Reviews (7)

Making True Revolution with Success
This is a complex and multidimensional book on many levels. This book is not really about what governments can do to help their countries develop. In fact, the word "development" hardly appears. It is about the unproductive relationship between government and the private sector that wastes time and other valuable resources in emerging economies. The authors hold both parties responsible for moving on.

As stated on the first page, Simon Bolivar's epitaph reads, "Whomsoever has worked for a revolution has plowed the sea." Meant by Bolivar to convey despair and the heartbreak of failure, these words are transformed by the authors who have maintained a sense of optimism and good humor throughout their own experiences in the rugged world of transformation consulting. The Introduction, the book's first substantive chapter, is a cautionary tale of the Colombian flower industry, that prospered globally for decades, but later declined and has not yet recovered. Through this "case", seven patterns of firm behavior that inhibits economic agility are identified. The first seven chapters of the book elaborate on these patterns, wonderfully illustrated with other cases (Peru's fishmeal and Bolivia's soy industry, for example). The authors describe a sort of bratty adolescence that traps companies and industries in emerging economies. Chapters 8 and 9 are a fine application of micro principles around the theme of strategy, again focused on the firm. The authors advocate the old-fashion but culture shattering step of focusing on customers, costs and competitors in order to guide and inform decisions about strategy, positioning and productivity. They offer information and learning as a way for firms to experience a "coming of age" in the competitive sense. The role of government in promoting economic transformation is not touched until Chapter 10, two-thirds of the way through the book. Chapter 10-12 are probably where readers will find the book a bit frustrating and repetitive. Not enough time is spent defining what the authors mean by "steering mechanisms". This is undoubtedly because the book assumes the reader already knows alot. Chapter 10 mostly illustrates shifts in steering mechanisms using the case of a wall-bouncing Bolivian government. Chapter 11 is almost singular for business books - there is an actual discussion of research and the presentation of data. It is a practitioners discussion, however, not an academic one, so potential readers can relax.

B-school vets and other warriors will recognize alot here as an application of Michael Porter's "diamond model" from his Competitive Advantage of Nations (1990) and indeed, Porter writes the Foreword. The authors have extended the "diamond's" scope and reach, but their own model is not apparent until the end, Chapter 13. Their model for bringing about industry level change appears in the book's final four pages.

This book's protagonists are leaders in firms, industries and government, as well as their mindsets and actions. The word "leader" might be interpreted by some readers as "government" but this is not accurate. This book does do something extraordinary, however. On one hand, it is a blood and guts how-to on diagnosing and fixing the self-defeating decision making of firms in the emerging world. On the other hand, the conceptual framework within which political economics is practiced, debated, planned and evaluated is updated to reflect the fact that competitive advantage, not absolute or comparative advantage will increasingly referee the win/loss columns in the global economy. The context of political economics is addressed entirely without reference to ideology. This might strike some as soulless or arrogant. It might strike others as about time.

The writing in this book reflects a highly integrated understanding of business and economics, as well as intimate and affectionate knowledge of Latin American business and classical culture. Also apparent are the authors very fine liberal arts backgrounds, years on the road and a sense of mirth. Finally, these authors clearly know their work and thinking is culture altering and socially revolutionary. Their obvious goal is to realize the dream of Bolivar by capturing the minds of today's business, industry and government trend setters. While I would say their hearts are definitely not bleeding nor on their sleeves, their drive and focus are more uplifting than anything I have read or seen in a long time.

Insightful but too wordy
A very insightful book about how countries as a whole compete in the world economy. It presents several interesting ideas about relative competitive strengths & weaknesses of nations and the source of these competitive positions.

The book falls short on readability. The authors could have conveyed the same message in half the pages. Often, I found myself skipping entire paragraphs and sections to find the ideas burried in all the verbiage.

I still rate it a 4 because of the importance of the topic covered and the insights contained in the book.

A refreshing guide to strategy in third world economies
This book is a surprise. Very fun to read, very insightful and plenty of new ideas for doing business from emerging economies.

terrific read
I found the book a terrific read. I think it is huge task for an developing country to grow out of the habits of being follower. It is not impossible, but the probablity is low, especially since most of these countries are not technologically savvy.

The book gives anyone from an emerging country some hope that they too can compete in this quickly advancing world.

Cheers

Victor

Insightful, Refreshing and a Great Read
It isn't everyday that one gets to read a book about business and have it read as pleasurably as a good novel. Fairbanks and Lindsay have a gift for business analysis and a gift for writing. When will their next book be coming out? ... Read more

Book Description

In the bestselling tradition of The Soul of a New Machine, Dealers of Lightning is a fascinating journey of intellectual creation. In the 1970s and '80s, Xerox Corporation brought together a brain-trust of engineering geniuses, a group of computer eccentrics dubbed PARC. This brilliant group created several monumental innovations that triggered a technological revolution, including the first personal computer, the laser printer, and the graphical interface (one of the main precursors of the Internet), only to see these breakthroughs rejected by the corporation. Yet, instead of giving up, these determined inventors turned their ideas into empires that radically altered contemporary life and changed the world.

Based on extensive interviews with the scientists, engineers, administrators, and executives who lived the story, this riveting chronicle details PARC's humble beginnings through its triumph as a hothouse for ideas, and shows why Xerox was never able to grasp, and ultimately exploit, the cutting-edge innovations PARC delivered. Dealers of Lightning offers an unprecedented look at the ideas, the inventions, and the individuals that propelled Xerox PARC to the frontier of technohistoiy--and the corporate machinations that almost prevented it from achieving greatness.

Reviews (38)

Fascinating account of the magic that took place
Michael Hiltzik has done an incredible job in describing the context of the environment and the dynamics of the personalities as they interacted in the birthplace of computing technology. All of the computer interfaces that we take for granted today were developed at PARC. Hiltzik weaves a tale of the evolution of the group of geniuses and the obstacles that they encountered in dealing with the hierarchy at Xerox headquarters. In many ways, the top management at Xerox was the forerunner of the "Dilbert Boss Syndrome"--a total lack of appreciation and knowledge of what was being developed by these research magicians. It is a story of a very unique period in the history of technology and is very similar to what took place during the Manhattan Project of the 1940's. I for one am glad that Mr. Hiltzik did not spend very much of the book in explaining the technology that was developed for that would have distracted from the account. He did describe the essence of what was being developed in a brief, very excellent and informational manner--enough to let the reader know its importance. The book represents a milestone in relating the events that have brought us to our present state in the computing industry. Kudos to Mr. Hiltzik for a fine job of writing!

My Mileage Was Low...
As always your mileage may vary. My mileage was low.

I ended Michael Hiltzik's book on Xerox's Palo Alto Research Center and the invention of the computer technologies we use today disappointed. Hiltzik spent too little time on the ideas and technologies, and too much time on the personalities and the intra-Xerox bureaucratic infighting. That might have been OK if his discussions of just why Xerox never brought so much PARC research to market were accurate, or coherent. But it seems to me that his discussions of Xerox bureaucracy and PARC personalities deconstruct themselves: the evidence he presents simply doesn't justify the conclusions that he reaches.

For example, as his book heads for a conclusion--at the top of page 391--he attacks the idea that by failing to develop into products even a quarter of the technologies produced by PARC Xerox "fumbled the future." He says that "technology foils its tamers" and that conclusions that Xerox failed "rest... on several very questionable assumptions."

But the story that Hiltzik tells is not one in which Xerox makes defensible but wrong decisions, but one in which Xerox does not even try to market what became the key technologies of Apple, Adobe, 3Com, Microsoft and others--and markets the PARC-invented laser printer only after great internal corporate resistance, and only after unnecessary multi-year delays. To squander a five- to ten-year lead because your internal bureaucratic processes cannot recognize an opportunity is, indeed, to "fumble the future."

Along his way Hiltzik makes what seem to me to be simple mistakes of fact and grave errors of logic that cast doubt on his overall reliability. Why claim that when Xerox introduced the Star computer at the beginning of the 1980s that "...no independent software industry existed at the time. (It would not emerge until the mid-1980s.)" What were Microsoft and VisiCorp and Digital Research selling then? Chopped liver? Why was IBM simultaneously developing an open-architecture PC to try to take advantage of the independent hardware and software industry? If there was no independent software industry, then why did IBM go outside its organization--to an independent software manufacturer--for both the operating system and an application suite for its first PC?

Hiltzil claims that "critics of [Xerox's] handling of PARC" "rarely acknowledge" an important burden imposed on Xerox: "the merciless business environment," and that this merciless business environment was a key factor keping Xerox from commercializing the technologies invented at PARC. He writes that:

..Japanese competitors [making copiers] appeared in force in 1975, Xerox did not introduce a low-cost machine to rival theirs until four years later.... [Xerox executives] Peter McColough and David Kearns, embroiled in the fight of their lives simply to protect the copier franchise, had scarcely any patience for... solutions... for the tough problem of technology transfer at PARC (p. 394).

This makes me scratch my head. Hiltzil writes that Xerox's organization was incompetent at product development in their core business--photocopiers: they can't respond to a competitive threat in less than four years. And Hiltzil claims that because Xerox was incompetent in its core business its managers should not be criticized for incompetence at managing the technologies developed by PARC. Can he possibly be serious?

And on the very next page there seems to be a serious, serious misconstrual of a quotation from Adobe Systems founder Chuck Geschke. Geschke says that:

Our attitude at PARC was sort of that it was a higher calling to do pure research. But here at Adobe our advanced technology group does not just stay in advanced technology. If they put together the germ of an idea and start to get it close to prototyping and even decide to turn it into a product, we encourage them to follow it all the way through to first customer shipment. The only way I know to transfer technology is with people.

Hiltzik uses this as a springboard to say that fomer PARC researchers "who have gone on to chair their own corporations... would not dare to grant their employees the same latitude" that Xerox granted them (p. 396). What he doesn't say in his concluding chapter is that Geschke and his partner John Warnock tried to follow their ideas "through to first customer shipment." They spent two years of their lives trying to get Xerox to turn their ideas--incorporated in the page description language Interpress--into a product. And after two years Warnock and Geschke had a conversation, which Warnock recounts as:

...we've spent two years of our life trying to sell this thing and [Xerox is] going to put it under a black shroud for another five." You were seeing PCs get announced, and Apples, and you kept asking yourself "When is all this great stuff going to see the light of day?" And you'd think about the Xerox infrastructure and the process it would have to go through to get into products, and it became sort of depressing (p. 374).

Does Hiltzik think that by the time we reach page 396 we will have forgotten what Hiltzik quoted on page 374? That we will fail to realize that what Geschke is offering his employees--the ability to ship products--is what Geschke desperately wanted to see happen at PARC? That Geschke would have eagerly traded some of his "latitude" at PARC for a Xerox that would actually use Interpress in some products?

If the history of corporate and research bureaucracy in this book didn't ring false, I would be saying that this is a very good book. If the history of technology in the book were better, I would say that this is a very good book--even with a history of bureaucracy that rings false.

As I said, your mileage may vary.

But my mileage was low.

A fascinating read
As someone who has been working in the IT field some time and a keen student of history, I approached this book with some anticipation and curiosity. I am happy to report that not only was the "story" interesting but also very enlightening. The focus of this book is a historical account of the legendary Xerox technology centre called PARC and the people who worked there. The author has done a remarkable job in making the events of interest to the reader but also take you literally inside the organisation and the thought processes driving all manner of decisions.


The story is at once inspring and tragic. Inspiring in that the centre produced some of the most incredible advances in the computing sciences ever seen, but tragic in that many of those advances never saw the light of day (at least not with a Xerox badge on them). Several things come across when reading the book: the collection of people working in the facility were of an extremely high calibre and some of the sharpest minds of the day, they also possessed (in many cases) collossal egos to go with their staggering intellect, Xerox in many cases had neither the foresight nor the wherewithal to bring these great ideas to market and that the inventions coming out of PARC were perhaps too far ahead of their time to be practical in the "real world".


In the end, as in many organisations, internal politics and ego/hubris brought down this fine institution from what it was to what it is today. I guess that was to be expected with the cast of characters involved and the inability of Xerox to understand their work. As an aside, I think the author handled the question of "did Xerox blow it" very fairly and comes across as surprisingly sympathetic to the company. I think this is reasonable, as it's very easy to be wise after the event. I think many other organisations may have acted the same way when confronted with the economic realities of the time coupled with this bleeding edge technology.


In all, I would recommend "Dealers of Lightning" to anyone curious about the history of computer science or technology in general.

Extremely Good Book about Computer R&D
I do not know why this book was never more popular. It is a great read and has lots of detail on the evolution of computer R&D.

It is a very well written and detailed book about the computer R&D from Boston-Washington to Palo Alto at HP - written like a smooth flowing novel. It is mainly about Xerox and the research people and how they eventually decided to move the computer R&D to California. But it includes a lot more stuff. It Includes DARPA funding of the internet and work at MIT, and in house fighting at Xerox, and then the evolution of the projects in California. Xerox did not run with the ball in an effective way post 1980 but the technology and people went on to other companies such as Microsoft, Apple, and HP. Also there was a lot of innovative work that was transferred to industry.

It gives a lot of insight into the evolution of computer systems and the internet and local networks and on and on. It covers the people - grad students, scientists, spin off companies, crazed computer types working all night - that are just as interesting as the wires and machines.

Great book, one of the best ever Tech Books.

Jack in Toronto

The history of PARC without the myth and bias
Although the history of the ubiquitous computer is a short one, it has a mythology so extensive, it could have been developed over centuries. Some of the most unusual, imaginative, intelligent and powerful personalities in the history of the human race have been a part of its' development. One of the most pervasive myths is that Xerox could have become the most dominant company in the history of the world as a consequence of the leadership it could have had in computing. There is no doubt that the ideas that were developed in the Xerox Palo Alto Research Center (PARC) were some of the most original and now most widely used. There will probably never again be such a concentration of the leading talent of a particular field in one place. Without question, they were also a strong-willed group, that led to natural personality conflicts, which no doubt would have led to dissolution of the group after a few years no matter what. Hiltzik is very pragmatic about this, understanding and explaining that this is typical of leading people in the computing field.
While it is true that Xerox could have dominated the computer field had they been able to exploit all the ideas, the reality is that it was most likely impossible for any company to absorb all that was produced there. It is ironic that the problem was that the researchers were too productive for their parent company to handle. Once again, the author understands this very well, unlike others whose focus seems to be trying to make Xerox a laughingstock. Furthermore, these were the early days of computing and there were few that could truly see where the computing field was going. Nevertheless, the management of Xerox was hardly blameless, their level of cluelessness has to rank among the highest.
What I liked best about the book were the last sections about the supposed conversion that Steve Jobs underwent when he was shown the technology being developed at PARC. The myth is that the basic ideas of the Macintosh were "stolen" from PARC when they were shown to Jobs and his engineering team during a tour. While it is true that Jobs was convinced, saying that the technology was taken from PARC does an enormous disservice to the engineering staff at Apple, who did their own research and development. The most that can be said is that what they saw at PARC convinced them that it could be done, but did little to show them how to do it.
This is a fascinating book about a set of incredible people. If you were to make a list of all of the major ideas of computing, you would have to take some time before you could separate out those that did not undergo a large amount of their development at PARC. Bereft of the myth and biases, from this book you can learn what actually happened in that incredible place and at that unique time. ... Read more

Book Description

Energy deregulation, privatization and competition are a hot international topic. Professionals in this field understand the importance of hedging their financial risk, but are often unclear how to do so. The result is that either they take undue and unwarranted risk or they shy away from futures and derivatives investments that could improve their financial position while preventing substantial losses. Energy Risk Management is the first book to address the important issues of worldwide energy price risk management. Peter C. Fusaro has assembled the leading industry figures to explain general theories and practices for hedging risk, and specific methods to effectively manage risk in markets such as coal, natural gas, electricity, hydropower and others. Topics include: The ABCs of energy financial instruments - How to use hedging tools like futures and options, forwards and spreads; Energy securitization - Ways to securitize oil and gas production, and project finance implications; The future of energy price risk management - Globalization of energy markets, and an integrated approach to managing all risks. Energy professionals and investors worldwide require information to clarify risk management concepts and applications that are new to them. Energy Risk Management steps into that void, providing proven hedging strategies in non-technical language that simplifies this intimidating topic. ... Read more

Reviews (8)

Energy Risk Simplied
This book provides an excellent background and review in easy to understand language about energy trading and energy risk management. I highly recommend it for understanding the basics of this complex subject. It also provides a global overview of market developments. It is not, however, a quantative treatise on energy and financial derivatives. This is a primer that should be viewed as such.Fusaro's second, Energy Derivatives: Trading Emerging Markets, is the companion piece to this book and adds the newer commodities of weather, emissions, bandwidth and coal derivatives. I recommend it as well.

Disappointing
This book is definitely not worth its price. Basic option theory and knowledge on VAR is wrongly interpreted. The book gives no insight on what energy risk management realy stands for. Utterly disappointed !

Energy Derivatives: Trading Emerging Markets
Until Peter Fusaro's book "Energy Risk Management" hit the bookstores in 1998, anyone needing a clear explanation of how risk is managed in the energy markets had to sift through numerous trade publications and journals.

This was genergally the reaction of any industry participant I spoke to, independently of whether they were clients, students or collegues of mine both from the Energy community or from academia. Therefore, with this feedback, I would strongly encourage my collegues to read Peter Fusaro's new book "Energy Derivatives: Trading Emerging Markets" which he edited with Jeremy Wilcox and was published in October of this year. In this book Peter Fusaro and his team of energy professionals take the reader deeper into the secondary markets (energy derivatives, etc.) which have emerged as a result of the deregulation process of the Energy Industry and, most importantly, the book explains how to use these markets to manage energy risk. Further, in chapter 3, 4, 5 and 6 the reader is introduced to the concept of interdependency among energy markets and other related markets. These include weather and weather derivatives, emission trading and bandwidth - the most recently emerging market converging with Power to become the backbone of the new global economy. This is the first book to address the complex topic of convergence of power and the rapidly growing bandwidth market. For this reason alone this book becomes a must for everyone who is interested in becoming a part of the evolving energy market.

Energy Risk Management is Risk Free
Energy Risk Management is great primer for those interested in limiting their risk exposure to volatile International energy markets which are in the process of deregulating. Fusaro and his cast of contributing authors examine a wide variety of energy sectors and give practical examples of risk management techniques in easy to understand terminology.

I was so pleased with the content of this book I even recommended it to a friend who has been trading International financial instruments for the past 12 years and is looking to get into the energy risk management field. When I asked him for his reaction to the book, he said it was "excellent".

For greater detail, I also plan to read the author's follow-up work, "Energy Derivatives: Trading Emerging Markets" which looks at new energy related markets such as weather, emissions and bandwidth trading.

A Comprehensive Primer
Energy Risk Management by Peter Fusaro offers the necessary primer for a basic understanding of a complex topic. The author and his contributors explore oil, gas and power markets as well as options theory for energy, value-at-risk for electric power, and credit risk for energy companies. It is written in an easy to understand style for the reader. I highly recommend this book as well as Fusaro's new book, Energy Derivatives: Trading Emerging Markets (2000). I give the book five stars. ... Read more

Book Description

More than just a travel guide, Watch It Made In the U.S.A. will help readers appreciate firsthand the products, companies, technology, and workers that inspire our economy. Authors and factory tour experts Karen Axelrod and Bruce Brumberg provide fascinating photographs, advice for business and family travelers, helpful itinerary planners, and all the practical information necessary to visit nearly 300 factories and company museums across the U.S.A, from Boeing to Ben and Jerry's, Hallmark to Harley-Davidson. ".... a fascinating behind-the-scenes look at household names, names that many of us take for granted ..." -- Chicago Tribune "Unusual travel opportunities and they're closer than you think." -- Good Morning America ... Read more

Reviews (7)

More than 300 fully updated and contemporary factory tours
Collaboratively researched and written by the husband & wife team of Karen Axelrod and Bruce Brumberg, Watch It Made In The U.S.A.: A Visitor's Guide To The Companies That Make Your Favorite Products is a unique and very highly recommended travel guide featuring more than 300 fully updated and contemporary factory tours and corporate visitor centers and exhibitions from Dole in Hawaii, to the Jelly Belly Center in Wisconsin, to Cruzan Rum in the U.S. Virgin Islands. From product exhibits ranging from the Jell-O Gallery in New York to the Kool-Aid "Discover the Dream" in Nebraska, Watch It Made In The U.S.A. offers colorful descriptions of the tours, admission fees (which are often free!), days and hours of accessibility, age and group requirements, disabled access, and more. This newly revised and expanded edition includes a Caribbean section as well as information when there are other nearby attractions to the showcased factor and exhibit sites.

Very good information
This book is for anyone that travels on the roads of the U.S.A. If you are one to do road trips and you like visiting places "on the way" or "out of the "way", this book can help you plan your trip. Do a "tour theme" vacation and see as many tours as you can heading towards your destination or heading back home. It not only allows you to see how things are made that are household products with which you are very familiar, but planning your trip around these tours allows you to see more of the country that you probably wouldn't have seen if you stayed on the Interstates. I travel in a RV and was sorry I didn't obtain this book before leaving on a recent trip to the West Coast, for there were a few that were close that I wasn't aware of. No one book has it all but this book, along with AAA tour books is a plus.

Very Fun! Makes traveling interesting!
When we are planning trips, this is one of our standard reference books. Watching some of these things being made is great fun. In fact, it is not uncommon for us to go out of our way to see some factory and we have always been glad we have done so.

This book is well organized and well written. It is easy to understand. The facts in this book are well researched. I know for a fact that there are some tours that are not listed in this book. However, that doesn't mean this book isn't worth every penny, it is.

Enjoy.

Great topic, well-written, fun travelguide
A terrifically fun travelbook that will lead you to factory tours you would never otherwise have found. The entries are full of detail, including hours, addresses, phone numbers, and any special details (e.g., whether or not you need reservations, whether the tours are first-come-first-served, etc.).

Having been on several tours that aren't listed, I can't say that this guide is anywhere near definitive, but what's here is a great start and can spice up a vacation.

Of particular interest, most of these tours are suitable for parents with children, and most of them are FREE!

Worth the money!
I bought both this book and "Inside America" (theother book that Amazon lists...I reviewed that too..don't bother withit!). This book is really nice. It was so well thought out: 1. There are color pictures of what you would see in some of the factories. 2. It tells you whether you actually get to TOUR the factory or whether you will be looking through a window or a watching a video. 3. Tells whether you get freebies. 4. At first I was disappointed because there were so few entries for CT and NJ but when I read the beginning of the book they explained EXACTLY the reason for some states having so few and how they picked the tours for the book. 5. Each tour has like 4-5 paragraphs dedicated to describing it. 6. Tells cost. 7. Tells you anything "special" you might need to know like: the CRAYOLA tour in PA is first come first serve so you might get there and not be allowed in (I personally know of 5 people this happened to... so I specifically checked to see if this would be mentioned). 8. This was geared towards the average person...and specifically families.

I'm crazy when it comes to details and I was thrilled that these people were too. I was very impressed when things would be in parenthesis saying they double checked all information but that you should still call ahead. END ... Read more

Reviews (2)

A roadmap for process innovation and improvement
Davenport presents a practical roadmap for process improvement and process innovation which I have found very useful as a practitioner. Although not prescriptive, the text provides practitioners with useful very insights which can form the basis of an organisation's business process innovation/improvement methodology.

Must read
This is a well-written book on the subject of process or business reengineering. It is written in a non-technical language, wastes few words, and covers the entire spectrum of topics that are essential to a successful reengineering effort. The discussions place a significant emphasis on the role that information or computer technology play today in the reengineering effort, particularly how this technology can facilitate the overall effort. I found the book largely sticking to the overall thread however at times it did become a wee bit academic to flip through the sections. All in all, a very good read. ... Read more

Book Description

Wheels of Fortune is a tale of two cities-both of them Akron. One city, built on rubber, turned itself into a model for Middle America industrial success. The other city has had to learn to live on in rubber's wake, to remake itself, to come to terms with its remade self. To tell this tale of two cities is to tell the tale of America's rubber industry. The stories interlock like tire and wheel. From its earliest days, Akron has been a city of multiple incarnations: canal boat stopover, farm machinery manufacturer, cereal maker. But for more than a century after Dr. Benjamin Franklin Goodrich came to town in 1870, Akron was the Rubber Capital of the World. Its people worked in the rubber shops of Goodrich, Goodyear, Firestone, General, Seiberling, Mohawk, and Sun. They lived in Goodyear Heights and Firestone Park, the neighborhoods fostered by their employers. Even the air they breathed was heavy with the odor of rubber. To some, it stank. To others, it smelled like money. By the 1980s, much the rubber industry and, thus, Akron had disappeared. Not into the night. Not overnight. Everyone had seen it coming for years. Union and rubber companies management squared off against each other as if the city were a boxing ring. There were no winners. Akron was the loser. First, the plants closed, the production moving south. Then the company headquarters, with the exception of Goodyear, followed. The people rubber left behind discovered they had not only their memories but also the ability to remake Akron into a center for polymer knowledge, a remnant of rubber research and a bridge between the two cities. Wheels of Fortune is their story, these people who made more than rubber. They made lives-and a city. ... Read more

Reviews (2)

Great Book on History of Akron and the Rubber Industry
As a native of Akron, OH, I was very interested in reading this book and learning the history of the city which was known as the Rubber Capitol of the World.

This book is very well written and contains many beautiful sharp photos from the past.

The rubber industry has had an effect on everyone. Learn how it all started and how the the creator of modern rubber died pennyless. I very highly recommend this book!

Excellent review of making of an industry and its capital.
Excellent case study of how invention grew a city and the company-city relationship. Demonstrates

the importance of innovation and how industries die if they don't embrace change.

The effect on the Akron people is excellent. ... Read more

Book Description

Depending on one's point of view, multinational enterprises are either the heroes or the villains of the globalized economy. Governments compete fiercely for foreign direct investment by such companies, but complain when firms go global and move their activities elsewhere. Multinationals are seen by some as threats to national identities and wealth and are accused of riding roughshod over national laws and of exploiting cheap labor. However, the debate on these companies and foreign direct investment is rarely grounded on sound economic arguments.

This book brings clarity to the debate. With the contribution of other leading experts, Giorgio Barba Navaretti and Anthony Venables assess the determinants of multinationals' actions, investigating why their activity has expanded so rapidly, and why some countries have seen more such activity than others. They analyze their effects on countries that are recipients of inward investments, and on those countries that see multinational firms moving jobs abroad. The arguments are made using modern advances in economic analysis, a case study, and by drawing on the extensive empirical literature that assesses the determinants and consequences of activity by multinationals. The treatment is rigorous, yet accessible to all readers with a background in economics, whether students or professionals. Drawing out policy implications, the authors conclude that multinational enterprises are generally a force for the promotion of prosperity in the world economy.

... Read more

Book Description

Today's headlines report cities going bankrupt, states running large deficits, and nations stuck in high debt and stagnation. Philip Kotler, Donald Haider, and Irving Rein argue that thousands of "places" -- cities, states, and nations -- are in crisis, and can no longer rely on national industrial policies, such as federal matching funds, as a promise of jobs and protection. When trouble strikes, places resort to various palliatives such as chasing grants from state or federal sources, bidding for smokestack industries, or building convention centers and exotic attractions. The authors show instead that places must, like any market-driven business, become attractive "products" by improving their industrial base and communicating their special qualities more effectively to their target markets.

From studies of cities and nations throughout the world, Kotler, Haider, and Rein offer a systematic analysis of why so many places have fallen on hard times, and make recommendations on what can be done to revitalize a place's economy. They show how "place wars" -- battles for Japanese factories, government projects, Olympic Games, baseball team franchises, convention business, and other economic prizes -- are often misguided and end in wasted money and effort. The hidden key to vigorous economic development, the authors argue, is strategic marketing of places by rebuilding infrastructure, creating a skilled labor force, stimulating local business entrepreneurship and expansion, developing strong public/private partnerships, identifying and attracting "place compatible" companies and industries, creating distinctive local attractions, building a service-friendly culture, and promoting these advantages effectively.

Strategic marketing of places requires a deep understanding of how "place buyers" -- tourists, new residents, factories, corporate headquarters, investors -- make their place decisions. With this understanding, "place sellers" -- economic development agencies, tourist promotion agencies, mayor's offices -- can take the necessary steps to compete aggressively for place buyers. This straightforward guide for effectively marketing places will be the framework for economic development in the 1990s and beyond. ... Read more

Reviews (1)

Excellent community/economic development primer
Kotler, et al have defined the marriage between the public and private sectors in terms that make sense to both partners. While the implication that the private sector tends to get it right most of the time signals a weakness that haunts the writings of Harvard's Michael Porter("Competitive Advantage of Inner Cities"), the fundamental notions contained in this work seem sound.

Students of city planning, urban affairs, etc., might conclude that the emerging field of hotel, motel, and resort management may offer a more relevant practical model of city management than the current curriculums offer. When it's all said and done what's the significant difference between managing a city and managing a total service resort? As the politics of citys, space, become more rationalized in the larger systems of global markets and international trade, local decision making is increasingly becoming influenced by the factors that Kotler, et al raise in their book.

It's no surprise that my friends in the private sector find "place marketing" the newest fad in the consulting field. In truth, I've been pleased to see the social planners and business planners find common ground in the models and ideas that Kotler, Porter, et al have managed to present. ... Read more

Book Description

You say you like doing deals and making money but don't care much about getting into the retail grind?

Maybe you need to be the person in the middle-the wholesaler, the one who buys goods in volume from manufacturers and sells them to retailers at a profit. With millions of products on the market already and new ones coming every day, the wholesale economy has plenty of room for growth.

This guide tells you how to start thriving wholesale operation, specializing in any industry you choose-and run in from your kitchen table, if you like. Entrepreneur magazine has interviewed dozens of successful wholesaling entrepreneurs and distilled the best of their advice into a format that's easy to read and understand. You'll learn:

• How to make contact with manufacturers and retailers
• How to obtain product exclusives
• How to find prime locations for your wholesale distributorship
• Insiders' secrets for overcoming your competition

Start Your Own Wholesale Distribution Business also includes sample forms, step-by-step instructions, checklists and worksheets to guide you smoothly through each stage of the startup process.

It's a straight shot from where you are today to owning and running your own business tomorrow-and you can start right now.

Reviews (1)

Don't waste your money
The saddest thing about this book is that Amazon wants to charge me $4.95 to return it when the description on the web site is clearly wrong. The book is 85 pages (+ 14 appendix/index pages), not 200, and isn't worth the paper it's printed on. An absolute waste of time and money. ... Read more

Book Description

Looking for an opportunity to make big profits while setting your own schedule? A vending machine business could be your ticket to the top. Americans feed vending machines over $22 billion a year for sodas, candy, coffee and other snacks. That's a nice chunk of change you could be pocketing.

Starting out is easy. You can begin part time out of your home. As your customer base increases, you can hire extra help, buy more machines, and expand your service area. There's no real limit to how large you can grow your business.

This guide will answer all your questions, including:

• What are the secrets of scouting out territories?
• Which items sell, and which don't?
• How do I establish routes and hire route workers?
• Should I buy new or used machines?
• How do I arrange the best placement for my machines?
• Where can I get supplies at a discount?
• What are the laws and regulations I need to know?

Easy-to-understand instructions, checklists and worksheets guide you through every phase of the startup process. You'll also get useful resources, such as business forms, a glossary and a list of professional organizations to help you along the way.

Reviews (3)

An objective take on the vending industry
After reading a couple books that were by people who were trying to find buyers of their vending equipment, I was glad to find this book. While some of the information is on the basic side, basic information is what a beginner like me needed to get started. Plus, the book is very objective. I recommend it for people who are considering vending.

Great For Beginners!
This book provides excellent step-by-step guidance to starting a vending machine business. The writer seems to know what it's like to start a small business when you've never worked for yourself before. The writing is engaging but there's no sales and no hype. However, there is solid, easy to understand advice from individuals with successful vending businesses of various types. It helped me see what kind of vending businesses I could start. Also, I really liked the worksheets and other sample items that I can copy and use for myself. Perhaps this book is too basic for someone who already has a vending business, but for a newcomer like me it's perfect -- it's helped me avoid pitfalls and stick with the techniques that result in success. This book has been invaluable in opening up a whole new world for me!

Bland - not worth buying
This book is bland, bland, bland. Basically it was written by someone who knows nothing about the vending business...they just did a little research on it and put together a lousy book. I own a successful vending business and thought a book from Entreprener Magazine might be handy to get some new ideas from...but it's not. There are few good ideas in this book, old or new. There are better books out there on vending - this one is a waste of time & money. ... Read more

Book Description

National cultures are built around national pastimes.How we play helps define who we think we are.This is the story of two great sports—America’s game, and the world’s game.

Baseball is America’s game, a national obsession that remains largely North American, even though it bills its championship as the World Series.Soccer is the world’s game, a sport over which no nation can claim ownership.Its World Cup is truly international and the ultimate yardstick of national self-esteem.National Pastime is the first in-depth cross-cultural comparison of these sporting passions and the mega-businesses they have become.

In National Pastime, Stefan Szymanski and Andrew Zimbalist examine how organizational structures have made Major League Baseball a profitable business (notwithstanding common claims made by the owners) while soccer leagues around the world struggle to break even.They weave a rich variety of stories, anecdotes, and photos into their account of how these games became businesses, and how these businesses have adapted to the demands of fans.The authors show how early administrators of baseball and soccer leagues were influenced by the parallel developments of each sport and, in particular, how the concept of the league was invented by American baseball and transplanted first to English soccer, and then to the rest of the world.

In their final chapter, the authors discuss the lessons that baseball and soccer can learn from each other today.In some cases, they argue for radical restructuring, and they offer a blueprint for reform.Szymanski and Zimbalist show how a careful understanding of one sport can provide useful insights into the specific challenges facing the other.

This engaging and readable book will entertain history buffs and sports fans alike, while providing participants and analysts with important insights.Even the most knowledgeable fans will learn a great deal about why their beloved sport developed along certain lines, and how it could be improved.Some fans may even discover that what they’ve been missing out on across the Atlantic—as the authors note, seeing the world through someone else’s eyes can be instructive and rewarding… not to mention fun. ... Read more

Reviews (1)

How good was this?
This book was absolutely amazing. I loved it, an easy read through and through. Szymanski and Zimbalist as economists explain wonderfully why soccer is so much more popular than baseball, and you can understand everything, there was not a weak point. I would strongly reccommend this book to anyone, an amazing read ... Read more

Book Description

Now there’s an International Business text that truly goes beyond a US-centered perspective to take into consideration the business realities in other countries and their unique perspectives, highlighting the role of culture in international business and illustrating how its impacts as well as that of political, legal and social institutions permeates all business functions and processes.

Oded Shenkar and Yadong Luo’s INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS offers a highly integrated and action-focused approach to the field that helps students make explicit connections across concepts and functions, develop the skill they need to address various IB issues and problems, and most importantly, broaden their understanding of the global business environment and its repercussions for executives. ... Read more

Book Description

From the acclaimed authors of A Future Perfect comes the untold story of how the company became the world’s most powerful institution.

Like all groundbreaking books, The Company fills a hole we didn’t know existed, revealing that we cannot make sense of the past four hundred years until we place that seemingly humble Victorian innovation, the joint-stock company, in the center of the frame.

With their trademark authority and wit, Economist editors John Micklethwait and Adrian Wooldridge reveal the company to be one of history’s great catalysts, for good and for ill, a mighty engine for sucking in, recombining, and pumping out money, goods, people, and culture to every corner of the globe. What other earthly invention has the power to grow to any size, and to live to any age? What else could have given us both the stock market and the British Empire? The company man, the company town, and company time? Disneyfication and McDonald’sization, to say nothing of Coca-colonialism? Through its many mutations, the company has always incited controversy, and governments have always fought to rein it in. Today, though Marx may spin in his grave and anarchists riot in the streets, the company exercises an unparalleled influence on the globe, and understanding what this creature is and where it comes from has never been a more pressing matter. To the rescue come these acclaimed authors, with a short volume of truly vast range and insight. ... Read more

Reviews (9)

Companies made interesting
There are few creatures more vilified in today's world than corporations. For some, companies are the instruments of evil, they exist to profit at the expense of ordinary people, and their chief executives are defamed for their greed and ambition. All the same, most people live off the checks they receive from those evil beasts; and, being the CEO of a large company offers comparable prestige with other esteemed professions.

Wrestling with these competing images of corporations is part of what "The Company" aims at. John Micklethwait and Adrian Wooldridge, both of The Economist, embark on an ambitious project to show that the corporation lies at the heart and center of organized societies-more so than the state, the commune, the political party, the church, and others.

Having put modesty aside, the authors deliver on their promise with great skill, both literary and scholarly. All pervasive in their narrative is a deep sense of historical perspective-of contrasting the companies of today with those of the past. This need of putting the present in context is extremely valuable in canvassing the role that corporations (and particularly multinationals) play in the world today.

Several themes emerge in this historical journey. The first is the evolution of the company itself through a continuous political debate about its role and place in society. A second charts the different attitudes that societies have had towards companies; in particular the authors focus on the United States, Britain, Germany and Japan.

At the heart of this book is the dialectic between society and company; the Virginia Company, for example, effectively introduced democracy in America in 1619. This helps explains why Americans have been more receptive to companies that have other countries. This is one of countless examples in the book that chronicle the immense impact that companies have had the world over.

"The Company" not only explains the historical arguments that have been front and center of the debate about the role that companies should play, but it also captures the timeless forces that have shaped, and are likely to keep shaping, the debate in the future. Certainly a book no one would like to miss.

Excellent book - just the right length - 4.5 stars
This book is nicely researched and well presented- not too long (not padded out) and not too short (despite its title).

I finally understood the origin of the US term 'Trust' as in 'Anti-trust'.

It was also interesting to see the role the Railways (Railroad) had played in causing the Company to evolve, from the limited-time partnerships of the Sailing Ships to the 'ownership' by the Pension Funds.

Only one irritation - the sub-editor must have been asleep reviewing the proofs (in my UK edition anyway). Each page contains genuine hyphenated terms such as 'joint-stock' and 'Anglo-Saxon', but there are rogue hyphenations such as in 'chap-ter', 'Car-negie', 'custom-ers', 'Gas-kell', and you keep having to re-read them to see what they mean? I found them in 5 different chapters, so its not as if only one piece of text was added/removed and threw out the pagination?

Bold thesis
Sweeping history of the corporation in a very short concise book. For many, I think just the history of the corporation would make this book worthwhile. Their claims about the importance of the corporation in world history represent a bold thesis, but the authors provide evidence not only over time but across countries and show why the different forms of corporations allowed some countries to advance faster than others.

Amusing reading, not to deep
The company is a fun little book for someone who wishes to understand the contribution of such entities to the creation of wealth in the modern world. It is not a thesis and it doesn't pretend to be one. It is basically a recollection of historical data starting from the fenician merchants and ending with the current anti globalization movement. However, beside the historical data and some insight into the views of the authors, the book doesn't ellaborate to much into any particular thesis. It is not a pertentious book but a fun one to read on a weekend.

Stimulating, If Basically Light, Reading
* THE COMPANY, by John Micklethwait and Adrian Woolridge, is a brief
historical survey of the evolution of the concept of the corporate
organization.

Partnerships and shareholding are concepts that go back a long time.
One of the most prominent of the "pre-modern" corporations was the
British East India Company, established by royal charter to control
trade with India, in fact becoming the effective government of India
for a time. However, the modern company didn't really arise until the
last half of the 19th century.

Corporations before that time had existed under specific government
charters, and it took some time for governments to become comfortable
with the notion that any group of people who wanted to form a
corporation could do so without explicit state approval, being
required only to meet a simple set of rules that applied to all. It
also took time to become comfortable with the notion of "limited
liability" -- that is, the now completely accepted notion that
stockholders who buy stock in a company may lose their stock, but will
not be liable for a company's debts.

Starting from that point, THE COMPANY goes on to describe the rise of
the modern corporation, particularly the rise of the US companies
during the period of "robber baron" capitalism up to the First World
War, and contrasting that with the corporate styles of other nations.
Britain, which had pioneered the legal mechanisms establishing the
modern corporation, lagged behind because of a social snobbery against
commerce, while Germany and Japan harnessed corporate energies into
service for the state.

The book then traces the evolution of the American corporate concept
of the 1950s and 1960s -- when the world seemed dominated by the likes
of GM, IBM, and Coca-Cola -- and how rapid changes in technology
undermined, though by no means crippled, the power of the major
corporations during the rest of the century. It concludes by

examining recent corporate scandals and the controversy over
multinational corporations and "globalism".

* Both the authors are staffers for the British ECONOMIST magazine,
and THE COMPANY reflects that to the point of generally seeming to be
an expanded ECONOMIST essay. This is not really a complaint, however.
Yes, it does come on as sketchy in places, and sometimes a bit glib.
I spent almost two decades working for a major corporation, and it
seems a bit funny to see a book discussing such places in a sanitized
fashion when anyone who's been stuck in one for a long time suspects
that a realistic book on how a big corporation works would have to be
written by Kafka and illustrated by Dali. (Ah, but things always look
different close up.)

THE COMPANY certainly reflects the ECONOMIST's enthusiastic boosterism
of capitalism, and of course the reader is given an almost obligatory
defense of globalism -- but a measured one, admitting that though the
Left may be loony at times, they still have a few valid points and
concerns. In any case, overall this is a fun little book to read,
lively and entertaining, even worth some rereading, though in

the end it's basically casual reading. ... Read more

Amazon.com

Chris Roush nails down Home Depot in this unauthorized portrayal of the retailing titan. Inside Home Depot shows how cofounders Bernie Marcus and Arthur Blank over the past 20 years built their business from two stores in Atlanta into 650 outlets--the world's largest home-improvement retail chain. Roush, a veteran business reporter, finds that much of Home Depot's astonishing financial success comes from its strong "bleeding orange" culture. Home Depot fosters loyalty among workers with the best pay in the industry, generous stock-purchase plans, and first-rate training in home improvement and customer service. Incredibly enough, Blank, the company's chief executive, still spends a third of his time personally training employees--unthinkable for any other CEO of a multibillion-dollar company. Roush also examines plenty of defects. Home Depot was so macho that it could be a house of horrors early on for its women employees: the company paid $104.5 million to settle sexual-discrimination lawsuits.

The author points out that the company's hegemony is threatened by competitors like Lowe's and community activists who fear that Home Depot means suburban sprawl and schlock. Nevertheless, Roush predicts that Big Orange, which is experimenting with new home-design and rural stores, will become even more ubiquitous in the future:

Home Depot has only just begun to build itself into a retail power. With each customer that enters its orange-colored doors and walks its vast aisles, buying do-it-yourself items to repair roofs and fix leaky faucets, Home Depot hammers away.

Reviews (5)

what a joke
This is obviously just the work of a home depot corporate hack. Home despot has a reputation for one thing: lousy, rude, and insulting service. While contractors can deal with this, the home consumer always leaves Home despot frustrated and unhappy.

I'm sure Enron executives could write books on how ethical, enlightened and customer friendly Enron is, too. That doesn't mean anyone should waste a nickel or a minute reading them.

A good behind-the-scenes objective take on HD
Although I'm not an HD fanatic or investor, I found this book a good account of what makes this company tick. Given that it was done without the founders' cooperation, that is an even more amazing feat. I disagree that the book reads poorly; on the contrary, I found it an quick read, well organized and on point. Highly recommended.

Okay as a rough draft, but needs a lot more work.
This is a reasonably good book but sort of skirts around the Big Point in the Home Depot story. The Big Point is not that HD 'revolutionized an industry', but rather that it is one of the chief players in the creation and growth of that industry. The do-it-yourself phenomenon is nothing new in the world. Farmers and homeowners and small businesses have been expanding their buildings and fixing their plumbing for centuries. What Home Depot and its imitators have done is to institutionalize the servicing of the do-it-yourself class and in so doing, enabled it to grow exponentially. Do-it-yourselfing was not an industry 30 years ago. It was just something ambitious or cash-strapped people did because they couldn't afford to hire the companies who did that sort of work. It was hard because they had to pay retail and they had to go to twenty different retailers to get supplies. When Home Depot put everything under one roof and gave everything the lowest possible price, the floodgates were opened and all the pent-up demand fueled the Depot's stunning rise.

Chris Roush has all the facts essentially right, but his writing is deficient. The subtitle claims HD 'revolutionized an industry through the relentless pursuit of growth'. But then, what company does not relentlessly pursue growth? Does the CEO of Sears tell his managers, 'Okay, people, we've had a pretty good quarter so far, so we don't have to try to grow any more for awhile.' No. Every company relentlessly pursues growth. That's what it means to be a company in business to make money. What separates HD from the Sears-Roebucks of this world is the growth strategy in general, and pricing strategy in particular. Sears puts on their products the highest price possible short of making customers walk out of the store in outrage. Home Depot sets its prices at the lowest possible point where they can still make a profit. What separate HD from retailers like K-Mart is quality. You can find low prices in a K-Mart, but all too often you find out a week or a month later why the prices were cheap: the merchandise was cheap. Home Depot sells top quality stuff as cheaply as they can while still making a profit.

Roush goes on and on about HD's customer service, but really doesn't come right out and say what is meant by customer service. Is it having a clerk hovering over you every moment like in the department stores of old? Is it having a fawning senior citizen foisting microwaveable tidbits on you like in a Safeway or greeting you at the entrance to a WalMart? No, Home Depot customer service is something useful. It's having someone with a brain within shouting distance at all times, someone in lumber who knows the difference between MDF and CDX, someone in tools who knows a collet from a mandrel. You might have to get them off a forklift or off their cell phone, but when you do, odds are they'll know what they are talking about and where it is. Just the other day I asked a woman where to find dielectric unions. She told me, without hesitation, 'Aisle 5, on the left, halfway to the back'. And that's exactly where they were. I've had that same experience many times in Home Depot. But that's not the way it works in Builder's Square or Home Base.

To make this a better book in future editions, Roush ought to get a firmer grasp of who his readership is. Who the hell wants to read 'Management Lessons' at the end of every chapter? Is this a textbook or a real book? Why not let Cliff Notes do a simplistic summary in a separate volume? Is this a work of history or an infomercial? If it's the former, then drop cheerleader chapter titles like 'Customer Service is Job No. 1'. Find an editor who can weed out all the flabby writing. Someone, for instance, should have told Roush that he used the meaningless filler phrase 'to be sure' over a dozen times. Someone should have pointed out shoddy sentences like this one on page 192: 'In Europe, Inglis received a green light in 1994 to enter Europe'.

Maybe Roush, with his on-again/off-again journalistic objectivity, can't always to distinguish right from wrong or good from bad. He doles out a lot of treacle about Home Depot's owners helping the victims of the Oklahoma bombing, and trying to forge peace in the Middle East, and being good corporate citizens in a variety of ways-- then writes the following sentence about a government that publicly murdered thousands of its own citizens in 1989 and keeps millions more in concentration camps to this day: 'Having the Chinese government as a partner was also appealing' (p.201). I would guess that a capitalist like Marcus or Blank would find a partner like the government of China about as appealing as genital herpes, and that's why there are no Home Depots in China. Of course, maybe that will change. Lots of American companies did good business in Iran in the Seventies and Germany in the Thirties.

Blatant pandering to the folks at Home Depot
Mr. Roush's "uncensored" book might as well have been written by Mr.'s Marcus and Blank, the founders of Home Depot. Uncensored and unbiased books do not have a segment at the end of each chapter that recaps how Home Depot is an example for all of us.

Granted, Home Depot has been successful, but this is a 266 page advertisement.

It is obvious that Mr. Roush's journalistic judgment is clouded when he addresses the allegations of discrimination against women and when he discusses how Home Depot rolls into a small community and puts small Mom and Pop operations out of business.

He had the opportunity to critically analyze Home Depots "good ole boy" network - and he didn't. And, when he's done, he all but says that the small hardware store owner deserves to be put out of business.

Save yourself the cost of this book. The Sunday paper Home Depot advertisements are just as insightful and unbiased - and are a lot cheaper.

Fascinating, uncensored look at Home Depot
First-time author and Pulitzer Prize-nominated journalist Chris Roush of Bloomberg News in Atlanta writes of how one company revolutionized an industry through the relentless pursuit of growth. "Inside Home Depot" is an unauthorized, behind-the-scenes look at the most successful retailer to come along since Wal-Mart. A Wal-Mart executive even admits in Roush's book that "Home Depot is the best-managed retail company in America, ours included." The company's founder, Arthur Blank and Bernie Marcus, say that values like respect among all people, excellent customer service, and giving back to the community have made Home Depot successful. With nearly $90 billion in sales in 1998, Home Depot has become one of the world's biggest retailers in less than 20 years by focusing on customer service, treating employees like family, and relentless pursuit of growth. I learned everything I ever wanted to know about Home Depot -- and more. Roush takes the reader through Home Depot's "boot camp" training class for new employees. Instead of greeting customers with "Hi, how are you doing?" they are told to meet customers with the greeting of "What are you building today?" The book makes interesting reading for the Home Depot shooper who is awed by the success of this innovative store. And for up-and-coming businesses, there are lessons for success that can be learned from the Home Depot example. Home Depot author Chris Roush became an expert on the inside operations of Home Depot while a reporter for The Atlanta Journal-Constitution where he also covered Coca-Cola and Home Depot, as well as the entire retail industry. In 1993, his reporting on consumer issues won him a Pulitzer Prize nomination while he was at The Tampa Tribune. He was nominated for the Livingston Award by The Atlanta Journal-Constitution for his reporting on the business scene. Roush also worked for Business Week and The Sarasota Herald-Tribune. -- Ed Williams Department of Journalism Auburn University Auburn, Ala. ... Read more