A very interesting turnaround story
585831
A big company with years of reputation  was on a brink of  collapse . It is often observed such companies become like a huge ship, not easy to man-oeuvre. I think Ford was one of this type before Alan.

It's all about processes , keep it always simple. What was really commendable that Alan, Bill and his team believed in their processes when whole economy was going south. They never deviate from the vision and fine tuned their strategies with changing economic and political scenarios.
4934966
Steve Kemper recounts the tale of the Segway, codenamed Project Ginger, and its development. It gives you a glimpse into inventor Dean Kamen's life and work, and provides an interesting story of trying to develop a "game-changing innovation." As we all know, the Segway never turned out to be the game-changer that people envisioned, but during its development it apparently lured in savvy investors. While this book could act as a business case study of a failed venture, it is mostly just an entertaining read of a bright engineer obsessed with an idea.

Steve Kemper is a gifted writer, and I look forward to his upcoming book about Frederick Russell Burnham, "the great American scout."
2845618
Some reviewers didn't like the ending, but so what.  I didn't like it either, but its the author's story not mine.  Overall, its an interesting story that moves along at a good pace.  Don't get hung up on whether or not a corporation would send in a team that is poorly trained or ill equipped.  Just enjoy the story.
2921749
This is a story well told - and it has the merit of authenticity. Doing business in Russia can bring large rewards but everything can change in a moment if one should upset the State in its various forms or fail to see the the extended hand! The author evidently managed to do the former and suffered the consequences. His account of the manner in which he successfully reposted is a fascinating tale of perserverance and lobbying in the right quarters. I commend this book to your readership.
2949261
A book I wouldn't expect to have much depth in fact tells a fascinating story.

How did the chicken-lovin company start out in its early beginnings? Learn about the company from its early customers, including the tough moments which could have brought an early closure, the decision to stop selling cigarettes in the early days, and the faithful early customer who, as a thank-you, can now eat off the old menu, at the old (low) prices.

Even today the company has a unique philosophy that sets it apart, it has a strong religious background and carefully selects store owners who are personally involved in the single franchise they are allowed to run (rather than owners who build an empire of franchises).

A book that shows the personality behind a company refreshingly willing to stand out and take a strong position, unlike any other in corporate america.
4703880
Oil and gas has been a remarkable industry with global impact and prosperity.  This personal story of a career in this often informal, entrepreneurial industry was very readable and also interesting

The younger reader will perhaps find parts a little antiquated in description of people and cultures.

Overall an enjoyable read if you have an interest
3133249
An American Hedge Fund is the entrepreneurial story about a young investor who learned to play the stock market and quickly outperformed Wall Street's best hot shots.  As a high school student, Timothy Sykes invested his $12,000 savings in the stock market.  By observing the way small cap stocks trade in a media frenzy, Sykes devised a technique to trade his small investment to well over a million dollars.

The strategies that made him a success were extremely risky, betting nearly his entire portfolio on a single stock at a time and hoping that the price would move in the right direction.  But there was much more than luck involved.  Between the lines, many of the same lessons of other famous books such as Market Wizards are reiterated.  Like the most successful traders, he used a strictly defined set of rules to screen stocks and know when to get out.  Most of his unsuccessful trades occurred when he deviated from this formula.

Skykes's great gusto for the thrill of the market really shines through in his trade-by-trade accounts of each stock play.  Through the anecdotes, Sykes shows how the Pink Sheets market is akin to a "Wild West" of the stock market where fortunes can suddenly be made and lost through supply and demand inefficiencies.  Sykes also effectively describes the hurdles of starting a hedge fund and exposes the charlatans and con-artists of the prime brokerage industry.  This makes it a worthwhile read for any ambitious person with a goal of starting a fund.

Although exciting and informative, I only give it 4 out of 5 stars mainly because of the sour tone in its ending.  I think he blames too much of his hedge fund's failure on SEC regulations and the status quo.  Considering his fund was in the same boat as other funds that blossomed to billions, I attribute the difficulties to operational errors such as not proofreading a faulty prospectus before handing it to clients.

American Hedge Fund is the kind of story that makes the stock market such an exciting arena.  I could tell it was written with the sincerest intention of helping other fellow retail investors make it big.  The lesson to be learned is that if Tim Sykes can compound a small bank account into fortunes, so you can you!
1646661
It's almost unbelievable - an experiment in culture change that worked wonders. This is an inspiring tale of Ricardo Semler's successful 'quest' to run his company in the interest of all it's stakeholders. It may well be easier to influence the direction of a business when you're the owner but this book will help you look at and adapt your own management style. I guarantee that you will only put it down when you have finished or are too dog tired to continue.
4613305
This is a fascinating account of what is (or at least was) one of the most admired and respected companies, not just for its product reputation, but for its corporate culture and management style that was unique in its day, and copied by many others since.

The book chronicles how Hewlett and Packard started a bare-bones company in a one-car garage with a single product and grew it into a multi-billion dollar global corporation.  Malone looks at their childhood years and how their unique life experiences shaped their personal characters and values, as well as the culture of the company that bears their name.  It was most interesting to see how these men, friends from their Stanford years, but with very different, though complementary, personal styles, learned to work together in an attitude of complete trust, and to instill in their company a set of values known popularly as the HP Way.  Malone, thankfully, does not view Bill and Dave through rose-colored glasses, but is realistic about their personal foibles as well.  Numerous examples are provided to show how they learned from their mistakes and went on to re-invent themselves several times over in response to issues of growth, to changing product needs and to the business climate - all while keeping the core set of guiding values in tact.  And it was encouraging to be reminded, that despite the enormous fame and wealth that came to them, they never forgot their beginnings, but became almost as well-known for their philanthropic efforts.

Although the majority of the book is devoted to the glory days of Hewlett and Packard, Malone also discusses HP under the subsequent leadership of John Young, Lew Platt, the recent disastrous six years under Carly Fiorina in which the HP culture was almost destroyed, and attempts to "fix" things under its current president, Mark Hurd.

This book was of particular interest to me, an HP employee from 1980 - 2000 in both its instrument and printer businesses, and provided a trip down nostalgia lane since I knew many of the players from the earlier days.  Though not without its frustrations, HP was a great experience for me, especially in marked contrast to my earlier career in the aerospace industry.

If I could wish for something more, it would be to include a little more about Agilent, the 1999 spin-off instrument business which was, after all, HP's core business during the first few decades. But overall, the book is eminently readable and highly recommended to anyone interested in business, technology or ethics.
3058344
If you intend to be self-employed and have big ambitions about it, then this book will definitely prove to you that what one man can do another can do.  Richard Branson details how he was achieved what many people in society believe to be impossible: Improved his position on life and reached the top by working hard and by having a good instinct for what the people want based on his down-to-earth way of life.  On the other hand the story also reads, in places, like the story of a gambler who happened to get lucky, reminding me of something my father said about gambling on horses and how you only hear about the people who win.  There were a lot of incidents, in both business and in the ballooning expeditions, where he has survived by the slimmest of margins of luck.  On the other hand, parts like the postal strike almost wiping out his mail-order business and forcing him to start up the lucrative high-street retailing business show that he has an uncanny ability to turn a bad situation to his advantage.

On the technical side I will criticise the editing of this book.  It reads a little bit disjointed.  For example he goes into great depth about the early days of the Virgin record label for a chapter, and then in the next chapter he digresses to a record-breaking attempt.  Then in the next chapter he tells us that he was 'attempting to start a record label' as if this was the first time he had mentioned it in the book.

But this did not detract from the enjoyment of this incredible story of an incredible man and who's exploits get more and more audacious.  I look forward to reading the updated version when he gets around to chronicling his experiences with Virgin Rail and Virgin Galactic!
2769962
I enjoyed reading the story behind the employee action. Amazing loyalty to the company and the man.  We rarely have the opportunity to be a part of an action against corporate greed, but so many people participated here.
3630613
The story told here is one sided.  This is David's version which is IMHO, very slanted toward his point of view. I am sure if those players on the other end were to write this story their views would heavily conflict with David's.

In my opinion, much of the activities that DI engaged in were the result of his working his short position.  There is a good reason that DI is so well connected to a few financial journalists.  He needed to get his story told in order for his short position to work. There is absolutely nothing wrong with that.  This is the way hedge funds/institutional investors work their positions.  This book becomes much more interesting for a reader who takes the time to investigate both sides of this story.  I followed this, and other DI shorts very closely while they were happening and I can tell you that this was an interesting event.  The book is worth reading and I enjoyed it.
3479674
As I read this book I kept wondering how smart people got caught up in processes that just weren't working.  I kept wanting someone to see the handwriting on the wall and do something to intervene.
I think there  are lessons here for anyone involved in organizational change -- whether  you work for government or any other sector.  Managing major change  processes takes a lot of skill -- especially when there is strong  resistance.  Every step along the way must be well thought out.  As we see  from Bruce's story, communication and being clear on intention are  critical. Damage control takes a lot more effort than doing it right the  first time around.
Reinhart has done a great job with this book.  It has  the makings of a movie filled with interesting characters and suspense as  you'll be on the edge of your seat, amazed at the muddle.
2368154
This book provides an interesting insight into how one company has untethered its workforce from traditional management techniques and structures. The company has been on this path for 20+ years and is growing revenues like crazy!
2105890
You might think that the story of PayPal would be an old hat Internet Boom story and would have nothing left worth examining today.  It is a reasonable assumption, but it is wrong.  While PayPal did begin at the very end of that Boom and benefited from its excesses in its early phases, it also had to survive the crash and sudden market pessimism.  This book is written by Eric M. Jackson, who joined PayPal when it was the brainchild of Confinity as a way to beam money between Palm Pilots.  His role was marketing and he recounts the chronicles and battles these very young people had to win in order to keep the company alive let alone make it successful.

This is an American Entrepreneurial story and is a great deal of fun to read (if you enjoy business, guts, competitiveness, mistakes, naivet, and the little guy fighting the big guy and big government (and who doesn't?).  The team that started Confinity was exceedingly young, talented, and confident.  They were in the right place at the right time to raise the money they needed to sustain the money losing operation and scale it up enough to not get blown away by the early competitors.  However, they were smart enough to keep things as small as they could.  Sure, they had a huge burn rate for a while, but at least they didn't run Super Bowl ads.

They were also savvy enough to glom onto eBay as an early market.  Some of the great stories in the book are the moves that eBay made to block them (read - kill off PayPal) and how PayPal marketed around and through those threats.  Since the author was leading the team that was front and center in those maneuvers, he tells these stories very well.

Another interesting tale is how fraud of all types, but particularly the Russian and Nigerian mobs used PayPal to steal millions and how PayPal finally overcame it.  However, to this day fraud is a very real part of the business done and that service, so BEWARE.

As with all startups, it is always sad to the early employees when the fun and excitement of the startup ends and the corporation begins.  This transition is well told in the book, as well.  As is the final sellout to eBay.

I have only two quibbles with the book.  First, I think the story of the mafia battles is too broken up and so doesn't have the narrative flow something that important should have.  Second, I wish there was more financial information in the book.  I know it bores most general readers, but those of us who are business and entrepreneurial types are a serious audience for this book and we worry about dilution and ownership control.  When that finally leaves the founders is a significant day in the history of a firm.  It would also be nice to understand more about how the options were doled out and who really got the payoffs from the public offerings and final sale.  Those names are not given.

Still, an interesting book about a still existing web service and you can learn all about it right here.
4461331
William Knoedelseder's well-researched and fascinating tale of power, greed and hubris inside the Anheuser-Busch dynasty sheds much light on what went wrong with a seemingly invincible corporate giant.  Of course, this was no ordinary corporate giant; this was a family business that simply got too big for its own good; run by an incompetent head-honcho, chosen simply because he happened to be in the family.

What makes this a particularly compelling story for those living in the St Louis area (or originally from there) is how the Busch family empire has been such a major part of the local culture, especially after Gussie Busch decided to buy the St Louis Cardinals National League Ballclub in the early '50s as a way to peddle more beer.  Of course, that strategy was hugely successful for decades as the King of Beers and the baseball Cardinals thrived in a unique partnership that became internationally reknowned.

In the end, it seems that having too much money and power can be a fatal recipe for business disaster; especially when those in charge of an entire corporation have no interest in actually running the business; unless running it into the ground is the desired strategy.

This is a great book; a fascinating story of a dysfunctional family running a deteriorating family business until something had to give - new ownership.
3434847
If you are only looking for a trading book, save your money as you won't find it here.  What you will find is a very interesting personal story of how one person found his way through life.

The first take away is seeing how a person grows and adapts his interests to fit the realities of life.  Thoughout the book you see a gradual transformation from doing what was once unthinkably mundane to seeing the value of the task and embracing it.  This is often accompanied by short term pain.

The second take away concerns the prospects for anyone considering entering a career.  The author makes a pretty good case for not attempting to enter academia.  Simply too hard for most people to ever be tenured.  One the other hand he makes a pretty good case for staying off Wall St. as well.  The industry trends of consolidation and shifts from analytics to marketing probably mean it will be much harder to even get started much less succeed.

Finally I find it fascinating just how naive Wall Street can really be.  The crudeness of the models used only 15 years ago is staggering.  I cannot imagine doing the valuations for an entire trading desk by typing in quotes to a lotus spreadsheet.  Yet this was the standard practice less than 20 years ago.

I was a member of an exchange in the early 90's and what we were doing was not "rocket science" by any stretch of the imagination.  However it seems that some of the biggest names on the street were not nearly as far ahead of us as I thought.

This leads to an interesting question (in my mind anyway).  How did these firms really make their billions?  Did deep pockets allow them to weather the storms until trades moved their way?  Was it a case of having one eye in the land of the blind (meaning they were a tiny bit ahead of the rest of the world and that was enough)?