Book picks similar to
A Tale of Three Cities: Or the Glocalization of City Management by Barbara Czarniawska
business-history
organisation-studies
organization-studies
social-research
Zillow Talk: The New Rules of Real Estate
Spencer Rascoff - 2015
To understand real estate in our fast-paced, technology-driven world, we need to toss out all of the outdated truisms and embrace today's brand new information. But how? Enter Zillow, the nation's #1 real estate website and mobile app. Thanks to its treasure trove of proprietary data and army of statisticians and data scientists, led by chief economist Stan Humphries, Zillow has been able to spot the trends and truths of today's housing market while acknowledging that a home is more than an economic asset. In Zillow Talk, Humphries and CEO Spencer Rascoff explain the science behind where and how we live now and reveal practical, data-driven insights about buying, selling, renting and financing real estate. Read this book to find out why: It's better to remodel your bathroom than your kitchen Putting the word "cute" in your listing could cost you thousands of dollars You shouldn't buy the worst house in the best neighborhood You should never list your house for $444,000 You shouldn't list your house for sale before March Madness or after the Masters Densely packed with entertaining anecdotes and invaluable how-to advice, Zillow Talk is poised to be the real estate almanac for the next generation.
A Triumph of Genius: Edwin Land, Polaroid, and the Kodak Patent War
Ronald K. Fierstein - 2015
Jobs revered Land as "a national treasure," and modeled much of his career after his. Neither had a college degree, but both men built highly successful, innovative organizations. Both were perfectionists, micromanagers with fanatic attention to detail, consummate showmen and marketers. In many ways, Edwin Land was the original Steve Jobs. This riveting biography from the American Bar Association, visits the spectacular life of Edwin Land, breakthrough inventor. At the time of his death, he stood third on the list of our most prolific inventors, behind only Thomas Edison and one of Edison s colleagues. Land s most famous achievement of course, was the creation of a revolutionary film and camera system that could produce a photographic print moments after the picture was taken. The book takes you behind the scenes of his discoveries, his triumphs, and also the defeats of this reclusive genius. You'll learn details of Land s involvement over four decades with topsecret U.S. military intelligence efforts during World War II and through the Cold War in the service of seven American presidents. Additionally, you'll thrill to the compelling firsthand look at one of our nation s most important legal battles over intellectual property Polaroid versus Kodak. This corporate and legal struggle is a story of almost operatic dimension. What began as a cooperative and collegial relationship ended in Kodak s betrayal. The conflict led to an epic legal battle, a dramatic event for Land who, from the witness stand, personally starred in a compelling courtroom drama. More than a simple biography, this fascinating book is a biographical legal thriller that is not to be missed."
The Color of Law: A Forgotten History of How Our Government Segregated America
Richard Rothstein - 2017
Rather, The Color of Law incontrovertibly makes clear that it was de jure segregation—the laws and policy decisions passed by local, state, and federal governments—that actually promoted the discriminatory patterns that continue to this day.Through extraordinary revelations and extensive research that Ta-Nehisi Coates has lauded as "brilliant" (The Atlantic), Rothstein comes to chronicle nothing less than an untold story that begins in the 1920s, showing how this process of de jure segregation began with explicit racial zoning, as millions of African Americans moved in a great historical migration from the south to the north.As Jane Jacobs established in her classic The Death and Life of Great American Cities, it was the deeply flawed urban planning of the 1950s that created many of the impoverished neighborhoods we know. Now, Rothstein expands our understanding of this history, showing how government policies led to the creation of officially segregated public housing and the demolition of previously integrated neighborhoods. While urban areas rapidly deteriorated, the great American suburbanization of the post–World War II years was spurred on by federal subsidies for builders on the condition that no homes be sold to African Americans. Finally, Rothstein shows how police and prosecutors brutally upheld these standards by supporting violent resistance to black families in white neighborhoods.The Fair Housing Act of 1968 prohibited future discrimination but did nothing to reverse residential patterns that had become deeply embedded. Yet recent outbursts of violence in cities like Baltimore, Ferguson, and Minneapolis show us precisely how the legacy of these earlier eras contributes to persistent racial unrest. “The American landscape will never look the same to readers of this important book” (Sherrilyn Ifill, president of the NAACP Legal Defense Fund), as Rothstein’s invaluable examination shows that only by relearning this history can we finally pave the way for the nation to remedy its unconstitutional past.
Here Is New York
E.B. White - 1948
White's stroll around Manhattan remains the quintessential love letter to the city, written by one of America's foremost literary figures. The New York Times has named Here is New York one of the ten best books ever written about the metropolis, and The New Yorker calls it "the wittiest essay, and one of the most perceptive, ever done on the city.
Breaking Through Bias: Communication Techniques for Women to Succeed at Work
Andrea S Kramer - 2016
Women start their careers on parity with men but generally end them far earlier, having achieved less status, lower compensation, and less satisfaction than men. Breaking Through Bias explains that it is the stereotypes about women, men, work, leadership, and family that hold women back, and it presents an integrated set of communication techniques that women can use to avoid the discriminatory consequences of these stereotypes. Women define career success in a wide variety of ways. But whatever a woman’s personal definition, if she is in a traditionally male-dominated career—virtually all high status, highly compensated fields—her career is at risk because of pervasive gender stereotypes. This highly practical book makes clear that women don’t need to change who they are to succeed in their chosen careers, and they certainly don’t need to act more like men. Women do, however, need to be attuned to the negative gender stereotypes that surround them; they need to anticipate the biases these stereotypes foster, and they need to manage the impressions they make to avoid or overcome these biases.Based on the authors’ personal experiences as business leaders and practicing attorneys, involvement in compensation and hiring decisions, extensive mentoring activities, and numerous scientific and academic studies, Breaking Through Bias presents unique, practical, and effective advice about how women can at last break through gender bias in the workplace and win at the career advancement game.
Bernard Baruch
James Grant - 1983
Baruch's political policies are discussed briefly, and James Grant includes a detailed account of Baruch's trading and investment gains and losses. Baruch obtained his millions by risking his fortune again and again. In the history of our stock market and government, there are few who have obtained his mythical status as a successful investor of all times.
Last Train to Paradise: Henry Flagler and the Spectacular Rise and Fall of the Railroad that Crossed an Ocean
Les Standiford - 2002
Brilliant and driven entrepreneur Henry Flagler’s dream fulfilled, the Key West Railroad stood as a magnificent achievement for more than twenty-two years, heralded as “the Eighth Wonder of the World.” Standiford brings the full force and fury of 1935’s deadly “Storm of the Century” and its sweeping destruction of “the railroad that crossed an ocean” to terrifying life. Last Train to Paradise celebrates a crowning achievement of Gilded Age ambition in a sweeping tale of the powerful forces of human ingenuity colliding with the even greater forces of nature’s wrath.
The Volatility Machine: Emerging Economics and the Threat of Financial Collapse
Michael Pettis - 2001
Pettis combines the insights of economic history, economic theory, and finance theory into a comprehensive model for understanding sovereign liability management and the causes of financial crises. He examines recent financial crises in emerging market countries along with the history of international lending since the 1820s to argue that the process of international lending is driven primarily by external events and not by local politics and/or economic policies. He draws out the corporate finance implications of this approach to argue that most of the current analyses of the recent financial crises suffered by Latin America, Asia, and Russia have largely missed the point. He then develops a sovereign finance model, analogous to corporate finance, to understand the capital structure needs of emerging market countries. Using this model, he finally puts into perspective the recent crises, a new sovereign liability management theory, the implications of the model for sovereign debt restructurings, and the new financial architecture.Bridging the gap between finance specialists and traders, on the one hand, and economists and policy-makers on the other, The Volatility Machine is critical reading for anyone interested in where the international economy is going over the next several years.
Uncontainable: How Passion, Commitment, and Conscious Capitalism Built a Business Where Everyone Thrives
Kip Tindell - 2014
A new category of the retailing industry was born - storage and organization. Today, with stores nationwide and with more than 5,000 loyal employees, the company couldn't be stronger. Over the years, The Container Store has been lauded for its commitment to its employees and focus on its original concept and inventory mix as the formula for its success. But for Tindell, the goal never has been growth for growth's sake. Rather, it is to adhere to the company's values-based business philosophies, which center on an employee-first culture, superior customer service and strict merchandising. The Container Store has been named on Fortune magazine's "100 Best Companies To Work For" list for 15 consecutive years. Even better, The Container Store has millions of loyal customers.In Uncontainable, Tindell reveals his approach for building a business where everyone associated with it thrives through embodying the tenets of Conscious Capitalism. Tindell's seven Foundation Principles are the roadmap that drives everyone at The Container Store to achieve the goals of the company. Uncontainable shows how other businesses can adapt this approach toward what Tindell calls the most profitable, sustainable and fun way of doing business. Tindell is that rare CEO who fully embraces the "Golden Rule" of business - where all stakeholders - employees, customers, vendors, shareholder, the community - are successful through a harmonic balance of win-wins.
The King and Queen of Malibu: The True Story of the Battle for Paradise
David K. Randall - 2016
He was a Harvard-trained confidant of presidents; she was a poor Midwestern farmer’s daughter raised to be suspicious of the seasons. Yet the bond between them would shape history.The newly married couple reached Los Angeles in 1887 when it was still a frontier, and within a few years Frederick, the only heir to an immense Boston fortune, became one of the wealthiest men in the state. After his sudden death in 1905, May spent the next thirty years fighting off some of the most powerful men in the country—as well as fissures within her own family—to preserve Malibu as her private kingdom. Her struggle, one of the longest over land in California history, would culminate in a landmark Supreme Court decision and lead to the creation of the Pacific Coast Highway.The King and Queen of Malibu traces the path of one family as the country around them swept off the last vestiges of the Civil War and moved into what we would recognize as the modern age. The story of Malibu ranges from the halls of Harvard to the Old West in New Mexico to the beginnings of San Francisco’s counter culture amid the Gilded Age, and culminates in the glamour of early Hollywood—all during the brief sliver of history in which the advent of railroads and the automobile traversed a beckoning American frontier and anything seemed possible.
More Than a Hobby: How a $600 Startup Became America's Home and Craft Superstore
David Green - 2005
How did his company go from a $600 loan to $1.3 billion in annual sales in just thirty-one years-especially when he wasn't groomed for this work either by heritage or by education?Green was willing to go against the tide, allowing faith to play a huge part in the business. More Than a Hobby describes how this wildly successful business was built not on business-school theory, but on the founder's own experience as a grassroots store manager.
Alibaba: The House That Jack Ma Built
Duncan Clark - 2016
Alibaba’s $25 billion IPO in 2014 was the largest global IPO ever. A Rockefeller of his age who is courted by CEOs and Presidents around the world, Jack is an icon for China’s booming private sector and the gatekeeper to hundreds of millions of middle class consumers.Duncan Clark first met Jack in 1999 in the small apartment where Jack founded Alibaba. Granted unprecedented access to a wealth of new material including exclusive interviews, Clark draws on his own experience as an early advisor to Alibaba and two decades in China chronicling the Internet’s impact on the country to create an authoritative, compelling narrative account of Alibaba’s rise.How did Jack overcome his humble origins and early failures to achieve massive success with Alibaba? How did he outsmart rival entrepreneurs from China and Silicon Valley? Can Alibaba maintain its 80% market share? As it forges ahead into finance and entertainment, are there limits to Alibaba’s ambitions? How does the Chinese government view its rise? Will Alibaba expand further overseas, including in the U.S.?Clark tells Alibaba’s tale in the context of China’s momentous economic and social changes, illuminating an unlikely corporate titan as never before.
A $500 House in Detroit: Rebuilding an Abandoned Home and an American City
Drew Philp - 2017
He sets his sights on Detroit, the failed metropolis of abandoned buildings, widespread poverty, and rampant crime. Arriving with no job, no friends, and no money, Philp buys a ramshackle house for five hundred dollars in the east side neighborhood known as Poletown. The roomy Queen Anne he now owns is little more than a clapboard shell on a crumbling brick foundation, missing windows, heat, water, electricity, and a functional roof.A $500 House in Detroit is Philp’s raw and earnest account of rebuilding everything but the frame of his house, nail by nail and room by room. “Philp is a great storyteller…[and his] engrossing” (Booklist) tale is also of a young man finding his footing in the city, the country, and his own generation. We witness his concept of Detroit shift, expand, and evolve as his plan to save the city gives way to a life forged from political meaning, personal connection, and collective purpose. As he assimilates into the community of Detroiters around him, Philp guides readers through the city’s vibrant history and engages in urgent conversations about gentrification, racial tensions, and class warfare.Part social history, part brash generational statement, part comeback story, A $500 House in Detroit “shines [in its depiction of] the ‘radical neighborliness’ of ordinary people in desperate circumstances” (Publishers Weekly). This is an unforgettable, intimate account of the tentative revival of an American city and a glimpse at a new way forward for generations to come.