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Billion Dollar Loser: The Epic Rise a...
The inside story of WeWork and its CEO, Adam Neumann, which tells the remarkable saga of one of the most audacious, and improbable, rises and falls in American business history.
In its earliest days, WeWork promised the impossible: to make the American work place cool. Adam Neumann, an immigrant determined to make his fortune in the United States, landed on the idea of repurposing surplus New York office space for the burgeoning freelance class. Over the course of ten years, WeWork attracted billions of dollars from some of the most sought-after investors in the world, while spending it to build a global real estate empire that he insisted was much more than that: an organization that aspired to nothing less than "elevating the world's consciousness."
Moving between New York real estate, Silicon Valley venture capital, and the very specific force field of spirituality and ambition erected by Adam Neumann himself, Billion Dollar Loser lays bare the internal drama inside WeWork. Based on more than two hundred interviews, this book chronicles the breakneck speed at which WeWork’s CEO built and grew his company along with Neumann’s relationship to a world of investors, including Masayoshi Son of Softbank, who fueled its chaotic expansion into everything from apartment buildings to elementary schools.
Culminating in a day-by-day account of the five weeks leading up to WeWork’s botched IPO and Neumann’s dramatic ouster, Wiedeman exposes the story of the company’s desperate attempt to secure the funding it needed in the final moments of a decade defined by excess. Billion Dollar Loser is the first book to indelibly capture the highly leveraged, all-blue-sky world of American business in President Trump’s first term, and also offers a sober reckoning with its fallout as a new era begins.
Black Titan: A.G. Gaston and the Maki...
The grandson of slaves, born into poverty in 1892 in the Deep South, A. G. Gaston died more than a century later with a fortune worth well over $130 million and a business empire spanning communications, real estate, and insurance. Gaston was, by any measure, a heroic figure whose wealth and influence bore comparison to J. P. Morgan and Andrew Carnegie. Here, for the first time, is the story of the life of this extraordinary pioneer, told by his niece and grandniece, the award-winning television journalist Carol Jenkins and her daughter Elizabeth Gardner Hines.
Born at a time when the bitter legacy of slavery and Reconstruction still poisoned the lives of black Americans, Gaston was determined to make a difference for himself and his people. His first job, after serving in the celebrated all-black regiment during World War I, bound him to the near-slavery of an Alabama coal mine—but even here Gaston saw not only hope but opportunity. He launched a business selling lunches to fellow miners, soon established a rudimentary bank—and from then on there was no stopping him. A kind of black Horatio Alger, Gaston let a single, powerful question be his guide: What do our people need now? His success flowed from an uncanny genius for knowing the answer.
Combining rich family lore with a deep knowledge of American social and economic history, Carol Jenkins and Elizabeth Hines unfold Gaston’s success story against the backdrop of a century of crushing racial hatred and bigotry. Gaston not only survived the hardships of being black during the Depression, he flourished, and by the 1950s he was ruling a Birmingham-based business empire. When the movement for civil rights swept through the South in the late 1950s and early 1960s, Gaston provided critical financial support to many activists.
At the time of his death in 1996, A. G. Gaston was one of the wealthiest black men in America, if not the wealthiest. But his legacy extended far beyond the monetary. He was a man who had proved it was possible to overcome staggering odds and make a place for himself as a leader, a captain of industry, and a far-sighted philanthropist. Writing with grace and power, Jenkins and Hines bring their distinguished ancestor fully to life in the pages of this book. Black Titan is the story of a man who created his own future—and in the process, blazed a future for all black businesspeople in America.
Goals!: How to Get Everything You Wan...
The path from frustration to fulfillment has already been discovered. Hundreds of thousands—even millions—of people started with nothing and achieved great success. In this book, Tracy presents a simple, powerful, and effective system for setting and achieving goals—a method that has been used by more than one million people to achieve extraordinary things.
Using the twenty-one strategies Tracy outlines, you’ll be able to accomplish any goal you set for yourself—no matter how big. You’ll discover how to determine your own strengths, what you truly value in life, and what you really want to accomplish in the years ahead.
Tracy shows how to build your self-esteem and self-confidence, approach every problem or obstacle effectively, overcome difficulties, respond to challenges, and continue forward toward your goals, no matter what happens. Most importantly, you’ll learn a system for achievement that you will use for the rest of your life.
How to Manage Business Better: A guid...
Most small businesses owners learn business the hard way through expensive mistakes. They have nobody to turn to for advice except their peers, who are not any better than them.
This guidebook addresses small businesses owners who desire to improve their businesses and can do with a little help in the form of knowledge, skills and insights. Most small business owners already know what is discussed in this guidebook but in bits and pieces.
CEO Excellence: The Six Mindsets That...
Being a CEO at any of the world’s largest companies is among the most challenging roles in business. Billions, and even trillions, are at stake—and the fates of tens of thousands of employees often hang in the balance. Yet, even when “can’t miss” high-achievers win the top job, very few excel. Thirty percent of Fortune 500 CEOs last fewer than three years, and two out of five new CEOs are perceived to be failing within eighteen months.
For those who shoulder the burden of being the one on whom everyone counts, a manual for excellence is sorely needed.
To identify the 21st century’s best CEOs, the authors of CEO Excellence started with a pool of over 2400 public company CEOs. Extensive screening distilled that group into an elite corps, sixty-seven of whom agreed to in-depth, multi-hour interviews. Among those sharing their views: Jamie Dimon (JPMorgan Chase), Satya Nadella (Microsoft), Reed Hastings (Netflix), Kazuo Hirai (Sony), Ken Chenault (American Express), Mary Barra (GM), and Peter Brabeck-Letmathe (Nestlé).
What came out of those frank, no-holds-barred conversations is a rich array of mindsets and actions that deliver outsized performance. Compelling, practical, and unprecedented in scope, CEO Excellence is a treasure trove of wisdom from today’s most elite business leaders.
Heineken in Africa: A Multinational U...
For Heineken, ‘rising Africa’ is already a reality: the profits it extracts there are almost 50 per cent above the global average, and beer costs more in some African countries than it does in Europe. Heineken claims its presence boosts economic development on the continent. But is this true?
Investigative journalist Olivier van Beemen has spent years seeking the answer, and his conclusion is damning: Heineken has hardly benefited Africa at all. On the contrary, there are some shocking skeletons in its African closet: tax avoidance, sexual abuse, links to genocide and other human rights violations, high-level corruption, crushing competition from indigenous brewers, and collaboration with dictators and pitiless anti-government rebels.
Heineken in Africa caused a political and media furore on publication in the Netherlands, and was debated in their Parliament. It is an unmissable exposé of the havoc wreaked by a global giant seeking profit in the developing world.
The Connector Manager: Why Some Leade...
The best managers work smarter, not harder
After conducting a unique global study of over 9,000 people, analysts at the world-leading sales research firm Gartner identified four distinct types of manager. Incredibly, they found one type consistently performs far better than the rest, and it wasn’t the one they were expecting.
Connector Managers understand that it’s not enough for managers to just encourage and teach employees themselves, and that providing constant coaching to employees can actually be detrimental to their independent development. Instead, by connecting employees to others in the team or organisation, Connector Managers can help their employees develop a range of skills beyond their own areas of expertise.
Although the four types of managers are more or less evenly distributed, employees with Connector Managers perform significantly better than others. Employees with Always-on Managers who provide constant feedback and coaching perform significantly worse.
Drawing on their ground-breaking data-driven research, as well as in-depth case studies and extensive interviews with thousands of managers, you’ll discover what behaviours define Connector Managers and how you can use them yourself to build brilliant, powerhouse teams.
The Business of the 21st Century by K...
On Board: The Insiders Guide to Survi...
From local councils to international corporations--boards play a critical role in the running and success of any organization, large and small. In Boardmanship John Tusa brings us behind the closed doors of the boardroom to provide an insight into the inner-working of boards.
From personal squabbles to financial crises, Tusa shares his experiences serving on a wide variety of international boards such as the National Gallery and American Public Radio. These lively life-stories unveil how boards overcome deep-set divisions, appoint new members and survive in times of chaos.
Through these stories, Tusa provides lessons and tips on how to effectively operate in cooperative business environments. Tusa teaches the reader how to overcome the big egos and how to work collaboratively yet effectively. Boardmanship is not only an engaging foray into the vibrant career of John Tusa--it is also a comprehensive guide to anyone who struggles to work on boards or committees--or in any cooperative environment.
Running Lean: Iterate from Plan A to ...
We live in an age of unparalleled opportunity for innovation. We’re building more products than ever before, but most of them fail—not because we can’t complete what we set out to build, but because we waste time, money, and effort building the wrong product.
What we need is a systematic process for quickly vetting product ideas and raising our odds of success. That’s the promise of Running Lean.
In this inspiring book, Ash Maurya takes you through an exacting strategy for achieving a "product/market fit" for your fledgling venture, based on his own experience in building a wide array of products from high-tech to no-tech. Throughout, he builds on the ideas and concepts of several innovative methodologies, including the Lean Startup, Customer Development, and bootstrapping.
Running Lean is an ideal tool for business managers, CEOs, small business owners, developers and programmers, and anyone who’s interested in starting a business project.
- Find a problem worth solving, then define a solution
- Engage your customers throughout the development cycle
- Continually test your product with smaller, faster iterations
- Build a feature, measure customer response, and verify/refute the idea
- Know when to "pivot" by changing your plan’s course
- Maximize your efforts for speed, learning, and focus
- Learn the ideal time to raise your "big round" of funding
Guide to Analyzing Companies by Bob V...
* How do you tell how well run a company is and how well it is doing?
* Which ratios and benchmarks should you use to assess performance?
* What can be done to massage company results?
* How do you recognise danger signs on the corporate horizon?
* How do you compare companies operating in different sectors or even different countries? completely updated and revised fourth edition of this clear and comprehensive guide aimed at anyone who wants to
* make sense and practical use of a company's annual report
* measure a business against its competitors
* judge the creditworthiness of a customer or client
* assess the investment potential of a company
* put a value on a company.
Vyama Institutions of Hope
This book makes the case for informal sector institutions in development theory. Through practical examples and interviews conducted in Kenya, the author captures how ordinary people organize themselves to meet daily economic and development challenges. The author traces how ordinary people (wananchi) use non-mainstream mechanisms in the form vyama (social groups) to enable individual, group and community development. The book offers insights into the evolution of vyama (institutions of hope) and the role these institutions continue to play in realizing economic growth: wealth creation and distribution; investments, social protection; and general community development.
The work shows how, despite historical disruptions, modernization and neo-liberal policies, ordinary people creatively borrow from tradition. In the process, they use collective mechanisms for resource mobilization, investment, risk-sharing and shared gains for the common good. The author offers pointers into the future and how the chama concept can become mainstream in a people’s economic development.
What others say
“The analysis is rigorous. It is highly original, emotive, and an excellent piece of work. It makes a major contribution to our knowledge of the proto-proletariat and the informal sector in the developing world. - How the author beautifully weaves anecdotes from classical African novels into her analysis to reinforce her argument makes this work distinctive and unique.” - Professor MBK Darkoh, University of Botswana
“This book is based on real life cases in an area that most scholars have not ventured into. It is a major addition of new findings in the body of knowledge. The presentation is clear, understandable and would appeal to most readers.” –Paul Kamau, PhD, Senior Research Fellow, University of Nairobi
“The strength of this book is the way it has managed to present the lives of the ordinary people as not hopeless, but rather the base where future development for Africa could be emerging. The book starts from the grassroots and the development actions and innovations taking place there based on the needs as experienced by the ordinary people, rather than the technical fixes of development experts that follow the books rather than the actual needs of the people being developed.” – Professor Beth Maina Ahlberg, PhD, Professor of International Health, Uppsala University
“This book demonstrates how ordinary citizens have discovered the power in tapping into social relations and are proactively solving their own socio-political and economic challenges. It calls for the incorporation of the ordinary citizen in development planning with a view of enabling them to receive value from and add value to the globalization and integration process. For anyone who is interested to see Africa play an important role in the global agenda, this is not a book to be ignored.” -- Josephat Juma, Managing Editor, The African Executive magazine.
Herding the Zebra by Peter Otieno
When Peter Otieno finally left formal employment to focus on his enterprises, he did not anticipate a world of politics and backstabbing the private sector. Leaving an illustrious career in a multinational organization that had systems firmly in place, Peter joins murky world of partnerships and weak governance structures.
The book gives a candid account of the behind the scenes shenanigans of partnership that we rarely glimpse in the private enterprises. Herding The Zebra is a unique corporate memoir; told with honesty that there is no room for sanitizing any elements of the drama that ensues once the idea of barcoding Kenya took root.
The ability to make bold decisions, often against the grain and embracing change, however uncomfortable, proves to be the key to success of GSI in East Africa.
Rethinking Competitive Advantage: New...
The old ways of creating competitive advantage for your business--such as building moats to ward off competitors--have become dangerous. Giants like Amazon and Alibaba are creating vast new market spaces through a deft combination of tools like machine learning and business savvy that reimagines customer experiences while generating immense shareholder value.
A handful of traditional companies, including Fidelity Investments, Walmart, and B2W, have adopted these new approaches to reinvigorate their businesses. Most, however, are stalled--and the clock is running out.
In this lively, accessible guide, Ram Charan, bestselling author and adviser to some of the world's top CEOs and boards, redefines competitive advantage for the digital-first era, offering a set of new rules to get ahead:
- Create an ecosystem with third-party partners to revolutionize and personalize the customer experience.
- Empower teams focused on a single task, building a "social engine" that drives constant innovation, fast execution, and customer satisfaction.
- Attract funders who understand the big picture: that beyond a certain scale, major upfront spending will turn into a cash-generation machine.
Filled with stories that peek behind the curtain of digital behemoths as well as traditional companies that have transformed their organizations, Rethinking Competitive Advantage offers concrete advice and methods to help you conceive of new market spaces and moneymaking models.
Competing against digital giants might seem daunting, if not impossible. The necessary computing power is within any company's reach. By borrowing from these digital winners' playbooks, traditional companies and upstarts alike can gain an upper hand. Whether you're in the C-suite or brainstorming the next big idea from your garage, Rethinking Competitive Advantage is the ultimate guide to creating competitive advantage today.
Small Is Beautiful by E. F. Schumacher
Hailed as an "eco-bible" by Time magazine, E.F. Schumacher's riveting, richly researched statement on sustainability has become more relevant and vital with each year since its initial groundbreaking publication during the 1973 energy crisis.
A landmark statement against "bigger is better" industrialism, Schumacher's Small Is Beautiful paved the way for twenty-first century books on environmentalism and economics, like Jeffrey Sachs's The End of Poverty, Paul Hawken's Natural Capitalism, Mohammad Yunis's Banker to the Poor, and Bill McKibben's Deep Economy.
This timely reissue offers a crucial message for the modern world struggling to balance economic growth with the human costs of globalization.
Habits for a Better You by Toroitich ...
Title: Habits For A Better You
Category: General Inspiration
Author: Toroitich Patrick Yegon
Target Readers: General Audience
Have you ever wondered why some people become successful and accomplished and make the best out of all that they find their hands on whereas others just seem to be destined to never make any meaningful accomplishment? The answer lies in their personal constitutions which is so much constituted by the habits people choose to grow and keep.
We make habits then habits make us. Read on to discover the habits that has raised great men and women over time. Allow yourself to grow the ones you lack and strengthen the ones you have so that you may have a better you! Better your best.
Blow The Lid Off by Robert A Belle
Reclaim Your Stolen Creativity, Increase Your Income & Let Your Light Shine
“Your creativity could be your greatest gift in business and life … but not if you hold it back!
Blow the Lid Off will take you through an awakening journey that will change how you feel about your own creativity. Whether you feel like you’ve lost your creative juice or that you were never creative to begin with, learn how to overcome self-doubt and channel your unique gifts in this highly interactive book.
It’s time to remove your limitations and turn your creativity into success by learning to trust, and then implement, your own creative concepts. No more worrying that your ideas are “crazy” or might be judged “impossible”. Backed by scientific research, Blow the Lid Off enhances your personal (and professional) life by showing you:
Creativity isn’t limited to the arts – it’s enormously beneficial in science, finance, and all areas of business,
How to define your comfort zone so you know how to bust through it,
Ideas to monetize your creativity to ensure a financially secure and emotionally fulfilling future, and
The pathway back to your innate skills for personal and professional fulfilment.
We’re all born creative– it’s time to improve that creativity in a new way. Blow the Lid Off is your motivational self-help guide to let your imagination, income and self-esteem explode for success.”
Reinventing Government: How the Entre...
Miracle Plant – How Industrial ...
MIRACLE PLANT is a book about the Industrial Hemp plant with a kenyan perspective on how it can benefit the economy of Kenya. The Industrial Hemp has for long been associated with Marijuana but the two are not the same. Industrial Hemp is a plant rooted in the judeo christianity scriptures, has immense environmental benefits and can be used to manufacture a wide range of products such as Nutraceutical Feeds & Oils, Cosmetics, Biodegradable plastics, Textiles & Fabrics, Paper products and Affordable Housing building blocks.