Amazon.com

The tale of Amazon.com is well known to anyone who follows the stock market, the book business, the Internet explosion--heck, it's hard to imagine not knowing at least a piece of this extraordinary story. But few, it would seem, know the entire story, and it's these gaps that Robert Spector's Amazon.com: Get Big Fast attempts to fill (or at least the information available in early 2000, when the book was published). For example, those who know about Amazon.com's paradigm-shifting influence on the book business may not know it wasn't even the first online book retailer, or the second or the third. (It was preceded by clbooks.com, books.com, and wordsworth.com, the last of which beat Amazon.com to the Internet by almost two years.) Those who've heard quirky stories about Amazon.com founder Jeff Bezos--for example, that he built his own desk out of a door, and that his mother bought the desk at an online charity auction in 1999 for $30,100--may not know that he was a studious overachiever from an early age. As a 12-year-old in Houston, he was even profiled in a book on gifted education in Texas. And those who marvel at the company's multibillion-dollar stock valuation may not know that it was broke and nearly out of business in the summer of '95.

Put it all together and you have a book that should be interesting to many different readers. As a pure business read, it certainly provides a blow-by-blow account of an important company's critical decisions. And anyone looking for a brief history of e-commerce will see how one idea--Bezos's realization in 1994 that Web usage was growing 2,300 percent a year--set the entire online retailing phenomenon in motion. If nothing else, that last fact should propel parents to pay very careful attention to their kids' math scores. Had Bezos, a summa cum laude Princeton grad in computer science, not realized the implications of exponential growth ... well, let's just say you wouldn't be reading this review right now. --Lou Schuler ... Read more

Reviews (51)

A good read for aspiring [online] start-ups!
This book helps me understand why Jeff Bezos left a 7-digit annual income to set up a new online bookstore. I also learn the advantage of his initial business plan (no warehouse unlike mortar-bricks, thus no inventory cost) and how he has to tweak it almost every 6 months.

If you are planning to set up business online, whether small or big, this is an encouraging book to read. Of course it tells you a lot of the good things about amazon.com and Jeff Bezos, but that is what the author wants us to gain: learning from amazon.com.

I don't think this book is biased. If Jeff Bezos were involved in this book, I'm sure he'll tell all the positive about amazon.com, since he's in the PR spotlight too. The author also explains amazon.com blunders, and how it became a bit more "arrogant" than its young years.

Overall, a must read if you are looking for an inspiration to set up an online business!

Journalistic Material for Future Histories of Amazon.com
When I was trained as a historian, I came to realize that it is very important that contemporaries of an important events interview as many people as often as possible while the events unfold. These perspectives provide the key touchstones for the ultimate histories of the events. Usually such interviews are done by journalists. And that is what Robert Spector has done with the book, Amazon.com. I commend him for fulfilling that important role.

Those who want to understand what Amazon.com's brief history means for the New Economy, new business models, best practices in leadership and management, and its own future will have to look elsewhere. The book has almost no analysis of the material included here. Think of this book as though it were a series of magazine articles written over the last few years about Amazon.com and Jeff Bezos.

Mr. Spector makes an attempt to build a theme around the concept of Get Big Fast, first articulated in print by Robert Reid in the 1997 book, Architects of the Web. Amazon.com obviously pays attention to this idea based on the report on page 97 that the company handed out T-shirts with Get Big Fast written on them at its first employee picnic in 1996. But he fails to develop all of the dimensions of the point. How does this concept affect the stakeholders in Amazon.com (customers, users, partners, employees, suppliers, shareholders, and the communities the company serves)? How can the concept be adjusted to reflect changes in the company's external environment? How should a new company apply the concept? There is an important debate today about whether Amazon.com's current direction will or will not pay off for customers, employees, or shareholders. That debate is largely ignored in the book. That's an important omission that greatly limits the book's value.

I do recommend reading the book. It did add details to my knowledge about Amazon.com which I am sure will be valuable to me in the future as an author, reviewer, associate, and customer of Amazon.com.

This book is a good example of one form of the communications stall: failing to communicate what people are most interested in causes missed opportunities to make progress at a rapid rate.

Keep asking your questions about Amazon.com, and someone will eventually answer them. Perhaps it will be Amazon.com itself. That would be welcome.

The Company, Not the River
The most telling detail on Amazon in this book was on page 132: When publishers and authors asked Bezos why Amazon.com would publish negative reviews, he (said) Amazon.com "was taking a different approach, of trying to sell all books...the good, the bad, and the ugly...doing that, you actually have an obligation...to let truth loose.'"

Whichever publishers and authors those were, they epitomize the sort of thinking that a new business model sweeps away. When someone responds negatively to their product they seek to silence that person. Failing that, they repackage the same product. If that doesn't work, they rename the product. Then they present the product in a different size. Anything, abosolutely anything, but listen to the customer who gripes.

I don't think Spector grasps the depth of this change. When Amazon gives a forum to ordinary people to speak where previously only "professionals" could, that's as profound a shift as from monarchy to democracy. Giving equal space on the electronic bookshelf to an arcane book on geology and a convenience store bestseller is as revolutionary as Martin Luther's 95 theses getting equal billing with the pronouncements of the pope. In terms of sales, if I can buy what I want instead of just what the "professionals" want me to buy, I'm going to buy more.

Most of the other factors in Amazon's success have been done before: hiring smart people, working long hours, providing great customer service...but no other retailer ever had a selection larger than the Library of Congress. And no other retailer ever gave customers around the globe a public forum for feedback. I would have liked to have seen more on this unique aspect of Amazon in GET BIG FAST, and less of the sort of business school platitudes that make up the "Takeaways" sections at the end of each chapter.

Amazon on Amazon
I love the book. Though not bought at amazon. :< The story of how a not known internet company to a successful and real big one. How the company relied on open source and slowly as it get bigger used more commercial software. It describe how a man vision can come true by believing. Truly amazing book, I like one part of the book which says 'How do Amazon review this book for themselve?'. It's a good read

A recitation of history, with no analysis
While many who are reading this review are probably interested in the website story, this book is probably not the one to read. The author did not have access to Jeff Bezos and many other key players when writing this book, and the lack of first hand information shows.

It reads like a detailed, outsiders view of the history of the company. This happened, then that happened, then the site did this other thing. There is very little discussion of *why* these events and actions were important. And most importantly, very little context as to how the site changed the face of internet commerce.

This book is certainly not the definitive work on [site], which is still to be written. A better (and funnier) look at the internals of Amazon can be found in "21 Dog years - Doing time at Amazon.com". ... Read more

Book Description

Reviews (40)

Ever Since the Boston Tea Party...
As I was composing this review of Unequal Protection, I got another whiff of the smelly state of corporate dominance in political affairs. The Supreme Court, in a 7-2 decision, today upheld the constitutionality of the Copyright Term Extension Act (1998) in the case of Eldred v. Ashcroft. The CTEA is a de facto CPIA: a corporate profits insurance act. How did corporations, who lobbied for the CTEA and won out over the rights of the public domain, get to have more rights than people? That is one key question that author Thom Hartmann addresses in his book, subtitled "The Rise of Corporate Dominance and the Theft of Human Rights."

In a democracy, writes Hartmann, the government protected the Commons - that which we all must share so that we all may enjoy it in perpetuity. The Commons used to include the air, the water, the forests and its wildlife, the land and its minerals, and even the electromagnetic spectrum (the airwaves). Government also authorized, through a charter, and regulated, through laws enacted with the public weal in mind, that legal agreement called the corporation. At the core of corporate power, writes Hartmann, lies the concept of the corporation as a person, with similar rights to those of natural persons (human beings), for whom the Constitution was presumably written, since nowhere in the document are corporations mentioned.

Indeed, for the first century of American history, no court has applied Constitutional rights to corporations. It wasn't until an 1886 case, Santa Clara County (CA) v. Southern Pacific Railroad (118 U.S. 394, 396, brought against a corporation for non-payment of a $25 fee!), that corporations were then assumed to be persons. Assumed, that is, not because the Court said they were, but because the headnote in the book recording the decision said they were. And although headnotes carry no legal weight, it was because of that erroneous assumption that courts ever since have been citing Santa Clara as establishing the "personhood" of corporations.

This was no small mistake, however. As Hartmann points out, corporations were quick to claim Constitution protection for free speech (First Amendment), privacy protection (Fourth Amendment), freedom from searches and seizures, double jeopardy, and self-incrimination for criminal wrongdoing (Fifth Amendment), and claims of anti-discrimination protections under the Fourteenth Amendment - the amendment that was presumably passed to free slaves. Not bad for a precedent that was "never voted by the public; never enacted by law; never stated by decision after arguments before the Supreme Court"! Indeed, in 1938, Justice Hugo Black noted, "Of the cases in this court in which the Fourteenth Amendment was applied during its first fifty years after its adoption, less than one half of one percent invoked it in protection of the Negro race, and more than fifty percent asked that its benefits be extended to corporations."

Hartmann takes pains to assure his readers that he is not anti-corporation, but he also thinks that the protections in law afforded to corporations since 1886 have been unequal, vis à vis those afforded to persons of the human kind. It took until 1920 for women to get voting rights, that is, the ability to affect the political process that every adult person enjoys. It took more than 100 years for human beings with African ancestry to be recognized as persons with the Civil Rights Act of 1965. The rights of workers to organize are only sporadically recognized even today.

Part of the unequal protection of which Hartmann writes is a function of corporate wealth which, in effect, buys favorable legislation. And part is the absurdity of legally equating corporate persons with natural persons:

<> natural persons have the strength of one; corporate persons can have the strength of millions;
<> natural persons are expected to operate under moral constraints; corporations are expected to make money;
<> natural persons eventually die; corporations are expected to outlive their founders, theoretically forever;
<> natural persons can be convicted of murder and executed; it is rare that a corporation convicted of causing death has its charter revoked;
<> natural persons pay taxes; most major corporations are net tax receivers;
<> natural persons reside in a country; corporations can reside in any country, or no country, and can change residence (usually to evade taxes) overnight;
<> natural persons can give money to politicians; corporations can give millions to politicians;
<> natural persons can't own other persons; corporations can own other corporations;
<> natural persons can vote; corporations can't vote - yet.

So what would happen if corporations were deprived of the "personhood" they were erroneously granted in the first place? Corporations might start acting like good citizens, looking out for the community in which they do business, obeying laws, paying taxes, keeping the environment clean, paying a living wage... Any number of good things can happen: corporations would have no rights, only privileges designated by the state in which they are chartered. And because they would exist at the pleasure of a government created by human beings, they would be held accountable to the public or lose their "life" (their charter). Right now, only unions, churches, unincorporated businesses, partnerships and even governments have privileges rather than corporate rights. Yet all seem to be thriving without being defined as "persons" under the law.

Unequal Protection includes a chapter (3) on the first anti-corporate protest: the Boston Tea Party, which was actually a protest against the (British) East India Company. The book concludes with a hopeful section on "Restoring Democracy as the Founders Imagined It." What Hartmann may be saying is that perhaps it's time that we get back a little power for the people.

PRO-DEMOCRACY, HISTORICAL ANALYSIS OF CORPORATE TYRANNY
Thom Hartmann's Unequal Protection: The rise of corporate dominance and theft of human rights could have served as a model for Thomas Jefferson on how America's corporations should have been controlled by the U.S. Constitution. Jefferson sent recommendations, such as including a bill of rights, in letters from Paris to James Madison who was at the constitutional convention in Philadelphia in 1789. If Jefferson could have anticipated that America's corporate genie would some day take over the whole country, he might have passed Hartmann's suggestions on to Madison for putting the genie back into its bottle. At the turn of almost every page of Unequal Protection, there is an undercurrent of restoring Jefferson's dream of an egalitarian democracy, now being usurped by giant corporations in America.

The Introduction to Hartmann's book tells us, " ... [it] is about the difference between humans and the corporations we humans have created. The story goes back to the birth of the United States ... this book is about values and beliefs ... I'm visiting stories of democracy and corporate personhood ... (It's amazing what we don't learn about in school) ... I'm suggesting we should put corporations into their rightful context and place ..." The Prologue concludes, "In Pennsylvania's Thompson Township, the Chairman of the elected township supervisors, Bruce Bevins said, 'A person is a living thing and a corporation is not." These are the first shots in a new American Revolution, one that will be fought with petitions and votes instead of guns and troops. It's a revolution to win back democracy."

Possibly the best part of this book is saved for last: Part 4: Restoring Democracy As The Founders Imagined It. This is not a Pollyanna collection of feel good, social action proposals but rather hard nosed, practical remedies for using the political and legal American institutions that exist. The recommendations, collected in the appendix, are backed up by well organized, factual information aimed at legally removing personhood from corporations. Filling over fifty pages with interesting and useful information, the appendix appropriately begins with a Postscript that is a verbatim quote of the 1936 acceptance speech in Philadelphia by Franklin Delano Roosevelt upon his nomination for President by the Democratic party. Back then, Roosevelt tried raising the alarm about the "New kingdoms" built upon concentration of control over material things. "Through new uses of corporations, banks and securities - all undreamed of by the [Founding] Fathers - the whole structure of modern life has been impressed into this 'royal' service," he warned.

With Unequal Protection, Hartmann has written an important book that deserves to be taken seriously. Even those who consider themselves well read will learn a great deal about the hitherto not well described, but fascinating history of the rise of American corporations. Also, those who value democracy and detest corporate tyranny have to read this book for learning how to reestablish the government for and by the people within our society as was originally intended by the Founders.

Should Corporations be able to Vote?
Prior to the first century no court applied constitutional rights for corporations. In 1886, Santa Clara County verses Pacific Railroad, in a head note explain the case the author implied that "corporations were persons" as a reason for the court administering a 25 dollar fine to the corporation. The foundation for "personhood" gave rise too a constitutional claim of equal protection of the law for corporations. Using this precedence, Corporations were quick to fight for constitutional protections for 1. Free speech (1st amendment) 2. privacy protection (10th amendment) 3. Freedom from search and seizure (fourth amendment) 4. double jeopardy (5th amendment) 5. Self-incrimination (5th amendment) 6. and anti-discriminations (14th amendment). It seem corporations had done the impossible, they had received the same scrutiny or equal protection as race. Over the century, the vast number of 14th amendment cases has been equal protection claims against anti-discrimination policies for corporations. Corporations have established civil liberties and constitutional rights protected by law.

So why not let the corporation vote? One could argue, in a republican form of government a small governing body holds representation of power and decision-making; so, why not let corporations vote? Corporations represent the wealth, resources, and jobs of America. Further one may observe that the vested interests of the corporation could be represented, if they were given a vote. So why have corporation not been given the power to vote?

If corporations received the same protection as a person the democratic process would be destroyed. Apparently the founding fathers did not want to give corporations this level of power over the people, so no constitutional provision or implication was made to give corporations an elective vote for selection of a candidate or local law. Do corporation remain powerless or silent on this issue of voting constraint?

Corporations vote with money. In an election year politicians receive tens of millions of dollars to their party, which in my opinion is a loophole. Political campaigns were designed too be limited in the contribution amounts to safeguard against buying an election.

The magnitude of financial difference between corporate donations and people donations is staggering. Persons give hundreds or thousands of dollars too politicians, whereas, corporations give millions to politicians. This allows corporations too buy favorable legislation manipulation. However, the people still have the power too elect their government officials and this fundamental power gives the people the ability too prevent government representatives from being completely controlled by the corporations. If the elected official performs contrary to the people opinion they have the right the next election to select a different representative. The people have the power to select their representatives. The representatives have the obligation to listen to the interest for the people. The representatives are too account for good and moral decisions, while in office. It is the job of the people are too voice their concern, as poor legislation becomes law.
However, once in office, special interest lobbying applies pressure too government representatives for support to their viewpoints. These viewpoints may not be confined to America. Since, corporations are global entities and represent global interests, corporations can own more than one corporation; corporations often campaign for inter-continental interests in their campaign for rights, interests, and support with the government representatives. These corporations can span multiple countries, whereas, a citizen must reside in one country. The fact that corporations can represent viewpoints for various countries and receive legal and political recognition, as a person in this country seems grants foreigners a new level of leverage with the American political process.

If corporations have constitutional rights, do they have responsibilities to other citizens? Corporations have migrated from state privileges to constitutional rights. Corporations are expected to act like good citizens: pay taxes, obey the laws, keep the environment clean, and pay a living. Citizens are expected to operate under moral constraints, whereas, corporations are expected to make money. A corporation is not expected to operate on moral constraints. What that means is the corporation may apply force since no moral guardian stands in the way from them achieving their goal of profits. If no legal constraint exists, the corporation plows forward to make money without consideration of any moral constraint. For example, the liberal media corporations claim the right to freedom of expression. This means the corporation is free to sell media with high levels of sexual content, violence, and degrading morality. The impact can span generations. The selling of produce can span many decades because a corporation exists in perpetuity.

The produce is subject to taxation, protection under copyright law, and free commerce between states and other nations. Laws and regulations force the media companies too have movie content rated. Since companies have similar protections as persons, the first amendment rights extend too the corporation.
The first amendment includes prohibitions against the government from censoring speech and freedom of expression and this gives the corporation a tremendous liberty to sponsor lascivious and immoral content in movies.

How Corporations Came to Rule
How is it that corporations have come to exert so much power and influence over our everyday lives, to have rights and privileges unavailable to individuals, to take so much from, and return so little to, the general wealth both of this country and the rest of the world?
Thom Hartmann traces the history of corporations from their Elizabethian inception in the East India Company to the present; he describes in some detail the changes in the relationship among corporations, their governmental patrons and their societal prey. Historically corporations were granted charters by governments subject to their being monitored, controlled and mandated to provide for the general good in exchange for specific commissions and concessions. In America's early history, this principle was understood and effectively implemented to control the excesses of corporate behavior. Then in 1886, the US Supreme Court ruled on arguments in the case of Santa Clara County[CA] v Southern Pacific Railway. A clerical misstatement in the court reporter's notes, separate and distinct from the formal decision, led to the interpretation that the Bill of Rights was intended to apply to corporations, not just individual human beings. Although Jefferson had cautioned specifically against the power of corporations unrestrained, thenceforth their lawyers have succeeded in prizing successively greater concessions from and precedences over the rights of individuals.
Acceptance of corporations as 'persons', entitled to the same rights and restrictions as human beings, has come to be capriciously applied. Corporations buy, sell, trade, dismember, even kill other corporations - the corporate equivalent of slavery - without being held accountable as they would if corporations were human beings. There are other glaring inconsistencies in the logic of corporate 'personhood' but our law is governed more by precedent, than by logic, or common sense. Once entrenched and established, no matter how egregiously erroneous, the tradition of corporate personhood would take an act of Congress, or an amendment to the Constitution, to rectify the mistake.
There are a number of fallacies in the assignment of 'person' status to fictitious, fictional entities such as corporations. A principal function of good government is to level the playing field between the weak and powerful, to protect the weak from the predatory ravages of the strong. Although all 'men' are presumed equal, in rights if not in innate abilities, corporations are clearly, intrinsically, manifestly vastly more powerful than any one man or small group of men. As Hartmann shows, this difference in power is important yet our present governance fails utterly to protect the populace from the ravages of corporate rapacity and indifference to the plights of its victims.
Although the purpose of government is to provide for the general good, while minimizing harm to the weak and minority interests, the purpose of corporations is to accumulate wealth for its management and stockholders without regard to the source of that wealth. The wealth of a few individuals is not coincident with the general good. Nor are the managers and stockholders of a concern, a tiny subset of the general populace, coincident with the general population. Thus the purposes of good government in general do not coincide, indeed are often at odds, with the purposes of any given corporation.
Further, the activities of corporations in the aggregate - concentrating and focussing wealth for their individual stockholders by taking it from the general population - does not result in general good for the population. The myth that entities acting in unrestrained pursuit of their self-interests somehow produce the greater general good is amply disproven by the history of the American experiment. Rather the general wealth and good is redistributed, concentrated and focused to the benefit of the most powerful and the detriment of the least. Left to themselves, corporations parasitize the general population, suck the wealth out of it for corporate gain while often degrading the environment and denuding the resources employed to accumulate that gain. Corporatism results not in shared wellbeing for the general population but concentrated and focussed wellbeing for a few in a sea of general deprivation.
In other chapters, Hartmann describes the effect of Free Trade and the supranational World Trade Organization: to ravage national economies for the benefit of Corporations, to degrade the wellbeing of the middle class and workers in developed countries, only minimally to improve that of those in developing countries, while enriching the beneficiaries of corporations. Wealth and wellbeing are transferred from those who need it, to those who have it already.
Mussolini defined fascism as the merger of state and corporate power. It appears that America, indeed the entire planet, is well on its way to becoming a fascist state. Ruled by corporations, our 'elected' leaders and representatives are beholden and accountable principally to the interests of their various corporate contributors, only secondarily to the public. It is perhaps ironic that Hartmann, a self-confessed 'founder and former CEO of seven corporations that have generated over a quarter billion dollars in revenue', concludes this fascinating book with proposed grass-roots intiatives to unravel the tangled skein of corporate dominance. He offers no alternatives to the corporate model for the management of production and the distribution of wealth and wellbeing. Rather he advocates the return of effective control and regulation of corporations to the people, making them less the victims of corporations and more their overseers and regulators; and he and offers model actions to be pursued at the local level. But the present processes of government from legislatures to the courts are seemingly similarly enthralled to business interests intent on maximizing profit, not the general welfare. Whether or to what extent anything can be done to reverse this state of affairs is unclear. Readers will be provoked to wonder whether there are other means of advancing the general good and wellbeing than increasing the disparity in both for the general populations. Rather than a definitive solution to the problem of corporatism, this book provides a clear, readable and provocative depiction of the extent of that overwhelming problem.
...

The Ascent of the Artificial Person
The story that Hartmann tells is one that everyone should know, but nobody does: how the corporation came to have the power it now has as an institution in the United States. Normally, when activists or the general public confront the sheer, imposing bulk of the corporatocracy, we get diagnoses of greed and corruption, with antidotes of regulation or resignation. But what Hartmann uncovers is the very specific LEGAL history of how corporations came into being in their modern incarnation. There are a handful of pivotal Supreme Court decisions that laid the tracks for the freight trains of abuse and audacity that then rolled on through, and all over regular citizens.

This is a very important insight. Since the corporation's power is fairly narrowly and legally based, it can be undone as well. The notion that we can regulate big companies into being good "corporate citizens" is nonsense if we don't withdraw the legal basis of their recognized rights. Constitutional protections should be for natural citizens only, period. We should be able to hold corporations to whatever standards we want, since they are simply artificial profit-machines with no inherent legal standing vis-a-vis the rights of natural citizens.

As always, Hartmann's writing is engaging, precise, and exciting. Buy this book!! ... Read more

Book Description

JOHN CHAMBERS AND THECISCO WAY: Navigating through Volatility
Under the leadership of CEO John Chambers, Cisco Systems has become one of the world's leading technology companies. Chambers's management philosophy and business strategies have allowed Cisco to dominate the computer networking industry and to move into cutting-edge telecommunications markets. In the few short years since Chambers took over as chief executive, the once-invisible "Internet plumbing" supplier has become a household name, and its CEO has emerged as a leading light in high tech.

John Chambers and the Cisco Way: Navigating through Volatility offers an up-close look at the career, philosophy, and vision of one of America's top CEOs. Through expert insights and extensive interviews of industry analysts, venture capitalists, and Cisco executives, employees, customers, and competitors, this engaging book skillfully explores Chambers's rise to prominence and the evolution of Cisco Systems.

High-tech reporter and author John Waters traces Chambers's career from salesman to chief executive, explores his management style, and details his victories and defeats as Chambers steers Cisco through the unpredictable and volatile technology sector.

You'll see how past business experiences–both good and bad–have shaped the way Chambers manages today, and learn how he keeps Cisco on top by:

• Utilizing networking technology to speed processes and slash expenses
• Listening to customers to remain competitive in rapidly changing markets
• Empowering employees for light-speed decision making
• Organizing the company around networks instead of rigid hierarchies
• Implementing a proven growth-by-acquisition strategy
• Efficiently integrating acquired companies
• Aggressively moving into new and broader business segments

Reviews (2)

Surprisingly readable
I was given this book as a present. I warmly thanked the giver for her thoughtfullness, but secretly, I dreaded reading the book. These unauthorized bios are generally either full of senseless/salacious details, or they're dry as an annual report. Most of them are suitable as torture devices. Why do I bother you ask? Knowledge is power, and I invest in stocks.

Well, big surprise.

This book reads with an almost perfect balance of translated tech talk and personal detail about Chambers. This is no simple feat for the author, as Cisco's core business is anything but easy to explain, but you will be amazed at how much you painlessly learn about the innards of the net and how / where Cisco fits.
I could go on, but your time is better spent buying and reading this book.

I hope Waters has another of these in the hopper.

How the Computer Industry Was Born
This book is interesting, packed with facinating facts and I love the way it explains in "real people" language just how the whole computer industry got started. It also offers insight into the character and effective management practices of John Chambers, without being a flattery piece. The book communicates the fast-paced life in Silicon Valley and extends beyond the Cisco experience to in-depth explanations of how the computer industry giants grow, compete and sometimes die. A wealth of knowledge with an insightful look at a manager who has worthwhile practices to share with any of today's managers. ... Read more

Book Description

In The Great Game, acclaimed business historian John Steele Gordon chronicles the rise of Wall Street from its humble beginnings as an American trading post to its domination of the world economy, bringing to life the remarkable cast of bankers and brokers, visionaries and crooks who made it happen. From Alexander Hamilton to Michael Milken, the history of Wall Street is a history of risk, courage, avarice, patriotism, power, genius, and, occasionally, remarkable stupidity. In Gordon, Wall Street has finally found a biographer worthy of its extraordinary story. ... Read more

Reviews (14)

The great game is a great book
If money interests you, then you should read this book. As a Wall Street professional I was enthralled by this easy read about the history of Wall Street. Mr. Gordon does an excellent job of taking us from Wall Street's unambitious start as a northern line of defense for a wilderness trading post to the its role as the most powerful stretch of pavement on Earth.

Some of the unique things you will learn include

1. Who invented modern capitalism (hint: Tulips, 1700th century)? 2. The establishment of our federal tax system 3. What structure made NY city the US's largest city 4. Wall Street's first and greatest speculators 5. The creation of the Federal Reserve System

Gordon does a great job of introducing us to the most powerful people the world may have ever known. The most notable include JP Morgan, arguably the world's greatest banker; Hetty Green, the richest (and most paranoid) woman in the world; Charles Merrill, the man who brought Wall Street to Main Street; and Michael Milliken, the world's most famous Wall Street villain to wear a toupee.

The story of Wall Street is truly extraordinary. Its history is littered with courage, greed, jealousy, genius and lots of stupidity! John Steele Gordon does an admirable job of hitting all the salient points while making the journey enjoyable and memorable. Buy this book and read it!

Interesting Overview of Wall Steet's History
John Steele Gordon is an engaging writer. Anyone familiar with his magazine articles in American Heritage knows he is adept at holding readers' attention over several thousand words.

This book reads like a collection of magazine articles. The chapters focus on different personalities or events that shaped (or epitomized) Wall Street over the last two centuries. While there are some attempts to link subjects to their past (notably in the development of rules and regulations), the book reads more like a collection from various time periods rather than a synthesized whole.

What the reader gets are interesting snapshots. And Gordon does make them interesting. Always an engaging writer, he mixes the right amount of fact and commentary to keep a credible story moving along at a nice pace. The author does justice to many fascinating personalities (Hamilton, Fisk, Gould, Vanderbilt, Morgan, Greene, Kennedy, Milkin and Boesky), and events (panics, depression, corners, theft, corruption, manipulation) that have shaped the American financial system since the dawn of our Republic. The chapters are just long enough to gain an appreciation for the subject at hand, but not too long as to bore.

This book is not a study or treatise on financial products or their development. These are mentioned in passing so as to give familiarity to the reader. But, do not expect to learn about how stocks, derivatives or mutual funds (etc., etc.) work in detail here.

While this is not an in depth study of the Street, it is an excellent and engaging survey that will interest the general reader.

From the inception to present day stock market
This book describes the events and how the stock market came into exsistence.It mentions the events that has fuelled the market booms and busts , the regulations and new rules that were placed after each bust to prevent another bust and the great people involved -- just reminds you that their is nothing new under the sun especially what is happening in the stock market now .I recommend this book to anyone interested in the mechanisms in the stock market and how the booms and busts have created a stock market that has created wealth and admiration all over the world

Outstanding History of a Global Power
I purchased this book after watching the CNBC adaptation, and was prepared for a less than sterling treatment (given CNBC's past book adaptations). I was pleasantly surprised to discover that Gordon has written an enjoyable and thorough treatment of the street. Indeed, in retrospect, the CNBC adaptation does not do justice to the work. I highly recommend this work.

The best financial history book I read
This book gives a comprehensive history of Wall Street from the colonial times to the present day. It is very comprehensive and detailed. ... Read more

Book Description

Praise for WHAT I LEARNED FROM SAM WALTON

"Michael Bergdahl’s book presents unique insights into the staggering international success of Wal-Mart. Throughout the pages of this book, you can almost hear Sam Walton himself coaching and inspiring his legion of employees to greatness."
–Tracy Mullin, President and CEO, National Retail Federation

"Retailers, non-retailers, manufacturers, and suppliers will enjoy Bergdahl’s insights into Wal-Mart’s service culture and its leadership icon, Sam Walton."
–Roger J. Dow, SVP Global and Field Sales, Marriott International, Inc.

"Mike Bergdahl, in his book, What I Learned from Sam Walton: How to Compete and Thrive in a Wal-Mart World, has provided a complete digest and compilation of the various objectives, tactics, policies, procedures, mindsets, and culture used by the world’s largest retailer.This book offers any business person the opportunity to assess and evaluate the effort, drive, and commitment, one must have to effectively and profitably compete at retail today against a formidable and predatory competitor. The insights, strategies, and steps presented are a career of observations in successful marketing, business efficiency, human resource management, and customer focus.All retailers today, face the challege of becoming and maintaining relevant to the consumer today.This book offers clear and concise suggestions on what has been done by Wal-Mart and what could, and may be done by all other retailers seeking to become alternative shopping experiences for the consumer."
–J.H. Campbell Jr., President/CEO, Associated Grocers, Inc., Baton Rouge, Louisiana
past chairman of the Board of Directors, National Grocers Association

Bergdahl outlines his competitive strategy with the acronym P.O.C.K.E.T.S.

P – Price: Don’t try to compete on price; differentiate your product selection.

O – Operations: Break the retail "ready, shoot, aim" tactical orientation by developing an actual strategy to compete.

C – Culture: Build a can-do culture with a strong sense of urgency. Communicate your values and beliefs over and over again to your employees.

K – Key Item Promotion/Product: Determine who you are and uniformly communicate your brand message to your entire team.

E – Expenses: Become obsessed about controlling costs.

T – Talent: Recruit constantly and hire people who have both experience and high potential.

S – Service: Never take your customer for granted. Empower your employees to make decisions involving customer concerns. ... Read more

Amazon.com

From test tubes to the Wall Street IPO and beyond, this is the riveting true story of a start-up pharmaceutical company working to create an anti-AIDS drug. Scientifically accurate, yet written with an attention to plot, timing, dialogue, and development of character more characteristic of the best thrillers. ... Read more

Reviews (17)

Fast-paced and Insightful
I first read this book nearly two years ago as research for a novel I was writing. Recently, I turned to it once more to pick up a few terms and found myself reading chapter after chapter!

This non-fiction tale has enough twists and turns and drama to match any thriller on the market. An informative and engaging tale of a pharmaceutical start-up and the people involved. Joshua is interesting enough that the book could have been solely about him, but he isn't the only one. All of the players in this ego-driven mega-drama are interesting on many levels.

Who would I reccomend this book to? Anyone who likes a well-told story. A background in medicine is not needed, and neither is a knowledge of business practices. All you need to enjoy this book is a brain . . . and a night light because you'll be reading this book deep into the night.

Extraordinary look into the world of Big Pharma
Barry's Werth spent several years with the scientists and bio-venturers who formed Vertex Pharmaceuticals. The work paid off in an insightful and entertaining book. The Billion Dollar molecule is the holy grail of the researchers in today's pharmaceutical world, and this book shows how they go about attaining it. A remarkably easy book to read even if you don't know a protein from a Springsteen. The reader can find something valuable from all angles. Read it as a science book, a thriller, a business narrative, or a straight novel, you'll find delight here.

The Billion Dollar Molecule - One Company's Quest...
A thouroughly enjoyable read, Werth sheds light on the personaliteis and complexities of an amazing and multifaceted business. Throughout, the author uncovers the unseen deal-making, hand-wringing, and fist clenching that dominate the start of Vertex, a strucure-based paharmaceutical firm.

I particularly enjoyed the background on the Boger-Schreiber collaboration and rivalry, and the ensuing rivalry in Vertex's own labs. Further, following the last few years of Vertex's ups and downs via the Internet has been thoroughly enjoyable.

Werth's style is easliy read, and his obvious unhindered access to Vertex and its people make the story enjoyable, suspenseful, and dramatic.

A Fictionalized Tale of Venality and Banality
This book garnered fifteen five star reviews at Amazon.com. Frankly I don't see how. After sloughing through 250 pages of exasperatingly detailed, fictionalized melodrama, I returned this book to the library.

"BILLION DOLLAR MOLECULE: THE QUEST FOR THE PERFECT DRUG" by Barry Werth is a diatribe against the defenseless scientists it purports to portray and reflects a jaded perspective that tells us more about Werth's dim view of human nature than about how Vertex became a success.

The characters are sketched almost uniformly as embodying the worst traits in human nature: narcissistic, self-aggrandizing, petty, conniving, ruthless schemers, and academic back stabbers. The character of one Dr. Schreiber, a distinguished researcher and scientist, is pummeled into submission, portrayed as utterly base, calculating and disingenuous. Schreiber is Mr. Werth's straight man, a punching bag for the author's preoccupation with uncovering the ugliness that mysteriously lurks within the rarefied air of scientific enterprise. This book offers up a Machiavellian smorgasbord of character flaws, a feast of delights for those who enjoy a good food fight along with their meal.

Werth portrays his characters, mostly scientists, as inveterate workaholics, utterly clueless as to the meaning of work-life balance, driven to the point of destroying their health even as they seek to create drugs that save and extend the lives of others.

The overwhelming focus on the cult of personality severely detracts from the book's message. It is simply implausible to believe that such top caliber scientists with stellar records of scientific achievement climbed to the top by dropping sludge from the back of a truck and treating their colleagues like adolescent brothers a couple of years apart. Perhaps this is the way Barry Werth sees the world, but it is a jaundiced view in my opinion. I simply refuse to believe that the prototypical biotech entrepreneur is a clone of Samuel Waksal.

This book fails to clearly explain the biological context of its more challenging scientific concepts. Mr. Werth assumes too much knowledge on the part of the reader as if this book was written for the life science cognoscenti to gossip about at the water cooler.

Werth often has little or no regard for the terms he so loosely bandies about. Why wasn't there a glossary to explain the more esoteric terms in the text? Would it have been so difficult to include a few skeletal illustrations for those without a strong background in molecular biology or proteomics? Even Michael Crichton includes some reference material in his books and they are fiction.

This book, a 464 page soap opera, is more helium than substance and that is being charitable. It is really a book about Mr. Werth's phantasmagoric view of how new drug discovery proceeds. I would venture that the sordid descriptions pinned to these characters would leave them aghast (if they had time to come up for air), their distinguished careers warped in a series of fun house mirrors. Or perhaps, given the utter implausibility of the portrayals, these folks had a good laugh about it, chalking it up as historical satire, reality TV with a scientific aura.

This book could have aptly been named "Who Moved My Cheese from the Lab While I Was on Steroids". I read this book to gain an inside view of biotechnology discovery, but the view I ended up with was one of fantasy, a parallel universe where the noble pursuit of scientific discovery is trumped by a Darth Vader triple helix of avarice, greed and cynicism - a universe I won't be visiting any time soon.

reads like a thriller
awesome book about a start up in the pharmaceutical industry. a must for everybody who works in this field or who thinks about founding a company in the chemical/pharmaceutical/biochemical field. a must read! ... Read more

Book Description

This is a newly revised and expanded version of The Houses That Sears Built.

This new edition includes more than 20 new photos of existing Sears Homes throughout the country as well as a plethora of recently discovered information.

This major revision also includes reproductions of newly-discovered original documents from the Sears Modern Homes Department as well as compelling interviews with men who worked at the Sears Mill in Cairo, IL. You'll also hear the fascinating stories from Sears Homeowners who actually built their own Sears Kit Home many decades ago!

Want to learn how to identify a Sears Home? This book contains new graphics, photos and easy-to-reference bulleted points that will tell you and show you - step by step - how to identify a Sears Home.

It also includes four brand new chapters, such as "Chapter 3 - The Amazing Mr. Sears; A Brief Look at The Handsome Genius and His Store," "Chapter 5 - Milling About Sears Homes, A Look Inside the Sears Mill at Cairo, Illinois," "Chapter 8 - Homart Homes, The 'Other' Sears Homes, "Chapter 11 - Those Dandy Houses, Testimonials; Trivia and Reminiscences of Building a Sears Modern Home."

Since the first edition of The Houses That Sears Built was published in Spring 2002, the author has appeared on CBS Sunday Morning News, PBS's History Detectives, A&E's Biography and WGN-TV News, as well as the New York Times, Christian Science Monitor, Dallas Morning News and more than 50 regional publications. As a result of this publicity, Ms. Thornton has received more than 1,000 emails and letters from readers all over the country, telling stories and sharing precious memories about their own "Sears Modern Homes," and she incorporated many of these stories into this new edition.

This new edition of The Houses That Sears Built is more than a revision - it contains a tremendous amount of new information and trivia and wonderful photos that the Sears Home enthusiast will treasure and enjoy!

About Sears Homes: Between 1908-1940, Sears customers ordered about 75,000 houses out of the Sears Roebuck and Company mail-order catalogs. The houses were shipped by rail to city lots and farms all over the country.

Each "kit home" contained 30,000 pieces, including 750 pounds of nails and 27 gallons of paint and varnish. A 75-page instruction book showed home buyers, step by step, how to assemble those 30,000 pieces of house.

Only 10% (approximately) of the Sears homes in the country have been discovered.

Because of this, our communities’ best architectural treasures – our grand collection of Sears homes – are being damaged by remuddling and worse, demolished.

There is tremendous interest in this topic and hopefully, The Houses That Sears Built will spur that interest even further.

When you have finished reading The Houses That Sears Built you will be your community’s expert on Sears homes. You’ll learn how to identify Sears homes from the inside, outside and from courthouse documents. You’ll learn the interesting details of Sears homes’ construction. One chapter is devoted to the $1 million order of Sears homes that was shipped to Carlinville, Schoper and Wood River (Illinois).

Another chapter is devoted to "The Lost Sears Homes." These are Sears homes which appeared only once in obscure Sears Modern Homes catalogs and were not included in "Houses by Mail: A Guide To Houses from Sears, Roebuck and Company," by Katherine Cole Stevenson and H. Ward Jandl. ... Read more

Reviews (2)

And the Award goes to the reader
I would like to thank the Academy, my mother, my father, my teachers, my girl scout leader, my psychoanalyst, my minister, my co-workers, and everyone I have ever brushed a shoulder with in my entire life! But most of all I want to thank Rosemary Thornton for writing the book The Houses That Sears Built!

Ms.Thornton's book about everything you ever wanted to know about Sears catalog homes is the Holy Grail for anyone interested in a special piece of Americana. As a woodworking artist, I replicate historical homes and buildings into functional birdhouses. The Sears homes seemed like an interesting project, so I needed to do some research. Ms.Thornton's book seemed like the logical place to start. Little did I know that the research was going to be so much FUN!!!

The Houses That Sears Built not only gives you a practical and orderly reference to all the different models of homes that Sears offered during it's "hay day," it also offers up a light hearted look at our American way of life. It's the Grapes of Wrath on the sunny side. It's the Donald Trump copy cat story of Richard Sears without the annoying hair!!!

Just as Richard Sears offered a needed product to the everyday working family man, Rosemary Thornton's writing offers today's reader a much needed look at a simpler way of life. There is a real bonus to this book. Besides getting an accurate and factual account of The Houses That Sears Built, Rosemary Thornton's writing has taught me and told me a wonderful "tell me again" story.

Home Sweet Home!
This book chronicles the story (and the stories behind the story) of how Richard Sears got rich by bringing the opportunity of home ownership to others in and through the good and the bad times of the early 20th century beginning in 1915. Sears helped to fulfill the "American dream" for thousands of people who otherwise wouldn't have a home by marketing do-it-yourself homes through his catalog and how he created a market for his other catalog merchandise through the people who bought his homes.

The quality of these homes was second-to-none. Everything was pre-cut and fit together perfectly. All one had to do is follow the directions and blueprints which were supplied with each home. Each piece was numbered. The attention to detail was astounding because the reputation of the Sears company and the Sears home was precious!

The book further chronicles a different era in America when there was much more pride in quality and home ownership than there is today. Even with the technology that we are "blessed" with, I don't see our current society as having the vision that Sears and the other Empire Builders of America had. In those days, these people made a way out of no way. They found a way to get things done. By contrast, in today's society, all we do is complain and people with vision are suspect. The Sears catalog home adventure was the right thing to do at that time. Today, it would never take off.

And there was trust in those early days. Today, one has to beg the bank for the privilege of paying them mortgage interest. Sears would finance their homes and all they asked was one question that would be considered financial: "What is your vocation?" Or, to put it another way, what do you do for a living? They didn't care about how much you made or your Social Security Number.

This new 2004 edition of The Houses That Sears Built updates Ms. Thornton's previous effort with a lot of new information that will bring the reader up to date with her ongoing research. But above all, the underlying purpose of the book is to help you and me to find these gems in our respective communities. Ms. Thornton is working on another book and video to assist us in that endeavor.

The only thing lacking in the book that I could see is an index. Other than that minor shortcoming, I highly recommend the book as must reading for students of Americana or those who are fascinated by the lore of the catalog. It is a fascinating story that just "grows" on you. Beware! Reading this book will "hook" you into finding Sears homes!!! Have a lot of fun doing it. ... Read more

Book Description

Praise for THE MAVERICK AND HIS MACHINE

"Like all great biographers, Kevin Maney gives us an engaging story and so much more. His fascinating and definitive book about IBM’s founder is replete with amazing revelations and character lessons that resonate today. Among the gems: how a demanding curmudgeon managed to shape a collaborative corporate culture–and create a legacy that changed the world."
–Rosabeth Moss Kanter
Harvard Business School, bestselling author of Evolve!
and When Giants Learn to Dance

"The gripping story of sky-high ambition, iron willpower, huge bet-the-company gambles, humiliating failure, and unparalleled success–one of the best books ever written about the technology industry, about one of the most fascinating people in twentieth-century America."
–Marc Andreessen
Cofounder of Opsware, Inc. and Netscape

"The story of Watson and IBM is a compelling–and, at times, cautionary–tale of a determined, charismatic, flawed, and ultimately successful leader.Anyone interested in the story of business in America, the birth of high-tech, or simply the rags-to-riches tale of one determined businessman should read this book."
–Robert M. Menschel
Senior Director, Goldman Sachs
author of Markets, Mobs, and Mayhem

"In an action-packed story that reads like a novel, Kevin Maney paints a convincing portrait of a man who, having been a convicted criminal, redeemed himself and reshaped the American business landscape. The career of Thomas Watson, the effective founder of IBM, is not only fascinating, but offers many critical lessons on management and personal conduct that remain extremely poignant today."
–Peter Krass
author of Carnegie ... Read more

Reviews (15)

Nobody Tells it Better
OK, so I admit that absolutely nothing about this book drew my attention EXCEPT the name of the author, Kevin Maney. Any devotee of his columns in USA Today knows his ability to tell a story. Yes, I knew I should be intrested in the life of Tom Watson -- he was, after all, one of the first "celebrity CEOs," although the term hadn't been invented. But I never thought I would be so fascinated by a man and his story.

This is a must read for anyone who wants to get a sense of what real leadership is all about. Watson was leading before there were books on leadership and studies on communictation. He was managing corporate culture before there were words for it. He saw his company -- and his employees -- through transitions that go well beyond mainframe vs. PC. When his technologies were rendered obsolete, he simply invented new ones.

Anyone with aspirations to lead should read this book. It's so action-packed that you may forget it's a true story. But it is. And I can't wait to see the movie.

What an incredible story!
Ok, I admit to being a Maney fan. His trademark wit and wisdom about the tech industry are legendary.

While his wit twinkles throughout this book, it's his insight and ability to weave a fascinating tale that are truly on display here.

Watson, while no saint, deserves his legendary status. He created new ways of doing business during a time of great change and upheaval. While much of industry and finance were rife with hucksterism and scandal, Watson (ultimately) preached a focus on ethics, customers, quality, employees, and teamwork - all messages that resonate today. In an eerie way, we find ourselves living in similar tumultuous times that echo back to the early and defining Watson years. It makes this story even more riveting, and the lessons that it teaches truly relevant today.

This is clearly a serious piece of research masquerading as a 'can't put it down' bestseller.

Watson's story is a must read for every businessperson who aspires to greatness.

Highly Recommended!
This book seems to have been written primarily because the author learned about the existence of boxes of Thomas Watson's papers that had never been read by any biographer or journalist. In some cases, the author's access to these new materials does help fill in some minor gaps in the existing accounts of Watson's life. And cumulatively, they take some of the shine off the legend, impressing upon one how humdrum the daily life of even a business titan must be. This book is reasonably well written and packed with memorable anecdotes. While it doesn't offer stunning new insights, we commend it as a readable, accessible and balanced introduction to one of the greatest executives of the twentieth century.

The Story of a Leader
All great stories have a good guy and a bad guy. In this story, it's the same guy. Thomas Watson, Sr., by sheer force of personality, created IBM.

The best part of this book is the IBM songs at the end of every chapter. They are hillarious, but probably no more so than some of the silly cheers dot.coms used to pump up their employees.

But back to the story: Mr. Watson created the first tech growth company of the 20th century. Mr. Maney had unbelievable access to Mr. Watson's personal notes and correspondence as the primary resource to tell how he created IBM. Some of the details about meetings, drawn from the transcribed minutes, give an eerie "you are there" quality to the book. One feels almost as terrorized as the executives in those meetings.

In reading the book, one gets the clear message that Mr. Maney would have really liked to have met Mr. Watson. He truly admires his subject while at the same time showing warts and all. This is not a soft treatment of Mr. Watson. Yet, you can almost hear Mr. Maney saying between the lines, "I just wish I could have met that old S.O.B."

This book holds great detail but is an easy read. Mr. Maney's style covers the point without belaboring it. The book is often funny, sometimes sad but never disappointing.

A classic
If IBM and computers are synonymous, so are Watson and IBM. Whatever the criticisms and the controversies surrounding the 3 magical alphabets in blue, IBM is IBM. To build such a company from ground up, offering solutions to business and scientific computing and thereby acting as the catalyst for the process of economic progress during the most part of the twentieth century is by no means an ordinary feat. That was exactly the material Thomas Watson Sr was made of. Watson has done his job and done it well and now Kevin Maney completes the rest by bringing this story in a truly remarkable manner to our bookshelves.

It is difficult not to fall in love with Watson Sr and his beloved company even half way through the book. From his humble beginnings to the misfortune at NCR, for nearly forty years Watson Sr is just another story of struggles, ups and downs. But to him, life just begins at forty with his job at CTR and of course the birth of Tom Watson Jr. The birth of IBM and its growth under the paternalistic care of Watson Sr through depressions, wars, booms and uncertainties gets a lion's share of coverage in this book. Watson Sr took big business risks bordering on a propensity to gamble, pushing IBM into higher orbits. Luck is the word the author takes recourse to while describing these successes.

The next logical part of the book deals with the succession plan at IBM that is a story by itself. Father, Son and Co by Tom Jr is widely quoted in these pages. The father's affection for his sons Tom Jr and Dick, his struggle to reconcile their differences and the frequent fights with Tom Jr are very close to what Tom Jr himself has described in his book.

The chapters on transformation of IBM into the era of electronics under Tom Jr and the trust suit that had a severe personal impact on Watson Sr deserve commendation.

While reading the pages where the old man bids goodbye to IBM and to this world, I stood up in salute to this great man. ... Read more

Book Description

The former CEO of Ben & Jerry's tells how two '60s holdovers built a single ice cream store into one of America's hottest companies."Deftly and compassionately captures [Ben's] genius in all its entrepreneurial splendor...This tale will keep you entertained."--New York Times Book Review. ... Read more

Reviews (6)

Good view of the how Ben and Jerry's developed
A good recount of how the company got going, but the last few chapters dragged.

There are things to learn about how Ben and Jerry developed their company:
1)They are geniuses at this. They actually figured out mass production without knowing what they were doing, they figured out marketing from scratch, they encountered financing and survived.
2)They had a near masochistic willingness to work. Boy did these guys work hard (it would kill me to do what they did, even if I had the will to do it).
3)They could adapt incredibly.

4) and finally: There are pitfalls and prices to trying to make social profits and business profits at the same time and to not planning your company to be as big as it already is.

You can learn about businesses in their growth phase from this book. You can learn about making sure a company has sufficient controls in place for its size. You may be able to learn whether you have what it takes to be an entrepeneur.

The first 3/4th of the book were fun to read but for some reason the last couple of chapters, when Ben and Jerry were playing less of a part in the business, were slow and boring (I don't exactly know why but I know they dragged).

Not for serious business interest
I read this book at the suggestion of a business school professor. It was supposedly a great illustration of the trials and tribulations of entrepreneurs.

I found that the book tried more to be humorous than to convey any business knowledge to the reader. Everything seemed to be an inside joke. Rather than producing a well thought-out account of a business experience, the book fell flat with dumb humor. I was very unimpressed with how the company was run, and I don't feel like I got much from the book.

The Inside Scoop is just that !
It's a chronicle of the intriguing journey of junior high friends who split the $5 cost of a home study course in making homemade ice cream and turn it into a $237 million company (1999 sales). Ben & Jerry's antics of giving away ice cream so they can 'get the ice cream into people's mouths so they will buy it,' take on some unusual situations. Free cones are offered to folks who register to vote, donate books to Head Start, or send postcards to elected officials for a variety of causes, and to celebrate at Fall Down Festivals with block long stilt walking races, music and other amusements. Solar-powered mobiles are used to transport the ice cream and a show on the road. They still sponsor customer appreciation day once a year when free cones are dipped all day.

It's hard to resist a bowl or cone of Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough or Cherry Garcia as you read this humorous show and tell of two guys who really want (and do) make a difference. You'll be ready to book a snow shoe tour of the Vermont plant by the time you finish reading about these guys' mission. Their values-led business (in addition to having fun) is to produce the best ice cream from Vermont dairy products, to increase the value of the of the company for the stockholders and create career opportunities and financial rewards for employees, and to improve the quality of life for the community. (They donate 7.5% of pretax profits to Ben & Jerry's Foundation that supports a variety of causes that improve the quality of life for children.)

I'm using this book as a project for an organizational communications course and enjoyed the reading (and eating) more than I ever expected. It was the most fun I've had doing homework!

the subtitle says it all
This was a really good book that shows "How Two Real Guys Built a Business With a Social Conscience and a Sense of Humor." This should be required reading for MBA's along with Hawkin's Growing a Business.

Hope for the Little Guy
Although Ben & Jerry's: The Inside Scoop was a little long-winded at times, I thought it was a good easy-to-read book for non-business majors wanting to start a business. Lager's style of writing makes Ben & Jerry seem like two regular guys up the street who had a dream and went after it with all the gusto they could muster. The book would not serve as a business plan protocol necessarily, however, it does display the true entrepeneriual spirit needed in order to make a business successful. Lager does a wonderful job of showing how Ben & Jerry fed off of each other and when one door closed in their face, they found another way in through a different door or window -- exactly what has to be done if you are going to grow a successful business.

Lager captured the realism of the trials and tribulations experienced by most individuals who begin their own business. I would recommend this book to anyone who was thinking of beginning his/her own business because it gives a look at the real side of starting your own business by making Ben & Jerry two real guys who simply wanted to start their own business so they did not have to work from 8:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. for someone else. By putting all the business jargon aside, I felt this was a worthwhile read for someone who needs the reassurance that anyone can start a business and this is how Ben & Jerry started theirs. ... Read more

Book Description

From the bestselling author of F.I.A.S.C.O., a
riveting chronicle of the rise of dangerous
financial instruments and the growing crisis in American business
The still-unfolding financial story is terrifying. One by one, major corporations such as Enron, Global Crossing, and Worldcom are imploding all around us, prey to a greed-driven culture and dubious or illegal corporate finance and accounting. Our financial system has suddenly reached a perilous crossroads.
In a compelling and disturbing narrative, Frank Partnoy brings to bear all of his skills and experience as a securities attorney, financial analyst, law professor, and bestselling author to tell the story of the rise of the trading instruments and corporate financial structures that now imperil the economic health of the country. Starting in the mid-1980s with the introduction of the first proto-derivatives, and taking us through such high-profile disasters as Barings Bank and Long Term Capital Management, Partnoy traces a seamless progression to today's dangerous manipulations. He documents how each new level of financial risk and complexity obscured the sickness of the company in question, and required ever more ingenious deceptions. The story becomes more alarming with each passing day, but Partnoy offers a clear vision of how we can step back from the precipice.
... Read more

Reviews (16)

his first book was better
I am about halfway through this book, but so far I enjoyed Frank Partnoy's first book, "FIASCO: Blood in the Water on Wall Street", much better. FIASCO was mainly an auto-biographical account of Partnoy's career at Morgan Stanley. Writing about his own life afforded Partnoy the opportunity to be more anecdotal and humorous about his subject matter. In this book, his focus is on scandals that made the headlines, or even worse, were suppressed from greater public knowledge. (Enron, LTCM, Orange County, the Salomon Bros Treasury auction scandal, etc).

He recants these tales with tongue in cheek humor, and he translates finance-geek-speak into a language which people outside of the business can understand. However, in his Vernacular translation, he loses some of the wind of the real story. Maybe its because I am in the business, so no details need to be spared for my benefit, but I would have preferred reading more technical accounts.

At any rate, Partnoy is a crusader, out to teach the world about the dangers of financial products. Frankly, I think he goes to far in his ranting, and this book is merely a vehicle for him to advance his agenda of reform and regulation. Its true that some people have exploited the market for less than altruistic purposes, but the truth is that derivatives have been more beneficial than harmful to the global financial system. To tell the tale all of the evil in the financial markets without mentioning the good is misleading.

Get this book if you want to understand Wall Street antics
This book is an absolute must read if you want to understand Wall Street shenanigans. Partnoy has done a phenomenal job of demystifying the world of swaps, derivatives and other exotic financial instruments. Even better, he shows how investment banker antics have affected Main Street inhabitants including yourself. How did Orange County and so many other municipalities get so deeply in trouble? The author explains.

I have a Ph.D in business and many finance courses under my belt, but I never quite understood the systemic dangers of the 'financial innovation' that is sweeping our markets. Now that I have, I will sleep much less well at night.

Partnoy describes the evolution of exotic instruments and the characters involved in this evolution. How CS First Boston made securites of virtually any type of debt, Salomon pioneered the CMO and so on. He details the specific wrongdoings of companies like Enron, Global Crossing and WorldCom. He shows you the enabling role played by gatekeepers like accounting firms, law firms, analysts and credit rating agencies.

Even more important, he shows you exactly how the collusion happened and why. He gives you both an aerial view of the markets and a down-in-the-trenches description. I often wondered why, in efficient markets, participants voluntarily involved themselves in such convoluted transactions that had high costs in terms of record-keeping and fees. The answer, as Partnoy shows, is that virtually all of these arrangements permit some set of parties to subvert law or regulation or both. This is true domestically and internationally.

He graphically describes how lobbying keeps regulators at bay and the venality and ineffectuality of politicians. The chairperson of the Commodities Futures Trading Commission, for example, exempted important parts of Enron's business from regulation and, just weeks later, joined Enron' board. There are many such stories that show exactly how self-serving our legislators and regulatory guardians are.

My quibbles are minor. While Partnoy is clear, his language is colorless. Perhaps his legal background has something to do with this. Given the strength of his material and the depth of his research, he could have made this book a popular bestseller if he had used more forceful colloquial expression.

Also, he does not talk at all about the role of technology in this evolving mess. Greedy, incredibly smart bankers have always been with us. What has permitted them to have this huge impact now is the ability of computers to churn massive amounts of data, pick out the faintest of patterns and keep records of incredibly complex transactions involving dozens of parties over vast stretches of time.

This said, this is the best book I have yet come across that explains how and why large scale financial malfeasance happens. And why it is hardly ever punished. You will understand why the perpetrators of Enron, Global Crossing, Adelphia, WorldCom, Sunbeam and so many others will walk and hold on to their vast gains. Start praying that there is justice beyond our courts.

Good advice and exiting facts
This book it's a very exiting journey since the late 80's until the issues of enron and worldcom, it covers step by step how financial innovation has been changing and is a good reference for anyone who likes true stories.

Partnoy is the man !!!
POSITIVE: In-dept overview of what happend in the last 15 years in "high finance". The authors knowledge on the topics can hardly be beaten. Author pretty harsh in critisicing Moodys, CDOs etc. Very interesting findings (e.g. trading profits at Enron, harsh treatment of Quattrone). The author provides some good solutions in the finance world at the end of the book.

NEGATIVE: Value creation, especially of derivatives, is not mentioned in the book. Thus, book rather critical. Book not as readable as FIASCO due to more difficult topics (and NOT authors fault).

Partnoy's still complaining.
Frank Partnoy, author of this book and the very silly 'FIASCO: Blood in the Water on Wall Street', implies an illustrious career structuring and selling complex derivatives. In actual fact he worked on Wall Street for just two years in total ' straight out of college. Instead of succeeding by staying the course, Partnoy made his millions by violating the Wall Street code of omerta and knocking out a sensationalist, mostly ignorant, account of the year or so he spent at Morgan Stanley. Infectious Greed is the follow-up, which purports to document the wreckage across the market since.

Having read FIASCO, which was valuable mostly for its unintended humour, I didn't expect much of Infectious Greed; I was rather looking forward to slating it, to be honest. It has the same air of maiden-aunt prurience as FIASCO but, almost despite himself, Partnoy's conclusions here aren't especially objectionable, and mostly undermine the tone of studied outrage he cultivates throughout the early part of the book.

The thesis of the book is that the financial markets have, of late, been corrupted by deceit and risk (hang on a minute: financial markets are *about* risk. Is it meaningful to say they can they be corrupted by it?). Yet at least half the book recounts events in the derivatives market which took place ten or more years ago, in the primordial soup of the derivatives market. If a week is a long time in politics, a decade is an aeon on Wall Street: in 2004, the exploits of Bankers Trust and CS First Boston in 1993 aren't exactly current. The nascent derivatives market is now a mature trillion dollar industry. I dare say Professor Partnoy wouldn't recognise it.

Partnoy's explanations of the transactions are, however, lucid: so much so that they undo his conclusions. At one point he describes in two paragraphs the 'whipsaw' risk of an 'Inverse IO' instrument. It's a very clear explanation, which completely undermines his concluding observation that 'it was unclear whether any mutual-fund mangers [the investors] understood all of this'. Here's the thing: to put not too fine a point on it, a professional fund manager who doesn't understand what can be lucidly explained in eight sentences, yet still invests in it, should be shot. So should his employer. And neither deserves the respect (for which, read, money) of the public. It might seem a harsh lesson, but it wouldn't take too many collapses to shake the mums and dads in Ohio out of their complacent stupor and shift their funds to a manager who was prepared to employ qualified managers and supervise them properly. The market has a way of teaching people valuable lessons that market regulation and government bail-outs really don't.

The funny thing is, Partnoy does continually stumble over this axiom, but doesn't recognise it. He quotes a Peat Marwick partner who derides ignorant fund managers thus: 'if you don't understand, you might as well place it all on red at Atlantic City or Las Vegas, because at least there you get free drinks.' Though Partnoy doesn't think so, the analogy is a good one: the very nature of Las Vegas (and Wall Street) ' its immense and lavish megaliths ' is the most graphic illustration of the fact that, unless you really know your onions, you are NOT going to end up a winner. The house is; which is why it can afford to build a full size Tomb of Tutankhamen in the middle of the hotel and charge only fifteen bucks a night for a room. Like Casinos, Wall Street trading desks have a motive ulterior to realising some poor schmuck's American dream; the object is to make ' not lose ' money, and this is exactly what they do and a statistically constant basis.

Partnoy repeatedly calls for regulation of the derivatives market without ever making a case for how this might be done or how it would prevent the losses he documents in the book: criminal statutes don't stop people committing murder, after all. All the regulation in the world won't stop fraudsters (if they're committing fraud, then by definition the regulations are already there, and they're breaking them). On the other hand, exploring the idiosyncrasies of rules *without* breaking them is the prerogative of every citizen, not just Wall Street banks. After all, regulatory arbitrage is only possible because of prescribed regulatory rules tend not to precisely reflect economic reality. If rules have irrational boundaries, then it is economically rational to exploit them.

Eventually, Partnoy acknowledges this. He cannot ultimately muster much venom for the perpetrators of the Enron debacle, and by the epilogue, where he sets out his recommendations (full marks to him for putting his money where is mouth is, by the way: it's one thing to criticise; quite another to suggest a solution) his proposals don't include regulation of the wholesale derivatives market ('some derivatives markets might app