Book Description

Success is even sweeter the second time around

In this inspiring book you will meet twelve extraordinary people–from a software tycoon to the founder of a toy empire–who soared to the top of the business world only to plummet like Icarus from the heights–at which point their real stories,excitingly told in this book, begin. What follows in each case is a remarkable, true tale of despair overcome, confidence reborn, goals redefined, determination rediscovered, and success reclaimed!

Never deterred by minor setbacks, disappointments, or missed opportunities, these business giants faced utter ruin in a bewildering variety of forms, from personal bankruptcy and business failure to devastating illness, natural disaster, and even criminal indictment and incarceration. Yet, each of these modern-day heroes, though forever changed, scarred, and humbled by tragedy, discovered an unfathomable reserve of strength and dedication and rose again.

Prepare to redefine your notion of what it means to overcome any obstacle in your path to success. Prepare to meet twelve men and women–including Donald Trump, Larry Ellison, and Emma Chapell–who will awe you with their courage, inspire you with their vision, and help you find the strength and passion to make your own dreams come true, again and again. ... Read more

Reviews (2)

A Great Gift Book
I gave this book to my father for his birthday--but it was one I had to peek at before I wrapped it. I ended up reading the whole thing. A quick read that inspired me-- it is great to know that successful people have had obstacles to overcome and the rise to the top is not an easy one. I found this a great gift to give to anyone who works in the business profession.

Great book, great format, inspiring down-to-earth examples
I enjoyed the 12 short stories in this book, each one highlighting a businessperson overcoming amazing challenges to become successful (or, if they were already successful when crisis hit, what they did to remain that way). The wide range of professionals presented also shows that the determination and vision of one person can truly make all the difference (albeit sometimes painfully) irrespective of service or industry. ... Read more

Book Description

While we were waiting for the Internet to make us rich -- back when we thought all we had to do was to buy lottery tickets called dotcom shares -- we missed the real story of the information economy. That story, says Bruce Abramson in Digital Phoenix, took place at the intersection of technology, law, and economics. It unfolded through Microsoft's manipulation of software markets, through open source projects like Linux, and through the file-sharing adventures that Napster enabled. Linux and Napster in particular exploited newly enabled business models to make information sharing cheap and easy; both systems met strong opposition from entrenched interests intent on preserving their own profits. These scenarios set the stage for the future of the information economy, a future in which each new technology will threaten powerful incumbents -- who will, in turn, fight to retard this "dangerous new direction" of progress.

Disentangling the technological, legal, and economic threads of the story, Abramson argues that the key to the entire information economy -- understanding the past and preparing for the future -- lies in our approach to intellectual property and idea markets. The critical challenge of the information age, he says, is to motivate the creation and dissemination of ideas. After discussing relevant issues in intellectual property and antitrust law, the economics of competition, and artificial intelligence and software engineering, Abramson tells the information economy's formative histories: the Microsoft antitrust trial, the open-source movement, and (in a chapter called "The Computer Ate My Industry") the advent of digital music. Finally, he looks toward the future, examining some ways that intellectual property reform could power economic growth and showing how the information economy will reshape the ways we think about business, employment, society, and public policy -- how the information economy, in fact, can make us all rich, as consumers and producers, if not as investors. ... Read more

Reviews (1)

Great storytelling
Don't be scared...this is MIT press, but popular writing. Abramson nails it: why it happened, what's apt to happen in the future. But most of all, this is a great read--the stories are told with such panache that you hardly realize that you are tackling cutting edge issues in law, economics and, yes, politics. Worthy of reading twice: once for the stories, once for the underlying arguments. ... Read more

Amazon.com

Despite their shared preference for keeping a low profile, Vice President Dick Cheney and Halliburton, his former employer, gained notoriety in the aftermath of the war in Iraq thanks to a series of lucrative government contracts awarded to Halliburton, for which they never had to bid. Business journalist Dan Briody sheds light on the history of the company and demonstrates how its present-day relationship with influential politicians is not anomalous but part of a time-honored yet ethically suspect tradition of doing business. Briody introduces Erle Halliburton, who was born into poverty but found great financial success with innovative oil well technology. And while Halliburton avoided getting close to elected officials or pursuing government contracts, the Brown brothers of Texas-based Brown & Root made the nurturing of "pet politicians" a top priority as they grew their construction business into one of the most powerful in the nation. The Halliburton Agenda details the mutually beneficial relationship the Browns shared with an up and coming Lyndon Johnson as money and influence flowed freely between the two. Halliburton acquired Brown & Root in 1962 and with it, Briody contends, plenty of questionable business practices that continue to this day. Dick Cheney looms ominously on the book's cover but he doesn't appear much in the book until fairly late in the Halliburton story. Still, because Cheney's early-1990s' appointment to the job of CEO (after no private sector experience) and departure to be Vice President in 2000 coincided with an upsurge in Halliburton revenues and controversies, there's plenty of material to examine. While many have questioned what sway corporations have in the George W. Bush administration, Briody's extended look at Halliburton's corporate culture and history provides enlightening perspective. --John Moe ... Read more

Reviews (9)

False advertising
I feel suckered by the publisher for buying this book. The title and the Dick Cheney cover suggest this is a book about Cheney and his tenure at the company. This book is told chronologically and runs 237 pages. Cheney becomes CEO on page 198 and leaves on page 215. This book should have been titled "Lyndon Johnson - The Senator from Brown & Root" as the bulk of the book is about Herman Brown bribing Texas Democrats to get New Deal era construction contracts.
The book sheds little information about Halliburton under Cheney's leadership as CEO or his relationship with the company as VP. What comments the book does provide about Cheney are mostly not researched data, but the author's rather paranoid assertions. I found the writing to lack credibility as the author seems torn between being a reporter and being a columnist. This conflict is evident in the poor job he does of distinguishing his assumptions from actual events.
Reading the WSJ coverage of the Halliburton investigation, one suspects that there is evidence somewhere that Cheney has abused his office to benefit his friends at Halliburton. There is a book there for a good journalist to write, but this not that book and the author does not appear to have hope of being that journalist.

Mostly very good
This is an interesting book and mostly correct. Near the end is a comment by the author that Dick Cheney is greatly admired almost as a father figure by today's Halliburton leaders. In fact, most thought his personnel management and business decisions were flawed and that he was just keeping a chair warm while getting rich and waiting for the opportunity to return to Washington, D.C.

Mixed Emotions: Too Short, and Surprisingly It Features LBJ
Did I get the wrong book from Amazon.com? The book is advertised to be a book about Cheney and Halliburton - it is about Halliburton but not Cheney. For example, pictures of Cheney appear on both the front and back covers of the book jacket. But that is very misleading. The book is not about Cheney per se; there are in fact only a dozen or so pages dealing with Cheney near the end of the book and he plays only a minor role; he finally appears on page 191 of the 237 added seemingly as an afterthought. Surprisingly, the dominant politician in the book is the former president and Texas native Lyndon Baines Johnson or LBJ. By my estimate and it is confirmed by looking at the index, LBJ takes up three times as much space in the book as Cheney, and furthermore he plays a much more important role in setting any "agenda" at Brown & Root - a subsidiary of Halliburton. Even though the book even if falsely promoted it is still an interesting read about two old US companies and their eventual merger; but at just 237 pages long in medium font is not a 5 star effort, just 3.5 stars, maybe only 3 stars at best.

The first company described is the oil well services company Halliburton started in approximately 1920 by Erle Halliburton in Oklahoma. Erle Halliburton died in 1957 leaving a successful and financially strong and independent business enterprise as his legacy. The second company is Brown & Root (B & R) that developed from being a Texas road construction company that was started around 1917 to become a major defense contractor. The business grew through political connections and after many decades B & R had become the largest engineering and construction company in the USA, boosted by the Vietnam war effort, and fed by a series of domestic and foreign construction and defense contracts stretching around the globe.

The book tells (very briefly) how these companies developed, merged in 1962 with R & B being bought by Halliburton, and how they became a major defense contractor. It also contains many side stories such as the influence of the rising political star LBJ in Texas, dam construction, back room operators such as A.J.Wirtz, political intrigue, the milking of Roosevelt's New Deal money, navy boat building, the fall of Leland Olds who was a bureaucrat blocking their expansion, the Johnson Space Center contract, Vietnam contracts, the LOGCAP contract, the Dresser merger, Henry Waxman's congressional charges against Halliburton and the sole sourcing, etc. Cheney appears near the end of the book and I did learn that Cheney flunked out of Yale and was arrested twice for DWI in his youth. There are a number of insights and comments on the current contracts to Halliburton. But since Halliburton had the LOGCAP contract before Cheney, it seems to me that Cheney played no more a dramatic role - I suspect - than any other good CEO or "rainmaker" might have played at Halliburton to boost its revenues.

As a book I would say it rates just 3 or 4 stars since as the author acknowledges that he uses and number of existing books such as "Erle P. Halliburton: Genius with Cement" and other publications, and most of the book is about the older history - as I said Cheney does not even appear until page 191 out of 237. So even when he appears the information is scant. Having said that it is clear the author has done extensive research, he has a nice reference section for further reading, he brings the story together, but overall it seems like a short collection of historical facts and tidbits. As it stands, it is more of a "gateway" book or introduction and it would have been a 5 star book if it was about 400-500 pages long and was more complete. But some of the references and 40 pages of notes at the back are worth a follow up read.

So surprisingly just 3 to 4 stars.

Jack In Toronto

It's who you know?
Regardless of your political persuasion, I recommend The Halliburton Agenda. Author Dan Briody follows Erle Halliburton's career from the oil fields as a driver in the early 1900's to the boardrooms where in the 1920's Halliburton was already a millionaire. During the same era brothers, Herman and George, founders of Brown & Root, the predecessor of the modern day Kellogg Brown & Root (KBR) that is now a subsidiary of Halliburton, began as road builders and garbage haulers in Texas and graduated to dam builders and became a major government contractor as they learned to work the political system.

The ties between the Brown brothers and politicians, most notably Lyndon Johnson, are revealed in some detail. It is a fascinating view. The ups and downs of KBR are followed through the decades as the construction firm lands contract after contract.

Early on, author Briody makes a strong effort to keep his opinions - if not his perspective - off the pages. Unfortunately later in the book, he does not stick to the facts, but occasionally opines. An example of this editorializing is found on page 211 when discussing Dick Cheney Briody states "Either way, he's not the man I want bending the president's ear on a daily basis." I would have preferred coming to that conclusion on my own.

Overall, the book has a good deal of balance with Briody giving space to others praising Halliburton's while raising questions about the LOGCAP (Logistics Civil Augmentation Program) design and bidding process.

I like timelines, charts and pictures. Unfortunately, this book has none. A timeline of the successes and failures with a listing of the contracts would be a nice addition to the book. Also, photographs of the major players and construction projects would add flavor.

Thank you, Mr. Briody
Thanks are needed to Dan Briody for writing this insightful, compelling, and truthful tale about the long and fascinating history of Halliburton. Voters need to read this book before the election in November. It is a moral imperative. ... Read more

Book Description

This is the story of two Wall Street Journal beat reporters -- one covering the energy industry just after the chaotic California electricity crisis; the other chasing stock swindlers. Together these journalists were ideally placed to uncover one of the great cons of the century. Here is a story about the fall of a great company, and the practice of journalism, marked by skill, luck, and determination.

24 Days is the gripping, untold chronicle of the investigative process -- often haphazard but imbued with insight and commitment -- that broke through Enron's stonewalling and exposed its inner workings, setting in motion a chain of events that shook the public's trust in big business, Wall Street, and the accounting profession.

In August 2001, Jeffrey Skilling unexpectedly resigned from his job as CEO of Enron after only six months in the top job. While Smith -- who had been covering the California energy crisis -- was away, the Wall Street Journal Los Angeles bureau chief drafted Emshwiller to interview Skilling. During a rambling conversation, Emshwiller stumbles onto an unlikely admission from the corporate prodigy, which partly confirms the journalists' suspicions that Skilling didn't quit for "personal reasons." This odd revelation raised ominous questions about Enron's much-bragged-about success.

The two reporters pick and pull at the mystery, and with the help of confidential sources, who understood Enron's inner workings, expose an audacious scheme: Andrew Fastow's off-balance-sheet partnerships that hid Enron's failings and inflated its value by billions of dollars. Refusing to be put off by Enron's arrogant dismissal of anyone who questioned the company's practices, Smith and Emshwiller relied on their instincts and common sense to shine a light into Enron's "black box" finances.

Climaxing in the brief period after Enron released disastrous earnings in October 2001, 24 Days gives a reporter's-eye view of the tug-of-war between journalists and a giant corporation. Each day, a new story uncovered another fact. Each day, the company issued denials. When the doubts and questions reached critical mass and momentum, the stock market cast its final vote of no confidence.

Reviews (24)

Great Story - But Bits Need Better Explaining
I thoroughly enjoyed the story of two journalists painstakingly uncovering Enron Corporation lie by lie. Brilliant insight into the little-known world of how the WSJ reporters approach major companies. This is an important read for all corporate PR departments and top managers. In today's world, exevcutives must know how to deal with the press. ... However, I am disappointed the authors didn't simplify the accounting transactions and take time to really spell them out. They could have used some illustrations to give an idea of what Enron's CFO was doing. I read the book carefully, but still can't explain to others the basics of "off-balance-sheet partnerships". So, you will find this book insightful. It is well written. The reporting has the WSJ truthfulness about it. But,I just wish they took the time to explain off-blance sheet partnerships. Many companies use them legally/ethically. So what are they? I am still not exactly sure what Enron did.

Terrific reporting on an important story
This is a terrific book. It should be read by anyone who invests because it will give you a better understanding of not only the Enron case, but of the problem of corrupt executives playing fast and loose with their responsibilities to the investors who employ them. Remember, the investors own the company, not the executives. They are hired help who are supposed to look after the interests of those who have put up hard cash for stock in the corporation and who are taking the financial risk as residual claimants. (Of course, those taking risks include the employees who probably have retirement investments in the company). It is a lively read and provides a great deal of valuable information along with the intrigue and outrageous revelations.

There are three story lines that flow like counterpoint. I found them riveting, but I enjoy reading about business. (You probably do as well, or why are you reading about this book?)

First, we follow Rebecca Smith and John Emshwiller as they track down leads in developing news stories about the sudden resignation of Enron's young CEO, Jeff Skilling. This seemingly minor story develops into the amazing and unexpected collapse of Enron as its corrupt financial dealings and improper accounting practices are exposed. We also follow the race between the authors as reporters for the Wall Street Journal racing against the New York Times, the LA Times, and the national TV news programs to get the story out first.

Second, we get the story of Enron and how Ken Lay, Jeff Skilling, and especially Andy Fastow worked hard to keep the true state of the company hidden from investors and regulators. We see how they drew others into their plans and punished those who wouldn't go along. The story makes clear how Andersen was brought down by an account team that allowed their lust for tens of millions of dollars in consulting fees to corrupt their accounting responsibilities.

Third, we see how both the climb and collapse of Enron affected average and honest people just trying to do their jobs. It was easy to get caught up in the rise of Enron and to believe in what was going on because the sickeningly corrupt practices were kept hidden for so long. Some of these executives, who reaped untold millions in personal rewards, might argue that everything was disclosed as required by letter of the regulations. But it seems to me that it was all just a way of lying while going to the right up to the edge of violating the letter of the law and then slipping over. Enron and Andersen management ended up not being as slick as they thought and ended up destroying both companies and hurting tens of thousands of innocent folks.

Another virtue of this books is that it is straight reporting. Rather than being advocacy journalism, it reports the facts of the case as they unfolded. I like this approach a great deal and think it strengthens the message of the book. You are free to make your own interpretation of the events presented. The authors do express their own reactions to certain events and revelations, but do not draw final conclusions of guilt or innocence. Nor do they try to apportion blame, although they do report comments and judgments of others who do.

Really, I wish this book would be read widely because it would help potential investors realize the need they have to pay close attention to the management team of companies they choose to invest in. They also need to educate themselves as much as possible on the industries and accounting practices of not only the companies they invest in, but also their competitors. Such awareness can help set off the "something isn't right" detector. Unfortunately, when things appear to be going well hard questions are usually not asked and when things fall apart it is usually too late to start asking.

This is a fine book that will have a permanent place on your shelf of business books.

Insightful and Disturbing
24 Days reads like a John Grisham novel with the (naturally) two journalists as the protaginists sifting through the piles of obfuscation to get to the truth. Ultimately, the book shows that those who raided Enron were nothing more than common crooks, con men and money grubbing amoralists whose only interest was lining their own pockets. Sadly, justice has yet to be (if it ever will) served against many who were involved and the connections between Enron and current Administration remain woefully underreported.

What I can say is that the two journalists have done a great job of showing how the house of cards fell down. My only criticism, and it's a minor one, is that to the layperson, many of the financial terms will be hard to understand and the complex transactions that hid the billions in debt Enron had can be difficult to follow. Otherwise, this is highly recommended reading for people who want to know what crony capitalism is all about.

Great summary from the newswire's angle...
This book gives a very clear description of "who knew what, when," or "who told what, when." The authors convey the excitement of trying to develop contacts within Enron and Arthur Andersen, and how they had to protect their sources. They describe in detail how they broke the story, and how, in 24 days, Enron and Anderson both imploded. I remember reading the original Wall Street Journal articles and being amazed at how the reporters covered the company, even after the media feeding frenzy began three weeks into the implosion.

I agree with other reviewers who say the accounting schemes needed to be explained better. Basically, one needs to know the relationship between a company's balance sheet and cash flow statement. With that, the reader can understand how Enron tried to off-load its liabilities (from the balance sheet) and used Special Purpose Entities (such as LJM, LJM2, and the Raptors, which Enron funded) to inflate their income. The Special Purpose Entities themselves "paid" for the Enron assets with stock that Enron supplied to the Special Purpose Entities (without charging Balance sheet "Equity.") Get it? The house of cards was OK until Enron stock began falling.

The story ends in 2003, and there have been a lot of developments since then. Nevertheless, this is an exciting story.

Interesting book, but fails to really exploit its strength
This is a pretty decent book. It gives a fairly good overview of what went wrong with Enron and a fairly good look at the process the authors worked through in reporting on Enron for the Wall Street Journal. So, why don't I rate it a 5-star book? Mainly because it doesn't excel in either area. As an Enron story, it's far less revealing than "The Smartest Guys in the Room". As a book about what it's like to be reporters breaking a huge story, I think it fails to convey the sense of excitement and accomplishment they must have felt. So, in my opinion, they produced a good, interesting book that fell far short of its potential.

My memory of the events unfolding around Enron's spectacular failure places The Wall Street Journal in a leading role in terms of pressuring the company to start to be more forthcoming in its public dealings. Surely there was a lot of intrigue and tension involved with being the reporters driving this story. But this book doesn't really give the reader a feeling about what that was like. Maybe it was as nearly routine as the feel of the book suggests, but I have to believe it was more gripping than that. And as far as telling the Enron failure story, this book gives a decent overview, but there are better chronicles of that story.

So, was I disappointed that I read this book? No, it was pretty good. I just felt it could have been a lot more. I think I'm coming to the conclusion that writers for periodicals don't tend to write the best books. They're good at "just the facts, Ma'am" storytelling, but to deliver a really outstanding book, a writer has to be able to use the larger canvas to paint pictures that he can place the reader in. These authors don't do that and, I'd say that unless you're pretty interested in the Enron story, you could skip this one. ... Read more

Amazon.com

In a corporate world where true value is no longer determined by physical assets alone, but instead by a combination of material and nonmaterial resources, businessman Leif Edvinsson and journalist Michael Malone propose a new way to bridge the gap between balance sheet and organizational reality. In Intellectual Capital: Realizing Your Company's True Value by Finding Its Hidden Brainpower, they explain why today's companies must take intangibles seriously--and how to measure them so they can. ... Read more

Reviews (7)

Superb Representation of the Breadth and Depth of IC
Edvinsson and Malone do an excellent job with a complex and relatively esoteric topic. The authors have created an enviable work and set up the foundation for companies and managers to act accordingly.

tapping human resorces in central asia
Its difficult to tap the exact talent in a thickly populated country with disturbed economy and democracy.Knowledge based industry cannot achive a break until unless manupulation is stopped in higher grades.Priority must be given to the basic human/mankind nature instead of mechanical approaches.There is a greater necessity of real/civilised kings instead of lion/uncivilised kings.

The Skandia Market Value Model
Intellectual capital is a truly critical topic for twenty-first century business. As known, the subject of intellectual capital appeared on the business world in the 1990s. Patrick H.Sullivan writes, in his 'Value-Driven Intellectual Capital,' "this history actually began in the early 1980s, as managers, academics, and consultants around the world began to notice that a firm's intangible assets, its intellectual capital, were often a major determinant of the corporation's profits...By the mid 1990s it was becoming clear that there were two separate but related paths of thinking about intellectual capital. One path, the knowledge and brain power path, focused on creating and expanding the firm's knowledge. The other path, the resource-based perspective, was concerned with how to create profits from a firm's unique combinations of intellectual and tangible resources."

In this context, by proposing a new intellectual capital measurement and reporting system, Leif Edvinsson and Michael S.Malone elaborate the Skandia Model. According to this model, Skandia divides market value into financial capital and intellectual capital. Intellectual capital is further divided into:

1. 'Human Capital.' The combined knowledge, skill, innovativeness, and ability of the company's individual employees to meet the task at hand. It also includes the company's values, culture, and philosophy. It cannot be owned by the company.

2. 'Structural Capital.' Brands, trademarks, written procedures for processes, and everything else of organizational capability that supports those employees' productivity-in a word, everything left at the office when the employees go home. Structural capital also includes customer and organizational capital, representing the external and internal focus, respectively, of structural capital. Organizational capital consists of innovation and process capital. Process capital is the sum of know-how that is formalized inside the company: manuals, best practices, intranet resources, project libraries are all part of the process capital. Innovation capital is what creates the success of tomorrow: it is the source of renewal for the whole company, and it includes intellectual assets and intellectual property. Unlike human capital, structural capital can be owned and thereby traded.

Finally, they argue that "rather than replacing the current financial measurement system, the product of generations, Intellectual Capital measurement in fact complements and augments it. Orthodox accounting has found its way again. It is relevant once more to our future. And thus the work of much of the last millennium is made ready for the next."

Highly recommended.

Interesting journey into the hidden assets of organisation
The hidden truth of harnessing knowledge within the organisation has been lucidly explained. This is of more relevance in the present IT revolution, where the synthesis and analysis of domain knowledge plays a crucial role. Ultimately this intellectual capital is what makes a country strong in economy. In a sense this can also be linked to collapse of the asian market (asian tigers) which was just a production economy, but not an intellectual economy. The policies in these economies in hand with the conglomorates never gave an opportunity to harness the human capital, which was a serious drawback.

Public policy makers, governments etc., should make a note of this. It is not just important to open up the economy, but it should give a serious try to harness its underlying human capital.

An Accurate Approach to Intangible Assets
This is an excellent books that explains how to fill the gap between the book value of corporations and their market value. This gap, represents the bulk of a company's real assets which consists of organizational knowledge, customer satisfaction, product innovation, employee morale, patents, and trademarks. However these so-called "intangible assets" never appear in financial statements. That explains why they are often overlooked and undermanaged.

In a straight forward language and concepts, Leif Edvinsson tackles the real source of wealth creation in today's learning corporations. He defines what is really meant by "Intellectual Capital", how it is classified, how it is measured, and how it can be used to create wealth to stockholders.

In today's rapid changing and turbulent technological environment, this book is an essential reading for those managing any kind of organizations today. Many CEOs are finding the hard way, that Intellectual Capital is transforming the nature of doing business by establishing the real value of enterprises for those who manage them, work in them, and invest in them The result is a whole new way in performing in an emerging information economy where brick and mortar corporations certainly are out of place. ... Read more

Book Description

Over 30 books covering individual states!

How to Incorporate and Start a Business in... covers every essential topic you need to understand to start a business right. Protect yourself and your business with expert knowledge provided in this book. The easy-to-follow steps and worksheets guide you through every aspect of incorporation and starting your own business. This book discusses in detail:

Selecting an operating entity-which one is best for you? Learn the pros and cons of each type:
Sole proprietorships
Partnership-general and limited
"S" corporations
Limited Liability Companies (LLCs)
Limited Liability Partnerships (LLPs)

The five necessary steps to incorporation-five essential moves you must know and follow:
Choose a name: learn the legal ramifications of this simple step
Prepare the Articles of Incorporation
Write the bylaws
Hold the organizational meeting
Issue the stock

Raising Capital-Avoid costly mistakes and financing pitfalls that leave other business owners behind:
Identify potential investors
Sell stocks, notes, bonds, or convertibles
Borrow money from banks, credit unions, and venture capital firms

Dealing with the law-Legal issues always come up, so be prepared:
Learn how to arm yourself with knowledge
Handle disputes
Tips to keep you out of court

Preparing Contracts and Leases-Learn the tricks of the trade to save you time and money:
Identify the essential elements
Master unique aspects of your business
Negotiate a lease for maximum benefit, minimum risk

Understanding copyrights, trademarks, and patents-How does this apply to you?
Learn how to copyright material
Identify the key elements of a trademark
Navigate the patent process

Mastering your taxes-Save money by following advice outlined in this chapter:
Choose an accounting method
Keep accurate records
Learn what you can deduct, and what you can't

How to Incorporate and Start a Business in... will also each you how to hire the best employees, extend credit to your customer, acquire the proper insurance for your business, and maximize corporate and executive benefits.

Don't be left out in the cold! How to Incorporate and Start a Business in... How to Incorporate and Start a Business in...will guide you past common snares and pitfalls that hamper the efforts of many new business owners. This book contains dozens of profit strategies engineered to maximize your profit and prevent common mistakes. Plus, this book outlines specific laws and procedures you need to be aware of to do business in your state. It's specifically designed for you. How to Incorporate and Start a Business in...is easy to read, informative, and will save your business both time and money. Use its expert advice to get you started and keep you business on the path to success! ... Read more

Book Description

Advance Praise

"It’s not a pretty story, but it is a well-told story of the decline and fall of Kmart, the discount chain that pioneered the new category that brought us Wal-Mart. Every would-be entrepreneur should read this cautionary tale."
–Al Ries, Chairman, Ries & Ries

"A well-written comparative analysis of why Kmart failed and Wal-Mart continues to thrive. The management lessons found in the book can be widely applied."
–Eugene H. Fram, J. Warren McClure Research Professor of Marketing, Rochester Institute of Technology ... Read more

Reviews (9)

Let me repeat that
The author has researched well, using many footnotes to indicate her sources. However, the book reads like a high school student's report of individual articles (too, the grammar and tone are often colloquially conversational) and there is little central organization to the book. The author frequently beats the same dead horse with so many different articles to support her view that you'll find yourself wondering if she a little defensive in making some of her points.

Her style of continually referring back and forth between Wal*Mart and Kmart left me feeling as though I were holding a finger in two different books and flipping back and forth. Comparisons of this sort are valuable, but the constant shifting of gears is distracting.

The book lacks the perspective from the inside. Isn't that what gets to the heart of the problem?

For readers with financial savvy, it would have been nice to see some financial and non-financial statistical tables and/or charts. Specifically, what was the impact on the financials during this time? The number of transactions? The average sale amount per transaction? A picture is worth a thousand words.

If you buy this book, read the first few pages of each chapter and you will have the main ideas. This book could have been half as long.

Very Interesting Analysis
I read this book with interest from both the perspective of a consumer and a business person. As a consumer, I stopped shopping at KMart a long time ago. This book gave me the understanding of how the customer service at KMart ended up being such a low priority to a retailer when it should have been the highest priority. As a business person, it was fascinating to read about one more example of how egos in Corporate America can cause the downfall of an established institution. A recommended read...

Well researched, well written. Well Worth Reading.
When I picked up this book, I expected to find some interesting insights into why KMart, once so widely known and popular, ran into all its problems. A company whose stores were once part of the American landscape and whose blue light specials were exciting mini-events, spun into bankruptcy on January 22, 2002. What happened?

I looked at the author's credentials and, frankly, was a bit dismayed that she was author of "The Unofficial Guide to Starting a Small Business." Even though the title is described as a best-seller, I questioned whether such an author would be able to produce the kind of study that the K-Mart subject demands. Looking further through the book, I discovered that my concerns were totally unfounded. This book is quite well researched, as evidenced by the abundant footnotes at the end of each chapter. Turner lists, in her acknowledgements, some of the people she conferred with in putting this book together. Impressive. Almost academic.

The book begins with two features I appreciated. One was a chapter, called the introduction, which effectively sets the stage for the in-depth look at what happened... and why. The other feature is a time line that includes progressive events at Kmart and at Wal-Mart. A fascinating fact to ponder is that Kmart and Wal-Mart were started in the same year. Throughout the book, Turner interweaves and compares the strategies-and implications-of Kmart, Wal-Mart, and Target, as well as other retailers. This approach adds value to this book for every retailer-every business leader-who designs strategy with anticipated results. The bibliography and comprehensive index make this book a most usable tool.

A chapter is devoted to each of the Deadly Sins: Brand Mismanagement, Lack of Customer Knowledge, Underestimating Wal-Mart, Lousy Locations, Ignoring Store Appearance, Technology Aversion, Supply Chain Disconnect, Lack of Focus, Strategy du Jour, and Repeating the Same Mistakes. You'll learn about strategic blunders, tactical mismanagement, and operation deficiencies that crippled the potentially powerful chain retailer. Details even go down to the level of describing how insufficient staffing levels in the stores confounded efforts to keep the aisles clear of incoming merchandise, let alone serve the customer.

While you'll shake your head numerous times as you read this educational and insightful book, you'll gain new perspectives and cautions in the way you run your own business and life. Highly recommended.

Good Book with Some Frustrating Shortcomings
Marcia Turner does an excellent job of laying out what KMart has done wrong over the years and builds a very convincing case, citing mostly secondary sources such as retail trade journals. The writing is clear and lively, but the "10 Deadly Sins" idea is rather tentatively executed. Many chapters discuss multiple sins, and partly because the entire history of the company has to be addressed in each chapter there is a fair amount of repetition.

But for me, the most frustrating thing about the book is that it is entirely an outsider's perspective. Turner does such an excellent job of documenting Kmart's persistent stupidity over many decades that at some point you want to hear from an insider to answer the question "what could they have been thinking?"

A particular strength of the book is laying out the competitive landscape of discount retailing. One major unanswered question (which, granted, would be very difficult to answer) is how big a role pervasive corruption has played in Kmart's decline. The conviction of a senior real estate executive for bribery indicates that self-dealing in the company may have gone back much further than the executives who put the company in bankruptcy.

K Mart vs. the competition
K Mart's 10 Deadly Sins by Marcia Turner is a well-documented story of a fallen giant. Ms. Turner uses respected individuals, former employees, specific examples and printed sources to make her points. It could very well be recommended reading for a business school course.
Ms. Turner cites specific problems and follows it up with particular remedies and suggests solutions. She compares K Mart to several competitors in an easy to understand format. It was an informative and enjoyable read on a timely subject. ... Read more

Book Description

The president and CEO of Scandinavia Airlines (SAS) shows how to adapt to the new customer-driven economy. "The best book on leadership by a CEO."--John Naisbitt, author of Megatrends ... Read more

Reviews (10)

Buy it,read it, then send it to your least favourite utility
Jan Carlzon was promoted from middle management to run Scandinacia's biggest airline. He is sometimes quite modest about the reasons for this rise to the top. His airline, SAS, had sunk to the bottom of the league tables for profitability and customer satisfaction. This is half the story of how Carlzon turned around the airline, and half a desctiption of what a Moment of Truth is and how to use the idea of a Moment of Truth to improve customer service businesses. Carlzon defines a moment of truth as that moment when an employee has a choice, and depending on that choice the customer will be either delighted or disgusted with the service. Carlzon goes into the reasons why employees do not always make the customer delighted, and what he did to change these factors at SAS. The book is readable, but the key idea, the moment of truth, is overed in a few pages, and easily remembered. For those who feel no need to proceed through life burdened with a large number of business books, this volume is just the right size to mail with a letter of complaint to a utility company whih has recently given ou poor service. It earned this reviewer a full refund on 4 months of bills for two telephone lines.

Both enlightening and witty
In "Moments of Truth" Jan Carlzon, the then president of Scandinavian Airlines System, tells the extraordinary story of turning a lacklustre state-run airline into a profitable business that consistently won passenger preference surveys. The central element of Carlzon's line of reasoning is the "moment of truth", a concept that was first formulated by Richard Normann in 1984 and which comprises the notion that a service company's overall performance is the sum of countless interactions between customers and employees, the so-called moments of truth that either help to retain a customer or send him to the competition. As Carlzon does emphasize, the implementation of the idea behind this concept is hardly an easy task to accomplish, especially so because it implies the transition from a production-oriented to a market-oriented approach within the company. The measures to be taken in order to make this strategic realignment possible include flattening the organizational pyramid, making sure everyone knows about the company's vision and, last but not least, empowering "front line" employees. Once these changes have been successfully implemented and are being pursued with perseverance, chances are that the outcome will be, as Carlzon puts it, "millions of satisfied customers and thousands of motivated employees".

"Moments of Truth" can be considered a prime example of how to explain a business strategy on very few pages and in an entertaining way. Although the book is written in an anecdotal style and can easily be read within a couple of hours, its contents are of interest and potential value to every manager in the service industry. Congratulations to Mr. Carlzon on a book that is both enlightening and very witty!

What an Airline CEO Should Be!
In this short book, Jan Carlzon relates how he righted three travel companies as CEO by listening to the knowledge accumulated by frontline employees and helping them do their jobs, rather than the other way around. Mr. Carlzon was spectacular in turning around the fortunes of Vingresor, Linjeflyg, and finally SAS. As head of SAS he was able to dispense with business as usual by listening more to the frontline employees, and scrupulously insisting on removing 'yes-men' from his inner circle, a policy that has also served Southwest amazingly well over the years. Although his tenure was not totally without controversy, Carlzon talks frankly about unions (he looks on them as partners and long-term stakeholders), and tough decisions, such as sticking with the trusted DC-9 when other airlines were buying newer planes merely for the sake of having newer planes, despite negative balance sheet implications.

This is a book that should be read by every business major, MBA, and airline employee about what is possible by working together. Sadly in recent US history most airline executives have been self-centered boors who don't care about the airline business, and have no long term stake in the company. Largely they have stayed around a couple of years, raked in millions (in some cases hundreds of millions) of dollars and then left a bankrupt or weak carrier in the lurch. Carlzon makes it clear that he is a capitalist, but a capitalist that realizes that if management and employees work together, solutions can be reached that will benefit all over the long term.

To the Boards of Directors of any airline anywhere I say this: read this book, learn how it should be done, and go out and get a Carlzon-school thinker for every executive position in your company. The long term results will amaze you. I could not recommend this book any more highly.

Moments of Obvious Truth
I read Carlzon's book as research for a book of my own. I only gave it three stars because it's a bit dated in 2003, but it most probably deserved it five-star reputation in the 1980's. As one who spent thirty-four years as a mechanic for United, many of Carlzon's revolutionary ideas were fairly obvious to the rank and file. The title really describes what is at the heart of Carlzon's genius. There is a "moment of truth" for each and every employee. Making sure that the employee, whether they be CEO or file clerk, is ready for that moment is what Carlzon is preaching. If this book is must reading for business leaders, then very few got the message. When Carlzon tried to flatten the pyramid and empower workers to make on the spot decisions at SAS, he got the most resistance in the USA. He blamed this on job insecurity in America and credited Sweden's strict labor laws as the reason that it worked there. His workers didn't have to worry about losing ther jobs if they made an honest mistake. Many of Carlzon's ideas are reflected at Southwest, so that proves that he was on the right track. This is not a "how to do it" book. It's a "how to learn how to do it" book.

Golden moments
Every passenger who travels by air comes across five short interactions of about fifteen seconds each with the airline staff. Jan Carlzon calls these as moments of truth. It is these moments that largely determine the image of the airline and customer experience. Frontline employees who are responsible for this interface , meeting customers and serving them, are the ambassadors of the airline who can find a place in the hearts of the customers for their airline. With such strong beliefs driven by a organization wide movement towards customer delight, SAS turns around and soars high, Capt. Carlzon in command .

Leadership is responsible to create the right conditions for decisions and action by line managers, flattening the pyramid and utilizing the vast energy released by groups of enthusiastic people. Primarily, it is people, not aircraft that matter.

- Consider the fact that you need to walk a mile to board the connecting flight at a transit airport. This is because aircraft have been parked by size and make at the airport hangars and not by passenger convenience.
- Till the food is served, one is not sure if the special meal ordered is on board. No one either at the check-in counter or boarding gate is able to assure this in advance and provide a sense of comfort to a tired passenger far away from home.
- A mother with her infant has anxious moments till she finds a cradle on board. She would have loved to have an empty seat next to her to take better care of her loved one.

Not to worry when you fly SAS. SAS employees, on the ground and in the air would do everything to ensure that you have a very pleasant flight. For them "Love is in the air".

This is just one aspect of what Carlzon has narrated, in first person in this book. If this is impressive, the rest is spectacular.

This book was written in the 80's and I am not sure what has happened to SAS since then. Take away from this book are moments that truly appeal to our hearts. Take care of customers and employees, who in turn will take care of the company's top line and bottom line.

Welcome aboard and happy reading. Love is in the air ! ... Read more

Book Description

Named one of the best books of the year by The Sunday Times of London, and already a bestseller in England, Noreena Hertz's The Silent Takeover explains how corporations in the age of globalization are changing our lives, our society, and our future -- and are threatening the very basis of our democracy.

Of the world's 100 largest economies, fifty-one are now corporations, only forty-nine are nation-states. The sales of General Motors and Ford are greater than the GDP (gross domestic product) of the whole of sub-Saharan Africa, and Wal-Mart now has a turnover higher than the revenues of most of the states of Eastern Europe. Yet few of us are fully aware of the growing dominance of big business: newspapers continue to place news of the actions of governments on the front page, with business news relegated to the inside pages. But do governments really have more influence over our lives than businesses? Do the parties for which we vote have any real freedom of choice in their actions?

Already sparking intense debate in England and on the Continent, The Silent Takeover provides a new and startling take on the way we live now and who really governs us. The widely acclaimed young socio-economist Noreena Hertz brilliantly and passionately reveals how corporations across the world manipulate and pressure governments by means both legal and illegal; how protest, be it in the form of the protesters of Seattle and Genoa or the boycotting of genetically altered foods, is often becoming a more effective political weapon than the ballot-box; and how corporations in many parts of the world are taking over from the state responsibility for everything from providing technology for schools to healthcare for the community.

While the activities of business, frequently under pressure from the media and the consuming public, can range from the beneficial to the pernicious, neither public protest nor corporate power is in any way democratic. What is the fate of democracy in the world of the silent takeover?

The Silent Takeover asks us to recognize the growing contradictions of a world divided between haves and have-nots, of gated communities next to ghettos, of extreme poverty and unbelievable riches. In the face of these unacceptable extremes, Noreena Hertz outlines a new agenda to revitalize politics and renew democracy. ... Read more

Reviews (33)

By Far The Best Examination Of The New Wold Order
Dr Hertz is a very articulate lady and her presentation of the issue is far from the biased-bipolar atmosphere that pollute the media in the United States, where the effect of Globalization could be as harsh as in the developing world, if nothing is done to tame the power the supranational entities continue to have over the elected governments. She presents facts supporting corporations as well as their counterbalance, which leave the reader with his/her option to decide accordingly. It's only in the final chapter that she proposes some solutions that should be expected in dealing with such a wide issue. Globalizations should not erase the social responsibility that governments have over the citizenry. And the role of the state is to provide for its citizen a safe and prosperous environment, not to bow down to the desire of the major corporations which benefits from more welfare than individuals and have failed to exercise the trickle-down concepts which the concensus have adopted...this book is a fresh reminder that in the absence of counterbalance the rich will find ways to widen the gap to their advantages and the most extremists among us will find an equal and opposite way to arise the passion of the discontent majority. Since we all have to share this planet we all will bear the social consequences, regarless of our hiding places. She is inspirational.

A weak link between capitalism and the ¿death of democracy¿
"The Silent Takeover" refers to the growing power of corporations vis-à-vis counties that is caused by global capitalism. Noreen Hertz argues that multinational corporations have become very powerful and politicians very weak; her thesis is best captured in this sentence: "by giving corporate wishes such priority, by defining themselves solely in terms of economic success, by supporting international institutions that value economic interests above all else, governments are in danger of becoming the puppets of business" (p.86).

But, as Dr. Hertz recognizes, this is nothing new. Indeed, one of the book's defects is the inability to connect global capitalism with many of the current trends. If anything, globalization lessens the grip that business have on politicians by opening up markets; as The Economist put it, "Far from empowering global fat cats, free trade holds corporate power in check and assaults the excess profits that protectionism, courtesy of pro-business politicians, gouges from the public" (28 Jun 03).

Still, Dr. Hertz raises some issues that are distinctively global: industry migration and tax competition. But Dr. Hertz seems to accept these arguments without skepticism: for example, she has a page-long citation on the debate about the "dirty industry migration" argument; after a dozen citations, she reduces her stance to saying that the argument makes intuitive sense, which is hardly a responsible stance in so contested a debate.

For all its defects, "The Silent Takeover" is right to point out that businesses are gaining power through politics, and that fixing the system requires some disconnection between them. That's the real message to take home from this book.

Informative and worth a look.
The author took this reader on an emotional whirlwind depiction of the state of mind of anti-globalism activism in the United States and Europe, for which I am grateful. Let me recall:

Corporations are intrinsically untrustworthy even when they try to do good. Rather than profitably sell goods to people at market clearing prices, they may choose to destroy or brutalize them (last chapter).

Governments are more trustworthy, as more representative, than corporations--although they refuse to listen to anti-globalism activists.

The street politics of anti-globalism protesters represent legitimate democratic interests that must be acted upon even if or though most citizens in the West disagree with their goals, and this will enhance democracy. This is true even though these protesters are, according to the author, particularly unlikely to vote.

The steadily rising per capita incomes of the world population has not brought all persons a level of wealth and leisure satisfactory to anti-globalist activists. This must be rectified immediately.

The shrinking of Western governments as a result of internal distributive demands outpacing the willingness of citizens to render more tax receipts and politicians lacking the courage to demand those additional receipts makes it likely that corporations are more able to effect positive change than are governments, at times and in places.

Since governments are more trustworthy than corporations, however, tax receipts must be increased dramatically, even if democratic governments and their citizens reject this. This means the UN, especially, needs global taxing authority to further the international distributionist demands of anti-globalist activists. Even though this reduces or removes domocratic representation from taxation, it is inherently democratic to do so, as witness the results (all peoples will be brought into a state of satisfactory wealth, leisure, etc.).

The Italian police treated wealthy young lawbreaking European and American college students/protesters really poorly in Genoa after the protesters arrived trained and well-prepared to do battle, resist arrest, damage property, halt trade, and invade private meetings en masse. Ergo, those police evinced shocking "brutality." This was no doubt "radicalizing" to the author.

I recommend this book to all who wonder what in the heck those, according the the author, "masked masqueraders" are doing in the streets when it isn't even carnival week. Surprise, they are demanding more of your income while pondering non sequiturs or silly treatises like "Silent Takeover."

Caveat: as one reviewer notes, the author does NOT represent the views of those many anti-globalist activists (meaning, black-shirted street thugs) who are anti-capitalist communist-anarchists. Perhaps another tear-gassing can bring her around to their viewpoint.

Introductory
The best feature of this book is the author's fetching photo. The second best is her cool chapter headings. Unfortunately, the content places third. By the standards of a Sunday paper or magazine piece it's very good, but from a professor I was expecting something more intellectually impressive, perhaps pathbreaking. This is simply a well-written introduction (with a pronounced left-wing bias).

A good introduction to an important subject
I liked this book; it was amazingly easy to read, without being trite or condescending. Many of the stories and anecdotes I knew from other readings, but there was new material, and all of it was well done in the telling.
This was not heavy going, nor was it an ill-structured string of disjointed stories.
I recommend it as an excellent introduction to the issues. ... Read more

Book Description

For everyone who's ever slicked on lipstick, flirted with eye shadow, or browsed the bewildering array in any store's beauty de-partment, Color Stories offers an insider's view of all the brainstorming, bickering, and bitchery that go into those little sticks of color and pans of powder.

Former beauty editor Mary Lisa Gavenas takes us behind the scenes during the nine months that culminate in the launch of a season's all-important "color stories." We discover how one shade becomes the "must have," why makeup artists never use the same products as the rest of us, and exactly how easy -- and impossible -- it is to start a million-dollar makeup line.

Backstage at the runway shows, we're swept into the catty, chaotic work world of makeup mogul Bobbi Brown and supermodel Gisele Bündchen. At Estée Lauder headquarters, we see the achingly chic Aerin Lauder Zinterhofer spin societal trends into a lipstick lineup. We watch magazines cheat to make makeup work for layouts, find out how Cindy Crawford got to be worth every penny of her $10 million contract, and make the pilgrimage to Dallas as 35,000 of the Mary Kay faithful assemble for the fabled annual Seminar. Along the way, we also learn about marketing, media, and the manipulation of aesthetics, about the codification of physical beauty, and how this industry revolutionized the role of women in business.

Through its often funny, sometimes poignant scenes of seduction, courtship, and consummation, Color Stories reveals why women become besotted by beauty products -- and why that love affair will never end. ... Read more

Reviews (13)

Recommended--great stories
What a relief to read something written on a "woman's" subject (namely makeup) that is well-written without being condescending to its readers. This book is short and fast but has a surprising amount of history about women in business and how and why cosmetics got to be such a big business.

And, as a Texan, I loved the chapter about Mary Kay and the women who participate. It's a complicated subject and this is the best treatment I've come across.

I don't know if I would categorize it as a business book, a fashion book, or a history book, but I do recommend it!

NJ reviewer is crazy
Personally, I LOVED this book. I did a stint selling cosmetics at Bloomie's and this is the first time I've read anything remotely close to what actually goes on in the cosmetics industry. Including a lot I didn't know (like the FDA dirt, and the inside-the-factory stuff).

And, to that reviewer from New Jersey, you have your facts wrong: Neutrogena Cosmetics are alive and well. Not only are they advertised on TV, they're being sold on the Web and my local drugstore as of today. I think you mean Oil of Olay, which went out of business a year or two back. How much of a cosmetics junkie could you possibly be?

Read it on a rainy day
A fun, quick, and easy read, an interesting look into what goes on behind the make-up counter. From the people who create it, to the people who package it, to the magazine people who promote it, to the models who wear it, to the sales people who sell it, to the hopeful buyers, this book gives a look from the eyes of nearly every person involved in the business. Altogether enjoyable.

The Makeup Industry for Those Who Can't Get Enough
I know many people who are addicted to makeup, and I'd recommend this book to any of them. While it's not earthshattering information by any stretch of the imagination, it's still a fun, easy read. It follows the development of those seasonal color stories we so anxiously await from the initial to conception and how colors are chosen through fashion shows and advertising to the final product at the counters. You learn how the colors for the story are chosen, how magazines list that products used on models aren't really the products used (did any of us doubt this?), and many other behind the scenes tidbits.

The book is an easy, entertaining read. I finished within a couple of evenings. Behind the scenes business material is potentially dry but Gavenas manages to keep it interesting and easy to follow. It would be a great summer poolside read.

For the Neutrogena/Olay questions below...Neutrogena is still making its cosmetics line. Olay discontinued its cosmetics line but is still making skincare.

Must read for makeup junkies ;)
This is a fascinating look inside the makeup industry and is a must-read for a make-up junkie like myself. It documents the process of creating the color story. How it's conceived, marketed, sold, ect. and reveals many interesting insider details about the color stories and the mis-truth's reported by popular beauty magazines. It also goes back in time to the conception of the beauty industry telling the beginnings of the Estee Lauder empire and walks you through a Mary Kay conference (found this pretty amusing). At times the detail becomes repetitive and I did a bit of skimming but overall it was an interesting little read. ... Read more

Amazon.com

John Cassidy’s Dot.con is the most sweeping and definitive assessment published thus far of the stock market mania that swept this country in the late 1990s. Cassidy, who covers economics and finance for The New Yorker, finds many seeds for the boom: Vannevar Bush’s “memex” machine, the “intellectual forerunner of the World Wide Web”; increasing popularity of 401(k)s and IRAs, which introduced millions of Americans to the equity markets, giving rise to a “stock market culture"; and the attention and hype in the late '80s and early '90s surrounding the “information superhighway” promoted by the likes of Al Gore, Newt Gingrich, and Nicholas Negroponte. When Netscape went public in 1995, the Internet mania began a five-year run that was fueled in part by the media, the policies promoted by Alan Greenspan and the Federal Reserve, the rise of day trading, and the deluge of IPOs brought to market by firms such as Morgan Stanley and Merrill Lynch and their analyst cheerleaders Mary Meeker and Henry Blodget. For anyone who got caught up in the mania and foundered in its eventual crash, Dot.con is a bittersweet trip down memory lane that Cassidy captures just perfectly. Highly recommended. --Harry C. Edwards ... Read more

Reviews (35)

An Instant Classic
New Yorker financial writer, John Cassidy, says it all in this brilliantly rendered, highly entertaining account of the biggest economic scandal of the last twenty-five years--Enron who?--the crash and burn of the relentlessly hyped dot.com sector. One part historic overview, two parts searing indictman of the financial-technological-media nexus, Dot.Con--as the Wall Street Journal said last week--will be read by generations of Wharton and Harvard B school grads still unborn. Not since John Kenneth Galbraith have we had a popular economist with this kind of reach--or depth. Bravo.

Competent overview but not without flaws
The first thing you'd say about this book is that, however clever the title, it's erroneous: this isn't the story of a "con" at all, it's the story of a speculative bubble.

The whole point is that no-one was "conned" by the hot air. As Cassidy mentions from the outset, the prospectuses all contained large print health warnings in prominent places: "THIS COMPANY HAS NEVER MADE ANY MONEY, MOST LIKELY NEVER WILL" - but the punters still bought and bought. There were many psychological and sociological factors at play, but deception was not one of them.

For all that, Dot Con is well researched, well written and entertaining into the bargain (my copy was the paperback second edition in which the typos & manifest errors spotted by keen Amazonians (none of which, in my view, was earth-shattering) had been corrected). Cassidy describes briefly and competently the history of the internet and the general financial environment of the last 50 years, and then takes you into the maelstrom of the bubble from 1995 to 2001, all of which he portrays in suitably stunned-mullet fashion. The new edition features a lengthy epilogue which surveys the wreckage and covers the subsequent inquiry into the practices of investment banking firms and their uneasy relationships with their research analysts, all of which is still very current.

While he doesn't really dwell on it, I think Cassidy would come out in favour of more market regulation and intervention: He's especially critical of the Fed's approach to monetary policy and the atmosphere on the street which led to the boom in the first place.

In some ways (though it's hardly fashionable to say so) the investment banking firms and fund managers were as much victims of this as anyone: while the roof is blowing off the market and the choice is to join in and make hay, or watch your competitors annexing large portions of your market share while you sit on your hands, it is a singular Wall Street firm indeed which chooses to sit the boom out.

In any event this is a thoughtful and well put together book and serves as a pretty good overview of some of the most remarkable times in the history of modern finance.

Good book, but many details have already been told
Dot.con: The Greatest Story Ever Sold lacks the same level of insight and originality. For most readers who stay abreast of current events in technology and the Internet, there is not a lot of new information in the book. The Internet bubble crashed some years ago, so a book on the subject can't be expected to be too original.

The book details the anecdotes of such Internet personality as Jeff Bezos, Mary Meeker, James Cramer, Jeff Walker, and Henry Blodgett. Nonetheless, such stories have been detailed in numerous places numerous times.

Cassidy does provide some rather good insights of the personality and mindset of Alan Greenspan, and he does a great job of showing an economic overview of the atmosphere that helped create the Internet bubble and how it led to its ultimate demise. If anything, Cassidy's brief biography of Greenspan is a well-written defense of the Fed Chairman.

But for anyone who reads Forbes, Wired, or the New York Times on a regular basis, much of the details of Dot.con have already been told. This is proven in the book's bibliography, which references such periodicals numerous times.

They could have been more thorough...
An examination of the dot.com stock bubble. Amazing number of typos and wrong numbers. Interesting reading, but I really have a problem with books like this. They come off as knowing what was happening when it was happening. In reality, without the benefit of hindsight they are no more knowledgeable than we are.

Excellent, Highly Recommended.
An excellent account of the rise and fall of the Dot Com bubble. Starts with a history of the internet and the world wide web and then moves into a detailed chronicle of the 1994-2001 internet stock market bubble. For someone who knew a lot about the internet from 1998 onwards but little about the economy behind it, I found it a very interesting read and a great education. A great story, well written. Highly recommended for anyone interested in the stock market, the internet and especially e-commerce. ... Read more

Book Description

How did the Grateful Dead use its fanatical following to build a $100 millionbrand that still thrives today? How did upstart Boston Beer Company--makers of Sam Adams--prevail over rival Anheuser-Busch without an advertising budget? And how did lams create the premium pet food market and leap from $16 million to $600 million in sales in just fifteen years, while charging twice the price of competitor Ralston-Purina? The answer: radical marketing.

In this fresh, provocative book, Sam Hill and Glenn Rifkin identify the mar-keting strategies that have enabled ten innovative companies to emerge asindustry leaders. What do these organizations have in common? Each is intune emotionally with its customer base, allowing them to glean superior marketing insight without spending millions of dollars. Each is more focused on the big picture--growth and expansion--rather than short-term profits. And,despite their current success, each started out with little more than a passion for their product. Engrossing, informative, and invaluable, Radical Marketing demonstrates how any company, large or small, can achieve unprecedented success through inventive and revolutionary tactics.

Reviews (14)

It's like a series of articles profiling similar companies
I've just finished this book and as I read the other reviews, I'm not surprised that the reviews most people found helpful were the negative ones. This isn't a bad book if you are solely looking for an interesting read as most of the ten companies the author profiles are widely known and it is fun to learn about them. But each company's story gets more and more predictable and the 'radical' marketing schemes don't seem so radical anymore. If you've read any of the books by Ries and Trout on Marketing, you really appreciate how succinct they are in delivering their many lessons. I can't imagine this book as serving any real practical use to Marketing professionals, but if some of the companies featured in this book interest you, it makes for some interesting, albeit light, reading.

Not as Radical as they'd like to lhink
Divided into two parts - the first defining "radical" as an approach to marketing, and the second a series of ten case studies analyzing companies that 'got radical' - this book os an interesting analysis of traditional vs. new marketing. Defining traditional marketing as big, complex, aimed at the center of a mass market, separated from the consumer, and formulaic, the authors assert that newer more radical marketing methods are paying bigger dividends than old traditional advertising.

Citing organizations such as Snap-on Tools, Harvard Biz School, Boston Beer Company, Virgin Atlantic Airways, and the NBA, the authors build a solid case for anew breed of marketers with more intuition and vision than marketing education. The case studies are insightful and always entertaining. In fact, the chapter on Harley Davison's recovery from near bankruptcy in 1985 to $1.8 billion revenue and record profits in 1997 might just be worth the price of the book. Similarly, Jerry Garcia fans will love the well argued discussion of the Grateful Dead as radical marketers.

The books main weakness is its lack of concrete 'next steps' for the aspiring radical marketer. It also has little to offer (outside of the case studies) for the already radical. If you read just one marketing book a year - skip this one. But, if you enjoy well-researched and entertaining case studies, 'Radical Marketing' is definitely worth a look.

Marketing = Advertising = consumes huge amount of money ?
It is always said that Marketing always consumes huge amount of money. It is because most of the marketer used the traditional marketing strategies, such as advertising, which need large amount of money.

However, after you read this book, you will disagree with the above statement. It is because you will find that there are lots of other marketing strategies which are also very useful but do not cost so much money. This book gave you lots of ideas and examples about ¡§radical marketing¡¨ which would help you to build relationship with customers through different kind of strategies.

And I particularly agree with one of the rules mentioned by the author. That is the marketer should go out the office and interactive with the customers. Since customer is one of the most important ¡§assets¡¨ for the company. And the customers nowadays change rapidly. So it is very important for the marketer to interactive with the customers so as to understand the customer need or any changes of the customer needs. And actually, I think that this concept should not be only applied to ¡§radical marketing¡¨. Instead, all marketers should pay attention to this point and consider taking action.

Shorter will be better
Actually, it is quite interesting and attractive that author use ten successful companies as an example to promote radical marketing. And we can learn that to run a business successfully, it is not only spend a lot of money on advertising, but also keep a good relationship with the customers and provide a good quality product. As most of the company just promote its products and company on advertising, I think it is a good way for others company to follow.
However, although there are ten case studies, after reading half, I¡¦m not really want to continue as all of the cases are similar. These ten companies stay at a similar situation, just face a difficulty and then using similar tactics that is radical marketing to tackle the problem. Therefore, it will be better if the author come up the points in fewer cases.

helped me get business
This book really helped us to position our agency (The Ad Store Amsterdam) against other agencies. Since we not only read this book but also used it (we even positioned ourselves as being a Radical Marketing Agency), our work improved and our client list grew beyond expectations. In short: this is a great book! ... Read more