Godman to Tycoon : The Untold Story of Baba Ramdev


Priyanka Pathak-Narain - 2017
    He sits at the top of a multi-billion-dollar consumer goods empire that sells everything from swadeshi jeans to ghee and has taken the yoga revolution down to small-town India. This is his story.

McDonald's: Behind The Arches


John F. Love - 1986
    In tough financial times, McDonald’s proved that ingenuity, trial and error, and gut instinct were the keys to building a service business the entire world has come to admire.McDonald’s has been a trendsetter in advertising, focusing on different demographics as well as the physically disabled. McDonald’s created McJobs, a program that employs both mentally challenged adults and senior citizens. And because its franchisees have their fingers on the pulse of the marketplace, McDonald’s has evolved successfully with the health food revolution, launching dozens of new products and moving toward environmentally safe packaging and recyclable goods.Inspiring, informative, and filled with behind-the-scenes stories, this remarkable saga offers an irresistible look inside a great American business success.

The Creation of Wealth: The Tatas from the 19th to the 21st Century


R.M. Lala - 1982
    Jamsetji saw that the three keys to India's industrial development were steel, hydroelectric power, and technical education and research. A century and a half later, the Tatas can claim with justice to have lined up to the vision of their founder.This edition includes the story of how the Tatas, with Ratan Tata at the helm, have had to grapple with change in the post-1992 era of economic reforms, when the opening up of India to the world came as both a challenge and a blessing. In a frank epilogue, Ratan Tata talks about the difficulties he faced in implementing change, including resistance from his colleagues. This new edition also has a postscript on the Nano, which has given the most global prominence to the Tata brand.The Creation of Wealth is R.M. Lala's bestselling account of how the Tatas have been at the forefront in the making of the Indian nation-not just by their phenomenal achievements as industrialists and entrepreneurs but also by their significant contributions in areas like factory reforms, labour and social welfare, medical research, higher education, culture and arts, and rural development.

Messi: More Than a Superstar


Luca Caioli - 2008
    It charts his successful battle to overcome a career-threatening growth hormone deficiency, following which he has proceeded to win almost every award and trophy, including an unprecedented four FIFA Ballons d'Or, the Oscar of world soccer.

The Outsiders: Eight Unconventional CEOs and Their Radically Rational Blueprint for Success


William N. Thorndike Jr. - 2012
    Others might point to the qualities of today’s so-called celebrity CEOs—charisma, virtuoso communication skills, and a confident management style. But what really matters when you run an organization? What is the hallmark of exceptional CEO performance? Quite simply, it is the returns for the shareholders of that company over the long term.In this refreshing, counterintuitive book, author Will Thorndike brings to bear the analytical wisdom of a successful career in investing, closely evaluating the performance of companies and their leaders. You will meet eight individualistic CEOs whose firms’ average returns outperformed the S&P 500 by a factor of twenty—in other words, an investment of $10,000 with each of these CEOs, on average, would have been worth over $1.5 million twenty-five years later. You may not know all their names, but you will recognize their companies: General Cinema, Ralston Purina, The Washington Post Company, Berkshire Hathaway, General Dynamics, Capital Cities Broadcasting, TCI, and Teledyne. In The Outsiders, you’ll learn the traits and methods—striking for their consistency and relentless rationality—that helped these unique leaders achieve such exceptional performance.Humble, unassuming, and often frugal, these "outsiders” shunned Wall Street and the press, and shied away from the hottest new management trends. Instead, they shared specific traits that put them and the companies they led on winning trajectories: a laser-sharp focus on per share value as opposed to earnings or sales growth; an exceptional talent for allocating capital and human resources; and the belief that cash flow, not reported earnings, determines a company’s long-term value.Drawing on years of research and experience, Thorndike tells eye-opening stories, extracting lessons and revealing a compelling alternative model for anyone interested in leading a company or investing in one—and reaping extraordinary returns.

The Starbucks Story


John Simmons - 2005
    You can get a cup at any caf, sandwich bar or restaurant anywhere. So how did Starbucks manage to reinvent coffee as a whole new experience, and create a hugely successful brand in the process? The Starbucks Story tells the brand's story from its origins in a Seattle fish market to its growing global presence today. This is a story that has unfolded quickly - at least in terms of conventional business development. Starbucks is a phenomenon. Unknown 15 years ago, it now ranks among the 100 most valuable brands in the world. It has become the quintessential brand of the modern age, built around the creation of an experience that can be consistently reproduced across the world. Originally published in 2004 as 'My Sister's A Barista: How they made Starbucks a home away from home', this new 2012 edition has been updated to bring the brand up to date.

Founders at Work: Stories of Startups' Early Days


Jessica Livingston - 2001
    These people are celebrities now. What was it like when they were just a couple friends with an idea? Founders like Steve Wozniak (Apple), Caterina Fake (Flickr), Mitch Kapor (Lotus), Max Levchin (PayPal), and Sabeer Bhatia (Hotmail) tell you in their own words about their surprising and often very funny discoveries as they learned how to build a company.Where did they get the ideas that made them rich? How did they convince investors to back them? What went wrong, and how did they recover?Nearly all technical people have thought of one day starting or working for a startup. For them, this book is the closest you can come to being a fly on the wall at a successful startup, to learn how it's done.But ultimately these interviews are required reading for anyone who wants to understand business, because startups are business reduced to its essence. The reason their founders become rich is that startups do what businesses do--create value--more intensively than almost any other part of the economy. How? What are the secrets that make successful startups so insanely productive? Read this book, and let the founders themselves tell you.

Science Lessons: What the Business of Biotech Taught Me About Management


Gordon Binder - 2008
    Top magazines including Fortune and Industry Week have repeatedly named it one of America's best companies to work for.In Science Lessons, Gordon Binder—CEO and chairman during 1988-2000—describes Amgen's climb to success. Revealing the highs and lows it experienced in the race to develop blockbuster drugs, he takes readers from the time Amgen had just three months of capital in the bank and no viable products in the pipeline to its spectacular success. The turning point? The 1989 launch of Epogen, which dramatically helped kidney dialysis patients suffering from debilitating anemia. Other landmark drugs, including Neupogen, would follow.Through engaging anecdotes and cogent insights, Binder weaves a fascinating tale while offering his unique brand of practical management advice. Using the principals of the scientific method, he shares his recommendations for tackling pressing business challenges—such as managing creative employees, navigating the IPO process, and protecting intellectual property.This colorful first-person account showcases the visionary science and daring business strategy that made Amgen great—offering valuable lessons for all companies.

I Too Had a Dream


Verghese Kurien - 2005
    A man with a rare vision, Dr Kurien has devoted a lifetime to realizing his dream - empowering the farmers of India. He has engineered the milk cooperative movement in India. It was a sheer quirk of fate that landed him in Anand where a small group of farmers were forming a cooperative, Kaira District Cooperative Milk Producers'Union Limited (better known as Amul), to sell their milk. Intrigued by the integrity and commitment of their leader, Tribhuvandas Patel, Dr Kurien joined them. Since then there has been no looking back. The 'Anand pattern of cooperatives'were so successful that, at the request of the Government of India, he set up the National Dairy Development Board to replicate it across India. He also established the Gujarat Cooperative Milk Marketing Federation to market its products. In these memoirs, Dr Verghese Kurien, popularly known as the 'father of the white revolution', recounts, with customary candour, the story of his life and how he shaped the dairy industry. Profoundly inspiring, these memoirs help up comprehend the magnitude of his contributions and his multifaceted personality.

The Moonshot Game: Adventures of an Indian Venture Capitalist


Rahul Chandra - 2019
    The second wave came in 2006 when home-grown VCs raised large amounts of capital and funded products and services companies for Indian consumers.This is a gripping behind-the-scenes story of a VC's journey, right from the beginning of the second start-up revolution in India in 2006 until the end of the funding frenzy in 2016. A story about how global conditions, local consumers, founder ambition and good old greed shaped the start-up story in India.Rahul Chandra is the co-founder of Helion Ventures, and in this candid memoir he tells us about his journey building one of India's oldest VC firms. In a remarkably gripping account, he recounts his adventures in India's hyper-funded start-up ecosystem.The Moonshot Game gives readers an insight into the secret world of a VC, with unguarded stories involving large bets and big mistakes, and tales of how one juggles several investments at the same time.Rahul shows why being a VC is a constant journey of ups and downs, why building value is a long-term business, and why no amount of failure can be an excuse to lose optimism in the power of entrepreneurship.

Alibaba's World: How a Remarkable Chinese Company is Changing the Face of Global Business


Porter Erisman - 2015
    Alibaba, now the world's largest e-commerce company, mostly escaped Western notice for over ten years, while building a customer base more than twice the size of Amazon's, and handling the bulk of e-commerce transactions in China. How did it happen? And what was it like to be along for such a revolutionary ride?In Alibaba's World, author Porter Erisman, one of Alibaba's first Western employees and its head of international marketing from 2000 to 2008, shows how Jack Ma, a Chinese schoolteacher who twice failed his college entrance exams, rose from obscurity to found Alibaba and lead it from struggling startup to the world's most dominant e-commerce player. He shares stories of weathering the dotcom crash, facing down eBay and Google, negotiating with the unpredictable Chinese government, and enduring the misguided advice of foreign experts, all to build the behemoth that's poised to sweep the ecommerce world today. And he analyzes Alibaba's role as a harbinger of the new global business landscape—with its focus on the East rather than the West, emerging markets over developed ones, and the nimble entrepreneur over the industry titan. As we face this near future, the story of Alibaba—and its inevitable descendants—is both essential and instructive.

My Years with General Motors


Alfred P. Sloan Jr. - 1964
    It has since been used as a manual for managers, offering personal glimpses into the practice of the discipline of management by the man who perfected it. This is the story no other businessman could tell--a distillation of half a century of intimate leadership experience with a giant industry and an inside look at dramatic events and creative business management.Only a handful of business books have reached the status of a classic, having withstood the test of over fifty years' time. Even today, Bill Gates praises My Years with General Motors as the best book to read on business, and Business Week has named it the number one choice for its bookshelf of indispensable reading.

John D. Rockefeller on Making Money: Advice and Words of Wisdom on Building and Sharing Wealth


John D. Rockefeller - 2015
    Rockefeller is considered to be the wealthiest man to have ever lived, after adjusting for inflation. An American businessman who made his wealth as a cofounder and leading figure of the Standard Oil Company, he also had a pivotal role in creating our modern system of philanthropy.Collected in John D. Rockefeller on Making Money are the words from the man himself, offering advice on how to successfully start and manage a booming business, as well as the most efficient ways to preserve your wealth once you have acquired it. These quotes also cover:Happiness in the face of great wealthMoney and its effectsThoughts on facing public criticismThoughts on big business in the USAIncluded are John D. Rockefeller’s thoughts on the most sage and conscientious manner of distributing and sharing your wealth when your wealth is overflowing. Finally, we get a glimpse into Rockefeller’s life with the inclusion of some of his most personal correspondence.

Behind the Cloud: The Untold Story of How Salesforce.com Went from Idea to Billion-Dollar Company-And Revolutionized an Industry


Marc Benioff - 2009
    Showing how salesforce.com not only survived the dotcom implosion of 2001, but went on to define itself as the leader of the cloud computing revolution and spark a $46-billion dollar industry, Benioff's story will help business leaders and entrepreneurs stand out, innovate better, and grow faster in any economic climate. In Behind the Cloud, Benioff shares the strategies that have inspired employees, turned customers into evangelists, leveraged an ecosystem of partners, and allowed innovation to flourish.

Cable Cowboy: John Malone and the Rise of the Modern Cable Business


Mark Robichaux - 2002
    For more than twenty-five years, Malone has dominated the cable television industry, shaping the world of entertainment and communications, first with his cable company TCI and later with Liberty Media. Written with Malone's unprecedented cooperation, the engaging narrative brings this controversial capitalist and businessman to life. Cable Cowboy is at once a penetrating portrait of Malone's complex persona, and a captivating history of the cable TV industry. Told in a lively style with exclusive details, the book shows how an unassuming copper strand started as a backwoods antenna service and became the digital nervous system of the U.S., an evolution that gave U.S. consumers the fastest route to the Internet. Cable Cowboy reveals the forces that propelled this pioneer to such great heights, and captures the immovable conviction and quicksilver mind that have defined John Malone throughout his career.