1790s. But because he had many political and business enemies, was a rich Federalist elitist, and ended in debtors' prison for overspeculation in land, he has always remained in the shadows. So has the fact that while deeply committed to the American cause, like many others of his time, he mixed public service with an eye on gain. Rappleye (Sons of Providence) brings Morris and his world brightly alive. Nothing of the financier's full life (his privateering for the war effort; his pioneering trade with China; the "overconfidence" that brought his downfall) escapes Rappleye, and his judgments are balanced and astute.

From the acclaimed Vanity Fair and GQ journalist–an unprecedented, in-depth portrait of the man whose return to Apple precipitated one of the biggest turnarounds in business history. With a new epilogue on Apple’s future survival in today’s roller-coaster economy, here is the revealing biography that blew away the critics and stirred controversy within industry and media circles around the country.

An illuminating biography of the man who taught Americans "how to win friends and influence people"   Before Stephen Covey, Oprah Winfrey, and Malcolm Gladwell there was Dale Carnegie. His book, How to Win Friends and Influence People, became a best seller worldwide, and Life magazine named him one of "the most important Americans of the twentieth century." This is the first full-scale biography of this influential figure.   Dale Carnegie was born in rural Missouri, his father a poor farmer, his mother a successful preacher. To make ends meet he tried his hand at various sales jobs, and his failure to convince his customers to buy what he had to offer eventually became the fuel behind his future glory. Carnegie quickly figured out that something was amiss in American education and in the ways businesspeople related to each other. What he discovered was as simple as it was profound: Understanding people's needs and desires is paramount in any successful enterprise. Carnegie conceived his book to help people learn to relate to one another and enrich their lives through effective communication. His success was extraordinary, so hungry was 1920s America for a little psychological insight that was easy to apply to everyday affairs.   Self-help Messiah tells the story of Carnegie's personal journey and how it gave rise to the movement of self-help and personal reinvention.

In this candid and riveting memoir, for the first time ever, Nike founder and board chairman Phil Knight shares the inside story of the company’s early days as an intrepid start-up and its evolution into one of the world’s most iconic, game-changing, and profitable brands. Young, searching, fresh out of business school, Phil Knight borrowed fifty dollars from his father and launched a company with one simple mission: import high-quality, low-cost running shoes from Japan. Selling the shoes from the trunk of his Plymouth Valiant, Knight grossed eight thousand dollars that first year, 1963. Today, Nike’s annual sales top $30 billion. In this age of start-ups, Knight’s Nike is the gold standard, and its swoosh is more than a logo. A symbol of grace and greatness, it’s one of the few icons instantly recognized in every corner of the world. But Knight, the man behind the swoosh, has always been a mystery. Now, in a memoir that’s surprising, humble, unfiltered, funny, and beautifully crafted, he tells his story at last. It all begins with a classic crossroads moment. Twenty-four years old, backpacking through Asia and Europe and Africa, wrestling with life’s Great Questions, Knight decides the unconventional path is the only one for him. Rather than work for a big corporation, he will create something all his own, something new, dynamic, different. Knight details the many terrifying risks he encountered along the way, the crushing setbacks, the ruthless competitors, the countless doubters and haters and hostile bankers—as well as his many thrilling triumphs and narrow escapes. Above all, he recalls the foundational relationships that formed the heart and soul of Nike, with his former track coach, the irascible and charismatic Bill Bowerman, and with his first employees, a ragtag group of misfits and savants who quickly became a band of swoosh-crazed brothers. Together, harnessing the electrifying power of a bold vision and a shared belief in the redemptive, transformative power of sports, they created a brand, and a culture, that changed everything.

Herrmann creates a verbal picture of Templeton: the barefoot Tennessee boy who "inherited some rather creative genes, "; the Yale student and Oxford Rhodes Scholar; the southern gentleman; the devoted husband and father; the frugal businessman. Readers will learn of Templeton's successful business ideas and practices. Business people, theologians, and scientists will benefit from the Templeton challenge to look beyond the walls created by human ego. This biography of the life of Sir John Templeton is an inspiration for one's own for meaning and spiritual expression.

Alfred P. Sloan Jr. became the president of General Motors in 1923 and stepped down as its CEO in 1946. During this time, he led GM past the Ford Motor Company and on to international business triumph by virtue of his brilliant managerial practices and his insights into the new consumer economy he and GM helped to produce. Bill Gates has said that Sloan's 1964 management tome, My Years with General Motors, "is probably the best book to read if you want to read only one book about business." And if you want to read only one book about Sloan, that book should be historian David Farber's Sloan Rules.

Enron, that microcosm of American corporate misdeeds, continues to captivate us. Not since Watergate has a scandal reverberated through so many books. In The Smartest Guys in the Room, Bethany McLean, the first journalist to "out" the story in a major national publication, and eagle-eyed investigative reporter Peter Elkind endow the unfolding story with the gathering tension of a well-turned novel. Their rendering of boardroom feuds and bookkeeping trickery casts vivid light on the strong personalities involved.

With a personal fortune that taps in at $62 billion, Warren Buffett is the richest person in the world, but the widely quoted "Oracle of Omaha" has never written an autobiography, or even a memoir. In fact, before this book, he never shared his story so completely or offered such total access to his family and his closest associates. Alice Schroeder, the author of this book, is a Morgan Stanley insurance industry analyst who won the trust of Buffett during their ten-year association. In The Snowball, she describes how this frugal billionaire developed his personal philosophy and business style from his experiences, not all of them kind. The best rendering ever of America's great business success story.

Matthew Symonds, the political editor of The Economist, wrote his book, Softwar, with Ellison's cooperation, and the access he got is apparent. This can sound like fun: ''The next day we're in London at his favorite hotel, the Lanesborough,'' Symonds writes at one point. More important, this access gives the reader a rare window on Ellison's mind. Speaking of his three failed marriages, he says ruefully: ''There's a criminal law in California called three strikes and you're out. . . . Maybe after three marriages, you shouldn't be allowed a fourth.'' Symonds is adept at the technology, and provides gritty detail on the relative merits of various types of database geekery

Like the Rockefellers and the Kennedys, the Kochs are one of the most influential dynasties of the modern age, but they have never been the subject of a major biography... until now. Not long after the death of his father, Charles Koch, then in his early 30s, discovered a letter the family patriarch had written to his sons. "You will receive what now seems to be a large sum of money," Fred Koch cautioned. "It may either be a blessing or a curse." Fred's legacy would become a blessing and a curse to his four sons-Frederick, Charles, and fraternal twins David and Bill-who in the ensuing decades fought bitterly over their birthright, the oil and cattle-ranching empire their father left behind in 1967. Against a backdrop of scorched-earth legal skirmishes, Charles and David built Koch Industries into one of the largest private corporations in the world-bigger than Boeing and Disney-and they rose to become two of the wealthiest men on the planet. Influenced by the sentiments of their father, who was present at the birth of the John Birch Society, Charles and David have spent decades trying to remake the American political landscape and mainline their libertarian views into the national bloodstream. They now control a machine that is a center of gravity within the Republican Party. To their supporters, they are liberating America from the scourge of Big Government. To their detractors, they are political "contract killers," as David Axelrod, President Barack Obama's chief strategist, put it during the 2012 campaign. Bill, meanwhile, built a multi-billion dollar energy empire all his own, and earned notoriety as an America's Cup-winning yachtsman, a flamboyant playboy, and as a litigious collector of fine wine and Western memorabilia. Frederick lived an intensely private life as an arts patron, refurbishing a series of historic homes and estates. SONS OF WICHITA traces the complicated lives and legacies of these four tycoons, as well as their business, social, and political ambitions. No matter where you fall on the ideological spectrum, the Kochs are one of the most influential dynasties of our era, but so little is publicly known about this family, their origins, how they make their money, and how they live their lives. Based on hundreds of interviews with friends, relatives, business associates, and many others, SONS OF WICHITA is the first major biography about this wealthy and powerful family-warts and all.

The first biography of George Soros written with his cooperation -- a dramatic story of the capitalistic genius who has become the leading philanthropist of our time. In a fascinating narrative, we follow Soros from European dislocation to unfathomable success and wealth. Born into a Jewish family in Budapest, he was on his own by age 14, passing as an Aryan to survive World War II. As a penniless 17-year-old in London, he dreamed both of personal glory and making the world less harsh. Ambition and opportunity drove him to Wall Street, where he arrived in 1956. Soon he was "the greatest money manager in the world." In his early 50s, restless and having made his fortune, Soros turned to doing good as a full-time occupation, showing the same energy, imagination, and courage in spending his money as he had in making it. He has invested more than $1 billion worldwide through his Open Society foundations, undermining the kind of totalitarianism he knew in his youth. Kaufman reveals how Soros became a key figure in accelerating the collapse of communism, while minimizing the trauma of transition, and how his work continues today.

Sugar Baron is the story of Manuel Rionda (1854-1943), who immigrated from Spain to Cuba as a boy of 16 to become a dominant operator in the international sugar trade and to stand at the crossroads of U.S.-Cuban economic relations. Through an examination of Rionda's career as founder of the Cuba Cane Sugar Corporation and of New York's major sugar brokerage firm, Muriel McAvoy gives us an in-depth history of Cuba's sugar industry and its economy during the first half of the 20th century. In great detail, she elucidates conflicts among the various economic sectors in both Cuba and the United States, providing unique and often corrective insights. Stressing the significance of the Cuban elite in furthering and profiting from the development of Cuba as a sugar enclave, Sugar Baron shows that Rionda and the other hacendados did much to ensure that a single export would dominate their island's economy, enriching themselves in the process. Challenging the view that U.S. capitalism reduced Cuba's businessmen to helpless pawns, McAvoy provides a clearer view of the responsibility for events between the Spanish-American War and the triumph of Castro's revolution.

Sweet and Low is the bittersweet, hilarious story of Ben Eisenstadt, who invented sugar packets and Sweet'N Low, and amassed the great fortune that would later destroy his family. It is a story of immigrants, Jewish gangsters, and Brooklyn; of sugar, saccharine, obesity, and diet crazes; of jealousy, betrayal, and ambition. Disinherited along with his mother and siblings, Rich Cohen has written a rancorous, colorful history of his extraordinary family and their pursuit of the American dream.

In need of inspiration? This gem of an autobiography, recounting the first 21 years in the life of Andris Grof, whom the world would come to know as Andy Grove, co-founder and current chairman of Intel Corporation, may be exactly what you're looking for.Swimming Across is a wonderful book that reaffirms the strength and resilience of the human spirit in even the darkest hour. This is not a book about high technology, Silicon Valley, or big business. It is a poignant story about human survival. In this particular case, it involves a very intimate account of the horrors faced by a young Hungarian-Jewish boy and his family, from the eve of World War II to their escape from Soviet tanks on the streets of Budapest in 1956

In this candid memoir, A. Alfred Taubman explains how a dyslexic Jewish kid from Detroit grew up to be a billionaire retailing pioneer, an intimate of European aristocrats and Palm Beach socialites, a respected philanthropist and, at age 78, a federal prisoner. With a unique blend of humor and genius, Taubman shows how selling fine art and antiques really isn't that different from marketing root beer or football, and offers penetrating insights into that quintessential palace of commerce, the luxury shopping mall. Alfred Taubman may not have invented the modern shopping center but, in the words of The New Yorker, "he perfected it." Despite the twists and turns, Taubman's life and business philosophy can be summed up in one evocative phrase: Threshold Resistance. Understanding and defeating that force—breaking down the barriers between art and commerce, between shoppers and merchandise, between high culture and popular taste—has been his life's work.

John D. Rockefeller, Sr.—history's first billionaire and the patriarch of America's most famous dynasty—is an icon whose true nature has eluded three generations of historians. Now Ron Chernow, the National Book Award-winning biographer of the Morgan and Warburg banking families, gives us a history of the mogul "etched with uncommon objectivity and literary grace . . . as detailed, balanced, and psychologically insightful a portrait of the tycoon as we may ever have" (Kirkus Reviews). Titan is the first full-length biography based on unrestricted access to Rockefeller's exceptionally rich trove of papers. A landmark publication full of startling revelations, the book will indelibly alter our image of this most enigmatic capitalist.

The never-before-told story of Pixar's improbable success. "Hi, Lawrence?" the caller asked. "This is Steve Jobs. I saw your picture in a magazine a few years ago and thought we'd work together someday."     After Steve Jobs was unceremoniously dismissed from Apple, he turned his attention to a little-known graphics art company that he owned called Pixar.  One day, out of the blue, Jobs called Lawrence Levy, a Harvard-trained lawyer and Silicon Valley executive to whom he had never spoken before, in the hope of persuading Levy to help him get Pixar on the right track.    What Levy found in Pixar was a company on the verge of failure.To Pixar and Beyond is the extraordinary story of what happened next: How Levy, working closely with Jobs and the Pixar team, produced and implemented a highly improbable roadmap that transformed the sleepy graphics art studio into one of Hollywood's greatest success stories.    Set in the worlds of Silicon Valley and Hollywood, the book takes readers inside Pixar, Disney, law firms, and investment banks. It provides an up-close, first-hand account of Pixar's stunning ascent, how it took risks, Levy's enduring collaboration and friendship with Jobs, and how Levy came to see in Pixar deeper parallels that apply to all aspects of our lives.   

Supplying lessons from today's most celebrated and successful business thinkers, DK's Business Masterminds series is perfect for people hoping to advance their corporate careers, make their own businesses grow and prosper, or achieve personal goals. In addition to providing overviews of each mastermind's most influential writings and speeches, each title is packed with full-color charts, diagrams, and photographs that graphically illustrate complex concepts.

Ms. Arvedlund—who, in a 2001 Barron's article, was among the first to question Mr. Madoff's record publicly—works hard to situate the Madoff mess within the larger framework of hedge-fund mania and the Wall Street recklessness that led to the fiscal cataclysms of 2008. She is interested in the How of It All: how was Mr. Madoff able to scam investors (some of whom belonged to the fiscal and banking elite) for decades and how did he manage to elude detection for so many years?

Behind the headlines-one of the most talked-about business leaders in the world tells her own story By accepting the CEO job at Hewlett-Packard, an iconic company that had lost its way, Carly Fiorina confirmed her status as the most powerful businesswoman in America. But she also made herself a target for everyone who disliked her bold leadership style and resented her rapid rise. For six years, as she led HP through drastic changes and a controversial merger, Fiorina was the subject of endless analysis, debate, and speculation. She appeared on the cover of every major magazine and her every word was scrutinized. Yet in all that time, the public never got to know the person behind the persona. Tough Choices will finally reveal the real Carly Fiorina, who writes with brutal honesty about her triumphs and failures, her deepest fears and most painful confrontations-including her sudden and very public firing by HP's board of directors.

Based on interviews with colleagues, friends, and enemies, this biography tells the story of how a man without money, experience, or connections became a real estate legend. A visionary and risk taker, Trammell Crow is presented in the book as the pioneer of speculative real estate development, noted for spawning a generation of industry leaders.

Brownie Wise, the first woman to appear on the cover of Business Week, was the driving force behind making Tupperware a household name. Fired under mysterious circumstances, she was written out of Tupperware history and died in obscurity. A trailblazing businesswoman decades ahead of her time, Wise created the Tupperware "home party" phenomenon in the 1950s. Her drive and creativity fueled sales and profits for the once sleepy plastic containers company. Earl Tupper anointed Wise as the company figurehead and marketing guru. Long before Disney, her lavish national headquarters drew tourists from near and far to the outskirts of Orlando, Florida, where she held court with the press, politicians, and movie stars.Wise's rise and fall, and her relationship with the eccentric Tupper, is the stuff of legend; a story told finally, and fully, in Tupperware Unsealed.

The modern American economy was the creation of four men: Andrew Carnegie, John D. Rockefeller, Jay Gould, and J. P. Morgan. They were the giants of the Gilded Age, a moment of riotous growth that established America as the richest, most inventive, and most productive country on the planet. Acclaimed author Charles R. Morris vividly brings the men and their times to life. The ruthlessly competitive Carnegie, the imperial Rockefeller, and the provocateur Gould were obsessed with progress, experiment, and speed. They were balanced by Morgan, the gentleman businessman, who fought, instead, for a global trust in American business. Through their antagonism and their verve, they built an industrial behemoth—and a country of middle-class consumers. The Tycoons tells the incredible story of how these four determined men wrenched the economy into the modern age, inventing a nation of full economic participation that could not have been imagined only a few decades earlier.

"A perfectly executed, exquisitely reported parable of the Internet age and the wild, mad adventure that is start-up culture."--Charles Duhigg Fortune, mania, genius, philanthropy--the bestselling author of Mountains Beyond Mountains gives us the inspiring story of Paul English, the founder of Kayak.com and Lola. Tracy Kidder, the "master of the nonfiction narrative" (The Baltimore Sun) and author of the bestselling classic The Soul of a New Machine, now tells the story of Paul English, a kinetic and unconventional inventor and entrepreneur, who as a boy rebelled against authority. Growing up in working-class Boston, English discovers a medium for his talents the first time he sees a computer. As a young man, despite suffering from what would eventually be diagnosed as bipolar disorder, he begins his pilgrim's journey through the ups and downs in the brave new world of computers. Relating to the Internet as if it's an extension of his own mind, he discovers that he has a talent for conceiving innovative enterprises and building teams that can develop them, becoming "a Pied Piper" of geeks. His innovative management style, success, and innate sense of fair play inspire intense loyalty. Early on, one colleague observes: "Someday this boy's going to get hit by a truck full of money, and I'm going to be standing beside him." Yet when English does indeed make a fortune, when the travel website Kayak is sold for almost two billion dollars--the first thing he thinks about is how to give the money away: "What else would you do with it?" The second thing he thinks is, What's next? With the power of a consummate storyteller, Tracy Kidder casts a fresh, critical, and often humorous eye on the way new ideas and new money are reshaping our culture and the world. A Truck Full of Money is a mesmerizing portrait of an irresistibly endearing man who is indefatigable, original, and as unpredictable as America itself. Praise for A Truck Full of Money "Kidder's prose glides with a figure skater's ease, but without the glam. His is a seemingly artless art, like John McPhee's, that conceals itself in sentences that are necessary, economical, and unpretentious."--The Boston Globe "Kidder's portrayal of living with manic depression is as nuanced and intimate as a reader might ever expect to get. . . . You can't help admiring Mr. English and cheering for him."--The New York Times "[A] powerful and insightful tale that makes the Internet era entertaining, and defines English as an endearing, generous and eccentric geek."--USA Today "At times, the narrative of the young technologist, at least in Kidder's hands, seems the modern equivalent of the story of the godless wayfarer who stumbles into a cathedral in a distant city, only to find that its vaulting arches and organ music bring on exaltations of mind and spirit."--The New York Times Book Review "What kind of entrepreneur talks about making money as if it's, well, kind of a bummer? You'll ask yourself that question about a dozen or so pages into A Truck Full of Money, Tracy Kidder's expertly reported, deftly written new book that tracks the rise of unconventional software executive and Kayak.com co-founder Paul English."--The San Francisco Chronicle "Kidder writes beautifully, creating an engaging storyline while avoiding clich#65533;s and pretention. . . . Readers are in for a fascinating ride."--The National Book Review

Forty years ago, Israeli psychologists Daniel Kahneman and Amos Tversky wrote a series of breathtakingly original studies undoing our assumptions about the decision-making process. Their papers showed the ways in which the human mind erred, systematically, when forced to make judgments about uncertain situations. Their work created the field of behavioral economics, revolutionized Big Data studies, advanced evidence-based medicine, led to a new approach to government regulation, and made much of Michael Lewis’s own work possible. Kahneman and Tversky are more responsible than anybody for the powerful trend to mistrust human intuition and defer to algorithms. The Undoing Project is about the fascinating collaboration between two men who have the dimensions of great literary figures. They became heroes in the university and on the battlefield—both had important careers in the Israeli military—and their research was deeply linked to their extraordinary life experiences. In the process they may well have changed, for good, mankind’s view of its own mind.

Over the course of nearly half a century, five American presidents-three Democrats and two Republicans-have relied on the financial acumen, and the integrity, of Paul A. Volcker. During his tenure as chairman of the Federal Reserve Board, when he battled the Great Inflation of the 1970s, Volcker did nothing less than restore the reputation of an American financial system on the verge of collapse. After the 2008 financial meltdown, the nation turned again to Volcker to restore trust in a shaky financial system: President Obama would name his centerpiece Wall Street regulation the Volcker Rule. Volcker's career demonstrated that a determined central banker can prevail over economic turmoil-so long as he can resist relentless political pressure. His resolve and independent thinking-sorely tested by Richard Nixon, Jimmy Carter, and Ronald Reagan-laid the foundation for a generation of economic stability. Indeed, William L. Silber argues, it was only Volcker's toughness on monetary policy that "forced Reagan to be Reagan" and to rein in America's deficit. Filled with frank commentary from Volcker himself-including why he was personally irked with the "Volcker Rule" label-this will be the definitive account of Volcker's indispensable role in American economic history.

A seasoned Wall Street investment manager gathers a collection of profiles of the influential financial luminaries of the investment world. Drawn from magazines, colleagues' accounts, newspapers, and other sources, the profiles examine the personal and professional lives of these powerful characters and how they earned their fame or notoriety.Revealing, captivating, and at times surprising, the profiles in Wall Street People offer you a rare glimpse of the masterminds behind Wall Street's wheeling, dealing, and everyday dynamics. This unique collection of profiles will be savored by all who are fascinated by or curious about the adventures of finance and investment-and the most significant people who made it happen.

From its inception, Wall Street has been home to a variety of fascinating heroes and villains who have left their mark-for better or for worse-in pursuit of their financial endeavors. In Volume Two of Wall Street People, Charles Ellis and James Vertin turn back the clock to reveal the true stories of yesterday's barons of finance. This book profiles some of the most interesting, powerful, and talked-about financial luminaries of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. Readers will go behind the public image of financial personalities such as Jesse L. Livermore, Joseph P. Kennedy, Andrew Carnegie, and John D. Rockefeller. Vivid portraits of these and other financial legends offer a rare glimpse into the professional and personal world of yesterday's barons of finance.

Wall Street to Main Street: Charles Merrill and Middle-Class Investors focuses on the spectacularly successful career of financier Charles Merrill (1885-1956), the founder of Merrill Lynch & Co., the world's largest brokerage and investment firm. Merrill was the most innovative entrepreneur in the United States financial services sector in the twentieth century. He was the most important figure in promoting common stocks as a prudent long-term investment vehicle for members of the middle class across the United States. Opening more than 100 branch offices across the nation by 1950, his firm solicited millions of middle-class households and became famous for bringing "Wall Street to Main Street" in the post-World War II era. Today, American investors hold, either directly or indirectly through mutual funds, a greater percentage of common stocks in their financial portfolios than do the citizens of any other country. Based on archival sources, this book is the first biography published about the career of this major Wall Street figure.

The 2008 financial collapse, the expansion of corporate and private wealth, the influence of money in politics--many of Wall Street's contemporary trends can be traced back to the work of fourteen critical figures who wrote, and occasionally broke, the rules of American finance. Edward Morris plots in absorbing detail Wall Street's transformation from a clubby enclave of financiers to a symbol of vast economic power. His book begins with J. Pierpont Morgan, who ruled the American banking system at the turn of the twentieth century, and ends with Sandy Weill, whose collapsing Citigroup required the largest taxpayer bailout in history. In between, Wall Streeters relates the triumphs and missteps of twelve other financial visionaries. From Charles Merrill, who founded Merrill Lynch and introduced the small investor to the American stock market; to Michael Milken, the so-called junk bond king; to Jack Bogle, whose index funds redefined the mutual fund business; to Myron Scholes, who laid the groundwork for derivative securities; and to Benjamin Graham, who wrote the book on securities analysis. Anyone interested in the modern institution of American finance will devour this history of some of its most important players.

This is a tale about big business, an imploding dynasty, a mogul at war, and a deal that sums up an era of change. The main character, rocked by feuding factions and those who would remake it, is the Wall Street Journal, which affects the thoughts, votes, and stocks of two million readers daily. Sarah Ellison, while at the Journal, won praise for covering the $5 billion acquisition that transformed the pride of Dow Jones, and of the estimable but eccentric Bancroft family, into the jewel of Rupert Murdoch's kingdom. Here she expands her work, using her knowledge of the paper and its people to go deep inside the landmark transaction, as no outsider has or can, and also far beyond it. With access to all the players, Ellison moves from newsrooms to estates. She shows Murdoch, finally, for who he is--maneuvering, firing, undoing all that the Bancrofts had protected.--From publisher description

They were both born in the nineteenth century in humble circumstances– Helena Rubinstein in an orthodox Jewish household in Krakó w, Poland, Elizabeth Arden on a farm outside Toronto. But by the 1930s, they were bitter rivals in New York, the rulers of dueling international beauty empires that would forever change the way women thought about cosmetics, salons, and wrinkles. This riveting biography brings these two celebrated women to life, revealing the ruthless drive and innovative business strategies that took each to the top. Along the way, it offers an intriguing look at their personal idiosyncrasies (Rubinstein collected art, Arden racehorses), their checkered marriages, and the rarefied social milieu in which they both traveled.

For an extraordinary fifty-seven-year period, one of the nation's largest and fastest-growing companies was run by two men who were flesh and blood. The chief executives of the International Business Machines Corporation from 1914 until 1971 were Thomas J. Watson and Thomas J. Watson, father and son. That great corporation bears the imprint of both men but it also bears the consequences of a family that was in near-constant conflict.Sometimes wrong but never in doubt, both Watsons had clear — and farsighted — visions of what their company could become. They also had volcanic tempers. Their fights with each other combined with their commitment to leadership and excellence made IBM one of the most rewarding, yet gut-clutching firms to work for in the history of American business. Both Watsons had deeply held beliefs about what a corporation is and should be. These ideas helped make "Big Blue" the bluest of blue-chip stocks during the Watsons' tenure. These very beliefs, however, also sowed the seedsfor IBM's disasters in the late 1980s and early 1990s, when the company had lost sight of the original meaning behind many of the practices each man put into place.Tracing the family's idiosyncratic ability to cope with each other's weaknesses but not their strengths, The Watson Dynasty is a book for every person who ever went to work but didn't want to check his personality at the door.

A rare perspective on the personal philosophy, business savvy, and future of the chairman of the most admired company in the worldJack Welch, chairman of General Electric, is due to retire this spring. Welch has transported GE into the new economy with his management style, his forward-thinking approach to new technology, and by encouraging creativity among his employees. This book provides a look at what the innovative powerhouse executive has brought to American business and what will ultimately be his legacy. Thorough, authoritative, and absorbing, Welch: An American Icon includes interviews with CEOs at other leading companies who have worked under Welch and been trained by him, as well as interviews with other GE executives.

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.

Although Lew Wasserman's name may not be immediately familiar, he was one of Hollywood's most powerful players. A shrewd and driven man, he helped build an empire that reached into almost every branch of the entertainment industry, and his rise from agent to president of the renowned Music Corporation of America (MCA) made him a legend. Bruck, a staff writer at The New Yorker and author of Master of the Game, chronicles this singular tale of success, along with that of the MCA itself and its enigmatic founder, Jules Stein, a medical student whose tenacity turned a 1920s booking agency for bands into an industry force. Bruck's research is outstanding and her approach is thorough. The result is a remarkable volume about high-level wheeling and dealing set against startling stories of the business and social interconnections between Wasserman and almost everyone everywhere-from the White House and major corporate entities, to famous members of the Hollywood community, to unions and the underworld. Those who are interested in comprehensive details about the inner workings of the entertainment industry-its history, business, customs, people, and gossip-will find this a fascinating read and a solid resource.

As portrayed by Washington Post columnist Mallaby, the charming, powerful, Australian-born millionaire James Wolfensohn works to transform the World Bank, of which he is president, from a Cold War dinosaur obsessed with regulations and procedures to an organization that is leanly and meanly focused on getting underdeveloped countries onto the economic grid on their own terms. Without a doubt, Wolfensohn makes great copy: he competed in the Olympics, refinanced Chrysler in 1980 and chaired a variety of top-flight cultural institutions. Mallaby (After Apartheid) efficiently relays anecdotes from each of these periods to reveal Wolfensohn's psychological, professional and intellectual complexion. The brilliant and deliberative leader who emerges has the "10-million-volt passion" of wanting the presidency of the World Bank, and where the book really shines is in Mallaby's ability to integrate the political, social and interpersonal narratives that lead to Wolfensohn's ascension to it in 1995. Mallaby presents Wolfensohn as forcefully advocating self-determination for poor countries but finds that Wolfensohn has been "obliged to reckon" with the U.S.'s varying agendas "and generally with the shifting appetites of his rich political masters." That's a characterization with which not everyone will agree, but Mallaby forges it with skill, opening his subject to further scrutiny by all sides.

He was possibly the world's most flamboyant and notorious media tycoon. Unapologetic about his right-wing agenda, corporate manoeuvres, and lavish lifestyle, Conrad Black seemed untouchable with a newspaper empire that spanned three continents and a seat in Britain's House of Lords. In the fall of 2003 his carefully constructed world crumbled when his company accused him of siphoning off millions of dollars of corporate money. He now found himself the target of U.S. regulators, an object of ridicule in the international press, and a self-described "pariah" among the rich and famous he once called his friends." Business reporters Jacquie McNish and Sinclair Stewart have dug deep into Black's career by interviewing leading players and gaining behind-the-scenes accounts of his corporate machinations. Wrong Way offers an in-depth portrayal of how the seemingly invulnerable magnate of Hollinger International Inc. was brought down by his own shareholders and ousted as head of his company.