Book Description

Over long, hard decades, American winemakers have won the respect of connoisseurs everywhere. Many of the world's most cherished, and expensive, wines come fro the United States.. But today, the unique and eccentric wine industry faces agrim set of challenges that could transform it forever: oversupply in the face of flat consumption, devastating vineyard diseases, an antiquated distribution system, fierce competition from abroad, attacks from anti-alcohol forces, and an inability to capitalize on wine's proven health benefits.

But for you, these woes cn be an opportunity, as wine journalist Lewis Perdue explains in this fascinating book. Clearly and crisply, forsaking the snobbish "winespeak" that helps keep wine mysterious and is itself one of the industry's problems. Perdue takes you behind the scenes to show you why a shakeout is imminent and unstoppable, and how you can benefit from understanding the situation-from drinking better wine less expensively to investing in a business where the perqs can be decanted from a bottle. Pullin no punches, naming names, this is an invaluable glimpse into a colorful, competitive, cantankerous world whose current troubles can actually add immeasurable pleasure to your life. ... Read more

Reviews (8)

More about wine politics than anything
I gave this to my boyfriend for Christmas since he and I are involved in the industry. Unless you are planning to really get involved in the industry, we wouldn't recommend this book. It is primarily about politics with the BATF and how the big guys (Gallo) shut the little guys out of the market.

If in the Wine Industry - Read this book
As the title indicates, if you are in the wine industry (at any point along the supply chain) or if you are considering entering the industry, read this book. If you are interested in learning how to taste wine, that is not the intent of this book. Lewis writes this book as an insider on the industry and from a consultant's perspective.

This book is a must read for anyone considering entering the wine business! Much of what Lewis writes could help fill out the majority of your business plan - from determining cash flows to gaining insight into the wine industry in general. Or at the least, you could use the book as a check on some of your assumptions.

If however, you simply want to learn how to taste & enjoy wine, you would do well to look for another book. His focus is purely from a business perspective.

informative & quick read
I picked this book up by chance in a Calistoga bookstore. After reading the book "napa" I've become very interested in the behind the scenes goings on in the wine industry. I found Purdue's book informative and enlightening. OK maybe I'd rather not know some of the stuff but I had already had my "shock" by reading Napa. I still love a weekend in wine country and the beauty and sereness of the place. Visiting the wineries and talking with the people will always be a fun thing to do. My enthusiasm for it has not dwindled, I am simply a more informed "wine enthusiast" and will never be a "wine snob". Reading this book has made me so much more comfortable with choosing the wines I like for according to what tastes good to me and not because of price or reviews.

Finally, An Informative, CONCISE Book on Wine!
Lewis Perdue publishes the Wine Investment News and is the founder of Wine Business Monthly and the Insider, the dominant wine trade publications in North America, and he appreciates wine. He KNOWS what he is writing about. Pay attention. This is, perhaps, the best book available for gaining an inside look at the wine industry, learning about wine, and how to start a wine cellar that you find in one concise volume. (There is much more, too; these are just a few of the topics he covers.)

There seems to be a mystique surrounding wine in this country. Perdue says, "the greatest barrier to increased wine consumption is wine's snobby image." And the wine industry seems to want to bolster this image. No wonder we Americans have developed a deep-seated prejudice about wine. You're supposed to have red wine with meat and white wine for fish and then there are dessert wines and apéritifs, etc., etc. He tells us to forget the rules; find the kinds of wine you like and enjoy them with what you like. It makes sense.

Want to know a secret? Read the chapter on counterfeit wines. Find out how genuine Champagne is made, the similarity of sparkling wines, and the great switheroo that fooled most of the world (except the French) . And if you want to find something "they" don't want you to know, read about to store and serve wine because the plastic membrane inside the box collapses as wine is dispensed, thus preventing the introduction of air which can oxidize and spoil the wine.

"While the wine box seems like the perfect container . . . in reality most of the boxes you see are adulterated with substantial quantities of added alcohol, water, citric acid, fruit juices, and other flavors and chemicals. . . [U]nder a strict interpretation of [Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms] rules, a box of the sort could contain as little as 38 percent wine." And you (and I) thought we were getting the real stuff!

The most useful information, for me, was finding out about the glut of wine on the market that resulted from the unusually productive grape harvest in 1997. This over supply has led to some fantastic bargains in wine that should last through the next two to three years! There are many remarkable wines available now for under $10 a bottle.

The fun part of the book tells how to go about deciding upon which wines you want to stock; have some friends over, each bringing a bottle to try, and make notes on which ones you like or dislike. Then go out and stock up on the ones you like.

To gain a good understanding of the wine industry and to learn about wine, this is the one book you should read today. REVIEW: Lewis Perdue publishes the Wine Investment News and is the founder of Wine Business Monthly and the Insider, the dominant wine trade publications in North America, and he appreciates wine. He KNOWS what he is writing about. Pay attention. This is, perhaps, the best book available for gaining an inside look at the wine industry, learning about wine, and how to start a wine cellar that you find in one concise volume. (There is much more, too; these are just a few of the topics he covers.)

There seems to be a mystique surrounding wine in this country. Perdue says, "the greatest barrier to increased wine consumption is wine's snobby image." And the wine industry seems to want to bolster this image. No wonder we Americans have developed a deep-seated prejudice about wine. You're supposed to have red wine with meat and white wine for fish and then there are dessert wines and apéritifs, etc., etc. He tells us to forget the rules; find the kinds of wine you like and enjoy them with what you like. It makes sense.

Want to know a secret? Read the chapter on counterfeit wines. Find out how genuine Champagne is made, the similarity of sparkling wines, and the great switcheroo that fooled most of the world (except the French) . And if you want to find something "they" don't want you to know, read about to store and serve wine because the plastic membrane inside the box collapses as wine is dispensed, thus preventing the introduction of air which can oxidize and spoil the wine.

"While the wine box seems like the perfect container . . . in reality most of the boxes you see are adulterated with substantial quantities of added alcohol, water, citric acid, fruit juices, and other flavors and chemicals. . . [U]nder a strict interpretation of [Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms] rules, a box of the sort could contain as little as 38 percent wine." And you (and I) thought we were getting the real stuff!

The most useful information, for me, was finding out about the glut of wine on the market that resulted from the unusually productive grape harvest in 1997. This over supply has led to some fantastic bargains in wine that should last through the next two to three years! There are many remarkable wines available now for under $10 a bottle.

The fun part of the book tells how to go about deciding upon which wines you want to stock; have some friends over, each bringing a bottle to try, and make notes on which ones you like or dislike. Then go out and stock up on the ones you like.

To gain a good understanding of the wine industry and to learn about wine, this is the one book you should read today. END

clever and very entertaining
I found this book to be very engrossing from the very first page! The author pulls no punches in stating his opinion and exposing the 'dirty little secrets' of some of the largest wime producers in California...a must read for anyone who enjoys wine or is interested in the wine business! ... Read more

Book Description

a very public offering

"Stephan Paternot has incredible drive, the kind of drive you see in people once in a lifetime. He's a young Richard Branson. He has this ‘positive irreverence' that allows him to tackle incredible things against all odds and the establishment, and lift people with his vision and enthusiasm. What he did with theglobe.com is purely phenomenal. He made business history." --Laurent Massa, Co-founder and Former CEO of Xoom.com

"Even for one who was there, Stephan's recounting of the entrepreneurial journey of theglobe.com is a great read. It brings back the thrills and spills of this Internet saga. Those reading it afresh are in for a real treat." --David H. Horowitz, 'Angel' investor and (until 2000) a director of theglobe.Com and former CEO of MTV Networks ... Read more

Reviews (28)

A good story not well told
Now that the dust has settled, the volatility of the stock market during the dot-com boom is a memory that is already disappearing in the rear-view mirror of our collective conscious. It is time for the stories and histories to be told - the recent film Startup.com chronicled the rise and fall of, as you might have guessed, a dot-com startup; this book from Stephan Paternot, cofounder of theglobe.com, is ostensibly in the same vein.
After a prologue talking about the euphoria of IPO day (on which theglobe.com's share price jumped by 1000% before closing up 700% for the first day), Paternot (with a little help from a ghost-writer) talks the reader through his early life, up until his entry into college at Cornell, and the founding of his company. I say, "talks through his life" - that is precisely the tone of the book. It comes across as more than a little rushed, though the story is consistently gripping enough that it scarcely matters that the author's writing style would not be out of place in a Dick and Jane story. There is no doubt that Paternot and his friend and business partner, Todd Krizelman, were in the game right from the very beginning, and created what was probably a terrific Web site that became the Apple Macintosh's number one online community destination. For a pair of 20-somethings, this was a wonderful achievement, and Paternot is rightly proud of his company and its achievements. Some might say a little too proud, and the hubris in the book is sometimes breathtaking; for example, it might surprise aficionados of the internal combustion engine to hear that apparently the Internet is the most important human invention since movable type... though there is little doubt in my mind that the author's enthusiastic knack for hyperbole was probably what allowed him to convince a number of business big-shots to buy into his vision (most notably the ex-Chairman of Alamo Rent-A-Car, Michael Egan).
The book continues on, talking a great deal about stock price movement, and betraying the author's bitterness that theglobe.com was never quite so over-priced as so many other dot-coms (theglobe.com was one of the first companies whose value slid dramatically). Dust-jacket hints about salacious stories of an unconventional rebel wild-child flying in the face of the business establishment are few and far between, unfortunately - I was hoping for a few more tales of bacchanalian debauchery, but Paternot's life doesn't sound too different to that of most young, professional Manhattanites.
Nonetheless, it's certainly an interesting read by a talented person - that talent may not be in the literary field, but then you would hardly read the autobiography of Richard Branson and grumble about lack of literary merit. Ultimately, though, the book fizzles out in a rather unsatisfying way, and I was left with the overwhelming sensation that it was as if the company had never really existed... Perhaps it is fitting, then, that despite Paternot's pride in the fact that his company was still operating at the time of publication, all that is left of theglobe.com today is a message on the Web site: "In 1995, theglobe.com confirmed the Internet's power to connect people worlds apart. Unfortunately, after six amazing years, theglobe.com closed its doors on August 15, 2001... Thank you for your patronage and for the incredible support over the years. Sincerely,
theglobe.com"

A great story
I really enjoyed this story. Having grown up in the same time I could relate with the description of reality as the writer describes. He is clearly not a writer by profession, which makes the book seem even more genuine and accurate. This book is a keeper!

excellent book!
I just finished reading this book and I just wanted to say that I think this story is very fascinating. It was akin to reading a private diary. ( I wish I could write like that too.) To be so young and hit it big is the sort of thing that people dream of, myself included. I am 30 years old and so I can relate to some of the things he went through. As was pointed out, on the one hand, Steph and Todd had to conduct themselves as mature businessmen running a company. And on the other hand, he wanted to act the way other 23-year olds act, fun-loving and party-going, with boundless energy.

The last chapter, The Second Coming, was my favorite, as he poses self-searching questions about what new direction to take with his life. I find myself in the same position at this very moment. Good for him that he found his calling--- writing and acting. Hope to see the movie when it comes out.

Internet mania
I am 29 years old and was looking for a book to read by an author of my generation. And I stumbled across this one by Stephan Paternot. His true story almost reads like a novel because it sounds so exciting and adventurous. Being about the same age as the author and having been swept through Internet mania and lost my share of money, I found his story very engaging. I saw the review in salon.com after reading the book and was rather disappointed that the reviewer did not share my enthusiasm. Apparently, the book did not meet the reviewer's high intellectual standards, when in fact, Paternot's writing style was (I felt) a major strength in the book. It's as if the negative reviews (from other websites) I have seen are not so much about his book as they are begrudging of Paternot who possesses youth, movie-star looks, worldly upbringing, entrepreneurial family heritage, and Ivy League schooling. So his company failed. But other than maybe Michael Dell or Bill Gates when they were starting out, how many under-30 CEOs do you know have the poise and savvy to lead a highly publicized and publicly-traded company?

An interesting story...
This book tells the story of the rise and fall of theglobe.com, told by one of its founder, Stephan Paternot. The story is interesting, as it details the greed and excess that characterized the days of the internet boom. Unfortunately for Paternot, I feel that he and his partner badly bungled and sent the company in the wrong direction which led to its ultimate downfall. If you want an interesting, fast read about the internet heyday, pick up a copy of this book, as it is enjoyable. ... Read more

Book Description

The Complete Book of Personal Training delivers exactly what the title promises and more, making it the most comprehensive and authoritative resource for you as a personal trainer, whether you are a newcomer to the field or have a well-established business.

The book is truly a complete resource. It’s full of information about working with clients and designing programs, and it’s also a practical guide to all aspects of the personal training business. The Complete Book of Personal Training will help you in the all aspects of your profession:

· Learn applicable information on fitness testing and assessment.
· Identify your clients’ goals and create fitness tests specifically for them.
· Properly train and help special populations.
· Understand the business side of personal training, including marketing yourself as a trainer, getting and retaining clients, and learning time management.
· Learn how to expand your business.

Noted author, educator, and personal trainer Douglas Brooks digs deep into the world of personal training, offering solutions to the challenges that trainers face in daily life and providing answers to many of the questions personal trainers ask throughout their careers. More than just a training manual, this text explores the best ways to run your business—from marketing and promotions to record keeping and retirement planning. The book includes a thorough index to help readers quickly locate any topic, and more than 100 photos accurately illustrate proper techniques for dozens of exercises.

The Complete Book of Personal Training contains something for every personal trainer. It’s the first reference of its kind to provide all the information you need to start, run, and grow a personal training business or career. The text is an essential tool to help you solve the daily organizational and business challenges of personal training. ... Read more

Amazon.com

The founder of the visionary, yet doomed, GO Corporation keptnotes throughout his years at the helm, thinking that one day he wouldproduce a book. It shows. This is a vivid and lively rise-and-fall account of acompany born to create a pen-based computer. It begins on a corporate jetwith the author and fellow industry visionary Mitchell Kapor, founder ofLotus, sharing a vision of pen computing. From there, Startup quicklyleaps to the day-to-day challenges of hiring staff, constantly reassessing andreadjusting goals, and coping with the stress of endless rounds of venturecapital funding. That Kaplan, in his first attempt at running a company, battleswith the top forces at Microsoft, IBM, and other industry giants to bring theidea to market, only makes the story more compelling. His company'sultimate failure says more about a cutthroat industry than about the quality ofKaplan's product. This is a real David and Goliath tale. If you've everwondered why things go right or wrong, how competition can kill you, or howfinancing really works within a small startup, read this book! ... Read more

Reviews (35)

Chronology of a Failure
In Startup, Go's Jerry Kaplan (better known for his later success with onsale.com) recounts how he and his team built the company from an idea, and how due to internal politics and competition the walls came tumbling down.

Kaplan takes us through the twists and turns of forming a company, describing, in detail, how he secured venture capital and found Go's first few key people. He comments extensively on the changing competitive landscape throughout Go's history. The EO spin-off, IBM and AT&T deals and all other major events in Go's life are detailed. The book is a quick read, written like a first person novel, not a stuffy business book.

The book's biggest flaw, however, is that it is written entirely from Kaplan's perspective. Throughout, he blames situation, competitors and others for the various problems that Go encountered; Kaplan though, fails to review his own actions and how they may have contributed to Go's demise -- unfortunately this could have been the most beneficial analysis: allowing us to learn from what Kaplan perceived as his mistakes.

Over all, Startup is well written, and a "must read" for anyone working for or contemplating starting a tech company.

An Insider's Look at the Startup Struggle
Startup tells the story of the rise and fall of GO Corporation, a maker of pen-based computer hardware and software. GO was founded in 1987 based on the idea that lightweight portable computers that used a pen instead of a keyboard would be quite useful devices, and that entirely new operating system software would be required to run them.

From the outset, the company faced a major problem: their main product was a pen-friendly operating system, but the device for which their software was targetted did not exist! Back then, the so-called portable computers were affectionately referred to as "luggables", and they all came with a keyboard. So to demonstrate the benefits of their software, GO was forced to spend its early precious resources developing its own pen computers. It was 3.5 years before the hardware group was spun out into a separate company called EO and bought by AT&T.

Kaplan's book is an interesting no-holds-barred account of the hectic start-up life and the cut-throat business world. To succeed, GO required a variety of partnerships, from hardware vendors to ISVs. In the course of wooing companies to help them, they rubbed shoulders with such big technology companies as IBM, Apple, HP, Microsoft, and AT&T. Negotiating with and placating the IBM bureaucracy turned into a major ordeal, and Microsoft's unethical theft of GO's intellectual property allowed Microsoft to become a competitive threat long before they otherwise should have been.

GO's other serious problem was that, in its 7+ years of existence, it never realized any significant product revenue. As a result, Kaplan was constantly scrounging for new investment money and was forced to make large concessions to get it. In the book's epilogue, he sums up the situation rather succintly and forthrightly: "In looking back over the entire GO-EO experience, it is tempting to blame the failure on management errors, aggressive actions by competitors, and indifference on the part of large corporate partners. While all these played important roles, the project might have withstood them if we had succeeded in building a useful product at a reasonable price that met a clear market need. ... The real question is not why the project died, but rather why it survived as long as it did with no meaningful sales."

The book may make even more interesting reading today (mid-2001) than when it was first published (1994). The intervening years have seen the dot-com boom and bust of the late 1990's, and the development of Palm handhelds, the first truly affordable and useful pen computers. GO may have burned through $75 million in its 7 year existence, but that is nothing compared to the hundreds of millions of dollars wasted on short-lived dot-coms with ridiculous business models. And the overwhelming success of the Palm devices is a testament to the power of the idea that gave birth to GO. It was a valiant and commendable attempt, but in the final analysis, GO just had too many forces working against it, not least of which may have been that it was a bit ahead of its time....

A highly engaging look at life inside the startup whirlwind
Whatever Jerry Kaplan may lack in business acumen--or business luck--he makes up as a writer. Many books, usually written by journalists, claim to take you inside the experience of starting up a company; this one, written by the founder of GO, delivers. Kaplan not only makes you feel what it's like to hire key people, chase money, and get your first customer; initially, at least, he makes you care what happens to the people caught up in this adventure. That said, about 2/3 of the way through the book, I began to get lost in the details. Skimming along, I never fully understood what happened to GO in its dealings with EO and AT&T. But the book's problems with plot development are more than outweighed by the vivid portraits--John Doerr as "a whippet in a cage"--that Kaplan paints along the way.

Get real, Jerry
This is a pretty good read by an exceedingly arrogant businessman who seems more often than not to forget that he failed and, moreover, is clueless why. His knowledge of business is about 50th percentile. His knowledge of government is at best 10th. Lots of 50thth percentile businesspeople make it. If you're naive about government - as Mr Kaplan surely was - about the best you can do is whine about that mean old Bill Gates while your company goes belly up. Read it and weep -- or laugh.

Excellent diary of a computer visionary & his failed startup
I bought this because I read an interview with Mark Andreesen (co-inventor of the browser) in which he shared kind words for Kaplan's memoirs. Having seen the Netscape debacle from its inception to its consumption by AOL, I take Mark as a reliable source on startups and corporate deals.

Startup: A Silicon Valley Adventure has much to recommend. Andreesen points out (and I paraphrase) that no one will tell you the real secrets of how their business succeeded; these have to be learned from observing failures and reading between the lines. Jerry Kaplan's GO Corporation was a failure -- a collosal one. At the end of GO's life, its staff were not surprised to see it go... away. The watercooler scuttlebut focused on how unusual it was that GO survived as long as it did -- considering it had no products, no market (and no marketing), constant financial troubles and, to complete the drama: Bill Gates in the role of surreptitious competitor.

Jerry Kaplan describes in diary-like detail how he and fellow industry visionary Mitch Kapor (founder of Lotus) conceived the idea of portable, pen-based computers in a spontaneous moment of shared epiphany during a private jet flight. Here was an idea seemingly out of nowhere: no one had thought of pen computers up to this point. None existed, and none were being developed -- a market vacuum of seemingly unimaginable proportions. The sad irony of Jerry's tale is that when GO was finally absorbed by AT&T and immediately beheaded, only the proportions of this unimaginable market remained. The market itself and the products to drive it never materialized.

Kaplan gives a harrowing behind-the-scenes account of how startup venture capital is *really* enjoined -- and its not what you think. In another moment of divine inspiration, he conceives of and perfoms a one-man show for the bored and now-napping investors who have agreed to giving Kaplan his 15 minutes of fame -- or at least a shot at it. Things are almost too good to be true when the meeting turns out to be a slam-dunk. With a few exchanged words and surprised handshakes all-around, GO Corporation is created and Jerry, Mitch, and their investors start down the Yellow Brick Road.

As in the fabled story of Oz, bad apples appear quickly and threaten to poison the troupe. Some of GO's early supporters are seeking to improve their minds. Some are looking for a community with a heart. And our Jewish Dorothy sings too much and is easily distracted while searching for a way to get home.

GO seemed doomed from the... well, from the get-go. Although I admire Jerry's vision, ambition, and personal commitment (Jerry turns out to be a pretty likeable guy), his company's business plan was a disaster waiting to happen -- at least in retrospect. Always afraid of running out of money, the group scrambled to make deals with anyone and everyone who would talk to them. They committed to hardware platforms they had never seen. Relied on software developers who had no interest in developing their applications. Pursued only one major customer and then never developed anything for them. And meanwhile took big-bucks from some household names on Wall Street -- $75 million of them, to be exact. These were not "rounds of financing," mind you. They were more like desperate attempts to sign with anyone who would assure them of making the next payroll.

Startup makes the VC commandos look like Las Vegas high rollers. The logical outcomes of a startup's business plan and the reality of its day-to-day operations are not considered when VC's "throw the dice." Oh, I know they go to great lengths to prepare press releases in which they ennumerate the "logical" reasons for creating a company -- but Kaplan shows that, behind the scenes, this information plays no part. Investors are not even marginally informed on the daily realities of the businesses in which they invest -- which explains a lot of the funding that continues to happen for silly ideas. And Jerry & Mitch's idea was not silly.

While GO played cat & mouse with every investor, software, and hardware company they could think of -- they spent an enormous effort on ignoring their "customers." Since they never had any customers, perhaps this seemed like a reasonable approach at the time. From the perspective of today's CEO, it seems impossible that a $75 million company would even attempt to get off the ground without a serious marketing and CRM program. GO's concerns focused more on getting boxes and circles to come out pretty on the screen (is there a business application for this feature?) and on fixing their stupefyingly awful handwriting recognition software. A small concession here is the fact that one has anything better than a stupefyingly awful handwriting recognition program -- even today. This odd collusion of a misfocused attention span and an obsession for technical "goodies" almost resulted in GO's pen computer displaying the enormous image of a very embarrasing term during an important "spontaneous" customer demo of the handwriting recognition capabilities. (Lesson: Never let a customer try something you have not tried yourself.)

Another glaring error that one can see from this tome is GO's almost cult-like insistence that a non-standard platform was the way to go. They alone could turn the tide! We've been hearing that since Altair first put a machine with keyswitches on the cover of BYTE magazine. And who has succeeded in creating a platform out of nowhere? Clearly Microsoft, with invaluable "assistance" from Xerox PARC and Steve Jobs and incredible naivete on the part of IBM. Yes, Virginia, you can create a platform out of nothing -- if you can zap yourself back to the early 80's and talk IBM into giving you DOS for free.

In reality, the three biggest components of Microsoft's operating system (a simplified mouse-based GUI, shared interface libraries for applications, and Ethernet networking) were all invented at PARC, not at Microsoft. If you haven't already guessed it, the pen computer wasn't invented by Microsoft, either. A 1988 email from Bill Gates shows that, at that time, he was already planning a standardized machine with a higher-resolution screen -- to be produced en masse by "the Japanese." I don't have to tell you this email was circulated interntally the day after Bill saw a demo of GO's prototype. They could have joined the ranks of the enemy right then (being "acquired" by Microsoft today and quitely going out of business isn't even headline news anymore), but GO's insistence on riding out "The Perfect Storm" lead to a grisly end for the end for the company that set off with such bright hopes. Groupthink, in this case, did not pay.

In the end, the GO experiment never benefitted anyone but millionaires Redmond -- at least insofar as the advance of pen computing was concerned. Nearly everyone GO touched attempted to steal something from them, although none was any more successful than GO in turning them into real products. In other words, despite Bill's "fast track" development, unlimited checkbook, and propensity to "borrow" heavily from others' work, the ubiquitous pen computer imagined by two buddies over a tray of airline food has still not arrived as the real millenium approaches. Today's best laptops far exceed the target price of GO's imagined device (a price that even Gates agreed with) but still don't have any reasonable inputs other than a keyboard. No one has even come up with a good mobile mouse yet; we're still stuck with primitive tiny trackballs and little eraserhead things -- or worse, miniature touchpads. Who thought of those? Long before any of this drivel was up for grabs at finer stores everywhere, two visionaries tried to build a computer that was actually better than the ones we have today. My hat's off to them for their efforts -- and for having the guts to divulge the catastrophic business decisions that ultimately led to Microsoft's Comdex announcement of the Tablet PC, albeit without the people who "made it so."

Startup is peppered with a Warhol-esque array of dignitaries from the early days of personal computing, which means it sometimes reads like Valley of the Dolls. Save those chapters for bedtime. You might also find that keeping up with all the names and relationships can be difficult in later chapters if names like Manzi, Gasseé, and Cannavino don't conjure up a whole host of memories for you (these are then CEO's of Lotus, Apple, and IBM).

A valuable business book for any serious entrepreneur or new CEO, regardless of industry, and written in an engaging personal style, Jerry Kaplan's Startup: A Silicon Valley Adventure is a page-turner that could change your company forever -- if, as Andreesen suggess, you read between the lines. Highly Recommended. ... Read more

Book Description

No company of the twentieth century achieved greater success and engendered more admiration, respect, envy, fear, and hatred than IBM. Building IBM tells the story of that company -- how it was formed, how it grew, and how it shaped and dominated the information processing industry. Emerson Pugh presents substantial new material about the company in the period before 1945 as well as a new interpretation of the postwar era.

Granted unrestricted access to IBM's archival records and with no constraints on the way he chose to treat the information they contained, Pugh dispels many widely held myths about IBM and its leaders and provides new insights on the origins and development of the computer industry.

Pugh begins the story with Herman Hollerith's invention of punched-card machines used for tabulating the U.S. Census of 1890, showing how Hollerith's inventions and the business he established provided the primary basis for IBM. He tells why Hollerith merged his company in 1911 with two other companies to create the Computing-Tabulating-Recording Company, which changed its name in 1924 to International Business Machines. Thomas J. Watson, who was hired in 1914 to manage the merged companies, exhibited remarkable technological insight and leadership -- in addition to his widely heralded salesmanship -- to build Hollerith's business into a virtual monopoly of the rapidly growing punched-card equipment business.

The fascinating inside story of the transfer of authority from the senior Watson to his older son, Thomas J. Watson Jr., and the company's rapid domination of the computer industry occupy the latter half of the book. In two final chapters, Pugh examines conditions and events of the 1970s and 1980s and identifies the underlying causes of the severe probems IBM experienced in the 1990s. ... Read more

Book Description

Reviews (5)

A funky look back
This bright and colorful book is a great, easy read and guaranteed to make the reader smile. (or your money back?) It doesn't pretend to be anything more than it is....a look at the enormous success of the Popeil family over many decades and the dozens of products associated with them. The star, of course, is Ron Popeil and when I see him on a TV infomercial hawking the Showtime Rotisserie he ALMOST makes be believe I should buy one.

The author, Timothy Samuelson, introduces the Popeil family and neither minces words about the inter-family problems nor the bankruptcy Ronco was forced into in 1984. Yet, this book is really a walk down memory lane for those of us old enough to remember the chop-o-matic and the veg-o-matic. The book's illustrations (mostly photos and drawings of past products) are terrific and my only real criticism is the use of annoyingly small narrative print.

Lastly, "But, Wait! There's More!" is a testament to the staying power of Ron Popeil. An ingenious inventor, he has re-invented himself many times over....and he's still out there trying to convince us (...)

Popeil the truth stretcher!
Popeil surely has a place in gadgetmania history, but to take credit for the work of others is an insult to the reader. Most TV gurus know that even the title " but wait theres more " is the work of the GINSU Guys. If we can't even believe the title, perhaps we shouldn't trust much after we open it. Despite Ron's attempt to take credit for just about everything except the discovery of the polio shot, I found this book amusing. But only if I were to buy it from " Buck a book"

The story of the O-Matic boys.
An interesting, visually exuberant, book about Ronco and the Popeil family. Essentially the book is a twenty-four page essay by author Samuelson with the remainder of the pages taken up with pictures and captions describing the various products they sold on TV.

Samuelson writes a rather sympathetic history of the Popeil's and the bizarre collection of household wares they pitched to gullible consumers, who can forget the 'inside-the-shell egg scrambler' (1978) or the 'GLH formula number 9 hair system' (1992) most likely everyone who bought them. He also writes that the products had 'unusually high quality product design', looking through the photos of the products this judgement seems way over-the-top. Still, folks bought this stuff by the million thanks to Ron Popeil's excellent marketing hype and fast pitched delivery. This came about because the FCC limited TV commercials to two minutes or less and the Popeil's had honed their pitch for the Veg-O-Matic (1956) to four minutes and could not bear to leave anything out so the only answer was to speak faster.

I was surprised by the design of the book, square in shape with three large circular holes in the cover (they reveal three photos on the first page) and pages of product photos, vintage ads, stills from TV commercials, colored panels and text all mixed up but in a nicely controlled way. There is an index in the back. But, wait! There's more, although this book concentrates on Ronco and the Popeil's you can see a whole load more (dubious) TV advertised products in 'As Seen On TV' by Lou Harry and Sam Stall.

Don't forget, never say battery operated, it's cordless electric. Isn't that amazing!

Ronco Roncs My World
Ron Popeil (or Ronco as he is lovingly known) has done more than we may ever know to further the human race. He has changed how we live, how we love, and, most importantly, how we cook chickens. This book is a testimony to how much flavor Ronco can inject into your life...(alot).

But Wait, There Is More...
This is a fun, coffee table book. But by twisting truth, spinning potential negatives and giving credit where credit really isn't due, the author does a major injustice to the rich history of the pitch person.

Here are a few examples:
1) The book seems to credit Ron Popeil for the inspiration of the Saturday Night Live "Bass-O-Matic" spoof. The spoof wasn't so much a send up of the low-key Popeil commercials as it was a satire of the colorful, high energy pitch people you always find in an obscure corner of a State or County Fair who sometimes exagerate product claims and, by their looks, obviously doesn't drive home to Beverly Hills after a hard day of hawking product. When Danny DeVito was on Saturday Night Live looking like a fool spray painting people's bald heads -- now that skit was inspired by Ron.

2) The book implies that Ron Popeil authored the term, "Set It and Forget It," where in fact "Set It and Forget It Operation" was used in one of the most successful infomercials of 1992, a counter top hot air oven called, the Jet-Stream Oven and pitched by Dave Dornbush. That product went on to sell well over a million units at around $200.

3) Even the book's title, "But Wait There's More" is from other direct response creatives, not the Popeils. The author may openly admit this, but he needs to realize that he colors history with cockeyed crayons when attaching this title, and many other facts, to the Popeil machine. Bogart may never have said, "Play it again Sam" in "Casablanca," but it wasn't taken from someone else when Woody Allen popularized it in his play.

4) The books points out that Ronco used to sell the Dazey Seal-A-Meals as a distributor. It goes on to state, "Similar devices...are still on the market today." Again, a crude attempt at assigning credit to the Popeils for products that have nothing to do with them. Will the author one day make reference that many of the words he used in his writings are still found in dictionaries today?

The Popeil family does have a place in novelty item heaven. Successfully sold products launched earlier by others gives you success, shows you have chutzpah and can make you tons of money. But it doesn't give you solitary, absolute authorship. The moon did exist before a flag was planted on it. ... Read more

Book Description

A masterwork of history-restored to print and made available for the first time in trade paperback.

In this massive, compellingly readable book, America's preeminent biographer/historian brings to life Europe's richest, most powerful family, a 400-year dynasty that developed the world's most technologically advanced weapons (from cannons to submarines to anti-aircraft guns); provided arms to generations of German leaders, including the Kaiser and Hitler; operated private concentration camps during the Nazi era; survived conviction at Nuremberg; and wielded enormous influence on the course of world events. William Manchester's account of the rise and fall of the Krupp dynasty is history as it should be written-alive with all its terrifying power. ... Read more

Reviews (8)

Absolutely Worth Reading, It Took Me Awhile to Finish
No kidding, it took me seven years to read this book.
I am a slow reader and I like to digest the content and think about things.
I liked about 98% of it.
It describes the 1800s to mid 1900s Industrial Germany in detail.
Lots of technical detail about metal and its fabrication into steel.
If you are interested in machinery I figure you will like it.
The worker/owner relationship illustrates how different a world it was in 19th and 20th centuries.

absolutely first-rate popular history with a grand sweep
This has got to be one of the greatest history books that I have ever read, and I have read a lot of them. While the story is centered around the development of the Steel industry in the Ruhr Gebiet in Germany, it is also about German history - from its beginnings with the "forest mythology" of the Roman era - all the way up to the 1960s. Unusual for historians, Manchester also has a wonderful grasp of character, which the Krupp family supplied in many, many bizarre variations over several generations. The result is a read of the greatest quality.

Most important, there is the empire of Krupp, as built up by Alfred. At 14, he inherited a steel company that had dwindled under his father's inept management to 5 employees. By sheer grit and a genius for profitable technical innovation, he built it into a vast conglomerate so powerful that it could literally make empires fall. In particular, the company specialised in the development of weapons, from breach-loading cannons to early prototypes for tanks. He even created a cannon (the Big Bertha for his wife), braced along the side of an entire mountain, that could hurl projectiles deep into France from German soil. The details are fascinating, with graceful descriptions that translate their engineering details for laymen.

Alfred controlled everything, from scribbling rules to govern the work force with a pencil nub to relationships with the various ministers of war throughout Europe. There are hilarious scenes where he dines once a year with Bismarck, a great personal friend, and their hysterical laughter at the latter's remark about Napoleon III of France ("Eigentlich ist er dumm"). His drive was so unrelenting that his many failures, such as an early insult to a crucially important aristocrat in the defense ministry (creating a problem for himself that lasted 30 years), took an enormous personal toll - he spent days in bed, depressed and immobile after a failed sale, and his family was a horrible mess.

A large part of the book is about his search for an heir who can run the family business. Here too, the characters are remarkable and often as hilarious or pathetic as their continuing genius for business. One of them was a notorious homosexual, who created an entire bacchanal in a Southern Italian castle for young boys, shooting fireworks for every climax, and when it was discovered - it was illegal in Germany - he committed suicide. You also witness the family energy dissipating until the last generation, when it became a public company with the appointment of Berthold Beitz. (Here there is some personal pique in the author, who writes that the last son, also gay, was "an indolent fool.")

The tableau is so rich that it covers the many moral ambiguities of the times, such as supplying rival powers who would turn Krupp weapons on eachother, including enemies of Germany, and of course the Nazi period is examined. Through all of this, the Krupp do not come off well, even using slave labor by Hitler's victims. (The only criticism I have of the book is the excessive coverage of the Holocaust, which occupies several chapters of personal stories, indicting the last Krupp who was briefly imprisoned and then released to run the company in the 1950s.)

As a business writer, it was a great pleasure to read such a rivetting business story. This book is the fullest of meals.

Warmly recommended.

If only this was available at Nuremburg.
Manchester's epic should appeal to readers of politics, economics, and military history as he skillfully intertwines the Krupp family business with multiple generations of political leaders of Europe. While 400 years is a bit of a misnomer - the Krupps weren't the Rothschilds and only truly affected the world scene from 1870 onwards - the author does a magnificent job of immersing the reader in a fascinating top down look at the political and military climate of pre-Great War Europe from their most important arms supplier - the Cannon Kings Alfred, Fritz, and Gustav Krupp. Underlying this is a well-proven thesis that Germany's military prowess relied heavily on Krupp technological innovations, and Manchester is to be commended for making this understandable to the layman.

The second half of the narrative is far darker but equally as important as he essentially reconstructs the Allied case against Krupp in greater detail than publicly available at Nuremburg for their crimes in World War II. Beyond any doubt, Alfried Krupp and the firm did monstrous things - at times far worse than the SS - to slave laborers that other German manufacturers refused. Starving to death thousands, torturing more, and outright looting conquered territory were good business for Krupp. Manchester's reconstruction bogs the pace of the book but is an overwhelmingly effective refutation of Krupp as victim. Had this been available at Nuremburg Krupp would clearly have hanged. One finishes the book hoping that some effort was made to memorialize the slave camp babies murdered by 'die Firma'.

The age of the 1968 publishing only shows up in some of the economic analysis, but even then students of economics can glean a couple of lessons about what happens when you overlever and overexpand.

Highly recommended.

How the manufacturing family influenced the shape of Germany
This is an excellent book about a family struggle along with a nation. We start out in 1587 and follow their progress and politics of the family and industry of making arms (cannons) until the fairly recent time.
One of the things I like to do is to read books that become movies and movies that are novelized. You are right this would have to be a mini-series. Ha, I will bet you did not notice that in the book William Manchester mentions that the movie "Major Barbara"; the only play actually written by George Bernard Shaw was modeled on the Krupp family.

Superb Biography of Europe's Premier Armaments Family!
"The Arms Of Krupp" is the incredible biography of a powerful and incredibly rich and powerful family that was central in the advent and progress of European history for the more than four hundred years they presided as an almost imperial force within the boundaries of what is present-ay Germany. Certainly no other non-royal dynasty engenders such controversy and hotly expressed differences in opinion than does the multiple generations of this critically based family so critical to the development and technological capabilities of the German war machine. Of course, no one could do a better job at providing a definitive historical biography of the Krupp family than William Manchester. This is truly a magnificent book, a spellbinding story splendidly told by a master of English prose, rendered in a flawless, comprehensive, and objective treatment of this fascinating, often outrageous, and sometime imperious string of Krupp family member who ignited the wars raging in Europe in terms of their ability to provide the motherland with such complex, ingenious, and technically superior weapons of war.

This is, in fact, considered a masterwork of history, an eminently readable and elegantly stylish work by Manchester, a master of the trade. Manchester, a retired history professor at Wesleyan University in Connecticut, is widely regarded as one of this country's preeminent biographers and historian. The Krupp dynasty was extinguished in 1967, when the last surviving family member passed away. With his death the legacy of a four hundred year span of contribution to the European armaments industry came to an end, and so brought to a conclusion a tradition spanning wars and quite profoundly influencing outcomes of European history for centuries. The Krupp Arms conglomerate was technologically innovative, devising new weapons such as a superior cannon to an anti-air vehicle weapon designed to counter the reconnaissance capabilities of aerial observation balloons to exotic and much more capable submarines, which they then built for over four decades.

In so doing, they became fabulously rich, and rose to become extremely influential and exceedingly conservative voices within the realm of German political circles. No German leader could hope to marshal the resources or the weapons of war necessary to mount a military campaign without first gaining the trust, confidence and support of the Krupp family, which then cleverly and cynically manipulated this influence to vastly enrich themselves. During World War One, their cannons helped to flatten the French city of Verdun, and at one point succeeded in lobbing projectiles into Paris from as distant a location as some eighty miles away, an unheard-of innovation at the time. Aiding the Third Reich in its secret rearmament effort after the end of the First Word War, they provided a much advanced tank design that eventuated in the Panzer tank, used subsequently so successfully in Hitler's blitzkrieg through France in the summer of 1940.

They were quite influential within the German society as well, having armed the forces of Kaiser Wilhelm for battle before World War One, and then surreptitiously backed Hitler financially in the so-called terror-campaign" of 1933. Incredibly, the Krupps participated in the war crimes of the Third Reich, even controlling and operating more than 130 concentration camps during the war. Afterwards, they help to rebuild Europe in the eventual development of the European Common Market. This is a truly fascinating book written with all of the usual style and substance one come s to expect of William Manchester, and it is certainly a book I can highly recommend to anyone with an interest in European history. Enjoy! ... Read more

Book Description

Using many never-reported facts, award-winning writer Anne Hagedorn Auerbach chronicles the compelling and tragic story behind the downfall of Thoroughbred racing's crown jewel.
... Read more

Reviews (12)

Brilliant. This is a GREAT story.
This book is amazing. Sure it's a fun tale, brilliantly told, of one of the most famous horse farms in history. But it's so much more. It's also a fantastic insight into excess and fraud and how businessmen commit it. Read it for the blood and guts and glory of horse racing. The story of Calumet is wonderful. But hang onto your hats. Auerbach's indepth investigative journalism shows the anatomy of a swindle. How J.T. Lundy, owner of Calumet, and his cohorts turned the most beautiful animals in the world into cash machines. How they debased the tradition of one of the noblest sports. Auerbach is undaunted by the complicated financial shinnegans that these people concocted to billk banks out of millions. In fact, I believe that her reporting is the reason that Lundy wound up getting indicted and convicted. And she tells it in such a compelling way that even someone who can't add 2 plus 2 can see how the rich sometimes get richer at our expense. Read it and weep. But know that in the end, justice was done.

Hold on for (a) Wild Ride!
Once again, truth is stranger and more powerful than fiction. In one book, Wild Ride provides a family saga, an industry history, an as yet unsolved murder mystery, a portrait of the greed of the 1980s, and an insight into a world only lived in by a few, coveted by many and musunderstood by most. This saga artfully weaves the history of the Calumet Farm, considered to be among the true dynasties of the fabled Bluegrass area, with the history of thoroughbred horse breeding and racing. Even if the horse racing industry did not interest the reader (but almost everyone at least watches the Kentucky Derby!), the speed in which the power of greed and corruption, along with an amoral attitude can cause an old-line successful business to collapse in a matter of a few years is astounding and compelling reading. Ann Hagedorn Auerbach skillfully takes the reader on a ride through the Bluegrass country, after clearly doing a tremendous amoung of digging into the past and present to off the reader a comprehensive tale that is very, very hard to put down. A great read on multiple levels.

A must read for Thoroughbred historians
Reads like a novel. An interesting peek inside one of the nation's most famous farms. Our copy has made the rounds of our barn many times, each border has read it at least twice. At times "Wild Ride" is sad, almost gut-wrenching, sometimes it can be rather amusing, and other times it reads like a Dick Francis murder mystery. This book belongs on every horseperson's desk. A valuable insight into early Thoroughbred history.

Review of Wild Ride
Ann Auerback's investigational story is a compelling journey into a rarely discussed aspect of horse racing.
Auerbach details the history of Calumet Farm, once America's most famous Kentucky horsefarm. The author's love of horses is evident in her detailed account of events. It took much courage for Ann Auerbach to uncover and discover the truth about Calumet's fall. It will also take some backbone for Alydar fans and horselovers to read the facts presented.
I read this book for two reasons. I wanted to understand how a farm like Calumet could go from the best to the worst.I also needed to know what happened to Alydar after his racing fans were no longer watching him. Wild Ride answered both of my questions in a methodical and journalistic style.

Too much financial mumbo-jumbo
I purchased this book after reading "Seabiscuit" and expected to get the same type of biography. However, my enjoyment was hindered by Auerbach's excessive use of financial jargon regarding the Wright family's trust as well as the battles and litigations that ensued. I do have to commend the author for digging down into the nitty-gritty, though I did sometimes wonder about some of the finer details and their credibility. I'd recommend this book to anyone who really wants to know the story of Calumet Farm, as long as they don't mind drudging through pages and pages of boring and often confusing jargon. ... Read more

Book Description

In the 1980s and '90s many countries turned to the private sector to provide infrastructure and utilities, such as gas, telephones, and highways--with the idea that market-based incentives would control costs and improve the quality of essential services. But subsequent debacles including the collapse of California's wholesale electricity market and the bankruptcy of Britain's largest railroad company have raised troubling questions about privatization. This book addresses one of the most vexing of these: how can government fairly and effectively regulate "natural monopolies"--those infrastructure and utility services whose technologies make competition impractical?

Rather than sticking to economics, Jos Gmez-Ibez draws on history, politics, and a wealth of examples to provide a road map for various approaches to regulation. He makes a strong case for favoring market-oriented and contractual approaches--including private contracts between infrastructure providers and customers as well as concession contracts with the government acting as an intermediary--over those that grant government regulators substantial discretion. Contracts can provide stronger protection for infrastructure customers and suppliers--and greater opportunities to tailor services to their mutual advantage. In some cases, however, the requirements of the firms and their customers are too unpredictable for contracts to work, and alternative schemes may be needed.

Book Description

THE ENTREPRENEURIAL EXPERIENCE is unique in its positive portrayal of the American entrepreneurial spirit and in its pro-market, pro-entrepreneur perspective. Professor Schweikart emphasizes that individuals, not groups, are most responsible for the creation of wealth in America, and that individual entrepreneurs, if left to their own devices, will have a better chance of solving problems than if controlled or regulated by the government. While the book covers the full extent of the history of the United States, approximately 40% of the text is concerned with the twentieth century. ... Read more

Reviews (2)

Useful - with limits
Mr. Schweikart has written a useful text for students of American business or American history, but it is dated. Closing out pre-9/11, the stage Schweikart sets is not the one we must now act on. If a new edition were to be published, some of his conclusions and theories would need to be revised or at least expanded to address current issues in business and world affairs. It would also be nice to see a co-author to provide counterpoint to Schweikart's biases - my observance of which which is not intended to be anything more than an aknowledgement of human nature. Overall, a refreshing look at the development of the greatest economy on the planet. I only wish it had been written in 2003.

OVERDUE REVISIONISM
Most American historians know much more about economics than a rose-nose mole---but a good deal less than Dyak from backwoods Borneo. So it is that most American History texts, even if otherwise quite passable, incorporate economic wisdom fully formulated by about 1898 and embalmed for the ages sometime around 1938. Larry Schweikart's volume, by contrast, possesses real vitality. It is not only superior to all easily available US history texts, it is also superior to almost all texts I have had occasion to examine. The Entrepreneurial adventure is clearly written and full of interesting insights and anecdotes. It is about real human beings doing real things: from Lydia Pinkham to John D. Rockefeller, Sr. It is not about the suffering "masses" and suchlike academic effigies. ... Read more

Book Description

Behind Procter & Gamble's wholesome image is a control-obsessed company so paranoid that Wall Street analysts, employees, and the chairman himself refer to it as "the Kremlin." P&G's wealth and power ensure that it gets what it wants, from tax breaks to the eager services of Washington lobbyists.

In this explosive expose, Wall Street Journal reporter Alecia Swasy tells the chilling story of life within P&G.

Wonderfully readable, impeccably researched, Soap Opera is a sobering look at the price of success in American business. ... Read more

Reviews (10)

Great informative read on a very unreliable company.
I read this book in 4 days. This was such a good read and it also helped me to realize that 95% of homes in America and abroad have this company's products in them. That scares me because they have such a blatent disregard for human life and preserving it. I will never use P&G products ever again in my home. Please use this book to wake up to corporate money hungry companies like P&G. Really sad that most americans don't have a clue what kind of company's products they are using.

Horrendous Company
I always thought that P&G was a horrible company because they refuse to stop animal testing, but after reading this book I am certain that P&G is a horrendous company.
P&G started out as a small company, giving people steady employment even through the Great Depression. The people who worked there felt that they were respected and believed they had a job for life. Unfortunately that wasn't to be. Working at P&G soon became a nightmare for a lot of people, especially women and minorities. Women were discouraged from wearing skirts, even during off hours because management wanted them to avoid showing skin. Employees actually had to get their hair cut when their boss thought it was a bit long. No personal items were allowed at your desk and one former worker was even scolded for "not walking fast enough"
P&G was and still is notorious for its blatant sexist ads. Women were made to feel guilty if her family's clothes weren't white or the dishes weren't sparkling. In the 70's, P&G introduced Rely tampons, made of super absorbent fibers. What they failed to tell people, was that they were made with cancer causing agents. At one point P&G was receiving 177 complaints a month, but still did nothing. Women were dying from Toxic Shock Syndrome (TSS) but P&G still assured people that their products were safe. Even knowing this, P&G continued their plan to support Rely and build its share to leadership status.
P&G doesn't seem to care who it hurts, just as long as their products are dominating the market.

"A Thoroughly Nasty Business Concern"
The following statement, from the preface to C. S. Lewis's "The Screw Tape Letters" could serve as a trenchant summary of all that Ms. Swasy has to say about Procter & Gamble:

"The greatest evil is not now done in those sordid 'dens of crime' that Dickens loved to paint. It is not even done in concentration camps and labour camps. In those we see its final result. But it is conceived and ordered (moved, seconded, carried, and minuted) in clean, carpeted, warmed, and well-lighted offices, by quiet men with white collars and cut fingernails and smooth-shaven cheeks who do not need to raise their voices. Hence, naturally enough, my symbol for Hell is something like the bureaucracy of a police state or the offices of a thoroughly nasty business concern."

Something is Rotten in Cincinnati
The kind of writing you would expect from a writer at the Wall Street Journal, the best written and edited newspaper in America. This book tells it all, and you need to read it: Something is rotten in Cincinnati.

Why people hate big business
"Soap Opera" recounts what one hopes to be, though perhaps optimistically, a particularly bad period in the history of one of America's largest corporations, Procter & Gamble in the '80s and early '90s, when led by succeeding CEOs John Smale and Ed Artzt, the company ran afoul of environmental laws, consumer safety, common sense, and basic human decency in truly arrogant fashion. To read the story comprehensively laid out by Alecia Swasy is to gape in astonishment at the true measure of human depravity in search of the holy buck.

Does Swasy have it in for P&G? Yeah, but so would you if you were a journalist and your subject was breaking the law to trample on your rights while you tried to do your job. Things got so out of hand as P&G launched telephone record investigations and had ex-employees brought to Cincinnati police stations to explain why they were talking to a reporter, that the ensuing coverage sparked a national outcry. Pundits and cartoonists weighed in about the KGB tactics of people who make laundry detergent and toothpaste. When finally brought to heel by indignant shareholders, CEO Artzt shrugged and called it a mistake. "The only thing he regretted," Swasy writes, "was getting caught."

Swasy was clearly embittered by her experience, and when her narrative flies into polemical flourishes, as in the Epilogue ("[Critics] refuse to buy the Ivory-pure image so carefully cultivated by P&G's years of marketing. We should all do the same"), the book is poorer for it. She does a great job describing, through the voices of mostly anonymous insiders, the noxious work environment of P&G for its employees (and you don't have to be a "Proctoid" to relate to the Dilbert-in-the-Death-Star picture she paints), then editorializes on how P&G advertising nurtures enduring cultural "myths" about a woman's place being in the home. Frankly, this latter angle comes up lame. P&G advertising reflected the culture for years, it sold product, and it has been adjusted to fit contemporary mores, as Swasy notes (just not enough for her liking.) I don't know whether it's so awful the role of the female was once rather more rigidly defined than it is now, but dumping much of the blame on P&G's doorstep seems excessive. Marketing to lesbian soccer Moms in the 1940s would probably have not helped P&G achieve its present level of success.

Where Swasy's book is strongest is the account of Rely, the tampon whose ingredients could cause toxic shock, and were directly responsible for the deaths of several women in 1979-80. Despite the accumulation of evidence, P&G went forward with its marketing. As recounted in a chapter of the book "Guerrilla Marketing") that should be required reading in corporate ethics classes, CEO Smale even planned to roll out a deodorant version of Rely while his underlings worked to silence researchers (mostly successfully) with generous grant money. The chapter is particularly good when it recounts how one trial lawyer and a bereaved husband he represented forced P&G to pay ridiculously low damages and put needed heat on the effort to establish P&G's culpability. Never mind, though. Swasy reveals later on that P&G's lab boys were concurrently doping out how to add the same toxic chemical to diapers.

There are other good chapters on P&G's arrogant practices overseas, its inept handling of domestic retailers (not just the small fry but WalMart, too!), and its stranglehold on a Florida community living around a river P&G polluted. Sometimes, as with the Florida case, Swasy seems too eager to embrace anything the critics dish out, and her noting the death of the P&G snack food Pringles [as of the book's publication in 1994] appears in retrospect to have been premature.

But overall, "Soap Opera" is a solid addition to business journalism. Books like this one only make you look a little deeper than your coupon stash in thinking about what products you buy. And that's a good thing. ... Read more

Book Description

Infrastructure is crucial for generating growth, alleviating poverty, and increasing international competitiveness. For much of the 20th century and in most countries, the network utilities that delivered infrastructure servicessuch as electricity, natural gas, telecommunications, railroads, and water supplywere vertically and horizontally integrated state monopolies. This approach often resulted in extremely weak services, especially in developing and transition economies, and particularly for poor people. Common problems included low productivity, high costs, bad quality, insufficient revenue, and shortfalls in investment.Recognizing infrastructures importance, many countries over the past two decades have implemented far-reaching infrastructure reformsrestructuring, privatizing, and establishing new approaches to regulation. Reforming Infrastructure identifies the challenges involved in this massive policy redirection within the historical, economic, and institutional context of developing and transition economies. It also assesses the outcomes of these policy changes, as well as their distributional consequencesespecially for poor households and other disadvantaged groups. And, drawing on a range of international experiences and empirical studies, it recommends directions for future reforms and research to improve infrastructure performanceidentifying pricing policies that strike a balance between economic efficiency and social equity, suggesting rules governing access to bottleneck infrastructure facilities, and proposing ways to increase poor peoples access to these crucial services. ... Read more

Book Description

Information technology (IT) presents many challenges to managers. Constant change, e-business, massive amounts of information, global operations, and building new alliances and capabilities are just some the transformations being driven by the use of IT in business today. No modern manager can afford to ignore IT or leave it to the professionals. This book tackles the tough issues of managing in an environment where IT is everywhere.

Based on the real life experiences of senior IT managers in leading- edge businesses and incorporating thorough research, Making IT Happen separates fact from fad, shows where managers can make a real difference, and provides useful and practical advice for coping in the fast-paced world of IT.

"This is the first real handbook of IT management. It's well-grounded, reliable in its recommendations, sensible, comprehensive and useful. Those are all compliments; they are what we need in the post dot.com era and after all the transformation-is-now-and-real-easy hype of IT. This is a book about putting IT to work." Peter Keen, Chairman of Keen Innovations and Professor at Delft University

"This book provides a template - targeted at the executive level - of the technology and organizational issues that need to be dealt with and well-grounded means (decision structures and decision processes) for handling these issues. A particular, and very unique, strength of the book is the manner in which McKeen and Smith skilfully blend and leverage the best thinking of leading scholars and successful IT executives. As a consequence, the book should prove valuable both for IT executives confronting today's IT management challenges and for scholars seeking to better understand this dynamic and elusive context." Robert Zmud, Michael F. Price Chair of MIS, University of Oklahoma, and Research Director, Advanced Practices Council of SIM, International

"Jim McKeen and Heather Smith have captured the essence of the most challenging pursuit of modern civilization - designing and building advanced information systems. Some believe that we are entering a new era of pervasive computing blurred with advanced networks, which delivers unprecedented and untold opportunities and capability. This book addresses the challenges with outstanding insight and wisdom. It is a must read for every person who is involved in information systems and technology - from CIOs right through to students thinking of entering this profession." Eugene Roman, Chief Information & Technology Officer, Bell Canada ... Read more

Book Description

Personal trainers aren't just for athletes and the rich and famous anymore. More and more regular folks are realizing they need help to get back into shape, and they are willing to pay the price to get that help. As a result, the fitness industry is booming. A skilled personal trainer with sound credentials and strong interpersonal skills can easily earn $75,000 to $100,000 per year. So if you've been thinking about going into business as a personal trainer, now is an ideal time. Whether you want to start a part-time personal training business, a full-time solo operation, or a substantial company with a full stable of trainers and your own exercise studio, this book is for you. You'll learn:

• Who is using personal trainers and why
• The most popular services trainers are offering
• Requirements and start-up costs
• The finer points of sales and marketing
• What to expect during day-to-day operations
• How to track and manage the financial side
• How to hire trainers to work for you

You'll also hear from industry experts as well as personal who have built successful operations and are eager to share what they've learned.